Documentaire sur Daytona USA (42min), de côté pas regardé.

Réaction de itch sur twitter : « Sonic fan game jam anyone?? 🦔» ( https://twitter.com/itchio/status/1392257400413904898 )

Yakuza 6 vient de sortir sur PC et je suis très étonné du prix (19€).

Certes c'est un jeu de 2016, mais récemment on a vu Forza 4 (2018) arriver sur Steam à 69€ dans sa version standard (99€ dans sa version "Ultime"), Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition (2017) est vendu à 49€ (alors que la même édition est à 19€ sur le Playstation Store) ou Shin Megami Tensei III remasterisé (2003 pour l'original) vendu à 49€ (alors que Persona 4 Golden (2012) par le même studio a débarqué sur Steam à 19€)

(Après j'admets que Yakuza 6 est peut-être pas aussi attendu que les jeux que je viens de citer)

https://www.pcgamer.com/yakuza-6-the-song-of-life-review/

« this project was my personal nexus of nightmare hours, inept management, industry realisations and heroics achieved with a small team under unreasonable conditions, so it's an odd feeling to see it surface eight years later without context, credits and with a joke title sequence

it exists because @SanatanaMishra and I had delivered the Castle of Illusion prototype that was maintaining the studio

A producer we trusted asked us if we could make a 'polished gameplay prototype' for an internal Golden Axe pitch in about two weeks to land a second project

we agreed because we were assured management wanted us to develop it 'our way' (ie another miracle please) but did mandate a darker, bloodier Golden Axe, with splatter and decapitations and two button combat

So we tried to combine all that with the spirit of the original game

this would have been a difficult line to walk at any time but we had two weeks and no time to iterate

So we made do, just really attacked the design knowing we wouldn't be able to course correct much, but luckily we had a talented team of artists, animators and sound designers

much less luckily we also had the lead designer who thought he was designing it, and sometimes @SanatanaMishra would have to physically block him from reaching my workstation or he'd start explaining insights he'd received playing the mobile port on the train on the way to work

he took to inventing arbitrary challenges like "management want to see an attack animation playing in game by the end of the day or they'll think the project is in trouble" while I was busy coding enemy ai and the soft lock combo system simultaneously

a week or so in, the lead campaigned for branching the prototype and making a Streets of Rage pitch concurrently because to him they were the same game

It took me sending a 2am email to the studio head and a "lets go for a coffee and a chat" the next morning to get that stopped

but the biggest gut punch came a week and a half in - combat was working, it was all on track! I was called for a meeting in the big room, so I put the latest build on the network and went to see what was up. All of management was sitting around the big table

I showed the game

grave faces

There was a pause

"where's the wow factor" someone asked

The lead designer once again complained it wasn't a God of War-like 3D brawler like he wanted

Someone said maybe it'd have been better to have made a prerendered video where the barbarian fought a monster

I experienced a moment of clarity

Either they couldn't see what was in front of them or wanted me to feel bad because it's the only way they knew how to manage

I was 'the guy who makes playable prototypes', I had over delivered and if they didn't want that, THEY had screwed up

I had been working 14 hour days but I went home on time that day

I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling. They didn't want it. They wanted something else entirely

I came to my conclusion - they didn't matter, I would continue doing exactly what I intended to do and try to deliver what @SanatanaMishra and I had planned in the beginning

So I did

Effects and polish was added. More sounds implemented. Combat timings sped up and input windows widened to make combos executive friendly

The finished build was revealed, and the same management team that negged me earlier lined up to tell me how good it was now

I felt dead inside

Not just because of a couple of long 7 day work weeks and start of the RSI in my right arm that would go on to jeopardise development of @AndroidCactus , but because I had no trust left in the people who ran things

from the Steam Page:

"Golden Axed may be janky, may be buggy, may be an artifact of its time, but it offers a unique glimpse into the prospect of a project that could have been"

go fuck yourself, parasites »

Pour référence : https://www.pcgamer.com/sega-celebrates-its-60th-anniversary-with-some-free-stuff-on-steam
EDIT : https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/10/15/sega-releasing-a-cancelled-golden-axe-prototype-stirs-unpleasant-memories-for-some-of-its-makers/
https://twitter.com/SanatanaMishra/status/1316636383818125312

https://www.thirdeditions.com/ebooks/310-la-revolution-arcade-de-sega-de-1945-a-nos-jours-ebook.html
Pour avoir pris les bouquins Dark Souls chez eux, pas de DRM, et même pas trouvé de watermark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbHcqrAFseQ
https://hiddenpalace.org/Akira%20(Prototype)

« SEGA Fish Life is a bonafide oddity of the early 2000s SEGA pantheon (...). It's also one of the rarest, most expensive, and most bizarre variations of the Dreamcast hardware. And by 'variations,' I mean: it's a virtual aquarium which runs on Dreamcast hardware that was intended to be placed in hotel lobbies, restaurants etc.; but which was only sold in small quantities and is barely known about outside of its native Japan. »

EDIT :
« If true then here's what's likely to happen:
- No delay in the release meaning a 6 month crunch until it's release for the VFX artists
- No adjustment in budget
- Unpaid overtime for those workers
- Execs realizing this is something they can do more often »
https://twitter.com/GeneralPoobah/status/1124087137652047874

« How much you wanna bet the visual dev team kept bringing up the design flaws to a corporate brick wall and now have to work overtime to fix mistakes that wouldn't have been made if the higher ups listened. Cause I know studio artists who have gone thru this. »
https://twitter.com/ellameno/status/1124079502055940096

« A prototype of the canceled "Ecco II: Sentinels of the Universe" for the Sega Dreamcast. »

Je crois qu'il va falloir que je rachète quelques CDR. ^^

J'en connais qui espèrent encore une Dreamcast 2. Là, comme ça, ça me paraît clair.

Un listing des jeux Dreamcast à venir qui ont une chance d'être auto-édité (oui oui Dreamcast).

Je note et je bave devant The Ghost Blade (teaser -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFWS2TBKi4w), qui a l'air très très influencé par Dodonpachi (c'est pas pour me déplaire, à voir le système de scoring). Gros need.
Je note aussi que Yuan Works a repris son développement de Little Ninja.

Des bonnes nouvelles. :)

Et forcément, Robotnik est le méchant de la série. Bon, effectivement, c'est bidon mais c'est marrant quand même ^^. #sonic
(via https://twitter.com/Mar_Lard/status/489481731310092290)

Extrait : « Indubitablement, la Dreamcast semble avoir encore de beaux jours devant elle. Qu’importe si elle n’est plus commercialisée depuis près de 10 ans maintenant, sa communauté prend soin de la maintenir en vie ! En lui offrant un affichage HDMI, par exemple ! »

Présentation d'un adaptateur HD pour la Dreamcast. L'article n'est pas tout frais (août 2012), il traînait dans mes marque-pages.

Extrait : «  I think a lot—we get a ton of requests for Yakuza, a ton of requests for Shenmue. We see the lists. »

D'un côté, mes neurones font "wéééééé, Sheeeenmue \o/", et de l'autre, je me dis que pour peu que ça sorte, ça risque d'être une exclu PS4, et là, ce serait tout de suite moins drôle (J'ai arrêté les consoles à la Dreamcast, je boycotte Sony, et les consoles dites "next gen", c'est niet)

Extrait : « The 14th anniversary of the Dreamcast's North American release is upon us! I've searched YouTube high and low to find a bunch of Dreamcast fans to interview for this video and have them talk about their memories of this phenomenal game system! »

(via http://www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.uk/2013/09/happy-9999-anniversary-check-out-this.html)