The 2016 In Review Contest [Reviews: 43]

Make games! Discuss those games here.

Moderators: Bob the Hamster, marionline, SDHawk

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MorpheusKitami
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Post by MorpheusKitami »

The opening party was intended to be the stereotypical anime protagonist if they were completely evil. The point being that Eagle was only working with Cardinal because he enjoyed killing people. The rest of the cast being similarly off, although Cardinal was still intended to be a good guy. Unfortunately, I fell prey to the same problem seriously intentioned political satire sometimes does, failing to make the bad guy bad and the good guy good. I should probably post a commentary on it myself, since it's probably more interesting to hear about the story behind it than to actually play the game itself.

And is a black eagle really a Nazi symbol? I honestly didn't know that, I just picked that because I wanted the title to have a black bird of prey and blackhawk was too obvious.
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charbile
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Post by charbile »

i would love to read your commentary on this

post post post post

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edit:
marionline, just read your comic and have to give you the biggest anime eyes i can muster. It was the feel good review of the summer. 10/10, enjoyed greatly!
Last edited by charbile on Fri Jun 30, 2017 4:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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marionline
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Post by marionline »

I looked up on the blackeagle symbol on wikipedia. So, first of all, a little history lesson on black eagles and German history. ... *ehm* ...

It is a coat of arms symbol that was used long before 1933, like back in Weimar republic and even before that.
But it's quite likely that it was used by Nazi propaganda as well. The Nazis altered the symbol and made the eagle carry the swastika symbol with it's feet.

After the war Germany was parted in two parts until 1998. West Germany choose to adapt the former symbol from Wiemar, in contrast to the DDR (East Germany) that used an other symbol. By keeping the eagle as a symbol, West Germany could claim to be the only "true/real" Germany continuing from the Weimar Republic tradition. Back then it was propably a very important topic, because no one could know that Germany would be united again in 1989. Actually the eagle is still used today, says Wikipedia, on Euro-coins there is an eagle symbol. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_Arms_of_Germany)
That would be banned it it was a nazi-symbol. So, I doubt that the eagle alone is a nazi-symbol.

Anyhow, that's enough history lesson for now back to the topic:
The opening party was intended to be the stereotypical anime protagonist if they were completely evil.
It did not feel very much like an anime for me. Maybe try to adapt your drawing style a bit?

Another problem might be, that the player is not expect to play a bad guy in the start. It is easier to identify with good characters.
The players do not identify with an disgusting, evil guy, that is why they don't feel with the character. (Or they do not like the character and quit immediately.)
For the game maker it is easier to make the player feel with the good ones than with the evil ones. Also, completely evil is even more difficult to portrait, than 'normal' evil. Is completely evil like being evil for the sake of being evil? That sounds pretty insane. Remember, it is hard to identify with something insane and alien.
I fell prey to the same problem seriously intentioned political satire sometimes does, failing to make the bad guy bad and the good guy good
I spotted lots and lots of bad guys ... Show some good ones in contrast?

Satire works a bit like jokes: You start with something none-shoking and in the end there is the surprise.
It overexaggerates something, still in your game I was not sure what exactly was meant to be overexaggerated.
Everything felt overexagerated. (But that could be due to language difficulties on my part.)


------
@charbile: Thank you so much for the comment on the comic 'review'! :D
I'm really happy someone noticed it (and liked it)! :D

And now I'd like to read your comment on this discussion as well. :)
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Gizmog
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Post by Gizmog »

Marionline:

Ahhh, yeah, I'm sorry. I hope I made that clear enough in the review: I wasn't trying to say the black eagle *was* a Nazi symbol, because it goes back maybe a thousand years relating to Germany and its proud heritage. But because the Nazis thought they were the ultimate in German-ry, they co-opted and adopted a lot of Germany's best symbols to their very anti-German cause. Then Hollywood (and later video games) roll around and take those ideas and use them as visual shorthand because boy does a black eagle make a good logo for the bad guys.

I hope I didn't offend you with my mistake. That note about West and East Germany is particularly interesting, because Taiwan did pretty much the same thing. It must've been a very popular manuever back then.

MorpheusKitami:

I would love to see a commentary on the game! Even though I talked a lot of slime about it, I was still curious to see how things turned out. I wasn't so revolted I turned away or anything. That doesn't happen by not caring. I didn't pick up on the anime thing at all. Definitely keep making games!
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marionline
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Post by marionline »

@Giz: Don't worry. I feel not offended.
But I was a bit confused myself so I looked the article that up on wikipedia.
That note about West and East Germany is particularly interesting, because Taiwan did pretty much the same thing. It must've been a very popular manuever back then.
I did not think about Taiwan, but yes, I also thought it is quite interesting.

@MortheusKitami: A commentary would be interesting to read!
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Gizmog
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Post by Gizmog »

Dragonchaser, Chased!

After that last NPC, I kind of want to make a game about a quest to bathe in the greatest water sources in all the world. And at the end, once you've dipped, dunked, waded and floated in the purest H2O the world has to offer, you ascend into a higher, cleaner level of being.
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marionline
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Post by marionline »

@Giz: A game about searching for pure water?
You could link that to all kind of water problems around the world, like drought or pollution.
And will you write more reviews?


If I wrote reviews now of game that were released this year, would that count for the 2017 review contest?
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Gizmog
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Post by Gizmog »

I'm gonna try to write more reviews, but I'm busy as hell and don't know if I'll succeed. Currently, I'm wasting most of my downtime on stupid things. I was hoping I could rip into Grapnes for being ANOTHER "Geometric shape goes on an adventure" game but in the minute or two I played, I saw a few things I liked. Such is the danger of judging books and covers.

EDIT: and now that review is done
Last edited by Gizmog on Sun Jul 16, 2017 8:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Gizmog
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Post by Gizmog »

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SDHawk
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Post by SDHawk »

Ya'll got a couple days left to submit reviews. I've updated the first post with the latest reviews in case you forgot to submit any.
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SDHawk
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Post by SDHawk »

The contest is over! Enjoy some charts and graphs. This is the first year that no individual completed every required review, though marionline was only short by one.
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