Detailed Notes
The holiday season is here, and with it comes the perfect opportunity to treat yourself and your loved ones to some gaming cheer. In this year’s Building Better Developers Christmas Special, Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche dive into their ultimate Holiday Gaming Gift Guide, filled with ideas to make this season merry and bright for gamers and developers alike.
Read More... https://develpreneur.com/holiday-gaming-gift-guide-the-2024-christmas-special-from-building-better-developers/
*Stay Connected: Join the Develpreneur Community*
What are your favorite holiday gaming gifts? Do you have a must-play game or an accessory you swear by? Share your recommendations with Rob and Michael via [email protected] or social media. The Building Better Developers team is always eager to hear from fellow gamers.
Here’s to a festive season filled with joy, gaming, and connection. Happy Holidays! 🎮✨
*Additional Resources* * Holiday Specials (https://develpreneur.com/category/podcast/holiday-specials/) * holiday traditions (https://develpreneur.com/tag/holiday-traditions/) * Making The Most of Your Holiday or Vacation Downtime (https://develpreneur.com/making-the-most-of-your-holiday-or-vacation/) * Quiet Periods and Blackouts Over The Holidays (https://develpreneur.com/quiet-periods-and-blackouts-over-the-holidays/)
*Follow-us on:*
* https://develpreneur.com/ * https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZOuFN_LhczvGyT2KSItH_g/featured * https://facebook.com/Develpreneur * https://twitter.com/develpreneur * http://linkedin.com/develpreneur
Transcript Text
[Music] all right hey everybody you probably just caught half those words because I Heard a Voice saying that we were recording right as I was starting to say that so apologies if you missed the first saying hello holiday spirit time and such we've hung the lights around the developer neur office as you can see and only three or four people were injured in doing so so that's better than our normal you know numbers getting into Christmas season and specials so we'll probably have we'll special our way out of the year um I think like we've got we've done a lot of different stuff over the years usually I do in the Christmas one of the Christmas ones is sort of a a gifty related kind of stuff of like you know whether some you know sometimes it's been good gifts to give I think this one I'd sort of like to do a little bit of um and it'll be less maybe less structured we can still do a good thing bad thing as we do our general introductions and such but I'm thinking that we just sort of then dive in and just do a general discussion about like maybe like what's a good uh good gift you've gotten you're giving yourself or that you recommend other people take a look at um and sort of where to where to go with that and we'll just sort of chatter our way through the episode that way trying to keep it sort of light and just sort of I think let's do this first one is just sort of like gift focused kind of thing of like whether it's you know we can go into a little bit of stories or whatever we want to do if we ramble that is pretty much typical so not a problem does that make sense does that sound good yeah everybody else in the a I'm not talking to you I'm talking to the audience okay I hear Applause so all right this reminds me this will be like a little bit of a bonus thing I was thinking about this as I was putting everything together this morning before stepping into this um used to be when I would watch the um the dignation podcast they would drink as they were going through they'd have beers or something usually beers as they were going through the episode and it was sort of funny watching them get more and more drunk as the episode got on and I was thinking we're sort of the opposite of that because I'm like you know I caffeine up and so as we go further along we've got a little bit more energy or maybe a lot more energy by the time we get done it's like okay quit like we Something's Gonna we're going to blow a circuit breaker somewhere if we don't watch out all right let me settle myself a little bit more these lights are just a little bit too bright on me this kind of thing so all right so we'll go to our well hello hello and welcome back yes you just heard and Michael's going to freak out because he's got to remember there is that nice little Jingles that we always have at the beginning of our Christmas episodes our holiday episodes and this once again this is like the I think this is the fifth year in a row maybe maybe more than that maybe we're up to like sixth or seventh year I don't know I've lost track but we are back we have made it through another year and we have hit another Christmas special and there'll be a couple this week and then a New Year's and then we'll get into 2025 it's crazy to think that we've gotten numbers that big for our years and we will dive back into the building better habits and wrap that season up and then move on to the next one which we haven't figured out what that is yet so as always we're more than welcome to you know love to get feedback from you guys where do you want us to go next I've spent enough time on that I'm going to go ahe and introduce myself my name is Rob Bren I am one of the founders of develop andur building better developers also a founder of RB Consulting where we do it's Boutique Consulting we get out there and we help companies do a better job maintaining working with their technology through simplification automation integration we find ways to get all of that stuff that you got out there all that technology sprawl and bring it down into a single thing this is very near and dear to my heart right now as I'm getting to my yearend planning because I have got a lot of different things that I have to deal with dealing with all my customers and the different ways they want to communicate and all that kind of stuff stuff and I am very much in the middle of like where we can do stuff ourselves RB Consulting to streamline all of our Communications and make sure that nothing gets lost in the in the midst good thing and bad thing and let's see in this week good thing was which is sort of a funny little thing is we went out for a date night to we do in this season we do what they a lot of times we'll do like popups and things like all these little special things which basically a popup is usually it's a bar or something like that they have a them theme and then it's you know maybe a normal place but now they've got this themed thing so you got themed drinks you got stuff a little different and we went to this place it looked really cool we're like oh it's like an igloo you get to rent the igloo for a couple hours and you've got they've got fondue and a bunch of other food and themed drinks and all kinds of stuff like oh this looks pretty cool we thought it was going to be on a hotel rooftop it was not it was like in the back yard of a restaurant so we walk in and we're thinking ah this may have been a big mistake so the bad thing was we didn't look close enough at the building that we were buying this we were getting this little thing together for the good news was it turned out to be phenomenal they were a little late they were a little slow getting us out there but the food was just crazy great and the drinks were good it was a good time we had like they had literally as little Igloo that was set up for six people so you had like little chairs and little love seats they had a speakers a Bluetooth speaker so you could just run your Christmas music through it the Igloo was all lit up just like the offices here at the world headquarters of develop andur uh so it's a good thing so it's one of those things hey it was like it looked a little dicey uh however the other good thing is that what we're doing for New Year we're actually going to make sure we do a little drive by beforehand to make sure that we are like picked a place we really want to go to one good thing also is that I've got a partner that has been working with me the last year and he's on the other side and I'm going to let you go ahead and introduce yourself Michael hey everyone my name is Michael M I'm one of the co-founders of developer ner building better developers I'm also the founder of Envision QA where we help small to midsize businesses or clinicians really analyze their software and make sure that their software is working for them not them working for their software we analyze your processes we help you remove uh redundancies and we help you automate and actually build tools or find the right tools to do your job right and to basically streamline things so you're working in your business more instead of on your business good things bad things I'll keep it to the good in light of the holidays uh I'm excited we're getting close to the uh end of the year still have not gotten snow yet that's the only so that is one bad thing I don't have snow yet I I I like snow for Christmas when it's cold outside when it's below 30° there should be snow no such luck lots of ice uh on that note though good thing we've had uh some holiday festivities going around in the area I was been able to kind of um reconnect with some of the co-starters from uh last year early start of the year uh went through that rebranding process and it was nice to see friendly faces again and kind of get out in the world uh and see how they're doing so this episode because it's like a festive kind of time and things like that cuz Hey we've got bright lights on and they're not you know errors from code we've written or something like that I want to talk a little bit about because it's the gift giving season so I want to talk a little bit about gifts and go a little bit on that one of them I like to do is talk a little bit about I guess gifts for yourself something that you can give yourself during this time because if you're like us you work a lot of hard hours you have a long year you know you're just like you have to do some self-care along the way you have to have some time to like downtime and chill and stuff like that so you know if you don't have a hobby get a hobby you need to find something you can do that allows you to like take you away from the work for a little bit now myself and I'm going to call out Michael as well because I know uh we tend to be Gamers uh he has more gaming than does more gaming than I do but you know I've got a I definitely have my uh my gaming time as well and my I think a gift that I think about I want to go like two ways on this one um in last few years depending on how much of a gamer or not you are last now several years they've worked better and better on handheld consoles basically so the things the traditional like your Xboxes and your PlayStations and all of those now there are really highend handheld systems out there two of which that I have become very uh happy with as they have progressed is one the switch the Nintendo stuff eventually became the is the switch which you can plug in and you can use as a regular console but it's also really nice to travel with uh of stuff you can do there it's got all the console all the controls you would normally want and also the steam deck which is a little bit more it's because it's got a very broad um number of games that it supports you can get a little Hit or Miss in that there's some stuff that will support with like quotes around you but you really want like I've got for example I've got one game that I'm playing that's Fallout Vegas that it supports it but I really would never want to play it other than with a a controller that actually have like a Bluetooth controller into it if you want to do it through the handheld like set the handheld a little bit further away and use a you know use a controller to do it all that to say one one of those if you're if you're a gamer and you want to be able to get away from your console if you're like an Xbox or a PlayStation fivr or something like that then check check one of these out or both of them they're price-wise they're you know comparable to a typical console system and stuff like that you can get some uh accessories and that so you can keep adding to and they all they both have um digital stuff so that you can download things in you don't have to carry discs around with you or cartridges or things like that you can for the switch at least I don't think you be there isn't even a I don't think there's a cartridge form for steam deck but you can bring this stuff in and allows you to play whatever games you are followup to that is I was wandering around looking for something cuz I was like Hey I want to get like another switch game because I've been working my way through it sted across a thing called uh unicorn Overlord I was like what kind of crazy name is that it can't be very good but it actually fell under the list of things that was like my kinds of game so I started looking at I was like this might be pretty good and it turns out it is like one of those it's a perfect kind of switch game it's one of those you can sit down you can play for a little bit yes it's got a long story but you can like do it for a little bit you don't have to get too lost in it you don't lose like days dealing with it so those are my you know that's like a very specific you know here's a game that maybe you want to take a look at or if you really want like I mentioned Fallout Vegas or Skyrim or one of those it's like just huge games that could take up the entirety of next year for you uh but also this you know it's a little one and then it's like I said it's just a I think it's really handy to have one of these little portable systems that's my thoughts where are you at with your your gift self and and other gifts uh stuff for yourself Michael so the that it's funny about that uh unicorn Overlord that I remember seeing that one and the first thought I had uh was another game that came out for the Xbox 360 I think was uh Brutal Legends uh that was another one that was like I don't know if I'm going to like this but it was uh like uh was it uh John Jeff black John black um was like a heavy metal guitar was the uh antagon was the hero and it was like heavy metal bands and it was like what the hell is it it was the funnest game I had played that year it was like good gracious I kind of hope they make a sequel at some point because I really want to see like updated uh bus bands like they built the battle stages it was really cool uh I've got both of those consoles and it's kind of funny because uh there's actually a uh app you can download and install on the switch that lets you remote play to your PlayStation 5 so um I've actually instead of breaking down buying that portal or whatever that PlayStation handheld thing is uh I just use the steam deck and it plays pretty well uh it's actually interesting enough that the uh play now or Remote Play actually works on my iPad too so I can actually even Remote Play to the PlayStation so there's so many ways uh you can actually kind of stream to your Playstation which is kind of interesting uh it digress a little bit when it comes to the holidays and gaming I'm not allowed to buy games for myself anymore after my birthday in September I I'm basically cut off I'm told no no no no because more than once I have gone out and bought myself a game and then there's a copy under the tree for me at Christmas and then I get yelled at because I basically buy myself my own Christmas gifts every year it's kind of hard though when like some of the really good games don't come out till like November it's like come on I know you guys are doing this to settle out but in the digital age really come on uh games I've been playing right now that I kind of like uh like Diablo I the new season um was kind of cool kind of running out of content though I'm looking forward to uh pillars of Eternity 2 I have a suspicious feeling that's going to be under the tree for me uh so I'll lose some hours playing that and uh I kind of got into uh kind of a destiny like spin-off called the first descendant that came out around July it's interesting in it's got a pretty decent story and solid enough Graphics but what I don't like about it is the microtransactions so like the game microtransactions you to death so it's once you beat the story The End Game unless you like really do the grind really feels like work so it's like okay I'll wait till the next season comes out new content drops now it's like oh okay it's fun again get through that but the uh endgame material not really for me but the main story is kind of cool it's Destiny is but kind of more downto Earth kind of thing like better scenery and effects um as far as gifting um similar to me my son-in-law uh is a big PC Gamer uh I kind of got away from that because I need higher end machines for writing code not gaming uh cuz I find myself if I buy a gaming rig to write code on I play games on it and I don't write code so I I try to keep my uh sections separated but he picked up uh the the I guess stalker 2 is the new one that came out it's like a Ukrainian kind of sci-fi horror um first person looks really cool it's only on PC and I guess Xbox at the moment so I can't try it on my PlayStation yet uh and it won't play on the steam deck so it's a really graphic intensive but it looks fun It looks interesting so just some ideas for you uh if you're out there I do like to switch and I'm actually hoping uh there's a copy of the Luigi the Mario and Luigi brothers under the tree this year because that did come out after my birthday uh so those are just some of the things I like to play on those as well those are some you that's mentioned there's always a uh with those there's always the idea of like going back I like sometimes to go back to some of the old things as you mentioned sort of like the old school games and that where I'll because I do have like I have a collection and I've been like whittling it down because I had so many of them but I do have like practically every handheld that's that's like I've got way back to like the game boyance all the way through like PSP and stuff all that kind of stuff and I've got games that work on all of these things and they I can still play them and I do from time to time I like I'll decide hey I've got another doing I'll crank out the little Game Boy Advance I've got some little you know little arcade Style game or something like that I'll just do because I know I'm going to be sitting there like at a you know graduation sitting there and doing nothing for an hour while I'm waiting for stuff or something like that and those are always fun to have it is fun to go back to some of those things that I've I've beaten years ago like the old um oh what's it like the Crash Bandicoot series or Spyro the Dragon or some of those kinds of things that just go back and it's it is fun and it's like some of those things it's like it's always great to get the new games but it's sometimes nice to just like chill and do either like an old school arcade kind of game or something that you've already like you know solved essentially where you can just go in and you know beat up beat up on some people or something like that or like like Skyrim I mentioned is I've got a couple of those where I'll just sit it's basically of like one you know gotten all the main stuff and I'll just go wander around and look around the world and go beat on some stuff or stuff like you know hex something with a sword or shoot it with an arrow whatever happens to be cuz they're and they're great drinking games so the kind of stuff when you've been sitting there you just like you've had a lot of food you've had a couple of you glasses of wine or whatever your drink is and you're just like you know what I just want to chill don't want to think about it too much but I do feel like I feel better doing a game than just sitting there you know taking a nap those are some good things to take a look out for as well or even your little phone games like that sometimes are really good now it's funny because you talk about playing the old games and that so what are your thoughts on the old playing the old ver like being basically have the old game updated enough to play on a newer system it's still the old game or a remaster of the game not a not like Final Fantasy 7 where they basically rewrote the whole game but like a cleaned up version so like you mentioned Spyro so they have a remastered version of Spyro they even did one for uh medieval and some of those are pretty cool but it partially because you can't just take the old game and plop it on the new system it doesn't play right but what are your thoughts on that you know between yeah I love that like Wasteland is one that I had was like an way way back I remember on PC playing Wasteland one and always just drooling for a Wasteland 2 when I got done with it and they've come back and remastered those and done Wasteland two and then created Wasteland 3 CU I think that was one was not even a remaster so that was one I I love the heck out of those actually one of the things I keep I got on one of my like you probably want this list but I haven't bought it yet as a remaster of Wizardry that like is The Way Way Back original I that's the first RPG game I ever played on a on a PC I mean that would that really counted there was a couple others but they weren't that level of RPG at that time that was like that was just crazy you know whole different level of RPG I'd never seen on a on a computer and so I've spent over the years I've spent hours through all of the various Wizardry things but they've gone back and done the original one um and it's on the handheld I think it's on Steam deck or or switch or maybe both so they basically they've just upgraded the graphics it's essentially understand it's the same story lot of the same everything uh and it's a very good like just it's not quite a you know a grinder type kind of thing it is a little bit it's got but you or I guess a good deal of it's just like wandering around beating up monsters so more of the grind kind of stuff it does have a little bit of story and then you've got some you know your basic like work your way up in levels and uh all the different magic items and it's one of those you can switch classes so you can like work your way all the way up and then start all over again and work your way up so there's there's some value to it but I I a lot of those I actually really enjoy because I don't want to get too far into uh I worry sometimes I'm going to learn some get into something new and it's going to suck up countless hours that I really don't have uh so going back to those old schools actually that's why I did not I guess Last Christmas I finished barail the like the new they've got a new barail four or whatever I can't remember what they called it but it's basically bar sale 4 I went back and did that so it was a that one's like a nice bonus cuz it's a it's based on an old school property it's sort of the same but then they can update it enough that it's like it is a new game so those I'm I'm big fan of those kind of things whenever they can take those and sort of say hey this old thing we're going to you know come back and revamp it for the modern stuff even actually one of the s first switch games I got was uh Advan Wars uh one and two they just combined those in they updated them a little which is nice but it was like it was it's another one it's a very fun I can sit there and knock it out and I don't know if I've got like a half hour an hour to play I can go through a you know a campaign and then I'm happy and and can move on to my other things so yeah those are great what do you how do you feel about those the remasters and such so interesting enough I did not like the new bars tale I did not like the updated version I like the old school like first person view um cuz to me I think the best Dungeon Crawler was probably Bon magic 3 it was uh like the first person kind of that style but that was probably like the best control story everything and then plus we kind of grew up with that style where you're in the dungeon you move so we went from like the old uh keyboard zorc you know uh n for North s for South you know for controls you you actually now kind of move through the dungeon and I really like those styles of games so there was one I ran across last year and I don't remember if I sent it to you it's on the iPad it's called Legend of Grimrock and it's kind of the old Wizardry style but what I like about it is it's got all the touch interaction so you have to actually pull chains to open doors pick up Keys unlock things so there's a little more of that human gesture interaction with it not just the controls which makes it a little more fun for me um and along that lines it's like some so one of the best Rema or I don't want to say remasters but just kind of restore was the balers gate Series so when they and release the enhanced version of that that is the perfect game of an example of a PC game being ported to mobile where it was designed for Mouse clicks which is perfect for touch dragging awesome um bers gate one I finally finished that last year uh be careful with the enhanced versions because they also come with the uh expansion packs and the expansion packs basically are like endless Dungeon Crawlers and if you accidentally get out of the main story to that it's hard to get back with your character to the main story uh so I had to start over a few times cuz I kept doing that by mistake it's like it's 40 50 hours in you kind foret it's like oh yeah I want to do it and I like crap no where's my save go back uh but yeah that one's cool uh my all-time favorite one though was Ice wind Dale it was a very compact very short story but man the graphics just the story by the time you're done with that game it's like is very satisfying it's like you are very happy with the way that ended uh Unfortunately they lost the source code for icewind Dale to so we will never see the light of day of that one again unless someone completely reverses Engineers it from a CD if they find a copy of it somewhere it's gone uh unfortunately uh but yeah those kind of games were fun the uh TSR games were a lot of fun back in the day uh some of those have been remastered and enhanced I I've liked them I would love to see Buck Rogers redone uh that was I I don't know why but that was one of the best sci-fi uh it was like pools of Radiance with Buck Rogers lasered guns and it was like this is awesome but it's little Pixy it's like man and then that other one um that you turned me on to was it adum um oh a verum yeah spiderweb software stuff so I just found out that uh I think steam deck or epic one of the ones had a game that actually plays on um my map and I was like oh I'll check this out it's the old school Graphics but it looks like the whole game was enhanced so it looks like the old school style but it does look like it was polished and kind of updated for monitor day and I'm just clicking around playing with it I'm like wow this is cool and one of the cool Dynamics I found with it was you have to actually open up your inventory slot at different places on the ground to actually see things on the ground I I had never run into that before uh cuz some of the uh other like the earlier ones didn't have that mechanic so I don't know if that's something new that added with this game or if just the later ones had that that was really cool I'm like hey what's that on the ground how do I get and I'm like oh hey okay so that means I kind but you can't walk around with your inventory open that's the only thing that's a little weird about it but I can see the Quirk with it like I can see the appeal to it it was kind of cool so uh I'm giving that one a shot uh this season well I'm waiting on what's under the tree and uh trying very hard to get away from like games as a service right now uh because I'm just a little burnt out of like you know always have to log in to make sure you get your daily things always have to make sure you do the seasonal content to get like the bonus it's like come on guys make a game make a story make it good you know it doesn't necessarily have to be Skyrim but astrobot perfect example it is like a 20 hour game and it is like no noic perfectly made game uh you can play like at the end of one level you're playing uh ape Escape at another uh end of level you're doing um Ragnarok um God of War it was just cool it it was like this is like the game was solid and even at the game awards show this year they called out you know thank you Nintendo Mario you you like set the stage for this and it was like a throwback to like everything good and happy with video games it wasn't like nothing really yeah there were some like things going on but it was Goofy enough that it wasn't like mean or bad or and it was like it was a feel-good game all the way through yes you got frustrated yes there are speedrun challenges and you will probably Rage Quit for your controller on the last bonus level but that's the only level I haven't beaten I get 10 minutes in almost to the end and die every freaking time because the platform just boo just right but I digress but yeah so again I like a lot of the restores and some of the remasters I like like like I said medieval um but like the legend of cane one that just came out it looks kind of cool but I almost feel that's more like a reskin than a remaster it it it's like don't charge me full price for a game that all you did was just kind of update the graphics a little bit and fix the controls it's like that should be like 20 bucks so that that's my only kind of bad thing about some of these like remasters yeah so yeah that's just a couple of brief thoughts yeah my M magic 3 I think was probably the best uh because it was also sort of it was basically open worldish it was like I always lik the Might and Magic uh game mechanics and stuff like that and it was just it really added all the pieces so that was probably the epitome of like old school stuff uh i' forgotten about Buck Rogers like there's a Buck Rogers and Buck Rogers 2 the two that were the old SSI and I loved almost all of the SSI stuff and those were um those were phenomenal that and another one Wizards Crown was one of these it was Game mechanics very different from some of the other RPGs but one of my all-time favorites uh so there's a lot of yeah there's a lot of good stuff out there so you know that's something else if you you know to gift yourself as maybe go back and like look back 10 or 20 years and see what's out there you might find something that's really cheap that turns out to be you know a great way to spend some time over your holidays while you're out there though you can feel free to shoot us an email at info developer.com and let us know I like game recommendations we are totally happy to hear those as well because there may be something we've missed somewhere somewhere along the way so let us know uh as always you know hang you can hit us up on Twitter or X you can check us out on Facebook you can go out to the develop and order.com site and you can spend some time searching through all of the content we've out there got out there I think we're literally you know literally thousands of articles are out there now or thousand plus articles are out there lots of stuff you to take a look at uh as always feedback however you can get to us you if you want to send us a letter if you want to send us smoke signals we also have comments everywhere whether you're watching podcast whether you're out on the developing or you you YouTube channel all of that stuff and notice that because we don't communicate very well we'll be pretty good like very graceful about whatever it is that you send us so if it's a little hard to read we'll figure it out we'll learn whatever your language is to to figure that sucker out and be able to take your feedback and make sure that we build a better season and the better series and season uh as we go into next year that being said I'm going to wrap this one up get some fresh caffeine and such like that stuff like that guys have yourself a great holiday season have a great day a great week be safe go out there have some fun enjoy your family and times and we will talk to you next time [Music]
Transcript Segments
[Music]
all right hey everybody you probably
just caught half those words because I
Heard a Voice saying that we were
recording right as I was starting to say
that so apologies if you missed the
first saying hello holiday spirit time
and such we've hung the lights around
the developer neur office as you can see
and only three or four people were
injured in doing so so that's better
than our normal you know
numbers getting into Christmas season
and
specials so we'll probably have we'll
special our way out of the
year um I think like we've got we've
done a lot of different stuff over the
years usually I do in the Christmas one
of the Christmas ones is sort of a a
gifty related kind of stuff of like you
know whether some you know sometimes
it's been good gifts to give I think
this one I'd sort of like to do a little
bit of um and it'll be less maybe less
structured we can still do a good thing
bad thing as we do our general
introductions and such but I'm thinking
that we just sort
of then dive in and just do a general
discussion about like maybe like what's
a
good uh good gift you've gotten you're
giving yourself or that you recommend
other people take a look at um and sort
of where to where to go with that and
we'll just sort of chatter our way
through the episode that way trying to
keep it sort of light and just sort of I
think let's do this first one is just
sort of like gift focused kind of thing
of like whether it's you know we can go
into a little bit of stories or whatever
we want to do if we ramble that is
pretty much typical so not a problem
does that make sense does that sound
good yeah everybody else in the a I'm
not talking to you I'm talking to the
audience okay I hear Applause
so all right this reminds me this will
be like a little bit of a bonus thing I
was thinking about this as I was putting
everything together this morning before
stepping into this um used to be when I
would watch the um the dignation podcast
they would drink as they were going
through they'd have beers or something
usually beers as they were going through
the episode and it was sort of funny
watching them get more and more drunk as
the episode got on and I was thinking
we're sort of the opposite of that
because I'm like you know I caffeine up
and so as we go further along we've got
a little bit more energy or maybe a lot
more energy by the time we get done it's
like okay quit like we Something's Gonna
we're going to blow a circuit breaker
somewhere if we don't watch
out all right let me settle myself a
little bit more these lights are just a
little bit too bright on me this kind of
thing
so all right so we'll go to
our well hello hello and welcome back
yes you just heard and Michael's going
to freak out because he's got to
remember there is that nice little
Jingles that we always have at the
beginning of our Christmas episodes our
holiday episodes and this once again
this is like the I think this is the
fifth year in a row maybe maybe more
than that maybe we're up to like sixth
or seventh year I don't know I've lost
track but we are back we have made it
through another year and we have hit
another Christmas special and there'll
be a couple this week and then a New
Year's and then we'll get into 2025 it's
crazy to think that we've gotten numbers
that big for our years and we will dive
back into the building better habits and
wrap that season up and then move on to
the next one which we haven't figured
out what that is yet so as always we're
more than welcome to you know love to
get feedback from you guys where do you
want us to go next I've spent enough
time on that I'm going to go ahe and
introduce myself my name is Rob Bren I
am one of the founders of develop andur
building better developers also a
founder of RB Consulting where we do
it's Boutique Consulting we get out
there and we help companies do a better
job maintaining working with their
technology through simplification
automation integration we find ways to
get all of that stuff that you got out
there all that technology sprawl and
bring it down into a single thing this
is very near and dear to my heart right
now as I'm getting to my yearend
planning because I have got a lot of
different things that I have to deal
with dealing with all my customers and
the different ways they want to
communicate and all that kind of stuff
stuff and I am very much in the middle
of like where we can do stuff ourselves
RB Consulting to streamline all of our
Communications and make sure that
nothing gets lost in the in the midst
good thing and bad thing and let's see
in this
week good thing was which is sort of a
funny little thing is we went out for a
date night to we do in this season we do
what they a lot of times we'll do like
popups and things like all these little
special things which basically a popup
is usually it's a bar or something like
that they have a them theme and then
it's you know maybe a normal place but
now they've got this themed thing so you
got themed drinks you got stuff a little
different and we went to this place it
looked really cool we're like oh it's
like an igloo you get to rent the igloo
for a couple hours and you've got
they've got fondue and a bunch of other
food and themed drinks and all kinds of
stuff like oh this looks pretty cool we
thought it was going to be on a hotel
rooftop it was not it was like in the
back yard of a restaurant so we walk in
and we're thinking ah this may have been
a big mistake so the bad thing was we
didn't look close enough at the building
that we were buying this we were getting
this little thing together for the good
news was it turned out to be phenomenal
they were a little late they were a
little slow getting us out there but the
food was just crazy
great and the drinks were good it was a
good time we had like they had literally
as little Igloo that was set up for six
people so you had like little chairs and
little love seats they had a speakers a
Bluetooth speaker so you could just run
your Christmas music through it the
Igloo was all lit up just like the
offices here at the world headquarters
of develop andur uh so it's a good thing
so it's one of those things hey it was
like it looked a little dicey uh however
the other good thing is that what we're
doing for New Year we're actually going
to make sure we do a little drive by
beforehand to make sure that we are like
picked a place we really want to go
to one good thing also is that I've got
a partner that has been working with me
the last year and he's on the other side
and I'm going to let you go ahead and
introduce yourself Michael
hey everyone my name is Michael M I'm
one of the co-founders of developer ner
building better developers I'm also the
founder of Envision QA where we help
small to midsize businesses or
clinicians really analyze their software
and make sure that their software is
working for them not them working for
their software we analyze your processes
we help you remove uh redundancies and
we help you automate and actually build
tools or find the right tools to do your
job right and to basically streamline
things so you're working in your
business more instead of on your
business good things bad things I'll
keep it to the good in light of the
holidays uh I'm excited we're getting
close to the uh end of the year still
have not gotten snow yet that's the only
so that is one bad thing I don't have
snow yet I I I like snow for Christmas
when it's cold outside when it's below
30° there should be
snow no such luck lots of ice uh on that
note though good thing we've had uh some
holiday festivities going around in the
area I was been able to kind of um
reconnect with some of the co-starters
from uh last year early start of the
year uh went through that rebranding
process and it was nice to see friendly
faces again and kind of get out in the
world uh and see how they're doing so
this episode because it's like a festive
kind of time and things like that cuz
Hey we've got bright lights on and
they're not you know errors from code
we've written or something like that I
want to talk a little bit about because
it's the gift giving season so I want to
talk a little bit about gifts and go a
little bit on that one of them I like to
do is talk a little bit about I guess
gifts for yourself something that you
can give yourself during this time
because if you're like us you work a lot
of hard hours you have a long year you
know you're just like you have to do
some self-care along the way you have to
have some time to like downtime and
chill and stuff like that so you know if
you don't have a hobby get a hobby you
need to find something you can do that
allows you to like take you away from
the work for a little bit now myself and
I'm going to call out Michael as well
because I know uh we tend to be Gamers
uh he has more gaming than does more
gaming than I do but you know I've got a
I definitely have my uh my gaming time
as well and my I think a gift that I
think about I want to go like two ways
on this one um in last few years
depending on how much of a gamer or not
you are last now several years they've
worked better and better on
handheld consoles basically so the
things the traditional like your Xboxes
and your PlayStations and all of those
now there are really highend handheld
systems out there two of which that I
have become very uh happy with as they
have progressed is one the switch the
Nintendo stuff eventually became the is
the switch which you can plug in and you
can use as a regular console but it's
also really nice to travel with uh of
stuff you can do there it's got all the
console all the controls you would
normally want and also the steam deck
which is a little bit more it's because
it's got a very broad um number of games
that it supports you can get a little
Hit or Miss in that there's some stuff
that will support with like quotes
around you but you really want like I've
got for example I've got one game that
I'm playing that's Fallout Vegas that it
supports it but I really would never
want to play it other than with a a
controller that actually have like a
Bluetooth controller into it if you want
to do it through the handheld like set
the handheld a little bit further away
and use a you know use a controller to
do it all that to say one one of those
if you're if you're a gamer and you want
to be able to get away from your console
if you're like an Xbox or a PlayStation
fivr or something like that then check
check one of these out or both of them
they're price-wise they're you know
comparable to a typical console system
and stuff like that you can get some uh
accessories and that so you can keep
adding to and they all they both have um
digital stuff so that you can download
things in you don't have to carry discs
around with you or cartridges or things
like that you can for the switch at
least I don't think you be there isn't
even a I don't think there's a cartridge
form for steam deck but you can bring
this stuff in and allows you to play
whatever games you are followup to that
is I was wandering around looking for
something cuz I was like Hey I want to
get like another switch game because
I've been working my way through it sted
across a thing called uh unicorn
Overlord I was like what kind of crazy
name is that it can't be very good but
it actually fell under the list of
things that was like my kinds of game so
I started looking at I was like this
might be pretty good and it turns out it
is like one of those it's a perfect kind
of switch game it's one of those you can
sit down you can play for a little bit
yes it's got a long story but you can
like do it for a little bit you don't
have to get too lost in it you don't
lose like days dealing with it so those
are my you know that's like a very
specific you know here's a game that
maybe you want to take a look at or if
you really want like I mentioned Fallout
Vegas or Skyrim or one of those it's
like just huge games that could take up
the entirety of next year for you uh but
also this you know it's a little one and
then it's like I said it's just a I
think it's really handy to have one of
these little portable systems that's my
thoughts where are you at with your your
gift self and and other gifts uh stuff
for yourself
Michael so the that it's funny about
that uh unicorn Overlord that I remember
seeing that one and the first thought I
had uh was another game that came out
for the Xbox 360 I think was uh Brutal
Legends uh that was another one that was
like I don't know if I'm going to like
this but it was uh like uh was it uh
John Jeff black John black um was like a
heavy metal guitar was the uh antagon
was the hero and it was like heavy metal
bands and it was like what the hell is
it it was the funnest game I had played
that year it was like good gracious I
kind of hope they make a sequel at some
point because I really want to see like
updated uh bus bands like they built the
battle stages it was really cool uh I've
got both of those consoles and it's kind
of funny because uh there's actually a
uh app you can download and install on
the switch that lets you remote play to
your PlayStation 5 so um I've actually
instead of breaking down buying that
portal or whatever that PlayStation
handheld thing is uh I just use the
steam deck and it plays pretty well uh
it's actually interesting enough that
the uh play now or Remote Play actually
works on my iPad too so I can actually
even Remote Play to the PlayStation so
there's so many ways uh you can actually
kind of stream to your Playstation which
is kind of interesting uh it digress a
little bit when it comes to the holidays
and gaming I'm not allowed to buy games
for myself anymore after my birthday in
September I I'm basically cut off I'm
told no no no no because more than once
I have gone out and bought myself a game
and then there's a copy under the tree
for me at Christmas and then I get
yelled at because I basically buy myself
my own Christmas gifts every year it's
kind of hard though when like some of
the really good games don't come out
till like November it's like come on I
know you guys are doing this to settle
out but in the digital age really come
on
uh games I've been playing right now
that I kind of like uh like Diablo I the
new season um was kind of cool kind of
running out of content though I'm
looking forward to uh pillars of
Eternity 2 I have a suspicious feeling
that's going to be under the tree for me
uh so I'll lose some hours playing that
and uh I kind of got into uh kind of a
destiny like spin-off called the first
descendant that came out around July
it's interesting in it's got a pretty
decent story and solid enough Graphics
but what I don't like about it is the
microtransactions so like the game
microtransactions you to death so it's
once you beat the story The End Game
unless you like really do the grind
really feels like work so it's like okay
I'll wait till the next season comes out
new content drops now it's like oh okay
it's fun again get through that but the
uh endgame material not really for me
but the main story is kind of cool it's
Destiny is but kind of more downto Earth
kind of thing like better scenery and
effects um as far as
gifting um similar to me my son-in-law
uh is a big PC Gamer uh I kind of got
away from that because I need higher end
machines for writing code not gaming uh
cuz I find myself if I buy a gaming rig
to write code on I play games on it and
I don't write code so I I try to keep my
uh sections separated but he picked up
uh the the I guess stalker 2 is the new
one that came out it's like a Ukrainian
kind of sci-fi
horror
um first person looks really cool it's
only on PC and I guess Xbox at the
moment so I can't try it on my
PlayStation yet uh and it won't play on
the steam deck so it's a really graphic
intensive but it looks fun It looks
interesting so just some ideas for you
uh if you're out there I do like to
switch and I'm actually hoping uh
there's a copy of the Luigi the Mario
and Luigi brothers under the tree this
year because that did come out after my
birthday uh so those are just some of
the things I like to play on those as
well those are some you that's mentioned
there's always a uh with those there's
always the idea of like going back I
like sometimes to go back to some of the
old things as you mentioned sort of like
the old school games and that where I'll
because I do have like I have a
collection and I've been like whittling
it down because I had so many of them
but I do have like practically every
handheld that's that's like I've got way
back to like the game boyance all the
way through like PSP and stuff all that
kind of stuff and I've got games that
work on all of these things and they I
can still play them and I do from time
to time I like I'll decide hey I've got
another doing I'll crank out the little
Game Boy Advance I've got some little
you know little arcade Style game or
something like that I'll just do because
I know I'm going to be sitting there
like at a you know graduation sitting
there and doing nothing for an hour
while I'm waiting for stuff or something
like that and those are always fun to
have it is fun to go back to some of
those things that I've I've beaten years
ago like the old um oh what's it like
the Crash Bandicoot series or Spyro the
Dragon or some of those kinds of things
that just go back and it's it is fun and
it's like some of those things it's like
it's always great to get the new games
but it's sometimes nice to just like
chill and do either like an old school
arcade kind of game or something that
you've already like you know solved
essentially where you can just go in and
you know beat up beat up on some people
or something like that or like like
Skyrim I mentioned is I've got a couple
of those where I'll just sit it's
basically of like one you know gotten
all the main stuff and I'll just go
wander around and look around the world
and go beat on some stuff or stuff like
you know hex something with a sword or
shoot it with an arrow whatever happens
to be cuz they're and they're great
drinking games so the kind of stuff when
you've been sitting there you just like
you've had a lot of food you've had a
couple of you glasses of wine or
whatever your drink is and you're just
like you know what I just want to chill
don't want to think about it too much
but I do feel like I feel better doing a
game than just sitting there you know
taking a nap those are some good things
to take a look out for as well or even
your little phone games like that
sometimes are really good now it's funny
because you talk about playing the old
games and that so what are your thoughts
on the old playing the old ver like
being basically have the old game
updated enough to play on a newer system
it's still the old game or a
remaster of the game not a not like
Final Fantasy 7 where they basically
rewrote the whole game but like a
cleaned up version so like you mentioned
Spyro so they have a remastered version
of Spyro they even did one for uh
medieval and some of those are pretty
cool but it partially because you can't
just take the old game and plop it on
the new system it doesn't play right but
what are your thoughts on that you know
between yeah I love that like Wasteland
is one that I had was like an way way
back I remember on PC playing Wasteland
one and always just drooling for a
Wasteland 2 when I got done with it and
they've come back and remastered those
and done Wasteland two and then created
Wasteland 3 CU I think that was one was
not even a remaster so that was one I I
love the heck out of those actually one
of the things I keep I got on one of my
like you probably want this list but I
haven't bought it yet as a remaster of
Wizardry that like is The Way Way Back
original I that's the first RPG game I
ever played on a on a PC I mean that
would that really counted there was a
couple others but they weren't that
level of RPG at that time that was like
that was just crazy you know whole
different level of RPG I'd never seen on
a on a computer and so I've spent over
the years I've spent hours through all
of the various Wizardry things but
they've gone back and done the original
one um and it's on the handheld I think
it's on Steam deck or or switch or maybe
both so they basically they've just
upgraded the graphics it's essentially
understand it's the same story lot of
the same everything uh and it's a very
good like just it's not quite a you know
a grinder type kind of thing it is a
little bit it's got but you or I guess a
good deal of it's just like wandering
around beating up monsters so more of
the grind kind of stuff it does have a
little bit of story and then you've got
some you know your basic like work your
way up in levels and uh all the
different magic items and it's one of
those you can switch classes so you can
like work your way all the way up and
then start all over again and work your
way up so there's there's some value to
it but I I a lot of those I actually
really enjoy because I don't want to get
too far
into uh I worry sometimes I'm going to
learn some get into something new and
it's going to suck up countless hours
that I really don't have uh so going
back to those old schools actually
that's why I did not I guess Last
Christmas I finished barail the like the
new they've got a new barail four or
whatever I can't remember what they
called it but it's basically bar sale 4
I went back and did that so it was a
that one's like a nice bonus cuz it's a
it's based on an old school property
it's sort of the same but then they can
update it enough that it's like it is a
new game so those I'm I'm big fan of
those kind of things whenever they can
take those and sort of say hey this old
thing we're going to you know come back
and revamp it for the modern stuff even
actually one of the s first switch games
I got was uh Advan
Wars uh one and two they just combined
those in they updated them a little
which is nice but it was like it was
it's another one it's a very fun I can
sit there and knock it out and I don't
know if I've got like a half hour an
hour to play I can go through a you know
a campaign and then I'm happy and and
can move on to my other things so yeah
those are great what do you how do you
feel about those the remasters and such
so interesting enough I did not like the
new bars tale I did not like the updated
version I like the old school like first
person view um cuz to me I think the
best Dungeon Crawler was probably Bon
magic 3 it was uh like the first person
kind of that style but that was probably
like the best control story everything
and then plus we kind of grew up with
that style where you're in the dungeon
you move so we went from like the old uh
keyboard zorc you know uh n for North s
for South you know for controls you you
actually now kind of move through the
dungeon and I really like those styles
of games so there was one I ran across
last year and I don't remember if I sent
it to you it's on the iPad it's called
Legend of Grimrock and it's kind of the
old Wizardry style but what I like about
it is it's got all the touch interaction
so you have to actually pull chains to
open doors pick up Keys unlock things so
there's a little more of that human
gesture interaction with it not just the
controls which makes it a little more
fun for me
um and along that lines it's like some
so one of the best Rema or I don't want
to say remasters but just kind of
restore was the balers gate Series so
when they and release the enhanced
version of that that is the perfect game
of an example of a PC game being ported
to mobile where it was designed for
Mouse clicks which is perfect for touch
dragging awesome um bers gate one I
finally finished that last year uh be
careful with the enhanced versions
because they also come with the uh
expansion packs and the expansion packs
basically are like endless Dungeon
Crawlers and if you accidentally get out
of the main story to that it's hard to
get back with your character to the main
story uh so I had to start over a few
times cuz I kept doing that by mistake
it's like it's 40 50 hours in you kind
foret it's like oh yeah I want to do it
and I like crap no where's my save go
back uh but yeah that one's cool uh my
all-time favorite one though was Ice
wind Dale it was a very compact very
short story but man the graphics just
the story by the time you're done with
that game it's like is very satisfying
it's like you are very happy with the
way that ended uh Unfortunately they
lost the source code for icewind Dale to
so we will never see the light of day of
that one again unless someone completely
reverses Engineers it from a CD if they
find a copy of it somewhere it's gone uh
unfortunately uh but yeah those kind of
games were fun the uh TSR games were a
lot of fun back in the day uh some of
those have been remastered and enhanced
I I've liked them I would love to see
Buck Rogers redone uh that was I I don't
know why but that was one of the best
sci-fi uh it was like pools of Radiance
with Buck Rogers lasered guns and it was
like this is awesome but it's little
Pixy it's like man and then that other
one um that you turned me on to was it
adum um oh a verum yeah spiderweb
software stuff so I just found out that
uh I think steam deck or epic one of the
ones had a game that actually plays on
um my map
and I was like oh I'll check this out
it's the old school Graphics but it
looks like the whole game was enhanced
so it looks like the old school style
but it does look like it was polished
and kind of updated for monitor day and
I'm just clicking around playing with it
I'm like wow this is cool and one of the
cool Dynamics I found with it was you
have to actually open up your inventory
slot at different places on the ground
to actually see things on the ground I I
had never run into that before uh cuz
some of the uh other like the earlier
ones didn't have that mechanic so I
don't know if that's something new that
added with this game or if just the
later ones had that that was really cool
I'm like hey what's that on the ground
how do I get and I'm like oh hey okay so
that means I kind but you can't walk
around with your inventory open that's
the only thing that's a little weird
about it but I can see the Quirk with it
like I can see the appeal to it it was
kind of cool so uh I'm giving that one a
shot uh this season well I'm waiting on
what's under the tree and uh trying very
hard to get away from like games as a
service right now uh because I'm just a
little burnt out of like you know always
have to log in to make sure you get your
daily things always have to make sure
you do the seasonal content to get like
the bonus it's like come on guys make a
game make a story make it good you know
it doesn't necessarily have to be Skyrim
but
astrobot perfect example it is like a 20
hour game and it is like no noic
perfectly made game uh you can play like
at the end of one level you're playing
uh ape Escape at another uh end of level
you're doing um Ragnarok um God of War
it was just cool it it was like this is
like the game was
solid and even at the game awards show
this year they called out you know thank
you Nintendo Mario you you like set the
stage for this and it was like a
throwback to like everything good and
happy with video games it wasn't like
nothing really yeah there were some like
things going on but it was Goofy enough
that it wasn't like mean or bad or and
it was like it was a feel-good game all
the way through yes you got frustrated
yes there are speedrun challenges and
you will probably Rage Quit for your
controller on the last bonus level but
that's the only level I haven't beaten I
get 10 minutes in almost to the end and
die every freaking time because the
platform just boo just right but I
digress but yeah so again I like a lot
of the
restores and some of the remasters I
like like like I said medieval um but
like the legend of cane one that just
came out it looks kind of cool but I
almost feel that's more like a reskin
than a remaster it it it's like don't
charge me full price for a game that all
you did was just kind of update the
graphics a little bit and fix the
controls it's like that should be like
20 bucks so that that's my only kind of
bad thing about some of these like
remasters yeah so yeah that's just a
couple of brief thoughts yeah my M magic
3 I think was probably the best uh
because it was also sort of it was
basically open worldish it was like I
always lik the Might and Magic uh game
mechanics and stuff like that and it was
just it really added all the pieces so
that was probably the epitome of like
old school stuff uh i' forgotten about
Buck Rogers like there's a Buck Rogers
and Buck Rogers 2 the two that were the
old SSI and I loved almost all of the
SSI stuff and those were um those were
phenomenal that and another one Wizards
Crown was one of these it was Game
mechanics very different from some of
the other RPGs but one of my all-time
favorites uh so there's a lot of yeah
there's a lot of good stuff out there so
you know that's something else if you
you know to gift yourself as maybe go
back and like look back 10 or 20 years
and see what's out there you might find
something that's really cheap that turns
out to be you know a great way to spend
some time over your holidays while
you're out there though you can feel
free to shoot us an email at info
developer.com and let us know I like
game recommendations we are totally
happy to hear those as well because
there may be something we've missed
somewhere somewhere along the way so let
us know uh as always you know hang you
can hit us up on Twitter or X you can
check us out on Facebook you can go out
to the develop and order.com site and
you can spend some time searching
through all of the content we've out
there got out there I think we're
literally you know literally thousands
of articles are out there now or
thousand plus articles are out there
lots of stuff you to take a look at uh
as always feedback however you can get
to us you if you want to send us a
letter if you want to send us smoke
signals we also have comments everywhere
whether you're watching podcast whether
you're out on the developing or you you
YouTube
channel all of that stuff and notice
that because we don't communicate very
well we'll be pretty good like very
graceful about whatever it is that you
send us so if it's a little hard to read
we'll figure it out we'll learn whatever
your language is to to figure that
sucker out and be able to take your
feedback and make sure that we build a
better season and the better series and
season uh as we go into next year that
being said I'm going to wrap this one up
get some fresh caffeine and such like
that stuff like that guys have yourself
a great holiday season have a great day
a great week be safe go out there have
some fun enjoy your family and times and
we will talk to you next time
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