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• Spreadsheets in Game Design?

  - by Joey Green

  There have been two instances from the past two weeks that I've heard from well known successful game developers that they use spreadsheets when designing games. The first being David Whatley in this GDCVault video: http://gdcvault.com/play/1012372/From-Zero-to-Time-Magazine The second being the guys that do Walled Garden Weekly: http://walledgardenweekly.com/ David said he models everything out and uses excel models to see how everything plays out. What on earth is he talking about? Is it seeing how the game mechanics react to each other? Is there somewhere where I can learn more about how to do this? Thanks

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• Coming up with manageable game ideas as a hobbyist game developer

  - by Kragen

  I'm trying to come up with ideas for games to develop - as per the advice on this question I've started jotting down and brainstorming my ideas as I get them, and it has worked relatively well - I now have a growing collection of ideas that I think are relatively original. The trouble is that I'm a solo hobbyist developer so my time is limited (and I have short attention span!) I've decided to set myself a limit of 1 working week (i.e. 35-40 hours) to develop / prototype my game, but all of the ideas that really spark my imagination are far too complex to be achievable in that sort of time (e.g. RTS or RPG style gameplay), and none of my simpler ideas really strike me as being that good (and whenever I get a flash of inspiration I invariably end up making things more complicated!) Am I being too picky - should I just take one of my simpler ideas and have a go?

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• How was your experience working as a game tester?

  - by MrDatabase

  I'm currently an independent game developer. I'm open to the idea of working on a team in the game industry. I'm under the impression that being a "game tester" is a relatively easy way to get a job... however that job may be somewhat undesirable. So how was your experience working as a tester in the game industry? Some interesting experiences could include: Did the game tester position lead to other more desirable positions? How were the relationships between testers and developers? Did you write any code? (test "frameworks", unit tests etc) If bugs made it into production was any (potentially unfair) blame put on the testers?

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• Penalty for collision during a racing game

  - by Arthur Wulf White

  In a racing game: How should we penalize the player for colliding head on into obstacles such as walls, trees and so on. What is the way it is done in your favorite racing game? How is it done in other successful racing games? Do you think temporarily disabling the engine for a second is too severe? If I do go that route, how would I convey the 'engine is disabled' to the player in a subtle and easily understood way? Is this 'too much' of a penalty? Would the slow-down from the collision be sufficient to discourage the player from driving too carelessly? Which one is more fun? Should I consider a health-bar and affect engine performance for 'low health' status? Could you offer examples of games that handle this well and one that do it poorly? Please share your experience with racing games obstacles and reference games you feel perform well in this aspect. I am sure we all enjoy our racing games differently and I would like to hear different opinions regarding this issue. I would also like to hear how you feel we should penalize or reward for colliding with other vehicles? Should enemy vehicles be destroyable? Should they slow down severely when they hit the back of your car or would that make the gameplay imbalanced?

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• Limit The Game Loop?

  - by user1758938

  How do I make a game go at the same speed? You probly dont understand that so here are examples: This Would Loop Too Fast while(true) { GetInput(); Render(); } This Just Wont Work, Hard To Exlplain while(true) { GetInput(); Render(); Sleep(16); } Basicly How Do I Sync It To Any FrameRate And Still Have To Input And Funtions Going At The Same Rate?

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• Other games that employ mechanics like the game "Diplomacy"

  - by Kevin Peno

  I'm doing a little bit of research and I'm hoping you can help me track down any games, other than Diplomacy (online version here), that employ all or some of the mechanics in Diplomacy (rules, short form). Examples I'm looking for: Simultaneous orders given prior to execution of orders In Diplomacy, players "write down" their moves and execute them "at the same time" Support, in terms of supporting an attacker or defender "take" a territory. In Diplomacy, no one unit is stronger than another you need to combine the strength of multiple units to attack other territories. Rules for how move conflicts are resolved Example, 2 units move into a space, but only one is allowed, what happens. I may add to this list later, but these are the primary things I'm looking for. If you need clarification on anything just let me know. Note: I tried asking this on GamingSE, but it was shot down. So, I am unsure where else I could post this. Since I am researching this for game development purposes, I assume this post is on topic. Please let me know if this is not the case. Please also feel free to re-categorize this. Thanks!

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• Simple 2d game pathfinding

  - by Kooi Nam Ng

  So I was trying to implement a simple pathfinding on iOS and but the outcome seems less satisfactory than what I intended to achieve.The thing is units in games like Warcraft and Red Alert move in all direction whereas units in my case only move in at most 8 directions as these 8 directions direct to the next available node.What should I do in order to achieve the result as stated above?Shrink the tile size? The screenshot intended for illustration. Those rocks are the obstacles whereas the both ends of the green path are the starting and end of the path.The red line is the path that I want to achieve. http://i.stack.imgur.com/lr19c.jpg

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• Game Timer In C++

  - by user1870398

  I need to be able to find out how many milliseconds since that last update. Is there any way I can find it out with time rather then a thread that counts like I did below? #include <iostream> #include<windows.h> #include<time.h> #include<process.h> using namespace std; int Timer = 0; int LastTimer = 0; bool End = false; void Update(int Ticks) { } void UpdateTimer() { while (true) { LastTimer = Timer; Timer++; Sleep(1); if (End) break; } } int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE par1, HINSTANCE par2, LPSTR par3, int par4) { _beginthread(UpdateTimer, 0, NULL); while(true) { if (Timer == 1000) Timer = 0; Update(Timer - LastTimer); } }

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• Making a game "resize-safe"

  - by CPP_Person

  It's one thing to get the graphics aligned perfectly, it's another to do this for every single resolution and not take too much time and/or make the code unreadable due to size. Games like Battlefield 3 and Minecraft seem to manage this. But what do they do to keep things from stretching or going off the screen? I don't know any algorithms to do this. I'd like some help on this topic. I've always programmed games that only handle a single resolution, so help would be appreciate.

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• Balancing game difficulty against player progression

  - by Raven Dreamer

  It seems that the current climate of games seems to cater to an obvious progression of player power, whether that means getting a bigger, more explosive gun in Halo, leveling up in an RPG, or unlocking new options in Command and Conquer 4. Yet this concept is not exclusive to video or computer games -- even in Dungeons and Dragons players can strive to acquire a +2 sword to replace the +1 weapon they've been using. Yet as a systems designer, the concept of player progression is giving me headache after headache. Should I balance around the players exact capabilities and give up on a simple linear progression? (I think ESIV:Oblivion is a good example of this) Is it better to throw the players into an "arms race" with their opponents, where if the players don't progress in an orderly manner, it is only a matter of time until gameplay is unbearably difficult? (4th Edition DnD strikes me as a good example of this) Perhaps it would make most sense to untether the core gameplay mechanics from progression at all -- give them flashier, more interesting (but not more powerful!) ways to grow?

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• What are the best ways [programmatically] to speed up a 3D game engine without going into much effor

  - by Lela Dax

  What are the best ways [programmatically] to speed up a 3D game engine without going into much effort? Tips that most people don't know.

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• New Communications Industry Data Model with "Factory Installed" Predictive Analytics using Oracle Da

  - by charlie.berger

  Oracle Introduces Oracle Communications Data Model to Provide Actionable Insight for Communications Service Providers   We've integrated pre-installed analytical methodologies with the new Oracle Communications Data Model to deliver automated, simple, yet powerful predictive analytics solutions for customers.  Churn, sentiment analysis, identifying customer segments - all things that can be anticipated and hence, preconcieved and implemented inside an applications.  Read on for more information! TM Forum Management World, Nice, France - 18 May 2010 News Facts To help communications service providers (CSPs) manage and analyze rapidly growing data volumes cost effectively, Oracle today introduced the Oracle Communications Data Model. With the Oracle Communications Data Model, CSPs can achieve rapid time to value by quickly implementing a standards-based enterprise data warehouse that features communications industry-specific reporting, analytics and data mining. The combination of the Oracle Communications Data Model, Oracle Exadata and the Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) Foundation represents the most comprehensive data warehouse and BI solution for the communications industry. Also announced today, Hong Kong Broadband Network enhanced their data warehouse system, going live on Oracle Communications Data Model in three months. The leading provider increased its subscriber base by 37 percent in six months and reduced customer churn to less than one percent. Product Details Oracle Communications Data Model provides industry-specific schema and embedded analytics that address key areas such as customer management, marketing segmentation, product development and network health. CSPs can efficiently capture and monitor critical data and transform it into actionable information to support development and delivery of next-generation services using: More than 1,300 industry-specific measurements and key performance indicators (KPIs) such as network reliability statistics, provisioning metrics and customer churn propensity. Embedded OLAP cubes for extremely fast dimensional analysis of business information. Embedded data mining models for sophisticated trending and predictive analysis. Support for multiple lines of business, such as cable, mobile, wireline and Internet, which can be easily extended to support future requirements. With Oracle Communications Data Model, CSPs can jump start the implementation of a communications data warehouse in line with communications-industry standards including the TM Forum Information Framework (SID), formerly known as the Shared Information Model. Oracle Communications Data Model is optimized for any Oracle Database 11g platform, including Oracle Exadata, which can improve call data record query performance by 10x or more. Supporting Quotes "Oracle Communications Data Model covers a wide range of business areas that are relevant to modern communications service providers and is a comprehensive solution - with its data model and pre-packaged templates including BI dashboards, KPIs, OLAP cubes and mining models. It helps us save a great deal of time in building and implementing a customized data warehouse and enables us to leverage the advanced analytics quickly and more effectively," said Yasuki Hayashi, executive manager, NTT Comware Corporation. "Data volumes will only continue to grow as communications service providers expand next-generation networks, deploy new services and adopt new business models. They will increasingly need efficient, reliable data warehouses to capture key insights on data such as customer value, network value and churn probability. With the Oracle Communications Data Model, Oracle has demonstrated its commitment to meeting these needs by delivering data warehouse tools designed to fill communications industry-specific needs," said Elisabeth Rainge, program director, Network Software, IDC. "The TM Forum Conformance Mark provides reassurance to customers seeking standards-based, and therefore, cost-effective and flexible solutions. TM Forum is extremely pleased to work with Oracle to certify its Oracle Communications Data Model solution. Upon successful completion, this certification will represent the broadest and most complete implementation of the TM Forum Information Framework to date, with more than 130 aggregate business entities," said Keith Willetts, chairman and chief executive officer, TM Forum. Supporting Resources Oracle Communications Oracle Communications Data Model Data Sheet Oracle Communications Data Model Podcast Oracle Data Warehousing Oracle Communications on YouTube Oracle Communications on Delicious Oracle Communications on Facebook Oracle Communications on Twitter Oracle Communications on LinkedIn Oracle Database on Twitter The Data Warehouse Insider Blog

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• Kickstarter "last minute cold feet"

  - by mm24

  today I scheduled the publication of a video on kickstarter requesting approximately 5.000 $ in order to complete the iPhone shooter game I started 1 year ago after quitting my job. I invested more than 20.000$ in the game so far (for artwork, music, legal and accountant expenses) and I am now getting cold feet about my decision of publishing the video. The game is "nearly finished", in other words: the game mechanics are working but I still have some bugs to fix. Once I will have finished this (I hope will take me 1 or 2 weeks) I plan to start working on the actual level balancing (e.g. deciding the order of appearence of enemies for each level and balancing the number of hitpoints and strenght of bullets that the enemies have). Reasons for not publishing the video are: fear that the concept can be copied easily: the game is a shooter game set in a different environment (its a pretty cool one, believe me :)) and I am worried that someone might copy* the idea (I know, its the usual "I am worried story.."). A shooter game is one of the easiest game to implement and hence there will be hundreds game developer able to copy it by just adapting their existing code and changing graphics (not as straightforward). It took me one year to develop this because I was inexperienced plus there are approximately 6/7 months of work from the illustrator and there are 8 unique music tracks composed. The soundtrack of the video is the soundtrack of the game wich is not yet published and has not been deposited to a music society. I did create legally valid timestamps for the tracks and I am considering uploading the album on iTunes before publishing the video so I can have a certain publication date. But overall I am a bit scared and worried because I have never done this before and even the simple act of publishing an album requires me to read a long contract from the "aggregator company") which, even if I do have contracts with the musicians do worry me as I am not a U.S. resident and I am not familiar with the U.S. law system Reasons for publishing the video are: I almost run out of money (but this is not a real reason as I should have enough for one more month of development time) ...I kind of need extra money as, even if I do have money for 1 month of development I do not have money for marketing and for other expenses (e.g. accountant) It will create a fan base I could get some useful feedback from a wider range of beta testers It might create some pre-release buzz in case some blogger or game magazine likes the concept Anyone has had similar experiences? Is there a real risk that someone will copy the concept and implement it in a couple of months? Will the Kickstarter campaing be a good pre-release exposure for the gmae? Any refrences of similar projects/situations? Is it realistic that someone like ROVIO will copy the idea straight away?

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• Alchemy like game for the web, open source. Any ideas for element combinations?

  - by JohnDel

  I created a web game like the Android game Alchemy. It's open source and in the back-end you can create your own elements / your own game. I was wondering what elements - ideas would be good to implement as a prototype / demo? Some ideas are: Colors Programming languages Chemical Compounds Same as the original alchemy Evolution of biological organisms What do you think? Any specific combination ideas?

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• How or why would this mechanic (not) work to bring game balance to a singleplayer RPG? [closed]

  - by 0xFFF1

  Mechanic details The player, the monsters, and the merchants act as three separate parties. The player needs to beat up monsters for exp points and resources to sell and to buy potions from merchants to continue to fight. The monsters need healing and reviving to survive (also bought from merchants) and the merchants need potion ingredients from the player and the monsters to make potions to sell. These potions are only able to be processed in such bulk by merchants thus their potions would be cheaper than making them yourself. Only the monsters can farm ingredients in bulk. Only the player is or has to be overly aggressive (in bulk). Monsters can farm and produce "Level up candies" that do the work of exp. they are eaten right away after they are made and are never stockpiled or held for fear of the player and merchants who want to sell to the player. The monsters will defend themselves. Reviving is very expensive. The merchants can be found either with a concerned expression or a grinning expression based on how much profit they are making compared to their morale standing. The economies of each monster town and merchant city are distinct but interconnected. Magic Swords are worth a lot. So what I need to know is what concerns would there be to design a game around this mechanic and/or design this mechanic around a developing game. which would fare better? Is game balance an issue here? (how strong the monsters get or how quickly they die off based on the player's input into the system), Or is game balance solely in the hands of the player? (he decides if he overkills monsters or get underleveled.) What do I need to think about to make sure it isn't too easy or too hard to swing the amount/strength of monsters compared to the player and the amount of profit the merchants get vs the player. Would indicating how out of whack things are getting in game help with this?

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• What's a good tool for Scrum Project Management in game development? [closed]

  - by BleakCabalist

  I'm looking for an efficient, easy-to-learn tool for Scrum project management not for proffesional use but to use it in my thesis concerning the use of Scrum in game development. Basically I want to visualize a production process of a hypothetical game. Some fragments of the production process should be really detailed to make my point, so basically user stories, tasks, burndown charts etc. are a must. I'm using Scrum, Kanban and some Lean practices for eliminating waste. I also want to use Extreme Programming practices in this production process including TDD and Continuous Integration. I have zero experience in proffesional project management so I need something that's fairly simple to use for a newb like me. Anyone can recommend a tool like that? For now I was thinking about TargetProcess and ScrumWorks. Thanks.

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• Changing Career to Game Development

  - by Don Carleone

  I m enthusiastic about and ready to shifting my career to Game Development sector, but before that I wonder some situations, I m now working as Senior .net programmer, i can only write code in c# right now, but i started to learn c++, I m computer engineer so before I know how to write in C but I didnt work with big projects, I wrote "Game of Life" before with C and used only Linked List DataStructure becouse of pushed my limits. But now I m thinking to shift Game Development, I love to play Console Games, I respect people who works about that business. But I just wonder, I see a lot of great developers who write codes with C++ and I ask myself that guys dont think to join Game Industry so why I think I can join! is that True? I dont live in USA or big country like. I live in a poor country, and here is no any Game Development Company, so I have to move to USA for working that job. So can you tell me if I start to learn something (c++,game enginees,physic enginees,3d math etc.) right now and working my usual job, after 7-8 month is it good time to move and finding a job about Game development in USA as junior game developer? is that possible? or is this just a dream? I realy need your advices. You can give down vote about that no problem, at least one advice can help me in my life.

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• References about Game Engine Architecture in AAA Games

  - by sharethis

  Last weeks I focused on game engine architecture and learned a lot about different approaches like component based, data driven, and so on. I used them in test applications and understand their intention but none of them looks like the holy grail. So I wonder how major games in the industry ("AAA Games") solve different architecture problems. But I noticed that there are barely references about game engine architecture out there. Do you know any resources of game engine architecture of major game titles like Battlefield, Call of Duty, Crysis, Skyrim, and so on? Doesn't matter if it is an article of a game developer or a wiki page or an entire book. I read this related popular question: Good resources for learning about game architecture? But it is focused on learning books rather than approaches in the industry. Hopefully the breadth of our community can carry together certain useful informations! Thanks a lot! Edit: This question is focused but not restricted to first person games.

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• Alternative to Game State System?

  - by Ricket

  As far as I can tell, most games have some sort of "game state system" which switches between the different game states; these might be things like "Intro", "MainMenu", "CharacterSelect", "Loading", and "Game". On the one hand, it totally makes sense to separate these into a state system. After all, they are disparate and would otherwise need to be in a large switch statement, which is obviously messy; and they certainly are well represented by a state system. But at the same time, I look at the "Game" state and wonder if there's something wrong about this state system approach. Because it's like the elephant in the room; it's HUGE and obvious but nobody questions the game state system approach. It seems silly to me that "Game" is put on the same level as "Main Menu". Yet there isn't a way to break up the "Game" state. Is a game state system the best way to go? Is there some different, better technique to managing, well, the "game state"? Is it okay to have an intro state which draws a movie and listens for enter, and then a loading state which loops on the resource manager, and then the game state which does practically everything? Doesn't this seem sort of unbalanced to you, too? Am I missing something?

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• What are some valuable conferences for game developers?

  - by Tommy

  Lately I was thinking of visiting a Game Developer Conference and so I search the Internet, but I didn't find a thorough list of available Conferences. Now I know some of them, like the GDC in San Francisco but I was wondering, what other Game Developer Conferences are out there. So my question is: What Game Dev Conferences do you know, that are valuable for Game Developers and Game Designers? Have you visited one of these Conferences yourself? Is there a skill level needed to appreciate such a Conference? I am aware, that there is no "true" answer to this question, but I think, that an overview over existing Conferences could be usefull for all levels of game developers.

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• As an indie game dev, what processes are the best for soliciting feedback on my design/spec/idea? [closed]

  - by Jess Telford

  Background I have worked in a professional environment where the process usually goes like the following: Brain storm idea Solidify the game mechanics / design Iterate on design/idea to create a more solid experience Spec out the details of the design/idea Build it Step 3. is generally done with the stakeholders of the game (developers, designers, investors, publishers, etc) to reach an 'agreement' which meets the goals of all involved. Due to this process involving a series of often opposing and unique view points, creative solutions can surface through discussion / iteration. This is backed up by a process for collating the changes / new ideas, as well as structured time for discussion. As a (now) indie developer, I have to play the role of all the stakeholders (developers, designers, investors, publishers, etc), and often find myself too close to the idea / design to do more than minor changes, which I feel to be local maxima when it comes to the best result (I'm looking for the global maxima, of course). I have read that ideas / game designs / unique mechanics are merely multipliers of execution, and that keeping them secret is just silly. In sharing the idea with others outside the realm of my own thinking, I hope to replicate the influence other stakeholders have. I am struggling with the collation of changes / new ideas, and any kind of structured method of receiving feedback. My question: As an indie game developer, how and where can I share my ideas/designs to receive meaningful / constructive feedback? How can I successfully collate the feedback into a new iteration of the design? Are there any specialized websites, etc?

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• Level Editor + Game -> Duplicating rendering/game specific code?

  - by Utkarsh Sinha

  I've been reading about how to design code for a game. One thing I haven't been able to figure out is - how do you manage writing an outside-game level editor (not an 'in-game level editor') without 'copying' code from the game? For example, you might have to copy all code about the different types of entities you can have. You'll have to add the game rendering code. My guess is this can be done by making a DLL out of the 'engine' part of the game. Then, share it between the actual game and the level editor. Or is there a better/easier way to do this?

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• Dizzy-like game level representation (format)

  - by topright

  How would you store game level for a Dizzy-like adventure game? How would you specify walkable areas and graphics? Is it tile-based, pixel-based or walkable surfaces can be described by vectors?

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• Evoland: A Video Game About Video Game History

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Browser-based Evoland is, hands down, one of the more clever video game concepts to come across our desk. The game itself is a history of video games–as you play the game the game evolves from a limited 8-bit monochrome adventure into a modern game. You start off unable to do anything but move right and collect a treasure chest. That treasure chest unlocks the left key (keys are configured in a WASD style keypad) which in turn allows you to move around a simple monochromatic forest clearing to unlock the rest of the movement keys. From there you begin unlocking more game features, effectively evolving the game from monochrome to 16 and then 64 bit color and unlocking various game play features. The game itself is short and can be played in about the same time you could watch a video covering the basics of various game changes over the last 30 years but actually playing the game and watching the evolution in progress is far more rewarding. Hit up the link below to take it for a spin. Evoland [via Boing Boing] How To Switch Webmail Providers Without Losing All Your Email How To Force Windows Applications to Use a Specific CPU HTG Explains: Is UPnP a Security Risk?

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• How do I choose the scaling factor of a 3D game world?

  - by concept3d

  I am making a 3D tank game prototype with some physics simulation, am using C++. One of the decisions I need to make is the scale of the game world in relation to reality. For example, I could consider 1 in-game unit of measurement to correspond to 1 meter in reality. This feels intuitive, but I feel like I might be missing something. I can think of the following as potential problems: 3D modelling program compatibility. (?) Numerical accuracy. (Does this matter?) Especially at large scales, how games like Battlefield have huge maps: How don't they lose numerical accuracy if they use 1:1 mapping with real world scale, since floating point representation tend to lose more precision with larger numbers (e.g. with ray casting, physics simulation)? Gameplay. I don't want the movement of units to feel slow or fast while using almost real world values like -9.8 m/s^2 for gravity. (This might be subjective.) Is it ok to scale up/down imported assets or it's best fit with a world with its original scale? Rendering performance. Are large meshes with the same vertex count slower to render? I'm wondering if I should split this into multiple questions...

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