#burning goal demo

[blondeslotmania]

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

[unscripted-if]

DEMO || PINTEREST

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.

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.

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.

[ailishmaurafiction]

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

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

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

[makerofmadness]

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

(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

[magici-if]

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

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!

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.

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 !!

[foxglovegames]

DEVLOG: AUGUST 2024 🦇

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!

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!

[drozdnah]

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.

[askagamedev]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[hazbinhazbinhazbinreblog]

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

[handsomemain]

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.

[dailyrandomwriter]

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.

[rorichuu]

Hiii! (Feel free to ignore this, btw)

Could I request a tf2 scout x male!reader, where spy (with the help of other mercs like demo) tries to get the reader drunk, so that they make some bad mistakes? Basically spy is trying to get scout to lose interest in reader, because of how he has treated his partners in the past, and doesn’t want that for the reader? But in the end, scout and reader still end up in a relationship? Sorry this might be a little confusing.

rebel ; scout x male!reader

pairing: scout x male!reader

authors note: heya! i had sososo much fun writing this, like oh my god?! thank you for sending this in!

disclaimer: cursing in the mercs' native tongue, descriptions of being drunk, and Engineer/Spy being parents towards the end.

SIDE NOTE: if you don't like the Engineer/Spy ship, that is 110% okay! i can totally scrap it if you don't like it... i just thought it might be a cute addition. happy reading, my friends!

"C'monnn Y/n, take another wee shot with me, now will ya!" Demo exclaimed over the loud music that boomed throughout the base. They had won victoriously and declared a party to celebrate their winnings... and expectantly, Demo had brought drinks.

"Don't tempt me, I've drunken... a, uh... a lot!" You slurred, lips tasting of liquor, grammar non-existent at this point. The Scotsman booed loudly, his hand now (as best he could) waved in front of you. The potent liquid hitting your nose, you let out a drawn groan, quick to grab the shot from his hands as you downed the shot with ease. Soon after, the burn caught up to you, leaving you in a coughing fit as Demo slapped your back.

"I knewww you could- hic ... handle it, lad!"

Originally, it was Spy's idea to get you drunk. Unusual to think about unless traced back to past events... the Frenchman got sick over the idea of you so casually flirting with the Scout. The boy was smooth with his advances; a hand on your shoulder here, a horrible flirtation there... he couldn't let be anymore.

The reason Spy was stepping in was merely the thought of you two ending up together. His heart twisted at the idea that he may mess and wear at your heart tirelessly; a flirt only to be a flirt. Spy focused deeply on Scout's (seemingly) exterior intentions, quick to frown and wince at the failures he put upon Miss Pauling. Spy wished only for you to not get hurt... and though this is seen as unfair, it was absolute to him to bring this to an end.

Spy's advances would never have gone unnoticed; Spy isn't a drunk, and he doesn't take down shots like a certain Scotsman does... so when this was approached, Engineer was the first to speak and pull aside Spy after the announced party.

"Are you sure about this, Spy?" The Texan asked, voice full of question as the others observed... Scout and you being, of course, absent.

"Plenty. I know Scout and the same goes for all of you," he began, hand swift to pull out a cigarette from his holder. "I simply cannot let Scout and Y/n become an..." The Frenchman sighed, lighting his cig with a click of his lighter. He inhaled its smoke and allowed it to settle deep into his lungs. "Item." People spoke outwardly about this. Though Demo could partially agree... and Sniper simply without care... everyone else was against the idea aside from Pyro, who was continuously drawing in the back, happy in their own world of drawn-out gore and rainbows.

"Y/n has own mind. He is smart man, do not underestimate." Heavy rumbled, eyes furrowed in disagreement. But Spy shook his head, his hand snapping his cigarette holder shut before placing it inside his dress coat.

"If you will, I will carry on. I do not need anyone's input to sway my decision. Good day, gentlemen." And with that, Spy had left.

. . .

Demo was mindlessly helping... unbelievably drunk, but aware of his goal. He had to get you drunk! That was the easy part! But you were making drunken decisions that would make anyone gasp... and impressions of the other mercs was certainly new.

"YOU ARE A MAGGOT HATCHED FROM A- hic ... MUTANT MAGGOT EGG!" With one hand raised confidently in the air, holding a mug half-full of beer, you were partially crouched pointing at Soldier with your mocking taunt. While Demoman and Scout doubled over in laughter, you and Soldier remained yelling at each other... with your trying impression and his angered, drunken response.

"I DO NOT SPEAK LIKE THAT, MAGGOT!" Soldier exclaimed. "DROP DOWN AND GIVE ME 20!" You barked with laughter, hand at stomach as you nearly fell off the table... Heavy was quick to catch you. And as his large hands balanced you, you greeted him with a quick hello and a turn of your foot, intention to walk away... but before you could escape, his hands were rested on your shoulders.

"Best if Y/n drank water. Heavy will give you bottle." The Russian man advised, Medic close beside him nodding with agreement with a clipboard in hand. You shook your head, your giggling dying down, only if just a little bit.

"T-The party just started!" You began. "Plus, this is only my... what, my f... fuhhh, fourth drink?!" You yelled back at Demo as if to ask, he simply gave you a thumbs up as he continued to converse with Soldier.

"Y/n, z'his is your 11th drink..." Medic informed you, keeping note of your alcohol intake. Your lips purse together as you let out a 'pfft'. The German shook his head and sighed. "Please be more careful with your drinking. Demoman is enough proof alone to prevent alcoholism." Medic scowled, his sights on Tavish who was currently singing a Scottish tune... ungodly slurred and incomprehensible on his drunken tongue... and an arm wrapped around the Soldier as they danced cheek-to-cheek.

Medic then shook his head, a noise leaving his throat out of annoyance. "His liver is... surely, dead." Medic left a few scribbles on his clipboard, a head lowered down with his glasses sliding to the tip of his nose. Just moments later, Heavy had nudged Medic's arm, the German cursing in his native tongue from his jerked writing. "Was ist das?" (What is it?) He hissed before Heavy gently grabbed Medic's chin in his hands, turning his head to catch Spy conversing with you. You had slipped away.

"Scheiße." (Fuck.)

. . .

With Medic and Heavy's failed attempt to help you, it was then left to Engineer. The Southern and Frenchman were neck-to-neck, evident with their disagreements, and the intensity in the atmosphere was thick... but as Spy spoke with his silver tongue, suggesting decisions that were just downright rude, he cut through that air like butter.

With a cocky smirk and a swish of his hands, he ushered you up to Scout after his chat. Engie fired daggers into Spy's eyes, the sound of the beer bottle clinking loudly with the table before advancing towards the two. And every other merc, aside from Demo and Soldier who were clearly passed out at the bar, had their eyes on Engie. Pyro clapped their hands together and mumbled supportingly of his father figure.

But before Engineer could approach you, Spy slid in front of Engineer, hand placed on the left side of his chest. "Ah, I'll have to stop you there, mon ami." (My friend.) Spy spoke, his accent more pronounced the more pompous he got. Engineer glowered.

"I ain't gonna be your friend by the end-a' this night if you keep this up, pardner," Spy was caught slightly off guard by Engineer's translation of his remark. "You best leave that poor boy alone, his life ain't yours, and you got no right controllin' it the way you are now." As the two bickered and quarreled, the sound of you and Scout laughing alerted the two. Spy was the first to turn, looking over his shoulder as he found the two of you huddled close together... the Frenchman began to open his mouth but closed it soon after. Spy was defeated.

As his shoulders slumped, his face was, without a doubt, beat. Engineer huffed a soft laugh, hand patting his back as Pryo hopped over to offer him a beer. "C'mon, now. Let's have'a drink and talk, why don't we?" Engie said, Spy raised an eyebrow at the beverage in hand... his lip twitched in disfavor.

"Wine would be preferred." He spoke low, holding the drink by just its cap. The other man took the beverage for himself, twisting it open with ease.

"Not a problem, pardner."

. . .

The night swirled to an end. The loud snores of Demoman were overheard by Soldiers accompanied snoring. Every other merc had left for sleep, rubbing their eyes, intoxicated and hushed. All the while, Scout and you were slumped on the couch, entangled with a blanket.

Engineer was cleaning up after everyone, beer bottles put away, and sweeping up scrapped plastic cups. Spy, on the other hand, was leaning against the wall... observing the two of you in silent thought. Engineer caught wind of this, huffing before resting the broom against the bar table. He walked over to him.

"Somethin' on your mind, sugar?" He hummed, crossing his arms as he stood beside the man. Spy looked away due to the pet name, shuffling. Engie found this humorous.

"Non..."

"Does it have somethin' to do with Y/n and Scout? Perhaps?"

"N..." He thought for a moment. He sighed. "Oui." Spy found no reason to lie anymore, having found loss hours ago. Engineer sighed, his shoulder now leaning against Spy's, but just enough to not squish him.

"He'll do jus' fine with the boy. Y/n balances him out pretty well, yeah?" Engineer shared Spy's glance of the two. "Scout's happy with him. And the other way 'round... don't think we should be the judge'a that. No matter how much we wanna protect 'm." Engineer tried to reason, moving his shoulder against Spy's to sway his judgment... he knew he already succeeded, with the way Spy covered his face with his gloved hand.

"I suppose... you're right..." Spy grumbled. Engineer raised an eyebrow.

"What was'sat?" He egged on. "You. Were. Right..." Spy hissed.

"Did I hear a, 'you were right,' behind all that grumble?" With a smirk and a voice that spoke knowingly, the Frenchman lunged him off as the Southern man laughed.

"Shut up, just... just clean up like you were!"

And with the soft laugh of Engineer, the hushed mutterings of Spy... came around you and Scout, holding each other in sleepful peace.

The night ended. Just right.

.

.

.

rorichuu!

[louroth]

It’s been a few days since I found Ouroboros and I… I just can’t stop thinking about it! 🥹I’d be going about my day and randomly start wondering what will happen next?? 👀 Who is the traitor?? What will they find?? Will Id ever be tangible again without armour?? The world you have created is truly unique and My GOD, the writing! I can’t remember crying so much over feelings I can’t really relate to irl. And I’ve been bawling my eyes out, reading scenes I've already read three times before! (you story might have broken me a little 🤣i love it!) And of course I have completely fallen in love with L, hook, line and sinker, wrapped around pinky, will burn down the whole damned world for them. No celestials, vicars or whatnot will stop my phlegmatic healer MC turned choleric on a warpath!

A certain line that really hurt and had me freeze for a moment like WHAT HAVE YOU SAID MC?? but it's kinda true tho... in the game made me wonder, and sorry if this has been asked before, I did scour the archive for more L content 😂, how would L react if MC died instead of them? Would they have ever retired like MC? Or would L still be with the hunters, or on their own, still searching? Would they have made the deal with Lena for answers?

Feel free to ignore if it’s too spoilery or anything! 🤗And sorry for the long message! I mostly just wanted to send you and your absolutely spectacular masterpiece IF some virtual love and admiration! Hope you have a wonderful week! 💞 *goes back to daydreaming of Leith every 10 minutes*

🥹 this ask is everything to me and I want to frame it. Thank you so much for your kind words & all the cool ideas you have!! OOF how I love the idea of swapping the hunters and L's positions. And instead of answering it (because I think they would act differently for every person that imagines it, because of how L is built as a character) I propose a playthrough where you ACTUALLY swap their spots in the story. Looks, name and everything.

Though, I can only imagine the fear and hatred and absolute agony L would go through, especially with the latest chapters. In my head, they haven't stopped grieving- it has become a part of them. They are changed, lonely, and can barely hold themselves together, no matter how much time passes. The hunter, whether lover or friend, was their person, the one they latched onto and just never let go, and still haven't. Even if the chance of them being alive is slim, they would go on this mission like a terminator with a singular goal, to find them or die trying.

I can't believe I haven't done a swapped playthrough before myself, or even thought of it! You have really given me something to chew on, and a fun experience for when I have to read through the demo for the millionth time again. Thank you :>

[canmom]

what I think is really striking about it all is more about human society than the tech itself - a demo of how quickly a technique can go from being 'cool idea' to 'everyone is using this'. obvs I work in a tech industry so I'm surrounded by the kind of people who pay attention to this kind of thing, but language models went from 'funny internet toy' to 'half the people I know regularly talk to our new friend ChatGPT' in what felt like a matter of months, to the point where I start to feel like the weird stick in the mud for not wanting to ask this thing to rephrase my emails or whatever.

I think the superpower of humans is not so much our ability to do reasoning etc., but how good we are at copying novel behaviours from other humans. it's this form of replication-with-modification that allows evolution to take place on a much faster timescale than 'try this new allele and see if you can still fuck'. consider how quickly we went from 'heavier than air flight is impossible' to 'quick, hide, the flying people are back to drop more bombs on our trench!'.

once it's been done once by someone, we can distil and simplify the process of 'doing that thing' and iterate on it and do it again and again and again until we exhaust its limits.

the pattern prevails on all sorts of scales. a new behaviour becomes a new referential frame (from 'how can we make this plane go higher' to 'how can I make a cool new yoyo trick'). an experiment can become a standard technique. the goal and 'meta' will shift as the subculture evolves. and all the time we adapt, adapt, adapt. new people show up, get up to speed, and contribute to something new. before we know it, we're optimising to a level that would be incomprehensible to people a few decades before.

so evolution hit on something amazing with our super plastic brains. it's not all rosy, the same basic 'thing' that lets us learn is what lets us become traumatised, and we can easily learn and adopt disastrously bad behaviours like "burning lots of fossil fuels" or "genocide". we are incredibly, radically undetermined creatures, for good and ill.

but then... that's exactly what we're trying to imitate with these neural networks. evolution has had millions of years to finetune its learning model, and yet even our crude approximation is already showing a lot of traits that we recognise in ourselves. so as much as the current wave is blatantly overhyped, blatantly a bubble, and being used to fill the internet with worthless detritus at huge energy cost because of course it is... even as I roll my eyes at the new AI-enabled toothbrush, I hesitate to dismiss AI research as being as vacuous as cryptocurrency. I'm sure it will take years for it to shake out exactly what it's good for, and there will be a lot of false starts along the way before it speciates into various sub-industries, but it is something new and it's a big one.

what's startling about all this is not the potential for an AI god to emerge and turn us all into paperclips, it's getting to witness the human superorganism adapt and develop a novel behaviour on an incredibly short timescale.

[kanotototori]

The Knave MV: X by Nano, directed by Enki-Z - English translation

About two months ago, HoyoFair came in clutch with this excellent Arlecchino fan song from Nano and it looks like no one has translated it yet so I felt compelled to do so, lol. It's an awesome song so please go forth and enjoy it with the added context 🙏

Edit: Apparently there's EN subs on the video itself so here's another take on the lyrics, I guess ;pp

Description:

What does “X” mean, I wonder? Does it mean “complete destruction”? Or does it represent “protecting something to the end”? When the “X” that burns inside of her eyes changes, Is it for the sake of lighting the fire of the hearth? For the sake of burning her enemies? Or, perhaps something else… In a world where “right and wrong” isn’t clearly defined, She is inclined to follow only her own voice.  In that case, if you look even deeper, “X” can only mean one thing… Secrets.

冷酷で黒ずんだ 人と違う腕が 強張るこの身体に 取り憑いて Blackened by cruelty, These arms that are different from a human’s— My body stiffens, As if possessed.

帰る場所はどこなの？ 息が詰まりそう 思い出の鐘の音 沈んでく Where is the place that I can return to? My breath seems to stop. With the memory of ringing bells,  I sink into the deep.

傷だらけの（闇より怖くて） 小さな身体（震えが響いて） 無垢な瞳 慄いて 蹌踉めいて These small bodies (Their trembling that echoes) That are covered in wounds (Is scarier than even the despair) These innocent eyes They quiver in fear And stumble.

殺すために（人群れの中で） 生きるならば（ほんの一瞬だけ） 守るために 反逆の 声あげよう If I live (Amongst the crowd of people)  For the sake of killing (If even only for a moment) Then for the sake of protecting others I will raise the voice of rebellion.

痛む 傷口よ 燃える火に 変われ They’re painful— These wounds. This flame that burns Will change

逃げることも（欺くことなく） 戦うのも*（野心を晒け出す） 意味ないから 手のひらで 足掻くがいい There is no use (Without deception) In fighting nor running away (Laying my ambitions bare) With my own hands, I will make you pay.

ハースをつける**（身を暖めて） 敵を燃やす（刑を施して） 炎一つで その真実 どんな形？ Light the flame of the hearth (To warm your body) And burn your enemies (To carry out punishment) With this one flame That “reality” — What shape is it? Oh X 燃やせ Burn

* appears as 戦うことも in the MV ** appears as ハースを灯す in the MV In both of these cases, the meaning is the same, just worded in a slightly different way.

Notes: There are definitely a few places where I really struggled to articulate the meaning or just wasn't sure that I was on the right track, particularly:

手のひらで/足掻くがいい lit. "with the palm of my hand, struggling/flailing is good" - can't be translated directly so it's a little tricky but it gave me the impression of Arlecchino bringing retribution to her enemies that's mentioned a few lines later, so I went with "with my own hands, I will make you pay."

欺くことなく/野心を晒け出す lit. "deception is not there, exposing ambitions/treachery" - 晒け出す has the connotations of not just exposing something but revealing something without concealment, to show everything as it is, to reveal one's true feelings. It gave me the impression of Arlecchino being contrasted with the previous Knave in the sense that, unlike her, she does not deceive the children of the HotH, but is being upfront about her goals - so I went with "Without deception/laying my ambitions bare." I feel like it's still kind of vague, lol.

Other tidbit: The description used the "proper" word for hearth/fireplace 暖炉 (danro) ("Is it for the sake of lighting the fire of the hearth?") but the last verse specifically references the House of the Hearth (ハースをつける**/"Light the flame of the hearth"), as it uses the phonetic reading of hearth ハース (haasu) from the JP localization (壁炉の家, read ハウス・オブ・ハース hausu obu haasu). So I guess if we're being super specific, it's "lighting the fire of the House of the Hearth", possibly playing off what Freminet says in this demo ("as long as the light of the hearth still shines, I'll always have a home to return to").

I am still learning Japanese as of writing this so take the translation with a grain of salt, but to the fullest extent of my knowledge, it's as accurate as I can make it. If you are more 日本語上手 than me, feel free to correct this ;PP