Random: Astronomical Discovery In Super Mario Galaxy’s Logo
This probably isn’t the sort of Super Mario Galaxy article you were hoping or expecting to see around the time of the Nintendo mascot’s 35th-anniversary celebrations but here we are…Twitter user and “starboy” CometMedal has been closely inspecting the 2007 Wii entry’s logo.
So what have they found? An edited image of the Andromeda Galaxy, originally taken by Robert Gendler in 2005. Here’s the full rundown, along with some comparison shots:
“I found the full image of the galaxy depicted in Super Mario Galaxy’s logo – an edited image of Andromeda Galaxy taken by Robert Gendler in 2005. It took some tricky work to confirm, but I pulled it off.”
Although the Andromeda Galaxy is depicted in Super Mario Galaxy’s logo, the game – to our knowledge – is simply set in outer space above the Mushroom Kingdom. If you do want to visit this galaxy though, you might be better off checking out the 2017 EA title, Mass Effect: Andromeda.
In case you didn’t know, the Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest major galaxy to our own, the Milky Way.
What do you think of this amazing find? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 08-24-2020, 02:09 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
Gotham Knights Gameplay Demo Features Mr. Freeze Boss Fight
Following its official reveal trailer during DC Fandome, WB Games Montreal has posted an extended gameplay demonstration for Gotham Knights. The demonstration shows off Batgirl's combat prowess, which is distinctly different from how she, and other characters, played in previous Batman: Arkham games.
The video, narrated by creative director Patrick Redding, takes place about a dozen hours into Batgirl's progression in the game. Featuring an attack on Elliot Center--where Mr. Freeze has set up shop--it shows off several of the other playable characters in the game, including Red Hood. Freeze has manipulated the weather to actually flash-freeze the city, and it will take everything the young cast of heroes has to take him down.
Batgirl's agile fighting style allows her to quickly close the gaps on enemies and use their aggression against them. It's a far cry from the brutal and power-focused style of Batman, and should help to separate her from the other playable characters.
Remember that only those on Xbox One / Windows 10 / and Android may participate in the Beta builds. You will not be able to join Realms or non-beta players worlds and you will not be able to open worlds opened in the Beta in earlier/current stable builds of Bedrock.
Stability and Performance
The game no longer crashes if a player opens a Shulker Box they’re standing on after rejoining a multiplayer session (MCPE-60856)
Vanilla Parity
Sea Turtles now play a sound when they lay eggs
Dolphins will now dry out at the same rate as they do in Java Edition; 120 seconds
Undamaged Mending items will no longer prevent damaged Mending items from being repaired (MCPE-80156)
Basalt can no longer be destroyed by Ghast fireballs (MCPE-75252)
Basalt blocks now take slightly more time to destroy
TNT no longer activates when a Redstone Torch is placed directly on it (MCPE-81258)
Collecting fish with a bucket now works more consistently
User Interface
Fixed a visual issue where clicking to edit the text box in the NPC dialog would not show the caret (Education Edition Features)
New Achievements Screen
We have made some tweaks to the new achievements screen that is available to some beta players (through a gradual roll-out). Please continue to share your feedback on it in this post!
Gamepad bumpers can now be used to switch tabs in the achievements screen
Tweaked the default focus on the tabs in the achievements screen
Added extra space between the end of the list and the “input legend” at the bottom
The achievement detail screen now shows “Completed on other platform” section
Fix for ItemDescriptors
Item names of the format “minecraft:item.someitem” no longer need the “item.” portion and it will be ignored
If you were hoping for everything – including the two-player update – to be on the game cartridge, unfortunately, that won’t be happening. The Australian-based developer House House confirmed this during a recent Q&A session on Twitter (via the official Indie World Nintendo account).
#AskIndieWorldNA Will the physical version have the multiplayer update already installed?
We’re afraid not. We had to lock in the physical release build long before two-player was stable enough. As long as you can connect to the internet on your Nintendo Switch the game will update itself.
Members of Nintendo Life have done just that below, and we’d love for you to join in via our poll and comment sections. Enjoy!
Liam Doolan, news reporter
I’ve just finished watching the new Netflix documentary series High Score (it’s worth a look, I might add) and it’s got me in the mood for some retro gaming. So this weekend I’ve decided to relive the glory days with games like the original Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., Excitebike, Sonic the Hedgehog, Star Fox and DOOM. Of course, I’ll be playing all of them on my Nintendo Switch.
In terms of more modern offerings, I might play through A Short Hike (again) – you know, one of the many games shadow-dropped during the Indie World presentation earlier this week. It’s a really charming game that’s well worth setting aside a few hours for if you haven’t already. Game on!
Ryan Craddock, news editor
This weekend I’ll be continuing my playthrough of Paper Mario: The Origami King, which I’m quite enjoying so far. I’ve recently reached the desert area and just experienced what I’ll painfully refer to as the ‘but why, Bobby? Why would you do this to me?’ moment. If you’ve also made it to this point in the game, you’ll know exactly what I mean (and I’m sorry to have brought it up again).
The battle system has been pretty heavily criticised by fans of the series, but as someone who hasn’t played a Paper Mario game in about 15 years, I’m not comparing it to previous entries and I actually think it’s pretty fun. Boss battles in particular are spectacular, and I’m looking forward to fighting through more of them.
PJ O’Reilly, reviewer
Hello. Last week’s Indie Direct saw an absolute ton of really good stuff getting announced and stealth-dropped onto the eShop so I’m currently blasting through a few of those for review whilst trying to mop up the last few bits and pieces that I missed on my playthrough of Peaky Blinders: Mastermind, which I really quite enjoyed my time with.
Elsewhere I’m getting stuck into Risk of Rain 2 after having been recommended it by several friends and trying to finish up my first full season in the absolutely sublime Super Mega Baseball 3. Honestly, even if you’re not a massive fan of the game in real life, it’s one of the very best sports games on Switch, a perfect balance of arcade and sim that I just can’t stop playing. Have a good weekend whatever you’re up to or playing!
As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to leave a vote in the poll above and a comment below with your gaming choices over the next few days…
Faeria, the collectible card game meets living board game, is out today on Xbox One with full cross-play! Faeria has enjoyed a devoted PC gamer following, and we’re happy to launch on Xbox One where all players can meet each other regardless of platform. Build your deck, shape the battlefield, summon mystical creatures, and defeat your opponents in epic battles!
With its humble beginnings as a board game in the early 2010’s, Faeria later became one of the first online multiplayer card games out there. In an age when Magic Online was the gold standard for the genre, Faeria broke the mold by introducing the concept of a “living board.” This unique blend of turn-based strategy and collectible cards made the game stand out in ways others could not.
A one-time purchase collectible card game
Let’s fast forward a few years. Faeria, through support and backing from its players, is now being released on PC in a completely new arena of online card games. Hearthstone, the hugely popular card game from Blizzard, is now the big player on the digital card game scene. A renaissance is taking place in the CCG genre. In this new world, Faeria decided to distance itself from the standard “microtransaction” business model and instead focus on a “buy it once and you’re done” philosophy. This isn’t very common practice for digital card games, as some arguably predatory practices have gradually become more acceptable.
Finally being released on Xbox One, it is a strategy game that has stood the test of time. Unique in both its gameplay and business model, it certainly stands out.
What is Faeria?
Faeria is a strategy game, mixed with a card game, mixed with a board game. It takes place in an original fantasy universe on what is called a “living board,” which means each player builds the landscape as they go. Each game starts on a completely empty ocean. It’s up to the players to build the terrain around them, where once there was nothing.
The lands you build – be they mountains, forests, deserts, or lakes – dictate the type of cards you are able to play, and therefore the types of decks you are able to craft. You decide how many lands and of what type you want to build.
Do you want to summon big giant tree creatures? You’re going to need a lot of forests. Want to jump around with some frogs? Make some lakes. Devils shooting fireballs? Mountains.
You can even combine any combination of colors. You can make mountains and lakes to summon a fire-breathing frog, for example.
Hundreds of hours of content
While Faeria completely supports multiplayer with a ranked mode and even hosts official tournaments, there are over a hundred hours of single player content that meticulously teach you every aspect of the game. Do you like puzzles? You’re covered. You can complete your entire collection in under 50 hours of play, and then go on to collect pieces of lore and other cosmetics from daily missions. You really never even have to touch multiplayer to enjoy this game fully.
Basically, if you like board games, and you like card games – Faeria is the game for you.
Faeria
Versus Evil
☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
With its unique living board, Faeria will challenge you with truly strategic card battles. Craft your deck, shape the battlefield, and fight for victory! A strategy game like no other. Build exciting decks and shape the battlefield as you fight epic battles. Raise mountains, build forests, fill lakes, or harness the sands of the deserts. You choose your own path to victory. Enjoy 100+ hours of solo content, co-operative missions, and puzzles! Explore a vast array of challenges that reward you in return. Journey through the Oversky and defeat devious World Bosses – or even play enemy AI in draft mode! Enter Pandora, Faeria’s unique draft mode that where your deck-building skills are put to the ultimate test. Choose to play against the AI or put your deck to the ultimate test in PVP. Earn rewards based on how well you do. It’s the perfect way to increase your collection, or just have fun!
Amazon Games signs on to publish a Smilegate RPG game in the West
Amazon Games has nabbed the exclusive publishing rights to an upcoming (but undisclosed) game from Korean game dev Smilegate RPG.
It’s not Amazon’s first foray into game publishing by any means, but considering many of its headline-making activities of late have involved development rather than publishing its a notable change of pace.
Both of those Amazon Games-developed projects, New World and Crucible, are online games, making for a bit of overlap with what Smilegate typically offers. Amazon says in a statement that this shared interest is part of what endears it about Smilegate RPG and its parent company Smilegate.
“Smilegate has a strong track record of creating big games that players love, built to offer years of enjoyment — exactly the type of best-in-class, living, growing online games we want to bring our customers,” reads a statement from Amazon Games VP Christoph Hartmann.
On the Smilegate side of things, the Korean dev studio sees the deal as a gateway to bring an unnamed Smilegate RPG title to the West. A statement from the company adds that Amazon’s entire suite of properties (like Twitch, Prime Gaming, and AWS) makes the arrangement an attractive partnership as well.
“Smilegate RPG and Amazon Games will combine our respective expertise to introduce one of our AAA games to Western players. Amazon Games is uniquely positioned as a publisher to reach entirely new audiences through its deep commitment to customers and substantial games publishing resources and channels,” adds Smilegate RPG CEO Chi Won Gil.
Don’t Miss: Musical scoring with SFX in mind for Call of Duty: WWII
You may not recognize the name Wilbert Roget, but you’ve probably heard his work. Roget was a music editor at Lucasarts for many years, and he wrote original music for Star Wars: The Old Republic and Star Wars: First Assault, and arranged and supervised music for Monkey Island 2: Special Edition. Since then, he’s been the composer for titles like Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, and Dead Island 2.
Roget also served as composer on the powerful, memorable music for the recently released Call of Duty: World War II. He spoke to Gamasutra about his inspirations, his attempts to stay true to the time period of the game, and how to score with special f/x in mind.
Roget: I had played and loved Sledgehammer Games’ previous game, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, and was strongly interested in working with the company on a future project. One of my former-coworkers from LucasArts had worked as a sound designer on Modern Warfare 3, so I asked him to put me in touch with Sledgehammer Games’ audio director, Dave Swenson. It turns out Dave had recently played a previous game I scored, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, and so we met a few weeks later at the Game Developers Conference. Several months of follow-up meetings and Skype conversations later, and eventually I was hired.
Composer Wilbert Roget
“All in all, it was about six months to write the full score.”
We had our first on-site meeting to begin the process sometime in late January. But I started sketching various ideas on paper all the way back in August, as soon as I knew it would be a WWII-era score. The score for the original Call of Duty had such a big influence on me back in college, so I immediately had some ideas I wanted to explore.
Ultimately very little of those sketches made it into the game, with the exception of the minimalist triple-meter concept I used in the ‘Berga’ track. My first game-specific pieces were written in early February, and we had our final recording sessions towards the end of July, so, all in all, it was about six months to write the full score.
“A Brotherhood of Heroes” by Wilbert Roget
For my overall direction, my inspirations came from several different media. I was already familiar with the first Call of Duty scores as well as Modern Warfare and Advanced Warfare, but when the project began I started to study a few war films to see how their scores interacted with the drama.
Of those, I’d say The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, and Saving Private Ryan were the most tonally relevant even though my score doesn’t sound overtly similar. I also studied several pieces of 20th-century art music very closely: Claude Vivier’s ‘Zipangu,’ Toru Takemitsu’s ‘Requiem for String Orchestra‘ and of course Penderecki’s famous ‘Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima.’
“I only had an illustrated storyline document to work with at my personal studio. I didn’t have a chance to play the game while scoring.”
After my first meeting onsite at Sledgehammer Games, I only had an illustrated storyline document to work with at my personal studio. Sledgehammer sent me a few gameplay capture videos later on, but I didn’t have a chance to play the game while scoring. Actually, when writing the first few in-game pieces, I used gameplay footage from Call of Duty 2’s ‘Rangers Lead the Way’ level to check if my own music would fit the mood and soundscape, as that level is both high-octane and has long stretches without music.
Testing against gameplay footage reassured me of the efficacy of my sonic experiments, like my use of solo strings and period-accurate musique concrète. It also helped me arrange the music in such a way that it complemented the sound design instead of competing against it. And then towards the end of the project, there were two pieces, ‘Birds of Prey’ and ‘Berga,’ which I wrote for specific levels’ gameplay footage.
“The game used original recordings of historically-accurate weaponry and vehicles, and so we wanted to make sure the sound design would be unobstructed by musical elements.”
This was one of the first considerations I had when developing the musical direction for the game, and one of our audio director Dave Swenson’s primary concerns when starting the project. Call of Duty: WWII used original recordings of historically-accurate weaponry and vehicles, and so we wanted to make sure the sound design would be unobstructed by musical elements.
We had several solutions for making sure the music would be effective while avoiding conflict with the soundscape. First off, I stripped down the traditional battery of orchestral percussion, avoiding sounds like snare drums and mallets that would compete with gunfire or stick out of the mix. I also avoided big epic trailer-esque percussion and overt use of synthesizers, since I envisaged the soundscape would provide more than enough punch and excitement in the mix.
I did use some large drums and dhol ensembles, but I never let their volume get above a mp level; their only purpose was to add bass and a tiny bit of motion to certain high-intensity action pieces. In place of this percussion, I employed the aforementioned musique concrète technique: sounds from period vehicles and other military sources were heavily processed and used to create a “haze of war” effect.
I avoided high woodwinds as well, and I only used trumpets to double the horn section at key moments. The strings were a fairly typical section with 34 players, but I intentionally avoided the highest range of violins to avoid letting the orchestra poke out too much. I also used solo strings and string quartet extensively, to get sharp and crisp rhythmic elements in action cues especially.
Lastly, we embraced a relatively dry overall music mix, with lots of high-end clarity and not too much reverb. As a result of all this, the music was mixed somewhat louder in-game than is usual for the franchise, but it still never conflicts with sound design.
“Welcome To The Bloody First” by Wilbert Roget
For Call of Duty: WWII, the music team at Sony Interactive Entertainment was hired to supervise, mix, edit and implement the score. They would spot the game levels and assign me music “suites” that they could then edit and implement into the game, with music changes at key moments during each level. As a composer, I didn’t need to keep the gameplay dynamics in mind while writing — I simply had to make sure that each piece I delivered contained a few different moods, had stinger moments built-in naturally, and featured as much movement and development as possible.
We did have a stealth music mechanic however, which involved writing pieces that included brief one-shot stingers for when the player is detected by enemies, as well as a few swells into combat. That was the only case where I had to write to the implementation. Normally I would write through-composed pieces with enough drama for the Sony team to edit from.
“For Sledghammer’s team to do their work, I needed to deliver my music in up to 30+ stems per cue.”
For their team to do their work, I needed to deliver my music in up to 30+ stems per cue. In other words, instead of just sending over a stereo render of the piece, I had to split into “low strings short,” low strings sustains,” “high strings short,” and so on for the entire orchestra — as well as delivering individual renders of every non-orchestral element.
My solution involved creating a folder within my Reaper project file that contained in-line renders of all the stems, with automatic soloing via track groups. I’d still have to manually record each stem, but this made it very easy to test my stems for accuracy. In the rare instances where I needed to revise a cue even after it was approved, those changes were easy to make.
Finally, I wrote the entire score in a single Reaper project file, but I wouldn’t call that a technical “challenge” per se. This is how I have written every one of my orchestral scores since Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, and because I only use a single PC without VEpro, this saves me tons of time starting new cues and revising old ones. It also helps me keep a consistent mix, and it helps me easily reuse live-recorded solos and sound design elements.
One unique aspect of working with the Sony team in producing a score is that they don’t have a big generic cue list saying, for instance, “Ambient 08” or “Action 13”. Instead, they assign specific suites with clear direction on the mood and sonic direction. So as soon as I had an idea and was sketching on paper, I already had a good sense of the emotional context of the piece, and how I would satisfy it.
From there it was just a matter of arranging everything, creating a synthesized mockup, and frequently taking a step back to see if there were other elements I could add (or remove!) to help the piece fit the overall musical direction. For instance, my final step in most tracks would be to create a second layer in the music, which again I called the “haze of war” effect — this usually meant adding things like brass-sliding electric guitar played with an ebow and tons of reverb/delay, or adding my musique concrète elements like steam train sounds, distant explosion debris, and various metallic sounds.
Because Call of Duty: WWII takes place in real-life settings, it was crucially important the music was respectful in tone. For the score to work, I needed to make sure that every piece had a concise focus, avoiding excessive embellishment in the orchestration and especially melodies. At the advice of our audio director, I used as few “syllables” as possible in my themes and motives, and to make sure that every piece in the score sounds unique to this game, I used signature sounds and themes as much as possible. For that reason, I believe this is the most cohesive score I’ve written to date.
“Game music is an incredibly competitive field, but having technical knowledge as well as creative ability will certainly give you an edge.”
I’m in this industry because I’m in love with games and the way they are created. We have brilliant artists, programmers, and designers who are constantly pushing the envelope with clever solutions to both creative and technical problems. When I play a game, that’s what I’m looking for: titles that create memorable, fantastic and seemingly impossible real-time experiences. Many of my friends are in the games industry working as those very same artists and programmers, and I enjoy reading and studying the technical side of games creation almost as much as I enjoy playing them.
My advice to other composers looking to enter the games industry is to know the medium, do your research and play both recent and classic titles. Understand how games scoring is different from film and TV, even when it’s the same composers working on all three. I’d also recommend studying how game audio implementation works, and practice by deconstructing how a game’s sound design and music implementation work while playing the game. Game music is an incredibly competitive field, but having technical knowledge as well as creative ability will certainly give you an edge.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 08-23-2020, 07:22 AM - Forum: Python
- No Replies
Python One Line And/Or
How do the Boolean and and or operators work in the context of Python one-liners?
You may know the standard use of the logical operators applied to Boolean values:
>>> True and False
False
>>> False or True
True
But there’s more to these operators that only experts in the art of writing concise Python one-liners know.
For instance, the following use of the or operator applied to non-Boolean values is little known:
>>> 'hello' or 42 'hello'
>>> [] or 42
42
Similarly, the following use of the and operator often causes confusion in readers of advanced Python one-liners:
>>> 'hello' and 42
42
>>> [] and 42
[]
How do the and and or operator work when applied to non-Boolean operands?
To understand what is going on, you need to look at the definitions of the Boolean operators:
Operator
Description
a or b
Returns b if the expression a evaluates to False using implicit Boolean conversion. If the expression a evaluates to True, the expression a is returned.
a and b
Returns b if the expression a evaluates to True using implicit Boolean conversion. If the expression a evaluates to False, the expression a is returned.
Study these explanations thoroughly! The return value is of the same data type of the operands—they only return a Boolean value if the operands are already Boolean!
This optimization is called short-circuiting and it’s common practice in many programming languages. For example, it’s not necessary to evaluate the result of the second operand of an and operation if the first operand evaluates to False. The whole operation must evaluate to False in this case because the logical and only returns True if both operands are True.
Python goes one step further using the property of implicit Boolean conversion. Every object can be implicitly converted to a Boolean value. That’s why you see code like this:
l = []
if l: print('hi')
else: print('bye')
# bye
You pass a list into the if condition. Python then converts the list to a Boolean value to determine which branch to visit next. The empty list evaluates to False. All other lists evaluate to True, so the result is bye.
Together, short circuiting and implicit Boolean conversion allow the logical operators and and or to be applied to any two Python objects as operands. The return value always is one of the two operands using the short circuiting rules described in the table.
Try it yourself in our interactive code shell:
Exercise: Guess the output! Then check if you were right! Create your own crazy operands and evaluate them by executing the code in your browser.
Python One-Liners Book
Python programmers will improve their computer science skills with these useful one-liners.
Python One-Linerswill teach you how to read and write “one-liners”: concise statements of useful functionality packed into a single line of code. You’ll learn how to systematically unpack and understand any line of Python code, and write eloquent, powerfully compressed Python like an expert.
The book’s five chapters cover tips and tricks, regular expressions, machine learning, core data science topics, and useful algorithms. Detailed explanations of one-liners introduce key computer science concepts and boost your coding and analytical skills. You’ll learn about advanced Python features such as list comprehension, slicing, lambda functions, regular expressions, map and reduce functions, and slice assignments. You’ll also learn how to:
• Leverage data structures to solve real-world problems, like using Boolean indexing to find cities with above-average pollution • Use NumPy basics such as array, shape, axis, type, broadcasting, advanced indexing, slicing, sorting, searching, aggregating, and statistics • Calculate basic statistics of multidimensional data arrays and the K-Means algorithms for unsupervised learning • Create more advanced regular expressions using grouping and named groups, negative lookaheads, escaped characters, whitespaces, character sets (and negative characters sets), and greedy/nongreedy operators • Understand a wide range of computer science topics, including anagrams, palindromes, supersets, permutations, factorials, prime numbers, Fibonacci numbers, obfuscation, searching, and algorithmic sorting
By the end of the book, you’ll know how to write Python at its most refined, and create concise, beautiful pieces of “Python art” in merely a single line.
Patriotic Detective Bundle & Crusader Kings III Pre-opportunity
Patriotic Detective Bundle | 7 Steam Games | 92% OFF
[www.indiegala.com] Clam Man, Lone Land, Detective Case, American Patriots and more! Get it in the first 24 hours at ONLY 2.99 and SAVE 92% OFF! [www.indiegala.com]
