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The Extra Credits thread!! EC is amazing!


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I'm sorry Braid's platforming was as boring as all hell, and its puzzles were mediocre at best.

That would just make it a "meh" game with gorgeous visuals, but it was made much much worse with the inclusion of its pretentious "meaningful" and "deep" story, which was anything but, and has all the people blinded by this indie nonsense proclaim it a "masterpiece".

The story sucks- Ebert was right- it was just a wordy fortune cookie.

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um braid was fun and also note everyone in this thread has played it (unless they are just dumb critics, entirely possible) so regardless of your thoughts it was undoubtedly a successful game.

now if you don't enjoy puzzles then you're not gonna like the game duh sorry you didn't read anything about the game before buying it

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I'd like to reiterate:

I'm sorry Braid's platforming was as boring as all hell, and its puzzles were mediocre at best.

It was successful because everyone bought into the hype, including those who have voiced their dislike of the game.

Well not me because i played it on my brother's computer, so lol. I may not feel cheated (though he certainly does, because he too found the game boring), I didn't have anyone give me their opinion until I played the game for myself. And found it boring. And the puzzles dull and the challenge severely lacking.

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I want to go back and touch on the issue of the role of the player, partially in response to the episode, but mostly in response to the addendum on The Escapist. It seems to me that the best (and most simple) analogy to use when discussing the role of the player as artist and the depth set by the game designers would be to compare it to a mad lib.

Anyone familiar with a mad lib will likely scoff at this, but I think it would be better to take it seriously for a moment as the entire discussion about the role of player as artist can be boiled down to this simple analogy.

Mad libs are defined by a general set of rules (constrained by design), they offer a degree of freedom in terms of player choice (at the discretion of the designer), and they can tell a story fluently and naturally. The degree to which the player interacts with the mad lib is defined by the designer, whether the designer chooses to have one blank or all blanks.

So, if we consider a mad lib with only one blank (an example of linear storytelling), does this qualify as a game? I would argue that it does as it still offers choice and player input, though not consisting of a particularly engaging game. And if we consider a mad lib with all blanks (an example of open-world game play), would this still qualify as a story? Again, I would argue that it does, since it is still defined by a structure, albeit a structure set by the designer and the mad lib rules.

The only real argument left is to what degree is the mad lib engaging enough to offer the player fun while maintaining a cohesive enough story to satiate the designers' vision. I think that this is the point to which the episode was directing us; that the balance between engagement and direction isn't solely one-sided.

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So I don't know if you guys heard but Allison (the girl who does all the art for EC) tore a muscle in her shoulder and now needs surgery. They said if she doesn't receive the surgery that she may never do art again (which is extremely upsetting, having seen her deviantart page, as she is an extremely talented artist).

Full explanation is here:

Reference: http://www.rockethub.com/projects/2165-extra-credits

Over the last year we've built up a web series talking about game design and the positive impact that games can have on humanity. We've used it to get people looking more deeply at videogames and thinking about what they can take away from their games and add to their lives.

Yesterday Allison, our artist, found out she needed major shoulder surgery if she's going to be able to continue to do art. Each show costs us far more than we make off of it; we've spent most of our reserves building Extra Credits and are now trying to give what we can to help Allison cover the cost of her surgery. We need to raise somewhere between $15,000-$20,000 to help her get surgery and hire guest artists for the next few months, otherwise we can't keep doing the show.

Help us fix the tiny pink bean so she can keep chasing us with a pencil...and please, please help us save Extra Credits.

(If you donate, you will recieve all the rewards up through the level you donated at, so don't worry, if you donate $100 you'll recieve access to the episode, a tee-shirt, a publisher's club membership and ...

Currently EC is raising money to help her pay for the surgery. James apparently already sold off a few things to raise about $3k, and now he's working with local indie developers to see if they can't come up with something.

Updates, in order, are here:

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=203962109649402&id=127295683982334

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=211370215574880&id=127295683982334

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=211375038907731&id=127295683982334

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=211378592240709&id=127295683982334

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=211380378907197&id=127295683982334

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=211381412240427&id=127295683982334

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=211382252240343&id=127295683982334

They're also looking for guest artist *cough*Bean*cough* so anyone interest in that should also email them to help out per the updates above.

I for one am sending her $100 right now, because it would break my heart to see someone as talented as her studented so early on in life. If I could never do art again, it would damn near literally kill me.

Edit: Seems like they already made it, but that didn't stop me

Edit 2: Ack. I accidentally..donated $200 because when I checked out it logged me out, so I went through the process again.

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  • 2 weeks later...
They're also looking for guest artist *cough*Bean*cough* so anyone interest in that should also email them to help out per the updates above.

Man, I wish I had seen this much earlier as I would have jumped at the opportunity. Sephire, if you guys still need help, I'd be glad to lend a hand. I can't even imagine how I'd feel if I was in Allison's position....

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Man, I wish I had seen this much earlier as I would have jumped at the opportunity. Sephire, if you guys still need help, I'd be glad to lend a hand. I can't even imagine how I'd feel if I was in Allison's position....

We've got a pretty decent-sized crew put together so far, but I'm not sure exactly how long we'll be without Allison. I might have underestimated. If that's the case, you'll be hearing from me. :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/3738-S-978-and-Operation-Rainfall

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/3786-The-Pre-Production-Problem

The thought occurs to me with the pre production problem episode why don't game companies use interns during pre production to fill out alot of the menial tasks that programmers get assigned to?

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A lot of James's talk with the guy was off the record, and the rest of the time the guy seemed to just tow the party line. His main point seemed to be that "they had no way of measuring the negative effects of ad campaigns like those" or some such.

So, sadly, not as much impact as we had hoped. At least he got to talk to them about it, I guess. :neutral:

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Man, not to sound crass, but "this is some fucked up shit":

http://www.facebook.com/ExtraCredits?sk=wall&filter=2

Apparently the escapist wanted a fuckton of the rockethub money used for Allison's surgery (75%) and also felt they were owed nearly 10k on top of that. Show is going to youtube until another site picks it up.

Dan, James, Allison, it breaks my heart that this past month has been so hard on you all. Please never stop doing what you're doing right now, keep your chins up, and keep your fanbase in the loop. You know them peeps watch out for you. :)

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... Man, that's terrible. I suppose the show could offer it's availability to other sites such as Gametrailers or Screwattack, if you haven't done so already. Otherwise, I don't know what to say. This whole past year's been legal hell for my own family, so I feel for you.

Best of luck with your show, man - it's something I've looked forward to for the past year, so I'd hate to see it drop off the planet :(

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Not much to add to the Project Rainfall episode that hasn't already been said, but as a guy in I/O Psych who is fascinated by the young industry that is videogaming, I'm pretty much in total agreement with Sephire's assertion about adopting other medium's models for many aspects of game development, especially the Pixar model of pre-production. It seems like the potential gains far outweigh any financial losses(which seem very miniscule to me personally) by having different teams working on different aspects of different projects at the same time. By doing that, you should be able to avoid wasting resources, loss of employee motivation, AND potentially be able to increase productivity(ideally).

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Man, not to sound crass, but "this is some fucked up shit":

http://www.facebook.com/ExtraCredits?sk=wall&filter=2

Apparently the escapist wanted a fuckton of the rockethub money used for Allison's surgery (75%) and also felt they were owed nearly 10k on top of that. Show is going to youtube until another site picks it up.

Dan, James, Allison, it breaks my heart that this past month has been so hard on you all. Please never stop doing what you're doing right now, keep your chins up, and keep your fanbase in the loop. You know them peeps watch out for you. :)

^ this. Can't believe I didn't think to post that here myself. But seriously, that's messed up - disgusting behavior on the part of The Escapist. Chin up guys - your viewers are behind you.

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