Serrano

After quite a long stretch last year in tutorial hell doing Udemy courses on React and Node I've started building my own projects, trying to produce things that I can use in a portfolio. I'm working in a hotel/holiday park at the moment as a waiter and the restaurant only have paper menus, so I pitched the idea of doing a digital menu instead. I built a prototype with React as a front-end only web app, it means only I can make changes to it but for the hotel it’s more affordable because they wouldn’t have to pay for a backend server. The way I’ve coded it basically means that the site takes arrays for each menu category (starters, burgers, steaks ect) and generates the web page based off of those, this means it’s really quick and easy to update the menu. If they want, I can turn it into a full stack application and make an interface where they can change the menu themselves. The FOH manager and head chef seemed to like it, we’re too busy in the restaurant to go ahead with it right now but hopefully it'll get green lighted later. https://172v-restaurant-proto.netlify.app/ I also started working on a stupid little map app of the area where I work to practice using a library called Leaflet. Leaflet basically allows you to setup your own google maps in your web sites and include custom markers and a few other features like that. It looked a bit jankey but it was functional and was the first project where I had enough state variables to make good use of the useReducer hook. I definitely wouldn’t add this one to my portfolio but I did learn lessons from it. Tonight, I’m going back over the Node.js project I did as part of a Udemy course and I’m trying to make sure I understand and memorize the different refactoring tricks Jonas used in his course as it makes the code a lot easier to read and write. Then I’ll need to build something of my own again. Right now I’m pretty comfortable with React but with Node I can only do basic CRUD operations so the goal is to just focus on Node for a month or two until I get to a decent level with it. Part of me worries that this is a mistake and I should just focus on front-end for now until I can get a job but since due to real-life circumstances I wouldn’t be in a position to accept a job until autumn anyway, my hope is that knowing full stack will mean more job opportunities in the long run and also just make me a more well-rounded programmer.

I was obsessed with Midnight Suns over January and February. I remember the game took a bit of a kicking over it's writing when reviews first started coming out but once I got used to the tone that the game follows I think the writing was pretty good, if a bit cringey in places. The cast of characters really grew on me and there were some good one liners and a very wholesome dynamic between the cast, it really felt like a little family. Overall I'd rate Midnight Suns pretty highly, it's got a much shorter lifespan than something like XCOM by being so story-driven but it was a great experience while it lasted.

I wasn't ever lucky enough to play pen and paper d&d but after watching D20 it seems like the best game in the world if you have a good group

It would be kind of funny and ironic to do a Planescape sequel now that the player has forgotten everything that happened to the Nameless One.

I haven't had time to properly start an Immortal Empires campaign yet but it's been great being able to get back into multiplayer with all the races again. Creative Assembly have done such a good job with this series, it must have been so difficult to make something this epic in scale and still make it so varied and balanced and fun.

I wish they'd actually do that comic someday. It would sell really well and it sounds like it would make for a really good story, there's eough material for it to even be a series like Superior Spider-Man was. I mean, it's not like Marvel and DC have never done a crossover before.

Hey guys, I don't know how long the new site has been up but I just wanted to say that I love it! Really awesome design, such a nice and efficient layout and it looks high quality too. Just wanted to praise whoever was responsible.

Coincidentally I was thinking about maybe doing an interactive fiction game soon to practice JavaScript. There's a niche market for that sort of thing and I think it's possily growing. For one thing there have been four interactive fiction/ visual novels released by White Wolf recently that have been really good and I think did reasonably well saleswise (Three of them are Vampire: The Masquerade games and one is Werewolf: The Apocalyse). Also there is a woman named Emily Short who used to do a lot of old-school interactive fiction and her work was really creative. She did a story called 'Glass' which I can't describe without ruining it but was a really clever story and had a fair bit of tension in it, It's well worth playing if you want some inspiration. http://iplayif.com/?story=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ifarchive.org%2Fif-archive%2Fgames%2Fzcode%2FGlass.zblorb This is sort of off-topic but there's also been a trend in the last of couple of years about watching people, actors ect playing tabletop roleplaying games and that's really taking off like wildfire. On Twitch there's a channel called Geek and Sundry and they do loads of these but there's also Dimension 20 and White Wolf themselves produced a series called Vampire: The Masquerade - LA by Night that's really popular. I feel like there could be some overlap between people who watch those shows and play IF games (Hence the Vampire games I mentioned before) and if you wrote something compelling enough I'm sure there'd be an audience for it. I think if you're looking for things to research before you write your story then it may be worth checking a couple of these channels out. Good luck with your project, I hope you have fun with it

I get what you mean, I've barely had time to play games at all this year. That said, 10% of all gamers worldwide barely ever finish the games they buy? That blows my mind, and arguably what a waste of money the videogames industry is if they're constantly pouring millions and years of development into content most people will never even see. My bad, I thought you were within touching distance of the end and since the game was on the list were just burned out or stuck or something. I hope you get more out of the next one.

I heard some crazy stastic that only about 10% of gamers actually finish the games they play. Melusina, if you're close to beating Divinity 2 and still consider it an option then I'd suggest just plowing through. You can cross it off your list, not feel like you've wasted all that time and also have bragging rights that you're in the top 10% of nerdkind. Also, if you go back to it much later you'll probably end up having to start over because it's hard to remember stratergies and character builds, not to mention the finer points of the story when you've let a year or two pass.

I'd love it if optional romances were woven into the main plot like the Atton & Kriea storyline for Kotor 2. Done well romance story threads can be amazing, because stories. If they're just going to do something shallow though I'd rather they put the time and resources into something else.

For anyone who’s going to see Avengers Endgame, there are no post credits scenes.

Off topic but I recently started watching a playthrough of the pen & paper Vampire: The Masquerade. It's pretty amazing. This is from Geek and Sundry so I believe all of the players are actors and they really get into character and the GM is from White Wolf. It's really entertaining to watch, basically feels like an improv audiobook and if you were ever curious about these kind of games this is a great way to get a feel for them.

Dear Obsidian devs. I just watched this scientific breakdown on YouTube and now respectfully demand scientifically accurate lightsabers in The Outer Worlds. Because honestly how cool would this be??? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BRAyIXgWBWc