#*several big translation projects and gaming news articles later*

[solradguy]

If I don't lose motivation for it, there's going to come a point in Interlude where Frederick, who has since been nicknamed Badguy by like the US government or whatever for blowing up Gear research facilities, introduces himself as just "Badguy" to someone, somewhere, and I'm going to have to contend with the fact that he very probably said it with a straight face and full, unblinking, eye contact.

It's so silly. He's got to know that's a silly name to go by. "Yeah I'm a bounty hunter and I blow shit up because I'm a real Bad Dude™️." Come on... But also... Sol does have a really dorky sense of humor so... Maybe that's the joke. He knows it's goofy and he's forcing everyone else to use it but then he used it for too long and the goofy factor has long worn off except now he's stuck with it

[jadecascade]

Dewprism Interview

It’s from 2020, but below is an interview I translated with Threads of Fate/Dewprism Programmer Koji Sugimoto and Writer Daisuke Watanabe. A link to the original article is below. Enjoy!

https://www.inside-games.jp/article/2020/01/16/126852.html

Looking Back on Twenty Years of Dewprism! Reader Comments, Words of Appreciation from the Development Team—and What Fans Can Do Now. (Interview)

 "Dewprism," an action RPG for the PS1, is still beloved by many users to this day. For the game's twentieth anniversary, we asked the development team for their memories and secrets! Please take a look.

 Back in 1999 when the universally popular Playstation console was still in its adolescence, numerous beloved titles that have gone down in gaming history made their debut.

 Even SquareSoft (now Square Enix) of Final Fantasy fame put all their focus on the Playstation console, and in 1999 they launched several new series like Seiken Densetsu: The Legend of Mana. Another new ambitious IP, the action RPG Dewprism, released on October 14th, 1999.

 The story follows the adventures of the kindhearted Rue and Mint, the selfish princess of the East Heaven Kingdom. With two different protagonists as well as two unique storylines, Dewprism's style successfully blended drama and comedy. Each character's special abilities and battle techniques also added to action-based gameplay.

 The charming characters, lively 3D animation, and countless heartfelt, memorable scenes have produced a work beloved by many and still discussed on social media to this day. It holds a special place in this writer's heart as well.

 Flash forward, and now the delightful Dewprism has reached its twentieth year on October 14th 2019! To celebrate this anniversary, we interviewed staff from the original development team. In addition to questions about the road to Dewprism's conception and fond memories, we delivered fans' honest comments to the staff. Please be sure to read until the very end!

The Birth of Dewprism!

—First, please check out how Dewprism got its start.

Koji Sugimoto: As director, first I drafted a rough proposal. We initially decided on "a casual full 3D action game for children" and build on that as we discussed what kind of game and story to make. Later, since Masaki Kobayashi-san and I were the only programmers, the two of us wrote most of it.

Koji Sugimoto Profile:

Senior Lead Engineer

 Works:

 · Chrono Trigger

· Xenogears

· Final Fantasy X, X-2, Type-0

· Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core

· Schoolgirl Strikers

 Masaki Kobayashi Profile:

Lead Programmer (Luminous Productions)

 Works:

 · Radical Dreamers -Unstolen Jewel-

· Xenogears

· Final Fantasy X, X-2, XV, Type-0

· Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core

 Daisuke Watanabe: I joined the development team when Dewprism was about half a year into production. Around that time, the characters and world setting still involved a lot of trial and error. We wrote the script while working out the details. That's probably why there was still plenty to figure out later. (laugh) However, a lot of good came out of it.

Daisuke Watanabe Profile:

 Writer

 Works:

 · Mobius Final Fantasy

· Final Fantasy X, X-2, XII, XIII, XIII-2

· Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

· Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

  —Dewprism struggled to gain a foothold. On that note, how did the opportunity arise?

Sugimoto: Square was developing several big titles at the time, but it was company policy to make even the smallest game a satisfying challenge. Amidst all this, it was a "raise your hand if you're interested" kind of situation. I figured "why not" and jumped on board. We had just finished Xenogears, so they asked the (empty-handed) staff and found about twenty volunteers. We actually had a playable demo for the presentation, which is probably why it was quickly approved.

—So, development was a twenty-person crew. What kind of scale did you work on?

Sugimoto: It was a pretty small scale. There were a lot of minor projects at the time, but twenty people was almost unheard of.

—Games were being released left and right. Front Mission 3 came out a month before Dewprism, Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross came out just a few months later, then Parasite Eve 2.

Sugimoto: Late 1999 was hectic.

—Making a 3D action game with only twenty people sounds difficult. How was it?

Sugimoto: Since Xenogears was also in 3D, we had gained a bit of know-how. I think that helped a lot. We weren't sure how much our limited manpower could handle, so we made two main characters and storylines to maximize our data... Well, that was the idea at least.

—In other words, the story grew bigger.

Sugimoto: I told myself it would all work out somehow. I was young and reckless. (laugh)

—A portion of the story fell to Watanabe-san as the volume increased, right?

Sugimoto:  (When Watanabe became involved) Writer Makoto Shimamoto has already planned out the basic synopsis and characters, but the finer details hadn't been finalized yet. This role was gradually transferred to Watanabe-kun.

Watanabe: When I joined the project, Rue and Doll Master were already fleshed out. Rue's basic goal to revive Claire with the Relic was set, but Mint's motives were still undecided. We needed a simple-minded character to break that deadlock, and her objective became world domination. (laugh)

—That IS simple-minded. (laugh)

Watanabe: It's her trademark. (laugh) And that's how Mint became the character you all know and love.

Sugimoto: I feel like we asked a lot of you.

—Doll Master is an important figure to both Rue and Mint, but was the link between Mint and Doll Master added later?

Watanabe: Rue and Doll Master's connection had already been decided, but initially Mint was totally unrelated. That wasn't very interesting though, so we thought maybe they could be from the same hometown. The East Heaven Kingdom was soon born, and that's how Mint went from a treasure hunter to a princess out for world domination. However, once we decided to give each storyline a unique atmosphere, a key character was added as a foil for both protagonists. That was Mint's younger sister Maya.

—Let's talk about Maya's importance.

Watanabe: Maya's aura differs between the two storylines, but she isn't two-faced. People's attitudes often change to reflect their surroundings. We don't behave the same way at work as we do with family. In that way, I wanted to make a game that showed multiple sides of a character that varied according to their situation and those around them.

—Maya certainly seems different in Rue's route than Mint's.

Sugimoto: Maya is the most beautiful character. (laugh) The story came together wonderfully thanks to Watanabe-kun's contribution.

—Many others were involved as well, but Sugimoto-san helped get Dewprism off the ground while Watanabe-san polished the characters and story to a brilliant shine.

Creating a Sense of Motion! The Hard Effort Behind Flowy Clothing

—I'm speaking from personal experience here, but didn't the NPCs in Dewprism look directly at your character? Even if the player moved, their gaze would follow you. Dewprism was the first time I'd seen something like that. It was a huge shock.

Sugimoto: Our thought was to create as much expression as the technology would allow. We did it on a whim since the neck could calculated at different angles, but I'm glad you were pleasantly surprised.

—It really threw me off guard.

Sugimoto: It's almost too small to notice, but both the pupil and eye white textures move as well. I think details like that help the characters come alive. We calculated movement into every part of the body.

—Speaking of "coming alive," it wasn't just characters and clothing. The props and decoration were equally intricate.

Sugimoto: At the time, a lot of characters in other games were empty-handed, so we said, "Let's distinguish ourselves by including detailed accessories and equipment. CPU processors are faster these days, so we can add more polygons!"

Watanabe: Exactly! When I first saw Rue, he had proper footwear and travel gear. I thought to myself, "Wow, this guy is ready for anything. He's not the type to recklessly charge ahead."

—Did the characters seem to evolve as you worked on the models and animation?

Watanabe: Absolutely. I learned a lot about motion in particular.

Sugimoto: While putting together the Dewprism team, I approached Motion Designer Takeshi Kanda first. We had worked together on Xenogears, and I wanted the game to highlight his skill. He was by far one of the best in the business. In addition to the two protagonists, he also handled most of the other characters. The quality visibly improved as a result.

—Next, I took the liberty of collecting reader comments for this interview...

Sugimoto: Wow, look at all these. I'm thrilled!

—Many readers praised the animation, particularly Mint's foot stomp. (laugh)

Sugimoto: The foot stomp was so novel, I doubted anyone else could have thought of it. Kanda-san truly outdid himself. The fluttering (clothes) were his idea too. Just as we were about to calculate and ready the program, he'd already perfected the effect. So, everyone decided it was best to leave any billowing outfits to him.

—So, it was done manually?

Sugimoto: Yes, it was all manual. In the time since Dewprism came out, I feel like billowy movement has grown more popular. Other companies now include it as well.

Mint's Hatred of Pumpkins was an Afterthought?!

—What do you remember most about making Dewprism?

Watanabe: Good question... Everything, I guess? (laugh) It was a pretty hectic time for me. After all, I'd never written a game scenario before. Before then, I was in the publishing business as an editor for Kadokawa's Dragon Magazine and Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. In that industry, stories mostly depend on one writer's grandiose imagination. However, (for Dewprism's development) we had all these ideas but production couldn't keep up. Figuring out what we could accomplish with our limited time and resources while keeping concepts reasonably in check—it was a tall order. (laugh) I became obsessed as I considered how to make things interesting.

—Game development sounds like hard work.

Watanabe: As we discussed earlier, various aspects like Mint's character were finalized. However, the chronological scenario from start to finish was nowhere near completion. For example, since the game didn't have any voiceover, lines could be tweaked even late into production. It was released in October, but if you look at the original data, there are some notes that say, "Modified in July." (laugh)

—If you take distribution and PR into account, that's cutting it close.

Watanabe: It wasn't just about aligning the game with the story either. Sometimes we had to go back into the story while making the game. The biggest example of this...was Mint's hatred of pumpkins added at the eleventh hour.

—Even though it's a huge part of her character?!

Watanabe: While tossing around ideas for low-level monsters with Planner Haruyuki Nishida, rolling pumpkins were brought up. This led to "Wouldn't it be funny if Mint really hated pumpkins?" and it added to her character.

—Isn't her distaste made obvious at the start of the game?

Watanabe: Actually, the opening scene was made towards the end of production. (laugh)

Sugimoto: There's even more hidden history—Character Designer Tsutomu Terada came up with the pumpkin motif on Mint's bag. (laugh)

Watanabe: Oh, yeah. Is it okay that we left it in? (laugh)

—She probably chose it on purpose to help overcome her phobia. (laugh) At any rate, it sounds like working on Dewprism was quite the learning experience.

Sugimoto: Definitely. There's no question I grew a lot over the course of the project.

Watanabe: We didn't wing it, that's for sure.

—It seems like everyone on the development team came up with ideas even while working on other projects.

Sugimoto: Yes, that was especially true in the beginning. We'd all get together and ask each other things like, "How about this for Fancy Mel's stage?" and "Wouldn't stars look cool?"

Watanabe: Oh yeah, like Starlight Duke. (laugh)

Sugimoto: Once everyone gradually grew busier, the design team and I worked out the rest of the details. Speaking of development memories, we buckled down on corny jokes. You know, like "Oh, my boots are untied." (laugh)

—That was when Mint tried to jump kick Rue and missed when he crouched down to tie his boots, right? (laugh)

Sugimoto: Nishida had said something like, "Promises are called 'promises' because they have a definite sense of intrigue." It started out as a silly idea, but in the end we laughed at the actual scene. The game was for kids, but I figured that if everyone else shunned these kinds of jokes, we might be the first. I wanted to keep that energy.

—A lot of comments we received mentioned the boot lace scene. (laugh)

Watanabe: You can't beat the classics. (laugh)

—Incidentally, about half of the comments were from people in their thirties. It's been twenty years since the game's development, so such players were between 10-19 years old at the time. Was that your target audience?

Sugimoto: Yes, we roughly had that demographic in mind. Since our previous game Xenogears had a lot of kanji and a complicated storyline, we were aware that elementary school kids might not enjoy it as much. Dewprism was the result of our desire to attract a new generation of Square fans and create a game that younger children could enjoy. In addition, I thought perhaps Square would appreciate a cheesy fantasy instead of science fiction.

—Dewprism is undoubtedly a fantasy, but unlike the medieval fantasy titles that were widespread at the time, there's a somewhat folksy quality to it.

Watanabe: At the time, Final Fantasy Tactics was the poster child for medieval fantasy, and the team working on Vagrant Story was right next door. In that kind of atmosphere, we had to be original. This influenced Dewprism's artistic direction.

Sugimoto: The East Heaven Kingdom was your idea, right?

Watanabe: I wanted Mint to come from a distant land. I'm an old man who enjoys fantasy like D&D, (laugh) but that wasn't my aim. In the end, I took inspiration from various sources. By the way, I really liked Panzer Dragoon. I was Team (Sega) Saturn.

—Panzer Dragoon also has a unique fantasy vibe.

Watanabe: My girlfriend (at the time) and I bought a Playstation and played FFVII, but she took everything after she dumped me. (laugh) I told myself, "I can't take this anymore!" and "I'm going to live for me!" and applied to Square. After Dewprism was finished, Sugimoto-san bought me a Playstation. (laugh)

—If she hadn't left you, Dewprism probably would have looked very different. (laugh)

Watanabe: You may be right. (laugh)

—The world of Dewprism has a mysteriousness unlike most fantasy titles.

Sugimoto: You can thank our Designer Terada for that. In addition to the main character designs, he did several of the environments as well.

Watanabe: His art direction struck me deeply. For example, the forest wasn't just a row of trees but rather a fitting stage for our protagonists' adventures. The world was born from these environments.

 Mint's Influence on Future Characters

—Please tell us more about the two main characters.

Sugimoto: Shimamoto had proposed Mint's character, and her simple innocence really surprised me. She wasn't like many game protagonists at the time, which might explain her popularity among female players. Rather than a damsel in distress, Mint is someone who forges her own path.

—[Our company] Inside focuses on male-targeted games, so our female readership is relatively small. However, the comments we received for this interview were 53% male and 47% female. It's very rare for us to hear from so many female users over a single game.

Sugimoto: I'm glad to hear it.

—At the time, most action RPGs were targeted towards boys, right?

Sugimoto: You're right. In Dewprism's earliest stages, we intended to have one female heroine. But in those days the consumer market was primarily male alongside most game protagonists, so we were told a heroine would be a tough sell. So, we decided to include both.

Watanabe: The overall opinion seemed to be "(Boys) won't want to play as a girl."

Sugimoto: Elementary school boys would probably be too embarrassed. On the other hand, we thought girls who had been playing as male characters up until that point (because there was no choice) would appreciate it.

—Female main characters are much more common these days.

Sugimoto: Indeed. I'm glad the player community has become so diverse.

Watanabe: Also, there's a difference between a heroine that's fun to watch and a heroine that's fun to play as. I've never really liked the helpless type, and when writing a game scenario, you'll get nowhere if the character has no will of their own. No one wants to play a game where you just wait around for something to happen. The player needs to step forward and set off on their adventure. For me, Mint felt like a source of inspiration as I later fleshed out Final Fantasy X's Yuna and Final Fantasy XIII's Lightning. She showed me that heroines can be both endearingly cute, strong, and capable.

—In a way, she was the start of it all.

Watanabe: I'd like to consider it a successful experience.

—Mint's tale is very much about her relationship with her sister Maya. Furthermore, it is also revealed that Rue and Doll Master share a brotherly connection. Is there a reason you included these familial themes in each story?

Watanabe: I honestly can't remember what I was thinking twenty years ago. (laugh) ...I decided to make both Rue and Doll Master dolls, and I also wanted to give Mint a unique quality that was easily understood. Something like "rivals at a magic school" would require significant explanation, but a relationship between sisters is immediately understood. I choose this connection in order to convey the most information in the shortest amount of time. At the time, I felt like a lot of games were hyper-focused on complex lore and thought, "Even if we create an intricate world, we don't have to explain every little detail." That's why Dewprism's terminology is kept simple; there are no big words or katakana. We kept it as short and sweet as possible.

Sugimoto: It was also a huge help that the characters could express themselves in 3D.

 Mint's Missing Father Was a Muscular Mage?!

—Can you tell us more about the gameplay?

Sugimoto: (As a player) I'm not very good at action-adventure games, so I wanted to make it as easy as possible. If the player presses a button, the character will automatically turn around and attack, so there's no need for advanced controls. ...Still, that decision probably made some areas more difficult than others. (laugh)

—...I think I know what you mean. (laugh)

Sugimoto: We aimed for a fair balance between Rue and Mint's skills. Their jump height is the same, and even their attack power was mathematically adjusted. I don't recall any discrepancies, but Mint's flying kick was a fan favorite. (laugh) Maybe it just felt satisfying, but apparently some players beat the game with that alone.

—I can understand the desire to specialize in flying kicks. It really became part of her character, didn't it? (laugh)

Watanabe: Mint is a magical girl who knows how to tussle. (laugh) This didn't make it into the final game, but the East Heaven Kingdom has a family motto: "Magicians can't equip weapons or armor. So, what do we do? Strengthen our bodies!" They probably trained in iron clogs or something. (laugh)

—Mint's flying kick must've been the fruit of her labors. (laugh)

Watanabe: It's also why she eats so much. (laugh)

—By the way, I heard Mint's father was supposed to appear.

Watanabe: Yes, as a meathead magician. (laugh) He's probably the one who came up with the family motto.

—What kind of character would he have been?

Watanabe: All brawn and no brains. (laugh) He'd take a swing while saying stuff like, "My FIST is the real magic!" I'm totally kidding though. (laugh)

—I can see the family resemblance. (laugh)

Sugimoto: Like the Bull Demon King [from Journey to the West].

Watanabe: Exactly. A magician who is better with his fists. (laugh)

—I would've loved to see that. (laugh) Speaking of which, both Mint and Rue have their own unique weapons. Most people associate fantasy heroes with swords, but axes (Arc Edge) and rings (Chakram Rings) are practically unheard of.

Sugimoto: Yes, the rings were unusual.

Watanabe: When I first watched Mint wield her Chakram Rings, I thought, "This is awesome!!" Later when I saw Rue, it was more like, "This chill-looking guy sure has a terrifying weapon." (laugh)

Sugimoto: The motion team was incredibly innovative to combine the two rings in one magic attack. Who would've guessed?

Watanabe: It wouldn't have been possible with a wand or staff.

—So, that animation was the motion team's work?

Sugimoto: Yes, the movement at least. The idea for the rings themselves came from Shimamoto.

—Mint can use magic and Rue can transform into monsters. Was it difficult to create such drastically different skills?

Sugimoto: The design team proposed the "transformation" idea, but we decided to have Rue transform and Mint cast magic instead. Nishida always had the best suggestions and provided both magic and post-transformation illustrations, so we quickly implemented everything.

—Spells in most games are independent of each other, but the magic in Dewprism is a combination of "Color" and "Effect." Was it difficult to keep track of them all? I should think so.

Sugimoto: Yes, but at least we didn't need to include every single combination.

—Even so, there are over thirty spells. That was an impressive number for action RPGs at the time.

Sugimoto: I thought it'd be more interesting to combine different effects than just choose one magic and press a button. Our Programmer Kobayashi provided various magic animation.

Watanabe: I saw that one ring spell fly out and thought, "This is like Gradius." (laugh)

—You must mean the blue Ripple magic. (laugh)

Sugimoto: The groundwork for the game's program was pretty much complete by that point. We just had to polish it up, so there was an excited energy.

Reading Fan Comments and a Look Back on Dewprism

—We've received a lot of comments about how Rue's ending left a deep impact on people.

Sugimoto: I see.

—Many were surprised by his realistic reaction. Although he had finally reunited with Claire, he couldn't speak or even look at her.

Watanabe: Even now, when writing a scenario it's my worst fear that whatever I put into words will ring false.

Sugimoto: Cutscene Planner Yaeko Sato would sometimes use both "space" and the camera to create atmosphere without any dialogue. I think it was very effective.

Yaeko Sato Profile:

 Planner

 Works:

Final Fantasy VIII, XI, XII, XIV

 —There were also a number of comments about Mint's threats. (?) Like, right before the final battle when she yells, "Your butt's going to hell!" and Maya joins in with a "We will triumph!" (laugh) You could definitely tell they're sisters.

Watanabe: I like when the same line has a different nuance. She had made constant threats up until that point, but they took on a cool flair. Even for Rue, the curse that once controlled him, in the end, set him free. I suppose you could might call it foreshadowing.

*Translator note: The Japanese line is 「ボコボコ」and remains pretty much unchanged throughout the game, but the English version is a bit more varied. I reflected this in the translation.

Sugimoto: Maya's "We will triumph!" was the end goal, right? A disciplined character like her wouldn't speak out like that.

 *Translator note: For context, Maya's line in the JP version, 「ぼこぼこですわ！」is much more out of character for her than the official English "We will triumph!" translation.

Watanabe: The fact she doesn't show that side of herself in Rue's story also adds a layer of interest. I think the fist fight in the hotel was the worst of it, and neither princess admits they're sisters in Rue's story.

—There are surprises if you play Mint's story first then Rue's, and vice versa.

Watanabe: The "zapping" method was popular back then, but it would have revealed half the story. Instead of giving away spoilers in sequential order, we thought it'd be better if each character had their own route.

—Another reason why Dewprism is so unique.

Watanabe: At first, I couldn't get a grasp on Maya's character. However, I wanted her to contrast Mint, and the rest is history.

—Is there a scene in Rue's route that left a deep impression on you?

Watanabe: I only remembered this recently, but Rue and Claire live in a snowy cabin at the beginning of the game. That image reminded me of Moomin.

—Oh!

Watanabe: This is just me personally, but that cozy life deep in the mountains is a lot like the Moomins. Although quiet and naïve, there's an inner fortitude. It feels like a supportive environment and a fine place to grow up.

—Rue does have a rather refined air.

Watanabe: He snaps on occasion, but I agree. (Reading fan comments) Ah, the "Sukatangou." How nostalgic. We chose that name early on. It just felt right. (laugh)

*Translator note: The Pinto, Mint's name for the Pulsar Inferno Typhoon Omega, in English.

—So, "Scarlet Typhoon Excellent Gamma" came from "Sukatangou." (laugh) Based on the comments, Rue and Mint are easily the most popular characters.

*Translator note: The "Pulsar Inferno Typhoon Omega" in English.

 Watanabe: That's great.

 Sugimoto: I'm glad there's no obvious discrepancy.

—More than a few Mint fans even call her "Mint-sama." (laugh)

Sugimoto: Among the staff, we always called her "Mint-san" to show respect. (laugh)

—Unsurprisingly, Maya is a close third. There are also those who love Duke. "Starlight Duke's" star is far-reaching. (laugh) Many were also touched by his relationship with Belle.

Watanabe: All the women in Dewprism are tough cookies. (laugh)

—No kidding. (laugh)

Watanabe: Speaking of which, there's a touching scene in Rue's story right before the last dungeon. He goes to Fancy Mel's, and they discuss his resolve. Choices are offered throughout the conversation and the player can answer as they please, but in the end she wishes you good luck. This is right before you head to the last dungeon, so I made sure to include words of encouragement regardless of someone's answers. I've been writing game scenarios for a long time, but ultimately games are supposed to be fun. I love nothing more than cheering the player on and telling them, "You've got this!"

—Motivation is key.

Sugimoto: Still, I can't thank everyone enough for their comments. There's passion in every word.

—Mint is so selfish and conceited that she could have easily turned people off. It's pretty amazing how she's this popular.

Sugimoto: You can't deny her quirky charm.

Watanabe: As I was writing Mint's character, I realized she's honest with herself and others.

—Yes, her words always ring true.

Watanabe: Mint doesn't hide her selfish desires, but she's a good person at heart. I won't hesitate to sing her praises.

—Since there's no pretense, you can trust whatever she says.

Sugimoto: Reading these comments, many have praised the animation. I'm glad to see we achieved our goal. And, of course...there's countless mention of the untied boots. (laugh)

Watanabe: We must embrace the corniness. (laugh)

Sugimoto: The scene was the first one our Planner Sato worked on after finishing up Final Fantasy VIII. She really brought it to life.

Watanabe: I doubt the joke would have landed if we'd only used text and portrait art like in a visual novel. (3D characters) can truly perform and capture the mood. On another note, it was also memorable to walk around town after all was said and done. With the last boss vanquished, it made you want to explore this new, peaceful world and say farewell to everyone.

—Most games will roll credits after the final boss is defeated and the final cutscene plays. Once again, Dewprism is unique in that way.

Sugimoto: Sato, the Planner I mentioned earlier, loves endings and has completed various games on her own. She said, "I want a save point before the ending," so we added one in. Sato was mainly in charge of the final cutscene after the last boss. It was her dearest wish to end the game on a high note.

—I speak only for myself here, but I'm the type who likes to save before an important scene. I was thrilled to find out I could do so right at the end. The Gallery function is more common in games nowadays, but not back then. A manual save was a good substitute.

Sugimoto: In those days, players could only wish there was a Gallery. There was no room for error.

 Dewprism, Beloved by Players and Staff Alike

—By the way, how old were you when you directed Dewprism, Sugimoto-san?

Sugimoto: I was 23. Still, I'd been in the business for five years by that point, so I guessed I seemed like a veteran.

Watanabe: Oh right. Back then, five years was veteran status.

—The release of the Playstation ushered in a new era of game development, didn't it?

Sugimoto: I was very fortunate in that regard. There were veterans who had been with the company since the Famicom era, but as 3D became more widespread and the programming language switched from Assembly to C, it felt like everyone's level of experience had been temporarily reset. Thanks to that, a newbie like me could stand at the starting line and still get ahead. I was truly blessed by my circumstances.

Watanabe: It wasn't like we could create whatever we wanted. Rather, it was a matter of doing our best within those limitations. Everything was born of necessity, and we did our absolute best to make it work. The pumpkins were the same way; the idea hadn't been intentional, but other factors contributed to its creation. In that way, the world and characters naturally came together. We were so efficient because there was zero room for error (laugh), but in a way, the amount felt manageable. Like, "Yeah, I can somehow finish this if I pull an all-nighter." (laugh)

Sugimoto: Thanks to Xenogears, we'd gained a lot of 3D experience. In game development, you steadily improve with the second and third titles.

—Dewprism's timing really was impeccable.

Sugimoto: Still, late 1999 was rush season for the entire industry. In that way, it wasn't too ideal. (laugh)

—There was a lot of competition, wasn't there?

Sugimoto: We were a small team, so our expectations were modest initially. The objective was to create a game that provided a decent challenge on a shoestring budget. However, Dewprism drew a lot of interest online and scored a worldwide release when it was included as a demo alongside Seiken Densetsu: Legend of Mana. That led to further development, and expectations for the game gradually rose. It was incredible.

—I'm sure it felt like all your efforts had paid off.

Sugimoto: Exactly! Unfortunately, the sales report after its first day of release was dismal. Although deflated, we weren't too surprised. However, later market research indicated this was due to insufficient promotion. (Because of this) We felt a bit relieved and were just glad to get an international release.

Watanabe: Who would have ever imagined we'd be here talking about it twenty years later?

—It's clear from these many comments that Dewprism is still beloved today. I don't mean to digree, but after Dewprism was finished, what projects did you move on to?

Sugimoto: Unfortunately, we could never make a Dewprism sequel, so the both of us moved on to Final Fantasy X, and others were transferred to Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XI.

Watanabe: Yes, we focused entirely on Final Fantasy X after that.

Sugimoto: Yoshinori Kitase-san thought highly of Dewprism, so it was easy for our team to get in touch with him.

 Yoshinori Kitase Profile:

 Head of Square Enix's Creative Business Unit I

Producer of Final Fantasy Remake

 Works:

 Final Fantasy V, VI, VII, VIII, X, X-2, XIII

Mobius Final Fantasy

Others

 Watanabe: When I did a live broadcast for Mobius Final Fantasy with Kitase-san, he said, "Aren’t you going to mention Dewprism? You definitely should!" and "This character was inspired by Dewprism, right?"

 —It sounds like Dewprism is well-regarded among Square Enix's creators.

Sugimoto: Yes, thank goodness. (laugh) Like I said before, it was impressive that Dewprism saw release despite such a small team and budget. It also looks like those who had specialized in 2D almost seamlessly switched to 3D afterward.

 Watanabe: When I was out drinking at an izakaya, I ran into Yasumi Matsuno-san. He called out, "Hey, Watanabe-kun!" and when I recognized him I couldn't believe my eyes. (laugh)

 —Not only does Dewprism have countless fans, it has surprised fellow creators as well. Thank you for this opportunity to look back on the past twenty years.

 Watanabe: Although we made Dewprism, it's no longer ours alone. It belongs to everyone. Of course, I keep this desire in mind with each project. Two decades ago, I never could have imagined how Dewprism would connect people around the world and elicit so many warm comments. It's only thanks to everyone that we've reached this incredible milestone. Like all those who supported Rue throughout his journey, I can feel their voices of encouragement push me forward. I'm truly grateful.

 —Yes, just like Rue's friends, Dewprism's countless fans are cheering you on even now.

 Sugimoto: It sounds really cool when you put it like that. (laugh)

 Watanabe: Well, I am a writer. (laugh)

 Sugimoto: I don't think I can deliver the same flair as Watanabe (laugh), but I'm truly proud to create a game that kids who played our game twenty years ago still remember as adults. I never guessed something like that would happen in a million years, and I'm once again glad that we gave it our all. In commemoration of Dewprism, I'll be on Twitter on 10/14 to keep the momentum going. If you see #Dewprism, be sure to check it out and Tweet.

 —Thank you very much!

[aion-rsa]

Godzilla Singular Point: The Weird History of Jet Jaguar

https://ift.tt/3jvPBwC

The latest take on Toho’s iconic, building-crushing lizard comes in the form of Godzilla Singular Point, an anime series now available in dubbed form on Netflix. Taking place in the not-too-distant future, this reimagining of the King of Monsters involves a group of human characters becoming aware – through rather bizarre ways – of a coming apocalyptic event. Now the only thing that can save them is a behemoth out to punch monsters and look out for the little guy.

No, not Godzilla. He’s actually the apocalyptic event. No, our hero is none other than Jet Jaguar.

Yes, it’s finally time for Jet Jaguar to get his due.

A concept nearly 50 years old at this point, Jet Jaguar is one of those characters who was initially doomed to fail, but lives on due to nostalgia and the golden notion of, “I realize most people hated that thing from my childhood, but I bet I could make it good!” At best, he was a rad addition to the Godzilla mythos. At worst, he was a dumb idea from a dumb movie. For the most part, he’s remembered as something goofy that gets laughed at, despite having some genuine earnestness.

Jet Jaguar was created from both a fan contest and a corporate game of telephone. Back in 1972, to jump on the bandwagon of tokusatsu giant superhero/robot shows, Toho asked fans to design their own superhero design. The winner was a half-man/half-bird robot with a lengthy neck resembling a stack of rings named Red Alone. The concept was turned into a full-on rubber costume, but they changed the color scheme, which upset the young winner. They later decided to just scrap the whole thing, keep the color scheme, and make their own new design. And so, Jet Jaguar was born.

The superhero made an entire one movie appearance in 1973’s Godzilla vs. Megalon. As the urban legend goes, this was initially intended to be a standalone Jet Jaguar movie that the studio just didn’t have faith in towards the end and they hastily threw in Godzilla and recurring Godzilla villain Gigan. While the claim is dubious and unproven, it certainly is easy to understand where the allegations come from.

Everything about the movie feels rushed. As the last-minute replacement for another Godzilla film that didn’t pan out, filming took several weeks and production was a mere six months. Even the Godzilla costume was whipped up in record time. As for the story, outside of the intro, the preexisting elements (Godzilla and Gigan) aren’t thrown in until about 2/3 into the movie. Up until that point, it feels like a Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon movie with the production team hitting the panic button.

The plot of Godzilla vs. Megalon is that a scientist Goro Ibuki is working on a robot called Jet Jaguar, along with his little brother Rokuro and his best friend Hiroshi. They get wrapped up in a plot involving a group of beings from Atlantis-But-Not-Really, who are annoyed at all the nuclear bomb tests going on in their neck of the woods. They steal Jet Jaguar and use him to guide their insect god Megalon to different cities for the sake of smashing them up and punishing humanity.

Goro and friends get their hands on Jet Jaguar’s controls and use him to lead Godzilla to where Megalon is. Then the Seatopians call some alien friends for a solid and have them send in Gigan. Jet Jaguar is able to break away from all control and becomes fully sentient, as well as revealing the ability to turn into a giant. It becomes a big tag team battle, mostly remembered for Godzilla doing the silliest dropkick you’ve ever seen, followed by a second one for good measure.

The villains escape, Jet Jaguar and Godzilla shake hands, they go their separate ways, and Jet Jaguar reunites with the humans heroes after shrinking back down. He gets his own snazzy theme song to close things out.

In Japan, the movie wasn’t all that successful. As the thirteenth title in the Godzilla series, it brought in the worst returns yet. Between public burnout and the movie’s lack of quality, it just wasn’t grabbing people. That said, it came out at just the right time in the United States. Released in 1976, it came out months before the anticipated King Kong remake. The American movie poster for the movie even bit on the King Kong poster by featuring Godzilla and Megalon duking it out while each standing on a different Twin Tower, even though the movie at no point took place in the States.

A year later, the movie would be cut down into 48 minutes so they could broadcast it on NBC in prime time, across an hour with commercials. The only reason I mention this at all is because it was hosted by John Belushi wearing a Godzilla costume, which is sadly somewhere in the abyss of golden lost media.

Getting back to Jet Jaguar – the topic of this article – I feel the need to bring up Germany’s handling of the movie’s translation. Rather than call him “Jet Jaguar,” they referred to him as “King Kong.” I mean…sure, why not. Even weirder, when the next two movies introduced fellow giant robot MechaGodzilla, Germany once again referred to the robot as “King Kong.” Guys, I know what you’re going for here, but it doesn’t work that way.

Anyway, Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla and Terror of MechaGodzilla followed Godzilla vs. Megalon and closed off the classic Showa Era of Godzilla movies. Not only did Japan need to rest Godzilla as a concept for nearly a decade, but this also meant that whenever Godzilla would come back, it was going to be some kind of reboot or new “only the first movie counts” installment. Jet Jaguar was never high on the list to be brought back, especially since MechaGodzilla completely overshadowed him.

He would at least get a little more exposure in 1991 when Godzilla vs. Megalon was featured in the second season of Mystery Science Theater 3000. While much of the episode is spent making fun of one of the Seatopians for looking like Oscar Wilde, they toss plenty of jokes at Jet Jaguar. Most memorably, they “translate” Jet Jaguar’s ending theme, which notes that his mother never loved him and he looks a lot like Jack Nicholson.

Due to rights issues, Godzilla vs. Megalon is one of the few MST3K episodes that is no longer legally available for viewing. This does make the original MST3K Collection Volume 10 box set (which included Godzilla vs. Megalon as one of the four movies) a collector’s item, as it was later discontinued and rereleased with The Giant Gila Monster taking its spot.

A stranger use of Jet Jaguar comes in the form of Certain Distant Suns’ music video for “Bitter” in 1995. While there’s not much of a narrative outside of the band playing, footage of Godzilla vs. Megalon being shown, and a few shots of guys walking around in Megalon and Jet Jaguar costumes, I really insist you give the video a look due to the ending. It certainly goes in a direction I wasn’t expecting.

In 1997, Jet Jaguar made his next official appearance in another frankly bizarre spectacle. In Japan, a series called Godzilla Island appeared on TV in three-minute increments. While it only lasted a year, there were a whopping 256 episodes, meaning almost 13 hours of footage. If you’ve never heard of Godzilla Island, you might be thinking, “Wow, almost 13 hours of Godzilla stuff? Why isn’t this more well known?”

Well, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that instead of using guys in rubber suits, the kaiju action was done with action figures. Yikes.

Not only did Jet Jaguar show up during these adventures, but they gave him the 90s superhero action figure treatment. Much like how they released as many figures of Batman as possible for different crime-fighting scenarios, Godzilla Island gave us Silver Jet Jaguar, Medical Jet Jaguar, and even Fireman Jet Jaguar. Collect them all!

Read more

Movies

Godzilla vs. Kong Writer Talks About Spending 8 Years in the MonsterVerse

By Don Kaye

Movies

Godzilla vs. Kong Director and Writer Talk Future of The MonsterVerse

By Don Kaye

In the early 2000s, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee was released for the GameCube and Xbox under the Atari brand. It was a fighting game featuring various characters from Godzilla lore and though Atari wanted to include Jet Jaguar, Toho refused. Still, at least Megalon was included in the game. There would be two sequels in the form of Godzilla: Save the Earth and Godzilla: Unleashed. FINALLY, Jet Jaguar was playable, because if there’s anything you can count on, it’s scraping the bottom of the barrel when you’re working on multiple installments of a nostalgic who’s who project.

He’d also return in 2014’s Godzilla game for PlayStation 3 and 4. The producer of the game didn’t even plan on putting him in there, but he saw that the programmers already were working on him and just shrugged it off. There was a special trick to summoning Jet Jaguar as a boss character. By ending up in three different Godzilla vs. Jet Jaguar scenarios and winning all three times, you would then unlock a special cutscene of the two shaking hands while a confused military woman would wonder about their history.

Around the mid-2010s, IDW Publishing was all about releasing a bunch of comics with the Godzilla license. Their mainline series was Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth, which went on for 25 issues. Early on, Jet Jaguar appeared out of nowhere during a fight between Godzilla and the team of Gigan and Orga. In human size, Jet Jaguar flew into Orga’s mouth, then expanded into giant size, causing the beast to explode. Especially awesome was that it came with the cliffhanger text, “Next: PUNCH! PUNCH! PUNCH!” a reference to Jet Jaguar’s theme song from the movie.

Jet Jaguar showed up regularly in the series, coming off as Godzilla’s designated driver friend and handler. What I mean is that he seemed to be out to protect Godzilla, but that meant having to keep his violent ally on task (ie. pointing out that Gigan was nearby to stop Godzilla from attacking Jet Jaguar) and throwing punches when the situation absolutely called for it.

This continuity played up Jet Jaguar as more enigmatic than anything, as although he was mechanical, the only human character who knew his origins was killed off before it could be explained. Even one of the invading alien villains saw him on a screen and basically went, “Oh crap. It’s THIS guy!” Regardless, he still came off as a total badass, winning fights against Godzilla, Gigan (the chainsaw-hand version), and Destroyah.

Then again, at one point he needed to be saved by the 1998 American Godzilla, which at least proved as a reminder to the robot hero that there are Toho characters far more hated than him.

Toho started using Jet Jaguar again, albeit in sillier ways. In 2019, as an April Fool’s Day prank, they put up a teaser on YouTube for a Jet Jaguar movie. They also had him appear a few times on Godziban, a Godzilla web series for kids that, once again, used dolls and action figures to tell its stories.

Now Jet Jaguar is a major part of Godzilla Singular Point. To get into specifics on the plot would be like explaining advanced calculus, but to keep on-topic, Jet Jaguar is the creation of Goro Otaki as both a way to ward off monstrous threats and as a company mascot. Considering King Kong’s role in King Kong vs. Godzilla was “kidnapped to be a company mascot,” maybe the Germans were onto something with the rename.

Anyway, this version of Jet Jaguar is more mechanical in appearance instead of having to rely on making him look like a human in a costume. Jet Jaguar is there to protect the heroes from the endless supply of monsters, usually taking some extensive damage. Still, the robot gets rebuilt stronger and stronger and becomes advanced enough to become self-aware and speak in…well, the voice of a teenage girl.

I don’t know, I guess I just figured he’d sound like Astro Guy from King of the Monsters.

There’s a big hard-to-explain twist, but the main thing to know is that Jet Jaguar becomes a full-on badass by the end of the series, turns out to be a huge key to the plot, and has a completely kickass showdown with Godzilla. In a way, Jet Jaguar’s journey in Singular Point is a lot like in real life, going from a lame idea that appealed to kids and gradually being understood as a respected part of the Godzilla mythos. Something initially representative of the worst of the franchise, proven to be something genuinely cool in the right hands.

Now it’s time for America to return the favor. Once again, timing is on Jet Jaguar’s side. The Monsterverse was on its way to the graveyard after the box office intake of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but Godzilla vs. Kong came out at just the right time in the tail end of the pandemic to be a big success and keep the series going a little bit longer. There aren’t too many names in the toybox left to pull out, but at this point, Gigan and Jet Jaguar have to be high on the list.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Make it happen, Hollywood!

Godzilla Singular Point is available to stream on Netflix now.

The post Godzilla Singular Point: The Weird History of Jet Jaguar appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3h787JV

[blackkudos]

Keegan-Michael Key

Keegan-Michael Key (born March 22, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer.

Key co-created and co-starred alongside Jordan Peele in Comedy Central's sketch series Key & Peele (2012–2015) and co-starred in USA Network's Playing House (2014–2017). He spent six seasons as a cast member on Mad TV (2004–2009) and has made guest appearances on the U.S. version of Whose Line is it Anyway? on The CW. He also appeared alongside Peele in the first season of the FX series Fargo in 2014, and had a recurring role on Parks and Recreation from 2013 to 2015. He hosted the U.S. version of The Planet's Funniest Animals on Animal Planet from 2005 until 2008.

Key has had supporting roles in several films, including Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), Don't Think Twice (2016), and Toy Story 4 (2019). Also in 2015, he appeared at the White House Correspondents' Dinner as the Key & Peele character Luther, President Barack Obama's anger translator. Key and Peele produced and starred in the 2016 action-comedy film Keanu. In 2017, Key made his Broadway debut in Steve Martin's Meteor Shower.

Early life

Key was born in Southfield, Michigan on March 22, 1971, the son of black father Leroy McDuffie and white mother Carrie Herr. He was adopted at a young age by a couple from Detroit, Michael Key and Patricia Walsh, who were both social workers. Like his birth parents, his adoptive parents were also a black man and white woman. Through his biological father, Key had two half-brothers, one of whom was comic book writer Dwayne McDuffie (1962–2011). Key only discovered the existence of his siblings after they had both died.

Key attended the University of Detroit Mercy as an undergraduate, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in theater in 1993, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in theater at Pennsylvania State University in 1996. While at the University of Detroit Mercy, he was a brother of Phi Kappa Theta.

Career

Mad TV

In 2004, Key joined the cast of Mad TV midway into the ninth season. He and Jordan Peele were cast against each other, but both ended up being picked after demonstrating great comedic chemistry. Key played many characters on the show. One of his most famous characters is "Coach Hines", a high school sports coach who frequently disrupts and threatens students and faculty members. On the penultimate episode of Mad TV, Hines revealed that he is the long-lost heir to the Heinz Ketchup company and only became a Catholic school coach to help delinquent teenagers like Yamanashi (Bobby Lee). During seasons 9 and 10, Key appeared as "Dr. Funkenstein" in blaxploitation parodies, with Peele playing the monster. Key also portrayed various guests on Real **********ing Talk like the strong African Rollo Johnson and blind victim Stevie Wonder Washington. He often goes "backstage" as Eugene Struthers, an ecstatic water-or-flower delivery man who accosts celebrities. There is also "Jovan Muskatelle", a shirtless man with a jheri curl and a shower cap. He interrupts live news broadcasts by a reporter (always played by Ike Barinholtz), annoying him with rapid fire accounts of events that have happened frequently exclaiming "It was crazy as hell!" Celebrities that Key impersonated on the show include Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, Roscoe Orman (as his character Gordon from Sesame Street), Matthew Lillard, Bill Cosby, Al Roker, Terrell Owens, Tyler Perry, Keith Richards, Eddie Murphy (as his character James "Thunder" Early from the movie Dreamgirls), Sherman Hemsley (as his character George Jefferson on The Jeffersons), Charles Barkley, Sendhil Ramamurthy (as Mohinder Suresh), Tyson Beckford, Seal (originally played by Peele until Peele left the show at the end of season 13), Sidney Poitier, Lionel Richie, Barack Obama, Kobe Bryant and Jack Haley (as the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz). He also played female celebrities, including Phylicia Rashād, Robin Antin, and Eva Longoria (as Gabrielle Solis on a Desperate Housewives parody).

Key & Peele

Key and his former Mad TV castmate Jordan Peele starred in their own Comedy Central sketch series Key & Peele, which began airing on January 31, 2012 and ran for five seasons until September 9, 2015. Key and his comedy partner Jordan Peele starred in an episode of Epic Rap Battles of History, with Key playing Mahatma Gandhi and Peele playing Martin Luther King Jr. The pair returned to Epic Rap Battles of History with the "Muhammad Ali versus Michael Jordan" battle, with Key portraying Jordan.

Key was introduced by President Barack Obama at the 2015 White House Correspondents' Dinner as Luther, Obama's Anger Translator, one of Key's characters from Key & Peele.

Friends from College

Key plays the most prominent male character, Ethan Turner, on the Netflix ensemble comedy Friends from College, about a group of Harvard University graduates and friends now in their late 30s living in New York City. He plays an award-winning fiction writer who is being encouraged to start writing for young adult fiction audiences.

Other work

Key was one of the founders of Hamtramck, Michigan's Planet Ant Theatre, and was a member of the Second City Detroit's mainstage cast before joining the Second City e.t.c. theater in Chicago. Key co-founded the Detroit Creativity Project along with Beth Hagenlocker, Marc Evan Jackson, Margaret Edwartowski, and Larry Joe Campbell. The Detroit Creativity Project teaches students in Detroit improvisation as a way to improve their communication skills. Key performed with The 313, an improv group formed with other members of Second City Hollywood that appears around the country. The 313 is made up primarily of former Detroit residents and named for Detroit's area code. Key also hosted Animal Planet's The Planet's Funniest Animals.

He made a cameo in "Weird Al" Yankovic's video "White & Nerdy" with fellow Mad TV co-star Jordan Peele. In 2009, Key hosted GSN's "Big Saturday Night", and has co-starred in Gary Unmarried on CBS. Key was a panelist on the NPR comedy quiz show Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me... on March 27 and July 24, 2010. Key has been in several episodes of Reno 911! as the "Theoretical Criminal".

Key and Peele were featured on the cover and in a series of full-page comic photos illustrating The New York Times Magazine article "Is Giving the Secret to Getting Ahead?" on March 31, 2013. A live-action video version was also featured on the Times' website. Key co-stars in the horror-comedy Hell Baby. Key is one of the rotating "fourth chair" performers in the 2013 revival of Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

In addition to Key & Peele, he also co-starred in the USA Network comedy series Playing House, which began airing in April 2014.

Together with his comedy partner Jordan Peele, Key played an FBI agent in a recurring role in the 2014 FX crime drama Fargo.

Key was involved in audio episodes for the marketing campaign, "Hunt the Truth" on the website for the video game Halo 5: Guardians, voicing a fictional journalist and war photographer named Benjamin Giraud, who investigates the Master Chief's background.

Key has had small supporting roles in numerous films, including 2014's Horrible Bosses 2, Let's Be Cops and the animated The Lego Movie, as well as Pitch Perfect 2 and Tomorrowland in 2015. Key and Peele are currently working with Judd Apatow on a feature-length film for Universal Pictures.

Key is one of several hosts of the podcast Historically Black by American Public Media and The Washington Post.

In the summer of 2017 Key returned to the theatre after what he characterized as a "19-year detour into sketch comedy" for a production of Hamlet at New York's Public Theater, playing Horatio opposite Oscar Isaac in the title role. Key, who is a Shakespearean-trained actor, fulfilled his lifelong dream to play Horatio and received rave reviews for his performance. The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney noted that Key's comedic skills were on full display, "...but his ease with the verse and stirring sensitivity [was] a revelation."

Key voice acted in The Star, the animated film based on the Nativity of Jesus. He later went on to voice Ducky in Toy Story 4 and Kamari in The Lion King.

In 2017, Key made his Broadway debut in Steve Martin's comedy Meteor Shower.

Brain Games

Key currently hosts Brain Games on National Geographic

Personal life

Key was married to actress and dialect coach Cynthia Blaise from 1998 until 2017. They were legally separated in November 2015, with Key filing for divorce the following month. He married producer and director Elisa Key (formerly Elisa Pugliese) in New York City on June 8, 2018.

Key is a Christian and has practiced Buddhism, Catholicism, and Evangelicalism in the past. Being biracial has been a source of comedic material for Key, who told Terry Gross in an interview for NPR, "I think the reason Jordan and I became actors is because we did a fair amount of code-switching growing up and still do."

Philanthropy

Key has worked with the Young Storytellers Foundation as an actor for their annual fundraiser alongside Max Greenfield, Jack Black and Judy Greer.

[historicalfightingguide]

Wiktenauer needs your help! (Not your money, your actual help.)

“BACKGROUND

I've put quite a lot of effort over the past ten years into assembling the clearest, cleanest, highest-resolution scans of our fencing manuals that I could find. This approach has characterized a lot of our work on the research side of HEMA—finding or fabricating clean, attractive scans, and transcribing and translating them to be as accessible to modern readers as possible. This work is important, but far from the only way that we can learn from the treatises.

In one sense, a treatise is an abstract entity, a collection of ideas divorced from any particular copy of it. But each individual copy of that text is a concrete, very real object, a *book*, which was owned by *people* and hopefully used by some of those owners for learning or teaching. And it is books *as* books that we are going to talk about today.

Manuscripts, of course, are generally unique works of art, either commissioned by a specific buyer, or created first and then customized and completed to the buyer's desires. The history of printed books begins with similar expectations—moveable type was viewed as a labor-saving device for scribes, and the same level of artistic embellishment that went into manuscripts was applied to books after the initial printing.

The 16th century ushered in the age of cheap, uniform texts sold as-printed, but the desire to make a book one's own continued long after. The way readers customized and used (and even defaced) their books is a fledgling field of study that has only begun to be recognized in academia in the past couple decades.

The first printed fighting manual seems to have been De Dignoscendis Hominibus by Pedro Monte, printed in 1492. There is one other possible 15th century treatise (the Landshutter Ringuch), and then about three dozen in the 16th century. We are familiar with the text of these earliest printed fencing manuals, but we know much less about the context that they existed in and the people who bought and used them.

If these books were purchased by fencers, as some of them must have been, then all manner of treasure might have been scribbled into them. For example, in Göttingen there is a copy of Hans Wilhelm Schoeffer's 1620 rapier treatise which also contains a massive hand-written treatise on fencing against left-handers, starting on the book's 23 blank leaves and continuing onto 22 extras that were bound into it—an 88-page manuscript fencing manual hidden inside a 900-page printed book.

The knowledge that may be lurking in the margins and blank pages of copies of 15th-16th century fencing manuals has been on my mind a lot in the past year. Our early manuscripts have a tragic lack of substantial additions by later owners, as people who have attended my lectures recently have heard me lament. But most printed fencing books from this period have never been systematically examined.

* * * * *

PROJECT

Roger Norling stated in a lecture he gave at Meyer Symposium this year that one of the tasks the MFFG should take on is cataloging every surviving copy of Meyer's work. Afterward, he and I discussed some of what's stated above, and agreed that finding even one extensively-annotated copy of Meyer would be a major game-changer.

So, STEP 1: Find all the Meyers

What we've done so far:

- Sarah Barsness shared with us a spreadsheet she'd been working on for some time, in which she took all of the entries in Worldcat and winnowed them down to actual, physical copies (eliminating more than half of the results). - Several members and friends of the guild helped her expand the catalog to include copies that we knew of outside of Worldcat. - Additional copies were discovered in Thimm's fencing bibliography and the Universal Short Title Catalogue, which were added to the list after being verified in the catalogs of their respective institutions.

Master list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TSFg3VQVWrVWYZPwLV_AniN5JjLPngCy37RBZLO0v6o/edit?fbclid=IwAR0J7FHi-qswPCRLE6eVdWTOkiEt3L9wYKoqItgrx79EgEbRTQcyM2aZtII#gid=0

STEP 2: Examine all the Meyers

What we've done so far:

- We've looked through all of the copies on Sara's list that have digital scans available, searching for use marks. - London Darce photographed use marks in the copy in Austin, TX. - I ordered scans of the copy in Olomouc, Czech Republic, whose catalog entry indicates that it has an extra page of "fencing rules" (šermířské regule). - Volunteers from local clubs have agreed to try to gain access to the copies in New York City, Washington DC, and London, to examine them in person.

STEP 3: Write up all of our findings

When we've exhausted all leads and feel that we have enough material to draw some conclusions and lessons from, Roger and I (and probably others) will publish the results (and all of the raw materials) for everyone to study and learn from. The format will depend on how much we find, but anything from an article on HROARR to a paper in Acta Periodica Duellatorum is possible.

* * * * *

HOW YOU CAN HELP

STEP 1: Find all the Meyers

Copies of Meyer have ended up in many unexpected places. There's one in the New York Public Library. There's one at the University of Texas - Austin. There might be one in your backyard. We've gone through Worldcat, but only 72,000 libraries subscribe to Worldcat, and not all of them have put their special collections catalogs online.

Check the catalogs of public libraries and university libraries in your area. Even your state or national libraries, if you have them. A small group of us simply cannot check every library in the world, but if enough HEMAists get involved, we could take a big bite out of the problem.

Meyer was published in 1570 and 1600, and there are historical references to printings in 1610 and 1660 that we've never found confirmation for; any of these might be in your library. Search for "Joachim Meyer" and "Meyer, Joachim" around those dates. Search for keywords like "fechten" and "fechter" (which often also turns up other gems). If the library catalog is not digitized, you may have to email a librarian or even go in person.

Do you have connections to people with private collections of rare books? Ask them too!

And if you find a Meyer not on the list, let us know!

(If you're feeling very ambitious, we'd also be interested to know about copies of Andre Paurnfeindt, Christian Egenolff, and Fabian von Auerswald; if this goes well, that will probably be the subject of a similar project.)

STEP 2: Examine all the Meyers

If you live in one of the cities on the list, then find out if you can access the special collections of the institution that owns the book. Maybe even see if you can go with other interested members of your club, to give everyone a taste of history (and also to avoid overwhelming the library with requests).

If you can get access to the book, go through it carefully. Take pictures of any writing in the book you can find, even if it's just an owner's mark. Write down places with underlining or circles. If the artwork has been colored, that's also useful to know. (If they don't allow photography, note down any pages with writing so that we can order official scans of them.)

If they won't let you view the book, and you don't know anyone who can, then at least try to open a conversation with a research librarian at the institution. They are often willing to go flip through books on behalf of patrons, and might even already have the information you need in a file.

If you have the skills, volunteer to transcribe or translate the pages with writing that we find. There are already a few pages of notes that need to be processed, and hopefully there will be many more!

STEP 3: Write up all of our findings

We'll know more about how you can help with this step when steps 1-2 have proceeded further.

CONCLUSION

We've already found some interesting things just be checking the low-hanging fruit. See the gallery below for examples. With your help, we'll find much more.

Thanks!”

P.S. Happy pride to all!

[physiquebodyware]

BLACK PRINCE BOOK – FAMOUS WEIDER’S BUST – THE TRUE STORY OF BODYBUILDING ICON

TRUTH COMES OUT IN SO MANY FORMS

SOMETIMES I LOOK BACK ON THE WHOLE SITUATION. I GET THIS QUESTION FROM FANS ALL OVER THE WORLD DURING TOURS AND EXHIBITIONS:"ROBBY, IS THAT YOUR BODY WITH WEIDER'S HEAD ON IT?" - "YES, IT IS..."

The famous Joe Weider's bronze bust and Robby Robinsonin the Weiders-Bust-Pose

on the covers of  Weiders' Magazine MUSCLE BUILDER POWER,

September & November 1979 ▶

"I can honestly say that I never met a person who loved BB more than Joe Weider. And he is a lovable and funny person, too... Robby, I'm SO glad you published this! We (insiders) ALL knew it was your bust with Joe's head and had fun with that info ... Robby Weiderson, HA..." - Rachel McLish, The first Miss Olympia 1980

"Like Rachel said, we all knew it was Robby's image at the time. Joe figured he could get away with it and look great in the process. I built many of the stands he put the busts on, and I asked him, "Is that Robby's body?" -- and he mumbled something and walked away. We all knew it was an inside joke but at Robby's expense..." -- Roger Callard, Golden Era bodybuilder, training partner of Robby Robinson in Gold's gym in 70s, and Hollywood actor

"MASTER-BLUSTER" JOE WEIDER IN WEIDERS-BUST-POSE

Robby's CONSULTATION Services to answer your questions

about bodybuilding, old school training and healthy lifestyle -

„ … Joe called down to the gym and told me he wanted a sculptor, known for realistic renderings, to create my bust in clay to be later cast in bronze. «Your physique in bronze will be preserved in bodybuilding history. It will sit in our lobby alongside the paintings of the other greats like Larry Scott and Arnold» Joe continued, «Mr. Crawford told me it would take probably six days of you sitting for him. He’s going to do it right here in my office. I think this will be sensational. Let’s do it over several weekends. We can start this Saturday.» I said okay, but thought it odd that they would grace me with such an honor. Nobody else’s bronze bust was in Weider’s lobby, not even Arnold’s. Their photos were triple life-size, but no bronze busts … ‟

ROBBY ROBINSON IN WEIDERS-BUST-POSE IN GOLD'S GYM VENICE, CA 2008

Robby's dietary anabolic SUPPLEMENTS, OILS and HERBS

for natural fat loss and muscle growth at any age

 I WAS

HIS FAVORITE PHYSIQUE. MANY RESENT IT. BUT IT IS WHAT IT IS. JOE KNEW MUSCLES. HE STUDIED PHYSIQUES, LIKE IT'S A PICASSO. THAT WAS WHY HE WAS SO SUCCESSFUL. "ONE OF A KIND"

„ … for the next three weekends, for four hours a day, we drove out to Woodland Hills and I sat still and flexed, not an easy thing to maintain. While I posed, Ashley asked Joe questions about the project, He said he choose me because he thought my muscularity would translate best to bronze … Joe knew exactly what he wanted, positioning me with my arms crossed and my chest held high. He would leave us to work for a while, and then come to give instructions. “Ralph, make sure you get all the details here in his bicep including the veins you see over here. Robby, keep your chest high. That’s right, great.” He would impress this upon us both. We would all look at the work after each sitting. I told Mr. Crawford that I admired how the muscles materialized from the clay, and related it to my visualization as I “sculpted��� the muscles with each repetition … ‟

THE ORIGINAL BRONZE BUST OF "THE FATHER OF THE CHAMPIONS" JOE WEIDER

SHOWCASED AT THE WEIDER HEALTH AND FITNESS HEADQUARTERS

BUILT- Instructional Double DVD - Robby's philosophy on bodybuilding,

training and healthy lifestyle, and his old-school workout approach

▶„ … The clay bust was finished, and it was as sensational as Joe had said it would be. As we stood around admiring Mr. Crawfod’s work, Joe announced he would have a big ceremony to unveil the bust … Two weeks to the day was the big night of the unveiling. We were dressed to the nines. Anxious, we arrived early and sat in the gall and watched person after important person arrive, until there must have been several hundred or so. There up on the stage, under a spotlight, sat the bust on a column under a veil. Ashley was proud to see me recognized for my hard work. She knew exactly how much time and focus I put into my bodybuilding.

The time has arrived. As Joe walked up on the stage, the hall’s lights started to dim and silence replaced the party chatter. “Ladies and gentleman, I present to you the new Weider bust to be used on all our products and advertisements throughout the world”, Joe proudly proclaimed.When he lifted the veil I had the shock of my life. I looked at Ashley and saw her jaw drop to the chst. For a couple of seconds, neither one of us could breathe or speak. My head had been severed off the bust and replaced with a replica of Joe’s head … ‟

THE WEIDER'S BUST CHANGED MY LIFE

ONCE

I SAW WEIDER'S HEAD ON IT, I SAID TO MYSELF, "WHEN YOU GOT MONEY - $350 MILLIONS$$$$$$$ - YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU WANT". EVEN THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM WILL WORK IN THEIR FAVOR TO PROECT THEM. IT WAS AMAZING HOW HE WAS PROTECTED BY JUDGES AND LAWYERS. MY WIN WAS THAT THEY COULD NEVER USE MY IMAGE IN THE MAGAZINES. THAT REALLY PISSED AMERICAN MEDIA/ WEIDER PUBLICATIONS OFF!

ROBBY ROBINSON IN WEIDERS-BUST-POSE,

MUSCLE BUILDER

, SEPT 1979

MASTER CLASS - 4-day one-on-one intensive personal training with ROBBY ROBINSON

in Gold's gym Venice, CA and nutrition & supplementation seminar -

„ … In September, “

Muscle Builder

” rolled me out on another cover: a shoulder, chest and head shot, just like the pose I held for the sculpting of the infamous Weider bust … While the pictures didn’t lie, the article did. It exaggerated my war experience and flat-out lied about my having a father-son relationship with Weider. It claimed that under his tutelage I was a fast learner … With Ben Weider controlling the competitions, the IFBB and its worldwide affiliates, and Joe’s magazine proclaiming himself the trainer of the champion, the Weiders had successfully monopolized bodybuilding … Joe’s propaganda was convincing people around the world they could achieve the physiques of his stars by using his supplements and following the diets and routines printed in his magazines. The part he left out was that these bodybuilding stars were on steroids, not weight-gaining supplements, and that training and diet protocols for a natural bodybuilder and one on steroids are completely different. Joe and his “Muscle Builder” magazine were misleading fans and aspiring bodybuilders, and I was part of the machine. Yet staying with the Weider empire was the only way for me to realize the dreams I had dedicated my life to. I thought of myself as a thorn in Weider’s side … ‟

JOE WEIDERS BUST, THE FAMOUS BODYBUILDING SIMBOL

ON THE  FRONT COVER OF

MUSCLE BUILDER

, NOVEMBER 1979

E-mail Robby for CUSTOM training, nutrition and supplementation plans,

single training sessions and consultations - ▶

„ ... When the November issue of “Muscle Builder” came out … just two months after the cover with my bust, this cover displayed the bronze Weider bust in the exact size and position in which mine had appeared. Held side by side, they looked identical, except for the heads of course. Even the color of the bronze was the same as my coloring … ‟

JOE WEIDER AND THE FAMOUS WEIDER'S BUST

IN WEIDERS' HEALTH AND FITNESS HEADQUARTERS

Robby's CONSULTATION Services to answer your questions

about bodybuilding, old school training and healthy lifestyle -

▶

JOE WEIDER

POSTED MY PHYSIQUE ON THE COVER OF

MUSCLE BUILDER

. ONCE THAT MAGAZINE HIT THE NEWS-STANDS WORLD-WIDE, I WAS SWAMPED WITH OFFERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD. I AM STILL BEING SWAMPED WITH APPEARANCES AND EXHIBITIONS.

JOE WEIDER

EMPOWERED BBING THROUGH HIS WORK. I REALLY DON'T BELIEVE HE EVER THOUGHT OF FAILURE. HE WAS SO SELF-ASSURED.

WITHOUT JOE

NOBODY WOULD HAVE KNOWN RR. BECAUSE OF HIM I AM A PRINCE, LEGEND OF THE GAME.

PEACE, ROBBY

Read more about RR's training and life experience, about other legends of Golden Era of bodybuilding and what really happened behind the scenes of Weider's empire - in RR's BOOK "The BLACK PRINCE; My Life in Bodybuilding: Muscle vs. Hustle" - available now on Amazon and Kindle -

[lubbuthedigitalnomad]

Fearless Puppies On New Year’s Day

The Tibetan New Year has begun. The festivities will continue for several days. Below is a mere thousand words about it, plucked from a longer chapter in the new book that describes the season.

Everyone in Nepal is very hopeful that the new year will bring great improvements to conditions here and around the world. I suppose that everyone everywhere is the same kind of hopeful. My personal hope is that everyone everywhere will remember that noble hopes aren’t worth a damn thing unless real effort and involvement accompanies them. Hope and prayer can be lovely additions to intelligent action, but they are disastrous as substitutes for it. Nothing fixes itself. I am also very hopeful for your uninterrupted happiness and good health.

“Without action, Buddha’s blessing is not worth much.” HH The 14th Dalai Lama

FEARLESS PUPPY WEBSITE BLOG

FEARLESS PUPPY ON AMERICAN ROAD/AMAZON PAGE

REINCARNATION THROUGH COMMON SENSE/AMAZON PAGE

FEARLESS WEBSITE

​Losar Day

Today is Losar, the Tibetan new year. Traditional activities include visiting relatives, going to a temple with family, and public festivities. The celebration will continue for several days.

Nikky, Wangmo, and the staff, along with several of their family members, are assembled in the lobby. They are dressed like royalty. Everyone is even more smiley and sweet than usual, if that is possible.

The streets are lined with people in their finest and most colorful regalia. Even Walt Disney would have been in awe of the spectacle.

My positive-energy-projection-toward-the-street shtick is now being done daily from the front window counter of the hotel. I don’t even have to think about it. It happens on automatic pilot during breakfast.

After breakfast, I head toward the Stupa to watch as the entire massive structure is painted.

It has been cold and raw since my arrival in Kathmandu, but today the sun has come out in force for this festive occasion. So have folks from all over Nepal and the world. A twenty-year-old named Milabuddha sits next to me on a bench by the Stupa. He lives in a village hundreds of miles away. Mila starts a conversation with me, then takes a selfie of us on his phone. The friendliness of the people here continues to astound me. It will be very interesting to travel elsewhere in Nepal and see if this friendliness is a national habit. Being in the Stupa neighborhood is somewhat like being in church. Visitors practice their most noble behavior here.

But for the people that actually live here, their most noble behavior is a way of life — and the animals are just as amazing as the humans! A couple of dozen dogs surround the Stupa. Most (certainly not all) are among the most conscious, mellowest, sweetest animals in the world. They seem to belong to no one and everyone. These canines often act more human than many humans do. They have a sharp intelligence and a kind of radar — a sense of premonition.

A white one sits himself in front of the bench that me and Milabuddha are seated on. A man walks in our direction and starts to approach a woman two benches away with his hand out. The man looks more hungover than hungry. He has an air of snarling surliness about him that I can feel from a distance. He isn’t doing anything loud, crazy, or even noticeably different than other folks — but the energy radiating from him seems to stand out like a sore thumb in this otherwise serene atmosphere. The white dog feels it too. He bolts up and darts himself between that man and the woman sitting on the bench. White dog barks as if his master’s house is on fire! The man backs off and walks away quickly. The dog continues to bark at the ornery man’s heels for twenty yards or so until both are well out of range of the benches. White dog then simply lays down silently by the Stupa. This creature seems to spend most of its time in a meditation, as do all the canines in the area. These animals lay around as if they are reincarnated saints that have earned the right to relax in heaven for a lifetime — unless there is a situation that calls them to action guarding the area’s good energy.

Several hundred of the most well fed pigeons in the world have their own corner of the Stupa grounds. Locals sell grain to people that spread it around for the birds to eat. Any form of human caring for any form of life is considered a source of blessing here.

On the way home, I stop at Thar Lam Monastery to visit the temple that sits halfway between the Stupa and the Pema Boutique Hotel. The monks are having New Year’s badminton and volleyball tournaments! The young adult monks are playing. The elder and child monks cheer from the sidelines. I sit down on a curb, near a few elders in chairs. My legs are in the street. I am immediately approached by a young black dog with markings that resemble a white necktie. The dog licks me until I fall off my narrow seat on the curb! She keeps licking as I lay on the ground. The monks are laughing at me — almost as hard as I am laughing at myself. The dog seems to be laughing too.

Midway through the volleyball game, I go into the temple. It is a beautiful structure with a gorgeous interior containing giant iconic Buddhist statues. The walls are painted with scenes from the historical Buddha’s life. There are offerings of yak cheese, cookies, fruit, and many other goodies stacked everywhere in obvious preparation for a later ceremony. After enjoying a few hundred breaths in the temple, I head back to the hotel with a big smile on my face and the love of fearless puppies in my heart.

Much of humanity thinks that a power beyond itself will drop from the sky to help save our species. Few people are coherently concerned, consciously aware, and common sensible enough to realize that the only way our planet will become a better planet is if we each, individually, do away with the bullshit we are addicted to and put in the mental work necessary to become better people. I may be in the ten square block area of Earth containing the highest concentration of people that are aware of this fact. There is a very palpable density of love and goodwill in the atmosphere here. It is fostered internally by individuals. This internal mental work, this fostering of goodwill, is not done as a self-serving mechanism. It is motivated by a love for, and done on behalf of, everything that lives on the planet. The term for the all-inclusive target of this concern is usually translated into English as “all sentient beings.” The Tibetan phrase is “sem chen” — mind possessor. Taking into account that animals, plants, and insects, as well as humans, are thought to have a consciousness, this motivation covers a lot of ground. It is an extremely powerful force within the nuns and monks. It also plays a very recognizable part in the lives of the neighborhood’s residents. And it is obvious that even the area dogs, in their own way, are involved in the process.

My experience of being here is akin to that of a thirteen-year-old baseball fanatic who suddenly finds himself living in a bed-and-breakfast planted right in the middle of the Cooperstown Hall of Fame.

I have spent almost all of my life in America. In America, many people that see soldiers in uniform approach them and say, “Thank you for your service.” The soldiers are considered heroes worthy of respect and admiration.

My heroes are not professional killers. My heroes are professional altruists that are dedicated to producing saner, kinder, more compassionate opportunities for all living creatures. My heroes are walking in robes on the streets of Kathmandu, and I am lucky enough to have a guest room planted right in the middle of their neighborhood.

About the Author

Doug “Ten” Rose may be the biggest smartass as well as one of the most entertaining survivors of the hitchhiking adventurers that used to cover America’s highways. He is the author of the books Fearless Puppy on American Road and Reincarnation Through Common Sense, has survived heroin addiction and death, and is a graduate of over a hundred thousand miles of travel without ever driving a car, owning a phone, or having a bank account.

Ten Rose and his work are a vibrant part of the present and future as well as an essential remnant of a vanishing breed.

Follow him on Facebook, Doug Ten Rose

Travel Adventure Books can be an excellent gift to your friends and family, buy from Amazon.com

#traveladventurebooks #keepreading #kindlebooks

The books Fearless Puppy On American Road and Reincarnation Through Common Sense by this same author are also available through Amazon or the Fearless Puppy website, where there are sample chapters from those books. Entertaining TV/radio interviews with and newspaper articles about the author are also available there. There is no charge for anything but the complete books! All author profits from book sales will be donated to help sponsor an increase in the number of wisdom professionals on Earth, beginning with but certainly not limited to Buddhist monks and nuns.

If you missed the Introduction to the new book that will be titled Temple Dog Soldier, or would like to see several chapters of it that are available for free online, go to the Puppy website Blog section. This is a book in progress. You will be reading it as it is being created! Just like you, I don’t know what the next chapter is going to be about until it is written. As the Intro will tell you, this is a totally true story — and probably the only book ever written by and about a corpse journeying completely around the world!

[nullset2]

Why New 3D Mario Games Suck

Before I go to bed I want to write a quick article about my opinions of Mario games. Ah, Mario games... I will never tire of you. Crisp and clean, to the point and joyfully so. Just jump, mofocka. Games that revel in the concept of moving around, making it inherently fun. Is there more noble of a proposition in gaming? Has there ever been more lucid game design?

Yet, I think that modern Mario games suck.

Like everyone and their grandmother (and if your grandmother plays Mario send her my regards, she's cool as hell, dude) I've been playing Mario 3D All Stars to have me a nice time. However it does reinforce this idea that I've always had, that Mario games, even though they may share the same broad aesthetic values and mechanics, are different from each other by nature. In this article, I propose that this change over time has actually been for the worse, leading to a loss of complexity in platforming game design with each successive iteration which is being traded away in favor of more cinematics and bombastics.

First things first, we have the beautiful Mario 64. A timeless classic and most of us' first foray into 3D games (yes, this was the very first game I ever played where the notion of the third dimension actually mattered. I had already played Star Fox but in Star Fox you don't really move in three dimensions, you're just in a plane going on rails and you cannot move completely freely). I played this before I even touched Doom or other first person games of the sort.

Minor parentheses by the way: did you know that Star Fox was inspired on the Inari Taisha temple? The beautiful, big long mountain shrine in Kyoto full of orange gates?

Fox translates to Inari and its creator, Dylan Cuthberth, who loved Japan a lot, got inspiration from it which he applied to his new bizarre fucking mind bending 3D tech which he then pitched and sold to nintendo and then became the basis for the Ultra 64, which was to come, and thus one of the main pillars of all modern 3D gaming as a whole? Holy shit, right? In Star Fox you cross gates to gain powerups and to make it fun to maneuver around with your Airwing... How come that I had never seen the connection?

But anyway. Back to Mario 64.

It is commonly told that Mario 64 was created by Miyamoto parting from the concept of a "secret garden". Most of the development time initially, it is said, was spent on Miyamoto and Tezuka, Mario creators, fine tuning the movement system in an isolated garden map without any enemies or hazards.

The purpose of the secret garden was threefold: first, the team was used to designing Mario games as 2d platformers and they were uncertain about how to take Mario games into the 3D era (a literal, flat-out equivalent conversion of classic mario, think Super Mario World, powerups and all, was considered at a certain point in development, creating linear, obstacle course stages with a beginning and a goal, the remnants of which still linger in the final game as the bowser stages, an idea which was finally fleshed out with the Mario 3D series on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, 20 years later (!)), so they needed a way to hash out ideas about how to design this new installment.

Second, Miyamoto took as one of the goals of the project to design Mario's movement with a supreme level of fidelity, so he'd use this area to test and test and test all of Mario's acrobatics, to make them feel smooth, convincing and entertaining to play. He'd say that as long as a move didn't feel right in the garden, it couldn't be used in the final game, creating in the end as something that feels a little bit like ninja acrobatics on rollerskates or ice skating.

Third, the team eventually realized that, since 3D content was incredibly expensive to create back in 1995, when commonplace computer 3D animation and design was still quite in its infancy, they needed to develop the skill to design little sandboxes which were good enough to run around in over and over without getting tired of them (think of it as if constructing a highly detailed, complex diorama, an idea fleshed out finally in Captain Toad from Super Mario 3D world, again, 20 years later (!)). This was to create more content for the game while reusing the same architecture and geometry for the levels, since resource usage had to be maximized. The remnants of the garden are still present in the final game, as the Castle Grounds.

So, do you see the level of SOUL invested here? The level of care, the amount of love placed into each and everyone of Mario's moves in Super Mario 64? And the results show it: the game allows the player to tackle all objectives at their own pace, in their own terms, however way they can. The game forces nothing down your throat: blast to the island in the sky? Well, maybe just long jump to it if you're gutsy enough, no need to wait until you unlock cannons. Or get the 8 red coins first if you want. Or just fuck it, and go and release the chain chomp first because he looks very cool and this is probably the first power star that all people who play the game get first. Or just, fuck it, you can skip that objective all together if you want, just collect enough stars for the next door unlock.

Jump, double jump, triple jump, dive, dive from jump, punch, breakdance kick, backflip, turn and backflip, long jump, wall jump, grab objects and throw, jump-shortkick, slide down, ground pound, fly from triple jump, swim, crouch... and even crawl. I count a total of 20 possible interactions with the environment, maybe even more I'm missing. All movements completely available to you from the start to mix and match the way you best see fit (except for flying, which is unlocked like 15 minutes into the game). The world is yours and you're free, go nuts son. The only variable is your skill at the movement system.

So you can probably see why this is delicious design. There's never a single way to clear most power stars in the game, instead the decision is left to the player, which the game trusts is smart enough to figure out solutions to problems on their own. Wanna jump for it? Sure, if you can. Want to wait unil you got the powerup? That's cool too. Want to go play another level? Sure thing! OR FUCK IT! JUST RACE THE KOOPA IF YOU WANT!

So you can probably see why I loathe the fact that the sequel was based exclusively on giving people a dumbed down version of the same shit, with a fucking dumb water pack.

Come 2002 and under pressure to perform, the team releases Super Mario Sunshine and it's the most bland, dumbed down sequel ever (though, could anyone really live up to such a predecessor's prowess?). In an attempt to make the game accessible to more players (tm), the game is stripped out of its complexity. Mario no longer moves as a gracious, roller skating gazelle that can navigate the world in the most agile and beautiful way ever. Instead you screech down to a halt the second you stop pushing the direction stick instead of providing people with that most delicious sense of momentum and friction SM64 had. Boo Hoo! Baby think 3D platforming is too hard? BABY CANNOT HANDLE PING PING WAHOO ON THE N64? Then we give babby a water nozzle which will allow them to correct any miscalculated jump ever (it's insulting that this is the best solution they managed to come up with) HOORAY!

But hey! Sunshine has good things about it! Uh... the water is pretty! (that's probably where all the development time and resources probably went anyway).

SAY WHAT? WE GOT TO RELEASE THIS YEAR? AND THEY WANT US TO INCLUDE 120 STARS AGAIN? FUCK! WE RAN OUT OF TIME; JUST ADD BLUE COINS, DUDE! YEAH WHATEVER! SHIP IT! THIS IS THE GAME! I'M GONNA GO LIE DOWN AND HAVE A BEER! FUCK IT!

Mario Sunshine is not a bad game, but it's not a bold, groundbreaking game like its predecessor was. It detests and rejects the fact that you are a competent platforming game player. It nerfs everything down. It makes it almost impossible to lose. It plays things too safe and too easy, replacing action game design with flashing lights, prettier graphics, and an easier experience; it has its moments but it's an inferior game mechanically: jump, double jump, triple jump, hover, rocket jump, turbo run (why), walk on tightropes (why), spin in air (why), spin from ground into high jump, turn and backflip, swim, spray water, spray water and dive, wall jump, ground pound. It's only 16 moves -- less than its predecessor --, and they have less complexity and are easier to execute.

Not only that but you're no longer free to tackle objectives the way you see fit. The world is now a container for several course-clears, and no longer allowing for the freedom of open world games. If you pick Shine 1, you WILL clear shine 1 in that run of the level. If the game wants you to watch a cutscene (of which there were none in SM64), you WILL watch the fucking cutscene. Wash rinse repeat until you get enough shines to clear the lamest end boss in video game history.

Again, it's not a bad game but it reeks of suits getting involved in the process and demanding shit to be made easier because otherwise it wouldn't sell. It reeks of misplaced priorities. It's a pretty game and it's nice for an afternoon, but after that you just have blue coins left and hooooooooooooo weeeeeee I'm not touching that shit. The most asinine side quest I've ever seen in a video game: to find blue coins hidden in random spots, usually by cleaning a spot of graffitti, and exchange 10 of them for a single shine, the collection of which cannot be stacked and forces you to watch a cutscene every time. Reeks of laziness.

Then Mario Galaxy comes out and Jesus Christ. It's like they don't give a shit at this point. Open-world, acrobatics-centric 3D Mario is just fucking gone. This is probably the point where it became cheap enough to make 3D content en-masse that they just started copying the classic Mario formula in 3D to churn out content.

The bad thing, is that at a certain point it feels as if the games play themselves and I've always been against it and will always be against it because I'm into games due to the fact that they're something which engages my brain. I don't like games which just keep me there, passively looking at the screen, reacting to quick time events. I want to be immersed, engrossed and I want to feel that nice sense of exploration and fun experimentation that you only get with open world games.

The games are back to linear now: even though, in Sunshine, they made an effort to at least make things seem open world, they don't care anymore in this one. It's all just linear levels happening in planetoids which you visit in a sequence, to, yet again, remove all hazards and all notion of challenge and complexity, even more than before. And you have to shake the wii remote to spin to top it off, and this gives you a free save if you miscalculate a jump. The galaxy games were extrapolated through the 3D series: Super Mario 3D Land and 3D World (strong candidates for most bizarre title to a video game ever), to form which is called the "course clear" vein of 3D mario games, starting from the Galaxy games.

See, nintendo themselves differentiate between "Course-clear" 3D Mario and "Open World" 3D Mario. Once Super Mario Oddysey got announced, they came out with this interesting infographic about their classification for 3D Mario games:

Don't get me wrong again, there's nothing inherently bad about these types of Mario game, and Galaxy 2 and Mario 3D World are both some of the best video games ever created, but I think that something got lost in transition when compared to the sublime finesse of the movement system in Mario 64. The way it respects your intelligence, the way it drops you in an open world and gives you freedom, the way that its worlds are built, I think that all of this has never been paralleled, not even by nintendo themselves for some reason, and I think the reason why this happened is that, maybe the excellence of Mario 64, quirks and all, was a product of its time and the limitations in production ability for 3d content and graphics that surrounded its creation at the time.

Yet, Lo and Behold! 2017 is here and Super Mario Oddyssey is in the horizon and it promises to be the Next Big Thing (tm) since sliced bread. A TRUE and HONEST return to form, to the Glory Days of Mario 64! And the game is way too enthsiastic with its embracing of Super Mario 64 nostalgia: there's literally a whole level inspired after the Mario 64 castle grounds in Mario Oddysey and the whole notion of absolute freedom from Mario 64 (somewhat) returns (but not completely because you still are subject to doing a main big event per level, after which the rest of the level unlocks; once you clear the game, the second half of the game unlocks even). And the emphasis is back into acrobatics again, which is a good thing: playing with your hat can get you places if you're handy with it.

But my biggest gripe with Super Mario Oddysey is that it's not completely honest as it claims to be. It's a course-clear game hidden under a coat of paint of an open world-game. It's literally Zelda Breath of the Wild's half-assed design all over again: big empty world full of collectibles, with tiny "levels" to be found. Once you find a game, it's time to do a thing --wash rinse repeat. In Mario Oddysey you explore around until you find a pipe or a door or a character and you get plunked into a Super Mario 3D World style course-clear game with additional collectibles. So it's not really the game which it was told to be. The levels don't feel like beautiful dioramas, and the acrobatics, even if nice, are nowhere near as rich as the SM64 acrobatics. There's infinite lives this time around, so there's no real feeling of risk. The game rehashes its own content, you make a tower of goombas, cool. Then you make it again, twice as long. Then you make it again, in the water. Then you make it again, in the beach level. Then you make it again, in the ice level. Then you make it again. Then you make it again, then you make it again...

You could argue that they were onto something with the capture system, because it's an attempt to enhance the movement system while at the same time it's trying to keep things interesting, but the bad thing is that this is really not the case. Captures are contextual, and you're expected to capture an enemy, do something with it, then leave it behind, so it's not a skillset that you build up on, it's yet another course-clear level in a disguise.

So even though it's a good game, it's not the game that it set out to be, I'm sad to say. The Brilliance of Super Mario 64 is yet to be rivaled, and Nintendo should feel ashamed of it. It's been 20 years, man. Where has your mind been all along?

Alright Nintendo, to conclude, here's a freebie for you. This is how you design your next Mario game so it fucking kicks ass: you bring back the SM64 movement system and ADD ONTO IT. Do NOT take away from it, just ADD. Complexity is good in games. All of your fans are fucking 30 year olds, they can handle a complex game.

Next, you develop a vast, broad, massive open world. Think GTA-size. You set up 1200 stars and you place them all over the world in ways where it is EXCITING by itself to explore the world. Make it so people can collect stars at their own pace, ANY WAY THEY WANT, and expand the world accordingly. Keep the Super Mario Oddyssey persistence, where once you capture a moon you don't have to go back to a menu screen, that was a good addition. Embrace the diorama mentality and go nuts with the world. Fill it with waterfalls, caves, chasms, canyons, and provide the player nothing but their acrobatics to clear everything in the world. Avoid pre-scripted sequences (they can still be good for some things like bosses). And make the world seamless, none of this island in the sky thing anymore. Moving around and getting stars should be their own reward, not "getting to find a course clear level".

[suzanneshannon]

The Making of: Netlify’s Million Devs SVG Animation Site

The following article captures the process of building the Million Developers microsite for Netlify. This project was built by a few folks and we’ve captured some parts of the process of building it here- focusing mainly on the animation aspects, in case any are helpful to others building similar experiences.

Visit the Million Developer microsite

GitHub repo

Building a Vue App out of an SVG

The beauty of SVG is you can think of it, and the coordinate system, as a big game of battleship. You’re really thinking in terms of x, y, width, and height.

<div id="app"> <app-login-result-sticky v-if="user.number" /> <app-github-corner /> <app-header /> <!-- this is one big SVG --> <svg id="timeline" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" :viewBox="timelineAttributes.viewBox"> <!-- this is the desktop path --> <path class="cls-1 timeline-path" transform="translate(16.1 -440.3)" d="M951.5,7107..." /> <!-- this is the path for mobile --> <app-mobilepath v-if="viewportSize === 'small'" /> <!-- all of the stations, broken down by year --> <app2016 /> <app2017 /> <app2018 /> <app2019 /> <app2020 /> <!-- the 'you are here' marker, only shown on desktop and if you're logged in --> <app-youarehere v-if="user.number && viewportSize === 'large'" /> </svg> </div>

Within the larger app component, we have the large header, but as you can see, the rest is one giant SVG. From there, we broke down the rest of the giant SVG into several components:

Candyland-type paths for both desktop and mobile, shown conditionally by a state in the Vuex store

There are 27 stations, not including their text counterparts, and many decorative components like bushes, trees, and streetlamps, which is a lot to keep track of in one component, so they’re broken down by year

The ‘you are here’ marker, only shown on desktop and if you’re logged in

SVG is wonderfully flexible because not only can we draw absolute and relative shapes and paths within that coordinate system, we can also draw SVGs within SVGs. We just need to defined the x, y, width and height of those SVGs and we can mount them inside the larger SVG, which is exactly what we’re going to do with all these components so that we can adjust their placement whenever needed. The <g> within the components stands for group, you can think of them a little like divs in HTML.

So here’s what this looks like within the year components:

<template> <g> <!-- decorative components --> <app-tree x="650" y="5500" /> <app-tree x="700" y="5550" /> <app-bush x="750" y="5600" /> <!-- station component --> <app-virtual x="1200" y="6000" xSmall="50" ySmall="15100" /> <!-- text component, with slots --> <app-text x="1400" y="6500" xSmall="50" ySmall="15600" num="20" url-slug="jamstack-conf-virtual" > <template v-slot:date>May 27, 2020</template> <template v-slot:event>Jamstack Conf Virtual</template> </app-text> ... </template> <script> ... export default { components: { // loading the decorative components in syncronously AppText, AppTree, AppBush, AppStreetlamp2, // loading the heavy station components in asyncronously AppBuildPlugins: () => import("@/components/AppBuildPlugins.vue"), AppMillion: () => import("@/components/AppMillion.vue"), AppVirtual: () => import("@/components/AppVirtual.vue"), }, }; ... </script>

Within these components, you can see a number of patterns:

We have bushes and trees for decoration that we can sprinkle around viax and y values via props

We can have individual station components, which also have two different positioning values, one for large and small devices

We have a text component, which has three available slots, one for the date, and two for two different text lines

We’re also loading in the decorative components synchronously, and loading those heavier SVG stations async

SVG Animation

Header animation for Million Devs

The SVG animation is done with GreenSock (GSAP), with their new ScrollTrigger plugin. I wrote up a guide on how to work with GSAP for their latest 3.0 release earlier this year. If you’re unfamiliar with this library, that might be a good place to start.

Working with the plugin is thankfully straightforward, here is the base of the functionality we’ll need:

import { gsap } from "gsap"; import { ScrollTrigger } from "gsap/ScrollTrigger.js"; import { mapState } from "vuex"; gsap.registerPlugin(ScrollTrigger); export default { computed: { ...mapState([ "toggleConfig", "startConfig", "isAnimationDisabled", "viewportSize", ]), }, ... methods: { millionAnim() { let vm = this; let tl; const isScrollElConfig = { scrollTrigger: { trigger: `.million${vm.num}`, toggleActions: this.toggleConfig, start: this.startConfig, }, defaults: { duration: 1.5, ease: "sine", }, }; } }, mounted() { this.millionAnim(); }, };

First, we’re importing gsap and the package we need, as well as state from the Vuex store. I put the toggleActions and start config settings in the store and passed them into each component because while I was working, I needed to experiment with which point in the UI I wanted to trigger the animations, this kept me from having to configure each component separately.

Those configurations in the store look like this:

export default new Vuex.Store({ state: { toggleConfig: `play pause none pause`, startConfig: `center 90%`, } }

This configuration breaks down to

toggleConfig: play the animation when it passes down the page (another option is to say restart and it will retrigger if you see it again), it pauses when it is out of the viewport (this can slightly help with perf), and that it doesn’t retrigger in reverse when going back up the page.

startConfig is stating that when the center of the element is 90% down from the height of the viewport, to trigger the animation to begin.

These are the settings we decided on for this project, there are many others! You can understand all of the options with this video.

For this particular animation, we needed to treat it a little differently if it was a banner animation which didn’t need to be triggered on scroll or if it was later in the timeline. We passed in a prop and used that to pass in that config depending on the number in props:

if (vm.num === 1) { tl = gsap.timeline({ defaults: { duration: 1.5, ease: "sine", }, }); } else { tl = gsap.timeline(isScrollElConfig); }

Then, for the animation itself, I’m using what’s called a label on the timeline, you can think of it like identifying a point in time on the playhead that you may want to hang animations or functionality off of. We have to make sure we use the number prop for the label too, so we keep the timelines for the header and footer component separated.

tl.add(`million${vm.num}`) ... .from( "#front-leg-r", { duration: 0.5, rotation: 10, transformOrigin: "50% 0%", repeat: 6, yoyo: true, ease: "sine.inOut", }, `million${vm.num}` ) .from( "#front-leg-l", { duration: 0.5, rotation: 10, transformOrigin: "50% 0%", repeat: 6, yoyo: true, ease: "sine.inOut", }, `million${vm.num}+=0.25` );

There’s a lot going on in the million devs animation so I’ll just isolate one piece of movement to break down: above we have the girls swinging legs. We have both legs swinging separately, both are repeating several times, and that yoyo: true lets GSAP know that I’d like the animation to reverse every other alteration. We’re rotating the legs, but what makes it realistic is the transformOrigin starts at the center top of the leg, so that when it’s rotating, it’s rotating around the knee axis, like knees do :)

Adding an Animation Toggle

We wanted to give users the ability to explore the site without animation, should they have a vestibular disorder, so we created a toggle for the animation play state. The toggle is nothing special- it updates state in the Vuex store through a mutation, as you might expect:

export default new Vuex.Store({ state: { ... isAnimationDisabled: false, }, mutations: { updateAnimationState(state) { state.isAnimationDisabled = !state.isAnimationDisabled }, ... })

The real updates happen in the topmost App component where we collect all of the animations and triggers, and then adjust them based on the state in the store. We watch the isAnimationDisabled property for changes, and when one occurs, we grab all instances of scrolltrigger animations in the app. We don’t .kill() the animations, which one option, because if we did, we wouldn’t be able to restart them.

Instead, we either set their progress to the final frame if animations are disabled, or if we’re restarting them, we set their progress to 0 so they can restart when they are set to fire on the page. If we had used .restart() here, all of the animations would have played and we wouldn’t see them trigger as we kept going down the page. Best of both worlds!

watch: { isAnimationDisabled(newVal, oldVal) { ScrollTrigger.getAll().forEach((trigger) => { let animation = trigger.animation; if (newVal === true) { animation && animation.progress(1); } else { animation && animation.progress(0); } }); }, },

SVG Accessibility

I am by no means an accessibility expert, so please let me know if I’ve misstepped here- but I did a fair amount of research and testing on this site, and was pretty excited that when I tested on my Macbook via voiceover, the site’s pertinent information was traversable, so I’m sharing what we did to get there.

For the initial SVG that cased everything, we didn’t apply a role so that the screenreader would traverse within it. For the trees and bushes, we applied role="img" so the screenreader would skip it and any of the more detailed stations we applied a unique id and title, which was the first element within the SVG. We also applied role="presentation".

<svg ... role="presentation" aria-labelledby="analyticsuklaunch" > <title id="analyticsuklaunch">Launch of analytics</title>

I learned a lot of this from this article by Heather Migliorisi, and this great article by Leonie Watson.

The text within the SVG does announce itself as you tab through the page, and the link is found, all of the text is read. This is what that text component looks like, with those slots mentioned above.

<template> <a :href="`https://www.netlify.com/blog/2020/08/03/netlify-milestones-on-the-road-to-1-million-devs/#${urlSlug}`" > <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="450" height="250" :x="svgCoords.x" :y="svgCoords.y" viewBox="0 0 280 115.4" > <g :class="`textnode text${num}`"> <text class="d" transform="translate(7.6 14)"> <slot name="date">Jul 13, 2016</slot> </text> <text class="e" transform="translate(16.5 48.7)"> <slot name="event">Something here</slot> </text> <text class="e" transform="translate(16.5 70)"> <slot name="event2" /> </text> <text class="h" transform="translate(164.5 104.3)">View Milestone</text> </g> </svg> </a> </template>

Here’s a video of what this sounds like if I tab through the SVG on my Mac:

If you have further suggestions for improvement please let us know!

Visit the Million Developer microsite

GitHub repo

The repo is also open source if you want to check out the code or file a PR.

Thanks a million (pun intended) to my coworkers Zach Leatherman and Hugues Tennier who worked on this with me, their input and work was invaluable to the project, it only exists from teamwork to get it over the line! And so much respect to Alejandro Alvarez who did the design, and did a spectacular job. High fives all around. 🙌

The post The Making of: Netlify’s Million Devs SVG Animation Site appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

You can support CSS-Tricks by being an MVP Supporter.

The Making of: Netlify’s Million Devs SVG Animation Site published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

[new-tech]

10+1 Easy Ways To Make Money As A Teen

In this article, we present 11 easy ways to make money as a teen. These are some of the easiest and legit solutions to increase your bank account savings as a teenager and fulfill your future goals.

Let’s be honest: Everyone, but everyone, loves money. Each for their own purposes and as they say in my village “Money makes the world go round”.

Whether it’s even part-time or freelance jobs, the point is that seeing your bank account number surge every month is something that certainly makes you happy.

Most people are convinced that making money online is impossible. But what would you say if I told you that it is possible to earn money through the one thing you use more than any other in your day: the internet.

I’m not saying you’re going to be rich, but you are going to make money, from the comfort of your bedroom. There are several ways to do that, and we present 11 Easy ways to make money as a teenager

Take Part In Paid Surveys

Do you like filling out questionnaires? Then find out that there are few companies that conduct online surveys about products or consumer habits, and even pay for it.

It may not be crazy money, but hey why not testing it out? One of the sites you can do visit to complete cash surveys are ySense and Swagbucks

Create A Blog

If you’re one of the guys who love writing (not necessarily professionally) – and you keep a blog mostly for you, guess what: You can make some money through Google Adsense.

The more popular your views are (translate it into the more clicks you get), the more money you’ll make.

If you don’t know how to start a blog check this step-by-step tutorial. Also, to start a blog you will need hosting. Check these reliable hosting providers here.

READ ALSO: Why you should definitely start a website if you want to earn money online.

Auction Things You Don’t Need Anymore.

The tremendously fast growth and success of eBay have brought many people in online auctions. Whether you want to empty your closet or your nursery, you can make some money by listing them on sites like eBay.

Complete Tasks On YSense

ySense is what we call a crowdsourcing board in which a company or individual can apply in order to find people who will coordinate or perform tasks on their behalf, These are small tasks that cannot be done by computers.

In other words, you can make some money as a teenager by choosing the best photo for a showcase or by describing products or recognizing artists on music CDs.

There are people who earn up to 900 dollars per month working with this method.

Sell On Craigslist

Craigslist is a website that anyone can put ads with things to sell along with his or her contact details. On Craigslist you have millions of people who are looking for deals. That means they are in ”buying-mode”.

You can start listing stuff on Craigslist to make some money. You can list things you own, things that other people don’t want, or even list deals you find on marketplaces like eBay, AliExpress, etc.

Sell Your Old PC

If you have a 1995 IBM personal computer, an Atari, or even a forgotten Nokia 3310 in your drawer, don’t rush to send it for recycling. This is because out there (in the magical world of the internet that is) there are several retro fans who pay and even quite well in many cases for such “outdated” technological objects.

You can list it on Craigslist, set-up an auction on eBay or list them on websites like sellmyretro.com.

Post Videos On YouTube

You’ve seen it, and you know it. You don’t have to be a PewDiePie or the kids from Comedy Central to make money via Youtube. Uploading some fun or informative videos – even using your smartphone – can bring you some profit.

The easiest part is to start recording yourself playing video games and upload them on YouTube. I mean, it can get easier than this, right?

If you are ready to take it to the next level, you might end up rich as well.

Cash In Your Time And Your Talents

If you’ve never heard of it before, the Fiverr website promotes someone’s abilities and puts them in touch with others who are willing to pay for them.

For example, if you’re a digital photographer lover, you might find some freelance projects to work on. If you know how to use photoshop, there are endless graphic design jobs.

If you consider yourself to be a guru on Social Media, you can offer your services on Social Media Management.

Put A Price On Your Original Instagram Photos

Why just share the images you take on social media? Sites like Instaprints sell prints (from posters to drawings on T-shirts etc) of photos that will concession against payment.

So those, cool photos you take and upload on social media, why not print them on t-shirts and sell them to your fans.

Buy Domain Names And Sell Them Later

Some people have made a lot of money in possession of some popular domains, which later sold them at a much higher price than the one they bought.

What you need to do is head over to Namecheap and get your self a few domain names. They only cost like 8 – 10 dollars each. Then head to Namesilo and list them for sale for free.

If you have domain names that people are willing to pay big bucks to get them, then you’ve hit the jackpot, my friend.

TIP: One word, short domains with a .com extension are really (really) popular among buyers.

Design Apps For Smartphones

Okay, I accept that this is much more specialized, so I left it at the end. It may be more difficult than all the previous ones as it requires specific skills. But if you have them, you’ll be surprised by the money it can add to your income.

One a second thought, you might want to check App Presser and QuickApp Ninja. Apppresser allows you to build any app you want without having developer skills and the QuickAppNinja can help you built small viral games – again without any developer skills.

Both services have step-by-step tutorials on how to export your applications and upload them on Google Play or other app marketplaces. And who knows, maybe you are the next mobile app kingpin.

So, what you think about these Easy Ways To Make Money as a Teen. Do you find yourself resonating with them? Which one are you thinking about trying first? Leave your comment below and inspire other teenagers like you to develop a new income stream.

source

[breanne-says-boo]

The Vampire Chronicles Facebook Interview **Recap**(5/4/17)

The Television Show

Production

As many know now, they will be working with Paramount Television and Anonymous Content

They want to stay fully engaged with fans in the production process

No set broadcaster, all options open (Netflix, Hulu, etc.) (Chris joked about it being on Facebook)

Next announcement will be when that network is decided

No timeline for production. They have no idea how long it will take. Script-writing is next. Chris is the one who will be script-writing, Anne will review

Chris: “She finished writing season 1 when she wrote the books!”

Pilot is done. Next are more episodes. They are starting the process and having several meetings with Paramount and Anonymous Content

Anne SWEARS the series will be 100% loyal to the books. (They named GoT as an example of doing this though soooooo)

Anne said compromises are inevitable but artistic control comes from good will and respect; you make it work by picking people you admire and trust. They worked with Paramount and Anonymous Content since they all agreed on a common vision and the end result of the series

No idea about locations of sets and whatnot

Don’t know if they will keep with the 80’s period of the books, however Anne wants to do Lestat’s pre-vampire period period-accurate

Neil Jordan may end up helping out on the project

Casting

Still taking suggestions from fans and looking fancasts up on imdb

Anne: “Lestat is always shaking his fists to those who would break him down…Scrappish impish…lovable hero” Chris: “--and he’s hot!! :D He’s gonna be hot. #LestatIsHot”

Chris and Anne might want to cameo in the series (joked about making a game out of it)

Some characters may change where “ethnicity is flexible”

Anne and Chris agree that POC being casted are important and will be considered in casting. The Millennial vamps (older gang) will most likely be largely POC.

Anne says she has taken notice of black fans showing their admiration of Aaliyah playing Akasha.

Anne gave a story about meeting an Akasha cosplayer who mentioned that she and her friends feel left out of high fantasy for being black and how Anne was moved by this.

Anne: “Akasha isn’t written as black or a person of color…she’s middle eastern” Me: ??? (Those aren’t...mutually exclusive???) Anne: “--but she could be a person of color.”

Marius was played by a black man in the musical and Anne thought he did a great job. Marius can be any ethnicity so long as he’s half Roman. She’d prefer to have Marius as blue eyes and blonde haired like Lestat but it’s “not imperative for him”.

Anne: “Louis at least has to be beautiful”

Armand has to look as described as well.

Anne wanted Cher to play Gabrielle.

Anne and Chris to be inclusive, but will always focus more on how fine the actor is. Talent is needed to get the role, not just looks.

Armand will be casted as someone who looks 17, but will be technically older. Not sure about age for Lestat and Louis (Anne is thinking early 30s)

Physical and emotional aging will be put into consideration (she gave Marius as an example as him looking like he’s in his 40s but being mentally older)

Plot and Episodes

They will tell the story chronologically in Lestat’s eyes so wolves-paris-so on. Basically, how knowledge unfolds for Lestat is how it will unfold for audience THIS MAY CHANGE depending on when they talk to producers, however this is not what they want in terms of how the events should happen.

Don’t want to cheat on Lestat’s life and skip out any details of it (go figure)

Stay faithful to the books and to Lestat’s story

Chris warns for us to be mindful of news that doesn’t come from official page

Lestat and Gabbi’s journey to be expanded

Origin stories of Marius and other older vampires will be shown and expanded on (done through the flashback stories Marius gives)

Blood and Gold will be involved but they won’t DO the story (so using that material for possible spin offs)

A lot about the Talamasca and especially David. Jesse too, but mostly David

(Anne: He’s close friends with Lestat in TOTBT Me: Is that what you call it? lmao)

TVL could be 2-3 seasons. IWTV may be one. Depends

Anne and Chris want to know what goes wrong in the translation from book to media in other series so they can avoid it

They’re keeping eroticism the same as in the books.

Lestat turning Gabrielle will be a big scene, as they feel this is when the series starts to truly bring the vampire world into view and Lestat really starts becoming a vampire. This scene is significant in asking the audience what they would do in that instance. Lestat turning will also be significant.

Characters and Character Relations

SOMEONE FUCKING MENTIONED LOUSTAT AS THE LOUIS / LESTAT SHIP NAME AND THEY BOTH LOST IT (which one of you was it? Hm?)

There will be a lot about Louis and Lestat’s relationship in the series (and Lestat and Nicki)

Anne says she understands how important queer relationships are and how they have driven the series

*On expanding on other characters* Chris: ...human characters like Jesse or Daniel Mollo- Anne: OR LESTAT WHEN HE’S HUMAN Me: :/

Anne doesn’t feel a need to make new characters.

More info on Théâtre des Vampires and the characters in that part will expanded as well

Chris and Anne openly acknowledge Lestat as bisexual and this will be depicted clearly within the show

On the topic of Armand, what that character means to Anne will shine, so he will gain a more sympathetic role outside of just the IWTV perspective. Both his dark side and his more childish, light-side will be shown

Jim Morrison of The Doors was Anne’s inspiration for Lestat’s singing voice and for the band (I forget but I think this was the song Anne named as being a good example. Though, I’m partial to their sexy song “5 to 1″). She describes Lestat’s voice as somewhere between a “barratone and tenor...Melodic”. (Something about Jon Bon Jovi also a little bit)

Mayfair Witches

Rights of Mayfair Witches not available to them (?) and thus, the crossover books are not a part of the VC TV series and, thus no show for them right now

Maybe Mayfair TV series in future. Anne doesn’t want them to play second fiddle to the vampires

Anne and Chris

They talked about the recent April Fool’s Joke. Anne apologized to Justin Beiber?? Why?? I don’t know (they weren’t behind the joke article)

Chris likes Riverdale (ew)

Chris worked with Anne on Ramses the Damned.

Someone in the VC Discord Server brought up the question of if Chris could/would carry out the VC books after Anne. Based off this interview, I think it’s very likely depending on how well the VC TV series goes. He seemed a little apprehensive about it, but he’s worked with his mother on writing and is familiar enough with her characters to care about them. I think it’s possible

Chris went to the VC balls in New Orleans as a kid

Chris’ A Density of Souls may get a chance to be a film. Chris is in discussion with someone about it (?? that’s what I got from the interview anyways)

*After Anne leaves to get Chris a Coke* Chris *to the camera*: She won’t let me out of the house. She won’t let me leave!! Me: Same

The Facebook Page and Other Information

Anne, yet again, made a little speech about how nerds mean a lot to Hollywood nowadays

“Readers know things about the novels that are valuable”

They have a record of fan comments that Anne reads every so often

They mentioned some of the fights going on in the FB thread

(Chris: There are some people with...strong casting choices. Anne: I got into fights with people lmao)

Anne prefers if you message her over the page rather than through emails

They cannot do much about given resumes and asking about jobs related to production. There will be a time for that later

Anne is in contract for two more VC novels. It sounded like her next novel is also included in the TV series’ contract, but I could have misinterpreted. 

Anne asks about any regrets or things she would change from the books as she goes into the series. More fleshing out but that’s about it

Disappointing the fans is their biggest concern and worry

[hashtagtransanthology-blog]

Contributor Interview: Velvl Ryder

Velvl talks writing, translating, erotic fiction, and looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses. 

1.       Tell us a bit about yourself and what you generally write.

I’m a transman living far too far away from exciting things for my liking. New Zealand is a great place to visit, and entirely too boring to stay in longer than a few months, and so I started seeking my escape from it early on through writing. I have loved science fiction from an early age, and enjoy dabbling in any and all forms of it with my writing. I’ve also found a really amazing community through writing erotic fiction, and am proud to have many of my stories features in anthologies and journals there as well.

2.       What is your essay for #Trans about?

In #Trans, I wrote about my association with the concept based on the root of it all: the word “trans” itself. I realized that I had been through so many transformations and transitions in my life already, and that I had taken on a role of a translator for so many of my friends who wanted to understand my side of things, that it would be a good idea to write about it. I’ve been incredibly lucky with the support I’ve received from my friends throughout the process.

3.       Katherine Cross describes her realization of being trans (and a feminist) as a series of 'clicks' on a keyboard in online space. What was your 'click' moment when you realized you were trans?

It’s funny, because the further back I look, the more I find events or experiences that should have clued me in earlier, and “clicked” earlier, to who I am now. I used to refer to myself in the masculine (Russian has genders, like French and German does) when I was very little, I would cry when I was forced to be particularly feminine, I always assumed the male character in any games on the playground and later in roleplaying online and writing my stories… I think it was a series for me, as well, that slowly lead up to the moment of epiphany about two years ago.

4.       What is your next project?

I am currently working on several short stories for anthology calls. I have an entire Trello board filled with calls for submissions, and I aim to get at least ten out a month. I also have a novella in the works, based on a conversation I had with my partner, that brings up the concept of feminism and toxic manipulation and knowing who you are, in a weird, science-fiction-of-the-sixties style narration that I am really excited about.

5.       You're given a time machine. Do you go forwards or backwards in time? Why? What do you do?

I always answer this one badly, because I think we all – to a degree – wear rose-tinted glasses when thinking of the past. I would love to go back to the past rather than the future, just to see. I want to see if it would allow me to feel more gratitude about where I am now, I want to see if I would be friends with the people who I hold in such high esteem now, I want to see if making one tiny change could lead to great things or mundane things… yes, I think I would go back to the past, but to my own past, rather than going far, far back.

6.       What is your favourite book written by a trans or nonbinary writer?

I really love the work of Meg-John Barker, who I was lucky enough to meet at Eroticon in March 2017.

7.       What historical figure--trans or cis--would you like to have dinner with? What would you ask them, and what would you order?

I’d go to an obscure figure that I had to research for a story a few years ago, a boy named Stesilaus. I never found more on him than a few paragraphs in an article or two, but he was a young man who was apparently so beautiful and so enchanting, that the Greek general Themistocles nearly fought in the street over him to claim him as his eromenos. I would love to just speak with him, find out what it’s like to have such power by just being himself. And I think we would have something absolutely delicious for dinner, like olives and warm bread and goat’s cheese.

8.       What's one message, image, or feeling do you want people to take away from your work?

I’m not sure if it’s one thing, but I guess if it’s one feeling for any one person that counts, right? I would love for someone to read my work and know they’re not alone. Be it with a line I write that they’ve thought of before, or a character they can relate to, or a situation that makes them feel safe… I would love my work to make people feel like they’re not alone.

9.       It's Friday night and your plans fall through. What do you do instead?

I’m big on Netflix and chill, even though the Netflix selection is substantially smaller in NZ than it is elsewhere. Otherwise I tend to get curled up on by my giant orange cat [as pictured], and read until I fall asleep. I live a high party lifestyle.

10.   Finally, what is your social media of choice? How can people contact you?

I’m a lot more active on Twitter lately, and you can find me at @inscripturience there. I also update my website constantly, and can be contacted through there. You can find it at http://valprozorovawriter.space . and I am very active on Instagram, where my username is @whiskeyandspite

[mariethecrocheter]

Reflections of the Past Year & Thoughts For the Next

2016 was a pretty busy year, and for a whole lot of reasons. Some good, some bad, some...meh. (Whatever that means.)

I just wanted to take a few minutes to write about some stuff: a few games released over the past 12 months that were really important to me, some things that I plan to/hope to do over the next year, some personal challenges, and, most of all, my gratitude to everyone who has been putting up with me for the past...3+ years? That’s how long I’ve been on Tumblr? Time really flies, doesn’t it?

I have met so many friendly people through Tumblr and Twitter, and I am deeply grateful for all the kind comments and support! Let’s make 2017 a good one, right? Even though the rest of the world may be pretty bad right now argh

Anyways, time to briefly(?) delve DEEPLY AND IN A RAMBLING MANNER into some of the highlights of 2016 and discuss what’s to come in 2017!

First and Foremost: Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns Japanese release: 23 June 2016 North American release (tentative): 28 Feb 2017

A game celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Bokumono franchise! 1996 was the 20th anniversary of the series in the Japanese market, while 2017 is the 20th anniversary in the North American market. (And we now have two different series in the English-speaking world: the original series, now called Story of Seasons and localized by XSEED, and Natsume’s independently-made Harvest Moon games!)

Trio of Towns was first announced at the end of 2015, and released in Japan during the summer of 2016. I’ve been covering it on a side blog, http://friendsof3villages.tumblr.com/, so check that out if you haven’t already. (Seriously, though, I think about 90% of the people who subscribe to this blog subscribe to that one too, haha. Hooray for Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons love!)

@xseedgames is going to be bringing this title to North America early this year. Just a couple more months! 

Just a couple more months until we can shear our rabbits in English!! Heh heh. 

One question that I get asked from time to time is: is this game worth getting? If you liked previous instalments in the series (Story of Seasons, Harvest Moon: A New Beginning, etc.), then my answer would be YES!! If, like me, you really enjoyed those games, you’ll probably like this one. The controls and basic systems are very similar, but there are a lot of new features that will keep you busy. 

They made some improvements based on feedback they got about Story of Seasons: The story is easier to clear, there are more heart events for each marriage candidate, and the reverse confession/proposal scenes are pretty easy to trigger this time around. 

If, however, you weren’t as much of a fan of the two previous games, well... I’d still suggest you give this game a fair try if you get the chance, but I understand if it may not be your cup of tea. 

I haven’t had the chance to try Natsume’s new game yet (Skytree Village) so I can’t say anything on it. I do hope to get the chance to play it sometime, though! I...kind of have a backlog of games I want to/need to play... xD

The next most important game was Fire Emblem Fates, which came out in North America in February 2016. 

I have no physical copy of Fates or its Japanese version, so here’s a picture of the only physical Fates-related object I own: the beautifully boxed Japanese soundtrack! ...plus the other two games that made my year. Ahem. ^^; (And this totally wasn’t a test for photographing items on that shelf with the intention of later photographing some crocheted kitchen items I plan to sell. ...Kidding. This was a photography test. xD)

I’ve been doing some translations for the DLC here on this blog: http://fe14festivalofbondstranslations.tumblr.com/ Fellow admin Kiyoshi and I are going to finish up the Hoshidan Festival DLC soon, and...we’d like to translate more CD drama tracks. 

...I have no idea why the Nohrian and Hoshidan Festival DLC isn’t available outside of Japan, but I hope we see it released in the English-speaking world this year! I’m dying to see what kind of adjustments they make in the English version. The conversations give us more insights into character relationships, and perceptions of them can change or give us greater insight depending on how the conversation is presented.

I plan to do some translation comparison posts on Fates after the festival translation is complete. I have a couple of topics that I want to write about I just...haven’t yet. (Most of them involve Kana, Forrest, and Soleil, who seems to have more changes to her English support convos than any other character.)

Slight changes in her conversations with her mother, for one... Details later. Mwahahaha. (They’re slight, though. But kinda cool.)

The Surprise Hit (For Me): Pokémon Sun & Moon

Until December 2016, I hadn’t touched a Pokémon game in about 15 years. But, I have fond memories of the early games...

Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Blue Version (both for the Game Boy) came out when I was in high school. I scoffed at them until trying my brother’s Red Version one day when I was very, very bored...and I liked it! I had my own GBC and managed to get a copy of Blue Version, and I liked it a lot. I also got Yellow Version after it came out, and after Gold and Silver were announced and released in Japan, I was miffed that I would have to wait a year or more to play them. I was so miffed, I decided to get the Japanese versions (through...means that I later realized were less than legal ^^;;;;;;;) and teach myself Japanese! And...I managed to do it. Somehow. xD I went through the ENTIRE Silver Version with a hiragana/katakana chart, a dictionary, and basic grammar/phrasebook I repeatedly checked out from the library (and my dad later bought them for me). Maybe I didn’t understand much of what was going on, but I got enough out of it to enjoy the game.

In other words, Pokémon Silver Version was the MAIN REASON I took up the Japanese language! Crazy, huh? 

But then I started college and lost interest. Gaming had to take a backseat for a while, and I just didn’t want to devote time to another series. (I lost interest in Fire Emblem for a long time due to this and other reasons, too.)

But, after hearing a lot of praise for Sun and Moon, especially praise about the story and character development (two things I love in a game), and attracted by the bright, cheery style, I decided to give them a try. And I love them! I’m fully hooked again! Goodbye, free time. Don’t need you anymore. 

The thing I found most intriguing is the number of languages available. This one was released simultaneously in English and Japanese!! I couldn’t even imagine that back in 1999 or 2000 or whenever it was that Gold and Silver were released!

I still have my copy of Yellow Version, and... I have my brother’s Red and (English) Gold versions. ...In fact, I have his Yellow, as well...? And where are my Blue and (English) Silver...? I have no idea, lol. He must have mine, and I have his...? Anyway, the battery that saves the data is long dead on all but one of them (I already forgot which one, though I know it wasn’t Gold but one of the older ones), so it doesn’t matter too much. 

In case you’re wondering: my favorite Pokémon of the original 151 (152 if you count Missingno! xD) are Clefable and Dragonair. (And Dragonite, but not quite as much.) Of the next generation, Pichu and Bellosom. (Who I always think of by its Japanese name: Kireihana.) I’ve now found myself quite fond of Lilligant (because it looks like Bellosom!), Comfey, and the various Oricorios! ...I’m a sucker for plant and fairy types, heh.

Moving Forward &  Personal Challenges & ...?

I want to branch out so I’m now doing a little work with Source Gaming, translating columns and such of one of my favorite game developer, Masahiro Sakurai. I’ve only done a couple, but this year I have some other interviews by a certain game producer that I want to translate and cover in-depth...

Yoshifumi Hashimoto Interviews

There’s a long interview with him in one of last year’s issues of Nintendo Dream. I’m sure others have already translated it, but... I want to do a FULL, thorough translation of the article because there’s a lot of interesting facts and trivia in it. He’s been the producer of the Bokujou Monogatari series since 2005, or for more than half the life of the series. (He took over upon the departure of creator Yasuhiro Wada.)

And there’s Mr. Hashimoto himself!

There’s an interview with him in the back of the guidebooks, too... AND some interesting trivia in the short official guidebooks! There’s a lot of trivia to be translated and shared! x)

In Conclusion

There’s so much to do this year, and I look forward to working on new projects when I’m able to! =D Unfortunately my health declined a bit in 2016, as some symptoms I hoped were temporary turned out to be long-lasting or even permanent, but it’s just one more thing learn to cope with and work around. That’s the nature of chronic illness, urgh. I’m used to it, but it still stinks. (In case you’re curious, I have something very similar to multiple sclerosis, so it really feels like I’m waging a war against the effects of time itself...)

Regardless of what happens, I’ve got a lot of stuff planned for the year. I’m especially looking forward to the English release of Trio of Towns, because I’m eager to see the writing in the English version! There are always small (and sometimes, big) changes and tweaks made to the localised English version, and comparing it to the Japanese one will be a lot of fun. I hope to get several more translated resident and heart events up before the game comes out in English, though! (And, if you must ask, my favorite bachelors are still Yuzuki and Ludus, and my favorite bachelorettes are the twins, Siluka especially. I like Kasumi a lot too. ...Actually, I like ALL the marriage candidates, so it’s hard to choose absolute favorites. The additional heart events and additional dialogue give the characters more depth and development than many of the previous games.)

That’s about all I have to say right now. Pretty much. Yep. Oh, wait, you read all this? Wow. xD Um, here, have a hug! **hug**

[entergamingxp]

my life with Jason Brookes • Eurogamer.net

In the autumn of 1995, I interviewed for a writing position on Edge magazine. I had no experience in publishing; I’d spent a year since leaving university writing manuals and design documents for the developer Big Red Software, but I was desperate to be a journalist. Although I hadn’t read Edge that much, everyone I worked with treated it like a holy text. It felt like a long shot. Then Jason Brookes turned up late for my interview, was friendly but distracted throughout, and at the end set me a writing task before disappearing completely. I assumed I had failed. Over a month later however, he called me and offered me a job. This was my first inkling that Jason had his own way of working.

Three days ago I got a call from Simon Cox who joined Edge just after me and later became deputy editor. Jason had been ill for three years – he died in the early hours of Monday morning. Between long difficult pauses, Simon and I swapped a few stories about our time on the magazine. I put the phone down and cried, and thought about Jason. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since.

Jason Brookes began his journalism career at the cult Super Nintendo magazine SuperPlay, under the tutorage of launch editor, Matt Bielby. He’d originally applied for a job on the Sega magazine, Mega, but editor Neil West soon realised Brookes was a complete Nintendo fanboy and pushed him Bielby’s way. “From the start, we were influenced by Japanese magazines – not just games mags, but women’s mags, car mags and anything else we could get our hands on – as well as Japanese comics and anime,” says Bielby. “What struck me about Jason was just how much he knew about and loved Japanese culture – and gaming in particular, and Nintendo especially amongst that. He knew more about all of it than the rest of us put together.

Photo credit: Hilary Nichols.

“Getting reliable info on Japanese games was a painful, time-consuming business in the pre-internet days, involving late-night phone calls to the other side of the world, local language students doing vaguely comprehensible translations for us from Japanese magazine articles, and all sorts of palaver. Jason was intrinsic to this.”

As there were so few SNES games officially released in the UK each month, the SuperPlay team was forced to scour the obscure grey import market – and this was Jason’s forte. “Even if the average SuperPlay reader was never going to buy Super Wagan Island or Zan II, the fact that it existed and we could tell people about it added to the unique feel of the magazine,” says Beilby. “Jason would find all sorts of obscure stuff that I, for one, couldn’t get my head around at all. It became his territory in a way, and his enthusiasm made us all consider the most oddball releases in a new light.”

In 1993, Future Publishing’s magazine launch specialist Steve Jarrett was looking for writing staff to help with an ambitious project. It was a new type of games magazine, eschewing the pally, hobbyist tone of most publications of the era in favour of a serious, refined, journalistic style, inspired by visual effects mag, Cinefex. That project was Edge. “He made a huge impact on the magazine,” says Jarrett. “He filled in a lot of the gaps in my knowledge – he brought with him his love of Japanese culture, games and game art – and at the time, that was where all the innovation was coming from. He opened Edge up. He was fortunate, too, because I wasn’t so keen on travel at the time so he did all the trips to the US and Japan!”

His first issue as editor was Edge 11, which featured a series of exclusive articles on the forthcoming PlayStation console, which at the time was still known by its codename, PS-X. Jason and Matt had been invited by Sony’s third-party development manager Phil Harrison to view the legendary T-Rex graphics demo being touted to developers, and Jason later secured interviews with staff within Sony Computer Entertainment Japan, as well as at Namco, Konami and Capcom for the big reveal feature. Over the course of ten packed pages, the magazine communicated the importance and potential impact of this vital newcomer to the games industry. As a knowledgeable fan of dance music, Jason also perfectly understood Sony’s determination to align PlayStation with the ascendant 1990s club culture, running several articles on the machine’s groundbreaking marketing and its relationship with hip brands such as Ministry of Sound and Designers Republic. He saw that both the audience and industry were maturing, and that popular culture would have to cede ground to video games. He just got it.

The Edge office in the mid-1990s was a cross between a university halls of residence, a night club and a game development studio – an atmosphere utterly presided over by Jason. He was an unapologetic perfectionist, determined that every page of the magazine exemplified the Edge vision of style and substance. He would spend hours choosing exactly the right photograph or screenshot for even the most minor preview, and my abiding memory of him is hunched over a lightbox, examining 35mm slides from some Japanese arcade trade show or obscure Shibuya-based development studio.

Everything would always come together at the last possible minute. The magazine flatplan – the page layout guide that showed writing and art staff what each issue would contain – was almost always virtually empty until the week before deadline. Then suddenly, Jason would announce that he’d secured an interview with Howard Lincoln or Miyamoto, Peter Molyneux or Bill Gates, or an exclusive look at some amazing new AM2 arcade game, then we’d be off. He’d trust us too. I remember the day Susie Hamilton from Derby-based developer Core Design (then best known for aging Mega Drive title Thunderhawk) brought their latest project into the office for us to see – something called Tomb Raider. Jason wasn’t interested so me and production editor Nick Harper had a play during our lunch hour. I think within five seconds we were over at Jason’s desk, saying “Um, we think you’d better come and have a look at this.” Straightaway he gave it two pages. Deadlines would often involve two or three all-night sessions, the whole team writing and laying out pages as Orbital blasted from the stereo. It was hard work, but it was fun. We’d smuggle beer in, and Edge’s art editor Terry Stokes, an inveterate prankster, would set up elaborate traps for us around the office.

What did I learn during this fraught, tense, hilarious nights? I learned everything about writing quickly, about getting the best from poorly translated interviews, about how every sentence needs to carry a fact or idea that takes the story forward. Jason hated waffle, he hated mediocre, colourless writing. He wanted us to communicate the joy of a Treasure shooter, the technological magic inherent in a lit, textured polygon, the underlying philosophy of an executive soundbite. He thought deeply about games and how they functioned. His favourite was R-Type and to hear him break it down was to hear a Nobel prize-winning scientist explaining DNA strands. As Jason’s brother Matthew recalls, “He loved the passionate attention to detail, the creativity, the huge sprites, the multi-layered parallax, the colours, and even the superlative collision detection. I’m not sure how long he must have spent playing and eventually completing that game.”

Jason didn’t teach us how to make a magazine, he just expected us to know. When I turned up to the Edge office on my first day of work, he told me to take screenshots of Sega Rally. I didn’t know what the hell that meant, I had no idea of the process. I just had to go over to the Sega Saturn, plug the leads in, figure out how to use the Apple Mac connected to our CRT gaming monitor and get on with it. Sometimes, he’d disappear to Japan or LA for a week and you wouldn’t know when he was coming back, you’d have to piece together his intentions from vague emails and editorial meeting notes. That’s just the way it worked, we all knew it. You figured stuff out. And then he’d return and flip through the latest issue of the mag and say “you did a really good job on this article” and my god, you’d glow with pride all day.

His perfectionism at Edge lasted until his very last act at the magazine – his final Editor’s Intro. “I just remember how long it took him to craft it,” says production editor at the time, Jane Bentley. “That sign off was the most agonising 300 words I’ve ever seen someone write and rewrite. I think I came out in hives having to stay up all night for final sub checks before the mag could get biked off to the printers. But Edge was a magic world back then. A real gang of super fans.”

After this, he moved to San Francisco writing for US magazines Xbox Nation and GMR as well Japanese publications LOGiN and Famitsu. More recently, he got back into pure design, helping indie studio 17-Bit Studios create its website.

A few months before he died, we all attended Simon Cox’s wedding in the Cotswolds. I sat next to Jason for most of the reception, and we reminisced about the olden days. At some point quite late on, after a few glasses of champagne, I said to him, “when you gave me the job on Edge, you changed my life. Everything I have done in writing after that is really down to you.” He just smiled at me in that charming and slightly airy way of his. I hope I have lived up to whatever it was you saw in me on that warm autumn afternoon long ago.

This is what I have learned from Jason Brookes: be good at what you do. Take care. Make every sentence you write, every image you capture, every idea you foster mean something. And if you are given the chance to thank someone for helping you, take that chance. In fact, do it now. Email them, text them, put down your phone or close your laptop and go find them. Tell them what they did. Because life can be cruel, and important people are sometimes taken away too soon. Jason, you were brilliant, difficult, talented, chaotic, spiritual and loving. You always ended your editor’s intros with a single phrase – the future is almost here. That’s how you lived – with one foot in next week, or next year, or the next decade even, waiting with a smile on your face for the rest of us to catch up.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2019/12/my-life-with-jason-brookes-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=my-life-with-jason-brookes-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[writingguide003-blog]

27 Writing Lessons & Hacks From Some of the Best Writers on the Planet

New Post has been published on https://writingguideto.com/must-see/27-writing-lessons-hacks-from-some-of-the-best-writers-on-the-planet/

27 Writing Lessons & Hacks From Some of the Best Writers on the Planet

photographer name

The amount of bad writing advice out there is astounding. People who have never published anything selling courses on how to make a career as a writer. Terribly written Medium articles telling you how to improve your prose. Marketing books from writers who not only haven’t sold many books—but their own marketing books don’t sell. All this bad advice adds up and makes a harder thing—an already difficult industry to navigate—even harder.

Over the last year, I’ve been lucky enough to interview some of the best writers on the planet for WritingRoutines.com. It was the opportunity of a lifetime to be able to ask Pulitzer Prize winners, #1 New York Times best-selling authors, brilliant novelists, talented journalists and expert communicators about how they practice their craft. I got valuable lessons from each one. I’ve collected a few of the best below, alongside some of the insights—or hacks as we call them today to get more people to click—from writers I wish were still alive to interview or ones I wish to interview someday if the opportunity presents itself.

I hope you learn as much from them as I did. Enjoy!

***

Devote Yourself to Someone Greater First

“If I am asked today to advise a young writer who has not yet made up his mind what way to go, I would try to persuade him to devote himself first to the work of someone greater, interpreting or translating him. If you are a beginner there is more security in such self-sacrifice than in your own creativity and nothing you ever do with all your heart is done in vain.”

— Stefan Zweig, author of The World of Yesterday and in the 1920’s and 1930’s was one of the most popular authors in the world

Wake Up Early And Read, Read, Read

“I wake up around 5am. I have 2-3 cups of coffee. I read and read and read for two hours. I read high quality literary fiction to be inspired, high quality non-fiction about a topic I am fascinated by in order to learn, I read inspirational or spiritual writing to feel that special something inside, and often I will spend some  time studying a game. Then I might read the literary fiction some more. At some point, I get the urge or the itch to put the books away. I go to my computer and start to write.”

—  James Altucher, author of Choose Yourself!, which the USA Today’s called one of “Best Business Books of All Time.”

Do Not Chase Exotic Locations to Write

“It was a time everyone was pressing wonderful houses on us. ‘I have a perfectly marvellous house for you to write in,’ they’d say. Of course no one needs marvellous houses to write in. I still knew that much. All you needed was one room. But somehow the next house always beckoned.”

— Budd Schulberg, author of What Makes Sammy Run? and the Academy Award-winning screenplay for On the Waterfront

Edit Ten Times

“I repeatedly edit it many times, at least ten. I just keep on doing it, until I can’t think of further improvements. I can’t say that is a process in any formal sense, simply a recognition that the “process” to date hasn’t worked very well and so it must continue. I don’t pretend this is efficient.”

— Tyler Cowen, economics professor, author of Average Is Over and contributor to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and many other publications

Nobody Gets Talker’s Block

“No one ever gets talker’s block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right, until all the craziness in his life has died down.”

— Seth Godin, New York Times bestselling author of Purple Cow and more than 20 other books

Do the Three Passes of Editing

“[My editing] rests on three passes. The first pass is when you write the best chapter you can. The second pass comes later once the whole book (or whole part of the book containing the chapter) is done. During this pass, I come back to the chapter on my computer and cut and tighten. The final pass is when I read through a printed version of the chapter on paper. Reading on paper is necessary if you’re going to root out odd constructions or minor errors.”

— Cal Newport, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Deep Work

The Only Way Out is Through

“The way out of this mess is through. A friend of mine who used to do long-distance running gave me some advice on dealing with pain as a writer. “What do you do about the cramps?” I asked. I was noticing they hit my in the gut usually at the three or four mile mark. I thought he’d have some great advice on how to avoid them altogether. In fact, I assumed this was the case. His answer surprised me, though. ‘Cramps? What do I do? I keep running, and eventually they go away. I run through the cramps.’ What do I do when I feel blocked? I write through the block.”  

— Jeff Goins, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Real Artists Don’t Starve

Sometimes You Just Need Some Good Earmuffs

“I’m an “absolute quiet” kind of person. If I’m writing at home, and there’s any noise at all, such as my wonderful hubby puttering around and coincidentally clearing his throat, I wear my Peltor Sport Ultimate 10 Hearing Protector Earmuffs. I’m so used to them that when I need to concentrate, I put them on even when there isn’t any noise. Earmuffs are like a signal to my brain—Okay, focus! On planes, I often wear noise canceling headphones.”  

— Dr. Barbara Oakley, bestselling author of A Mind for Numbers and former Army Captain

Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You

“What they want to hear is, ‘Here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script’…but I always say, ‘Be so good they can’t ignore you.’”

— Steve Martin, author of Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life and award-winning actor and banjo player

Keep the Best in Mind

“It really depends on the genre of work I’m doing–I always try to keep models in mind, though the model will change depending on what I’m working on. For the book on Cato the Younger, Jimmy Soni and I were constantly referring to Tom Holland’s book on the Roman Republic, Rubicon; for our book on Claude Shannon, to James Gleick’s The Information and Sylvia Nasar’s A Beautiful Mind. For my academic work, people like Danielle Allen are great models.”

— Rob Goodman, congressional speechwriter and co-author of A Mind at Play and Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar

Quit Your Bitching

“Don’t lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don’t have a career. You have a life. Do the work. Keep the faith. Be true blue. You are a writer because you write. Keep writing and quit your bitching. Your book has a birthday. You don’t know what it is yet.”

― Cheryl Strayed, author of the number #1 New York Times bestseller Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things

Fix The Important Things

“Writer’s block is miserable and part of it can be just being in a really bad place. Sometimes if you’re just in a bad mental place, it doesn’t matter what work you put in. You have to fix bigger things than your writing.”

— Hari Kondabolu, the comic who the New York Times called “one of the most necessary political comedians working today.”

Get a Giant Sketchpad

“Notebooks have always been big for me, both in the early stages of a new project and as a way to get myself unstuck if I’m struggling. But I have giant, chicken-scratch handwriting, and would always end up jotting down thoughts over half a dozen pages and then never really looking at them again. I have probably fifty illegible notebooks sitting in desk drawers, and I would easily have filled fifty more had I not been introduced to the most elegant solution by a friend, the author Ashley Cardiff: A sketchpad. A 9-by-12-inch artist’s sketchpad. This has been my great revelation. It’s unlined so I can read my bad handwriting and large enough that I can group several ideas together on the same page. Plus, it gives me an excuse to buy fancy mechanical pencils.”

— Liana Maeby, author of South on Highland, which actor/writer BJ Novak called “the kind of book kids will steal from each other.”

It’s All Material

“I’m never not working on material. Every second of my existence, I am thinking, ‘Can I do something with that?’” [By the way, this advice echoes a phrase I’ve learned from author Robert Greene, “It’s all material.” Meaning everything bad that happens, everything frustrating or delayed or disappointing—all of it can be fuel for a book. It can teach you something that helps you improve your business, it can become a story you pass along to a friend.]

— Jerry Seinfeld, creator of Seinfeld and named by Comedy Central the “12th Greatest Stand-up Comedian of All Time.”

Understand How the Pieces Fit Together

“To write a clean and fluent piece of any kind, you have to understand how its various parts fit together—how a change here will affect something over there. With a short piece, you never lose sight of the whole because you can read and reread it many times as you work. That’s what I do. I make a change and then I read the whole piece to see how it works. But I can’t do that with a book, so I have to find other ways to stay oriented. I reread or skim sections of the book that I know relate to the part I’m working on, I keep notes about the larger structure, and I use Word’s phrase-search function to move around and check up on things. I also make a huge effort to commit as much of the book as I can to memory. It’s exhausting and it seems psychologically damaging in some way, but it helps me to understand when jokes need to be repeated, how much space needs to intervene between similar kinds of scenes, how ideas should be patterned, etc.”

— Aaron Thier, author of Mr. Eternity and recipient of a literature fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts

Run to Keep Yourself Sane

“The twin activities of running and writing keep the writer reasonably sane and with the hope, however illusory and temporary, of control.” [This is not unlike many other writers—including Murakami and Malcolm Gladwell—who use running as a coping mechanism.]

— Joyce Carol Oates, author of over 40 novels, including Them, winner of the National Book Award  

Before You Write, Crystallize Your Thinking

“If I’m just starting, I never consider the page blank. I’ve been writing in my head long before I sit down at the keyboard. In fact, I sometimes start inadvertently, by describing to someone what I’m doing. Conversation often crystallizes my own thinking far more effectively than solitary reflection. When I put the first words down, I know they’re likely to change, which I find liberating—no need to get it perfect the first time. But I want the first sentence to set a tone or indicate a theme for that chapter, so I have to start with a clear sense of the meaning of the events that follow, and how I want the reader to feel.”

— Pulitzer Prize winner T.J. Stiles, author of Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America

Let the Play Accumulate

“Don’t start writing the play at once, but get a little notebook and put down everything you think about your play in the notebook, just as the ideas come to you without rhyme or reason especially. Let the play accumulate, as I call it; let it percolate and stew in your mind; and write down any ideas, bits of dialogue, descriptions, words—anything you think you might be able to use. Many of these things will come to you unconsciously while you are walking home from school, bathing, mowing the lawn; be sure to get them all into your notebook.”

— E.P. Conkle, professor emeritus of drama whose plays have been produced on Broadway

Take the Necessary Medicine

“I tend to edit heavily and repeatedly as I go along, so I don’t make the distinction, at least by myself. For the books that I’ve written for a larger public, however, I’ve had the help of an immensely gifted editor (Alane Mason, at Norton), so there I do separate out the tasks: in effect my own writing/editing; and then a further editing after receiving her suggestions. I tend to hate the latter experience, though I recognize that it is almost invariably good—a bit like swallowing disagreeable but essential medicine.”

— Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve, a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award winner

To Beat Writer’s Block, Double Down on Research

“When I have writer’s block it is because I have not done enough research or I have not thought hard enough about the subject about which I’m writing. That’s a signal for me to go back to the archives or to go back into my thoughts and think through what it is I am supposed to be doing.”

— MacArthur “Genius” and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family

Always Ask These Questions

“What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?” Then finish with these final two questions: ‘Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?’”

— George Orwell, famous author of 1984 and Animal Farm

You Don’t Need a Vomit Draft

“Writers are usually encouraged to write a “vomit draft” and just get something out, however terrible it is, in order to overcome The Fear, get some momentum, and move to more of an editing mindset, where’s it’s less scary to make progress. I don’t do that. I think that’s just a trick to try and lower the stakes so you can overcome procrastination and The Fear. And while it’s good for that, I think it’s bad in the long haul because you’re producing a lot of junk and that’s going to be hard to fully clean up. I treat writing a lot more like architecture. You wouldn’t work without a blueprint, construct a crappy building, then knock it down and build a better one. That would be ridiculous. You’d put together a really tight blueprint, then construct the building once, the right way, and if it needs tweaks, they’re relatively small. As the old saying goes: ‘Measure twice, cut once.’”

— Eric Barker, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Barking Up The Wrong Tree and creator of the popular blog of the same name

Keep the Momentum

“Never stop when you are stuck. You may not be able to solve the problem, but turn aside and write something else. Do not stop altogether.”

—Jeanette Winterson, a two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award and author best known for Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, which was adapted into a BBC drama

You Don’t Need to be Kissed by a Muse

When asked if writing comes easy: “Haha, no, I’ve not been kissed by a muse. For me, writing is a craft that needs constant honing.”

— Andrea Wulf, author of The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World, which won the Royal Society Science Book Award 2016 and the LA Times Book Prize 2016.

Write for the Ear

“I’ve got a theory that most writers are either frustrated musicians or painters – and which of them you are depends on whether you write for the ear or the eye.  As a former musician and former speechwriter, I definitely write for the ear. I listen to music all the time for inspiration and energy. I tend to make playlists as the sound track for writing different books.  They serve as snapshots in time.  So, I’ve got one for Wingnuts – lots of The National, Drive-By-Truckers, Radiohead and Randy Newman – and one for Washington’s Farewell that’s more classical, jazz, the Americana series by Chris Thile, Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer and the soundtrack to Hamilton.”

— John Avlon, author of Washington’s Farewell and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast

Learn How to Take Brutally Frank Criticism

“I try to imagine comments, questions, and criticisms that the book will generate. Then I try to rehearse the reply or answer. My friends are great critics of my writing and I always make sure they have read the drafts and galleys and been brutally frank with me about their reactions. They know I can take it.”

— Richard Clarke, former Assistant Secretary of State who has served under three different Presidents in different roles and author of Warnings: Finding Cassandras To Stop Catastrophes

Wake Up and Get After It

“I remember Salman Rushdie telling me how he gives it the first energy of the day. As soon as he gets up, he goes to his office and starts writing. He’s still in his pajamas. He believes there is a “little package of creative energy that was nourished by sleep,” and he doesn’t want to waste it. He works for an hour or two and then goes to brush his teeth. I have a very similar approach. Only I brush my teeth before I start. I guess that’s my pre-writing ritual.”

— Cal Fussman, best known for the “What I’ve Learned” Esquire column and a master interviewer who has talked to the likes of Mikhail Gorbachev, Muhammad Ali, John Wooden, Richard Branson

***

For more writing hacks from other brilliant writers and one amazing interview sent directly to your inbox each week, check out WritingRoutines.com

Read more: http://thoughtcatalog.com/