Blogs - SuperNormalful

One of the things I keep hearing about the game, Dark Souls, is that it is incredibly difficult but not really frustrating. Dark Souls managed to provide a change to players but never an unfair one. If you were unable to dodge the powerful, super-hit from the boss monster you died as a result, and when there was clearly time to avoid it you can only blame yourself. In other situation, when the attack is so insanely fast that no human on Earth could possibly have the reflexes to dodge it something has gone wrong. It is very risky for a game to go down the "hardcore" road that Dark Souls travels because it is easy for it to become a frustrating mess if the attacks are too fast or the monsters are too hard to hit. As long as a game can remain fair in how it deals damage, meaning you never get hit when you're behind a wall, the attack was clearly avoidable, and there was obviously a way to counter the game is never really unfair. Of course, people will still complain that the game is too hard when they don't have the success they expect, but those are just the usual, sore-losers of the game that are not used to a game that punishes the player for smaller mistakes.

In a recent post, I criticized Steam for planning on removing the Steam Greenlight, and I have not backed off on that criticism. There are plenty of Inide developers that deserve respect and attention, that have great ideas that are unique and valuable instead of just another bland, AAA sequel of a game. What about games like The Forest? A survival-horror game that got greenlit on Steam a while back. What if unique ideas like that game are unable to exist just because Steam decides to "evolve" and remove Steam Greenlight? There are so many unique ideas that only indie games would be daring enough to try and if we do not support them and tell Steam to keep Greenlight we may lose many of them. I believe it is up to us to support Steam Greenlight, and I am asking on you, the community, and anyone willing to help to support Steam Greenlight. I have to warn you, this plan to stop Steam from removing Greenlight is completely out of nowhere, and I have no actual support right now, but that can change with your help! If you are willing to join me and help me support the Steam Greenlight project, please leave a comment, get this blog noticed, tell other indie developers about this movement I want to make, add me and your watched list, and help keep indie games a chance to get noticed with Steam Greenlight!

It's been compared, debated, and discussed, but I think I finally have the answer and reasons why. I found Rust to be way more enjoyable than DayZ for several reasons. For one, in Rust there's always an opportunity to make enemies with someone, not like in DayZ where you just discover someone is a bandit when you try to be friendly and they just shoot you, sending you miles away and most likely unable to see that person ever again. In Rust, you have a chance of meeting them again, and engaging in exciting clan wars where you get to fight the mofo that attacked you before. There's also a strategy aspect to Rust. How should you build your base so it's not easily raided? How should you raid another base? What should you build first: a bow or a stone hatchet? There are many opportunities to manage your resources and craft. In Rust, you start out as merely rock-wielding, naked men but as you play and make progress and craft better weapons and armor you turn into a powerful, formidable force. Best part of all, there's most likely other powerful forces you can clash against and encounter more exciting firefights. It's extremely satisfying to be well-equipped in Rust, much more enjoyable than being fully fed in DayZ (although, I must admit, getting the right gear in DayZ is just as satisfying). Rust is probably a better game because it never truly ends. If you have the right blueprints you can recover from being raided and build a new base, you can wait until tomorrow until your deadly rivals appear once again to harass you, and you can always respawn at your base if you have a sleeping bag. Rust overall has been a much more fun experience, but the more progress you make the more forgiving it is, unlike in DayZ where death is always punished, if you have enough gear stored away in your base it's very easy to recover from a battle and jump back into the fray. This is one of Rust's biggest flaws but it is also a strength because it encourages players to keep building and playing in order to gather enough weapons. These are the main reasons why I think Rust is better but if you have a good argument for DayZ please leave something in the comments!

Why are some games capable of scaring you until your heart turns cold and others miss the mark? There are some horror games that are clearly capable of scaring you to the core like Slender and Amnesia, but what makes them so scary? I've looked into Slender after hearing about it from a friend, and the way it was described made the game sounds absolutely terrifying. A monster that is constantly stalking you? The constant chance of a jumpscare weighing down on your head? The fact that the game is almost designed to make you believe the game is real in some way because of how the monster creates a static effect on your screen? Those aspects made Slender so terrifying for me I got killed while playing because I was too scared to check if Slenderman was following me. I believe that the secret to making a good horror game falls under columns of immersion, anticipation, and constant pressure. Immersion in terms of how real the game feels to you, anticipation in terms of fear of what will happen next, and pressure in terms of how much anticipation the game can force on you, like how afraid the game can make you of what happens next. Pressure has to be constant in order for pure fear to be possible, it would be a boring horror game if there wasn't always a risk of being scared. However, it is possible for a game to mess with your head and make you think that it's about to jumpscare you when it doesn't, and when it's able to trick you it is a sign of a good horror game. The game must be able to deceive you, trick you into a false sense of security and then pull the rug from under you. Right now, I'm actually thinking about changing the pressure aspect to deception, because a game doesn't always have to put pressure on you if it's tricking you into thinking your safe when it's about to scare you to the core. Hopefully, horror games will learn from games like Slender and Amnesia and surpass them someday.