May 18

PuffPals: Island Skies – The first time I support a Kickstarter Kampagne!

Hey y’all! First of all: I am a bit stupid sometimes xD I actually wrote this post when the Kickstarter Campaign was still going on, in an effort to inform you about it, but maybe also get help on reaching the stretch goals for it! For some reason, I forgot to change the post from private to public and now the campaign is already over… I am still very excited about the whole thing, so I still need to tell you about it, but sadly you will have no chance to join in anymore 🙁 I hope you don’t mind and that you are still interested in hearing about my newest passion 🙂 Let’s start from the beginning!

I am sure most of you have heard about Kickstarter. It’s an American Website, which provides creators with the opportunity of showing their plans for future projects and getting them funded. You can fund anything there in theory from your college degree, over a road trip, a new gadget, a book or even a game, anything is possible. Only the audience gets to decide which projects will actually be fully backed and which won’t. It’s essentially a kind of powerplay, where trust is very important because supporters basically have to fund something which does not exist and if the campaign won’t be successful, it might never exist. That’s something which has always kinda bothered me, I just never had this kind of trust in something, so I never backed a campaign yet. But things changed when I heard about PuffPals: Island Skies!

Island Skies is supposed to be a video game that could be described as a crossover of games like Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon, where you get to simulate a life in a perfect world, individualize your character, decorate your house, make friends and explore the world around you. Actually, I can say that it will be definitely a game in the future because the campaign reached its minimum goal within the first few days of its launch! This means that if anyone would decide to back up the project, they don’t even have to trust in the campaign working out, because it already did 😉 Of course, there is always the part where you have to trust the people keeping their word and actually using the money for a specific purpose, and I feel like I should mention that Kickstarter is not forcing people to actually do that, but with the active community that I have gotten to know through Discord, I don’t feel like this campaign is a scam 😉 This is actually why I decided to support the game and thus my first Kickstarter campaign ever! And all of it is so exciting to me, that I wanted to tell you about the process and what lies ahead in the future of this game.

What you can see here are the so-called stretch goals, which basically show what further features the development team will be trying to implement in the game, depending on how much money they will have at the end of the campaign. On one hand, it’s a way to get people to spend more money, but on the other hand, it’s also a way to make people participate in what should be inside the game. When the campaign started, there were not even any goals after the switch port, because the team behind the game did not even know if they would come that far. So they basically used the input they had from the community to decide what kind of goals they want to try to reach and thus shape the game in the way we as the fans want it. Also, money is an important factor here, since the team itself has to be paid, possible experts in new fields, artists and so on, so they really could not realize any of these goals, if they would not get the money. So it’s less of a way to get the supporters to support them more and more of a way to build up their game more with the help of their fans.

Depending on how much money you spend, you got assigned a certain tier with certain benefits. Some of them are access to behind the scenes when the game is in development, which is something me and my husband are looking forward to the most! Other benefits are in-game exclusives such as special clothing, decorative items or even pets you can own 🙂 But there are also “real” physical items such as very cute plushies, stickers and through the stretch goals, we also have reached the option of getting a hardcover version of the artbook for the game! Almost all of those benefits(minus the artbook!) are Kickstarter exclusive, so since the campaign already ended, sadly you won’t be able to get them anymore :/ But I will keep you updated and show you the ones that I got when they arrive! Actually, the exclusive plushies were part of the reason why I pledged 😛 The game itself looks super interesting too, but I can rarely say no to plushies xD The physical add-ons will ship at the beginning of 2023, so if you are interested in reading about it, save the date 😉

Why I am telling you this, you might ask. Well as I have mentioned in the beginning my idea was to share this campaign with as many people as possible because I think the game has very great potential and being part of its creation, sounds like a great adventure! Sadly now that the campaign is over, aside from following the developer fluffnest on Instagram, you can’t really join the adventure anymore. But as with the physical add-ons, I try to keep you updated at least a bit. Even though I still have to ask how much I am allowed to share. As for now let me tell you what of the parts of the game that have been teased, I am most interested in!
At 800k we unlocked a desert biome which is said to hold some secrets about the lore of the game. In my head, it’s kinda inspired by ancient Egypt even though there was no confirmation on that mental image from the developers so far 😛 Still, I am very grateful to know that the game even has a story, since at least Animals Crossing for me always lacked one. In general, I am happy that together with all the other backers we have collected enough money to unlock all of the possible biomes, making them as big and interesting as possible! So many things that can be explored^^ Multiplayer mode at first did not sound very exciting to me personally, but after the project reached over 2 million dollars and the amusement park biome was unlocked, I am now looking forward to it too 😉 How amazing could it be to meet up with friends in an amusement park to play minigames together and maybe after that explore each other’s islands?

Don’t get me wrong, I am super happy that the game reached so much money, but I am also super bumped that the post did not go online in time 🙁 So I hope you are all okay with me talking about it, even though you never had a chance to participate, at least not the way I planned too. But maybe you have found out about the game yourself, maybe you are a pen pal and we have talked about it in our letters or Instagram informed you about the campaign. Either way I hope you can be as excited as I am and if I am able too, I will make some update posts from time to time to inform you about the process of the development of the game 😉 If you want to further check out the game you can follow this link: *here* 🙂

Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Gaming, Info Post, Personal Life | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 26

Sexism in Videogames

Can you really choose between two equal options?

This is quite a controversial topic, I know. And I don’t want to talk about every little detail in this conversation of things that have been wrong in video games. I actually love playing them myself, which is why I was motivated to write this post in the first place! Because I played games like Genshin Impact and the new Assainscreed games, where you can choose between a male and a female main character, but can you really? That’s what I want to focus on today 🙂

When you search for Genshin Impact or for any of the three latest Assassins Creed games, tell me what kind of images pop up. No really, do it and then come back here, just so you know that I don’t make up stories here. Have you done it and come back? Good, thank you. Then I assume you saw the artwork of the game and screenshots of the game and official promotional images of the game and most of them had the male version of the main character in them, right? I don’t talk about the images where the games refer to the character having two versions, but just normal promotional art with one version of them on the image. It’s always the guy wearing trousers for Geshin and the male assassins, isn’t that weird?

This little experiment showed that even though most games today have the option of choosing between two genders, the targeted audience is still the male one, wanting to play the male heroes. And that’s just a minor detail of what is upsetting me in these kinds of games. Another thing is how you play the games, which is especially visible in the new Assains Creed game.

Female heroes are just a copy of the male one – sometimes even censured

As you might know, those games often take place in some historical sites in the past, often at times where women were treated much differently than men were. So tell me then, why do I have the exact same dialogue playing a woman with an axe as a man with an axe. Because if I would really be in the presented time, I would have to deal with a lot more catcalling, not being taken seriously, or even attempted rape. I don’t think those things should keep the female version from being able to do everything in the game, but when you put this option in, it should feel real. So that when playing a woman, I might have to demonstrate my strength to make a man take me seriously because sadly that’s how it was and sometimes still is. But that’s not how it’s portrait in video games, because adding a female character version is not thought thorough decision, but a thing “you just do” in these modern times and you basically just copy-paste the function you already program for your real protagonist.

Another example, which I personally felt a big disadvantage was in the newest Assasins Creed game Valhalla. It was the first AC game where you could put on very different kinds of tattoos all around your body. I love customization like that and you had the option, to actually pay for those tattoos and new ones were coming out along with story updates and new character gear. So it was less of a gimmick and more of a full-on new feature they wanted to celebrate. But as a woman, you were not able to actually wear or see all of them, as you were not able to wear certain clothes. You might ask yourself, why it is that your female character does not have access to certain clothing?
Well actually, it was about how little clothing your character was able to wear. The male character was able to go and kill people with a bare chest, but the female version always needed to wear a kind of binder for her breasts. As a side note, the game Assasins Creed Vahalla was the first AC game which you would have to be 18 years old to buy, that being the legal age for drinking, driving a car and anything else in Germany. So there was really no reason to save adults from having to look at female nipples(which would have been digitally created). And in a game like this laziness does not count as an excuse.

Another problem with this exact game mechanic, which again just shows how this concept was not thought through at all, is the fact that you can’t upgrade your binder. You can upgrade everything else in the games, running around wearing a wolf coat with gold embellishments, shining boots, the sharpest weapons and even jewellery! But your character never got the chance to upgrade their old binder which they owned from the start of the game. Which seems to be just a white cloth that looks ridiculous together with gold embellished clothing. Meaning that basically every piece of clothing which required the male character to run around with a bare chest, making the great chest tattoos visible, the female version always looks odd. Not only because the tattoos could not be shown off in full glory, but because the old binder made it look like you combined some Level 1 armour with level 60 armour. Which I guess in turn explains why there is so less advertisement with the female character for this game, because the harsh, cool and rustic Viking look for which even the tattoos were really important just did not look good on the female character. Which the developer did not care or think about, because who does play as a female Viking anyways. right?

Conclusion

Don’t get me wrong, I am not angry because of some tattoos. I am not angry because of being treated nicely despite the fact that my character looks like a person who at that time in history might have been burned at a stake. I am not angry about the nicely designed male character I see every time I load up my Genshin game. I am angry about what’s behind all of these decisions: A man, thinking of other men, not of any women, who also pay for the games, play the games, recommend the games, and so on. We have 50% of the whole population being female, why does everyone seem to forget about or deliberately ignore that fact?

It’s not that difficult, I just wish for a game, where different gendered characters are included not only to please some feminist voices or to seem somewhat progressive but to actually give the players different options to experience the story. I want to feel my character struggle but thrive if it fits the setting of the game. I want more options to customize my character and either both female and male exclusive items or have the option to wear everything on both in a satisfying way. In short, I just want my character to be equal, not copies of each other, not censured versions. If a developer feels like only a male character fit his narrative, then just include one. But if you want to include more options, do it right. Think of everyone you are representing not only the men. I am a woman and I love videos games and I am just one out of many, don’t forget about or ignore us. Because we do not only play the games, we do pay for them too. If that’s the motivation people need these days so change something…

Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Gaming | 2 Comments on Sexism in Videogames
October 13

Gamereview “Hollow Knight”

The last time I talked about a game on here, it was about a combined experience of gameplay and watching a tv series, that I found so special that I had to share it. This time I want to talk about a game which is also one of its kind, you may have heard of it before. “Hollow Knight” was published in 2017 so it’s already some years old but it has not lost its charm since then. It’s a platform jump’n’run like super Mario, but it has a very eerie vibe to it, which makes a further comparison to its cheery counterpart almost impossible. Let’s jump right into the review.

Review
The story of the game is kinda hard to put together because it’s not something linear that leads you through the game. You get fragments of knowledge from people you meet and statues you find, which leads you to explore the story and discover all the pieces on your own. For me that was very different and I have to say, I felt kinda lost at some points, and in the end, I really did not play the game to find out what it was about. Might be a plus to some people who really want to solve the mystery, but I kinda ignored it. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because it means the game itself, got me coming back again and again.

The general mechanics are fairly easy, you are playing an unnamed character, as far as I have understood it, it’s not the Hollow Kight, but for the purpose of this review let’s call him Knight 😉 Knight wakes up in a cave, follows some kind of call, and ends up in an almost empty village. There he meets an old bug, who tells him that all other members have gone into an underground dungeon to fight and never came back. So Knight decides to do the same and jump down a well to get into a sewage system and his adventure starts.

In typical jump’n’run fashion, you are exploring a sidescrolling environment, fighting your way through enemies with a sword, and find secrets and hidden items. What’s interesting is that the one environment you are entering is actually only a part of a big map with different areas that have different enemies and different designs. You can find the other areas by beating bosses, learning new moves, and finding new ways to travel. It was very intuitive because you have to revisit tunnels where you have been before, as soon as you learn to jump higher or wider, to explore caves and so on.

I have heard some people comparing the game to “dark souls” because it’s harder than most of its kind. But since I have played and terribly failed at dark souls, I think I can safely say that “Hollow Knight” is at least playable 😉 If you die, you will lose all of the currency you have earned, but you can get it back by fighting “the remains you have left”. At some point in the game, you also unlock some kind of bank where you can go back and store the so-called Geo you find and save it from getting lost in battle(but be careful with that xD) and other options too. In the same way, you can also unlock a way to quick travel, which can be very convenient, and combined it make a less nerve-wracking experience than dark souls.

Final Thoughts
All in all, it’s a challenging game that might be harder than Super Mario, but not as hard that it would keep you from finishing it. It has a mysterious story that frames the experience, but can be ignored if needed. The gameplay is very intuitive and interesting and the environments are minimalistic but stunning. The music seems very well composed so that it accompanies you on your journey, but it does not distract you from your tasks. The boss battles are diverse and every new move you learn will be needed to access a new area. I think it’s a very great game 🙂

Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Gaming, Review | LEAVE A COMMENT
April 21

Gamereview “Quantum Break”

I know, I am kinda late to the party since the game came out in 2016, but it only came out for the Xbox(which I did not own) and the PC. I grew up being a console kid, owning different Nintendo handhelds and a Wii. Today I am kinda in love with my Playstation 4, desperately waiting for the Playstation 5 to be available in stores again! I did try PC-Gaming for quite some time, but the hardware gets old so quick o_O But since I married an IT-Guy we do own a good Laptop again, which he used for programming and I use for gaming 😛 And after playing Quantum Break I just to write a review about this game, because I think it’s something really special and also some kind of an underdog. Let’s get into it 😉

Offical Quantum Break Wallaper with the main charackter on it and diffrent shards with vague images from the game on it and the titel on the game in the left corner.
Found the picture on: *here*

I stumbled upon this game by accident, after looking through the bio of Adain Gillen. You might know him as Littlefinger from Game of Thrones or the many other characters he played on television and cinema. He is just one of the all-start cast, playing the roles in this game’s story. Accompanying him are Shawn Ashmore(X-Men), Lance Reddick(Fringe), and Courtney Hope(The Bold and The Beautiful) in some of the leading roles. And you can see them in two different versions, as their live-action and in-game counterparts. This brings us to the next great thing about the game: it’s not just a game!

I don’t even know if there is a word for this hybrid experience you have when playing this game. Apart from the actual gaming part itself and cutscenes we also get 5 live-action episodes with 20-30 minutes of running time. That’s really great because Quantum Break is all about its story and the players’ decision to play a role in how it turns out to a certain degree. The ending seems to be fixes but your actions can decide the fate of some of the side characters and how everything progresses. Which to me makes it more like a tv show, you can take part in and I loved it!

Of course, there is a gaming element to it, and it’s mostly about shooting your way through waves of enemies. That’s not as bad as I might make it sound, but definitely not what I will remember this game for. It’s made a bit more fun with some timy-wimy powers like stopping the enemies in time, rushing to them, or creating a time-shield, that stops bullets and heals you faster. It’s all cool and it looks very great, but for me, the shooting was just a way to get to the next point in the story 😉

The story itself is about the age-old question: can you change the future by altering the past? Finding an answer is made even more important because of an imidate danger: time is breaking down. The hows and whys and the possible solution(if there is one) are for you to find out, but together with the brilliant acting, it makes for something really great! Sadly it’s over pretty soon, the game is told in 5 acts, each ending with an episode and I played about 2-3 hours in every act. Normally I am all for longer games, more hours to play in the new worlds, but Quantum Break was less about gaming and more about storytelling and it did a good job 😉

Offical Quantum Break Wallaper with the two most important charackters in the games, back on back.
Found the picture on: *here*

So all in all I think this game make for a very special experience, an interactive story with great actors and some amusing gameplay 🙂
Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress

Category: Gaming, Review | LEAVE A COMMENT