#because i do want to support the devs
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myautisticpov · 7 months ago
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Sorry, no, just for context, I put in my OG tags that buying one of the outfits would cost £50, assuming you were only getting the guaranteed 4* items (admittedly, you will likely get more, but that's not guaranteed, I'm just calculating what's guaranteed)
But that was based on the bundles, and I had assumed that the most expensive bundle would work out cheapest, but then I glanced at them again and realised that wasn't right, buying the cheapest bundle would actually net you twice as many crystals for the price
But then I saw that the bundles were limited, so you could only buy one of each
So I was like, okay, people are definitely paying for these outfits though, so how are they doing it?
The way I'm getting crystals is by earning diamonds through gameplay and buying them (again, perfectly possible, as I'm doing it, but I'm still in the early game, so I'm getting a lot through progression and exploration that will probably dry up later, and I'm also putting an autistic amount of hours in while I'm off work for xmas and before I'm busy with holiday stuff)
So, one crystal costs 120 diamonds. There's a button to buy diamonds, so I click that. You buy diamonds with the premium currency (stellarite) and they seem one to one. So 120 stellarite per crystal. You buy stellarite in set amounts, but those amounts do at least divide by 120. I double-check that the most expensive one works out the best, and it does, so that's £99.99 for 6480. So £99.99 for 54 items. There are ten items in the outfit in question, and you're guaranteed one of the items in the outfit every five times you use the crystals. So you're guaranteed the entire outfit in 50 crystals, which works out at £92.58
And I imagine a bunch of people are scoffing, like, "omg, what? are you new to gacha?" and going to name a bunch of other, much more egregious examples, but, like, yeah, I am new to gacha because I have ADHD and am really susceptible to microtransactions that are, like, £1.99 each, going, "that's not a real amount of money", and then buying fifty in a month
And I'm double-y susceptible if they're loot boxes and I'm like "but if I buy one more, I might get the thing that I want"
So I haven't touched gacha before because it looked like the same thing
But I'm actually not susceptible to premium currency hoops that try to hide the real amount you're paying because I'm too nosey with the calculator, and these prices are so egregiously bad that I didn't even need the calculator to notice it was a bad deal
So, yeah, maybe the game is just being held aloft by whales who have a spare £93 to drop on a new outfit every so often
But if it was, what would be the harm in being transparent with that number? Instead of forcing me to be nosey with the calculator?
On the one hand, the value proposition of paying for the crystals for the gacha mechanic in Infinity Nikki is so bad, it cancels out my ADHD susceptibility to those kinds of mechanics
But on the other, like, the existence of the ability to pay for them at that price suggests someone more susceptible than me, and that's worrying...
(also read my tags before arguing with me, i've just realised i've basically put an essay in there)
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amplexadversary · 10 months ago
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Maybe this isn't the most mature of me, but I am feeling incredibly smug right now.
A LOT of FR users seem to be assuming that every story about the introduction of a new breed of dragon is the fucking wild west, on the sole point of comparison that it involves two populations meeting.
The devs recently finished rewriting one story that I basically immediately clocked as being (pretty blatantly!) an allegory about autism, but that a very loud portion of users thought was "colonialist"
(Like, I'm sorry, but if you had a kid you couldn't understand but found out about other people just like them and went to them yourself, how the fuck does that compare??? Legitimately???)
So the devs rewrote it to make it even more obviously about autism and I'm just sitting here like "Yeah I fucking called it from the original work, y'all have a skill issue." And yes, I feel VERY smug about it.
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margonite-seer · 5 months ago
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Okay, so, I watched the entire 7 hour stream where Daniel Vávra (KCD2 game director) was a guest at a Czech Twitch streamer.
GENERAL KCD2 DEVELOPMENT HIGHLIGHTS:
He is expecting around 4-5 million total copies sold by the end of 2025.
Devs shortly before the release wanted to remove Mutt completely because they were afraid they had not managed to code him and implement him properly. They thought his AI was so bad it was not worth having him at all.
He plans to have a look into recommending to other devs some patches that will make the game less easy or other ways to avoid Henry becoming too OP if you do all side quests. Also make the second map have a better gear and wallet progress, such as deal with the problem of wanting to sell too-rich loot to too-poor merchants.
He was a millionaire from the first two Mafia games, but he almost went bankrupt from his private money when trying to create KCD1 and found an investor to make the game a reality basically miraculously.
The target audience for KCD2 is around 30 year olds.
There will be a vinyl of the soundtrack.
Kingdom Come 1 and 2 were originally supposed to be one game, where Act 1 would be Rattay stuff (everything in KCD1), Act 2 would be the Trosky-related map, and Act 3 would be Kuttenberg.
The DLCs will unlock some new areas to explore, including the interior of a church.
There will be probably no mod support for consoles.
A FEW TINY HANS/HENRY BREADCRUMBS:
He never approved of or allowed that one dev at a forum years back to say that Henry is straight.
The Hansry sex scene was supposed to be more explicit originally. He implied that other devs wanted it to be more explicit and sexier but he wanted it to stay more romantic.
The sex scene would not have happened at that specific time at that specific place if Henry and Hans had not been starving and desperate about that situation.
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favorvn · 4 months ago
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Favor Feb into March Update
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Howdy!
Another little monthly update~ Last month I had 15,259 dialogue blocks, containing 133,928 words as of now Favor has 19,879 dialogue blocks, containing 172,737 words
So in a month's time I wrote 34,000 words, that's a bit insane to think about lol. I'm getting really close to the end of having the whole thing written (Though I'm sure it will still be another 20k + words at least for the remainder of the game)
I'm really proud of myself, and I'm proud of the game so far. It's close to my heart and I'm super excited for everyone to play it and for those who understand it, to hear their feedback.
I also want to give a kind reminder to everyone who may not know, I work a full time job and I am literally working on this project with nearly every second of free time I get. I am a solo dev, I am not a team of people I am just one person doing everything. This project means a lot to me so I want it to be to my standard of quality which in my mind means that I need to write the whole thing (as I'm doing now and have been doing) all the way through so I can be sure the story is cohesive and as tight as it can be. Writing the whole story in one go takes far more time than writing each episode individually. I am also not a fast painter, every painting I do takes at least 10 hours, backgrounds taking double that usually. That being said, because of all of these things, I am not able to release updates as quickly as maybe other devs can, but I can assure everyone this project is still being worked on.
To the kind people on here who have been patient and encouraging: Thank you so much, I really appreciate your support and patience as this project develops. Your words of encouragement mean more than you know, especially in the moments where I get really burnt out over writing this thing lol.
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dualityvn · 8 months ago
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I would like to address a recent trend I am seeing pop up in the yandere community. I feel that people are kind of pointing fingers at each other trying to decide who is more morally correct than the other. And I find it a little silly. We're here for hot stalkers. None of us are consuming moral fiction.
I sympathize with Fantasia and the backlash she is getting because of her recent update to her game. I still stand by my belief that devs should write what they want before they let themselves be influenced by outside opinions. It is her choice and her game first and foremost. Not to mention it's her first one and being thrown in the spotlight while you're making your first game is a pretty horrible experience. Because you don't know much about the process of making games or what you even ultimately may want to do with your game. It's a trial and error type of thing. And you can't make everyone happy. I still support her and encourage her on her creative journey and I hope the finished game is something she will be proud of.
I also understand that the game originally looked like a yandere romance game and it did not turn out to be that. So people are upset and feel betrayed. Some have spent money thinking they'd enjoy it and the recent update may have changed that. I understand, but I ask them to be understanding themselves and give their feedback without harassing or insulting the dev.
At the same time, I'm observing some weird new mentality in this attempt to support Fantasia. Now, we are claiming that "realistic" yanderes are superior? And that people who enjoy softer yanderes are delusional idiots who don't belong in the yandere fandom? And don't get me started on the word "romanticize." Can we please stop the holier than thou attitude?
We are all in this pig den together. We are all muddy. We are all consuming dark content. One isn't more moral than the other. You are free to prefer yanderes who are cruel and awful and psychotic, but do not belittle the devs and fans who prefer a softer alternative. If someone outside the yan fandom were to look at us, they'd judge us all the same: people who like toxic obsessive love interests. We all know real life stalkers are bad. I am afraid of them everyday. None of us are delusional children and it's insulting and ridiculous to claim so.
Likewise, it's a little silly to claim you can't have darker content in dark fiction. Dark fiction is here to explore the awful parts of humanity without having to worry about morality. It does not reflect on the type of person the creator is. It does not make them an advocate for murder, stalking or sa.
Please be mature. If you wish to criticize, do so in a well thought out way. Do not simply throw around words.
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i-love-zelda-16 · 1 month ago
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DISASTER DUOOOOOOOOOOOO
LESGOOOO
okay LU analysis time!!!
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skjdfkgksdlfjgsdjfghjdk JOJO THIS MAN. THIS MAN. WHY IS HE SO AMAZING.
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so firstly, Warriors asks if Twilight has trained Wild with a sword. he asks this because i think Wild has probably told him that Twilight was with him during his adventure. or he hasn’t told him and Wars just knows that Twilight and Wild are close, so it would be plausible that Twilight had trained him with a sword.
none of this matters though, because Wild responds with that only his training to be a knight trained him with a sword.
he then talks about the blade that Four made for him. Four is a smith, it makes sense why the blade is made well. he probably learned from Melari or someone. or his grandfather, right?
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AND JOJO EVEN SNUCK IN THE BEST LIL JOKE
so Warriors asks where Wild thinks he’ll be in five years. totk. and Wild responds with “hopefully not dead, i’ll be surprised if i have all my limbs!”
wild buddy. i have some bad news for you…
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yeah ummmmmmmmm poor wild ig
Wars then asks where he wants to be in 5 years and Wild has a small existential crisis.
also can i just say that i love this duooo they’re so underrated.
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the enemy we see here is called a Spark. i’ve matched it to the one from the ART of the Link’s Awakening remake. not the actual game. interesting…. (the ones in the actual game are much more yellow than green.)
sparks are, again, a downfall timeline enemy, which basically confirms that we are in fact in the downfall timeline. again, like the moblin from the last update, these are from Link’s Awakening which was a dream. sooooo our boys are in a dream?? i think it’s possible but unlikely.
something i found interesting about their placement is that they’re on the ceiling. why would they be on the ceiling if the disaster duo isn’t going up there? i feel like maybee there could be an item that allows them to walk on walls or gravity flip or something like that. the pathblades and water on the floor support this idea. although, if this was technically a 2D dungeon, that idea wouldn’t really work… hmm… interesting thought tho
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pathblade. Wild almost gets his toes cut off. pretty typical i’d say. i’ve matched the pathblade to the one from A Link Between Worlds. not a perfect match, but it’ll do. it’s also kinda similar to the one from Phantom Hourglass, but based on what we already know about our boys’ surroundings, and that Phantom Hourglass is in the Adult Timeline, this doesn’t seem likely. so, albw it is.
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and finally, Wild pulls out the sheikah slate. there’s two options for runes he could be considering using.
1. stasis to freeze the pathblade while they cross the water. there are multiple pathblades tho and Wild can use stasis on only 1 thing at a time so… idk
2. cryonis to make an ice bridge across the water. if this was the “intended solution” to the puzzle (like i feel like this is a thing that the devs would do to us in a loz game) then it would make A WHOLE LOT more sense why the sparks are on the ceiling; cryonis makes raised ice cubes so then while Wars and Wild cross, they’d have to dodge the sparks. hmm that makes sense lolll
we received a lot with this update!! very fun!! yet still, questions are being posed!! i’m excited to see what comes next; thank you JoJo!!
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gootarts · 2 years ago
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as of 8/3, the most recently updated version of this post is here (it's a reblog of this exact post with more info added)
as a lot of you know, limbus company recently fired its CG illustrator for being a feminist, at 11 pm, via phone call, after a bunch of misogynists walked into the office earlier that day and demanded she be fired. on top of this, as per korean fans, her firing went against labor laws---in korea, you must have your dismissal in writing.
the korean fandom on twitter is, understandably, going scorched earth on project moon due to this. there's a lot currently going on to protest the decision, so i'm posting a list here of what's going on for those who want to limit their time on elon musk's $44 billion midlife crisis impulse purchase website (if you are on twitter, domuk is a good person to follow, as they translate important updates to english). a lot of the links are in korean, but generally they play nicely with machine translators. this should be current as of 8/2.
Statements condemning the decision have been issued by The Gyeonggi Youth Union and IT Union.
A press conference at the Gyeonggido Assembly will occur on 8/3, with lawmakers of the Gyeonggi province (where Project Moon is based) in attendance. This appears driven by the leader of the Gyeonggi Youth Union.
The vice chairman of the IT union--who has a good amount of experience with labor negotiations like these--has expressed strong support for the artist and is working to get media coverage due to the ongoing feminist witch hunts in the gaming industry. Project Moon isn't union to my knowledge, but he's noted that he's taken on nonunion companies such as Netmarble (largest mobile game dev in South Korea) by getting the issue in front of the National Assembly (Korea's congress).
Articles on the incident published in The Daily Labor News, Korean Daily, multiple articles on Hankyoreh (one of which made it to the print edition), and other news outlets.
Segments about the termination on the MBN 7 o' clock news and MBC's morning news
Comments by Youth Union leaders about looking into a loan made to Project Moon via Devsisters Ventures, a venture capital firm. Tax money from Gyeonggi province was invested in Devsisters in 2017, and in 2021, Devsisters gave money to Project Moon. The Gyeonggi Youth Union is asking why hard-earned tax money was indirectly given to a company who violates ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles.
Almost nonstop signage truck protests outside Project Moon's physical office during business hours until 8/22 or the company makes a statement. This occurs alongside a coordinated hashtag campaign to get the issue trending on Twitter in Korea. The signage campaign was crowd-funded in about 3 hours.
A full boycott of the Limbus Company app, on both mobile and PC (steam) platforms. Overseas fans are highly encouraged to participate, regardless if whether they're F2P or not. Not opening the app at all is arguably the biggest thing any one person can do to protest the decision, as the app logs the number of accounts that log on daily. For a new gacha such as Limbus, a high number of F2P daily active users, but a small number of paying users is often preferable to having a smaller userbase but more paying users. If the company sees the number of daily users remain stable, they will likely decide to wait out any backlash rather than apologize.
Digging up verified reviews from previous employees regarding the company's poor management practices
Due to the firing, the Leviathan artist has posted about poor working conditions when making the story. As per a bilingual speaker, they were working on a storyboard revision, and thought 'if I ran into the street right now and got hit by a car and died, I wouldn't have to keep working.' They contacted Project Moon because they didn't want their work to be like that, and proposed changes to serialization/reduction in amount of work per picture/to build up a buffer of finished images (they did not have any buffer while working on Leviathan to my knowledge). They were shut out, and had to suck it up and accept the situation.
Hamhampangpang has a 'shrine' section of the restaurant for fans to leave fan-created merch and other items. They also allow the fans to take this merch back if they can prove it's theirs. Fans are now doing just that.
To boost all of the above, a large number of Korean fanartists with thousands of followers have deleted their works and/or converted their accounts from fanart accounts to accounts supporting the protests. Many of them are bilingual, and they're where I got the majority of this information.
[note 1: there's a targeted english-language disinformation campaign by the website that started the hate mob. i have read the artist's tweets with machine translation, and they're talked about in the second hankyoreh article linked above: nowhere does she express any transphobic or similarly awful beliefs. likewise, be wary of any claims that she supported anything whose description makes you raise eyebrows--those claims are likely in reference to megalia, a korean feminist movement. for information on that, i'd recommend the NPR/BBC articles below and this google drive link of english-language scholarly papers on them. for the love of god don't get your information about a feminist movement from guys going on witch hunts for feminists.]
[note 2: i've seen a couple people argue that the firing was for the physical safety of the employees, citing the kyoani incident in japan. as per this korean fan, most fans there strongly do not believe this was the case. we have english-translated transcripts of the meeting between the mob and project moon; the threats the mob was making were to......brand project moon as a feminist company online. yes, really. male korean gamers aren't normal about feminism, and there's been an ongoing witch hunt for feminists in the industry since about 2016, something you see noted in both the labor union statements. both NPR and the BBC this phenomenon to gamergate, and i'd say it's a pretty apt comparison.]
let me know if anything needs correction or if anything should be added.
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sanguinesky-if · 2 months ago
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[Dev Log] June 2025
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Hello, I hope you're doing well!
Summer arrived so quickly that I barely noticed while working on the update, but I hope to catch up with everything once it's released.
As for my progress, here's a quick overview of my activity over the past month and my plans for the current one.
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Announcement.
For Patreon members: The release date is scheduled for June 28.
In mid-June, I'll post a progress update to let you know how things are going.
Please note that access to the code for the Patreon demo will be disabled until the public release.
For other readers: I'll share some of the sneak peeks previously posted on Patreon a week before the release date [here on the Tumblr blog].
I'd like to note in advance that I don't have an estimated time for the public release. The update may need additional polishing and changes before it's ready to go public.
Thank you so much for your support and interest!
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What was done last month?
▹ Chapter 3 Pt. 2: finished working on I's scene and rewrote R's scene.
It's still a bit hard to admit because it slowed my progress, but while working on R's and I's scenes, I realized that what I had originally written just wasn't working well. I had to rewrite both scenes. While I'm happy with how I's scene turned out, I still have some doubts about R's. In short, this rewrite means that a few answers I gave to previous asks are no longer valid [you won't be able to get your MC drunk, and you won't meet another secondary rival]. Even though it was a stressful process to change what was originally planned, I don't regret my decision [I might even reuse the cut content in future scenes].
▹ Stats Changes.
I also spent time revising and refining some of the stats. Here's what the stats will look like in the update [comparison to the public version]:
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I know that the stats still aren't perfect, but I think the change made them represent the choices readers can make much better than they did before. Also, there's a small coding feature I wanted to mention: If the MC has a higher "Genuine" stat than "Guarded", some of the ROs will lose alignment points if you choose to lie to them or hide things. It's a very simple mechanic:
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However, there are also several ROs whose alignment points increase if the MC shows distrust or acts more guarded, so it's a situational feature.
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What will I be working on in June?
Since I've paused Patreon billing, I'll be focusing on releasing the update by the deadline [T's and S's scene are last for a reason].
As I mentioned on Patreon, I was recently prescribed medication, and I'm a bit concerned about potential side effects which could impact my ability to work [and possibly the deadline as well].
Still, I hope that won't be the case. I know you've already waited a long time, and I'm doing my best to make sure the final result lives up to your support.
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Thank you for reading to the end! Wishing you a wonderful week and days after that! ♥
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14dayswithyou · 6 months ago
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I literally have the most amazing and wonderful community in the entire world???? T_T In this essay, I will—
This is going to be raw and unedited because I want to get my initial thoughts out there before I forget n go back to crying /pos, but?? Yawl.... I can't even begin to find the words to express how appreciative and grateful I am for each and every one of you!! ;v;
I've spent the past few hours reading through everyone's personally written messages, then rereading them all again to let it all fully sink in. I'm being genuine when I say that I've never felt this loved or appreciated in any community before in my life.
Those in the Discord server might know about this already, but since the start of this year, I haven't really been enjoying myself (nor have I been as active) in the yandere VN community. There was far too much infighting between devs, parasocial communities, and toxic anons that ruined so much for me — so I withdrew from it all and remained in my own small bubble. Even then, I still got belittled, harassed, doxxed, and even became the target of Tall Poppy Syndrome by others; most of which nearly made me want to leave altogether, but the overflowing amount of support from everyone in the 14DWY community made me want to stay.
And even now, after reading all those heartfelt messages... I think it's permanently solidified the little space I occupy here on the internet :3
So... Yeah, long story short (and a story that will likely end up as its own separate Tumblr post gjskskjd), I wasn't enjoying myself at all in the yandere VN community... but I did have the time of my life in the 14DWY community. And it's all thanks to you guys.
I'm genuinely sooooo proud to have such an endlessly kind, social, and talented community; and I'm glad to have brought such an interactive and friendly group of people together over our shared interest in such a nice concept. 14DWY is essentially a labour of my love — and although I'm ultimately creating it for me and my silly interests — it's still something that I want to make worthy of you guys as well. All the love and support you've shown me and 14DWY motivates me to do my very best, and y'all deserve nothing less. So...
Thank you all for finding a comfort character in my Totally Normal Guy and his Totally Not Eccentric quirks. Thank you for all the insanely talented creations y'all make and share with me. Thank you for sending in your silly (/pos) questions and turning them into inside jokes and AUs for the rest of the community to enjoy. Thank you for talking with me and making this space a genuinely fun place for me to be in again.
From the bottom of my heart; thank you all so much. I really hope everyone has had an amazing year so far, and I hope 2025 will be as kind to you as you all were towards me.
I also want to give a big fat massive huuuuuuuge shout-out to Ashe / @flaneur001 my love (/p) for organising the 14DWY letter event on Discord, and for contributing so much of their time and dedication to the 14DWY community. You say you've only been part of the community for a year, but to me, that was a year well cherished and appreciated. The 14DWY community (and me especially) have all been so lucky to spend this past year with you, and I sincerely hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have. You've done so much for me, the community, and the 14DWY Discord server, so it's only fair that you get the recognition you deserve. So thank you, Ashe!! And a big thank you to everyone in the 14DWY Discord who participated in this event as well!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some cryin and sobbin to do <3 /silly /pos
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thanatika · 3 months ago
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I want to know about comphet dankovsky
the people clamor for comphet dankovsky. well alright.
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this might be a little long and disjointed, but i'll try to explain my full thought process. it'll be long and very off-topic.
as a tl;dr, the basic #1 reason i have this headcanon: it fits very well with how seriously repressed dankovsky seems to be, especially in P1, and especially when it comes to love:
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of course, it's not just love — he also acts deeply uncomfortable whenever the topic of mental illness comes up, or whenever someone cries in front of him. but this just goes to show that emotional repression and denial seem to be standard coping techniques that he falls back on. (this is reinforced by the quarantine DLC, where apparently one of the devs has said that the bodies of bandits he kills disappearing is meant to represent him dissociating and repressing it.)
this coping mechanism is also lampshaded in the changeling route, where the npc bachelor makes an impressive discovery — he figures out that he's a doll all on his own, and then decides that this is the lesson to derive from it:
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"the essence of my discovery", indeed. it's a little unclear what he means by "deny yourself" — deny his true nature as a mere toy, and the corresponding mental breakdown that would understandably accompany that? or maybe it's to deny his own self fulfillment of what he actually wishes to pursue. clara's next conversation with him is their last one, in the cathedral, and even right at the end, he's still conflicted by his own desire to preserve the town (which is supported by his own route, where he's given dialogue options that imply an intention to save it even on day 12):
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which, notably, he connects to allying with the haruspex, an option he immediately discounts because "the only thing artemy wants" is related to his love interest, aglaya. (honestly, the way dankovsky talks about artemy in relation to aglaya at the end of all three routes is really easy to read as some kind of incredibly jilted unrequited love triangle. but that would make this post twice as long, so anyway.) clara's exchange with dankovsky in the cathedral ends with this:
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test failed! but why is this the wrong answer? and why does clara interrupt him to guess what he's going to say? well, it's actually a little meta moment, a reference to the fact that clara is imbued with more awareness than the other player characters, to the point of having some knowledge of previous routes. the player-as-changeling predicts that he's driven by love, because the player-as-bachelor can admit exactly this to artemy, during their cathedral conversation in the bachelor route:
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aside from the loaded daniil-artemy-aglaya dynamic, it stands out to me that the only way dankovsky can bring himself to admit aloud to being "driven by love" is if the player controlling him prompts him to. he won't do it on his own. he won't be a great talker right now, especially on this topic.
though to be fair, he does say "i love the polyhedron" to clara, which has some significance as well. dankovsky sympathizes with the polyhedron, makes an emphatic defense for it being "worthy of love". his affinity for it is more obviously connected to the fact that he sees it as something that defies the laws of inevitability, as something similar to his own work, as he explains to the inquisitor: "I feel slightly envious. Like me, its creator has tried to break through to where men are not allowed. But, unlike me, he succeeded." and therefore, a miracle worth preserving. but the polyhedron itself is a product of love — peter's love for nina — and is spoken about in terms of love by peter himself:
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the polyhedron loves, but it's a doomed, unrequited love, incompatible with life. dankovsky's dialogue options about the polyhedron by the end game are a mixed bag: sometimes he talks about it in these romantic terms, sometimes he's much more practical in his defense of it, hyping up its antiseptic properties. probably it's a way of allowing the player to choose what they think, but it may also serve to emphasize dankovsky's hesitance to express this emotional aspect of his sympathy for it. but it does seem like the doomed nature of the polyhedron is a major point of sympathy to him. the same goes for the utopians in general, according to the letter he sends to the haruspex declaring his allegience:
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which gets to the topic of how the concept of dankovsky and compulsory heterosexuality relates to the utopians.
for that, i first have to point out something that i don't really see people talk about ever: the way that sexuality in general is moralized by the three different factions in the game.
the utopians are the most obvious about this: they're kind of debauched, aren't they? at least by socially conservative standards which place procreative heterosexuality and traditional gender roles as the ideal. all of the canonical lgbt characters fell under the utopian banner at some point: bisexuals andrey and eva, lesbian yulia. even beyond sexuality in those terms, you can see non-normative sexuality in things like eva's polyamory, the somewhat inverted gender roles of victor and nina's relationship (which is said to have been a common topic of gossip among the townsfolk), the fact that maria seems intent to either follow her mother's path as a non-traditional wife or to forgo a marriage partner altogether, the uncomfortably enmeshed dynamic between andrey and peter, simon and georgiy's lack of heirs. the utopians have been stated in developer interviews to be a (not particularly sympathetic) metaphor for social revolutionary movements, which often incorporated progressive thinking in terms of sexuality and gender. so i think that's where this comes from, although it does also feel a bit "sexual deviance as a signifier of immorality". the classic gay disney villain trope.
and the humbles feel even more like they're playing into that trope. in addition to yulia, their ranks include aspity and bad grief — who i would be tempted to include in the list of canonical lgbt characters, considering aspity's comments about women's bodies and the suggestive comments that bad grief can make towards both the bachelor and the haruspex. it's also worth noting that the only thing separating the humbles from the utopians, at least as far as the humbles are concerned, is that the humbles are repenting sinners while the utopians are ultimately unrepentant. alexander and katerina saburov also fail to live up to heteronormative standards, because their union is non-procreative, but at least they have the decency to be wringing their hands over this. and this view of utopians as unsaved humbles is why clara spends half of her quests trying and failing to convert various utopians to the cult of humility.
with all of that going on with the other two factions, the termites are starkly different in comparison. the termites are a faction of children, so there's not much about actual sexuality, thank god, but their whole deal is shockingly heteronormative nonetheless. the termites, at the end of the game, are preoccupied with setting up traditional arranged marriages with each other under the guidance of capella:
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(note to patho2 heads: this is classic where "artemy adopts sticky and murky in particular" isn't really a thing. still weird with how much younger murky is, but khan and capella do have the same age gap in classic. so i think this is all meant to be read as a childish playacting of the sorts of political arranged marriages that were once more commonplace, or it's just the problematic game being problematic.)
overall, they seem rather unenthusiastic about these future marriages. capella refers to her future engagement with khan as "the saddest" thing she has to do and "self-abnegation", while sticky is more casually disappointed by his future options. artemy is also the only healer to have an implied love interest reward tied to choosing his ending — you could argue the same for dankovsky and maria, but this is disproven by word of god and the bachelor's absence from his own ending cinematic — a heterosexual love interest, of course. because this is a big part of what the termite ending represents: it's framed as "new beginnings", but "new beginning" is really just a return to tradition. to the perpetuation of normative social values, the lack of any scary social upheaval. the Law. just look at how the inquisitor, the biggest proponent of the termite ending aside from capella, describes how the Law relates to self-discovery:
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"an attempt to cognize oneself is a provocation" is interesting phrasing when compared with dankovsky's "self-denial is the meaning here" discovery from the same route. i used the sloppy 2005 translation because it includes a whole additional sentence that was cut from the remaster, so i'll also share the 2005 version of that self-denial exchange. rather than say "It's only fitting that you should reject" your nature, clara's retort to him was originally more explicit in putting a religious morality on human nature, and his in particular:
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but i'm getting sidetracked. the main point i have in breaking down how sexuality is moralized between the different factions is to point out that for one, dankovsky's affinity with the utopians allies him with a group that is portrayed as debauched by conservative standards of sexuality, which to me has always been an indicator in headcanoning him as gay, secondary to, you know. things that he says. but the fact that he never fully joins the utopians is part of why he seems so repressed to me.
the fact that he doesn't appear in his own ending cinematic (it's more like maria's ending cinematic, really) has been confirmed to be intentional, and even on the last day of the game, his dialogue options towards his bound imply a certain amount of discomfort with them. the one exception might be peter, but dankovsky's final conversation with peter has two ending options: to say that the utopians and their future town are doomed to fail, or to support peter's vision but express regret that the cost of supporting him is bringing "a gang of criminals and scoundrels" into power.
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part of dankovsky's schism with the utopians, imo, is that they go "too far" — they're "too weird" for him, is what was said when someone asked in a forum why he doesn't appear in the utopian ending, iirc. and there's something to be said for how the utopians are portrayed overall as very personally liberated, egoist, a bit hedonistic in some cases... and then dankovsky, who appears very buttoned down and whose dialogue options at times lean more towards agreement with alexander saburov than with the kains on the issue of town management — very law and order. it's an interesting contradiction to his character overall: someone who's so invested in breaking natural laws, in breaking laws of inevitability, but who still makes emphatic statements about enforcing law and order in the town, who still seems invested in performing and projecting a certain kind of social respectability.
the bachelor route day 2 conversation with andrey about "unnatural orifices" is one of the best encapsulations of this imo, so i'll break the whole conversation down to try and explain.
the conversation starts off with andrey offering booze to dankovsky, and calling him a "prisoner of science" — the first of what will become an ongoing pattern throughout the game in which dankovsky's scientific "rationality" is referenced as something that limits him, either by leaving him cold and heartless or by skewing his mindset so that he can't see beyond his institutional academic perspective.
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dankovsky turns the conversation to what he wants to complain about — the town's local traditions inconveniencing his work — but andrey takes it as an opportunity to start talking about the "intimacy" of making holes in bodies, including in a sexual context. andrey as a character likes to be provocative, dankovsky's options are various levels of discomfort, disinterest, and dismissiveness. (if there's one thing you can't accuse him of, it's "locker room talk" — he responds with similar discomfort when peter tries to gossip to him about katerina sleeping with taxidermy, or tries to tell him about the sexualized naked women he hallucinates when aglaya visits his loft).
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he tries to dismiss andrey's crude line of thinking, which is criticized as an appeal to capital social mores. and then andrey starts talking about unnatural holes.
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don't get me wrong, this conversation is about murder — and, by way of metaphor, the polyhedron, which was created by puncturing an unnatural hole in the body of the earth. but andrey beginning the conversation by talking about sex, combined with their university acquaintanceship alluded to in their first conversation (getting in bar fights together and everything) leads me to read a secondary double entendre into this conversation. not to mention andrey's canonically implied bisexuality, some of which is likely inspired by the character taking inspiration from benvenuto cellini, a bisexual renaissance-era sculptor who was repeatedly prosecuted for sodomy. dankovsky accuses andrey of "creating unnatural holes in bodies", which has been linked to dissection, murder, and sex from the start of the conversation.
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andrey makes a vague reference to the fact that he did possibly kill someone with a pencil — the earth, via his insane architectural designs — but it's "just a theory". phew. then he swiftly changes the subject before dankovsky can ask too many questions, and ends the conversation by making another invitation for dankovsky to join him in drinking and debauchery. "no need to restrict ourselves", etc.
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i'll note that an invitation to drink together is levied again at dankovsky a little later by eva, and in that case is explicitly implied to be an invitation to sleep together. in both instances, dankovsky wants nothing to do with it. his first option is to tell andrey to go right ahead and drink alone — enjoy your liver damage, buddy, couldn't be me. his second option is to accept the drink... but not in public. either way, being told to "open up everything that's supposed to lie hidden under wraps" is dankovsky's cue to leave the conversation.
a reach? yes, but that's how i interpret the subtext of these conversations as they relate to dankovsky's repression and his view of the utopians.
honestly, i've made the case for him being homosexual and repressed here more than i've made the case for him to be engaging in compulsory heterosexuality. so i'll end by pointing out that while i've typically seen people headcanon a character as comphet to explain a canonical "hetero" relationship or attraction they express, there isn't much like that going on with dankovsky to talk about, at least in classic.
sure, he has some dialogue options with women in classic that are flirtatious, but it never seems like the dialogue is leaning the player more towards picking those options than not picking them — there are just as many options to express disinterest in women being attracted to him, and sometimes they're the only response options, which makes me more inclined to view those as "canonical". so, really my headcanon comes more from this view of him as rather repressed, and specifically that messy contradiction of his character in desiring to move past societal restrictions while also never fully letting go of his own, the fact that he seems to feel the need to "prove himself" by society's standards. and, well, his practicality. his study of thanatology seems to have left his reputation in the capital somewhat smeared, likely due to the connotations with necromancy and violating the natural order. i could see him attempting to salvage his reputation somewhat by trying to prove that he's totally a perfectly normal guy who can be in socially normative relationships, and not just some weird academic radical.
pathologic 2 and marble nest don't say much for or against this, aside from dankovsky's "I never even told her how I felt…" voiceline, which is likely about eva. but we don't know enough about the context or their relationship, and will likely have to wait until pathologic 3 to find out.
though, i will say that the quarantine DLC had an exchange that i'm taking as ammunition for this headcanon:
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guy who invents a hypothetical wife just for a hypothetical scenario where he has to give up that wife. and then is immediately told by his close female colleague that """given the way he lives""" he'll never have a wife... okay.
okay that's it. congrats if you made it this far into my rambling haha.
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lynnie-s3all · 4 months ago
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HELLO HELLO !! I LOVE YOUR HEADCANONS VERY MUCHHHH !><
I JUST WANTED TO ASK IF YOU COULD DO HEADCANONS OF SHEDLETSKY BEING A FATHER TO THE PLAYER !!
IF YES, THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!
SURE. I give you two options...
Father figure Shedletsky x reader
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(i don't proofread my works so thanks. )
If you're the player who's a Shedletsky main:
For a player, it's obviously you in real life trying to play Forsaken in roblox. ON YOUR COMPUTER/PHONE.
You're a Shedletsky main, and you adore this man of course, for being silly little patootie epic emoji on his face.
Imagine the devs would give him voice lines, really fucking cool if it does exist. Well what can I say if he was giving out advice?
Like what would I think about him just reading your mind at that one point he's straight out giving you advice so you can stay focused on the game? Hell yeah.
It's okay if you tried many times to use the slash and keep missing it out, like what can i say? He would know that he's inside of a game and it really wouldn't hurt if he did get killed. Maybe not? But he'll probably say dialogues like "be careful not to get too close!" Sounds basic? Definitely is.
Hey... whatever you're trying to do some stupid stunts like... Accepting your fate that you're basically going to die as Shedletsky, fair enough. Do anything you can anyway. He's the not the one controlling himself, it was you. So, do what you can.
When you're the survivor in the game:
Woohoo! New survivor? Omg, it's your self insert oc in it!
Ok you're definitely not noob in this situation, IM NOT TELLING YOU ARE A NEWBIE IN THE GAME IM TALKING AB THE YELLOW ROBLOX AVATAR-
So what traits do you have or abilities? You're a stunner? Whatever the wiki says : "sentinel survivor"? Yeah. If not then probably the one whos a support survivor at the same time. But then again, you can't have more than 2 jobs at once you need at least one skill that you can do.
Oh you're almost dying? He can't give you fried chicken, dude. Atleast you're LUCKY he has a medkit at all costs.
This feels more like best friends trying to help eachother out raher than Shedletsky trying to be a father figure or something, like first of all, i can explain how is he becoming one, you just need to wait when i finish explaining this whole survival round.
After you patched yourself out, jason was all in out here already dashing towards you and he stepped in and SLASH! He's stunned guys.
He grabbed you by the wrist and just ran all away out from him to escape before be regained back his ability to even run out and get you dince it's only a minute left, it will be fine for you two.
ALWAYS, AND I MEAN ALWAYS LETS YOU TO BE BEHIND HIM AT ALL TIMES. He doesn't want you to get lost and lose you since, you're the only two are in this round left, jason was too powerful to kill people like ngl since when did he become so op...?
Hahathe last few seconds before he can even hit you has already ended and now you're safely back into the cabin like usual.
You know, now it's time for me to give proper headcanons for this man being so caring.
all text are in orange for this because that's what im about to headcanon him out to be honest.
As a father figure, his goal was to protect you at all costs, no matter in what situation, especially when it comes to killers, stay behind his back, even if you insist on trying to help him out too but he will eventually try his best.
Okay but during cozy times or just free time, he would cook some chicken and give some to you, because sharing is caring, apparently.
Anyway he treats you like a child, telling stories about this one infamous hacker named 1x1x1x1 (yes and he's traumatized after seeing him during other rounds) that he's evil even though he's the one who sreated him in the first place but he never tells you about it because he doesn't want to show the truth to you.
Going out with him during errands and seeing a cat out of nowhere, he'll steal them and keep it as a pet. I mean, it's a stray cat, i think you can make in inti a house cat. He knows how to tame them don't worry.
He adores kittens more than adult cats, but FAT CATS??? Ohhhhh look how much they are soooo chonky he really likes them :3
He can have as many cats as he likes but he wouldn't want a lot since the house would be covered with fur everywhere. He only owns one because he hates risking for having 2 cats in the house and made a whole mess. Amirightttt?
Best father figure ever.
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crescencestudio · 22 days ago
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Hi! I was wondering, will the full game cost money? I’m assuming yes because of how much work is being poured into this. Also, do you have a price range for the full game?
SO...... THIS IS ACTUALLY SOMETHING I WANTED TO TALK TO U ALL ABOUT AND I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO SUMMON THE COURAGE FOR IT FOR LITERALLY THE PAST IDK HOW MANY MONTHS...... I WAS GONNA TELL U ALL ON MY BDAY NEXT WEEK SO U COULDNT BE MEAN TO ME WHEN I ANNOUNCE IT SKXISOOSOS BUT I GUESS ILL JUST SAY IT NOW...... (sorry anon im using ur question as an excuse to make an important announcement)
Yes, Alaris will be paid, and it will be $15 USD ($12 USD for Early Access)
NOW..... FOR THOSE OF U WHO HAVE BEEN HERE A LONG TIME..... i know i have said in the past i was planning on alaris being $5-$7 but i cant emphasize how many times i was told by gamers and dev friends alike to increase the price. ppl literally BEGGED me bc i was Severely underselling myself and my work. even now with me making the price $15, ppl have been telling me its still undervaluing the worth of the game.
i know $15 is much more than i said the game would be and for a long time, i wanted to keep the price low for accessibility reasons. but as time has gone on and the amount of work i've put into this game has increased, it seemed less and less fair for me to price the game at $5-$7. having worked on the game for 5 years now, that price would literally be compensating me $1/year which just kinda..,.,. feels like someone spit in my face KXKSOSOSSO.
on top of that, i'm at a different point as a developer than when i first started alaris. when i first started the game, it was my first game ever, i wasn't in it for any kind of commercial success and i just wanted to make a silly little game with my little fingies. but five years down the road, a lot has changed. i've invested way more time and effort into this game than i originally had expected, the player base has gotten bigger than i would've imagined, and my experience as a dev has come a long way. the product is just different from what i had first imagined, and as someone no longer completely inexperienced, i also see myself differently (in a good way)!
alaris has always been my child but it's more than that now. it represents five years of growing as a developer, and i think the art assets and writing rly showcase that. i honestly think $15 is an extremely fair price for the game given the amount of content in it. it's partially voice acted, has 60+ backgrounds, will have 50+ CGs, 15 character sprites, 350k words, 6 routes, like... the list goes on ykwim. and compared to other vns of similar lengths/quality, $15 is more than reasonable.
i know some ppl will say they can't afford this which is totally fair, and i do plan on eventually having sales on the game so that it can be around that $5-$7 price (much later down the road). but i hope you all can understand where i'm coming from as a developer and someone who does have their own bills and life expenses to pay for. and more than that, i hope you can support this decision as a player who also sees the same value in the game that i do <3
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minxipinxi · 2 months ago
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✨ Oracle of Stars is Back — and It’s Still the Worst Event in the Game
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Hey lovelies. Buckle up, because the infamous Oracle of Stars event is making a return, and I cannot stress this enough: THIS IS A TRAP. Whether you’re a veteran who remembers the pain from last year or a new player tempted by the pretty art and soft ASMR, read this before you spend a single diamond.
🧨 What is Oracle of Stars?
Oracle of Stars is a gacha wheel event that first dropped in Feb 2024. It was instantly hated by much of the player base due to:
Absurd costs
No pity system
Terrible drop rates
A frustrating and predatory design that punishes unlucky players It’s back and unfortunately, nothing has improved.
🎡 How the Wheel Works
No more free spins: In the original release month, we got 1 free spin every 48 hours. That’s gone now. Zero free attempts. You pay for every single spin.
Each spin costs 100 diamonds, or 1,000 for a 10-spin.
What you can get: - A random 4★ Memory (with very low odds) - An accessory (cosmetic, very niche appeal) - Oracle Dice (used for shop redemptions)
Mechanics: - If you land on a Memory you don’t own, you get the full card. - Land on it again? You get shards to rank it up. - If you land on an accessory, it disappears and turns into a dice space for future spins.
💎 Redemption System and Costs
Didn’t get lucky? You’ll need to redeem with Oracle Dice. Here’s how that works:
Each 4★ memory in the shop costs 880 Oracle Dice.
At worst, that’s 17,600 diamonds if you had to spin until you reach that amount.
Even if you count the milestone rewards (which give you a few free dice here and there), you’re still looking at around 15,000+ diamonds to get just ONE 4★ memory.
Let’s say that again: 15,000–17,600 diamonds for a single 4★ with no pity or guarantee.
Accessories can also be redeemed with dice, but they show up in milestones too (up to the 150th spin), so if you really want them... still not worth it, honestly.
⚠️ DROP RATES: They’re Worse Than You Think
This is the real kicker. The drop rates are appalling:
4★ Memory: 0.33%
Accessory: 1%
Oracle Dice ×100: 4%
Oracle Dice ×50: 12%
Oracle Dice ×20: 15%
Oracle Dice ×10: 50%
Oracle Dice ×5: 15%
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That means:
You have a 1 in 300 chance to get a 4★ Memory per spin.
Most of your spins will give you only 5–10 Oracle Dice, which isn’t even 1% of what you need to redeem the memory.
Accessories (at 1%) are also stupidly rare, and once you get one, it’s gone from the wheel and replaced with dice, reducing your chances even more.
🧠 Why Older Players Hate This Banner
Take it from someone who was there during the first Oracle of Stars:
You feel punished for bad luck. There is no mercy mechanic. No pity. No safety net.
No free spins make this inaccessible to F2P players entirely.
You can’t select the character or memory you want. It’s all RNG-based.
It’s deceptive. Beautiful card art and nice voice lines lure players in, but once you start spinning, it’s a massive diamond sink for nearly nothing.
We were begging for pity or better odds last time. The devs didn’t change a thing.
🗣️ Community Sentiment: It’s BAD
Quotes from across the fandom:
“No pity, no guarantee, no free attempts, can’t select a character… all for a random 4★. It’s a scam.”
“Don’t do it girlies. Stay strong. Save your dias for real banners.”
“As someone who got burned by this last year: DO. NOT. PULL.”
“Just read the story on YouTube. Don’t support this predatory design.”
And honestly? They’re right.
💡 What Should You Do Instead?
SAVE your diamonds. There are far better uses coming:
Myth reruns
New Myth releases
Upcoming Wedding Multi
Zayne: Master of Fate banner (coming soon and confirmed)
These banners have pity, guaranteed pulls, and a selection of characters. Oracle of Stars has none of that.
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But is it worth gambling that much for a random 4★? Absolutely not.
Friendly reminder: This event is a SCAM. Please do NOT waste your hard-earned diamonds.
Save yourself the pain. Read the story online on YouTube. Wait for banners that respect your time and effort.
We’ve been here before. Don’t let history repeat itself. Stay strong, Hunters. 💔
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heartbreakincident · 2 months ago
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an incomplete list of indie romance visual novel recommendations
‣ these are all indie titles, many of them made by a single person or a small team, and several were put out there for free (or quite cheap). if you choose to play them, do so with an open mind and consider supporting indie devs financially whenever possible.
‣ most of these feature gender neutral or gender selectable player characters, and predominantly male or nonbinary romantic options. i've specified per game for convenience.
Blooming Panic by robobarbie free* 4 routes, gender selectable PC, male & nb ROs fave route: nakedtoaster, but xyx gets an honourable mention
the GOAT, honestly. i think most people who play games in this niche (especially in the chatsim subgenre) have come across bloomic at some point, and it's loved enough that other games reference it pretty frequently. what i love about bloomic is that it doesn't shy away from telling interesting and emotional stories while also delivering on the cutie romance aspects. i return to bloomic often as a comfort game, and it gets me in my feelings as a creator.
Rewritten by Weird Little Beasties free (pay what you want) 5 routes, gender neutral PC, male ROs fave route: nightshade
inkheart if it was a really cute dating sim. the art and music are super nice, the routes are all short and sweet, and there's a little bit of something for everyone. ironically, it really did feel like sinking into a cozy book. this is one i got a little unwell about (positive), so i have to recommend it.
(more below!)
A Date With Death by Two and a Half Studios free, with purchasable expansions 1 route, gender selectable PC, male RO
legally required to rec this one because 1) it basically introduced me to chatsims, and 2) i own merch for it (say hi to azrael for me when you see him). it's just really good and fun. grim is so lame (complimentary) and i love a kind of loser boyfriend in games like this, so he delivers for sure. plus the CGs are just stupid good. i haven't played the expansion (yet), but i still recommend it for the base game content alone.
Ace in Space by Cadaver Carnival Studios CDN $7.99 5 routes, nb PC, male and nb ROs fave route: forge is my favourite, but zipper is the best route
this one's a little different on this list for reasons that are difficult to get into without turning this into a novel. it's structured like a dating sim so it makes the list, but the story is more about the player character, and you can choose to pursue romantic or platonic relationships as part of their journey. this one made me cry a few times, but that's sort of inevitable when the main themes so heavily involve grief and illness. proceed with caution, but i do urge you to proceed. if it helps sweeten the pot, most of the ROs are robots, and i'd like it a lot if you supported this game because it's from a somewhat local-to-me dev duo.
Fledgling Manor by In Secret Places CDN $15.18 3 routes, male PC, male/nb/female ROs fave route: stefan (but eight i love you please call me back)
y'all didn't think you were getting out of this list without an FM mention, did you? i'm obsessed with this game. i'm going to shill this game until the day i die. reality tv + sexy vampires? how could i resist. i was waiting for this game waaay before it came out and i was not disappointed. plus, usually predetermined protags are a turn off for me in these games but rocky is my ride or die (and my profile picture). i went over this game with a fine-tooth comb and i'm still hungry for more. play fledgling manor.
SeekL by robobarbie free* 1 route, gender neutral PC, nb RO
another chatsim, and so, so good. odxyny is a really interesting RO that i think resonates with a lot of people, and the other server members are super fun to hang out with. also, the gameplay of the coding as part of the story is so fun and innovative while never being an obstacle. really makes it stand out, and it's another one that hits emotionally.
Hustle Cat by Date Nighto CDN $22.79 6 routes, gender selectable PC, male & female ROs
fave route: graves bc i can't resist an older goth 😔
this one's cute. cats and coffee and magic, with a villain and everything. each of the routes resolves more or less the same story with different twists along the way, and you learn a little more every time. i could talk a lot about this game, but this isn't meant to be a review. why don't you play it and tell me what you think?
Pirated Code: Admin Edition by Hollowmend CDN $14.99 (a version with less content is available as pay-what-you-want here) 1 route (lots of endings!), nb PC, male RO
i like this one a lot (enough to painstakingly 100% it myself). It's not as heavy on the relationship (which can be romantic or platonic) as some of the other entries on this list, but it's definitely there and extremely cute, and the story happening around it is really good too. it definitely sucked me in and got me really invested in finding answers to the mystery of your PC's past, and dex, the RO, is an absolute sweetheart.
*robobarbie has requested that those who wish to financially support their games donate to charity, instead.
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askagamedev · 8 months ago
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There’s a lot of noise online about live service games being detrimental to the quality of games, such as initial launches being bug ridden and with incomplete features. Is there any truth to this last statement? And are the spending patterns reflecting the idea that people are dissatisfied with this model of monetization?
I think that it is true that initial launches are indeed more bug ridden today than they were before day 1 patches were possible, but the reason for this is much less nefarious than most are imagining. I was already working in games before that big change happened and I saw what happened from the inside.
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Before we could patch, producers would cut content and features much more mercilessly because we lacked the time to finish that content properly and still pass certification. We couldn't ever modify or add stuff to the disc or cartridge, so we had to make sure that what went out was the most stable thing we could. Stability was more important than scope, so we'd see stuff get cut near the end all the time. There were a lot of features and content that players never saw because we couldn't get them polished and stable before the game had to ship. If we were lucky we managed to save some of it for expansion packs but most of it never saw the light of day. The last few weeks of the project were mostly wasted sitting around and waiting because we couldn't ever risk making any changes that weren't addressing cert-blocking bugs and we would mostly wait around to find out if cert had gone through.
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Back then, the burned and duplicated disk sent to retailers was the final pencils-down-step-away moment. The gold master is what got used to duplicate all of the discs and we couldn't make a new one. Further, all of those duplicated disks out in the wild would forever hold the "final" version of the game, bugs and all. The only way a new version was possible was another print run, and that only occurred in very rare cases where the entire first print run sold out and there was enough demand to print a second run... and the publisher felt it was worth going through certification a second time.
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With the advent of internet-connected game consoles and networks, we got the ability to push out post-launch patches including day 1 content updates. With the ability to patch came the potential to finish some of that nearly-complete content that we used to have to cut for stability purposes. Instead of focusing on stability, we could actually push fixes later and fit more content into our releases. This meant that we could also shift people to work on post-launch content, rather than simply sitting around and doing nothing while waiting for cert results. We could fix bugs and work on new content and features during that time and we could leverage all the expertise and experience we had earned in the years of development up to that point.
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To summarize - in the olden days, we had to cut a lot more content and features that were close to being finished because we needed to go pencils-down for certification. Today, we can continue working on content that would have been cut because we can patch fixes into the game. This results in overall buggier content and features on average at launch but it also results in significantly more content and features on average at launch than before.
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kekeke32 · 1 year ago
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TOUCHSTARVED trailer theme theory??
Hi guys, hi everyone. Hope we’re doing well!
SO the full version of the trailer theme is finally out on YouTube and holy shit??? It goes so HARD!!! Give it a listen here.
After rewatching it over and over again, I noticed something so I’ll map out which lyrics appear with which character for y’all to see:
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Wish I could’ve added more ss but I’m on the mobile app 🥲 Anyways, I really don’t think the dev team added the characters photos randomly ‘cause check this out:
In Ais’s part, the lyrics are about a certain weakness (ik the lyrics “my weakness” refer to a person but I chose to ignore that jskdksk) and survival. This may be a reach BUT doesn’t this reminds you of Ais’s official character description? Specifically of this part: “Ais seems capable of curing you...but a sick sense of dread surrounds him. He's beginning to suspect that he may not be as in control of his powers as he thought. Can you save each other, or will he drag you down to the abyss with him?" This so-called “weakness” could be his very own powers and he’ll need the player to help him, to “survive”.
Now, about Vere’s part, I don’t have much to say tbh other than the fact that the lyrics “Cause everytime we touch” appear for the first time in his part and I guess you could say it’s related to his frequenting at the brothel? (iykwim 😏) Oh! And you could also see him being touched by a lot of different hands in the trailer. Besides that, his part ends with the lyrics “need you by my side” sung softly by the singer hmm…
Kuras’s part on the other hand, starts strongly (I suck balls at describing music so pls listen 4 urselves, you’ll know what I mean😭) and at 1:59 mins the lyrics are “Cause everytime we touch” then his face darkens a little and it stars an instrumental interlude. I don’t know what that really means but he’s sus
Mhin’s part is sung very softly as well and the lyrics “We’ve been through them all. You make me rise when I fall” are so sweet more so because I think in their route they’ll open up more to the player after going together through incomprehensible horrors and we’ll learn how to support each other <33
Finally, Leander’s part!! Now, LISTEN. His part is the reason why I even made this post in the first place lmao This mf is way too sus but first of all, the building synth progression at 2:58???? oh my god I got CHILLS. literal chills. *ahem* Moving on, his part, starts strongly the same as Kuras’s part did. Their parts are the only ones sung like that… Weird, huh? Anyway, after the lyrics “I can’t let you go. Want you in my life” at 3:49, the song gets SUPER intense and starts sounding very desperate ig?? (kudos to Dan! love his voice frfr) and Leander’s part ends with “Need you by my side”. Okayy y'all… Y'ALL. THIS IS CRAZY. In his part we have both the lyrics "I can't let you go. Want you in my life" AND "I want this to last. Need you by my side". AHHHH Leander you obsessed little bitch (affectionate)
In conclusion, there’s no fucking way the red spring team didn’t assign the certain parts of the lyrics very and I mean VERY purposefully to each LI. The parts suit them specifically well so I highly doubt it’s random but it could also just be me reading too much into this
Whatever!!! Good morning/Good night to this fandom only ^_^
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