Game Developer’s Handbook: Part 1 – Game Industry Overview

As some of you who know me may already be aware of, I have been slowly but steadily been building up experience and knowledge at uni to eventually create my own games. During this process, I am also deepening my insight into the gaming industry. This blog post will contain part 1 of 3 of what I will call my “Game Developer’s Handbook”, that will provide overviews and insights into a number of facets of the game development industry and development process, based on my research into the area.

[Story] XCOM 2: The Long War – Part 2: Operation Choking Omen

Note: The mission timers are increased here (and also pause during full squad concealment) compared to a straight LW2 run due to the need to be more strategic in gunning down aliens, larger maps, and role-play factor (GnaRs LW2 Tactics Plus & True Concealment for LW2). This is further balanced by the fact that some items (ceramic plating and medikits in particular) reduce mobility by 2 instead of the usual 1. In the case of the ceramic plating however, the ablative armor provided is increased. This mod also brings back the aiming angles feature that allows aim to increase against a target in cover as you angle yourself more and more towards a flanking position.

Note2: I forgot to mention this in the previous part I released, but I am playing with Red Fog, and it applies it to both my soldiers and the aliens. Therefore, the more damage a unit takes, the more useless they become, simulating the fact that heavily wounded units will have a hard time actually doing anything productive.

Note3: I’ve begun filling out Squad/Soldier info pages. They will contain better info about the soldiers that I will usually not bother mentioning repeatedly in the main story parts I release. I will attempt to prioritize soldiers who are part of a squad on a mission and those who have already seen combat. Eventually I should be able to finish filling out the entire soldier roster currently on the Avenger. To access them just go here: https://remtm.wordpress.com/xcom-2-the-long-war-squad-info/

Note4: If you haven’t noticed yet, I’ve added a Spotify widget to the side menu which will allow you to play music from the XCOM 2 Official Soundtrack. Playing the right BGM to the story can make all the difference, I assure you. =P

[Story] XCOM 2: The Long War – Part 1: Operation Gatecrasher

Will this be yet another XCOM playthrough I eventually abandon, or will I actually try to complete it this time? =P

This story driven by my own actual playthrough of XCOM 2’s newly released Long War 2 mod will be written on a per-mission basis, which could actually result in possibly over 100+ parts. It will also be played on Veteran difficulty, as a previous attempt I had made in playing it on Commander difficulty was getting so out of hand I was more liable to lose more resources than I actually gained per mission.

This playthrough will also have all the DLC available (specifically Alien Hunters and Shen’s Last Gift), as well as a whole bunch of extra mods to change up the game even more. This will also be played in “Pseudo”-Ironman mode, cause Ironman would have been more interesting but mods make save files a little unstable. If the story starts being a little repetitive, I’ll start simplifying some of the easier missions or even completely skip them in the story as nothing interesting probably happened. We’ll see what happens.

Also, I’m taking requests from the community to include them as characters in the playthrough, as I already have a few customised soldiers based on community members from my own Discord server. If you can’t send me your own customised characters because you don’t own a copy of XCOM 2, simply give me some info regarding how you want your character to look, the first, last and nick names you want it to have, a mini-bio (optional), and anything else you may want. Game randomization and my own “creativity” (lol) will fill out whatever else to make the character.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

[Story] Elecor’s Adventures: Part 1

Note: The following is a pilot snippet of an original set of short stories I have decided to write in my spare time. I will try to release one of these at least once a week due to how short they will be, but it will also depend on how I am feeling. If you have any opinions/feedback/etc, feel free to leave a comment here or leave me a tweet. Understand I am really only doing this to practice my writing skills, so please be gentle~

—–

“So, why are you here?”

“I wanted to help you, sis!”

“*sigh* I thought I told you to stay home.”

Two small figures were whispering to each other while hiding behind a pile of rubble. The girl seems to have resigned herself, while the boy emanated an aura of reliability.

So a couple of my friends said doing this was hard…

Some of you may have noticed I’ve been playing Terraria a lot recently. A Factorio update recently happened so I’m just waiting for all the mods I am using to be updated to be compatible, plus I’m pretty into Terraria atm. =P

Anyway, a couple of my friends told me that they used a minecart track to travel down to the hell biome at full speed because a helivator using a simple rope and a straight shot all the way down was too slow and too dangerous. Even with this method they were telling me about, they would die quite a few times just travelling down there.

So, I decided to test this.

Factorio: Logistic Warfare – Log #04

Log #04 – Establishing a Defensive Line

Previously…

Operation Broken Horse has been halted midway due to a lack of supplies. Also, thanks to the pincer attack from the biter army to the south, we nearly lost the war. We need to increase our military power ASAP.

Factorio: Logistic Warfare – Log #03

LOG #03 – RETREAT IS ALWAYS AN OPTION…

Previously…

The plan is to start producing green science ASAP, but that’s a bit difficult without the next level of assemblers to do it. Time to start working on the next level of circuits!

Factorio: Logistic Warfare – Log #02

LOG #02 – Operation Doorknock

Previously…

That biter base to the left of my factory is too close for comfort and needs to go. Gonna have to build up a supply of turrets and ammo due to how hard the biter spawners are in this modpack, but that’ll give me enough time to research those extra damage upgrades.

Factorio: Logistic Warfare – Log #01

Hi all, RemTM here!

If you haven’t noticed yet, I am deeply invested in anything I am doing “right now”, but I can always move on to something else and completely drop whatever I’m doing without warning. Do note I still intend to continue the XCOM 2 run eventually, but right now I am deeply invested in the world of Factorio!

This ‘series’ will hopefully span the beginning of my new world run using a modpack I put together after some extremely annoying issues were fixed and other things balanced. For now, I’ll call it the “Logistic Warfare” modpack. I’m still working on balancing it, so if anyone is interested in downloading it do note I will eventually upload the full pack once I am happy with it. The series will also be written in a similar way to how reddit user peregrine911 after being inspired by his Toxic Jungle playthrough updates, so I hope you enjoy! (If you wish to know what I’m talking about, look here: https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/4i4jl3/friday_community_feature/)

In any case, without further ado, let’s begin!

…I was activated. The Division is here.

…well, yeah. This has been my time sink since March 8th, so I haven’t gotten around to completing X-COM 2 SVGA missions, if any of you were expecting me to post about it. You can just see how dedicated I am to Tom Clancy’s The Division from the max lvl 30 and the full set of high-end named weapons. Yeah, I am enjoying it. A lot. And it ain’t gonna end any time soon.

However! If you have been playing Tom Clancy’s The Division or are about to start playing, feel free to join the Discord voice server via the link below.

Discord Voice Server Link:
https://discord.gg/0nNNiU4rQx1M82No

Of course, this doesn’t mean the X-COM 2 missions have stopped completely. Later on I will continue with the missions, and then we can finally see whether or not I am successful in extracting myself from the field. Yes, the Avenger is still en route to Operation Brutal Wail. That mission will be completed soon. How soon is still up in the air. =P

I’ll see you around, agent!