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smestorp
Приєднався 19 лип 2007
michael in the forest 037 - not your ornamental hermit
ask a question: forms.gle/UdmsFZkoc2g1SPtq5
my patreon: www.patreon.com/smestorp
my website: www.smestorp.com/
my patreon: www.patreon.com/smestorp
my website: www.smestorp.com/
Переглядів: 110
Відео
michael in the forest 036 - fife
Переглядів 133Місяць тому
i want to move back to scotland. eggplant podcast: eggplant.show/into-the-depths-slice-dice-part-2 ask a question: forms.gle/UdmsFZkoc2g1SPtq5 my patreon: www.patreon.com/smestorp my website: www.smestorp.com/
michael in the forest 035 - hokusai
Переглядів 1573 місяці тому
figuring out how to be less young Sasha's "writer's block" post - sashachapin.substack.com/p/if-you-have-writers-block-maybe-you my post on young vs. old work - mightyvision.blogspot.com/2012/11/maturity.html ask a question: forms.gle/UdmsFZkoc2g1SPtq5 my patreon: www.patreon.com/smestorp my website: www.smestorp.com/
michael in the forest 034 - project management
Переглядів 1494 місяці тому
how i organise myself to finish long projects. ask a question: forms.gle/UdmsFZkoc2g1SPtq5 my patreon: www.patreon.com/smestorp my website: www.smestorp.com/
michael in the forest 033 - beach jam
Переглядів 1415 місяців тому
restoring my creative practice ask a question: forms.gle/UdmsFZkoc2g1SPtq5 my patreon: www.patreon.com/smestorp my website: www.smestorp.com/
michael in the forest 032 - indie
Переглядів 2117 місяців тому
remembering corrypt / on being “indie” ask a question: forms.gle/UdmsFZkoc2g1SPtq5 my patreon: www.patreon.com/smestorp my website: www.smestorp.com/
michael in the forest 031 - sequential turn order
Переглядів 2247 місяців тому
answering a long question about randomising the order in which enemies move. in a cave in the rain. it cuts off at the end because i forgot to delete the previous video from my ipad before recording, so it ran out of space. sorry! ask a question: forms.gle/UdmsFZkoc2g1SPtq5 my patreon: www.patreon.com/smestorp my website: www.smestorp.com/
michael in the forest 030 - mailbag
Переглядів 1527 місяців тому
answering questions! - Hey Michael, big fan since 868-HACK! My Question: When you create a new design (game/mechanic/ability), which criteria/values do you use to validate if a new mechanic is “good/fun”? - What inspires your creative process? Your games are very different from the style of most commercially available games. - How are you. Like, how are you really? (i tried to answer one more t...
michael in the forest 029 - how it's going
Переглядів 2408 місяців тому
ask a question: forms.gle/UdmsFZkoc2g1SPtq5 my patreon: www.patreon.com/smestorp my website: www.smestorp.com/
michael in the forest 028 - cosmic wheel sisterhood
Переглядів 1359 місяців тому
game review www.cosmicwheelsisterhood.com ask a question: forms.gle/UdmsFZkoc2g1SPtq5 my patreon: www.patreon.com/smestorp my website: www.smestorp.com/
michael in the forest 027 - shaping the narrative
Переглядів 15910 місяців тому
musing about how to approach talking about my work ask a question: forms.gle/UdmsFZkoc2g1SPtq5 my patreon: www.patreon.com/smestorp my website: www.smestorp.com/
michael in the forest 026 - indie
Переглядів 323Рік тому
big news. ask a question: forms.gle/UdmsFZkoc2g1SPtq5 my patreon: www.patreon.com/smestorp my website: www.smestorp.com/
michael in the forest 025 - vertex dispenser
Переглядів 144Рік тому
talking about my first commercial game. kind of a long one because it was something i spent a long time on, a long time ago! lots of cicadas. ask a question: forms.gle/UdmsFZkoc2g1SPtq5 my patreon: www.patreon.com/smestorp my website: www.smestorp.com/
michael in the forest 024 - actually people
Переглядів 179Рік тому
talking about parenting times. sorry i’m a bit quiet, i was trying to not wake the baby. ask a question: forms.gle/UdmsFZkoc2g1SPtq5 my patreon: www.patreon.com/smestorp my website: www.smestorp.com/
michael in the forest 023 - in which i almost cry about twitter
Переглядів 378Рік тому
since i recorded this, google sorted out my account so i could release zaga-33 on the official android appstore, not just on itch.io. sixteen people have bought it there which doesn’t significantly change anything about my financial situation. zaga-33 on itch.io: smestorp.itch.io/zaga-33 on google play: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smestorp.zaga33 on ios: apps.apple.com/us/app/zaga...
michael in the forest 022 - how to decide what to work on
Переглядів 279Рік тому
michael in the forest 022 - how to decide what to work on
michael in the forest 021 - living in portugal
Переглядів 214Рік тому
michael in the forest 021 - living in portugal
michael in the forest 019 - tap seven times
Переглядів 276Рік тому
michael in the forest 019 - tap seven times
michael in the forest 018 - covid-19 vs. zaga-33
Переглядів 186Рік тому
michael in the forest 018 - covid-19 vs. zaga-33
michael in the forest 013 - announcement
Переглядів 520Рік тому
michael in the forest 013 - announcement
michael in the forest 012 - caves of qud
Переглядів 281Рік тому
michael in the forest 012 - caves of qud
michael in the forest 011 - splashing in the stream
Переглядів 132Рік тому
michael in the forest 011 - splashing in the stream
michael in the forest 010 - where will wands go
Переглядів 214Рік тому
michael in the forest 010 - where will wands go
I would love to play a match-3 game with microtransactions designed by you, if you were ever interested in exploring some more "pop" regions of design space
We've been going through it the past few months and now we're basically actually indie again, without a pub. starting new projects from dot albeit with a bit of tech under the belt and a small runway of funding/grant. We're gonna be focusing on making smaller games with strong stories for a bit. so that one doesn't need to be the biggest hit, but in aggregate they build up. just finishing one game is hard though, and I know you've had a lot of trouble with apple and changing tech. Gonna look at doing kickstarters for finished games too (rather than early on). more like board games do it. Like hey if you want translations, ports or other bells and whistles fund it! And help us fund the next game. I think it's worth considering? People love your games so much, they would definitely chip in extra for behind the scenes stuff etc (dw about doing anything physical) anyway last year,we had a big team and it was so difficult. It turned out it wasn't the best way to get things done and support people (if it's not sustainable). but it's a catch 22. to get money you need to have a big team and have certain design constraints, neither of which help development much lol. at the very least the games industry is backwards in that we start "filming" before we have a "script". so back to a much smaller team and I realised what I want to do instead of getting a bigger team if we make money enough is to support individual indies who are already really good at what they do. Help them with business and stuff like porting (and hey traditional games advice if they need it). there are so many incredible solo creators like yourself who shouldn't have to do the business stuff, let alone (I've seen from others) get screwed over by small game companies. If I can give advice on the business stuff in the meantime, hit me up. also have you ever tried creatine (esp) or protein powders? my health and energy has improved immensely since I started taking them, I think I had run myself ragged over the last 5 years. lots of love. hope yer all keeping well <3.
The app store obsolesce treadmill is such a shame
I can relate to this so much. Just had a kid 10 months ago, planning on more. He's the best. Independent game development is super hard now though. I managed to finish a game for Steam while he was around, but its exhausting. I did the same cycle of overwork -> burnout through the entire 2 years making that game. I really need to learn how to work on things like 1 or 2 hours max a day and then force myself to stop, or something like that haha. I learned a lot from that project, painfully Marketing was super hard, I'm from the US and I do feel really confident in my own abilities and games, but the hardest part of marketing for me is just that I hate doing it lol. I love making games, the actual work of it, and anything else is a chore. I'm dragging my feet making a website, social media, all that stuff. But no way around it. I'm excited to watch through the rest of these videos and really excited for whatever you can work on, your projects have always been an inspiration to me.
I just wanted to say you seem like a very humble man, and I imagine some of that comes from your ability to critique your own works. At the risk of sounding weird, and as much as I love your games (especially Corrypt), I wanted to speak more to what you said about your energy level and reduced interest in games over the last few years. About 4 years ago, when the you-know-what was promoted globally, I remember standing in the shower and asking God for some answers. Something in the world just felt "dark". I felt sort of lost, and I stopped posting games to itchio for a while. Instead, I was led to things like The Principle documentary by Robert Sungenis, and I posted warnings about the rapture and the mark of the beast. I have several children of my own, and I can easily relate to what you're saying here. I don't know if this will help or hurt, but I truly don't believe the world as we know it has many years left. Anyway, I don't know your beliefs or anything, but it wouldn't sit well with me if I didn't share some thoughts about all this, as I haven't found many people like yourself who can set aside their pride or think for themselves. Please stay humble, and ask God directly when you need guidance (: I hope to meet you in heaven with your family
Hey, thanks for your message. I've known several people who at some point in their life became convinced that the world was going to end soon and made long-term decisions based on that expectation - and then regretted it when everything just kept on going and they were unprepared. It's a mistake people have been making for a long time. Now I can't say anything about what's going to happen this time, but please plan for a future that keeps going!
It was great to see you get excited toward the end of the video. I suffer from a lot of decision paralysis. So many ideas, so little time. I relate to your struggle. What works for me is to find something that makes me really excited to work on it and just dig in hard.
I‘m repeating myself, but why not working on a portrait rework of your arguably most successful game, 868-Hack. There‘s so many new audiences now, and portrait indie gaming as well es deckbuilders and roguelikes are more than ever finding their passionate audiences. While not stimulating or challening you that much, this project would still be some kind of small scale practice to just get back into a rhythm of creating something. And you could even try a different payment model, like the one Slice & Dice is currently doing (free demo with premium unlock). Also, with this game possibly gathering new Brough fans, future projects would have an easier start. All the best to you!
I'm pretty desparate for a way to play the most up-to-date version of 868-HACK on my Android, and this could potentially solve that. I also want Michael to make the money he deserves. I'm hoping the two can meet.
man, it’s going to take a pretty big rewrite for portrait mode. of course it’s not a huge game so it can only be so big.. as i’m getting more familiar with Godot i’m thinking at some point i might port it to that, do the android thing. but - when i’ve done this in the past the money has been in the low hundreds, so, ok finding new audiences is a nice story but it’s not been my experience in the times i’ve literally done this. the thing i’ve found to work to find new audiences is to make new games!
@@smestorpHow much money would I need to pay you to personally fund this project? :D I seriously would invest in this.
My friend just said about imbroglio”this is the only mobile game in the whole world that has good sound”
maybe because from the start i made sounds that fit in the range of phone speakers or little headphones, rather than making a full sound on good speakers and then trying to mix it down to sound ok on a phone.
Sometimes turn order can matter a lot in JRPG-style combat. And "Into the Breach" does exactly what you said where it shows exactly what every enemy is going to do on their next turn, and in what order. Come to think of it Into the Breach reminds me of your games a lot: Relatively small grid, combat feeling like a puzzle, really deep mechanics that emerge as you learn the game... I love your work (though I certainly haven't mastered your games 😅), had no idea you were on UA-cam and I look forward to more of your thoughts!
Into The Breach sounds like one I need to make time for! Their previous one didn’t grab me - it’s probably a great intro if you haven’t already played a lot of proc-gen games. But this one’s been mentioned enough times that, ok I’ll give it a go.
@@smestorp I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it!
Thanks for the update Michael. Glad to hear things are going a bit better. Also, teaming up with someone has positive sides that go way beyond the actual work the other person does and I'm sure you are feeling that. I can't wait to know more about your next project anyway. Take care! :)
nice update! appreciated the story about trusting your gut with a collaborator
I love following gut feelings.. great video, as always. Wishing you all the best for further development.
I agree that you contributing to the interpretation and discussion of your own work is good! Also, this is only related, but you talking about your work through these videos is something I get things out of, so thanks for doing that.
"Effective, evocative, distinctive, functional." Sure it was rude of that gentleman to make his ripple-inducing remark about Corrypt, but I remain encouraged by the unsaid, implicit half of his remark: if his imagination hadn't been provoked, if the art of Corrypt hadn't culminated in that distinctive, evocative function, then he wouldn't have felt strongly enough about it to say anything, let alone explore Corrypt past first impressions. Maybe he resolved to a deeper understanding of this kind, but only much later. It's inspiring that your views on "good work" mature and gain nuance but your conception of "games" and "art" were always, and remain, visionary.
Thanks for the update
i love your small projects
sounds like a nice situation! 🙌
Yay!! I'm so glad things have improved. :)
Oh heck, nice to hear that you've gotten with a publisher and have been able to be more focused on work in a better environment! c:
I'm happy for you :) Wish you the best in this exciting new stage, and I'm looking forward to your games!
So much good news! Happy to hear you’re regaining your strength. Happy to hear about the publisher news. Happy that you’re keeping the Patreon up because I enjoy being able to support you (selfishly, because I want as much stuff from you as possible).
This is very prescient in some ways given when it was posted; I think you were reacting to "the loss of Twitter's soul" at the time, and now just look at what it is becoming... Reaching "end of life" as the "town square" of the internet, which is ironic given that spirit is the reason Musk even wanted it to begin with.
hah i don't think i had any prescience there - it had been heading this way for a while already. i was surprised quite how bad recent moves were.
No, the intersection is me! (Actually I thought I didn't like real-time games until I gave Vertex Dispenser a proper go.) It's really good to hear you talking about this, Michael. For those - almost everyone I guess - who don't know, I'm Michael's wife. He has been pretty reluctant to talk about Vertex Dispenser even to me for so many years. He actually barely even got to enjoy its brief little 'heydey' when it was released, because we didn't have a decent internet connection at home at the time. I used to play it in the office after work and had so much fun. Also, he's not being fair to himself about 'skiving off' on his PhD. He did really try, but he had moved to a different country from his university (for my job), and that made it a lot harder to keep up motivation. If anyone does want to try multiplayer, it used to work pretty well within Europe. I (in Germany, back in the day) only had really serious issues playing against people in Brazil and Australia. I miss it and would be totally keen to play again if it still works!
Good to see you again! I’m glad you’re doing well
I relate so much to what you are saying, and it is part of the reason I haven't tried to venture into becoming an indie/solo developer. The tools and platforms keep breaking by design, it is infuriating. To try and counter this I tried designing and publishing my own boardgames, but it hasn't been reliable either. All of them are out of print nowadays. Fortunately the existing copies are still around and people can swap or sell them if they'd like, but I wouldn't say it was worth it.
I've been a huge fan of your games since I discovered 868-HACK and I'm so happy that one of them is finally available on Android, I instantly bought it. I'm so sorry to hear about your health issues, I know what it's like, I've been struggling myself as well this past year. I wish you all the best and I'm really looking forward to your future projects and hope the rest of your games will get an Android release as well.
i feel sad too about it , well put. somehow have lots of hope for the future of the internet but not sure what it will hold
Your authenticity is golden. Always keep that. Often not rewarded in the typical sense. But really the center of a truthful life. These forest talks are always giving me lots of food for thought. Thank you.
You are a great designer Michael and it's just unfair that people like you are finding hard to make ends meet. I really wish the future can be brighter for you and that you can get some form of financial support to let you develop the big game. Hugs from Italy!
Bought my copy of Zaga-33. I didn't realize it had released but I'm definitely somebody who wants to support anything you release on PC/Android. It's really great to be able to share your work with strangers on my phone. Since I don't own an iPhone, it's been a bummer having to tell people why Cinco Paus is so amazing and not being able to show them.
Instantly bought Zaga-33 - I know nothing about it, except that it’s from the guy that made 868-HACK! Hope things go well for you Michael. Looking forward to your next project.
It's astounding how much of a lot of jobs is computing work. It seems to me that opening the world via electric signals has distracted us from like, rolling around on the floor. That stuff's important!
I've enjoyed hearing your unique perspective on all the non-game and game topics. I'll try to think of a question or two.
it's v late here so no questions rn, but lots <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 altho, i would definitely be up for hearing about body/flexy stuff. it's something i want to spend time on this year (rn, i have terrible buttocks pain lol). ms has made it tricky sometimes, but health is getting better, so i should put that back into body health tooo
I can’t believe the “tap 7 times” thing is real. What a wild way to hide a critical feature. And probably inaccessible to some people too!
it doesn’t have to be fast so i doubt there’s many people otherwise capable of using a phone who couldn’t do it. but certainly my experience demonstrates an accessibility issue in terms of networks. i’m sure this is just common knowledge if you’re /in/ /tech/. whereas as a disabled outsider with limited time and capacity to work, it wasted a bunch
I do the same exact thing with picking what tasks to work on! Having the icky ones in the back of my mind, and then one day I'll be in the mood to do them. Or at least that they'll be the least unpleasant to do that day. Thanks for these videos, enjoying your thoughtful thoughts.
Takes like 2 weeks for back sprain/pull to heal fully. If you're in pain it might not be healed yet, or healed correctly. Try a lot of rest, not carrying things, and keep standing as much as possible, without much pain
Love listening to your thoughtful forest videos. Interesting idea about breaking down tasks to smaller ones for motivation. Thanks. And I‘m pumped about getting to play Zaga 33 on iOS again. Having your games stop working or behaving weirdly is my biggest loss in mobile gaming. Thank you!
Keep it up brother 💪🤍
I actually never felt bad about not having figured out the secret level in 868-HACK, as I was pretty pleased with the scores I was getting without it. I never knew until now that how other people knew about it was from twitter, though!
That Cinco Paus reboot is seriously my most anticipated game in 2023. Also love to listen to your woods videos. Kind of my only "podcast" :) Keep on rocking, thinking and talking. Cheers!
I love the calm pace of these, it feels like a flow of thoughts.
This definitely works for things that one likes cooked and is fine with cold, cus surely if you needed something reheated you are basically back at square one. What this doesn’t work for is for things that are best “fresh” like bread or dishes that will go soggy when cold. So perhaps buying food prepared, like from a baker, is the most efficient overall because they can have their ovens on all day and baking all day (assuming full capacity) But there is waste of the bread is not bought, so perhaps everyone needs to put their orders in ahead of time for a week, everyday, and be sure to take and eat their order!
yeah i'd recommend the Tamar Adler book i mentioned: she goes into quite a bit of detail about what's good (or even better) cold. and fwiw, she gets bread from a baker.
@@smestorp thanks for sharing! I’ll definitely check it out!
@@dexan8946 also worth noting a lot of things that take an hour or so to cook can be reheated in a few minutes on the stove (or microwave probably?) so it can be convenient & still save energy overall
I personally hate the idea of taking notes let alone using a tracker (which personally I would feel like I'm cheating if I got a personal best using) and really hope that doesnt end up impacting the game, i understand the game logic relatively fully (2050 em 50 PB) and think it would undermine my experience at every level of play to have a tracker available. Some of the stuff i see in the discord where people are suggesting undos, in-game trackers and multiple modes worries me greatly as i feel it undermines a lot of what makes cinco perfect to me, but I'm confident you'll make the best design decisions for the game. Looking forward to the new game I'll be pushing for top 10 on the leaderboards before it's out
totally fair. my feeling right now is that, with some changes to the wand generation, a simple in-game record of what's been tested will add more to the game than it takes away. but i'll only keep it if it keeps feeling right. it's important to me that i let myself consider even really big changes, and be open-minded about how much it ends up being like the same game. if it's much different then almost certainly some people will prefer the original, and that's ok. with respect to suggestions, i try to just listen to ideas and not make judgments, because thinking ideas are bad doesn't keep you in a frame of mind for coming up with more ideas. often the ideas that aren't the right answer themselves can still help with figuring out what the question is.
Awesome news! I’m a big fan of your work. I just found out about the patreon and subscribed. I wanted to share- I know P1 Select is really simple compared to your other work, but it really appeals to me. The simplicity along with the mix of calculation and intuition about the future of the board state gets me in flow state that I enjoy quite a bit. I had some close shots at the top spot on the leaderboard but was never quite able to get there. Thanks for making it!
thank you!
These talks are always so peaceful and have lots of interesting information.
What if the elimination tracker was an artifact :P
choosing between convenience and power in a game tends to feel bad. if this was 100% something you could track yourself on paper or in a separate app, would you ever choose that instead of something that materially improves you score or survival chances? even if it improves your play experience enough that you'd pick it, it feels bad because that's ~instead of a high score. if the tracker did something slightly different that wasn't what you can do yourself, that's another story. i really liked in command & conquer how the minimap is something you have to build - it's a basic convenience feature that most games in the genre have by default, but it's useful enough to be worth paying for if you don't have it. cute design. especially when you're attacked and your power goes out and you lose your map..
Hi Michael, Firstly, I want to say I’m very excited you’re back to working on games. Your games are the ones that keep my dream of developing games myself full time (instead of being a dream in the back of my mind I never get around to actually working towards). I’ve recently tried Helix for the first time and I’m really enjoying it, and very much looking forward to this Cinco sequel I also really appreciate you sharing your thoughts through these videos. It is very interesting and edifying to learn how you work through design problems! I agree with your evaluation that your “relationship” with the game, your internal, conscious or subconscious play, your “playstyle” is more important than some eliminated possibilities tool. “Solving” a run, with some tool, is interesting in itself, but isn’t the game. It’s in own game in a way. I find playing with my gut much more interesting. When playing, it’s like your style and experience that tells you “I really want this spell, so I will try to deduce this specifically, using X,Y,Z things I’ve learned”
Weird question 😂😂😂
Hah interesting. Thanks, sincerely for making these videos. You can feel the healing vibes in the forest. It reminded me of habits that I need to remember Yeah 😊
I returned to 868-HACK on my iPad the other day and noticed there was a new add on (which I instantly bought). BUT - I’ve noticed that my score stays at zero in every game I play (in both versions of the game). Do you know why that might be? Or how I might fix it?
I tried removing the app and reinstalling it (and restarting my iPad). I restored purchases. Same thing - score is always ZERO. UNLESS I use a score program - which does actually give me some points. What is going on?
thanks for the report but no idea what it could be & seems to be working fine to me. do you know how to score in the game? i.e. did you siphon a tile with a big pink number on it
@@smestorp Doh! I think I just forgot how to play the thing! Now I’m starting to remember that score can only be accrued in a particular way! (As you mention above). Sorry!