#using a lot of the main theme songs for games as inspiration and other such things

[escapewiththestars]

i don't see any info doc or anything. so i was just wondering. how old is your Sonic? Is there any difference between the canon storyline? stuff like that. no hate, just wondering!!

ooc; no worries at all, ever since i came back from hiatus i've been floating so much that i haven't really done upkeep or solidifed what i'm even doing. there is an about page but that was made back when google docs for tumblr rp weren't a thing so i have yet to actually make a google doc in my return

to make a long story... less long, star started pretty tightly bound to game canon, but after i stopped RPing on tumblr a few years ago i started playing around with him more on my own and loosening him up. he's still pretty close to game canon and IDW canon as that's just what i prefer, but there are some differences in his timeline that i made. that broad strokes however are generally the same- the major differences are that generations and sonic 06 have a different middle, with similar beginnings and ends. i also gave star electrokinesis for fun rather than his usual aerokinesis. and of course i have plenty of hc's from before and between games.

as for star's age, tldr: he's 18 as of sonic frontiers. as for nledr (not long enough did read): while this sometimes changes as i need to make room for different things or change my mind... breathes in

sonic is 8 in sonic the hedgehog 1

9 in sth 2 and segasonic

10 in sonic cd and sth 3

11 in sa1

12 in sa2 and heroes

13 in rush, riders, sonic 06, and unleashed

14 in generations and colors

15 in sonic lost world, free riders, and the beginning of sonic forces

16 at the end of sonic forces (he had his birthday in space jail <3) and the battle for angel island idw arc

17 for the metal virus, the zeti attack on the restoration base, and surge vs sonic

since we dont know when frontiers takes place in idw (yet, i think?), eventually idw will "catch up" to his current age, but he's effectively 18 since sonic frontiers is one of his coming of age beats. thanks for asking i love to ramble

[worldismyne]

Iceberg Bing for layer 3 and 4.

My memory is really bad, so some of these might have already appeared in earlier layers.

AMVs - Either specific songs that were popular to use in the fandom, or any fanmade content from during the manga's run that was popular

Soul and Maka Split up - Apparently this interpretation of Maka and Soul's final discussion in the manga is a hot take. There was a lot going on in the final chapter, but here are the phrases from the manga that gave me that impression.

Will cross this box off for any analysis from that final chapter tho.

Thompson Twins - Can't remember if this specific reference was pointed out, but stands in for any pop culture references brought to light.

The Dress - This is a newer development, but at some point this dress got listed on Devil Inspired and advertised heavily on instagram.

A bunch of Chrona cosplayers independently saw it and adopted it. (There were at least 3 or 4 at the first con I went to after it was listed). It's so prolific I've seen it in fanart of Chrona now.

Mary Shelly Theory - Saw someone in the tag a while back theorize Marie might be an allusion to Mary Shelly. It would add a layer to the electricity power outside of the Mjolnir reference.

New Art - Any mention of the 20th anniversary drops. (It didn't fit well in the square)

Purple/Pink Gate - Another one I can't remember if it's already been covered. Despite most fan artists color picking a dusty rose for Crona's hair, lavender wigs are still more common for cosplayers. I am a pink wig truther.

Shinobi - Okay, this is a PS2 game that predates the manga by two years. The main mechanic is a katana that sucks the lifeforce/soul of the user unless it's constantly fed other souls. I am fairly sure this is the inspiration of the uncanny sword. Even the cover art gives post time skip vibes.

If not, both pieces of media have to be referencing the same thing.

Zagreus + Dionysus : Death the Kid's role in SE has similarities with the god of the rebirth. Particularly the part of the legends where he's dismembered and eaten. There is some confusion in greek mythology if these are just different names for the same god or just two gods whose roles overlap, thus why I put both names.

Ragnarok - Particularly how he stops being a character after Salvage. Will also check off for mention of the war of the gods.

Merch - There's a lot of merch out there. Apparently they made a speaker inspired by bonus art. I'm sure there's a bunch of official stuff I haven't seen before.

Official Cosplay - There's a few talking points here that come to mind. Like how Soul is the only weapon with an official cosplay prop. Any Spirit, Ragnarok or Tsubaki props you see were made by the cosplayer. Death the Kid rings get sold one at a time, even if they're advertised as a set.

Translations goofs - There's little things like Afreet and Kishen being used interchangeably in the sub. The Witch hunter evolutions have a few different names. I'm sure there's other translation stuff that I don't know about that might pop up.

Demi-god Black Star - Another umbrella square. Black Star's arc towards the end seems to be referencing something specific. Idk what it is, but Marie goes out of her way to put him and Death the Kid on the same level and snubs Maka at the end of the manga.

The Dread Queen - Comparing Chrona to Persephone is really common in the Kirona crowd. After listening to some deeper dives on the topic there's actually precedence for them to be an allusion ancient underworld goddess that predates Persephone and Hades, but not the abduction myth. They're never referred by name only by titles. Crona's name being literally Dark One in Japanese fits with this theme, as well as usually being referred to as the Demon Sword rather than by their given name. This could be more coincidence than anything else though.

Unlocalized content - The iceberg has already covered the games, but there might be audio dramas or other in-character content that didn't make it's way over when SE was popular in the US.

[agirlandherquill]

alrighty, so being tagged by @katwritesshit means i'm up for a very interesting tag game so here goes

rules: answer as many (or as few) of the questions about your WIP as you can

What was the first part of your WIP that you created? - might be my favourite question of the lot but for me at least, it's pretty simple, i start with an idea - a theme of sorts I suppose, and I wanted to write about a heist, I wanted treachery, danger, and crime (lots and lots of crime), and from there I spun the rest of my story

If your story was a TV show, what would the intro song be? - consulting my many, many Spotify playlists has made answering this one very difficult (shoutout once again to @katwritesshit for The World Ender because I love that song) but I'm going to have to say Dinner and Diatribes by Hozier or As It was, also by Hozier, most likely because I've spent a great majority of this story listening to Hozier along the way, since Wasteland Baby is one of my favourite albums and it fits so so well

Who are your favourite character(s) and why? - I feel as though I'm committing to a betrayal here by not saying the character who is supposed to be the main protagonist but I'm going to go for Fenley, purely because his cynical, overall dark demeanour has been the most entertaining to write (and his POV contains some of my favourite scenes of the novel)

What other pieces of media could share a fan base with your WIP? - now this one is FUN. especially since I draw inspiration from so so many things, Throne of Glass, The Cruel Prince, The Mummy (one of my all time favourite movies), Now You See Me, The Witcher - just to name a few, I'm not even going to mention the inspiration for the combat scenes because action movies are just (insert chef's kiss)

What has been your biggest struggle while writing your WIP? - truth be told, finding the time to write, as this labour of love has taken me a solid four (ish, I think) years to write, a lot has happened, I've grown with my novel which is to me at least, a very heartwarming thing

Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them! - sadly there aren't any major animal characters in my story, my characters use horses for transport most of the time but that's about it

How do your characters get around? - well, when they aren't on horseback they're either walking or sprinting for their lives

What part of your WIP are you working on right now? - edits, dreaded, dreaded edits - just kidding I'm loving getting to dive into the earlier parts of my novel and change bits as I go, I'm falling in love with the story all over again and I'm only editing Chapter 7/40(something, the current number escapes my mind)

What aspects of your WIP do you think will draw people in? - hopefully the sheer and utter chaos of unlikely thieves trying to do an impossible thing, the characters are my favourite sort to read about, and the tropes (not giving too much away I do enjoy a good mystery :) )

and that's about it, this was super fun so thanks for the tag!

and passing the metaphorical torch on, I'm going to tag: @the-ellia-west @somethingclevermahogony @unlikelycreationwasteland @leotheponderer @alwri-tes and of course anyone else that would like to give it a go! (being new at tag games appears to be my fatal flaw since i have very little clue who to tag, but here you go!)

(and as usual in my rambly responses, very, very little read through, but in my defence this is a late night post so I feel as though the grammar-police might cut me some slack :) )

[conflictofthemind]

Not saying this means anything especially since TBSOAS (the book) only came out in 2020, more of a “hey this is weird” post but:

I’ve always thought these two looked / were similar as two wavy blond haired blue eyed men, and it definitely helps that they both premiered (in the case of film Corio) within one year of each other . But there’s like, more than that? And some of it is very strange?

First off, they are two characters who since the start of their chronological stories teeter between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ with a lot of forces in their life, including their evil scientist mentor, pushing them towards the dark side by use of manipulation tactics. Henry is much more of a direct victim to this than Corio is though, and the latter also does have more good influences in his life.

“Fueled with the terror of becoming Prey, see how quickly we become Predator?” - Dr. Gaul

“I could restore balance to a broken world… a predator, but for good” - Henry Creel / 001

Also, can I mention how both TBOSAS and TFS are set in the same exact time period? The Hunger Games uses retro futurism since the entire story is set centuries from now, but the era is clearly inspired by the late 50s to early 60s, especially given that it takes place 60 years before the main series.

Now here’s the actual weird part that had me making this post.

Both of their origin stories center on a romance with a female co-lead that ends with them killing her (heavy question mark). That’s not the weird part. It’s the way that the plots of both of these origin stories and said female characters are based off of old European folk-songs that were popular in Appalachia. TFS is based off of ‘The Tale of Barbara Allen’ and TBOSAS is based off of ‘The Ballad of Lucy Gray’ - Stranger Things just bothered to change her name to Patty Newby. Barbara Allen (Patty) appears as a covey sister of Lucy Gray in TBSOAS. Naturally, both of these characters are singers which plays a role in their respective stories.

I just have to say, it’s a very obscure source of inspiration to happen twice like this. There is a little part of me that thinks Kate Trefry and the writing crew on TFS might have been fans of The Hunger Games. But who knows.

Suzanne Collins wrote the TBOSAS prequel to answer the question of ‘nature vs nurture’ and how much choice villains have in becoming their future selves - which is the exact same question that is actively being posed by Stranger Things in regards to Henry.

And then how I got started on this line of thinking again today - the older adult versions of these characters both kidnap the respective sweet boy love interests and hijack them against the main characters. For strategic reasons and, in the case of Peeta, emotionally torturing the main character so she gives up. Will and Peeta are just both so similar as characters; soft and sensitive, traumatized, painters, both the poor underdogs with (seemingly) unrequited love for the protagonist though Mike isn’t really the protagonist.

I’m not sure if there’s actual inspiration being taken here. I typically assume not on the basis that I’m someone who can find connections between any pieces of media I enjoy. But the whole Appalachian folktale angle of it all is strange to me.

While I don’t think Henry was conceived with this in mind, it’s possible the inspiration sprang up during the further fleshing out of his backstory and into writing The First Shadow. Maybe it will even have an impact on the final season.

One of the things I liked about TBOSAS was the theme of the past coming back to haunt Snow in the future through Katniss and the music Lucy Gray created living on through her. If this was in any way inspiration, I’d love to see Vecna haunted by how similar Will is to him and especially the ways that he is different and able to do better.

[cipheralreviews]

Game Review: Tetris Effect: Connected

General opinion: Positive.

Tetris Effect: Connected is, obviously, a tetris game, with a modern graphical twist. It has classic and VR modes, both of which have their own pros and cons, but are also both worth checking out if you have the ability to. With several different modes, Tetris Effect: Connected offers a lot of different styles of gameplay for varying skill levels.

Starting off, I want to give the game devs credit where credit is due: this game absolutely slaps for it's visuals. A tetris game in the Unreal engine is certainly a choice to make, and they pulled it off really well. Sparkly particles, glowing animations, and surreal visual effects bring a magical experience to a classic arcade game, no matter if you play it in VR or on your screen.

It has both a main campaign where you play through different levels in a story-like sequence, as well as other, more casual AND more intense gameplay options. Marathon modes through themed levels, gimmick modes where you clear "corrupted" blocks or deal with mind boggling effects, and calm modes where you have no game over are all available to play, giving variety for any kind of player.

On top of this, they have colourblind modes of various kinds for the game stages themselves. You can play with classic colours, custom level patterns, or modes that add patterns and colours that make it easier to distinguish the blocks from each other. There's also multiple difficulty levels, ranging from beginner to hard, so you can adjust how many lines you want to clear per level.

The final point I want to praise is the audio experience. It's amazing. There's unique, original tracks made for the game, and the "title song" (used colloquially because it's not actually the title screen song, but it is the one from the first level in the story mode) is ABSOLUTELY incredible in my opinion. Heavy beats that are influenced by the ways you turn, flip, and drop blocks paired with each level having individual themes to them that inspire and match the music playing make it both engaging as well as good to listen to on its own.

And now the negatives...

One major issue I have with this game is that the story mode does not have options for speed, nor do they have a "no game over" setting. This means people like myself, who have visual processing issues as well as mobility issues, have a harder time clearing levels and unlocking the next theme in line. Some levels have rapid speed ups and slow downs that are a bit jarring, and while I understand the fact they might not be able to give the option to not change the speed, I'd have really liked if they'd given an option to have no deaths. It meant, for me, that I got stuck on several levels that I otherwise would have really enjoyed because they went from speed level 3 to speed level 8 or higher all within one lines difference. Having this option for the story mode would have improved the experience immensely for me, as I'm still stuck on the last level in the easy mode.

The only other thing I'd add as a problem is that if you're photosensitive, it could get painful very fast, especially in VR mode. They do have options to turn down or off particles, change graphics settings, etc. but that doesn't change the fact that there are strobing lights on some levels that you cannot turn off.

The above limits the people I can truly recommend the game to, which is genuinely unfortunate, because I know several people who would LOVE this game, if it had the accessibility features mentioned.

Final notes

Overall, it's a great game that brings a really nice, fresh twist on a game that's a decade older than I am. It really justifies itself as an iteration of tetris, much like Jacob Geller has said.

If you liked this review, please go and check out Jacob Geller's video Tetris Effect And Other Games With Immaculate Vibes! It's the video that introduced me to this game, and he makes some really interesting observations on tetris and marble games, and how they interact with their history.

Additionally, I post these in my free time, but if anyone has movie, game, or series recommendations, please feel free to send them in! I really do love reviewing media, and if I can turn this into an actual job it would be incredible.

[ranmaruswife]

Force Live & Pablo Picasso -

A Lyrical Analysis

In honor of Shining Live's 6th Anniversary, I thought I would post a write-up on one of the game's first theme songs, Force Live.

You may not know this but the opening line to the song, “I do not seek. I find.” is a quote famously attributed to Pablo Picasso, one of the most influential artists in history. It can be found in a 1936 article titled ‘A Trend in English Draughtsmanship’ by Graham Sutherland, another famous abstract artist who took great inspiration from the works of Piccaso.

Now this is particularly interesting because Picasso also often spoke on how an artist must “steal” from other artists, lest their work become stale. He was also famously quoted as saying “Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility.” Which to me speaks volumes about Quartet Night’s rivalrous relationship with each other. They do not allow themselves to be satisfied as they are. They always seek to achieve greater heights. And to do that they find that which they lack in each other.

Going back to Force Live, there is a phrase in the final chorus that ties into this idea - 一つに束ねよう（一つになろう） 足りないエレメント（重ね合って） translating to Let’s tie each other into one (Let’s become one) Our lacking elements (Overlapping)

Speaking on the subject of elements, I actually find it very interesting the specific elements each of them were assigned in this song. Particularly Reiji. It is easy enough to see why Ranmaru would get lines about fire, while Camus gets lines about ice. And Ai even has the kanji for wind in his name. But Reiji was given light as his element. Whereas one would more typically assume earth. This can also lead us back to Picasso, though!

Not only does Piccaso have another famous quote about how an artist can transform a simple yellow spot into the sun, but he also pioneered the concept of painting with light, where one takes a light source in a darkened space and moves it around to draw a picture while taking a long exposure photograph.

Now there are more lines in Force Live that can bring us back to art and to this innovative artist. The most obvious being 歴史（ヒストリー）のキャンバスに描け or “paint on the canvas of history.” To quote Picasso once again, “I don't believe in accidents. There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents.” And Quartet Night often sing about their fated meeting and the importance of the bond they have built with one another. Despite the times they have fought and quarreled and nearly lost their way, they still always come back to each other. Rising from the ashes only stronger and hungrier for success.

AND ON THAT NOTE- the main lyrical motif in Force Live is them speaking of all their elements as being destructive, but coming together to form something new and better than what they can achieve alone. And to finish out my rant, once again in the words of Picasso,

“Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.”

And now my own little personal thing (yume warning)- As you can see I find Picasso to be very inspirational and as a yume I have always used another one of his quotes to explain my relationship to others.

Picasso said, "Everything you can imagine is real." Which is a statement I take to heart. Ranmaru might not exist in the way you or I do, but even as a fictional character, he is so influential and impactful. He is real in the sense that he has an image, a voice, music, story, and in my opinion, a soul. Many know him and love him. He has changed lives. Including mine. And in that sense, he is very, very real. No matter how much I may have to "imagine" him.

And since I always used this quote to put things into perspective for other people before Force Live came out, it meant a lot to me to have him quote the same artist. To feel that Ranmaru was inspired by Picasso as I have been. It feels really nice to have yet another connection to the love of my life through song ♡

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

Ok, let´s see: the incident who happened when Paul was with a girl and John destroyed her dress, who is very confucing; some songs of Paul (well lots of songs) who can be related about this (from the obvious Here Today to The Lovers who Never Were) the interminable descriptions of the beautiful hands of one, the handsome presence of the other, etc...the "if you were a girl" moment ( who i can´t remember when, but was one of my first pieces of suspiction XD) all the pinning (from both of them, but Paul even more...he still dreams with him sometimes)...the weird "fanfiction" where appear amie d´mitril and Paris...

...someone said me in Discord "There are some men who are boyfriends and don't realize it until they break up" after showing an iceberg with some Mclennon theories. Someone who no was even into it.

Im kinda agnostic about all this, but im really amazed about all the theories who exist about this, who the doubts and suspictions are really understable. Is a lot on info!

Are you asking me to rate this for the ask game, because most of these are verifiable things, the question is just what they mean/what led to them, right?

I can give you a personal take on all of them though.

John cutting up the girl Paul was having sex with's clothes: I 100% find this eyebrow-raising and quite possibly an act of jealousy. But I also can't discount that John was likely off his face and maybe his reason for doing that didn't really make sense either. (e.g. maybe he wanted to use the bedroom and thought up a way to get rid of the girl as fast as possible? I don't know, I just don't think there's enough information to be sure of his motivations)

Songs: I generally find it kind of exhausting to argue about song meanings and what they reveal about John and Paul's relationship without anything else to go on. I feel like songs don't have to be about them for them to have had Feelings™ for each other and also songs could be about them and be less literal than some people think. There can be emotions and themes inspired by the other that find their way into a song, without the song literally describing what happened. What I mean by this is I don't think it's at all impossible However Absurd (of which I've read the lyrics, to be clear) is in some sense about John but I wouldn't from that conclude that John and Paul literally made love. And if I'm not drawing these conclusions, it's less important to me whether However Absurd is about John or not, in that sense.

Beautiful hands: I do want to slightly push back against describing Paul's geberal speech pattern with words like "interminable". Tumblr deliberately picks out the most ~mclennon-y~ things from his interviews and shares these quotes over and over. (also thinking of last year when people were claiming most of the Eyes of the Storm book was John, when really those were just the pictures people shared around the most) That's not to say he doesn't bring up John a lot (lol) but I think he probably mentions John's hands specifically less often than some think. The thing is, the main quote people use regarding this, is the one where Paul directly compares John's hands to his son's. Unless you wanna argue Paul is into James, you have to conclude Paul finds hands aesthetically pleasing and interesting without necessarily being attracted to them. And showing John chords and playing guitar "mirrored" actually makes a lot of sense as something that would make Paul notice John's hands.

Handsome presence of the other: your mileage may vary here and it depends on the specific quote. Some I agree, and some are imo them both just being frank about the fact that physical attraction matters to people, even when you aren't personally physically attracted to them.

"If I had been a woman...": single best argument for reciprocated McLennon IMO. I also think it's very possible that Paul is observing the fact that romantic relationships are hierarchically placed above friendships and "the bro code" prevented Paul from doing anything about John's privileging of Yoko over him. But it could definitely Also be Paul saying "I would like to have gotten together with him".

Pining: Honestly, I think they both had a lot of reason to feel Weird about each other in the seventies. There was a lot of bad blood but also a lot bonding them in an almost cosmic way: the shared trauma of losing a mother AND of fame, the weirdness of being both pitted against each other and sold to the public as a package deal... I think they were ripe for the conflicted pining picking. Regarding Paul's behaviour NOW.... I don't know, I don't think it's weird at all that he still sometimes dreams about John. I think he talks about John in part because that's what people want to hear (and tumblr pretends to be surprised every time when they're part of the target audience lol) and also I think.... people sometimes sort of gloss over the fact that Paul literally lost John in a highly traumatic way? Maybe that's gonna make him A Little Weird. (most of this is neither here nor there, regarding their romantic feelings for each other by the way)

Amie in Paris:

I haven't read the story in full but I feel similarly here to how I feel about the songs I think. There might be an argument that John is less prone to fictionalizing than Paul (though... I don't think that applies to his prose, even if autobiographical elements can be found in it) but he's also joking half the time. It doesn't to me feel like an especially fruitful avenue to conclude things about John's life.

All in all, I know what you mean. I do think there's A Lot going on between them, however you parse it.

[delta-orionis]

Tuesday Again No Problem 7/23/24

my thumb hurts (did too much crochet)

(I got a few new followers this week, so let me explain: this is a weekly roundup inspired by @girlfriendsofthegalaxy's post series of the same name. It's basically a summary of what I've been up to this week.)

Listening:

I dipped back into Touhou remixes with the House Set of Subterranean Animism, by Kuroneko Lounge:

This artist has made remixes of the soundtracks of all of the Windows Touhou games (to my knowledge at least), and this album is my favorite. It contains remixes of all of the songs from Touhou 11, Subterranean Animism, which is a personal favorite of mine. This album in particular is the strongest of the Kuroneko Lounge's House Sets, in my opinion.

It starts off VERY strong with a pulsing electronic remix of the main title theme, and keeps the energy up from there. In this video version of the album, there are also random "glitches" in the music which I'm pretty sure the artist placed in there intentionally.

Without getting into the plot of Subterranean Animism too much, one of the important characters has powers related to the manipulation of other peoples' subconscious. This makes her effectively invisible, because you can never perceive her intentionally, and if you do actually meet her, those memories will quickly fade away, like a dream. I believe the audio glitches are meant to represent her presence (and they also kind of snap you out of it if you're no longer paying attention to the music). Some people may find the glitches annoying, but I think they're a nice thematic touch.

I used to REALLY like the Touhou games when I was a teenager. I haven't played any of the games in years, but I occasionally revisit the soundtracks because the music still holds up. I honestly think the music is the strongest facet of the series, especially with such an enormous remix community.

Watching:

I spent a good amount of time this week re-visiting Jenny Nicholson videos while I crocheted (more on that later). Her Evermore video is one I return to periodically:

The story of this park is such a fascinating train wreck, especially in the wake of the news that the park is shutting down (for REAL this time. apparently).

Playing:

Fallow week. I've been extremely busy with work, errands, appointments, chores, artfight, etc etc. I keep taking my Switch with me to work with the intention of playing on my lunch break, but I always end up doing something else (usually drafting answers for my ask blog, more on that in the Making section).

Making:

A lot of things. I've been crocheting in my downtime to relax, but I might have flown a little too close to the sun in that department- I ended up hurting my thumb. I think it's because of the crochet hooks I was using; I'm looking into getting some ergonomic hooks, but unfortunately I think I just need to take an extended break from crochet for now while my thumb heals. One silver lining is the fact that I hurt the thumb on my non-dominant hand, so it hasn't affected my ability to draw at all. On the topic of drawing:

I updated my ask blog! I've fallen into a rhythm of posting approximately once a week, which was unintentional, but seems to work well for engagement.

I've got 5 answers in my drafts, all in various states of completion, with 12 more in my inbox. I'd like to answer them all eventually, but I still need to draw things for some, and come up with answers for others. Some of my answers are also quite lengthy, and I need to proofread those. I'm not at a point where I need to close the askbox, but if questions continue to come in faster than I can answer them, I might need to do it, haha. I'm having a lot of fun answering them, though.

In other news: ARTFIGHT. I'm working on an attack right now that I got a little carried away with, hopefully I should be done with it by tomorrow?? I hope??

Also. I recieved SIX attacks in quick succession this week?? Hello??? I'm incredibly honored, especially since this is my first artfight and I wasn't expecting to be attacked by this many people. I really want to revenge everyone who attacked me, but considering the speed at which I draw, I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it before the event ends. I'll try my best, even if it means some revenges will get posted after the event concludes. I don't care about points anyway, lol.

---

July continues to be an extremely busy month for me. Even so, work has been going well, and I'm getting a lot of creative things done, so I feel fulfilled in that regard. I'll check in again next week.

[wjbs-mods]

I've been ranking all my Doom projects by how hard they'll be to make.

I have A Thing about talking about planned projects (mostly because some stuff might be hard to deliver on) but I guess I'll summarise each concept below. Warning that I use the term "Metroidvania" like four times, so if you're someone who doesn't like that for some reason, be warned. And a lot of them are "inspired by" other things.

WJB's Custom Difficulties - a bunch of silly gimmick difficulties.

Mixtape - mapset where every level has a hidden cassette tape that, if found by the player, allows them to access a "B-side" version with a different aesthetic, a reversed layout (starting at the exit and ending at the entrance), and has a slightly altered layout.

Shuffled! - mapset where every map is based on a random song from my Spotify likes.

Endings and Possibilities - mapset inspired by the "Star Trip" mode from the 2005 Nintendo DS puzzle-game Meteos; every map has an easy and hard route, and depending on which one the player takes in each, there is a different ending.

Reversenal - every hitscan weapon is projectile-based, and the fist and chainsaw swap attack-styles.

Demonic Arsenal - replaces the entire Doom arsenal with custom, biomechanical-looking weapons based on demon attacks (e.g the rocket launcher fires Revenant missiles, the Plasma Rifle shoots a three-round burst of Arachnotron plasma, the BFG is based on the Archvile's flame attack).

Hell Frozen Over - monster and texture replacer that makes the demons and hell-textures ice-themed, with the former even having unique attacks; the Wolfenstein stuff is also changed to be Halloween themed, with the enemies all having pumpkins for heads (referencing the Game Dungeon episode on Wolfenstein 2009) and the wall textures being spookier.

Doom Throwback - a monster-replacer that essentially demakes every monster from the modern-era Doom games in the style of the '90s ones, complete with new designs that look closer to the original games' sprites.

MOOO: Absurd Warfare - extremely silly weapon-mod about a cartoony semi-anthropomorphic cow that uses things like throwing-CDs, walking missiles, and a tooth-firing sawfish as weapons.

TF2-Inspired Class Mod - class-mod inspired by the Team Fortress games, primarily TF2, with each class having a loadout of four weapons (primary, secondary, melee and super) that start with different amounts of ammunition, plus a bonus inventory item that has unlimited uses but needs to recharge after use; features 9 "main" classes that are heavily based on the Mercs (Scout, Security, Pyro, Demolitionist, Heavy, Engineer, Scientist, Tracker and Agent), as well as 9 "bonus" classes that are either original (Demonologist, Brawler, Gambler, Pilot), references to the Doom franchise (Combat Frame, Sentinel, Marine), or based on/inspired by other media (Ranger, Specimen).

Hard Reset-inspired mod - weapon-mod inspired by the game Hard Reset; rather than the player picking up weapons as they progress, they start with two weapons (a hitscan SMG and a projectile-based plasma gun) and can use points to unlock alternate firemodes that function as extra weapons.

Plastic Beach: the Unofficial Mapset - a 16-map mapset based on Plastic Beach by Gorillaz, with each track inspiring a map.

Spirit Phone: the Unofficial Mapset - a 26-map (13 main and 13 secret) mapset based on Spirit Phone by Lemon Demon, with each track inspiring a map (with As Your Father I Expressly Forbid It and I Earn My Life being one map that's split into two sections with an autosave and music-change script in the middle).

B-Movie Mod - total-conversion mod inspired by '50s sci-fi B-movies, complete with ROTT-style actor-photo sprites, cheesy FMV cutscenes, and props that are clearly random junk stuck together.

Doom: The Inferno - 9-map mapset with custom enemies, based on the ordering (but not actual theming) of the layers of Hell in the Inferno; each layer has a unique variant of an existing Doom monster (e.g gluttony Cacodemons that bite the player).

Dual-World Mapset - every map has a "dark world" version with different textures and alternate versions of every monster (including barrels!) with different attacks and stats; the player has to go to the dark world to find switches that do things in the normal world.

Halls of Jupiter - pastiche of "DOS Trash" like Corridor 7 or Island Peril, but like actually good.

UAC Microbot Co-Operation Testing Initiative - a brand new crossover with Pikmin and Doom Pikmin-style "command a swarm of creatures" thing with a Portal-inspired aesthetic and sense of humour; the player is a UAC-built robot that commands an army of smaller microbots to fight (comparatively) giant demons and solve puzzles.

Griefbreaker - Deltarune-inspired episodic TC about entering peoples' minds to fight antagonists based on the stages of grief.

Hellshock - "Shocklike" set in the Doom universe, specifically on a UAC space-station that's been pulled into Hell.

Six Chambers of Chaos - a repurposing of an old game idea I had; a first-person shooter where every weapon, including melee, is a six-chamber revolver with each shot having a random effect (the melee doesn't use ammunition but still does this).

The Enceladus Incident - really complex story-driven mod about an agent being sent to a UAC colony on Saturn's moon of Enceladus to steal a superweapon, but ending up stranded there when the demons invade.

UAC: Project N.E.O.N - basically Hotline Miami but it's set in the Doom universe and first-person rather than top-down.

Atomwalker - atompunk mech-game set in an alternate 1950s England; it takes some inspiration from Shogo: Mobile Armoured Division (being an FPS where you play as a mech and mostly fight other mechs) and Brigador (there are human enemies that mostly exist to be a minor annoyance, as well as passive human NPCs that the player can optionally - and most likely accidentally - kill).

Brutalist SOMA - combat-free horror/puzzle mod heavily inspired by the atmosphere of SOMA, but set in a brutalist research facility in the jungle.

Doom-Life - Doom remade with the narrative, gameplay and structural style of the first Half-Life; it also includes things like friendly NPCs, overhauls of the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind to make them function more interestingly (the former can only be killed by explosives or certain setpieces like the Gargantua, while the latter has a proper boss-fight that includes several phases and a chase through the streets of Dis), and a few new weapons and enemies.

Federation of Fear - this.

ICHOR - Blood spiritual-successor, but it's set in the 1960s rather than the 1920s, and rather than Victorian-era gothic horror it's based on sci-fi horror (specifically alien-based examples like Alien, The Thing, and Attack The Block).

Mechaniacal - fast-paced atmospheric mod about a treasure-hunter entering a vast, ancient industrial megastructure filled with killer robots.

Bionicle: Legend of the Toa Khera - Bionicle Heroes DS spiritual successor featuring a secondary-element Toa team.

Untitled Princess Mod - first-person platformer with a Mega Man-style nonlinear progression system, mild (and optional) Metroidvania elements, and a Mario-inspired aesthetic and artstyle.

Doom From the Deep - another "shocklike", this time set in an underwater UAC biological research facility; the player has Bioshock-style body-horror superpowers that can be activated with alt-fire.

Starminer - another retool of an old game concept; a Metroidvania about space-mining, where you go to various planets with themes ranging from normal things like "magma", "ice", and "ocean", to more outlandish stuff like "food", "toys", and "digital", unlocking new mining tools and finding rare minerals and valuable treasure.

Voidlunch - wacky first-person adventure-game about an alien trying to make lunch.

Dieselpunk Bloodborne - first-person Soulsborne with a dieselpunk aesthetic and also it's like really Bloodborne-inspired, but with giant body-horror cyborgs instead of werewolves and evil AIs instead of cosmic horrors.

Surreal Strifelike/Metroidvania - Strife-style open-world RPG but it has Metroidvania elements and a surreal aesthetic somewhat inspired by the Zeno Clash series.

[thewritingautisticat]

WIP Questionnaire

Thank you @tildeathiwillwrite for the tag! (From 2 weeks ago lol but anyways)

I'm answering these for The Flames of Revolution!

1. What’s the first part of your WIP that you created?

Technically this is the prequel to my Days of Resistance series, so I came up with a lot of the world and character stuff before I started this book specifically. Most of the first stuff I created was just bits and pieces of Caldren's backstory, mainly about him being an assassin, and a lot of the moments with him and Peg.

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

"Things We Lost in the Fire" by Bastille is one of the songs I really associate with this book in particular. Fire is a huge element to Caldren's character arc. Almost all the big turning points in his life involve flames, hence the name of the book. Both the lyrics and the vibe fit really well.

But if I was looking for a song for the series as a whole, I really like "War of Change" by Thousand Foot Crutch. It fits with both the outer conflict with the government and with the internal conflict of some of the characters.

3. What are your favorite characters that you made? Why?

Peg. I love Caldren to death, but Peg is my favorite little guy in all the world. He's so sweet and perfect and pure. I put him through so much trauma, but despite it all he just keeps going and holding onto his kind, sweet nature.

Caldren is so great too though. He's so, so stupid sometimes, but his character arc is great. He's also such an interesting mess of contradictions, and despite everything he's a great big bro.

Madreline is so hard-working and supportive. She takes no nonsense, but is still very sweet and compassionate. I really wish I could write her in more tbh.

I'm going to put in Scatterwag as an honorable mention because he's probably my favorite side character. He has some of the same vibes as Fagin from Oliver Twist or Long John Silver in Treasure Planet. Like, you know his morals are extremely messed up and he's probably committed absolute atrocities, but there's something so jolly and lovable about him that you can't help liking him.

4. What other pieces of media do you think your fanbase would share?

I'm honestly not sure. It's a really weird genre, hinting at historical fiction but definitely not actually that, but not quite fantasy either? I think that people who like it would also like things like the Hunger Games. It was also inspired a lot by The Wingfeather Saga, so I think that would also be something my fanbase might share.

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your WIP?

Training scenes. Caldren's whole thing is wanting to become stronger/more adept at fighting so he can get his revenge, but I am absolutely horrible at writing training scenes. There's like, at least three and I'm trying to figure out how to write them beyond "and then they taught him how to use a dagger" 😅.

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

I don't really have any specific animals in this book, although there's a pretty nice dog in other books of the series. In this book, Caldren does have a horse, but it's not super important. There's also a few mentions of the street dogs! They're these unwanted, abandoned dogs that wander the back streets of the big cities in packs, and will occasionally attack humans to try to get food. While they are legitimate threats, there's this whole thing about Peg relating to the street dogs because he knows how it feels to be cast out and considered monstrous and unlovable. Andreu tames one later in the series.

7. How do your characters travel/get around?

It's a time period before cars, so the main transportation is wagons, carriages, and horses. Carriages are usually for the wealthy, though. Caldren rides a horse between cities. Within the city, Caldren and Peg travel mainly by foot. They know the back streets and all the shortcuts really well. Caldren also ends up learning how to travel by rooftop.

8. What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

Filling in all the spots I skipped over when I did NaNoWriMo last year. I feel like I'm getting so close to being finished and then I realize there are whole chapters I skipped because I wasn't sure what exactly was going on in it. I guess it's technically still in the first draft but I feel like I've changed things and filled in so many plot holes that it's gotta be at least the third draft 😅

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe?) will you think draw your audience in?

One big thing is the found family with Caldren and Peg.

Besides that:

- Assassins

- Dystopian, but not super disturbing or graphic

- The fact that it's a Christian YA (?) book that not super annoying and cliche. (I hope 😅)

10. What are your hopes for your WIP?

Right now I just want to get the whole draft finished. My long-term hopes are to finish up the rest of the series, because this whole backstory prequel for Caldren isn't as meaningful if you don't have the context of the rest of the series.

Tagging! @late-to-the-fandom @agirlandherquill @themswritinwords @ryns-ramblings um and open tag!

Blank questions!

1. What’s the first part of your WIP that you created? 2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be? 3. What are your favorite characters that you made? Why? 4. What other pieces of media do you think your fanbase would share? 5. What has been your biggest struggle with your WIP? 6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them! 7. How do your characters travel/get around? 8. What part of your WIP are you working on right now? 9. What aspects (tropes, maybe?) will you think draw your audience in? 10. What are your hopes for your WIP?

[gio-dude]

Super Smash Brothers Brawl had the best theme, with Melee being close behind. How can you beat an entire chorus sing AUDI FAMAM? You can't.

Props do need to be given to the SSB64 version for setting up the medly aspect of the games intro/theme that Melee then took and ran with to create an absolutely beautiful tapestry of all things Nintendo, and I would concede that Melee best represents both Nintendo and what the SSB series stands for as a true culmination of all-stars duking it out. I still like Brawls theme better as a song, as Melee requires more context and jumps around in styles a lot but that's to accommodate all they are trying to encapsulate. Brawl's theme stands on its own.

And then there is the WiiU/3DS game and (worst of all) Ultimate.

The WiiU/3DS (SSB4) was epic but generic. I played this one a lot and it got repetitive fast and it felt like it was trying (unsuccessfully) to copy melee without having the same passion and uniqueness behind it. And like, it's still epic and not a bad song, but it is generic and doesn't match up to Brawl. The game itself was alright, but after the beauty and epicness of subspace emissary to have a poorly made version of kirby air ride's city trial was meh at best. The classic face off against characters in themed situations was still fun at least, but that's getting more into the game than the music, I digress.

I do still stand by, SSB4 theme was more generic than SSB2 or 3, and is the start of the trend to even more generic.

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, oh I how I loathe thee.

The intro is so anime sounding (derogatory) (not even the epic anime sounding but genric and fogettable anime sounding), and I know I am biased in that, but here me out. No other theme has had words, other than brawl (the best), but those were Latin chanting as compared to lyric lyrics. And even then, the translation of that Latin was fucking epic and fit the theme of the game well still. Ultimate has annoying lyrics, and is trying to be as epic as possible while actively doing the exact opposite, the words detract from it entirely. Its like they took the last refrain of Brawl translated into english:

"Now my friends are with me

Some of them were once heroes

Some, my mortal enemies

And as we face each other in battle, locked in combat

We shine ever brighter."

And made it less imaginative, more on the nose on than that (if you can believe it), and less epic/inspiring.

And the instrumental continues the trend of SSB4 started of being even more generic, and while SSB4 at least had some gravitas, Ultimate has nothing. What little Ultimate does have over SSB4 is actually having animation compared to only game play scenes, but thhat ain't the music. It's like subjectively worse in every possible way, taking aspects from the others and combining them into a monstrosity. Which reflects the gameplay of world of light as well, it was so bad. Like a bad amalgamation of subspace emissary (my beloved) and the classic mode, but with none of the story (or at least no good or compelling story, which is, you know, the entire point of a story) and way less interesting themed battles. Taking inspiration from the past and tainting it and making it worse.

(This has been in drafts for a while and I've gone into the game play for the later games and how lack luster the solo stuff was, so I'm adding this addendum for melee and brawl.

Melee was at least unique adventures and played off the all-stars it was bringing together, what with the mario landscape and the zelda castle/temple to explore. It was an improvement on SSB64.

And Brawl had Subspace emissary [my beloved] and although the gameplay itself wasn't great [even worse than some of the sequels to it I will concede] nothing and I mean NOTHING has been able to top its story, of which was the main reason to play it. It also introduced all the characters and forced you to use all of them, letting you test them all out and see which ones you like and didn't, and to use them in different situations, which no other one has done to the same extent. Hence why brawls the best [ignoring broken meta knight. {We don't talk about him}])

[cinnamuff]

Creative WIP Project Blanket Box: Awaken

I was initially gonna make this post exclusive to my site's blog, but with me wanting to talk more about my projects and OCs on here, I wanted to post this here too!

This is meant for Pillowfort, but I don't really use Pillowfort much these days, so I'm putting it here and on my blog haha

ANYWAY LET'S GET TO IT! Everything is below the cut, enjoy my ramblings!

This seemed fun! I found this prompt through Kalechip's recent blog post, which you can find here. Here is the link to the original prompt list on Pillowfort.

I've had this WIP story I pretty much codenamed AWAKEN in my head since November, I talked about it a little bit in one of my newsletter posts, but the basic premise is that a robot (?) wakes up in a field with no other mission than to find the source of a voice they hear from a distant tower.

The November newsletter and a sketchbook posts on my site are the only places where AWAKEN is mentioned, in the future I wanna make a lil landing page for it, like how I did for Ad Astra and Endaria!

Let's start!

Think quick! It’s the dreaded elevator pitch icebreaker: explain your WIP project in less than three sentences! Bonus points if it’s the most horrendous way you could’ve possibly described your project.

A robot finds themselves waking up in a field with no other mission than to find the source of the voice they hear coming from a distant tower.

You know, now that I think about it, I'm not sure if Orion is a robot or not? In their earliest concept they were a robot but I'm not sure if they are one now... 🤔

If you had to pick one song or instrumental piece to best represent your project what would it be? If that’s too strict, what genre of music do you think would best fit your project?

This is a tough one! I'm not at the stage where I can imagine what this story would sound like. Hmmm maybe something from Sky?

Introduce us to your main characters. What are their stand-out characteristics?

ORION: Orion is the name of the main character! They're a silent, almost mute, robot who's unsure of their origins. They're skilled with a bow and arrow and they want to know what the voice is that's calling them.

And that's all I have info on for now LOL. I have other characters, but they're not fleshed out to where I wanna talk about them juuuust yet

Introduce us to your setting. Does it have an aesthetic or prominent genre-feel to it? What makes it unique?

Another tough one since I haven't quite figured everything out just yet haha! I imagine the planet the story takes place on, Pheolvian, to be a quiet, peaceful planet, that's settling and recovering after a giant cataclysm.

What genre(s) or theme(s) does your project fall under? Get as specific as you want.

I haven't figured this one out yet either LOL. Something in the fantasy and post apocalyptic genre for sure!

What sparked the idea for your project? What made you decide to begin working on it? Has your project changed since it was first inspired?

AWAKEN I can say was inspired by games like Sky and Journey. As far as the story goes… well I was just writing as it came to me! It started out as a NaNoWriMo project, where I was just writing and writing and I would piece the puzzle together later on.

That was back in November 2023, and as far as changes go, I can say that the idea is becoming more clear in my head. I'm closer to a solid beginning than I was when I started!

How long have you been working on this project? Do you have a guesstimation for how much more work you still have to do for it?

Since November 2023. I don't have a estimate for when I'd like to share it, for now I'm just going with the flow and writing and working on it whenver I feel like it. Also, my mind has been taken up by another project of mine, haha.

There's still a lot of work to be done, but like all of my story projects, this is purely for fun so there's no pressure to complete it!

Do you have an end goal in mind for this project? Is there anything you want to achieve during/with your project? Or are you just enjoying the journey of creating it, unsure where that will take you?

I'm just enjoying the journey with it! Like I said this is all for fun and I just wanna tell a story that appeals to me, haha!

What’s a new skill you’ve learned, or an existing skill you’ve improved while working on this project? Is there anything else you want to learn or improve while working on this project?

I'm hoping to hone out my storytelling and prose skills! While my preferred storytelling medium right now is through comics, or even, deviantART Chat style RP (which is how I write my comic scripts lmao), I do want to iron out my prose.

I used to write a TON of prose as a teen and fell off of it after high school, I'm hoping to get that back haha!

What’s one of your favourite things about your project?

That one's a secret. ;)

--

Hey this was a lot of fun! Tbh I might do these same prompts with other projects of mine!

[29pageshomestuckeveryday]

Homestuck, page 7,959

[S] Terezi: Remem8er.

Song used: Do You Remem8er Me by Malcolm Brown

song commentary:

Malcolm Brown:

(original commentary)

Alas poor Vriska. This scene stood out quite a bit from the Scrapbook Near-end-of-act Scratch-a-thon as being yet more humility to Vriska as a character - first hinted at during John's talk with her around the whole 'lifdoff' time (which is also why most of the song is taken from lifdoff.)

The idea was to create something vaguely romantic and a bit tragic for the whole 'd8' thing. I used lifdoff as a starting point because that's become my sort of unofficial 'John' theme - It's quite light and goofy but reasonably heroic and fantastical. Showtime shows up at around 2:17, shortly followed by a slightly modified lift from Death of the Lusii (as mentioned previously in this topic). After that it slides into an additionally modified version of Ruins/Awakening for reasons that are hopefully obvious and also because I like that tune

The main reason I made this is because Vriska's had a but few moments when she wasn't terrorizing everybody and generally acting the huge bitch. Add to this the whole 'fat vriska' thing, and the very bombastic music she's had thus far… It was nice to give her last bit of humility a soundtrack.

And the reason Vriska's actual theme doesn't show up anywhere is because I find it difficult to work with as it's kinda crazy /excuse.

It took me about half a day to get the tambourines sounding decent and they still don't sound like what I imagined they would…

Also I was trying to channel some of the style from the music of the Little Big Adventure games. The soundtrack for thems' awesome and ya'll should go listen to it!

(tumblr version)

“DYRM” was essentially cre8ed as a sort of 8acking track to the John and Vriska ‘date’ sequence (around about here). The idea was to do a sort of schlocky romantic 8allad that combined elements of Johns goofiness but with the tragedy that hey - Vriska’s dead. Over the course of it, we travel through John and Vriska’s memories, and she’s trying to get him to remem8er something important, so there’s that element too. It’s kinda sad, 8ut in a way it’s also a 8it of a cele8ration of Vriska - She’s surprisingly polarizing with a lot of the fan8ase, as the 8est characters often are… :p

THE NAME

I can’t immedi8ly recall if the phrase “Do You Remem8er Me?” is said by Vriska…….. I think it was, 8ut it’s a faff trying to navigate around that 8it of the comic (I often like na88ing song titles out of the dialogue itself - That’s where At The Price Of O8livion came from and of course Sea Hitler’s Water Apocalypse. If not, well it felt like as good a title as any. :p The ‘8’ helps immediately recognise the subject matter.

THE TRACK

It’s primarily “lifdoff”, which I started using a sort of personal theme of John. Other slight inspirations for this track are “Anthem Part 2” from The Truman Show and a little 8it of the music of Little 8ig Adventure (primarily the use of woodwinds/percussion).

It starts off with a simple lightened lifdoff, which carries it for a while. The percussion at 1:09 was fun to sequence - It’s mostly just a collection of taiko samples from the EWQL play library that are quite fun to work with, particularly some the articulation (The ‘roll’ you hear is one of ‘em). What I think works quite well is the power of the Taikos with the lightness of the woodwinds - Gives it quite an emotional punch.

1:33 is almost directly L8A inspired (The layering of the woodwind melody on 8rass I’m sure I got from there). At this point we’re 8uilding up to play the ‘Death of the Lusii/Awakening’ 8it with a sort of alternate chord progression, but we sneak in a Showtime reference around 2:16.

2:26 is meant to directly correlated to These Two panels and is a reference to this track.

Then it 8uilds up to the main section of Awakening at around 3:30. Given that the main theme is a sort of dreamlike afterlife, it felt appropri8 ::::p

And we end! Uncertain cadences all round!

Overall there’s quite a 8it I like about this one. The Percussion doesn’t vary much, which lets it down I think (It’s 8asically just the same loop for most of the song, something I’m hilariously guilty of in most everything I make :p) but it did the jo8 in giving Vriska a good sendoff.

Oh yeah - The reason it doesn’t use any of Vriska’s theme is because I find that theme a 8it…….. All over the place ::::p Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool 8it of music, 8ut I don’t find it as easy to play a8out with than other tracks. 8lame my laziness!

I also fully suspect I missed some ‘8’s somewhere…….. This stuff’s harder than it looks. God help me if I try to commentary another gorram Terezi track ::::p

[1tarot1with1k1o]

Hi klo! Hope you’re doing great! I’m so excited for thisss haha.

I would like to request a reading with ATEEZ San. And I’m 25.

A song that I would like to share with you is The Pool by Stephen Sanchez that describes your relationship with your fs. (ps: it’s one of my fav song!)

One thing that I would guess about you is you like vanilla ice cream or vanilla in general.

Thank you for this game :)) ☃️💖✨

Hello~

Thank you for joining the game <3 I’m happy to hear that you’re excited! I’m just as excited as you to do your reading!! ^~^

I can’t express how much I love you for the song recommendation!!! Back when you sent the ask, it became the song that I kept on loop for days. It’s so so so beautiful and lovely. So thanks a lot for making me discover it! I can see why you like the song so much <3 Also, you guessed correctly! I do like vanilla ice cream and vanilla flavored foods a lot <333

What San would think of you

CARDS:

the fool, 4 of wands, 9 of wands, 7 of wands

If you were close irl, San would probably see you as someone full of potential who isn’t afraid to have fun and try different things. He may see you as an example for him, and even if you don’t see yourself that way, you would actually give him the courage to not take himself so seriously, and to just go out there to have fun and do things for the sake of doing them. He may be too much of a perfectionist at times. To the point where he forgets that he is also supposed to enjoy what he’s doing. You would serve as a reminder for him to enjoy life instead of constantly torturing himself. You would make him feel as if anything and everything is possible, and he would find that extremely precious. You would provide him with the courage to face the daily challenges he may face. He would see you as a very important ally. You would almost feel like a very sturdy and reliable foundation for him. You’d be someone he can always count on to make him laugh and with whom he can have fun. Your friendship would be the kind where you don’t need to see each other often because even if you don’t see the other for a while, once you meet, it feels like you saw them just the day before. You’d be like family to him, so he would definitely want to celebrate every achievement with you, no matter how small. Especially since he would feel like the support you gave him played a big part in making him achieve those goals in the first place. The main theme of the reading is that you would provide a great source of hope and strength to him. He would be able to rely on you during difficult times and not feel like he’s holding onto a huge burden all by himself. He would be so happy to have someone that understands him and knows him so well, especially when that someone is outside of the industry. He may have met people that only wanted to get close to him because of his reputation, or befriended people in the industry who tried to use him as a connection solely for personal gains. So he may have lost hope to find genuine friends at some point, but you proved that idea to be wrong, so he would be all the more thankful to have met you. He feels like he can always trust you to have his back. I heard that he would rely on you as much as you rely on him as a fan right now. The guides are saying that, because you may think that you would never be able to repay him for the help he gave you by doing what he does, but they want you to know that that’s not true. If you two met, you would give him such a huge amount of comfort and peace of mind. San also hopes that you’ll start looking at yourself in a more positive light. He agreed with your guides haha

BOTTOM OF THE DECK CARD:

death

(I see the bottom of the deck card as a sort of “brief summary/outcome” of the situation I’m channeling about). So yes; Overall, he would see you as someone who’s constantly able to outdo themselves and evolve, and that would inspire him to also do better. But not in a restrictive way at all. More like…he can start to see his own potential thanks to the support you give him. He feels cared for, and cherished, so in return, he would want to cherish you just as much.

ORACLE CARDS MESSAGES:

loyalty, synergy, harmony, exchange, generosity, association,  joy, pleasure, happiness, satisfaction, friendly, understanding, comfort, mutual understanding, fullness, resistance, patience, hard work, loneliness, intuition, instinctive, inspiration, artistic, creation, dreams, movement

I asked what message he would want to send you right now, and these are the messages on the oracle cards that he chose to describe how he feels about you being his fan/supporter. I think it’s quite fitting with the overall channeling that I did, so I don’t feel like I should add many more explanations. Like I mentioned already, he feels that you are a very good team of people that understand and support each other. You inspire him on many levels, and by meeting, you would help him overcome the loneliness that comes from being at the top of your career in that kind of industry. There’s a deep respect and appreciation from both parts, and it’s definitely very tangible in the connection.

ORACLE CARDS KEYWORDS:

element of air, mountain elm, ash tree, heartsease, rhodochrosite, malachite, jade, bee, dolphin, whale, Pisces, element of earth, chestnut, guardian oak, flax, aventurine, lapis lazuli, animals living in a herd or pack, Leo, element of fire, beech, mountain ash, bird‘s-eye rowan, bistort, onyx, obsidian, dog, Capricorn, 444

These are the keywords associated to each oracle card that I got. They can be interpreted as a sign, or even as lucky elements/signs to look out for, especially in relation to the connection with San. It’s up to you to choose how to interpret them! I wrote all of them down in case there are some things that are significant to you <3

CHANNELED SONG:

(I asked for a song about your connection/a song from him) <3

Thank you so much for your patience!! I hope you enjoyed the reading <3 Remember to only take what resonates, and to not take the reading too seriously as it’s more of an hypothetical scenario rather than a concrete one. If you’d like to, then please feel free to let me know what you think about it! Take care <333

[crescencestudio]

Devlog #25 | 11.28.22

Hi everyone!

How have you all been? We are slowly approaching holiday season, so hope the end of the year has been bringing some moments of rest and connection with loved ones <3 We are back with another devlog, so let’s get into it! 

Writing

Writing has been where the bulk of my time has been spent this past month. I’ve been working closely with Wudgey, our developmental editor, to flesh out routes, endings, and information cohesion between everything. We’ve officially finished the route summaries for each character, and I’m quite happy with how the lore, endings, and character development has turned out! I think the magic, backstories, and characters have really come to life after talking with them, so I’m eternally grateful <3

Aside from that, my big, big focus has been Kayn’s route. I’ve begun writing the actual script for their route based on our outline and am currently sitting at ~25k words. At first, I was beating myself up a lot with the progress --- I felt like I wasn’t moving fast enough. But now that I’m actually seeing that number and realizing that’s from one month’s work, I’m pretty proud with myself, haha! This is just a rough draft, and it doesn’t include fleshed out choices, the fun characterization scenes where we get to just have fun with the LIs, etc., but I’ve written up most of the basic plot (I’d estimate about 80%). I anticipate this first draft without fleshed out choices and extra characterization scenes will end at around 30k-35k words, so almost there!!!

Art

Last time, I showed you all one of the BGs Vui had finished. And honestly, most of the art development process has been on Vui’s side since I haven’t been spending as much time on Alaris art (((you will see why below LOL))). Above is the most recent background I got back from them, and I’m honestly blown away by how it looks. I find it so unbelievably stunning and can’t believe it’s going to be featured in the game. Hope you all like it as much as I do and are just as excited for future BGs Vui cooks up! 

I have been working on some CGs, but I’ll be keeping those a secret for now hehe ^^

Additional Features

Finally, the sound and music! I’ve already started receiving some of the voiced lines back from the VAs for the demo portion. I haven’t gotten a chance to review them yet since I’ve been preoccupied, and they’re not ~as~ time sensitive. But I’m hoping to start reviewing the lines next month and hope to have a better idea of how the characters are sounding! Regardless, I’m very excited to give them a listen <3

I’ve also been working with Peter for song composition for the soundtrack. We have three songs complete, specifically the main theme song, romantic/tender track, and the tense track. I’ll be previewing them in the near future, so be on the lookout!! 

"Market Research” 

I’m going to have to start unironically having a spot for fanart highlights, haha! Lately, I’ve been trying to improve my rendering and other aspects of my art that I don’t have as much comfort with. Because I don’t want to only draw Alaris all the time, I use other works as a way to practice my art, so that when I work on CGs and sprites, I’ll be able to use those new techniques to hopefully deliver a better visual product for you all! 

I was quite proud with how all of these came out. This month, I took a dive into Mystic Messenger and Blooming Panic, two games I’ve heard so much about but have never gotten the chance to play. I felt so inspired with both of them since I have little exposure to chat-based games and fell in love with the GUI (the discord layout of Blooming Panic is especially creative!!), characterization, and voice dynamics between the cast. 

While playing games doesn’t seem directly related to game development, it helps me see what’s out there and improve on things to bring to Alaris. I’ve already gotten a lot of ideas floating around that I hope to implement, so I hope you all look forward to it! Until next month, and I wish you all an early safe, warm, and happy holidays!!! <3

[starrysharks]

B for octavia and savory! (ask game)

[what inspired you to create them?]

i'd say a lot of things honestly. back in 2021-ish when i first designed them, the main inspiration was just art i saw on pinterest and the fact that i didn't have any ocs with a 'doctor/nurse' theme. back then most of my ocs were made impulsively rather than specifically to fit a role in a story like they are now. but when i redesigned them this year, there were a lot of major inspirations - invader zim and JTHM (which probably contributed to their sharper artstyle compared to my other ocs), panty and stocking (which i had recently rewatched), and most importantly the albums krankhaus and blood death ivory by angelspit (which contributed to their edgier look and darker color schemes.)

what happened was that i imagined little mvs in my head to those songs, but didn't think their original designs with their bright colors fit well with the songs, so i altered them when i imagined those mvs, which translated into their current designs. and i didn't have any story for them (i hate having ocs without stories), so i ended up just pulling one out of my ass based on their OG descriptions - octavia is a zombie who savory, the mad scientist, reanimated, and she is sent to the prestigious bloodbelle girls academy to kill all of savory's enemies, where she befriends onion, the only boy at the school. and of course a lot changed - octavia now goes to a regular public school, savory wants her to capture and kill various people and monsters to use for experiments, and onion isn't actually a boy (they're intersex and nonbinary, though don't really mind what they're called). and that's what inspired their creation, how the main story came to be, and how their designs changed ,,, i think i ended up going off topic, sorry,,,