I've played CBC several times over the course of my life, it's an enjoyable platformer with a unique setting that lets it stand out a bit from the competition. I remember when it just came out! I'd definitely buy it on Steam if you put it on there!
I quite like the new sprite! Obviously it's very different, but it's also inarguably closer to how the game describes Clarence. I assume you used the old version of the sprite since it has a shape more similar to Mario, which is the primary inspiration for the game, even if it doesn't really convey Clarence's corpulence, though it does get across that Clarence isn't much of a looker. I'd like to see what you'd do with the rest of the sprites, I'd say your sprite art has definitely evolved over time!
As for the tone, I think parts of the game hold up, I particularly like the parts where it's just zany and absurdist like Clarence's mom and dad just being all over the place, or the comically evil company Clarence works for. Some of the other dialogue/writing is a product of its time, but nothing I think a disclaimer can't address. There's probably a version of Clarence out there who looks the exact same and is also a wonderful person. But that's not the Clarence that CBC is about.
I do still wish we'd have gotten that Clarence RPG sequel! I am quite curious what exactly your plans were for that game, like whether Ernest was actually as pure-hearted as he seemed or was secretly as depraved as Clarence is.
MARDEK seems to have some depth to its lore and a lot of people take seriously its continuity. It's something that people have followed and want to see its conclusion. Clarence isn't quite the same for me because its story seems to be lighter and doesn't have a continuity that makes people expect more out of the story... or something. This means that perhaps you can probably just change its story in every which way you please without upsetting some sort of rabid fanbase. You probably won't ruin someone's childhood for it.
If you were to remake Clarence, I would probably play it again. I don't get into a lot of new games these days because between work, sleep, my Youtube channel, my wife, and my other chores, I just don't have a lot of time to go around. If a game requires me to commit more than 4 hours of my time, I'm already much less inclined to try it out, no matter how compelling the story or gameplay might be.
Oh! I actually made my wife play a bit of Clarence. She is decidedly not a gamer at all, and she didn't even make it out of Clarence's house. She didn't care any bit about the story. I don't think she even commented on Clarence being in his underwear! It's actually interesting watching her not get the "hold the jump button to jump higher" mechanic that comes natural to people like me.
There was some isolation stuff I wanted to comment on in your previous post. In fact, I totally read it on the first day. But every time I thought of something to attempt to encourage you, I feel like it might just backfire and make you feel worse!
You know my coworkers and I have a lot of casual interactions that I feel just help build relationships, just by virtue of being right next to each other for long periods of time. I'm wondering if mixing it up could help with your isolation. I know you have anxiety issues with other people, and you still consider yourself a video game maker/music composer-type person, so I can totally see you not agreeing to this at all.
Perhaaaaaaaaps just TRYING OUT a part-time job where you get a lighter exposure to strangers, while still giving you a chance to escape isolation might help? It's definitely not a perfect solution, and it requires you to deal with your anxiety (which I know is physically difficult). But the pros are plenty:
1. New source of income
2. Chance to meet new friends
3. Perhaps learn new life skills
4. May inspire new music or game/s
5. Can foster independence
6. Only part time, so you can still work on your games and art and music and stuff
7. Can always quit if it's not for you. It's just trying, after all
8. If nothing about it works at all, it might give you a newfound appreciation for your current situation?
I'm sure it has been suggested before, and you've probably already had reasons to not go for it. Or perhaps you've actually tried it at some point and it hasn't worked out? I'm just thinking I could perhaps provide some additional perspective for it. If it hasn't worked out, I'm interested to know how exactly it failed. Then I'll try to think of different ways to help!
Most actual adults seem to be too busy to play games, which is a big reason I worry the only audience they'd ever attract - if I actually finished and released a new one - would be teenagers... I appreciate that you'd be willing to play this thing if I released a remaster of it though!
At uni, I had a female flatmate who told me about some RPG she'd been playing but was struggling to finish... which was because she'd been running from every battle and was severely underleveled. She didn't have the accumulated years of experience playing other games to 'just know' you're meant to grind. And I didn't have the heart to tell her she'd been 'doing it wrong'!
It's a shame that women aren't socialised to play games, meaning they don't get familiar with them growing up. One of the biggest reasons I never decided to become an actual proper Game Developer is because I expected ALL my colleagues would be men, and there'd be no hope of finding a partner there.
Frustratingly, my ex girlfriend was as into games as I was (which is more than the average woman but less than the sort of gamer guy who gets the latest consoles and plays multiplayer FPSeses all day), and made her own game and everything.
So the idea of meeting some relative 'normie' woman who doesn't understand something I've devoted much of my life to - who's from an entirely other world - feels so disheartening because I know what it's like to be with someone who's 'of my kind'.
I've thought about getting a part-time job or doing volunteering or something many times over the past few years; I've written blog posts about it, though I think you said you'd not seen the older ones?
The main reasons I've not done it yet are because I assume I'll be socially rejected/excluded in a way that hurts (because all my colleagues will be more 'normal' than I am, and because of my CRIPPLING MENTAL ISSUES and isolation-ravaged social skills), and because I don't know what kinds of jobs or volunteering roles I could even get. Stacking shelves in the supermarket? Crates in a warehouse?
I just don't have any experience with 'jobs' as others see them, so I have no idea what to expect, and assume the worst due to all the TRAUMA!!! I've accumulated over the years. I don't even know what the options are.
(Funnily enough, one of the levels in CBC is based on a work environment. But it's based entirely on pop culture depictions since I've never been in one myself.)
I've looked on things like Indeed, but feel like a 'normie' woman probably would when reading about Pokemon EVs and IVs or something. "What am I even looking at here? I have no experiences to connect this cold, alien information to."
While it's true that most adults are too busy to play games, the share of adults who "try" and "buy" games is probably a lot higher now than it used to be when we were younger. In our youth, maybe 0.1% of adults bought and tried games, but I think it could be more like 15~30% these days. Our generation seems to be the one where video games truly took off as a pastime, and even growing up we still love playing video games, whether we have time for them or not.
A lot of adults I personally know are still very much into video games. Most of the people who post their computers on r/pcmasterrace seem to at least be adults. I even see this manager at work have some sort of game on his laptop when his boss isn't looking. My former coworker got into building his own gaming PC before I did. In fact, some gaming communities like that of StarCraft have a majority adult audience. While its peak popularity was over two decades ago, many of them still participate by watching their favorite livestreamer or tournament.
My wife grew up in a rural town. Her family didn't have TV or internet when she grew up. She went over to her cousin's place and they watched movies together, so she was much more into movies. While it's still true that she is decidedly not a gamer, she does play some games like Tetris and Wordle and such. She is in fact a bit better at Tetris, and a lot better at Sudoku than I am! (I am better at the crossword, though!)
When I first met my would-be wife, she looked every bit like the 'normie' person we both have in mind. No video games, goes out a lot with friends, Roman Catholic, career-oriented, etc. But I learned that she was actually into Lord of the Rings, and then we talked more, and I learned that we actually have a lot more in common than what make us different. I definitely changed how I view the 'normie' characterization, and I now feel that branding a person as someone 'not of my kind', while helpful in terms of composing yourself socially, is probably more counterproductive overall in terms of building relationships.
These days, I try to think in terms of what we have in common (no matter how few or how little) whenever I interact with other people. A large chunk of being in a successful relationship is speaking from a common perspective. Do we have the same struggle with the ladies? Do we both have money problems? Do we both dislike Americans? Do we both like pizza? That sort of deal.
Yes, I unfortunately have not been able to read a lot of your earlier blogs and at this point, it would probably take weeks nonstop to read them all, and I unfortunately don't have the time for that. So... I won't. :D
I totally understand where you're coming from about being socially excluded from some group at work. I also had that a lot in school and stuff. So almost 10 years ago, I went to the US for work-related stuff. I went to a bunch of different states like Ohio, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Illinois, Minnesota. And a lot of the time I was pretty much by myself. From my experience, a lot of the people I met at work there were very friendly and inclusive. It's as if they were acutely aware of how alone and maybe homesick I was, and tried their best to make me feel welcome.
Perhaps you could say I was just very lucky. Though I've been to about half a dozen places, and they all did their best to make me feel welcome. So... maybe the chances of exclusion isn't as high as I thought? Or maybe school kids are just mean and evil! (Or more likely, adults just have a higher level of maturity and empathy)
It's actually sort of similar in my current workplace. My coworkers in my department are very friendly and welcoming. Every time we hire a new person, it takes them what seems like less than five seconds to be best friends!
Now, I don't know how different work is in the UK vs in the Philippines, but if it's at all similar, here are some possible ideas for part-time work if you're interested in kind of jobs that are out there (I've finished Clarence, so I know the office and the computer levels! No ghosts or scorpions in our office, sadly):
1. In a private company (or even government office?), you could be an administrative assistant who files papers (put them in a folder, then put folder in a file cabinet), sends emails, retrieves packages from suppliers or customers, maybe some data entry (typing things on a computer). It's not terribly exciting work, but they generally would teach you what to do, and it will probably get some precious "WORK EXPERIENCE" on your résumé.
2. In a university, you could probably help out at a faculty. Probably not a teaching position since that would mean dealing with a whole lot of teenagers, but maybe some similar data entry work. Maybe you could help teachers grade papers, or assist in some research. Or maybe just help out at the library or auditorium or lab or gym or... something. It's university, so it might be a familiar place. Plus universities are more open and accepting and... teach-ing, right?
3. In a food bank (or CHURCH!), you might be able to help with repackaging food (from sacks to smaller containers, for example) in a warehouse for distribution. I'm just thinking the type of people who work here probably aren't personally ambitious and might be more predisposed toward being friendly.
4. In a factory, you could be a line worker who just puts stuff together, or operates a machine that does the work for you. Or maybe you could be a safety officer who just walks around and makes sure that food doesn't get contaminated, for example. Very simple and you just do what everyone else does. The thing is I'm not sure if there are even jobs like this in a country as rich as the UK!
5. In the government, you have a lot of options. Maybe you could be one of those guys who paints the lines on the roads. Or the guy who disconnects people's electricity when they don't pay their bills. Or maybe you could work in a national park and just sit in a booth and hand out brochures to tourists. Or you could be in Customs and check that nothing illegal gets into your country. So many options!
You can also look up "entry-level jobs", or "data entry jobs" if you want to look yourself. If you need help figuring out what stuff means on Indeed, I'm happy to help. You can hit me up on Discord or on here. Everyone has to start SOMEWHERE.
Also, I've never played any actual Pokemon game, so I've no idea what an EV or IV are supposed to mean! :D
+1 to CtG's suggestion of getting a job. It could potentially help a lot with mitigating the problems of independence, direction, isolation, etc.
I think video games have become more mainstream over time, so we shouldn't discount the ability of women to play games. (I've played a variety of co-op games with my gf.) And the increase in "cozy" games I've been hearing about should cater to more casual audiences. Same with mobile games.
Part of stepping out into the world (of work and other activities) includes taking risks such the risk of social exclusion or job failure. But it's a valuable life experience. And it often falls in the category of things you are initially scared of but feel easier after you do it. No one starts with work experience. It's something you pick up by trying new things.
At least with jobs, I've encountered far more pleasant colleagues than not-so-nice ones. It helps that most of us share common goals of gaining money and work experience, and we're working together to make the business function.
I agree that there should be a toggle between the old graphics and the new ones because some people will get the game for the nostalgia.
I also wonder if a bigger Clarence sprite with the same hitbox could be confusing to play. But you'll figure it out after some play testing.
Also, be careful of going too overboard with the stretch goals. Too much feature creep could make the entire project take longer to finish.
I think the absurdity of the game is a good thing. It adds character and helps it stand out. I remember how Palworld stood out due the absurdity of its marketing featuring cute lambs wielding realistic guns, and it was a refreshingly mean-spirited take on the monster catcher genre. Meanwhile, CBC pokes fun at online dating and corporate jobs, both of which can be mean and tiresome at times in real life.
Regarding the life stuff: Yeah. It's hard when there are those looming problems to worry about. I hope the CBC remaster helps give you a sense of purpose (and some money). It's not a long term solution, but it could help you get somewhere.
I didn’t play Clarence, although I remember it had a bit of a fanbase on fighunter. But I think giving the option to toggle is a good idea just because fans often feel nostalgia for the original game and don’t want that taken away from them, so to speak. 😅 They may even prefer the new sprites but just want to know that the old ones are still there in case they want to see them again. Speaking from personal experience as a player myself. I get very nostalgic.
I’ve also felt worse coming out of counseling appointments sometimes and not sure why. I wonder if sometimes it’s the counselor who I don’t mesh with or if sometimes frequent appointments help while other times they don’t. For a while, my appointments were greatly encouraging for me. But since I transitioned from my last behavioral health place and only have a prescriber now, I’ve been considering whether I need some time to work things out on my own now.
And yeah, getting dopamine or any good feelings from going on walks is a privilege a lot of people don’t realize. Being effortlessly healthy can make us believe we have all the answers, but truthfully different people have different experiences and at different times. I know you’ve probably heard this a lot, but as a daily pill-popper myself, I want to suggest that you might benefit from taking some type or types of medication. You’d be surprised how much it can help your emotions and outlook when your chemicals are out of whack, and no diet or exercise can fix that. None of us want to depend on drugs, but sometimes they do exist for a reason and can make life much more bearable. Getting the right ones for you is also important, so try not to feel discouraged if the first few either don’t do much right away or don’t work for any reasons. Psychiatric meds can cause a lot of bad side effects, but a lot of us go through that and switch until we find ones, sometimes even several of the same type, that work for us.
Meds are also not a miracle cure, but they are much closer to one than anything else you will find if you just need them. Speaking from personal experience. And no pressure of course; it’s your health, not mine.
Some war veterans have said that taking stuff like marijuana helps them with PTSD. I know there's a stigma attached to it since it's labeled as one of those bad drugs, and it kinda stinks when people use it, but I wonder if something like that would help calm people down. In fact, I've seen videos of people claiming it's the only thing that helps. Or maybe that's just their addiction talking? I dunno.
Drugs and walks are certainly not silver bullets for depression or other mental stuff. However, I definitely agree it's at least worth a try on some of them, especially if the benefits they provide outweigh the risk. At the very minimum, being a little more physically fit or being able to calm down after a bout of PTSD is better than the alternative, right?
For me, sans my meds, I not only experience psychotic symptoms but I also have terrible problems with both my mood and my outlook which I only just recently realized changed drastically at points depending on whether I had forgotten to take my meds. In those instances of emotional and mental turmoil, I realized that I truly could be in genuine danger from such a thing, and so could others around me. It was amazing to realize first-hand how utterly unable to control ourselves we can truly be. It’s also shocking sometimes how much of what we feel and believe is not from a source outside of ourselves but from inside. Coming out of the dark, so to speak, is the only way to know how blind you had been.
I feel like all these pieces have just started to “click” together recently for me, but this same misunderstanding seems to happen often with people because we differentiate between physical and “mental” conditions, forgetting that everything mental is also physical and can need external treatment just the way any physical injury or illness does, be it surgery or medication or whatever. It is not possible to manifest a capability that you just don’t possess through sheer willpower. This should be obvious, but it isn’t for seemingly most of us whether we deal with our own mental health conditions or not, strangely enough.
With marijuana and recreational drugs in general, it’s also important to remember that the primary issue with recreational drugs is the recreational part. If I’m not mistaken, marijuana is a less dangerous drug generally, and as for the addiction factor I don’t know but I’ve known some potheads, including many who’ve since quit or only occasionally dabble which makes me feel inclined to believe that the US rating of its addictiveness was never accurate.
But lots of commonly prescribed drugs are addictive and even dangerous yet we use them anyway because, as you said, we’ve determined that the benefits outweighed the risks. Psychiatric drugs are exactly the same thing, a physical cure to a physical malady. We really do vilify medicine because it’s scary, but to be honest, I think our tendency to project our own understanding and experiences onto what we can’t see often prevents people who genuinely need medical care from either getting or even seeking it. When people who need help tell others what they go through, the common response is, “Me too,” or “Everyone does” because they misunderstand the degrees. They can’t *see* it, so therefore they can’t correct their own automatic confirmation bias or realize that it’s happening.
The problem on the other end is that the person with bigger issues also may have no way of deciphering the degrees and therefore might feel that they are lacking because they’ll believe others go through the same thing but just handle it better. The thing is, as the old saying goes, the proof is in the pudding: At some point we are just stopped by our limitations, whatever they may be, and whether we feel guilty or not, there’s nothing we can do. Admitting our own weaknesses, doing what we can, and letting go of what we can’t is the only productive way to deal with it. Torturing ourselves just to never get better anyway is a tragic waste. It’s much nicer to know better. But it’s also important that others around us understand so that they won’t put those same unhelpful and counterproductive pressures on us. 🫤 Personally, I’m still working on any *really* good solutions, though. In large part, it seems like I have to settle. Most of us would love to live relatively normally if we could.
I played the original. I've always accepted the mean-spirited stuff as just satire (which I believe is often misunderstood), so it's never offended me. Mardek and Miasmon are my personal favorites, after all (And speaking of which, there is a comment I made on your post of you playing Miasmon about 2 weeks ago that I'd like you to read, if you don't mind). I like both sprites, so I'd also wouldn't mind a toggle (especially since you mentioned it wouldn't affect his gameplay). I've always found the gameplay to fit just right, and I've never had trouble playing it, so I don't have any changes to suggest.
Either way, I know how you feel on the depression end. I'm still physically ill, and it's affecting me mentally. But I'm happy you're feeling good doing what you love.
Sorry to hear that illness is still getting you down. I wish our bodies and minds were more reliable...
Sorry, I must have missed your other comment; I went back to check that. I'm glad you liked Miasmon! I wondered while replaying it the other day whether anyone else even remembered it.
I've actually been wondering while working on this Clarence's Big Chance remaster thing whether to try and finish off some of my old games, and Miasmon came to mind as one I could possibly do something with, since it's also entirely pixel art, it's written in the same language as CBC (rather than the one MARDEK's in which isn't reasonably possible to adapt), and I did enjoy replaying it recently (and felt disappointed when it just *ended*)... Though I don't want to promise anything. It might be more work than it's worth.
At the very least, I'd *like* to make all the content in the game available in the Ruffle version on the 'museum' website, though it depends on whether I can even edit the game's code at all; a big reason I'm remaking CBC in Unity is because it's such a pain working with the old Flash files. So no promises there either, though knowing at least one person other than me is interested in it does motivate me to at least explore the possibilities!
I appreciate that. I've played practically every project you've made (I still have the file for the game I made with my nephew as the main character for Alora Fane: Creation. I never made the second "game" though. I should get to that sometime). Your work, finished or not, has always had an influence on me since the day I discovered it. It's made me want to work on video games of my own.
As for whether or not you can change them, I'd still play them anyway. It's always fun.
It's been ages since I played it, but the original didn't have saving, right? I think that would be a good addition. I agree that the original was a little mean spirited, but I think remastering it is very different from making the game from scratch today, and adding a disclaimer at the start about it being for preservation would go a long way. I also think the original sprites should probably be a toggle, a lot of the people that would buy the game are probably doing it out of nostalgia.
The original definitely did have saving! I noticed while working on this that I still had some saves from the last time I tried to make a port (a couple of years ago). And yes, I was going to include some kind of disclaimer somewhere, or maybe I'll make tiny alterations to things like signposts' text that mention explicitly that the year is 2010/2011 and how things were different then, something like that.
I've played CBC several times over the course of my life, it's an enjoyable platformer with a unique setting that lets it stand out a bit from the competition. I remember when it just came out! I'd definitely buy it on Steam if you put it on there!
I quite like the new sprite! Obviously it's very different, but it's also inarguably closer to how the game describes Clarence. I assume you used the old version of the sprite since it has a shape more similar to Mario, which is the primary inspiration for the game, even if it doesn't really convey Clarence's corpulence, though it does get across that Clarence isn't much of a looker. I'd like to see what you'd do with the rest of the sprites, I'd say your sprite art has definitely evolved over time!
As for the tone, I think parts of the game hold up, I particularly like the parts where it's just zany and absurdist like Clarence's mom and dad just being all over the place, or the comically evil company Clarence works for. Some of the other dialogue/writing is a product of its time, but nothing I think a disclaimer can't address. There's probably a version of Clarence out there who looks the exact same and is also a wonderful person. But that's not the Clarence that CBC is about.
I do still wish we'd have gotten that Clarence RPG sequel! I am quite curious what exactly your plans were for that game, like whether Ernest was actually as pure-hearted as he seemed or was secretly as depraved as Clarence is.
Ohai Toby~
MARDEK seems to have some depth to its lore and a lot of people take seriously its continuity. It's something that people have followed and want to see its conclusion. Clarence isn't quite the same for me because its story seems to be lighter and doesn't have a continuity that makes people expect more out of the story... or something. This means that perhaps you can probably just change its story in every which way you please without upsetting some sort of rabid fanbase. You probably won't ruin someone's childhood for it.
If you were to remake Clarence, I would probably play it again. I don't get into a lot of new games these days because between work, sleep, my Youtube channel, my wife, and my other chores, I just don't have a lot of time to go around. If a game requires me to commit more than 4 hours of my time, I'm already much less inclined to try it out, no matter how compelling the story or gameplay might be.
Oh! I actually made my wife play a bit of Clarence. She is decidedly not a gamer at all, and she didn't even make it out of Clarence's house. She didn't care any bit about the story. I don't think she even commented on Clarence being in his underwear! It's actually interesting watching her not get the "hold the jump button to jump higher" mechanic that comes natural to people like me.
There was some isolation stuff I wanted to comment on in your previous post. In fact, I totally read it on the first day. But every time I thought of something to attempt to encourage you, I feel like it might just backfire and make you feel worse!
You know my coworkers and I have a lot of casual interactions that I feel just help build relationships, just by virtue of being right next to each other for long periods of time. I'm wondering if mixing it up could help with your isolation. I know you have anxiety issues with other people, and you still consider yourself a video game maker/music composer-type person, so I can totally see you not agreeing to this at all.
Perhaaaaaaaaps just TRYING OUT a part-time job where you get a lighter exposure to strangers, while still giving you a chance to escape isolation might help? It's definitely not a perfect solution, and it requires you to deal with your anxiety (which I know is physically difficult). But the pros are plenty:
1. New source of income
2. Chance to meet new friends
3. Perhaps learn new life skills
4. May inspire new music or game/s
5. Can foster independence
6. Only part time, so you can still work on your games and art and music and stuff
7. Can always quit if it's not for you. It's just trying, after all
8. If nothing about it works at all, it might give you a newfound appreciation for your current situation?
I'm sure it has been suggested before, and you've probably already had reasons to not go for it. Or perhaps you've actually tried it at some point and it hasn't worked out? I'm just thinking I could perhaps provide some additional perspective for it. If it hasn't worked out, I'm interested to know how exactly it failed. Then I'll try to think of different ways to help!
Most actual adults seem to be too busy to play games, which is a big reason I worry the only audience they'd ever attract - if I actually finished and released a new one - would be teenagers... I appreciate that you'd be willing to play this thing if I released a remaster of it though!
At uni, I had a female flatmate who told me about some RPG she'd been playing but was struggling to finish... which was because she'd been running from every battle and was severely underleveled. She didn't have the accumulated years of experience playing other games to 'just know' you're meant to grind. And I didn't have the heart to tell her she'd been 'doing it wrong'!
It's a shame that women aren't socialised to play games, meaning they don't get familiar with them growing up. One of the biggest reasons I never decided to become an actual proper Game Developer is because I expected ALL my colleagues would be men, and there'd be no hope of finding a partner there.
Frustratingly, my ex girlfriend was as into games as I was (which is more than the average woman but less than the sort of gamer guy who gets the latest consoles and plays multiplayer FPSeses all day), and made her own game and everything.
So the idea of meeting some relative 'normie' woman who doesn't understand something I've devoted much of my life to - who's from an entirely other world - feels so disheartening because I know what it's like to be with someone who's 'of my kind'.
I've thought about getting a part-time job or doing volunteering or something many times over the past few years; I've written blog posts about it, though I think you said you'd not seen the older ones?
The main reasons I've not done it yet are because I assume I'll be socially rejected/excluded in a way that hurts (because all my colleagues will be more 'normal' than I am, and because of my CRIPPLING MENTAL ISSUES and isolation-ravaged social skills), and because I don't know what kinds of jobs or volunteering roles I could even get. Stacking shelves in the supermarket? Crates in a warehouse?
I just don't have any experience with 'jobs' as others see them, so I have no idea what to expect, and assume the worst due to all the TRAUMA!!! I've accumulated over the years. I don't even know what the options are.
(Funnily enough, one of the levels in CBC is based on a work environment. But it's based entirely on pop culture depictions since I've never been in one myself.)
I've looked on things like Indeed, but feel like a 'normie' woman probably would when reading about Pokemon EVs and IVs or something. "What am I even looking at here? I have no experiences to connect this cold, alien information to."
While it's true that most adults are too busy to play games, the share of adults who "try" and "buy" games is probably a lot higher now than it used to be when we were younger. In our youth, maybe 0.1% of adults bought and tried games, but I think it could be more like 15~30% these days. Our generation seems to be the one where video games truly took off as a pastime, and even growing up we still love playing video games, whether we have time for them or not.
A lot of adults I personally know are still very much into video games. Most of the people who post their computers on r/pcmasterrace seem to at least be adults. I even see this manager at work have some sort of game on his laptop when his boss isn't looking. My former coworker got into building his own gaming PC before I did. In fact, some gaming communities like that of StarCraft have a majority adult audience. While its peak popularity was over two decades ago, many of them still participate by watching their favorite livestreamer or tournament.
My wife grew up in a rural town. Her family didn't have TV or internet when she grew up. She went over to her cousin's place and they watched movies together, so she was much more into movies. While it's still true that she is decidedly not a gamer, she does play some games like Tetris and Wordle and such. She is in fact a bit better at Tetris, and a lot better at Sudoku than I am! (I am better at the crossword, though!)
When I first met my would-be wife, she looked every bit like the 'normie' person we both have in mind. No video games, goes out a lot with friends, Roman Catholic, career-oriented, etc. But I learned that she was actually into Lord of the Rings, and then we talked more, and I learned that we actually have a lot more in common than what make us different. I definitely changed how I view the 'normie' characterization, and I now feel that branding a person as someone 'not of my kind', while helpful in terms of composing yourself socially, is probably more counterproductive overall in terms of building relationships.
These days, I try to think in terms of what we have in common (no matter how few or how little) whenever I interact with other people. A large chunk of being in a successful relationship is speaking from a common perspective. Do we have the same struggle with the ladies? Do we both have money problems? Do we both dislike Americans? Do we both like pizza? That sort of deal.
Yes, I unfortunately have not been able to read a lot of your earlier blogs and at this point, it would probably take weeks nonstop to read them all, and I unfortunately don't have the time for that. So... I won't. :D
I totally understand where you're coming from about being socially excluded from some group at work. I also had that a lot in school and stuff. So almost 10 years ago, I went to the US for work-related stuff. I went to a bunch of different states like Ohio, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Illinois, Minnesota. And a lot of the time I was pretty much by myself. From my experience, a lot of the people I met at work there were very friendly and inclusive. It's as if they were acutely aware of how alone and maybe homesick I was, and tried their best to make me feel welcome.
Perhaps you could say I was just very lucky. Though I've been to about half a dozen places, and they all did their best to make me feel welcome. So... maybe the chances of exclusion isn't as high as I thought? Or maybe school kids are just mean and evil! (Or more likely, adults just have a higher level of maturity and empathy)
It's actually sort of similar in my current workplace. My coworkers in my department are very friendly and welcoming. Every time we hire a new person, it takes them what seems like less than five seconds to be best friends!
Now, I don't know how different work is in the UK vs in the Philippines, but if it's at all similar, here are some possible ideas for part-time work if you're interested in kind of jobs that are out there (I've finished Clarence, so I know the office and the computer levels! No ghosts or scorpions in our office, sadly):
1. In a private company (or even government office?), you could be an administrative assistant who files papers (put them in a folder, then put folder in a file cabinet), sends emails, retrieves packages from suppliers or customers, maybe some data entry (typing things on a computer). It's not terribly exciting work, but they generally would teach you what to do, and it will probably get some precious "WORK EXPERIENCE" on your résumé.
2. In a university, you could probably help out at a faculty. Probably not a teaching position since that would mean dealing with a whole lot of teenagers, but maybe some similar data entry work. Maybe you could help teachers grade papers, or assist in some research. Or maybe just help out at the library or auditorium or lab or gym or... something. It's university, so it might be a familiar place. Plus universities are more open and accepting and... teach-ing, right?
3. In a food bank (or CHURCH!), you might be able to help with repackaging food (from sacks to smaller containers, for example) in a warehouse for distribution. I'm just thinking the type of people who work here probably aren't personally ambitious and might be more predisposed toward being friendly.
4. In a factory, you could be a line worker who just puts stuff together, or operates a machine that does the work for you. Or maybe you could be a safety officer who just walks around and makes sure that food doesn't get contaminated, for example. Very simple and you just do what everyone else does. The thing is I'm not sure if there are even jobs like this in a country as rich as the UK!
5. In the government, you have a lot of options. Maybe you could be one of those guys who paints the lines on the roads. Or the guy who disconnects people's electricity when they don't pay their bills. Or maybe you could work in a national park and just sit in a booth and hand out brochures to tourists. Or you could be in Customs and check that nothing illegal gets into your country. So many options!
You can also look up "entry-level jobs", or "data entry jobs" if you want to look yourself. If you need help figuring out what stuff means on Indeed, I'm happy to help. You can hit me up on Discord or on here. Everyone has to start SOMEWHERE.
Also, I've never played any actual Pokemon game, so I've no idea what an EV or IV are supposed to mean! :D
+1 to CtG's suggestion of getting a job. It could potentially help a lot with mitigating the problems of independence, direction, isolation, etc.
I think video games have become more mainstream over time, so we shouldn't discount the ability of women to play games. (I've played a variety of co-op games with my gf.) And the increase in "cozy" games I've been hearing about should cater to more casual audiences. Same with mobile games.
Part of stepping out into the world (of work and other activities) includes taking risks such the risk of social exclusion or job failure. But it's a valuable life experience. And it often falls in the category of things you are initially scared of but feel easier after you do it. No one starts with work experience. It's something you pick up by trying new things.
At least with jobs, I've encountered far more pleasant colleagues than not-so-nice ones. It helps that most of us share common goals of gaining money and work experience, and we're working together to make the business function.
Exciting stuff.
I agree that there should be a toggle between the old graphics and the new ones because some people will get the game for the nostalgia.
I also wonder if a bigger Clarence sprite with the same hitbox could be confusing to play. But you'll figure it out after some play testing.
Also, be careful of going too overboard with the stretch goals. Too much feature creep could make the entire project take longer to finish.
I think the absurdity of the game is a good thing. It adds character and helps it stand out. I remember how Palworld stood out due the absurdity of its marketing featuring cute lambs wielding realistic guns, and it was a refreshingly mean-spirited take on the monster catcher genre. Meanwhile, CBC pokes fun at online dating and corporate jobs, both of which can be mean and tiresome at times in real life.
Regarding the life stuff: Yeah. It's hard when there are those looming problems to worry about. I hope the CBC remaster helps give you a sense of purpose (and some money). It's not a long term solution, but it could help you get somewhere.
I didn’t play Clarence, although I remember it had a bit of a fanbase on fighunter. But I think giving the option to toggle is a good idea just because fans often feel nostalgia for the original game and don’t want that taken away from them, so to speak. 😅 They may even prefer the new sprites but just want to know that the old ones are still there in case they want to see them again. Speaking from personal experience as a player myself. I get very nostalgic.
I’ve also felt worse coming out of counseling appointments sometimes and not sure why. I wonder if sometimes it’s the counselor who I don’t mesh with or if sometimes frequent appointments help while other times they don’t. For a while, my appointments were greatly encouraging for me. But since I transitioned from my last behavioral health place and only have a prescriber now, I’ve been considering whether I need some time to work things out on my own now.
And yeah, getting dopamine or any good feelings from going on walks is a privilege a lot of people don’t realize. Being effortlessly healthy can make us believe we have all the answers, but truthfully different people have different experiences and at different times. I know you’ve probably heard this a lot, but as a daily pill-popper myself, I want to suggest that you might benefit from taking some type or types of medication. You’d be surprised how much it can help your emotions and outlook when your chemicals are out of whack, and no diet or exercise can fix that. None of us want to depend on drugs, but sometimes they do exist for a reason and can make life much more bearable. Getting the right ones for you is also important, so try not to feel discouraged if the first few either don’t do much right away or don’t work for any reasons. Psychiatric meds can cause a lot of bad side effects, but a lot of us go through that and switch until we find ones, sometimes even several of the same type, that work for us.
Meds are also not a miracle cure, but they are much closer to one than anything else you will find if you just need them. Speaking from personal experience. And no pressure of course; it’s your health, not mine.
Some war veterans have said that taking stuff like marijuana helps them with PTSD. I know there's a stigma attached to it since it's labeled as one of those bad drugs, and it kinda stinks when people use it, but I wonder if something like that would help calm people down. In fact, I've seen videos of people claiming it's the only thing that helps. Or maybe that's just their addiction talking? I dunno.
Drugs and walks are certainly not silver bullets for depression or other mental stuff. However, I definitely agree it's at least worth a try on some of them, especially if the benefits they provide outweigh the risk. At the very minimum, being a little more physically fit or being able to calm down after a bout of PTSD is better than the alternative, right?
For me, sans my meds, I not only experience psychotic symptoms but I also have terrible problems with both my mood and my outlook which I only just recently realized changed drastically at points depending on whether I had forgotten to take my meds. In those instances of emotional and mental turmoil, I realized that I truly could be in genuine danger from such a thing, and so could others around me. It was amazing to realize first-hand how utterly unable to control ourselves we can truly be. It’s also shocking sometimes how much of what we feel and believe is not from a source outside of ourselves but from inside. Coming out of the dark, so to speak, is the only way to know how blind you had been.
I feel like all these pieces have just started to “click” together recently for me, but this same misunderstanding seems to happen often with people because we differentiate between physical and “mental” conditions, forgetting that everything mental is also physical and can need external treatment just the way any physical injury or illness does, be it surgery or medication or whatever. It is not possible to manifest a capability that you just don’t possess through sheer willpower. This should be obvious, but it isn’t for seemingly most of us whether we deal with our own mental health conditions or not, strangely enough.
With marijuana and recreational drugs in general, it’s also important to remember that the primary issue with recreational drugs is the recreational part. If I’m not mistaken, marijuana is a less dangerous drug generally, and as for the addiction factor I don’t know but I’ve known some potheads, including many who’ve since quit or only occasionally dabble which makes me feel inclined to believe that the US rating of its addictiveness was never accurate.
But lots of commonly prescribed drugs are addictive and even dangerous yet we use them anyway because, as you said, we’ve determined that the benefits outweighed the risks. Psychiatric drugs are exactly the same thing, a physical cure to a physical malady. We really do vilify medicine because it’s scary, but to be honest, I think our tendency to project our own understanding and experiences onto what we can’t see often prevents people who genuinely need medical care from either getting or even seeking it. When people who need help tell others what they go through, the common response is, “Me too,” or “Everyone does” because they misunderstand the degrees. They can’t *see* it, so therefore they can’t correct their own automatic confirmation bias or realize that it’s happening.
The problem on the other end is that the person with bigger issues also may have no way of deciphering the degrees and therefore might feel that they are lacking because they’ll believe others go through the same thing but just handle it better. The thing is, as the old saying goes, the proof is in the pudding: At some point we are just stopped by our limitations, whatever they may be, and whether we feel guilty or not, there’s nothing we can do. Admitting our own weaknesses, doing what we can, and letting go of what we can’t is the only productive way to deal with it. Torturing ourselves just to never get better anyway is a tragic waste. It’s much nicer to know better. But it’s also important that others around us understand so that they won’t put those same unhelpful and counterproductive pressures on us. 🫤 Personally, I’m still working on any *really* good solutions, though. In large part, it seems like I have to settle. Most of us would love to live relatively normally if we could.
I played the original. I've always accepted the mean-spirited stuff as just satire (which I believe is often misunderstood), so it's never offended me. Mardek and Miasmon are my personal favorites, after all (And speaking of which, there is a comment I made on your post of you playing Miasmon about 2 weeks ago that I'd like you to read, if you don't mind). I like both sprites, so I'd also wouldn't mind a toggle (especially since you mentioned it wouldn't affect his gameplay). I've always found the gameplay to fit just right, and I've never had trouble playing it, so I don't have any changes to suggest.
Either way, I know how you feel on the depression end. I'm still physically ill, and it's affecting me mentally. But I'm happy you're feeling good doing what you love.
Sorry to hear that illness is still getting you down. I wish our bodies and minds were more reliable...
Sorry, I must have missed your other comment; I went back to check that. I'm glad you liked Miasmon! I wondered while replaying it the other day whether anyone else even remembered it.
I've actually been wondering while working on this Clarence's Big Chance remaster thing whether to try and finish off some of my old games, and Miasmon came to mind as one I could possibly do something with, since it's also entirely pixel art, it's written in the same language as CBC (rather than the one MARDEK's in which isn't reasonably possible to adapt), and I did enjoy replaying it recently (and felt disappointed when it just *ended*)... Though I don't want to promise anything. It might be more work than it's worth.
At the very least, I'd *like* to make all the content in the game available in the Ruffle version on the 'museum' website, though it depends on whether I can even edit the game's code at all; a big reason I'm remaking CBC in Unity is because it's such a pain working with the old Flash files. So no promises there either, though knowing at least one person other than me is interested in it does motivate me to at least explore the possibilities!
I appreciate that. I've played practically every project you've made (I still have the file for the game I made with my nephew as the main character for Alora Fane: Creation. I never made the second "game" though. I should get to that sometime). Your work, finished or not, has always had an influence on me since the day I discovered it. It's made me want to work on video games of my own.
As for whether or not you can change them, I'd still play them anyway. It's always fun.
Haha, those big sprites look awesome x)
It's been ages since I played it, but the original didn't have saving, right? I think that would be a good addition. I agree that the original was a little mean spirited, but I think remastering it is very different from making the game from scratch today, and adding a disclaimer at the start about it being for preservation would go a long way. I also think the original sprites should probably be a toggle, a lot of the people that would buy the game are probably doing it out of nostalgia.
The original definitely did have saving! I noticed while working on this that I still had some saves from the last time I tried to make a port (a couple of years ago). And yes, I was going to include some kind of disclaimer somewhere, or maybe I'll make tiny alterations to things like signposts' text that mention explicitly that the year is 2010/2011 and how things were different then, something like that.