PixlBit

With Crash 1 it probably depends how far you got. By the third island, every level requires extreme precision and controlling Crash is anything but precise. The bridge levels are especially frustrating and there's another that has no checkpoints (that I can recall) that's just brutal to get through.

The compactness of it definitely remains true through all three games, so it's likely that whatever you appreciated in 1 you'll appreciate a lot more in 3 and to a lesser extent 2.

I don't mind frustrating and difficult games, if they're "tough but fair". Crash 1 never felt that way. I felt like there was a level of perfection required that was just unreasonable given the control.

Hell yes! I've been hoping this would find its way to Switch!

These are some really smart changes that would totally preserve the experience. What I love most about them is that it would be great at teaching a new player how the series works with just lowering the bar a slight amount to make it a bit more forgiving and expressive. Any player could easily jump into the normal mode after that and likely be very successful and have the confidence to experience future games as the designers intended.

I feel like Dark Souls 2 did a decent job in this regard, having mostly turned off invasions on NG and made many of the bosses a lot easier. Plus they double down with the challenge in NG+ and give veterans what they want.

Great thoughts, maybe some ideas like these will make their way into Sekiro. Even though it's Activision, I know From is getting some assistance that might make some of their usual obtuse concepts a bit more clear for new players (which we all be when the game releases).

Looks like our opinions on the game are pretty similar! Wasn't into the backtracking or the kinda clunky controls. Glad it wasn't just me!

You're in for a treat!

I love these ideas and I really do think they'd pay dividends for EA in becoming a more desirable company to buy products from. I understand they're still making boatloads of money, but they make it hard to want to give them money.

This is a great album. Definitely hooked me off the bat. Reminds me of the newer Puscifer stuff from Maynard. Curious to see what the next Tool album shapes up to be given the trend.

I played a bit of Owlboy on PC, but was having kind of a hard time getting into it. I'd like to try again, but it wasn't exactly what I expected. Once I get through some other stuff, I'll probably get back to it, but games like that I totally enjoy playing on a handheld more than on my PC for sure.

The more the merrier - I'll shoot you a link via PM!

Hey Cary - I remember you really enjoying it! I'll shoot you a link to the PC download. I think you'll find it much improved from the Wii U version.

I'd love to port the game to the Switch, considering how hot it is right now, but currently Nintendo isn't offering a solution to run HTML5 games on Switch, which I'm guessing is a reaction to the variety of low quality games that were brought to Wii U on the Nintendo Web Framework.

Once I get through the Steam release for this, I expect I'll have a short period where I'm supporting the game and fixing bugs, but after that, I'd really like to get rolling on something new, where I'll use Unity instead. That'll open up any and all platforms for the game. I always wanted PixlCross to be an introduction to game development for me and it really just took longer and got way more involved than I ever intended (which was a great lesson and learning process, no doubt). Now that I'm on the cusp of moving beyond that I think I'm excited about making a new type of game, something that's more traditional and not a "simple" puzzle game like PixlCross was.

I've actually got a bunch of ideas, but I think the next one I'd like to focus on will be a 2D platformer. Those are truly my favorite kinds of games, and while I know especially now that the indie market is flooded with them, I think it'd be the game I'd enjoy creating the most. If it's not shaping up to be anything special, I might change gears, but I think that's the path forward for now.