AGDoom Monthly Sitrep - February '23 news

This is a forwarding of a monthly update post from the wiki which might make some of this seem kind of meta or confusing at points.

I am back from a trip to Texas for minimal news updates and an obligatory discussion about my thoughts on last year.

The Underwhelming Update

I'm going to preface this month's update with the fact that there's honestly not much to see. I was on family leave at the end of January proceeding through early February, which naturally inhibits my work. I'd also been working on the Ice Giant class, which involves the bulk of the work for the next update that doesn't really offer anything specific. I don't have anything polished enough to show off, and it's the same news I basically left you off with last month.

I've been back home for a few days now, and have only gotten around to writing this in a brief intermission on random miscellaneous work that isn't AGDoom because I don't want to burn myself out too badly on this project. I like to imagine I work hard on the mod, maybe the lack of consistent updates for it isn't indication that I do work hard on it, or worse yet maybe I'm actually lazy and just don't realize it yet. Who knows!

Nonetheless: I worked on AGDoom a majority of last month, that is a fact, and I will ensure that I can dedicate as much free time as I can to working on it this month. AGDoom is not on hiatus, or dead, I just don't really have a lot to talk about. About 5 of the Ice Giant's weapons are in a state that they work functionally but a lot of missing sound effects, visual effects and adjustments and tuning mean that I can't show it off in good conscience. Especially since the goal I have for the Ice Giant is perhaps the most ambitious style of "gun"play I've made for AGDoom yet, so hopefully, when the time comes to show stuff off, it will be worth it. I can supply a screenshot, at least.

Anything else worth talking about:

• Enhancements to fun in the water, as an oxygen bar will appear when submerged.
• Enhancements to some particle effects, such as smoke.
• Adjustments to fire damage and fire damage scripting (Still a WIP).
• Beraltian weapon death animations (Still a WIP).

Compartmentalizing Trauma

I totally forgot in last month's update to talk about some relatively non-personal stuff and since I don't have much to talk about this month, I'll say a bunch of stuff about reflecting on last year.

My pick for Game Of The Year 2022 - Signalis
I am not a survival horror fan. Not to say that I dislike the genre, I just never really got into any of it. I have a vague interest in Silent Hill and Resident Evil, but I very barely played RE4, and haven't played any Silent Hill. When it comes to Survival Horror, practically my only experience comes from Alien Isolation, by which I had a terrible experience playing due to horrible stability and totally game-breaking bugs on the Xbox version. Any other Survival Horror game has been grossly underwhelming as for the most part they've all been Amnesia or Outlast clones until the last few years.

So imagine my shock when early in 2022 I play a demo for this game called Signalis. Its aesthetic? Fucking amazing, retro sci-fi that isn't just 50s style is really cool in my opinion, I always loved Alien for its 70s Retro Sci-fi (or Cassette Futurism as I've heard it called before) and Signalis nails the aesthetic. But Signalis has more than just its style. Some may find the art direction of Signalis' low-poly models to be lazy, but I think it works in the favor of the game's focus on not truly understanding what you're facing or seeing all the time. This is further enhanced by modern graphical effects such as minor screen distortion local to the position of your enemies, and a sort of resolution scaling that is finely crafted to only ever make it feel like you're seeing Signalis through a lens. Like the way an android would see the world. Hmmmm...

With that out of the way, the intensity of Signalis' setting, tone, and its highly foreboding and terrifying presentation is amazing. And the story... Oh man the story. I was blown away by Signalis. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I played it, and I have a feeling it's going to be the kind of game I think about for a very, very long time.

I usually try to reflect on the prior year by picking a GOTY personally (Remember: Game of the Year is a subjective concept that originally belonged to the community at large and small-scale journalism networks, it's not what Geoff Keighley states it is like some people think nowadays) and in the last few years it's mostly been whatever wins by default. Metroid Dread took 2021 for me, but by default. Not to say the game wasn't spectacular, more that it just had nothing that compared. But Signalis had some tough competition last year, in the form of the not-to-be-overlooked Elden Ring, and some other personal highlights for me such as Infernax or Iron Lung. But I don't think any, even Elden Ring, was as complete an outstanding package as Signalis was, nor left me with quite the same impact. And those are still some amazing games, but damn.

So go play Signalis. And then play it again, because it demands that of you. Take it from me: A guy who was never really into survival horror, thinks throwback minimalist graphics are usually cheap attempts at nostalgia, and believes gameplay is the most essential pillar to a game. Signalis, by all accounts, should've left me relatively pleased with its parts, not blown away when I play the game for a third time and then realize another thing I had missed previously in its story, gameplay, soundtrack or any other aspect of design.

And that's my cue to stop freaking out about this game. My friends already know all too well that I've been obsessed for the last couple of months. This has been Dewm. See you starside. Song for the month.