Let’s pretend July barely happened and move on.
August has a lot of work ahead of it. There’s writing, there’s bonus streaming, there’s moving ahead with a project I’ve been working on for two months that just needs to get done (oh lord, oh lord, please get this thing finished), and frankly I’m excited about the whole thing.
Hi, welcome to August’s update post. We’re being casual today.
The Short Story
First and foremost, the bigger project of the month, the August Short Story. We covered it briefly at the start of July and frankly the work on it was hot garbage. I learned a lot of what I liked about the setting over the course of these past four weeks, and I think that’ll grown into a good story. Expect the Short much later this month, however. Like, the 18th or 25th. Something like that.
The biggest point I’ve researched this past month is the nature of heists, which, incidentally, is the type of story I’m telling with this month’s piece. It’s a fascinating piece learning how a good heist comes together in terms of words versus visuals. The roles, the expectations, the outcomes, all slightly differ in the type of medium the story exists in, but in the end it’s about telling a satisfying tale about a plan, putting the plan together, and then breaking it with fascinating characters. The heart of making the risks and dangers of the heist worth it is the same heart in many other stories of quests and missions: the desires of the characters.
- Why does this person care about the heist?
- What are they getting out of it?
- What are they losing?
The simple answer can be money, but that as a sole reason is boring. What is the money for? Retirement? Repairs to something valuable? Bribe money? What makes the risk worth it all? It’s in that mindset that we had to rewind a bit with the story over the last few weeks. I didn’t believe in my characters. I didn’t believe in their story and their whys. With that, a lot of them were purged from the fellowship, and I’ve slimmed things down to a tighter cast. I hope you like how it plays out.
The Stream
Most of July was taken up by three titles: Dinner First nights in FFXIV, Stardew Valley adventurers, and Satisfactory builds. We had a lot of fun in the valley and on the distant world putting together an illusion of life separate from here, and the co-opt time with Ethan and Enthnal was a great deal of fun (Fun enough that Ethan might be jumping into the world of streaming himself, stay tuned). But, like all things, it’s time to move on and look ahead.
A brief note before we march ahead, we did complete two single player titles over the past two weekends worth mentioning: Carrion and Owlboy.
Carrion was fun. Bloody, violent, fun. It’s pixel format barely hides the horror of becoming the monster in it’s lovely stretching, screeching, ripping way. The game is fun, suffering only from two major flaws. First, it’s short, very short. At only six to seven hours of game play, it’s $19.99 price tag is just a bit much even from an indie studio. I’d wait until it goes on sale for $12-$15. If, however, they continue to update the game with new content such as a challenge mode or other mechanic that encouraged replayability, then the price tag would become more reasonable. Second, while most of the game drives forward, near the end of the game, the fact that it doesn’t have a map is very harmful to it. It became quite confusing and frankly added on thirty to sixty minutes of just figuring out where to go. It needs something to help people around. But other than those two problems, it’s a wonderful little gem of a game and worth having a blast in.
Owlboy, inversely, is so tender and sweet and such a lovely little platformer. The puzzles are well done, visuals are stunning, and the core storyline is satisfying. It paints a picture of a lovely world with an intriguing past that’s slowly revealed through most of the game. Where Owlboy fails, however, is that its outer points feel unpolished. Side characters that seem to be having an arc, don’t. Mechanics works well, but never quite get challenging (with one exception of a mechanic that’s thrown at you as a side game and is just super hard for no reason), and it pales a little compared to contemporaries that arrived on the scene around the time it did. It’s also a little short if the player doesn’t seek out all the collectables. Like Carrion, while I’m forgiving for indies about length, six to seven hours isn’t long enough of a game for $24.99. Get this one on sale as well, except the soundtrack! Buy that soundtrack at full price because it is soooooo worth it.
August has two major updates coming out that will shift our streaming schedule. Tuesday, August 11th is Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers patch 5.3’s launch date, and Tuesday, August 25th is the drop date for WARFRAME: Heart of Deimos. We’ll be taking the 10th and the 24th off on those weeks to give us time to fully enjoy those updates on the Tuesdays they go live. Expect early streaming times on both days.
Beyond those updates, we have a few titles planned for the coming month. Our next single player title is going to be Shovel Knight. Once again, a title I’ve explored in the past but never beat. We’re going to be sticking with Shovel of Hope, the original game, but over the next few months we’ll beat all of the titles in the Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove collection. Look for it this weekend.
After Shovel Knight, we’ll be checking out something we owe ourselves a visit in, Shadowrun Returns. Full disclosure: I was a backer for this project and its sequels. Why? Because, well, it’s Shadowrun one of my favorite settings. I’ve beaten SR Returns before, but it has been some time. I have not played the sequels, and want to get to them, but I felt it was important to hit things in order. Look for it in a week or two.
And We’re Out
With that, August’s path lies ahead of us. Growing the channel, reaching out, and posting more are in our plans for the next few weeks. With that, I’d love if you could help spread the word about our Patreon, join the Discord and invite some friends, and toss a follow over on our Twitter, Facebook, and Twitch for regular updates. Would love to have you.
Enjoy the rest of your summer, chummers. See you later this month for the short, and then on the stream for more fun.