#just go back to the old UI please

[murasaki-rose]

Super cool of Tumblr to re-arrange and hide features without telling anyone about it. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Heads up for anyone that has multiple blogs and uses the queue. If you want to actually VIEW or EDIT your queue on desktop you now have additional steps to go through.

Click on the little dude above the gear.

Click on the blog who's queue you want to view.

Now all the options that used to be on the right sidebar before tumblr decided to copy Twitter's homework are back on the right sidebar.

Click on queue and do your viewing, editing, etc.

Basically, they've almost entirely separated the blog management stuff from our dashes for some nonsensical reason. It's not like having everything accessible from your dash was causing any problems, so I can't think of a sensible reason to bury them even deeper in the UI.

Why the blogging website wants to make blogging more difficult, I can't imagine. Well I can, but it still doesn't make sense.

Note: If you click out of your queue you will need to go through the same song and dance each time unless you can backspace to it.

[losergames]

Chop Shop is strictly 18+ for language, themes, and potential explicit content. 

🔗 - Game Intro | Bug Report | Ko-Fi

Episode Four is now available! (+ 59,000) - PLAY HERE

Debrief after your meeting with Inez.

Steal... or don't!

Yvonne has a secret.

2 more achievements.

And more!

This update comes with a patch (Version 1.2.3) For this update you will need to start a NEW SAVE. An updated inventory macro has been implemented and is not compatible with old saves. I really wish you didn't have to but it's what's best for the game and its longevity!

Patch notes + author notes are under the cut. If preferred, you can access them in game in the start menu.

STORY

PROLOGUE:

General edits and fixes.

More vague, as to not elicit any emotional connection to the crew for continuity.

EPISODE 01:

Added a new set of personality building choices when meeting KJ, Jonno, Natasha and Aiden at the bar.

EPISODE 02:

Tweaked the conversation with Dilani in the closing scene to reflect more on the situation. Added some more fearful dialogue and flavour text.

Other general edits and fixes.

EPISODE 03:

Fixed gaps and spacing issues.

Minor phrasing and sentence structure changes.

Grammar and typo fixes.

UI + TECHNICAL

SETTINGS:

Changing the font size now only applies to the game text in the passages.

Added descriptions to the toggleable settings.

UI:

The background now changes colour dependent on what theme you are using, instead of the default black.

INVENTORY:

The inventory macro has been updated! Previously V2, now V3 of the ChapelR Simple Inventory Macro.

CREATE A SAVE

Modified the randomise PC choice, setting pronouns in 'sets' instead of randomising each pronoun separately.

GAMEPLAY MODE

Players can now choose a gameplay mode when starting a new save: Regular or Challenge.

Challenge mode disables the back button, disallowing players to return to the previous passage. Players cannot redo dice rolls or try out different choices for desired outcomes.

Challenge mode is not available in Create A Save. All CAS made saves default to regular mode.

AN: hello hello! it has been a while -- episode 04 is finally here!

this ep was a long one to get through but we finally made it out of the fog. i found that i wrote a bunch of stuff that just... didn't fit? but is hopefully going to be used later down the line, so it's cool i've got shells of scenes for later.

i can't find any game breaking bugs myself and my amazing beta testers have scanned through as many possible variants as they can! of course, if there is anything funky, broken, or maybe not triggering correctly, please submit a bug report!

again i will say that you will need to start a NEW SAVE for this update. unfortunately the updated inventory macro is not compatible with previous saves. i really didn't want this to be a thing when updating chop shop but it is unfortunately just the way for this update - apologies!! i know it's super annoying when games do this but chop shop is still a wip so there will always be some teething problems along the way.

as i look through my notes, we have now completed act 1 of my outline (AAAAHH) so soooo exciting. finally pc can stop wringing their hands about being bad and actually //start// being bad.

if you've made it this far -- hello and thank you! i'm so happy we're at the point where PC is making some real decisions, taking another step into their life of crime.

happy update day and happy reading!! thank you so much for the continued support and patience!!! i hope you enjoy the new episode! - becky :-) <3

[lj-lephemstar]

Progress Checkup! (Nov. 2024) | Scratchin' Melodii Devlog

​​Hey again guys! Sorry if it's been a bit since the last devlog. With how much I've been up to, it sure feels like it!

Let's get right into it. For starters, the 3rd rival battle of Act 2 is complete! I'll likely be showing a gameplay preview of it sometime soon. This is the first song to use the new framework that I'll be using for all the other stages going forward, which also means I've had to spend the past couple weeks getting the previous songs working with this new system too... Did you know that in the demo builds, if I wanted to change something about the gameplay, I'd have to manually go back and change it for EACH individual song one by one? Well now, imagine all the songs had like a peace treaty to just share one good, clean, and organized system that I can easily tweak and add to as I please. So development is gonna be smoother than ever from here! This is how most games are SUPPOSED to work, but I was a liiittle too stupid to figure out how to do this until recently!

While I was moving Cream Cheese Icing over to this new system, I took the opportunity to make the chart a bit more beginner-friendly! For example, the first line went from this...

To just this!

As you can see, it has less notes, therefore it is less scary for new players. Believe it or not, I actually never intended for Cream Cheese Icing to be so difficult for new players in the first place! Naturally, being too good at my own game can make gauging the difficulty curve a bit tricky at times, but I think I'm figuring it out!​

You may have also noticed that the characters have new UI icons too! I felt like the old ones were too flat and boring, so I did a new take on them, aiming for more dynamic shapes and angles, not to mention how my art style's just kinda grown a bit in general since I last drew the icons. I also ended up leaving out the circles behind them. I was a little worried I was gonna run out of unique colors for all of them at some point, plus SOME of these guys can have really big hair and/or hats that pretty much just cover up the whole circle anyway. (hi rensa)

Speaking of artwork, here's a little look at some of the updated animation I've done for Stir & Mix! (Try to imagine it in not highly-compressed-gif-form. I promise it looks better in-game!)

When working on Stir & Mix related stuff, I can't help but feel a bit of a sense of dread knowing how people may react to it... Honestly, sometimes I kinda wish it never got as popular as it did in 2022. But hey, doing my own thing regardless of what's expected of me is the most Scratchin' Melodii thing I could do!

Speaking of which, Mia learned a ton of new stuff while doing the VOCALOID tuning for the last rival battle we worked on, so we might revisit Stir & Mix's vocals again at some point before release to give it even more style! (By the way, Mia and 2cada are the same person! Sorry if I refer to both names interchangeably! She's been the one doing all the VOCALOID tuning and vocal mixing for the game since 2023.)

Well, I think that's all for now! Here's another friendly reminder that there will NOT be anymore demos of the game. Any new content will be saved for the full game's release. I know I've said it before, but I probably won't stop saying it until people stop getting confused about it LOL. Thanks for reading!! I appreciate you. - LJ

[mushroominaforest]

Hehe oc / siblings au lore drop time!!!!

(It’s kinda long sorry lol)

BEHOLD:

The Assistant!

Assistant was designed to look aesthetically pleasing. They don’t love their appearance that much, but at the end of the day, being doomed to look cute that isn’t the worst fate that a purposed organism could face. They’re Unparalleled Innocence’s messenger, but they also just sorta assist UI in general, hence the name.

UI is actually one of the decent Iterator parents in the au, but Assistant still got bored of running errands, and wanted to have an adventure. UI reluctantly let them go, telling them that they would be missed and were welcome back anytime.

Assistant was thrilled to have their adventure, but they were also what one might describe as ever-so-slightly privileged. They worked, yes, but they hadn’t actually had to survive on their own before, hunt for their food or fight for their shelter. So they were struggling somewhat, and considering cutting their losses and going back to their easy yet boring life with their parent.

And then Assistant met someone. Another purposed organism their age, the toughest, bravest and strongest slugcat they’d ever seen. Someone with beautiful purple eyes.

Assistant met Artificer.

Things were pretty good at first. Neither of them had really even had a proper friend before, let alone a relationship, and they rode the high of young love and freedom for a while. Assistant gave Artificer the love she’d never had before and desperately needed, and Artificer kept Assistant safe. But their happiness didn’t last, as Artificer started to go back to her old self.

Assistant eventually decided that they’d had enough, and it wasn’t worth it anymore. What followed was a messy breakup which left Assistant with a scar and Artificer with a broken heart. (This breakup happened before Artificer knew she was going to be a mother.)

Assistant was happy to be out of their unhealthy relationship, but didn’t have anyone to protect them from the unforgiving ecosystem anymore, and wound up going back to UI.

They still want to see the world, but don’t want to be on their own. if only there was somewhere they could go where they wouldn’t be alone. Maybe somewhere with a bunch of slugcats… some sort of community…

[leafington]

(𝙞 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙖) 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙮, 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙣𝙚𝙭��� 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙚. - kiyoomi s.

content warning !! - angst to comfort so essentially fluff, blackfem!reader, drinking implied but no intoxication, suggestiveness if you squint, mayhaps ooc but idc i do what i want

This isn't him. No chance in hell. He's supposed to be big, ignorant, and one-track minded Sakusa—MSBY Black Jackal's infamous outside hitter. His identity's been tainted by some girl he managed to wriggle into his life, denting his plans but not quite hindering them.

He used to threaten others with his wrist, messing with little kids by folding his hands. Said person told him to stop it, and he did. He can't remember the last time he crouched down to an 8-year-old and watched them run for their mother because of him. Sakusa had a strict hair routine that wasn't going to change no matter how long his hair got, the same four products he's used since his mother taught him how to take care of his curls. That woman came along and he'd let her share his bathroom, adding one extra product she claimed would make his curls more full which indefinitely worked.

In his first year of highschool, he would've freaked out discovering his future self succumbed to his natural teenage tendencies and fell for what he can only describe as the prettiest girl in the world.

She looked so ethereal barging into their practice one day, approaching Komori and exchanging words regarding whatever required discussion. Days passed of just Sakusa debating putting his pride aside just to talk to a girl. In the long run he didn't, but thankfully lucked out when Komori picked up on his interest and invited them both over.

"'Coincidence' my ass."

To this very moment, he cherished every day spent they together. Hence why he's so pressed that he's missing her, sitting on his hotel bed, finger hovering over the 'My World 🗺️' UI in his contacts. He never changed it.

She plauged his mind with her being. He wants see her again, feel her hands in his hair, scrub the hard-to-reach spots on his back (he can reach them, he just prefers for her to do it), apologize for his ignorance, pride, and one-track mindset; all of it.

Damn it all.

The rowdy bunch kept him busy all day, it's their fault he's waiting for the stupid ring back to either stop or tell him he's reached her voicemail, he hopes it's the latter that way he can flush down that reprehensive feeling of reaching out to her so late. What were they thinking taking him out for drinks?

"Hello?" Sleep and disorientation transmit on his side, regardless, he's grateful to hear her voice again.

"Baby? It's me," He sounds so pathetic, he can only imagine what she thinks of him for pulling such a stunt. "I miss you. So much, baby. You don't even know." It's unfathomable, not even Sakusa knows why he's doing this.

Yes he does. He wants his girl back. "I know it's late, I'm sorry for waking you, I just had to let you know." Sakusa speaks low into the phone, not so much a whisper, but to the point where she won't be disturbed. "Sakusa? The hell? It's like—"

"Kiyo. It's Kiyo to you." He never talked over her, except for this and one other time. He swears it's the last time, shutting up so she can finish. "Two in the morning? I have work." Either his surname or not at all, that's okay, he's determined to fix that. "Just listen to me, 'kay?"

"I never should've blown up at you. I was exhausted, tired, annoyed, I didn't mean anything I said. I should've talked to you, you know I would never voluntarily raise my voice at you, right? I can't keep this up. I wanna see you, I need to see you. Please, love." He's never felt more humiliated like this in his life, begging over the phone for his woman to take him back.

It's quiet, the faint squeak of her fan in the background. An annoyed grunt is detected presumably her sitting up. "Aren't you in Tokyo right now?" She has a point, but that's never stopped Sakusa from getting what he wants. "I'll make the flight, just say the word." He might just be willing to ditch the entire game, he'll do so at her command. "You're delusional. C'mon, you're not flying all the way out here just to see me. You better play tomorrow, I'm serious. I'm not in your way anymore, focus on volleyball."

He's not getting through to her. She's slipping from his fingers with the tight grasp he has on her. "Y/n. I'll say 'Fuck the team.' and blow it all for you. You've never been in my way, ever, so stop thinking like that. I'm sitting here, butt-naked in a towel on expensive ass bedsheets begging you to take me back. I don't know what I have to do, but I'll do it if it means I can be in your arms again, babygirl."

Silence again—meaning the worst or the best from her. She shuffles around a little, and digs through some type of drawer of sorts before finally speaking again.

"You better win."

Sakusa Kiyoomi is a lovesick fool, he admits it. Anything for his woman. And he means anything.

©2024 leafington dont steal please!! :)

[cyle]

So, this will likely get ignored and I'm scared of actually sending asks off anon, but here goes, since the feedback on the navigation ui desktop has been so overwhelmingly negative already, with complaints about it being too crowded, too claustrophobic, and essentially just like twitter, which pretty much no one here likes, will you be listening, ending the test and letting the dashboard stay as it was, or will you be forcing an overwhelmingly unpopular change on us anyway?

the new design is an experiment. it's not out to everyone. we do these experiments so that you can provide us with feedback, and so we can see if updates like this cause actual behavior changes. please do send in your feedback to Support.

personally, i found the change really jarring at first as well. it took me a few days to get over that, as someone who's been using this site almost every day since 2009. however, i've been using the site with this new layout for a couple of months now, and i cannot believe it ever looked different. now i don't want to go back to the old layout, tbh. but that's just me.

i do hope the people having such a negative knee-jerk reaction give it a few days and see how they feel about it then. when we changed the reblog UI design back in 2015, it was like the sky was falling for the first week or so, and then everybody forgot the dashboard ever looked any other way. now we look back at that blockquote-reblog time like it was a joke. i hope we can say the same about this.

[autffiy]

My supernatural DR Stories part 1

Hello lovelies,

As promised I would tell you some of my favorite little stories from my Supernatural DR. Grab a coffee, tea or water because hell, this uis going to be a multi part series i think. I got so much to tell.

Mind you.. this is not series accurate so please don't come for me thank tou very much.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First of all, I'm going to tell you a little bit about my DR self. So you guys can get to know my DR self a little better! {this will be written in my DR POV, little snippets from my DR journal. how fun.} I started writing this journal in September when I hadn't even met the Winchester brothers yet. So you will follow me on my journey when I meet the Winchesters. I started writing in this journal to keep up with my cases... and all the weird stuff happening around me.

₀₉₋₀₁₋₂₀₀₅

"So my name is Ashly Rowan, I'm a 22 year old girl who is currently moving from motel to motel because ha... i don't have a fucking steady job.. or a home. I drive a sage green 1975 ford F-100 which i sleep in most days... not the most comy tbh. It is now, september 1st when i'm starting to write this journal. I'm now in a motel in Little Rocks- Arkansas. Trying to figure out one of those stupid cases again... on my own. It's a vampire case, nothing too bad. Wish dad was here, he would be.. well probably in shock that i didn't do anything like college or something like that. But also would be proud that i was hunting the thing he got killed by....."

¹⁰⁻³⁰⁻²⁰⁰⁵

"I'm currently writing in my car.. I'm on my way to Bobby's house. Bobby Singer.. that old man. Sweet, but feisty and well.. old. But nothing i can't handle. I need his help with a case. Some nasty skin walker a few towns ahead. I need his advice.. and possible help because hell that thing escaped me many.. many times. My ribs are bruised.. and i have a few cuts on my face. Nothing to worry about. I found out that dad had some connection with the supernatural world before he died... but what?? That's what i need to find out.. Maybe i can ask Bobby? Anyhow.. I'm going to sleep now.. in my car in a parking lot at a gas station. Woohoo... goodnight."

The following day on october 31st, Halloween moring i drove the last bit to Bobby's house. Franticly knocking on his door. That's when i met Sam and Dean, their dad went on a hunting trip and hadn't come back. And Sam's girlfriend Jessica got burned up in flames a couple day's prior. Just how their mom died.. Well that's what they told me. I knew a little bit about John Winchester, because various hunters had told me about him. From what i heard he was a prick... but i didn't say that to their faces obviously.

Fast forward a few days later where the boys helped me take down the shapeshifter. We tracked its location down, it was staying in a sewer, of course. We made a game plan. All would enter different entrances of the sewer. So we could lock it in. This was I think one of the most terrible cases ever, so yada yada ya we walked our paths, all circling the skinwalker now. Then it decided to fucking run my way??? So now o was standing there.. in a sewer, covered in fucking slimy, bloody skin walker skin. Since Dean decided to blow that fuckers head off out of reflex. Fantastic... Definitely what I planned. We ended up cleaning off at the motel and meeting back at a diner to grab some food...

So this was basically my first few weeks in my DR. It was nightmare fuel in some ways, skinwalkers are definitely terrifying and I hate them. But even though, it was pretty fun if I say so. The brothers are so funny and sweet.

I will make other parts of this soon, i loveee telling you guys about my stories. Feel free to ask any questions, i'm happy to answer them.

xoxo alli.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tip jar

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

As someone who has played a lot of Armored Core games, and been fond of the franchise for a long time, man... Armored Core fans really are crawling out of the woodwork to loudly proclaim themselves the shittiest brand of FromSoft fan, huh?

The amount of vitriol, elitism and sheer whinging I’ve seen in the run up to AC6′s release is staggering. I have not seen a group of people more aggressively dedicated to trying to torpedo new interest in an IP than them in quite some time. They’re being utter children.

The main thing that seems to be setting them off is people asking how it compares to the Soulsborne games, right? Or people comparing elements of it to the Soulsborne games. Guess what? People use points of comparison and familiarity as a means of understanding new things, and seeing which parts of a new thing they can connect with. That’s how people work, you children. I understand that you’re exceptionally bitter and want to feel special or distinguished from the “mainstream gamers” and the “fake new fans” or whatever, but you need to grow up and recognise that the Soulsborne games are the games that the western world are most familiar with in relation to FromSoft. Hell, AC6 is only getting so much widespread interest because it’s coming from FromSoft, off the back off their most successful game launch of all time.

The fact people who like FromSoft, or know of FromSoft, are trying to find points of common ground and draw comparisons is a good thing. You get that, right? People are looking at a game that they largely have no immediate context for and are trying to find it because it’s interesting to them. And those comparisons are good, no matter what the game is. Being able to break down elements of something via comparative points in order to find a way for new people to connect with it is VERY GOOD ACTUALLY.

If someone wants to know about a thing I like, and why I like it, and why they might like it, you know how I explain it to them? You know how it’s normal to explain it to them? You take things that they understand/like/are familiar with and use those things to guide them along. This is good. This is information bridging. This is, it has to be said, common fucking sense.

What you don’t do, you fountains of sparkling uniqueness, you super special little guys, is go “It’s NOT like ANYTHING you’ve EVER played and FUCK you for making ANY comparisons it’s WHOLLY unique and you’ll ONLY understand by playing OLD games. Also it’s SUPER HARD. Get FUCKED.”

Because a), that’s not really true, and b), that’s fucking dippy and exactly how you drive people away. You do understand that if you assist in alienating people away from the series, and the game (which is part of an extremely niche genre in the west) doesn’t sell well enough, it’s entirely possible that Bamco will just not want to publish another one. Do you understand that?

Also, all the people whining about the modernisation/refinement of UI and various gameplay elements, and how the game will be too easy now. Just... shut up. Please shut the fuck up. This happens every time FromSoft does any kind of sequel to anything. It never turns out to be the case. When was the last time someone went “Ah, FromSoft, the guys who make the easy games.” Jesus Christ.

[ravings-of-a-mad-scientist]

I think there is something of a story that could be made out of tech no longer being supported by the tech is life supporting

You know what? YES! There is a story to be made out of tech no longer being supported even though it's life supporting! My fuckin emails!

I used to use Windows' default mail app, which sucked. It couldn't work with custom email addresses and was generally janky, but you know what? It was my janky default mail app, because I was too lazy to change it to a better one. Just like with every other default app included with Windows 10 (which I still use even though they came out with a Windows 11 (even though they said they'd never do that (fuckin tryhards)))

But then Windows was all like

"mail app will no longer be supported, please switch to Outlook, bleh".

And that's when my alarm bells started ringing. I knew shit was going down hill. First they took Flash, and now they're after my fuckin MAIL?!? Is nothing sacred???

And what's worse, they had the gall to make *me* do something, and accept change, when I'd much rather be embracing stagnancy. What? Are we too good for the bare minimum all of a sudden?

But, I also knew the deadline was like six months away, so I didn't do shit and forgot about it. Because I have a heavy prescription for A.D.D., a mental disorder which makes it difficult to not put things off until the last minute since I can't think in scales longer than about six days. I am heavily dependant on my calendar app to tell me when to do stuff.

But then it happened. Six entire months had passed, and I finally had to change to Outlook. That made my afternoon a SLIGHTLY more stressful and busy than it'd have normally been, the bastards

But, you know what? There's no point getting angry over that. I think I might have just been too complacent with my old shitty default mail app all that time, and was too lazy and had too many dysfunctioning executives to look for better options. I might never have known what other mail apps could be like until someone gave me that little push. There really is a lesson to be learned here. 😔

And you know what that lesson is?

DON'T EVER FUKIN TRUST WINDOWS! BECAUSE OUTLOOK IS WAY SHITTER AND JANKIER THAN MAIL APP! WHY DID THEY MAKE ME SWITCH TO IT???

It takes forever to open, it also fucked the calendar app because apparently those can't be separate windows anymore so I had to spend like 20 minutes fixing it, then it fucked my wife, and just today it refused to open at all because it FALSELY believed it was already open.

I ended up having to restart my entire ass computer, WITH A FORCED WINDOWS UPDATE, giving me plenty of time to write this post. Haven't slept in 42 hours btw (unrelated). Then Outlook decided to log me out, so I had to find my password to sign back in. Meanwhile, I couldn't do any work because the only thing I needed to do was see my goddamned emails! So I finally get in, and I discovered that apparently that Windows update was updating Outlook, because I had to tell them that NO, I DON'T WANT MY DATA HARVESTED.

All this and for what? Fashionable looking UI design? Compatibility with email handles that don't end with @gmail.com?

What do I look like, some kinda jackass who owns multiple alternate email addresses with custom domains? Custom domains that I've been using an entirely separate web based email service to check since the old mail app wouldn't let me open them, but I was just too lazy to switch over to completely for my primary work and school gmails? Do I look like someone who bought themadscientist@ravingsofamadscientist.com thinking that somehow a *mailing list* would make me INTERNET FAMOUS?

Because yes, I am and I did do that. But you know what? I STILL do all that because I haven't gotten around to putting those emails into Outlook!

YOUR FORCED EMAIL SERVICE MIGRATION ACHIEVED NOTHING! SUCK IT BILL GATES!

[sig-got-a-gun]

okay so if moon kills sig. imma. imma need to know how/why/WHAT HAPPENS,,,,please,,,evil fucked up moon is making my brain go brrrr

OKAY SO

Let me start from the beggining

So in this au, everything is the same up until just after survivor/Monk timelines. Then, after a rain, she gets caught on something as the room is emptying out of water. So she tries to get loose, but by the time she can most of the water has drained, and she falls straight to the ground.

It damages her lenses, and her forhead symbol (in my headcanon its a glass thing with her personality processors in it.). So, this knocks her out and her systems desperately try to reboot. It pieces together what it can without her, but it takes several cycles. More drownings where internal mechanics are now entirely exposed to the water damage. Her personality gets scrambled.

Her memories however, remain. At least, the ones that she could remember in the first place.

At some point after waking back up, she'd get this sort of itch. Call it phantom pain, that itch or pain you get where a limb used to be. It's her structure but it's so infinitely frustrating and disorienting that in a fit of discomfort and rage she manages to rip herself off the arm.

Anyways after this she would sort of wonder what to do, still sticking around in that chamber for a bit. Then some scavengers would come by. They do sometimes but they visited today. Usually she can't move or do anything threatening appearing to them but she looks entirely different now, and out of a sort of "holy shit, creatures" she moves towards them which freaks them out and one throws a warning spear. This makes moon jump, but there isnt really anything she can do to show she wont do anything. spear into the chest. Directly into the memory processor.

This makes her neurons freak and try to save any memory they can. 3 are eaten by scavengers as Moon is sort of frozen with a spear sticking out of her, not even being able to process the intense pain she is in from the neuron losses and the spear itself. Some wires cross and something sparks.

Almost instinctually, she rips the spear out and one-shots a scavenger reaching for another neuron. scary fast she kills the other three in her chamber. And then with so few memories left, she stores those precious two neurons away within herself. She barely remembers a lot now. But what she does know is that pebbles put her in this position. And due to the personality scramble... she's fucking pissed about it.

After this she goes on a murder rampage towards Pebbles, killing anything that bothers her too much.

Shed get to Pebbles, who'd see her coming but be unable to do anything about it, a stressful encounter, and then shed yank out his umbilical wires, and take him off his arm. She'd do so in such a way that he cannot do anything else except for deteriorate. The horrid fate of a thing that can't die in any way that counts.

His would of course cancel out Pebbles lock down and all processes, immediately lowering steam output. This is noticed.

Moon then decides to visit her old bestie, now done with her main rage but still missing screws yknow.

(During this ui is immediately investigating the situation at pebbles.)

Anyways, Moon gets to sig all like "miss me?" Sig is freaked, but excited that they can both hang out again. Some way or another though sig finds out what Moon did and is highkey unnerved. Plus her personality is a lot different than it used to be so its... bothering.

Moon overhears a call between sig and Suns where sig expresses the concerns, and then moon gets pissed, unplugs sig on call, then tells Suns she's coming for him next.

Anyways, after that it becomes a chain. From sig toSuns, suns told wind, so she goes there next, and then ui manages to be the last girl and send put an emergency sos before dying and let's the whole iterator kind that can recieve messages that there is an iterator on the loose, and that she is dangerous.

From then on its kill kill kill baby

Btw with the different accessories:

Purple scarf: sig

Green ribbon: wind

Orange infinity scarf/armband: peb

Pearl bracelet: inn

Antennae clip: suns

[jpitha]

Some Good old-fashioned Shitposting

One of the main problems with posting to /r/hfy for me - beyond the mechanics of it being bad - was that they were very serious about sticking to story posts. Very little Meta, very little OOC, no posting about other sites, that kind of stuff. Posts like that were usually removed quickly.

I still wanted to reach my readers there and since my messages stating that I was leaving and giving the reasons why kept getting deleted I decided to... live within the rules, and posted this. It starts as JaLF 26 (the first time skip one) but from there goes off the rails...

It's been half a year, but I can't believe we're already on our third ship! High Line took two months instead of the one that Omar first promised, but that was because he and his crew were getting use to the process and how best to refurbish the ships. Then after that I made the decision to refurbish the food tugs, but those were (relatively) easy. New thrusters, some strengthening of the cargo containers and a few brand new ones and that was it. Once that was finished the food deliveries increased over 30%!

You would not believe how much cheaper, more abundant food improves one's legitimacy. As soon as that was finished and the food rolled in, almost all of the last grumblings about me coming in and "declaring" myself Empress died down.

Only a couple of weeks after the food deliveries had picked back up, I was on my Throne reading reports when Ava walked in and connected to her chair behind me on the Throne.

"Melody! You would not believe what I just heard." Ava sounded a little worried. I'm sure whatever was bothering her wouldn't be that big of a deal for us to take care of.

"I'm sure we can figure it out, Ava. I was just reading these reports about the increased food deliveries. I can't believe how easy it was to get everything straightened out; it was nice to have an easy win."

"No, this is way more important than that. Please hear me out. Let's talk in person." Now I was worried. Ava doesn't usually look this worried about things.

This was important. I disconnected, and gave Ava my full attention. "What is it Ava? How can I help?"

"The author isn't posting to Reddit anymore!" Ava was practically wailing.

"What? Why not? I thought the Author was trying to build an audience to look more attractive to potential publishers?"

Ava nods quickly. "That's just it, he was, but he's having such a hard time posting on Reddit that it's just not worth it to him. He has a much larger following on Tumblr, and would prefer that any of his readers on Reddit seek him out there." Ava raised her eyebrows. "Did you know he's finished this story over there and has started a new one?"

I gasped. A new story? "But that means that our story is done? What happens to us? Are we doing all right?"

Ava shrugged. "He just said 'no spoilers' and winked. Readers will have to go there themselves and check it out."

I sat up straighter in my seat, fully disconnected from the Throne now. This required speaking in person. "Was it the community? Did they give him a hard time?"

Ava threw up her hands in defeat. "That's just it. The community was so nice and welcoming! The rules about posting were a little Byzantine, but the Author did his best to post within them, but the poor UI and untenable bugs means that the Author spent more time correcting and copy editing posts than he did writing some of the entries. He told me he didn't have 'the spoons' to complete the story."

I sat back in my Throne, surprised. The Author was so excited about building his audience and introducing more people to his work, and through their excitement, improve his craft. "I wonder what he's going to do now?"

"I heard he's going to keep posting, but on Tumblr. He also said any of his fans are welcome to join him there. If they don't want to get an account, they can read his posts as they are public facing. I'm told that making an account and following will boost his follower count and look good to any potential publishers but it's not required."

I stood. It really was too bad, but who are we to go against the wishes of the Author. "Oh well Ava. It's sad to hear, but there isn't much we can do about it. Come on, it's almost dinner. Let's go find the others and eat."

Ava stood too and gave me a hug. "Oh Melody. Thanks. I feel better after talking it out.

"I'm glad." Together, we left the Throne, and walked out into the bustling evening on the Reach.

[wakraya]

My Experience With Roblox

Hey! Hi! Hello! I have just gone through some pretty frustrating stuff and I wanted to share some experiences I've had with the Scam Formerly Known As Roblox.

So let me tell you a little bit of a story.

Back in the day I used to be a small Roblox Creator. And when I say 'back in the day', I mean like a decade ago, before a lot of the current extremely shady monetization and exploitation practices weren't implemented yet. And mind you, there WAS the 'Builder's Club' and there was Buying Robux, but it wasn't as blatant, and you still had Tix as the Free Currency.

Roblox was a place where I found quite the community. I was still not all that good at English, and it was through interacting with others that I pretty much taught myself to speak English. I met some of my longest-lasting friendships, I had my first Hyperfixation... Hell- It even introduced me to Homestuck!

But then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

And by the Fire Nation, I mean that Roblox updated something that broke several of the scripts inside of my game. It dropped without warning, without a Legacy option, and forced Creators to simply adapt and update. Now, it wasn't even anything too big- I believe all I had to do was add 2 lines of code to my scripts, and they'd be fixed.

But, you see. I was inspired to make my own place, because of the work of other Creators. A major inspiration, in fact, was a pretty legendary Bleach Fighting Game, whose... Maker hadn't been on in years.

That was the day I learned the words 'Backwards Compatibility' and realized that Roblox had unceremoniously broken a lot of classic things that now had no repair. Alongside security concerns and the increasing monetization of the place, I decided to simply leave and never look back.

... A few years back, I got an email, telling me that there'd been a successful login to my account.

I quickly got in, changed my password to complete nonsense, reiterated my distaste for the state of the site, and left.

I didn't think much of this event for half a decade, but today. Today I was trying to see if I'd gotten a verification email from a different thing, and I ended up rummaging my Spam Folder, only to find someone writing an email... Asking, politely, for trading of some of the limited items left on my archaic account.

Unsure if this was a scam or not, and wondering what 'cool' items I even could've had in my inventory (Apparently I've got some unique octopus that sells for 22K Robux or something? Shrug-) I decided to log into the site, and... Just on a whim, I checked my messages.

Every single message for the last several years going back were just scams, which truly speaks volumes to how the site had developed. But, more importantly. Going further back, I found people asking me to please come back, and fix the game... Or. 'Make it free'.

...

Apparently. Apparently. In the time I got hacked years ago. Before whoever did it changed my email or password. They had, effectively. Updated my old game, with a message that 'it was back', and monetized it.

Apparently for the past few years I've gotten an insignificant but existent stream of Robux from some poor kids or nostalgic people trying to get back into my game.

I immediately went to try and fix things, only to realize there were no Options to remove the 'pass', and I couldn't find a way to remove the monetization, either.

Now. Mind you. I was doing this on the Browser. Maybe from the client it would've been better, easier, and clearer, but let me tell you- I have not. Seen. SUCH a Hostile UI in my entire life trying to just. FIND what to do to stop this from happening, and eventually I just. Opted for privating and taking down the game entirely. It's broken anyway, after all.

Following that I tried to make a statement on the description of my account, only to see, in horror, that my 1000 word message turned entirely into ####### because apparently I'd written one too many banned terms, because I was, in fact, talking about my account getting hacked, and monetization.

I tried writing a few other messages, and I swear, that was one of the most aggressive content filters I've seen in my ENTIRE life. 'Consent', 'Whole', and several other completely innocent terms just constantly eaten by the censorship algorithm, making writing a new description one of the genuinely most frustrating experiences I've ever had with any website online.

So. I guess. There's not much I want to say here. I am mostly venting about what an awful, awful experience this whole thing is, but like... Seriously. The hacking and security was rampant back then, and I doubt it's any better now. Even if it was, the sheer scope of the scams and exploitation that this... Service is even allowed, is genuinely a Late-Capitalism Nightmare.

Anyway, that was a wretched experience, and as nostalgic as I am for Those Days, and as sure as I am that there's people who still love Roblox and who have made incredible friends through it...

That... Thing... Is a monument to Humanity's Hubris, and shouldn't exist-

[losergames]

Chop Shop is strictly 18+ for language, themes, and potential explicit content. 

🔗 - Game Intro | Bug Report | Ko-Fi

Episode Three is now available! (+ 86,000) - PLAY HERE

Get your first taste of the underground car scene.

Meet some other players in the game.

Be made an offer.

5 achievements up for grabs!

And more!

AN: thank you so much for the patience - i've been dying to put this update out. lots of new characters and lots of variation!! there are 3 major paths to choose between in this ep, i recommend trying them all out! and thank you to my betas for keeping me sane lmao

This update comes with a patch and UI refresh (Version 1.1.2) Notes are under the cut. If preferred, you can access them in game in the start menu.

STORY

EPISODE 01:

MC should now be able to smoke! Buying cigarettes at the shop was not triggering correctly. If playing with an old save, you DO NOT have to restart as code at the beginning of EP 03 has resolved the error. Player will need to restart if they wish to read smoking related scenes in previous episodes.

Updated MC Name selection. Player can now choose from a list of names instead of having to input one to proceed.

Player can now give Taha their chocolate bar if it's in their inventory.

When asking Maz about their scars, the second choice 'You want to ask about it but you're going to keep your mouth shut.' should now take you to the correct response.

Extended and updated 'End Game' scenes.

EPISODE 02:

If MC is faint after exiting the car, but also drunk, they should now get the fainting scene, followed by Dilani helping the MC in the bathroom.

UI + TECHNICAL

SETTINGS:

Autoname Save is now defaulted to ON. This is to add ease and flow to gameplay, especially for mobile, tablet, and app users, instead of calling for an inputted saved name. If player wants to input save names, toggle Autoname Saves to OFF.

Autoname Save previously only used the forename of the MC but now includes the surname as well.

Removed the Fullscreen toggle as it is only intended for desktop use. Player can still toggle fullscreen function via the UI bar on the desktop interface.

Added a choice indicator toggle. (This probably won't come into effect until EP 04 or 05)

Changed serif font from Vollkron to EB Garamond.

OTHER:

Changing the MC's pronouns via the Dashboard has been updated. Additionally, after confirmation will take player back to the Dashboard and not close the dialog boxes entirely.

Hovering over 'Personality', 'Motives', and 'Skills' titles in the Dashboard will now display an information box with a definition. Mobile and tablet users will need to tap on the title.

'Resume Game' now only appears on the main menu when there is an autosave in the saves log.

Choices styling changes.

General UI and button style changes.

Fixed errors with the text message styling.

Added styling for reading text off of a page in game.

Darkened blue in light theme 'Skyline' to reduce eye strain.

CREATE A SAVE

Introducing Create a Save! This feature allows players to quickly manufacture a save file and start at a later point in the game.

Set your identity, appearance, history, and statistics; including personality, motives, and skills. Continue to set key decisions made in previous episodes.

Randomise options available for creating a PC and key decisions.

OTHER

Fixed gaps and spacing issues.

Minor phrasing and sentence structure changes.

Grammar and typo fixes.

whew -- that's a lot of patch notes! apologies for so much that needed to be fixed.

this update shouldn't break/ mess with saves but as a disclaimer i will say, if you spot anything funky, broken, or you don't think things are triggering correctly, try starting a new save. the new create a save feature is incredibly code heavy, and it's been tested relentlessly, but i wouldn't be surprised if something crops up.

if starting a new save doesn't resolve your issue - please submit to bug report or just send me an ask/message.

some things have been meaning to get fixed for Some Time - thank you to everyone that is using the bug report form!

apologies if there are typos and/or bugs - this was a long one to edit and my lovely betas did an OUTSTANDING job reading so much for ep 3 - thank you so much again!!! this time i am going to give it a bit more time before i put together a patch so i can grab more error responses haha.

create a save has also added a wee chunk to the word count, somewhere around 6k, but i'm not including it in the episode 03 word count as it's purely code. so, if you think the total wc is off, that's why!

if you've read this far, happy reading and thank you so much for the continued support!! :) - becky <3

[asixteenthrosecc]

Getting Ready For Patch Day 💚

before the patch to-do list; Mac & PC

Remove important files - move your tray and saves folders that are inside of your Sims 4 folder to your desktop.

Remove mods folder - everything that affects core game behavior. In other words, if it makes the game function differently, move to your desktop.

Delete the file localthumbcache.package from your Sims 4 folder. Clear caches, old last exception files and anything that does not belong in the game files.

once updated start the game vanilla with no mods, let the game generate new save, tray and mods folders.

Do NOT put any mods back in game until they are cleared for the patch or have been updated.

Test mods in a vanilla save; starting with visual overhauls, lighting mods etc, then big mods such as MCCC, UI cheats. Next all of those smaller mods can be tested (small batches is easiest if you have a lot of mods) and lastly defaults. CC can go in after your mods have been tested, and try to implement them in small batches testing your vanilla save you made as you add things to make sure everything is functioning as expected.

After everything is tested and working you can add your save files and tray files from your desktop into your game (take the files out of the desktop folder to the new version in your Sims 4 folder)

•  If you don’t want to deal with things breaking right away, turn off automatic game updates.

Mac: Go to Origin > Application settings and look for the heading Client Update and make sure it is grayed out to turn off auto updates.

PC: Go to EA App > top left three dots > settings > download tab and find the heading Updates and make sure the switch is black to turn off auto updates, blue is on.

Then, go into offline mode through Origin or EA App before you start your game. It won’t prompt you for an update.

•  Last but not least, please please please be patient with the amazing creators of custom content and mods. Quite a few things will probably break and need updating to work with the game after patches. Give them the time they need to get everything back to working order, they are people just like you.

↪  Status Updates on Mods - Luthienrising always makes a new thread for each patch to follow mod status', link at the top of their page

[solace-sylphieee]

{Rambles} My Thoughts On The Latest For All Time Mainstory (CN)

I… actually never thought I would write a long ass essay once again and it’s for Lovebrush Chronicles/For All Time (HLR) yet again...

Especially so, since I quit months back, and in all honesty I really didn’t log in at all and got to know it from one of my friends who’s still active and is liveblogging to me.

Yes, I wanna rant about it.

It’s so bad that coming from a somewhat workaholic, I literally throw aside my work while in office and have a discussion with another friend on the spot just to make sure my memories of the game’s story were not mere delusion.

Intro’s done so now is the spoiler alert.

As far as I know, Global is around Spirit World (World 3) but not fully released, so do expect Spoilers on that (and it mainly concerns from Godheim/Yemsaiel to there)

And you’re free to comment or debate with me with sound logic if your opinion is otherwise.

What’s my issue with it. To summarise, there’s:

The system functionality, design, and relevance; 

And then there’s the Mainstory

UI, Visuals, Designs

I would not say I’m a legit designer with a solid design background but I do have basic knowledge of it due to my job - just as basic as creating visuals and company book layout printing. But.

But, I say

JUST WHAT IS THIS COPY PASTA, UNCREATIVE, RUN OFF THE MILL DESIGN???

AND PEOPLE ARE PRAISING IT LOOKS GOOD??? LIKE HOW??

IT’S LIKE ANY TYPICAL GACHA UI, HECK WHAT REMINDS ME WAS PGR EVEN AT FIRST.

In case you wonder yes, this is directly taken from my own account, but anyway-

I JUST FIND HLR’S STILL LOOKS HIDEOUS COMPARATIVELY

LIKE, WHAT is there to praise about? Aesthetic? User comprehensiveness? Convenience? Simplicity?

I know that it’s exchangeable but still, it’s just very lazy work and felt like “Oh, we have a change in management and they’re trying to show they’re creating new impacts and is performing”

No shit

Personally, what made HLR special to me in the first place, was its homepage made and designed to meld perfectly into the game's world. It’s special to itself and reflects very well in immersiveness cuz that’s where MC is staying in. It’s very relevant.

I fail to fathom how that “new” UI is even impressive enough to get a pass to be published. 

Not to mention, luckily it’s a soft revamp and not a forced one cuz it’s just making old players lose touch with their own habit. But all in all, I guess it serves the purpose of prolonging play time in the beginning as people entranced by it has the time to explore the utility and readjust their habit.

Also, just my own two cents. If they really wanted to revamp the homepage UI, THERE’S SO MANY THINGS THEY COULD’VE DONE INSTEAD. Examples:

Refurbishing for MC’s final year

DID THEY FORGET ABOUT THE EXISTENCE OF THE BIRTHDAY HOUSE RENOVATION FOR YEAR 4??? WHAT’S THE POINT OF EVEN INTRODUCING WHEN IN SOME OF THE STORIES THEY MOVED IN TOGETHER (I didn't read beyond Emerald so don't quote all of it from me)

Like look! The design may vary for each guy, but the layout is just the exact same :)

It would still be a place we call “home” and the relevance to “Homepage” resonates a lot but they decide it’s better off taking that it doesn’t exist.

Give me some personal space too please, I don’t need some man as decoration in my “home” staring into my soul the moment I enter the game when they used to not do that. Thank you.

Story Narration and Continuity

In all honesty, the UI part made me have the urge to write this essay, but it wasn’t that bad, so the winner will still be this in the end. The dessert.

As far as my memories carried me, and this is replaying Godheim Clarence route *4 with like around 2 or 3 times with Emerald Special Story - Emerald only knows of MC’s existence and what her mom did, when he has a mission going on for Yemsaiel. So, he’s already in it for Yemsaiel before knowing MC to where the canon route carried us.

And some back stories before I proceed, in W3 Emerald route, there is a foreshadowing where he will gradually lost his memories due to him reclaiming his weapon - a scythe (sorry but I forgot the name of the scythe), that was transferred to few owners during the time he’s frozen in place for 500 years. He lost his memories prior to him waking up as he “slept” for too long, and his scythe is overloaded with emotions and memories of owners after his slumber.

So it’s just collecting energy and it’s now overwhelming and has great repercussions for the owner. It’s enough to nuke a world’s existence out, but the side effect is equally potent to the wielders as well.

And now moving forward to W5 (which I don’t know the name of) he now lost his memories and what remains in his mind is when MC is enrolled into St Shelter Academy.

Simply put, he’s at the Welcome to the Door of Emotion state.

At first I was confused cuz of the screenshot I got with MC monologuing to herself like

“This must be the Emerald before the story to Yemsaiel ends! I silently recall my grudges.”

So my thoughts be like:

????? So it’s him before his Yemsaiel mission???? How tf did he know about her existence at all at this point?????

EXCUSE ME, so now you’re holding a grudge again. AFTER YOU TALKED THINGS OUT WITH HIM BEFORE PARADISE (W2) AND IN HIS SPECIAL STORY. WHAT CRAP IS THIS

So Emerald and MC got a factory reset in person and in mindset. Wow.

Then I received a TLDR:

Emerald has his memories of 4 years stolen to fulfill a gamble where he’s despatched to W5

Clarification that it’s still the Emerald along the journey, but memories nada, only up till St Shelter Admission

But he also lost his memories? Of the mission? Before MC was admitted into St Shelter? I’m assuming Yemsaiel?

Yeah, I don’t get this bs.

Memories of 4 years stolen, yet also lost the memories of more than that including the missions before MC is enrolled, and yet he still knows and cares for MC as her caregiver…????????

 So how many years and how much of it is it lost??????

How selective of the person huh, very convenient indeed. As for the reason? I shall yeet it aside thinking it shall be explained later on on such selective memories. But as of now those don't really make sense to me.

Makes me really wonder if Qing You is still the producer of this game or indeed a whole ass management got swapped out and it’s consisting of fan canon writers forcing their own bs through into the official content - cuz the more I’m getting glimpses of the game, the more it gets further away from what I know and understand of in the past.

It’s a whole new concept.

Characters getting more and more one dimensional - oh Alkaid is the wowza secret agent, and him and MC are committed in a relationship of canary in the birdcage and the owner overlooking what it emotionally needs apart from the lavish cage. Nothing gets resolved at all and there’s no development in the story and relationship. 3 years of such a relationship and it's still stable as ever.

Power of love sure is strong that MC is willing to forgo her self to be with the love of her life. And she seems to grow evermore dependent on him, gradually all braindead with questionable preferences as of what I’m hearing about the latest story now.

The relationship development remains stagnant - no conflicts, no growth, no development. Their relationship is as good as their first date and it stops there. Some address conflicts and non-popular opinions, but some just get brushed off so badly it’s like a Mobius Strip of Toxicity. Especially the Feeler spectrum of boys.

It may be that I’ve lost touch, but really is this still the HLR that I loved and know of? I don’t know anymore if it’s my biased thoughts or just simply cuz I’m “out of touch”.

So much so I’m really losing my heart for this game as the content comes by.

Maybe I’m too tired, Maybe it’s just not for me anymore. Maybe… that’s how things will gradually become.

But well that’s all for me, and hopefully my good time with it remains where I stopped, and I believe that W3 is indeed the best one I’ve experienced in the game and I shall remember it as of then.

That’s all for me and now I peace out

[amadeusgame]

My goal for this month was to completely remake the demo with my new mechanics and have it in the private playtesting phase.

Actual status: the demo is currently about 90% remade, and I should have it in front of playtesters next week. My excuse for not completely meeting my goal is I have also been spending this month producing and mastering the GameBoy Advance-themed concept album THOUSANDS OF PIXELS IN YOUR HANDS, which drops 1/1/24! My piece for it samples sounds from a GBA cartridge surgery and is based on the Castlevania: Circle of the Moon soundtrack.

That aside, I am happy to announce that;

A new demo for Amadeus will release Friday, February 2, 2024!

With the upcoming demo, this itch.io game page will be rebranded and renamed to reflect the title of the full release - A Riddle for Thee ~ Episode 1: Waltz. I didn't think too far ahead when I initially named this page, because releasing the full game felt very far off back then. But at this point, it's definitely going to be a reality. I've spent about 6 months laying the groundwork I need to make it happen, so I want the new demo to lead smoothly and directly to the release of Episode 1 (and beyond).

There will be several changes and additions in the new demo in addition to all of the new mechanics. The currently live project was a proof-of-concept; this new project really is a demonstration of what the full game will be. Look forward to it!!

The main point of this devlog is just to announce that. So mark your calendars! ...For those interested, though, I'll still go over the following topics in more detail below:

Rebuilding The Demo: Process

Rebuilding The Demo: Current Status

Recreation/Inspiration (as always!)

Resources: linktr.ee/amadeusgame | amadeus-game.com

Details below the readmore!

Rebuilding The Demo: Process

The overall process can be distilled to a very simple (lol) 3-step process:

Take a hammer to the old demo

Rebuild and take notes

Use the process of rebuilding to finally fix big underlying problems you've ignored for the past year and revel in how much easier your life will be moving forward now

1. Take a hammer to the old demo

Dismantle everything dependent on the old scripts that are all connected to each other. Purge.

This part was difficult. I had built so many new mechanics in my test scene, but in order to implement them in existing scenes I had to replace all of the old scripts that were all hooked up to each other and reduce the game to an unplayable state before I could start rebuilding. What made this so difficult was that it felt like moving backwards: I was turning a playable (if obsolete) scene to an unplayable (but necessary to add all the cool new stuff) state. In the middle of this it really felt like I wasn't accomplishing anything at all and that I was moving farther away from my goal, even though that is completely untrue.

2. Rebuild and take notes

Start inserting new scripts and prefabs - taking notes along the way. INCLUDING notes that go "whoops, I didn't realize from my test scene, but X is broken now."

I cannot over-emphasize the importance of taking notes at this stage. I was adding interact mechanics, text mechanics, movement mechanics, UI updates. There was so much to rebuild for each scene, and the only way to make sure I was rebuilding each scene the same way was to take notes of my process and follow it for each new scene.

Please don't actually read this image, as it reveals a lot more than I would strictly like it to in terms of how well put-together this game is.

I started with the "simplest" scene (one that is a pure visual novel scene, only relying on the text and UI stuff with  no movement or player interaction save for advancing the text) and took step-by-step notes of everything I needed to do to make it playable again. What prefabs do I drag in and where? What reference objects need to be dragged in to which scripts? Then, once it was rebuilt, I moved on to the shortest interactive scene and made additional sections in my notes for movement and interaction mechanics. I also - VERY ESSENTIALLY - created 2 more sections: "Bugs (game-breaking)" and "Bugs (quality of life)." Here I jotted down everything that was messed up or broken in these new scenes that I didn't anticipate from my test scene.

Because, boy, even if everything works perfectly smoothly in the test scene, there will be new bugs that arise when you go to implement in other scenes. There was one issue with handling transitions from full-body screens to "close-up" screens that only arose in one scene that has specific properties the others don't. It took an absurd amount of time to troubleshoot and, in the end, was solved by adding two lines of code to one script changing the value of a single bool. That was one of those problems that wasn't satisfying to resolve... it just made me salty that such a persistent problem had such an obvious solution. On the plus side, I am now much more practiced with using the animator to isolate/identify problems, so next time a similar issue comes up it should be resolved much more quickly!

When rebuilding, I learned to first try to get everything mostly working and just write down the bugs I knew of to deal with later, not letting the process of troubleshooting every issue interrupt the primary task of Putting Everything Back Together But Better. If I let fixing bugs stand between me and finishing the rebuild, I would never finish the rebuild. Write it down and fix it later.

3. Fix big underlying problems

As a lazy person, I am not incentivized to fix big underlying problems if the game works as it is. This is why there is a lot of spaghetti in my game's code.

However, also as a lazy person, I am incentivized to make my own life easier when I don't feel like doing repetitive things over and over. So in the process of rebuilding the demo, it became clear that I was having to do certain very manual things way too often. Like manually resizing the text box for every individual line of text in the game. (Yes, that is really how it was put together originally...) Since I had to figure out how to use vertical layout groups for my scrolling text backlog that grows as you read more and more text, it was much easier to use the same principle to make a textbox layout group and just have all of my text objects as children to that parent, which would automatically resize them to the proper dimensions. So much easier to implement, and ALSO so much easier to tweak moving forward if I need to!

This is just a single example, but there are a lot of things like this that I never would have fixed if I didn't do the important first step of taking a hammer to the old demo and rebuilding. Everything was too interconnected and too dependent on the way I did things originally, bad habits and all. But since I had to tear it apart anyway to add the new mechanics I built, it ended up being easier to fix a lot of big issues like this, too.

Most of these fixes aren't going to be immediately obvious to the player, but I'm hoping it'll be obvious in aggregate that there's a bit more elegance in how things are put together now. A seasoned programmer would still look at my code and pass out, but compared to before, it's all much more wisely constructed. Hooray for learning!

Rebuilding the Demo: Current Status

New mechanics are implemented in every scene except for 1. That last scene should not present new problems that haven't already been noted or addressed from the previous ones, but never say never as I have learned. I still anticipate this going quickly, at which point I'll put it in front of playtesters for feedback on how it all feels and fix what's still egregiously broken.

The meat of the next month and some change will then be dedicated to art, narrative, and polish. I have already spent more time than I really hoped to purely on the mechanics, and now that I have baked my cake so to speak it's time to decorate it. I want to replace and update a lot of art assets now that I have a concrete concept for art direction. I want to tweak certain dialogue and descriptive text to foreshadow and set up plot points I've decided on. I want to add more fun things for the player to click on. I don't know how much I'll be able to add before the demo release, but at the bare minimum, there are many art assets and at least a couple music assets I'm excited to work on.

Even if it's the same core game, I really want this new demo to feel like a whole new experience. I'm really excited about it. I hope you are too!

Recreation/Inspiration

It never stops being important to acknowledge other media that inspires and influences me! It also never stops being important to do things for fun even when you're busy.

Truthfully I did not read more of Tsukihime this month like I expected to. I had a lot of Christmas presents to make and no time to dedicate to that much of A Commitment. Instead, I DID set aside time to check out a couple other indie/solo projects on itch - ever since I met and talked to a bunch of small indie devs at Seattle Indie Expo, I've really enjoyed looking at the work of other small & solo teams. It's affirming to know other people are also out there doing a ton of work by themselves, and that a one-person team can still make really incredible games.

This month I checked out:

- It Paints Me by Endysis. A short gothic horror VN. I really enjoy visual novels by creators with strengths that I lack, I find them both inspiring and insightful. The visual and sound experience in this was really cohesive in a way that none of my work is (I am, for better or worse, very much a "go in thousands of directions all at once and see how it comes together" kind of creator) - the illustrations and sounds were incredibly effective in coming together to set the tone of the story.

- Karambola by Holy Pangolin. A very unique point-and-click puzzle game. I was immediately struck by the way this game uses two distinct styles of illustration "against" one another, which is exactly what I intend to do in Amadeus. It was also a really good reference for communicating feedback to the player using audio/visual cues and not words. I will of course be using many words, since I am writing a visual novel, but in games learning how to communicate gameplay without a wall of text instruction manual is of dire importance. This was a really cool experience.

- Kit (demo) by Endysis. I had this on my radar since I liked It Paints Me so much, which was made for a game jam; I wanted to see what this creator would do in a project completed on their own schedule. I was absolutely enamored. I meant to only start it out at around 10pm and ended up bingeing the whole demo because I simply couldn't put it down. There are, in fact, many things from this game that I am also exploring in Amadeus, but elaborating further risks spoiling one or both games. The use of music in storytelling in particular was both moving and inspiring. If you like gothic horror I cannot recommend this enough.

That is a wrap for this month, and this year. I hope you all had/are having a wonderful holiday season. I don't think I'll be posting another devlog before the new demo drops, so... I hope you enjoy it when it's ready!!