Goldkin @Goldkin@awoo.space

Found a cool thing on our hummingbird feeders today while rotating them due to the cold weather:

@VK3VKK @frameacloud Unreal sees some usage as an engine, but for whatever reason, Epic Games hasn't been as supporting of VR workflows as Unity has been.

So many of the existing import pipelines and assets skew towards Unity currently.

@frameacloud Also, if you do find your way into experimenting with VRChat or one of its competitors (note: most have desktop support, no headset required), lmk and we can give you the general tour.

@frameacloud ThrillSeeker's video series (https://m.youtube.com/c/ThrillSeekerVR/videos) is fairly comprehensive, particularly the most recent three (at this writing).

It doesn't cover how to create things in it, but that answer is "learn Unity" for the vast majority of VR applications currently released (including social games like VRChat).

@qdot I can't substantiate my instincts on this since I haven't been following Patreon's descent, but this kind of grift and desperation feels like it leads to a dot com-style bust.

@kat Grats!

@kat But yeah, a lot of that lesson aged poorly, when the arrangement he offers now looks like a great deal compared to cartoonish evil and unattainable housing.

@kat That said, he serves a purpose to the setting, which this does a good job of explaining: https://fuckyeah-animalcrossing.tumblr.com/post/668048555795234817

He's aware of his role as token financial obstacle that serves a point, and in earlier games, even cracks a joke about your town not having social security after you pay off your entire loan. Which is why they set him up both as a sympathetic character (he's a foil used to deliver a message) and not (he canonically gets rich off your efforts over the series).

@kat His character development arc also sees him graduate from shopkeep and store manager (Forest, Crossing, Wild World, City Folk) to real estate agent and boss (New Leaf, Happy Home Designer) to retired private island developer (New Horizons).

He and his two kids are also the only canonical tanuki of the setting, so you're literally paying the local trickster spirits for a roof over your head.

So it's a thing.

@dodec @Felthry Tryclyde, Mouser, and Fryguy did make major appearances in the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, but that canon has mostly been forgotten in mainline series games. Kind of wish they'd revisit it now that we're beyond the awkward era of Philips CD-i games based on it.

@Dex I'd add one more, which is solving (or working around) VR sickness for large segments of the corporate market.

From messing around in VRChat on the Index and sideloading apps onto a Quest 2, comfort for daily use is _probably_ the most solved problem right now. With a little aftermarket tweaking with weighted and comfort headstraps, and lenses that reduce glare, going whole days in VR is definitely doable. Future iterations will have these standard.

@Felthry What it did offer is a more cinematic and immersive experience, which felt amazing at the time and still plays well now. But it definitely wasn't the same game as Z1, and was definitely more rough of an experience than its predecessor or games that followed it due to having so many moving parts.

@Felthry The main thing is that while all of these elements are serviceable and blend together okay, they weren't as refined as their genre-specific counterparts.

So you have this loose bag of gameplay elements that remind you of other games, with constant context switching (from overworld to underworld, from gameplay to menuing, and from the start of the game or dungeon every game over) instead of the smooth transition Z1 provided. Plus manually running back to town or resetting to heal.

@Felthry Just replayed it on the new Zelda Game & Watch thingie, so my memory is fresh. It's mechanically distinct from the rest of the series, and a bit clunky even compared to Z1, but not a bad game by any means.

Its main thing is it lacks a distinct identity, borrowing from other popular games of the time instead of being inventive. Castlevania combat? Check. Dragon Warrior magic system? Check. RPG random encounters and town scenes? Check. Platforming and lives system from Mario? Check.