#magnum opus interstellar

[seat-safety-switch]

I never thought it would happen to me, until it did. And then I hoped that it would stop happening to me. That thing, of course, is arcade games. Back in the 80s, and even for a short time into the 90s, the arcade was where it was at for videogames. I was good, sure, but not amazing. Except for one game.

One evening, as I was leaving, my pockets lightened substantially of quarters, I was approached by a being made of pure light.

"Are you the one with the high score on Konami's 1989 magnum opus, Quarth, also known as Block Hole in the West?" asked the apparition.

"No," I said. "I've got like number two or three."

"You are not the one referred to in the high score tables as S-E-X?" asked the foreign creature. I could sense some fear.

I shook my head. "A-S-S."

"This is very embarrassing," said the alien, "but would you like to pilot a starship and kill a bunch of people you don't know on our say-so?"

Normally, interstellar genocide is not my kind of thing. What is my kind of thing is abusing rental cars, and although the space fighter parked in the middle of the field adjacent to the arcade didn't look much like a car, it did have little tires holding it up. I decided that there was a pretty good chance this thing had some copper wire in it.

[thisliminalspacedaydreams]

Update on the weird fic. We're doing interstellar travelling and space things, and inventing new languages based on Latin, and dreaming in black and white, and we're doing a wrapped version of soulmates, also the room of requirement isn't a room nor is it a requirement but it's become a very big deal.

I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing but it might become my Magnum opus.

[xasha777]

In the sprawling deserts of Kythonis, a place where ancient ruins met futuristic advancements, lived a young woman named Aelara. Her vibrant green hair flowed like a living extension of the lush oases hidden within the barren landscapes. Aelara was known not just for her striking appearance but for the mysterious aura that surrounded her, marked by the intricate geometric patterns on her clothing and the golden headpiece she wore, a relic from an age long past.

Aelara’s life took a turn when she stumbled upon an ancient artifact buried deep beneath the sands. This artifact, a relic of the old world, contained the encrypted coordinates to a hidden laboratory of the legendary scientist William Livingstone Watson. Watson, an enigmatic figure from the past, was renowned for his groundbreaking work in trans-dimensional physics and energy manipulation. His disappearance centuries ago had left many questions unanswered, and his secrets were believed to hold the key to unimaginable technological advancements.

Driven by an insatiable curiosity, Aelara set out on a journey to find Watson’s hidden laboratory. Equipped with her keen intellect and a set of advanced tools, she decoded the artifact’s encryption and began her quest. Along her journey, she encountered various challenges, from navigating treacherous terrains to outsmarting rogue AI guardians left to protect Watson’s secrets.

Her journey led her to a colossal structure half-buried in the sand, its exterior covered in hieroglyphs and symbols that hinted at the advanced knowledge it contained. Inside, Aelara discovered a wealth of information—blueprints for interstellar travel, data on energy sources that could revolutionize civilizations, and most intriguingly, the detailed research on a project Watson had called “The Quantum Nexus.”

The Quantum Nexus was Watson’s magnum opus, a project aimed at creating a bridge between parallel universes. Aelara realized that this technology, if understood and harnessed, could not only advance their society but also pose significant risks if it fell into the wrong hands. Determined to unlock its secrets, she delved deeper into Watson’s notes, her understanding of quantum mechanics and vector calculus guiding her through the complex theories.

As she unraveled the mysteries of the Quantum Nexus, Aelara discovered a hidden chamber containing a holographic recording of William Livingstone Watson himself. The hologram, a digital echo of the man, revealed his vision of a future where knowledge and technology were used for the greater good. He warned of the dangers of power and the responsibility that came with such knowledge.

Inspired by Watson’s message, Aelara decided to protect the Quantum Nexus’s secrets. She left the laboratory, sealing it behind her to ensure that only those with the purest intentions could access its knowledge. Aelara returned to her desert home, carrying with her the wisdom of the past and the hope for a better future.

In the end, Aelara became a guardian of the ancient knowledge, her green hair a symbol of life and growth amidst the desolate sands, and her story a testament to the enduring spirit of discovery and the noble pursuit of knowledge for the benefit of all.

[denimbex1986]

'As Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus project Oppenheimer, is gradually inching closer to its official entry into the billion-dollar club, the sci-fi epic has become one of the biggest critical and commercial blockbusters of 2023 as of now. As the SAG-AFTRA strikes affected the promotion of Cillian Murphy’s project, the movie still went on to create wonders at the box office.

As Oppenheimer competes with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, it has not only broken records at the box office but also for the legendary filmmaker Christopher Nolan. After giving successful blockbusters like The Dark Knight Trilogy, Interstellar, Dunkirk, and Memento, Christopher Nolan deviated his path from projects with ambiguous endings to retelling the story of a man who went on to change the history and geopolitics of the world. Without hyping much, let’s find out how Oppenheimer broke Christopher Nolan’s created records.

Oppenheimer Saw Cillian Murphy In The Leading Role For The First Time

The great rapport between Christopher Nolan and the Peaky Blinders actor Cillian Murphy is not hidden from the world. Previously, the Irish actor collaborated with the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker in movies like Inception, Dunkirk, and The Dark Knight trilogy, Oppenheimer brought Cillian Murphy into the world of mainstream cinema as a leading man.

He was critically acclaimed for the portrayal of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s much-hyped project. Cillian Murphy came to the media spotlight with his period crime drama Peaky Blinders. With his unconventional looks and great acting prowess, the actor has already immortalized the character of Thomas Shelby.

Oppenheimer Was Christopher Nolan’s First Universal Collaboration

Christopher Nolan had been a significant part of the billion-dollar production house Warner Bros and has made great movies from the house of Warner Bros. The Inception director had bid goodbye to the production house over a dispute. According to the media outlet IGN, the bidding for Oppenheimer was won by the reputed Universal Pictures with non-negotiable terms outlined by Christopher Nolan.

According to a few terms and conditions made by Christopher Nolan, the famous production house Universal was asked not to produce any other project three weeks before the release of Oppenheimer.

The Star-Studded Cast Of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer

No doubt Christopher Nolan has an eye for great talent which is quite evident in his projects. From working with the talented star Christian Bale to Oscar Winner Leonardo DiCaprio filmmaker is quite popular among the prominent actors he has worked with. For the first time, Christopher Nolan had famous A-listers from Hollywood on board for Oppenheimer.

The casting of the epic drama was perfectly done which included actors like Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Emily Blunt, Tom Conti, Josh Hartnett, and Rami Malek.

First Time Christopher Nolan Targeted A Different Audience For Oppenheimer

This time Christopher Nolan’s project did not focus on a specific target audience. Oppenheimer is a re-telling of one of the most important men in the history of mankind. The filmmaker did take a risk this time by making a movie for all and showing something that everybody has already known and read about.

Despite being shot in both black and white and color frames, Oppenheimer went on to prove that with great storytelling, a re-telling from the past can also work wonders at teh box office and as well as critically.

Christopher Nolan’s First Project That Doesn’t Have A Confusing Ending

The British-American director is quite well known for leaving his target audience in bits and pieces with respect to the climax of his projects. Be it his space Odyssey Interstellar or Inception. With Oppenheimer, he has broken his own record of confusing endings.

Undoubtedly, there are instances in the movie that indirectly denote ambiguity, but not as similar as his previous projects. Made on a budget of $100 million, the movie has already grossed a staggering $853.24 million and is slowly inching toward its billion-dollar mark...'

[qm-vox]

Field Guide - Liminal Space

(Breakfast In Space by Domochevsky. You can find him here.)

You’ve seen me post about it before, but here we go again. The Lancer third-party project I’m working on with the esteemed Ikiryo and Psybomb is reaching the point of completion, and we’re actively courting publishers. That means it’s time to put everything in one place where folks can see it and offer final check-ins, and to talk a bit about the project!

A Thousand Sunrises - Liminal Space Overview

Liminal Space is a third-party supplement compatible with the incredible Lancer RPG published by Massif Press. It concerns itself with organizations and people that are between - that are trying to start a new life, who are trying to change because they cannot continue as they are, who live on frontiers and border-places, the folks laying the tracks in front of themselves as they go as well as ancient political powers devouring their own unwholesome wrath to become something new and terrible. It contains:

- Three new mech manufacturers, complete with eight frames each, core bonuses, flashpoints, and information on how they rise from and fit into the setting of Lancer. Each has been made with the other two and core Lancer content in mind, and are ready to hit your table alone or together!

- A whopping eighteen new NPC types to face in battle and challenge your players with

- New Agartha Station, a Blink Station run by Magnum Opus Interstellar whose crew and support staff are a nation unto themselves.

The NPC document is here, and has been worked on extensively by Ikiryo and playtested with the help of the Lancer community. More information on the individual manufacturers follows...now. The links to their documents will be in their headers.

I’m Saving Humanity And Nothing You Do Will Stop Me - Downfall Group

Downfall Group is a rogue subsidiary of Interplanetary Shipping-Northstar; originally a corporate intelligence agency, DFG has since become radically anti-corporate and works to undermine its parent and its rivals through espionage, information control, sabotage, smear campaigns, and, when it can’t be avoided, proxy warfare. Born from a corrupt system but with noble goals, DFG faces an inevitable exposure, and the transformation that exposure must bring when they break off from their parent company. Play Downfall Group’s mechs if you enjoy trading general tools for your specific focus, overwhelming one domain of battle, and never being quite what enemies expect you to be.

The Gates Of Twilight - Magnum Opus Interstellar

Magnum Opus Interstellar is an ancient but modestly sized corpo-state specializing in Blink tech and the creation of Blink Gates. Long defined by a close relationship to Union, who keeps their premier technology on a tight leash, and a subtle but far-reaching influence on interstellar trade, war has awakened a rage in MOI fit to crack worlds down to their cores. Its technosorcerers ride now to battle, and its facade of polite neutrality may not survive the flowering of MOI’s wrath. Play Magnum Opus Interstellar's Mechs if you enjoy counterplay, calculated precision and digitally outmaneuvering your foes.

I Have 99 Problems And Money Is All Of Them - Marley, Oz, & Silver

Marley, Oz, & Silver is a youngblood debt-relief organization founded to help solve problems that have fallen through the cracks of Union’s Third Committee. Devoted to helping people who would otherwise be lost and forgotten, crying out for a relief that never comes, MO & S finds themselves awkwardly holding on to power they did not want and engaging in arms dealing to fund their mission (and, at times, to facilitate it). Though their shining ideals are bright indeed, MO&S walks a fine line day in and day out to avoid becoming the very evil they want to oppose. Play Marley, Oz, & Silver’s mechs if you want to take a licking & keep on ticking, if you enjoy having and facilitating mechanical combos, if you like performing classic battlefield roles ‘wrong’, and to have a mech that is as much a literal, physical object as it is an extension of your pilot’s self.

A Meeting At The Crossroads - New Agartha Station

New Agartha Station is one of the earliest Blink Gates of humanity. Standing on the line between technological innovation and sorcerous ritual, New Agartha Station houses millions of souls within the great crossroads. Ships trade goods from dozens of lifetimes apart and a single step within the gate can bring one to worlds unimagined. However, the ghosts of the past are emerging and only time will tell if a station that has enjoyed the fruit of countless labors for so long can endure the weight of its own sins.

Last and least, I’m also writing an ongoing fiction that heavily features MO & S content and elements of Liminal Space’s setting. The Mighty Caseys follows the MSMC 23rd Mechanized Cavalry (”The Mighty Caseys”) as they are hired by a mysterious client to prosecute their revenge against a megacorp and maybe, just maybe, dig themselves out of the doghouse.

Review and feedback is highly welcome! Keep an eye on the threshold, pilot.

[morticrow]

Autumn Drabble

Part 1 -(SFW) Happy Halloween!

You’re Yautja hubby has arrived for your date 🥰

This is mainly to get into the fall mood to finish this up. Next part will be NSFW.

Deep gray overcast creeps across the sky. Storm clouds bathe the evening in a soft filter of cool blue, complemented by notes of titian red from electroliers and shop windows. An earthy aroma , warnings of an impending cold rain, permeates the air. The street already wet with puddles from an earlier downpour.

Far off, you hear the splashing of car tires driving on wet pavement. Amplified by the dead silence of the strip mall. This was one of the rare moments of peace where most were tucked away in their homes and apartments, sharing a warm dinner, playing a board game, or preparing for the upcoming holiday season.

You hold your shopping bag close to your chest, protecting it from a strong gust of wind and the splatter of roof water that comes with it. Wind chimes taunt you from above and a wooden pumpkin sign dances in the breeze.

There truly is no better season than autumn.

Sliding into the drivers seat of your vehicle, you turn the key and bring the engine to life with a steady thrum. Frigid windows immediately fog against the sudden heat of the AC. There was no time to warm your hands against the air blasting from the vents, you still have to set everything up before he arrives.

Darkness sets over the valley during the drive home. You were still adjusting to early nightfall that came with the turn of the season. Just a few months ago, the sun would be high in the sky and you would’ve been headed to a state fair or maybe even to pick up any left overs from the farmers market. There’s a strange beauty in it.

Your house greets you at the end of the road, all lights off except the porch light you flicked on when leaving. Smiling to yourself, you hurry to park and grab everything from the passenger seat. Your were early. Or he was just late. Either would work. Entering the front door, you remove your coat and drop the bags off in the hallway, before heading into the kitchen, flicking lights on as you go.

Dinner was already cooked, everything just needed a quick heat up in the oven and on the stove. You had prepared his favorite. A slow roasted pork haunch, lightly seasoned of course. Too much salt never agrees with him, especially if you were making dessert. No need to add to the agony he was going to be in after his alien body inevitably rejected the pie.

He could eat raw animals from any planet, but god, er, ‘paya’ forbid he be able to enjoy gluten or dairy. It was probably a good thing Yautja couldn’t eat sweets, else bakeries would start seeing their stockrooms raided.

Setting the frozen pie on the table, it would have to wait for the ham to be done, you move to the living room and begin rearranging furniture. Usually, your interstellar lover only returned during late spring, staying until the last warm day of summer, before leaving again. So, when he sent you a transmission that he would be coming back for a weekend, you had been ecstatic, immediately taking off work and preparing for his arrival.

After moving the furniture, you hurry over to the shopping backs, taking out the candles and setting them on various surfaces. They were unscented as to not irritate your guest, but the soft light was preferable to the overhead one. You also unpacked the handful of dollar bin horror movies and splay them out on the floor in front of the tv, before going back to the project in the middle of your living room.

Satisfied, you take a moment to appreciate your work. It had been years since you’ve made a proper blanket fort, but this one went fucking hard. Your magnum opus. We’re talking string lights with bulbs shaped like little leaves, the fluffiest of all pillows , and the star of the show: a nest of heated blankets, as many as the store would let you buy.

Now, all you had left to do is-

A strange hissing noise sounds from the kitchen. You blink. Was something boiling over? Did your oven catch fire?

Another noise. Like a dogs claws struggling to find purchase on a stretch of ice, followed by a frantic crunching.

You grab the broom. Raccoons. They had found there way into your home… again.

You pad softly forward, silent in your ghost themed socks, wielding the broom out infront of you. The inhuman noises only increasing in fervor as you turn the corner.

There in the kitchen, a hulking figure. It hunches over the table, too enthralled with its task to notice it wasn’t alone. In one fluid motion, you cross the kitchen, thwacking at the creature with the bristle end of the broom.

“Bhu’ja!!” Whack. “Stop! It’s Frozen!” WhackWhack.

Slowly, the Yautja turns to face you. Two chunks of frozen pumpkin pie in each hand, a third suspended infront of his face, held in place by four mandibles. His eyes wide with the same surprise as a child who was caught with his hands in the cookie jar. Technically he was. If a child was a giant murder alien, and the hypothetical cookie was a literal pumpkin ice block.

He drops the two in his hand, but pushes the third into his mouth, inner fangs making quick work with those same sickening crunches. You might have gagged, if you weren’t so happy to see him.

He spreads his top mandibles in his gesture of a smile, his chest puffing slightly. “It is good.” His English considerable better than when you first met. “ But Bhu’ja’s mate taste is better.”

He must be so fucking proud of himself for that one.

You cross you arms and let out an indignant huff. “Oh, no you’re not getting out of thi-“ His deep purring rumble cuts you off mid-sentence, pulling you into him. Before you can protest, you’re wrapped in his warmth, breathing in his scent. The rough edges of his armor dig into your skin, but the soft rumbling eases any tension.

“It’s good to see you.” You mumble, your voice muffled by his chest. He only grumbles in response, clawed fingers drawing circles between your shoulder blades.

You arch your back ever so slightly, a gasp on your lips.

He wastes no time, delicately , as much as someone of his stature could be delicate, picking you up and sitting you on the counter, leaning over you. Hot breath dances across your face as he leans forward, drinking in your features and the way your eyelashes flutter when he drags his claws down against your-

“Bhu’ja.”

He growls a warning, not wanting to be interrupted.

“Bhu’ja the ham is burning and my hair is in the pie.”

He shoots up, pulling you back to your feet before letting you go. You didn’t need to tell him twice.

[egg-emperor]

I saw that post of yours about eggman and the environment, and it got me thinking, especially the last eggman land part. I think designing the parks in sonic colour would have been really frustrating for eggman. Because we've seen that its much tamer then his magnum opus that is eggman land in unleashed (planets chained together or not), and in the opening musical scene we can see crowds cheering him on for it. Despite his love of designing amusement parks, it's ultimately a lesser version of his idealised work and people love it. He just can't wait to unleash his master plot and get to work building the real thing on earth, whether people are cheering for him this time or not. In the meantime he just tries to get away with making it as 'eggman' as possible by hiding some killer robots as rides, and making what's there as dangerous as he can get away with.

Hmm that's interesting, I never really thought of it like that because with the look we get at him standing over Tropical Resort in the intro, it looks like he's having the time of his life. Apparently the Interstellar Park took years to make, understandably considering it's interplanetary! He must've felt a huge amount of pride, looking down upon some of the beauty he's created all by himself and has tons of time and effort into it to bring some of his wildest theme park dreams to life and he's overjoyed. This also seems evident in his PAs, he sounds like he's having so much fun and I love how it's a combination of his enthusiasm and passion for his park and how he loves to hear his own lips flap. XD I'm not entirely sure what you mean about seeing crowds cheering in the opening though, I've never noticed other people there aside from Eggman, Sonic, Tails, and the Wisps. ???

But I can see what you mean about it being tamer in a way because the aesthetics are more bright and happy and it's not like being in literal hell (but heaven for me 🥴) like Eggmanland is. With Eggmanland, he immediately made it clear how messed up it was and it looked it with the dark intimidating atmosphere. But the Interstellar Park is more like a trap, it looks so beautiful and he lies and pretends he's built it out of a sense of remorse to lure people in but once you're in, you discover the horrors with all the fucked up things that can happen at his rides and attractions. Then he isn't secretive about it when he's describing the deadly risks in gruesome detail, making morbid jokes, and revealing that he's so selfish that he only has escape pods for himself in cases of emergency and nobody else. I think that keeps him satisfied enough and he seems to get sadistic enjoyment out of it.

I think he could perhaps be a little torn because part of what he really enjoyed about Eggmanland was the fact that it looked as fucked up as it was, took pride in it that specifically, and enjoyed immediately admitting it openly with his "If you have any complaints come deliver them to me in person. If you can, that is." and Sonic saying he was enjoying it way too much. I do think that he gets most enjoyment out of striking fear into people's hearts first and foremost because then they'll be especially likely to recognize his power with the scary things he's capable of and submit when they feel they have no other choice. But I think he can also find a ton of enjoyment in luring them in, making them think it's all safe and happy- only for fear and dread to quickly set in when they realize that oh shit- this place is actually extremely fucked up and deadly! So I think it was still pretty much everything he wanted it to be out of what did have completed at the time.

I think that all the planets were exactly the way he wanted them after years of work and passion. They're super creative and fun and I like to think that, while it all appears more happy and bright than Eggmanland, he genuinely enjoyed the beautiful aesthetics as much as the latter, he likes the range. Though at the same time, I guess there's a chance he had to tone things down a bit more than he liked in terms of how dangerous and scary some things like certain rides and attractions would've looked at first glance, if it would've immediately driven people away when he was trying to trick them. But they did get to be way more dangerous than they looked and I can see him liking the element of shock and surprise after the false sense of safety and security. So yeah, I'd say he could perhaps be a little torn at least.

And while he's clearly having tons of fun with everything he's accomplished so far, Earth is supposed to be the crown jewel and it feels incomplete without it. It makes me think, since the more obviously fucked up theme park of Eggmanland and such existed on Earth, it's where he plans for all his rides and attractions of the sort where it's immediately obvious that they're dangerous and chaos is literally around every turn will be built. Because by then, everyone will be under the influence of his mind control cannon and he'll have taken over and won, so he won't have to pretend and make it look happy and safe because nobody can stop him. Then he can really make the rest of his dreams come true and find joy in them suffering in his deadly fucked up theme parks of hell on Earth. They won't be cheering and he'll be the only one having fun when he switches that cannon off ohoho man >:)

I don't think he was unhappy with what he did get to create despite not getting to complete his dream just yet. I think he loved the design process and was very happy with how everything looked because he improved upon all these planets in his eyes and made some of his craziest dreams a reality. Having to make sure it didn't look dangerous at first sight didn't stop all the deadly dangers of the rides and attractions he details in his PAs from existing there and he likes how it's deceiving. I think he enjoys the range he gets out of having both creations with gorgeous, colorful, happy aesthetics like the other planets, and more with dark, scary, intimidating aesthetics with the things on earth, all of it is as deadly- and as beautiful in his eyes. Maybe he would've made some changes to the other planets when he no longer had to pretend but I feel a lot of it would've stayed the same for the most part.

But yeah, he was evidently eager to finally get his hands on Earth because it would be the crown jewel center where he'd get to truly realize his entire theme park and empire in the way he's always dreamed of and probably would've taken things way further than he got to with the rest of it. With his Interstellar Park, he might have possibly had a few moments during the creation where he had to tone down things just a bit and was a little disappointed that he couldn't go all out entirely until he had earth to complete it but he loved the results of the other planets so far. The good definitely outweighed any bad and he did get to accomplish the most impressive amount of his dreams and had a blast with it before Sonic came along to ruin it. If only it could've lasted and he could've succeeded, I would've loved to see the true final results with Earth included 💜

[askagamedev]

I’ve actually been thinking about this question for a bit and I wanted to answer it seriously. The thing I want my readers to take away from today’s post is this - dunking on someone for making a mistake out of ignorance is totally easy and definitely makes me feel good... but such dunking isn’t persuasive and it only serves to push people towards digging in their heels and doubling down on their (mistaken but earnestly held) beliefs. This is especially true for people who want to work in the industry - they are passionate about games to the point that they would ask a game developer how to become one. I think that’s something to be commended! It’s just that they are starting from level 1 and don’t know any better. You generally can’t skip from level 1 to the endgame dungeon in a game unless you’re a super experienced speed runner. The purpose of this blog is not to dunk on people but to educate those who are willing to accept the things I post. That isn’t necessarily the best route to maximizing engagement for the algorithm, but it is the route I believe results in better understanding overall.

So... for the people who genuinely want to work in the game industry but really have no idea how to start, for the people who ask questions like “Can’t I just be the idea guy if I don’t know how to do anything else?”, the short answer is “No, because you lack the skills (coding, art, design, etc.) to determine how good your ideas are”. But that isn’t my entire answer because I am assuming that your goal is to get to the point where you can get a job in the game industry doing something you love, just like mine was.

I admire your passion and interest in developing games. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was much like you as well. I had all sorts of ideas for games I wanted to make and I dreamed of making it my career. I tried to take the short cut too and get somebody to listen to my ideas but it never worked out because an idea that is really cool isn’t necessarily an idea that is feasible. Interstellar spaceships with laser guns and little space fighters inside are really cool but they aren’t feasible - the technology to build them isn’t there yet and no aerospace company will hire you to come up with ideas like that, no matter how cool they are. Ideas don’t mean anything if you can’t make them real - that means you have to work within the limits of the developers on the team, the technology you have available, and (above all else) the schedule and budget you have for the project.

The way you start learning whether an idea is feasible is by learning how to make stuff in general. Start small - take a programming class or pick up a game with a mod scene and try making a mod of your own. Build a quest for Skyrim using the Creation Kit or a map for CS:GO. Download an off-the-shelf game  engine like Unity or Unreal and do some tutorials for building things within those engines. These might seem like a long ways away from making your magnum opus perfect game, but it’s how you start. Finishing even a small project teaches you a lot about the kind of work that needs to go in to developing anything, let alone a MMORPG with procedurally generated terrain, free-form skills, and super deep combat against AI that actually learns. 

As you gradually accomplish more of these things, your ability to do the work will level up. You’ll start thinking about how to evaluate the various ideas and tasks to break them down into smaller doable chunks. You’ll also develop and improve the skill to determine which ideas should be cut and why. You may start noticing the amount of work you can do will increase as you get more familiar with things too. Congratulations, you’ve become an amateur game developer! You’ve developed skills! You’ve earned experience! Once you’ve reached this point, you’ll be able to look back to where you started and think about all of the things you mistakenly believed back then and how far you’ve come... and then you’ll understand how I feel when wide-eyed hopefuls ask me if they can just be the idea guy.

P.S. Here are some links for free or inexpensive game dev tools:

the Source SDK

Unreal Engine

Unity 3D

RPG Maker

Game Maker

The Dragon Age Toolset

Skyrim’s Creation Kit

[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]

The FANTa Project is being rebooted. [What is the FANTa project?]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[galiifreyrose]

since the questions you asked me were so good, i’m asking them back! 9, 30, 34, and 72 for the doctor who asks :)

~ janeyre

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE OMG THANK YOU!!!! I'm so glad you liked them, I LOVED your answers! I definitely picked the ones I wanted to have someone ask me in the hopes that this EXACT thing would happen so, please prepare for a book lmao

9. Who introduced you to DW? A small group of my middle school friends sat me down on the couch one afternoon! I think I at least had a sense of what it was through Nerd Circle Peripheral Exposure, but I can't recall for certain.

30. Who did you not used to like, but really like now? The closest I have is Martha, I think. It's not that I didn't like her, more that I was... neutral? In the 12 or so years since I started watching as a barely-teen, needless to say my worldview has changed a LOT and I really understand her SO much better as a character and as a complicated, imperfect person than I ever could as a kid, and I've really come to love her a ton as a result that I didn't feel in my first watch-through.

34. Best two-parter? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THE IMPOSSIBLE PLANET/THE SATAN PIT, BABEY!!!!!!! I never realized how beloved this one was by so many until entering the DoctorRose Fanfic Sphere, but my reasons for loving it are actually completely unrelated to the shippy factors.

I could go on for hours, and it all comes down to the assortment of such wonderful, real people. I love the concept of space bases in general; they're always my favorite kind of episode because there's such a gritty realness to that environment in the context of both science and sci-fi. I love how much we get to know each of the supporting characters and the really deep conversations that come out of it.

I love getting to see Rose really kick ASS while the Doctor is gone. I love the mystery of it. I love that we have no freakin clue what the devil was, I love the ambiguity for interpretation and how that colors everyone's interactions. I love black holes and weird space physics, and if I could change one thing, I'd have added some of the weird effects you see in Interstellar - but I suppose at the time that DW was airing in 2006, we didn't KNOW those things about black holes yet! HOW COOL IS THAT!

What I love most is a quote, just a little quote, that has inspired me for years - the "why did you come here, why? I'll tell you why, because it was there, brilliant." When I first heard that uttered by the Doctor at age 12, I felt so insanely validated, because my career aspirations are deep space exploration, and so often my mom would ask "why does it matter? What's the point" and the answer? Well, because it was there. Because that's what humanity is, the urge to jump - the urge to fall.

In an INSANE twist of irony, I only recently learned learned that it's a perfect echo of JFK's "we choose to go to the moon" speech. So a lot really clicked into place.

Ok. End rant. Thank you for asking this question XD I have so much fic drafted to really get this all out of my system, too.

72. Favourite piece of Murray Gold music? Song of Freedom, hands down. A lot of people call The Shepherd's Boy my man Murray's magnum opus, but I honestly think it's Song of Freedom. The violin at the start, the bittersweetness of that melody, the hopefulness of the chorus, the beat marching ever-forward, the layers upon layers of incredible harmony... it's. I can't even put it in words. I can't watch the scene of everyone flying the TARDIS together without crying.

Of course, another personal layer to it is that it's the song I listen to on the way to Phoenix Comicon every year. I play it for much the same reasons - it's a song for reunions, for found family, for bright and shining moments even if they only last for the blink of an eye - and that's what the event is for me. So it's very, very dear to me.

THANK YOU FOR ASKING AND LISTENING TO ME RAMBLE AKSDFJLSKDJFLSKDJFKASLD

[lueminous]

I'm so glad so many people feel free to talk about how overrated Interstellar Transmissions is now because it's one of the least in-character Reylo fics ever and deeply boring

Bruh I never thought it was hot shit like it was ok but only bc it was one of the few multichapter fics available back then. Whenever ppl would call it the reylo magnum opus I lost years lmao

Tho I still think Forms is genuinely good so seeing the author talk like that about reylo now is incredibly disappointing

[thesunlounge]

Reviews 312: Joe Morris

I’ve had considerable difficulty putting down my thoughts concerning Joe Morris’ Exotic Language, though not because of the music…a sonic paradise so panoramic and immersive that my mind is completely overwhelmed with hyperbolic descriptors and imagined fantasy landscapes. No, the difficulty comes from determining how to properly contextualize the work of an artist whose music has meant so much to me over the last few years and who has been a constant guidepost as I’ve explored this vague soundworld we all call “balearic”. So perhaps it’s best to go back to the beginning, which involved me trawling through the Is It Balearic? Discogs page picking out titles whose label art resonated with me…visuals that captured some indefinable spirit of beachside meditation and solar fantasy dancing. This of course led me to Joe’s Golden Tides 12”, the label art of which was given over to impossibly beautiful sunset scenes, ones that were washed out into a sparkling tapestry of golden radiance. It was exactly what I was looking for and from then on, I’ve been in a near constant love affair with the producer’s work, which has led my spirit through so many wonderful musical environments, whether it’s the mystically inclined Bahia EP on Balearic Social, the Cloud Nine 12″ on Wonder Stories, or the increasingly esoteric remix work of Clandestino, Joe’s party crew and studio project run in conjunction with Iain Mac and Nick J. Smith, who have perfected a particularly tripped out style of jacking dancefloor ritualism.

But as great as those works are, the undoubted high point for me came with the release of Jacaranda Skies on Pleasure Unit, an EP that opened Joe’s sound up considerably and foreshadowed many of the adventurous environments he would travel to on his epic full length. Across the 12”, the listener was treated to a tropical house slammer, a futuristic acid jazz ritual, and one of my favorite tracks of recent memory, “The Lost Garden,” which melted the heart with timeless string descents while mallet instruments danced amidst sparkling synths, reverberating guitars, and island percussion exotica. After the release of Jacaranda Skies, I just knew Joe had to drop an album, one that would allow his increasingly adventurous and cinematic sonics to spread all the way out, unrestricted by space or time considerations. Thus I was completely blown away in 2019 as my fantasies came true in the form of Exotic Language, the producer’s magnum opus and a near perfect summary of the many colorful sonic universes he has visited across his career. It’s a true album experience, with well considered track sequencing taking the listener on a oceanic dream journey encompassing Italo deep house, Chicago club workouts, spiritual Afro-trance, ethereal pop-ambient, acid-laced downtempo, aqueous guitar mesmerism, amorphous dub, and so much more. And though mostly realized as a solo effort, including the fantastic artwork, Joe is joined by some crucial guests in the form of Private Agenda and his son Milo.

Joe Morris - Exotic Language (Shades of Sound, 2019) We open on “Firefly Beach,” with guitar swells creating aqueous ripples amidst cricket chirps and crashing waves...the vibe not unlike Onyricon’s “Sweet Dream.” Plucked harps flow through interstellar fluids and synthetic arps smear into seafoam as momentum builds, with hand drums and cymbal taps leading to a low-key climax of downbeat ocean grooving. Tambourines shake through layers of brass synthesis and basslines blur in and out of focus…all while crystalline tones descend amidst solar flare vibrato orchestrations. Next is  “Perfume,” a collaboration with Private Agenda that, if released in the 90s, would have appeared on every single balearic comp, so closely does hit that essential seaside pop vibe, with touches of ethereal R&B married to oceanic chill-out in away strongly evoking the work of Afterlife, especially “Dub in Ya Mind (Beach Club Mix)” and the legendary “Speck of Gold.” Rhodes keys sparkle, big bottomed jazz breaks keep the body vibing, and dreampop guitars swim through ether as funk basslines slide through sexual smoke. Elsewhere, pianos constructed from ocean glass play melodies of dream melancholia alongside blazing string themes and laserbeam sequencing. And carrying the whole thing is a chilling vocal performance from Sean Phillips, his multi-layered and soulful hooks pushing the heart towards pure sunset euphoria. Our first taste of club fire comes via “A Dance With Jupiter,” which touches on Chicago house as well as the intense rave workouts of Clandestino. The track starts with loon calls, spectral rattles, mermaid hazes, and bongos popping over tubular basslines before we flash into a jacked out four-four house groove. Anxious cymbal work cuts up the air, electrified claps crack on the beat, and waves of angel synthesis wrap around the spirit while elsewhere, we breakdown into smacked kicks, brass heatwaves, and hand drum tribalisms. And as acid lines filter in from the void, the track snaps back into a tech house fever dream, with increasingly wild 303 patterns spraying neon liquids over anthemic chord riffs while 90s rave whistles are danced around by polychrome pan-pipe tracers.

At the start of “Echo Station,” cymbals flow through timelag generators, guitars flutter, and hand drums pop through mutating fx chains until we drop into a subsonic bass groove, with dubwise drum beats pulsing through a stoner paradise. Weirdo reggae riffs wiggle in each ear, with organs and trumpets mutating into insect psychedelia and metallic chords wavering through delay-soaked mirages. Spacey six-strings shimmer, pianos skip across new age sunbeams, and flutes execute LSD dances as the rhythms refuse to coalesce, creating that classical drug touch…a sort of fevered fantasy space where everything constantly shifts through humid layers of rainbow fog…the vibe not unlike the recent work of Androo. There’s a moment where the rhythms fade to gas amidst rimshot cloudforms while anthemic ocean wavefronts fade in, with touches of ambient prog glory shining through the deep blue hazes. Fantasy sequences climb playfully towards the clouds and synthesizers filter into neon magic as the dub riddims finally return, now with piano starlight sparkling amidst drunken brass fanfares. Next comes “Celestial Plantation,” wherein pads settle like a ghostly ocean fog, one aglow in prismatic hues of mother-of-pearl. Birds chirp, waves crash, and hand drums cascade through delays before blurring into a flutter of blutterfly wings…all while bass pulses give the abstracted groove a touch of tribal body magic. Melodic brass themes peel away to reveal sparkling gemstone electronics and electro cymbals hiss across the spectrum as the vibe grows ever more blissed out, with the spirit soaring on waves of coral colored euphoria. The heart overflows with balearic majesty and all bad vibrations are washed away by starlight electronics and glowing melodic crystals as Joe sets the body afloat via gaseous chill-out rhythmics. And best of all, there are these glorious moments where the spirit seems to rise above the clouds, with synths swelling and white noise hazes parting to reveal spiritual whistle tones and elven pan-pipes…a sort of new age paean to the spirits of the sea pulling the mind towards a beachside oasis, with palm trees blowing in a tropical wind while birds of paradise flit amongst the fronds.

In “Dream Clouds,” galactic vapors rattle amidst an angel choirs comprised of male cyborg breaths and glimmering fairy voices. A four-to-the-floor pulse is accented by acid bass jacking, hi-hats spread into ticking psychedelia, and clipped snares give the beat a faint disco pulse as we soar through Joe’s own paradisal imagining of Italo dream house....a euphoria-kissed fantasy world of lush dancefloor exotica…spread out, gaseous, and with billowing waves of ether stoking hallucinogenic visions. Filtering phasers infuse the aqueous pad motions, paranoid rimshots transform into kosmische energy tracers, and feedback marbles glisten in cold solar light as the snares and claps fire in that distinctly Clandestino way…the mind never allowed to settle while pushing ever closer towards hyperventilated delirium. Elsewhere, kicks pull away for a machine jazz jam, all rigid robot bopping before slamming back into fantasy dance magic, with blistering chords ringing out, white light pads bending into dolphin sirensong, and crystalline chords conversing with reverb-soaked cricket chirps. “Acid Safari” hits similar notes of freaky forest acid as “Mangrove Dawn” from Jacaranda Skies, though replacing that track’s ritualistic percussion flow with fat-bottomed rave breaks and a dubwise bass skank. The baggy and zoned out 90s-style beat science is accented by industrial tom-tom splatter, echo-soaked hand percussion, cave crack snares, and mechanized cymbal hiss, with the mix increasingly suffused by monkey howls and orchestral heatwaves. Sunbeam guitar percolations and syncopated synth riffs morph through delay layers until the vibe grows murky, resulting in a mystical environment of dispersed rhythms and machines that growl like jaguars. Cosmic acid lines diffuse in and hand drums carry the soul towards the heart of the jungle, with sunlight filtering through the dark tropical growth in the form of six-string echo dances. Blasting back into sunshine rave breaks and dub-kissed psychedelics, mutating acid lines roar at the edges of the mind and as we move towards the end, saloon-leaning Rhodes chords portend a cinematic western sunset while string synths melt towards an impossible horizon.

There’s some mystical magic happening within “Spirit Walker,” with Joe taking deep inspiration from Larry Heard as he crafts an ambient house epic. But that’s not all, for amidst the mermaid choir fantasias, harmonious whalesong hazes, and clouds of cyborg psychedelia, snare drums rattle into a free jazz fever dream, shakers keep a hypnotic pulse, and hand drums alight on adventures of Afro-beat intensity…the track coming together as some inspired amalgam of ecstatic future dance energy and ancient tribal magic. Animalistic acid lines growl down low and dream house piano chords blur through sunset colorations until eventually being replaced by pure trance vocal synthesis…these chopping waves of angel bliss pushing the mind towards transcendence. There’s a moment where the basslines pull away, leaving behind a gaseous world of spiritual jazz, wherein pianos decay while cinematic pads are surrounded by whooshing layers of aquatic ambiance. Then, as we slam back into Afro-house firedance, balafons and kalimbas weave in and out of the Goan voice layers…a mix of idiophonic rainfall and slow motion trance ecstasy that could float my spirit forever. Closer “Milo’s Theme” begins with morphing synth chords…like pianos obscured by alien foam. Hovering sea-spirits radiate aquamarine while dream sequences dance ear-to-ear and after a gaseous burst, we flow into an immersive groove of downtempo drumming and bongo tropicalia. Chopping vibrato hazes diffuse in and out of empty space, guitars sing spiritual songs of seaside blues, and gemstone melodies flow upwards as feedback tracers mimic sad seagull cries. Then, the rhythms disappear and the song gives over to a new age soundbath, one that celebrates the newness of life with joyous baby babbles (sourced from Joe’s son Milo) and bubbling strands of melted ocean glass. And after a climactic reprise of sunset groove majesty, with layered guitars, tremolo psychedelics, and squelching piano chords hovering over post-rock rhythmics and balearic beat expanses, we return again to a world of ambient sea-spray, abstracted echo weirdness, and gurgling infant breaths.

(images from my personal copy)

[extrabeurre]

2010-2019 : Mon Top 10 de la décennie

Comment résumer 10 ans de cinéphilie (dont 5 ans en date d’aujourd’hui sur le site que vous visitez en ce moment) en seulement 10 films? Impossible, mais on peut néanmoins s’amuser à épurer une longue liste de coups de cœur pour tenter de trouver l’essence de ce qui nous a fait vibrer au cours de la décennie. Non, il ne s’agit pas simplement de tous mes #1 de top 10 des dernières années. En fait, à peine 5 se retrouvent ici, alors que d’autres titres se sont imposés. 

  1 - ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD (2019, Quentin Tarantino)

 La voix de Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) dans l’interphone, miraculeusement vivante, qui invite Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) à rejoindre ses amis et elle; possiblement le coup de chance que l’acteur has been attendait toute l’année, un happy end inespéré pour ce quasi-conte de fées hollywoodien, assombri bien sûr par le souvenir de la réalité, beaucoup plus horrifique lors de cette tragique nuit d’août 1969, alors que la famille Manson n’a pas été stoppée par Rick et son vieux pote Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), dans une scène aussi violente qu’hilarante, un cocktail que personne ne concocte aussi bien que Quentin Tarantino. Fantastique fantaisie, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood est un de mes films préférés, car c’est du cinéma dans du cinéma, du cinéma sur le cinéma. Une histoire d’acteurs et d’actrices, avec un meilleur ami cascadeur et une chienne formidable. Un récit en trois temps, à la fois dense et décontracté, qui demeure toujours aussi savoureux même après de multiples visionnements. Chaque séquence, chaque plan, chaque réplique est un pur ravissement. Je ne me lasse pas de tous ces mini westerns, de ces tours de voiture au son de la meilleure radio au monde, de ces moments de bromance irrésistibles… Je vais continuer de revoir ce film toute ma vie. 

2 - MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015, George Miller)             

OUR BABIES WILL NOT BE WARLORDS.

WHO KILLED THE WORLD?

WE ARE NOT THINGS.

Oui, c'est le meilleur film d'action de la décennie, une mégaproduction éclipsant tous les Marvel et les Star Wars. Mais c'est aussi une vision allégorique fascinante de certaines des questions cruciales de notre époque, du sectarisme guerrier et de la masculinité toxique aux vagues de féminisme, en passant par l'écoanxiété. Outre sa richesse thématique, ce qui distingue Fury Road de la majorité des autres films d’action contemporains, c’est son approche organique et viscérale où les effets spéciaux numériques sont utilisés avec parcimonie. Loin d’être devant un univers conçu entièrement par ordinateur, on est ici dans un vrai désert avec de vrais véhicules et de vrais figurants, tous au centre d’un chaos explosif mis en scène par George Miller avec une maîtrise parfaite du langage cinématographique.

  3 - IT’S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY (2012, Don Hertzfeldt)                        

Don Hertzfeldt utilise ses dessins de bonhommes allumettes faussement simplistes ainsi que des photographies, des prises de vue réelle et des effets spéciaux, souvent combinés dans le même plan, alors que nous sommes guidés par un narrateur omniscient. C’est drôle, absurde, hallucinogène, métaphysique, et surtout infiniment émouvant. Le cinéaste capture chaque aspect primordial de l’expérience humaine, livrant un film sur la vie et la mort à la fois incroyablement personnel et spectaculairement universel. La maladie mentale n’a jamais été dépeinte de façon aussi magistrale et puissante que dans ce long métrage de 62 minutes (d’abord présenté sous la forme d’une trilogie de courts, dont au moins deux ont été présentés par DJ XL5 à Fantasia), qui nous plonge dans un esprit fracturé aux prises avec diverses formes de psychose. En cours de route, Hertzfeldt multiplie les observations fascinantes qui peuvent être naïves, profondes, ou souvent, les deux à la fois. C’est comme The Tree of Life, en mieux.

4 - DUNKIRK (2016, Christopher Nolan)

Si je ne me limitais pas à un seul film par réalisateur, on aurait possiblement pu retrouver Inception, The Dark Knight Rises ou Interstellar dans cette liste. Christopher Nolan est sans aucun doute mon cinéaste de la décennie, celui qui a le plus élevé l’expérience de voir un film sur grand écran (IMAX de préférence) en portant autant d’attention à la technique visuelle et sonore qu’aux fascinants thèmes explorés dans ses scénarios, qui tournent souvent autour de la temporalité. Nolan s’est surpassé avec son film de guerre atypique. Avec une ingéniosité hallucinante, il jongle avec trois récits se déroulant chacun à un rythme distinct, se croisant les uns les autres à divers moments, le tout étant brillamment mis en scène, avec une approche visuelle magistrale et une conception sonore complètement immersive.   

5 - THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (2013, Martin Scorsese)

J’aurais tout aussi bien pu inclure The Irishman, le monumental film de gangsters crépusculaire de Scorsese, mais j’ai finalement opté pour son film le plus débauché, qui déborde de répliques mémorables qui sont souvent vulgaires et politiquement incorrectes. Le récit est extrêmement bien raconté, nous accrochant et nous captivant pendant trois heures par son intelligence, son sens du rythme et son énergie. Un film dont les excès feraient rougir Gaspar Noé, en plus d'être le film le plus drôle mettant en vedette Jonah Hill, ce qui n'est pas peu dire (la scène des Quaaludes : les 10 minutes les plus hilarantes de la décennie?). 

6 - MOONLIGHT (2015, Barry Jenkins)

Vouloir faire mon cute, j’inclurais La La Land ex aequo ici, car ces deux films éternellement liés depuis l’imbroglio aux Oscars sont ceux qui ont le plus marqué 2016 pour moi et j’ai longtemps hésité avant de faire de la comédie musicale de Damien Chazelle le #1 de mon top à l’époque… Puis maintenant, avec le recul, c’est plutôt l’immensément émouvant drame de Barry Jenkins qui se taille une place dans mon top de la décennie. Dur sans être misérabiliste, intense sans être mélodramatique, Moonlight séduit par ses images sensuelles aux couleurs vibrantes et sa brillante construction narrative en trois actes (enfance, adolescence, âge adulte), dont la progression dramatique est impeccable et où la conclusion est parfaitement cathartique.   

7 - SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (2010, Edgar Wright)

“WE ARE SEX BOB-OMB! ONE TWO THREE FOUR!” Une des expériences cinématographiques les plus jouissives de la décennie pour moi a été la présentation de ce magnum opus de la culture geek à Fantasia à l’été 2010. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, c’est une comédie de jeunes adultes qui, pour illustrer les chassés-croisés amoureux doux-amers de ces derniers, se réapproprie les éléments les plus marquants de la culture pop de leur génération. De fait, si vous avez grandi dans les années 1980, nourri par un régime intensif de jeux vidéo, de dessins animés, de films d’action, de bandes dessinées et de vidéoclips, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World vous ravira à chaque instant, avec ses dialogues hilarants, ses scènes de combats palpitantes et son style visuel coloré et inventif à souhait.

8 – UNCUT GEMS (2019, Josh & Benny Safdie)

Ce film sera disponible sur Netflix Canada d’ici la fin janvier, mais si vous avez une chance de l’attraper au Cinéma Moderne, n’hésitez pas, car la tension entrecoupée de rires nerveux qui s’installe dans la salle, en plus de l’immersive conception sonore en Dolby Atmos (incluant l’hallucinante musique de Daniel Lopatin), élève encore plus cette expérience cinématographique parfaitement anxiogène. Je suis fan d’Adam Sandler depuis SNL et ses premiers films, et il y a bien eu la révélation de Punch-Drunk Love en 2002, mais le comédien se surpasse dans Uncut Gems, créant un personnage aussi charismatique qu’exaspérant, visiblement accro au risque. 

9 - THE MASTER (2012, Paul Thomas Anderson)

Ce sentiment que tout le monde est au sommet de son art, dont PTA bien sûr (qui a également marqué la décennie avec Phantom Thread), et son meilleur collaborateur, Jonny Greenwood. Puis Joaquin Phoenix, le meilleur acteur de sa génération (voir aussi : les récents You Were Never Really Here et Joker), au côté d'un des plus grands de tous les temps, Philip Seymour Hoffman, tragiquement disparu. Tous au service d'une œuvre hypnotique, psychotique, onirique, magnétique, fantastique.

 10 - THE RAID 2 (2014, Gareth Evans)

Contrairement au minimaliste premier film, le récit est ici riche et complexe, comme un The Godfather indonésien, les personnages sont mémorables, et surtout, les scènes d’action sont incroyablement variées et distinctives, en plus d’être encore plus intenses et violentes. Entre autres : les bastons en prison (dont une épique séquence d’émeute dans une cour intérieure boueuse); le combat entre Yayan Ruhian et d’innombrables adversaires dans un club; le montage croisé entre les attaques de Hammer Girl (Julie Estelle), Baseball Bat Man (Very Tri Yulisman) et l’Assassin (Cecep Arif Rahman); l’absolument démente poursuite de voitures/fusillade; et l’assaut final du policier Iko Uwais dans le repère des méchants.

[awaitingandrew]

7, 11, 30

7. three songs you didn’t expect to like but eventually loved

oh hm this one is tough. I’ll start with

Night Beds - Me, Liquor, and God because this was the first song released from IVYWILD and it’s an entirely different genre from his earlier work so it took some getting used to. But I can’t get enough of this album now.

and I really don’t know what else applies here at the moment, so I’m just going to pick two guilty pleasure songs people wouldn’t expect me to love as much as I do, but I know every word.

Selena Gomez - Come & Get It

Ty Dolla $ign - Dawsin’s Breek

11. three favourite songs from movie or TV series soundtrack

I’m gonna use this to highlight pieces from film scores so here we go:

John Williams - Escape / Chase / Saying Goodbye (from E.T.) I can’t listen to this song without crying

Jonny Greenwood - Alma (from Phantom Thread) this entire soundtrack is SO GORGEOUS 

Hans Zimmer - S.T.A.Y. (from Interstellar) my favorite film ever

30. three songs you really want your followers to know (for reasons other than all those above)

From Indian Lakes - ULS I can’t wait for this album (almost shared Turnover’s lead single but that one has way more views)

Damien Rice - The Animals Were Gone this song is my entire life right now and I can’t stop listening to it

Mac Miller - Come Back to Earth (slowed + reverb) Swimming is a magnum opus. I’ve also been listening to a lot of slowed + reverb music on YouTube and I hit like on this video as fast as I’ve liked anything in my life - especially recommend checking out some of rum world’s slowed + reverb stuff, too.

[xasha777]

In the depths of the Omicron Station, nestled in the cold silence of a forgotten asteroid belt, was the art gallery of Doctor Solara Vex. Vex was once renowned across the galaxy for her pioneering work in bio-sculpture, a controversial art form that blurred the lines between organic life and inanimate expression. Her gallery, a clandestine assortment of halls within a derelict industrial complex, housed the most bizarre collection of creations that had ever been conceived by a human mind.

No soul dared venture into the gallery uninvited, for rumors swirled of a curse that befell those who gazed upon Vex's magnum opus, "The Mindscape Revelation." It was said to be a living painting, an entire room fashioned from genetically altered flesh that responded to the thoughts and emotions of its viewers.

Captain Elias Rook and his crew, a band of interstellar salvagers, stumbled upon Omicron Station while scavenging for loot. Driven by stories of Vex's lost treasures, they bypassed the station's security, their greed blinding them to the warnings.

The gallery was unlike anything they had seen. Walls pulsed with veiny patterns, canvases screamed silent obscenities, and sculptures writhed with grotesque life. But it was the centerpiece, "The Mindscape Revelation," that drew them like moths to a flame.

As they entered the room, reality bent. The fleshy walls throbbed, and twisted faces emerged, their expressions mirroring the crew's rising horror. The air itself seemed to howl with the pain of unseen multitudes.

Captain Rook's mind reeled as he realized the truth—Vex had found a way to trap consciousness itself within her work. Each piece was an echo of a soul, and "The Mindscape Revelation" was the symphony of their collective nightmare.

Before they could flee, tendrils of living art lashed out, ensnaring the crew. As their bodies were pulled into the walls, their screams added to the cacophony of terror that filled the room. They became part of the exhibit, their own fears painting new horrors upon the animate canvas.

As the last of Rook's sanity frayed, he understood the grim reality: Vex's curse was real, a punishment for those who dared to covet her most personal creation. The gallery did not seek to display beauty; it was a prison, designed to capture the essence of those who could not resist its call.

And so, the Omicron Station drifted on, its halls echoing with the despair of the trapped, while in the silence of space, the gallery awaited its next audience, insatiable in its hunger for new shades of fear.

Captain Rook and his crew were never seen again, and Doctor Solara Vex's gallery remained undisturbed, a monument to terror, with "The Mindscape Revelation" as its ghastly sentinel, ensuring that the gallery's twisted beauty would never know the grace of a happy ending.

[denimbex1986]

'With a stellar cast, gripping plot, and mesmerizing scenes without the use of CGI, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is the movie of the year. The director did everything in his power to make the story as realistic as possible, making the film his magnum opus. As a result, he made headlines in gold, as he shot the film in both colored and black and white 70mm IMAX, the developmental process, and being true to the incidents that took place.

Christopher Nolan’s hard work delivered, as the film exceeded its expectations. It was dramatic and the soundtracks only added to it. Naturally, these factors helped the film to earn $787 million at the worldwide box office. The Interstellar director went out of his way to perfect the film and it was one small detail that he decided to keep in his film that helped the film to be more authentic than its box office rival, Barbie.

Christopher Nolan’s Brother Was Impressed With The Script of Oppenheimer

Christopher Nolan shared that his brother Jonathan Nolan was the first person to receive the script of Oppenheimer so that he could give his valuable insights to his brother as they have worked together on numerous projects. Jonathan Nolan told his brother how he has done a great job with the stage directions, which most people in the movie business don’t do. These films prefer telling their stories with the help of dialogue.

“I showed it first to my brother, who I’ve written with a lot over the years. I didn’t write with him on this but I showed it to him and took his advice and everything. And the thing he said to me right away is that I finally found a way to make people read the stage directions.

Because in a screenplay, you have stage directions, and then you have the dialogue. And if you read a lot of scripts, as people in Hollywood do, you wind up just reading the dialogue. So films tend to be told through dialogue.”

However, that’s not all, because the director shared how his films tend to be different from other Hollywood films, and writing it in a different manner helped in showcasing the time period even better.

Christopher Nolan Writes Oppenheimer In First Person

Christopher Nolan further added that all of his films heavily depend on the visuals, and one little detail such as “the haircut of the character,” can distinguish the time periods. Such things are not possible in a script with dialogues and that will aid in understanding the importance of the scene.

However, these problems can be solved if the script is written in the first person, helping him feel that he is in the mind of Oppenheimer.

“But my films have always relied on the visual. They’ve always relied on the stage directions. Things like the haircut of the character, telling you where you are in time and those sorts of things. So you have to read the stage directions quite carefully. And in a regular script, they tend not to grab you. They tend not to make you feel that you have to read that paragraph, that sets up where the scene is and what’s going on in the scene.”

“But when you write it in the first person, you immediately feel you have to read all those things because it’s like reading thoughts or voiceover. And I knew that with this project, I wanted to be in Oppenheimer’s head, but I didn’t want to use voiceover. And so writing the script in the first person, it gave me the feeling of voiceover so that the stage directions seemed like his thoughts.”

Such minuted details immensely helped Christopher Nolan to come up with the movie of the summer, as writing the film in first person massively helped the film. Moreover, when watching Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, he showcased the tension and the emotional turmoil he was in when he was assigned to create the atomic bomb...'

[qm-vox]

Updates Ride Again

Been awhile since I posted an update here on that Lancer 3pp project, eh? Luckily the team is still getting along grea-

(MOI NIMUE, DFG LUST, & MO & S RASPUTIN. Art credit goes to the incomparable Moid)

Ikiryo, Psybomb, & I have continued to edit and tweak our manufacturers to ensure that once 3pp licensing is online they’re as good as they can possibly be. Alongside this we’ve been ordering art ahead of time, working on flavor sections to help incorporate our manufacturers into the world of your game, and the incomparable Ikiryo’s been busily creating new NPCs with which to challenge your players! Major updates in terms of balance and flavor will be upcoming for all three manufacturers Soon(tm) in response to feedback from Lancer’s discord, so keep an eye out.

If you want updates faster than whenever I have enough will to live to post them, check out Iki’s Twitter. Otherwise, it’s been awhile since we did one of these updates so let’s hit ya with the Land of Full & Complete Context:

What Is Lancer?

Lancer is a ‘mud-and-lasers’ RPG following mechanized cavalry pilots in the far future. Old Humanity, the cultures we know today, suffered a terrible Fall, and the children of New Humanity have spread through the stars to ensure that they can never destroy themselves again, and in the hopes of building a more just world. Along the way we’ve had some mighty triumphs, some horrific mistakes (nothing like re-inventing capitalism am I right), and have grown to contend with the birth of artificial intelligence - which is more alien than we could have ever dreamed of. Your pilots might work for Union; as Liberators executing slavers and tyrants to build a better world from their bones, as members of the Navy defending the weak, as UIB agents up against alien horrors from worlds we know not. Perhaps you swear your service to vast corpro-states, looking for the beautiful and true things at the heart of their cancerous search for profit and empire, or maybe you’re a mercenary from the Long Rim, just trying to die another day. Whoever you are, you have been granted a unique relationship to violence in the form of a mech, and must now decide what that means in your life.

Lancer is produced and published by Massif Press ( @orbitaldropkick​) and its player-facing rules are available for free on their store. Our project is third-party; not in any way affiliated with Massif Press, but made to be compatible with their excellent system and slot into its setting.

Our project introduces three mech manufacturers with their own goals and needs. They are...

Downfall Group (by Psybomb)

(DFG GLUTTONY. Art credit goes to Domochevsky)

“What happens when you make a promise to someone who doesn’t want you to keep it?” Like the other two corporations here, DOWNFALL Group did not start out looking for a fight. They just found one. In this case, their mission led them to figure out that what they were meant to do was at odds with what they should, and the final decision was probably not what their bosses intended. Still, when your avowed enemies control nearly everything, including you if they found out, you have to get creative with your solutions. 

An intelligence agency that’s gone rogue from the corpro-state that founded it, DFG’s pattern-groups utilize stolen technology in their fight to sabotage the rise of interstellar capitalism. They could be a rebellion’s best friend, the backers of suspiciously armed pirates and, now and again, even an army unto themselves.

Magnum Opus Interstellar (by Ikiryo)

(MOI SOLOMON. Art credit goes to Moid.)

Magnum Opus Interstellar are voyagers among the stars, seeking to map the routes across the depths of space. Magnum Opus tends to dislike personal conflict, as it interferes with business and exploration; but the Aun attack on the Cornucopia blink gate has left them shaken and reeling. Shocked out of neutrality, they are now gearing up for war with frames that tear the firmament asunder and demonstrate that a lack of interest in war was a dramatic difference to a lack of capability. 

An ancient and respectable, if small, corpro-state, Magnum Opus Interstellar used to manufacture mechs as a luxury good on the side for the sorts of people who make war into a game. Now awakened to a terrible wrath they have not yet known, their corporate techno-sorcerers ride to war with the codes of summoning at their fingertips. Their work has been undone; worlds will burn for this. And, of course, rich boys making a game out of war still buy what they’re selling.

Marley, Oz, and Silver Lending And Consultations (by Vox/Yours Truly)

(MO & S FRANKENSTEIN. Art credit goes to Domochevsky, as does credit for the INSPIRED addition of the vending machine).

Smith-Shimano Corpro offers unparalleled quality, custom-tailored to each unique customer, with service plans that can’t be beat. Marley, Oz, and Silver are the other end of the market; whatever they make, they make it at the absolute lowest price point possible and at the highest quality they can provide you for that price. Having trouble getting your revolution off the ground? Dreams of glory as a mechanized gladiator doomed by your pocketbooks? Sick and tired of fancier frames jamming up or shutting down? Come see Marley, Oz, and Silver - it’s for a good cause.

MO & S are very small. They have no money. You can imagine the kind of stress they are under. It’s not that they like being arms dealers; it’s that being arms dealers funds them helping the real people that are in front of them here and now. Thankfully, between the Ungrateful conflicts, partisans in the Dawnline Shore, and other hotspots flaring up in the Galaxy, they’ve found some markets that don’t hurt their conscience. Need a war machine but all you have is a junkyard full of retired school buses? Call Marley, Oz, and Silver.

Questions, comments, and feedback are more than welcome! Keep an eye on this post for the announcement of those major changes I alluded to, and because I have terminal writing disease & will probably slap some fiction on it in a reblog.

Catch ya on the front lines, friends.