David Will @Trashbang@mastodon.social

the core storytelling problem of FFXIV arises from two unfortunate truths:

1. many characters need a hug
2. no practical way to ensure the player character isn't wearing spiky head-to-toe plate armour in cutscenes

"why would you do this"

look I put way too much effort into finding a good place for my character to sit down before I walk away from the computer

MMOs that allow you to set your 'status' to AFK should let your character revert to basic NPC behaviours while you're away

Walk aimlessly around safe zones, lean against a corner, talk with merchants, etc. Anything but standing bolt-upright in the middle of the street

release build config generates symbol files: I don't understand but I forgive you

release build config overwrites our custom splash screen with a cat on it: unacceptable, go directly to hell

pronouncing 'cishet' like 'sachet' and inflicting an unblockable instant-cast stun on all nearby targets

playing too many custom FPS maps really gives you the feeling that all humans have an innate eye for detail and some just choose to focus it on stranger details than others

I think my favourite neo-punctuation construct is when you prematurely end a sentence with a trailing comma, which is similar to a trailing ellipsis and yet has *unmistakably* different energy

Me: we mock fantasy racism for its toothless metaphors; for leveraging real bigotry in pursuit of cheap prestige. So what excuses fantasy colonialism? Is it merely less examined? Does it more naturally complement themes of exploring unkn—

Fyuu: ssshorewalker, thish ish an Arbysh

"players never look up" factoid actualy just statistical error. average player looks up all the time. Speedrun Steve, who looks at the floor for twelve hours a day to maximise framerates, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

this area's been an unfinished thorn in my side for longer than I can remember

nothing like the late stages of a project to kill your perfectionism :')

Doom 3 has 'parallel' light volumes, which are normally fine for sunlight but for various complicated reasons no longer sufficed for this area. Instead I spent a few days banging my head against the lighting code and created a 'parallel projected' light—a spotlight of fixed width

One of my favourite recent Skin Deep areas, the Guppy's bridge. I wanted to play around with more extreme environment lighting, and I got my wish—sandwiched between nautical elements, chopped-up bits of sky bridge, and vague childhood memories of the misery of British Airways

[a giant disembodied cursor hand grabs me by the scruff of the neck and carries me away] finally, my life is on track

working on C++ has not made me any better at *writing* C++ but it has definitely given me a better sense for when the debugger is lying to me

mods! mods! this person clipped their final fantasy mount into a wall and then walked away from the computer

Final Fantasy XIV presents us with the compelling prospect of a world where magical armour and robes are ubiquitous and the mark of hard-earned fashion is anything you could wear to the corner store on a Saturday morning

'fun' learning experience of the day: the Doom 3 parallel light isn't actually parallel, they just move the origin until it's very far away

the undisputed peak of narrative design is when a character's face is too large and/or up-close for their dialogue portrait

it's me, the fool who gave their final fantasy character a shitpost name and is now a little too emotionally invested to maintain the cool terminally-online detachment it belies