#like??? sometimes I randomly remember I ONLINE DATED someone from tumblr for TWO YEARS

[boyapologist]

why did you guys had to like that damn post about patbri. I just went through a 2020 spiral

[stormears]

Trips to Japan With Friends That I Dreamed About Briefly.

Fantasizing lately about going on a trip to Japan with a friend, just because someone I follow on twitter is currently there. And I'm awkwardly struggling to decide which friend out of the three Main Friends I'd theoretically ask, because the other two would inevitably find out I'm going to Japan with someone besides them.

I have no serious plans at all and haven't even asked the friends, just thought about it randomly while helping clean out my mom's garage. There's Best Friend and there's Friend 2 and Friend 3, who used to be each other's absolute besties but had a falling out this year, so I have to hang out with them separately now. I couldn't take them both.

I also thought of a pie-in-the-sky dream of visiting Japan or some other gorgeous place abroad with an internet friend instead of an irl one, but also don't know which one of those I would magically take if I could and if they could go.

That fantasy brought up a whole new can of worms: that I haven't mentioned online friends to my mom at all since I sent a birthday package to a tumblr/fanfic friend in 2013 (a Nintendo 3DS) and my mom saw me wrapping the box. I explained who it was for, she shook her head and said I was so stupid for believing that "friend" was real that I'd probably get raped. (The friend is real. I don't remember what I said to Mom in that moment. I don't tell that woman much of fucking anything and I haven't since I was a child.)

She's...definitely softened with age and reacts more calmly to many things, but I still shudder at the idea of her finding out about my online friends at all because she will poke into them and ask what site I met them on, what we talked about, if I'm secretly dating them, want to see their pictures, and I FUCKING REFUSE to mention tumblr or FFN/AO3 so the internet friend would also have to be okay about lying to my mom with me and keeping that up literally until she dies of old age.

But me and mom just had a pretty nice time in the garage, she was in a good mood. So I felt, eh, "safe" enough to fantasize about these exotic trips happening and my mom NOT having a volcanic eruption about it where she acts like I personally betrayed her. Like what if she DIDN'T demand to see my online accounts and view actual chat logs of me talking to friends, and my refusal to show her DIDN'T make her certain I'm hiding some criminal porn activity from her? What if Heaven is real? Sometimes she doesn't blow up like I think she will. Sometimes she really does just...accept things, like a person should.

The fantasies of going somewhere with online friends was nice. But later that evening I went home and happened to read a wikipedia summary about a Dutch movie about a couple who meets another couple who seem really cool but turn out to be serial killers. Which threw an ugly wrench in my fantasizing, bc that's close to what my mom would think :(

If you've read this far I'm curious if you'll tell me, how have you navigated online friends as a topic with your parents, if at all?

[lovemesomesurveys]

Let’s Start With Some Firsts What is your first name? Stephanie. Who was the first person you spoke to in person today? My brother.  Who was the first person you spoke to on the phone today? No one so far. It’s only 1:49AM, so I guess that could change. What was your first pet? We had a dog named Buster when I was like 3 or 4.

What was your first job? I haven’t had one.

What was the first school you attended? A local preschool. 

How long was your first relationship? Two months. Who was the first person to break your heart? Joseph. First person to give you flowers or candy on Valentine’s day? My mom has always given me candy and a stuffed animal or some other gift on Valentine’s Day. I’ve never received flowers, though. Well, unless you count the candy roses my high school sold, ha.  First band you obsessed about? I mean, I was into NSYNC and Backstreet Boys when I was a kid, but the first band I really fangirled and got super involved with was the Jonas Brothers. That was like the first fandom I was really apart of. There was a website that had message boards and a chat room, and I was on those all the time (I made a few awesome online friends through that). I had their posters all over, their CDs, watched all their interviews and performances, and got to see them in concert a few times. First place you lived? Same city I live in now. First alcoholic beverage? Tequila. First place someone took you on a date? Dinner and a movie. First thing you did when you got up today? I haven’t gone to bed, yet, but I always do the same thing: check the time, take my medicine, lay there until I finally drag myself outta bed to use the restroom and make coffee. General Questions and Randomness What is the nearest yellow object to you? There’s some yellow on my shirt. What time was it two hours ago? 11:57PM. What were you doing then? Eating ramen and watching a YouTube video. Did anyone make your day today? Nothing much has happened so far. What is the name of the street you live on? Uh, yeah like I’m going to share that. I share a lot, but I have my limits.  Can you do a backflip? No. Are you listening to anything right now? An ASMR video. When was the last time you were in a car? This past Thursday. Are you an optimist or a pessimist? How much of a difference is there between pessimism and realism, really? <<<  Have you ever fallen up the stairs? No. What do you do when you can’t fall asleep? I’ve gone through this countless times, but here we go again: So, every night I scroll through Tumblr, do surveys, watch YouTube and listen to ASMR, and watch TV. I usually scroll through Pinterest at some point as well. Sometimes I color or read. Has anyone ever tried to tell you you were adopted? No. What’s the biggest lie you’ve told someone? I don’t know. Have you ever been hit on by someoene of the same sex? I had a friend who did that sometimes when she was drunk. How many doors are in the room you’re in? One. Have you ever been engaged and broke it off? No.  Are you wearing anything red? There’s some red on my shirt. My hair is also red if that counts, ha. Have you ever found pictures on your camera you don’t remember taking? Yeah. Has anyone ever drawn a picture of you? Yes. Are you wearing any jewelry at the moment? Nope. Have you ever dated a redhead? No. What are your thoughts on facial hair on guys? I like some scruff. Did you go anywhere today? It’s 2 in the morning, so no, but I don’t have any plans to go anywhere later on either.  Look to your right, what do you see? I first noticed the curtains that are in place of the sliding doors I used to have for my closet.  Where is your favorite place to go when you want to be alone? My bed. I’ll likely throw in some headphones and listen to ASMR, zone out to something on TV, or read. How many Joshua’s do you know? I don’t know any. Do you have any nieces or nephews? No. Do any of your friends have children? Facebook “friends.” Were you in a relationship a month ago? No. How about six months ago? No. Do you expect to be in a relationship a month from now? Nope. I know I won’t be. Is there anything you’re craving right now? It’s been a couple days since I’ve had wings :O haha. Who would you most like to see right now? No one. Everyone stay home!  If you randomly received $50 today, what would you do with it? Save it. Let’s Finish It With Some Lasts How old is the last girl you spoke to? 53. How did you meet the last guy you spoke to? He’s my brother. I met him the day he was born. How long have you known the last person to leave you a comment? Facebook: It was my aunt, whom I’ve known my whole life. On here: It was Lane. He and I have been mutual followers and gotten to know each other through surveys the past few years. We’ve talked a few times as well. What caused the last argument you had? Meh. What was the last movie you watched? A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Where were you the last time you kissed someone? I don’t remember. It was so long ago. Can you remember the last item your purchased? Food. What was the last thing you had to eat? Ramen. Where was your last paycheck from? SSI. What was the last school you received a degree from? A UC in my state. What did the last key you used go to? My house.  When was the last time you cut your hair? Back in early February.  Who got married at the last wedding you attended? Friends of a friend.  What is your last name? Nope.

[moonanagames]

(sorry if this was answered before) As someone who managed to (very succesfully) go through a crowdfunding campaign, do you have any tips for other indie game devs who would also need to fund their game this way?

This will be gigantic, I am sorry =|

Tips for a successful Crowdfunding Campaign ahead:

For a crowdfunding campaign the game has to initially have this good proposal/be good looking or interesting in the first glance. That will make the difference between people getting interested by your thumbnail or not (and even make the difference on #screenshotsaturdays and such). I know it is a bit disheartening to hear this, but crowdfunding campaigns are basically a very hardcore marketing mode (and honestly, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who want to keep their sanity, I think it is a very desperate measure for desperate times, I had a REALLY hard time doing it, but it was really fun and challenging and I grew up a lot out of this experience). Basically it has a lot of downsides, and its brightsides! :3

If you do have an interesting game, it will be probably easy to gather the people interested in it! Some people take up to 1 year to gather a fandom before the crowdfunding campaign. I took about, uh… 6 months! At first I wasn’t thinking about this at all, so I was just randomly posting. Since the game got a good fanbase at start I thought it should be a good idea (also the pressure of bills, lol)

So basically, for starters:

Have an interesting concept and good looking game who works well with gifs/screenshots, have good promotional art.

Build a fanbase, some people take a year at that before the campaign.

Building the Fanbase:

Create a twitter, tumblr, instagram, facebook, IndieDb, Tigsource, accounts in specific forums for your engine, reddit. Whatever suits your game, go there. But focus on the social media your game gathers more fanbase on. For VvtZ that should be Tumblr! For a lot of games it’s twitter or even Instagram. Respect the way each media works also, there’s different mindset for each media, since they gather different kinds of people. Instagram is still a mystery for me, for example. Facebook, pffft… I don’t even know. So don’t get desperate if you have no followers in one of those.

Cultivating the Fanbase:

The Fanbase is the most important aspect of something like this, because you are essentially asking for people’s moneys and they should trust your work for that. You do that by having a demo of your game, by building a good relationship with them (that can be really hard if you don’t feel comfortable around people, and can be really nerve wrecking, so don’t push yourself too much, you can always trust a publisher for that as well!). The good relationship basically comes from you considering people as friends and treating them as, oh well… People? I see a lot of articles on those, and they basically teach you to treat people in this strategical way, like they are robots and stuff, but it’s just easier to treat everyone as people xD In that way, you can really engage with everyone and respect their space, without being annoying. I also try to remember everyone who follows by their avatars (when people change avatars is hell), and I always get excited when someone who likes a lot of posts reblogs and stuff. I also try to welcome them to the blog, sometimes I forget, but when I remember I show them the discord server etc, where we can talk more easily.

It’s basically like how in the first day of school, or work, you don’t know anyone and you try to engage. It’s hard, but once you mingle with people you’ll see they’re not that frightening. (and if you really feel anxious around them, I recommend getting a publisher to handle this job! They like people and a good publisher can really help a game out :0)

(the discord server should be created after you have some fanbase on social medias)

Contacting media:

It’s important to contact media, but you can do that directly on Indiedb. Every time you have news on your game, you go on Indiedb and upload your game page. Media check IndieDb all the time, so that’s great! If you can attend events, go on those. It’s the easiest way to be covered. Try posting on IndieDb on the week days, because that’s when journalists work. The crowdfunding campaign date should start in a weekday and end in a weekday also due to that.

Some tips on media:

Gather emails of journalists who talk about the genre of your game or similar games. Don’t contact just any journalist around, they’ll ignore you. Try to focus on the ones that are interested in your genre.

Siliconera, Alpha Beta Gamer and One Angry Gamer are the sites that were more indie friendly in my experience.

Post on IndieDb at every new big announcement. (I didn’t do this, but it’s extremely recommended)

Don’t harass journalists. Send emails only when you have big announcements. The subject should be the name of the news, like “Name of the game is getting a new boss mode inspired by Popular game”. This is the kinda thing that interests journalists, because they want to awe the reader. The content should be the text you would like on the news, with some introductions for your game! You should have a nice pitch for that. Just search on google stuff like “How to make a good pitch for my game” that you’ll find a large number of useful articles! (To be honest, I never sent an email to journalists and was answered, but a lot of people do it and they get news on their games!)

Pc gamer holds something called “Indie Gif Showcase”, it’s worth to give it a try.

Kickstarter, Indiegogo or Fig.co?

Kickstarter: Excelent outreach, people visit kickstarter every day, more chances of being covered by journalists, the most known platform, they use Stripe Atlas which is a extremely secure form of payment online for the developer and the users. They only accept some countries tho, there’s a list on their website. You can still use the website even out of those accepted countries if you have a stripe account and a US company. You can check that on Stripe Atlas website! (it is really complicated, tho, you should be way more experienced to do this kinda stuff)

Indiegogo: Less outreach, people see it as a scammers platform because of some problems they had with some campaigns in the past (it is not, it’s just a normal crowdfunding site). Used to accept paypal, but not anymore. Accept all the countries Kickstarter doesn’t.

Fig.co: The newest platform and the less known of the 3. It is curated, meaning they chose their games. You can send a pitch to them through their site. They act as publishers and help you out throughout all the process of developing your campaign content and marketing strategies. They work personally with each developer and campaign. They also offer PR services, like contacting journalists for you. They also have a double mode campaign, you can have a normal rewards campaign and also a investments one, where investors invest on your game and get a portion of it upon release.

Last tips:

Post a lot on your social medias;

Connect with your fandom also through discord;

Be honest with them in all of the development process;

Have a demo up on first week of the campaign;

Have a nice looking campaign page explaining everything that is interesting and unique about your game; search for successful campaigns of the same genre as yours to get to know what kind of information they put up there, it’s really helpful;

Also don’t disconsider unsuccessful campaigns and try to find out WHY they failed in the first place. Often it has to do with how their page was presented.

Care about people’s times and mind that when writing on your Campaign Page. Don’t give useless information there;

Weekly updates during campaign’s period. One time a month when campaign is over (or two max);

[brionyjae]

soooo i was tagged by the lovely @eucatastrophe--x​ and since i’ve actually done a decent amount of writing tonight, i figured i deserved to procrastinate a little! ;)

rules; answer these 85 statements and tag 20 people

(i’m gonna put this under a read more just so i don’t block everyone’s dashboard lol)

THE LAST

1. drink: hot chocolate! 2. phone call: my mum lol 3. text message: from my brother telling me i needed to hurry up and watch supernatural already xD i mean, he’s not wrong, but i’ve got a ‘to-watch’ list a mile long... 4. song you listened to: ‘androgynous‘ by joan jett & the blackhearts (thank you, ipod shuffle gods) 5. time you cried: last week, while reading ‘radio silence’ by @chronicintrovert​... all the aled and frances feels tho! 6. dated someone twice: what? 7. kissed someone and regretted it: liiiiiike YES but also no? regret bc it was awful, but don’t regret bc otherwise i wouldn’t know it was awful? 8. been cheated on: noooooo 9. lost someone special: one of my cats got hit by a car :( 10. been depressed: ...........not technically? 11. gotten drunk and thrown up: NEVER :D

THREE FAVOURITE COLOURS

12. yellow 13. purple 14. orange

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU

15. made new friends: not really haha 16. fallen out of love: noooooo 17. laughed until you cried: maybe once 18. found out someone was talking about you: nope 19. met someone who changed you: i literally don’t meet people lmao 20. found out who your friends are: no? 21. kissed someone on your Facebook list: no GENERAL

22. how many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: most of them! some are online friends tho 23. do you have any pets: YES three cats :) *snuggles* 24. do you want to change your name: sometime in the future, probably, i don’t like my surname. my pen name is the only thing that matter tho ;) 25. what did you do for your last birthday: OMG i can’t remember?? D: probably had pizza with my family and watched moana... oh and the day after i went to see two shakespeare plays at the pop-up globe theatre in auckland so that was awesome!

26. what time did you wake up: well one of my cats woke me up at 6:45am, which was good for once since i wanted to watch @chronicintrovert​ and @laurenjames​’s livestream at 7am, but then my laptop had a meltdown and i missed it all anyways D: 27. what were you doing at midnight last night: still trying to get to sleep (i was reading for too long lol) 28. name something you can’t wait for: going to armageddon in auckland in october and meeting JOHN BARROWMAN and TOM FELTON i’m gonna dieeeeee 29. when was the last time you saw your mom: the weekend before last :) i actually live at home but we’re in the process of moving house, so she came back to help me organise the open home! 31. what are you listening to right now: silence... :P

32. have you ever talked to a person named tom: indeed i have 33. something that is getting on your nerves: having to keep the house looking immaculate in case our real estate agent decides to randomly bring people to view it... JUST LET ME LEAVE MY CLOTHES ON THE FLOOR DAMMIT 34. most visited website: tumblr :’) 35. hair colour: dark blonde

36. long or short hair: shortish? 37. do you have a crush on someone: nope

38. what do you like about yourself:  wow how dare you rofl. um, my glasses? and my eyes? 39. piercings: just one in one ear, i want to get a couple more in the same ear tho. i’ll get around to it eventually. 40. blood type: O+ 41. nickname: bri, BB, BY, BBJ, bumble bee 42. relationship status: FOREVER SINGLE BABY

43. zodiac: pisces 44. pronouns: she/her

45. favourite tv show: JUST ONE?? can’t do it. the flash, supergirl, RWBY, the musketeers, torchwood, sherlock, HIMYM, thunderbirds are go. 46. tattoos: not yet! i plan on getting quite a few tho! 47. right or left handed: right handed 48. surgery: i had two wisdom teeth removed last month, and had a cyst removed from my forehead when i was 13 50. sport: don’t play any, but love watching cricket and rugby 51. vacation: haven’t been on many, but i had such a good time exploring melbourne :) 52. pair of trainers: nike

MORE GENERAL

53. eating: right now i wish i had some caramilk cadbury chocolate... BUT THE SHOPS HAVE ALL RUN OUT BC IT WAS LIMITED RELEASE AND I AM SO MAD RN 54. drinking: tea tea TEA 55. I’m about to: go to bed and read ‘not your sidekick’ by c. b. lee! and then sleeeeeeep 56. waiting for: myself to get my arse into gear and finish my novel? 57. want: idek what this means? 58. get married: can’t see it ever happening, don’t really think about it tbh 59. career: WRITER I HOPE D:

WHICH IS BETTER?

60. hugs or kisses: hugs 61. lips or eyes: eyes 62. shorter or taller: shorter hehee 63. older or younger: idk?? 64. nice arms or nice stomach: uhmmmm arms 65. hookup or relationship: weeeell tbh neither personally lol but relationship

HAVE YOU EVER:

67. kissed a stranger: unfortunately yes, it was after drinking these cute baby bottles of vodka straight that my friend somehow got?? 68. drank hard liquor: see previous question lol 69. lost glasses/contact lenses: i’ve only lost my glasses case before, thankfully the glasses were on my face at the time :D 70. turned someone down: yes 71. sex on the first date: LOLOLOLOLOL 73. had your heart broken: i guess so 74. been arrested: no 75. cried when someone died: yep :( 76. fallen for a friend: see 73 ha

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

77. yourself: i’d like to, but i know that i procrastinate way too much :/ 78. miracles: *shrug* 79. love at first sight: nope 80. santa claus: seriously? 81. kiss on the first date: for people in general? sure 82. angels: i don’t think so

OTHER

84. eye colour: blue/gray 85. favourite movie: AGAIN, JUST ONE? D: i love these films equally: star trek 2009, inception, the man from UNCLE, power rangers 2017, the outsiders, carol, moana, zootopia.

i really can’t be bothered tagging anyone, so if you want to do it, go ahead :P