kuberoot

That's some "The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Terrible Point" energy

Didn't read condescending to me, I'm pretty sure it's a general "you", referring to their own experience, possibly coming from similar dreams.

I'm pretty sure we got taught about that in school, though I forgot most of it, including what you're supposed to do...

It's just a shame I hate raisins and most of them have those. Absolutely do recommend though.

why would you start a new project in dotnet today

Because I think C# is a good programming language to work with, it's really that simple. I'd need a serious reason not to use it, and "made by Microsoft" doesn't really change much when, to my knowledge, it's not under their sole control and isn't burdened by licensing issues. The Microsoft stack is something I'd want to avoid, and depending on the task I'll want different programming languages, of course.

I have a positive impression on .NET, curious to see that being put down... Are you talking about .NET as a whole, or things like ASP.NET, WinForms, WPF, EF, MAUI? Because as far as I know at least C# is open source and a good language with a good ecosystem, but the Microsoft libraries are windows only and are being pushed pretty hard.

Replying with an unspoilered image of a spider to what is quite possibly an arachnophobic declining spiders seems like a bit of a dick move

While funny, this answer to the question is useless, thus making the question not actually be good, so the answer would have to be different. The only issue is it could lead to a paradox, where if the answer were to be useful the question would actually be good, possibly the best, which would mean it should've been the answer, etc.

I feel like that's something Kirby already does tbh

It's my turn to ask this question, it seems, but if this image low resolution and very compressed?

You can design a game without open world and the players don't even notice it.

I think part of what that's about, and what's important for me, is a sense of agency. Giving the player choices, and importantly including implicit choices the game doesn't explicitly tell you about, and reacting to those choices.

I find it really lame when a game puts you through basically a linear game, and at the very end, after a convenient save point, tells you to make The Big Choice (probably That Decides The Fate Of The World), because that feels completely meaningless - as opposed to the game for example telling me to do something, some fundamental gameplay element, and at a crucial story point if you refuse to do it it doesn't fail you, it offers a different path forward.

Doing an open world feels like a conceptually simple way to give players a sense of agency and set more things up. If you see something cool, you can go there, if you can make it. You're not required to stick to the path, you're allowed to explore, look for things to do, or run straight to the big objective. And if you do run into something optional, help a character, maybe they show up in the grand finale and play a role, and it makes those encounters feel rewarding.

One thing is that pet groomers will recommend grooming kittens so they get used to the experience, so that if they have trouble grooming themselves and need help it's less stressful for them to get washed, dried, all that stuff. (Though this is coming from the groomers who get paid when you do that, for your consideration)