cohost @ hist

[droqen]

perhaps i have a hard time getting into the 'heaps' because i find myself habitually falling back into the "big commitment" mindset that you have identified, as much as i seek to escape it. and -- if i find myself falling back into that mindset, is it right to expend such energy resisting it?  i believe these small games to be 'better' and more interesting for many reasons, both for players and for developers.  so i keep on trying."

[droqen]

huit regarding the above:

when you mention that big commitment mindset, I totally agree that you don't need to resist it, I just meant that that mindset might play a role in the insurmountability you feel confronted with heaps, but other people don't feel overwhelmed because they don't feel pressured by commitment, but you can relieve yourself of the insurmountability without resisting the commitment, and I think it's good to have that commitment,"

[droqen]

games tend to be perceived as a big commitment, and they do tend to take more time than other mediums

[droqen]

1. Regarding commitment and heaps. Is it even possible to signal that a small work is worth making a small but deep commitment to? Ought the maker even worry about this? There is a great difference between a sketch and a jewel. Playtime is often used as a metric adjacent to value.

[droqen]

it does seem pretty unavoidable that bigger always has the possibility of being better, simply because there's more canvas in which to refine and relate more ideas...

What if an idea simply does not need more refinement?

[droqen]

There too is the cost, i rarely feel like the cost is worth it, I have begun to lose faith that anyone knows what they're doing wrt making games, let alone large games. Is anyone making large interesting games? Are my expectations too high? Am i alienated from the art form?

[droqen]

Meaningless variation. Bigger for the sake of bigger. Higher fidelity for the sake of higher fidelity. In my eyes the only good reason to increase size or fidelity is to create room to "relate or refine more ideas," which i STRONGLY STRONGLY STRONGLY do not believe is the case for the vast majority of games. That is, almost every single game is higher fidelity and longer for "bad" reasons, especially noting here marketing concerns.

[droqen]

If it must belong to the larger umbrella eastern philosophy as a result of its origin point then alright. I would specifically call out two texts:

The One-Straw Revolution (todo: summarize?)

Tao Te Ching (todo: summarize?)

[droqen]

Paraphrase: 'Dark Souls can still be good for someone the first time the way it was good for you the first time.' I agree with this.

Edit. Actually, i don't know. I don't know. Yes, if there was someone who still had certain experiences. But the theoretical person is someone stuck in time.

[droqen]

i realized the other day that part of what i like about the timer is that it gives me some ability to directly perceive, and to some degree control, the way that time turns all things to dust. i have had the dubious pleasure, the honour perhaps, of seeing some of my games — especially one in particular — rise to greater heights of Timeless Visibility, and by contrast others fading away... my response to such awareness has not been entirely positive, and it's made it difficult to do things the way i now recognize they ought to be done (freely sharing sketches, getting feedback not knowing if they will ever be more than that)