#gaming backlog sample

[thejazzywaffles]

A sample of my gaming backlog

2064: Read-Only Memories A Highland Song Advance Wars 1+2: ReBoot Camp Aviary Attorney Backpack Hero Bad End Theater Bean and Nothingness Before Your Eyes Blacksad: Under the Skin Cat Notebook Cherry Kisses Chicken Police Chicory: A Colorful Tale Crypt of the NecroDancer Cult of the Lamb Curse of the Sea Rats Day of the Tentacle Death's Door Deus Ex Disc Creatures Duck Detective: The Secret Salami Dwarf Fortress Dynopunk Freedom Planet FTL Fuga: Melodies of Steel Hiveswap Hollow Knight Hush Hush: Only Your Love Can Save Them In Stars and Time Kirby and the Forgotten Land Lacuna Lil Gator Game Loom Makoto Wakaido's Case Files Trilogy DX Metroid Prime Remastered Mondealy Moss Niche Night in the Woods NORCO Omori Ori ATBF Outer Wilds PIVO: Pixel and Voxel Pseudoregalia Rain World Sam & Max Hit the Road Small Saga Sonic Superstars Spirit of the North Super Mario RPG Superhot Tails of Iron Tavern Talk The Cosmic Wheel of Sisterhood The Crimson Diamond The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind The Talos Principle The Walking Dead Them's Fightin' Herds Thistledown: A Tragedy of Blood Tomb Raider Tooth and Tail Tunic Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion Turok Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap

[bellshazes]

dreaming up a syllabus for an imaginary course on metanarratives about gameplay, which i think would go something like:

unit 1: who do you think you are i am - auto-documentary & games

Vlogs and the Hyperreal, Folding Ideas

The Slow Death of Let's Play Videos, Meraki (to ~10:00)

World Record Progression: Mike Tyson, Summoning Salt

ROBLOX_OOF.mp3, hbomberguy

Life as a Bokoblin: A Zelda Nature Documentary, Monster Maze

optional: Braindump on the History of Let's Plays, slowbeef

unit 2: what like it's hard? - intro to challenge narratives

Chapter 26: Games as Narrative Play: Two Structures for Narrative Play, Rules of Play

A different kind of challenge run: Minimalist 100% (BOTW), Wolf Link

Surviving 100 Days on Just Dirt, Mogswamp

Can You Beat DARK SOULS III with Only Firebombs, the Backlogs

Is it Possible to Beat Super Mario 3D World while permanently crouching?, Ceave Gaming

The Pacifist Challenge - Beating Hollow Knight Without Collecting Soul [CHALLENGE] - Sample

optional: How to 100% Snowpeak Ruins in under 15 minutes, bewildebeest

unit 3: nelly you don't understand, i AM the narrative - form and function

The Future of Writing about Games, Jacob Geller

Can You Beat GRIME Without Weapons?, the Backlogs

Mushroom Kingdom Championships, Ceave Gaming

My Life as a Barber in Hitman 2, MinMax (Leo Vader)

MyHouse.WAD - Inside Doom's Most Terrifying Mod, PowerPak

optional: Mega Microvideos, Matthewmatosis

the theme and structure is mostly intended to introduce at least one critical or historically contextual work followed by examples of the type of narrative in question.

in unit 1, this is the idea of "How do people talk about their own experiences in the context of YouTube and playing video games?" across three rather different kinds of documentaries. unit 2 is intended to take that lens of who is telling what tale and dial in on challenge running, where i first noticed the way some videos turn the story of overcoming a challenge into its own narrative that is distinct from but related to the narrative events of the game itself. unit 3 circles back to the bigger picture with a variety of examples that, to me, are maximally metanarrative, the emergent story of the player-narrator now functionally replacing the game's embedded narrative.

bonus unit: broken narratives

Glitch & the Grotesque at the MLA, Sylvia Korman

Watching time loop movies to escape my time loop, Leo Vader

The Stanley Parable, Dark Souls, and Intended Play, Folding Ideas

Breaking Madden, Jon Bois

The TRUTH about the Pizzaplex in FNAF: Security Breach, AstralSpiff

this one is highly underdeveloped, but i'd love to work out something more robust building on randomizer challenges that produce intentionally bizarre, semi-ironic "lore," and bois-esque endeavors to break games so hard the story itself crumbles. but that's really out of scope so i'm just including the links to things i couldn't bear to get rid of. more rambling abt the challenge runs I chose under the cut.

Challenge runs represent one of the most obvious places to start, due to being extremely plentiful and having a hook that makes a "here's how I did X thing in Y video game" format almost unavoidable. Minimalist 100% is an underrated and sweet straightforward example that I mostly include as a baseline for reporting-out style narrative; here are the facts, here's what happened, this is the thing that it is. Mogswamp's 100 Days on Just Dirt is similar in style, but the physical measuring of days is a delightful and, more importantly, external narrative device.

Now oriented, we get a taste of Ceave Gaming's narrative approach to Mario challenges with the no-crouching run, and while we still aren't at the degree of player-characters being constructed for the narrative's sake, the spirited belief in crouching sets the stage for other rhetoric in more extreme cases we'll see later.

The Backlogs' entire body of work qualifies here, but GRIME is the strongest inspiration for putting this list together. I include the DS3 firebombs run because what was initially a factual description of how his wife's use of firebombs inspired him to play differently in the original DS1 firebombs run has developed into full-blown multi-game narrative arc with the Firebomb Goddess (his wife, who also voices the character) compelling his in-game character to achieve his destined quest. Grime takes that even further,

In-Game Documentaries

I include Life as a Bokoblin mostly as a contrast to My Life as a Barber - there is a level of fictionalization and roleplay involved in the Zelda in-game documentary that highlights exactly what I want to single out when I am talking about metanarrative, the story about a story.

[heliads]

Can you do a Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) x Avenger reader one-shot? The reader is a Hydra experiment turned Avenger who has hawk wings and can fly like a bird. She can hide her wings by folding them like a bird can. She grew up somewhere in the US and doesn’t remember her parents, so the closest thing she has to a family is the Avengers. She meets Peter and starts dating him. Her alias, chosen by Tony, is Hawk, which Peter thinks is a little on the nose.

masterlist

You know, at moments like this, you’re really not sure if you’re dreaming or not. The setting around you seems real enough, but it’s happened so many times before that you’re starting to progress past deja vu and into entirely new territory. You could do this sort of mission in your sleep, and at this point, you kind of think you already have.

The scene is simple. Someone has attacked New York, and someone must save the city. This time, it’s not aliens or HYDRA knocking down your door but a new kind of inhuman with a bone to pick. At this rate, you get them so frequently that it’s like a regularly scheduled TV broadcast. Have you caught up on the latest season of unhappy mutants? Nah, I’m still three weeks backlogged on super powered individuals who hate us all.

A voice crackles into your earpiece, and you have to blink hard to get yourself to focus again. A lab tech company stole the blood samples of someone with powers in an attempt to understand more about what makes inhumans so utterly not human. The victim, your criminal of the week, is using his fire powers to burn down the company’s headquarters to prove that they’ll never be able to control him.

See, you’re supposed to be out here stopping the guy, but you kind of see his point. You were a lab experiment yourself a while back, and the results gave you powers and a chance to join the Avengers. Your time as a HYDRA science experiment was the worst experience of your life– agony and horror galore, to say the least– and if this guy’s standing up for the rights of the inhumans to avoid laboratories with a little too keen an interest in your inner workings, you don’t really want to kill him for his troubles.

That’s not the Avengers way, though. You weren’t hired for your thoughts on the rights of inhumans, especially those who suffered in the name of scientific progress, you’re here to save the city and the world and the universe, usually all three at once.

Hence the reason Captain America is chastising you to get your head in the game. This isn’t a time for sightseeing, it’s your chance to protect the innocents as the fire spreads. Thanks to the human-sized hawk wings that have been yours ever since your lab days, you’re in charge of the aerial defense of the Avengers, a role they need you for right now.

Today, you’re not a girl, you’re the Hawk, and you have a job to do. Tony Stark was responsible for your induction into the Avengers, as well as that very obvious alias. He’s also desperate for backup from the sky, especially right now.

You sigh, bid your morals a temporary adieu, and soar down from your vantage point in the clouds. The inhuman isn’t expecting another attacker from above, especially not one moving as fast as you. You tuck your wings into your sides for additional velocity, and slam into him hard enough to knock him to the ground. 

Seizing the opportunity of his distraction, Natasha quickly fires electric charges into his chest, knocking the guy out for a few seconds. From there, it’s easy to get some cuffs on the inhuman and shove him into the reinforced mobile holding cell S.H.I.E.L.D. sent over for precisely that purpose.

Steve nods at you. “Thanks for the help, Y/N.”

You smile wearily. “Any time.”

It’s easier to appreciate the Avengers lifestyle now, basking in the glow of having played a pivotal role in keeping the city safe. It’s a little more difficult hours later, when the sun has already set but you’re still trapped in the Avengers complex for a debrief that just won’t end.

It’s not the Avengers’ fault, you know that. S.H.I.E.L.D. has its protocols, and they get a little antsy if they aren’t followed. Still, you can’t help it when your mind starts wandering. You’ve attended enough meetings on the proper rules to be followed when your life is on the line and they all blur together.

You tune back in when Steve says your name. They’re discussing you now, apparently, and the words being said aren’t all compliments.

Steve sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Y/N, can you please try to focus for five minutes?”

You grimace. “Sorry, sorry. What were we talking about, exactly?”

Natasha arches a brow. “This, to be honest. You’re not as engaged with the fights as you used to be.”

You wince. “Can you blame me? I’ve been at this for years, Nat, ever since you guys broke me out of the HYDRA labs. I never went to S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, I’ve never been a spy. I’m just doing my best out here.”

Bruce raises his hands placatingly. “We know that, kid, and we’re proud of you. We just need to be sure that you’re one hundred percent on top of things whenever you’re out in the field, for your safety as well as ours.”

You nod. “I’ll try to be better. Sorry.”

Tony frees you at last from the shame of everyone’s disapproving stares. “Look, cut the girl a break. She did well out there, and no one got hurt. If something happens, we can discuss this more seriously, but why punish her for an incident that hasn’t happened yet? Y/N, I know it’s getting late. You can go if you want.”

You jump on that chance and thank him, hurrying out of the room just in time to hear Steve chastising Tony for letting you go as the door closes behind you. You’re not sticking around to be called back. You have no interest in hearing a repeat of the same lecture.

In all honesty, they’re not entirely wrong. You do need to get your head in order. It’s just been difficult to focus on anything, really. Everything feels the same, and why care about any job if a similar mission is going to take place the next week, and the next week, and the next? They all end the same way, and they’re always going to.

You poke your head out of a balcony and, spreading your wings to take flight, soar up to the roof. Everything seems simpler up here. Why stress about the city when it’s nothing more than a thousand pinpricks of light?

You coast on the night breeze for a while before coming to a stop on a neighboring skyscraper. It’s nice to finally be alone, or so you think until a voice sounds from behind you.

“Sorry, is this roof taken?”

You glance behind you to see a figure emerging from the shadows. After a heartbeat, you realize you recognize the red mask, the scarlet and blue suit, the black arachnid logo on the center of the stranger’s chest. This is the Spider-Man you’ve been hearing about in the news lately. He’s saving the city, but doing it his own way, not caught up in the politics of being an Avenger.

Truth be told, you admire him for it. It must be nice to save people without the lecture that always follows you. He doesn’t have to be perfect, he just has to get the job done. What a life to lead.

You shake your head, gesturing beside you. “Not for you. What’s up, Spider-Boy?”

He chuckles as he sits down next to you. “Normally, I’d insist on being referred to as a man, but I’ll let it slide just this once. I’m pretty alright, what about you? I saw you were saving the city again earlier today. I would have joined in, but–”

You shake your head, dismissing his apology. “No need. The Avengers tend to swarm all over things, no need to involve yourself in their mess.”

Spider-Man glances your way, and when he speaks again, his voice is curious. “I take it you’re not on the best of terms with them at the moment?”

You sigh. “Just for now. They’re the only family I’ve ever known, so we get along most of the time. We’ve just been in a rough patch at the moment. I don’t really know why.”

Spider-Man lifts a shoulder. “Well, you said they’re like your family, right? The fights don’t surprise me. All families struggle to get along all the time. I’m sure it’ll blow over in a few days.”

You chuckle. “I’ll take your word for it.”

“I should hope so,” Spider-Man informs you, “I’m kind of the world’s leading expert on superpowered family relationships. I got a college degree in, uh, Avenging Therapy.”

This time, your laugh is easy, carefree. “Well, Mr. Inhuman Therapist, I’d love a little more advice. I’m Y/N, by the way.”

He reaches out a hand to shake yours. “I’m Peter. It’s lovely to meet you, Y/N.”

Lovely, as it turns out, is exactly the right word to use. The two of you talk well into the night, and you find yourself more than reluctant to leave him, even as the call to sleep grows stronger. Luckily, you end up crossing paths again soon, and then accidental meetings happen on purpose, more and more often until you know the face under the mask just as well as you know the so-called vigilante plastered across the newspaper pages.

It’s just nice to have Peter around, that’s all. He reminds you that there’s a life worth living outside of every fight. It takes you a while to realize that he’s the only friend you’ve ever wanted as more than just a friend, the one you like, the one you love, but after that– well, it feels impossible that you could have ever known anything else.

You’re on a similar rooftop one night a few months later when you learn that he feels the same way about you. You were a little late to your usual meetup spot thanks to yet another meeting with the Avengers, but instead of complaining, Peter beams at you and says,

“There she is! The angel of New York City has arrived.”

You laugh. It’s easy, around him. “That’s ridiculous. I’m nobody’s angel.”

The thought is absurd. You have been a lab rat, a soldier, and a civilian, all in turn. These are all roles that you have played, but none of them have ever been truly yours. Never, though, has an angel ever been among their ranks.

Still, Peter seems to believe it. His eyes gleam with certainty. “You’re mine.”

You almost choke on your own incredulity. “You’re joking. Me, an angel? There are at least a dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. files that would argue the opposite.”

“I’m not joking,” Peter hums. “You can’t deny your angel-hood, Y/N. I’ve already given it to you.”

“I’m giving it back,” you tell him. “Find someone who’s actually a good person.”

“I have,” he asserts. “I just don’t get why you can’t see that. It’s fairly obvious to me.”

You tilt your head to the side. “And why is that?”

“Oh, ‘cause I love you, of course,” Peter says, as easily as if he’s stating a simple, well known fact. Your face must have given away your surprise, because he glances over at you again. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah,” you manage to stutter out, “It’s just, well, I love you too.”

“I know,” he grins, tilting his head up to the night stars.

After that, it gets better, impossibly. As your boyfriend, Peter is in your life even more than before. Sometimes that involves him stopping by your apartment to bring you flowers. Other times, it means he’s willing to help out with the Avengers so long as they don’t ask questions like who he is and why he’s had an abrupt change of heart about wanting to fight with them.

Usually, you don’t want to call him in. The Avengers can be a hassle, which you’ve learned after years of being one of their number. However, when the fights get to be a little out of hand, a little text to your boyfriend means you’ll have another soldier on your side swinging over in five minutes flat, and that’s more welcome than you can even begin to describe.

Even on days like today, when he stops by to take out some robbers who somehow got their hands on alien tech, you couldn’t be happier to see him. The other Avengers are there, and you probably would have got the job done by yourselves, but it would have taken far more time and cost far more blood. Thankfully, you’ve got Spider-Man on dial, and you can solve problems like superpowered thieves in half the time.

You smile at him as he swings up beside you. He’s still got his mask on, of course, but you can sense his smile even despite the fabric in between you. “Thanks for the helping hand, Spider-Man.”

He laughs. “Any time, Angel. You know that.”

Across the street, the Avengers glance up from the robbers they’d been investigating. Tony frowns. “What was that?”

Peter freezes in place. “What was what?”

Tony quickly points his finger between the two of you. “You just called her something. Angel. What was that about?”

Peter lifts a shoulder in his best imitation of a shrug. “A, uh, new callname? Hawk is too obvious.”

Tony narrows his eyes. “And Angel isn’t?”

Peter raises his hands palm up in a universal gesture of helplessness. “I thought it was more interesting, at least.”

Tony doesn’t seem ready to let him off the hook just yet. “And that’s all it is? Just a codename, not anything else?”

Peter’s voice is as smooth as he can make it. “What else could it be, sir?”

You nod, the picture of innocence. “Yeah, Tony, what else could it possibly be?”

Tony stares at both of you, but he can’t find any evidence of wrongdoing. “It had better be. You wouldn’t believe how fast I can squash a spider if need be.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Peter says weakly, and starts hurrying away the second Tony turns his back.

You follow him, giggling to yourself. “Nice save there, bug boy.”

Peter groans. “If I wake up in the middle of the night to find that he’s launched an Iron Army or something to kill me as punishment for dating his adoptive superhero child, it’s totally your fault.”

You pretend to be outraged. “No, it’s not! You’re the one who called me that in the first place, remember? The blame’s all yours.”

Peter reaches an arm around your shoulders, pulling you closer to him. “Maybe you shouldn’t be as charming, Y/N. Then I wouldn’t have any problems properly addressing you as a coworker.”

You laugh. “My charm is irresistible, Pete. Give up now.”

“I already have,” he assures you. Such a flirt. You’ve never minded it, though, and you don’t intend to start now.

Sometimes, this city feels as if it was designed to stress you out. As an Avenger, you’ll never have an end to the missions, nor the civilians to save. There will always be one more job in which you could risk your life, and the memories of your time spent in Hydra’s labs won’t let you go anytime soon.

For now, though, the shadows under the skyscrapers seem a little less dark than before, and the faces peering out of apartment windows at you aren’t hostile or threatening but friendly. This is your city, the one you save with your boyfriend. How could it ever be anything but good to you?

requested by @thornyrose463, i hope you enjoy!

marvel tag list: @namoreno, @mayfieldss, @rogueanschel, @mycosmicparadise, @ellobruv, @with-inked-solace, @callsign-scully, @sher-lokid7, @eclliipsed, @23victoria, @watchreadfangirlrepeat, @gods-fools-heroes, @w1shes43, @deafsuperhero, @fadedver, @alex-1967s-blog, @crazyhearttragedy

all tags list: @wordsarelife

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 02/03/2024

One-Winged DJ

Season 7 Featured on: The Year of Grand Dad Sound Selection [Side A]

Ripped by duuzu, digboye, COCONABE, l4ureleye, Netyasha Roozi, Jiko Music Performed by Chase Beck

You may have noticed that I try to keep an air of suspense when doing posts on the King for Another Day tournament such as Thank You, Everybody!. That is, of course, to not spoil the victor of Season 4 Episode 1's year-defining event - but at this point, it's a bit of a fruitless endeavor to try and uphold. Because DJ Professor K's victory celebrations haven't just been contained to his awarded day-long takeover during Season 4 Episode 2 - the takeover that gave us incredible rips like AIN'T NOTHIN' LIKE A CHUNKY BEAT, 88811, Ska Cha Cha (Rotten Mix) at an absolute breakneck pace during the SiIvaSummer All-Star Festival. Because during that takeover, a new flame was kindled - a flame by the name of Jet Set Radio Evolution.

Hideki Naganuma's style of sample-filled funk music is DJ Professor K's headlining ripping source, the one most closely associated with the game that the character originates from. Yet its a style that can be expressed in so many ways, not needing to be derivative of any prior existing songs from the two Jet Set Radio games - September, for instance, is able to sound authentically Naganuma-esque whilst being built off of a song as far away from his style as possible. Jet Set Radio Evolution, then, is an entirely made-up game - its name and logo deriving from a declined proof-of-concept, but its "soundtrack" completely made up by the SiIvaGunner team. This is far from the first fake game on the channel, and not the first one to be done without much of a shred of irony (Kirby Rip Attack is due for coverage on here) - but, notably, its a fake game born specifically to keep DJ Professor K's impact on the channel alive in the Seasons past his takeover. And, well, it took a few Seasons, but during Season 7, the team started going truly ham in utilizing its true potential.

There are a number of these Jet Set Radio Evolution rips I want to cover on here, both ones from DJ Professor K's takeover and from its revitalized usage during Season 7 - but to me, it was One-Winged DJ that really showed just how much flexibility rippers have with Naganuma's style of music. One-Winged Angel has long been seen as a sort of legendary track to rip due just how extensive of a song it is, a song that has a distinctly menacing feel to it that I can't imagine is easy to translate into a rip. Rips like One Winged PSYcho - V​.​S. Sepsyrop feel like absolutely herculean endeavors, and during Season 7 in particular we saw an absolute tidal wave of rips using it, as if it were just any other meme source in the channel's backlog and not this legendary 7-minute long work of art. Hen'yoku no Piraman was the first of these I covered, and while One-Winged DJ is likely far from the last, it still manages to feel like it sticks out from the crowd in just how dense of a sound it has - likely a result of how many people contributed to its creation.

There's the obvious highlight, of course: Chase Beck, the voice of DJ Professor K himself, returns to the role with new lines to supplement the original choir in latin of the original song, and it immediately gives the rip a charm to it, especially all these years after the original event and after Chase Beck's last "needed" performance as the character had long since passed. Before that even gets to kick in, though, its hard not to notice just how many different parts of Jet Set Radio's soundtracks are utilized right from the beginning: a bassline and voicelines echoing That's Enough, samples and pacing from Sneakman, the interlude's melody broken by the noise and chaos of The Concept of Love, and all throughout using small little sound effects and one-second samples from all over the games' soundscapes.

This is the kind of rip I could sit here and dissect for pages on end, yet I believe the point has been made abundantly clear already. In a Season already FILLED with celebration of every part of SiIvaGunner's life, One-Winged DJ is an absolute flex of a celebration, reminding us all of why DJ Professor K truly earned his win whilst showing just how much there is to still be done within the ever-appealing Naganuma style. I'm beyond proud of the rippers involved in how this rip turned out, and hope that the Jet Set Radio Evolution rips continue to impress into Season 8.

[flyfish1999]

Persona 3's Weiss Schwarz Deck: For the Uninitiated

a few weeks ago, i fell into the weiss schwarz rabbit hole .. and figured that it was finally time today to share my findings ! as this is an informative post for people who are p3 fans above weiss schwarz fans ... here's the gist:

Weiss Schwarz (Weiß Schwarz, white-black in german) is a japanese TCG card game that is probably most well-known for releasing decks that tie into popular anime and game franchises, with participating titles such as Fate/stay night, Hatsune Miku Project Diva, Madoka Magica and - the most relevant to us - Modern Persona (3 - 5). The cards featured include mostly official art - such as sprites and reused promo art - but some of it's special, unique or rare cards have custom art made specifically for the deck!

The P3 deck specifically was released only in Japanese (unlike the P4 and P5 sets) but it had two unique releases: it's first 2008 release that came alongside a boxset, mat and a premade deck available for purchase, and then later rereleased in 2021 as a special backlog Chronicle set where every card was made into a shiny foil card (only 3000 of this set were ever made, so it goes for a lot now)! Fun Fact: this means that although the Chronicle boxset included every single card ever released (+ a bonus brand new one that sadly reuses FES art) it appeared to include some cards twice - because for some cards, the only difference between it and another was that it was a foil card :]c

The series name for the original release is P3/S0XX-0XX, and for the Chronicle release is P3/SC0XX-0XX !

Resources: Archived Product Page: circa June 2008, includes a list of every artist featured in the deck! Official Box Page: still-accessible version of Weiss Schwarz's original P3 release information Heart of the Cards: a full list of every card in the original P3 deck, with translations! Little Akiba: another full list of every card in the og deck, navigable by images! Weiss & Such: a youtube unboxing of the beautiful Chronicle boxset! Waifu Wars: a youtube review from 2016 of the original set from people who are far better at the game than i am ^_^ !

Below, is (what I believe is) a full list of every card with unique art in the deck, with titles attached! All images are high-quality sample images, but beware of a long post ahead! Enjoy ^_^)/ !!!

The Last Choice:

Unbreakable Bond:

Thank You:

Oath to a Friend:

Hot Springs:

End of Revenge:

Living Person:

Mechanical Maiden:

A Mutual Promise:

Father's Will:

The Strongest:

Aigis' Dream & Analyse:

Level Up & Phoenix Ranger Featherman R:

thanks for reading ^_^)/ !!!!!!!!!!!!

[hekknisanidiot]

I need to go through Al Bowlly's backlog and find his best aged stuff. Not only do I want to develop rhythm games in the near future but also I want to find cool samples

[cherokeestarfish]

Welcome Post

Hey, y'all! I've made this pinned post as a way to help y'all navigate any backlogged content, as well as to help you see at a glance what's on the livestream schedule.

Content Tags

Mondays — This will separate out any posts specifically relevant to Monday series, regardless of whether it's something I'm playing solo or together with SpecificPixel, including announcements, cancellations, completion blogs, etc.

Thursdays — Same as the Mondays tag, but for Thursday series.

Fridays — Also the same, but for special Friday series.

Saturdays — Same again, but for Saturday series.

Husbandplays — This tag is for any content or announcements that include SpecificPixel, mostly games we stream together on Mondays.

General Tags

Patreon update — This tag has all my posts about changes in tier rewards, procedures, etc. on Patreon.

Community — This is where you'll find anything regarding Twitch, YouTube, or other social media, plus general announcements and updates.

Fanart — This tag has any fanart our community is kind enough to create and share!

Poll — This tag includes all polls and voting results for Patreon shortlisting (where y'all narrow down the games that go on the public polls).

Special event — This is for unique or unusual content like marathons, charity streams, or anything that occurs outside the normal schedule.

Info — This tag has all my posts like this one, which include general updates and information.

Welcome post — Especially for this pinned post!

I'll edit to include new tags here as they come up.

Schedule at a Glance

Mondays:

Monday series alternate between my solo "streamer's choice" games and husbandplays with SpecificPixel, where we take turns choosing games for each other to play with multiplayer titles in between.

Week A: Divine Divinity (2002; PC)

Wasteland 2 (2014; PC)

Wasteland 3 (202; PC)

Week B: Blaze & Blade (1998; PSX) w/SpecificPixel

Soul Blazer (1992; SNES)

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars Remake (2023; Switch)

Thursdays:

Thursday is variety night! We play a little of every genre, as chosen by patrons and then voted on by the broader audience.

The Legend of Kyrandia 1 (1992; DOS)

Obsidian (1997; PC)

Etherlords (2001; PC)

Mystery P.I.: The Lottery Ticket (2007; PC)

Pokémon Crystal (2001; GBC)

Fridays:

Fridays are special streams and not part of the typical schedule. Right now, these include game "tastings" (one-shot samples) and longplays awarded to charity donors:

Wild Arms 3 (2002; PS2)

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (2006; PC)

Deus Ex (2000; PC)

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (2001; PC)

Darkstone (1999; PC) w/SpecificPixel

Clive Barker's Undying (2001; PC)

Zombie Dinos from Planet Zeltoid (1992; CD-i)

Disney's Hades Challenge (1998; PC)

Saturdays:

Saturday streams are party-based RPGs, usually open-world. After finishing a slate of titles chosen by patrons and voted on by other viewers, I pick a game for myself to chill through before we run the next poll.

Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear (2016; PC)

Wasteland 1 (1988; DOS)

Eye of the Beholder 1 (1991; DOS)

Lands of Lore 1 (1993; DOS)

Might & Magic 8 (2000; PC)

Of course, if you've got questions or need any help finding stuff, just comment or message me and I'm happy to help!

[ode-to-odes]

welcome!!

hey y'all, you might know me as ode or chloe, depending on how you got here, and this is my sideblog for posting about games I've played, both solo and multiplayer but with an emphasis on journaling, interactive fiction, literature, and writing in general!

atm I'm working on playing through my insane backlog of solo rpgs that I've acquired through itch bundles (and impulse buying), so I'll be reviewing those as I get through them, and maybe posting samples of writing from those sessions :) however I also have an intense love of interactive fiction so probably there'll be some discussion of those intermittently

my main blog is here, and the sidebar links on this blog will eventually link to different tags I'll use for sorting reviews (i am lazy so haven't done this yet lmao). this post will probably be updated occasionally as well depending on what I want to be using it for. thanks for stopping by!

[smelldictionary]

Exciting things coming as I try and get this blog off the ground again. I have some backlog reviews of my signature scents that I can post but I'm excited to get back into the sample game.

[thejazzywaffles]

Video Game Poll VIII

As September begins, a looming shadow overtakes my gaming backlog... and the only light is the full moon. That's right, it's time for a SPOOKY game poll!

Unlike the previous polls, this poll will have multiple winners chosen. Lots of spookiness to go around!

After this poll, I will only be posting one more poll, which will be the poll for which game I play LAST this year. So leave your suggestions for what games you really really like that you want more people to play! I wanna end the year on a good note. To help folks narrow it down, I've also posted a sample from my backlog, which you can find here:

We're in the home stretch!

[stardestroyer81]

The artstyle of the Classic Mega Man series, which only began to find its footing just after the third installment, is iconic. I have a major soft spot for Keiji Inafune's artwork for the NES-era Mega Man titles, as well as Ryuji Higurashi's illustrative work for Mega Man 9. I've even spent a good while trying my hand at the style, of which you can check out here!

Though, every artstyle has to start somewhere, and even though the later NES Mega Man titles had some excellent looking artwork, the illustrations for the first couple of games were... interesting. The characters of the original Mega Man and its sequel were drawn in a much more rounded artstyle, looking more chibi like than the anime-esque style it would evolve into, and after the first few Mega Man games, it was quickly improved upon.

When you really take some time to sample Mega Man 1 and 2's artwork, however, you'll find that it's not that bad of an artstyle. Sure, the infamous 'Capcom hand' looked odd from having the middle two fingers fused together, but outside of that, I find that it's an artstyle that doesn't get a lot of representation in Mega Man fanart and is one I've grown to appreciate in these past few weeks.

And from having drawn a near-identical Inafune-styled Mega Man a month ago, yet another challenge for my artstyle replicating smarts arose... could I do it again, but take more after the style of Mega Man 2's artwork?

See for yourself!

I've been playing a whole lot of the first Mega Man Legacy Collection for the past few weeks, and in that time I've beaten all six games (Some even twice or thrice like Mega Man 5), read all of the database entries, and have been sampling the game's enormous backlog of illustrations from Mega Man 1 through 6!

In doing so, I found myself developing a fondness for the artstyle of the first two titles in the series— while I do prefer the artstyle of the later NES games, the humble beginnings of Keiji Inafune's illustrations for Mega Man appealed to me, and it was a style that I definitely wanted to see if I could come close to replicating.

And so, it was shortly decided that I would be drawing Mega Man in the Mega Man 2 artstyle! ... but what pose would I draw him in? I thought it would be neat to have a MM2-styled version of Mega Man from his appearance on Mega Man 10's box art, and the instant I thought of that pose, I got straight to work!

Compared to its modern counterpart, the style of the earlier Mega Man games has some pretty key differences: most glaring are the pupils of the eyes, which are much more wide than the slimmer pupil shapes seen in later titles. The eye shape itself is also a lot more circular, too, and certain aspects of robot master facial features (Such as their mouth or chin) are much larger.

The hands and boots of both Mega Man and robot masters are also greatly simplified, too. The 'feet' section of the boot is much more round, and also lack the 'Z' crease shape you would normally see on non-segmented boots. Instead, the boots (And often other parts of the body, such as the legs or buster) have minor crosshatch shading, though nothing too major.

These were design elements I made sure to account for in my initial sketch, and much like when I last drew Mega Man, the most important part was getting his head to look as 1:1 to the original that I could. You might notice the 'Capcom hand' looks a bit wonky, and this is because I was using my Switch for references and it was tough to draw a good looking one pointed left instead of right— it wasn't a huge deal. I could always fix it when I digitalized it!

After I got the sketch fully lined to my liking, it was time to figure out another crucial aspect to staying true to the look of Mega Man 2's visual style: the colors. The colors I used here were directly picked from Mega Man himself on Mega Man 2's box art, but when I wasn't liking how dark the colors came out, I brightened and desaturated them a slight bit to give it that vintage feel.

The shading was particularly easy, as I referenced the shading from my main reference of Mega Man in 10's main artwork, though I intentionally left some areas unshaded (Such as the buster meter and inner earpiece) seeing as Inafune tended to do the same every now and then.

An extremely small detail that I'm glad I acknowledged was how you can only see Mega Man's right (Or his left) earpiece as opposed to both. In artwork from the first two games, whenever Mega Man is at a 3/4ths angle, only one earpiece is present, whereas both can be seen at the same angle in later games.

I'll be honest, it was actually a whole lot of fun drawing in 2's artstyle, since it's a lot more simplistic compared to the perfection 9 and 10's style demands when replicating it— I may even attempt modern robot masters in the same style to see what they may have looked like in earlier Mega Man titles... or perhaps even draw faux official artwork for the obscure Bond Man!

That said, I hope you've enjoyed my dive into analyzing the artstyle of the earlier Mega Man games, and what my research yielded in perhaps one of my favorite drawings I've done this year!

[make-podcasts-accessible]

From RQ: An Update on Transcripts

We’d just like to give you all an update on the transcripts situation for all our in-house productions.

We’ve already allocated major resources and are working with some professional transcription companies to start getting all existing and future shows sorted in the next few months including Stellar Firma, Rusty Quill Gaming and The Magnus Archives.

We’re sorry this has taken so long. Over the last 18 months, we have had several false starts and dead ends as we explored various solutions, none of which panned out in a way were comfortable with and as a result our messaging around this issue has been inconsistent.

To briefly explain, our backlog has proven far more expensive and labour intensive than we originally anticipated. This meant we could not afford a full professional transcription service for all shows until recently and even then, we have found that work from the best professional companies will still require considerable additional internal work if we want to prepare them in a format familiar to those of you who have read our existing transcripts.

To be clear, we have already trialled numerous methods used by industry peers, but unfortunately we have found them to be inconsistent in quality, unsustainable at our larger scale, or making extensive use of free labour.

All that said, we are pleased to say that we are now at the QA stage with a reputable professional provider, we’re checking samples meet our internal accuracy/accessibility standards and we’re calculating the timescales needed to address our entire backlog a.s.a.p. We have already committed the significant funds to commission our entire back catalogue and have restructured our internal processes to accommodate a new system and are building a whole new website to better facilitate accessible transcripts for all shows at point of release going forward. We hope that all these changes working in concert together should place us in a strong position on transcripts going forwards but obviously it’s too early for us to be certain on all points.

We’ll update everyone on any major developments going forwards and as soon as we are confident we have a permanent, sustainable and ethical solution in place that will meet our standards, we will proceed publicly. Until then we’d like to thank everyone for your ongoing patience as we work through this complicated process.

[franzis-frantic-thoughts]

[ID:  Hi everyone! We’d just like to give an update on the transcripts for our in-house productions and let you all know we’ve already allocated resources and are working with professional transcription companies to start getting all existing and future shows sorted in the next few months including Stellar Firma, Rusty Quill Gaming and The Magnus Archives. We’re sorry this has taken so long. Over the last 18 months, we have had several false starts and dead ends as we explored various solutions, and as a result, our messaging around this issue has been inconsistent. It has turned out that our backlog is far more expensive and labour intensive than was originally anticipated. This meant we could not afford a full transcription service for all shows until recently and even then, we have found that even work from the best professional companies will require considerable additional internal work to prepare them in a format familiar to those who have read our existing transcripts. We have already trialled numerous methods used by industry peers, but unfortunately, we have found them to be inconsistent in quality, unsustainable at our larger scale, or making extensive use of free labour. All that said, we are pleased to say that we are now at the QA stage with a reputable professional provider, checking samples meet our internal accuracy/accessibility standards and calculating the timescales needed to address our entire backlog a.s.a.p. We have already committed the significant amount of funds required to commission our entire back catalogue and have restructured our internal processes to accommodate a new system and are building a whole new website to better facilitate accessible transcripts for all shows at point of release going forward. We hope that all these changes working in concert together should place us in a very strong position on transcripts going forwards. We’ll update everyone on any major developments going forwards and as soon as we are confident we have a permanent sustainable and ethical solution in place that will meet our standards we will proceed publicly. Until then we’d like to thank everyone for your ongoing patience as we work through this complicated process. /ID]

From the official Rusty Quill Facebook, June 24th 2021

[pechebeche]

some tablestuck homebrew i want to do & post for others to use, for my own reference (these are not things i am critical of tablestuck for not having, for the record, because it is not a complete version and doesn't claim to be, it's just stuff id like the complete version to have and idk if ppl are still working on it so im doing it myself for this game):

simplified grist system - 16 types of grist to monitor for bonus damage/resistance is too much!! it's too much for my brain to remember!!! i have to break it down For Me

modules/maps/etc for prospit/derse - considering what a big part dream selves play in hs and how central prospit & derse are to sburb as a game it is kind of insane to me that there's nothing abt how they should be laid out or quests to provide for chars who die and wake up as their dream self, so time to fix that i think

customizable enemy actions - the alpha kind of played with this but they abandoned it at beta, which is something i really miss. just actions for enemies to gain access to based on what was prototypes into the sprites pre-entry would add a lot of flavor, i think

table of random items - considering the 1900 tables in this game the fact that there's not one for when u roll "random item" on loot is a travesty. i can't think of items on the fly. what sort of insanely creative person do u take me for

expanded pre-made items - on the same level i have. So much trouble with making items on the fly or thinking abt what to add into a house that isn't already on the pre-made items list. so perhaps i am just going to make a ton to have backlogged so that i can just pull from there

healing items - the fact that you can eat food to heal but nowhere in Any of the docs is it mentioned how much u heal for is absolutely baffling. absolutely im doing that

sample magic bullshit - the freedom of the magic bullshit system is great but my players definitely were adrift before i started giving them examples of how their classpects could be used, so not as elaborate as the others but maybe just some options as a base point for players!

id also like to play around with the captchaloguing system a bit, but idk if ill Actually do that, because that would require actually learning how data structures work and thats.....so much

[watchanimeonlinelove]

Anime Online - A Unique Anime Experience

Anime online fans are abuzz with the craze to view the most exciting anime videos and anime online role-playing games at their leisure. While some are hesitant to part with their hard-earned cash to be exposed to adult-oriented materials, others have no problem indulging in this latest virtual craze. In fact, it has become so popular that websites catering to these fans have mushroomed on the internet. With an estimated 30 million viewers, the anime industry is one of the biggest money-spinning industries in Asia. The following paragraphs will discuss the best anime websites.

Anime Central is considered the leader of the South Korean anime online community. One of the many benefits of joining this website is the ability to view free downloads of your favorite anime movies and anime series, including movies with English subtitles. This includes episodes of the popular anime television series such as Lupin the Third, Dragonball Z, Gatchman, Black Butler, and more. Members also have access to a forum where they can chat with fellow members.

Another highly regarded anime websites is Anime Duplex. Anime Duplex not only provides members with a great anime library, but they also offer users the opportunity to download a number of high quality anime videos. A large number episodes of popular TV anime series are available at this site. Anime Duplex is also home to a number of discussion boards where you can meet other anime fans.

If you are an avid anime fan who likes to view 9anime videos while you are away from home, then Hikaru No Go anime streaming site may be just what you are looking for. Hikaru No Go is an animated continuation of the hit Japanese manga/comic series written and illustrated by Hideaki Noakes. The story revolves around the story of the young Master of Masters, Master Kuchiki Touko, who is forced to live a life of servitude after his Master is captured by the enemy guild master, Kamuijo Kamuiido. When Touko is requested by his Master to attend a conference in Tokyo, he sets out on a daring and bold quest to locate and rescue his Master. As part of his group, he also includes Riko Tainaka, a member of the guild Black Butler, and Kuchiki Rukia, a member of the Konoha Team, who are sworn enemies of the seven magical guilds: Shippudden, Zaeroguard, Gingka, Kuchiki Ryuk dropped his guard against her, Tainaka has the unique ability to see the future, and Rukia has the healing powers of a genie.

With Hikaru No Go, the episodes and trailers of each season are available for members to watch on their computers. Members can choose from a wide selection of popular anime videos, including the newest episodes of popular TV anime series. Members can also view the backlog of episodes as well as the movies. Hikaru No Go streams in all resolutions, including the highest available HD, so everyone can enjoy what they watch.

Members can even purchase a special CD containing the entire season of Hikaru No Go as well as a few special "special features" that were not included in the TV series. These include special mini art gallery, background music, voiceover samples, and a video walkthrough of the whole anime like cut scene at the beginning of each episode. Members can even download these episodes and add them to their own home television series library.

Another great feature is the fact that the websites have free trials for the newest episodes of popular shows. Members can watch these free trials and decide whether or not they wish to join the membership service. This trial offer is typically good for a limited amount of time, typically one week. After this period has ended, if members still wish to watch the anime TV series, they must join the website to access the service.

The websites offer a wide selection of anime episodes, anime, movies, and key features. Members can enjoy the benefits of watching the anime episodes anytime they want, anywhere in the world. A great anime website offers a free trial period and a variety of features. A key feature of these sites is the availability of live downloads of popular anime episodes, which are perfect for fans who love anime but don't have the time to sit in front of the TV.