#burning goal demo
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
blondeslotmania · 5 months ago
Video
youtube
Burning goals demo "Як адреналин за Слотманияци" 🤪
Не пропускайте да тествате най-новия слот на EGT Бърнинг Гол, който е наличен и в демо варинт на официалния сайт на провайдъра. За 2024та година той е голям хит и се предлага с безплатни завъртания в повечето казино сайтове
0 notes
unscripted-if · 1 year ago
Text
Tumblr media
DEMO || PINTEREST
Tumblr media
Lights…
Camera…
Action!
Those three words, along with the flashing of cameras and screaming of thousands of people, had made up your life for over a decade. Following your rising star into the stratosphere where you could look at where you’ve been upon your lofty perch in the sky. You were the ruler of your universe and there was nothing that’d bring you down…
… Until, of course, there was…
Suddenly in a free fall, without any chance of catching yourself in sight, you’re hurtling back to the ground with only one thought, one goal, in your mind: Find your way back up.
When a new project comes your way, new opportunities arrive with it, but nothing is ever cut and dry within Hollywood. You’ll have to put your all into this movie if you want any chance at salvaging your career.
Try to stay on script…
Unscripted is a slice-of-life interactive fiction where romance, drama, and the trivialities of life intertwine to create your story. Rated 18+ for explicit language, optional sexual content, drug/alcohol use, and violence.
Tumblr media
Features
✰ Customizable MC: Name, gender (male, female, non-binary), sexuality, appearance, some of your past projects, and history with a few of the characters.
✰ Maintain your fan base and make sure that they haven’t forgotten about you. Will you earn more as your journey progresses?
✰ Be interviewed from sidewalk reporters to one of the biggest Late Night Shows within America. Just make sure that you make a good impression— there is such a thing as bad publicity after all.
✰ Romance one of the characters that’ll either have the crowd roaring or scratching their heads. Will you find common ground with your sworn rival? Take a chance at love with someone from your past? Give your hot-and-cold manager a shot? Time will tell…
✰ Adopt a new friend that will hopefully make your lonely nights less so.
✰ Rise back to the ranks of Super Stardom and take back your throne.
Tumblr media
Romances
The Rival: Angel Sinclair [M/F] — Ever since you arrived in Hollywood, Angel Sinclair has been there. You’re not quite sure when, or where, your rivalry even began, only that it’s made a ton of tabloids rich with the stories they’d print due to it, and you’re even less sure why you keep running into them on the same lot you’re shooting your newest movie. Is it another twisted form of punishment? With an icy exterior that puts the Arctic to shame, you don’t think you’ve ever seen them smile— at least when they’re not in front of the camera or interacting with fans. Will you uncover more as your random run-ins start losing some of their randomness?
Route: Rivals to Lovers.
The Manager: Kieran/Kiera Walker [M/F] — Probably one of the few reasons you’re still where you are. With a keen mind, a sharp eye for detail, and an even sharper tongue, K has never taken it easy on you, and they’re definitely not doing so now. While pragmatic about their approach, they’re not afraid to tell you what they think, when the time calls for it, which is something that’s definitely caused some tension in the past. Still, you don’t know what you’d do without them; as they’ve stayed steadily by your side through it all. And you don’t think they’re going anywhere anytime soon.
Route: Slow Burn.
The Director: Spencer Hale [M/F] — Last Laugh, the title of the movie you’re now part of, is the passion project that Spencer has been working on for years; trying tirelessly to get it to the silver screen. You would know— after all you were there when they began to write it back in college. Despite not having seen them in years, the gentle look in their eyes hasn’t shifted in the slightest; even if it is a bit more wary now, they don’t hesitate in offering you the same level of kindness as before. Though, even that, still feels different, wrong somehow. Can you recover what’s been lost between you? Or will you forever be two ships passing in the night?
Route: Ex-Best Friend/Lover (can choose if they were your lover or not) || Second Chances
The Newcomer: Cameron/Carmen Rivera [M/F] — An up-and-coming star within Hollywood from the music scene. Having wanted to take a shot at the silver screen for years it’s only with this project that they’ve finally been given the chance— cast as your love interest, no less. You’re not too sure what to make of them. From everything you’ve read they’re sunshine incarnate, with a beaming smile always on their lips, that completely contradicts the darker colors that they typically wear. Something tells you, an almost bone deep intuition, that they’re an array of contradictions all rolled up into one package. Will you ever be able to uncover any of them?
Route: First Love (to them) || Age Gap
The Bodyguard: Roman Locke [M/F] — With a penchant to wear nothing but black, sometimes with muted tones of gray thrown in, you don’t know much about the individual that’s been guarding you with their life for the last five years. Only their stellar history in the Navy, coupled with a possible connection to being a CIA Agent, though that’s never been confirmed, and the other rudimentary facets of their past that any employer needs to know. However, even if they rarely speak, you know that you’re in more than capable hands and that they take their job seriously. But what happens when that professional facade begins to crack?
Route: Bodyguard Romance.
The Assistant: Harley Park [M/F] — Someone who’s very good at their job while also being everywhere and nowhere all at once. You don’t know if they’ll ever get over the embarrassment of your first meeting— with them being in a fandom shirt from a project you had done a couple of years before, with you at center stage on it. With an undeniable charm, if a bit awkward in their approach, Harley is definitely someone that’d you miss interacting with once you got the chance to do so. You just have to get them to actually interact with you first.
Route: Oblivious Love.
613 notes · View notes
bakahimesama · 2 months ago
Text
The Allmother: An Entirely too Long Analysis
In the whole demo, we only get one completely missable set of dialogue on this potential deity.
Tumblr media
But that is more than enough information for me to start speculating. The two important parts to break down here are her supposed connection to the hearth and thus fire, and her title of Allmother.
A hearth is the part of a house where fires are made and kept (a fireplace is the modern day equivalent). Traditionally, before the advent of stoves and furnaces, this fire was used both for heating the house and cooking meals. It was considered one of the most important parts of the home, and so by extension, the spirits and deities that lived in the hearth and controlled the hearth fire were the most important beings to the household and its survival.
Hestia, Greek goddess of the hearth, was given the first offering of every domestic sacrifice, and at feasts she was granted the first and last sip of wine.
Gabija is the Lithuanian spirit of fire, who was offered bread and salt to feed her. If you did something to disrespect the hearth, like spitting or peeing in it, she was known to burn the house down. Later she would become known as the hearth goddess Matka Gabia.
The Ainu people worship Kamuy-huci, who lived in the hearth and controlled the gateway between humans and the divine. Deceased souls would reside in the hearth alongside her, and so keeping it clean was vital to ensuring those souls could eventually reincarnate properly.
Jowangshin is the hearth goddess of Korean shamanism, and relayed to the heavens the going-ons and behaviors of each household's inhabitants. She is described as vengeful towards those who do not respect their hearths, and actively works against such individuals.
The pattern between all of these deities is clear. The hearth is controlled by a woman who is deserving of the utmost respect. And it is pointless to think on the hearth without tying it to the element it is tasked with controlling and maintaining, fire. Hestia is sometimes described as a living flame, Gabija is originally a fire spirit, in some myths Kamuy-huci is born from a fire producing drill, Jowangshin is the goddess of fire alongside the hearth. To say that a hearth goddess is also a fire goddess is no great stretch of the imagination.
But why does the Allmother's connection with fire matter? Because we're all rather familiar with a certain being who is constantly being associated with fire, flames, and especially warmth:
Right from the beginning, before we even know what he looks like.
Tumblr media
In non canon events.
Tumblr media
In teasers for the game.
Tumblr media
And of course, in the demo itself.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Kuras is a furnace, and we're not allowed to forget it. And wouldn't it just make sense, that the angels of a hearth goddess are themselves related to fire? Kuras is an angel, which means he responds to a higher being, why not this one? What that means for his route, I can only image.
Back to the original text, the traveler is praying that the Allmother will be forgiving of sins, implying that part of her domain includes the right to judge lives and morality. She is also believed to guide lives "unto her hearth," likely at the time of death considering the context of when the pray is being uttered. Which leads me to believe that she is responsible for helping souls pass on peacefully, but only if she deems them worthy of her fire. Since in many cultures a "good" death is a very important end goal to pursue, staying in her favor would be considered paramount to those who believe in her.
Moving on to her title, the name suggests that she is either the deity of a monotheistic religion and thus naturally all encompassing, or a major deity in a polytheistic pantheon. Either way, there are only so many interpretations one can dissect from a title that implies an all encompassing claim of maternal jurisdiction.
If nothing else, I suspect she is considered a mother to her angels. Whether or not Kuras will even bring her up is debatable, since I could just be seeing connections that aren't really there. But as an angel I'm sure he'll at least drop the name of the being he's serving penance for.
Maybe she won't be mentioned ever again. Maybe she'll be an integral part of Kuras' route. Maybe she'll be a passing mention that isn't nearly as important as such a name suggests. Regardless this break down has helped me better understand Kuras' themes, and has made me even more excited to play his route.
139 notes · View notes
makerofmadness · 3 months ago
Text
ok so: Beast-Ancients Swap AU but actually the Beasts messed up the timeline and made it one
(I will explain I swear-) The following sprite edits and designs were a collaborative effort of me and @driftwoodmfb
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
(Lily's design and edit is not finished yet, and Ssalt isn't getting one until that character is released-)
general shoutouts to Driftwood for collaborating with me on this in a lot of aspects btw she's the mvp of this whole project
I am Very bad at concise descriptions but basically: "5v5 climactic final showdown occurs but the bad guys win and then the group consensus on what to all do together to compromise thanks to slightly different priorities is 'Hey we all really hate the ancients now so let's just like. Screw them over' so they basically used their combined virtues' powers or something (look all of this I came up with just to justify the AU's actual concept) to like reset and alter the timeline to swap their places with the ancients basically. and then they kinda accidentally get redemption arc'd in the process. Meanwhile the og ancients... are not happy"
I'm def gonna post more about these guys in the future (and also I like. Encourage people to send asks because I need enrichment dndndnmd! I have a ton of stuff sitting around about them and I love talking about them- so. Here's my attempt at an overview (I. Suck at being concise this took all day to not make way too long dndndndm):
Shadow Milk Cookie - Calls himself the Dark Moon Magician. He's quite braggadocious and more than a little mischievous, quite the show-off too, but he has a good heart down there (nowadays). Though he has often had to be badgered by the Light of Truth into actually telling the truth on things...
Eternal Sugar Cookie - You'll meet them someday. Just not now.
Mystic Flour Cookie - Her face and voice do not do much to express how much she despises the Cookie she used to be, and the Cookie she still sees whenever she looks in the mirror. She is the most eager to come clean to her Cookies, but something is holding her back... she decides to save it for when she has finally repented enough by her standards, to earn her position as queen. It's never enough.
Burning Spice Cookie - For the kingdom he rules, you may (or may not) be surprised seeing how little he cares for material riches. To him, lived experiences are the most precious things- hence why he's always looking for a good fight. Or to just have fun with those close to him- which is not many as he has had a history of issues- after all, transient things fall to time, but the impressions they leave can last up to forever...
Silent Salt Cookie - The fallen hero. It wasn't supposed to happen again. They all knew it could happen, they agreed to prevent it. Why did they make the same mistake...?
Pure Vanilla Cookie - The embodiment of the most common lie. He can string Cookies up to make them move and speak against their wills. He does this to himself often, when he grows tired. He is very ashamed of what he has become, but no matter, he will be fine once he regains the light of Truth, and exposes the truth of this world to all Cookiekind...
Hollyberry Cookie - Berry juice is a comfort to her, such is why she had wished so badly to drown her mind and all her pain in it. She is... frankly, harmless the way she is now. She doesn't have the power, pride or energy to fight. Her heart is just as full of love as it's always been, even if her mind's gone fluffy as frosting. So much that even being in a permanent stupor won't stop her from missing her family, still...
Dark Cacao Cookie - As he describes himself fully, an empty vessel without a will of his own, whose only goal is to carry out the will of fate. He will play his part in this story, for he knows there is no other way. After all, they'd tried to resist already, and it was all in vain. He is cold, empty, such was his resolve: to be unburdened by feeling, so that he would feel no pain...
Golden Cheese Cookie - Calls herself the Demonic Goddess. When she gets upset, she tends to fly into fits of destruction- which she has become very, very good at causing. She laughs it off, she laughs a lot in general, but she really does not like what she's become. However, she is still the same greedy Cookie as she always was, and still wants nothing more than to annihilate the ones who had displaced her and her friends and take back what is rightfully hers...
White Lily Cookie - Founder of the Lily Kingdom. She is a stern, serious figure who tries to keep everything under her control. She quickly silences those who tell her what she does not wish to hear untrue, unkind, or unnecessary things. She does not get very openly emotional often, and tends to address everyone with the same attitude even if it's her friends. (They can generally tell when she means well). She plans to silence all lies from Cookies' mouths, especially regarding who the "Heroes" and "Beasts" are...
(i. Never mentioned the name of the AU itself the whole time in this post did I? Ok uh that's Immemorial Interchange btw if I ever say that or II then I'm talking about this thing for future reference XD)
Edit: I have a tag on my blog for the au and I just kinda post whatever I feel like. Hope y'all can enjoy this I'm probably gonna be dumping a lot of stuff I've held on to. And I would love it if people send asks X3
81 notes · View notes
ailishmaurafiction · 4 months ago
Text
Tumblr media
Escaping the dungeon is their clear goal, but first Thesa (the ex-paladin Witch) and her girlfriend? lover? domme? demoness will need to cross through a floor with an out-of-place theme: Candy! Will they make it through in tact or are they going to need a trip to the dentist when this is all done?
The next chapter of Paladin to Witch is the highest production value yet!
3 new monsters with art by Botjira!
A map I made in Dungeon Scrawl!
And the start of some silly nonsense!
Goes live: Tuesday, December 17 @ 11:00am PDT
Story summary and publishing details under the cut:
Indebted to the very demoness she was sent to kill, Thesa questions everything she’s ever known, bonds with the sexy [High Devil] Merijest, and practices her interpersonal skills. Can she help Merijest rebuild her army before it's too late?
Includes:
- Slow-ish burn GL romance
- [System]-lite LitRPG about two characters accustomed to life in a video-gamey world
- Steamy tension (no explicit sex scenes, mostly implications and tension)
- A reverse dungeon-crawl from the bottom of a kaiju-sized mimic
- An ex-Paladin trying her best not to stare at a casually nude demoness
- Weird monsters from the mind of a maniac author
- Very infrequent curse words. I counted 8 times in the first volume (45k+ words).
- Religious trauma. This one is especially going to appeal to the Catholic and Ex-Catholic girlies out there. Nobody does angst like we do, babey! (Nothing inside is strictly allegorical of any religion, but the sensibilities are definitely informed by a Catholic milieu.)
Updates Tuesdays at 11:00am PDT
Chapters hover around 1-2k words each
Cover and monster art by botjira
93 notes · View notes
whencartoonsruletheworld · 5 months ago
Text
ok so fun amanda the adventurer stuff i wanted to talk about:
i think amanda's been in the tapes for 20 years exactly. we were putting it at 22 because the first tape has a 2001 copyright on the show, BUT the tape of rebecca signing papers was dated to 2002. i will bet you that 2001 is when the live-action show started, this all went down in 2002, and 2003 is when they put her in the tapes, making the 2023 setting a round 20 years
in case y'all don't know-- i haven't seen anyone make this mistake yet but just to be sure-- it seems that riley is a they/them. they're referred to as "they" in the second game steam description AND by amanda herself– when the monster tries to attack, she uses "they" to refer to riley. she knows who riley is at this point as we know from the nightlight tape, so it's not the generic "they." i think we got an enby protag! also makes you wonder if riley's supposed to be the Knight in the story, but there's another option i discuss later
i think we're forgetting what the meatman does. cause like. yeah it's probably the surgeon who put her under or at the very least heavily associated with him. but also we got the butcher ending in the first game for a reason. anyone who goes into amanda's world becomes meat. i'll bet you that they go in and become animals, which the butcher then feeds to the demon(s).
i might wanna pen this as a theory vid, but it might be too short? but i think there's a secret third party in this conspiracy. we've got hameln, summoning demons, and the anti-hameln librarian club, trying to free rebecca. BUT we ALSO know that someone told joanne to destroy the tapes, which was apparently against what kate wanted to do. THEN someone burnt down kate's house in order to destroy the tapes, something hameln would not want to do. in the orange tape, kate also refers to a mysterious "they" who got her the original tapes, who might be the person secretly filming rebecca. if kate's "they" and joanne's "they" are the same person, it seems like they're playing both hameln AND the kensdale team. i wonder if this "they" might've been the player in the demos– where amanda was more evil and their sole goal was to burn the tapes
84 notes · View notes
evertidings · 2 months ago
Note
heya kristi, may i have some advice? i'm finding myself stuck at a wall as i'm attempting to make my first ever if and it's intimidating to say the least ;; while i feel so so inspired by wts and other ifs, on the other hand i strangely feel pressured?? to make something worthwhile? creating a story takes time and it's a long investment but i can't help but want to rush myself into putting something out there quickly... how do you pace yourself?
Ah, this is a late response so I'm not sure if you need this anymore, but reading this really resonated with me so I'm going to reply anyway.
Comparing yourself to others will always be a rabbit hole you can't escape. You might look at me and think I've done pretty well for myself, but I also have days where I feel inadequate. I'm aware that I'm not as fast of a writer as some authors and it kills me every day. Even worse is when I watch an episode of a TV show and I find myself thinking: "Oh, you should be writing right now," even though I have every right to wind down and have other hobbies. At the end of the day, you gotta realize that this is all in your head. No one is pressuring you to be faster or to do things you don't want to do—those are just your personal demons.
As long as you want to write this, I genuinely believe the pieces will fall into place from there, success and all. I feel like it becomes quite clear to your audience that your heart isn't in it, which tends to translate negatively. Why would I want to read a work that even the author doesn't care about, you know? You can tell when an author is passionate about their work and that energy is infectious. As long as you maintain your spark, that's all that really matters. In other words, if the story you're writing means something to you, it'll mean something to someone else.
In terms of pacing yourself, just go at a speed that feels right for you. Give yourself a word-count goal to hit every day or week, but don't burn yourself out. Make sure you're only writing when you want to. Hope for success but don't go into things with that as your only goal. Make a blog for your IF, talk about your work and get people excited, but be smart with your marketing and don't promote a demo that has 2 words to its name. I always tell people that a demo should come out within the first 1-2 months of first posting about it—that way, you don't lose interest but you still have enough time to build up hype.
At the end of the day, everyone works differently. I'm still figuring out how to manage things myself, nearly 4 years into doing this. Take advice that you know will work for you and shape it into something that's your own.
I know I went on a bit of a tangent there, but I hope this was helpful to either you, anon, or anyone else reading this with a similar question. All my love <3
54 notes · View notes
alexandor · 3 days ago
Text
youtube
New interview with Alphyna, summarized under readmore:
1. Quarantine was originally intended as the intro to P3, but taking feedback, they learned that it's still too confusing for new players. New players didn't connect with the characters. They are intending to use the scenes from Quarantine, but not at the beginning or in the same order
2. Serafina and Platon will appear in the main game
3. The release date is vague because they are being careful of not realeasing it at a poor time (again). Alphyna notes IPL has things "crash and burn at the most inopportune times". Specifically, they are trying to avoid when GTA6 comes out, because that game will change the gaming landscape so much. They have very much work to do still, so it won't be ready by summer, but they're going to try and release before GTA6, if they can.
4. She can't make promises, but they *intend* to release a game for the Changling, Pathologic 4. It's just a vision document right now.
5. P3's autotravel is here to stay. It's meant as a different experience, as Daniil tries to remove himself from the town, and is more like a strategist over a map. However, the autotravel will be more robust, and multiple routing choices will be available. Furthermore, they don't want to make the same game.
"Pathologic has never really been about looting trash bins"
(Regarding how survival mechanics are common now): Pathologic would be a worse Valheim if IPL just kept making survival games. Our end goal has always been to create new amd unique experiences, using game mechanics to tell a story. It's a gamble, but it's better than making the same mold over and over again.
6. She discussed the nature of AAA vs indie studios, and how that effects interests and sales... In short, she believes that innovation is a necessity for an indie studio to be successful. As an indie studio, if you are too risk averse, people will not want to play the same game over and over. "Run fast to stay in place"
7. Gaming journalism & official reviews do mean something because they're displayed everywhere. A yellow number is a bad thing. But generally, apathy and lack of outreach to the right people can hurt a game. With P2, they reached out to the wrong people, so it took time for the right influencers to find it, but then P2 sales massively increased. It's important to reach the right people/audience. When you do weird, experimental indie stuff, some people won't like it. Plus, it takes cognitive effort to unpack an experimental indie, and it's IPL's job to communicate that the effort will be rewarded.
8. The team for P3 is larger than P2, but this happened only very recently. So it's been in active production for 2 and a half years.
9. After P2 the studio was in a (?)morale/moral(?) crisis, and the studio decided they should make smaller games to earn some money. But it wasn't especially successful. So they found an investor, and then they could finally start production. IPL didn't use kickstarter to get P3 under production because crowdfunding is good for very small companies and specific productions, plus a marketing tool, but in truth people who often support crowdfunded games don't fully understand how expensive a game really is to make. Crowdfunders need to see a possible end in sight, or they won't donate
10. When asked if the game would be simpler, she said that P3 is in some ways easier then P3, but it's way more complex. It has more mechanics, more "minigames" (many have not been shown in the demo), the nonlinear storytelling, the decrees, etc. You can't play the game from Day 1 to day 12, the town dies on day 6 when you begin the game. You have to find a way to make the town survive until the end. Daniil's survival is simpler, but the survival of the town and the systems that deal with that are WAY more complicated. It puts a very different type of stress on the player.
However, you might need to search for new decrees to make the later days available to you.
11. In the released game, interactions in infected districts will be much more complicated than the demo, and there will be more systems in the "whodunnit" side of things.
12. (About the visual presentation and "flair") Cutting the Town down from free roaming helped a lot with the presentation, they can make sure there's more detail, environmental construction, better lightning, and cinematography.
They did different things with art direction - the palatte, the grass, etc, bc Daniil percieves the world differently, and it's important to show the world around him is different. Subjective storytelling is one of most crucial differences to Pathologic.
13. The music is not by the same person. They have good relationship with them, but with subjective storytelling, the world has to sound different, the chanting music is not a fit for Daniil. There will be P2 songs in P3 when appropriate.
14. P3's code and coding architecture is very different from P2's.
15. Pathologic is a game that is watched on youtube more than directly played, like Fear & Hunger, because it's difficult & unique (by which she means grueling and annoying at times). But, you can't just make a game for youtubers or influencers. We want to make games people will play, but you don't want to be too accomodating. Making games that challenge the player is IPL's goal. So they are making a game that is stressful, but less punishing from the start. Able to interact, without making it too simple.
16. She recognizes that for many people, Pathologic is about the clock ticking and the feeling that if you don't rush you will miss out or die. It's a big departure to not have that. "The clock is ticking, but as Daniil you can, let's say, (air quotes) "travel back in time" (end air quotes) or to a different point of your story that you're telling to your investigator."
Note: so it isn't literal time travel, it's story jumping
17. Daniil's main quest is to defeat death, to transcend human nature. Not just extend life. So the choice to give him some empowerment works with his character and story. His ideas and ideals are interesting, and easier to understand for the modern player. He's not a night in shining armor, he has faults, not the nicest guy in the world, but you the player push the buttons, so you guide Daniil to be a certain way.
18. She is not allowed to answer if they plan a physical release or console. Physical releases are something for successful games can allow themselves to have.
19. She was asked whether she thinks Pathologic's vibes/aesthetic/cerebral aspects resonate universally or with Slavic players.
She points out that in the game, many people are Asian, not just Slavics, and that it would be silly to deny that the clash of ideas and worldviews is based between those populations in early 20th century Russia. What to do with the dead in P2 is a direct example. The vibes are about a clash of ideas and ideals with people who have larger than life agendas who percieve through different lenses.
The vibes are also high art low life.
Pathologic is also imbued with nihilism.
So, she thinks all these things are close to the hearts to the people of eastern europe, people who have seen hardships under Soviet Union. However, Pathologic also strongly resonates with people from countries with not very good economies and big social gaps. Extreme social divide, places of contrast.
20. The original game's name is a pun. Plague and utopia being homonyms. The idea if the English name was also to be a pun. A game about disease, but meant to evoke Path of Logic, as in each character follows their own path of logic. Though, Daniil's path is the most "logical"
24 notes · View notes
magici-if · 2 years ago
Text
Attention, viewers. The following program contains content suitable for mature audiences aged 16 and above. Viewer discretion is advised.
[DEMO COMING SOON][FAQ] [RO ASKS MASTERPOST]
MAGICI: WORLDSTAR INTRO POST
Tumblr media
A flyer falls at your feet.
Ever wanted to become the best mage in the world? Ever wanted to become famous while at it?
Well, according to this flyer, by applying for this magic academy-turned-talent show, you can.
A chance to develop your magic affinities, get a free higher education from a renowned academy, meet people from all over the world, win the grand prize of 300 000 kubos , AND become mindblowingly famous?
Sign-me-up.
Friends, mentors, rivals, lovers? In the end, the top only has space for one.
Will you be the one standing there?
But more importantly, what will you do to get there?
Find the answers to these questions and more in the third season of:
Magici: Worldstar - Where dreams become Magic.
A ✧ Spellbound ✧ Entertainment© Production
APPLICATIONS NOW CLOSED. CATCH US ON CHANNEL 4!
Tumblr media
In a world where magic is alive and widespread, you're one of the few lucky ones who can say they have actual powers instead of the weak energy most people possess. That's because you've had your Awakening, the extraordinary event in which that fragile energy becomes magic.
Unfortunately, Magic Academies are expensive and hard to get into, so you've never had the resources to truly hone your powers.
That changes when you find out that one of the most famous and respected magic academies in the world, Magici Academy, is letting anyone* apply.
How? By joining the famous magic talent show, Magici: Worldstar, you get a free education at the Academy. The catch? Every week, you risk being eliminated**, effectively shattering the dream of a lifetime.
Will you excel, or will you be eliminated, perhaps by the viewers or because you weren't on par with your fellow contestants?
*(See full requirements at MagiciWorldstar.com)
**Continued enrolment subject to Academy approval.
KEEP READING FOR FEATURES AND ROS.
Tumblr media
Fully design your MC: pick your magic affinity, tv persona, gender identity, pronouns, sexuality, name, fashion style, personal goals, body mods, and many more!
Pick who gets eliminated by answering to polls!
Romance one of 6 ROs, or pursue casual flings
Will you focus on honing your magic, getting your grades up, winning the talent show, or simply charming the viewers?
Will you learn to control your powers, or succumb in this new and stressful environment?
Affect how the viewers, teachers, teammates, judges, and fellow students perceive you.
Affect how well your team does in the talent show, as well as the relationships between your teammates
Possibly win a talent show and get crazy rich and famous
Become the viewers' sweetheart... or a pain in the ass ^^
Play matchmaker with your class-/teammates ❤︎
❤︎ Romantic Options:
[RO appearances here] (not a rickroll this time I swear)
Tumblr media
Martin: He comes from a long lineage of strong mages. Always the family's black sheep, he seeks to make his family proud and finally show them he's worthy of his last name. A gentle but intimidating giant, he doesn't want to get too close to his fellow contestants, can you break down his walls?
Tropes: Stoic, Slow-Burn, Forced Proximity, Roommates, Afraid to Commit, Idiots in Love
Tumblr media
Demetra: This one is a mystery. Your brother's best friend, whom you've seen walking around your home since you were a teenager; however, she never made an effort to get to know you. When you see her at the Academy, you realise you know nothing about who she is. She says her only motivation to be on the show is knowledge, but will you show her she can find something other than that?
Tropes: Rivals to Lovers, Brother's Best Friend, Idiots in Love, Everyone Can See It
Tumblr media
Evander: Evander is a gifted individual with a big talent for magic, but he's lazy. The definition of "He's smart but he doesn't apply himself", he could care less about being in the academy. Their family has managed to force convince them to be on the show, the fame and money a big incentive. What they secretly hope is that he'll come home as a new person and grow up. You won't fix them, but you can sure seduce them. ;)
Tropes: First Love, Fish Out of Water, Oblivious to Love, Pining
Tumblr media
Harley: A social butterfly, it seems somehow she's already friends with everyone at the Academy. Growing up around musicians made her love for music grow, as well as awaken her powers. She joined the show to make important connections and to get her name out there both as a talented musician and a powerful mage. Will you be just another friend for her or will you become her muse? 𝄞
Tropes: Friends to Lovers, Soft Love, Roommates, Idiots In love, Mutual Pining
Tumblr media
Echo: Echo is extremely shy and often lost in her own thoughts. Her unique powers make her an intimidating rival and a strong teammate. However, she joined the show for a specific reason: she seeks to learn more about her unusual affinities. Other than that she hasn't really been interested in getting to know anyone. Maybe you'll be the exception and get to know the real Echo. ❤︎
Tropes: Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Idiots In Love, Strangers to Lovers, Hesitant, Crush on MC
Tumblr media
Dominic: He is one of the judges at Magici: Worldstar, as well as a professor at the Academy. He is just another judge, and you're just another contestant. Nothing to see here. :)
Tropes: Forbidden Love, Fell In Love with The Wrong Person, Lovers in Denial
Tumblr media
possible flings 👀 Other contestants:
Bleon: They already have a reputation as a prankster around the Academy, having competed in Magici: Worldstar's first season. Loved by the student body, hated by the professors, but you'll be sure to like this menace.
Bruno: A shy but friendly presence in your team, he looks forward to getting to know you. After a quick conversation, you already know he aspires to become a respected landscape engineer by perfecting his ability to build and shape landscapes.
Brynn: She aspires to become a Nature Guardian, and to preserve harmony between humans and nature. It is slightly interesting then, that she seems to dislike you the moment she sets her eyes on you.
Chianti: He holds a little secret. Well, not anymore, 'cause I'm about to tell you. He's just had his Awakening, a mere few months before his admission to the show. Will you help him develop his affinities or turn the other way, until he gets eliminated?
Nora: After losing her father to a magic-related incident, she understands that even the strongest healers can't save themselves. She dreams of becoming a mage healer, but also a Guardian, thanks to her rare affinity combination.
Rahim: A disciplined and focused mage, no one in his family has had an Awakening. He hopes he'll be able to get far in the show or to at least stay long enough to develop his powers.
[DEMO COMING SOON... STAY TUNED]
ATTENTION VIEWERS: THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ABOVE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AS THE PROJECT "MAGICI: WORLDSTAR" IS A WORK IN PROGRESS.
✧ Magici: Worldstar is a contemporary fantasy romantic drama IF, a first part to the Magici series.✧ Reblogs/asks are crazy appreciated !!
529 notes · View notes
foxglovegames · 7 months ago
Text
DEVLOG: AUGUST 2024 🦇
Tumblr media
It's already time for the August wrap-up??
Demo Progress
It seems no matter how much we get done, there is always more work to do haha! That said, August has been a good month and we have made a lot of exciting progress on the demo for BURN THE MIDNIGHT OIL. :)
Programming
Please welcome Renbie to the team as our lead programmer! 🙌
The past week have been spent prepping sprites and setting things up in Ren'py. Although we still have a long way to go, the game feels more real than ever now which is both exciting and scary!
If you followed the development of Trouble Comes Twice, you might already know that programming was a big hurdle for us and a major source of frustration. ;( Now that we've got some more experience under the belt thanks to Trouble Comes Twice, we already feel a lot more confident but having a dedicated programmer on the team is going to be a massive help both time and quality-wise. As a bonus: Renbie's also super lovely to work with, so we're super happy to have her onboard!
Art
We mostly made progress on promotional assets. We decided on a sketch for our key art (check out a little sneak peek at the top of this post) and received the first sketches for some of our merch designs! They're looking super cute!
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Writing
With the demo script done and dusted, most of August was spent outlining the main game's six romance routes. The routes (subject to change) have five chapters each and various longer endings and shorter 'bad/death' ends based on your decisions.
BURN THE MIDNIGHT OIL has dual protagonists, so similarly to Trouble Comes Twice, we're two writers in charge of one MC each (and the MC's respective three routes). Unlike Trouble Comes Twice though, the cast here is a lot larger and not as (directly) connected.
So, how do we outline our routes? First, we wrote shorter summaries of each route - including important themes, character motivations, etc - which we then go over together. Although the plots of the two protagonists are very different, we have to make sure we keep the same 'themes and vibes'. We also need to be careful that the pacing and the scopes of the routes aren't too wildly different!
With the feedback from the shorter summaries, we move on to write the detailed outlines. (Here, we regularly reach out to each other and get feedback on minor elements and sometimes run brainstorming sessions when one of us runs into a wall.) Once these are done, we're going to have another review and write as many drafts as it takes until the routes are ready to enter the writing phase!
We're super excited about a lot of these scenes we've got planned and though you guys don't know much about the project yet, we think you're going to love the ideas we've got once it's time to learn more! We learned so much from Trouble Comes Twice that we can't wait to apply to this game! 🖤
Goals for September
There's too many little goals to count! But the major ones are:
Start looking for music composers, item artist, visual effects artist - we're not doing a public post for these, but if you or someone you know might be interested in one of these roles, shoot us a DM! ;)
Making as much progress as possible on the remaining UI screens
Making as much progress as possible on the merch designs
Continue working on the detailed outlines
Continue programming yay
Fingers crossed, we can get the key art done and dusted!
There's still so much to do, but we really look forward to the next couple of months!
39 notes · View notes
drozdnah · 1 year ago
Text
today I saw a post on tumblr about mercenaries as tarot arcana. and I liked the idea so I decided to make my own list (sorry I lost that original post I saw)
SO BEHOLD!
MERCENARIES AS THE TAROT ARCANA!!
Scout.
The Fool. this card represents a spontaneous young and curious person. a little crazy, but with a lot of enthusiasm. as well as intuitiveness and unpredictability. such a person does not rely on their knowledge, but on intuition.
Soldier.
The Chariot. This card represents a very passionate, determined and adventurous person. as well as willpower and victory. such a person cannot be stopped and for the sake of what they consider a "victory" they will do anything, even if it means chewing off their leg or jumping off a cliff.
Pyro.
The Moon. this arcana embodies illusion and mystery. It also means dreams and uncertainty. everything about a person with this card is very mysterious and ambiguous. Also, this card often means a person who is incomprehensible and rejected by others.
Demo.
The Sun. despite the fact that we were given very little of his canon personality. I think this arcana will suit him well because I believe that he has a very kind, wise, companionable soul. such a person will always help calm down and warm up the people around them with their wise friendly advice (yes I believe that demo is exactly like that)
Heavy.
Strength. person with this card has a gentle and calm, yet strong and determined personality. moreover, such a person is strong not so much physically as internally. such a person knows what they want and what they have to do and will go their own way no matter what.
Engineer.
I was thinking of giving him The Hierophant (as a symbol of knowledge) or The Temperance (as a symbol of balance and creation) first. but now I'm sure that Justice will suit him even more. This card means a balanced person and their objective and logical mind. such a person believes that everyone should get what they deserve, whether it's a reward or punishment.
Medic.
The Devil. I like the choice in the original post because this card embodies an obsession with ideas and cruelty in achieving goals.
BUT I also think that The Star might suit him too. This card means inspiration and connection with the divine.
(I want to give him both arcana because medic is very ambiguous. He can be your Devil or he can be your Star.)
Sniper.
The Hermit. This card means self-discovery and time spent alone. such a person likes to spend time alone because for them loneliness is not a burden but peace. which is also important because it also means wisdom gained through self-knowledge.
Spy.
The Magician. because this card means a smart, determined and cunning person who knows how to manipulate people. and such a person is very creative and has a certain skill. and thanks to this, they are well able to control any situation..
BUT I also like that in the original post they gave him The Emperor because this card denotes a skillful and ambitious leader (which we have been shown more than once in the canon)
and my girlfriend also said about Death card. This card signifies a new beginning, transformation and rebirth. A person with this card may be prone to radical changes and decisions. such a person always burns bridges behind them in order to escape from a certain situation.
61 notes · View notes
askagamedev · 10 months ago
Note
How much code is reused from game demos sent to publishers? Since developers don't have much time to create a good architecture at first and have to rush things, do they have to rewrite things from scratch once it gets in production?
The most common answer in all of game dev is always "it depends". Most game development falls along a spectrum with one extreme end being "well-oiled machine" (i.e. a project where almost everything is already well-established) and the opposing end being "no idea where they're going and holding on for dear life" (i.e. everything is new and vision/direction is constantly changing). Qualities like clarity of vision, team leadership, and total team experience will determine where on this spectrum each project falls.
Tumblr media
If the development process is disciplined and things are proceeding to plan, the demos we show to the executives are not far removed from the final versions we release to the public because things are proceeding as expected. The better-established the game and its feature set, the easier it often is to develop. Franchise games like Madden, COD, or Assassin's Creed, or long-running games like World of Warcraft have a well-established formula, very experienced teams, and a deep tool chest that allow games and game content to be built very quickly and efficiently. They are well-oiled machines that don't often have to reinvent the wheel because they've been using and improving on that process for many years already. They know exactly what they are building and are very good at delivering it. Any demo they build to show off work in progress will be very close to what will be shown in the final version of the game. Very little work will need to be redone.
Tumblr media
If development is troubled and the team is having difficulty hitting their goals and milestones on time for whatever various reasons, then the demos will reflect that. Most troubled development executive demos tend to be smoke and mirrors, with a lot of hacks and demo-exclusive assets that are held together by bubblegum and a prayer. These kind of demos can cause the team to enter into a death spiral because cobbling a bunch of hacks together for a demo actually puts the team even further behind schedule because we can't use those kind of hacks in real production. This means that these teams need to build almost everything twice (at least) - a hacky rushed way for the demo and then the "real" way. They constantly need to "catch up", but the hacks they put in place often cause instabilities and [technical debt] that must be addressed later on, which puts them further and further behind. This is commonly known as development hell.
Tumblr media
These are, of course, the two extreme ends of a single spectrum. Most game development projects fall somewhere along that spectrum. More experienced and established franchises lean towards the "well-oiled machine" side because they've had all the bad practices beaten out of them over the years. Most new IP and experimental gameplay tends to lean more towards the wild-and-crazy side of the spectrum, because there are too many [unknown unknowns] on projects like that. If you ever find yourself repeatedly behind the 8-ball crunching to put together many demos in a row with lots of hacks, you may wish to consider parlaying the firefighting skills you've learned into a job elsewhere.
[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]
Got a burning question you want answered?
Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter
Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr
Frequent Questions: The FAQ
30 notes · View notes
hazbinhazbinhazbinreblog · 1 year ago
Note
Alastor glances at Vox out of the corner of his eye. The media demon is turned so he can glare at Carmilla sitting in the back seat.
Alastor winces as the thrumming of static from his partner gets even louder. It's not painful at all, but it does present a bit of a distraction when he's trying to drive all three of them back to the hotel.
Carmilla finally notices Vox's seething when she looks up from the weapon she's fiddling with. “What?”
“‘What’? ‘WHAT’?!” Vox explodes, “WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU DOING?” He punctuates his outburst with a shockwave of electricity and static.
Alastor winces again as it washes around him. Vox must really be angry if he's losing control of his waves like this. Lately he's been more calm and collected compared to when Alastor first met him.
The static starts to consume everything now.
Alastor sighs and pulls over to the curb so he doesn't crash the car. He also turns around in his seat to look at Carmilla.
Carmilla rolls her eyes. “I had a job to do.”
“A job that required you to demolish nine blocks of the West side of the city?!”
She shrugs. “Civilian casualties. Comes with the job. It's not like it was that bad.”
Vox fires a beam of electricity at her that she dodges gracefully. She shoots him a glare in response.
“Well I'm sorry,” Camilla retorts, “but my credibility as a contract killer was on the line!”
Vox twitches. “Your credibility? What about the credibility of Alastor's hotel?!” Vox gestures to Alastor, who's doing everything in his power to keep the smile on his face. “Your little stunt made my partner look like a fucking joke!”
The demoness scoffs, “A joke? Jokes are supposed to be funny. All I did was make you look sad and pathetic.”
Alastor stiffens.
“Like an orphan.”
His eyes turn to radio dials.
“Whose parents abandoned them.”
The static around him crackles in the air.
“Ay, now I've bummed myself out.”
Alastor takes a deep breath and exhales. He can't get angry. Carmilla’s involvement is just a trial run. He brushes a stray curl out of his face.
“Do you have any alcohol in here?” Carmilla starts rooting around in the compartments.
Vox snarls and turns to face forward again. He's reaching the end of his rope. “Can’t you at least try to take this seriously?”
“I’ll try. But try not to get your boxers in a bind, Mister Checkerboard.”
Vox snaps his head around to burn a hole into Carmilla's face again. “Was that you trying to be sexist or racist?”
“Whatever pisses you off more.”
Vox's eye starts to twitch again. He turns to face Alastor. “Al, I'm going to kill her.”
Alastor runs a hand over Vox's shoulder soothingly as his partner starts muttering profanities underneath his breath.
“That was very rude of you, Carmilla.”
“‘Uncool’?” Vox interjects. “After that disaster, there's no way anybody will want to stay at the hotel!” He jabs a finger at Carmilla. “All thanks to you and your selfish bullshit!”
Carmilla looks between them. “Does that mean I won't have a free room anymore?”
Vox shoots her an incredulous look.
Alastor shrugs off his coat with what he hopes is a reassuring smile. “Hey, Vox, it's going to be okay. Just because we ran into one problem doesn't mean it's all over. Try to relax, darling. I'm sure we'll accomplish our goal soon enough!” He places his hand over Vox's.
Vox calms down at his touch and sends him a soft smile. “Alright, if you say so.”
This is so unhinged and ridiculous /pos
56 notes · View notes
handsomemain · 3 months ago
Text
THE SCARLET LEGACY
Currently working on it and will post the demo here once i'm about 3 or 4 chapters in (they ended up being a lot longer than I expected) --
The Scarlet Warriors are both hated and revered across the capital for their enhanced abilities to fight back the Ashling Threat.
With the recent resurgence, you are recruited (despite your reluctance) and after tragedy, it's up to you and your party to save the capital or watch on in horror as it burns to the ground.
Travel across the capital and gather your party to stop one of the Sentinels from resurrecting the Ashling Relic and dooming the world to endless chaos.
FEATURES
Customize your MC's appearance and personality. Do they prefer a Glaive or a Spear? How do they process their trauma? Are they reluctant to join the Scarlet or Eager to finally prove themselves worthy? (This is my first Wip, so I envisioned how Hawke is played in Dragon Age 2 for this one)
Determine your relationship with each party member. Are you friends, reluctant allies or enemies forced to join together? Perhaps you even send them on their way if they bother you too much.
Engage in a slow burn romance, with the choice of not following one at all.
Hunt down heroes of the past.
Discover the history of the Sentinels and even participate in conversations with the bad guy himself. Maybe you'll find yourself understanding to his side at the least. Can you talk him down?
Discover the dark truth behind the Scarlet Warriors.
Discover the tragic past of your mc and determine whether it defines or refines them.
You determine the Legacy of the Scarlet Warriors. Will they remembered as the heroes of the people that stopped the Ashling Tide, or will they be mocked as the [REDACTED] Mercenaries many believe them to be.
THE PARTY I won't be giving too much away
The Mage - Aileen [RO] -- A half elf around your age, Aileen is a fan of nature and the animals among it. While she's been treated differently because of her appearance, she keeps her head high.
The Fallen Prince- Thomas [RO] -- After disappointing his family, Thomas has left his home to his younger brother and exiled himself to a life of drunken boredom. Or is there more to it?
The Bard- Ysabel -- A traveling bard, Ysabel gets by with charm and wit. Though her life is filled with tragedy, she marches on, refusing to let anyone stay solemn around her.
The Necromancer- Hawke -- With his family gone, Hawke has gone his whole life studying necromancy with the one goal of bringing his younger sister back from the dead. Will he fall in his journey, or will he succeed?
The Kid- Vae'lin -- An elven child left stranded after her village was slaughtered, Vae'lin looks to you and the party for guidance during these trying times.
The Crusader- Adain -- A crusader for the king, Adain has dedicated himself to ending his mage brother and securing his families legacy once and for all.
The Warrior- Jayde -- A fellow Scarlet Warrior, Jayde joined the Scarlet with hopes of doing great things with their boring life, but the process has warped their reality and they've found it harder than you to cope with recent events and their new found abilities.
The Sentinel- Galeon -- Galeon is one of the ancient Sentinels, Jaded through time and unwilling to be the hero he once was. Though his past haunts him just enough to force his hand and join your crusade against a former friend.
THE VILLAIN
Malcolm is one of the ancient Sentinels. Once thought to be the heroes that saved the world and helped stop the last Ashling Tide, The Sentinels have been lost to time, roaming the capital to stay out of future conflicts.
With Malcolm back and mysteriously wanting to bring back the tide, you'll have to stop him and his allies.
CONTENT WARNINGS?
There will be a lot of death, so obviously a lot of blood. There are also graphic sex scenes. Not many, but they are detailed. Certain characters can live or die either because of the narrative or your choices, so if you get attached you will get sad. There is also potentially self harm or references to self harm. Drugs and Alcohol references as well. Also Mage hate, so if you're a mage irl you might be offended.
19 notes · View notes
dailyrandomwriter · 4 months ago
Text
Day 761
One of the other reasons why it’s been taking me a while to get through my game demos (besides journal set up) is the fact Santae, the virtual pet website, had a community event release just as I was going on holidays.
Great, because I had time to focus on that event. Terrible, because I had other things to do, and the fear of missing out was strong.
Which was highly unnecessary because the developers had always made it clear they didn’t want community members to suffer from FOMO. In addition, from past experience, their community events have been really testing grounds for new features and the introduction of those features. So there was no need for me or anyone else to rush, but dumb brain will do dumb things.
While I appreciate the team always working to make sure no one feels like they’re going to miss out, I don’t think they’ll ever be able to remove it completely because it’s just a dumb thing that we as human beings seem to fear even when it's unnecessary.
Besides that little hiccup, I adore what the folks at Santae are doing. As they add more and more features to the site, I am slowly seeing the vision they want for their virtual pet site. Specifically, what I assume they’re trying to do is try to make their website self-sustaining, providing enough self driven goals for a player to work towards and annual community events so that the team does not burn themselves out trying to constantly provide updates. The goal after all, for any virtual pet site is to ensure the players keep coming back to play.
Neopets did this by providing a lot of flash games to earn and play, and then providing high costing items that players would want to buy to keep them engaged. Santae seems to seek to have players earn wanted items by fulfilling mini events that could take anywhere from a few hours to a few days (depending on play style).
And as a writer and a daydreamer, I really like this style of play because it inspires me to imagine what this world would be like if I found myself frolicking among the creatures of Santae. In fact, I already wrote stories, just for myself of course.
7 notes · View notes
amadeusgame · 2 months ago
Text
January Devlog:
Tumblr media
What's up gamers, here is this month's update!
This month has been really good for development despite the fact that I spent the last week bedridden from COVID. Prior to that I was making huge progress towards full game completion now that I'm happy with where the demo is at. I feel strongly oriented in the right direction.
Major accomplishments:
Built the next 2 point-and-click scenes
Discovered & fixed a bunch of bugs (edge cases not present in the demo)
New job that will hopefully be a good long-term fit to support work on Amadeus
Perhaps most importantly: started reworking how I manage this project.
A little more on some of these points follows, and some announcements/communications updates at the very end!
TL;DR: I've figured out how to set goals for myself in a way that motivates me without getting in my own way. Also, expect fewer miscellaneous posts, because I'm going to focus more on development than marketing until the game is nearly complete.
(Monthly devlogs will stay. They keep me accountable and motivated; I enjoy looking back on what I've done each month.)
Development Progress & Bug Fixes
Dartmaure now has a downtown you can actually walk around in! ...See if you can spot the placeholder asset.
Tumblr media
It was while coding the interaction with said placeholder that I found one of many new bugs—this one to do with having the first speaking sprite in a conversation on the right instead of the left. This scene also had issues with loading a save that has to handle a screen transition. Neither of these were problems in the demo because the demo had neither initial speakers on the right, nor save progression flags that involved a screen transition.
Good news is these known problems have been addressed now, and it's all working properly!
I expect I'll discover more things that need fixing as I continue to build out further scenes. This month has taught me that every new scene contains potential new untested edge cases. That said, I've kind of impressed myself with how easily I seem to be fixing new bugs.
I made my life difficult by coding all of the game's mechanics myself, but because of that I am intimately familiar with how it works (and where I've applied band-aids). It also turns out that building out this janky engine for 2 years has made me much better at Unity C#! By the time I finish I might almost be competent at it.
I've already caught myself having some goalpost-moving thoughts ("what if I worked on controller support?" - my useless brain) but so far I've successfully pushed them aside and focused on finishing what I've already laid the foundation to build. I would love to make controller support a reality for Episode 2; maybe I'll add an Episode 1 patch for that once it's built. Maybe. But I'm very firm that any new functionality is a matter for the future, after Episode 1's initial release.
Now that I've finalized the core mechanics for Episode 1, building two scenes went pretty smoothly. I was unable to finish more than that due to losing over a week from COVID... but having two more already feels really good.
I'll be working on building the next ones in February. We'll see how that goes in the next devlog!
On Micromanaging
I've started rethinking how I manage this project, because with the new job I will have less free time and energy than I did before. I do still think that I can make it happen. The new job will give me free mornings (it's an afternoon shift) and a 3-day weekend (it's a 4-day work week) along with benefits, and it's work I hope to find personally fulfilling. The arrangement will be more stable long-term than what I was doing last year.
However, I will be losing about 12 hours of personal time a week.
Consistently carving out time for Amadeus without burning out on this new schedule is going to require active and thoughtful adjustment.
The truth is that for the past several months, I have been micromanaging myself too much. Micromanaging can help in the final stages of development: in that case, the reward of meeting a major benchmark is enough to justify the stress getting there. But now that I am back in a "long to-do list" phase of development, it's simply counterproductive. If I'm not motivated on the overly specific task(s) I've assigned myself, then I either don't do anything, or I do the "wrong" thing instead and don't feel rewarded for what I did accomplish.
So, for the next couple months—while getting the game closer to completion, but not yet in the "game built, now for final polish" stage—I'm moving to a different strategy. I've set big-picture goals to aim for for each month, but on any specific day, I simply block out an hour and a half and say "this is Amadeus Time." January's goal was to get the next 4* scenes fully built out. Every day, I just opened up the next unfinished scene and worked on it until the clock said I was done.
Those scenes got done fast.
*(Note: the 4 scene goal was way too optimistic; without COVID, I still think I would have only been able to do 3. I'll be adjusting my timeline to better reflect this more reasonable expectation.)
It's kind of nuts how much I can get done in an hour and a half if I just let myself work instead of worrying about what I'm working on, keeping in mind the big-picture monthly goals as a general directional compass. The removed stress of whether or not I am accomplishing the specific things I am "supposed" to accomplish has freed so much mental space for me to just work on stuff, and the only box I have to check off for the day is a box that says "did today's Amadeus Time."
February's goals are similar to January's: get the next handful of scenes built out. I'm aiming for 3 more, with the caveat that I may be set back by adjusting to the new job. This "build the next 3-ish scenes" monthly format will be the norm until the full and complete game is technically playable and functionally all-in.
Then, it will be time for final assets, polish, playtesting, script revisions, finding a billion bugs, fixing those and finding some more bugs, marketing, more marketing, more marketing, and shipping this baby!
Comms Updates
Speaking of marketing~ there is something pretty cool coming up soon. Look out for a bonus announcement around the end of February!
Also speaking of marketing, because I am about to have less free time after the job switch, you will likely be hearing less from me outside of these monthly devlogs and the occasional bonus announcement. In fact, you might have already noticed a drop in regularity on the Tumblr blog posts and other social media.
("What Tumblr blog," you ask? You probably aren't asking that, because this snippet was written for the itch.io version of this update. But it's a good reminder that all Amadeus resources can be found at linktr.ee/amadeusgame!)
(The most important feature of the Tumblr blog is that it has a fanart page.)
This drop in activity is because, given the choice between spending my time working on the game or spending my time posting about it, I'd rather work on it. I can direct more energy to marketing once the game is done or close to it. I am very aware of how valuable spare time is, and I want to prioritize mine according to what matters to me.
This does not mean that I'm disappearing off of the internet—I will make posts in all of the relevant spaces when there are specific items I'd like to share. I will continue to put out these monthly devlogs with major updates. It's just keeping up with the more regular, smaller stuff that is no longer a priority.
So please don't take a lack of consistent posting to mean the game isn't being worked on. It's the opposite! I'm prioritizing working on it over everything else until the game is near complete.
If you'd like to stay somewhat connected in the meantime, you are welcome and encouraged to join our tiny Discord server or send an ask on the Tumblr blog. If you have any questions about how the game is coming along, please reach out! I check these often and would love to hear from you. This mini-announcement is just meant to be reassurance that less posting is a good thing, for where I am currently at. I'm spending my time and energy wisely.
Finishing this game is the most important thing to me in the world. I will see it through.
Thank you for your trust and continued interest!
Other Gaming News
Note for indie developers: I cannot overstate the importance of playing some stupid video games every now and then. Earlier this month I played through Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) and somehow that directly translated to getting 800% more Amadeus work done after the fact. That game is a masterpiece.
This month I also had the incredible opportunity to record cello for the music in ENDYSIS's collaborative fairy tale VN, Trail of Stars. The game came out absolutely stunning. Please check it out!
5 notes · View notes