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manonamora-if · 1 year ago

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February Check-In

From here on out, we should be back on track - IRL be damned (crossing fingers with that). Unless someone throws another wrench...

Anyway, let's not think about the bummer stuff...

Here's to a hopefully "normal" month with stuff actually being checked off a list!

Onto the usual index:

Recap of last month’s progress

IF Events in the Next Month

Plan for the next month

Still long post under the break. If you want a mini version, head over to itch.io!

January Progress

Welp... there wasn't much of a list in the January Check-in, since it was the retrospective, which included the yearly plan. Still, I did make a mini one on itch. Put together we'd get:

Still play more IF and maybe review. ✅

Finish the edits of Harcourt Ch5 ✅ and coding ❌

Fix one of the semi-completed games: ❌either the Egg parser or TRNT (and make it a proper parser)

Complete the Seed/Shuffle-Comp entry✅

Honestly, not bad... The first one, obviously is done and dusted. IFDB says I posted 60+ reviews in January - covering the Short Game Showcase, the ShuffleComp, and the Recipe Jam helped quite a bit. And that also meant... I'm 3rd in the Reviewer ranking! Only 100 more to second place...

MelS and I finally stopped playing ping-pong with the editing of Harcourt (later than we wanted...), and I'm currently sitting down to edit the whole maze. I had hoped to be done by the end of this month, but it wasn't feasible... It was close - I only have half a dozen passages to code, to check it works, and do the formatting. I used to laugh at his complaining of working all the rooms for this maze (because he chose to do that many), but now I'm the one suffering... Don't do mazes... Or don't do 30+-room mazes... (I'm not joking here) Also: If all goes well, March/April should be editing of Chapter 6, June/July coding of Chapter 6 (+ re-edits of previous chapters), August/September beta/edits, October? completed game.

As for the ShuffleComp, I made it realllll close to the deadline. But (not so) strangers in the night was completed just in time! Aaaannnddd, got 1st place in the Use of Songs category! Yay me :D Also submitted to the SeedComp! and the Zach Jam.

As for fixing the parsers.... whomp whomp, didn't manage that.

Buuuutt:

I made another parser! Not Another Sad Meal is a slice-of-life cooking sim of easy difficulty (and clickable elements for help!)

Also made a Zine! CTRL+SHIFT+ZUT+ALORS Lost content meets weird technology. I probably will never make this game, but you can use it as inspiration if you want!

And spent a few days working on a collaborative virtual card for a friend. While that will never be made public (for obvious reasons), You can find the basic interface [here].

Also won kuddos of best puzzle for An Eggcellent Preparation (even though it kinda broken)!

So yeah... not huge updates for projects, but some good progress and a few mini-new games. I'm not expecting people to check those out... But it would be neat if you did!

What’s happening in February?

There's always something happening in the IF world. I don't think I ever find all that happens anyway... but. Here's the ones I know!

The Queer Vampire Game Jam ends in about three weeks. Got a vampire/human story with a LGBT+ cast? Then this is the event for you! (unranked) Also they are doing a fundraising/matching donation with submissions!

Obviously @neointeractives got you covered for Valentine’s with the Smoochie Jam: it’s all about kisses, love and romance (unranked) - Be also on the look out for the next Neo-Interactives mini-jam which is happening mid-March.

The SeedComp! (Sprouting) ends at the end of February. Come transform someone’s idea or asset into a new IF game! See @seedcomp-if for more info ;) (ranked)

Concours de Fiction Interactive Francophone 2024 se termine dans un mois! Viendez faire des histoires en français!! <3 (ranked, duh)

The Spring Thing is waiting for your intent to participate until March 1st! After that, the submissions are due in April (also ranked)

Got a cool talk idea regarding Interactive Fiction, narration, or gameplay? Consider submitting a proposal for this year’s Narrascope! They are still looking for people!!!!

Note: @neointeractives will have jams all year long. One a month/or so. And the next Planting Round of @seedcomp-if will start as soon as the results are dropped.

The PLANtm for February

Shortest month, and one busy months in events (I'm at the head of two... what am I DOING WITH MY LIFE....)... So much to do, so little time. But also, ONE EXTRA DAY THIS MONTH! :D

What are we hoping to do this month?

Play more games! Because there are a bunch of jams happening and a backlog of games I'm trying to clear. Also I want to get to that second IFDB spot! (1st won't ever be attainable...)

Finish the Code Ch5 of Harcourt. This is attainable. This is doable. I will finish... because I am already 80% done. MelS is working on Chapter 6 for this month - hoping to have a rough draft for me to check too by the end of the month...

Finish fixing The Roads Not Taken. This is your month. I swear I am manifesting it hard. This is happening. I will finish you. I'm sorry I've been avoiding you....

Jam Entry number 685470w8698... probably. Maybe do a Queer Vampire/Smoochie Combo. Maybe even a French Comp game?

ALSO: I will probably do an another AMA mid-Feb.

The 2024 To-Do List:

New year, new list. A more feasible one, according to January-Me.

The hopefully maybe easy to handle To-Do:

fix the bugs in EDOC + overall the French version to match

fix the bugs of TRNT + find a way to add the missing pieces (giving up on the translation)

fixing the interface of LPM and the popups + check animal interactions

figure out the One-Button JavaScrip/jQuery issue...

edit the loading screens of the completed tiny games to include the program/format logo at least.

The 'Need a Bunch of Content to update but it's planned!' To-Do:

Update my website (bunch new title - also I don't think the logo clicky thing work...) + redo my itch page

Finish TTATEH (MelS dependent - this year should be it - for real)

Finish Exquisite Cadaver (half-way mark by this summer - manif)

Finish P-Rix - Space Trucker (main path at least)

Update CRWL (it's been almost two years... I'm getting ashamed)

The Unlikely But it Would be Dope To-Do

Finish The Dinner as it was planned (and translate)

Finish In the Blink of an Eye as it was planned (and retranslate)

Finish The Rye in the Dark City

Fixing TTTT (at least fixing, maybe try adding some storylets)

And finally The 'It's impossible, but one can wish' TO-DO:

Remaster SPS IH (if I managed to start this after completing the rest... I'm going to eat a whole sheet cake).

Start the IFComp project (2025? Might end up being a ST?)

#dev log #progress #update #check-in #february planning #AMA incoming yall

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space-blue · 1 year ago

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Welp, if the concept interests you, then I shall gift you chapter 2:

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Lyle Wainfleet struggles with sleep. He's doing fine all day long. Does his job, supports his team, picks up for the Colonel here and there... He keeps busy. Heck, when there's danger of a lull that can't be filled with training or maintenance, he even turns to Spider, teaching the boy about cards and learning his Na'vi games.

The problem is that when night comes, there's nothing to do but shut his eyes and wait for sleep to come. Lyle's a dyed in the wool marine. He can fall asleep standing up if he has to. Or should, rather, because he isn't. Not any more.

Part of him doesn't want to look at the issue too closely. He's happy to blame his new body and keep counting sheep. Yet as he counts to increasingly complex numbers, the rest of his mind can't help but spiral, bringing in questions over the fence, rather than sheep. Stuff like "What if I wake up tomorrow back on the spaceship for round two?" or "What if it never stops, but like, not in a good way?"

Or far worse, "What if I feel like myself, but the old me wasn't like this? How do I know I am who I think I am?"

And that inner voice, that question-churning gremlin squatting in the back of his mind, it just won't shut up. It can be exhausted though, which is why Lyle is spending more time at the gym, staying there later every evening.

That's where he is when shit goes down.

'Mmh... L-lyle?'

He jumps off the treadmill, startled. It's Milley, the woman in charge of their support team. Except it's 0200 on a work night and the base is dead quiet, most everyone asleep. There's bound to be stragglers and night owls, but Milley's not been one of them so far. Nor would you expect her to be, when she's got her hands full with base-bound recoms all day long.

'What's up?' he calls, waving her into the room. He cracks a smile. 'Bold of you to come find—'

He stops himself short.

Milley is very tall, for a human. She'd have towered a full head over him if he'd met her in his past life. Which would have been hella hot. As it is now, she's just big enough that Lyle doesn't feel like he'd snap her in half if he were to lay hands on her. What with her voluptuous curves and soft brown eyes, he'd been unable to resist an off-colour joke about size when they first met. He can't even remember it, but he remembers how beautiful her blush had been. He'd thought to himself that he ought to invite her for a date at the cafeteria. Put the real moves on.

So, Milley, coming to him here, in an empty gym at two in the morning? The pick-up line just writes itself—except her skin is the colour of the wall, washed out grey. Her full, kissable lips are pinched tight and trembling. Her hands, so deft at braiding their hair, are balled tight in her uniform, knuckles pale and bloodless, like a little girl trembling from a nightmare.

'Hey, are you all right?' he asks, softer now. Her wide-eyed gaze slips past and through him, and Lyle has to gently approach and squeeze her shoulder to get her to refocus. 'What happened?'

She blinks and seems to get her bearings. She also starts shaking under his hand. Positively vibrating. Her teeth are clicking as she says, 'I— I— I need... I need y-your help.'

Lyle braces her, grabbing both shoulders in his enormous blue paws and rubbing his thumbs along her collarbone. 'Shh... I'm here, I'll help,' he tells her, blood already boiling as he wonders whose head he needs to bash in for this.

Milley hiccups. She grabs his left wrist, hands clamping down painfully, nails digging in. She looks stricken, like she can't believe what's happening to her, whatever it is. 'You should... The Colonel, he...'

'What? Quaritch?' Lyle feels his tail whip behind him, out of his control. 'Something's going on with him?'

'I— I... Think? I... don't want to... I...'

'Don't want to what? Did he— No.' He interrupts himself again, waving his own question away. 'Where is he?' he asks instead.

When Milley stutters too long, Lyle picks her up and darts out of the gym. 'Just point,' he orders her. 'Get us there.'

She whimpers, wrapping her arms around his neck like a scared child, but does as instructed. Lyle jogs down the corridors, keenly aware of how ludicrous the situation is. Running around at night with a hot woman draped over his shoulder and hanging on to him like some distressed damsel and her knight gallant... They must make quite the picture. Too bad it's not nearly as romantic as it must look.

This close, he can smell it on her. Acrid and bitter, stinging in his nose and sticking to his palate. Fear.

They don't go very far. Milley leads him back to the barracks, and points down the corridor. Not the wing for the avatar personnel, but the one across, down the hall. The one packed with SECOPS guys and gals. There's a few private rooms at the top for officers, then two large dorms and a smaller one near the end of the wing, for those who are neither guy nor gal.

There's nobody out and nothing amiss as far as Lyle can see. Milley starts squirming, hands digging into his throat as she pushes herself off him. 'L-let me d-down. Let me— Let me down, Lyle, I—'

'Hey, you're good.'

She scrambles back the moment she's on her feet. 'T-there. Men's dorm. I'll... I'll get you back up.' Milley shakes her head. She gives Lyle a terrified look, some dark realisation finally dawning on her, focusing her. 'I'm sorry. I d-don't know why I didn't think of w-waking anyone else.'

Lyle swivels his ears around, trying to pick up on whatever crazy shit has the woman as spooked as a deer in headlights, but all's quiet. Eerily so. He can't even pick up on a single snore. What are they doing in there?

'All right. Go wake Zdinarsk and Brown,' he tells her. 'And get Mansk up too.'

Lyle doesn't want to hear Mansk bitch and whine about missing out on action, especially if Z-dog is in on it. Everybody thinks the man's quiet, but that's because they don't ask him to spot them at the weight bench.

Milley nods furiously, gives Lyle a trembling, half-hearted wave, spins on her heels and sprints back to the Recom wing like there's a medal to be won.

Silence falls down like a blanket over Lyle's back, cold and clammy, raising the hair at his nape and giving him goosebumps. If this is a prank, some setup to jumpscare him as he enters the dorm, it's in serious danger of working. He squares his shoulders and makes his way to the door. He's careful, bare feet silent on the lino floor. He knows it's not a prank waiting for him. Nobody acts like that, and Milley's a tech, not an Oscar winning actress.

Anyway, something's off. It's not just the silence, or even the recent issues with the Colonel. There's something else on the air. A rank smell Lyle can't put a name to. It's heavy and cloying. Familiar, yet new. Revolting and alien. He feels like he should know it. It's on the tip of his tongue—and burning his nostrils. As he presses his hand to the door, it's like he's pushing through a film of it, a bubble that envelops him without popping.

Two things happen simultaneously. Or three. Or more.

First, a sound, at fucking last! A squelching, wet noise, rising over the soft hiss of metallic hinges. Then Lyle walks into something—tepid, liquid—and takes an automatic step back.

He tracks bright red across the corridor's floor and gets an answer to his question. That smell—that overpowering stench—is blood.

Human blood.

A gurgle makes him look up. His gaze follows the slanting blade of electric light cutting into the dark room. Past his own shadow, across mounds and troughs, a senseless mass of warped shapes, glistening pinks and ruby red, sharp white edges and the matte greens of RDA issued clothes.

His tail is rigid behind him, his ears strained against his head. His palm slides against the door, too sweaty for purchase. His breath rattles in his chest, each inhale punctuated by a stabbing pain between his ribs. Lyle is frozen in place, against all training he's ever had, against his own screaming muscles, desperate for him to move, to get away, even as blood pools between his toes.

There's someone squatting at the edge of the light. The only body that still makes sense, with all its limbs attached. A swishing tail catches the edge of the light.

'C-colonel?'

It makes no sense, but the recognition is there, grabbing Lyle by the throat and not letting go. The title echoes in the air as if spoken by someone else. The narrator of this sick joke.

Red, alien eyeshine pins Lyle down as the hunched shape twists towards him. Its attention feels like a greasy touch, tainted fingers smearing the inside of Lyle's skull. But his eyes are alien too, and already accustomed to the dimness. He tracks familiar features, hidden under sheets of gore.

'Miles...'

Colonel Miles Quaritch twitches at his name. A flash of recognition softens his features. He looks away from Lyle and down at himself. You can hardly tell he's a recom, even as he crawls towards the light. His skin is black, soaked with dark, venous blood from his nose to his knees. It cakes over his arms and hands, his throat, his shoulders, dimming his natural light. There's still a smattering of bioluminescence between and above his eyes, but that too, is now the wrong colour.

'Lyle?' Quaritch asks, voice croaking.

What's Lyle supposed to say? 'Hi'? 'Sir, yes sir'? A question, perhaps? 'You all good?' or maybe a statement like, 'I guess I'm dreaming'. That would be fucked too. Finally asleep despite all his inner turmoil, and this is the shit he'd get?

He fucking wishes. Lyle would take any nightmare or night terror over how real this is.

'What did you do?' he asks in the end, the question whispered on a shivering breath.

vampire Q? i think i recognized all your wips but that one

It's an Avatar story in which Q contracts a fucked disease after getting a cut from an arrow. The microbes react differently to the recom DNA and fuck with his mind. The issue is that I started with chapter 2, which is finished, and the first half of chapter 1... Then bailed out on the part where the fever should ratchet up and up, till Miles loses himself and starts feasting on some RDA staff :3

It all starts with the graze of an arrow, courtesy of Sully's woman.

The neurotoxin immediately gets to work, burning as it spreads. Miles reaches for the antidote on automatic, punches it into the side of his throat and tosses the empty canister aside. He discards any concern just as easily. They're pinned down, the hostages scattered, and this is the one fucking alien on this moon whose brains he most wants splattered on the greenery. He's not letting his chance slip.

His arm screams in protest as he signs for Lyle to go around dear Mrs. Sully, or when he grabs Walker and yanks her back behind cover. It shakes under the recoil as he fires into the canopy, half blind in the rain. It nearly gives out when he hoists the kid over his shoulder and clips into the lines.

They fly off and Miles presses himself into his seat, head spinning and an uncomfortable stinging sensation spreading down his chest.

It doesn't matter. He doesn't care. His son is safe in his arms. Bleeding and zoning out, yes, but safe. Kid could have had it worse. He could have eaten a bullet or an arrow.

'He'll be fine, he's probably concussed by the blast and fall,' Lopez declares after a cursory inspection. 'But sir, you shouldn't hold him that way. You could pop the seal of his exopack.'

Miles grunts and adjusts the kid's position, arm twitching in protest. Lopez catches it. Or maybe it's the blood, still sluggishly oozing from the slice in his deltoid. Lopez presses his fingers along the cut, pulling out his small torch to get a better look.

'You took the anti—'

'What d'you think?'

'I think it was a bit of a shitshow, sir. Wouldn't blame you for missing it.'

Miles can't exactly counter that. You don't lose half your team to three natives with bow and arrows and not call it a shitshow.

'I got it immediately,' he says, 'and I'll be heading to the medbay anyway.'

To deliver his unconscious son, if nothing else.

Walker leans into him and whispers an apologetic, 'That was intended for me.'

'And it got neither of us,' Miles mutters.

An easy half lie, but the arrow head and the yellow, striated fletching got under his skin, just in different ways.

That's what I have for chapter 1. Chapter 2 was in Lyle POV and much better imo buuuut, the entire story was hefty and long, with no way to shorten it significantly. I should yeet chapter 2 as standalone on ao3 and be done with it tbh.

Even made some doodles for this AU

One of these things about parasitism, building an organic convent, a sort of weird eldrritch horror competition to Eywa, leading the RDA and local tribes into uneasy cooperation.

It's a story that was discussed too much. It was fun to chat about, but my energy got spent on making the world, meaning I never got to sit to the writing fully.

I also had a really unpleasant interraction with some other fans around this particular story concept, so it really soured things, as often in Avatar sadly.

#and then Q would run out #and start infecting the locals #big chaos #much bad ensues #avatar #atwow #recom lyle wainfleet #miles quaritch

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oumakokichi · 8 years ago

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Hello! I would first like to say that I love your metas about ndrv3, they're really interesting to read and make me like ndrv3 a lot more than when I first saw spoilers about it, especially regarding the ending! Also, I was wondering who was Iruma close to (as friends or romantically) in the game, if anyone? Because I've seen some "spoilers" that say it's implied that Shuuichi liked her romantically, and that it's confirmed she likes Kiibo romantically, and I was wondering if that's true?

Thank you so much anon! I’mglad if I’ve been able to help improve people’s opinions on ndrv3 at all! It’sa really wonderful game, and while it’s not without flaws, I’ve really enjoyedbeing able to clear up false information and just let people decide forthemselves whether they like it or not once they have more of the facts!

As for Miu, haha, she’s…wellshe’s not exactly close with many of them. A lot of the point of Miu’scharacter is that she’s kind of hilariously disliked by the rest of the group,with even Ouma going as far to say when she dies that since she was “thesecond-most disliked person here” after himself, he doesn’t know why everyoneis acting super distraught.

Miu is not someone who canbring herself to trust others. She’s good at what she does—really, absurdlygood at it. Her talent is one of the most useful I’ve ever seen in the DRfranchise, arguably just as useful as Chihiro’s/Alter Ego’s, and it’s preciselybecause Miu is so ridiculously talented and such a forceful presence of brasharrogance and comic relief in the group that I wound up liking her even thoughI didn’t expect to at first. But precisely because of her personality, she’sreally not very well-liked at all.

This is played largely forcomic relief at points. Most of the group in Chapter 4’s trial with theexception of Gonta and Kiibo, kind of agree that even if they hadn’t been putinto a killing game at all, they still wouldn’t have been able to becomefriends with her. Miu is so loud, sobrash, and she puts on this huge arrogant façade where she talks down to peopleand acts like she’s better than all of them. She backs down when pushed at amoment’s notice, of course, but her arrogance still clearly grates on most ofthe group, moreso when she makes them doubly uncomfortable by bringing upsexual innuendos all the time.

Because she insults them andjust sort of grosses them out all around, no one exactly likes her, for themost part. Of course no one wanted her to die, either. Not even Ouma, as I’veexplained in previous posts. Though it’s true that I think if Miu hadn’t hadsuch a ridiculously useful talent he would never have associated with her at allbeyond the bare minimum of having to respond to her in the class trials.

As far as Saihara having romanticfeelings for her, this isn’t canon. Of course, you can still interpret thingsas you like! Much of the fun of DR rarely ever confirming a ship on both sidesis that it leaves a lot up to fan preference, and that’s why things like FTEsand bonus mode content exist, so you can get a feel of which ships you likepersonally and sort of roll with it. Personally, Miu’s love hotel scene made memuch too uncomfortable to ever consider shipping them—there’s a lot of grosspandering in the love hotel scenes in particular that’s pretty much just therefor sheer fanservice, and while these things aren’t canon, they do make meuncomfortable with quite a few of these types of scenes.

The only character Saihara hasever been confirmed to have romantic feelings for is Kaede. He definitelyremembers Kaede fondly the whole game through, and he and Maki both discusswhat it’s like to fall in love in the midst of a situation as ridiculous as akilling game.

However, there’s plenty of roomfor interpretation to ship Saihara with plenty of other characters. I will saythat I think it’s certainly canon that Saihara has a preference for verytake-charge personalities—he gets flustered and embarrassed by pretty much anycharacter who takes him by the hand and inspires him to improve himself, includingnot only Kaede, but Momota, Ouma, even Amami in some of their bonus modeinteractions.

As for Miu’s feelings aboutKiibo, this probably came about as a result of that one CG where she performsmaintenance on him. It’s pretty much just a fanservice CG, and there are loadsof comments from Miu about being very…uh, excited.She loves inventing, she loves mechanics, and she loves electronics, so gettingto actually add new features to Kiibo and perform maintenance definitely wasright up her alley.

There’s not really a lot aboutromance between them, but I’ll say that I wound up not disliking their interactionspecifically because Kiibo is one of the only characters after Chapter 4 whoremembers Miu somewhat fondly. While most of the group is just kind of agreedon the fact that, “Yeah, we don’t really like Miu much because she was kind ofan asshole to us,” Kiibo says he actually felt she was pretty nice, because shewas always doing maintenances on him and always helping him out, in a way. Hedefinitely is one of the few characters to express that he thought the problemwas with the killing game, rather than Miu’s personality, and I’d say thatpeople could definitely read into that if they want, even though it’s a far cryfrom canon.

And as for anyone else she was “close”with—ironically enough, there’s Ouma. I don’t mean this romantically so much asI mean they were close by virtue of having struck up a sort of semi-alliancepretty early on, much sooner than Chapter 4. They certainly never trusted eachother or were entirely open with each other, but the fact that they were ableto put aside their differences and work together to make some pretty incredibleinventions (inventions which became vitalto the rest of the group’s survival in Chapters 5 and 6) was always interestingto me.

In many ways, Ouma and Miu arequite similar when it comes to their inability to fully trust or open up toother people. While many things about each other grated on one another, I thinkthey did sort of subconsciously realize that they had that particular point incommon, and it’s one reason they were able to work together as long as theydid. Things only fell apart after Miu became much too scared to even keep inventingand much too determined that things were going to fall apart, she couldn’ttrust anyone, and she’d rather kill to get out. But while they certainly didn’tlike each other, I’d say part of the tragedy in Chapter 4 is that they didn’thate each other either, and they could actually understand each other quitewell.

Thank you for sending this in,anon! Miu is extremely fun as a character, and I wound up liking her quite alot despite myself, because even if she was certainly not the best person, shehad such a presence, and her role inthe group was fun precisely because so many people were either uncomfortable orannoyed when she was around. While I don’t know that I’d say she was directly “friends”with anyone, the most canonical evidence we have says that Gonta wasn’t closeto her but definitely didn’t dislike her like the rest of the group did, andKiibo was arguably one of the ones in the group closest to her by virtue of herworking on him quite a lot. I hope this helps clear up some of those rumors!

#ndrv3 #drv3 #new danganronpa v3 #miu iruma #iruma miu #ndrv3 spoilers //#my meta #okay to reblog #miu grew on me so much #i wasn't expecting it but then the later chapters in the game happened and welp #anonymous

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