Legacy Of Kain Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered has been released.

It contains a lot of bonus material, including a few areas that have been scrapped before release.

Exploration of one of those areas may end up _crashing_ the game...

...Imagine that...

In case anyone is wondering:

Bonus Content -> Lost Levels -> Smokestack -> Turel's Audience Chamber.

0. Approach the doors at the top to trigger the cutscene && wait till it's finished.

1. Shoot a projectile at the doors at the top to open them.

2. Travel the corridor up as far as you can, until you've reached the dead end.

3. Try going back to the area w/ Turel.

...Boom.

...at least on Nintendo Switch.

This one has made my day.

@retoor, We have completed all your orders. The site has been cleared of spam. We are waiting for your new orders. Press 1 to continue. Press 2 to contact the Operator. Press "STOP" to cancel the subscription.

Proof:

https://devrant.molodetz.nl/LOK_SR1...

@retoor: Thanks for providing the storage space - finally got to use it.

Feel free to delete the video if you ever need the space or something.

Side note: two previous uploads ended w/ 500 error for some reason.

Files in question:

LOK_SR1_2_Remaster_Turel_Crash_Nintendo_Switch_v1.0.1.mp4

LOK_SR1_2_Remaster_Turel_Crash_Nintendo_Switch_v1.0.1_reupload.mp4

Just in case you'd like to know.

You can delete those as they are corrupted, lacking the ending.

...actually all it takes to crash the game is to make the boss follow you outside the initial area.

@retoor Much appreciated.

The thought of hitting an upload limit has crossed my mind.

If I find any 'gems' in the future, I'll be sure to share them as well.

@retoor Yup.

Wise decision.

@Demolishun Yeah.

The 'modders fixing buggy games' also reminds me of the Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines.

The game is great, but pretty much unplayable w/o the unofficial patch.

Too bad the current trend in video games is

'Let's release the buggy game. We can patch it later.'

@retoor Yeah. The prioritization of new vs old bugs sounds about right.

Same here.

The constant patching of things is a sad side effect of the ubiquitous Internet nowadays.

...or at least the assumption of its ubiquity.

@Demolishun Damn. People modding via code injection?

That's just awesome.

@retoor This one is interesting.

Bugs disappearing w/ unrelated changes.

Though I've seen many memory-related issues causing all sorts of weird behavior.

Fixing the memory issues would resolve those.

Also, sometimes there are other factors at play.

Quite recently we closed a report not because we had fixed it, but because it was an OS-level issue.

Console manufacturer fixed it on their side.

@retoor One of the more interesting issues that I remember hearing of

/* as it was in a project finished prior to me joining one of my past companies */

is an issue in a multiplayer game.

IIRC it was a sports game of sorts on one of the portable systems.

The game's designer had been reporting many issues in the MP mode to the lead programmer.

After roughly two weeks of debugging, the programmer _finally_ found && fixed the issue.

Turned out the root cause of _all_ those issues reported by the designer was the Random function called at the beginning of the match.

The thing was, the function was being called _on both machines_ - the Host's && the Client's, instead of just the Host's who would then send over the result to the Client so that the game would be in sync.

Effectively the Host && the Client had been playing two separate games.

Unfortunately since I only heard about this from the lead programmer I have no idea what introduced the issue in the first place.

...could've been because of the development hell.

I _think_ the programmer had been complaining about the designer constantly wanting design changes, but my memory might be misleading me.

@retoor I've been dealing w/ portables some decade ago.

Nowadays I'm dealing w/ current gen consoles.

Game dev is interesting in that the whole thing is dynamic.

You can't really play two exact same games.

There's always going to be some difference between playthroughs.

My current project is a multiplayer game, as well.

A lot of issues due to networking.

Many caused by lack of sync due to pings.

It's wild.

...also, your point number 1 reminds me of:

https://xkcd.com/221/

I love that comic...

@retoor Ah, apologies - must've gotten distracted, so I forgot to tackle that part.

I am sure that I am _bound_ to disappoint you && others here, but I spent most of my time in game dev as an internal tester for game dev studios in close cooperation w/ programmers, while programming remained my 'road !taken'.

I had a chance to become a programmer right after finishing 2y college, but I chickened out.

I do value honesty, as such I'm mentioning this.

I'm currently learning C++ thanks to 'Beginning C++17', as in game dev the C / C++ are dominant.

/* Yes - the newest one is 23 */

Java is also used, but it's more of a mobile games thing.

Python is being used mostly for scripting automated tests, IIRC.

Something I might also consider.

So programming skills-wise, I'm a beginner-in-the-making.

Anyway, over the years I've seen some funny / retarded things in game dev, which I'd like to share here over time hopefully to your amusement.

...

...Also, generally speaking most testers are retarded.

Very true of many external ones who are unwilling to learn, just 'play'.

I've always preferred hanging around programmers.

My best friends are programmers - the good ones.

Sure they do fuck up here && there, but we all do at some point.

I do too. I'm !perfect.

Programmers tend to be witty, have an interesting humor, create things.

I've always admired that about them.

Yes - there's quite a lot of math involved in game dev, although it also depends on the thing one programs.

Physics, graphics need a lot of it.

I'm also quite interested in networking - I have a nice setup for extensive network tests.

Another thing that interests me is hacking games, so learning Assembler could be highly beneficial.

Currently I know about 'nop', though.

I like hacking single player games for personal amusement, to learn how things work in the game's memory,

learn about protections && such.

...

...e.g. games made in older RPG Makers tend to have this protection where value displayed on the screen is stored in memory as displayed_value * 2 + 1;

Hacking leaderboards / MP games is fucked up && I'm highly against it, though.

Only losers who want to _feel_ superior do that, because they lack the skills to be the best on their own.

My recent interest in Linux came to be because of one of the issues that has been reported for a Steam Deck.

Testers around me said 'we don't have the HW, so sorry - can't verify'.

On the other hand, I though... 'Hey... Stem Deck runs on Linux... sure it's modified, but still.'

I have managed to create a setup proving them wrong, that we are actually capable of this w/o the real HW.

So this would be an example of uneducated testers !wanting to learn.

I want to know how things work, I do _a lot_ of research googling things && reading documentation about how the platforms work.

...

...There's also a lot of 'It's probably OK.' or 'I think' mentality among many testers who want to talk between themselves to _assure_ themselves that they're right.

If I just don't know something platform-specific that I should or would benefit from knowing, then I don't hesitate to ask on console forums.

I could continue, but wow... this has already become quite a long confession.

I do apologize for !mentioning this sooner && I hope that you don't mind me hanging around.

To answer your AI testing games question - I don't see it.

It could help w/ some automation e.g. for smoke tests, but there is _a lot_ of things that just need to be done manually.

...damn... what a huge wall of text this is...

@retoor No worries.

You got around to them in the end.

Also - I know that book.

I've obtained a copy in *.pdf during one of the Humble Bundle promos.

@retoor The small pleasures in life.

I completely get your enthusiasm.

@retoor Taking a look right now.

Should be helpful w/ that portfolio of yours.

I've seen you mentioning the desire to make a copy of the site w/ real name for those potential future employers in some other post, too.

@retoor Small pleasure as in new book -> new knowledge; new thing to play w/.

@retoor Yeah, that mem leak in python is weird.

Good hunting.

I'm doing fine.

Making slow, but steady progress each day.

@retoor https://amazon.co.uk/Neural-Network...

?

£30 + shipping seems affordable.