#i’m also the only dev on the project so it’s going to be a long while before it’s out

[sickly-victorian-boy]

Because I’m an actual insane person I’m working on a sort-of-parody dating sim starring wildly historically inaccurate classical composers — from left to right, the LIs are Shostakovich, Mozart, Bach (J.S. specifically), and Chopin. These are the concept sprites I’m currently working with. I apologize for inflicting this on you but if I have to think about it I’m going to drag as many others as possible down with me

[artbyblastweave]

Still playing Skyrim. And I’m interested to report that the game is actually better than I remember, on balance. But I’m kind of fascinated by what’s going on with Lydia, mechanically and narratively.

Lydia is the first follower who gets shoved in your face just by virtue of following the main quest. There are others you can pick up earlier, but not without finishing errands (for Faendal and Sven), by forking up a pretty big chunk of change for the early game by hiring Janessa, or by going out of your way in some other manner. If you’re completely new to the game and you’re just powering through the main story as it’s presented, she’s the first option for a follower that the game highlights for you in giant blinking neon lights. And as a quest reward, she’s mechanically kind of a godsend at that point in the story; a doubling of carry capacity, an excellent meat shield and distraction, a way to extract utility from weapons and armor you don’t want to use yourself. More subjectively she provides the impression of a stalwart ally or companion in what can be a very lonely worldspace to exist in. There’s very little reason not to take her with you, and once you have her, the majority of companions being equal, there’s very little reason to get rid of her until she stops level scaling.

Despite the mechanical utility Lydia provides at a crucial point, and the resultant likelyhood that you’ll haul her along for the ride, she’s only a couple steps up from the companion cube. She has no specific, non-fungible impact on the narrative beyond demonstrating Jarl Balgruuf’s favor. Her deferral to you is automatic; if someone is actively paying her a salary to help you defile graves, cut deals with every deity on the continent and invade the afterlife, it sure as hell isn’t you. It isn’t clear what her gig under Balgruuf was before she was assigned to you. She has no personal narrative. She has no personal side quest. One of her biggest inklings of personality is when she expresses vague dissatisfaction with being treated as a pack mule, but then she does it anyway.  She’s party to world-shaking events and political upheavals, but she’s present purely in her capacity as your appendix, so reality simply treats her as your plus-one. 

She’ll block doors you’re trying to get through, and she’ll get mad at you if you push her out of the way. She’ll charge into battle or set off traps while you’re trying to sneak. She’ll microaggress you with stock Nord dialogue while pulverizing your enemies, a plurality of whom are also Nords. She’ll distract bosses long enough to buy you breathing room for a healing spell or a potion. You’ll kill her by accident with an ill-timed area-of-effect spell, roll your eyes, and, ultimately, probably reload your save. Because she might only be a couple steps up from a companion cube, but the whole gag with the companion cube is how ridiculously low the threshold is for the audience to get genuinely attached to something in a video game. A thin character invites apophenia. Behaviors that are purely downstream of dev thoughtlessness will still imply character traits if taken at Watsonian Face Value. In this case, inexplicable undying loyalty, reserved comments on impressive landmarks, and comical stoicism in the face of some of the weirdest events it’s conceptually possible to encounter.  So here’s to weird, underbaked companions in Bethesda Games, and everything we can project onto the void they provide. And Here’s to that related genus of character- units in squad-based tactics or management-sim games with permadeath mechanics who last long enough and accumulate enough equipment, skill points, etc. that they become your Special Little Guy despite otherwise lacking any deliberate character traits.

[thrill-seeker-vn]

Hello everyone. I have no idea how to start this post, but I want to start it as upfront as possible.

TLDR: My uncles shipped my sick grandmother to my home, and they called me to tell me only after she had already landed... when her visa was expiring very soon. And so obviously 1. My job was to keep her alive, and 2. I had to scrounge up money to send her to her home. It has been a very few stressful months. 

In between this, I hit a slump with writing, and felt very burnt out, as I had no time for it between work, trying to keep my grandmother alive, my own health, and my own business. I wish I could say I worked on Thrill Seeker in this time, but I simply couldn’t. I think a huge part of what was so daunting for me was only having myself to rely on and set the schedules, and in a way it came to be that there were lengths of time nothing could get done because there was simply no time in my life to do it. 

This is not meant to be an excuse as to why I was away from the blog for so long. It is simply what made me realize that I cannot continue alone on this project, as I would then be taunted by how much I would have to do that I would end up not being able to do anything at all. 

I was discussing this project with a friend of mine who has been beside me since I started this project, who I know shares my passion in making games, and who has rooted for me from the beginning. While I’m more interested in the storytelling, she’s incredibly fascinated with coding. During this time, we discussed perhaps making a game together-- but recently we got the opportunity to make that into a reality. 

Thrill Seeker is not ending, but rather, it will be changing format. I am so happy to say my incredible friend, Kismet (@kismet-dev), is going to be joining me to reform Thrill Seeker into a Visual Novel! She is one of my best friends and is the most organized person I know, so no more falling off the face of the Earth for me, because I’ve put a lot more planning into the game and now have someone to hold me to my schedules, too!

I understand that it could be disappointing to hear that I’m switching from an entirely text based format to a VN style. I apologize to anyone who is disappointed by this change. It’s been amazing the support I’ve gotten for this game and how many people have stuck to the project, even when I’ve been so flaky, and I want to thank you for sticking to the project when I haven’t been the most reliable developer. I am so grateful for your kindness to me, for all the people who have sent asks and been interested in my characters and story.

When I first created this project, it was just not a viable option for me to make a visual novel, as there would’ve been no chance I had the opportunity to create art, write, and code it. But creating the art for the game inspired me more than when I only had words to go off of, and many different concepts for the game that I had in mind were simply harder for me to make into reality on twine. Thanks to the absolute angel that is my friend Kismet, I will actually be able to create the vision for the game that I’ve seen in my head for the longest time. She’s an excellent programmer and such a wonderfully organized and hard worker, and I know that I wouldn’t have anyone else by my side as we begin to make games together. 

I will be making some changes to this blog as I make it more cohesive for the VN, but I will also use it as an opportunity to organize this blog for those who are interested in knowing more about the characters, settings, etc. It’s a little unorganized and hard to find certain questions, and I’ll do my best to fix that! Note that this will mean that changes are coming to the characters, and pretty major ones. I know that many of the asks I answered in the past will no longer apply to the story as I’ve changed it, so I will be reforming it quite a lot. However, what will not change is the characters themselves; they will still be gender selectable, and their personalities will still remain similar; but I feel like some of my characterization of them has been shallow, and I’m going to be fixing that. 

The launch of the game as a visual novel, with the first chapter, will be coming in August. Thank you so much for reading all this and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

[phantomthiefgaige]

Post Hype Indigo Park thoughts

Okay, now that I calmed down I can give my two cents on what I thought of Chapter 1 of Indigo Park

Basically, it’s fairly average in what it does an unlike most mascot horrors, has no known real gimmick atm. But I don’t really mind. You don’t always gotta have a gimmick with this type of game to make it stand out. Just as long as the story and presentation can help it stand out. Speaking of…

Now I played this on my shitty gaming laptop so it didn’t look smooth on my end but for everyone else, damn this game is stunning. Some are even saying it looks like a Security Breach mod or Ruin fangame. It can look a bit iffy in some areas but they really nailed the look of a crumbling down theme park.

Story is hard to talk about here since it’s just one chapter but I’m hooked and invested so far. Most games just want you to escape or find something in these areas but this one, you’re working with someone to actively try and bring life back to a place. Nice little twist that I’ve only seen at the END of one indie horror game. Speaking of that someone

I love Rambley so much dude. He’s just so…lovable and cute and I want a plushie of him, and all his friends are cool too and they va’s did great with all of em and they have cool designs and ahhhhh!!!! Love it!!! I love em all!!! I wanna be Rambleys friend!!! I wanna take him home and give him a hug a-

In conclusion, while it IS a first chapter demo and isn’t super complex, I’d still say give it a whirl. This game has something most others don’t…heart, love, soul, and so much passion put into this project. If you haven’t already, go get it on STEAM, it’s free and takes an hour and a half to beat if you’re hunting for collectables.

….also if any devs read this, I’d love a signed autograph of Rambley? Please? I SWEAR I’M NORMAL FOR HI-

[viibo]

I think the prsk in your strawpage refers to project sekai so can you draw Dev listening to Nightcord at 25:00 and Hazel listening to Wonderland x Showtime? (You don’t have to draw this part it’s only if you want to but when Hazel sees his favorite group is N25 she sort of looks over at him like, “dude, are you alright” and he just nods with tears running down his face or changes the song to a different group)

Dev is N25 biggest fan ever and literally Mafuyu trust ! he totally cries while listening to the songs because in his words, “they’re me fr” His top songs are definitely BUG, IDSMILE, Jackpot Sad Girl, Bitter Choco Decoration, Samsa, and Lower One’s Eyes! Peri low key gets concerned when he hears Dev play one of N25 songs

Havel is literally Emu and knows every song word for word and her favorites are definitely Positive☆Dance Time, Ego Rock, Glory Steady Go!, Tondemo-Wonderz, Kirapipi★Kirapika, and Niccori^^ Survey Team Theme! I’d like to imagine her and Cosmo & Wanda totally jam out to WXS!

I’m sorry this is really long I didn’t mean for it to be that way I’m sorry for yapping 💔 I love your artstyle it’s so cute and pretty!! sending virtual hugs your way and make sure to take breaks from drawing from time to time and stay safe and hydrated :3 I hope you have an amazing day/night wherever you are‼️

THIS IS MY FAV ASK IVE GOTTEN SO FAR this is all so real plus i have more of an excuse to redraw fop in vocaloid songs AND UR SO KINDD <33

hazel Is emu coded i agree but i also think she loves tsukasa bc 1. im projecting <3 2. BIG BROTHER WHO JUST WANTS TO MAKE HER SISTER SMILE!!1!!!11!1AAAAAAAA

[markerofthemidnight]

You know what really pisses me off?

When fans of a multi-part indie game project- or, hell, any indie project- try to push for the next chapter/installment/whatever to be released unrealistically quickly just because it’s coming out later than they expected it to.

As a fan of mainly indie projects, it is SUCH a pet peeve for me! Everywhere you look, under new videos, in community posts, on Twitter, whatever, half the goddamn replies are just a bunch of lowlives screaming “WHERE’S (insert instalment here)?!” “YOU SAID (insert instalment here) WAS COMING OUT (insert time here)!” “I’M GONNA UNSUBSCRIBE IF (insert instalment here) DOESN’T COME OUT THIS YEAR!”

And what pisses me off the most is that it’s so evidently clear that none of them have ever devoted themselves to a project like this before! Do you know how to model and program a unique horror monster and give it a map to run around in? No! Do you know how to balance paying bills with all the other costs that you have to pay in order to make the game? Of course not, you’re only 11! Have you EVER written ANYTHING past your shitty, self-insert fanfiction, let alone a whole script?! FUCKING! NO!

I know because I used (emphasis on used) to be a Dark Deception fan back before Chapter 4 came out. You know that? And the comment section of all their community posts and videos was, indeed, filled with 11-year-olds parroting the same bullshit like that.

Until the trailer came out.

When the trailer came out, they all immediately stopped, and then what happened? What fucking happened? The comment section was immediately filled with people going “God, this looks good! No wonder it took them so long!”

It looked just about the same as every other Dark Deception chapter.

But still, that’s why you have some fucking patience. Because you have no idea what your favourite devs could be cooking up sometimes. People regressed into a bunch of caged chimpanzees back before Bendy and the Dark Revival came out, and look how good it was when it did come out!

And also, you wanna know what happened when Dark Deception: Chapter 4 came out? It was bugged. Bugged as shit. And it was almost entirely the fans’ fault for not giving the devs more time to sit on it.

(Granted, I know that this isn’t a very good example, since in my opinion a lot of the problems with Dark Deception are the devs’ fault- mainly the fact that they’re dealing with like 70+ projects and have actually given themselves no time to sit on the game itself- but… eh, my point still stands.)

Fans kept pushing for FNaF: Security Breach to come out. You know what happened? Bugged.

And don’t even get me STARTED on Cyberpunk 2077- a supposed AAA game- because we all know how that came out.

BUGS. UP. THE FUCKING. WAZOO.

(Yes, this is an old indie horror fan’s excuse to vent about all her trauma between the years 2020 to 2022, thank you very much.)

So, in conclusion… be kind to developers of small projects. Even if it takes them months, even if it takes them a year, even if it takes them five years, they’re going to give you what they crave eventually. They just need to actually prepare it first, and most people have no idea how difficult that actually is.

So stow your hunger, ravenous masses. Food will come soon.

[kitsaystransrights]

It'sa me, Kit!

Woah, hey, you can make pinned posts! I totally didn't forget about this feature. I should probably do that, huh?

Weeeeell anyway, howdy! I'm Maddie, I go by Kit online sometimes, you can call me whichever you prefer. She/Her pronouns only, please. I'm a 22 year-old trans furry who is chronically online and geeky, so if you have a problem with that, I'm putting you in a box and then launching that box into the sun. I'm a YouTuber, Twitch streamer, filmmaker, and game dev, so I'm basically every stereotypical geeky trans-girl thing except for an artist. Can't draw to save my life.

On my YouTube, I usually make reviews or video essays about games I like, though I occasionally do stuff on other media as well. Currently, my big long-term projects are the "Splatoon 3 vs Splatoon 2" series, which is AAAAALMOST finished at the time of writing this, and my series on Leilani Wilson's Elancia Chronicles novels, (which are REALLY FREAKING GOOD and you should check them out!) I've linked a few of the videos I'm proudest of down below :)

I also stream pretty frequently on Twitch! I have a PNGtuber of my fursona, Stormy, with art done by EmmalemmaMewmew on Twitter. Stills of her will also start showing up in my YouTube videos eventually, hehe. Currently, the schedule is every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, with each day being a different game. These streams always start at 7 PM Mountain Time (that's 9 PM Eastern and 6 PM Pacific) and go for around 4 hours. Sundays are Splatoon Sundays, currently the Anarchy Challenge, where I attempt to win an Anarchy Series with EVERY SINGLE WEAPON in Splatoon 3. It's hell lol. Then there's Triple-A Tuesdays, where I'm currently marathoning the Zelda series, and Indie Thursdays, where I work through my back catalog of indie games! There are also occasional bonus streams, usually around the releases of new games I'm interested in or events in ones I already play (like Splatfests!) Below is a link to my Twitch channel and my current stream schedule. I'll try to update this post as often as I can, but uh, no promises haha.

Last but not least, here's some of the other stuff I'm into/working on! Currently working on a Secret Game Project that I can't tell you about yet >:) But if you know, you know.

I'm a big fan of video games and animation (clearly), with some of my favorite stuff being, in no particular order... Sonic the Hedgehog, The Legend of Zelda, Persona, Fire Emblem, Pokemon, Elancia Chronicles, Super Lesbian Animal RPG, Splatoon, Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, The Owl House, Gravity Falls, Amphibia, Steven Universe, Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Spider-Verse films, Dreamworks animation, Pixar animation, Insomniac's Spider-Man gams, Ratchet and Clank, aaaaaaaaaand that's all I could think of off the top of my head but I'm sure there's more junk buried in there somewhere lol.

Anyway, thanks for reading all the way to the bottom! You must really have nothing better to do with your life XD. Here's some links to my other socials, if you wanna follow me there. Here I'm mostly just be posting random rambling and updates for my YouTube and Twitch. See ya around!

https://www.instagram.com/kitthegoddess/

[drinkabletoxicdishsoap]

I haven’t watched miraculous ladybug in like 1-2 years (probably won’t pick it back up) but I think every kid show fandom should have an obligatory miraculous ladybug au so here’s my version of a fopanw x miraculous ladybug au :333 I got this idea while getting a YouTube video yapping about mlb. Again I haven’t watched it in FOREVER so I do apologize if I get any information wrong!! I really only used the wiki. I hope you enjoy this REALLY LONG info dump <3

Hazel - Ladybug (obviously since she’s the main character 😭) but I feel like she matches well with creation and I’d feel like she’d get along great with tikki. I’d also give her Longg who is the kwami of Perfection, Ziggy who is the kwami of Passion, and Sass who is the kwami of the Intuition.

Antony - Pegasus. My idea for this came from the fact that Kaalki is the kwami of migration. I feel like this matches the with the fact that he’s at to college and that means migrating away from family and your loved ones.

(I’m going to give Winn and Jasmine special treatment and give them multiple miraculous. I hope yall are okay with that ! I feel like Hazel would probably give them multiple anyways because of how much she trusts and cares for her friends.)

Jasmine - My ideas for her include, Miss Hound (who has Barkk, the kwami of adoration), Rena Rouge (who has Trixx, the kwami of illusion), Pigella (who was Daizzi, the kwami of jubilation), and Minotaurox (who has Stompp, the kwami of determination). I feel like the personality traits of the kwami’s match her (except for illusion, which I did to nod to fearless)

(I didn’t include the outfit for the ox kwami because I personally feel like it doesn’t match her vibes)

Winn - My ideas for them include, Carapace (who has Wayzz, the kwami of protection), Vesperia/Queen Bee (who has Pollen, the kwami of action), Purple Tigress (who has Roaar, the kwami of elation), and Bunnyx (who has Fluff, the kwami of evolution). I feel like the personality traits of the kwami’s match them.

Dev - Cat Noir but also I feel like gets akuamatized like every week???? Like I love dev but do you know how many issues he has ☹️😞 I’d be surprised if he didn’t get akuamatized at least once. I feel like he matches destruction too. He’d probably HATE plagg though idk. I could also see him being Rooster Bold (who has Orikko, the kwami of pretension) I feel like pretension matches him a lot idk. He’d gets the miraculous taken away after the finale.

Dale - Hawkmoth for more reasons than one 💀 Gabriel’s story with his wife could also be projected onto Dale and could explain why we don’t see his wife. Also they’re both horrible dads and rich business men

I’m not going to force ships on this AU, it’s honestly your choice! I really don’t mind 😭 this whole universe could either come from a wish, or something where Jorgen and guy who made the miraculous jewelry (probably a fairy), are friends and he runs tests to see which godkid is worthy of being the guardian. In this au, hazel would probably pass all of the tests and thus, making her the guardian.

My friend also brought up that Jorgen could also be the guardian and had to put the miraculous to rest but noticed people getting akuamatized and had to pull them back out and find new heroes which I really like !)

That’s it :D thank you so much for coming to another yap session crossover! I hope you have a great day/night wherever you are in the world!

[brybryby]

I completely agree that Miles Upshore is queer, and Waylon is on the spectrum as well! If you have your friends analysis still plzzzzz link! I crave the content!!!

HI HI THANK YOU FOR THE ASK! 💜

I wish I had his analysis still!!! aarrrrgh it's been so long ;-; But I can try to relay some of the points he made (and add some of my own)!

This gets pretty lengthy so be prepared :')

I also added external links but they’re only there if you want to read more about the point I’m making! Feel free to skip them!

also // TW for mentions of SA

Miles

Story-wise, my friend found it interesting that Miles was the perfect host for the Walrider. Wernicke and Alan Turing were friends/lovers who worked on the technology that culminated into Project Walrider, so there's already a sense that the Walrider was founded on Wernicke and Turing's love for each other.

So, before I move on, I'll talk a bit about Alan Turing. In college, I had professors praise him for being the “Founder of Modern Computing”, cracking Nazi code, and also for being an advocate for gay rights.

More details here:

Out of every prominent scientist during the Cold War Era, Alan Turing was selected to play a role in Outlast's stories. And he didn't just happen to be openly gay—JT Petty purposefully made this significant to Wernicke's character. Not to mention, Wernicke made allusions to Frankenstein, allowing us to inspect the parallels between Wernicke & the Walrider with Frankenstein & Frankenstein's monster. When it comes to gothic & queer literature, Frankenstein is on the forefront of it, and I'm confident that JT Petty would be familiar with that (since he's a writer who's well-versed in horror/gothic art).

With Frankenstein, there's this idea to create life without heterosexual means (under the impression of cis-heteronormativity). Frankenstein's monster was also a sexualized creature—supposedly a representation of the “ideal man”—described as “beautiful”. Additionally, the novel was a critique of patriarchal norms through elements of sexualities. These aren't too different from Wernicke & the Walrider. The Walrider is arguably created through homosexual means in its abstract (Wernicke & Turing). This particular version of the Walrider that possesses Billy & Miles is stated to be the “masterpiece” by Simon Peacock—its appearance is also fairly sexual. And similarly, Outlast critiques patriarchal norms through its grotesque visuals of “masculinity”.

Frankenstein queer analysis:

Frankenstein sexual suppression analysis:

With all these story elements, there's certainly a queerness about the Walrider AND Outlast, which the devs openly embrace.

There's also many parallels between Frankenstein's monster and Miles. In the United States (and westernized countries in general), there are societal standards that function around cis-heteronormativity. Think of the traditional American nuclear family: A husband/father who's the breadwinner and patriarch, a loving wife/mother who cooks and stays at home to take care of the kids—they're mostly white, Christian, and American citizens. [WARNING: TRIALS SPOILERS AHEAD] The ideal American man is further illustrated in Officer Coyle's dialogue: “If only they were upstanding citizens like myself. Pay your taxes, do your job, fuck your wife, put a little something in the plate at service. America don't ask much.” Miles is arguably the antithesis of this, which is likely the reason he doesn't have any close friends/family—he was likely rejected by society. Frankenstein's monster follows a similar arc: he is also rejected by society and seeks refuge in seclusion. (The concept of “rejection by society” is inherent in queerness.)

With these parallels, it makes sense for Miles to be the ideal host for the Walrider. Additionally, Miles embodies queerness that isn't strictly homosexual—I mean his whole background/lifestyle is already, by definition, “queer”—but questions regarding his sexuality arise when inspecting other details of his character.

My friend pointed out the whole “Manhandler Hairspray for the Active Man” detail in Miles' apartment. There are a lot of homosexual undertones in the label, and it's hard not to think otherwise. “Manhandler” and “Active” are terms which indicate the “top” role in gay culture. I mean, it's possible that Miles is just embodying the “metrosexual” identity (basically straight men who embody characteristics associated with homosexuality) but metrosexuality is rooted in consumerism, which doesn't exactly align with Miles' character since he is openly critical of capitalism. I think the hairspray hints at queerness (or at least gender non-conformity).

Article on “metrosexuality”:

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/22/style/metrosexuals-come-out.html

The most revolutionary detail that my friend pointed out was the fact that Miles went out of his way to roast the ever-living shit out of everyone he came across at Mount Massive, begging the question: why is he so fixated on the appearances of other men? This could stem from his own insecurities of being rejected by society or insecurities of his own vanity (considering the hairspray he uses and the fact that he goes jogging…and if he's just trying to be healthy through exercise then he needs to explain his self-destructive alcoholism…idk…jogging for mental health? It’s open to interpretation…WAIT I mean he could just be keep up his physical fitness also with all the investigating he has to do anyways fjshshkdhd). It was just interesting that Miles was so fixated on physical appearances that it makes me wonder if he'd make similar comments about women—I don't believe he would and I'll explain below.

I know that we need to take Red Barrels' tweets with a grain of salt—they're known for deleting tweets that detail misinformation about the protagonists—but I find this tweet particularly interesting. I may be looking too much into it, especially since it's just a tweet and not presented in the games/comics, but it certainly is reflective of Red Barrels' values of respecting women and not viewing women as sexual objects, along with the notion of dismantling cis-heteropatriarchy/chivalry. It certainly doesn't mean he's not straight, but he doesn't particularly view women as sexual objects either (and I know that straight men are capable of not viewing women as sexual objects). Food for thought.

Some extra stuff:

Anti-conservatism and punk ideology (which Miles explicitly embodies) are pillars of queer culture in the political sphere.

The Germanic folklore, which the Walrider is based off of, exhibits notions of sexuality (though, probably not in the best light).

[TRIALS SPOILER] Wernicke’s dream therapy is associated with Dr. Easterman’s queerness—Easterman would be distracted by Wernicke’s handsomeness (and they both explicitly critique heterosexual relationships). Again, this supports the Walrider’s themes of sexuality.

Waylon

As for WAYLON, even though there isn't concrete evidence in the games to intentionally indicate queerness, that isn't to say he is entirely heterosexual (because assuming he's heterosexual is yet another product of the “ideal American man” image in a cis-heteronormative society, and Outlast's narratives are about dismantling this notion). In fact, now that you bring it up, I agree that Waylon can be considered on the queer spectrum/under the queer umbrella.

Regarding the “dismantling the ideal American man in a cis-heteronormative society” concept…the devs, artists, writer(s), actors, and contributors to the games' development are not only open/accepting of things outside of society's norms/expectations, but many are social activists. Chimwemwe Miller (VA for Chris Walker) is outspoken about being Black, Black history, and racism—he also narrated an audiobook which discussed racism, colonialism, & imperialism. Erika Rosenbaum (VA for Lynn Langermann) organized provisions for refugees and is active in environmental causes and feminism—she also spoke out during the #MeToo movement. Shawn Baichoo (VA for Miles, Waylon, & Blake) is also vocal about feminism/racism and was a huge advocate for his character Wrench's bisexuality from Watch Dogs 2, which became confirmed in a later installment of the Watch Dogs franchise.

I bring this up because Red Barrels actually entertains the idea of Waylon x Eddie (in the hypothetical that Eddie wasn't an antagonist like he was in the game…so like, erasing his problematic features baha…this deserves an analysis of its own) without mentioning sexuality or anything like that. Obviously, this can be seen as a way to entertain the fanbase, but I think it's worth mentioning that Waylon isn't opposed to homosexuality. After all, Waylon never makes homophobic remarks in his notes nor comments on male sexuality—he's just fearful of being assaulted (as anyone would be, regardless of gender/sexuality). He would, in fact, engage in a homosexual relationship according to this hypothetical.

(Note: the term “insane” is a harmful descriptor in this context, which is why I wrote “wasn’t an antagonist like he was in the game”)

So yea! I definitely think there's queerness with Waylon's character. And I don't exactly mean this to be “representation” because there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that, but ultimately I think it adds to what the franchise and the devs are trying to do—normalize queerness and dismantle the notion of the “ideal American man in a cis-heteronormative society” (and if you've studied socioeconomics/social theory, you know that this notion is a product of capitalism, which is another important theme in the franchise).

Here are some resources about the intersectionalities of cis-heteropatriarchy, capitalism, & queerness if you'd like to read more about it :)

(this one below is quite lengthy, but goes VERY DEEP)

All in all, my interpretation is that the franchise operates on the idea that “queerness” is normal or innate, but social structures are what label it otherwise. I've seen a lot of discussion surrounding Outlast characters' queerness, and it's interesting to me that the antagonists' sexualities get more attention amongst casual players than the protagonists' sexualities (and I think I can understand why, it's just a lot to unpack).

Just as many of the antagonists can be read as queer, the protagonists should arguably be read through the same lens. I truly do think Miles and Waylon (and even Lynn and Blake!) deserve to be inspected under queer lens. Doing so aligns with the franchise's philosophy/narratives. Also the idea of “queer characters taking down capitalism” is super empowering (and actually very identifiable hehe).

(Sorry, I think I projected a lot of my own personal values and biases into this post LOL hhhjdsfh feel free to critique anything I've written!)

This is my first time inspecting Waylon through a queer lens, so thank you for the ask!! I had a lot of fun writing this up :D

[omorimodreverie]

June Development Update

Overview

This month was a mixture of up and down in terms of activity. One notable thing about this period is that most of our team members have now finished with their finals, and have properly begun summer vacation. However, this does not necessarily mean that development speed increases!

There were major and minor bits of work done across most of our sectors this time, with the main being a slight reorganization of writing; some basic tileset work (our tilesets are beginning to be finalized!), and starting on polishing our map files.

What’s been done?

This month didn’t see any significant leaps in progress, but miscellaneous portions of work that are nevertheless vital have been completed across multiple sectors:

Inducted a new writing lead to the leads team

Finished primary dialogue work on around half of the cutscenes planned for chapter 3. Progress has also been made on the other half

Pixel Art is progressing slowly but consistently, with new additions/changes to our spritesheets every few days

Non-CH3 drawn art assets have also been worked on, mostly enemy sprites and concepts (We can’t wait to show them to you in the future, they’re very exciting!)

Discussion and slight reorganization around skill progression for future chapters, as well as on boss design. Rest assured, we are still putting gameplay first and foremost.

Summer Break, Right?

This month is when summer break properly starts for a good amount of people. Some start a bit earlier in May, and some in June; But by mid-June almost everyone is on summer break.

It might be tempting to think that progress will become much faster now that break is here, but to think so is a bit naive: as some people will also be taking their own time for, well, a break. [Like myself, Stahl. I’m typing this very dev log during vacation right now, that’s why it’s a bit late. Oops.]

Progress is projected to be more or less consistent with the speed of development so far, balanced by some being able to work more while some becoming unavailable for break.

Ending Notes

You may have noticed that this month’s dev log wasn’t as long as the last one in May. This is because the last one was our first ever dev log, so we had more stuff to talk about: including all developments made previous to May as well. Please expect posts of a similar length to this one going forwards.

We’d love to showcase some teaser for chapter 3 at this point, but since our progress this month has consisted mostly of writing and tilesets (which is difficult to showcase nicely), we don’t really have much to show off as usual.

Anyways, here’s an old Ice Angel enemy sprite made around April last year. This one’s unused now, and only has 2 (out of 3 and bunch more emotion variants) frames made, so this is not our final product (or appearing anytime soon lol).

[rootvegetableboy]

cm dev log #11 - september 2024

hi everyone! i hope you all had a fabulous september. i’m posting this two days earlier than normal because i’m getting top surgery tomorrow (yahoo!!!) and i expect to not have much energy on the 1st. i’ve had a pretty busy month with personal life/surgery prep things so this dev log is going to be fairly light on actual game content; instead, i’ve prepared some concept art i thought you all might be interested in!

CHARACTER SKETCHES!

a lot of what i worked on this month was stuff that i can’t show you: namely the script, the story’s outline, this world’s timeline, figuring out emotional beats & thematic through lines, etc. but i also did some character sketches: behold, These Guys!

alda is the player character, which you may have already gleaned if you’re a Project CM Certified Lorehound. also depicted here are thea and lyle; thea is a fat lesbian with a huge sword that can & will kick your ass. lyle is thea’s best friend/resident pretty boy and is the #1 women’s wrongs supporter. he’s extremely emotional, chaotic, and he always wants to see the best in people; thea is a lot more restrained, logical, and direct.

i love them all a lot. i wanted to have digitally drawn portraits of all three of them ready for this dev log, but my arm started cramping up, so i only have thea’s… anyway, i’m really excited for you to meet them :)

ENEMY SKETCHES!

i only have two enemies in the game right now, but i’ve been cooking up a lot of other guys to fight! here are some regular-tier (not mini/bosses) enemy concepts that i’ve been playing around with.

i’ve also been sketching out a particular boss idea… not much to say here lest i say a little too much, or lest i end up deciding to change something down the line. but i am very excited for you all to meet her, as well >:)

UI… SKETCH…ES?

this is probably only exciting to me, because no casual player should be paying much attention to the layout of the user interface. long-time followers of my development logs may recall that i have a pretty unique save/load system in place for this game; i’ve been sketching out different ideas for how i want it to look on paper, because it’s much less time consuming to do a little drawing as opposed to spending two hours coding something only to realize it doesn’t even look that good.

actually, this sketch harkens back to a drawing i did over a year ago, when i was first starting to conceptualize how i wanted the game to look:

things have turned out pretty different from the initial concept i had in mind while drawing this, but it’s still really beautiful, so i’m glad i’ll still be able to use the basic layout in some way!

that’s all i have for this log. i’ll see you all in november for my one year anniversary of development <3 i'm so excited for this little project's birthday!

see you then!

[sappho-official]

Feeling very weird about Redfall, for a whole host of reasons. I was a dev on it for about eight months and it’s honestly strange that the writing was on the wall three years ago and nothing ever got fixed.

There were plenty of issues, but scope was a big one; you can say that you’re going to make a larger project than your company has before and that you need to expand, but there’s only so fast a company can grow. Also, finding niche but important roles like AI designers/programmers that are extremely skilled is incredibly difficult and not something that should be left up to chance. And you can only hire inexperienced kids fresh out of their bachelors for so many roles.

It was a good job with incredible, passionate people that were trying their best. I’m sure many people I knew left a long time ago and I do not blame them for that. Arkane, when I was there, actually had a fairly healthy work culture (a low bar in the games industry) but the structure and management was just messy enough to be a problem. Nearly every single person was stretched completely thin. How often I would bring up a concern to someone just to be told “I don’t have time to fix this.” I can’t help but wonder if someone asked “but is the game good?” to the response of, well, we don’t have time to fix it.

Anyway. I actually have an old tag on my blog for Redfall posts; if you go to #o on my blog (the codename for Redfall was Omen) you can see some old shitposts that reminded me of it. I will probably never play the shipped version myself, but I hope a few small details I contributed made it into the final product and put a smile on someone’s face.

[cattatonically]

The Charm Offensive - Alison Cochrun

Synopsis

Dev Deshpande has always believed in fairy tales. So it’s no wonder then that he’s spent his career crafting them on the long-running reality dating show Ever After. As the most successful producer in the franchise’s history, Dev always scripts the perfect love story for his contestants, even as his own love life crashes and burns. But then the show casts disgraced tech wunderkind Charlie Winshaw as its star.

Charlie is far from the romantic Prince Charming Ever After expects. He doesn’t believe in true love, and only agreed to the show as a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate his image. In front of the cameras, he’s a stiff, anxious mess with no idea how to date twenty women on national television. Behind the scenes, he’s cold, awkward, and emotionally closed-off.

As Dev fights to get Charlie to connect with the contestants on a whirlwind, worldwide tour, they begin to open up to each other, and Charlie realizes he has better chemistry with Dev than with any of his female co-stars. But even reality TV has a script, and in order to find to happily ever after, they’ll have to reconsider whose love story gets told.

In this witty and heartwarming romantic comedy—reminiscent of Red, White & Royal Blue and One to Watch—an awkward tech wunderkind on a reality dating show goes off-script when sparks fly with his producer.

My Thoughts

Walking into this book, I have to admit I have a bit of a leg up. I know how the film industry works. I know what it’s like to be behind the scenes. I know what goes into producing a project for film and television. That being said, the realm of reality television is vastly different (though there’s a fair bit of overlap), and the stakes are very different, especially for a director. And the director of the project that bring Dev and Charlie together makes for an incredibly unlikeable person – which is also pretty damn on the nose for what I know of reality television productions.

But of course, that’s not the focus of this book (at least, it shouldn’t be). The focus of this book is two people falling in love who probably shouldn’t, but do anyway. And what makes it so perfect is that it’s not perfect at all. It’s messy and dramatic. And it’s so perfectly Dev and Charlie.

Both men come with baggage. Both men are neurodivergent. And the authentic, raw way in which that’s explored in this book isn’t something I’m used to seeing in a book that’s been hyped to the point I nearly didn’t read it. But I’m so glad that I did. I’m glad I gave it a chance. Because Dev and Charlie’s story is so worth telling. Worth exploring.

The setting of this book didn’t do much for me – there were a lot of aspects of the reality dating show setting I hated, most of which revolved around how the contestants (and isn’t that a condescending way to refer to people) were treated by the production. But that’s a whole other topic for an entirely different day.

Despite the setting, I couldn’t help but be completely moved by Dev and Charlie, and their separete journeys of self-discovery and healing. As we all know by now, I’ll easily ignore a lacklustre setting for captivating characters. And that’s what this book was for me. A diverse, incredible cast of characters all placed in a shitty situation and trying to make it work. And that’s exactly what they did.

After the first bit of the first chapter, I was ready to give up on this book. I couldn’t stand the setting, and the way the people who were participating in the reality show were being treated. But I kept going – kept reading. Because I needed Charlie and Dev to have their happy endings, whether that was together, or separately. I needed their story, plain and simple.

And holy hell did I get it. And I’m so glad I didn’t give up on this book. Because this is exactly the book I needed to read right now. For so many reasons.

[madsims4finds]

Me when they canceled life by you:

I just KNEW there was something fishy. I was happy for the delays cause the game just looked undercooked and so the cancellation…was a surprise, I’m not gonna lie lol. But once the initial shock wore off, I just shook my head. It’s giving they didn’t want to suffer through another launch like Cities Skylines 2.

I’ve said from the beginning that Life By You did not look good. It did not have any practical features that I could see that would make gameplay enjoyable. No family play, empty world, and whenever a “human” went to work at apparently the only place hiring in town, the grocery store, it was like 2 other “humans” there. I mean those gameplay videos they were doing just got hard to watch. The game just seemed like it would be dead on arrival. And then on top of all that, a company like Paradox is releasing early access. Red flags all around. I wrote a dissertation I’m sure no one read, but there were too many things that I could see Paralives doing right that Life By You was doing wrong. Something as simple as being creative enough to come up with a name for these digital people. We have Zoi’s, we have Paras, we have Sims, and Life by You had…humans? How lazy is that? I get that it’s a life simulation game but there should still be some form of lore. Something that the world is grounded in. Something unique and immediately recognizable that makes the game stand out. And Life by You never had that. Their whole gimmick was “mod the game” how you like. But like I said before it was more about being able to deeply customize your game, not mod it. At least from what we were seeing. They made such a big deal about custom dialogue, story creator, color wheels, tailoring your characters personality to the most minute detail, etc. But they forgot to develop the rest of the game. At least that’s what it sounds like to me.

Devs are saying they were blindsided, which they probably were. I don’t think the game should have been canceled out right, but I think paradox’s impatience (since apparently it would “take too long” for the game to be done) probably stems from their desperate need for a win. And they knew Life by You wasn’t going to give them that. They did a great job of hyping up the community, enlisting every popular sim tuber they could, and I’m sure they would have made some sales. But I’m also sure the backlash for the state of the game would have been bigger. I mean seriously, look at older videos of Paralives and where they are now. And then look at Life by You.

Still sad that they shut down the whole studio and all those hard working folks lost their jobs. That part sucks. They should at least have been given the chance to make the game better. Smh.

I hope we’re able to see the other two projects to completion. Cause at the end of the day, the goal is to make sure EA no longer has a monopoly on this genre. The goal is NOT paying over $1200 in DLC for a $40, oh excuse me, now free to play game. Also can we stop charging for a game only to offer it for free later? Cause they sure ain’t giving refunds when that shit happens. 😭😤

Anyway, I’m rooting for everyone who’s not EA to be successful in their endeavors.

[askironwill]

Hello everyone! Long time no update. As most of you probably realized quite a long time ago this project has ended. I just never felt the need at the time to outright say this. There are many reasons I originally stopped, but in the end it was mostly just because I lost interest in the format and the characters. Even when the fandom was in its hay day, Iron Will was never really that popular of a character, but he piqued my interest for a time. I'm sure I would have done a little bit more with the blog had it had more interaction, but I'm still proud of all the fans and followers I did get. I've been meaning to post this for a while, but I just kept putting off for one reason or another. I really don't like to leave things open-ended and I figured I'd at least let you know where I've been up to and where you could find me still if any of you are still interested in what art shenanigans I get up to. I'll leave some links below to my personal galleries and media sites. Spookitty Website Picarto Twitter DeviantArt Fur Affinity (Potentially NSFW!) Tumblr Patreon Besides doing this, I also spent several years working on an MLP fan game which you can play here! Beware, it also has a NSFW version and the content fluctuates between versions. Ultimately it was shelved after some legal concerns, so it only made it so far as an very extensive intro sequence and introduction to the characters. I've also released many of the assets on my personal Patreon for all the fans to use if they'd like! I'm still working in game dev so things are going pretty well so far. Let's hope it stays that way! In the future I'd love to come back to making comics, original or fan-related in my free time. I've always loved creating things, but more importantly I've always enjoyed creating things for people to enjoy! Interacting with people through my art has always been my favorite aspect of creating things. Once again, I just wanna say I really appreciate all of you. It was you who made this project fun. Take care, everyone! XoXo Spookitty ᓚᘏᗢ

[markerofthemidnight]

🏳️‍🌈 as many as you want.

🏳‍🌈 do you have any headcanons (lgbt, race, neuro, etc) that are important to you?

Oh, shit! No specific fandom in mind or anything?! HOLY SHIT YOU BET I’M GONNA MAKE THE MOST OF THIS!

(warning: rant incoming (under cut))

Hatchetfield (specifically The Lords in Black)

I’ve already talked about my headcanons for their sexualities on a different ask, so let me just run through any specific mental stuff I think they may have…

Tinky definitely has ADHD or something similar, Pokey probably has some kind of antisocial disorder which is why he’s… Like That™️, and maybe autism too (noise sensitivity). I’ve also called Wiggly a narcissist a few times, and while I stand by the fact that that could be the case, I don’t want to make a statement like that about a disorder that I don’t know all too well.

They all go by he/it mainly. They’re fine with any pronouns, though.

Project: Eden’s Garden

I’m not going to give any disorder to Tozu because I think it’s much more fitting for him to just be… straight-up insane rather than having any undiagnosed mental thingy (though ADHD is a possibility, short attention span and all.) He’s definitely somewhere in the ace spectrum, if you ask me! I’d personally like to say panromantic and asexual. And obviously, his race is British.

Mara is also somewhere on the ace spectrum, though I haven’t decided where. I’m not sure what kind of mental illness she might have, though probably something trauma-related like PTSD knowing the kind of story the devs will probably give her.

Other than that, lemme run through the students really quick… Eva is also also somewhere on the ace spectrum, Eloise has an inferiority complex, Damon has DEFINITELY had some very non-straight thoughts that he’s in denial about… oh, and Kai goes by he/they, though wether that’s just for the clout or if they’re genuinely genderqueer is up for debate!

Chonny Jash (GOD it’s been a while since I mentioned that name huh?)

You will pry my headcanon that the Headspace is just the result of a really weird plural disorder from my cold, dead hands. Other than that, Heart and Mind are both autistic, just in different ways (Heart has sensory problems, Mind is antisocial with a tendency to take everything literally, and both have special interests). Soul definitely has something too, but I’m not sure what.

They’re all gay as shit, but to different extents (Soul is straight up homosexual, Heart is pan with a preference for men, and Mind is grey-homoromantic aseuxal).

Finally, they all grew up in Australia but moved to the states at some point in their life (hence their accents. Their old one comes back sometimes depending on their emotions.)

Dreams of an Insomniac

Alex is gay. So gay. I don’t know why they just give off those vibes.

Dr Lankmann is aro/ace, and doesn’t understand people who feel any kind of attraction at all. As in, some of his closest followers have had to talk him out of dissecting the brains of allo people multiple times.

We already know that all Veldigun are aro/ace, and mainly go by he/it pronouns, but if I were to add to that: The Flock goes by they/it, and Simon goes by he/they and is only referred to as “it” by those who don’t trust him.

And, while you’ve given me the opportunity… eh, why the hell not? SNG&D HEADCANONS LETS GOOOOOO (spoilers ahead but honestly I don’t think you care)

SNG&D

(JJ and Ricky are from SpiffyNeedleGeeks’ now-cancelled Curse of Strahd campaign, and played by Lettersent (or Dion, he’s fine with either))

First off, they’re both aro/ace. Like, SO aro/ace. These are children we’re talking about, after all.

We already know they have OSDD canonically, but a very specific headcanon I’ve had for a long time is that they’re also autistic! Mainly because generally their vibes remind me of my own autistic ass, but also because LOOK AT THEM. LOOK AT JJ’S BLANK FUCKING AUTISM CREATURE STARE.

JJ’s autism manifests mainly in the way he acts. Again, the blank stare he canonically does 99% of the time, his tendency to stay futher away from the group (especially before he really learns to trust the rest of the party), the sort of silent nervousness he has around strangers contrasted by the rabid little bastard he becomes when he’s around people he dislikes (in a different way to Ricky taking control) all give me a lot of autistic vibes.

Ricky, however, is a bit harder to categorise. Mainly because most of these are just my headcanons, but… eh. I like to think that he’s, to an extent, a bit noise-sensitive (part of the reason why he doesn’t like social situations besides just being terrible at them), we already know he’s touch-averse canonically, and he’s got a big aversion to certain tastes and textures (though that’s less due to the autism and more due to the fact that he’d literally never eaten before in his life until like a week ago).

This also adds a much funnier layer to why he’s so overprotective of JJ. It’s not just because, y’know, he was born specifically to protect him, but also because it’s literally his special interest. Whenever someone asks him something about him, it probably takes all the strength he has to resist the urge to ramble for hours.

Aside from that, the brothers also both gained PTSD from everything they’ve been through. While I’m fairly sure it’s canon that Ricky has PTSD from their death, I like the idea that JJ has some too that he more or less got over in the years between their death and meeting the party. (The sight of a Displacer Beast still puts him on edge, though.)

…Sorry, I just- I had to get that off my chest.

I could talk about my headcanons for some of their other characters more, but I think I’ve been ranting on too much (besides, it’s mainly JJ and Ricky I have headcanons for anyways, as they are by far my favourites).