Welcome back to Jaggy's Corner where I talk about video games that I'm playing or rant about the industry.
This week, I could have done more ranting about Destiny 2's new quest "The Lie" and how I really hate the Seraph Tower event, or I could ramble about thirsty attention-seeking Twitch streamers who've been plaguing my news feed. Instead, I decided that I would talk a little bit about one piece of news that makes me sad, I'll also talk about something good.
First up is the terrible news that I have. Any of you that know me might also know that I'm not exactly a fan of the battle royale genre. There are certainly exceptions to this, but for the most part, I find games that are primarily focused on PvP extremely boring. I'm not a fantastic player when it comes to competitive anything, and while I have a competitive personality, I know that my skills aren't up to snuff. I don't waste time pretending to be something I'm not.
Anyways, one of the most interesting battle royale games that caught my attention is a game called "The Darwin Project". I learned of its existence by accident while I was in the Indie Zone looking for a specific game that I wanted to review. As I passed through the area, I was approached by someone who asked if I wanted to try their new game. After one round of it, I proudly made third place, if I recall correctly. (I do wish I had screenshots of this feat.)
Now, at the time, I was still new to writing articles and reviews, so sucked in my breath and approached one of the devs. Without having a script or much of an idea about the right questions to ask a dev, I plunged into the water saying that I was really surprised by the game because I'm not a fan of the BR genre. As it turned out, neither was the dev! Once we established our common ground, he explained that he wanted to create a game that he would enjoy. The Darwin Project was the result of that. It is a game that has a survival mechanic, a director who hypes up the players and doles out equipment or boosts, and has equipment upgrade mechanics. Combine these with the fact that I seem to enjoy the laid back and cartoony graphics style, this game had it all.
Yet, despite its uniqueness and player base, the global pandemic has made every industry a struggle to survive in, and after a couple of solid years of running, Scavengers Studio released a statement about The Darwin Project the other day.
It is with a heavy heart that we have decided to stop developing new features for the game. April's update was the last one for the foreseeable future.
Scavengers Studio Statement
The above is held within the first paragraph of Scavengers Studio's most recent article. My heart sank. The Darwin Project was one of the few BR games that I enjoyed playing because it had a unique take on the genre. And now, it goes by way of the dodo much like Maple Story 2 did. (I'm really not happy with 2020.)
Considering how many awful things I've seen or read about in the last few months, it crushes me that game companies are also having a hard time keeping afloat during the pandemic.
But, because of Scavenger Studios' success to this point, the developers are on my radar for new future releases. I'm sure that we'll be receiving innovative games like The Darwin Project down the line and I can't wait to see what they have in store.
Mother's Day
The second thing I wanted to cover is really just talking about a nice thing that my brother and I did for Mother's Day this past Sunday. The two of us concocted a plan to do something nice for our mother despite being stuck in quarantine.
Each week the three of us play Satisfactory by Coffee Stain Studios. It is a 3D factory building game that we have been enjoying playing together. This is one way that our family stays connected. In fact, gaming has always been a staple in our family, but that's a story for another time.
Anyways, my brother was tasked with making sure that my mom was busy while we launched the game early to execute our plan. He brought supplies to a remote location from our main base and began making the Happy Mother's Day sign. When I logged in, I grabbed more supplies for the project. In total, it took a couple of stacks of copper sheets, a crap ton of concrete, and some iron plating. I believe we also needed iron rods but they weren't as crucial to have full stacks of the object. After an hour of work, my brother and I were successful in our mission.
We entered phase two: getting mom to the location in the game without her suspecting anything.
My brother cleverly asked about our opinions on how we were going to organize the nuclear power plant area. This was a discussion we started last week when we finally unlocked tier 7 and 8. My brother, already having chosen an area very far from our base, took us to the location to survey the resource location in relation to the nuclear power plant. And because of where we erected the sign, it was masked by larger rocks. Once we arrived at the location, she finally saw the sign in the distance. (It's worth noting that her graphics card isn't the best, and therefore she had to be closer than normal to see it. The field of view depth isn't the best on that machine.)
Take a look at the result below!
I wasn't streaming at the time but I can say that our mother was quite happy with the sign. She put it up on social media much like I did. (I did Tweet about our little project. I also put it on Instagram!)
The moral here is, even though everyone is stuck at home because of the pandemic doesn't mean that creativity is gone or that time can't be spent with family and friends, because there are always ways to connect. I've seen a lot of wonderful things come from the minds of complete strangers and I'm overjoyed to see that. Perhaps some of you found unique ways to celebrate Mother's Day. If not, I hope you're all taking your mothers out to epic dinner establishments when it is safe to!
Anyways, I hope everyone is safe, healthy, and sane. It's tough for many people, but we will make it through. Just remember to have more patience than normal and remember to keep in contact with your family and friends. Mental health is crucial. There are plenty of ways to keep in touch!
Until next time peeps!
