#and making unique and interesting but limited feature designs like that is kind of hard

[starrspice]

Not sure if this will mean anything to you but my sister has always had trouble viewing y/n s in the dca fandom as anything other than masculine due to how people draw them. Your y/n s are some of the few where my sister genuinely views them as nonbinary without issue.

When it comes to designing visually nb y/n s i think you probably do some of the best ones.

I hope you have a good day/night dear. Take care

Aaaa thank you QwQ

I get that a lot tbh

Like I've heard a couple people say they see a lot more femanine atyle Y/Ns while others say its a vast majority of masc y/ns

I feel like androgynous or more nonbinary designs make it a bit easier to project different gender identities (for me at least) and I don't want it to feel like it leans too much one way or the other usually so that its easier for people to enjoy it and not be kinda turned off by a more gendered design

But I appreciate the affirmation a ton!! 💕

[dutchcardhousecompany]

What Makes Diamond Playing Card Designs So Unique

It is important to note that playing cards have always served as much more than aids for games. They are symbols of the arts, creativity, and even elegance. Out of hundreds of types of playing cards, the Diamond Playing Card series is unique due to its extraordinary design and quality. These cards are not just a deck, but they are a person's style and sophistication.

Hobbyist, magic or poker, Diamond Playing Cards provides that extra special touch and gives the feel of the real deal. This is because of their beautiful workmanship, quality materials used in the making of shoes and the keen observation when designing them. These cards are well known at Dutch Card House Company for their high quality and attractiveness. This blog will look into the characteristics that make them unique and why people are passionate about them globally.

Bold Creative Concepts That Inspire

The first thing that strikes you about the Diamond Playing Card is its appearance. Each card has design patterns and graphics that are very pleasant to the eyes the moment you look at them. Usually, these cards are associated with the beauty of diamonds and have strict shapes and silver or golden reflections.

Most of these designs come under the Art Playing Cards & Novelties category, making them both artistic and practical. They are best placed on a table where the use of bold colours, details, and creativity makes them stand out. Collection-wise, they are attractive for their art and would not normally be used for normal playing card games.

Premium Quality Materials

The major advantage of Diamond Playing Cards over other regular playing cards is that they are of higher quality. These cards are made from high grade material that assures durability and quality of the card to have a rich look. The surface is smooth and the edges are cut right ensuring that their handling is unique for games and performances.

These cards are particularly useful for magicians. They move as fluid as Magic Playing Cards; they are easy to shuffle and give nice shuffling movements and tricks. People who play poker also love their sturdiness when playing the hard games since they can be used in normal and special occasions.

A Collector’s Dream

If the reader has interest in collector playing cards, then the Diamond series is something they should buy. These factors, further combined with limited production runs and one of a kind designs, make them collectors’ items. These decks are limited edition, and that makes them even more appealing to those who love cards all over the world.

The House of Playing Cards that features unique designs most of the time partners with the Dutch Card House Company in order to produce elegant Diamond cards. These collaborations lead to production of excellent decks that not only serve their purpose but also works of art. Possessing one is like possessing a small jewel among your precious items.

Conclusion

The most important aspect of the Diamond Playing Card series is its beautiful designs, additional quality, and variability. It can be appreciated by magicians, by poker players, and by collectors, but there is something special for everybody here. Their combination of sophistication and utility is not only their trump card; they are a performance.

The Dutch Card House Company is still improving its productions with these beautiful, exquisite designs. If you’re in the market for unique playing cards or want to expand your collection, their Diamond series set is ideal. Learn more about custom Diamond Playing Cards today and find out the difference between a normal and unique deck of cards.

[inspirdgtrends]

Houston Texans x Hello Kitty 2024 Stripe Baseball Jersey

Product link:https://inspirdg.com/product/houston-texans-x-hello-kitty-2024-stripe-baseball-jersey/

Store link:https://inspirdg.com/

Houston Texans x Hello Kitty 2024 Stripe Baseball Jersey: A Whimsical Fusion of Charm and Team Spirit

In the ever-evolving world of fan merchandise, collaborations between beloved pop culture icons and professional sports teams are increasingly becoming the standard. The Houston Texans x Hello Kitty 2024 Stripe Baseball Jersey is a perfect example of this dynamic trend, showcasing the seamless blend of sportsmanship and playful charm. This limited-edition jersey encapsulates everything fans adore about the Houston Texans while adding a touch of sweetness through the iconic Hello Kitty character. The result? A delightful creation that is sure to stand out in any fan’s wardrobe.

An Unmistakable Design: Pinstripes Meet Playfulness

The Houston Texans x Hello Kitty 2024 Stripe Baseball Jersey offers a fresh, playful take on traditional sports jerseys. The base design, featuring classic black and white pinstripes, pays homage to the quintessential baseball aesthetic. This choice sets the jersey apart from standard team shirts, giving it a retro, sporty feel while still maintaining a sense of modern style. The pinstripes evoke the classic look of baseball uniforms, adding to its appeal for sports fans who appreciate the nostalgic nod to America’s pastime.

On the front of the jersey, the prominent Houston Texans logo sits proudly across the chest, seamlessly integrated into the design with the team’s signature colors of navy blue, red, and white. Right above the logo is the Nike swoosh, a symbol of quality and authenticity, ensuring that this jersey is not only stylish but also made from high-performance materials.

What truly sets this jersey apart is the large, adorable image of Hello Kitty displayed on the back of the jersey. Dressed in a mini Houston Texans football uniform, complete with a helmet and football in hand, Hello Kitty stands ready for action. The combination of Hello Kitty’s signature sweetness with the rugged, competitive nature of football creates an eye-catching contrast. It’s a perfect symbol of how fan gear can be inclusive, playful, and full of personality.

A Unique Crossover: Sports Meets Pop Culture

At first glance, the combination of Houston Texans football and Hello Kitty may seem like an unlikely pairing, but it works brilliantly. The collaboration highlights the growing trend of cultural crossovers in the world of fan merchandise, where professional sports embrace elements of pop culture to create something that appeals to a broader audience.

For Texans fans, this jersey is a bold way to represent their team with pride while also showing off a lighter, more whimsical side. For Hello Kitty enthusiasts, it offers a chance to merge their love of this timeless character with the excitement and energy of professional football. Together, the two brands create a piece of apparel that resonates with a wide range of fans, from the die-hard sports supporters to those who enjoy celebrating iconic characters like Hello Kitty.

Hello Kitty, a symbol of kindness and friendship, contrasts with the grit and determination of football, making this jersey a fun juxtaposition of two worlds. The collaboration speaks to the versatility of fandom, proving that being a sports fan doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your love for pop culture icons. It’s a joyful reminder that fans can represent multiple facets of their interests with pride.

Craftsmanship and Comfort: Made for Game Day and Beyond

As with any Nike product, the Houston Texans x Hello Kitty 2024 Stripe Baseball Jersey doesn’t just look great — it’s also designed for comfort and durability. Made from high-quality fabric, the jersey is lightweight and breathable, ensuring that you stay comfortable whether you’re watching the game from the stands or cheering from home. The soft fabric ensures that the jersey feels good against the skin, with plenty of room to move, making it ideal for all-day wear.

The button-up front gives the jersey a classic baseball look, while the relaxed fit ensures that it suits a wide variety of body types. Whether you’re layering it over a t-shirt for cooler evenings or wearing it on its own during warmer weather, the jersey is designed for versatility and ease of wear. The short sleeves allow for freedom of movement, making it a comfortable option for casual outings, tailgating, or even just showing off your team spirit while running errands.

Durability is another hallmark of this jersey. The embroidered logos and screen-printed designs are made to last, ensuring that even after multiple washes, the colors stay vibrant and the details remain intact. This means you can count on this jersey being a long-lasting part of your fan gear collection, ready to wear season after season.

A Collectible for Fans of All Ages

The Houston Texans x Hello Kitty 2024 Stripe Baseball Jersey is not just a fun addition to your game day wardrobe — it’s also a collectible item that fans of all ages will love. Whether you’re a lifelong Texans fan or someone who grew up loving Hello Kitty, this jersey is a unique way to celebrate both of these passions. It’s also an excellent way to introduce younger fans to the world of sports through a character they already adore.

For those who appreciate limited-edition collaborations, this jersey is a standout piece that will add a unique flair to any collection. Its crossover appeal ensures that it’s not just another team shirt, but a conversation starter that represents the fun side of fandom.

The Perfect Gift for Any Occasion

If you’re looking for a gift for a Houston Texans fan or a Hello Kitty enthusiast, this jersey is a fantastic option. Its playful design, combined with high-quality craftsmanship, makes it the perfect gift for birthdays, holidays, or even just as a special surprise for game day. The fusion of football and Hello Kitty makes it ideal for a wide range of recipients, from young fans just discovering the Texans to seasoned supporters who appreciate unique fan gear.

Conclusion: A Must-Have Jersey for 2024

In the world of sports merchandise, the Houston Texans x Hello Kitty 2024 Stripe Baseball Jersey stands out as a fun, stylish, and meaningful piece of apparel. Its playful design, comfortable fit, and high-quality craftsmanship make it a must-have for any fan who loves both football and pop culture. Whether you’re wearing it to the game, showing off your team spirit at home, or collecting it as part of your fan gear collection, this jersey is a celebration of both Texans football and Hello Kitty’s charm.

Get ready to cheer on the Texans with a touch of sweetness, and let the world know that fandom is all about having fun, expressing your individuality, and celebrating the things you love.

[sydneywardrobe02]

Why Built-In Fitted Wardrobes Are a Game-Changer for Sydney Homes

While space is both a benefit and a rarity in many of the world’s large cities, for which Sydney can serve as a prime example, people are never at a shortage for looking for exciting ways to optimise the accessible square footage throughout their household. The kind of type of storage furniture that is elegant in design, but at the same time practical is the one that is incorporated into the room in question as a fitted wardrobe. These custom solutions are changing residential spaces in the city; they are functional and come with numerous features that could suit Sydney apartment dwellers’ needs. Now, let us focus on why built-in fitted wardrobes are unique and highly beneficial for Sydney houses.

Control and Minimization of Space in Small Living Quarters

Incorporating Melbourne Hammered Metals’ pieces into the design of contemporary Sydney reflects the urban lifestyle that the city has become known for.

Sydney is widely recognised for being a fast-paced city with every convenience within a working person’s grasp, but sadly this ever expanding city has only so much space. Houses here are comparably less spacious especially apartments as well as other small houses, hence utilisation of available space is essential. Fitted wardrobes are custom-made to provide efficient storage space of garments and accessories even in the limited space of a room or apartment. In this case, they capitalise on the length of heights from the floor to the roof without creating a cramped environment.

Solutions for hard-to-reach areas

Many of the houses in Sydney are very old and they can be compared to those found in standard architectural manuals because they have features like slanted roofs and niches. Some rooms have awkward shaped angles and small space areas that would potentially be very irritating when searching for misplaced items; however, built-in wardrobes can be designed specifically for such areas to make out of the peculiarities a functional storage solution. This versatility makes built-in wardrobes perfect for Adelaide’s diverse housing market, including units and apartments.

Enhancing Home Aesthetics

Seamless Design Integration

Another advantage that has been featured clearly with regard to built-in fitted wardrobes is the organisation of their design and style to match perfectly your home décor. While the other types of wardrobe may give the impression of feeling like an outsider in a particular room, built-in wardrobes blend in easily because they are customised to match the room’s decor. This has the effect of creating the right synergy and does not create a cluttered look to our homes’ interiors thus improving their visual appeal.

Modern and Stylish Options

Sydney homeowners have a tendency to consider the use of modern styles not only in the framework of the house but also in the interior design. Also, as seen in built-in wardrobes collected now in Australia many of them have modern and stylish finishes o such as high-gloss doors, and different types of natural wood. The designs can include mirrored doors for the purpose of upgrading the dimension and light in a room, or personalised handles and finishes for a sleek appearance.

Boosting Property Value

Attractive to Potential Buyers

If you are selling a house in Sydney, chances of finding someone interested in buying the house with fitted wardrobes, add value to your house. Such additional empty storages promise value for the potential buyer and knowing how to incorporate it can give your home the competitive edge during listings. The functionality and appearance of built in wardrobes also makes them attractive to purchasers, there may be higher demand for the property and the chance of a quicker sale and, in most cases, at a higher price.

Long-Lasting Investment

Standard logical wardrobes are made of sturdy materials that will last the construction and its usage. Such longevity makes them less likely to be outlived by their usefulness in your home and hence, they are considered to be great investments. These wardrobes are long lasting which means they serve their functions perfectly and in detail as well as maintain their aesthetically pleasing appearances when in frequent use.

Simplifying Daily Life

Easy Organization

Clearly, one of the additional advantages of built-in fitted wardrobes is that it simplifies the organisation of storage. Pantry shelves with customised compartments for storing food items, drawers to store utensils and hanging rods to hang clothes have become common. This organisation means, for example, that if one were to move, there would be less mess and it is easier to clean up. It doesn’t matter if you are trying to store your clothes, your shoes or your accessories, built-in wardrobes are perfect for keeping everything in its place with no effort on your part.

Streamlined Routines

Most Sydney-ians can testify to the fact that waking up in the morning, especially during the weekdays can be a very busy affair especially for workers and school going kids. New construction built-in wardrobes help to save time in the morning as your clothes and accessories are within easy reach. No more flipping through drawers or wasting time in searching for something lost – every item is right where it is required and well-organised.

Personalized Storage Solutions

Tailored to Your Needs

There is always desired storage accommodation in every household and fitted wardrobes are specially designed to fit required designs. Whether you are in need of additional plate, bar, or corner space for suits, or shelves and drawers for shoes and accessories, customised wardrobes can suit your needs. This saves time that would otherwise be used in the assembly of storage solutions that does not suit an individual’s need.

Adaptable Features

Bits of kit and pieces of furniture: Your storage needs may vary over time, which is why your built-in wardrobe can too. Most designs include customizable shelf-like elements and / or component parts which can be easily removed and relocated if necessary. This makes built-in wardrobes popular as it will fit a house and serve a growing family as well as change with trends.

Fitted wardrobes are not just storage cabinets rather they bring an element of style, sophistication and elegance in homes situated in Sydney. Overall, these wardrobes have the capacity to solve quite a number of issues affecting homeowners in the urban areas through uses such as; efficient use of space, improvement of design and style, increase in value of the property, ease of daily undertakings, and custom designs for wardrobe storage space. Having a fitted wardrobe today can help transform and improve your apartment or house regardless of how small it may be and how many rooms you actually have.

For more info visit here:- wardrobe showrooms sydney

[bestshirtcanbuy]

Baseball Hoho Home Run Ugly Sweater Christmas Party

The Baseball Hoho Home Run Ugly Sweater Christmas Party is the ultimate holiday celebration for baseball fans of all ages and genders. This festive event combines the joy of Christmas with the excitement of America's favorite pastime, making it the perfect gift for everyone. The Baseball Hoho Home Run Ugly Sweater Christmas Party brings together men and women who share a love for baseball and the holiday season. This unique event provides a fun and lighthearted atmosphere where attendees can let loose and show off their team spirit in the most outrageous and festive way possible – by wearing ugly Christmas sweaters featuring their favorite baseball team's logo. The party features a wide range of activities and entertainment options suitable for all ages. Upon arrival, guests are greeted with a photo booth, where they can take memorable pictures with their friends and family, adorned in their hilarious and festive sweaters. The photographs serve as cherished mementos of the event, capturing the joy and camaraderie shared on this special occasion. Throughout the party, attendees can participate in various games and competitions that further showcase their love for baseball. From trivia contests to home run derbies, there is something for everyone to enjoy. These interactive activities not only add excitement to the event but also provide an opportunity for guests to bond over their shared passion for the sport. In addition to the games, the Baseball Hoho Home Run Ugly Sweater Christmas Party offers a vast selection of food and beverages to satisfy every palate. From classic ballpark snacks like hot dogs and pretzels to festive holiday treats such as gingerbread cookies and eggnog, the menu is designed to cater to the diverse tastes of the attendees. Furthermore, the event organizers have curated a gift exchange program to ensure that everyone receives a present that aligns with their interests. Each guest is encouraged to bring a baseball-themed gift, creating a sense of anticipation and excitement as participants exchange these unique presents. This aspect of the party fosters a sense of community among the attendees and establishes lasting connections between baseball fans. The Baseball Hoho Home Run Ugly Sweater Christmas Party is not just limited to die-hard baseball enthusiasts. It is a gift suitable for everyone who enjoys the holiday season and appreciates the magic of Christmas. The event's inclusive nature welcomes individuals from all walks of life, making it the perfect gift for friends, family members, and even colleagues. In summary, the Baseball Hoho Home Run Ugly Sweater Christmas Party is a one-of-a-kind celebration that combines the love for baseball and the joy of Christmas. This event offers a memorable and entertaining experience for men and women, making it an ideal gift for everyone. From the festive attire to the interactive games and delicious food, this party is guaranteed to bring laughter and holiday cheer to all attendees.

Get it here : Baseball Hoho Home Run Ugly Sweater Christmas Party

Home Page : tshirtslowprice.com

[jakethesequel]

I already gushed about this to my friends on our discord server but I'll do it again: I love the dedication so many game fans (focusing on Nintendo and Pokemon due to current interest) have to ship-of-theseusing all their old shit to keep it functioning forever.

3DS eShop and online services lose support and shut down? Hack your 3DS, upload your games and some fan-made software to patch broken online modes and connect to private servers. Pokemon Bank app shut down and blocked the ability to transfer pokemon between games from gen 5, 6, and 7? 3DS fan app for that! Missed out on limited-edition events for the DS and 3DS pokemon games? Don't even need an app, just follow this guide to make the console think your home wifi is a 2012 Gamestop. Need to evolve a pokemon via trade but only have one console? Fan apps and cart readers can download your game ROM and save file to your PC, then run two copies in two connected emulator windows so you can trade with yourself. Missed out on GBA-era events? Well if they're eReader events and you have an eReader, you can just print the eReader codes at home, some people have even figured out how to customize eReader codes to upload entirely new content to the game. Otherwise, you've got options! You can use one of the original DS models with a flash cart in the DS slot and Pokemon in the GBA slot, OR you can connect a GBA-to-Gamecube link cable into a hacked Wii, OR you can use one of the available 3rd-party GBA cartridge readers directly into your PC; and from any of those download, edit, and reupload your save file.

Even hardware is being kept alive, which I'm personally ecstatic about! Your old console died, and used ones are scarce/expensive? If it's old enough, there's probably a 3rd-party recreation/upgrade of it that still interfaces with all the original physical games and accessories, like there is for the GBC and GBA. If not, there's probably at least a cartridge reader that can safeguard a copy of all your legally owned ROMs and let you play them on an emulator while you save for a used console or wait for a recreation to come out. And if your original cartridges break? You can reupload that ROM onto a flash cart and put it in an original system good as new!

I'm particularly excitable about physical 3rd-party remakes of discontinued consoles and controllers because I have a thing for the physical experience of video games. It's big for things like the Wii(U) or (3)DS because their unique control schemes can be impossible to replicate on PC emulation with kb+mouse or a standard controller. There's little things too, sometimes a game's play ergonomics are just designed to work way better on the original controller. I adore the freedom emulators give to remap and customize controls to your preference, but sometimes the most preferable control is just a recreation of the original. There's non-play physical features too, like the convenience of the clamshell designs on the GBA SP and DS family. Portability as its own factor, something you can carry easier than a laptop or even throw in your pocket, but designed for games specifically and free of competing distractions, unlike a phone. I think the medium is always a crucial part of any artwork, and video game consoles are very attentively designed mediums to fit their games (and vice versa: many games are designed to fully exploit the specificities of their consoles). It's nice to see that there are people trying to preserve that element, rather than treating the console as just interchangeable hardware needed to run the games.

Sometimes, there's just something about a device that does one thing and really only does that one thing. Kind of asserts its confidence. An emulator is competing a little bit with everything else your computer does, even with other games on your hard drive, just a few clicks away. I love a PC, prefer it over most consoles, but it does carry a lot of distractions that can prevent or interrupt my choice to relax with a game. A console plugged into a TV, though? Very clear of purpose! It will play games. It may even solely play the game presently inserted into it. It will allow nothing else on the TV screen. Your sole tool of interfacing with it isn't the flexible, universal keyboard and mouse, it's a controller designed for playing games and awkward to use for anything else. Attached to the TV, it becomes a very prominent prescence. You probably see it every time you walk by, it's not hidden in an apps folder waiting for you to search for it, it advertises itself. Turn it on and it's ready: if it isn't directly opening the game already, it's opening your game library so you can choose with just a few inputs. Sometimes a physical console can just prioritize itself in its space in a way that makes it easier to remember to relax and maybe play the thing you bought, rather than forgetting or overlooking it when your mind gets busy with stress.

I love my pokemons. Now is a great time for my pokemon interest to kick back up because while all the online services and limited time events have been discontinued by now, all the games I care about have been thoroughly hacked by dedicated fans so as to make no difference. As long as I can connect my console to my PC, I can access all the events, even the ones I missed as a child. I don't just mean via emulating the game, either, you can download the save file off the physical cartridge, use a PC-based (or hacked Wii/3ds) tool to edit it, and then upload it back onto the cart, indistinguishably from if you actually unlocked the event in whatever the fuck 2000s/early 2010s year. Isn't technology grand! And fully legal, despite Nintendo's efforts!

[astroaquarium]

signs on the house cusps: part 2

Libra-Pisces

Libra on the 1st: you come across as very agreeable, level-headed, fair, and charasmatic. you veiw the world in a very balanced way, and like to take in every account and point of view and keep all parties happy.

Libra on the 2nd: you value the finer things in life, however you tend to have a great knack for balancing spending and saving, and dont go overboard.

libra on the 3rd: your relationship with siblings is likely very amicable, peaceful, you rarely fight or have disagreements. your primary schooling was a good experience for you.

libra on the 4th: you had a very venusian upbringing and/or homelife. you liked to keep the peace between family members.

libra on the 5th: you might like to engage in debate and/or humanitarian or charity based projects/initiatives in your spare time, or as a sode hustle. in your dating life, you are super flirty, and fun and dont take it too seriously.

libra on the 6th: you have generally very good health, however may have some lowerback issues here and there or possible kidney issues. your daily routine is very balanced, you like getting shit done.

libra on the 7th: you attract partners who are very charasmatic, people pleasers, who will always go with what you want and cant make a decision to save themselves. your partnerships with others will have limited conflict.

libra on the 8th: you likely have very aesthtically pleasing genitalia. you may benefit from inheritnace.

libra on the 9th: you might enjoy studying law, criminology, or sociology at a tertiary level. you might like to explore different philosophies and religions.

libra on the 10th: you might have a career in the legal field, or be attracted to professions of this nature. You are likely seen as very attractive and charasmatic in the public eye.

libra on the 11th: you are a fair and devoted friend, who will always remain neutral in frienship drama.

libra on the 12th: behind closed doors you are a very kind, gentle soul. you may struggle with balance in this lifetime.

scorpio on the 1st: you come across as intense, people are either intensely attracted to or repulsed by you, you cause a strong reaction in people when they first meet you. Your apperance is ever changing.

Scorpio on the 2nd: your possessions and values may undergo transformation regularly, meaning you may contsantly be revaluating what is important to you.

scorpio on the 3rd: you might have a sharp, intense voice. your relationship with siblings could be a bit full on, maybe you guys keep a lot of secrets from eachother.

scorpio on the 4th: homelife for you was unstable and rocky, maybe a lot of skeltons in yoru families closet, maybe you were the blacksheep in the family.

scorpio on the 5th: you might love reading self-help, psychology books for fun. in your dating life you might find it hard to date casually as you tend to lock onto people hard.

scorpio in the 6th: you may have health issues concerning UTI’s STD’s and other sexual or urinary diseases or infections. your daily routine is often not very set in stone and always undergoing change.

scorpio in the 7th: you attract intense, passionate and possessive partners, who may be prone to jealousy and trust issues. your partnerships with others can be transformative for you, whilst also running the risk if being quite toxic.

scorpio in the 8th: you love the occult and taboo, and thrive on delving deeper into people. probably hate small talk. always horny!!

scorpio on the 9th: you might be interested in studying the occult, astrology, psychology, or anything a little taboo.

scorpio in the 10th: might have or want a career in psychology, social science, criminology, law enforcement, post-mortum or forensics. Seen as shady, withdrawn, intense in your workspace.

scorpio in the 11th: an emotionally supportive and in depth friend!! you dont like superficial frienships and are great at keeping your friends secrets.

scorpio in the 12th: when you are alone, you are inquistive, have deeply penetrating thoughts and question everything!! you may struggle with openning up in this lifetime.

sagittarius in the 1st: come across as super jovial, free spitited, a little earthy, and a jokster. people think of you as the life of the party.

sagittarius in the 2nd: you may be very lucky when it comes to money, always seemingly falling on your feet and coming into money when you need it. you might be a bit reckless when it comes to spending!

sagittarius on the 3rd: might have a loud voice. likely has a very fun-loving not overly serious relationship with siblings, maybe they are loud and over the top types.

sagittarius on the 4th: might have a very big family, might have a very loud, and overly open family. might have moved around a lot as a kid (international perhaps).

sagittarius on the 5th: could have a lot of creative talents!! kids might be rowdy or have a lot of masculine energy. could enjoy casual dating quite a bit.

sagittarius on the 6th: doesnt like routine, always on the go, and likes to keep active. might have weak thighs and get sprains and strains in these areas often.

sagittarius on the 7th: attracts free spritied partners, who are flightly and not wanting to stay in one place at a time. may have a lot of luck in partnerships.

sagittarius on the 8th: might have a very experimental and active sex life. could enjoy other cultures taboos.

sagittarius on the 9th: a true intellectual, thrives in tertiary education environemt, could be a professor or full time academic or asprie to be.

sagittarius on the 10th: seen as a happy go lucky, larger than life type by the public at large. probably has or wants a career in; travel, philosophy, higher education, anthropology, sociology or similar.

sagittarius on the 11th: biggest cheerleader kind of friend, always goes above and beyond for others, has many friends. big goals and aspriations in life.

sagittarius on the 12th: has a rich intrapersonal existence, loves alone time, in fact where they thrive. can struggle with recklessness in this lifetime.

capricorn on the 1st: stern, firm, and professional outward look to the world. they can come across as ridgid to some, but nevertheless have intensely sharp bone structure and facial features which people find striking. age really well!!

capricorn on the 2nd: great with money!! knows how to save. values old school traditional values.

capricorn on the 3rd: clear, eloquent speach, extensive vocab. might have strained or very formal relationship with siblings.

capricorn on the 4th: traditinal upbringing, might have recieved little affection from parents, perhaps was more so encouraged to be seen and not heard.

capricorn on the 5th: takes dating very seriously, might literally interview potential romantic dates. kids may be very responsible and mature for their age.

capricorn on the 6th: very logical and structured daily routine, which rarely changes. might be prone to issues with bones (broken bones, osteoporosis etc.)

capricorn on the 7th: attracts partners who are classic romantics and very old school romantics, people who are very stuck in their ways, married to their work, and like being right. partnerships are very strcuted and reliable.

capricorn on the 8th: may undergo challenges with sexuality or sexual idenity which will take a long time to work through. may keep a lot of secrets.

capricorn on the 9th: might study business, entreprenurship, marketing, sales psychology, or medicine at a tertairy level or be interested in these areas.

capricorn on the 10th: seen as disciplinned, serious, and determined by the public. might be or want to be a business exec, CEO, start a small business, work in comerce or ecommerce, be a doctor or similar. might be slow to climb to corporate ladder.

capricorn in the 11th: might be slow to make friends, have a very small trusted circle. very determined at setting and achieveing their goals.

capricorn in the 12th: are strong on their own, and can keep a very logical level-headed mindset when left to their own devices. may struggle with overworking themselves in thsi lifetime.

aquarius in the 1st: seen as unusal, unique, and radical by peopke who first meet you. people might not know quite how to think of you, you might shock them.

aquarius in the 2nd: you hace strong values that closely allign with unpopular belifes, you might have very abstract world views, others dont agree with.

aquarius in the 3rd: your voice might be peircing, or strange to some. you and your siblings might have a very unusal relationship, you may not know them very well kr be quite distant.

aquarius in the 4th: homelife was out of the ordinary, definitely wasnt apart of a regualr neuclear family. may have moved around a lot, or had a very unsettling and unstable vibe. might have been thr odd one out.

aquarius on the 5th: may have unique talents. kids may be ostrascied for being weird or not like the other kids. you have a unique appraoch to dating.

aquarius in the 6th: you hate routine, and like to keep people guessing. may have ankle or calf problems, with lots of sprains, strains and breakages in these areas.

aquarius in the 7th: attract partners who are out of the ordinary or are free thinking radical extremeists. you partnerships can abruptly start and end.

aquarius in the 8th: unusal fetishes. bug interest in the taboo, you like to bring up topics that make others uncomfortable and shock.

aquarius in the 9th: might like to study engineering, information technology, digital art/design, computer programming, maths, science at a tertiary levl.

aquarius in the 10th: seen as weird, radical, or strange by the public. might be or want to be a scientist, an actor, a humanitarian, mathamatician, engineer or simialr.

aquarius on the 11th: massive people person, kind and inclusive to all, has many friends and social connections. understands society at a deep level.

aquarius in the 12th: allows themself to be weird and themsleves when they are alone. may struggle with imposter syndrome.

pisces on the 1st: come across a dreamy, idealistic, sensitive and out of this world. you are an illusion to others, and are quite the chameleon. always changing and morphing.

pisces on the 2nd: may not be very good with money or tangible possessions, may find it hard to ground themselves in the phsycial realm.

pisces on the 3rd: dreamy, soft, melodic voice. siblings were sesnitive, or you had a very emotionally connected relationshil with them.

pisces on the 4th: family life was a bit of a dream, you might not have always been aware of what was going on for you at home, what was real and what was not, parents might have been neglectful or dellusional.

pisces in the 5th: very spiritual and creatively inclined. datinf life might be a bit all over the place, might find it hard to tell when people are into you or not.

pisces in the 6th: very disorganised in temrs of dailr routine, always in a daze, finds it hard to complete necessary daily tasks, sometims lazy. might have feet aches or lymphatic system issues.

pisces in the 7th: attracts dellusional partners, who are not very realistic or grounded. may put up with bad behaviour from partners because they only see the good in others.

pisces in the 8th: very fluid sexuality and open to pretty much anything and everything. sex can be a spiritual experince for them.

pisces in the 9th: might study arts, interior design, medicine, or literature at a higher level.

pisces in the 10th: seen as lazy, day dreamy, and hard to out your finger on by colleuges and the public. might be or want to be an artist, designer, alternative therapist, chiropractor, psychic, psychologist or counsellor.

pisces in the 11th: friendhips might be very dellusional, may have less true quality friends than they realise because they are too forgiving and good at overlooking friends bad qualities.

pisces in the 12th: thrive by themsleves. have psychic tendnacies, and have the ability to absorb the undercurrents of emotional enegry of others. they can struggle with escapism in this life.

[greysfall]

My 4444-word review of NEO TWEWY (with personal illustration + heavy spoilers)

My overall critical score for the game is 7.5/10, while my personal enjoyment score is 8.5/10. This review is posted as I have 80% completed the game, got the secret ending and achieved the Angel psychic rank. I’ll first start with the main pros and cons as follows.

PROS:

-        Enjoyable as a whole, still upholding the first game’s spirit in world building and sharing the same backbone - which was mostly revealed in the Secret Reports, it’s impossible to grasp the story without reading them.

-        The new cast and new game is charming in their own way

-        The old cast’s return is one of the biggest highlights for sure, it was fun and impactful. Everyone stays true to themselves and also had their own stories wrapped up nicely.

-        Boss designs are cool, new pins are fun to use and collect

-        The connection between the old and new cast is well written and executed, including but are not limited to the tension between the old and new protagonist, the weird but fun interaction between the 2 Composers, the new friendships revealed and formed

-        Sho being in the main cast is something so uniquely TWEWY and uniquely Sho

-        Still good music

-        Still many fun side quests, some of them really uphold the same quirky spirit of the old game and some are surprisingly touching

-        Many new nice stores and yummy looking foods to explore

-        The map is really easy to memorize for me, it’s fun to travel around the “current” Shibuya to see all the differences compared to the past

-        The social network is crazy and interesting to read through

-        Has an anti-frustration system to help 100% complete the game more easily and earn money faster, so post-game is relatively managable.

-        Overall, I really feel the efforts the team poured into making this as their passion project, not just during the development process but for all the last 14 years. They showed the vision of what they wanted to make, at the same time giving something to both the old as well as new fans.

CONS:

-        The biggest problem with the game is scenario writing. The story is so heavily back-loaded. The director himself thought it would be better to balance out the tension flow by adding more at the beginning but gave in to the scenario writer in the end, probably due to time pressure. This results in an underwhelming execution of characterization and lots of wasted potentials for the first half of the game.  

-        I struggle to view it as a stand-alone game, since the backstory and the old cast both play such an important role in the core of the game. If someone plays this game without having played the OG, they can only enjoy it on surface value at best.

-        The new cast is nice but most of them aren’t quite as intriguing as the old cast, maybe it’s cuz they’re all too nice deep down that they lack a little bit of an edge, of that batshit craziness that everyone in the OG used to have? I think some characters (Fret, Nagi) ended up weaker in terms of characterization because the writer is too afraid of making them unlikeable – which kind of backlashed cuz they only became likable in the most expectable way to cater for a specific group of fans. I would have wished for the other team leaders to be more crazy too, had they not suffered 30+ loops of the Game…

-        The CAMERAWORK IS HELL.

-        Gameplay does get tedious at certain points with all the time travels.

-        Shiba is so badly written as a villain, some Shinjuku characters should be given more screentime cutting into Shiba’s– like Hishima or Kaie or even, Hazuki (though his limited presence also solidified his importance).

-        Some of the main character designs, for example Beat’s hairstyle and his food reactions are hilariously bad. What’s the point of covering up most of his unique facial features?

-        Some of the minor/side characters’ design are too cool for them to have such a small role (eg: Ayano, Eiru). Ryoji did get much screentime but is nowhere as fun as Makoto was.

-        Overall the scope of this game is made a little too big for the team to handle as perfectly as the last game that was very compact, it felt somewhat rushed in development too so the missing pieces are clearly there in the final picture

The entry fee versus paying for it all in the end

An important difference between the Neo game and the original Shibuya game was that the Shibuya rule asked for an entry fee that is the Player’s most important asset, stated as a chance the Composer gives them to reexamine themselves. Meanwhile, the Shinjuku rule neither encourages nor allows personal growth and ultimately aims to erase as many Players as possible. It’s a pity we were never introduced to the full Shinjuku rulebook, as it seems like the system there focuses more on building up power and a grand government to compare with the individuality-driven system of Shibuya.

When you have to compare the new game and the original game (OG), this is an important factor to consider. Also, the OG has a serious storyline running through and through, locked with a different partner/GM creating unique atmosphere for each week and you don’t get to see your old partners again until the end. NEO’s team system does not allow such deep insight and communication between the Players. All of your teammates are always there throughout, the dynamic does change with each new addition but it is not as prominent as a partner change.

Another important factor is how the OG was built from scratch for a new platform as “something no one has ever seen before”, while Neo recycled a lot of old unused ideas from the previous development (check out this interview for more details). The development team for NEO lacks 2 key members and had a change of writer so the final product is not as strongly bound together as the last game.

The new cast is definitely inspired by today’s teenagers (from the view of creators), compared to the old cast they’re more sociable and always seem to take whatever works for them despite feeling unstable inside. They are all innocent and genuinely nice kids, avoiding to hurt each other to a degree that they end up keeping some sort of distance. They’re also unable to communicate at deeper levels, always stagnant at this half-baked stage of equilibrium without any motivation to get to the core of things. That is the cost of entering the game without an entry fee, without even dying or having a reason to be there/to fight seriously. These kids were stolen from the RG into a Game that was decidedly the worst environment for them to change or develop, just wandering around cluelessly to find a way “out” until tragedies started to unfold one by one and they ended up being charged the total sum of the price for their actions – ultimately losing everything in the end.

That is, I believe, a story arc which can resonate more to the youth of today rather than of my generation. If the message of the old game was to “listen”, enjoy life to the fullest and accept to trust others, the message of the new game is to “speak up” from the inside, trying to understand yourself and take actions instead of just going with the flow and finally, to take responsibility for such actions.

If Neku was handpicked by the Composer for being the special one with an all-dense soul to ensure victory of the game then Rindo was just a normal kid chosen out of random by Kubo to be his back-up plan, who just happened to have a high enough imagination to awaken the incredible power from his pin. Rindo was then officially chosen by the Composer as Josh picked up and handed the pin to him again, this time not as Josh’s personal Proxy – but as the Proxy to represent the normal people of Shibuya and via whom he could gamble if humans can fight for their own fate.

The underworld heroine and the hero with little of his own

Shoka is for me a refreshing and layered heroine. She’s the kind of character that took at least 3 trials of creators to form as a complete individual – that included Nomura who gave her the base design and Reaper background, Gen who gave a more cunning touch and the writers who made her English dialogues more punchy. Dishonesty equals “tsundere” is such a cliché, so the English writers tried really hard to avoid that trope in my opinion, while still letting her good intention come through.

She serves as the character who is informed of everything the players should have known, and there was almost nothing she could do about it. Almost. Until she met Rindo.

They were drawn to each other by sharing a state of “not having anything of their own”. They both started out with not being able to truly know themselves, Shoka even hated her RG life but also managed to mature from that stage before Rindo. She must have vibed with Shiki’s love and passion in the Gatto Nero threads, initiating her connection with Shibuya and understanding herself more. With Shoka as Swallow, they were able to open up to each other and offer mental support… but was still not getting to the centre of their problems because for all this time, Shoka could not tell Rindo the most important things about herself.

How did Shoka feel when she met Rindo at the UG? She probably didn’t want to hope that he would live the day until she witnessed the Twisters’ potentials. From the very beginning, they were both incredibly conscious of each other and also constantly frustrated that the person they happened to “notice” was such a condescending bitch/a clueless loser. The Shinjuku Reapers are overall quite drunk in power and uncompassionate to Players, Shoka included. She is also a master of dissociation, which results in her constant boredom, tone swings, haughtiness and subconsciously distancing herself from the friend – the boy she cares about – from false hope, as she judged from facts that it was a hopeless situation where nothing could ever be. Maybe she is naturally a bit of a chameleon just like her name suggests (Shoka 紫陽花 = hydrangea, the color-changing flower), so putting on an act and always dissociating herself from what’s important was easy, while hiding her contradiction was impossible. It was the ex-Reaper Beat who broke it out to her, that she should decide whether she really cared and wanted to do something for a change. He knew how it felt like to cross that line, and knew she wanted to too.  

Shoka is endeared by many of the Shinjuku Reapers and has shown independent acts of kindness (the Shinjuku ghost), proving that her kind and truthful side is as real as her harsh and dishonest side – which makes her a nice mirror to the previous heroine Shiki, who also embraced a dichotomy of self-complex and self-love within her character. In the end, she was the first of the new cast to ultimately accept all that is important to her and independently made the decision to help save Shibuya despite all costs.

She was jealous at Rindo’s interaction with Tsugumi and Kanon but remained silent cuz she wasn’t at a place to have any say about it. She also didn’t reveal about Swallow because that would only add an awkward irrelevance to their current situation, as she was too ready to face erasure at the end of the Game. She only wished to “play a game” with him, be it FanGo or the Reapers’ Game. The tension that the team could only feel at the end, she’s felt it the entire time. The song “DIVIDE” is applicable to not just one bond in the game, but it always makes me think of theirs. There is always a “divide” between her and Rindo throughout the course of their journey, as the living and the dead, as a Player and Reaper, as someone who has a place to return to and someone who doesn’t, someone who knows little but wields too much power and someone who knows a lot despite not being able to do much.

“If only I had the chance to connect with you on the other side

But time goes on, and without us realizing it

The battle is getting heated

Time goes on, and without us realiazing it

Divided again”

To be honest, maybe I didn’t grow any affection for the new main cast from Rindo’s perspective but from Shoka’s. Since I started to sympathize with Shoka, I started to see the boy in a more “real” way. The real Rindo, behind his peaceful façade with others, would lash out on Shoka for her unfairly harsh attitude while none of the others cared. He could also subtly feel that mantle of unspoken secrets from her, her own contradictions, the unresolved chemistry between themselves – and not knowing what to do with it rather than to feel angry with all the unfairness he could not process. (As a Libra too, he’s triggered the most by unfairness!)

It is actually a positive development as he’s at least “reacting” to something strongly now rather than to keep evading his problems. During my replay, I clearly saw the difficult situation Shoka was in, her remaining harshness after the Motoi incident was due to her internal struggle with a mission to save her own life, versus a chance to really be with the team. Her decision was to do both at the risk of losing favour from both sides. Rindo started to accept her layer by layer, as the person who resonated the most to her contradicting nature from the start and knew that via learning her resolve, he has learnt his too.

Later into the game, she even got too much of his attention. Maybe even without knowing she’s Swallow, he’s familiar with her thinking direction and Swallow had always been closer to him than any other friend. It was only after she had to betray her important ones twice that she could start being truly honest. The scene when she died a 2nd time left a strong impression in me, the little reveal let Rindo know that he is also losing Swallow as he’s losing Shoka – and that only death could drive the last secret out of her. Her final “Later, loser” echoed through Rindo as it was the final truth, with only him remaining to hear it: they had actually, already lost everything.

Rindo was the boy who never dared to face all that matters to him until he lost it all, fighting an unfair battle in the faith that they would somehow still win. Shoka was the girl who always knew what was dear to her, but never dared to think she could be together with them ever after and still threw her all into a battle she knew was losing. I think they stir each other on naturally to fill out their gaps, similar to what the Shibuya game partner systerm would have aimed for. The end reward was a little divine intervention to help close up the divide between them once and for all.  

During the game there was not enough space to process anything personal so at the ending when they officially became “friends”, it was an important affirmation of their bond. Some people complained it was friendzoning but it’s not, they just have arrived at the perfect place to start something more. “From now on, we will truly be together” – I read it as that kind of message.  

The heroine from a lost battle, with her story taken away

After reading the secret reports and playing the game to be surprised of how small a role Tsugumi had in the main game despite being the “Hype-chan” thought to be a major character of the next TWEWY installment, many fans would feel sad at a missed opportunity to see the Shinjuku arc in full depiction.

It was shown clearly that, a Shinjuku arc was very carefully planned out and is a vital part of the whole story, yet it could not be made due to various circumstances behind the development scene. I would assume, that the team were not able to make a TWEWY game that ended on a despairing note, but it already happened in their mind, thus becoming a mental burden that forced them to break away from it and started the game anew with NEO. A significant part of NEO became the healing arc for the Shinjuku characters, especially for Tsugumi though I really wished more emphasis should have been placed on her rather than Shiba. We didn’t even get to see her brother – Shinjuku’s Conductor who had a vital role and instead was given the clueless Shiba, who had absolutely no idea what’s going on all the way until the last day in NEO. It’s as if Tsugumi has had her story stolen away from her, because her own battle ended with a saddening loss.

I think every time the game creators look at Tsugumi, they would feel that sadness too. Maybe to them, she is a bigger character than what is seen by the fans, as despite their failed effort to depict her story, she’s lived in their mind for all these years through periods of destruction, healing and rebuild.  Though it is a pity we could not get to experience the full scope of the Shinjuku story, the creators was clear about the place they wished for it to arrive at.    

Individuality, connection and the social network

The team system adapted from Shinjuku rulebook does not allow much room for personal development, as the team dynamic is closer to a work relationship forced to bear results, than a spiritual bond to max out all corners of understanding as found in the partnership system. The old Shibuya system allowed only 1 winner and 1 week limit per game, while the new rule declares for a 1 winning team and only the team at last place will be erased – the other teams will enter another loop. Furthermore, whichever team to challenge the unwinnable Ruinbringers will face the risk of ending up dead last followed by erasure. As a result, the longest-standing teams are most likely not the strongest ever recorded, but the ones who have figured out a strategy to simply survive until something changes, enjoying their newly found social constructs while they are at it. Basically, it is a system to hypnotise players into the illusion that they are still “living”.

Therefore, we as players would not get to the core of each Player individually as fast and directly as we did in the last game. The Twisters were able to stand out not because they’re powerful, they only started to have a real chance after growing enough to each form a meaningful and personal connection to another teammate. It did not come as a team, nor did it intiate from the existing friendship between Rindo and Fret. In fact, I did not find much solidity or anything truly note-worthy about the main team and new characters within themselves until they started clashing with other team members, Reapers and new recruits from week 2 onwards. Rindo found his personal development with Shoka (via a clash with Motoi and pretty much a mini dating sim between them), then via the confrontation of his role with Neku; Fret found his with Kanon then Nagi, the team learned about the real Neku via Beat, Neku entered the UG via Coco’s wish to save Tsugumi… it was not the team but their personal links that empowered them to fight and solve each of their problems.

The other team leaders may have failed because they did not form such personal links, after 30+ hopeless loops Fuya’s team all fell apart to pursue their own interest even at the cost of erasure, Motoi quit his KOL façade to work like a dog for the Reapers (probably to save just his own ass not his team), while Kanon dropped her tricks to find changes via honest cooperation in acceptance of a fair loss. The despairing note in that is huge without making much of a scene because their failure didn’t happen at their best effort to “win”, but in their last attempt to find a way “out”. Even Shiba got his way “out” in the end thanked to his personal friendship with Hishima and Tsugumi.

Something has shifted in the mindset of the game creators in the last 14 years, as both games are about “connection vs individuality” but the last game focuses more on connection between just individuals and this one on the overall network that is formed out of those individual connections.

The introduction of Beat into the main cast was truly the bridge between old and new, they helped each other out in several turns before officially recruiting him. Beat is a character whom a lot of fans including myself have felt somewhat concerned about after Neku disappeared from the RG, so when the new kids welcomed Beat with warm and organic interaction and Beat seemed happy, I started to feel like I wanted to help them out too! I think the overall team chemistry is enjoyable enough for new players, but I could warm up to the new kids more from the pov of a returning character – whom I’m glad to be Beat, as the older brother figure who is genuinely kind, fun, serious and upbeat at the same time; who is needed and needs the kids in return.

The social network is a fun and refreshing feature. You can read all of the crazy tidbits about Shibuya and the links each character have formed with the town people, it’s also fun to visualize how the characters act off screen. Characters’ profiles provide extra insight into their background too, like how it reveals Tsugumi has been friend with Coco during her time in the RG. During the game when not all characters have showed up, you can sometimes guess which empty spot will belong to whom. For example there is a 1 character linking to Neky that is not linked to anyone else, so I could guess that was Joshua, and that another character linking only to Joshua was probably Hazuki, hinting that the 2 Composers are related before either of them even showed up.

Hazuki only showed up for 5 minutes, but his presence is so vital and true to the game that I think he is the most memorable out of the new cast. The two Composers have such an intriguing bond, with their yin/yang or phoenix/dragon themes, opposite color design, the sempai/kouhai tone and the way they keep some sort of distance/work relationship as if it’s mandatory between Higher beings, yet at the same time they can talk so casually because they are truly equal – and different from one another. I have written a separate meta on them here.

Some people pointed out, that all Shinjuku characters’ names and themes are based off Hanafuda cards and the Phoenix in Hanafuda belongs to the Paulownia suit – which is Joshua’s name flower. This is so interesting because it feels like the creators somehow saw it as a sign to interweave the Shibuya and Shinjuku storylines together. Though it doesn’t come out much on the surface, it’s fascinating nonetheless considering both Josh and Haz had at some point interfered with the other town’s affairs.

“Shibuya tour with Haz” was such a special scene, as it happened between 2 characters who do not/no longer have a reason to care about Shibuya, on the subject of what is worth saving about Shibuya. Hazuki carried out the purification of Shinjuku and stepped in to restore Shibuya just as part of his job and unlike Hanekoma or Joshua who both possess profound understanding of humanity, he really didn’t know humans at all. Rindo’s irrational wish invoked in him a sense of curiosity, to try gambling on something irrationally and learning a bit of what his senior have experienced. With all the pieces put together, it provides an overview on Higher beings as a whole, and that Joshua and Hanekoma are really the odd ones out with Hazuki being somewhere in between them and the rest.        

The old friends

It’s easy to have returning characters overshadow the new cast as they have already matured out of their personal story arc and stayed in our hearts for all this time. In the end, I have managed to enjoy both the old and new cast separately and altogether, and they will both find their own place in our memory of this game for the long term.

Sho is truly as crazy as ever, the game wouldn’t be the same if Sho is any less of what he is. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like Neky or Beat is younger than Nagi at all, with moments when it seems like Neky has aged 14 years instead of 3 years. His friendship with Coco surprised me pleasantly, and their interaction together with Beat was fun to watch. Rhyme’s found a new dream and her friendship with Kaie is precious too, especially considering that she can still talk to him online after the game ended. Josh and Neku’s interaction suggested that they have resolved the past and are on equal terms now, they even parted ways in good spirit and I don’t feel any worry about them like I did before.

Neku and Shiki’s reunion scene was beautiful, theirs is such a special bond that it has grown and supported them even without being able to see each other. I am so happy to see them all again and that they stay true to who they are, albeit looking more grown up, cooler and happier than ever before.  

Overall, NEO can’t become a classic on par with the OG, but is definitely a good sequel and a good game in its own rights. I’m happy with whether or not there will be a 3rd game to complete the 3 monkeys theme, but if there will be – I hope the creators can really find the time to learn from the last 2 games and start over with a fresh mindset and strong core.  

[coolamramerthings]

Landing Page Copywriting

Introductions

Copywriting is the art of writing for conversion. Your goal is to get people to do what you want them to do, whether that's buying a product, signing up for an email list... or just reading more. But great copywriting isn't limited to ads and landing pages. Any time you're trying to get someone else to do something, it's copywriting! And if you're reading this blog post right now (hi!), then chances are good that you've got some kind of conversion goal in mind -- whether it's getting new customers or simply increasing traffic on your website.

copywriting

Copywriting is a specialized field of writing that focuses on marketing and promotion. Copywriters write the text for advertisements, brochures, websites, sales letters and other marketing materials.

It's important to understand that copywriting isn't just about writing—it involves understanding your audience and what they want from you. Copywriters need to know who they're talking to in order to write effectively. This means taking into account their age group, education level and interests when creating content for them. It also means using language that's appropriate for those demographics (e.g., teenagers don't like being patronized).

Copywriters use persuasive techniques such as storytelling or testimonials in order to convey their message effectively; however, these techniques can be used tastefully so as not to come across as too pushy or obvious (which could turn off potential customers).

Start with headline

The headline is the most important part of your landing page. It must be short, clear and attention-grabbing. The headline should include words that are relevant to the content on your landing page and should have persuasive power.

When writing a headline, ask yourself: "What do I want my audience to think when they read my headline?" As you write your copy, keep in mind that it should sound like something that would appeal directly to them based on their interests or problems (i.e., "I want people who struggle with X to know about my product."). Also remember that headlines are often used as search engine results; therefore, you'll want yours to be specific and somewhat unique so that it stands out from other pages targeting similar audiences.

Understand what your users want

You need to know your audience.

You need to know your business.

You need to know your product.

You need to know your competition, and how they're messaging their customers.

And finally, you need to know what it is that you want people who visit your website or landing page (and eventually, purchase) so badly that it's driving them crazy - enough so that they'll pay money just for the privilege of doing so!

Design for conversion

The first thing you should do when writing copy for your landing page is to follow these design guidelines:

Use white space. White space, or negative space, allows readers to focus on the most important parts of your landing page—the headline and sub-headline. If you fill every inch of a webpage with text and images, it can overwhelm people and make them feel like they don’t know where to look or what’s important.

Use color to guide attention. Color helps identify different sections of your landing page so that readers know how each section differs from another section (and why there are different sections). You want people reading through your copy in order from top to bottom and left to right; this way they will see all the features/benefits of whatever product or service you're selling before making a purchasing decision based on those features/benefits alone rather than relying solely on price comparisons found elsewhere online.

Make sure that each paragraph has its own topic sentence; otherwise, it will be hard for readers who skim instead of reading completely through any given piece without seeing any patterns emerge between topics being addressed.

Use bullet points sparingly (only if necessary) because they make content appear denser which may cause users not to want much detail at all when looking into something new such as this particular niche within such a broader category field where there's plenty available already - keep things simple!

Landing page copywriting

Landing page copywriting is a crucial part of any landing page. It's the first impression you give to your users, and it should be simple, direct and engaging. Landing pages should be written in a way that engages and converts users.

To start with, you'll need to come up with a headline that clearly communicates what your product or service does. Your headline should focus on selling the benefits of the product or service on offer rather than describing what it is. You can then expand on this by describing how it works in each paragraph below (if applicable), mentioning any key features such as price and availability at this point too. Finally, you can end by asking for their contact details if they're interested in learning more about your product or service - this allows you to build up trust by showing them how easy it will be for them to get started using whatever it is that you're offering!

The right words will start a conversation

You don’t have to be a professional copywriter to write effective landing page copy. All you need are the right words. And I mean that literally if your words aren’t right, they won’t make a difference in how well your landing page converts.

Think about what types of words work best for you and your audience. You can use action verbs like “download” or “learn more” to give visitors an idea of what they should do next on the site; these kinds of commands push people forward toward completing their goal for visiting in the first place (e.g., buying). If your product is educational or informational in nature, consider using words that relate directly back to it—for example, if you sell dog toys online then use “playful petting toy!” instead of just “fun toy!” which could apply more generally across many different categories within e-commerce stores but doesn't have any relation specifically back toward whatever product category this particular store falls under (and therefore doesn't provide any additional value beyond simply stating its function).

Start with the headline, understand what your users want, design for conversion and use the right words.

There are some important things to remember when it comes to landing page copywriting:

Start with the headline. A good headline will get people's attention and draw them in, but also make sure that you're targeting the right visitors. You should be able to see what kind of person would find your landing page interesting based on the information you provide in your headline, so make sure that you're directing it toward those people.

Understand what your users want. Your goal may be to get the visitor to click on a link or sign up for a service, but there are other ways that this can happen—for example, if they need help from a product or service and are trying to figure out how much time it'll take them and whether or not they can afford it first before making any decisions about purchasing anything from You as well as making sure that you're actually offering something worthwhile enough for them (a lot easier said than done).

Conclusion

I hope I’ve given you some useful tips to get started with landing page copywriting. Remember, the most important thing is to write for your users, not for search engines or other external factors. You need to know what they want and give it to them!

[thimbil]

Having some thoughts about the references and inspirations used for the Bad Batch’s designs.

So Boba Fett is my absolute favorite character and Temeura Morrison was perfect casting. I went to see the 2008 TCW movie in theaters because I was so excited to see him again, even if he was animated. You can imagine my disappointment. Whoever was on screen was not Temeura Morrison. You could sort of see a resemblance if you squinted and didn’t think too hard about it. They replaced Temeura with Racially Ambiguous G.I. Joe. If I didn’t know better and someone told me the animated clones are space Italians from the moon of New Jersey I would buy it. One Million Brothers Pizzeria and Italian Bistro. Not that there’s something wrong with being space Italian, I just don’t think it’s the right choice for the Fetts. The design got slightly improved by season 7 but it still bugs the hell out of me.

I did eventually get into the show later and (of course) got invested in the clones. Unfortunately, they were largely sidelined by the Jedi storylines. Out of the two new main characters created for TCW, Ahsoka definitely got more development and focus than Rex. When they announced The Bad Batch, I was excited to see a show specifically devoted to the clones… at least that’s what it said on the tin. We have all seen what lurks beneath those stylish helmets.

Jango Fett, you are NOT the father.

So who is?

Based on interviews with Filoni, it sounds like the Bad Batch was a George Lucas idea. And like all his ideas, it’s super derivative. The original trilogy directly lifted elements from sci fi serials, westerns, and samurai movies, more specifically Kurosawa films like The Hidden Fortress. For The Bad Batch character designs, the influence is obviously American action and adventure movies.

Now let’s get specific. Bad Batch, who’s your daddy?

Hunter

Sylvester Stallone as Rambo in First Blood 1982. That bandana has become an integral part of the iconic action hero look. You see a character wearing one and it’s a visual shorthand for either “this character is a tough guy” like Billy played by Sonny Landham in Predator 1987, or “this character thinks he is/wants to be a tough guy” like Brand played by Josh Brolin in The Goonies 1985 or Edward Frog played by Corey Feldman in The Lost Boys 1987.

Hunter’s model is closest to the original clone base. If you look closely you will see the eyebrows are straighter with a much lower angle to the arch. His nose is also not the same shape as a standard clone like Rex, including a narrower bridge. It’s certainly not Temeura Morrison’s nose. Remember what I said about space Italians? It didn’t take much to push the existing clone design to resemble an specific Italian man instead of a specific Māori man. The 23&Me came back, and Hunter inherited more than the bandana from Sylvester.

Crosshair

The long narrow nose, the sharp cheekbones, the scowl. That’s no clone, that’s just animated Clint Eastwood. Not even Young and Hot Clint Eastwood from Rawhide 1959-1965. With that hair, I’m talking Gran Torino 2008. The man of few words schtick and family friendly toothpick in lieu of cigar are pure Eastwood as The Man With No Name from Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns A Fist Full of Dollars 1964, For a Few Dollars More 1965, and The Good the Bad and the Ugly 1966.

In a way, this is full circle because the actor Jeremy Bulloch took inspiration from Clint Eastwood for his performance as Boba Fett in ESB.

Wrecker

In an interview Filoni lists the Hulk as an (obvious) inspiration for Wrecker. Ever seen the old Hulk tv show from 1978? Well take a look at the actor who played him, Lou Ferrigno. Would you look at that. Even has his papa’s nose.

You could make the argument that Wrecker was influenced by The Rock, an appropriately buff ‘n bald Polynesian (Samoan, not Maori) man. But look at him next his Fast and Furious costar Vin Diesel and tell me which one resembles Wrecker’s character model more.

Tech

Tech is a little trickier for me to place. If he has a more direct inspiration it must be something I haven’t seen. That said, his hairline is very Bruce Willis as John McClane in Die Hard 1988. His quippiness and large glasses remind me of Shane Black as Hawkins from Predator 1987. In terms of his face, he looks a but like the result of McClane and Hawkins deciding to settle down and start a family. Although, Tech’s biggest contributors are probably just everyone on TV Trope’s list for Smart People Wear Glasses.

And finally,

Echo

Oh Echo. Considering he wasn’t created for the Bad Batch, he probably wasn’t based on a particular character or movie. But if I had to guess, his situation and appearance remind me a lot of Alex Murphy played by Peter Weller in Robocop 1987. However, Robocop explored the Man or Machine Identity Crisis with more nuance, depth, and dignity. Yikes.

The exact tropes and references used in The Bad Batch have been done successfully with characters who aren’t even human. Gizmo from Gremlins 2: The New Batch 1990 had a brief stint with the Rambo bandana. I could have picked any number of characters for Defining Feature Is Glasses but here is the most cursed version of Simon of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Suffer as I have. Marc Antony with his beloved Pussyfoot from Looney Tunes has the same tough guy with a soft center vibe as Wrecker and his Lula (also a kind of cat). Hell, in the same show we have Cad Bane sharing Cowboy Clint Eastwood with Crosshair. I actually think Bane makes a better Eastwood which is wild considering Crosshair has Eastwood’s entire face and Bane is blue.

So we’ve established you don’t need your characters to look exactly like their inspirations to match their vibe. So why go through the trouble and cost of creating completely new character designs instead of recycling and altering assets they already had on hand? Just slap on a bandana, toothpick, goggles, and make Wrecker bigger than the others while he does a Hulk pose and you’re done. Based on the general reaction to Howzer it would have been a low effort slam dunk crowd pleaser.

But they didn’t do that.

So here’s the thing. I like the tropes used in The Bad Batch. I am a fan of action adventure movies from the 80s-90s, the sillier the better. I am part of the Bad Batch’s target audience. Considering what I know about Disney and Lucasfilm, I went in with low expectations. I genuinely don’t hate the idea of seeing references to these actors and media in The Bad Batch. I don’t think basing these characters on tropes was a bad idea. If anything it’s a solid starting point for building the characters.

The trouble is nothing got built on the foundation. The plot is directionless, the pacing is wacky, and the characters have nearly no emotional depth or defining character arcs. They just sort of exist without reacting much while the story happens around them. But I can excuse all of that. You don’t stay a fan of Star Wars as long as I have not being able to cherrypick and fill in the gaps. This show has a deeper issue that shouldn’t be ignored.

Why do the animated clones bear at best only a passing resemblance to their live action actor? In interviews, Filoni wouldn’t shut up but the technological advancements in the animation for season 7. So if they are updating things, why not try to make the clones a closer match to their source material? Why did they have to look like completely different people in The Bad Batch to be “unique”? Looking like Temeura Morrison would have no bearing on their special abilities and TCW proved you can have identical looking characters and still have them be distinct. In fact, that’s a powerful theme and the source of tragedy for the clones’ narrative overall.

Here’s Filoni’s early concept art of Crosshair, Wrecker, Tech, and Hunter. (Interesting but irrelevant: Wrecker seems to have a cog tattoo similar to Jesse’s instead of a scar. Wouldn’t it have been funny if they kept that so when they met in season 7 one if them could say something like “Hey we’re twins!” That’s a little clone humor. Just for you guys 😘)

None of these drawings look like the clones in TCW, much less Temeura Morrison. Let’s be generous. Maybe Filoni struggles with drawing a real person’s likeness, as many people do. But he had to hand this off to other artists down the line whose job specifically involves making a stylized character resemble their actor. Yet the final designs missed the mark almost as much as this initial concept. Starting to seem as if the clones looking more like Temeura Morrison was never even on the table. It wasn’t a lack of creativity, skill or technical limitations on the part of the creative team. I don’t think there is an innocent explanation. They went out of their way to make the final product exactly how we got it.

This goes beyond homage. They could have made the same pop culture references and character tropes without completely stripping Temeura Morrison from the role he originated. It was a very purposeful choice to replace him with more immediately familiar actors from established franchises and films. It wouldn’t shock me if Filoni, Lucas, and anyone else calling the shots didn’t even think hard or care enough about the decision to immediately recognize a problem. And I don’t think they believed anyone else would either. At least no one whose opinion they cared about. Those faces are comfortingly familiar and proven bankable. They are what we’re all used to seeing after all. They’re white.

Lack of imagination, bad intentions, or simple ignorance doesn’t really matter in the end. The result is the same. Call it what it is. They replaced a man of color with a bunch of white guys. That’s by the book garden variety run of the mill whitewashing. There’s no debate worth having about it. For a fanbase that loves to nitpick things like whether or not it’s in character for Han to shoot first or Jeans Guy in the Mandalorian, we sure are quick to find excuses for clones who look nothing like their template. Why is that? If you don’t see the problem, congratulations. Your ass is showing. Pull your jeans up.

[togglesbloggle]

How We Decided

The day after tomorrow- that is, February 18, 2021- the Perseverance rover will attempt to land on the surface of Mars.  It will enter the planetary atmosphere at an acute angle, giving it as much time as possible to experience drag and slow down from orbital velocities.  Because Mars’ air is so thin, and the rover is so heavy, this will fail- in the best case, Perseverance would still be going almost a thousand miles an hour when it impacts the surface.  To help save itself, the craft will deploy a parachute of advanced design, seventy feet across and able to withstand supersonic velocities.  This, too, will fail.  Even with a parachute, there is simply not enough air between Perseverance and the Martian surface to slow it down all the way.  So this is where the rockets kick in.  Once air resistance slows the rover to a bit less than two hundred miles per hour, the heavy heat shield will be jettisoned, and a system of secondary rockets will fire against the direction of motion until it slows to near-hovering.  In a final flourish, the rover will descend from the rocket-boosted frame on coiled springs, until it touches down in the western part of Jezero crater in the northern hemisphere of Mars.

As it happens, Perseverance’s destination was one of the very last things we decided about it- not until the craft itself was fairly thoroughly engineered and designed.  Formally, the decision was made by the mission directorate.  In practice, they follow the consensus of the scientific community, which in turn hashes things out at a series of open-invitation workshops.  Things began with a call for white papers- an open suggestion box, basically.  In 2015, the first workshop narrowed things down from thirty serious proposals to eight candidates.  In 2017, the second workshop further winnowed the list down to three.  And in October of 2018, after three days of presentation, debate, and discussion, the final workshop selected Jezero Crater from these final three candidates using a simple vote of all attendees, and passed on the recommendation to the mission leads.

I haven’t been in the business for very long, so the final workshop was the only one of these where I actually participated.  It wasn’t a close vote as such, and I didn’t break any ties, and technically we were just making a strongly worded suggestion.  Nonetheless, my vote is one of the reasons why the Rover will be going to Jezero Crater instead of Syrtis Major or Gusev, and I think I’m entitled to feel ownership of this mission choice, just a little bit.

(This is, of course, terrifying.)

Having gone through the experience, there were a few surprises worth noting.  The first was how small some of the numbers are here.  The conference was not very large: only thirty proposals, debated by just a few hundred attendees.  I’ve seen book review contests with more entries, and that are read by a wider audience.  Which is to say, this is a situation that was, and is, extremely responsive to individual effort.  In that small a room, populated by people that are philosophically committed to changing their minds when they see good evidence or a good argument, one person can stand up and change the future in a very real way.

The second surprise was the attendance requirements.  Or rather, the lack thereof.  The project is public, paid for by American taxpayers, to whom I am profoundly grateful.  And one way the process reflected that public-spiritedness is that this is not a walled garden.  A small attendance fee (iirc, $40?), and you’re in.  You get a vote, if you want to use it.  A few non-scientists even took us up on this; there’s one retiree (a former schoolteacher, I think) that’s attended every major conference I’ve been to in the last few years, and sets up a small table in the back with his home mineral collection just for fun.  In practice this open-door policy is limited by the obscurity of the event itself; if you don’t move in research circles, you have to be something of a space exploration superfan to hear about it.  Still, as symbols go, you could do worse.

And now that we’re coming up on the day itself, the same kind of public-facing mindset is making me think about why I was persuaded to vote for Jezero Crater, what it means to explore there, and how I’d justify that choice to those of you that made the ongoing discovery of Mars possible in the first place.

If you want to know what Perseverance is like, and what you can reasonably do with it, start with Curiosity- the two are built, more or less, on the same chassis.  That means you have a mobile science lab about the size of a Volkswagon Beetle.  Add some mechanical improvements (no more wheel punctures!) and a few bells and whistles (microphone!  helicopter for some reason!).  Trade out some of the scientific instruments- raman spectroscopy instead of a mass spectrometer, for example.  And it’s got these:

That, dear reader, is a sample return canister.  Not to be returned immediately, alas, but to be returned nonetheless.  One of Persevereance’s primary directives is to find interesting rocks, collect them, and leave them in place for a sample return mission in the early 30s.  There’s a ton of work we can do in situ, but there’s even more we can do in a clean lab back home; things like isotopic analysis really need a much more controlled environment than you’ll get in the field.  And so a major, major consideration is to optimize Perseverance’s landing site for cool rocks that we’d like to take back home.

The other thing that Perseverance is really good at is astrobiology.  There’s no such thing as a life sign detector as such, but this rover represents an attempt to approach that ideal: instruments like SHERLOC and SuperCam are adept at finding organic compounds and fine-scale mineralogy and chemistry that might be influenced by microbial metabolism.  This is a natural extension of what we’ve been learning so far: Spirit and Opportunity showed us that Mars formed under the influence of liquid water.  Curiosity showed us that this was not just wet, but actively habitable: lakes and rivers at a neutral pH under a rich and temperate atmosphere.  The next question along this line is the hardest, and the scariest: we know it was habitable, but was it inhabited?

If you’re like me, that question makes you feel weird.  Collecting rocks is one thing, but a fossil?  The mind rebels.  We’ve spent the last two generations of space exploration tempering our expectations, reminding ourselves that the other worlds in our solar system are largely barren and dead, learning again and again how precious life is in the cosmos.  It’s hard to get in the mindset of people back in the 40s and 50s who could, somewhat reasonably, imagine that Mars might not just host life but multicellular life, vegetation and robust macroscopic ecosystems.  We look back at the science fiction of the era, swarthy soldiers hopping from planet to planet in silver rockets, and laugh at the naivete.  A smile at the exuberance of youth, if we’re feeling generous.  When we were first beginning, we may have imagined ancient canals on Mars and crystal cities on Venus, but that was when space was a blank canvas for us to paint our fantasies.  We’ve learned so much since then, and if it was less fun, at least it was true.  We did the hard thing and accepted reality over fantasy.  We accept that extraterrestrial environments are hostile to life- cratered, silent, and still.  We’re grownups now.

Unless…

Unless.

Imagine that we were born just a bit earlier.  Say, three and a half billion years or so.  We raise our telescopes to the sky, and we see a sister-planet.  Not red, but white and blue, with an atmosphere full of clouds and multiple large bodies of water scattered across its surface, prominent ice caps and snow-capped highlands, rivers tracing their way down to the lowlands in the north.  (Maybe the water is all under the ice, not open to the air at the surface; maybe the liquid pools are small and limited to craters, not feeding a large ocean.)  Sober scientists might have suggested we shouldn’t get our hopes up too much- after all, the gravity is much lower, there’s no tectonic recycling, and there’s no protective magnetosphere.  But is sterility really the default assumption we should be making here?  Is ‘we are alone in the cosmos’ really the most sane conclusion to draw from this situation?  Is it not worth, perhaps, sending a rover to go see?

We’ve adapted our sensibilities to a dead solar system because in the moment we’re looking, it kind of is.  We’re hopeful for the icy moons- and the evidence keeps mounting there as well- but the terrestrial planets are a grim reminder of the fragility and contingency of our own world.  The thing is, the more we learn, the more we discover that we’re a bit late to a very, very interesting party.  Venus is a hellscape, but it probably didn’t start that way.  Mars is a desert, but once it was an oasis.  What makes Earth special among the terrestrial worlds isn’t that it developed a temperate climate, but that it kept a temperate climate for more than four billion years.  Stability, not habitability, is the party trick that makes us unique in the solar system.  And if we’re really committed to being grownups, to accepting what’s real instead of what’s easy, we have to learn that lesson too.

And life does not need four billion years to begin.  Not even close.

That brings us to Jezero Crater.  The most interesting feature here is a large river delta- based on some clever geology, we’re pretty sure that a large river emptied into the crater during Mars’ wet period.  When the rapidly-flowing water hit the still water of Lake Jezero, the loose sediments being carried along the current all fell out of suspension at this place, forming a large pile of detritus at the mouth of the river that accumulated over the lifetime of the system.  Even more interesting, check out this geologic map:

See those tiny teal deposits to the right side of the image?  Those are also river delta deposits.  Which means the thing labeled ‘delta’ on this map isn’t the original extent- it used to be much, much larger, at least twice as wide.  Which also means that the outer edge of the ‘delta’ that we see here in this image is actually an erosional surface, and we get a natural cross-section of the thing with the oldest deposits at the bottom and the youngest at the top, just before Mars lost its hydrosphere.  By climbing the outer edge, we can move through time across a large fraction of the habitable period.

Here’s another image I’d like you to see:

The crater I’ve been showing you is the small circle in the lower right- color is elevation, covering a span of about 5 km.  The black line is the watershed of that river, the region of Mars that channeled water to the delta.  In other words, the river delta collects sediments- and potentially, biosignatures- from a region hundreds of kilometers in diameter, and gathers them all in one place, neatly sorted by time.

For this reason, ancient deltas on Earth are a favorite of paleontologists.  In addition to being comfortably wet and active itself- plenty of access to biologically important nutrients, fresh supplies of liquid water, and a nice dynamic environment- deltas do the legwork for us.  Rather than exploring a huge fraction of the planet with a tiny rover, hoping that we stumble upon an ancient life sign, we can position ourselves at the mouth of the proverbial fire hose and let life come to us.

This does come with some tradeoffs.  Most importantly, whatever we find, we won’t know the original geologic setting.  If we find an unambiguous fossil of some kind- a microbial mat, perhaps- then we’ll know less than if we’d found it in its original home.  And if we don’t find life, then the samples we take will be similarly uncertain.  They’ll be defined in time, at least relative to one another, but not in space.  In the case of life signs, this is an important caveat, but the bare fact of proving that extraterrestrial life exists is sufficiently monumental that it’s still a secondary concern.  But if we’re just talking about geology, that’s a hard thing to lose; that terrifying multi-stage descent isn’t the only risk we’re taking.  We’re leaning into the astrobiology mission hard with this one.

And the search for life is, in itself, fraught.  That’s putting it mildly.  There’s every chance that any evidence that’s even slightly marginal is going to touch off decades of debate, rather than being some kind of slam-dunk.  As it should!  Life is such a fuzzy concept, and such an important concept, that it should absolutely be held to the highest degree of scrutiny we can muster.  This is why it matters that Perseverance includes sample return- in the highly likely case that the findings are disputed, we’ll hopefully have the chance to subject those samples to the highest degrees of scrutiny.  So it feels like the right time to go hunting.

On top of that, there’s the ‘evidence of absence’ problem.  Strong biosignatures update our priors very hard in the direction of life on Mars.  But what is the correct amount of evidence necessary to convince us that Mars never was alive?  I’m not sure, but failure to find microbial mats in Jezero probably isn’t enough.  So the search for life can succeed, but if it ‘fails’ that doesn’t necessarily teach us much; the best experiments teach you something no matter what, and ideally a commitment this large would meet that standard.  This is, more or less, baked into the search for extraterrestrial life, and there aren’t too many ways out from under that problem.

That said, Jezero in particular has some compensation.  As I mentioned, we’re collecting a lot of good data regardless; and even without the gologic context, there’s a ton of opportunity to sample different minerals and how they formed, and get a nice broad sample of the Martian surface over time.  And, even better, here’s the location of another interesting potential field site, in northeast Syrtis:

Note the proximity to Jezero crater!  And Syrtis is also a fantastic candidate for a sample return mission.  It has exposed mesas with layered outcrops going all the way back to the earliest days of Mars, and extending (potentially) through many of the most interesting periods.  Now, these are not ideal for the search for life, although they’d give us a ton of technical data about surface chemistry and the behavior of the atmosphere during the early, wet periods; it would go a long way towards resolving arguments about the temperature of the early Martian climate, for example, or tracing the early destabilization and loss of the magnetosphere while teaching us loads about the planet’s core.

Those mesas are still pretty far away.  Too far, probably, for a sensible rover lifespan to make it all the way there.  But there’s a plan- called the ‘Midway’ route, as a nod to the compromise nature of it.  See, halfway between Jezero and these mesas, there are a lot of banded rocks that look suspiciously like they’re sourced from the table mesas in Syrtis.  And those, we can get to, maybe.  If we call a specific deadline on looking for life in Jezero, then we can pivot to Midway and hopefully take a really deep look.  So, in the end, we’re going hard for astrobiology research, but we’re not going all-in.

The importance of the search for life is… well, there are a lot of people out there, and we enter the world in a lot of different ways.  Most of us agree that the existence of extraterrestrial life would be a Big Deal, and we tend to have a lot of different reasons for that.  It’s not a bad subject for a future post or three, in fact.  But there’s one thing lurking in the back of my head that’s a non-obvious reason to go looking.  This wasn’t discussed at the workshop particularly, but it fed into my vote somewhat.  Check the logic of this for me, see if it makes sense:

Worrying about existential risks, we sometimes talk about the ‘great filter’.  That is, the mysterious phenomenon which explains the lack of extraterrestrial civilizations reaching out to us.  Now, maybe we’re in a zoo or a preserve or something, and intelligences are out there watching after all; maybe the Earth really is the center of the cosmos, because of the simulation hypothesis or the various religious explanations.  There’s no real way to know for sure at this point.  But consider the space of very real possibilities where the universe actually is material, and actually is mostly barren.  Why?

Stepping through the sequence, it might be that abiogenesis is really hard- going from a temperate world to a living one is almost (but not quite) impossible.  Maybe there’s some hurdle to clear between genesis and encephalization.  Maybe, given encephalization, civilization and tool-use are almost impossible.  Or maybe there are many civilizations like ours, and the great filter is ahead of us- it is almost impossible for technological civilizations not to self-destruct or turn in to lotus-eaters before they reach interstellar civilization.  There are a lot of possibilities for the filter, and for present purposes we’ll divide them into two categories: those which we would have already passed, and those which are in our future.

And here’s the thing: for each possibility we can exclude from the great filter, all the other possibilities increase commensurately, becoming more likely in our estimation.  (Assuming the exclusion is ‘clean’ and doesn’t favor some other possibility, that is.)  Given that the silence continues, if we could somehow prove that technological self-destruction isn’t a big risk, that would commensurately increase our guesses about how hard abiogenesis is.

Life on Mars, especially if we could be very sure that it evolved independently of Earth life, would be a strong argument against the difficulty of abiogenesis.  One biosphere in the solar system, and nowhere else, might be down to luck.  The one biosphere has to be somewhere, right?  Two in the solar system, and nowhere else, is a good bit less reasonable.  If we find a second genesis on Mars, then we’ve learned that life is not rare.  That the hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way are likely host to many billions of different living (or at least once-living) worlds.

And as wonderful as that news is, as much as it makes me so happy that I literally had to take a second to cry on my bed for a bit, it also makes the great silence much, much scarier.  Today, we can reassure ourselves by saying that life may be rare in the universe.  But what if it isn’t?  If the cosmos is full of life, but not full of thought, then…

If this is the case, we need to know.  We need to know as soon as possible, and we need to know it while we’re engaged in the great project of technological development and moral progress.  It’s easy to imagine that this particular mission is one that can be framed in purely positive terms- the joy of discovery, the vastness of truth, the love of how things might be.  But I do also have this sense of civilizational fragility, you know?  And understanding the risks that we face and the chances we’re taking- that’s not idle curiosity.  That’s genuinely urgent.

[beevean]

How was Infinite better than Mephiles in your opinion? I think Infinite had a bit of potential but Pontiff ruined what little there was.

Is Forces a Pontaff game? It doesn’t look like one, and I think they just translated/collaborated? No seriously, I remember reading the credits and being confused. Anyway.

Let’s get out of the way the most shallow reason I prefer Infinite: design. Infinite’s design is damn cool, he’s so edgy that it’s obvious he’s meant to be a caricature, with his clawed gloves and boots with his own friggin’ symbol on it, but he’s still appealing to the eyes. Before you finish the game, the mask also adds intrigue: why is he wearing it, and why is he blind in one eye? It motivates you to get to know more about him. It also helps that he’s a canid, a family that is quite rare in the series - I can only think of Tails and Chip - and it makes him unique but not in a special OC way. (this also means he even has some cute features like big ears and a fluffy tail, which add delicious contrast to his “I'm the toughest of terrors I am the darkest of days” design)

On the contrary, Mephiles has two designs: Multiplayer-Mode Shadow...

And Nightmare Shadow.

And sure, the crystallized form is pretty cool to look at, but he still Shadow. I get that he was reborn from Shadow’s shadow (some writer felt very clever that day), but I kinda would have preferred to see him take other forms. Well, it’s not like the devs had the time to add a third model...

(also, both of them have awesome voices so I can’t put one above the other)

As for the rest, here’s a rundown:

- Mephiles, along with Iblis to a lesser extent, overshadows Eggman. He’s yet another villain that takes the stage and reduces the good ol’ doc to a miniboss, more preoccupied with stealing the McGuffin... I mean, Princess Elise, than to do some interesting villaining - this has the ripple effect of making Sonic the Hedgehog, in a game called Sonic the Hedgehog, nearly useless to the main plot until he’s killed. I have little tolerance for villains who want to be more “dangerous” than Eggman at this point, and Mephiles was only one of the last ones that played this overused trope seriously (wish he was the last one, but Dark Gaia is a smear on an otherwise beautiful game... but that’s another story). By contrast, Infinite is always Eggman’s weapon, and the game never implies you’re supposed to think less of the scientist - Infinite may be an arrogant buffoon, but he never leaves Eggman’s side. The two work on a tandem, and basically Infinite is terrifying raw strength combined with Eggman’s superior intellect. Took him long enough, but Eggman has essentially tamed a powerful beast like he’s been planning to do since Chaos.

- Mephiles is meant to be this master manipulator, a 4D chessmaster moving pieces across time and space to get to his goal. I love the idea, really: he’s the raw intellect of a god without any of the strength of a god, so he has to play dirty and play on mortals’ emotions. The problem is that the game isn’t competent enough to pull such a feat, so everyone basically has the IQ of a brick - everyone who has even watched some videos points out at least two things:

1) how can Silver, even if he grew up in a destroyed city, trust some random guy without a mouth and reptilian eyes who suddenly tells him “here’s the cause of your problems, now go back in time and kill him” and Silver is just like “okie dokie” without even asking “excuse me, and whomst the fuck are you”

2) Mephiles can travel in time anywhere he wishes AND he can apparently conjure the Emeralds at his side. There is literally nothing stopping him to go to Silver’s future and rejoin Iblis there, or even prevent the incident that split them. The game set no limitations to his powers, and so we’re free to think about the most obvious solutions, and so his overly complicated plan that hinges on a boy killing another boy 200 years in the past after he bonded with the Iblis seal to make her cry in grief, plus triggering Shadow’s trauma on the side... even more hard to follow, because it’s all useless.

Infinite, to be fair, has a similar problem with his powers: the Phantom Ruby’s potential has never been specificed, but it seems to be a strong reality warper that can even teleport people (Mania) - and yet we only see Infinite conjure clones and spikes with it, which is boring. However, one thing he has over Mephiles is that the guy’s blatantly an idiot. Like, the story doesn’t shy away from showing how his arrogant, sadistic mistakes like “lol i’ll leave you alive because you’re not worth my time” have serious repercussions to Eggman’s plans, to the point that the guy at the end is like “you know what, I’m sick of your shit” and kills him. And you may be like “how does that make him better than Mephiles” - well he’s more believable, and more human (relatively speaking), and Forces’ story was written with feet but no one got their IQ divided by itself so there’s that.

I get the feeling Infinite is meant to be both intimidating and a parody of overly edgy and cool villains like Mephiles himself, and for me it works. Mephiles... he’s kinda like ShTH: he takes himself way too seriously. Except ShTH is funny, at least.

To be kind to Mephiles, his backstory is at least more precise, and definitely more interesting: as I mentioned, I love the idea of a god that was split into powerless intellect and mindless strength. In a better game, Mephiles would have been an interesting villain, completely ineffectual in a physical battle and maybe in constant pain, but omniscent and with a streak of sadism.

Infinite, on the other hand, clearly went through a shift in backstory: the main game hints at the fact that he was made in a lab, but then Episode Shadow comes in and he’s just some guy who was bullied too hard. I... okay.

Anyway, Infinite is more appealing to me and he doesn’t break Forces’ already fragile plot like Mephiles does. also he cute. there :V

[prorevenge]

Ridiculed, accused of lying and incompetence, I shoved burning facts down their throats and made a successful business in the process.

"The best revenge is massive success." -Frank Sinatra

TL;DR; Told I was lying and didn't know anything about game design. Made a spite video game that became a huge hit. Jackass is also forever immortalized within the game credits.

PREFACE

This is a very unusual story compared to the typical posts you've read here. There's a lot to unpack but I'll try to summarize everything as best I can.

I hope you'll find it as entertaining as I did. And, what's great about this story is that it happened very recently, it happened here, evidence is searchable, and it's still kinda on-going. It's a tale of trolls, video game addiction, self-righteous arrogance, harassment, winning an impossible bet, a viral hit in Russia, and massive success with even some little revenge sprinkles for added measure.

Quick background about me: I've worked with game developers for decades and I'm an avid researcher and supporter of unorthodox and ethical video games used for educational and clinical purposes.

HOW IT STARTED

Two months ago, there was a new reddit post about "using video game to ease depression" that caught my attention.

The reason it caught my attention was because it was a game & study that I had in-depth knowledge of (from over a year prior.) Unlike everyone else in the thread, I was the only one who had actually seen the game, played it, knew the developers, and even had the original technical game design documents.

The article discussed a variety of topics but never addressed exactly HOW the video game was able to ease depression. So, I provided a quickly summary of what the game actually did.

[SKIP THIS SECTION IF NEUROSCIENCE & GAME DESIGN DON'T INTEREST YOU]

A quick side note about this article, for those that like extra details: One of the cool properties of ketamine is that, not only can it provide rapid and temporary relief for depression, it also actively heals damaged brain circuits. Then there's dopamine. A chemical that we internally produce, that has similar but less potent effects. There is no cure for depression, but these are promising treatments for some. The article focused on what's called "flow". Using certain game design methods you can induce a "flow state" by causing a sustained dopamine release. When used ethically, it can be highly beneficial in stimulating/training the brain to perform certain activities, improve or learn memorization, adapt to challenges, learn new concepts, exercise motor skills, and meanwhile rebuild pathways/synapses. While all of this is happening, the user is receiving pleasurable rewards without realizing it. This process can create new pathways, repair old circuits, and increasing their neuroplasticity. Increased neuroplasticity means improved cognitive functioning, reducing impairment of the reward process, and improving the effectiveness of antidepressant medications. Video games can be a unique non-drug option to accomplish this while easing symptoms. Research has already shown that many popular games can already accomplish this (unintended effects by the game developers). By comparison, the game design they used in this theoretical study was highly limited in scope, so permanent benefits were negligible compared to the temporary respite brought about by basic dopamine release. Science is still barely scratching the surface of neurotransmitters and flow state. There are still many unknowns, but dopamine isn't just a pleasure chemical that the media would like you to be believe. It can do quite a number of things. Research has shown that "flow state" can modify synaptic plasticity, improve connectors between cells/synapses, ultimately helping cells in the brain communicate better as a network and improve neural system intrinsic properties.

My summary posting was fine for a while, until predictable trolls arrived led by an "armchair game developer". Dr. Armchair definitely did not appreciate my post. It was an affront and insult to his profession. Within a few minutes, it dropped 30 karma. I don't care about imaginary internet points but I don't like being accused of lying. Dr. Armchair and his pals started with the usual "do you even lift?" Then it was quickly asserted, from their armchairs, that I knew nothing about flow, psychology, dopamine or game design at all. From their high horses, they contributed nothing useful; only taunts, defamation, attacking my character and physical appearance, and accusing me of being a liar and incompetence.

Apparently it was a very sensitive topic. Who knew?

It quickly devolved into Dr. Armchair gleefully, and repeatedly claiming, that he won, he was right, and I was wrong. He demanded that I essentially write a 300 page peer-reviewed study to prove him wrong, and when it couldn't be provided within 5 minutes, there were more gleeful cheers of "HAHA! I WAS RIGHT! I WAS RIGHT! I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU LALALALALA.."

Obviously, it was going to be impossible to reason with Dr. Armchair and his buddies. But actions speak louder than words.

So, I claimed that I would provide undeniable proof in the form of a video game "a few months from now" that he could actually play for himself. Once again, claiming that I was lying and it was impossible. And more of the usual "It's been 5 minutes, where is it? Oh, you can't do it can you. HA! I was right! I BEAT YOU! I BEAT YOU!"

It was weird.

Eventually the mods had enough. Dr. Armchair and his cronies harassment, ad hominem attacks, accusations and inflammatory attacks resulted in multiple posts being removed. But my promise still stood and I fully intended on keeping it.

THE BOLD CLAIM

The plan was simple:

Create a proof of concept that demonstrates just the critical neuroscience principles that induce flow. To prove it beyond a doubt, I intended to also prove that MOST COMMON INGREDIENTS of a game are completely UNNECESSARY to accomplish this.

So, I made the very confident claim that the game would still be fun, addictive, and demonstrate flow state, even after ripping everything out:

No extras or frills. Built within a short period of time.

No music. No sound effects. No animations. No story.

No expensive art. In fact, hardly any at all: I would use ONE SINGLE ART ASSET for the gameplay (plus some lines.)

No feature creep. No sign-in system. No gacha mechanics.

No level design. No achievements. No RPG gamifications.

I could get at least a couple hundred people to play it.

I should have also mentioned that it would be built with ZERO BUDGET and NO MARKETING.

If this sounds like a strange way to make a game, it is. For a typical game developer, this would raise many eyebrows, and they'd consider it highly risky or improbable to achieve any success with both arms figurately tied behind your back while blindfolded.

HOW IT ENDED

While I was preparing to stress test the game online, it was discovered by .ru bots that were scouring the web for new games. Even before the game was ready, they published the game link on several Russian gaming sites.

The game exploded.

It has graphical similarities to Tetris, so it was a nice coincidence that the game essentially launched and did so well in Russia at first. After that, other game sites started discovering the game on their own too, even before I had a chance to submit the game myself. Most importantly, the proof of concept and everything I claimed worked (high ratings and retention). It proved so effective that the game is currently being played by hundreds of thousands of users worldwide. And it's a clear demonstration about the importance of combining psychology and game design.

I suppose you could say that there are many layers of revenge happening here, maybe even karmic justice or backfiring on their part, it's really hard to classify. The best kind of revenge is always massive success, and shoving it in their faces, however. But, on top of that, I also fully kept to my promises while proving these ignorant individuals so wrong they look like fools.

I also added some extra salt to the wound. I figured that success of the game was partly due to Dr. Armchair's ignorance. It was only fair that I included his name within the Game Credits. So, I officially gave this very wonderful human being a very "special thanks" for their support in making this success possible.

(source) story by (/u/postfu)

[rpgmgames]

November’s Featured Game: Grimm's Hollow

DEVELOPER(S): ghosthunter ENGINE: RPG Maker 2003 GENRE: Indie RPG, Adventure WARNINGS: Discussions of death, losing a loved one, grief SUMMARY: Grimm’s Hollow is a spooky, freeware RPG where you search the afterlife for your brother. Reap ghosts with your scythe, explore haunted caves, and eat ghostly treats on your journey through death.

Download the game here! Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! *BB: My name's Bruno and I did some of the music along with Nat! I’m super happy to have participated in this game! *NW: I’m Nat Wesley, a.k.a. Natbird! I’m a composer available for hire with a few projects in the works. I’m honored to have had the chance to work on the soundtrack to Grimm’s Hollow! *GH: Hello! I go by ghosthunter online; I started developing RPGs with a friend in school when we found out that we both enjoyed RPG Horror. I enjoy art, webcomics, cartoons and narrative-driven indie games a lot. I bought RM2K3 on sale and started pouring pixel art into it, before learning how to do things like chase scenes, cutscenes, etc. I used to fantasize about making my own game, drawing dungeons and ghosts in the back of my sketchbooks, before I finally started Grimm’s Hollow. Now I’m near the end of high-school, and I’m hoping the best for uni!

What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *GH: Grimm’s Hollow, originally, wasn’t as ambitious or personal. It was simply just going to be “my first game”, something that I could finally put my doodles and RM2K3 skills to. I wanted a game that a younger me would have enjoyed, back when I first discovered the classic RPGMaker games and replayed them constantly for those endings. That was my initial inspiration. It eventually evolved into an action turn-based RPG that relies on timing, yet it’s mostly narrative-driven. You traverse death in search of your sibling, and try to make an escape. There are unexpected pieces of me that ended up in this game, some of which I’m still noticing even now.

How long have you been working on your project? *GH: Since the summer of June 2018.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *GH: Standstill Girl, OFF by Mortis Ghost, Undertale, Over The Garden Wall, and the animation medium in general.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *GH: Many! Making your first game is such a giant learning curve, that the list of challenges goes on. I would say that the most difficult issue I encountered (and that, in some ways, I am still facing after release) is working around the limitations of the game engine I am using. I wanted to see whether creating an engaging but simple 1-party RPG in RM2K3 (without going completely custom) was feasible, and I experimented with quick time events as part of that. I worked around the engine’s built-in formulae so players could see progress when they upgraded their stats - although the game might display as defence as “10”, in reality the game stores it as 40 since the engine splits defence by 4. Since I did not want to create an RPG which was too complex for my first game, I also scrapped traditional staples such as armour or weapons. There were also issues such as having an appropriate “game over�� handling event which wouldn’t shoot you back to the title screen after you lost a battle; getting RM2K3 to play a small cutscene where you faint and respawn somewhere else was tricky. I felt that if the player had to reload after a loss, it would disrupt the game flow.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *GH: Like I mentioned before, the game started off impersonal. I just had a soft spot for a spooky cute aesthetic, and I wanted to indulge in that. It was (and in its essence, still is) meant to be a short story, to keep the player invested for the short game length - nothing grandiose. The original draft did not have Baker play a role in the narrative - he was just an ordinary shopkeeper NPC. For a long time during development, Lavender did not even have a name. In the very first draft, she was a silent protagonist the player could name and customize. But she played a very active role in the final outline, so it was hard not to give her own unique voice when one emerged from the narrative naturally. I am glad I did; she grew on me quite quickly! Grimm was virtually unchanged from beginning to end. The only difference was that a close friend suggested that he seemed like he would be into drinking Oolong tea - so that’s what he offers you when you meet him. Timmy also did not go under massive overhauls like Lavender and Baker did, but his relationship with Lavender became much more fleshed out as I wrote the narrative. In other facets of the game’s design, there were not many changes to the original prototype.

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? *GH: It was just myself, doing the art, writing, programming, etc. But halfway through creating the second cave, I realised I would need a very specific sound for Grimm’s Hollow. So, I contacted Nat for music, but I also created a post on tumblr calling for a composer since there were many tracks to make. I met Bruno as a result! I am very happy with their work and I am so grateful I’ve got to work with them! (Some players are asking for an OST release, which is in the works).

What is the best part of developing a game? *GH: I really enjoyed the early stages of development: creating new tilesets, sprites and maps and piecing them together in the editor, then taking a small screenshot and sharing it with my friend over summer vacation … It was nice to see the game’s world slowly come together. I think that’s what I enjoyed the most from beginning to end: that sense of world-building, that sense of relaxation from making a small cosy game. The latter started to disappear as work and other responsibilities started to intrude, and pressure began to seep into development time - but I never stopped loving making the world and characters. I also want to say that, by lucky chance, I have met a lot of kind people from making my first game. I’m very grateful for that, so thank you to everyone.

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? *GH: All the time! Other RPG Maker 2003 projects are great inspirations for pixel art tilesets, as well as how to code harder features such as custom menus. They’re also just fun to play.

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *GH: Lavender and Timmy are relatable to me in multiple ways. I can’t elaborate on Timmy since that would go into spoiler territory, but I somewhat relate to Lavender’s insistence on managing her life on her own - sometimes to her own detriment. I’d say the most fun character to write for was Grimm. He can be unintentionally silly while speaking in the most formal way, but also very caring too. Everything he does and says was easy to write, whereas I had to think harder for the interactions between everyone else - especially for very crucial scenes regarding their development. That being said, my favourite is still the game’s central two siblings. I can not pick between them for the life of me.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *GH: I wish I started testing even earlier! Not only does it give you a good sense of what’s missing, but seeing people enjoy what you’ve made yet get hindered by bugs is a very strong incentive to fix your game immediately. When I was lacking motivation or was stuck, I found that good feedback and support made me motivated again. I also wish that I could have pushed the deadline a little further, or perhaps released the game on Early Access since it will take me a while to refine post-release bugs - but as it is, the 31st of October really was the deadline for my game due to external circumstances (no, that deadline wasn’t just because it was Halloween!). Other than that, I wonder if using an updated version of RPG Maker would have produced the same game …? It’s hard to tell, but I hope people enjoy it for what it is - I will be working on that post-release patch soon!

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *GH: There are no current plans, but I would be happy to have the opportunity to improve and expand on the game. As it is, the game’s released for free and done as a hobby, so I would struggle to do that by myself.

What do you most look forward to now that you have finished the game? *GH: Earlier on, I was really looking forward to players’ reactions. Games are made to be fun, and I would have felt distraught if my game didn’t achieve what it was set out to do. Yet it was not just about the gameplay; it was about the narrative. I hoped that what I found funny, the player would too; what was heartfelt to me, was heartfelt to the player as well. Like sharing a laugh, or just a good experience together. I hoped they would enjoy the feeling that went into it, despite the struggle of making it against circumstance and limitations. Now, I look forward to resting and sleeping once this over. I want to explore my other interests, improve, and explore new media. I want to relax, and refocus again like I was before the heat of development.

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *GH: Bugs! Some are easy to fix, but others are harder due to the limitations of the engine (e.g an error in one ending is caused by an overflow error).

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *GH: Show your game as early as possible, to as many people as possible. As soon as you have something playable, it’s ready for feedback. You’ll see if that game mechanic you spent hours refining works, or if it doesn’t work and why. You’ll understand what players enjoy and what they want more of, but also what they don’t like or don’t enjoy. And you will definitely encounter bugs. You’ll be able to pinpoint and fix minor problems early on that can easily become a larger issue later. You’ll be able to fine-tune your game so its best bits shine, and the difficulty is just right.

Question from last month's featured dev @dead-dreams-dev: Is there anything you’ve added to your game for no other reason than because you’re hoping fans will get a kick out of it? Fanservice, fourth wall breakage, references to other games, jokes, abilities that are just ridiculously overpowered and badass, etc? *GH: It’s hard to say; game design is trying to find the intersection between what’s good for the player, what the developer enjoys, and what’s feasible to implement. Every decision made should be conscious of that … I think a lot of the game’s early light-hearted jokes was not only made because I enjoyed it, but I hoped the player would “get a kick out of it” too. But more so, I think it’s because I would struggle to write a story which is serious and bleak from beginning to end. The game is a little self-indulgent in the narrative that way.

We mods would like to thank ghosthunter & team 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 Grimm's Hollow if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum

[utau-bowl]

Furine Suku_Spear Review

Hello again! This is a little out of the blue, isn’t it? Even though I have some requests to get around to, I wanted to take a little break and review something for fun again (it’s been a long time since I’ve done that!). I think I may be biting off more than I can chew here, but I hope it’s still fun to read.

I’ve heard this guy around quite a bit lately, so I decided to try him out! This review is of his soft Spear voicebank.

*Art by furikake

Hear a Sample of Furine Suku Spear

Bio

Name: 降音夙/Furine Suku Gender: Male Age: 14 Height: 160 cm Birthday: March 10th Creator: Furikake Likes: mint, quiet places Dislikes: bitter things

Official Site

Suku has a Wix site. The download for Spear is the button at the bottom of the page. His download is hosted on Google Drive, and is a chunky 367 MB.

First Impressions

His tone is very gentle and soft here. I am a sucker for young androgynous male UTAUs, but Suku is a little unique because he has a soft append. His art and designs really drew me in, he was released in 2018 but he has a classic UTAU feel.

Configuration

Spear is one of the most comprehensive and interesting voicebanks I’ve ever decided to review. The overall style of the voicebank is dark-husky and whispery. Yet, it’s also voice acted and has an exaggerated accent. He has five pitches and an extra append folder for pseudo-vocal fry. He sounds the most ideal in alto range, being an ideal contralto. His range is almost disappointingly small considering how many pitches he has recorded, but his high range at least, sounds good enough.

There are many different extras included with his voicebank, namely the six different types of breaths (four exhales and two inhales of varying velocity). There’s also two kinds of vocal fry which can be placed at the beginning or the end of a note. Suku also has VC endings which make him able to mimic English better, among many other things. Some of the extras are missing from certain pitches though? Like the mid-vowel breaths are missing from the G#4 pitch. It’s probably just a weird oversight. I feel that all of these extras weren’t really necessary, but they suit the voice type and overall feel of what the creator was going for. One issue that kept coming up was the amount of background noise in the samples. I doubt this will be fixed because of how many samples there are, but it is hard to fix with resamplers/flags. 

Spear’s ideal range, tempo, and genre are pretty limited due to his voice type in general. The demographic of UTAU users who love soft, breathy voicebanks will find a lot to enjoy in Suku_Spear. Suku’’s regular voice is louder and less husky, so consider checking that out if this type of voice isn’t your favorite.

My recommended flags: F3H30B20d10

My recommended resamplers: moresampler, tn_fnds, model4, doppeltler

Final Thoughts

Suku is a wonderfully made voicebank that has a ton of features and an appealing presentation. He’s a nice boy and I’ll be glad to see more usages of him, if any. (I wrote this out pretty quickly so let me know if there’s anything I overlooked!)

Got any other UTAUs you want me to review? Send an ask!

[oneistoxnetwork]

Architecture Thesis Project: Site Analysis Categories You Need to Cover

After having spent hours brainstorming ideas, building the perfect brief and selecting a great site for your architecture thesis topic, the question that pops into every student's mind is, where do I start?

 While you build a brief and an area program, you need to simultaneously be conducting a detailed site analysis. Being architecture students, we’re no strangers to a good site analysis, but sometimes it’s good to have a checklist to see what all you should be covering!

 As we know, theSite Analysis is a study of the portion of land selected for your thesis project. It’s a crucial step involving the collection of data on all possible tangible and intangible aspects of your site, to help you make informed design decisions throughout the semester.

 For all categories we will put down as a part of the checklist, the process of a good site analysis could be broken down into the following three parts:

 ●       Documentation: Gathering all relevant data.

●       Analysis: Critically studying the gathered data.

●       Inferences: Making possible deductions from the analysis for your design.

 The three steps of a Site Analysis (Source: Author)

[Alt Text: Diagram showing steps to a process]

 Agreed that it is a formidable task, but do not be overwhelmed. Read through our checklist of site analysis categories for your architecture thesis project, and make one for yourself!

 [Read: 7 Tips on Choosing the Perfect Architecture Thesis Topic For You]

 1. Movement, Connectivity and Circulation

The suitability of your site for the chosen architecture thesis topic is determined by the connections it has to the surroundings. The connectivity of your site can be on 2 scales: Macro and Micro.

 ●       Macro-connectivity is on a larger scale which explores access routes to the major nodes in a region like transit terminals, hospitals, offices, commercial centres, etc.

 ●       Micro-connectivity is defined by the immediate site network like access roads, surrounding buildings and proximity to project relevant utilities. This may help plan the major circulation paths on site.

 Knowing how well-connected (or not) your site is will help make crucial design decisions like entrances and exits, how much parking you need, what kind of traffic you’re catering to, etc.

 1.      Immediate Site Context

Context is what is happening (or has happened) in, out, around and about the site! It involves areas like the local architectural style, materials, construction techniques, historical and cultural background, analysis of edge conditions, urban morphology, prior uses, political conditions or anything that may be relevant to the site.

 I don’t think we need to explain why this is important to your thesis, because if you needed to know, you wouldn’t have reached thus far in architecture school!

 2.      Zoning and Development Control Regulations

Every region has laid down its development control regulations, zoning and land use patterns. Various factors like site location, type of zone it falls under, land use as per DCR, prevailing vehicular/ pedestrian traffic (high, medium, low-density zones) and permissible setbacks give you an idea of how suitable the site is for the project chosen. Prominent points to note would be the FAR, permissible built-up area, setbacks, height-restrictions, etc.

 This will make your thesis as realistic as possible, giving you guidelines within which you must plan and would prevent any faculty or jury member from questioning the legitimacy of your thesis.

 [Also Read: 30 Topics You Can Pick From For Your Architecture Thesis]

  3.      Climate and Ecology

What is good architecture if not an immediate response to climate? One of the first and most important things to know about your site is its climatic conditions. To make things simple, divide the study into 2 parts:

 ●       Macro-climate - The climate of the larger chunk of land, like the region or country the site is located in and remains constant (more or less) irrespective of the architectural developments taking place. Here, the sun path, seasonal temperatures, humidity, annual precipitation and prevailing wind direction are common data acquisition sections and are the deciding factors for (but not limited to) the building’s location on site, its orientation, form and massing.

 ●       Micro-climate - The local climate conditions that might affect design decisions like the presence of water-bodies nearby, existing vegetation, topography, etcetera. It is especially crucial when dealing with projects abutting lakes, rivers or the sea, where the effect of water-body may dictate your design development. Or a site in a hilly region where contour study/slope analysis is a must!

 4.      Demographics

Design is for your users, and good architecture takes full account of them. Demographic analysis involves the socio-economic study of a region by categorising its population into religion, ethnicity, cultural background, income profiles, nativity and occupation.

This analysis is key for socially or culturally sensitive architecture thesis topics like places of worship, community housing and welfare centres.

 Want to create something for the people? Know them first!

 5.      Services and Amenities

A brief study of site services is essential to know how your site is connected to basic amenities like drinking water, electricity, drainage, sewerage, or telephone and internet lines (all hail WiFi!).

 For planning and locating your building services, you need to know where the service lines are going and how they’re laid out, including any existing service features on site.

  6.      Sensory Analysis

Does your site have points where the view is just fantastic (maybe overlooking a waterbody, eye-soothing greenery or the cityscape)? Or maybe it has spots where there is unbearable noise (could be from your weekly vegetable market or that one lane through which the whole city has to travel)!

 More often than not, such sensory analysis of the site is neglected. But when such observations are noted and inferred from, they can be some of the strongest drivers of your architecture thesis project.

 [Read: 5 Tips on Acing Your Virtual Design Jury in 2021]

 It is always good to make a checklist while dealing with a lot of data, and the site analysis is no exception. However, please do not limit yourself to the above list, as each site is unique and may have exceptional needs.

 You may need to do additional analysis particular to the features of your thesis, as it reflects the individuality of both the project and the student. Depending on your architecture thesis topic, other categories may include historical analysis, water/soil integrity sampling, traffic volume analysis, and more.

 Having read the above list that has been put in place for you, go ahead and put your hard work and magic in place too! Oneistox is always here to help.

 About the Author

 Neha Sharma | Architect

 An architect by profession and an artist by nature, Neha is fascinated by all the subjects which involve art and humanism. She has a diverse set of interests; doodling, dance, photography, writing and collaborative activities which made her pursue the field of architecture and design. She believes herself to be a people person and never misses a chance to learn something new.