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miss-spooky-eyes · 4 years ago

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intersection (a belated OC Kiss Week fic)

Yes, I am extremely late, but in my defense I didn't know OC Kiss Week was happening and it coincided with some insane work.

Author Notes/What to Know:

This is a fic about the (near) kisses of my IA/Cipher Nine, Devinahl, and @sunsetofdoom's Smuggler Teo. I encourage absolutely anybody & everybody to read what she's written about Teo, which you can find the most important & glorious pieces of here, here and here.

'Karia Madeesh' is the alias used by the future Cipher Nine during her adolescence as a schoolgirl spy tasked with befriending the children of important Republic figures. I think that's all you need to know, but Dev's backstory fic Riddle goes into much more detail.

Warnings: Um ... nudity? Mentions of vomiting? Extreme teenage dumbness?

Thank you thank you thank you to Sunset for lending me Teo and letting me get way, way, way too much into my feelings about him, especially his teenage depression. I hope you like it.

Further thank you thank you thank yous to @vespertine-legacy for reading various versions, encouraging me and gently correcting me on minor details like the names of my characters 😘

‘Childhood is long and narrow, like a coffin, and you can’t get out of it on your own.’ - Tove Ditlesen

Part One

New Baxeid, 3652 BBY/1 ATC

Teonine Lunulata didn’t often wish he was somewhere else. Didn’t see the point.

If he closed his eyes and opened them to find he was in a completely different place, it wouldn’t change a thing; he’d still be there.

Right now, though, he would like to be anywhere - back in his room with the door closed, preferably, but a classroom, his form tutor’s office, the gym even - other than here.

A fresh wave of shrill laughter crested over the top of the already too-noisy compartment, and Teonine winced as pain stabbed through his temples again. He huddled further back into his corner, one arm wrapped around his stomach to try to keep the length of plastic tubing from slipping out from underneath the baggy sweatshirt his mother would be furious to find out he still owned because it was so old and shapeless. Winding the tubing around his waist beneath the overlarge garment usually worked well enough to conceal it, as long as he kept his distance from people and it wasn’t like he wasn’t used to that; but he hadn’t done that good a job securing it this time, thanks to the shaky hands and the rush he’d been in, and anyone he bumped up against in the crowded carriage was going to notice something. Even if he was surrounded by idiots.

The shuttle bumped and jolted as it jerked on to the next mag-rail, eliciting more shrieks and squeals from the nearby knot of girls as the passengers swayed and clung on to each other to keep their balance. Teonine splayed the fingers of his free hand out on the wall behind him, and wished he was dead. As if the noise and the stabs of pain it elicited from his head weren’t bad enough, the smell of upwards of fifty people crammed into the compartment was rapidly becoming unignorable, even with the scented bands he wore on his tresses to keep his pheromone receptors from becoming overwhelmed. And he wished he hadn’t thought about that, because half the people in here were miners with all the sweat-and-damp-and-body odours that entailed and someone standing near him was wearing far too much perfume and he had puked up way too much way too recently for that cocktail of smells to be filling his nostrils.

Teonine swallowed down hard on a wave of bile; the dumb kids from his school standing near him might be ignoring him now, but if he threw up his guts over their jacketed backs you could bet they’d start paying attention. Don’t puke, don’t puke, he chanted silently in time with the rumbling of the shuttle on the mag-rails, don’t puke don’t puke don’t puke …

The wave of nausea abated and his insides settled down into a muttering sourness. Shivering, miserable, Teonine huddled into his corner and wished again that he was anywhere but here.

Not that it was anyone’s stupid fault but his own that he was here, of course. One day a month, the students were allowed to leave the carefully-curated grounds of the school, get on the mag-shuttle which was the only means of transport between the various different settlement bubbles on the space station, and visit New Baxeid. New Backside, as the students had inevitably christened it (quite the sophisticated wit, whoever had first thought that one up), lived up to its informal moniker; it was just a hub of offices, warehouses and what passed for upscale residences and shops which catered to the bureaucrats and corporate types who ran the mines on this system’s various lifeless planetoids and asteroids. But to the kids who spent the rest of the month inside the ergonomically-designed buildings and wandering the manicured lawns of the Pantomathia Academy (and you could guess what the students in their infinite wit and creativity did with that name), positively the finest school in Republic space for wealthy parents who wanted their kids to be able to do anything except escape, it represented the only opportunity for a monthly crumb of freedom.

Teonine usually didn’t bother going. He’d been at Pantomathia for three years already, had exhausted the possibilities of New Baxeid - at least, the bits that students were allowed to visit - within the first term, and ‘town’ weekends were usually a good opportunity for him to work on his still in relative privacy. But whatever he’d decided it was a good idea to try fermenting this time had done a number on the pipes, which had made an urgent trip into town imperative. It wouldn’t have been so bad, Teonine thought with the clinicalness of the truly hungover, if he hadn’t tried drinking the results last night despite knowing they’d started to dissolve inert plastic.

His stomach lurched at the very thought, and he pulled the cuffs of his sleeves over his balled fists, shivering. At the tender age of fifteen, Teonine had had some truly miserable hangovers, but the way he’d felt when he’d woken up this morning had taken the prize for sheer awfulness with room to spare. Only the knowledge that this was his only chance for a month to get new tubing and prevent an unthinkable future lapse in his supply could have made him crawl out of bed. Even then it hadn’t been until well after what should have been lunchtime.

Don’t think about lunch.

That was how he’d ended up in a situation he normally avoided like Talaxii foot-rot; the last shuttle to leave New Baxeid in time for the school curfew, crammed into a compartment crowded not just with weary workers and miners headed back to their residential blocks, but with the kids who thought that waiting until the very last minute to get back to the academy made them somehow cool. The ones who liked to hang back and stray down the side streets and talk about staying out past sunset, when school rumour had it that illicit and seedy nightspots catering to the transitory miner population sprang to life and stayed open till dawn. As if they’d ever dare try it.

In the frantic jostle to get on board the shuttle, Teonine had ended up getting swept to the back of the carriage with the absolute worst and dumbest kids from his class; Torsin Fralx, blond and beefy, and his cronies Voka Ginn and Fotze the Gran - all boys Teonine’s mother had gently forbade him from having anything to do with (‘If only I could believe your good influence on them would be stronger than their bad influence on you’) - and the Kel’Dor twins, Aun and Zu, whose father served with Teonine’s mother in the Senate (‘What a quaint family, really quite civilised, such a shame the way those boys play would be much too rough for you, Teonine’). They were all being particularly loud and obnoxious today, vying with each other to impress the girls who were standing next to them in a tight little huddle, Tixia and H’Rukn and the new one, pretending to ignore the boys but shrieking with laughter a little more piercingly every time Fralx did something dumb. Knowing Fralx, the girls’ laughter was going to be audible only to certain aquatic species by the time they got back to school.

None of them had acknowledged Teonine, of course, despite the fact that he was standing within a few feet of them; if Senator Lunulata’s descents upon the school (once when Fotze accidentally gave Teonine a nosebleed in gym, and then when Teonine accidentally let slip that Fralx sometimes called him ‘squid-boy’) hadn’t done the trick, the fact that their parents had absolutely warned them not to do anything to upset the offspring of such an influential politician would have. He’d been safely invisible for the best part of his three years at Pantomathia, and that was exactly how he wanted it. He just wished they wouldn’t be so fucking loud, that was all. Some people had hangovers.

‘Give it back, Voka, you kriffing herder!’ Fralx bellowed nearby, and Teonine closed his eyes, trying to pretend he couldn’t hear that voice rattling through his skull. There was the sound of scuffling feet and grunts, and a Rodian yelp before Fralx was yelling again: ‘Got it! Hey, Karia, did you see that? The skrag tried to nick my kriffing holocard! Kriffing skrag!’

Behind closed eyelids, Teonine rolled his itchy eyes in their sore sockets. Pantomathia liked to bill itself as ‘Polishing the Best and the Brightest’; in Fralx’s case, they were definitely buffing a turd.

‘Dastardly,’ said a girl’s voice, dripping with boredom.

‘Hey, hey, Karia, do you know what time it is? Do you remember I said I’d show you our game? Do you remember?’

‘Kriff’s sake, Fralx, she remembers, don’t tell the whole room,’ drawled another girl; the exaggerated Coruscant accent meant H’Rukn, who liked to pretend she didn’t come from Uphrades.

‘Yeah, it’s supposed to be a secret, you skrag.’

‘You’re the skrag, skragface!’ More scuffling feet.

‘Are we going to show her the game, or are you skrags just going to feel each other up the whole ride?’ H’Rukn again. ‘We’re nearly out of the bubble.’

‘Kriff, you’re right.’ That was Fralx. ‘Where’s the datapad? Tixia, do you have it?’

There was a momentary pause, and then Teonine heard the bored girl say again, ‘Ooh, it’s a circle that flashes. I can’t wait to tell all my friends.’

‘The circle’s just for picking the players,’ Tixia was explaining. Teonine peeked from under half-closed eyelids; the Mirialan girl had her datapad out, and was glancing suspiciously all around her in a way that would have betrayed she was up to something she shouldn’t be if anybody had been paying the slightest attention to the students at the back of the carriage. ‘Well, player, really. Then the person who gets picked, picks their player.’

‘Player for what?’ the bored girl - it was the new girl, Karia something - asked, and Tixia and H’Rukn dissolved into giggles.

‘To go in there with,’ Aun, or maybe Zu, buzzed through his antiox mask, and Teonine heard the other one rap on the back wall of the compartment.

‘The airlock?’ the new girl asked, and Tixia and H’Rukn laughed harder than ever.

‘“Take My Breath Away” is a Panty-mouth tradition,’ Fralx announced pompously. (So were bullying, self-harm and eating disorders, Teonine thought.) ‘You draw lots, and whoever loses has to pick someone to go into the airlock with, and we seal you in.’

‘And you can’t get out while the shuttle is between the bubbles,’ Ginn interjected eagerly.

‘She knows how airlocks work, skrag-for-brains,’ Tixia told him.

‘So how long till the next bubble?’

‘Seven minutes. No getting in or out.’ There was another gust of giggling.

‘So it’s an excuse to make out, except you could also both die.’

‘Someone did die once!’ Tixia exclaimed. ‘There was a power failure at the coils and the rail de-polarised and these two girls were in the airlock and the emergency hatch systems failed too -‘ This station really attracted some incompetent engineers, Teonine thought - ‘and when the repair crew came they didn’t know anybody was in there so they blew the back hatch and the girls got vented into space.’

‘Still with their hands down each other’s pants,’ H’Ruk’n added.

‘Sure, whatever.’

Teonine gave in and opened his eyes. Fralx and his minions had their backs to him, facing the girls; through a gap between their shoulders, Teonine could see Tixia, H’Ruk’n and the new girl, confronting the boys like an opposing team. Tixia and H’Ruk’n had their arms round each other’s waists like they always did, but the new girl had her hands on her hips in a way that would have looked cool and provocative on someone with hips, and which, to be fair to her, she was very nearly pulling off with the equipment at her disposal. All the kids who could grow or buy long hair were wearing it the same way that year, in absurdly long, high pigtails that were meant to imitate lekku, but hers was cut short in a profusion of seemingly careless flicks and spikes, and dyed a violent blood orange. She had on a synthleather jacket like the spacers Teonine had sometimes seen in New Baxeid, and tight pants, and she had enough piercings in her nose and elaborate cuffs on her ears to almost camouflage the cybernetic implants that looped her ears and extended delicate silvery arms almost to the corners of her eyes.

Karia Madeesh, that was her name, and she looked just as cocky and pleased with herself now as she had when the form tutor had introduced her to the class with an injunction to make her feel at home and ease the difficult transition between schools while she stood there running her eyes over them all like she was trying to decide who was cool enough to hang out with her.

Usually that sort of thing would get you eaten alive at the Academy. But because everybody had already heard that the new girl had got kicked out of her last school, and who knew how many before that, they were all agog to find out exactly what she’d done; and when she acted like she didn’t even want to know them, that sealed the deal, because these were some of the smartest, best-educated morons in the galaxy.

‘It did happen,’ Fotze was insisting, braying through his nostrils the way he always did when he was blustering. ‘My brood-uncle Gakze was here twenty years ago and he said -’

‘No, yeah, I’m sure you’re right,’ Karia said, examining the orange-painted fingernails of one hand. ‘I’m sure it’s a really dangerous game of … kissing.’

‘Like you wouldn’t be scared to go in there,’ Fralx scoffed, rapping his knuckles on the emergency hatch in the back wall of the carriage.

Karia shrugged. ‘I think I could just about handle it.’

‘So do it, new girl.’

She raised her eyebrows. ‘Don’t you need your little flashing circle to pick a player?’

‘Usually. But since it’s your first shuttle ride, and since it’s all so tame and juvenile, I think you should go in.’

‘Torsin,’ Voka whined.

‘Shut up.’ Fralx had stepped forward, and Teonine had seen him on the edge of losing his temper enough times to be able to picture the look on his face with perfect clarity. ‘So? Are you going to go in there, or what?’

Karia inspected her fingernails again, flicked some stray lint off her sleeve, tossed her hair out of her eyes and said: ‘Fine, I’ll do it.’ Teonine saw the set of Fralx’s beefy shoulders relax, and was laying his own head back against the wall, losing interest again, when she added: ‘With him.’

Teonine saw every head whip round to follow her pointing finger, and reflexively looked round himself, with the result that his cheek and nose collided with the wall his head was leaning on. There was a hot bloom of pain in his face and a cold lurch of nausea in his stomach and he staggered away from the wall a little, then - idiotically - looked back at the wall again, as if there could somehow be somebody standing behind him.

Fralx’s mouth was open and he was spluttering, apparently lost for words, and a very small, very secret part of Teonine took a mental snapshot of that image. The rest of him was still trying to turn around and look behind him again.

Karia sidestepped Fralx and took two or three steps towards Teonine and the chances that this was some galaxy-sized misunderstanding were further reduced as she looked at him curiously and said, ‘Teonine, right?’

‘Um,’ Teonine said. After a couple of seconds, some neurons kicked into gear in his faltering brain, suggesting that wasn’t enough of an answer, so he added: ‘Er.’

She smiled at him, or at least started to, before she clearly registered the noises he’d made in lieu of words and the smile sort of slid off the side of her mouth. ‘Um … OK?’ She tilted her head to one side, caught somewhere between amusement and confusion. ‘You know about the game, right? So … do you want to?’

Did he want to? Did he want to? Did he want to -? Teonine wasn’t used to being asked what he wanted, except by grown-ups sometimes - visiting professors and more-or-less distant relatives and connections of his mother’s - and that was always ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ and that question was always just a cloak for what they really wanted to know, which was ‘Are you going to fall in line or not?’.

Sometimes he thought about wanting, how it worked, what it must feel like: Like a tug inside, a finger hooking itself inside your waistband, pulling you onwards. Sometimes he thought he could sense wanting by its absence, but that wasn’t better, it just left him feeling like a speeder bike with no ignition key.

He might have felt the tug or not, standing there in front of a cool, pretty girl who’d just asked him in front of everyone to make out with her, but he had no idea how he was supposed to know when his whole body was ringing like a bell with the shock and the heat of being spoken to, looked at, picked.

He didn’t know what he wanted.

He knew he didn't want to say no.

So he said: ‘Yeah. OK.’

She smiled and rolled her eyes at him, but not in a mean way, more like she was inviting him to laugh with her at how stupid everything was, and that made him feel another new thing, like something that had been tightly wound in his chest was unspooling, like he might be turning all sorts of colours on the inside. ‘Well, come on then.’

She reached out and took his hand, just like that, like it was a thing anybody could just do; and led him through the centre of the loose knot of kids, pulling him confidently after her, towards the back right corner of the carriage. Teonine heard a few disbelieving mutters and splutters, but for the most part the kids were silent, silent as Fralx, who seemed to have stiffened into statue-like immobility. Not silent because they were avoiding speaking to him in case they upset Senator Lunulata’s precious boy, but silent like they genuinely didn’t know what to say, like they were truly confounded. And to the complex cocktail of emotions Teonine was conscious of experiencing was added a secret squirm of shameful pleasure at how much he was enjoying that.

Voka Ginn hesitated, looking uncertainly over at Fralx, but Karia raised her eyebrows at him and he knelt down by the emergency hatch, connecting his datapad to the controls and tapping in a few commands (slicing, isolating and slaving controls like these was something even the lowest-achieving pupil at Pantomathia’s computer science classes could do). The hatch cover jolted slightly as it sprang free, and Voka moved quickly to catch it before it could fall on to the floor, although it was hardly likely that anyone in the crowded, noisy compartment would hear it if it did, or bother pushing their way through the tightly-packed passengers to investigate.

Karia raised her eyebrows again, at him this time, and feeling like he was lost in a place he was supposed to recognise, Teonine let go of her hand, knelt down and crawled through the hatch.

He had to release his grasp on the tubing hidden underneath his sweatshirt as he did so, and as he made it through the hatch, it started to slip free, one end of it uncoiling and snaking down towards the floor. Hurriedly he grabbed it and tucked it back into place as he got to his feet, just in time as Karia crawled through after him.

Teonine only had time to register a confused impression of the inside of the airlock - grimy metal, a few nets hanging from nails on the wall as if things had once been stored in here and secured in case of ventilation - when the light shining through the entryway was suddenly extinguished as Voka Ginn replaced the hatch after them.

It was … dark. Teonine probably should have been expecting that - why would there be lights inside an airlock? - but in his agitated state the suddenness of it came as a shock which ratcheted his panic up another notch. In a few moments his eyes would have adjusted, but for now all he could make out was the dim movement that was Karia getting to her feet.

‘Cosy,’ he heard her say with casual sarcasm.

It was small - which, of course it was, why would an emergency airlock on a groundside mag-shuttle be big - but the design rationale didn’t make Teonine feel any better about the size of it. It was the same width as the compartment, of course, but in length it was narrow; Teonine reached out with the hand that wasn’t currently keeping the tubing from falling out of his sweatshirt and felt his palm flatten against the back panel of the shuttle. It was rattling faintly, which was not reassuring; right now, if the maglocks that kept it shut were to fail, they would still be able to breathe the air and feel the warmth of New Baxeid’s atmospheric bubble, but in a few seconds …

As if on cue, there was a faint sucking thunk from both the panel at the back and the direction of the hatch, and a familiar shudder ran through the floor.

‘We’re out of the bubble.’ He had tried to speak quietly, to keep it from being startlingly loud in the quiet, but the words came out in more of a terrified whisper.

‘I guess our seven minutes starts now.’ He saw the fugitive gleam of Karia’s implants as she turned her head from side to side as if trying to survey the space.

His own eyes were rapidly adjusting to the darkness, and he looked around him. What he saw was not particularly encouraging. There were big patches of sealant in several places as if covering up places where the metal seams had begun to part, and, worse, none of them seemed particularly fresh. The control panel in the corner, which would instruct the back panel whether or not to open into the hard vacuum of space, had a distinctly jerry-rigged look; Teonine was almost sure there were a couple of loose wires hanging from it, and the floor and walls in the other corner seemed to be darker than the rest of the airlock, as if blackened by fire. Teonine wondered whether he’d been too quick to dismiss the story of the girls who died in here during a game of ‘Take My Breath Away’ as a school legend.

As if reading his mind, Karia said: ‘Wow. We really might die in here.’

He blinked. ‘Wait - you can see?’

‘A bit.’ He saw her hand come up to point at her implants, and a wave of several different perfumes hit him at once, somehow. ‘Magic eyes. Courtesy of Mom and Dad.’

‘Oh. I guess mine are too. From my parents, I mean.’

She giggled as if his weak joke had been a lot funnier than it was. ‘So how much can you see in this light? How many fingers am I holding up?’

Teonine didn’t need to be able to see in the dark for that. ‘One. The middle one.’

‘Oh yeah?’ She thrust her hand in front of his face, trying to cover his eyes with her spread fingers while she waved the other one. ‘How about now?’

Teonine’s senses were suddenly flooded by conflicting chemical scents; he jerked his head away instinctively, choked on a hasty breath.

‘Hey - you OK?’ She drew back, looking concerned.

‘Yeah,’ Teonine said breathlessly, still trying to force down the choke that pinched at each inhalation. ‘Sorry - the perfume -’

‘Huh? Oh. Yeah, we were testing them out at the store, you know, Largxel’s? I guess we put on kind of a lot.’ She tilted her head to one side. ‘I can’t even smell them any more. Is it awful?’

‘No, it’s just - a lot -’

‘Maybe it’ll help if it’s just one scent. Hang on.’ She pushed up her jacket sleeves and sniffed at her wrists and forearms. Teonine saw dark slashes streaking her skin, and thought for a wild second they were wounds, but then realised they were cosmetics of different shades, sampled on her forearms and the backs of her hands. ‘Here - I think this one’s the nicest. Just try to smell that.’

She lifted her right wrist to his face, so close in front of his nose that it almost grazed her skin; his head swam again.

‘Just breathe,’ she told him, her voice carrying such authority that he automatically did what he was told, concentrating on the strongest scent, the perfume she’d told him was the nicest. He knew he knew the different components of it, the creamy notes on top and the earthy, dried body, but he couldn’t put the right names to them; he just concentrated on breathing them in, focusing on that one scent as, slowly, his overwhelmed senses calmed down.

‘Better?’ she asked him, still holding her wrist up to his face.

‘Mmm-hmmm.’ Teonine wanted to nod, but he knew if he did his nose would touch her skin, so he tried to shrug with his body while keeping his head perfectly still. ‘Yeah. How did you know that would work?’

‘When I got my implants …’ She trailed off, and then gave him a wry smile, finally pulling her wrist away from his face. ‘Let’s just say I get it. Being overwhelmed by something other people are barely aware of.’

‘Oh.’ Teonine had heard the other kids circulating some story about how she got the implants; something about needing them to repair damage sustained in some Imperial bombing, some outpost somewhere where her parents were serving, he hadn’t really been listening. ‘Do they - I mean, did it hurt?’

She gave a one-shouldered shrug. ‘You just have to focus on one thing, and shut out everything else. Everything’s fine when you learn to do that.’ She lifted one hand as if to touch his tresses, but stopped short. ‘Aren’t those band-things supposed to filter out … stuff?’

Teonine fought the urge to flick them back over his shoulders. ‘They block. They don’t filter. But sometimes -’

‘I get it. Making a mental note not to wear seven different perfumes next time I go to make out with a Nautolan.’

Teonine had almost been starting to, if not relax, then unwind slightly, but at the mention of making out his hearts jumped so hard he felt as if he’d been punched in both sides of his chest simultaneously.

‘I haven’t, you know. Made out with a Nautolan before.’ She was definitely standing closer to him than she had been before. ‘Have you? Made out with a human?’

‘Uh -’ Teonine felt like distant areas of his brain were fusing together. ‘I - um -’

‘But you’ve, you know. You’ve done this before.’ Karia laid it out like a statement, but it was unmistakably a question.

The air was definitely getting thinner in here. ‘I don’t -’ He didn’t know how to explain that he avoided the dumb kids that played this game, avoided being on this shuttle, avoided everything. ‘I never got picked before.’

‘Yeah, but you don’t have to go into a dark airlock to kiss someone. You can just, you know, kiss them.’

When she made it sound so simple it was difficult to point out that maybe she could, but he couldn’t. Teonine floundered, trying to figure out what he could say that would convey how hopelessly out of his depth he was without betraying, well, how hopelessly out of his depth he was.

He got as far as ‘Um -’

‘So you’ve never kissed anyone. That’s cute.’ She adjusted her stance, shifting closer into him; he felt her torso brush against the arm he still had wrapped around his front, clutching on to the tubing concealed beneath his shirt. ‘Do you want to?’

There was that question again.

He felt the faintest tug as Karia curled her fingers into the front of his sweatshirt, not pulling, just resting there. Now he couldn’t smell anything but the perfume she’d got him to focus on; it seemed to envelop them both like a cloud, cutting them off from the rest of the galaxy. She was looking up at him, her head tilted back and her expression soft, and she was -

She was really pretty.

The thought took hold of him so suddenly he felt as if the ground had dropped away from beneath his feet; maybe he could do what she obviously expected him to, just bend down and kiss her, just as easily as she had taken his hand before. Maybe he could just lean down and put his lips on hers and let whatever happened, happen. Maybe it really could be that simple …

He didn’t know how long he’d been standing there, definitely almost about to do it, when she tilted her head to one side, looked up at him through her eyelashes, and said, ‘You know, I bet your mom would hate it if she knew you were in here with me.’

Just like that, whatever Teonine had been tentatively feeling was erased as if it had never been. ‘What?’ he said, too loudly.

‘Isn’t she some big-time senator? I bet she’d hate it if she knew her son was alone in a little dark airlock with me.’ Karia’s hand in his sweatshirt tugged lightly, teasing. ‘Did she warn you to stay away from me?’

In point of fact, Senator Lunulata had called before Karia even arrived at the school to warn Teonine to avoid her (‘She’s the kind of misguided young woman who could seriously impede the pursuit of your goals, sweetheart’). But Teonine didn’t feel the smallest desire to tell Karia that. His hangover had suddenly returned in full force, hammering in his temples and lurching in his stomach and hot little prickles breaking out all over his skin, and all he wanted was to crawl into his bed, or at least out of this airlock.

Karia’s hand released its grip on his sweatshirt; numbly, he could feel it travelling slowly up his chest. ‘Did she tell you I was a bad girl?’

There was a distant lurch of the shuttle on the rails, and Teonine’s stomach heaved in tandem; he squeezed his eyes shut for a brief second and managed not to be sick, but it made him feel like he was falling backwards. He opened his eyes, but the falling continued.

Her hand was sliding around his collar now, towards the back of his neck, and her face seemed closer, somehow. ‘Do you know why they call me a bad girl, little fish?’

He shook his head, unable to open his mouth for fear he’d be sick. The floor of the airlock seemed to be sliding out from under his feet, tipping him backwards, and there was a faint whistling sound like air was escaping somewhere.

Her hand was pushing against the back of his neck, tugging his head downwards, and he felt her breath against his jaw as she whispered: ‘Wouldn’t you like to?’

The shuttle swayed again, and his stomach was yanked out from under him, and Teonine fell.

There was something cold and metal behind his head, and a raised voice. ‘Sorry,’ he mumbled automatically.

‘What?’ A girl’s voice. Panicked. ‘What did you say? Are you OK?’

‘Sorry,’ Teonine said again. There was cold metal underneath his legs and butt too, and it seemed to be rumbling and jolting. He put out a hand, and felt more metal, vibrating under his hand with an unmistakable rhythm.

Shuttle. The word set up a train of associations in Teonine’s mind. Shuttle. Airlock. Dark. Cramped. And …

‘Oh fuck.’ He put both hands on his face, and felt how cold and clammy his skin was. ‘Oh fuck.’

‘Dude, you have got to tell me if you’re OK.’

Teonine opened his eyes. He was half-sitting, half-leaning against the bulkhead which had been behind him, his legs sprawled out on the floor in front of him; and kneeling between them, looking scared, was Karia.

‘Are you all right?’ she demanded.

He’d fainted. A girl had tried to kiss him, and he’d fainted.

‘I’m OK. I’m fine.’ He pushed himself backwards, or tried to, but his hands slipped, too damp to get a purchase on the grimy metal floor. ‘Sorry.’

‘You just went down.’ She was pale, and the darkness of the airlock drained the colour from her virulently orange hair. ‘I was just - and then I saw all these colours go off on your, your things -’ She gestured to his shoulder. ‘And then you just went really green and you - you passed out.’

Clearly, his protective colouration had kicked in, a display to warn away predators. Teonine didn’t even have the energy to feel embarrassed about that, even though to another Nautolan it would be the equivalent of pissing his pants. He shifted. No, at least he hadn’t done that. ‘I’m OK.’

‘Are you sure?’ She reached a hand towards his head. ‘You still look pale -’

Teonine flinched away; he thought he might actually die on the spot if she touched him right now. ‘It’s OK, it’s just - I was -’ He sought wildly for an excuse. ‘I’m - I guess I panicked. I’m claustrophobic.’

In the half-light, he thought she gave him a strange look, but what she said was: ‘Oh. Oh shit.’ She scooted backwards towards the other end of the airlock, giving him as much space as she could. ‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.’

‘Don’t worry.’ Teonine passed a hand over his clammy forehead; the pain in his temples had subsided to a dull but persistent throbbing. ‘I mean, you didn’t know.’

‘Yeah, but I ask you to come in here, I put you on the spot in front of everybody -’ She waved her hand at the wall adjoining the rest of the compartment.

Teonine wouldn’t have believed his spirits could sink any lower, but at the reminder that the rest of the kids from their class were on the other side of the partition, waiting with bated breath to hear what had happened on this side, they slipped another few notches.

Karia clearly picked up that she wasn’t helping, because she cut herself off in mid-sentence, eyed him warily for a second. ‘Don’t worry. Just breathe, OK?’ She checked her wrist chronometer. ‘We’ll be inside the school’s bubble in a couple of minutes, and then you can get out.’

Get out and begin the rest of his academic career as the freak Nautolan who fainted when a girl tried to kiss him. And to think that this morning he’d genuinely believed his life couldn’t get any worse.

Karia was rooting in her shoulder bag. ‘I really thought I had some water in here. Do you have any? You should have some water.’

‘Huh? No. I don’t have any.’

‘That’s ironic,’ she said nervously. ‘You’re, like, a fish out of water. A fish out of -’ She caught his eye. ‘Never mind.’ She sat back against the wall, hugging her knees, mirroring Teonine’s posture. ‘Are you sure you’re OK? You really don’t look so good.’

‘I’m fine.’ Seeing her sit like that made Teonine suddenly realise he was missing something. He bolted upright, patting down the front of his sweatshirt -

‘Looking for this?’ Karia held up one end of the plastic tubing. It had clearly come loose and slithered out onto the floor.

‘Uh - yeah.’

‘I nearly had a heart attack when I saw it coming out from underneath your sweatshirt. I thought it was, like, your weird Nautolan intestines or something. Or your dick.’

Teonine, caught mid-inhalation, spluttered. His head throbbed again. ‘Thanks.’ He yanked the tubing towards him. ‘It’s - uh - I need it for class - it's a science project -’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Just tell me if you’re building a bomb to blow up the school. I’ll help.’

Teonine smiled weakly. ‘It’s nothing. I - well - I’ll show you sometime.’

‘Sure you will, little fish.’ Karia glanced at her wrist again. ‘We really are nearly out, I promise.’

‘No, it’s OK, I just -’ Teonine broke off, biting his lip.

She looked concerned again. ‘What? What’s up?’

Could you maybe not tell everyone - not tell anyone - about that thing where I fainted on you? He couldn’t even muster up the energy to try to form the words, despite the growing knot in his stomach when he thought about the looks on Fralx and Fotze’s faces. ‘Nothing.’ He leaned his head back against the wall and longed for his bed.

Distantly he heard her say, ‘It’s OK, you know. I’m not going to say anything.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Teonine mumbled.

‘I mean it,’ she insisted. ‘We just won’t say anything about what we did.’

‘Then they’ll assume I freaked out or did something weird,’ Teonine said wearily. ‘It’s fine. It doesn’t matter.’

‘You know what? You’re right. It is fine. Because I’m going to fix it.’ She clapped her hands, startling Teonine out of his daze, and jumped to her feet. ‘Give me a sec.’

Puzzled, he watched as she ran her hands violently through her short blood-orange hair until it lost its carefully-defined flicks and stood out from her head in a fuzzy sort of way. Then she undid the second-to-top button on her shirt. Lastly, she did a weird sort of dance on the spot, jumping up and down vigorously and slapping her cheeks.

‘What are you doing?’ Teonine asked.

‘Trust me.’ She stood stock still for a minute, and Teonine thought she was mouthing something at him, until he realised she was trapping her bottom lip between her teeth and scraping her top teeth over it.

Then she dug in her bag and pulled out a shiny tube of something - lipstick, Teonine realised, as she opened it and scrutinised the colour. She smudged some on her thumb and carefully dabbed her lips with it, then turned to Teonine. ‘Up.’

He pulled his feet in and slid his back up the wall until he was standing; his head swum a little, but he stayed upright. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Making you look the right kind of mess.’ She painted more lipstick on her thumb, reached out to touch him and then hesitated. ‘May I?’

Teonine still didn’t know what she was doing, but he nodded anyway.

She reached out and carefully brushed her thumb against the corner of his mouth, then, seemingly as an afterthought, smudged it against the collar of his sweatshirt. She scrutinised him narrowly, then, apparently satisfied, nodded and put the lipstick into her pocket.

‘Now,’ she instructed, ‘when we get out there, just wipe it off with the back of your hand and look embarrassed.’

Teonine touched the corner of his mouth gingerly with his fingertip. ‘That part’s not going to be a problem.’

‘If somebody asks you what we did in here -’

‘They won’t.’

‘- Just don’t say anything and act like you’re too cool to talk about it. I’ll handle the rest. Trust me, I know just what to say.’

Karia looked down at the tubing he was still holding. ‘Should we try and stash this? Or fit it in my bag? No,’ she decided, ‘stick it back up your sweatshirt. If anybody looks, they’ll just think you’re trying to cover up a boner.’

Teonine, trying to wrap the tubing back around his midriff, choked again and dropped one end.

Karia rolled her eyes and stooped to pick it up. ‘Oh, come here.’

‘Thanks,’ Teonine mumbled, head swimming again as she turned him around with a hand on his shoulder, then back to face her again, wrapping the tubing around his abdomen where it could be concealed by his baggy sweatshirt. ‘You don’t have to … Thanks.’

‘One thing about me, little fish? I might get my friends into trouble, but I always get them out of it.’ She tucked the end of the tube underneath the coils. ‘There. That should be OK until you get back to your room. I’d tell you to go straight back there, but you always do.’

Teonine knew she was trying to make him smile. He knew he should want to smile. Instead, he said, too loudly: ‘You don’t have to be nice to me, you know.’

She laughed, picking up her bag and swinging it over her shoulder. ‘Yes, I do,’ she said, briskly. ‘If only because I triggered your … claustrophobia.’

A shudder passed through the floor and walls, and Teonine heard the faint thunk of seals relaxing, pressure equalising, as the shuttle passed through the atmospheric shield and into the school’s bubble.

Karia was already kneeling by the hatch. She turned to look back at him over her shoulder. ‘There’s another reason, of course,’ she said provocatively. ‘For being nice to you.’

Teonine tensed. ‘What?’

‘Well, you owe me one now, little fish.’ She winked at him. ‘Don’t forget, will you? I know I won’t.’

Teonine knew she was teasing, but as he squatted down beside her and waited for Voka Ginn to unseal the hatch, he felt the familiar, leaden weight of obligation settling into his stomach.

Part Two here.

#swtor #swtor fanfiction #swtor fic #oc kiss week #oc: teo lunulata #oc: devinahl #other people's cool ocs #how do you do fellow kids #overuse of the word skrag

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rpgmgames · 5 years ago

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November’s Featured Game: Grimm's Hollow

DEVELOPER(S): ghosthunter ENGINE: RPG Maker 2003 GENRE: Indie RPG, Adventure WARNINGS: Discussions of death, losing a loved one, grief SUMMARY: Grimm’s Hollow is a spooky, freeware RPG where you search the afterlife for your brother. Reap ghosts with your scythe, explore haunted caves, and eat ghostly treats on your journey through death.

Download the game here! Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! *BB: My name's Bruno and I did some of the music along with Nat! I’m super happy to have participated in this game! *NW: I’m Nat Wesley, a.k.a. Natbird! I’m a composer available for hire with a few projects in the works. I’m honored to have had the chance to work on the soundtrack to Grimm’s Hollow! *GH: Hello! I go by ghosthunter online; I started developing RPGs with a friend in school when we found out that we both enjoyed RPG Horror. I enjoy art, webcomics, cartoons and narrative-driven indie games a lot. I bought RM2K3 on sale and started pouring pixel art into it, before learning how to do things like chase scenes, cutscenes, etc. I used to fantasize about making my own game, drawing dungeons and ghosts in the back of my sketchbooks, before I finally started Grimm’s Hollow. Now I’m near the end of high-school, and I’m hoping the best for uni!

What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *GH: Grimm’s Hollow, originally, wasn’t as ambitious or personal. It was simply just going to be “my first game”, something that I could finally put my doodles and RM2K3 skills to. I wanted a game that a younger me would have enjoyed, back when I first discovered the classic RPGMaker games and replayed them constantly for those endings. That was my initial inspiration. It eventually evolved into an action turn-based RPG that relies on timing, yet it’s mostly narrative-driven. You traverse death in search of your sibling, and try to make an escape. There are unexpected pieces of me that ended up in this game, some of which I’m still noticing even now.

How long have you been working on your project? *GH: Since the summer of June 2018.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *GH: Standstill Girl, OFF by Mortis Ghost, Undertale, Over The Garden Wall, and the animation medium in general.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *GH: Many! Making your first game is such a giant learning curve, that the list of challenges goes on. I would say that the most difficult issue I encountered (and that, in some ways, I am still facing after release) is working around the limitations of the game engine I am using. I wanted to see whether creating an engaging but simple 1-party RPG in RM2K3 (without going completely custom) was feasible, and I experimented with quick time events as part of that. I worked around the engine’s built-in formulae so players could see progress when they upgraded their stats - although the game might display as defence as “10”, in reality the game stores it as 40 since the engine splits defence by 4. Since I did not want to create an RPG which was too complex for my first game, I also scrapped traditional staples such as armour or weapons. There were also issues such as having an appropriate “game over” handling event which wouldn’t shoot you back to the title screen after you lost a battle; getting RM2K3 to play a small cutscene where you faint and respawn somewhere else was tricky. I felt that if the player had to reload after a loss, it would disrupt the game flow.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *GH: Like I mentioned before, the game started off impersonal. I just had a soft spot for a spooky cute aesthetic, and I wanted to indulge in that. It was (and in its essence, still is) meant to be a short story, to keep the player invested for the short game length - nothing grandiose. The original draft did not have Baker play a role in the narrative - he was just an ordinary shopkeeper NPC. For a long time during development, Lavender did not even have a name. In the very first draft, she was a silent protagonist the player could name and customize. But she played a very active role in the final outline, so it was hard not to give her own unique voice when one emerged from the narrative naturally. I am glad I did; she grew on me quite quickly! Grimm was virtually unchanged from beginning to end. The only difference was that a close friend suggested that he seemed like he would be into drinking Oolong tea - so that’s what he offers you when you meet him. Timmy also did not go under massive overhauls like Lavender and Baker did, but his relationship with Lavender became much more fleshed out as I wrote the narrative. In other facets of the game’s design, there were not many changes to the original prototype.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *GH: It was just myself, doing the art, writing, programming, etc. But halfway through creating the second cave, I realised I would need a very specific sound for Grimm’s Hollow. So, I contacted Nat for music, but I also created a post on tumblr calling for a composer since there were many tracks to make. I met Bruno as a result! I am very happy with their work and I am so grateful I’ve got to work with them! (Some players are asking for an OST release, which is in the works).

What is the best part of developing a game? *GH: I really enjoyed the early stages of development: creating new tilesets, sprites and maps and piecing them together in the editor, then taking a small screenshot and sharing it with my friend over summer vacation … It was nice to see the game’s world slowly come together. I think that’s what I enjoyed the most from beginning to end: that sense of world-building, that sense of relaxation from making a small cosy game. The latter started to disappear as work and other responsibilities started to intrude, and pressure began to seep into development time - but I never stopped loving making the world and characters. I also want to say that, by lucky chance, I have met a lot of kind people from making my first game. I’m very grateful for that, so thank you to everyone.

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *GH: All the time! Other RPG Maker 2003 projects are great inspirations for pixel art tilesets, as well as how to code harder features such as custom menus. They’re also just fun to play.

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *GH: Lavender and Timmy are relatable to me in multiple ways. I can’t elaborate on Timmy since that would go into spoiler territory, but I somewhat relate to Lavender’s insistence on managing her life on her own - sometimes to her own detriment. I’d say the most fun character to write for was Grimm. He can be unintentionally silly while speaking in the most formal way, but also very caring too. Everything he does and says was easy to write, whereas I had to think harder for the interactions between everyone else - especially for very crucial scenes regarding their development. That being said, my favourite is still the game’s central two siblings. I can not pick between them for the life of me.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *GH: I wish I started testing even earlier! Not only does it give you a good sense of what’s missing, but seeing people enjoy what you’ve made yet get hindered by bugs is a very strong incentive to fix your game immediately. When I was lacking motivation or was stuck, I found that good feedback and support made me motivated again. I also wish that I could have pushed the deadline a little further, or perhaps released the game on Early Access since it will take me a while to refine post-release bugs - but as it is, the 31st of October really was the deadline for my game due to external circumstances (no, that deadline wasn’t just because it was Halloween!). Other than that, I wonder if using an updated version of RPG Maker would have produced the same game …? It’s hard to tell, but I hope people enjoy it for what it is - I will be working on that post-release patch soon!

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *GH: There are no current plans, but I would be happy to have the opportunity to improve and expand on the game. As it is, the game’s released for free and done as a hobby, so I would struggle to do that by myself.

What do you most look forward to now that you have finished the game? *GH: Earlier on, I was really looking forward to players’ reactions. Games are made to be fun, and I would have felt distraught if my game didn’t achieve what it was set out to do. Yet it was not just about the gameplay; it was about the narrative. I hoped that what I found funny, the player would too; what was heartfelt to me, was heartfelt to the player as well. Like sharing a laugh, or just a good experience together. I hoped they would enjoy the feeling that went into it, despite the struggle of making it against circumstance and limitations. Now, I look forward to resting and sleeping once this over. I want to explore my other interests, improve, and explore new media. I want to relax, and refocus again like I was before the heat of development.

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *GH: Bugs! Some are easy to fix, but others are harder due to the limitations of the engine (e.g an error in one ending is caused by an overflow error).

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *GH: Show your game as early as possible, to as many people as possible. As soon as you have something playable, it’s ready for feedback. You’ll see if that game mechanic you spent hours refining works, or if it doesn’t work and why. You’ll understand what players enjoy and what they want more of, but also what they don’t like or don’t enjoy. And you will definitely encounter bugs. You’ll be able to pinpoint and fix minor problems early on that can easily become a larger issue later. You’ll be able to fine-tune your game so its best bits shine, and the difficulty is just right.

Question from last month's featured dev @dead-dreams-dev: Is there anything you’ve added to your game for no other reason than because you’re hoping fans will get a kick out of it? Fanservice, fourth wall breakage, references to other games, jokes, abilities that are just ridiculously overpowered and badass, etc? *GH: It’s hard to say; game design is trying to find the intersection between what’s good for the player, what the developer enjoys, and what’s feasible to implement. Every decision made should be conscious of that … I think a lot of the game’s early light-hearted jokes was not only made because I enjoyed it, but I hoped the player would “get a kick out of it” too. But more so, I think it’s because I would struggle to write a story which is serious and bleak from beginning to end. The game is a little self-indulgent in the narrative that way.

We mods would like to thank ghosthunter & team for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Grimm's Hollow if you haven’t already! See you next month!

- Mods Gold & Platinum

#rpgmaker #rpg maker games #indie games #pixel games #rpg #adventure #cute #grimms hollow #grimm's hollow #gotm #game of the month #gotm 2019 #2019 #game of the month 2019 #november #november 2019

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thefloatingstone · 5 years ago

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We’ve gone from Self-Isolation to Quarantine and in some places to gradual relaxation phases, but that doesn’t stop the need for more nonsense you can watch on youtube while you wait for things to get back to normal. And recommending things and making lists are some of my favourite things to do but I have not yet figured out how to start or structure a video myself, you guys get another rambling tumblr post of things you can watch on youtube.

This time I’m once again just gonna recommend individual videos rather than full channels like I did in part 2.

Part 1

Part 2

In no particular order;

LOCAL58: The Broadcast Station that Manipulates You

I recently started watching the Nexpo channel when I went on a binge of creepy youtube videos. Most of his videos are really good although the ones where he himself goes into theory crafting can be a little asinine. However, this video is REALLY good. And before you get nervous, LOCAL58 is not a real TV station. LOCAL58 is a youtube channel created by the same guy behind the Candle Cove creepypasta. This video by Nexpo covers the various episodes of LOCAL58 and discusses them. Just be aware going in that this is abstract horror, and will probably get under your skin regardless if you’re unaffected by certain topics or not. although cw for suicide mention.

I also recommend most of the rest of this channel, although be careful where you tread. I don’t recommend his series “Disturbing things from around the internet” as it can sometimes include real life crime, abuse and such caught on security cameras. Everything else is really good tho. (although I was really annoyed by his 2 videos on KrainaGrzybowTV)

The Search for D.B. Cooper

LEMMiNO has a new video out covering one of the most unexplained crimes in the past century of the US. LEMMiNO is the guy I’ve recommended before who did videos on the Universal S. He is very down to earth and not someone prone to conspiracy or even really that fanciful of thinking. (He’s like the one person I feel covered the Dyaltov Pass incident and was confused by why this was even a mystery because if you read the Russian Autopsy reports and documents associated with the case it’s all pretty logical and easily explained)

D.B. Cooper is the name given to a man who, in 1971, hijacked an airplane with a bomb, asked for a large sum of money, and after receiving it, parachuted from the plane and was never seen or heard from again.

The Austrian Wine Poisoning | Down the Rabbit Hole

Down the Rabbit Hole also has a new video out, this time covering the Austrian Wine Poisoning event from 1985. A scandal that involved literally the entire country of Austria, affected multiple countries, and forever changed the way wine was made world wide. As someone who is generally pretty allergic to most artificial substances this one made me personally very angry. But luckily, it has a happy ending and a better world for us all... if I could drink wine which I can’t do anyway.

The Turbulent Tale of Yandere Dev - A Six Year Struggle

The Right Opinion is another channel I only recently subbed to after watching his cover on Onion Boy. I put off subbing to him simply because of his channel name and I thought it meant he would come across as smug and elitist. Luckily this seems to merely be one of those “I chose a bad channel name and now I’m stuck with it” type of situations. (IHE has a similar problem).

Anyway, I have a weird interest in bizarre internet personalities, so I’ve been enjoying his channel as he simply discusses and presents a timeline of events of certain individuals. In this video, he covers the developer behind the much maligned Yandere Simulator. It’s a tale of hubris, arrogance, immaturity, and an unwillingness to accept your own shortcomings due to ego.

Oh and there’s a meme game about Japanese school girls with anime tiddies in there as well.

The Most Relaxing Anime Ever Made | Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō

Kenny Lauderdale is a youtube channel which is slowly becoming bigger which I’m very happy to see. He exclusively covers anime and live action Japanese television no younger than the mid 90s (as is the case with YYK) and which usually never saw a release outside of Japanese Laserdisc. I do wish his videos were a little longer, but if nothing else his videos serve as an excellent starting to point to find some older and underappreciated shows... or hot garbage fires. In this episode he talks about the 2 OVA episodes made based on one of my favourite manga, Yokohama Shopping Log. A Post apocalyptic anime about an android who runs a coffee shop outside of her house, and the quiet solitude of living in a world of declining human population, brief encounters with travelers and other people, and just... existing. The anime was never released outside of Japan and is only available on Japanese VHS and laserdisc.... but hey guess what!! Somebody uploaded both episodes, subbed, to Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2HCVOH6DtA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqSTwfkobME

YMS’ slow descent into madness as he uncovers just how bullshit the Kimba Conspiracy is

I’m linking a full playlist for this one.

YMS is busy planning his review on the “live action” Lion King remake as the original 1994 movie is probably his favourite movie all time (and also self declared what made him a furry). As part of the 2 hour review, he decided to what all 2000 hours of Kimba the White Lion just to mention how The Lion King potentially stole the idea. ....until he actually watched all 2000 hours of Kimba and realised that if you actually WATCH Kimba, it has VERY little to do with the Lion King at all apart from having the same animals in them because AFRICA. Watch as one man slowly loses his mind as he realises just how stupid this conspiracy theory is, just HOW DECEITFUL and straight up LYING people can be. People who write BOOKS. People who teach LAW AT UNIVERSITIES. Because NOBODY bothered to actually watch the entire show and just parroted the “Disney stole this” lie which got started by like 2 salty fans on the internet.

The man set out to just mention how Disney stole an idea, and uncovered one of the most infuriating rabbit holes on the internet. Screaming for SOMEONE to provide him with sources or evidence.

YMS will be publishing his full Kimba documentary this month which he has said is around 2 hours long before he continues to work on the Lion King one.

Science Stories: Loch Ness eDNA results, Poop Knives, and Skeleton Lovers

TREY the Explainer has a video giving us some updates in Archeology from 2019. In this video he discusses the findings of the eDNA results conducted on the Loch Ness to see what animal DNA the lake contains which will tell us what living animals currently inhabit the lake, ancient knives made of poop and if this is a real thing that could have existed, and a skeleton couple found buried together which were at first thought to be lovers, then revealed to be both male, and then how in this instance we cannot let our modern sensibilities dictate what we WANT this burial find to be, but to look at the evidence as presented to us and place in context finds of this nature. The worst thing an archaeologist can do is look for proof to a theory they already have.

The Bizarre Modern Reality of Sonic the Hedgehog

Super Eyepatch Wolf is back and he’s here to talk to us about the very very strange existence of Sonic. a 90s rebellious “too cool for School” answer to Mario, a lost idea as the world of video games changes and culture shifted, a meme and punching bag amplified by a unique fanbase and poor quality games, a transcendence into a horrific warped idea of what he once was, and modern day and where Sonic and his fans are now. As usual Super Eyepatch Wolf knocks it out of the park.

Kokoro Wish and the Birth of a Multiverse: A Lecture on the Work of Jennifer Diane Reitz

I don’t even sub to this channel as I’m not entirely sure what Ben’s usual content is about. But every now and then he has a “101″ class, where he explains to a room full of his friends in a classroom setting (complete with Whiteboard) an internet artist and oddity, the timeline, and what it is they have created. (wait... didn’t I say this already?). Unlike TRO however, the 101 classrooms are not a dark look into disturbed individuals (although the CWC 101 is debatable) nor is it a “lol look at this weirdo” dragging. Instead, of the 3 he’s done so far, it’s usually a rather sympathetic look at some of the strange artists on the internet who through some way or another, left a very big cultural impact on the internet space through their art. Sometimes they may not be the best people, but their work is so outside of what we’re used to seeing that just listening to him run you through these people’s internet history is fascinating.

In this episode he talks about Jennifer Diane Reitz. And although it is titled Kokoro Wish, the lecture is more about Jennifer’s larger work back in the early internet when being a weeb was unheard of, how being trans influenced her stories and characters, and her world building that is so rich and in-depth with it’s own ASTRO PHYSICS it puts any modern fictional world found in games or movies to shame.

Jennifer is not exactly a nice person... and in many ways can be seen as dangerously irresponsible, but she created something truly unique in a way that you kinda struggle figuring out if it’s terrible or a work of genius.

Anyway I think that’s enough for now

#Youtube #youtubers #recommendations #Self Isolation playlist #Long post #part 3 #videos #links

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rainofaugustsith · 5 years ago

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Rain Plays SWTOR: SOLO gearing 6.0

In my opinion the SWTOR devs have given solo players a hearty "fuck you" with 6.0, between an insufferably long gearing system, nerfed companions, much higher conquest targets (with solo-friendly activities like galactic rampage now removed) and overtuned content. It's why I'm not paying for a subscription anymore. Damn it, though, I like the game, I like hanging out with Viri and I still have characters who have not finished all the content. Even though I am not subscribed now, I invested in Artifact Authorization for my account so my characters can wear the good stuff.

Despite the fact that the devs seem to be heavily pushing people to group, I decided that my own "fuck you" to them would be getting Viri to 306 without grouping even once. And I did.

Almost. Her gear rating is 304, but hell, she's close, and she already has several 306 pieces. These aren’t the final stats I want for her (as she changes to moddable 306 pieces I’ll be adding back her augments and changing those relics) but she’s a beast again.

The important takeaway from this post:

You do not need to group to get good gear, even at level 75. You do not need to do veteran flashpoints to get good gear. Good gear drops in the solo flashpoints too!

Do you "need" it?

I hate it when other players tell me I "don't need" certain gear, so I won't do that to you. It's a personal choice. The higher levels of gear do seem to compensate for at least some of the currently overtuned parts of the game. In other words even if you are not interested at all in the endgame you may wish to pursue the higher-end gear simply to do the other content more easily.

If you are not playing Onslaught (or not playing it yet) there have been numerous reports of other missions/areas being overtuned, including the Star Fortresses, Bowdaar's recruitment mission, walker combat in KOTET and Iokath, the H4s and some H2s, and better gear could help there.

Onslaught is supposed to be designed so that you gear up as you level up, ending the expansion with a full set of 268 gear and a tactical item. In my own experience going through Onslaught, some of my classes did okay with this system but others did not. All had similar gear ratings (242-252), at least some augments, and at least one or two level 50 influence companions (usually Lana, but also included Vette, Mako or Akaavi for some characters). My Sith Warrior and Jedi Knight were fine. My Smuggler died if an NPC looked at her the wrong way and really struggled to get through. My Bounty Hunter and Lightning Sorcerer had a few hiccups but managed.

My own preference will be to get my characters leveled to 75 and geared before hitting KOTET now. I don't think they all need to be 306. My test subject, canon Viri (who has not done Onslaught) was blazing through content by the time she was a 286. I will likely aim for at least that rating on all characters.

So you want the gear. Now what?

Okay. It's a long, mind-numbingly boring experience to gear up but if you hang onto enough stuff, you might be able to avoid going through this nightmare on more than one character. How can you get gear without grouping?

1. The easiest and most effective way is to run a lot of solo flashpoints. Over and over again (the same way the folks who group are doing with Hammer Station).

The shortest and simplest flashpoint (at least for me) is Korriban Incursion, followed by Depths of Manaan. By the time you hit a gear rating of 286ish, you can chew through either of these alone in less than 20 minutes. Black Talon is next, but one of the bosses only seems to drop crafting material (including those coveted isotopes) and the bonus boss now has a lot of very uncomfortable flashing lights.

I went through several of the longer flashpoints like Copero, False Emperor, Rakata Prime and Boarding Party, too. On Copero I had four gear drops instead of three thanks to the bonus boss, and some random green gear dropped from NPCs, but otherwise the longer flashpoints don't seem to offer any real advantage over the shorter ones. Thus, unless there's something else you want from the flashpoint (like decos or achievements), it seems most prudent to run the ones that will cause you the least trouble. You might get random pieces (usually green 270s) from enemies but overall, usually only three bosses will give you proper drops. There will be a sack of Grade 11 crafting materials, probably a mod or two, and at least one piece of gear. This is RNG. Sometimes you will luck out and get two pieces of gear you can use. Sometimes you will get nothing and will end up deconstructing it all. Viri has received tank gear, things she clearly can't use like blaster barrels, and 274 pieces when she's a 294. As far as I know it happens in the veteran group flashpoints too. Just deconstruct it, or set it aside for another character if you think they will want it.

Once you get past 300, I have noticed you will start getting a lot more mods, enhancements and armor/hilts/barrels. This is a good thing. These are the pieces you can set aside for alts.

2. Conquest.

It's harder to meet this goal now but it may be doable for you on one or two toons. During this exercise Viri reached her conquest goal of 50,000 points just by doing flashpoints and a couple of easy heroics on Tatooine and Korriban. The Conquest gear crates are in my experience good, and I've pulled numerous gold set pieces, so it's worth it to try to aim for the goal, and it can be done solo.

3. Chapters.

I was very surprised to get a gear crate when I finished Shroud of Memory. A character who was just finishing up KOTET received crates for her last two chapters, too. I think this replaces the gear that used to be given for KOTFE/KOTET chapters. It's in line with the other weekly/daily crates.

4. Onderon weekly/daily crates.

If you have a character who has gone through Onslaught, do ten missions for the weekly and six for the daily. There are some simple quests that can be done quickly. In my experience these crates provide little more than deconstruction fodder most of the time. However it's worth it, if only for the tech fragments. Aside from gear, there are some nice decos available at the reputation vendor so raising your Onderon rep isn't pointless.

5. Mek-Sha heroics.

Again, if you have a character who has done Onslaught. Not the best option for the planet - see #11 for an easier one. Both of the Mek-Sha heroics give gear crates and in my limited experience they have been good. However, the heroics are tuned very, very high. Viri's clone (Sith Warrior; Vengeance Juggernaut) with a gear rating of 300 had trouble. The final boss in the Matter of Respect heroic has more HP than many flashpoint bosses, and he's with two silvers. Dying in these heroics is expensive, too: the tune of 20,000 credits per repair bill. I don't think this really is a good option for most solo players, even if you want to run them once for the experience/achievements.

This is the final boss in the second Mek-Sha heroic. No, you’re not reading that HP number wrong.

6. Renown crates.

Instead of Command Levels, there are now Renown levels. It's the same overall concept: gain a level, gain a crate with a piece of gear (the fun stuff like pets and companion gifts are gone). The difference: you're not going to gear up via Renown. For all intents and purposes it's probably best to pretend Renown doesn't exist. It's not like Galactic Command where doing the weekly in Section X or Ziost will at least earn you a crate or two.

You need 1,600,000 points to get one Renown crate. Considering that the weekly areas now award between 7000-28,000 points and a flashpoint awards 2000-3000 (and that is WITH the full 25% boost), it's going to be a while before you earn even one crate. When you do, I might suggest hanging on to them until your rating is high to try to get better gear. In my limited experience (I think my characters combined have earned about ten Renown crates!) I don't think I've ever pulled any sort of useful upgrade out of these crates. Take the item and deconstruct it for tech fragments, don't disintegrate it. Consider anything useful to be a pleasant surprise.

7. Treasure Hunting missions

Level 10 lockbox missions return with gear. It's not highly rated, though. Deconstruct it for the tech fragments.

8. Crafting

From what I have heard this is such a clusterfuck that it's not even worth attempting, with many mats required even for low-level gear. Skip this, I think.

9. LS/DS vendors

Apparently if you are willing to fork over all 100 of your LS or DS coins to the vendor you can get an equipment box. I wouldn't do this because it's now very hard to get LS/DS coins (see Renown). Once you blow them all you're not likely to get so many back. 10. Random drops

NPCs in heroics, flashpoints and open world may occasionally drop random pieces of gear, usually green 270ish stuff that may or may not be for your discipline. It's good to deconstruct.

11. Mek-Sha Tradehouse missions In your faction’s starting point on Mek-Sha, you will find a datapad. Click this to get a short mission to speak to a Nautolan NPC in Huttbreaker’s Compound. The NPC will tell you that you can do short “adventures” around the galaxy to help out Huttbreaker’s auction house. Now check out the small clickable terminal to the left of the NPC. You will get a Weekly - Tradehouse Acquisitions - and a daily mission that will take you to either Rishi, Tatooine, Onderon, Nar Shaddaa or Dantooine. These missions are very simple - usually just gathering some clickable items or scanning several targets with provided macrobinoculars. To complete the Weekly, you need to complete three Tradehouse Missions. You can only do one per day. It will award you a gold gear box, so it’s worth it.

When you get gear:

Use a character that you can devote solely to gearing for a little while. Canon Viri has not done Onslaught, but she's my strongest character and my main, and she has nothing else to do right now. I decided to gear with her.

If a piece of gear is an upgrade, equip it immediately. The higher your overall gear rating, the more likely you are to get upgrades. This will screw with your stats for a while, but you can sort it out when you get to the 300s. If it's not an upgrade deconstruct it for tech fragments - the currency you will use to purchase gear later.

Once you get to the high 290s or 300s you may wish to start setting aside gear pieces for your alts instead of deconstructing them. ETA Gear is now legacy bound, so you can pass it from one character to the next (except for weapons, I found). If you are moving up to a 306 piece, for example, save that 304 for the next toon who might need it, and pass around the gear to everyone’s advantage.

Mods: Viri kept her augmented mainhand and offhand weapons (lightsaber and focus). I ripped out mods/hilts as needed to upgrade those weapons. However, ripping mods is very expensive so you don't want to be doing this for all your right side pieces. Don't worry about mods until you get to the 300s. Just keep using the non-moddable gear as you progress. This includes mods that don't seem to suit your character. If a Barrage or Studious enhancement would take Viri from one gear level to another I used it. Use Takanna: Takanna is the vendor who sells "unidentified" pieces for around 350 tech fragments each. The pieces are supposed to be at least your item rating or higher, and with the exception of left side and mods, are supposed to be for your discipline.

I used Takanna to get over the plateaus that Viri would hit sometimes, when she would reach a certain item rating and would not get anything higher from the flashpoint drops. Buying a higher rated set of boots or bracers (for instance) would sometimes be enough to get her to a higher overall gear rating and break the stalemate. Once you reach your quitting point: You don't want to go all the way to 306? You're fine at 290 or 286 or 300? That's cool. This is where you either decide that you're going to augment the non-moddable gear you have or start playing with mods and those gold set pieces. It is VERY expensive to move around mods and augments, especially after you reach 300 (we're talking 450K to rip three mods, I'm not exaggerating), so I advise that you put them where you want them to stay.

Set bonuses: The old set bonus you had from your GEMINI or Ossus gear vanished when you hit level 75. I don't think the new ones are as good, but in some cases all you need are two pieces to get the bonus. Ostensibly you could therefore have three different set bonuses (2, 2, 2) operating at once.

Tacticals: Viri received two as random drops once she was in the 280s. You also receive one good all-around tactical at the end of Onslaught. I wouldn't be fussed about getting these. If you get one, great. If you have credits to burn check out the vendor on the fleet who sells them. Otherwise wait until you finish Onslaught. Amplifiers: I DGAF about these. Re-rolling the amplifiers is a large credit sink for (IMHO) small boosts. I personally am not bothering with re-rolling anything. Viri has what she has on her gear and I'm not worried about changing what is there.However, re-rolling an amplifier will now give you Conquest points, so you may decide to re-roll one just for that boost. Augments: Viri has kept her 236 and 240 mods. They have been nerfed a little but the Grade 11 augments and kits are really expensive, and IMHO her old augments do fine for her.

Gearing alts: Send your highest-iRated toon shopping for the others. Vendors like Takanna will give you gear that corresponds to your toon’s level. So send your 306 rated character shopping, grab that high-level gear, and leave it in your Legacy hold for your alts. I'm gearing my weakest alts, and those that have a lot of content left to do, first. "Weakest" might mean many things to many people. For me, it's the alt that has the most trouble getting through content and/or the class that I'm the least skilled at playing. I've also geared one of Viri's clones who did do Onslaught so she could do the Mek-Sha and Onderon tasks. Overall, this gear system is no fun. I don’t think it would be quite as bad if there weren’t so many levels, but when you’re going through 19 - 284, 286, 288 and on and on and on - it feels like you’re slowly pulling teeth for every gain. Still, the point was to show that it could be done without the grouping that the devs seem to be trying to force on us. Et voila.

#rain plays swtor #swtor #6.0

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gyakutengagotoku · 7 years ago

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GSvsAA - Dual Destinies - Character Profiles

In line with the AJ one, here’s the next in the line up. Check the master post more more of the GSvsAA translation project.

It’s worth noting that while Mr. Takumi is known to have some very obvious or random inspirations for his name puns, there are times when it’s tricky to figure out because of his choice of punny origins. Meanwhile, Mr. Yamazaki & co. tend to follow suit with the obvious, but their puns are often very straightforward and easy to deduce. Sometimes, a name has multiple layers of puns and chances are good that plenty of those puns make their way into the character’s design.

I don’t think it’s lazy design, since simplifying a character’s role in a plot means more care can be taken for the actual mystery, but sometimes it leaves something about the character to be desired. Then again, there are plenty of characters from the first four games in the series that aren’t so memorable.

I’m just obsessed with this series so I know them all. Ha.

Edit: SoJ profiles posted.

Spoilers below.

Main cast

Athena Cykes - Kidzuki Kokone (希月心音) kidzuki means “awareness” (kinda following how Trucy is named Minuki) and the second kanji in her surname is “moon”. The kanji in her given name, when pronounced shin’on, means “heartbeat”. It can also be translated literally as “heart sound” to refer to her ability to hear people’s voices of their hearts.

Simon Blackquill - Yuugami Jin (夕神迅) yugami means “distortion” or “twist”, referring to his epithet, “The Twisted Samurai”. The kanji form a phrase meaning “god of dusk”. jin, written as 刃, is “blade”; while the kanji in his name means “swift”. It’s analogous to Edgeworth’s name, Mitsurugi, which is the name of a noble blade of legend. Trivia: He refers to the chief in person using the term danna, a title reserved for Lords and noblemen back during the days of samurai. Since this couldn’t be replicated in English without sounding drastically out of place, it’s been tamed down to a plain “sir”. (Imo, he could very well have gone with “sire” and it’d be just the right amount of tradition and respect, but I guess it doesn’t quite sound Japanese enough.) Incidentally, Taka is Gin, which can mean “silver”, or possibly like the English word (but it’s pronounced with a hard G).

Bobby Fulbright - Ban Gouzou (番轟三) The ban in his name may refer to a “guard”, though being written as 万 means “many”. Combined with his first name, which consists of “booming” and “three” (like in “two’s company, three’s a crowd”), you get a whole lot of bombastic in one guy. Trivia: His catchphrase is shouting “JUSTICE!!!” in English at the top of his lungs and laughing triumphantly. Imo, the localization's “In Justice We Trust!” has a certain nuance to it that really makes it pop when you realize just who he is, though.

Yep, that’s it. That’s the game. These three right here.

Episode 1

Gaspen Payne - Auchi Fumitake (亜内文武) “Auchi” is simply “ouch”. His first name is the same as his brother’s but flipped. fumi (文) is “literature”; take (武) is “martial”. I suppose both of them are warriors of words, but I really think their parents the devs just ran out of ideas.

Juniper Woods - Morizumi Shinobu (森澄しのぶ) mori (森) is “forest” or “woods”; shinobu means “to hide”. Meanwhile, the kanji for zumi (澄) used in the verb sumasu becomes “to look prim” or “to listen carefully”. These two definitions better relate to her from Episode 3, though. Trivia: In the Japanese version of this episode, the crime scene shows in English letters: “S I N O B U”. Since Japanese is typed using romaji, し can be either shi or si. Either way, it’s still pronounced the same. If it weren’t obvious enough from the intro, this spelling would have easily given away the real killer.

Ted Tonate - Barashima Shingo (馬等島晋吾) barasu can mean a few things: “to expose”, “to take apart”, or “to kill”. He already covers the latter two in the first case, but the first definition doesn’t quite play in until the last one. The last syllable of his first name ties into his first name to make mashingo, or “machine language”; hence the keyboard.

Candice Arme - Kaku Hozumi (賀来ほずみ) Her full name can be written as 確保済み, meaning “in custody”. kaku may refer to “square”/”cube”; probably referring to how she’s been hit. Her surname and the first syllable of her first name make kakuho, or “guarantee”, which seems to play into her English name.

Edit: Well, I totally screwed up this entry. My bad.

Episode 2

Jinxie Tenma - Tenma Yumemi (天馬ゆめみ) Her surname as written here refers to the “heavenly horse” Pegasus. yumemiru means “to dream”. More on Tenma below.

Damian Tenma - Tenma Deemon (天馬出右衛門) His first name comes from “demon”. Tenma, which is also the name of the village, is written as 天魔. It refers to the yokai of the Buddhist sixth heaven in the realm of desire who haunts people and deceives them into avoiding good. According to legend, Tenma tried (and ultimately failed) to lure the young Siddhartha away from enlightenment with earthly desires. Tenma Taro from this game is based on this Tenma. In Japanese folklore, he's described to have a bird-like appearance, hence we have jangly-cackling-bird-demon.

The Great Nine-Tails - Great Kyuubi (グレート九尾) He’s based on the Nine-tailed fox of Japanese legend, a yokai of immense power and influence and sometimes disastrous consequences. You know the one.

Rex Kyubi - Kyuubi Ginji (九尾銀次) His last name is the same as the Nine-Tails. The gin (銀) in his name refers to his silver hair and to the Nine-tailed fox of legend, which is often portrayed as silver. ginjiru also means “to chant” or “to recite”.

Phineas Filch - Zeniarai Kumabee (銭洗熊兵衛) zeni, as written above, is “money”. (This is what Capcom’s fictional currency zenny is based on.) His last name is a reference to the azukiarai, “The Bean Washer”, a yokai who resembles a small boy that keeps people up at night with the sound of washing beans. Filch here claims that he’s the grandson of an infamous thief who once kept people up by the sounds of his money-washing. His first name is made of bears: kuma (熊) and “bear”; yet he’s frequently called a tanuki instead, especially for his swindling ways.

Edit: Got that the other way around.

Florent L’Belle - Biyouin Shuuichi (美葉院秀一) biyouin is “beauty parlor” and shuuichinichi is “once a week”. The kanji in his first name come to “excellence” and “[number] one”.

Episode 3

Aristotle Means - Ichiro Shinji (一路真二) The kanji in his name together mean “one road, two truths”. ichiro, with the same kanji, means “straight” or “directly”, and shinjiru means “to believe”.

Constance Courte - Michiba Masayo (道葉正世) michibata is “roadside” and masa (正) is “right” or “just”, to parallel Means’ name above.

Hugh O’Conner - Shizuya Rei (静矢零) His name is most likely picked for the convenience of the recording that’s played during trial. In Japanese, the muffled recording sounds like it’s saying “Koroshite yare!”, which is Japanese for “I’ll kill you!” Thanks to Athena’s efforts, she reveals it’s actually supposed to say “Kora! Shizuya Rei!”, or a scolding “Hey! Shizuya Rei!” The kanji of his last name are “quiet” and “arrow”. His first name can also mean “zero”.

Edit: This one I made a mistake due to mistaken memory. It’s actually kinda hard to make out the te sound in the recording, so I assumed it was excluded.

Robin Newman - Atsui Chishio (厚井知潮) atsui is “hot”; it can also mean “hot-tempered” or “passionate”. chishio is “blood circulation”, usually referring to hot-headedness. It also doubles over as a gender-ambiguous name.

Myriam Scuttlebutt - Uwasa Atsume (宇和佐集芽) uwasa is “rumor” and atsumeru is “to gather”; thus, her full name comes to “gather gossip”. Trivia: Producer Eshiro is a huge MGS fan; hence Myriam’s M.O. of traveling under the cover of a box.

Episode 4-5

Solomon Starbuck - Hoshinari Taiyou (星成太陽) His name comes from the phrase “hoshi ni naritai yo”, which means “I wish to become a star”. taiyou, as written above, means “sun”.

Clay Terran - Aoi Daichi (葵大地) aoi is the color “blue”. daichi is “ground” or “earth”; also refers to the planet itself. His relative calm and the color blue was chosen specifically to pair with Apollo’s bright and passionate red. (In fact, it may very well have been the localization’s choice to name Odoroki as Apollo that led to the development of this game’s space theme. I don’t remember if it was mentioned in an interview or not, but I’m sure it played some role.)

Yuri Cosmos - Oogawara Uchuu (大河原有忠) His last name means “bank of the great river”, which is a reference to the Milky Way. It’s known as “The Great River” in several cultures, including Japanese. uchuu, written as 宇宙, means “space” or “universe”.

Aura Blackquill - Yuugami Kaguya (夕神かぐや) Kaguya is a reference to a famous Japanese folktale from the 10th century, Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. The main character’s name is Kaguya-hime, or Princess Kaguya, who was one of a mysterious people living on the Moon but was sent down to Earth and raised by an old bamboo cutter. I’m not too sure if this tale inspired her English name, but when Princess Kaguya was discovered as a baby, she was described to be the size of a thumb and glowing with brilliant light. The Moon people were weird. (I can also draw the parallel to Simon’s Taka, since Aura may come from the Latin root aurum for “gold”.)

Ponco & Clonco - Ponko & Ponta (ポンコ＆ポンタ) ko and ta are common endings to boys’ and girls’ names, respectively. Aura also likes to call Clonco “Ponkotsu”, referring both to how he’s basically “Ponco #2″ and ponkotsu, “junk”.

Metis Cykes - Kidzuki Mari (希月 ��理) Her first name can also be pronounced shinri, meaning “truth”. In turn, shinri, when written as 心理, means “psychology”.

DLC Episode

Sasha Buckler - Umino Shouko (羽美野翔子) umi is “sea”, and shouko, written as 証拠, is “evidence”. Thus, her full name becomes “evidence from the sea”. The first kanji in both first and last name have to do with “feathers” and “flight”. She’s quite a flighty personality for sure.

Ora "Orla" Shipley - Arafune Elle / Ale (荒船エル / エール) Her last name is made of the kanji for “wild” and “ship”. Her name is Ale, as a shortened form of “whale”, but it doubles as the alcoholic drink too. Actually, it triples as “air”, to complement her trainer. Her supposed real name is actually her sister’s name, and it seems it was just picked to sound similar.

Jack Shipley - Arafune Ryouji (荒船良治) ryouji as 療治 means “treatment”/“cure”, possibly referring to how he saved two precious orcas and returned them to health.

Norma DePlume - Uratori Reika (浦鳥麗華) uratori refers to “gathering evidence” as for a news story. reika as 冷夏 becomes “cool summer”. It can even be written as 零下 to mean "sub-zero". She’s quite the contrast to the rest of the sunny crew.

Edit: Note to self: simplify.

Marlon Rimes - Itsuka Ikuya (伊塚育也) itsuka means “someday”; the kanji iku (育) means “raise”, as in pets or children. In other words, he’ll “become a real trainer someday”. His name may have been chosen for its easy rhyme as well.

Rifle (ライフル) She was named for her dangerous temper, and probably as a shout-out to Mr. Takumi’s naming of Missile. Her daughter Sniper also keeps the same name.

Herman Crab - Sugomori Gaku (巣古森学) His last name may be referring to su-komori, or “nest-babysitter”, since he keeps li’l Sniper up there. Even the first kanji in his last name is the right one for “nest”. gaku as above is “learning” or “study of” a subject.

Azura Summers - Natsukaze Suzumi (夏風邪涼海) natsukaze means “a summer cold”, but it can also literally mean “summer wind”. It was picked probably as a stark contrast to Norma’s Japanese name. suzumi is “cooling off”, like outdoors in the breeze.

#i translate #gsvsaa #dd #character profiles #turnabout countdown #the monstrous turnabout #turnabout academy #the cosmic turnabout #turnabout for tomorrow #turnabout reclaimed

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comicteaparty · 7 years ago

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November 16th, 2017 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on November 16th, 2017, from 5PM - 7PM PST. The chat focused on Ovum by Fervorcraft (“The Schilderich” and “Vanja Bajohr”).

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

Good day everyone~! This week’s Comic Tea Party is now officially beginning. Today we are discussing Ovum by Fervorcraft (“The Schilderich” and “Vanja Bajohr”)~! (https://tapas.io/series/Ovum) For those new to CTP, discussions about the comic are freeform, so please feel free to bring up whatever you wish. However, every 30 minutes I will be dropping in a discussion question to help those who would like a prompt. These questions are totally OPTIONAL to answer so pay them no mind if you wish~! Remember, constructive criticism is allowed, but the primary focus here is to have fun and appreciate the amazing comics that the community makes~! Each chat a top comment will be picked and featured on an ad for this chat, so let’s have a great discussion~!

With that said, let us begin with this first question~!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

snuffysam

The first scene. It really sets up the dark/mysterious tone of the story.

RebelVampire

yes i do like how quickly the comic jumps into its tone. especially the closeup of nancy's shaking hands. i think that speaks volumes for her nervousness and the dread that were supposed to feel going through the story

Superjustin of Time and Space

Hello there~

Hope you guys all enjoy the CTP

RebelVampire

greetings~!

Superjustin of Time and Space

Just thought I'd pop in~

snuffysam

Fluffybirb

hello, I'm Vanja Bajohr, one of the people doing the comic

snuffysam

Hi!

Fluffybirb

I'll just sit in the corner and answer questions

Superjustin of Time and Space

What inspired you to go for the creepy aesthetics?

RebelVampire

hey @Fluffybirb thanks for coming

Fluffybirb

well, I don't wanna spoil anything because some people complained about the hint dropping, but the story is basically a lovecraftian story

Superjustin of Time and Space

Ooh~

snuffysam

yeah i really like the "otherworldly horror" aspect to it

Superjustin of Time and Space

Those are always fun

RebelVampire

yeah the lovercraftian influences i think come in pretty loud and clear. i think it nailed the specific tone.

Superjustin of Time and Space

especially when you've seen so many and you knows what creeps you out, so you make a whole world based on the things you fear

Fluffybirb

The Schilderich and me are huge fans of his creepy tone (whilest we see a lot of problems with his racist tropes, so we try to avoid this and be highly aware of it)

Superjustin of Time and Space

Oh XD

Good to know you're fans at least!

Fluffybirb

Well being a fan to us basically means being critical of the source at least

Superjustin of Time and Space

Yea

Fluffybirb

but I'm glad we got the tone right ^__^

RebelVampire

just wanna make a quick note about spoilers, dont feel pressured to answer anything you dont want to. youre welcome to chime in, but youre also free to just let us theorize like crazy and laugh at our strange connections. but in the same thing youre welcome to spoil what you want. creators choice.

Fluffybirb

thanks, I am very curious about your thoughts and I think I will enjoy your theories so I will drop some basic answers I think

snuffysam

I really like the structure of the story so far. Going back and forth between flashbacks and the present day, and the like.

RebelVampire

yes i think the structure does leave you wanting to come back for more and unveils the mystery at a good pace. i think you get and have to wait for answers at the ideal pace for this time of story

in regards to the fave scene question, i really like the scene where Zachariah has to do some shady bribery to get the stuff he needs to go digging. like going in i expected zachariah to be mostly this upright person but then oop, nope, hes willing to go to shady measures to get stuff. was a really nice, unexpected character detail for me.

snuffysam

It was also a bit of levity given how quickly the bribe was accepted

Fluffybirb

this is why I like working with Schilderich, he brings in his own character interpretations. Sometimes my characters tend to be a bit on the idealistic side, so his ideas round them out nicely and add additional layers, because we see the characters through different eyes

Superjustin of Time and Space

That's cool~

It's always great to have someone else working on a story with ya.

RebelVampire

@snuffy yeah i totally agree there was levity in that moment too. i remember laugh crying that there wasnt even an attempt to hide the corruption

i definitely think the story is well-served if thats the case. i like that the idealism gets smudged a bit but not entirely wiped out.

snuffysam

yeah, the balance really works

the characters feel well done, despite there only being two chapters

Fluffybirb

it was always meant to be a short story so there will only be 4 chapters, currently we are working on the third one

so we figured it would be necessary to establish the characters quickly

snuffysam

ah ok

well you did a good job of it!

RebelVampire

yes i agree. i think things have been handled perfectly so far for a short story.

Superjustin of Time and Space

Do you plan to do some kind of sequel/spinoff/continuation, or will it be officially over after four chapters?

Fluffybirb

well, in fact we do plan to do an indie horror game as a loose continuation of the story

Superjustin of Time and Space

A game!?

snuffysam

woah cool!

Fluffybirb

Schilderich is an indie game dev, I used to be one, but these days I am writing novels

but since Schilderich is currently busy with doing the comic and his current game, we only found time to do some rough concepts

Superjustin of Time and Space

ooohhhhh

Fluffybirb

Hopefully we will find time to work on it in the future

Robert Bennet, the man Nancy is writing letters to, will be one of the main protagonists, and also his extended family

RebelVampire

QUESTION 2. At the heart of the story lies the ominous statue that seems to have been the cause of much misery. What is the statue? Who do you think made it and for what purpose? Why does it affect people the way it does (or alternatively, is everything just in their heads and it’s just a normal statue)? What exactly did it have to do with events of the past (and what were the events of the past for that matter)?

Fluffybirb

(ooooh I love this question! I am super curious about your theories!)

snuffysam

my thinking is that some ancient civilization created it? or found it? and then were wiped out by whatever the statue does

RebelVampire

i definitely think were dealing with some ancient civilization. although im hard pressed to believe they were necessarily wiped out by the statue. at least in the sense that oop statue was evil. it couldve been a creepy cult suicide thing. like "haha brother lets us stare at the statue and embrace the glorious darkness of the void that is before us."

snuffysam

i don't think they were blown up or eaten or whatever. just... eldritched to death.

RebelVampire

LOL thats an interesting cause of death XD i dont imagine thatll be on the death certificate

albeit this is assuming they were dead when they were wiped out. nancy mentions something about the eyes show the abyss. maybe the civ was somehow sucked into this abyss where they existed in a dark purgatory for a while

snuffysam

true true

Fluffybirb

I kinda wanna make Schilderich draw a silly comic now with a "death by abyss staring" death certificate

RebelVampire

well at least theyd have all the evidence they need. right there in the death certificate XD

maybe what had happened is that someone in the civ somehow accessed the abyss and their mind mentally degraded until they became of pawn for whatever is in the abyss. so they made the statue and slowly the statue corrupted and everyone came to worship some abyssal creature. so essentially the statues purpose is to corrupt and spread the influence of the abyss.

snuffysam

that could also be it

i definitely think we're dealing with an ancient civilization of some sort.

seeing as that's sort of the area of expertise for archaeologists...

RebelVampire

yeah i think we can concur on that that its an ancient civ. and ancient civs can be creepy and it matches up and i dont think the comic is fibbing about that.

although maybe the abyss isnt a physical place but more a mental state. so in a sense everything is in their heads but the statue is actually causing it. like the point of the statue is to degrade a person's mental state until theyre nothing but a shell of their former self and lost in the darkness of their own non functioning mind

(rip nancy if thats the case)

snuffysam

it's possible it's reversible if that's the case

Fluffybirb

well, Nancy is showing some signs of problems I would say

XD (to put it mildly)

snuffysam

yeah she definitely has her issues. it seems she was repressing them in the years since the incident, but this new stuff is making it come back.

RebelVampire

cant blame her though. id repress looking into the eyes of the abyss.

devil's advocate crazy theory: the original evidence Zachariah was actually a forgery and while the statue was legit buried he was purposefully looking for it but needed that evidence to convince ppl to let him dig.

snuffysam

then how did he find out about it?

RebelVampire

his family or the cult hes apart of. the abyss worshipping cult.

which i have no evidence for obviously. just giving an alternative while i hmmm over what other evidence i have

snuffysam

hey, could be true

RebelVampire

although there is that flashback scene that talks about children. the news conference press one. so im really curious what that has to do with anything

Fluffybirb

I have to admit the children come in a bit late as a theme, the third chapter will bring this back

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. Regardless of what has happened in the past, it seems to have affected Nancy terribly. Between a book that caused her an ill reaction and Robert Bennett’s letter, she’s under immense mental stress. Why did she react the way she did to the returned book? Why is she so deeply affected by the past’s events? Did the events even happen in the way she perceives they did? Will she be okay or will she mentally deteriorate to a dangerous level?

snuffysam

I'm not sure if the book is directly related to the past, or if it's just something that reminded her

RebelVampire

well if we go back to the children theme (cause i segwayed so amazingly), the book had like a fetus on it or something. so it was probably that image that triggered her more than anything.

going back and skimming, the original relief that we see is like children worshipping a mother figure to. so maybe were dealing with the abyss being some motherly figure trying to reabsorb her children

snuffysam

maybe that's just what the eldritch horror "looked" like.

or both

RebelVampire

could be. but i definitely think the book is about the children thing. it could be some children got eldritched and so she cant bare to see children like that or something.

snuffysam

that could be. do we know how many people were there when the event happened?

RebelVampire

nope. the hints we get were there was some sort of grave robbery that nancy and Zachariah were there to witness, Zachariah died possibly from falling into the pit, and she mentions just vaguely "they found the children"

although from the words im not sure whether its implying there was a third party robbing the grave (maybe children even?) or if it was zachariah robbing the grave

snuffysam

i think it's meant to imply zachariah was robbing the grave. i don't think he made it a public thing, so after the incident, the government pretended he didn't have permission

RebelVampire

OH! if that was the case would make sense given were shown the gov is corrupt

Fluffybirb

I had a lot of fun being around but sadly I can't keep my eyes open (it's 3am around here). Thank you for having me and thanks for the talk!

snuffysam

thanks for joining us! and thanks for the comic!

RebelVampire

no prob! thank you for coming~! hopefully should have the archive done not too long after the chat concludes

Fluffybirb

I will definately recommend your talks and read up on the rest of the conversation bye!

RebelVampire

bye and sleep well~!

i do feel like its likely zach was robbing the grave. like it makes the most sense and its why he fell into the pit and it killed him. cause when he found the statue he some sort of void into the abyss in the ground or something. so i assume he fell into that.

snuffysam

maybe they dug a ditch to get the artifact out- and while zach was found dead in the pit, he died before falling in

like, he stared into the abyss and it killed him, and then he fell over

RebelVampire

yeah that could very well be.

although i wonder if he did it on purpose. cause he was shown towards the end of chapter 3 to be pretty willing to go far for his discovery. at least he seemed pretty "aha" to nancy saying that it was probably occult in nature

and to a degree he seems to be mentally degrading in the flashbacks, just not in the same way as nancy

cause his obsession is taking over

snuffysam

there's a chapter 3? it doesn't seem to be up on tapas yet...

RebelVampire

i meant chapter 2

oops XD

had three on the brain i guess

snuffysam

alright phew

yeah i can see that. not sure if it's an affect of the artifact or if he's just like that normally though

RebelVampire

yeah it is hard to say

hmm i wonder if theres a hint in the fact the third title is going to be called "dead less"

cause i feel this lends credibility to the idea that the abyss is less dying, more just going there. albeit im gonna assume its the soul going there but the soul is aware of everything

snuffysam

ooh yeah maybe!

Superjustin of Time and Space

If that becomes the Chapter 3 title I'll be amused

snuffysam

it was already revealed. non mortis (deadless).

RebelVampire

https://tapas.io/episode/469792

yes and it has a lovely creature on the cover too

very lovely

although i wonder if thats one of the children nancy is referring too

what if it was a child from the ancient civ that has been mutated by the abyss

snuffysam

that would be interesting

RebelVampire

which i could understand her mental state then. especially if she assumes its still out there

lurking

waiting

so she too can join the abyss

snuffysam

does the abyss have a goal? or is it just some incomprehensible evil entity?

RebelVampire

i assume incomprehensible albeit evil is debateable. cause thats applying human morality to something we cant begin to understand

snuffysam

true true

RebelVampire

QUESTION 4. All of Nancy’s anxiety in the comic is triggered by Robert Bennett who is writing Nancy to inquire about Zachariah Eliot and the events of the past. What exactly is Robert’s aim in writing her? Is it merely curiosity or is something else sinister at work? What do you think will happen if/when Robert finds out the entire truth?

snuffysam

i think he's going to try and destroy the artifact and/or entity

don't know if he'll succeed, but i think that's his goal

RebelVampire

that could be. i never considered that. tbh, up until it was mentioned that hed be in a game, i was leaning more towards him being kind of evil. like he wanted the statue for his own selfish ends. mostly cause him writing out of the blue seems suspicious. but its possible he is a good guy. just wondering why he waited so long to deal with this

snuffysam

maybe he just recently found out. or he's an evil entity killer and he just hasn't gotten to this one yet.

RebelVampire

was like "the abyss eldritch? well maybe i can fit it in on tuesday....ten years from now."

snuffysam

yup exactly. he might also just be really young. he's been interested in a while, but ten-year-olds don't go around killing eldritch horrors

RebelVampire

yeah albeit i think it mentioned he was zachariah's friend or something. although maybe something of zach's recently came to his attention

like he mysteriously received zach's journal in the mail or something

snuffysam

yeah that was the impression i got

but then the question is, who told him about zachariah?

RebelVampire

good question. maybe thats what the game is about that was mentioned. we learn theres a twofold mystery going on

snuffysam

perhaps his goal has nothing to do with the statue? just figuring out who sent him this info?

Superjustin of Time and Space

Late response but aah okay

RebelVampire

yeah that could be, if we go to that assumption that someone sent him info to prompt him to contact nancy. although i feel like he is after the statue. wait do we know what happened to the statue?

snuffysam

i don't think so. i think the police just left it in the hole?

RebelVampire

what if instead it got sold and robert happened to be the collector who bought it. but he never really looked at it until one day he was like "oh when did i get this." and then he was like "oh no the abyss" so he decided he needed to learn everything he could cause oh no the abyss

snuffysam

lol that could be it.

maybe he's a weird eccentric who's trying to track the statue down just to collect it. not for anything evil. he just likes really creepy things in his house.

RebelVampire

that could be. he must have quite the house then. i feel either way the statue is destined to wind up in his hands. whether that was his goal or not.

snuffysam

or worse, all this investigation is going to lead Nancy to get the statue

RebelVampire

gonna be honest i think nancy is doomed. i assume shes either 1) going to wind up in a mental hospital cause she cant come to terms with the past 2) stare into the statue and go bye-bye or 3) more specifically go to the pit where zach died and also go bye-bye

snuffysam

it could have a happy ending! but yeah probably

RebelVampire

true. i mean i dont think nancy will ever be happy, but she may at least accept what happened and not get triggered by seeing a book.

snuffysam

yeah i don't think the trauma she experienced is exactly curable

RebelVampire

although i wonder who it was that returned the book. cause maybe they returned that book on purpose to dredge up troubles for nancy

snuffysam

if that was just a book with a fetus on the cover, it may have just been an innocuous return? like, it was a book on pregnancy or something

RebelVampire

yeah that could be. hard to say. but it could definite be a moment thats just meant to set the mood

RebelVampire

Unfortunately, the scheduled Comic Tea Party is now complete~! Thank you everyone so much for joining this week’s chat~! That being said, if you would like to continue discussing the comic, we encourage you to do so~! We want to give a big thank you to Fervorcraft (“The Schilderich” and “Vanja Bajohr”), as well, for volunteering Ovum for our reading queue. If you liked the comic, please be sure to support Fervorcraft’s efforts. If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions about CTP, please feel free to PM me, or e-mail me at [email protected].

With that said, there will be no Comic Tea Party next week. We’re going to be having a little break for Thanksgiving~! So, enjoy the time off, and we’ll see you the week after on November 30th. If you’d like to get a head start on the next comic, though, November 30th’s Comic Tea Party will be focusing on Heirs of the Veil by Seaquential Arts. I will post a reminder next week as well, so don’t worry if you’d rather just take the week to enjoy the holiday season~! Until then~! Comic: https://tapas.io/series/Heirs-of-the-Veil

#comics #webcomics #indie comics #start faire #startfaire #comic tea party #comicteaparty #ctp #comic chat #comic discussion #ctparchive #bookclub #comic bookclub #ovum #vanja bajohr #fervorcraft #the schliederich

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fallofleviathan-blog · 7 years ago

Text

Unturned Cheat Codes

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reinedeslouves-blog · 8 years ago

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Hack Payday 2

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symbianosgames · 8 years ago

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Back in 2013, veteran game maker Warren Spector left the world of full-time game development to become an educator.

Three years later, he came back. He stepped down from his role leading the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy and signed on as creative director at OtherSide Entertainment, where he now leads development of System Shock 3.

"I wanted to make sure I didn't become one of those teachers who used to make games," he explained to Gamasutra last year. "Who used to know how games were developed and why. I knew I needed to keep my skills honed."

This affords him what seems like an interesting perspective on game development. Spector stepped outside the day-to-day concerns of working inside a studio and spent years trying to prepare young, aspiring game makers for challenges they face in today's game industry. Now he's back on the inside, helping to figure out the shape of systems and mechanics. Working through the production process. Making games again.

Gamasutra sat down with Spector at GDC last month to catch up on how the process is going, roughly a year into his full-time gig at OtherSide. It was an interesting conversation, especially if you're at all interested in where games are at these days, where they came from, and what sorts of stories they're best at telling.

How did your return to full-time game development go?

Well first of all, I did buy a PC finally. I knew the form factor I wanted, and I knew the graphics capabilities I wanted, and it took me a while to find just the right thing but I finally did. I don't know if I should plug the computer I bought, but I did buy one. And I've been playing a lot of games on it, which is good.

"I find that the idea of asking questions, and having a dialogue with your players, much more interesting than just saying 'here's my story.'"

And as far as getting back into game development, it's everything that game development is: it's joyous, it's frustrating, it's scary and annoying and great and exactly what I hoped it would be.

Have you hit production yet?

Oh, we're still in concept phase. I'm a big believer in figuring out what game you want to make before you start making it. So we're still hammering out game systems, working on our narrative, so we're very early on.

What do you think of GDC, having attended for so long and now being back in the role of a game dev attending?

Well I've been to every GDC since the '80s, when it was the Computer Game Developers Conference --

In Chris Crawford's living room?

No, I missed that. It was in a little hotel somewhere south of San Francisco, and it was about 250-350 people, something like that. And I remember my most vivid memory of that was, first thing I went to was a session, a lecture given by a guy named Joe Ybarra -- a big-time producer at EA at the time.

And I remember thinking, "I will never know as much about games as this man does." And then a few years later, he was a friend of mine! But has it changed? Of course -- just look around. Now we've got what is it, 30,000 people coming? Some of them old gray-hairs like me, some of them 20-somethings. Indies, triple-A developers...it’s changed. It's a completely different show now.

What advice might you give to other game devs now?

Well it depends on what kind of game you want to make. I'm not good at answers of one thing.

The first thing is, always try to make projects that are personally meaningful to you. I realize that it's easier to say and harder to do; sometimes you just have to do the work for hire, and create something that meets someone else's needs. But find something you're passionate about. Whatever you're working on, find something to be passionate about in it.

And then, don't be lazy. I don't mean in the sense of working hard or not, I mean don't assume that games are a mature medium. And that we've explored everything that game are capable of creating or doing. Find that one new thing. It doesn't matter what game you're making -- you can always sneak one new thing into a game. And always look for that one more thing in the work you're doing.

I remember you talked up the possibilities of AI in games, especially non-combat AI, last year. Where do you stand now?

Well, realistically, I'm not sure System Shock is the place to be exploring non-combat AI, given that we're going to follow along in the tradition of everybody being dead *laughs* and communicating the story through video logs, emails, AR projections and all that.

So this is probably not the game to be exploring that particular aspect of game design. But what I do want to do is take the idea of choice and consequence and recovery, the stages of choice, consequence, and recovery from those choices, I want to take that to a whole new level by creating an incredibly reactive world. And then letting players interact with the world in a deeper way than they have before.

So that's largely the thrust of System Shock 3, as much as I can talk about it.

Oh yeah, that's fine. I'm gonna be honest with you, I've never played a System Shock.

Gah! You know, you can still buy System Shock and System Shock 2.

I know! I think it's great. I've tried to play them both, a few times, but...they're pretty old.

It's funny, because needless to say, I needed to replay those games before starting to work on the third game in the series. And when I started playing the first one, I emailed Doug Church, who was kind of the creative driving force behind that first game, and all I said was 'oh my god, this game is hard!' And his response was just "...1994."

Environmental storytelling in the original System Shock

And I said "Oh my god, this game is big!" and his response was "1994."

"Oh my god, this UI is terrible!" "1994."

We did the best we could, you know.

Well since you've been reimmersing yourself in some recent games, are there any you'd call out as especially worth studying by fellow devs?

Well, Dishonored 2. There's a particular kind of game I find most appealing, and the Dishonored series is right in that vein so it's pretty cool.

So I'm playing Dishonored 2 right now, and...well mostly, to be honest, I've been a little disappointed in the games I've played, and haven't played very much. What I do is, I play a game until I get so frustrated that I have to stop, or throw my controller against the wall or something. Or I've learned everything I'm going to learn from it, or I finish it. And I finish very few games.

But you know, I've played some Metal Gear Solid 5. I'm woefully behind, so I've been playing some Shadow of Mordor. Certainly there's some intriguing different things in that game, so that's worth taking a look at. I'm obsessed with some mobile games, there's this little puzzle game called Hundred that I just love. I'm playing it obsessively right now. And these aren't new games, but I think the Go games from Square Enix are a ton of fun. Deus Ex Go, Lara Croft Go, and Hitman Go -- I just find those great ways to pass the time.

There was a minute there where we were sure Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system was going to be the next Big Thing in game design. Seems like we were wrong -- not a lot of devs picked up what Monolith was putting down.

Well, it's kinda their thing. I can't speak for any developer but myself, but if somebody's already done something, what's the point of doing it yourself? It's like, come up with your one new thing.

And one of my rules for any game I work in is, there has to be one new thing, something no one's ever seen before or done before. And that's already been done. Why would I do it again? I mean, there are certain elements of it that I find intriguing; like, it's nothing new, but characters you interact with on an ongoing basis, who change over time, that's pretty cool. But having them interact with each other, you know, it's an interesting idea. It's theirs. It's not something I'm going to adopt.

So what is it about Dishonored 2 that impressed you, that you think is worth calling out?

Nothing specific. I think it's just the overall immersion of the world, and the behavior with the characters. My ultimate goal is to empower players to tell their own stories, and play the way they want to.

You know, I had a mission statement that was 12 pages long that no one would read. then it was an 8-page version, then a 4-page version, and I ultimately summed it up in two words: "playstyle matters." And the Dishonored games really express that exceptionally well.

So it's not any one thing, but I do wish other developers would take a look at that and do more of it. I'm looking forward to Mass Effect, and those games have certainly adopted some of that approach to game design, and the more people who do that, I think the better off we're going to be, as a medium. And the more enjoyment players are going to get out of what should be genuine interactivity. Most games fake it. The immersive simulation games try not to fake it. So it's that attitude, more than any specific thing.

Yeah, in your Deus Ex postmortem I was surprised to see you acknowledge how much was faked.

Yeah, unfortunately. There's a lot of stuff that isn't, too! What we did was, we had to make sure that each dominant playstyle was represented, for sure. But beyond that, players really did discover their own solutions.

Sure, many devs these days cite that specifically as a big influence on their work.

Even back then, I was gratified that a lot of developers told me that they were inspired by it. And that was part of the point!

I was surprised to hear you trace Deus Ex back to your time playing Dungeons & Dragons. How did you wind up playing D&D with Bruce Sterling?

I moved to Austin, Texas to go to grad school, and at that time Austin had an amazing science fiction writing scene. And Bruce was part of this circle of writers, and I fell in with this circle of writers, and another friend of mine, Bud Simons -- he writes under the name Walton Simons -- Bud had been playing in a campaign with Bruce. And invited me to come along to play in this campaign, and it was just...he was just a guy.

At that point, he hadn't even published his first novel yet. He was just a friend. I hung out with him at parties, and then eventually started gaming with him. I was a board gamer, and had never played D&D but then in 1978 there it was, you know? Everything else sort of went away.

So what happened to that Austin circle?

Oh, Bruce left the country and you know, we had families and you know, time goes away. People grew up. But tabletop roleplaying, like I said in my talk, was immensely influential. I wasn't playing just with Bruce, I was playing in half a dozen campaigns, run by various Dungeon Masters.

And just seeing how each one works differently, and yet there's always that same core of players telling stories together. That was seminal for me. It wasn't just important -- I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing without that.

What, specifically, do you value about tabletop role-playing games, or perhaps tabletop games in general?

Well I get enjoyment out of board games, that's the primary thing I value them for.

Fair enough! I suppose I should have asked, what value do they add to your work as a video game designer? Do you prototype mechanics out on paper, for example?

Well, I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I've never actually done a paper prototype for a game.

I always think 'yeah, I should do that,' but the games that I make are complex enough that it's hard to keep all the rules in mind. And so there are so many little systems that have to interact with one another that it's hard to imagine making a board game.

One of the things that I don't know if I made the point in my talk very strongly, or at all, is if a game could be made in another medium, it's less interesting to me. I like to make games that couldn't be translated into a board game, or vice versa.

And yet so many video games can be traced back to tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons.

Oh, sure. We would have no video game business without Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. I always say that every game developer should get down on his knees once a day, face towards Lake Geneva Wisconsin, and say a little prayer of thanks to those guys.

"I always say that every game developer should get down on his knees once a day, face towards Lake Geneva Wisconsin, and say a little prayer of thanks to those guys."

But it's also a problem, because I think personally, too many developers have been inspired by the mechanics of those games. And we have better ways of simulating a world than Gary and Dave had back then. So I would love to see us jettison -- forever -- character classes and you know, the character stats: strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, charisma....I mean, we don't need that stuff. So it would be nice to move away from that.

But also the content; look at the content of games, of many if not most video games, and it's right outta D&D or Traveller. And we could do so much more. Thank god for the indie guys and gals; the indie folks are at least bringing new kinds of content into games.

But Richard Garriott was directly inspired by his D&D campaign when he made the first Ultima game; and we just keep on making guys in chainmail and guys with big guns games. Which are right out of that adolescent power fantasy stuff that defined D&D and Call of Cthulhu and Traveller and Empire of the Petal Throne and all sorts of other games your readers have never heard of.

The other thing that's interesting about those old role-playing games is, I don't know if you're familiar with the term Monty Haul dungeon [pun on deceased game show host Monty Hall, a dungeon designed purely for combat and looting -- thus "haul"] but those were always the most popular things.

It was funny, when I got to TSR, where I worked for a few years, everybody up there wanted to get away from the Monty Haul dungeons, where you knock down a door, you kill the monster, you grab the treasure, you knock down the next door, you kill the monster, you grab the treasure.

And so one of the designers did an adventure module that was the most ridiculous, silly, over-the-top Monty Haul dungeon ever, as kind of a statement. And it was the best-selling module we did! It's what people wanted. And that's also inspired video game developers.

You know, we need to be asking bigger questions. And some people are doing that. Again, the Mass Effect games ask you to think about stuff, the BioShock games ask you to think about stuff. The key for me, as I said in my talk, was not to answer the questions. Video games ask questions. Other media answer them.

I find that the idea of asking questions, and having a dialogue with your players, much more interesting than just saying 'here's my story. Here's what I think about Topic X.' That's way less interesting.

Seems like you're still passionate about the future of game dev. Do you know what's next for the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy, now that you're gone?

I'm unclear about that, to be honest. Most of my brain cells are devoted to System Shock 3 right now. I know that they were talking about shifting its focus. Instead of bringing students in and teaching leadership the way we did, there was talk about bringing in guest lecturers and opening up more broadly to the general public.

But honestly, I don't know. I probably shouldn't even speculate! If they ask me for advice, I will give it.

I ran into a bunch of my students here. It's cool -- they've all gotten jobs or done startups. We really did, I think, change some lives. Which is pretty gratifying.

Headline photo captured by Ralph Barrera for the Austin American-Statesman

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rpgmgames · 5 years ago

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March’s Featured Game: acai cOrner

DEVELOPER(S): moca & Mitty ENGINE: RPG Maker 2003 GENRE: RPG, Adventure, Surreal SUMMARY: acai cOrner is about Mizuki, someone who has fallen into the sewers and who happens to find their favorite electric guitar! Upon obtaining the guitar, Mizuki turns into a magical girl who must defend herself against spooky sewer creatures using the guitar's magical powers.

Download the game here! Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! *moca: Hi, I'm moca, a Starbucks barista aspiring to be a writer and game developer. I have been making RPG Maker games for about six years now, with my first two projects being a Pokémon fan-game and a Corpse Party fan-game. Those two happen to be my two favorite franchises as well! I have also created the RPG Maker game MOMOKA (IGMC 2018). I have founded a group called 'Team Shibu!' dedicated to making horror games! Our current project is a RPG Maker survival horror game named 'Katharsis'.

*Mitty: Hey there, I'm Mitty! I've been working with Moca on several games for a while now, helping with mostly graphics! Please support him, as he is very kind and hardworking!! I'm also the main developer of a game called "Marinette", so I hope you'll check that one out too, when the demo is released!

What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *moca: acai cOrner is an experimental spooky RPG Maker game that only uses 4 colors! You are a magical girl with a just-as-magical electric guitar that you use to fend off spooky sewer slimes and other weird enemies you find in the surreal sewer system. It's half exploration and half RPG battles. What inspired me to create acai cOrner initially was to actually get myself back into the groove of making games again. I had just recently came back from a hiatus and found myself having trouble getting back into the development of 'Katharsis'. That's when I decided to make a short, experimental game to get the juices flowing.

How long did you work on your project? *moca: acai cOrner was finished in just about under a month!

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *moca: I had always wanted to make a Yume Nikki-like game and thought this was the perfect opportunity to try. So for the more surreal parts of acai cOrner, I took inspiration from Yume Nikki and a Homestuck random planet generator. Gameplay wise though, I took inspiration from a RPG Maker game called Ghost Suburb 0! I really loved how unique it was, especially with the timer and no dialogue aspect. I knew I wanted to do something with a timer, so I tried a rogue-like approach with the gameplay.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *moca: If you played any of my previous projects, you know that acai cOrner is vastly different than anything that I have ever done. I'm so used to using words to describe the violence in my games, so when it came to making the story, I had a lot of trouble. It wasn't until I looked deeper into why people like these types of games that I had realized that people like to interpret the story on their own, guided by exploration, to enjoy these games. After that, I let loose a bit and made something more open-ended. Another challenge was the difficulty. I was the only one playtesting the game, and since I knew the game front and back, and had no trouble getting the ending. That's why when I sent out demos to friends, I was really discouraged to hear that the experience was mostly frustrating and rage quitting-inducing haha. I worked closely with their feedback and made changes accordingly to make the experience less frustrating but still difficult. *Mitty: I think I was going through a weird artblock during the development of the game, so for some of the illustrations and backdrops for each area's fights, Moca sketched out the basic idea of what it could look like, and I just put my spin on it! It made the work much easier and faster!

Did any aspects of your project change over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *moca: Well, the game was meant to be short so there wasn't room for any big changes. Sure there are a couple gameplay changes and enemy tweaks, but not anything mindblowing. I added in the idea of making four surreal worlds kinda last minute, if that counts, haha.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *moca: In the beginning, it was just me! I didn't think I was gonna need any outside help since this was supposed to be a relatively easy project to release, but the further in development I got, the more I realized the game needed pizazz. The four color limitation wasn't enough for my lack of graphical talent. That's when I contacted Mitty about helping with the games battle backdrops and sprite animations! She is also a member of Team Shibu!, but we have collabed together even before that. Her art really made the project shine and I enjoy working with them on games! *Mitty: Moca contacted me, and I wanted to help! We are working together on another game called Katharsis, so we are quite familiar with each other. I like working with other people, especially if I'm not in the lead, it releases a bit of the pressure I feel sometimes ahaha

What is the best part of developing a game? *moca: To me, it's seeing everything come together and just... working exactly the way you envisioned it. As a game developer, you section the game off into parts to make development much more organized and faster but seeing it all come together in the end. Pure bliss *chefs kiss*. *Mitty: I like a bit of everything, but currently I've been enjoying animating and spritework, as well as map assets' designs a little more than usual!

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *moca: Mm... not really! I have an idea of what the engine can do, so when I do go out of my way to player other RPG Maker games, it's usually for writing inspiration rather than gameplay inspiration. Ghost Suburb 0 is something that I accidentally stumbled upon and immediately fell in love with it the minute I played it haha. (Fun fact: the developer of Ghost Suburb 0 is apart of Team Shibu! and is in charge of monster design!)

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *moca: There is a rat in the game that is internally called 'Ratthew' who leads you into a funky room. I relate them the most. *Mitty: I relate to the land sharks the most on a spiritual level. They are pretty much confused beans, and that's very relatable.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *moca: I wish I added more random spooky events and trap rooms. But the game was also supposed to be short and I knew that if I kept adding more and more things, development was never gonna end haha.

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *moca: Well, by the time this interview comes out, there should be a new update for the game. The update should include 100% custom music by a talented composer, and a nerf in difficulty. As for sequels, who knows! The next time you see acai cOrner may be in 3D.

What do you most look forward to upon finishing the game? *moca: Definitely the fan reaction! The satisfaction of seeing your work being noticed by people and actually enjoying makes me happy. It's also the relief of just... finishing something! *Mitty: For this particular project I was obviously looking forward to seeing what people said about the little animations and such ahaha! I also was curious about the reaction to the timed difficulty mechanic, I had never seen anything like that before Moca presented it to me, so I had no idea on what people's feedback would be.

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *moca: How people will handle the difficulty. The game isn't supposed to be completed on your first playthrough, but in 2-3 playthroughs. There are rooms and places that are meant to waste your time that you should ideally skip the more you play. By later playthroughs, you should be shaving time and be better. I understand that it's not handled as best I could, but I think the experience should still be challenging and hopefully fun! *Mitty: I was a little conflicted on the timed mechanic, I loved it because it's pretty original and helps set an interesting athmosphere of worry and unease, and also seems to tell a bit of the vague story; and at the same time I don't like it much because I prefer more story-driven games and the vagueness mixed with the mechanic feels different from what I'm used to playing! I think it's more of a personal taste kind of thing, it was an experimental jam game, after all!

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *moca: Take it easy! Take short breaks throughout development. And most importantly, have fun. If it's a hobby and it's making you overly stressed, just take a step back!

Question from last month's featured dev @ressurflection: What would you say is the weakest part of your game development? *moca: Procrastination. I'm so bad at sticking to my own schedule, it's something that I try to keep in check when working with a team especially.

We mods would like to thank moca & Mitty for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out acai cOrner if you haven’t already! See you next month!

- Mods Gold & Platinum

#rpg maker #acai corner #acai corner game #rpg maker games #pixel games #indie games #gotm #game of the month #march #march 2020 #2020 #moca #mitty #interview #needles

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rpgmgames · 5 years ago

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August’s Featured Game: Marinette

DEVELOPER(S): Teal Crown ENGINE: RPG Maker MV GENRE: Horror, Puzzle, Adventure WARNINGS: Sensitive Themes, Blood/Light Gore SUMMARY: A little girl named Marinette, in the wake of a splitting family and a change of homes, is having a birthday. But this, her eleventh birthday, will present a deadly opportunity to fulfill a special promise. On the night before her birthday, she is drawn into a strange realm; an unnatural dollhouse, populated with dolls who are not quite what they seem. A web of strings lying in wait, and threatening to ensnare the poor marionette; warping her perception, and twisting her every move. Will the strings attach, and force her to become an unwilling puppet, or will she escape this surreal web of strings? What will she have to do to avoid the dangers of the dollhouse, and set herself free?

Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! *Mitty: "Hello, I'm Mitty! Thank you so much for the opportunity to participate in this interview. I'm the main developer of the game and I'm working with a team of friends to make this game a reality. I work mainly on the visuals and programming, and I'll be representing the team, alongside Third! I've been on the community for around two years, even though I tend to not be active very often." *Third: "Hoi, I’m Third! I appreciate you reaching out to interview us. I’m the main composer and writer of Marinette, and I work under Mitty to make the story and soundtrack what we want it to be. I’ve been in the community for little less than Mitt but am even less active in most of my developer discords."

What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *Mitty: "The game is essentially about a girl that gets trapped inside a dollhouse. A simple concept really can go far ahaha I've always loved themes related to creepy dolls so I wanted to create something related to that. What pushed me initially to start were obviously the inspiration of seeing other devs creating, seeing how far you could go with these engines and create amazing interactive stories, however the huge support from a friend was what made me actually start past the planning and dreaming!" *Third: "Marinette is a story about a little girl becoming entangled in the complicated family and supernatural landscape she finds herself in on her birthday. I enjoy writing short stories about this kind of thing so it’s fantastic to work on a larger project about one of my favorite subjects. My primary inspiration and introduction to this kind of game in general was Pocket Mirror, and I use it the most as a model for how to do certain things. However, I also draw a lot of inspiration from masterpieces like Aria’s Story, Ib, Witch’s House, and Alice Mare."

How long have you been working on your project? *Mitty: "The project has been in the works for around two years now! The first year was mostly planning and right now we are on the right track with the programming and asset creation for the demo, as well as music and sound design for later development. Planning isn't over yet though, especially for the final game." *Third: "I’ve been working on this for almost two years. The soundtrack possessed most of my earlier attention, but now it’s taken a backseat to writing, now that I’m actively writing the scripts for the game now. "

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Mitty: "Yes! The game has inspirations from plenty of sources, not only strictly RPG Maker Horror games, or games in general for that matter. If I were to mention those, of course games like Ib, The witch's house, Alice Mare, Pocket Mirror, Yume Nikki & .flow, Stray Cat Crossing, Mogeko's games...etc quickly come to mind. When it comes to the aesthetics and visuals, the inspirations come from several different places, including games like Alice Madness Returns, Dofus, Yomawari, The Legend of Mana, Little Nightmares...the list goes on; or other media, like Inu Curry's animation style or video creator nana825763, as well as some anime and music videos. Silent hill is also a huge inspiration for the atmosphere, and hopefully we can pull it off well!" *Third: "My primary inspiration, as I’ve said earlier, is Pocket Mirror, both for its masterful writing and soundtrack. The game’s soundtrack is the main reason I still play piano. Whenever I’m feeling musical, my fingers always hunt out the same kind of haunting, mysterious, and sometimes peaceful and playful melodies that Pocket Mirror is rife with. In the end, our soundtrack is probably going to sound like Pocket Mirror and Aria’s Story’s soundtracks were meshed together. Story wise, commonplace elements in this genre like demons, monsters, mean parents and puzzles that tell the story are commonplace for a reason, and certainly find their way into this one, in their own special way. Every other game I’ve mentioned involves them in some form or another. And young, curious protagonists are also a blast to write and do evil things to and put in difficult, dangerous situations. "

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Mitty: "We surely have! Many of them in different areas ahaha Taking away bug hunting, I am primarily an artist, so programming for me is a secondary thing. Because of this it's easy to get carried away and hard to realise what can and can't be done. I don't want the game to be visually boring if I can make things move and seem alive! The way I'm handling it is programming like an artist: I think in my head what cool things I can do with my art by not having it completely still, and then it's a matter of executing it on the engine. However this comes with a downside. I tend to tweak things a lot, and that takes quite some time, but I honestly think it's worth it ahaha Also I find it hard to start writing, but when I do, I can't stop orz. Other challenges are also finding plot holes. This is fixed with a lot of studying the story, gathering inspiration and talking with the team. I also struggle a bit with communicating with the team, but thankfully they are all very nice and understanding." *Third: "Main challenge is overcoming the sheer weight of how much I have to learn about music and writing in order for this game to be what I want it to be. I’m a perfectionist, and when I care about something, I can’t tolerate it being worse than it could’ve been. Also, writing is getting more and more complicated and there’s more things and details to keep track of so as not to create inconsistencies or plot holes, especially as we try to revise it and make major changes to the story (Mitt will know what I’m talking about). "

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Mitty: "It changed a lot, not only in terms of the story and writing, but visually too. The basic concept is close to being the same, though. You can check out old posts in the blog where I consider different styles of mapping and such. Actually, don't, please. It's too old...and my writing...oh god." *Third: "The writing has come a long way, but now that we’ve fleshed out and written down much of the backstory, it’s a much more complicated story than what Mitt first showed me when I joined."

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Mitty: "Initially it was just me, occasionally having Mia to talk about the story and help develop it. Rindre joined as a voice actress very early on and also helped in other aspects of the game. Then I also talked about it with two friends I know in real life, one helped with organization and the other with some concept art, but they aren't that active anymore, even though I still count them as part of the team (Thank you guys btw if you're reading this). Eventually I met Third, an amazing composer and writer, and I asked him to join in! He brought along a friend who is also an amazing composer and writer, Code, and these two are complete madmen of music and writing and I'm super glad to be working with them, as they are super passionate and it makes me really happy ahaha. Bruno is also a really dedicated composer that is helping with a few tracks as well! Miku and Luccinia are two super talented and kind artists that have also been helping a ton with concept art, and their ideas have certainly improved the game as well. We are welcome to more concept artists, though! More heads, more ideas ahaha Recently we got the voice actresses for a few characters in the game, when we did the auditions, and hopefully soon another friend will jump aboard and help with organization and writing! We are a relatively small team, and sometimes progress goes a bit slowly since we can get busy, but we are all doing our best! I’m glad that I’m not alone. Links for their pages and such can be found on the team section on the blog, go support them if you can!"

What is the best part of developing a game? *Mitty: "For me, personally, I love seeing what my team mates come up with, whether it is music or concept art. I also enjoy the love and support we get, and it makes me excited in the development. As for the creation part, I like programming challenging cutscenes and doing cool things with the assets. Progress updates can also be fun to make when I have the time." *Third: "My favorite part is showing Mitt what I’ve written and composed. Making her happy and excited with my work is extremely fulfilling. "

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Mitty: "Oh, yes! Besides being a cool break from programming hell, it helps me make it less of a hell ahaha I like improvising, though, so I think I play RPG Maker games because I enjoy them for the most part." *Third: "Occasionally, not really. I don’t play many games and I’ve played the heck out of the ones I have."

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Mitty: "Ah I don't know, honestly. I think I can relate to every character in one way or another, and it's hard picking one, especially since the game isn't out yet and I'd like to keep most characters hidden until the demo. Marinette is definitely one of my favourites, though, I just love how innocent and cute she is. Her cheekiness can be made super interesting ahaha" *Third: "My favorite character is definitely Pierre. He’s a complete blast to write, and gives me lots of cool things to describe and say through him, from his magic tricks to his killer lines and quotes."

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Mitty: "Hm...Having organized things better in the beginning would have saved a lot of time now, but I don't think it's been that big of a deal anymore. I don't have any regrets that I'm aware of at the moment since everything until this point was necessary to learn and get to where we are now."

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Mitty: "I'm not sure yet, it depends on the reception and how willing I'll be to continue the story. Even though I would find it fun to make comics, another game or a different midia, realistically I can't tell how willing I'll be to continue developing content about it after the game is finished. Honestly, I hope I can develop more projects on Marinette, we do have content for that, and I absolutely love it with my heart! But it's also equally important to move on to another story. Only time will tell!" Third: "I hope to, but that day is very far away for me. I’ll be gone for quite some time after Marinette is finished, and I hope I’m not forgotten by the time I return. Perhaps I’ll entertain myself with additional short stories exploring the various aftermaths of the game."

What do you most look forward to upon/after the release of a project? *Mitty: "I honestly just want to get the story out there. I'm hoping people will enjoy it if they play the game, and will have a special place in their hearts to keep it on. This project means a lot to me, and having it making people feel things is what I'm looking forward to. I'd love to see other people playing it, definitely. I imagine I'll eventually be relieved to have finally completed it, it'll be a big moment for me to sigh be proud of creating. I'll be able to move on to work on other fun things while I see how this little child of a game is going to do out there in the wild, and that's always nice!" *Third: "Fan reaction, 100%. Having people ask me questions about my work and telling me how much they enjoyed it is my favorite part of writing."

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Mitty: "Yes, I don't want to feel empty with nothing to do when I finish the game. I know it will be great and all, but I've been working on it for so long that it's hard to imagine not working on it ahaha! It's a really fun hobby, but it's also engraved in my heart. I want it to be the best it can be, of course, so I'm scared of bugs, inconsistencies and overall it being clearly a bad game. I'm hoping that people will help with critiques on the demo, so I have a better outside perspective of where we are going. I don't want to drop the game, so I'm scared of having to take a long break from it during the development. I'm worried of being a terrible team leader as well." *Third: "I dread plot holes more than anything, and I dread a dull and overall unimpactful story. I want a tale that will punch the viewer in the gut, hard. I want to make them cry. I want to make them laugh. I want them to draw what I wrote, and explore it further in hopefully-not-too-sexual fanfiction."

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Mitty: "Don't be scared to start. You're going to suffer mid-way if it's a long term project, but keep pushing through, you'll learn a lot and it becomes easier with time. Take breaks and take it easy, step by step. LIST STUFF AND MAKE BACKUPS. Learn with short projects first. Ask for advice from people you admire, but never hold them on a pedestal. It’s always helpful to be a jack of all trades! Try to think from an outsider perspective if you're not sure of how it's going, and if you can, tell people you trust about the game and ask for opinions. Always take criticism well, but don't stress too much over harsher or even meaner comments. Have fun and never forget your starts, the people you meet and the reason you're doing the project for. If you're also an artist, writer, musician, remember this is a great opportunity to add something interesting to your portfolio. Cool visuals attract people, but they are not everything that will keep them hooked." *Third: "The best part of making a game is the people you make it with. The story is the most important ingredient of your game. Prioritize it first, and everything else will fall into place around it. Otherwise, everything will serve some other aspect of your game, and that’s rarely a good thing. Always speak your mind; do not every not say something just because it’ll hurt someone’s feelings. Obviously don’t be a tool, but if you ever have to choose between hurting the game and someone’s pride, pick someone’s pride. It’s much kinder in the long run."

Question from last month's featured dev Froach Club: Have you ever had a moment where you got completely stuck or became intensely frustrated while using RPG Maker? *Mitty: "Yes I have, I think everyone has QwQ Despite silly mistakes, I've gotten stuck several times, but honestly it's usually either us doing something stupidly hard that can be done another way, or we are just not skilled enough yet, and it's better to come back later. You can usually do most things you wanna do if you have the advantage of knowing the programming language your RPG Maker Engine uses I think. Google is your friend always, and sleeping about it also helps. I once dreamt of a whole sequence to fix a problem, and it worked! ahaha Always take it easy and don't give up, but know your limits and the limits of the engine!"

We mods would like to thank Teal Crown for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Marinette if you haven’t already! See you next month!

- Mods Gold & Platinum

#marinette #rpg maker #rpgmaker #horror game #indie game #gotm #game of the month #gotm 2019 #august #august 2019 #teal crown #interview #horror #cute

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rpgmgames · 7 years ago

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November’s Featured Game: lux (dream.girl)

DEVELOPER(S): Rindre Rindere ENGINE: RPGMaker 2k3 GENRE: Psychological Horror, Exploration SUMMARY: lux (dream.girl) is a surreal psychological horror game created in RPG Maker 2003 where you play as Benjamin, a socially inept teenage writer who struggles with depression, loneliness, and writer’s block. When he decides to try lucid dreaming to figure out how to push his story forward, he meets new friends, new enemies, and his literal dream girl. Making certain choices will either help or hurt his relationships, and the outcome of his story.

Download the demo here!

Introduce yourself! *Hi! I'm Rindre! I've been working on RPG Maker for about 5 or 6 years at this point! First and foremost, I'm an artist, then a game developer, then a voice actor. I am also a garlic bread enthusiast. You might also know me as: -The voice of Aria/the lead translator in Aria's Story -Will's Teacher in The Hanged Man -The mod of Yumeresource -The admin of the RPG Horror Discord server -The host of the Pixel Horror Jams! I'm also on plenty of teams, mostly as a voice actor. These include b/f, AURORA, and The Doctrine of Perseverance.

What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Rindre: lux is about a boy named Ben, who is an aspiring writer who hits a writer's block and tries to take up lucid dreaming to interact with his stories and characters find out how to advance his story. He ends up meeting interesting people, including his literal dream girl. Yume Nikki is a big inspiration for me. My stories I had written when I was younger also played a huge part, and I decided to recycle bits and pieces of them into lux. Ultimately, the frustrations and experience of being a content creator inspired me to make the game. Hopefully these themes will ring universal to whoever relates to being a creator as well.

How long have you been working on your project? *Rindre: You could say 5 years, or 2 years, or since July 2017! lux actually originated as a Yume Nikki fangame in 2012 (as are all games I've made...). I picked it up again on October 2 2015 as a concept to keep a work log, but actually making it into a tangible product took me until 2017's Pixel Horror Jam. The work log has 30+ pages to it! The Yume Nikki fangame version was prepared to be released, but I forgot, and now I'm too ashamed to release it because I meant to do it 5 years ago :(

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Rindre: I'm a big fan of psychological and sci-fi/cyberpunk media. These things usually ask: Who are we, and who are we in other people's eyes? What defines us? What does it mean to be an individual in our society? It's a question I like to ask myself and explore in my own projects. My major inspirations who ask these existential questions are deep within Satoshi Kon's works and Philip K Dick's stories, as well as other movies that were inspired by those two or are in the genre (like The Matrix, Inception, Akira, Ghost In The Shell, Serial Experiments Lain, etc.). Some other inspirations and influences that might be surprising are: Kappa Mikey (art style mixing), Vocaloid producers (Crusher-P, Mothy, Yuyoyuppe), Evangelion, Linkin Park, the Hamtaro GBA games, Kirby, and my own dreams. Unsurprisingly, Yume Nikki is the biggest inspiration. I really like the concept of dreams and escapism, and how it often plays into existentialism.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Rindre: They say that when making a game, 10% is actual development and 90% is bugfixing/quality assurance. This is VERY TRUE. I spent a couple months working with my bugtesters (Thanks Biel, Choko, Meaka, Pinkuboa, and Uboaappears). The actual demo was a bunch of crunch time for the jam, which was July - August). There were a lot of bugfixes involved, including a bug I was so puzzled with and thought I couldn't fix but the solution was so simple. It took me a month to figure it out! The RM2k3 update caused a bit of trouble for me, but I thank my bugtesters endlessly for helping me squash most, if not all, bugs. On the other hand, in case anybody asks, yes: I have lucid dreamt of my characters in lux when I hit a roadblock. These were never successful. I've only been able to do it twice, both by accident.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Rindre: I usually go into development with a clear idea in mind with certain events and endings, but lux differs greatly from its old Yume Nikki counterpart (dream.girl). Notable major changes: Ben now wears glasses. Ben is now a writer. Stella used to not be a bunny. Stella also did not have any stars in her eyes before. The only things retained was the concept of dreaming a dream girl, and Ben's and Stella's names and facial appearance. Even if I make a bunch of plot outlines and flowcharts, things change, but it's natural! The stories that occur within lux also have changed slightly plot-wise from their earlier pre-2012 counterparts (most were written over 10 years ago!), and are begging for a facelift. One involved parkour, but sadly, there is no parkour anymore :(

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don't have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Rindre: I prefer working alone when it's my project! I like working at my own pace, but if needed, I'll reach out to other people for help. I like helping people out on their projects too, but when it comes to my own, I like to handcraft everything by myself. It shows me what I'm capable of doing, and gives my game a "this was 100% made by me" stamp.

What is the best part of developing a game? *Rindre: Making music is relaxing and lets me convey a mood or theme without having to take out my tablet to draw or write something extensively. Being able to relax yet still work on the game is great. I like nights where I can sit down and make something nice I can put in my game. A lot of them are on my SoundCloud (Rindere), but some of the really nice ones are ones I haven't uploaded there. I'm really not a musician, but I did take a class on music technology. My favorite ones going to be in lux on my SoundCloud are "Nepenthean", which is also Ben's theme, "Choke On Your Misery", and "Empyria Incarnadine". It's also really nice to get files from your voice actors and they sound EXACTLY like how you thought your character would sound like! Special thanks to Aidan, Mizu, JR, and Nuei.

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Rindre: I prefer to do my own thing! I like to push RPG Maker 2003 to the limit. A lot of the cool effects were done before the major update of RM2k3 that came out earlier last month. Some things I thought were never possible in RM2k3 are things that I made possible after some thought. Like any problem, it can be solved in a bunch of ways, even if you have limitations.

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Rindre: The character I relate to the most is actually my least favorite character. It's Ben! I specifically modeled him after myself but changed certain things, like the intensity of his reactions. It was actually difficult to write him, because I had to think about how I would react in the situations I put Ben in. I feel like I had to get into some kind of mindset that was "mine", but also "not mine" as well.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Rindre: I feel like I could've released the game sooner, or continued work on FLUX instead. I would like to go back to working on FLUX soon, since I haven't worked on it in a long while. But after hosting the Pixel Horror Jam with Choko and jamming on this game, I'd like to rest up a bit before I take on a big project again.

Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore game's universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Rindre: Because lux is part of the -UX Series, it would naturally be a series with other entries. I don't know if or when they'll all be created, nor if they'll all be games, but I do eventually hope to see it finish. Something I want to explore is to further flesh out the stories Ben has written, especially because they were concepts written before lux ever came up as a concept. I've also given them -UX titles! I think I'll work on Crux/quX next.

What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Rindre: I am donating proceeds to the One More Light Fund with what is being donated to the itch.io-uploaded version of lux, so I really am looking forward to donating to a cause that is important to me. I encourage people to donate to the OML Fund directly, not through me. I also really like fan reaction, but I love the catharsis of releasing something you've made. It's a mix of relief and pride, but a little bit of anxiety because you don't know how well the fan reaction will be. I hope that my game will affect somebody in a positive, personal way, whether it be a new favorite game, something for them to draw, or become inspiration for their own works. I look forward to free time and rewarding myself with something good, like chicken parmesan too!

Is there something you're afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Rindre: I constantly ask, "Is my game worthy enough for others to play? Is my game good enough?" But when it comes down to it, really you're asking it to yourself, not to the people that will play your game. Sometimes, you have to sit down and ask yourself, "Am I satisfied with what I have made so far?" Then you go down the list of things you've made and say either, "I'm proud of this!" or "This could use some more work." and you fix it accordingly. The first audience of your game is always you, so if your game is "worthy" and "good enough" to you, then it is for other people.

Question from last month's featured dev (Team Galanx): What kind of stories do you appreciate most in RPG Maker games? For example, do you like ones based off real-life experiences, fantasy elements, or morals? *Rindre: My series of games is called the -UX Series, with there being 4 main stories that are related to each other: "FLUX", "lux", "Ux.", and "X". The rest of the titles end in "-ux" as well. It was only natural to do that!

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Rindre: Game Development -Give things meaningful names. -Back up your work in three different places. -Back up your games frequently. -Never be afraid to remake things, but do this occasionally. If you do this frequently, you'll be caught up in a loop of perfectionism. -Think if the cool new thing you want to put in will actually serve a proper purpose in the game. If it's only there just to be cool, don't put it in your game. -If things don't work out, it's perfectly fine to scrap ideas. -Don't pander. Make a game you want to make, not what others want to play. Releasing your game -Reach out to people who haven't played games similar to yours. You'll have opinions that you wouldn't normally get, compared to others who are familiar with your type of game. -Learn how to take critique. This might be the skill that will take you the longest to hone. -Not everyone is out to get you, but sometimes there will be people who want to bring you down. Even if this happens, there are always people there to support you. -You don't have to agree with every critique given to you. Other advice -If you're not embarrassed about your old work, then you haven't progressed. Continue to improve your skills and yourself. -Don't compare yourself to others. Compare yourself to your past self instead. -Don't be working on your game 24/7. Take up hobbies to occupy yourself, so you don't get burned out. -Learn to be a generalist, but also learn to specialize in something that people will recognize you for. -Be proud of your work.

We mods would like to thank Rindre for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out lux if you haven’t already! See you next month!

- Mods Gold & Platinum

#rpgmaker #rpg maker games #pixel games #indie game #lux #lux: dream girl #rindre #gotm #game of the month #november #games #demo #game #rpgm #rpgmaker 2003

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rpgmgames · 7 years ago

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August’s Featured Game: Land, Sea, Entropy

DEVELOPER(S): Rozel ENGINE: RPGMaker MV GENRE: RPG, Fantasy, Adventure SUMMARY: Land, Sea, Entropy, is a story-heavy action role-playing game with elements of mystery and horror. You live beneath the sea in a small village called Tidemoor. To the North is a labyrinth inhabited by strange monsters… and their numbers are only growing. So as one of Tidemoor’s warriors, your job is to thin the beast’s numbers and protect your town. But you get too greedy, go too far, and reach a point of no return. You find yourself in a world far different from your own, but it isn’t all full of monsters. There are peaceful places too, areas that are completely safe and untouched by any beasts. As you come to meet the inhabitants of this new land, and seek to return to your own, strange phenomena begins to occur and a mystery surrounding the unknown world unfolds.

Introduce yourself! Hello, I'm Rozel! I began playing around with RPGMaker back in 2014, starting with a trial of RPGMaker XP. This is when I started practicing pixel art more and learned some of the ins and outs of the engine itself.

My hobbies are digital art and fiction writing, so I was interested in combining those with my love of games to make something of my own!

What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Rozel: I've always enjoyed role-playing games. Although I had used RPGMaker XP awhile back, I didn't do much with it. One day as I was looking at a pixel RPG, a sudden thought popped in my mind. “Hey, this is neat... I could make something too.” So I started planning out an RPG of my own, and later bought RPGMaker MV.

Land, Sea, Entropy, is a game involving exploration, action, mystery, and lots of choice-making. You play as a warrior, lost far beyond the comfort of your home. You try to return, but you become connected to something larger and more sinister. Obstacles arise one after the other, and home only seems farther and farther away.

My goal was and still is to make something that had the fast-paced fun of real-time combat, the challenge of puzzles, and the immersion of enjoyable character interactions. The main character falls into the 'silent protagonist' type, but this is because the player's role is more about choices and experiencing the influence they have on others—instead of having a set-in-stone personality. When it comes to character development, it's the other characters that are given the spotlight.

How long have you been working on your project? *Rozel: I started forming ideas for the game around March, 2016. It was also around this time when I bought RPGMaker MV, so I was still learning how to use it.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Rozel: I was partly inspired by a manga called Pandora Hearts. In it, conflict occurs between the characters but they're all still so likable at the same time. I also love how deeply connected the characters are to the story and each other, and how some of them have so much history together. LSE sort of adopted that interconnectivity, history, and hopefully I can achieve similar likability.

In general, I pull inspiration from lots of different fantasy stories and sometimes folklore.

And, like many RPGMaker devs, I've been inspired by Ib in some ways. The atmosphere, the simple yet creative visuals, and the puzzles in it are all great. Ib and other RPGMaker horror games are part of what led LSE to having some elements of horror.

But when it comes to the combat style in my game, my main inspirations actually come from online action RPGs. In particular, the side-scrolling ones like LaTale and Elsword that I used to play. In LSE, you'll be comboing attacks and using your fast reflexes to avoid enemy retaliation.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Rozel: Self-doubt. I've dealt with this in waves throughout development. I've gotten so much positive support about the visuals, but that's just part of the game. Is playing it actually fun? Will people enjoy the story and characters, beyond the simple descriptions I've revealed? I won't know for sure until I start sending the game to testers, but it isn't quite ready for that yet.

Sometimes I work on one aspect of the game for so long, repeating it over and over again, so of course it won't be fun to me in that moment. But when I go back to other parts of the game, I remember that I do actually enjoy playing my own game. It gets me going again. There are still early parts of the game I'll have to redo, but I'm not going to let myself get stuck remaking endlessly.

So I've resolved to complete the game all the way through as it is before going back to update older sections. I've learned so much from making LSE, and hopefully I'll be a better artist, writer, and game designer by the time I get to the end.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Rozel: Yes! It's evolved a lot. I was originally going to make something small and more simplistic, but I gradually got more and more ideas about the characters and the world. I'm at a point where I'm satisfied with what I have and the game is sort of shrinking again as I pick out the best ideas to use.

The tone is also a bit different. The plot was going to be nonsensical and comedic, which I'm honestly just not that good with. I still hope to put in some comedic flair, but the project is taking a more serious and in some cases darker turn.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don't have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Rozel: I'm working alone right now, though I've gotten great feedback and advice from friends! I prefer working alone, it's easier for me to make things closer to how I imagine them. I tend to have weird way of organizing and plotting stuff out, too, so it would probably be tough to keep others in the loop with my mess of ideas.

What was the best part of developing the game? *Rozel: I love seeing my ideas come to life, and it's really satisfying to feel like I've finally figured something new out (even if I really haven't)! There's a lot involved in developing a game, so you sort of have to become a jack of all trades if you're going to develop solo. I've been able to pick up new skills and improve on skills I already had, it's been lots of fun.

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Rozel: Every character has pieces of me in them, and lots of big differences too, but the character which stands out as being the most similar is Vyn March. She's introverted, keeps a positive attitude about things, and writing is her hobby. Much of her character is built on the experiences I've had in the past, but I won't go into it further because I don't want to spoil things!

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Rozel: Maybe I could've spent more time preparing, maybe I could've set better rules of consistency to follow when designing the game. But I needed to mess up a few times in order to learn. I think everything I did helped lead me on the right path, even if I had a shaky start. Mistakes are all a part of the process, so I don't have any regrets.

Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore game's universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Rozel: There's a really small chance I might make something that takes place in the same universe, with the same rules of magic and so on. As for the characters, their stories will have reached a conclusion at the end of the game. I don't think I'll have anything more to tell about them and will move on to new characters for the next project.

What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Rozel: I really hope that I can affect someone in a positive way, whether that be through the characters and writing or just by providing something fun to play.

Is there something you're afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Rozel: I think the worst thing would be releasing it with glaring bugs and plot-holes I somehow didn't notice, but that's what testers are for. Fingers crossed that nothing is missed!

Question from last month's featured dev: Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Rozel: I do play RPGMaker games occasionally. Getting familiar with what other devs come up with in the engine is a good way to gain inspiration.

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Rozel: Critique is a useful tool, but I want to add to that. If someone is rude in their critique, it doesn't necessarily invalidate their opinion. It definitely doesn't mean they're right, but there's still a chance you can find useful information.

Also, sometimes people are just really bad at wording things so they come off as rude when they don't intend it. So don't write off a suggestion just because it seems mean-spirited. At the same time, everyone has a different idea of what makes a good game. Don't make changes only to please someone else, make the game you want to make!

We mods would like to thank Rozel for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Land, Sea, Entropy if you haven’t already! See you next month!

- Mods Gold & Platinum

#rpgmaker #rpg maker #game dev #games #dev interview #gotm #land sea entropy #game of the month #game feature #pixel games

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rpgmgames · 7 years ago

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June’s Featured Game: Living Playground: The Witch’s Puppets

DEVELOPER(S): Meaka ENGINE: RPGMaker XP GENRE: Supernatural, Puzzle WARNINGS: Both implied and shown violence to the children, Emotional abuse, Blood SUMMARY: With what starts as a simple day at the park, siblings Tony, Pablo, and Octavio are once again caught up in a series of strange circumstances such as strange pocket dimensions, coordinated monsters, and more geese than anyone could ever want to see in their lives. Stranded with them are Haze and Seal, two witches who seem to be connected with whatever nonsense is going down. As witches tend to be.In the simplest of terms, this game is about friendship and relating to others, both the good and the bad. With an unfortunate focus on the bad. It will be mostly straightforward with only one ending.

Download the demo here!

Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! *Hi hello I'm Meaka. I've been kicking around the RPG Maker scene since like 2012 with my first game release in 2014. Whether that makes me but a wee RPGM baby or a seasoned veteran is probably dependent on how "long" you'd consider that h-haha. I'm an animator and illustrator, so visual development is my strong suit.

What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Meaka: The Witch's Puppets is best summed up as "a game about friendship." Part of my motivation for creating it was simply personal catharsis: it deals heavily with circumstances that impacted my own life greatly and affects how I interact with people to this very day. Beyond real-life experiences, a big inspiration is Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star in terms of how emotionally raw and powerful it is while also carrying on its sense of humor.

How long have you been working on your project? *Meaka: Far too long oh man. As a reference, my first game took me maybe six to eight months on and off to complete. I'm. almost 3 years into The Witch's Puppets and while I can probably hope for the best in terms of my completion rate, it's been a wild ride. (Did you know I thought it'd only take a year? 2014 me, how innocent you were...)

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Meaka: I say this like everywhere and I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself, but a huge inspiration for my art in general is the Kirby series. It has such a flawless blend of cute-to-macabre that I absolutely love and hope to capture that same feeling in my own work! Living Playground was inspired by the usual "RPG Maker/ Wolf RPG Editor" games (mostly Ib and Alice_mare) which led to it's "kind of horror but not really" flavor.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Meaka: In all honesty, just staying motivated three years into a project is difficult. I'm absolutely ecstatic to be making this game and bring it to people for them to play, but it's so easy to be excited about the cool parts and hit a wall production-wise when it comes to the mundane and tedious parts, particularly programming events that tend to be made up of a ton of conditional branches, variables, and occasionally will crash RMXP. So I give myself breaks on occasion and try to switch it up between whether I work on visual assets or RPG Maker programming, and sometimes I flip over to side projects (be it jam games or just other art).

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Meaka: From my initial concept, beyond certain themes and characters, they're two entirely different storylines. I actually gutted the entire script and started over at least twice during the course of production because of things not flowing well, weird writing choices by me, or just ideas that I slowly realized weren't that good. In particular, a very big part of some rewriting came from having some friends look over my script + game doc and pointing out some flaws that were from too much personal investment. If you're ever in a tight spot and not sure if stuff reads right, get some friends to beta read for you!

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don't have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Meaka: In my first game it was just me until I threw it at some people to beta test. That was an interesting experience. For the Witch's Puppets, I commissioned music from the absolutely amazing ProjectTrinity and needing to consolidate my ideas and express them in a way for someone to create music for it helped me commit to my ideas and also helped me put into words what I couldn't really describe well beforehand. I haven't really had the chance to work fully on a team. I'd sure love to, but I fear my hectic life schedule would hold back whatever team I would want to join.

What was the best part of developing the game? *Meaka: I may be an animator and used to this by now, but there's something really magical about making your characters and putting them into a thing and then they move around. It just feels really nice. Also for me, I love telling stories and entertaining people, so I hope that my games allow me to do that! Whenever someone offhand mentions they enjoy something I make, it fills me with the warm fuzzies. (And don't even get me started on fanart. I literally cry.)

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Meaka: I absolutely want to 100% go back and remake Living Playground one day. It was the best I could do at the time, but now that I know so much more about what RPG Maker can and can't do, I want to go back and fix all those little things and make it more of what I wanted it to be. ... Also cut back on the ham-fisted attempts to be scary, maybe.

Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore game's universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Meaka: I've already kind of done that! The Witch's Puppets is a sequel-but-not-really. And also Retail Hell, my Horror Funhouse jam project, is set in the same universe. As for the future, I can't say for sure that I'll make another game with the same characters, but I love the playground kids so I would never rule out the possibility of making something containing them again. Whether it's a game or not, that's a problem for Future Meaka to figure out.

What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Meaka: It might be conceited of me, but I hope to see it give some sort of positive impact on people, even if just a little! I'd like to hope my little Friendship Game helps someone out if they're in a rough patch and at least makes them smile for a bit. Also I cannot wait to shitpost with wild abandon. Bad memes, here I come.

Is there something you're afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Meaka: I always low-key fear my files corrupting and losing everything, but since I am paranoid and keep a ton of back-up copies, I don't think that's going to be an issue. There's also a small part of me that is worried about people completely missing the point, but at that point I guess it would fall on my writing...!

Question from last month's featured dev: Which of your characters do you feel like you'd get along with the most? *Meaka: Strong Pickle. There is no other answer.

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Meaka: Google Drive, Dropbox, and Mediafire are good friends and back up your stuff! Also, there will be days when making your game will not be fun. You will open your version of RPG Maker and look at it with dread. Keep going. Even if it's just one event a day, one spriteset at a time, keep on poking at that game. It just seems daunting because you know what you want it to be and you're looking at the beginning of the beginning. You can do it!!!

We mods would like to thank Meaka for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Living Playground: The Witch’s Puppets if you haven’t already! See you next month!

- Mods Gold & Platinum

#rpgmaker #rpg maker #rpg maker games #games #game of the month #gotm #living playground #living playground: the witch's puppets #the witch's puppets #meaka #interview #dev interview #game dev

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