#and I learn this as I interact with y'all

[scentedluminarysoul]

Merkel was chancellor of Germany for 16 very long years...?

The orange man famously didn't want to interact with her and didn't even shake her hand? Was a major thing?

Like, I get not watching/reading news, I don't either, but I learned of that exclusively from social media and YouTube?

Where have y'all been??

[last-sprout]

Last Sprout Dev Diary - Nov 22, 2024

Hello sprout folks! I'm Valerie, or @oneominousvalbatross, and I've been working on Last Sprout since July, and I'm wildly excited to share some of the things I've been working on with y'all.

Ignore that Twiggs' hat falls off that's natural.

I'm aiming for a Dev Diary once a week on Fridays, and I'm just gonna be giving a brief look into making a game! I'm learning how to do a lot of this stuff live, so I'm sure there'll be a ton of massive rewrites and changes. I have probably a dozen huge systems that are already built that I'm not going to be getting into in this post, since I'm already half a year or so into development, but I'm sure I will find space to include them later!

XP

I spent most of my time figuring out exactly how we wanted to represent XP in the world. We were pretty certain that we wanted XP to exist physically as a substance you picked up, so I started with a system from a previous build.

In that version, we just created a bunch of XP objects and scattered them into the world, then had some code that scooted them around. Of course, that means that we're tracking an individual unity GameObject for every single instance of a point of XP which is, uh, slow.

This is what we call 'suboptimal.'

So obviously we needed to not instantiate an entire transform every time we needed to spawn XP. Even if we re-used objects that would just be prohibitively expensive for an object that really just needs a position.

I'm not going to go over each step in the process, but after experimenting with GPU instancing to just draw a bunch of XP objects at once, eventually I landed on extending Unity's particle system, since it has a lot of the settings I wanted access to.

To make the XP move how I wanted, I wrote a pretty simple process that iterates through all the little blobs and checks how close they are to a designated collector, then uses an exponential decay function (with thanks to Freya Holmér) to make them move towards Twiggs.

I think every game should have an action that can be best summarized by making the noise 'SHWOOOOOP.'

Parrying

Parrying was a good deal simpler, but it still has its issues. Essentially, all a parry needs to be is a hitbox and an animation, with some callbacks to enemies to let them react to the parry. Whenever an attack hitbox intersects with either a Parrybox or a Hurtbox, it checks its tags to see if it's interacting with the appropriate entities, to makes sure enemies aren't hitting or parrying each other constantly. If it passes the test, it calls GetParried() on the intersecting object.

GetParried(), idiot.

For the basic behavior, parrying just interrupts the attack in progress and knocks the enemy back by a set amount, but there's room in the system to add all sorts of neat effects, which I'm sure we'll be taking advantage of in the future. It's been a challenge to juggle the various kinds of hitboxes, but it'll definitely be worth it going forward!

Of course, between all these bits there were a ton of bugfixes and little experiments, but that's a topic for a later dev diary!

[weakheroo]

My friend often compares me to Mayuri so do you think he would like to have a partner or a friend similar to him?

You're actually so frickin cool if you're similar to Mayuri☝

At first when he finds out that you're similar to him he finds it intriguing so he observes you from afar and takes in your reactions to random stuff.

BONUS if you're not scared of him like most are since that kinda gets him going, but would get irritated if you talk back or show attitude too much.

But he would envy you if your intelligence rivaled his and he'd often direct some very creative insults your way. Imagine you do something smart idk and he's just tweakin in the back like "genius....why haven't I thought of that..."

Since you're similar he tries to learn more things about himself, through you, by understanding you he understands himself too. Thus he asks to experiment on you a lot. For research reasons ofc, def not because of anything above.

As much as he tries to hate you, he can't and with time he finds himself enjoying whenever you're around, he acknowledges this since he is emotionally aware and wouldn't deny such a biological thing but also wouldn't really act on it.

As much as he thinks about this, it makes him irritated towards you since you're sparking these emotions he wanted buried. Either if he wants you as a friend or a partner are both a big deal to him so he takes it slow.

But that doesn't mean he won't get jealous if you give your precious attention to someone else, so even if y'all aren't official, he'll act possessive, which can get complicated af.

Would observe your interactions with Nemu. He tells himself he's obviously only being cautious, only looking out for if you accidentally break his creation, not because it brings him warmth to see you pull a veryyy rare smile from Nemu.

[asheanon]

Twenty seven thousand smiling Sal faces and it still isn't enough. Ffs...

[d8tl55c]

[messylesb]

if that wasn't clear before: if you're a terf get the fuck out. i don't want you here. you're not welcome in this acc. this is not a safe space for you. and before you think about making a snarky transphobic ass comment on my posts remember i can always delete that. get a fucking grip, read better books to get proper knowledge and learn how to respect ppl's lives.

[lightbulb-warning]

i used to freehand comics all the time as a child and since the part i liked was the drawing part i would just draw panel after panel because i didn't want to stop drawing to think about icky icky words, plus the story TOTALLY still made perfect sense! to me! and noone else, but 'whoooo caaaaares omgggg its not like comics and sequantial art are a communicative meeediummmm lmaoooooo'. i spent my entire childhood telling myself stuff like "oh pfft I know this story by heart- ill SIMPLY remember the dialogue and write it later" ...and. I can't help but admire baby maiora's (call that a minora ba tm tsk) fucking audacity? hubris? confident wrongness? kid couldn't even remember to finish the comics in the first place? INCREDIBLE levels of unearned self assurance, wish that were me, genuinely- what an icon!!! anyway i think i have forever cursed myself

[camellcat]

sometimes I think about the fact that I knew about spike before I even knew about buffy herself. back before I started watching the show the only information I knew was that there were two main vampire boys: one that had dark hair, and another lean one named spike who was the "bad boy" and had white hair. y'all why did I know about spike specifically and not even like y'know the girl the show is about xD

[bugtoast]

Yknow when a cat stretches and they get all long after sitting completely still in a loaf for a few hours? yea, that's how it felt to learn that I fell under the intersex umbrella.

like unironically it alleviated so so so much of my gender dysphoria?? Like I learnt that i fell under the umbrella the very day I was starting testosterone (like my doctor did some tests on me and was like "oh hey you have a condition that makes your body produce more testosterone and thats why you have some more masculine features") and it was just??????? omfg???????

To learn that even if I was called "female" at birth, I never was........ it felt so freeing??? like it literally felt like this image that people use in shitposts:

[tvrningout-a]

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DRINK A VAMPIRE'S BLOOD?

" now, why are you wondering about drinking vampire's blood, carissima? do you have a secret lover, or are you just curious? " warm brown darkens as lips curve into a teasing smirk. cyrillo's closer than before, and you swear you can feel heat emanating from him despite knowing vampires are cold to the touch. he leans away as soft laughter escapes him. " don't worry, i am only poking fun. there are many rumors surrounding my kind, so i understand you might have questions. "

" drinking a vampire's blood will do nothing to you but create a connection between you and the vampire you drank from. our blood is magical to some extent, after all. ah, you look confused -- by connection, i mean you'll feel what they feel, and they'll feel what you feel. it can be rather... intense, to say the least. " cyrillo grins. you wonder if he might be implying something.

but it can't turn you into a vampire?

the mage hums. " well, not right away. "

what do you mean by that?

" exactly what i said, carissima. " cyrillo's tone remains light, yet his gaze is heavier as you meet his eyes. " drinking a little here and there won't turn you into a vampire, but drink enough, and it's possible. ' enough ' is quite a lot, really, if you want to be sure the change will happen. as i said, our blood is magical, and if you want that magic to take, you need a lot of it before you die. "

before i die?

he smiles. it lacks its playful tilt from before. " we are undead, remember? corpses brought back to life, lost souls returned to their flesh. " a small pause. " despite my own experience, i understand why some choose this life, but i hope it is a choice that is never made lightly. "

[pekoeboo]

Hand in hand oboete ite ne Zutto zutto Mirai made

another sketch of these cuties!!!! :D within the virtual reality that Aya resides in, Khalan is able to physically interact with her, since his consciousness is completely transported into the digital space. this also applies to the various VR games that they play - as the technology is incredibly advanced and fully immersive (for better or worse).

but because VR is the only way that he and Aya can actually interact with one another, she always takes this opportunity to give him lots of hugs and affection that he otherwise doesn't get in the real world;; he deserves it tho. the boy needs all the love he can get ;A;

(little fun fact: one of the games that's pre-installed onto the console is Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone, which is Aya's favorite game of all time xD so I felt it was appropriate to add the lyrics from a Vocaloid song to reflect that little piece of trivia haha)

Aya Armas belongs to @cookieg122. please do not remove caption or repost. also on deviantart

[oreoambitions]

To elaborate on the championship thing, the current season is the first pwhl season which started in January. All these teams and the league is new. The previous Boston team from the previous women's league, the Boston pride, did win 3 championships. I'm not sure what the make up of players is though, like if any or most of the previous team players are on the current Boston team.

I got three anons like this - y'all are on top of it! I am a brand new baby hockey fan (as in, I discovered that women's hockey exists outside of the internal circuit in March) so I had absolutely no idea that Boston had a preexisting team that won some championships. Neat!!

[orkowhereheshouldntbe]

orkowhereheshouldntbe is now one year old!

One year ago, I made the first Orko meme as a joke in a group chat, then made that joke into a side blog. I never expected to keep the joke going this long, and almost considered calling it quits once I hit this one year mark, but I don't think Orko's adventures are over quite yet!

To celebrate the orkoversary, I made some CC for The Sims 4! I know it might not be something that appeals to everyone, but seeing as TS4 is free to play now I hope everyone who does enjoy the game will enjoy this pack! I've made a separate post about that, so I'd like to take this post to give some shout-outs and thank-yous!

Firstly a big thank-you to @kirinda-ondo for the original Chaos!Orko art that inspired my original jokes and this blog! Special thanks as well to @ectolemonades, @omegasmileyface, @attackradish and @cryptturon for giving me inspiration and Orko lore. This blog would not be what it is without y'all ❤. Shoutout to my brothers as well, quite a few posts here are of things I've heard of from them and I always enjoy getting to show them when I've put Orko in a game they like. And finally a shoutout to all the regular fans of this blog, and everyone who's sent in Orko requests - I love reading the notes when I post something y'all like and I hope to make more of that in the future!! It's been lots of fun taking requests and learning about things I've never heard of 😊.

Here's to another year of orkoposting! Where will Orko go next?

[brown-little-robin]

—

[kenztrolls]

Oh right. If anyone also wants to send asks as a muse of theirs I'm open to responding to those as well! They could also turn into threads because I am. Bad at planning.

[xxdr3amsnatchrrxx]

alright i know i got called shitty for vagueing about something before but this is less serious so im allowed to do so this time round.

thank you to the two bitches in a previous fandom discord who made me feel like dog shit for not conforming to the fanon floofty and snorpy depictions when i told them i was indeed projecting and you did lead to me hating myself and my art a hella lot more than you would imagine.

sorry if i made a post about this before, memory ain't good for shit.