rapchee

I just finished Gunpoint’s third patch yesterday, and a lot of what I need to do next requires someone to help with Game Maker Studio / Mac / Linux porting (more on that at the end). So perhaps I can finally take a minute to tell you how it all went?

About 1 minute and 4 seconds after Gunpoint became available for pre-order on the evening of Monday the 27th of May, it had recouped its development costs. This was not entirely surprising, since the only direct development cost was buying Game Maker 8 for $30 three years ago.

Edit: I should have mentioned that I call that the only direct development cost because I was still working my day job. There were some less direct costs too – if you factor all those in, it took a few hours.

The surprising bit happened next.

That’s pre-order week, when the free demo was out but the game was not. This was beyond all my estimates – we were on course to sell enough for me to become a developer before it was even out! But would launch see a surge like those first two days of pre-orders? How fast would it slope off after that? Would we even-

Jesus Christ.

So, I quit my job.

In fact, I think I have quit jobs, as a concept. I started Gunpoint as an audition piece to get myself a position at a developer, but designing it has been so creatively satisfying that I no longer want one, and so commercially successful that I no longer need one.

The upshot is:

I can now make games full-time for the foreseeable future.

More amazingly, I can do it with total creative freedom. There’s really no pressure for my next thing to make a lot of money in a hurry, so I can do whatever I think will be most exciting.

It also means I can afford to keep being nice. I didn’t let anyone pay for Gunpoint until I was ready to put a free demo out, so everyone would have a way to make sure it ran OK on their system and that they liked it before giving me any money.

I was informed by lots of people with industry experience that this is commercial idiocy: you want to hold it back so that excited fans buy without trying, then you can release the demo later to tempt those who weren’t convinced. And with some (not all), you get weird responses if you bring up non-money factors in a business conversation.

“You’ll lose sales this way!”
“From people who don’t really like it? I think I want to lose those sales.”
“No, you don’t understand. You’ll have less sales.“

I’m sure they’re right, and as a noob I appreciate the advice. In fact I got so much skepticism that I started to think the lost sales might actually be the difference between being able to become a developer or not. But even if that had been the case, I wasn’t going to quit my job for a career in tricking people into giving me money and regretting it.

I have no idea if and how much the pre-release demo hurt Gunpoint’s sales, but it doesn’t matter now – that’s how I want to treat people, and the amazing support for Gunpoint means I can afford to.

So, my deep, deep thanks to everyone who bought it. In return, as well as continuing to develop Gunpoint, I will make new things for you!

Update: Call for help removed – I’m now working with people to add Steam Workshop support and to port Gunpoint to Mac and Linux.

This’ll free me up to manage how Gunpoint evolves, and to start working on a new game as well. Lord knows I have plans.

theamericankid:

The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog.

Whenever you’re feeling powerless is a post from meh.ro

Ennyi.

By Oliver Ibáñez

Game of Thrones banners wallpapers is a post from meh.ro

f-uckface:

equal-beings:

veg-tastic:

lilyliqueur:

brbkillingnubs:

This is a right way to observe wild animals, they should not be kept captive in zoos. 

I said that once in highschool and EVERYONE fucking yelled at me.

The animals are observing them. Awesome. 

A hell of a lot better than zoos. This would be awesome. They can live their lives and have us come to them every once in a while.

OMFG THIS LOOKS SO FUCKING COOL.

I am definitely no fan of zoos but this is a step in the right direction.

say it again bitch

Son these grades are unacceptable is a post from meh.ro

KTamas shared this story from settenkedve lopakodó:

Az van, hogy a korábbi életemben csak erkélyem volt, ott nevelgettem cserépben a paradicsomot, gyöngyhagymát és a bazsalikomot, most viszont itt van ugye ez a nagy kert, ami részben tele van függöny helyett használt, a két szintnél kicsit magasabb tujákkal, egy különálló garázzsal, pár köbméter téglával, tetőcseréppel és egyéb építőanyaggal meglepő helyeken, de azért akad benne tér paradicsomnak is.

A tegnapi rapid málnaültetés során szembesültem ugyan azzal a nehezítő körülménnyel, hogy a kertemben lévő talaj felső két centije ugyan termőföld, alatta viszont olyan harminc centi sóderrel, sittel és homokkal kevert valami talaj van, de ettől nem hagytam zavartatni magam, elvégre földet adnak a boltban is, majd kicserélem rendesre azt a részét, ahol az ültetvény lesz.

Ma viszont kiderült, hogy a boltból (Tesco, Lidl, Aldi) elfogyott a föld, de végső kétségbeesésemben bementem a háztól pár száz méterre lévő, magát “autógumi-gyorsjavítás, ugyanitt virágföld eladó” táblájú fúziós telepre (azt csak a bennfentes gázostól tudom, hogy pult alól tűzifát és házi nápolyit is adnak, csak hivatkozzak rá), amelynek kapujában ilyen atlétatrikós férfiak szoktak állni, és azt mondtam, hogy kérek kétszáz liter virágföldet. Erre megkérdezték, hogy kocsival jöttem-e (mondjuk kabátban voltam, lehet, hogy úgy izmosabbnak tűnök), de végül azért adtak 8 ft / liter áron, meg utána a kezembe nyomtak pár tő epret azzal, hogy ott csak a helyet foglalja.

Otthon aztán felvettem az ezekre az alkalmakra tartogatott dizájner kertésznadrágomat, meg a virágmintás kertészkesztyűmet azzal, hogy addig nem megyek be, amíg kétszáz liternyi földet ki nem ások és le nem cserélek, és miközben teljes súlyommal az ásón ugráltam, ami így sem nagyon akart lejjebb menni, arra gondoltam, hogy lenne egy hasznos tanácsom azoknak, akik komolyabb konfliktusba keverednek másokkal, és utána megoldásokat keresnek: válasszák inkább a sósavat. Ásni nem könnyű, és ez most eufémizmus volt.

De ami a lényeg, természetesen az egész szomszédság odagyűlt a környékre beszélgetni, és én arra számítottam, hogy mint rendes vidéki emberek, megbocsátó, türelmes mosollyal csóválják majd a fejüket a tevékenységem láttán, majd olyan tanácsokat adnak, hogy ha ilyen másik szögben tartom az ásót, akkor sokkal könnyebb lesz, meg ne haránt vessem a borsót, hanem szálirányba, és csipkelődő megjegyzéseket tesznek majd a városi lányra, de pár év alatt belejövök, kikupálódom, és akkor majd egyformán cserzett arcunkból mosolygunk egymásra a jól végzett munka örömével, mintegy áthidalva az urbánus és rurális származás okozta felfogásbéli különbségeket, és a kocsmában talán még egy olyan megjegyzés is elhangzik egyszer, hogy “azért ismerjük el, most már egész elfogadhatóan karózza a borsót, pedig ezt nem gondoltam volna, amikor ott ásott”.

Ehelyett az volt az első hozzászólás, hogy “jé, ásó, de jó, hol lehet ásót venni?”. Ezt követően némi vita után megegyeztek abban, hogy nem a Tibi eurós boltjában, hanem a benzinkútnál (egyébként tényleg), majd amikor ez megnyugtatóan tisztázódott, megkérdezték, hogy tulajdonképpen miért is ások. Bevallottam, hogy paradicsomot meg borsót akarok ültetni, mire felvilágosítottak, hogy azt nem ültetni szokták, hanem nyáron száz forint a kilója a zöldségesnél (de a benzinkútnál is kapható). Utána megkérdezték, hogy nem akarom-e lebetonozni inkább a teljes kertet, a szomszédnál is olyan szépen megcsinálta az egész udvart a Józsi, nézzem meg, milyen szép tiszta így. Erre zavartan azt feleltem, hogy nem, én inkább izé, paradicsom meg virágok, mire együttérzően visszakérdeztek, hogy “Pesten ez így szokás?”. Kicsit úgy éreztem magam, mintha olyasvalaki lennék, aki panelházban akar erkélyen disznót nevelni, de utána az egyik kislány megkérdezte, hogy hol tanultam meg ásni, és ezért talán érdemes volt. Mindenesetre megérdeklődték megkérdezték még, hogy mikor nőnek ki majd a földből a dolgok, és átjöhet-e majd a gyerek megnézni (természetesen igen, de felnőttektől szerintem majd belépődíjat fogok szedni), és végül azzal búcsúztunk el, hogy érdekes hobbijaim vannak.

Hát ezért tart itt ez az ország.

dimensionsintime:

annespage:

mutantbakabutt:

foreverisreal:

blunts-and-robots:

devils-in-my-head:

this this this this this

if anyone hates me for this you’re not thinking clearly

think about the amount of people killed in the middle east, too ..

lol so edgy xD

the only reason america dropped the atomic bomb was because we were at WAR idiots, if we hadn’t dropped the bomb the war would’ve lasted at lot longer. 9/11 was an act of terrorism, why don’t you go watch a video of the twin towers as they burn after the planes crash into them and later collapse in on themselves burying not only the people that worked there inside, but also the police officers and firefighters who were trying to rescue any survivors, and before they collapsed, when people were forced to choose to burn or jump out to their deaths. so yeah, the atomic bomb killed more people, but one was during WWII and the other was a direct attack of terrorism on America. And the only reason we were at war with Japan was because they attacked us at pearl harbor, if they hadn’t done that the war would’ve stayed in Europe and the atomic bomb wouldn’t have been dropped.

Not even remotely true, but thanks for playing. This misconception largely occurs because of the famous Stimson article that was featured in Harpers’ magazine.

Of course, he didn’t actually WRITE the thing and, though it presents itself as a fireside chat between two people it was actually a heavily engineered document, and almost every fact cited was knowingly wrong by the government at the time (declassified documents - read ‘em). But hey! What better source for info!

That’s neither here nor there though since Japan tried to surrender before we dropped the bomb.

Several Times.

Yes, Japan tried to surrender. Once through Russia, once through Switzerland, once through the Vatican of all places, and many times appealing directly to Truman. We turned them down because of the stipulation that we were not allowed to touch their emperor, a concession the US was not willing to make at the time.

“Foreign Minister Shigemitsu has instructed Ambassador Sato [in Moscow] to find out whether Russia is willing to assist in bringing about a negotiated peace. Shigemitsu’s instructions, although cautiously worded, clearly imply that he has in mind a move by Russia to initiate peace discussions between Japan and the Anglo-Americans… [I]t seems hardly likely that he would have taken such a step without having consulted at least some of the more important members of the new Japanese cabinet… This is the first time that the Japanese have been willing to suggest to Russia directly that they are ready for peace.”

-“Japanese Consider Peace Possibilities” War Department MAGIC reports of intercepted messages: EYES ONLY for President and closest advisers

“I learn from a very reliable source that in important civilian circles in Japan the peace problem is being discussed with increasing anxiety. A speedy German collapse is expected and it is not believed that Japan can then continue the war. It is therefore considered necessary to get peace as soon as possible before the country and towns are destroyed… If any willingness appeared to exist in London the Japanese would be ready for preliminary discussions through Swedish channels. Behind the man who gave me this message stands one of the best known statesment in Japan and there is no doubt that this attempt must be considered as a serious one.”

-Telegram from Swedish minister in Tokyo given from the British Ambassador to the United States

“…It seems probably that very far-reaching conditions would be accepted by the Japanese by way of negotiation… Exchange of the Japanese constituted must also be considered as excluded. The Emperor must not be touched. However, the Imperial power could be somewhat democratized as is that of the English King”

-Report from Swedish minister in Tokyo sent to US State Department

AND EVEN LATER THEY GAVE THOSE CONDITIONS UP

“…Stated that he had been asked by Masutaro Inoue, Counsellor for the Japanese Legation in Portugal, to contact United States representatives. Source quoted Inoue as saying that the Japanese are ready to cease hostilities, provided they are allowed to retain possession of their home islands… On 19 May [1945], the OSS representative reported Inoue again had repeated to source his desire to talk with an American representative. On this occasion Inoue declared that actual peace terms were unimportant so long as the term ‘unconditional surrender’ was not employed.”

-OSS Representative report directly to Truman

Of course, we did anyway. But that’s not important.

Because the bomb wasn’t about Japan.

In Derry and Ramsey’s Memo to Groves (May 12, 1945) when picking a target for the atomic bomb, one of the primary listed reasons for picking a target was:

“making the initial use sufficiently spectacular for the importance of the weapon to be internationally recognized when publicity on it is released.”

In fact, they ranked targets - AA to B. Know what got the lowest ratings? Military targets. The ones that got the highest ratings were civilian ones.

Japan was currently researching wooden planes. WOODEN PLANES. They had attempted to give up, we said no. They had already lost the war when we dropped the bomb. They knew this - hell, they tried to surrender.

So why did we drop the bomb, then?

A close reading of the memo tells all. It was to make an impact on the international community.

Do you know how Truman was first informed about the Manhatten Project and the bomb? It was in a discussion with the Secretary of State in regards to negotiations with Russia after the war.

Truman kept delaying the “Big Three” discussions, the most important political talks in recorded history, until basically the day AFTER the Trinity Tests - he wanted to wait until he knew he had the bomb as a political piece. Stalin and Churchill were VERY angry at him pushing the date back with little to no reason given (they knew, of course, because of spies and intelligence).

Still don’t believe me?

The Secretary of War, and MOST of the army was against dropping the bomb. They wanted to give the option of doing a demonstration and giving Japan an option of total surrender (that we get to do whatever we want with the Emperor) or of giving Japan time to evacuate the civilian population before bombing a city.

Oh, and there’s this from Stimson’s Memo of Talk with Truman (June 6, 1945)

“I told [the President] that I was anxious about this feature of the war for two reasons: first, because I did not want to have the United States get the reputation of outdoing Hitler in atrocities; and second, I was a little fearful that before we could get ready the Air Force might have Japan so thoroughly bombed out that the new weapon would not have a fair background to show its strength. He laughed and said he understood.”

He laughed.

An estimated 500,000 people died between Nagasaki and Hiroshima if you count deaths by radiation poisoning and long-term cancer.

And Truman could only laugh because he was worried the bomb might not be noticeable amongst the wreckage of Japan.

The reason for dropping the bomb was to give America a better condition amongst the international population, particularly Stalin and Russia, in the coming years. It was to make Russia afraid to invade Japan (and from there, the fear was, the rest of Asia) when they knew America had interests in it. They dropped the bomb to give them an advantage when negotiating in the future and to give them a start when everyone began arming (a situation tons of scientists warned everyone about in The Franck Report).

But don’t pretend it was about Japan. And don’t you dare pretend it was about peace.

500,000 people died and all Truman could do was laugh.

rngnightmares:

THE CAT RETURNED THE KISS

THE CAT FUCKING RETURNED THE KISS

OH MY GOD

Listed in no particular order.

- I have beaten the game roughly five times, and I’m still coming up with new, clever ways to solve my problems. I did a run where I punched everyone in the face, then a run where I killed everyone, then a run where I never harmed a single soul (I’m particularly proud of that one). Point being: much like some other immersive sims I’m fond of, Gunpoint allows you to play around with its systems and create your own fun.

- You’re encouraged to be clever. To experiment. Certain sections of certain levels must be solved in particular ways, but there’s always some room for your own personal style. Gunpoint hits that great sweet spot, much like Thief or Deus Ex, where there’s just enough complexity to each level that you’re not allowed to just be boring and still succeed, but there’s also enough shit to play around with that you don’t feel like you’re just solving a bunch of linear puzzles.

- The writing is so funny it makes me upset. Your character basically has three methods of speaking: straightfaced, snarky, and Snark Prime™.  If you’ve ever been sick of videogame characters taking themselves so goddamned seriously when the gameplay itself is funny and lighthearted, then you’ll relish the opportunity to be a sarcastic dick to everyone.

- The game subscribes to my favorite philosophy of narrative design: the story is there for context, or to give you a few extra laughs, but it never infringes on the gameplay. Other than the very beginning of the very first level, there are no cut scenes whatsoever (unless you count the dialog exchanges, but those are interactive and completely skippable).

- It has allowed me to finally be better than Steve Gaynor at something.

- This game allows you to feel spectacularly clever. Once you’ve linked a light switch to an elevator button, which then sets off a sound detector, which then sets off a lightswitch, which then causes a guard to try to open a door to turn the lights back on, except you rewired the door controls so that the door smacks him in the face and knocks him out, it’s hard not to punch the air and shout something like “I AM A GENIUS” at the top of your lungs.

- Stupid people are going to complain that Gunpoint is too short. These people, as you may have gathered by the first word of this bullet point, are stupid. So, yes. Gunpoint is “only” around three hours long, which means I “only” ended up replaying it four times in a goddamned week (each time with a different playstyle, as mentioned above) because I hadn’t gotten tired of it yet. And not only that, but there’s no padding here — no fluff, no bullshit. Every level has something interesting about it. Nothing exists solely to make sure you “got your money’s worth”. Plus, there’s a fairly intuitive level editor — if you’re worried about not having enough levels to fart around in, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a bunch of really cool user-made stages in the coming weeks.

- The art, holy shit.

- The music, holy shit.

- Smartest autosave system ever. Since your enemies are so spectacularly lethal (everything kills you in one shot), the game has a rolling autosave system — when you die, you can reload the game five seconds before your death, ten seconds before your death, or fifteen seconds before your death. This means you never have to pointlessly repeat a large chunk of gameplay just because you failed. Gunpoint, much like Braid or Super Meat Boy, respects the player’s time and accomplishments in a way I wish more AAA games would emulate.

- There’s an achievement called “Acknowledged Ludonarrative Dissonance.”

- The way the jumping system gives you a tremendous sense of momentum, choice and power without actually requiring much skill.

If you’re still on the fence, just watch the launch trailer above. If what you see there doesn’t appeal to you, then we cannot relate to one another as human beings in any significant way.

Gunpoint is available for PC, and you can buy it from Tom Francis’s site. You can buy it on Steam, but please just buy it from Tom’s site: you’ll get a code to unlock the game on Steam anyway, and Tom gets more money if you don’t go through Steam.

Christian dating (and by extension, most religious dating sites and programs) is such a weird concept. A lot of people have this image of the G-man as some kind of super-dad, always looking after them, but who would seriously go to their dad to set them up on dates? That’s just weird. Add to the mix the fact that this dude is supposedly always watching us…I just don’t know.

I guess it’s a great system for people that enjoy a voyeuristic third party involved in their love lives. I’m sure some people are into that.

When I was just a little lad growing up in a fairly Christian household, I remember finding the idea of a very watchful and omnipresent deity very disturbing. I took issue with it at a very personal level, really wondering why my privacy would have to be invaded to such a degree, and for what purpose, in the end? Just to make sure I wasn’t doing something silly like wearing clothes made of different materials or eating shell fish? It’s like, come on, God, that’s just not a good enough reason! Why do you care about my threads anyway!?

Being that concerned about holding on to the mystery of the fibers I choose to wrap myself in, you can imagine that religiously oriented dating would never really be up my alley, though I do understand the appeal. When you believe every minute interaction in the universe is being orchestrated by deft but unsubstantiated hands, it seems like a good bet to trust to the divine plan. Too bad it’s pretty obvious that the man upstairs hasn’t got a thing to do with these goofy websites. If he did, every date would be a massive success leading to absolutely no per-marital sex whatsoever (if you can even call that success!). Unfortunately, I’m certain that’s not the case. I guess the only true appeal is that you might find someone with similar beliefs as you, but you could just as easily do that at church and get free crackers and wine out of the deal.

Even considering the rather lackluster quality of the refreshments, it still seems better than throwing wads of cash out the window to me, but hey, what do I know?

And so ends the usual portion of the blog post.

I just wanted to apologize (again) for missing so many comics, this time it was a rather unacceptable length of time to miss a strip, but honestly, there was not much else I could do. I mentioned in a previous post that I had tried taking some medication for the anxiety problems I’ve been experiencing for years and spoke about how badly it affected me. Well, that was only the tip of the side-effects iceberg. After suffering from sleepless nights, panic attacks, and mild nausea, I started to develop more and more severe acid reflux which eventually culminated in about 2 and a half weeks of misery. It got to the point where I was sleeping 2 hours a night and eating about a quarter of the food I would normally eat due to the nausea and illness, if I ate anything at all. It’s not exactly easy to write and draw comics (or do much of anything) when you’re dealing with that sort of thing.

Anyway, I’ve started taking some acid reflux medication and it is helping significantly. I’m feeling loads better and I decided it was high time I got back to work and doing comics. I don’t anticipate relapsing into that state so comics are back on!

See you guys again on Friday!