#game dev retrospective

[nt-studios]

Jam is over... so, now what?

Welp, the eighth Strawberry Jam has officially come to an end. Because of this, I wanna take a brief moment to share what I've learned the past month-and-a-half and my future plans up to this point...

As you may recall from my previous post, I made the choice to pause production on my current project to enter in this year's jam. I did this because I thought it'd be the perfect opportunity for me to take a small break from working on the same game I've been putting all of my attention towards for the past year now, and instead explore newer ideas that I've been wanting to tap into for a while.

I knew ahead of time that with a full-time job outside of game dev, this was gonna be a struggle. I would have to find the right amount of wiggle room within my busy day-to-day schedule to work on a fresh project under a tight deadline. And welp... the results kinda spoke for themselves. I ended up with an untested, unstable, nearly unplayable game by the time submissions closed. No matter how many bug fixes I tried to make postmortem, the game's concept just didn't work.

I'm gonna be completely frank here... this made me really upset the last couple of weeks. It completely shattered my confidence as a game dev and I nearly scrubbed my submission from the judging panel because I wasn't happy with what I made. But ultimately, I had to remind myself of just how much time and effort I put into this thing already. It would just make me feel worse thinking I did all this work for nothing.

All in all, though, this experience has made me understand my limitations a bit more. I felt trapped in my current project, like Mornin' Firebreather was the only thing I was meant to work on and nothing else. I was starting to feel a bit fatigued, so I used this opportunity as an excuse to break out of this cycle I've created for myself. But now I know that relying on a timed game jam to scratch this itch I've been having wasn't the right approach.

So now, what does this mean for the future of my game dev journey? The jam is over, so what're the next steps from here? Well... now I have a second project under my belt. Despite its flaws, the story is still something I'm quite proud of and honestly one I can't discard just because the game itself is crap. Therefore, I'm gonna be taking additional time to do some serious maintenance on The Makeup Exam (*without* a time constraint). I'll keep the original jam version up until maybe the end of this coming weekend, but then I'll remove it from itch and eventually do a re-release with an actual, playable product.

With that being said, I'm also gonna turn this Tumblr blog into a general game dev one, where I'll be posting devlogs and updates for ALL of my games instead of just Mornin' Firebreather. Now, this doesn't mean that I'm quitting production on Mornin' Firebreather. I still have big plans for that game that I haven't forgotten about 😜

But yea... that's pretty much it. I know this update was a little longer than usual, just had a lot going through my mind as of late.

[manonamora-if]

Retrospective 2024 (4)

Last one!

As teased in the infographic, My resolution this year stays unchanged from last year's:

Get things off my desk and shelf it for good.

I want to continue completing and fixing older projects, so I can shelf it for good (like I did Goncharov Escapes! this year, and DOL-OS). But, since I added a bunch of title on my itch page, there are a few more to the pile compared to last year that needs fixing (or finishing) - at least DOL-OS is done :D The goal: Harcourt (MelS want to finish it, but it's still him dependent), The Roads not Taken (I dropped the ball on that one at the end of last year), An Eggcellent Preparation (samesies), and Exquisite Cadaver or P-Rix - Space Trucker.

I won't even try to promise I won't make new games (large or tiny), because last year made it obvious there is no stopping me. I planned last year to participate in a few comps... and ended up doing two dozens. So... At least, I won't participate in the big comps (IFComp/SpringThing) because the ideas I have for them need at least another year to make it happen... I do want to try to make it to one parser-focused comp again (either TALJ or ParserComp) and try out Moiki or DonjonFI. I'm only 7-9 games away to have 1 title/year alive...

Below the cut has more detailed expectations for some titles. Like last year, no real timeline on what will be done when - this year has shown me that life likes to throw stones at schedules... Announcements will also be whenever, because I make things on a whim :P I will try to have a better announcement schedule for updates however.

Oh! one more resolution: continue to do word crimes ~ obviously!

The trials and Tribulations of Edward Harcourt

While I've been working on the final edits of Chapter 5, MelS promised to be hard at work on Chapter 6 this following semester, which is the final chapter. From mid-January onward, he should have a clearer schedule IRL to set himself some time to write.

We hope to be done with the edits and coding of Ch6 this year.

When Ch6 is cleared, we will do one final sweep at the earlier chapters to ensure the writing style is consistent, rebalance variables and puzzles, as well as making it compatible with as many screens as possible (especially for maps). Solutions for puzzles (mazes and such) will get a special log on itch too.

La Petite Mort

The game is "technically" complete already, but I spotted a few typos here and there that could be taken out, one theme is eh... really not as pretty as I had wanted it (the "PJ theme"), and I've been wondering if I could add a few more rooms or interactions (with the animals especially).

I'm aiming for a March-April update. Though it should have been done last November already...

The Roads not Taken

I've mentioned my plan for this project the past few months (before I got distracted with other projects), which is to fix the parser mechanic (to follow a bit more the conventions and fix the frictions of the game), include the missing content from the SpringThing version (Codex and Endings), and potentially have a hypertext version (links to click) for accessibility.

I would like to be done with this before summer at the latest - by March at the earliest.

Entre-d'oeufs coquilles - An Eggscellent Preparation

A bug or two needs fixing in this game (the AEP version) - how the box is used/eggs are handled -> for the ending - as well as a bunch of typos (a small re-write may be needed).

As AEP is the most recent version, with more content, I will need to translate the updated/fixed version back to French (EdOC).

I would also like to include more pixel art for each "room". I do not know yet I would manage that, but we will see!

I think there isn't much to fix that an update before the summer could be doable.

Exquisite Cadaver

That ball-n-chain project that's been dragged around for the past year, poor game... At least, I've given up on a French version.

The same amount of rounds is missing from the playable version (21), with no real progress made last year. All rounds are at least drafted in some fashion, though not all the endings are.

A sane planning for this would be to do an update every 3-4 rounds until the game is complete. I will try to achieve this.

If I could reach the half-way mark by the summer and complete the game by the end of the year, this would be great!

P-Rix - Space Trucker

This game can't stay in this current state! I have a rough draft of the mechanic and enough bits of writing to make a coherent update with some touch-up. I know how to end the game (the "good" ending), with even an option for further "storylines" after that first delivery is complete. I even have the "stops" on planets or ships all clear in my head (RNG babyyy).

I will probably focus on this project in the second half of 2024.

Crimson Rose & White Lily

With the hiatus getting closer to a two-year one... an update is long overdue. I may break an update in multiple ones:

fixing the main story code

adding Scene 5 (needs to be written properly)

adding Scene 2 variation

fixing the Codex

including Bonus content (may be a separate "game")

I would like to have the first point done in the first half of the year, and the second... well in the second half. If the Muse is in my corner it might happen sooner, but she hasn't been here all last year, so who knows at this point...

I miss writing Razac y'all...

SugarCube Templates

Even if I've done all the "coding" templates I had wanted to do for a while, I have a handful more visual templates in my drafts (different shapes!).

Having tried all "main" Twine formats, I've been itching at making templates for Harlowe and Chapbook. Either doing a Harlowe/Chapbook version of the template already done, or just making completely new one.

Expect some to be added to itch (when I get bored/frustrated with my projects).

Other projects

If there is time/energy left in me, I would like to take a crack at:

Finishing The Dinner, with all the remaining courses and the planned final choice. Also styling it in Harlowe properly.

Finishing the OG planned story for In the Blink of an Eye, which was supposed to last "a week" in the story (instead of 2 days) and have more consequences/endings.

Finishing The Rye in the Dark City, which is missing 2 acts: the interrogation of the different peeps and the "closing" the case. A bit of re-write in the first act might be needed.

Finishing Don't Press the Button (not really IF). I want to make it work in both keyboard and mouse... If I can manage it, then it's just a matter of moving the element around the page, changing colour, and randomise whether to click or not. JavaScript/jQuery is required however ;-;

Fixing The Thick Table Tavern: first the bar (group bottles, add new ones + new recipes), then the Arcade Mode (there's a bug I've been meaning to fix for one mode + add difficulty), then the Story Mode (essentially do a re-haul + add more storylets + the main client(s) of the run).

Remastering SPS Iron Hammer - a.k.a. re-writing it, adding the whole escape mechanic, re-coding the whole thing...

I don't think I would be able to do ALL of this - with the amount of time/effort some of these projects would required, it would probably be impossible by myself. And I should probably focus on CRWL instead if I have time/effort left 😂

Other... other

I'm going to continue organising small comps and jams this year, both with @seedcomp-if (which will run all year now - 8 months of Planting, 3 months of Sprouting, 1 month of voting), and @neointeractives (8-10 jams/year).

I will probably participate in a handful of the jams I've either organised, or small program-focused jams (like with ink/bitsy), but avoid the "big" ones this year (even if the SpringThing was fun!). There are also a handful of other jams I've had my eyes on, so we will see if I can manage... Expect more short silliness on this side.

A thing I will continue doing will be playing IF games still. I have 15 games left in the IFComp (with one being an absolute beast) and want to take a crack at old comp entries (IFComp, SpringThing, and the others), especially the French ones. Reviewing takes a while, but it's a good practice to think about the positives and negative of games - and take these lessons for my own projects. Expect more at @manonamora-if-reviews (or on the IFDB).

Aaaaannnnd that's it!

That's more than enough to keep me entertained for this year. ... which may potentially be the last one in a while where I will have any free time. I am certain of one thing for next year (2025): there will be a lot of change happening IRL, which will for sure mean less time to do any fun thing (not just making IF). Probably long periods of time where I will be completely offline too. This year might be the last where I have a consistent presence online. I really want to make the most of it!

[wymgreenteam]

going dark see you in october

[cherishfan0320]

Thank you for 500+ downloads! You can get your free copy here on itch!

[zoya-nazyalenskys]

not to still harp on datv but in retrospect it's so funny how pre release the devs were saying how they didn't want to include importing worldstates cause they didn't want to have meaningless cameos only for datv to turn out to be meaningless cameos: the game

[blacktabbygames]

hey there! Pardon my ignorance. Is it the dev log for future games or for Slay The Princess in particular? Excited either way!

slay the princess retrospective! and we've got one in the works for scarlet hollow too :)

[thatskynews]

A letter from a dev!

Good timezones Sky kids!

We have an update on the status of the server issues that have been plaguing you all for the better part of three days.

Firstly, we want to assure you that your game progress, purchases, and other account data are safe despite what appears to veteran players as being "returned to moth status." We have identified a problem with a new feature which puts added pressure on multiple backend services, including a very important database.

Second, in the course of testing potential fixes we found some behavior in the database itself which warrants working directly with a partner who is actively assisting us in resolving that particular issue as soon as possible.

After we resolve these server issues, our teams will hold a retrospective to examine the factors that led to this situation, and we'll share a summary of that retrospective with the community.

We will continue to update the community at least every 24 hours until this issue is resolved. Thank you again for your patience in the meantime—it means a lot to us!

[correlatedcontents]

the uncle who works for nintendo: ten years on

10 years ago today i released a game called THE UNCLE WHO WORKS FOR NINTENDO. with art by Kim Parker, multiple endings, a metafictional structure, and extensive sound design, it was (and remains) my most ambitious completed solo dev project. initially conceived as the gamergate harassment movement sprawled over social media, and coinciding with the attacks on residents of ferguson, mo following the police killing of michael brown, it's often seemed in retrospect that this was a moment where the loathsome present really crystallized

for my part, the response to the game was beyond all expectation; kotaku linked it and totally obliterated my webhosting, incurring a huge overage charge. i was a poor grad student and people helped crowdfund the cost. that was amazing, but the whole thing kind of scared me, honestly!

that's mainly why my projects from this point scaled back, then ended as i turned my mind toward finishing grad school: i didn't have the time or resources to technically expand in the ways that i wanted, and furthermore i was leery of becoming a guy who was expected to make Statements.

the intervening years have been… well, they've been something. you were there, presumably. one of the people namechecked in the game's author notes, a target of harassment at the time, is now a noted unprincipled political hack, and i'm not talking about zizek. but remember quoting zizek?

the world turns. i recorded my first podcast because of this game. it got onto people's best of the year lists. paste called it "the indie game of the year." it won the xyzzy award for best npc.

and none of the stuff that distressed me so much that i made the game went anywhere.

there was a lot of talk in the early 2010s about the power of games to change people and make them better. and i think that's probably true--all encounters with art can change you, for better and worse--but i've long been skeptical of strong and positive claims for art's "efficacy."

i didn't think my game was going to solve any problems, but it was at least going to index them. and i think it indexed gamergate, though it did nothing to stop that ravening, juvenile nostalgia mindset from wholly subsuming the gamer cultural sphere, to say nothing of spheres beyond it

Liz Ryerson, another influence on UWWFN, recently wrote a long essay about just this.

but one thing the game's reception did show me is that there are in fact people who want to think, ant to interrogate the easy bindings between experience and unreflective thought, and find ways of thinking and feeling contrary to the ever-rising tide of culture's venom. the world is not settled.

the game cemented my friendship with Cameron Kunzelman, and the podcasting work we've since done for Ranged Touch has been (to my mind) more useful in this regard than any game i could make, modeling engagement with the weirdness of both art and the world critically and thoughtfully. and gaming is not kaput! i was fortunate to make connections within the twitter dev scene, and currently work at Half Mermaid on a project that will not make you a better person, but might offer ways for thinking about life in a turbulent world where our ugliness is sold back to us at a premium.

10 years is somehow both a short time and, it turns out, an incredibly long time. a lot happens, and it's never enough, and it's also way too much. and sometimes a decade on, even when you're a guy who doesn't want to make Statements you still feel like there's something worth remarking upon. thanks

[seiii-lnd]

Caleb Release

TW: Yapping

Since the game's release, Caleb's character has been a gold mine for arguments within the community and a testament of how cultural differences can cause you-know-what. But we won! And that's what matters... until his recent homecoming announcement yesterday.

Based from the latest PVs, I am worried about the devs doing a 180 degrees flip on his character. I personally do not sit well with the Myojin Aki vibe (you-know-what, don't ask), but I fw the part where's he's somehow Bucky/Vash the Stampede.

The trailer is good but I just hope they don't make him go full on yandere mode as people would definitely misunderstood his character. A little bit of red flags are okay, but I hope he will NOT pull off a Toma istg. He was introduced as the dependable easygoing gege, and I hope they kept that part of his character in his homecoming since that's one of the reasons why some players were pushing for him to be an LI last year.

His cards are top tier so far. It's really giving off that boy-next-door archetype so I can at least assume that we will still have the dependable gege from Chapter 4. The brown uniform he has on one of his 4-star cards is also giving Cillian Murphy from The Edge of Love.

For the lore, I think he's been secretly hiding his affection for MC since then. It was blatantly obvious from Chapter 4 (when they had an argument), his longing and concern were certainly genuine.

He's an anti-villain!

Caleb is at the other end of the Sylus stick (anti-hero). A Colonel is a high field-rank in the airforce, but there are still people above that rank. Following the military chain of command, it's most likely that he's working under a general's order or someone with high political power or influence which might explain the red flags in the teaser. It seems like Caleb has a military code of conduct to follow which may include a different treatment to trespassers (which MC may have done) or any opposition. Judging by how he can easily switch up between Colonel and Caleb in the trailers, it's possible that he's being controlled (not literally) by outside forces.

In retrospect, Sylus' release was also met with a huge hype about what seemed to be a "dark romance brat taming daddy" who's very possessive and into BDSM. But Sylus is not what most people expected him to be.

Overall, we were only given a glimpse of Caleb from the teasers right now. Currently, there is not enough material to further digest his character and making assumptions on his whole personality based on snippets is not really a pleasant idea.

[splatsvilles-fashionista]

Back in like May 2022 I wrote a post about how I was excited for Splatoon 3 because it was the first game in the series to not be held back by complications in its development (with Splatoon 1 being a brand new IP by a relatively inexperienced team on a failing console, and Splatoon 2 being very clearly rushed out for that console's successor) and in retrospect that is an extremely naive thing to say about a game releasing on the heels of a worldwide pandemic that ground entire sectors of the entertainment industry to a screeching halt. With Nintendo announcing that they'll announce their next console within the next half a year or so it seems pretty obvious, at least to me, that they wanted Splatoon 3 out much sooner than we got it, which the announcement of the Grand Festival (which HASN'T been confirmed to Splatoon 3's final Splatfest, but it has heavy Splatocalypse vibes), only compounded.

We'll get a Splatoon 4 sooner or later, likely on Nintendo's next console, and it'll likely have it's own troubles during development. Games are just too big and complicated for there to be no growing pains at all, but regardless I hope the devs get the time and resources they need to make it as complete a package as they can.

And in the meantime I think the Splatoon 3 we got is pretty darn good all things considered!

[dreadfullyinquisitive]

So I finished the game a bit ago, and I have been mulling over my feelings. While I'm not adding anything new, I do think it's useful for me to purge these emotions. It's been a month since it's release, so here we go:

I have incredibly mixed feelings about The Veilguard. While I genuinely had a good time for the most part and I've never cried because of a video game before. There were great improvements in some areas, but I ultimately feel like there were so many missed opportunities, rushed aspects, and bizarre choices.

I think some of this comes down to the Fandom had 10 years of waiting, theorizing, dreaming, headcanons, and expectations while the actual devs had 10 years of development hell, layoffs, and EA meddling.

When all that was coming out I was concerned, to say the least, and was trying to temper my expectations. However, as we got closer, I engaged in fandom and more of the game was revealed, I became more optimistic. I can love a Dragon Age game with shitty graphics, boring combat, and funky gameplay because that's not what drew me to Dragon Age. I came for the world, its lore, its characters and its writing.

In that aspect, this game delivered so many things (just maybe not in the most ideal way) but also disappointed me greatly.

So perhaps some of my feeling are a result of not managing my expectations towards the end. Also, I haven't played the other games on launch/release. In retrospect, I don't know how much affects my feelings today. I always viewed the aspects I disliked from the other games "as they are" because I had no such expectations. Do I have a lot of issues with the other games? Obviously, Yes. Would I have been this critical and let down by Inquisition, my fav game, as well? I have no clue. Maybe after everything calms down and with time more people and I will enjoy it "as it is".

After all, seeing everyone compare Veilguard to the other DA games (and bg3 which isn't fair imo) some of what we criticized most became fun quirks that some people even miss. Some of the nitpicks (mine included) are so subjective that it's muddying the water of what actually makes a good, let alone, a great game.

All of this to say:

I'm glad this game exists. It came to me at a hard time in my life and it was a nice escape (just like the last one). I just wish it had been MORE.

[manonamora-if]

Retrospective 2023 (2)

See Part 1 for the Retrospective Infographic

2023 has been a rollercoaster of stuff, with some very high-highs, and some pretty low-lows. Things have been pretty busy this year, then got busier and weirder. I didn't manage to do things I wanted to do, ending up doing a lot of different things instead. This year was kinda the perfect storm to do all those new stuff and experimentation I've published.

It's been good, it's been bad, it's been ugly, and it's been cool. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Long post ahead - breaking here.

Goals for 2023

Last year, I made big-ass post about what I hoped to achieved during those next 12 months. The main one being: Get things off my desk and shelf it for good! The goal was to finish WIPs and remasters of "completed" projects.

And I... somewhat did that? But also... did whatever. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Taking the list of the "plan":

Goncharov Escapes! was: re-written, re-coded, and translated (to French). The new version also now includes music!

La Petite Mort was: re-written, added content, and translated (to English) for this year's Ectocomp. It just need one more or two things tho

The demo of P-Rix - Space Trucker is now playable on mobile! (and the template based on the game is out too)

The Trials and Tribulations of Edward Harcourt didn't get just one but TWO updates last year!

A bunch of templates! 5 to be exact: 3 focused more on visuals (Sci-Fi, VN, Title), and the other 2 more on code (Setting, Charac Creator).

So... what's extra? Well... a lot. Maybe too much...

A lot of new titles under my name: DOL-OS, The Rye in the Dark City (wip), The Roads not Taken, À la Campagne, Entre-d'oeuf coquilles/An Eggcellent Preparation, Collision, Intersigne, Clarence Street 14, The Dinner, In the Blink of an Eye, Tower of Sleep, and Dévoiement. From bite-size to full large game, that makes TWELVE new thing this year! I... may have gone a bit overboard with this...

Aside from the template, I've also worked on the SugarCube Guide, a guide that covers all markup, macros, functions, methods, and APIs of the SugarCube format. From the basics to the very advanced code ~ Which will receive another update when the 2.37 comes out for real.

After the @seedcomp-if, I continued to organised more IF events: Neo-Twiny Jam, Single Choice Jam, Orifice Jam, Bring Out Your Ghost, Bare-Bones Jam, ShuffleComp... and helped out other events (the IFComp, y'all!).

I've been a tad less active on the Tumblr front lately, mainly because I've hung out more on the Forum or the @neointeractives Discord. But I've been plenty active reviewing games, especially since last May (@manonamora-if-reviews). The count is over 300 now...

I made a zine?????

So yeah... A LOT this year. (and there would have been more had I not gotten sick...)

2023 Achievements and Milestones

There were probably a bunch of itch/analytics milestones this year, but... I've tried to stay away from numbers as much as I could, because I realised it was a source of anxiety. I want to make games for fun, not worry that I haven't achieved a certain play level by a certain date. So I've even edited my itch's dashboard to hide it all. (I'm still updating the analytics sheet once in a while tho) And anyway... nothing will ever be as popular as CRWL, even when I'm trying to push other - and much better imo - games down everyone's throats.

Some other stats on itch:

22 [total] games on itch (incl. the experiments & demos) we're getting closer to my goal of 1 game/birthdays

9 free-to-use prompts

7 free-to-use templates

3 coding guides

1 zine

I also participated in 22 different jams and comps, almost always using one game for multiple jams at once (I'm crazy, but not that crazy). I ranked pretty high on multiple jams, which I am really happy about, and got some amazing reviews and lovely comments. A bunch of my games from 2022 were nominated for the IFDB Awards (and two were mentioned in the Top50 IF too)! (maybe next time I'll get a spot too !)

But the major thing coming out of it all was winning a big competition too, with DOL-OS at the start of the year. Holy shit, did that make my year. I really wasn't expecting it because so many of the games that year were incredible! This was such a confidence booster! I think that's my biggest achievement this year. (I just finished the puzzle I won too, and that was loads of fun) I am so so so proud of that game, especially after releasing the remaster.

Some non-numerical achievements I'm happy about:

I continued experimenting this year, with non-linear stories (DOL-OS), shorter and more kinetic content (Neo-Interactive jam entries), and... well... a thing. The experimentation included trying out other programs to make game too!

Speaking of the thing... I've made a monster of a Twine, creating a bad (oh so bad in convention) parser... which I still haven't finished fixing. I talked at length about here.

I've made an actual proper parser game, following the conventions of the medium... and enjoyed it a lot. From creating puzzles to solving the puzzle that was coding it. It didn't rank super high, but it got some good reactions! Making a parser strangely helped me playing them, and appreciate them more.

Has it been a lot of stuff? Yeah... it feels a bit like a lot...

Some 2023 personal things

Like last year, I've continued to struggle with feeling like I was not doing enough during the year (or the month, before doing the monthly dev logs). Not enough words written or progress made. It was a pervasive thing last year, and I've been working on myself to feel less so, especially with all I've been doing anyway this year. But it's still there.

I think I recently found one of the reasons I've been feeling this way: not working on or finishing the WIPs I started with back in 2021 and in 2022, not making substantial progress that would warrant an update... It's been especially hard when seeing other authors churn out updates left and right and I have little to nothing to show for. Maybe that's why I've been compensating with all the new little projects and jam entries throughout the year (and half-way through 2022). I mean... there hasn't been a month where I didn't publish something new, whether it was an update, or a new game, or a template/guide, or brought out a whole-ass remaster of a game.

And by working on those other little things, I think I found myself in some sort of cycle, where the time spent on those new things is not spent on the WIPs, and I start feeling bad about it. But when I open the file, with all that pressure I put myself, nothing gets written or fixed. So I distract myself with a different thing... and I end up not making any progress on the WIP. It sucks, because I want to see those WIPs done. I want to finish those stories. But it's been hard. Who'd have thunk it??? I'm a stupid human being after all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I know breaking that cycle will happen... when I work on those darn WIPs. I just need to push myself to get there... But I also want to enjoy what I am writing too, because the quality of the writing really sucks when I force it... So silliness has been happening in the meantime.

Will it continue like this? In the near future, most likely. Hopefully not to the extend of the past year and a half. At best, I'd want to have 1-2 updates on a bit WIP, 1-2 new medium-sized games, and a handful small silly experiments, during a year.

Not that I owe anyone an explanation, but anons being nasty about the whole no-progress thing - essentially why @crimsonroseandwhitelily was offline for a whole while, or why I haven't answered many questions lately.

Also gonna take this moment to not address the very personal stuff that happened IRL, even with the very insisting messages I got. I was tempted to go on a whole tangent about what's been going on, but I'm a bit paranoid about my privacy on the internet (and with the anons wilding lately, I've become more careful), and I don't really want IRL to flood this space either (more than it has anyway - considered leaving a few times tbh). I like this specific corner to not be about IRL, to have it as an escape and spend some time just not having to think about it. So yea... you can ask all you want, I'm not going to answer. But it's been a time... I'm coping by being here damnit. Maybe you'll get an(other) autobio game about it one day xD

Here's to a more peaceful state of mind (and inbox) next year...

2023 is OVER officially

And what a fucking year this was. It's made me even more excited to see what 2024 has in store for me.

I want to learn more, for sure. I think I reached a bit of a plateau with SugarCube, where the only thing I feel I haven't tried yet is some sort of RPG adventure/combat system. Or diving further in JavaScript/jQuery (it's inevitable...). Or have less of a spaghetti code... Though it didn't really start as a conscious effort, I'm glad I tried different IF programs and Twine formats this year. It helped me think more about IF game structure and coding. It really pushed me to grow and appreciate the variety there is in IF outside of Tumblr. It did reinforce my love for Twine, especially SugarCube xD

I know I've complained about having done a lot but also not feeling I did enough, but strangely this year has also been pretty fulfilling. Having achieved things I didn't think I could, mess around and create unmentionable bits of code that should not have seen the light of day, learned how to handle new formats, met and talked with a bunch of cool and knowledgeable IF peeps, and just tried to do some good for the community.

I would love to be as fulfilled in this new year too!

I was shocked with all the good things I got in 2022, but I didn't imagine it would be even better this year. How much I got out of this year. How much I got done. How much I learned. How much I grew as a person and a creator. I'm glad I stuck around another year.

I'm really lucky I was able to have the year I had, to be surrounded by such lovely people, to get such positive return on stuff, to be in this community, to have the friends I have, to still be here.

So, thanks for sticking around too, and partake in my silliness :)

[dreamtydraw]

Hi dreamty can you elaborate on why you think error143 can't be on the list if you don't mind ? I'm quite curious about it

Hi there ! Let me start by saying that this fall under the cattegory of « drama » but i’m not making this post to try to revive it or tell anyone to go hate on the dev, I will simply answer with why I don’t want error 143 to be a reference for people when thinking about games with a black lead.

I also want to point out that a lot of what i’ll be saying has happened on twitter which i’m not on so some element might not be 100% correct and I am more welcomed to edit them if it’s false.

Starting with : One of the games morales is basically saying that putting boundaries is bad which is a weird message to send. ( This is not condemned at all in the narrative btw) You get a bad ending for simply saying you don’t like the fact Micah jokes about stalking you where in retrospect it’s very normal to not want to be stalked- ( the game isn’t cattegorize as yandere and is presented a healthy relationship)

I heard i got somehow « fixed » but for the longest time ( almost 2 years ) Micah’s hair texture wasn’t actually decided and the creator had little care about it which is more than weird considering the fact he was supposed to have textured hair but they were all mixed together.

The creator made multiple romanticization of a racist trope regarding micah’s dad ( the racist trope being that all the black fathers are absent / abusive / violent with a submissive wife )

Nsfw dlc was made that almost everyone agreed on to be a scam for the price and after the release of said dlc the influx on nsfw content started to be too much to the point it became impossible to not get shoved this type of subtexted in your face. Micah being super sexualized and one can say it’s just regular fanservice but there was undertones of him getting such treatment because he’s black.

Additionaly Micah’s va has worken on a shotacon game.

tw for emotional chantage with Suicide.

On their latest game ( get on live ) the dev used shock content suicide to make people rate her game. It was of extremely bad taste and she milked the hell out of it. Mind you when it got released the game didn’t had the trigger warning regarding suicide anywhere and she encouraged people to go make multiple itch account just to have more ratings. Her goal was to force people to give her ratings so she would « give the character a good ending » making some vile manipulating comment to make people feel bad about a fictional’s character suicide.

After that she posted this :

I don’t think i need to explain but asking people to draw one of the only black main romanceable character from a feel good game DEAD to try to capitalize again on suicide and shock content is wrong. Call me soft if you’ll wish but Error 143 was already well known in otome fandoms and a lot of people liked the games because it was cute, bringing sudden death content to your player « aha for fun » is wrong, she was not a random dev at this point so obviously what she post will have influence on her followers and most of them were there because of a feel good romance who finally had black representation.

This is why I don’t want to add Error 143 to my list of game reference with black characters. The game is already well known as it is and I don’t want to be promoting something that was made by someone with this kind of intentions + it’s not a good representation if the character is constantly being sexualized because of his ethnicity. Micah isn’t a black character who was created with care about him being black, his blackness is used as a marketing tool to grasp people’s interest and it took having to clean up her image to have the dev finally choosing a hair texture for him-

Play games where black characters are created with genuine care for representation / aren’t constantly sexualized. And also try to support black devs !

[fandomflashback]

Some Silly MyCookie thoughts

Okay, so I've been thinking about this for a little while, and I'm curious; what did y'all name your cookies? I wasn't really sure what to name my cookie, so I named them Sugar Cookie. Which, in retrospect, feels really bland?

BUT. A funny idea came from this:

Sugar Cookie was supposed to be a placeholder name. So the idea was, what if we, the players, got sucked into CRK and were given the name Sugar Cookie. Now, we're stuck in CRK, confused as crap, and we keep trying to explain things to the other cookies, and just. We can't.

Not for the fact that 'oh btw your entire world is actually just a game lmao sorry for the existential crisis'. No. Nono. It's because Cream Ferret cookie is monitoring our interactions with the other cookies, and drags us away every time we try to tell them that we're not a cookie, simply just stuck in a cookie body.

If tumblr screws up the quality:

Dark Choco Cookie: Oh, hey Sugar Cookie. What's up-

Sugar Cookie: I'm stuck in the game. I can't get the dev's attention. HELP-

*Dark Choco Cookie is surprised. Meanwhile in the distance, Cream Ferret Cookie is wondering where Sugar Cookie went, but spots them.*

*Comic ends with Cream Ferret Cookie dragging Sugar Cookie away*

So yeah if you couldn't tell this idea hit me at the late hours of the night-

[pallisia]

im always intrigued by what other solo game devs/small teams choose to share about their projects before they are released, especially w/ how easy social media makes it. some people will choose to post just about every new thing added, even spoiling key plot details, while others will keep everything a total secret, sometimes at the expense of garnering interest. i feel like with my projects, i gravitate towards secrecy to a pretty big fault. so i was curious -- do you have any sorta "philosophy" you follow when it comes to what details about soulsov you will or will not share publicly? and do you ever find it especially difficult to keep certain things secret?

i was pretty secretive about the details of soulsov at first. i wasn't even going to post that flower language comic because i thought it would be "giving away too much." my stance has softened over the past few months, largely thanks to everyone's genuine interest and excitement. (thank you!)

i was especially protective of spoilers when making cq. in retrospect, i don't think anyone's enjoyment was lessened by already knowing that the nightmare knight was nice, for example. that realization has informed my approach with soulsov lately.

the nature of loic's magic could be considered a "spoiler" because it's revealed in chapter 1. but does it detract from the experience to know going in? the audience will see him give someone a flower and go "hehe... 😏" doesn't that make it more fun? i mean, some of my friends who read the script already knew what was going to happen beat-for-beat and still freaked out. the experience is what matters most.

anyway, i guess this ties into my recent "get to the point" philosophy toward storytelling... i understand wanting to keep some secrets, but you can't be so afraid of "spoiling" what makes your story interesting that it doesn't catch people's interest. especially in the age of social media where people only have 30 milliseconds to give your post.

[giriduck]

I put off starting BotW for five years for various reasons, including many IRL hobbies, knowing that the game would suck me in and consume all of my free time as I played through it, and various concerns over the direction they took the world and lore.

In the end, I loved that game. I enjoyed that version of Hyrule and—because I had started playing it during pandemic lockdowns—I used it to replace various local adventures I had enjoyed in The Before Times. The open world and nonlinear aspects of BotW were exceedingly well done and an interesting change for the series.

Although I enjoyed both the present-day and fallen Champions and a glimpses into the life and times of The Saddest Zelda Yet, most of the characters of BotW did not resonate with me until I played Age of Calamity.

I loved that game. It is a ridiculous and lovely fix-it fic that paid attention to the details of the original and expanded on it in such a marvelous way. You could experience more of pre-Calamity Hyrule, spend more time with literally everyone (including some WILD surprises), and see a nice “what if” arc for Zelda herself. The game made me really like the older Champions, Sidon, Master Kohga, and I adored that take on Zelda.

With TotK, I feel none of the connection that I had the first two games. Hyrule is largely the same—except for the addition of caves—so the thrill of exploring is dampened. It’s like returning to your childhood city and discovering an odd blend of nostalgia and sadness when you see how parts of town had changed in vaguely unsettling ways.

The Depths—while really cool press-your-luck-in-the-darkness is interesting (it kind of feels like running to the BotW shrines in unfamiliar territory), it’s exhausting to explore. There is so much of it and it’s relatively empty of both interesting things to see and lore. Give me lore! Tell me more about what this place even was! What happened here?? Meanwhile, traversing the sky kind of stresses me out in a water temple kind of way, and so many of the islands are duplicates and simply repetitive.

While catching up with literally hundreds of NPCs in TotK was truly delightful (especially playing BotW rather recently beforehand and seeing how much genuine care they took with continuity), the TotK content on the characters we had spent the most time with in BotW and AoC was rather light, as were the new characters. It was difficult to emotionally attach to anyone and cheer for them. It felt weirdly retrospective, both in the ancient era and the present era. It felt like a game all about catching up with people and then doing a million little tasks for them.

And—as much as TotK is proclaimed by the dev team as a supposedly non-linear story, it’s not. Instead, it’s a linear story carved up and then scattered nonsensically onto a map, and—while it was an interesting experiment—it was a poor experience. They should have had a waypoint lead to the next in chronological order instead of pretending that it is a fully open world and therefore the order you unlocked the memories didn’t matter. While it was frustrating to people returning from BotW, I can only imagine that it must have been bewildering to new players.

All this is to say that AoC really made me appreciate the BotW era, and I really hope that Omega Force makes a TotK Hyrule Warriors, because I would love to see how they expand the otherwise sparse lore and help me learn to like these characters more.

Also playable TotK Ganondorf when.