Ambient Irony

No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow.

Tuesday, May 22

That's Cheating!

In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there are a number of scenes of characters facing their own doppelgangers - Willow and her alternate-universe vampire self, for example - but the one that really stood out on technical grounds was the two Xanders when his personality got split in two. While the two versions are kept apart for most of the episode, by the end they are interacting directly and seamlessly, simultaneously with each other and with the rest of the cast.

Which would be an even more remarkable achievement if actor Nicholas Brendon didn't have an identical twin.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:33 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Saturday, May 19

Cheerful Afternoon

Stretch goals:

[UNLOCKED] $350k - Dual wielding pistols.
[UNLOCKED] $360k - 25 extra pieces of unique item art.
[UNLOCKED] $375k - Additional end-game boss monster.
[UNLOCKED] $385k - 25 more pieces of unique item art.
[UNLOCKED] $400k - A new environment set.
[UNLOCKED] $412k - 2 additional monster types.
[UNLOCKED] $425k - Three large, high-level dungeons.
[UNLOCKED] $450k - Savage two-handed melee weapons.
[UNLOCKED] $465k - Additional end-game boss.
[UNLOCKED] $480k - New survivor town.
[UNLOCKED] $480.5k - New and higher-quality developer beer!
[UNLOCKED] $490k - 2 additional monster types.
[UNLOCKED] $500k - A new dungeon art-set.
[UNLOCKED] $520k - SURVIVAL MODE!
[UNLOCKED] $535k - A new faction and story-line!

All the stretch goals beyond $480k were added and achieved in the last 24 hours.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:17 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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And Now, An Overworked Minx Pulling Four Shifts As Substitute Site Mascot

/images/MinxArchie.jpg?size=250x&q=95

Art by the supercalifragilistic Chelsea Rose.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:00 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Post contains 18 words, total size 1 kb.

Friday, May 18

Schadenfreuded

So, Diablo III is out, and people bought it despite the fact that the always-online-DRM-crap obviously wouldn't work, and it doesn't work.

Ha ha!

Me, I'm waiting for Torchlight II, which isn't out yet, but won't be completely crapped up either. And runs one third the price.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:35 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Post contains 48 words, total size 1 kb.

Wednesday, May 16

Dear Fuckheads

Yes, you, who thought it would be a great idea to ruin people's websites with your horrible spam when it gave you a tiny boost on Google, and, now that your misdeeds have caught up with you, are issuing entirely baseless DMCA complaints -

I will cheerfully remove the offending links. Not only that, but I will also ban all the IPs involved, all IPs registered to your company, all URLs and trademarks and product names, and anything else even remotely associated with you or your business, from ever appearing on any site I run.

And may your businesses, whose names you value so highly, founder, fail, and rot in bankruptcy hell.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:35 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Post contains 114 words, total size 1 kb.

Monday, May 14

Also Also Wik

Before I forget, there's also this:

Yes, it's an updated X-COM clone. Of course, updated X-COM clones already exist, but they've failed to recapture the magic, and there's a real X-COM coming soon, but it's been simplified from the original, so there's still room for another attempt.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Post contains 50 words, total size 1 kb.

Sunday, May 13

Purely Coincidental, I Tells Ya. Purely Coincidental.

Although the game may vaguely resemble a familiar family entertainment...

http://ai.mee.nu/images/BoardSmall.jpg?size=540x&q=95

Okay, although the game may closely resemble a familiar family entertainment, it's not like it at all. It works rather in reverse, starting with a bustling happy city and proceeding toward the titular doom, the winner being the player bringing about their particular form of doom first.

And the special editions ($75 and up) come complete with pewter figures of the Elder Gods, which is not something you want to miss.

If you know what's good for you. wink

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Friday, May 11

Creatively Clouded

So Adobe's new software rental model is finally out, and a lot cheaper than the previous version. And I noticed that they're offering a significant discount if you sign up for a full year and already have a license for any of their professional products version CS3 or later. Given the number of applications and bundles I've bought over the years, surely I'd have something that will do the trick.

So, let's see (shuffle, shuffle...) Macromedia Suite Version 8? Probably not. Aha, Fireworks CS3 license key. Type type type... Achievement unlocked: 40% discount! Achievement unlocked: Adobe Everything!

I will of course be too busy to ever do anything with any of it, but that's not the point. The point is, mine!

Update: There we go, I now have working installs of CS3, 4, and 5 Design Premium, and CS6 Master Collection. Skipped over CS5.5; it didn't really seem worth the effort.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 06:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Thursday, May 10

Things That Are Sort Of True #1

The last veteran of the Crimean War only died in 2004.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 03:32 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Wednesday, May 09

Minx: Tales From An Adorable Universe

Fiametta, music lover and podcast addict from mee.fm:

more...

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:13 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Win Some, Lose Some, But Mostly Win

No servers are on fire today, so I can spare a moment to check over my Kickstarter pledges.* Only two of the projects I backed have failed so far. Bit of a shame in both cases; MetaCell II looked interesting, and Popchilla's World looks like a good idea and something worth developing.

Starlight Inception didn't look like it would make it until about an hour before it ended, when the pledge rate suddenly went through the roof.

These have reached their goals and are still open. I'm really looking forward to Grim Dawn, which has been in development for a couple of years and already looks awesome. And Almond Quest is as cute as a bug sandwich.

The others are all pen-and-paper RPG projects, which are just thriving on Kickstarter. Without the uncertainties and expenses of computer games, or the odd production requirements of board games, they can set small goals for quirky projects, and very often, exceed them by miles.

Together with Hasbro / WotC / TSR's remakably liberal licensing of the older versions of AD&D, this has generated a mini RPG boom.

And these still need your help!

Drifter is a space trading game in the tradition of Elite; it's mostly complete on iOS and raising funds for a Windows & Mac port. It's doing pretty well with more than 50% of the goal raised so far.

Kinetic Void is a spaceflight sandbox adventure thingy. I think the loose definition and the fact that it's at an earlier stage of development (so no gameplay videos) are hampering the pledge drive. Still, I was willing to toss $10 at a potentially interesting indie game.

Republique is an SF action game for iOS / Windows / Mac. They've already raised $300k out of an ambitious $500k, but with less than three days to go, it's looking shaky.

Light Table is an experimental free-form programming IDE, one that gets out of your way and lets you code. If you've seen a recent version of something like Visual Studio, or even something like PyCharm (which I use) you'd likely know why this interests me. Visual clutter is the order of the day; PyCharm is wonderfully functional by very annoying to actually use.

On a good day I can spend 10 hours in an IDE, so if something comes along that makes me even 10% more productive, or even just 10% happier, it will pay for itself in no time.

Light Table has nearly reached its goal, but they're looking to raise more money to added support for more languages, and Python is the first stretch goal.

Update: Last Minute Surges 'R' Us, and Republique crosses the finish line with 8 hours to spare.

* INAA.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Saturday, May 05

Currently Hiring

Tech support fairies. Must have own wings and fairy dust.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:17 PM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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We Interrupt These Faces For

Drifter: A Space Trading Shut Up and Take My Money.

Okay, sometimes the developer isn't the ideal spokesman for the game, so here's some footage of the game itself:

The game is already well into development for iOS (iThingies); the Kickstarter project is to raise funds to do Windows and Mac ports. They've raised 20% of their target in 20 hours, so it's looking promising. Just $10 for the digital download.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:50 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Post contains 76 words, total size 1 kb.

1 John Videogames begs for money.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Saturday, May 05 2012 03:50 AM (+rSRq)

I wonder if this game is supposed to be a modern reboot of "Frontier: Elite II". That's sure what it looks like.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Saturday, May 05 2012 03:56 AM (+rSRq)

3 Dang. I hate to bother you for like the 5th time, Pixy, but I just got this message while trying to post at Ace's:

Your IP address (207.191.102.33) has been banned. If you feel this is in error, please contact the blog owner by email.

Now, as you and I know, I can be a douchebag in the comment section. But I'm fairly confident that I haven't been rude in ANY comment section since you and Den Beste belittled me on this site, almost a year ago. Can you fix this?

Thanks in advance.

Posted by: Kevin at Saturday, May 05 2012 10:22 AM (3o64G)

4 There's an automatic filter that will ban you if you trip certain switches (it takes 5 points for a comment to be rejected by the spam filter, I think it's 25 points for a ban).

I'll get you unbanned now.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, May 05 2012 12:48 PM (PiXy!)

5 Steven, yes, they have Elite/Frontier very much in mind with this. I'm happy to throw $10 at them to see if they can recapture the Elite magic.

They've made a good start with the musical score, and it looks pretty, if a bit aseptic.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, May 05 2012 12:50 PM (PiXy!)

John Videogames begs for money.

Yeah, there are projects where that is only barely a parody. Fortunately, they've failed.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, May 05 2012 12:56 PM (PiXy!)

7 Thanks much. But it still didn't work. I typed in 'test' followed by clicking 'post', and it still said:

Your IP address (207.191.102.33) has been banned. If you feel this is in error, please contact the blog owner by email.

If you can fix it, that would be great. But it's not that big of a deal. Ace.mu.nu is ridiculous. It's so frickin' big! You've created a monster, Mr. Misa.

Posted by: Kevin at Saturday, May 05 2012 01:19 PM (3o64G)

8 Regarding the failed project, that guy needs to hire someone to be his spokesman. He's even uglier than I am.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Saturday, May 05 2012 01:24 PM (+rSRq)

9 Sorry Kevin, got distracted by a pack of wild monkeys. Should be good to go now.

And the credit for Ace of Spades really goes to Ace and his crew; I just change the light bulbs. wink

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, May 05 2012 01:32 PM (PiXy!)

10 Fixed! Of all of the Pixy Misas in the world, you are by far my favorite Australian one.

Thanks!

Posted by: Kevin at Saturday, May 05 2012 02:09 PM (3o64G)

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