#i miss screen printing t_t

[skunkes]

zines!!! I love zines!!! I think you might enjoy one sheet zines :))))

i made one of these for one of my printmaking finals! Its not very good and took me forever to come up with....last I heard, it's still the example used to explain the assignment wee hee hee...in my beautiful ideal world I'd have zine ideas to specifically screen print like this again... "Poster" on the backside and all

[journalsouppe]

APOLLO JUSTICE!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!! What i would literally give to have a true AA4 sequel. I wholeheartedly believe if Yamazaki's team could ignore aa4 canon to make 5 & 6 then Shu Takumi should absolutely be allowed to ignore any 5&6 canon to make an aa4 sequel. I'm dying out here pleaseeeeee

The Phoenix sticker is from Peachcott. The Klavier sticker is from Ayabit from the Turnabout Cinema zine. The Apollo and Trucy stickers are from astarsor.

Writing typed below!

rating: 9.8 played: Fa 2023 port: 3DS favorite? Y replayable: Y recommend? Y series: Ace Attorney

Comments

THE JUDGE PAINTING

apollo's such a dork <3

ooo i like the perceive function

i love the music

DONT SAY THAT TRUCY T_T

there's so much going on in this investigation

wow i love how uneasy i feel even after the trial ended

LMAO I FORGOT ABOUT THE PHOENIX SEX PHOTO

i dont think y'all want your panties back...

klav's a bill and ted fan i see lol

LOVE mr eldoon's design 10/10

klapollo meet cute moment LMAO

oops ^^; i accidentally wrote a 600 word essay about the first case

i like how apollo cried over trucy

IT'S JUSTICE TIME??? T^T

i like klavier's hands a normal amount

alita must have some dirty fucking feet

the animations are so smooth

apollo being jealous of klavier at the concert and thinking he's cool LMAO

apollo is WHIPPED

trucy is KILLING it in court, she really is nick's daughter

klavier's shoe print *skull emoji*

out of pocket shiny forehead comment LMAO

lamiroir has similar vocal tones as malon!

THE PENIS FIRE AND KLAV PUTTING IT OUT IN THE BKGD

the smile and hair twirl klavier LMAO

why am i doing this music recording thing T^T

i dont like looking at daryan T_T

letouse kazuma moment lmao

capcom loves the face down death with writing on the ground huh LMAO

wtf is the judge talking about

i love all these scientific tests with ema! :)

i love the snackoos SFX

klav does not miss an opportunity to take a short at apollo's big forehead LMAO

APOLLO YOU DUMBASS

faking blindness is crazy

I KNEW IT WOULD BE DARYAN'S VOICE

klav's office is so much more normal than edgeworth's

WAIT IS IT GRAMARYE AND NOT GRAYMAYRE??

THE ANIMALS??

i love apollo and lamiroir goofing on klav

similar tech opening to brc

WTF WAS THAT KRISTOPH JUMPSCARE T-T

LORD DADDY???

oh he's insufferable

HOLY SHIT THAT'S WHY VERA IS STARING AT KLAV??

"rip off" phoenix is so real for that

are they injecting magnifi with piss??

im curious why kristoph would do this to phoenix

he just left his daughter???

tf is going on

T^T THE KRISTOPH ZOOM IN

why does klav have that egg from dragon tales

apollo understands me with mascots

this is so gay omfg

daryan not liking trucy means he goes even more into the shit book than before

apollo the journaling king

the x-ray function is a really fun addition

BABY TRUCY

omg phoenix with out the ugly hd redraw

GUMSHOE

he said it!!! he said 'ace attorney' lmao

i love and hate that i have to present the journal page

why does the screen shake when mr misham speaks T_T

THAT SCAR IS FREAKY

siblings omgggg

Summary:

I love this game so much. I love it so much that I am heartbroken knowing that AA 5 & 6 butchers the story it setup and I'm considering not even playing them unless AA7 is announced. I love all the main characters so much, the whole story was so well built and I can def see the influence the story had on DGS. Apollo is such a good protagonist, he's relatable but also so unique. I love seeing his character progression in the game: a new attorney who is easily manipulated to a confident and determined attorney who trusts in his own judgement. I LOVED Klavier oh my god. I love how much he respects Apollo and although he doesn't hesitate to tease him, he doesn't bully or abuse Apollo in any way. They both have a mutual admiration and rivalry where they try to play as fairly as possible. Klav doesn't maliciously withhold or change evidence, but he does spend hours reviewing his arsenal and thinks of all the counter arguments the defense could bring up. I really like Apollo's ability, it continues the mystery and mysticism from the original trilogy but with new mechanics. I adore Trucy so much. She honestly might be my favorite AA character. She's determined, strong willed, and above all -- extremely silly. I couldn't of asked for a better character to be Phoenix's daughter. I also LOVE the sibling reveal at the end but gdi if only they actually figure it out T^T T^T. I think Apollo and Trucy's dynamic is probably my favorite Defense and assistant dynamic. This who game was so fun, I know 4-3 is not everyone's favorite and it is a little all over the place but I also enjoyed it and loved the premise. There's so much to say, I haven't even talked about Nick and Kris - what an incredible feud, what a genius development for Nick. I cannot recommend this game enough, I am so obsessed with it and cannot wait to make art <3 <3.

[barricadestation]

Episode  5…

Highlights…

- Gavroche a leader of the children

- Mabeuf .__. 

- Enjolras talking about no place on the barricade for people in love, Grantaire’s face at it

- Marius going up a fence

- Gillenormand well played (respect to the actor)

- THE HOLDING HANDS PREVIEW THAT I MISSED OH MYYY GOOOD AND I AM NOW PRETTY HIGH AT 3,600 METRES WHILE TRAVELING THERE IS NOT ENOUGH OXYGEN FOR THIS

- Gavroche towards Javert chemistry is funny

- Marius not coming to a barricade like a hero

- eXR throwing food again (while people of Paris are starving)

- Sherlock!Valjean from the book (the way he finds Cosette’s letter print)

- Beautiful Courfeyrac T_T

- Enjolras almost peeing himself when the rebellion has started

- Enjolras almost jumping on a cart with the coffin as in a musical

- Actually Marius saying “leave me alone” to Eponine because in this version Eponine was not good to him, like she was basically jumping on him, that’s a normal reaction (but better if Eponine was just a normal Eponine right?)

Disappointments…

- Javert as a man obsessed with only one idea, are you fucking kidding me, Andrew?

- Everyone being kinda okay with killing people… no drama? Except for Grantaire who is watching his friends killing people…

- And Grantaire not going to sleep yet…

- Abusive Valjean…

- Valjean who does not look like an old man who is afraid to give Cosette away to the world and at the same time afraid that he will die and Cosette will be all alone… Valjean who looks like a jealous young man who goes to the barricade to kill the guy his daughter loves (this was probably made for drama for stupid watchers but…)

- Abusive Eponine (it’s not the right word but Eponine was too much of a bitch)

- Could be more Cosette/Marius kissing times (but why if you could just put the brothel in the show)

- all the exR drama of many many chapters being shown in 5 seconds… basically Grantaire getting jealous over bro-ship with Courfeyrac and changing his opinion in five seconds, and boom they are friends again and shake hands, and that’s it

- Les egouts de Paris coming on screen earlier than it’s their big showtime

- A random worker giving a speech better than Enjolras

- I just don’t get this Cosette’s long-term love for Marius… also she is not penniless!

- Over-sexying Cosette

- VALJEAN BEING MEAN TO GAVROCHE WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

[purplemango501]

2019.03.10 TVXQ Circle Concert encore #with @ Seoul

It’s been more than half a month since the concert and I finally got the chance to write my fan account.

Prologue

Like what I mentioned in my last fan account for Hyun Joong’s concert in Busan, I really never pictured myself watching a concert in Korea. But suddenly here I am watching another concert in Korea just two weeks after Hyun Joong’s concert hahahaha. Even I’m shocked myself.

I was actually eyeing their concert tickets because I’ve been completely obsessed with Shim Changmin after their concert in Hong Kong in 2018 July. It’s interesting cause I read my fan account that I wrote 3 days after watching that concert and my comment was:

So actually I didn’t go crazy after the concert like I did after Hyun Joong’s concert. I guess partly cause I wasn’t that close to them and also SS501 will always have a special place in my heart cause they were the first group I liked. But after a day, I started going crazy over Changmin. I realized how his eyes are just so charming.

HAHAHA so yes I was crazy over Changmin lmaooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Anyway, so I wanted to buy the tickets online but it was impossible cause I didn’t have a registered account or something so I kind of gave up. And I saw people reselling on Taobao for up to 4000 RMB for a ticket and I thought it was crazy so I decided not to go. Everyone on the whatsapp fan group were talking about the tickets and I met one girl that also wanted to go but didn’t want to let those middleman earn big bucks so we got along very well. Then another girl said she bought tickets from the Taiwan fangroup for the original price plus a small fee and told me to check it out.

I was a little skeptical about buying from them as well because I don’t really know them. But it felt better than buying from a completely random middleman cause at least they were a fangroup. They told me they got the tickets from a Korean fangroup and it seemed reliable so I went ahead and paid. I was actually a little scared but ah well.

So after I got the tickets I started planning my trip, two of my colleagues wanted to join me for a trip to Seoul so I didn’t have the issue about travelling alone.

Before the Concert

I wanted to buy the light stick but I didn’t want to queue up. Luckily someone from the whatsapp group went the day before and bought it for me!! I was going to meet the two Hong Kong fans there, one of which was going to sit next to me :) Turns out we all stayed at the same hotel LOL. I met one of them at the hotel and went to the venue together. We found the Taiwan fangroup people and they were super super nice! I collected my tickets and my light stick and walked around taking photos before we went to eat lunch and get our light sticks synced.

It’s my first time experiencing this ‘synced light stick’ thing. Basically you show them your ticket and they scan the barcode and then scan your lightstick so they know where you sit. Throughout the concert the lights change based on your location and it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!

One of the Hong Kong girls printed out some small cards with their photo but we didn’t have enough time to distribute it so we distributed it inside by passing it to people next to us and told them to share it. The people around us were all Japanese and they were all very grateful for our cards and we took photos with them :P

Our seat was not close to the main stage but the stage design was so damn good! We were quite close at times!! And also there was a wall behind us so we wouldn’t be blocking anyone’s view if we stood up. Though in comparison with Hyun Joong’s concert, there was much less standing in this one haha.

The Concert

Quick summary of some of the key points about the concert.

1.     Most of the VCR was the same as the Hong Kong concert because this was the encore show. There was some changes to the video of Changmin and Yunho as a couple, they added some more scenes to that and it was quite funny

2.     The stage design was so fucking amazing!!! The stage was basically like a square and they actually performed near us for a long time! The engagement was so good omg. I was definitely closer this time than in Hong Kong

3.     I was so surprised they did the Gayo Daejun version of “Chance of Love” where Changmin just reaches those crazy high notes. Omg I really like that performance and I was so happy they did that version during the concert. I wanted to cry omggggg

4.     I was most excited for their performances for the new songs. YUN HO”S CITY LIGHTS PERFORMANCE WAS CRAZYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. They had a small box/room and he suddenly went inside and closed the curtains halfway through the song. And the screen showed “hidden cameras” of what was happening inside and it was like so damn sexy loool. Then of course my Changmin’s “Beautiful Stranger” < absolutely my fav song in the album, I looped it so many times. It was such a beautiful performance T_T I was spooked

5.     I also loved “Circle” it was so beautiful

We were actually quite close when they came to the corner stage areas. I actually quite liked my seats hahahah 

All the performances was so good, I really really really enjoyed it so much, I wish I could go every year LOL 

Their dance performance is so powerful T_T

During encore the light sticks spelled Cassiopeia it was so beautiful my god 

Post Concert

I’m so glad I went, it was the best choice I made!! So happy to have experienced a concert in Seoul, enjoyed a great trip, met new friends, and just enjoyed myself! Still reliving all the concert feels even though it’s been three weeks already…… still miss them so much omg 

I feel like there were more Yunho biased fans on that day hahah. There were a lot of SM artists there that day, even Lee Soo Man was there. It’s great to go to the absolutely last show (encore) show hahahaha

OHHHH I FORGOT TO MENTION

Previously they had a 15 year anniversary event where fans can write a letter to them and they would pick a winner. I actually won and Yunho wrote me a letter >< I think that’s the closest I’ll ever be with them, it still seems magical ><

[forthebetterevil]

my first exo concert!

just gonna detail my experience going to my first exo concert as a 1.5-year-old exol. this is the Singapore 190915 EXplOration concert, missing ksoo (my crown prince) and xiu (my second prince). (p.s. jun is my third prince so that’s why i bought his fan ---- my face when i realised i unknowingly stanned exo’s enlistment line after ksoo dropped the bomb on us: 😊🔫)

and still missing lay, of course (*rolls eyes at china*). it was a blast but i didn’t die too hard, probably because it’s just 6 of them haha. my throat still died from screaming so hard though.

in my rambling i shall cover details of the merch in the picture, and comments (babbling) on each member.

to my great fortune, i was seated in the middle of a middle block facing the stage. i didn’t want to attend the concert in the standing pen area because i prefer observing the group as a whole to being up and close with them but missing out on all the dance formations. i’m here forking over S$302 for a concert where i can’t see ksoo or xiu so... anyway even if they were here i would still prefer to sit and watch the full performance.

the black banner (which i still can’t read) was laid on every seat, and overleaf, exols were asked to hold this banner up during their ending ment. the community is really cute.

the eribong v.3 is pretty when lit up (more later). it came with the bottom right sticker set, and a random photocard. i managed to trade for a ksoo card in the end :-)

the 7th anniversary pink leather keychain is not part of concert merch, but it’s pretty so i threw it into the pic (only for this concert did i break it out of its box to attach it to my bag LOL)

[ksoo]

i got a ksoo ... vertical banner? thin poster? thing after the concert was over, when merchants were desperate to sell their unsold goods. of course there was a ton of baek yeol 5ehun jun and j0ngin merch, but i was surprised i didn’t see as much of dae than i did ksoo. perhaps dae’s merch already sold out?? anyway, i saw ksoo’s marie claire photo and IMMEDIATELY shuffled over to ask for the price, which wasn’t too bad ($5, which became $4 because the merchant didn’t have exact change)

[xiu]

i pasted a xiu name sticker on one side of the eribong, and ksoo on the other. doubles as a “yeah these are my first 2 princes″ and a “at least they’re still with me today in spirit” ... *bursts into tears*

for xiu’s merch, there was NOTHING except maybe a tiny photo of him bunched with other members’ photos. i kept asking “do you have xium1n?” *merchant who usually isn’t a fan is confused* “um... kim minse0k?” *?* “this one, *points to xiu in a group photo*, do you have?” *shows me a j0ngin pic* “ok nvm” this was extremely upsetting. but hey at least i got to see xiu in printed group photos. because...

[lay]

lay didn’t even make an APPEARANCE amongst the goods. rip xingmis. a fellow exol told me someone in the standing pen was waving a ZYX banner around though, so there’s still hope amongst the singaporean xingmis at least

[junmye0n]

i got a fan-produced jun fan before the concert because i didn’t know the venue was air-conditioned haha whoops.

during the concert, his second outfit (after the tempo perf) was a poofy white long-sleeved top and rather well-fitting black trousers/pants and lemme tell you.... HE’S PRINCE ERIC. HE’S SO HANDSOME AND HE’S SO NICE AND SWEET AND HIS ENGLISH WAS SO GOOD, LIKE, EVERYONE IS WHIPPED FOR KSOO’S ENGLISH BUT HONESTLY JUN REALLY TRIED TO COMMUNICATE TO US IN ENGLISH IT WAS AMAZING AND HE PUTS IN SO MUCH EFFORT AND HE SHOULD BE APPRECIATED MORE (and this is coming from a ksoo stan..). you have no idea how upset i was when everyone was screaming their heads off for the other 5 performing members during their little video interludes, but when jun came on screen, there were just screams. heads did not pop off. NO! WHAT IS THIS DISRESPECT AND UNDERAPPRECIATION???!!!! i screamed my head off for him but one person alone can’t make up for the difference... jun was so nice and kept waving and making eye contact with the audience, doing cute poses for us here and there, being his little awkward leader self (as SM boy band leaders seem to do...), and basically tanking the transitions between performances. christ. also he freakin CARRIED the backing vocals AND the main vocals (i mean dae and baek too but everyone already explicitly appreciates them so i don’t need to give them special mention for carrying). he is ALWAYS being slept on, and it’s just not doing him justice. what the hell. junmye0n deserves the world :-(

for his BEEN THROUGH 👀👀👀👀 performance, he told us he decided to change the shirt colour to red because he thought it would match Singapore well (or something along those lines). like. WOW????? THANK YOU FOR EVEN CONSIDERING MY COUNTRY IS WORTH NOTICING TO CHANGE YOUR OUTFIT???? i hope i’m not sounding sarcastic - it’s such a small action but i felt a little touched?? like wow, he noticed.

my binoculars was glued on him half the time. he’s so handsome and pretty at the same time. part of the reason why i still went was to see if everyone’s claims that “suh0’s pictures don’t do him justice” were legitimate because when i first saw jun′s pic (i forgot which exact one), i literally thought, “that’s the handsomest man i’ve ever seen”. so i suppose the claim depends on angles. because ALL of em look like their pictures - their GOOD-ANGLE pictures. MEANING, jun looks as good as his best photos (which tend to be the ones where he faces straight to the front), but now he looks good from whichever angle in motion. he is actually very fair-skinned too! his face was like a beacon of light.

also, in his first ment greeting us, he was such a cheeseball saying our country is beautiful... like us. JUNMYE0N PLEASE.

nearing the end of the concert HE TOLD US NOT TO CRY (along with j0ngin or yeol, can’t remember). THEY’RE GONNA SING THEIR LAST SONG, BUT IT’S NOT GOING TO BE THEIR LAST SONG, BECAUSE THEY’LL ALWAYS BE IN OUR HEARTS, RIGHT? HJAGKN;KLSKGKS :”””””(

so to reiterate: i have the biggest soft spot for junmye0n and i love him.

[5ehun]

OH, DURING ONE SONG, 5EHUN CAME OVER TO RUB HIS HEAD ON JUN’S CHEST, AND I WAS LIKE AAAWWWW!!!!! and died. but jun’s back was facing me so i more or less couldn’t see much. after the concert, i found out that  5EHUN TRIED TO LIFT JUN’S SHIRT TO SHOW HIS ABS DURING THE NUZZLE. so i revived and died again. there were a lot of other small interactions too. seho stans won tonight.

below are some of my friend’s standing pen privilege pics:

what i could see from my seat behind -

what i DIDN’T KNOW 5EHUN TRIED FOR A HOT SECOND:

seho stan: *dies*

anyway... i wasn’t paying close attention to 5ehun during group performances (other than when it was his solo dance break and exo-sc perfs), tho i felt like he wasn’t as “engaged” as, say, jun or yeol. but i thought that was normal because yaknow... he’s not very talkative, and i was probably getting that impression just from his naturally stern (rbf LOL) face. 

his dance break was COOL and his exo-sc performances were LIVELY. and when he actually gets to sing (... T_T) nothing went wrong so i thought everything was fine.

however, during one of his ments, 5ehun admitted to us that he felt bad coz he wasn’t up to standard today (because he’s sick?? translator was not doing a thorough job, i got this info from another friend), and he’s sorry. some of us were like “huh?? no?? GWAENCHANA!!!!” and the translator said he said, “no i’m not saying this just so yall will say that, if you continue i’m not gonna share my feelings like this anymore” so we all shut up.

i can’t remember if it was in that same ment, but during one of the ments, the whole time 5ehun was talking, jun was standing waayyyy in front of the line to turn his body to look at 5ehun. i think he was worried for him :”( 5ehunnie bb please don’t beat yourself up over this. my friend in the standing pen said yeah, he was pretty out of it today, he kept staring into space instead of making eye contact with fans. :-(

[j0ngin]

spEAKING of out of it, the same can be said for j0ngin. don’t get me wrong, his dancing was still otherworldly. i was looking through my binoculars to focus on the dance formation and/or jun, but suddenly i was like “wait, i’ve been looking at ka1 dancing this whole time”. IT’S SO FLUID AND SHARP AT THE SAME TIME. EVERY MOVE IS EXECUTED PERFECTLY. IT JUST DRAWS YOU IN.

... but that can only be said for some stages. i felt like his moves were not as sharp/confident sometimes?? i mean they were still graceful, but somehow it feels kinda tired???????? k who am i to judge, i’m not the one dancing and singing for 2 hours straight lmao he obviously needs downtime...

THAT’S WHAT I THOUGHT. unfortunately, during the ments, he also wasn’t very hyper (like hE WOULD BE WITH A CERTAIN SOMEONE.............. UGH MY KADI HEART IS ACHING). he dance-bopped around and interacted with yeol a little but that’s all. i know j0ngin is actually a shy boi but he REALLY didn’t talk much. :-(  i honestly suspect the Other Project (s*perM) is tiring him tf out.

am i hallucinating? or maybe i’m being overdramatic. i don’t know. it’s not that i was constantly following his movements like i was junmye0n’s during the concert anyway.

[baek]

he didn’t SEEM as tired as j0ngin thanks to that Other Project. his diet of CDs didn’t change, and he was still the goofball during ments / soft toy fun times. also, man, the amount of screams he got. and MAN, THE UN VILLAGE ROLLING HILLS PART..................... *GURGLES*

perhaps i’m not a baek stan, so i didn’t realise, but my friend commented that while he was not in as bad a state as j0ngin, he COULD’VE been more hyper.

I HOPE BAEK AND J0NGIN ARE RESTING WELL. Slave Management Entertainment PLEASE HAVE A HEART.

[yeol]

okay DUDES this guy was the guy who warned the middle standing pen fans to stop f*cking pushing because they don’t want to get anyone hurt. “ok everyone in the back row (of the standing pen) please raise your hands. can those who raise your hands take one step back please” ... “ok yall raising your hands but you’re not moving back” ... (him/suh0) “we have to be very wary because if you get hurt then we can’t come back”  the entire stadium collectively went “oOOOHHHH” (not in a good way)... BUT THEY STILL DIDN’T MOVE BACK. (him/suh0) “okay you don’t want to move back? then we’ll retreat to the stage behind then” *walks from from the smaller stage closer to exols back to the larger stage all the way at the front*

he was legit not happy. and goodness gracious did he have the right to be. didn’t this nonsense happen with exo-sc kfans before? and at that time 5ehun was the one who got angry.

anyway not only did they leave to continue performing the second set of songs on a bad note FURTHER AWAY, i HIGHLY SUSPECT that the other punishment was to take away one performance. WHICH WAS MY MOST HIGHLY ANTICIPATED ONE - SIGN. YEAH. THEY DIDN’T PERFORM IT. SHOOT ME NOW. THAT WAS THE B-SIDE I WAS IMMEDIATELY WHIPPED FOR ONCE THE TEMPO ALBUM DROPPED. f*ck.

OKAY ALL THAT ANGST ASIDE, he’s still the main goofball of the concert. HE TRIED TO TEACH US HOW TO DAB INTO THE INSIDE OF OUR ELBOWS. HE GROPED CHEN ON STAGE. HE... he does his job of an entertainer well. OMG. HE TOOK SOMEONE’S PHONE AND TOOK PICS/VIDS OF HIM AND SEHUN????? when i finally noticed it happening i thought he literally took his own phone out during performance/fan-interaction-time to take a selfie but then i find out after the concert that NO, IT’S NOT HIS PHONE. ... that phone case must be enshrined immediately.

also he had to take over some lines for some songs, and BOI DELIVERED. he sounded really nice singing :”)

[dae]

not only did he eat CDs while looking super cute in that blue suit, he BELTED OUT LIVE HIGH NOTES AND ADLIBS AND WHATEVER YOU CALL THEM. I’VE NEVER HEARD EXO LIVE, SO, OH MY GOD. it’s like you’re either screeching or silent because they’re performing but there were parts of dae’s performance where had to stop everything, put down my binoculars and eribong, stare into the air for a second, and literally say “wow” out loud. it was surreal. it was crazy. it got to the point where he covered one of xiu’s lines (i forgot which song), and i thought “oh wow, he sounds better singing this line than xiu” and i IMMEDIATELY felt guilty (I ONLY THOUGHT THIS FOR *ONE* OF XIU’S LINES, DON’T KILL ME)

he was quiet during the ment until his turn. when he was engaged he... engaged. haha about the members’ comments that his solo perf was a “different kind of sexy” from j0ngin, where he had only one drop of sweat. HAHA. *does lunges on stage* *gets molested by yeol*

dae’s actually really low-key. he’s like... a “good” boi. will respond well and politely but only when spoken to. what else do i say. sunshine angel. his smile is cute. CAT SMILE :3

[overall]

speaking of cats... baek asked us at the beginning of the concert: why’s the dress code white?

here’s a crappy pic from my android phone one minute before the lights were dimmed:

us: POWER!!! POWER!!!

exo: oh?? baek: does it represent the light power??

us: (loud murmurs of disagreement)

exo/baek: so you’re saying that’s not it... (discusses with members in korean) is it... the white marble???

us: (louder murmurs of disagreement)

exo/baek: hm i guess we can continue guessing till the concert is over haha

im not sure if anyone in the front rows, perhaps a korean fansite, screamed “cat” in korean, but after some discussion again,

exo/baek: (korean) some exols: *SCREAMS* translator: is it cat? exol: *SCREAMS AND WAVES ERIBONGS*

and this was the only legit interaction i feel we got with exo this concert... after having a taste of it at the start, i was subsequently kinda bummed we didn’t get to do this back-and-forth talking with exo (even at a shallow level) likely because of a language barrier. it felt so cool.

also, eribong v.3 was SUPER PRETTY WITH COLOURS. IT WAS MAGICAL, I SAY, MAGICAL.

the entire spectrum could be shown on this eribong. this pic more or less covers the softer range of colours this eribong is capable of. it can also show the harsh red, blue, green, yellow, and of course, white.

a 1-pixel screenshot of my Telegram video to my friend in the standing pen:

the boys were great, the performance was overall astounding, the lights and effects were stunning and pretty, and the time we spent together was too! short! exo also mentioned it’s a shame they could only come this one day for a concert, next time they’ll do two, no, THREE days... for their next album

exols: ganrklflm;fsklflkgsrkg

... WITH “THE REST OF THE MEMBERS”

exols: NAGJSK;NLDFNLGRS *EXPLODES*

tl;dr i love EXO with my entire heart. i count myself lucky for being alive at the same time exo is active and performing live.

[superfamigos]

samhat @ GDC 2018, Part Two

I’m back with Part Two of my GDC 2018 recap! Where part one covered what I did leading up to GDC and the talks I attended, part two will talk about what I did socially, my time on the show floor, and what I did after GDC ended. Also, I’ve decided to make my lessons learned section into its own post, so please look forward to part three!

Parties, meetups, hangouts, and “networking”

Another really good part of GDC was meeting new people and reconnecting with others. It’s also one of the parts of the conference that’s most daunting for me as a somewhat shy and introverted person. I can get overwhelmed in big crowds where I don’t know anyone, it’s hard for me to start or join a conversation when everyone else seems to be talking, and I don’t really like the loud and dark atmosphere of the parties that seem to be the norm at GDC. Occasionally, my anxiety can get really rough and I need to take some time off. Thankfully, through a combination of some good networking strategies, help from friends, and luck, I was able to have a nice time.

When I talk about networking, I don’t want you to think I’m talking about slimy, mercenary, or fake strategies that are sometimes associated with that word. As Darius Kazemi talks about in a networking guide I found really helpful, networking can just be trying to meet people and make friends, regardless of whether they can do something for you. For example, one networking tip that helps me is to try to meet people where you have an excuse to talk, rather than walking up to someone out of the blue. At GDC, that meant striking up conversations while standing in line for something, sitting and waiting for a talk to start, trying out a multiplayer game with someone at a booth, or hanging with devs showing a game. I was able to have some nice conversations this way. Doing this felt like a more meaningful way to meet people than aggressive networking strategies like just giving out business cards to whoever will take them. (I still try to trade business cards after a nice conversation though. It’s a good way to keep track of who I’ve met.)

I also tried to plan to meet up with people I knew who would be there: old friends and co-workers, people I met at GDC last year, and a couple people I follow on Twitter. These usually ended up being lunch meetings, though a few times I just happened to run into people I knew while walking around. It was nice to meet and/or catch up with these people, and some of them introduced me to more of their friends, which was great.

And in general, I feel like I got pretty lucky in that I had opportunities to meet a lot of people that I easily could have missed out on, just by being in the right place at the right time. Which is not to say that you should give up because hard work means nothing in a chaotic universe, rather I’m just acknowledging that I’m grateful for the opportunities that I’ve been given.

I’d like to give you an idea of how my days went, both good and bad, so here’s a basic log of how things went down for me. (If you like, you can watch my video travelogue for visuals on most of the stuff in this log!)

Monday

Arrived at GDC, got my pass, went to some talks, talked to people in line and in seats

Grabbed food at the Metreon food court and went to an outdoors lunch gathering organized by Max Krieger, a dev I follow on Twitter known for his puzzle game CROSSNIQ+ (and some excellent Twitter design threads). Met a few nice people, and talked briefly with Max. (I was chuffed that Max, as something of a design buff, said some kind words about my business card)

More talks (and associated chatting while waiting)

Didn’t make plans beforehand for the evening, so I didn’t have anything to do or anyone to do it with. Was feeling kinda lonely looking for people I knew, and ended up deciding to grab a quick bite and head back to my room

Fortunately ran into Chris Wade (indie dev of Sausage Sports Club), who I’d met at an Austin game event, Juegos Rancheros. He invited me to dinner with him, Gabriel Koenig (indie dev of Jettomero: Hero of the Universe), and some of his Chicago indie dev friends, which was really nice

After dinner, went back to Moscone West with Chris and Gabriel to play Chris’ Train Jam game, a prototype Gabriel had been working on, and some Sausage Sports Club. It was a great time

Tuesday

Was pretty booked up with talks during the day, grabbed lunch by myself

Had to take a break from the afternoon talks to play DS (Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, to be precise) and take a nap

Went to a Technical Artist social at a nearby bar. Fortunately ended up in a conversation pretty quickly after arriving, so there wasn’t too much stressful searching for group openings

At the social, I happened to meet a tech artist who went to the same grad program I did (Dane Shannon-Sparks, tech artist at Bluepoint Games, who recently did the Shadow of the Colossus remaster), the dev team of indie vehicular battle game Renegade Rally, and many others. Had some really fun conversations

Found out about two job leads that day, one from talking to people after a talk in the Tech Art Bootcamp, and one from the Tech Art social!

Wednesday

Woke up, felt kinda sick with sore throat, so I took my time getting ready

Ordered Mondo’s limited edition Katamari Damacy soundtrack LP at my cousin’s house (Mondo stuff goes fast, and no way was I missing out on this one)

After arriving downtown, got lunch with David Laskey (Unity port guru in the Chicago indie scene, and dev on TumbleSeed), who I’d met at GDC last year, and Sebastian Gosztyla (indie dev on DUAL, also from Chicago), who I’d met at dinner Monday

Checked out a goofy Target model home thing in the Metreon with David and Sebastian

Chilled out on the Yerba Buena Park lawn with some cool indie devs from Philadelphia and elsewhere that David introduced me to. It had rained earlier, so we were sitting on shower curtains that the group had bought at Target haha

Had a nice conversation with David and Mobeen Fikree (indie dev on Graceful Explosion Machine) about indie careers and finances

Tried to go to a talk but it was full, so I ended up wandering around the expo

Had to take some breaks because I was feeling worn out

Went to a GDC Film Fest screening to chill, had a Clif Builder’s Bar for dinner

Met David again to go together to the IGF and GDC awards ceremonies, and sat next to some of his Chicago friends whose names I can’t remember. David ended up leaving at the end of the IGF Awards, and I left about halfway through the GDC Awards because I had started feeling exhausted and sick

My cousin and her husband made me some pasta when I got back (thank you Liz and Jeremy T_T), which helped a lot

Thursday

Felt better in the morning, but still not great, so I took it easy

Met my old Microsoft friends Josh Wehrly and Jon Gill (both currently working on Rec Room) for lunch, caught up and chatted about career advice

Saw on Twitter that Cory Schmitz, an graphic designer I admire, was giving out free prints, so I tweeted at him and arranged to meet up. He was busy, so we only got to talk for a few seconds, but I got a cool print!

I suddenly hit some kind of social/emotional/mental limit, and got super anxious and depressed. Had to stop and chill, and ended up needing to go buy a protective portfolio for my new print, so I wouldn’t be so stressed about messing it up

Stopped by the Unity booth to say hi to Gabriel, who I’d met Monday night

Went to a panel discussion on mental health, felt a bit better by the end of it

Ran into Max Krieger again at dinner, ate with him and some of his friends

Went to the Unparty, a party specifically organized to be more chill than your average GDC party, which was great. They had a zine library for people to browse, and when the noise level got too loud, people started a community “shhhhhhh” to quiet things down again.

There I ran into Greg Lobanov (indie dev on Wandersong), who I’d met on the Yerba Buena lawn Wednesday afternoon. We had a nice talk about his experience biking across the US and my experience living in Micronesia for two years. I also met some other devs over the course of the evening, several of which had worked on games I knew and was excited about (like Ikenfell, Jamestown and Alphabear), which was cool

I happened to also chat with Chris Koehler, the owner of the art gallery that the Unparty was held in. He was working on a crazy detailed pen and ink drawing, and after talking for a while, I learned that he was part of the Mondo and Mondo-adjacent limited-edition-screenprinted-poster artist-illustrator scene. I’ve been a big fan of that whole subculture for a while, so it was fun chatting with him about it.

Friday

Tried to get to GDC in time for a panel my friend Miko Charbonneau (indie dev on Code Romantic and game designer on Minecraft) was speaking in, but my Lyft took longer than expected

Got there late and couldn’t get into the talk, it was totally full

Checked out the Indie Megabooth instead, chatted with some devs and played some fun games, like Firmament and The Moon Fields

Met up with Gabriel again at the Unity booth, got lunch with him

Went to my last talk, Indie After College

Went over to check out the IGF Pavilion and alt.ctrl.GDC in a bit more detail. Got to see a few games (like Wobble Garden and Heat Signature), but I got surprised when GDC closed earlier than I expected

(to be continued in the Post-GDC section!)

So yeah! My GDC social experience was one of sharp contrasts. On one hand, I felt incredibly overwhelmed and drained at times, which sometimes meant I wasn’t able to do everything I wanted. I also felt bummed at times that I didn’t have closer friends there that I could plan fun activities with. On the other hand, I felt incredibly excited and lucky to meet people who worked on projects I recognized, and being able to engage with them peer-to-peer. I also enjoyed getting to know others who were still up-and-coming like myself. I hope that over time, I’ll become closer with people in the game dev community, and develop more friendships.

In general, it can be easy to talk up our positive experiences and gloss over the negative ones, especially on social media. I think being honest and open about how we feel in situations like this can help both writers and readers feel more validated and accepted in their personal successes and struggles.

And I’ll just mention this: I definitely could not have remembered all this if I hadn’t followed some advice I saw in a few places to take notes before you go to bed every night. I wrote a bulleted list of the day’s activities in my Hobonichi Techo each night, wrote notes on all the business cards I got that day, and put each day’s cards into a labeled, snack-size Ziploc bag.

(And speaking of which: I wanted to write shoutouts to everyone I met at GDC, but didn’t end up with the time and space to do it. So if you’re someone who met me and didn’t get mentioned, please don’t take it personally! It was great meeting you, and I hope to stay in touch and see you again sometime.)

The show floor

Aside from talks and socializing, checking out the GDC expo halls is probably the other big activity I did at GDC. There are some things worth checking out, but if it was my first GDC, I think I’d be somewhat disappointed if the expo was all I got to see.

I guess it’s just that I’m not a big fan of the “main” show floor, which is the part that’s in the south hall of Moscone Center. There’s a ton of booths and a ton of people, but both times I’ve walked around this part of the expo, I’ve wondered who the target audience is. For the most part, the booths there aren’t really showing off games, nor do they seem to be trying to hire anyone. I guess a lot of it is middleware companies and vendors trying to target company representatives that might want to use their tech. There are a few notable exceptions: some big companies like Amazon, Epic, or Unity might be hiring or showing games. (And I suppose there’s the draw of free swag if you have room in your luggage/home.) But for the most part, there’s not a lot there for me as a prospective hire or a game fan.

The secondary show floor space in Moscone North has a lot more that interests me personally. My favorite parts of that show floor are the IGF pavilion and the alt.ctrl.GDC area. The IGF pavilion houses demo stations for all the games nominated for that year’s IGF awards, usually manned by the developers themselves. It’s a really cool opportunity to try new games and chat with their developers. And alt.ctrl.GDC is a really fun area that presents games with alternate control schemes. The North Hall also houses booths with smaller developers showing off games (more my speed than the booths in the south hall), and spaces run by video game museums with playable arcade cabinets and retro games.

Also scattered throughout the 3 Moscone Center buildings of GDC are several more game demo areas, even one dedicated to board and tabletop games. Like the IGF pavilion, these areas are great for checking out cool games and talking with devs. Both this year and last year, I’ve found myself wishing I had more time to explore more of these booths, since I’ve seen some pretty cool games here. I’m particularly glad I hung out at the Mild Rumpus booth last year, since that’s where I met David Laskey, who’s been a good friend and has helped me a lot in meeting people at GDC and learning more about game dev.

Post-GDC: Chill out, fly home

GDC ended earlier than I expected on Friday (3pm instead of 6pm), catching me off-guard with sadness over GDC suddenly being over. Between that, my physical exhaustion after having limped through the last few days with a con cold, the depletion of my social energy after a pretty solid week of meeting people, and my realization that I didn’t have any close friends there to spend the evening with, this was the most positive expression I could muster for a selfie:

Given how tired I was, it was probably for the best that I threw in the towel and got an Uber back to my cousin’s house. On the way back, my spirits were lifted by posting how I was feeling on the Tiny Cartridge Patreon Discord server and getting some sympathetic and encouraging responses. (Shoutout to Lorenzo and those in the chat that day for their kind words, as well as the rest of the Club Tiny crew. I’m really glad to be part of this community.)

Back at my room, I chilled on my bed for a while and just zoned out checking Twitter and playing games. After a while, I felt better and decided to walk down to the beach, which was several blocks down from my cousin’s place. It was really nice out there, and I even got to explore the ruins of an old oceanside swimming facility. As the sun started to set, I headed back up the hill, grabbed some ramen at a nearby restaurant, and went back to my room to get some rest. As you can see, I felt better after my beach explorations:

In the morning, after saying goodbye to my cousin’s family (who hosted me during the conference), I got picked up by my cousin Nick and his wife Bekah. We grabbed lunch at a tasty Mexican place, chatted a bit, and then drove out to the airport for me to catch my flight. My flight home was pretty rough (the less said about that, the better), and by the time I got home, I was sick and exhausted. Once I no longer had to keep myself together for GDC, I collapsed and spent the next week or so getting over my cold.

To Be Concluded…

And that’s it for part two. Thanks so much for reading! Please check back in next week, where I’ll share some lessons and takeaways I learned at this year’s GDC.