Sunday, October 19, 2014

Episode 93: 868-HACK

This is episode 93 of Roguelike Radio, where Andrew Doull and Robert Parker talk about Michael Brough's 868-HACK. 

You can download the mp3 of the podcast, play it in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes.




Apologies from Andrew due to the audio quality on his side as his usual set up glitched at the last minute. Hopefully most of the volume issues are fixed in post production.

Topics discussed:
  • Games discussed include 86856527, 868-HACK, Hoplite, Amber Halls, Desert Golf (with apologies to anyone who doesn't own an iOS device)
  • 868-HACK spoilers. Seriously. Skip these if you don't want to spoil yourself.
  • Listen as Andrew miscounts and misstates most of the above and goes on to misattribute the deeds of the family Lantz
  • Jeff Lantz's analysis of Streak Scoring in 868-HACK
  • Helix was released just to make us appear more out of touch than we usually are, and it is awesome
  • Something something *cough* PC release something something
  • Games are art. Drink!
Join us next week for some hype about the upcoming ProcJam!

21 comments:

  1. Hello, I enjoy you podcast but please use some post-processing like normalization and compression. The volume of your podcast when compared to others is so low I can hardly hears it on my iPod touch. Also I can hear the guest's voice but barely hear the host's voice...the audio levels are uneven.And it sound as if the host is not always speaking into the mike. I suggest this for leveling out the volume levels of two or more different speakers in a podcast:
    http://web.archive.org/web/20130729204551id_/http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator/

    About compression and normalization:
    https://auphonic.com/blog/2011/07/25/loudness-normalization-and-compression-podcasts-and-speech-audio/
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kal7soRvT0

    ReplyDelete
  2. Normalization didn't do enough. I had to manually amplify me speaking where possible. As pointed out, there were technical problems that resulted in the audio quality affecting my side of things.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here are the results I got just by running your podcast through the Levelator. You can see your waveform (top) compared to the bottom waveform (that's how a pro audio producer's should look) and you can hear the difference:
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34724021/toRogue/Untitled.jpg
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34724021/toRogue/93%20EpisodeLevel.mp3

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can hear that there were tech problems though. Your voice sound muddy as if you ran it through a noise removal filter. There are a lot of gaming (and some general tech) podcasts these days where the volume is much too low. Compare to the pro podcasters like the TWIT network or Adam Curry's No Agenda podcast...plenty loud.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Also I apologize as I posted before I read your comment about your tech issues. I just automatically assumed that you were not doing any postprocessing. But I still recommend using that Levelator on every episode. It is like magic (as long as there is no music). It only accepts .wav format and exports in .wav so you'd have to save your conversion to mp3 as the last step in your process.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks to the link to the Levelator btw. A quick Google read points out why Audacity's normalize function is inadequate. I might try another pass on the audio (I still have the raw .aup files from Audacity) to clean this up.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Before changing anything in Audacity, try mixing it down to a .wav in Audacity, then drop the .wav file on Levelator. Levelator will out put a file names "*.output.wav". Change that name to *.wav (Audacity can't load a file named "*.output.wav" with the two periods. Then open it in Audacity and just export it to MP3. Levelator does everything, no need to normalize with Audacity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Dan. The file has now been put through Leveller and updated. We'll do this with all episodes in future.

      Delete
  8. Is there a guide for skipping spoliers? Like, skip from M1:S1 to M2:S2?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. About 20m to 30m. Andrew states specifically when they're about to get into spoiler territory.

      Personally I didn't think the spoilers were that big a deal. They talk about a couple of abilities as examples for design elements. There's certainly no mass spoiling of broad mechanics.

      Delete
  9. @Andrew I just listened to the new version and it sounds a lot better, more even. And the content was very interesting as usual. Also I'm a fan of Michael Brough's.

    ReplyDelete
  10. 868-HACK came out when roguelikes started becoming trendy again. It was at that time that the game came out with a hefty $5.99 price tag and all the reviews raved about it.

    I expected it to be about finding potions and killing monsters by getting cool equipment. And if you think about it, it really is about this, but just limited to algorithms. But the way you unlock programs and the weird setting just didn't appeal to me and I haven't played it since. It feels more like a puzzle game than about a rogue sneaking through a dungeon. I was expecting Brogue and got an 8x8 grid puzzler.

    (I hope my criticism helps someone not get caught in the hype that I fell into. I realise that the tactical element might be very appealing to some RL fans. YMMV)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think it's a shame people get stuck in this idea of roguelikes as dungeon crawlers with potions and so on. For a long time the genre ended up in a really bad rut of samey games, much like FPSes are today. I love seeing wildly divergent games like 868-HACK, approaching the genre from a different thematic angle and freeing up the design for different gameplay elements in the process.

      Delete
    2. Don't get me wrong here. I *LOVE* FTL and I'm still working my way through unlocking all the ships on my iPad. I just didn't click with this one.

      Delete
  11. Michael's game is much more on the abstract side. There are no simulationist element to help one easily take in the gameplay rules. As someone who has always enjoyed abstract games this doesn't bother me :)

    How do you find Hoplite or Zaga-33? In terms of gameplay they're even more stripped down and puzzley than 868-HACK, but perhaps the theme resonates better to give it that rogue-y feel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hoplite was fun until I locked most of it. Again, trying to get down in a minimum amount of moves and similar achievements is what lost my interest.

      I suppose there's a certain narrative to the gameplay that I enjoy. When it becomes too abstract, I don't feel that connection.

      I didn't play Zaga-33.

      Delete
  12. @Darren @Peter what do you consider the best modern-day (no ACSII art) Roguelike? And have you guys heard of this? (I just found it tonight googling for "SF Themed Roguelike")
    http://ibol17.wordpress.com
    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=241001211

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. IBOL's game looks interesting, but what I played of it was a bit too off the deep end for me. I don't have the time for giant, needlessly complex games any more.

      "Best" is not only subjective, but really inappropriate in such a diverse field. If I want to pass 5 minutes on the bus I'll play Ending. If I want a good challenge for an hour I'll play Brogue. If I want to shut off the world for half a day I'll fire up ADOM or ToME. These games all tick different boxes and directly comparing them isn't very easy.

      I also don't consider modern to mean "no ASCII". Modern to me is about design, avoiding the kitchen sink and hidden traps designs of past games. 7DRLs are often the most exciting things for me, stripping out a lot of historical crud and experimenting in new and interesting ways. Whether they have graphics or not is irrelevant.

      Delete
    2. I agree. The latest in my sights is "Road not taken" as it's on special on Steam at the moment and SpryFox seems to make quality games. It also ticks some checkboxes while I wait for "Below" to come out on PC!

      Delete
  13. you can get a demo of Approaching Infinity here: http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Ibology/AI/AI_page.html

    ReplyDelete
  14. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete