Community Showcase Submissions - September 2018

What Up Ian and Brandon !!! My first time submitting to the showcase woot! Just went to a Floyd Yoga Jam wich is a yoga festival full of music art yoga good vibes bonfires and drum circles. Had a blast. I was volunteering working security at the alcohol checkpoint right behind the stage. Everyone was so nice. So I just drew while listening to bluegrass funk soul rock reggae it was way chill. Love and Respect WINGATAKUS ps Beauty Bois for life!!! Easy Update Nights When ? <a href="https://twitter.com/myawesomeideas/status/1037763981014982656" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/myawesomeideas/status/1037763981014982656</a>

John Wingate

Re posted since it disappeared for me on both phone and laptop

Desquick

Hello boys. I am glad Ian is on this week because a little over a year ago he helped me with a short clip in which he congratulated my girlfriend and I on three years together. I met my girlfriend in April of 2014 on Crunchyroll of all places. She was a college student in the Philippines and I was toiling through life here in the Silicon Valley. Four years later, through the pain and suffering of being an ocean apart, we have been spending weeks together as we travel around her country. I have never been happier. If you're willing to share. What is a favorite memory you have with a significant other or loved one? Because I leave on Monday to go back to Cali and there is a lot of things I will miss but mostly it is the small things even more than anything else. The feel of her hand, smell of her hair, the smile when our eyes meet, her sleeping on my arm or shoulder on the bus or plane. Things like that. Love you all and thank you for helping me make it to this point where dreams can be reality. I'll link some pictures if you want to see. Also the return of Lunarvalen Academy Stories Post Siobhan An effervescent, independent, young sorceress once attempted to create magic with music and new-age weapons called firearms. After trials and tribulations, years of torturing her own body to bring out this magic, and close encounters with death, Siobhan perfected her art and finally gained the respect of her peers. But why was she so hellbent on proving her skill? Well in a world where magic is dominated by men of age and tenure Siobhan struggled in the system she was naturally drawn too. Her skills with the arcane were always middling because she had nothing too cling to in terms of an expertise. She had not the mana to operate in the realms of space and time, not the connection to the earth to be an elemental mage, and not the deep finesse of illusion and mental magic. So what was she to do besides forge a path all her own. Magically enhancing a self made instrument and tuning it to these weapons so that the music she plays will change the properties of the attacks coming out. And it was due to her ingenuity that she was chosen to join the ranks of the Lunarvalen Academy recruits. Walking through the gates with the others she felt different than the recruits that surrounded her. Rather than walking down paths that lead to basic adventuring classes she would choose the only Path that made sense. The Arts, where your mind and creativity were held in higher regard that your magic or physical prowess. With miniature organ pipes for a backpack and a keyboard that flips around to the front, and firearms that were summoned from her spectral locker she was primed to fight her way into history. She called herself a Gun Bard and her music would change this world. <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LOoXeKAexPRXl06z46CpFM18AWymRbTQ" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LOoXeKAexPRXl06z46CpFM18AWymRbTQ</a>

Desquick

keeping my post alive

Hello Brandon and Ian. I have a huge problem, I keep buying games, but then I keep leaving them unfinished! Then I buy more games and never finish those! And on and on until at this point my game backlog has become a giant metaphorical and physical pile. Because of this I have decided to spent the next several months focusing on clearing out my backlog, and through the magic of google spreadsheets you can follow along! I have set some rules for myself to follow, such as that I’m going to put the most focus on finishing already started games before I start new ones. I will allow myself to buy a very limited number of additional games if the hype is just too great to ignore, however I’m going to require myself to clear 2-3 games from the backlog before I do. I’m also prepared to bail on a game if I’m not having a good time with it, this will just make more time for games I want to play. Here’s a link to the spreadsheet, the list is sorted first by if I started playing yet, then my interest level in playing it, then by genre. The list also may not be 100% complete as there could be some games I’m forgetting but this should give a good indication of the task ahead of me. Love and Respect Jon Koenig <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSpo2fSHohtdR_4Z3hQIy-NgEsL-Rdmka_MuXQitCbrL2c8RL5M1XhBFUSt0kBW-we-KAqImuwLtMP-/pubhtml" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSpo2fSHohtdR_4Z3hQIy-NgEsL-Rdmka_MuXQitCbrL2c8RL5M1XhBFUSt0kBW-we-KAqImuwLtMP-/pubhtml</a>

30 Days till Jojo part 5 anime, baby!

Ian Alexander

Brandon! Ian! What's up!? This month, I am submitting a drawing of all your characters from the recent Fiasconauts episode which used the "Crazy, Noisy, Bizarre Summer" playset I created. Thanks so much for trying it out! I tried to add lots of little details; I gave Jolene, Jolene some iconography based on hotels to match her Hotel California stand for example. Take a look! L&amp;R Ian, @alexander_arts Link: <a href="https://www.deviantart.com/sayianianian/art/Crazy-Noisy-Bizarre-Summer-762802059?ga_submit_new=10%3A1536212698&amp;ga_type=edit&amp;ga_changes=1&amp;ga_recent=1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.deviantart.com/sayianianian/art/Crazy-Noisy-Bizarre-Summer-762802059?ga_submit_new=10%3A1536212698&amp;ga_type=edit&amp;ga_changes=1&amp;ga_recent=1</a> <img src="https://pre00.deviantart.net/0b2e/th/pre/f/2018/249/6/4/crazy__noisy__bizarre_summer_by_sayianianian-dcm5hu3.png" title="CrazyNoisyBizarreSummer">

Ian Alexander

Hello Ian and Brandon It is now time for the best hopefully stretch of video games in a incredibly long time. I love Dragon Quest XI, and someday I am certain I will love Spiderman when I have time to play it.However, I want to talk about another significant game that goes over looked. I wanted to talk about Elite Beat Agents, a DS game. This game is spectacular, the game is fun with outstanding music. The game possesses a lot of personality that shows through each of the unique stories. The game play of Elite Beat Agents is significantly good using the two screens of the DS to near perfection. I honestly hope that they make a new Elite Beat Agent someday.

Mr.V

Hi Ian and Brandon! Time got away from me and I hadn’t realized I had left this so late! The last year and a half or so EZA inspired me to dive into graphic design and thought I’d share a small album of some things I’m proud of! This is mostly full of EZA references, though there are a few song lyric inspired ones. I feel like I’ve learned a lot and grown as an artist though I know there’s always room for improvement &lt;3 <a href="https://imgur.com/a/luyFznE" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/luyFznE</a> L&amp;R Kit Snow

Kit Snow

Hi Ian and Brandon, I had intended to write something longer this month, but I've been busy flying across the world. So in honour of Ian's creativity and synthiness and general brilliance, which has been an enormous inspiration to me, here's another Korg Gadget track. There's obviously some Castlevania influence - although I've barely played any of the series and I actually set out to make something approaching synth-punk. It's 4 minutes, but there's a pretty clean break between sections at 3.10ish, so feel free to pause there. Link: <a href="https://soundcloud.com/samuel-cardwell-274416235/all-saints-passage" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://soundcloud.com/samuel-cardwell-274416235/all-saints-passage</a> L&amp;R, Samuel

Samuel Cardwell

Hey there Ian and Brandon,

erce

Hello, Brandian! For this month's submission, I thought I would celebrate the Smash Direct from August 8th that gloriously announced the arrival of Castlevania and King K. Rool into Super Smash Bros Ultimate. This direct was madness, and Brandon and Kyle's reactions were a joy to behold! To relive this moment and feed the Smash Hype, I submit to you: K. Rool Castle! A piece of music intended to... « smash » together (aren't I clever?) Dracula Castle from Symphony of the Night and the various King K. Rool themes from across the Donkey Kong Country series. I basically tried to replicate the instrumentation of Dracula Castle, but replace the melody mostly with a delightfully minor version of Gang-Plank Galleon from DKC1. Later in the track, you can notice little bits from Crocodile Cacophony from DKC2, Big Boss Blues from DKC3 and the K. Rool / Game Over leitmotiv from DK64. As always, there's two loops, so you may stop after 1:50. Link : <a href="https://youtu.be/gcrz3fZtf3U" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/gcrz3fZtf3U</a> Also, in no particular order, Easy Livin' was fantastic, excited to have been able to follow it live this time (though last year I missed it because I was in Japan, so I'm not complaining), nice production on the Pokémon TCG tournament, I'm excited to finally leave this horribly hot summer behind, fold some more cardboard in two weeks with Nintendo Labo Vehicle Kit, and that we are getting closer to the Glorious Month of October (I share your affection for it, Jones) while grinding in mostly Ni no Kuni II and Octopath Traveler these days, with some Okami HD and Wario Ware Gold on the side. Til next month, Love and Respect ! Kévin Gillet

Kévin Gillet

Howdy Brandon and Ian! Just wanted to show you guys a little treat I made for myself, after pitching you guys that idea for that Dog Skateboarding game on "And for that reason"! After doing that video pitch idea for fun, I started reading more about game design and it turns out that it is super interesting and fun for me! So much so that I've been considering changing careers in the future to be a game designer. So here is a One sheet Game design Document proposal made for the Bark Bark Extreme idea, with the general idea of the game. <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/idajo3b2ginub8s/One-Sheet-Bark-Bark.jpg?dl=0" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/s/idajo3b2ginub8s/One-Sheet-Bark-Bark.jpg?dl=0</a> Also, I just wanna let the community know that the shirt designs i've been sending you guys are available on my website, on www.ellygeh.com/eza , where part of the profit will go towards my pledge to you guys on Patreon! So if peeps want to support both my Art and EZA, that's where you go! Quantities are limited too, until I get more stock! Can't wait to see you guys at the new studio! Much Love &amp; Respect, Elly, aka ellygeh

Hello Brandon and Ian! Since the last time I commented on a showcase with just a little self praise about finishing my first comic and didn't provide any art I thought I'd share some now. Here is a link to a tweet with some illustrations of my character Kuro. Thank you both for being awesome, have a great day! <a href="https://twitter.com/TeeKetch/status/1037134262783361025" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/TeeKetch/status/1037134262783361025</a>

Hi Jones and Ian, For once I actually felt like taking advantage of this opportunity and just share some random thoughts I’m having at this time. First it was pretty neat that the same month I finished watching JoJo Bizarre Adventure the Fiasconauts episode happened to have it as its theme, as the whole series is still pretty fresh in my mind and the Fiasconauts episode served as a pretty good compliment to this show filled with so much insanity and guys that I can only accurately describe as ABSOLUTE UNITS. Gaming wise I’m playing two games for the first time that while not new are very much relevant right now in terms of the hype for their successors, The Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption. The Witcher there’s much I could say, huge improvement over the first two Witcher games which were already great, and it is on its way to become one of my all-time favorites, and the more I play the more excited I get for Cyberpunk. For Red Dead sadly I have to say I’m not really loving it as I hoped I would. I borrowed the game from my roommate that has similar views to me on Rockstar games, both of us loving Vice City and San Andreas, while we find GTA IV to be kind of boring, and not liking V, which is one of the few games I can honestly say I hate, all that said Red Dead is his favorite game ever and he guaranteed I would like it, so I was overall very excited to finally play it. While I don’t think the game is bad and there have been some moments I’ve truly enjoyed, in general I find the game to be not very fun to play and the design of missions to be very uninspired. In general this is making me doubt Red Dead 2, not because of its quality but whether or not it is a game for me as I think the main appeal that is not having much of an effect on me is the western setting and the chance to roam across the country side, which I don’t mind but I’m not particularly fond of it either. Luckily for me, my roommate is getting Red Dead 2 for sure so I’ll just try it out with his copy and see if I like it better. Lastly just wanted to say that I’m really excited about the current state of things with the allies and the studio, and even though I would like to support you more than ever, this month I had to lower my pledge to the lowest it has been since day one of the Patreon, since I have to be a bit more mindful of my expenses for a while (don’t worry I’m certainly not going into debt, it’s just that traveling is expensive). Pura vida from Costa Rica, bard91

Hi Brandon and Ian! So on the first week of August, a few friends, my brother and myself hired a gorgeous lodge in the Scottish Highlands, drove up with a stupid amount of games and hardware and had our 2nd annual Cabin Fever* weekend. *not at all ripped off from Easy Livin'. There was a lot of Streets of Rage (Blaze Fielding for life!) a nice chunk of Beat Saber, some tense, last second, Keep Talking bomb diffusing, and scores settled with Def Jam Fight for NY. Also, since we were in that neck of the woods we watched the original Highlander, holds up! But my personal highlight was a full, all level, play-through of Mario 3, CULMINATING in defeating Bowser with a Hammer Bros. suit, something I've wanted to do for almost 30 years. I didn't manage to document it quite as well as your 50 hour stream but here's what i did get: The spectacular view from our lodge: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/q21cuHT" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/q21cuHT</a> Some of the local wildlife: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/t0ifcSW" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/t0ifcSW</a> And us enjoying that view: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/Fm8q5A7" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/Fm8q5A7</a> We did get out and attempted to scale a mountain: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/hklASUy" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/hklASUy</a> But had to turn back when the mist descended (but had just enough time to pose for an album cover): <a href="https://imgur.com/a/1C9Se7l" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/1C9Se7l</a> Lifelong ambition acheived: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/k95Ivxw" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/k95Ivxw</a> And us at the end of 4 days with (most of) our sanity in tact: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/skAHgqD" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/skAHgqD</a> And not from the weekend but been knee deep in X-Com 2 recently so had to have my beauty boys along: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/IdPAlb1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/IdPAlb1</a> Now got to start planning next years Cabin Fever 3 &amp; Knuckles. L &amp; R Dave Cleland

Hello there, Ian and Jones! I hope you’ve both been livin’ easy these past few weeks. Let’s celebrate a community showcase with another game review for a title that’s been out for a while that I’ve only got around to this year. As always I try to theme my submission around the guest ally, and there is no series that I associate with Ian more than Souls. For whatever reason, it’s a slew of games I just couldn’t get into. I’ve played the first Dark Souls pretty extensively, and yet I never made it any farther than the beginning rooms of Sen’s Fortress. Demon’s Souls was the only other game I put a significant amount of time into. But after a while, my interest faded. I played Dark Souls 3 for about 10 minutes, and that was enough for me to say “that’s all I needed” and never look back. I guess I just assumed that I would never see any one of Miyazaki’s darlings to the end… until I played Bloodborne. From its earliest moments, Bloodborne didn’t feel much different than any other Souls game I played, but I couldn’t deny there was something about it that just felt right. It’s no secret that Bloodborne encourages more aggressive play than its contemporaries, and that’s exactly the mindset I needed to enjoy a game like this. I think it also helped that I loved using much more of the weapons in this game, and being able to shift them into a different style on the fly brought twice the fun. I initially picked the cane because I thought it sounded the most gentlemanly of my options, but I later fell back on the Saw Cleaver in most situations, and was still willing to try out whatever I found. The combat was definitely a highlight, and continuously enjoyable in my play through. What I liked most about Bloodborne was it’s world. More specifically, the world design. I remember stumbling into Old Yharnam for the first time and asking if I was supposed to be going this way, and yet the game let me continue to go down that path. Or even being captured by a strange figure and after being killed, am thrusted into a jail cell surrounded by threatening and terrifying enemies. Desperately I try to find a lantern so that I can warp back to a safer area. When I came back to the area again in the future, I also find the answer why I could never return back to the lantern I came from. It was destroyed sometime after I left. Even things as simple as finishing the game, and realizing, “oh yeah, I never went down that path before.” But after finishing Bloodborne my first time, that’s the experience that I decided to leave with. Though I tried to go back, it’s a game I didn’t particularly enjoy playing after I finished. I decided to not go after all the optional areas and bosses. I don’t want guides to dictate my experience with the game, and I think I came out with the most satisfying one play through I could have from this game. And if it’s the only time I ever do so; at least I finished a Souls game. Best wishes allies! -ChrisTheFields

Patreon ate my comment last time. Let's hope it doesn't happen again!

Phazonmasher

Hey Jones and Ian, I've got nothing of interest this month because my job has me buried deep in paperwork. Ya'll need to stop getting hurt on the job so I have fewer claims to process! Anyway, to celebrate the release of Dragon Quest XI, I just wanted to talk a little bit about my favorite JRPG of all time - Dragon Quest V. I never played Dragon Warrior on the NES when it came out because I wasn't super interested in JRPGs in favor of platformers and action games. It wasn't until the SNES and PlayStation that I started playing JRPGs and by that time, Dragon Quest was no longer being released on home consoles in the US. When the DS came out, I made sure to pick up the Dragon Quest IV-VI remakes after loving Dragon Quest VIII. Dragon Quest V quickly shot up to one of my favorite games of all time thanks to its combination of generational spanning narrative and monster collecting mechanics. For those unfamiliar, Dragon Quest V follows the hero from his beginnings as a child to his eventual growth into the adult hero to save the world. What makes DQV so unique, however, is that the hero marries one of three women halfway through the game. Each woman has their own strong personality and it really feels like your choosing the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. You eventually have children and they will join the party too as you strive to save the world from the demon threatening it. While it all sounds jolly, Dragon Quest V is surprisingly depressing as the hero's life is nothing but hardship and strife. People close to him are constantly being murdered or cursed by the villains. It's one of the few cases where the silent protagonist helps as your sorrow is channeled through the hero instead of the game just telling you to feel sad. It makes the ending all the more triumphant when the hero finally overcomes everything and is able to bring peace to those he loves. Honestly, the reason DQV resonates me with so much is thanks to its thoughtful naiveté. The games exist as a constant foil to media that only wants to remind us how bad we have it by showing us an ideal world, while not realistic by any means, is an ideal that we should at the very least strive for. JRPGs get its knocks (deservedly so) for its plucky protagonists saving the world with friendship and love, but I've always wondered if such a thing could actually happen if we actually tried. Thanks for listening to me ramble about Dragon Quest V. If you haven't played it, it's easy to check out on the DS and is pretty cheap. There is also an English translation patch for both the SNES original and the 3D PS2 remake. It's my most recommended JRPG. Love and Respect

Phazonmasher

This is awesome news, Max! Congratulations! I watched the trailer and am definitely interested in watching more. Can you possibly provide links/instructions on how to do that?

MizRacy

I was at the top but my comment disappointingly vanished, so here we go. Hey fellas, I’ve been watching your content for a while now but just hopped aboard the Patreon train recently, which is especially convenient considering my coolest thing worth sharing came out recently. I live in Boise, Idaho, my favorite place in the world, and have been struggling to work and inspire a solid filmmaking community, while also having a tough time paying the bills. I have a day job working as an anesthesia technician at a local hospital, a side job working for a family-friendly entertainment site doing gaming coverage, and another side job centered around my main passion of filmmaking. After assisting in creating the successful pitch for HGTV’s Boise Boys, which is currently shooting its 2nd season, I was fortunate to get a bit of PA work on the pilot of the show I’d helped create but it wasn’t creatively satisfying. So, I was extra fortunate to be selected to pitch my passion project to PlayStation executives, including Shawn Layden, as part of the PlayStation Emerging Filmmakers Program. “Banned in Boise” is a comedy series about a group of filmmakers competing in a film festival against their former bosses and has been at the front of my mind for the last 5 years. I have an obsession with PlayStation so this opportunity feels awesome enough but the fact that I was able to make it alongside my childhood best friend really makes it feel unbelievable. Check out the pilot episode if you can, and the other 4 pilots too, but to keep it short I’ve included a link to the show’s trailer. <a href="https://youtu.be/qb5yT7zituo" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/qb5yT7zituo</a> Thanks for all of the quality content, and keeping me company during my late night writing sessions. You have my Love &amp; Respect, Max Cannon

Cannonball_Jones

Safety reply

MizRacy

Dear Brandon and Ian, As someone who tends to be a more casual gamer and who is really into indie &amp; tabletop games, I never really watched much gaming content on Youtube, but one day a friend showed me a tabletop video on another channel and that’s how I discovered Fiasco. I loved the concept of this game so much that I just had to find more. You see, I was a Theatre major in undergrad, so I love anything that has an improv/performance element to it. Shortly after Regina’s Wedding was posted, I discovered Fiaconauts &amp; Tabletop Escapades. For me, this type of content and your enthusiasm, and passion for what you like and what you do are what made me want to keeping watching more content, which eventually led me supporting you on Twitch and Patreon. Content like “And For That Reason” and “Box Peek” have made me want to increase those pledges. Additionally, the Allies have actually made me want to play games again. In fact, since I started watching EZA a couple years ago, I have gone from 7 games to 150+ games in my Steam library. As a female gamer, I encountered a lot of horrible treatment and negativity while playing games when I was a teenager, so I stopped playing. As I've gotten older, I've felt intimidated by and trepidatious about playing games that aren't super casual. Once I turned 30, I made the conscious decision to not care so much about what other people think or say. The general jolly and supportive vibes of this community has brought me back to games and have helped me discover an offline community that I can play games and generally nerd out with. You guys have helped bring so much joy into my life, and you all inspire me to keep creating and exploring every day. Thank you for everything you do. Love &amp; Respect, MizRacy

MizRacy

Hi Jones and Ian. As it was a good reception about my Star Citizen post last month, I thought I'd give you another chill one. Also it would give me a chance to answer some of the questions Jones had. I have supplied some images of my mining expedition I did this month. Anyone can play this game at any time. In order to “get access” you have to wait for a free flight weekend which they do now and then, alternately buy a starter game package for around $60. This might seem crazy for a game that isnt officially out yet. That said, if you buy it now, you will get access to the "verse" as well as to their single player game Squadron 42 once that is out. You can also buy additional ships to your account for real money, but everything will be available for ingame currency at later date, so I don't really see the point of that. For every major patch (that gets released every 2-3 month) the universe "resets" and everyone restarts with a small pot of money and with no gear. Anyway, back to my mining mission. I have always been a sucker for collecting resources in games, if its in RTS games or just in city builders, so thought that this could be fun. So I grabbed my Prospector on Port Olisar and made my way towards the planet of Deymar. When I arrived I realised that I had no idea what to do or where to begin, so I went for the classic "hit all buttons and hope for the best". Eventually I managed to find the scan button where I had to send out a zonar ping for mineable rocks. Once I had found one with the right mass/ore the fun part began. It becomes a bit of a minigame where you have to use your mining beam to heat up the rock. I had to increase the power so the white bar on the left in the HUD hit the yellow area and stay there long enough for the fracturing to hit 100%. If you put in too little energy nothing will happen, if you put in too much energy the rock will explode, resulting in damaging or even destroying your ship, sending you and the rock flying in all directions. Also depending on how much ore there are, the harder it is to hit "right" heat. After you have broken up the rock in small enough pieces you have to change to your extract beam, where you hoover up the ore. Once I had filled my ship I could happily make my way back to Port Olisar where I sold my findings for a nice profit. This was a lot of fun and really different from the usual "press a button and wait" resource gathering. I hope you and everyone else found this interesting despite it being so different from other posts this month. Lots of love and the utter most respect. Lotias (you can find the images here: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/qGekN7q" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/qGekN7q</a> and if you got more questions, feel free to DM me on twitter @seblot90)

Sebastian Hall

By the power of Huber Hype, please save.

Doug

Hello Allies! I cannot paint, I have no songs and I’m no filmmaker. But I think I can just about string some words together. I’ve been a small part of this incredible community for some time now and have been ruminating on penning a letter for each Community Showcase, but wasn’t sure how to frame it. Well, with the legendary item drop of Ian Hinck on the couch for September, there’s no better time than now. In the early, balmy days of the summer of 2017, amidst some frantic penning of a PhD proposal, accommodation hunting and writing on my dreaded Masters thesis, I decided to… …procrastinate. I’d reached the outer limit of content for Kinda Funny, not a podcast or show left that I hadn’t blown through. The lovely Reddit user translucentprincess pointed me towards two podcasts that were entirely new to me. They were called ‘Frame Trap’ and ‘The Easy Allies Podcast’. Of course, I’d come across Brandon Jones on the few Kinda Funny shows he had been a part of, but that was about as far as it went. Frame Trap was a revelation. These guys actually *played* games, and a *lot* of games. They liked – nay, *loved* - JRPGs. And there was a whole backlog of podcasts. Driving 6 hours back and forth from home to my university multiple times a week was torture… but this gave me some respite. But then crunch time hit, July and August rolled around and the thesis became pressing. So, of course, I had to find anything else to pass the time; procrastination being the optimal state of my existence. Easy Allies had all this… stuff. Weird stuff. Q&amp;As and Group Streams and Tabletop shows. What the heck is a Huber Syndrome? What exactly *is* the plot for Easy Update? And just what on earth is Fiasconauts? So I watched Regina’s Wedding. Ah. That’s what that is. It was the next month of my life. This bizarre show with zany and wonderful characters, led by a consistently brilliant chemistry between people who know and understand one another’s sense of humour. Whether it was Billy Bean or Dr Zen, Copper Fudge or Marnié Sharpié, Mr North or the late, great Logan ‘Naruto’ Mackey – Fiasconauts is always my favourite. It’s a highlight of my month. And, in truth, Fiasconauts pulled me deeper into the world of EZA. A gateway drug to the really good shit: the people. To Brandon and Ian; Kyle and Huber; Ben and Brad and Blood; Don and Damiani; Amanda and Sophie. And of course, to most wonderful chat – you have all gotten me through a hard year, with much more to come. The memes, the bets, the hype. The love and the respect. You all get me through my day, my weeks; the months and (at this point) the years. It’s been an absolute pleasure, and I truly wish you nothing but the best of success. You deserve it. All the love and respect from Scotland, Barry

Doug

Valkyria Chronicles 4 is #1 - please be good

VGJunky

comment protector

Prototype Jay

I have a love hate relationship with Capcom. For every amazing game they bring out, they bring out an Operation raccoon city and over the years, they've done some shady corner cutting and business practices that i've never been a fan of. However, Capcom have forever had me in their back pocket because of 1 franchise they've made that i am proud to say is my favourite Capcom franchise ever since i played it back in the early 2000's. For 10+ years i watched Capcom continue their other franchise throughout, some being terrible and some being fantastic. But, Capcom never decided to do anything with my favourite franchise, it's like it was totally forgotten and every E3 i hoped and prayed i would get what i wanted. But over the years you start to lose hope year by year not hearing anything, it starts to chip away at you, but then, it finally happened. On August 28th 2018 Capcom announced....Onimusha HD. These 10+ years my close friends and gaming friends have had to put up with my hype during E3, sorrow after E3, and every time i mentioned Onimusha throughout the years. I was at work Tuesday the 28th, i just got back to the depot, and then....my phone was bombarded with notifications with messages like "you did it!" "it's happening" "it's finally here!" these friends have never played Onimusha, but were so happy that i finally got what i asked for after all these years. No joke, i was reading Capcom's twitter post and i broke down at work with tears of joy and my work colleagues thought i was having a mental breakdown. I came home that day and my room mate who i grew up with playing Onimusha together as kids just hugged each other in the living room. FINALLY! Capcom is giving Onimusha a second chance and i would ask everyone who hasn't, please give it a chance, because if this takes off, Capcom may just consider Onimusha one of their main stay games again. Never give up hope guys. <a href="https://twitter.com/ProtoJayN7/status/1036245039423410177" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/ProtoJayN7/status/1036245039423410177</a>

Prototype Jay

Spiderman.

POKEY CLYDE

<a href="https://twitter.com/TimBashen/status/1032640936927539201" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/TimBashen/status/1032640936927539201</a> This months photos isn't from any to wild part wild of the world. It is actually in my home town Cologne from the goodl Gamescom. I am standing besides the Champions League Cup (soccer). Maybe not anything special for my US allies but I think a lot of you guys can apreciate how amazing this is ^^ all in all a great convention again this year, but I recently started a new job and could't get a vacation day, so I was a little hungover the next day, but the EA aftershow party was amazing and had an open bar .... but I'm still alive :)

Tim Bechen

Save my comment for pity's sake

Steven Beaumont

P.P.S. Here's a reply to save this comment

Hey Brandon and Ian! Hope you're both doing wonderful today. I wanted to do something a little different to the typical written comment that I normally leave. Recently I got the creative itch to do something that I’ve never really done before so in this instance I thought it’d be fun to make a vocal cover for two of my favourite video game tracks in recent years. Just a forewarning however before listening, I have no experience in music production what so ever. For context on just how little experience I have, I edited the entirety of both audio tracks in Sony Vegas just because I have more experience with video editing. As a result the mixing on the tracks isn’t too great but I did the best I could with what I had so hopefully that comes through at least. I’ve never really done any vocal performances before either but I thought that with this lovely community I could try and branch out to see how it turned out. In the end I think it turned out pretty OK and I hope you think so too. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pbNS7TEMl4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pbNS7TEMl4</a> (P.S. As a warning in advance, as both tracks are very different stylistically I went with drastically different vocal styles on both. Hopefully the 2nd one isn’t too grating on your ears). Love &amp; Respect, Jack Price

I am back again with a Pop'n Music progress update. I am glad you wanted me to do more of these. I hope Ian finds this cool since he is musically talented. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnp24LWAANg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnp24LWAANg</a>

Super3dcow

Posterity reply!

Noah Weinstein

Hi, Brandon and Ian! I haven’t had a lot of time on my hands this month because I’ve been busy prepping to move into university (by the time you’re reading this, I’ll already be there!) so it’s kind of been a month of making mediocre art with disappointingly low frequency. Releasing an EP last month has me a little burned out on music, which always blows, but I've been doing more commissioned work lately which feels good! It’s been a pretty stressful time and I’ve only managed to put like 14 hours into Octopath despite really loving the stories- turns out turn-based jRPGs get really hard and I’m PRETTY BAD AT THEM! :D I also managed to weasel my way onto the Hashtagonist’s podcast, and we got to talk a lot about online communities (and EZA), which was a really exciting experience for me (I think that episode should have gone live earlier this week?). But also here’s some pixel art I did this month because I found that doing smaller, simpler pieces like this can be super therapeutic, even when I’m busy as all hell. Enjoooooy! <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DlRJ_MlV4AEAKk8.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DlRJ_MlV4AEAKk8.jpg</a> Hope you’re having a great week! &lt;3 Noah

Noah Weinstein

Hiiiii~ Ian, it hurts my feelings a little when you get real negative about games I like but it's ok, you're still cool! At least you liked Monster Hunter World (personal GOTY so far) With you on this month I though I'd continue my monthly pander and this time share an old clip from the best From Software game so far (outside of the Armored Core series, anyway). See if you can guess which one I mean! It's from my journey for the Platinum and is by no means perfect, but it was thrilling nonetheless due to small margin for error and the many failures I endured. Really excited for Sekiro since I prefer faster styles of combat and love a good parry system - hoping it scratches that Metal Gear Rising itch and tides me over until Nioh 2. Final Word - DMC5 is Number 4 on the Desire Index <a href="https://youtu.be/q1X4S35NmgQ" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/q1X4S35NmgQ</a>

VGJunky

Cheers Allies! I didn't get around to preparing anything special this month, so instead I'm sending you a clip from Destiny 1 (specifically a memorable final boss run in the Vault of Glass). Why? As cranked as I am for Spider-Man and Dragon Quest this month, September has also granted me a renewed interest in Destiny. While I dig the universe enough that I'd come back just for some story hits, they look like they're finally getting D2 back on the tracks grind-wise as well. It's a glorious age for video games! Love &amp; Respect! <a href="https://youtu.be/Rvg1I5Dg-5E" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Rvg1I5Dg-5E</a> Edit: context for those who don't know Vault is kinda tricky... Essentially one person has a relic with a timer on it. Our relic-bearer was yelling at us to get to safety, but... We were sure we could do it! And we did (barely)! And the Black Hammer was a sniper that didn't need more ammo or reloading if you only hit crits. Oh man... Golden Age Destiny, ha.

Max Jahner

Hey Brandon and Ian, I don't have much in the way of Videogames to talk about this month other than I am enjoying Captain Toads as and Aperitif to playing many hours of Monster Hunter with my mates. Have just taken down Nergigante which was fun and hope to play consistantly for a few more weeks. Other than that I am proud to say I went into a pop culture store called Critical Hit in Melbourne and couldn't be prouder when my son was crying because he wanted a big Totoro but we settled with a small one. It is funny that there was a L&amp;R about trying to play videogames as a parent, which I haven't had a problem with, in fact these last 2 &amp; 1/2 years has been a videogame renaissance ever since I found EZA. Videogames are easy since you don't need to socialise to play them but my biggest problem is one of Ian's favourite things. Board Games. I am ashamed to say I have yet to have played a game of swords, I have an unopened game of Risk under my couch and as for two of my favourite games Yugioh and 'Smash Up' have been unplayed for 2 years. There is no easy fix but will get better with time and I can't wait to teach and play board and card games with my son in the years to come. That also brings up one of my biggest turn around excitements for the end of the year. Pokemon Let's Go! I am a gen one'r and have completed the pokedex of gen 1 back in the day and every pokemon up to gen 7 vanilla more recently, so I like other was disappointed at the GO elements of pokemon this year. However someone commented about their excitement that they will be able to play with their kid for their first adventure and now I am more excited than ever. I cannot wait for my son to catch his first Pidgey and I am guessing appropriately name it 'bird'.  Anyway enough random thoughts Love and Respect. Steven. P.S. Ian I have a mini-series for you called F@#$ing Adelaide. The first ep is about a guy who loves synths. Their is a quick review here.  <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/screen-queen/fucking-adelaide/10006626" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/screen-queen/fucking-adelaide/10006626</a>

Steven Beaumont

Please don't get eaten.

Sara Knite

Greetings Jones and Ian!!! Hope you guys are having a good day. I am currently preparing for Inktober and it's coming along at a fine pace. Here's some WIPs that I've prepared for inking in the coming month. <a href="https://twitter.com/ZephyrMoon2/status/1037391395529666560" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/ZephyrMoon2/status/1037391395529666560</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ZephyrMoon2/status/1032950618737061889" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/ZephyrMoon2/status/1032950618737061889</a> I hope the studio hunt is going well for you guys and I hope that your days continue to be jolly. Love and Respect, Zephyr Moon P.S. Yes, Huber's influenced my vocabulary. No regrets.

Sara Knite

Hi Allies. Some time ago Ian made a video showing his musical equipment and it inspired me to buy some gadgets of my own. I then made the foolish mistake of telling Ian I'd send something into the community showcase. I'm more of a solo piano player, and this Soundcloud is my first foray into 'producing songs'. The word 'songs' is of course loosely used. Since it has naff all to do with video games, I'm happy for you to forgo actually playing it on the video, however, it would be nice if at least Ian could hear the chaos he has brought forth on the world. Here's the arbitrary pick from my Soundcloud: <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-996242924/not-bad-for-a-friday-evening/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://soundcloud.com/user-996242924/not-bad-for-a-friday-evening/</a> P.S. I hope Sophie is all healed up.

Kif

let patreon not fuck up

Christophe Fettouhi

Hello Yes I am back and its on a more jolly note this time 😊 So since the last community showcase I had the pleasure of going to London for a couple of days. The plane ride is like 1 hour 10 min and cost about 100$ back and forth so its cheap. I normally travel each year but this year I been going to more concerts so I decided on a short trip. Weather was grea the first day but sadly it started raining. Even with the Rain I got myself a raincoat and still walked around 15 km each day. One of the biggest things I had to see was the London Film museum. It has all the cars from all the James bond movies which I am a big fan of. So here are some shots from them. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BmQvznrgoZx/?hl=en&amp;taken-by=cfettouhi" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/p/BmQvznrgoZx/?hl=en&amp;taken-by=cfettouhi</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BmQwMd4gCYA/?hl=en&amp;taken-by=cfettouhi" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/p/BmQwMd4gCYA/?hl=en&amp;taken-by=cfettouhi</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BmQwIfiAIuZ/?hl=en&amp;taken-by=cfettouhi" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/p/BmQwIfiAIuZ/?hl=en&amp;taken-by=cfettouhi</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BmQwB3AgtsQ/?hl=en&amp;taken-by=cfettouhi" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/p/BmQwB3AgtsQ/?hl=en&amp;taken-by=cfettouhi</a> while I was coming out of the museum they of course had a merch store and I saw a Aston Martin DB5 lego set that I had to get. I build it and I can high recommend it for fans of lego, the car and the movie which ti stared in (Goldfinger). It is pretty new and came out 3 days before I got to London and I was the first to buy it in the museum because the clerk had to ask the IT person to make it available in there register so I could buy it 😊 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BmbGtfKgU8k/?hl=en&amp;taken-by=cfettouhi" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/p/BmbGtfKgU8k/?hl=en&amp;taken-by=cfettouhi</a> all in all it was a great trip and I even met a friend for the first time in real life after talking for ½ a year over discord. L&amp;R Fettouhi

Christophe Fettouhi

Ahoy Allies. This is my first submission to the community showcase! A little bit about me: I'm 33, married, father of four, musician and video game enthusiast. I've been singing since I was a kid, been playing guitar for 20 years and taught myself drums &amp; bass over the years. I'm excited to share some music with everyone. As both Ian and Jones are fans of Castlevania, I present the following: Moonlight Nocturne from Symphony of the Night (Original composition: Michiru Yamane). Arranging and recording is a huge passion of mine and I'm looking forward to sharing it that with all of you lovely folks. Love and Respect, Matt Bollenbach <a href="https://youtu.be/BQlsmTlFTlg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/BQlsmTlFTlg</a>

Matt Bollenbach

Hi Brandon and Ian! I just want to say that your stream of Yoku's Island Express during Easy Livin' put me over the edge and I picked it up for Switch only a few days later. It had been on my radar for quite some time but I kept putting it off since I didn't want to risk another backlog casualty. What an absolutely charming game. Everything from the level design, to the characters, the dialogue...and especially the music, combined to make one of the most memorable experiences of the year. I showed it to my wife when she got home from work on Friday, and before I knew it, she was pushing me to track down the final wickerling to 100% it by Sunday. Just goes to show that in yet another amazing year for AAA releases, do not be afraid to find the time for the indie releases that catch your eye. Already praying for a sequel! P.S. - Do not sleep on the soundtrack for year-end awards! It has an uphill battle against Octopath, but there some seriously great tracks in that game! Much love and respect, -- Jon

Jon White

Hey Self, maybe you should take up writing obituaries.

Hey Brandon Jones! Hey Ian Hinck! Fortunately, there will be no need to postpone my intended subject for the month based on the random whims of circumstance and/or the muse, because I'm finally going to write about a specific event taking place on a set day: the September 21st release of the Spyro Reignited Tril... oh. Geez, it's like my topics are physically running away from me now. I should probably change my plan to write an examination of the character of Sora in January or the Kingdom Hearts fandom might kill me. See you next (≤8) month(s from now), Eli N. Peters

Hello! (Tie-sin Win) Currently job searching, while I practice pixel art and learn to code. Aside from the behemoth in Monster Hunter World, I haven't played any games in the last two months. However, this will change when DQ11 and Spiderman come out. <a href="https://twitter.com/TysonDNguyen/status/1035548646509633536" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/TysonDNguyen/status/1035548646509633536</a> This submission is inspired by the always great, Easy Updates. (spoiler?/) Yarny having to consume umbilical cords to become a great one is fitting and disturbing. (/spoiler?) I want to keep working on larger pieces and eventually get to animating them. If any allies are looking for pixel artists to collaborate on game jams, I'd like to team up together. I am @TysonDNguyen on twitter.

Tyson Nguyen

Hi Jones and Ian! Last month where we left off, I was taking a break from The Witcher 3 and looking for something to pick up. Lucky for me, Jones and Huber had a nice sitdown discussing the Arkham Trilogy, and my decision was made. I had bailed on Arkham Knight, frustrated about the story, how Batgirl was treated, and the overreliance on the Batmobile. Listening to the discussion and letting it get spoiled took all of the pressure off, so I decided to give it another chance. I’ve now finished it, with only 4 Riddler trophies separating me and 100% completion. It’s still my least favorite of the Arkham series, but it has a lot of good hidden in there. After that, I tooled around in Steep a bit, because it’s just one of those perfect podcast/listen to music games. But since I was in the mood for second chances, I decided it was time to finally go back to Mass Effect Andromeda. Let me tell you, I could write a college dissertation about my feelings regarding Andromeda. It is quite possibly the most frustrating game I could imagine. Mass Effect is my favorite series, so Andromeda is tough for me to deal with. There are so many things that I enjoy about it, but then something swings in and sours the experience. Too much of that game is completing checklists without feeling like you’ve actually accomplished anything. However, I do have to praise the character work of the female Ryder. Commander Shepard, in the original trilogy, was cool but rarely got out of the “soldier with a job to do” mold. In contrast, Ryder has some of the most human, relatable moments I’ve experienced in an RPG like this. The strength of her character, voice acting, and writing are all pulling me through the game, and it’s actually been much more enjoyable this time around. I will probably be going back into this for next month’s showcase when I hopefully have it finished. But, there is a big thing that is putting a countdown on how much time I have left to beat Andromeda. When this showcase happens, we will be one day away from the release of Spider-Man. My hype for this is sky high, because it will be the first game I jump in on for day one since getting my PS4 last year. To put that in perspective, I haven’t bought a game on day one since GTA 5, five years ago. I cannot wait any longer. Love and Respect, Kyle “GOTYlocks” Lee PS: During the Marvel episode of Reaction Shots, I learned that I worked at the same theater as Ian, just separated by a few years.

Kate Bishop

Originally, I was going to spend the bulk of my comment on DOOM: Eternal and why the reveal hit all the right notes for me. However, there was this certain little stream that took place a couple of weeks ago holding a variety of games, and with it a rare personal opportunity. I’m not particularly a fan of “normal” streaming, as most of the time I may not be a fan of the game (or games) being played, or if it’s a case the game IS one I enjoy, there’s plenty of personal quirks that keep me from enjoying the stream. However, there is one kind of stream (aside from unique events like conference coverage and Hall of Greats style things) that I find IMMENSE benefit: Full Playthroughs. And not just any full playthroughs, but ones with games that I may have missed and many hold a great amount of love for that I MIGHT want to get interested in. Watching a full playthrough of these kinds of games saves me from financial investment while simultaneously exposing me to a classic so I can learn. I’ve been able to do so a few times with EZA: Watching the open-world Wild West unfold through Red Dead Revisited and see why crossing into Mexico has impact. I’ve always been curious as to why Half-Life was so groundbreaking, so getting to see Mr. Damiani make his way through Black Mesa, in what feels like forever ago, was educational. And even very early last year, I sat and watched a game from a series that I resolutely believed I would not ever want to see: Resident Evil VII. To this day, I STILL can’t explain to myself why I needed to see the mystery of the Bakers from start to finish. And so, with Easy Livin’ on the horizon, the schedule was released. With it, came the next opportunity: A full playthrough of Metal Gear Solid. I’ve been on the fence about getting into the series for longer than I can remember. I would always go back and forth: I like stealth, but the convoluted story turns me away. I would like to try one, but I would feel obligated to go all in on the series if I do. On and on this would go on many points until, well, that very stream. While I enjoyed some parts of the game like encountering Psycho Mantis and the fight with Gray Fox, overall, what I saw didn’t click for me. But what troubles me more is once again I’m left with a sense of: “I…. don’t understand…” While I won’t belabor what I said in last month’s comment, I’m starting to get really bummed out that I’m not feeling the same passion for a variety of “all-time” games many others do. Personally, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Metroid Prime, and Resident Evil 4 are three more I’m waiting to see. And wouldn’t you know it? Full playthroughs are now a $52K goal.

Brandon K Gann

Locking it in

Tokyo Slim

Preserving comment

Karl Williams

Hey Brandon &amp; Ian, Back with yet another GhibliFest review. This time it's Grave of the Fireflies, the one movie from this year's selection of Studo Ghibli films to be shown in theaters that I wanted to see the most. I have had a Blu-Ray copy of the movie for years but I never gave it the time &amp; day to watch it. An awful job by me that's totally inexcusable. At the very least, I can say I watched it in a theater. As for the movie itself, I knew it was gonna be depressing as hell. I just didn't expect the depressing stuff to start literally 5-10 seconds into the beginning of the movie with the spirit of Seita looking at his own withering body as it slowly dies at a train station. And the movie never lets up. From losing a mother without knowing the status of a father fighting for country, to trying to care for both yourself and your little sister and ultimately failing, the movie does not stop with moments that leave you gasping and hoping that something good comes out of all this. But in the end, you are left with the sad reality that not everyone can survive the hardships that come at them, whether they be both expected and unexpected. I wish I could say that I shed tears during the movie but unfortunately, that did not happen. I certainly felt a mixture of sadness &amp; depression while I watched the movie. There was another emotion that I felt as the movie kept progressing: Frustration. The only person I can honestly say that I liked was Setsuko, Seita's little sister. I found the aunt who took care of the two children to be a dick especially with her constant complaining on how Seita wasn't contributing to the war effort. And telling Setsuko that her mom had died (since Seita hadn't told his little sister yet) was a dick move. Seita, on the other hand, had way too much pride. Kid really thought he and Setsuko could tough it out in a small cave. The aunt was a dick, but Seita really should have swallowed his pride and went back to her once rations were running low. He didn't have to contribute to the war effort, but he could have at least helped out neighboring people with small tasks and such. For the son of a naval officer, he really made some poor decisions. Setsuko was the primary person I felt sorry for the most and watching her slowly deteriorate was sometimes unnerving. The song near the end with flashes of her doing various stuff around the cave was gut-wrenching. I'm really glad I finally saw this movie. It'll definitely stick with me. As a Ghibli film, it's no question a Top 5 movie and a real masterpiece. I would say, however, out of the three Isao Takahata movies I've seen, it's slightly behind Tale of Princess Kaguya, with Pom Poko as a close third.

Karl Williams

Hopefully this will hold

Megan Linart

Hello Ian and Brandon It’s now the end of summer and to celebrate the sunny season I figured I’d just attach a few pictures of some summer time cupcakes I have made, the first two photos are just vanilla cupcakes with a strawberry jam filling, buttercream frosting, and little fondant animals on top, the third ones are sangria cupcakes, and the last are white cupcakes with a strawberry cream cheese frosting, sorry you couldn't eat any of them but enjoy! Ps. I hope you liked Peasant Ian, I applaud you for sticking it out. Richard Dawson’s music can be hard to get into but if you let it I find it to be very beautiful. <a href="https://instagram.com/p/BBOFGr_PoVy/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://instagram.com/p/BBOFGr_PoVy/</a> <a href="https://instagram.com/p/BBOFCw6voVo/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://instagram.com/p/BBOFCw6voVo/</a> <a href="https://instagram.com/p/6JAuxSvobU/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://instagram.com/p/6JAuxSvobU/</a> <a href="https://instagram.com/p/6IvEFFPoYa/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://instagram.com/p/6IvEFFPoYa/</a>

Megan Linart

anti-Patreon deletion comment

Blue

Hello Brandon and Ian, sharing a cherished video game memory. The stealth-action game Dishonored is one of my favorite games to do an RP play-through of. Start with Corvo as a justice-seeking vigilante, out to topple the corrupt ruler who'd killed the Empress, rescue her daughter, and avoid killing the right-honorable city guardsmen. Then at a major story point (no spoilers) a hard pivot: the streets run red, no quarter given, just a bloody path to a betrayer's doorstep. After multiple playthroughs of the original game, I thought nothing more could surprise me, but possibly the biggest shock I got from that game was from one of its non-story DLCs, of all places. Was playing the challenge "Kill Cascade", where my only goal was to get a full, three-star rating for the mission, so any attempt where I tripped up, I simply quit the challenge and restarted. Importantly, this meant I'd never seen the final target until, after ten minutes or so of bumbling about, I was sailing through the void, blade-first through a skylight, locked onto the final target, feeling satisfaction and relief for having completing the challenge. Then the last target came into view, and it was the Empress, with her daughter little Emily looking on in horror. Fade to black. In the rush of completing the mission, that brief scene became more of a gut-punch than it had any right to be. Looking back now, that quick, stomach-churning "oh no..." feeling is probably my fondest memory from the game. Love and Respect, Blue

Blue

Hey Jones and Ian, This month I started by picking up The Crew 2. I had a lot of fun with the first game so decided to go for the second one. It is fun, but they removed all incentive to actually drive around. You can pick every race, skill event, etc from within a menu and jump to it. I have barely seen the world as I got so caught up in ticking off all the events. In the middle of the month I was watching a podcast with Huber on and he was talking about Warcraft. I stopped played World of Warcraft in 2011, but I decided to download it and check out the free 20 levels to decide if I wanted to get back into it. I reached level 20 in around 7 hours of play and signed up the next day. Within my first week, I had clocked in around 50 hours of play. As I write this I am at over 130 hours played just under 3 weeks of starting back at it. I got a Druid up to level 65 and then started a Priest to level 45 and counting. The improvements to the game are great. You can now loot every enemy killed if they are within range by looting just 1, so no more running to loot each of them. You can craft professions items even when the materials are within the bank, so no more going to the bank just to craft something. Also zones now have a level range and the enemies within will scale to match you. So instead of getting half way through a zone and leveling too high to continue, now the enemies keep up with your level so you can finish each zone without the challenge disappearing. One very surprising change is you are given all past expansions for free. So I can play up to the content of Legion without paying extra for them. All it costs me is my monthly subscription. From getting back into it, I definitely feel it should get into Hall of Greats. I only worry you have missed the chance to bring it back up as it should be brought up when a new expansion releases and Huber is active. He is pushing others to get excited about it, but by next HoG I suspect he will have moved on and the hype won't be there. When I stopped playing previously I had clocked in 1207 hours on my main character. So I am a long way off my past efforts, but enjoying myself again as I go. Love and Respect, BeardedScotsman86

BeardedScotsman86

For me it's time zone difference. If they start at Noon, I'll be sleeping before the end of the showcase.

Alexander Zyryanov

I have no idea how interesting and easy to follow this comment is for non-programmers, but we had some similar comments before, so here we go.

Alexander Zyryanov

I have never really felt the need to post anything for community showcase before, but I went camping, and I know Brandon likes nature and I think Ian likes ... fog? So here's three random pics of my camping trip on a foggy island. <a href="https://i.imgur.com/E3U8KzJ.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/E3U8KzJ.jpg</a> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/6KH4Hsv.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/6KH4Hsv.jpg</a> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/2vfrX11.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/2vfrX11.jpg</a>

Tokyo Slim

safety comment

Hi Jones &amp; Ian! This is another flash fiction piece, experimenting with the idea of Apollo &amp; Artemis living on as people through the 21st century (taking on new names and all). I hope you enjoy! L&amp;R, Spencer &lt;3 google docs link: <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/19EBcsv834Scb0N49LTV5WnNBCNJgmL9joTcWdiJfhRw/edit?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/document/d/19EBcsv834Scb0N49LTV5WnNBCNJgmL9joTcWdiJfhRw/edit?usp=sharing</a>

Hooooold

Eric Jackson

If a picture's worth a thousand words, then I'm definitely over the word limit. First picture is Ian, the second is my best friend. :D <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BnQfjyuDudd/?taken-by=jacks.on.deck" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/p/BnQfjyuDudd/?taken-by=jacks.on.deck</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bez0b7xlOx4/?taken-by=jacks.on.deck" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/p/Bez0b7xlOx4/?taken-by=jacks.on.deck</a>

Eric Jackson

Let... Me... In.

XWF Outlaw

Little PIIIIIIIG!, Little PIIIIG!

XWF Outlaw

I cast shell

Alex_AI

To ensure the voice of Jones reads these words.

Dan Allen

I shall comment

Alex_AI

He shall appear from a far eastern land across the sea, A young man who has yet to know his potential, This potential is a power that could either destroy him or realize his will, His courage shall determine his fate, The path he must traverse, fraught with adversity, I await whilst praying, For this destiny predetermined since ancient times, A pitch black night unfolds with the morning star as its only light, And thus the saga… Begins…

Dan Allen

Making sure this doesn’t evaporate.

Michelle Jackson

Sup. Game Dev update for August. I show some infant-level early game footage, and play snippets from 5 of the songs I worked on this month. Something went screwy when I was exporting the capture footage so the frame rate is garbage. P.S. Easy Living was amazing, Kirby:Air Ride is one of the greats. <a href="https://youtu.be/uHe2v-dqG8c" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/uHe2v-dqG8c</a>

Michelle Jackson

It was a koala

Ibrahim Sozer

People really leave a random comment just to hold an early spot? Pretty smart I guess.

Kaleb

Useful shield

César Villa

Parental Advisory. Explicit Content. Hello Ian &amp; Brandon! It looks like every few months I start my entry by apologizing; this is one of those instances. I make it a point to submit something for this show every month, because it is a way for me to practice my English writing skills. My English as a second language classes ended 21 years ago, and while I can understand you well in the videos, writing and speaking is something I don't get to practice that much; so even if I don't have a game to talk about, I try to share a gaming memory or a weird tangent each month to keep practicing. I'm sorry, this is one of those tangents. Languages are tricky and funny things, specially for a work around with curse words. When I was a kid I would be told off if I said a curse word, but I could get away with all the “fucks” and “shits” I wanted without any reprimand whatsoever, just because they didn't register as bad words to my folks. This was true for everyone of my friends too. For college I moved to a city that is under a 2 hour drive from the México-US border, and because of that closeness people were way more fluent in English than in my home town. It was really funny to me that they didn't even dared to say “shit” over there, whenever they wanted to say it, they said “cheetos”. A work around for the work around! How does this link to video games? I'll get to it right now. The first modern video game I played was Resident Evil 4 around 2007. I had skipped the N64 &amp; gamecube era entirely; so watching RE4 really made an impact because of the gore and how good it looked; and something else. The first time Leon encounters one of those “ganados”, he asks if he has seen Ashley and the response he gets is “¿Que carajo estás haciendo aquí? ¡Lárgate cabrón!”, and while Leon response is a sarcastic “sorry to bother you”, and what the ganado said sounded like nonsense for most players; I knew Leon was in danger, that response was a menace and I could understand it perfectly because it was said in my native language. Every thing the ganados said like “¡Mátalo!”, “¡cogedlo!” “¡ahí está!” came with this weight, it wasn't just a grunt like in the old games I was used to play, or something foreign I couldn't understand because of a language barrier. God bless Capcom for setting the game in Spain, and let me enjoy it in a different level than the English only speakers. Love &amp; Respect, César.

César Villa

Bi

Mikehook1

Since the most creative ally is here, I’d like to talk about a game that I’m making for the past two and a half years. In particular, I’d like to talk about its AI. The portion of AI we’ll be talking about has to do a simple task: place several objects on the map and connect them to other objects. It’s easy to define placement and connection rules that produce the best result, so implementing this AI shouldn’t be hard. But as you know, sometimes even simple things can become quite complicated. The first challenge comes from the lack of information. My game will support very big maps and each cell of the map can contain multiple objects – up to hundreds of thousands objects in total. Sometimes when a new object is added the whole system has to be recalculated. Recalculation works fast enough to follow player’s actions, but running it for dozens of NPCs will put game on hold for a couple of seconds. Because of that I had to make an AI that works without accurate information about its surroundings. Another challenge comes from collaboration. Several NPCs can work in the same area, and player can also make some changes. Everyone can realize the same vision, but they also can use different and incompatible strategies. Because of that my AI can’t simply follow a plan, it has to reevaluate everything after each step and adapt to circumstances. And the final challenge is to debug these 2000+ lines of code. It easy enough to check that the code compiles and works fast enough, but making sure that it produces expected results in every circumstance is much harder. For example, my AI was leaving some objects without connections. After some debugging I found out that AI can choose to start working on another part of the map before finishing its current task. I fixed that, but the problem remained. Turned out, at certain experience levels AI’s smartness was changing in the middle of the work, forcing it to choose a different strategy that requires a different set of objects. I fixed that, but once again the problem remained. Turned out two NPCs with different smartness tried to do the same work differently. Since it wasn’t a bug I had instructed AI to remove unused objects once the work is done. Of course the same conflict can also happen between NPC and player, so I also had to implement a system that prevents AI from interrupting player, but allows it to finish his work if the task was left incomplete. As you can see, building AI is hard, but as you know, overcoming challenges is very rewarding. I don’t use any gaming engines or any third party software, so this achievement is 100 percent mine. Maybe it’s stupid, but there is a smile on my face each time I let my AI loose and watch how it conquers the game’s world.

Alexander Zyryanov