#mcmillen

McMillen, the oldest design firm in continuous operation in America, has been creating distinguished interiors since 1923. Betty Sherrill, president of McMillen, discussed this soft floral room which the firm designed in Southampton one summer. ‘This is a room I could have seen Cordelia Biddle Robertson, the late owner of the house, sitting in. I loved her and we did the room because of her.”

So I’ve decided to start posting some semi regular posts about my thoughts on different games and aspects of the gaming industry. So today I decided to start with the most thoughtful of topics: Dr. Fetus. 

Or at least...the Dr. Fetus fight. Okay, let me explain myself here. 

I love love love Super Meat Boy. Like it’s seriously one of my favorite games of all time, and I am so stoked for Super Meat Boy Forever. But like...can we take a step back and be honest about how much Dr. Fetus sucks as a final boss? 

Okay, yes I know that they had to add the bosses late in development, but I really really don’t like the Dr. Fetus fight for a major reason: it goes against the major verbs of the game. 

Think about it this way, the main verbs of Super Meat Boy are run and jump. Pretty simple really, and the challenge of the game comes from the speed management that you have to accomplish with this running and jumping. All throughout the game you are rewarded and reinforced for going fast, and then all of a sudden the final boss comes along and you stand there and wait. And wait. And wait some more. And then you can finally go and it’s awesome and then you wait again. 

See what I mean? The main challenge and premise of the rest of the game is suddenly traded for something else. I’m not saying bosses involving waiting for your time to strike are bad, but Meat Boy is about the speed and managing that in your platforming. Taking that away defies all the A+s you’ve built up throughout the game. Suddenly the player, who was rewarded for going really fast throughout the entire game up to this point, is punished for wanting to go fast. 

And that’s just not fun. 

This fight creates a certain level of cognitive dissonance that’s hard to shake off and upsets the flow of the game, especially because this game is so so good. If it was mediocre I certainly wouldn’t care as much because it wouldn’t have been fun up until this point, but because it was so fun to go fast and to be rewarded for going fast, when that ability is suddenly taken away it sucks. 

It reminds me a lot of all the instances in Saints Row IV where you lost your superpowers. They sucked! Cause that was what made the game fun (at least for me) and they went against the verbs that the game has been reinforcing in the player throughout the experience. 

Essentially my point is this: game designers need to know their games’ primary verbs and stick to them. Think about a good example, DOOM 2016. What are your verbs? Rip and tear. What do you do to all of the bosses? Rip and tear. That’s it. The variety comes in how the player rips and tears, not a shifting of the verbs. If you suddenly had to solve some math problems to kill the final boss, DOOM would suffer for it just as Meat Boy suffers from the Dr. Fetus fight. 

I’m really looking forward to Super Meat Boy Forever and I really hope they think about this when designing that game. Stick to your verbs! That’s the core of your game. It’s what makes your game a game, and defying your verbs makes your game a bad game. 

Anyways, just some thoughts I’ve been having on Dr. Fetus. Til next time...peace!

It’s me, Tyrone, again. --> @tyronerodriguez I've taken over duties with today's megapost, which was supposed to go live last week #sorry. We were busy updating the PC version and announcing the Nintendo Switch retail version of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+. Oh yeah, we also released Rebirth on iOS. It was a busy week.

AFTERBIRTH+ STATUS REPORT If you've played Afterbirth+, you've probably seen the regular patches, bug fixes and tweaks since launch. It’s been just over two weeks since launch and we're still working away at making sure the game is perfect, as-balanced-as-possible and as bug-free as possible. If you’re having issues getting the game running, I apologize and we’re probably either working on a fix and/or there might already be one available. Some of you put together a collective bug list, thank you for that--you’re really awesome: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AVAvmAgN_ioU-rrvTkTTmk4wRckAb4zXho_3V0Gb2T0/edit#heading=h.254nqn55vs0c If you have anything to report please send it (and be as thorough as possible) to [email protected]

tl;dr We're still fixing stuff, we'll continue to fix stuff and we are still accepting/considering feedback that will improve the game experience BOOSTER PACKS We're still committed to providing updates as long as there's new content created by the community. You've already been busy making really great items, weapons and mods for the game. We'll will have an official method of submissions and accepting mods into monthly updates. Keep doing what you've been doing. Personally, I’d love to put in @ThatScayze’s Pac-Man Mod, as a random bonus room.

API/MOD SUPPORT When we started working on mod support and opening up the game to all of you, I was very hopeful that you'd make amazing things. As I mentioned previously, tomorrow will be two weeks since launch and you've already impressed the entire team with what you've created in such a short amount of time. I can't imagine what you will be making a year from now. Like the main portion of AB+, we're still fixing bugs, updating the API and making improvements that will allow you to make more changes to the game. What you see now isn't the final version of the mod tools, but just the beginning. If you do have feature requests, also send them to [email protected] with subject: Mod Tools Suggestion

Later this week/early next week we plan to do a quick Mod Tools Tutorial stream online with a few of the Afterbirth+ team members to help you get a better understanding on how to get started modding. Watch my Twitter @tyronerodriguez for more details as we get ready to confirm a final date and time. We'll also be fielding questions from the chat during the tutorial stream.

iOS The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is available on iOS as a universal binary. We’ll have AppleTV support at a later time, but right now it’s touch- and MFI-compatible. Requires iOS10, runs at 60fps xoxo

You can report iOS bugs to [email protected]; please put iOS Isaac Bugs in the subjectline.  We're investigating a few things, including keyboard support. If you have any other feedback or reasonable requests, I’m listening. For unreasonable requests, please see Northernlion.

Other stuff..

NINTENDO SWITCH By now you've hopefully heard that The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ is coming to Nintendo Switch in retail form. What does it mean?

It means that there is more than just The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on launch. Afterbirth+ will be available at retail as well as on the Nintendo eShop for $39.99 and will include Rebirth, Afterbirth and Afterbirth+ packed together as one game.

If you're that excited about the game, it's still available to pre-order at GameStop and Amazon. You might want to consider pre-ordering as the first few thousand copies may come backed in with something special Amazon: http://a.co/9MKriNl Gamestop: http://www.gamestop.com/games/binding-of-isaac-afterbirth-nintendo-switch/141924 You can also get our other Switch game, Redout out, too: Amazon: http://a.co/i8NY8Ss Gamestop: http://www.gamestop.com/games/redout-nintendo-switch/141922 Bye! ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ PRAISE NICOLO ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

Used Hydraulic Auger Attachment For Skid Steer and Track Loaders. Make: McMillen | Model: 1920 | Serial Number: 24900 | Equipment#: 1010505. Various Bits Also available for an additional charge. Call Rentalex at (813)971-9990 for more information.

In nur 4 Minuten finanziert: #TAPEWORM Sieht sehr vernünftig aus. Ein schnelles Kartenspiel in lustigem Design.

Erinnert ihr euch noch an das kultige Independet-Spiel The Binding of Isaac? Dieses bizarre Rogue-like von 2011 präsentierte sich als schwarzhumoriger Zelda-Klon, in dem sich das weinende Kind Isaac durch viele Kellergewölbe kämpfen musste. Entwickelt wurde das Spiel von dem US-Ameriakaner Edmund McMillen, der zuvor mit dem Browsergame Super Meat Boy auf der Plattform NewgroundsBekanntheit…

Wooden sidewalk on residential street, alongside McMillen. Handwritten on back: "July 29th 1902. Anna Clark. North side McMillen between McMillen and Campbell Ave. F.S.Q."