#it's not that everything has to be a AAA game right

[fadewalking]

okay ya'll exposed me, the rumors are true-

I do not appreciate a side scroller game.

[violet-dragongirl]

I dunno I think story pacing is going to be a bit odd and too long in Starfield

[nadvs]

OMG, i’ve never written one of these so im nervous lmao. I wanted to say, I am ABSOLUTELY in love with this basketball!rage stories you have going on right now!

Don’t know if i’m getting to ahead of my self, but I can literally imagine reader and rafe when he gets drafted to the NBA. Or even reader sitting courtside on his NBA games, whether only her or with this kids! Also like imagining rafe winning the NBA finals.

I don’t know if you plan on going that far with this series, but just would absolutely love to read about them more!!!! Your writing is so AMAZING!

hi hi aw thank you sm for reading and messaging!! 🥰

based on this fic

AAA I LOVE IT she’d be supporting him as he waits for draft night and he’d be fooling everyone but her that he’s not nervous. in reality, he’s scared as hell that he’s gonna go undrafted.

but then he’s offered a two-year contract for a team states away and that’s when he knows for sure that he loves her because underneath the excitement he feels, he’s scared the distance will ruin things between them.

they do have troubles and they argue a lot when he moves away because their worlds become so different and he gets so busy and wrapped up in his new life. but he doesn’t let it fuck things up. he flies back to see her every single chance he gets. if he’s not playing or training, he’s finding a way to see her. eventually she regains trust in their relationship and uproots her life to move in with him.

the tabloids eat their love story up. she’d be sitting courtside and the camera’s focused on her pre-game while the commentators are talking about how good his season’s been and how interesting it is that he and his girlfriend are college sweethearts from rival schools.

during his first finals season, he injures his shoulder and he goes into a dark place once he gets told he needs to sit out the season. he takes the time off for rest and physical therapy. she’s there for him every day. he’s stronger and better the next time he gets a chance to go to the end with his team. he wins the championship trophy and after celebrating with his teammates into the early hours of the night, he crawls into their bed and he feels like he has to hold her as she sleeps because he cannot believe that this is his life and touching her makes it feel more real.

the next morning, he’s hungover and she tells him he should’ve hydrated (she’s been nagging him about that since their college days).

he has a reputation for being an angry, aggressive player. he becomes a figure people love to hate. he hardly ever agrees to do interviews he doesn’t have to do, but he gets offered to be part of a docu-series on athletes who had almost career-ending injuries but bounced back and he agrees to do the interview with his girl by his side and people all over social media are obsessed with them and how funny their banter is and how obviously in love they are with each other.

it gets to a point where they can’t go anywhere without being recognized and hounded, so he prioritizes booking quiet, private vacations for them every few months so she doesn’t get overwhelmed by it all. she keeps him grounded. she knew him when he was nobody, just a college ball player who bickered with her all the time.

throughout everything, the nature of their relationship never changes. they joke around a lot, but they give it to each other straight when they need to, and it’s what makes them have a strong, happy life together 🥹

[devsgames]

On Scoping And Idea Management for Games

I started my teaching gig (which is incredibly chaotic but I'm very much enjoying it despite that) and I noticed a really consistent theme with some student project pitches around the idea of planning and scoping projects. Some advice that I gave them that I think is worth repeating and reinforcing here:

You are not a AAA studio. Do not plan to make games like a AAA studio.

If your concept, premise, pitch or idea of a game that you actually want to finish contains elements, mechanics or concepts that is predominantly executed by AAA studios, please for the love of god don't expect to be able to execute them without brutally interrogating them first.

Things like: Soulslike game balance, 'open world', heavily systemic design, online multiplayer, complex mechanics, etc. You know, things you largely only see AAA studios (or very experienced dev teams) complete with any semblance of success. There's a reason many of these are only executed by large teams.

This isn't to say it's impossible to execute on these ideas or that it's not worthwhile experimenting with it a little, but if you're going into it with little previous development experience and expect to come out the other end with a 'finished' thing, you're overscoping and setting yourself up for failure.

Ever notice how AAA studios even struggle to execute complex concepts like that? It's not (always) because of mismanagement, but also because it's often overscoped for them too and they are incredibly hard to execute. AAA studios often work on concepts and premises which require a lot of resources to do so effectively. Indie studios don't often make these kinds of games for the same reasons, because conceptually it will easily explode your scope out of the water. Some try, and you can often feel how stretched thin they were.

The point is, you (assuming as a reader that you're an individual with no 'fully' shipped titles) are equivalent to...basically 1/2 a person at an average indie startup. If you have a team, then you're basically the size and scale of a small indie team. Realistically, in all likelihood, you do not have the knowledge, experience or time to do it anywhere nearly as well as a full-time studio production.

And I get why people fall into this trap!

We draw inspiration from what we see most and what we like, and don't often challenge our assumptions about them - it's why we see something like a Batman Arkham Asylum combat system or Photorealistic graphics and say "yeah I could do that easy" without realizing it's actually really really hard to do in the first place, let alone really get right. Studios are notoriously secretive about process, and the reality is there's months and months of unseen work behind pretty much everything.

We also tend to use blanket terms we're familiar with to define our works, as opposed to more fitting terms. For example, some people might call something like Journey an "open world" game, despite the fact it's not strictly an "open world" but rather a linear one with a non-linear presentation.

As a solo developer I too constantly make this mistake of over-scoping or underestimating just how hard it can be to execute on certain concepts or ideas.

Avoiding It

So how do you get around accidentally writing cheques only well-equipped studios can cash? You need to interrogate your ideas a lot more.

Okay, now ask yourself: Is it mostly a premise that is done by people operating at around your level of resources, or by dedicated groups with tons and tons of employees? Has anyone done your mechanic at a small, simple scale? How many studios have done it? What size were they? How many resources do they have? If anyone has executed a similar idea, how many resources did they seem to have to do it? What corners did it seem like they need to cut to get there? Ask yourself how often you see concepts like yours, executed at scale like yours. Ask yourself why that might be.

A generic example to run with: "I am going to make an open world exploration game where you can climb anywhere, with tons of content and things to do".

Ask yourself some of the above questions, and also interrogate all your definitions. What do you define as "open world"? "exploration"? "tons"? "anywhere"? "Climb"? What do these words, specifically, mean to you? Are these reasonable and realistic expectation for the amount of time you have for this project? Have you already executed on any of these before, and how many are unknown to you?

"But Devon, my idea is unique and no one has done it before! I have nothing I can compare it to!"

Nope. Sorry, just no - you're wrong. Maybe they've not done it exactly like you envision it, but I promise you that at this point in time someone has done virtually everything in games before, you've just not heard of it yet. I have yet to hear someone describe a game that didn't do anything I hadn't heard of before to some degree or another. Ask some friends for references and take more time to do research - you'll find parallels if you dig enough.

Execution

If by now you've realized you might be in over your head, you might still be able to do it if you plan very smartly around it and accept scoping down.

I could talk forever about how to break down your scope into something that is more manageable (and probably will in the future), but I'll keep it focused on this idea of interrogating definitions for now.

Running with the "open world exploration game where you can climb anywhere, with tons of content and things to do" example.

Plan to do only one of the verbs in your game really well.

"Climbing" - you could spend forever building a game just around that verb, and people have! Getting Over It With Bennet Foddy. Doodle Jump. Grow Home. People have done this, and even those games tow the line of being complex to make.

"Open world" - this one is very heavy, but make it just about walking around. Challenge the assumption that an open world isn't enough and that it needs 'content' - just make walking around the world really fun. Dear Esther, Proteus, Passage, Beginner's Guide.

"Exploration" - this verb is vague and takes many forms, and while it can easily be dangerous if it gets too big, it can still be small and engaging. A Short Hike, Umurangi Generation, Hidden Folks. You don't need mechanical complexity or depth to make something fun.

Start from that and then expand. Maybe you get to a point where your climbing is really fun and good and you don't even need to add tons of things to do, or open-world mechanics. Maybe your open world is so easy to do that climbing becomes the thing you spend your time on.

---

Essentially the point here is to not assume that because you've seen something done before it's easy to execute on, nor that you should simply run with concepts without fully understanding what you mean when you come up with them first. It's going to not only save you a lot of time and stress, but also more likely to put you in a position where you'll be able to actually finish what you started.

This is also only the tiniest portion of my thoughts on scoping here, so I'm sure I'll add more to this down the road. :)

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA for leaving a DND campaign abruptly?

Some backstory: I had joined a DND game about 5 years ago right after breaking up with my toxic ex at the time. Me and my ex were both trying to be cordial at this time and ended up both joining a DND game run by a mutual friend.

In our first session, I had noticed my ex made her character be a parody of me that she made look like an awful person. She then kept dm-ing me during our sessions to tell me how to play my character better and other general backseat gaming stuff.

Very quickly, maybe about a month in, I contacted the DM about leaving the campaign due to wanting to distance myself from my ex. She was very upset I wanted to leave and offered to kick my ex from the group instead. I declined saying it would only cause more drama. The DM agreed to let my character go off at the end of the activity we were gonna do that session so it would make sense story-wise.

But this departure did not happen. after that conversation she vague-posted onling about how people dont want to be her friend. She then purposefully kept extending this part of the plot, just so I wouldnt leave the game and could realize it could still be fun. I told her outright I could not do this anymore after 3 more additional sessions and telling me she'll get to my character's exit soon. I always felt like an ass to the other players in the game for leaving them abruptly but I could not do it anymore.

Fast forward roughly 4 years, the DM tells me she is going to make a new campaign and would like for me to join since my ex was no longer in it. I agreed as I had missed playing DND a lot.

For the past year or so I have been in this campaign and it can be fun at times but I still feel out of place. This new session is a direct continuation of the previous campaign's storyline and regularly references it. Now, as far as I know my ex's character has not been referenced at all but I am constantly reminded of this situation whenever they mention a character's name I don't remember (because honestly I don't remember her characters name nor do I want to). I know I said to not bring her up around me but I don't quite trust this friend to keep her word. Simply because I don't think she ever remembers anything I tell her out of a place of... just not caring.

The DM and I just don't quite mesh that well. I don't really like her DM-ing style of making it up as the session happens. I don't like that she will constantly decide what my character is doing, even if I ask to do something, she tells me to roll to see if i can, i can get a nat20 and she will still decide what my character will do next based on what she thinks is funnier to her but makes my next action harder to accomplish.

I have dm'd her to talk about the progression of my character arc (after she constantly implys in session my character is the comedic relief and doesnt have any character development) and she'll go ooo and aaa (literally all she would say) but never actually implement anything I recommend.

I kept saying to myself it will get better in time. I have voiced my wants for my character, and they are ignored. In session, my character actions are essentially decided for me no matter how I roll the dice. It feels weird to be around half of the party bc they spent 4 years in a campaign with my ex who played a parody of me. esp hard after the DM keeps making me be the comedic relief even though I keep trying to play more seriously. other players constantly joke about how my character is gonna be the one that gets them all killed etc because of actions I dont necessarily decide.

Now as mentioned before, DM is also known to vague-blog about how "her friends secretly hate her" at any moment as well. This has happened before after I tried to "real talk" with her a handful of times over unrelated topics too (even if she initiates this conversation)

Given everything above, I want to leave this DND game after giving it a try for a year (really giving it an opportunity to improve). We left off with my character running off alone to get supplies for the party. I was thinking I could make a statement saying I had some personal things come up and I need to leave the game abruptly and leave it to the DM to decide what to do with my character.

Now I feel like I may be the AH because: I am leaving the game abruptly for a second time technically. I would contact the DM on how to make it make sense for my character to depart, but I feel like she will do the same thing as before with the previous campaign and keep putting it off, especially after ignoring my character growth ideas for a year in this current campaign. I also feel like I may be the AH because in character my group does need those supplies, but there is nothing stopping the DM from controlling my character to deliver supplies within the first 5 minutes of the next session.

[ayeforscotland]

I'm not a super dedicated gamer these days, but I loved Kerbal Space Program (a game that was more a labour of love than a commercial project) and was super hyped for the much delayed KSP2. When I saw it was releasing as early access (years late) I worried for its hopes of ever seeing completion and held off buying, now after all the other shananigans the entire team have been let go in yet another mass lay-off in the gaming industry. I feel like, a few notable exceptions aside, the big-budget gaming sector has been failing to deliver real quality games for a long time now, with lower-budget indie games more often coming up with gold from much simpler foundations. It seems almost as though developers are being pushed to shoot for unachievably epic games and releasing buggy messes, or vast but hollow worlds when the publishers get impatient or the money runs out. Is there any grain of truth in my feeling that bankrollers' expectations for games is leading to more games failing to live up to the hype as projects spiral out of control and over budget? Would big studios benefit from learning from indie devs and aiming to really nail down a simpler scope but on a scale beyond what the indies can achieve?

Industry-wise there’s a couple of things at play. And apologies for the length of this.

During the pandemic, there was a shitload of investment into the gaming industry as everyone was at home and many started playing games for the first time, so venture capital firms piled money in.

They were looking for a return on their investment, not really aiming to cultivate long-term studio success.

This puts pressure on the studio to get the game out the door quickly. That month or two of QA before launch just becomes overhead while you have a product that could be selling right now.

Chance to earn even more money for shareholders and execs? Welcome to microtransaction hell.

So that’s one side of it, investors/shareholders/execs forcing decisions that make games worse.

Next bit is partly influenced by the shareholder side of things but also a huge cultural side too. Lots of studios complete a project and then layoff staff because the next game isn’t ready to start being developed yet OR layoff staff because they don’t want to pay them OR staff leave to go and do something else (often due to lack of pay, lack of promotion etc)

And what this leads to is a *massive* corporate knowledge gap. People take their skills and knowledge and create voids. Voids that need to be filled by senior staff, which is why big AAA studios are always hiring seniors, and rarely hiring juniors. So all the seniors job-hop from studio to studio and there’s no new skill set being cultivated by new industry talent.

In my experience, these huge studios are also incredibly siloed. It’s something that impacts most industries, siloed teams lead to sluggish development and decision-making.

I think the games industry walks an incredibly fine line between being a creative endeavour and being a tech business. Process management methodologies honestly seem quite alien to the games industry, most of the time to its detriment.

It honestly wouldn’t be that hard to implement but Production as a discipline within games seems to be relegated to ‘staring at JIRA’ particularly in larger studios.

Could write forever about this to be honest.

Worth saying that indie studios also have their own issues. Almost everything is a scramble, and the search for publisher funding is a nightmare.

[factual-fantasy]

23 ASKS! :D Thanks ya'll!🎂

(Post in question)

AAAAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I'M SO GLAD YOU NOTICED!! :DDD✨💖✨

Now the only cool detail that you missed/I'd like to point out about the clones is.. they don't cast a shadow.. 👀

I have a vague memory of them.. I haven't seen their characters in a while- I imagine I still like them tho :0

@unicornfpotatoesdir

Thank you! Though sorry, I don't take drawing requests. And that sounds like its intended to be in a romantic light.. I don't dabble with ships, Sorry! <:/

@neo-metalscottic

AAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!! :DD As for her growing power, I honestly don't know if it should be magical or not. Are there cookies in the game that can change size but its only due to magic?? I don't know-- I pictured it being something that she can just do and always could have. Idk if it would fit the games better if it was due to magic- I have no idea <XDD Sorry!

As for the Vegimals, I do intend to keep the original story. :0 Some strange eggs showed up in the side of the ship and boom! Out popped the Vegimals XDD

I'm sure the crew has done a lot to try and figure out what they are or where they came from. But there are some mysteries that just cannot be solved.. 😔

(Post in question)

:DD THANK YOU! I'm so glad you like her! :}}}

@sparkdrawsstuff

That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out <XDD but you're right about the found family idea! :D

So for the backstories, so far I have a few vague ideas..

Seafoam met Octo when he was like.. 10 years old..?? and Octo was like 2 or something- they grew up together as best friends and have been together their entire lives.

Now when they were teens/young adults, before they got their ship.. they worked in a local restaurant. Where they met Ellie. She was one of the cooks there. She loved to cook but she hated her job and hated her life. The only people who ever treated her with respect was Seafoam and Octo. So when they finally got their ship and were on their way to live out their pirate dream. Ellie went with them, and became their first crewmate.

Now for Louis I was thinking that he was really down on his luck when he met the crew. He had no friends, no family.. he lost his house, his job.. heck, his arm. Everything. I'm imagining him as some homeless person that the crew stumbled upon while they were passing by a fishing village of some kind. Somehow he joined the crew and became their fourth crewmate. Not sure how it happened but that's the idea-

Now the story for Blue is that when it was just the first 4 crewmates, their ship was out at sea and they hit a crazy storm. Their ship was a vessel meant for at least like 10 people, not 4. So when this storm hit there just wasn't enough hands on deck to control the ship. They needed to do this with the sails and do this over here and do that to stabilize it but they just couldn't keep up. Thankfully though its around that time that Blue was passing through and saw this ship clearly struggling against the storm. So out of the kindness of her heart she stuck with the ship and kept it balanced/afloat. Eventually guiding it to calmer waters and meeting the crew.

Seafoam was endlessly grateful for her help and thanked her. I think Blue wasn't used to people speaking so kindly to her.. so for a while she sheepishly followed the ship around and eventually just became an official member of the crew.

Now for the rest of the crew I don't really have an order in mind.. though I think Red was the most recent addition to the crew. Speaking of him- Red is Seafoam's great nephew. I haven't figured out the details but some kind of tragedy happened that took the life of him mom, and everyone else on his ship. Seafoam wasn't very connected to his sister or the family that she built. But he somehow heard about this disaster and got a hold of Red and took him aboard his crew.

There's also Pinwheel. I'm thiiiinking that they found her adrift at sea when she was like... 14..? And Seafoam really took her under his wing. He basically raised her. Her grim backstory before being lost at sea is still development-

Uhhh who else.. Oh! Cuttlefish. She was an experienced pirate from another crew that some how got stuck with Seafoam and his crew for a time. By the time she was able to leave, she decided to stick around becuase she really liked these people. I'm still working out the details-

As for Urchin, Coco, Tuna and Spidercrab though... aggghh I got nothin. I'm thinking that Coco was a stowaway..? And Tuna has clearly been through a lot. But their stories still need some time to develop 💔💔

(Also thank you for taking interest in my OCs! Its means a lot :}}} )

My good man I have done nothing but rest/sleep/hydrate/sit around for the past several weeks- 😭 If I rested anymore I'd be in a coma 💔💀

But have you considered, c h i c k e n

I don't intend to.. that just feels like a lot of work to get into- 😖

@minnesotamedic186

Oooo that sounds like a good character to take some inspiration from! :D

I'm goin through a very hard time atm but I'm doing my best!

@astaherussy (Post in question)

That is a TASTY prompt! 😋 Though I see it more likely that these things all happen separately as opposed to all at once. And I'm particularly interested in the first part of the prompt, since I haven't given Marsh much angst yet.. 👀👀

Marsh having a dream about his late wife.. and it just starts him off on the wrong foot that day. He seems more tired and gloomy than usual. But only Natquik picks up on it at first. Natquik might ask him how he's doing and Marsh says he's fine. Natquik isn't convinced but takes that as an "I don't wanna talk about it.." So he'd drop the subject.

But he could still try to do things to make Marsh feel better. Knowing that clearly he seems unwell today. Natquik would put in some extra work to help out around the swamp and pick up a lot of the tasks for Marsh. Just to give him some time to rest from what ever he's dealing with.

Later on that day, maybe at night time when Jack has already crashed for the night. Marsh could talk to Natquik and thank him for all his help. In which.. he might open up a bit. He could talk about the dream he had. "Its been years.. but it still hurts just as much as it did all that time ago." Natquik would be sympathetic. "I've lost those I love too.. it is hard to feel ok with it. I understand." They could talk, a few tears shed. But in the end Marsh feels like a weight has been lifted somewhat. It felt good to share his pain with someone..

alSO WAAAGH THANK YOU!! :DD I'm so happy to hear that you look forward to these posts! They take many hours to make sometimes <XDD

I have not, but a "happy" cartoon world corrupted with angst?? Color me interested! 👀👀

XDD Oh man, that would be spooky for sure! Though I worry about the stress that would put on his neck <XD Having to hold the weight of his entire body-

@2006-stupid-thatsme

I'm hanging in there as best I can, thank you for asking. <XD.. As for how I got into drawing, I'm not sure.. I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. I'm not sure what originally inspired me or got me started drawing. Though some of my oldest drawings are Sonic drawings, mostly Tails.. maybe that's what started it..? :0

And as for my style, that's hard to say too. I just draw what ever is easiest. Plus a lot of the shows/games/movies I like/draw are very cartoony. That's probably where my style comes from. :0

And My Little Pony? I have a lot of friends that are into it! But I myself have not watched it. Though I've heard that the story is actually a lot darker than people think.. 👀.. plus all the redesigns of the mane 6 look super fun! I've considered getting into it for sure.

Keeping up with another show though just feels like a lot of work rn.. 😔

@jesterpiecethejester (Post in question)

XD To be honest that drawing might be the brightest he can go. Any brighter and his coat would just be completely white XD

..Actually, imagining the foam and the coat kind'a fusing together and becoming this completely white fluffy coat with a long glowy cloudy train... Jester my good fellow you have given me a very good drawing idea 👀👀👀

@wdillustration

OOOO THIS MAKES ME THINK!! What kind of cookies would they be??? Of course there's the obvious "Polar bear cookie" and "Penguin cookie". But actually, like a food or a theme separate from the species of the character. What would they be??

My first thought is Tweak being a carrot cookie. <XD Kind'a plain but its a start.. Would Kwazii be a pirate stew cookie?? Or just "Pirate cat cookie"? Hmm.. would one of them be based on fish biscuits?? XDD

@chaotic-public-menace

OHHHH I SEE XDD Yeah that's a good idea! There's been a lot of times where I really want to finish a drawing and I'm excited to get it done! Buuuuut the drive kind'a dwindles and I start to slow down.. Taking a 5-10 minute break to doodle something else might be just the fix I need! :D

XD I'm not familiar with this meme unfortunately-

@manybrokenquills

XDD ITS OK!! THANK YOU!! :))))

@100percentevil

Uhg,, always a shame to see. Thank you for letting me know :(

@weirdweeb83

Such a pwebby kitty 💖💖💖

[pharawee]

I think it's no secret that I'm not all that much into gmmtv BLs. I used to think that it's because I'm just not that into the romance/slice-of-life/ensemble cast genre and it's pretty much all gmmtv focusses on in their BLs. Or maybe I'm really that shallow and I just don't like anything mainstream.

I can't really talk myself out of the mainstream thing because it's unfortunately kind of true, but also I like plenty of romance/slice-of-life/ensemble cast shows by smaller companies, like Gen Y or Future or Our Days (the list goes on and on and on).

There's just something about gmmtv BLs these days that loses me every single time. A series starts out strong with an interesting concept and characters and then it just gets... boring to me:

The things and characters and issues I find interesting are never delved into, and (probably because of that) everything just feels so shallow and formulaic and palatable. Shows like Never Let Me Go and Be My Favorite and My School President completely underwhelmed me towards the end, to the point where I was relieved when they ended and I no longer had to gif them (which is an entirely different thing that I'm trying to work on 🙏).

And now the same thing is happening with Wandee Goodday and it makes me really sad because I really like Great and Inn and the rest of the cast.

Mind you, I'm not blaming gmmtv for this. They're mainstream for a reason and good for them! I'm also not saying that their approach to making series or marketing their actors is bad because clearly their success and their many fans prove them right.

But there's just something about how smaller or indie companies work that appeals to me so much more. I like shoestring budgets, I like it messy and rough around the edges. I like it when they're so passionate and ambitious about their projects that they try to make it happen no matter what. I like it when they take risks with genres and stories that bigger companies wouldn't touch because they're not as marketable. I like when they say "fuck it, let's do wonky sound and rookie actors because if we don't we won't have the budget to make it happen at all."

I suppose it's similar to gaming for me, where I appreciate indie games and ambitious AA titles much, much more than AAA games that tend to appeal to the biggest possible audience.

Ultimately, I'm glad there's a market for both, but it's sad to know that many smaller productions will never be as commercially well-received as mainstream titles (while ironically being held to the same standards). And it's also bittersweet to know that whenever gmmtv contracts one of my favourite actors (which is fine of course - it's one of the best things that can happen to an upcoming actor in Thailand), I know that I won't get to see them again in the kind of series that I prefer.*

*Sometimes they contract them out to non-gmmtv productions. That's how I became a fan of Marc Natarit. But as soon as they're in a fixed acting pair it's basically over.

I guess the easiest solution is to just stop watching BLs from gmmtv (I'm explicitly only mentioning BLs here because I like most of their gen shows a lot more - The Gifted is still one of my favourites and just recently Enigma and Midnight Museum and Mama Gogo were absolutely amazing) but the problem is... their pilot trailers actually get me excited. Right now I'm really looking forward to Kidnap and ThamePo. Plus, once in a while gmmtv DOES take a risk and then you get incredible shows like Not Me (which apparently didn't do very well numbers-wise, so from a business pov it makes sense not to invest in them too heavily).

In the end, I think I need to get a lot more selective with the Thai BLs I want to watch. After all, there's now so many of them that we can finally afford to be picky (and that has to be a good thing, right?).

[tricitymonsters]

I know I put a lot of attention on Steam because of the sheer size of the marketplace and the effort Steam itself takes in marketing for devs but I really wanted to take a second to shout out TCM's numbers on itch.io because I really feel like the game found it's first platform there and I especially want to highlight what a great community it is for Indie Devs of all experience levels.

So I have TCM split up between 4 titles on itch- the main one is for all the new stuff and then each beta has it's own homepage. Downside, it kinda splits all my metrics up but the plus side its much easier to navigate for yall so I'll refrain from complaining lol.

Now given we started with just the Mori beta in late 2021, and added chapters slowly over time, here's where we're at right now.

Views: 312k

Downloads: 22.3k

Browser Plays: 35.6k

Ratings: 347

Collections: 5295

Comments: 189

So there are a couple really interesting things going on with this data. Let's analyze

Firstly, the numbers on the main chapter beat the *hell* out of the beta numbers. BUT this makes sense as more people are going to find the main game or PLAY the main game first at a vastly higher rate. So even though that game page has been up the least amount of time, it gets *by far* the most traffic. For example, if we take away the main page numbers, here's how the betas are doing on their own:

Views: 63.3k

Downloads: 5.4k

Browser Plays: 18.2k

Ratings: 133

Collections: 847

Comments: 42

So, if you were an indie dev posting your game on itch.io, these numbers should tell you to carefully consider how you're going to organize your game- especially if it comes in multiple parts. When I was going through the betas I did consider keeping everything on one page and therefore aggregating all of my traffic stats into one place but there are pros and cons.

Mostly, I went with separate pages because:

It's easier to organize files for downloads per character/game piece than to have a huge list of system-specific builds for every character that players have to scroll through. It's just hard to parse out.

Second, I thought that breaking up the chapters like this might help me better gauge each character's popularity via their stats. This... sort of worked. Because the Mori beta went up almost a year before Amir's, his numbers are MUCH higher and I have to be careful not to conflate that with his raw popularity. Another tricky note is that since Mori was the first chapter uploaded, many people will play his beta and then if they decide they're not into the game, won't play the other two characters, which again inflates Mori's numbers.

It was obvious in the gap after Spooktober 2021 and Amir's chapter that I had a project worth pursuing but the way I structured itch.io has made it hard to accurately gauge how popular exactly each character is.

Most of you know I'm running a popularity poll right now for some milestone art and while I expected Mori to lead (even with all the caveats I just listed, he does tend to be the most popular of the bunch) but I did not expect Akello to be *right* on his ass, even before weighing the patreon votes so.

Goes to show you that understanding structure and traffic trends can really go a very very long way to engaging your audience and build a stable, fun community around your game.

Another huge advantage to itch is that- in generalities- the community and ecosystem there is much kinder to beginner devs and passion projects. On steam, I'm taking up the same marketplace space as AAA multimillion-dollar games and while the eyeballs that comes with that is great for TCMs longevity hopefully, it also comes with the reality that I'm marking a queer niche adult visual novel right next to Mainstream Gamers. Now, I do want to be extremely clear that my experience with Steam so far has been really good- TCM has good and (more importantly) honest reviews, people have passed constructive critique to me and been extremely reasonable, I've managed to connect to some content curators who have similar tastes... But Steam is also the home to like. "Oooh Naur Woke Games Kill Art" Lists and stuff so. My experience on Itch is that- while some of that exists to a certain degree- the general ecosystem is much more forgiving and less sharply fractured.

I'm not sure that I would change anything I've done in the point leading me here so far, I think that by and large I've made the best choices I could given what I knew at the time and also managed to roll with the punches as the come but my experienced advice at this stage is definitely for an indie dev who hasn't landed a solid success yet or a hobby dev looking for feedback to start with Itch.io as a place to build your game's community.

There are other game hosting sites too, like Gamejolt, for instance, but while TCM used to be on Gamejolt their content policies and audience demographics were not a great fit, as was my experience with Newgrounds.

So. there are MANY choices but in all I'm grateful I didn't jump right into steam and also that my itch.io audience has been SO supportive and so enthusiastic about rating/commenting/and curating TCM to help spread the word. Especially since early in the project I had basically no marketing budget (I have a very small one now that covers the occasional blazed post but still).

ANYWAY thanks for reading my big dumb rambling posts but I really wanted to shed some light on the virtues of Itch after I've been chasing my own tail trying to get Steam working for me the way I want.

[itsagrimm]

König is a bit nerdy

He might be an active, intimidating, focused and somewhat private man during missions but that basically goes out of the window as soon as he returns home.

Big into board games. It's his main friend circle and they meet up every time he gets back for a night of pizza and a new addition of Carcassonne, Munchkin or CATAN. König would love to play more Pen & Paper style of games as well but since he is in town so irregularly they never really do it.

Listens to audiobooks when traveling because it's easier than to pack all those tons of Sci-Fi and Fantasy books he is into. Currently re-'reads' Eragon because of the nostalgia.

Oh, he likes dragons (obviously).

Owns a closet full of costumes for Mittelalter Märkte / Renaissance Fairs. Also owns a traditional tent and everything else needed for a good LARP. Is 1000000% down for a couples costume.

König has the traditional not-leaving-the-house-for-a-day-when-coming-back-moment to play his favourite game (a certain AAA shooter). Due to the lack of practice and unfamiliarity with the map he isn't the best at it, which his teammates who know him irl tease him mercilessly about. Also, he prefers the sniper position and puts hours into decorating his avatar.

Used to be an avid reddit user. But got annoyed by some incels and left.

Likes going on bookstore dates with his S/O. Also really enjoys some quiet time with them just doing parallel play while being close.

Extremely specific about his keyboard preferences and cap designs. Generally enjoys researching how to improve his set up.

Treasures his old DS and was extremely happy about it turning on and working fine when he found it in an old box at his parents house.

Definitely has done the naruto run during a workout at home.

Can give a 45 minutes impro presentation about something Star Wars related. Will never grow tired of mocking Star Wars, it's a complicated relationship.

Always travels back home to Austria via Germany because the books are cheaper there and he stocks up especially on Mangas and Comics instead of paying an obscene amount for the shipping.

Has played Pathologic.

Has finished Pathologic.

Will not shut up about Pathologic. Yes, his S/O is very used to getting infodumped.

Currently learns polish to read the Witcher books in the original.

Owns and unironically uses themed kitchen utensils from his most beloved franchises. During Christmas time he brings out an absurd amount of cookie cutters for Plätzchen in fantasy themes like swords and witches. And in summer he serves up ice cubes in Death Star shapes. Has a very frilly apron because it reminds him of cliche anime stuff and he thinks him wearing it is funny. (he is right, it looks ridiculous and barely covers his chest.)

Can and will become extremely serious and intimidating again should someone say something sexist or racist or generally mean in his vicinity. He is here to enjoy himself with some nerdy shit with the people he cares about and not here to witness a hate crime or aggressions. He knows too much about that already from work and will become A TREAT if necessary. Don't try that shit around him otherwise you will be faced with spitting-fire-soldier-König and not goofy-nerd-at-home-König.

Likes cute shaped foods and always gets himself or his S/O to try out or as a gift.

Should he ever have kids they will have the most down to play games dad. They will grow up in a house filled with playful things and toys. And reading fairy tales with doing-all-the-voices-König becomes a nightly routine.

[sigynpenniman]

is anyone else haunted by the feeling that everything has gotten bad. 90% of movies are visually identical and designed by committee to be the next Summer Blockbuster. Every AAA game releases half-baked and doesn’t actually start working until after 6 months of patches. Even the nicest most luxury clothes and accessories are falling apart. The whole internet is like 80% SEO farm slop and every service wants you to subscribe for just $8 a month or Keep Your Eyeballs On The Ad, please. If you zone out a little every song on the Apple Music new pop playlist sounds identical to every other. Every service that exists slowly gets worse the longer it does. Disney World keeps replacing beautiful dusty colorful retrofuturistic cheesy old stuff with bland white sterile beige parent empty spaces and DVC lounges & getting rid of every free perk they possibly can. I’m not even a pessimistic person at ALL I want to believe in hope and joy and optimism but I’m struggling. something’s gotta give eventually right like every single thing on earth at every level of luxury can’t all continuously get worse and worse forever. can it? why are the only things that are any good anymore indie games and podcasts

[lizardsfromspace]

Video game delays, no matter how small, have such a stigma that publishers are loath to move anything around which has led to them just putting games out there to die regularly. Like over in film they casually move movies up or down a couple weeks to avoid directly competing with another movie they know will do better but in gaming they'll drop a worse game in the same genre as a bigger game within a couple weeks of that bigger game and then be flabbergasted that it fails

I'm sure there's some Business Strategy underlying it but like. They're not even trying to counter-program. Like, you can release Doom and Animal Crossing in the same day, that's fine. But they're releasing games into months dense with other games that are similar, but more famous. Like what's the business strategy behind "release a worse action RPG opposite Elden Ring"

There's a story today about how single-player games are DEAD (the way there is every time a single-player game flops, bc one flop proves everything & multiple successes somehow never prove anything) and anyway if you look it up it was a AAA game with way less cachet than Baldur's Gate III and Starfield dropped right in between Baldur's Gate III and Starfield. What did they think was going to happen

[player1064]

Hi! All such great carraville drabbles so far! If you’re still doing them, may I request them coming out publicly and the various reactions of news broadcasters, other ex/current footballers and of course, the internet. Thanks!

aaa thank you!!! and yessss I love fics where it's public reaction to stuff and i LOVE multi-media type fics so this was fun to write (even though i am much too lazy to come up with fake twitter usernames)

---

Group: MU mob

Phillip: forwarded an instagram post by gneville2 Phillip: ???

Gary: what Gary: do u think I was too nice to him in the caption Gary: I can edit it to add something about scousers maybe Gary: or how he never won the league

Phillip: you and Carragher???

Gary: ?

Paul: whyd u make me look at that rot first thing in the morning Paul: put me off my breakfast that did

Ryan: im not installing instagram for this whats he done now

Nicky: ^

Phillip: he’s dating Carragher?????

Ryan: where have u been for the last 2 years its literally all he talks about

Phillip: America! I have been! In! America! Phillip: Gaz I can’t believe you told them and not me?

Paul: I wish he hadnt told us to be fair Paul: they r so annoying

Gary: sorry phil I mustve forgot Gary: timezones etc Gary: gtg we’re having breakfast before he has to head to studio 🥞😍

David: nice post Gary 😊🏳️‍🌈 Happy for you x

Chat: Stevie G

Missed call from Stevie

Stevie: Carra

Missed call from Stevie

Stevie: Jamie Lee Duncan Carragher Stevie: pick up your damn phone Stevie: you are shit at this best friend thing yknow Stevie: also Gary Neville??? Stevie: you were moaning about him when I called you just last week Stevie: but if he makes you happy that’s alright then Stevie: tell him he’s buying me a pint next time I’m home Stevie: in liverpool mind Stevie: don’t care if you love him you won’t see me in pub in manchester

The Daily Mail

LIVERPOOL AND MAN UTD LEGENDS JAMIE CARRAGHER AND GARY NEVILLE REVEAL GAY RELATIONSHIP?

Former rivals turned co-pundits posted Valentine’s day messages on their Instagram accounts which appear to show an intimate relationship between the two men, who were both married to women for over ten years. Neither has responded for comment.

Comments:

> they’re the worst pundits on sky anyway they don’t even try to hide the bias for their teams

> gary neville’s always trying to bring politics into everything rishi was right he should stick to football!

> well I will be getting my commentary from MOTD moving forward. wish I could cancel sky sports but can’t afford to miss all the match coverage so they will be getting a strongly worded letter from me instead.

The Guardian

OPINION: IT’S 2024. WHY HAS THE FOOTBALL WORLD NOT CAUGHT UP?

There are still no openly gay players in the top tier of the men’s game. Now that two retired premier league footballers have come out, we have to ask: why is this headline news?

Both Liverpool and Manchester United football clubs have posted messages in support of Neville & Carragher, and so have many current and former players. But it begs the question why they thought that support might not be implicit, or why the two pundits had to publicly “come out” at all.

Comments:

> tbh I didn’t even know who they were until I saw Beckham’s ig story 💀

> surprised Gerrard’s not said anything, thought he and Carragher were mates >>> probably can’t if he wants to keep his manager contract $$$

> the guardian: why is the media making a fuss about two ex-footballers coming out? the guardian: is part of the media making a fuss about two ex-footballers coming out…

Twitter

Sports - Trending Gary Neville 264k tweets

Jamie Carragher 151k tweets

@.1111 they’ve been obsessed with each other for years is anyone really surprised

@.222 ngl I thought Gary Neville was already out as gay? You’re telling me people have believed he’s straight this whole time??

@.333 it’s giving slow burn enemies to lovers 150k words…

@.444 sky already wheels the two of them out together whenever they need to promote ANYTHING I bet it’s gonna get 10x worse now

Chat: J ❤️

G 👹👸: good luck on show tonight G 👹👸: no vday dinner :( G 👹👸: I shall have to waste away and pine instead G 👹👸: drown my sorrows etc

J ❤️: should be back to hotel by 1 at the latest J ❤️: I know that’s past ur bedtime old man so don’t wait up

G 👹👸: I will be up (😉😉) and ready to give you your dessert 😘 G 👹👸: might have a cheeky nap before though to be fair

[felassan]

I was sent a link to a ‘chat with Mark Darrah' interview video that I hadn’t seen before. [here is the source] link. the interview took place in 2022, so bear that in mind when listening, but it still has interesting insights and things in there.

the rest of this post is under a cut due to length.

this post is just some brief notes and a few transcribed quotes of interest from the video.

Mark ofc was in charge of DA:O, DAII, & DA:I, then, quote, “then a bunch of malarkey happened” and he ended up in charge of Anthem in 2017 in its final ~16 months

In AAA games narrative is a certain thing that was very much defined in a lot of ways by BioWare

There’s a BioWare story in Anthem (though certainly not its best), if you just ignore everything else

The average gamer puts way too much stock into what engine is used to make a game

Mark is pretty sure that the guts of Neverwinter Nights is underneath the Witcher engine

Moving DA from Aurora to Eclipse to Frostbite (engines) opened up more possibility spaces

Frostbite stagnated because it essentially was the engine everyone had to use at EA

Before DA:I, there was a game at BioWare internally codenamed “Blackfoot”. It was going to be a multiplayer DA game and was using Frostbite before DA:O, during the time of DAII’s late development but before DA:I started development. It never shipped as it got eaten by DA:I

For the MET, Casey was originally trying to make a Star Control-type game but cinematic. Echoes of this can be seen in ME1. But ME the IP itself wants to be a space opera. Ultimately the cinematic experience side of it won out

And some specific quotes:

“Something that I noticed is that, sometimes, if your studio is hiring only your biggest fans, which I saw at BioWare sometimes, those people are in some ways, they’re almost more, they have more zealotry towards the ‘old way’ of doing things than – that’s right, that [from a fandom point of view] is all they know. And they don’t necessarily know that this was awful or that ‘there could have been a better way, we just didn’t see it until later’. All they know is, ‘this is what you did, and you made this thing I love, so we have to do that too’, and, so that’s a danger that could happen is, you get the, you know the monkeys and the bananas, like, ‘I don’t even know why we’re doing this anymore, but I know we’ve always done it.’”

-

“The biggest reason to consolidate on an engine is for the ability to share more work within your studio. In theory.” “The problem that often happens is that you end up with not nearly as much sharing as you would imagine. FIFA doesn’t share anything with DA. And in BioWare’s case it’s even worse than that, there’s very little sharing between DA:I and ME:A, and between ME:A and Anthem. A lot of troubles ME:A and Anthem had is [because of] not building upon the foundations of DA:I.”

-

“My great frustration of BioWare from around 2013 to basically today [2022], there wasn’t a building upon the past.” “30% of DA:I’s tech budget was spent on tooling. On ME:A they didn’t build upon the tools that were laid by DA:I, partially because they started before DA:I shipped, but also for ‘Not Build Here’ reasons. They spent 10-15% approximately of their budget on tools. Anthem didn’t build on either of these foundations and they spent about less than 10% of their budget on tools. So it was like they were going backwards, respecting the engine less and less as they went forward, resulting in more and more struggles happening.” “I have the most sarcastic PowerPoint presentation ever which compares those two games, which are treated as if they’re widely different things. They’re pretty much exactly the same game, from the perspective of any external observer. ME is more like DA than it is like anything else. So it’s ridiculous. The answer is hubris, is the answer.”

-

On endings and the future:

“I think you have to do something [about the endings]. ME was always conceived as being a trilogy, but I think what you actually end up with with ME1-3, if you kind’ve just stick them together into one ridiculously big game, that’s why it, in some ways, the complaints about the original ME3 ending are so hilarious because in a way, the game ME3 is the ending for this entire huge game, which isn’t awesome, because you know, the last Hobbit movie is also stupid because it’s all ending. So, that’s not necessarily the best, but that’s essentially what you have. So because it was intended as a trilogy, it, to some kind of degree it kind of takes its ball and goes home at the end, where its like, ‘I’m gonna render the possibility of a direct sequel to this sooo nearly impossible that it’s ludicrous’. It could be that, so we know that the Mass Relays are down, that’s also true, but, like, we have potentially, everyone’s a cyborg, potentially there are no robots, potentially, potentially, potentially, it’s bananas. But interestingly, if you look at ME1, ME2 and ME3 as a single game, and then you look at DA:O, DA:O was always, was originally envisioned as a standalone game. There was never even a consideration for a sequel made for that. If you look at DA:O and then look at what it does at its ending, so the ending of the game itself is fairly tight, it’s like, well you definitely have to kill the Arch Demon, and you’ve ended the Blight, but then you go through the end credits stuff, the epilogue screens. And it’s like, maybe there’s a civil war happening in Orzammar, maybe there are werewolves spreading across this entire part of Ferelden, maybe there are no werewolves at all. Like it’s similar. Now what DA, the way that DA approached the solution to that was to canonize some of those choices, but for the most part just move away, far enough physically, so it’s like, okay, well maybe there are werewolves down south there, that’s not my problem, I got my own problems. Or it moves through time, which is one of the reasons why DA2 moves through so much time is, it gives distance from DA:O. One of the major reasons why ME:A is literally hundreds of years in the future and in another galaxy, it’s like, okay, well, something happened, [shrug], we can react if we want to but we don’t have to worry about the consequences. DA has had the same problem that ME had, just to a lesser degree. DA:O did such a great job of building up the Warden that people are really attached to that and they keep wanting to see the Warden come back. People are never gonna let go of Shepard. DA, new player characters every time because it allows things to be done, but there are costs to that, if you don’t have nearly the [same] attachment. I mean, there’s a reason why every single Zelda game starts with you as Link getting bonked on the head. They’ve essentially solved the problem, reset button, either you have amnesia or you’re like the great-great-great-great-grandson. So it’s like, maybe there’s a way that they can do something like that, but Zelda’s jumped through a lot of hoops that probably a modern game can’t be allowed to do. You’re “Link”, so maybe there’s a way that you can be Shepard but, but Shepard, you can be “Shepard”, maybe there’s a way you can do that, but yeah, it’ll be interesting, it’s definitely a problem that they have. Because certainly, Ryder from ME:A is not the same character, nor could any character from a single game compete with a character from three games. Maybe the approach is, you canonize the choices from MET and you say, ‘and the choice we’re making is, Shepard made it, and you’re Shepard. [shrug]”

-

“I think there is a lot of DNA of its older games still at BioWare, but you’re right. Every game needs to be a game in its moment. It needs to be appropriate to the time and space of what’s going on. So, I get it, you kind of just want to feel the thing you felt when you played ME2 or feel the thing you felt when you played DA:O.” “If suddenly you got an ME2 again magically appearing out of the ether, I don’t think it would be received the same way. The industry isn’t in the same place. BioWare needs to set a new bar.” “The sad truth is, the older you get, the less relevant a part of the buying demographic you are. So the reality is, I mean ME:A had a shaky launch unfortunately, but it’s a lot of peoples’ favorite ME. Mostof those people who it is their favorite ME are younger people because it targets, you know, it’s got a younger PC, it’s got a stronger, more. I mean, the MET is very much, Shepard is a hero from action movies from the 80s and 90s, for millennials. He’s stoic. Whereas Ryder is definitely, he’s much more a protagonist from a CW show. The reality is is that, sorry, but they’re not trying to make it for you anymore.”

[source and full watch link where you can check it out]

[catherinekal]

People have valid complaints with Dragons Dogma 2. Microtransactions, not fun to see. Performance issues are shitty to. Those are my only real complaints so far. But I love odd strange game design decisions that say fuck it to established rules. Demons Souls is a top tier game for me, partly because it just throws establish convention out the window. Oh your dying a lot? Now the levels even harder, I love it. Dragons Dogma 2 only having 1 save file and having no easy way to start a new game certainly aren't things you'd learn to do in any game design course, but it's right up my alley. I love how a modern big release is doing something I've been wanting so badly from a RPG like this. No save scumming even as a option. You just have to roll with things and I know many people have that discipline already, but many, myself included, don't. Something like BG3 would be so much more interesting to me if you couldn't ever reload saves, but people would hate that (despite that being more true to D&D) To me knowing everything is a commitment adds more weight to every single thing you do. Makes the adventure feel more real. Part of why Dragons Dogma is so beloved is because, love it or hate it, not a whole lot like it. It has so many odd quirks that may not be traditional good game design, but those quirks help give a very unique experience. I'll take a game that just says sorry, you're stuck with 1 save, over another copy paste design by committee AAA mess, which is also probably still gonna run like shit on release. Give me more game design risk.

[wahbegan]

Actually, no, i've decided i am gonna go on a monologue about this cause i feel like it

Okay, so let me preface this with a disclaimer. I do not like what the Assassin's Creed franchise has become. I do not like Ubisoft. I don't like modern games, i should say modern AAA games in general. I think they've really stripped a lot of the art and the soul out of the medium with all the live service Skinner lootbox grindathon work their devs to death shit, i think they're making them as addictive and heavily monetized as possible and it's all about money, and i think Ubisoft is a large part of that problem. I haven't been into Assassin's Creed since Black Flag. I'm told there have been a few since then that are okay, i'm sure if i played them i'd like them fine, but i don't approve of any of the decisions Ubisoft makes on a business level. I think there are a lot of extremely valid grievances of this game. I think a $130 collector's edition is insane, and asking for preorders without showing a single frame of gameplay would be hilarious if it wasn't so infuriating.

THAT OUT OF THE WAY, i think the backlash against this game's protagonists is just straight-up misogyny and racism, and the worst part is it's all packaged like it's the most logical thing in the world. Yasuke is not only a real historical figure, but one who is popular in Japanese media, and from everything i've seen of actual Japanese people reacting to it, none of them give a shit and a lot are quite excited about it. I think the point of view of "Why the fuck is it set in Japan if we're playing as a black guy" is an extremely uneducated American point of view, and i think the inherent misogyny of it has gone unnoticed by a lot of people.

Because over and over "I wanna play as a Japanese guy," when there is a Japanese character right fucking there. There is a Japanese ninja, the devs have given her a very strong connection to the culture, she's apparently from the Province that is cited as the birthplace of Shinobi, with her father being another historical figure that was cited as one of the leaders of these proto-ninjas, and nobody really gives a shit.

Nobody gives a shit about that character, even though on paper, she's exactly what they're asking for, because she's a woman. The explicit message is "I don't wanna play as a black guy in Japan", but underneath is the implicit message "I don't wanna play as a black guy in Japan AND I don't want to play as a member of one of the most influential ninja families whose father was one of the most famous jonin to ever exist because she's a girl so fuck her that's not important."

It's fucking insane and the way they package it like they're being completely logical and rational about it makes me feel like i'm on fucking crazy pills. Shut the fuck up and play as a woman and a black guy, your fucking dick won't fall off. If there's one thing Assassin's Creed IS consistently good at as a franchise, it's the heightened historical realism thing they're going for.

Did y'all raise this much Hell about playing as Ratonhnhake:ton during the Revolutionary War? I'm genuinely asking cause i wasn't in the fandom when that shit came out. If you did, it wouldn't surprise me and fucking shame on you, and if you didn't, you're massive hypocrites with a special place in your cold, dead heart for hating black people so fuck it.

I mean have you played the fucking games? If you're anti-woke, it's not really the right franchise for you in the first fucking place.