#;;I'll release other concepts and finalized designs soon

[oinonsana]

dagger-and-blowgun-fused-into-spear pamaagi

or: the transfer from dice pool to the violence dice in GUBAT BANWA

i've written about this in a longer devlog, but i wanted to take a secondary abridged (and personal) dive into the change. also i'll probably start releasing devlogs and essays back on my patreon soon because damn if that place isn't barren

gubat banwa is a game of larger than life martial heroes fighting for their convictions in a setting rooted on southeast asian folklores and cultures. before december, and even during its kickstarter, i was pretty set on the game being a dice pool system. i felt it accurately conveyed the feeling of that sekiro-esque back and forth: one attacks, the other defends. every dice is an attack launched, a sword swing, a gun breath to aim or part of a gun's loading sequence, an arrow trained on an enemy. every defense dice is an attempt at a parry. it was a cool concept! and there's definitely ways to make it sing and shine

unfortunately as with all game design choices, not every cool idea fits snugly into the greater whole--if i wanted my game to sing and shine, each component must work in tandem with the other components. it's a choir, or a puzzle--one mechanic slightly off is fine, one that's completely off kinda wrecks the entire thing

i found that the dice pool back and forth interaction more or less worked better for a more non-grid based combat game. one that works perhaps with zones and rules. one where the fiction zooms in to a specific exchange between the attacker and the defender. while this is also a game design objective of gubat banwa, it had to be in tandem with the fact that it is a tactical grid game as well. it had to put in mind that the mechanics were also focused on forced movement, collisions, reactive moments from other players, etc.

in a non-grid based combat game, where the focus is on that flurrious exchange only, then it might have worked. but that is unfortunately not the only important thing in gubat banwa's design goals.

additionally, sussing out and feeling out one's own tactical consequences were hugely obfuscated by the dice pool. the probabilities weren't as clear, the attack forecast was esoteric, and was even hard to properly model in an automated system. this detracted from the simple and tactical design of the game.

so the Violence Die was established. Each technique had a die or a number of dice that was rolled--this determined whether the attack hit and how much damage was. it was the attack roll and damage roll in one.

Essentially, making an attack goes like this: Roll Violence Dice (can add any bonuses to the Violence Die here) -> if higher than target's EVADE, keep going. Otherwise, the attack is avoided -> Add the defined attack Prowess (FEROCITY for physical attacks, SPIRIT magick attacks) and any other damage modifiers, including any additional damage dice -> the target then reduces that damage by their Defense (PARRY or RESILIENCE, as defined by the Technique) -> Apply the final damage to the target. This keeps going until the target gains Damage equal to or greater than their POSTURE, in which caste they are defeated as they are struck with a decisive blow.

The process of adding damage replaces the process of counting Hits. The process of reducing damage replaces the process of counting Parries and cancelling Hits. They reside in similar design mindspaces, and so with a simpler rolling mechanic I was more or less able to transfer the math to a more linear math while keeping the "exchange" feel of an attack. All because of the forced processes one must go down when rolling an attack that strikes home and is not avoided.

In the fiction, rolling Violence Dice is the attack attempt. The swinging of halberds, the lightning arrows loosed from the bow, the sword swings as the swordsman advances. If it is avoided, the target manages to back away, use the environment to avoid the attack, flip away, vault over, or otherwise completely avoid the attack.

If it hits home however, the target is forced to reckon: the damage applied and the bonus damage is the number of attack launched in the assault, or perhaps the precision of an attack, or perhaps the number of mantras and mudras uttered to cast a spell. They must attempt to PARRY it away, or they must test their RESILIENCE as the attack washes over them. Fireballs they block, with their armor or their shields or their bare forearms. Sword strikes they quickly move to meet with their own strikes, parrying and ducking and flipping over them.

Then, their Posture is shaken of course as they receive Damage. As they gain more Damage, the more they know that they are going to be open to a Decisive Blow, and so they must be tactical.

In physical play, rolling a single die has made things much snappier (and even in online play). The excitement of the roll is still there: there's a chance you might EVADE the attack completely, after all! the change has become beneficial for everyone--for those that like to describe their attacks, for those that just interface directly with the mechanics, and much more. this piece of tech arose after a particularly grueling game of D&D Onslaught.

before this, i even played with an attack - counterattack system, kind of like pbta "if you roll mid you also suffer harm", but it felt pretty counterintuitive for a tactics game where you're already using up a lot of resources to do things, and also one where the initiative is alternating (which already does the whole, you act the world reacts feel pretty well). attacking becomes a dangerous proposition for any fighter, which does not feel well when you're martial heroes.

the dice pool was a good idea but it was detrimental to the larger process of the tactics game. i had to balance that to really achieve the "martial arts tactics fantasy" that gubat banwa really wanted to achieve with its fighting mechanics.

i called this blowgun and dagger to spear because in seasian martial ways their blowguns were long enough to be shafts and their daggers were often placed on top of staffs to make spears. i combined the fictional sensibilities of the dice pool system with the easier and more transparent math of the Violence Die system to create a veritable spear of a mechanic

[dr-ultimatum]

09/08/24 Project Notes

Hi, I'm Mothy, the creator of "DR Ultimatum," a rpgmaker fangan following Honoka Akino, the Ultimate Horror Mangaka, after she falls asleep on the train to school and wakes up in a mockery of a town with fourteen other Ultimates. The only way to escape is to kill: at least, that's what the animatronic rat is saying.

I want to make a record of the progress that's being made. I'll update you about two times a month. This first one isn't very exciting, so have some beta art of characters! The leftmost and middle characters are both scrapped, maybe I should bring back the sukeban girl? (Her text would use Japanese characters btw). The middle girl would eventually become Tamiko, and the right girl is beta Chioka. She looks weird without glasses...

If you have any questions, comments, or concern, you can shoot an ask or email drultimatum.contact@gmail.com

Like I've said, I've been busy for the past three months. I am happy with everyone's designs so far, though there is one student who still needs their design finalized. Expect an updated Azumi and Kuree design soon, but they are more like art updates than anything else.

Meanwhile, I've been working on the outline to the story as well as a prologue. A prologue *has* been completed, but it's now updated as I adjust everyone's characterizations and the setting. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at drawing environments, but have some concept art of the location!

For the location map, the large rectangle represents the electric fence that contains everyone. The shoddy lines are roads. Yes, there is a gun range. I think I'm happy with the locations, so my current focus is on making my outline neater and fleshing out the locations as well as I can. I have a lot of respect for LINUJ, because starting this made me aware of the things I can't quite do on my own.

Following the completion of the general outline, I'll make a one for chapter 1 purely to add as much detail as it deserves. I want to release the prologue and chapter 1 together, so I'm very excited to continue working on this. Of course, in the meantime, I'll make character bios of everyone so you can get to know them a bit more. Have another concept I made (that doesn't reflect Honoka's actual personality).

I've also worked on smaller things that are too abstract and miniscule to be put in a tumblr post, as well as starting to really buckle down what tasks I need to do. I haven't began implementing things yet, since I'm focused on concept art and writing, but I'll do that once I'm in the asset making phase. It's...a lot, so I'd like to gather a small team of people to make this something nice. But before I do that, I want to people to know that they're following a project that won't just string you along.

This is about the end for now. I'll definitely share my progress as it goes along! Like I said, this update isn't very exciting, but I hope the next one will be fun. Thank you for reading!

[howdy-folks-its-showtime]

It's Showtime! - July 2024 Devlog

Howdy! Cobalt here, and wow, July really went by quick for me. Luckily, I also got a good amount of things done! In fact, I did a lot of things I've been holding off on for a while. Sorry the dev log is late,despite knowing I should, I didn't make notes on what I did this month nor did I start it earlier… Then I had a really bad time with my body (just cramps, dw!) the last few days of the month which made it hard to write. I swear I'll develop better habits for this as it goes on.

when it comes to programming, I've gotten a few minor things going on. I have a cut scene manager script now that keeps track of various things, including which cut scenes have already played but also which cut scenes you've seen between save files and stuff. This way it can make any cut scene you've already seen in any of your playthroughs skippable. I haven't actually gotten the skipping script to work yet nor stuff like triggering the cut scenes, but I'll need more placeholder sort of things to work on that stuff. The inventory also reorganizes itself after you use an item to make sure empty slots are at the bottom and filled ones are on the top. A lot, I mean a lot, of writing has been done this month. On Focuswriter [the program I use for all my writing] I hit the longest writing streak I ever had, 63 days in a row of meeting my daily goal [which is 500 words]! My in-depth/in-game writing doc has 16,783 words right now and my game design document [which contains the story summary] 20,764 words. [It actually shrank a bit because I made the story summary of chapter 1 like an actual summary, instead of being far too in-depth on a lot of parts. But that's still an improvement even if it seems weird on the word counts.] I've done a lot of writing out the story beats I've had in my head for a while but haven’t inserted it into my documents yet. I wanna focus on doing stuff like writing out the ending and more general story beats since I don't really want to go too far into development without way more of the story taken out of my mind and actually written down somewhere. Despite how excited I am to show more to the public. Since we will not be releasing It's Showtime through the chapters, I'm gonna try to make development less chapter focused, I don’t know how we’ll be releasing it, complete or in some other parts… But we’re not really far enough into development to be thinking of that yet. Luckily, I can say confidently I'm delighted with the speed of development so far. It's not much by most standards but for two queers making their first game of this scale while also balancing learning adult stuff, we've done way more than I thought we would so far! In terms of art, there's been both a lot done and not a lot. We've been doing a bit of concept art, getting references done, and speculating on things. But the place where the most progress has been made technically wasn't actually for the project itself… See, this month I think I finally started to really get the hang of blender. I finished a model for a friend of mine of their version of Evan from the Bendy Novels. It's fully rigged and I'm really happy with it. I'm also almost done with two other big models I'm making of someone's Bendy au designs and I'm sure when you guys see them, it'll make you excited for what the models in Showtime will look like. In general, I think I've finally found a workflow I'm happy with, and that allows me to make models both quickly but also to a quality I'm very happy with. I imagine very soon I'll be doing the first true collections of models for Showtime, whether they'll be the ones seen in the final release I don't know. But the practice alone will surely teach me a lot more about Blender.

As for other things… Ink Demonth is happening again and this time, I would love to create something for each prompt. They probably won't be posted daily, or in order, but still, I'd love for me and my partner to make something for each prompt within the month. Specifically related to Encore! and such. It'd be a good way to keep the blog alive and to stir up more attention on It's Showtime! This isn't a promise we will, but I thought I'd mention our hopes for Ink Demonth. Overall, I'd just advise all of you to be on the lookout for things going on with this game. I've got a lot of little plans for it that are almost ready to be put into motion and I'm super excited to show you guys more as things go on. Once again sorry it was late, but I hope this update was exciting! See you guys next month!

[damsels-n-dice]

For the tarot ask game: the Heirophant and the Sun!

The Hierophant — Who is a fellow game designer you’ve learned a lot from? OR What is a piece of popular wisdom about games you think is nonsense?

i have a horrible memory, particularly for names, so i'm not confident in my ability to point at anyone in particular as a source of knowledge or inspiration. (that being said, i am going to shout out J.N. Butler purely for giving me the confidence to put price tags on my games). so i suppose i have to talk about popular wisdom... and pretend i know what that actually is, as someone who's still new to game design

i suppose i'd like to see more people and games blurring the line between game master and player? i very much view a game master as just a player with a slightly different role, and i see quite a few games that forget that game masters are playing the game too! or games that do away with them entirely, which is fine, but i do love running games. give me more games with multiple game masters, or where people swap in and out of the role, or where the "standard" responsibilities of that role are challenged somehow.

(if i'm just looking at the wrong kind of games, i'd love to see ones with the sort of thing i'm talking about! recs are so welcome)

The Sun — Talk about a game you’ve made that you’re proud of.

i was so hoping for this question!!! most of my game design in the past has been lyric games, solo games, or very short multi-player games. i'm a full-time student and have an irl job too, so those formats (200 word, one page, solo games) are easier with my limited time. but i've been wanting for ages to write myself a "proper", lengthier game.

i finally did that last month, in the form of 'til it kills us, my entry for the queer wrath jam! it's inspired by some of my favourite stories (both ones i wrote and ones other people did) and it's about 15x longer than anything else i've written. it was a massive labour of love, and it's still a work in progress! i'll be starting playtesting for it soon.

not only am i proud of it because of the amount of effort and the size of it, though -- it's also my favourite concept for a game i've worked on! the playbooks, each based on an emotion and the kind of magic i imagine that emotion would create, are so much fun to write. many of them are based on a combination of characters i love, real people i know who fit the archetypes, and just a very vivid imagination.

it's the best thing i've made so far, and i'm hoping the next thing i release will live up to the standards that this one set for me!

(and that i can get some equally cool art for it)

(honorable mention also to my lyric game defensive programming! i'll be the first to admit that it's barely a lyric game, let alone an actual playable game, but it was so much fun to write. i love lyric games as writing exercises, working in interesting metaphors and historical/literary references. and this one has by far the most frequent and most interesting stuff going on in terms of references and wordplay!)

[mrchaosman]

Now that official deltarune chapters 4 and 5 have been revealed to the public, I like to say that my Deltarune take won't change from anything that has been planned.

Even if the chapters got released, the take will still be active till it got completed

So basically, I'll start my own newsletter (SOCKMAN'S NEWS™) and show some progress I made as well as some other things being made other people.

First: StarNight redesign.

Recently, I was thinking of changing StarNight design to make her easy to draw as well as changing some elements.

With the help from my friends from Twitter (and one of them is also in Tumblr), I managed to combine their designs ideas into this.

And here is the designs ideas that been submitted.

Thanks for

@TheAlkalian2 @David6488684253 @Wizard_T0ad @avrgcoffelov and @dinosaurstirfry for the help.

Also, thanks for @imaginary-regret-608 for the little fanart of Ying and Yang and the theoretical name of their battle theme

Second: The process of the work and trying to complete some guys refs.

Anne, Mutt Cutter, and some enemies. And of course, working on Flowlezz's concepts and cutscenes but feeling lazy recently, so, yeah, I'll try to finish the chapter 3 content as fast as I can.

Third and not final: the music thing.

As much as I want learn to compose a songs for my Deltarune take, the thing that I was waiting for like two years now hasn't came here (what i can say, debting money is sucks ass, especially if the debtors are your family) so yeah, but hopefully the thing will came very soon.

And that's all, thank for taking your time to read my whining about a non-serious take of Adventure: Space

[pumpkin-spike18]

✨Weekly Progress #29-30✨

Let me start this off by apologizing for my inactivity 🙇‍♂️ I try not to dive too deeply into my mental health on this blog, but those who know me well know how much I struggle with it. I think my brain shut down and retreated after finishing my recent projects. I relied on daily never-ending tasks to get me through each day with a sense of accomplishment so when that ended, I wound up in a void where I couldn't bring my creativity to amount to anything new.

I kicked my butt back into gear the last couple of days after realizing how little I did during week 29 (and week 28 looked inflated, but I did most of the work in 2-3 days leaving most of my week blank).

I don't know where I'll go from here, but I've worked out some new upcoming plans for future projects! And I'll do my best to start replying to messages and comments;; I've left everyone on read for long enough...!!

Thank you so much everyone, for continuing to support me al this time! 💕

Weekly Progress #29

Wrote O2A2 post mortem

Finished aKwtD ref sheet lines, flat colors

Weekly Progress #30

Finished aKwtD Liz refsheet

Finished aKwtD Camille refsheet

Reorganized/scheduled work

made SFB roadmap

Prepped SYVNH plan

Updated vgen services

Drafted more proposals

Sketched SFB sprite

Detective story concepting/outlining

A Kiss with the Devil

I completed the refsheets for Ley's upcoming yuri game!

It was a lot of fun designing them from scratch and then being able to render them in full body art! I've always shied away from full body pieces because they take a lot of time and energy... the refsheets took over a week from sketch to final piece. But I'm really happy with how they came out!

Camille, the player character, and her love interest, an immortal and possibly immoral eldritch creature, Liz!

A Sky of Falling Birds

I'm working on proposals for funding and marketing of this game as it will be a commercial work when finished. I created a new roadmap for how I'll plan to get more assets done (...and reduce the number of assets, hopefully). The current plan is to have a Demo 2.0 for Yuri Jam to better show off the story since the current demo focused more on the art and animation aspect.

A sketch for the final character sprite of SFB. I originally planned to give her two outfits, but I might try to cut that if I can...

Stuck in a Yandere Visual Novel... HELP!!

Yes...! I've still got a bit of work left for this project!! Mainly some future updates. I do want to get a steam release for SYVNH one day so I'm working towards that!

I will also be putting out some surveys soon for interest in merch based on the characters. The feasibility of it will depend on interest for what type of merch, ofc, but at the very least, I will be working on some new art for folks soon [: As a thank you for playing, and all the love you've shown for the game so far!

Other

I went into more detail than I probably should've in the intro of this post, but even in my "slump," I've been busy practicing art when I'm not getting my butt kicked by some Hollow Knight mini boss for 2 hours.

I've started a doodle blog, that some folks found in less than 24 hours 💦I'm not ready to formally connect the two together, but if it seems like I've been active there, it's just cause I draw a lot every day. It makes the monotony feel better. This blog will still contain all of my devwork, but all my art musings will be in that one.

I'm sure I'll have the courage to link the two together soon.

[shinmiyovvi]

Hello hello! Poppin in to see how you're doing!

I've been a bit absent so I've come to wrack your brain, any new updates or projects you'd want to share about??

I hope you're doing well Shin!

Hello, Spengs, hope you're doing well too 💖 This is gonna be a long read so buckle up

I did some think thonkin for a while even if my brain was already wracked when school started last week (Senior year was now being an ass on me for a freshman as myself) but anyways, enough of that. Let's jump in to what I have in mind for my projects and updates

Update: Barely hanging while trying to run this abomination of a blog with changing the blog's color, header, and tumblr website's theme while dealing with school and trying to brace myself this Saturday for my birthday as I try to accept that I am now getting older 🫠 (Also forgive me for throwing a bunch of MW content if you ever come acrossed with it)

Art Projects: Now, I am atleast trying my hardest to bring myself to draw my Cod MW oc Noemi in which I haven't quite made a proper reference sheet for her. Now that MW3 2023 was announced and will be releasing on November(?), I need to work on her new design for the sequel. I have made her MW2 2022 design and not with her MW1 2019 which is I am planning to do. Her info was still on a wip and the shipping was somehow changed? To tell you what, Noemi is turning into an oc/self insert and I am not complaining about it. Going to CoD Zombies, you thought those reference sheets of my ocs are final? No, and I hate it 🙃. There is just so many ideas of changing their outfits and I rarely even draw the Ultimis versions of them and also my other oc crew Salvatorix. I even have a lot of changes for my self insert design as well and need to work on it as soon as Christmas break comes or in Summer. I also need to add some casual outfits for my ocs for easy drawing cause I know sometimes whenever we had an art trade together, I feel like the designs are getting the best of us so I am hoping to draw their casuals to give ourselves a slack. But if you're still fine with their usual outfits then that's fine by me 💖. I'm still working on with my ocs' infos and also the Ultimis voice claims so stay tuned if I ever find a gap to my time to work on it. I will also make some references for the fic I am working on which is an oc x canon one. Lastly, I need to draw my SoE oc cause I haven't even talked or posted something about her for months now.

Fanfiction Projects: I still have 3 fics that are discontinued or still ongoing but ran out of ideas.And now we have 2 new additional fics. I've answered this from an ask from a friend of mine but I'll tell you as well. Under the Red Moon and Echoes of a Certain Past are two fics that I've planned. Under the Red Moon is an old au concept for the Primis crew but I changed the idea and use it for the lore change of the Vampire Knight and Noble Prince Au from before. Basically the story will be an oc x canon one since it focuses on Primis Nikolai and Primis Val. Echoes of a Certain Past is a fic that will be containing the past of my ocs, from Primis to Ultimis as the story will be divided into two parts, separating the two from each other. In the story, the story will be divided into four parts for each oc, starting from Val to Dragomir. If you want to know where to read them, these two stories will be posted here, Ao3, and in Wattpad but I'm still undecided to post in Wattpad since I've already made their cover pages of the two stories but let's see how these two will unfold. I may be a bit rusty when it comes to writing but I will try my best to make you all entertain as I will also try to research more and more about my ocs so atleast I could add up the historical vibes of it even if there will be also inaccuracies so please bear with me on this.

[auspicious-voice]

Fuwa Maria AI & Fuwa Mario AI for DiffSinger Progress Report (February 2024)

It's been a while since I made a post like this, but I figured it's time to make another post for DiffSinger development shenanigans. I haven't uploaded a full cover in almost two months and I'm slowly working on Maria and Mario's 8th anniversary project alongside my other OC projects...which have been receiving lots of tending to thanks to being hit with new ideas and concepts. January was a productive month for me, so there's much to be discussed about what's going on with current DiffSinger voicebank development.

As usual, the bulk of this report will be under the cut!

Voicebank Progress

Still, I do not have any audio demos just yet. But the development is coming along well so there's that? I haven't even done the training part...

Fuwa Maria AI

I finally labeled Maria's ENTIRE dataset nearly after a month's worth of labeling! I had to deal with the pain of listening to my own voice for hours on end, so I'm hoping once I get to the training part, Maria will at least sound decent.

The only things left to do are to use SlurCutter on the dataset, but I'm having major troubles with especially when it comes to installing parselmouth on my Windows PC...I'm still new to using Python...but I am contemplating on doing all the SlurCutter work on my Linux PC if all else fails, otherwise setting up everything before autopitch training is plain frustrating 😭😭😭 If all else fails I might not train autopitch w/ SlurCutter at all...so in that case, hopefully my singing will at least suffice. Looking forward to vocoder training, however, so I might fine-tune the new HiFiPLN vocoder that came out recently!

I'm still holding off from training the dataset, as I am still waiting for the tension parameter to be implemented into the main branch...But once that gets done, I am also implementing parallel training for additional language support in the stable version! English is among one of them, and I'll probably throw in a Japanese dataset for improved pronunciation or w/e, and Chinese and Korean support would be nice too, but IDK if I'll ever use those languages LMAO...but perhaps I might train a beta version w/o tension and parallel learning soon? Let's see if Colab will be kind to me haha, and I don't have a PC powerful enough for local training...

Update: I in fact did train a beta voicebank for Maria! you can listen to a short snippet of what she sounds like here. Since the tension param won't be implemented for a while, I thought it'd be best to at least train a more stable version of Maria's DiffSinger voicebank with English crosslang and autopitch for public release, and perhaps work on a new version with tension implemented...but also I saw on DiffSinger's to-do board with rap and tone support AND attack and release...I'm excited for whatever DiffSinger has in store for new features :>

Fuwa Mario AI

I finished recording Mario's entire dataset (normal, power, and soft modes), and as of writing this post, I just started labeling it. He's more tolerable to listen to compared to Maria, but he's my natural voice anyways. I'm on my 4th song, and labeling isn't that much of a tedious process anymore...

Not much I can say, but expect him to also receive additional English support and such! Let's hope he'll sound good after training! I'm also hoping to finish labeling around the time tension is properly supported, but I don't really know when that will come out. Hopefully before their 9th anniversary arrives...

Character Progress

Designs

I STILL don't have a solid character concept for Maria and Mario, and that includes their design. Well at least I know what their hairstyle will look like...

I do have some concepts in hand but I don't know where I put them...

Profiles

I think I'll just stick to Maria and Mario's current character information...I just don't want to make up new lore for them as they've already gone through so many revamps.

Signing Off

I'm still into OCs as usual! But with new DiffSinger voicebanks releasing coming out, I'm more inspired to finish my own, so it feels like I'm in my UTAU noob days from 2014...and HOLY SHIT it's been 10 years since I got into UTAU...

I'm still treating vocal synths as a hobby, but sometimes it's nice to check up on what the folks are up to these days. Plus I got a new gunpla model kit and it's so pretty ^^ I think I built three so far!

See you around,

-- HIRATELIER

[birthdayflavor]

Concept Art / Final Design // Soi Fon  Animal Crossing x Bleach 

Species: Cat Personality: Cranky  Favorite Bug: Wasp  Coffee: Mocha, Lots of Milk, x2 Spoons of Sugar  Catchphrase: “Have you seen Yoruichi-sama?” 

[princess-ibri]

Sorry Canon Descendants TLM 3 is taking a while, it's been a long couple weeks in Real Life Land and I've been feeling a little burned out when it comes to working on longer stories, but I promise I'll try and finish it before the end of the month 😅

Till then I had some fun designing a Disney version of Swan Lake, designed from different Swan based Disney things, such as performers in parades and floats and such. So here's Odette:

Prince Siegfried

Baron Von Rothbart

And his daughter Odile

And here's some of the references/concept art I compiled to make them!

I also included a new character, who’s actually an old one from an earlier version of the Swan Lake plot before it was finalized into the one we know in the ballet, Odette’s evil step-mother, who seeks to harm her but cannnot as long as Odette wears her magical crown. So here’s Lady Esuvilda, the sister of Von Rothbart.

The plot I’ve thought of for this retelling would be a combo of the ideas from the original stepmother plot and the one we know and would go something like this:

"Many years ago, Odette’s father, Sir Hugh de Ledacouer met and fell in love with the beautiful swan maiden Avatta, the daughter of King Cobhame, a fairy King. Against her father's wishes, for he knew how fickle human men are, Avatta rejected her immortality and married Hugh, giving birth to Odette.

Soon after, Hugh betrayed Avatta with the Lady Esuvilda, causing her to die of a broken heart, as is the consequence of a fairy who has given up their immortality for a mortal. Sir Hugh married the Lady Esuvilda, and entranced by her he neglected his daughter. But such was her jealousy of Odette that she attempte to destroy the girl. When she was prevented from killing her by the magic of Odette’s grandfather--who gives her an enchanted crown to protect her from such attempts--Esuvilda turns to her brother, the enchanter Baron Von Rothbart.

Unable to harm the girl due to her magical crown, he could still trap her in the form of a Swan, (due to her Fairy heritage) until such a day as a mortal man would declare unwavering love for her--a stipulation added specifically to give her as little hope of release as possible, in the face of her father's betrayal of her mother.

Odette and her ladies in waiting who were also enchanted by Rothbart, manage to escape to an enchanted lake which her grandfather created high in the mountains, which allows them to turn back to humans at night if they’re on it. Rothbart, who stalks the edges of the Lake, covets Odette’s beauty, and seeks to find a way to steal her protective crown and claim her as his own."

And from there it would go pretty much how the Ballet goes, Seigfried finds the Swan Maidens, and being a shy young romantic falls in love with Odette very quickly, but Odette would be very hesitant to believe him or return his feelings due to her distrust of love after what happened to her mother, so Siegfried would really have to work hard to get her to trust him and see he's truly sincere in his feelings and desires to free her and the others.

I think I'd maybe make Odile a semi-reluctant assistant to her father and aunt. She doesn't really like them and they don't treat her well, in fact she gets along much better with the Swan Maidens (maybe one in particular) but she doesn't want to fully take their side as she's afraid of being on the other end of her father's wrath.

Odette probably gives up her magic crown willingly after she thinks Siegfried has betrayed her (Rothbart probably makes it look/sound like he chose Odile willingly) and decides to give it up so that she can die and so free her friends from the Swan spell as it's linked to her.

Of course this would be a Disney Movie so it'd be a happy ending but if HOND can go that dark so can this.

[mysticmousecat]

Part of "He Knows" part 2

I'm hoping to be done with this part soon, but the writer's block is real you guys. Also, yes, I am aware this chapter is incredibly self-indulgent sounding but I'm already this far into it and I'm not turning back now. Also Also, I mention in this that the ChemTech component mines release minute levels of radiation, I say that because I have a theory (Probably incorrect but a fun idea) that the components ChemTech uses are actually an isotope of Uranium, specifically U-238 which while not super good for producing energy, is fantastic for using in metal textiles and produces something called Depleted Uranium after being processed which is like a fine dust that when inhaled is incredibly toxic and upon long term exposure (Like growing up in a place where it is incredibly unregulated in the atmosphere) can cause diseases and cancers to show up later in life, such as lung cancer *hint hint* (If you wanna know more about this theory, because there is so much more in my brain, send in an ask and I'll go further into detail. Anyway, science talk over and back to my self-indulgence.

“I started working on this concept shortly after I returned to Zaun,” Viktor started, holding the object up for you to see better, and upon closer inspection you found it to be some kind of armor it seemed. “Being back in the Undercity reminded me just how severe the pollution there is, much to the fault of the chem mining that takes place there. I started working on an armor plating that could protect the wearer from the minute amounts of radiation released from mining, while the levels are not immediately harmful, I feel my falling ill is proof enough of its long term affects.”

You stared at the distinctly feminine shape of the garment. “There a lot of women miners?” You asked, sending a side glance toward Viktor, who, for just a split second, you could have sworn you saw the slightest hint of a blush, but it was gone before you could really look at it.

“…No,” He finally said, then seemed to rack his brain for another response for a moment. “Though this is more for the people who live near the exposed seams, like I did,” You nodded at his explanation, it made sense, protect the internal organs from radiation damage from the ChemTech components, valid idea. “I also may have known when I made this prototype that I’d be asking you to be the one to wear it.” You took another glance at the armor, noticing now that it was indeed very close to your own shape and size, you didn’t know what to focus on more, the fact that Viktor had known he wanted you to wear this first or the fact that the bust size seemed to be a near perfect match to your own, you tried not to think about that one too much, it was sending your brain to dangerous places. “So, will you wear it?” Viktor’s question pulled you from your thoughts.

You eyed the garment again, trying to figure out where it began or ended or how you’d even go about getting into it. “How do I put it on?” The smile Viktor gave you brought heat to your skin, a mischievous glint in his eye suddenly replacing the slightly nervous look that had been there previously.

“You will need help.” Was all he said before laying the garment down onto the table behind him. He turned back toward you and cast an inquisitive glance toward you, placing on hand on his hip, the other supporting his weight as he leaned on his cane, seemingly scrutinizing you.

“What?” You asked, you could practically see the cogs turning in Viktor’s head as he thought.

“If I make a request, do you promise not to hit me?” He asked, his eyes snapping up to meet yours.

“I guess that depends on the request.”

Viktor looked at you and then back to the armored garment on the table, then back to you. “This garment is designed to be snug against the wearer, and I’m not sure it will fit over so many…layers.” He finally said.

You looked at your best friend for a moment, only halfway processing exactly what he had just said, was he asking you to… “Viktor are you asking me to strip?” He seemed to actually choke at your response, which you will readily admit is hilarious, but still failed to quell the sudden fire under your skin.

“I am doing no such thing!” Viktor sputtered. “I’m simply saying that while this garment could go over your jacket and shirt, I may have a harder time fitting it to you properly, though I will happily try if you’d like.” You thought about it for all of a few seconds before you brain supplied a very helpful, ‘fuck it’.

“Okay.” You spoke. You’d expected him to be surprised, maybe a bit shocked that you’d agreed to essentially get half naked in front of him, but instead you swore you could see the slightest hint of mischief in his eyes, an ever so subtle smirk on his lips before he schooled his expression back to perfect composure. That had been your first warning of what was to come, the beginning of what would be the most wonderful of hells that you would be forced to endure over the coming weeks.

“Perfect.” He said as he started rummaging through a drawer behind him, finding what he was looking for in the form of a fabric tape measure. You pulled the zipper of your jacket down as he made his way to the front door of the lab, flipping the lock loudly, giving you a slight startle. “Definitely would not want any uninvited guests.” While knowing no one was going to be barging in while this was happening did ease some of your nerves, you still had to deal with the fact that Viktor was very much about to see you in barely anything but a bra.

[popcorn-kitten]

new hiveswap info and development timelines just dropped on the Kickstarter ✌️

Over the years, a lot of misinformation, as well as deliberate disinformation, has spread around about the history of Hiveswap. The purpose of this post is to clarify these matters for backers who've been wondering what the truth is.

The Kickstarter was planned by the What Pumpkin business development team in mid-2012. One member of the team was a crowdfunding specialist who led the planning process and managed the contracts with the developer. Prior to the Kickstarter opening for pledges, What Pumpkin worked out a plan for a flexible game concept that could be refined according to how much the campaign ultimately brought in. As Hussie was still working on Homestuck full time at this point, the plan was to hand over his game concept and story outline to a development company that could deliver the project.

The crowdfunding campaign finished out at a gross total of $2,485,506, as well as a gross total of $207,930 from PayPal pledges. But because of platform fees, as well as the costs of producing and shipping merchandise to backers of the campaign, the effective budget was significantly lower than the gross pledged total:

The above deductions from the gross total do not include taxes.

After determining the final budget for the game, What Pumpkin signed an agreement with the contracted game company (hereafter “GC”) to develop Hussie’s game concept. WP and GC entered into a development contract on November 30, 2012, shortly after the conclusion of the Homestuck Kickstarter. WP paid $788,000 to GC in late 2012 for development.

Because there was an understanding that delivering the complete game development documents would take some time, during which it would be difficult for GC to make meaningful progress on the Hiveswap game build, GC inquired about getting involved with other Homestuck-adjacent projects to do immediate work. WP let GC know about the Act 7 animation plans. With an assurance that this work could be done in parallel with a flexible timeline and would not impact the development cycle of Hiveswap itself, Hussie and What Pumpkin saw this as a good opportunity to establish a working relationship with this organization prior to the start of development and agreed to contract GC to do animation work for the Act 7 project. WP and GC agreed that this project would have a separate budget from the Hiveswap Kickstarter money, paid for from WP’s regular operating funds. As the existence of this animation itself would not be revealed until its release in 2016, this was not publicly announced at the time. GC and the lead animator on the project specifically requested not to be credited upon release of the animation.

Hussie initiated the “Megapause” on April 14, 2013 in order to devote his full attention to finalizing the Hiveswap development documents. What Pumpkin soon provided its story documents so that GC could formally begin core systems development. In July of 2013 WP and GC mutually agreed to push back GC’s deliverable dates without penalty. Hussie would share an update in 2013 detailing the state of predevelopment:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/14293468/homestuck-adventure-game/posts/708686

In 2013 following receipt of WP’s deliverables, GC enthusiastically assured WP that it was positioned to begin development. GC would deliver its first prototype in early 2014.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qSXwWKD5Km1yL-3Cj_W5IevW-IA978zJ/view?usp=sharing

This prototype, linked above, was sent to WP on 2/18/14. At this point, it was becoming a significant concern among backers that WP had yet to show proof that the game was being made, so WP was looking for any sort of tangible progress update from GC that was suitable to share with the public. But Hussie and WP found the quality of the prototype somewhat alarming, and decided that sharing any shots from the game would only cause embarrassment for GC. Nevertheless, WP was still willing to assume that this was a very early draft of something that would develop into a more promising product soon, and gave GC some more time to improve on it.

But the improvements didn’t come. No other advancements on the prototype were ever made. After waiting weeks with no update other than assurances that progress was carrying on smoothly, Hussie initiated the “Gigapause” both to take care of personal matters and later to get directly involved in the development of the game himself. He decided to move to southern California from the east coast in hopes that working directly with the GC could help them overcome whatever obstacles they were facing with Hiveswap’s development. GC responded positively to the prospect of Hussie’s involvement, but when he made the move and tried to coordinate a time to visit the GC offices and meet, GC insisted it was a bad time due to office renovations and a busy schedule. Here is a timeline with quotes from emails exchanged between Hussie and GC:

May 12, 2014 - from Hussie to GC

“Just letting you know I actually moved to the west coast recently. I'm only an hour or so away from LA now.

I could drive down and check out the office, see how things are going with the game and animation in person some time soon. Is there a time that would work for you guys? In a week or two maybe?”

May 15, 2014 - from GC to Hussie

“That's awesome about being on the west coast. It'd be great to have you come to the studio.

Dev has slowed a bit on our end, as we wanted to take a step back and really evaluate what was needed and the best way to achieve the features that have been coming online in the docs. We're continuing to break that all down so we can build and plan most effectively moving forward. We also wanted to find some simple formats for input from your writing team for dialogue content and are getting that squared away.

The best time to come by would actually be right after E3. Things are a bit nuts until then.”

May 18, 2014 - from Hussie to GC

“[Name redacted], sounds good. I'll set aside some time after E3 to make the drive down. As we approach the date, just let me know what works for you.”

E3 was June 10-12, 2014. GC did not invite Hussie to visit at this time.

Hussie and WP representatives were in LA over July 4th weekend, 2014. When they inquired about visiting the offices again they were still not welcome. A GC representative insisted that they meet at a restaurant instead. Yet GC continued to telegraph that they were receptive to the idea of inviting Hussie to the office well into the summer:

Aug 18, 2014 - from GC to Hussie

“We'd love to set up a new time for Andrew to come to the studio as well as a skype chat to meet the other team members.”

Despite apparent enthusiasm about meeting with Andrew in their email correspondence, GC continued the pattern of refusing to meet at the office or supply any signs of progress on the prototype.

Over that summer, GC delivered several pieces of concept art that WP had been requesting since January. Hussie did his best to present this publicly as a positive development as WP felt it would be counterproductive to the project and harmful to GC to publicly detail the development troubles at the time.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/14293468/homestuck-adventure-game/posts/883860

There was no indication from GC that the Act 7 animation project was in any way in conflict with Hiveswap development. GC was enthusiastic about taking on this project, and bidded against other animators for the contract. They saw it as a useful tie-in to concept art work on Hiveswap, as GC leadership conveyed in an email to WP in early 2013:

WP also does not have any reason to believe that the Act 7 project in practice created a conflict that was not disclosed by GC to WP. Act 7 was a 2D animation project, and Hiveswap at the time was a 3D game, so it did not pull GC’s programmers or 3D artists away from work on Hiveswap. GC never mentioned the development needs of a separate project at all to WP, or cited any such reason as distracting from work on Hiveswap; GC instead repeatedly provided WP with various assurances that everything was still fine with Hiveswap.

Had GC communicated that they had scheduling conflicts or some other impediment preventing them from developing Hiveswap, WP would have terminated the contract even sooner.

WP moved to terminate the agreement with GC late summer of 2014, and Hussie pivoted towards establishing a new independent game studio while consulting with a designer who had stepped up into a leadership position during the GC development period. That individual lived in NYC, which is why that location was chosen to establish the new studio rapidly. They helped build the studio through a local network of professional contacts. While this “What Pumpkin NYC” studio shared a name with What Pumpkin, it’s important to note that all of WP NYC’s studio staff save for the aforementioned individual were hired without any prior affiliation with WP and thus had no association with the GC contract. WP documented this development on Kickstarter on October 30th, 2014. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/14293468/homestuck-adventure-game/posts/1035099

At this point, negotiations were very amicable; both parties agreed the project simply wasn’t turning out to be a good fit for GC, and were both ready to move on. There were no signs given at all that WP was about to have trouble recovering the remaining funds.

WP is legally permitted to discuss details of the resolution of the dispute only under very specific circumstances. WP may make additional disclosures outside of this post to individual backers in accordance with legal obligations.

Following resolution of the GC contract, in Spring 2015 the WP NYC studio was running at full capacity on Hiveswap. The main problem was the fact that WP management was blindsided by the revelation that much less money would be coming back than expected. The WP NYC project manager had designed the schedule based on the good faith presumption that most of the development funds would be recouped. When it was finally revealed the return was far short of what was expected, and the repayment plan could in no way keep up with the schedule as currently drafted, it threw the project into a period of chaos as plans were quickly redrawn. The length of Act 1 was slashed, and other modifications were made to try to fit the rest of Act 1 into the newly shortened runway. But in the end, the revisions still weren't enough to save the game as it existed, and the studio needed to be closed in order to reserve what funds remained to finish the project in some form.

This may have come across as a sudden or spontaneous decision. Part of this is because the WP NYC senior staff and WP ownership were doing everything in their power to save the project, including injecting WP regular operating funds into the project, until it was determined that going any further would be disastrous for the future of Hiveswap. Another is that WP was legally unable to give any detailed disclosures about the financial troubles, even to many of the WP NYC staff.

It should also be noted that originally the NYC studio was not going to be permanently closed, but only frozen for a reassessment of the project. But during this freeze period, there were some dramatic events. One staff member behaved in a destructive and threatening manner. For the protection of those involved, details shouldn't be disclosed. But these events made navigating the post-freeze issues impossible. Communication between ownership, management and staff broke down because of these events, and the freeze turned into full closure. This version of the project was then abandoned for many reasons, including these events.

Some misinformation claims that at the time the WP NYC studio was shuttered, its iterations of Act 1 and 2 were complete. This is wrong. Act 1 was very far from a shippable state and absolutely no work on Act 2 had been completed besides some concept and 3D art. Here you can see a video documenting one of many major bugs with critical path progression in the final build produced by WP NYC, where it becomes impossible to re-focus on the Simon Says toy if Joey fails and then exits out of the puzzle:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M2mmkMx8Wkwp1VU_5IpMKDvngmUFS0IG/view?usp=sharing

At the point the WP NYC studio was frozen it was still difficult to finish a full run of the critical path without the debug tool, and the UI was far from complete. With that build, Act 1 ended the moment Joey passed through the portal on Earth. The current version of Act 1, where Joey makes it to Alternia and meets Xefros, is more indicative of the original length of the NYC version of Act 1. Not only did it need to be slashed from what the original script proposed, the NYC version of Act 1 still wasn't that close to resembling a shippable product after those changes were made.

Because of the amount of time and resources already devoted to this project, WP was initially very reluctant to lay anyone off or scrap the work being done. It was for this reason that the studio stayed open for months after the contract with GC was resolved; WP made every effort to deliver a game with that team, but at the time WP NYC was shuttered, the funds just weren't there to keep the studio running at its current burn rate and schedule slips. The game was never going to reach delivery with the funds available. The studio urgently needed to be frozen for a full reassessment, and then it was closed after the freeze due to the reasons stated above. This was the only course of action that could have saved the project.

To WP's knowledge every artist whose work was used in the final release of Act 1 was included in the credits. The final version of Act 1 was in large part built off concept art and storyboards drawn during the WP NYC era, and many of the artists who made them continued to work on the team that produced the final version of Act 1; the roadmap for the completion of Act 1 was specifically planned because WP had determined that the existing 2D concepts could easily be refined into a final product that would both be visually appealing and more economic to produce. Unfortunately due to the transition to 2D WP no longer had a place for the 3D artists or the original 3D engine, and all of those assets were dropped. They were not used as a basis for the finished assets in Act 1, and visual similarities to WP NYC 3D assets are due to the fact that final Act 1 assets are in large part refinements of the original concept art. Any artist whose work was used incidentally was included in Additional Contributions.

Both the GC and NYC phases of Hiveswap were setbacks to the overall fulfillment of the project, but not insurmountable. WP reorganized the budget to establish a new version of the studio, and Act 1 was released two years after the closure of NYC.

As an addendum, WP has identified the primary source of a disclosure to a well-circulated document of the Hiveswap development process. WP has been aware of a pattern of false claims this former employee has made since the end of their employment at the beginning of 2014. As this individual was not present during the end of the development contract with GC, nor the WP NYC development period, all of the information they have shared is based on speculation and conjecture.

At this time, WP does not wish to invite more controversy into the lives of anyone previously involved with this project, and considers these matters to have been resolved long ago. The goal for years has been to turn the page on flawed attempts by earlier studios, and simply move forward and bring Hiveswap to completion without sparking the chaos, disruption, and threats to personal safety that would have resulted from disclosing many of the details stated above. Doing so would only make it more difficult for the staff to rebuild the project during these periods immediately following the termination of the GC agreement and closure of the NYC studio. Since preservation of the project was the primary responsibility to the backers, making destructive disclosures that put the project at risk along the way would have been at odds with that responsibility. This policy also served to protect individuals from personal or professional harm, including those who were responsible for serious setbacks with the project. Please respect the privacy of any persons affiliated with GC and WP NYC.

[bergdg]

Strixhaven Students: Prismari

In this five-part series, I’ll be creating a brand new Dungeons and Dragons character who would call one of the colleges of Strixhaven home. Each character will be built using content released in either published books or in Unearthed Arcana (UA) documents, such as the recently released Mages of Strixhaven UA.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Fizzik Mythstone, Inspired Loremaster.

Art by ArtDeepMind - Link

From his earliest memories, Fizzik Mythstone seemed destined to join the family ranks in attending Strixhaven and being a student of Lorehold: there were many famous artificers amongst his relatives, including his uncle Hofri Ghostforge. As part of the family business, Fizzik's father trained young Hofri in the mystical arts of artifact restoration.

However, Hofri dreamed of what life could be beyond his family's plans, for Hofri had a love of the performing arts. As they worked in the family forge, Fizzik’s father would tell him the stories of the ancient weapons they worked on and the heroes who had wielded them. Hofri absorbed these tales, imagining how they could be adapted and performed. Eventually, he acted on his creative impulses and began to turn those stories into plays. And as he dreamt of larger stories, he began to learn different forms of magic to augment his productions.

When the time came to attend Strixhaven, he took his various skills and made a name for himself within his first year. Using the grand library of the Biblioplex, he even developed new methods of artifice that could be used for the stage. He eventually drew the attention of the two Prismari Deans, who offered him a place in their college.

Starting Stats (using the Standard Array)

Strength: 14

Dexterity: 13

Constitution: 8

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 10

Charisma: 12

Fizzik’s primary skills are his intelligence and ability to apply research that he has uncovered. He was trained from an early age to be an artificer, so spent a lot of time lifting heavy weights around the shop and then deftly moving between the various shelves. This ability came in handy when he started to work behind the scenes in various stage productions.

Race: Hill Dwarf

Fizzik comes from a long line of dwarves. When it came to looking at which sub-race to choose, I eventually settled on being a Hill Dwarf, as the Mountain Dwarf build felt like a more martial character; as Fizzik will show you, his skills lay in an arena different from the battlefield. The nice part about the dwarf race is that you get a +2 to Constitution, which helps to even out his “dump” stat.

Proficiency: Mason's Tools

Background: Entertainer

Throughout his youth, Fizzik's greatest joy came as he recreated tales of history for audiences. And while he was decent enough at acting the parts, he found greater value in the arts surrounding the theater: script writing, set and costume design, and directing. This was much to his parents' disgruntlement, unfortunately, as they (especially his father) felt that this pursuit was frivolous.

Proficiencies: Acrobatics, Performance, Disguise Kit, and Lute

Level 1: Artificer (Level 1)

Fizzik was trained by his father from a young age in the family business: artifact restoration. In his workshop, they examined ancient weapons, finely glazed pottery, and old books with brittle pages. As they worked, Fizzik learned about the spells and enchantments that wizards from eras past would place on them. And although he found the work a bit tedious, hearing the tales of history from his father as they worked sparked his imagination.

While Fizzik began his journey as an artificer, he eventually multiclasses so that he can pick up the Mage of Prismari subclass, which isn't offered to the artificer in this UA. In order to differentiate the types of magic learned between them, Fizzik specializes in different types of spells depending on his class. As an Artificier, these are Transmutation spells.

Starting Class Proficiencies: Arcana, History, Carpenter's Tools

Spells:

Cantrips: Mending, Prestidigitation

Leveled Spells: Catapult, Feather Fall

Level 2: Wizard (Level 1)

In his spare time, Fizzik would develop plays based on the stories he had heard about ancient heroes and the artifacts they wielded. He held his productions at a community center where the elderly dwarves would congregate after they retired. And while his productions were decent, he had dreams about making them grander.

One day while looking through some ancient histories, he came across a leather-bound tome, The Magiks of Theatre. Sneaking the book away into his private collection, he spent any free moment poring over its pages. He quickly mastered all sorts of new spells and began to implement them into his storytelling productions.

As mentioned before, in order to differentiate the types of magic learned between them, Fizzik specializes in different types of spells depending on his class. As a Wizard, these are Evocation and Illusion spells.

Spells:

Cantrips: Dancing Lights, Firebolt, Ray of Frost

Spellbook Spells: Burning Hands, Color Spray, Disguise Self, Silent Image, Thunderwave

Level 3: Artificer (Level 2)

Eventually, the fateful day came, as it had for many generations of his family: he was accepted to attend Strixhaven University. With one final, "Don't forget that Lorehold is in your blood," from his father, he was out of the house and feeling more free than he had ever been.

He loved most everything about this new experience; he even enjoyed the Basics of Archeology class his father had insisted on him taking, due to an exceptionally engaging Kor professor. But most of all, he loved discovering the countless mysteries held within the Biblioplex.

There, he uncovered some ancient texts from places of which he had never heard, such as the Undercity of Ravnica. He learned about some secret arts, in which various magic inks that could contain certain spells. These spells could then be cast by those on whom the ink was painted or tattooed (depending on the ink's properties), regardless of their own spellcasting abilities (or even lack thereof). He immediately saw how this could augment some ideas he had for some theater productions. After months of experimentation, he was able to replicate them via artificer infusions, a skill he had learned from his father.

Infusions:

Enhanced Arcane Focus

Replicate Magic Item - Masquerade Tattoo

Replicate Magic Item - Moodmark Paint

Replicate Magic Item - Spellwrought Tattoo, 1st Level

Spells:

Leveled Spells: Expeditious Retreat

Level 4: Wizard (Level 2)

Using his ink techniques and his knowledge from The Magiks of Theatre, Fizzik began to produce some plays starring his friends and other fellow first-year students. Word soon spread, eventually coming to the attention of Deans Uvilda and Nassari of Prismari.

After one especially rousing retelling of The Saga of Hafwyt the Curious, the two Deans approached Fizzik after the show. They congratulated the Dwarf for his retelling. Dean Uvilda commented on the brilliant use of his magic ink to create Illusory costumes, while Dean Nassari gushed over the various spells used to create lighting and sound effects. And together, they extended the invitation to join their college.

It was what Fizzik had dreamt of for a long time, as several of his friends he had made also belonged in Prismari. But he was hestitant to do so, kept back by his family's expectation for Lorehold.

One day, his famed Uncle Hofri came to give a guest lecture on artifact restoration for Fizzik's archeology class. Hofri managed to grab Fizzik as class ended, requesting they grab a bite to eat together to catch up. During that time, Hofri noticed something about his nephew. With a gentleness Fizzik didn't expect, Hofri gave him the space to open up about the Prismari offer. After a moment passed, Hofri said the following:

"You know, everyone's path to greatness is their own. If everyone trod the same path as everyone else, we would never have amazing stories to tell. Tell you what; I'll worry about uncovering history, and you be the best storyteller you can be so that everyone else can hear about it and discover it themselves."

That statement of support meant everything to Fizzik, and he accepted the offer from the Prismari Deans later that day.

Subclass: Mage of Prismari

Creative Skills: Two additional skill proficiencies

Athletics and Nature

Kinetic Artistry: You can dash as a bonus action. When you do, you can do one of the following: Boreal Sweep, Scorching Whirl, or Thunderlight Jaunt

Spells:

Spellbook Spells: Illusory Script, Magic Missile

Level 5: Wizard (Level 3)

Fizzik's knowledge of the theater grew leaps and bounds as a student in his new college. He began to adapt more intricate stories of legends past, and his productions moved to the large Prismari stages. Soon, crowds from Strixhaven and across Arcavios were in attendance of his shows. Even his uncle Hofri came periodically, especially if Fizzik had adapted a dwarven myth to the stage. But his parents never seemed to have the time to attend; there was always too much work to be done in the shops at home.

Spells:

Spellbook Spells: Blur, Continual Flame

Concept Art for Prismari Campus

After level five, I see Fizzik continuing to progress as a wizard, which has stronger ties to his time as a Prismari student. If I were to advance Fizzik in levels of Artificer, I would most likely pick Battle Smith as his class, with the Steel Defender being his primary stage hand for his many shows. I also see a time when he eventually reconciles with his family, especially since he has support from his uncle, the legendary Hofri Ghostforge.

Now, I will turn it over to you. If you were to play a character from Prismari College, what type of character would you build?

Next, we’ll be meeting a character from Silverquill.

Getting the word out: @flavoracle @kor-artificer @askkrenko @vorthosjay @wizardsmagic

[howdy-folks-its-showtime]

It's Showtime! - June 2024 Devlog

Howdy! Cobalt here, for another devlog over It's Showtime. This month was actually really swell, especially since I got more of my adhd meds recently. So I should be getting way more done in the coming months, yippee!

Programming wise, not a lot was done this month I've mostly spent it changing a few things about the way the map is built. Particularly I'm gonna need to rebuild most of the first floor. However in the long run it should be for the better, for stuff like performance and making it easier to add more to it. I also just needed a break after all I did last month. I have created things like the base for the main menu, a proper testing room and a lot of coding for the cut scene system though!

Writing wise, a ton of progress was made. Most of the major writing for Chapter 1 is done! Or at least on a great first draft. So very soon Chapter 1 will be done writing wise. [For the record currently the in depth writing for Chapter 1 is 7,122 words long] Chapter 2 also had a significant amount of its in depth writing done, almost all of the 'intro' is written out but obviously I'm trying to focus more on Chapter 1 right now. Speaking of the other chapters and such. Chapter 2's summary is almost done, with some things just needing some elaborating or bridging with other parts of it. Chapter 3 has 3 thousand words written in its summary currently, so a lot of what goes on in that chapter has been written out. I recently had a ton of revelations about what is going to happen in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 has also had a lot added to its summary. Sadly, writing wise, I simply cannot reveal much more without getting into spoilers.

I've also been learning Blender a lot lately. I'm working on a few models, none of them for It's Showtime quite yet. [well besides the walls and floors for the first floor] However soon I'm gonna be trying to make Henry's first model and animations for the game. Probably won't be the final one used for the project, or even the one you'll see upon chapter 1's release, but we'll see. Sadly, a lot of this process is simply tutorials and looking things up, then double checking those things to make sure they can be used in Unity, aren't performance heavy and will work with the systems I've already got in place. Art wise, me and my partner have gotten a lot of fun concept art done.

We've also started a sketchbook purely for Encore! related drawings. We've got so much fun stuff to show you guys when more is done, but for now, I'd love to show off a proper look at Henry's design.

Here we have Henry's reference, specifically for his in-game appearance.

The sketchy reference made for modeling him out. Yes, he is tastefully nude in this appearance. That's just the way it has to be.

Then finally a rough run cycle I animated to show off his character and as practice for when the proper 3D gets made. I'm really proud of how this came out and I hope it gives you guys a good idea for what to expect from him character-wise. As always, feel free to ask any questions about this project and its story if you'd like. I'll do my best to answer them without giving too much away! See you next month!

[ilyuobts]

I'm With You

concept: short story

genre: fluff / slight angst

characters: jeon jungkook & original character (fem)

words: 1.5k

synopsis: a struggling 4th-year college girl that majors in interior designing breaks down in the middle of park at night. it happens so often that the boy can't help but /finally/ take a step into a life-changing moment.

a/n: im over here acting like i'll post this on tumblr but no not really, lol. okay nevermind i'm gonna post it :)

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I'm standing on a bridge

Waiting in the dark,

I thought that you'll be here by now.

You looked up at the dark hue of the sky, with sparkling gems. It was everywhere. wherever you look there's always a star – You're referring to those who expect a lot from you. They aren't many, but the fact that they expect and demand such things from you chains your wrists and ankles onto them. You felt different.

People appreciate stars like they were rainbows and butterflies, but you think of its tears. Crystal tears. It wasn't raining, but you were used to keeping your tears up to your waterline. It hurts not to let it out, but it will just show how /totally/ weak you are in the midst of your semester. It was perhaps, hopeless.

There's nothing but the rain.

No footsteps on the ground.

I'm listening but there's no sound.

The air was cooling. It was chilly and it's in a good chilly. It was frightening. You inhale the pressure and self-problems that you are currently facing and try to exhale it. But every time you do, it doesn't work because it feels like you're inhaling it again as the struggles float in that cool air.

Your hands curled up in fists, your shoulders stiff and your breath rigged. You blinked your eyes too many times that the tears gave up holding on. You whimpered softly - your voice releasing. And slowly, those whimpers multiplied. The tears morphed into waterfalls. Your body slowly letting go. But you resisted it. You didn't want to feel even more weak, even while crying softly.

Isn't anyone trying to find me?

Won't somebody come take me home?

It's a damn cold night.

Trying to figure out this life.

The only thing that your tattered soul is holding onto is you. You depended on yourself. You thought you'd make it through storms like this, alone. You thought it was the epitome of maturity - that if you didn't need any help and that you felt secure of yourself you wouldn't be having second thoughts of finding someone. But maybe this time you were going to be corrected.

Maybe this time you'll be fully guided. Maybe, this time you'll be helped. It was so obvious to you that you're on the peak of stopping life. To loathe in the thoughts of... Those stars. It was hard - wanting to take a break to recover. But in exchange, they'll be expecting more of you. And you thought about it. You have to hold on, even on the most fragile branch.

Won't you take me by the hand,

Take me somewhere new?

I don't know who you are,

But I'm with you.

"Y/N?" A soft voice slowly spoke to you. It was behind you as if he knew you needed someone to hold your back. To push you forward. You knew it was a guy, but little did you that he will be the one you'd be able to depend on, and not on yourself anymore. Your mind was brought back to reality after your name rolled off his tongue. You wiped your tears with the arm of your hoodie and tried to balance your breathing.

You fixed your sling bag with your school supplies and slowly turned around to the person that has seen your vulnerability. "Oh, Jungkook." You responded quietly. Out of all of your colleagues, it was Jungkook. The two of you weren't really close. But for some reason, you felt something when you see him. A connection? Hope? Whatever it is, you felt good when you're with him.

I'm looking for a place,

I'm searching for a face,

Is anybody here I know?

"What's wrong?" The typical question, of course. Even if you knew that a person will ask that, nobody really has the balls to ask you. So it didn't really matter if they ask the obvious, you're just thankful somebody cared. "I'm... At the lowest point of my life right now." You answered softly as you looked down on the pavement. The atmosphere awkward was to you, but it soon changed when Jungkook asked again. "Wanna take a break? Come here, take a sit with me."

Jungkook said holding your wrist - which gave butterflies to you. You wondered, when did your heart skip a beat? You can't remember. You might've never even experienced it. Maybe now. He pulled you along with him to a bench near a light post. You sighed. You're hoping that you'll be able to take a break. You're holding on that little hope that Jungkook will be the one to hold you close. Even just for a while, even just for tonight. Just once.

'Cause nothing's going right,

And everything's a mess,

And no one likes to be alone.

"It's okay if you can't say it now. Maybe later, but don't hide it forever. Not until it becomes worse." Jungkook softly said as he caresses your hand. It was a small affection, but it had an impact on you. And you didn't know why. "I have not enough budget to pay for my rent. Yes, I haven't found a house to live on my own. A house of my own. And this semester isn't really going well for me."

You carefully said as your breath becomes rigged again, but you knew to let it out was healthier - because Jungkook was here. "My peers and my family expects a lot from me. You know, a tradition." You continued. He wraps an arm around you and rubs your back in circles, comforting you to the best that he can. He listened without words, and you highly appreciated that for what you need is someone to listen. And not to demand.

Why is everything so confusing?

Maybe I'm just out of my mind?

Moments after letting out fragments of what disturbs you, you felt better, to say the least. It wasn't euphoric, but it did felt better for you to be able to share what's bothering you. Yes, it's a little odd to share it with the person you don't hang out with - you didn't really hang out with anyone. But then again, it felt as if Jungkook was your soulmate. You never know. You calmed down, your whimpers quieted and your breathing became normal.

"Look, there are days in which we all feel like this. We feel terrified, we feel sad, we feel hopeless, whatever despair that we feel. It's in us." Jungkook carefully said, being cautious with his words. "It'll always happen. But you have to know that it won't last long if you find help. You can't build a house in a day, you also need someone. Don't let your pride take over you. If you think you can't do it, let it go. Cry it out not because you are weak, but because you have been strong for too long, Y/N."

It's a damn cold night.

Tryna' figure out this life.

His words were like the calming breeze over summer air. His gaze is the star that you've been looking for. His warmth is the fire that you've been needing. From the bottom of your heart, you knew it was him. You smiled softly. "Thank you." You were searching for someone to shed some light above you. Someone to get you through every night. A person who could be your inspiration. It was Jungkook. You never met often, but those little run-into-you-conversations was worth it.

Even though every talk gave little information about each other, you knew it was enough. "Because you knew how I feel. I couldn't thank you more." You continued, tears filling up your waterline again. And this time, your tears finally found a new purpose. A purpose of hope and joy. He smiled back and hugged you, ignoring the fact that both of you weren't really close to each other. All he knew is that you needed a hug, and you needed it right now.

Take me by the hand,

Take me somewhere new.

I don't know who you are,

Releasing from the hug, both of you smiled. You kissed his cheek. Saying that you're great was an understatement. You are euphoric. Both of you ate at a restaurant after your graduation. You're officially a licensed interior designer and Jungkook, - a licensed photographer. Both of you pretty much overcome the struggles of finishing college. With all these expectations and demands, you two overcame them and resolved problems that come in between the two of you. You were a lot more thankful than what you said a few months ago when you first officially met him at the park.

The conversation from before sparked both of you and you were more than happy to be in love with Jungkook. "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't think I'll be able to get this career." You said. "Our jobs need the inspiration to be able to make our own. It just so happen that both of us became our own inspiration." Jungkook said slyly as you playfully punched his shoulder. "Thank you, Kook." Forever you'll be to him. "Always, Y/N. I'm with you."