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alparlaboratories · 2 months ago

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Yuri Game Jam 2024 - Retrospective, thoughts and five recommendations.

As my favorite yearly pre-holidays tradition, the Yuri Game Jam has once again come and gone, giving us a staggering 110 games, comics, zines and pieces of writing to gnaw on for the remainder of the year. The timing is, as always, on point. A 2-month period where I’m given the task to make something is just what I need to keep the stress of the dying year at bay and avoid losing my mind, and I’m sure it’s the same for a lot of us.

And though the Yuri Game Jam has been going strong for nearly ten years and I’ve only been part of the last two, I’m amazed by how much it’s grown. Not just in the amount of entries, but in the scope and craft of the games themselves. I always strive to play every single entry from a jam I’m part of to the best of my ability, and though I haven’t gone back yet and played the submissions for the eight yuri jams I’ve missed (like with everything, I just gotta find the time) just comparing last year to this one gives me a lot of appreciation for the people who put so much work into it, especially those I recognized from 2023’s jam, whose craft has definitely evolved. And some others making their debut who absolutely blew my socks off with their entries. More on that soon.

Regardless, hi. My current online moniker is Inyssa; I’m an Argentinian creature who’s very new to the world of Original English Visual Novels, and someone new to VNs in general, but who’s fallen in love with the genre and wants to learn all about it. I’ve made two VNs so far (Don’t Die Digging and Blunt Soul Trauma) both for Yuri jams, though I still feel like I have a lot to learn, which is why I try to play as many OEVNs as possible, and also read/watch what inspired them.

I’m not in the habit of writing long pieces like this one, but I just had a lot of thoughts bouncing off after playing a good chunk of the entries for this year, and I had to get them out somehow. So here we are.

First off, a shoutout and big thanks to nadia nova and SabrinaTVBand, the organizers of the jam and two amazing creators in their own right.

So here’s my idea. I’ll give a small introduction to my thoughts on this year’s jam after this, and then I’ll recommend five (maybe a few more) recommendations from this jam for you to play. Except a top-5 would be, I fear, a little repetitive. I know what I like in terms of VNs, and if I just listed my five favorites there’d be a bunch of the same type of VN, which is not my intention. I want a little variety.

As such, I’ll list out five different types of games, five categories decided completely arbitrarily by me, and assign a ‘best game’ to each of them. Because while I went through these entries, there were times I saved the heavy ones for when I was in the right headspace, and some of the softer ones for when I needed a break. So hopefully there’ll be a little something here for everyone.

Yeah? Yeah.

Some barely-connected thoughts about this jam, and my impressions so far.

Again, I’m speaking as someone who’s only been here for the past two jams, so I’m not sure how much insight I can give here. It’s just my thoughts and my impressions.

What caught my attention the most about this year’s jam, what pleasantly surprised me, was the variety of submissions. And I don’t mean that in genre or themes. Though there is a very healthy mix of those, but it’s more the types of stories, the way they were told and crafted, the skill that went behind them, that was so nice to see. And not to say it wasn’t good last year. I was just as impressed in 2023, playing game after game the likes of which I didn’t know I could have access to before.

And it’s not until I had this year to compare it to, I think, that I noticed how much more diverse the jam has gotten. And less streamlined, more blurry in a good way when it comes to intent, craft and themes in a way that kind of feels like a genre’s growth into something like negative capability, though that’s maybe too much to speculate for someone so new to it.

To put it more plainly, looking back I see a lot of what seem like similar through-lines, similar family trees you could say in the way a good number of the games were made, in what they reminded me of. You could tell there were some convergent inspirations. Which is common when it comes to artists and writers who know each other, and who surely recommend other works to each other that they’re particular to. Vonnegut, Nabokov, Mishima, Joseph Heller, Dennis Cooper, Dostoevsky and a pinch and a dash of Mark L. Danielewski; those are a few of the authors I kept thinking back on in retrospect as I re-visited last year’s games. And while they are fantastic inspirations, there’s a lot of intersecting lines in between them. A cultural and geographical quirk/fascination for a type of individualistic apathy that’s to be expected in a mostly English-speaking jam, and certainly not something that made me enjoy it or those games any less, but a scope I’m very happy to see widen in 2024’s set of submissions.

It’s just nice to have variety, you know? Also a bigger pool of myth re-imaginings and re-tellings, which I’m so happy to see this year. One of my favorite parts of any game jam is to play/read something and then immediately go experience whatever it was inspired by, and that this year’s jam gave me that opportunity many more times shows its growth alone, in my opinion.

And now I’ll give some examples. Not all of the categories will be about what I wrote above; there’ll still be a good amount of that goodness reminiscent of last year that made me fall in love with the jam in the first place. But there’ll be more of it than last time for sure.

In any case, here’s my five recommendations (plus a couple more) of games to play from this jam, each with an accompanying song of my choosing, most/all from my own country. We make good music, what do you want me to say?

Without further ado:

5 - “Porque no hay tiempo de amargarse ni llorar por un pasar mejor (Because there's no time to cry and feel bitter about what might’ve been).”

(Or: Psychosexual capitalist hellscape games)

Accompanying song: Cartonero by Ataque 77

This is, I’m sure, what many know the Yuri Game Jam best for, its bread and butter. And for good reason. You go to your favorite neighborhood food joint for the sandwich that reminds you of home, and you go to this particular game jam for the sopping wet pathetic girlthings being ground into paste by the masticating gears of capitalism.

This year’s crop didn’t disappoint on that front. It was actually hell to decide a best for this category.

But ultimately, I think the spot has to go to Heatwave by deaddeaddeath.

Content warnings: Dehumanization, self-harm, blood and violence, religious and sexual abuse, and more. Carefully look over the CWs in the game page before playing.

As I said before, this was so, so difficult. I knew that Heatwave deserved a recommendation as soon as I played it; one of the first games I played from the jam, actually. And then I played so many more that were just as good in that regard. Games that could’ve just as easily taken this spot… but none who reached this level of excellence, if only by a hair’s width.

One of those games is EasyXShot, which could’ve been the one chosen had I written this list some other day. It really was that close (if this were a straight-up top five, EasyxShot would be up there) and it’s a game that deserves to be played as long as you read the CWs beforehand. It has an immaculate dynamic between its two main characters, which is all you need to build a story really, but this one goes above and beyond. Another is No Dogs Under Heaven, which isn’t as much about capitalism, but definitely about grinding and crushing. Though it’s unfinished as of the time of me writing this, it made someone like me who has zero religious trauma deeply, deeply uncomfortable in a way I look for in these types of games, and also deserves a recommendation.

Anyway, onto Heatwave.

Catgirl suffers in capitalist hellscape

…is the main tag for the game, and it’s accurate. Angel (it/its) is a young cat hybrid who is in a not thoroughly explained and dubiously-consensual relationship with an older woman who runs a bar, living upstairs and helping her with whatever it can, whether it be its body or its skills. Unfortunately, even this isn’t enough for Angel to earn a living, and her caretaker needs money to keep it at her side. Left with no other choices, Angel applies to be a guide for the Heatwave, an impossibly vast and physics-defying space in between spots in the world where a blisteringly hot suburban landscape stretches into infinity, sapping the will and sanity of all who enter without being able to navigate it, which Angel seems to have an aptitude for. What follows is one of the best visual novels I’ve ever played.

Above, I said that I appreciate games that spark in me the curiosity to go and experience what they were based on, and Heatwave did that twice for me. Once with Roadside Picnic, and once for Not I (although that one isn’t as tied to the game per se).

But beyond that, I picked Heatwave for this spot because I genuinely think every part of it just works.

Writing, first and foremost. The prose is raw and evocative, a gut punch through words for every one there is textually within the story, and it reads so beautifully on top of that. ‘...wait until its shrapnel thoughts caltrop picasso’, as another reviewer commented, is one hell of a descriptive phrase. It’s the kind of prose that makes the eyes stick to every word.

The sound design and the use of sound assets is perfect for the setting. The visuals and the way they’re programmed, the sharp, static-y cut-ins and the PC-98 reminiscent decorative boxes around the game and around the character portraits are beautiful, and so are the portraits themselves. The expressions, the little facial animations, everything makes me want to learn how to do it myself.

Not to mention Del and Angel’s relationship, which is like watching a train speed full-steam ahead onto a concrete wall, and being unable to do anything about it. Angel’s struggles, its quirks and triggers and everything else about it is so well-thought out, and it’s all integrated into the setting of the game itself, into the Heatwave in a way that tells a story on top of another story without words.

Heatwave is an incredible piece of art, and it’s what I hope to see every time I play one of these games.

4 - “Los viejos reyes vendrán con la tempestad (The old kings will come riding atop the storm).”

(Or: Re-imaginings of myths and folklore.)

Accompanying song: El Reino Olvidado by Rata Blanca.

I couldn’t be happier that we’re spoiled for choice here, difficult though it makes choosing a best one amongst all these games. Though it’s not specifically mythological stories I wanted more of. It’s more the subtle differences like fingerprints that you can sometimes see in works made by non primarily English-speaking teams or developers, even if I’m not sure all the ones mentioned here count for that. Still, part of the reason I’ve been toying with the idea of launching a Global South game jam is to bring a little more spotlight to these kinds of stories, and to have them for myself so I can experience them, of course.

There were four games vying for this spot. First there’s Lanú, who I almost made the winner mostly because it’s a promising demo with an ambiance and a setting that really appeals to me, also being a Spanish-speaker, and the fact it’s also available in that language is a huge bonus.

Second is Night on the Bayou, a hilarious and very competently-made game about a Lousiana deadwoman rising from her grave as all specters do at the same time of year, and going on a quest to marry to her beloved before her time is up and she has to go back to the bayou. The art and the sprites are gorgeous, and it was also this close to winning the spot.

Third is Prisoner of the Mist, a beautiful T4T re-imagining of a few Scottish and Gaelic myths with a lot of love and originality thrown in. Very moving, very gay. I’d definitely recommend trying it out if any of that appeals to you.

But yeah, in the end it is Larut that takes the cake.

Fuck, the art of this game is gorgeous.

And not just the spritework, though that’s flawless on its own, but the whole presentation of the game, almost like reading an illustrated book of an old myth, the kind I used to read as a kid to give myself nightmares. Not to say that the game falls squarely in the horror category. It leans more psychological on that front, and there’s a good deal of intrigue and godly politicking going on that makes you want to know more.

Larut is a re-telling of the Indonesian myth of Nyi Roro Kidul, the godly Queen of the Southern Sea, a figure as enigmatic as she is regally charming, and who sees fit to take a young woman under her fins after she’s lost everything at the hand of her abusive family, making her into her lady-in-waiting. Said woman, Kandita, becomes grateful and infatuated with Nyi Noro Kidul in equal measures, to worrying degrees.

To what extent is this within the queen’s expectations, however, is not clear.

Despite being a re-telling of an already existing myth, the care and meticulous detail that went into every aspect of this game is easily on par with the best of myth adaptations. As I said before, I could see this being sold as an illustrated book in a library and I wouldn’t bat an eye. It’s clear the developers, artists and writers were not only on the same page, but knew exactly what they were doing, exactly what they wanted to make from this myth.

And they succeeded with flying colors. Do yourself a favor and give it a try; it’s not every day you get the chance to learn about mythology in such a beautiful way.

3 - “Quiero besarla hasta sentir dolor (I want to kiss her until it hurts.)”

(Or: So, how ‘bout that yuri?)

Accompanying song: Enamorada by Miranda.

Picking the best yuri out of the whole of the biggest Yuri Game Jam so far is as much of a tall order as I imagined, but at least the other four categories were able to take some games to themselves, because otherwise this would be impossible.

In terms of queer relationships, character dynamics and just the vibes of the yuri, there’s going to be a lot of room for debate. I’m not judging any of these in terms of real-life relationships. Nor am I trying to find the coolest, most interesting character dynamic; you could say this is a spot for something softer, a break from the intensity and trauma of the other categories.

It’s about girls kissing, is what I’m trying to communicate.

But it is also about vibes, about what game I enjoyed the most while being mostly invested in the main couple, if that makes sense. If not, sorry. I just want to talk about this specific handful of stories. First come the honorable mentions, though:

Gap Moe Mob Boss is exactly what it says on the tin; a harsh, commanding dog-girl mob boss comes back from prison to find another gang trying to encroach in her territory, and she must balance her role as a mafioso with her desire to spend all her time in the café where her bunny-girl crush works. It’s sweet, it’s nice to play and it has more research into organized crime than you’d think. Then there’s The Delicate Hearts of Sincerely Affectionate Girls, a hand-drawn and colored comic about someone coming to terms with her identity and the way in which she sees love, different from those around her. It’s hard to find good non-traditional romance, and this one is very realistic and sweet on top of that, so give it a try. Finally there’s Mechanical Relations, straight from the creator of my favorite entry for this year’s Menhera game jam; a short, adorable RPG about a robot girl and her girlfriend crashing into a scrap planet and having sex while waiting to be rescued. Simple, but effective.

The spot, though, ultimately goes to Signal Strength because I think it deserves the spotlight.

This is a videotome game about a small group of lesbians who work at an agricultural research station and a radio communications center in some far-off moon away from Earth, with little to do every day except talk to each other online or riding tractors. Ming, who works at the former, is bored out of her mind. With little else to do, she comes up with the idea of filming a home-made children’s show for her little sibling, using what little resources she and her friends can gather and roping them into acting and filming roles, including her ex and radio operator, who is very awkward around her.

Signal Strength might be the shortest of the games mentioned for this category, but there’s just something about it. It’s a simple game, but everything feels on point. The videotome aspect and vibes of the whole thing are immaculate; it feels as though you’re watching it all through a cheap video camera, and the ambient rural sounds are very well picked and utilized.

Though it’s the setting and how the characters react to that made me fall in love with it. It really feels like watching a group of young queer people stuck in a rural area who have to come up with their own entertainment, and there’s something so charming about it. Not to mention that the main relationship of the game is as realistically painful as these things usually are, especially when everyone knows each other where you live.

Also I thought the ending was very cute and appropriate.

It really is a nice, bite-sized gem of yuri, and that’s exactly what I wanted for this category, so go play Signal Strength. I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

2 - “I don’t actually have lyrics for this one.”

(Or: The best executed concept/well put together game).

Accompanying song: Fine, a small break from Argentinian rock. Go listen to the opening song for the 90’s anime adaptation of B’t X, it fucks.

I wanted a category where I could talk about the games I thought worked well from front to end, the ones that had a concept and executed it perfectly or those that were really nicely crafted, though I’m not talking about production values.

Basically, the games where I didn’t have anything I would’ve personally fixed about it. The ones I looked at and thought ‘Yep, everything’s perfectly in place, what a tight narrative, it’s exactly what it needs to be’. Believe it or not, it’s hell to do that on purpose.

And how wonderful that there were enough of these that I had trouble deciding, but also how stressful. These are the honorable mentions.

I feel bad I couldn’t give the spot to Monstrous Deep Blue, so you should go play it. The concept is simple; what if a tokusatsu episode but with sad trans girls who are terrible at expressing their emotions and being honest with each other? And it’s so well-executed. The story is exactly as long and as well-written as any of the best tokusatsu eps. and the spritework is adorable, not to mention the characters themselves. It’s a good one.

Then there’s Meat Girl! I loved this one. A short RPG about a girl who goes to the forest in search of her girlfriend who vanished months ago, but whom she couldn’t search for before because she was too numb and depressed. And in the meantime, it seems, said girlfriend has made friends with an angel who seems to want something from her. Also meat. Also mycelium networks. It’s short but quite punchy, definitely give it a try.

Anyway, I think the most impressive game of this jam is Bridgewater Deepwood Access Radio.

I would kill for Zinnia Braxton.

But anyway, this was the latest entry out of any of the ones in this list, but as soon as I finished playing I knew it deserved a mention. Even though it’s just a demo, it’s the game I enjoyed playing/reading the most, and I was really impressed all throughout by the care and polish that went into every little detail, big or insignificant.

Bridgewater Deepwood Access Radio is about a pair of lesbian coworkers who do a late-night paranormal radio show together, taking calls and listening to people’s supposed paranormal stories, injecting their own thoughts and theories in between. Reb is the romantic out of the romantic/detective dichotomy, maybe not fully buying every story but doing her best to let people be heard, while Zinnia is very much on the opposite camp, a stubborn and sometimes rude skeptic that can barely wait for people to finish telling their stories before shooting ten different holes into them.

The dynamic is really well-written, first of all. Skeptic/believer is a classic for a reason, one of my favorites, and adding Reb and Zinnia’s wildly different personalities and the way they’re both obviously into each other yet only one seems aware is very entertaining to read. Also they’re funny. This game is really funny, which is something that’s hard to do on purpose.

Then there’s the framing of the story. Though six (or more) are planned for the full release, the demo counts with four callers, each one with their own paranormal story to tell, each written and illustrated by a different person, to give the whole thing a bigger ‘anthology’ feel. And it’s hard to overstate just how much that helps the concept.

Though there were four of them, I couldn’t pick a favorite out of the callers/stories told in the demo. Each is unsettling in a very different way. Each draws you in as much as it does Reb and Zinnia, until the latter has a harder and harder time denying something weird is going on. Not to mention the music and the illustrations that every separate artist/composer provide adds to its own tale wonderfully.

Then there’s the honestly beautiful UI work. You look at the girls as though from behind a producer booth, complete with a multitude of buttons and switches and little doodads you can stim with while you experience each of the stories, each one with their own distinct and satisfying click-y sound. And it’s not just the outline. Every visual and audio touch to the UI transitions, to the main menu, even to the transitions of the scenes themselves is so polished and satisfying to experience.

I can’t imagine how much work from so many different people must’ve gone into this. A real team effort. And after playing it, I had to give it a topping spot on this list just on that alone, even if there’s many more reasons why I think it deserves it.

Not the least of which being that out of all the unfinished games on this jam, this is the one I want to see continued the most. I remain on the edge of my seat.

1 - “Pero no detendrán la primavera (But you won’t stop Spring from coming.)”

(Or: A shield of love and a spear of pure spite against the onslaught of fascism)

(Or: “You can’t all be posting on twitter, some of you fuckers gotta help your community”)

Accompanying song: Primavera by La Mancha de Rolando.

This might be the least populated, least complicated of the five categories, but it’s the one that matters to me the most. And while there are a handful of games that could fit here if I stretched the definition a little, there’s only one I feel really deserves both the mention and the spot, and I want to jump straight into it because I have a lot to say here.

She Was Swallowed by the Sun is my favorite game of this year’s Yuri Game Jam. Which doesn’t surprise me, as the people who made it, Snek (writer), Blood Machine (artist) and CØL (music) are also responsible for another one of my favorites from last year’s jam, and I am obsessed with everything they make together.

Content Warnings: Bloody yet consensual sex scenes, state violence and sexual assault, unrelenting and suffocating fascism, gore, body horror and a lot more. Please read the game’s CWs written in the Main Menu and consider them before playing.

Previously I talked about how glad I was for the widening scope of this year’s crop of games in terms of themes and apparent inspirations, and while maybe running similar paths to some of those I mentioned, She Was Swallowed by the Sun veers in a completely different direction, in a good way. I’ll explain with a bit of a tangent before getting into the game proper:

Many of the transgressive fiction I’ve played on itch.io since developing an interest in OEVNs have done a very good job at depicting the realities of being queer, of being part of any minority while living under capitalism or fascism, probably far better than I could, and that’s part of what keeps me coming back to certain authors in the sphere. But there’s sometimes aspects of said games that fail to resonate with me fully. The… to put it unfairly, somewhat apathetic and individualistic view of one’s fate when living under these conditions does resonate, it’s true and raw and something I’m always happy to see, but there’s something about the flavor, the way it’s written that clashes with my own experiences having grown up where I have.

I guess it feels like it lacks some bite, compared to what I grew up reading? Which is no fault of the writing itself; not every story, not even this type, needs that kind of bite and I don’t want to imply that it makes those stories lesser in any way. I’m just describing the feeling of welcomed surprise that comes when you go to a restaurant in a foreign country and they make food exactly how you’re used to eating it back home.

To put it bluntly, and not to toot my own horn but more that of those who came before me, our works of the same genre tend to skew more hopeful and defiant than the Anglo/Euro/American literature I’ve been catching up on these past few years. I guess having been the first Latin-American country to put its CIA-backed dictators to trial, and to force the man responsible for the death and disappearance of over 30.000 of our most vulnerable to die cold and alone in a cell, shitting himself to death, does give you a bit of an ego when it comes to standing up fascism.

And right now, with those who would gladly follow in his footsteps, who would gladly throw our culture and history away and and gag on America’s cock currently in charge of our country, with our most vulnerable at risk again… Hopefully you can understand why I’d appreciate a game like She Was Swallowed by the Sun so much. A game about willing to put a bullet in your own head if it comes out the other end and goes into a fascist’s skull as well.

Anyway, enough about that. Watch Argentina 1985 if you wanna learn more, but now let’s get back to the game.

She Was Swallowed by the Sun stars One, a woman who was sent to prison for the supposed crime of trying to grow a Godseed, a dubious artifact that if fed by One’s body and the right amount of ‘shrines’ in specific locations, has the power to ‘call the sun’. To say more on that front would be spoilers. After spending a long time in prison, hiding the Godseed from the state within her own body, she returns to her old home where Anhedonia, her girlfriend and the one who’s been slipping her drugs that allowed her to halt the Godseed’s growth inside her, is waiting for her.

What follows is nearly 30k words of One and Anhedonia’s daily life as they continue their revolutionary work, using One’s body to feed the Godseed -which causes her indescribable pain- and putting in place all the necessary shrines for the day of reckoning, the only chance anyone might have to deal a fatal blow to the fascist state they live under.

And in the meantime, knowing full well that their deaths are swiftly approaching, One and Anhedonia live their lives. They cook stuff for each other, they go out on dates, they have bloody sex on multiple occasions and they hang out with their only friend now and then, being adorable gay dorks.

If that contrast sounds as interesting to you as it did to me, you might get why I love this game so much. Of course that balance can’t last forever. Of course things deteriorate. The Godseed continually feasts on One’s insides, sprouting eyes all over her that give her a near-divine cognizance that’s too much to bear, and the price she and Anhedonia have to pay in order to make it to the end is more than either of them can mentally or physically stand, and yet they do it anyway. To say more would, again, be spoilers, but the rounding third of the game is a series of scenes that feel like a knife is being twisted inside your gut continuously.

And yet One and Anhedonia never stop being cute, gay dorks in love with each other.

It’s not just the unfathomable acts of love they perform for each other, it’s not just the determination to die for their cause or the unfairness of it all. It’s the feeling that this is something that must have happened in the real world, multiple times.

She Was Swallowed by the Sun does not pull its punches. Its setting might have some fantastical elements, but the pain and oppressive hold of fascism are very real. And that, combined with the way the story itself is resolved, feels almost like a love story to those who have died maybe not for the righteous wish for a better tomorrow, but simply because they can’t live unless they push back.

The way self-sacrifice is shown in the game is refreshing. It’s often not a decision taken in the heat of the moment but a series of decisions taken deliberately over the course of months if not years. It’s sitting alongside the people you love and every day choosing to further a plan that you know will kill you, or them, or all of you, because you just have to. Those around you wouldn’t love you if you chose to do anything else.

And the way that is shown, brought to a boil and then a post-conflagration simmer deserves all the praise I can give. I love this shit. I love this game. If you can stomach the content warnings, I’d say give it a chance to make you love it too.

Closing thoughts

Hard to believe that a couple people working together to organize an event like this, plus all the support and encouragement from the other jammers in the Discord server, is all it takes to bring over a hundred yuri games into the world.

It boggles the mind to see a niche like this grow so much year after year, and it makes me very excited to see what 2025’s gonna bring on that front. Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing some shonen yuri VNs. Nadia nova has done some good work there already, but there can always be more.

And again, big thanks to nadia and SabrinaTVBand for making this all possible and for moderating the community out of the goodness in their hearts. This jam means a lot to me, and a lot of people, and without it we wouldn’t have so many incredible games.

Until next year then, and do try to give these reccs a try. I’d bet you’re not gonna be disappointed.

#yuri game jam 2024 #visual novel #yuri #queer games #retrospective #larut #signal strength #heatwave #she was swallowed by the sun #bridgewater deepwood access radio

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cormorant-red · 1 year ago

Text

I played 999 recently at @xivu-arath's recommendation, and I had so much fun that (inspired by that one polygon video) I illustrated my liveblog about it!

If you haven't played 999 and you are even a little bit intrigued by a puzzle/mystery visual novel with multiple timelines that all guide you towards wild plot twists...probably don't read the text! 999 is the kind of story that is best experienced with no knowledge besides the basic premise.

Transcript below the cut:

Cormorant: characters in this game really just say shit like "have you heard the story about the crystallization of glycerin?"

as a matter of fact i haven't, june, please enlighten me

Storm: "I know we're stuck in a freezer but. let's talk about weird mythical science!"

Cormorant: it's also killing me that junpei is dressed like marty mcfly and isn't sharing any of his jackets

-----

Cormorant: this game is leading me to arrive at mathematical concepts on my own. what the heck

Storm: kshgushhsg

I take it you're having a good time then

Cormorant: trying to check lotus's work and it turns out that no matter what group i arrange to take through a door, the people left behind will always have the same digital root

so to get through door 7 with snake missing, i could either send a group with sum 16 (junpei, ace, clover, and june) or with sum 25 (clover, june, seven, and lotus), but it doesn't matter because the remainder always have root 9 and can't get through doors 3 or 8! wild!

Storm: yeah the numbers and which doors end up barred to you is so cleverly deliberate

-----

Cormorant: i'm glad i finally checked what novel mode meant, because this is way more fun

Santa cocked his head to one side, like an inquisitive bird, and looked at them.

After several long moments, during which it became apparent that Santa had no idea what the cards meant, June took pity on him.

i'll have to go back and redo the beginning after i get to the first ending

Storm: oh yeah! as I recall that was done differently when it was originally a dual screen game... but it's much better when in novel style. gimme all the descriptions

-----

Cormorant: I had a long day of sitting though presentations and so I entertained myself by calculating digital roots

I discovered that adding 9 or any multiple of 9 to a number has no effect on the digital root, which is awfully interesting bc I got to the part where snake gets killed. Assuming door 3 was opened with 12 and not 21, the options are 7+3 (motive?), 6+4 (they’d both have to be REALLY good actors), or 9+1. And if bracelets work without a body attached, and if ace picked it up in door 5…

That would be a really useful tool to get around the 3-person minimum without altering the digital root

I’m also very intrigued by the theory that zero is also in the game but I don’t know what to do with that yet

Storm: forlornly having to keep myself from saying literally anything

Cormorant: Understandable, please don’t give me any hints! I’m just calling shots for the joy of being wrong

-----

Cormorant: and how do you know that, my traitorous friend?

Santa: “The RED doesn’t need a person, you know.”

Santa: “All I need is the bracelet.”

-----

Cormorant: y’know what i think he’s bluffing. he does need June specifically and that’s why he refused to consider leaving her when they first found door 9. if all he needed was a hostage, he could have grabbed junpei and forced ace to come along, and then he would be dealing with two people under duress instead of three

i peeked at a guide and apparently i found the ending adjacent to the true ending(?) first, oh well. time to see the others!

santa: i said i don't want to leave seven alone

me: bud you can't do a heroic sacrifice too, it'll mess up all the math

reader, he was not doing a heroic sacrifice

-----

Storm: got any character opinions or theories to share so far?

Cormorant: hmm I’ve got soft spots for santa and lotus maybe just because they were in the first group I went with. I like that the game makes a point of showing that lotus is quick with the math/technical knowledge. I warmed up to clover and seven more than I expected to! I have no evidence to mistrust ace….but I don’t trust him

Snake died before I before I could say two words to him

Or…didn’t. Forgot clover said he didn’t

I got info about the previous experiments from clover and I wonder if we’re like…reenacting the past somehow? Experiencing morphogenetic resonance with the last voyage?

Again no evidence i just wonder where the pseudoscience is going

Storm: santa was so my type as soon as I started playing that I just picked all rooms with him on my first run skugrhsghu

Cormorant: AHAHA that makes me feel better about going “yeahhh door 4 I like the cut of this guy’s jib”

-----

Cormorant: “the bracelet comes off when your heart rate reaches zero” interesting then that we’ve brought up cryostasis

-----

Cormorant: i simply don't trust him not to have a spare bracelet in his pocket!!!

They climbed into the elevator and Junpei listened to it creak and rattle its way to the bottom deck. Only Junpei, Ace, and Lotus were left.

As the elevator rumbled out of sight, Ace spoke.

Ace: “Lotus, would you be so kind as to go with me?”

Cormorant: “bad end” YEAH I’LL SAY

Storm: lkksghr yeah there's a few of those!

Cormorant: santa was really quick to declare that he, june, and seven needed to go with clover. waht's his game

june and ace could have done it just as easily

Storm: they could have! good catch

maybe he just thinks seven is cooler than ace,

Cormorant: i'm imagining clover taking all her grisly trophies to the door only to find it already engaged, because lotus needed no persuading,

and regarding the true ending requirements, it's also funny that santa's like "i hate this bookmark! get it out of my sight!" and this is a huge help in junpei befriending the girl who's otherwise about to snap

Storm: load bearing bookmark

Cormorant: good thing you threw that tantrum bud or you would have been killed with an axe

-----

Cormorant: in my suspicions i forgot a critical detail, which is that he didn't actually go into the door with the body this time

of course seven has been propping doors open, so it really could have been anybody

-----

Cormorant: "where have these 16 boys and girls disappeared to?" eight for each game and then an experimenter? again with the idea that zero might be in the game...

-----

Cormorant: bad endings complete! on to the normal ending, which hopefully has less of junpei getting stabbed to death

puzzling over who could have done all those murders, especially in the sub ending...or did everyone get killed? clover thinks that snake's death was faked. or did snake do all the murders, since he was the only one unaccounted for?...and then i remember what kind of game i'm playing. can't discount the ice mummy as a suspect.

Storm: you truly cannot ignore the possibility of the ice mummy

-----

Cormorant: ah no, so santa's sister was the kid that died...

i can't figure out the connection between events! why did the last games have the veneer of a science experiment, while this one has no context given? why was it all kids last time, and a random mix of ages this time, with some repeat subjects?

-----

Cormorant: called it!!!!

Junpei: “Ace, Guy X, and the 9th Man’s bracelet.”

Junpei: “That was all you needed to open door [3].”

Cormorant: called it before i even got to an ending ehehe

what i’ve been saying!!

Ace: “(9) is a potent ally in the Nonary Game.”

Ace: “Adding (9) to any set of numbers won’t alter the digital root.”

Ace: “As you can see, (9) is a very useful number here.”

Ace: “With it, one can go anywhere, with anyone.”

Ace: “It is, I suppose you could say, a game changer.”

-----

Cormorant: okay, normal ending finished! junpei did not get stabbed but we also didn’t resolve much…I’m now thinking that ace with his pocket drugs could have easily played dead in the sub ending

glad to see that snake is okay and hopefully can stay okay in the true ending. where did clover get that riddle, and will she still have it?

0=6. how much do I read into this

still don’t understand how we get from here to santa hostage situation. he’s been so consistent about not even considering betraying or abandoning people, so either he’s a better actor than ace…or it’s staged. are he and june in cahoots

Storm: augh so close now!! soon I can actually say things

-----

Cormorant: O FUCK

Seven: “Santa’s always in the room with her. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”

Snake: “Yes, that’s right.”

Clover: “What about it…?”

Snake: “That’s quite simple, really.”

Snake: “You told me that the first time you came to this room…”

Snake: “…Santa was the first to refuse to leave June behind.”

Snake: “Now, doesn’t that beg the question “why?” Why would Santa do such a thing?”

Snake: “The answer is easy.”

Storm: B)

Cormorant: i've been thinking of them as a pair because it makes the math easier! if you've got 3 + 6 + 8, just cross out the ones that make 9 and don't even bother with the addition, your root is 8

Storm: B) B) B)

Cormorant: but god!! they are a pair, do not separate (or the jig is up)

Storm: they hid it soooo well

-----

Cormorant: was wondering when we would see the last cradle guy and oh duh, he was guy X

i did think it was odd that santa phrased it as "i need to leave two of you behind" rather than "i need three of you to come with me," but if he was responsible for everything (most things?), he knew that snake was there, and he was setting up a group that could follow him. excited to see where this is going!

[dreamy sigh] this game is so elegant. what a little puzzle box

Storm: yeah it is, it's just so wonderfully crafted. so little is wasted!

-----

Cormorant: oh boy [akane vision label]

"through the morphic fieldset we were resonant, and we were as one" i don't think i've mentioned it before but i'm constantly pleasantly surprised by the narration in this game. it's not flashy but it's evocative in a way that's really working for me

Storm: this is where the port falls short a bit of the original version... the ds really worked well with this aspect

-----

Cormorant: the number of times i thought "this will be totally wrong but i'll say it to storm anyway"

hello??? [arrow pointing back to the message “I wonder if we’re like…reenacting the past somehow? Experiencing morphogenetic resonance with the last voyage?”]

Storm: Y E A H

Cormorant: laser-guided spitballing

-----

Cormorant: man i said that 4+6 would have to be really good actors if they were the ones that opened door 3...and while they didn't kill snake, i sure underestimated our queen of the stage akane kurashiki

the baseline was NOT where i thought it was

Storm: no one does it like her

#zero escape #999 #999 spoilers #'i'm calling shots for the joy of being wrong' <- girl who just correctly identified the murderer #i wanted to include more back-and-forth but i didn't have enough notes and illustrations to pad it. storm still got the last word in hehe #talk tag #THIS is what the waiting until the ink is dry post was about.#i went and got a new kneaded eraser because my old one was fossilized. are you all happy

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foxglovegames · 6 months ago

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Trouble Comes Twice - the Postmortem

We celebrated Trouble Comes Twice's anniversary around a month ago! We'd hoped to post this postmortem back then as well, but it's taken us a moment to find the right words haha.

Anyway, we hope that this postmortem can give our players and other visual novel devs some insight into what the development process looked like for us. It's also a great way for us to look back at what went well and what went less well.

We'll be taking about the ideation phase, our (lack of) marketing for the Kickstarter, and also sharing (what we can) on our earnings from the game!

Coming up with Trouble Comes Twice

The original tone of Trouble Comes Twice was a lot more comedic and packed to the brim with anime tropes we enjoy. Most didn't make it into the final game, but some stayed and evolved e.g. all of the love interests are based on popular visual novel archetypes - the childhood friend, the tomboy, the shy girl, and the bad boy.

Some, like Cameron and Zoe, changed a lot from their concept while Adrian and Stephanie stayed quite loyal to our original ideas of them. Cameron's character actually underwent the most changes after the initial reception to the demo, where a lot of people felt like he was too much of an ass haha. (Fortunately, he became a fan favorite when we dropped the new demo!)

The premise with the bet was something we invented to create some drama and establish a common plot thread throughout each route. Honestly, looking back, we would probably have approached the bet differently if we wrote it today and a lot of our pre-planning was... clumsy, at best. Still, it was a labor of love and I'll never forget the fun and excitement we had everyday balling ideas for the characters and coming up with their designs.

As Melli and I are just writers with limited coding experience, we worked with a past game jam friend to code the GUI and set up the base for the game (though the actual scripting was done by us and Melli put everything together in the end). Our biggest expenses pre- and post-demo was the character art and CGs, meanwhile we relied on free music and BG packs to save money.

Why a bisexual romcom?

So, this was sort of a no-brainer to us. We had decided right from the start that both twins could date both the male and female love interests, and (at the time) we feel that a lot of similar games had playersexual MCs rather than established bisexual/pansexual MCs. While playersexual charas are also awesome, we wanted to write a romcom where the main cast are always queer regardless of who you end up romancing.

At the same time, bi/pan people don't all approach romantic relationships the same way e.g. Cameron is confident and has experience dating people of all genders, while Adrian's demi and Jace still struggles a bit with his attraction towards men. We know that some of our players felt like that made certain routes less romantic than others and we hear you on that feedback and have 100% taken it into consideration for our future romance games. But anyway, that was our thought process behind Trouble Comes Twice's romance dynamics!

Preparing for Kickstarter & the actual Campaign

Our Kickstarter launched at the start of August and let me tell you, we were nowhere near as prepared as we should have been. 😭 We hadn't set up a Steam page yet, we were trailer-less, and we only had a couple of hundred followers across our socials at best. I feel that there's a lot more successful Kickstarter projects to refer to and even a lot of marketing guides and advice now, but mostly it's on us for not researching more.

The Kickstarter campaign did surprisingly well despite the lack of promotion and only having a rough alpha demo - we were even able to double our goal! - but we wouldn't recommend what we did for other devs.

You should invest time into making a good demo, spend time building an interested audience before launching your campaign, and research so you've got some kind of marketing plan. We were lucky with word-of-mouth and that other visual novel devs with larger followings helped share our game, but we should have made more effort reaching out to bloggers, streamers, and game sites. Some crowdfunding successes may seem like they came out of nowhere and were just pure luck, but there's usually a lot of grinding behind-the-scenes that you don't notice.

The post-Kickstarter era, at least for us, was the harder bit. We now had 353 loyal backers who had expectations based on promises we had made and we had to make sure we met those expectations while also staying true to our wants as the devs. It was a learning process for sure, but we're fairly proud that we always did our best to keep our backers in the loop. It's frustrating to write an update explaining that the game has been delayed again, but backers are more open to being understanding than you think as long as you communicate!

A tip we'd give to new devs considering Kickstarter: Don't overestimate what you can do, but overestimate what you need. There's always hidden costs, unexpected taxes/fees, and other unknown obstacles that might eat up your budget. In our case, we made enough to make the game as planned, but had to change CG artists around halfway through development which meant our original budget didn't cut it anymore. Fortunately, we had earned a decent amount from our Patreon and pre-orders that we were able to use to complete the CGs, but that isn't always going to be an option for everyone and that also meant we were unable to use that money ourselves. (We didn't take any money from the original Kickstarter campaign, so whatever was earned through patreon and pre-sales was our only "salary" at the time.)

Writing the game

Writing is, for obvious reasons, one of the most important parts of a visual novel. Melli wrote Jace's routes and I wrote Hazel's routes, which removed some pressure off our shoulders compared to trying to write over 300,000 words all on our own.

It's fun working with another writer, but there are also some unique issues and considerations that come up when you're writing a game with two protagonists split between two writers. Especially because at the time, there weren't many visual novels with a similar set up to refer to.

The main things we learned, were:

Consistency. We wanted each couple to have their own dynamic, but the characterization needs to remain consistent between routes. You don't want Adrian in Jace's route to feel like a totally different character in Hazel's route. Additionally, we had to be careful that the tone and writing style of the protagonists' POVs still felt like you were playing the same game. Some routes can be more comedic than others, but we've got a problem if Hazel's routes are all (unintentionally) more serious/angsty in tone than Jace's or vice versa.

Watch out for your word count! Longer does not always equal better and writing eight routes, we had to put some restrictions in place. Even when writing on your own, it can be tough to guess how long your story should be, and it was important to us that the routes were roughly the same length so that none felt more "canon" than the other. However, with two writers who have different writing styles and ways of planning, it was tricky to compare our outlines and we struggled at times when it came to matching each other's word counts. Moving forward, we're probably going to be more lenient when it comes to word counts - some routes have to be longer than others, it doesn't mean that route is automatically more "important". We're also doing more regular meetings and frequent check-ins to make sure we're on the same page. In the future, we hope that should save us a lot of trouble when it comes to pacing! 🙈

Balancing your own wants with the wants of your players. In theory, these overlap most of the time. But making a commercial game (that people had already "bought" through the Kickstarter), there is some pressure when it comes to meeting certain expectations. We can't always just write what we want and assume everyone else is going to love it, but we also don't want to neglect what we personally like. We had a survey for the beta where we were able to get regular feedback and a lot of helpful advice. We definitely want to continue with surveys in the future - they are a great way to gather opinions from different players and figure out what works versus what doesn't!

We took on too many tasks outside writing that distracted us. This bit is sort of inevitable for indie devs like us. 😅 Working with a limited budget and limited resources, you just end up having to wear a lot of hats! We think we did quite well sharing these duties though, and moving forward (thanks to you guys) we can afford more hands on deck to help us out.

Marketing

The bane of every indie game dev's existence... although secretly, I kind of enjoy marketing but don't tell anyone that!

Having learned a thing or two from promoting the Kickstarter, we spent more time researching games marketing but in the end, trial and error was the best teacher.

As we got closer to the release date, we were posting almost daily on social media and grew our Twitter to over eight thousand followers. We didn't have any viral posts, but we saw a consistent growing interest in our game and it was such a motivation boost to see comments from potential players being excited for the game. We know a lot of devs have said that Twitter didn't help their game much but according to our stats, a decent number of our players found us through the platform.

We saw less success here on Tumblr. Perhaps we haven't cracked the code here yet or maybe we're just comparing our numbers from Twitter unfairly! We're not hung up about it though, we love it here because it feels easier to connect with our followers and other devs there, and it's nice because we're able to write longer posts like this one! 💓

Aside from posting on social media, we reached out to several streamers and some bloggers prior to release to send them free game keys.

We also commissioned some art from other artists to share, as we obviously couldn't reveal ALL our CGs before the release lol and visual posts tend to do a lot better in our experience. It was so much fun to see the characters in other art styles and we hope we can afford to commission guest art pieces a lot more frequently in the future!

In hindsight, we definitely regret not releasing a trailer sooner! We underestimated how much interest a good trailer could garner and delayed setting up our Steam page because of it. Steam was the platform where we sold the most copies and most of our buyers found the game through Steam itself.

Also, posting your trailer on youtube adds another site where you're promoting your game so there's really no reason not to get that trailer done as soon as you can.

Final Notes

After the initial stress, we were pretty happy with our release! Although there were some things we would go back and change if we could, that's just the nature of these kind of things. For the most part, we're proud of what we achieved and happy that we have learnt so much from Trouble Comes Twice that we can take into consideration for future projects.

We can't share exact numbers, but we wanted to open up a bit about our earnings for the game to help other aspiring devs: As of writing this, Trouble Comes Twice has earned close to 85,000 euros. This counts our profits from 2020 to now (the Kickstarter, Patreon, pre-sales, and actual sales). Removing fees, taxes, the salaries of our talented artists and other freelancers, as well as the money invested into our next game, our personal pockets did not see anything close to those numbers. But we're super proud of how much our little game has made and so grateful that it's allowed us more creative freedom with our next title!

So, what's next?

You might have heard but for the past year, we've slowly been working on the demo and upcoming announcement for our next visual novel:

A 17+ supernatural neon-noir romance game about monsters, love, and other horrors.

Play as vampire detective Circe (female protagonist) or hellhound cop Dante (male protagonist) and delve into the mysteries of North Haven, where demons, vampires, and supernaturals hide in plain sight among humans.

The game features six routes, with three romance options available to each protagonist. Dante only has male romances and Circe has both male and female romances.

The game tackles a darker, more angsty tone compared to Trouble Comes Twice. Still, we hope that those who decide to check it out will enjoy it! We plan to announce the game this coming Autumn. Follow our Twitter (we're still not calling it X sorry) or Tumblr to stay up to date.

#trouble comes twice #visual novel #interactive fiction #indie games #gamedev #indiedev #post mortem

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maboroshi-no · 4 months ago

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Hamefura Manga Vol 3 Animate Bonus SS

Series: My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Source: Manga Vol 3 Animate Bonus Card Store: Animate Synopsis: Katarina would like Keith to voice for her the love confession lines of a character in a novel. Translation: maboroshi-no

Translation below ⮟

Katarina: Aaah~This romance novel was so good~

I, Katarina Claes, muttered this while closing the book I had just finished. There was no hit-and-miss with my friend Sophia's book recommendations and this novel too was extremely good. The cross-class love between the noble son and the commoner girl was heartrending, and it was such a beautiful heart-throbbing story that I really got into it. Finding something I could get into was wonderful, but… I stared at this novel only available in printed format and let out a little sigh.

As someone holding the memories of my past life as a Japanese otaku girl, I couldn't help thinking this whenever I encountered such good work: "I want to see the visual of this character", "I want to hear their lines for real". In my past life, whenever I went with my best friend Acchan to our frequent blue sign shop, we would always get excited. We would each buy different voice drama CDs and lend them to each other.

It would be great if I could get someone to read the noble son's lines with a nice voice.

The noble son was gentle and shy despite being popular with women. His love confession lines to the commoner girl were the best. As I was thinking this, I heard a knock on my door and my younger brother Keith entered.

Keith: Big Sister, I have received some sweets, do you want them?

After he had said this and entered my room, I could see Keith's image overlapping with the noble son I had read about earlier. Gentle and shy despite being popular, this was exactly my little brother in front of me! I immediately asked Keith.

Keith: Say, why do I have to read such a line?

I joined my hands and lowered my head to my hesitant little brother.

Katarina: Just a little! I want to hear it! Please, just a little bit!

Keith would fit the role. He already was a noble son given the role of the heroine's partner. I wanted to hear him say the lines so much. As I insistently asked him, Keith finally gave in and read the lines I specified.

Keith: "Just hearing your name makes my heart pound. It is the first time I have cherished someone so much."

The line and the voice were wonderful, but… the reading was so monotone. There was no emotion in it. I pointed this out and asked him to redo it, but Keith…

Keith: No way, I can't put that kind of emotion into it!

He said this with an embarrassed face and firmly refused to redo it.

Keith was even shyer than the noble son from the story.

Since Keith insisted he couldn't do it, I told him "It can't be helped then. I'll show you how this is done." While fixedly looking at him as if he were the heroine of the novel, I read the same line with plenty of emotions. It was a perfect performance if I said so myself.

But when I smugly puffed out my chest and looked at Keith, his face was for some reason bright red and he went out as if to run away.

After that, Keith never read lines for me again even when I asked him.

#hamefura bonus #hamefura #my next life as a villainess: all routes leads to doom #katarina claes #keith claes

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theriverbeyond · 7 months ago

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what series scratch the same "itch" as TLT for you? Recently finished the trilogy and feel empty and have found nothing to fill the void in my chest (lol) that TLT had in the weeks I was reading it. I have already experienced homestuck, when thhey cry, and most of the other "big names" of similar media. Any format works as long as its good. I like morally grey characters (Ianthe), well written female leads, character driven narratives and lesbians (in that order.

1. Princess Floralinda and the forty-flight tower (by Tamsyn Muir. excellent audio book narrated by Moira Quirk, same voice actor as TLT)

2. All of Tamsyn Muir's other novellas and short stories (The magician's apprentice, The house that did 16 loops of time, undercover, chew, the deepwater bride, etc)

Next up is entirely my personal and extremely picky and subjective preferences of brain zing, ranked in order of me remembering them

Chainsaw man manga (i read this 5x back to back when I first got into it in 2021. part 1 is complete, part 2 is still updating. part 1 can be experienced as a complete work. the anime is very good but the first episode is not as good as everything after it)

This is how we lose the time war book (feels sorta like fanfiction but the prose is gorgeous)

Interview with the vampire tv show (it's fun, it's camp, there are a lot of gay and bisexual people making really terrible decisions and being very hot)

Gurren Lagann anime (my favorite anime of all time. the women characters are not good, as is typical of many animes. the bathhouse episode can be skipped in its entierty without losing any plot. the overall story is really good and gives me that zing)

Arcane tv show (i watched this in full once and every since have just watched a caitvi + jinx whump clipshow but it did give me that zing. i do not care about the men)

Fullmetal alchemist manga or FMA brotherhood (really good and at this point a classic. royai is the queerplatonic campal blueprint i will not be taking critique at this time)

Revolutionary girl utena anime (watch the sub, do not watch the dub, the dub didn't make them gay. it's really good but heavy TWs and also it is paced like a 90's anime so: slow with a fair amount of filler, which can be good or bad depending on your preferences)

I have complicated feelings about Baru Cormerant and recommend reading up on content warnings if things like violent homophobia and very intimate portrayals of being a colonized subject are things that would upset you. It felt a little too personal to my life for me to like... think it was "fun" or whatever like it felt uncomfortably personal (and also subjectively I didn't super enjoy the pacing of the latter 2 books) but it did make me feel a lot of things and think a lot of thoughts. if the blurb sounds like something you are interested in then I recomend giving it a shot and then you can decide what you think of it yourself

Ancillary justice book (liked this one a lot, but havent felt motivated to read the sequel)

Other fun Studio Trigger animes such as Promare, Cyberpunk 2077, Kill la Kill

Nausicaa and the valley of the wind manga (the movie is good but the manga spanned 10 years, is gorgeously rendered, and goes MUCH more in depth especially wrt climate philosophy and such)

Slay the Princess video game (on steam but also I got into it just by watching letsplays online. It's really good and REALLY interesting, i love how it uses the visual novel format to its story advantage to pull of some incredibly cool story twists. Highly recomend!)

I feel like I am forgetting things that made my brain zing. My childhood special interest was CATS the musical (stage play and 1998 recorded production) and i definitely got brain zing from that but I don't think it has a lot of taste overlaps with tlt. this post really went off the rails but in my defense, it is after midnight

#ask #anon #media blogging

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cancan-jpg · 8 months ago

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HENLO! currently very bored and sick in bed rn, so i thought i'd give everyone an update on the past semester i had at animation school as Proof of Life, since i've been so inactive on main lately hehe!

Spent this entire past semester working on Building A Guy, through four different assignments - design, modelling, texturing/surfacing, and rigging! Super excited to animate him next term!

Got re-elected to Student Council for the 2nd year in a row - i like to think i'm very good at it! :D

Entered a local game jam with some friends, wrote a (still unfinished, still buggy) visual novel, with the rest of my team on art and RenPy code dev, and we won a prize about it! Crazy for a first game!

Went to art galleries and saw selections of Silly Little Guys

Worked at ComicCon at our school's promotional booth! Spent basically a week rushing with friends between class, the con, the occasional evening student council event, home to sleep a few hours, before doing it all over the next day 😵‍💫 loved it though, an artist i hung out with at the con printed Doom Patrol stickers JUST for me since they weren't sure there'd be an audience 🥺 Met interesting folks there, also chased at least one rude karen-type out of our booth

Got really into co-op TTRPGs - my friends and i have board game nights sometimes, and our fave at the moment is a narrative survival Space Horror game called Nemesis! I'm also a Betrayal at the House on the Hill enjoyer, i'm basic <3

Currently lead writer/production designer in an animatic production team for our storyboard class - I can't reveal details publically in case the pitch makes its way into Graduation Film team selection for next year (in which case it'll be watchable one day! By you! But until then we'll sign NDAs for understandable reasons), but YOOOOO i'm hyped!!!! Excited to hopefully spill the beans one day 👀✨️

Ended the term with a bang before passing out with a cold RIGHT at the start of winter break (our winter is in June). Stuck in bed but catching up on media - i finished reading Legends & Lattes (very cute, very gay), watched Team Starkid's "Nerdy Prudes Must Die!" at a friend's recommendation, and borrowed another friend's copy of "The Hand, The Eye & The Heart", a transmasc Mulan retelling in a fantasy setting!

I think that's mostly everything new! Hope to draw for fun again while I'm still on break, and hopefully get around to posting some animations of my silly little guy!!!

#can can posts!

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derekscorner · 9 months ago

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Fated Rantings: Where to start Fate

A scary question, believe me I know.

I asked my own self this question over a year ago now after finding myself lured into the series through lore videos like a child being led by candy. I even started FGO just because it was a free way to begin the series.

Would I recommend that for everyone? No. Fate Grand Order (FGO) is a gacha game after all. Unless you have the patience to grind or cheese your battles like me you'll give in fast and I’d never recommend someone giving money to a gacha game.

Although, if you're already into Fate or just genuinely curious about FGO then I can confirm that it has some of the best written stories I've ever seen. I won't claim every singularity (arc) as a banger but there are some that are legitimately good.

I'd also recommend you be wary if you think that watching the FGO anime is enough. That's more of a companion piece to the gacha than a true adaption.

Where to actually begin

So with my warnings of FGO aside where is the best place to begin the Fate series? Where does the story begin and what is the latest entry?

Fair questions but don't let many fans fool you. There is no one starting point to the Fate series. The reason for this is a simple one;

Every Fate story is on it's own timeline

Nasu Kinoko the writer who created the original 'Fate/Stay Night' stated as much.

Now this doesn't mean that some of his works are "not canon". It's actually the opposite, "everything is canon".

Nasu's company, Type-Moon, got off the ground with his visual novels 'Tsukihime', 'Fate/Stay Night', 'Kara no Kyoukai', and 'Mahoyo' among others. With each of these novels have multiple endings to them.

What confuses so many is them lacking the knowledge that these novels and their various endings share a universe. Some event in one could be mentioned in another. For example, "the church" from Tsukihime is very much present in Fate. The magecraft you see used in Mahoyo is the same magic system and society that pops up in Fate and Tsukihime.

In essence, Nasu's stories are sharing the same world but taking place at various points in that world.

Fate Specific

If you're curious about Mahoyo or Tsukihime then I'd recommend the remakes on Steam or Switch. If you're just genuinely curious what a visual novel is I'll leave you to discover them. I brought these things up because they're related.

For the Fate series in particular it was important that I explain them because this universe of multiple endings are all canon to a degree.

The reason many of you will find Fate hard to get into is because several Fate anime are based on these specific story routes from the visual novels.

The "Fate Route" was adapted as the Fate 2006 anime.

Unlimited Blade Works was adapted from the route of the same name.

Heaven's Feel is another route from the novel.

All three of these big anime names are routes from the same visual novel 'Fate/Stay Night'. Each route, and thus each anime, focuses on a heroine that the lead Shirou Emiya falls in love with.

So each show isn't some reboot or relaunch of a series, they're adaptions of a different timeline of events.

It does not stop at 'Fate/Stay Night' either

As I said earlier, some events are shared between them because these stories share a world and some things happened in each. The characters are citing world events from their perspective. For example;

In many version of Fate the 1st to 4th Holy Grail War happened.

In every version of Fate the "Age of Gods" came and went.

In most Fate stories there is a Rin Tohsaka or a Shirou Emiya somewhere in the world even if they do not appear in the narrative.

In every Type-Moon story the "Clocktower" exists.

Dead Apostles and vampires exist in most Type-Moon stories.

This may seem silly to some of you but I have pointed it out because there will be someone see something said in a Fate story and be confused because it doesn't quite line up with a Fate work they've previously seen.

Or they'll see things stated that makes them think two Fate stories are intrinsically linked when they aren't. If you still find that confusing then allow me to show you the famous Fate/Zero.

Fate/Zero

Many are told to "start here" because Fate/Zero is a prequel to 'Fate/Stay Night' which isn't entirely true.

Yes, Saber will reference the 4th Grail War and her hazy memories of it. She even remembers Shirou's adoptive father Kiritsugu Emiya.

But don't be fooled, that's where Nasu's statement comes in. He did not consider Fate/Zero canon to his novel.

However, that does not mean Saber is lying either. What this means is that the 4th war that Saber remembers in Fate Stay Night is a different conflict than what you see in Fate/Zero.

This is the best example of shared events not being the same per work. The anime of Fate/Zero is it's own timeline while the 4th war Saber mentions in the novel or anime adaptions was different.

We do not know what the exact differences are between Fate/Zero and the 4th Grail War Saber mentions in Fate/Stay Night but we know they existed.

Then you have stories in which the timeline diverted far earlier

These stories are much easier to dive into since their timelines diverged more drastically. In Fate 2006 or Heaven's Feel the point of divergence is the choice in love interest but for these stories the timeline diverges much earlier. For example;

Fate Grand Order actually takes place in a timeline in which there was only one Holy Grail War.

Fate Extra takes place in a world where there's a super computer lodged in the Moon that's been recording Earth's history for nearly 4 billion years.

In Fate Apocrypha there was only three Holy Grail Wars before someone managed to steal the Greater Grail during World War II.

Despite these three in particular being entirely removed from 'Fate/Stay Night's various routes they still fall back on the same world history. They just happen to diverge much earlier for various reasons.

This is relevant because they too will reference similar things but they're much easier to start with because their settings are more unique.

Though, you'll still will see Rin Tohsaka in Fate Extra. Waver Velvet from Fate/Zero also appears in many stories as his older self.

Actual Sequels or Prequels

Now before you have a heart attack with that sub title let me explain. Yes, I do still fully mean that each Fate story is essentially it's own thing.

However, I would be doing you a disservice if I did not warn you that a few have true sequels. I do not know every sequel across Type-Moons gallery of novels but I can warn you about Fate/Hollow Ataraxia.

Ataraxia is a true sequel to the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel. You don't need to play it to enjoy the FSN novel or it's anime adaptions but do not mistake Ataraxia as a solo story. This is the one time I will give you that warning after my long post arguing otherwise.

Granted, I am not sure where'd you come across Hollow Ataraxia but just be warned. This visual novel is a true sequel to Fate/Stay Night.

As for the various anime that's been adapted over the years, as I've said, many are just adaptions of a particular story route from the novel.

That said, if you came to view the anime as it's own pocket universe I could see why. Heaven's Feel, the movies, will even flashback to Fate/Zero scenes.

The character Velvet Waver from Fate/Zero has his own novel series and animes based on those novels. What does this knowledge mean for you my dear reader?

Nothing. I can see why someone would think this way but that doesn't mean you need to heed it. If someone gives you an anime list to watch in a particular order then I'd argue it's fine to either take that advice or ignore it.

At best, watching Fate/Zero will help you appreciate the El Melloi series more but it's also not necessary.

What I am telling you is that it can confuse many but you can start with any anime you're able to get ahold of.

Conclusions

I'm afraid I may have confused many of you more than I helped but I bothered to explain all of that just to say one thing;

"you can start wherever"

And I truly mean that. No matter what some insistent person tells you any Fate work can be your first Fate story. Where you go from there will be up to you.

The only two warnings I will over is that Hollow/Ataraxia is a true sequel so definitely don't start there assuming you can even find it. Secondly, do not start the FGO anime because Babylonia does not adapt the full FGO story.

The FGO anime is worth watching but it won't supplement it's source.

Now then, hopefully I've convinced you to try something. I'd personally recommend you watch Fate/Zero or Apocrypha to feel out the series but you can't quite literally start near anywhere.

So enjoy and bye~

P.S. yes that last image is an official timeline. It's not actually needed but it's neat. :D

========================

For my other experiences with Fate go here: https://derekscorner.tumblr.com/tagged/fated-rantings

#fated rantings #fate series #fate stay night #fate grand order #fate extra

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spareparts-vn · 1 year ago

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me and a friend have been playing through spare parts together, and we really adore it! im curious if you have any other favorite visual novels, or ones that you can recommend - i feel like i see a lot of higurashi inspiration, but that might just be because ive played it recently!

thank you!

thank you! i've definitely taken a lot from all of ryukishi's works. i probably wouldn't be making a vn if it weren't for umineko.

the flowers series is really great. the first volume is maybe a little awkward in some ways, but after that it immediately hits its stride and keeps going. lots of messy nuanced relationships and feelings, fun dynamics btwn characters, and some moments that punched me in the stomach very hard (emotionally).

mamiya has a lot of great stuff in it. i like how it's structured and how it lets you see different sides of all its characters, where they struggle and where they have the strength to support others. my only caveat is that there's some trans stuff that has some substance but spills into eye-rolly imo

the house in fata morgana is an easy recommendation. kindred spirits on the roof is a classic. i'm the resident danganronpa v3 defender but that's a whole can of worms. i can never remember everything i've read so there's a lot others i'm sure but that's what comes to mind. i've been so busy i haven't found the time to read much this past year but i want to do some catching up soon.

also when i went to grab the link for mamiya i saw that the followup dlc for that finally released a few months ago and i didn't hear about it so now i need to make time to read that!!!!! aaahhh!!!!!!!!!

#ask

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enteragoodnamehere · 8 months ago

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omg you got so far in corru already... how're you likin the game ?

it’s really really good so far!!! I went in completely blind and I was a little confused at first but all the worldbuilding/terms/“lore” stuff is explained so nicely and comprehensively. I’m a big fan of speculative biology and similar worldbuilding in video games (*gestures at rain world and even maybe ultrakill*) and I especially love how corru approaches it!! im so glad it has a lot of info on how quo society/ecology/technology works it’s so cool and it scratches a particular itch in my brain <3

also it’s just a super fun game?? It’s just the right mix of visual novel with point and click adventure with puzzle with rpg to be super entertaining to be like the perfect game for me! im not a big fan of combat but I don’t actually mind the “combat” portions in corru! (although I did have to turn on the skip combat thing for the last two bosses in golem maintenance lmao, I just could not get past them by myself </3)

overall it’s probably the most invested I’ve been in a piece of media since I listened to the magnus archives for the first time, and since that’s stuck around in my head for as long as it has I imagine corru probably will too!! 10/10 very good highly recommend but do take in mind the epilepsy/motion sickness warnings

(edit: actually adding a link to the game too lol sorry im on mobile rn)

#cicada screams #asks #corru.observer #also obligatory thank you for introducing me to the game I would probably never have found it without seeing your art for it :3

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maskedrealities · 2 months ago

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This post is for my opinions on LAS or Love Angel Syndrome. I'm not expecting people to agree with me, but I also want everyone that does read it all the way through to understand that these are my opinions. Everything I'll be saying is going under the cut, so if you don't want to read themes of self-harm, suicidality, psychological talk, religious themes, or deal with spoilers, I would recommend skipping past this post. Otherwise, I've given the warnings that I can. Again I say this is purely an opinion and you do not have to agree with me.

I might not make a whole lot of sense with this, but I have a lot of things I want to say, I'm unmedicated, and my brain is running rampant to get all of my thoughts out, regardless on if they're clear or not.

I want to start off by saying that it's been a good couple of years since I've played any sort of visual novel, so I'm going based off of my views now and holding it to the game itself as I feel comparing a game like this to something completely different, like an otome game with more people collaborating together to work on it, is wrong since this is a pretty well made game.

I'm not familiar at all to Itchio games, but I know that there is still a lot of effort that goes into games like this. I love the art and the details that have gone into it, the story is fairly easy to follow, but that's where I start falling off the most. That might just be a me thing, but the art and character expressions held my attention more than the reading segments did. I don't mind reading either, it's one of my favorite things to do, but I feel like this story was thought out on a whim. It's giving... another MC falls for an AI of a favorite character and gets lost in the idea that they're actually talking to a being that isn't actually real.

The best way I can describe the relationship of Yuuno and Ai isn't exactly one that truly exists. Reading it felt more like Yuuno was so deep into a delusion from not being around people and struggling to care for herself that she was making the scenario up. Yuuno just felt stuck in said delusion and the only way out was death via suicide (even if it's portrayed as joining Ai in binary "Heaven") or getting so hurt by your own thoughts that you feel even more worthless. Ai just feels like a hallucination. It feels like if someone else was to walk in the room with Yuuno, they would see Yuuno talking to a white computer screen.

Also... I have such a bad issue with Ai as a name. Not that it's a bad name, but the connection of Ai to AI. The way I take it is that AI is just ruining people. It "tries to help" and can only do so much good before there's an ultimate downfall of the human's psyche. The story itself just feels like it's been rushed at the endings. Which... the endings is the next thing.

The first ending I got, while struggling to pay attention to the story, was Yuuno joining Ai in "Heaven." I enjoyed the slow glitch affect to signify death, but the dialogue between the two characters felt dull and completely lifeless, which does make sense since Yuuno is dying. It feels like Ai went from happy that Yuuno made the decision of being with her to being void of emotion, the change is drastic, there is no love there. Both endings feel like a complete lose-lose situation. If Ai is taking so much time reading and playing through otome games, I feel like the programming or behavior would change so Yuuno falls for her more, rather than the loving and doting AI that's there ending once Yuuno either dies off or rejects her. Even the rejection ending feels too bland or just downright "the only way you'll help others is by ending it." Yuuno either hurts herself or hurts someone, albeit an AI, while trying to do things on her own.

Both endings feel rushed, like there was a time crunch that wasn't met and the team wanted to push the game out. Only one ending was something I enjoyed, it felt the most fun and made me laugh. It was the only ending that felt like it had a life to it from the team.

Other than the problems with the story and endings, I enjoy the effort that went into it, the effort itself is amazing work. The artwork is beautiful, the subtle scarring from the dark girly outfit is also amazing. The character expressions and designs are stunning.

The only other things I can say is that I also feel I don't enjoy the game due to not being able to connect with any of the characters, even as someone who stays inside 24/7 and has to lean on other's for support constantly. I also feel like the options of leaning on Ai or simply saying "no" were too easy in a way. I feel like there could have been more in-depth characters, but coding a game is harder than I can imagine and coding itself isn't fun in the slightest so I understand the two options being the ones to go for. I do believe the team could make a longer game with even more in-depth lore and character design/development, such as Yuuno being more scared to ask for help even from a favorite character. Thinking things like "what do I have to do in turn to get this help," "is this AI really keeping my best interests at heart," and more, but that's also a me thing, I think.

As for the game itself, it felt like it took me... maybe 30 minutes? Rather than the hour itself took. I enjoy how the different options gives you different dialogue. The game itself for me is just a one time playthrough, I can't go back through and enjoy it.

All of these are just my opinions, so please don't come into my inbox being shit. I don't mind hearing opinions from others and I'm glad that there are people that enjoy the game and find the characters relatable, this just isn't a game for me. It's not something I understand the hype over besides the characters themselves (there's so much you can do with just the little insight you get into the characters, I want to make fanfic to spread the ideas I do have), but beyond that... there isn't really anything that screams "enjoyable."

I am so sorry for yapping this much, but that's my take on it. I also repeat... just my opinions on a game that is enjoyable for other's but isn't my cup of tea. If you read all the way through, you're a trooper but why would you do that to yourself? /silly

#maskedrealities #lilithspeaks

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