blackshibe
professional programmer & hobbyist musician
- +foxes and text editors
the world is a fuck
all good things must end
thanks, Jax
- -message blackshibe@tutanota.com if you'd like to contact me
- +blackshibe@tutanota.com by email
@blackshibe on discord
@blackshibe on github
@shibesongs on soundcloud
- +my blog
+2024
+- Have you ever had a project succeed at the age of 13?
+- 24/06/2024
++ - Got too much disposable income and a taste for the 80s? This guide will tell you the + basics of shooting modern Polaroid cameras. +
+- 24/06/2024
+__TEMPLATE
+Hello world
++ Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Placeat, porro itaque labore, facilis, + assumenda sunt cum distinctio corporis excepturi iure corrupti aliquam? Quidem provident + pariatur repellat nemo culpa possimus quia. +
+ +
+ Implications of Deadline
+Have you ever had a game blow up at the age of 13?
+Intro
+
+ + Deadline is a first person shooter released and in-development on the Roblox platform. In this + article I will talk about my side of the development effort, though i couldn't achieve this + without my friends - ScrubLord and GravityDefier being the biggest helpers. +
+ ++ For a while I've been meaning to write something about Deadline - what it means to keep working + on for myself and others involved, especially since this game has been here ever since i hit + puberty. +
+ ++ The reason for that is because i have personal regrets related to this game - things we all + could have done better in hindsight, despite the fact this is the first game i've led, start to + finish. +
+ +Gamedev takes effort, actually
++ Deadline began development in April 2019. I was fairly new to programming at the time, having + done things only as a hobbyist and a 12 year old, and with only about a year of experience with + Roblox. A friend named zfexer got me and scrub together to start working on a shooter of some + kind. +
+ ++ I'd like to stress just how little we knew about game development - What is a core loop? What's + the most important aspect of a game? How do you make it fun... we had ambitions but no answers. +
+ ++ We quickly went through 3 iterations of the game. We always had the theme of something + methodical and in-depth in mind, but never an exact plan. We had fundamentally no idea how to + design a game, so we did what felt right. The first two versions weren't much of note - We + started, and we finished development rather quickly, never really having the time to even + implement a gamemode. +
+ ++ It was "Deadline v3" that turned into the version that is enjoyed by millions today, but it + carries our sins from the past on its back - to start, we never went through and did a proper + design pass on anything we did, because we did it for fun. +
+ +You need to plan your game, actually
++ Roblox is full of projects just like Deadline - the main incentive of Roblox for many young + developers is that you can easily get into developing your own game and have a shot at creating + something popular at little to no cost of your own. +
+ ++ Now, ignoring issues with trapping kids on a platform that pays them less than 20% of what their + work is actually worth with no option to sell their game elsewhere, the problem is that + developing for the fun that you get out of writing core systems OF a game simply isn't the same + as developing to finish A game. +
+ ++ You can see many projects on Roblox made just for fun - I think the entire 'gun testing' genre + of games, as well as most up and coming game projects for Roblox are really just made because + it's fun to write them. It doesn't take much looking around to see evidence of this - there is a + ton of people who really just develop the "boilerplate" for a game, over and over again, like + the gun viewmodel, and focus on detailing what they enjoy working with instead of what they + should do to get a functional game. Sure, good gunplay should be perfected early, but it + shouldn't be the first and only focus. Why doesn't anyone make a functional gamemode first? + Depending on the game, it can be arguably more important. +
+ ++ This has wasted us years - we could have reached the same point we're at now far sooner, with + the hindsight to just sit down and think. I think the hardest part of development wasn't + learning the shitty Roblox language and API, but breaking through and actually doing what I have + to do to help the game grow without procrascinating it. +
+ ++ As for the consequences - the biggest one that comes to mind is the progression system. when the + 0.22.0 update released, we decided to announce the progression system coming to the game sooner + or later. +
+ ++ This video details the shitshow that happened as a result. The game has become free to play + since the incident. +
+ ++ The whole announcement was poorly received because people grew to expect a gun sandbox from + Deadline - something this game wasn't. While we intended to make customization feel more free + than in any other game, we by no means meant to keep every gun part and every gun free. We also + failed to plan out the progression system properly, having found some parts of it unnecessary + when implementing it. +
+ ++ Before 2024, we had no plan - progression was just a roadmap bullet point i kept shoving aside + because I found no fun in implementing it. I was busier with other things. But In 2024, we ran + out of time. +
+ ++ We noticed how much we fucked up in planning this game, and 5 years in development led to a game + that barely broke ~700 USD a month in revenue after taxes for all of us. Starting January I + found a job that paid ME personally over twice that as a programmer, and we couldn't really + afford to keep development going for another year like this. It wasn't worth the time and my + passion for this game is already exhausted enough, which I will talk about later. +
+ ++ Our team got together and sketched up a progression design that ended up rather inadequate for + the rest of the game. This is what we announced - It certainly didn't help that the wider + community reaction was to assume we'd make the game some form of "grindy" just because we were + making people work for their guns despite our emotional attachment to making something fun, as + we do actually care about this game. +
+ +
+ + I still find this reaction to having to pay for a game asinine and it's a part of why i fucking + hate roblox +
+ ++ 2 months later we stepped back from our original design plans, and have since left the + progression model as It's implemented. You can buy any gun and any attachment provided you have + the money, and it's relatively accessible given the playerbase earnings average of 4200$ per + match. To add to this, microtransactions from selling currency are an extremely significant + revenue stream which means we'll be able to keep feeding our mouths for a while, though we still + can't earn a proper salary. + + The 80% Roblox revenue cut, taxes, and 3 people to pay a consistent salary means we + individually still don't get shit. + +
+ ++ In the end the gameplay we did plan ended up not rewarding enough to play with the gun builder + locked away, which breaks the fun balance between the core loop: You play the game, you make + money, you upgrade your gun. This is important because a lot of people spend most of their time + in the gun editor - This causes a sort of domino effect where you often join the game only to be + faced with lobbies where a map designed for a 20v20 is actually holding a 5v5 despite the server + being full. As a result, people turn to the gun editor or leave because of the resulting issues + with spawncamping and game balance. The game part of the game isn't fun enough, and it makes it + less fun. +
+ ++ Progression is the industry-standard way to make people pay and come back. Everybody does it - + Leaving the game as it was was just the equivalent of a playground, which can be great, but in + this case it wasn't - We could have implemented this years ago, and made tens of thousands of + dollars more, meaning we could've advanced development FAR faster than we did without creating + false expectations for our fanbase. As for the fanbase... +
+ +Community management is draining, actually
++ If you follow Deadline you might have noticed the Discord server closed. A lot of people assume + this was a sudden decision but It wasn't. I'm not meant to be a community manager, and I'm not + personally willing to let someone else do the managing at the moment. +
+ ++ The benefits of having an official community also seem extremely overrated - The Discord, at its + peak was 30K members with under a thousand active users in a game that reaches 300 thousand + people monthly. This meant we were reaching a pretty small but active part of our userbase, + which effectively made it an echo-chamber for getting any opinions and a mediocre announcement + tool at best. The negatives on my personal mental health and the implications of managing the + digital equivalent of a kindergarten aren't as negligible, though. +
+ ++ The server initially closed opportunistically because I was simply pissed off at the community. + These people have been leeching off of my hard work, and now that I want to put a framework in + place to be compensated for my effort, they forsake me. I'm not sure what I expected, but I + didn't expect this. +
+ ++ The primary two reasons for permanently closing the server were how fucking bad It was for me + personally to deal with, and how toxic it was. The moderation team I was responsible for + building was pretty bad at dealing with trolls, which ended up creating a loop of making things + even worse. It doesn't help that the average person there was about 15 years old. +
+ ++ Reading hurtful things about the game was affecting me long term. It's hard to ignore people + calling the game shit over a single issue that I fixed in the development branch over and over + again. On top of that It was about the same complaints, over and over again. I could deal with + it sometimes, but sometimes I couldn't and ended up lashing out. Over time, I developed the + attitude of treating fans of this game like some sort of mass rather than individual people + because of how similiar everyone seemed to act. The same things that bothered me happened over + and over, and they cut deep when I was already down. What didn't help is the ego I built up for + the game - All I really had to keep going for was the belief that Deadline had some hidden + redeeming quality, that it was actually great, because we certainly hadn't reached any + substantial recognition and were making basically no money off of it. +
+ ++ I also kept most responsibility for moderating bug forum channels which I mismanaged pretty + badly. Most of my social media use is based around Discord and Signal, so It became extremely + annoying to get regular DMs from random people asking for stupid shit on top of people blatantly + disregarding both server and forum rules when making posts. I also didn't put in any effort into + making sure people would see the rules. Even though they were there, people clearly weren't + bothering to read them, so I took the knee-jerk reaction of instabanning whoever seemed to act + like an idiot in my eyes. I'm not sure whether this Discord gave me this attitude towards + strangers or whether I was born an asshole, but in the end the result is the same. Is becoming a + worse person worth the community? +
+ ++ I developed a disregarding attitude where I was no longer really listening to what people said + or their genuine interest for the game, just looking for a reason to get them the fuck out of my + sight - I had a long-standing reputation for "unjustified moderation actions", too. I started + the Discord when I was 15 so spamming slurs, muting people for fun, or making jokes at other + people's expense were all just sort of natural, at least in the early stages before we reached + any level of recognition. I regret it all deeply. +
+ ++ Despite this, I do wish to reopen the server sometime. I'm just afraid of making the same + mistakes - The "community reactions" aren't going to go away, and I don't know If I'll ever be + able to just shrug them off. +
+ ++ I'm an asshole and It bothers me to be put in a place of power like this. I don't want to hire + someone to manage the official Discord, I'd rather instead leave the whole process to people who + wanna create their own communities out of choice rather than necessity. +
+ ++ Despite everything, I've met some life-changing people through this community. best friends, + industry connections, game buddies, mentors, love. +
+ +sometimes the Discord wasn't as bad as I thought.
+ +Losing passion happens, actually
+
+
+ + I no longer believe in what made Deadline exist. Roblox is a constant limitation to what we can + and can't do, and we have clearly outgrown this engine in more ways than i can count with all + the fingers I have. I never wanted to create a free to play game, and I never really wanted to + make something as void of meaning as Deadline. +
+ ++ The choices I made 5 years ago are still affecting me every day - We started on Roblox, we are + finishing on Roblox. We started without a plan and we've only now changed course. +
+ ++ On the topic of meaning - It might surprise you that I'm barely even a gun nut. I grew up + playing singleplayer story horror games and some shooters like phantom forces or GTA, never + really caring how an AR15 operates in detail or whatever. GravityDefier gave me an interesting + perspective regarding the FPS genre in general, too - What are we really doing this for? What + are the implications of writing an FPS shooter? Are we just developing militarism propaganda? We + never gave this game lore, or some deeper meaning, or something to make it feel special in the + way my childhood games did. To me, It isn't art. It's just a game, and It isn't what I want to + spend the next 10 years of my life doing. +
+ ++ My biggest concern is that It might just turn into another kind of office job. When I was young + I wanted to avoid that at all costs - though I didn't consider the deeper implications behind + that. Can you call working on Deadline a kind of office job? I don't answer to a boss - I don't + have to make up reports or fill in my working hours and we're all mostly responsible for what + happens to the game instead of some fucking moron with a college degree doing it for us, but the + past 6 months have shown me an office job isn't just sitting in a cubicle. +
+ ++ I've worked on 4 separate games this year, and none of them mean what really got me into games + in the first place. SOMA, The Final Station, Lost in Vivo, Minecraft, Receiver 2 are all games I + hold close to my heart, yet I haven't come close to showing the world anything like them. I just + turned 18 - A choice awaits to finally jump ship and start a Godot repo that'll finally grow + into something new in my life, and something new to show the world. +
+ ++ We stuck with a middle school fun project that most people would have abandoned, and It changed + us. What comes next isn't clear. I always learned as I went. +
+ +That's what Deadline taught me.
+Shooting Decent Photos With Polaroid
++ Got too much disposable income and a taste for the 80s? This guide will tell you the basics of + shooting modern Polaroid cameras. +
+Intro
+
+ First time I went for a photoshoot with my Polaroid Now
+ ++ This guide is going to sound negative - Anyhow, It's a lot of fun to do Polaroid photography and + I like this hobby - but I do want to educate about the process and drawbacks of shooting photos + with a Polaroid. +
+ ++ Film is complicated and quirky. CMOS sensors are a blessing of their own - Phone photography may + seem like a joke nowadays but It's light years technologically compared to instant film. +
+ +What you need to know about film
+Film is volatile. This means a few things:
+ +- You need to learn when *not* to shoot
++ Polaroid film is highly dependent on the light settings and temperature when taking the + photo. You are bound to run into mistakes when guessing what the camera will do with the + exposure settings. You will also have to fight with things like not including too much + of the bright sky, or weather that just isn't good for shooting photos. Sometimes you + just shouldn't take the photo, too. +
+- Film needs proper handling
++ You need to keep it in the fridge, you need to use it 12 months after its' production, + you need to make sure you're buying from someone who actually keeps it in a cool place. +
+- Film sometimes just doesn't come out right
++ This doesn't happen often with modern Polaroid film in my experience, but I've had a + case where the film just isn't spread properly and the photo comes out completely + destroyed. Mishandling like scratching the photo too much or letting it fall into snow + can also ruin it. +
+- Film is *expensive*
++ The most unfun part about Polaroid is telling people every photo costs 2$. +
+- Film needs to be stored well
++ Modern film takes a day or two to dry after taking a photo, and should be kept in the + dark when not viewed to avoid damaging them. +
+
+ Some photos I gave to my friend, displayed on his wall
+ +Taking good photos - Exposure
++ The Now+ and Now instant cameras have a light sensor - It's the main thing that decides how long + the shutter stays open. Other than that, you can also hold the flash button and click it again + to adjust exposure by 1/3 stops manually. +
+ ++ General lighting has the most to do with exposure. Polaroid needs a LOT of light. Here's a photo + on what I would call a relatively bright day: +
+ +
+ + The streaks are the bottom are just Polaroid being Polaroid. The left is a scan of the Polaroid + photo done with a mediocre quality printer and the right is the same scene but with a Fuji + digital camera. +
+ ++ That same day, I went out to take a photo of my childhood home. The sun was beginning to set, so + the photo came out completely dark. This story repeats itself quite often in the photos i take. +
+ ++ Generally, you're gonna wanna judge the "light range" in your scene - Your subject should be in + sunlight if most of the scene is in sunlight. If you're trying to take a picture of a shadowed + spot while half the photo will have the sky visible, you will get bad results. +
+ ++ Overcast days also make shooting not really worth it sometimes. They make the sky bright - but + they also don't light the ground enough for most purposes. Some photo examples on an overcast + day: +
+ +
+ + Every photo but the ones on the right side were taken on the same day. You can see the + top-middle show ideal photo conditions: I'm not showing any of the sky so the camera can just + expose what it needs to. In the rest, the ground is poorly lit and the sky is very bright so the + camera deals with it poorly. +
+ ++ Generally, warm sunny days are the best ones. Sometimes the colors just really end up popping. +
+ +
+ These make Polaroid worth it.
+ +Taking good photos - Indoors
++ Turn on the flash. I mean it. My first photo came out completely black because it was indoors. +
+ ++ Another thing is to avoid shooting at mirrors or windows that may reflect the flash, and to keep + in mind the range of the flash - If you capture an object up close, anything behind it will + receive significantly less light, leaving the camera confused. +
+ +
+ There's supposed to be a person behind that BB pistol.
+ +Taking good photos - Temperature
+Polaroid film changes color based on temperature. Here's some examples:
+ +
+ + Left is below freezing. Middle is in "operating temperature" - Something like 7 to 28 degrees + Celcius. Right is above 30 degrees Celcius. You can see the tint go from blue to red. +
+ ++ This isn't terribly interesting, but do mind photos lose a lot of contrast if they're taken in + extremely cold conditions. Keep your camera warm and keep your photos warm after taking them - + Some people have suggested hugging it with your body and keeping the photos in your pocket. +
+ +Taking good photos - Focus
++ Just don't try to take photos of letters or text or whatever. If you're taking a photo of a + screen, make sure it's a big one, and you're about a meter away from the screen itself. +
+ +Anything up close will inevitably come out blurry.
+ +Taking good photos - Film damage
++ Film may just come out bad from the factory. I've shot about 130 photos and had it happen twice + so far: +
+ +
+ I don't know what happened here.
+ +Taking good photos - B&W
++ You may want to invest into black and white Polaroid film if you like that kind of photography. + Some people say the photos are better quality but I personally don't believe it. +
+ ++ When shooting B&W you lose a lot of detail. You also have to keep in mind the film chemistry is + very different. +
+ +
+ This stuff is even more contrasting than the color film.
+ +To wrap up
+This is most of what I've learned over time. Good luck getting that perfect photo.
+music archive
+my music
i first installed fl studio in 2021 apparently. this page has (most of) the shit i've exported @@ -56,7 +56,6 @@ i doubt any of what i've released will become popular but i hope it will serve as inspiration and perspective for how much work you don't see in someone's hobby or career.
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