shana

https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@shana

Making games, hacking tools, porting stuff. ex-GitHub, ex-Unity, ex-Xamarin, indie dev, unity ninja, open source hacker. she/her.

GitHub: https://github.com/shana
Birdapp: @sh4na
www: https://spoiledcat.com

Public Key

npub1cyh9u79maqk69yjvkuj5fr790vhgfjmu6xdl748ktsqpzg43xxcsekx0td

NIP-05 Address

shana_at_mastodon.gamedev.place@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsvztj70za7stdzjfxtwf2y3lzhkt5yed7drxll2nm9cqq3y2cnrvgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds0r7c75

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1cyh9u79maqk69yjvkuj5fr790vhgfjmu6xdl748ktsqpzg43xxcsekx0td

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Last Notes

2026-05-06 23:45:24 UTC

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I had something like that happen once as well (well, uh, twice at least?), it's just really weird. I always just think "there's 8 billion other people on this planet, I don't need to deal with this one" and throw them mentally in the trash.

2026-05-06 23:15:14 UTC

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yeah, I think I've seen it in passing but never actually engaged with the thing at all, zero clue what it meant until Freya's post tbh :-P

2026-05-06 23:13:09 UTC

Day 2 of being back on mastodon and oooh yeah I remember how this works, you press *here* and type type type and then *there* and briefly *chuckle* and then you go about your day and forget all about it and then you come back and you *eyeball* *eyebrow raise* and you go *wha?* and *what the?* and then you press over *there* and *there* and then *mute* *mute* *jfc mute mute mute* and then go aaaaaaah.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/530/163/583/275/914/original/a99c4f2e4c3315f6.mp4

2026-05-06 18:24:08 UTC

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That's fair, nothing is ever as simple as a social media one-liner, after all.

2026-05-06 18:05:49 UTC

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Explaining the subtleties of summation in pure math terms to someone with no idea of what any of those terms mean in math is about as effective as me explaining how threaded computation works in pure programming terms to someone with no idea what that means in programming. I know this because I've been on both sides of that.
I don't know how to solve math education, but I do know that this analogy would have saved me *years* of pain, so I know it's valid for at least one person.

2026-05-06 17:53:38 UTC

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Exactly, it's an analogy that gets you some of the way there, that's the point of a translation. Whatever subtlety is lost in this process needs to be reintroduced, but you can't get to that if the person can't even grasp a basic, however incomplete, understanding. So, sure, it's more subtle than this, but that doesn't matter right now.
All learning is like that, you don't learn the subtleties of anything up front, you get there over time through an iterative ever-refining process.

2026-05-06 17:45:25 UTC

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https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@shana/116528612214892516

2026-05-06 17:43:38 UTC

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hey, whatever gets you to a place of understanding is ok by me, even if it is weird! 😆

2026-05-06 17:37:34 UTC

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lol yeah I suck at maths too 🙌

2026-05-06 17:29:47 UTC

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reverse psychology, the sneak!
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/528/813/409/817/375/original/0d03c85c4ebef92c.mp4

2026-05-06 17:13:52 UTC

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I can be as nitpicky as you like, and point out that the sigma also lacks information on the stopping conditions, and it is only by unspoken shared understanding that mathematicians agree on what the infinite summation is doing/what information they're getting out of it, and you can encode that unspoken shared understanding in the for-loop by coding up a stop condition when a convergence is detected.
But, again, not the point of Freya's original point, nor of my posting of it.

2026-05-06 17:09:45 UTC

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https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@shana/116528612214892516

2026-05-06 16:32:02 UTC

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for (sum=0, k=0;;k++) sum+=pow(a*r,k)
Now if you had left the starting index out of the notation, that would have been a stumper 😜

2026-05-06 16:27:09 UTC

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https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/528/567/145/760/062/original/1ba0263ef9ad07fe.mp4

2026-05-06 16:24:56 UTC

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That might have been why my high school math teacher made me promise I would not go into maths in exchange for a passing grade.
I ended up in computers instead which totally has no maths whatsoever!
(in hindsight, not the best maths teacher)

2026-05-06 16:15:56 UTC

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If only someone had just put a couple of for-loops as footnotes in my school texts! It would have been such a time saver.

2026-05-06 16:13:59 UTC

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Super nitpickity, if you don't have a stop condition, a for-loop will happily go on until the death of the universe (or your pc, whichever comes first)
But in general, the sigma is the abstract definition, the for-loop is a possible concrete implementation of that definition, in a language that the target of this PSA (non mathy programmers) can understand and go "oooh ok I get it now". It would have saved me like half a semester if someone had shown me this up front, no other words needed.

2026-05-06 16:04:57 UTC

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oh yeah, "just" and "simply" should be banned from most sentences, I agree

2026-05-06 16:03:26 UTC

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ikr??

2026-05-06 08:23:37 UTC

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That's nice and creepy

2026-05-06 08:22:26 UTC

Regular reminder to self
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/526/660/362/470/866/original/4cc407f3d5c7242a.png

2026-05-05 21:32:49 UTC

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https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/524/106/666/690/608/original/b60f4f88379cc646.mp4

2026-05-05 10:11:09 UTC

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Oh yeah, totally. That's what I call "write out your security question answers and your taste profile" level of engagement, which I see in accounts that are not as big as this that one, which has moved on to the "just mindbogglingly stupid" level of engagement.
Kinda like that genius-level post from some "bsky senior technical lead advisor" who said his iphone wasn't working anymore on account of him dunking it into a pool because the phone was showing an overheating warning.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/521/426/319/700/555/original/d71618aa1f5a7b06.mp4

2026-05-05 07:33:30 UTC

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"give me a couple of weeks" is an amazing response to a request to remove all of the misleading and deceitful naming and logo pretending that this thing is an official notepad++ release.

2026-05-05 07:14:09 UTC

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I've done it many many times, it's fine, but you do need quite a bit of extra space for both OSes to be happy - windows needs at least 1.5T, linux probably at least 800G.
And I do need windows on a laptop so I can build and deploy on the go, and, sigh, it's my only win11 environment which is kinda important to have for reference because all the vendors are moving to it as a base requirement, and fuck me if I'm running that piece of shit OS in any of my workstations.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/520/730/325/189/565/original/0f62d9092fd4a6d3.mp4

2026-05-05 06:49:55 UTC

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I really wanna run linux on my framework, but console dev means I have to have windows. Don't have enough space for comfortable dual booting I don't think. It's extremely annoying.

2026-05-05 06:43:31 UTC

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https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/520/609/894/469/828/original/3980b87fff30b101.mp4

2026-05-05 06:38:22 UTC

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https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/520/589/673/898/915/original/9b0403b96ca66415.mp4

2026-05-05 06:17:04 UTC

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It's a question of drivers for nvidia and other hardware, and performance and stuff. Proton is the way to go, and our question over dinner was whether to just install SteamOS directly (which may not have drivers) or a more flexible distro.

2026-05-05 06:06:43 UTC

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Yeah, debian and similar distros won't cut it, they're for server loads, not gaming. Chimera and Cachy, uh? Interesting, I'll check them out. We're on recent hardware (well, I think the oldest PC guts is 4 years old) so I wonder what the driver situation will look like.

2026-05-05 06:01:57 UTC

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ikr??!? those 5 words at the very beginning must be real hard to understand for this person

2026-05-05 06:00:15 UTC

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lol jorts.horse is a great name for an instance!

2026-05-04 21:56:34 UTC

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Big if there, of course. If it isn't enabled by default, then it's not an issue.

2026-05-04 21:50:56 UTC

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Thank you for the recs! 😃

2026-05-04 21:49:58 UTC

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JS is also expected to run arbitrary code, so all of its hardening is directed towards that. harfbuzz is not something that was designed for the purposes of running arbitrary code, that's a side effect of needing to have logic for rendering ligatures, so it's not like it's been hardened with those scenarios in mind. The sandbox is not absolute protection, and desktop apps running browser engines even less so. That's why this smells dangerous to me if that's enabled by default somewhere.

2026-05-04 21:42:20 UTC

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Cool, thanks! Bazzite seems to be the thing most people are pointing at, gonna try!

2026-05-04 21:38:47 UTC

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👀

2026-05-04 21:32:11 UTC

Ok so this is the quality of the takes over at bsky that I have to suffer through via quotes all day, every day. It's just, gah, I can feel my brain cells actively killing themselves. This user has 80k followers.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/518/441/965/086/170/original/50a45c018318ebd5.jpeg

2026-05-04 20:17:09 UTC

hey fam, me and my hubby are at our anniversary dinner discussing which linux os would be best for gaming - as one does during anniversary dinner - and I know for a fact that you're all a bunch of gaming nerds, so can a helpful soul send distro recs for gaming? 🙏

2026-05-04 19:28:36 UTC

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oh hey, thanks! still fighting unity shadow gremlins?

2026-05-04 18:56:05 UTC

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oh hey, those are good tips, but maybe consider looking at how many people I already follow and follow me and how old my account is, and maybe consider that I do know how to use mastodon and social media in general? I appreciate the cory recommendation though, thanks.

2026-05-04 15:06:24 UTC

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I agree, which is why I was already following you, quite a few entertaining rants!

2026-05-04 14:33:40 UTC

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https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/516/796/264/273/444/original/0a6cc811d4e7712d.mp4

2026-05-04 14:31:51 UTC

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Did you also sign an employment contract with yourself? When I set up the dutch business, the lawyer handling the biz filing was very peeved that I used two slightly different signatures when signing the employment contract on behalf of myself the employer and myself the employee, and made me resign it with the same signature.
I can never get over how bonkers it all is, wtf. I agreed with myself that I would not divulge secrets or compete with myself if I fired myself...

2026-05-04 13:57:31 UTC

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Ooof yeah I've just stopped looking at twitter entirely for a few years now, it just suuucks. I'm sorry you're having to go through this, it's all very depressing. I haven't been able to see my husband's family in the US for over a year now, two have already passed away without me being able to be there, others will likely pass away as well before I can go back to see them. It all sucks.

2026-05-04 13:16:57 UTC

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lol ok my feed is in better shape than I thought, I was already following about half your recs 😆

2026-05-04 13:12:43 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@yiningkarlli/116512579185714126
This, uuuuhhh... feels like a massive security issue? Anyone can make a font that runs arbitrary code when used in a harfbuzz-enabled environment? Are browsers harfbuzz-enabled environments with the ability to auto download fonts when you visit a page? Are electron apps?
#note1kcn…68cj

2026-05-04 13:05:14 UTC

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Thanks!

2026-05-04 12:57:18 UTC

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It's totally valid to use any and all social channels to vent frustrations and raise awareness, but then my morning is being constantly bombarded with extreme negativity while perusing cat and game dev news, with the occasional extremely violent auto playing gif and the endless misery post sprinkled in for good measure, with no proper moderation or filtering tools to deal with the chaos.

2026-05-04 12:35:29 UTC

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haha I can edit posts, I forgot about that!

2026-05-04 12:33:34 UTC

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I only do this on my phone and I don't follow the same set of people. Cross-posting would mean me manually copy-pasting from one side to the other, and most of my interactions are replies and quotes, so cross posting doesn't make sense most of the time anyways. Like, I don't care if I post separately on both sides, I just haven't a nice timeline here that can keep me entertained while I'm booting up in the morning, most people I follow haven't posted in years apparently.

2026-05-04 12:27:40 UTC

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Also extremely tired of the constant US politics embedded in comments about everything under the sun, from waffles to cats. Yes Trump and the gop are nazis and yeah everything is going to shit over there and we're all just collateral damage for it over here, but jfc it's extremely unhealthy and so extremely noisy that discussions about problems in other parts of the planet that aren't the US and that actually affect me directly, and that I could affect directly, are just impossible to have.

2026-05-04 12:19:48 UTC

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just bsky. It's fine but getting noisy, and their client apps are terrible and buggy. Unfollowing doesn't refresh the feed, can't hold feed position, the ui is shit. The latest "improvement" is that all gifs now show a grey play button overlay when playing, and I'm just tired of getting bombarded with their vibe coded incompetence every time I look at it 🤷‍♀️

2026-05-04 11:56:58 UTC

Ok y'all I'm jumping back in here, air is definitely fresher in these parts. Need to spruce up my timeline though, who should I be following?

2026-01-15 08:38:25 UTC

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That is totally and completely f'd up, wtaf? Reminds me of the gcc aliasing optimizations casually throwing away assignments because why not. But, like, way worse than that! o_O

2025-08-10 09:40:34 UTC

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It just... exists!
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/115/003/806/836/432/915/original/cf947ef6a35793d1.mp4

2025-08-09 23:31:29 UTC

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It loads *so fast*

2025-05-25 13:38:40 UTC

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It's a well behaved owner!

2025-05-22 09:49:09 UTC

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Slightly late happy birthday!

2025-05-22 09:48:12 UTC

Mythological Game Studies conference starting now! #MythGames2025
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/114/550/852/011/562/450/original/8b1c244b73d35880.jpeg

2025-03-17 10:33:14 UTC

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Users aren't "failing to follow best practices"; GitHub's own examples and guidance for using Actions tells users to use a tag, not a commit hash. Using a hash is definitely safer and I wouldn't be surprised if GitHub quietly changed their guidance, but it's certainly not a best practice that has been widely given to users.

2025-02-15 08:36:58 UTC

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That's amazing Jeff! 👏 👏

2024-11-12 10:06:33 UTC

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https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/469/422/904/482/051/original/956b31cf8b8cd9bc.mp4

2024-10-10 13:36:09 UTC

In 24 minutes I'll be live at Jetbrains Game Dev Days talking about C# embedding, eep!
https://www.youtube.com/live/0YVD9Zuei80

2024-10-03 07:59:02 UTC

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lol. lmao even.

2024-09-26 09:18:21 UTC

The queue time for the Playstation 30th anniversary sale is the new Microsoft minute
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/203/104/818/883/542/original/c35825ee84a52e60.gif

2024-09-10 09:31:26 UTC

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there were A LOT OF FOOTNOTES!

2024-09-10 09:28:27 UTC

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Reminds me of the Moby Dick portuguese translations pre-1970s, which flattened all the characters' unique speech patterns into one indistinguishable voice, and every time a character mentioned some feat they had done or heard of in whaling, there would be a footnote going "well actually, the portuguese empire did it first/better". Presumably so it would please the imperialistic streak of the dictatorship government of the time and survive the censors.

2024-09-10 09:22:45 UTC

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Ooof, terrible.

2024-08-31 09:41:51 UTC

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Awesome, thank you!

2024-08-31 08:06:36 UTC

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I'm trying to understand this cross-driver hardware fence you're talking about, but my google-fu is failing me. Do you perhaps have a resource at hand that you can throw my way, where I can read more about it?

2024-08-30 21:24:41 UTC

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Well yeah, that's fine, but I do respect Grunge as its own unique sound, as opposed to just a subcategory of Rock. And if someone tells me I need to prep my ears because a rock concert is going to happen and noise level is going to be loud, and then it turns out it's grunge, my ears are definitely going to have opinions about this.

2024-08-30 21:03:34 UTC

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omg I'm dying here 🤣🤣🤣🤣
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/052/995/408/530/040/original/cb7c1dd387f4109e.mp4

2024-08-30 20:46:13 UTC

Sitting outside having dinner and listening to a random concert happening on the park across from us and deep into a surprisingly polarizing discussion of whether this band playing is Rock or Grunge.

2024-08-30 10:12:19 UTC

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Oh, that's nice. I haven't noticed. I have two seasonal lvl100 toons on normal and hard core, but I guess I haven't spent enough time in the game to experience one of those drops yet 🤣

2024-08-30 10:05:50 UTC

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Everytime I look at my inventory and realize I have like 3 unused paragon points because I levelled up 3 times and there were ZERO visual or auditory or haptic indications of the event. Nothing, just an invisible tick on a bar, no dopamine hit, no reward, nothing. It's impressive how much this game fails at what should be the most important core system for this type of game. It's just mindboggling.

2024-08-30 10:00:55 UTC

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I am soooooo baffled by these design choices. I mean, D2 and D3 are RIGHT THERE *flails frantically to the side* you can play them and analyse them and study their history and figure out what makes them tick, it's not forbidden lost knowledge!
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/050/389/795/061/185/original/e577ff9ac4e52a3b.mp4

2024-08-30 09:57:36 UTC

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D4: Look, we really care about this issue with character customization and the fact that 90% of all sorcerers are running around with flamethrowers and pet hydras because half of the skill tree is missing other damage specializations so you can't make a viable electical build. It's important to us! So, we're introducing a Rune crafting system that you can use to heavily customize your build! Only available in the paid DLC! Because we care! You're welcome!
#diablo #diabloiv
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/050/376/790/738/718/original/7b72f552617992a8.mp4

2024-08-30 09:50:42 UTC

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D4: Definitely heard your feedback that the game is incredible boring and mindboggingly dull until you manage to reach the highest difficulty level, at which point we unlock endgame dungeon challenges which are somewhat more engaging than the actual story gameplay. This is definitely an issue we care about, so we're redesigning the leveling system to get you to the endgame faster!
I mean, who wants to experience game stories amiright hahaha ha ha
#diablo #diabloiv
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/050/349/653/999/349/original/53daa46224732394.mp4

2024-08-30 09:38:50 UTC

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D4: We've heard your feedback that gear is bland and indistinguishable and plain boring, with colors so similar that you can't tell them apart when they drop or in the inventory, no unique drop sound design, random names that mean nothing, drop rates so high it makes everything worthless; so we're making half your gear legacy and introducing a new gear tier that looks and acts exactly the same as the old one, except it's always at the highest level and drops more often!
#diablo #diabloiv
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/050/302/971/685/843/original/ff17a34d483693cb.mp4

2024-08-30 09:33:40 UTC

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D4: Good news everyone! We heard your feedback that Nightmare dungeons are great and Pit dungeons suck, so we're killing Nightmare dungeons and moving their rewards to the Pit dungeon!
Obviously you only like the Nightmare dungeons because of the rewards, there's no other difference between them, totally the same, completely interchangeable, nevermind the completely different layouts and enemy and win mechanics, we really really want you to play the Pit dungeons y'all.
#diablo #diabloiv

2024-08-30 09:27:17 UTC

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D4: We actually haven't played D3, mind you, so we don't understand what makes it work or how and why it evolved into what it is, but we've seen screenshots and we're sure we got the gist of it.
#diablo #diabloiv
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/050/257/540/527/535/original/a263c8c51eda9fc0.mp4

2024-08-30 09:24:10 UTC

Diablo IV designers: We're so much better than Diablo III designers, we will design SUPERIOR product!
*one yearrr lateeerrrr*
Good news everyone, we're revamping the systems to make them just like Diablo III!
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo4/24130178/the-2-0-ptr-what-you-need-to-know
#diablo

2024-08-11 04:59:37 UTC

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Ooof, that must have been quite the challenge! Here's hoping some lessons have been learned and things get back on a better track going forward...

2024-08-10 19:43:07 UTC

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And here's the Entropic statement https://www.entropicengineering.com/defcon-32-statement
If this is accurate, RPi being credited everywhere and Entropic being completely erased is really extra shitty. Like, no matter what business disputes exist, if work was done, you credit people. JFC it's like game studios not crediting anyone who isn't employed on launch day because "only people we currently actively work with deserve credit for past work".
Stop being petty asshole children, be better @npub1dqd…8xy4 !

2024-08-10 19:06:35 UTC

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Wow, yeah, just children drama all around. I was quietly speculating to myself that it was something like that. I would expect that organizations run by adults having disputes with companies would handle them in an adult fashion, by crediting parties where it's due (in the booklet) and being transparent about the process. Disputes and shoddy work happens. Letting it come to this sorry spectacle is, yeah, not adults in the room (whether they're in the right or not)

2024-08-10 16:54:50 UTC

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Someone went "TIL that cat badge runs Crowdstrike" and this is now my badge's name #defcon #badgelife

2024-08-10 16:48:28 UTC

#defcon BadgeCon is going great! Except for the official cat badge, which is crashing on boot this morning... #badgelife
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/112/938/746/013/901/899/original/4ac7ba7cc689cdee.jpeg

2024-08-10 15:20:52 UTC

Well, this is a weird #defcon Dmitry Grinberg drama. I'm staring at my badge right in front of me and there's no evidence of a logo being sanded off of the case, so let's open it up and see what the board says.
Oh look, it's a logo! Wow @npub1dqd…8xy4, wow.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/112/938/400/841/358/618/original/25c7f4173e68deb7.jpeg
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/112/938/401/635/442/541/original/d7aacaa221ea9957.jpeg

2024-08-06 00:41:37 UTC

Ok so @npub17ae…k979 and I took a little peek at the @npub1yuu…5y6w group CTF and ended up absolutely enraptured (totally a word!) in it all day! I'm pretty sure there was a great conference somewhere around us, alas!
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/112/912/295/076/518/407/original/27a124264376547e.mp4