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Today’s ASL match went really fast. Really, really, really fast. As usual, that means I got my ass handed. We played Shin 5 “Sparks Fly”, from a free scenario pack published by View from the Trenches and downloadable here. As the name implies, it’s about Operation Shingle, the US landing at Anzio. Some of the scenarios in there are really weird in a very interesting way. Ever wanted to see three Shermans brawling with two Tigers and six PzKpfw IV Ausf. H? This set got you covered. Unfortunately, according to the almighty scenario database, it sees very little play. Our chosen scenario, for example, got zero entries - which is sad, because it’s a blast. It has a Tiger in it. If that doesn’t convince you to play it, I don’t know what else will. ...

This sunday, I tagged along with a friend for some trainspotting in the Allgäu. Thanks to a burnt down diesel engine, some ALEX trains near Immenstadt are currently operated with NE81 DMUs that are not indigenous to the region. While waiting for our mark, we tried some motifs with other trains on the quite busy route from Immenstadt to Obersdorf, like this InterCity:

In 1972, Munich was host to the Olympic Games, and the region got a nice new regional train (S-Bahn) system for this event. The stadium area was connected to the rail network by a new-built station, which was closed down after the games because it wasn’t needed anymore. The subway (U-Bahn) now connects this area to the city center, with Olympia-Einkaufszentrum being the nearest stop to the former station. I wanted to take some pictures of this ruin for a while now, but never actually went there, mostly because I was told it was a bit hard to find and there’s not much to see anyway. Yesterday, I spontaneously decided to just go there for a couple of photos in the snow. That turned out to be a rather bad idea, because it was hard to make out anything in this weather, and I’ll definitely go back there in the summer. ...

I haven’t written an AAR for a while, because my opponent kept beating me to the punch. So here are my remaining games from this year in a condensed format, for the sake of completeness. After “Gavin Take”, we played " The Guards Counterattack". I believe I lost, and I don’t really like the scenario. It feels very static and inflexible to me, due to the way the OB is prearranged on the board. It is not really the masterpiece it’s made out to be by the veterans. ...

So this was my first step on the way down the rabbit hole called “Bullet Hell”: Danmaku Unlimited 2, easily available on Steam (current price: EUR 4.99). There are versions for Android and iOS as well, but because I don’t really have a gaming phone, I will focus on the PC version here. What I like… The first thing that catched my eye was the music. Wait, that sounds wrong. Anyway, the soundtrack by Japanese indie band Blankfield is what I like best about this game. I suck at categorizing music, but it’s some metal industrial thingy. Look, it has electric guitars in it. The entire soundtrack is on Spotify and probably other streaming platforms, so just judge for yourself. It is loud, it is fast, it is exciting. ...

For some months now, I’ve been playing a bunch of Bullet Hell Games. For those unfamiliar with the genre: It’s a subgenre of 2D shoot’em ups, characterized by a whole bunch of bullets being on screen all the time. These games require pattern recognition, concentration, dodging skills and some memorization. Also, they are totally awesome and you should play them, which is why I will review every single game of the genre I played so far in the coming days. But first of all, I’d like to tell you why I, personally, like the genre so much. ...

I’ve tried for a long time to ignore this whole #GamerGate thing, but I can’t go on with it anymore. The movement has become a serious threat to variety in games, to independent game journalism, to freedom of speech on the internet, and to everybody who dares to stand up against them. At the same time, there is a lot of justified, well-researched criticism of the movement, the criminal network at its very core, the methods used by the more rabid GamerGators (a word I just made up. Neat, huh?) and the impact they have on the gaming community. This, however, is mostly limited to private blogs of devs or journalists, while the big gaming websites either completely ignore it or try to cover it from a “neutral” standpoint. Unfortunately, the time for neutrality has passed. GamerGate is a mob and has been a mob pretty much from day one. The things they do - threatening murder and rape, telling people to kill themselves, harassing critics and attacking their revenue streams - are amoral and for the most part criminal, and they do real harm. By looking away, the big gaming press allows the GamerGators to continue with what they do while still being able to pretend having the moral high ground. That is shameful. This post will be filled with a lot of rage, so I would like to address some things first: I do not believe everybody in the GamerGate movement is a criminal, amoral scumbag. But I do think that the movement is so rotten to the core that no good will come from it, ever. If you genuinely believe in a free, independent press and that’s the only reason why you are a Gator, get out. Now. Not only are you supporting the aforementioned criminals by standing with them - you are supporting a movement that harms the very ideals you are fighting for. That’s right - I think GamerGate does not do any good for an independent press, because they have a completely screwed up definition of “independent”. More on that later. Again: If you are fighting for a good cause, you have no need to associate with criminals. Don’t do it. Go somewhere else. Create your own movement and hashtag. I bet many game designers and journalists alike would love to stand with you. But if you are with GamerGate, you are with a mob that operates via Nazi methods, and you should not support people like that, ever. They should stand isolated and alone, and they need to fail if freedom should win. The Global SJW Conspiracy Now, let’s move on to why I despise the GamerGate movement so much. Well, apart from them being a mob of criminal, amoral scumbags who threaten murder and rape, tell people to kill themselves, harass critics and attack their revenue stream while hiding behind a shield of good-willed but naive people with partially overlapping goals. At its very core, GamerGate is a conspiracy theory.

…aaand the game is online. In fact, it has been since Monday (one day later than I wanted it to) and you can play it at Kongregate. Finding good names is always hard for me, so it’s called “Snipe’em up”. Enjoy! What I’ve learnt: Integrating social APIs is far easier than I feared it was - or, at least, it is with the Kongregate API. Unity is awesome, but I knew that before. Getting visibility (and, thusly, feedback) on Kongregate is pretty hard, unless you actually make it to the very top of the rankings. This looks a lot simpler on other browser game platforms, like Newgrounds and Armorgames, and I might actually go elsewhere with coming games. ...

It’s been a couple of days since the last update, and I’m making good progress so far! The game looks mostly like I want it to look (except for the player ship that’s going to get a reworking tomorrow). Collision detection works, garbage collection works, the basic game script is in place. I’m still missing the final boss, and also the miniboss I’ve got so far is probably the easiest opponent in the whole game. The whole thing can be played through in about two minutes - that’ll probably go up a bit with said final boss, maybe to three minutes. But I don’t think somebody who has never played a shmup before will beat it on the first try. What’s still also missing is a scoring system that actually produces reasonable results and makes getting a high score actually challenging. So far, every run that makes it to the end will have exactly the same score - that’s not really interesting. Kongregate statistics integration is mostly there and already debugged. Music is in place, as are some sound effects - though one or two of those are still missing. In total, I have spent about 10 hours with this project, which is less than I hoped to do, but I’m still dealing with The Move™ and searching a job, which takes up some time as well and is the reason I gave me a whole week of time for this. Five hours or so are still missing until the whole thing is finished, I guess. On a side note, the script that spawns enemies is probably the worst bit of code I ever wrote and I really, really have to share it with you.

Only one devlog for the first two games of my challenge, because I haven’t gotten around to do much. It’s weekend, dammit. Also, I’m still recovering from The Move™. Progress so far: Those stars spawn one bullet every .1 second from one of their tips, and rotate clockwise through all the five tips. Also, the whole star is rotating at variable rates. They’re the only enemy I have so far and were inspired mostly by the Star brush in Gimp. THIS IS ART DAMMIT! ...