#it was my latest large expense in this game

[stellacaerulea]

I've been feeling really poor lately

This dress is making me reconsider tho

[astarionfreak]

👀 18, Astarion x Gale 👀👀👀👀

Ahhhhh!!! Perfect suggestion 🧛🧙

18. "I'm not going to beg." "Oh, but you will."

Snippet for the smut ask game. | Previous answers here

Gale sat comfortably in a large, padded chair on the balcony. He sipped from an expensive glass of wine and flipped through the pages of his latest purchase — a book regarding lost secrets of the Underdark.

Astarion leaned agains the railing, enjoying the view of the night sky. The moon hung heavy on the horizon. It wasn’t the sun. But, when he glanced over at Gale, he was reminded that perhaps this life wasn’t so bad after all.

Gale looked up from his book and met Astarion’s eyes. “You’re staring again.”

“Yes.” Astarion pushed himself away from the railing and stepped closer to Gale.

“It’s distracting.” Gale shifted in the chair.

Astarion smiled and swiftly closed the distance between them. “I imagine it is, yes.”

“Well, stop it.” Gale looked back at the book, but his eyes weren’t moving. He wasn’t actually reading anything anymore.

Astarion took the opportunity to snatch the book out of Gale’s hands and snapped it shut. “Pay attention to me.”

Gale rolled his eyes. “I swear, sometimes you’re worse than Tara.”

“Only sometimes?” Astarion pouted. He placed a hand on each arm of the chair, effectively caging Gale beneath him.

“That isn’t the compliment you seem to believe it to be, Astarion.” Gale’s heartbeat quickened. He blushed.

Astarion had him right where he wanted him. “If you’re going to insult me, Gale. At least do it properly.”

“Very well. When you . . . finish . . . you make the most atrocious face.”

Astarion barked out a laugh. “You’re joking.” He studied Gale’s expression. Shit. He wasn’t joking. “I do not! Do I?”

“Yes, it’s sort of like . . .” Gale scrunched up his face in the most unattractive way.

“Hideous. I certainly do not look like that when I’m in the throes of passion. I would know.”

Gale nodded. “It’s the complete truth, unfortunately. I can show you, if you wish.”

“And how would you go about that? It’s not like I can just look in a mirror while I fuck you. Although . . .”

Gale managed to turn an even darker red. He cleared his throat nervously. “Let’s table that conversation for another night. I only meant I could conjure a duplicate.”

“Oh.” Astarion leaned back, releasing his grip on the arms of the chair. “I don’t . . . I haven’t seen this face in two hundred years. I didn’t think . . .”

Gale took Astarion’s hand in his own and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Foolish of me to offer something so sobering when we were only joking. You need not make a decision tonight, of course. The offer is there whenever you’d like. If you’d like.”

Astarion nodded, eyes locking back onto Gale's. “Thank you, darling. I’ll give it some thought.”

“I did have an unrelated question,” Gale said. “I’m not sure if now is the best time.”

“Ask away.” Astarion pulled his hand out of Gale’s and waved it dismissively.

“Why haven’t you asked to drink my blood?”

Astarion tilted his head. “Why haven’t you offered?”

“I was waiting for you to ask,” Gale said.

“There’s your answer. I was waiting for you to offer.” Astarion’s eyes flicked to Gale’s neck, the steady pulse that hummed just beneath his skin. His scent had changed since the orb was removed. He was certainly more alluring. But Astarion hadn’t pressed him on the matter. Their relationship was tenuous enough at times. “But, since you brought it up. Would you like me to bite you, Gale?”

Gale shrugged. “I suppose I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little curious about the experience. I have read some truly fascinating — ”

Astarion leaned forward, hushing Gale with a kiss. Gale sighed into Astarion’s mouth, quickly relaxing as their lips glided smoothly against each other.

“Tell me later about what you’ve read, darling. For now, just do me a favor and get in the damn bed.” Astarion’s lips brushed against Gale’s as he spoke, he could feel Gale smiling against his mouth.

“Your wish is my command,” Gale whispered.

Within moments they were both in the bed they shared. Gale on his back, Astarion stretched out on top of him. Most of their clothes had been discarded on the way to the bedroom.

Astarion nestled his face into the curve of Gale’s neck, lips ghosting across his soft skin. He teased the tender flesh with his fangs, but did not yet sink them in.

“You want this as much as I do,” Astarion whispered.

Gale sighed softly. “What is it that gives you that impression?”

“Your heartbeat quickens when my teeth are on your skin. I can smell your desire. And, well, feel it.” Astarion slipped a hand between Gale’s legs, palming his half-hard length over the fabric of his underwear.

Gale choked back a moan. “It’s true. There is something — exciting about surrendering myself to you in that way.”

“As if I don’t already have you wrapped around my fingers,” Astarion teased.

Gale laughed and tilted his head, giving Astarion more access to his neck. “I allow you to believe that. You’re the one —”

Astarion reached beneath Gale’s underwear, curled his fingers around his cock, and squeezed gently. “What was that? I couldn’t hear anything after you started whimpering.”

“Astarion,” Gale gasped. “I thought we were here so you could feed.”

“Oh, we’ll get to that, darling. Don’t worry. I just want to hear you beg so sweetly before I sink my teeth into your pretty little neck,” Astarion purred.

“Bite me if you wish. I’m not going to beg,” Gale said.

Astarion began to slowly stroke Gale’s cock. “Oh, but you will.”

[shouldaspunastory]

Thank you @broodsys! @dadrunkwriting

This might be wildly out OOC once we get more details or the game drops, but Emmrich Volkarian has bewitched me body and soul, and I love and have already drawn and begun collecting headcanons and lore for my Rook that is going to woo/be wooed and marry the gentleman necromancer. Hope you enjoy.

Emmrich Volkarin x Tobias Rook (SFW, Pre-relationship, pining. 1192 words) ------------------

The thing of it is, Emmrich is far more accustomed to dealing with the dead, isn’t he? Skeletons, in particular. Nevarra may be a warm enough clime, but the necromancer knows the cool, stale air of the Necropolis and his study filled with bones, old tomes, parchment, ink, and the scent of his favorite teas far better than that of the sun and bustling markets miles above. What he knows of the living- aside from that of a few colleagues- is primarily of their connections to and beliefs surrounding death and what rites should follow. Anything outside of that, well, it is largely theoretical. That’s never troubled him before. That it should do so now, so late in life, is… unexpected, to say the least.

And Tobias Rook is… warm, bright, and more alive than anyone Emmrich has even known. A series of utterly baffling and delightful contradictions Emmrich could spend the rest of his life puzzling over and never entirely figure out. Exactly the kind of challenge, the sort of puzzle, he adores. He adores them, a realization that had shaken him to his very core. They make Emmrich feel more alive than he has in years, and, somehow, both younger and older at the same time, makes their heart stop and race. It’s probably a lucky thing he’s already gone gray, or some of their more reckless antics would almost certainly inspire some new ones. They’ve come away from today’s battle on a little more bruised and worse for wear, but the mage is well aware how easily it might have been otherwise.

“Do you ever think about it,” Emmrich asks when he and Rook are finishing an evening cup of tea, the rest of their companions having already turned in for the night. Given his area of expertise, and the odds of what they’re up against it seems prudent to ask. Truthfully, it seems almost shamefully neglectful he’s not done so before now.

“What’s that?”

“Death. What comes after. What rites you would like others to perform for you,” the necromancer prompts, but Rook shakes their head.

“Not as often as you, I suspect,” Rook replies with a soft, amused chuckle, then, sobering a little, mulls the question over in order to give him a more serious response.

Rook does that a lot. They are playful- albeit sometimes a bit irreverent soul. But they never shame or discourage Emmrich when he spirals into an impromptu lecture about his latest studies or curiosities, even when they don’t entirely understand them, they ask him questions and do their best to provide him both with humor, and thoughtful responses in equal measure.

Emmrich is used to being the butt of a fair number of jokes over the years, not that he’s ever paid those much mind, but Rook is inexplicably far more interested in making him laugh than laughter at his expense. Where some of his colleagues and acquaintances over the years deemed him peculiar, even somehow vaguely off-putting for being so committed and interested in his grim work, Rook consistently seeks out his company, praises and seems to admire his passion, even if they don’t share it for the same things.

“I don’t want or need any pomp or circumstance, and I’d hate to think the last thing I ever did was inconvenience my friends. I don’t know for certain what comes after, but I don’t believe I’ll be needing my body for it. Whatever is easiest, does the least damage- to your purses- that’s what I want.”

Emmrich frowns thoughtfully. It’s not that he expects Rook to share his exact views on death, their answer is a pragmatic one, but hearing them speak with so little reverence for their body and its care after death- a body he’s come to… appreciate since first they met- is difficult for him to reconcile.

“I never-“ but Rook cuts themselves short, biting their tongue, and taking a sip of their tea to give them a moment’s pause. “I’ve never cared if anyone knew my name,” they continue finally, refining the thought as they set their cup of tea back on its saucer. “That was never why I joined up with the Shadow Dragons, and it’s not why I’m doing this now.” Emmrich nods as they continue.

“I don’t care if the world knows my name. I’ve never needed that. I just want to matter to someone… one person to remember me- even if that memory fades with the two of us. If it was the right one, that would be enough,” Rook concludes. This is a sentiment Emmrich can understand, and one he shares. He sighs softly, a little wistful. Were he a younger man…

“For what it’s worth, Little Bird, I know I’m not the right one, but I could live a thousand lives and never forget you. I don’t know how anyone could.” Rook draws in a shallow breath, pupils blown wide as they try to meet Emmrich’s eyes which are suddenly rigidly fixed upon the floor in front of them.

“Why not,” Rook asks softly. These words catch the necromancer by surprise if the way his head shoots up at their question is any indication.

‘What?”

“Why not you,” Rook repeats, their voice is soft, almost like speaking too loudly will shatter whatever this strange, beautiful, and fragile moment between them is. Perhaps it will. Emmrich’s throat feels dry, despite the tea, tighter than it had a moment before. Were it not for the way it hammers against his ribs, quite as if it wishes to escape the confines of its bone prison to reach them, Emmrich would swear his heart has stopped.

“I wouldn’t mind if it was you,” Rook admits, suddenly uncharacteristically shy. “I, um, I’d really like that, actually,” they confess softly.

Their cheeks are flush, Emmrich thinks, unable to do anything for a moment but to gape at them. Full of blood, of life, warmth, their eyes full of light, of nerves, yes, but also, hope, a tenderness he’s seen before now, but clearly not for all that it was. They bite their lip and Emmrich realizes he’s been silent, lost in his swirling thoughts, for too long. His gloved hand gently clasps one of their hands, his thumb finding Rook’s pulse and caressing the inside of their wrist. Their heartbeat more akin to a hummingbird than their namesake, but precious all the same. I’ve done that, Emmrich marvels, cool fingers of his bare hand reaching out to rescue their bottom lip, bangles on his arm tingling softly, joining the symphony of his quickly beating heart and shallow breaths.

“Are you sure,” Emmrich asks, words scarcely louder than a whisper, but needing to offer them one last out.

“Please,” Rook nods, and Emmrich doesn’t keep them waiting, fingers moving to card through their hair before coming to cradle the back of their head as his lips meet theirs in a kiss of infinite care and patience, as though the pair have all the time in the world, and he, can think of nothing better to do with that time than this. And just now, he can’t.

[multitrackdrifting]

My latest video is about Video Games as Art, I don't give a clear-cut definition of what I think art is, but I criticise the construction of games as "art" purely in the lens of expensive, AAA blockbuster games that win many awards and get a lot of 10s and how that is damaging to the medium at large.

Chapter Summary:

How The Last of Us created a culture of "demanding respect"

The review score obsession & harassment

Why do people hate Japanese Games?

If Games Mean A Lot To You

[stardustizuku]

PART 1: How did we get here, again?:

The origins of Villainess Stories

Villainess Stories are an interesting phenomena that took a chokehold of the mainstream anime community, right around 2020, thanks to a little anime named:

“My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!”

I say this, but while it was popularized in 2020, that’s not where this is even close to starting.

I always find myself having to remind most people that: The anime is rarely the origin.

I’ve stated plenty of times before, animation is expensive. More often than not, animes are a commercial of sorts, for manga, light novels and merch. It isn’t until the source material has proven to be successful on its own, that it gets an adaptation.

A risk of this magnitude had to come from somewhere.

That somewhere was Shōsetsuka ni Narō.

Much like many of your favorite animes, My Next Life as a Villainess began as a web novel in the site “Shōsetsuka ni Narō”. A self-publishing Japanese website that brought you “Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!”; “Log Horizon”; “I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability”; “I’m in Love with the Villainess”; and for anyone who follows my page: yes. Ascendance of a Bookworm.

Among many others. Like seriously, a bunch of the most popular animes you’ll find being broadcasted in the latest part of this decade - started in Naro from 2012 - 2016.

“My Next Life as a Villainess” was published in 2014, and it ran all the way until 2015. With the Light Novel running from 2015, to this day.

Unfortunately, if you try to find a bit of a timeline as to where the genre came from, you will find a loud crowd that claims that all these mangas are a rip-off of one another, that have no basis on video games. That’s a blatant lie, born mostly out of a complete disinterest in the genre.

The villainess genre has a long, convoluted and frankly complicated story.

Unlike western media, in which you basically take one of the mediums (film, animation, or gaming) and more or less see it evolve with little to no influence of other mediums - Japanese media takes inspo from other mediums all the time.

What do I mean by this?

Let’s take animation. Film animation has a very linear timeline. It starts with Disney, moves to Pixar, moves to Dreamworks. It references almost only itself. If Hollywood does something you can barely feel it film animation. If something becomes popular on the small screen and tv, or streaming services, Film Animation has no clue.

Japanese Animation is different. Manga, webnovels, and games tend to influence each other all the time.

This is why you have extremely popular animes that have a mix of other medium in them. Like, Sword Art Online, which involves mixing elements of video games mechanics with anime tropes. As well as adaptations across the mediums: manga being adapted to animes, live action, musical theatre and even games.

This makes trying to analyze just anime, a fruitless endeavor.

In part too, because the ones who determine what anime becomes an anime, is in large part the manga industry.

Like the BIG THREE are the big three, not for any issues related to the anime, but because they saved Shonen Jump - a manga magazine. Sword Art Online too, became popular due to already popular JRPGs and MMOs. At the same time, it’s undeniable success, and change the course of history forever - came first in the form of a Light Novel (yes SAO was also originally a Light Novel entered in a contest in 2002). So it comes as no surprise that the first to feel its impact was the light novel industry.

The existence of “My Next Life as a Villainess” has then to be divided Parts. The Isekai Part of it, Game Part of it, and the Manga/Anime. Which melted together in the form of a popular webnovel.

Now. Isekais are weird.

People will always point and laugh about how the “original Isekai” is Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz.

But Isekai is a hard thing to define, specially its origins. At it’s core, Isekai is just “Being sent to another word” and that’s as universal as of a trope as any other. After all, it’s the first step of A Hero’s Journey taken to its most literal of interpretations. Crossing the Threshold into a New World is pretty much the beginning of any adventure. It stands to reason that this “New World” is a literal new one. This leaves everyone guessing as to what you’d consider the “first Isekai”. Some will point at Urashima Tarō, some at the Super Mario Bros movie, some will point at Superbook, or Mashin Hero Wataru.

That said, nowadays, “Isekai” became a genre of its own. It has a very specific aesthetic, tropes and characters.

So rather than to try and find where it originated, it’s more productive to see when it started to take the shape of what we would nowadays consider to be the essence.

And something to notice too, is that the trope varies greatly depending on what current you take. You could consider Digimon a precursor of Sword Art Online, but that would have very little impact on Villainess tropes.

In this sense, I would consider Vision of Escaflowne (1994), Inuyasha (1996) and Fushigi Yugi (1991) as the pioneers of what it is now Isekai Shoujo.

They all talk about high school girls being transported to another world. They all talk about destiny and fate, and whether we have to follow the path someone else has set for us.

Vision of Escaflowne presents the idea of fate. It involves also war and the nature of trauma. It’s a slightly more mature story. But it cements this idea of “the chosen one”.

Talking about Fushigi Yugi, it’s often considered to be the first “transported into a novel” Isekai with a shoujo romance focus. I wish I had read it or watched it because a lot of the tropes that eventually become a staple of the Isekai story come from here. Including the predestined story, someone being told they have a role to play, the jealousy of someone trying to steal your position, as well as a romance based around saving the world.

And I cannot possibly understate the influence of Rumiko Takahashi’s Inuyasha. This woman quite literally created the concept of a harem and reverse harem romance with Ranma 1/2. She’s the queen of love triangles. While it would take a bit more for the Isekai genre aimed at women to fully take off, it’s undeniable to anyone who’s watched it how much contemporaries borrow from it. Not to mention, it’s perhaps the most famous one. While Escaflowne and Fushigi Yugi are both relatively unknown, specially in the west, everyone knows Inuyasha. It had 164 episodes, 5 films, and even a recent sequel.

Parallel to this, games started to transform too.

For villainess characters in otome games have been here since literally the inception of the genre.

Angelique, the (by and large) considered to be the pioneer or inventor of the genre, was released in 1994. This game has a villainess character, in the name of Rosalia de Cartagena. The game is about the Queen that rules the Universe, deciding to chose a new ruler, via a competition. She chooses two Queen candidates: Angelique and Rosalia. Rosalia being the rival, you (as a player) are supposed to defeat.

Surprisingly, though, when the game comes out, Rosalia becomes hugely popular with audiences. “How popular?” You may ask.

Well, popular enough that in 1998, KOEI released a game named Angelique DUET, in which you can choose to play as either Angelique or Rosalia.

Yeah, so you may considered that the villainess as the main character trope dates back for as far as 1998.

But…well, I’m twisting the truth just the slightest bit.

While the original Angelique story, is about two rival Queen Candidates competing for the throne, and yes, you will lose the game if you let Rosalia win…- Rosalia is never a full fledge villainess.

Yes, she’s a a rival, but not a villainess.

She isn’t evil.

The original game had two (main) endings: The Queen Ending and The Love Ending.

And in the Love Ending, which was still a Good Ending, Rosalia would become Queen.

You could quite literally, only choose between love and duty. And if you chose Love, you were letting Rosalia win.

She wasn’t evil. In fact, she’s described as talented, smart and was literally trained to be a Queen. It’s just that in the framing of the story, you have to defeat her to become Queen.

And even if you win, in Angelique Special 2, (where you play as the successor to Angelique) it is more than hinted that Angelique and Rosalia are friends - even when Angelique became Queen. Which is supported by the fact that the player can actually GAIN friendship points from Rosalia in the original game, by going into her room and chatting with her.

So, Rosalia is not evil, not by any long shot.

But this game cemented the idea of two Rivals Queens, an extensive Harem of Men, and the idea of duty vs love.

Albarea’s Maiden, released in 1997, also introduced the concept of the Saintess or the Holy Maiden, set to save the world by competing against other girls. With one of them being a counselor-type supporting character, and your active rival.

Later famous Otome game, Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side, released in 2002, popularized the concept of Friendship Routes. You could avoid the Rival Mode and befriend Shiho Arisawa, Mizuki Sud, Natsumi Fuji or Tamami Konno, instead of the Love Routes.

So you have these two genres, and both are growing in its own ways.

Otome series keep gaining popularity, like massive amounts of it. Obviously, it grows so much that it creates its own ecosystem. Varying from school romance, to historical fantasy, and all the likes. Games like Brother’s Conflict, Diabolik Lovers, Uta no Prince-sama, among others exploded in popularity around 2010-2012.

Meanwhile shoujo is also thriving as its own thing. Developing its tropes, one of which will come extremely handy later, that involves the “pick me” girl Japanese Version. Series like Kimi Ni Todoke, Kaichou Wa Maid, Special A, become extremely popular too around this time.

Finally, Summer of 2012 rolls around and.

Oh how I dread this.

As much as I would like not to talk about Sword Art Online, it’s unfortunately enough, a critical piece for most of anime history.

I cannot understate how much this anime changed the game. It wasn’t the first to introduce the concept of video games and anime - with The World Only God Knows coming out in 2011 - but it was the first to (in the first season) take its premise extremely seriously. It was the first to combine Isekai with gaming, and a power fantasy that many would soon find themselves indulging into. That’s it, a world where what makes you a loser, is your biggest strength.

Which launched it to popularity.

It became a sensation; a phenomena.

It opened the flood gates for many others who would try to combine anime, gaming and the Isekai concepts.

In the webnovel sphere, meanwhile, you could see that Magic Academy Stories and Historical Fantasy with the Princess archetype were fairly popular already. But it’s way harder to distinctively examine them for one reason.

Simply put, uhm. It’s, ah, sexism.

While a lot of stories aimed at boys would often get picked up without a second thought for an anime adaptation - the same could not be said of stories aimed at women. Be it webnovels, light novel or manga, it takes extreme power for a shoujo to get picked up. So, these stories simply don’t get an anime, which means we don’t get adaptations, which means no translation or English documentation.

And honestly? There’s just so far as my Japanese friend’s broken English and Google translate can get me.

It’s easy for me to analyze Angelique’s influence because there’s English archieves of it!

The same cannot be said, of what’s essentially a fanfiction website filled with self indulgent writing. As much as it is a treasure trove of why the genre blew up - I simply cannot access it.

But what from what I can see Isekai Villainess Stories exploded in 2014. You could already see it bubbling up in 2013. Notably, for anyone reading this from the AoB tag, Ascendance of a Bookworm came out in 2013. An Isekai story that heavily focused on Royalty and the “Holy Maiden” archetype.

It took just the right tweaks to get it right.

The first to appear, from all the digging I could find in English Archieves, was in 2013 with the “I Will Live with Humility and Dependability as My Motto” novel. It was discontinued in 2017.

It is nothing like “My Next Life as Villainess”. The protagonist was about to enter elementary school when she dies, the story told is one of a manga she was reading (not a game), and it lacks the harem aspect that would later be so cliche it borders on brain dead. But you see a lot of what would become essential. A heroine with a goal different to romance, an original villainess that bullies the heroine, and a wish for a simple no-problem life.

After that, most of what followed were novellas and small short stories, much which are now discontinued or on hiatus. Which is to be expected. Naro allows all types of stories in its website. And back then there was no format. No tropes, no guidelines to what works and doesn’t.

Trial and error landed us with “My Next Life as a Villainess”. And I mean a lot of trial and error. From what has been archieved and translated on English, there’s easily 15 stories with a similar premise that were published in 2014. Which may not sound like a lot, but that’s only what has been popular enough to be saved into English. I cannot imagine how much got lost in Japanese.

But, there you have it.

First, the sudden explosion of Isekai Gaming with the popularity of the Sword Art Online Anime.

Followed by a growing interest in Otome Games. An audience prepped by the original 1994 and 1996, to be endeared by a rival/villainess character.

An audience of Shoujo fanatics which grew up with Isekai shows like Escaflowne, Fushigi Yugi, and Inuyasha in the late 90s.

And an audience of webnovel enthusiasts, already in love with princess aesthetics and magical academies.

Anyways.

Once that reached the main consciousness, all hell broke loose.

After “My Next Life as a Villainess” blew up, it was only a matter of time for countless of self-published stories to follow suit.

Obviously, I’m glossing over a lot of history. I wasn’t able to touch upon the Light Novel and Visual Novel games, mostly because that’s a massive sinkhole you’d need a MASTERS to sort through. Made, entirely not easier, by the fact that mediums keep interacting with each other. Visual novels get picked up, turned into anime, which inspires the next batch of game developers and artists. And the feedback loop is somehow even quicker there, for some reason.

Like, My Next Life debuted in 2014, we got the anime until 2020, and its popularity only reached anime-backed levels of explosion until 2024. It took ten-fucking-years for this to become a thing. Whereas shonen and shonen manga has maybe 5 year gap? Shonen Jump spits out anime adaptations almost as fast as it cuts anything that isn’t OnePiece levels of popular. Again, it’s a can of sexism worms I’m not interested in today.

“Wait,” you ask. “I still don’t get it”

What do you not get?

“Well, I understand we’re the Isekai aspect comes from. I understand the gaming and all. But wasn’t Rosalia a good girl? How do you go from the Rival-Everyone-Likes in the game, to the horrible Villainess that The Original Catherine is meant to be? Her description of a the game’s villainess is far meaner than Rosalia was”.

Alright, so, you remember how I named these series “All Girls Dream of Cinderella?

“Yeah”

Well. We now have to talk about Cinderella.

PREV << MASTERLIST >> NEXT

[canmom]

games games'd recently

Solar Ash: the second game by the people who made Hyper Light Drifter. My feelings about it largely align with the reviews: gorgeous aesthetic if not quite as personally a vibe as HLD, the skating flows really nicely, the 'track down all the collectable things' structure was a little frustrating at times but I got used to it, the Shadow of the Colossus-like boss battles were a lot of fun when they worked.

It's a game about a decaying world full of people trapped in cycles of facing their last, worst moments. Most of the people you meet are some kind of animal people - cat people, fungus people, snail space imperialists - and the tone varies between darkly comedic and Meditating Severely On Death. The tone often swings a little pulpy.

So, ultimately - spoilers! - it turns out to be a time loop (something they pretty heavily foreshadow). Your player character Rei is one half of a split being who, after failing to save her world, has been resetting time and time again. The character 'Echo' who you encounter after every boss fight, with a white theme in contrast to your character's black motifs, is the other half of you - the half that isn't convinced to keep trying over and over again to save your planet and is pretty mad at Rei for prolonging this whole miserable existence.

In the true ending finale sequence, Rei finally concedes and turns into a big monster, and you play as Echo (who conveniently controls the exact same as Rei) to pull out the big spikes impaling her, metaphorically allowing her to reconcile with you and allow the world to move on with the other characters .

So like, big old trauma flashback metaphor I guess? The character's inner world is reflected in a big expansive scifi.

The thing that intrigues me most about this game is the tech art. For example, take the cyan goop you surf along in various levels. It looks like it's made of metaballs, and I kind of wonder if they are doing some clever stuff with meshing, or if they're rendering with signed distance fields, or what... in any case, it leads to some very cool level design where you can skate over all surfaces of the blobby space matter, and there is no consistent 'down' direction.

I went looking for how they did this and I ended up finding a half-hour talk from the lead technical artist, which doesn't really address the cyan goop, but does talk about integrating Houdini procedural simulations into the game using Unreal...

He talks mostly about the process of authoring the game's 'islands' (using a procedural editor tool that runs Houdini to generate the geometry), but does casually mention the clouds becoming 'really cool SDF clouds' in game, so I guess I called it! Really cool that that can run real time without being too expensive. I am definitely curious about how they handled raymarching so many metaballs (assuming they used raymarching, but that is the standard way to render SDFs).

It's kind of crazy that Heart Machine could go from a Game Maker game (even one with fantastic art direction) to a game as ambitious as this one. In practice though... running all over the bosses is cool but with the amount of camera hinting (necessary at the speed you're moving) it kind of feels like a series of QTEs, just figuring out where the next node is and trying to avoid jumping in the black goop, and if you screw up, you have to try again from the start. They're really cool sequences, but from a gameplay perspective, more like a rhythm game than anything.

This game didn't quite hit the same level of 'wow vibes' of HLD for me - I liked the atmosphere of HLD, the quiet and haunted world, the Nausicaa-like monsters. But I definitely enjoyed my time with it, and it's crazy inspiring on a tech art level.

The Thaumaturge: This is the latest game from 11 Bit Studios, of Frostpunk and This War of Mine fame. It's a fascinating concept: an RPG set in Warsaw at the turn of the 20th century, a world of boiling-over social tensions, in which you play essentially a wizard who summons invisible demons salutors to reveal secrets and manipulate people. Your father (also a wizard, you hated him) died mysteriously and now you're back at the family home to try to investigate.

I haven't finished this game yet (nowhere near, it's a big game), but I wanted to briefly comment!

In the first ten minutes of this game, you go to meet Rasputin. From that point I was already pretty much sold.

After sorting out some peasant-y business in what is essentially the tutorial area, you travel to Warsaw where the bulk of the game takes place, currently ruled by the Russian empire. Pretty much as soon as you get off the train, you run into Tsar Nicholas giving a speech, and get caught up in a tense standoff between the Russian cops and Polish workers. I ended up in prison lmao

This is the type of RPG that does have a combat system, and finds some... kinda awkward reasons to get Wiktor Szulski into fights now and again, but it's a pretty intriguing design oriented mostly around applying and exploiting status effects. But really, I'm here for the story, and the period setting. Although 11Bit are not a Polish studio, the game has the option of full voice acting in Polish, which is really sick - apparently they put some effort into giving it period language as well. And even though this is an occult story about wizard business, there's clearly a huge amount of love for the historical setting - there's a bunch of mini sidequests that just take you to look at landmarks and get a little bit of xp from it.

Wiktor is a fun protagonist to inhabit, and the game encourages you towards spicier dialogue options with its system of Flaws - essentially, each salutor is associated with a point of characterisation, such as pride, and if you feed that flaw by picking prideful dialogue options when they're offered, that will apparently make your salutor more powerful. It is certainly reminiscent of Disco Elysium's design with the thoughts as characters, but it's got enough of its own flavour to not feel derivative.

I will surely have much more to say about The Thaumaturge as I progress through it, but honestly, just wanted to shine a light on this game because it's fascinating. This kind of RPG doesn't come along often enough.

Neon White: Only just started on this one. It's exactly what everyone says: an addicting game designed to ease you into speedrunning. I have two friends on Steam who have played it and both of their times are very tight and several seconds faster than what I'm able to do lol.

Everyone also says the plot is a bit ehh and well... they're right. Strangely the tone reminded me most of all of the anime Mahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers: oddly casual, and despite the weebcore vibes, the character archetypes are more American - bubbly psycho girl, femme fatale, frat bro. It's very much aiming for humour, and generally it's not terrible, but the hit rate there is kinda mixed. I'm actually a bit surprised by it - given the aesthetic with the hannya masks everywhere, I was kinda expecting something way more chuuni, but it's quite laid back so far.

But none of that matters really because it's a speedrunning game, it's not about the story! The controls are tight as hell, the levels are elegantly designed to steer you towards picking up on shortcuts with a compelling learning curve, and restarting is incredibly easy. So far I've grabbed Ace medals on every level I've played, but there's a huge amount of room for improvement still. Definitely reminiscent of doing time trials in Mirror's Edge back in the day. Definitely gonna play this more.

[thelensofyashunews]

1Up Tee Has Smoke For Non-Believers In Latest Track And New Music Video For “Zoned Out”

1Up Tee is the kind of rapper that walks his talk. In his newest single, “Zoned Out,” the westside Detroit native gives listeners a glimpse into his past and shows his haters how far he’s come in the rap game. From juggling big dreams to juggling racks and countless lovers, bars like “I can’t go back to being sad an exhausted,” and “I was that kid that never talked, look how I turned out,” demonstrate Tee’s determination to make it to the top. In the single’s accompanying video, Tee puts his swag on full display as he spits his licks surrounded by expensive merchandise and large bags of za. Sandwiched between the head bobbing beat (produced by ENRGY) and raunchy lyrics, Tee touches on lessons he’s learned along the way and his adaptability: “could have never played the game because my heart was in it, now when people do me wrong s**t, I hardly feel it,” “all this s**t that n****s said that they can’t do, I’ll do it.” Needless to say 1Up Tee isn’t giving up on himself or letting anything stop him from following in the footsteps of local legends before him. 

A Smoker's Club Records release, “Zoned Out” is the latest step in 1Up Tee’s impressive rise over the last few months and follows recent singles “Click,” a collaboration with rising artist Star Bandz, “Butt Naked”, “Young N***s,” featuring a video by No More Heroes, and “Accountability Pt. 2,” the sequel to his breakout hit, which inspired a memorable, ASL-interpreted From The Block performance. 

Inspired by local rappers Babyface Ray and Payroll Giovanni, Tee started rapping when he was a teenager, writing about the things he observed in his hometown, and eventually teaming up with close friend D Hen 1UP to release the mixtape Y.N.A. in 2022. 1Up Tee capitalized on his hometown momentum with the single "Accountability," released in 2022, framed as a conversation between two sides of himself–one side lamenting his lack of success so far, and the other side telling him to shape up and get to work. Late last year, Tee's profile began to cross out of the Great Lakes region and make waves nationwide: the catalyst was "Good Karma (Freestyle)," an examination about why bad things happen to real ones, which became a viral On The Radar performance and generated over 4 million on-demand streams. He kept the karma going with January's "Lose Lose," which earned attention from Pitchfork, racking up over 1.8 million streams in its first six weeks. His recent inclusion on Spotify’s Fresh Finds Hip Hop playlist and a significant uptick in TikTok followers highlight his growing influence.

With influential tastemakers like Pitchfork, On The Radar, and Spotify's Fresh Finds in his corner, along with strong co-signs from from Meek Mill, athletes like Damian Lillard and Marshawn Lynch, and fellow Detroiters including Babyface Ray, Dej Loaf, and BabyTron, 1Up Tee is ready to become the next rapper from the Motor City to become a breakout star. Stay tuned for much more.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Ugh...

Here we go again with this... Something something, "It's not my fault Disney is making these sequels! I avoided their latest original movies because they sucked! I shouldn't be to blame for that!"

A) These Disney Animation and Pixar sequels were likely always going to be made regardless of how the recent original movies performed financially. In the biz, if a movie makes a shit-ton of money, it's likely getting a sequel. It ain't 1997 anymore.

B) There is no blame or punishment, per se... The system in the world of mainstream American feature animation is working as intended. It's capitalism 101. It sucks, yes, but that's how it is. The performance of one movie dramatically affects the slate, or even the studio's survival. Must we dredge up what happened to Blue Sky after The Walt Disney Company bought them and their first movie released by them lost money at the box office? Better yet, all the times Disney Animation faced shutdown for many decades.

C) What if... Hear me out... These sequels are all pretty good? Better than the recent original stuff, even? Impossible! Something can be a critically-acclaimed audience favorite, and you'd still have gaggles of people online insisting the thing in question is garbage. Just look at TURNING RED, for example. It's all fuckin' subjective at the end of the day.

D) It's never gonna be good enough anyways, so why bother? I don't think I can name a *single* Disney animated movie where almost everyone was on the same page, praising it... Since THE LION KING? The latter-years Renaissance movies all had their detractors, as did the early 2000s movies, as did all the "Revival" movies (why don't they do 2D anymore? Because a lot of people avoided PRINCESS AND THE FROG and WINNIE THE POOH). I remember there were at least a few people who didn't like TANGLED, WRECK-IT RALPH, etc. etc. Were very vocal about that or didn't think they were "Disney enough" or whatever. Hell, even LION KING used to get flack for the KIMBA similarities. Plenty of the now-beloved films overseen by Walt Disney himself were largely greeted with mixed or negative reviews upon initial release. It'll never be perfect, it's just the nature of the beast. How the movies live on, is the more important part. Not the opinions of self-appointed "experts" on the Internet. Again, it's all personal preference.

The thing is, the movies Disney chooses to make is kind out of our control. No one should be obliged to pay for a product so that you get the next one like it ("vote with your wallet!"), but unfortunately, that's how the biz works. If you're not game on the latest films from the studio, you're also not to blame for what they do next, but they're gonna do what they're gonna do. That's just that about that. Hell, the thing can be a big success... And they'll still do the opposite of what people want! Off the top of my head, not an animated movie, but WORLD WAR Z 2 not moving forward despite how well the first one did. Again, it sucks. But... If WDAS ever got to a point where they were making things that I just did not want to see whatsoever? Then I'd go watch something else. It's ultimately the higher-ups' decisions that are at fault.

Very rarely are financial failures looked at logically, very rarely do executives ever try to pick up the pieces from there. Instead it's "never make this kind of thing again" or "shut this place down". It happened to Blue Sky. It happened at DreamWorks, projects cancelled (B.O.O., MONKEYS OF MUMBAI, etc.), staff laid off, a whole animation unit closed down (Pacific Data Images), etc. Disney Animation threw 2D features out twice, cancelled many movies, laid off tons of people multiple times, they faced complete shutdown multiple times. Animated movies are expensive and require lots of people and resources, they're fragile as is. COVID-19 really cut into their box office, and it doesn't help that going to the movies costs a fortune.

I'm not saying this is all a good, it's not. I've just made peace with it, and can only hope films keep getting made, staff still have work and roofs to keep over their heads, and maybe... Just maybe, I'll like the movies, too?

Anyways, I hope I like MOANA 2. I'm curious to see what the director and writers and artists and musical talents all bring to this world that was created by the first film.

[atesttumblr]

WATT

Download THE WATT WORKS FAMILY at Scribd

Now the truth can be told. The WATT recording label is not the idealistic, uncompromising, visionary creation of two young revolutionaries. No, Michael Mantler and Carla Bley started WATT, almost 20 years ago, to make money. Like all musicians, they assumed that once the world got to hear their unique individual styles, fame and riches would follow. So they slaved over each new release, always sure that the latest one would sell millions. Carla went through many phases. After realizing that no one was interested in hearing her zany capricious fantastic amazingly intricate concoctions for large assortments of weird and wonderful musicians, she tried to write simple little songs for small, boring groups of anonymous hacks. Mike, on the other hand, stuck firmly to his grandiose style, turning out gaunt tragic forlorn bleak emotionally distraught masterpieces, certain that someday his music would pay off. 

Finally giving up all thoughts of ever cashing in on their own efforts, they formed an·auxiliary company, XtraWATT, and started looking for young talent to exploit. The first sucker that they stumbled upon was Steve Weisberg. He was definitely young, and ready to work for nothing. It wasn't difficult to recruit 20 other desperate musicians to play on his album, I CAN'T STAND ANOTHER NIGHT ALONE (IN BED WITH YOU), by promising to pay them lots of money when it came out. 

Next to fall for the XtraWATT scam was young veteran jazz bassist Steve Swallow, who, desirous of getting his collection of overkeening faux-negre soul ballads recorded, handed over his life savings to Mantler·to cover "expenses", and even agreed to call the album CARLA. But word of the racket got out, and no one else could be found who was willing to record for XtraWATT. In desparation, Mantler and Bley forced their own child, Karen, to learn a few chords and simple melodies. They even tried to train their cat to sing the resulting ditties. (Most of those efforts had to be replaced by unsuspecting teenaged humans, but the album was still called MY CAT ARNOLD, to avoid paying royalties.)  

In spite of Mantler's greedy misdoings (word has it that Bley is just a pawn in his game), his victims still adore him, having nothing to compare their music business experiences to. Even Weisberg, who has confessed that he has ambitions of someday graduating into the clutches of a big-time criminal at a real record company, is embarrassingly grateful.  

Naturally, the entire WATT/XtraWATT family was honored to go along with his latest plot. Hopefullly, some nice journalist or salesperson will notice how interesting and valuable the music is, and persuade the public to finally fork over those dollars!

[askagamedev]

Why is it that even/especially on mobile, micro-transactions are as expensive as they are? That is, at least the ones I've seen I have to think whether the value is even there. I would have thought that "giving away" obviously great value would get more people to bite. Are big spenders worth that much more than getting more small spenders? Is there some floor where even the cheapest good deal won't entice a new spender?

You might be surprised at how much others are actually willing to pay for things they like. Big spenders do a lot of the heavy lifting, and most choose to spend because they get sufficient positive value (for them) out of the game overall. My cousin's FIFA league is an example of that - all participants are highly-paid professionals who really like soccer, so they all engage without a spending limit because it's fun for them.

For pricing determination, it's something of an optimization issue - we don't want to charge more than most spending players are willing to pay or the value proposition isn't there and they won't buy at all, but we also don't want to charge too much less than most spending players are willing to pay or we're leaving money on the table that the players would be willing to give us. Many sufficiently-large mobile games will feel this out via A/B testing, where they distribute two slightly different versions of the same game and microtransaction offerings to their players and track spending behaviors to see which set of prices do better overall. They will also do this A/B testing to try other potential changes as well - game flow, visual design, level design, etc.

You are quite correct, however - the "regular" microtransaction offerings usually aren't for the budget-minded or newer spenders. Most developers create different microtransaction products aimed at different types of players. Converting non-paying players to small spenders is extremely important to any microtransaction business model. Getting someone to spend the first time is a lot more difficult than getting them to spend the second, fifth, or fiftieth time (especially in a free-to-play environment). For new players, devs usually offer a variety of one-time introductory packages that are more budget-friendly and help with early- and mid- game content more than elder game content. These introductory products ease the transition from non-spending player into spending player.

For regular spending players that are more budget-minded, devs typically offer a different set of options - often more limited quantity time-based "deals". These often aren't the latest and greatest things released, but can provide more value to the player for the price - instead of offering the newest coolest costumes to come out, this month's deal offers a bundle of several older costumes together at a reduced price. The fact that they are better value (if not the latest and greatest) and time-sensitive tends to make the buyers feel better about their limited purchases - they're getting a better deal that isn't always available.

Obviously, those who spend the most will get the most offerings. Not only are they the ones who support the game most financially, they are also the ones who consume the most paid content and demand more. Those who spend less are still valuable, which is why we will still offer them things, but they spend less so they also consume less. New players get special treatment, because new players can bounce off of a game easily and we want to keep as many new players around for as long as we can.

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Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[sniperct]

Spaceship games I've played

Starfield: 5/10

space, spaceships, exploration, but it's also fallout in space and if you don't like fallout's gameplay all that much you're not going to enjoy starfield. Also space combat is pretty simple

EvE Online: 7/10

I made billions of ISK mining. and I lost billions of ISK getting suicide ganked in high security space. There was some enjoyment before that but the space combat is very tactical so fun if you like that kind of thing. Haven't played since I got suicide ganked 2 days in a row by two different people in two different orgs in two different high security systems and lost two super expensive barges.

EvE Valkryie 9/10:

The reason I got a PSVR originally. It's defunct and dead now sadly, but the combat was amazing and I lost hours in the cockpit with my PSVR headset pulling high G stunts and shooting down other people.

Star Citizen: 8/10,

buggy as hell but has absolutely the best space flight out there, hands down. In perpetual slow development, I recommend against backing unless you're really into bug hunting and can handle frequently losing progress. But when the stars align its one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. They added planets 18 months after I backed and the experience of seamlessly taking off, flying across a system, landing and exploring a planet and then returning retroactively justified my pledge for me. Was worth getting a nice set of joysticks one year, 80% for this game tbh.

Elite Dangerous, 7/10:

I keep trying to give it a fair shot, but the flying doesn't feel right. A bit reason I originally backed SC was specifically because I was trying to find a space flight/combat game to scratch that itch and SC beat ED for that. This was back in 2016 lol That said it has a large galaxy to explore, even if you don't get to explore your ships or planets to the same level you can in SC, and I can see the appeal of it if I could just adapt to the flight model. Works great with my joysticks though!

No Man's Sky, 7/10:

overhyped and under delivered, it's since come a very long way and I'd argue is one of the biggest turn around stories, second to FF14 maybe. Large, lovely univere to explore, I wish I could figure out how to get off the planet or start in space on my latest playthrough. Space flight is very very basic.

Star Wars: Squadrons: 9/10

Quiet literally waited since X-wing Alliance came out for this game. Decent story, but the sheer joy of flying around in an x-wing or tie fighter makes for exceptional gameplay. I've even played in VR with the PSVR and I can't emphasize enough how awesome that was!

Chorus TBD:

Really enjoyed the demo, was disappointed I couldn't get my joystick working with it. Got it for like 3 bucks at a recent steam sale and I want to give it a fair shake. Maybe I can find a way to map my joystick.

Bonus mech but not space ships!

Mechwarrior Online 6/10

Great game, got my joysticks working in it recently but I haven't played in years so I'm very bad at it.

Mechwarrior 5

TBD Finally got sticks working, need to actually play the story.

If anyone can recommend games where you fly around in a space ship (or even flying around in a plane, been having a lot of fun playing War Thunder's Arcade mode and world of warplanes) let me know. Bonus points if there is joystick support.

[sakura-fraust]

Any new interests/series/obsessions?

Oh LORDY

Well, most of my various interests have largely stayed the same (I'm still unhinged about my D&D campaigns and FFXIV and my pet snake)

Others kind of come and go, I'll pick up a new game, play it obsessively until I complete it or get close, then I forget or move on lmao

I guess my latest obsession of sorts would be in relation to my snake. I want/need to get her a new enclosure cause she's rapidly outgrowing the stuff she has and I can tell it's starting to stress her out

So I want to get her a high quality one that will (ideally) last her for the rest of her life

Which naturally means that I want to buy a very large enclosure and build a custom bioactive setup for her myself lol

So I've been doing SO MUCH RESEARCH on bioactive setups and just how people have built their own custom enclosure interiors and water features and all that

But of course, this undertaking will be stupid expensive, which is why I have a chunk of what I'd need up on my Throne wishlist 😔

There's a lot more stuff I really want to try getting back into, but hobbies are expensive and I'm a broke ass bitch :')

[havnblog]

Waste Your Money on Things That Last

A Defence of Buying Things

A couple of years ago, I was working full time as a teacher. And even though the pay in that profession is far too low, I was still quite comfortable (economically). However, the last few years, I’ve had way less spending power. I wanted to take a master’s degree, which (sadly, and luckily) led to my mind sort of rupturing, and me getting diagnosed with ADHD.1 Now I’m learning how I really work, while trying to get a freelance lifestyle up and running. I’m lucky in that I know that I can get a teacher job if I like (and need) to.2 And even luckier: I’m in a position where I can survive on less income for a while. So, we’ll see what the future holds – but nonetheless: Currently, I don’t have a lot of money to waste.

Some notes on privilege:

I live in a wealthy country, with plenty of social security, and come from a middle-class background. And the reason I talk about 'not having money to waste' instead of 'being poor' (even though I don't have a lot of income), is that I still have everything I need (and more). So I do know that I'm very privileged! However, I hope the principles I'm trying to get across can be relevant for several levels of affluence.

I’m not saying it’s wrong to spend your money on things like holidays and experiences. And you can absolutely argue that these things last in their own way! But I just wanted to give a little shout-out to something I feel like gets recommended less than those.

Pre-purchased luxury

If my “luxury” habits (you know, from when I worked as a teacher 😅) consisted of things like going to restaurants a lot, which is expensive here in Norway, going to my current lifestyle would be a large downgrade. However, here are some things I’m glad that I bought, as I still get great enjoyment from the money I spent.

“Re-usable” entertainment

Personally, I, in general, don’t love rewatching movies and TV shows. So in terms of “entertaining hours per krone”, other forms give me more bang for the buck. As probably many others, I have a way too large backpack of video games – on both Mac and Switch. I also have plenty of board games. Some of them I haven’t tried, and most of them have tons of plays left in them.

Equipment

Even though it’s not the latest and greatest, I have more technical equipment than I need. I also have what I need to work on music, go outside, build and repair things around the house, etc.

Well-made clothes and items

But this post was originally inspired by how lucky I felt, being able to put on clothes I love (that keep me warm and dry), and use good backpacks etc., that I’ve invested in a long time ago.

I like slow fashion (in opposition to fast fashion). And the two most important principles here, are things that have the quality to last, and a timeless style that works for years.

Style is, of course, subjective – but personally, I like things inspired by workwear and classic fits. However, I have more advice when it comes to:

Spotting quality

Construction (how they’re made) and materials (what they’re made of) are, much, much more significant than where they’re made.

Go for things made of (preferably only) natural materials, like cotton, wool, linen, leather, etc., and constructed in a way that makes them repairable.

When it comes to brands, it can be a good idea to go for small brands with close relations to the factory. I’d also primarily buy a brand’s core competency: Know-how when it comes to making jackets doesn’t necessarily translate to making shoes.

What you want, is to find things where the people who made it were provided great materials and the time to do it properly. Sadly, this happens more often in some countries than others, so where it’s made can be an indication. But it’s absolutely not a given! For instance, there are people running (more or less) sweatshops in Italy and the US, and you have brands like Grant Stone making items of top quality in China. See this thread for more on this!

Here’s what I wore yesterday:

For those who are interested:

You can’t see my T-shirt, but it’s a white loop-wheeled cotton T-shirt, from Warehouse.

You can’t see my baseball cap, from Poten, either.

The jumper is a wool jumper from the Norwegian brand Hunting Lodge.

The vest is a wool vest from Filson.

The watch is a Vostok Amphibia.

The jeans are from Tender, and the only thing I bought on holiday to Stockholm this summer.

I have socks from Decka, in mocs from Rancourt.

I know these things are costly, and not something everyone can afford! But by buying used, and by buying less, most people can push up the quality of the items they own. “Own fewer better things” is always* good advice.

Winter is coming – and in Norway, that matters. So I’m glad I already have both boots, a raincoat (for layering), thick wool shirts, etc.! So even though I don’t have much money to waste these days, I’m glad I wasted the money I had on things that last. I’m still living in abundance.

Which was absolutely a good thing! I want to write more on this later. ↩︎

I also miss students! ↩︎

[futuresconnected]

Falling Down the ARPG Hole

Another Sunday, another blog about what I've been playing recently!

Here in the weeks leading up to the RPG-pocalypse that is the period from Feb 2nd-???, before my life is consumed by Persona 3 Reload, FF7 Rebirth, Dragons Dogma 2, and Granblue Fantasy Relink, I've found myself completely in the rabbit hole of Diablo-style ARPGs, a favorite genre of mine that I haven't taken a deep dive into in many years.

I talked some last time about Path of Exile, which at this point I think I'm done playing for the season, but had a real blast with. I dumped like 100 hours in that game over a couple of weeks, made a build stronger and more expensive than anything I had made previously, and got to see a lot of cool stuff in that game that I've never encountered before. I thought for a bit that that would be the end of it, but another one of my friends in an effort to spend his time while sick has gotten really into Last Epoch, another game in this genre which has been in Early Access for a while but will be releasing into a full version in a few weeks. I'd heard about the game over the years as it was in EA, but hadnt really been drawn to it, or knew much about it. However, now I've had a good taste, and wow!! This game really has the sauce to stand and be counted amongst the really good games of this genre so far.

The big things for me with this game is that it has a lot of the depth of skill customization that you find in something like Grim Dawn or Diablo 3, without the bloat and brain-genius complexity of Path of Exile. Being able to load up my characters passive trees and skill trees and see that I have a lot of options that would often meaningfully change the role of that skill in my kit, while still being easy enough to understand (i.e searching for "fire damage" and taking anything that makes my fire damage better) that I've cruised through the main game fairly easily just sightreading and not following any guides. So the gameplay is great, and the endgame system of the Monoliths takes good bits of PoE's map system and the rifts of Diablo 3 to make something that is complex enough to tickle the brain while still being easy enough to just load up and blast guys. Really really impressed with the game so far! Plus it doesnt hurt that you can actually have a really fun Necromancer build in this game, something that games like Diablo 4 are just completely missing. Very excited to see how the game develops!

I really do want to get back to my Like a Dragon Quest soon, but that might be for the month of February since I will be streaming Persona to a friend of mine, I'll need something else to take up my own personal time.

FGC Corner

Been a minute since I updated the FGC corner, here's the latest!

As much as I've loved playing Narmaya in Granblue Rising, I've come up against the fact that she really is a good deal more complex to play than any character I've played before, and while I do love the playstyle and combos that she offers, I think that for now I'm going back to my first love, Siegfried, a guy with a ton of armor and a big sword he swings around (AKA the most me-coded character that has existed in a fighting game). I've been having a great time playing him, and in fact having some more success with him as well. I also watched a lot of the coverage for Frosty Faustings this weekend, which is a large anime fighter tournament that happens in Chicago every year. Watching that just made me so so excited to go to Combo Breaker in May, I think that me and a friend of mine might be the kind of people who make or print some signs to hold up to the stream cameras for silly good times, but also just the idea of being in that space and taking in all the emotions and hype of the crowd is so exciting, I dont think I've really done something like this before! So please look forward to all the pictures, videos, and stories I will have from that event, but in the meantime I gotta get my grind on.

See yall next time!

[thiefpodcast]

The path to 1,000 downloads per episode

The goal is 1,000 listeners by year’s end, and I will blog my progress.

Season two progress began in earnest this last week. It’s going a little slow, deliberately, (read my 2023 annual reflection), but I am well in to the initial arrangement of Chapter 5. Remember, The Thief starts out as a recording from a Dungeons & Dragons game, so “initial arrangement” is the step where I edit down the two or three-hour session into the main story. Follow The Thief on Patreon for free for more behind-the-scenes progress updates.

In my 2023 Annual Reflection, I wrote that The Thief’s slow-to-emerge product/market fit demanded attention. As a slow-to-produce and expensive story, I must choose how much time and money to spend to produce a podcast that will likely never be in the black.

And what might that look like? While I share actual numbers with my wittan on Patreon, in an advertising-only model where the average advertisement CPM is $25, we would need something like 20,000 downloads per episode to break even. So, I think I will just hand-wave that out of my mind.

But that is a target, and — I don’t know — Saturday-morning me loves a game.

Traction

In “The Phases of Podcast Growth”, 

Jeremy Enns names the trough of growth between 100 and 1,000 downloads per episode the “traction phase.” There is some validation that The Thief’s audience is out there — award nods, glowing reviews, consistent charting in niche genres — but

To move past the thousand-download-per-episode milestone, you’re going to need to get savvier with your marketing, both in the way you position and create your show, as well as how you get it in front of new potential listeners. … While the core idea might have been validated, there’s a lot of work to be done to refine it into a show makes the most of your marketing.

Jeremy’s advice rings true.

Walk before running

I have paid for a lot of advertisements but some axioms need some real research and qualification:

Does my pitch work?

Is The Thief even findable if sought

Is my audience who I even think they are?

This is pretty interesting.

I’ve already been experimenting with my answer to “What is this show?” My latest iteration is

A fully cast, low-fantasy mystery podcast, starting with the catalytic arrest of a City Watchman, leaving all to the only person he trusts: an undermarket draw-latch named "Symphony."

I don’t call The Thief an actual play — which it is — nor do I call it an audio drama. I don’t mention Dungeons and Dragons because some early anecdotal observations were that, well, people who listen to actual plays may prefer the table-relationship to the story, and The Thief all but strips out the former.

But this is more gut-feel than science, although I do have some data from prior ads that I mean to investigate.

Rough plan

I may write about this later but I’ve largely written off the value of organic social media marketing to [my] podcast growth. The CAC — or cost of new listener acquisition — is poor unless you hit the virality lotto. A good ad has exponentially more listener conversion than a good TikTok.

But I’m not doing myself any favors if I don’t question the - ah - “goodness" of that ad. I need to do the work.

The assets — the logo, the copy — resonate with the audience I want

The audience can find the show if they look it up

They can discover the show by looking up certain keywords

Ads mean I must trust the algorithm to deliver to the right people. But, there are other strategies for finding that audience. Namely, collaborate with folks who already have an audience that would like the Thief.

More on that, later.

[covalentsoftwares]

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