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snoozykazoo · 2 months ago

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we're on tumblr again yay✨

Hey everyone! And welcome to Snoozy Kazoo's first ✨TUMBLR DEVPOST!!✨ We'll be releasing these every month from now on as a way to keep everyone updated on Snoozy Kazoo news!

If you're new here, hi! We’re Snoozy Kazoo, a game dev studio of six guys who make dumb, silly, and fun games. You might know us from the games Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion and Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, available HERE and HERE!

Let's get caught up! In this issue we're covering a new mobile release, anniversaries, and... our NEW GAME? 😳😳😳

What's Snoozy been up to?

Ok I know what I said earlier, but let’s be honest: if you’ve stumbled deep into the mines enough to find your way here, you’re surely familiar with our beloved Turnip Boy. We just passed by his anniversary of robbing a bank on January 18th! Aww! They grow up so fast… But it’s a good thing he’s not robbing banks anymore, that’s a crime, you kn-

Aw crud he's doing it on your phone now

Snaps my fingers disappointingly. Aw man. Yerrrrp. Turnip Boy Robs a Bank is now on iOS and Android devices near you. His mindless yet fervent desire to wreck crime upon the world seems insatiable. It’s really unfortunate, except for the fact that it’s honestly really fun watching him go at it.

The game is available TODAY on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store! Re-experience the game or force your friends to — its fun either way!

Ahhh the beloved Turnip Boy. Surely your next game will be about him right?

Heehee nope!

Excitingly, in November, we announced our next game: Hobnobbers! A co-op mall-looter where you rob malls for your goddess!

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If you haven’t already wishlisted the game yet, well… go wishlist it! Go make your friends wishlist it! Wishlist wishlist wishlist! It really helps us beat the Algorithm Overlords, so literally every single wishlist counts!

I already know about your little crow-gnome mall-looting game you do not shut up about it. What else is new?

We also released a new devlog over on our YouTube! We’ll be releasing one of these every few months, so make sure to subscribe!

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In it, we’ve covered the game’s conception till its early development, which means a lot of concept art. Honestly, let’s toss a little bit more of it over here; it’s always exciting to see behind the curtain!

Now get ready for... 🥁🥁🥁

Woah! What’s this little place? Perhaps the chance to get to meet different members of the team and bombard them with questions to foster a parasocial relationship with them? No way!

Introducing… Alexis! Our Unreal Developer!

What are you most excited for in Hobnobbers?

I’m very excited for a lot of different technical aspects and seeing people’s reaction to the game! I want to see all of the systems come together to create a perfect storm of chaos. The randomly generated map ontop the hexes system, with events like Money Storms, Floods, and Fairy Circles of Doom, is going to make each run completely unique and you’ll never know what kind of madness you’re getting into! On launch day I intend to be hopping into games with people (and fixing any bugs that crop up).

What’s something you’ve worked on in Hobnobbers recently that you’ve found particularly frustrating?

The level generation for the mall has been a particular nightmare, but in a very fun way. The mall is generated from bottom-to-top and each floor tells the floor above it about the different combinations of rooms that it can generate. This allows us to have those iconic vertical levels that overlap eachother with walkways above the floors below! This has required a lot of tuning in both making the parts that generate, and how to place them to get results that are always interesting (without bugs). Not only do we have to generate each floor, we also have to generate each store! Accounting for the size and placement of these is a constant challenge when making segments but I made a blender template that speeds it up quite a lot.

What pitch did you end up bringing to the pitch competition?

My pitch was a game about a vampire who was ousted from their castle by another vampire, and is trying to take it back. You would have to sneak back in through various pathways that challenge you in different ways, some would require parkour skills, others would require puzzle solving. And while you’re doing all of this, the AI learns and adapts to your behavior setting traps or blocking off paths in a constant game of cat and mouse. I am still extremely passionate about this idea, and fully intend to pursue it one day!

Awesome! Thank you for your time! 😊

Okie dokie that’s a wrap for now

In future devposts, we’ll be including questions sent in by the community! Feel free to send them in over here on Tumblr, or join our Discord and ask questions in the “ask-the-devs-❓” channel!

See you soon!

— Kiki

#turnip boy #turnip boy commits tax evasion #turnip boy robs a bank #devlog #game dev #game development #indie game #indie dev #indie games #snoozy kazoo #devpost

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rainynightcreations · 10 months ago

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Announcing "Spy Drops" for Nintendo Switch and Steam. Experience PS generation, low-polygon, 3D stealth action updated with modern effects such as lighting and shadows, randomly generated levels, modern equipment, and head-to-head local multiplayer.

We'll premier the game at Bit Summit Drift in Kyoto, July 19 to 21.

You can wishlist on Steam here ;) https://store.steampowered.com/app/3034070/Spy_Drops/

#indiedev #ps1 #gamedev #lowpoly #madewithunity #ps1 aesthetic #psx #psx aesthetic #Youtube

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refractstudios · 10 months ago

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Distance Launches on PS4 & PS5 July 19th!

Today I have a very exciting announcement for everyone...

Distance: Console Edition has a release date for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5! You can get it July 19th on the PlayStation Store. Wishlist to get notified when it goes live!

Watch the exciting trailer with brand new music here:

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Here's a quick overview of what you can expect in Distance: Console Edition:

Melding the intensity of arcade racing with the agility of parkour, Distance catapults you into a neon-soaked world shrouded in mystery. Adapt quickly using your car’s abilities to jump, flip, and fly to overcome deadly hazards and survive.

Campaigns: Dive into the Adventure campaign, an immersive single-player story that takes you into the heart of darkness. Afterward, return to Nitronic City in Lost to Echoes and take on a brutal challenge. Finally, visit the mysterious flying islands of Nexus (a short companion to the Adventure campaign).

Arcade Modes: Earn medals to unlock over 150 diverse tracks in modes like Sprint, Challenge, and Stunt.

Leaderboards: Race ghost replays to take on the leaderboards' best (both online and local).

Endless Tracks: With Trackmogrify, enjoy never-ending challenges with randomly generated tracks using advanced seed modifiers.

Couch Multiplayer: Challenge up to 4 opponents in high-stakes split-screen races, or try unique arena-based modes like Reverse Tag and Stunt.

Unlockable Cheats: Earning PlayStation trophies unlocks cheats like motorcycle mode, bubble car, and many more.

And a bunch of other cool features including…

Customizable controls

Level playlists

Multiple unlockable cars

Car paint job customization

Main menu level selection

And more!

What's new on PlayStation?

There are a handful of exciting new additions exclusive to PlayStation:

Haptic Feedback: The PS5 version features a completely new haptics integration. It allows you to feel the details of each impact, scrape, skid, and the abilities themselves in a whole new way. Since the haptics are largely audio driven I had a ton of fun working on this and it’s easily one of my favorite aspects of playing on PS5.

Activity Features: Easily track campaign progress from the control center, jump into a mode directly from the home screen, and see in-game help on campaign levels if needed.

Controller Lighting: On both PS4 and PS5 the controller lights with the glow color of your car. This helps to see overheat status as well as identify controllers during split-screen.

Regarding performance, Distance targets 60 fps across all single player content. On PS4 the game utilizes 1080p, and on PS5 it runs at 4K resolution. The PS4 Pro and PS5 version have both been enhanced with higher graphics quality and smoother performance. While there are dips here and there on the PS4, overall I think it runs pretty well, and it's even better on PS5 despite running at 4K.

Differences between PC and consoles

For those of you who’ve been enjoying Distance on PC, you’ll find that the core gameplay experience and overall features are extremely similar on PlayStation. There are of course some differences so I’d like to discuss them here.

I’ve talked previously about the technical limitations regarding Steam Workshop and the level editor, so at this time those aren’t available in Distance: Console Edition. Instead, we decided to officially include our favorite community-created levels directly into the base game for everyone to play. For example, our recent Kinetic Update (v1.5) on PC included 15 incredible new levels from the community and these will also be available on PlayStation!

Regarding online multiplayer, I completely understand that for some it might come as a shock to see it not included on consoles. While we have collectively spent a ton of time working on online multiplayer for PlayStation consoles, a series of unfortunate technical hurdles have led to it not being feasible for release at this time. Split-screen multiplayer is included however and allows for couch multiplayer in Arcade modes. For those curious about the behind-the-scenes technical info, please see below for a more detailed breakdown explanation.

With all that in mind, Distance: Console Edition is at a reduced price of $19.99 / €19.99. While it is possible that future updates will enable more content and features, please purchase with the assumption that the base game will not massively change in the future.

Getting into the technical details

If you’ve been following Distance for a while you’re probably aware that the PlayStation version has had a fairly long and tumultuous development. It was our first time developing anything for a console, and it’s been an incredible learning experience throughout.

Many years ago around the v1.0 launch we had a version of Distance using Unity 5 working somewhat reasonably on PS4 with several multiplayer features functional (though certainly not finished). After launching v1.1 I spent a lot of time implementing all of the various technical certification requirements for online play on PS4. This included things like parental chat restrictions, online ID consistency, etc.

As I was preparing to send a new build to Sony, I came to realize that to pass certification Distance needed to update to a much newer PS4 SDK version required by Sony. Unfortunately, this version of Unity 5.5 we used to develop Distance for years was locked to a very old PS4 SDK version, and the only option was to port Distance (yet again) to a much newer version of Unity. To comply with Sony's requirements, we needed to upgrade Unity from version 5.5 to Unity 2020. This unfortunately wasn’t negotiable and, as you might imagine, it took months to repair the various graphics and physics issues that came along with it.

The biggest hurdle was that our multiplayer system was completely dependent on the old Unity 5.5 version. The newer versions of Unity had fully abandoned their old multiplayer integration, meaning I basically had to start from scratch. One possibility was to attempt to replicate the custom RakNet backend we had relied on, but Unity’s version made several changes under the hood and without source code access it was challenging to emulate it. The other possibility was to simply rewrite everything from scratch and utilize an entirely new multiplayer system.

In short, I attempted both routes. After spending quite some time attempting to essentially rewrite all of Jason’s multiplayer tech, I realized doing this on my own will take an incredibly long time to get fully functional and properly tested. Between this issue, complications due to COVID, and my own personal issues with recovering from burnout, this was honestly a really frustrating time and one of the big reasons I decided to take a break from Distance development. As I mentioned in my September 2023 blog post I decided to go on a short hiatus to work on Project 2, and of course I enjoyed working on Project 2 so much that my short break soon became much longer.

Upon returning to Distance last year with a fresh perspective I made the incredibly tough call to disable online multiplayer for now. I would then focus on wrapping up all of the other features and content we have and get it into players’ hands as soon as possible. Of course it still took significantly longer than I expected to wrap up that last 1%, but at long long last we’re finally here.

Looking ahead

I really can’t say enough how much I’ve appreciated everyone’s patience and support during these challenging times. I’ve truly been blown away by the enthusiastic response to the Kinetic Update, and I’m so excited to keep creating and sharing stuff with you all.

To all of our new PlayStation players, welcome to the Distance community! I can’t wait to see which players take the top times on the new leaderboards. Please note that the best way to connect with other players is on the Distance Discord server.

You also might have noticed that there is a new remix of Isolation in the PlayStation release trailer. I’ve been developing a lot of new music for Project 2 and intend to release some songs officially soon, so please be on the lookout for more information about that. I’ll also be posting here and on social media when updates are released for PC and PlayStation.

Thank you all again!

Jordan

#distance #refract studios #playstation #ps4 #ps5 #Youtube

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bylergiftexchange · 5 months ago

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Welcome to the Byler Gift Exchange! The premise of this event is an anonymous exchange of fanworks among participants. During a sign up period everyone who wants to participate gets to pick what kind of gift they want to create and receive, and assignments are then created randomly based on this wishlist. Afterwards participants are encouraged to anonymously get to know their assigned giftee to prepare a fitting gift, which they can then post at any point during the gifting period.

The Timeline

Oct. 25th-Nov. 25th: Sign up period

Dec. 1-3: Assignments will go out

Dec.-March: Creation period. Get to know your assigned giftee anonymously and work on their gift

March 22-April 7: Gifting period. Pick a date during this time and post your gift, revealing to your giftee who you are

___________________________________________

[Rules and Requirements] || [Tips and Tricks] || [FAQ] || [Event Updates]

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captainelliecomb · 2 years ago

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Fic Stats Halfway Through 2023

Haven’t had time to do a WIP Wishlist since round 20 in April. Am still reading and slowly commenting. Travelled for work twice as much in the first half of 2023 as I did all of 2021 and 2022 combined. Loads of downloading and reading offline.

In February, I randomly decided to track my fic reading this year. Have some stats as of the end of June. I haven’t read a single fic that doesn’t contain Jaime x Brienne. Sometimes paired with others, too. Haven’t been this monofannish in years.

I read fast, comment slowly, and write rec posts even slower. Not an official rec post, but I recommend everything and everyone in these lists.

Limitations: I know I haven’t written down all the fic I’ve read. I’d say at least 90% of it is in the spreadsheet. None of the lists but one include WIPs or they would dominate everything because I reread with every new chapter. I obsessively reread things. Top authors may appear more times than they have number of fic. Means I’ve reread some of their stories at least twice. I am awful at spreadsheets and manage only the most basic information. Absolutely no pretty charts either.

Time for the stats!

Words Read Feb - June: just under 13 million

Authors I’ve Read 20+ Times:

aviss (61) ddagent (53) tall_wolf_of_tarth (31) angel-deux (29) janie_tangerine (29) winterkill (29) chrkrose (27) Lady_in_Red (25) sdwolfpup (24) Zeta_Mei (20)

Most Read Completed Fic:

so all the world can see by EllisJay (ASOIAF) (9) Undisclosed Desires by Roccolinde (GOT) (5) To be in your arms again by sdwolfpup (GOT) (4) Beyond the Ice and the Fire by littleobird (GOT) (3) Choices by Gwen77 (GOT) (3) Ice by Gwen77 (GOT) (3) They Make You Swear and Swear by angelowl (GOT) (3)

Certainly not obvious I’ve often been in the mood for a show fix-it. I’m tentatively working on one myself.

Pretty much everything else in the spreadsheet has been read twice.

Most Read Currently-Being-Updated-and-Still-a-WIP Fic:

Come-into-my-castle by Zeta_Mei (ASOIAF canon divergence) (13) Pound of Flesh by The_Midget (GOT canon divergence) (9) Simple by languageintostillair (GOT fix-it) (7) when the sun shine, we shine together (Reality Show AU) (7) lover boy. by SeeThemFlying (Modern AU) (6)

Top Five Longest Completed Fic Read Once:

Heart Full of Gasoline by sdwolfpup (Formula One AU) (406,767) Diamond in the Rough by cardinalgirl75 (Baseball AU) (374,333) Honor Compels Me by angel_deux (GOT S6 canon divergence) (335,399) The One: Game of Thrones Edition by motorbike_on_the_avenue (Reality Show AU) (236,912) Baby Mama by SeeThemFlying (Soulmate + Surrogate AU) (222,769)

Top Five Longest Completed Fic Read Twice:

Brienne-centric Kinktober 2021 by dancinginthecenteroftheworld (varies) (101,177) And Counting by nubbins_for_all (GOT S8 canon divergence) (97,301) All is Black by Weirwoo (GOT fix-it) (65,455) The Right Question by Aviss (pre-canon canon divergence) (56,354) Butterfly Effect by Aviss (pre-canon canon divergence) (51,274)

I know this debate goes around and around. This is where I learned GOT fic is canon divergence for me unless it specifically includes Jaime leaving. It’s fix-it at that point.

#jaime x brienne #fic rec

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chepedukduks · 7 months ago

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Holy mackarel I just randomly thought of wizard game again… hit with crazy feels every time I remember that dang thing and the community that loves it.

Heck, I was an autistic kid and that game was my whole reason to keep going, for a while. The stories I wrote to myself, the days where I’d sit and think of nothing but scrabdackle. The dozens of fanfic ideas I never got to write, fanart and fan animations I wasn’t good enough to make. The people I connected with so much emotionally… I doubt anyone else cared as much as I do. Or even knew how I felt. I just acted stupid and energetic. That’s how I showed my love back then. I remember all the little things and inside jokes and little moments and the little jolts of pain I’d get every time I’d mess up and do something wrong. Around the middle of last year was when I’d listen to stupid corny songs about moving on and how everyone’s happier without me. It felt like the world was crashing down… like some childish, silly breakup. Such a harsh reaction to something so inconsequential to everyone else. I’m downplaying it now, but it hurt bad back then. The fact that I got so scared, so afraid of getting real and never truly expressing — not knowing HOW to express — how much it’d really meant to me despite everything, is something I’ll always regret. I realize only in retrospect that the community isn’t perfect, not at all, but I’m not perfect either.

I remember being bitter at people… for no real reason? I honestly don’t even remember why I was upset, but it was probably something stupid and petty. I was a petty guy. I remember getting in trouble a lot, like I was the troubled kid. I probably was. My heart was in the right place, but my actions may not have reflected that. I think I’m emotionally stunted. That’s okay. I’m sorry regardless.

I remember how I’d act all dramatic, pointing to the stars and praying to whatever god was out there that I wanted it to be successful! As if that’s how the world works. I’d imagine a tree, a small sapling that we raised together. Me and my cool internet friends that I looked up to! I’d cry myself happy tears to sleep dreaming about how it’ll become so big and beautiful someday, and then sad tears believing I wouldn’t be there to see it. I was such a sensitive, naive person… still am. I don’t wanna change that about me, never.

I wish I knew you all more personally (subposting pfft, what’s new). I don’t know how to socialize at all, and I’d hate to subject anyone in that server to any more of my overbearing sentimentality. Thank you for being so kind. Thank you for talking and being my friends and keeping me updated and sharing our appreciation for the game with each other. Last year, all I could think of was how to say goodbye. I’m not planning on saying that anymore. Someday, I’m gonna show the world peak fiction… absolute cinema…. just you wait, but not now. Not for a long, long time.

I dunno why I’m writing this now. Just feel like it, I guess. Maybe I should’ve waited till thanksgiving, but does being thankful really need a particular date?

So yeah, thanks for raising me for 2 whole years <3

- Chep

(TLDR: JUST DON’T READ IT IT’S CORNY also wishlist scrabdackle on steam :p)

#remember that game #that exists #oh my god #not tagging it lol #wall of text

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linuxgamenews · 2 years ago

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Plan Your Way to Victory with the Knights Province Strategy Game

Knights Province strategy game includes casual city building and it's due to support Linux via Windows PC. Thanks to Krom Stern for their incredible creativity and hard work. Due to make its way onto Steam in 2025. Have you ever wanted to dive deep into the golden age of strategy games? Think about those classic RTS titles from the 90s – like "Settlers 4", "Warcraft I", or "Anno 1602". Those titles didn’t just rush you through combat; they let you think and plan. That's where Knights Province steps in to let you strategize. And it's due to offer support for Linux, here's the current plan.

The game works well under Wine. I have had several reports from different players that showed me the game on Linux / Ubuntu with little to no hassle.

Right now, a single passionate individual is pouring their heart into development. Knights Province isn't just any strategy game; its engine has deep roots, dating back to 2008 with the KaM Remake project. And thanks to the Delphi code, a version for Linux is on the horizon. According to the email, the developer's plate is full, but once the game launches, they're hoping to craft that native Linux build.

Knights Province building strategy footprints

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Developed by Krom Stern since 2013, Knights Province brings back that nostalgic slow-paced strategy vibe. This isn't just about quick battles. Instead, it's about building a solid base, collecting and processing resources, and diving deep into strategic decision making.

Features:

Graphics: It offers stylized 3D visuals from a top-down viewpoint, which gives you a broad view of your domain.

Town-building: You don't just randomly place buildings. Instead, you design a blueprint, set orders, and watch as your vision comes to life.

Diverse Buildings & Resources: Knights Province has over 30 unique structures and 30 different resources, every decision matters to support your strategy. Everything is tangible; if you see an item, it was mined, transported, and processed by your workers.

Food: This is crucial! Ensure a variety of meals are produced to keep your workers and soldiers healthy.

Army Management: When it's time for combat, it's not just about brute force. Smart preparations and strategies are keys to victory.

Modes: Enjoy engaging stories, scenarios, and skirmishes against AI in offline mode. Plus, there's word about multiplayer options coming soon!

Map Editor: This feature lets you craft custom maps in Knights Province and even full-blown campaign strategies. And yes, you can dive deep into scripting if that's your thing.

Online Ladder: Want to see how you stack up against others? Compete for the best mission completions.

Gameplay Speed: Whether you're in the mood for a relaxed session or something intense, you have the freedom to adjust the pace.

Languages: It's localized in 8 languages, with more on the horizon.

The Current Build:

The current release, Alpha 12, is the most extensive yet, but more updates are on the horizon before the final version rolls out. The focus moving forward will be on enhancing visuals, ensuring a balanced experience, and supporting user-created content. Play it on itch via WINE. Interested? Knights Province is currently free on its official website, and there's a bustling community on Discord where fans share insights, updates, and their creations. Plans are in place for a paid release on Steam once the Beta phase kicks in. If you’re looking for a blend of nostalgia and modern strategy, Knights Province is shaping up to be an experience you won't want to miss. Make sure to Wishlist it on Steam.

#knights province #strategy #city builder #linux #gaming news #krom stern #ubuntu #windows #pc #Youtube

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marahuyos · 2 years ago

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Arknights 4th Anniversary Summary

First part of the stream is that they showed old concept art of the game as well as the concepts for NPCs, the setting, Closure and Kal'tsit etc. I recommend reading more into this once there are translations bc its so interesting to see the thought process behind the world of arknights!!

01 | New Sidestory

Rhine Lab focused event where they appear to focus on the evolution of Terra (and might go even to space??? Endfield moment????)

New stage mechanics where you play catch with a hyper realistic eye that acts as a roadblock

elevator mechanic????

02 | New Operators

6* Tactician Vanguard Muelsyse

Places a blob that doesnt take deployment space and has no melee/upper tile restrictions

It appears that it copies the stats and range of the operator so for example, if you place down a Fartooth, the summon gets her range and her stats as well.

One of her skills makes her make 3 more summons and they can shift(?)

6* Core Caster Ho'olheyak'

Can levitate enemies like Irene but she can also silence them

Her Skill 2 is like Amiya s2 except she randomly levitates and silences 2 enemies

Skill 3 makes her have sniper range and summons three tornadoes per lane.

6* Welfare Abjurer Silence the Paradigmatic

Talent 1: All allies in range have shelter, the lower their HP, the higher the effect

Talent 2: Allies in range with low HP will gain regen, effect doubled for rhine lab operators

Skill 1: ATK up

Skill 2: ASPD up, can summon a drone that enhances talent 1, will self destruct when skill ends

Skill 3: ATK up, talent 1 enhanced, when an operator in range tales lethal dmg, instead keep their HP at 1 for a few secs Can only use a few times per battle, can manually turn off

5* Heavyshooter Sniper Melanite

No known info

03 | New Skins

New Bloodline of Combat skins for Orchid, Ebenholz, Specter Alter, Ch'en Alter, Kal'tsit, Justice Knight

Live2D skins for Spalter, Chalter and Kal'tsit, with kal'tsit being 24 due to new voicelines

04 | Other major updates

Operator module update for Hexer ops (Gnosis, Pramanix, Shamare), Melanite, Rosmontis, Greyy Alter, Ho'olheyak', W, Kal'tsit

Implementation plan for Lee's detective agency ops

New game mode (no translated info as of yet)

apparently its contract-based??? def not the new cc update

New robot Defender Friston-3

Integrated Strategies 4

Based on the Northern Regions of Sami, the least known region in the Arknights lore and the place where actual demons reside in

Santalla might be potentially be the welfare op

These nordic runes might be used to get foresight on the paths???

New boss

Banner update

Basically a wishlist where all operators before Phantom can be chosen. You can ONLY GET the 6* and 5* ops that you've picked.

This banner gives blue certificates which able to get you a specific headhunting pass for this banner as well as buying the ops themselves (note the shopping cart icon on ceobe and astesia)

Destiny 2 Collab

05 | Merch, Anime, etc.

Official Arknights Terra Concept book

Second Artbook (get a free Lava the Purgatory skin if you bought it)

Tabletop game??? Apparently its a collab with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation

1/7 scale figures for Kal'tsit, Summer Surtr, Summer Mudrock

Choearth figures and Popmart figures for Amiya

Arknights anime continuation of Episodes 4-6 (misha and frostnova :)))))))

#arknights #arknights 4th anniversary #mara.arknights #they popped OFF with this anni holy shit

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the---hermit · 2 years ago

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Top 5 High Fantasy

Hello anon, while looking at my shelves I realized that I have read less high fantasy than I'd like, because I really like the genre, so thanks for this ask because it will definitely push me to finally get to reading some books that have been on my tbr very a long time.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (yes for me this scores higher than lotr, simply because I am even more emotionally attached to this one. This is my number one comfort book, Biblo's adventure fills my heart with feelings I cannot even put to words)

The Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (I will count this as one single book because firstly the author intended it that way, secondly it would turn into a Tolkien's book top 5 and it's not what you asked)

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski (my reltationship with the witcher book series has been complicated but this first book was amazing, I loved it, it's actually the book that made me start my habit of reading in the morning because I just had to pick it up. I like the darker themes and how there's a lot of references to fairytales it's a great collection of short stories which is not something you see a lot of in this genre)

The Priory Of The Orange Tree by Damantha Shannon (you clearly saw how much I loved my time with this book. I loved the worldbuilding, I think the author did a great job in both constructing the story and writing it. I recently spoke a lot about it so if you want more opinions check out my other posts)

Legends And Lattes by Travis Baldree (I considered whether including this one or not, it's a self proclamed hogh fantasy with low stakes, so I thought it would count. Again this book was very comforting. I love that we got a high fantasy setting with a very simple storyline about this coffee shop, it was really sweet. I also wanted to have a more or less diverse list with things with different vibes so here you go)

I doubt anything will ever beat Tolkien for me, because I grew up with the stories of Middle Earth (I am ashamed to say I have not read the Silmarillion yet, but in my defense I don't have a copy, yet). His world just has a special place in my heart and I can't really do much about it. As I said I have a lot of epic fantasy in my tbr and wishlists, and since I very randomly decided this year will be my fantasy reading year you might see more in my bookish updates in the next few months!

#thanks for the ask anon this was hard but fun #epic fantasy #high fantasy #book #books #cris speaks #asked #ask #asks #answered #anon #bookblr #mine #the---hermit

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brewing-radianite · 3 years ago

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VALORANT Secret Santa Interest Check!

Good timezone, everyone! with October nearly being halfway over, I thought it’d be a good time to revisit the interest check for a VALORANT fandom Secret Santa event. I did post a poll several months ago, but that was a while ago, and I know way more people in the community now than I did back then.

So what is VALORANT Secret Santa?:

Secret Santa is an event around the holiday season where you are randomly assigned a fellow participant to create an art piece or fic based off of their wishlists or requests. I have previously participated in this event for other fandoms such as the Bravely Default series (JRPG) and the Supergiant Games series. It’s meant to be a fun time to meet new friends, interact with others in the fandom, and create fun work as you share the holiday spirit! The general concept for the plan would be to open applications from within the next week to November 1st. This would give you all of November and more than half of December to complete your gift. Your gift will be due and expected to be posted or sent to your receiver between December 24th-January 1st.

Please note that right now, there are no plans to include NSFW works so this will be open to minors as well--so keep your prompts and projects appropriate for all! A seperate Secret Santa for NSFW works might happen too, but that is a huge might.

The event hasn’t been finalized yet. This post is for the Interest Check! If enough people fill it out, I may advance further to holding Moderator applications and then proper participant applications. You can check out the Google Form to it by clicking here! Thanks! - edited with an updated link, sorry about that!

#valorant #riot games #secret santa #fandom #secret santa event #fanfiction #fanart

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bts-reveries · 4 years ago

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life goes on | bts dad drabbles

➳ life goes on ➳

masterlist

pairings: BTS x OCs (yoongi x sohyun, hoseok x sarang, namjoon x byul, jimin x yuna, taehyung x bora, jungkook x rina, seokjin x mae)

genre: family, fluff, crack, angst

the drabbles are in random order

the drabble series sequel for The Most Beautiful Moment in Life! so what do you want to know? how yoongi proposed to sohyun? when bora told taehyung that she was pregnant? jungkook and rina’s baby girl? let me know!

Life Goes On is all about what happened after The Most Beautiful Moment in Life series. so you can ask to see anything you want (you can even pick out things from the tmbmil epilogue if you want!)

just send me a friendly ask~

(just no smut lol)

a/n: i already got a few requests from those on twitter! i’ll be working on some of them hehe i love you all <3

i’ll be working on little drabbles for this series while i prepare for our next series! more hints on that on my twitter btw, so some of you already know about it hehehe

disclaimer: no YN in this series! just OCs <3 we all know the girls already anyways, at least for my tmbmil family~

if you don’t know who i’m talking about and are very much confused, read here: the most beautiful moment in life

➳➳➳➳➳➳➳

two lines (sarang and mae)

half you, half me (taehyung x bora)

i’m your jerk (jungkook x rina)

you’ll always be my baby (namjoon and moonji)

three little monsters (jin and family)

wishlist (yoongi and family)

now they’re ready (jungkook x rina)

he’s yours (taehyung x bora)

rollercoaster (jeon family x park family)

tastes like candy (jungkook and lily)

➳➳➳➳➳➳➳

i will be posting randomly and not at a scheduled time! this masterlist will be updated whenever i post a drabble for this series.

#bts-reveries #bts x reader #bts fluff #bts #bts au #bts smau #bts social media au #bts x you #bts dad au #dad bts au #bts drabble #bts drabbles #the most beautiful moment in life #life goes on #bst angst #bts crack #bts family

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thefirsttree · 4 years ago

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A personal update + my next game

OK, time to do this. I’ve been meaning to do a big DAVID WEHLE™ update for a while now and explain why I haven’t released a new game yet, but you know how life gets in the way. Especially when life is a quarantine hellscape, you have three beautiful, amazing, exhausting kids to raise, a spouse’s job you support, a viral YouTube channel that turns your brain to mush, a thousand emails waiting in your inbox since your game is free on the Epic Games Store (with an impressive number of redemptions too! … meaning lots of emails and customer support issues), etc., etc. What also contributes to my lack of updates is because… I just don’t really like posting online. Fascinating correlation, I know!

Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a venting/ranting blog post (well, maybe a bit), because my life is seriously AMAZING and INSANELY BLESSED and LUCKY. I can’t believe how many dreams keep coming true, so much so that I feel I don’t deserve it and I really pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes… but I did want to at least be honest, because I owe that to myself.

Wow, where do I even begin? Well, how about we start with the reason I’m even a full-time indie game dev now: The First Tree. This small hobby project I worked on at night morphed into this gargantuan beast (or fox) that took over my life the past 5 years. Which is great! I’m living the dream! And yet, I really didn’t expect it to do as well as it did. At its core, my game is a slow-paced, sad walking simulator (ahem, I prefer the term “exploration game,” but you know what I mean) that somehow seemed to launch at the right time to the right audience. It resonated deeply with some of you, and for that I’m eternally grateful. I still get emails almost daily how my game changed their lives in some formative way. I’m beyond honored.

However, with that spotlight came criticism and demands from the ever-present, insatiable internet. I would randomly be surfing the gamedev subreddit trying to decompress, and I would see a comment by some rando saying how much I didn’t deserve my success, and how it was all one huge lucky fluke. And I believed them!

And to add to it, some devs considered me an indie marketing “guru”, which I was uncomfortable with. I worked hard to market my game every week, and after my GDC talk, people assumed marketing was my passion; the reason I got up every morning. Just to clarify… NO, I don’t like marketing, and I hate being the center of attention. I don’t like asking people for money and wishlists. But I did what was necessary because I was passionate about telling stories, and I wanted to give my story a fighting chance to be seen on the crowded pages of Steam.

So now, you’re probably wondering “well then David, why did you make fancy YouTube videos showing off your success? Not very modest if you ask me.” This honestly could be a long blog post all on its own, because my experience of putting myself in the spotlight and becoming a “content creator” is… complicated. It was an unusual step for me, especially since I never even showed my face online (as a game developer) until my GDC talk.

First off, I always wanted to teach and start a YouTube channel. I love video editing, especially since I’ve been doing it longer than making games! It’s a huge passion of mine. And teaching people who didn’t know they could make and finish games was a huge motivator (and it’s been so rewarding already). But the second reason is, I was scared. I was self-employed, and I was riding the success of a “huge lucky fluke” that would probably not happen again. I wanted to make sure I could provide for my amazing family, and give them food and health insurance and security in these tumultuous times. I was turning my lifelong passions and hobbies into a business, and it wasn’t as simple of a mental transition as I thought.

So, I went all in on YouTube and the accompanying online course called Game Dev Unlocked. I spent years editing the scripts and videos, and polishing them to a shine. At first, no one watched my videos, no one was buying… and in the blink of an eye, the YouTube algorithm picked up my main autobiographical video (“How Making Indie Games Changed My Life”), and I started getting 5,000 subscribers a day. Right now, I’m at 150,000 subs, which is still hard for me to believe. I always had a dream of earning 100k subs on YouTube, so I was pretty happy with the whole thing. Sales were OK, but mostly people didn’t want to buy the course. Then the emails came in…

Something you should know about me: I am a textbook “people pleaser,” and if someone asks for my help, I take it very seriously. If someone is mad at me, even if I didn’t do anything wrong, it’s all I can think about, and it ruins my day. So, taking an onslaught of people begging for help and multiplying that by an impossible amount of people for my brain to truly comprehend thanks to the internet… and let’s just say it wasn’t a healthy mix.

I received thousands of emails from people who were begging me for some kind of reassurance that everything would be OK. That their dreams would come true too. And I wanted to help every single one of them. I went from a nobody working on a game for fun to becoming a spokesperson for the indie game dream. I couldn’t even get a shake from the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru without someone recognizing me and asking for game dev advice. And it didn’t stop there… I would get emails from suicidal kids asking for help, teenagers from Afghanistan asking me to get them out of their country, and on one occasion I received an email from a hopeful game developer in a war-torn country who had just experienced a bomb blowing up their neighboring village. His friends were dead, and he was hoping he could finish a game before he died too, and he needed my help. How do you say no to something like that? Didn’t I owe it to everyone because I was lucky with my hit game and I needed to “pay it forward”? (Something people constantly reminded me of)

And then to top it off, after you’ve given everything you’ve got to other people in need… you get hate mail in your inbox. You spend the whole day serving your children and strangers on the internet, then when the kids are finally asleep, you hit the bed to relax and take a look at your phone to decompress, and you randomly come across an angry gamer in your Twitter mentions telling you your game they got for free sucks, and that you took away a potentially great game from them and that your apology isn’t good enough.

Long story short, I went to a mental therapist for the first time in my life. I was broken trying to care for two toddlers and a new baby in a pandemic (which is very, very hard), taking care of my course students who gave me their hard-earned money and demanded results, and the countless people begging for help on the internet. I was this introverted, internet-lurker trying to take on the weight of the world. I was so tired and hurt that no one cared about me and my needs… only what I could do for them.

Quitting my day job and making this hobby my full-time job has stirred up… mixed emotions. This statement may disturb some of you, but I was definitely 100% happier when I had a full-time job and I was working on my game at night. I missed working with the amazing team at The VOID, working on Star Wars… back when the success of my game was this abstract thing I could only daydream about. Mostly, I was making my game for me with no outside expectations to pay the bills or satisfy the ever-demanding internet, and that brought me a lot of joy.

It’s not all doom and gloom though! I’m actually very happy now and in the best shape I’ve been since the pandemic started. I’ve had to confront my weaknesses and personality quirks, but I’m a better person for it (and I’m sure these issues would’ve come out eventually). I hired an awesome community manager for Game Dev Unlocked who is helping SO MUCH with the emails, I can’t even tell you the mental burden it alleviates. I even leased a co-working office to help separate work from my home, and that’s been a huge help too. I’ve decided to work with my old friends from The VOID on a cool, new VR experience. It will take me away from my projects a bit, but I’m ecstatic to work with a great team again (and not manage anything, whew).

These are all things I would’ve never guessed I needed, because I thought I knew myself pretty well… turns out I didn’t.

The reality is: running a business is HARD. Running it solo is even harder. You have to remember, I was burnt out on The First Tree well into the Steam release in 2017, but I kept working on it for 4 more years due to my fears of failing again and not earning enough money for my family.

So, I was wrestling with the age-old concept of commercialism and art. There was this dichotomy of doing whatever I wanted and being true to my vision (what most people assume the indie dev dream is like), and doing only what customers wanted to buy. This is something that has killed me with YouTube… in one specific instance, I was super excited to make the exact video I wanted to make. I loved every part of its creation, and I thought it had a message that would inspire everyone. I lovingly edited it over several weeks, posted it, and excitedly waited for the stats… and it was by far my worst performing video.

This is not a new problem. Even the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo was a commission forced upon him by the very violent Pope Julius II. My wife and I regularly talk about the fine balance between artistic integrity and commercialism, a problem she is very familiar with as an artist who constantly needs to balance what she wants to make with what the customer wants to hang up in their home.

For The First Tree, I was lucky. It was pretty much what I wanted to make (I had to compromise a lot of things of course), and it turned out millions of people wanted it too. Recently, I thought the safe business decision would be to do it all over again, so I started work on a spiritual successor to The First Tree (an idea that I may revisit one day since I do love the story idea). But that isn’t happening anytime soon. Trust me when I say I am now currently burnt out on animal exploration games.

So that realization left me with a question: what do I do next?

I’ve decided I need to make a game that I want to make, for me. It will be a bit different and I’m almost certain most fans of The First Tree will not love it… but it’s an idea that gets me super excited. It’s an idea that could help me fall in love with game development again.

A few more details: this game will be story-driven, first-person, and will use the Unreal Engine. That means development is gonna be slow going, because I have to learn a whole new tool. The “smart business” decision would be to make something quickly in Unity which I’m already familiar with… but I want to do this for me, and UE5 looks like a lot of fun. I’m also shooting for an early-ish release date so I avoid burn out and I keep the game short: I want to release it in Fall 2022, but knowing game development, it will probably take longer.

With the help of my therapist, I’ve also concluded that I’ve been too accessible on the internet and that my self-worth isn’t determined by the amount of people I try to help online. Of course, I love helping people and seeing them succeed, but I need to step back and focus on my family and myself. I will delete my social media apps on my phone (I will still post big updates occasionally) and stop responding to most emails, tweets, DMs, etc. It’s not that I’m ungrateful… in fact, if I don’t say thank you or at least acknowledge the incredibly nice people who share a sweet message about my game or want to tell me how I inspire them (still hard for me to believe, lol), I feel a ton of guilt… but I need to let that go. Please know I’m extremely grateful to all the fans who follow my work, so even if I don’t thank you directly, I truly mean it: thank you.

I will still post and stream occasionally on YouTube when I want to (and I still do live Q&A’s for my GDU students). The online course sales will help support my family as I work on a potentially risky game idea (and my new job will help alleviate the risk too). I’m gonna try one more marketing experiment and sell a mini-course soon (and add an Unreal section), and after that I’m done working on it. A gigantic thank you to the people who bought my course and are part of the amazing community, it has helped me and my family tremendously, and it’s inspiring seeing the games you make!

I’m a bit worried about the whole thing since this new game idea could flop, which could definitely affect my family. But a sappy, high-school yearbook quote is coming to mind… I think it applies here: “A ship in harbor is safe—but that is not what ships are built for.”

Thanks for reading,

David

#gamedev #indie games #the first tree

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plottwiststudios · 4 years ago

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What To Expect For Women of Xal’s Early Access

Add Women of Xal to Your Steam Wishlist Here!

Greetings, lovely fans and future fans! If you’ve been anywhere near certain obscure grapevines, you might have heard about a tiny, humble visual novel that could. One called “Women of Xal”, and one that’s to be submitted to Steam this week if beta testers don’t find a catastrophic amount of bugs. But the features for the full game that everyone’s excited about may not be the same as the Early Access version. So I’m here to tell you what will be there for Early Access, what will be there for the official final release, and features we might remove.

What’s in the Early Access Build

One of the animated title screens

Some animations

Some of the soundtrack (30+ minutes worth)

99% of the art (Sprites, CGs, Backgrounds, ect)

11/16 Character Routes playable

Hundreds of choices

Dozens of choices brought about by the previous choices!

One Ending (Neutral Ending)

What’s To Be Added in the Final Release

All the animated title screens

All 120+ minutes of original music

New, updated art, UI, and effects

Dozens more choices brought by previous choices!

Several additional, necessary scenes

The other two endings

All 16 Routes completed

Bugs from the beta and Early Access crushed

What We Might Have to Omit Altogether

Animated Cutscenes

Additional polish for animated cutscenes

Voice Acting

A fourth ending

A 240+ minute soundtrack

Unnecessary scenes that would be REALLY helpful to have!

I feel I owe everyone an explanation for the last set of features we may have to remove. Yes, in both the beta and Early Access builds, there’s voice acting and animation. They’re already paid for and they legally belong to the studio. Nothing dubious there. But in order for it to feel narratively cohesive, I need to commission additional scenes and voice work, otherwise it just feels too randomly placed for me. And for that, I apologize to both staff and fans. And though the obvious solution is to simply commission the required assets, there’s a bit of a problem I’ve been reluctant to admit, but, transparency has all but killed all forms of controversy that could have befallen our production, so...:

That up there is my bank account as of 7:42am I believe it’ll fall to $-700 after today. Long, agonizing story short? I was so stressed that I let a moving company scam me out of an unexpected $1500, which forced me to spend both that, and an additional $600 for the hotel. From there, literally half a dozen of my business deals and investment opportunities fell through the cracks of Hell and never came back. Additionally, I’m still waiting on $5000 that has yet to hit my bank account due to a heckup from FedEx restarting the process all over again. Lastly, Wells Fargo keeps charging overdraft fees instead of declining payments, and they didn't care that I told them not returning the full amount would just start the overdraft fees all over again. I know every time I mention something about my health and/or situation, someone always asks me where my Ko-fi profile is. I’ve attached it, but really. Eventually - eventually I will financially and emotionally heal. Don’t even come close to feeling pressured into helping me monetarily. I will struggle, and fight. The ONLY reason I’m even showing my hand during such a vulnerable, stressful time is because I owe it to everywhere here to know what is going on in this production, why I failed to deliver a feature or few, and how legitimately I am trying to overcome and deliver more than what was promised. Thanks for reading and reblogging, everyone. <3

Love,

John

Ko-fi Link

#Women of Xal #WoX #Xuna #Visual Novel #Steam #Struggle and fight has been an oddly encouraging mantra for me since this all began;;

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saltminerising · 4 years ago

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Does anyone have advice for making friends on FR? Admittedly I've never had many, and I'm looking to actually reach out for a change, but I don't know how to even go about it.

I do!!!

1. Find people with similar interests to you. There are plenty of in-flight familiar trades and other threads. I love familiars, and I have a couple friends I trade rarer familiars with for awakening. You can also ask to help with your flight’s dominance, join a cauldron association, basically if you find a group of people providing a service sometimes they’re looking for more people to join :)

2. Compliment people on their lair or specific dragons! Just a really quick compliment like “wow that outfit on Asher looks so nice!!!” can spark a conversation.

3. Gift bombing! I’ve had some really sweet interactions by finding random people (with active lairs) and DMing them a gift bomb. Sending a sentence like “randomly saw you in the forums and liked your lair a lot, here’s some stuff from your wishlist :D” is cute or you can make a joke… it doesn’t even have to be The Most Expensive Item, most people are happy to receive even one or a few apparel item(s) or Baldwin mats. If the person doesn’t have a wishlist, you can send them some stuff their lair reminds you of! It’s only weird if you make it weird, and you might even get stuff back 😄 (but obviously don’t gift with an expectation of return gifts because that’s often pretty obvious and doesn’t feel good to the recipient)

4. Discord is a good method for some people but challenging for others. I often struggle with larger discords for example, so I’m in a smaller one, but I’m also in my flight discord to stay updated on group stuff. Try to keep in mind that there are tons of other people just like you, nervous and wanting friends but not knowing where to start. Being nice on discord is a great way to show people that you’re fun to have around! You can try different ones too and see which you vibe with best. There’s lots of FR discords to check out!

5. My final recommendation is to not have expectations that every interaction will turn into a friendship. If you have really high expectations, it’s really easy to get let down. Some people aren’t looking for friends, or don’t like messaging, or whatever the roadblock is, and there’s nothing wrong with that—and nothing wrong with you. You’ll find a place, even if you have to make it yourself. Waiting for stuff to happen almost never works, which is why I’m glad you’re looking for a more active approach. I hope this helps :)

Best of luck anon 💕

#long post #salt asks

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