Working on Famitracker is, let's face it, a bit of a pain. Yes it is more authentic to the workflow that people used back in the day, but the learning curve is so steep it feels more like a wall.
In that regard FamiStudio is a blessing for lazy jerks like me, who really enjoy the feel and character of old school soundchips but who don't have the time or patience to relearn an entire new music writing workflow. I'm not insinuating that there isn't a learning curve for FamiStudio, you still have to understand the limitations and underlying logic of how to get these basic sound waves to do the things you want them to do, but the architecture lends itself more easily to immediate experimentation and is also fairly transferable with other DAWs.
I'm also not insinuating that the UI on FamiStudio is perfect, it is not. When I started out there were moments where I was baffled by the placement of specific elements. On mobile specifically simple things like adding more measures to a song are so obfuscated there is no way you'd naturally figure any of it out. It's hard to be so critical though, because this is freeware that was made independently and that reaches a level of professional functionality that is actually comparable to a commercial product, if not easily surpassing some of them. The level of passion and dedication counteracts all problems, it is safe to assume that they will be dealt with.
Ableton can't even get their gimped mobile version of their app on Android, and these guys got their entire program working on all phones.
As of writing this is very early into production but what is already here is fabulous. Beyond it being fun to make nuclear explosions the gameification of the periodic table has legit educational potential. It is such a great feeling when a game makes you want to learn new things that otherwise seem too complicated to broach and encourages your curiosity of the world around you. Even if that desire and curiosity is rooted in wanting to make bigger explosions, it is still learning.
Thinking about it gives me the same exciting feelings I would get whenever I visited the science fair with my parents. Dumb enough for my child brain to understand but still complex enough to get the ball rolling in your head.
Haven't played in a while, but the period where I did was an obsession. Offered a very specific style of horror mixed with mundane task completing that I hadn't seen before outside of Signal Simulator, which it easily eclipses, it's not even a contest.
If you go in expecting the YouTube highlights experience though you are in for a rude awakening. This game is slow and tense, everything is very deliberate. It shines the most when approached with a pacient mindset and with a lot of time on hand.
Lovely pack. I'm still boneheaded when it comes to drawing, but these brushes are so well designed that they make even my crappy doodles look good.
Fantastic stuff. The original is still good obviously, outdated / archaic design decicions and all, but the lack of availability made it really difficult to experience to its fullest extent. LSD is a tough game to emulate (the best emulators routinely mess up simple things like water) and buying it is out of the question unless you are a multimillionare, so seeing this project flourish is just wonderful.
Remaking the game from the ground up also means that the player can now tweak their experience to their liking. The menu has options to fiddle with the amount of head bobbing and even offers full mouse aiming, which in my view were the biggest barriers of entry for most. I'd still argue that the intended playing experience is without a mouse, but I don't look down on anyone who gets seasick with the head bobbing. I do to sometimes.
The only thing I'm personally not a big fan of are the new dreams. I find them either too mundane or too internet-y, not fitting with the style of the original at all. I do think it's awesome that they made them though because it is more "LSD Dream Emulator Like" content, which is hard to come by, and they're wholly optional so it's not a big deal.
Otherwise, its never been a better time to get into LSD Dream Emulator.
Very interesting little plugin. Great way of getting into generative music creation, although it can sometimes be a little heavy on the PC.
Great audio monitoring plugin. I use it on almost all of my artistic projects that involve audio, or sometimes just to quickly study whatever I'm hearing at the moment.
