#random environment bg

[mhexart]

Warm up sketch

[parallaxabomination]

me every time I run into PATCHWORK's pieces that need to be lead, designed, directed, illustrated, cleaned up, composited, rendered, and uploaded by me

KO-FI CARRD

[sanguine-tenshi]

Bg3 has made me discover that I much prefer skill checks to dice rolls.

What do you mean you missed?! It was 98% WITH advantage!!

Ah, requirement 10 and I have a +15 there's no wa- CRITICAL FAILURE!?! What do you mean!?

How is your chance of a hit only 40%? The guy is petrified and you are close enough to lick him?!

[xitsensunmoon]

They are having a tea party!

Artfight mass attack on @silvermizuki @venomous-qwille @chocolateseeds @ilsole @just-a-drawing-bean @nebuladreamz @garbagechocolate @darkxsoulzyx @smoljeanius

Close ups!

Did this attack kill me? Yes. I think I spent more than 5 days on this. Will I do more artfight attacks? Also yes :)

Process under the cut because why not?..

I used a reference photo of some random theater play. And I will be honest that reference literally started it all because it was perfect for multiple characters. You can see similar poses and lighting as well lol

It's funny you can't see Razzle here because I was trying hard to hide from Bean that I included him ahahaha

Me struggling with bg... And all the characters too hahha. Have no idea why I chose such complicated designs together (well, some of them are complicated yeah)

Lined and ready... My friends were like "you aren't going to colour it, right?" Right.

I finished rendering bg first, surprisingly it took me only two hours and one layer haha. I see some mistakes already but was too eager to finally be done with it. Not gonna show bg separately because I don't want it to be used anywhere but here <3 Then I layed out all the colours(the fact that some details died with final render always kills me from inside slightly<//3) and shaded the characters. Each character took me from 20-40 minutes, depending on how complicated their design and lighting were. I was really determined to make every character look good in their own environment, like on close ups, but also to make the whole thing work as whole too.

Funny how ugly it looks without final effects too lmao. The final pic you have already saw. Thanks for attention<3

[ethosiab]

Did you get asked about the boatboys pirate au yet? That sounds so awesome 👀👀👀👀👀👀

hehe im glad you think so !

the AU concept essentially sprung from my sleep-deprived and angst-craving brain, on a flight to melbourne at 2am.

The basic idea is that Etho and Joel are pirates in a nautical fantasy world, with gods, magic, and fantastical sea beasts (+ Lizzie).

Etho and Joel end up with their souls linked after the two of them take and use cursed magic items 'belonging' to the god of souls, a vengeful being who feeds on the emotions and souls of mortals (it does not have a name yet-). So now they share injuries which means neither can satisfy the urge to strangle the other without causing themself harm. Sad! The items do give them powers though, which is a bonus. Yeah Joel might be seperated from his wife and has to deal with etho but he can also turn into a wolf so its not all bad.

Prior to meeting Joel, Etho was a loner, having already lost his soul in his shitty deal with the god (yet somehow still being alive... hmm... smells like a plot point....). He spent a fair while running around causing chaos (got involved with King Ren a while and worked for him, because despite being a pirate and generally against the idea of a monarchy he will not pass up the chance to get some extra coin if it suits him), but eventually settled down in a seaside pirate-ridden town because he was massively wanted after betraying the King's trust and also kind of tired. Here and there, he did the bidding of his god, which generally consisted of killing people (the god could just smite them but this is more interesting for it to watch). Etho's cursed item is a dagger that gives him the ability to go unnoticed when he's sneaking around places. If people are looking for him, their eyes gloss over him, if he's trying to be quiet he will literally not make a noise, and if he's picking someone's pocket his touch is feather light. Unlike Joel's amulet, there's nothing special about the dagger that gives him these powers, it just grants whatever the user would find coolest or most useful. Etho avoids using the dagger in combat for... reasons, and instead opts to use an arsenal of other knives he has.

Before Joel had his soul split in two (because note that difference, Etho was running around soulless for a decade before this somehow) with one half shoved in Etho's glass eye, Joel was a pirate captain with a crew consisting of Jimmy and probably some other empires people, or just random bg characters. Joel was probably one of the most dangerous pirates to encounter out there, not because of his ships firepower (though they've got a lot of that), but because he somehow always had the environment on his side. (Almost like the Ocean Goddess was his wife... or something...)

Most of the plot revolves around them being sent on a long errand by the soul god to find one of its other 'followers' that it lost track of. They end up putting together a shabby crew, meeting character's from their pasts, and desperately seeking a solution to the soul-linked issue that doesn't end up with both of them dead.

[ares3d]

INFLATED SQUARE SHADES - Out now on my Patreon!🎈

-  New Original Mesh (In Game & Blender Edition for easy appending)

- Unisex Sunglasses (Compatible with Female & Male sims)

- Specular map for interaction with in world environment (Makes it shine!)

- HQ/BG Compatible

- Custom Thumbnail

- Disabled for Random

Thanks so much for your support, and hope you enjoy!

DOWNLOAD (PATREON EARLY ACCESS)

INSTAGRAM / PATREON

CC Finds: @xmiramira @afrosimtricsims @love4sims4 @sims4customcontent @spring4sims @wcifsareclosed @emilyccfinds

[cryptidcryptic]

Oc interactions🫀

Thank you for the tag @zekeen 🥹 you are the sweetest human ever 🌸💞🌸

My oc

Bo (Botany before they forgot it with brain damage), a one of the bhaalspawn, a pink bubblegum creature who looks entirely unnatural despite being a Druid. Even their body is and sex changes after each wildshape, everything is changeable with them. Honestly their father pretty much just hit random on the character creature this time.

Bo, bhaalspawn they are, came about much the same way as most other spawn. Big daddy B thought the blood of the spawns was getting a little diluted, and turned to his most zealous zealot.

A Tiefling that came from an isolated shadow Druid community. The best place to raise a ruthless spawn.

His gore would grow within her, withering her womb and mind in the process. Like a parasite Bo almost burst out of the women’s body.

She survived just long enough to offer worship to her gods newest spawn. After the death of the one that carried them, their childhood was pure shit.

No one claimed them, they were essentially abandoned to the will of nature, and to everyone’s suprise. Survived. Mostly on the flesh of the dead body of their womb holder.

(And one butler that may have helped here and there, always making sure Bo knew they were worth more then what they had here. Little gifts delivered at opportune moments to capture a forgotten child’s attention. Literally the same way the gangs do it)

When the other shadow druids started seeing a bright pink Tiefling child watching them from the shadows they became increasingly concerned.

The older Bo grew the more than concern grew too. After years of surviving in the harsh environment just by trial and error. Was eventually taken into the one ophenage they had, where Bo was actually taught how to wildshape, read and everything they should have already been taught.

Literally the only good adult was the head of the openage. The only real parent Bo ever knew. He belief in the shadow Druid ideology had falter as she grew older. No longer having it in her heart to abandon the children of this place. She took them in and raised them.

Having to keep a detached mask on in public. They saw her as ‘fighting the natural order’ and believed if nature would kill the forgotten children then it should.

After Bo’s wild-shapes turned out monsteroud and dark and the whole eating their mother to survive thing the rest of the village figured out Bo’s unnatural disposition easily and went to murder them in the night, killing the head of the ophenage in the pcrocess.

Bo woke up before they finished the job, ended them all and lied to the other children convincing them the adults had been coming for all of them.

They had a full child uprising to merk them all. After that the group settled into life as the new heads of the shadow Druid community in that area, tearing up villages, a never ending ramage of animals balldozing whatecer village was in there way.

All the while Bo was talking to their favourite butler. After a necessary amount death and suffering. Earned their way to the head of the temple.

Baby honed them manipulation skills into a fierce charismatic Druid leader. So much so they convinced their group of shadow Druids to leave the forest and settle in the sewers of bg. With only a promise of killing every human in the world so it could return to nature.

Personality wise, before the brain damage: a charismatic leader with a mean temper but surprisingly loyal to those deemed important. Especially other likeminded cretins.

After, Bo still has the temper but it’s subdued by the constant confusion and muddled thoughts. Not really much of the manipulative type anymore, it takes too much energy to pull that off with their fractured mind.

But they are able to pull off plans sometimes. they’re still on the ride or die seat, in fact, far more loyal now than before. And miles more honest.

Is usually very much a sit in the woods and be one with nature in silence way.

Your oc

Kat(aigyda)'s mother was a tiefling and his father a half-drow from Baldur's Gate lower city. So, bad mix to make good first impressions on most people in the city. He was abandoned to an orphanage by his father shortly after his mother died, as he grew up, he figured out he was a sorcerer and was capable of using magic naturally, particularly stormy and psychic ones. He grew up lonely and often ostracized, therefore he holds a grudge against people too hasty to judge him. In order to get by, he became a criminal, he learned how to manipulate people when needed, also his talents in magic allowed him to work for the guild.

For his personality, he's seemingly friendly and polite to people. He presents himself as an assertive person but is actually filled with self-doubt. He's a bit lazy, and sleeps a lot. He may be good on surface level relationships but struggles with allowing people to get close enough to really know him.

Interaction

Bo and Tieflings are already a match in heaven, anyone who can understand infernal is gonna have a better time making friends with the feral bubble gum piece.

Tho to be honest, if this was before the brain damage Bo might be able to sniff out that deep seated security and use it to kinda forge a deeper bond to which they could use him to further their own goals.

B u t After the brain damage,definitely not! Although it is harder to get to know them now, a lot more barriers and a lot more genuine concern about their own inability to protect themselves with how fractured their mind is but if they could both get past eachothers barriers I think they’d absolutely get along, especially as a fellow somewhat lazy adventurer.

Bo might not be as good at the surface level small talk stuff but if they could be genuinely real with each-other, and Bo could catch a glimpse of his honest self. Although they would probably speak in grunts at first, then a respect could be forged. Bo respects anyone who’s good at the art of manslaughter and criminal activity.

And someone who can appreciate a good nap, so three points in favour of them! At least from Bo’s side.

Tagging

@venranae 💞✨💞 @melonkka @anyone else who’s like to that I fprgotB

[leefpot]

i am going to become a environment illustrator specifically so i can be that bitch that puts homestuck references in the bg of random cartoons.

[makobreak]

hey stranger, sorry for the random message, but I wanted to say - your blog on desktop looks so cool! really love the design 💙 take care, and I hope you have a great day!

omg!!thank you so much!<33

the bg image is by Mark Ferrari, he makes some sick ass pixel environments

and the theme is called win2k !

[legitairdropcrypto]

AVOCADO AIRDROP

Reward 5,000 $AVO BG Each For 200 Random Winner's

↪️𝗝𝗢𝗜𝗡 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘:

🔸Complete All Task

🔸Enter BSC Address

🔸Done

[dokidokitsuna]

Spoiler-FULL Reactions to RWBY Arrowfell~

The thrilling sequel to this post. Most of my emotional investment has already faded by now (as is usually the case with RWBY media...) but, since I said I was gonna do this and I already made notes, why not?

Environments and NPCS -Not much to see in this game...the environments look cute in isolation, but as a gameplay element they’re just too simple (and repetitive...) to be immersive. Especially in Mantle and Atlas-- random stacks of ‘techno-blocks’ are not a real setting and they don’t feel like one. :/

-I just wish it could’ve had a stronger atmosphere...the main show already tends to ruin the little atmosphere it does create with baffling character placement and lackluster/absent color grading (seriously, the BG artists deserve better). And unfortunately it seems like the game just...copied that...

-The new NPCs were cute. A little silly, but cute; much more interesting and better for worldbuilding than the background characters in the show.  And of course the NPCs based on existing characters (Penny, Qrow, Pietro) were nice too. Even the Ace-Ops were kinda fun (Vine Zeki gained a personality trait! o_O)

-I liked how the quests tended to interweave together, like you’d complete one quest and get an item required to complete another quest as a reward-- which incentivizes you to talk to more people if you’re having trouble finding something on your own. It’s smart gameplay design like that that made me rate the game a C+; despite its simplicity you can tell it was made by professionals.

Enemies and Boss Fights -Yeah, the clone-enemies in the Atlas/Mantle portions are pretty embarrassing, but I think the selection of Grimm was nice. They all had different strengths and weaknesses and attack patterns for you to learn to deal with; you certainly can’t say they were lazily implemented. Even the clone-enemies at least invited unique strategies...I know for a fact that redheaded “BANG BANG BANG~” girl was specifically designed to be a rage-quit obstacle, and I love that for her. ^^

-The boss fights were pretty good too; nice selection of attack patterns and usage of space (especially for BRIR). Bram Thornmane wasn’t much of a final boss, all things considered, but at least he had something creative going on with the arrow patterns; there’s a little element of challenge there. Nothing super fun for any sort of mature gamer (even a casual one like myself), but I can see that being engaging for, like, a 5th grader. ^^; I guess.

-BTW: a lot of people in the comments of the release trailer remarked that the combat looks EXTREMELY lackluster for a RWBY game, like a ‘step down from Grimm Eclipse’...and although I do think Arrowfell does an okay job of being the type of game that it is, I also kinda have to agree with those people.^^; I’ve found more action-packed platformers browsing for Flash games in 2008...

Even just more expressive FX animation could have helped (a combo mechanic would’ve worked WONDERS); the act of fighting feels more like a means to an end than something the devs really want you to focus on and enjoy. It’s been said many times that RWBY no longer remembers why most of its fans were originally drawn to it-- unique, creative fight scenes that told stories about their characters through high-intensity action-- and that’s on full display here.

And on that note: if you just want to make a cheap RWBY game, a sidescrolling brawler against hordes of Grimm sprites, or even a simple PVP (put that bloated character roster to good use...) would be a much better fit for the franchise than even a REALLY GOOD version of Arrowfell. :T Just sayin’.

Plot and Characters -The moment we’ve all been waiting for~ ^^ *cracks knuckles*

-In brief: the plot sucks and the plot-relevant characters also suck. :/ WayForward at least did a good job building the game despite clearly not caring; as usual RT did not care about the writing AND did not do a good job. I went into it expecting the plot to be EVEN LESS interesting than those of the show, and I was STILL disappointed...

-Small things first: the repeated “I guess we’re doing this now” apathetic sarcasm from Team RWBY during the cutscenes was kind of...irritating, actually. Especially after we had to watch RWB sit around watching the plot go by for half of Volume 8...it’s bad enough when the audience starts to feel like the protagonists have no real investment in the plot (which has been a thing since V5...); it’s a whole new level of bad when the protagonists themselves all but admit it right to our faces. We’re supposed to assume that team RWBY is still here because ‘it’s the right thing to do’; they ‘don’t [want to] let anyone else die’...but more and more of their chances to actually portray that type of righteous character onscreen keep getting replaced by quirky, disinterested snark or pointless one-liners. And I don’t think RT realizes that if that’s all we’re getting...then the result is a story about characters who have no reason to be in it and don’t even want to. :/

-Re: Fifestone-- I’ve already said much more than I planned to say about him (through responding to those asks, if you remember ^^;) but my original note was as follows: in this day and age when workers’ rights are finally making a long-overdue comeback in the public consciousness, and ESPECIALLY considering the way RT treats its own employees, deciding you need an unnecessarily evil union leader in your fictional story is disgusting, vile and morally reprehensible. I used to think RT’s leadership was just ‘childish-bad’...y’know, selfishness and an unwillingness to compromise or improve making life hell for everyone else. But something like this feels more like ‘evil-bad’-- i.e. deciding that the hell you’re putting other people through is necessary, enough to justify and actively maintain through propaganda/manipulation. I’d...really hate to see RT go down that road. :[

-Let’s end on a lighter note by talking about Bram Thornmane: probably the most pathetic antagonist in the entire franchise. ^^;;; When I heard him admit that he seriously did ALL that just because he wanted to join the Ace-Ops (THE ACE OPS??? THE ACE OPS?!?!!!! o_O) I literally sat at my desk at work and laughed out loud, for like 5 minutes. ^^;

Seriously, though, it’s SO bad...I thought things couldn’t get any worse than Adam ‘my girlfriend left me’ Taurus, but here we are. And at least Adam looked cool (and his character assassination was absolutely hilarious; 50% of the reason I love him is because I spent Volumes 4 through 6 laughing at him constantly XD).

Thornmane, on the other hand, is a nothing character. No cool design, no interesting personality traits, no noteworthy connections to any substantial characters. I don’t even know what his semblance is (he mentions it during his boss fight, so I assume it’s in the game somewhere...does anyone know??).

So yeah, “I’m gonna steal unique technology and kill thousands of people to maybe hopefully make Ironwood look bad because he wouldn’t let me in the special club” is just the icing on the nothing-cake. Even a basic “I wanna take over the world” motivation would be better; it would at least make his actions feel justified...as it is, he just chose the most effortful, overly-convoluted way possible to express his anger over getting passed up for a team of huntsmen SO elite and SO special and perfect that they got washed by four newbie huntresses in 5 minutes. T_T Wowza. Now there’s an experience worth spending 30 bucks and 4 hours of your time...

-Easy Thornmane fix: Actually USE Arrowfell. They mentioned that Arrowfell was like an abandoned laboratory full of never-before-seen technology too dangerous to release to the world...USE that. If Thornmane wants to make Ironwood look bad, let him start handing this stuff out like candy to any thug on the street, and get people speculating about why such terrible weapons were even being made, and demanding that the General take responsibility (insert retroactive foreshadowing for his turn to the dark side in V8 here). Let him convince BRIR, the ‘guardians of Arrowfell’ (whatever that means) that this technology needs to be shared with the public to sort of ‘even the playing field’, let the people take back power from the tyrannical Atlas elites (insert morally-gray actually class-conscious Fifestone character here). Let him hoard some of the more frightening weapons for himself, and try to overthrow Ironwood (insert actually necessary Lt. Harper character here) and assume leadership of the Atlas military, to put himself in the position of power he always wanted. 

THIS STUFF IS NOT HARD GUYS; I came up with that in like 10 minutes! >_< And if I spent the amount of time you should spend on something you expect your fans to pay actual money for, I could do a lot better...

[paperbooart]

[kimhortons]

5,12, 15 ❤️

what made you start your blog? — uso kasi noon e, tsaka parang friendster na may theme tapos may bg music pa haha. tinry ko lang din, halos kasabayan ng Facebook. nung una puro random post lang kaya di rin ako naging active, then around late 2010 i found this blog (umaasaparin) siya pinaka unang blog na finollow ko na nag jojournal dito, so nainspire ako ginawa ko rin parang online diary. dun na nag start lahat.

what’s some good advice you want to share? — to our young generations (waw parang ang tanda na haha) learn to know your priorities, especially when it comes to money, career and time with family. ito kasi yung madalas na what ifs ko e. masyado kasi ako naging laidback noon at naging kampante na anjan naman yung magulang ko kaya okay lang mag walwal dito luho doon, barkada dito, barkada doon. okay lang naman mag enjoy habang bata pa pero wag kalimutan yung mga importanteng bagay. ganoin :)

what do you think of when you hear the word “home”? — a peaceful and stress free environment with the person you love.

[mattdcblog]

Booster gold for the character ask!

Favorite thing:

Outside of himself in terms of inter-connectivity, you really can't go wrong with this character. Hes EVERYWHERE, and he's designed to be that way. Everything about his backstory ties him to places and people within the DC universe. In terms of the character himself though, one of my favorite aspects of him is how utterly, disastrously human he is. I've talked about Booster at length in MANY other posts so I'll try to wane poetic here, and just keep it at: he's an underdog who never seems to win, and that makes the small victories that much greater.

Least favorite:

We don't know anything about the time period he comes from, beyond "its a bit like modern day Gotham, but worse somehow." What was growing up there like? What makes it different from our present? How did growing up in that environment affect him? What happened to make superheroes not as well known? ARE WE EVER GONNA TOUCH ON THE WHOLE "NUCLEAR WAR THAT CAUSED WHOLE CENTURIES OF HISTORY TO BE LOST," DAN?!

Favorite line:

[ID: Booster says, "Tonight's your night, you handsome cheetah." He looks at a picture in his yearbook of him in an orange crop top football uniform. His number is 5, and he's wearing a hat with a long feather in it. The text is cut off, but reads, "North Gotham Swashbucklers Class of 2462." /End ID.]

Seriously go read this its wild

There are more iconic lines of course but this one i actively quote jxnfndmf

brOTP:

Ted, Trixie, Fire, Chel (although is it really a brotp if you're related?) I guess you could say Scott as well but imo he's more Ted's friend than boosters.

OTP:

Its Ted, for the same reasons I listed on my blue beetle answer. Them being friends was a complete coincidence and in any other situation wouldn't make a lick of sense, and yet, somehow, it endures.

nOTP:

Harley, Godiva. Seriously what WERE those???

random HC:

"He thinks in Esperanto" was a throw away line but I really like it regardless. Also I think him having no knowledge of ordinary things is hilarious. He can tell you the (mostly) complete history of a landmark, but have absolutely no clue where it's located. Also I think he needs a doppelganger thats just incredibly Canadian because I still don't know if that was a real admission from the n52 days but my WORD is it funny.

unpopular opinion:

I miss mindancer, I think she could be a really good rogue if she was developed right. Also Chel! WHERE IS CHEL!!!!

Song:

Too Much Time On My Hands by Styx. I've got a whole playlist if you're interested, too.

Fav pic:

[ID: the cover of Justice League America #37. Booster is holding a hand out towards the viewer, a surprised look on his face. Fire stands behind him, fearfully clutching his chest. Behind them, Beetle is cowering in Ice's arms. A wall of grey paneling is behind them, with an electronic sign reading "intruder alert." /End ID.]

A friend once said that BG had bimbo lips in this picture and it stuck with me so vividly that not only do I ALSO now think that every time I see this pic, I always make sure when I'm drawing BG to "remember to give him the bimbo lips." Also I'm just really partial to Hughes' art of BG in general.

[felassan]

Dragon Age development insights from David Gaider - PART 3

This information came from DG on a recent SummerfallStudios Twitch stream where he gave developer commentary while Liam Esler continued playing DAO from where they had left off in Part 1 and Part 2. I transcribed it in case there’s anyone who can’t watch the stream (for example due to connection/tech limitations, data, time constraints, personal accessibility reasons, etc). A lot of it is centered on DAO, but there’s also insights into other parts of the franchise. Some of it is info which is known having been put out there in the past, and some of it is new. There’s a bit of overlap or repetition with topics covered in Parts 1 and 2. This post leaps from topic to topic as it’s a transcript of a conversational format. It’s under a cut due to length.

The stream can currently be watched back here. Next week LE will be streaming a different DAO playthrough with commentary from another guest. Two weeks from now LE and DG will return to continue this playthrough for another stream session like this one.

(Part 4, Part 5, Part 6)

[wording and opinions DG’s, occasionally LE’s; paraphrased]

The Battle of Ostagar cutscene is one of the first big cutscenes that got made during production. When it was shown to the team for the first time, it was one of those moments where DG felt like “Awesome, this is a game!” Context: During the development of a game it feels more like doing a series of disconnected tasks and assets rather than working on a game, so seeing stuff come together at times like this is rad. The first time it was shown, it had temporary placeholder voiceacting.

Pathfinding is always a nightmare to do, especially in games which involve a party of NPCs. As soon as other characters are involved alongside the PC, it’s exponentially more difficult and takes up a lot more resources. The PC is the most complex thing going on visually on-screen, with so many moving pieces, and in party-based games you have four [etc] of them. So, some critique that’s made of the DA games in regards to this subject which compares it to games like The Witcher doesn’t really make sense, as The Witcher has a solo PC.

‘Weird mage hats’ didn’t really become a trademark ‘DA thing’ akin to their place of random pieces of cheese around the world until later games. For DAO, someone probably asked the artists to create “mage helmets”. Mage hats actually looked better in the concept art than they did in-game. What happened was that they were already modelled and then they didn’t have time to re-do them.

DAO was made for PC first. The plan from the get-go though was that it would be an all-platform release (PC/360/PS3). Games like these are always made for the “lowest common denominator” from among the various platforms that they’re being planned to release for. Games have to be made for the most stringent/basic of the platforms because this makes for less conversion rate. At the time of DAO’s development, the PS3 was getting weak graphically and getting old, and this was quite a limitation: “Why do we have to limit [crowds?] because of this one platform?” “Well, we just gotta”. The original models were a bit too detailed. Later on, the artists started making models that had lower polycounts that they could put in a bit more of. DA was never really focused on making environments realistic in an ambient manner (making environments less “gamey” and more lived in, like having crowded places). They could have put more emphasis there but this would have led to a resources issue. Ambience basically wasn’t a high priority. As a writer DG isn’t keen on this decision and naturally he wanted the world to look more realistic, but he noted that it’s easy for him to say this when this would be work that he didn’t have to do personally.

During DAO development, they might have just had a dev sphere originally that was called “tech design”. DG thinks this was later broken up into systems design, combat design and maybe level design. Level designers are the people that are the implementers of the plot. Narrative design is a branch of the level design spoke. System designers respond to requests from lead designers. Narrative designers and writers don’t interact with system designers much unless they have to. As an example of interaction here, system designers might come to writers and say, “Alright, so we’re doing combat, what are the sorts of things a mage can do in this world?” The writers would be like “Ok, these are the sorts of spells we imagined.” The system designers might then come back with “Ok, that fulfills 2 of the 10 things we need mages to be able to do in combat. Is it possible that mages could do [this]?” Sometimes it is, and other times it would be like “No, that’s really outside of the lore”. Still, sometimes said original-lore-breaking things would be added to the game a week later due to necessity and DG would be like “Oh ok”. This kind of stuff is an insight into how some aspects of the lore came to be or changed over time during development.

The system designers on DAO got a better idea of what could be done and what could not be done according to the lore as things went on. At first, DG had to keep telling them things like “It’s not that big a deal, but in the lore mages can’t teleport. Instant teleportation isn’t possible in the world”. The system designers needed a spell where someone could get from spot A to spot B really fast on the battlefield. DG said that that’s fine in itself, “have them turn into a cloud of bees or have a light that moves between the two places. We can use magic as a transition or as a speed thing, but what is against the lore is instant teleportation, to traverse distance like that”. At first the system designers weren’t on board with it, but they got on board with it later. 

This sort of thing doesn’t just depend on the system designers. It also depends on what the tech artists are willing to do. Sometimes a certain request made of them was too hard and they said they weren’t able to do it. Other times it was a matter of DG not communicating the request properly, or the tech artists had already done the work and so throwing out all their work to re-do it just because he didn’t communicate clearly wouldn’t have been cool. So sometimes the originally planned lore got contravened, and sometimes things other parts of the team implemented in the game became the new lore.

LE made an insightful observation at this point: You can’t think of game development as a cohesive series of decisions that everyone on the team is involved in. This simple isn’t how it works at all, especially on large complex projects. There are processes at some studios for decision-making, but most of the time, a bunch of decisions get made by system designers. Others get made by level designers, still others by narrative designers. Situations then arise where someone notices a certain decision and that that decision and another one contradict each other. This is where conflict arises and a solution has to be negotiated. This is why often in games we get elements in the end product that are dissonant, because it was discovered too late or by the time it was realized, it was too difficult to change. It’s actually a miracle that on a game of DAO’s depth and scope that all these things largely hold together. [My note: With this insight and the context below on documentation, it makes sense how BW sometimes appear to ‘forget aspects of their own lore’ or end up contradicting parts of the lore in different parts of the franchise]

Sometimes such things would be noticed in time and DG would go and say, “Can we not do that or do something else instead?” and the relevant parties would be totally accommodating and do it (depending on how much time they had or how much time it would take to remedy). Sometimes this worked out and sometimes it didn’t. For the most part, everyone wants to work together. DG couldn’t be involved in every aspect of systems design “like some kind of All-Watchful eye of lore”, so he had to rely on the people who were there knowing enough from the documentation. Not everybody reads every document however. There was so much documentation even back during DAO. DG can only imagine the sheer amount of world/lore documentation that now exists now in the run-up to DA4; he said he thinks that nobody at this point on the current team has read it all, as editor/lore-wrangler Ben Gelinas isn’t with BW anymore. Lots of legacy documentation accumulated very quickly. Sometimes, the old document would still be there. Over time it became harder for people to discern which was the most recent version of a particular document. Sometimes people didn’t update the relevant documentation after changing things. Lore documentation was particularly bad for this issue. BG wrangled all the documentation and created an internal reference wiki (essentially acting as a lorekeeper). He was constantly coming in and picking DG’s brain to clarify conflicting aspects or obtain the correct, in-date information etc (“Good on him”).

DAO was the first time DG was involved in voice-recording. Prior to that he was only on the receiving end, in that the recordings would come in and he’d review them as they did so. DAO is when BW set up their own VO department and where Caroline Livingstone came on. CL wanted DG and Mike Laidlaw to be more involved in the casting process. As a result, the writers then were to write casting scripts: like, ‘For Morrigan, can you write a 1 page script that goes through 3 big emotions? [like regular talking for a bit, then here’s a bit of heightened emotion such as anger, then here’s a part where they’re being funny if they were a comedic character] These scripts had to be kept short so that the recording that was made from it wouldn’t be more than 30-40 seconds in length.

For the initial VA sessions, DG and CL flew down to Technicolor studioin LA and they had all the major castmembers there (later on, recording sessions were done a lot more remotely; this became easier as BW’s setup got more sophisticated). The idea was that they would both be present live in-person for the first 2 or 3 sessions to help each VA find their ‘voice’, and for DG at the first session to sit down with each VA and walk them through who their character was, what DA was about, and help them figure out how their character should talk. Claudia Black was the first of these sessions and he was “a wreck” going into that one. It got easier after that however. CL gave directions into the soundproof booth and DG was present to give notes on things like pronunciation or the intentions behind some lines. He says he learned everything he now knows about VO direction from CL. The things and tricks CL can do to get a performance out of an actor are amazing. Sometimes an actor would get a bit fixated or stuck on a particular way of delivering a line. CL had atrick to help them past this; “I want you to clear your mind, and I want you to give me a version of this line that’s more yellow”. The idea is that they just had to break out of where they had been stuck in that mindset, and the thing was that it doesn’t matter what “yellow” meant, but what was important was what “yellow” meant to the actor. They could then take that new varied delivery and progress from there.

Alistair’s dialogue when the PC talks to Flemeth outside her hut was the first complex conversation DG wrote for DAO. It was the first one that had a lot of branching and fiddling to it. The hardest conversations to write are the ones with a lot of exposition, and when they do have exposition still making this interesting and natural. At this point in the game, the player has no agency, just reactivity. The devs talked a lot about this subject when they wrote the origin stories. Some of the stories allow the player to initially say no and refuse to join the Wardens, but you always end up being railroaded (the devs here ended up doing a form of the trope ‘But Thou Must!’). Do you give the player the option to say no? Is it important to allow them that option? At some point, writers have to accept that the player has some level of buy-in and is game to play. They discussed a lot where they sat on this and what is agency. “Maybe don’t worry about offering the player every possible choice, but about having reactivity.”

Loghain wasn’t okay with letting Cailan die. He didn’t sit and angst about it openly where the player could see, and once the decision had been made, it being Loghain, it was Made and Had To Be Done (he felt that it was something that had to happen). But he didn’t kill the son of the woman he’d once loved dearly as a random off-handed thing.

The Solas twist was planned from the beginning, from the DAO dev days. Such big things/broad strokes have stayed the same. However, some of the details have changed or been added along the way. They didn’t know for instance that Solas was going to be a companion; that was something they came up with when they were planning DAI. Flemeth’s true identity has never changed.

Zevran says Rinna was an elf, but WoT says she was a bastard child of a noble in line for the Antivan throne (the Antivan royal family being human). When asked if this was an oversight, DG said yes she was a bastard, but she may have been really far down the line of succession, i.e. technically in line, but would probably never have been allowed to take the throne in practise had that scenario ever actually arisen.

DA was maybe inspired a bit/some by ASOIAF. This was way before it was on TV of course. DG at the time had read the first book or so. He liked the fact that it was a fantasy setting but low-magic, and was about the people in the world and their politics rather than magic, prophecy and other high fantasy stuff.

It was only by DAI that the system designers decided that it was okay to think of banter as an “activity that players engaged in”. In previous games, the devs had inadvertently managed to ‘train’ players to immediately stop when companion banter fires so that they could hear it all (because if you do something else, it gets cut off). When the level designers put together the spaces, they accounted for what players would be doing i.e. how much time between combat. They didn’t however account for like “You’re travelling down this hall and there’s a banter for half of that space. This is an activity, so it’s okay not to put anything in there”. This is how the inadvertent training happened, when originally banters were supposed to be a thing that ran as you move around the world (as opposed to stopping and standing still). 

When asked if the Blight resulted from the creation of the Veil or pre-dates it: “I think you’ll probably have to wait on the game[s] for that answer, if it ever explains it”. He was also asked whether Arlathan is the Golden City. He won’t answer such questions naturally because they are “DeepLooooooore™~~ ♫”.

DG isn’t sure that he will play DA4 when it comes out. It’s not that PW and the team won’t do a good job, they will, it’s just that when DG plays RPGs he has an analytical mindset going on and finds it difficult to slip into the game and just enjoy. For DA4, as he was previously so involved in DA, there’ll naturally probably be an extra level of that with feeling like “What would I have done [for particular parts of the game’s design]?”. Alternatively he might instead feel like “Wow, this is awesome, here’s a game I would have made but didn’t have to do any work on!” DG stressed that it’s important to him to be fair about the work of his former colleagues - he wouldn’t want to come out and be like “I wouldn’t have made [this or that] choice”. He also noted that just because something might be a call he personally wouldn’t have implemented in the game, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad call. There are people out there where if DG intimated at all that there was an aspect of DA4 that he wasn’t keen on, he’s worried that they would pounce on it and use it as ammunition against the current team (who are his friends that he really cares about and wants to do well). He walked away from DA voluntarily and is happy his game will continue on. PW popped by in chat at this point and agreed that it’s definitely hard to play something that you used to work on.

Other assorted tidbits:

DG really opposed the part at the Battle of Ostagar where mabari are set to charge the darkspawn horde - “That’s not how you would use dogs [in war]”

There was supposed to be a cutscene where Flemeth rescues the HoF and Alistair from the top of the Tower of Ishal in her dragon-form. This was cut. DG remembered being angry about this like “nobody is gonna buy that you fall unconscious and then wake up in the hut totally rescued. [...] I guess I’m not always right”

When DG went to Beamdog there was a period where they thought about making a Baldur’s Gate 3. They put together a pitch and had a long series of discussions contemplating things like “What do we need from BG3? What do we expect it to have in order to have the BG name? What is needed and not needed to connect to from the previous games?”

DG isn’t sure who designed the DAO inventory system

PW in chat recalled a game writer from another company who was really ragging on DAI on the Christmas Day after release

Narrative designer and system designer are very different positions/roles with very different responsibilities

Simon Templeton as Loghain did all his voicework stuff in one take, which was very impressive

It would have been the marketing department that chose 30 Seconds To Mars for music. DA was really good at choosing up-and-coming acts for this that weren’t huge when they used their songs, but became huge afterwards

During work on Baldur’s Gate 2 was the most DG has ever crunched. He slept in the office a few times

“As soon as you get both Alistair and Morrigan in the party, that’s when it’s like ahh yes, this is a BioWare game”

Were Flemeth and Morrigan’s interactions with each other and the PC when Morrigan is being told to leave the Wilds and go with the Hero an act, considering that Morrigan did know about the OGB plan? No. That was The Plan, but said plan wasn’t like “Ok, she’s going to leave Right Now”

The elves and the inversion of the traditional elven trope are DG’s favorite part of the world/world-building

One of the original intentions for DAO was to make it so that the player wouldn’t need a healer in the party, or that there would be different kinds of healing, or that healing itself wouldn’t be a thing, but this just didn’t work out

The Imperial Highway used to be a really important part of the lore but it kind of got forgotten a bit

It’s kinda funny that after release some players expressed that Corinne Kempa’s accent as Leliana was “sooo fake”. It’s not fake, she’s actually a Brit that moved to France when she was young, so she has the exact type of accent that Leliana would have (Leliana was born in Orlais and is culturally Orlesian, but her mother was Fereldan and she considers herself as such)

They talked some about the need for documentation and how doing this can feel beurocratic and uncreative and how like you’re not working on a game or writing. PW in chat expressed that there was a year where they spent a lot of it working in PowerPoint and Excel, “so I feel this”

When they switched art directors to Matt Goldman, his first big complaint was about all the brown. He came to DG like “Is there a lore reason for or are you particularly in favor of the brown for story reasons?” DG was like “Uhh no” and Matt was then like “Ok good”

Console codes/commands aren’t usually stripped out of a game before release, they are usually still in the built, just disabled. The system itself is not removed but how to access said system is

BW doesn’t crunch as bad as we hear some companies do, and kind of prided itself on “not being terrible at crunch”. But BW’s “not terrible at crunch” is still crunch. We obviously don’t commend abusive family members for only abusing people on certain days of the week or whatever

Kate Mulgrew is American but she at times did the same thing a lot of the British VAs did, which was that the devs had a lot of struggle with getting them to say “darkspawn” correctly, with the emphasis in the right places. They’d say “dark SPAWN” as if it was two words with an adjective, and the stress put in the wrong place

Lack of children in DAI was a resources thing. They only had time to make a certain number of models. There was a series of meetings where they had to decide what things to cut. In the last meeting it was like ‘Here’s a bunch of things you don’t want to cut, we need to cut 4 of them’

They decided to put horned qunari back in DA2 because then they had the resources to do so. They then ended up having to explain why there were hornless qunari at the same time, and make this an in-world explanation as opposed to just ‘We didn’t have the resources, that was totally intentional’

Lots of players missed out on recruiting Leliana and/or Sten on their first playthrough and didn’t even know they existed/could be recruited. “Apparently we weren’t that great at pointing players in the right direction”

Tevinter is inspired by the Byzantine Empire (which wasn’t called that at the time incidentally, this is a name given by historians after the fact), what used to be the Roman Empire after the western part fell. This is the era Tevinter today is meant to encapsulate: decadent but clearly in decline, far away from the heyday and the heights of the former empire [source]

[Part 1]

[Part 2]

[Part 4]

[Part 5]

[Part 6]

[‘Insights into DA dev from the Gamers For Groceries stream’ transcript]

[ares3d]

RAZOR SHADES - Out now on my Patreon!🩸

- New Original Mesh

- Unisex Sunglasses

- Specular map for interaction with in world environment (Makes it shine!)

- HQ/BG Compatible

- Custom Thumbnail

- Disabled for Random

Thanks so much for your support, and hope you enjoy!

DOWNLOAD (PATREON EARLY ACCESS)

INSTAGRAM / PATREON

CC Finds: @xmiramira @afrosimtricsims @love4sims4 @sims4customcontent @spring4sims @wcifsareclosed @emilyccfinds

27 notes