I'm not a game developer but if I were to make a game, the only ideas that come to mind seem to be "I'm gonna remake my favorite game but change these things I didn't like about it!" but I heard that's a bad idea usually.

I'm wondering how much change, and to which aspects (gameplay, mechanics, theme, etc), do you think is needed to make a game inspired by something instead of a rip-off?

!askgaming@piefed.social

I have always wanted to make my own neighborhood from scratch as I tend to play Pleasantview but the sort of lots I want to make will make Pleasantview squish. And another factor is majority of pre-made neighborhood are based in America (beside Veronaville as it build as Tudor-style based as the household are based on William Shakespeare' play) which I want to play neighborhood that based around modern Britain as well... I live there.

The only issue I have is:

• How the hell do I make an terrain from SimCity4 where the terrain screams "British suburbia" and not another generic neighborhood. Not wanting to make 1:1 of a real-life town, but just gives off British vibe
• Working out road layout within Sims 2 limitation. Despite you can import .sc4, you can can only use Roads (not Street road, One-way Road etc) and it can't be diagonal, otherwise the game won't render that road. So I had to use the "staircase" method to get rough curve
• For making household, what story would they have as well as their job or if they own a business and which one. For me wanting to open a Salon or anything that sells item beside grocery, it required a Sim to open up a business. It not needed but it makes it more immersive when playing another household and if I feel like they need a haircut, I won't Change Appearance from their mirror and instead take them to salon and pay for haircut.

I might need to try look various places online and use Pinterest which I find alright for planning out the rough aesthetics. I probably should try find other media to get inspiration so feel free to suggest me any which gives me an excuse to take a break from spending HOURS on SimCity4 trying to make both terrain and road layout.

There's something so magical about the old-school Tomb Raider games and I love that feeling of that I have explore all by my own as well as the platforming which felt later games from Tomb Raider Legend streamlined it where I missed that that platforming from A to B was a puzzle to execute.

I tried Tomb Raider 2013 but just felt underwhelm by it and dislike how it where it take/district the controls to make the game "cinematic". Surprised I didn't like as I thought cause I'm a Zoomer, I would like newer games much more compare to the older one.

Any 3D games like Core Design's Tomb Raider that has heavily emphasis on Platforming would be nice to hear as I find it difficult to find game that is identical to Tomb Raider instead of Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie. Both great games but completely different to Tomb Raider

!askgaming@piefed.social seems more active

Not so much from me. It’s fun, but I suspect once I’m done I’ll not return to it. But from my four year old daughter. She’s had a passing interest in daddy’s hobby before. With the auto driver on, she can hold interest in few laps of Mario Kart. She liked the execrable Bluey game. Everything else holds no interest.

Until Bananza. Three days straight now, she has asked if she can watch me play the monkey game. Not when I was playing it. At entirely separate times! Tonight, watching five minutes of Bananza was sufficient reward for behaving at bath time. She shrieks with laughter when his eyes turn into bananas. She cheers when I earn a banana. And she offers suggestions for where I might punch to find bananas. She’s totally enraptured and she’s not even the player.

Maybe at some point I’ll show her how to use the second controller function. But for now, it’s just a delight to play the money game with her.

it genuinely is.

I don’t understand why the majority of cozy games have a calendar system and or time limits. I already have a limited time on earth and I don’t want game devs to artificially restrict how I spend time in game.

I have to drop games like Stardew Valley because of the calendar system. I know there is no strict time limits and I can just wait for the following year if I miss an event. But that just makes the game stressful. Also the day/night cycle is extremely quick. Every action I take I have to look at the time and consider the duration.

Similarly in Persona series, why do they have the calendar system and restrict how much you can do with social interactions? When I play an RPG I like to take my time to explore as I want.

I am writing this because I finally found a game that feels cozy, which is Fantasy Life i. No calendar, no time limits, live as many different lives as I want. I prefer games to be games.

For me, I am hoping to see discounts on:

• Steam Deck OLED
• Expedition 33 (probably worth the full price but I am not sure if the timing based combat is for me)
• Fantasy Life i
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

I love watching game reviews on YouTube, but I find many reviewers sharing these annoyances:

• Loud background music making it difficult to listen to the actual review
• Spending way too much time talking about the story. I only want to know the theme of the story, not the entire plot
• Making it a game tutorial. It is helpful to briefly describe the game mechanics so I can find out whether the game is for me. But it becomes excessive when you explain it in detail.

What I want to hear more:

• Whether the game is good
• How it compares with other games in the genre
• How is the music in the game?

Game channels I like/recommend:
TheKisekiNut, JohnRiggs, MortismalGaming, davidvinc, gameranx, ircha

Can someone recommend other good gaming channels? I especially like retro games.