#I didn't have any sketch ideas but didn't want to delay this before the end of this month so

[sealofarchives]

Oneshot scenario: Merfolk!reader with the turtles (separate)

Just something for a mermay themed prompt while trying to think of other stuff to write

Warnings: the slight mention of drowning (just a brief topic again nothing too graphic)

(I forgot the exact concept art picture from one of the scrapped episodes where Mikey went all out for a mermaid costume for a distraction but, surprisingly it helped while trying to brainstorm ideas for the other scenarios lol)

Soupful Confessions

In the lair, close to the living room...

You were about take another spoonful of clam chowder soup. While your fish tail sat on one of the steps a surface level in a large aquarium tank filled with water. You placed the soup bowl by the makeshift table beside you. Then swam towards the box shell turtle pacing around a few distance away from the tank.

Before you could ask, Mikey immediately squeaked startled by your sudden appearance.

"Oh (Y/N)! Was the soup okay?"

"Mikey, I'll pretty much eat anything you make. Sorry for scaring you."

"Is something on your mind? You almost made a lap walking around my tank."

"Well... Despite that short-staffed situation during a surf and turf event near the Run of the Mill pizzeria..."

"I'm still excited that I made friends with you and a few other merpeople!"

You winced with a fake smile before going back to the soup filled bowl.

"I mostly tagged along with that group for a discount on seafood pizza."

"I couldn't stomach the idea of eating turtles, let alone ones who were brave enough to serve an angry mob of hungry merpeople."

"Yeah... I still think we were pretty lucky that we based off the menu from a few of dad's old movies. Clam chowder being one of those."

You blinked surprised at the soup then back to Mikey.

"Any clue why he doesn't like talking about clam chowder?"

"Because I tried bringing it up and he just avoids the question with something else."

Mikey only shrugged while playing around with his orange bandana tails.

"He told us only criminals like that movie but, Cassandra turned over a new leaf because of his words of wisdom."

"Maybe, something terrible happened during the making of the movie so, it might have been that..."

You hummed understanding that reasoning. Then held the bowl to drink what's left out of the almost empty soup. Mikey gulped as you perched your arms content with the meal.

"Hopefully its not too weird to ask but, are you free to be a muse?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I had a few sketches for some disguises especially with the mermaid theme in mind but..."

"I didn't want to offend you if some of the designs are in poor taste..."

You couldn't help but, giggle at Mikey as you placed the bowl on his head.

"So you want feedback from me? Sure, I don't bite."

"But, take it easy when you decide to use said distraction in action."

"I wouldn't want that cute face of yours getting hurt."

Mikey blushed as you winked at him and hurried off to get dessert. Unfortunately for him, his brothers also saw the incident and appeared with teasing grins, casually hanging around the kitchen like nothing happened.

Old and New Memories

In the turtle tank...

Donnie spoke up with a sigh.

"You know its impolite to stare at someone for a long period of time..."

"Oh sorry, a while ago, I got stuck with helping one of my classmates for something in Witch Town."

"That place still mentions you-"

"Being the infamous scientist turtle who scoffed at anything magic related and destroyed the center piece statue during an important ceremony."

Donnie felt an imaginary arrow hitting his head as he winced while you continued to talk.

"But still, you made a long way from being stubborn about mystic magic."

"And gained some understanding of it through your way of approaching things."

You fidgeted one of the charms added to the custom made backpack (courtesy of the purple turtle himself) to avoid the tedious process. Carrying a large jug of water when there's no aquarium tank around.

Donnie faked cough now regaining his composure as you looked back at him.

"Accidental destruction of property was the more correct term to describe it..."

"At that time, I was more focused proving April wrong that she didn't need help from those witches."

"Also, there is no way I'm setting foot near that place if they still talk about me in that matter."

"I was already greeted with the angry mob gathering pitchforks and torches when I tried to apologize for my actions."

Donnie crossed his arms as you lightly puffed one of your cheeks.

"On a lighter note, I found out some of my classmates grew up with parents who are big fans of Splinter's movies."

"And..."

You held up a conch shell device and played a recording from its string.

"Do you think we'll turn heads if we change the purple one's wanted poster in a light tone similar to the splitting image of Lou Jitsu?"

"I already heard stories how the former star dedicates his life to raising four turtles and..."

"The purple one can easily get away with anything for having such dashing looks-"

You immediately held the string down with blush surfacing an annoyed look on your face.

"It slowly started an argument on which of you was the best Lou Jitsu look-a-like."

"So the fan club forgot to start the project..."

"But still, at least you have me and a few other fans by your side."

Your fish-fin ears fluttered a bit taking notice of Donnie's smirk.

"While I'm flattered by that girl's comment, I only assume you haven't thought of the idea towards a surprise meet and greet."

"Or you don't like the thought of her dating me..."

The blush deepened your face as you looked away.

"I think she'll be more disappointed that you aren't into pda and hugs."

You felt Donnie's arms pulling you into a hug now sitting on his lap.

"Given the nature of my happy go lucky family members, I just give in to the hugs. However, for you."

"I'm willing to make some amends towards my soon to be partner's needs..." On the back of Donnie's mind was slight panic. With the realization that you look really cute sitting there. And how, he got a closer look at your face.

A Merfolk That Can't Sing?!

Near a rooftop pool close to 10 pm... (Totally not trespassing says the red slider turtle)

Your face sank halfway into the chlorinated water. Attempting to hide the embarrassed feeling as Leo immediately sat up.

"Wait, for eel? I always thought it comes naturally that most merpeople can just lure anyone in by a wonderful singing voice."

You laid on your aquatic back, letting the water glide you across the lightly dimmed pool. With a whine at Leo's fishy oneliners.

"Not me, my parents tried to get help and it didn't even work."

"I already don't like the thought of it being associated with drowning..."

"I almost forgot about that part but, the reason I brought the singing was more towards..."

"Donnie was playing a game where sirens sang during a boss fight."

"I don't know much about metal but, the song surprisingly blends well with the siren singing."

"Okay? I still don't get what you're trying to say."

"I don't want to sound like Dr Feelings but, if you have a favorite song you'd usually like to hum to."

"Maybe try that, since you don't seem happy trying to fit into the scary siren image.

Leo saw you hesitated for a bit but shrugged, now lazily laying on your stomach.

"I'll think about it but, thanks for the brief pep talk."

"Well if you feel up to a small karaoke battle, you know who to call!"

You held back laughing at him in an attempt to hide the blush on your face.

"You almost fell off the turtle taxi proudly winning the previous karaoke battle during a late night beach party."

Leo's confident smile quickly faded into embarrassment. As he immediately placed one of his beach hats on your head. Causing you to sit up to avoid damaging the hat.

"It still counted as a victory for me. We weren't expecting anyone to be up around that time."

"Let alone a surprise visit from a merfolk."

You blushed at the water's reflection, wearing Leo's straw beach hat. A tiny bit of regret deepened the blush as you caught sight of his slow smirk.

"Did my singing actually lure you in?~"

Your fish fin lightly splashed water near his face as you looked away.

"The turtle tank caused a tiny rumor about a turtle with a taxi on its shell"

"I don't think Donnie would be happy about making his prized vehicle open to the public."

Leo wiped the water off his face with a spare towel as he got off the chaise lounge chair.

"I still think I lured you in."

"It just happened to be in good timing, with Donnie making small tests to the turtle tank."

Your fish tail sat by the pool step ladders as you sighed.

"Just don't add any love songs to the playlist or I might curse you for a week."

"I can probably handle whatever hex you throw at me but, I'll still give you dibs on picking the first few songs.

"Just so I have somewhat an idea of what songs you're into."

Ever since he got you to laugh at some of his jokes, the red slider turtle believes you have that merpeople charm in you.

Early Morning Seaside Chit Chat

Close to early sunrise by the Hidden City beach.

The turtle tank was parked a few distance away from the volunteer vendor booth that usually helps with clean up, trash, and protecting wildlife. However, the daily weekend event usually starts in around 9 or 10 am.

Raph could see the groggy eyebags on your face as you struggled to stay awake, resting your arms above the aquarium tank.

"We brought some snacks that should last until lunch."

"So try to eat something so you don't accidentally chomp on a seagull."

You snatched a family sized bag of chips from the snack pile. With a brief thanks as Raph sat across from you.

"I scared off some birds from last year's sea turtle hatching tour."

"I'll be fine."

Raph bit into a piece of jerky as he rolled his eyes.

"That one pink heron almost knocked you into the sea if we didn't step in to help."

"Mikey almost saw a baby turtle getting pecked to death."

"That's the only time I pick fights with any of those birds."

Raph muttered a sigh under his breath as you pouted.

"Okay I'll admit, we didn't want to see that but..."

"I'm surprised how you convinced Donnie and the volunteers to set up a eco friendly barrier for those baby turtles."

You smiled a bit biting into another chip as you spoke.

You guys still helped, spreading the word through cute flyer posters and a tiny fundraiser for a good cause."

Raph lightened up with his toothy grin as he chuckled.

"So, no secret plan to get revenge on that bird."

"I mean Donnie was almost thinking about it, until he got praised with so many compliments displaying his work to the staff."

"Oh, so Donnie didn't have some speech with how cruel nature is and just went with your idea."

You accidentally yawned with an annoyed expression on your face.

"He did but, life is already like that sometimes."

"And not to bring down the mood but, you four would have been just regular turtles if it weren't for Splinter stepping in to protect you guys from being Draxum's super soldiers..."

Raph hummed briefly looking down at the half empty plastic bag.

"I don't think I could fit in with the other alligator snapping turtles."

"I had a lot of weird moments not realizing its a solitary thing and its just not for me."

Raph looked up after hearing you chuckle.

"You could easily win a few over just from your gentle smile."

"Showing off your strength is one thing but, your level of honesty."

"Its almost too sweet that it could blind the competition."

The alligator snapping turtle blushed at your compliments.

"If this is your way of wanting that expensive seafood buffet for lunch, I'm not budging..."

"Awww, but I saved up enough money for a really good couple's discount~..."

Raph eventually caved in to the offer after most of the baby sea turtles safely made it to watery shore. However, to your surprise, the two of you sat in one table alone. With the blush beginning to appear on your face as the waiter took his order.

[taradactylus]

COMMISSIONS OPEN!

....EMERGENCY COMMISSIONS BTW-

So uh... Me and my family is struggling with a lot of financial problems, and it's taking a toll on our life badly. I'm searching for a job while studying on university, but the economics are making this a very hard task at the moment (I'm not giving up though!). I hate asking for help, but I have to. My parents are doing their best with the bills and trying to call everyone they need to pay about delays, they're making risky deals just so we (a family of 7 people) can survive, while we have barely anything to eat. I didn't have a normal meal in days and it's gonna go on and on and I have no idea if we can even stay in our house. So please. Anyone, I'm at a point where I'll draw anything except gore and political stuff, but I'm willing to go down with any ships for anyone, as many characters as you want, even just an OC sketch is enough. If you can't get a commission, a reblog is more than enough as well. I hate how miserable I am, but I have no idea what else I could do to get money. So uh... rules ohgod I've never done it like this before-

-I'll draw technically anything except gore and politic related things

-That means yes, I'll draw smut as well, but you must be 18 or older to get any short of explicit drawing

-Paying commissions are through Paypal, and we will discuss everything in private

-I'm literally open with anything, but I also need you to be specific about what you want so we can both end up having a great day

-Don't be rude please. I'm on meds but I'm also stressed out af, and I have no energy dealing with rude people

Examples of my works:

And for the prizes, I decided to make a chart that I hope is clear enough:

Backround comes free with the finished drawing, otherwise depending on what you want, we can discuss the prizes (but I don't think it would get expensive)!

If something is not clear, please let me know! You can message me here, or in Instagram (@mushrooms.and.potatoes) about the details!

So uh.. yeah that's about it I think-

goes to cry in a corner

[sheigarche]

hi!! idk if you've said it before but, do u any any jossam hcs?? i love them sm and the remake is making me think a lot for them, I hope u are doing okay!!

Hi, sorry for the delay, I had to be careful not to reply with an entire fanfic about it 😅

But here's some of my Jossam headcanons:

Josh and Sam have had a crush on each other since they first met, but out of respect for Hannah they've never acted on it. It's this simple fear of making things awkward because she's his sister's best friend, so they've kept their feelings to themselves. They don't know that Hannah wouldn't mind.

Josh and Sam both draw, but they were shy about showing their art to their friends. When Beth find out their shared talent, she thought of a way to get them to talk about it. They bond over their sketches and slowly become more confident until they're ready to share it with the rest of the group (the drawings we see in the game).

The group likes to tease Josh and Sam much like they do with Ashley and Chris. It may not be as obvious with them, but they still gossip about it and even make a bet about who would make the first move. Everyone knows something going on there and is dying for the moment when they'll figured things out.

Josh took Sam to the prom. Her date canceled at the last minute, so Hannah had the brilliant idea of having her brother bring her best friend. At first, Josh didn't want to go and be the rebound guy and Sam didn't want him to do it out of pity, but they ended up going together anyway. It was a fun night and it sparked their feelings, even if nothing more serious came of it.

They definitely had a one night stand some time after Hannah and Beth disappeared. Sam was grieving and feeling guilty, Josh was also dealing with his own stuff, on top of therapy and everything. And it just happened. They don't regret it or anything, but it just wasn't the right time, so things were a little awkward for a while. They figured out a way to be friends again, because they needed each other and at that moment friendship was all they could handle.

[zombeebunnie]

Trembling Essence:💙Background + poll results💙

Hello hello and welcome new followers! :]

Firstly I just want to say a very big thank you to everyone that participated in the poll I did last week, I was really surprised but happy with the results and responses! This will help me a lot moving forward! :,] If you missed it and would like to say which route you preferred feel free to comment!

Anywho, this week mainly focused on art practicing again but I did work on the game and managed to get my bearings even more!

Here is the new background for the start of the game:

This took a long time to draw up since I sketched out the background instead of looking at references this time. Once I got a basic idea of how I wanted it to look it felt.. too empty and flat. At first I couldn't figure out why until I added more shrubbery and grass. After that I started adding the trees and then added a few more to give it depth and adjusted some of the coloring. So far the immersive symbolism I'm going for is slowly coming together! Since it just finished raining where you're located I tried to give the background the illusion of looking tolerably humid but slowly getting colder over time with a hint of decay in the distance. This is a better look of the dreary foreboding atmosphere compared to the "fairy-forest" from last week. >:,] It took a while but I also added a parallax effect here and optimized the images to save space. I kept getting an error when it came to the middle ground so I had to find and fix the problem which delayed things. I don't have a video to show it in action but maybe next time. I do want it to be known again that these automatically happen and don't follow the cursor. :,,]

Here's a sneak peek of the new choices you can do when you're in this area now. >;]

This part required a lot of brainstorming before I figured out how I wanted the explorative part to go. This was originally going to go a different way completely but a particular day caused me to just scrap it and start everything over. I have a very solid idea on how I want all of this to go better than ever so I can't wait to show some of the new areas! I didn't expect this background to take as long as it did to draw up but hopefully next week I'll have more done!

Progress doodle layout:

Since certain endings are being changed I thought it would be cool to animate a progress layout to visually show how everything is going! It shouldn't take too long to finish this section up since I already have a foundation laid out.

Noah's sprite sheet update:

As far as Noah sprite sheets goes, it's still in sketch mode and I haven't messed with them yet since I've been practicing. :,,]

There are some old drawing prompts I wrote down and sketches that I'm still doodling up behind the scenes so hopefully I can get to them at some point with some attached lore. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is still open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

Thank you to those who have sent in asks after everything got reset! I'll try to get to them when I can along with the ones that come to mind that got deleted. I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings as practice. :]

Overall that's everything I have to share so far, thank you guys for your continued encouragement and support through all of this, I wholeheartedly appreciate it! :,,]

[theytistic]

Considering the series, what you would change do make the series better? You can do anything, except changing the powers, like you doing.

A very interesting game, but quite vague, even with the restriction of not being able to change powers, so here are my rules:

I can't use any reference media than canon;

I can't advance (future season eps in early seasons) events, only delay (early season eps in future seasons). Remembering that if it's something that would have happened if another character had caused it before canon, I can anticipate it, like if the character is smarter or more defiant, it would already count;

If I change miraculous, I can only do it with characters who have already been ported in the series, and I can only use characters available in each season.

Let's start the fun:

Starting with the main change, the delay in the villain's appearance, Master Fu discovered that the butterfly miraculous was for evil and went after the carriers, the same scheme, but he didn't deliver the miraculous right away, because Wayzz said that Nooroo's energy was too weak to say that it would be active so soon.

Meanwhile, Nathalie planned to betray Gabriel because she thought Adrien deserved his father's attention more than getting his mother back, but her goal was still to get Emilie back because she was in love with Gabriel; during this week without a villain, Nathalie would have resigned, forcing Gabriel to look for another secretary, and in the meantime she would have devised a plan to steal the Wonderful and the Wondrous Book, and so in the middle of the night, by switching off the cameras to make it look like a blackout, she stole the book, the peacock and the butterfly, leaving a copy for everyone.

As Master Fu had a week to find his bearers, he ended up finding three ideal bearers: Kim, Max and Alix, and knowing the villain's delay, he decided to give them the strongest miraculous ones to get used to, being Ladybug (more because it was obligatory), Rooster and Dragon, leaving them in their backpacks. However, as Kim is forgetful, he ended up losing the dragon's jewel without realizing it, and Chloe ended up finding it.

With this we would have Bettlix, Phoenix and Royal Scales, in the first week, Max would be the most excited of the three, because he wanted to discover the limit of his powers, Alix would be indifferent, because he hasn't met his colleagues yet and the villain hasn't even appeared, Chloe would only want fame and attention, but wouldn't tell anyone.

Simple sketch to show them, I tried to follow the canon rules on designs, and I used a single color and didn't make a whole lineart, because it was just an idea and more practical. Even though Chloe isn't wearing a mask, her identity is protected by magic, her hair is red, and her eyes are brown (so even if she wanted to, it would be difficult to find out).

That's it for now, if you want to know more you can ask, I doubt this will become an AU, at least illustrated, since it's my plan for the DE.

[zooophagous]

Strauss reclined with his arm behind his head and idly thumbed through his latest book. "Into Thin Air," a harrowing true story about an adventure on Mt. Everest gone awry. It was a depressing story, though it did make him wonder about the exploits of vampire explorers. Surely someone with incredible strength, a resistance to cold and a disregard for such petty frivolities such as "oxygen" could make a very accomplished mountain climber. Maybe he'd try it. If he was ever able to spend more than a month without ending up in the hospital wing.

His body's healing was markedly faster now, now with a real ration in his belly every evening. But it was still too slow for his racing mind. He had to do... something. Train to fight. Learn to use a weapon. Do drills with security. He had no idea where to start, just that he had to, somewhere.

He was distracted from his dark thoughts by a weight at the foot of the bed.

"Artemis. Didn't see you come in."

"I have something you might think is cool." She grinned, and handed him a little folder.

He took the folder and flipped it open, displaying a series of numbered and dated diagrams and photos. There was a line on a graph, a "heartbeat monitor." The little line peaked and valleyed and waved like a poor drawing on an Etch-A-Sketch.

"Is this an EKG reading? Whoever this is must be quite dead."

"You're right. Because that's your EKG." She smirked.

"You don't say? I didn't think my heart moved at all, shouldn't it be a flatline?"

"You'd think, right? Turns out vampire's hearts DO have activity, just not steady productive beating. It's sporadic with long periods of stillness in between. It almost moves like it has a mind of its own."

"Yes, like a little animal that writhes in its nest when something bothers it."

"You don't feel it when it moves?"

"I suppose I always chalked it up to just being hungry. Speaking of which..."

He bared his fangs at her and licked his lips. "I believe it is about time for my feeding?"

"Looks like it is. You taking your new diet well? It's a pretty big change."

"Yes. I have more energy and I even feel more bold. I look forward to increasing my physical activity, when my leg surgery has healed."

"Glad to hear it. I was wondering if you'd get sick from over eating but maybe you just needed to actually kickstart your normal appetite again. I'll go grab it, don't go anywhere."

She was teasing him. He looked down at his leg, which had been cut open and the femur inside crudely pinned back together and the skin re-stitched to encourage a quicker resolution. He didn't even want to walk on it now.

"I'll be right here."

She stepped out, he went back to his book. Soon however, he set it down and went back to the folder. There was an MRI in here, allowing him to view his own heart. It didn't much look like a human heart any more. At least, it had a few key new parts he didn't have the names for. It unnerved him to look at it. He was sure now that he could feel it moving- trying to beat but unable to remember how. Or maybe there was just too much in the way for it to beat anymore. He rubbed his chest uncomfortably and tossed the folder aside. It wasn't right for a doctor to feel like this looking at an anatomy chart.

"Artemis, are you back yet?" He called out quietly. She had stepped to the room over but there was no answer from the hall. He needed a distraction. She'd been gone how long now?

He began to grow impatient.

"Artemis? What is delaying my dinner?"

He sat up and looked out the door as far as he could.

"Oh relax, it's right here." She stepped in, looking queasy.

"Do you want company for dinner?" She gave him a thin smile.

"Are you alright?" He raised an eyebrow. "You seem a bit off."

"Oh, no I'm fine. I just have low blood pressure."

She stepped towards the bed, and her body fell limp. Her legs crumpled beneath her. She dangled halfway off the floor. Strauss caught her by the arm, before she could land on the hard waxed hospital floor on her head.

He dragged her up onto the cot. "Artemis! Frau Van Helsing!"

She was breathing, she had a pulse. Good signs.

"Frau Van Helsing you cannot die here, I will be blamed for it, and I do not want Frau Harker to shoot me."

"What?" She blinked awake and flushed bright red, realizing she'd apparently landed in bed with her patient.

"What is right. Are you ill?"

"No, I... heh. I must have given too much blood." She smiled weakly.

"Too much blood... how much have you been  giving me?"

"Oh, I gave a half unit last week, and another half this week, and a half today-"

"Artemis, are you telling me you've been the one giving me almost all of my food for the past two weeks?"

"Well, I didn't think it was that big of a-"

"You of all people should know that you cannot do that." He dragged his hand down his face in exasperation.

"I wanted to. You're my responsibility. A-and you're also my friend."

"I have lots of friends, Artemis. I do not need, or want, you to suffer for me."

"I'm not suffering, chill."

"Yes you are. I'm doing this because I want to help you, if I drain you dry myself I may as well have just let Sylvain kill my friends for all the good I've done."

"You sounds like Auntie."

"Eugh... auntie is... CORRECT." He said with an exaggerated gag."I understand the urge to shoulder all of the responsibility yourself. However, I am very swiftly realizing, you cannot. I cannot. Nobody can. For the project symbiosis to work, it must be truly that. Symbiosis. I want to keep the 'Eu' in 'Eusocial.' I am not a parasite."

"Ok, ok, you win." She sighed and scooted to the edge of the bed to sit. "I think I might need to eat more red meat if I'm going to help with this anyway."

"Don't let Troy hear you say so. Speaking of, how is he?"

"Oh, you know. Depressed about his boyfriend. Scared of Sylvain. Doesn't want to go anywhere or do anything."

"I wish I was not bedridden. I should like to lift his spirits. I miss him when he is like this."

"You're telling me. We need some comic relief in here."

"I should like for him to join me in some form of self defense classes. He is the second strongest among us, and he would be an asset with some training."

"I don't know if auntie really cares to start training you guys to kill. She sort of already thinks you're dangerous enough."

"Not to kill. To avoid being killed. I feel fear too, you know. I do not relish the idea of my own destruction."

"I can ask. Oh, hey. Here." She handed him the cup from her pocket containing a gulp of hot blood.

"Eat your dinner."

"We just had an entire discussion about me feeding from you too much."

"What am I going to do, put it back? If I'm going to do too much for you, just don't let it go to waste."

He nodded and accepted the cup from her hands.

"I won't waste your kindness. Danke."

[hitechlatte]

if you're still making the visual novel thing, do you have any advice on starting one? I really want to make one, but don't know how

Sorry for the delay in my response on this! Wanted to take some time to collect my thoughts and it took longer than expected!

So yep still working on on my game, but I have some bugs that I haven't been able to fix, so no updates yet. Hopefully I'll get some free time to work on those soon! And for the advice, I'm happy to share! Click read more to see my thoughts:

Tip 1 - Paper Prototype/Design

So especially if you've never made a game before, I'd recommend sketching out your game before making anything. This could be with actual paper or just in like a google doc or slideshow. This way you can detail out how you want the game to flow, so you don't spend a billion hours trying to make something just to find out it looks bad or won't work. (TOTES didn't learn this the hard way) For a visual novel specifically, I would recommend maybe just writing out the story in a google doc, like write out the story with possible "stage notes" referencing what may happen on screen so you can more easily determine what art assets you would need! Here is an example of the sketches I made before I started working on my coffee shop demo:

Tip 2 - Start SMALL

Start SUPER small, especially if its your first game. Like come up with your idea and then CUT IT IN HALF maybe even a third or by ten! Like keep cutting away until you have a super basic idea you can test out and then after getting the hang of it, then I'd recommend doing something longer.

For example, if you wanted to do a visual novel where you bump into a love interest at a library and you see them every time you study for a month, chop it down to just one day and test out a flow to see how the idea would work.

For example in the game I'm currently working on, I'm just starting with a single customer on a single day and testing out all the features with him before I start moving to random NPCS or multiple days.

Tip 3 - Plot out your branches in a visual way

If your visual novel has branching options, make sure you have some way to check the flow of the story so you don't run into dead ends without an ending and to make sure you can check for plot holes.

For example if one branch the player decides to be mean, it wouldn't make sense for the character they are talking to to suddenly go down a branch where they say something super nice.

If the program you're using to make the visual novel in has a flow to view that's the best way to do it, but if not, then I'd recommend drafting it out in something like Miro (which is free btw, just requires an email sign up), or some other program where you can draft out flows. I mean if it's super simple branching even google images could work.

Tip 4 - The program doesn't really matter

Especially starting out, it doesn't really matter which game engine you use. The only thing that really matters is finding something you can learn quick so you can start getting your hands dirty.

If you don't have any engines in mind and would like some recommendations for free software, I feel any of the following would work:

Godot

Good for beginners, especially w/o programming experience from what I've heard

Heard it has some limitations if you want to do anything more complex

I haven't used godot yet, but I've heard nothing but great things! (I'm hoping to try it out soon, so I'll let you know once I get around to it!)

Unity

Require you to code, but it's usually pretty simple to get started as far as code goes.

The tutorials people have online are pretty awesome, and usually pretty good to follow along, and if you want to branch into more complex stuff, you'll have already learned the Unity basics.

I started learning game dev in Unity and have been using it for years so I always recommend it, but that's just what I've gotten used to.

Ren.Py

I don't know a ton about this program, but its what the Grunkle Stan Dating Sim was made in, and that game was super awesome.

And also this is made for visual novels so it should have a lot of useful tools and features.

Yarn Spinner

So this isn't an engine, but it's something you can add to Unity or Godot to help you with adding in the dialogue.

I haven't had a chance to use this, but I've been meaning to mess around with it. I've heard nothing, but fantastic things.

Tip 5 - 80/20 Rule

I always use the 80/20 rule when making games, to help prevent stress and burnout. 80% percent of the stuff I add to my games, I know how to do, while 20% is the new stuff to learn.

Now since this is your first game, you might be like Yo! I don't know 80 percent!

But to that I say HUMBUG! You know more than you'd guess! If you've ever written stories before, then bam, the story writing is part of your 80%. Just make sure to stick to a simple story that you know you'd be able to write!

Do you doodle? Bam some of your 80% is art! Stick to making art assets, only as complex as you've drawn before!

Obviously this is more a guideline, so the TLDR just make sure to focus on learning one or two main things and then keep everything else easy, so you don't burn out!

Tip 6 - Free Shit is AWESOME

Don't know art or can't make music? Use assets from online! There are tons of free assets people post stuff online that you can use.

This way you can focus on this harder stuff and get some of the easy stuff out of the way.

Some free resources I use are as follows:

Game Assets: https://itch.io/game-assets/free

Audio Files: https://freesound.org/

Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/2

If using Unity, they also have an asset store. Also I think steam and humble bundle have free stuff you might be able to use too.

There tons more sites out there too, these are just the one's I've used in the past.

I will mention too, I'd recommend not paying for anything in the beginning. Because you may buy all these programs and then never use any of them again, and there is tons of awesome free stuff to use while starting out. That way you can figure out what areas of game dev you like more and buy programs as needed.

Tip 6 - Chaos is inevitable

Everything will eventually blow up in your face.

You'll spend two hours screaming at the same bug to just realize you forgot to hit save.

You'll delete files by mistake and lose hours of work.

You'll spend two weeks plotting out a story idea to realize it doesn't make any sense.

You'll spend a month working on a game idea to realize you hate the concept and it's not as fun as you thought.

You'll show your game to someone else and they won't get it because you didn't make the controls easy enough to use or understand.

You'll KEEP finding spelling errors in your dialogue after vigorously spell checking everything.

You'll get frustrated and want to swear off making games/visual novels and just abandon project after project.

BUT

THAT'S

OKAY

Art isn't easy in any form and game dev is just art with math so it's the perfect storm.

So don't be too hard on yourself when you inevitably fail.

And know too, all your failures will make you smarter and you'll get better so when things click, you'll make something you're super proud of.

I have a graveyard of games that will NEVER see the light of day. Games I fell in love with that I'll never finish.

And that's okay.

Just like with exes, no matter how bad or messy things get, we can be grateful (most of the time), because we learned something about ourselves and we can grow from it.

So TLDR, don't be too hard on yourself and enjoy the journey! Make games that make you happy and just take developing at whatever pace works for you.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk and I wish you the best with whatever you make!

(Also if you need someone to play test I'd love to check stuff out <3)

[magpiejay1234]

Before we continue on Episode 5, it might be good time to discuss OP1.

So, as we discussed before, in Takahashi's, and animation's directors original sketches, the prototype for Crow was supposed to be the final boss of Dark Signers arc. This is not true for the finalized design of Crow, but again, as rumors suggest, that was still being considered, presumably not making Crow a final boss, but a minor temporary antagonist like how Sherry becomes near the end of the series.

This is partially why it takes too long for Crow to get his Dragon, and backstory. The other is Majestic Red Dragon taking up a main set space. The overall wonkiness of 5D's main era sets is probably why director Katsumi Ono gave up coordinating card showcases with physical releases in ARC-V. Not only is this a huge hassle, it also means the cards might not end up as useful as they were intended to be. See original Evil HEROes from GX, as their releases were coordinated with the Supreme King arc.

However, what is not ambigious that Lua was supposed to become a Signer near the end of Dark Signers arc, and get Life Stream Dragon very, very early on. Initial idea seems to have been to delay this to a pre-WRGP arc, but because of all the minor character arcs (Jack episodes written by Koji Ueda, Sherry's episodes, Crash Town etc.) this got to delayed to post-WRGP. I can't say this was a better writing choice, as Lua still lacks a dedicated arc, but it at least utilized the existing lore efficiently.

As for Aki, and Carly, though their respective VA situations did not help, there were simply no major plans for either of them. Carly's prototype was always meant to be just a memorable arc villain, so the fact that Carly remained around as long as she did, despite the VA change, is impressive by itself.

For Aki, it was more of a perfect storm. Since OCG didn't bother with generic Psychic monsters after certain point, and instead started adding Psychic-Types to various archetypes, the need for an Arcadia Movement arc disappeared. Since Aki didn't really have backstory besides that, the writers did the best with they had.

It is possible that if Takahashi, and animation directors left Ono a giant series bible, or if Tomioka left Pokémon to remain in 5D's longer to craft what sort of arcs main cast members were supposed to have, there could have been something, but they didn't, so the series went with a different direction. That said, the new direction could have been without Yoshida taking the helm, so sure.

In addition, I don't think most people care about Ruka, so she isn't even being mentioned here.

That said, despite Takahashi's intentions with 5D's, OCG side would have almost certainly wanted a Sixth Signer either way, since each Signer Dragon corresponds to one Attribute. There was no WATER Signer Dragon introduced in the show, but if Crow didn't become a Signer, that would have happened. So, some sort of complication would have arrived.

This wouldn't be all that novel in YGO, after all, there are 8 members of Seven Stars, there are actually 8 Millennium Items as we find out in DSoD, etc.

And even if that didn't occur, there was no initial plan to upgrade any of the Signer Dragons besides the core duo, which becomes really bad in retrospect once Crow becomes a full-on third member, and now that they actually are being upgraded post-humously.

That said, this is just one aspect of the show's production. We will discuss the sheer insanity that is the 5D's main set release schedule more in detail. And the inherent issues with Synchros, maybe.