Rao Dao Zao

Roses are red
Violets are blue
RDZ's still
Mapping for you

It may have been a mistake to design a campaign whose second level demands that I front-load buckets of new features, but here we are.

I have been moaning a lot recently, so I wanted to write something positive for once. What makes me happy? Music!

I can stop trying to add procedural generation to Exon any time I want. I just choose to search for the slightest possible excuse and... oops, there it goes.

There are times in life when you just want to sink into a massive singleplayer RPG while singing along to your own CD collection. Does Tower of Time scratch that itch?

Despite how often I complain about Unity, I really wouldn't be here without it... but there is also a lot of catastrophic bullshit in there that causes me no end of frustration. Today's exhibit: Asset Bundles.

I sassed UT2004's Invasion game mode last year, so it's time for me to put my money where my mouth is -- and try to build my version. Yes, it's time to mod UT99, 20 years too late!

Sometimes it's worth going back -- ALL the way back -- just to see what things were really like back then. I never played the original Command & Conquer at the time, but I love a bit of archeology.

Time travel is a bad plot device, except in The Terminator. But what about the Arnie-in-shades-with-a-shotgun franchise as a whole? Yes, it's Close... But No Biscuit.

Exon: Fragment v0.05 is here! Alongside fixing a load of bugs and doing over a pile of sound effects, I've... added a secret bonus level?!

Twenty years ago, Santa brought me the greatest gift of all: the gift of Unreal Tournament.

Oh my god why did nobody tell me that the Age of Mythology expansion pack was a kaiju simulator!?

Every year I play UT2004, and every year it makes me dream of something that could have been. This year, I am dreaming of... the bonus Instant Action game mode "Invasion"?!

As a lover of Age of Empires II, why did I not play Age of Mythology when it came out 20 years ago? ... Ah well, better late than never!

Skyrim is so big that it cannot help but outstay its welcome. I have overindulged and I want to blame the game, but maybe it's a me problem?

You know that thing where it turns out you've forgotten an entire swathe of your life? Evidence suggests that I made more Lego stop motion films than I thought. Enjoy!

I don't like vampires, so I didn't buy Skyrim's first expansion pack Dawnguard at the time. But now I've got it in the Anniversary Edition... can it win me over?

Yep, the nights are fair drawing in and it's time to rewrite another system instead of working on content. Just a wee one, though!

Skyrim's Anniversary Edition comes with 74 extra chunks of so-called "Creation Club content"... but are they all equally good?

Yes, I've fallen off the wagon: I've gone back to Skyrim. But this time, things are different. This time... it's got Survival Mode.

I couldn't get my Unity Milkshape importer to do animations the first time around, so obviously I decided to try again with no changes to my approach or new information.

Yes, sometimes I do give in to deep discounts. Ember looked cool and was offered for 69p. Nice.

The quest to get Exon running on potato hardware continues. Will the latest initiative succeed?

I can spend hours swithering over purchasing games on digital download sites, but as soon as I see a boxed copy of something utterly obscure I instantly press "buy". Why is that? Anyway, I bought K.Hawk: Survival Instinct for my XP machine.

Despite hating Neverwinter Nights, I played its first expansion pack anyway and it was... not awful. But how does the second expansion pack, Hordes of the Underdark, shape up?

Did I mention that Exon is going to have crafting? Well, blacksmithing.

Expansion pack Shadows of Undrentide is actually not awful compared to Neverwinter Nights, though that's not exactly a high bar.

I have just fulfilled another life-long dream: to play Project: Snowblind, the immersive sim/shooter that was almost a Deus Ex game.

Exon: Fragment v0.04 is here! It's shiny AND it's orthographic!

I decided to replay Neverwinter Nights a while back and gave up because it's just not very good. Then, because apparently I am a masochist, I tried again.

The podcast that the universe tried its best to stop us recording has finally arrived: let's talk Godzilla vs. Kong!

Inspired by my recent experience with an obscure old action-strategy, I might be about to completely upend Exon's visuals. Please help me decide if I'm about to ruin everything or not.

How's Rao doing these days?

All of these features are important, just maybe not important right now. Ah well, who needs priorities anyway?

I played the demo of Gunlok for five minutes when I was about 12, and somehow it left a massive impression. Over 20 years later, I stumbled into a physical box...

No One Lives Forever will probably never get a digital re-release due to legal rights battles, so thank goodness for physical copies and Windows XP machines.

I've been longing for a shot at The Wheel of Time FPS for decades, and it was more than worth the wait.

I once dabbled in Lego stop motion. Having recently recovered the original LegoCam for my XP machine, there was only one way this could end...

I love old FPSes, the more obscure the better. Sometimes, though, they turn out to be obscure for... good reason.

Yes, I've been tinkering with the Windows XP machine again and this time... this time, it might just be good across the board?

I am still playing Final Fantasy VII, because I've got chocobos to breed and kaiju to murder. (Also the main plot got too hard.)

Exon has a world map, which can only mean one thing: getting waylaid by enemies and having to defend yourself.

I have never played a JRPG in my life before, so what better place to start than the legendary Final Fantasy VII?

Last week, I broke a solemn oath. I once swore that I would never be Dungeon Master again... And yet I volunteered to run a one-shot.

https://raodaozao.net/2022/04/15/blog-834/

LEGO Rock Raiders was a formative game for me, so you can imagine my delight when I finally got it running again on the old XP machine. Is it as good as I remember?

Yep, I've been a fool -- I've been building Exon for the wrong platform. Witness the birth of Exon: Mobile!

Refactored a thing, had an existential crisis, the usual.

I didn't gel with the original Starcraft the first time I played it as a teenager... but does it hold up better for an adult?

Took a fancy to replay OG Starcraft on my Windows XP machine, but it kep crashing. So I... rebuilt the entire machine?

Having fixed all ("all") the bugs in Exon: Fragment, I have turned my eyes back to building The Rest of the Prologue.