#man he is difficult to translate into pixel art

[atomicpirateperson]

i made a lil guy

[viridianstarlight]

Time to share some of my D&D characters! As I said in an earlier post, these were made in Reroll, a browser program designed for making pixel art of D&D characters, and it works like a doll maker kinda.

Above are the characters from the first campaign I played in very briefly. I never actually played Elri though. He was just a planned backup character that I started before the first session, after realizing how likely it was that Tarloc would die (we had an accidental test session where I realised he loved taking risks, like deliberately activating traps, although I toned down that side of his personality quite a bit when we started playing).

Long post ahead, there’s like 20 characters. Won’t go deep into explaining all of them though.

Next is Nemesis, a tiefling Wizard (Necromancy school) that I played briefly in a different campaign. I had some really great ideas for how her Necromancy skills could play into her story and morals, and some of that came to fruition during the campaign. She had a really interesting personality too, starting off as a bitter woman who hates everyone, meeting a super smiley bard, and gradually deciding ‘I would die for this one and this one only’, but still giving the ‘I hate you’ attitude when the friend nicknames her Nemmie (especially when the party member she hates starts using it).

Unfortunately though, those are the only characters I’ve really played.

And now, because tumblr thinks it’s a great idea to not allow people to have multiple images together throughout a post (like I have at the top of the post), every portrait needs to be full-size. Guess this is gonna be a long post.

This is Seymour Aran. When making the portrait, I forgot to give him an eyepatch. His first name is a pun, since I thought it’d be fun to give a man named ‘see more’ one eye.

He’s an NPC planned for the first session of my campaign, a member of the local temple, and he’s partly to blame for the villain of the first session.

And this is said villain. She thinks the town of Crast (a mountain town built around a coal mine, where the campaign starts) is dismissive and disrespectful towards the dead. So hey, why not change that, by force?

Oh, and she used to be Seymour’s apprentice too.

Tobias is a friendly face the party meets in the first session. He’s the son of another NPC, but because of lore reasons, he doesn’t know that. Oh, and he’s also a bit of a conspiracist

A name some of y’all might be familiar with (it was my first URL on this account), this is my Dragonborn ranger that I wanna play eventually, one of my favourite unplayed characters (although I could say that for a lot of them). He was banished from his clan for not taking orders and killing a pretty important character from the clan. His name translates to ‘stubborn and honourable betrayer who does not belong’.

Another of my Dragonborn, this one’s a Bard. His name translates to ‘traveller who belongs to the keepers’. His clan are keepers of knowledge. He also found another of my favourite characters, Waking Sky, when she was very young, feeling lonely, angry, and afraid, and took her to a monk monestary he knew, who helped raise her and teach her to deal with those feelings.

She’s 19 now, and still hasn’t entirely learned to deal with those feelings.

Yup, blue hair. In world, her hair is actually a mix of blue, white, and its natural blonde, and she has tattoos of waves on her left arm, but there wasn’t a way to show either of those in Reroll, so I settled for this.

Oh, and she’s a Monk too.

Sky is one of my characters that was originally created for an old fan-fiction project with some friends, which ended up being abandoned, and I translated some of the characters I made for that to D&D.

This is one of my Paladins. She calls herself an ‘Emissary of the Light’. She grew up in a cavern settlement with her family, but they were forced to flee when it was invaded by goblins. Only a handful of the dark elves survived, including her mother. Her mother was killed when she tried to return a few months later though, and since then Ulstra has sworn to fight for the very light that blinds her (yeah, playing with the rule that makes dark elves have difficulty seeing in normal light conditions).

Iolanthe is a human Fighter who ran away from her noble family with nothing but her horse, rapier, and the clothes on her back.

Talvani is a half-orc Rogue who was raised by pirates. They found her as a baby (from an island village they raided), and the first mate thought she’d make for some great muscle for the crew as an adult. The captain didn’t like the idea at first, but let it happen.

Could you imagine pirates raising a half-orc child?

Valo’s an interesting character. When I started making him, I wanted to make a Druid halfling, but I also wanted to mix in the charlatan background. Really curious how that mixes if and when I play him.

Arutan’s an undead dwarf from the underground city of Arudel. The city’s dead now, with Arutan being the only ‘surviving’ member. With him being undead though, he’d be kinda complicated to play, so there’d be a lot of back and forth between me and the DM about how that works, if I do end up playing him.

I really badly wanna play a tempest Cleric someday though.

Another character from that old fan fiction project. The next few are from there too. In the old project, Ghost was the best friend of my self-insert character, who became addicted to player-killing (the project was set in an MMO). I’m kinda thinking he might have a similar arc as a D&D character. Of course, being a criminal, I’d probably need to make sure the DM and players are ok with a party member like that.

Another character from that fan-fiction project. Translating her to D&D, I decided to work with the Folk Hero background, which isn’t one I’d done before. I don’t really know much else about her though, aside from the traits I picked and a few ideas they’ve inspired.

Yup, another character from that project. I decided on him being a Guild Artisan for his background, specifically a carpenter. I don’t know much else about him though.

Sarah’s yet another character from that project. She’s a musician, but just as a hobby, rather than as a Bard class. Her brother ran away to join a circus band, but hasn’t been able to commit to one yet.

Yup, another from the project. Skarlet’s a Monk, with the Entertainer background. Apparently I forgot both of those details when I made this portrait though, and thought she was a Rogue with the Assassin background. I might remake this, but I do quite like the portrait. Now I’m conflicted, dangit.

Theriel went on an artifact recovery expedition a few years before present day as a guard to a super secret location. When he realised how dangerous the artifact was though, he made some very difficult decisions, believing them to be best for the safety of the world. And now he’s an Eldritch Knight.

Oh, and Theriel’s the last of the batch of characters from that old project. The character was originally inspired by Jack from Final Fantasy Type-0, particular the character’s ability to make horrible jokes (often at the worst time).

Sunflower is a Barbarian. A few years back, he was fighting in a war as an infantry soldier, and ended up some super powerful magic dude. He has no memory of how the fight went down though. And now sometimes he gets angry, his memory lapses and he can’t remember what happens. He just knows that, when the memory lapse ends, it’s usually with his sword in a bloody body.

[cutiesbae-games]

EMPTY HEAD [Demo]

​DISCLAIMER: This game contains violent and bloody elements not suitable for children under 16 years of age. This game is the result of the author’s creation and imagination. I’ve been inspired from other indie horror games such as The Cat Lady and Downfall (Remigiusz Michalski) and from my love for the psychological horror genre. The plot is entirely made up by me.

Plot: In the small hamlet of Elkedor lives the Baker family, isolated and almost “inexistent” for the townsfolk. Arold, family man and lawyer with no fame, enters in a difficult time of his life between alcholism and a falling apart marriage. His days began getting filled by drinking more and more, while his wife and their two children, Sarah and Thomas, started to get detached and cold. One night the two went missing. Desperate at the thought of losing them he decided to investigate until, thanks to clues found in the house, succeeds finding a hidden passage. Lies, compulsions and hatred are the summary of what underlies in the ambitious Baker family.

The full game features: Blood | Alcohol Use | Disturbing Elements A only True Ending 1-2 Hours of Gameplay Puzzles

LINK DOWNLOAD (DEMO ENG - ITA): https://rpgmaker.net/games/10289/downloads/ - https://gamejolt.com/games/emptyhead/309075 - https://cutiesbae.itch.io/empty-head

Characters: 

Arold Baker: Laura’s husband and father of Sarah and Thomas. Brown hair, mustache and beard, thin, brown eyes. Our protagonist. A realist and friendly man, but sometimes he may seem rude.

Laura Baker: Arold’s wife and mother of Sarah and Thomas. Short black hair, thin, blue eyes. An insecure and weak woman, but she would do anything for her family. She can’t stand lots of things, including her husband’s drinking problems.

Sarah Baker: Arold and Laura’s daughter, young sister of Thomas. Black hair tied up in two small ribbons, thin, green eyes. Sarah has her head in the clouds half the time and shows no emotion whatsoever. Considered “The mute girl” in the hamlet. Her favourite plush is a teddy bear called “Leo”.

Thomas Baker: Arold and Laura’s son, big brother of Sarah. Brown hair, thin, green eyes. Thomas has a big passion for insects and his dream is to study entomology. He’s cheerful and a little careless, his dad hopes he will be a successful lawyer.

Minor Characters:

Hanna Meekins: Senior citizen of Elkedor, she lost her husband due to an incurable disease. She isn’t quite sympathetic with the Baker family.

And many others…

Credits:

Photography:

Nicolas Bruno

Face Set - Working in progress -

Amu98 Instagram - Facebook

Music - Working in progress -

Setuniman SoundBible AudioNautix

Tilesets:

Pixel Myth Germania - Pixel Art World - Sharm’s stuff

Sprites:

Rpg Maker XP - Slim’s resource

English Translation:

Whimsy Fox

Muffle

[rpgmgames]

November’s Featured Game: lux (dream.girl)

DEVELOPER(S): Rindre Rindere ENGINE: RPGMaker 2k3   GENRE: Psychological Horror, Exploration SUMMARY: lux (dream.girl) is a surreal psychological horror game created in RPG Maker 2003 where you play as Benjamin, a socially inept teenage writer who struggles with depression, loneliness, and writer’s block. When he decides to try lucid dreaming to figure out how to push his story forward, he meets new friends, new enemies, and his literal dream girl. Making certain choices will either help or hurt his relationships, and the outcome of his story.

Download the demo here!

Introduce yourself!  *Hi! I'm Rindre! I've been working on RPG Maker for about 5 or 6 years at this point! First and foremost, I'm an artist, then a game developer, then a voice actor. I am also a garlic bread enthusiast. You might also know me as: -The voice of Aria/the lead translator in Aria's Story -Will's Teacher in The Hanged Man -The mod of Yumeresource -The admin of the RPG Horror Discord server -The host of the Pixel Horror Jams! I'm also on plenty of teams, mostly as a voice actor. These include b/f, AURORA, and The Doctrine of Perseverance.

What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Rindre: lux is about a boy named Ben, who is an aspiring writer who hits a writer's block and tries to take up lucid dreaming to interact with his stories and characters find out how to advance his story. He ends up meeting interesting people, including his literal dream girl. Yume Nikki is a big inspiration for me. My stories I had written when I was younger also played a huge part, and I decided to recycle bits and pieces of them into lux. Ultimately, the frustrations and experience of being a content creator inspired me to make the game. Hopefully these themes will ring universal to whoever relates to being a creator as well.

How long have you been working on your project? *Rindre: You could say 5 years, or 2 years, or since July 2017! lux actually originated as a Yume Nikki fangame in 2012 (as are all games I've made...). I picked it up again on October 2 2015 as a concept to keep a work log, but actually making it into a tangible product took me until 2017's Pixel Horror Jam. The work log has 30+ pages to it! The Yume Nikki fangame version was prepared to be released, but I forgot, and now I'm too ashamed to release it because I meant to do it 5 years ago :(

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Rindre: I'm a big fan of psychological and sci-fi/cyberpunk media. These things usually ask: Who are we, and who are we in other people's eyes? What defines us? What does it mean to be an individual in our society? It's a question I like to ask myself and explore in my own projects. My major inspirations who ask these existential questions are deep within Satoshi Kon's works and Philip K Dick's stories, as well as other movies that were inspired by those two or are in the genre (like The Matrix, Inception, Akira, Ghost In The Shell, Serial Experiments Lain, etc.). Some other inspirations and influences that might be surprising are: Kappa Mikey (art style mixing), Vocaloid producers (Crusher-P, Mothy, Yuyoyuppe), Evangelion, Linkin Park, the Hamtaro GBA games, Kirby, and my own dreams. Unsurprisingly, Yume Nikki is the biggest inspiration. I really like the concept of dreams and escapism, and how it often plays into existentialism.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them?   *Rindre: They say that when making a game, 10% is actual development and 90% is bugfixing/quality assurance. This is VERY TRUE. I spent a couple months working with my bugtesters (Thanks Biel, Choko, Meaka, Pinkuboa, and Uboaappears). The actual demo was a bunch of crunch time for the jam, which was July - August). There were a lot of bugfixes involved, including a bug I was so puzzled with and thought I couldn't fix but the solution was so simple. It took me a month to figure it out! The RM2k3 update caused a bit of trouble for me, but I thank my bugtesters endlessly for helping me squash most, if not all, bugs. On the other hand, in case anybody asks, yes: I have lucid dreamt of my characters in lux when I hit a roadblock. These were never successful. I've only been able to do it twice, both by accident.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Rindre: I usually go into development with a clear idea in mind with certain events and endings, but lux differs greatly from its old Yume Nikki counterpart (dream.girl). Notable major changes: Ben now wears glasses. Ben is now a writer. Stella used to not be a bunny. Stella also did not have any stars in her eyes before. The only things retained was the concept of dreaming a dream girl, and Ben's and Stella's names and facial appearance. Even if I make a bunch of plot outlines and flowcharts, things change, but it's natural! The stories that occur within lux also have changed slightly plot-wise from their earlier pre-2012 counterparts (most were written over 10 years ago!), and are begging for a facelift. One involved parkour, but sadly, there is no parkour anymore :(

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don't have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Rindre: I prefer working alone when it's my project! I like working at my own pace, but if needed, I'll reach out to other people for help. I like helping people out on their projects too, but when it comes to my own, I like to handcraft everything by myself. It shows me what I'm capable of doing, and gives my game a "this was 100% made by me" stamp.

What is the best part of developing a game? *Rindre: Making music is relaxing and lets me convey a mood or theme without having to take out my tablet to draw or write something extensively. Being able to relax yet still work on the game is great. I like nights where I can sit down and make something nice I can put in my game. A lot of them are on my SoundCloud (Rindere), but some of the really nice ones are ones I haven't uploaded there. I'm really not a musician, but I did take a class on music technology. My favorite ones going to be in lux on my SoundCloud are "Nepenthean", which is also Ben's theme, "Choke On Your Misery", and "Empyria Incarnadine". It's also really nice to get files from your voice actors and they sound EXACTLY like how you thought your character would sound like! Special thanks to Aidan, Mizu, JR, and Nuei.

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Rindre: I prefer to do my own thing! I like to push RPG Maker 2003 to the limit. A lot of the cool effects were done before the major update of RM2k3 that came out earlier last month. Some things I thought were never possible in RM2k3 are things that I made possible after some thought. Like any problem, it can be solved in a bunch of ways, even if you have limitations.

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Rindre: The character I relate to the most is actually my least favorite character. It's Ben! I specifically modeled him after myself but changed certain things, like the intensity of his reactions. It was actually difficult to write him, because I had to think about how I would react in the situations I put Ben in. I feel like I had to get into some kind of mindset that was "mine", but also "not mine" as well.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Rindre: I feel like I could've released the game sooner, or continued work on FLUX instead. I would like to go back to working on FLUX soon, since I haven't worked on it in a long while. But after hosting the Pixel Horror Jam with Choko and jamming on this game, I'd like to rest up a bit before I take on a big project again.

Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore game's universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Rindre: Because lux is part of the -UX Series, it would naturally be a series with other entries. I don't know if or when they'll all be created, nor if they'll all be games, but I do eventually hope to see it finish. Something I want to explore is to further flesh out the stories Ben has written, especially because they were concepts written before lux ever came up as a concept. I've also given them -UX titles! I think I'll work on Crux/quX next.

What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Rindre: I am donating proceeds to the One More Light Fund with what is being donated to the itch.io-uploaded version of lux, so I really am looking forward to donating to a cause that is important to me. I encourage people to donate to the OML Fund directly, not through me. I also really like fan reaction, but I love the catharsis of releasing something you've made. It's a mix of relief and pride, but a little bit of anxiety because you don't know how well the fan reaction will be. I hope that my game will affect somebody in a positive, personal way, whether it be a new favorite game, something for them to draw, or become inspiration for their own works. I look forward to free time and rewarding myself with something good, like chicken parmesan too!

Is there something you're afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game?  *Rindre: I constantly ask, "Is my game worthy enough for others to play? Is my game good enough?" But when it comes down to it, really you're asking it to yourself, not to the people that will play your game. Sometimes, you have to sit down and ask yourself, "Am I satisfied with what I have made so far?" Then you go down the list of things you've made and say either, "I'm proud of this!" or "This could use some more work." and you fix it accordingly. The first audience of your game is always you, so if your game is "worthy" and "good enough" to you, then it is for other people.

Question from last month's featured dev (Team Galanx): What kind of stories do you appreciate most in RPG Maker games? For example, do you like ones based off real-life experiences, fantasy elements, or morals? *Rindre: My series of games is called the -UX Series, with there being 4 main stories that are related to each other: "FLUX", "lux", "Ux.", and "X". The rest of the titles end in "-ux" as well. It was only natural to do that!

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Rindre: Game Development -Give things meaningful names. -Back up your work in three different places. -Back up your games frequently. -Never be afraid to remake things, but do this occasionally. If you do this frequently, you'll be caught up in a loop of perfectionism. -Think if the cool new thing you want to put in will actually serve a proper purpose in the game. If it's only there just to be cool, don't put it in your game. -If things don't work out, it's perfectly fine to scrap ideas. -Don't pander. Make a game you want to make, not what others want to play. Releasing your game -Reach out to people who haven't played games similar to yours. You'll have opinions that you wouldn't normally get, compared to others who are familiar with your type of game. -Learn how to take critique. This might be the skill that will take you the longest to hone. -Not everyone is out to get you, but sometimes there will be people who want to bring you down. Even if this happens, there are always people there to support you. -You don't have to agree with every critique given to you. Other advice -If you're not embarrassed about your old work, then you haven't progressed. Continue to improve your skills and yourself. -Don't compare yourself to others. Compare yourself to your past self instead. -Don't be working on your game 24/7. Take up hobbies to occupy yourself, so you don't get burned out. -Learn to be a generalist, but also learn to specialize in something that people will recognize you for. -Be proud of your work.

We mods would like to thank Rindre for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved! 

Remember to check out lux if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum 

[digitalanddead-inruins-blog]

Rachel [off-site]:

B4 our WALK (Wed. Aug 29th)

This is the weird thing... I can’t stop thinking about Fascism… Esp lately, b/c my knee is busted and all I do is stay in reading AntiFa clickbait… B/c my Grandaddy was in WWII and he had stories… B/c it scares me… B/c of Mussolini and his fetishization of Ancient Rome (and larger habits of folks who author connections with a simplified notion of the past to bolster their position/ideology/nationalist identity etc.)… But I’m just some privileged white girl from Canada who never had to experience Fascism first-hand (just geographically distanced observations on the net, or historicized musings)… at least not yet… what am I even doing talking or thinking about ancient history at a time like this?

 So, back in 2008-2010, during the financial/housing crash, I made a bunch of work in Los Angeles (that was re-framed in 2015) about the weird link btwn the 2nd wave of American Neo-Classism and their banking system (it’s tangled and almost shockingly synchronic)… apparently bits and pieces of this get discussed in the more academic end of Copyright Law (a friend’s mom who’s a world renowned expert/prof/editor [she knows her shit] of a major journal on the subject told me so… so, yeah)…

So that whole thing got me to thinking about buried shit… how we take-on and dig-up this buried shit... how we shape and clean it and in doing so distinctly author it. The permeating compressed dust, dirt and nitre gets scraped off and discarded, and the remaining matter is shaped into an augmented sign; transforming the Aggregate Clump into a Sharply Formed Declaration …

It got me thinking about how this buried shit gets used (sometimes forcefully) by governments, assholes, even well-intentioned assholes...artists... it doesn’t matter… it gets cleaned up and scrubbed up and (re)shaped and hoisted back up again… and again… and again… All that repeated and meme-y and calcified Benjaminian Fossil shit (thank-u Susan Buck-Morss <3). We forget that marble and stone and terracotta was gaudy and painted and dirty and fleshy and stinky and messy... that the gods lived in the stone and they were lusty and corporeal… they fucking LIVED in them… that people shat around here… gods shat around here… literally shat… ate and shat… look around this necropolis… someone has shit and pissed here, I guarantee it. Ritual and Reverence, wtvr. There’s someone’s garbage over there (old and new and ancient and plastic)… Someone has taken a dump here! Dig it. The chaos is resistance...

I dunno, I want to talk about the fetishization and re-authoring the past and Fascism and nostalgia but I don’t know if I’m allowed to… if it makes me a real fucking asshole for even attempting it (making that association). A dumb Canadian ex-pat/migrant walks into a Roman/Italian ruin and immediately goes to ______ism… This is usually the kind of harsh narrative voice I have spoken through a surrogate when I do my performances because I’m such a fucking pussy and sometimes scared of my own words (ok, ok, there are obvs considered/conceptual reasons but this is personal/casual email format, so here’s some performative vulnerability)… But every time I want to talk about impressions and thoughts and imaginations and Imagineering and all that about a solid place, a (HARD) Place (especially one that screams HISTORY in bloc capitols), that I don’t know abso-fucking-everything about (as if panomathic knowledge can be achieved – w/o going into debates on who’s knowing is legit/cannon [speaking of fascism/colonialism/empirical thinking]) I get scared as fuck… because lets face it… Monuments = (HARD) Power and Framing =  (HARD) Power. The solid-as-a-rock, simplified, uni-lateral presentation of these (HARD) objects/architecture is about Power... Declarative, Shaped, Authored POWER (and that is kinda scary)…

But I’m post-net-y/net-y-native enuff-to-kno that the infinite refractions of opinion and speculation that bounce like imperfect fleshy radar off of these objects and spaces can potentially offer up a whole multi-verse of meanings, readings… pasts, futures, presents… the (HARD) stuff is still permeable and plastic under the right conditions… Embracing entropy and all that (I’m sorry, I spent too much time in California/@CalArts and art-bro’s in Cali spend waaaaaay to much time talk’n bout the entropic, ugh)… So, yeah, order and chaos, excavation and neglect... I’m violently ambivalent as usual.

 *          *          *

The WALK (Wed. Aug 30th)

How do I feel, what are my impressions?

Wikipedia tells me that the Greeks used this as a minor outpost, didn’t really care much about it. It was too far out from anything else, isolated.

I keep thinking of Ballard’s The Crystal World...

*          *          *

 You (Sarah) Skyped me and the connection sucked but the images were nice. It was like back in the day when I would steal my brother’s World of Warcraft login and go fuck-about with his Orc (he didn’t like that). Whenever the connection was dropped-and-returned you loaded in slow, long lags… long fucking lags… then sped-up fast catch-ups when your voice would go all robotic. The necropolis looked like Minecraft (which was fitting, considering we used a Minecraft “grave” in our last work tgthr)…

It’s difficult for me to get a sense of the “flesh” (in the embodied theological/corporeal sense) of the place. Like I mentioned earlier… gods, people, animals shit and pissed [with]in these places and forms, and I’m trying to figure out how that embodiment shifts/relates/translates/transubstantiates to a pixel.

 At the end of our “walk”, Anthony Gormley’s dude taking up the best view in the whole park pops up, and our connection starts going haywire and I got weird feedback and its all so “slender-man” creepy, haunted shit… screeches and hiss and this black “shadow” figure…The whole landscape blurred and chunky. I wanted so badly to post this to one of those digital folklore pages on reddit but the feedback sound didn’t record and it kinda killed the spookiness.

 Still, sound or no sound… glitch-blur or no glitch-blur… bad connection…  wtvr got lost… collections of impressions... for my purpose it made good video.

-Rachel