#out of all the video games i would be playing in that timeframe (and making him try out hehe) that is the one that he would get ADDICTED to

[cherry-bomb-ships]

One thing I've rly liked abt self inserting in PPG is that the time frame in my mind is 1999-2002 so when it comes to media my s/i engages with, I'm trying to keep that in mind and think about all the stuff that came out around that time that I love irl, so of course I'd be a fan of it back then too uwu

Look this is just my long winded prelude to saying that when the first Pikmin game drops in 2001, I would totally make Mojo a fan of it ehehehe 💖💖💖💖💖

[kremlin]

could you explain for the "it makes the game go faster" idiots like myself what a GPU actually is? what's up with those multi thousand dollar "workstation" ones?

ya, ya. i will try and keep this one as approachable as possible

starting from raw reality. so, you have probably dealt with a graphics card before, right, stick in it, connects to motherboard, ass end sticks out of case & has display connectors, your vga/hdmi/displayport/whatever. clearly, it is providing pixel information to your monitor. before trying to figure out what's going on there, let's see what that entails. these are not really simple devices, the best way i can think to explain them would start with "why can't this be handled by a normal cpu"

a bog standard 1080p monitor has a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, each comprised of 3 bytes (for red, blue, & green), which are updated 60 times a second:

~3 gigs a second is sort of a lot. on the higher end, with a 4k monitor updating 144 times a second:

17 gigs a second is definitely a lot. so this would be a good "first clue" there is some specialized hardware handling that throughput unrelated the cpu. the gpu. this would make sense, since your cpu is wholly unfit for dealing with this. if you've ever tried to play some computer game, with fancy 3D graphics, without any kind of video acceleration (e.g. without any kind of gpu [1]) you'd quickly see this, it'd run pretty slowly and bog down the rest of your system, the same way having a constantly-running program that is copying around 3-17GB/s in ram

it's worth remembering that displays operate isochronously -- they need to be fed pixel data at specific, very tight time timings. your monitor does not buffer pixel information, whatever goes down the wire is displayed immediately. not only do you have to transmit pixel data in realtime, you have to also send accompanying control data (e.g. data that bookends the pixel data, that says "oh this is the end of the frame", "this is the begining of the frame, etc", "i'm changing resolutions", etc) within very narrow timing tolerances otherwise the display won't work at all

3-17GB/s may not be a lot in the context of something like a bulk transfer, but it is a lot in an isochronous context, from the perspective of the cpu -- these transfers can't occur opportunistically when a core is idle, they have to occur now, and any core that is assigned to transmit pixel data has stop and drop whatever its doing immediately, switch contexts, and do the transfer. this sort of constant pre-empting would really hamstring the performance of everything else running, like your userspace programs, the kernel, etc.

so for a long list of reasons, there has to be some kind of special hardware doing this job. gpu.

instead of calculating every pixel value manually, the cpu just needs to give a high-level geometric overview of what it wants rendered, and does this with vertices. a vertex is very simple, it's just a point in 3D space, for example (5,2,3). just like a coordinate grid on paper with an extra dimension. with just a few vertices, you can have models like this:

where each dot at the intersection of lines in the above image, would be a vertex. gpus essentially handle huge number of vertices.

in the context of, like, a 3D video game, you have to render these vertex-based models conditionally. you're viewing it at some distance, at some angle, and the model is lit from some light source, and has perhaps some shadows cast across it, etc -- all of this requires a huge amount of vertex math that has to be calculated within the same timeframes as i described before -- and that is what a gpu is doing, taking a vertex-defined 3D environment, and running this large amount of computation in parallel. unlike your cpu which may only have, idk, 4-32 execution cores, your gpu has thousands -- they're nowhere near as featureful as your cpu cores, they can only do very specific simple math with vertices, but there's a ton of them, and they run alongside each other.

so that is what a gpu "does", in as few words as i can write

the things in the post you're referring to (V100/A100/H100 tensor "gpus") are called gpus because they are also periperal hardware that does a specific kind of math, massively, in parallel, they are just designed and fabricated by the same companies that make gpus so they're called gpus (annoyingly). they don't have any video output, and would probably be pretty bad at doing that kind of work. regular gpus excel at calculating vertices, tensor gpus operate on tensors, which are like matrixes, but with arbitrary numbers of dimensions. try not to think about it visually. they also use a weirder float. they're used for things like "artificial intelligence", training LLMs and whatever, but also for real things, like scientific weather/economy/particle models or simulations

they're very expensive because they cost the same, if not more, than what it cost to design & fabricate regular video gpus, but with a trillionth of the customer base. for every ten million rat gamers that will buy a gpu there is going to be one business buying one A100 or whatever.

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[repurposedmeatlocker]

I've recently gotten really into this genre of ARG that is based around classic nostalgic late 2000 and early 2010 video games. These don't seem to get half as much attention outside of their dedicated communities and I find it a real shame, because if anything I connect more to the timeframe these supposedly take place in comparison to other nostalgic types of video game horror ARGs based on early 2000 and 90s platform video games.

Thought I would list a few of these out. Most of them seem to be incomplete/abandoned unfortunately, but who knows. I really like the stuff that is built up here and hopefully more people start to consider exploring it in a more fleshed-out manner!

Old Minecraft Reuploads - This series hasn't been updated in 2 years, which is super unfortunate because it probably has to be my favorite of the approaches to this format! It is so effectively frightening without depending on any obtuse jumpscares. A majority of its eeriness comes from the ambiance already displayed in early Minecraft games. If you are familiar enough with playing them, you can kind of get the gist that something isn't right here. The immersion is super effective too. I'm not a fan of ARG's that hammer in their fictional and "otherworldly" elements too heavily. It takes me out a bit. All the glitches and discrepancies here feel like things that could actually happen, which makes it more scary! The last episode is especially frightening from the acting of the player alone. I never thought I could actually read fear in a faceless and voiceless screen recording, but it is SO impressive what evoked here. It is sad to me that I haven't heard much about this until now, and that it appears to be inactive. For what it's worth I would love for it to get more attention, even if just to see what is already there!

Gunslingerpro2009 and BadwaterVideos2009 - These two are not connected in any way, but they explore similar subject matter, so I feel it is appropriate to put them together. The format these base themselves on are classic TF2 gmod videos/animations. With the twist though that the ragdolls used in the game are sentient and being tortured/mistreated by the player/uploader. It is a cool concept I am surprised hasn't been played around with more with this genre. Absolutely recommended if you are a fan of that era of gmod content and psychological horror.

gmod9fan reuploads - This one kind of ends in a whimper and I don't think it is being continued (last update was 4 years ago), but the ideas being explored here are interesting. I think of the gmod ARGs it is the one that felt the most "scary" to me. Mostly just creepy stuff happening on someone's old gmod videos.

Classic GM Videos - I'm not the most invested in this one, but it feels worth mentioning nonetheless, and actually appears to be actively continuing compared to a majority of these. I would say my biggest complaint is the narrative that appear to be built here kind of fluctuates and doesn't have a strong amount of focus between the uploads. There is a sense that the creator is still figuring out what they want to say, but the Bob and Bill stuff is really captivating to me enough to keep an eye on it.

Minecraft Alpha 1.0.16 Versions - Still watching this, but it kind of appears to be an account under the pretense of uploading videos of a non-existent variant of Alpha 1.0.16. It feels a bit like a Herobrine-centered ARG, so if you are into that subject it could be fun.

Anyway, just thought I would find a way to bring some of these more into the spotlight since I find the approach really unique and fun. Not that I have a huge audience or anything, but anything to get the word out. I think the effort put into them deserve way more attention. Also, if you know of any other ARG's that fit this bill PLEASE feel free to let me know. I love this stuff.

[artbyblastweave]

The parahumans power creation system is a good fit for TTRPGs and a horrid fit for video games. It’s dependent on human pattern-matching and metaphor literacy to carry every character concept over the finish line; it would be difficult bordering on impossible, I think, to try and implement a mix-and-match version of the system where you create your parahumans PC from pre-selected trigger components and then play in a sandbox, which is what I’ve seen advanced as a proposal for how a parahumans RPG would handle character creation.

No, parahumans screams out for a roster-based RPG system; some combination of Disco Elysium, This is the Police, Sunless Sea and X-Com, in which you play as a PRT director (or aspirant crime boss, or corporate cape team manager, or terrorist, probably you’d pull from the disposition doc here) who pulls together and manages a small squad of parahumans that you can pull from a potential pool of, probably, 30-40 free-floating, fleshed out pre-written capes who exist throughout the game world, each with their own trigger event, unique moveset, personal foibles, pre-existing relationship to the city, and subplots that you can pursue via some expenditure of resources.  You can only plausibly get 10+ at a time, and most capes have an alternate faction they’ll fall in with if you don’t recruit them; to accommodate this, you might take the DE route of having the game take place over a short timeframe in a crisis situation in order to maximize your ability to replay it with different rosters, or you might just make the player suck it up and commit to a long session with their chosen team, but either way I’m picturing all players starting from the same Day-zero world conditions, dominoes falling differently based on their actions. I’m picturing semi-turn-based combat but in a fairly-well-realized physics-based/voxel-based world (in no small part due to the number of powers that have interactions with specific materials). I’m also picturing a sunless-sea/skies-style “designate your own personal win condition” mechanic, where the “main quest” is just one more plot thread bouncing off whatever major turning point acts as the game’s inciting incident. Would this require an idiot amount of pre-writing, game triggers, worldbuilding, and pre-determined character relationships to function correctly? Yes. There’s a reason I cited Disco Elysium in the “some combination” section. But I genuinely think that a Worm game would need basically the same decade of pre-writing that Worm received, in order to get anywhere close to capturing why Worm was good.

[saltymongoose]

Saltymongoose player + yansofie soldier = player! soldier, how do you think it would go ?

Oh, this is certainly an interesting idea. I think it'd be very complex, to say the least. The mentality the S!Reader has, as well as cosmetic details in their uniform and knowledge of weaponry, is reliant on what "timeframe" they fall into. I know that yansoftie tends to go for a WWII Soldier, which is great and I love them, but technically it would make more sense for a more modern soldier to end up in the game (it's not like someone who fought in Normandy would be playing M:PN2 lmao).

If we go with the modern-day soldier from America, they'd probably mainly have the mentality of "I don't really want to be in the military, but I need some way to pay for college. :/" or something like that. Or perhaps they joined for a sense of discipline, or because their respective country requires mandatory service for a number of years. Regardless, the Player would probably have extensive experience with weaponry and the hierarchy that comes with being in the military. If we're under the assumption that they've yet to be discharged, and they're in the army, then it's likely that they only stream when they're on yearly leave. This could be really interesting, since I can see the Player being one of the more niche social media personalities that usually do short videos (on Tiktok, Instagram, and the like) while in the military, and their fans attend the live streams that they hold on their breaks.

So to get more into the actual meat of this AU, you'd likely start playing this game because you thought your fans would like it (and you probably had an interest in Madcom's animated series/the classic game too). While the experience of feeling your control and your strings wouldn't be any different, once they start to actually hear you, it will start to branch off.

It's highly likely that you would use a lot of references to your work in the military just to be "on brand" (and because it's pretty much your life at this point), which means bringing up gun calibers and commenting on your favorite weapons to use, as well as telling stories about interesting things that have happened to you while in the service.

The boys will immediately notice your observational skills and combat expertise from your comments and will spend most of the time silently awing over you whenever you say anything about their guns and their tactics. (When they're not fighting for your praise and attention, of course.) They take your words to heart, and you'll begin to see them using your preferred weapons in their default load-outs, even if you didn't think those specific guns or melee weapons were even in the game. (A result of them begging Doc to special order them, no doubt.)

They live to impress you; every tactic you mention is researched and studied relentlessly whenever you're away, all so it's perfectly executed upon your return. Furthermore, they'll practice day in and day out with your weapons (some of which they've even named after you/references to you) to see if you react to their increased skill with them. 2BDamned is not as receptive to this because of his role off the field. But this doesn't mean he won't ruminate over your every word and revere the sheer level of expertise and discipline you have. If anything, the fact that you're a soldier only confirms for your grunts that you're the perfect person to help them in Nevada. They love you for it even more, in a way.

And don't even get me started on when they actually see you. If you're in uniform during some of your streams (maybe you just got back or smth, or chat wanted it and met a dono goal), and they happen to have broken into the Auditor's office at the time, they're just sort of gobsmacked. Like they didn't think uniforms could be so attractive on someone before this, and it's sort of this combination of being flustered at your ethereal features and genuinely stunned by how you are in general. You're everything they expected and more.

They're beside themselves, truly (and falling deeper into their obsessions with you, let's be real). And you just know they're taking some of those flattering photos and stills the Auditor has and tucking them into their pockets so they can look at them out on the field, sort of like how you do with your loved ones when you're deployed. (Ironic, considering they look at them the most when you are. The days pass by so slowly when you aren't there.)

They aren't the most zealous of grunts by far, but they would consider worshiping their own god of war if it were you.

As one would expect to become self-evident once you actually meet them in person, of course.

[doublefreegames]

Travel Devil - better the devil you know!

There's less than a week left of judging for the Spooktober Visual Novel Jam and it's been a fantastic experience for us so far! Travel Devil has received such wonderful feedback and critiques. We take on board everything that is written to us so we can make better games every time!

So today I'm going to give a little insight into how and why Travel Devil came to be.

Do you wanna know how Travel Devil came to exist?

Originally we put together a game idea for a spooky pet adoptions agency. The game would take place on Halloween and have six pets (3 unlocked and 3 locked) to play with. Each pet was going to have a unique story and minigame associated with it. It was codenamed "Spoopy Pets" and it was far too much for the me and Robert to take on and complete in the Spooktober VN Jam timeframe. We worked on it for the first two days of the jam before we were flagging problems up, so we changed trajectory. It's not a dead idea though, it's in the list of rainy day ideas.

Speaking of the rainy day ideas list, that's where Travel Devil comes in. We thought this up a while ago but just put it on the back burner as there was no time to work on it. The concept was simple - a demon escapes hell and starts a travel log. Then the servants of hell follow in its wake starting the apocalypse march on humanity. When Spoopy Pets became too big we had a look at what we had to play with and Travel Devil just sort of fell into place. Robert started writing and I started drawing.

Character design went pretty smoothly. I went for a mix of cartoon styles, drawing inspiration from things like Dead End, Gravity Falls, The Simpsons and Garfield.

Traditionally, visual novels use anime and manga style design but truth be told, I'm not very good at that style. It takes me ages to make characters look good when I try to draw like that. Hats off to all the wonderful artists in this jam who made beautiful, scintillating characters. I'm so impressed by their dedication to fantastic character art.

One of the first pitfalls I encountered was background art. I like to use sites like Pixabay to get backgrounds but recently it's been flooded with AI artworks. The game jam expressly forbids AI use in your game so we had to get creative.

Fortunately this game revolves around travel vlog creation in Paris and we found loads of creative commons photos of the famous tourist destination. Seriously there are so many fantastic photographers out there and it was a complete life and time saver for the jam. All I had to do was add a translucent white filter to the top of the photos to make the characters pop out and we had our backgrounds!

Development went well once we got on the right track. Travel Devil was made using Ren'py which is a joy to develop with. We did have to wind back our ideas at one point as both Robert and I got sick with a nasty bug but we made it. We stripped back some choices and streamlined the game to make sure we could get finished. Originally, we wanted the player to be able to unlock multiple hidden scenes in one playthrough. As the deadline loomed we simplified it so that the player would only see one of three potential side stories that were growing due to the activities of our main character Tornacense per playthrough. We included 7 unlockable scenes and also 6 unlockable images in our gallery.

There's also a nifty guide to finding all the unlockables right here if you want a more relaxing time while playing.

If you've had a chance to play Travel Devil you may have noticed that we planted some seeds in our side stories that will be big plot points as we go forward. Travel Devil is going to be a series of five games travelling around Europe making video journals and outrunning the underworld.

Tornacense and Kirby will grow, we'll meet lots of new strange and devastating people and love could be just around the corner! Who knows? That choice will be yours.

If you want to check out the first installment of Travel Devil you can nab a pentagram portal and find it right here.

Travel Devil was made for the 5th Annual Spooktober Visual Novel Jam in under 30 days. The next one will be made with a lot more time dedicated to it!

Thanks for stopping by!

DoubleFree - Artist and coder for Travel Devil

[shoechoe]

Hello. I was thinking of writing a video essay on cookie clicker, and the things we as humans find important. I was wondering; what does cookie clicker mean to you? And could I include your response in said video? Thanks.

Yeah, sure thing.

To me, Cookie Clicker is about a sense of completion. There are 622 regular achievements to unlock (of which I have 568 of so far), 17 shadow achievements (I have 13), and 716 upgrades to unlock at this time of writing. I am a big completionist when it comes to games, and I think it's such a strong urge because it's satisfying to fully "finish" something as well as progress and feel yourself improve. I'd compare it to the urge to collect things or complete a catalogue.

Personally, I appreciate gameplay depth, but I also dislike games that induce too much stress (like combat-heavy and full-on horror games). Cookie Clicker appeals to me because it strikes a balance of being low-stress while also being somewhat challenging, interesting to progress through and having a lot to complete. Most of my favorite things to play share this quality (like my favorite Minecraft modpacks and Realm Grinder, one of my other most played idle games).

Cookie Clicker is very good at keeping the main goal simple while branching off into a lot of varied things to do and features to unlock- like its four minigames, holiday special events, sugar lumps, dragon auras, the Grandmapocalypse event, and ascension system (which is not unique to Cookie Clicker, but has a very fun upgrade tree where you can toggle even more things and switch up your playstyle). There's an achievement for just about every facet in the game, too, which encourages you to explore all of it (even the stock market).

The achievements in Cookie Clicker range from simple (like shrinking the actual window itself so the big cookie "dunks" into the milk) to challenging (like Eldeer- clicking a Christmas reindeer within the 6-second timeframe of Elder Frenzy, a rare buff) to very challenging (like a lot of the shadow achievements, if they aren't just based on luck) to something that just takes a lot of time to get (like upgrading every building to level 10). It's a nice variety, and as much as the difficult/time-consuming achievements make me complain sometimes, it just motivates me to play more to get it.

It also has a very comedic style and a sort of quasi-narrative as you progress through, which makes it fun to talk about. The absurd satire of the idea of "infinite growth" and corporate monopolies is pretty apparent. Though, I would say my motive for finishing it doesn't really have much to do with the actual "gaining more cookies" part, because if there were no achievements or other things to do like minigames and such, I would get bored and stop playing. You could still say that the game asks just what you/your character would do to complete "everything", even if it means wrecking the world to do so (biggest example being the infamous Grandmapocalypse).

Overall, I like Cookie Clicker's sense of progression and many achievements to acquire with lots of different facets of gameplay. Though the early-game is slow (one of my major criticisms of it), if you stick through, there's a lot to do and you get a lot of fun out of it.

[gyokujyn]

Get To Know Me Tag Game

Tagged by @blackwood4stucky - Aspen, thank you for the tag, but I am breaking all the rules and changing most of the some questions to really get to know me (and hopefully you)! Pretend I tagged you at the bottom, too, cause it won't let me tag you twice!

1. How did you get your nickname (or url)?

I don't really have a nickname, but my url is the first long term OC I used to RP back in the day. I see a lot of hate for RPing OCs these days, but when the internet still screamed at you before you could logon, almost everyone RPed OCs--in fact it was looked down on to RP an existing character or an OC that was related to an existing character. Gyoku Jynnae was a Star Trek OC, but I also RPed Star Wars, D&D, and a few others in AOL chat rooms, forums/message boards, and email. I keep the name in case I ever run into anyone from that time in my life because some of those people helped keep me alive and I'll never forget it.

2. What's the last thing that made you cry?

Therapy yesterday. I'm trying to be less allergic to feelings. Go me.

3. What's your latest guilty pleasure?

I generally don't feel guilty about the things that bring me pleasure, lol, but I'm a little embarrassed that I realized my Stucky playlist on Spotify has long since exceeded 200 songs (sitting pretty close to 230 rn) so I created, I shit you not, a spreadsheet to help me most effectively split it into more specific lists for various timeframes or feelings and I am really enjoying listening to all the songs and organizing it.

4. What sports do you play/have you played?

I never did organized sports, but I did regularly get dropped in the wilderness with a map and a compass for "fun" when I was in high school--does that count?

5. What are your pet peeves?

I hate the sound of chewing/lip smacking/swallowing. I probably have misophonia because it makes me want to vault the table and punch someone.

6. What is the first thing you notice about people?

Hair and hands, usually. Eye contact is not my forte, so I am way more likely to remember someone by their shoes or something than by their face.

7. What is your eye color?

Hazel. I have a ring of brown around my pupil, then a ring of green outside of that like some kind of ridiculous YA novel.

8. What super specific trope or genre is your kryptonite?

Not sure how super specific this is, but I love psychological horror and body horror. I love the kinds of stories and movies where I walk away thinking I'm moving on with my life and then days later, something happens and my heart is pounding and I'm thinking about it again. I love horror that lives under your skin and in the back of your mind until it grips you out of nowhere.

9. What is your superpower?

I am very observant of details, which might be a superpower, but it usually feels like my villain origin story. It makes me good at reading people, but terrible at finishing projects because all I see are the faults and I get overwhelmed and it never gets finished.

10. Which fictional world would you be happy to call home?

You remember that late-aughts Bruce Willis movie where everyone plugs into an interface that lets them leave their bodies at home and navigate the world in an idealized, customizable body with no pain? Yeah, me, neither. I don't think about being able to have a pain-free body that reflects my personal image of myself everyday. Not at all.

11. What are your hobbies?

Reading, creating art, and video games. Between kids and COVID, my other hobby, tabletop RPG, is on a long term hiatus.

12. Do you have any pets?

We've recently lost a dog and a cat, so we're down to 1 cat and about 27,000 fish (not really, but we do have 8 running fish tanks, 3 of which are each over 50 gallons, so, like, there's a lot of fish).

13. What is your biggest toxic trait?

Oh, man, when I am in a relationship with someone, I want to be the center of their fucking universe. Which is weird because I am not monogamous and I am my wife's number one wing man, but it's not about jealousy. I want to know that I can trust my partner to have my back. That they're thinking about me. That they want me. I want to be wanted desperately. I will and have broken up with partners who weren't bad people or a bad match for me, they just weren't as mad about me as I wanted them to be. I feel like a narcissist typing this out, but it's the truth.

14. Is there anything you're afraid you won't accomplish?

I don't know that this is really an accomplishment, but I always wanted to have lots of kids and I always wanted to foster and adopt some of my kids. I knew kids growing up that needed safe homes and never got them (I probably was one, but I was afraid to get into the system, so I just kept my head down and dealt with it) and I always wanted to be the safe place I never had. But, it's expensive. Not the kids--I know kids are expensive (I already have 2). I don't understand why fostering and adopting is so expensive.

15. What's number one on your bucket list?

I want to go back to school to become a teacher, but I'm really finding it daunting right now.

Tags: I'm just tagging a dozen recentish mutuals that I don't know so well, yet... no pressure, but I'd love to get to know you better! @winterscrump @basnatural @eloquentreverie @vellicore @milarca @the-kestrels-feather @iceandironbars @sarahowritesostucky @natashadied4oursins @thepiper0fhameln @hypnxrchy @shurisbedroom If I didn't tag you, but you want to play, please feel free to jump in and tag me anyway!

[lizardwithacomputer]

Finding A Specific Missing Announcer Voiceline from DDR: Mario Mix

I just went though unimaginable torment (spent 5 hours trying to do this) in order to obtain the following sound byte:

What you hear above is the voice of Londell "Taz" Hicks (I'm 90% certain of this) who was the announcer for several Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) games, both in the arcade games and games for console, particularly Max, Extreme, and SuperNOVA. Based on ear and the release timeframes, he is also the announcer in DDR: Mario Mix.

The above voiceline has been an inside joke in my friend group for more than a decade. It has tormented and taunted us every time we boot up the game. It comes up any time performance is in the question. Speeches, presentations, concerts, D&D games, everything. I wanted this sound byte for the purposes of psychological mayhem and figured I'd do some quick searching and have it downloaded in time to get groceries.

This isolated voiceline does not exist in any archive I could track down.

So, obviously, I figured I'd get it myself. That it would be easy. And, I'll be frank, despite all my struggles, it could've been so much worse if not for the hard work of media archivists before me. Here's how I was able to track this voiceline down:

Getting into Stepmania/ITGMania/Project Outfox necessitated that I know a thing or two about where to get simulation files for the game. In fact, I'd already gotten the simulation files for DDR: Mario Mix, which is what prompted the idea of finding the same announcer. The files only contain music, album art, and step data (the arrows in DDR), and not, reasonably, anything from the game. So I had to look elsewhere.

Stepmania has a large customization and creation community that makes themes, custom charts, and, most importantly for me, announcers. The first thing I did was figure out the most likely announcer for DDR: Mario Mix, then headed to the Stepmania archive and started downloading. I started sifting through the files, but all I could find was this voiceline from DDR Extreme2:

As you can tell, these may be the same words, but it is NOT the same voiceline. It isn't smug enough. It's too supportive. This will not cause the torment I desire. I started to despair. I trawled every single other game Taz had announced for and only found this same inflection. The smugness of DDR: Mario Mix eluded me.

The next thing I did was try to get them from the game itself. The Dolphin Emulator has a really cool feature that lets you extract the contents of "discs" (in this case, a mounted .ciso file). Once I had that, I started to sift through, praying that it wouldn't be embedded in an obscure bin file.

Instead, I found this, in a folder labelled "sound":

What the hell are these file formats.

Briefly, I gave up on trying to extract things from the disc and started looking in different archives. I found one archive of video game music, that had happened to back up all of DDR: Mario Mix, and it happened to include some sound effects in it! I was hopeful, but after clicking going through every unhelpfully-named file, I was out of luck. Why would an archive lack part of the game? Well I went to the forums tied to the archive and:

DID YOU REMOVE THE VOICE CLIPS I'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR, 1425720626? DID YOU?!?!

Anyway. Searching this forum still provided me with some other options. Mainly, a post talking specifically about the msm and pdt files I was confused by before!

And this was figured out 11-12 years ago!! Remarkably, the download for the script still worked. So I loaded it up into VSCode, fixed some of the outdated code (specifically, had to change ord() calls to int(), some bytes stuff, I could ramble about this, but-), and ran it. This python code produced 465 dsp files. A dsp file is an older type of data sequence file that is common in older videogames and is used to play audio.

Since its on the older and obscure side, it's not something a native media player can play out of the box. The forum I've been searching through, it turns out, is actually part of a bigger website (hcs64) that has tools related to video game music archival, including audio ripping tools and, more importantly, a program that can play and convert dsp files called vgmstream.

I used the vgmstream web player to listen to a couple randomly chosen dsp files I had from the 465 I'd gotten from the python. Luckily, there was a small form of organization, and when I hit the files starting with 0003, I heard the sweet, sweet voice of Londell 'Taz' Hicks. And to my elation, the very second file I tested was the glorious, smug, tormenting words:

Everybody is watching you!

This is generally where you stop, because you've got the file now. But since I'm writing this primarily for my own archival purposes, there's a couple other steps I took after downloading the voiceline.

See, vgmstream converted the file to a wav file and I needed an mp3. This is actually easy enough. If you open up VLC (traffic cone video player) and go to Media>Convert/Save, you can convert it easily. I threw the file in there, made a new profile for the conversion settings, adjusted the bit rate to be the same as the wav file...then, instead of making the sample rate the maximum, like I should've done, I left it at the minimum and, uh...

whoops.

[cinnamonghost]

4 years with my kamioshi 🧡

This phoenix means the entire world to me, literally. vtubers helped me be happier in life.

I don't remember how or why, but HAACHAMA was the very first vtuber I've ever subscribed to. I honestly always though it was Suisei because of that famous Tetris video, since that was the earliest I remember getting into vtubers. But apperently I'm wrong! Sadly I don't think I will ever know since I (regrettably) deleted my youtube history in 2021.

If I remember correctly, I remember watching Ina's debut stream live? But I honestly can't remember. And I didn't subscribe to her or any of holomyth when they debuted so I don't know!

Anyway. I remember not watching Kiara at first because I thought her voice was grating? I think? I can't remember BUT I remember getting really into Calli's music

Maybe behind that small timeframe I was like "oh actually she's really awesome" And so I started watching her. And then. I would start to watch every single streams she's done. And then. Set alarms at 2 in the morning ON A SCHOOL DAY so then I can watch her live, then fall asleep while listen to her talk. I was kind of obsessed. ( and I still do that when she streams really early for me! /these stream times where when was in Japan/ I never changed lol even when it's in like . 8 in the morning streams)

Oh god and then I remember when things like "bottom left" where still so prominent and I remember her crying and feeling frustrated in one stream how she hated that it was kind of what everyone associated her with, her being a big pervert and YABAI. I remember feeling so frustrated thinking "these guys are a bunch of freaks and losers! Maybe they should watch her to realize they misunderstood her all wrong!" Thankfully I never verbalized how defensive I was online LOL I would have gotten in sooooo many arguments online . Me a 14 year old talking to like . 25 year olds. Yeesh!

Anyway I remember there was a time when her 3rd outfit came out when I kind of stopped watching her. When she was playing games like Tunic were where I didn't watch her at all. I didn't even watched her 3rd outfit! I think it was because I was busy with school so I couldn't watch her which would lead to me never watching her. Instead I was watching vtubers like Pomu and Rosemi since they were more of a"my time" friendly. Even so, I'm so happy I've gotten over that rutt! I was literally watching Tenchou today in the morning! Even if I can't make it to the entire stream I try to see what's going on and lurk for a bit.

Oh god, and going to the first hololive EN 3D concert. I was crying sooooo much when I was her. There was so much energy in the room. There was so many people happy to see their oshis! I was too! When she was singing SPARKS I was balling my eyes out, thinking "this is the happiest moment of my life" and everyone cheering for her. all of KFP cheering. Me pouring my heart out cheering for her. It got me really emotion 😭

I hope that I'll be able to talk to her in person one day! I think I would start crying LOL

This phoenix made such a big impact on me, I love Kiara!!!!!!!! She my Kami-oshi!!!!!!!!!!!! I know one day she will graduate.... but even when that happens... I'll be so greatful for all the memories she gave me. I'll be so happy that she lead to loving vtubers. I love you Kiara forever 🧡

[jcmarchi]

Balatro Was Almost Called Joker Poker And Other Details From Its Creator | Afterwords

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/balatro-was-almost-called-joker-poker-and-other-details-from-its-creator-afterwords/

Balatro Was Almost Called Joker Poker And Other Details From Its Creator | Afterwords

It’s been one month since Balatro, the poker-inspired deckbuilding roguelite, was released, and it has taken the gaming world by storm. In that short timeframe it has earned rave reviews (including a 9.5 out of 10 from us), positioned itself as a Game of the Year contender, and sold 1 million copies. To the delight of many, a mobile version was recently announced to be in the works. 

For some players, Balatro seemingly came out of nowhere and its sole developer, LocalThunk, is just as mysterious. The highly private creator doesn’t share his real name, but I was able to speak with him about his game development history, his philosophy for making games, how he came up with the idea for Balatro, and his reaction to its positive reception. Perhaps most importantly, LocalThunk also tells me the strangest pronunciations he’s heard for the game. 

Game Informer: What drew you to wanting to create games as a hobby, and how long have you been making games?

LocalThunk: Well, when I was in university, I was taking this mechanical engineering course. And I was watching a lot of videos from YouTube of people playing video games, and I always wanted to make a video game. So that’s kind of when it started. I was still in engineering school, and in my spare time, I’d start making simulations more than video games and some little games. And I made a kind of a Risk-type game… and I got really, really into the actual process of making games and simulations. So I ended up dropping out of engineering, and I went into a computer science program because of that. And basically, the entire time I was in that program, when I’d get home from school, I would just make games and keep coding, and it’s something I held on to after I left school. I just always did that.

The main thing with it, though, is I never really shared it with an audience. Either it was mostly just for me, or I would share it with a couple of friends and family that I knew who would appreciate these things as a way to share that part. So yeah, I’ve been making games for probably almost 10 years, I guess. But this is the first time I’ve made anything public at all.

How did the idea for Balatro come to be? What was special about this concept that made you want to share it with the public?

Well, the concept came from – it’s a game called Big Two. It’s a Cantonese game. If you’ve ever played a game called Presidents or Cheat or Janitor or A**hole, it’s the same type of game where you have a hand of cards, and you select some of the cards and play them down. So it’s actually based on a game like that. It’s not based on poker. And I used to play this game, Big Two, all the time with my friends when I was in high school and growing up. I wanted to make an online version of that game to play with them during the pandemic.

And so I started making the bare bones fundamental engine. And when I was doing that, I was watching YouTube videos about Luck Be A Landlord at the time. And I really liked a lot of the design elements of that game. And I thought, you know, I could transition this into a game like that, where you’re facing off against the score requirement almost and you’re not facing enemies, per se. And I just liked a lot about the core design aspects of that game. So I kind of combined those ideas. And after a while, it ended up being one of the more polished things I’d ever worked on so I thought it’d be kind of fun to put it on Steam.

I read an interview with a PC Gamer, where you said that you’re not really a poker player and that you’re not particularly a fan of it. If that’s the case, how did you decide to incorporate poker into this concept? The idea of taking something you’re not really into but recognizing it could work for this formula is really interesting.

I’m a little bit of an outsider in terms of indie games. I didn’t really play a lot of indie games. I know a lot of the theming with indie games is one of the things that always kind of put me off with it. It’s very fantasy-heavy. The theming was always a barrier to entry for me.

When I was making this game, I thought, playing cards: what’s something that’s thematically tied to playing cards that has a lot of identity, iconography, imagery people are familiar with that they can lean on to get into the game instead of having to learn about so that they can get into the game? And I thought Poker is the perfect thing because it has all these interesting visuals, sounds, terminology people are generally familiar with. More than most other card games do, it kind of has this aura about it as a card game, more so than like a Solitaire would or Cribbage or something. So, I leaned really heavily on the theming because I knew the theming was such a strong part of Poker, even if the mechanics I don’t really care for with Poker. I don’t really play it. I know how it works, I have played it before, but it’s not really a game I enjoy. 

[embedded content]

Do you think Balatro would have worked like with any other card game that uses real cards? Is there a card game you do enjoy that could have also fit?

“Work” is the operative word. It depends what your definition there is. I think mechanically, it would be identical if it was dice and like a Yahtzee-type game because it’s essentially the same thing; you’re picking playing card hands from that. I could have based it off of Big Two, the original game that it was supposed to be based off of, but people don’t know that game. So it’s just another hurdle to even get into playing the game. Mechanically, yeah, there’s really no reason why it needs to be Poker. I could replace the word “blind” with “enemy” and “chips” with “points” and it would be functionally identical. 

I’m in the same boat as you in that I am not a poker player. I don’t know how to play poker, but Balatro helped me memorize poker hands for the first time. As you’re designing Balatro, was it more important to you that Poker players get into this game or more for people like me who don’t care about Poker?

Well, the intention was never to make a game for Poker players. I think I was expecting people that weren’t familiar with Poker to be able to interface with it. I think honestly when I hear people that really are into Poker play this game, I do hear quite often they say like, ‘Oh, it’s actually nothing like poker’, right? The skills that you have as a Poker player, like all the depth of the skill set that you develop, is so different from just knowing which hands are in Poker. It’s more like playing your opponents and how you raise. I don’t know Poker very well either, but I do know that it’s looked at as almost like Chess where there’s such deep strategy to that game, and none of that’s apparent in Balatro. So no, it wasn’t designed for Poker players. I can see how they would like it, though, if they just enjoy video games or like Solitaire. I don’t think they would be more inclined to enjoy it than like you or me.

Are you a big fan of deck builders? Did you ever try to make any before as one of your smaller, private projects or is Balatro your first stab at doing a deck builder?

This is the first deck builder I’ve ever played. I watched some videos about Luck Be A Landlord so I understood mechanically how that game works. But I’d never seen Slay the Spire or, I don’t know, what other games [were] in the genre at the time. Since I made Balatro, I have played a couple of these games. And I think it’s a really good thing that I never played any of these games before I made Balatro because… they’re so well designed. The designs would have infiltrated my own design processes, and it would have kind of overshadowed maybe some of the original things. It would have saved me a lot of heartache and mistakes, but I think it would have narrowed the design space unintentionally.

When did you feel you were on to something with Balatro? It’s maybe the best deck builder I’ve ever played, and it feels like it was made by someone who has played a lot of deck builders. 

The main goal that I had, my rubric, number one at the top, is I want a game that I enjoy playing. And I hit that mark, I think it was the week before launch day, that I finally [felt] like, ‘Okay, I want to sit down and play this game in my spare time.’ So besides that, I can’t simulate what other people are going to think about the game. I had no idea if it would be successful or a flop or whatever. So, yeah, I just know, personally, that I started enjoying it about about then. 

Do you find yourself enjoying Balatro more and playing it more often now that you’re sort of on the other side of the launch?

I do play it a little bit. But honestly, I really enjoy making games a lot more than I do playing them. It’s hard for me to judge just because it’s the only thing I’ve thought about for like two years, as well. So it’s very difficult for me to be a critic and say, ‘Am I actually enjoying it?’ The reasons why I’m not playing it, is it because I don’t want to play it, or is it because I’m just sick of working on it and thinking about it all the time? I don’t know. I still do enjoy it, but there’s a lot of other emotions and thoughts going at the same time too, so it’s really hard to judge.

How does it feel to have created something that’s garnered such an overwhelmingly positive reception?

I mean, it’s cool. It wasn’t something I was expecting. And again, I think the thing I’m most excited about is that I was able to do it in the first place [and] stick to this process for such a long time. And it was so much work. But sticking to that process and believing it’s going to work out. So I’m most excited about that, and I’m most excited that I ended up making this thing that I wanted to make. And it’s really nice that people also seem to really love it too.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing Balatro?

Taking it public 100% was the biggest challenge. You know, I’ve made games for so long, and I have also had another game that I’ve worked on for about two years, maybe two and a half years, and I never told anyone about that game. And all I think about is just how fun it was for literally the entire time I was working on it. No pressure, I could do whatever I wanted with it at whatever timeframe I wanted. And as soon as I went public with this game, I wasn’t expecting there to be chatter all the time and pressure to do things, and if there’s a bug you need to fix it, and criticism. Because none of that stuff really is why I wanted to make the game in the first place. I just love making games. All that stuff seemed almost like a means to an end if I wanted to have this game on Steam. So since it went public, I think dealing with that side of it has been the biggest challenge in the entire development cycle.

One of my favorite elements of the game is the Jokers for how much fun they are, how much they change the game, and just the sheer number of them. What’s the process behind designing a Joker suitable for Balatro?

I think they’re what people enjoy the most about the game. They’re also so fun to make. Just visually, there’s so many different directions you can take them. The process for making them is really fun because sometimes I’ll come up with an idea for an effect. And then I’ll brainstorm, and I’ll think, ‘Oh, that could work with this subject matter, that would be really fun.’ And then, more often, it’s the opposite. I’ll see something, and it’d be like, ‘Oh, that would make like a good-looking Joker’, and then I’ll have to come up with like an effect for it. So sometimes it starts from one end, sometimes it starts from the other. Sometimes, an effect will just be completely cut from the game.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I do have kind of bad reading retention. And I think that’s one of the reasons why I don’t enjoy a lot of strategy games like this. So I made a pact with this game that descriptions can’t be more than four lines and 20 words. That’s probably changed since I’ve released it, there’s probably some that are a little bit longer. But in general, I try and make it so that a Joker card needs to be really simple to understand for it to be in the game. That also really helped drive what Jokers do. They need to do things that are relatively simple, and that kind of breeds this elegant strategy by itself by doing that. So yeah, they were the most fun part of the game for me to make for sure.

I’m also an artist. I love drawing in my spare time … and this is the first time I really got into pixel art. So it was just another really fun, creative outlet in my game development journey that didn’t involve writing code. So there’s kind of like two different sides to it. And I do feel like I got to express myself a lot in that regard, as well.

What disqualifies a Joker from making the cut, and how many were left on the cutting room floor? 

A few ways. We had a very long beta/demo process for like seven months. So, I release a card, a Joker, and then it’s clear that it’s either just way too overpowered, or nobody takes it, or it’s too niche. There’s a litany of different problems it could have, and sometimes you can tweak it so the numbers are more in line with what it should be. But more often, if the effect just isn’t good, you just get rid of it. [I’ll] probably recycle the art into something else. That’s usually what I do because the art takes quite a bit of time. Less often, I will completely scrap art. There’s not very many examples of that happening. But every now and then, it does happen where I’ll have art in the game for many months, and then I’ll never love it, and I’ll just think, ‘I could probably do better than that,’ and then I’ll come up with something else. But that’s pretty rare. I think usually I try and keep the art. So those are the main ways that a Joker would get completely nixed from the game. But yeah, it has happened quite a bit.

I don’t know how often do you watch other players play the game, but are you surprised with some of the strategies and combinations of Jokers players have discovered that, in some instances, almost break the game? Do you get excited when you see that stuff, or do you look and think, ‘That’s way too overpowered, I should change that.’

I think I do think both things, actually. Because sometimes I do think something can be overpowered in a fun way. Something can be overpowered in a way that excludes the player from experiencing other fun in the game, which you don’t want. So if there’s something that’s really easy to do that, ‘Oh, I’ll just do this every time, and then I won’t feel the need to explore the design space of this game.’ Then ultimately, that’s the path of least resistance, and it’s not as fun as actually branching out and understanding the depth of the game. So, sometimes I do feel like that.

More often though, when I watch people that play that are really good, it makes me feel good that this game ended up being so emergent that when I watch, I’ll be like, ‘Oh, I never thought of that.’ It’s interesting how these strategies have emerged from the system that I created, and I didn’t really consider a lot of these strategies. So, I do enjoy watching players do that. And I do think that I’m not very good at playing my own game too. That probably plays into it.

Do you have a favorite Joker that you either love to play or was the most fun to illustrate? Is it the same card? 

It’s probably not the same card, no. My favorite art – I always like to shout out the banana Jokers in this game. The anecdote behind the Gros Michel banana, it went extinct, I think, in the ’50s and was replaced by the banana that we know now as the Cavendish banana. So there’s kind of some lore baked into the game where if you get the Gros Michel banana and it goes “extinct”, then you can get the Cavendish banana later on, and it’s less likely to go extinct. I really liked the whole design around that.

Visually, I really like the Pareidolia Joker is well. Pareidolia is a word for when you look at a cloud or a tree or something, you’ll see a face in it sometimes. That concept is called pareidolia, and it was really funny because I was able to recreate that idea by making playing cards on the Joker itself in the shape of a face, which itself is pareidolia. So, I really like the art for that card. That’s one of my favorite ones, as well. But I don’t know; I’ve got a soft spot for almost all the Jokers there. It’s like picking your favorite child almost.

You mentioned not being good at your own game. One of the cool things about this game also was the community that has sprouted up around seeds, and players posting their seeds and helping each other out. Have you ever played other players’ seeds? 

No, I never have. This is one of the biggest teaching moments I think I’ve had in this game. I barely even included a seed when I first went public with this game. I was using the seed as more of a saving tool so that you could save runs easier. And I decided to expose the seed itself as like, ‘Ah, I have this anyway. May as well show it.’ And players really, really got into the seeds, and I never understood it. So they would keep playing these seeded runs, and it just made me realize one of the core audiences for this game is a group that I don’t personally identify with, as the things that I enjoy about the game being different than what they enjoy. I really enjoy that they love the seeds so much and they’re able to share them, so I’ve tried to facilitate that as much as I could. But most of that has come from me actually talking to them and understanding what they enjoy about it, changing the seed algorithm so it more suits that idea. I’ve had to lean on them quite a lot for that. But I do really love that that’s happened. 

Balatro had a bit of trouble with being pulled from some international storefronts for visually resembling a gambling game. How did you react to this news, and what’s your stance on gambling mechanics in games in general? 

Well, my stance is more that I don’t want to put gambling in my game. There’s no way that you can spend extra money in Balatro to do anything else. I think really the problem is that it looks like Poker, which itself isn’t technically a gambling game unless you actually spend money on it, right? I think that’s where the biggest hiccup is, but like, personally, I’m opposed to spending money on a booster pack to get some kind of reward in-game or microtransactions or anything like that. Ethically, I wouldn’t ever be comfortable putting that in my game. It did kind of sting a little bit when they assume that this game would be associated with those kinds of things when other games in this industry do that and I don’t think they’re punished in the same way.

Now you’ve released your first game publicly, how has this changed your perception of game design and what makes a fun game? What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned that you think you’ll apply to whatever you make next?

I’ve learned so much about game design, actually. You know, I’ve been in my bubble for the past year and a half before I went public with this game. You don’t see the things that people struggle with in your game, either core game mechanics that they don’t enjoy or quality of life things that they think should be there that aren’t. For example, tooltips. In the game, there were very few tooltips before because I knew what every Joker did or what every card does so I didn’t really need them. But then, as soon as I went public with it, it’s like, oh, yeah, why am I not displaying that information? So I think what I’ve learned is I want to involve beta testers early in the process to get that kind of feedback right away so I can kind of incorporate that into the core engine easier.

But now that I’ve gone through this, I do feel like I know a lot of these things, like some of the pitfalls to avoid just from experience, so I’m sure it would go smoother the next time I release a game just due to that. But you know, basically, from what I mentioned before, I’ve been exposed to so many more games and design ideas and best practices and whatnot. And that’s also probably going to change my next game for the negative a little bit, as well, because I won’t be as uninhibited about making mistakes, and I’ll be a little bit more rigid in terms of what kind of design space I’m willing to explore. I think there’s there’s a little bit of give and take there.

Do you already have the idea for whatever you want to do next in your head now?

I want to keep around Balatro for sure. I’m not really entertaining any big game ideas yet, but I do have some that I’ve thought about, yeah. 

How has this experience changed your willingness to release games publicly? Has it made you more eager to put more games out for the world to see, or do you think it’ll still be a little bit more case-by-case basis?

That’s interesting, actually. I don’t know. I feel like my next game, if it was public or not public, I don’t know if that would matter too much. I’ll tell you what I am really excited [about] for the next game that I work on, is telling absolutely nobody about it basically until I’m done making it. I’m excited to do that so that I can kind of just get back to really what I love about this which is just making the game. 

I’ve seen you say there’s no wrong way to pronounce Balatro, and I respect that. That said, what’s the weirdest way that you’ve heard people say the name of the game?

There’s two main camps. There’s the “Bal-a-tro” and the “Bah-Lah-tro”. But I do see the joke a lot of ‘Oh Balatro, is that that movie with the dog and Alaska?’   

Balto? 

So I do see Balto a lot. I do see “Bell-a-tro” [with] like ‘E.’ The lesson here is that the name itself is not very marketable [laughs].

I don’t know, I think it stands out. I don’t know any other Balatros out there.

Yeah, I did it because I really felt like it encapsulated the idea I wanted. It was previously called Joker Poker as a working title. But I think there’s an app on the App Store that had the same name. And I also thought it was a little silly compared to kind of the vibe I was going for in the game. I’m glad I changed it to Balatro. But yeah, people do struggle with it. And I do often hear in podcasts and stuff like ‘Yeah, I don’t know what they’re thinking with the name’, and I’m like, yeah, I get it.

Balatro has a surreal vibe. When I first started playing, part of me wondered if it was secretly a weird creepy pasta game or something. How did you settle on the psychedelic vibe? 

You know, that’s one I’ve seen a lot of people say that like, ‘Oh, it’s because of this.’ Like, it’s because it looks like a video poker machine, or because of Inscryption or something.

That’s what I thought it would be. Something like Inscrpytion. 

Yeah, and it’s a little more dumb than that. It’s because of the amount of iteration I went through with design. So one day, I just thought, ‘I think this game would look good with the CRT filter on it.’ I’ve never played a video poker machine in my life. Like, I don’t even really know what they look like. I just thought, ‘Hey, this would be kind of like a fun thing,’ and then I put it in. I just really love writing shaders, so it was just like a fun project to do while I was working on the game. And it was like, ‘Yeah, that totally looks good on this game so I’m going to keep it.’ The swirly background and the kind of gyrating cards, and I just felt like it was all cohesive. And so I kept adding things that were cohesive to that central idea, but it kind of just came up organically. It’s not like when I started, I was like, ‘I’m gonna make some cursed interdimensional poker machine that people are going to be stuck at.’ That’s not like why I did, it just evolved into that.

Since you’re an artist, would you say it’s reflective of your personal style?

Kind of, a little, yeah. I like drawing really intricate abstract flowy art, normally. I’ve done that for a very long time. So I do kind of feel like it’s the same vibe, – almost creepy. I do feel like it’s [a] similar motif for sure.

Balatro recently passed the 500,000 copies sold milestone (Editors Note: this was the figure at the time of the interview). Is there anything that you want to say to fans who have enjoyed the game?

I said that the thing I was most proud of is the fact that I’ve just even got to the finish line at all. But, you know, the fact that people love this game so much, and they’re so invested in its future and wanting to improve it and design ideas, they’ve kind of allowed me to turn this into a career. It’s a career that I really want to do forever. I’m grateful that they’ve been able to afford that opportunity for me and that they keep playing Balatro. Keep getting those high scores.

[mica-dmss]

Blog Post - 03

The Impact of Narrative on Game

Narrative has proven to successfully integrate within text, and it has continued to adapt to modern products of this century, such as novels, films, animations and games. It still cultivates the way we digest information in our lives and provides a slate for how we should interact with the world. Theorists have attempted to explain the phenomenon of narratives, though does it work with interactive products, such as gaming? That is what I would like the delve into. I will be exploring the history of games, video games and how the evolution of narrative has extended into this medium.

Before analysing the connection between games and narrative, I researched the origins of games. Games had been around before the A.D. period (Figure 1). The Royal Game of Ur is regarded as the "oldest playable board game in the world", originating back 4,600 years ago during the Mesopotamia period (British museum, 2021). Board games are still a popular form of entertainment and are the epitome of interactivity, requiring engagement with other players; the idea of competing against something in order to win has been the main objective of gaming. Notable examples of this are Monopoly and Chess.

Figure 1

Regarding 'video games', Bertie the Brain (1950) is the first of its kind to exist. Initially, the audience was not so inclined to compete with an artificial intelligence in a game of Tic, Tac, Toe. However, the stance of playing video games shifted after the successful launch of Atari's Pong (1972), which allowed the interactivity of two human players using a digital format (Figure 2). The game received mass revenue and can be argued to have "started the video games industry" as a whole, setting out to become "the first commercially successful game" by selling 150,000 units of its home edition (Pong Game, n.d.).

Figure 2

Many well-renowned titles were born from the development of video games; Pacman (1980), Donkey Kong (1981), Street Fighter (1987) and so on. Companies like Nintendo and Capcom grew to fame from the success of the steadily growing video game market. However, when did a shift occur where video games decided to adopt narrative into their interactive experience?

To understand the eventual trend of narrative games, I will once again explain the term narrative and the significance it holds within media and our language. Film theorists Bordwell and Thompson (2016) describe narrative as "a fundamental way that humans make sense of the world" (Bordwell and Thompson, 2016, p. 72). It offers experience of situations and reason as for why events unfold the way they do. Most narratives contain a dynamic proposition through their plot that lures spectators in to investigate and interpret for their own, which both Bordwell and Thompson describe as our curiosity (Ibid. p. 55) Games must also evoke a level of curiosity in motivating the audience to play them, which then implies that some form of dynamic activity must be at play - something that narrative forms are popular for (Ibid. p. 73)

As narrative further evolves in our timeframe, so does media and technology around us. With new prospects of narrative conventions, comes with new forms of execution. The potential of video games have never been bigger, as we now have easy access to online platforms, multiplayer servers, freeform simulations and multi-choice experience. A particular type of game that has come from narrative conventions is interactive games involving different outcomes of stories. One example is Until Dawn (2015), an interactive horror video game where players can control the survival outcomes for 8 characters. Until Dawn provides countless choices for each individual, as well as countless endings of them living and dying; the key scene within the game is the last, where depending on the players' choice for their characters, the endings can range from all characters surviving to all but one of them dying. (Figure 3 and 4)

Figure 3

Figure 4

This presentation of narrative within a game like Until Dawn displays the use of parallelism structure, which is known for diverging a main plot into sub-branches to present different characters rather than only focusing on one. Bordwell and Thompson states that within film, this allows a story to become more 'complex' than the traditional presentation of a plot (Ibid. p. 74). In the case of Until Dawn, this can also describe the structure of interactive games. Moreover, each sub-branch of focusing on different characters within this game also implies secondary plots that all coincide with the primary plot. These 'subplots' revolve around each of the characters' interactions and relationships with one another, followed by how each of them react in situations unfolding in the main plot. With this, players can acknowledge and grow an affinity with certain characters that they like in the story, thus each variant in choice or ending will likely have a different effect on players, compared to if the game only featured a main plot (Ibid. p. 75).

Despite the successful execution of interacting game using narrative, one can argue that narratives providing multiple outcomes do not necessarily make them 'interactive'; Neal Roger Tringham (2014) argues that narrative is fixed, thus the possibility to pick a choice and receive an ending is still relatively set in place by the game and its developers, not the players themselves. Therefore, the idea of players obtaining a new ending of a story is not possible. Tringham explains that stories should have "a beginning, a middle, and an end, and only one of each" (Tringham, 2014, p. 19). Since all relevant stories been established within each choice and ending of games like Until Dawn, they all correspond to the main plot which is presented from the beginning to the end of gameplay.

Aside from interactive video games, Tringham also delves into debate revolving around the compatibility between games and narrative, as well is if it is even beneficial for games to adopt narrative into its media form. Disputes among gamers back in the 1970s concerned the idea of "simulational accuracy" against narrative conventions in game, which now translates to the discussion of ludology versus narratology (Ibid. p. 19). In addition, Tringham acknowledges that some view games as "essentially narrative in nature, since the act of playing any game creates a story that the player can retell", although due to the nature of gaming being more practical than planned, this argument could be easily refuted, as gaming experiences are not fixed like narrative forms (Ibid. p. 19-20).

Despite this, while the interchangeability of gaming may not completely align with a stability of narratives, combining both forms together is not totally impossible, either. In his papers, Alan Dundes (2007) examined the correlation between formulas of gaming and narrative through Vladimir Propp's (1928) narrative functions theory. Dundes states that with a narrative's 'dimensionality', it concerns the conflict between the hero and the villain while still having a plot that is "unidimensional" (Dundes, 2007, p. 156). With this, Dundes argues that gaming also revolves around a 'unidimensional' relationship, with the only difference being that two sequences of actions are happening simultaneously; "this is theoretically true in folktales, but only one side's activities, usually the hero's, are described at a given point in tale" (Ibid. p. 156) Furthermore, Dundes found that folk tales consist of two-dimensional series of actions through a one-dimensional track, while the structure of a typical competitive game is like "a two-dimensional folktale" (Ibid. p. 156)

In conclusion, there is more to the idea of narrative in games as we initially thought. We are at a stage where narrative forms have the flexibility to adapt to different media products; we have begun to prioritise sophistication of fictional works and vocalise more artistic expression in our craft. The contagious aspects of narrative has allowed the succession of many new concepts and execution of games to be made for its growing audience to enjoy. Despite the criticisms, Tringham does points out how early in development the new compatibility between gaming and narrative is; "the increasing importance of story in the highly lucrative videogame market suggests that considerable effort will be expanded on both the form and content of such narratives" (Tringham, 2014, p. 29).

Sources:

Bordwell, D., Thompson, K. and Smith, J. (2016) Film art: an introduction. Eleventh; McGraw-Hill international; Place of publication not identified: McGraw-Hill Education.

Bronner, S.J. (ed.) (2007) ‘On Game Morphology: A Study of the Structure of Non-Verbal Folklore’. Utah State University Press (Meaning of Folklore), p. 154.

Pong Game (no date) Available at: https://www.ponggame.org/ (Accessed: 8 January 2024).

Supermassive Games (2015) Until Dawn [Video game]. Available at: https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/games/until-dawn/ (Accessed: 8 January 2024).

The British Museum (2021) Available at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/top-10-historical-board-games (Accessed: 8 January 2024).

Tringham, N.R. (2014) Science Fiction Video Games. 1;1st; edn. Oakville: CRC Press LLC.

[ladala99]

Some rambling below: about the stuff going on Reddit, my current video game habits (including some things about Pokemon), The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion (including major spoilers so watch out), and Trails fandom opinion the Gagharv trilogy. All over the place!

Whelp. None of you probably know this but Reddit was my main fandom space for Pokemon/Spyro/other video games that aren't petsites, and well, there's this thing going on over there.

I've been trying to get off of it for a while anyway. Too easy to waste a ton of otherwise-productive time, I keep running into spoilers for games I'm still playing, and also I tend to doomscroll the political subs.

So maybe this will finally get me off of it. Certainly the fact that the admins are giving an ultimatum to the mods of various subs (including r/pokemon, my most frequented one) leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth and makes me not want to engage with the site. The whole attitude the site owner(?) has about it is just disgusting, and if it's true he idolizes Musk, that's all the more reason to have nothing to do with it further.

So what to do with this extra time that I don't want to be productive and just want to type essays at strangers about my interests? I guess here's as good a place as any! It's my blog and I can put whatever I feel like on it. Some of you are probably following for that type of content anyway.

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So, to start, I guess I'll explain my current video gaming schedule. Starting the month before Pokemon Scarlet and Violet released, I decided to change up my video gaming habits. I had previously had a schedule where I played different games according to the day of the week. This resulted in me not making a ton of progress on some games and kinda feeling discouraged with how long it was taking.

The month before Scarlet/Violet came out, I went into my customary no-main-series-Pokemon-for-a-month period, and decided that I would instead play Animal Crossing: Wild World and only Animal Crossing: Wild World during that time-frame. And you know what? It was great! It was both relaxing and fairly motivating since I knew I had only a certain amount of time with it before I put it away again.

Scarlet/Violet released, and I extended that idea. I even wrote some blog posts here while I was... avoiding spoilers on Reddit... I had a schedule to get through the game (Gyms only on Wednesdays and Saturdays, one plot event max per day) and once I hit the postgame, I had one month to do whatever I wanted before putting the game down for the moment. That postgame month, again, was amazing. Just some guilt-free gameplay of doing whatever I felt like at the moment. Motivation to get the Pokedex done (I did so) and then try some other things. I didn't get everything I tried to do done, but I did a good variety of things and had a good time.

After that, I went on an alternating two-week, one-month schedule for different games. Two weeks on something chill, like Animal Crossing, followed by one month of an actual game, like Breath of the Wild. Alternating between a set of Pokemon games and non-Pokemon games.

And that's a great schedule for games I'm good with playing a bit, taking a break from, and getting back to. But what about heavily story-based games or ones I haven't beaten before? I'm not playing multiple hours a day, so even a month isn't always enough to finish!

Well, enter my new schedule: play for two weeks, check to see if I'm still having fun or if I accomplished what I intended to accomplish, if I'm not done and I'm still having fun continue, otherwise move on.

When Pokemon HOME became compatible with Scarlet/Violet, I felt strongly about transferring everything I could in, so I took a two-week timeframe to do so. My initial goal was to get everything breedable into Scarlet, I accomplished that, and then I moved on to trying to get extra Legendaries. I speedran Shield to get what I could out of a new playthrough and then ran out of time. That's okay - I'll finish later. Because I accomplished my initial mission and I have other games to play. This excursion was interrupting a different game I was (and am) trying to get through. One that I'll start a new section for below.

Also just to put it somewhere: I'm tracking my games on HowLongToBeat now. Here's my profile. (I don't have the time on Zelda because I'm going to use the Switch menu's time at the end)

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My current game is The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion. Yes, you read that right. I'm not being silly with the name of the Zelda game (I already posted about that earlier anyway). I'm playing Tears of the Kingdom as well, but it's not my main game at the moment.

And I just have so many feelings about TLOH: AToV. (If you don't want spoilers for it, stop now because I am not holding back.)

I first played it as a young teen. I got to the end but never actually beat the final boss. But it stuck with me. I don't remember much of the plot other than two very powerful, very spoilery scenes.

It's so weird going through it how much and how little I remember. Like the entire plot is about not-Catholics vs. not-Satanists (and the not-Catholics aren't always good) and I didn't remember that at all. But I did remember bits and pieces, particularly out-of-context bits about certain characters. (spoilers start now) Like there's this black-haired girl I saw and immediately went "missing sister! :O" But she's not actually Avin's missing sister, but another character's. A character I hadn't met at that moment. There's another guy I just met and immediately went "oh, I like him! :)" and I still don't remember why he sticks out so much since he doesn't seem that much more important than other characters I forgot about completely.

And the two things I did come in remembering (really, really spoilers now) involve Mile dying halfway through and turning up again at the end of the game as a dark mage, so everything he does is just. . . I'm paying so much more attention to him and he's like, the perfect healer. He's functionally the healer in that he's the party member who's always with you that has healing spells, but he's also such a healer in the story, too. He cheers up Avin when they were kids, being a friend to a traumatized boy who just got separated from his beloved sister. He gives up his wish to help Avin out. He goes with Avin on the dangerous journey when he has no personal stake other than to see his friend succeed. He acts as a foil for Avin, who has a quick temper, calming down every tense situation, and even lying when it helps diffuse a situation. And then he dies.

I'm not there yet. I just remember the pool of blood and the shock I felt. I think I'm getting there soon, though. Because Avin just reunited with his sister and I don't remember that lasting long. (I didn't even recognize her portrait, unlike the Baron that I feel positively about for unknown reasons.)

It's just so good! And yet...

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Before I started the game back up, I was looking at the modern The Legend of Heroes games for Switch. I wondered if it was worth getting one of the more recent games. So I decided to check out the fandom and see if there were any tips for fans of the Gagharv Trilogy (which A Tear of Vermilion is in) getting into the newer games.

Uh. . . no. There aren't. Fans of the current series mostly have not played the Gagharv Trilogy and actually think they're kinda bad. Particularly the PSP versions (which is the only version that got translated to English and the version I have).

And it's funny, since when I see people say why you should play the Trails series (what the new games are considered), they say a lot of the same things that are accurate to the Gagharv games. One of the main gushes I've seen about the series is that random NPCs have lives that develop as the story develops - you'll meet the same characters again and again as you happen to travel the same places they do. And that happens in A Tear of Vermilion. There's this writer guy that you meet and tell your adventures to, and his agent will keep giving you books. There's a greedy merchant you keep running into and Avin keeps getting mad at him. And there's so much variety in character conversation - gain a new party member and talk to everyone in the village and they'll talk to/comment on the new party member. Every time a major event happens, you can go back around town to hear everyone's opinion on it. There's some secret books that characters will give you if you talk to them after certain plot events.

I'm guessing this is a Pokemon Sword/Shield situation where while the Gagharv Trilogy is good, the Trails series is so much better that the Gagharv Trilogy is bad in comparison. That's the only way I can make sense of it.

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Anyway, that was a lot and did not stick to one topic. But I just have a lot of thoughts right now. Here's Mile's official character portrait for making it through the whole thing:

[bloggingbrin]

Process ⏳ — Make games, not made games

While growing up there have been multiple times when I tried making games, but in reality I wanted to play games, not make them. On the notion that playing games is fun I thought that making the imaginary games is my head would be cool. The cool part was the end – the made product. It was not the process of making it.

Going to a game jam in 2018 and that was the first time I made a game and enjoyed the process of it. I didn’t do any coding, but I worked with other people, talked about the process that they were taking, I made some kinda shitty art and some kinda crap level design, I saw people play the game and got feedback on it. Likewise, I played other games and gave feedback. It was an absolute blast and I feel in love with the process. The act of making was the fun part.

There are people that say they want to make games, but they want made games – not to make them. It is easy to make an assumption that you want to make something when you dream of an artefact that does not (yet) exist. You want it to exist and the way for it to exist is by it being made. If you make it then you can make it exactly the way you want to make it. And that’s why I believe people can easily think that they want to make a game. Because they have an idea, they want that idea to become a reality.

I think this is quite a normal assumption to make, but it is definitely more common than I have expected. I’m attending the Games course at ITU in Copenhagen, a master’s degree about video games. I expected people here to be super enthusiastic about making games. Some are, but definitely not all. In their defence, this course is not just about making games but also games as a medium to study – imagine a literature course that’s both about analysing writings and writing them but for games.

But I digress, I recently watched an old interview with Derek Yu of Spelunky and a line struck me there where Derek said that he was always proactive about searching for communities that fit his creative interests. The solution to being surrounded with people that want made games is to find a community of people that want to make games.

Here are some cool communities I found of people making games: NYU Game Center Events DIscord – NYU’s games programme hosts playtesting sessions every Thursday where you can show up with your game or play some cool games Eggplant Discord – The Eggplant podcast is amazing and so is the community of people in their discord. While it’s not only about making games which I think is important as there are more places to find inspiration in Salman’s Discord – Salman is a really cool gamedev and there are a few people in his discord that share their progress and that always inspires me. Tiny place, sometimes it’s quiet but very wholesome people. Timeframe Discord – This is not really games related, it’s an animation and motion graphics that’s small enough to have a good sense of community and big enough to find fun people to chat with. Animation is a big part of games (topic for another post) so consider checking it out. Jam Discord – This is a discord I have, it’s just a place where I jam with people feel free to join it. Maybe we can jam together.

[bitcofun]

With the DOGE rate striking $0.10 today and BTC holding well around $20 - $21 k, all eyes are on cryptocurrency - what's the very best crypto to purchase now? Next Cryptocurrency to Explode Here's a rundown of what a few of the very best crypto traders on Twitter are tipping to be the next tokens to pump for those that lost out on the Dogecoin cost action. Shiba Inu As lots of would anticipate, as soon as DOGE makes a relocation, SHIB frequently follows. GCR (@GiganticRebirth), who has nearly 300 k fans throughout 2 Twitter accounts, published the other day from his 2nd account: 1 DOGE is presently worth about 8000 SHIB. This is approaching 2 year highs on this ratio, which has actually traditionally been quite sticky around ~5000 Fair chances we see a little bit of mean reversion on this set over the following month. Gigantic Rebirth is understood for properly forecasted the 2021 Bitcoin leading and the 2022 bearish market, then the collapse of UST and the previous Terra (LUNA) months prior to its crash, winning a well-known $10 million bet with Do Kwon. New Crypto Presales Once Dogecoin starts to combine, cash might drip down into low caps and brand name brand-new tokens set to release in the coming months. Our local CryptoNews expert has actually looked into 3 crypto presales running now. Dash 2 Trade Dash 2 Trade might attract traders searching for the next 10 x - 100 x as not just is its native token now in an early phase of its presale, the platform it is set to power is a brand-new crypto analytics toolset. D2T token can be bought at Dash2trade.com Calvaria A play to make video game with dream styles, Calvaria's native coin RIA is likewise on presale and its video game might be set to be the next Gods Unchained when it releases in 2023. RIA token can be purchased Calvaria.io IMPT Highlighted by both Jacob Bury and just recently by Crypto Ahoy, IMPT token has actually currently raised $11 million in its presale and intends to use blockchain innovation to the carbon balancing out market. IMPT token is on presale at impt.io Tamadoge Earlier this month brand-new crypto coin Tamadoge (TAMA) pumped nearly 2,000% from around $0.01 to a high of $0.197 Still with a low market cap of $24 million and now combining at assistance, TAMA might be one to see with its Doge meme style on top of included energy as the benefits token of an approaching NFT-based crypto video game. TAMA is noted on OKX exchange and presently trading at $0.023, up 1.5% today. SushiSwap We reported on DonAlt and Jim Talbot, 2 of the very best crypto traders and a lot of extensively followed account both publishing bullish SUSHI rate forecasts. Read more about that here A return to the perpetuity high for SUSHI ($23) would be over a 10 x relocation after its correction - presently trading at $1.7. ApeCoin Bored Ape NFTs have actually ended up being a popular meme of sorts and Yuga Labs, just recently valued at $5 billion, is not a business to fade. Many leading traders consisting of @HackermanAce anticipate the native currency of the Otherside metaverse, APE, to carry out well in the long term in spite of its current retracement. The ApeCoin cost will be back at its ATH ($28) after a 5.6 x move from its existing rate (around $5). Dogecoin Still Set to Pump? Bluntz ( @SmartContracter) likewise published today that ' if you missed out on $DOGE, you still have an opportunity to hop in $SHIB with those who will purchase it believing they missed out on DOGE'. Notably nevertheless, he does not believe DOGE is done right now. Back on October 4th, he published: Doge/btc has the most ridiculous looking high timeframe build-up going on, i have not seen something that appears like such tidy build-up like this in a very long time. i daresay reviewing this in a years time $doge will be a lot greater than $0.065 He contributed to that today, even with the Dogecoin cost over $0.10: ' The most significant threat that you deal with today is not having enough $DOGE'

Bluntz is understood for anticipating the 2018 Bitcoin bearish market bottom, 6 months prior to it was struck, as '$ 3,200 with a freedom of $200 either side'. He was around $40 off. A 10 x for Dogecoin from its present level would put DOGE at $1. Its present ATH is $0.74 countered in May 2021 when Elon Musk appeared on Saturday Night Live. While nobody can forecast precisely how high DOGE will go, cryptocurrencies will be getting a great deal of attention with veteran crypto advocate Elon Musk at the helm of Twitter. Read More

[voyagerstypewriter]

12/4 Sunday, December 4th, 2022.

It’s going to be a new year?? 2023? This shit really is different i remember being at home all alone on Christmas and New Years, “Here’s a ticket to do nothing” oh yes. I had a fun weekend though, and Rich has started to grow on me because more than I like to admit me and him have a lot in common yeah he may be goofy but life ain’t funny if you don’t have one. The crew from Canton was cool, its always to see some of the homies and reconnect as men and I feel like I have. The poison 2.0? I can confidently say I need to rest up on the whole no females, no relationship what am I doing when in reality I can do this when i want anytime. This weekend almost reassured me that if I wanted I could so when I chose not to I don’t need to think that I’m not enough I’m worried about my connections.

Milan, London, Germany, trying to find a good reason why I’m skipping my mom’s birthday vacation trip with our family… I said it best today though that these opportunities come and go and this may the one trip that changes things for me. “The Hot List” is still something on my mind. I am very excited and also super anxious its crazy to think all of what I built in New York is now behind and I’m staying in other countries. I still haven’t finished New York but these places that I will remember forever. The modeling is an incredible experience and to remember how much I wanted to be where I was last year. If I had to be honest, the biggest thing I’ve been chasing since leaving college is leaving behind whoever i was in the past and meeting all new people and allowing them to accept me for what I want now in life rather than what I was doing before and changed route. This trip realistically will allow me to do so as I’m not going to be going to castings every day I will be on stay and have to go explore, meet people, and find out what I like in life aside from my video games and sports because they will have different priorities.

I hope to continue to seek growth in life, my habits are the next focus in my life as I find what I have a tendency to do and what can save me time. If I have a habit that is harming my way of life then I can figure out how to make it convenient for me to do the right thing. An example right now for me is me playing video games. I know how long it takes for me to enjoy each game and now I factor that in when I could choose to be doing something else. Packing my bag for the gym, cleaning my room each night, out the cord by 11pm, I can continue to do these things while finding the best way to relax myself.

One thing I need to do is also acknowledge where I am missing some structure and character to my life. I’m really not set on what I’m going to do tomorrow morning, wake up go to equinox dumbo or go to the one where I can hoop I can do both. Gym before 12PM would be the best timeframe for me right and i can continue to go back in time until I’m back at 7AM to see what time I like the best.

Alright I want to watch Naruto before I sleep and I figured out what I’m doing tomorrow and that’s a start.