#i basically just combined my 2 favorite story concepts

[nekole-doodles]

YOU GUYS HAVE JUST GIVING ME IDEAS FOR SOME CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT FOR MY STORY!!!

(Imma just ramble about the story rq for context, sorry)

So, basically, he was cursed with immortality by a god because the god liked to use him as a puppet for their own entertainment, and womp womp, all his friends and family died(half of them before he even got cursed because the place he lived in and the people in it were violent and war-torn), so he moved away from the secluded islands he lived in to join the mainland in the very early 1800s. Skipping to the 2020s, and bro is not doing well because he heavily depended on the people around him because they made up his being(it's complicated but he is literally the embodiment of his love for people he's close with). His brother was someone he could follow because he was always a follower, never a leader, but his brother left and died. His dad and other brother had to leave before he could ever reconnect with them, and his best friends, the only people he felt safe and unconditionally loved around, was either killed in cold blood or their work quite literally killed them.

So now he was stuck feeling empty and with his life dull because he was so used to a life of action and constant motion and, again, he is the literal embodiment of his love those he trusts, but he couldn't bring himself to trust or get attached to anyone ever again, even if he could(since no one could replace the people he lost and he left like he would betray the memory of his friends if he "replaced" them). To help himself cope a bit, he wrote hundreds of journals and filled just as many sketchbooks with drawings of the people he still loves. He's drawn them so often that his skills have evidently drastically improved over the years. He dedicated half of his room to their memory, hanging his drawings of his friends and family, preserving old photographs, storing old clothing or souvenirs from that time, and even creating replicas of lost items that meant a lot to him.

Then one day, he meets someone who looks and sounds exactly like his brother and he freaks out, not knowing what to do.

(And the next part is what this thread inspired me to really think about. In the past, these plot points were there as future ideas, but was put aside while I focused on how to write how this immortal life has become his purgatory in the story's beginning. But now, I feel like I can further develop these ideas in a way that is a bit clearer.)

Eventually, he gives in and decides to befriend this person despite knowing he shouldn't, at first simply because he looks like his brother, but then he becomes very fond of this person for a different reason than because he reminds him of the past. He notices everything that makes this person different from his brother and finds himself loving those parts of him too.

He decides to share his stories of the past without giving away too much. It starts to feel like he's healing bit by bit as he allows himself to share his love for all these people of the past with the first friend he's had in centuries, and he feels a little more complete now that there is someone to make him laugh again and light up his life.

He opens himself up to more people and is finally able to start surrounding himself with new people he has befriended, allowing himself to love again. And he still keeps the memory of his friends and family of the past in his heart and he knows he will always love them even if they are gone, but he makes room in his heart to love these new friends too. And healing literal centuries worth of built up trauma isn't easy, but at least he can bring himself to even try in the first place now that there are people around him worth trying for and who he knows will help him through it.

it's always "immortals always lose the ones they love!" and never "this family has had this incredible, powerful, loving figure present through generations of their lineage, all because they are descended from someone the immortal loved long ago" and i think that's a shame!!

[jojo-schmo]

I’m looking into making my own Kirbysona. I was wondering if you have any tips??

you don’t have to answer! Also I love your art and your AU is awesome :)

Hello! Thank you so much for the kind words! <3 I'd be happy to share some of my thought process behind creating my bubble-blowing baby, Ripple Fairy Kirbysona! I will always cheer on the existence of more Kirbysonas! :D

I had a Kirbysona in childhood that was just a little puffball, like Kirby- and she looked like this :D I loved the Star Rod, the Beam Kirby hat was my favorite, I just finished playing Kirby 64 so I added some Crystal Shards to the hat, and I slapped on my favorite colors. Bam! I'd draw her in the margins of my notebooks, interacting with other Kirby characters in little stories I'd write... Great fun!

But now as an adult posting my work online, I wanted something that felt more like "me," as opposed to an OC that felt like someone else. A direct extension of myself to interact with the characters I love, as well as characters and sonas of other creators in our Kirby corner over here! Like a gaming avatar! But in a series with so many different species and characters, where to start?!

Step 1: THERE ARE NO RULES. BE CRINGE AND BE FREE!!

The important thing is to have fun! You can choose to confine yourself to the rules of the Kirby universe, or just make something up! The important part is that a sona represents you!

These are the thoughts that went through my head, but it's not the only way to make a sona! If you follow what your heart is saying and not what you think others want to see, you'll find a design that feels like you!

Step 2: Ask some basic questions to establish a design direction.

These are the questions I asked myself during the creation process, but your questions can be different! This is just how I set up my rough plan of creation.

Sonas don't need to look like you or be named after you irl if you don't want! But in order to feel like "me," I decided on something that shared a lot of my actual physical traits. For me personally, if the sona didn't look a lot like me, I would always have a disconnect with it. I also settled on the name "Jojo" quickly because that's my actual nickname, part of my username, and I respond quickly to it.

From there, answering the other design questions I had came quickly after that!

Step 3: Settle on a species.

I went with a Ripple Star Fairy in the end because 1) They're adorable and I love their cute wings, hair ribbons/accessories, 2) They're shown as adults, which is perfect because I am one lol, 3) Look human enough for me to relate to while still having a lot of freedom to make up powers, lore, and design traits, and 4) Ripple Fairies deserve some love hahaha

Side note: if you can't decide on a species, throw the rules out the window! Be a shapeshifter. Or have multiple forms for no reason. Be a combination penguin/puffball knight/human/waddle dee born from the cosmos!! Refer to step 1, there are no rules! Hit your sona with a Waddle Dee beam whenever you want!!

Step 4: Design yourself, superstar!!

I brainstormed with a page of sketches and tried a bunch of different variations of a Ripple Fairy with different hairstyles and outfits, (I need to find that sketch page) but I eventually settled on these concepts!

I wear braids almost every day, so I added that. Ripple Fairies in canon all have cute hair accessories, so I made sure to tie off the braid with a little ribbon!

Also my hair in real life does this "devil horn thing" that is one of my favorite things about myself. Like I have these baby hairs on the sides of my head that love to curl upwards on their own, so I kept the "devil horn" silhouette with the braid's bangs :D

ALSO, I LOVE BOW TIES. SO MUCH. I love shirts, dresses, anything with a bow on the collar. So I added that.

I have this black coat with a sailor-like collar IRL that I love. I feel SUPER DUPER AWESOME when I wear it, so I added the collar with the bow tie.

I added buttons, a stripe along the bottom of the dress and sleeves, and gauntlets because a lot of canon Ripple Fairies have them. My college marching band uniform also had big gauntlets that I felt really cool wearing, so I shaped mine like that! And clothes with scalloped hems are my favorites, so I added one as a unique twist to my dress!

Now for the fun magic stuff. I wanted my powers to be connected to bubbles because I just think bubbles are neat!!! Simple as that haha.

So how am I going to blow bubbles, then? I'll need a bubble wand! How about a weapon that can change forms to be pocket-sized and functional, AND a super cool staff? Because I think staffs are SICK. I'd carry one around all the time if I could.

I got a little sentimental with my design too, borrowing some elements from my childhood Kirbysona like the Star Rod, stripes, ribbons, and diamond shapes. It's one of my favorite details because I like paying homage to the baby Jojo I once was as often as I can.

I added a little bit of red to the IRL brown color that my hair and eyes are (added more red to my eyes because I always felt like my brown eyes were boring lol). I finished off the theme with my favorite color blue, a little bit of yellow to complement, and BAM! There I am, Gary! There I am!!

Jojo The Schmo was born! She is me, and I am her, haha. Everything about the design has aspects that mean something special to me. I wanted to keep things unique and fun, but simple enough to draw over and over, while still representing me. And that's why I love my sona so so much!!

Hope this could provide some helpful insight! Go forth and create your unique and wonderful sonas!! When you're done we should all have a picnic together in Dreamland. <3

[vriskaserketdaily]

thoughts on tgirl vriska ? she’s real to me but ur like the #1 vriska enjoyer on my dash so I was wondering what u think

im gonna be real after going into the tag every day for the past 3+ years and seeing every possible take and headcanon my bar is so low that i'm just happy we're in agreement that vriska is a girl

tgirl vriska is a well-supported read of her character, but not the only valid one in my opinion. that being said, if you're a hardcore cis vriska truther, you do yourself a great disservice by ignoring her dysphoric characterization---whether you read that as early-transition transfem dysphoria, lesbian butch dysphoria, alternian caste dysphoria, or any combination of the above.

i do not, however, read her dysphoria as transmasculine in nature, and maintain that vriska's gender (girl/woman) is extremely important in understanding her role in the story, her relationships with other characters, and how the concepts of heroism, protagonism, justice, and strength impact her narrative. a transfem reading does not detract from this, nor does it particularly enhance anything to me, someone who already read vriska as a dysphoric lesbian & therefore already accounted for some form of Gender to be going on regardless of the hypothetical birth-assignment situation.

basically, my personal opinion is that her trans status is a nice garnish but irrelevant to what already is a fascinating, compelling, and well-rounded (dare i say, strong) female character. the fact that she's a female character is more important to me than the fact (or headcanon) that she is a trans character, because i regularly see and cope with the most asinine and blatantly incorrect headcanons and takes about her on this earth. you're asking a man dying of thirst whether a gallon of ice water or a gallon of merely cool water is better.

my bar for sexuality headcanons is likewise on the floor. y'all don't have to agree with me on the lesbian reading but as long as we concur that she's wlw then everything is a-okay by me. my final message 2 da world: never go into the tags of your favorite character.

[callipraxia]

I was just asked to share a favorite writing tip, and as I wrote, it sort of organically expanded from the realm of writing tips I have received and into the realm of writing tips I’ve worked out for myself. I cut most of that from the original response because it wasn’t really what was being asked, but for anyone who might find it helpful - here are six notes on writing from someone who’s been doing it for twenty-something years and has no Agenda, financial or academic, to steer me much astray from confession of my actual practices:

Tip #1: my favorite writing tip I ever got from an outside source is (paraphrasing) “if you want to write like Tolkien, the key isn’t to stick a bunch of dwarves and elves in a low-medieval setting. The key is to write about subjects that you love as much as Professor Tolkien loved Northern European languages and mythology and the pre-Industrial English countryside and Catholic theology and etc.” It isn’t the details of what creatures you have in there that gives something that particular engaging quality that will carry it through and overrule a lot of its inevitable flaws - it is, instead, a subtle, difficult-to-define sort of energy the work will have that, as far as I can tell (and I’ve tried, many times, with concepts and projects that just didn’t work out), cannot be faked.

Tip #2: Based on my own experience as it applies to Tip #1, start trying to figure out what your interests are as early as possible and never stop looking even once you think you’ve found them. There’s a plethora of low-to-no-cost, low-to-no-commitment ways to pick up at least the basics of topics you know nothing about***, so give something a try every now and then, you might surprise yourself. For another personal anecdote, I grew up with the firm belief that physics was something I would a) find really boring and b) not be smart enough to get even the vaguest grasp on no matter how hard I worked, and that even trying was therefore probably a waste of time. I still can’t do the math and would probably flunk any real exams, but physics writing, obtained from the public library’s New Arrivals section, has ended up being one of the richest sources for my writing that I’ve ever encountered.

Tip #3: if you truly can’t find a subject in the world you find yourself especially interested in, that’s probably either the depression or the after effects of bad educational experiences talking. Or both - both is always an option. Start addressing that stuff and the world will most likely become a much more interesting place and you will most likely become a much more interesting writer.

Tip #4: if you find yourself with a sort of author crush, with someone (including other fan authors!) whose work you really, really admire, and you desperately want to be like them when you grow up - find out what they read and read it, too. This doesn’t work 100% of the time, but it is often a productive exercise; the reason I tend to include so many footnotes in my fics is because I’ve benefited so much from other people who left footnotes with reading recommendations or trivia explanations on their fics.

Tip #5, the Big One: Combine multiple things you are geeking out about into one story. The best writing I probably ever did began with how certain characters were represented in three different fanfics in two different fandoms. The presentation of Character A from Franchise 1 in two fics reminded me, in ways she normally wouldn’t, of the presentation of Character B from one fic from Franchise 2. I also just really liked Character C and thought it might be fun to introduce some elements of Character D to him and then see what happened, so I isolated some of the things I liked about those characterizations and combined a character trait or two from each in order to form two ‘new’ basic characters who would form the ‘center’ of the story. I then ran them both through additional filters: the first filter was some specific other interests (ornithology and tea culture) I happened to have, and then the second was the general impressions I’d gotten of family lives and dynamics from reading a couple of blogs for several years****. And then I topped this concoction off by dusting it lightly with references to and elements from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and an old Cage the Elephant song. Yeah. Other sources of musical inspiration have included, but are far, far from limited to, songs from Breaking Benjamin, Foster the People, Hozier, Lana del Rey, The Mountain Goats, The Offspring, and The Smashing Pumpkins. Even I kind of roll my eyes at that list, but hey, if it works, it works.

Tip #6: Don’t get the wrong idea from Tip #5 - I don’t recommend approaching stories or subjects with the aim of finding something to combine with something else in mind. The example I gave coalesced in my head over the course of several years before I ever put any of it into writing. The ideas will form in their own time, and I think the best thing to do is to just absorb as much enjoyable media and neat information as you can and then let your brain gradually do its own thing in its own time. It’s frustrating, but trying to think of things to jam together for a story or character idea on purpose doesn’t work nearly as well in my experience - maybe it can be pulled off for a one-off, preferably one that is a direct homage to or parody of the original, but when it comes to longer-term and more nuanced stuff, it’s rare for a deliberately sought out mash-up to ever quite get that Certain Something that I talked about back in Tip #1.

*** I can only really speak for the U.S. here, but with that caveat - I cannot overstate the utility of public library resources like inter-library loan and Friends of the Library bag sales, along with the contents of the library itself and particularly the New Arrivals sections if one is fortunate enough to be within reasonable driving distance of an even moderately well-stocked public library. If they’ve got a subscription to something like JSTOR or another academic database, so much the better, though you can find a surprising amount of information just through free articles and excerpts on JSTOR at least. The website and app Coursera also has a modest but useful collection of free courses, some of which are designed to be completed in as little as two days, and the similar website/app edX has quite a few classes where you can access the materials freely enough and just won’t get credit toward any professional certificates unless you pay them. I’ve done some studies also through Modern States, which is completely free as far as I remember and aimed at preparing people for exams that could, in theory, allow someone to test out of their freshman year of college or university. I have the very vague impression that Khan Academy sometimes gets mixed reviews, but I’ve found it a useful resource before. I’m sure this list also only just scratches the surface of what’s out there, too, since these are just resources I’ve personally used.

**** One of these was a LiveJournal, to give you some idea of how long ago this was…The other, in the category of “less obvious places to look,” was a collection of tea-tasting logs from a website called steepster; some users use/at least used to use their logs as a sort of journal/social media as well as a place to review teas, and some of those people are really good writers. Haven’t been to steepster in a while, though, should probably peek in sometime to see if it and/or any of my favorite loggers are still around….

[jackitk]

No promises I'll finish this. (I have my own daily OC posting challenge going between Youtube Community posts and Bluesky.) But a lot of the prompts feels like a good way to get more lore of Overseer of the Elements out on the Internet.

So here's the first 5 days...

Day 1 & 3: Favorite/oldest OC. Sara and friend who premiered around 2006 but have been in my head much longer. Especially in the past, I often refer to the friend as "Jackit", but due to being the playable character of the hypnotical game, I tend to keep their name vague for narrative reasons. They premiered in 2006 but being the first OC I had, they've been around since I was a kid.

Day 2: Newest OC. Probably an OC that goes by the name of Ironra, if not her then her mother. She was part of a future timeline OC that I've kept mostly to myself for surprises in the future, but recently I repurposed her to appear in the main timeline, along with her mother to basically act as shopkeeper NPCs, at least to start off as.

Why is Sara my favorite? I probably could spend an entire day just on that. But I think it boils down to a combination of having her for so long and having a blend of a lot of traits I like from fictional characters, both personality and design. She really is a comfort character that will likely have a staring role in the series when it gets off the ground.

Day 4: Bob and Steve Created as parodies back when I made gag comics of a TV sketch I saw, which TBH the show probably based their characters off Red VS Blue. Often the butt of jokes and have little to no concept of the 4th wall.

Day 5: This is a long story. So Overseer of the Elements will have a Mentalist of each element. Water, fire, wind, and Earth. (Technically 2 others but that's a whole other story.) Out of the four, the wind element has had the most changes.

First was Tim who was the first wielder. Eventually I recon him to be the be the big brother of the new wind wielder, Kris.

Along the line I came up with Nayla who basically replaced Kris and left me unsure what to do with Tim. I was initially planning on redesigning Tim to better fit the role of Nayla's big brother. But that might be better just to do with a different character. I think I can still fit Kris and Tim in the Overseer of the Elements world somewhere, but I still have yet to decide how. Though I think if Kris and Nayla where to meet, they'd get along very well. So maybe I'll do something with that.

Here's the prompt for anyone looking to follow along...

[creativesplat]

Mipha!

Mipha… where do I start!? 

First impression: 

I thought she was a very pretty fish-lady, and was instantly blown away by how romantic her memory with Link was (some poeople already know, but before I played the game I looked at fan art and stuff and really liked the concept of ZeLink people were drawing - it must be a canon ship if people are so intense about it right? and I almost always fall for the canon ship in a piece of media. So I got into the game wanting to rescue the princess Link was in love with. Turns out that princess wasn’t Zelda, and from my first impression I was like ‘oh ok, so we’re not avenging zelda then… we’re avenging fish’

Impression now: 

She was so wonderful why did she have to die!! Link loved you, your design is so cool, why did you die!! A strong powerful (dagnam play AoC and you’ll see what I mean) warrior princess who loved her people and her family and Link. what a woman she was (and is in aoc).

Favorite moment: 

Okay, so I know its a bit basic and there are some awesome moments in AoC (like the date her and link so on) but the first memory, the first time you’re introduced to her, it still gives me chills. Mipha's touch is and always will be my fave. I love it. 

Idea for a story: 

The tensions between Hyrule and Zora’s domain bubble over, leading to a siege or something, and link betrays Hyrule to join Mipha and bring the war to an end. 

Ooh another one: Link tries to run away from the duty assigned to him and is forcibly kept at the castle by Rhoam but the champions help zelda and link and they leave central hyrule to try and figure out the various powers without the added trapped in the castle stuff. Mipha rescues link from a tower like rapunzal effectively. 

Unpopular opinion: 

Link should have rescued her instead being with Zelda during the calamity. She was strong and could battle effectively, but if Link had gone with her, they would have dominated water blight as a badass couple. If link and mipha had defeated water blight, they could have joined the rest of the champions (due to the sheikhah slate being available for teleportation), weaken Gannon through attacking the blights and then go and kick is butt in the castle. What a good happy ending that is! (I think I just described AoC a little bit…) anyway. 

Favorite relationship: 

LINK AND MIPHA THEYRE SO CUTE TOGETHER AND SO BADASS AND I LOVE THEM. 

They are the perfect couple, and the proposal armour is just so sweet and I adore them both :) 

Favourite headcanon: 

Oooh. There’s a lot to pick from… 

The symbols on the Zora armour represent Link and Mipha’s marriage, and tying the families together:

the Rhombus with the luminous stone is what I head canon Link’s family sigil/ crest to be:

And obviously the three cresents are Mipha’s family crest 

And here we see them combined, with a white stone in the middle 

White gems are often related to hope (link), healing (mipha), unity, and wholeness. So a unity between the rhombus and the crescents and the ideas of healing and hope? Am I reaching. Yes. Do I also love this head canon? Yes. 

2) Link understands Zoran (the Zora language) but can’t speak it very well on account of the fin movement and whistling required. Mipha regularly says ‘I love you’ or other comforting things via subtle tail or fin movements when in company. He has little hand gestures he uses, sign shorthand I guess, to tell her the same.

3) the champions all knew about Mipha and Link's relationship. because their little found family deserves to have a fun time trying to set them up on dates or make them do things together, so that even though things are tense between hyrule and the domain, the two can spend time together.

[doubleddenden]

Okay I had a whole thing typed that was my review for the new Pokémon dropped in Indigo Disk, but tumblr ate it, so take 2

Starting with my favorite, Archaludon. It's a dragon, a kaiju, also a stapler remover, also a bridge with power cables inside. This is a really cool design overall and fixes what I dislike about Duraludon, and it's fun to play with. 9/10

Hydrapple fixes what I dislike about Dipplin, but does make Flapple and Appletun a bit obsolete. Regardless, it's a fun idea and concept- I love that 7 Syrpents (which I guess aren't individually pokemon on their own? Slowbro Shelder situation I guess) make up 1 pokemon. It's silly but fun. 8/10

Also these two are neat because the concepts tie into New York/ Unova if we look at it through lense of Archaludon's Sky Arrow Bridge being based on Brooklyn Bridge and Rainbow Bridge, and Hydrapple clearly being a Big Apple reference. Very creative

Onto the paradoxes

Raging Bolt is interesting. I prefer Raikou, and I'll be the first to admit that I do not give a shit about how many cultural or historical references are in a design, if it looks like shit its a shit design. But this design is pretty okay, and because of that I can appreciate ALL of the inspirations that went into its design.

First off, with the Beast Paradoxes drawing inspiration from dinosaurs, we have Raging Bolt as the Thunder Lizard- aka Brontosaurus. That alone is meat, but it's still pretty mammalian compared to Walking Wake- that's because there's references to something called a Questing Beast. In Medieval times, before the age of cameras or fact checking, a description of an animal far far away- such a giraffe- can get twisted abd distorted via several games of telephone until we get to a creature that combines the lower body of a leopard and deer and the neck and head of a snake- aka the Questing Beast. Raging Bolt plays a bit with all of these ideas in a pretty unique and fun way. 8/10

Iron Crown- admittedly the Justice Paradoxes suffer a bit from the same "just make it a robot" mentality that plagues other Violet Paradoxes, but the Swords of Justice got the better end of it, I'd say. Iron Crowns in particular actually fixes what I hate about Cobalion by adding segments to the legs and thus making them feel less like bipedal knees on a quadrupedal animal.

It's signature move, Tachyon Cutter, also looks so cool in action by making the horns HUGE and GLOWING. That's awesome imo. 8/10

And now the new paradoxes we knew were coming

Gouging Fire, Entei's Paradox. I'll say that I like it, although this is the least changed of the Beasts and is basically just Entei in a fancy hat. Hey, that's fine though.

The dinosaur Entei is based on is some kind of ceratopsian blend. I personally thought they'd go in that direction with a triceratops design, so I was close. The head dress piece actually gives me Ho-Oh vibes, in particularly the gold and greens, which could be purposeful and root the Beasts Paradoxes back to the Beast's master, Ho-Oh. Fun design, 8/10

Iron Boulder. This one imo is more of the "robot" angle but done in a very good way. I like Terrakion best out of the Swords to begin with, but only at certain angles in 2d (they murdered him in SV. Murdered. He looks like a cross eyed frog now.) Iron Boulder takes the bulky build of Terrakion and makes it work better in 3d by incorporating spherical and cone builds along its body and head.

It definitely looks the LEAST like a psychic type out if any psychic type I've ever seen, but that's fine. Like Iron Crown with its twin horns and Iron Leaves with its 3 blades, Iron Boulder has a cool looking sword move- his turns his two larger horns into ONE MASSIVE GLOWING BLADE. THAT'S REALLY COOL! 8/10

And now. The Boy

Terapagos is a cute design that becomes more elegant, refined, and Stellar as it becomes stronger. While I'm a bit disappointed at how they handled it in story after a year of build up, I do think the designs after it's base form are incredibly detailed and creative.

The type patterns on its shell actually shift and change smoothly to other types, and the Terastilized form is even more incredible by representing every type plus a hat version of its original form. Beautiful, yet imposing, and a tad silly. The dome is an interesting take that I believe might represent the world or perhaps even a larger turtle- the design could reference one of many World Turtle mythologies and possibly have it represent a planet in space, or maybe a Turtle floating in the ocean, perhaps it's even a reference to the Tale of Urashima Taro. If Terapagos was available in Blueberry Academy- which I think it started out that way in planning- it could even represent the Terarium itself. Perhaps a deeper story was originally planned but dropped- like the castles and gigantic tree of Crown Tundra.

Regardless, base form is a 6/10. Its cute but kinda pointless. The other forms though are 8/10 though for incredible execution, wonderful and pleasing use of color, and overall just being great.

This batch of new Pokémon is way better than Teal Mask's, let's be real. For the paradoxes, I'll say the Future ones got better after Iron Leaves, while Walking Wake was the peak for the Beasts. Ogerpon wins for cutest legendary with the best build up, but Terapagos definitely wins for best design. This batch is an everall 8/10

[spmcomic]

What made you wanna create your comic?

to be honest, it was a combination of things!

the reason i made the first scene is because it had been a long time since i worked on an art piece, and i wanted to spend a school break creating designs for blumiere and timpani and draw a short comic with the two of them interacting. i already had everything i needed with memory 1, so i drew a few drafts of the characters, a few one- or two-panel sketches of the pair and the father character, a few thumbnails, and then put together the three-page scene.

one of my friends commented on the post on deviantart and said "great work, can't wait for the next one!" at which point i said "oh this was just a one-off, i'm not going to draw more."

we can see where that got me.

by next week, i had a notebook full of doodles, concepts for the rest of the gang, more interactions, and little plot lines. some of the mini comics were five pages long and covered the characters discussing their relationships, their backstories… stuff that looks very different in the final comic.

i guess i just ended up having a lot to say! a month later, i had a basic plot outline- a list of questions and their answers. three months later (during arc 3-ish), i had the first draft of a complete script with all the moments i wanted to include, and i committed to pursuing that plot line. six months later (during arc 4), i had an idea that i REALLY needed to share, and i rewrote all of my notes and put all of my ideas in a defined order with a set number of scenes (about 300) to make sure i could take every step necessary to get there.

i'm excited to draw every scene along the way. every page has something i love in it. this comic is a joy to create and i want to show you guys what i've been thinking about. it's been with me through a lot of rough patches in my life. it's my favorite thing that i've made, and even after six and a half years i still feel really good about the direction we're going to go in. i have a complete third draft of the script with about 276 scenes and i'm happy with it.

i found other fan works i've read over the years very inspiring… i think two major fics that found their way into my work were blue sky (portal 2) (webcomic here!!) and handplates (undertale). when i read that stuff, i think to myself "i want to make something that good and satisfying, i want to make more things like this." so i work my hardest to make stories like those.

anyway, if you got this far, thank you for hearing me out. i'm glad that the comic has resonated with a few people. your kind comments and interesting and fun questions help keep me going when i get discouraged. i know my story doesn't have much shipping in it or anything, but i wanted to tell this exact story with these exact characters and that's what i'm gonna do. i'm grateful to have anyone along for the ride, and i'm so happy that i've gotten to meet everyone i've met, and make friends along the way.

[izunias-meme-hole]

My Top 5 Favorite Zelda Villains (outdated)

Number 1. Ganondorf/Ganon - Honestly after so many years, Ganondorf still holds up as a villain. Ganon was the biproduct of a curse created by Demise to ensure that his hate is reincarnated just so he can destroy Link and Zelda’s descendants, and Ganondorf himself was born as the only male in a desert that belonged tribe to warrior women known as The Gerudo, eventually ending up as their king thanks to Gerudo traditions. Ganondorf had a huge presence in Ocarina of Time, manipulating you into locating the Triforce and immediately took over Hyrule during your time skip. In Hyrule Warriors, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and A Link To The Past, he adapts in some form either that be because of genuine character development, an ego increase, or a desire for revenge. However in Breath of the Wild, the end of all three timelines, he fully succumbs to Demise’s curse and uses his hate to create an entity known as Calamity Ganon. In short, Ganon started out as an intelligent and ambitious king, a man to be exact, but eventually he turned into a beast fueled by hate. Then in Tears of The Kingdom he returns, and not only so we learn that he DIDN’T succumb to Demise’s curse after all, we learn that 1,000 years ago, he reincarnated and began to EMBRACE it becoming the new Demon King in the process, and he came back to life to continue his reign. Overall Ganondorf is a surprisingly versatile and interesting take on a evil king, combining power with intellect, tragedy, anger, class, and pure EVIL which is why he’s the greatest villain in gaming history and fiction in general.

Number 2. Majora - When Nintendo was making Majora’s Mask, they KNEW that they couldn’t just make Ganondorf the villain again, so the developers cooked up a pretty great and just as iconic substitute. A batshit insane and mysterious mask that wants to hurl a moon into the planet and cause chaos! Majora is basically a childish eldrich abomination, and much like Ganondorf, he appears rarely throughout the story, yet we see the damage he’s pretty much caused to the land of Termina. Overall this insane cryptic is deserving of the number 2 spot on this list.

Number 3. Vaati, The Wind Mage - The king of underrated villains. Vaati could easily be compared to Ansem/Terranort from Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2. A young, ambitious, and curious apprentice explores the darkness in the hearts of men, becomes power hungry, and then becomes an insane creature of darkness. He’s also the only major Zelda villain to canonically appear in 3 games, a feat not even Ghirahim has achieved. Also I find it hilarious and sad that he basically went from “I need power” to “Hmm, I shall kidnap maidens and the Princess.” Bro really became lustful after he got his ass bear and lost his mind! In all seriousness though, Vaati is a Ganon tier villain, and I wouldn’t mind seeing him again. Such a shame that Nintendo ignores thie guy.

Number 4. Yuga - Yes, I know this guy is Lorulean equivalent of Ganondorf. Yes, I know that he hijacked Ganon instead of it being the other way around, but if I’m being honest… Yuga is a breath of fresh air when it comes to the classic timeline games, both as a concept and as an actual character. A Link Between Worlds is nowhere near perfect, but Yuga was an excellent villain, purely because he’s basically Ganondorf without the status as royalty, muscle to back his mind, commanding appearance, or the overwhelming power he’s known for. Yuga is a simple sorcerer and an “artist” who looks like a clown. The only things they share is they’re both manipulative, cunning, ambitious, and pure evil. In short, Yuga is a perfect subversion of Ganondorf, while still carrying that same sense of danger, and in terms of 2D Zelda villains he’s great.

Number 5. Ghirahim - The only Zelda villain who won succeeded in carrying out his plans, and it had serious consequences for the rest of the series. Ghirahim as a character is vain and flamboyant, but he is not a pushover in the slightest, which makes sense since he’s the literal sword of Demise! Still the fact that he did indeed free his master is impressive, and the best part is that is feels earned. What a magnificent bastard.

[cuubism]

20 questions for fic writers!

tagged by @arialerendeair :) wow this is an ambitious game XD

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

162

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

906,535. I'm trying to hit 1 mil by the end of the year so wish me luck 😂

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Basically just Shadowhunters and Sandman with occasionally forays into others.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

a lucky break(out) (2,457), mind & heart, body & soul (2,112), don't mess with the high warlock of brooklyn (1,723), In Waking Dreams (1,141), and Complex Mathematics (1,068). Kind of a surprising spread tbh.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Always, though it can take a while. It just feels nice to do.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Certainly After Life. Magnus died in that one.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmm, most of my fics have reasonably happy endings. The Silly Rabbit series is very happy. The chaotic whumptober fic Kidnapping Your Heart is basically just crack so I'd consider that one pretty happy too 😂

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Only rarely, and usually it's on fics that I'd considered relatively unobjectionable, like MHBS, which is funny. The more fucked up stuff doesn't get hate but the stuff I thought was casual and mainstream does 😂 dunno why

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes, though it's something I've had to get gradually more comfortable with over several years. With each fic I become further corrupted and venture into kinkier material. This can only be a good thing. I don't know exactly what we mean by what kind... I like when it's heavy on the feelings. Especially if the feelings are unspoken.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Usually no, but I threw Aziraphale and Crowley into Nightingales for one chapter. If I did ever write more crossovers it would probably only be between canons that seem to naturally meld together (like Good Omens and Sandman).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Well not that I know of [knock on wood]

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yup, Points of View was translated into Russian. Very cool.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Never in the direct sense of both contributing writing to the same document. I don't think that method would work well for me. But @magnusbae is my perennial brainstorming buddy who's crafted the backend story and vibes of so many of my fics, especially dreamling. I've done the same with @silver-lily-louise for some malec stories before too.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

I don't know if I have one. Malec maybe for sheer longevity. I'm usually obsessed with one thing at a time and then just not obsessed with it at all at other times XD

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oof. I'd still like to finish my malec wips XD I begin to fear that I won't, though, since some would be so long and I've made so little progress on them this year. Maybe, though.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue (also my favorite part to write). Creating weird concepts, magics, functions of the world and so on. Language & style.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Sometimes I have to remind myself to do character introspection. I'll get through an entire scene and realize I haven't remarked at all on what the POV character is feeling, shown it externally maybe but not had them actually reflect internally. It comes from a combination of two things: spending a while in school writing film scripts and internalizing that writing style (all visuals no internal narration), plus just being kinda dissociated from my own feelings most of the time 😂 my characters aren't feeling shit because neither am I. I also tend to overcomplicate my plots and get myself mired in them, it's the number one reason I get stuck on fics or don't manage to finish them.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I've only done it very very sparingly and I'm careful to get it right. Only used if it makes specific contextual sense.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Funnily enough it was probably also malec back when I was a teenager, before Shadowhunters show even existed, though I never posted anything then.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Oh gosh. For malec probably still dissolution. For dreamling I'm extremely fond of Deja vu, Deja connu, it really pushed me outside the bounds of the types of stories I usually gravitate towards, in a good way. At the moment more of my 'favs' are probably in sandman simply because changing fandoms forced me to up my game and expand my comfort zone, which was a good thing. I also really like how Patron Saint came out, I hadn't been that happy with a one shot in a while, and writing from Death's POV really helped me grasp her character better. One of my only fics that had a platonic relationship at its core, too.

tagging @pellaaearien, @tharkuun, @im-not-corrupted if you feel compelled to do 20 whole questions XD

[wrencatte]

For fic writer asks: 11, 33, 55

11. Link your three favorite fics right now.

Resilience by Flammabel - An act 3 Survivor canon divergence Cal-centric whump fic that has checked so many of my favorite whump tropes.

Incident at Hanger 37 by TariSilmarwen - "The Ghost, the Falcon, and the Mantis all descend upon the same Imperial facility." I was literally crying with laughter at so many parts.

do you taste my pain in this bloodstained place by avtorSola and revanchxst (BadWolfGirl01) - a spyscrapper canon divergent Inquisitor!Cal and Inquisitor!Bode fic. The whole fic is fantastic but there's like 2 or 3 chapters I go back and reread over and over again because of how beautiful they are. There's another series by them that only has one story so far of Cal leaving Bracca before the Inquisitorius shows up and he meets Bode and Kata, can't wait for that to update.

33. Do you want to be published some day?

I do! But also I don't! I have a handful of original ideas and I love my OCs to death, but I also really like the officially licensed novels that are out there of established ips. Legends/EU, DnD, Warhammer, the works. It's basically fanfiction but its not because it's (more or less) within the boundaries of canon. And I really like that concept.

55. Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite? Has that choice been swayed at all by your followers/readers’ reactions to certain ones?

Oh man. Jason Todd definitely. He made me realize what kind of genre I like writing for and that I can write fight scenes. I've just been writing the wrong kind. I'm loving Cal too because of his psychomentey, Force, and physical fighting combination. My readers/followers have no sway lol I write what I write and I like what I like. Sometimes I'll think of/write something that maybe isn't something that my followers/readers don't see and I ahem keep it to myself but yanno maybe I should stop that because who knows maybe someone might like it too!

Thanks for the ask! 🩷

[zzoupz]

oc questions !!! feel free to answer all or none :))

1. tell me about your favorite! (/pos)

2. tell me about your least favorite! (/pos) (stinky awful garbage man *gender neutral)

3. anything living in your head rent free? story concept, single scene without context, oc concept you wont get around to making?

4. tell me about your favorite relationship (friendship included!) between ocs!

5. do you have a favorite oc name? what is it and how'd you get it?

6. anything driving you truly batshit? going insane over them?

7. tell me something sad about an oc!

8. tell me something sweet about an oc!

9. any ""retired"" ocs you still think about?

10. pick a favorite character n tell me three songs you think theyd like!

hihi! sorry this is a bit late I want to get back on my pc for this

1. oh damn I have multiple favorites! I think ones that I enjoy the most (at the moment) are them

(yellow: Lee Harrison | blue: Bryan Dickinson)

they are basically a (in the 2000s) newbie punk band formed by two friends who are like brothers to each other. they bonded over both having not so great families (not like tragic-backstory awful but yknow. the average traditional family)

yeah I still can't figure out what their band name would be. yeah since 2020. sorry. such is life.

while they're not the ones I've wrote the most about, as in not much at all, I just really like them :)

2. Bartholomew. I used to like him then I realize how generic he is so I hate him now (/j) (yeah I actually do want to post about him less though)

3. been thinking about the dynamic normal human x immortal who finds them in every life. so simple and common but I go insane over it every time. I think it would be fun

4. ohohohoho man ok here are some in no particular orders

Time & Denial core, Denial/Dan (black hair, also the last image) is by @/ akamavarii

they were basically our coresonas, but they've became their own characters at this point so I think it counts

friends who commits OSHA violations together!!!

they share 1 brain cell and takes turns over it like an Xbox (quote from ami himself)

Iandithas & Lumeous (if you noticed one of the name changed its bc I did)

a bard & a wizard duo who are retired and are now a shopkeeper & a chemist

its funny I care about them this much bc Lumeous was supposed to be a dad and a side character to my other oc and Iandithas was a doodle of a random guy and now they mean the world to me

there have been like 5 people who pointed out that they look like a couple and you're right and I fucking hate that you're right. and they were roommates etc

Overseer / Conqueror

this one is new very obviously but I've been thinking about them for a LONG while.

friends to lovers to enemies heehoo heehoo heehoo heehoo heeh

can you tell I like it when queer relationships

5. Fakzky HAS to have my favorite origin. fun fact there's a bot on facebook that would combine the names of their followers (only if they request, don't worry) and it was my source of inspo for my fantroll names in 2020, Fakz is the only one I took completely from it and the post is still there!

6. the 35 awesome and cool animatics that exists in MY mind

7. oh man I don't wanna say something sad :( mostly bc I'm bad at it and it would sound cringe :(

8. I have a plague doc oc and she has 3 pet rats ^_^ they're all named after murderers from the bible but yeah whatever

(Dias Cain Jael in that order btw)

9. hmmm them I think. I make stuff about them way less nowadays but still draw them time to time. Cath is from 2018 and funnily is originally a fusion of two characters. and Danya is from early 2021 when I was just trying stuff out. I made them friends just cuz I think they look like they would do drugs together

10. I have no idea man I created them not know them (I am so so bad at this)

[shyguycity]

It's been a while since I made a formal game of the year list on this page; in 2020, my now wife and I decided to make an entire fanzine about my favorite games of the year, which ballooned in size and scope from there. If you're interested, you can find the link to the (free!) magazine, Critical Diversions, as well as see what else I've been up to in the gaming space, over at https://twitter.com/crit_diversions. It was written by five people, myself included, layoutted into a magazine format by me, and with some lovingly done illustrations made by my wife. We've also started a discord, games club, and podcast, all under the Critical Diversions banner, if any of that sounds appealing to you.

Since that magazine project, I haven't really had the creative energy to write a full game of the year list the way that I used to. Until now! 2023 has been the most incredible year for game releases that I've been alive to see, and there's so much to be excited for and talk about, I just couldn't resist anymore, despite the fact that we're gearing up to do a community game of the year podcast. But before we get to the top 10 list proper....

Honorable Mentions:

We Love Katamari ReRoll + Royal Reverie

The original We Love Katamari, released on the Playstation 2 in 2005, was already one of my favorite games ever made, so it's borderline unfair of Namco to release an absolutely perfect HD remaster of it in 2023. Namco must've thought so, too, because this was one of my most anticipated games of the year, and I didn't even realize it had released until I happened to see it on the eShop. To the uninitiated, Katamari games task you with rolling up real world objects with your sticky katamari ball, growing bigger and bigger as you go, all with the intent of making your katamari big enough to make stars in the sky. It's a simple yet delightful enough concept on its own to be enjoyed by anyone, but add in an unmeasurable amount of charm and one of the greatest soundtracks ever made, and it's easy to see why this goofy little series has persisted for over two decades now.

For my money, this is the best entry in the series, practically spilling over with creative and fun new ways and reasons to roll over innocent bystanders and animals with a space ball given to you by your negligent, abusive father, who is also basically god. Oh did I forget to mention that there's an actual well told narrative with a genuinely emotional-but-not-saccharine message at its core? Buy this fucking game y'all, I've already seen it for as low as 15 dollars.

Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster

Final Fantasy as a series misses way more often than it hits, for me. Yeah I love 7, its remake, 10, and 10-2, but by and large, every other entry I've tried to spend time with has left me incredibly cold (looking at you in particular, 6). Between craving a turn-based RPG and having the flu earlier this year, I decided to take a chance on the pixel remaster version of 5, released on consoles for the first time in 2023. Imagine my surprise when it became hands down my favorite entry in the series, as well as one of my favorite RPGs I've ever played.

Not to say that what's presented here hasn't been improved upon in the past 30 years; Octopath Traveler 2, a game we'll be talking about in my actual top 10, seemed to base its entire design around "Hey remember Final Fantasy 5? Let's make a way more open and less restricted version of that". Still, though, what FF5 was doing as an early Super Famicom game is pretty impressive; boasting a fairly open-ended job and multiclass system that's absolutely begging you to make as many fun combinations as you can imagine with your party members, it's a game that's infinitely more replayable than your average Final Fantasy fare, despite its lacking (but not horrible!) story. I ran through the game with a samurai that could also shoot hoardes of squirrels and bees out of my pockets, so you know it's a great game.

Super Mario RPG

Look, you'll never convince me that Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door aren't both wildly inferior to the original Paper Mario on the Nintendo 64. I've held this belief (and grudge against these other Mario spinoff fandoms) for most of my life, and I will continue to do so. And I say this as someone whose first exposure to RPGs was renting the original version of this game as a seven-year-old!

"It's too simple!" I would always bleat feebly in the general direction of the nearest hardcore Geno fan whenever this game was brought up. "It's a solid blueprint for what was to come later, but largely feels like a rough draft, a 16-bit Final Fantasy with a Mario coat of paint!" And, yeah, I am right about all of those things, and I'll continue to never let any of you forget it. But in 2023, playing this remake of one of Nintendo's most annoyingly favorited fan favorites, I couldn't help but let myself get washed away in its charms. There's no build variety or real "role-playing" to speak of, you can 100% the game in like 12 hours, and you just generally never have to turn your brain on while playing the game at all. Call it softness, call it old age, call it just really being in the mood for a cute and charming little adventure, but I fell in love with this game and its world in a way I never was able to previously. Bring on that Thousand-Year Door remaster next, Nintendo; I'm in a forgiving mood.

Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania

Speaking of being in a forgiving mood, did y'all know that I thought the original 1.0 release of Dead Cells was incredibly boring? Released in 2018, this sidescrolling roguelite was getting a ton of accolades at the time that had me extremely excited. That's not to say that it was bad, of course; I could see the markings of a well made game, and obviously the game was appealing to someone out there, with all the praise it received. But after 10 hours with it I deleted it off my Switch, thinking I'd never.........return.

It only took five years and a paid Castlevania expansion to make me give this game another look, but I'm glad I did, because I would put this pretty high up there on my all-time roguelite list now. To be clear, most of my issues with this game still remain, mostly that it gets repetitive much sooner than you'd expect of a game with as much content as this does. But instead of cooling on it 10 hours in like I did back in 2018, I got over 60 hours and dozens upon dozens of runs in before calling it quits on Dead Cells this time.

And if you're a Castlevania dork, honestly, just pick this up. There's more than enough love and fanservice here to keep even the most ardent of Castlevania freaks crying bloody tears, including the ability to replace the entire soundtrack with Castlevania songs, most of them the original version but with some new compositions included. Roguelite shredding in a video game hasn't been this good since Hades.

Now...the actual list.

10. Marvel's Spider-Man 2

No one is more down on open world checklist collectathons than I am; the idea of spending over 100 hours playing a modern Assassin's Creed game honestly makes my tummy hurt. And by and large, Spider-Man 2 doesn't stray far from this design template. You run, jump, swing, and glide all over New York City, stopping burglaries and car chases on your way to the next story objective or side mission, leveling up and spending points on various skill trees to level your Spider-Men up to gain new/upgrade old abilities, rinse and repeat. Structurally, this game isn't really doing anything different from the previous two Spider-Man games from developer Insomniac, and yet this entry was an absolute joy to play to me in way those weren't.

Largely, I think it's the pacing of the game. And not just on a macro scale, though I do think that's improved here as well. No, for me it was most noticeable in the combat; no longer are you holding down a button to freeze time and pull up a gadget wheel and having Spider-Man select one of his little science tools to shoot out before doing a few melee attacks and web shots. Instead, all of your gadgets and super moves are activated in real time with different button combinations. It might sound breathlessly dorky, but that simple change really sold the illusion of playing a Spider-Man simulator to me, and not just a Ratchet and Clank game with a Spider-Man skin.

The story I also found to be a wholesale improvement over the last two games, albeit with the caveat that the symbiote and Venom storyline almost never come across as anything beyond tryhard 90s edgelord shit in any form of media. Truly, I think Venom is just a straight up awful character, and is even worse here than usual, and I was exceptionally tired of Peter's gruff mean guy voice by the end of his time wearing the symbiote. Miles more than made up for any issues I had with the Peter side of the story, and with the way the game's story leaves off, I hope to see that character again sooner than Spider-Man 3 in another half decade.

9. Pikmin 4

This feels like Pikmin's big breakout moment as a series. And honestly, maybe my biggest surprise of the year isn't how great this game was, but how many other people were (finally) raving about Pikmin. The fact that it's this relatively low on my own list when most people I know that played it have it near the top of theirs shocks, while also making me feel pretty damn great about Pikmin's future.

From a casual perspective it's pretty easy to see why this has been such a hit for the series. It retains all the charm and cuteness and great gameplay loop of previous games in the series, while making a ton of smart changes along the way. New to 4: a fully adjustable camera that makes you feel way more involved in the action (and see all of the impossibly cute death happening around and to you); a whole host of quality of life changes, like being able to move your spaceship around each stage at will to have a more accessible base of operations; bonafide multifloor dungeons where you're able to soak in some of the best aspects of Pikmin's gameplay without worrying about time passing; "dandori battles", both against the CPU or local rivals where you aim to manage your armies as efficiently as possible; and partner space dog Oatchi, who can help you and your little army of dudes in whatever way you see fit, from battling to carrying to scouting, thanks to an honest to god skill tree. In a Pikmin game! Who woulda thought.

Honestly though, as great as this game was, I can't help but pine for the more complex level and puzzle design of Pikmin 3, as well as the local splitscreen cooperative play of Pikmin 3 Deluxe. That second feature in particular was sorely, sorely missed in our household, as Pikmin 3 Deluxe's sublime coop is some of the most fun I've ever had playing a video game with my wife. Here's hoping the now inevitable Pikmin 5 manages to bring these missing elements home, much like my group of 100 Pikmin carrying an entire watermelon the size of a small mountain back to our spaceship for the day.

8. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

Besides just being a great year in game releases, 2023 was also the year where my expectations were subverted many times over. I'd seen plenty of overhyped indie spiritual successors to fan favorite games from the late 90s and early 2000s come and go, so my interest level for BRCF as someone that's never played a Jet Set Radio game couldn't have been much lower. But that's all on me, because if I'd known that this game and its inspirations were essentially just 3D platformers dressed up as a 2002 cyberpunk anime that'd air at 2am on Toonami, I'd have been all over it much sooner.

This game effortlessly pulls off everything I value in 3D platformers. The level designs are masterful and well thought out while still feeling organic instead of just abstract obstacle courses (the game does dabble into the latter at times, and they're some of the most standout moments as well). Being set in a city, it's naturally got a large emphasis on verticality that I think not enough games in this space bother with; I want to feel my stomach drop when I miss landing on a grind rail half a mile in the sky, even if falling from that far has no consequences beyond needing to pull off the platforming section again. And unlike the earlier Tony Hawk games, I'm free to explore each environment to my heart's content, looking for new songs to add to my playlist or spots just begging to be tagged with graffiti. Wrap all of this up in a style and soundtrack that are both just fucking cool, and what else could I really ask for? Well, besides just more of this, please.

7. Resident Evil 4

In a year full to the brim with remakes, remasters, and revisits, Resident Evil 4 is the one with the most expectations put on it, due to not only the pedigree of the original RE4 (often cited as one of the best games of all time, and surely the catalyst for the modern over the shoulder third-person shooter), but the obscenely high quality of Capcom's other recent remakes from the series; 2019's Resident Evil 2 remake, in particular, being one of the best big budget games of the last half decade, by my estimation. A lot of fans cited RE4 as both "impossible" and "pointless" to remake, though I imagine those same fans were the ones most anxiously waiting for this remake to drop with bated breath.

The end result? RE4 as a remake can't live up to the lofty expectations a lot of people probably hoped it could, not really, but I think it's also one of the most successful video game remakes I've ever had the pleasure of playing, in terms of the fun factor. The gaming landscape has changed a lot since 2005, a lot of that change because of RE4, so what do you even do to make a revisit under a modern lens worthwhile? I think Capcom didn't fully know the answer to that question, as the biggest mechanical additions to this game are the ability to parry the vast majority of attacks with your knife, and erm....craftable ammo? You'll of course find a handful of new enemies and remixed encounters, an even fewer amount of new weapons, and a couple welcome completely redone areas, like a mini open sandbox where you're free to explore the shores of a lake, and a much more clever and interesting version of the brief time spent playing as Ashley.

This might all sound like damning with faint praise, but truly, Capcom's ability to thread the needle here and deliver an honest to god, full on remake of RE4 with modern production values and budget, all without compromising the vision of the original, AND managing to make the remake tonally fit with the current vision of the extended Resident Evil universe? There's some black magic at work here, surely. Or at the very least some ancient parasite bugs at large.

6. Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe

Kirby is the best Nintendo series, and this is an excellent remaster of one of the best Kirby games. What more is there to say? The only reason this isn't top three of the year material is because, well, I played it when it originally released on the Wii. But what's your excuse, coward?

I often hear the refrain of "Kirby games just aren't for me", and I used to humor that line of thinking, largely to avoid prolonged contact with dumb babies. But that dies today, and so will you if you don't stop being a dweeb. High quality sidescrolling brawlers with lite platforming elements and puzzle solving, set to some of the best music ever made for the medium, sporting an adorable aesthetic that's used as set dressing to cover up some of the best backstory and lore this side of Dark Souls? That's not for you? What is for you then, besides being a sad weirdo that still waxes nostalgic about the girl you held hands with once in middle school? Her mom dropped you two off at the theater once to see White Chicks and she never thought about you again. Grow up. Change something about your life. Kirby's got more charm and delight in whatever his puffy mass equivalent to a pinky is than Super Mario Bros. Wonder managed to wearily attempt to slump over its shoulder for an entire game. Y'all should be ashamed.

...

I dunno what this bit is anymore, so let's pivot back to normalcy. Yes, I know, I know, I'm the Kirby guy. It's my favorite gaming series, hell, maybe my favorite franchise in any medium period. But I'm also not blind to its faults and missteps, such as 2018's Star Allies. When I tell you that Return to Dreamland Deluxe, a remaster of a game I played over a decade ago, now with additional content, is one of my favorite games of 2023, I really mean it. The base game was already excellent, and the first entry of the modern era of Kirby, under the helm of Shinya Kumazaki. A new cel shading-adjacent rendering, coupled with completely new abilities Sand and Mech on top of perhaps the overall best set of copy abilities in a Kirby game, really help make the game feel fresh; Sand's combo and damage per second capability in particular is through the roof, while not feeling imbalanced.

The meat of the new content, however, is the new epilogue, in which you play as fan favorite character Magolor. Magolor plays very differently from Kirby, eschewing copy abilities and quicker movement for magic, and the game also introduces an honest to god skill tree into the series. This mini adventure culminates in not only what is probably my favorite boss fight of the year, but an in-universe lore explanation for why Magolor shows up in spinoff Kirby games adorned in green instead of blue and trading in crystal apples.

That may sound goofy and extremely in the weeds, and it is, but for a man in my mid-30s that's been beyond bored of Nintendo's refusal to do any significant kind of world building or storytelling in almost any of their mainline games, Kirby manages to continuously surprise and delight me with both its gameplay and universe in a way no other Nintendo game is even interested in trying. The Super Mario games should take heed.

5. Octopath Traveler 2

I played both demos for the original Octopath Traveler back before that game came out, and to say I didn't like it would be an understatement! The writing was at best flat, and at worst, overtly sexist (and that was just from a demo!), I found the battle system to be clunky, and the thing most people praised it for, its "HD2D" approach to graphics, I found quite ugly; it seemed to be throwing away any attempt at an actual artstyle in favor of cranking a bunch of photoshop filters up to max and letting people ooh and aah over some particle effects and oversaturated lighting. Great soundtrack, at least.

I couldn't tell you what drove me to check out the demo for 2, but I did, and instantly, something clicked for me that didn't in my limited experience with the original. Full disclosure, I haven't finished this game yet, and in fact I don't think I'm even halfway through. And that's a shame, because I think it could honestly rise even higher up this list, based on what I've already played. The battle system is fast and snappy, as long as I'm paying close enough attention to all the information on screen, like enemies weaknesses and my current BP situation. The overworld feels far more inspired by popup books than I remember 1's world feeling like, while still retaining the gorgeous battle sprites that the original excelled in. The soundtrack is an all-timer, to put it lightly. Even the writing for the characters, while still nowhere approaching the rest of the game's strong points, feels less like it works exclusively in lazy caricatures and broad stereotypes. Yeah there's a merchant character named Partitio from an old west-styled silver mining town, and yes I was just as worried about that fact as you probably are reading that sentence. And yet, Partitio has honestly become one of my favorite characters of the year, his desire to use his mercantile skills to ease the burdens of the working class only being outshone by the electric guitars and saxophone in his theme song.

What truly impresses with Octopath Traveler 2, though, is its sheer openness. The world is, while not quite your oyster right from the start, pretty dang free form for the most part, allowing you to go recruit your party members and explore towns and monster-filled wildlands in whatever order you see fit. This extends to the job system, which affords you the most freedom to truly make whatever kind of team you see fit I've ever seen in a game of this kind. I'm currently multiclassing my cleric, Temenos, into a scholar, and I've rarely felt cooler/dorkier at the same time, wielding nearly every magic type offered in the game at once with one world-weary church inquisitor. Just typing up this entry has got me itching to get back to the game, hoping to discover even more jobs to multiclass the rest of my crew into.

Take it from me, someone who as little as a few years ago felt pretty much over turn based RPGs, especially those coming out of Square-Enix: this game is very worth your time, regardless of your feelings towards the series, or even genre as a whole.

4. 30XX

In a year chockful of exceedingly excellent roguelites (Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania, Risk of Rain Returns, Cobalt Core, Vampire Survivors, just to name a few), 30XX stands tall above the rest for me, not just in terms of quality, but also in its ability to completely take over my gaming time for a couple months. This has all the trappings you expect from a game with the structure of a roguelite; permadeath resulting in having to start your entire run over, unlockable items and stat upgrades purchasable with currency carried over from the run you just died in, powerups that you collect during a run to give yourself a fighting chance (and which force you to make on-the-fly decision making about how best to synergize your build), and a white knuckle intensity that makes the runs when you really start to shred feel all the more rewarding, albeit no less anixety inducing.

What ends up separating 30XX from any other game in this admittedly crowded space is that it's essentially a roguelite take on Mega Man X4, the beloved Playstation 1 entry in an even more beloved series. X4 was the first game that really fleshed out lightsaber wielding cool guy Zero as a fully playable character, for the first time letting you play through the entire game as both him and series protagonist X. 30XX makes no bones about its inspiration; Nina, the blue one, is the X equivalent, meaning you'll be primarily shooting enemies with your arm cannon, while Ace, the red one, slices and dices with an energy sword, just like Zero. Likewise, the (absolutely gorgeous) spritework and extremely catchy soundtrack are doing their best to evoke the oft overlooked aesthetic and sounds of 2-D games from the Playstation 1. Rounding out the package are full-featured coop, both local and online, community made levels, daily and weekly seeded runs with leaderboards, and the promise of even more updates, including new characters(!!).

Even Mega Man series staples you might not expect to show up in a roguelite take on the formula end up being major focuses of the game, like gaining new abilities from defeating bosses. The game even takes that mechanic a step further, letting you mix and match two abilities to form completely new ones, like combining your black hole and homing lightning abilities to create a barrage of homing lightning strikes emanating from a swirling void. Or, in true roguelite fashion, you can even forego an ability from a boss altogether, if a different reward suits you. And that's just if you're playing as Nina! Ace gets an entirely different set of abilities and mechanics, all built around melee capabilities and close quarters combat.

If any of this sounds appealing to you, you're probably now asking yourself "why have I never heard of this game?" And I truly can't answer that, as this feels like it should already be a revered indie darling on the level of Shovel Knight or Super Meat Boy. If you're a Mega Man fan, please do yourself a favor and check this out. There's even a separate mode that minimizes the roguelite elements, including a removal of permadeath, if that suits you! This is a better Mega Man X revival than you'll likely ever see out of Capcom, if a day even ever comes for that at all. It also happens to be better than just about any official Mega Man game Capcom has ever put out, as well.

3. Sephonie

My personal gaming identity feels inexorably linked to Analgesic Productions, the two person development team that's putting out the best indie games most people have never even heard of. The only thread on Resetera I've ever made was solely for the purpose of evangelizing Anodyne 2: Return to Dust, a game that resonated so hard with me the effects are still reverberating outwards, as my habit of recommending that game anywhere I go has helped me forge genuine friendships (and probably gotten me on to a few government watch lists). Even the Ocean was the third game my friends and I covered in our games club, and was by far and away the best talk I've ever had about video games, sparking a creative spirit in me for months afterward. Marina Kittaka and Melos han-tani make some real affecting fucking games, is what I'm saying, and the idea of trying to sum up what makes Sephonie so special (and maybe even my favorite of their impressive work) is a bit daunting.

At its most base level, Sephonie is a 3-D platformer not dissimilar from the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, or even the above Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, albeit without any wheels; instead of tilting the analog stick to move at whatever angle you want, you hold a button to run forward, the stick's sole purpose being to make adjustments to direction. Your mobility on its own isn't very versatile, and getting around requires careful and clever use of the environment to do wall runs and jumps, grabbing giant dandelions to float, landing on mushrooms to bounce, etc.

Even for a self-proclaimed platformer guru (maybe even especially for one!), the movement feels unwieldy or even downright intimidating at first. But in Analgesic we trust, and by the end of my initial 8 hour or so playthrough of the game, I felt like a parkour god, able to pull off complex maneuvers that I would have never been able to dream of in the opening sections of the game. Coming to grips with the controls and eventually mastering them was one of the biggest joys I experienced in video games this year; don't go into this expecting s Super Mario Odyssey-level of 1:1 control that lets you immediately start flowing through the environment like a hot knife through butter, because that's decidedly not the point here. Despite what the past few console generations have taught us, we don't need standardized controls across every game, as all that would serve to do here is sand down the distinct personality and learning opportunities presented in Sephonie.

Rounding out the gameplay are linking puzzles. The three playable characters are researchers who have come to the remote island of Sephonie to study its unique animal and plant life. Linking with each new lifeform you discover presents you with tile-based block puzzles, which end up being a nice change of pace from the platforming. As a testament to just how much love and care was put into Sephonie, the vast majority of these linking puzzles each have unique mechanics, be it teleporting tiles, tiles that are blocked and need busted open by matching blocks on adjacent tiles, tiles that multiply your point total, creatures that travel the puzzle and alter when and where you're even able to place your tiles, etc. With some tweaks, the link puzzles could be a whole game unto itself, and it's really impressive!

That's all well and good, but the main reasons I come to Analgesic games are the unbelievably good writing and even unbelievably-er soundtracks, and both are where Sephonie truly shines for me. Unfortunately, to talk too much about the story here would be bordering on a cardinal sin, and you're better off listening to some of the music on your own. Why not try the entire playlist here?

The previously mentioned Anodyne 2 opens by telling you it's a game about life. That's a bit of an understatement for me with Analgesic's games in general, but Sephonie might be the best example of "a game about life" that I can think of. As someone that grew up in a midwestern town full of basically nothing but nothingness and corn, the Bloomington, Illinois section of the game is without a doubt the most beautiful segment of any game I've ever played, and the main thing I keep coming back to with this game even six months later. I've never been so simultaneously full of nostalgia, regret, disdain, self-loathing, and fond memories as I was while platforming around an abstract dreamscape version of a midwestern town right off the highway. And I don't think I've ever related to a character in any fictional work as much as I did when Amy was talking about feeling lucky she was born in a small town, because it made learning how to drive much less intimidating.

If there's one game on this list I would beg someone to give a shot, it would be Sephonie. Hell, if there was one game I could force anyone to play, Sephonie might be taking that spot as well. As a thorough contemplation of what it means to be alive, and what connecting with one another can truly mean and feel like, there's no better work of art out there today, and certainly not one anywhere near as fun, either.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

What can I say about TotK that hasn't already been expressed in a million think pieces, essays, and podcasts across the entire internet by now? As a direct followup to 2017's stellar Breath of the Wild, I had concerns going in - would the magic still be there? Is exploring the same incarnation of Hyrule going to be fun when I know all of the broad strokes already? Are the bosses not going to suck this time? The answer to all of these is a resounding "absolutely", but there's so much more on offer here.

Everything in this game makes BotW feel like a rough draft, a sentence I never in a million years thought I'd be typing prior to getting my hands on the game. Any mechanic you can think of that you loved in the prior Zelda entry is either improved upon here or excised for something infinitely more interesting. The Sheikah slate abilities from BotW feel not only basic, but downright boring compared to the powers on offer in this sequel. Who cares about being able to spawn bombs at will when I can fuse batwings to arrows to make them fly further? Or just swim through through the damn ceiling!? To say nothing of the fact that you can build basically anything your imagination can spring into existence, from cars to rocket ships to pilotable mechs to lawn mowers. And it all....just....works, somehow, not only tonally with the game's world, but also from a game perspective. The game even lets you have five CPU controlled companion characters out at the same time, every one acting independently to take down enemies near you! It feels like your Switch is going to collapse under the weight of this game's ambition at any moment, and yet I put over 300 hours into the game with not a single crash in sight.

If there's one thing I can complain about, it's that the story feels like an actual afterthought, to the degree that it actually bummed me out, even as someone with rock bottom expectations when it comes to story in a Zelda game. The marketing REALLY hyped up the return of longtime series antagonist Ganondorf, and he just....kind of has no motivation for anything he's doing here. I'm not asking for much, and there are genuinely great character moments lightly sprinkled throughout the game's runtime, mostly with princess Zelda herself. But I couldn't help but imagine how much harder some story beats could have hit if Nintendo, again, actually even attempted to give people the tiniest but of anything to chew on when it comes to the stories they're telling.

But whatever, I've got a catapult to build to launch me and a korok buddy up a damn mountain.

Baldur's Gate 3

Like most people who cut their gaming teeth on more straightforward action fare on consoles, the term "CRPG" (computer RPG) seemed beyond out of reach for me. Dice rolls? Skill checks? Playing as a charisma based character to persuade bosses to kill themselves instead of having to fight them? READING!? Uh, I'm an American, thank you very much; I like my video games game-y and my gravy portion extra, ma'am, and I don't have the patience to think about probability and stats.

So imagine my surprise when, after my wife started playing the game on her own, I found myself itching to get into the character creator myself. Not the moment to moment gameplay, mind you, but the character creator, a step I'm notorious for getting through as fast as possible so I can start "actually playing", even if I'm stuck with a boring default character named Goober. Something about watching my wife agonize over which horn style and subrace to go with on her tiefling bard, which hairstyle and color looked cutest and would match her vision of how she was going to roleplay in the world, stirred something in me I didn't know existed. While she was perusing all the customization options, I spied the class "monk" and a race called "dragonborn", some anthropomorphic dragon people with a lot of pretty color options for their scales that also affect your elemental resistances. "Yes," I thought to myself. "I'd like to make a humanoid lizard dude that punches shit to death. I'd like that very much". And before my wife was barely out of the tutorial section on her first character, we were already backing out to make a second save file where we would play the entire thing cooperatively, fretting over the decisions and romance options each step of the way together. I got to make my silverscale (that means he's got ice powers, baby) dragonborn monk, Shikai, and the following 300+ hours (and counting!) with Baldur's Gate 3 have been the most fun I've ever had playing a video game.

Would I be as gobsmacked with the game if I was intimately familiar with the genre? Maybe not, but I guess that's my point. Living with my wife and playing games together has completely changed how I engage with a lot of them; Animal Crossing was basically a cute chores and debt repayment simulator with a dash of fishing on the side until watching my wife play the game for thousands of hours taught me the joy of decorating.

Elden Ring was her first foray into the Souls-like genre; she had a similar reaction watching me play the opening hour of Elden Ring as I had watching her in the BG3 character creator, growing increasingly frustrated as she watched me putz around making a boring dexterity based samurai character when what she wanted to see was some faith-based holy magic in action. Despite my love of Souls-likes, I had always just made standard melee based characters in them, usually katana wielding doofuses; I'm an American, I don't know a lick about incantations, I HATE thinking, and please keep your Wes Anderson movies to yourself, ma'am.

But as I saw how much fun my wife was having shooting fireballs and throwing lightning bolts at enemies, I eventually started speccing my dexterity character into intelligence as well, making a samurai sorcerer, undeniably the only thing cooler than a normal samurai. That's not to say that playing Elden Ring with a melee exclusive character is wrong, but just that with a touch of curiosity and willingness to take the tiniest step outside of my comfort zone, a comfort zone I didn't even realize was as tiny as it was, I opened up a whole new way of enjoying a game I already loved playing. Learning to enjoy Baldur's Gate 3 feels like I've opened the door to an entire new avenue in my mind, waiting for me to fill it with opinions about games I've been avoiding my whole life. I'm gonna actually make a concerted effort to finally play stuff like Mass Effect and Disco Elysium sometime soon, two games I had preemptively decided years ago were just "not for me", and I'm genuinely excited about it.

This entry is so long already, and I didn't even mention anything about how the game actually plays (it's the best turn-based battle system I've ever experienced, to say nothing of the freedom you're afforded to solve every single scenario presented to you in the game.

Or anything about the characters (this is the best cast of characters I've seen in any medium, and they feel like genuine friends of mine in a way that no other game has ever come close to feeling).

Hell, to save time and my poor fingers: Baldur's Gate 3 is without a doubt the best video game I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. And as little as a few months ago, my only thought towards it was "that game probably isn't for me".

Don't make my all too human mistake; check out shit that looks interesting, take the chance to expand your mind and your taste. They're not all gonna be Baldur's Gate 3-level bangers (what is though, really), but you truly never know what you're going to discover. And you might even find yourself open to a whole new avenue of life to enjoy that you had previously assumed was just for mega dorks.

[lem-argentum]

hello here is THE official overview of all lemmy argentum selfship aus (or the ones that came to mind at this moment). <3

COSDOUGMEG

doug & meg actually have the least amount of aus out of these f/os, because i almost always imagine them in either their original universe or real life with me! but there is one that’s developed <3

-castle cr.ashers. it is hit hack-and-slash game castle cr.ashers. i take the place of red knight and meg takes the place of the blue princess. we’re together before the plot starts and they avoid getting kidnapped so we go through everything together <3. eventually we meet doug who has the role of the conehead groom, we defeat him and he begrudgingly joins us, we have an enemies-to-lovers journey, the end <3. i’m very fond of this silly au because doug is very cute when you put her in a situation like this :) also cosmeg adventures!!!!!! <333

LEMPROM

we have some!!! our dynamic/development are similar in most of them, it’s mostly messing with the world/circumstances where we meet :) <3

-ff.xv plotless au. this is the main lemprom universe actually. basically all of The Tragedy doesn’t happen because it would BREAK. MY HEART.!!!!!! it’s my fun self-indulgent universe where no one is in immediate peril <3.

-ff.ix au!!!!!!!!!! NOT developed but you can probably tell from my blog that i love combining prom and ff.ix (my icon is him in a colorswapped vivi outfit :>) SO <3. i just think “i wish to be kidnapped right away.” “wh-!! okay!!!” is the PERFECT dynamic introduction so prom takes zidane’s general role and i take dagger’s. <3 :) i like thinking about prom in a tantalus-type group because he’d be a really fun dramatic actor and a very cute thief (“well i guess it’s a good thing *somebody* got the keys to the whole fortress ;)” <- ONE OF MY FAVORITE LINES) <3 i don’t know how the whole story goes but i just love the concept so <333.

-p.okemon :] <3. this one’s also just a concept. i’m a trainer and prom works at a daycare. he has a doduo and a rotom, i have an ampharos and a mime jr. <3 (i’d have to channel old pkmn knowledge to think of full teams but those are the main ones.)

-OH YEAH college au. prom’s a photography major, i’m an illustration major, we meet through art classes and meet up to work on things together and model/pose for each other and ahmfndmfkd <3333. i have a scene pre-relationship where i visit prom’s dorm and go “:0 is that…. a picture of me on your corkboard??” and he has to be like “UH . WELL, THE LIGHTING IN THAT ONE WAS NICE, SO—” HFNDJ <333

CHRENO

SIGH this is gonna be the longest section. since they’re on opposing sides in their og ff.vii universe there are a lot of complexities that come with it, and the aus are mostly playing around with that by getting rid of that element completely……..

-turk!chrome au. this one’s kind of simple it just means they work together instead of against each other, and also the number of possible scenarios goes up a lot because of the close proximity. ciss.nei is also present in this au and her n chrome are both turk partners and qpps!!!!!

-octo.path 2. INITIALLY in this au chrome n reno were both thieves (chrome being dancer class who was also story-wise a thief, reno being actual thief class) who because of Unlikely Situations ended up being traveling partners, but THEN i realized HEY. WHY DIDNT I MAKE RENO A BLACKSNAKE. so he’s a blacksnake now. i don’t know why i didn’t think of that he’z literally a new delsta guy. and there are jester npcs in new delsta!!! so chrome can fit in pretty well without having to change much about him. i really like the vibe of this one but parts of it give me emotionz . you get it. moving on,

-i did think of a b.aldur’s gate 3 au. i guess it’s similar to the scrapped octo.path one.. they’re both rogues (chrome arcane trickster, reno assassin), meet after the tadpole debacle and decide trying to cure it together is the best option. (it might be in-character for reno to be like Eh. if i die i die *walks off alone* but i’m not lettinf him do that they’re doing this together somehow. maybe when they do the tadpole mind-connect thing he sees something interesting from chrome’s past and is like hmmm. i dunno.) this one is mostly for funny dnd moments (they’re my comedy ship after all.) such as chrome being like “uh no i don’t trust you to disarm that i’ll do it.” n reno being like “you sure?” and then chrome crit-failing and them standing there in silence with the blinded status effect. (“…see, i knew that was gonna h-” “don’t say anything.”)

-HFNDJ I JUST REMEMBERED I MADE THEM A GHOST TR.ICK AU. I DONT REMEMBER THE DEAL WITH IT HOLD ON. it was like . chrome died and became a ghost like s.issel……. and found reno dead too, used his ghost tricks to save him and ended up helping him with his shady real life work stuff …… ? it conflicts with regular chrome’s morals but if you mess with it the concept is really fun. ghost partner in crime. mind communication shenanigans. i wanted to draw fake screenshots for them in the art style hfndj i should do that sometime.

-oh i do have a rune f.actory au for them i guess. just in concept though <3. i can’t think of??? many canon rf charas that act similar to reno?? but he would have leon-esque dialogue humor-wise (AGH). and if chrome is the protag, giving him supposed “disliked items” does nothing because he just thinks it’s funny. game mechanic where you CANNOT lower this guy’s affection . i don’t think he would be affiliated with the sechs empire but he would have something mysterious like that going on… and he wouldn’t say much about himself so maybe his heart points would be capped lower ‘til a certain point like doug’s are??? and he wouldn’t tell you what gifts he likes either. there’d be a dialogue branch like “so what do you like, then. :/” “where’s the fun in that? try figuring it out.” and then his reactions to gifts onward would change based on that. (“really? thought you knew me better than that.”) (“hey, you’re gettin’ warmer!”) (“you’re puttin’ a lot of effort into this game. almost like you *care* about givin’ me shit.” “UH, *NO—*”)

[sungtaro]

do u have any advice for making gfx? i really like yours and your concepts are always so creative

ahh, thank you so much, you have no idea how much this means to me 🥹 i'm really hard on myself about my gfx. but i absolutely love making them, and i'd love to share some advice with you! i'm not sure if you already make gfx or not, so i'll include some things about getting started along with general advice / stuff geared to someone who already has some experience so that hopefully, wherever you are in your journey, something here might be helpful. i hope i'm not just giving you info you already know JBDJB 😭 so feel free to come back and let me know if you need something different ... if you have specific questions about a particular set or anything else like that, i always welcome that too! this got long, so i'll put it below the cut.

1. getting started - i'll write this point assuming you've never made a gfx before, so if you have, feel free to skip it! the only program i use is photoshop for gfx. and the main thing with these that i didn't know at first is that you can (and should) use a bigger canvas than what you would for gifs ! my typical size for a gfx panel is somewhere around 1080x1200 px. if you are placing gifs anywhere in them, you will likely have to resize down to meet tumblr file size limits. - some things that you should know how to do in ps: creating a clipping mask, rasterizing/resizing, smart filters, eyedropper tool, and different blending techniques such as overlays. if any of these things sound like 'omg what???' (they did to me as a beginner) let me know and i'm happy to explain more! - for total beginners, my biggest recommendation is to start by using templates. this helps you get a feel for what layers go into a gfx in the styles that you like, and makes it easier to start making some cool things and boost your confidence before you feel comfortable starting entirely from scratch and developing your own style. you can search 'psd template' here on tumblr, or on deviantart (i'll talk more about sites i use to find things below). just make sure you read each creator's own rules before you use something. i also make templates! you can find them here. i don't require credit and you can edit mine basically however you want, aside from combining them with other templates.

2. finding inspiration aside from things i see right here on tumblr, source material that just really speaks to me, or ideas that pop into my head while i'm driving (seriously ... almost all my gfx ideas come to me while i'm in my car or out taking a walk 😂), my favorite places to look for inspo are behance and deviantart (both of which are also great for finding elements you can use for free!). usually i have at least a baseline idea before i go into any gfx, so i know what to search for to find some design ideas -- for example, 'yearbook design,' 'retro advertisement,' 'lyric poster,' 'zine,' 'y2k,' 'film photo story,' etc are all things i've searched before. if i have used a source for inspiration, it will always be linked in my caption, so definitely take a look if there are any in particular that you love to see that inspo source! (as a general note, you should always link back to your own inspiration sources, it's just the right thing to do)

3. my process (from idea into photoshop) once i have an idea and i've gathered some inspiration, i usually sketch out my basic layout idea into a notebook. with gfx, composition is something you need to keep in mind within each individual panel as well as the set as a whole. i think about what i want the main focus to be and what basic elements i want in each panel. then i will start gathering my resources and start getting things in photoshop! often, i don't really know what it's going to look like until i start putting it together. that's kind of half the fun though. throughout making most of my gfx, i consult at least one friend on layout, colors, etc especially if i'm not liking something or i'm just stuck and don't know what would make it better. i HIGHLY recommend getting feedback and utilizing other sets of eyes to get your best quality work. i know there are some things i just can't possibly think of on my own, especially when i've been thinking about and looking at something for way too long. once my panels are finished i export them as a png and arrange them on tumblr to see the whole thing together before i post!

4. finding elements i.e. fonts, textures, pngs, etc again, behance and deviantart are great places for this! on behance, it's best to search 'freebie' with what you're looking for because otherwise all the options may be stuff you have to pay for. but they have SO many textures, pngs, fonts, any resource you can think of. with deviantart, be mindful of people who just compile texture/png packs from other sources/artists, because that's basically impossible to properly credit (and you really should do your best to do that). but DA is a great source for things like brushes and hand-drawn elements, and templates too! again, just be sure to read all of op's rules before using their resources. -places to find fonts: behance, fontspace, dafont, and ofc google! -places to find free pngs/icons (i use these for all of my social media templates and more): flaticon -photos you can use for free are available on unsplash -mockups you can use for free are available on behance, unblast, and pixel surplus

5. other important bits - as i've mentioned a few times throughout CREDIT is so important when you are using other people's resources, and using anyone else's work as your inspiration. i always credit when required and often credit even when not required, and just in general always try to mention where i find all my resources especially for sets that i've used a lot of different things for. of course, we can only do our best with this, and i've definitely made mistakes or just lost where i found something in the process of making things, so just have good intentions and try to do what you can to ensure you're giving credit where it's due - it also helps other people find things that they can use for their own work! - don't be afraid to experiment and try things out, i think really what i love so much about gfx is that there are literally infinite possibilities, styles, and ways to improve. keep an open mind and know that nothing is out of your range if you can find the right resources. happy creating, and please know i'm available to talk about anything you have questions on, or if you want to utilize me for feedback !! <3

[lutrainman]

How the f*** I came up with this crossover

So how did I come up with this crossover while shoe-horning my OC?

My memory is a bit foggy on how i came up with this story idea. So it all began around 2014 or maybe earlier. I first found these "Train Man" mangas at my local library. The one illustrated by Hidenori Hara. Then there was also the movie and the Jdrama. All the following were adaptations of a novel about how "train man" got help from the online chatboards to get with the girl on the train.

But at the same time, I had been binge-watching cartoons that I never got to finish; Loonatics Unleashed. Teen me thought it was a really cool idea when it first aired. Sadly we didn't get to see more or maybe I ran out of time come Junior and Senior year. After revisiting it much later in college...yeah it's a hard watch and more of a guilty pleasure for me. I think it was a concept that with lost potential. Tech E. Coyote was easily my favorite.

Then somehow my brain went to weird territories. and then I somehow combined these 2 into a crossover. Tech was playing the role of "Train man," but I wasn't sure who "Hermes" (the love interest) was going to be. So I decided to recycle one of my OCs, and Creon (at that time) seemed more in line with a not-too-distant future. Originally it was going to be set in 2020 or somewhere close to modern day. (initial sketches). I had to tweak Creon from her original story to fit somewhere in this more modern present day period.

Obviously the writing was more forced since that time I was trying to hard to follow almost everything verbatim to the story, while incorporating elements from both the film and the J-drama. I didn't revisit this until much later in 2014 or 2015 (those sketches will get their own posts or reblogs from my other blogs).

Now why did I revisit this fanfic story after so SOOO long and losing interest due to life and other stuff? Guess what came out in 2021?

And then I ended up changing up a lot of things. Instead of 2020, I put it ahead in 2075, so it's still close to today's modern day, but technology would be slightly advanced or more feasible. Which meant bio-weapons and bio-genetic engineering was a thing. And Creon Gilead became her own character, rather than just a "Hermes" stand-in. And I went way off script too. This story is basically about a looney-toon dating an anime character and trying to ignore being scrutinized for being a human/anthro couple. That's all I can describe it.