HamsterSpeak #50 Online

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:00 am

http://superwalrusland.com/ohr/issue50/cover.html

Reviews, contest results, and a bit of art courtesy of our favorite Toad Man, Nathan Karr. This is the 50th issue of HamsterSpeak! If you're expecting something special to celebrate that, you're not going to like this! All you're getting is an extra issue this month, and it's going to be a Best Of issue covering years three and a half. Please see the notes in this issue for details. I need your help for this!

JSH357 · Post by **JSH357** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:33 am

Wow, this issue snuck up on me. Is it really June?

On that note, this managed to be a pretty good one, I think. Good reviews this issue, and Nathan Karr's commentary is as baffling as it is entertaining. Is msw planning to review all the HotOHR games?

Willy is closing in on becoming a top contributor!

Nathan Karr · Post by **Nathan Karr** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 4:22 am

Siege of Gondor details a townie’s mission to rescue Aragorn II from evil King Falghorn’s dungeon.

Ugh, Aragorn/Strider was the second Aragorn in the line, and his son was Eldarion. (One of them, anyway. It's been ages since I've read the appendices.)

Yes, I remember this game. I almost succeeded in forgetting it, too.

FnrrfYgmSchnish · Post by **FnrrfYgmSchnish** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 4:49 am

"Stupid Battle Gimmicks" was great, as usual. I hadn't even thought of doing some of those--like counterattacking only when alone, or giving specific elements to each hero's attacks so enemies will only counter a certain hero's attacks.

And I completely forgot to make those extra video game character sprites I was going to submit... got distracted by working on my movie-game contest entry. They should definitely be in before the next issue, though!

msw188 · Post by **msw188** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 12:49 pm

Yes I'm doing all the HOHR entries, and I'm playing Okedoke now. I decided to do them backwards as they were listed on the wiki (I don't remember if I had a reason for this or not), so Motrya's next. Oh, except I skipped my own Tales 2, naturally, but I think I'll do some kind of commentary on it after playing all the other Heart games.

I don't want to promise anything because I don't know how long the games are, but I would like to manage both Oke AND Motry this month. I'm already 7 hours into Okedoke, so I'm guessing there's not a whole lot more. I'm doing my best to review only once I've completed a game - I think this is very important for RPGs, since the gameplay typically expands as you go. The only exception so far has been Do You Want To Be A Hero, which wasn't really an RPG anyway.

EDIT:
I've now finished reading the mag. Another issue where I feel the content is a bit slim, but what's there is quality. I was really interested in the Vampires History review; what an interesting attempt at a game that seems! Is Umbrella still active in the community, perhaps under a new name? I wonder if anyone in Germany ever played and enjoyed this game.

I never knew that the Siege of Gondor was based off another game. I've always had ideas for a similar kind of idea - some kind of game to take place when Eldarion is king, and maybe it's discovered that one of the Dwarf rings survived? The problem is that the world would have to be visually beautiful, and lord knows I have problems accomplishing that!

The Stupid Battle Gimmicks article was a bit simplistic, but it was nice to see such a variety of attacks producable by essentially the same gimmick (using lots of elements). A suggestion - instead of removing MP dependencies from the "counter when alone" enemies, you could have their counterattacks set up like so:
1. instead chain to 2 if tag101 is on; do nothing
2. the actual counter attack

Then have their 'alone' attacks turn tag101 on. Like the last gimmick listed, all that's left is to ensure that tag101 is off before battles begin via scripts.

A suggestion for a future SBG: with instead chaining being able to check any stat necessary, it is now possible to have attacks cost any stat, not just HP, MP, Gold, and items. The player/enemy would still be able to pick attacks outside of the cost, but the author could make it clear with captions why an attack fails. If he chooses, he could even have failed attacks default to a 'standard' attack so the player/enemy doesn't waste their turn.

JSH357 · Post by **JSH357** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 1:52 pm

MSW: Do you have the latest update of Motrya (released in March, not for the HotOHR)? I am more interested in a review of it since I changed several things and haven't gotten feedback other than a blanket "It's better" pretty much. If you're doing a review anyway that version would be preferable.

msw188 · Post by **msw188** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 2:31 pm

I have a version from New Years Eve. I had originally intended to review all the games as they were at the Heart deadline so that I could write a final article discussing all the games from the contest's standpoint. However, I forgot to download anything 'past' (as in earlier in the wiki listing, since I was going backwards) Motrya, and as the contest will have been over for months by the time I'm finished, I guess it's more important to do a review that would be helpful to the author.

Out of curiosity, have you added gameplay, or just changed/rebalanced existing gameplay since the contest release?

JSH357 · Post by **JSH357** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 2:44 pm

The dialogue is completely different, and in my opinion much better. There are a couple of battles that have a minor change, but nothing too significant.

Newbie Newtype · Post by **Newbie Newtype** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 2:52 pm

It's kind of annoying to get criticized for stuff that already ended up getting fixed.

Also, I liked your game. Go easy on the graphical flaws, alright?

Mystic · Post by **Mystic** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 5:42 pm

Skyfall is admittedly a disappointment to anyone expecting anything real.

But I feel that anyone who is following or cares about its development will be pleasantly surprised by the end of this year.

Also, as someone who just finished a sociology class on sex and gender,

I believe in the differences between good and bad, male and female, and objective truth in general; it is disbelief in these sorts of things that is the drive behind postmodernism.

is an interesting statement when discussing objective truth.

msw188 · Post by **msw188** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 6:43 pm

It's kind of annoying to get criticized for stuff that already ended up getting fixed.

I can definitely see this. I guess I just need to totally let go of treating these reviews like votes for the now long since past contest.

Also, I liked your game. Go easy on the graphical flaws, alright?

Haha, I'm glad you liked my game, but that's not going to affect my review! But honestly, the only game I was harsh on graphics for so far was Hero, and then I only really came down hard on the fact that there were times I COULDN'T TELL WHAT THINGS WERE even though these things were IMPORTANT FOR GAMEPLAY. From the screenshots I've seen, I think I'll have very little negative to say about Motrya's graphics.

gender roles, postmodernism, truth

Okay I know I just totally derailed this thread on my own, but I'm still gonna request that if you guys want to argue about definitions of gender, please use a separate thread in the General Discussion board.

To Mystic, and anyone else really, regarding expecting a "real" game:
I'm trying my best in my reveiws to play with only one expectation - I want to enjoy an RPG. As a Role Playing Game, I honestly didn't find Skyfall enjoyable. As a preview to a larger narrative, I think it was great. As a preview to a larger game, I think it was questionable due to the gameplay problems I mentioned.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 9:55 pm

Mystic wrote:Also, as someone who just finished a sociology class on sex and gender,

I believe in the differences between good and bad, male and female, and objective truth in general; it is disbelief in these sorts of things that is the drive behind postmodernism.
is an interesting statement when discussing objective truth.

Welcome to the world of Nathan Karr! I suggest starting here: http://www.superwalrusland.com/forum/vi ... ?f=7&t=745

Willy Elektrix · Post by **Willy Elektrix** » Tue Jun 07, 2011 12:05 am

msw188 wrote:I was really interested in the Vampires History review; what an interesting attempt at a game that seems! Is Umbrella still active in the community, perhaps under a new name? I wonder if anyone in Germany ever played and enjoyed this game.

Yes. This game is very interesting. As I stated in the review, it's currently not a very good game but there are plenty of good ideas to rip off. I can also appreciate the fact that the author clearly poured his soul into the subject matter and thematic material.

I'm sad it wasn't reviewed earlier. Maybe Umbrella would have been inspired to keep working on it if he got some feedback.

Baconlabs · Post by **Baconlabs** » Tue Jun 07, 2011 2:47 am

Newbie Newtype wrote:It's kind of annoying to get criticized for stuff that already ended up getting fixed.

I can't believe I've never noticed this before.
Note to self, always play the most recent version.

Voltire · Post by **Voltire** » Tue Jun 07, 2011 3:04 am

I'm not sure I feel that proud of winning the fangame contest; my incomplete game and lack of entries are why. I hope everyone who had an idea tries to finish them because most looked awesome.