#;;muse aesthetic: howard (crossings)

[malusrecord]

@coolrpblog

Jack Whitten, Black in Time. 1980.

[alexandriteobscuraarchive]

[starrystarker]

bad guy

starker highschool au, manipulation, dark!peter, minor age difference (not starker), implied cheating (also not starker)

**pov changes frequently, indicated by line changes**

***lyrics are bolded italics because dialogue is italic***

white shirt now red my bloody nose sleeping you’re on your tippy toes creeping around like no one knows think you’re so criminal

the first time anthony edward stark met peter benjamin parker, they were at a party. a prestigious party at that, because among the people attending was tony stark, tech prodigy, and peter parker, famous internet model. tony stark, with a penchant for pretty things. takes said pretty things home for the night. wipes his ass with dollar bills. sleeps with the teachers. no one knows what he was like before this. peter parker, with an obsession with blood. paints his nails black and purple. jawline sharp enough to cut diamonds. has a nosebleed every other day. no one knows what he was like before this. rumours say that the model has a dark past. but who can look past that face of an angel ?

bruises on both my knees for you don’t say thank you no please i do what i want when i’m wanting to my soul so cynical

in the midst of the organized chaos that is a high school party, tony stark spotted peter parker. he grabbed a drink from the bar, a cherry coke, and slid up behind the model. want a drink ? tony had asked, his free arm circling around peter’s waist. the corners of his mouth lifted up in a small smile. why yes, thank you, peter had replied, taking the cup from tony’s hand. he watched closely as peter took a sip of the drink. i didn’t put anything in it, don’t worry, tony had chuckled, seeing peter stare into the cup, expressionless. peter had smiled.  i know. tony laughed. how did you know ? peter had cocked his head slightly. because i’ve been watching you. tony stops. wait, but—want to get out of here ? peter whispered beside tony’s ear. tony had nodded once, and peter had taken him to a room upstairs. the hickeys on peter’s neck and bruises seen through his ripped jeans were talked about for weeks.

so you’re a tough guy like it really rough guy just can’t get enough guy chest always so puffed guy i’m the bad type make your momma sad type make your girlfriend mad type might seduce your dad type

calling: peter parker hey. can’t come to the phone right now. leave a message and— beep. tony hangs up. ding! incoming message from: peter parker. what do you want ? i really enjoyed last night. think we could make it a regular thing ? sorry. got places to be, people to do. ouch. just facts. it’s alright. you’ll come to the realization that i’m the best you’ll ever get. i wouldn’t count on that, stark. sooner or later it’ll happen. peter parker: read

who are you texting ? harry asks, unzipping his jeans. peter smiles reassuringly. no one important.

i’m the bad guy (duh)

bzzzt. bzzzt. incoming call from: stark hngg, fuck, yes, peter, oh fuck yes— right there— unh, unh, unh— shit, pete someone’s— ungh— calling you— the squeaks of the bed don’t do much to cover the sound of peter’s phone buzzing. ignore it, fuck, you look so good like this, you’re loose and dripping like a fucking girl— fuck yeah, your pussy can take all of it, can’t you ? god, harry, you’re such a fucking whore, such a slut for it, just begging for it, aren’t you— yeah, you’re just my own personal cumdump— beep! fuck— fuck! did that record as voicemail ? harry asks frantically, panting from their activities. no. don’t worry about it. how are you still talking ? am i not fucking you hard enough ? you want more, huh, harry ? does your hungry boypussy want more ? answer me, you fucking slut—

god, harry, you’re such a fucking whore, such a slut for it, just begging for it, aren’t you— yeah, you’re just my own personal cumdump— beep!

was that harry osborn ? tony thinks. harry osborn ? why’s parker fucking that wimp ? fuck. what do i need to do for him to—

i like it when you take control even if you know that you don’t own me i’ll let you play the role i’ll be your animal

damn, parker, you get better every time. harry groans when peter pulls out, cum dripping out of his ass. peter smirks. don’t i know it. yanking peter’s shirt, harry pulls him in for a kiss. same time next week ? harry asks. peter smiles. you betcha.

as soon as peter is outside, the notifications start coming in. i’ll play your game, stark, peter thinks. and sure enough. incoming call from: stark

hey. can’t come to the phone right now. leave a message and i’ll see if i wanna get back to you. bye.

tony huffs. how is one boy this infuriating--?

incoming text from: stark. was that harry osborn just now ? who ? harry osborn. son of norman osborn, who is the ceo of oscorp ? dunno. why do you ask ? why him ? why not ? come over. i’ll show you a good fuck. ten minutes ? k.

my mommy likes to sing along with me but she won’t sing along if she reads all the lyrics she’ll pity the man i know

peter’s uber was slow. whatever. stark can wait if he’s so depserate. incoming call from: aunty mayyy hi peter! how are you ? i’m great, may. how ‘bout you ? just fine, just fine. what are you up to ? just going to see a friend. ooh. what kind of friend ? a friend. with benefits. and before you say it, yes, i’m being safe, thank you for asking. peter. c’mon, may. i’m being safe and i can’t get pregnant. you can’t ask for more. i know, i know. try not to break too many hearts though, okay ? will do. love you. bye. love you too. beep!

so you’re a tough guy like it really rough guy just can’t get enough guy chest always so puffed guy i’m the bad type make your momma sad type make your girlfriend mad type might seduce your dad type

ding dong! tony opens the door. looks peter up and down. looking good, parker, tony smirks. peter stares back at him. thanks. can i come in ? he deadpans. of course, tony replies, stepping aside to let peter in. so this is the infamous peter parker. i’m tony’s father. call me howard. peter smiles. very nice to meet you, howard. tony follows peter’s gaze, from howard’s broad shoulders to the slight bulge in the crotch of his slacks. the pleasure is all mine, peter. howard replies, seemingly polite. right. peter. let’s go upstairs. tony says impatiently. just then, maria stark walks out from the kitchen area. i’d like to speak with you alone for a minute, anthony, please, if that is alright with you. tony sighs. i’ll take peter into the living room, then, maria, howard says, ushering peter into the living room area.

maria crosses her arms and leans on the countertop. peter parker ? really, anthony ? i hope you’re not serious about this one because he is trouble. i really like him, mother. tony says. maria smiles sadly. if you’re sure. but—

so what are your hobbies, peter ? howard asks, hand on peter’s knee. i enjoy photography. and yoga. peter smiles politely. you must be very flexible, then, howard inquires, leaning into peter. peter looks away bashfully. i guess. do you also like photography, sir ? do call me howard. and yes, i do enjoy photography, especially nude photography. i find it particularly aesthetically soothing. howard says smoothly. perhaps i could be a model sometime. do some yoga poses, peter says softly, looking up at howard under fluttering eyelashes. hears the older man swallow. yes. perhaps something like child’s pose or the bridge pose, howard muses, voice dropping lower. huskier. peter wills himself to blush. i’m glad to help, sir.

incoming call from: pepper. what’s this that i hear about you and peter parker, tony ? it’s nothing, pep. we’re just friends. friends my ass. are you two fucking right now ? n— you know what ? fuck you, stark. beep!

i’m the bad guy (duh) i’m the bad guy (duh)

but what, mother ? stop making my decisions for me! i’m an adult now and— you listen to me, anthony! or— or what ? what are you gonna do ?

mm, peter. you have such a pretty neck. has anyone ever told you that ? i’d take you better than my son ever could. i’d take you like a good slut.

this is the fifth time tony’s done this! i’m fucking done with his lying piece of shit ass.

i don’t want you talking to him! he’s a bad influence!

you’d be able to use me as your cocksleeve. keep me under your school desk.

stop trying to contol my life!

i hate him!

i like when you get mad i guess i’m pretty glad that you’re alone you say she’s scared of me ? well i don’t see what she sees but maybe it’s cause i’m wearing your cologne

what were you doing in there with my dad ? nothing. we were just talking about photography. what ? you don’t even like photography. i guess you don’t know me that well then. who called you just now ? pepper. she’s mad because there are rumours about me and you. i mean. she has the right to be mad. what ? after all, i’m the one who fucking owns you.

i’m the bad guy i’m the bad guy

duh, peter thinks.

**

edit: i wrote this while crying at 4am; i think there's a good concept behind it but this format is terrible, forgive me

[ausaplenty]

Toy soldier

Kiara Scuro. Alexa Myers. Howard Stark. Gilbert Mead. Captain America AU.

Kiara fidgeted in her costume under Alexa’s scrutiny. The brunette’s brow furrowed as a scowl spread across her face.

“What,” she hissed, “is that?”

“It’s my costume. You saw it in Azzano,” the captain explained, feeling even more ridiculous than she had the first few times she’d stood on stage.

She felt like a stupid pin-up girl, waiting for the soldiers to throw tomatoes at her.

“You wore it on stage. I didn’t think they’d be idiotic enough to send you into war in it,” Lexie snapped as she crossed her arms.

Kiara patted her chest. “It’s reinforced with something to make it harder for the bullets to go through.”

“Oh good. So they put that damned target there deliberately.”

The blonde glanced down at the red star splayed across the bright blue hue of her uniform.

“Well, if I can survive a bullet better than you and the others, why shouldn’t they aim at me?” Kiara shrugged.

Alexa’s face darkened.

“We’re going to see Stark,” she announced as she turned on her heel and stalked out of the room Kiara had been assigned. The blonde followed, caught in awe.

Lexie was rarely the one going to pick fights. She went in Kiara’s wake, waiting to see where she could intervene. The times where their roles were reversed were few.

“Stark!” The telepath called, striding through the rows of supplies and weapons.

There was a clang, a quiet curse, and Stark appeared, his sleeves pushed past his elbows. “I’m busy!”

“Not at this moment,” Alexa informed him tersely. She gestured to the suit, to Kiara trailing behind her. “Did you have a say in this?”

“Just with making sure she wouldn’t turn into a colander during her first fire fight,” he told her as he leaned against a work table. Kiara rolled her eyes at the way Stark’s gaze assessed her best friend. No doubt he was imagining her as one of his models.

“And how often do you intend to replace it? Because She is sure as hell going to piss off a lot of Nazi.”

Kiara opened her mouth to argue, but Lexie silenced her with a look.

“They’re sending us to remote locations, are you going to tag along with replacements? You don’t seem the type to go traipsing behind enemy lines,” the telepath continued. “A Hydra sniper is going to take one look at her and start shooting till she falls down.”

She stepped closer, her voice low. “How will you find your answers if the experiment is gone?”

Kiara didn’t think she was meant to hear. She wouldn’t have used to, when fevers had dampened her ability.

Alexa glanced back at her, her face softening.

The blonde wasn’t offended. After the Vita Ray, she’d gotten used to being seen as government property. A way to raise money. A way to unlock the secrets of the serum.

Croft and Lexie were the only people who say her as something more.

“What if we changed it slightly – nothing major, just darken it and change the star,” Kiara suggested, tired of being ignored.

“And less red,” Alexa added, her eyes a little dark. “I need to be able to tell when she’s bleeding.”

“Colonel Phillips won’t like it,” Stark mused, sounding vaguely intrigued by the idea. “I haven’t seen him riled up since Cap marched hundreds of soldiers back into camp.”

The man had turned an awful shade of red. Kiara had seen him in a tizzy since then, but Stark hadn’t been there – Kiara had a way of pissing the colonel off that Lexie said was authority figure’s innate response to the blonde.

“Fine, I’ll do it. Just give me some time to figure somethings out,” the inventor relented. “Anything I should know so you don’t come barging into my workshop again?”

“I just want a hood,” Kiara stated.

“How reinforced can you make this thing? Because Kiara gets into a lot of fights,” Alexa pressed, arching her brow.

When they left, Alexa satisfied that Stark had understood her, the brunette knocked her shoulder against Kiara. “Don’t do that again.”

The blonde frowned. “What’d I do?”

“You’re not property. You’re not America’s toy soldier, easily disposable. You’re Kiara,” Alexa chastised. “There’s enough people trying to kill you out here, don’t let Uncle Sam be one of them.”

~*~

“Captain?”

Kiara braced herself as she turned toward the voice. “Yes?”

“My name is Agent Gilbert Mead, Director Morpheus sent me to escort you and get you geared up,” the freckled man with a mop of blond hair explained. “Make sure the new uniform fits.”

“New?” Kiara’s skin prickled at the thought. She’d seen Iron Man in his flashy suit.

Mead seemed to notice. “Nothing drastic. Just aesthetic changes and security enhancement – Make it so it can withstand a stronger beating.”

He gestured for her to follow him through the halls lined with florescent lights.

Kiara tugged her hood lower as she obeyed.

“Do I seem like I get into a lot of fights, Agent?” the super soldier said wryly.

“With all due respect, ma’am – I idolized Captain America and the Howling Commandos when I was growing up, and I’m something of a collector,” her escort informed her with a small smile.

Kiara froze. “I hear they had trading cards.”

“I have the entire collection and several duplicates of Alexa Myers. She was my favorite,” he explained.

She smiled sadly.

“But that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying I did my research. All the Howling Commandos reports, post-war interviews. I even got the chance to hear Dum Dum Dugan speak while I was in high school.” Agent Mead’s warm brown eyes twinkled. “He called you a holy terror for the U.S. Army. Talked about the early days in England, when he got a week of cigarette rations because of a bet.”

“Did he mention he’d lost a pack two weeks earlier?” To Lexie. Who took perverse delight in never smoking them. Just kept them sitting in her pocket, taunting Dum Dum. She’d called a lesson, to never bet against Kiara.

“He did not,” he laughed as he opened a door with a code. “This room has been designated for you specifically, because of your needs.”

Kiara stared at the suit, gently backlit so the navy blue uniform stood out. It wasn’t as bulky as her old one had been, and the stripes around her abdomen were missing. She pressed her hand against the white star, flanked by two horizontal lines on either side.

“For a while, we were in possession of Howard Stark’s notes and research. I found reference to an incident where Alexa and you apparently disturbed him enough that he took very detailed references to what Alexa didn’t want in a uniform.” Mead tapped the uniform with his knuckles. “I wouldn’t want to go against her wishes.”

The captain sucked in a breath.

“Thank you,” she murmured.

The agent smiled. “The suit can be changed after the mission, if you’d like. I can show you my collection and you can tell me about Alexa.”

“I’d like that,” Kiara told him.

Later, Kiara stared at the bloodied cards Director Morpheus tossed in front of her – Alexa Myers’s haunted figure stained crimson.

“Agent Mead had these with him. I guess he wanted to show them to you,” the one-eyed man told her.

Kiara didn’t change the suit.

~*~

Kiara curled against Alexa, their fingers entwined.

“I’m tired,” the super soldier murmured, her eyes meeting Alexa’s.

“I know.”

Of course Lexie knew. She knew everything, quietly lending strength to the blonde.

“Ryan said you’d retired during the Snap,” Alexa said with a pointed glance. “I think he knows better.”

“Captain America retired, except for major crises,” the blonde explained, closing her eyes. “I traveled around after Thor killed Thanos, making sure people weren’t being preyed on. I tried therapy, organizing a support group, moving on –“

Alexa snorted. “As somebody who spent a few years running from you, I don’t imagine that went well.”

“I’m going to leave it to Jake.”

The telepath knew she meant more than the therapy. She squeezed Kiara’s hand comfortingly.

“I’m so tired of fighting, Lexie, of being a symbol and not a person,” the blonde whispered, softly crying. “And I can still help, but I don’t want to spend my days waiting for the next fight. I’m tired of wearing the uniform. I’m tired so many things but, most of all, I’m tired of losing you.”

“Kiara.” Lexie brushed the hair away from Kiara’s face and wiped a tear away with the pad of her right thumb. “Nobody will blame you for wanting to be you. You’ve been Captain America for so long or trying to straddle the border, but it’s time to be you.”

She pressed her forehead against the blonde’s. “You can give Jake the shield, we can get away. The world will get used to a new Captain America.”

Modern Design

WW2 Design

Initial Design

[malusrecord]

@coolrpblog

ｅｍｅｒｇｅｎｃｙ░ａｃｔｉｏｎ

[piscesbag21-blog]

Meet EVE Denim’s Timeless Raw Denim Guru: Adélaïde Bourbon

When Adélaïde Bourbon realized that the seventies chic denim she longed for wasn’t easily accessible in stores, she created Eve Denim and made them herself! Paris born, New York raised, and inspired by vintage styles of the ‘60s and ‘70s, Bourbon pursued the rigid denim of her dreams to create each piece for her new line. Vogue’s Rebecca Johnson perfectly describes Eve Denim’s eclectic aesthetic as “a cross between disco chic and cowgirl cool.” We had a chance to talk to Adélaïde and learn more about what makes Eve Denim unique.

Adélaïde taking behind the scenes shots on set in Paris

You created Eve Denim after you felt unfulfilled by the denim that’s available in stores now. What exactly did you feel was missing?

I searched endlessly for the perfect vintage fit (high waisted, in beautiful authentic, rigid denim) like iconic denim did in its heyday. The best I could find were vintage pairs that fell apart after a few washes because they had been worn thin over the years. On top of how long it took to source the perfect fit (hours of digging), the cost for one pair was astronomical!  I thus set out to make my perfect fits– a fusion of silhouettes throughout many decades– that would be made from scratch, withstand the test of time, and become heirloom pieces to lovingly pass down.

Can you share what makes your denim so special?

Hands down, the fit is what sets Eve Denim apart from the rest. I really have perfected the perfect pair by fusing 2-3 vintage pieces into one.

The Charlotte, for example, is based off my favorite white sailor pant from the 70’s. However, I longed for it to be in raw, blue indigo. I had another pair of jeans with an exposed button-down fly, but I wasn’t totally in love with the rest of the pant. I would liken it to cooking… adding dashes of different spices (in this case, different design elements from different pieces) in order to come up with the perfect pair of jeans.

Embracing that denim gets better with time is also what sets Eve Denim apart from other denim brands. We champion denim at all stages– raw, medium wash, super light stone wash– and we carry that sentiment through our muses and cherish them at all ages. We do not believe in expressing a message in fashion as a singular age, as that is so narrow-minded and totally unrealistic. Denim is a practical, everyday fabric rooted in reality, and it is meant to be worn by many, in all stages of life.

How do you think your French-American background has inspired your work?

It has shaped and formed Eve Denim completely. From the French side, I have a sense of cherishing your belongings and passing them down as heirlooms. From the American side, I have a sense of entrepreneurship and the will to create something from scratch if I see the need for it.

What is your go-to daytime look? And favorite accessories?

This summer, you can find me under a straw hat, wearing a white cotton button down tucked into my Eve Denim Charlotte Culotte with Amelie Pichard silk platform espadrilles.

What is your beauty routine and favorite products?

FOR HAIR Klorane Shampoo with Chamomile – This is SO french. The chamomile turns your hair blonde. I don’t know that I really believe it, but it’s one of those things that you just do anyway!

Haitian Black Castor Oil – I discovered this oil at Whole Foods Market. I’m trying to grow my hair out very long, and the tingly sensation of rosemary when I massage it into my roots makes me feel like I am really nourishing my hair, feeding my strands and stimulating growth.

David Mallett Mask No. 2 Le Volume – I have very fine hair that sometimes falls flat, and I love to use this mask to combat this.

FOR FACE

French Girl Organics – Menthe/Romarin Cleansing Wash – I use this cleanser for when I am breaking out.

Rose & Chamomile Cleansing Milk – This cleansing milk from Organic Pharmacy is great for when I am on the dryer side. It is way too rigid to go with only one cleanser, as our PH changes everyday and as we travel through different climates.

Peel Me a Papaya Enzymatic Exfoliant from Simply Divine Botanicals – This powder turns into an exfoliating mask when it comes into contact with water. It gives you a noticeable glow that leaves people asking, “What have you done?!” Extremely satisfying.

Creme Fraiche Facial Moisturizer Neroli/Camomille – This moisturizer from French Girl Organics is great for keeping my skin hydrated throughout the day.

Retexturizing Night Cream – I use this cream from January Labs at night. I also love using her moisturizers in conjunction with her tonic mist for an extra moisturizing boost that locks in moisture.

Ylang Ylang Purifying Night Balm– For a richer moisturizer, I reach for my all time FAVORITE smell of all beauty products from Decleor Aroma. HEAVEN!

FOR BODY

Grown Alchemist Chamomile, Bergamot, & Rosewood body wash and coconut oil to moisturize

As a French in New York, what are your favorite places in the city?

RESTAURANTS

Omen Azen for sushi, Le Botaniste, Indochine, Raoul’s and Russ & Daughters (NYC landmark and Jewish deli that I seriously lust after all the way from LA)

WELLNESS

Flower Power Herbs & Roots, owned and operated by Flower Shaman and wise woman Lata Chettri. It sells a wide array of herbs, roots and essential oils, as well as a small selection of herb books.

The Mask Bar on Howard in SoHo, for all Korean and Japanese face masks! I stock up on hyaluronic acid ones for flights.

Aedes De Venustas for candles and perfume in the West Village. You would be hard-pressed to find a scent they don’t carry… they really have it all.

Kiehl’s Pharmacy – Growing up, I LIVED for coming here to see their wonderful original apothecary wall from 1851 holding all the goodies and samples like a cabinet of wonders. The white coats give you such a sense of the history and pride to the operation.

Pasteur Pharmacy – As a French girl in the US, you long for a French pharmacy, and my mother would take me to this one on Lex between 62nd and 63rd. They have a wide selection of beauty products– hard-to-find European ones– and Mason Pearson hair brushes, which my very non-fussy, no make-up wearing mother couldn’t live without. Her ONE beauty must have.

Source: http://beautyandwellbeing.com/beauty/interview-beauty/eve-denim/

[symbianosgames]

Howard Tsao is the founder and team lead of Muse Games, an independent game studio located in New York City that exclusively uses Unity3D to develop across desktop, mobile, and console platforms. Our projects include Guns of Icarus, a bad publisher and hurricane survivor, a multiple award winner, and a cross-platform top-seller on Steam, as well as it's PvE successor Guns of Icarus Alliance. Lately, we're also raising a kungfu possessed hamster beating up vermin to rid a city high on pollen of crime. In addition to making games, Howard serves as an advisor at the NYU Game Center and helps lead an indie dev and Unity3D user group in NYC.

Matthew Hartman is the marketing manager and community manager of Muse Games. He has been part of the team for over four years since the release of Guns of Icarus Online. He graduated the University of North Texas with a bachelors in Public Relations. 

Putting out fires, facing dark emotionless directors, and conquering ambition. That’s not only the description of Guns of Icarus Alliance, but the path we had to take to get this game out.

Guns of Icarus Alliance was not a project that a development team would ordinarily choose to pursue. It aimed to balance the creation of something new with the preservation and integration of something old. It was a dogmatic pursuit of an artistic and creative vision and the byproduct of persistence, and the fulfillment of a promise to players and community regardless of the cost in time and effort.

Some people said we were foolish dreamers. Some people said we took too much time, and others said we positioned or messaged it all wrong. The one thing nobody could say, though, was that we failed to deliver. 

"We made mistakes, accumulated new knowledge and experiences, and learned a lot."

While cooperative airship combat was something we had been dreaming about for years, Guns of Icarus Alliance was officially born from a Kickstarter campaign. We had already delivered the player-vs-player only Guns of Icarus Online, but we wanted to take our steampunk airship idea even further. We wanted to explore multiculturalism and cultural diversity across an entire steampunk-flavored world, craft unique and intense co-op experiences, create a worldview, and deliver more on diversity of combat experiences against variable and intelligent AI.

The vision and promise of that Kickstarter campaign ended up taking three long years to fulfill. In that span, we built complex AI flight, combat, and tactical models from scratch with no previous experience. We also built a dynamic AI director to ensure that match experiences are never quite the same and that AI enemies dynamically respond to player tactics and actions.

We created a faction warfare metagame that allowed us to dive pretty deeply into different cultural and aesthetics influences across the world from mid-1800s to the eve of the Great War. We created brand new gameplay experiences while figuring out how to support our loyal legacy community through Steam, which went pretty far outside the scope of Steam’s backend and support.

Along the way we made mistakes, accumulated new knowledge and experiences, and learned a lot. Here are the key lessons we learned…

Yes, Guns of Icarus is a co-op game, so listing “cooperation” as something we did right might seem like a bit of a cheap shot. Yet, to actually transition from PvP (player-vs-player) to PvE (player-vs-environment) while maintaining the same level of teamwork for a vastly different playstyle was much harder than we expected.

From the very first word of our design, we knew we wanted a game that didn’t just claim teamwork but embodied it in every aspect of gameplay. The pilot can’t fly if the engines aren’t repaired by the engineers, and the gunners can’t shoot if the pilot hasn’t positioned the airship correctly. We wanted our players to truly be a cohesive crew, sharing in the glory of every kill and win.

In Guns of Icarus Online PvP matches the focus is on smaller engagements, so the tactical teamwork and coordination happens across a maximum of eight ships, with two balanced side fielding two to four ships each.

Guns of Icarus Alliance PvE is very different. Apart from the fact that players are now battling against AI-controlled opponents, the balance is also vastly different. PvE engagements are typically asymmetrical to some degree: many weak craft against a few powerful ones, airborne craft against a heavily-fortified defender on the ground, and so on.

Our goal was to create a sense of epic scope – your plucky crew taking on an entire armada to achieve one of a wide variety of objectives – but at the same time we had to preserve that core experience of hyper-teamwork, where everyone is required to work together. We ended up spending a lot of time running countless sessions of player testing; big and small, closed and open.

"The co-op focus in Guns of Icarus Alliance gave us more freedom to create varying objectives."

The balance oscillated between a small number of tougher enemies vs a greater number of enemies coming from more directions. We iterated the design of the boss many times,  trying to find a level of difficulty that would require coordination between multiple allied ships without being too powerful. Whenever the testers were wiped out, we had to ask ourselves if they had failed to work together adequately or if the challenge really was too high.

Another major change in PvE was tuning the difficulty to accommodate different levels of player mastery, requiring us to not only tune the various enemy combat parameters but the AI director as well. The enemy spawn rate and the trigger for the mission-ending crescendo event had to not only scale with difficulty but also with number of ships and player crew.

The co-op focus in Guns of Icarus Alliance gave us more freedom to create varying objectives, ranging from base defense to convoy pursuit and search-and-destroy. We also had more freedom to create and design more imaginative and wild weaponry, airships, and abilities. In addition to the stock machine guns and rockets, we now had light beams, Tesla coils, and cavitation weapons, and we added abilities that allow pilots to drift, engineers to deploy drones, and gunners to massively buff weapons. All these elements enabled us to craft a different teamwork experience that is more about achieving disparate objectives and giving crews the opportunity to be heroic during well-planned opportunities and openings.

Finally, we were able to support our more casual players by adding support for single ships, providing an entry point for those who aren’t attracted to highly-competitive play.

Between weekly posts on development and three streams a week playing with the community and answering questions, we take great pride on being available for players. This effort has been richly rewarded , with players helping us at conventions, donating computers, helping out with a pretty grueling hardcore testing regime, and even writing 11,000 word dissertations of detailed feedback.

We know many of our best players on a first name basis, and quite a few of them have even dropped by our work space. We often spend so much time obsessing about what can be improved or what we did wrong that the simple joy of sitting down with a passionate gamer and hearing how they love the changes to the war system or their reasons one ship is the favorite help keep us sane.

Our openness and dedication also earned us forgiveness for mistakes. Every process would inevitably hit road bumps because we have different constituencies with varying perspectives, interests, and playstyles. Despite these mishaps, our players learned that we really were listening to them, so they would stay with us through server breakdowns and mistakes, trusting that we were working hard to resolve any issues. In fact, we have 1,500 examples of player feedback leading directly to fixes and features. We’ve never had a big player base, so being engaged with our community is that much more important For an online-only game, player base is life. It makes sense to look after them.

If it isn’t obvious, we love steampunk. It’s an aesthetic that doesn’t get the love it deserves, and when it gets explored (including Guns of Icarus Online) it rarely, if ever, ventures outside Victorian England.

With Guns of Icarus Alliance we had the opportunity to create an entire steampunk world, complete with starkly different factions. In order to realize that vision, we researched and sampled cultures around the world within the Victorian time period leading up to the Great War, and imagined what they might have evolved into in a post-apocalyptic world with steam technology. From the northern wastes of the Anglean Republic to the desert nomads of the Arashi, we created cultural identities within the game by deeply referencing cultures and aesthetics around the world during that time period, and it’s been an amazing learning experience for us as well.

Beyond aesthetics and attire, we wanted to imbue each the faction with their own value system, ethos, and set of beliefs. Players responded to this instantly: the Republic, for example, is the home of our Russian player base, as its power, style, and tech focus resonated with them. Getting to explore everything from a dynastic worldview to an industrial statesman merchant fleet injected our world with color, life, and substance that are missing from many other works in the steampunk genre.

Beyond incremental funding, the value of Kickstarter for us lies in community building and getting the word out. It provides an early platform to put our hopes and dreams out there for prospective players to share, validate, refine, and give feedback. 

We learned a lot during the Kickstarter campaign for Guns of Icarus Alliance, and incorporated a lot of the feedback that would be featured in the game. We put our early adopters through the wringer in terms of testing. They suffered through server breakdowns, maniacal incarnations of the AI director, planes that crashed into mountains, and horrible frame drops. They stuck with us through thick and thin, and for that we are incredibly grateful. 

Guns of Icarus Online is our over four years old and a PvP game, but despite its age it has had players in it 24/7 since its release. We wanted to reward this player loyalty by continuing to support this title while working on Guns of Icarus Alliance as a full new experience focused entirely on PvE.

This decision added a lot of work and complexity, and presented very unique challenges (unfortunately, I’ll be getting to those in the “What went wrong?” part of this article). We had to ensure that the PvP arsenal and ships would all work with PvE objectives and maps and revamp the UI and match system to integrate everything,. All the while we had to ensure that social and communication systems worked not only between both versions, but also between players who owned Guns of Icarus Alliance and those who only had Guns of Icarus Online.

Working with the Steam API was incredibly difficult, for instance, as there were no precedents or earlier use cases that we could draw from. We ended up finding creative solutions to ensure that voice communications, Steam Achievements, player data, and game time could all be shared between two disparate games seamlessly. We decided to do this out of the dogged or even dogmatic commitment we’d made as a team to support our existing player base, no matter what the cost was. I definitely think that it was worth it to build a foundation for the Guns of Icarus Alliance player base, and it’s especially important given our small indie community.

Kickstarter was one of the first steps for us as we started our development journey for Guns of Icarus Alliance. With the lessons learned from that experience, I doubt I would launch another Kickstarter campaign at such an early stages of conception and design.

"The primary lessons: First, establish tight, clear communication of your project’s scope and vision. Second, consider bootstrapping more in the earlier stages of development and try to run any Kickstarter campaign only after a solid design has been finalized."

Our intent with the Kickstarter was to convey our grand and ambitious vision, an ultimate pie-in-the-sky goal. We knew it was a risk: if we didn’t get enough funding, and if Guns of Icarus Online sales declined, we would have a very hard time realizing our vision. To mitigate that risk we broke features up, tying different milestones to various funding tiers and goals. This would ensure that, at a minimum, we would deliver a solid co-op airship combat experience, even if it was missing some of our wishlist features.

The problem was expectations. While Guns of Icarus Alliance actually delivered more than was promised based on the achieved Kickstarter stretch goals, some people definitely felt we under delivered. The negative feelings springing from this confusion and belief they had been let down were carried forward into the development process and through to release. We tried our best to make peace with the people who were disappointed, offering refunds and extra rewards, and tried to be as diligent as possible in responding to their messages. 

I think the primary lessons to take from this are twofold. First, establish tight, clear communication of your project’s scope and vision. Second, consider bootstrapping more in the earlier stages of development and try to run any Kickstarter campaign only after a solid design has been finalized. Some backers form a very fixed idea of what they are backing and will refuse to allow any slack or flexibility during the development process for the developer to adjust the project.

We released Guns of Icarus Online literally in the eye of Hurricane Sandy, and as much as we tried to avoid it, it seems like the entire series is fated to suffer through launch crises.

We released Guns of Icarus Alliance on Steam in a way that has never been done before (gulp...) allowing players in two games (Guns of Icarus Online and Guns of Icarus Alliance) to contact each other in-game and share data, communications, and achievements across two Steam App IDs.

This allowed us to support both the PvP and PvE experiences, look after the legacy community, and make sure we were keeping the community together and not splitting our player base.

Unfortunately, since nobody had ever been foolish enough to attempt this before, nobody else had gone through the same experience to map out the territory. This was exacerbated by the fact that there was only do so much testing we could do on our own pre-release, so we went live on launch day and plowed straight into unknown waters.

We ran into massive problems with Steam’s backend configurations (with our new, previously untried communications system - go figure!) with the main issue being that Alliance appeared to have nobody playing. This caused a chain reaction: nobody was able to review the game for the first three days, which in turn led to it appearing to be completely dead on arrival with no one owning or playing it, and this then led to Steam not featuring it on the front page of the store despite it being a top seller.

We also did not do a good enough job explaining this to our players, which resulted in accusations of us trying to squeeze money out of players, so dismay and confusion were voluminous in our player base on launch day.

This was disappointing and painful for us, because the long hours we had spent trying to bridge the legacy product ended up being a source of confusion and negativity. We received criticism about packaging (“Why are you launch DLC as a separate game?”) and pricing (“I’m been a loyal player for years, so why do I have to pay for new content?”). In our excitement about Alliance we simply failed to consider how all the things we thought were exciting new features and content might be interpreted differently by some of our players.

In an effort to smooth this over, I drafted an open letter to the community addressing all of the major criticisms, as well as replying personally to every complaint. These efforts helped to a degree, but there is still a lot of work to do. Moving forward we will need to demonstrate our continued support for the legacy  game and its dedicated players, and generate cost-effective content to win these players back.

We were also forced to ban several well-known trolls for toxic behavior over the course of the last few years for hacking the steam client, leaving negative reviews without actually playing the game, and simply making things up in the Steam forums. With legitimate players and voices largely absent at launch, that added to our pain. What was supposed to be a day of glory and celebration turned into a weekend of putting out fires and stressing out about missed opportunities. (What else is new?)

Thankfully, the strength of our community shone through and we were able to get quite a bit of organic traffic to overcome the headwind and salvage our launch. With everything taken into account, all in all the launch went pretty decently, but we definitely could have done better. Some of the problems were unavoidable, the result of unforeseen complications, but a lot of it was squarely on us in terms of presenting better messaging to existing players. This is something we definitely need to do a better job of now and in the future. 

With Guns of Icarus Alliance, we felt that with PvE, co-op gameplay, and the huge amount of content we were prepping it was going to something very new and original. Based on that, we decided very early in the development process that it would work best being released as a new game rather than an expansion. The scope, effort, and time we put into Alliance made it deserving of its own full release, and it was our job to convince players, press, and anyone who’d listen that this was a full and real experience.

This presented us with two distinct challenges. One was our communication on Kickstarter, where we clearly defined it as an expansion. The other was making this work on Steam while still supporting our legacy player base, as detailed above. We also wanted to reward our Kickstarter backers’ early testing by offering a DLC with pre-order, which in itself was novel with Steam’s back-end systems.

In the months leading up to release we explored different possibilities through Steam, ranging from relaunching the existing Guns of Icarus Online store page to creating a new store page connected from the old. Each had advantages but also significant risks and drawbacks. Following Steam’s recommendation about a month before release, we finally arrived at our current solution: release Alliance on its own store page with links from the old Online store page that tempt owners of the older game to visit the new page with a loyalty discount, and and also putting the old game on sale.

This meandering route of new creations and adjustments to old assets created confusion in people who thought this was going to be a DLC. Quirks of the Steam system also meant that people who were entitled to a discount could only see it on the Alliance store page itself, which led to even more confusion.

Because Guns of Icarus is a continuing series, many people would read the title in the subject line or headline of an email or newsletter and make assumptions about what Alliance would be. Many assumed it was just a minor expansion, like a map pack, and even today we face a lot of headwind. Yet, it’s also a great opportunity and a fresh challenge for us. With the new content that we’re planning, we’ll continue to have chances to re-engage with the players who owned Guns of Icarus Online. Each new content update will also present an opportunity to explore fresh ideas about how to reach out to players and the media.

As usual, we cherish every opportunity that comes our way, and we pour our heart and soul into every piece of writing, correspondence, or marketing material to share this game we’re so proud of. Rough stretches, challenges, and mistakes keep us humble, creative, and open to explore and cherish new opportunities. 

Guns of Icarus Online has a sizable international audience with concentrations of players in Japan and in Russia. Both of these surprised us initially with video casters we’d never heard of checking out the game and bringing in audiences we never targeted or anticipated. They became amazing supporters of our ideas and great members of the community. It was a huge and completely unexpected disappointment for us that we could not give them adequate language support.

With the scale and ambition of our project and the small size of our team, we failed to allocate adequate resources for localization, meaning that localization is now a near-impossibility within the existing game framework. It pains us to know that there are many players who had a difficult playing experience, and others who missed out on the game altogether, all because it only provides support for English-speaking players.

Any project we take on in future will have localization factored into the design at a very early stage, and we will make sure we have the resources to do it well. 

One last mechanical issue is the game’s teaching systems. Running an airship is a complex experience, and every crew member needs to be doing their job well, because their mistakes aren’t just frustrating for them but for the entire team. With that in mind, we built a complete tutorial system that can teach anyone how to be a valuable crew member.

That tutorial has never been perfect, though. It’s gone through many iterations and tweaks, and even today we could go back and touch places where it’s probably too heavy handed or could be made more engaging.

We love our game and stand by what we’ve made, but it is very hardcore and has a very steep learning curve, even with a supportive, cooperative team. Based on player feedback, we’ve gone back and improved the flow of the tutorial immensely. We sought feedback not only from players or would-be players, but also from our wives, boyfriends, and even a few siblings who have never gamed before, asking them to run through it and highlight any deficiencies.

The lesson, really, is that a tutorial system for a game this complicated is always going to be a massive design challenge, so give it the time and resources it needs.

We will never stop being dreamers, nor lose the ambition to try and push ourselves to create something new and different. Every mistake we have made became a lesson that was seared into our minds, and throughout the development and release of Guns of Icarus Alliance, we’ve made plenty of them.

Our goals now revolve around content releases that we’ve already prepped for, in addition to getting the word out to even more people. Coming up next is the impending release of two brand new factions, each equipped with all-new weapons and airships, alongside a shiny new game mode where players ambush unsuspecting AI targets. We’re also working hard on taking Guns of Icarus Alliance to the PlayStation 4, which is exciting because it’s our first experience with a console release. It’s also one more commitment we get to fulfill after a long odyssey.

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Aster Jane Potter

The transitioned version of FTM trans woman Harry Potter, Aster Jane Potter. Portrayed by Bryce Dallas Howard. My muse has been taken up by reworking my transgender Harry Potter series ‘Criss Cross”. I have always love the aesthetics of actress Bryce Dallas Howard and I knew I wanted her to represent my transwoman, Harry Potter. So I have been working through both with art as well with writing…

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@killtool

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S1e4 - Both Sides Now aesthetics

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S1e2 - Birds of a Feather aesthetics

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S2e9 - You to You aesthetics

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S2e8 - In From the Cold aesthetics

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S2e2 - Outside In aesthetics