It’s hot. Let’s play some games.
And when I say “play some games”, I mean anything besides actually playing games. For now, let’s improve the mod for Brotato, with new experiences and resources.
Now, while there are many improvements to make the game even more “playable”. From supporting the new version of the game to implementing a menu to tweak A setting. There was something missing. Namely, my ability to do art.
I’m sure there is someone somewhere saying, “there is no such thing as bad art”. But there is such a thing as better art.
For example, a logo for the Steam Workshop to act as an icon for the mod, created by the code monkey writing this:
And a logo created as a commission from someone who actually has artistic talent and practice:
A bit of a difference, is it not?
And to “touch base” with “the zeitgeist in the room”, I’m also sure someone will point out that for a thing like this, we have many wonderful tools that, with the power of statistical analysis (or machine learning, if you will), can generate images based on a previous dataset, with a convenient text interface in the form of a prompt.
While that is true and those tools are great for prototyping or components in a pipeline of creation, I have not found one with the style of the game. Also, there wasn’t a “clear image” in my mind of what the result should look like. More, like, “how it should feel”. So, what do you do when you have a problem? You find a specialist!
So, what I’m trying to say with all of that is: pay your artists.
For the last little while, nursing a burnout, some time has been spent on the Brotato game.
Now I won’t claim I love rouge games just as much as any other man because then we wouldn’t be here, but I do enjoy them. I also think there is a line between a challenge and being punished.
For example, in Hades I do not mind dying. Sometimes I did in on purpose. The “game” still advances. Effort is not lost. I am not being punished for not learning yet all the enemy moves or an unanswered prayer from rn jesus.
This is not the feeling while playing Brotato. The game is fun! When things go your way. And I do understand the appeal of permanent death and the GiT GuD culture. But sinking in a substantial amount of time to building up a character (slow start before it gets fun when doing it all over again), just to die because TPM spawned an enemy in your path so close you cannot react, kind of crosses the previously mentioned line. Well, I already paid for the game, let’s make it fun.
Before that, on a related note, discovered and experienced while doing this. I did not ever imagine a random number generator could be “too slow” to cause game stuttering. I kid you not: Linux Fix Coming For Recent Stuttering On AMD Ryzen Due To fTPM RNG
Haven’t done any modding in a long while, this was a fun exercise. Once trough, there is not much to it:
- the game is made in Godot engine
- the creator was nice enough to include ModLoader framework
- the community on steam has prepared a very detailed modding guide
The biggest “hurdle”, that no one tells you since every one knows it already, was figuring out you have to restart steam after switching to “modding branch” on steam to publish the mod to steam workshop.
The result of a few hours learning & developing and a “few” hours testing: Second Chance Brotato mod with source for all.