Comments for Ludus Novus

Comment on Two Interviews by Mike

Mike — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:43:29 +0000

It is often too difficult to understand the interviewer. All in all, lots of good discussion.

Comment on The Majesty of Colors by [Juego] The Majesty of Colors | UnnXandros

[Juego] The Majesty of Colors | UnnXandros — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:16:00 +0000

[...] cada final esta logrado a punto que no hay un final mejor que el otro, sólo resultados distintos. The Majesty of Colors en Ludus Nova Share this:FacebookTwitterTumblrCorreo electrónicoMe gusta:Me gustaSé el primero en decir que te [...]

Comment on I Just Uninstalled GTA IV by Gregory Weir

Gregory Weir — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:52:16 +0000

No need to apologize; I totally understand what you mean, I think. I did find myself wondering what a non-American’s perspective on Nico would be. For me, he’s heavily contextualized as “the immigrant;” it’s really interesting to hear a perspective from someone who identifies with him from a different angle.

I found Nico’s character interesting, but the “game” part of GTAIV managed to disrupt my suspension of disbelief in him. It’s very cool that you had a different experience.

Comment on I Just Uninstalled GTA IV by Alberto

Alberto — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:39:57 +0000

Too bad you didn’t like them, but to me GTA IV’s characters and story are the most interesting out of all the series (and I have played all its main entries). As someone who’s not American, I can fully appreciate Niko’s excellent characterization: the things he says and thinks reflect the way that many non-Americans feel about the country to absolute perfection. Angst and mass murder aside, he’s one of the most believable characters I’ve ever found in a game.

EDIT: Oh, to clarify, I wasn’t trying to say that an American cannot fully appreciate the character, or that you didn’t do it for being American. I was just trying to say that I meet quite a lot of Niko Bellics where I live.

Comment on Two Interviews by Jonas

Jonas — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:39:15 +0000

Your upcoming games sound *awesome*. I’m really excited about both of them.

Comment on I Just Uninstalled GTA IV by Can’t Get Enough Purple

Can’t Get Enough Purple — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:04:08 +0000

[...] game feels very different than either San Andreas or GTA IV. GTA IV took itself quite seriously to my observing eye, and San Andreas (where I am now, at least) is mired in its own weak mission sequence. Saints [...]

Comment on Two Interviews by Jonas

Jonas — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 12:44:28 +0000

I’d love to read/listen to these, but I no can haz proper internet until two weeks from now. Looking forward to it, though.

Comment on I Just Uninstalled GTA IV by Christian

Christian — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:40:00 +0000

Yeah they definitely walk a thin line between going for more seriousness in the main story and still keeping that over the top American pop culture commenting humor in it.

Personally I found they struck a pretty good balance and I hope they keep that kind of stuff in GTA5 but I see how this could get in the way of some people’s overall experience with the game especially when your a little nitpicky about those kind of things.

Comment on I Just Uninstalled GTA IV by Gregory Weir

Gregory Weir — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:24:41 +0000

They did seem to be trying for a more serious tone, but that’s immediately ruined when you find out that the internet cafe is called “Tw@” or you listen to any of the radio host bits.

Comment on I Just Uninstalled GTA IV by Christian

Christian — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:11:59 +0000

They hit a more serious note in GTA4 so they probably didn’t find it appropriate to put too much ridiculous shit in there.

I wonder what they’ll do with GTA5. Seems like family plays some kind of role in there so I suspect they won’t go straight back to batshit crazy San Andreas or Vice City.

Comment on I Just Uninstalled GTA IV by The Misanthrope

The Misanthrope — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 07:49:29 +0000

The GTA series does seem to get more and more restrictive with their mission parameters every time out. And its the extremely narrow story missions that usually cause me to quit playing. I had a blast playing San Andreas but that damn race in the “Farewell, My Love…” is just a pain in the ass, especially considering that most GTA vehicles flip if they hit the slightest bump.

Comment on I Just Uninstalled GTA IV by Gregory Weir

Gregory Weir — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:49:46 +0000

I’ve met Brucie; he’s fun. I met the Irish cop, although I think I was supposed to have met him earlier, as Nico seemed to recognize him in the mission cutscene but I didn’t.

Comment on I Just Uninstalled GTA IV by Christian

Christian — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:02:00 +0000

Shame you couldn’t get into it.

Although the general mission structure can get tedious over time there’s some really memorable stuff happening later on and they present some extremly well written characters.
Maybe someday put a couple more hours into it until you meet Brucie and the Irish dudes.

Comment on Passing the Ball Released by Oxeren

Oxeren — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:56:33 +0000

At first I thought the game has some kind of deeper concept, like, parents should keep balance between protecting kids from outer dangers and spending time with them and giving them attention, but it turned out I was wrong). But the actual idea is nice too, it reminds of some kind of social advertising.

Comment on Over 150 Games Finished by Gregory Weir

Gregory Weir — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:02:02 +0000

I’ve not played Dreamfall, but I’ve always wanted to! I need to work through the games I have so that I can get to more games on my to-acquire list.

Comment on Over 150 Games Finished by Christian

Christian — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:14:01 +0000

I somehow like those kind of lists, if only to keep track of what you’re wasting your time with ;).

Also I spotted The longest journey on your list, however not Dreamfall.
Ever thought of playing that? I actually finished it without having played The longest journey and I still liked it a lot.

Comment on The Non-Interactive Stanley Parable by Ammie

Ammie — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:12:58 +0000

Awhile ago I “played” a bit of interactive fiction called “Thousand Dollar Soul”. It actively encouraged the reader to get all 35 endings, doing so completes your knowledge of the overarching story and situation. It worked as a whole, rather than the branching “Choose your own adventure!” vibe you usually get from interactive fiction.

Interactive fiction is not gaming, but at the time I felt like that was pretty rare — and I thought it was a cool effect. It’s curious to hear how these Gestalt effects are perhaps detrimental in gaming, by the axiom of “interactivity is the point”.

Comment on The Majesty of Colors by Passing The Ball – Making An Advocacy Game For Web Wise Kids | the Simon Carless experience

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:27:59 +0000

[...] educated on some of the dangers of interacting with people and content online. So we partnered with The Majesty Of Colors indie creator Gregory Weir and non-profit Web Wise Kids to make an advocacy video game for charity [...]

Comment on Passing the Ball Released by Gregory Weir

Gregory Weir — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:58:10 +0000

I’ve thought about it, and even started a couple, but I have a terrible track record when working remotely with other folks. I may do it in the future, but at the moment my plate is full.

Comment on Passing the Ball Released by Jack

Jack — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:36:35 +0000

Nice game. I thought the message came across well – “give your kids a chance and they’ll soon be better at it than you.” Lots of parallels without feeling contrived or spoon-feedy. Good work.

Just out of interest, have you ever done or thought about doing any collaborations or team projects?

Comment on A Pistol and a Flashlight Piece by Gregory Weir

Gregory Weir — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:06:26 +0000

I’ve got some projects in the works, but they’ll take a while.

Comment on A Pistol and a Flashlight Piece by crawlkill

crawlkill — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:34:46 +0000

Babies dream and Looming are two of my favorite pieces, like, ever. you’re onea those artists who does right what Lovecraft and Ligotti’s purple prose can never handle, instilling a sense of the ancient and the menacing and the sorrowfully in -decline without ever overexposing yourself and killing even a shred of your mystery. just played The Day for the first time, and I gotta say it freaked me out even more than some of your more visually flawless (Looming)/enthrallingly weird (Babies) games. the trees, man. I was terrified of the trees. and then the facility, christ. I love your work! you thinking about putting out a commercial game some time? a world that’ll put Binding of Isaac on the top five in Steam might be ready to pay for something sinister from your quarter.

Comment on Over 150 Games Finished by Gregory Weir

Gregory Weir — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:56:49 +0000

Return to Zork was a shameless attempt to cash in on Infocom's legacy, although it was done with love of the world. Zork: Nemesis feels like the Zork world was shoehorned in after the fact; it feels like a rather decent horror adventure game with some things named after Zork stuff. Zork: Grand Inquisitor is an excellent Zork game, and a near-perfect reimagining of the world into graphical adventure form.

Comment on Over 150 Games Finished by The Misanthrope

The Misanthrope — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 21:01:43 +0000

Zork Grand Inquisitor and Nemesis are shameless attempts to cash in on Infocom’s legacy and the CD-game boom that came in the wake of Myst. I have never played either all the way through, so they may be decent games in their own right.

Comment on Flixel and Tweensy Working Together by axcho

axcho — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:02:07 +0000

I see – thanks for the clarification. I didn’t realize that TweenLite had a more restrictive license. I’ll check out Tweensy sometime. :)

Comment on Flixel and Tweensy Working Together by Gregory Weir

Gregory Weir — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 04:46:08 +0000

Tweensy uses virtually the same syntax as TweenLite and its cousins, and is totally drop-in-and-use. It has the slight advantage that its license (MIT) lets it be used in for-sale software without requiring a license fee.

As far as performance, they seem comparable; TweenLite’s test says Tweensy’s a tiny bit slower, and Tweensy’s says that TweenLite is a little slower.

The TweenLite family has much better examples and documentation. Tweensy’s basically got one guide page, API docs, and some demos with available source. But it really is simple to pick up.

Comment on Flixel and Tweensy Working Together by axcho

axcho — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 03:23:25 +0000

How does Tweensy compare with other libraries like TweenLite?

Comment on Flixel and Tweensy Working Together by Gregory Weir

Gregory Weir — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 01:33:48 +0000

Tweensy lets you easily animate stuff in Flash from code. So instead of setting up a timer and some update logic and so on to fade something out, you just do Tweensy.to(something, {alpha:0}) and it fades out.

Comment on Flixel and Tweensy Working Together by David T. Marchand

David T. Marchand — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 23:15:25 +0000

It looks helpful! If only I knew what a Tweensy is…

Comment on A Pistol and a Flashlight Piece by Jack

Jack — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 01:25:07 +0000

I was thinking the same thing. Love that game.

Comment on A Pistol and a Flashlight Piece by David T. Marchand

David T. Marchand — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:25:19 +0000

I for one would like to say Babies dream of dead worlds is one of my favorite games of yours, and I don’t know how comes so much people think it really stinks. The review’s pretty awesome though, congrats on having such a thing written about your work. Must be rewarding.

Comment on TASOAE: 069 by bloodedeagle

bloodedeagle — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 05:37:39 +0000

i really like that you do these comics but i miss the stuff about d and d and your short stories just wanted to put it out there.

Comment on TASOAE: 068 by Mike

Mike — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:57:28 +0000

Oh… yeah… um… she forgot her shoes outside the door. I wonder if she is still wearing her headset.

Comment on How Fallout 3 Should Have Been by The Misanthrope

The Misanthrope — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:13:07 +0000

There is a better sense of a developing, growing frontier in FNV. New Vegas–as in the titular town–itself is almost an affront to all the ramshackle developments in F3, as its a fully-powered, well-maintained independent state unto itself (not completely self-sufficient, though, as will become evident in the game). It helps that one of the running themes throughout the game is the development of civilization among the frontier, with the differing factions having different viewpoints on the subject. Any lack of development in FNV could be assigned to the fact that much of the territory is contested territory, as the numerous bases and makeshift camps throught attest to.

As for F3, I try not to let it bother me too much. I figure that the developers just wanted it to be far removed from the continuity of the previous games so they could defray any fan complaints. Obviously, this strategy wasn’t quite effective.

Comment on TASOAE: 068 by matt w

matt w — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:16:11 +0000

Making modifications to her spider robot?

(I’ve actually forgotten which one had the spider robot.)

Comment on TASOAE: 068 by Gregory Weir

Gregory Weir — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 01:53:07 +0000

Come, now. Everyone knows what an extra pair of shoes outside the door means.

Comment on TASOAE: 068 by Mike

Mike — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 21:41:57 +0000

Does Cassie have a guest over?

Comment on How Fallout 3 Should Have Been by Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 13:30:03 +0000

Fallout New Vegas does have farms. There are at least two, one near New Vegas, and many small ones in the starting town, Goodsprings. However, there are also many wild fruit and plants that you can collect. There is a town in the northwest which does have trees. There is also a Vault which has various plants overgrowing the outside of it, and more on the inside.

Comment on How Fallout 3 Should Have Been by nico

nico — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:43:54 +0000

i never knew the year in follout 3, for me it was just after the bombs fell.
what i didnt like was that it had less options when chatting and the obligatory option “ima gona kill ya” to initate a fight with anyone

other than that it was k.

Comment on How Fallout 3 Should Have Been by wesww

wesww — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:22:03 +0000

I TOTALLY AGREE!
I like the dynamical meaning that the game creates by having me run around scavenging, fighting, and conducting some bland diplomacy, and I even like the general theme of a ruined future-past, but all of the actual meaning created by symbols and signifiers in the game are [nonsensical]! Maybe they could have explained that all of the humans are dumb now because of a radiation side effect, and so they continue to somehow maintain the world in a ruined state without building anything new. Maybe that would help with a few discrepancies. But the architecture of all of the buildings is tedious, namely the condition they are in and the way they all feel the same inside.

Comment on How Fallout 3 Should Have Been by Matt

Matt — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:46:13 +0000

The area in New Vegas wasn’t hit by the bombs, and there is at least one (guarded) open-air farm visitable in the game, so it’s a bit better in that respect.

Comment on How Fallout 3 Should Have Been by Baf

Baf — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:21:18 +0000

I’ve always liked the intro sequence to the old Origin post-apocalyptic game Bad Blood. Starts with a view of a farmhouse surrounded by lush fields, then white flash, mushroom cloud, farmhouse is charred ruins. As the credits are displayed, the scene transforms through a series of fades. First a lean-to and a campfire are visible inside the ruined farmhouse, then a few more, then the remains of the house are entirely replaced by a crude dewlling that presumably used all the salvageable wood, and after a few more such transitions it’s a fortified settlement with a stockade, which is where the game begins.

Comment on Rewards and Narrative by Igor Hardy

Igor Hardy — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:40:58 +0000

Ok, good point.

In fact it’s a pretty neat way of explaining the value of all that (often random) info packed into adventure games. Something that for example Jonathan Blow criticizes a lot.

Comment on Rewards and Narrative by Gregory Weir

Gregory Weir — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:30:32 +0000

Perhaps not, but you could use most any game. Super Meat Boy has easy jumps and tricky parts. Bastion has dribbles of Fragments and challenging Who Knows Wheres. Half-Life 2 has easy lone Metrocops that grant ammo and big strider battles. The idea of microchallenges with tiny rewards and big challenges with big rewards is very popular.

Comment on Rewards and Narrative by Igor Hardy

Igor Hardy — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:19:59 +0000

Is Diablo really the best example here? I remember its gameplay being described as very shallow too.

Comment on Interview on Quote Unquote by David T. Marchand

David T. Marchand — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:10:21 +0000

Fuck, you just took the words out of my mouth. I was going to compare pixel art with Impressionism, in the sense that it makes the final product show the tool used to produce it. Great interview.

Comment on The Book of Living Magic by distractionware » Interview with Jonas Kyratzes on Mattchat

distractionware » Interview with Jonas Kyratzes on Mattchat — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 18:41:56 +0000

[...] Phenomenon 32. And a bunch of other cool stuff. Gregory Weir recently referred to him “unsung“, which is putting it very mildly, as far as I’m [...]

Comment on The Book of Living Magic by mwm

mwm — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 05:04:48 +0000

Upon playing the game the second time (of course I would), I noticed that the girl is rather similar in appearance to pip-boy. I guess this opens up a few new means of interpretations, doesn’t it?

Comment on The Book of Living Magic by Many paths to the same book | Jonas Kyratzes

Many paths to the same book | Jonas Kyratzes — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:12:28 +0000

[...] Weir wrote a review of The Book of Living Magic. This makes me [...]

Comment on The Book of Living Magic by Gregory Weir

Gregory Weir — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:01:41 +0000

Nope, they’re still in the queue.