Creative Christmas 2020 – Let’s Get Mage-ing

It’s that time of the year again, it’s time to wrap up the year and talk about what a year it has been. Yet, it’s also the time of year were we are thankful and celebrate with family and friends. Way back in 2017, I was a part of LaterLevel’s Christmas Collab. The Christmas collab this year isn’t structured like that, it’s more structered like the collab I was a part of in 2019. In that collab, I wrote an article about a nice blogger called Everwake. Now, this year, I have gotten somebody else and I’ll talk more about that later. First of all, this year the collab hasn’t been organised by LaterLevels but by my mate Chris from OverThinkerY. Just one more thing before I begin, I used the cover of the amazing Pix1001 who got my name. Check out her heartwarming article by following the link. So, this introduction has gone on for too long… Hasn’t it, Winst0lf, buddy?

Character Stats

Blogger & Podcaster

He is a part of the Well Red Mage crew under the name of “The Bizzaro Mage”

 

Born on the 12th of November in the UK. 

Real name: Craig Rathbone (Instagram)

So, for this collab, he submitted his review of Chris’ book called Each Little Universe.

It’s a present time

To be honest, I haven’t read the article for the simple reason that it’s a spoiler filled article of a book of our fellow befriended blogger Chris. As I’m planning to get myself a copy of the book to read in the train, I don’t want to spoil myself. 

To sidetrack a little bit, I worked together with Chris on a written let’s play of 999. During the writing of that series, I got to know Chris a bit better and I’m quite interested in the story he wrote in his writing style. 

Anywho, let’s talk about my buddy Winst0lf. I remember our frequent chats in the Well Red Mage discord about various topics. From blogging and games to various real life things. 

On his blog you can find various articles about games, books, movies and various other subjects. So, if you enjoy geeking out on various subjects, I highly recommend following Winst0lf on his various projects. 

While I was writing this article, I was listing to various episodes of the podcast Shart Select. And I have to say, it’s quite well produced. It’s a shame that I haven’t listened to it before. I now know what to listen to while at work. 

Since I didn’t read the article he submitted for the reasons explained earlier in this article, I skimmed through it and I noticed that his reviews go very in-depth like I enjoy writing my reviews. 

Reviews are something quite important since a lot of people use it to determine if something is for them or not. And if you go in-depth, then you give the best information to your readers. Also, the honesty he writes his articles with shines through his writing.

Happy Holidays Man!

I could write a very lengthy article here about my friend Winst0lf but I think that you are getting the point dear readers. Winst0lf is a great writer and he deserves the spotlight today on my blog. 

 I know that most of my readers come for gaming content and if you want to read his in-depth reviews of certain games, I highly recommend that you check out his page over at the Well Red Mage. 

With that said, I hope you enjoyed this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care… And also, happy holidays Winst0lf!

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Publishing: How to Tell a Hardware Problem From a Software Problem

Jonez note: This article has been written by the fine folks over at https://businessservicesweek.com if you are interested in various topics you should surely take a look at their site. I found this guest post article quite interesting, so I decided to post it. I found it so interesting, I might revisit this topic in the future with my personal advice.

A computer is made up of various different layers and components, all put in place to perform specifically for the computer’s needs. When a computer breaks or has malfunctioned, it can be a big pain and cause various different issues – especially if you use the computer for work.

When we are subject to a computer issue, it can be hard to determine where the problem is coming from. We have been groomed to just instantly turn it off and on again and pray for the best. But, it is more than likely a hardware or software problem. But, to anyone that isn’t very educated in computer makeup, it can be tough to know which is causing the problem.

The Difference Between Hardware and Software

Computer hardware can be defined as any physical attribute used in or with your machine. So, the hardware inside the computer, or the components on the outside such as your mouse, keyboard, server, and workstation. Hardware is anything that can be physically touched. Without these components to your computer, the software wouldn’t have anything to run on.

Software is a collection of code installed onto the computers’ hard drive, that allows the device to perform. Many systems will divide software into 3 different categories. These are system software, programming software, and application software. These major classes are sequenced in a way that will be able to change the state of the hardware of the computer.

Common Hardware Problems

Most common hardware issues are actually caused by your device overheating, and not being able to dispose of that heat to cool down. This can cause issues with all the components and their performance inside of the computer, disrupting workflow. Other than the underlying cause being heat, another way many hardware issues occur is because of physical damage. For example, dropping or smashing your device can cause the component to shift or even break themselves.

Some noticeable hardware problems can be as follows.

Blue Screen

A blue screen occurs when your computer encounters a failure called a ‘stop error’. The coding of this error causes the computer to completely crash and stop working. They can come onto your screen and produce all manners of information and coding that is being saved into your hard drive disk as it is happening. If this happens, the only way the laptop can be saved is to restart it entirely. This can lead to a lot of data loss, as the applications that may be open as the blue screen happens, do not have enough time to save all of their data.

Noisy Hard Drive

Hard drives, unknown to many, have a limited lifespan and these are something you do need to update every few months or years to have optimum performance. So, if there is clicking or disruptive grinding sounds coming from the inside of your computer, then it is highly likely the hard drive needs to be replaced.

Blank Screens

Having a blank monitor is one of the most common hardware problems. A blank screen is something that is most likely to occur at least once in your time when using a computer. This can be an annoyance if the computer is being used for work purposes or important work, so it’s an issue that would really need to be fixed fast. This problem can usually be caused by loose cables in the back of the computer such as the supply cord or video cable. A simple fix would be too check all of these and ensure they are securely plugged in, to decipher if these are the culprits.

Common Software Issues

Most common software issues are caused due to a bug in the coding sequence or because the system is not working as expected due to an external issue. Software problems can cause a lot of frustration as the software coding in your device is what runs your hardware to work smoothly.

Computer Freezing

A very common software issue in many devices is the incessant freezing of applications or the screen whilst it is in use. As the laptop will now not be able to be controlled by the mouse and no clicks are doing anything, the only option left is to restart the computer. But, instead of flicking the main supply to rid the laptop of complete power, just holding down the power button for 5-10 seconds will allow the device to restart without losing power – hopefully leaving any opened work untouched.

App Command Not Working

Another confusing and troublesome software problem that could occur is apps on the device are not loading or responding when opened. This can be caused by the software trying to load too many applications at once, and it just doesn’t have the power to configure them all. On the other hand, it could be the app compatibility with the strength of the software in your device. It may be possible that the device being used does not have the appropriate coding or sequence in its software to run the app.

Ways around these issues will be to either reboot your device and start on a clean screen with no additional applications running in the background – then start up the app you want to see if it loads. Or, it will be to research the chosen application and the environment it needs to work and compare that to your own device.

Your Computer Boots Extremely Slowly

Although a slow computer can be much of an annoyance, it is luckily one of the easiest problems to fix. The most common cause of the system taking its time to boot up is because there are too many applications trying to load at once in the background as your computer is trying to start too. The best way to avoid this issue would be to set all of the applications on the computer to only load when they are being used. This will stop new downloads sticking to their factory settings and loading as soon as the laptop starts – hopefully allowing your device to start a lot faster.

Conclusion

It is an annoyance for almost everyone when a device has problems or isn’t working properly – especially when it is of great importance to everyday life. It is hard to be able to configure by yourself why the problems are happening and find the cause. Therefore, the most beneficial decision would be to take your device to a repair shop, if the issue continues after reading through the tips and tricks of this article.

Game Quicky: The Last Tree (PC) ~ Now with the Full version

Official Steam page

So, do you guys remember when I wrote a preview about The Last Tree a while back? Well, the game has been released on the 31st of May. So, it’s time to take a look at the finished product. I have to say, that I got a review code from the developer, but I have to stress that he didn’t ask for another article. So, in this article, you will get my full honest opinion. As usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article. 

The bad

To be very honest, I think the main menu is a bit flat. While the menu does what it’s supposed to do, I think gives an uninteresting look and is quite boring. It could use a bit more decorating. My suggestion is that it has the title card with the menu options underneath.

Something I wish that could be added is an options menu. In this menu, you can do the following things. Mute the music and/or sound effects, change the controls and make the game windowed or full screen. It would be a great feature.

The controls itself aren’t bad, but I like to use the “Z,Q,S,D” keys. And here in Belgium, we have the AZERTY-keyboard layout. This game doesn’t work with that layout.

In terms of the visuals, I would make one minor change. I would change the texture of the collapse floors to a cracked version. This gives the player a better reason to not stand still on those platforms.

This might be a nitpick, but when you reach a save point, quit the game and start the game up again and you click on “Continue”, you start again at the start of the level.

One more thing, I think it would be great if there was a jump sound effect. It would give this game a bit more punch. Actually, I think that this game could use a bit more sound effects, it would make the game come more alive.

The good

The price for this game is really low. You would expect a really bad game for 2€, but this isn’t true in this case!

I really like the visual presentation of the new levels. The presentation is very well done.

Gameplay-wise, I think the game is less “boring” when I compare it to the demo I played in April. The obstacles are more spaced out and you have more time to learn new obstacles and mechanics.

The music of this game is pretty good. Yet, I can understand why some players wouldn’t enjoy the soundtrack all that much. But, I enjoy the music myself.

The game is quite lengthy. With 32 levels, I think that this game has more than enough content for the price of the game. There are also Steam achievements and trading cards. The achievements are to check your progress in the game, but hey, there are triple A games that do that too!

Gameplay-wise, I think this is a really enjoyable casual game. You have to run and jump around. There are two unique mechanics in this game. You move from the right to the left AND the time slows down as you move. You can use this in order to jump over enemies and look if you can make a certain jump. I find myself returning to this game here and there. To play one more level.

There is a story in this game, this story is to raise awareness to the deforesting of the planet. Yet, it isn’t forced upon you. You can read up on the story by stopping at the notes floating around the levels, but you can also run straight passed it when the story doesn’t interest you.

That gets a thumbs up from me, but it’s your loss that you don’t have the enjoyable writing and jokes that the developer put into this game.

Also, a great feature of this game is the Steam Cloud feature! I really love this feature since I can continue to play the game on my laptop when I’m on the go without me loosing any progress.

This might be a personal thing, in case you don’t know it already, the developer actually quoted my preview article on the Steam Store page.

Thank you so much for that. 🙂

Conclusion

Is this game worth your time? I think so yes. This game might have not a lot of depth, but it’s a well-built game that can be even better with some polish. All the problems that I talked about in this review, are fixable.

Also, a game with this amount of love and effort put into it for only 2€ is a great deal. If the issues I mentioned get fixed and the game gets a bit more sound effects, I think that this game would be even more enjoyable.

Currently, I think that this game is one of the best cheap games I have in my Steam library. I’m having a lot of fun with the game and the mechanics and can’t wait to beat the game completely.

That’s everything I wanted to say about this game. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article on this blog, but until then; take care and have a great rest of your day!

Preview: The Last Tree (PC) ~ Save The Trees

Official website

So, today we are going to take a look at a preview of “The last tree”. A game that is created by Ungrodo. It’s a game with a message. The message might be pretty clear when you read the title. It’s about the deforesting of our planet. Which is in my opinion a real big shame. Because I sometimes go to the forest and sit there. I put my headphones on and listen to some calming music to get some rest. These moments are so relaxing to me, I wouldn’t want to miss it! I go there when I feel I have no inspiration or motivation to continue. But hey, we are getting side-tracked. Let’s take a look at “The Last Tree”. And as usual, I encourage you to give it a try for yourself. Also, as usual, feel free to give your opinion about the game and/or the content of the article in the comment section down below. 

Full disclosure: this article is written to raise awareness for this game. This isn’t a sponsored article at all. 

Warning: I played a more completed version then the demo version provided on the site. This game is still under development and is subject to change. Things might be different in the final release. 

Demo and stuff

Update after publishing this article: I totally forgot to mention that the developer is planning to release this game on various platforms like Android and iOS. So, keep an eye out for those!

The developer of this game gets a thumbs up from me. I ran into some issues with the first build I got from him. I emailed him back telling him about it and after a few days, he emailed me back with a new and improved build. Seriously, I love when developers do that. Really listen to the feedback of the people who play their game.

The game is being developed in the Unreal 4 Engine. In this simple 2D game, time moves when you move. A trailer for this game can be found on YouTube. The story in this game is charmingly simple. It has to be since it’s a platformer.

The year is 2092, and the tree called Ungrodo is the last tree on earth, and everybody’s chasing him. He has very special skill – TIME SLOWS DOWN WHEN HE MOVES.

The story is being told by little floating notes. The game doesn’t force you to read the notes. But in most of the notes, the text is so short, you don’t have to stop in your tracks to read everything. I would recommend the developer to shorten some notes, since they stop players dead in their tracks if they want to read everything. I can image this would cause some players to not bother with the notes and skip them. The writing for this game is decent and it would be a shame if players skipped this aspect of the game. Also, I think it would benefit the atmosphere if you added some animations in the background to aid the story telling.

The screen is on fire!

Visually, this game looks pretty nice. But there are some things I would like to see improved in the final build of the game.

First of all, the game uses amazing fire effects, but they look disconnected for the visual presentation of the rest of the game. I think it would be nicer if you give the fire a more drawn look like the rest of your game.

Secondly, and this is only a minor thing, remove the lines in the menus. The reason why is: when you have a “R” in there, the line makes it look like an “A”.

Thirdly, there is a great checkpoint system in place in the game. But I would recommend a bit more visual animation when passing through the checkpoints. Sometimes, I hardly noticed I passed a checkpoint.

And finally, while the mechanic of time slowing down is great and becomes very interesting in the game, I would try and avoid the wobble effect you get when you stop moving with the character.

The controls of this game are pretty well done. The game doesn’t provide a tutorial on the controls and it doesn’t need to that, since the controls are so intuitive that they explain themselves. The only thing I would recommend is an option menu to let people to rebind their keys. Since I don’t think everybody wants to use the arrow keys to move in their games.

This game autosaves with each checkpoint. And that’s a great plus in my book. Since I’m somebody who would forget to save and shutdown the game. So, thanks for that. But speaking about saving, I have two issues with this.

One, why is there a restart game option in the pause menu? I would rather have an option to return to the main menu and restart from there.

And two, why isn’t there a prompt saying “are you sure you want to restart your game, since your save data is going to be lost” when you select, restart the game?

Run to the … left?

So, the gameplay of this game is really simple. Go from right to… left? Yes, a reverse 2D-platform. Neat.

You will have to jump over enemies and obstacles. You can’t fight the enemies since, well, you play as a walking tree.

I love when you died and you return quickly enough, you still see parts of the animation from when you died. This is an amazing touch.

Also, I love that the danger isn’t gone when you jump over an enemy. Since they turn around when you jump over them. Adding to the immersion of the game. Since the character in this story is hunted upon.

Speaking about enemies, I think it would be a bit more fair if you don’t combine too much enemies with the blade traps. Since it’s pretty difficult to make a jump over an enemy and a blade. A good fix for this would be a sort of life-system. Where you are able to take a few hits before you die. And staying in the theme of the story, the main character could lose parts of his(/hers?) body when hit. Like the enemy or the blade was successful in cutting off a piece of him(/her?)

The soundtrack of this game really suits the atmosphere the visuals are building. I think it would improve the game if the sound effects would be changed to fit the character a bit more. Like jumping up is a branch that is being picked up out of leaves or something along those lines.

In any case, I said everything I wanted to say about this game, so it’s time to wrap this article up.

Conclusion

I think that this game has a lot of great ideas as a base, but needs a lot of polishing up. The menu system needs to be more expanded upon. The game idea is excellent. It’s a platformer that can stand out if they polished up a bit more.

The basic game is already there. It just needs some more work to expand the game and improve it.

If you enjoy unique platformers, I would highly recommend to take a look at this one and take a look for yourselves.

In any case, I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article on my blog. But until then, have a great rest of your day and take care!