#and it's such an easy fix too! a few tweaks to the script a bit of rearranging and we've got an excellent video

[jerusalemstraycat]

Ok listen I don't like being a hater but tbh I was disappointed in the Crash Course video on Judaism. It was really disorganized (why were the sections on antisemitism and Zionism between the Written Torah and Oral Torah sections???) and had some glaring inaccuracies (the Tanach contains WAY more than the 5 Books of Moses, and the Oral Torah is not just Hillel and Shammai???).

Also, there was very little focus on history, which informs SO much of Jewish culture. I know it's a short video and highly simplified, but there could at least be a token mention that the Talmud was written during the Roman/Byzantine/Sassanid period and the Reform movement started in Enlightenment-era Germany. Little stuff like that. Or at least have the topics in the video be in chronological order.

However, I do appreciate the John Green-typical commitment to sensitivity and neutrality. (even if they proactively turned the comments off. ugh.)

[sims3fiend]

Some dumb sims 3 updates/stuf

Or, how to develop severe brain damage in 10 easy steps.

Sooo… This is going to be more of a blog post than anything of any real substance, more of a whinge with maybe a few teasers for some stuff I may or may not release (probably not). Feel free to skip if you're after hot tips or coherent writing.

Stutter "fixer"

Sooooo…. The sims 3 has some stutter issueeesss… Incredible discovery, I know! I started looking at remedying them with settings, found some hidden settings that help reduce some of the issues but that can only do so much when the game was made in 2009 for 2009 computers.

So I had a looky at some things I thought could be causing it, mainly WinAPI functions because that's the easier route (h-haha…), and started to try to "optimize" some of the more common ones:

ReadFile: Was the first, and looking at the sheer volume of like 12783972198 calls a milisecond every time you move the camera, I thought surely I can speed it up a little r-right. Not really. I tried all sorts of… interesting things, file caching in memory, implementing the overlapped flag (took ages), etc. Oh and the performance increase? Literally nothing. It's called weirdly from wherever it's called and so we must suffer.

Threads: So, I had a look at other areas that were potential targets for speedup, ran an actual profile and it showed a problem areas namely threads and some other stuff I don't remember. ZwWaitForMultipleObjects and WaitForSingleObject take up a lot of time, so I very poorly attempted to optimize them, adding some timeout optimizations (and a bunch of other failed attempts). Despite being the most insane, this actually worked, and I got like a 40% speed increase in a very very niche metric that did not noticeably effect the game one single bit. I plan to combine all my failures into a single script eventually, maybe once combined they'll do something…

Actual insanity - Memory IPC: Then I had an idea, everyone hates e12, why don't we shove the games memory into another process and that'll fix it. No brain moment. No clue what past me was thinking, for some reason I thought you could like, access another processes memory if it was spawned from it, but uhh.. no, that's not how things work… I tried a few other things in a similar vein but it just crashed and crashed, so for now I'm just gunna work on:

Alloc/free mee - Current insanity: Currently, I'm still working on VirtualAlloc and VirtualFree (which is what I was redirecting to another process), but more from an optimizing memory usage standpoint than a… whatever the IPC thing was. There's a lot of things to try, and I've had some luck in some areas and some abysmal failures in others. There's a few promising functions calling VirtualAlloc/Free that seem to be potentially pointing towards memory leaks (004e54d0), but I'm too dumb to investigate that. At the moment, I'm going mostly just gathering more logs which takes forever and hurts my brain real bad.. On testing there's like 180 allocs that we could probably yeet no problem, which is like 750mb saved… Maybe idk.

I have plenty of ideas for deduplication, memory pool implementations to reduce churn/fragmentation, shoving things aggressively into pagefiles if they're not being used, etc. etc. Basically, there's a lot of avenues to explore, and I feel like there's potential… though I've definitely said that before and been dead wrong so…

Anyway, rambling over. I plan to release a dumb little renderer settings mod maybe-soon-ish that'll let you do dumb stuff that might be useful for reshade like turn shadows/drop shadows off and post processing off and on. I guess I could add max lots and other settings eventually too since they're static values.... Might also do a mythbusting post for some performance "tweak" stuff I see thrown around that isn't super accurate but I also don't want people to be angry at me so maybe not.

Sorry to whoever read all this, but also thanks :)

[lilbabydilljr]

Bee[more]hyped!

Hi! Okay! So I’ve hidden details below, but if you just want the download link here you go.

Download (SFS)

Requires: UC, Easy Inventory Check

Alright, so a while back I found this lovely beehive conversion from Foresty, which was based on Untidyfan’s 3to2 conversion, which is in turn based on Gwenke’s functional beehive. What a way we’ve come! Believe (bee-lieve) it or not this is actually the object that got me interested in modding.

What I didn’t like about the original object was that it used 2 different objects as the honey, and the overload of effects. Lots of lag. So I’ve made a few tweaks!

The first 2 are cosmetic, I’ve moved the hive from the gardening section to Hobbies.../Misc, and the default texture is yellow, but the original green is still available. Bees are yellow, duh.

Sims now harvest honey directly into their inventory, which they can drink or stock the fridge with. This is a 4to2 conversion of the honey, which I thought was neat.

The hive now only displays the bee effects when open, or when a sim angers the bees. It produces a jar of honey every 18 hours, and Gatherer sims have a 50% chance of harvesting an extra jar each harvest. Lucky sims have about a 5% chance, and these can stack. A Lucky + Gatherer sim can harvest 2 extra jars, potentially.

Sims will autonomously harvest honey and occasionally inspect the beehive, please let me know if these values seem off to you I wasn’t super sure on them. Cowards will never harvest honey. Too many stingers!

The hive now builds nature enthusiasm when it’s used, and sims can harvest multiple jars at once. I’m not sure if there’s a limit to how much honey the hive can hold? I guess just keep an eye on it.

There’s two 2 new memories included as well. If you’re not comfortable with custom memories in your game please leave them out of your downloads folder, the hive seems to work just fine.

Caveats

Bee-cause of course there are. I might work some of these things out, but right now I’m done with this project.

My beehive and Foresty’s share the same GUID, and my jar of honey does as well. I’m not sure if that’s shared across all these hives or not. But you can’t have both in the game.

Children can not harvest honey, I didn’t feel like working on the animations.

Sims can’t drink the honey straight from their inventory, it must be placed first.

The animations and tool used to grab the honey are a bit off, but not enough that it actually bothers me right now.

Finally, the jar of honey itself.

As you can see the textures aren’t great? But I don’t know enough about objects to get it right. I’ll put this out there, if someone wants to help me fix this I’d be forever grateful.

I also wanted to edit the anger bees interaction, but I couldn’t get the chased by bees interaction to work? So I gave up. I do think there should be more ways for sims to die by flies anyway, but it’s not my ideal interaction.

Lastly, I wanted to convert the Honey Cake from 4, but food again proved challenging, and when I got to trying to do the coding so it requires a Honey in the fridge, it looked like a LUA script to me? So I backed off. Maybe one day. Not today.

You might be able to get away with not having the UC for this, but I think at the very least you’ll need BV. I can’t support any installations other than the UC though.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I am! It’s just a fun silly little thing, but our sims need bees right???

Credits/Thanks: Foresty, Untidyfan, Gwenke. Your original objects and coding are amazing, I hope I’m not stepping on any toes here! I did DM Foresty, but I figured since Gwenke’s code has been reused a couple times now I thought I’d be fine.

Edit: 04/30/23: Moved honey jar out of the catalogue. Whoops. Had it in there for testing.

Edit 05/08/23: Bees no longer accumulate inaccesible honey in the winter.

[itsclydebitches]

Um one thing i wanna ask is why do you want penny to stay a robot? She would have been hacked again as it wouldn’t make sense for someone not to try it again... ignoring the pinnochio allusion thing cause of course RWBY shouldn’t follow fairytales like a script, but just thinking about practicality as the problem would just occur again.

Also, people complaining about how its a problem they cured her illness (having the virus)... why would you want her too keep the virus when its literally about to kill her and the cure is right there???? I dunno some of the complaints have me a bit confused and i need clarity on them.

Like, If they didn’t grab the relic for themselves, they would have been hunted by ironwood for penny, she would have been killed for the powers to open the vault etc... if they went to the vault with penny without their plan, she would have died... its all a lose lose for penny to me at least

Questions are genuine and I’m not trying to be rude or anything :)

Happy to explain, anon! :D

I’m going to break this up into three parts: The claim that people are upset about Penny’s virus going away, the idea that she’s in more danger as a robot, and the assumption that she had to be made human to fix this problem. 

The first is the easiest to tackle simply because I haven’t seen any of this myself. I don’t know why someone would “want her to keep the virus when it’s literally about to kill her.” My guess would be that there’s been some miscommunication at play. I’m not saying just because I haven’t seen these takes doesn’t mean they don’t exist, but rather that I have seen a lot of critical takes since Saturday and they all boil down to the fans being upset that Penny’s android identity was removed, not that the virus was removed along with it. Of course we’re happy about that additional outcome, we just believe it would have been possible  — even easy  — to achieve that same outcome without taking a core part of Penny’s identity along with it (more on that below).

Secondly, if one of the main arguments for Penny getting a human body is “It’s less dangerous” then I personally don’t find that persuasive. Yes, it means no one can try to hack her again... but it also means Penny can die all the horrible, messy human deaths that she was previously immune from (within the boundary of how long Pietro can give her aura, anyway). We saw it happen on screen. Penny was able to go from this

to this

purely because she was an android. Penny, due to her synthetic body, was able to be torn apart and then  — pretty casually it seems, based on Pietro’s comments  — be put back together, given more aura, and booted up with absolutely no downsides. Penny shrugged off death with a smile! No human body can do that. So yes, she’s vulnerable to hacking as an android, but she’s vulnerable to everything else as a human, things like Nora’s scars and Yang’s lost arm, things that android!Penny would have shrugged off. Each body has its benefits and its downsides, with my personal belief being that, from a combat standpoint, a synthetic body has far fewer downsides and far greater benefits. But that opinion aside, objectively I don’t think a human body is intrinsically safer for Penny in the long run, especially not after her biggest moment in the series was coming back from the dead. She can’t do that anymore. 

Which then touches on our third topic with the question: Why couldn’t the show have fixed android!Penny in a way that ensures she can never be hacked again? See, we have to remember that RWBY is a constructed, fictional story. Nothing “has” to happen. Or rather, nothing has to happen until the writers impose limitations on the text that the viewer expects them to adhere to. For example, if you impose the implied rules of 1. “Our four main characters will make it to the end of the series” and 2. “A character, without aura, will die from a spear through the gut,” then RWBY has to find a way for Weiss to survive Cinder’s attack (rule #1), but that solution can’t be, “Weiss is just randomly okay after a deadly injury, I guess” (rule #2). Hence, we get the solution of “Jaune unlocks his semblance and heals Weiss for her” and it works! It’s a solution that viewers like because it obeys all the rules, both overt and implied. Meanwhile, the problem with Penny’s solution is two-fold. The first is that it contradicts the entire journey she’s been on of “Android girl learns that she’s real and human just the way she is,” which I’ve already spoken about extensively (there are other posts on that), but the second problem is that the show ignores other possibilities and makes up new rules solely to reach this ending. 

Why is Penny made human? Because of Ambrosius’ rules. Why do those rules exist? Because the writers said they do in this episode. It’s not that they introduced these rules episodes or even whole volumes ago, thereby requiring that they adhere to them once Penny’s life is suddenly caught up in them (like with the Jaune example). Rather, the viewer only learned these were limitations while Penny was being fixed. So the writers could have just... not included those. There’s no reason why, in developing Ambrosius’ abilities right then and there, the show couldn’t have made them into something a little different. Have Ruby go, “We want you to magic up an anti-virus program that will heal Penny completely, with no chance of the virus returning. Thus, when you create something new, it doesn’t matter if that program disappears. The virus is already gone!” If the response to that is, “But Clyde, Ambrosius can’t create something he doesn’t understand” that’s a rule that the writers just made up. No one forced them to suddenly impose that limitation. It was a choice. Or even if we have to have it for some reason, you’re telling that the group gets to have the schematics for their escape route  — essentially inventing a teleportation system because Whitley looked at airship flight paths for a few minutes  — but they can’t have Penny or Pietro draw up an anti-virus program? There’s no reason why these rules couldn’t have been tweaked to cure android!Penny. 

There’s also no reason why Ambrosius needed to be involved at all. As just mentioned, Pietro exists and many fans (myself included) thought he would be the solution. Imagine for a moment we had a slightly different version of these events. Penny’s virus is briefly halted by Jaune and, finally given a moment to breathe, she asks where her father is. Last she saw, he was floating in a dead Amity after Cinder’s attack. This reminds Ruby that hey, Pietro made Penny! He’s just as smart as Watts and is far more knowledgeable of her systems. Maybe he can help? So the group heads to Amity and, due to the same techno mumbo jumbo that launched Amity in the first place, or had Klein heal Penny after her crash, Pietro says yes, he can get rid of the virus. Better yet, he can slightly redesign Penny so that she’s made un-hackable in the future, using (again, mumbo jumbo) parts from the now useless Amity. But it will take time. It’s then that the group receives Ironwood’s message and learns that they don’t have time. The reality that Penny will not be cured before the hour time limit necessitates that they come up with a creative way of dealing with Ironwood. Enter Emerald. Her semblance can make it seem like Penny is there, despite her being fixed by her dad miles away. We get an extended fight with Ironwood and, at episode’s end, the new and improved Penny catches up, ready to open the vault for them, this time of her own free will. 

Now, obviously I just made this up off the top of my head  — far from perfect  — but a scenario like this: 

Remembers that Pietro exists and lets him/Maria as an assistant do something for the plot

Re-uses Amity now that it’s just a floating pile of junk metal 

Creates a scenario where we get to see Penny and Pietro confront the fact that she was created to be a tool (sorry I originally made you so easily hackable/put a self-destruct in your brain) 

Maintains all the main story beats like Penny’s near escape, Ironwood’s message, and using Emerald’s semblance

Makes space to tackle other issues like the complaint that Ironwood was taken down too quickly 

Achieves the desired result of healing Penny without taking away her android identity 

Proves that, because we can easily come up with another solution, the idea that she “had” to become human is inaccurate. There were always other options 

Hell, we can even ask why the story bothered with a self-destruct threat in the first place. Seriously, why did Watts do that? I have my own headcanons, but the show never says. This act is the entire BASIS for Penny’s conflict and the show didn’t bother to a) say why he’d do this or b) explain why he’d do this when Salem would presumably like having a Maiden to control. It’s counterintuitive and the show never grapples with that. We have no canonical answer here. More importantly, what else changes if Penny’s self-destruct order is taken out of the narrative? Absolutely nothing. She’s still hacked and struggles to keep Amity afloat, still flies to Ruby, still wakes up and needs to be calmed down by Nora, still tells Whitley her order, still fights the Hound, still tries to escape, still tells Ruby to kill her so she doesn’t open the vault, and Ruby still realizes that opening the vault might be the answer. They could have taken Penny to the door and nullified the virus by letting her do what the virus ordered. Penny is fine now, they snag the Relic, and the group proceeds to save all of Mantle and Atlas. The only thing this self-destruct sequence brings to the narrative is a reason to give Penny a human body. That plot-point was introduced solely as an excuse to give Penny a human body. That never had to happen. It’s not that the writers had a story where, by the rules already in place, they truly had to change Penny to ensure they didn’t lose her, it’s that the writers carefully crafted a story that existed to justify their desire to change Penny. That was always the end goal. They decided they wanted this to happen and that’s the problem here. That they took a character who has spent her entire, fictional existence learning to love herself as she is and crafted a bunch of unpersuasive, needless, and contradictory scenarios specifically to get Penny to a place where they could erase all that. 

There’s no version of Penny that exists who truly had to get a human body to survive because Penny is a fictional character. Everything she does and experiences is thought up by our writers. Thus, at some point they thought up the idea to erase her android identity for a completely human one instead  — the part a lot of people are upset by   — and then made some messy attempts to write a story to justify getting that ending.  

[circumstellars]

14. How long does it usually take you to make a set? and 49. How much would you say you’ve improved since you first started giffing? for the gif ask!

Questions for gif-makers ask game

14. I wish there was an easy answer to this but there’s so many things that affect time. One day I swear I’ll do like a speed gif process video or something to show how many things there are.

> Find footage (ie. scroll through 20 episodes of TUA finding one or more scenes/clips dependent on the theme)

> Cut and clean footage. Narrow down the few seconds or minutes needed into one or more shortened clips (which I refer to as stock). Some gif makers might do this slightly differently but I use a script based editor so I clean my stock when I cut it, rather then after. There’s a lot of little technical stuff I don’t need to babble about here. Either way this takes a *long* time, but part of the blame on that is my weak laptop. A lot of waiting around, which is extended if I’m cutting in 2160p/4k. Longer stuff I’ll use a good 1080p for the sake of my sanity.

> Load into PS, and preliminary editing, I decide size and shape, and fine tune the frames/video/speed, cutting it into smaller gifs sometimes.

> Lighting, colouring, sharpening and any further cleaning. The more fun stuff of giffing that I like. If this is a simple set like of Rob Sheehan looking sexy and nothing else, skip to encoding once satisfied.

> For specialty sets, with special effects, textures, timing effects, any and all weird things you sometimes see my gifs do, all of that is done here. Add several hours to the project depending on how well I know what I’m doing, if I’m winging it or not. Sometimes, like writing and drawing or other art, you go through a bit of trial and error and scrap things until it works tho. Sometimes I have a clear design in my head. It all depends, but either way its fairly labour intensive on the usual. 

> Encoding. THE WORST. Equally tedious as processing and de-interlacing, but again, a lot of this may be my crap computer and poor RAM, which photoshop eats like it’s its job. This can take anywhere from 5-45 minutes per gif, it sucks. Then once it finishes and alows you to save, I usually find problems that need tweaking, mainly if the size exceeds tumblr’s limit, or timing errors or any number of fixes.... so you have to go back edit, try again, and see what comes out lmao. The life.

So I dunno if writing it out like that gives you an idea of the time. Definitely some of it is on my slow computer so I might sound melodramatic that it takes centuries to do, ‘cause not always lmao.

So in the end, simple cut and colour sets maybe a couple hours depending on if it’s 4 or 8 or 10 right, and artsy/specialty sets vary greatly, but it’s usually upwards of 5 hours, or more but spread out over a couple days (I hyperfixate and tend to try and finish in one sitting like a lunatic sometimes tho.)

--- 49. This is a lil easier to answer hurhur. I think my sharpening game is a little more involved and that’s improved, and I think since shedding my bad habits and learning to gif in timeline (in PS) has greatly expanded my ability to do things I already knew how but were too labourious manually, and also gave me an opening to learn and experiment with new effects in the last few months, so I’m pretty happy about the upgrade in that respect!  Thank you for the ask I’m so happy :> I always like to talk about gifs like a nerd.

[maxismatchccworld]

Hey you lovely Simmers! It is time for our new Spotlight of the Month. Please give a warm welcome to LittleMsSam aka @littlemssam​ 😊 I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t play the game without her mods and am so grateful for all of them!

Aloha everyone!

First of all thank you Kerstin for the Opportunity to introduce myself here.

My name is LittleMsSam and I am a Sims 4 Modder since January 2017. I used to play Sims 3 a long time ago and loved it. Not only because of the Game itself but because of the fact that it is a Game which supports modding. I love Games that gives Players the opportunity to mod it and make it more individual. Back then I was fascinated what modders could do with the Game but unfortunately I lost interest in Sims 3 because of lags and the long loading screens.

When Sims 4 came out I immediately loved the new Style. But of course in the beginning not much was to do since it was only Base Game. So I lost interest again for a while until I got back into the Game in the end of 2016.

I was on a Mod Hunt again but there was one thing I simply could not find. The Game was too easy for me so i was searching for a certain Mod to make it a little bit harder. But the only Mods I could find did the opposite: Mods that were making Painting & Writing faster. This was the reason i started to dig into modding myself and the beginning of a Modding Journey that quickly „escalated“.

I learned the Basics of Modding via Scarlet’s Tutorials on Sims 4 VIP. Which Tools do i need, how do i update my Mods and so on. From then on it was and still is a lot of trying by doing, failing and succeeding, laughing and crying.

My first Mod was…

now you can guess…

A slower Painting & Writing Mod. Tadaa!

I was so proud of myself back then and it is still one of my personal favorites that i use in my Game.

After that another Mod followed and another after and more and even more and now i am at a number of 164 Mods, 60 more Mods in a Random Small Mod Collection and a few Bug Fixes.

The main time I spent into modding now is to actually keep all those mods updated and to tweak them here and there. Especially after new Expansions Pack Patches it takes me sometimes up to 10 hours to check & update all of those Mods. Unfortunately for me I still use 95% of them myself so there is no way i would abandon them as long as i play this Game. And by playing I mean I load up the Game, play ten minutes, close the Game and tweak some Mods or make new ones to tweak the Game.

My Mods are various Mods from small tweaking Mods to bigger new Gameplay Mods.

Some of my favorite smaller Mods are the Slower Painting & Writing Mods like mentioned above. The Choose who you Call to Meal Mod which lets you choose who you want to call to Meal and if you want to eat too or not. The Auto Employees | Custom Lot Trait Mod which let’s Barista, Bartender and more auto spawn on Community Lots. The Automatic Thermostat & the Automatic Stereo System Mods which let’s you “upgrade” your Thermostat/Stereos to be automatic. The Cookbooks Cultural, Experimental, Seafood & Jungle Mod which adds new buy-able Cookbooks into your Game. The Sell via Simbay Mod which is a new unique Selling Service where you can submit all your crafted Items and Artifacts. The … annddd I should stop here or else this List will be endless. I use almost all of my Mods myself so yeah they are all kind of my favorites.

Those „smaller Mods“ are usually done in a few hours. Testing them though takes more time then doing them.

There are also some bigger Mods that add new Gameplay and/or took much more time do them and to test them. Those usually take a few days to do and even more days to test.

My first really big Mod was the More Buyable Venues and new Venue Types Mod which let’s you buy more Venues and adds new Venue Types to the Game. It was the first Mod where i had to dig deeper into the Game to figure out how I could buy Bars, Clubs and Co. just like I could with the Retail Lot. But in the end I got it to work and my first big new Gameplay Mod was finished.

My personal favorite bigger/new Gameplay Mods are:

The More Servings Options & Better Meal Time Menus Mod which adds new Servings Options via the cooking and gourmet cooking Menus of stoves & fridges (2, 3, 5, 6 & 7 Sizes). It does not sound big but it took me a hell lot of time to make all those recipes ;)

The Social Activities (Visit Friends, Family and more) Mod which adds Social Activities for your Sims to go to. You can go visit Friends, Family & more or go on Vacation & Honeymoon. Or you can visit a Music Concert or a Cooking Competition and have a chance to win a prize. You can also send your Toddlers to the Daycare or your Pets to the Pet sitter or Dog Trainer.

The Ultrasound Scan Mod which let’s you visit a Gynecologist to do a Ultrasound Examination. This Mod was only possible thanks to Turbodriver who helped me with the script part of this Mod. I really love this one i have to say!

The Live in Business Mod which let’s you run Businesses at Home like a Bar, a Club, a Daycare, a Vet Clinic, a Shop and many more.

And last but not least (before I get carried away again…) the Foster Family Mod where you can become a part of the LMS Foster Family Network and take care of Toddler, Children, Teens or Pets who are in need of a Foster Family. This Mod was only possible with the help of NisaK who helped me with the script part of this Mod. I use this one all the time to foster a bunch of Pets and find them a new Home in the Sims 4 Worlds.

There are also some Mods I personally don’t even use but I was up for a challenge to do them anyway. The biggest one is the “SimDa” Dating App Mod which can help you find your true love, have adventurous Blind Dates or hot One Night Stands.

Now enough of me, my Mods and my shameless self advertising.

I want to say that even if it can be pretty exhausting to support those Mods, I am really grateful I found my way into Modding and that I could meet some amazing people out there. Turbodriver, Basemental, Deaderpool, NisaK, RoBurky, Icemunmun, Scarlet and many more who are all amazing modders and personalities. Scumbumbo who was an inspiring, helpful, kind and amazing person who will be greatly missed. The MCC Discord Team who help the community each day as much as they can with Game Issues. EA & everyone involved for making a great Game that I really enjoy playing.

And of course everyone who uses and enjoys my Mods which is a huge motivation to keep going.

Everyone who did not know about me or my Mods feel free to come over and check my tumblr out.

Thank you all!

[phoenotopia]

2020 March Update

Happy New Year! Well, I guess it's a bit late for that...

Much of what transpired in the past few months will fall under polish and bug-fixing. Will and I have a mutual friend who got married, so I had the occasion to visit Will to attend the wedding as well as have Will playtest the game in its most complete form yet. He logged 24 hours of playtime and just reached the entrance of the final dungeon. Then we had to call in for the night since it was 5 AM, and I had a flight to catch in the morning.

His completion rate where we stopped was 42% of Heart Pieces, 33% of Energy Gems, and 44% of Moonstones. So... I think we have a pretty lengthy game!

This will take a while to playtest & polish... Will's daytime profession is QA Engineer so he's pretty great at catching bugs. From his playtest, we jotted down 200+ items to fix/adjust. Some as small as a simple misspelling, and some more significant (like Gail being unable to jump when standing at the edge of a steep slope). I'm about half-way through fixing that list...

(Will’s living room where much playtesting was done)

Here are some other things we've accomplished in the past few months. A lot of it falls under polish and bug-fixing, which won't sound outwardly impressive, so I'll dive in a bit under the hood.

-------------------------- Item Balancing --------------------------

There are over 200 items in the game. Of which, 90+ are healing items. While much of their flavor text was already written, their stats weren't yet finally decided. So a large effort was spent to balance them as well as possible. Initially, I balanced items by observation (ex: "The player is relying on this item a lot, so I will nerf it...") Now, I've moved to a more systematic way of doing things. I made an equation that takes in all of an item's parameters, and spits out a score. The higher an item heals, the higher the score. The longer an item takes to consume, the lower the score. And so forth.

As usual, I used google spreadsheets, since they support equations. I could tweak the values of a healing item, and immediately see how its final score was affected. I also made use of automatic color formatting, so a field becomes highlighted red, if it's particularly bad, or green, if it's particularly good. Of course, the sheet is just a guideline. The aim wasn't to make all items have the same final score, but that they made sense for what they were and when you could get them. Late-game items tend to have higher overall scores versus early-game items. Some items, like doggy biscuits, have notoriously low scores across the board - as a joke!

-------------------------- Cooking Systems --------------------------

Another thing that had to be done with the healing items was finally determine their cooking sequences. 38 healing items could be cooked and will transform into something else. The way I specified that an item could be cooked was to add a a little snippet to an item's "meta data". An example would look something like, "COOK,57,62,ABXY,10,1.5,1".

In order, this specified the item_ID that would result on success (57), the item_ID that would result on failure (62), the button sequence (ABXY), the time you had to complete the sequence (10 seconds), how quickly the cursor should move (1.5x speed), and if the item multiplied on success (1). The system appears simple enough - but it was actually extremely inefficient!

For one, this system didn't allow random button sequences - all "berry fruits", when cooked would have the same button prompts and in the same order every time (ABXY). Initially, I thought having set button sequences would be a feature, but in practice, it was less fun. 

Two, this system wasn't human-readable at all. I'd see a sequence of numbers, forget what they were, and have to look them up over and over.

But the biggest problem was that you couldn't evaluate an item's cooking difficulty from these numbers without manual testing. At 1.5 cursor speed, how many times does the cursor pass the center panel in 10 seconds? Maybe that's 15 times... for a 4 button sequence, the player has 11 opportunities to miss - that's too wide a berth for failure. The system also had variable penalties - if you misspressed a button prompt you loss time on the cooking meter. If you didn't press anything, you missed the opportunity, but not the time - but the clock was still ticking, so you did lose time, just not as much. In the end, the difficulty of cooking each item was all over the place. It was also possible to create "unwinnable" scenarios if I made the button sequence too long, the time too short, or the cursor speed too slow. Testing each item manually to ensure doability was too tedious and unreliable - it was a mess!

Which is why, the underlying cooking system was revamped. The new meta data looks like : "COOK,57,62,seq_length,5,spd,1.5,ease_add,2". This is a lot more readable. Beyond the first 3 entries, the arguments could be specified in any order. And their meanings were easy to understand.

"seq_length,5" means a random button sequence of 5 will be generated (no need for me to personally generate it)

"spd,1.5" means the cursor moves at 1.5x speed. I could also leave this field out to get a default value of 1x cursor speed.

"ease_add,2" - the biggest improvement to the system is how we now approach difficulty. We streamlined a miss-press and a missed opportunity as the same level of "mistake", and difficulty is framed as, "how many mistakes is the player allowed to make and still have a successful result?" By default, the player is afforded the ability to make 2 mistakes, and "ease_add,2" bumps the number of allowable mistakes to 4. We then automatically calculate how much "time" the player should have to cook something based on its cursor speed, how long the button sequence is, and how many mistakes the player is allowed to make. This was a more sensible and efficient system that let me knock out all 38 healing item cook sequences in one sitting!

-------------------------- Badges Nearly Done --------------------------

As you may recall from the last update, I was working on implementing the badges.

Thinking up the badge and having its graphic drawn is just the first half. Underneath, the code also needs to be made to track all the relevant player stats - how many times the player fished, ate, got money, used a certain move, etc. Some badges require extra guards, because they can be spoofed. For instance, the "Treasure Hunter" badge is obtained when the player has collected XXXX RIN through the course of your journey. However, there is something like a "gold exchange" in the game, where you could circularly trade gold and RIN to boost this number artificially. It's important to guard against cases like those.

So far, 30 of 33 badges are implemented. The last three have to do with late-game things that have inter-dependencies that we're still figuring out. The Speed running badge for instance is still dependent on two things. One, I need to speed run the game a few times to see how fast it's possible to beat the game and decide finally what's a reasonable time-limit. Two, there's actually a time-keeping bug which can inflate the game time if the system is left in sleep mode. I don't expect either things will be too hard to figure out - just gotta find the time for it.

-------------------------- Script Extra Polished --------------------------

We continued to polish the script, which I thought was basically done before. We added some extra NPCs here and there, and fleshed out the world with lore text where it seemed appropriate. In the end, the game's script ballooned to over 100,000 words! Hah... It's definitely DONE now however!

Some interesting things I noted as I was polishing old text - there were quite a few instances where Gail talks. I began the game's development with the idea that Gail should definitely talk since I wanted her to be a more active participant in what she chose to do. But I discovered later that if Gail talks, but only talked a little, she comes off as a very reticent person. There's no middle lane here - you're either all in or all out.

If Gail was a silent protagonist, she still talked symbolically. She is understood to be talking based on how people react to her - kinda like Link. So that's the direction I went with in the end (again). When Gail has occasion to talk, it comes in the form of a player dialogue choice. She also has an inner voice when she needs to remind the player to do something.

Another reason I went with this direction, is for brevity. Take this exchange for instance: QUEST GIVER : Can you help me find this super rare ingredient? GAIL : Maybe. I can't make any promises...

If Gail is silent, I can reduce those 2 lines to 1. QUEST GIVER : Can you help me find this super rare ingredient? GAIL : ...

-------------------------- Business Taxes --------------------------

Not too exciting, but new year means I gotta do taxes for the business. They're a lot more complicated than personal taxes, and more expensive! Since the game hasn't sold anything, you would think there'd be nothing to file. Hah! If only... The business is there so we can act as a legal entity and record expenses for when we do start selling. I really want to focus on making games, but there’s a small percentage of it that is sometimes boring and dreadful (-_-) ... still it needs to be done.

------------- Why no Public Beta Testing? -------------

As you may have noticed, I haven't put out any public calls for testing help despite being at that stage. Some have offered to help, which I appreciate! But sadly, I cannot accept. Here's the story for that.

Two and a half years ago, I got my hands on a console dev kit - that's very exciting, so I hurriedly took the steps to convert my dev station to be console-capable. After about two weeks, I had the console version working and integrated into my workflow, so all appeared good...

4 Months later, an artist needed an updated PC build to test some new art assets, so I went to build a new PC version. We use Unity, so generally you just need to click your desired build target, and hit "build". However, I now discovered that by attaching the console "hooks" into my work environment, I could no longer build to PC... It was possible, from my end, to test the game from the dev station in dev mode, which was why it went undiscovered for so long.

I did try to excise the hooks, but proved unsuccessful after a day of work. I decided to take this as an opportunity to focus exclusively on the console version first, which afforded me some niceties. Knowing that there's a standardized control scheme meant I could make full use of the control stick for the fishing mini-game. I also didn't need to create a rebindable keys menu - which is a MUST for PC versions... Most importantly, it lets me focus on making the one version as good as possible before moving onto the next. I have NO idea how those other guys release on all platforms at once...

Chalk it up to inexperience. In my defense, this will be my first commercial release, so bear with me. Don't worry, I still plan to make the PC version! It's a bit unconventional, but we're just going to go in the reverse direction of the usual. Console first, then PC, then other consoles. Wherever it makes financial sense, there we will be. (Sorry Ouya!)

Back to the original question - that's why I haven't sent out any public calls for playtesting. Current playable builds of the game are locked to my console dev kit. So actual playtesting unfolds in a very closed setting. Like what I did with Will, I literally sit behind the playtester, breathe down their neck, and watch them play, taking notes all the while.

But since I'm observing the player directly, even just one playthrough nets me a TON of bugs and adjustment tasks. So it evens out I think.

-------------------------- Trailers, Release Dates, etc. --------------------------

Alright, get your frowns ready...

We finished two trailers, and they're raring to go. BUT! We can't show them yet... We're sort of at an awkward spot where we're waiting on some conversational threads to conclude. Say we win a slot in a show - that'd be a HUGE plus for us - but that may also be contingent on us having NOT shown anything substantial yet. The game in its unrevealed state is a negotiating chip. So we're trying to leverage that... and you can only do the reveal once...

We also want to have some "actionable" items in the trailer - a launch date you could mark on your calendar, a wishlist, a website you can visit, etc. So since those things aren't entirely lined up yet, we can't let the trailers rip just yet...

Right now, I can only say we're *aiming* for a late Q2/early Q3 launch. But I can't commit to anything concrete yet. As soon as we know, we'll happily sing it from the rooftops. I hope I can update this blog sooner with good news, but if things move slowly again, I'll send out the next "we're alive" update 2 months from now (end of April).

I know it's frustrating to have nothing major after so long still, so I captured some gameplay footage... May it sate your hungers!

-------------------------- Footage 1 : Fishing --------------------------

You've seen pictures of the fishing, but never video of it in action. Well, here it is!

(And right after I uploaded the video, I noticed there actually was a video of fishing before. D’oh)

The idea is simple. First, get the lure in front of a fish, and assuming the fish isn't scared, it will soon bite. Then begins a fight sequence, where your energy meter is pitted against the fish's energy meter. Whoever's energy outlasts the other's wins.

The fish's resistance is represented by a red moving circular subsection. You fight the fish by pushing the control stick and keeping it on the subsection, which will dart around and try to escape you. Bigger and tougher variants of fish will do a "shake" which will reverse the wheel. When the wheel is reversed, so too are the controls, so it gets extra tricky!

While fishing, your energy meter doesn't recover, so one of the ways you level up your fishing ability is by finding energy gems to increase your max energy. There's another way - but we'll keep that a secret.

-------------- Footage 2 : Kobold Boss Fight --------------

You can actually skip the next section if you'd prefer to be surprised and you find your hunger for info sated. That's how I prefer to consume the games that I know I'm going to get. If you're still hungering for info, and you don't mind the slight spoilers, then feel free to proceed!

The next video shows the new Kobold Boss fight. Let's take a moment to reflect on the old game's visuals and how far it's come...

(we've come a long way since the time of the flash game)

You'll notice the Kobold boss has a name now - Katash! He's a significant enough character that he's earned it. The second thing you'll notice is that he looks better!

Some people have humorously pointed out that the old boss looks like Wolf O'Donnel from Star Fox. There's a funny story behind that. Basically I asked an artist to draw me a space wolf. And the artist, whom I'm assuming wasn't familiar with Wolf O'Donnel, drew that - all of it - all the animations and everything. The first time I laid eyes on it, it was already done, so it was too late to ask for edits. So I just ran with it.

That was seven years ago. Nowadays, I know to involve myself more in the process. I ask for just the design first, and we don't move forward with animations until we're happy with the design. Life lessons!

By the way, if you like Katash’s personal boss theme, give it a lesson on Will's Sound cloud (LINK)

-------------------------- Fan Arts -------------------------- Lots of fan art came in over the past 3 months!

This one is a pixel animation made by Pimez, and shows Gail singing a Christmas carol in various parts of the game. So cute! Years ago, I too was making little animated gifs for my favorite games, so it really brings me back!

This one was made by cARTographer (twitter link) after a request by Deli_mage, so thank you both. Gail rocking stylish boots with a pose that shows confidence in her batting skills. Very anime - Love it!

Another submission of laptekosz of the Last Song of Earth area. Whereas the last picture depicted the night sky, now the orange trees are lit by a rising sun. Artfully done! Kinda makes me want to eat eggs. I hope you'll like the new Last Song of Earth area just as much :D

A new artist to the scene, Not_Quin, submitted two pictures, one of Gail and one of the Sand Drake re-imagined as a centipede. I'm always a fan of these re-imaginings! I like how it's spiky all over and appears to be wearing a skull mask. The Sand Drake is often pointed out to be too similar to Zelda's Dodongos, so maybe a long slithery body would have indeed served better. Fun fact, long ago, when we were working on Phoenotopia 2 in earnest, we actually had a giant man-eating worm planned - WIP animation depicted below. One day... one day...

Negativus Core made two cool new arts! I'm really impressed by their use of unique perspective! Having characters run towards the screen or reaching close to the screen from afar is tricky since the proportions get all distorted - but not an issue for Negativus Core! Love the blur on Gail to show speed, with 66 in focus - really skillfully done! And the cube. Amazing!

--------------------------

I'm really honored by the huge fan art community. Thank you all! 

[rpgmgames]

August’s Featured Game: Marinette

DEVELOPER(S): Teal Crown ENGINE: RPG Maker MV GENRE: Horror, Puzzle, Adventure WARNINGS: Sensitive Themes, Blood/Light Gore SUMMARY: A little girl named Marinette, in the wake of a splitting family and a change of homes, is having a birthday. But this, her eleventh birthday, will present a deadly opportunity to fulfill a special promise. On the night before her birthday, she is drawn into a strange realm; an unnatural dollhouse, populated with dolls who are not quite what they seem. A web of strings lying in wait, and threatening to ensnare the poor marionette; warping her perception, and twisting her every move. Will the strings attach, and force her to become an unwilling puppet, or will she escape this surreal web of strings? What will she have to do to avoid the dangers of the dollhouse, and set herself free?

Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! *Mitty: "Hello, I'm Mitty! Thank you so much for the opportunity to participate in this interview. I'm the main developer of the game and I'm working with a team of friends to make this game a reality. I work mainly on the visuals and programming, and I'll be representing the team, alongside Third! I've been on the community for around two years, even though I tend to not be active very often." *Third: "Hoi, I’m Third! I appreciate you reaching out to interview us. I’m the main composer and writer of Marinette, and I work under Mitty to make the story and soundtrack what we want it to be. I’ve been in the community for little less than Mitt but am even less active in most of my developer discords."

What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *Mitty: "The game is essentially about a girl that gets trapped inside a dollhouse. A simple concept really can go far ahaha I've always loved themes related to creepy dolls so I wanted to create something related to that. What pushed me initially to start were obviously the inspiration of seeing other devs creating, seeing how far you could go with these engines and create amazing interactive stories, however the huge support from a friend was what made me actually start past the planning and dreaming!" *Third: "Marinette is a story about a little girl becoming entangled in the complicated family and supernatural landscape she finds herself in on her birthday. I enjoy writing short stories about this kind of thing so it’s fantastic to work on a larger project about one of my favorite subjects. My primary inspiration and introduction to this kind of game in general was Pocket Mirror, and I use it the most as a model for how to do certain things. However, I also draw a lot of inspiration from masterpieces like Aria’s Story, Ib, Witch’s House, and Alice Mare."

How long have you been working on your project? *Mitty: "The project has been in the works for around two years now! The first year was mostly planning and right now we are on the right track with the programming and asset creation for the demo, as well as music and sound design for later development. Planning isn't over yet though, especially for the final game." *Third: "I’ve been working on this for almost two years. The soundtrack possessed most of my earlier attention, but now it’s taken a backseat to writing, now that I’m actively writing the scripts for the game now. "

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Mitty: "Yes! The game has inspirations from plenty of sources, not only strictly RPG Maker Horror games, or games in general for that matter. If I were to mention those, of course games like Ib, The witch's house, Alice Mare, Pocket Mirror, Yume Nikki & .flow, Stray Cat Crossing, Mogeko's games...etc quickly come to mind. When it comes to the aesthetics and visuals, the inspirations come from several different places, including games like Alice Madness Returns, Dofus, Yomawari, The Legend of Mana, Little Nightmares...the list goes on; or other media, like Inu Curry's animation style or video creator nana825763, as well as some anime and music videos. Silent hill is also a huge inspiration for the atmosphere, and hopefully we can pull it off well!" *Third: "My primary inspiration, as I’ve said earlier, is Pocket Mirror, both for its masterful writing and soundtrack. The game’s soundtrack is the main reason I still play piano. Whenever I’m feeling musical, my fingers always hunt out the same kind of haunting, mysterious, and sometimes peaceful and playful melodies that Pocket Mirror is rife with. In the end, our soundtrack is probably going to sound like Pocket Mirror and Aria’s Story’s soundtracks were meshed together. Story wise, commonplace elements in this genre like demons, monsters, mean parents and puzzles that tell the story are commonplace for a reason, and certainly find their way into this one, in their own special way. Every other game I’ve mentioned involves them in some form or another. And young, curious protagonists are also a blast to write and do evil things to and put in difficult, dangerous situations. "

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Mitty: "We surely have! Many of them in different areas ahaha Taking away bug hunting, I am primarily an artist, so programming for me is a secondary thing. Because of this it's easy to get carried away and hard to realise what can and can't be done. I don't want the game to be visually boring if I can make things move and seem alive! The way I'm handling it is programming like an artist: I think in my head what cool things I can do with my art by not having it completely still, and then it's a matter of executing it on the engine. However this comes with a downside. I tend to tweak things a lot, and that takes quite some time, but I honestly think it's worth it ahaha Also I find it hard to start writing, but when I do, I can't stop orz. Other challenges are also finding plot holes. This is fixed with a lot of studying the story, gathering inspiration and talking with the team. I also struggle a bit with communicating with the team, but thankfully they are all very nice and understanding." *Third: "Main challenge is overcoming the sheer weight of how much I have to learn about music and writing in order for this game to be what I want it to be. I’m a perfectionist, and when I care about something, I can’t tolerate it being worse than it could’ve been. Also, writing is getting more and more complicated and there’s more things and details to keep track of so as not to create inconsistencies or plot holes, especially as we try to revise it and make major changes to the story (Mitt will know what I’m talking about). "

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Mitty: "It changed a lot, not only in terms of the story and writing, but visually too. The basic concept is close to being the same, though. You can check out old posts in the blog where I consider different styles of mapping and such. Actually, don't, please. It's too old...and my writing...oh god." *Third: "The writing has come a long way, but now that we’ve fleshed out and written down much of the backstory, it’s a much more complicated story than what Mitt first showed me when I joined."

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Mitty: "Initially it was just me, occasionally having Mia to talk about the story and help develop it. Rindre joined as a voice actress very early on and also helped in other aspects of the game. Then I also talked about it with two friends I know in real life, one helped with organization and the other with some concept art, but they aren't that active anymore, even though I still count them as part of the team (Thank you guys btw if you're reading this). Eventually I met Third, an amazing composer and writer, and I asked him to join in! He brought along a friend who is also an amazing composer and writer, Code, and these two are complete madmen of music and writing and I'm super glad to be working with them, as they are super passionate and it makes me really happy ahaha. Bruno is also a really dedicated composer that is helping with a few tracks as well! Miku and Luccinia are two super talented and kind artists that have also been helping a ton with concept art, and their ideas have certainly improved the game as well. We are welcome to more concept artists, though! More heads, more ideas ahaha Recently we got the voice actresses for a few characters in the game, when we did the auditions, and hopefully soon another friend will jump aboard and help with organization and writing! We are a relatively small team, and sometimes progress goes a bit slowly since we can get busy, but we are all doing our best! I’m glad that I’m not alone. Links for their pages and such can be found on the team section on the blog, go support them if you can!"

What is the best part of developing a game? *Mitty: "For me, personally, I love seeing what my team mates come up with, whether it is music or concept art. I also enjoy the love and support we get, and it makes me excited in the development. As for the creation part, I like programming challenging cutscenes and doing cool things with the assets. Progress updates can also be fun to make when I have the time." *Third: "My favorite part is showing Mitt what I’ve written and composed. Making her happy and excited with my work is extremely fulfilling. "

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Mitty: "Oh, yes! Besides being a cool break from programming hell, it helps me make it less of a hell ahaha I like improvising, though, so I think I play RPG Maker games because I enjoy them for the most part." *Third: "Occasionally, not really. I don’t play many games and I’ve played the heck out of the ones I have."

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Mitty: "Ah I don't know, honestly. I think I can relate to every character in one way or another, and it's hard picking one, especially since the game isn't out yet and I'd like to keep most characters hidden until the demo. Marinette is definitely one of my favourites, though, I just love how innocent and cute she is. Her cheekiness can be made super interesting ahaha" *Third: "My favorite character is definitely Pierre. He’s a complete blast to write, and gives me lots of cool things to describe and say through him, from his magic tricks to his killer lines and quotes."

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Mitty: "Hm...Having organized things better in the beginning would have saved a lot of time now, but I don't think it's been that big of a deal anymore. I don't have any regrets that I'm aware of at the moment since everything until this point was necessary to learn and get to where we are now."

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Mitty: "I'm not sure yet, it depends on the reception and how willing I'll be to continue the story. Even though I would find it fun to make comics, another game or a different midia, realistically I can't tell how willing I'll be to continue developing content about it after the game is finished. Honestly, I hope I can develop more projects on Marinette, we do have content for that, and I absolutely love it with my heart! But it's also equally important to move on to another story. Only time will tell!" Third: "I hope to, but that day is very far away for me. I’ll be gone for quite some time after Marinette is finished, and I hope I’m not forgotten by the time I return. Perhaps I’ll entertain myself with additional short stories exploring the various aftermaths of the game."

What do you most look forward to upon/after the release of a project? *Mitty: "I honestly just want to get the story out there. I'm hoping people will enjoy it if they play the game, and will have a special place in their hearts to keep it on. This project means a lot to me, and having it making people feel things is what I'm looking forward to. I'd love to see other people playing it, definitely. I imagine I'll eventually be relieved to have finally completed it, it'll be a big moment for me to sigh be proud of creating. I'll be able to move on to work on other fun things while I see how this little child of a game is going to do out there in the wild, and that's always nice!" *Third: "Fan reaction, 100%. Having people ask me questions about my work and telling me how much they enjoyed it is my favorite part of writing."

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Mitty: "Yes, I don't want to feel empty with nothing to do when I finish the game. I know it will be great and all, but I've been working on it for so long that it's hard to imagine not working on it ahaha! It's a really fun hobby, but it's also engraved in my heart. I want it to be the best it can be, of course, so I'm scared of bugs, inconsistencies and overall it being clearly a bad game. I'm hoping that people will help with critiques on the demo, so I have a better outside perspective of where we are going. I don't want to drop the game, so I'm scared of having to take a long break from it during the development. I'm worried of being a terrible team leader as well." *Third: "I dread plot holes more than anything, and I dread a dull and overall unimpactful story. I want a tale that will punch the viewer in the gut, hard. I want to make them cry. I want to make them laugh. I want them to draw what I wrote, and explore it further in hopefully-not-too-sexual fanfiction."

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Mitty: "Don't be scared to start. You're going to suffer mid-way if it's a long term project, but keep pushing through, you'll learn a lot and it becomes easier with time. Take breaks and take it easy, step by step. LIST STUFF AND MAKE BACKUPS. Learn with short projects first. Ask for advice from people you admire, but never hold them on a pedestal. It’s always helpful to be a jack of all trades! Try to think from an outsider perspective if you're not sure of how it's going, and if you can, tell people you trust about the game and ask for opinions. Always take criticism well, but don't stress too much over harsher or even meaner comments. Have fun and never forget your starts, the people you meet and the reason you're doing the project for. If you're also an artist, writer, musician, remember this is a great opportunity to add something interesting to your portfolio. Cool visuals attract people, but they are not everything that will keep them hooked." *Third: "The best part of making a game is the people you make it with. The story is the most important ingredient of your game. Prioritize it first, and everything else will fall into place around it. Otherwise, everything will serve some other aspect of your game, and that’s rarely a good thing. Always speak your mind; do not every not say something just because it’ll hurt someone’s feelings. Obviously don’t be a tool, but if you ever have to choose between hurting the game and someone’s pride, pick someone’s pride. It’s much kinder in the long run."

Question from last month's featured dev Froach Club: Have you ever had a moment where you got completely stuck or became intensely frustrated while using RPG Maker? *Mitty: "Yes I have, I think everyone has QwQ Despite silly mistakes, I've gotten stuck several times, but honestly it's usually either us doing something stupidly hard that can be done another way, or we are just not skilled enough yet, and it's better to come back later. You can usually do most things you wanna do if you have the advantage of knowing the programming language your RPG Maker Engine uses I think. Google is your friend always, and sleeping about it also helps. I once dreamt of a whole sequence to fix a problem, and it worked! ahaha Always take it easy and don't give up, but know your limits and the limits of the engine!"

We mods would like to thank Teal Crown for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Marinette if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum

[wmhalliwell]

ashlee’s gif making tutorial

@amysperalta​ has requested a gif making tutorial from me and i’m happy to oblige! everyone has a different way to gif and some ways don’t work for some people, so this is just how i personally make them. i’ve also never made a tutorial before, so let’s hope this doesn’t end badly.

this is the gif i’ll be making for the purposes of this tutorial:

things you’ll need:

a version of photoshop

some way to get frames from a video file (i’ll give some options)

patience

step 1: getting your frames

there are many, many ways to do this. there are multiple different programs to do this with (kmplayer, uplayer, gom player) but i personally use mpv (via @kylos​ lovely tutorial here; which i also highly recommend as a gif tutorial since it gives a different way to create a gif file) because my mac doesn’t accept any other type of program. 

note: BE SURE THAT WITH ANY PROGRAM YOU USE, IT IS SET TO SAVE EVERY FRAME. some people may lie to you and say a program grabbing every other or every third frame is fine, but it’s 2019 and we don’t do that any more. the tumblr gif limit is 3mb, which means we can have smooth, non-choppy gifs by gathering every frame from a scene.

okay, so i gather my frames, and typically keep them in a folder, separating scenes cut-by-cut so it’s easier to handle. for example: 

from there, i import them into photoshop using: File --> Scripts --> Load Files into Stack; this screen pops up, in which you browse for your frames hit OK. this will automatically upload all the frames into the same file for you. be patient! depending on how many frames you choose, it can take a few minutes to upload all of the frames.

i always save my work after every step. so once frames are uploaded i save the file. be sure to have “timeline” (or “animation” on some versions of photoshop) opened in your view. my photoshop looks like this when i open the file:

now, i’m going to click “Create Frame Animation” at the bottom. This will give me a timeline to work with at the bottom. Next step, go to the three little lines on the right side of the thingy that says “Timeline” and go through these steps: 

and then

now, you have a working gif! you can hit the little play button at the bottom left of the screen and it should play for you.

step two: cropping and sharpening

there is plenty you can do for sizes on tumblr. the general widths are 540px (big), 268px (normal) and 177/178px (small). it’s all a matter of the type of set you’re making. also be aware that the gif limit is 3mb. the bigger the gif, the fewer frames you can have. most of my 540px gifs have between 20-35 frames, while some of my 268px frames can have 75-90 depending on the coloring of the scene.

but for the purpose of this tutorial, i’m making one 268x160. i go to the crop key at the left side, and set my ration up top to 268 and 160.

then i crop the gif! (note: sometimes, files will have a black line on one side of a video file; typically the bottom or on one side. the black line will be no more than 2px big and sometimes hard to see until you’ve cropped it. be sure to drag the cropped area away from the edge of the files that have this dark line, as it when appears on the final gif and looks bad. one of my more recent sanditon gifsets fell to this and i didn’t realize until i had posted it. 😖)

now we have to size it. you do do this by going to Image --> Image Size or using the keyboard shortcut. it should automatically keep the aspect ratio, thus when you change width to 268, the height should change to 160 automatically. 

hit OK and now you have your base gif!

next, we’ll be sharpening and setting the frame rate, two very important things. to sharpen a gif, there is no way you want to go do it frame by frame, so you can use an action! these are really helpful. i have one i use for most gifs, and one i use for lesser quality. the one i use for this gif is this one here. to use this, you’ll have your photoshop open, you can go to your actions in your barthingy on the right by color swatches which should look like this:

click that and find the three grey lines at the top right. click them and this will pop up. you’ll go to “load actions” and then browse for the action you downloaded. 

once loaded, it will show up like this and have a nifty play button! 

make sure you click on/highlight the “play me!” line and then hit the play button on the bottom of the box. it will go through the motions for you and sharpen your gif. once that’s done, you can hit the big action button to close this box to get it out of the way. now, to set a frame rate, you’ll go down to the timeline and highlight all of the frames and then click while holding shift and this will pop up.

you’ll select “other” and type in “.05″. this is the most commonly used frame rate. most movies and tv shows will look fine using this for scenes, especially ones with subtitles, etc. for more artistic scenes, sometimes i’ll use “.06″ to slow it down just a hair. also make sure that your gifs are set the loop “forever”.

and there you go! a gif fully sharpened and moving at the proper speed:

this is also the time you can choose your frames. meaning if you uploaded like 200 frames and only wanted to use 50 of them, you can go through and delete them in the timeline. there’s a little trashcan button there.

note: once you’ve sharpened and set your frame ratio, be sure to go into your levels box and click the top frame. it is also useful to have the first frame in the timeline always highlighted as you’re editing the rest of the gif. 

step three: coloring

there are endless ways to color. there’s loads of people offering psd colorings. (psd means an editable photoshop file btw) you can also make your own. i have a whole slew of psds i’ve made for certain scenes that i’ve kept and reuse, tweaking each time. this isn’t a coloring tutorial, but i’ll show you a quick way to make a simple coloring. (i purposely chose a well lit scene for this gif tutorial for this reason. making dark scenes look good, or scenes with bad color balance is a whole other tutorial lol)

first off, make a folder above your frames. you can name it whatever you want; it will automatically call itself “group 1″. this is where you’ll be putting all of your coloring layers so they stay together and you can also save it to use again.

from here on out, we’ll be adding layers, using the half black/half white circle down at the bottom; just click on it and it’ll pull up a list of things you can use. note that when you add coloring layers, you start at the bottom and add other layers on top of it.

always start with “levels”. i lighten up almost every scene i gif, since it gives me the chance to play with contrast on my own terms.

then we’ll do a “selective color”; this one is just to set some blacks while giving contrast. be sure to select “blacks” at the top and change just what’s below:

most gifs also need some “color correction” at this point. (this is a layer you’ll keep coming back to to tweak as you add more above it fyi.) for this one, i’ll make it a bit more green and red.

the gif right now looks like this....which isn’t perfect, but i can see where it will get to from here:

now we’ll add a layer of 100% “vibrance”

not every gif needs 100% vibrance, but i tend to like how colors look when i use it and we can fix any weird colored skin in later steps. and now some curves for contrast:

the gif now looks like this:

which is much too yellow certainly, but gifs always look worse before they look better when it comes to coloring! next, we’ll make another layer of “selective colors”. this is when you’ll play with each color within the same selective color layer. i’m guessing i’ll utilize more blues and less yellows under “yellow” and “red” but let’s see what happens:

now it looks like this!

which is a lot better. i’ll probably up the blacks +10 (using the same selective color layer) just a bit so crowley can be his angsty self entirely. i also want to up the greens because i love bright gifs.

the great thing about selective colors is that they’re easy to manipulate. and you can even have multiple of them over one another to really zero in on one color. and if you find that you can’t get the gif to look right at all, you can also return to your color balance layer and tweak it until it looks better and is easier to manage.

so now, my finished gif looks like this: 

(this is not the most exciting gif ever, but it works to show how to play with colors in a well lit scene).

there is a number of other things i do/can be done in making gifs, but these are the basics. 

be sure to go to File --> Export --> Save for Web and follow my settings to save your gif. (there are many ways to save a gif, and each gif tutorial will give you different settings. i recommend trying them out and see which works best for you.) pay attention to the “bicubic” quality at the bottom. and when your gif is small enough (under 3mb), be sure to click on the “original” tab at the top and save it while on that screen.

and, because i’m feeling nice, let’s have a quick subtitles moment:

bonus step 4: subtitles

i know there are easier ways to make subtitles but this is how i do mine. using the ruler around your photoshop space, drag one vertical line over your gif. the program should automatically “snap” them to the middle of the gif to create your perfect center.

then take the text tool and write something in it, no matter where or what size, just so you have something to manipulate. you’ll find that it too will snap to the center to match the ruler line, giving you a centered text box! you can have it whatever distance you want from the bottom (don’t go too close or tumblr will cut it off) and then you can edit the text color/font/etc. these are my settings.

and i also have an added stroke and drop shadow to it which you can get to from Layer --> Layer Style:

and so it looks like this: 

it is important to add your text layer ABOVE your coloring folder, otherwise the coloring will affect the text. and it’s good to have different colors for different people talking.

i hope that all made sense! feel free to send me any questions (i’m sure i must have made you confused or missed a step or something), or if you have any other tutorials you’d like to request.

[leahocking18-blog]

Uninstall And Take away Magic APE To MP3 Converter Step By Step

On-line audio converter to FLAC True audiophiles favor to keep their collections in FLAC. Convert other audio format to APE or convert between any two audio formats. Click on Convert button to start to convert APE to MP3 or different audio format you desired. A conversion dialog will seem to point the progress of ape to mp3 conversion If you want to stop the method, please click Stop button. After the conversion, you possibly can click the Output Folder button to get the remodeled recordsdata and transfer to your iPod, iPad, iPhone, mp3 participant or onerous driver. Trim mp3 tracks and other audio information on-line with out putting in complex software in your system. Though there are free software program options, like iTunes, that may extract audio from a CD and convert it to smaller and more manageable file measurement, we discovered by our testing course of you could spend less than $forty on a very good audio converter software and future-proof your potential to gather, archive and share music efficiently. We additionally acknowledge that you'll have a brief need to convert a few files, so we examined one of the best free audio converters so we might suggest a product that won't introduce adware and spy ware in your laptop. on-line audio converter additionally converts WMA to MP3 format. After importing the recordsdata it is possible for you to to set output format akin to MP3, WAV, WMA or OGG. You'll then choose prime quality output of your file and eventually convert file. There are two steps in changing yourape recordsdata tomp3. The primary is to decode theape's intowav information. After that is achieved, you'll encode thewav info intomp3's. In addition, APE file format homes the feature of integral preservation of perfect sound supply, which is smoothly playable on a localized number of multimedia gamers, resembling Windows Media Player, Foobar2000, Winamp, Media Participant Basic, etc. for Home windows-primarily based computers mainly. But this being devoid of cross-platform support makes it a extra limited to be used. After trying many functions, we realized that VLC Media Participant is capable of changing audio and video information, too, which is great news considering we already had the software put in and we bet most of you do, too. After finish loading recordsdata into this converter, what you might want to do is to decide on MP3 as the output format. The MP3 format will be discovered in the Audio category of Output Format menu. As proven within the window, you may as well convert APE to many other audio codecs like AAC, AC3, WMA, WAV, AIFF, M4A, M4R, M4B and more. After adding all the specified APE information, click the "Ok" button to return to the main interface. Free APE to MP3 Converter is very to use. Merely add the audio information to transform, select the target audio format and APE to MP3 quality profile and then press the "Convert" button. Recognized as one of the best MP3 converter for six years. Trusted by sixty three Million customers. 2.Begin convert APE to MP3 information with foorbar2000 player.Unzipped LAME MP3 decoder to any folder and make sure ‘‘ is inside it. Moveable Free APE to MP3 Converter is a free and moveable APE to MP3 converter software for Home windows. This software program only helps APE and MP3 codecs and you can either convert APE to MP3 or vice versa. Together with conversion, some audio parameters may also be tweaked in it, specifically, Pattern Frequency, Channels (mono and stereo), Bit Charge modes (CBR, VBR, and ABR), and Quantity. Plus, a further setting to cut a part of an audio can be obtainable. Monkey's Audio a.okay.a APE successfully unites lossless compression approaches which are conventional (linear prediction and route coupling) and an easy Neural network. To save lots of the output values of its prediction measure Range coding, which is altered to perform very nicely with fixed values which might be kind of is utilized by it.

Monkey's audio is a an algorithm and file format(.ape) for lossless audio data compression. It doesn't discard data throughout the means of encoding, in contrast to lossy compression methods comparable to MP3. APE files can not directly import iTunes to play, and the file measurement is comparatively giant, community shared inconvenient. APE to MP3 is a professional conversion software, it can losslessly convert APE format to mp3 format. Batch Convert think about having a mp3 converter which might convert FLAC to mp3 with one click deciding on the entire music tree? Batch Converter can, and with superior file naming rules the converted mp3 information are named just as you want.

Compress-Music supports flac, mp3, wma, aac + extra. It is a Powershell script that traverses a directory construction for audio (many formats) and converts to mp3 in a replica directory. Helps gapless, album replaygain, updating tags only. If the 22 individualape tracks are exhibiting in MB, then you definately just select them, click Instruments>>Convert Format, and arrange the preferences that you want in 'File Converter'. Gives a -clear option to move the outdated information (ape, cue, wav, monolithic mp3) to the trash, leaving solely the desired mp3 tracks.

iSkysoft iMedia Converter Deluxe can perform amazing tasks beyond simple audio conversions. It will possibly easily play FLAC audio files in its in-constructed Media Player, improve the audio file after which convert it into MP3 file format with ease. It's also possible to report any audio file after which convert it into MP3. Audio or Music recordsdata might be downloaded from the Internet after which you'll be able to convert it into any suitable audio file format like MP3. It is likely one of the best and dependable audio converters which converts with ninety occasions faster velocity with no compromise in Audio quality. You may as well convert any lengthy FLAC audio file into MP3 within seconds. It's endorsed by many professionals as it can provide quickest conversions with unique quality (macOS 10.14 Mojave supported). Free Audio Dub - This standalone program guarantees to allow you to minimize a variety of audio codecs, including aac, ape to mp3 ac3 and m4a (in addition to mp3, wav, ogg, wma and mp2). So Free Audio Dub might are available helpful for iTunes files. SET UP BE AWARE: The installer asks you to install the Ask toolbar and set Ask as your house page and default search engine: to decide out, uncheck all three tick bins when installing. Once add accomplished, converter will redirect an online page to indicate the conversion result.

[smsverse]

Jeremy - Week of 10/21

This week has really been a LONG one. The work load of the Vertical Slice has caused us to work until midnight everyday during in person sessions. The worst part of it being that only one person can work in the main project at a time, so while they're doing that the other three members have to do side work that doesn't really move the main project forward. The very specific nature of our game intensifies these issues, as many of the interactions are one and done's. We put a lot of focus on getting models into the scene, but at the same time we needed to finalize all of our game mechanics.

I started the week off by implementing the second chunk of Building Swapping. This wasn't a very hard process, but it was fairly tedious as it took a bit to copy and paste some code.

Next up was a really big one. I created a small cutscene for when the Player travels on the Flying Creature. This seemed to be a very easy task, but as always with Unity there were complications. The most frustrating of them being the Flying Creature model disappearing when the Camera gets too close. This added a very tedious layer of checking to the cutscene, making sure that when I edited the shot the Flying Creature was still in frame. In the end though I was very proud of how this Cutscene came out, and it adds some real personality to the game.

Cutscene Timeline:

While making the cutscene I had to add a few bits of code to teleport the Player, and the Flying Creature to the building roof. This was extremely easy because I used separate Cutscene models for the two of them, so the timing on the teleportation was extremely loose.

Along side this, I also coded more teleportation interactions for the game. One of them being the return trip from the Building with the Flying Creature. The other one has the Player move on top of a static building for another puzzle. All three of these use a variation of the same code. Though, the fade out effect I used seems to have decided to stop working OUT OF NOWHERE, but only on the Static Building Script.

Flying Creature Return Script:

Flying Creature Cutscene and Return Sequence:

Static Building Transport Script:

Alongside this I teamed up with Connor to tweak the Game State Manager Script. When Connor originally made it, the script used three Bools but now it works off of one Enum.

Game State Manager Enum:

Also, instead of being run every frame it now only runs when the Universes are switched.

Updated Swapping Code (Now Runs with Universe Jump):

We ran into a large bug that had to do with empty arrays in the inspector. This was remedied very easily, but the error came back again later. A script Jacob made for pick up items used the Destroy() command, which causes the arrays the items were once in to return null. After a tiny bit of research I discovered the 'continue' statement, which by passes the null reference.

Continue Conditions Script:

I continued my work with Connor as we looked into the Car Pushing Mechanic. Originally, we were going for a purely Physics based approach with no scripting, but that turned out to be EXTREMELY inconsistent. So we switched to the ever reliable scripting method. Now the Cars use an Enum to define which direction the move in (either X or Z). The Cars have two triggers on them that run the script. This time they use a Bool to determine if they move in a negative direction. On Start() this will set a float multiplier to either 1 or -1 changing the Car's direction. All those words made it sound very very complex, but it was an extremely simple fix.

New Car Push Code:

New Negative Car Push In Inspector Z:

New Positive Car Push Inspector X:

Back on my own I returned to the Static Building to finalize the puzzle the belongs on it. This one was very very simple. On the side of the Building sits a GameObject with a Rigidbody. Said Rigidbody has is Kinematic equals to true meaning they will float. On the press of a button, is Kinematic is turned off and the whole item drops to the floor.

Drop Off Static Building Code:

Alongside all this solo work I assisted Connor and Jacob with some coding bug fixes.

While not working on the main project I designed a text box to use later on, when showing dialogue in game.

Text Box Image:

I also wrote a few lines of Dialogue that would eventually go in the text box in a later sprint. I had some free time in the Morning on Wednesday, so I decide to record them.

Sample Voice Line:

Of course a Group A tradition is to recreate a Weezer album cover for each of our Milestones. Keeping with the trend of the last two we did another Color album. This time recreating Weezer's Green Album, which is where "Island in the Sun" one of their most popular songs originates from.

Original Album Cover:

Original Non Edited Group A Photo:

Final Edited Group A Green Album Cover:

Change we made: In the original one of the band members hold a guitar. So we, as gamers, recreating this album decided to use a controller in place of the guitar. We have big plans for the next two album cover recreations so stay tuned and get excited!

[christsoupas]

Week 9 - Activate the collection

I received Bobos new draft at midnight last night. Its twice the length in duration now giving it a 1.56min running time. On first inspection of this new draft I am a little confused as the new edit seems to be more of the collage-ey approach of images but seem to cut back and forth between the “worlds” or “narratives”… i may need to watch a few more times ( have watched it a few times already so maybe it will make more sense)

There is:

·         Shauns film, then

·         Yellow flowers

·         the vertically inverted footage and then

·         the 1950s beach/children footage.

With previous draft there was a bit more of an outline  of an arc – high drama - sadness about high drama – reflection on the life and childhood of a now-dead person (1950s beach footage) Albeit not the arc my collaborator intended (It needs to be stated that it’s confusing to me that 1950s footage is being used as the footage to represent rebirth. I am grappling with the idea that 1950s footage is newer than the high end/resolution imagery that is supposed to be representing the past (I fear the audience would instinctively interpret it this way too)

How to approach this new score?.  It seems that its an abstract work without a clear overt arc/storyline other than the one of tension/drama presented by Shaun's footage and then the face-in-hands footage conveying sadness. The colorful yellow flowers contrasting Shaun's moody footage seem to present a mood problem. So aside from conveying aforementioned moods from respective footages I think I will have to take a random or “meaningless” approach to mirror what the “storyline” is doing, perhaps this will now require a lot of spotting and close synching, in an attempt to give these random-ish images some justification im not sure.

The more I think about it the more I think Bobo should return to something much closer to her previous draft. With the heavy breathing I used I was effectively adding dialogue and try to make it feel more like a short film and less like an abstract collage-ey work that requires explanation to extract the plot or meaning; -  the protagonist was psychotic, it implied someone was in serious trouble, someone probably died etc). This is a much different work as it were, Its late in the piece to receive this largely new and different work but if Bobo is fixed on her new direction I will have to work diligently to get this completed by deadline. I will spend today trying to delve deep into this project.

 2nd Project – NASA – Scifi/horror /film trailer/short film/music video

Overall thus far I am very happy with the results I am achieving on this project. My goal – that this is a music video - disguised as a short film - that’s disguised as a movie trailer or vice versa, or any combination of, is a tall order in that to make something look like it’s a trailer one needs to create the illusion that highlights from a full length film have been edited out and strung together as a trailer… and to then convey an actual plot with a late twist to boot hasn’t been easy in terms of having to work with a fixed source of existing footage, so the results this far have been surprisingly good. That said I have had to do a lot of work to existing footage to give it continuity (still working on this) or to completely reimagine existing footage which in itself is very challenging. And I now have had interest expressed in having this released on a label in November which has raised the excitement level on the project for me.. so I have begun to work my moniker into the music, audio and graphic design..so due to this and having to show a visual edit a week earlier than I had scheduled I have now made a major shift in approach. I have effectively now abandoned my existing approach of finishing visual edit first before scoring/sound design. Additionally a visual edit without any audio or music is a tough sell. I think the maybe the best approach now is to get a render from the start - to a point, rather than random sequences but time will tell in terms of what sections I can complete/render successfully/bugs/crashes. (My process now a bit more chaotic in that there isn’t a complete visual draft thats remotely finished looking as a whole and I am zigzagging between processes/disciplines/respective softwares. The main problem I am encountering is render times and crossing over to Protools – a 2min  or so render is around 2hrs and then to be able to take that into Protools it needs to then be rendered down to 30fps which is around 20mins(cant render straight to 30fps as plugins bug out) hence why I planned to finish visual edit and remain “in the edit” as long as possible before having to render/sideline progress – one tweak to a bounce and having to re-bounce puts me in the area of 4-5hrs of rendering. Under my original timeline I was allowing for 3 days of rendering/tweaking at the end). I have now begun to build/implement a library of sound design elements and begun looking at how to deliver narration and have been writing a script to be voiced by characters in the plot. I am now establishing/experimenting with a strong main musical theme for the introduction. Additionally to this I have begun to also create and experiment with title graphics.

[funnelhacksecrets]

Funnel Scripts Review

New Post has been published on https://funnelhacksecrets.net/funnel-scripts-review/

Funnel Scripts Review

Leading entrepreneur and all-around internet marketing superstar, Russell Brunson has created yet another awesome product that now allows the average Joe (or Josephine) to write kick-ass copy that will actually result in sales.

If you’re in business then no doubt, you’ve heard of the term copywriting at one point or another. For those who don’t know, copywriting is the creative process of writing the text for advertisements and promotional material.

Copywriting is so important that is has turned into a 2.3 trillion dollar industry!

The main purpose is to increase interest in a product and can actually make or break a sale.

It’s literally that important!

However, copywriting is a hard-earned skill and takes years to master. Because of this, copywriters can charge thousands of dollars for a single piece of sales copy, which leaves the little guy in between a rock and a hard place.

This is where Funnel Scripts come in.

So, what exactly are Funnel Scripts you might ask?

It’s a very powerful software program that produces copywriting scripts at the touch of a button. it’s a heaven-sent for business owners, entrepreneurs and internet marketers.

If you’re a user, the software program allows you to select a specific type of script, be it a sales letter, an email, a headline or even a Facebook ad, fill in a few details about your product, service and demographic and hey presto! It spits out near perfect sales copy that you can edit, cut and paste.

The program is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Russell Brunson and Jim Edwards and is the sister company of ClickFunnels, which is owned by Brunson.

Personally, I think it is awesome and I do now use it in my own business. However, in this review, I will give you the nitty gritty of Funnel Scripts, so you can make a decision for all our own reasons if it is right for you.

Watch The Free Funnel Scripts Webinar

Get Funnel Scripts at The Special Offer Price

How to use Funnel Scripts

Before we get into the specifics, I will explain how to use Funnel Scripts.

When I initially used the tool, I was astonished that the software program is entirely web-based, which means you don’t even need to download it.

Also, it is extremely easy to use and all you need to do is insert some information and the program does the rest for you. Basically, you just have to select the kind of script you want and submit the relevant details. Once you finalize your choices, the script is prepared in no time.

Funnel Scripts is a practical solution and users can avoid the massive headache (and expense) of creating scripts from scratch.

Within minutes, the application delivers highly impactful sales copies, call to actions, email scripts, webinar scripts, headline and subject lines and so much more.

Furthermore, if you buy Funnel Scripts, the product contains several short training videos and tutorials, which enables you to master the software in no time.

Is Funnel Scripts worth it?

The most important question I had when I was first introduced to Funnel Scripts was if it was actually worth purchasing. Having used it, I can safely say the answer is an emphatic yes!

Quite frankly, Funnel Scripts is a game changer because it enables users to improve their product conversions instantly.

I speak from personal experience that Funnel Scripts can be used to develop sales copies successfully in a matter of minutes.

Funnel Scripts Benefits

By now, you’ve probably already gathered that this software program can do quite a bit for you and your business.

Here, I’ve broken down all the pros of using it.

Saves Time

Like I alluded to earlier, it only takes a few clicks before a draft is ready for use.

Users can acquire their first draft in a matter of minutes. For example, if you need to create a sales page, all that is needed is to insert relevant details like keyword topics, demographic info and a few other specifics and Funnel Scripts will generate the script.

Typically, the tool provides me with a draft in a few minutes and saves the hassle of creating a script from scratch.

I no longer need to worry if my sales copy is doing its job or waste hours of time tweaking it.

Funnel Scripts free trial

The first time I used Funnel Scripts, I had already spent money on other tools that I needed to use in my business and was, therefore, a bit reluctant to buy it immediately. I knew I needed it, I was just on a tight budget. I also wanted to learn more about it first.

Fortunately, while doing research, I discovered that Funnel Scripts offers a fourteen-day free trial.

I took advantage of the fact and quickly realized how effective and efficient the software was.

Having said that, the product is currently on special offer at a one-time purchase price for a limited time so I’d highly recommend grabbing it now while the offer is still available.

Get Funnel Scripts at The Special Offer Price

A huge assortment of scripts

Another awesome feature of Funnel Scripts is the massive number of scripts that are available.

Some examples include sales scripts, video sales letter scripts, advertisement scripts for Facebook ads, webinar slide scripts, email newsletter scripts and opt-in scripts, to name but a few.

The software literally has EVERY AREA of your business covered!

Having so much variety at your disposal means that you’ll never have to pay extravagant fees to a pro copywriter and you will never have to worry about having bad copy that does nothing for your product.

If you wish to optimize details such as your customer and target niche, it can be done with ease.

In addition, Funnel scripts enable you to tailor your scripts according to your customer’s individual needs.

You can answer queries like what your customers require, what issues they face and provide them with the right solution.

An exhaustive list of scripts to choose from makes the copywriting side of your business not only simple but fun!

When you buy the software, you can get to work and peruse through a plethora of templates and let your imagination run wild!

Excellent Funnel Scripts price

Yet another advantage of using Funnel Scripts is how cost effective it is. Considering the massively high cost of paying for professional copy, buying Funnel Scripts is an absolute steal.

The 2019 edition is currently available for $497 annually. This is in stark contrast to other providers, who charge exorbitant amounts for the software.

Buying Funnel Scripts, especially at the aforementioned price is an absolute no brainer. For starters, if you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll immediately know that this is a fraction of the cost of employing a copywriter!

Also, if you run a company, Funnel Scripts allows you to essentially bypass the middle man and get the job done yourself or in-house. If you’re thinking this all sounds great, but you don’t like paying a monthly or yearly fee to use the software, I hear you. I don’t either.

In that case, you’ll be pleased to hear that there is currently a special offer to buy Funnel Scripts at the one-time price of $797!

This limited time discount offer also comes with unlimited scripts, updates and live monthly copywriting webinar classes with co-creator and master copywriter, Jim Edwards.

All in all, this is a scintillating offer that is simply too good to miss!

Get Funnel Scripts at The Special Offer Price

Training Options

Have you ever used software and come unstuck? Do you find yourself browsing the internet for tutorials or watching YouTube videos for clarity?

Don’t worry, Funnel Scripts solves this predicament as well!

An exciting feature of Funnel Scripts that came in handy when I started using it where the training videos that are included. There are numerous videos that are also frequently updated.

This attribute definitely makes the package more comprehensive and a must have for business owners and entrepreneurs. That’s not all though: as I mentioned earlier, Jim Edwards, co-creator, conducts live monthly coaching sessions too when you buy Funnel Scripts at the one-time offer price. The co-founder oversees real-time conference calls and provides tips for users on how to make your sales copy absolute dynamite.

Get Funnel Scripts at The Special Offer Price

More Funnel Scripts software functions

The program is comprised of four downloadable scripts wizards, namely The Perfect Webinar Wizard, Video Sales Letter Wizard, Easy Study Wizard and the Celebrity, Story, Service Wizard respectively.

The current crop of scripts includes an Amazon.com e-commerce product script, Testimonial Script as well as a Facebook Advertisements Script which enables users to create 3 separate versions of an ad based on cold, warm and hot traffic!

Funnel Scripts reviews

Once the script is ready, users can make reviews and edit the script if is not quite how you want it. While it’s a pretty powerful piece of software, it is, after all, still only a computer program. You may need to tweak your copy here and there before making it live. It’s sup[er easy to edit your scripts and you can even save them into your library within your own member’s area and come back to it later if you prefer.

What I don’t like about Funnel Scripts

Having used Funnel Scripts, I did notice a few flaws as well, albeit minor ones.

Proofreading Required

Every now and then, I had to proofread the content that was created by Funnel Scripts. I took it in my stride but other users may find that somewhat tedious.

It doesn’t take much time at all though to read through your copy and tweak it here and there. I guess it is a bit much to expect it to be absolutely 100% perfect every time. It is, after all, just a computer!

Beta Mode

Additionally, since the program is in beta mode, there are slight issues that arise here and there. However, bug fixes are carried out quickly before it becomes a major concern.

Information Overload

Although I knew what to expect, I imagine that users who are less tech savvy may have reservations about Funnel Scripts and they might consider it overwhelming when they start using it.

Final Thoughts

The benefits of Funnel Scripts far outweigh potential lapses and for my money, it’s an absolute no brainer and a steal at the special offer price.

So, would I recommend Funnel Scripts? The answer is definitely a resounding yes!

For those still in doubt, imagine the alternative: hiring an expensive copywriter and paying them thousands of dollars, for each script!! I don’t know about you, but I ain’t doing that when there’s a powerful piece of kit like Funnel Scripts that can take care of the job for me at a fraction of the price.

I’d rather just pay a small chunk of that amount, forego the middleman and buy Funnel Scripts, which is exactly what I did. I firmly believe Funnel Scripts is a progressive software that is an obligatory purchase for anyone involved in a business, and online marketing who are actually serious about their business.

Whether you are a novice or an experienced user, Funnel Scripts is the all-purpose solution that anyone can use.

Watch The Free Funnel Scripts Webinar

Get Funnel Scripts at The Special Offer Price

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The Funnel Scripts Webinar

The Perfect Webinar – My Review

The Funnel Builder Secrets Webinar

Funnel Builder Secrets Review – Is It Worth It?

My One Funnel Away Challenge Review

[alluring-skull]

ancient scapes

I just got back from Seattle, after watching the Valve Dota 2 tournament The International all week. I don’t talk about it too much beyond random tweets while watching other events at work (and so on) but I’ve played the game for a super long time (albeit somewhat sporadically overall) and definitely have a lot of attachment to it. I wanted to talk about some of the things that have really appealed to me over time, what it’s been like watching the evolution of a game that’s been alive, changing and competitive for longer than almost any other i can think of, a bit about the big event itself, and hopefully some stuff that will give other people an appreciation for what it’s like seeing a game that’s so much the same yet so different from one i played so much as a teenager. This isn’t the most complete, knowledgeable (I really have no familiarity with the pro scene before TI1 in particular), or accurate history you can probably find, but it’s mine, and I hope some people enjoy it. With all that in mind this first post is background (I’m giving this topic...probably 3-4, at least. I have a lot to talk about.)

In 2000 or so a distant, much older cousin introduced my younger brother and I to Starcraft. I think that was about the last time I ever talked to him. (It was extremely unrelated, but I have no desire to return to Texas at any rate.) At some point, probably about a year later, we found a copy for like $10 at a Toys R Us and instantly bought it. We didn’t have a home internet connection that was really usable to play online at the time (dial-up...) so we mostly played single-player, both vs AI and the campaigns. (Brood War didn’t have a key, so we totally just burned a copy of the CD we got from the library.) I played a bit with the map editor, but I couldn’t think of anything interesting to do with it, and making Starcraft maps kinda sucked anyway because the kind of symmetry you have to work with is really limited anyway due to the isometric view.

When Warcraft 3 came out, my older brothers’ friends (I think...) convinced him to get it since he was in college at the time. He got really into it, and my other brother and I played some as well. Eventually he moved home and the expansion came out, so my other brother and I got to start playing a lot. I again messed with the map editor, though I didn’t have any programming experience to touch the more advanced parts. I loved all the terrain construction and deforming (I was a huge, huge fan of Simcity 2000 and especially 3000 before this), but placing trees was kind of tedious and I never really finished anything still. Maybe if I’d had a better concept of “starting small” I could’ve gotten somewhere with things, but that took me a long time to learn. I’m saying this obviously not to be like “oh, I could’ve been Icefrog” (or even Guinsoo) but to emphasize how interesting the UMS map scene (”Use Map Settings,” the common Blizzard RTS community term to refer to these; now most people just use “mod”) was to me from the start.

DotA Allstars, as it was called during the 5.5x era when we started playing, was not the first map to use the general concept that’s become defined as its own genre, with a bunch of predecessors generally named things along the lines of “Aeon of Strife,” dating-I’ve heard, since I wasn’t around much on battle.net then, as I mentioned-back to Starcraft. (The name is a reference to the Starcraft backstory, I guess, so it’s not very hard to believe.) I did eventually find a couple, years later, and messed with them a bit, but the limitations of the design system in that game really don’t work well with the concept, even ignoring the maximalist design elements that are to some extent highlighted in dota’s enormous pool of heroes and items. (These elements are highlighted even more in the popular “Evolves” game type, where, for example, at some point in the game you lose a very good unit because it’s replaced with horrifically clumsy Protoss Dragoons, who have slightly better stats and extremely poor interactions with the engine’s pathing systems)

The newer AOS maps weren’t very good either, but the inherent leveling mechanic in Warcraft 3 made it a little easier to keep some semblance of consistent progression, and the amount of unit types you could set was much higher (I don’t know if there is a limit, but for Starcraft you can generally only create 1-2 different versions of any given unit, depending on if they have a “Hero” counterpart with a different name to tweak). Broadly speaking, most custom maps focused on hero play fell into what I can only describe as the “tome trap,” where you could buy items (consumable tomes) which didn’t take inventory space and permanently buffed stats. There’s three kinds of heroes in Warcraft, correlating roughly to the “Warrior Rogue Mage” thing, and each benefits most from a specific stat. That stat increases attack damage, and each stat has benefits for all heroes as well, with Strength giving health, Agility giving armor and attack speed, and Intellect giving extra mana pool and regeneration. But spells have cooldowns, so the tome items quickly become relatively useless for Int heroes, while Str heroes see slightly better scaling. But Agility gives attack damage and speed to Agility heroes, creating a compounding effect that becomes increasingly absurd the more you feed into it. Although, it did cause the animations to break in all sorts of hilarious ways, with certain breakpoints making the attack animations stop altogether or even go in reverse, so I still consider that a huge plus.

There was a bigger issue with pretty much all maps, due to the way that the map editor exported maps in a format that was, essentially, open-source. It was therefore very easy for people to make small tweaks to a map which would specifically benefit a certain player spot or character, save it under the same name, then host a rigged version of the game for other players. (There were a couple ways to tell if this was probably what was happening, but even so, it made looking for games very frustrating.) As it turned out, there was a workaround for this, by which you could make the editor unable to read the customized script data. The map still worked in game, but other players wouldn’t be able to make slightly altered copies; they would lose all of that code by trying to tweak anything and save a new version of the file. Essentially, it was copy-protection, and few mapmakers used it, probably since most AOS games, Tower Defense maps, and other styles didn’t really use any sophisticated scripting anyway.

Dota Allstars used the copy protection, though it had had relatively few unique abilities at the time we began playing it (I was familiar with another map with far more custom effects, Elil’s “Vale of Nightmares”). Perhaps the most well-known was the Crystal Maiden’s “Freezing Field” ultimate ability, still represented in the game to this day. But most characters simply had weird mixtures of default Warcraft 3 abilities, tweaked with different stats and so on, and strangely, the most egregious example of all (the Brewmaster, who pretty much just had the original Pandaren Brewmaster abilities from the game’s regular RTS mode) still just has the same stuff as ever. I think it’s fair to say that Allstars was never the most original game, and some things that have survived to this day (Lina Inverse is still called Lina!! What is that???) are still incredibly obvious ripoffs of stuff from Blizzard games, other video games, and anime. I understand the “Allstars” name came from this version being a patchwork of characters from different maps, though I’m not sure how true that is. It might explain some of the worst 5.5 era heroes, like “God” (a nigh-unkillable wisp with no offensive skills, who was removed for .52 and has never returned), and “Conjurer” (an outrageously busted magician on a horse, who could push to win the game in as little as 20 minutes with chain-stunning golems, even in a era where player micro was relatively poor), but it became very difficult to find other AoS type games at all once 5.52 and 5.54 locked in as extremely popular maps across the server. Both enjoyed popularity at once, as I recall; it seemed many people simply preferred one or the other and would gravitate toward that choice, making both open all the time. But the release of 5.55 was a huge paradigm shift, with complete overhauls for many heroes and numerous bug fixes and tweaks. Its release signaled the future of the game, in a sense.

Well, I don’t know. That might be giving too much credit to a version of the game which, as I recall, was the newest for approximately one hour.

(Part 2)

(Part 3)

(Part 4)

[zanytimetravelenthusiast-blog]

Extempore Review

Extempore Review - Are you looking for even more expertise regarding Extempore? Please review my truthful testimonial about it prior to choosing, to assess the weaknesses and staminas of it. Can it deserve your effort and time and also cash?

Introducing Extempore

8 of the very best Teleprompter Applications for Android

A teleprompter makes it easy to review the manuscript while taping video clips or offering speeches and presentations. However, a professional teleprompter costs you an arm as well as a leg. Thankfully, you can utilize your Android smartphone as a teleprompter. Just install any one of the complying with teleprompter Extempore applications, and also you'll have a close to professional-grade teleprompter in your hands with little to no cost.

1. Simple Teleprompter

Simple Teleprompter is an aptly-named free application that is basic, marginal and simple, with all the basic attributes you'll ever need. On the main display you type in or import the message, as well as tap on the begin button to scroll the message. When needed, you can set a countdown for the teleprompter and also personalize various other things like scroll speed, history color, message color, and so on

. Connected: 3 Android Apps to Produce a Voice Apology

2. Teleprompter Pro

Teleprompter Pro is a completely customizable application that permits you to import any type of variety of message files and scripts. Once imported, you can set up the application to start the countdown and also auto-scroll the message with the speed of your selection. The application also comes with a mirror mode, which is really valuable to make use of in a teleprompter. The application costs you $6.49.

3. Oratory Teleprompter

Oratory Teleprompter is mainly developed to operate in tandem with any type of video camera application. After including the text you want to teleprompt, the application will certainly release the teleprompter widget with auto-scrolling message on any camera application like YouTube live, Snapchat, Instagram, etc. If you mainly record with your mobile phone, Oratory is an excellent option for you, as you don't have to make use of an additional smart device as a teleprompter.

4. Pixaero Teleprompter

Pixaero Teleprompter sustains any kind of Bluetooth gadget and permits you to control the scrolling message by means of that tool. This is specifically useful to swiftly go forward or backwards as and also when required without having to connect for your smart device. Additionally, the app also has Cloud Sync to make sure that you can sync your scripts and also message documents in between tools. Associated: 4 of the most effective Android Apps for Recording Podcasts on the Go

5. Nano Teleprompter

Nano Teleprompter is very comparable to Oratory in that it presents a floating widget with scrolling message in addition to any kind of camera application. Among the intriguing features of Nano Teleprompter is that rather than importing text data as well as manuscripts, you can open them directly with the application. Nano Teleprompter likewise sustains motion controls to ensure that you can quickly transform the message size, widget dimension, and widget placement.

6. Prompster

Prompster is an expert teleprompter app with variable text-scrolling controls. Though the interface looks a bit outdated, the app is pretty lightweight and functions as it should. Obviously, like the various other apps in this listing, you can either develop message data and manuscripts within the application or import them as and when required. The application likewise has an integrated tutorial to get you started rapidly.

7. Parrot Teleprompter

Parrot Teleprompter can attach to your Dropbox account and also download and install the text files as well as manuscripts from there. Together with the fundamental attributes you 'd get out of a teleprompter, the Extempore application has a built-in mirror setting and also even supports remote control performance to make sure that you can regulate the scroll speed and also various other tasks without touching your smartphone.

8. Selvi Teleprompter Electronic Camera

Selvi is a standard video camera app with a built-in teleprompter. You can import the script to Selvi, and it will certainly look like a clear widget to make sure that you can tape video clip while reading the script. The teleprompter widget is fully customizable with variable scrolling and text modification.

Comment below to share your thoughts and also experiences pertaining to making use of the above teleprompter apps for Android.

Extempore Review & Review

Supplier: karthik Ramani

Item: Extempore

Introduce Date: 2019-May-22

Launch Time: 11:00 EDT

Front-End Cost: $37

Sales Web page: https://www.socialleadfreak.com/extempore-review/

Particular niche: Software

What Is Extempore?

Ad-lib Is A Brand-new App That Turns Your Smart Device Into Your Individual Teleprompter.

PROS

Incredibly Easy To Setup and also Make use of!

100% Beginner Friendly (No Technical Savvy Required).

Conserves Tons of Hrs of Modifying - Know EXACTLY What To State Without Any Incidents.

Create Pro Quality Video Clips On Demand

Export Your Video Clips to HD!

Submit To YouTube Seamlessly

Share On Popular Social Networks

Everything Is Saved To Your Smart Device - No Required To Purchase Any Additional Devices.

Significant Price Cut For A Minimal Time Only!

Extempore Features & Perks

5 Minutes Videos Within Your Reaches

With Extempore you can tape any type of video you like up to 5 mins in length. This is wonderful for quick hits or any inspirational video clips you may want to develop on your favored platform.Just open the app, hit record after developing your story, and also begin chatting!

Limitless Takes For Every Video You Produce

Occasionally you just do not get the video precisely the initial shot. No concerns. With Extempore, we offer you the capacity to do as several takes as essential to obtain it right. As well as best of all, your audience will certainly never recognize!

Create Pro-Quality Videos On Demand

The video clips you create with Extempore are only restricted by the quality of the camera on your phone or tablet. And with a lot of mobile phones having excellent quality electronic cameras, you'll appear like an outright celebrity!

Sharing Made Easy on Whatsapp, Social Networks Or Simply Download The Data If You Select

We know you'll be eager to share your videos with the globe, so we have actually made sharing extremely easy with Extempore. After you're done recording and also making a few edits, simply utilize the options in the application to share or download the video.No extra software program required.

Twin Video Recording Options

You'll likewise find that you can select whichever layout you want with Extempore. If you wish to stand up close as well as individual, just make use of the upright alternative. Or if you wish to share your history, just go for the horizontal format.

Complete Smooth HD Video Export

An additional excellent aspect of Extempore is that you'll have the ability to export every one of your videos with 100% HD Quality. This is a SIGNIFICANT step up from most various other applications that just provide you 480p top quality that appears like video clips from the 80s.

Solitary Extempore License for The Web

Want to use Extempore on your computer? No worry at all. As soon as you register today, we'll get your certificate all rectified immediately.

Solitary Extempore License for Andriod/ IOS(Apple Iphone & Ipad)

We'll likewise provide you a permit to use Extempore on any smart phone of your choosing. In this manner you'll get the very best of both globes!

Direct Youtube Upload Combination

Something that you'll definitely like about Extempore is that when you're done producing and also making a couple of tweaks to your video, you can publish it directly to YouTube! This is wonderful for those individuals who have an adhering to on YouTube or intend to begin building one.

Car Stop Recording Once the story is Over

If there's something we despise, it's when you have the unpleasant minute of you being completed with your recording, the electronic camera's still going! Ad-lib fixes that by instantly quiting as soon as you're done. In this manner you have a smooth video you can utilize right away.

Text Dimension For Scripts Are Quickly Adjustable

You can likewise readjust the script message to a variety of dimensions that you feel comfortable with. This is fantastic for when the tool is close or far. Control The Manuscript Scrolling Just The Method You Like One point that makes Ad-lib excellent is the capacity to have the manuscript scroll while you're taping. Yet if at anytime you do not such as just how things are going, you can bypass it promptly to your liking.This method you're not stuck attempting to keep up with the words on the screen!

Text Marquee Rate

If you resemble some individuals that do this expertly, after that you basically have a concept of the amount of words per minute you speak.Well the wonderful news is that Extempore gives you that alternative to correct away before you record.And if you obtain it incorrect? Don't stress. You can change it next time!

Make Square Videos for Instagram Easily

Square videos are popular on Instagram, which incidentally is one of the most preferred sites online.Well Extempore lets you make those square videos easily so you can post and get on with your day! No added editing or software program conversion needed.

Front Camera or Rear Electronic Camera? No worry!

Extempore likewise allows you pick which cam you wish to use on your phone. Wish to be on screen as well as use the front encountering camera? Opt for it.But if you intend to do a documentary style video while utilizing the back facing electronic camera as well as still have a manuscript on display ... Extempore can do that too!Is there anything this app can not do?

Make videos like a Pro with innovative editing features

With Extempore, you'll have the very same power in your hands as the pros do.But unlike them, you will not have invest a ton of money on your devices!

Silent Mode- Place your phone on Silent Mode while recording

Extempore additionally puts your phone on silent when you forget to. Since absolutely nothing is extra discouraging when you remain in the center of recording and also you get an unanticipated call or message.

Conclusion

"It's A Great Deal. Should I Invest Today?"

Not only are you obtaining access to Extempore Review for the best cost ever before used, yet likewise You're spending totally without threat. Ad-lib consist of a 30-day Refund Assurance Plan. When you pick Extempore, your contentment is ensured. If you are not totally satisfied with it for any type of reason within the very first 1 month, you're entitled to a complete refund-- no doubt asked. You've obtained nothing to lose! What Are You Waiting on? Try It today and obtain The Adhering to Reward Currently!

[xseedgames]

The Legend of Heroes: Trails Series - Localization Blog #2

Hi, kids!

This is Brittany, Localization Producer at XSEED, editor/graphic text monkey/what-have-you for Trails in the Sky the 3rd, and current head for the Trails series in general. I’m very eager to write this blog, because it’ll be full of updates for FC, SC, and the 3rd.

Let’s get the 3rd’s status out of the way: schedule-wise, we’re currently doing great! When we announced this game last year, I was dead set on getting it out by spring 2017, so I’m very proud to say that goal is being met. Trails in the Sky the 3rd is coming to PC in English on…a date you’ll find out very, very soon.

Barring typos or odd QA hiccups (which can happen when “smashing” PSP and PC code together to get the best of both worlds), the game is in pretty good shape and we’re right where we need to be. It’s cleaning up very well.

               | QA is a sexy time and I won’t let you take it away from me.

I’d like to start by properly warning Trails newbies first: please play Trails in the Sky’s first and second chapters before playing the 3rd. Heck, please play them before even reading this blog! Although the 3rd is not a “third chapter” since the Estelle and Liberl’s story wrapped up with SC, this story still relies on knowledge gained by playing those two games. Internally, I’ve said before that the 3rd has only one target audience: people who’ve played both Trails FC and SC. Cold Steel fans will understand some of the lore dumping, but other details will be quite lost on lost you. Though, hey, if you want to purchase it anyway and help support my coffee fund, I ain’t gonna stop you. (Please buy it and play it later. I’m desperate, here.)

I would have loved for this blog to feature more specific details on the 3rd itself, but I tend to consider the series as a whole whenever I do my editing and am constantly referencing/perusing the text from the other games as if they were my current projects. Because of that, I’m going to be noting planned adjustments for the Sky trilogy that I decided were important enough to implement while I was working on the 3rd. We can dig into protagonist and deuteragonist Kevin Graham and Ries Argent in future blogs.

- Dead Emperor Sword > Sword of Abaddon – Loewe’s S-Craft. I meant to fix this during SC’s QA, but there were so many things I was brushing up till the last minute that it was lost in the shuffle. The original is straight-up wrong. - Pillar of Salt > Salt Pale – You’ll learn more about this in the 3rd. - Stainrose > Steinrose – This is a classy alcoholic drink briefly mentioned by Schera in Trails FC. This is clearly meant to be Steinrose and was written correctly in SC, so we’re extending that correction to FC. - Museum Descriptions – Text in the museum in Grancel will either be rewritten or greatly expanded upon in general. These descriptions were shorter due to every editor’s wariness of character limits in games, but that’s not actually a worry here, so woohoo! The Capel will also receive similar tweaks. - Master/King/Guardian of the Lake – I don’t understand how I missed this one, but boy, did I screw up when doing sweeps. You might remember the Guardian from Cold Steel; it’s a legendary fish. Well, the whole legendary fish thing actually dates back as far as the first game. Turns out, we’ve used a mix of king or master to describe it. I’d considered using the more common of the two in the current text, “master,” but I realized “master” is used in several other forms throughout FC and SC. To make its intent clear, I’m going the easy route and replacing all instances of king/King/master/Master with “Guardian” like the way it is in Cold Steel I&II.

               | Mysterious boy who isn’t so mysterious if you’ve already played Cold Steel. This marks his first Trails appearance.

- Duke Dunan – I believe that even if he’s Queen Alicia II’s nephew, being a duke, he should be addressed as “Your Grace.” He’s been addressed as a number of things, including “Your Excellency” by Phillip and Kanone, so this will be corrected. - Sky Bandits – I talked about this a bit with the current series translator, and we decided that the term ‘sky bandits’ wasn’t the name of the Capua family’s group in particular. They’re simply bandits…who happen to do their bandit-ing while piloting a sweet airship. It’s not a term specific to them, but as generic as “thief” or “schoolteacher.” It shall be decapped in all instances throughout the trilogy. There are a few more words I decided to decap, and no doubt I’ll find even more in the future. They’re minor in comparison, though, so they’re not really worth listing here.

               | Here’s a new feature, the “Remote Ability.”

- Airship/Orbalship/Flying Boats – Here’s one that’s bothered me for some time even though I couldn’t figure out a better solution. There’s an entry in the Capel about orbal airships stating that ships less than 20 arge in length are known as “flying boats.” We don’t actually use that term anywhere else, but no one ever brought it up so I left it as is. While reading through the games again, however, I noticed that we used both “airship” and “orbalship” as generic terms. It’s specifically thanks to orbal energy and the Orbal Revolution that modern civilization in Zemuria was able to achieve flight, so presumably all airships regardless of length use orbal energy. I don’t think it’s a stretch to scientifically classify small ships as “airships,” larger ships which require significant orbal energy as “orbalships,” and have “airships” be used as a generic term among citizens at the same time. After all, we in real life still can’t seem to decide if Pluto is classified as a damn planet or not, even if the population generally seems to refer to it as a planet no matter what its classification is. With this update, I will do away with the clunky and never-used “flying boats” in favor of the current entry.

- Hmm-Hmm!/Hm-Hm!/Etc. – Like Cold Steel I&II, this kind of chortle/laughter isn’t present at all in the 3rd. It was toned down considerably before launch in SC, but it’s still present in both FC and SC. I’ve always wanted to go through the script and alter/remove these, and I finally did! Maybe some will object to this decision, but if they’re not in the newer games, it’s just kinda weird to keep them in the older games, too. In case you wanted to know how much I suffered to do this:          o   "hmm-hmm" (164 hits in 96 files)          o   "hmmhmm" (184 hits in 85 files)          o   "hmhm" (89 hits in 52 files)          o   "hm-hm" (8 hits in 8 files)          o   "hmm!" (12 hits in 11 files)          o   "hm!" (21 hits in 20 files)          o   "hmm." (36 hits in 35 files)          o   "hm." (17 hits in 16 files)          o   "Hm," (62 hits in 41 files)          o   "hmm," (282 hits in 155 files)

- Duke/Baron Fisher – You might recall the president of the Fisherman’s Guild, Mr. Fisher. (Or maybe you do not recall, which suits me better. HEH.) Apparently, his title is mentioned once in both FC and SC—the first time was the “Duke of Angling” and second time was “Baron of Fishing.” This also comes up in the 3rd, but we thought “Fishing Baron” was a simple enough title for the guy, so this will also be fixed in FC and SC.

               | From the 3rd’s opening animation.

- Social Sciences/Studies – This is the program Kloe takes at Jenis. I noticed a discrepancy here and there while doing some digging for the name, so all of these have been changed to “social studies.” It’s social sciences in Cold Steel, but since that’s a different country, I don’t consider the difference a big deal. - Faculty/Staff Office/Lounge – Also noticed this was a number of slightly difference things, so it shall be changed to “faculty lounge.” - Dorms/Dorm – Unless the person mentioning the dorms at Jenis is referencing both the boys’ and girls’ dorms, I made it singular since there’s only one dorm building each. Not really a problem, but it was bugging me. - Olivier: “In fact, I believe the Imperial Academy was to launch an investigation...but then the Hundred Days War broke out.” - *nerd glasses* Okay, this one is really cool to me!! I happened to notice the line and was confused by “Imperial Academy, so I checked the Japanese, which was more like “Imperial Science Institute.” Turns out, this is the very same “Imperial Institute of Science” that’s been brought up a few times throughout the Cold Steel arc. (Ahh, I just love how this series connects the little things.) - Dad/Daddy/Papa/Mom/Mommy/Momma – Estelle as a child calls Cassius “Daddy” in FC, but she says “Papa” in SC. SC will now match FC. Cassius still calls himself “Papa” when babying Estelle, though. I haven’t looked too deeply into this yet, but it’s also been fixed in the following instances so far:           o Anya - Daddy(FC), Papa/Daddy(SC) = Daddy           o Elke - Papa(FC), Papa/Dad(SC) = Dad           o Mirano - Father(FC), Papa/Father(SC) = Father           o Louis - Dad/Mom(FC), Papa/Mama & Dad/Mom (SC) = Dad/Mom           o Helena - Dad/Mom (FC), Papa/Mama (SC) = Dad/Mom           o Lucia - Mommy (FC), Mom/Mommy(SC) = Mommy

I feel ashamed to see all of this...

- Mayor/Lady/Miss/Ms. Maybelle – This one was pretty wild. When checking her address for the 3rd since Lila’s address was translated as “Lady Maybelle,” I went through FC/SC and the results were a mess. Some NPCs referred to her in three different ways, and Estelle went from “Mayor Maybelle” in FC to “Maybelle” in SC. One could argue closeness allowed her to drop the formalities, but I don’t see them as that close. Virtually everyone should be calling her “Mayor Maybelle” now, save for four exceptions: Lila, who calls her “Miss Maybelle, ” and Kloe, General Morgan, and Yahat, who affectionally call her “Maybelle.”

This biggest change affecting all these Sky games, however, will be this:

               | You don’t know how happy it makes me to see this.

To refresh your memories, Zin Vathek is an A-rank bracer from the Calvard Republic, and he’s one of the main playable characters throughout the trilogy. However, due to some absurd reason I can’t even begin to understand since I wasn’t with XSEED at the time, the original translation team insisted upon changing his name to Zane.

The series has yet to truly set foot on Calvardian soil, but several characters from there appear to be of Eastern descent. This may lead some to believe that Calvard is mostly an “Asian” country, but personally, I think something very different is going on. Republican names also include stuff like Vathek, Cochrane, or Rocksmith (the Republic’s president). There’s even the Gambler Jack novel that stars a white man named…Jack…and includes characters like Chief Minister Shamrock and Enrique.

I believe Easterners are actually the minority in Calvard, and Eastern influences are reflected in a Chinatown-esque area called the “Eastern Quarter.” Even the writing in Gambler Jack mentions how immigrants tend to gather in the Eastern Quarter, and the writing goes out of its way to point out Eastern features in Halle, the heroine, as if it’s not usual for its author to see.

Throughout the localized games, there have been mentions of people from farther east immigrating into Calvard to the point where it’s become a problem. Incredibly interesting as this is, it’s only been brought up in bits and pieces throughout the series, so I can only make an educated guess on what exactly Calvard is like or what’s going on within. Also, you’ll learn more about this in 3rd and I don’t want to go into detail. These kinds of things could point to racial tension in the future or something else entirely. The more I’ve learned, the more my gut tells me that there’s a reason for these characters—Zin included—to have been given Eastern-influenced names.

While I’ve never been fond of “Zane” to begin with and believe it never should have been changed in the first place, I do understand that it’s been a part of the Trails English canon for many years. Before making the change, I tried to think of various solutions and consulted Falcom’s development team directly with my thoughts. One possible solution was based on many friends who immigrated to the West as children: they had their name from birth, and then they also had a more “white-sounding” name to further blend into Western culture. I thought this method would allow us to keep Zane, finally adopt Zin, and give Zane a few unexpected extra layers. 

I’m happy that I expressed these concerns to Falcom’s team, because it gave me the confidence to do away with the more complex solutions and just skip to the overhaul. Moving forward, “Zane” will officially be “Zin” for the entire Trails in the Sky trilogy, and “Zane” will be a thing of the past. I’m excited about this. Please welcome Zin warmly.

               | You’ll see cutscenes like these throughout the game.

In the Future/Other Notes

- Gambler Jack – This novel appears in both Trails in the Sky SC and Trails of Cold Steel II. The CS2 version was brushed up. This may or may not make it into this next update, but I’d like to backport this when I can. - Skippable S-Crafts – We added this patch into the PC versions of FC/SC in December 2016, but I felt it was worth noting since it’s not in any other version of the Sky trilogy but ours. You can now skip S-Crafts with the press of a button! Yay! - S-Craft Voices – Years and years ago, before my time, the Trails in the Sky trilogy was all dubbed at once just because it was battle lines and it was easier to get it all finished in one go. Some mistranslations happened here and there in those battle lines. It’s why Kloe shouts, “Radiant Plash!” instead of her actual S-Craft name, for example. The lines from one of Kevin’s S-Crafts gets mentioned as part of 3rd’s story, and you might notice it differs from the text in his actual S-Craft. I’d like to fix the voice someday, but we’ll have to work with the original for now. Just know that it was a conscious decision to not match the story text and battle lines. - NPC Names – Like Zin, a few NPC names I believe have references that were initially missed. Mirano/Trino/Modena are supposed to be Milan/Turin/Modena, I believe, Stain is supposed to be Stein, etc. These all these like relatively minor in the grand scheme of things and have no real impact on the world-building, though, so I’m still compiling a list and debating if it’s even worth touching this. I still want to…but lol. NPCs are truly trouble in this series… I have a bible I made myself for the series, but I’d love to keep filling it in!!

               |I’m slowly building stuff like this in the name of obsession.

Ideally, one of the other big changes would be the basic name on Steam/GOG/Humble being displayed. We’ve always gone with Trails in the Sky and Trails in the Sky SC, but I worry names like these as an introductory header may cause confusion among newer fans. I want to someday rename these display names Trails in the Sky First Chapter and Trails in the Sky Second Chapter. We’ll see.

My hope is that outside of Zane > Zin, you guys noticed approximately none of these things and will end up reading this blog and going, “Huh. This person’s obsessed, but okay. Cool.” But how do these things happen? The same way it always happens with text-heavy games: too many cooks in the kitchen. Too many translators, too many editors. Many of these choices are perfectly valid out of world context, but when you’re given thousands of files, no unified index for characters unless you build it from scratch yourself, and some very nasty deadlines, things happen.

The series is much more unified than ever because we realized that when it comes to text-heavy projects, taking our time with a smaller team yields a much better result than throwing as many people as possible at it. CS1, CS2, and the 3rd proved it. In a perfect world, I could go over FC and SC’s text line by line and tweak things in ways fans likely wouldn’t notice just to create further consistency, but considering I do these tweaks in my free time out of pure passion for the series, that’s gonna have to be saved for another day. I’m already very blessed to be given the opportunity to comb through older files and tweak at my leisure. Or maybe I just have a very unusual hobby.

Should you come across any issues that have cropped up unexpectedly with this update (which will be before the 3rd’s launch), please feel free to contact us. Stuff happens, things break, but we’re always willing to look into it and fix it if it’s within our power. My heart belongs to the series forever, so anything I can do if time allows it, I try. Thanks for reading this update, kids, and I hope to write more about the 3rd soon!

              | Yes, this actually is in the game.