#i worked really hard on this and still have like 3 more characters to do a ref for but thats for later i need to catch up on other stuff no

[meo-eiru]

Hello!

Do you have any tips on making art for games?

I've tried my hand in making VNs before and i want to try again but i always get overwhelmed when it's time to make the sprites, backgrounds, and other artwork :(

Mostly because the sheer amount of art needed is intimidating.

The best way to overcome that overwhelming feeling is so start out small.

Remember that you are not a big company, work based on the workload you can handle. For a first vn usually focusing on 2-3 characters at most is more ideal, you don't have to make your job harder.

For the backgrounds there's an app called FotoSketcher (not sure if it's available on mobile), it basically places a filter over your art and makes it look painting like, and you can choose from various different styles. It's free and has nothing to do with AI so you can use it without worry.

While I drew the backgrounds in the cg, since we were running short on time FotoSketcher did help me a lot with the in game backgrounds. Though you might need to draw over some stuff to make them blend in better.

For the sprites, or well the character designs, don't go too overboard with details. More details doesn't mean better character design, in fact it can usually feel hard on the eyes. Try to keep it simple.

Be aware of your character's charm points and focus on those.

For the expressions, you don't have to draw each expression one by one. Something that really fastened the process for me was drawing different eyes, mouths and eyebrows, then combining those like puzzle pieces to form the expressions.

For example these two Starling expressions have the same eyes and eyebrow combination but I used different mouths.

And for the cgs, again keep your workload to a minimum. You don't have to illustrate every fun scene, remember that the players can imagine those themselves too. Focus on the scenes you think should absolutely get illustrated to support the story better. If after finishing those you still have time you can always add in more, but what is important is to make a presentable game, not going above and beyond with every single small detail.

[tkwrites]

Okay I'm done now and heading to bed, one last question.

Can you name a favourite fic for each of the boys?

Hi my Lovely,

There are quite a few of your asks I haven't answered, but please know I'm not ignoring them. They'll just take a little more time to respond to.

I can tell you my favorite fics, though:

Matthew Tkachuk - Back To You because it's such a complete story. I love the way he and Jessie meet, lose each other, and then are thrown together by fate again. I also feel like I really captured that sassy side of Matthew's personality in this fic, which I was really worried about at the time I was writing it. This is also the story that I think would be easiest to flesh out into a full length novel.

Nico Hischier - I love all the parts of his story for different reasons, but I think It Doesn't Matter Part II is my favorite. I had actually written the whole sequence of nude sketches for another character, but ended up scrapping the whole story because I couldn't find any real conflict for them to resolve. When I realized I could use it for Nico and Lena if she was an artist, I was thrilled and got to work rewriting it for them. In the end, the only things that stayed the same were 5 of the 6 poses. Getting into and out of them changed, as did the characters relating to each other during them. I love all the longing and awkward tension between them in this piece, as well as how they finally end up confessing their love for each other. Finally, the culmination of all of their longing into the final sex scene? Chefs kiss.

Quinn Hughes - This one is so hard. I've written so much about Quinn and Sarah and I love all of the pieces for one reason or another. If I had to pick three favorites, they would be:

1). Five Days of Joy because I'm so proud of this fic. It took SO long to write, but I love the way it turned out. I love that we go through so many consecutive days and such a gamut of emotions with Sarah and Quinn.

2). The Second Time is Better because I love the portrayal of a more real first time. One of the things that drives me batty about romance novels is how the characters get together and always seem to have this instantly amazing sexual connection. No room for human failing or first time jitters. In reality, it takes time to build sexual chemistry and connection, and I went into this piece wanting to show at least some of that.

and 3). Second Nature because I think it has the prettiest prose. I still think this passage is some of the best writing I've ever done:

This was ultimate flirting in Quinn’s book. Something he knew he could do. When someone wanted to talk about music, or art or classic cars, he was a fish out of water. But talking hockey? He could do that all day long. Convincing someone to like the sport he loved so much? There wasn't a more ideal situation. 

“Oh, good,” she said, leaning forward to kiss him. 

This was a perfect evening. Casual and comfortable. Cooking for someone he - liked, and kissing her whenever he wanted, taking no worry of who might be watching. 

Letting himself get swept up in the kiss, he slid his hands over her hips and tried to commit her scent to memory. No matter what happened - though he was pretty sure nothing bad was ever going to happen with Sarah - he wanted to remember this. She smelled like a dream he’d had as a boy. Like vanilla and warm skin and fireside, summer nights. It was an outlandish notion, but he couldn’t shake it. 

All her life, Sarah had read stories about star-crossed, fated lovers thrown together by chance and circumstance and serendipity. But those were all just stories. Even when her grandpa talked about meeting her grandma - like they were always meant to be together, and just had to find each other to make it happen - it seemed like folklore. A tall tale he spun to make their love story seem more epic. 

After writing all this out, I realized perhaps you meant favorite writing from other authors. Let me know if that's something you'd like me to answer.

[adamnablelittledevil]

on the subject of vampire polyamory specifically in relation to Lestat, Armand, and Louis, I think people are forgetting that there's a difference between an open relationship and a throuple. All 3 of those vampires are pretty poorly equipped to handle an open relationship with Lestat "I don't like sharing" de Lioncourt probably being the worst equipped, however I do think that the three of them could probably manage with a poly relationship where all members of the relationship are dating all other members of the relationship and the relationship is closed.

Thank you! Speaking of relationship configurations as a whole, this is so true. Polyamorous and open relationships are not necessarily the same and people tend to generalize them so much. It's the same with pan and bisexual people, it's not because you're into every gender that you're into every single person. I'm personally all for freer relationships (polyamorous, open, non-exclusive, any and all of them), I keep the door open and yet never used it because there was never a need for it, but it's still open if that changes one day. It's just about not being controlling for me. I feel really weird about trying to police each other's actions, bodies and feelings. So, I'm like, as long as there is love and respect, we're free to follow our heart wherever it takes us. I don't see having more than one parent, kid or friend as a problem, so I don't know why romantic love would be any different. For me, the problem is that it is hard to fall in love, be lucky enough to be reciprocated and accommodate a romance with all the other aspects of your life in the little time humans have with one person, let alone two or more individuals. Also, the risk of pregnancy, diseases etc. Now, vampires that live forever, can't get sick or pregnant? It makes perfect sense.

About Loumandstat, I can definitely see what you're saying. Specially for what I've read on the books so far. I don't know in depth how the chronicles will end, what Rolin will choose to do and if that's logistically possible on a show with only 7-8 episodes per season (I do believe they work miracles with the little time they have, but it's still not the same as having 13 books), but I think there's enough argument to support giving it a try or at least leaving it open to interpretation if they want, even if they don't do it with the main three (or four) characters.

Not to mention they're vampires and I find the idea of living forever with only person and love narrow-minded, limiting and unrealistic (same goes to gender, sexuality and norms in general). It's way more convincing to me that feelings would evolve and relationships would expand over time. I also believe many of their problems come from having just one person to be the lover, friend, therapist, parent and mentor all at the same time.

Ans you can't have one individual playing all the roles in your life... This usually makes things implode and they end up going from one person to nobody and complete loneliness. It just never work, no matter how compatible they are. You need multiple people to spend eternity with and all the love you can find: platonic, familial and, yes, maybe even romantic.

[levithestripper]

Fanfic writer interview

Thank you sm for the tag Liza!! I'm gonna put it under the cut so I don't clog the dash :)

How many work do you have on AO3?

51!!

What's your total AO3 word count?

206,615. I fear I might have a problem lmao 😅

What are your top 5 stories by kudos/likes?

Slutty Seashell (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) (1,233 kudos). I wrote this in 2020 and I'm lowkey still proud of it.

Braids of Gold (The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)) (579 kudos). This was a really fun fic to write, I can't get enough bagginshield fluff in my life.

What A Needy Little Thing (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) (506 kudos). Another one I wrote in 2020!! The sidon/link brainrot went HARD that year.

Slutty Hero (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) (445 kudos). ANOTHER 2020 sidon/link smut fic lmao.

Press Your Lips Up Against Mine (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) (302 kudos). First non-smut sidon/link 2020 fic! I really like this one, I might rewrite it one day.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! I love responding to comments!! I like it when authors reply to me when I comment, so I try to return the favor when I get comments! The only time I don't respond is when I really like the comment and want to hog the notification lmao.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I don't really write angst, so it's probably a tossup between Hello My Old Heart (Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan) and Like the Ones I Used to Know (Stranger Things (TV 2016)).

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

I'm not sure how to decide which has the "happiest" ending, since pretty much all of my fics end happily, but one of my favorite happy endings is You'll Always Be My Prince (House of the Dragon (TV)). Technically it's not finished yet, but I really enjoy writing the endings of the chapters so I guess that counts lmao.

Do you write crossovers?

No, I don't read them or write them.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Probably, but I don't remember what fic it was or what the hate was about. I don't let hate comments bother me all that much, I just delete them and move on.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Most of what I write is smut! I enjoy writing it, and it comes easily to me, so a lot of my writing ends up being dirty, nasty, and freaky lmao. I write a lot of M/M slash and character/reader smut!

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, not as far as I know!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, I've only ever received translation requests where my work would be uploaded to another site, so none have been translated. If it were a request where it'd be translated and uploaded to AO3, I'd like that!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but I'd like to! It sounds like it'd be fun.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

Oh god, how dare you make me choose?!?!? It's a tossup between Athelnar (Ragnar Lothbrok/Athelstan) and Zelink (Link/Zelda). They both make me feel so violent and insane that I feel a little bit crazy. I've been a fan of Zelink since I was a kid, and Athelnar for maybe 2/3 years now I think? I need to write more for both of them immediately.

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I have a 7k-long Athelnar fishing WIP that I really want to finish, but I'm stuck on a scene and I don't know if I'll ever get over that hump. I love the story I've created so far, so I hope one day I'll get to share it with you all.

What are your writing strengths?

Oh man, I'm not sure? I think I'm pretty good at writing scenery/describing backgrounds/where the characters are? I really enjoy writing them so I hope that conveys in the quality of my writing.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I will write maybe 100-300 words and call it a day. I can't seem to write anything of substance for long periods anymore, which really bothers me. I wish I could write at a faster speed than GRRM but alas, that doesn't seem possible lmao.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I don't mind it, as long as the author provides translations for it that are readily accessible. When I write dialogue in a different language, I'll either use the tone tag to tell the reader that it's in a different language, and then write the actual dialogue in English, or I'll write it as is in the other language and provide translations in the author's notes.

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

Definitely Leofric/Uhtred and Uhtred/Alfred! And I've been rewatching Ted Lasso, so possibly something for that as well! I want to write more for TLK and Vikings in general.

What's your favorite fic you've written?

I know I mentioned it previously, but probably You'll Always Be My Prince (House of the Dragon (TV))! It's my first longfic with an OC who is basically a self-insert at this point. I have so many ideas I want to write for this story that it feels like I'm gonna explode.

No pressure tags: @nxuvillette, @itsnathateasy, @bouncehousedemons, and @tinyluvs.

Fanfic writer interview

Thank you @thelettersfromnoone for the tag!! 💖

How many work do u have on AO3?

3, not your local AO3 girlie lmao

What's your total AO3 word count?

8 534

Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes

I'll go with Tumblr ones, cause from my 3 AO3 works the biggest number I got is 31 lmao

Anyone but you (Legolas x f!reader)

Night watch (Legolas x Reader)

Well-deserved rest (Haldir x f!Reader)

One messy night (Boromir x f!Reader)

Transition (Haldir x f!Reader)

Honorable mention (since it's not fics but headcanons)

Green Council receiving a hot pic from you (HotD)

TLK men's reaction on being pet named

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I always try to respond to comments! These little things are brightening up my day, so I wanna let the people know that they are my heroes hahaha

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I really think it's Transition. All in all it's a pretty dark story, a bit depressing I think (I had these intentions while writing at least).

Otherwise, I don't think I have angsty endings fics?

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

New family members for sure!! Was thinking hard what to choose, cause I think all of my happy ending fics are on the pretty same level on a happy scale, but I remember that I have this gen, non romantic baby and I love it so much ❤️‍🩹 There's a little TLK OMC for y'all

Do you write crossovers?

I wanted to say I've never done this BUT THEN!!! My Assassin's Creed (Ezio) x LOTR little headcanon!!! My beloved child!!

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No, not that I remember getting any hate on my fics

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do, tho not much and on rare occasions. I used to write a lot of smut when I was younger (a teen), then I stopped being comfortable with it for a wild few years (tho reading never made me uncomfortable lmao).

Now I started writing smut again, idk what kind? Don't really understand what does that mean lol F x M traditional sex? Pretty detailed? If so, then yes lmao

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't know 😂 Maybe, maybe not. I think rather not.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not to my knowledge, I don't think so.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

We tried with my friend a long long time ago. Didn't go well lmao It's hard and kinda stressing, cause you never know what the other person is gonna write (at least we had this SURPRISE system), so... You kinda have zero plot cause everything you want to write plot-wise can be ruined by the second person's plot lmao

What's your all-time favorite ship?

Athelnar?? Athelstan and Ragnar were my first ever OTP (quickly followed by Alfred and Uhtred). You could never beat that Athelnar shit out of my body lmao I've never written for them, but oh I do love them boys!

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

Now, that's the HARSH one lmao

I think I have at least 3 OC stories that I really wanna write (2 for TLK and one for LOTR), but I'm scared that I will never actually do it. I never was good with multi chaptered stories, and these are indeed not a one shots 🥲

What are your writing strengths?

Ugh... I don't know? I think I was pretty good with dialogues and descriptions of the surroundings to build the atmosphere. But... I guess it's not for me to decide but for the readers?

What are your writing weaknesses?

I rarely finish what I've started lmao I should write everything in one go or else I'll never finish it... Or will finish it in two months even if it's a 2k words one shot

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I love them! I've only done it with my LOTR fics (with Sindarin) but I really love it. But I really love it when the language is different from the language of the settings? Like, if the story is happening in England and everyone is English, but you have two characters who can speak idk Dutch, let them have a Dutch language in their dialogue. I had a rant post about it not that long ago actually lmao You have to think about your in-universe language

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

Ahhh Bungou Stray Dogs! I love them, and I'd gladly try to write something for them. Not a character/character but reader my beloved.

And maybe Stephane Narcisse (reign) my beloved and a reader

What's your favorite fic you've written?

The blood on my hands (Eomer) and Peace (Finan) are definitely my fave ones I think. They are dark and both explore some trauma

No pressure tags: @whitedarkmoonflower @lord-aldhelm @holy3cake @gemini-mama @emilyhufflepufftlk @persephones-journey @solinarimoon @mrsalwayswrite @emmanuellececchi @bilbotargaryen @levithestripper @mrsarnasdelicious @paula-in-dreamland

[shepscapades]

shep I was talking to my brother about dbhc xisuma as one does and mentioned that ask about not being able to puzzle xisuma's face together mentally and my brother joked that the reason you put the spoiler bars and such on his face is cause you cant draw his whole face yet 😂

anyway I might have talked his ear off about dbhc idk tho lmao

LMAOO NOOOO!!! MY SECRET FINALLY IS OUT!!! /silly

[bleaksqueak]

Insomnia is letting up off and on, but I'm still super jelly brained from it case in point, I want to continue back with posting WIPs for the aired pages, but I can't remember what page I left off on now lmao (guess I'll have to dig through my blog to check... eesh. at least it's decently organized by tags?) Not a result of goo brain, really, but equally "AUGH" is that I let my screen protector go for too long without replacing it and now it's slick as snot and I don't have a replacement handy to put on it. This isn't a resulting consequence of goo brain but it does mean I'm going to be trying to draw without any traction while I'm already loopy. Good times ahead!

[puppyeared]

for like 3 weeks i was wondering why i was sleeping so much and felt listless. and just now I managed to email 3 people and responded to a month old message in the span of an hour because I got back to TAKING MY FUCKIN MEDS..........

[toiletcthulhu]

Skyrim has such an inoffensive style of game design that allows it to appeal to a lot of people, but I've known a lot of people who really need solid dialogue or non-violent options who just can't get into the game. Largely, I think Skyrim focuses on aesthetic and combat immersion (although I think combat has been more immersive in previous games, especially magic). The environment and music contribute to a cozy or scary vibe depending on the situation and do heavy lifting for lackluster level design, in my opinion. Whatever character you play, there's most likely an outfit, weapon, spell, and combat style that allow you to validate your perception of your character. Using these forms of expression to watch your character interact with an open world is quite addictive. The dialogue is vague enough that, although you may not be playing for it, it usually isn't bold enough to ruin the immersion of your experience. Basically the dialogue experience of Skyrim is so neutered and bland that it could almost be taken away and just replaced with quest descriptions. This would seem like a temporarily fun arrangement, but still not very substantive to even the most mainstream player, and that's where all the hard work of previous writers comes into play. Elder Scrolls has had a lot of passionate minds putting work into writing in-game libraries, fleshing out the histories of several different empires and peoples from different cultural perspectives, as well as creating an incomprehensibly intricate deity pantheon and creation story. I struggle to remember one part of any of these things that Bethesda improved upon in Skyrim. Pretty much no new lore for the Brotherhood, the Blades, the Dwemer, most of the Daedric princes, the civil war factions are barely fleshed out, hardly any new politics in the Dragonborn expansion or even seeing the ramifications of the Argonian revolt. There's basically a treasure trove of immense and honestly quite interesting knowlegde that compose at the bedrock of interest for desiring to remain in these worlds. It's funny because Fallout 4 was actually TOO ambitious for them, they tried to write their own stuff and rather embarrassingly couldn't write factions in a AAA game with more complexity than a middle schooler. This is why I think 3 and Skyrim are the most succesful of Bethesda's slop. They defile the carcass of good ideas and cover it with a polish of improved gameplay and a simple yet iconic aesthetic style, and so long as they try not to do anything that fundamentally damages the narriative integrity of the world they've had built for them, they're golden. It's ironic because I think this skillset would lend itself very nicely to high quality remakes, something that fans have often asked for. I used to think that it was a stupid request and that I desired freshness, but after seeing what Bethesda has to offer, I can't help but wonder how much cooler things would've been if they never made any new Fallout games and just remade them.

What is it about Skyrim that feels like the peak of Bethesda games

[dennisboobs]

do you guys ever sit and remember that dennis takes a mental health day is an episode that exists

[icewindandboringhorror]

Hrmm... Revising my game and I feel like there's still sooo much writing left to do, for something that probably won't even amount to much, so.. I do want to narrow my focus more (especially given my health problems seeming to get worse/less energy the past few years), but I'm not sure how would be best to...

I currently have 5 characters as the Main ones with full planned questlines and such, with each character having 6 quests you can do for them. But I haven't really started the writing for the 5th main character. So then I was thinking, if I were going to write 6 full quests worth of content anyway... is it better to allocate that time on just doing a Complete 6 Quests for ONE single character, OR would it be better to do something like.. choose THREE side characters and do 2 quests for each of them? So that people have a wider variety to interact with and sort of sample around (of course with the idea that, once the first version of the game is released, IF people actually care about it enough to make it worth the effort, I would then add additional content to complete those 3 characters stories as well)

-

SO... If you were playing an interactive fiction sort of game centered around talking to & doing quests for a cast of characters (like there's no larger plot, more it's just about interacting with people, every character kind of has a self contained story, the focus is just learning about them and the world and exploring the area) --- Which would you rather have?

(and of course it would be stated up front which characters have only partial questlines, so people don't expect them to have full quests like the others and then get disappointed, or etc. etc.)

Basically, is it better to just focus in specifically on having one fully complete questline? Or for there to be a few stories that are not complete yet, but have more initial options available?

[acaciapines]

on today's episode of 'acaica's background thoughts for the dess raises kris au': okay but lets be serious do dess and chara actually stay together in the end--

[readymades2002]

something difficult about writing/storytelling but only in short disconnected bursts is that writing anything longform is very difficult. there isn't as much time to practice long-term character development or subtlety (implying character instead of immediately clarifying) when its not really meant to go anywhere but a notes app. its a little frustrating...i'd love to do something more longform though. i've considered maybe just doing some short writing scenes in my various original universes a lot recently mostly because i just havent had time to draw anything fancy recently </3 maybe that would be something...

[skrunksthatwunk]

god goromi really fucked my gender didn't she

[frog-chemicals]

This is such a cool idea!!! Here's my little guys :]

i think it would be such a fun little bit for hermitblr bit for folks to pass around their minecraft skins without any other design context and let people make up designs (as hermitblr artists do) to see how other people interpret it

[insertdisc5]

🎮 HEY I WANNA MAKE A GAME! 🎮

Yeah I getcha. I was once like you. Pure and naive. Great news. I AM STILL PURE AND NAIVE, GAME DEV IS FUN! But where to start?

To start, here are a couple of entry level softwares you can use! source: I just made a game called In Stars and Time and people are asking me how to start making vidy gaems. Now, without further ado:

SOFTWARES AND ENGINES FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO CODE!!!

Ren'py (and also a link to it if you click here do it): THE visual novel software. Comic artists, look no further ✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It has great documentation! It has a bunch of plugins and UI stuff and assets for you to buy! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! (You'll just need to read the doc a bunch) You can also port your game to a BUNCH of consoles! ✨Cons: None really <3 Some games to look at: Doki Doki Literature Club, Bad End Theater, Butterfly Soup

Twine: Great for text-based games! GREAT FOR WRITERS WHO DONT WANNA DRAW!!!!!!!!! (but you can draw if you want) ✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It's versatile! It has great documentation! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! (You'll just need to read the doc a bunch) ✨Cons: You can add pictures, but it's a pain. Some games to look at: The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo, Queers In love At The End of The World, Escape Velocity

Bitsy: Little topdown games! ✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It's (somewhat) intuitive! It has great documentation! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! You can make everything in it, from text to sprites to code! Those games sure are small! ✨Cons: Those games sure are small. This is to make THE simplest game. Barely any animation for your sprites, can barely fit a line of text in there. But honestly, the restrictions are refreshing! Some games to look at: honestly I haven't played that many bitsy games because i am a fake gamer. The picture above is from Under A Star Called Sun though and that looks so pretty

RPGMaker: To make RPGs! LIKE ME!!!!! NOTE: I recommend getting the latest version if you can, but all have their pros and cons. You can get a better idea by looking at this post. ✨Pros: Literally everything you need to make an RPG. Has a tutorial inside the software itself that will teach you the basics. Pretty simple to understand, even if you have no coding experience! Also I made a post helping you out with RPGMaker right here! ✨Cons: Some stuff can be hard to figure out. Also, the latest version is expensive. Get it on sale! Some games to look at: Yume Nikki, Hylics, In Stars and Time (hehe. I made it)

engine.lol: collage worlds! it is relatively new so I don't know much about it, but it seems fascinating. picture is from Garden! NOTE: There's a bunch of smaller engines to find out there. Just yesterday I found out there's an Idle Game Maker made by the Cookie Clicker creator. Isn't life wonderful?

✨more advice under the cut. this is Long ok✨

ENGINES I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT AND THEY SEEM HARD BUT ALSO GIVE IT A TRY I GUESS!!!! :

Unity and Unreal: I don't know anything about those! That looks hard to learn! But indie devs use them! It seems expensive! Follow your dreams though! Don't ask me how!

GameMaker: Wuh I just don't know anything about it either! I just know it's now free if your game is non-commercial (aka, you're not selling it), and Undertale was made on it! It seems good! You probably need some coding experience though!!!

Godot: Man I know even less about this one. Heard good things though!

BUNCHA RANDOM ADVICE!!!!

-Make something small first! Try making simple: a character is in a room, and exits the room. The character can look around, decide to take an item with them, can leave, and maybe the door is locked and you have to find the key. Figuring out how to code something like that, whether it is as a fully text-based game or as an RPGMaker map, should be a good start to figure out how your software of choice works!

-After that, if you have an idea, try first to make the simplest version of that idea. For my timeloop RPG, my simplest version was two rooms: first room you can walk in, second room with the King, where a cutscene automatically plays and the battle starts, you immediately die, and loop back to the first room, with the text from this point on reflecting this change. I think I also added a loop counter. This helped me figure out the most important thing: Can This Game Be Made? After that, the rest is just fun stuff. So if you want to make a dating sim, try and figure out how to add choices, and how to have affection points go up and down depending on your choices! If you want to make a platformer, figure out how to make your character move and jump and how to create a simple level! If you just want to make a kinetic visual novel with no choices, figure out how to add text, and how to add portraits! You'll be surprised at how powerful you'll feel after having figured even those simple things out.

-If you have a programming problem or just get confused, never underestimate the power of asking Google! You most likely won't be the only person asking this question, and you will learn some useful tips! If you are powerful enough, you can even… Ask people??? On forums??? Not me though.

-Yeah I know you probably want to make Your Big Idea RIGHT NOW but please. Make a smaller prototype first. You need to get that experience. Trust me.

-If you are not a womanthing of many skills like me, you might realize you need help. Maybe you need an artist, or a programmer. So! Game jams on itch.io are a great way to get to work and meet other game devs that have different strengths! Or ask around! Maybe your artist friend secretly always wanted to draw for a game. Ask! Collaborate! Have fun!!!

I hope that was useful! If it was. Maybe. You'd like to buy me a coffee. Or maybe you could check out my comics and games. Or just my new critically acclaimed game In Stars and Time. If you want. Ok bye

[idontdrinkgatorade]

i think i finally have a concept to replace one of my old OC concepts and believe it or not it actually came in a dream