#but it is a game jam entry so i get why the ending is like that

[supernovero]

Game devs will make the nicest, concise, fun game that you want to play for hours of silly fun and then go "btw this is a horror game no more cooking and baking Run for your Life Now"

[arimiadev]

spooky visual novel recs that just came out in the past month!!

now that the awards ceremony has happened, I can openly talk about the visual novels I liked from Spooktober VN Jam, an annual game jam for making Halloween-themed visual novels (which I happen to judge entries for)!

each of these spooky indie VNs came out at the end of September and were made in just 1 month. some are scary, some are cute, but they're all made with love so go give them some love 💜

Märchen Line

Embrace the indomitable human spirit by serving in the First Among Father's Voyager Armada- The Bravest of The Brave, who venture out to liberate the Milky Way from the True Enemy. Serving as a Soldier means embracing infinite potential. With the blessing of His Runes, you will grow stronger, smarter, faster and braver in a few weeks than you have in your entire life. All that growth comes with responsibility, and you will be expected to pay your civic dues- but luckily each Soldier is assigned a Valkyrie to help them manage their priorities. Train your stats, build your relationships, and be all you can be...or push past the galactic narrative and seek a deeper understanding of humanity's true ranking in the galactic hierarchy. 

Pippa and Your Phantasmal Problem

Ms Ester's beautiful and neat house has been mysteriously wrecked in the past few weeks and nobody knows why. Patches of dirt on the carpet, things gone missing, and all sorts of mess keeps happening around the house. The police was called to investigate, a priest was invited to bless the house, and a group of ghostbusters was hired (they were so expensive!) and none of them found anything. How useless! If this problem isn't solved by the time Ms Ester returns from her short trip, she'll kick you out. You have to find someone who can help: anyone will do, even this unreliable looking, self-proclaimed witch you just randomly met.

BAD MANORS

On Friday the 13th, your plans for a spooky Halloween night are dashed when you show up alone at the escape room reserved by your friend. You consider going home when a handsome stranger offers to accompany you. Maybe the night is saved after all… Or so you thought.

MAMA

One day, you’ll thank me. After all… mother knows best. Today’s the first day of HimeCon, a Yuri convention. You’re attending with your girlfriend who’s a vendor in the artist alley. At the convention, you receive a text that ends up changing… everything. You find yourself back in your childhood home, except this time, something’s amiss— and you’ve got to escape. She’s always w̶̨̠̟̳͚̮̫͒͒̏̏̌͑͊̒́̂̈̀̓̒͘͠ā̷̧̠͎̤͖̝̠̯͎̎̇͒̋͑̾͑̑͂̂̽͐͂̄͘̕̕͠͠͝t̷̢̙̦͖͙̹̪̠̳̰͛̓̇̀̂̾́̉̍̈́͌̇̔̑͝ç̷̥̮͓͔̣̆̀̆̔̈́̈̀͋͛̓̈͐̕͝h̵̢̧̹̲͇̭̥̰͎͖͇̎̓͒̎̂͑̽͒͑̓͗͗̕̕͘͜͜͝͠͝͝ͅi̸̛̝̳̳̠͇͍̓͒̈́̑́̒̓̊͐͒̆͘͝ͅͅñ̶̢̡̨͓̥̞͉͓͚̞̞̞̲̤̹͙͍̙͛̋̏͗̍̽̇̒̅͊͜͠ͅg̸̪͇͋̓͋̍̈́̇̽̿̑̋̏̏̈́̋̾̋̃͘ͅ you, isn’t she?

Elfin National Park

Come on down and see the ever changing sights of our forest. We have places for the whole family. Just please remember for the safety of you and your family to stay within the designated zones.

MAD LAB PARTY

Being a serial killer is hard when some crow decides to tamper with your bodies. Solution? Kill another and meet your ‘fan’ in the act?! It’s October 31st, and you are dragged out to a haunted house attraction with your friends despite the mysterious ‘Jack-o-killer’ running around, murdering strangers in gruesome and eccentric ways. Bodies ranged from being found taking the place of a scarecrow to being carved and their guts replaced with pumpkin seeds. You, however, didn’t worry about getting killed. You knew exactly who the murderer was. Problem? You knew for sure you didn’t kill them like that.

CANIDAE

The moonlight illuminates the animal that lies within everyone. Will you embrace it; or fight back? On Halloween, a gang of teenagers in animal masks head out to set off fireworks and drink with their friends. Unfortunately, nothing ever goes right for you. As the night grows darker and pranks turn to violence, your friends start to change. Will you?

Killer Chat!

A reporter by day, an aspiring writer by night: you've been asking all the important questions on the dark web.  Like, how do you bury a body? How do you kill someone with a crowbar with the right angle to cause blunt-force trauma? What's the best way to hide from law enforcement? If you're to write a good crime book, this is how you'll do it. Suddenly, ERROR! UNKNOWN invites you to a server... with a warning. "don't be so obvious smh You're Gonna Get Caught". ... It's a serial killer chatroom. You may be slightly fucked.

Spirit Driver

From the everyday passenger to the horrors of Halloween, Spirit Driver is a short, casual conversation simulator where your choices can affect the fates of people and spirits alike. Remember, your choices have consequences. Good luck!

Let's Watch Steamboat Willie

Two film nerds sit down for a comfy evening watching old movies. Next up is Steamboat Willie, and they quickly take to bickering. By the time the cartoon is over, one of them will be dead.

Shut-in Vampire

Oh no! Mayu’s in a pinch! She’s woefully behind on paying the rent, and her scary landlady, Miss Himemiya, has issued an ultimatum. Mayu needs to earn ¥100,000 by the end of October, or she’ll be kicked out! Being evicted from her home would be bad enough, but Mayu has a secret: she’s actually a vampire. Mayu hasn’t been a vampire for a full year yet, and the church is keeping close tabs on her to ensure she’s been behaving herself. According to the stone-faced Sister Juriel, it’s the church’s standard policy to execute all vampires without a fixed address, lest they start roaming the streets causing chaos. If Mayu can’t pay the rent in time, she won’t just wind up homeless: she’ll be executed! What’s a fledgeling vampire to do?

Epimutation

Spencer, a former investigative journalist, lives in a small bunker with six other people who have also managed to stay alive after a viral outbreak brought the world to ruin. They're attempting to adjust to this new normal, until they stumble across some notebook pages written by a scientist documenting the infection. Make life or death decisions, form bonds with your fellow survivors, and attempt to unravel the mystery behind the outbreak.

Not My Body!

First you wake up in somebody else's ugly house in somebody else's ugly body, and then you find another person tied up in the closet? This isn't fair at all! Why do you have to deal with this?! It's not like you put him there! And what's going on in your own body right now, anyway…?

that's all of my recommendations for now, but with over 270 entries there's plenty more indie Halloween-themed visual novels for you to try!

[goldenchocobo]

So me and two of my friends have started a Gaming Culture Exchange. It’s where we give one game that means a lot to us, or embodies us as a person for the other two to play. I, of course- picked Kingdom Hearts.

It took a bit of thought to whittle it down, but in the end, I chose to get my friends to play KHII.  Because 1) it’s a fan favourite, 2) It has MUCH better combat and fluidity of controls than KHI, and 3) While yeah- you should play KHII and CoM, you can still glean the story; which is what I wanted them to play for. And if they don't understand anything- I'm here.

We meet up every Saturday night, and they play for 2-3 hours whilst I watch and act as a guide/tip-giver.

I wanted to document their experiences because they’re (mostly) fresh eyes in ‘24. This took so long to do because I kept forgetting to ask their permission to do this. How long? When we devised this, the KH series was announced that it was coming to steam during the VC call. I kind of laughed at the irony.

For now, let me introduce you to my friends! I’m not using any of their real names/what I call them due to identity.

Isopod: She/They: We get along really well and often watch shows together, play games or hang out. They’re more of a slow-paced gamer, liking farming sims and the less action-heavy Minecraft parts, but overall she loves genetic sims/ family tree games (wobbledogs, niece etc…). She’s seen little bits of KH, but doesn’t know a whole bunch. Their game for this exchange is Rainworld.

Dog: He/Him: We’re good friends that can get on each other's nerves and argue over pedantic stuff. He likes grimdark things and was the one who introduced me to Berserk. We, along with Isopod, watched Dungeon Meshi together, and I got him to watch Demon Slayer, which he’s enjoying. He actively dislikes/is uninterested in KH, not liking the style clash. His game for this exchange is Eldenring.

Due to the lag with getting permissions, each new entry will be each day until I've caught up, then every Sunday. Each day will be a reblog of this post with a Keep reading spoiler tag so that it doesn't clutter, but can be read in order.

Now that the stage is set, the journey starts below;

-

The game starts, and we jam out to Sanctuary. Isopod already kind of remembers who Roxas is and why he's here, but Dog doesn't- instead, he comments on the 'Gaming Rig' Roxas has got set up (the weird contraption with the light up star in his room) while Isopod laments that they'll never own a lamp as cool as his fish one.

'oh no, our ___ are gone!' "Your WHAT" -Dog

"I thought my audio glitched for a second" -Isopod

We then have to wait because Dog needed to eat dinner because his timing with that is impeccable, let me tell you. This let Isopod explore a bit and examine Roxas' outfit- which she concludes is a 'disaster'(lovingly).

It's then noted that Isopod is playing with Keyboard and mouse, and I m horrified. Dog is playing with an X-box controller and I lovingly refer to him as a heathen.

When Dog came back, the tutorial was completed, but I noticed that Dog... never really read the text. "I read it when Isopod has it up on her stream" he says. This'll bean important fact later.

During the Siefer fight, Isopod picks magic and Dog picks defence.

"woah whatda-" "Demon! actual demon!" Isopod and Dog during their first sighting of a Dusk. Quickly followed up with Isopod saying "why's he got cheeks though???"

The Dusk fight was quickly finished, and they both liked the reaction command (important for later).

"Why are they not calling for an adult. This (strange man) had pictures of children. That's VERY concerning" -Isopod "Yeah, the adults in this aren't very reliable" -Me, all knowing.

"COUNT DOOKU WHAT'RE YOU DOING HERE?!" -Dog upon hearing DiZ.

I then let the two do a few chores for munny. Dog does the Cargo Climb, and Isopod the Mail Delivery.

After a short while, I could hear them bemoan doing the same thing over and over; then I say 'yeah- you don't have to collect the full amount, you can go now', which fills the conversation with relief.

"Oh my god Roxas is hallucinating now" - Isopod "I think his friends are gaslighting him" -Dog upon the Pickpocket scene.

The Namine scenes had some interesting reactions:

"Why is there a GIRL braking into his room?!" -Isopod "Puberty is sometimes like that" -Dog

"That is a note an adult leaves when they want to kidnap children." -Dog upon reading Hayner's note "Yeah, I wouldn't trust it" -Isopod. "is she a Jojo???" -Isopod Dog then imitates Dio -during Namine's meeting with Roxas where she freezes time.

Then, in the Dive to the Heart, Isopod picks Attack, and Dog picks Defence. Isopod is able to beat Twilight Thorn straight away, but Dog takes two attempts.

The Fourth day is where everything fell apart. The tournament was easy, and neither struggled against Hayner or Vivi. Then came along Axel.

Isopod beat Axel fairly quickly. I thought they'd struggle, but they didn't. Dog, however struggled. I noticed that when he attacked Axel after parrying or blocking, Axel would retaliate- I told him what I saw, but Dog complained 'I can't attack him otherwise'. It took Dog going from Crit to Proud to beat Axel. "Wow Golden, you're cruel to put a new player on the hardest difficulty" you say, and you would be right, but Dog typically loves very hard games, and boasts that it took him 8 solid hours to beat a boss in Eldren Ring and that 'it was awesome', so I suggested Crit to him.

When Axel was beaten, Dog was VERY tired of Kingdom Hearts, and actively tried his best to dislike it, talking bad about the combat and how 'you're locked into an action'. Isopod did not share this, and was enjoying her time. I could tell that Dog wanted this done, but I urged them forward because they were nearing the finale of the prologue.

They did the wonders, made fun of Roxas' friends gaslighting him into thinking he didn't fall off the clocktower, and they both beat Axel fairly easily second go around. They then made fun of Sora's shoes for 5 minutes straight, and ended the session.

-

It was fun seeing people's first reactions to KHII. Dog's reaction was nothing new to me, as I knew this wouldn't be his favourite, and is only playing so me and Isopod play Eldenring. I'm hoping in the future, he'll warm up to it. Isopod is enjoying her time with the game, which is good to hear.

[zorlok-if]

Sharing the the dark theme's mobile UI and what I consider to be one of the cooler features of my Goncharov game jam entry (now called Creating Goncharov).

Early on the game asks you to sign into your work computer. If you input a certain name, well... the game adjusts accordingly.

IDs/transcriptions in alt text and below pictures.

[image 1: A screenshot from Creating Goncharov of a passage designed to look like a computer sign-in screen. The name that's been entered is "Martin Scorsese". /end ID]

[image 2: A screenshot from Creating Goncharov of a passage designed to look like an email. The email is titled "New Assignment" and is being sent from "Boss" to "Martin Scorsese". The body of the email reads: "Good morning, Mr. Scorsese. I have a very exciting opportunity for you. Later today I'll be pitching a new film—specifically a Goncharov remake—to a group of investors and, of course, I've chosen you to put that pitch together. My meeting is at 11:00 so hopefully you've arrived at work early. If, for whatever reason, you don't think you're the right fit for this project, let me know asap. I can easily find someone else for the job, but we don't have any time to waste. We are all very excited to present you with this opportunity and look forward to seeing what you'll do with this project! Let me know your response as soon as you finish" /end ID]

[image 3: A screenshot from Creating Goncharov of a narrative passage. The passage reads "You stare at the computer screen for a long while. "Of course I've chosen you." Why of course? You are a prolific director and any project attached to your name is certain to wow investors, but there's one big problem. You haven't seen Goncharov. You haven't even heard of Goncharov before. Whatever, it doesn't matter. Your Martin Scorsese, you can make a masterpiece out of anything. You'll figure something out. Even if you don't have a good idea for the plot, you can always call up Rob and Al, see if you can get them onboard. No investor would turn down a film with Scorsese, De Niro, and Pacino attached to it. You reply to your boss." /end ID]

[image 4: A screenshot from Creating Goncharov of a passage designed to look like an email. The email is titled "RE: New Assignment" and is being sent from "Martin Scorsese" to "Boss". The body of the email reads: "Good morning to you as well. I'd like to thank you for thinking of me for this project. I can certainly fit it into my busy schedule. You mentioned that you had more details, I urge you to send those along so we can get this ball rolling as soon as possible. This movie won't make itself. Yours, Martin Scorsese" /end ID]

[image 5: A screenshot from Creating Goncharov of a passage designed to look like an email. The email is titled "RE: New Assignment" and is being sent from "Boss" to "Martin Scorsese". "Al B" has been CC'd. The body of the email reads: "Fantastic! And thank you for responding so promptly. The details are as follows: You need to craft a pitch for a 2023 adaptation of your 1973 classic, Goncharov. We aren't asking you to stray too far from the original. Goncharov is already a masterpiece and our audiences already adore it. This is meant to be a celebration more than anything in honor of the upcoming 50th anniversary. We are very excited to see what you will do given the opportunity to remake Goncharov with access to modern technology, new perspectives you've gained over the years, and (if this pitch goes well) a much bigger budget than you would have had at the start of your career." /end ID]

[image 6: The continuation of the last email described. The email continues: "Deepest apologies for only reaching out to you now, but I'll remind you that unfortunately we only have until 11:00. If possible, I'd also like to go over your ideas and thoughts before I present them to the potential investors, so the earlier you can get this pitch to me, the better. Anyways, go work your magic. Not that it'll be difficult; as Roger Ebert said, "Goncharov is the greatest mafia movie ever made." Whatever you do, I'm sure it will be fantastic." /end ID]

[image 7: A screenshot from Creating Goncharov of a narrative passage. The passage reads "Wait. That can't be right. You read the email again. No, you read that correctly. They definitely said that Goncharov was your movie. Is that... possible? Could you really have forgotten about one of your own films. I mean it was 1973, apparently. You aren't as young as you once were and maybe it's been so long that you've somehow... forgot? No, that can't be it. If you made a film that Roger Ebert called "the"—what was it? You check the email again. "The greatest mafia movie ever made," you would definitely remember that. Right? ...Right?" /end ID]

[image 8: A cycling choice from the game Creating Goncharov. It reads "Yeah, you know your own body of work. They must be mistaken somehow or there has to be some kind of miscommunication. You did not make Goncharov. You're 99.99% sure." /end ID]

[image 9: A cycling choice from the game Creating Goncharov. It reads "Maybe... maybe not. They're probably mistaken or there's some kind of miscommunication, but you're 80% sure that you did not make Goncharov." /end ID]

[image 10: A cycling choice from the game Creating Goncharov. It reads "No. You have no idea. That was fifty years ago, it's entirely possible that you made Goncharov and have no memory of it." /end ID]

[maleyanderecafe]

The Snake's Taken a Spouse (Visual Novel)

Created by: Games_of_CrimSin

Genre: Romance/Survival

This game is actually fairly fun all things considered and I enjoyed it. I think that some people might pass on this one because of the art, but honestly it reminds me a bit of DOL in some cases, especially with the Great Hawk and Shimil is adorable. This game is r18 though you can toggle off r18 things in the intro. You can find more at @gamesofcrimsin (which btw if you are reading this, I will literally redraw your sprites for you if you would like).

The story starts out with the MC walking around in the forest, only to stumble upon a naga person when hearing a scream. Their tail is stuck under a rock so the MC helps them out. Seeing as this is the nicest thing that someone has done to the snake person, they immediately tell the MC they want to marry them. A bit freaked out, the MC stumbles backwards and passes out, only to wake up in the snake person's den. This snake person promises that they will be able to love each other given time and goes out to get the MC a mattress to sleep on and a fire.

From then on, it runs mostly like a time management game where you can do anything from prepare food to nap, to wait, to try to escape. There are about six different endings that you can get through different means, but first I'll summarize Shimil's history as we know of.

The MC can ask about his name, introducing himself as Shimil. You can ask him about his species, the nagas. Shimil tells the MC that the nagas and humans used to live on the surface together, but the two hated each other, so the nagas of old hid underground so that humans could never bother them again. The MC asks why Shimil isn't underground, and Shimil states that he was banished because he couldn't do anything right and was burden. Comforting him will cause him to cry as he did try his best, but was never enough. The MC also finds a drawing on the wall and asks Shimil about it. Shimil carved it into the wall, trying to draw his mother and sister. Shimil talks about the two, how they were great at everything, how they were able to know what Shimil wanted or needed through body language and how strong they are. The MC picks up an object in the other corner, which Shimil frantically tells them to be careful with. When the MC asks Shimil about it, Shimil tells the MC that it's a toy that his parents got him, and that he loved it a lot. His sister gave it to him before he got exiled and even snuck in to grab his pickaxe. He reveals also that his dad died when he was younger, which is why he didn't draw him on the wall. This thought makes him cry, wanting to be able to draw them better.

There are a couple of endings, staying with him will make him happy, trying to escape may lead to failure. The MC can also dig footholds to climb out if timed correctly, or get rescued by a search time (though I couldn't get this ending because the timing is pretty finicky). Causing him to go out for the MC a lot makes Shimil go into a deeper sleep, thus being able to successfully kill him with the pickaxe, and finally, Shimil will kick the MC out if they break his toy (but it also breaks my heart).

I actually was more expecting a visual novel in the traditional sense because most of the entries seem to be of that style, so this was a nice change of pace. Like I said, it reminds me of the Great Hawk from Degrees of Lewdity, where you're sort of trapped with an animal creature that doesn't quite know what humans like or do but is doing their best to accommodate which is very enduring. Like the Great Hawk though, I do wish there were more interactions with Shimil besides what was given, though it's understandable since it was made for the game jam, so there probably wasn't a lot of time to implement a bunch of features (though I did see some of the notes in the script file for more endings.) If I were to make suggestions to add more features, I'd really like to hear more about Shimil's past or just get the chance for them to talk to each other about different things, such as Shimil sharing more about his culture or perhaps the MC sharing about their life as well. They could teach each other games or talk about other things that they might like. Just to really make that stockholm syndrome kick in. Of course, it would be great to do other things besides, eat, sleep, asking him to get things and having sex as well, since I'm sure it would get boring down there if it's all they could do. More endings are always great as well- I'll be honest, I just kept having sex with Shimil just to see if it would make a different ending or have different dialouge, but it would be pretty funny to see him have a proper reaction to that.

I'll be honest- Shimil is really cute. I really like the more sad and pathetic type yanderes that try their best and honestly listening to Shimil's backstory about how he was exiled and how he believes he's useless is really heartbreaking. It's also pretty sad that the nicest thing anyone has done for him was to save him from a giant boulder and even when trying to turn him down, he seems really happy that he's gotten so many compliments. He probably really misses his family seeing that all he has left are the things that he's gotten from home and a crude drawing, something that he often has to throw away (especially the pick axe) if the MC attempts to escape or hurt him. It made me really sad when the MC just broke his only toy since it was one of the last things he had left from them, so it's understandable he throws the MC out afterwards. Shimil is only really cruel when the MC is cruel to him and he honestly endures a lot of it, generally being more shy and reserved when the MC snaps back at him or attempts to murder him in his sleep which can lead to him raping the MC while the two try to sleep (though again, you have to be really cruel to him for this to happen generally). I can't really blame him since he doesn't have anyone and is just lonely, plus again, the MC is just outright cruel to him at this point when he's trying hard to provide food and other things for them.

I think overall, while the game is pretty good, the biggest drawback is likely the art. It's not... the worst that I've seen, but I can see why people might be turned away from it. There are some glitches in the code as well, sometimes with Shimil jumping up into the wrong position or some sort of error occurring, but they don't seem to be very big problems. Pretty much I feel that if the sprite art were improved, it would make the game a lot better since the design for him is pretty unique all things considered.

Overall, it's a pretty fun and short game. I hope to see more of Shimil in the future because I like his interactions and the history of nagas is actually pretty interesting and I hope there will be other endings for it. I'm gonna throw a bunch of redesigns for Shimil after this because I think he is fun to draw.

[demonsteapot]

What type of music do you like / have you been jamming to recently? Any recommendations?

(my internet died halfway through this so i nearly had to rewrite it)

you caught me at a bad time i was schmooving to a sewerslvt playlist yesterday ;-;

okay to be serious for a moment. uh. i don't think i have super good or interesting (or normal) tastes in music? i can point you to some of the things i think are cool and good, and i can also point you to things that i listen to for mood.

ive also probably mentioned some of these before (probably all of them?) so sorry if there's repeats

(okay this ended up being longer than expected so cut vv)

good (mostly not depressing stuff?):

Bill Wurtz – weirdly dreamlike jazzy stuff (?) i recommend 'At the Corner Store' and then i recommend you listen to all his other stuff

Ujico*/Snail's House: ive probably ranted about this guy before; 'Cosmo Funk' is probably your entry level snails house song. sweet adorable future bass, my go to for free serotonin

Heaven Pierce Her – Ultrakill: Violence, the game's newest EP. generally melancholic but really sick especially in context. 'War Without Reason' is probably my new favourite track in the whole game? (you can tell i like amen breaks lol)

also ofc i have to mention john / TOOBOE!! shout out to @donutinsideofashark for introducing me to this guy. some recs: 'Tablet', 'Roman', and 'Appare kanpai' – stuff goes hard and makes me wish i knew jp so i could actually remember lyrics

mood (depressing and/or weirder stuff):

vivivivivi's Dead but Dreaming: concept album about a dead god, mostly chiptune instrumental stuff until the second-last track – personally I LOVE this album, but as someone said, it probably sucks unless you have autism (disclaimer: i'm not diagnosed autistic, this is a reference to the pinned comment). this particular album influences a lot of my works to be honest

two more vivivivivi beepbox albums, ones that are a little more lively: Sisyphus and Silly Little Songs from my Silly Little Head. probably not to the tastes of sane and normal people but i like the beeps and boops :)

sewerslvt: breakbeat stuff from a dark place. people seem to not like sewerslvt fans which is why i'm reluctant to talk about this one but whatever. idk what you'd call their genre (i've heard it described as ambient jungle, trance, something or other dnb, but most importantly NOT breakcore. call sewerslvt breakcore and you are signing up for a hell of a flamewar) listen if you like amen breaks and hate yourself (i hope not…) idk what to even recommend here… i stumbled across her first with Drowning In The Sewer years ago. i've been getting back into their stuff recently, which is probably not a good sign for my mental health… currently listening to 'was it weird that i listened to im god by clams casino's when i lost my virginity' which is a hell of a title

Heaven Pierce Her again – The Enigma of Heaven and Other Daily Delusions: weird album about religion and the internet. since this is hakita again there are amen breaks. good if ur fuckin WEIRD. i recommend most of HPH's work

i've also been listening to an ultrakill fan artist called Marzuku, who does – guess what – more amen break stuff. i don't know man, but 'At Ends' is pretty good

shit fuck of course the jvne section ends up being a whole paragraph just to say don't listen to their stuff.

THAT'S IT IT'S TIME TO WRAP THIS UP THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK. damn this got long. this is what happens when you ask me about my interests LMFAO

[tuffmallowinteractive]

TUFF UPDATE 7/13/23

A Developer Soldier Writing Home From The Trenches

It's been a while. And let me tell you- I HAVE MISSED YOU.

I can also say that this point in game dev, I am not the person I started out as. I definitely have been through much more than I or anyone else anticipated getting into game development and design. I am forever grateful for the fellow devs and peers that have been supportive of me along the way, as well as each and every fan who believes in my ability and has stuck with me. You guys have been my saving grace in this.

So where have I been?

I decided (for the last time) to join the Amare Game Festival. I figured I could shell out a small lore game for The Closet Door called Lake of Reflection in a month- why not?

Because game jams aren't for everyone. I spent the month burning myself out and still not being done with the game when the festival ended. (Mind you I loved the jam and you should check out the Amare Game Festival Entries!) But I didn't want to give up on the game. A cast of amazing VAs and a budding background artist helped me bring it to life! Not to mention help from fellow devs that lent me their talents when I inevitably got stuck with programming. I did hit a major burnout. And cooldown time where anxiety of release made every milestone more stressful than enjoyable.

Again, thanks to everyone around me lending me their confidence, I was able to finish and release Lake of Reflection today! It's a fairly small VN/IF hybrid game in comparison to TCD, only claiming 45k words, 6 CGs, 8 sprites and 5-6 endings. But Lake of Reflection boasts a lot of love and that means the world to me.

Lake Of Reflection game page!

This story ties into The Closet Door and hopefully for those who play both games, they'll find it a delightful addition to the worldbuilding of TCD. However, Lake of Reflection is also a stand alone project and hopefully will warm the hearts of those who play it of its own merit. 💗

But game dev doesn't stop at this first release! Earlier this year I experienced an event that really made me recognize how childhood trauma impacts us. Because I write about childhood trauma in TCD, it really made me revisit the script. I've made some what I feel are necessary changes. And I think the new build I'm doing for TCD will be better for it.

I'm back into development for TCD now, so I will be doubling down on the grind.

But there's so much more going on!

And most of it requires more time to address. And you know what that means! Yesss, it's time Tuff Mallow returned to Tumblr and social media. I have a lot to share with you:

Upcoming projects

Release Dates

Shiny new Tuff Stuff

Comics?

So know that I'm fighting hard to stay Tuff like I've promised. I hope people like Lake of Reflection and that includes fans of TCD. I'll tell you next week about more exciting news, so stay tuned!

~Alwaysjmb

[otomegamesandme]

Otome Jam Thoughts 2023

Karamu

By: Chattercap

"For me, a world with only you is enough."

Two weeks ago, Nelli sent her long-term boyfriend, Raku, the following text: "I'm breaking up with you." She has been successfully avoiding him ever since...until her bike chain breaks. He helps her, but now she's trapped in a forest with only her broken bike, a cellphone with no reception, and her slightly creepy ex-boyfriend for company. He wants to talk, and one thing is clear: he really doesn't want to break up. (He probably won't take no for an answer.)

Yoooooo this was so fun?? If you've been here a while you know I love horror otomes, and this really scratched that itch. It isn't too long, and I feel like everything I like about it is spoilers which makes it hard to explain why this is one you should check out.

I will say that both characters having issues (like, really bad issues lol) made them both fun, and I always appreciate a main character that isn't exactly a good person. The entire story can also only be pieced together by getting each ending, and the true ending only unlocks after getting the first end. That's always one of my favorite ways for a game to be set up, especially a short one, because I feel a lot more motivated to get every ending.

The comic style/live 2D was also a nice touch! I enjoyed all the movement this had, and I'm sure it was a lot of work to do. The voice acting was also really nice, and I really vibed with Raku's VA. Overall, this was a solid entry, and another game to add to my collection of horror otomes.

[taintedmantis]

2023 Wrap Up! What I Achieved (and What I Didn't) Plus 2024 Goals

We're at that time of the year again! What a blast this year has been for me as a Gaming Content Creator to look back on. For this, I'll be referring to these Tumblr blog entries:

1. 2023: Reevaluating My Content and Developer Goals For This Year

2. End of 2023 Content Creator and Developer Goals (Updated as at August)

Let's start with what I didn't manage to achieve this year.

Indie Game Dev:

Achievements

The hobby dev team I'm in managed to recruit a graphic artist, and we were able to create something out of a game jam back in April. As mentioned in the August blog entry, the game still needs polishing and honoring the team's agreement to not showcase it yet until it's ready, it was still a fun dating sim project that involves mycelium! However, we're at the point where we aren't quite able to do this on a more regular basis due to new job schedules for a few of our team members. So...looks like my time as a game developer is currently on hold for a while.

Having gotten that out of the way, let's continue with what I did manage to achieve and where I'm headed in 2024.

YouTube:

Achievements

As at now (December 31, 2023), I'm sitting at 690 subscribers, just 10 subs shy of hitting 700 at time of writing. It doesn't sound like a big number, but at this time last year, I was only over 300 subscribers, with me hitting close to 400 on January 18 this year.

Specific tweet here.

This means almost doubling the number of subscribers on my channel, which I am grateful for, and already a fabulous achievement for a small creator like me. ��️

Targets for 2024

Will the upcoming year be the year I'll finally hit 1000 subs? I'm absolutely positive it will be! With the trend of my best videos being the Get Better At Mahjong series that constantly receive views daily, I can see it coming. Despite only producing possibly 1 mahjong video annually at this point, it's the tabletop game that will always be in demand no matter what, especially during the Lunar New Year period when the entire community that celebrates the festival plays this game to entertain the rest of the family. The better question is exactly when this will happen! Let's see if this will happen by the Year of the Dragon!🐉

Content Creation:

Achievements

1. Festivals and Why You Should Play series: Having covered several Steam festivals, ranging from Next Fest to LudoNarraCon, I have come across many games that would have otherwise flown under my radar. With so many amazing games released in 2023 in particular, I had to start a new series that goes a little more in-depth on individual games. This is when I decided to start the Why You Should Play series. The playlist is still a little too short to have it appear on the landing page, but I hope I'm able to give the games a little more justice and attention to some of the details that I wasn't able to cover in the more generic festival videos that usually only offer demo coverage. There are still many games that I have planned videos for, but with my ability as a one-man-band doing everything while also honoring other commitments, many of these have to be on hold. Hopefully less so in 2024, but let's see!🤣

2. Let's Plays: Noticeably, I have done a lot less Let's Play style videos in the past year. This is not to say I don't want to keep doing them, but due to lack of views and my inability to be amusing enough to be entertaining, I've decreased the frequency of this video style in favor of more structured videos. It also means putting more effort into increasing the production value for the other videos, which means my video releases are less frequent compared to 2021 days. However, seeing the improved quality of videos I've released in 2023 is a great reason to continue that trend. I will see if I can finish off some of the Let's Play titles that are in progress at a later time, but with upcoming new schedules, I cannot make any promises on that. I will try to squeeze something interesting in once in a while where possible (such as the Two Point Campus Christmas Challenge video).

3. Convention series: As Covid-19 started to ease off in January and Hong Kong finally opening up to the world after nearly 3 years of being in constant lockdown, I began to consider heading back out there and put gaming travel as part of my channel branding as it was my original plan pre-Covid to start travel vlogging. It was one of the best decisions I've made this year with meeting many gaming industry peers at conventions, plus putting faces to Twitter mutuals. This is where I decided to begin some form of gaming related travel series, though I admit I am a little slow in the turnover as the time commitment to editing has been quite challenging on my end. I only have 2 videos related to conventions so far, but more videos are coming!

Targets for 2024

With dates set and churning out travel plans in advance, my convention attendance and coverage will overall increase as with continuing coverage for Steam festivals (Next Fest in particular). The only thing I'm afraid of right now is creator burn out, but by far I'm managing this reasonably well, despite may sometimes requiring me to take a week or two off from video editing on occasions due to sudden mandatory commitments. As long as this trend continues, we're good to go!

Last Words for 2023

Best year yet! Thank you everybody who has been supportive of my journey and am absolutely grateful for the opportunities presented to meet new (and finally non-virtual) faces from the gaming industry. I'll leave a photo of my cosplay of FFVII's Tifa (that I wore to gamescom asia 2023) as a reminder of this year's achievements as I continue my Gaming Content Creator journey through to 2024. Here's to a fabulous 2024!🎉

[manonamora-if]

This is a short-ish log. I know I forgot last week, but I'm sure you understand why :P There was the AMA on that Saturday, and I was sPENT.

Teatime with a Vampire

IT IS OUT! The thing I've been working for almost a month, which I thought I'd be done in a week... It's way too long for its own good. But you CAN PLAY IT.

If you like vampires and smooches, and slightly about-to-get-steamy scenes, but also weird wtf moments, then this is perfect for you!

While you're at it, play some Queer Vampire Jam games. There's some good stuff there.

French Comp Entry

Currently writing it. An epistolary one. The base UI is ready. I have half the passages drafted. And one week to finish it.

Website update

Last week, I've been working on updating my website since it had been a while, and a bunch of new projects needed to be added. (also ended up fixing some lil things in the process). Check out how cool the first page and project-list pages are now!!

And over on itch, I've updated my page to include neat collections to find games easier.

DOL-OS

The IFDB Awards were announced and DOL-OS won the Outstanding French Game of 2023!!! I'm reeeaaallllyyy happy about this! It was also nominated for a handful of other ones like: Outstanding Twine, Trailblazer, and Outstanding Sci-Fi!

Thanks to everyone who voted at the Awards (and for me :P ) Next is the Xyzzy... any day now xD

~

I think that's all for what I've been doing. I need to add more to the @manonamora-if-reviews queue, cause I've been reviewing a bunch of stuff lately too! If only the IFDB and Tumblr would "talk" to each other so the posting would be automatic xD

~

IF Events for next week:

The Smoochie Jam, the @seedcomp-if and the French IF Comp are ending very very soon! But there is still some time to submit!

The SpringThing will still accept intents to submit until March 1!

I've started the Interactive Fiction Showcase 2024 over on itch to try to find more IF release during the year. Consider sharing the post on Tumblr!

~

And that's it for now :) The end of the month is approaching, which means a new check-in will happen (and lots of admin too... ;-;)

[arimiadev]

Hello visual novel fans and vampire lovers! It’s been a while since I last wrote a postmortem, so I hope I’ll be able to write this concisely (and coherently).

Dahlia was a short visual novel I created in under 36 hours for Velox Formido, a shortform visual novel game jam ran by robobarbie and Allie Vera. It’s inspired by Ludum Dare, one of the longest running game jams in the world where devs are tasked to make a game in 1 weekend based around a theme. I got my start making visual novels by entering Ludum Dare…which was 10 years ago, as of 2024!

I had my eye on this game jam for a while now, as this isn’t its first incarnation. I’ve been a bit burnt out the past year or so, not completely where I can’t make progress but to where I feel like my work has slowed down a lot more than my peers and feel I can’t make anything quickly. When I saw the jam was happening this weekend, I hopped on board once the themes were announced.

the themes

While Ludum Dare has a rigorous process of eliminating themes until it gets down to the final one, Velox Formido has it where there are 5 themes that win and participants have to use at least 2 of them in their entries. The final themes were…

Enemies with Benefits

Flower Symbolism

Doomed by the Narrative

Trapped with Someone

Forbidden Romance

I started crafting ideas as soon as the themes were announced, which was what the jam started- meaning the clock was ticking!

My first idea was a shounen rivals-esque sapphic story about two rivals meeting up for alone time. I started writing it immediately but moved on to another idea- being trapped with a vampire. I doubt I’ll ever use the first idea, so I’ve shared the snippet I was able to write for it here. Every new line is the other woman talking, so think of it as a quick back and forth.

Even though I had started on this idea, I wanted to write something more… mysterious. Frilly. Girls in cute dresses, to be exact. So I began potting an idea where a girl wakes up to find a vampire in her room, unsure if she’s had her fill yet or toying with her next meal.

the story

The “flower symbolism” theme was definitely my first pick, as I love the concept of it and played around with it in my last visual novel, Asphodelium. I named the characters Dahlia (beauty, change) and Camellia (admiration, longing). Dahlia represents a change in Camellia’s life, a sudden burst of newness. Camellia longs for something different, some way for things to change.

The other theme I picked was “trapped with someone”, as the premise is a girl stuck with a vampire in her room. I didn’t want it to be outright horror, but still a little creepy and tense.

Dahlia "I've had enough pitchforks stuck in my face for today." Camellia "And why is that?" Dahlia "Because your kind isn't too welcoming to my kind." Camellia "I was asking why you were here in the first place." Dahlia "Obvious questions get obvious responses. I needed a snack, of course." Camellia "And you chose my residence." Dahlia "Didn't you say this was your fathers?" Her words curl around the last word, like ivy growing against a trellis. She's clearly already had a "snack", but was it enough to satisfy her? Or am I the main course?

Both of them are somewhat young, but there is still the element of the unknown. This creature clearly already had a meal, but does she want dessert? Is she just toying with her food? Or is she truly delighted to find someone her age to talk to?

With the time constraints I wasn’t able to flesh out much of their dynamic, but I hope it was still an enjoyable taste! The story ended up being about 2.3k words long with 3 endings.

the art

I started doing the art about….12 hours before the jam ended. I love working with fullbody sprites as they offer me a lot more versatility with posing, but I knew I didn’t have time for that here. This time I went for 3/4ths bodies, namely just so I could cut it off at the end of their dresses. I spent about an hour on each of these.

With the time crunch I didn’t have time to do concepts for them- I just winged it! I knew I wanted Dahlia to have pigtails, though she was originally going to have a purple theme. Camellia was supposed to have proper curls in her hair, but because the game starts with her being rudely awoken, I went with messy waves instead. Think of it as bedhead rather than her actual hairstyle.

I also quickly did a main menu artwork towards the end of my crunch in about half an hour. It was originally going to be the cover art on itchio but Dahlia’s >:D sprite looks more striking.

For the backgrounds I went with free photos from Unsplash and edited them. Personally, I like the look of filtered photos as backgrounds depending on the aesthetics of the game.

I didn’t have time to edit the GUI aside from the textbox, which was NVL mode.

the presentation

Dahlia is stylized fully in NVL mode, with the textbox to one side of the screen. I love NVL mode for scenes focused on narration and setting the right mood.

I was considering making the game a different resolution, but because the NVL mode is to the side rather than the entire screen I wanted to make use of the widescreen resolution.

The game is set late at night, so each of the backgrounds had to be nighttime. To match with this, I tinted the sprites to match each of them. For example, the above tint looks like this:

transform nightcolor: matrixcolor TintMatrix("#8594d6") * BrightnessMatrix(0.03) image dahlia night = LayeredImageProxy("dahlia",nightcolor)

I wanted to try something more complex like a tint + another light source overlayed onto the sprite, but ran out of time.

Another part of the presentation I did was to have a variety of shots. I had a very limited about of art to work with (only changing mouths and eyebrows, no arm poses or eye positions) so I knew I had to be smart about how I composited the scenes.

One thing I’ve done in other visual novels was to have one character further away and have another closer to the camera but their sprite turned black. This allows me to give the illusion of depth without having a sprite of the back of each character’s head.

for instance, this is that technique in Canvas Menagerie

Doing this in Dahlia was a quick and easy way to make the visuals much more interesting rather than swapping between two mostly static sprites the entire game.

The way I do it in other games is on a per-sprite basis, meaning I set brightness and position each time. It’s hectic, really! But because of the time limit for this jam, I was able to come up with a much quicker way to set it up.

transform lefttt: zoom 0.5 xalign 0.3 yalign 0.05 transform leftttb: zoom 0.8 xalign -1.6 yalign 0.1 matrixcolor(BrightnessMatrix(-1)) xzoom -1

The lefttt transform is for the character in the back- in this example, that’s Camellia. The leftttb transform (b standing for “black”) is for the character in the foreground who’s shrouded- in this example, that’s Dahlia.

Basically, the leftttb transform sets the sprite to a bigger size than the farther away sprite, sets the position, and then makes the color completely black before flipping the sprite (because this should be us seeing them from behind).

I also did quite a few small animations in the game, such as Dahlia dancing around or bouncing up and down. You define it once as a transform and can reuse it again and again.

transform dance: ease 0.7 xoffset -59 linear 0.25 ease 0.6 xoffset 74 linear 0.19 ease 0.76 xoffset -70 linear 0.3 ease 0.7 xoffset 102 linear 0.2 ease 0.8 xoffset 0

If you’d like to see the code in action, then guess what- I’ve released the entire source code for the game on GitHub! Feel free to sift through it to see the components in action and copy some of the code for your own projects. All I ask is that you do not redistribute the game (i.e. download the code, make a build in Ren’Py, and redistribute that as your own game).

wrapping up

I’m pretty happy with how Dahlia came out. It’s short and visually distinct and helped “prove” to myself that I’m capable of making visual novels in a weekend still. I tried to avoid spoilers here, so if you haven’t played it already then give it a try!

— Arimia

[raccoon-formality]

2024 Commitment

(this is a re-post from Patreon)

Hello,

This is Matthew and I am here to talk about some stuff regarding this Patreon account.

Let me start with the less than good news. I would like to apologize for neglecting my obligations near the end of last year. Parking Ticket Mayhem and Scaling Up Industries did not include Patreon member mentions and I also didn't release early access versions of those games either. Although right now I believe most people supporting me are friends who would support me anyways, it is still a level of disrespect and negligence to your support that I would not like to continue going forward.

So, that leads quite smoothly into the changes I am making. Starting 2024, I am making a commitment to myself to be more professional. I will be taking my commitments more seriously and will be moving forward with more transparency. This restructuring coincides with the rebranding I am doing.

Games from now on won't be published unless the Patreon member mention is added somewhere. I will also been setting a reminder to publish regular written progress reports (either monthly or bi-weekly, to be determined). These reports will be public and probably will be able to be posted on multiple platforms for your convenience. At the same time, the most recent early access versions of my games will be published if applicable. Game jam games or short projects (under 2 weeks) won't get early access versions.

To that point, I want to do more long term projects. Heavy trucking was the only project I spent more than a month on and I think it would be a good idea for me to do more of them. This type of project would be what I would be releasing early access to. I have a couple ideas for larger projects I want to make. That is part of the reason why I am making these changes. Whatever I do end up making, I want to make sure that this is sustainable for long term commitments. 

You may have also noticed the new logo and redesigned website, this is part of the rebrand I mentioned earlier. I really want to make this year the year I do big things. I want to make this dumb hobby project mine into a brand that can be recognized for it's quality, consistency, and commitment to transparency.

So, with all that out of the way, let me get into what I'm actually doing.

Yesterday, I published The Pig Pen, a small, minimalist arcade action game. This game is a landmark for, among other things (First to fulfill the commitment of patreon thanks, first to have the new logo. first game I've made to have an online leaderboard, First godot 4 game, ect.), being submitted to the first ever game jam I have hosted. The jam was called One Last Game 2023 and it took place between the 29th of December to the 1st of January. This game jam was not only a success, it completely blew expectations out of the water. With over 100 people joining and over 30 entries.

As for my other projects, Scaling Up Industries was a ton of fun to make, gained me a bunch of experience with working in teams, and I believe we made a really quality game considering the time restraints. Parking Ticket Mayhem exploded in popularity right after it's launch, it is now sitting at ~8,700 views on itch.io and another 8,100 views on newgrounds.

Heavy Trucking has made $304.69 (USD) to date, most (about $208.59) of which coming in the first few weeks. It has also gone on sale during itch.io's offical halloween sale and winter sale (which is still going on during the time of writing), making $46.60 and $24.50 (gross USD) respectively. Leaving $25 of copies that were sold for full price. Of this, ~7% goes to payment processors, ~10% has been chosen to go to itch.io, and then ~24% is taken by the tax man. Leaving ~$200 net. ~$40 went to getting me a new mouse after my dumb stupid razer mouse started double clicking and flaking out one me.

I am planning on making and maintaining a page on my website for statistics for people to look at so they can see how many videos, downloads, money, ect. my games make. Transparency is important to me because I believe withholding information only leads to speculation and conspiracy. Which is why (most of) my projects are on github.

Speaking of github, that is another thing I would like to talk about. All of my projects will be published publicly on github with two exceptions. One, if the game has online or proprietary software in it (such as The Pig Pen with it's online leaderboard or if I published a game on console, which i doubt will happen this year, that will probably not be allowed to be published). This is to ensure safety with these online services and so I don't get sued by Big Nintendo. Two, if a game contains NSFW (adults only) content. Github has a strict content policy and because of that games with NSFW content would be violating their policy if I were to publish them there. So, to solve that problem, I have made a git.gay account for if I want to do that.

Also, late last year I uploaded the source code for an unfinished project I was working on titled Cranky Raccoon for playdate. I had no plans on finishing it any time soon, so I thought it would be best to publish it on github and let people study it if they wanted to.

Alright, I've been rambling for a while now, so I will give a TL:DR and see you in the next progress report that will hopefully not be as lengthy as there won't be as much to catch up on.

TL:DR - Thank you for your support. Sorry for not doing the things I said I would. 2023 was a great year and I plan on making 2024 even better. More frequent updates are to come.

https://raccoonformality.com/stats

[sabrinahawthorne]

An Irregular Update

It occurred to me this week that of the soon to be seven games I've released in my life, five will have come out between February and October of this year. Looking back, that feels like a rather astonishing pace, and also explains why I've had so little creative inertia recently. That in mind, I wanted to give my followers an idea of what the end of the year is going to look like from me.

October 2023: In less than a week, I'm releasing Fantasy Heartbreaker, my love letter/parody of generic fantasy rpgs. I'm really excited about it, and I'll be promoting it for at least the rest of the month. Once that's out, I'll also be joining Binary Star Games' Minimalist TTRPG Jam. This will be a fun way to cool down from all of the work I've done this year, and I look forward to reading all the other entries.

November 2023: Hopefully, I'll have a surprise by this time. I haven't talked about it here, but I've been on a bit of an odyssey hunting something down, and I want to share my findings as soon as I can. I'll most likely also release my minimalist jam entry this month.

December 2023: You probably won't hear a lot from me this month. I'll have finished with my current active projects, and I'll be handling a myriad of personal-life responsibilities. I may schedule some promotion posts, but I really won't be active during this time.

I don't have a specific timeframe for getting active again. I don't just need to focus on my private life - I need to let myself recover from several months of unbroken creative work. I don't anticipate I'll be absent for more than a month or two, but I plan on resting for however long it takes to feel rested and refreshed. I want to be eager to return by the time I do.

I'll see you all in 2024. Have a good winter, and be good to one another.

[hummingbird-games]

Dev Diaries

October 1, 2023

My goodness, it's the first devlog post-Crushed release!! How did that happen???

And where the heck has 2023 gone?!?! 🙃

Okay, pausing--for like four seconds--on the sillies, I've got some updates for y'all, so have a seat and get comfy.

Crushed updated build is out!!!

Now with the rest of the partial voice acting!!!

It was a super fun experience with the VA and I giggled a lot to hear the words I wrote spoken into existence. I think the next project I work on with voice work will also be partial. However, I can't imagine doing a whole game with full voice work. I can feel the mental break down from that possibility making its descent....

The postmortem was longer than I anticipated it to be, so it shall be posted separately (and with a read more for your scrolling needs) sometime! I go into (more) details on my inspiration and the process from hesitant idea, to jam entry, to a full-blown game, and all the heartbreak and burnout and catharsis in between!

You can also search 'gamedev rambles' or 'crushed vn' where I've already blabbed about Development Tingz LOL.

2. The HBG Twitter account has been nuked.

Yeah. Apologies if this is how you're finding out about it. I honestly have no idea where my audience is located as y'all are a quiet (but supportive) bunch. But for me as a player, it hurts because many of my peers are only on or are most active on Twitter.

However, me and the bird app have been at odds for a while so I guess it was just a matter of time... 🥲

3. Game Jam Gemini Mode

Alright, time to get serious-serious. (HA!)

While I was Fighting The Good Fight concerning getting Crushed up before the summer ended, I started dropping hints about the next project I wanted to work on with Yuri Jam (and Once Upon A Time jam) coming up.

Well. After giving it some thought, forcing myself to pause long enough to breathe, catching up on personal reading and other things, and again, giving it more thought: nope.

I could ignore this decision which I hate and push on anyway, but the consequences are not ones I want to deal with, nor will I be physically able to handle. (Yes, this is a direct reference to my health lol).

My plan about this time was to start reaching out to people and create a team--given that I banged out a script at lighting speed just so I knew what roles I needed and was prepared. I'm still not sure where that burst of frenzied energy came from, but it's gone now.

And then in between making Crushed live and getting the first voiced update done, I started to feel really weird. Like "Hello, Anxiety My Old Friend" weird. And I kept berating myself for dragging my feet, especially as Yuri Jam (and OUAT) are so 'chill' and 'easy-going' and why was I still freaking out? What was wrong with me???

Anyway, once the last voiced update went live, it hit me how utterly exhausted I was. Still am(?) So it's insane to think I was somehow going to have enough energy to lead a whole ass team to create one more project before the year ends. Even if said project was under 5k words.

Even as I write this saying I'm done, a part of me keeping scheming up ways to make it work.

But I wouldn't be doing it for the right reasons anyway (i.e. feeling like I should participate in more jams because every other developer is and I'm a bad indie dev if I don't, and feeling this desperation to prove I can tell other kinds of stories. ahahahaha)

A L S O I am broke ���� And money talks louder than anything else!! This was the year--and continues to be the year-- of medical expenses and emergencies so like...gotta recover from that too.

The Knight Dance (my short Yuri idea) shall return, but next year at the earliest. And who knows? It might benefit from me not working on it now. Or that's what I'm telling myself so my brain will chill.

4. Tackling Ko-fi

I keep saying I'm going to start putting content on ko-fi, or posts, or something, and I keep proving to be a liar. That ends soon!

I've been playing around with the idea of adding both content for subs and one-time donators as well as free content, these things all exclusive to ko-fi. So there's an incentive to you guys to visit and an incentive for me to keep up with it.

There's a lot to the world of HSD/Crushed that just didn't make it into the games, and probably won't for a while, and then there are drabbles and longer stories that would be fun to write and share for anyone who's curious.

Okay!!!

In conclusion!!!

Go play Crushed!! Go support some game Kickstarters!! Go support a Pateron/Ko-fi of your fave creator!! Go replay some games!!

And watch this space for the Crushed postmortem and my yearly games & demos wrap up!!

And maaaaaaaybe catch me on the sideblog where I embody the cringe gamer girl I truly am???

~ Gemini

[phantasmvt]

Likelihood of Past Characters Returning in Guilty Gear Strive

I'm hyped about the new Guilty Gear Strive character announcement and hyperfixated on characters who might be returning from previous entries, so I decided to make this post detailing my thoughts on who I think might be coming back and why.

Most of my reasonings are based on the results of the Requested Character surveys from the first and eleventh Developer's Backyards. I want to stress that POPULARITY ISN'T EVERYTHING AND IS LIKELY NOT THE SOLE REASON WHY CHARACTERS WOULD BE ADDED TO THE GAME. Despite this, I do think these surveys play at least some part in determining who gets in.

Most likely coming back These are the characters that generally placed very high in the popularity polls. Johnny's just too popular to not bring back. A Guilty Gear game without Johnny is like a Street Fighter game without Akuma, and he scored very high in both the first survey (where he was second in literally every single region) and the second (where he was top 3 in every region except Japan). Likewise, Dizzy is also ultra popular. In the first survey, the only female characters that ever placed higher than her were Baiken, Bridget and Ramlethal. If she doesn't come this pass, she's almost certainly coming back next pass. She was in the top 3 most requested characters for every region in the first survey , and while she did fall a bit in popularity in the second, she's still in the top 10 for each region.

Slayer's admittedly in a weird spot. It's been about a year since voice lines for him were datamined. He's also extremely popular among westerners, as in the second Backyard Survey, he's in the top 3 most requested characters for North America, South America, and Europe. He's made the top 10 in every region in both Developer Backyard surveys as well. My only question is: what's taking so long? Again, it's been like, a year since the original datamine. Did they just decide to put working on him off? Maybe they couldn't figure out how to get him to work in Strive? Maybe they put him off because of the datamine? They wouldn't have been able to do the same with Baiken, whose voice lines were found in the same datamine, because she had a huge role to play in Another Story. Who can say really, I'm just speculating here.

Likely coming back Jam's pretty popular, but I can't see them bringing her back before the other previously mentioned characters. Still, I feel like she's too popular not to be brought back eventually. She's in the top 10 in every region in both Developer's Backyards, with her placements varying, but in the second one, she was generally on the lower end.

Elphelt's also decently popular, particularly in Asia. Her popularity went up quite a bit between the first and second surveys. However, as popular as she is, she's also pretty unpopular as well because of her reputation from Xrd. Plus, given how Happy Chaos, another gun wielding character, is simultaneously heavily used and also disliked, I feel like adding another gun focused character before they've adjusted him more would stroke the flames of the playerbase a bit. I could see her coming next pass, but not this one.

Probably not coming back Just about every character in this tier did not place at all in either character request surveys, with basically one exception. Bedman, Raven, Answer, Zappa, Robo Ky, Justice, Kliff, and Leopaldon all did not place in either survey.

Bedman's body is no more, though his soul still resides in his bedframe. I do think that eventually, Delilah might get added, and that she'd pilot Bedman's bedframe and would have a moveset that would share some of his moves from Xrd, but that's the extent that I see Bedman ever making it in.

Likewise, Kliff and Justice are also dead. Justice's body was huge last time we saw it, and it's vanished, though I could see her body coming back in some convoluted story. I have no idea if it's true or not, but honestly, the only reason why I feel like Kliff and Justice ever appeared in subsequent entries after Missing Link was because all they really needed to do was touch up their sprites and balance them. That's likely why they didn't come back in Xrd, and why I don't think they'll be back in Strive. They were likely just fun extra characters that the devs likely didn't put an enormous amount of effort into when developing them, but I want to stress that I am purely speculating here.

I think there's a vocal minority that really want Robo Ky back, but I don't see most people being too happy to pay for him. Plus, he didn't place in either survey. If ArcSys added him in the game for free, like Pirahna Plant in Smash Bros, I think that'd be cool but I don't see that happening. Plus, as of the epilogue for Strive's story mode, he's still just a flying head. If Venom were added, I could see him being a part of his moveset, floating around and dispensing Venom's balls or something. Also, I know a lotta people joke about Leopaldon but. Come on.

That leaves Kum. Kum's only ever been in the top 10 once, and it was in Korea during the 2nd Survey (which makes sense, as she is Korean). She only got 6th though, so it's hard to say how much that would influence the likelihood of her return.

Idk lol Back when the game launched, Venom was explicitly mentioned by Daisuke Ishiwatari and Akira Katano in an interview with Famitsu magazine. They stated “Not including Venom on launch was a decision that required bravery." The thing is, Venom is not a particularly heavily requested character. He only placed in the either of the backyards ONCE, and he was only the 10th most popular character in North America. So, it's really hard to say if they'll bring him back since he's not nearly as popular in comparison to many other characters.

Between the first and second surveys, A.B.A. became pretty popular. She didn't place at all in the first survey, but then she placed surprisingly high in Western regions during the second. I suspect +R getting Rollback and a lot more people experiencing A.B.A for the first time had something to do with that, and honestly, considering we got Testament and Bridget as surprise additions from XX, I can honestly see her returning and I think she'd be right at home in Strive, but I don't think she'd get in before the characters in the likely tiers.

Now, Order Sol is weird. He's surprisingly popular, getting as high as the 5th most wanted character in Japan during the first survey, and then the 8th most popular character in Japan and Korea, as well as the 10th most popular character in South America during the second survey. I honestly can't really see him being added to a season pass, I feel like ArcSys would rather focus their resources adding more unique characters in, but honestly? If the people want him, let them have him. It's not like other fighting games have never added different versions of pre-existing characters as DLC before.

That's all! I mainly just did this for fun. I didn't research this extensively, and I'm mainly just typing out my thoughts so that I can stop hyper fixating on Guilty Gear and go to bed soon. Please don't take this super seriously, and I hope your most wanted character gets in! (Unless it's Elphelt... /j)

[gooeyotter]

nova (7/27/2024)

Hello again, fellow earthling.

As promised, this is part two of my cosmic ramblings. If you’re expecting a deep dive into existential ponderings, you might want to skip this one, because this is all about me—unfiltered and raw. If it feels like oversharing, well… that's kinda the point.

Before you get to know anything else about me—even my name—the most crucial thing to grasp is that I’m not exactly a beacon of moral perfection. I wouldn’t call myself outright “bad,” but I’m definitely as flawed as any other. In essence, I’m just as human as the next stardust-covered soul.

So, here’s the rundown: I go by Nova. Yes, it’s a name I picked for myself, inspired by the explosive grandeur of a supernova, yet ironically, this stage of my life feels quite mundane—hence the name of my blog. As of this July 27th, 2024, I’m 25 years old, autistic, a college dropout, and non-binary (they/them pronouns). I also identify as non-monogamous and pansexual.

I was born to two dedicated U.S. Army folks in Heidelberg, Germany, but grew up in Buford, Georgia. In late 2019, I relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to be with my boyfriend, whom I met in the furry community. We've been together for seven and a half years, and it’s been a whirlwind of love and growth.

Speaking of the furry community, I have been in the community since 2011 when I was in middle school. The community means a lot to me and I consider being a furry as a very important part of my identity. My fursona is a sea otter, as they are my favorite animal.

I’m also a staunch animal rights activist and environmentalist. I’m vegan, which means no animal products in my diet or wardrobe, and I’m passionate about protecting the Earth. (Okay, maybe I’m being a touch pretentious here, but I genuinely think humanity has a knack for messing up the planet's beauty.) I’m non-religious, so I don’t believe in an afterlife.

When it comes to politics, I’ve got plenty to say, but I’ll save the deep dives for later entries. For now, I’ll just say that, while political labels can be limiting to conversations, especially here in America, the best fit for me is leftist/socialist.

Music is my lifeline. It often feels like the only thing keeping me grounded. Expect a lot of blog entries about music, because I have a lot to say about artists, genres, and the magic of music itself. My current favorites include pop punk, punk rock, hyperpop, and… some viby electronica (I’m not quite sure what to call it). Artists like Linkin Park, Jane Remover, Abandoned Pools, Owl City, and Goldfinger are close to my heart.

Video games? Ah, now that’s a mixed bag. I used to be obsessed with them as a kid and teenager, but lately, I’ve drifted away, finding it hard to recapture the old thrill of getting immersed in a different world. I do still love playing locally with my boyfriend, especially Super Smash Bros Ultimate and Puyo Puyo Tetris. However, solo gaming often leaves me with a peculiar emptiness I’d love to unpack in a future post. Despite that, RPGs are my jam. Some of my favorites include Xenoblade Chronicles X, Final Fantasy 7, The World Ends With You, Persona 4, and Pokemon Black and White/Black and White 2. I could talk for ages about Pokemon and what it means to me, but I seriously need to wrap this up for now, so stay tuned for that.

Woof, didn’t mean for this to be the length of one of my fanfictions. But now you know a bit more about me and why I tick the way I do. This post might come in handy if you’re trying to make sense of my future entries.

Thanks for hanging out. Stop by again soon.

♡ Nova