#2022 (Demo Version)

[mihotose]

the thing that gets me in particular is fans of that pirate show calling it revolutionary as if it invented men kissing on television. in 2022

[callmeblake]

I just found out about this, and just found out it was clear/transparent. (X)

[arimiadev]

why does aniplex want mahoyo to fail

I love visual novels. being a long time fate/stay night fan and only having heard of mahoyo from hushed whispers about its cinematography, I was super invested when it was announced to be coming to the west and I could finally play an official version of it.

however, a lot of people interested in type-moon works had never heard of mahoyo, let alone it getting an official english translation. but how? aniplex is publishing the game and they're one of the largest anime distributors in the world.

with the console release of mahoyo being almost exactly a year ago and the steam release being just 10 days away, I want to look over some of aniplex USA's bizarre and nonexistent marketing for one of my favorite visual novels.

let's clear up a few things, first.

mahoyo is the shortened form of mahoutsukai no yoru (not to be confused with mahoutsukai no yome, i.e. the ancient magus bride), which has been localized as witch on the holy night. mahoyo was a linear non-eroge visual novel released by type-moon in 2012, being one of the first scripts kinoko nasu (co-founder of type-moon) wrote back in 1996 and adapted into a VN many, many years later.

in April of 2022, a console remaster (switch, playstation 4) was announced with HD assets and voice acting, to be published by aniplex. notably, this console release would contain an english translation and was later confirmed in June to be sold in the west via online retailers. this was huge news, as this meant mahoyo would be the first type-moon visual novel (not including gameplay-oriented titles like fate/extella or fate/grand order) to be officially released in the west, as despite numerous fan translations, their more recognizable visual novels tsukihime and fate/stay night still had not received a localization.

type-moon is the developer behind mahoyo and aniplex is the publisher, meaning that type-moon made the game and aniplex is in charge of distributing (and marketing) the game worldwide.

timeline:

April 11 2022: Mahoyo rerelease announced for consoles (Switch & PlayStation 4), including English translation

July 4 2022: Aniplex confirms Mahoyo will be available to the West, localized under the name Witch on the Holy Night

October 14 2022: 2nd trailer released, more voice actor info announced

November 3 2022: physical pre-orders launched, demo version available

November 18 2022: Aniplex attends Anime NYC with Mahoyo

December 7 2022: Mahoyo released digitally on Switch / PlayStation 4 (Dec 8th in Japan, Dec 7th in America)

December 12 2022: Mahoyo reaches 110k units sold worldwide

January 27 2023: Mahoyo physicals release

July 5 2023: Mahoyo reaches 150k units sold worldwide

September 10 2023: Mahoyo announced for Steam via a now unlisted Aniplex livestream

December 13 2023: Mahoyo will be released on Steam (Dec 14th in Japan, Dec 13th in America)

some of the dates might be a little fuzzy, especially the release dates, as some sources go by japanese time and some go by american timezones, so just be aware of that.

now, let's talk a bit about mahoyo itself.

mahoyo is a masterpiece. it's a niche game not meant for everyone. its cinematography is top notch among visual novels. its writing style can be off-putting to people who want faster-paced stories. it's one of my most beloved visual novels I've ever played, and I've been in this field for almost a decade and have played well over 100 VNs.

mahoyo is a completely linear visual novel—meaning it has no choices or gameplay—that follows aoko, a high schooler mage trying to balance her perfect school president facade with her secret life as a mage, something she has to keep secret at the risk of death. this is one of the lesser known type-moon works but it's well beloved because of the care put into it.

if you've ever heard someone talk about it, it's almost impossible for them to not mention the visuals. mahoyo is one of the most visually impressive visual novels I've ever seen, with its inspired use of artwork and in-game animations. I cannot recommend this VN enough if you like modern fantasy and don't mind linear VNs.

before we dive into aniplex USA's marketing, I want to clarify a few marketing terms for people who don't market visual novels as a job. marketing is not just advertising—it's everything related to how a product communicates with potential users, including its branding, its packaging, its everything. when marketing a game, you have several different avenues: social media, press & influencers, trailers, store pages, and more.

today I want to show you how, based off what I have researched after a long, manic day, aniplex USA has failed mahoyo on all of these accounts.

so let's go back to its western release.

mahoyo has a few official english channels:

website

twitter

facebook

aniplex also has an official english twitter with almost 500k followers where they shared mahoyo very rarely—only 9 tweets about the game ever.

well, surely their other pages are more maintained right—

both accounts stopped posting July 10th/11th, with their last post being about mahoyo going on sale on consoles. let's look at their posts prior to this, though, starting with the twitter.

we can see that the twitter account was made in december of 2022. if we scroll down far enough (it's not hard, given they only have 33 tweets), we can see that their first tweet was on december 6th 2022:

let's go back to our timeline. can you tell me when mahoyo's remaster released digitally?

yes they made both of the english mahoyo social media accounts the day before the game launched

we can very easily add up the entire social media posts for the game thus far:

mahoyo english twitter - 30 tweets and 3 retweets

mahoyo english facebook - 27 posts

aniplex english twitter - 9 tweets

aniplex english facebook - 2 posts

no other english social media accounts were tied to the website, so these are the only ones I looked at. this means in total, there were only 68 social media posts for the console release of mahoyo by the publisher for english audiences.

but what about the steam release? after the game sold over 150k+ units on consoles, surely aniplex was ready to market it a bit more for pc users—

neither account has made a post about the upcoming steam release.

if we look at the twitter, they have 3 tweets since July that do talk about the upcoming steam release- however, these are retweets from the japanese mahoyo account.

we know that this twitter and this facebook account are the official social media for mahoyo as they're linked on the website, so they're definitely meant to be followed for game updates in the west. well, maybe the english aniplex twitter has posted about it—

none of the english aniplex or mahoyo accounts have made a single post about the steam release

that's right, the social media posts I counted above are the only posts for mahoyo on their english accounts, all dating back before the steam release was announced. since then, they have not made a single original post even mentioning the steam release.

meanwhile, the japanese mahoyo twitter has been hustling hard to promote the upcoming steam release—reposting trailers, character bios, and more almost every day with pretty good numbers.

in fact, the japanese mahoyo twitter did such a good job at marketing it that the aniplex USA twitter never mentioned the english mahoyo twiter, instead only @ ing the japanese one in tweets (despite the english one being linked on the website).

why they even bothered making social media accounts and then not running them despite being one of the largest anime distributors in the world I have no clue.

well, maybe they didn't need to rely on social media presence. maybe they were going for the in-person approach and marketing it at conventions.

mahoyo had basically no anime convention presence

the only reference I can find to aniplex notably promoting mahoyo at any western convention is this tweet of them at anime NYC. from someone who was at anime NYC, I've been told that they pushed the game heavily at their booth with TV screens promoting the game.

however, anime NYC is only one anime convention. you cannot hope to sell a game by just attending one anime convention. mahoyo might have had a presence at other american conventions, but I'm unable to find any images or news about this.

maybe they don't understand type-moon

aniplex is the publisher for fate/grand order, one of the most successful mobile games ever created. they're also the distributor for a majority of type-moon related anime, ranging from fate to garden of sinners to side series. aniplex's marketing team should have lots of experience with type-moon properties.

maybe it was promoted in other aniplex titles

I was also unable to find a news post in fate/grand order related to mahoyo's release, despite news posts for other type-moon series (namely fate but also things like melty blood) getting news posts in fate/grand order. I might've missed the news posts when looking back through FGO but I don't believe there was one.

maybe it sold well in other regions but not western ones

(I'm going to be referring only to the console release for these stats, keep in mind)

mahoyo released December 7th/8th 2022 with an english, japanese, simplified chinese, and traditional chinese translations. at the end of the release week, mahoyo's japanese twitter announced the game had sold 110k copies worldwide and famitsu reported that 66,344 of these units were sold in japan. this means we have around 43k units unaccounted for.

we know the game was available in english, japanese, and chinese languages but we don't know what regions. mainland china has a very large visual novel playerbase (I say this as someone who sells visual novels), which means if it were sold there then it's easy to say that a big chunk of that 43k units could be attributed to them—this also means it would be easy to believe that aniplex saw mahoyo selling worse in western countries and took this as a sign to not promote the game any more there.

but was it ever sold in mainland china? from what I could tell—no.

looking at pricing charts for the nintendo eshop and the playstation store, china is not listed on either. furthermore, searching the game's chinese title on the chinese playstation store does not bring back any results. it looks like the only predominantly chinese-speaking regions that were able to buy it are hong kong, taiwan and possibly singapore (the playstation store page for it doesn't look like it's available for purchase anymore).

so what does this tell us?

without any other numbers it's hard to tell how many of the 43k launch week sales came from english-speaking players, but even if we conservatively say that only around 20k of the 110k launch week units were from western countries, that's still almost a million in revenue (and remember, the physical limited edition of the game was available in english for $60, which is $20 more than the digital base version).

maybe the store page is so good they don't need to market it

here's a little secret: store pages matter a lot more than you'd think. there are entire job positions dedicated to tailoring store pages (like a steam game page) to make it perfect for the game's target audience. there's a science to it that includes the artwork, descriptions, tags, screenshots, and more.

let's see what aniplex did for the steam page of mahoyo.

A tale told with vivid colors and rich sound in a classic TYPE-MOON visual novel.

I don't know how to describe this short description charitably other than to say it sounds like a person who's never heard of a visual novel has been tasked with describing a visual novel.

this tells me nothing about the game other than it's a visual novel. I hope you know what type-moon is, because if you don't then you've learned nothing else from this. alright, well, let's look at the screenshots—

there's only 1.

currently as of writing this, there's 10 images uploaded as screenshots (no trailers, they keep adding and removing the trailers for some reason). 9 of these images are just the full artworks from the game while 1 is an actual screenshot.

I really hate this, as you're not actually shown what the game looks like unless you look at the very last screenshot. this will absolutely lead to some people not understanding what they're getting into. what's worse is that some of these CGs are spoilers, especially one in particular featuring my wife touko.

why are we spoiling people instead of showing them screenshots? why not show people what mahoyo actually looks like??

there's also absolutely no use of the announcements section on steam. each game on steam can post announcements related to the game, including upcoming releases, new updates, and more. it's customary to post a steam announcement when a game has a release date announcement. mahoyo's steam page has none.

well they probably released the trailers in english for hype

I wish I had that much hope.

on mahoyo's english website, all of the videos listed are from the official type-moon youtube, which is their japanese channel. type-moon went through the effort to translate these videos. aniplex didn't upload these to their own youtube, where they already upload everything related to the fateverse and nasuverse.

searching up witch on the holy night brings up no results for the trailer—aniplex never uploaded the trailer to their channel.

maybe they got influencers to play it

according to steamdb, the max amount of viewers mahoyo streams have had on twitch was 71 viewers.

furthermore, if we check twitch and look for vods attached to mahoyo, we only find 4 videos total, all of which were posted in the past week. it looks like they didn't even reach out to streamers to play the console release, much less pay them.

over on the press side, it does look like they reached out to at least a few reviewers. for example, on the review by noisy pixel, they clarify that a review copy was provided by the publisher for review purposes. we can add that to the bare minimum of marketing—reaching out to press.

however, they did get for some other influencers to share the game! ...twitter game sale influencers, that is.

there's actually a lot more of these types of tweets for mahoyo than I was expecting when I searched it on twitter. as a friend pointed out, just because it says "#ad" doesn't necessarily mean these were paid for by aniplex—a lot of these links look to be referrals, which means they're getting a cut of any purchases.

let's recap

mahoyo released over 110k copies in the launch week for it's worldwide console release despite very, very limited marketing efforts from its publisher aniplex. now that the game has proven it can sell very well despite being a lesser known linear visual novel, aniplex has done no marketing for the steam release- no tweets, no influencer outreach, no localization of trailers, no announcements via steam, nothing.

so why?

why does aniplex want mahoyo to fail?

even after all of this, I still do not know why. to me, it's clear that the marketing team at aniplex were (most likely) given no budget for this game and just couldn't do anything with it, deciding to spend what little money they had on press outreach and an anime NYC booth.

but why? why didn't aniplex give them a budget, even a small one? why was their budget so tiny they couldn't even afford to tweet? to RT more posts from the japanese twitter? to share the already translated trailers to their own accounts?

I've heard a few excuses like "type-moon hates western fans and probably caused it" but this doesn't make any sense either. why would you authorize a translation of your game and allow your publisher to sell the game overseas but specifically make them not market the game (and what publisher would agree to that)? I've even heard excuses like "they just forgot it was coming out", to which I ask "how does an entire marketing team (a company the size of aniplex absolutely has a team(s) for marketing and not a singular person) forget a release for a game that's already sold over 150k copies?". the only excuse I've seen that I somewhat buy is that they did not have much faith in the game and relied almost entirely on fans doing word of mouth marketing for the game.

I don't think we'll ever get an answer. while I do believe the marketing team at aniplex was most likely given no budget for mahoyo, it still begs the question of why. why did someone at aniplex not want to give mahoyo a marketing budget? why are the japanese accounts for mahoyo and type-moon the only ones doing the marketing?

I hope the information I've provided here is accurate—if it's not, I'll try to update with corrections. I don't want this piece to cast hate towards the staff at aniplex or anyone involved with this projects, I'm just trying to assemble the pieces on what feels like a game being left to word of mouth. I've tried to include as many links to my sources as I could so you could come to your own judgements about what has happened regarding mahoyo's worldwide release.

mahoyo is a visual novel that's dear to me and will absolutely sell well on steam—with an estimated 50-80k wishlists, it's going to have a solid launch despite the zero marketing for its steam release. if you love other type-moon works or want to see an absolutely visually stunning visual novel, please check it out.

— arimia

[sanctus-ingenium]

Another one of these since i haven't done it in a while! Sketch -> finished illustration

Thoughts & process below the cut :>

Out of Bounds: i deleted the sketch of this off my ipad because i didn't like it, and for months it only existed as a screenshot on discord. finally in january of this year i was like Wait Actually and decided to keep working on it. I didn't achieve the look I was going for (kind of foggy and vague. It came out too sharp and high contrast) but it was fun to throw the kitchen sink at it for an afternoon and then call it done finally. I don't remember which horse this was originally supposed to be, I think Macha?

I reused the pose, you'll find the same one in my Pascal sketchbook from the section on gait studies. That's the cool thing about doing 30 sketches at once, you can finish them up any time you like for a different drawing

The Fool ft Islin: the original concept for this is from [takes a moment to decipher the american date system on discord] January 2022

It wasn't dynamic enough, but I've had this on the backburner for sooo long. I think I completed like 4 cards in between this sketch and the final version lol. But, for a bit of background, this is from my series of major arcana based in Inver, and in particular the events of the 1860s-era book series, Moth Viper Foal (a demo of the first book, Said The Black Horse, is available for free/pwyw in my shop). This scene is a companion to Said The Black Horse, depicting the aftermath of the traumatic fight that caused Islin to storm off. He had been working at the mill as a semiprofessional back alley surgeon when he received an offer to join the church and work as a trained surgeon in their hospital. But when he brought the good news back to his friends it was met with utter rejection, driving him to basically run away to join the church. while gay and trans. thus the card.

he didn't actually bring a bag with him when he ran out but for the sake of the card i drew him with one

Gryfon and Pantera: This is how 99% of holy beast drawings start out, even the super stylised ones. I struggle a lot to draw them in procreate so they start in sai and then i transfer them over. The story of this is already explained in the caption of the original post so I'll just talk about the process which was... honestly torturous. I actually don't like too much textures and effects on things (wild, I know) and this one and Out of Bounds are ones where I kind of preferred it pre-texturising.

The text on the side is the official in-universe report of the event, detailing the casualties, the valiant actions of Gryfon's knight before he died and so on. There's also spoilers in there :>

My main struggle with this art style is how it always ends up slightly TOO sharp and crisp in a way the just a blur filter never can correct. There's not a lot of immersion to break, to be fair, but I think this still does it a little. I need to get more comfortable doing the lines with larger and softer brushes, and allowing imperfections.

[filthforfriends]

A Brief, Incomplete List of Performances To Make You Fall In Love With MÅ Again

Inspired by my love for @icarodamiano

For Your Love, O2 Academy

Humble, Madison Square Garden

In Nome Del Padre, 1Live WDR

The Loneliest, Jimmy Kimmel

Kiwi, Ronquieres Festival

Full set, Radio Italia

I Wanna Be Your Dog, Hammerstein Ballroom

Zitti e Buoni (acoustic), Pre-Party Eurovision

Full set, RDS Showcase

I Wanna Be Your Dog, Howard Stern

Le Parole Lontane, Hipodromo de Palermo

Le Parole Lontane, Circo Massimo (2022)

Coraline, San Remo

Timezone (acoustic), Madison Square Garden (2023)

Trastevere (demo version), Circo Massimo (2022)

Back to Black, Madison Square Garden

Full set, Cosmopolitan Russia

Full set, 3FM Exclusive

Gasoline, Global Citizen Festival (2022)

Zitti e Buoni, Lotta på Liseberg

I Wanna Be Your Slave, Open're Park (2021)

Mammamia, Swedish Idol

IWBYS & Zitti e Buoni, Wiwi Jam at Home

The Loneliest (1st performance), The Underground Club

Bury a Friend, Global Citizen Festival

Womanizer, Coachella

Drum solo, Summer Sonic (2022)

[mdemorita]

new pics❕

Tobias in the Rise Above Records store in London

📸 - Jeremy Miller. 21st March 2011 at St Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield

📸 - Lee Dorrian. 21st March 2011 at St Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield

📸 - Lee Dorrian. 21st March 2011 at Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington

“When we first signed Ghost to Rise Above Records, after hearing their amazing demo tape, we knew that the band were something special. That demo version of Ritual must have been played by me at least 10 times a day for weeks on end, until the album was finally delivered. To see where the band have elevated to since then is nothing short of mind-blowing! When you consider that their debut London show in 2010 was at The Camden Underworld, then fast forward to their most recent London show, which was headlining the 02 Arena in 2022, it shows you exactly how far they've come in those 14 years. All power to them.

Tobias was in town this week for the premiere of the Ghost Movie: Rite Here, Rite Now, which goes on general worldwide release today. It was, as always, nice to be invited and the movie itself is phenomenal, though everyone in attendance was sworn to secrecy regarding the leaking of spoilers.”

[📸 - @/rise_above_records_and_relics on instagram]

[robobarbie]

Does Toasty's text RPG exist in any form outside of Bloomic? I keep finding myself wanting to play it and then having to remind myself it's fictional.

It does not, but we want to make something like it in the future. In the meantime, here are some alternatives:

Roadwarden is a text-adventure "grim fantasy" game with minimal graphics made in renpy. I played the demo a while ago and liked it a lot!

AI Dungeon is probably closer to the experience in bloomic if you use the basic adventure mode, but I have mixed feelings about rec'ing it anymore ever since 2022 bc of everything going on with AI. Back in the day, though, it was a pretty unique little AI generated experience with not a lot of baggage. Below are screenshots from the 2019 version. I never played, but I watched others who did.

The Pilgrimage is a text parser adventure alternative that has a similar retro minimalistic look. I just found out about this game right now, but it sounds pretty interesting. Lots of talking with people in a town, some drinking, and many, many shenanigans.

Lifeline is a rec if you are a mobile gamer. Save an astronaut from certain death through real time text exchanges. I played this many years ago, and it's probably a game that defined part of my type of game design.

Gateway is a great game for anyone looking for an old-school text parser game. I haven't played this one, but it frequently comes up in conversations when I'm looking for text adventure games.

There's a bunch more out there! If you search for "text-parser" games, you'll get that "type in and see what happens" experience.

[14dayswithyou]

[12 May 2022] I just played the demo and let me tell you I had such a visceral /pos reaction to that seggsy scene I am barking, growling and howling over this man 😤💘 kudos

Okay now that I got all of that out of my system AHEM so was Ren really a virgin or did he just say that to test the waters? I honestly could not tell if he was being genuine or not xD

Everyone is going feral for this man after that scene I'm caCKLING 💀 But thank you sm! I'm glad you enjoyed the demo!! 💕💕

In the old 2017 version, Ren only said he was a virgin because he was still leaning into his Haruko/"Ren" persona (and figured that it was what MC wanted/preferred). But in the 2022 version however, I got annoyed with his constant whiplash of emotions during the woohoo scene, so I just made him sincere throughout the entire thing lol

So yes, he was being genuine at that time ^^

[mogoce-nocoj]

some of my favourite tidbits from the new video by JO subs

they apparently create a song which they use as a kind of demo and then use this demo as a “self-inspiration” for multiple other songs (for example, bele sanje and sama were both made out of ples)

when Bojan has a new song idea he brings his acoustic guitar, tries to figure out which chord he was using and needs at least ten tries to remember it (according to Martin) and then “he does it perfectly” (according to Jan)

the others then join with their own vision they get from his interpretation but sometimes Bojan already has some ideas like “I heard drums done that way”

Martin and Bojan have a record player at home (it was very sweet how Martin corrected himself from “Bojan has it” to “We have it”)

Jan would really like to play the saxophone and Martin actually considered playing the tuba as a child

apparently Bojan is taking (took at this point?) piano lessons

Martin felt “okay” about the demo version of vse kar vem (Jan described feeling okay as not loving it but not disliking it lol)

this podcast was published in May 2022, back then Jan and Martin's favourite song was Vem da greš, Jure's Metulji, Kris's Dopamin (“because it's his”) and Bojan's Gola or Metulji (they weren't sure)

Martin said that people describe him as reliable, serious, friendly but also that he “sometimes talks a lot”

(Jan added that he's “nicely bearded” as in, he has a nice beard)

Jan is the perfect Ljubljana hipster man

[black-arcana]

New LACUNA COIL Album To Arrive Before End Of 2024

In a recent interview with Brazil's Sonoridades Inc., singer Cristina Scabbia of Italian goth metal veterans LACUNA COIL spoke about the progress of the writing and recording sessions for the band's follow-up to 2019's "Black Anima" album. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I can't really tell you a lot. I can tell you that we are progressing very fast. We are almost, like, 100… We completed, let's say, the demoing. We still have to record the rest of the songs, but we will soon — probably after the tour, after the [May 2024] North American tour. And if everything goes as projected, before the end of the year [it] will be released. And that's already a big news, because we always say, 'We don't know. Maybe.' … I absolutely love the songs. I'm part of the process. But I'm very pleased."

Asked if LACUNA COIL's 2023 single "Never Dawn", for which the band partnered with CMON, the renowned board game publisher behind the popular game "Zombicide", will be on the upcoming album, Cristina said: "I think it will be. I think it will be, 'cause it will make sense. And it also fits with the other songs — it really fits with the other songs. Many heavy songs."

LACUNA COIL has just completed the "Ignite The Fire" U.S. tour with support from NEW YEARS DAY and OCEANS OF SLUMBER.

Last month, LACUNA COIL released another new single, "In The Mean Time", featuring Ash Costello of NEW YEARS DAY. The song's title is a reference to the mean times the world is living in, as well as a reference to the state the band itself is in, between cycles.

When "In The Mean Time" was first made available, LACUNA COIL said in a statement: "'In The Mean Time' is a reflection on how much our society has generally 'lost the plot'. We are living in really mean times filled with unhappy people: lonely, anxious, depressed, destructive. The pressure that crushes from the outside doesn't allow us to see things with the right clarity.

"This song is like group therapy: not a lamentation, but acceptance that once broken, it's hard to put oneself back together again.

"We need to take our minds off all the inescapable toxicity and find that there's so much more to this life… and know that in the meantime, everything cannot be aligned.

"We invited Ash Costello from NEW YEARS DAY to feature on the track and we're thrilled she came on board adding exactly what we needed for this song with her warm voice and charisma."

Costello said: "I am deeply honored to join LACUNA COIL on tour for the first time, to have the incredible opportunity to lend my guest vocals to a new track and appear in the music video. Working alongside the powerhouse vocalist Cristina has been a privilege, and I may be biased in saying that 'In The Mean Time' has quickly become my favorite by LACUNA COIL. Its message about embracing individuality and not conforming deeply resonates with me."

Last July, LACUNA COIL released the official lyric video for "Never Dawn".

LACUNA COIL has spent some of the last couple of years promoting "Comalies XX", the "deconstructed" and "transported" version of the band's third album, "Comalies".

"Comalies XX" was made available on October 14, 2022 via Century Media Records.

LACUNA COIL celebrated the 20th anniversary of "Comalies", by performing it in its entirety at a one-night-only concert on October 15, 2022 at Fabrique in Milano.

"Comalies" was originally released on October 29, 2002 through Century Media Records. The LP, which featured the band's breakthrough single "Heaven's A Lie", has reportedly gone on to sell over 300,000 copies in the United States alone.

Photo credit: Patric Ullaeus

[furby-junkie]

A French Furby 2023 demo vid uploaded by JouéClub, shows a CGI Furby.

The end of the video mentions "2022" instead of "2023", and the Furby logo is different, so I think this could be an early version of a commercial.

The brushing scene looks like it is showing an actual prototype Furby with a CGI face? The face quickly changed, and the heart gem, fur, and feet of the toy look real. The heart gem looks translucent.

[thechosenone-if]

The origins of the game

If you are new here, or relatively new, you might not know how The Chosen One came to be.

It was 2020 and, as many other, to escape reality I started playing VNs and then IFs. Within some months, a game of my own started to take shape in my mind and then I started writing. At the time, I had absolutely zero knowledge about Twine so learning it was a slow and painful process - but worth it.

In spring 2021 I created the Tumblr blog dedicated to it, what is now my personal blog @kal-down and what was then @/the-upperworld.

The first version of TCO was full of bugs, had a colour palette that was all over the place, and, most importantly, was only written in italian. At the time, I couldn't fantom writing a full story in english, I only did small prompts about MC and Rascia on the blog or translated previews.

Then, mainly thanks to the IF authors I came to befriend on here, I decided to translate the whole demo and publish the inglish version, which became public in September 2021.

During that year's summer, I also started planning and designing what would become my most popular and loved game: The King's Hound. As I made more and more progress on it, with so much difficulty and writing fully in english for the first time in my life, TCO started to feel off.

I guess lack of popularity and interaction, perhaps due to a story featuring a single RO or perhaps due to the unpolished nature of the writing. Still, I deleted almost everything from the blog and made it my personal one, hiding the game from Itchio.

In 2022 I decided to polish the UI a bit, thanks to it you have a now playable and hopefully more aesthetically pleasing game. I also added the Interlude 1 to the game (introducing Rascia for the first time).

And now, here we are. There isn't new content available to play, progress is still very slow, but I think this game deserves a proper blog. It deserves a place to be discussed, especially since I have a published demo and even if it won't ever be popular, I hope the game resonates at least with someone. For this reason, I decided I will leave the game up and visible on Itch from now on, and that I will keep working on it even if I remain the only one interested in the project.

It was my very first IF and I don't want to be ashamed of it. Or hide it. Despite its flaws and hiccups in developement, I am proud of it.

Thank you for reading, I wish you all a great day❤

[artwithoutblood]

The redo and future of the base AWB game

I started working on AWB as a base game around Jan-March of 2022. I pushed out the demo the day I flew across the Atlantic ocean to study in a foreign country for college. At the time, I wasn't really sure of my style. I had made a few games before, mostly with other people and for class, but I never established a style for myself.

I haven't really been working on AWB itself over the last year. I've been very disappointed in my progress as I work on other games. I finished 8 other short games instead. And I realize now...I think it's because the original of the game doesn't feel like it was written by the me now. It feels...childish, in a way. I don't like how it started, and it's affected how it's going.

So, I'm redoing the entire thing. The plot will be relatively the same, but the beginning will be rewritten entirely to better, and more maturely, introduce the characters. The routes will be better planned out.

I'm keeping most of the backgrounds from the original, as well as any original music that has been so lovingly made by Zack. Everything else will be completely redone.

I'm sorry. It sucks. I feel like an asshole who's letting people down. But it's not going to ever be finished in the immature, shitty state it's currently in.

I'm hoping, maybe by this June, I can have a demo of the new version! So, keep your eyes peeled for that.

[zot3-flopped]

folklore, folklore Deluxe version, folklore the long pond studio session, evermore, evermore Deluxe version, fearless taylor's version, red taylor's version, midnights, midnights 3am edition, midnight the til dawn edition, speak now taylor's version, 1989 taylor's version Deluxe ( 12 albums) 4 in 2020, 3 in 2021, 2 in 2022, 4 in 2023

In comparsion what other artists have releases during the same timespan:

2020-2023

Harry Styles: Harry's House (1) 1 in 2022

Ariana Grande: Positions, Positions Deluxe, Yours Truly Tenth Anniversary Edition, (3) 1 in 2020, 1 in 2021, 1 in 2023

Beyonce; The Lion King The Gift Deluxe, Renaissance (2) 1 in 2020, 1 in 2022

Drake: Dark Lane Demo Tapes, Certified Lover Boy, Honestly Nevermind, Her loss, For all the dog's, For all the dog's scary house edition (6) 1 in 2020, 1 in 2021, 2 in 2022, 2 in 2023

Billie Eilish: Happier than Ever (1) 1 in 2021

The Weeknd: After hours, After hours Deluxe, Dawn FM, Dawn FM Alternate World, Avatar The Way of water, Live at Sofi Stadium, Starboy Deluxe (7) 2 in 2020, 3 in 2022, 2 in 2023

Doja Cat: Planet Her, Planet Her Deluxe, Scarlet, (3) 2 in 2021, 1 in 2023

Olivia Rodrigo: Guts, Sour, The Hunger Games The Ballad of...(3) 1 in 2021, 2 in 2023

Miley Cyrus: Plastic Hearts, Attention Miley Live, Endless Summer Vacation (3) 1 in 2020, 1 in 2022, 1 in 2023

Dua Lipa: Future Nostalgia, Club Future Nostalgia DJ Mix, Future Nostalgia The Moonlight Edition (3) 2 in 2020, 1 in 2021

Sza: Dear Evan Hansen, Ctrl Deluxe, SOS (3) 1 in 2021, 2 in 2022

Lana Del Rey: Chemtrails over The Country Club, Blue Banisters, Did you know that there is a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (3) 2 in 2021, 1 in 2023

Kanye West; Donda, Donna Deluxe (2) 2 in 2021

Adele: 30 (1) 1 in 2021

Bruno Mars: An Evening with Silc Sonic (1) 1 in 2021

Selena Gomez: Rare, Rare Deluxe (2) 2 in 2022

Rihanna: Black Panther (1) 1 in 2022

Katy Perry: Smile, One of the Boys 15th Anniversary (2) 1 in 2020, 1 in 2023

Lady Gaga: Chromatica, Born This Way the Tenth Anniversary, Dawn of Chromatica, Love for Sale Deluxe, Top Gun Maverick, Sweet Sounds of Heaven (6) 1 in 2020, 3 in 2021, 1 in 2022, 1 in 2023

She is the only one releasing more than one album from 2020-2023. So when her fans say that other artists to Deluxe versions or remixes or whatever too. Yes they do. But they aren't as bad as she is. It's no wonder she was the best selling artist in 2023. Morgan Wallen did 7.2M with one album in 2023. From 2018-2023 he released 4 albums. Despite that she is on tour doing huge promo for her albums.

Thanks for this research. Very interesting.

[daddy-long-legssss]

The Story Behind The Song: Arctic Monkeys’ early ambitions on ‘A Certain Romance’

Lucy Harbron – Far Out Magazine | January 17, 2024

It was 2006. Mortgages were crashing, and businesses were going bust. Tony Blair was on his last legs in office as the longest-serving prime minister since Margaret Thatcher, and the hangover of ‘Cool Brittania’ was beginning to set in with an unexpected ferocity. Things were bleak when a young Alex Turner sang, “There ain’t no romance around there” through the public’s speakers. Arctic Monkeys were about to write themselves into musical history as the voice of a new generation.

The final song on their debut album, there has always been something special about ‘A Certain Romance’. In 2022, after the release of their seventh album, The Car, Turner seemed to find himself reflecting back on that 2006 track. To the musician, that early cut holds a clue to everything that was to come as he said the piece “showed that we did actually have these ambitions beyond what we once thought we were capable of”.

Coming in at over the five-minute mark, ‘A Certain Romance’ almost feels like the Arctic Monkeys’ version of a rock opera, summarising all the themes, feelings and energy that came before it on their seminal album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. It has the cheekiness of ‘Fake Tales Of San Francisco’ and the catchy instrumentals of hits like ‘Dancing Shoes’ or ‘I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor’. Utilising the northern charm of ‘Mardy Bum’, it stands as a final, neatly summarising point on the social commentary found in their early tracks like ‘From The Ritz To The Rubble’ or ‘Riot Van’. Really, it could be argued that ‘A Certain Romance’ is the ultimate example of Arctic Monkeys’ original sound, perfectly encapsulating all the things that made the world listen up and pay attention.

It’s like they seemed to know that, too, always allowing the song a special place. In fact, it was really the band’s opening remark. Years before the offer of a debut album came around, the group were a well-oiled machine with their own local hits. They had the northern live music scene in their hands as their homemade demo CD was passed around like everyone’s worst-kept secret. Beneath the Boardwalk features eight out of the 13 songs that would be on Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, albeit in a slightly different, lower-quality version. But the opening number, ‘A Certain Romance’, sounds just the same.

It’s all there, from the rolling opening drums to that final guitar solo. Recorded and produced in a rented studio at only age 17, the existence of ‘A Certain Romance’, one of the band’s most explorative and energetic numbers, in this form this early in their career feels like a diamond sitting in a mine. It proves that they were always onto something special.

They never needed any help. In fact, their producer, Jim Abbiss, noted that they even seemed nervous about the help. “I think they were probably a bit weary, like ‘who’s this guy? And is he gonna make our sound this or that.’”

They didn’t want anything to change too much, as the group already had the songs figured out. Turner certainly did, as the track’s meandering narrative about hometown lads, fights, and local boredom is already there. Talking on a podcast, original member Andy Nicholson revealed the story behind the song. “We had a practice room with a pool table in, and we had a party in there, and we invited another band who were friends of ours, and we all had some drinks,” he said. “Then something happened, someone throws a pool cue, someone throws a pool ball, and everyone ends up fighting,” he added, explaining the lyrics, “there’s boys in bands / And kids who like to scrap with pool cues in their hands.”

But the magic of Arctic Monkeys lies in their nuance. What begins as a snooty analysis of his local landscape is a genuinely affectionate take. “Well, over there, there’s friends of mine / What can I say? I’ve known ’em for a long long time / And, yeah, they might overstep the line / But you just cannot get angry in the same way,” Turner sings, looking around at his bandmates and lifelong friends. ‘A Certain Romance’ is not only a time capsule for the group’s beginnings but is an ode to all the people who were there with them. It’s an ode to the hometown that made them and all its various characters.

But as the last guitar solo roars to life, there is an unspoken statement that they’re going to be bigger than what they came from. “I remember when we were recording ‘A Certain Romance’ and having a conversation with the producer about the final guitar solo,” Turner told NME, recalling the moment these songs were reworked for their debut. But they wouldn’t let anyone mess with ‘A Certain Romance’, knowing exactly what they were doing and trying to say with that one. In the 2003 demo version, all the feeling is already there, and Turner wouldn’t risk it.

“There’s something that happens at the end of that track where we break some rules in a single moment,” he continued. What happens at the end of the piece feels even more special, considering how the album was recorded. “These are the songs we wanna do, and I think this is the order we wanna do them in,” Alex Turner told their producer, recounting the conversation in 2007 to RadioX, “And he goes, ‘alright, we’ll try to record them in that order as well.’” As the final song, that last guitar solo is the last thing recorded for the album, standing as a cathartic outlet and a chance for the band to prove themselves.

“We focused on the [emotional] effect of the instrumentals over the words,” Turner reflected on the track, concluding, “and I feel like we’ve been trying to do that again and again since then.”

+

[erijuice]

My Revision Of Wish (pt 2): This Wish

Welcome back to more of my personal revision of Wish. Today, I will presenting my version of the film's "I Want" song, This Wish

This is the moment where Asha makes her wish for the townspeople of Rosas, after discovering a dark secret about her parents using the townspeoples' wishes to enhance their dark magic. She argues that they should give their wishes back to the people, while trying to keep what she saw a secret. In her frustration, she escapes from her palace walls to the Wishing Tree of the woodlands to make her wish.

Now, my biggest problem with 'This Wish' is that Julia Michaels has written the song to be generalized and more likely to be sung by any character, instead of making it feel like Asha's song. It sure doesn't help that the song was written before the script... I'm not even kidding! It's a true story!

The song is supposed to be our big "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" moment, and also establishing Asha's character: Her passions, her love for art, her philosophical belief in the stars, and the conflict that she faces as a character. She sees the world around her as a living painting, and this musical number needs to be a reflection of her fantasy. I will note that this version will have the instrumental from the early demo that was heard at D23 Expo in 2022. I actually do have an audio version of my interpretation, which combines both the demo and the official instrumentals of the song, but I can't release it because of that mouse company being strict with copyright. Anyways, onto the lyrics!

[Verse 1]

If the truth’s supposed to set me free, why do I feel so weighted down by it

If I could show the people everything I’ve seen, open their eyes to all the lies then, they would change their minds like did

Cause when I speak, they tell me sit down, but why should I when I found something to believe in

I know where I began, but it’s not where I belong. They say I’m naive but, I know I’m not wrong

[Asha looks up to the wishing star overlooking the kingdom, pulling her closer to the far-off woodlands.]

[Chorus 1]

So I look up at the stars to guide me

And I pray for them to give a sign

If knowing it be could be is what drives me

Then let me bring this dream into life

So I make this wish, to bring something more to all of this

So I make this wish, to have something more for us than this

[As she vocalizes, she imagines the birds around her with glowing star-like speckles, the speckles having a sketchy quality to them to illustrate her imagination]

Hey-yeah-yeah-yeah

Hey-yeah-yeah-yeah-ah-ah

More than this, oh-ahhh-ahhh-ahhh

[Verse 2]

[Asha walks through the forest, letting out all of her emotions]

I never knew I needed room to grow

I always did what I was told, and I never said no

Now I got all of this freedom in my bones

But I can’t even let it show, can’t let it overflow

[Asha climbs the wishing star to a large walkable branch above the ocean]

Cause I got expectations and hesitations on where I should even begin

Always dipping my toes in, but I don’t know if I should sink or swim

I won’t let myself be pointed in any given direction on where to go or what to do

My legs are shaking, but my head’s held high in the way they always taught me to

[Asha imagines a glowing staircase of stars that lead her up to the heavens, beginning to let out her emotions as she runs up the staircase]

[Chorus 2]

So I look up at the stars to guide me

And I pray for them to give a sign

I’m sure there will be challenges worth striving

But I can take them on, one at a time

[Asha sets foot onto the watercolored clouds and gazes at the big, bright wishing star glowing overhead, now closer than she could ever imagine. This climax is inspired by unused concept art for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs]

So I make this wish, to bring something more to all of this

So I make this wish, to have something more for us than this

[Here is our ultimate climax! The camera rotates around Asha as she twirls amongst the stars. The stars are shining brighter than they ever have before. Celestial creatures shining with stardust begin to surround her, the stars on the clouds create a bright, symphonic dreamscape.

Hey-yeah-yeah-yeah

Hey-yeah-yeah-yeah-ah-ah

More than this, oh-ahhh-ahhh-ahhh

[Before the outro, we fade back to reality, with Asha on the wishing tree, as she finally makes her wish to the stars above her]

[Outro]

So I make this wish, to have something more for us than this

[The camera quickly pulls back, giving us a huge shot of the sky, the sea, and the Wishing Tree all in frame, as if it were a masterpiece painting.]

[The song ends with a patient silence, as Asha smiles. The pause is much longer than in canon, at least 10 seconds. Her smile drops as she notices that the star is slowly starting to glow bright, and explode with a light of hope and wonder. Asha shields her eyes as the glow engulfs the kingdom of Rosas, and that is where we meet our fabled star boy! End scene]

So that's This Wish! Hope you've enjoyed my intrepretation of the song, and maybe I'll share a couple more revised versions of the canon songs. Goodnight, Kingdom of Rosas!

Part 1: The Story