#so i still have much to learn graphic-design wise!

[sakasakiii]

Dude I'm literally obsessed with your art, it's AMAZING. Also, thank you for making those family trees?! They're amazing and really help me with recalling who is who and related to who, lmao. You're literally the best, bless.

acckkkkk thank you nonnie!!!!! thats so kind of you to say! im especially thankful you like those family trees...... warning for incoming yap session! i pinned it on my blog bc i thought itd be helpful for ppl unfamiliar with my designs of who's-who, but looking back on it now ALMOST THREE YEARS LATER?!?!?!?!!???? there's so many things with it that i wish i could change! im really honoured that youve been finding it helpful with recalling who's related to who, but now i tend to feel guilty abt possibly feeding ppl the wrong information about tolkien's lore aaahahaha (seeing as some of the family relations there e.g. rumil being miriels dad, glorfindel being elenwe's brother, mags n his wife having two kids, are my own headcanon OTL)

nonetheless, its really really high praise to hear that and im very grateful you took the time to send in such a lovely ask, anon! ❤️ hearing all this talk of trees and whatnot made me think back to a tolkien untangled video i was watching where he basically said along the lines of 'most of the iconic elven genealogy in middle earth can be traced down to starting with finwe and elwe' which really shook my worldview HAHA... so in the spirit of continuing silly ask doodles, here's two bros doing some gardening together :D

thank you so much again for such kind words, and i hope you have a wonderful rest of your week!! and a very happy and belated new year's to everyone reading this! ᕙ( •̀ ᗜ •́ )ᕗ

[catmask]

genuine question – and i hope it doesn't come as weird – but how do get into...pokemon? </3

pokemon universe feels so big and there are so many games and i really like their designs – both for pokemons and trainers – making ocs in this setting would be so cool but i have no idea how to. begin!

could you give some advice?

ps leaving compliments for your comic and art in general!! i really like how your pieces are so colorful! gives the vibes of some small but cozy and fun town in a videogame..

no worries!! it seriously depends on what you are interested in - gamewise, region wise, and story wise.

heres what i can say. if you like typical top-down style pixel art rpg games where you solve tile puzzles and build a little team of monsters, any of the games before x and y is a good choice. platinum is a great introduction to the series because it doesn't baby you but is still decently difficult, heartgold/soulsilver are the 'coziest' games imo but may spoil you because of how much content there is, black/white and black/white 2 are the most story-driven of the games and bw2 is probably the longest play of all the games. emerald is also great, but its genuinely a hard game even as someone whos been a fan of the series for years. i would say to start with hgss because they're my favorites, but they're so good it might raise the bar too high for all the other games pixel-art games.

if you prefer 3D graphics, but still like the 'run around catching guys and solving tile puzzles', i think sun and moon are the best of the 3D games! the story is engaging and a little more modernized so that there are actual cut scenes, i think the pokemon available are cute and the region is really pretty. i thikn after that, x and y is pretty cute! the story is less strong in comparison to sun/moon. importantly; every game in the 3D era has a new type that was not present in the pixel art era - the fairy type, so if you want to learn the MODERN type chart and balances, the 3D games are where you'd need to start.

finally, if you're not a fan of the 'catch pokemon run around region' type games, pokemon has a LOT of really awesome spin off games. my favorites are as follows...

pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of sky. its the strongest story the pokemon company has ever written, and im a big fan of the mystery dungeon style gameplay.

pokemon ranger (any ranger game!) the story and graphics are cute, and it focuses on rescuing/rehabilitating pokemon more than capturing them. really lovely expansion of the pokemon universe.

pokemon go, because its free! so if you dont want to download a rom, or sink money into a new franchise, its an easy way to get into it.

pokemon snap - this was actually my very first pokemon game i ever played! (never owned it though heha) but there was just a remake for the switch, if you've got a switch that is. the game focuses on photographing pokemon in their natural habitat, and its really quite cute. slow paced and fun if you're not sure about battling yet.

finally... if you weren't looking to get into games at all, pokemon art + fan creations are personally my favorite things in the entire fandom! artists and writers and fangame devs are the people who hold this fandom up, engaging with their creations is a great and typically free way to involve yourself... im sorry this is so long, i hope this helps!! and ppl are free to add on to this hehe

[cinder-starlight]

Watership down fandom, settle something for me

I’ve been trying to watch the Netflix adaptation for a while—I’ve only really made it to episode 2 but even then I’ve seen a bit of discussion here and there about strawberry.

Before I continue—really quick: I’m not very word savvy so I just wanna give an FYI that I’d like for this to be a genuine discussion, I’d like to hear other peoples’ takes on the matter especially since there will always be different ways to see things.

Continuing: I don’t have any solid thoughts on Strawberry yet, design wise she is very cute but what absolutely grinds my gears is the fact she is only really there to be a romantic interest between hawkbit, dandelion and bigwig.

I usually don’t have a big problem with love triangles (or squares in this case) and think they can be pretty entertaining but after learning strawberry was male through other variants such as the graphic novel (if I’m correct), book and TV series—which is the majority. It kinda has me confused, why change Strawberry into a doe for the sake of romance?

I’ve seen people argue that strawberry works better as a doe or that strawberry isn’t a male name—which I’m well aware the series doesn’t exactly do female characters much justice since the majority of the story is about bucks. But also Strawberry totally works as a male name! It’s a fruit, by that logic, blackberry should also be a doe.

I still have yet to finish the Netflix miniseries and look into one of the books but Personally: I think it would’ve been nice to see male strawberry in the miniseries, especially to be there to prove the group wrong on their “bucks don’t dig” statements. It would’ve been nice to see a chipper and eager strawberry look to help out with the warren and sort of just be a fresh perspective to them all from his time in cowslip’s warren.

Again this is just my take, but I’m also curious as to what others think or wish could’ve happened.

[schakira]

yakuza 0 liveblog #1: the start of my yakuza journey

my impressions of my first hour of gameplay on yakuza 0: visually, and game design wise, i really like the graphics and how detailed they are for the simplicity of their models, with the shading as well. i also love how they mix game mechanics with silly stories like how that white man was making me spend money to "invest in myself" to get more combos or how he baited me into fighting dudes, just so i could learn new fighting styles. go white man.

storywise - i just love how it all makes sense and is all so... like the characters have DEPTH and aren't just plot devices. they all have morals and expressions. when kiryu arrived at the dojima house, everyone kinda put the strings together after pressing him; oh this was a SETUP! and yet that knowledge doesn't change much... there's still mysteries afoot. who did this and why? what do they aim to gain? and why kiryu? i also love nishikiyama and kiryu's relationship. i felt it was kinda gay how they went on a walk together, beat up drunkards (i did that for game mechanic purposes), drank alcohol, sang a karaoke, and then ate noodles before learning about the murder. dare i say they're gay and in love? in my little fantasy they def are.

i also sang bakamitai!!!! im playing on my keyboard so it was hard. my score was "karaoke bozo" i dont wanna hear a thing from anyone........

[dorkfruit]

i put this together using my computer's trackpad so the new year is already starting out . bad .

posts: J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D

template

reflections on the year, my plans for the future, some studies i did, and wips for the next year all down below for those who are interested

tldr; we will be ianthing next year so watch out!!

oh dear lord it's been another year. 2024! can you believe it! i don't talk much on this blog because i have a tendency to talk too much, but it's my little new year's treat, so here we go.

RECAP

i started taking drawing "seriously" in December of 2020, starting to do studies and stuff, and each year since i've ramped it up more and more. this year, i did. a lot of studies. there's probably like at least 200 more in my folder now (not including the 300 days worth of gesture drawings i did), with things like painting, faces, feet, poses, etc. anything i was struggling with, i went right into studying it. my art has been mediocre for a pretty long time now, and it's only the past few months where i feel i'm starting to get the hang of it, which is exciting!

more importantly, i started posting a lot more on this blog. i really like documenting my progress, looking on where i was before and seeing how i've improved. everytime i draw some fanart, im like, oooghh i can't wait to show my (: followers (: !! lots of locked tomb art of course. i've been trying to nail the energy of the different characters, which is why i enjoy books so much, because you get a lot of creative control. drawing ianthe is my fav of course, cause she's my lil nasty, but also i enjoyed doing designs for characters i hadnt thought about before, like judith.

in addition to the locked tomb, we had some new fandoms that got brief moments in between iantheposting: Fear and Hunger, Postal, Faith The Unholy Trinity, and a couple of old ones too, like We Have Always Lived In The Castle and The Merciless.

i posted about 115 times this year, although most of those are shitposts LOL i love posting stuff on my blog and showing people my stuff <3

THE FUTURE

my plans? do more ianthe art, of course. ill be working on more studies, probably going to work on developing a style, and figuring out how to paint. i'd like to do more actually finished pieces, but let's be honest, it'll still be mostly shitpost doodles. i'd like to do more weird stuff. i've been messing around with some gore and NSFW near the end of the year, and it's fun to draw for me. i like idk art that evokes some type of emotion, especially discomfort, and so i find that type of art fun to do, so if you don't enjoy what i've done thus far in that direction, perhaps this isn't the blog for you. i really like horror media, and so i want to do some stuff like that too.

for specifics, i like western type art, a comic book-esque style i'd like to aim for. but i'd like it to be a little more. weird with it. i find comic books often draw all the characters the same, and make all the characters traditionally attractive, and that's boring to me so i'll have to work on finding a way to keep things weird, while also appealing in a graphic sense. the worst thing my art could be is bland and forgettable.

locked tomb wise... more tridentarii art. need to be really weird with it. i have lots of wips planned, like i have a whole page worth of just thumbnails, so i wanna get some of those done. also i had a few animatics i wanted to do. mostly stupid shit, once i learn how to do animatics, then we'll do actual serious ones. id also like to do more comics. i have some comics storyboarded out with my girlies, i like telling a story so, need practice on that. id also like to develop a way to consistently draw them, for convenience sakes, so i'm not fighting for my life every single time i draw these characters. oh and i wanna do some outfit stuff. i draw them in like. generic clothes everytime but i'd like to come up with a few actual outfit designs, that i can just reference back to. and, of course, more shitposts. lots of stupid shit in 2024 for sure. there was something else i wanted to say here but i can't remember.

ART

oki enough rambling, here's some IMAGES for yall to look at i know everyone loves to look at images.

began this year by warming up with gesture sketches (almost) every day. i started with 20 poses (30 seconds each), and then in november i was like. ugh my hands suck i need to get better at hands, so i switched to doing 10 hand sketches (60 seconds each). i want my art to be very energetic so it's important that i do these !!

anatomy studies of extremities because i'm flopping at those -_- ive gotten better with hands but they're still a struggle. i hate feet tho still

need to get my painting game up. i joined an art forum to get advice, and the biggest suggestion i got was working on my values, so i did various value studies. also lots of faces because my faces flop !!

random doodles to work on drawing from imagination. on my "sketchbook" pages, as i like to call them, i'm usually pretty loose and messy, since the point is just to be drawing so often these will suck, but that's fine. i don't think very much when i draw faces on here either so they end up being in my Instinctive Style i suppose you could say

ianthe wip. i was planning to do a few drawings based on the idea of her having Missing Arm nightmares, but the lineart was intimidating to me so i haven't worked on this one more yet /: also there was going to be a toontown gay homosexual toxic yuri comic that i was gonna put here with it but the page is way too long so umm guess that'll have to wait.

...

anyways. thank you for reading if you got to the bottom of this! i appreciate all the support that i've been getting lately (extra big kissies for the same like 5 people who always reblog my posts youre the best). and we will be ianthing soo hard in 2024 so watch out!!

[grzlyinc]

HELTER SKELTER (2012) REVIEW!!

(includes spoilers)

i watched this film for the first time two days ago and it is seriously good. important warning before anyone dicides to watch this with their parents or anyone you dont want to watch two or three graphic sex scenes with. I was like ooh a psychological thriller, my mum loves psychologica thrillers! i learned fhe hard way that the 15 rating was generous.

starting off with set! this film has some truly great set designs. so incredibly 2012 if that makes any sense to anyone but me. the ones that particularly stand out to me are as followsss:

-the bathtub scene, oh my goodness it looks perfect. the petals, the colours. wow this movie uses colour so well it really does, the reds pop so much.

-Lilicos apartment in general honestly. i adore the giant rosary hanging from her mirror and just AHHHH its so perfect

-the podium near the end. this is so different to alot of the sets that are sort of poorly lit and crowded. its so empty in an unnerving way, and the fact there are so many microphones and cameras for just lilico stood alone at the front its just so perfect for this scene it put you on edge

-this is just a comment on the scene in general but the shop window where she cries and gets rained on and yadda yadda yadda. beautiful scene in a depressing kind of way, the way the lights make the rain appear red and gold is so nice

SPEAKING OF CAMERAS woweeeee this movie uses camera flashes and sounds really well. dont get me wrong lilico is crazy and most of the things she does i HOPE most people wouldnt do, but the way they often hyperbolise how loud amd bright the cameras are really makes you think wow id go crazy too. near the beginning she says “everytime the shutter clicks its like my brain is melting out my ears” (may not be exactly what she says but you get the idea) and honestly she might be right about that.

COSTUMESSSS okay wow. my favourites have to be her final outfit when it is revealed she is still alive. the eyepatch? ate. the dress? incredible. what i said before about the REDSSS! red is just her colour.

anyway now some stuff about the actual movie and not just the aesthetics. i spent alot of it feeling so so bad for Hada. But then hada just continued to do her bidding and at the end of the day, if she had quit, what would lilico even have been able to do about it? Hada is aware lilico is nothing without her so why not just leave? so then i kind of stopped feeling quite so bad. i think a sane person would quit once it got to acid throwing territory.

Plot wise i think its great, i do think that this movie would not be made the same now, because a key part of the story is that once people find out about her surgery, they all hate her, which i suppose does happen but not really on the same level. these days its become the default that a celebrity has had plastic surgery and its a suprise if they HAVENT, but also i wouldnt know if celebrity culture and plastic surgery are the same in japan as they are here so maybe this hasnt changed as much there

when lilico stabbed her eye onstage my first thought was “well would that even kill her?”. but then i thought “its a movie. it looked good for the scene that way, movies arent always accurate” and guess what. she wasnt dead. my second thought was “why was there no security at a such a huge press event? why did no one do anything when she pulled out the knife? why did no one move a muscle when she stabbed herself or even when she fell?” but i guess because the scene with the feathers wouldnt have looked so good. which is a good enough answer for me.

i was slightly confused to what her plans were at the end because she revealed the fact the was alive to kozue but where was she going to go from there? just go back into her career like nothing happened? how the hell is that going to work? i guess she isnt the most foreward thinker but still. i loved this ending but it left me with alot of questions, but i suppose they didnt need to be answered. also this movie was seriously long which i loved but if it had gone on for any longer my mother would have gone to bed.

this is a poorly organised review i know, but i wanted to get my first post out the way, in the future i will plan and organise! but anyway. i live this movie and i seriously recommend but also am sorry if you read this before watching because you got alot of it spoilt.

-GRZLY

[zenoiredottore]

Hoyofam at home – brainrot headcannons

ZZZ

a baby

is currently being potty trained

Likes to help with the more pleasant chores

Starting to grow silver/gray hair like wise

Hogs the big screen tv and forces everyone to watch starlight knight with them.

T O Y  G U N S

NOT an ipad kid,, more of a tv kid since they like watching movies sm

The coolest kid's room you will ever see. there are a lot of toys and plushies

Diaper only type kid at home

L O U D

Has a robot nanny that’s just kinda there cuz SR thought it’d be cool

an entire crew dedicated to clean up after him

Spends a lot of time with their siblings, often getting to play with new products

Makes a huge mess when eating

Has its own art studio, fridge-worthy pieces of art  

DO NOT let into your room if you have action figures/plushies.

Very fascinated by computer stuff.

When they grow up they’re going to be the designated tech guy of the fam.

Themis:

Prettiest room

The largest closet and bathroom

Has both a work desk and a vanity.

Has those curtain thingys on her bed [princess bed]

Very colorful but it’s mostly pink and white

Has a couple of shrubs

Make up and skincare galore

Likes baking and the kitchen always smells good

Softest bed ever

Has a seating area by her window, like sofia the first’s

Likes to go shopping with Hi3

Reuses luxury packaging like reusable plastic bags.

Often uses said packaging as trash bags

Sleeps like aurora [perfect hair, perfume, back flat on the bed]

Likes to put food and cleaning products into their own cute containers [she’s just that girl]

Hi3:

Room’s a bit messy

Wears glasses at home [like the thick framed red ones]

Grandma fit [Bestidas with the fuzzy slippers]

Eats ALLAT

The gym is her sanctuary  

Can lift the most weights out of everyone

Zero percent brain cells when at home

She works out in her bestidas lolol

“Don’t talk to me before I have my coffee:p” Ahhss…

I like to think that she’s supposed to be retired but she keeps getting called to the office

Spends her days relaxing [cuz god knows kiana needs rest and so does hi3]

Has motivational quotes framed and hung in the hallways, themis always takes them down.

Second biggest closet

Spends a lot of time at her workshop designing mech suits as she pleases without the company filling down her creativity

Takes zzz to go visit the others at work

Long list of things she wants to do during retirement

Def doing a lot of “childish” activities [like lazer tag, bouncy castle, go karts, ball pits] because she felt like she lost a huge chunk of her childhood working. And when she got a bit of free time to have more fun she had to take care of genshin and themis.

Hangs out at the pool almost every day.

At home spa

Has this soap opera that she watches at 3 pm every day and ZZZ joins her.

HSR:

GAMER room

Has all the games you can think of [arcade, pc, playstation, mobile, you get it]

Mixes gamer food together…

Regularly makes battery acid

Doritos every where

His bed is levitated and under his bed is like a treasure trove of game stuff [merch,tapes,disks]

Doesn’t let housekeeping in, scared that something might break or get deleted.

Room STANK and STICKY

his closet includes multiple copies of the same thing, aside from meme shirts that he occasionally buys online somewhere.

Spends a lot of the money he earns on online games

Wears graphic themed video game underwear

Has a claw machine in his room that he can’t get prizes off of.

Games all night and complains about how he’s too tired to go to work

His shower is DRY

I like to think that even if he doesn’t shower often, he’ll still brush his teeth

Naps immediately when he gets home and repeats the entire thing, learning absolutely nothing.

Actually enjoys his job but there’s only so much energy drinks in the world for him

Likes designing new characters and kits

Absolutely loves his fanbase

Genshin:

Often gets to work earlier than everyone else

But if he feels like going with his siblings he’ll impatiently wait for them and yell n stuff

Doesn’t drink coffee believe it or not [only monsters can go to work at 5 am without having any caffeine and I think this fits him very much

Sometimes goes out for dinner alone when he’s planning on working extra time at the office

The best cook out of all the siblings. [things that genshin just does the best]

Doesn’t cook often but if someone asks him to make something he’ll get it right on his first try 80% of the time

Has a pet horse

Almost never at home

Business trips abroad often

Seeing him in regular casual clothes is like seeing a unicorn.

Probably has a skin condition where if he’s touching cheap fabric he’ll have skin rashes

Handles and prepares live sea creatures for dinner way too casually.

Once killed a live chicken that was running around the house by throwing a skewer through its head

Doesn’t like cleaning and will have the help pick up after him… he’s just snobby like that

No social life outside of work and business related matters

ZERO friends

Ig PJR is kind of a friend but they’re more so rivals

Every day is bring ZZZ to work day.

Sends ZZZ back home whenever they start getting sleepy

Works at the hoyoverse building, same with Themis and SR and whenever he finishes early he’d go hangout with them a bit

Doesn’t work out but does a lot of outdoor activities

Wishes he has more of an outdoorsy job

Regular movie nights and family vacations together

Always spend time with each other on weekends, all of them. Hi3 says that there will be zero working on weekends. But even when he’s not working he’s still wearing suits. [Genshin breaks this rule a lot]

Closet filled with suits!!!

Owns way too many watches that he never uses to tell the time

Fancy tie clip collection

The shoes are DAPPER

His perfume collection makes me jealous

God I hate this jerk sm

Never uses his phone to look at social media [he never listens to his fan’s opinions…]

[sonicelectro47]

15 Years on the Spectrum

Yep, JIC you didn’t know, I’m on the Spectrum (=

I think it’s already been 15 years since I was first officially diagnosed with an ASD. And being #autismawarenessday, I also wanted to celebrate it with this little sketch, which illustrates some of the general traits I share:

I’ve struggled to socialise, still to this day. I’ve gotten better with making friends now though. 🫂

The spearheads of my biggest interests have been: Thomas the Tank Engine, LEGO, Doctor Who, The Olympics/Paralympics, Photography and Graphic Design. ❤️💙

My comfort activity is drawing, and making digital designs is something I’m fixated on pretty much everyday, work-wise. ✍️🎨

Listening to soft rock music, especially classics from the 80s/90s is also my personal favourite and super uplifting - LOVE guitar, synth & drums 💖🎸 🥁 🎹

+Ooh, not sure if you do the same, but I always picture these cool animations in my head whenever I listen to certain songs.

I’ve always felt a deep connection to nature, specifically with the wind. Can’t describe it, but I tend to feel one with it. 🍃

I’m a serious perfectionist… like for this sketch which took longer to finish than hoped 😐 Also like to keep everything tidy and sort things out 👍

I hate last-minute plan changes; They don’t end up being too bad, but still they just suck. 

Being touched - like suddenly poked = No >=|

Finally, I like wearing comfy clothing, and repeating quotes from films/TV shows - “I cannot say” (Benoit Blanc, Knives Out) 🗣️

So yep. I’m sorry I’m not sure if I’ve explained or illustrated in good detail 3=\

For a while I wanted to share and express what it’s like for me as an Aspie.

And I think it’s awesome, for any autistic person, to have the most wonderful insight to the world around you, and having a special interest that makes you You, and to use as your own strength!

And from what I’ve learned, you help make people you know & who care about you happier (=

Happy Autism Awareness Day! 🌈🌟💙

[awiola]

Normal update, autumn??? XXIII

Okay, so I thought it would be a nice, winter quarterly update but turns out the last one was titled summer and I guess going by calendar, winter barely started so it's??? autumn??? I guess??? Last day of the year but autumn, sure, let's go with that. That being the case, I have no new year's pic for y'all cause I can't draw I was devving uhh, rly hard, let's say. Totally.

Anyway, the mushroom jam has ended and I planned to have a release update BUT THEN I DIDN'T FINISH THE GAME ON TIME YET AGAIN, who would've thought, so, like, there's nothing. I mean, something exists but yeah >_> I'll write a devlog when it finally looks presentable. Moving on...

Current game stuff

The spooktober game has been finished, kinda - The enmity of dead things. It, well, it works and it contains the full script and everything but lacks both art and music cause I couldn't finish it on time laziness goes brrr. Then I wanted a break and worked on other games and kinda left it like that... So that's the first item on my "Finally finish it in 2024, you stupid fuck" list. All in all it wasn't a total failure and I had fun for the most part. Committing to my bad decisions [look at the textbox] is actually the main cause the game wasn't finished on time... You live and don't learn.

The failure of the year... Or quarter at least - Mushroom game. Despite being technically published to add it to the jam, it's so unfinished I won't even link it here. And it's all my fault cause I was being lazy and, as usual, forgot I can't actually program. Yeah...

Helped with Cool Days. There's really not much of my work there, I honestly considered making a new category for games I kinda helped with but tbh the amount of work actually finished was close to zero but hey, it's still more than nothing so Check it out, it has cool graphics.

The ace teens game got shelved/postponed and it's not my fault this time but instead we're working on a fantasy kinda thing for Ace jam [and maybe also Zack jam while we're at it but that might've been said in jest]. Fortunately it's small enough I don't expect any delays. I can say it involves a golem who isn't a humanoid (灬˘╰╯˘灬)♥｡･ﾟ

Now for the big thing.

Fanfares, please.

🎉🎉🎉

IMPOSTOR SYNDROME - is a game for winter jam which also happens to be a demo cause we ran out of time but! - it will be finished soon-ish. I'll share more details in the release devlog so if the link to the game works already, that means the page's up and so is all the info. If it doesn't work, check again in a few hours but I'm assuming most people who actually read all that will do so post winter jam anyway.

Genre wise it's an otome chat sim comedy that's extremely self indulged and I'm not ashamed of that. Gotta make games for yourself and all that. Though, again, my own conribution to the development process remains minimal. I'm truly becoming the idea guy.

The "Finally finish it in 2024, you stupid fuck" list aka the stuff that should've been finished already but isn't

Umm, yeah, everything. Or, to be more specific, Mushroom game and Enmity take priority here but all the other games that needed some quality of life adjustments like making the web build work on mobile etc are also included [which is kinda funny cause a lot of them could be corrected in like an hour if I actually sat and did just that].

It's been more than three years since I released Argousze and yes, you gessed it, it's also unfinished. Which is extra funny in a pathetic way cause it was supposed to be a low effort game with, like, 2k words of wordcount. To be fair I kinda dropped it cause I couldn't design my aliens but maybe I'll actually get a good idea for once and manage to release it on its fourth anniversary. That'd be nice.

Other than that, well... That's more of a resolution than anything but I should stop constantly joining new teams and all... And either take a proper dev break or work on ye olde projects waiting for me since the beginning of HS. I'll become older than my oldest LI before I finish them at this point lol

Pariiish noootiiiceees

This year we're gonna have two new jams instead of one. Stuff happened and yeah. No links just yet cause not only are the pages not finished but there's also no planned date/duration beyond 'sometime in the later part of the year'.

The first jam is Tentacle jam which, I'm pretty sure, would bring us eroges. This was not my intention and all kind of sfw tentacles are allowed but tbh as long as there's a proper story, even a nukige would pass. Basically the rules remain like in all the previous jams I hosted.

The second jam is Insect [adjacent] jam which actually accepts all kinds of arthropods but it started as just insect jam and I wanted to keep the name. So yeah. Obviously more detailed rules of what's allowed would be written on the page when it's up properly and not in a half dead state like right now.

Incidentally, whatever the date ends up being, both of these jams would be hosted at the same time so if you wanted to make a story taking place underwater or something, you could submit it to both of these jams. Neat, right?

That's it for this year.

Over.

[bloodstonegoth]

How to become a Game Designer

source: 7+ years of experience, four projects, three studios

Here's some advice I'd tell myself before I started this whole mess. Be advised that almost every studio does things a little bit differently, so many things can depend on your location only. It's also worth noting that the resources that are available now are way more accessible than 10-15 years ago.

Should You?

This is a question I have discussed with a few people that also have a few years of experience in this field. What really does a "game designer" do? The answer varies from place to place and it might not be what you imagine it is, leaving you somewhat disappointed. Certain, more specific designers - such as "system designers", "level designers", "monetization designers", etc. - have a very clear job description and skillset. But the usage of "general designers", "game designers", "gameplay designers" etc can vary a lot from place to place. It is not the game designers that decide which games are going to get made, even if they have the knowledge of the subject and the market. This is usually decided by a "director", who's idea is probably heavily shaped by exec or investors. If your goal is to make the games you want, you might want to keep game designer as a solo hobby (or stumble upon a huge pile of money). Regardless, the rest of this article might be helpful anyway, because it touches on general game designer skills, that are useful both in personal projects and in a studio.

Make Games

The answer that I usually hear designers give, over and over again, to the question "how to get into design" is "make games!". While this is technically true, I am annoyed by how unhelpful and downright confusing it is to someone just starting out. So lets break this down.

The idea they're trying to convey is - "there is no real tutorial to being a good designer, you must make a lot of games and learn something new with every single one". It's the same principle that applies to theory vs practice - your education doesn't matter as much as the experience you gain while actually doing the job.

Okay, that might sound logical, but how do you actually "make a game"?

How to Make a Game

I will try to explain the absolute basics here. Almost every game is based on an "engine". The general public has became much more aware of what an "engine" is in the last few years, but it's still a somewhat enigmatic term. In short, it's a collection of modules that do basic (but actually very advanced, code-wise) things, like displaying graphics, managing physics, setting up game controls and many other things. You probably know a few, like Unreal Engine, Unity, GODOT or even RPG Maker. If you want to go pro, knowledge of one of these engines is very helpful, but it's also good to know them either way, because writing your own engine is probably not in your scope of interest. So do some basic research, pick an engine that best corresponds the project in your head and watch some tutorials on Youtube to get started.

Okay, but what do I make?

One of the most important jobs of a director (yes, you are a director now) is picking a project that can be finished with the skillset of the team executing it. This can go wrong even at the biggest of studios. Currently your team is 1 person and your skills - lets just assume here - are zero. This means you must choose a project that lets you learn the basics, and try not to go too far. It should probably be a single mechanic. One of the first project's I've done was an archery game, where the player defended a castle from an onslaught of NPCs. It used relatively simple elements and wasn't at all original - and you surely don't want to try to be original so early on. Sometimes even replicating an existing game is a good idea.

So, how do you learn the skills to execute your idea?

Skills - code vs art?

This is probably the biggest question I wanted to answer here - is a designer someone who's more skilled in art, or in code? The answer is very mundanely "both", but if you are, lets say, relatively young and want to decide whether to spend your time on learning art or code, I do have an answer for you.

ART art art for #*$^&@# SAKE ART

Art is something that takes years to master and you can always get better at it. You can learn the basics of code in less than a month. If you look online, you'll see hundreds of simple games from people that clearly can do very good art - art that probably took them a decade to get good at - with gameplay that is extremely basic to code. Sure, as a competent coder you can write very elaborate systems and make your game very unique - but that's a skill that's probably more suited for going pro, than solo. If your game doesn't have graphics and you don't have anyone that would help you with graphics, your game is not going to get far. I'm not saying that code doesn't have a skill curve - it absolutely does, but picking up code is a relatively trivial manner that's accessible to anyone. Ideally you should have both, but when it comes to honing a skill over a long period of time - if you want to go solo, it's definitely art.

Getting your foot in the door

This might be what you've been waiting for. If you want to go pro, how do you land your first job? This is going to vary greatly and might be luck-dependent (many people I've talked with about this topic had luck play some part of their story), but here are a few guidelines.

As stated above, I would focus on "making games" and building your portfolio. More and more I am seeing studios asking for "portfolios" when applying for a game design position. Itch.io is a great place to publish your indie games and make them accessible to anyone that would like to see them.

Many people's first design job was in a small studio, or on a brand new project. These studios are usually not a very secure place to work at, and might not even be the nicest places to work at. This has been the case for me as well. It sucks to go through it, but the competition is immense - there is a lot of people out there that want to be professional designers. If you don't have professional experience, at least make sure you have private experience and you can show it.

Learn what studios are in your town or area and try to apply. Just as you've toned down your first game idea to match your skills, try to choose a small studio that matches your skills as well. Hell, finding a medium-sized studio where you'll feel like home is a much better outcome than going to some of these massive studios and entering The Meatgrinder.

Summary

Some of this information might seem trivial, or amount to "look it up and watch tutorials", but it is the information I would find helpful circa 2006, when I had no idea how to even start or what any of this is. I just knew I'd like to make games, I had ideas and I used whichever tools have fallen into my hands. There was no way to get a free Unreal Engine, or even Visual Studio. This really is the best time to Just Make Game.

If you have any questions, hit me up.

[postgamecontent]

'Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel' Switch Review

We've reached the third and penultimate stop on the Ratalaika tour through the handful of titles comprising Sunsoft's ill-fated attempt to create a popular mascot in the 1990s. After this, all that remains to be reissued is the Game Boy Advance port of the original game. Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel is the one and only spin-off of the Aero The Acro-Bat series, launching a half-year after Aero 2 and just over a year after the original game. Yes, they released that closely together. This was effectively the end of the road for the Aero franchise, and that particular incarnation of Sunsoft's American branch didn't last much longer. Well, maybe Sunsoft saved the best for last?

I want to take a second here just to say that I kind of respect what Sunsoft did with these games. The main characters have appealing designs for their time and place, and Sunsoft and Iguana clearly were able to turn out games that looked and sounded good. All they had to do was make some generic games that copied Sonic's homework like so many others did. But they got weird. The first Aero game had those odd level objectives. Aero's attack methods were awkward. Batasha. Just… Batasha. I don't think it did those games any favors at the time, but if nothing else it helps them stand out in hindsight.

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel is also an oddball. It comes off as part Sonic, part Shinobi. If that isn't an odd enough union, it also has a central mechanic that is tricky to master and becomes essential not far into the game at all. The Aero games were no slouches difficulty-wise, but Zero kicks things up a couple of notches. All the save states in the world won't help you much here, either. You either learn how to handle Zero's gliding, or you're not going anywhere. I don't hate that, but some people will.

Anyway, it's a stage-based platformer with large levels full of goobers to collect. Some of them have obvious uses, others are probably just for points. Collect goobers, beat enemies, and yank the banner to finish the stage. Sometimes you'll fight a boss or engage in other activities, too. The maze-like levels are best navigated by using Zero's signature glide ability, done by getting some air, diving, and then pushing in a couple of different directions. Zero can also throw shuriken and double-jump, because Shinobi. The game features vibrant, detailed graphics and some grungy rock licks, carrying itself well enough for a game of its era.

Zero himself is certainly a product of his time. A bag of stereotypes, but I suppose it was a 1990s mascot platformer. Ratalaika has made some edits in its marketing materials for the game, but once you're in-game the only real changes to this Super NES version are to some of the start-up logos and legal info. The wrapper here is similar to the one used for Aero the Acro-Bat 2, with all the same extras and options. Not as exciting the second time around, but I still prefer it to the older Ratalaika wrapper. I'm not really fond of the way the manual scans have been edited, removing all identifiable buttons and/or control diagrams. I get why, but replacing the information would have been far better than erasing it. As-is, a person has to look things up online to know the basics of how to play. I will again lodge my complaint at the Mega Drive version not also being included.

You could do a whole lot worse than Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel when diving into 16-bit mascot platformers, and Ratalaika's treatment of it is solid. It's not a game I would recommend to everyone due to the relatively high level of difficulty, and even the built-in cheats aren't going to help you at times. To be frank, some aspects of the game haven't aged well at all. But there is something to this game, and if you're the kind of player that enjoys picking at oddities, I think you'll get some kicks out of Zero.

Switch Score: 3.5/5

[stealiesjam]

J. Mascis' "What Do We Do Now" Album Out Now 2/2/24

Text and photo by Paula Beltran. The world of post-punk alternative has not been the same ever since Dinosaur Jr. came alive with their own un-categorizable sound. Yesterday, J. Mascis, Dino's frontman, guitarist and vocalist, debuted another solo album under his eponymous name, continuing Dinosaur Jr.'s whimsical and elite garage sounds. The first thing that came into my head when I heard this album was, "there goes J, with his somber vocals yet uplifting riffs." Here are some notes I took while I was listening to the album: Enjoy!

Melody sounds like a psychedelic tropical dream.

Lyrics sound like a PMA goth anarchistic anthem.

The acoustic guitar along with the electric guitar are indeed something classic about J. In this album both guitars take center stage and are both highlighted in a pedestal of iconic artistic gold.

Of course, J. doesn’t stop with smooth sailing guitar riffs and chords, his drum work is indeed where we are now in a post-punk mood of Dinosaur Jr. classic juxtaposition of dreamy yet hard core influential beats.

J’s lyrics have a touch of Buddhism humor. He is very laid back but still the title of the album is a call for urgency. An urgency that fades away with the composition of the songs and his official music videos of “Can’t Believe We’re Here,” “Old Friends” and “Set Me Down.” J lives in a fulfilled world of happiness and he takes us all with him.

In “I can’t find you” he also takes a philosophical approach of letting go of what no longer serves him. In a way, similar to X's lyrics: “learn to forget.” However this time in a more much futuristic way. J. admits he doesn’t know an unknown person and that he doesn’t like him/her so he’s going to disconnect them and send them to an unfindable part of his brain.

Is the song “Old Friends” J’s anarchistic response to Rancid’s “Old Friend”?

In a way J. sings about destination unknown but with a PMA flow that takes us towards another year of great wise music being released.

Of course one of my favorite things about J’s style is his choice of graphic design. This time for the album cover we have two otters eating, or must I say, chopping, two fish. There’s an underwater diver watching them and we see J’s signature in a Milky Way dripping font. The otter theme can be seen throughout the album’s design choices. I guess the main theme for this album is water and the flow of nature.

According to J's website: This is J’s first solo album that features full drum and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic. What Do We Do Now features guest musicians, including Western Mass local Ken Mauri of The B-52s on keys and Ontario-based polymath Matthew “Doc” Dunn on steel guitar. 

[yet-another-haven-of-dollya]

can i ask advice ;; drawing wise ? how did you start to anatomy but also w stylization? did you bruteforce by studying every bone muscle etc in art school?

hmm...

First, you must distinguish between two completely different concepts: gesture and anatomy. The stylization and dynamic you often see me doing with my dancing practice is "Gesture". This is an excellent tutorial by Proko about gestures. I practiced gestures very soon when I started drawing, simply because I wanted to draw dynamically, lucky for me it was the right thing to do. This was the main reason why I'm so fast at sketching.

This is my gesture practice, 1 min, 2 min, and 5 min sketch. It's about the flow of the body and which direction each part is going, use "sharp and coherent lines". I practice until it becomes a "natural reflex", a habit when I look at people's interactions.

This below is something I drew 3 years ago (my anatomy was not good sorry), notice how I use many many coherent lines? At the thigh, shin, arm stretching,... all the bigger areas? That's the remaining of gestures.

It goes without saying. Try to find the flow of gestures, even for the hair or clothes. Heh, I drew this 4 years ago, how nostalgic.

You can see how I just create the flow with Lya's hair and body movement in the dancing pics too. Like with Kylar's pic her body is straight up one quite hard mass from head to toe. You know she's leaning forward, seemingly wanting to abandon Kylar with a "pathetic loser like you? With me?" attitude (ouchie sorry Kylar nation). While in Sydney's pic she seems much more relaxed and enjoys how her body parts seem to loosen and more in sync with Sydney's movements. Her hip and legs sway more, and her hair also sways back at Sydney's body, hinting that her moves are relatively close to his body. I don't think I have enough vocabulary to describe, gestures are always just "feelings" to me. If people see what I want to show, that's the success for me.

I know many self-learners started by finding random tutorials that have muscle breakdown or box-like proportions to try and mimic. Mimic is good, drawing is mimicking and remembering what you saw, but without good gesture practice, many people tend to make anatomy very stiff.

Then, you start to apply anatomy to the gestures you've practiced. One way to do it is by learning about muscle position first, and then trying to apply it to a figure, or a model. This is my homework and it's HORRIBLY WRONG IN MANY WAYS. My teacher fixed it for me but I don't have the after with me right now, so take this as an example of how to do the apply thing, DO NOT USE IT AS MUSCLE REF it's very wrong.

In my opinion bone structure is not strictly needed like muscles. Bones are for muscles to hang onto. You only need to remember some important "landmarks" like the collarbone, elbow joint, anterior pelvis, knee, and ankle,… to hang the important muscles to it. After you're familiar with muscles and gestures, you can start to stylize. Applying your knowledge to animated characters with cartoonish design is one great way. THESE HOMEWORKS OF MINE ARE STILL WRONG but ye hope you get the idea. I'm still struggling with anatomy.

One of my all-time fav are AFK ARENA artists and what they do for the game. Aki as the main artist, Kuri Huang, and another artist I suddenly forgor the name as home screen illust. I recommend researching their works if you want a direction on how to stylize your character with great dynamic gestures and shapes.

And

As much as I hate to say this, I was particularly considered a failure, a stone-head, who couldn't be changed for the better when I was still in art school - uni. My chosen major was digital graphic design, not specified in drawing but in designing, that's one thing I regret. I traded 5 years of my youth for doing the things I don't want to do. That's why the moment I graduated, I immediately went and signed up for an advanced art class specified in drawing. I'd be lying if I said the uni didn't teach me anything about drawing. They did, but almost everything I learned during 5 years of uni was self-learning from outer sources. I encourage self-learning the most when I talk with younger artists. Proko is a very trusted source to learn from, go to their YouTube channel, and you might figure out something too.

[demonsheepprince]

It’s been around six years since I started drawing with the intention to improve, and while the first few of those years saw little improvement, due to learning very inefficiently, I certainly am much better now than when I started, in many ways. I don’t know if this will ever be read, but I wanted to maybe give a few pointers on getting through those “bad” years. I am not some grizzled old wise man nor am I a professional artist or have any intention on becoming a professional in the artistic field. This being said, I don’t think I qualify on giving any tips for technique, what I want to focus on is the mental gymnastics that inevitably come with learning to draw.

To begin, I did at one time have intention to work in the design/ art industry. This was a huge contributor to my depression and ultimately what led me to abandon drawing all together for a while. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Don’t rely fully on art as a career and forgo all other opportunities. If it’s your dream to work in art, please pursue that, but first decide if it’s really what you want to do, because it’s tough. I for some reason thought all I could do will art for a while, and at the same time genuinely believed I couldn’t even do that. Neither was true in hindsight. Had I not let the self-doubt get to me I could be going to school for graphic design right now rather than chemistry and physics, but I decided this is what is best for me. If you do have intentions to work in art, please don’t become blinded from the truth and analyze where you are and what you need to work on. This can go both ways, having an ego is a damn good thing, but don’t let that go to your head if you plan on a career in art. You have to work hard and and be good. Of course, if you are not interested in a career in art by all means let that ego pop off so long as you aren’t insulting others.

Now that that’s over with, I want to talk about my experience with the natural evolution of art. I like drawing people. Not animals and rarely landscapes, so that’s what I do since I simply do it for my own enjoyment. Like many I wanted and “art style” when I was 13 and tried to force myself to draw consistently in this one way that was like a weird homunculus of things I liked at the time. Of course it never lasted long, I saw something I like better and it changed. The lack of consistency was something that really bothered me, since it was hard to start any long term projects this way. The problem? I wasn’t done evolving, I’m still not done, but the more I draw, the more consistent I get. It is really quite strange to see my artwork slowly getting more and more similar in style, something I genuinely liked the look of and felt like me. I still am not very consistent at all, but it’s almost like there are signatures. I always draw big ears, I love it, Expressive brows, etc, you will get here if you don’t force it. Forcing it will not work.

Another interesting thing I have found with the evolution of my characters and designs is how interested I have become with non conventional beauty. If you do want to speed up consistency, my advise is to avoid same face and body syndrome. I love drawing unique features and people, it is one of my greatest joys. I used to, when I started drawing, only make hot anime looking girls with big naturals, and I’m certainly not shitting on that because I still do it occasionally myself, and if you love drawing big boobs I implore you please continue, but just once try to draw a hooked nose on one of those girls in that style. You might be surprised by how hot it turns out. Try different face shapes. Draw some wrinkles! Not only did slowly learning to diversify help my art improve leaps and bounds, but I discovered a lot about myself and my sexuality this way. It helped me appreciate many different looks and people.

[usagihoppu]

0, 11?

0. Height!

I am about 5' 8". Or 172cm

11. Best friend

Okay I'm not gonna do the obvious and say my partner cause that's well

Duh lol

But my best friend friend.

I don't wanna give too much about myself away so I'm gonna keep some stuff private but. Here's the lil core memories you've unlocked in my brain.

I had a best friend in college. We fell out after graduation but were inseparable the entire time we went. We were roommates and he and I came from the same high school. Well, he starts dating this girl one day. Cute, short, sassy, sweet, and curly curly dirty blonde hair. She's an artist and is actually studying graphic design and is a genuinely amazing painter/person.

She and I ALSO become inseparable. We spend nights with my roommate aka her bf and the three of us game and drink and laugh until like 3 am every night we can.

Well. Soon the bf's major (same as mine) gets in the way so he starts meeting us up after work or his classes so she and I basically spend tons of days a week chilling in a cafe or studio or practice room talking and doing whatever to kill time. So it kinda turns into either she and I wait on him or he and she wait on me.

And one night while we wait we, being young bright eyed 20-somethings get existential and talk about being curious about this or that sexuality wise. It's like 2 am and ended up learning the roommate bf had passed out back at the room. So, the three of us share everything together so we know porn preference and interests, some in a vague level and most on an "omfg look at this" sharing level, and she mentions curiousity towards women. She says she has basically moved to only watching WLW stuff. But is very much still attracted to men too. I of course say you like what you like and labels can come later but if what's you want then you should let you be happy. No guilt. And of course not taking my own advice, I mention my whole sexuality gender curious mess as best as I could understand it at the time and we both kinda just ...clicked. Neither of us actually came out until a literal decade later but that night things kinda settled into a "yup they're mine for life and if anyone hurts them they die" kinda relationship.

Well

Bf became ex bf surprisingly out of nowhere. I knew this guy better than myself but I get a call at like 2pm from BFF out of NO WHERE. And she never calls me out the blue. I answer it and am just told in a very shakey voice "(pet name) can you come over? I need to talk"

And I know nothing about what's just gone down until she opens the door and falls into me crying "x broke up with me" and then my whole day and night from then on is just caring for her. Ice cream, movies, etc. I take one moment to step out when her mom and dad come home to get us food and also drinks. Vodka and lemonade cause...college duh. And I stop by my room to get some of my stuff and I cross paths with X. And we kinda chat and just goes "so. I broke up with BFF."

"Yeah I heard. You doing okay? Shes kinda..."

"I'm as alright as I can be. Imma head home for the weekend to kinda breathe but yeah. I'm okay and from how you're asking, no I have no problem with you helping her and kinda expected you to. She needs you more than I need you right now. I live with you, we can get drunk later in the week and talk stuff. I'll see you Monday "

So I do just that. Get us drinks, we throw on bond movies, sing songs, share stories, hug, snug under the blanket never ever slightly watching the movies, etc and just all around I let her vent, distract her, do whatever I can to help.

And just from that point on we just...idk. Soul linked I guess lol

She describes is as having told her husband "I believe in friend-soul mates and that's her(me) and (other friend)."

So

There lol that's my best friend and I love her and will til I die.

[sysig]

I also like how my first Battle Card design was basically just a Pokemon Card with two extra moves like

Wow very creative and original and useful, not at all a cumbersome design to know exactly everything about the Pokemon that is now part of my team and has cool abilities and stuff

And then I was suddenly hit with the much much better idea to not do that and instead ended up with this

Infinitely better