Games

[icycalm]

Yep, it's true, and it's ready to be posted as soon as someone who is a bit handy with sound-file editing will offer to help me finish it up.

My main problem is that I don't have a microphone -- or do they come built-in on laptops? If so, what program do I need to download and install in order to start recording? Then I need someone to do a little cutting and pasting, and voila.

Be excited. This will be the podcast to literally end all podcasts -- or at least many of them, Nietzsche be willing.

[Somali Pirate]

This is great news! Audacity should work for everything you want. I'd suggest buying a proper microphone though, since the built-in ones usually have terrible quality and pick up tons of background noise.

[Lord Knight]

When I needed to record myself for a video I was making and I used a shitty microphone, the sound clips came out with static noise. But later I discovered a better solution and used the audio record function on my cheap MP3 player, which produced much better results.

So if you have an MP3 player, check if it can record audio and try using that to see if you are happy with its quality. Then move the sound files it created to Audacity to make the final complete file out of them.

[Pegote]

In my experience, even those cheap, old-school PC microphones are an improvement over the built-in microphones on laptops, which not only pick up too much background noise like Somali Pirate mentioned, but also distort very easily.

Use a proper (even if shoddy) microphone, record at a volume low enough to avoid distortion (you can always compress the audio and turn the volume up afterwards, which is way simpler than trying to clean up a distorted recording - I'd be glad to help in this last regard, by the way) and the results should be OK.

[icycalm]

So the podcast referred to in the OP back in 2012 never went up, and I don't ever remember now what sound file I was talking about back then. If I find it on a hard drive somewhere at some point, I'll throw it up. In the meantime, you can listen to the new Insomnia Podcast up on Patreon, the second episode of which was just posted.

Archive of episodes: https://www.patreon.com/icycalm/posts?t ... %20Podcast

Episode #1: https://www.patreon.com/posts/20904774

On icy's evolving tastes, JRPGs, East vs. West, the state of 2D gaming, SriK's game vs. icy's game, the global studio, and much more.

Episode #2: https://www.patreon.com/posts/21899414

With the last podcast we lost one patron; SriK of course, a mere few hours after the update went up. Let's hope everyone else is not as thin-skinned...

EDIT: Okay, now I remember. It would have been me saying "podcasts are fer fagets" on a loop for ten minutes lol. It was during the initial videogame "podcast craze", and when I saw that even Insert Credit had basically replaced all activity with podcasts, I'd had enough and felt like acting out my annoyance. Once you realize that a podcast is just a chat, they are not so bad if the people involved are not obnoxious (everyone on the IC podcast was), and actually know something about games worth sharing (no one on the IC podcast did).

[icycalm]

Via Discord (in the new private channel):

CULT|James W.
what's SriK's game called?

CULT|icycalm
Steel Faggot

CULT|James W.
shouldn't it be called Steel Fagot though

CULT|icycalm
Hey, I can only give advice
It's not my fault if it's not followed
Kinda glad this guy is gone
So I can finally write my Requiem for the Amateurs essay
Can't believe I held it back for YEARS for the sake of ONE PERSON'S FEELINGS

CULT|simanino
I thought that bit about Srik's game on the podcast was hilarious. "Might as well make me its developer and call it my game" or whatever it was icy said, gave me a good lol. I don't think he should have been so offended, really. If he looks up to icy, as he obviously does, he should just accept his opinion.
I think he just wants to have the pleasure of developing his own game. And then he can say it's MY game. I'm sure he'll come back eventually, because... where else would he go for videogame writing?

CULT|icycalm
I understand SriK wanting to make his own game, but I despise his attitude
Basically drafting me to design 80% of his game without even offering a credit... let alone compensation
Then bragging in my forum how "his" game will be worth 4/5 or 5/5
Then being a little cunt when I tell him the reality...
Fuck that retard
Typical "indie" attitude
Imma post this on the frontpage so he sees it

CULT|simanino
Well, there's no way to know if he would give you credit when releasing the game. He definitely should, I agree. Even if you didn't give him specific advice on his game he should, due to him reading your essays etc.

CULT|icycalm
1. He would never have made an arcade game if not for my Arcade Culture essay, he would have made some gay metroidvania like all his friends
2. He would never have done the life mechanics etc. the way he did if he had not read my scoring and Kunio-kun essays
3. He would never have bothered coming up with a decent narrative to tie everything together if he hadn't brought the first version of his game to my forum and I hadn't told him that those aspects sucked
4. He even asked me to explain to him why I prefer 16-bit to 8-bit games lol. He legit couldn't understand why anyone would, and then he went off and spent money to upgrade his art assets from 8-bit to 16-bit
5. Then I told him no ranged attacks in the second version was boring, so presumably he is adding them in now
I am sure if I scour the forum I will find other stuff too. For all intents and purposes his game is MY design but badly implemented by a mediocre studio intern (edited)
All this will be explained at great length in the Requiem for the Amateurs essay to show that even the best "indie" is an ungrateful little cunt of mediocre talent when all is said and done. The VERY BEST. Imagine what all the rest are. Scum pure and simple
He said he doesn't want to pay $15 per month to be yelled at
HOW ABOUT PAYING $15 PER MONTH TO THE PERSON WHO EDUCATED YOU ABOUT GAMES AND PRACTICALLY DESIGNED YOUR ENTIRE GAME YOU LITTLE CHEAP CUNT?

[icycalm]

CULT|James W.
I think Steel Assault looks cool. Now I understand why it looks cool. :thumbsup: thanks icycalm! (edited)

CULT|icycalm
The protagonist looks lame
His weapon looks lame
The plot is non-existent/lame
The dialogue is lame
He has no idea why Sonic and Shinobi and Contra succeeded
All that stuff is cool through the roof
He has zero artistic vision
Why would anyone want to become a generic robot with no backstory that shoots a lame wire-rope?
Only people like him who don't see the graphics
And you who have inferior taste
I can SORT of understand wanting to play it in the 80s when there were few games
But NOW?
When it would take 3 lifetimes to play all the great games IN THE GENRE?
You'd have to be legit stupid to so much as entertain the possibility of touching it
And all this lameness AFTER he has adopted all my essays and advice
BEFORE, he would have made a complete turd
Now, he might just about make a 3/5 game if he takes ALL my advice to heart
3/5 means PLAY IT ONLY IF YOU HAVE ALREADY BEATEN ALL THE GREAT AND EVEN MERELY VERY GOOD GAMES IN THE GENRE
i.e., realistically, never
Only some guys like JoshF who have played all the games in the genre because that's pretty much the only genre they play should be excited
And of course ignorant people who simply don't know the greats
And his relatives
His mom, for example
She should play it
It's good parenting

CULT|James W.
I'm one of those ignorant people.

CULT|icycalm
duh

CULT|James W.
I know about the Metal Slugs and will buy those, but that's it.

CULT|icycalm
You are his market demographic
Even then, you haven't cleared any of those
Or come anywhere near to clearing them
So, essentially, you've played nothing
Just like him in fact
Which is why he has no idea on his own of how to design his game, and keeps running to me and to Recap to design it for him, so he can dress it with inferior aesthetics (because no taste) and then put his name on it
And these scummy tactics are THE BEST the "indie" scene has to show
And we don't even get 15 dollars out of it...
In fact, we don't even get an email
After he quit I sent him several pages of Discord chat...
No reply
I mean, one or two replies with maybe 10 lines, and then nothing after I sent him the mass of text (edited)
He has spent YEARS studying HUNDREDS OF PAGES OF MINE, but he wouldn't spend even half a page to discuss this with me
True, genuine, 100% certified scum
But scum can never be a good artist
The fact that he utterly lacks any sense of honor or loyalty or debt means he can never make good art (edited)
There is nothing noble in his soul at all
He is of Indian descent, so he will understand the term "Chandala"
That's what he is

CULT|James W.
Do you think that has something to do with the protagonist being a gray robot?

CULT|icycalm
That he is Indian?
I don't care