#leafo

Binders Full of Women: Collecting All the Ladycards in the Witcher

Now this was a fun series of articles--someone trying to collect all the lady cards you get for sleeping with women in the first Witcher. They write their thoughts about each of the various encounters, with critiques and thoughts on each.

The round up post is particularly enjoyable--which makes sense. It's the final post of the series and it's where we can really get into what went right about this, what was wrong, and all the other bits and bobs. 

The whole series is pretty funny, and the author has a good sense for what makes a lot of these encounters problematic. Definitely a fun read and highly recommended.

Deciphering the Menu

This is interesting read about a linguist who likes to process how we talk about food and menus. This is mostly an overview of his work, with a mention of his book (which I'd like to pick up). There's also a blog that I can start digging into now and might make an appearance in these reviews in the future. There's some interesting tidbits about what he's researching and papers he's done lately as well.

A War Photographer Embeds Himself Inside a Videogame

TIME got their conflict photographer to play with the Last of Us' new photo feature and write an article about it. It's an interesting look in the differences between doing the photography versus needing to fight your way through things to get the shot. 

I really enjoy the contrast between the real world photography and the in-game photography; the way that Ashley talks about it, the way it differs, where it overlaps. 

Running an Indie Game Store

I wasn't going to mention this but I'm a fucking sucker for seeing the behind the scenes of how games work. The meta of game meta if you will--how stuff sells, the breakdown of all that information. 

This is pretty heavy on that, but I like it nevertheless. And one day when I'm back on a windows machine I've got another way to find indie games with this site, which I wasn't really aware of until now

(itch.io)

A comprehensive history of low-poly art, part 1

As the title mentions, this is part 1 of a 3 part series on low-poly art. I'll come back and do the other two parts separately. For right now, I just want to talk about the first of the three. 

This first part is really interesting--it's got a good set up for trying to explain why people would want to bring low poly back, defines low poly for people who aren't as familiar with video game jargon, and talks about the beginnings of low poly and modern art to set up a case for how they parallel. 

The article does a really great job breaking down the jargon--but I'm coming at it as someone who knows all these terms both because I've been neck deep in video games most of my and I've programmed computer graphics before, so take that with a grain of salt. I feel like it's well explained for a person who isn't particularly technical. 

I find myself fascinated by the defining of what counts as 'low poly' these days and how you'd fit something within the resurgent movement for the aesthetic. Plus, I'm pretty satisfied by this tentative definition that gets settled on here:

Rather than look to poly count then, “low-poly” is perhaps best defined as a style that reveals the unreality of 3D rendering rather than trying to disguise it. The sharp edges, vivid colors, and obviously geometric modeling put the polygon itself on view. And they do so regardless of the date the image was rendered or the number of polys it contains.

Because, of course, so often it's intent. And you know, art has this thing of going back and trying to recapture the original limitations and flaws of the medium. Film has grainyness and filters, there are comics with the early dipple colouring as a choice now, the resurgence of the 8 bit aesthetic that looks very little like those original 8 bit games. 

That bit, the intent, is when the article shifts gears to doing a quick lesson on art history--and that's just as much good meat as the rest. At least with part 1, this whole thing has been put together in a really satisfying way. There's a logical progression while still getting to get into the details and interesting facets of what's going on.

While I'm stopping here, I suspect the series is going to be much stronger if read all together--it certainly gives off that vibe already.

Helping indie developers work faster, better

Now here's an interesting premise--Fire Hose Games, an indie studio, is looking at doing a program where they take indie developers and help them out with making their games. The article goes over how it all works, and then also the test case at the moment (Catlateral Damage) that they're using as a portfolio piece of sorts. 

I think it's a pretty interesting concept, though I'm a bit wary on how the profit stuff works. What happens for the developer if they can't break even on the costs? I imagine part of the appeal of the program is Fire Hose is helping with all aspects that a lot of new indie developers don't know (marketing, costing out), so there's that, but it still has me a little wary. I suppose there's nothing for that but to wait and see.