#An indie version of Clock Tower | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

anim-ttrpgs · 7 days

Text

Songs for Eureka Sessions: Investigators Fleeing/Hiding from Monster

Masterpost of Eureka song lists & how to choose good music for any TTRPG session.

Beastiality - The Thing

Don't Cry, Jennifer - Clock Tower

Anguish - Martha is Dead

Mynah - Signalis

Claws of the Dead - Death Stranding

The Man in the Hat - Little Nightmares

Detritus - It Follows

Strange Dreams – The Mount Fuju Doomjazz Corporation

Disposable Entertainment – Little Nightmares II

Zombie Attack – Resident Evil 1 Remake

Reliving the Present – Resident Evil 2 Remake

Vigilante – Trigg & Gusset

The Second Malformation of G – Resident Evil 2

Black Tiger – Resident Evil 1 Remake

One Step, Two Step – Little Nightmares II

Black Impact – Resident Evil 2 Remake

Ashes and Ghost – Silent Hill 2

Screaming Target – Resident Evil 2

Vengeance – The Guest

Falling Victim to the Ex-Neighbors – Resident Evil 2

Richard – Hotline Miami 2

Theme of Aya – Parasite Eve

The First Malformation of G – Resident Evil 2

Faces – Martha Is Dead

Track 17 – Galerians

Nightwalk Restlessness – Martha Is Dead

Stalker – Parasite Eve II

Intruders (Alternate) – Silent Hill 4

Ultimate Bio Weapon – Resident Evil 1 Remake

Final Battle – Resident Evil 1 Remake

Absurd Advent – Resident Evil 2 Remake

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but you can still check out the public beta on itch.io to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, etc.!

You can also follow updates on our Kickstarter page where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more, you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy earlier, plus extra content such as adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

15 notes · View notes

chiseler · 5 years

Text

Pop Modernist Dystopia

In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich shortly before his death in 1976, Fritz Lang said of Metropolis, “You cannot make a social-conscious picture in which you say that the intermediary between the hand and the brain is the heart. I mean, that's a fairy tale – definitely. But I was very interested in machines. Anyway, I didn't like the picture – thought it was silly and stupid – then, when I saw the astronauts: what else are they but part of a machine? It's very hard to talk about pictures—should I say now that I like Metropolis because something I have seen in my imagination comes true, when I detested it after it was finished?”

Lang wasn’t alone back in 1927 when the film was first released. Critics applauded the striking visuals and the ambitious technical achievement, but lambasted the trite melodrama and cheap platitudes. In a vicious New York times review, H.G. Wells attacked the picture’s anti-progress, anti-technology message, accused it of ripping off several earlier works (including his own), and called it “quite the silliest film.” It was also attacked as a bunch of simpleminded and heavy-handed pro-communist propaganda, while at the same time and ironically enough it was hailed by the Nazis for portraying the overthrow of the Bourgeoisie.

(As a quick sidenote, Lang’s wife, novelist and Metropolis screenwriter Thea von Harbou, became quite infatuated with the Nazis after they took power, which led to a divorce shortly before Lang fled to the States in 1936.)

The story, admittedly, is pretty trite. In the year 2000, 2026, or 3000 (depending on which cut you see), there is no middle class. The top .001 percent of superwealthy intellectuals live in unimaginable luxury in the towering city of Metropolis, while the teeming masses of impoverished proles work the monstrous machines in the underground factories. Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), son of Metropolis’ ruler, falls for a poor worker named Maria (Brigitte Helm). Meanwhile an engineer with a beef builds a humanoid robot to exact a little revenge, and the workers begin muttering about conditions and revolution. There are another half dozen storylines at play, but we’ll keep it simple here. There are some disasters, some rioting, things go a little crazy there for awhile until everyone learns they can live together happily. Yes, well. But the story hardly matters. Background becomes foreground in a film so packed with unforgettable images.

Produced by the German studio UFA, Metropolis called for 13,000 extras, over 200,000 costumes, and a city’s worth of monumental sets. It took fifteen months to shoot, over which time its initial 800,000 Reichmarks budget ballooned to over five million.

At the Berlin premiere for distributors, Lang’s directors cut ran about 153 minutes. Everyone, particularly Paramount, who’d signed a distribution deal with UFA, felt the film was way too long and the story far too tangled and confusing. That Berlin screening would be the one and only time anyone saw a complete version of Metropolis for the next eighty years. Paramount took the print and cut it down to 92 minutes, excising a number of characters and subplots, as well as the perceived commie propaganda. Then they brought in a new writer to concoct a new story to replace Lang’s original intertitles. UGA took Paramount’s version and cut still another ten minutes out, and other international distributors made other cuts of their own.

During its first theatrical run, Metropolis brought in a pitiful 75,000 Reichmarks. The brass at UFA was not pleased. Neither was Paramont, and the film ostensibly vanished. From that point, the history of Metropolis became as tangled and complicated as the original plot about class struggle, dehumanization, several layers of betrayal, a couple illicit love affairs, and robots. Beginning in the early Seventies, a number of attempts were made to restore Lang’s original complete vision by splicing together scenes from assorted international versions, but the story didn’t come to an end until 2008, when, much to everyone’s surprise, a print of Lang’s original 153-minute version was discovered in an archive in Argentina. The print was cleaned up, remastered, and released by Kino International in 2010. Two scenes from the Argentinian print were unsalvageable, so the 2010 version ran 148 minutes, five minutes shorter than Lang’s director’s cut, but what are you gonna do?

Until his death, Lang would tell the story that Metropolis sprang into his head fully formed upon seeing the towering skyline of Manhattan for the first time. He, his wife, and a German film critic were sailing into New York harbor for the U.S. premiere of Die Nibelungen in 1924, and Lang was mesmerized by all the skyscrapers. Immediately he envisioned a film about a magnificent city of the future. It’s a good anecdote and one he told quite well, but the only problem is by the time they first arrived in New York, von Harbou had already sketched out the story upon which the Metropolis script would be based. There’s no denying, though, that architecture would play a central role in Lang’s visuals. He supplied the film’s staggering architecture and machinery while von Harbou provided the human melodrama and social commentary. Lang was inspired by not only the Manhattan skyline, but a number of radical architectural movements of the time, from Art Deco and Bauhaus to Futurism, elements of which he would mix and match in order to design his own magnificent vertical city. His designs for Metropolis would in turn later go on to inspire not only other filmmakers and production designers, but artists and architects as well. And in the end, it’s the film’s visuals that stick with us far more than the plot: the new Tower of Babel, the robot-like workers marching into and out of the underground factories, and of course that insidious engineer Rotwang’s Maschinenmensch which itself was inspired by avant-garde sculpture of the early 20th century.

In a way that is absolutely key to understanding Metropolis’ unique and singular position within not only cinema, but the culture at large. It remains to this day a lynchpin between highbrow and lowbrow, the most enduring and influential embodiment of what might be called Pop Modernism.

The world’s first feature-length (and then some) science fiction epic took the Modernist art and architecture of its time and transformed them into a vision of a dystopian future that was at once a staggering achievement of cinematic art and imagination as well as a simple message film aimed at a populist audience. Despite the initial critical and audience reaction, and despite having been butchered by distributors, it would go on to inspire artists, architects, filmmakers, writers and musicians across the board. The Los Angeles of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and the Gotham of Tim Burton’s Batman both owe a great deal to Lang. Madonna, Lady Gaga and countless other pop acts have grabbed imagery from Metropolis to drop into their music videos. Respected composers, indie acts and electronic industrial outfits have all composed new scores for the film. Osamu Tezuka insists he only saw a single still from Lang’s picture, but that was enough to inspire his own Metropolis manga, which was turned into an award-winning animated film in 2001.

Perhaps the most perfect and telling example of Metropolis’ place in the Pop Modernist spectrum came in 1984, when producer and film composer Giorgio Moroder edited and released his own 80-minute version of Metropolis, which by that point had fallen into the public domain. Moroder replaced all the intertitles with subtitles, ran the film at a slightly faster speed, slapped on a pop soundtrack featuring Top-40 acts of the day like Loverboy, Pat Benetar, and Bonnie Tyler, and worst of all colorized it.

Film purists were outraged, assailing Moroder for mangling and desecrating Lang’s film in such a crass and cynically commercial way. But the critics at the time neglected to consider several things. First, a British distributor had already released a colorized version (quite the unfortunate rage at the time) with subtitles replacing the intertitles. Although the Moroder version clocked in at a zippy 80 minutes, this was simply the result of removing the intertitles and speeding up the film. Fact was, his version was the most complete version of the film available at the time. And most importantly, that pop song soundtrack, as painful and outdated as it sounds today, drew a much younger audience who would normally have no use whatsoever for a silent movie. He transformed a classic example of silent German cinema into a long music video, and the newly-born MTV generation bought it. The film brought in a darn sight more than Metropolis had upon its initial release. Moroder’s version, cynically commercial as it may have been, rescued the film from the museum and gave it a new life, introducing it to a whole new generation who were likewise dazzled by the stunning visuals, and who would then go on to incorporate the imagery into their own art and films and music. So 90 years after making an ambitious art film aimed at a popcorn crowd, Lang continues, if unintentionally, to dance that line between the High and the Low, kinda like Andy Warhol.

Funny thing is, from Moroder to Club Foot Orchestra to Lady Gaga, the more contemporary artists co-opt Lang’s film, the more timely and timeless Metropolis seems, and the more ephemeral and pointless everything else seems in comparison.

The final, sad irony of Metropolis’ long and complex history, blasphemous as it may be, is that for all the understandable ballyhoo surrounding the discovery of Lang’s complete original vision, and of at last having a pristine, remastered edition (minus those five minutes they couldn’t salvage) finally available again, I’d still argue the 92-minute Paramount version was the better picture.

by Jim Knipfel

12 notes · View notes

ginnyzero · 5 years

Text

Retelling Old Stories

I've written a book based on old fairy tales and legends and am currently reviewing the Shrek movies in Action Movie Friday. (Shrek 2 post coming next, I hope.) I thought I'd talk about retelling fairy tales, myths and legends.

Myths, fairytales, legends, these are the stories that are near and dear to our hearts. And let's face it, they're familiar, comforting and popular. Fairy tales such as The Sleeping Princess, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast have been told over and over to young children for generations. These stories are oral traditions passed down from generation to generation and have strayed quite a bit from their horrific and sexist roots. So much, that outside of a few key points their original creators may not recognize them anymore.

These oral traditions form the basis of the hero's journey which can be found in high fantasy stories such as Lord of the Rings and Science Fiction stories, such as Star Wars. They've been satirized (Ella Enchanted, the movie), parodied (Shrek) and outright made fun of (Mirror, Mirror) and also taken far too seriously (Snow White & The Huntsman.) Just as much as they've been played straight (see the Elemental Master Series of Mercedes Lackey.) And they've been mixed together until almost unrecognizable. (The Princess & The Frog, Frozen, Once Upon a Time, the 500 Kingdoms also by Mercedes Lackey.)

The great thing about fairy tales and myths and legends is that they have a very low risk level. People are far more likely to pick up something to read of watch that is relatively familiar to them and that they know they already enjoy rather than a brand new concept they don't understand and aren't sure they'll like. Fairy tales are comfort food. People know they like them. And given a choice between a concept they aren't sure of and a fairy tale based media, they're more than likely to choose a fairy tale based media.

So, how do you go about retelling these fairy tales and making them fresh and new for your audience? This was a question I (sort of) asked myself when I started to write the Dawn Warrior. (Available in Ebook & Paperback.) How do I take Sleeping Beauty and make her different without relying on, say, what we know of her through Disney or from Grimm, not the TV Show. (Which honestly, isn't much in either case.) And make them partly relevant without losing making a good story?

Change the Roles:

What if the Princess really isn't the Princess? What if she's the bodyguard in disguise that's protecting the real princess from assassins? (The Decoy Princess, Dawn Cook) What if the Princess is also a spy? (The Princess Series Jim C. Hines) Maybe Prince Charming is actually an actor!

I mean, come on, in real life unless your Prince William and Harry and work for the British Royal Navy, royals don't really have adventures. (I wouldn't want to get on the bad side of Queen Elizabeth either.)

Or, maybe the Princess and Prince aren't really the good guys after all. Maybe it's the Big Bad Wolf or the evil stepmother or even the sea witch. (Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Gregory Maguire) Or, to borrow from Hoodwinked, the Big Bad Wolf is really an investigative reporter trying to do an expose on Red Riding Hood. (I mean, she can't be all that sweet and innocent.)

A good example of this was a recent Sleeping Beauty movie that was in the horror genre. (Unfortunately I heard it was a really bad horror movie.) The Sleeping Beauty in the movie was supposed to be the damsel in distress and ended up being both the trap and the villain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdEo_t-iVbM

(I'll just leave this here.)

Change the Setting:

Fairy tales in SPACE!!! (Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer) Okay, there aren't a lot of fairy tales in space. I think I saw another example on instafreebie the other day. In fact, there aren't many romances in space either. (I was listening to a podcast about an indie author who was doing this and she was the first writing romances set in the backdrops of aliens?) But, this is like Star Wars. Greek Myths in SPACE!!!! (Seriously, Star Wars is built around the classical hero's journey. The franchise even freely admits it in their authorized literature. I've got a book by Bantam called Star Wars: The Magic of Myth that goes through it step by step.)

This is one of the easier ways to make fairy tales seem more relevant and seems to be currently the most popular. Grimm the TV Show, Once Upon a Time (in Wonderland), The Harry Dresden Files, and Fables, all take fairy tales and legends and drop them into the middle of the modern world. I include Harry Dresden, not because he's playing out a fairy tale so to speak, but he's some sort of misguided Prince Charming type on his own hero's journey. The book Charming by James Eliot, takes the character of "Prince Charming" plays it straight, and makes it a bloodline that is involved in some sort of knighthood charged with keeping the mundane world safe from the evil things that go bump in the night set in modern times.

Mercedes Lackey took a slightly different approach with her Elemental Masters series. She took fairy tales, played them straight, but set them in Edwardian times right up through the First World War. By doing so, she was able to show how the beginnings of the modern world like industrialization and rail roads and wars fought with machine guns instead of swords were effecting the world of magic and the magical creatures. (For instance, all the pollution made it easier for evil or nasty type elementals and creatures to thrive and good elementals and creatures that couldn't abide cold iron were dying off or going into hiding.)

Change the Genders:

Let's face it. Fairy tales are pretty sexist, no matter what your gender is. I had in the first draft of the Dawn Princess an entire rant by Roxana, who is a 'Beauty Asleep' about the differences between how a female Princess who is cursed to sleep and a male Prince is cursed to sleep and how neither tale does royalty any justice whatsoever.(Seriously, in the male version, when the Princess who had been sitting by his bedside took a nap, the clock should have reset, the Prince shouldn't still have sneezed and been woken by the maid.)

Maybe it's really Prince Charming asleep in the Castle and well, Beauty has to belt on her sword and gird her courage to get through the hedge and kill the dragon. Or, the tower bound male Rapunzel is intruded upon by a Pirate Princess who is looking for gold, not love. Maybe it isn't a brave little tailor but a brave seamstress! Or it is a male who is captured by a bunch of cannibalistic female bandits.

...

Okay, there is taking some things too far. (That story is terrible no matter what.)

Apply some Common Sense:

In fairy tales, things don't always make sense. I read them and go "why? why would they do that?" A lot of times Princes don't get punished for their ill deeds. Another Prince comes along, "saves" them and they go about their adventures without showing any sort of remorse for what they did in the first place. Princes don't become goose boys or shepherds or kitchen tweenies.(Or at least, not very often, I think Faithful John/Hans is about the only one I can think of.)

No, those punishments are reserved for Princesses who have been tricked into changing places with their maids and end up being goose girls or in the kitchen. (I can think of half a dozen variations of that tale.) And the Princess, instead of finding a nice baker or farmer to settle down with who appreciates her, instead figures out how to reveal her plight to the Prince who actually married her uppity maid/sister and seems happy with the maid/sister and once the maid/sister is out of the way, marries the Prince. (The Prince was tricked, happy to be tricked and the Princess took him anyways? That makes no sense.)

A really good example of this is the original and horrific Beauty Asleep tale. In the original tale, the King comes upon Beauty Asleep in her tower and rapes her, while she's asleep, repeatedly. In fact, he gets her pregnant with twins. The babes are born and he doesn't even take them with him! No. He leaves them with their sleeping mother. One of the babes gets hungry, as babies do! And sucks the thorn out of her finger that was keeping her asleep. Beauty wakes up. The Queen finds out about her existence. Tries to kill her. The King kills the Queen in turn and ends up marrying Beauty and bringing her and his twins to the castle.

Just what the ever loving hell?

It's good to be king?

No, really, the Queen should have taken Beauty's side. They could have killed the King for being an adulterer and ruled the kingdom together setting up the twins as the heirs. Female solidarity. Because the story as written is insane.

There's a post wandering about tumblr about swan maidens and selkies. And how awful the stories are about the men who take the swan maiden's cloaks and the selkies' skins to force these women to be their brides. One of the reblogs adds the caveat that it feels like these stories don't take into account the actual nature of swans and seals. Swans are pretty. They look graceful.

Swans are mean, they hiss, they bite, they're incredibly aggressive and they can break bones. Approach with caution. Don't try to steal from them. Don't try to pet them. Aggressive swan is aggressive. Okay. Anyone who steals a swan maiden's cloak deserves the punch in the face!

And seals, seals aren't all that nice either! Zefrank1 hasn't done a true facts about seals, but maybe he should. Male seals are called bulls for a reason! Elephant Seal bulls charge at each other when they fight. Leopard Seals are considered one of the ocean's more dangerous predators and take on whales and sharks. Seals train well to do tricks. Look, just, don't mess with them because not only are they cute and have sharp teeth and claws, they're smart. Do you really want to mess with the woman who can steal all your nets and drive the fish away and beat you to a bloody pulp? Seal fights involve mud wrestling.

Add some reality to the stories. Give the actions of those involved real consequences. Change the personalities to actually reflect the animals they are sharing their bodies with.

Mash things together:

This is another popular tactic and TV Tropes calls it the "Fractured" Fairy Tale. Think how in Once Upon a Time, (spoiler alert) Rumpelstiltskin is also the Beast of Beauty and the Beast and his father is Peter Pan. And he's the grandfather of the Truest Believer and thus the "father in law" of Emma Swan the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming. And that barely dips a toe into the confusing of Once Upon a Time Family relationships.

Mercedes Lackey also did a version of mixing up of fairy tales in her 500 Kingdoms. In the 500 Kingdoms, The Tradition is a form of magic that ties to make fairy tales happen no matter what type of tale they are and no matter if all the pieces are actually 100% correct. Fairy Godmothers are there to steer the tradition so that disaster doesn't strike constantly. (Because what if the Prince of the Cinderella tale was actually a Princess or well, a Prince who was too young, too old, or just liked other Princes.)

Fables does this as well. Prince Charming is the same Prince across Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Sleeping Beauty ends up marrying the Beast in her second marriage. (Prince Charming is good at wooing, not staying.) The Gingerbread witch of Hansel and Gretel ends up being the witch who puts most of the tales in action across the Enchanted Forest. The last arc I read, Rose Red was making her own version of Camelot (and there was much trepidation about how that was going to turn out, probably badly.)

Grab a bunch of different stories that seem to work well together, stitch them together in a way that makes sense or seems fun. It's okay not to always tell the exact same tale.

Add Real People's stories:

Look, if you're going for a more empowered woman in your stories. There are plenty of women in history that were actually pretty awesome. And I'm not just talking about Esther from the Bible or Rahab. (Both pretty awesome ladies.) There were female pirates and female queens who outwitted and beat their male counterparts to be on the throne and to keep themselves out of jail. There are female scientists, female snipers and well, I'm sure if you look hard enough you can find something a woman did in real life that men get praised for more often.

In fact, one person go so fed up with the way fairy tale princesses are praised at places such as Disney, they created a site/book for girls about such heroines at Rejectedprincesses.com.

Youtube has videos labelled things like Top Ten Badass women from History you probably don't know about. (But if you'd read Rejected Princesses you actually might!)

So, don't be afraid to use some real world inspiration to give you ideas about how awesome your female characters can be.

And these are just a few ideas on how to take something old and make it something "new."

In the Dawn Warrior, I took a bunch of these. I applied some common sense. Changed the Princess' role. And really mashed some things together. But, I kept a medieval fairy tale like setting because I wanted to keep this series different from my other series, Heaven's Heathens MC, which is a light science fantasy that could read urban fantasy if you squint at it. (Or maybe it's the other way around.) Two series set in the modern/future world seemed a bit silly to me.

Mostly, my advice is if you want to retell a fairy tale or myth or legend, have fun with it. Take your ingredients, mix them up as needed and don't sacrifice your story for message. (Because really, that gets old very quickly.)

Whelp, now if you like fairy tales there are plenty of pieces of media in this post to check out. Happy reading/watching/researching!

#writblr #wrtblr #writing advice #writing tips #fairy tales #myths

3 notes · View notes

magzoso-tech · 5 years

Photo

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/how-dubsmash-revived-itself-as-2-to-tiktok/

How Dubsmash revived itself as #2 to TikTok

Lip-syncing app Dubsmash was on the brink of death. After a brief moment of virality in 2015 alongside Vine (R.I.P), Dubsmash was bleeding users faster than it could recruit them. The app let you choose an audio track like a rap song or movie quote and shoot a video of you pretending to say the words. But there was nowhere in the app to post the videos. It was a creation tool like Hipstamatic, not a network like Instagram. There’s a reason we’re only using one of those today.

So in 2017 Dubsmash‘s three executives burned down the 30-person company and rebuilt something social from the ashes with the rest of the $15.4 million it’d raised from Lowercase Capital and Index Ventures. They ditched its Berlin headquarters and resettled in Brooklyn, closer to the one demographic still pushing Dubsmashes to the Instagram Explore page: African-American teenagers posting dances and lip-syncs to indie hip-hop songs on the rise.

Dubsmash stretched its funding to rehire a whole new team of 15. They spent a year coding a new version of Dubsmash centered around Following and Trending feeds, desperately trying to match the core features of Musically, which by then had been bought by China’s ByteDance. It’s got chat but still lacks the augmented reality filters, cut transitions, and photo slideshows of TikTok. But Dubsmash has the critical remix option for soundtracking your clip with the audio of any other video that sets it apart from Instagram and Snapchat.

“We realized to build a great product, we needed a depth of expertise that we just didn’t have access to in Berlin” Dubsmash co-founder and CEO Jonas Druppel tells me. “It was a risky move and we felt the weight of it acutely. But we also knew there was no other way forward, given the scale and pace of the other players in the market.”

Few social apps have ever pulled off a real comeback. Even Snapchat had only lost 5 million of its 191 million users before it started growing again. But in the case of Dubsmash, its biggest competitor was also its savior.

The pre-relaunch version of Dubsmash

In August 2018, ByteDance merged Musically into TikTok to form a micro-entertainment phenomenon. Instead of haphazardly sharing auto-biographical Stories shot with little forethought, people began storyboarding skits and practicing dances. The resulting videos were denser and more compelling than content on Snapchat and Instagram. The new Dubsmash, launched two months later, rode along with the surge of interest in short-form video like a Lilliputian in a giant’s shirt pocket. The momentum helped Dubsmash raise a secret round of funding last year to keep up the chase.

Now Dubsmash has 1 billion video views per month.

Dubsmash rebuilt its app and revived its usage

“The turnaround that we executed hasn’t been done in recent memory by a consumer app in such a competitive marketplace. Most of them fade to oblivion or shut down” Dubsmash co-founder and President Suchit Dash tells me. “By moving the company to the United States, hiring a brand new all-star team & relaunching the product, we gave this company & product a second life. Through that journey, we obsessed only on one metric: retention.”

Now the app has pulled 27% of the US short-form video market share by installs, second only to TikTok’s 59%, according to AppAnnie. Sensor Tower tells TechCrunch that TikTok has about 3X as many US lifetime installs as Dubsmash, and 11X more between when Musically became TikTok in August 2018 and now.

In terms of active users outside of TikTok, Dubsmash has 73% of the US market, compared to just 23% on Triller, 3.6% on Firework, and an embarrassing 0% on Facebook’s Lasso. And while Triller began surpassing Dubsmash in downloads per month in October, Dubsmash has 3X as many active users and saw 38% more first-time downloads in 2018 than 2019. Dubsmash now sees 30% retention after a month, and 30% of its daily users are creating content.

It’s that stellar rate of participation that’s brought Dubsmash back to life. It also attracted a previously unannounced round of $6.75 million in the Spring of 2019, largely from existing investors. While TikTok’s superstars and huge visibility could be scaring some users away from shooting videos while a long-tail of recent downloaders watch passively, Dubsmash has managed to make people feel comfortable on camera.

“Dubsmash is ground zero for culture creation in America—it’s where the newest, most popular hip-hop and dance challenges on the Internet originate” Dash declares. “Members of the community are developing content that will make them the superstars of tomorrow.”

Being #2 might not be so bad, given how mobile video viewing is growing massively thanks to better cameras, bigger screens, faster networks, and cheaper data. Right now, Dubsmash doesn’t make any money. It hopes to one day generate revenue while helping its creators earn a living too, perhaps through ad revenue shares, tipping, subscriptions, merchandise, or offline meetups.

One advantage of not being TikTok is that the app feels less crowded by semi-pro creators and influencers. That gives users the vibe that they’re more likely to hit the Trending or Explore page on Dubsmash. The Trending page is dominated by hot new songs and flashy dances, even if they’re shot with a lower production quality that feels accessible.

Dubsmash tries to stoke that sense of opportunity by making Explore about discovering accounts and all the content they’ve made rather than specific videos. While popular clips might have tens of thousands of views rather than the hundred-thousand or multi-million counts on TikTok’s top content, there’s enough visibility to make shooting Dubsmashes worth it.

TikTok has already taken notice. Shown in a leak of its moderation guidelines from Netzpolitik, the company’s policy is to downrank the visibility of any video referencing or including a watermark from direct competitors including Dubsmash, Triller, Lasso, Snapchat, and WhatsApp. That keeps Dubsmash videos, which you can save to your camera roll, from going viral on TikTok and luring users away.

TikTok’s content moderation guidelines show it downranks content featuring the watermarks of competitors like Dubsmash

TikTok also continues to aggressively buy users via ads on competing apps like Facebook thanks to the billions in funding raked in by its parent ByteDance. In contast, Dash says Dubsmash has never spent a dollar on user acquisition, influencer marketing, or any other source of growth. That makes it achieving even half to a third of as many installs as TikTok in the US an impressive fete.

Why would creators choose Dubsmash over TikTok? Dash clinically explains that its a “decoupled audio and video platform that enables producers and tastemakers to upload fresh, original tracks that are utilized by creators and influencers alike” but that it’s also about “Its role as a welcoming home for a community that’s underrepresented on social platforms.”

If Dubsmash keeps growing, though, it will encounter the inevitable content moderation problems that come with scale. It’s already doing a solid job of requiring users to sign up with their birthdate to watch or post videos, and it blocks those under 13. Only users who follow each other can chat.

Any piece of content that’s flagged by users is hidden from the network until it passes a review by its human moderation team that works around the clock, and it does proactive takedowns too. However, brigading and malicious takedown reports could be used by trolls to silence their enemies. Dubsmash is working off of a common sense model of what’s allowed rather than firm guidelines, which will be tough to keep consistent at scale.

“Being a social media app in 2020 means you need to take greater responsibility for the well being of the community” says Dash. “We decided upon relaunch to take a strict perspective. Our goal is to be intentional and proactive early, and invest in safety and healthy growth rather than growth at all costs. This may not be the most popular approach amongst the market, but we believe this is the most effective way to build a social platform.”

Dubsmash proves that short-form video is so compelling to teens that the market can sustain multiple apps. That will have to be the case given Instagram is preparing to release its TikTok clone Reels, and Vine’s co-founder Dom Hofmann just launched his successor Byte. The breakdown could look like:

TikTok: A slightly longer-form combo of comedy, dance, and absurdity

Dubsmash: Mid-length dance and music videos with a diverse community

Byte: Super short-form comedy featuring slightly older ex-Vine stars

Triller: Mid-length life blogging clips from Hollywood celebrities

Instagram Reels: International influencers making videos for a mainstream audience

Perhaps we’ll eventually see consolidation in the market, with giants like TikTok and Instagram acquiring smaller players to grow their content network effect with more fodder for remixes. But fragmentation could breed creativity. Different tools and audiences beg for different types of videos. Make something special, and there’s an app out there to enter your into pop culture cannon.

For more on the short-form video wars and the future of micro-entertainment, read:

#Miscellaneous

0 notes

indigozeal · 7 years

Text

Remothered, the one-time Clock Tower vaporware remake turned giallo-esque horror game from NightCry artist Chris Darril, launches in early access tomorrow in a two-thirds-complete state (meaning, you won't be able to play through the whole story). I was part of the beta a few months ago, and I thought I'd share my impressions of what I played before tomorrow's quasi-release. The game's promising and gets some things very right, but there are problems, some of which may prove a barrier to mass-market acceptance.

Before I start here, I want to say that it's an accomplishment that there's enough of a game here to fuel a substantive discussion. Longtime Clock Tower fans might remember the origins of Remothered over ten years ago as a straight remake of the first CT, featuring rough 3D graphics straight out of an FPS mod and a Jennifer with bowling-ball tits. Darril was keen on remaking Clock Tower, though, and pursued his idea through a couple drastic revisions: a 2D, straight-to-the-plane remake with memorable magazine-collage graphics and more extreme gore, and what was presumably a more modern remake featuring multiple imaginatively-designed stalkers in a Haunting Ground vein, promoted solely with detailed art from Darril (who is a professional video game illustrator). These ideas, however, never progressed beyond trailers or concept art (with its third incarnation not even producing a screenshot), and being such a bald remake, the project always had the spectre of copyright smackdowns hanging over its head - even the third version, which was allegedly a unique title, merely changed the names Schmennifer Shmimpson-style. Combine the wheel-spinning with Darril's weird style of communication - always through third parties who should not have been in the PR biz, giving conflicting information as to the status of development and the IP's ownership - and there was no reason to expect anything to come of this start-and-stop endeavor. But Remothered has resurfaced, fully reborn, and that Darril persisted and grew from a fan developer to a professional to shape his remake concept into an original idea and get it to market is encouraging.

That said: from what I experienced in the beta demo, I don't know if I could play this game to completion. (And I don't mean that in an "I'm too scared to continue" way - though the game is very tense and scary.)

Let me start with something good: the look of the environments. Given Darril's background, art was always a strong point of the various Remothered projects, and the mansion in which the story takes place looks really great. It nails an aesthetic you don't often see in video games: an old, lived-in grunge. (This is as opposed to the pure-filth grunge of Resident Evil 7, a game to which Remothered will receive many comparisons.) The outdoor gardens are predictably, grandiosely overgrown, gorgeous and giallo-esque in their unbridled lushness yet speaking to decay. The interior is convincingly old and neglected in the way of fallen wealth - the furniture is ornate but old-fashioned, with a musty museum quality of things that were previously treasured but aren't used or tended to on a regular basis anymore. The environments are dank in the manner of a once-grand environment that no longer is populated enough to require proper illumination, and there's a clutter that denotes both accumulated wealth and disuse.

I'd also like to single out for praise the design of the Red Nun stalker, an element justifiably carried over from Remothered's previous incarnation. She has a lurid, dramatic presence that instantly announces itself as giallo and is more than strong enough on which to hang a horror title.

A problem on the art side: the faces look somewhat stiff and weird. Rosemary's face did, at least, in the beta, and while it's impressive that Darril's been able to get as far as he did with the faces on an indie budget, he still has a way to go to compete with the modern standard for face technology and expressiveness - and this is not an area in which audiences are forgiving. (I remember Run Button criticizing Mia's face from RE7 as fake-looking, for example, and that's near the current cutting edge of realism.) And the title screen, the first thing you see of the game after the studio logos, is a big close-up of Rosemary's face. Again: this factor doesn't matter as much to me personally. I can see this, though, being a big stumbling block for the game.

(Also: while Dr. Fenton's incidental voice acting is very good (the actor is having a lot of fun), the pacing of dialogue between characters is remarkably stilted (in a very Argento way, but: despite his influence, the man has a limited audience), which adds to the "unnatural human" feel. )

Another problem is the game system. It's a combination of Clock Tower elements: the "find disposable weapons to ward off stalker attacks temporarily" system from 2 with (apparently) the change-ups in stalkers for each level of later installments and the "move, or don't move, your cursor to hide successfully" thing from NightCry. It also adds, though, a number of original mechanics, mostly involving how you and your stalker track each other. The game makes extensive use of stereo sound to clue you as to your stalker's location - there's an early sequence, for example, where you're stuck in a bathroom and are expected to gauge by the volume and direction of the stalker's jabberings when he's left the adjoining bedroom and it's safe to sneak out. Stalkers can detect you using similar methods, however, so you have to use care in your movements: don't make too many footsteps on bare floor in a row, for example, or he'll hear you. (Carpets, conversely, can cover your footsteps.) It's very smart, and very tense.

A number of choices detract from this, though. First, there's the sheer number of actions available to the player at any time: you can run, crouch, place a diversion item (taken with you from the environment here instead of being usable only at hotspots like traditional CT), throw a diversion item, and try to use a stabbing item (separate from diversion items, which are like teacups and stuff you can throw). Typing that out, it doesn't seem like much, but it proved rather overwhelming for me. Horror games, with their focus on primal fears, are in great part about instinctual reaction: they need simple controls.

(And speaking of controls, a related gripe: movement is, naturally, mapped to the L stick, but to crouch, you depress the L stick. That seems intuitive, but when you're trying to move your character quickly (y'know, like in a horror game), it's easy to make movements that the controller registers as depressing the stick. As a result, I spent a good amount of time during chases trying to run away but going into crouch and creeping at a snail's pace.)

Second, while the environmental-tracking gimmicks are very tense and smart, the game, disappointingly, doesn't always play by its own rules. Once, for example, I thought I had successfully escaped the starting bathroom/bedroom early enough to get a head start on my pursuer, only to have him materialize in front of me Jason-like on the first-floor landing as I was going down the stairs. That ain't fair; the stalking system is so good and tense on its own terms that it shouldn't need to cheat. (This incident might have been just beta jitters, though; I hope it was.)

Also, while gameplay is very tense, there's no let-up to that tension. Once chasing had started, there was no point in what I played of Remothered where I was not being actively hunted, and - for me, at least - that was detrimental to the game. Clock Tower depended on a rise and fall of tension, periods where you were free to explore punctuated by chases where you had to drop what you were doing and focus on eluding your pursuer. The tension in the exploration segments slowly builds as the possibility that your explorations of your environment might trigger an encounter with the killer rises higher and higher - then comes to a head when the killer does appear and you have to find a way to elude them, then subsides when they are, for the moment, thwarted. Hitting a single high note of sustained tension for a half-hour, 45 minutes, an hour is too draining, too much of a barrier; it's wearying to have to be constantly vigilant, constantly creeping around. There's no release, and it's not tense and fun but annoying and unpleasant.

Which brings me to another problem with Remothered: it's unpleasant. This sounds like an odd, illegitimate complaint to lodge against a horror game, but there is a difference between horror and disgust. For one, Remothered is much more invested in gore than I am personally. In the game's early fail states, I would again and again watch Rosemary's skull get cleaved open like a cantaloupe; in later stages, the stalker makes to put out Rosemary's eyes with his thumbs before, again, busting open her brain cavity. Giallo is a huge, obvious influence on Remothered, and grand guignol deaths are a hallmark of that genre (though I'll note that they're usually big, isolated setpieces meant to have emotional significance in the story; bringing the same spectacle to ad nauseam game overs threatens to make its impact overwhelming or fatigued). This might all, though, be far from home for Clock Tower fans, as those games actually weren't all that bloody.

Then there are other accoutrements, like the appearance of a prominent parent-child incest subplot before the first chapter is up, or the first stalker shrieking "you stupid BITCH!!!" in unpleasantly shrill tones constantly throughout the chases. Yeah, I know: oh, man, look at this nut, doesn't want the villains to do anything villainous! But with games, the player is continually facing the question: do I want to keep spending time in this world? Are intrigue, mystery, and tension carrying the day, or are the skeevy elements taking over? Before, I would've really pushed for, say, a supergreatfriend run of Remothered. After playing, though, I just don't think it's suited to a "fun" horror game reaction run. Then again, people love RE7, so what do I know.

(To get on another tangent, though: RE7 has a lot of humor & humanity (the behavior of the conceited anchor guy in the demo; Jack's lines & voice acting) that defuses the tension & impact of the exploitation material in a good way. Not to the point where I'd be able to stomach the worst of what's going on firsthand, but it has a positive effect. That's not really present in what I played of Remothered.)

Also, a word about the PR. I'm on the mailing list, and the missives from Darril's home office have, thankfully, been much more polished than previously. They do, however, have an element of carnival-barker to them. In a way, communication is much clearer now (given that it's actually more or less straight from Darril himself, though there's still a level of remove), but in another way, the hard-sell approach taken makes me feel as if he's trying to put something over on me. That's not an approach this project needs, particularly given its previous history of bad information, copyright-dodging, and starts/restarts. (Darril is also pushing hard for Remothered to be a trilogy: hold your horses, friendo.)

That's pretty much it from me. Again, a two-thirds-complete beta of the game releases tomorrow. I'm glad for Darril that he got to this point; I might not choose to take a front seat to it.

#remothered #blog post #stuff i wrote

3 notes · View notes

postgamecontent · 7 years

Text

Studio Pixel Spotlight: Cave Story

Original Release Date: December 20, 2004

Original Hardware: Windows PC

Chances are good that if you've only played one game in this spotlight, it's Cave Story. It's Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya's most famous and successful work, and it's been released on far more platforms than any of his other games. It has sold millions of copies, a fact made all the more impressive when you consider that the game in its most basic form has been available for free since the day it was released. It's also an important game, serving as a herald for the indie game boom that would follow in its wake. Its success not only won Pixel his financial independence, it also helped establish indie publisher Nicalis. Oh, and it's also a really terrific game. Any game that makes it this far on word of mouth would have to be, wouldn't it?

Of course, Pixel wouldn't have had any way of knowing just how big his little game would become as he toiled away on it for five long years. His previous games, Ikachan and Azarashi, hadn't garnered a lot of attention, after all. Still, he had a dream and refused to give up on it. As long as he could make something that would bring joy to someone else, that was good enough for him. So for a half-decade, Pixel went to his day job working on software for printers and came home to his personal project. There were false starts, ideas that never made it in, and items originally were meant to have purpose that ended up being vestigial. By the end of the process, Pixel was sure he would never make another game again. The game was finally completed as the year 2004 came to a close, and on December 20th, it was uploaded to Pixel's site. He didn't charge anything for his game, partly because he just wanted people to play it, and partly because he couldn't be bothered with the process of trying to collect money.

Before too long, the game caught the eye of a fan localization group called Aeon Genesis. They're one of the more respected romhacking groups around, with games like Shin Megami Tensei, Clock Tower, and Treasure of the Rudras under their collective belts. The group picked up Cave Story and did their thing with it, releasing the first English version of the game only a month after its Japanese release. By August of 2005 they had finished their final version, and the game had already begun to catch on in a surprisingly big way. With no AAA budget, marketing, or store presence, Cave Story had to rely purely on people enjoying it and spreading word of it around to their friends. That it became as big as it did at a time where social media consisted of MySpace and AOL Instant Messenger is a minor miracle.

Fans were soon porting the game around to just about anything that could handle it. A 2007 port to Sony's PlayStation Portable was one of the more popular non-emulator pieces of homebrew software for the system. For his part, Pixel had already moved on to making other games. He wasn't unaware of the popularity of his game, but if there's one word to describe Pixel, it's 'humble'. While there had been talk about bringing Cave Story to platforms like the Game Boy Advance, talk was all it was until he was approached by a man named Tyrone Rodriguez, a former editor at American gaming website IGN. In 2007, Rodriguez founded Nicalis, a small developer/publisher that targeted the burgeoning digital marketplaces on consoles. He convinced Pixel that the game would be a good fit for Nintendo's upcoming Wiiware service, and a partnership was formed that persists to this day.

The Wiiware version from Nicalis wasn't just a straight port, however. Pixel and Nicalis felt that they should put their best foot forward with Cave Story and decided to touch up the game's presentation. They also wanted to add in some bonus content. After all, the game had been free up until this point. It might take some sweetening of the pot to convince players to pay. All of this work took time, and the Wiiware version of the game met with a few delays before it finally released in North America in March of 2010. A European release would follow several months later. Interestingly, this version of the game was never released in Japan. Pixel's home country would have to wait for the Nintendo DSiware version. That game launched in November of 2010 in North America, and came out almost exactly a year later in Japan. November 2011 also saw the PC release of Cave Story+, which was basically an enhanced version of the upgraded Wiiware port. This time, PC players would have to pay for the game if they wanted it. There were some gripes about that, but the game did just fine anyway.

That wasn't the only Cave Story action in November of 2011. That month also saw the release of Cave Story 3D on the Nintendo 3DS. As opposed to the enhanced but ultimately faithful ports of the game that had been released thus far, Cave Story 3D was a ground-up remake. All of the gorgeous pixel art was replaced with polygonal models, a change that didn't exactly go over well with a lot of players. This version of the game was also missing a lot of the extra content from the other versions of Cave Story, without much to make up for it. Truthfully, the most noteworthy thing about Cave Story 3D is that until the recent release of Cave Story+ for the Nintendo Switch, it was the only physical version of the game produced. It also features an appearance from Prinny, owing to the game being published by Disgaea creators NIS.

I played through Cave Story 3D earlier this year, and while it's certainly misguided in a lot of its changes, it's not terrible. You can tell it's coming from people who aren't accustomed to working with 3D graphics, however. Certain elements don't stand out as well from the backgrounds as they should, and everything just looks low-budget in a way that the original game ironically does not. The timing of the controls feels slightly off in places, too. I don't know if that's coming from any actual lag or is just a consequence of the dramatically different visual feedback, but it makes for a worse experience overall. If it's your only choice, the original game's quality still shines through well enough to give you a good time. I can't see how it could be your only choice, though, as the 3DS received its own native port of Cave Story for the Nintendo eShop less than a year later. I suppose it also has merit for die-hard fans just to see what a different version of Cave Story looks like, if nothing else.

As already mentioned, the latest release of the game is for the Nintendo Switch. I haven't played this version yet, so I can't speak to its quality. Since it's based on the Cave Story+ version of the game, I can't imagine that there's anything particularly wrong with it. Nicalis has quite a bit of experience with this title at this point, after all. The presentation seems to have been buffed up a little more, and a co-op mode will apparently be added to the game via a free update later this summer. The main draw here is that it comes in a lovely physical edition, complete with a NES-style manual, a mini soundtrack CD, a keychain, and other assorted goodies. For Cave Story fans, it's the first chance to own a real copy of the original game since it launched more than 12 years ago.

That's probably enough talking around the game, though. Let's talk about the game itself, because it really is a special one. Cave Story is a non-linear action-platformer in the vein of Metroid. You play as an amnesiac boy who wakes up in a cave. Once you've made your way out, you find yourself in a village of rabbit-like creatures called Mimiga. After a little looking around, you'll meet some of the antagonists of the game. Balrog and his sister Misery will be thorns in your side for most of the rest of the game, and you'll likely have your first fight with the former here. You don't have to, mind you. He'll ask if you really want to fight him, and you can say no. He'll just go away if you do. Either way, they'll take off with one of the villagers, setting the stage for you to finally leave the village.

While Cave Story plays out a lot like Metroid, it doesn't have a large, contiguous world. Instead, it's broken up into separate areas that you need to use transporters to travel between. Generally speaking, it's impossible to get to certain areas until the game wants you to reach them, so you can't sequence-break to the extent that you can in some games of this style. Nevertheless, there's plenty of exploration to be done. Items that increase your maximum life points and missile ammo are tucked away in various hiding spots, and there are plenty of secrets that have little point to them apart from being amusing. Outside of a couple of important areas, you usually don't need to backtrack to previous sections unless you missed something the first time. Most areas are also capped off with a boss battle, giving Cave Story more of an action-game feel than you might initially expect.

Taken in that context, the levels in Cave Story are really well-designed. Long enough to feel like an effort, but they never overstay their welcome. Even when the game presents you with a tedious fetch quest, you rarely have to track your feet over much of a distance. The worst instance of this is when Balrog's aunt asks you to find her five dogs. There's a particularly annoying stretch filled with enemies that you'll have to cross back and forth a few times. You'll also have to do a little backtracking if you want to get the game's best ending. Not that you're likely to stumble across that particular chain of feats without being told precisely what to do, mind you. Pixel set it up so that you would have to fight your gamer instincts four or five times without fail. Are you really going to let someone fall without checking on them? Search a boss room before talking to your friend? Not leave an injured but stable person to rest in a bed? It's kind of brilliant, in a slightly evil way.

It's part of what makes Cave Story so special, if you think about it. Pixel knows you. He sees you. He understands what you're going to try, for the most part, and makes sure something happens if you try it. One of the most frustrating things for me when I'm playing a game like Uncharted or Tomb Raider is when I climb, jump, or get myself to an out of the way location where it feels like there should be a treasure, only to find nothing. There should be a treasure here! That never happens in Cave Story. There's always something where you expect to find something. It might not have any point, but Pixel knew you would try it, and he left a little note of some kind for you.

I suppose one thing I could criticize is the difficulty curve. Cave Story is surprisingly easy on its default difficulty setting until the very end. Upon entering the Final Cave, the game takes a big step up and doesn't let up until it's over. It's not impossible or anything. If you can beat the average Mega Man X game, you can get through this. But it's a very noticeable incline for a game that is otherwise pretty gentle and smooth. The game does try hard to coach you, at least. You can power up your weapons by collecting experience dropped by enemies after they're killed. Taking hits will cost you some of your current weapon's experience in addition to taking away some life. Losing your maximum level on a weapon dramatically decreases its usefulness, so you'll really want to avoid getting hit. I'm not sure if this was deliberate or not, but this essentially teaches you to strive for perfection when everything else in the game allows for quite a few errors. Theoretically, you should be ready for the last sequence of events by the time they come. Theoretically.

Considering the fact that the game was made entirely by Pixel on his own, it's incredible that there aren't any serious weak points, though. The graphics have a retro look to them, sure, but they feel authentic rather than opportunistic. The music is absolutely incredible. That's the one thing you can always count on with Pixel's games. Even the mini-games will have at least one or two outstanding chiptune tracks. Cave Story is packed with them. Most versions of the game beyond the initial release also have a lot of extra modes and unlockable goodies to check out.

For example, you could always find Curly Brace's panties by going through a secret area in her house, but they never did anything in the original version. In later versions, that item unlocks Curly Story, which lets you play through the game with the main character and Curly's roles reversed. That's a really weird way to open up a new mode, but it is what it is, I suppose. The point is that even though the main game offers a respectable 5-6 hour playthrough, there are lots of reasons to revisit Cave Story. This game goes above and beyond what you would expect given, well, just about everything about its origins and circumstances.

Ultimately, Cave Story is a genuine work of heart, the kind that wears that on its sleeve proudly. This game exists for no other reason than the fact that its creator wanted it to exist. It wasn't made to make money, or even to be popular. It wasn't made to make Pixel famous, and he even kind of fought his fame for a while. That alone doesn't make it entirely unique. I know many independent developers who are essentially doing the same thing. With the utmost respect to their work, however, not many of them turn out games of this size, scope, and level of polish. Even Pixel himself has had a lot of trouble doing it again. Cave Story is one of those lightning-strike moments in gaming history. I'm not sure if I'd put it on exactly the same level as Super Metroid, its chief source of inspiration, but it's not far below. And just like that game, it's utterly timeless. You would think a game like this would mainly appeal to people who grew up in the 8-bit/16-bit era, but the game is apparently quite popular with kids, too. That bodes well for the game's long-term status in the gaming canon, I'd say.

The dark side of that kind of success is that a lot of people keep looking to Pixel to do it all again. I'd argue that his most recent game Kero Blaster finally fulfilled that request in the broad sense, but not everyone would agree with me on that. Perhaps we all just need to accept that if someone can turn out a game like Cave Story even once in their life, that's a real miracle. Pixel has made many other fun games, and I'm quite sure he'll make many more. But Cave Story is Cave Story, and like any true piece of personal expression, it's doubtful that its creator could replicate the feelings it evokes even if he wanted to. I'd much rather that Pixel do the thing he was doing to begin with when he created Cave Story: whatever he feels like making. I'm sure he's got a lot of great ideas in him that don't involve going back to the well.

In the meantime, I have little doubt that we will continue to see re-releases and enhanced versions of Cave Story for a long time to come. A game that began its life as freeware has seemingly only gained value over the years, and people seem to be quite content paying to have the game available on whatever their newest piece of hardware is. For a game whose story is essentially about trying to get home, it's funny that so many people, including myself, find themselves coming home to Cave Story again and again.

Previous: Ikachan & Azarashi

Next: Megane & Guxt

If you enjoyed reading this article and can’t wait to get more, consider subscribing to the Post Game Content Patreon. Just $1/month gets you early access to articles like this one, exclusive extra posts, and my undying thanks.

#studio pixel spotlight #studio pixel #gaming #retro #cave story #nicalis #nintendo 3ds #nintendo switch #nintendo ds #pc

1 note · View note

nautiscarader · 8 years

Note

Sim 20 for wendip

Yay, another prompts finished, definitely not overdue.

Also my first attempt at Wendip mixed with Mabifica, @dusk4224 @fereality-indy hope you liked it

Polichinelo’s secret, Wendip w/Mabifica, T/M

(List) (Masterpost) (Read on Ao3)

In Gravity Falls the end of the summer was always marked by two events: their annual, technically illegal, but also completely ignored by the police celebrations of The Events That Never Actually Happened, and the Pines twins birthday party.

Once again, Mystery Shack turned into a huge dance floor, bringing the locals to celebrate Dipper and Mabel turning magical milestone of eighteen. At eleven p.m., the twin cakes were long gone, and the sodas got substituted with their spiked versions, making the party goers either braver and more active, or quite the opposite, sluggish and sleepy.

Mabel Pines was definitely in the first category, scouring through the dancing crowd, looking for her brother, glancing at the clock that will soon strike twelve. Her frantic search yielded someone else, the blonde heiress of the Northwests, Pacifica, casually leaning on the wall.

Once she saw that Pacifica hasn’t even bothered to look at her, Mabel felt ashamed that she left her girlfriend for such a long time, but then she noticed a smirk on her face, brought by something that seemingly only she was able to see.

- Uh, Paz, have you seen my brother? - Oh, yes, I have. - she snickered, never taking her eyes from her target.

Or rather “targets”, as Mabel soon followed her stare, finding what caught Pacifica’s attention, causing her to emit a loud gasp.

Though barely visible in the dimmed light and through the thick, moving crowd, in the chair, on the corner of the room Wendy was sitting in Dipper’s lap, sloppily making out and moving back and forth in unison so suggestively that they were practically screaming “we did it”. Long gone were the days of the lumberjill being the taller of the two, though the scene still looked a bit comical, as Wendy looked positively towering over her enthralled and dominated boyfriend.

- How long have these two been like that? - Way longer than you’d think. - Pacifica responded, finally walking back to the dance floor.

The two young women exchanged knowing looks and instantly made their way through the crowd, leaving a corridor of empty space behind them and waiting patiently for the slow song to end.

- Go for it, bro! - Mabel shouted once the song ended - Yeah, and then find a room!

Mabel’s voice not only put Wendy and Dipper in the spotlight, (both figuratively and literally, as the lights went on just when Mabel let out her calculated scream) but encouraged others to root for the pair that only now realised what was happening around them. Their eyes turned wide once she saw they were no longer hidden in the shadows, resulting in even louder cheers and applause from the crowd, lead by none other than Mabel and Pacifica.

The two red-faced young adults remained the centre of attention for a short moment, until the same two girls that started it begun dancing to the new tune, dissipating the circle of onlookers around Wendy and Dipper, mercifully bringing their moment of embarrassment to end.

- Sorry, Wendy, I-I think I got lost… - Lost? And what I am supposed to say? - she conceded, taking a sip from her plastic cup - If your sister hadn’t interrupted us, we’d be in way bigger trouble. - So… should we repay them? - Dipper nudged her, pointing to the other side of the room.

Once again, though very little was visible through the crowd and slightly foggy air, Mabel and Pacifica were clearly mimicking the behaviour they were quite happily making fun of a minute ago, leaning on the wall in very unequivocal manner, their hands exploring each other’s backs.

- Nah, let’s leave them. And you know, I think my feet are tired from dancing - she hinted, taking his hand as she stood up.

The combination of loud music, low light and general commotion was enough for one of the celebrants and his girlfriend to sneak through the crowd, following the advice Pacifica gave them a moment ago and hoping they won’t be preoccupied with each other enough to miss the midnight wishes.

#wendip #nautiscarader #Anonymous #mabifica

17 notes · View notes

cts-iowa · 8 years

Text

Minit is a charming indie version of Majora's Mask

Minit is like Majora's Mask; Minit is like Groundhog Day; Minit is like Westworld from the robots' perspective; Minit is like that one episode of Supernatural, that one episode of Doctor Who, that one The Adventure Zone arc -- it's a game where time resets after a certain point, forcing you to relive your past. Here, it's not a single day, or even a full hour. It's sixty seconds in real-time.

You'll "get" Minit fairly quickly, and I have to imagine that would be the case even if you've been living in an isolated tower somewhere and have never heard of the Groundhog Day loop. There's a counter ticking down in the corner of the screen, which is either a constant reminder of your own mortality in a subtle commentary on the finite nature of life or a setup for a great punchline where an old man very slowly natters to you as your clock inches towards zero once more, depending on who you ask.

I never felt like I didn't know where to go in Minit, which is a blessing for a game where your progress resets so often. There was always a clear path in my head, so it was only a matter of finding the most expedient way from point A to point B. For example, a bartender had something I clearly needed for the final run, but he also wanted me to get rid of the crabs littering the beach. In any other game, that would be a tutorial quest in a starting town. In Minit, it's a race against time.

Read more... via https://www.destructoid.com/minit-is-a-charming-indie-version-of-majora-s-mask-416215.phtml and www.computechtechnologyservices.com

#tech #technology #news #reblog #share #Gaming #@cts_iowa

1 note · View note

sheminecrafts · 5 years

Text

How Dubsmash revived itself as #2 to TikTok

The pre-relaunch version of Dubsmash

Now Dubsmash has 1 billion video views per month.

Dubsmash rebuilt its app and revived its usage

TikTok’s content moderation guidelines show it downranks content featuring the watermarks of competitors like Dubsmash

TikTok: A slightly longer-form combo of comedy, dance, and absurdity

Dubsmash: Mid-length dance and music videos with a diverse community

Byte: Super short-form comedy featuring slightly older ex-Vine stars

Triller: Mid-length life blogging clips from Hollywood celebrities

Instagram Reels: International influencers making videos for a mainstream audience

For more on the short-form video wars and the future of micro-entertainment, read:

Zuckerberg misunderstands the huge threat of TikTok

Instagram Stories launches TikTok clone Reels in Brazil

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/2RL0j44 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

0 notes

technicalsolutions88 · 5 years

Link

The pre-relaunch version of Dubsmash

Now Dubsmash has 1 billion video views per month.

Dubsmash rebuilt its app and revived its usage

TikTok’s content moderation guidelines show it downranks content featuring the watermarks of competitors like Dubsmash

TikTok: A slightly longer-form combo of comedy, dance, and absurdity

Dubsmash: Mid-length dance and music videos with a diverse community

Byte: Super short-form comedy featuring slightly older ex-Vine stars

Triller: Mid-length life blogging clips from Hollywood celebrities

Instagram Reels: International influencers making videos for a mainstream audience

For more on the short-form video wars and the future of micro-entertainment, read:

Zuckerberg misunderstands the huge threat of TikTok

Instagram Stories launches TikTok clone Reels in Brazil

from Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2RL0j44 Original Content From: https://techcrunch.com

#Technical Solutions #SEO #Online Earning #Youtube Marketing #Android Developer

0 notes

topfygad · 5 years

Text

Quintessentially Quito | Nat Geo Traveller India

Boutique hotels and Novo-Andean cuisine are reaching new heights in Ecuador’s capital.

Culture Ecuador | POSTED ON: August 23, 2019

An Ecuadorian cowboy, or chagra, from Hacienda El Porvenir rides by the Cotopaxi volcano. Photo By: William Hereford

Wedged into the folds of the Andes, the world’s second highest capital city (surpassed only by La Paz, Bolivia) contains the best preserved Spanish colonial core in the Americas. Despite this, travellers tend to overlook Quito as they make their way to the country’s Pacific islands treasure, the Galápagos. But times are changing, and this city of two million is having a moment.

A burgeoning food scene, new boutique hotels, and a subway slated to open by year’s end are encouraging visitors to explore this modern city with an ancient soul. “Quito is best understood as a collection of diverse neighbourhoods united under a volcano,” says Jorge Vinueza, of Ecuadorian travel magazine Ñan. “These elements give it a unique energy that you only have to walk its streets to feel.”

The city’s UNESCO-designated centre is a rabbit hole of riches, but don’t stop there. Take the teleférico to the top of the volcano. Stock up on textiles at the Artisanal Market. And on weekends, make like the Quiteños and head out of town.

—Norie Quintos

La Floresta

A barrio with everything essential: coffee, culture, and chismes (gossip)

Ahacienda estate until the early 1900s, this wildflowered area was one of the first neighbourhoods to emerge as the city expanded beyond its colonial borders between the World Wars. There are ornate Italianate mansions, low-slung early modernist houses, and high-rise apartment buildings. Artists and creatives began moving in some 20 years ago to give it the alternative, indie vibe it has today. “The first inhabitants of La Floresta brought with them the spirit of the historic centre, the panaderías, cafeterías, lavanderías, sastrerías—what we call oficios, or trades,” says Vinueza. “Along with the more recent graffiti artists, musicians, and filmmakers, it’s what gives this barrio its aliveness.”

You don’t need an elaborate plan. Just wander. You might decide to take in an art film at the pioneering Ochoymedio theatreor visit the offices of travel magazine The Ñan to purchase some authentic souvenirs the staff picked up during their sojourns throughout the country. Scoop up designer-made decor from Libertina Tienda GalerIa or sample superfoods like quinoa at Vegano de Altura and chocolate at Hoja Verde. Time for uncafecito (a black coffee)? Head to Jervis or Botánica. For a free guided stroll of the neighbourhood, check out Quito Street Tours.

Panama hats were born in Ecuador, where they’re still woven by hand from toquilla straw. Photo By: Robert van der Hilst/Getty Images

Room Check

Le Parc Hotel

This sleek spot in New Quito’s Benalcázar neighbourhood is walking distance to crêperies, cafés, and high-end shopping, as well as La Carolina, the city’s version of Central Park, ideal for strolling and jogging. Well-appointed rooms feature mid-century modern furniture. en.leparc.com.ec

Hotel Mama Cuchara

One of the city’s newest boutique hotels grew out of an old house in the traditional working hood of La Loma Grande, near many of the sites in the historic centre. The house once harboured conspirators of the 1875 assassination of President Gabriel García Moreno. Now remodelers have reversed years of neglect and incorporated contemporary architecture to create a structure that evokes history without replicating it. Ecuadorian art adorns the rooms, and the restaurant’s menu changes daily to highlight dishes from different provinces. https://ift.tt/2L1zF3h

Casa Gangotena

With its prime location on Plaza de San Francisco—the heart of the historic quarter—this is undoubtedly the best address in the city. The former palace home of presidents and landowners was rebuilt in art nouveau style with art deco touches and eventually turned into a 31-room hotel. Don’t miss the rooftop terrace for unfettered views of the old town. www.casagangotena.com

Buen Provecho

Four ways to eat well, from street food to Novo-Andean.

Café Society

Quiteños drink coffee all day long (and don’t even think about ordering decaf). Try the cafeterías in Plaza Grande for people- watching. Serious coffee lovers should head to Café Galletti Teatro Bolívar, a family-run business that works with small fincas. To warm up on chilly nights, select one of three popular hot drinks: canelazo (made with sugar cane alcohol), vino hervido (mulled wine), or chocolate con queso (yes, with cheese). Sip them with dazzling city views at Pim’s Panecillo or Cafe Mosaico.

At Quitu, chef Juan Sebastián Pérez prepares for an extravagant spread. Photo By: William Hereford

Chamomile ice cream sweetens any tasting menu in Quitu. Photo By: William Hereford

Getting Creative

Long overshadowed by Lima, Quito’s food scene is now making headway. Inventive chefs such as Alejandro Chamorro of Nuema are elevating Novo-Andean cuisine using products of coast, sierra, and jungle and reinterpreting indigenous and Spanish colonial traditions. At Chulpi, Carlos Saltos dishes out fresh takes on street food in a small house in the residential Las Casas neighbourhood. Don’t miss the pairing menu at Quitu, chef Juan Sebastián Pérez’s altar to Ecuadorian gastronomy.

Street Scene

For a dollar or two, you can feast like a king on Ecuador’s comida callejera, or street food. Different areas have their specialties, so make like a local and nosh on tripamishqui (chewy but flavourful tripe) at outside stalls in La Vicentina; quesadillas (more of a pastry, nothing like the Mexican dish) in San Juan; candies from Las Colaciones de la Cruz Verde (try the so-called caca de perro—”dog poop”); and cookies made by the Carmelite nuns at the Carmen Alto convent in the historic centre.

Hot Cocoa

Chocolate may well have originated in the Ecuadorian Amazon, but only in recent years have homegrown chocolate companies refined and developed the raw product. The most well known of them, Pacari, offers a two-hour minicourse in its historic downtown store that includes making and packaging your own organic truffles. Other chocolate houses worth visiting: República del Cacao, Chez Tiff, Hoja Verde, and fair-trade shop Tianguez (located under San Francisco church).

The High Points

Explore a city of historic splendour in a region of natural wonder.

Fine Arts

Quito has marvellous museums, including the Museo de la Ciudad and the Museo Nacional del Banco Central, but don’t overlook these two under-the-radar gems: The Casa del Alabado showcases the surprising and sophisticated workmanship of pre-Columbian art within an elegant Spanish colonial house. And Casa Museo Guayasamín displays paintings and murals at the home of Ecuador’s most famous 20th-century artist, Oswaldo Guayasamín.

The neo-Gothic spires of the Basílica del VotoNacional tower over Quito’s historic centre. Photo By: William Hereford

Fresh Air

Despite its notoriously fickle weather (keep a rain jacket in your bag), Quito often sees the sun. After you’ve acclimatized to the altitude, take the teleférico up the city’s volcano, Rucu Pichincha, for a look around. Loved by locals, centrally located Parque La Carolina has running trails, a man-made lake, and the orchid-filled Botanical Gardens. On Sundays, rent a bike and cruise Quito north to south on roads closed to traffic for the weekly Ciclopaseo.

Divine Sights

It could take weeks to see all of the city’s churches. If there were a people’s choice, it would be San Francisco church and plaza, its winged Virgin of Quito statue above the altar replicated to gigantic proportions on Panecillo Hill. But there’s also the gleaming, gold-leaf-plated interior of La Compañia, built by the Jesuits in baroque style. If you don’t fear heights, scale one of the towers of the Basílica del Voto Nacional for heavenly vistas.

Out of Town

All the volcanoes and lakes within a 96-kilometre radius encourage weekend jaunts. North of Quito is the world-famous Otavalo market; stay at the new Otavalo Hotel and arrange a guide for the textile and music workshops. South of Quito, adventurers can climb the majestic (and active) Cotopaxi volcano or take in the views from horseback at Hacienda El Porvenir. Baños, at the base of another volcano, Tungurahua, is known for its thermal springs.

Walk the Line

Ecuador’s equatorial encounters.

The French-led Condamine expedition famously mapped the line between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres just 22 kilometres north of Quito, and visiting the official site, La Mitad del Mundo, is a popular excursion. A massive monument and bright yellow stripe of demarcation make for cool snaps straddling the line. The problem is the 18th-century explorers were about 800 feet off. To get closer, you’ll have to go to the nearby Intiñan solar museum, a hokey attraction with mock physics experiments. For the most accurate GPS readings and scientific explanations, head to Quitsato, near Cayambe, site of a large solar clock and the best place to appreciate the gravity of where you are standing.

(function(d, s, id) var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.5&appId=440470606060560"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); (document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

from Cheapr Travels https://ift.tt/2L2ibUu via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Cheapr Travels

0 notes

themusicbrief · 7 years

Text

2Way FM 103.9 fm - 20/7/17 Thursday night playlist 8-10pm 103.9 fm & stream

http://2wayfm.com.au/

1. Coldplay - Miracles (Someone Special)

COLDPLAY : KALEIDOSCOPE EP

> The Script - Rain (Instr.)

2. Coldplay - Something Just Like This (Tokyo Remix)

COLDPLAY : KALEIDOSCOPE EP

3. Wyclef Jean : What Happened To Love ft. LunchMoney Lewis & The Knocks

4. LunchMoney Lewis - Bills

5. Sarah Blasko - Hey Ya (Outkast cover)

6. Echosmith - Goodbye

7. kim churchill - second hand car

8. Kim Churchill - Breakneck Speed

9. British India - Suddenly

10. Phoenix - Ti Amo

11. Tigertown - Warriors

> Bon Iver - Towers (Instr.)

9pm

12. zERo7 - Last Light (feat. José González)

13. Husky - Late Night Store

14. Julia Jacklin - Eastwick

15. THE WAR ON DRUGS : STRANGEST THING

16. The Script - Rain

17. Papa Roach : Periscope ft. Skylar Grey

18. Bat For Lashes - Daniel (Death Metal Disco Scene Remix)

from Various Artists : 12 Inch Dance: Indie

Rhino UK’s own 12 Inch Dance series of 3CD Releases, which features a massive list of the biggest international pop artists of the era, and which are also being released physically in Australia for the first time alongside their Australian counterpart.

DISC THREE

1 Coldplay - Clocks (Royksopp Trembling Heart Mix)

2 Hot Chip - Over And Over (Justus Köhncke's Baking Horse Club Mix)

3 Kylie Minogue - Can't Get Blue Monday Out Of My Head

4 Hard-FI - Hard To Beat (Axwell Mix)

5 Lily Allen - Smile (Digital Soundboy Remix)

6 Dirty Vegas - Days Go By

7 The Streets - Weak Become Heroes (Ashley Beedle's Love Bug Vocal)

8 Starsailor - Good Souls (Echoboy Remix)

9 Mystery Jets - You Can't Fool Me Dennis (Justice Remix)

10 Bat For Lashes - Daniel (Death Metal Disco Scene Remix)

12 INCH DANCE: INDIE is out on Rhino/WMA on July 14.

19. Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies (Extended Version) [Festival] from: Various Artists : 12 Inch Dance: 80's Pop

[Track 27]

20. Mel & Kim - Respectable (Club Mix) [Festival]

from: Various Artists : 12 Inch Dance: 80's Pop

[Track 28]

21. Track 10. Utah Saints - Something Good (051 Mix) [Festival]

from Various Artists : 12 Inch Dance: Indie

22. Dusty Springfield - Nothing Has Been Proved (Dance Mix)

Track 29. on

Various Artists : 12 Inch Dance: 80's Pop

RHINO PRESENT 12 INCH DANCE: 80S POP

FEATURING ORIGINAL 80s EXTENDED MIXES OF CLASSIC HITS BY DURAN DUAN, SPANDAU BALLET, PET SHOP BOYS, SOFT CELL, NEW ORDER AND MORE.

http://2wayfm.com.au/

#2WayFM communityradio #amrap #airit

0 notes

flarebossmalva · 8 years

Text

just for future reference and in case anyone was curious i’m going to explain what the hell i was on about re: some stuff in my writing tag

skipping things that are obvious or self-explanatory but if you’re puzzled by something i wrote and i didn’t explain it here then feel free to ask i guess

disgust - i thought of vomit immediately and then wrote about the last experience i had with a friend who was sick. i don’t actually remember which friend this was anymore. “you’re never going to die ever again” i’m not sure about but i think this may have been referring to how awful stomach sicknesses are and how they can literally be so bad they make you feel like you’re dying? that’s a guess

aether - thought of “ether” instead which is very volatile so that’s how i got onto the theme about exploding. i think the rest was just vague associations

pincushion - human pincushion. i guess someone who has bled out completely

aura - you know how they talk about people having colored auras? i just picked a color and went from there. don’t know what “i can taste it under my fingernails” means even remotely but if this is from when i worked in produce/floral i constantly had plant matter under my fingernails so maybe that. am reading “you look lovely, by the way. very fresh.” in GLaDOS’ voice for some reason and not sure if that was what i had in mind when i wrote it

mint leaves - catnip is in the mint family and some people says humans can get a mild high off smoking it

indie - this was about seeing mother mother live. the “he” is ryan

wind - probably masturbation but trying to explain the trip from point a to point b that i made here would get really complicated if i’m even recalling it correctly

lamp oil - amnesia: the dark descent. lamp oil is a resource in that game. player character hallucinates bugs and grinds his teeth when he spends too long in the dark

bombs - boss fight wheatley. the track that plays during that battle is called “bombs for throwing at you”

cucumber - i was thinking of items you could buy together at a supermarket that would disturb the cashier. a single cucumber, rope, and a paperback romance novel sends some interesting implications i think

columbia - no idea but one of my friends told me this is essentially the plot of bioshock infinite

kevin james - one of those paul blart mall cop memes involved the phrase “distant egg song!” and that’s what i was going off of

marigold - flowey

25-27 - since this looked like it was referring to three sequential questions on an askmeme i acted as though that’s what i was answering here. i don’t know why i chose the colors blue and orange; portals from the portal games are those colors but what with the other two responses in this post being undertale related i’m thinking maybe blue = sans and orange = papyrus

🙌 - reference to a (nsfw, i won’t link it) fanfic about sans smoking. i have a massive smoking kink so i think you can see why i’d find that emoji appropriate

syringe - this is a reference to a short story i wrote in high school. the association is that i think syringes were used to administer drugs to the protagonist

wine - almost positive there’s an audio log in the first bioshock game that’s a bit like this. even if there isn’t, there’s an area where a party has clearly gone down (lots of alcohol, splicers are dressed fancy) and that’s what it made me think of

glow - no idea

can of soda - i was thinking of a sprite can

amsterdam by imagine dragons - a song i don’t know; i used to be friends with this kid who was weirdly snobby about music and would condescend to me if i admitted to not knowing of a song or artist, so i wrote about that, kind of

apartments - “apartments are like cages” is a phrase that either i or someone else has used and i thought of that phrase and then i thought about cages and then i thought about johanna from sweeney todd and her one musical number

gold - this is about my paternal grandfather moving west as an adult. he didn’t move as part of the gold rush but that’s what i thought of first and then i thought about his moving to california so this was kind of a mix of the two concepts

sting - musical artist sting has got an album called brand new day and this was written thinking about the album art

lunar theatre - i’ve explained this one before but i wrote this while really sick around the time i first got diagnosed with lyme disease. i was sleeping most of the time and tired whenever i was awake. at the time i was also taking ativan (among other medications) and it made me very sleepy and out of it. the title comes from an art installation i saw once which basically looked like an artificial shoreline, which is where the ocean/water imagery comes from

tessellation - obvious maybe but repetition is part of the definition of the word

roses - james from team rocket, often carrying a rose

paris - this was a joke about egg hatching in pokemon x/y (the most efficient way to do it is to bike in circles repeatedly around the game’s version of the eiffel tower)

n - i feel like this is obvious too but it’s a joke about n harmonia from the 5th gen pokemon games

nature - i’m not sure how i got to talking about gelatin molds but have you seen some of the ones from the fifties and sixties? truly horrifying

berry - early on in x/y you’re put in charge of a berry field and then later you become champion (the league is at the top of a mountain). there are curtains in the champion’s room. idk i just thought about becoming champ and then abandoning the berry field since that’s basically what i did in-game

dogs - pretty literal, this is just my experience with pet dogs

q - this is a reference to a song from goddamn sesame street

teacup - malva has a butler, who presumably serves her tea sometimes. he battles you on her behalf once and his team is pretty powerful, but of course she’s elite four and would have him beat

guitar - at the time there were a lot of “wonderwall” memes that’s what i thought of

pine - pine trees, christmas trees, their lives are cut short but they get to dress up fancy for a few weeks, i don’t know

touch-me-not - fanfic i plotted out once but never actually finished writing. in it, bryony and celosia are using one of those remote-control vibrators (celosia was the one wearing it, and bryony had the remote, iirc) but if you remember team flare also used a remote to control the ultimate weapon and i loved the idea of getting the two remotes mixed up. all the higher-ups (save bryony and celosia, of course) are playing with the remote thinking it’s broken and trying to get it to work. meanwhile poor celosia is dying and the only one who notices is malva, who is the “she” in this piece, who deliberately starts messing with the remote to get a reaction out of bry + cel. i don’t remember how this fanfic was going to end but i think probably celosia would excuse herself to go to the bathroom (to, ahem, take care of herself) and malva would follow her in and then idk they’d fuck. listen i’ve had worse ideas

nightshade - i’m not sure how i got from the prompt to my fill but the fill is definitely about another fic i was working on involving a trainer who experiments on eevee trying to discover new eeveelutions

knives - my abuser had a “suicide attempt” (not really, he didn’t do anything except think about it, but that’s how he classed it iirc) where he planned on using a knife. also he wrote (bad) poetry once comparing me to a knife because idk i was mean for not wanting to fuck him probably

cake - it’s 2007 bro. memes bro. this was about portal bro

gameboy - self-explanatory i think but this was specifically a goof on ben drowned even though a lot of video game creepypasta start out this way

ruby - as in the pokemon game. this was about being a team magma grunt

cicada - i think this one is straightforward but in case it’s not, in my area you find dead cicadas all over the place in june

notebook - this was about harriet the spy

tree - based off of something that happened with me and my best friend when i was eleven or twelve

big ben - well, english clock towers... there’s a scene in a christmas carol where scrooge wakes up and hears the clock strike an hour it’s already struck and gets freaked and worries about the spirits coming to haunt him

cookie - i got a baby doll for christmas when i was a little kid and gave it to my younger sister bc she liked baby dolls and i didn’t. she named that doll cookie. this was general feels about being the Bad Child who Wasn’t Feminine

paint - straightforward again but this is about my parents’ house, the one we moved into when i was a young teen and where they still live with my little sister (and, currently, me). it was initially painted white and we repainted yellow a few years ago (i think after i had moved out to go to college). also that house still doesn’t feel like home to me in the same way our old house did

boots - god this is gonna take a lot of explaining but in the underland chronicles, second book, gregor (protagonist) is separated from his baby sister (nicknamed boots) after, iirc, the boat they’re in capsizes and they get washed into the nearby catacombs by the waves. he assumes she’s drowned since she’s a toddler and can’t swim. it’s basically his blue screen of death moment and he spends the next part of the book feeling totally dead inside, like a machine, no emotion no empathy. this scene fucked me up bad when i first read it aged about nine

freckles - i think this is obvious but just in case, this is about me (formerly) hating my freckles

egg - aforementioned fic about eevee experimentation was maybe going to involve unethical forced hatching of eevee eggs by cracking them open before they’re ready. i was basically thinking of every sick thing you could do to a pokemon to try and force an evolution

fairy - same fic. the protagonist has a shiny eevee that she gives special treatment and thinks is going to evolve into something special bc no evolution method she’s tried has worked on it. it was to be revealed later that her “special” eevee had actually just swallowed an everstone, and, immediately upon operating to remove said everstone, eevee evolved into sylveon

orange - as a small child i was allergic to oranges. the only memory i have of having an allergic reaction was breaking out in hives and going down our creaky old staircase, which felt big and intimidating to me as a little kid, to tell my parents about it

yuri - i thought of a favorite f/f pairing of mine, bryony/celosia, and in particular the scene that got me to ship it. in that scene, you battle celosia (who acts very woe-is-me upon being defeated) and bryony immediately springs to her (girl)friend’s defense

mitochondria - i learned the word from the sequel to a wrinkle in time, in which charles wallace gets really sick with some sort of mitochondrial disease and his older sister meg tries to save him by like astral projecting inside his mitochondria or something. god that book was weird

a gigantic rubber duck - when she was a baby someone gave my sister a gigantic rubber duck (which she adored, i think we still have it somewhere) and so this was about how i felt about having a new sibling

electricity - eevee fic again. rival character in the fic was an electric-type trainer. this was about the convention of trainers locking eyes and then battling

feverish - fevers as sex metaphor somehow??? i guess because fevers, like sex, often leave you sweaty. eleven was when i had my first wet dream and eighteen was when i listened to that “naegi with a fever” audio and got real gay

anger - metaphor again. i really did make a glass paperweight one time, on a class trip to a glass museum. my abuser and i were off-again with our friendship at the beginning of that trip and on-again by the end of it but there was still, i think, unresolved anger on both sides. that’s the association. i don’t know how to explain what i was thinking here beyond that

mosquitos - “petty annoyances” is just what i think of mosquitos and then i guess i just went from there. “bigger than i am but you know when to kneel” might have been my abuser again. he was, indeed, bigger than me but he got down on his knees begging me to be his friend again right at the end of things between us lol. honestly it was the most compelling thing he ever did

laundry basket - i thought about dirty laundry and then about worrying my clothes smelled dirty or that i smelled dirty and like, obsessively bathing because someone wanted to come over and have sex with me and i was just barely not a virgin at that point and had no idea what i was doing and was freaked out over the whole thing

cow - i took a year of spanish and for some reason the only thing i actually learned was how to say “where is the cow” and “the cow is here” which are not actually useful phrases in most contexts

#i am so sorry to mobile users...#also there's various triggers here. main ones are mentions of sex and abuse #apart from that idk if you've read anything i've written you prolly know what you're in for #holo casting

1 note · View note

sheminecrafts · 5 years

Text

How Dubsmash revived itself as #2 to TikTok

The pre-relaunch version of Dubsmash

Now Dubsmash has 1 billion video views per month.

Dubsmash rebuilt its app and revived its usage

TikTok’s content moderation guidelines show it downranks content featuring the watermarks of competitors like Dubsmash

TikTok: A slightly longer-form combo of comedy, dance, and absurdity

Dubsmash: Mid-length dance and music videos with a diverse community

Byte: Super short-form comedy featuring slightly older ex-Vine stars

Triller: Mid-length life blogging clips from Hollywood celebrities

Instagram Reels: International influencers making videos for a mainstream audience

For more on the short-form video wars and the future of micro-entertainment, read:

Zuckerberg misunderstands the huge threat of TikTok

Instagram Stories launches TikTok clone Reels in Brazil

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/3aWGGxk via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

0 notes

technicalsolutions88 · 5 years

Link

The pre-relaunch version of Dubsmash

Now Dubsmash has 1 billion video views per month.

Dubsmash rebuilt its app and revived its usage

TikTok’s content moderation guidelines show it downranks content featuring the watermarks of competitors like Dubsmash

TikTok: A slightly longer-form combo of comedy, dance, and absurdity

Dubsmash: Mid-length dance and music videos with a diverse community

Byte: Super short-form comedy featuring slightly older ex-Vine stars

Triller: Mid-length life blogging clips from Hollywood celebrities

Instagram Reels: International influencers making videos for a mainstream audience

For more on the short-form video wars and the future of micro-entertainment, read:

Zuckerberg misunderstands the huge threat of TikTok

Instagram Stories launches TikTok clone Reels in Brazil

from Mobile – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2RL0j44 ORIGINAL CONTENT FROM: https://techcrunch.com/

#Technical Solutions #SEO #Online Earning #Youtube Marketing #Android Developer

0 notes