Me too. Especially daylight saving time. Who thought that was a good idea to keep around... It becoming dark at 5 PM is brutal. Both US and Canada should just keep it always on. 🙃

No idea. It happened pretty fast. I think after two or three focus resets. I thought in other levels they kept spawning for a lot longer. But maybe I just missed some explanation or something else.

Awesome. I'll maybe run into you sometime. This is my first Spiel Essen, so I'm still trying to figure it all out. Hope it goes well for you!

Says not Pillars of the Earth though?

Are all these things still true 6+ months later?

And the reason I'm so against meta progression in general is because it is a form of cognitive manipulation. It makes people play more than they would without it. That's why most live service games do it. It doesn't necessarily make for a better experience. Just more addictive.

Many do love meta progression, but at least they should have more options to disable it or auto-unlock it. For accessibility too.

To me grinding should be optional, especially as people become more time crunched IRL.

Ofc the genre mismatch is there, but that's secondary imo.

And I did mention the difficulty settings, but they are very poorly implemented in Civ. Overall it was the biggest factor for me to dislike it, especially because the previous entries worked fine without it.

Meta progression to me feels like a crutch design. Binding vs Rogue Legacy highlights that.

I understand the pattern, I'm just not a fan of it. GMTK's original (and now unlisted video) talked about it but he felt it was too opinion based so he re-did it.

Some rogue-lites skirt around it with options to disable it or auto-unlock stuff. That's a better solve to me.

youtu.be/eXEQ8VBqXBY

I disagree. Unlocking options I could see an argument for, but unlocking pure power results in an inverted difficulty curve. You learn & get better at the game while also gaining power. Maybe if the difficulty settings mattered much, but the AI is horrible. I don't like mistaking power for skill.

Yeah, some content is locked behind playing games to get them. And it is power too. Just a very weird design choice.

The meta stuff was what broke it for me. Get that out of a Civilization game that locks content and reduces exploration and discovery.

The Ages I liked but I get why others were not a fan.

Most Civ games need an expansion to feel good anyway... The console focus hurt it too.

I just stumbled upon a note comparing all 3 of us as looking very similar from 14 years ago... (bringing me to this post when I was trying to find an image of you two together). Really sad he died and so young too.

Nice! And that many from @caseyyano.bsky.social ? Impressive! (Where is Anthony?)

Wouldn't you need more fingers and/or ultra clear skin with a hint of bloom?

As a game dev studying and working on an auto-battler, these videos are one of the highlights of my day. I'm so glad @riotmortdog.bsky.social does these despite it being for a niche audience. Much respect for one of the most passionate and dedicated devs I've ever seen!

One of my favorites. Wish there were more "ah-ha" moment / "it was here the whole time" games. I've been going through lots of them recently like Tunic, Void Stranger, Witness, Fez, and more. But always looking for suggestions on what to play next.