#FINAL final update post

[mysterycharacterbracket]

Full Tournament Recap

I've been doing one of these every three rounds, so why stop now? Here is a complete recap of everything that has happened in this tournament so far:

Submission Phase

Back in May of 2023, I noticed that bracket blogs were all the rage on Tumblr. So I decided to try my hand at my own. But I didn't like how sometimes I would vote for or against a character solely because I knew who they were. So I decided the identities of the characters in my bracket were going to be a mystery! I recommended propaganda to be vague enough that even fans of the same franchise might have trouble guessing, but at the same time specific enough that the character COULD be identified. I decided that, so that I could participate too, I would not look at which character matched which description until they were eliminated.

I opened submissions for the bracket on May 15th, and kept them open until the 24th.

Format

When all the submissions were in, I counted the characters to find that we had a total of 297. I then calculated that 297 / 3 = 99, and suddenly I had a formula for the bracket. The characters would battle in 99 randomized polls of 3. I would split up the polls into 9 batches of 11.

Then the 99 winners, and the 29 losers with the most votes, would be placed into a winners bracket (for an even 128 characters), while the remaining 169 characters would be placed into a losers bracket. This meant that I had to split them up further: the 82 losers with the fewest votes would compete in 41 first-round matchups, while the 87 characters in between would enter the tournament in the second round. The losers from the winners bracket would enter the next round of the losers bracket and be given a second shot.

First Round

So we cycled through each batch of polls. For each poll, I put the characters' descriptions in red, green and blue. I didn't want to wait until all the polls were finished in one batch to start the next one, but I also wanted each batch to have a buffer of at least one day on either side. So I posted the 9 batches of weeklong polls somewhat randomly, staggered throughout the week -- so one batch might be on day 5, while another batch was on day 3, and another was just starting.

In the process I decided that a tie for first or second place would trigger a 24-hour runoff vote. A first-place tiebreaker would only be used to determine which character won, but the vote count for seeding purposes would remain the same from the original poll. A second-place tiebreaker was just for fun.

Then once all 297 characters had been revealed, I received 3 messages stating that some people had problems submitting their characters. So I created a special 100th poll and adjusted my math slightly:

100 characters would win and go on to the winners bracket

28 characters would lose, but earn enough votes to move on to the winners bracket

84 characters would enter the losers bracket in the second round

And 88 characters would compete in 44 first-round matchups in the losers bracket

June 24th was when the round came to a close, but we still had some ties to break. So I created the...

Tiebreaker Round

At this point the characters were grouped as follows:

100 characters had won their polls and were headed to the winners bracket

26 characters had lost their polls but received 57 or more votes, and were also headed to the winners bracket

2 of those 26 characters were tied for 2nd place in poll #100, so they competed in a tiebreaker poll.

3 characters were tied with 56 votes. The math dictated that 2 of them had to go to the winners bracket and the other one had to go to the losers bracket, so I put them in a tiebreaker where you had to vote for one of the two winners. Then later I realized I could have done it so you could vote for the loser.

79 characters had lost their polls but received between 35 and 55 votes, so they were headed to the second round of the losers bracket.

9 characters lost their polls with 34 votes. The math dictated that 4 of them had to go to the second round while the other 5 went to the first round. I posted a single 9-way tiebreaker where the top 4 characters would get byes. Then I later realized I could have done it with 3 posts, where the winner of each post got a bye along with the top wild card.

The remaining 83 characters lost their polls with 33 votes or less. These characters were automatically entered into the first round of the losers bracket.

I also posted a poll to decide which colors I would use for each poll, and another one to decide how I would handle seeding. The choice for seeding was "keep the original numbers", and the choices for colors were pink and purple for the winners bracket, and green and blue for the losers bracket.

Once the 24-hour tiebreakers were complete, I also decided to re-randomize the characters within each round (which is why the numbers were all across the board).

Stage 1

Stage 1 was unique. Each character had just been re-randomized. No character was initially matched up against someone they had competed against in the first round. Now each poll only had two options, with the loser being eliminated from the winners bracket or the tournament at large no matter how much they lost by. And we started to cycle through the two brackets in a pattern: two losers bracket rounds, followed by one winners bracket round.

The first losers bracket round (L1) was unique in that it had 4 batches of 11 polls each, plus one 24-hour bonus poll to decide whether I should stagger the rounds as well as the polls. The answer was yes. So I did.

After the first round I switched to batches of 8 polls. This pattern remained in place until there were no longer enough polls in a round to do it. So round L1 lasted 4 batches of 11 polls, and rounds L2, W1 and L3 each lasted 8 batches of 8 polls.

Stage 2

Not much changed in stage 2. It included rounds L4, W2 and L5, which each lasted 4 batches of 8 polls. But because the website I used to make brackets could only create brackets of 64, I had to create 16 losers brackets, and round L5 was the semifinals for each one.

Stage 3

Because round L5 was the semifinals for each of the 16 losers brackets, round L6 had to be the finals. Then we took a break from that to play round W3. When we came back with round L7, the 16 remaining losers were in two new brackets along with the 16 losers of round W3.

Stage 4

At this point there were only 8 matchups remaining in each round, so I combined them all into one batch. I started a new pattern: round L8 started a day after round L7 concluded. Then round W4 started two days after round L8 started. Then round L9 started a day after round L8 concluded.

Stage 5

Rinse and repeat. This time with only 4 matches each in rounds L10, W5 and L11.

Remember what I said about the website only allowing me to make 64 character brackets? For this reason, there were two winners brackets. Round W5 was the semifinals for each. And round L11 was the semifinals for each of the second round of losers brackets.

Stage 6

This time, there were only two matches per round. Round L12 finished off the losers brackets. Round W6 finished off the winners brackets. Then we were ready for the final bracket that you see in the masterpost today. (Speaking of which, I kept that masterpost updated with links to each active poll, as well as a picture of each active bracket.) Round L13 was the start of that final bracket.

Stage 7

At this point, only one poll remained for each round. The winner of each poll would move on, and the loser would be guaranteed a certain place in the tournament. The loser of round L14 took 4th place. And the loser of round W7 moved on to round L15 to take on the winner of round L14. The loser of round L15 took 3rd place.

Which brings us to right now. March 2nd, 2024. The championship will be posted in just a few minutes, and it features the following two characters:

Character 5: She's a terrible driver even though she's been driving since before the age of 12. She only has 1 name. She's autistic. She's the best in the world at what she does. She's been searching for a family her entire life and when she finally found one that actually loves her she reciprocated that love by pushing them off of buildings. She's a terrible liar until her family teaches her how to lie (for fun and profit!!). She's a badass on paper but in reality she's the weirdest fucking person you've ever met.

And character 67: Is part horse. Can cause others excruciating pain with their own anger. Joins an illegal rebellion at age 13. 3 elves are all in love with her. One of them is her cousin. A grumpy short man tried to get her exiled from society because she has brown eyes.

Who will win? You decide!

[forgettable-au]

But that's dessert!

I FINALLY FINISHED THIS THING LET'S GOOO

I hope u all like it

[tomwambsgays]

LIEUTENANT ANDERSON, MY NAME IS CONNOR. I'M THE MII SENT BY CYBERLIFE

[isdeltarunetomorrow]

deltarune is not tomorrow.

[shepherds-of-haven]

The Shepherds of Haven Public Demo is Here! 🎉

The wait is over: the Shepherds of Haven public demo is finally live! Whether you're a returning fan or brand new to the world of Blest, there's a huge new update ready for you to explore:

Play the Demo Here

There's so much that's been added that it's almost hard to explain! Along with the new UI, engine, soundtrack, art, save system, and countless added features, this update brings the public demo from 270,000 words to around 460,000!

What's Here:

Lush gilded UI with light/dark mode, customizable fonts, and a range of visual settings and preference adjustments!

New custom art, including character portraits for all companions and a gorgeous cover by Angela Wang!

Original soundtrack featuring custom music by Ivan Duch!

Robust save system with downloadable saves and autosaves!

Interactive maps and shops; collectibles and room decoration; an inventory, journal, achievements, codex, and so many more features that have been added or redesigned from the ground up!

An expanded update to the story!

Various gameplay and quality-of-life improvements, including an easier gameplay mode and custom pronouns!

Fully mobile compatible!

At a Glance:

If you're new or have never played Shepherds of Haven before, here's a quick breakdown:

A 1.3-million-word dark fantasy interactive fiction RPG

Inspired by Dragon Age, Persona, and Fire Emblem

15 recruitable companions, 10 of whom are optionally romanceable

Fully customizable protagonist

Play as a Mage living in a world where magic has been outlawed—until demons return after centuries of absence, and suddenly your powers are in dire high demand. You join an elite demon-fighting militia called the Shepherds, tasked with defending humanity... even if it doesn't want your help. Along the way, you’ll investigate murders and conspiracies, recruit allies to the Shepherds' cause, find companionship and romance, and define what kind of hero—or threat—you want to be.

Finally, if you want to play the full version that's currently in development, check out the Patreon, where you'll find the longer alpha build (updated every month) and loads of bonus content, including original short stories, Q&As, and merch!

Patreon

Thank you for your endless understanding, support, and patience: I very much hope you enjoy!

[swampybogg]

[lilybug-02]

Pain is a great motivator…

Part 26 || First || Previous || Next

—Full Series—

Meanwhile Toriel:

(Loud noises don't wake her up usually.)

Artist note: I’m so proud of this :))) I know it’s a lot of dialogue and reading, but dialogue is grueling work for me. I’m glad with the art and for the amount of pages I made in such a relatively short time span -w- page 5 was super fun to work on. A lot of blood, sweat, and hours here... :) The backgrounds were a big bore tbh, but I finished them! Yippie!

[favoure]

"do the opposite of what people tell you to do"

[koifish101]

So that new Dark Choco costume huh

[thelonelyshore-if]

DEMO

Update Wordcount: 107,512 words Total Wordcount: 333,798 words

Hello, everyone! Chapter 3 part 1 is finally here c: Hoping to follow this one up with part 2 in the next few weeks. This was a long time coming and there's so much in here that I can't wait to share. Thank you everyone for your patience, and I hope you enjoy!

In this update you can:

Walk back into town!

Hang out at a gas station! Get to know the owner!

Find a new place to stay! (optional)

Meet Croft! (finally)

Learn about Easthaven from a new, totally unbiased source!

Look into local real estate!

HUGE thanks to my beta readers; they actually and for real saved my life. For this update I went in and made a character builder, so you can skip straight to the new content if you'd like c: Additionally, content warnings have been updated; those can be found here. And the code is now visible!

If you have any feedback, or notice any bugs, feel free to send it to my inbox or post on the game's forum thread.

[calamitoustide]

thinking about how people who refuse to read WIPS have never experienced the joy of that ao3 email for an update you weren't expecting and not being able to think of anything else until you get to read it

[littlebittyhollowbugs]

Aaaand have some more!

[junjunjunko]

I love characters who get no attention at all.

[vileidol]

play the game here

The battle is over. You have lost. You do not know what is left.

You were a knight in a world that did not want you. And now you are even less than that, lost in the remains of a war and aimless. Above all, aimless.

But maybe, just maybe, they're still alive. Your mornach, your liege, the one person you have sworn your entire life to protecting.

Perhaps something can still be salvaged.

featuring:

- customisable MC

- some dramatic purple prose (tm)

- toxic codependency

- romance one of four ROs

cw: war, injury, general gore and violence, allusions to homophobia and transphobia

[johnnyshrine]

★ 150 // “Mermaid”

[forgettable-au]

IT'S GONNA BE THE ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE COMIC SOON!

July 25th! I'm working on a little something ;D

I'm also almost done with the next pages, I think they'll be ready before the anniversary, so yeah!!