posting only bc i tend to make sure every execution path ends with a return node out of habit, but i never would have thought omitting a return node in BP would have such a consequential effect

I just think these awards often confuse Best with Most :/ and that's across many categories

1. Swords of an Honorable Ruler - actually just good. expands on the personal and emotional history of the characters and the villain has a thematically resonant arc. also it has the most Sesshomaru, which makes it the best movie.

3. Affections Touching Across Time - platonic ideal of an Inuyasha movie. the mothman looks neat.

2. Castle Beyond the Looking Glass - it doesn't have Sesshomaru, but at least it has Kagura. there's an absolutely wild kissing scene.

We shall see if the instinct works well. I feel confident about it rn though.

Im always thinking about a survival horror game with Receiver's gun mechanics

Its game systems want to be spread across tens of hours, its replayability comes from divergences that grow across those hours. Trying to bottle and shrink that gameplay loop to accommodate roguelike recursion... they've left what makes the genre tick. Maybe they've gained something more idk.

Nothing in particular bc these are thoughts and feelings I have watching in-dev projects and I wouldn't point to any of them and say their structure is wrong. But a lot of teams are making roguelike TRPG/SRPGs and to me that genre is best when its gameplay depicts a pivotal story beat.

You're right that I'm trying to be generous lol. I don't want to go after an obviously economical genre trend. But bc it's a crowded sink or swim space, I think some of the games I see would be better off pursuing their genre's traditional linear structure. Esp bc they can get narrative context back

I have a lot of feelings about how Melinoe is written and how her arc proceeds, both through systemic exposition like you mention and the general way her arc concludes while bent around the roguelike structure. Hades 1 nailed it imo, Hades 2 just had large chunks of the crit path rewritten.

First im leaning about Moonring and I havent played ADOM or Qud. They all sound brilliant. Qud winning the Hugo speaks to the power of procedural narrative and sandbox game systems. I love systemic stories in games like Dwarf Fortress and Crusader Kings. You connect the dots, that makes it personal.