CelestialRequiem's Project Management Certfication

[ProfSeajay7]

On 6/1/2024 at 12:25 PM, CelestialRequiem said:

Yep, games first -- always. It's nice when I play on Steam or my Switch and never have to worry about that sort of thing.

Speaking of the Switch, I just managed to dip my toes into the Switch Online's virtual library. I got addicted to the Oracles games in the Legend of Zelda series after I found out there was a randomizer(a program that re-alters the game code to swap items around so your sword might not be the first thing you get, it might be a seed bag ,  this type of game mod is really addicting and makes retro games replayable beause you never know what to expect and old knowledge fails you) so I decided to download Oracle of Seasons(it and Oracle of Ages are party of the Gameboy lineup on the Switch Online's virtual store) and play it during my evening walks and oh man, it was fun going back there. Of course, the Switch versions have emulation features like making save states and rewinding, but I'm middle-age now and too old to waste time retreading ground every time I die. 😛

 

I highly recommend the Oracles games if you don't mind playing a dinky Game Boy title. These games helped pave the road for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

 

 

[CelestialRequiem]

On 6/15/2024 at 8:47 AM, Copanele said:

Bit late, but great write up there. The game that started an unexpected series that changed gaming habits for a lot of people  Can't add anything more other than yes, Demon's Souls is an amazing game and the fact that it was initially a doomed project makes it even more amazing.

Thank you!

 

Yeah, absolutely. History in this medium can be so interesting -- and this game will forever be fascinating. I bet there were many at Sony who thought "This was a big mistake." -- and now they get to be surprised with the fact that it got a very high quality remake a decade later.

 

On 6/15/2024 at 8:47 AM, Copanele said:

Actually Demon's Souls is one of the reasons why I ported myself to the PS3 environment (this game and God of War). Playing an unreasonable amount of Dark Souls, my first entry in the "Souls" series, I was mad curious to see the "prototype".

PC, right?

 

How do you feel now that all of the non-Sony Souls games are available on Steam -- as well as contemporary God of War? Would you ever want to switch back to PC?

 

I did get Dark Souls on Steam back when it released -- and I remember even being jealous that the extra content in it wasn't on PS3. Very unusual, that event. PC-exclusive content for a From game was basically unheard of -- and it happening in 2012 is just as unlikely to happen in 2024.

 

On 6/15/2024 at 8:47 AM, Copanele said:

And boy was it an experience! The game completely kicked my ass and I loved every second of it. I loved especially how unapologetically obtuse it was  I mean, it took me 3 NG runs to realize that World tendency and Character tendency are 2 different concepts. Also did the mistake of playing online and it was crazy to see that I did all the white tendency bullshit, just to be thrown into black tendency because some online goober decided to die nonstop in human form.

Such a fantastic game 😂

Yeah, a karma system that was tied both to your personal choices, as well as being at the mercy of your performance was very unusual. I actually don't hate the system, and it is some weird From shit that isn't surprising given their history. It feels like with every entry, these games shed some of their more obtuse elements, and refine themselves to more modern experiences.

 

It caused me problems too, of course -- on my initial run.

 

On 6/15/2024 at 8:47 AM, Copanele said:

As for the remake, I personally believe that Bluepoint has made a great job, considering that the original can't be played outside of PS3, PS Premium service (PCSX3 for the PC users). However, I also do recommend for the fans to play the original too, if possible, just for the artistic differences.

If it comes to Steam, which I suspect it will -- I'll try it.

 

Would be especially cool if I ever got myself a Steam Deck.

 

On 6/15/2024 at 8:47 AM, Copanele said:

P.S. I have to personally mention that Demon's Souls sure kickstarted a new generation of toxic PvP players with the Scraping Spear weapon that would break your equipment. Having a miniature swamp as a weapon must have been Miyazaki's childhood dream!

Dude, when I played Dark Souls on PS3 late at night, the worst PvP-ers were people from Japan.

 

Forget allllll of their cultural etiquette for a moment -- I was never shown any honor, lol. Everyone liked to bow before a fight, but nope -- not them. They'd capitalize on me being polite and would just back-stab me.

 

I didn't PvP much in Demon's Souls, but I am scarred from future games.

 

 

On 6/15/2024 at 7:16 PM, ProfSeajay7 said:

Speaking of the Switch, I just managed to dip my toes into the Switch Online's virtual library. I got addicted to the Oracles games in the Legend of Zelda series after I found out there was a randomizer(a program that re-alters the game code to swap items around so your sword might not be the first thing you get, it might be a seed bag ,  this type of game mod is really addicting and makes retro games replayable beause you never know what to expect and old knowledge fails you) so I decided to download Oracle of Seasons(it and Oracle of Ages are party of the Gameboy lineup on the Switch Online's virtual store) and play it during my evening walks and oh man, it was fun going back there. Of course, the Switch versions have emulation features like making save states and rewinding, but I'm middle-age now and too old to waste time retreading ground every time I die. 😛

 

I highly recommend the Oracles games if you don't mind playing a dinky Game Boy title. These games helped pave the road for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

 

 

 

Yeah, I've heard about this from the NSO service.

 

It's cool for the people who want these kinds of new elements in their old games, but I'm good. I love the Oracle games for what they are -- don't need anything modified.

 

Some of the best Zelda games (including these ones), were developed by Capcom. My favorite Zelda game is Minish Cap, which was also a Capcom-developed title. We'll never see that again, sadly.

[Copanele]

54 minutes ago, CelestialRequiem said:

PC, right?

 

How do you feel now that all of the non-Sony Souls games are available on Steam -- as well as contemporary God of War? Would you ever want to switch back to PC?

The answer is yes, PC from the early days up until ...2016 I think. 

 

And the answer is - I definitely am planning to. Mind you, I still have games to play on PS3 and PS4 (fine...some on PS5 too), but I definitely am planning to return to that environment. It just has more of the options that I want and need.

And now that pretty much every game is also coming on PC (where I can mod them to death lol) I see no reason to continue with consoles once I'm done  

It will take a while until I get back though, not leaving any time soon.

57 minutes ago, CelestialRequiem said:

Dude, when I played Dark Souls on PS3 late at night, the worst PvP-ers were people from Japan.

 

Forget allllll of their cultural etiquette for a moment -- I was never shown any honor, lol. Everyone liked to bow before a fight, but nope -- not them. They'd capitalize on me being polite and would just back-stab me.

 

I didn't PvP much in Demon's Souls, but I am scarred from future games.

Hahahah ok so what I used to do when I was bored (invasions in Darkroot Garden, as one does), I usually started downloading a huge game then paused the download. 
I then checked what kind of person I was pvp-ing with, if it was a cool guy who bowed or did an emote before fighting, very well. If it was a scumbag that tried to blitz around and beat me with laggy lightning spears, I would resume downloading the game and lag him to death.

 

Two can be shitheads at that game. 😂 just a bit of scummy PvP lore

PvP in Demon Souls was BRUTAL. Tons of WoG'ers with Scraping Spears and eventually the firestorm spell that would lag your screen out. Nobody played fair.

Just the way Miyazaki intended.

[VoidVictorious]

Don’t forget to mention that in canon the protagonist is John DemonSouls. @CelestialRequiem

[ProfSeajay7]

On 6/17/2024 at 1:39 PM, CelestialRequiem said:

It's cool for the people who want these kinds of new elements in their old games, but I'm good. I love the Oracle games for what they are -- don't need anything modified.

Fair enough, and now that Echoes of Wisdom was revealed where you play as Zelda and use a rod to dupe items and use them as tools or weapons or summon Zelda enemies to fight battles, Zelda remakes would be a bit of a hindsight thought. If I wasn't so lazy, I'd probably make a game that has all the elements of Oracle of Seasons and Ages(including the link game functionality) but make the lore and characters an Original Product and put "Inspired by Oracle of Seasons/Ages" in the credits as a nod. Most games nowadays borrow elements. Like that Mio game using the jump slash mechanic from Shovel Knight Specter Knight campaign where you have Specter Knight teleport to nodes and slash them to move about. Unless someone copyrights it, it's free domain.

[CelestialRequiem]

7 minutes ago, ProfSeajay7 said:

Fair enough, and now that Echoes of Wisdom was revealed where you play as Zelda and use a rod to dupe items and use them as tools or weapons or summon Zelda enemies to fight battles, Zelda remakes would be a bit of a hindsight thought. If I wasn't so lazy, I'd probably make a game that has all the elements of Oracle of Seasons and Ages(including the link game functionality) but make the lore and characters an Original Product and put "Inspired by Oracle of Seasons/Ages" in the credits as a nod. Most games nowadays borrow elements. Like that Mio game using the jump slash mechanic from Shovel Knight Specter Knight campaign where you have Specter Knight teleport to nodes and slash them to move about. Unless someone copyrights it, it's free domain.

In gamedev, it can be very difficult to sue someone for copyright infringement of any sort, unless assets were specifically stolen/ripped.

 

You can't copyright an idea, or a gameplay mechanic, per say. Many countries lack the legislative power (and frankly, the awareness of politicians), to enforce ideas or design. It's sort of like a genre of film -- heist moves look toward each other, and while there may be a lot of similarities, you can't really enforce there to not be any. Just basically has to not be stolen.

 

A good example of this is Palworld. They look like Pokemon, but they're even out of Nintendo's reach -- one of the most litigious companies out there.

Edited Tuesday at 10:21 PM by CelestialRequiem

[jonesey46]

7 minutes ago, CelestialRequiem said:

In gamedev, it can be very difficult to sue someone for copyright infringement of any sort, unless assets were specifically stolen/ripped.

 

You can't copyright an idea, or a gameplay mechanic, per say. Many countries lack the legislative power (and frankly, the awareness of politicians), to enforce ideas or design. It's sort of like a genre of film -- heist moves look toward each other, and while there may be a lot of similarities, you can't really enforce there to not be any. Just basically has to not be stolen.

 

A good example of this is Palworld. They look like Pokemon, but they're even out of Nintendo's reach -- one of the most litigious companies out there.

 

So how does WB patenting the nemesis system work then? That's just an idea right? Why are other gamedevs unable to use a system like it? 

[CelestialRequiem]

On 6/18/2024 at 5:28 PM, jonesey46 said:

 

So how does WB patenting the nemesis system work then? That's just an idea right? Why are other gamedevs unable to use a system like it? 

Other developers can, they just can't call it the "Nemesis System".

It seems to me, that the patent here is to make a universal system for WB to utilize with that name. It's their sort of way of make an iconic term for their idea of a gameplay mechanic. You can make it 1:1 in a commercial product, and as long as it's not called the Nemesis System, you wouldn't be infringing on anything.

 

It's a great question, though -- because I was curious about this myself like a year or two ago. Here's something I saw on Reddit then:

 

Quote

Yeah I can shed some light on this, as a legal buff and game designer, but not an employed professional in either field. For a definitive answer, hire an attorney:

A patent provides protection for two things here:

1.) The method/execution, and;

2.) The precise end result.

You cannot patent an idea. The Nemesis patent is a HUGE departure from previous rulings and case law, where the Supreme Court has generally ruled against software patents. The crux of the issue is that an algorithm is pretty hard to distinguish from an abstract idea, and ideas are not patentable. The specific code used to execute an idea is patentable, but historically the courts have balked at that, too. Until now.

As long as your system is substantially different from the nemesis system, then you can make whatever you want without worrying about infringing on their patent. They do not hold a patent on "procedurally generated NPC systems with reactive changes to NPCs based on player actions". That's an abstract idea. They have a patent on the Nemesis System specifically and only that. You will need to make sure that your system departs from theirs in some substantial way, to where it could be called its own system distinct from theirs. Even if your system has some of the same ideas, it is fine as long as it isn't the same code and the exact same end result. Ultimately, if you just make the system you want, it will almost certainly be substantially different from the nemesis system without having to work around it.

My money is on this patent being invalidated in the near future. Probably the first time WB tries to sue someone over a Nemesis claim then the patent is going to be quickly thrown out. I don't know what the hell the US Patent Office was smoking when they decided to hand this down, but it clearly violates Supreme Court precedent on the matter.

 

I disagree a little with this post that it has to be "slightly different".

 

This is also similar to the "HD2D" moniker that was filed by Square-Enix after Octopath Traveller. It's not them trying to stop anyone from making games like the aforementioned title, they just wanted to coin the title.

 

 

_____________________________________

 

EDIT: 06/20/2024: I'm actually coming up on a milestone, so I may get some other games on my account done that I can complete in a short-ish amount of time. I also am expecting next month to be very busy because of work, so trying to get as many games done in the meantime.

Edited Thursday at 08:08 PM by CelestialRequiem

[CelestialRequiem]

 

 

Project Title:	Mini Ninjas
Project Start Date:	06/21/2024
Project Deadline:	07/05/2024
Platform:	PS3
Objective:	Pursuing the platinum
Risk Analysis:	No online trophies
General Information:	Developed by IO Interactive, known for their Hitman series -- they gave making a kids' game a shot, and it's pretty fun!

 

This was one of my favorite games back on the Xbox 360. How I discovered Mini Ninjas, was one of my friends had this as their gamerpic on Xbox LIVE:

 

 

This also happens to be the game's platinum trophy image! But I remember wanting this gamerpic so badly -- so I downloaded the demo to see what it was like; and was surprised to see that despite me being a fifteen year old who was obsessed with Call of Duty and Halo, that this game was wayyyy more fun than it had any right to be. So, I purchased a copy, and then beat the game on hard, and unlocked this image to represent my profile.

 

I'd probably use it on PSN if it were an option, but still -- I'm excited to try this game after such a long time away from it.

[DrBloodmoney]

Ah, IO’s odd little side-project!

 

Agree that game was way better than one might expect - it’s strange that despite two sequels elsewhere, and a cartoon series at one point, there was never a follow up on PS.

 

I guess the legacy lives on in one way though, the most IO way possible:

😂

Edited Saturday at 06:20 PM by DrBloodmoney