#not including games that have a photo mode it’s gotta be a camera In-Game

[acidgirl]

i’ve been thinking about putting together a digital exhibit of photography taken from a camera item within video games. mostly collecting from rdr2 but if anyone has any other games that let’s the player use a camera and is interested in sending some stuff in…. lmk

[idnek83]

Aid - Chapter 3/13

Rating: Explicit

Pairing: Soda Kazuichi/Tanaka Gundham

Tags: Alternate Universe - Island Mode, No Game Spoilers, Masturbation,  Hand Jobs, Blow Jobs, Semi-Public Sex, Grinding, Wet Dreams, Anal Fingering,  Friends With Benefits,  Getting Together, Internalized Homophobia, Anal Sex

Summary: Everyone is hot and half naked because of their beach vacation. Soda is horny and tries to do something about it. Gundham tries to help and does. It all gets a little out of hand.

Chapter: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Read on Ao3

This Chapter: Soda never claimed to be smart, sometimes he makes mistakes and hurts people without even knowing. Soda realizes he might not have his priorities in order.

_____________________

Soda definitely had a lot of thinking to do, but he wasn’t gonna do any of it till really he had to.

With Jum-P safely back in his lair, it seemed like it was probably a good time to wrap up this field trip into hamster land.

“Wanna go hang out somewhere else, man? I mean, if I disturb the Devas for too long I’ll probably get cursed or something, right?” Soda smiled at Gundham across the room.

“You need not fear the wrath of my Devas, my companion, so long as you do not betray me, they will not harm you.” Gundham was smiling too. “A change of location may be amiable, however.”

“Sweet.” Soda turned and opened the door, he didn’t really know where they should go, but he figured they were bound to run into some of their classmates doing something interesting soon enough. No real point in making plans if your weird friends are just gonna ruin them anyway right?

Soda and Gundham hadn’t even made it past the cabins when they spotted several of their classmates chatting animatedly.

Akane waved them over “Yo, you guy wanna come to the beach? The one by the diner? We’re gonna find out who’s the best swimmer. Teruteru even said he’d be sure to give the winner some thick, juicy meat.”

“I’ll be sure to give it to you till you can’t take it anymore.” Teruteru laughed in a way he probably thought was charming.

Soda cringed at the obvious metaphor. He wasn’t really an amazing swimmer and racing kinda sounded like a hassle anyways…

Then Sonia, beautiful, perfect Sonia, stepped up, arm on her bicep “I will show you all my power! I will be the winner of the meat and you will all be made to admit defeat!”

Soda fucking loved swimming and racing sounded like a god damn amazing idea.

“Y-yeah! Of course we’ll come! I’ll show you I’m no pushover Miss Sonia!”

“I look forward to competing with you, Gundham!” Sonia said, ignoring Soda and flipping her long, gorgeous hair over her shoulder before walking away, followed by the others.

“Damnit, whys she always gotta ignore me like that.” Soda kind of wanted to cry, but he’d just have to prove to Sonia that he was serious in the race. And really, even if he didn’t, at least he’d get to see Sonia in a swimsuit. Hell yeah.

“Come on Gundham! Let’s grab our trunks and head to the beach!” Soda turned to Gundham with visible enthusiasm. Gundham didn’t seem to feel nearly as excited.

“Ah, I… will have to leave this battle to you, my companion. As the Supreme Overlord of Ice, I have made a nemesis of the many sea gods. Were I to enter their domain, it would surely result in catastrophe for all involved.” Gundham was looking away, he must not really like the ocean.

“Huh? So you’re not coming?” Gundham didn’t respond “Ok, man, whatever. I’ll catch you later then.” Soda turned and ran to his cabin.

Sure, he felt a little bad about leaving Gundham alone, but it wasn’t like he was excluding him or something. He had been invited, he was just choosing not to go, so it’s his fault if he ends up feeling left out, right? Anyways, this meant Gundham wouldn’t be there to distract Sonia from him, so Soda’d definitely get her attention now!

He changed into his swim trunks and ran back outside, not wanting to get left behind. He vaguely noted that Gundham had already left, maybe he went back to check on his hamsters again? Whatever, Sonia here he comes!

It had been a while since he had really thought about her properly, the whole… thing with Gundham had been taking up most of the space in his brain recently. But now he was focused again, picturing what the beautiful princess would look like in her swimsuit. Would she wear a bikini? His mouth was watering at the thought of all that beautiful, smooth skin being on display. Her delicate arms and long, slender legs, her supple chest and wide hips… that pale stomach and those rippling abs, so well defined through pale, pale skin, and that deep V created by hip bones, leading down to that thick, hard-

Fuck. That wasn’t Sonia anymore. Shit.

Soda shook his head and wished that Gundham would kindly get the fuck out of his Sonia fantasy with his stupid sexy body, and handsome face, and big, warm hands, and those sad eyes as Soda had walked away-

Nope. Not the time for this. He wasn’t going feel bad about Gundham choosing not to hang out with the rest of them, and he was going to think about how sexy Sonia was, god damnit! Sonia! You hear that you stupid traitor of a brain? Sonia!

Sonia in a little, skimpy bikini that barely covered her beautiful body and soft curves. Curves so unlike those on Gundham’s muscular body, curves that would be smooth and supple against his palms, rather than taught and firm. The contrast would probably drive him crazy; soft yielding flesh in front of him and a hard, muscular body behind him-

Ok, hot, but still not what he was going for.

Whatever, he could see the beach just ahead, so it was probably time to get his head out of the clouds anyways.

As he approached the beach, he saw Sonia look up at him with a smile, and he felt so happy that he hardly even cared when it changed to a look of confusion and disappointment a moment later.

“Where is Gundham? I thought he would be with you?”

“Oh, he s-said something about not liking the sea gods? Don’t worry Miss Sonia, I’ll make sure this race is so fun you don’t even notice he’s gone!” Gundham couldn’t actually cock block him when he wasn’t even here right?

Sonia still looked disappointed. Soda heard a loud click.

“That’s too bad, I was hoping to get some good shots of everyone.” Mahiru lowered her camera and approached them. “Well hopefully he’ll come by later, I was mostly hoping to get a some shots in front of the sunset anyways.”

It didn’t occur to Soda until that very moment that Mahiru would be taking pictures of the event. Pictures where everyone would be half naked, and possibly soaking wet… Mahiru was quickly becoming one of Soda’s favourite people.

Speaking of being half naked…

“Where are your guys’ swimsuits? I thought we were gonna race in the ocean?” Looking around, all of the girls were still in their regular clothes.

“Disappointed, pervert?” Hiyoko laughed.

“N-no! I was just, uh. Akane said we we’re gonna swim, so-” Soda did his best not to sound like the disappointed pervert he definitely was.

“We weren’t sure how long everyone would take, so we decided we'd get changed in the beach house.” Chiaki had appeared from somewhere. “But if Gundham isn’t coming, then I guess this is everyone. We should probably get changed then.”

The girls headed towards the beach house, and Soda’s eyes widened. They were gonna be changing so close by, in a house with a big ass window. His face reddened and he looked to Hajime, standing just a bit further down the beach. Surely his soul friend would understand what an amazing opportunity this was.

“Hajime-“

“No.” Hajime sounded firm, but he was blushing. He was definitely thinking the same thing Soda was.

“C’mon man. This is like, a once in a lifetime opportunity. All of the girls are getting changed! Right there! Right on the other side of that huge window. We gotta peek! It’s like, out duty as men!” Soda could see Hajime’s resolve slowly crumbling. “Just a quick peek dude, no one has to know.”

“I guess if it’s just quickly…” Hell yeah, hell yeah, HELL YEAH!

“Yo, what are you two whispering about? Gonna cheat in the race?” Soda and Hajime jumped as Akane approached. She was practically bursting out of her little blue and white bikini, and Soda was having a really hard time not starring.

“N-nothin, don’t worry about it.” Soda laughed nervously “I uh, thought all the girls were inside… how’d you get changed so fast?”

“Huh? I just wore by suit under my clothes. Why? Were you hopping to get a peek or somethin’?”

“N-no!” Soda shouted, in a totally calm and not at all suspicious way.

“Ha, I don’t mind givin’ you a peek, but it’s gonna cost ya.” Soda couldn’t tell if she was teasing him or actually serious. Hajime just shook his head and walked away.

“H-hey! Hajime! Wait up.” Soda had no idea how to handle Akane, he definitely didn’t want to get stuck alone with her, sexy swimsuit or not. Well, maybe he wouldn’t mind being like, alone alone with her, but maybe not right this second.

A few minutes later the girls emerged, some in bikinis, but most, including Sonia, in school issued one-piece swimsuits. Soda would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little disappointed, but at least she wasn’t wearing a full scuba suit or something weird like that. Still plenty of beautiful, perfect skin on display.

He should probably compliment her, right? Girls loved being told they looked good in swimsuits, right?

“Miss Sonia, you-“

“Let us get started with the competition!” Sonia either didn’t hear him or didn’t care, cutting him off before he could finish and heading towards the water. Hajime gave Soda a sympathetic pat on the back before following her.

Sonia and Akane scouted out good start and end points for the race, and Mahiru volunteered to be the judge, ready to take pictures in case of a photo finish. Soda knew he couldn’t actually win the race, but he was gonna do his best in hopes of impressing Sonia and finally getting her to acknowledge him.

Soda was right not to think he could win, the second Mahiru said go, Akane was swimming off at dizzying speeds, no doubt spurred on by Teruteru’s promise of food for the winner. Still, Soda did his best and ended up finishing just behind Hajime. He wasn’t sure what place he finished in, but he felt like he made pretty good time, so probably at least like top 5 right?

He was 7th. Sonia had placed 3rd, after Akane and Peko, which meant she had finished before him and probably hadn’t even spared the time to see how hard he was trying. He tried to congratulate her on doing so well, but just got blown off again.

He felt pretty shitty. He wondered what Gundham was up to.

He spared a glance to the shore to see if the breeder had changed his mind and shown up at the beach while he had been focused on the race. No sign of him. Soda felt even shittier.

He was suddenly splashed in the face with water.

“Hey cheer up Soda, I think you did pretty well honestly.” Hajime, dear, sweet Hajime.

“You’re only saying that cus I nearly beat you. If I sucked it’d mean you sucked too.” He splashed Hajime back, already feeling a little better.

“Just take the compliment.” Hajime laughed and splashed more water at Soda. It was on, if Hajime wanted a splash fight, Soda was gonna give it to him.

The splash fight devolved into an all-out splash war as the others joined in, laughing and threatening to kill each other in the same breaths. Maybe Sonia still wasn’t paying attention to Soda, but he was at least having fun now.

The splash war died down and devolved into a handstand contest, which became a breath holding contest, which became several rounds of chicken. Soda lost track of time and didn’t even notice that the sun was setting and he was starving until Akane stopped what she was doing, sniffed, and made a beeline towards the shore shouting something about food.

Teruteru must have snuck off at some point, because when Soda looked back at the beach, he saw him standing behind a grill, piling delicious looking food onto a table that must have been folded up somewhere in the beach house storage room.

Soda felt a bit embarrassed thinking about the storage room, but he was too hungry to worry about it and headed for shore along with the rest of his classmates. Whatever Teruteru was cooking smelled amazing, and Soda was drooling by the time he made it to where the table was set up outside the beach house.

Teruteru seemed to be setting up the table buffet style, with plates stacked at one end and various dishes lined up along it. It didn’t seem like he was done cooking yet, but Akane was already digging in. Soda grabbed a plate a filled it with a bit of everything, there weren’t any chairs set up, but Soda figured he could just find somewhere for him and Gundham-

His stomach dropped. Gundham wasn’t here and Soda had ditched him to hang out around a girl who probably wouldn’t even care if he dropped dead in front of her. God he was a shitty friend, or companion, or… whatever he was to Gundham.

Well fuck that, time to stop being shitty. Soda piled some more food onto his plate and moved to leave the beach.

“Soda? Where are you going?” Hajime called after him.

“Oh uh, I just thought I’d go find Gundham. Bring him something to eat, y’know?”

“You are going to find Gundham?” Sonia looked at him for what was probably only the second time that day. “Allow me to accompany you then.”

Usually, Soda would be ecstatic at the opportunity to spend time alone with Sonia, even if it was just for the short walk to their cabins, but he wasn’t really feeling it right now. Maybe it was because he felt guilty about ditching Gundham and didn’t want an audience for his apology, or maybe he was just hurt by the fact that Sonia had ignored him all day and was obviously just using him to get to Gundham now. Either way, he knew he didn’t want her to come.

“Nah, I’m good. You just stay here Sonia.” Soda wasn’t sure if he was imagining the shocked looks on his friends faces as he turned around to leave again. Were they really so shocked that he showed a little backbone?

Yeah, of course they were. Soda knew he was a huge pushover, especially when it came to Sonia.

“Hold up.” Jesus what now. “Can’t having you letting my food get cold while you find tall, dark, and handsome. Give me that.” With a completely unnecessary flourish, Teruteru grabbed the plate Soda was holding and transferred the food into a shallow bowl with a lid. “There, make sure to tell Gundham he’s welcome to come see me if that doesn’t satisfy him.” Teruteru laughed and winked while combing back his stupid hair.

Soda took the food and left before anyone else could stop him.

What the fuck had he just done. Soda just kept on making mistakes.

Why did he turn down Sonia like that? She probably hated him for being so rude now. Well, maybe being hated by her was actually a little better than just being nothing. At least now she might spare a thought for him every now and then, even if it was just about how much she hated him, being on her mind was still sort of a win, right?

God he was pathetic.

Fuck it, Sonia had probably already forgotten he existed again. She was probably thinking about Gundham now. Well jokes on her, she could think of him all she wanted but Soda was the one who had sucked his dick, so there.

Sonia hadn’t sucked Gundham’s dick before, right? Right? Had she? Why the fuck did that thought make him so mad? Was he actually jealous? And which one of them was he jealous of? Fuck.

Soda breathed deeply and debated just taking all the food back to his cabin and pigging out until he felt less shitty. He was basically already there anyways.

He spared a glance to the end of the row of cabins and noticed Gundham’s lights were off. Was he sleeping? The sun had just barely set, but Gundham had been up all-night taking care of Jum-P so…

Soda sighed and went to take a look. At least if Gundham was asleep he would have an excuse to eat all the food by himself. He was just checking to give himself a good alibi, he really didn't care if Gundham was sleeping, and he definitely wasn't hoping he was awake so they could... talk.

He peeked in the window as he walked up, but he couldn’t really see anything. He should probably knock right? Maybe Gundham just liked sitting in the dark sometimes? Soda could easily imagine Gundham sitting alone in a dark room and calling it a ritual or something.

He knocked on the door lightly. “Uh, Gundham? I brought food?”

No response.

“And I’m um, I’m sorry for ditching you earlier, that was... pretty lame of me.”

Nothing.

“Gundham?” He knocked again, louder. Still no response.

Was he just a really deep sleeper? Or was he not in his room? Or was he actually just super pissed at Soda for ditching him, and now he was ignoring him just like Sonia? The thought kind of made him want to cry.

Fuck it, he wasn’t gonna just let Gundham ignore him.

“C’mon man! I said I’m sorry already! Let me make it up to you! You can eat my share of Teru’s food if ya want! Or,” Soda blushed “I-I could y’know, ‘aid’ you again if you want…”

“Aid him? Now what could you possibly be helping the ultimate breeder with I wonder.” Soda jumped at the sound of Nagito’s voice.

“Dude! Where the fuck did you come from?” Soda prayed he wouldn’t push him on what he had meant by aiding Gundham.

“Hmm? I just walked the same way you did. I thought Hajime looked a little cold and thought the least a worthless piece of trash like me could do is get him a sweater.” He smiled that creepy smile of his. “Oh, and lucky you, I happened to see Gundham on my way here. He was headed towards that little beach by the airport.”

“What? Why was he going there.”

“Ah, I didn’t ask. I’m sorry, I really am useless, aren’t I?”

“W-whatever dude.” Soda really hated talking to Nagito on his own, something was just off about him. He gave him a half wave and walked back the way he had come at a totally normal, not at all fast pace.

It was time to apologize for real, he really didn’t want to lose… whatever it was he had with Gundham.

Whatever it was that was making his heart feel so damn heavy.

Next Chapter

[notveryglittery]

Lava

summary: the floor sizzled and patton screeched excitedly, happy to see just how quickly their imagination had kicked in. ships: it's LAMP! there's leanings towards moxiety and logince! you can read it as platonic or romantic! warnings: imaginary lava, reckless stunts, a tiny bit of panic words: 2,200 notes: i've been wanting to write this for AGES and i dunno, it just finally came to me last night, and i wrote it all in one sitting. read on ao3

It was a quiet afternoon in the commons, each Side peacefully minding their own business. They had gathered together in the living room, perfectly content with spending time together, but for the most part, keeping to their own tasks.

Logan was working on the agenda for the next week, from proper bedtimes to video recording schedules, to various appointments. His pens were lined up neatly next to his planner, in order of which got used most to least (black to navy blue to forest green). There was a mug of coffee, steam rising off of it still, but looking like it hadn’t been touched recently.

Roman was sitting on the floor, hunched over the table, furiously scribbling in a notebook. It was doodles of various imagined scenes including himself and the others: a battle with sorcerer Logan at his side versus the Dragon Witch, a race with a winged Patton soaring ahead of him through the sky, a tour through an art gallery with Virgil eagerly leading the way.

Virgil sat perched on the back of the couch, headphones nestled comfortably over his ears, and scrolling through his phone on what could safely be assumed was Tumblr. He looked surprisingly mellow, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth every other post. He was tapping his socked feet against the cushions along to the music.

The tranquility was shattered when a thunderous noise came from the floor above and Patton appeared at the top of the staircase, looking flustered and out of breath.

“Patton, what on Earth—” Logan began before Patton barreled down the rest of the steps, coming to a sudden stop on the very last one. Virgil looked up, eyebrows raising as he paused the playlist. Roman seemed too intensely focused on his current sketch to even have noticed Patton’s arrival in the first place.

“THE FLOOR IS LAVA!!!!” Patton shouted which garnered him three very different reactions.

Logan’s expression fell from concerned to indifferent as he spoke, “Patton, don’t be absurd—”

Only for Roman’s deafening shriek to cut him off as the prince leapt off of the carpet and onto the table, very nearly knocking over Logan’s mug. He wobbled precariously for a moment before his wide eyed surprise narrowed into an accusatory glare at Patton. “A bit more warning would’ve been nice!”

Virgil let the padded band of his earbuds curve along his neck, adjusting to the sudden lack of a song. He smirked at Logan, whose feet were still firmly planted on the ground. “Better get on the couch, Lo,” he advised, “I think you underestimate how serious Patton gets about this one.”

Logan gave him an exasperated look, “really, Virgil? I hardly expected—” This time, the only one interrupting Logan was himself, by way of an alarmed yelp. He yanked his legs onto the couch, knees against his chest, and arms wrapped around his calves. The floor wasn’t so much lava as it was a shimmering orange and red. It radiated heat the same way asphalt does in the distance but it seemed like it would really only be dangerous after prolonged exposure.

Patton looked absolutely thrilled from his spot, hands clasped together underneath his chin. “Oh, I don’t think so!” Roman exclaimed, pointing to the floor beneath Patton’s feet, “that counts, too!” The carpet took its time shifting which gave Patton the few precious seconds he needed to dart away. He shot passed the trio and to the dining area, where he clambered first onto a chair, and then onto the table.

“Hah!” He crowed in Roman’s direction, looking particularly proud papa; whether it was at himself for his success or at the others for playing along… honestly, it was definitely both entirely. Virgil had stood up, balancing a little uneasily; he shrugged off his hoodie, as if it would only weigh him down for this game. It was then that Patton knew he’d been triumphant in his plans to get everybody to play together.

Roman was on his phone, posing just right so that he could get them all in his selfie. Logan looked disgruntled in a delightful “has a soft spot for Patton” sort of manner, Virgil was half turned away but his grin at Patton was shining clear as the sun on a cloudless day, and Patton was the only other looking directly at Roman’s camera for the photo and he was smiling like he’d won the lottery. Roman kept his peace sign pressed close to his own face, beaming and effortlessly charming.

The floor sizzled and Patton screeched excitedly, happy to see just how quickly their imagination had kicked in. Virgil gestured towards one of the chairs and Patton caught on easily, scooting it closer to him. In a move that seemed uncharacteristically dangerous of him, Virgil crawled onto the back of the couch, and used his agility (thanks fight or flight reflexes) to hop onto it. Roman gasped and then broke into applause. Logan sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Very well then. How does one win this game?” Logan asked, pivoting so that he was facing Patton. Virgil had joined him on top of the dining table by now and Logan took a moment to scowl at them, “we eat there.”

“I’ll clean it later!” Patton promised, clutching Virgil’s arm. “Whoever makes it back to the top of the staircase first wins!”

Roman, who was certainly the closest, gave a mighty “huzzah!”

Virgil groaned, “what’d I come over here for then?” He tried to come off as upset about it but the spark in his eyes was a dead giveaway.

“Don’t worry, kiddo,” Patton whispered, “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve!” He pulled on one of the sleeves of the cardigan tied around his shoulders as if to make a point. Virgil snorted.

“Hey, that’s cheating!” Roman’s shout drew their attention and they watched as Logan tossed a couch cushion onto the floor. It was the second so far and Logan was reaching for another.

“I don’t see how this could be considered cheating,” Logan responded loftily, “I’m not stepping on the floor, am I?”

Roman looked ready to jump onto the path made so far before Patton cleared his throat. “Ah, ah, ah, Ro! You’ve gotta find your own way!”

“And just how is your strategy going to help me then, Patton?” Virgil muttered. All he received in return was a wink. Virgil rolled his eyes but it somehow only came across as exceedingly affectionate.

“Surely you can come up with something for yourself, Roman.” Logan said, and oh, that was a tone Roman simply would not stand for. “You are Creativity, after all.” And, oh, that smug tilt of his lips was absolutely unacceptable!

With a flourish and snap of his fingers, an oar landed into Roman’s open palms. Virgil watched in awe as the table Roman had claimed shifted into what was easiest to describe as a raft. The floor must’ve taken on some sort of liquid properties as it bobbed in what used to be solid carpet. “Imagination really is something, huh, Virge?” Patton giggled, applauding Roman’s feat. There didn’t seem to be any shrinking it, however, and so it moved slowly and awkwardly. Still, he was gaining headway on Logan, who had taken a moment to gather his supplies.

Patton tapped on Virgil’s shoulder and gestured towards the ceiling. A zipline (that really was the best word for it) trailed from above the table to over the step that Virgil occupied for videos. Patton undid the knot of his cardigan and tossed one sleeve over the cable; he wound the fabric around his hands a few times and gave an experimental tug. It seemed to hold just fine but Virgil’s panic skyrocketed anyway. “Are you crazy?!”

Patton leant forward and kissed Virgil on the cheek, “people do crazy things when they’re in love!” And with that, he kicked off of the sturdy surface, tucking his legs up as high as he could.

Roman cried out “Hercules?!” just as Patton went flying by him.

Virgil, more out of fear for Patton’s safety than anything else, sprung back onto the chair towards the couch, grabbed his hoodie, and then moved just as quickly to the table again. He looped his sleeves much the same way Patton had and took a deep breath, before launching himself after his best friend.

It all happened so rapidly that the terror barely had time to take hold. The adrenaline kicked in instead and he actually laughed, startling Roman out of his rowing and Logan from his careful progress. The sound was abruptly cut off when he crashed into Patton and knocked them both to the floor. “Ow, ow, ow,” Patton chanted while somehow still snickering. It didn’t hurt, not really; it was more like the sensation of sinking into a hot tub than burning oneself with hot water. They got to their feet and Virgil hoisted Patton onto the banister before climbing on himself.

“You used Patton’s idea!” Roman criticized, paddling faster now to make up for getting distracted.

“Breaking the rules should lead to disqualification,” Logan agreed, hauling the cushion behind him around and to the front of the one he currently rested on.

“He did not!” Patton argued, gesturing to the outerwear left on the floor. “He had his own mode of transportation!”

“While using your form of transit!”

In the midst of the disagreement, Virgil was steadily climbing up the staircase, slipping his feet between the balusters. Patton either didn’t notice or was more than alright with letting Virgil win.

Roman arrived close enough to the television stand and he lunged for it, very nearly knocking everything over. He tiptoed along the edge, arms outstretched for balance. The same moment he jumped for Virgil’s discarded hoodie went hand in hand with Logan leaping for Patton’s abandoned cardigan. They collided and, much like the others had before them, felt the heat briefly before getting to their feet, and scurrying for the banister. Patton hadn’t pulled ahead by much and so it was feeling very cramped suddenly on the staircase.

Roman, realizing now just how close Virgil was to winning, and feeling very much like adding some tragedy to their game, let go of the handrail and landed noisily on the steps. “Oh no!” He cried, throwing himself against the wall and farther from safety. “Logan, help!”

“What— Roman, what are you doing?!” Logan demanded, holding an arm out for Roman to grab onto. Patton’s horrified gasp was well done and Roman made a mental note to shower him in praise after this was all finished. From the corner of his eye, Roman could see Virgil had paused, a mere three steps from the top. “Go on without me!” Roman wailed, crocodile tears springing to his eyes.

“That would be highly illogical,” Logan sounded very much like a scolding parent, “whatever would we do without you?” And while Roman had planned to draw his death scene out in the most dramatically agonizing way possible, Logan was apparently having none of it as he reached even further. He grabbed Roman by his sash and tugged; Roman willed the fabric into something stronger so that it wouldn’t tear and allowed the logical Side his victory. Something warm bloomed in his heart at the possibility of Logan being entirely serious, despite this all being pretend.

Just as suddenly as it had began, it ended. The floor returned to soft carpet and the heat disappeared. Virgil stood at the top of the staircase, hands on his hips, looking especially proud. Patton hopped up the remaining steps and very nearly tackled Virgil in his enthusiasm; they only stayed standing by way of Virgil grabbing onto the handrail and keeping them steady.

“Hooray, Virgil!” Patton acclaimed, keeping an arm looped around his neck as he took Virgil’s free hand, shooting it into the air. “Three cheers for our favorite emo!”

“He’s the only emo we—”

“Hip hip!” Patton began.

“Hooray!” Roman followed.

“Hip hip!”

“Hooray!” Roman said again, nudging Logan in the side.

“Hip hip!”

“Hooray!” Logan acquiesced, looking at Patton with a gentle fondness in his eyes.

Virgil seemed embarrassed by all the attention and slipped out of Patton’s grasp, rubbing his hand along his bare forearm a little uncomfortably. “This was fun, guys,” he admitted, snapping his fingers and shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie the moment it materialized back onto his body. Roman shot him a pair of finger guns and the headphones appeared back around his neck, to which Virgil gave him a tiny, if not grateful, smile.

“Dinner’s in an hour, kiddos!” Patton chimed, hopping onto the banister and sliding down it, passing Logan and Roman. They both protested his action, proclaiming safety and jealousy, respectively. He scooped his cardigan up off the floor and began putting the cushions back onto the couch. “Go rest up,” he instructed before anybody could move to help him, “I’ll call you when the food’s ready!”

There wasn’t much contradicting Patton when he went full on Dad mode and so the others left for their rooms, each thinking of how they’d thank Patton later on for getting them all gathered for some well deserved fun.

[bitegore]

[id: a twitter thread by N. K. Jemisin @ nkjemisin.

"A late-afternoon revision-mode thought. People ask me sometimes why I'm so *blatant* re racism and other bigotries, in my fiction. Wouldn't a more subtle approach work?

Answer: No. A more subtle approach wouldn't work.

SFF does subtle coverage of bigotry all the time, actually. Allegories all over the place, especially in secondary worlds. And probably because of that, readers who are fluent in SFF are used to separating real-world bigotry from its fantastic (or futuristic) counterpart.

Which is precisely how we ended up with a genre that, for most of my life, thought of itself as anti-racist. Look at all the allegories! Meanwhile no black characters. Few writers, editors, etc, of color. Open bigots everywhere.

Allegory does not reinforce reality. It obscures it.

That is, allegory allows readers who are uncomfortable with a topic to engage with that topic in a more comfortable space -- away from reality. Scared of black people? Maybe you'll empathize with these green people on Mars. Freaked out by the mentally ill? Make 'em psychic.

And as a first step in desensitization, for people who've developed a pathological level of discomfort -- which our racist, classist, sexist etc society encourages -- that's great! Except... most people stop there. Pat themselves on the back for coming so far. Go no farther.

Like, it's awesome that you also think Dragon Age 2, a game about a penniless refugee who beomces a heroine, is the best game writing out there! Me, too! But you voted Trump or Brexit because fuck refugees/immigrants?

[A photo of a cat staring at the camera intensely]

But because it was the Done Thing for so long, allegorical engagement became standard in the genre... obscuring the reality that SFF had become nearly as old, white and male as a GOP convention, and just as defensive re its privilege. Overt engagement was, is, treated as gauche.

This isn't just a genre thing. American society *loves* to pull this shit. Cf. Our media's endless list of words to use instead of racism -- racial tension, race-based bias, etc. Can't say racism! That's too far. How uncivil.

Reminder: calls for civility reinforce the status quo. They are a way of saying "Mm yeah you can mention X, but don't you dare press for actual change!" Which *is* what anyone who mentions (say) the existence of racism, in a racist society, is doing. Naming it helps shame it.

Writing prominent characters who are members of marginalized groups, describing realistic examples of bigotry, and *calling* it bigotry when it appears, all can serve the same purpose, in fiction. But it's going to feel uncivilized to some readers.

(This is apart from the matter of how to do it *well*. When just mentioning a topic, or a group, feels like a slap in the face to some readers -- which it will, bc civility -- then how do you slap gracefully? A little backhand, just a twist of the wrist? Practice your swing.)

Sometimes you gotta be uncivilized, when you live and write within a civilization built on bigotry. If it helps, remember that *you* weren't the one who created this civilization... but you can help fix it.

So include green people...but also include black people. Make your character a refugee, and give them an indigenous Mexican name. Flex pronouns for your NB characters. When your characters are bigots, have somebody or the narrative *call* them bigots.

You cannot trust your audience to just figure that ish out. Some of them will, because they've lived it or learned better. Many will not, because they have been trained, by life and by fiction, to see only the "polite" obscuration, and to regard realism as separate and vulgar.

Nothing can fix that except us writers. Only way to move the Overton Window on what feels normal in fiction is to set your feet and shove. Rudely, if you must.

end id]

Anyway this Twitter thread by NK Jemisin is all I care about

[italicwatches]

Animal Sentai Zyuohger - Episode 25

So yesterday’s episode was…heavy. Let’s see what this one’s all about. It’s Animal Sentai Zyuohger, episode 25. Here we GO!

-We begin at the cabin. Yamato’s still reeling from what happened, his mind still leaps to it in quiet moments…And so Leo decides he’s going to help do something to remind Yamato that he’s not al—

-Cue Misao to ruin the moment, and he’s brought a second fishing rod. His first rod, in fact, a precious memory of his. And he wants Yamato to have it. Which leads to an argument and to Misao despairing and going off to find something even more precious.

-And Yamato realizes that everyone’s worried about him…And trust him, he’ll be fine. Just…Give him a little time, okay?

-Up in the Big Bow, Genis is full of praise for Bunglay…Whooooo is ready to tap out. Listen, you got a good thing going here, but he’s gonna go solo. All of this ‘waiting his turn’ stuff, it just isn’t for him. So he’s gonna get gone and do his own th—

-Kubar immediately goes for him, to everyone’s shock…And Bunglay’s amusement. He’ll be heading off now, gentlemen. And Genis isn’t even mad, wanting to see what Bunglay can stir up…While Kubar begs for a chance to be next up. Oh, this is so very personal for him.

-Opening!

-Episode 25! The Unhappy Camera

-So Misao is out and full of despair…When he sees someone selling Happy Cameras. Cameras that make you happy. And the spirits/delusions in his head debate things, until in the end, he ends up deciding to get one of the cameras! Yeah they’re a MotW plot.

-Back in the cabin, they’re having a fresh discussion about the Misao situation, and Leo’s firmly on the tough-love side of things…And then cue Misao with the camera. Yamato’s trying to put on a brave face, but of course everyone’s (minus Leo, who’s still grumpy) real interested in some goof-off fun with this off-brand Polaroid. Instant photos are just inherently fun, after all. So they rack off a few, and Leo tries to get in the mood…But Misao doesn’t even see him. And the others suddenly vanish when he turns back to talk to them….?

-And then Leo gets a vibe! Shit…Okay, they’ll show up! Gotta go deal with this!

-Out in a local courtyard, bunches of other people also had their friends disappear so yeah the camera sucks you up and puts you in your polaroid. As the MotW gathers up these photos…When Bunglay shows up to stir up some trouble.

-And Kubar steps in to defend his minion. And oh, he is pissed. Soon, they’re dueling, as he orders his minion to get out of here and continue the game!

-Which is when Leo and Misao arrive…And get to see the MotW use his shoulder-mounted camera to seal up a victim in the photo! And Misao gets the polaroids out of his pocket and YUP the other four are all sealed in. At least the girls are together, Tusk and Yamato are stuck solo and unable to communicate with anyone.

-And to make it worse, Misao is in guilt mode, so it’s just Leo. Instincts Awakened! Lion charges in…Only to have to dodge that camera lens like a celebrity dodging paparazzi! And in the chaos, the MotW manages to steal the polaroids of the other four, leaving Lion and Misao to escape as just the two of them…How are they going to beat this shady shutterbug?

-Meanwhile, Kubar and Bunglay have taken their duel to the rocky part of the beach. Because you can go anywhere between cuts in tokusatsu land. So Bunglay already knows why Kubar is so worried. It’s since he knows what happened to Kubar…How a certain someone destroyed your home planet…So come on and fight him!

-Back with Leo and Misao, where Misao is just lost in his own head and freaking out and not able to get any results. And Leo can’t stand dealing with this spiral, which leads to all of Misao’s self-loathing and guilt and everything just spilling out. …Shit, Misao. I know your struggle all too well. And in the end, he ends up admitting that he hates people like Leo trying to force things out of him before he’s ready…

-But man, Leo can at least respect that kind of pushback. He can respect some fire in the belly. So come on, they’ve got work to do. …And then he gets a vibe. That bastard’s close. They’re gonna need a plan to deal with that camera, though…And Misao’s got something.

-So cut to the MotW filling out his album. And the crew still haven’t figured out any way to escape…When Leo and Misao arrive, full of fury and will! Two men who hate each other…And they sprint behind some cutesy photo frames, the kind with circles to put your head into. Because if he can’t get a clean shot, his camera does nothing! And from back here, they can shoot with impunity! And thus, they fire…

-And the first shot beans him in the head, knocking the second shot that was aimed for his camera. Well shit. But The World’s ready, as he switches to CROCODILE and goes in as a spearman! With two steady strikes from their frame, they shatter the camera, undoing its magic effects! Hell yeah!

-The people are freed…Including the crew. The World is so very sorry for what happened…But no. You only did it because Yamato was down. No apologies needed. …Now they’ve got a phony photographer to fight. Instincts Awakened!

-Champion of the soaring sky, ZYUOH EAGLE! Champion of the surging waves, ZYUOH SHARK! Champion of the savannah, ZYUOH LION! Champion of the forest, ZYUOH ELEPHANT! Champion of the snowy drifts, ZYUOH TIGER! Champion of the world, ZYUOH THE WORLD! Animal Sentai, ZYUOHGER!

-So the MotW draws out his weapon…Which appears to be a weaponized monopod. Or you might market it as an urban tripod. The point is it’s camera gear with angry claws on the end. Lion and The World manage to snatch it away and pin this cameraman on his own equipment, lining up for the finish! THE WORLD! WOLF! ZYUOH SHOOT! ZYUOH THE BURST! A bevy of gunfire rings out, and he goes kaboom!

-While Kubar gets back, still furious, and send his man a Continue. Naria’s off, while Genis can see right through Kubar’s behavior…

-So the guy’s big. Animal Combination! NINE! SEVEN! EIGHT! Animal Kingdom Combination! FOUR! THREE! TWO! FIVE! ONE! SIX! Tousai Zyuoh! Wild Zyuoh King! So it’s a double team…But this guy’s just too fast despite being big! And soon Lion and The World devolve into bickering…

-Though that turns into them actually discussing a plan, as The World prepares to pin the bastard! Go in for the attack as soon as he has him grappled! And so Tousai Zyuoh whips out a length of line, binding the MotW, as Wild Zyuoh King starts the slashing…Now for the finish! Animal Kingdom Combination!

-THREE! FOUR! NINE! FIVE! TWO! SEVEN! EIGHT! SIX! ONE! WILD TOUSAI KING! Gotta sell that toy. ZYUOH DIRECT STRAIGHT! Aaaaand he’s stabbed through! Goodbye, MotW.

-In the aftermath, Misao’s out by the river, showing Leo how to fish. And Yamato’s taken up photography. So, Leo and Misao are…Well…They’re actually talking, even if it’s arguing. That’s something. listen, it’s a hell of a lot better than he was acting before, okay?

-Credits! Feel your zyuman power charge up! And then bust a move!

Well, that managed to get into some heavy stuff while still being fun. And it looks like next time is gonna continue that trend. We’ll just have to see if I’m right, in episode TWENTY SIX of Animal Sentai Zyuohger! Wait for it!

[turkiyeecom]

E3 2019 in photos: Gooigi, crazy arcade machines, and a DOOM museum

"Great work!" — Plus, the National Videogame Museum returns with some of its craziest rarities yet. Sam Machkovech and Kyle Orland - Jun 16, 2019 1:00 pm UTC LOS ANGELES—If you couldn't or didn't make it to E3 2019, you're not the only one. Anecdotal evidence suggests this was the most poorly attended E3 in some time (though its organizers at the ESA insist that this E3 had only 3,000 fewer attendees than 2018's jam-packed affair), owing perhaps to Sony's no-show or the abundance of live-streamed options for enjoying the event at your own home. Luigi and Gooigi attracted hordes of attendees excited to pose for photos. Sam Machkovech Inside the Luigi's Mansion 3 booth, fans could pose with a guy in a Luigi costume. Nintendo went all-out building a haunted house for these kiosks, but my photos of it turned out terribly. It was easier to get photos of the toy dioramas built around the Link's Awakening gameplay kiosks. Nintendo built four of them in all. A closer zoom on the plastic minis Nintendo built just for this occasion. Link delves into a dungeon. "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" "Wrong series, dude." I'll admit, I kinda lost my mind seeing this adorable Link and Marin meet-cute diorama. Marin in Smash Bros. Ultimate? A guy can dream, right? The EA Play event at the Hollywood Palladium included this impressive cast of paid Apex Legends cosplayers. Yes, the person cosplaying as Octane is a bilateral amputee. You couldn't buy these impressive 10" Apex Legends statues at EA Play. But you could buy a ton of shirts and hoodies. As an Apex Legends fan, Ars's Sam Machkovech nearly bought the "bamboozled" one. For some reason, EA Play hosted an Anthem gameplay session... and for some reason, attendees actually waited for it. FIFA '20 hosted an arena-soccer match. The McLaren Senna features in the new LEGO Speed expansion pack for Forza Horizon 4, so naturally, Microsoft had someone make a life-sized McLaren Serra model out of LEGO bricks. They went to pretty insane trouble to include significant elements from the real deal. Real wheels, real LEGO blocks. This refreshed version of the Xbox Elite Controller (dubbed "version 2") will launch in November for $180 and features such perks as a rechargeable battery, a controller-charging case, increased hair-trigger responsiveness, and more. We couldn't test the new XEC with any games, but its newly texturized grip and significant heft felt good to hold on its own. C'mon, Xbox, you think we're gonna steal this thing? How dare you. Say hello to one of Gears 5's newest, most disgusting monsters. It's not a Gears of War character if it doesn't have chest-high cover nearby. The best thing about Gears 5's new "Escape" mode is that it supports three-player split-screen co-op. More of this kinda thing, please, Xbox Game Studios. The newest LEGO Star Wars release this coming holiday season revolves around the "Skywalker Saga," so naturally, it's time to trot out the old LEGO Han in LEGO carbonite statue again. Coach's Pac-Man line of bags and accessories. For the discerning, fancypants gamer. More Pac-Man and classic-Namco swag. Pretty solid 10" Tekken statues. The entire Bandai Namco fancy-collectible wall was pretty great, honestly. I couldn't take photos of the Final Fantasy VII Remake gameplay kiosks, but I could take photos of the series' Shinra Corporation stuff all around it. For example, this recreation of an iconic FFVII backdrop. Square Enix put up a few Shinra advertisements around the kiosks. See? They have Midgar's best interests at heart! I really hope there's a full cartoon series hidden inside of FFVII Remake starring this cartoon dog. Someone please translate this for us. A small detail of the amazing theater room for Psychonauts 2. TEETH! Arcade1UP had a significant E3 presence with its home-friendly versions of classic arcade machines. The manufacturer used E3 to reveal its newest product: a Star Wars Atari arcade trilogy collection, coming "late 2019." Another look at its handsome side cabinet art. I had to stand on a stool to get a better look at the screen and controller. Because this cabinet was set up on a precarious platform, it was not playable at E3. An Arcade1UP representative said it collaborated with Disney and Lucasfilm in the making of this cabinet, then studied original classic arcade hardware to recreate the controller. Rather than answer my technical questions about how the controller was constructed in this modern version, the Arcade1UP rep insisted that it sought input from arcade cabinet collectors to confirm that its version nailed the original cabinets' feel and mechanical action. Another new Arcade1UP cabinet: the TMNT collection, which includes both of Konami's four-player brawlers in one cabinet. (Most of their cabs include at least two games, if not a few more.) It seems to comfortably support four players, but I liked this group's tweak: letting the middle player simultaneously control two turtles. Then there was this absolutely ridiculous thing that Arcade1UP built for the heckuvit. That's intrepid Ars Technica editor Sam Machkovech up there pretending to play the game. I hope the hand on the joystick makes clear how stupidly massive this whole rig was. But it worked... and Sam won his match. Really, Sam? Be professional. Sega's booth had its own oversized-controller gimmick to celebrate the impending launch of the Sega Genesis Mini this September. It's not really E3 until Ubisoft has a stage full of professional dancers and average fans getting down to Just Dance as one awkward collective. A peek at the poster-covered walls inside of Cyberpunk 2077's behind-closed-doors booth. Capcom had a relatively meager showing at E3, with this new Monster Hunter World expansion taking up most of the company's booth. But, hey, at least they had some nice 10" dragons under glass. Hold me closer, tiny draaaagonnnnns. Sorry, Street Fighter fans. Capcom didn't come to E3 2019 with any news about either SFV or any new fighting games. Just 10" figurines. Chun-Li and Cammy, kicking ass beneath glass. Larger than life. Just like Borderlands should be. Kyle Orland This was by far the best part of the Destroy All Humans revival attempt. Kyle Orland Pixl Cube was one of the more inventive games at the Indiecade booth, a tilt-sensitive box with LED dots that moved through a maze as if pulled by gravity. Kyle Orland In the entryway for Youtube Gaming's creator space, blocks from the show floor, a Google Stadia controller sits behind glass with a mock-up of a retro game store. Kyle Orland The YouTube Gaming space also featured some streamers on old-school CRT TVs, which was a weird look. Kyle Orland Cute. Kyle Orland The YouTube Gaming logo sits on a fake cartridge alongside... Hyper Chroma Ultra? Kyle Orland Nothing says "E3" like a guy in a Yoshi/Mario costume livestreaming himself as he balks loudly at the show floor's $6 pretzels. Kyle Orland New Wave Toys is expanding its Replicade line of authentic miniature cabinets with the likes of these two Capcom classics. Kyle Orland MyArcade is expanding from miniature cabinets to massive portable systems capable of playing actual NES and SNES cartridges. Kyle Orland MyArcade's upcoming Contra cabinet even includes link cable support for two player action. Don't you DARE touch this actual Contra cabinet in the MyArcade booth, though. Kyle Orland That being said, we attended, and Ars Technica came back from Los Angeles with plenty to show for it. In addition to a few more hands-on previews coming (which will build upon the best-of E3 2019 list we already filed), we took our cameras out at both the official E3 halls and nearby events (Xbox Fan Fest, EA Play). I gotta say, in this modern political climate, I have been calling every year "the year of doom." A very nice pencil sketch taken from the original PC game's box art. I'd never seen these minis before, but now I want to play DOOM-opoly. A better zoom on these metal beasts. Collect me plenty. Now for some impressive 3D molds of famed DOOM demons. See? It's like a museum. Funnily enough, this is my "I don't know what to do with my hands" pose when I stand for photos. The secret for awkward photo poses: turn your arms into massive rocket launchers. Way less awkward! As one of DOOM 64's longtime fans, I stood at this specific panel for a while. This might be the least-blurry these N64 sprites have ever looked. (The N64 famously smothered its sprites in a disgusting, smeary blur.) More figurines on display. More figurines on display. More swag on display. More swag on display. The result is a whopping three image galleries here. The first is a catch-all for most of the basic, expected fare, while the second and third focus on retro elements: a DOOM-specific mini-museum, and a curated collection of very rare gaming hardware and collectibles courtesy of the National Videogame Museum in Frisco, Tex. (If you've never been to that physical location before, we strongly encourage you to book a trip.) You know the retro portion of E3 is serious when they put this thing behind a rope. Truly one of a kind. Click the image to get a better look at the information placard. Yep, those are traditional Saturn controller ports. We'd never seen these Vectrex prototypes and variants before. The innards of a prototype color Vectrex system that never saw production. Kyle Orland Anybody think they can repair this thing? Yes, the only scoring cart that remains from this Super Nintendo championship event. Also, a killer Vectrex jacket. How the heck does the NVM keep finding and showing off such incredible game-history rarities? Some cool mementos from the original Mortal Kombat. The placard explains how rare this system is... ... based on this specific message signed by none other than Bill Gates. I don't care how puffy this jacket is. I'd wear it. Every year, the National Video Game Museum trots out at least one previously confidential binder taken from a major gaming company. This year's was Nintendo. I'm always fascinated by internal '80s and '90s documentation about piracy and cartridge backup systems. This section went on for a few more pages and even included grainy photos of various cartridge-copying devices. Video games: the board game! Video games: the, uh, VHS game! Well before the Game Boy revolutionized portable gaming, kids of the '70s and '80s were stuck with these clunkers. One wall was dedicated to particularly rare game consoles that launched solely in Japan. Eat your heart out, Donkey Konga. This is one of Gunpei Yokoi's classic electronic games that he designed for Nintendo in the '70s. This makes me wish Ulala was in an actual '80s cartoon. Kyle Orland In addition to popular and common fare in the coin-op section, the NVM trotted out a few machines we rarely see at classic gaming expos, like this fetching Jungle King cab. True story: we asked Double Fine studio founder and creative director Tim Schafer if he could step back for a second so we could take a photo of this handsome Omega Race cabinet. "I used to play this game all the time as a kid," he remarked before stepping away slowly. (If you're wondering, he signs his name "TIM" in high-score tables.) And we couldn't leave E3 without a walk through the almost carnival-like selection of vendors and inventions in the expo's very back hall. Look below at the show's weird "et cetera" section. Here's a gallery of E3 2019's oddest booths and products. "Wow, how nice and COOL!" we're sure you are saying to yourself. Kyle Orland Thermoreal uses superconductors (?!) to simulate a cold or hot feeling in metal. The company integrated this tech into VR-compatible gloves and a VR headset. As the VR environment changes, so does the sensation of real-life temperature. Trippy! Kyle Orland This 1,000 MaH battery pack for the Switch was heavy, but the harness made it pretty easy to slide on and off to use only when it's needed. Kyle Orland Some extremely generic-looking custom chip boards for use in mini-arcade devices and portable emulation devices. If anybody reading this has the rights to the Atari Jaguar Mini, look them up. Kyle Orland Why stream games to a smartphone with Google Stadia when the Smach Z packs an entire 1080p gaming PC with a 6" screen into a rather bulky portable package? Doom (2016) ran with noticeable judders, and the unit got noticeably hot in our test. But the fact that it works at all was impressive. Kyle Orland The Tactsuit haptic system jolts your body when playing compatible VR games and software. Kyle Orland The Vuvana system has something to do with using a new blockchain cryptocurrency to buy and "own" items in virtual reality, which you can view on a cell phone with this included viewer, apparently. Kyle Orland Oversized controllers were all the rage at E3 2019, but this one went to the trouble of building in a monitor for its game, Street Fighter 2. Kyle Orland Remember the iCade Mini? Someone sure does... Kyle Orland GameBoks is just like it sounds—a wooden box that houses a monitor, power supply, and a space to hold and connect your game console. Between this and the new Atari VCS, wood paneling is apparently the hot new retro-hardware trend. Kyle Orland Proximat is being sold as a "mousepad for your virtual reality feet." It gives VR players a physical indication of their play space's center point, complete with high-grade gel for foot comfort. Kyle Orland If this is a thing you're looking for (for some reason), E3 has you covered. Kyle Orland Amazingly, a product with "360 ONE X" in its name has nothing to do with Xbox (it's a 360 degree camera designed for VR) Kyle Orland Neither vinyl nor fidget spinners are dead at E3 2019. Kyle Orland I need some quick energy after seeing all of these amazing products. It's my lucky day! Kyle Orland How do you make money selling $100 worth of stuff for $40? It's an economic miracle! Kyle Orland This balance board is mainly meant for some easy exercise while at a standing desk, but its producers were marketing it to gamers with a Mortal Kombat 11 display. Kyle Orland And the award for "most dystopian sounding slogan at E3" goes to... Kyle Orland "In the 1989 Future" is a legitimately great tagline, we have to admit. Kyle Orland Listing image by Sam Machkovech Read More Read the full article

[aurelliocheek]

Spitlings on Stadia

Developing our debut title – from prototype to online multiplayer.

Hey, hello! We’re celebrating the ­release of our first game Spitlings releasing on Stadia – let me take you on a brief journey to tell you all about how we got here.

But first – let me introduce ourselves: We’re Massive Miniteam, a small indie game company in Cologne. Together with Robert Schneider (code), Michael Koloch (creative director) and Tim Schroeder (code), I founded the company in late 2017. We’ve been surviving on a lot of contract work in AR/VR and app development for business clients while working on prototypes and pitching publishers. We started out in a small room we rented from TH ­Cologne at the Cologne Game Lab and then moved into the newly formed Cologne Game Haus (CGH) across from gamescom – together with a dozen other small game studios. The CGH was a great place to start out from, as it provided us with a lot of contacts and resources to pool from. It enabled us to arrive where we are today: in 2019 we were able to grow to 9 team members. We’re proud to say we’ve outgrown the space available to us and have moved into our own new offices at the start of 2020. ­Incidentally, we moved one day after having to turn our submission build over to the QA department at HandyGames. It was pretty chaotic.

When starting Massive Miniteam, we wanted to gain financial stability as soon as possible. This is why we took on a lot of contract work to establish an income. Luckily, our experience in AR, VR and app development coupled with a lot of networking and some lucky contacts provided us with a financial base to rely on and hire more people.

Frantic pace and close calls – Spitlings is best played with friends you’re not afraid to scream at (lovingly)!

Origin of Spitlings Spitlings started as a student game from our creative director Michael – he took inspiration from the minimalism of classic arcade games (specifically Pang) and made his own version of it: One screen, one stick and two buttons, single player and/or local co-op. The gameplay is hard to describe in words but immediately understood in videos and GIFs: You need to pop all the bouncy bubbles on the screen. To do this, you can spit up and down with your Spitling. Spitting down lets you jump, so you can gain some height, but watch out: you have limited spit! Gotta slurp it back up from the ground… yikes! When a bubble pops, it spawns two smaller bubbles – the rest is physics, special blocks and chaos. As is common with student games, Spitlings was buried in Michael’s prototype folder.

Three programmers, two artists, a producer, a project manager and a creative director put behind bars for criminal use of puns.

Enter the woes of game development: In May 2018, we were working on a different game which we had state funding for, but due to various complications it went nowhere fast and we were frustrated and a little lost about what to do. We decided to organize a pitch session where everyone at the company pitched the others, Michael dug out his old prototype and we thought “well this looks like something we could finish in three months” (Spoiler: We didn’t.) We split up into small groups and hacked away on various prototypes. This procedure is also why we call ourselves Massive Miniteam: development on a prototype (should) start with just two or three people and only after the first stretch is it brought to the rest of the team to help out.

In just six weeks, Michael and Robert banged out the co-op level editor, most of the gameplay features and a considerable amount of polish. Without a doubt, the ­level editor was the most important feature early on. It allowed us to quickly hop bet­ween playing the game and editing – We might change something around, move a few blocks and then, at the press of one button, jump back into the game to test out the changes. This allows for an extremely quick iteration cycle and enabled us to polish the levels to a tee. It was also ­extremely weird and funny to create levels in co-op together with other players! Creating levels was so fast, I challenged our intern at the time to create a hundred levels in a day in a ­design brainstorming exercise – and he did it! Of course, at such a pace you throw away most of what you create, but a few ideas coming out of it even made it into the final game!

The style of Spitlings was heavily inspired by 90s Nickelodeon Cartoons. Our creative director is a huge fan and both the arcade gameplay as well as the slightly disgusting implications of spitting fit really well into the mold of our inspirations like Ren & Stimpy, Invader Zim or Spongebob. When deciding on the art style, we knew that we had to work with shapes and flat colors because of two reasons: Firstly, we didn’t have the time or budget to do a lot of 2D sprites and animations, so most of the artwork leans heavily into graphic design, flat shapes and lots of colors. Our creative director Michael has years of experience as a freelance graphic designer so he took to it and created a unique look for Spitlings that underscores the bouncyness of the bubbles and the squishy feel of all the surfaces.

Secondly, the strict rules concerning the visuals allowed us to clearly position every tile of the game in one of three alignments: friend, foe and neutral. The simplicity works really well to communicate what is happening on screen as well – once you have four players playing together and popping bubbles at the same time, it helps to have a very clear color scheme to rely on.

Celebrating the INDIE PRIZE from devcom – this is when we decided to turn Spitlings into a full game!

After six weeks of prototyping, we exhibited Spitlings at devcom 2018 and had such a great time with the players – and there were even some publishers voicing their interest to publish right there on the show floor! It was already a blast for us anyway – and then on top of that we were lucky enough to win both the devcom ­Audience and Jury Award! Right afterwards at gamescom we met with a lot of publishers and got more positive feedback than we had hoped for – that’s when we knew we had something on our hands.

Development uncertainty So, at this point we knew we wanted to develop Spitlings, and we wanted to release on all consoles. We were fortunate to secure dev kits for all major consoles early enough to not run into any porting problems later on. One very big plus was being able to take the game on our switch test kit and let publishers play while pitching them. After a lot of meetings at gamescom, several publishers voiced their interest, but after mountains of emails none came through.

After a few months of working more contracts for clients, we had not yet secured any deal with a publisher. Self-publishing was staring us in the face and it didn’t look too promising. Every indie studio knows how hard it is to gain attention for a debut title – doubly so for a local co-op game!

Our biggest problem with Spitling has always been that it does not look like much at first glance. The joy of the game can’t be communicated with a still frame. Screenshots do nothing for the game, GIFs and videos are better but still leave a lot of people cold – we have to get people playing to get them interested. Once you start playing, the juicy game feel, the simple mechanics and the infinitely replayable levels will make it hard for you to let go of the controller.

Luckily, we met HandyGames at Ludicious in February 2019. They immediately saw the appeal of the game and voiced their interest in partnering up. All in all it took just two months for negotiating and signing the publishing contract with them. Suddenly, things started to move really quickly! This gave us a lot of security financially – on the one hand because Handy­Games financed the rest of development, but also because we knew they had the experience to put our game in front of as many players as possible. Plus, they’re really nice people.

A photo from our visit to HandyGames in Giebelstadt. We made our team shirts easily recognizable so you can find us at the next event you go to!

Speaking of experience, they told us right away that we wouldn’t be able to finish the game by May and instead set up a deadline for September. And of course they were right. As is common with games, we created the first 80 percent of the game in a few months – and then the second 80 percent took us over a year to finish. But to be fair, this was also due to the extended vision for the game the partnership allowed us to execute. We had always felt that the world of Spitlings could be fleshed out with a story mode and proper cutscenes, but we didn’t know how to find the time and budget to create them. Now we were all in. Our small game suddenly didn’t seem so small anymore. In hindsight, we would probably not spend six months working on a fully fledged comic for the cutscenes, including programming a camera system to navigate the panels, but hey – we’re very proud of it!

Getting on Stadia After successfully delivering the first milestones, HandyGames brought us the news about possibly launching on Stadia. We were elated! For our debut game to release on the new platform was a huge deal, so we were super motivated to work on it. However, we couldn’t talk about it. None of us had worked in AAA before, so it was totally new for us to have to keep something so big a secret for such a long time. Not being able to talk to anyone about the fact that we’re developing for Stadia was quite stressful!

But apart from this, developing for ­Stadia also meant we had to tackle the big monkey on our backs: online multiplayer. Everyone knows that local co-op titles have a very hard time gaining attention on the market, let alone selling many units. Yet programming a working online multiplayer is a huge effort, especially for a physics based game like Spitlings with a lot of projectiles and constantly changing environment, including collisions. And in our game, where everyone has to restart a level if someone touches a bubble, every frame counts! Constantly losing to the ping is no fun at all! Therefore, we had to rewrite the whole architecture of the game, including rewriting the whole physics system. Alongside our contract work, this took us several additional months to accomplish, but I’m happy to say we managed it well.

The first merchandise we made was just square stickers – simple and cheap, but quite effective!

Release Window When we first started on Spitlings, we deliberately set our goals really low: Three months development, push it out the door quickly. We always knew that there was more to the game than that, but we just didn’t think we’d have the time to fully develop it. So we’re happy about the fact that our publisher allowed us to turn Spitlings into the game we always wanted it to be. We created a whole world and story for the game, including over a hundred little creatures jumping through a world map and 200+ handcrafted levels. We made a 16 page comic and were able to pay our composer Juan (from Ludopium/Vectronom) to produce a fully-fledged original soundtrack for the game with 13 banging tracks! We’ve far exceeded what we set out to do with our first game and so the whole team is proud of the results.

At the moment, we’re extremely focused on the release on Stadia. There’s a lot of features on the platform that we still have to integrate into Spitlings and turn it into a really interesting game for streamers… As I type these words, we’re also moving into a new office, so you could say there’s a lot going on right now.

Until then, we’re looking forward to seeing people all over the world get their hands on Spitlings and discover that it’s the perfect game to have a quick round with friends because it’s so easy to pick up, but hard to put down. Or as we like to say: Once you spit – you never quit.

Milan Pingel Creative Producer

Milan is one of four founding members of Massive ­Miniteam. As is common in small teams, he wears many hats at work but focuses on Narrative, UX, Interaction Design and structuring the processes for the company. Milan got his Master of Arts at Cologne Game Lab.

The post Spitlings on Stadia appeared first on Making Games.

Spitlings on Stadia published first on https://leolarsonblog.tumblr.com/

[dsrajawat]

Realme doesn’t like to waste time in introducing new phones. As a user, the more and better the options, the merrier! Even personally, I love every time I get some device to sink my teeth into. So as the novel 6 Pro reached my hands, I was quick to grill it. The fact that it’s been pushed as a spiritual sequel to the Realme X and not the Realme 5 pro made me all the more curious.

For a starting MSRP of Rs. 17,000, the phone brings a 90Hz dual-punch hole display, Snapdragon 720G, Android 10, and a 64MP quad cam. You may also view it as an alternative to Realme X2 where the AMOLED display has been swapped with a high-refresh-rate LCD panel.

While that ensemble sounds competent, one might wonder there gotta be some compromise, right? Well, there are some trade-offs, that I’ll bring to your attention. And by the end of the review, you’ll know whether you should buy the device or not.

So, C’mon, welcome to my review of the all-new Realme 6 Pro.

But, before we fire away, have a cursory glance upon the in-box contents and the spec table

Realme 6 Pro Unboxing

Here’s what you get inside the Realme’s signature Yellow packaging –

Handset

Charger

USB-C Cable

Sim Ejector tool

Protective case

User guide booklets

Realme 6 Pro Review: Price and Specifications

Model Realme 6 Pro Display 6.6-inch, 90Hz LCD, 1080 x 2400 (full HD+), Gorilla Glass 5, 400 Nits Brightness, 90.60% screen to body ratio, 400PPI Chipset Snapdragon 720G RAM 4GB/6GB/8GB LPDDR4x Storage 64GB/ 128GB UFS 2.1; Dedicated card slot (256GB) Software Android 10, Realme UI Rear camera 64MP F1.8 (primary); 8MP F2.3 (ultrawide-angle); 12MP F2.5 (20X Digital Zoom Telephoto); 2MP F2.4 (4cm macro) Selfie camera 16MP, F/2.0 + 8MP F/2.2 Fingerprint sensor Capacitive (Side-mounted) Dimensions and weight 163.9mm x 75.8mm x 9.4mm; 195 grams Battery 4300mAh, 30W fast charging Price

6 + 64 – Rs. 16,999

6 + 128 – Rs. 17,999

8 + 128 – Rs. 18,999

  On with the review then,

Realme 6 Pro Review: Design and Display

Realme 6 Pro Review: Performance

Realme 6 Pro Review: Cameras

Realme 6 Pro Review: Audio, Battery and Connectivity

Realme 6 Pro Review: Verdict

Realme 6 Pro Review: Design and Display

While it’s distant relative OnePlus popularized the 90Hz refresh rate last year, Realme discounts that lubricity to less than one-third the price. The 6 Pro parades a large 6.6-inch display with FHD+ resolution and fluid responsiveness. But, that smoothness is bartered against AMOLED found on the Realme 5 series.

Upon a close probe, I realized this panel shares a plight worse than its peers. The colors are inaccurate and pale, even so, that Realme 6 (review) has a better display. Bizarre! ‘Tis even harder to notice when you’re outdoors.

The back has a familiar oblong with sensors and a realme logo linear to it towards the bottom. The camera To make things different, Realme 6 Pro sports a dynamic lightning texture at the back. That’s fancy to tote around!

The device is also easy to handle one-handed and fits comfortably in the palm. A lite profile even when its mostly glass build, save for plastic mid-frame. The left frame has the volume rocker and sim shelf, the right frame has a power key cum fingerprint reader and the base is where the phone’s solo speaker, USB-C port and 3.5mm jack resides. The buttons are easily reachable and responsive (even the fingerprint scanner).

So, let’s unlock it now!

Realme 6 Pro Review: Performance

I was looking forward to using this phone ever since I came to know it is running on the latest slice of Snapdragon – 720G.

Tasks like app-loading, multi-tasking, scrolling through Zuckstagram flew with ease. However once a while, the rectangle smart bloke did pause and ponder. Still, won’t label it a spoilsport. It garnered decent results on benchmarks and battlefields (PUBG) too. The battle royale game ran at 30 frames (not bad, not wow either) and here’s various other yardsticks data –

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The performance is fueled by LPDDR4x RAM and UFS 2.1 in multiple configs to choose from. But, the real crowd-pleaser experience-wise would be Realme UI. And that’s a stark contrast in my opinion from ColorOS on Realme X and 5 Pro. If you go back to mine or any other reviews back in the days, the OS used to hold a place in the cons section. Not anymore!

ALSO READ: UFS 3.1 vs UFS 3.0 Comparison: What’s New and Different?

Android 10 treat and Realme’s own optimization trickery makes it one of the best software rendition in the Android world. A mix of my favs – Dark Mode (3rd party app-compatible), resizable windows, Digital Wellbeing, floating windows, game space, etcetera. That said, hey Realme, you can still let go of some things. A bevy of bloat and smart assistant, are, for instance, ghosts of ColorOS still haunting Realme UI. A personal opinion, yet it’s something worth quibbling.

The phone ships with the latest security update too. This is something left understated mostly but definitely confidence-inducing for the Android platform in general.

Speaking of which, dependable camera(s) is almost always a crucial criterion for a confident smartphone purchase. So,

Realme 6 Pro Review: Cameras

Click Click, you get two cameras on the front and four at the back. Won’t bore you by repeating the specs. Let’s jump straight into the real-day frames.

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The 64MP Samsung GW1 sensor is a capable producer. The daylight shots below are beautiful with a respectable proportion of shadows, highlights, mid-tones, and sharpness.

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I have observed a shift in the green hue amid normal and ultrawide snaps. Rest, let the photos talk for themselves.

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Details are sketchy once you go all in. But, frankly, having varied sensors is in itself a big shot. Here, they are serviceable.

Despite the night, the cameras manage to pull some genuine good shots. Nightscape piques the colors and along with it, comes some noise. Look at grains on the sky in the image below.

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Here are few more Nightscapes from the Realme 6 Pro –

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Moving to macro, the last sensor of the lot can capture details as close as 4cm. The results were passable.

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Bring in some humans to the fore and the camera won’t disappoint, although the dynamic range needs work. The portrait shots are worth sharing on social media. But, the blur can look a bit unnatural. The good thing is the presence of a slider to adjust the background bokeh.

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And that’s a good thing about the camera UI. Scroll and you’ll find ample options to toy around. You get options like Time Lapse, Slo-mo, Panorama, Expert mode, full-64MP mode, and ultra-steady clips up to 4K@30fps.

Realme 6 Pro Review: Audio, Battery, and Connectivity

The sound outta the solo speaker at the foot is as secluded and soft as you would expect. But, for what it’s worth these days, Jack is here! So put on your cans or in-ears to enjoy the content. Or else go cordless and you’re backed by Bluetooth 5.1 and associated codecs (AAC/APTX/APTX-HD). Go gaga!

Sitting in between the grille and hole is a USB-C socket. That’s where you dock the in-box 30W fast charger. Yes, if the 4300 mAh juice bank drains out, it can refill to 100 in an hour. Back to zero can easily take you through a regular day! Even if you push the device to limits, that charger is liberating to have.

Amongst other things, the phone bags ISRO’s NavIC navigation system out of the box. It’s not something we could explicitly test. Nevertheless, theoretically speaking, that’s better location accuracy in congested urban areas.

Oh, yeah calls were okie-dokie. No problem whatsoever. But, let’s cut the call now as its time for the final say.

Realme 6 Pro Review: Verdict

You see Realme 6 Pro has a lot of features going for it. The dual-punch-hole is a pleasing change from the cookie-cutter notches of yesterdays. Even though the plastic part does cheapen the build ever-so-slightly. Then there is functional and feature-filled software, reliable optics, and the rest of its performing hardware.

And by now you know that the weak sauce is that display. I hope it can be fixed by some tuning. Cuz, if not, that’s a killjoy for sure!

So, yeah, a better display and speaker output would have done wonders. But beyond that, if you love a good bargain just like the next guy, this my friend is an amazing value for money.

Pros 

Reliable cameras

Feature-rich software

Covers essential connectivity options

30W fast charging backs an already huge battery

Snappy biometrics

Cons 

Display quality

Mediocre audio output

Realme 6 Pro FAQ

Q. Does Realme 6 Pro offer Gorilla glass protection? 

A. Yes, the Realme 6 Pro display is shielded by Gorilla Glass 5.

Q. Is the Realme 6 Pro water-resistant?

A. No, the Realme 6 Pro is not water-resistant.

Q: Does the Realme 6 Pro support NaVIC?

A: Yes, the Realme 6 Pro supports ISRO’s NaVIC. Find more about it here.

Q. Is there a notification LED on the Realme 6 Pro?

A. No, the Realme 6 Pro doesn’t have a notification LED light.

Q. Is there an IR blaster on the Realme 6 Pro that can be used to control TVs and other devices?

A. No, there is no IR blaster on the Realme 6 Pro.

Q. What is the AnTuTu score of Realme 6 Pro?

A. In our test, Realme 6 Pro 5G scored 283254 points in the AnTuTu benchmark.

Q. Does Realme 6 Pro support MicroSD card storage expansion? Is it a dedicated slot?

A. Yes, there is support for dedicated expandable storage up to 256GB.

Q. Is there Widevine L1 support on the Realme 6 Pro for HD playback on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, etc?

A. Realme 6 Pro has DRM Widevine L1 support and is HD streaming ready. However, as of now, I couldn’t run Netflix and Prime Videos at HD quality.

Q. Does Realme 6 Pro support wireless charging?

A. Unfortunately, no Realme 6 Pro doesn’t support wireless charging. So, that lack of reverse wireless charging goes without saying.

Q. Does Realme 6 Pro support call recording?

A. Yes, Realme has baked in an automatic call recording feature in the Realme 6 Pro. Find this option hidden within System apps> Calls> Call recording.

Q. Does the Realme 6 Pro support USB OTG?

A. Yes, you can connect the external pen drive to the Realme 6 Pro using the USB OTG feature.

Q. Does the Realme 6 Pro support NFC?

A. Yes, Realme 6 Pro does support NFC.

Q. Does the Realme 6 Pro support aptX codec?

A. Yes, Realme 6 Pro does support the aptX codec.

Q. Does the Realme 6 Pro support VoWiFi?

A. Yes, Realme 6 Pro does support the VoWiFi.

Q. Does Realme 6 Pro support Camera2API and Google camera app (GCam)?

A. Realme 6 Pro comes with Level 3 Camera2API support out of the box and thus, GCam should work just fine.

Q. Does Realme 6 Pro support FM Radio?

A. Yes, the Realme 6 Pro does support FM Radio.

Realme 6 Pro Review Realme doesn't like to waste time in introducing new phones. As a user, the more and better the options, the merrier!

[leahnscollection]

Creativity With Mobile Devices:

Genre: social media

Instagram:

instagram is a image based app which you can share your images, posts and even get money for advertising once you Become popular enough, I mostly use this to search for inspiration/look at other artist/look at new trends which have to do with digital art.

Facebook:

this is another social media app which you can use to find other artists/resources, communicate with people, set events, promote your own business/art and keep up with the newest news wether it be art related or not.  Instagram and Facebook share a few key similarities although Instagram is solely a video/image social media app.

Pinterest:

Pinterest is like an online pin board used mostly for collecting images, you can create as many boards as you like which can help you organise your pins (posts that you like and would like to keep) into different categories such as game art, 2d sketches, 3d art etc. I would relate it to Instagram but with a bigger motive on organisation for the ease of use and tidy file structure, mainly just used to you can always go back and find the pins that mean something to you (basically just so you wont lose anything), Pinterest includes a lot of how to guides and techniques that people share.

Genre: Art

PaperDraw: Paint Draw Sketch Book.

Paper draw is a excellent painting application which you can draw, doodle, paint or even learn from scratch how to digitally draw, all this from a tablet or smartphone, you also have the option of uploading a photo and drawing over top of it or even turning down its transparency giving you a chance to trace over the top of it. has the option to upload to any social media straight from the app once finished.

Photo shop Express:

Photo shop express is one of adobes many apps, its a light weight version of the desk top program which is “Photoshop” this is said to feel like photoshop just with many less options than the sleek pc/Mac version, although it includes many of the same tools, and includes enough to keep it relevant even in its lightweight form that you can carry around with you.

Genre: Film

Imovie:

With I movie you can edit videos with a wide range of tools, it comes with a wide range of Hollywood trailer templates, as well as transitions, effects and even sound effects/music. the clips can be cropped as well and newer versions of phones can even speed up and slow down clips to up to 4 times. (super slow mo/super fast)

App company: Adobe

Adobe has created many programs of high value that seemingly make the work/life of a designer/digital artists just that much easier. Although it does take awhile to master the tools which the adobe programs include, this makes it possible for artists and designers alike to get work done much faster than if this program range wasn't around, which many different programs focusing on different thing such as coding, design, video editing, illustration etc. Adobe has a wide range of mobile apps which are very compressed versions of the bigger pc programs, the most significant being photoshop express, capture cc, illustrator and Lightbox mobile, these all include a smaller range of tools but still includes the essentials which provide a casual user/professional with that high quality editing while on the move on your mobile device.

Animation:

GifBoom:

Gifboom is a app that lets you create animated gifs directly from your devices camera, the app includes a simple interface which is user friendly (very easy to use) just start the app and it will tell you what to do next. take or upload a pic to convert it into a gif format, it can also change a video into gif format. create content in seconds and share it whenever.

Pros:

create gifs in 60 frames.

camera controlled in auto mode

create gif from camera or existing pics/videos

filters

possibility to share image with social media accounts

adding text to image

cons:

kind of basic

Includes ads

Flipaclip:

Flipaclip turns your drawings into a gif style animation by arranging frames into a flip book style format. this is a animation style that requires you to draw you frames/character. this is mainly a cartoon animation. slightly simple but has some advanced options.

pros:

simple

video created

can be slightly more advanced

drawn animation

cons:

more basic than gif boom

ads

drawn animation.

I would choose Gifboom over Flipaclips since you could basically perform flipaclips function yourself with gifboom if you were keen on it, Gif boom just has more options and uses overall. Gifboom is said to be very easy to use and has a lot of good reviews, I would recommend this if you wanted to animate or create gifs.

Photography:

Snapseed: 

Snapseed is a photography app that enables users to enhance photos and add a various style of filters. users can easily swipe or right to select different effects or filters. Snapped can save users history so you can go back to any of your steps before if you screw up or just wish to revert to a previous save. with this app you can share stuff you have made in this app to social media apps such as Facebook or Instagram.

Pros:

clear interface

Lots of filters

Lots of mix matches with filters and effects

Can share to social media

Cons:

Can be kind of confusing

ads

Instagram:

Although I have already covered this, Instagram includes a lot of everything that has to do with social media as well as simple photo editing, updating filters and effects which just like the filters are updated on a monthly basis.

pros:

social media plus photo editor

ever evolving filters and interface

Cons:

Gotta make a account to use it

The social media trap

ads

I prefer snap seed since no account needs to be created, it also includes a easy interface and has as many filters and effects as Instagram. used for photo editing, enhancing photos, as well as sharing your finished edits to other social medias such as facebook/instagram.

3 Animated videos created by an app:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3vslnVPaIE -  How to make stick animations on your android phone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOlnbDDqLPQ - filmora go amv

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS5VGqFRjhs - iphone camera effects

[builtinadaygames]

Games on itch: what I played this month

Hi, my name is Kevin Beissel.  I make game projects under the name ‘builtinaday’ and lurk on Twitter @builtinadayKB.

The purpose of this post is to cover some of the free games on itch.io, from a developer and fan perspective.  I'd like to make it a recurring series, maybe a monthly breakdown but who knows.  Like Douglas Adams said, the best part of deadlines is the great WHOOSHING sound they make while flying by.

Before we get to the games, I just want to clarify why I'm doing this and what I hope it accomplishes.  So here's the what, why and how:

The WHAT

Discuss free games available on itch.io

I've got a list of profiles to check out, but please send along any recommendations.

There are no restrictions on genres.  The whole point of this is to be curious and ask questions.  So no dumb rules like "No walking sims" or "No puzzle platformers", which would prolly eliminate half of the available games anyways.

The WHY

I want to become a better developer and playing experimental/small/art/trash games could help.

Getting an audience is hard and getting constructive feedback is even harder.  I can't help the devs covered in these posts with the former but maybe I can with the latter.

The HOW

There is no rating system.

There is no alter ego here, these are not 'angry' reviews.

These aren't even really reviews.

The goal is to focus on the design choices that were made and discuss the reasoning behind them.

I don't really care about being right, I don't really care about sounding smart ("Yeah, no shit" the reader grumbles), I don't really care about agreeing with you. I'm more interested in looking at the hierarchy of ideas (to borrow a phrase) that form game design.  By working at the ends and working in the middle we can find out more about it, right?

Enough with the formalities, let's get started.

Profile: Steven Miller (@stevenjmiller37, steven-miller.itch.io, 30 projects available)

Game: Calor

Genre/Style: Strategy, base building and combat modes

Strategy games are tall orders, especially as jam submissions, but Calor has plenty of good things going on.  The visuals are charming, the two game modes are fun, and it has some of that 'one more turn' gameplay you want in a good strategy game.

It sort of reminds me of FTL and X-Com, except it's also nothing like those games.  I still caught echoes of them, like an eerie trumpet call over a lost battlefield.  Except there's no sound in space, or so I've heard.

Hey, what spins faster: the planet in Calor or Hunter Thompson in his grave after I just mangled his 'eerie trumpet' line?

The base building mode revolves around placing resources (farms, solar panels, factories) on sections of a planet.  Every turn the planet rotates, and the direction can be changed with wind turbines.  Part of the planet has sunlight and resource tiles produce plus-1 per turn in sunlight.  Sun spots pop up every 7 or 8 turns and will destroy any resource on a tile or damage the player, but a warning message pops up when the sun spot is three turns away.

Enemies can't damage tiles but can attack the player.  It's better to move onto the enemy's tile and initiate combat, especially if the tile contains a resource.  Letting the enemy move onto your tile has a combat penalty.

The combat mode has two parts to consider: a top section with three bars that contain the enemy's attack and shield points and a bottom section laid out like a hex-style grid.  The grid has three starting nodes on the left and three ending nodes on the right with bonus nodes in the middle.  You can choose whether to use a shield node or an attack node during your turn, but not both.

If the top section has a shield in any bar, connecting to the corresponding ending node reduces your attack points.  So you have to plan paths that pick up as many bonus nodes as possible and avoid ending on a penalized node.

Both modes are good and it would be cool to see them expanded on.  There's a few things I'm curious about though, like the attack only/shield only choice you have to make in combat.

If you start a fight with low health, the enemy will prolly wipe you out with one attack.  So I suppose the design incentivizes you to keep moving away from the enemy until your health is refilled during the base building mode, then turn around and engage.  I just wish there was away to use both a shield node and an attack node on the same turn.  I know upgrade systems can be tricky and usually avoid them in my projects, but this ability would be a great addition.

Forgive me if there is this ability, but I'm pretty sure there isn't.

And I gotta ask: if you can't combine the abilities, then what's the point of including a shield option at all?  If you're low on health to start, using the shield just creates an endless loop of defensive turns.  Does health regenerate between turns in combat or only outside of combat?  Could I block the enemy's attack enough times until I'm healed and then switch to attack nodes?  What am I missing here?

I know that sounds negative, but I swear it's just curiosity.  Calor is fun to play and also gave me some challenging design questions to consider.  There are plenty of games that fail to do either of those things.

Game: Capture Horizon

Genre/Style: Puzzle platformer, side-scroller

This is a puzzle platformer that requires you to manipulate the level by taking photos of it and arranging them to form a path to the exit.  I played Camera Obscura on Steam, which uses a simiilar idea, and it's a cool concept.  I like that it relies on spatial design/reasoning skills, instead of using oblique hints to solve unfair challenges based on muddy logic/lazy rulesets.

The photo taking/placing mechanic is easy to understand.  You can't take a new photo while on an existing one and you can have up to three at a time.  It seems simple but I quickly became stumped, especially on levels five and six.

The platforming is OK, but it leads to many cheap deaths.  Most levels have two sections you need to reach; the first is relatively easy and the second is much harder.  The harder section requires a lot of trial and error, due to both photo placement and jumping issues, which means you have to redo the easy section a lot of times which is tedious.

Traditional difficulty progression states that a level should have an ascending scale of difficulty, not a descending scale.  But for short, self-contained levels like this, inverting that formula might have worked well.

And since we are here to inquire within about everything and not here to disparage, let's consider some alternative solutions to this problem:

New speed setting:  I hate when people suggest new settings for traversal speeds in my own work, because there is usually a bunch of connected factors to consider/change that they aren't aware of.  What sounds like a small tweak is actually a much larger change.

So, even tho I hate being THAT GUY, I too often found myself running right off of a platform or, even worse, jumping way too early to compensate for the fast movement.  A walk/run control setup might have fit nicely.

Change the jump mechanic:  Something like the style of jumping used in Gunpoint would have made the platforming simpler, but much more satisfying.  For those who don't know, the Gunpoint-style allows the player to activate a jumping stance, adjust the height/distance of the jump and then confirm or cancel the jump.

This style would eliminate most of the frustrating trial and error sections.  You could place a photo and test whether your jump could reach it, instead of placing a photo and jumping one pixel short and having to retry the whole level.

What helpful advice, huh?  "Ripoff a more popular game to make your own work seem better" is just about the most lazy advice you could give an artist.  And yet here I am, handing out shopworn cliches faster than Michiko Kakutani.  So where the hell is my goddamn Pulitzer?

Game: Entropy

Genre/Style: Roguelike, 8-bit isometric view

Lately I've been seeking out games that put a strong emphasis on combat, like "Superhot" or "Deadbolt".  Roguelikes usually have a heavy emphasis on combat and Entropy certainly does.

You have a fast-moving, low-damage ranged shot that repeats quickly but you can charge up a power shot.  The charged shot literally turns you into a bullet, and can be used offesnsively or defensively.  You could knock out a powerful enemy or escape from a crowd by firing to a safe spot.  You can also use the charge shot for traversal, usually shooting across gaps filled with spikes.

If I could transform into anything, I'd transform into a machine that could make ANYTHING.  I would make anything then transform back into myself and enjoy whatever (or whoever) I just made.  That might seem like an awfully large loophole, a loophole so large you could drive a Pagani Zonda thru it.  A carbon-fiber supercar loaded with guns, cash, and women (or MEN) you made in your ANYTHING machine.

But what are you?  A lawyer?  I don't remember making any of those in that ANYTHING machine.

Or you could turn into a bullet.  That is also a pretty cool thing to do.

The character movement speeds are nicely balanced.  Strafing a lone enemy is fun and juggling large crowds is intuitive.  Some enemies felt like bullet sponges, but I wasn't using the charge shot enough.  Moving around till I had space and time to get it off made those enemies easier to deal with.  The enemy design is good too, with variations in size/speed/strength that feel balanced.  They have a nice spectral, eerie look to them.

The game also opens with a short cutscene.  My favorite part was the "standing" animations.  All the characters constantly bounce up and down, which is fun to watch.  I love this choice.  Animations more sophisticated than this aren't really the point of LD jams and if they stood still that would be boring, so it's a nicely off beat decision.

The one minor problem I had was the reticle color.  It's green, which would be fine except some levels have patches of grass that make it hard to track the reticle.  Otherwise, the game has the color palette nicely split up between player, enemy and enviromental assets.

Remember:  Split up the colors, but don't split up your pants!  Why do people breath in when trying to squeeze into jeans?  If you breath out you get thinner, or at least that's what my bitchy mother-in-law keeps telling me.  I get it, Joan!  Also, get Entropy and shoot stuff.

Profile: Tooth and Claw (Dan McGrath, @daninfiction, toothandclaw.itch.io, 24 projects available)

Game: Valley of the Moon

Genre/Style: Walking sim, puzzle

You are supposed to collect four relics to reactivate your ship and leave the planet.  Despite the walking sim label, there's a couple of nice platforming sections too.  But the real point of this type of game is to create a distinct atmosphere, a space worth getting lost in.

Of all the games in this post, this is the one that gave me the purest moment, or at least the type of moment you can really only get with a videogame.  The game starts up and I see a nearby building with a large door.  Since its a puzzle game and I've just started, I assumed the door was locked.  But I went over anyways, intent on asking one of the fundamental questions videogames can offer: "Can I do that?"

Turns out, I could do that.  The door popped open, and I got a little thrill out of it.  Seems silly maybe, that something so simple could feel that rewarding, but it did.

Inside the building is one of the relics and another nicely put together moment.  You climb the final step and see a platform with a relic on it, and a giant orange moon lined up right above it.  The symmetry of the relic and moon is really nice and its a striking visual moment.

The only question I would ask is about the ending:  Why not try something wild or unexpected, something totally abstract or bizarre?

I don't mean this as a criticism, because it's quite good and I'm glad I played it, it's just a question.

If you've played other walking sims all the way through, like "Dear Esther" for example, then you know how a surprising and offbeat ending can really resonate with the right type of players.  I happen to really like the way that "Esther" ends, and can more strongly recall that odd, poetic moment better than I can recall some of the other supposedly famous moments in recent games.

A unique and challenging ending can make a lasting impression on the player and, whether they loved or hated it, that player will remember your work.

So, in the case of this game, why not do something more eccentric?  Like when you take off and leave this peaceful planet behind you end up crashing onto an uninhabitable, hostile planet?  Or you take off and safely land on a new planet, only to find out its exactly like the one you left?  Is that too 'Twilight Zone' for you?

Or maybe you take off and turn into a freaking Star Child?  Then the Star Child grows up and becomes Galactus?

Anyways, that's what happens when you leave the audience hanging.  They start out reasonable enough and end up arguing about Galactus and his big, dumb headgear.

The point being: not every game needs a meaningful or profound or abstract ending, but some do.

Game: Zealot

Genre/Style: FPS, looks like a 90s shareware game

Other Info: made in 3 days

This is a dope throwback to shareware-era FPS games.  Zealot is like a resurrected title from this era, with glorious visuals and punishing combat.

There was a wider range of titles than most people remember, mainly because the iconic titles of the time (DOOM, HEXEN) loom so large.  I was flipping thru an old PC game magazine (prolly circa 1995) and there was pages and pages of ads for obscure shareware titles, some looking totally generic and others beyond bizarre.  I prolly spent more time looking at those ads recently than I did when those games came out.  Sorry, marketing geniuses!

There was also an article about how advanced stats would become important in sports.  Something about how coaches, players, fans, journalists and gamblers would be interested in new ways to analyze performance and predict outcomes.  Who would have thought?  You know besides Paul Allen and his 300-foot yact and his investment stake in STATS LLC.  Also, fuck Paul Allen, fuck his yact, fuck his Dorsia reservations, and fuck me while we're at it.

But don't fuck Zealot!  Do play Zealot, it's quite fun.  You run and jump around on a floating platform blowing up various types of demons.  You play until you die.  My best time was 74.67176 seconds.  It was much more fun once I realized I could hold down the attack button to autofire, which seems obvious but hey, if you're so smart how about you come over and unclog this drain?  I've tried nothing man, and I'm all out of ideas.

Thankfully Dan McGrath isn't out of ideas, tho!  And Zealot is a pretty good idea.  I've never had a bad idea.  I've had great ideas that turned out horribly wrong, but never any BAD ideas.  I've also stolen ideas/entire jokes from 30 Rock, but Dan McGrath hasn't yet!

Profile: Trasevol Dog (@TRASEVOL_DOG, trasevol-dog.itch.io, 24 projects available)

Game: Blast Flock

Genre/Style: similar to Luftrausers, but more colorful

This is the profile to check out if you like games with bright color palettes and visuals that really pop off the screen.  It helps that the gameplay is excellent, too.

And hey, people who care soooo much about what engine a dev uses: this game wasn't made with Unity, so try to find something else to complain about.

Blast Flock is a variation on Luftrausers, which is an OK game.  I really wanted to like Luftrausers, but whenever I play it I'm always left with the same two questions:  Where is the rest of the game and how come it isn't more fun?

Luftrausers felt like it was all about keeping your multiplier at 20 which feels like a chore, like an uncreative grind.  I was more interested in finding fun and interesting ways to attack enemies, especially since it had such great body/weapon/engine variety.  It felt like they incentivized creative approaches, but instead only rewarded you for following a narrow path.

Well, Blast Flock doesn't have more content, but it certainly is more fun.  The controls are intuitive and allow for a lot of experimentation.  Your group of ships always flies towards the reticle, with fire and boost mapped to lmb/rmb.  You can shoot down enemies and save them as they fall, expanding your group.

Building your squadron up and tearing thru a huge group of enemies at top speed with guns blazing feels so great.  Whipping the mouse around the screen and creating total chaos also feels great, like orchestrating your own bullet hell symphony.

Or you could conduct a symphony of the night.  But how the hell am I supposed to read music in the dark?  My conductor baton glows in the dark, but I don't want people to know that.  It only does that in case I drop it during a performance and have to find it on the ground real quick.  Symphony of the night?  How about a 'symphony of the comfortable recliner' instead?  Or ‘symphony of the better jokes’?

Thanks for reading!  If you liked this then maybe check out my itch profile, too.