Diecast 314: Decaffeinated Die Cast
Channel: Paul Spooner
Date: 2020-08-31

All the Diecast episodes are here: https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?cat=287

Show Notes:
00:00 Warmup
00:29 Paul’s 3D commission woes
08:45 Yes, Shamus is programming.
23:45 Mailbag: Eastshade Postmortem
28:08 Shamus Quits Coffee again
28:53 Mailbag: Laptop Repair
40:15 Different approaches to tech support
44:15 Mailbag: Mental Illness in games
57:02 Time and Space in Games
1:13:04 Outro


Mailbag Text:

Eastshade Postmortem
Dear Diecast,

Eastshade did an update without any details, so in the course of trying to find the release notes I stumbled on this postmortem that the principal developer wrote, it’s quite fascinating and I was delighted to see that they made their investment back and then some.  Also they’re working on a new game: http://www.eastshade.com/postmortem-eastshade/


Also interesting is how super-tiny their team is for such a gorgeous game.  I think like, 8-10 people were listed there?


Jennifer Snow


Laptop Repair
Dear Diecast,

I'm currently thinking about disassembling my otherwise functional notebook computer in order to find out why the shift keys have stopped working.  Have you ever attempted physical repairs on a PC or other piece of consumer electronics?  If so, what made you decide to make the attempt rather than buy a replacement or do without?

--John


Mental Illness in Games
DeeeEEeeeaAaAaAAaarrrr, Diecast!

On a recent episode, you were discussing the inherent uniqueness of video games, namely interactivity, and what story might benefit most from it.
This was in relation to Paul bringing up how Werner Herzog is only interested in projects that can only be told through the medium of film.

I think one of the best ways to utilize the interactive nature of games is through the portrayal of mental illnesses that often take away a persons agency.

Things such as Depression, Bipolar Disorder and Multiple Personality Disorder all can make doing simple everyday tasks incredibly difficult.

Imagine if at a certain point in a game, the player character became Clinically Depressed and you could no longer have him/her do things reliably such as eating, interacting with other NPC's 
or even repairing their equipement.
A character that became Suicidal would no longer let you use healing items and might attract monsters/enemies willingly, since they no longer care for their own well-being. 

Some games played around with similiar concepts 
Darkest Dungeon can make your party members become Paranoid/Selfish/Masochistic which inhibit some of their abilities, while Silent Hill 2 actually notices if you're often low on health, despite having healing items

Have you ever played a game that uses mentall illness in a similar fasion, and if so what were they?

Thanks for reading and 
may you always roll with advantage!

Jolt



Time and Space in Games

Servus, Würfelwerfer (pronounciation guide: servoos wir-fell ware-fer)
 
Something I wondered about for a long time, but it resurfaced recently due to Microsoft Flight Simulation 2020: the perception of time is greatly altered in video games, at least for me personally. To elaborate: Playing the Cessna Flight school, you have to navigate two waypoints, the shortest taking about 5 minutes. Now, in real life, five minutes are over very quickly. My commute is 6 minutes by bike and that's so short I don't even bother with taking my headpphones out of my pocket, because I have to turn off any aural distraction in such short a time. In game though, those 5 Minutes felt eternal, despite me actually having fun.
 
Is that the reason many open world games are actually quite condensed in their size, yet still feel big? I had a similar occurance when Playing Skyrim in VR: while playing "pancake" (as in, on an ordinary screen), Skyrim feels like a huge place with impressive mountain ranges throned over by the throat of the world that looms over the land in the distance from Whiterun. In VR however, seeing everything "in scale", it turns out the TotW is a couple of hundred meters high, strangely steep hill that starts right outside of the town walls of Whiterun.
 
I think especially the latter might have to do with being watched through a fish eyed field of view through a monitor, but why does time feel so different? Are those phenomena linked, or different?
 
Kind Regards from Austria (the mountany place in Europe, NOT the upside down place)
ColeusRattus