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kaibutsushidousha · 23 days ago

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The Hundred Line music team interview from Famitsu issue 1895

What was Takada's first impression when hearing about this project?

Masafumi Takada: "C'mon, that's never going to happen." (laughs) Then my second impression, after Uchikoshi plastered the flowchart on the wall was "No way! They weren't joking?"

Kazutaka Kodaka: Uchikoshi's intention with putting the flowchart on the office wall was showing off how massive of an endeavor we had ahead of us. It was his way of demanding resolve from us (laughs).

Takada: In summary, I thought they were out of their minds and that no other company would attempt a project as ridiculous as this. Being able to see such a Herculean labor released and being part of it is something I'll remember later as one of best parts of my life.

Tell us the step-by-step of the song requesting process for The Hundred Line.

Kodaka: I requested a song and Takada composed it.

Takada: Same as it has been for the past 10+ years (laughs).

Kodaka: Ok, for a more concrete explanation, first Media Vision's sound director created a track list based on songs from previous games. We sent the list to Takada and told him they'll also need battle versions. Then the songs are sent to me for approval. Also, I've been doing the screen composition for my stories since Rain Code and I can feel that this made me better at requesting music. Whenever I felt I didn't have the right song for a scene I'd immediately get Takada to make it and put it in-game as soon as it's ready. Due to that, there weren't many songs requested at the start.

Takada: The baseline for the composition is the normal days theme, titled HUNDRED LINE. That one that plays on the website. We required a theme song that fit the game's general image and changed its tune over time, so it had to be on the longer side. Later I composed variations of that. As Kodaka just mentioned, I would get additional requests during screen composition. We had agreed on that in advance, but when it happened, it felt like I was getting new requests every day.

Kodaka: You just described the entire development cycle.

Takada: As the work was mostly remote, I wouldn't stop getting chat messages about all the random things they wanted.

Sounds tiresome.

Takada: Not for me, I like the way we work. I read the general plot summaries, naturally, but I really love slowly discovering the nitty-gritty of the narrative through the track requests.

Makes sense (laughs).

Takada: The ultimate consequence of that was a routine where I had to deliver the new tracks they asked for before the next morning. With the songs being arranged while Kodaka was inputting the scripts by his own hands, it was easier to visualize what was being wanted, and I could feel extra joy and excitement of delivering the track even faster than he hoped (laughs). Embarrassing as it is to admit, being a long time Kodaka fan makes me want to do better, just to please him.

Kodaka: Having a scene's whole presentation locked on faster helps a lot. I'm the kind of guy who likes having everything sorted out without leaving any parts for later, and one of the best things about my company is that I can work with people who match my speed. Things wouldn't go so well with a third-party creator.

Takada: One track can take a month to compose, at worst. Although occasionally, I can have the framework done in just a few hours.

Kodaka: For something basic, like a fluffy ambient track, there was even one time you composed on the spot and it was approved immediately.

Takada: Yeah, real-time composition.

Sounds like something that wouldn't be possible without the bonds matured by your long-term partnership.

Takada: Good point. That's an important factor.

Kodaka: Besides, we now work on the same company, unlike how it used to be with Danganronpa (laughs). You have to remember that making a whole new IP involves inevitably making a bunch of new songs no matter how hard you wish to keep the track list small.

Takada: I don't even have a solid notion of how many there are in the game. There's over 90 of them in the Gallery, but adding up the noise music made for specific cutscenes, I might have composed around 400. I feel like The Hundred Line is a game that would take a working adult about 5 years to play, but I believe just playing like normal is enough to fill up the Gallery.

Still, you wouldn't say the work here was tough?

Takada: I can imagine the topic of the other interviews was about the excess of work in The Hundred Line's production, but I don't feel like that at all when it comes to the game's music. If anything, the sound effects side was the bigger problem.

Kodaka: Rain Code had a ton of sound effects, too.

Takada: Yup. I'd personally guess the most undesirable position for this game would be Schedule Manager (laughs). That's accounting for the lack of a break between Rain Code and The Hundred Line.

Is it true that when the production period for two games overlap, it's easy to get the mixed?

Takada: If I get multiple lines of work at the same time and they're very different in tone, I use one to take a break when I find myself stuck on the other. Considering that, you could say I'm better at multitasking. And I'm also Too Kyo's treasurer, so I can safely say I won't be out of productive breaks.

Does the game have an original genre associated with it, like Danganronpa had with "Psychopop"?

Takada: I vividly remember Kodaka's first answer when I asked what the music should be like.

Kodaka: I don't (laughs).

Takada: I was just finishing Rain Code's soundtrack, so he pointed and said "Like that" (laughs). Later there was an additional request to bring Rain Code's flavor closer to Danganronpa's old taste, and that's what got the ideas flowing.

Tell us your main focus in composing the tracks.

Takada: One thing I always have in mind is that I want my music to feel like one more character participating in the conversation. One day I was drinking with one of the performers working with me at the time for Danganronpa 1's soundtrack and he said "The music itself is one of the performers". This phrase has been living rent-free in my head ever since. That made me go for more intrusive songs during character conversations. And to throw in some hints of nostalgia.

Right, nostalgia. Getting the players to feel like they returned home.

Takada: One of those words you see around online all the time but never in real life (laughs). More specifically, a technique I used for multiple tracks in this game was to create modern remakes of the tunes I created in the past, and go over the request prompts trying to find a place where I could fit them. To do so, I pulled my 10+ year old synthesizer out of its dusty box. The problem is that my synthesizer is a Virus TI, a somewhat weird model that only lets me check out my past tunes by connecting it to an old Mac… That's how far I went to put the old tunes in new melodies, so I hope that's appreciated.

Is that how you composed HUNDRED LINE, the track you mentioned before?

Takada: Yes. Its tunes are entirely new, but I arranged them with the revived inspiration of past games, as it's best suited for scenes where we have the whole crew chatting.

Kodaka: HUNDRED LINE is everything I asked for. Danganronpa V3 still has my favorite normal days track, and this one is made to be something fans of that song would enjoy. A cool-leaning flavor of normal.

Takada: Well said. "Cool-leaning" is right.

Kodaka: War is a major theme in The Hundred Line, so the song needed to match the bloodiness of it. It really came out just as I imagined.

What was the rest of the composition process like?

Takada: I was just trying to fill up the request list (laughs) As I mentioned earlier, in this game, the schedule was our archnemesis… There's one time I said "Hey, I need to work on this song, can I take the persuasion sequence theme off of the to-do list?". Thinking back now, I can't believe I tried to cut a track as important as the freaking persuasion song (laughs).

Kodaka: If I recall right, that was the exploration theme vs. the persuasion theme. We wanted the exploration music to be different for each area, but on further thought, there was no reason for that. But we obviously can't go without music for the persuasion sequences, so it was decided he had to do that one.

It's not often you see Takada that desperate.

Takada: Yeah… True… Looking back, I had my back against the wall the whole time (laughs).

The battle themes feel completely different from the normal days parts. Can you tell us any production secrets about it?

Takada: When composing for The Hundred Line, I considered including a live orchestra, but I thought it wouldn't fit well for the normal days of Komatsuzaki's far-from-photorealistic characters. The tactical RPG battle scenes, on the other hand, could be perfectly (on a meta level) introduced in live orchestra style.

Kodaka: What I wanted for battles was 90s digital rock. BOOM BOOM SATELLITES is the specific band I had in mind. Rather than the refined rock of today, something more in between Electronic and Chemical Brothers. And the music he delivered was exactly what I wanted. He granted my wish for hype on the level of Danganronpa's Class Trial music.

Takada: The first battle theme I made was WAVE 1. It's got a lot of variants, but not many whole separate tracks for the same purpose, so I don't remember having too much difficulty.

Kodaka: My personal favorite is the boss theme. The final version is very different from what I initially asked for. We drastically changed directions along the way to make the bosses feel more grandiose, and I'm glad for that decision.

Takada: I will always include choirs, no matter how overused they may be. Also, the track accounts for the flow of gameplay, namely that there is dialogue and a boss alarm inserted between waves. Cutscenes may interrupt the music, but the key shift for when they do is carefully planned. There's a pause between the first song and the next, which I paid no mind to because I assumed it was a loading screen, but no, that was Media Vision leaving space for the last song to trail. I could go a lot harder with the tempo thanks to this nice gesture.

Kodaka: I love the way that sounds.

Takada: Just having one or two seconds to trail already makes a huge difference, so I'm glad I got to adjust the tracks accordingly. I was so glad that I got all that to work the way envisioned that I stopped everything to report the good news at the company chat (laughs).

Quality comes from the finer details like that.

Takada: I don't know if that's how everyone does it, but I like to make the final tweaks on my tracks after listening to them play out in-game. Even at the moment of this interview, there's a part I'm planning to change as soon as anyone has a good idea (laughs). That aside, the OST is pretty much finished.

Tell us what the hardest song to make.

Takada & Kodaka: SIREI's theme.

Kodaka: I wanted that one to be one of the first tracks delivered, but it took forever (laughs).

Takada: SIREI's is this game's Monokuma. But Monokuma's theme was lightning in a bottle to me. I couldn't see myself making a second song like that after that miracle. Under intense pressure, I initially composed a much more comedic tune.

Kodaka: SIREI only clicked with you when you heard Ootsuka's voice work, was it?

Takada: Oh yeah. That mattered a lot, now that you mention it. Ultimately, I went with playful singing voices in the unique fashion of a funny foreigner working as a semiregular on a talk show.

Kodaka: Did you get Jun Fukuda (Rain Code's Sound Director) to sing there?

Takada: No, I asked him to, but his version sounded too normal. It didn't bring out the nuance I just mentioned. I had to use edited sound bytes. But it does feel like a track that will be better appreciated by the Western fans.

Kodaka: What really felt new to me was the emergency track for when the enemies invade. Nothing in the past games sounded like that. Also, I love the piano for the sad scenes, something that shows a lot first in Rain Code and now here, so this time there were multiple versions.

Takada: Pianos are generally hard to fake, so I compose their parts while playing on a real one. The problem is that every 2-3 days I forget how to play the piano, so if I'm asked to replay it later, I need to take the crash course again (laughs). And the game has many other tracks like this, that I compose once and can't ever perform later. That's how it goes for me, instead of having something pre-formed in my head, I just test instruments I can't play and see what I get.

Thanks to the power of your music, I never feel like skipping the scene where they're putting on their Class Armor.

Takada: Thank you. Being honest with you, at first I didn't understand why they were stabbing themselves and getting all bloody (laughs). At the time, I still had Shinigami's transformation sequence from Rain Code vivid in my head, so I was imagining going from something like that straight to battle. So I came up with a rising sequence from a choir in the transformation, to digital rock in WAVE 1, pure rock in WAVE 2, then bring the choir back for the climactic boss battle. That was the only idea I had in my mind before I started looking at the screens and feeling my way around the instruments.

Were you trying to make the scene feel more continuous through the tunes of the choir?

Takada: Yes. You can notice the choir in parallel with the tunes of the synthesizer.

I was also caught completely off guard by the gimmick arrangement for one specific day number…

Takada: That was Kodaka's idea (laughs).

Kodaka: I won't spoil what this is about, but it's far from an original joke. I just thought that at some point, the game would need the kind of whimsy that changes the whole feel of the world.

Later in the game, there's a scene where music is used offensively. That attack was really rich in genre variety.

Kodaka: Also my idea, and for this one, I provided Takada with a playlist of study material.

Takada: I always loved high-effort shitposting, so that was a fun time. By the way, the singing voice in the folk-styled song is Jun Fukuda.

Kodaka: Contrary to the previous mentions here, this folkish music was Takada's idea. I only asked him to make a song that would feel out of place without explaining how.

Takada: And while this isn't about music, the sound effects team focused their efforts mainly only on the alarm sirens and the morning bell. Fukuda adjusted the pitch over and over again until it didn't conflict with any of the music playing during their scenes. Try noticing that when you hear them.

With how much care goes into every detail of this game, music or otherwise, I don't think it will be long before people start asking for sequels.

Kodaka: I'd be glad to hear that any other time, but at this moment, I think I'm just tired of this idea… (pained laughs).

Takada: No sequels in sight until you get over that (laughs).

Kodaka: Also, making another game this big doesn't sound financially possible.

Adult problems…

Takada: I know all about it since I'm partially in charge of finances. Kodaka handles the incoming assets and I handle the outgoing assets. Honestly, we had a few moments that damaged my stomach (laughs). Worrying about money affects your creativity, so it's recommendable to get that out of your head, but you can't afford to forget about it either.

Kodaka: In my previous works, all I had to do was suggest things nonstop, but now that I represent my own company, I need to gauge which ideas to push and which to stop. That's not easy to me. In hindsight, it's because I never had the experience of needing to hit the brake on an idea before.

Takada: Well said! (laughs)

Kodaka: It's like I had the will to hit the brakes, but without knowing where that was, I hit the clutch pedal and started doing weird things with the gears (laughs).

Takada: The woes of a president and a vice-president. The efforts of our own staff, Media Vision, and Aniplex are naturally tangible, which creates a pressure for us to recompense them properly… That also made it impossible to pull any punches with the music. My mind was set in its desire for every track to be appreciated.

Kodaka: Besides, our production style is indie all the way. Our budget comes from our own pockets, and whatever looks impossible is solved with brute force instead of money. If we knew in advance how much this game would cost, a sane person would have shrunk the project. A game this niche coming out this large is a rarity.

Takada: I hope we're headed toward a future where it's easier to pump money into niche art. So many ideas die before they start.

Kodaka: That said, considering this game grew over twice its initial budget, if a normal company had told me to cut corners or, worst-case scenario, cancel the project, all I could say is "You know what, fair".

I agree… Everything you say about this production sounds very last-resort-ish.

Takada: My word as treasurer is that this game couldn't even begin to exist without Aniplex's support.

Kodaka: Well, true. We tried doing it without Aniplex at first, so we know for a fact that we couldn't finish it with our own money. Their inclusion might have been the most morale-improving part of the production.

Takada: Definitely Kodaka's biggest accomplishment as a CEO! One day he came out of nowhere and said "I think Aniplex wants a contract with us". I already praised him about it when he directly asked for the praise, but I did it without knowing that we were signing with a company that would let us have full ownership over our IP. Or even that any big company was willing to do that. That was the moment where I started believing in this game.

Kodaka: Before Aniplex, there was hell. We were confident in the quality of our work, but we were always wrestling with that tense fear that the thing we were investing into would end unfinished. We were ready to relinquish the creative rights to the franchise if that's what it took to conclude this, hoping that someone would adopt us if we were lax enough with our contractual demands, but thankfully, Aniplex was unbelievably eager to work with us.

Takada: Oh yeah, those guys were ride-or-die from beginning to end (laughs).

Kodaka: I have to admit no sane person would start making a game before they have the funds for it. But waiting for the right time would delay this project 2 or 3 years, plus Aniplex wouldn't have wanted to stick with us if we hadn't made a decent amount of progress before the first handshake. In this sense, I think luck wouldn't have smiled on us if it weren't for this questionable decision. It's not a trick we can pull off intentionally if we ever needed to do it a second time, but I believe just getting this game out there will do something to increase the number of quirky niche titles in the Japanese gaming industry.

Your closing messages, please!

Takada: Just play the game and you'll understand. You probably won't be able to do it in a Japanese home, but I think playing it on extra loud speakers would make for an amazing experience. I'd say the TRPG parts are especially exciting in this department, so give it a try if you have the chance.

Kodaka: You already know Takada did an astounding job on the music but so did Jun Fukuda on the sound effects, making the TRPG section a blast to listen to. Do pay attention to the details.

By the way, do you plan on releasing the soundtrack?

Takada: Yes… … …do we?

Kodaka: Probably! After we're a little less on the red (laughs).

Takada: Until then, enjoy the selection of 10 tracks available on the mini-soundtrack that comes as a preorder bonus. It contains unique remixes of the OST pieces, and should help you immerse yourself into the world of The Hundred Line on those moments when playing isn't an option.

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

Links:

Writing team interview

Design team interview

Special guests interview

#the hundred line #last defense academy #masafumi takada #kazutaka kodaka

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ghostinthegallery · 1 year ago

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As a transformers fan I love robots who have divorce drama stretching millions of years but also have a body count in the trillions. Thus it has taken little convincing but I think I shall investigate these undead robots.

In the event of my death I'm Telling. This is your fault. How do I start wading into this mess bc my only encounter with Warhammer was when a very drunk frat guy tried to explain the horus heresy at a party.

Well you are in for a treat then! Robots with marriage/divorce drama, severe mental health issues, and body counts best measured on a planetary scale are our specialty in Chez Necron.

If you want a setting overview before you dive in, Bricky's two part series going over all the factions is quite solid. Long, but hey this has been around since the 80s. (no drunken Horus Heresy rambles*)

First, watch this clip of Trazyn the Infinite, as an amuse bouche before your meal.

As for books, there are two main places I'd start for necrons:

The Infinite and the Divine- the classic starting point for necrons (and 40k in general). Trazyn the Infinite, lord of the Prismatic Galleries, battles against Orikan the Diviner, master chronomancer and prophet. Clash of godlike beings over...what amounts to a magic Rubik's Cube. It's so petty. This fight spans epochs, multiple wars, and one legal case. There's no heterosexual explanation for their dynamic. Also this book has dinosaurs. Some of whom carry shuriken canons.

Now, this book has a ton of 40k stuff. Most major factions make an appearance so there's a very good chance there will be words/things that a new person is unfamiliar with. If that doesn't bother you, awesome! Proceed. Ask me things, I'll explain that an aeldar is just a space elf or whatever. Or watch a lore vid beforehand. However if that is a turn off I'd recommend starting with...

Severed- Novella, so shorter which is nice. Do you like angst? The horrors of immortality? Lord/knight love story? One very silly guy? Then meet Zahndrekh and his loyal bodyguard Obyron as they set out to conquer a planet where the necrons are...wrong. Complicating factors include Obyron's crippling depression, Zahndrekh's asshole ex, and the fact Zahndrekh is insane and believes them all to still be the creatures of flesh and blood they were before a bunch of star gods ate their souls and turned them into robots. Prepare to cry.

After those, I cannot recommend the Twice Dead King duology highly enough. Oltyx, an exiled prince attempts to save his dynasty from destruction while battling his own creeping madness. He's got an adorable crush on his hot best friend. The voices in his head were put there on purpose so its fine. Well most of them were. Everything is fine. I didn't cry multiple times reading these...

Then refer to my reading guide for the good short stories and boom! The wonderful world of gay undead space robots is open before you.

I accept full responsibilities for my actions. If you die I promise to say mostly nice things at your funeral.

*mini rant, but I honestly think the Horus Heresy is one of the worst ways to introduce someone to the 40k world. It's a series with like 70 books! Many of them are bad! You need a flowchart to keep track of the timeline! I know there's some good books and characters, power to all who love the HH, but it is not newbie friendly! Also it only has humans which robs you of some of the best parts of the setting (like...y'know. Necrons). Ease people in, then they can make an informed decision about tackling the mountain of buff space men with daddy issues shooting each other.

#answering asks #necrons #warhammer 40k #wh40k #the infinite and the divine #severed #really the overlap in the venn diagram of Transformers Fans and Necron Fans is pretty big in my experience #we love our genocidal divorced robots #I could use more genocidal divorced robots in my life...#I should try out transformers...

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megumi-fm · 1 year ago

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26th to 30th Apr; doa🚲 complete!!

hi. gah. okay. here's my wrap up for the month

📝 prepped for and completed the last set of internal tests for this degree [2/2] (which I got through after much cribbing and whining and quite literally projecting study topics onto my blorbos 👍 ) 📝 started GRE prep!

🎓 got some gradecard related paperwork done 🎓 spoke to my prof regarding my internship deliverables for uni—report format, certificate requirements, etc etc

📥 I voted! it was the first central elections since I turned to an adult and the whole experience was quite interesting

💻 completed a bunch of tasks for my internship

💻 made like a super extensive flowchart about all the work done at my internship which took me like a total of 20+ hours T-T 💻 finished preparing my Uni Internship presentation! 💻 submitted the presentation to the assistant guide, waiting on her response to make changes atm

🍶 7+ glasses of daily water intake 🎵 svt's new single is out and I've been going insane about it and thus this challenge comes to an end... I had started this off as an 18day daily habit tracker but then it kind of grew out into a challenge for the month. Special thanks to Yumi the loml <3 (@thelastneuron) for starting the Days of April challenge (Yumi idk when you'll see this but i miss you and I hope you've been kicking ass during your hiatus). also massive thanks to Zip (@zipstidbits) for leaving the kindest comments/tags on my post during the past week and to Tanishka (@booksbluegurl) who is literally the sweetest and has been sending in asks and keeping me company during this challenge <3

there's a lot more i wanna yap about in regards to how the month went but I'll leave that under the tags xD goodnight besties <3

month end brainrot

april started off with dips and more dips but by the end of the month it feels like I've caught up. productivity is a wave so as long as I keep riding at it i'll be okay.

also. progress is cumulative. even the seemingly inconsequential completion of daily tasks has lead to an overall improvement through the week. things add up

I spent a lot of time this month (and moreso this past week) feeling dejected that I've been leaving my tracker posts (and my digital planner entries) incomplete... but like. the whole point of trackers and planners (and this studyblr) is to get work done. work is the priority and the tracking is a means to an end. so if im getting work done that is already a win. yeah... i've had to keep reminding myself that

there is no one-tool-fix for tracking and journalling. what works for planning out one task will not work for the other. I need to strop trying to fit all my plans into one formulaic strategy box

on that note. it's time to return to handwritten journaling. digital journalling (notion + YPT + discord + tumblr) was fun while it lasted <3 but my brain needs novelty again so it's time i switch back. I think I finally have an idea for a system that could be sustainable for me... although I say that every time I switch to a new form of tracking. but hey. as long as it helps me get work done for whatever duration of time, it's good enough

using kpop and kdrama references to make notes and study really paid off. ngl I only did it cause I was super desperate but incorporating stuff I couldn't understand with a topic I really like paid off. It also gave me the motivation and momentum to study for much longer than I otherwise would have

last but not least. my water intake has been really good this month! I've also been eating healthy and I've been cooking more my phone usage has also been reduced by a lot. sure none of them have had a perfect streak but i started at zero and it feels like I've levelled up quite a bit. the exercise component has been a bit difficult to maintain given my workload :/ i need to figure out what to do about that...

yep. that's it for now. this month really tired me out, I think im gonna lay off daily challenges for a while. For now I guess I'll stick to my (bi?tri?)weekly tracker posts xD

#20doa🚲#studyspo #queued #18dayht #studyblr #study motivation #study blog #accountability #studying #student

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hypersomniagame · 11 months ago

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HYPERSOMNIA JULY DEV LOG : “LIKE MOTHER LIKE SON”

Yeah baby, none of that "If you're new here" stuff anymore! This is dev log #6! If you're new here read anyways, because if you're reading this you probably know what HYPERSOMNIA is. If not though, then welcome! Let me show you what I've been working on this month!

BUT BEFORE THAT!

If you didn't know, the MOTHER DIRECT is TOMORROW! (Which is why I'm writing this on Friday instead of Saturday)

HYPERSOMNIA will be there! We released a trailer teaser that you can watch right now, and the full trailer will be a part of the direct premiering at 6PM ET!

youtube

If you are a content creator, I ask as an indie developer to please talk about the indies and don't just skip over them. I'm not asking this because I want you to talk about my game, but just please talk about the indies because they deserve your attention. Just because you're not familiar with these games doesn't mean they're not worth looking into. If theres an indie game in this direct or in general that catches your attention please talk about it, because it's incredibly valuable to people trying to find an audience.

TALK ABOUT INDIES!

Now, back to your regularly scheduled indie games:

So, what have you been up to Ferris? I'll show ya!

First off, I've been working on designing enemies for the demo! Now I've realized over the last month that I am really really weak at designing common enemies. Trying to avoid RPG tropes and weak/overused ideas and jokes is tough because it means I can't really bullshit like 50 enemies and call it a day, each enemy takes a long time and needs a strong idea, sometimes it'll take me multiple days to come up with good ideas!

I came up with these two recently, and I think they're good examples of my thought process for designing enemies.

HYPERSOMNIA's enemies revolve around a paranormal theme. It's an aspect of the first MOTHER that I missed in MOTHER 2 and 3, which inspired HYPERSOMNIA to lean into it so much.

I try to also keep some sense of comedy in my designs, HYPERSOMNIA has paranormal aspects and it has serious moments, but I try not to mix the two with common enemies because I just don't think it'd make a very interesting enemy roster. Could you imagine an EarthBound inspired game with enemies like actual demons from hell or serial killers? It's something I would've written in 7th grade, like the most basic bait-and-switch you could ever see from any media.

I also put together a flowchart while talking with my partner about enemy designs, they weren't exactly on the same page as me while thinking of ideas so I made this to illustrate my thought process for an idea.

It really helps me narrow ideas that I think would work for the game. It isn't exact, so don't look at it like some sort of design bible, but it's more a general guideline.

I also got around to spriting that cow enemy. My friend suggested the name Moo-F-O which I liked better than the names I was thinking of.

I'll probably get around to spriting that TV enemy after I finish writing.

As the next "Thing I Did This Month", you may have noticed that Katz's coat is a different color!

I made this change while redoing her sprites. I was dissatisfied with how her black coat blends into the game's brown outlines so I decided on giving her a brown coat instead. It also helps her stand out a bit against Iggy, who also has a black coat.

I've also recently been working on some concept art, I've talked before about how I don't like Ross' special attack sprite, so I've been trying to come up with a better pose

I tried hard to make that pose he has in the original work because I think it looks cool but I just found that the pose on the right was easier for me to draw.

I've also been thinking of giving Debra a new starter weapon, initially she had a pan but I figured I should find something else for her, I don't like how similar it is to Ana and Paula from MOTHER. I'm still on the fence about it, so if I don't write about her having a new weapon next month then I'm still thinking about it.

And other then that, that's all I've really done this month! It's not much but I feel its more interesting then the last few months. I've had a lot going on in my life, and early in august I'll be moving out. Hopefully I'll be able to settle quick, because for August I'll probably mostly be taking a break.

I usually do take a break after a trailer comes out, so you'll definitely hear from me next month but we'll see if I have things to talk about. Until next time! And don't forget to watch the MOTHER DIRECT, live at 6pm ET!

If this is your first log you’re reading, or even your first time seeing ANYTHING relating to HYPERSOMNIA, I got a whole bunch of links for you to check out if you wanna know more about me and my stupid little game.

TWITTER

YOUTUBE

STEAM

UNIQUE INDIE RPG’S [SHOW US YOUR GAME!]

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#hypersomniagame #rpgmaker #indie dev #updates #dev log #rpg #indiedev #earthbound #unique indie rpgs #Youtube

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miyakuli · 1 year ago

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PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo

Game of Stones

Paranormasight is a half-horrific, half-thriller visual novel (I'll come back to this later) in which we follow several characters who find themselves involved in paranormal events caused by curse stones that are said to be able to bring dead people back to life. I really enjoyed the game as a whole, but I have to say that I found it very inconsistent in the way it unfolded.

❤ The game is very pretty. The chara-design is really well done and perfectly matches the characters' personalities, the semi-realistic backgrounds (based on real locations and redrawn on top of them) are superb and have a vintage feel to remind us that we're in the 80s, and the animations are quite often effective at giving you chills. ❤ The characters are the game's greatest strength. None of them are smooth, they all have their dark side and convincing motivations, some are certainly more complex than others, but each has an interesting evolution. And as much as they work well individually, their interactions with each other are also nice. You become attached to this group and find yourself excited when their paths merge (at least, I was rejoicing a little xD) ❤ As soon as you enter the game's menu, you realize that the soundtrack is going to be amazing. The themes are varied in style and mood, and contribute effectively to the dynamics of the scenes. ❤ There's a non-linear aspect to the plot, since we'll be following several character paths at the same time (represented by a flowchart), which will often overlap. As a result, you won't be able to unlock certain scenes without having fulfilled specific conditions in other routes. This gives the game a pleasant and original puzzle aspect.

+/- In fact, we often have to glance at the menu files containing all the historical information as well as the character profiles to help us move forward and understand the underlying plot, which makes the player an active part of the investigation. The story evolves in a coherent manner, buuuuuuuuut is a bit predictable when it comes to big revelations... +/- Some very good directional ideas, for example using the 360-degree rotation of the mouse to create some very scary moments (with jumpscares that really got me) or even playing on a rather surprising meta aspect…….but it all runs out of steam very quickly. Indeed, all these mechanics are concentrated mainly in the prologue (which is rather long, it has to be said), after which we find ourselves in a more conventional thriller with more "banal" scenes with no real gameplay apart from the choice of dialogues and exploration. This gives an impression of inconsistency in the evolution of the game, and makes the loss of that initial momentum almost bland. However, there are still a few good ideas here and there (such as an escape game phase), but I don't think they live up to this introduction. +/- The game asks the player to adjust the volume of the voices at the start….but the game is not dubbed xD actually, the option has its importance later in the story but I swear it gave me false hope at the time x')

✖ No skip option for dialogues already read, which quickly becomes annoying when you want to unlock the various endings. ✖ It's amazing how rushed the true end is! It's to the point where it didn't make any impression on me at all, and the final revelations fall flat. And I still come back to this feeling of inconsistency; we have an intro that is terrific for an ending that is anticlimactic (and it rhymes). ✖ Some of the characters sometimes make rather humorous faces that don't really fit in with the drama of the sequences at times; I didn't understand this choice…

If you're looking for a visual novel with a solid storyline and a charismatic cast of characters, you certainly won't get bored with this title. However, don't expect a purely horrific game, given the rather blatant change of tone and the more basic mechanics after the introduction. Why this choice? That's the real mystery of this game…

youtube

➡ My personal VN ranking (in french) ➡ My Steam page

#paranormasight #also Harue is best girl <333 if I could I would have followed her route only #personal #Lola plays games

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i-am-megalodonna · 2 years ago

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Smth I think is funny about Borrowed Time is that Dexter is looking for ways to revive his body, yet unknown to him his body is still technically alive because Moloch is possessing it, so he'd need an exorcist and not a necromancer

Yeah getting Dexter back into his body is a whole mess that I haven't figured out at all, which is funny because it's the logical end point of the story. Then again, I hate writing endings.

From what I know of the lore his body is alive, in some aspects, but it's so fucked up by Moloch that it can hardly be called a human body anymore. If it gets exorcised maybe it'd go back to normal, but it also might not. The question of whether or not his body is even viable for repossession is just all over the place and I need to make a flowchart. Give me like twenty minutes I'll get back to you on that one.

But yeah, he's kind of trying to cast as wide a net as possible in his research because he really doesn't have the foggiest clue what's going on. All he knows is what he saw after his soul got violently transplanted by another, and that was a lot of body horror and then his neck got snapped. So maybe he's dead? But it's also a demon, surely it wouldn't be killed that easily. But who's he to make that assumption, maybe they are. He saw a lot, but he doesn't know what to make of any of it. Writing his perspective will be very interesting because he's working with both a lot of information and very little information because he has absolutely no idea what he's dealing with. He just wanted to catch a rat.

#borrowed time au #spooky month #dexter erotoph #spooky month dexter #moloch #spooky month moloch #megalodonanswers

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nagito11s-yttd-stuff · 2 years ago

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YTTD 3-2 Prediction

Here's a flowchart for how I imagine 3-2 going. I'll try explain as best I can:

After the banquet, the group heads to the sixth floor with the remaining dummy if they lived pre-banquet. Along the way, the dummy would get charged back. There's no major differences between logic and emotion until a certain obstacle. The obstacle doesn't really matter to this, all that matters is that it can only be bypassed by Shin. Here's where they split for a bit, so I'll talk about each seperately.

Emotion: Haysaka/Kanna try to overcome the obstacle but are unable to. Eventually, the main game begins.

This is where a majority of the mysteries get solved, as well as the death choice. In the main game, the player will get the choice between Keiji or the remaining Yabusame (Gin can get his own sacrifice end, similar to Nao).

Logic: Whilst trying to bypass the obstacle, the player would have to play something like battles in 3-1. Failing the obstacle will send everyone to the main game. Sara is the sacrifice here, allowing the player to basically choose which two to live (the only combination that can't be made is Sage + Commoner). Winning the obstacle will lead the player to a logic exclusive area. It's not too special, mainly a place for the mystery discussion to happen without the danger of the main game. However, this doesn't mean there's no casualties. At the end, for whatever reason, the player has to choose between Keiji and Gin. Not only would this cause the death of one of Sara's closest allies, it would also affect how Shin acts for the rest of 3-2. Saving Keiji will make Shin more resentful and hateful, whereas saving Gin will make Shin more willing to cooperate.

After the discussion, both routes will converge to a similar path. Eventually, the group will end up in a trap. Escaping it will lead the group back on to escape. Conversely, failing it will lead to a different bad outcome depending on the route.

Emotion: Only Sara and Kanna remain, all the others being dead. Led back to the main facility, the two spend time together for a few days before the doll clause goes into effect. The player will probably get a choice between making Kanna a doll or making Sara a doll. This will lead to the Doll Clause End.

Logic (Keiji Route): I'm not too sure how yet, but this will give Shin the opportunity to kill Sara and Keiji. When he takes it, this gives the player the Revenge Game Over.

Logic (Gin Route): They still escape the trap, although Sara stays behind for whatever reason. When Sara sacrifices her life to save Shin and Gin, this gives the player the Martyr Game Over.

Moving on to the route where the player beats the trap, the final mysteries get solved. As a reward, whatever survivors remain are able to defeat Asunaro and finally escape. For simplicity, here's the combinations:

Emotion: Sara, Kanna and [Keiji, Alice or Reko] (+1 dummy if they survived pre-banquet)

Logic: Sara, Shin and [Keiji or Gin] (+1 dummy if they survived pre-banquet)

Hope you enjoyed my speculation. It probably won't be correct but it's fun to imagine.

#yttd #yttd prediction

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quailfence · 1 year ago

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[Image description: two flowcharts. The first one is titled "Hardware Acceleration Off". It starts with "Netflix: I have this cool thing that can be on your screen". It then leads to "CPU: Okay cool lemme get that sorted and then I'll tell GPU to display it" This then leads to "GPU: That's a neat thing! It's on the monitor now." CPU also leads to "Discord: I see you would like to share your screen with your friends. Allow me to take a look at your CPU's video buffer so that I can do that! I see a Netflix video, so now they do too (smile emoticon)".

The second one is titled "Hardware Acceleration On." It starts with "Netflix: I have this cool thing that can be on your screen". It then leads to "GPU: I am capable of both interpreting what you're trying to send me and displaying it. No need to get the CPU involved, it has better things to do, your thing is on the monitor now."

A separarte box reads "CPU: GPU told me it has this one so I'm just gonna spend that energy on making sure your Minecraft save with 500 mods doesn't run at 2 FPS." This box then leads to "Discord: I see you would like to share your screen with your friends. Allow me to take a look at your CPU's video buffer so that I can do that! I see you have Netflix open, but there's just a black box where the video would be, but I'm too dumb to understand that data is being handled by the GPU and also don't know how to access the GPU anyway so I'm just gonna broadcast the black box. I hope that's what you wanted!"

There is a final unconnected box that reads "Netflix: I'm actually not involved in this process at all, everything is being handled by the browser. I'm literally just showing you videos, like I get up to shady shit sometimes but this is not one of those times." End description.]

@a-captions-blog

firefox just started doing this too so remember kids if you want to stream things like netflix or hulu over discord without the video being blacked out you just have to disable hardware acceleration in your browser settings!

#described #hardware acceleration #screenshots

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redrawthecolorlessworld · 10 days ago

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[MESSAGE RECEIVED - ORIGIN: RHYTHMIA - SENDERS: MULTIPLE: FERN (PYROMANIA gijinka), COR (valor/starcross gijinka), VELVET (Unraveling Stasis gijinka), STARLA (SUPERNOVA (v/s) gijinka), TETRA (grode gijinka)]

FERN: (to Unraveling Stasis (Rhymix)) "PLEASE keep other me out of trouble."

COR: (to Grode (Rhymix)) "Other me said I could learn some brainrot from you! ^^"

VELVET: (to Grode (Rhymix)) "If you're going to teach Cor brainrot, then just PLEASE send us a guide on what the brainrot even means. I don't want to deal with nobody understanding what Cor's saying."

STARLA: (to Star Fixator (Rhymix)) "Y'know, I kinda wonder what the constellations of Rhymix are like. Probably quite different from Rhythmia's constellations, given other differences in our worlds."

TETRA: (to Plaudite (Rhymix)) "Tetra here, picking up from where Dusk left off on talking about how the whole plan started. So a while back, Fern mentioned in the group chat that apparently the AIs were left slumbering in the simulation, even if their wishes, their promises, were unfulfilled. Now, I ain't the sort of person to just let that be where that story ended, so I started work on a little project. I may not have had documentation on how the simulation worked, but I had documentation on a parallel noticed beforehand (Fern mentioned the parallels to me when talking about the simulation situation), and I could work from there. Using what I knew about metalayers, I came up with a plan in two parts: The first part would be to activate the 'framework' of the simulation (without generating the wholeass simulated world again). The second part is where the metalayer stuff came into play, with the base idea being that, if Rhymix is similar to Rhythmia in effectively being connected to both 'inside' and 'outside' something known as the World Axis, then theoretically the simulation would exist on a lower metalayer, and therefore it would be possible to pull stuff up a metalayer. I accounted for the whole 'data complexity disparity' factor via the fact that bringing stuff up a metalayer is easier when something is already up there, akin to a pulley. Thanks to Aleph's shenanigans during April Fool's day, apparently it was possible for some on your end to communicate to some extent with what our world knows as the Otherworld (which in metalayer terms could be considered above both your world and our world), which meant I could ask someone there to help out with my plan via a README that mentioned the situation. In all honesty, the chat client was an afterthought at first, but I figured that since my plan worked in two parts, it would be a good idea to add a feature that, if both parts successfully connected, would be usable to pass the time. Kinda crazy how all that started with a flowchart about parallels with a previously-seen situation, a group chat, and me not letting some dreams go unfulfilled, y'know? (also sorry about the wall of text, guess I tend to do that sometimes)"

Oo oo

———

"I'll do my best. She keeps pestering me to burn stuff with her, which is...certainly annoying. But I'll try to make sure she doesn't actually do anything stupid."

— Unraveling Stasis

"Yeah, yeah, sure! So bafjehekhhekehmgek"

— Grode

"I'm not letting him do that. Sorry.

Either way, constellations...they're definitely something. I'd say they could be different, but I'm not sure about that yet, hehe."

— Star Fixator

"Woah...that's...definitely a lot to process. I never knew that could be possible, but given that the AIs are literally here in the real world now, then I guess it is possible.

Y'know...you're a considerate one. I'd like to say thank you."

— acta est fabula, plaudite

#(answering)thesia #rhymix: character answers #rhy(ai): unraveling stasis (oc)#rhy(ai): grode (oc)#rhy(ai): star fixator (oc)#rhy(citizen): acta est fabula plaudite (oc)

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uncloseted · 28 days ago

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i want to study everyday for an especific kind of test thats going to be in july. how should i do it

Assuming you have around 8 weeks, here's what I would do. First, figure out how much time you have every day to study - ideally, this would be roughly the same amount of study time each day and at the same time each day so you can get into a habit.

Make sure that your study sessions are no longer than 6 hours at a time, and ideally no longer than 4 hours at a time. Then, break your study sessions up into chunks - either 25 minute sessions with a 5 minute break in between (this is what I do), or 90 minute sessions with a 15 minute break in between if you have difficulty stopping and starting tasks. It can be tempting to skip the breaks, but don't do it - your brain stops being able to concentrate as well if it's constantly going, and that means that you'll ultimately learn less. Doing a small amount of exercise during the breaks can also help your brain learn more effectively.

During your study sessions, you'll want to do a number of different things, depending on whether you're learning new material, testing yourself on material you already know, or trying to keep material you already know in your mind.

When you're starting to learn new material, the first thing I would suggest is called "dual-coding". Basically, this means finding a way to combine verbal and visual information in your notes when you're learning something new. This could mean drawing diagrams, timelines, flowcharts, or concept maps alongside your written notes. Then after each chunk of material, try "self-explanation" - explain to yourself or someone around you what you've been learning. Try not to copy the explanation word-for-word as you learned it, but instead explain it in a way that would make sense to you. Bonus points if you can figure out how to explain it in a way that a child would understand. While doing this, you might ask yourself questions like "why does this work?" or "how is this related to what I already know?" Depending on the topic, it may also be helpful to do what's called "elaborate interrogation". This technique requires you to ask “why is this true?” or “what causes this?” for each major idea, and helps you understand the concepts more deeply instead of just memorizing them.

Once you've learned the new material, the next thing you can try is retrieval practice, where you use things like flashcards, free-recall summaries, past-paper questions to try and recall the test information from memory. You'll want to do this every few days so that you don't start losing the information you've already put time into learning. Apps like Anki, Quizlet, or Gizmo take a spaced learning approach to retrieval practice, so they tend to be better options than just making flash cards on your own. You can also try the "blurting" method, which is where you write down all the information you can remember on a topic and then check your notes to see what you missed or got wrong. This can help you to figure out where the gaps in your knowledge are and what you might need to focus on more attentively.

Finally, I would try to take a practice test once a week or once every other week. I know that's boring, but it's the best way to assess what you know, what you don't know, and how much progress you have to make before the actual exam. It can also help you get used to the exam format and, if you have old versions of the exam, how the questions are written and what might trip you up.

The last thing I'll say is that taking care of yourself is also important in order to do well on the exam. Sleeping 7-9 hours a night, eating well, reducing your stress, and exercising really do make a difference in your cognitive performance, so it's important to focus on those things as well, especially as you get closer to the exam date.

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19thperson · 3 months ago

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19th's Steam Next Fest Impressions Feb 2025 Edition - Day 2

Day 0/Day 1

The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-

youtube

Like everyone who has enjoyed a Kazutaka Kadoka game, I have a lot of mixed feelings about his stuff. He writes broad stroke interesting concepts and bombastic characters, with really strong visual direction, and then doesn't sweat the small stuff… even if the small stuff is the glue holding everything together. So far it's no different. While the setup and systems are very different, this is Dangan Ronpa 4.

I will say, I am unexpectedly enjoying the strategy RPG combat. Previous games have given me the impression that whenever they make it not pure adventure game, they kinda fumble, but it seems they've found some ample footing.

It's a strategy RPG with incredibly low health and damage numbers. enemies come in large waves, but most of them die quickly. Each unit has a different "shape" of attack, so it becomes a puzzle of most efficiently spreading damage. Combine that with the ability to earn extra actions with deaths and a metered super system and it feels surprisingly elegant.

One odd thing is that the plot is supposed to cover 100 days, but the demo ends on day 7, and the plot doesn't feel like it's moved a lot. I'm wondering if this will be a time loop game.

Ruffy and the Riverside

youtube

I've been looking forward to this game but... I was mildly disappointed.

It's a 3d platformer where the gimmick is that you can pick up textures from one surface and throw them on another. Depending on what texture you've thrown, you can interact with the new surface in a new way, like a climbable wall.

The problems are twofold. The first is that the platforming isn't that fun. Your character doesn't have a good sense of weight or momentum, and the level design doesn't really challenge the player at all.

The second is that the game's gimmick at first seems freeing, but as you play you realize it comes with a lot of restrictions. You can TAKE a texture from any surface, but the game is picky on what you can GIVE textures to. This is understandable. these limits are probably required to have level design at all instead of a scribblenauts style shallow sandbox, but I kept wanting to experiment and the game kept telling me "no" instead of letting an interesting interaction play out.

The closing section of the demo did tease a much larger map that looked fun to explore. I'm still somewhat interested, I'll just need to adjust my expectations on what the game is going for.

Type-NOISE: Shonen Shojo

youtube

An extremely stylish Zero Escape-like. Teens with partial amnesia awaken trapped in "Noise Scramble City" and are told by the morally ambiguous mascot character that the only way to escape is to retain their lost memories. From there they find themselves being chased by faceless passerbys and ending up in escape rooms where the clues for escape are hidden in their lost memories.

Something like this would normally be entirely my shit, and the production values are great, especially the animation and visual design. The main problem is that it's kneecapped by an awkward translation. Everything is too stiff and formal, save for the occasional typos. This lack of interesting prose leaves it really easy to see that... so far the plot is kinda thin? It's early on, so it'll probably get more complex, but the traumatic memories we're seeing feel... nothing to write home about.

As for the puzzles, they were passable. Not great but passable. I'm somewhat interested in the built in flowchart, hopefully it'll imply some timeline shenanigans. I also hope that there's something more complicated going on than the heavily telegraphed "This is a simulation" twist.

Bonnie Bear Saves Frogtime

youtube

Bonnie Bear is a depressed Hikkikomori, so on her birthday her friends get her out of her slump by getting her into Frog YuGiOh (doctor's note: do not get your friends into YuGiOh if you want them to stop being depressed. This will have the opposite effect)

During the birthday celebration, the king of the beach Rik Spec (look at his six pack) crashes the party and steals her other gift, a mysterious shell. He says he won't return it unless she beats him at frogtime and becomes the new king of the beach. Thus beginning a journey of self actualization via collectable frog playing games.

I was not expecting this game to be as funny as it was. It's hard to pin down it's specific vibe... The closest thing I can say is "European Children's Show Homestar Runner" and even that leaves something lacking. A lot of humor based on odd turns of phrase, left-in vocal bloopers, sight gags, and some deliberately awkward letting-the-joke-run-too-long. Like when Rik Spek (look at his six pack) steals Bonnie Bear's birthday cake, eats almost all of it with his bare hands, and then stops to eat the last few bites with a fork.

The game of frogtime is a simple checkers-ish deal. You have frogs with different abilities. Most can jump over each-other. Sending a frog to the opponent's side of the board does damage. There's a fun wrinkle in that turns are simultaneous. An opponent can move in a way that disrupts your plan, so you have to constantly play with prediction instead of reaction.

Main complaint is that you only have a deck of 9 frogs and instead of having a bulging binder of frogs you have to throw out one when you get a 10th.

#19th's steam next fest impressions #The Hundred Line #ruffy and the riverside #Type NOISE: Shonen Shojo #Bonnie Bear Saves Frogtime #Youtube

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klysanderelias · 27 days ago

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Reblogging @nongunktional's tags-

I agree and I want to talk about this because, y'know, I like talking, but also because I think that talking about player agency and engagement can be kind of obtuse sometimes and I want to drill down on that.

I think a lot of DnD campaigns have fallen into the 'fantasy epic' structure of things like Lord of the Rings - where the idea is to take the same characters through an entire far-reaching and fully connected plot, from level 1-20 or whatever, where the big bad is introduced in act 1 and you kill him at the very end.

And I think that this comes from a lot of sources, but what it means is that you start seeing DnD games that are written in such a way that the players are railroaded pretty hard. After all, to use BG3 as an example, the entire game is focused around the illithid parasite - being able to remove it would break the entire story and render the later parts of the game completely unusable. They're written like novels, which means that the players have to go HERE next, because that's where the next plot point is, and if they DON'T go there, the story stalls to a halt.

And not to be a materialist, but I can't not mention the profit incentive for this - Paizo sells their Pathfinder/Starfinder adventure paths for 20-25 bucks a book, 6 books an adventure path. DnD sells their campaign books for like 50 bucks a pop. If you split away from the story on book 1, Paizo is losing like a hundred bucks.

And the problem I have is that it strips away basically all player agency and input - you might be allowed to pick which of three places you want to go, but the story won't progress until you do [x], and no matter how much it obfuscates it, the story is linear and can't react to the player's choices.

The entire first act of Balder's Gate 3 is such an egregious example of this - you follow up on like literally six or seven different leads to get the parasite in your head removed, and literally all of them go exactly nowhere, because again the plot requires you to have the damn thing in your head. There's even a point where a powerful devil pops out of nowhere to ask if you want to sell your soul in exchange for some pest control - and even if you say yes, I will 100% right now sell my soul to you, he goes 'I'll come back when you're desperate' and disappears.

And that's been my experience with a lot of recent material - it's either leading PCs by the nose from place to place by restricting the breadcrumbs, or it's constructed in such a way that they literally don't have any other options that aren't just abandoning the conceit of the adventure entirely. You don't get meaningful choices, you get a split in the flowchart that comes right back to the next node anyway.

Which is why it's so bothersome that the whole 'how do you want to do this' thing took off - again, I think there are other criticisms to be made, but primarily my problem is that it's a carrot that kind of disguises how little the GM gives their players creative input.

And specifically I talk about 'agency' and 'creative input' because that's very different from 'choice' in my mind. Players make choices all the time, from 'do I hit this goblin or that goblin' to 'am I going to serve this unjust king'. The thing that I'm looking for is, if the players do something the GM wasn't prepared for, do they get pushed back onto the rails, or does the GM roll with it?

If the players go, 'hey, we are willing to sell our souls right now, 100%, in order to get these parasites out of our heads', does the GM go 'well the devil says no' or do they say 'okay, huh. let's talk about what that means and where we would go from here.'

Or, for a lesser example, if I as a player go 'actually I sympathize with this villain, and instead of killing them I want to try to find a way to protect them and figure out how to make peace', am I allowed to? Or does the monster entry say 'fights until killed'? Am I given the opportunity to change and affect the world around my character, or is this a cutscene where my only option is to press F to perform my finisher?

And to be fair, part of the reason why GMs push back against this sort of thing is because a) it requires WORK and b) it often requires them to throw out prep. If you kill the big bad in act 1, assuming they let you, they have to completely rewrite the adventure to account for that, and they're sure as hell not getting paid to do that. But also, it's because a lot of players want to GET that result without putting in the work themselves - they expect the GM to rewrite the entire adventure without any input from themselves.

Y'know, creative control comes with responsibility. I as a player feel like it's my job to pitch ideas and work with the GM to come up with a solution for things I want to do - if I say, hey, I want to save this villain NPC, my job is to say 'and here's my long-term plan, and here's a next step we can do as a scene, I'm going to start working on [x] in my downtime' and so on. And that's not what the culture is.

I think there's a lot of factors to blame, but regardless of where it comes from, the result is that a lot of GMs aren't willing to share creative control, because they're worried (and maybe rightfully so) about players breaking their toys and acting smug about it, and a lot of players don't push for agency, because the GM absolutely stonewalls them.

And there are a lot of solutions to this, primarily not setting the entire damn adventure in stone before the players ever touch it, but also I think there's a culture of very adversarial play, where GMs try to force the players into a predefined route and players try to break their way out of that box, and both sides are doing it with zero respect for each other.

And I think combat is the easiest thing to compromise on because the story can't proceed if everyone dies, so if the GM forces you into a fight, they probably need you to win it. But I think there are a lot of choices that the players are denied leading up to it - partially, again, because the maps are already made so you HAVE to fight these bandits here, fuck you - that would lead to much more fun and engagement if the GM and players shared their toys. Weathertop is a great scenic location for a fight, but it's also a choice that Aragorn and the hobbits make ahead of time - they go there to get a vantage point to see the Ringwraiths coming, and to hide, and it's specifically characters making bad choices that bring the fight there. Players who feel like their decisions mattered, and led naturally to the outcome, are going to be more jazzed about playing it out.

And, conversely, players are going to check out hard if they feel like nothing they do matters - always arriving just a little bit too late to save the town, or watching the bad guy teleport away AGAIN gets really draining because you can feel the rails. Of course I'm going to be passive if I feel like I'm just watching a movie anyway.

And y'know, I think that there are too many GMs who read the campaign book cover to cover and get so invested in the cool book they just read, and completely forget that the players don't know ANY of that. And I can't meaningfully agree to everything in that campaign book! Yes, I understand the premise of the adventure, but at a certain point if I want to go off-book because I'm not interested in fucking exploring the underdark for three chapters, well, that wasn't part of the pitch!

Maybe the thing I hate the most about Critical Role's influence on ttrpg culture is the 'How Do You Want To Do This' shit - I hate it so much.

And like, y'know, there's a conversation to be had about the way it centers grotesque, over the top violence, and how it often produces wildly dissonant moments where a character suddenly goes wildly outside the bounds of who they are simply for a 'cool moment' or where it dramatically changes the tone of a fight and thus how I feel about it (and that's not even mentioning the way that players will do shit like that randomly - I will never not be upset about the way that Dim/ension 20 had the whole 'goblin up the asshole' thing)

And there's also something to be said for like, it's just a fun thing matt mercer wanted to do to let his players feel cool and give them the mic for a second to cut a promo, and it's definitely not the only thing that the show is about, but like...

It's like the GBBO Handshake, y'know? It's something that's Iconic, and gets this sort of following because it feels momentous or special, and suddenly all anyone cares about is getting it. Like, it is annoying to me how people will fall over themselves to get a handshake from paul hollywood but literally no one cared about impressing Mary Berry to the same extent. She didn't have a Thing and so her feedback was always rated lower than Paul's because the Handshake Mattered.

And I don't think it's Matt Mercer's fault the way I think it's Paul Hollywood's fault, exactly, but it is one of those things that I do have to assign blame to him as the originator of a thing that I hate.

Specifically because.

It creates this culture where the biggest moment you can get, the thing everyone wants, is to get the messy kill. It creates this culture where getting to describe an over the top Doom finisher is an ideal, and where it feels like it's the one moment where every GM is willing to share the spotlight a little.

And that sucks. For a lot of reasons, but primarily because it decenters like, any other agency the player can exert.

It sucks so bad when the only time you get creative agency as a player is to say how much you kill a thing. Throw out as many ideas as you want in the rest of the game, and get ignored or shot down, but this one guy? This rando bandit? This is your moment, brother.

And again, I don't think this is necessarily how Critical Role is run, but it's definitely how it's played, and how it models behavior for players, which is why it's so upsetting. I love listening to ACTUAL actual plays, where things are discussed openly at the table, because it gives people a model for how to handle things. Critical Role, all that stuff is discussed off-stream, all the backstory stuff is worked out ahead of time and all the major story beats are pre-planned, even if just in vague terms, and I think that's fine! IF you're doing a stage show, and not an actual play. Yes, players should discuss ahead of time whether they're interested in having their characters pursue a romance, and yes, if a GM is going to introduce a major plot arc based around a PC there should be discussion about it ahead of time, but obfuscating all of that just means that people listening don't understand how to DO it.

And what it means is that the big moment where players get to hold the reins for even a second, on-screen, is the kill.

And all the other stuff? Well, y'know, you don't need to ask the players for input. Just be a good DM, like Matt. Just tell a great story and they'll all sit in raptured silence and be so excited to follow the tracks to the next plot point, and the only time you need to check to see if they want to DO anything is when they roll a crit.

And it's just like, there are basically no 'how do you want to do this' moments in the HUNDREDS of episodes of Friends at the Table, and all of the memorable moments are players taking agency and pitching ideas. Like, there are big kills in Friends at the Table that fucking HIT, and none of them are because they're Doom Finishers. Hadrian in the Hieron holiday special fucking HITS because it's a meaningful, powerful character choice. Mother Glory in the other Hieron holiday special HITS because it's such a tragic, hateful thing to have happen. Hella killing [redacted] isn't cool or exciting, it sucks, and it plays directly into her 'I would rather destroy something than try to understand it' morality, so it fucking HITS.

And like, I could go for hours, and I couldn't tell you ANY of the 'how do you want to do this' moments from the 50-60 episodes of critical role that I watched, because they all suck. They're all just spectacle, just getting keys jingled in your face for a few seconds, and it's so frustrating that it feels like that's the only thing people have taken away from Matt Mercer's GMing (I have a lot of OTHER critiques about his GMing, so I'm not saying that learning from him in other ways is better, but I'm also a hater).

But y'know, they clip well for tiktok or whatever.

It's just one more goddamn thing I hold against 5e culture, but it's also so quintessentially AMERICAN - of COURSE we're going to want to spotlight a grotesque kill, have you watched ANY of our tv shows. Of course the only time that a player's input is needed is so they can narrate their finisher - that's EASY and it's FUN because we have no concept of the humanity of the people we kill. It's fun to climb up a monster's asshole because no one has to consider whether that COUNTS against a nonperson.

And it's just like, y'know, I feel like there's this glorification of violence as long as you can feel justified, and it's easy for us to feel justified, so you end up with people making zombie movies just so that they can sell fantasies of shooting your neighbor in his face for mowing the lawn too often, or you ignore any morality because someone hurting you in the past DEFINITELY justifies waterboarding them with isopropyl.

And like, I don't want to be too high-and-mighty because I do think there's a place for over-the-top violence, and for retributive violence, in storytelling, but I just don't think it should be as a highlight reel, and it shouldn't be a candy-coated reward for rolling good.

It matters, it's noticeable, how you as the GM frame the camera. It's obvious what you care about depending on what details you ask for. And y'know, it's obvious what you're not interested in when you don't ask.

And again, it should not be the only time you ask a player to describe something.

#which y'know #is a lot of words to say 'it's much more fun to play a cooperative game cooperatively'#but genuinely I think too many people think about it in terms of video games #where 'player choice' means getting to decide which color ending you get #or which female NPC you bang #or which NPC dies #but they'll always steal the mcguffin from you so that you have a doom clock for act 3 #and your skeevy ally will betray you no matter what you do or how well you prepare #but at least you get the salve to your pride by getting the cool cutscene at the end where you blow him up with a one-liner #anyway I've gone on long enough about this #and it's such a big conversation in the ttrpg space #but I'm just always so frustrated when players are too passive or GMs are too restrictive #this ain't community theater we can go off-script #let's talk about it! let's pitch some ideas!

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