#was going for some Rusty Lake vibes with this one

[starlitartworks]

8th of July- He has managed to get a sparrow, and has already partially tamed it. 

[shysuccubusstuff]

calcharo! bodyguard

Content: dubcon, brat taming, rich! female reader, (...) eating, overstimulation.

Note: Since I found out he has a crooked nose I've become so thirsty for him...

You and Calcharo had met a few weeks ago, your parents had forced you to take that big scary man with you, cause "what if you get hurt, baby?" Despite how much you complained about their overprotection, you were still unable to refuse them, in the end, they were worried about you.

So you got ready, his huge frame behind you during the whole time, sending shivers through your body each time your eyes encountered his. Maybe it was because he was a resonator and you weren't, but his whole vibe was much different from any other person you had ever met. He seemed cold, even colder than the icy nights you had to spend, sleeping around in some awful place, not awful enough for you to complain outloud, cause you refused to show that mean man even the slight sign of you being some weak rich girl.

Of course, that was difficult, cause as soon as you were able to find yourself trapped in the worst situations possible, how were you even able to almost fall to a cave? Despite everything, Calcharo's face never showed even the slightest emotion, not even when you (almost tripped) because of a small nut left by a rabbit.

After seeing this, you finally planned something to get rid of him. Just annoy him, make him save you all the time, complain about everything... you know the drill.

Now that the plan was set, you decided to put it into action. First, each morning you woke up a little earlier than him, putting a few cute frogs that you had found close to where both of you were sleeping on his clothes, just a slight prank, right? When he finally oppened the bag, his face didn't even flich, he just got rid of the frogs, returning them to the small pond. You were clenching your teeth, but, it was the first time, you could do it better, yeah.

So, next morning, you decided to take his clothes, leaving them out during the damp night, of course, the clothes ended up with a weird smell to them. Calcharo took his clothes, simply giving you a stern look and knealing at the lake, starting to clean his own clothes without more talking.

You were already running low on ideas, but he suddenly snapped after finding out you had touched one of his trinckets, more specifically, the rusty plate that was hidden around his bag. His brows furrowed, making seem even more intimidating, almost enough to make you kneel down and beg for forgiveness, despite that, the plan had to keep going on, so you smiled, a crooked smile that was too fake for your own taste.

"I... I thought it was some old ugly thing so I just tossed it, why do you even care?" Your voice was tembling a little, hands behind your back as you tried as hard as possible to seem relaxed. You were about to say something when his arms were suddenly wrapped around your waist, you tried to scream and kick him, his hand quickly over your mouth as he sat down, your body on his lap.

"You're done, brat." One of his hands moved down, getting closer to your skirt, his hand removed the skirt and left it in the ground, what was he even thinking?!

"Hey, cut it! Do you even know how much money have my parents paid to you?!" Your voice had a whiny tone, maybe due to the fear and nervousness. He chuckled, his hand resting on top of one of your cheeks.

"Oh yeah, those people, they must be so busy that they even forgot to pay for the body guard of their silly little daughter." Your eyes widened a little, what did he mean by that? You started to bite your lips, already lamenting your dumb plan about making him sick of you.

"Oh, it seems your dumb act is already reaching the end, did you have fun?" His hand was still caressing your cheek, sending shivers down your spine, cause who does that while he is trying to sound menacing? "The brat has finally realized who is really in charge here. i could have simply left you, but as you were still quite young I chose to stay, even if that meant losing a lot of money, but look how I got paid, getting my clothes dirty and trying to mess up with me like a child." He clicked his tongue, despite the harsh words his voice was as calm as always. You tried to squirm away, but you were quickly forced to stopped as soon as you got a spank, your face turning as red as a cherry, you had never been spanked, not even once.

"Stop squirming, I'm trying to ponder about how should I deal with you." His voice sounded a bit ammused, his hand still caressing the slightly reddened flesh.

"I'm... I'm sorry I was just trying to get rid of you because I wanted to prove my parents that I'm more than capable..." Your sorry excuse finally left your lips, face flushed because of the huge shame that was running through your body. "Can... can you please lift up my skirt? Somebody may be watching..." You tried to move your arms a bit, but you were stopped when his hand spanked you once again. Your eyes were starting to tear up, you knew you had been annoying him a lot, but you had never spanked him! Just as you were about to complain, you felt his hands moving dangerously close to that part, sadly, no matter how much you struggled his grip didn't even flinch a bit.

"You keep asking me to let you go, but this part of you is quite happy, am I wrong?" One of his fingers started to move around, caressing your clit with his gloved fingers, the feeling almost making you cum on the spot.

"Stop! We are in public, you know? I'm sorry, i'll go back to my parents and tell them about the payment... just let me go." Ignoring your pleas, he kept playing with you, his fingers caressing your clothed cunt while you tried to get away from his lap. Before you could complain, you were lifted, both of you entering in the small tent in which you had been sleeping all that time. Without saying anything, his hand gripped your underwear, suddenly tearing it from one of the sides, your legs tried to close but his hands were already stopping each side.

"You know? I've been thinking about what could be the best way to get my payment, then I realized, what's better than putting a brat on their place?" His voice sounded soft, whispering in one of your ears while one of his hands kept playing with your clit. You were already piercing your nails on the blanket, tears forming in your eyes as the shame poured in. In a single movement, your legs were lifted, each being supported against one of his shoulders, he got away for a moment, removing his gloves and then tying his silvery hair into a low ponytail, the image making you feel a bit weird. He lowered his frame, positioning his face against your bare cunt and smiling just before he started to lap at it. Your hands rushed to his hair, trying to pull him away from there but being completely unable to move him a bit. His tongue was playing with your clit, sometimes sucking at it while your hands were pulling from his soft hair.

"I'm sorryy! I won't do it again, please, please, I'll make up for it! I'll... I'll do it please...!" The feeling of his tongue lapping while his hands kept caressing your legs was almost too much at that point. After a few minutes, he moved one of his hands, allowing one of his fingers to enter and making you whine a bit. "I'm serious, please...! I'm gonna cum at this point!" Your pleas and whines fell to deaf ears, as he not only kept going, but got even roughter, entering another finger inside you and sucking on your clit, suddenly stopping and then licking at it.

The stimulation was getting too much, your brain feeling as it had became mush, just enough for you to start babbling without much shame while pulling him closer. Just as the knot that was formed in your tummy was about to break, his tongue suddenly stopped, abruptly moving his face away while the dim light made his lips shine because of his saliva.

"Just enough pleasure for it to hurt, I hope you have learnt a lesson from this." He lifted your face, his heart beating a bit faster after he saw your pretty face messed up. Some tears were falling down your cheeks, salive dripping down your lips while your eyes were quite foggy, such a pretty girl for him. While you were still trying to recover from his little punishment, he got a bit closer, lips leaving a wet kiss on your forehead. He stood up, taking one of the spare blankets that were laying around and covering your body with it, swiftly leaving the tent as the night was starting to darken.

[atthebell]

Do you have any vod recommendations to rewarch until our streamer comes back?

chants of sennaar - incredible game about translation and languages, very fun to watch him play since it's something he's pretty interested in, very cool if you're into linguistics like i am

tchia - cool game, interesting story and mechanics, nice long vod and someone in chat was from new caledonia so gave some cool context

stray - catboy moments of all time, beautiful game obvi

scorn - batshit gorgeous very gross (/pos) very horny game he acts like a freak the entire time it's great

mirror layers - wild ass game he once again acts like a freak the whole time fun and interesting concept and he gets scared a lot so 👍🏻

the tartarus key - fun game, interesting puzzles

scp secret files - solid game, if you're into scp stuff my impression is it's by far the best scp game to have come out

escape from mystwood mansion - cute short puzzle game very fun

decarnation - INCREDIBLE game, nails the topics it covers, cool to watch him play it since he really appreciated the style & understood the themes

viewfinder - very cool concept, fun puzzles, chill vibes

amnesia the bunker - i watched most of this live but remember nothing, fun to watch him scream and it's a nice looking game

birth - chill vibes, short and sweet

among us monastery - deranged game, he acts like a freak, very funny

the past within - any puzzle game him and felps play together is a fun watch, this one's a rusty lake game so it's got a weird fun style

underground blossom - another rusty lake game, fun puzzles, he's deranged in this for reasons you'll understand once you watch it

venba - incredible game about an indian family in canada & their relationships with each other through the lens of food, very cute very cool, tbh might go play it myself it's very much my kind of game

fear the spotlight - origins of many lesbian protector/shipper moments, and a nice little high school horror game

cellboier cryptic killer [cellbit] [roier] - i recommend watching these synced up tbh bc otherwise you will not know what the other person is fucking talking about but yeah its a cellboier stream its great watch it if you haven't already rewatch it if you feel like it

homebody - idr anything about this vod but i remember enjoying it, some horror shit in a house, he probably screams a lot and maybe there's puzzles either way a solid time

killer frequency - very fun game, cool vibes, it's been a while since i watched it but he's probably a freak in it

in no particular order

[bonefall]

Now we've got all six of em, can I just say that CRIPES ALMIGHTY the titles for a starless clan suck major ass! Both separately AND as a group!!

I Do Not Rewrite Arcs Until They Are Done BUT DO YOU WANNA HEAR MY WIP RENAMES SO FAR

Remember: Don't get too attached yet, the only one I can say with certainty will show up somewhere is the title of Book 4.

ARC RENAME: A Starless Clan -> A Prayer Unanswered

The original name is really good but I'm getting a vibe that the theme of the rework is going to be... when love isn't enough.

It's about how some things can't get better. It's about how all the kindness in the world couldn't get Bramblestar to turn around as a leader. It's about how Heartstar might have had good intentions, but occupation never works out in the end. It's Nightheart's relationship to his family being salvageable, not because they don't all want to fix it, but because his life has worked out best with distance from them.

So, Prayers Unanswered is both about the religious part of how RiverClan doesn't have a leader and can't get in proper touch with StarClan, but it's also about every other wish that hasn't come true.

River -> Starcrossed One of the VERY large changes I'm considering is actually massively reducing Nightheart's POV. I'm thinking of doing this, not because I dislike him, but because I think it might actually be a better story if the audience is guessing as to his intentions just as much as the other characters are. So, until he's ACTUALLY needed later, his chapters are short and sparse. So Starcrossed would be about setting up the troubles of the Clans, especially the parts of the conflicts I want to highlight more in BB. It would be setting up the rule changes for "starcrossed lovers" (lmao) but also the brewing anger that the cats have towards code changes... and StarClan, if I do decide to keep the newest revelations and work them in better, in hindsight.

Sky -> Fracture There's a phrase in my head that is so interesting to me that I need to do something with it. "Only frozen water can fracture." I want to make the RiverClan situation worse than in-canon. First of all, there's going to be identifiable groups this time which begin to scramble for power. Instead of having the cats just... forget how to do the chores they've done their whole lives, the Clan is splitting up into factions. This is why they won't be able to win against Heartstar later, when she decides to take drastic measures. They're not fighting like a Clan; they're fighting like a bunch of disorganized teams. There should also be a bunch of needless injuries, maybe even a border aggression that lead to a death, before Heartstar barges in. I also want to make this a bigger part of the story, Erins willing. Too much time was spent on the Catnip Patrol, imo, we're going to have ANOTHER big trip and I don't want this one to eat up so much time. Rowankit is also still going to die; and maybe a couple of elders around the Lake too.

Shadow -> Snakes and Turnclaws Berryheart's hate movement has been too tame, from canon books 1 - 4 as of the time of writing. It's ridiculous that they haven't even injured anyone in the Battle Cat series. I saved Antfur from the previous arc so that she can die here. We've been seeing the Anti-Turnclaw movement rise from the first book, so now with Nightheart's boldness leading him to a place where he will be unsafe, we need to see his rusty butt in actual danger. I'm even thinking that, instead of Nightheart failing his task on purpose, Sunbeam makes him fail by stopping him from getting killed. I need to know the ending of ASC first though, because I MIGHT be having Berryheart getting her exile here. Whatever kills Antfur is either deniable enough that she's able to squeak by while Sunbeam quietly leaves (refusing to accuse her mother of anything publicly) OR it's so obvious that Heartstar casts her out on the spot. Meanwhile, we see the OTHER half of ShadowClan's conflict as RiverClan finally unites... against them, as their common enemy. Task failed successfully, Heartsy

Thunder -> The Source of the River I'm still unspeakably proud of this outline. There's so much I want to do here. She's going to come back with a DND party and I'm hoping that all of them end up in RiverClan with her; INCLUDING Nightheart. I want the fact that he accompanied Frostpaw to actually be the final straw for him. While he's away, Sunbeam is acclimating to ThunderClan and falling in love with her new home. There are parts she misses about ShadowClan, but as she's adopted by Sparkpelt, taken as a secondary apprentice by the deputy, smiled upon by Squirrelstar after she pressures Bramblestar to abdicate... this starts to feel like this is where she belongs. And that's too hard for Nightheart to ever come back to. "You come to the source of the river, and are vexed that you do not find the water that is flowing downstream" dude.... man. That's what BB's about. Change. I also really want Nightheart to choose HIS OWN NAME by the end of this series-- so at some point in this book he should finally admit "Nightheart" wasn't his choice either. (I'm thinking Deltastep. Because his journey with Frostpaw begins at the southern delta of my reworked map.)

And I haven't done them for Book 5 or Book 6 yet, especially since I might end up condensing them or chopping them up to put into the other books.

I do know I'm really love to play with the idea of a starless sky for one of the last books though, I may or may not keep Splashtail's lack of faith in StarClan (hate the Evil Atheist thing they keep doing), but the idea of a "Pitch-Black Star" absolute fucks as symbolism, ngl. Maybe something like "A Gap in the Stars" or "Constellation's Void" or "The Stolen Star"

Also also also I'm having Curlfeather come back as a Dark Forest Demon for at LEAST one scene.

I don't give a good goddamn if they don't go to the Dark Forest or not. ONE weird coincidence that could totally have been Just Good Luck but was actually Curlfeather. Let Her Drown Splashtail, she deserves it. Let her be a malevolent spirit who protects her baby. RiverClan can whine all it wants about Mothwing who ooo doesn't believe in God, Frostpaw's got a demon. Cry about it

Also I hope Frostpaw becomes leader because I'll make it go hard

[higanbana-games]

Hints in Point&Click Adventures. How not to make players feel stupid?

The Point&Click Adventure genre implies a very simple gameplay from its name. Whether it’s a 1st person or a 3rd person game, players are meant to click in various areas on their screens. And that click calls many possible actions: talk to an NPC, pick up an object, use an object, examine some area, trigger an event/action and many other possible variants.

Story is what gives such games a meaning. Detective stories, romance novels or even horrors. However, a good story can simply go unnoticed if the gameplay doesn’t complement that story.

I’ve played many games of different genres, but when it comes to a story quest I often stumbled on one thing that unites such games as Syberia, Fran Bow and even Elden RIng. It’s the lack of in-game hints.

Every story is unique and has its own deep meaning, and I absolutely love every game I mention in this post. So, the following examples will just show some hard parts in the games I mention.

“Fran Bow” - ticket to the Club

The overall game is a masterpiece! Yet, I had a really hard time trying to understand what I was supposed to do to get into the Club in Ithersta.

(The following might be a spoiler if you haven’t played the game yet)

What the quest is about:

you have to find a hidden passage from the back of the club and send your cat in there,

you play as a cat too steal a ticket from one of the guests and bring that ticket to Fran,

Fran shows the ticket to the security guy at the entrance but he can easily tell she’s lying to him and doesn’t accept the stolen ticket,

Fran takes a smeared pest control specialist’s card she picked up ages ago and a green crayon she had got even earlier than that. And she draws herself a ticket on that card.

Fran gives that ticket to the security guy and he lets her enter the Club.

The main problem here is that Fran has had the objects she needs in her inventory all that time, but the quest makes players find a way to steal a ticket and try it first. Only after that sequence of actions can she fake her ticket. Of course, it can be explained like Fran had to see the real ticket before she could draw the one for herself. But this idea wasn’t emphasized in any way, which makes it extremely hard to figure the logic out by yourself.

No chance to skip the mini games

Another concern I had was on release of a wonderful game called “Children of Silent Town”. The game has stunning art and gives pretty but creepy vibes. The story felt so smooth that I did not even once think of looking into guides. Yet, some mini games were relatively hard. Though they had basic visual hints explaining how to play, some of the games took me too much time to enjoy them. And there was no button to skip it nor the more precise instruction showing how to complete it.

“Rusty Lake” - good visual hints

As a good example of guiding players through the game, I would call the “Rusty Lake” series. There are good visual hints following through the gameplay. And when there are no such obvious hints and players feel stuck, it’s up to players whether to try and figure everything out by themselves or press a button and see a thorough visual instruction.

My point here is simple. Hints should be balanced.

If you have to use a head of cheese to open a door with a complicated mechanism and there are no hints on such a unique usage - players might feel too stupid to solve it.

If a player character or an NPC comments on every action with phrases like “The door is locked” or “The villain ran over there”, it might frustrate players. For such comments are too basic and don’t give any extra helpful information while on the other hand they don’t guide players nor hint at what to do next.

The balance between making players feel too smart or too stupid is really delicate. 

The main idea is to make players feel smart when they solve another puzzle or listen to an NPC carefully and follow the implication; or just let them enjoy the game in a simple way they choose by directing them smoothly and letting them skip the hard parts.

There probably isn’t one correct answer or a universal solution on the subject (should there really be one?), and I just shared my thoughts and observations.

Every story-driven game is unique, and game designers choose the best way that suits every single project to reveal its potential and touch people’s hearts. <3

[the-great-anteater]

I don't get how there are so many Albert simps in rusty lake fandom.

I can understand liking a villain. Like, if they have a cool bad boy/bad girl vibe. or if they've got some grand plan that somehow justifies their crimes. or just being hot! I can get that.

But Albert Vanderboom? The stinky incel sociopath who didn't overcome his childhood peeves, angry at the whole world? The guy who killed bugs for fun? The child abuser? The one who's driven his sister to suicide, murdered his mother, his brother AND the woman he was in love with? I dunno man. You must be kidding, because it's just crazy

The only difference between him and average real life incel is that's Albert's really smart. Not just a nerd, but really can use his brains and make some complex machinery and magic rituals.

But... sexy?? He's a kind of a man who would slander you if you won't go with him for a coffee break. A kind of character you'd rather enjoy hating than simp for. Very unlikable.

Normalize hating the ugly mf.

[crusherthedoctor]

💫 favorite Sonic game(s) in terms of aesthetic <3

I guess The Aesthetic Guy has become one of my calling cards next to The Green Horsie Guy and The Eggman Guy That Hates Eggdad, huh? Well, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Unfortunately and/or fortunately, there's a lot of Sonic games with top tier aesthetics, which makes it very hard for me to narrow them down. Most games in the series have at least a winner or two: SA2 has the pyramid and A.R.K. levels. Unleashed has Eggmanland and Jungle Joyride. '06 has Kingdom Valley. Black Knight has Misty Lake. Secret Rings has Sand Oasis and Night Palace. Rush has Water Palace and Mirage Road. Rush Adventure has Coral Cave, Sky Babylon, and Pirates' Island. 3D Blast has Rusty Ruin and Volcano Valley. ShtH has more than you'd expect for a game like it, such as Digital Circuit and Circus Park. Even the Rivals duology has a couple of good ones. But if I must decide on a personal top ten for which games I consider to have the most consistently strong aesthetics, then in chronological order...

The Genesis games. They started things off, so they had to establish Sonic's world as a fascinating one. Well it worked for me when I played them on Mega Collection back in '03. Despite playing Advance 2 first, I never thought these ones were uncool by comparison. I loved Marble Zone's juxtaposition of the grassy outdoors with the lava temple. I loved how opulent Casino Night's lights were to offset the night. I loved how funky and quasi-Arabic in architecture Launch Base was. I loved how the already ominous background in Death Egg Act 1 doesn't even move, subtly emphasizing just how massive the spaceship truly is. Even when they had to reuse assets to cobble together a zone, it still looked great!

Sonic CD. I already love the visual storytelling in the game as is, and its aesthetics make me love it even more. My favourites tend to be the Pasts for how they get away with being no less pleasing in spite of their intentionally murkier palettes (I too adore the sunset canyon of Wacky Workbench), and the Good Futures for how unashamedly loud and proud they are, including the way they show nature and technology working together. They're all so good. (Also, shout out to Chaotix for having a similar vibe, even if it can sometimes be hard to tell what you're looking at cause of how trippy it is lol. It's like the physical manifestation of the 90's.)

Sonic R. The neanderthal "I wish Sonic R had more than five courses so the game was longer" VS the intellectual "I wish Sonic R had more than five courses so there were more for me to stop and gawk at".

SA1. Lost World is so pretty. Twinkle Park is so pretty. The At Dawn section of Speed Highway is so pretty. The cave in Ice Cap is so pretty. Beta Windy Valley is so pretty. Red Mountain is pretty from a certain point of view. SA1 may have started the focus on "realism", but it never felt anywhere near as in-your-face as some of the later games that indulged in it. Not just because there were plenty of more whimsical environments to balance it out, but also because even the grounded ones still had an equal amount of colours and fancy Dreamcast lighting trickery. Hell, Final Egg is meant to be a gritty, grungy kind of Eggman base, and it is, yet it still manages to be as visually interesting to look at as the other stages. I can't really say that about Crisis City, or the islands in Frontiers.

The Advance trilogy. C'mon, you know I love me some good pixel art, so I'm never going to stop gushing over how gorgeous Ice Mountain and Twinkle Snow are, or how cool Techno Base is, or how upbeat Music Plant is, or how striking Chaos Angel is, or how-

Heroes. People always say this game had some of the most Genesis-style environments in a 3D installment, and I definitely don't disagree with that. Because of this, it has a very similar appeal to SA1, with levels like Grand Metropolis, Frog Forest, and Hang Castle most likely managing to fit in with the SA1 group without sticking out like a sore thumb. And it's a small detail, but I love how in Egg Fleet, the upper part of the skybox is completely clear. All the clouds are down below. It's a subtle thing, but it really goes a long way to emphasizing just how high up in the atmosphere you really are.

The Riders trilogy. Metal City has one of my favourite city aesthetics in the series. Gigan Rocks is like a more vibrant Dragon Road, and Gigan Device has a beautiful nighttime palette. Dark Desert's eclipse-induced darkness contrasts with the colorful circuitry during the indoor sections. Aquatic Capital is like a high-tech water park, with Tempest Waterway being the sort-of-Bad-Future equivalent that's still pretty in its own way. Digital Dimension is Digital Dimension. Even Crimson Crater, despite mostly consisting of greys and silvers, remains compelling due to how alien the landscape is. There were even some visual highlights in Free Riders despite being Free Riders, like the very first course, Dolphin Resort.

Colours. After Heroes, this game's environments are among the most Genesis, which you know at this point is always a plus in my book. Each of them have their own thing to say about Eggman's theme park and the man himself by extension, with the public announcements giving them even more personality. Aquarium Park is undisputedly my favourite of the lot, doubled by the catching red and blue contrast (and also because underwater tubes is one of those video game tropes that always captivates me; thank Roo's Tubes from CTR for starting that fascination).

Generations. This one's sort of cheating since it's just Old Levels DX: Director's Cut, but it deserves to be mentioned for its version of Sky Sanctuary alone. I really like Generations Sky Sanctuary...

Mania. The older levels have been remixed so heavily that they feel new regardless, and the twists it spins on the actual environment side of things is no exception, like the cavern in Green Hill, or the machinery in Lava Reef. But of course, the new levels are S-tier eye candy as well. I particularly love how Titanic Monarch manages to be dark and spooky while also having every colour under the rainbow at the same time, and the snowy forest backdrop of Press Garden is just... wonderful. <3

And although the game isn't out yet, Superstars looks like it'll be another consistent winner for me. While another Mania-esque pixel art game would have been really nice, I can accept the Sonic 4 But Better approach if it's like what we've seen so far.

You'll notice some running themes with my favourites. The obvious one is a generous amount of vibrancy and character, because no matter how bright or dark, good or evil, hopeful or hopeless the environment is meant to convey, it should never be boring. I also apparently get excited by technicolor stuff, because I never stopped being six years old. And if realism is a thing, I prefer it to be something that compliments an otherwise whimsical land, rather than be at the forefront and eclipsing all other attributes.

But I also like it when they get a bit ethereal, especially if it can provide a contrast with Eggman's handiwork. That's why I marvel at levels like Radiant Emerald, Night Palace, and basically everything in CD. As such, when writing for Stellar, I wanted to emphasize this aspect as a way to help Viridonia stand out as a setting compared to the likes of Station Square. (This was true for the original Beyond the Stars as well, but naturally I wanted to go even further with it after the transition.)

[zach-titus]

1. I’ve always been called a fish. That’s due to me being inseparable from the water. From growing up at my community pool and the beach to now being a division 1 swimmer… I spend a lot of my time in the water.

2. My favorite music to listen to in the fall is what you would call “camping music.” Nothing quite fits the vibe of falling leaves, early nights, and cool night breezes quite like a fire. I tend to go with Flipturn or Rainbow Kitten Surprise during these months.

3. I’m a 2002 baby by 2 days, so I chose the Salt Lake City Olympics! All my life I’ve been surrounded by sports… and some of my fondest memories growing up were watching sporting events with my dad, whether it was in person or over the TV by the fireplace.

4. I went with my favorite song ever: Rusty by Tyler, the Creator. In the intro to the song, Tyler puts in a voicemail from his good friend: Jason Dill. Jason is a famous skateboarder. I chose the line “You know, grow up. Don’t grow down, grow out.” It’s helped me shy away from trying to be comfortable. Life is about risk and expanding your horizon, trying new things, experiencing new places. Don’t coop yourself up in one spot and don’t back track, move forward with openness.

(The tree is from the album cover: Wolf, by Tyler, the Creator) This album brought me my obsession for music.

Prompt:

“Saffron is, measure for measure, the most expensive spice in the world. In 2013 one ounce of saffron cost $364, while the same quantity of vanilla cost $8 and cardamom a paltry $3.75.” pg. 68

As a big foodie, I’ve heard of the infamous spice, saffron. I’ve never tried it due to its price, I’m a college student living off a summer club swim team coach salary. I’ve only heard amazing things about the extremely low abundant spice. It also has a beautiful color as well, reminds me of the horizon around a setting sun. I also had a Cape May, NJ sweatshirt growing up that was saffron, if not very near to the tone. Honestly, now thinking about it, don’t take my word. I’m extremely colorblind. Saffron, a great color with a classy history.

[thinkythirdthursday]

Thinky Third Thursday - October 2023

Welcome to the first ever Thinky Third Thursday, curated by Alan Hazelden of Draknek & Friends - a monthly roundup of thinky puzzle games that have caught my eye.

I really love thinky games. Obviously I’ve been designing them for over a decade now, but more than that it’s the only genre where you'll find deep systems, surprising interactions, and that eureka moment where you're in the shower and realise the solution to the puzzle you've been stuck on.

It’s such a great time for the space right now - there’s so many games coming out it feels hard to keep up! I hope my recommendations will be useful to you, whether you’re someone who tries to play everything thinky or you just dabble occasionally.

I’m not being paid by any of these developers to promote their games, I just want to advocate for talented people making great work. All games were purchased by myself.

Here’s what I’ve been playing:

Headlong Hunt, by Toombler Chase easily-spooked creatures to herd them into the perfect location. This may initially look simple, but it features some really great puzzle design while remaining very approachable!

COCOON, by Geometric Interactive and Annapurna Interactive The vibes on this game are off the charts. The puzzles seem very streamlined for a mainstream audience, but that doesn’t stop every moment being intensely satisfying.

Magicube, by nebu soku The puzzle design in this game is really fantastic! It might take a little perseverance to get into - it's a hard game - but if you stick with it, it will be incredibly rewarding.

Golden Idol Mysteries: The Lemurian Vampire, by Color Gray Games and Playstack The second and final DLC for The Case of the Golden Idol. I don’t think it lived up to the main game + first DLC, and found the cases pretty frustrating, but the new gameplay variation is a nice twist on the formula.

Chants of Sennaar, by Rundisc and Focus Entertainment An intriguing language-learning game. I don’t love the unnecessary / uninteresting stealth sections or that I had to do a Rush Hour puzzle in the first hour, but overall I think it’s worth checking out. I’ve seen several people recommend playing without using the journal that confirms your word guesses - if you want to lean into the concept and increase the thinkiness, that seems like a good choice.

More recent thinky releases:

Underground Blossom, by Rusty Lake

Escape From Mystwood Mansion, by Lost Sock Studio

Bilkins' Folly, by Webbysoft and Armor Games Studios

A Tiny Sticker Tale, by Ogre Pixel

Submachine: Legacy, by Mateusz Skutnik

Mosa Lina, by Stuffed Wombat

Sandy's Great Escape, by Mocha Moose Games

Upcoming games to watch for:

Crossroad OS, by Daisy Games (Demo available now) Martin of Daisy Games has been making quietly competent puzzle games at a pretty impressive pace, but this one is a real step up. The demo that just came out has some solid puzzles and great vibes - I highly recommend giving it a go, especially since it’s pretty short.

Plungeroo, by Little Crown Games (Demo available now) This is a delightful pinball-themed puzzle game, and the graphics/audio really lean into that theme. I wasn’t expecting much when I checked out the demo during Steam Next Fest, but it really grabbed me with its level of polish. The puzzles are pretty light, but still satisfying, so I’m looking forward to playing more of it when it comes out in a little over a week on Oct 27.

Puzzmo, by Zach Gage and Orta Therox (Early access signups start today) Announced today, Puzzmo is a hub for small games that want to be part of your daily routine - think Wordle or the NYT crossword. During their prelaunch period they’re opening the doors to 500 new players every day, or if you can’t wait to get let in there’s some coverage on Digital Trends that has more info.

The Talos Principle 2, by Croteam and Devolver Digital (Demo available now) The first game is one of the best-selling puzzle games of all time, so there’s a high bar for the sequel. We’ll find out soon how it’s turned out - it’s releasing on Nov 2.

Sokobond Express, by José Hernández and Draknek and Friends (Demo available now) I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the next game I’m publishing. We’re putting the final touches on it now and will have more news to share soon - in the meanwhile, please add it to your wishlist on Steam!

[imnotrevealingmyname]

Games I've Played And Loved

Ok so I decided to make a masterpost of the games I liked the most out of all the mobile games I've played in the last few years. Most of these are available on Android, I don't know about iOS though. I will be adding PC games to this list soon.

These are mostly puzzle/adventure games, some are platformers. There are a couple of other genres as well. I'll rate each of them based on several criteria such as controls, plot, playability, and (in some cases, because this is by no means a criterion I usually select my games based on) graphics.

I hope you like these games as much as I have, and lmk what you think!

(This is not ranked in any order, I'm going to list all the good ones.)

Masterlist

(Updated on 24th June 2022)

•Gear Enigmas : Really well made puzzle game, looong and interesting plot. Love the world building. The puzzles range from really easy (almost disappointingly so at times) to a good kind of challenging. The second half needs to be purchased. I'm currently playing the second half and it's really good. If you pirate it, you can get the second half for free AND infinite free hints by going to the purchase section. 9.8/10.

•here : The main objective of this game is to find the word "here". It is brilliantly made with a minimalistic design but excellent concept and really good controls. Once you finish the game, there's an Easter egg too. 9/10.

•Dear Brother: September : Rusty Lake vibes, very short game (20-25 minutes gameplay max.) Kinda unsatisfactory and bewildering ending because it makes you solve a puzzle and get an item in your inventory but then the plot becomes very weird from there and that item turns out to be useless. I thought there were multiple endings so I replayed, but no luck. The game is apparently still in development so I hope they give it a proper ending. 8/10.

•Where's Samantha? : This is an absolutely gorgeous game, kinda similar to Oddmar. The narrators' voices are also VERY similar imo. The story is really intriguing too. HOWEVER, the gameplay is less than satisfactory. The clones glitch into the walls sometimes and no matter what you do you can't bring them back to you unless you start the level over, which is frustrating to say the least because the levels are HUGE. Also, the jump button is very inconsistent in its functioning while you're on moving platforms, so it's very, very irritating. It makes you slide off randomly too. Also, some parts are so damn difficult I nearly gave up on the game several times, which usually never happens with me. But I kept going, and for what? The game has a beautiful story with so many twists and turns and character development, but the ending is absolutely fucking horrible. It's abrupt and pointless and makes you feel that you spent over six hours from a very unsatisfactory ending. One good thing though, I got zero ads throughout. Overall it has the potential to be a 10/10 but unfortunately I'm gonna have to give it an 8/10.

•The Witch's Isle (by Cocosola) : Oh so you think Rusty Lake is good? Try playing this. Oh so you think the Rusty Lake storyline is an absolute mess? Try playing this. In all seriousness (I just finished the game, got the normal end second try) this is one of the most complicated and baffling games you'll come across. There are seven different endings, and I have absolutely no clue how to get the five I still have left. There's so much exploration you can do here, and the graphics are absolutely adorable. The puzzles aren't frustrating, just the right level of challenging. There's a timer of 1h 25min exactly, which is 5h 40min in game. Be prepared to get the bad ending on your first try, there's absolutely no fucking way you make it first try. The controls are remarkably good, although it's kinda hard to see stuff at times because it's a pseudo 3D game and the foreground doesn't become translucent when you move back a tier so it's hard to discern your surroundings at times. Pacing is really good, too. 10/10.

•Card Thief : This is a solitaire style game with a mediaeval castle twist. I absolutely love the concept. Very addictive game, though the limited treasure chest capacity may be slightly frustrating because it makes you watch an ad to open the chests quicker. It doesn't have ads otherwise, which makes for a relaxing gameplay with no distractions. 9.5/10.

•Dungeons of Dreadrock : This has an 80s RPG vibe to it, and I absolutely love it. The puzzles are challenging without being frustratingly difficult. It's very addictive, though each level is pretty short so that's good. The controls are unfortunately very bad, there are no joystick controls and you have to swipe to do anything and sometimes it doesn't register. 8/10 (but only because of the controls.)

•Nora's Dream : I could gush about this game for days on end. This is a GORGEOUS game in all aspects. It has a similar vibe to Tunic but without the fighting. I enjoyed every second of it. The controls were a bit irritating at times because you have to keep tapping on the squares you wanna go to, but that's not really an issue tbh. Some of the puzzles might be a little too much. 9.8/10.

•one night, hot springs : Very short and very sweet. (Transphobes DNI.) 30-45 minutes long at max, this is a sort of choose your own adventure game, but don't stress too much cuz it's just a very relaxing game. 10/10.

•Désiré : Ok, I'll admit, I haven't played the entire game because it's a very time-consuming game and when I started playing it I quickly realized I didn't have the energy to continue right then. BUT, it is definitely something that's on my to-do list in the upcoming months. From the little I did play, I can say that it's a very unique concept. Controls are slightly wonky at times but it does not affect the quality of the game or even playability all that much. I won't rate this yet until I've played all of it, but I can say for sure that it's a good game and totally worth it.

•Nekra Psaria : If you've played and liked the Rusty Lake games, you'll love this too. There is some gore-y stuff, so TW for that. Very weird game overall but in a very good way. The puzzles are really good. You'll have to buy the full version or you can find a mod somewhere online, your call (I've played the full version, it's SO GOOD.) Smooth controls, no issues with gameplay. 10/10.

•Obsolete : It's a puzzle 2D platformer. Nothing extraordinary, really, but it's a good game. Iirc the controls did cause some issues at times but it's worth playing. It does get a little boring after a certain point but it's good for when you wanna try something new that doesn't take too much energy. 7/10.

•Medulla : Another very unique game. The puzzles are very abstract, sort of in the way Rusty Lake puzzles are but more difficult in some ways. I haven't played the full version but it's definitely worth it. 8/10.

•Oddmar : *breathes in deeply* THIS. GAME. OH. MY. FUCK. This is till date possibly the best platformer I have played, and it's AWESOME. Well, except for the fact that they have Loki as the main villain :(. But other than that it's so, so good. Again, full version is paid, but you can find free mods online. 9/10 (would've given it a 10 but the whole thing with Loki being the villain...)

•Finding Idun : This game has Loki as the protagonist. Although they still try to vilify him in some ways, he's mostly just chaotic here. It's a pretty short game, but it's really fun and has some really good puzzles. 9.5/10.

•Dash : This game is ADDICTIVE, holy fuck. It's a really good action platformer. Very good controls, smooth gameplay, never gets boring. Sometimes it definitely crosses the line between good difficult and frustrating difficult, so that's kinda bad. Overall it's worth playing. 8.5/10.

•Kub : One of the best puzzle platformer games I've played. Very cute graphics, very fun overall. I skipped one level with an ad iirc because I couldn't get through it after two very frustrating days of trying, but other than that one level it's REALLY good. 9/10.

•Ella's Dimension: Good for some casual fun. Very relaxing, kinda addictive. It's worth playing, although you may get tired eventually. 8/10.

•her tears were my light : GAY. WOOLOOWOO. HEHSJJAHSHJDJDHHAJAJJA. Beautiful game with three different endings and it's the cutest shit ever. 10/10.

•Meridian 157: Prologue : I recommend this entire series. I played the prologue, the first part and a bit of the second part, and they're all REALLY good. The puzzles are challenging, but not too frustrating. Definitely recommend playing it. 8.5/10.

•The Mooseman : This is yet another gorgeous game. It draws inspiration from the myths and legends of Chud' tribes, and it's so good. The full version has to be purchased, and I haven't played it full unfortunately. The free version is still really good. 9.5/10.

•Liyla and the Shadows of War : Based on actual events that occurred in Palestine. It's a heart-wrenching game. TW for extreme violence. Really short game, 15-20 minutes max. I really recommend playing it. 9.8/10.

•Fern Flower : Very relaxing game, beautiful graphics. It's quite engaging, although it does get kinda repetitive after a while. Good for some casual fun. 7/10.

•Dawn, P.I. (Pocket edition) : Really good puzzles, very well executed. The pocket edition isn't too long, and I didn't play the full version, but if the full version is as good as this, then it's absolutely worth playing. 8.5/10.

•Cassel : Cute and engaging game, kinda meh at first but it gets better and more challenging after the first couple of levels. Again, good for some casual fun. 7/10.

•Boo! : Very cute puzzle game, the levels get progressively harder but not frustrating in the slightest. One issue, though: SO many ads. 8.5/10.

•The Frostrune : This has to be the winner of the lot, honestly. Absolutely no competition. You won't find a puzzle game that is better than this game. If you love Norse mythology and/or puzzle games, you will fall in love with this game. 100000000/10.

•Tiny Quest Jungle : One of the cutest puzzle games you'll find. It's not very long, takes under an hour to finish. You won't by disappointed by this game. 9.5/10.

•Tiny Quest Desert : Part 2 of Tiny Quest Jungle. This is a paid game, but the apk can be found online. Longer than the first game and just as good, if not even better. Absolutely recommend playing it. 10/10.

•Tiny Room Stories: Town Mystery : This is a huge game. I played it a while ago so I don't remember exactly how long, but I think around 5-7 hours. It's as interesting as it is long, and you'll have a great time with this game if you like puzzle games. The full version is paid, unfortunately, but there's a free apkmody.io mod of the game :). 9.8/10.

•NOX : This one has a sad ending, but it's really well made. Be prepared to use hints, though, some of the puzzles are all over the place since they're scattered over a HUGE map. The game mechanics are very similar to Tiny Room Stories, so if you liked that one you'll like this too. If you speedrun through it, it's possible to finish it in about an hour, but for first time players it's gonna take 2-3 hours. 9.8/10 (ads :') )

•Get Acc_e55 (by UnderAIR) : Another isometric puzzle game with similar game mechanics to NOX and Tiny Room. Sci-fi lovers will love this, it's got super cyberpunk vibes. Really good controls, no issues at all. The full version can be bought or you can watch ten ads on a little device on a shelf (it's right where you start the game.) Very challenging, but not frustrating at all. Possible to finish with no hints. 9.9/10 (cuz ads.)

•Tiny Robots Recharged : Very similar vibes to Get Acc_e55, although this one has levels. Super cute, though the puzzles are kinda easy (maybe they'll get harder, I've only played up to the second boss, so idk.) Definitely recommend playing. 9.5/10.

•Tricky Castle: Trap Adventure : If you like Kub, you'll love this too. Long game, probably around 10+ hours of gameplay, and it's worth every second. If you like puzzle platformers, this is the game for you. 10/10.

•IQ Dungeon : Very cute game, the puzzles are really cool though some of them are kinda unclear. Overall it's super fun, kinda like Tricky Castle in some ways. The last level is kinda squicky, personally. LOTS OF ADS. 8.5/10.

•Minimal Escape : I have a love-hate relationship with this game. As good as this game is, it is really, really frustrating sometimes, so I deleted it once and reinstalled a few months later. My game started glitching in one level and it wouldn't let me go through no matter what I did, and I tried restarting the entire level and it still glitched at the same place. This would've been fine but the levels are LONG. Each level is 15+minutes long so I got irritated and uninstalled it a second time. If you can handle that frustration with games, then you'll definitely like it. Even if you don't, you'll still probably like it, just be sure not to stress out too much. 8/10 (would've been lower but the game is actually really good.)

•Very Little Nightmares (by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe) : Very similar to Little Nightmares in terms of the puzzles, graphics and overall vibes. Puzzles are quite challenging, can get kinda frustrating sometimes but mostly pretty good. 9/10.

•Alto's Adventure : Oh. My. Goodness. If you hate endless runner games, this game right here is going to change your mind. Guaranteed. It's one of the most beautiful games you'll ever play, I promise you this. 12/10. Please do yourself a favour and play this.

•Alto's Odyssey : Part 2 of Alto's Adventure. Just as good as its precedent, if not even better. 12/10.

•Space Chase: Odyssey : This is also a gorgeous endless runner game. If you liked the Alto games you'll like this too. 10/10.

•That Level Again : Really good game. There are more games similar to this one in these series, but I haven't played those. I definitely recommend this one, though. 8.5/10.

•Within (by SilverLiningStudio) : It's a horror/puzzle game that won't let me share the link, for some reason. It's really good. Beautiful graphics, awesome music, really poignant game overall. 9.5/10.

•Apple Knight : This is a really good action platformer. Nowhere near as good as Oddmar but similar objective. You'll never get bored with this, that's for sure. 8.5/10.

•Knock-Knock : A horror/adventure game that you should play alone. It's surprising not repetitive at all and it's very addictive. It does glitch sometimes when you're on the ladder, and the ghosts attack you even when they're not around, then. 8.5/10.

•Heads Off : This is honestly just a really funny game. Not something you can play for a long time, but it's good for a laugh or two. 9/10.

•No Humanity : This is HARD. But so good. It's been a while since I played this so I don't remember much, but it's definitely really good. 8/10.

•Rusty Lake : You were probably waiting for me to mention this BRILLIANT series, if you're a puzzle game lover. This is an indie studio that makes some of the best puzzle games out there. If you're into puzzle games, you've probably heard of them already. All the games are connected and there are Easter eggs everywhere, including connections that you need to make to get certain achievements in a few games. The games range from 2 to 10+ hours long, and they're all so worth it. Some of them are paid, but as always, mods are always an option. Of course, some puzzles are very frustrating, but still so good. 10/10.

•Dark Dome : If you like Rusty Lake, you'll like this series too. Start from oldest and move on to the most recent, in the series. I ploughed through all five games in just over a day, that's how good this is. The members of this indie studio are masters of their craft, no kidding. There are Easter eggs here too, the games are all based in the same town so you'll see a lot of connections. 10/10.

•FM Studio : I've only played Forgotten Hill: Fall so far, but if the other games are anywhere near as good as this one, this is a brilliant series. There are a bunch of jumpscares tho and it's a horror-puzzle series, so keep that in mind. The gameplay is slightly wonky at times though, and some of the puzzles would be better if they were more challenging. That said, I absolutely recommend it. 9.5/10.

•BusColdApp : This is a studio that makes a LOT of really great escape room games. I've played several of these and half of my already played games list is filled by these games. Lots of ads though, unfortunately. Some of the puzzles are kinda meh. 9/10.

•EscapeFunHK : Idk if the devs of this are the same as the ones in BusColdApp, but these are are escape room games.

•HKAppBond : Same as the above two.

•HFG Entertainments : Same as the above three.

•Last Quarter Studios : This indie studio has made the Cats Are Liquid series, and both games are wonderful. Kinda sad, but very sweet. The second one is way better imo but if you wanna follow the storyline play them in order. Also, you can make your own levels and share them too, so that's pretty cool. 9.5/10.

BONUS:

Happymod is a mod app where you can get a lot of the paid games in this list (and more) for free. I've played most of the paid games here thanks to happymod. Just a heads up in case you wanna play them but are broke. :)

[johannesviii]

A Useless Post Rating the Preppers From Death Stranding

Because I can and I will. I got super attached to some of these bunches of pixels while playing, and I want to share my useless and extra subjective opinions

No plot-related spoilers. This is only listing the Preppers and not any Bridges employee from the various cities and facilities. No reasonable individuals to be found here, only strange people living in bunkers, baby

Let’s go

The Ludens Fan

Shelter placement: On a mountain, right between a Timefall zone and MULE territory, and not on any obvious delivery route. Not great. The view is super nice, though. 6/10

Prepper: A cinnamon roll who believes the world will be saved by fandoms and games. Always happy to see you. Gets super excited when you find old figurines for him. Sends lost stuff to people he doesn’t even know. Has toy dinosaurs.

Will I get something nice if I help them: Not really.

Opinion while playing: He is a Friend. 9/10

The Musician

Shelter placement: Hidden behind a little cliff, on a mountain, in a patch of nice fresh moss, next to a cool waterfall, overlooking the whole valley. Not on any delivery route whatsoever but come on. This guy is living the dream. 10/10

Prepper: Talks to you as if he’s known you since highschool. Has an emo haircut. Very passionate about rock albums from the “beginning of the 21st century” so I’m assuming he’s a fellow MCR fan. The walls of his shelter are covered in vinyls. Wants to create and share the music of the future for free. Streams his concerts on the chiral network.

Will I get something nice if I help them: A harmonica. You can play it. I’m in love

Opinion while playing: Hell yeah what a cool dude 10/10

The Engineer

Shelter placement: In plain view right next to a huge road and two MULE territories. Dude didn’t even try to hide and his packages are stolen all the time. At least the weather is nice? 3/10

Prepper: Has spent his entire life inside of this bunker since birth. Polite and a bit shy. Has a friendly smile. Judging by the amount of alcohol we deliver to him, feels lonely. Sometimes you’ll find gallons of lube with his name on it and he’ll refuse to give any kind of explanation and to be fair the guy probably uses it for all his mechanical inventions. But deep down, we know.

Will I get something nice if I help them: Upgrades for the Power Skeleton. You know you want them.

Opinion while playing: Another Friend. I will judge him silently every time I have to bring him his lost lube though. 9/10

The Craftsman

Shelter placement: Next to a huge road on a plain ravaged by Timefall, between two MULE territories and a voidout crater choke-full of BTs. Can potentially see the nightmarish ruins of a roadside factory and a traffic jam where everyone clearly got killed. I don’t know if I hate it or respect the shit out of it. 2/10

Prepper: Suspicious of us. Sends us on a suicide mission to fetch old equipment in a terrifying place. Hates Fragile, so we can’t be friends. Likes to fix broken watches, apparently. A lot of his lost packages seem to be special reinforced underwear. I’m curious but also I don’t want to pry.

Will I get something nice if I help them: Custom hematic grenades. Can’t live without them.

Opinion while playing: A suspicious little shit and I don’t trust him but he’s still a good ally. 5/10

The Elder

Shelter placement: On a majestic plateau in the middle of the region, overlooking everything. Not on any obvious route, which is a problem, but also away from danger, Timefall and MULEs. A green little patch of heaven. 9/10

Prepper: Old and kind but takes no shit from anybody. All of his emails are like “anyway, f█ck the government and f█ck this country” and I’m living for it. Will give away old photo albums, books and games predating the Death Stranding, in hope they can be shared with other people and their kids. Wholesome as hell.

Will I get something nice if I help them: Not really.

Opinion while playing: The most valid boomer you will ever see. My adoptive grandfather and I must protect him at all costs. 10/10

Peter Englert

Shelter placement: Not on any obvious delivery route but right next to Lake Knot City on a plain ravaged by Timefall. You can see Middle Knot City’s crater from there. Not a bad spot, but also no good vibes whatsoever. 6/10

Prepper: Never at home, has no hologram and keeps finding terrible excuses not to be there, which is rude. Possibly imaginary friends and relatives. Writes extremely long and well-spoken, obsequious, smarmy emails to you and you’ll receive them at the worst possible moments, like he just knows. Only interested in pizza, and you.

Will I get something nice if I help them: Hope you like high quality guns, and very disturbing journal entries.

Opinion while playing: Was literally calling him my nemesis even BEFORE learning anything about the guy. The best and the worst prepper at the same time. Go f█ck yourself, dude, I love you. Pizza/10

The Timefall Farmer and the Environmental Scientist

Shelter placement: Right next to a huge MULE territory. There’s the Tar Belt in the distance and no city, road or friends for miles. Very awkward. 4/10

Preppers: Planned to study the effects of Timefall on plants and became farmers instead. They are not enjoying it one bit and you’re under the impression they occasionally get on each other’s nerves even though they’ve been colleagues for years. The concept of their farm is a fantastic bit of worldbuilding, though, but they are a bit bland themselves.

Will I get something nice if I help them: A goose hologram. I need it

Opinion while playing: They’re super nice but their general weariness is too contagious for comfort. 4/10

The Film Director

Shelter placement: In the middle of jagged rocks, reasonably far away from local MULEs and Timefall, but also from any kind of road or decent delivery route. The ground is a poisonous reddish brown with occasional smoke. Ominous. 5/10

Prepper: Really worried about ancient media getting lost and forgotten, and will do anything to save old movies from oblivion. Trusts you instantly. Is always surprised you brought something for him, or just thought about him, and it’s heartwarming to see. Geeks about things he likes in your emails when he isn’t low-key flirting with you. Has the most epic beard you will ever see in your life.

Will I get something nice if I help them: A rock hologram. Uh?

Opinion while playing: Came for the geeking, stayed for the flirting  8/10

The Collector

Shelter placement: Inside a cavern two-thirds up a vertical rock face in a canyon slap bang in the middle of MULE territory. Invisible from ground level, and invisible from the bottom of the canyon. The MULEs live literally next door and don’t even know the guy is there. No chill whatsoever. Incredible. What a king. 10/10

Prepper: Shaped like a friend. Loves videogames and loves geeking about them. Fascinated by pre-Stranding press like “people were buying newspapers? On real paper?? :O”. Really wants you to read his emails because he’s got nobody to share his special interests with. Wants to write about your adventures to inspire other people. Occasionally you’ll find a lost package with a vintage playstation and you know it’s for him even without looking at the name on the tag.

Will I get something nice if I help them: A backpack cover to protect your stuff from Timefall?? holy shit?

Opinion while playing: We have no choice but to stan. 9/10

The Junk Dealer

Shelter placement: On a heavily polluted, rust-colored hill in the middle of a scrapyard full of broken down cars, overlooking both MULE and BT territory AND some f█cking terrifying ruins on all sides. It’s metal as shit, but also, the dude’s got a death wish. 3/10

Prepper: Tries to emotionally blackmail us with videos of his supposedly dead girlfriend. Very rude. Sends us on a suicide mission in BT territory to look for junk just for a laugh. Is such a piece of shit he got divorced by a woman who was willing to be carried under heavy Timefall through a horde of BTs to see him. Killed his girlfriend’s parents and didn’t tell her.

Will I get something nice if I help them: Upgrades for the Speed skeleton, and also chiral ladders, which are both life-saving, and I hate the fact that I need those so much.

Opinion while playing: A piece of shit and a terrible human being. Go sit on some rusty metal in BT territory, my dude. 1/10

The Chiral Artist and her Mother

Shelter placement: Overlooking a bottomless lake of tar and depressing ruins plagued by Timefall, far from civilisation but also far from trouble. Depressing, but safe. 6/10

Preppers: A little ray of sunshine. Capable of planning a journey on foot while avoiding Timefall and BTs after having done the trip exactly once (1) and on our back, which makes her one of the bravest Preppers we ever meet. Talented as hell with chiralium. Very awkward speech patterns and elocution which I always find relatable. Makes extremely bad choices regarding her love life. Will send you likes in a cringy but cute way. I don’t really trust her adoptive mother too much but she seems to be friends with the Cosplayer and any friend of the Cosplayer is my friend.

Will I get something nice if I help them: Chiral boots. Literally the most useful thing anyone anywhere gave me in this game. No matter how far I am from her and her mom I will backtrack to get some brand new chiral boots from her every time I need them. They are that good

Opinion while playing: I love her but she’s making extremely bad life choices and it’s giving me mild anxiety 8/10

The Cosplayer and the Wandering MC

Shelter placement: At the very bottom of a long, narrow canyon plagued by Timefall, inside a vertical hole in the ground. How they haven’t both drowned yet is beyond me. This is the worst idea ever. 1/10

Prepper: Both of them are always super excited to see you. Trade a ton of art and crafts supplies back and forth with everyone in the region. Organised a goddamn post-apo cosplay convention through the chiral network. She considers cosplay to be ‘the art of transformation’, and he’s a big fan of you, and also otters. Otter facts. Dad Jokes to the max. Legends only

Will I get something nice if I help them: Backpack custom options. And the otter hood. Come on. Who doesn’t want to look like an otter. According to the MC it was “threaded and triple stitched by [his] cosplay partner using silk”. I don’t deserve this gift

Opinion while playing: Just because it’s the apocalypse doesn’t mean you can’t look and feel your best 10/10

The Doctor and the Medical Device Engineer

Shelter placement: Overlooking a little river in the mountains, right before the snow starts. Extremely close to Mountain Knot City. Practical and beautiful. Lovely spot. 8/10

Preppers: She invented and crafted a medical terminal that allows doctors to examine patients remotely through the network, and distributed it for free. He’s sitting on years of medical knowledge and stockpiles of meds, and also sharing both with everyone. Got married because they admired each other so much and shared a common hatred of the lack of medical assistance post-Stranding. Two absolute angels. We don’t deserve them

Will I get something nice if I help them: Custom blood bags. A must during boss fights.

Opinion while playing: A bit too serious, but mad respect. 7/10

The Photographer

Shelter placement: In the mountains, in the middle of nowhere, overlooking the valley, but away from everything and everyone, next to BT territory and daaaangerously close to the biggest Demens camp in the entire country. Who told you this was a good idea. 4/10

Prepper: The walls of her shelter are decorated with photos of beautiful landscapes. Friendly but takes no shit. Constantly trying to go out to take pictures of cool places and weird paleoart and stuff even though there’s a whole gang of terrorists outside firing live ammo at anyone on sight. Her cameras get stolen all the time, and yet she keeps doing it again and again. Judging by one delivery she sent to Mountain Knot City, she even has footage of Edge Knot City. You know. The unreachable nightmarish place beyond the f█cking Tar Belt. HOW

Will I get something nice if I help them: Guns because she clearly has no chill

Opinion while playing: This woman has more nerves in her left pinky than I have in my entire f█cking body. We stan a queen 9/10

The Novelist’s Son

Shelter placement: In a vast, beautiful green plain full of rivers and lakes, kind of in the middle of nowhere but also at a safe distance of the Demens territory. It’s painted the same green as the rest of the plain, which is a stroke of genius. 8/10

Prepper: Considering his title and the fact that the walls of his shelter are full of bookshelves, I expected a pretentious writer of sorts. But no. He doesn’t write. He’s just a soft boy who wants to save the world with plants. Will make sure you read his emails because he’s very passionate about gardening, gourds and mythology, and wants to talk about it with everyone. Too good for this world, too pure.

Will I get something nice if I help them: Special cryptobiotes! Pretty cool. I want to save some for Fragile

Opinion while playing: I love him I love thinking about him 10/10

The Roboticist

Shelter placement: High in the mountains, but in some sort of hollow, surrounded by snow and rocks on all sides. There’s also a nice hot spring nearby. Feels strangely safe and pleasant for such an isolated spot. 7/10

Prepper: Super approachable and quite friendly. Clearly a genius considering how good the all-terrain skeleton is. The stuff she’s looking for goes from stuff for her projects to a plush for her kid or a vintage coffee machine. Her emails, meanwhile, are shit-your-pants terrifying, like her wondering if machines should replace humans, or pranking you by pretending she was dead the whole time and her hologram is an IA. Thank you for the heart attack.

Will I get something nice if I help them: Upgrades for the all-terrain skeleton, hell yeah baby

Opinion while playing: I’m very conflicted because her emails are scary as shit but if she stepped on my face I’d say “thank you” 8/10

The Mountaineer and the Mountain Guide

Shelter placement: On top of a mountain but in a relatively flat and safe area, very isolated but also far from Beached Things, with good visibility. There’s logic to the madness. 6/10

Preppers: Initially in panic mode due to a medical emergency. Tough outside, but soft inside. He gives you precious advice about whiteouts and how to deal with them and stay alive in the mountains. We don’t know much about her, except she used to explore the mountains using chiral climbing anchors. Just speculation but I’m under the impression they met one day on a super dangerous expedition and ended together because they were both tough as nails, or maybe because they saved each other. Their kid is going to be unstoppable.

Will I get something nice if I help them: Chiral climbing anchors.

Opinion while playing: Wholesome couple of adventurers. A bit bland, but in a good way 7/10

The Spiritualist

Shelter placement: On a mountain peak in the middle of a whiteout area, but sometimes the weather can be decent and the view pretty nice, if you squint. Getting there feels like a test to join a secret cult and I don’t like that one bit. 3/10

Prepper: Twin sister of the Cosplayer, but gives off a very different vibe, like some sort of white suburban mom who’s discovering new age stuff. Has a very mystical approach to this whole apocalypse thing but seems to be wayyy too much into it for comfort. Really wants to see the Beach and tries to do so through meditation. We can receive chemicals from her. I do NOT want to know what’s in there.

Will I get something nice if I help them: A RACCOON HOLOGRAM?? I LOVE IT

Opinion while playing: Harmless but she scares me. 3/10

The First Prepper

Shelter placement: On a nearly inaccessible mountain peak battered by snow storms. The slope is so dangerous I straight up died once while walking on it. Absolutely nothing for miles and no visibility. That’s not a shelter, that’s a coffin. 1/10

Prepper: Apparently his family has lived in shelters ever since the beginning of the Cold War, then decided to stay there in case the world would end in the year 2000, then because of the Bush era, and long story short the guy is like “I did it before it was cool” and he’s literally gatekeeping other Preppers and calling them amateurs. Tries really hard to convince us to stop helping people and get our own shelter. At least he admits self-sufficiency is a mirage in the end, which is more than I expected from this clown.

Will I get something nice if I help them: A hat, and a wolf hologram

Opinion while playing: When the nicest thing I have to say about a Prepper is “well they’re not hurting anybody”, you know it’s bad. What a jerk 2/10

The Evo-Devo Biologist

Shelter placement: On an isolated snow slope away from civilisation, overlooking ruins and geysers in the distance. Not far from BT territory and terrorists, but still at a reasonable distance. Next to a hot spring. The view is majestic as f█ck. 9/10

Prepper: Looks strict and gives off severe teacher vibes, but you’re under the impression that’s purely because she hasn’t seen or talked to another human being in years. Polite but distant. Thinks the sixth mass extinction is a golden opportunity for science, and inevitable, and that we should study the shit out of it even if we end up dying. She’s not wrong exactly but also, yikes

Will I get something nice if I help them: Not really.

Opinion while playing: I genuinely have no idea. An enigma. 5/10

The Geologist

Shelter placement: High in the mountains on a desolate snowy slope, completely isolated from everything. I think I’ve seen a movie about that kind of place once, except it was a hotel. 2/10

Prepper: The first package we bring to him is a shipment of meds to fight chiral contamination. No more nightmares or suicidal thoughts after that, so he’s ok. Also he’s obsessed with Heartman to the point you wonder if he’s got a crush on him, belittles himself and his work constantly, and also thinks saving the world is a waste of time and effort. No no he’s still ok, he swears. But yeah uh. Dude is clearly one small step away from blowing a fuse and going full Demens, we need to sit down and talk about your problems my friend

Will I get something nice if I help them: Not really.

Opinion while playing: I like him but he worries me a lot and I’m a bit scared for him 7/10

The Paleontologist

Shelter placement: In a little valley in the mountains, where grass and snow meet, miles away from civilisation and roads, but also miles away from problems. If there wasn’t this pit full of toxic gas literally next door, this would be perfect. 8/10

Prepper: Likes to complain about everything and everyone. A bit rude but more in a familiar way than an unpleasant way. Extremely passionate about fossils and prehistoric stuff and gets super excited about ammonites in particular. Mentions exploring a place full of toxic gas without any kind of protection just to fetch some neat rocks once, so we both clearly have the same level of survival instincts when our special interests are involved.

Will I get something nice if I help them: Not really, unless you count level 2 Hematic Grenades

Opinion while playing: Relatable as shit. I feel like I’d be this guy if I existed in this game’s world. 9/10

The Veteran Porter

Shelter placement: Nowhere Man lives on a very abrupt slope full of rocks in the middle of Nowhereburg, Nowhere State, Nowherica. You get the feeling he knows the region like the back of his hand and picked that spot exactly for that reason and frankly, I have to respect that. 7/10

Prepper: Ex-Porter with a damaged spine. A retired adventurer, exhausted after carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Higgs used to be his boss back when he was still working at Fragile Express so the dude has massive trust issues now and I won’t argue with that. Initially suspicious of us and Bridges, for good reasons. Every time I found a super isolated bunker signed under Fragile Express I was like “woah their employees were hardcore to find all these places that Bridges couldn’t find”, and he’s one of these guys, and I get it now. And he’s tired. So tired. A whole mood.

Will I get something nice if I help them: Not really.

Opinion while playing: Unlike the First Prepper I respect the shit out of him and I want him to enjoy his well-earned retirement 8/10

[dismas-dumbass]

ALIAS : dismas ABOUT : 27, any, EST -ALSO, have y’all played the Cube Escape/Rusty Lake games? this site is giving me major vibes of that and i absolutely love it!  TROPES YOU LOVE :  (i am always terrible at these pls don’t perceive) aaahhh the best friends who don’t realize they’re in love with each other, person thinking they’re suave but they’re actually just dumb, honestly just dumb disasters in general, lying about the past and woops! it gets revealed at some point, elmofire.gif TROPES YOU’D LIKE TO EXPLORE : hhmmmm surprisingly enough enemies to lovers? legit not something i’ve done before lmao it’s either awkwardly looking in the distance, everyone has brick in their heads, ooooorrr they managed to make a confession or something idk. i’d also kinda like to explore a more cat-and-mouse sort of relationship where either one or both have the means to kill the other but they’ve decided not to idk it’s late my brain is mush THINGS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE ON SITE : i’m honestly excited to see the shenanigans the hotel is gunna throw at the guests! but, also how all the characters are going to be interacting with each other! and causing chaos SOMETHING THAT YOU REALLY ENJOY : i love all sorts of plots but also anything with angst and drama pls & ty ANY GENERAL CHARACTER IDEAS : SO, uh, still refining the concept but what i’ve got so far is a conman from maybe the 1970s-1980s who’s posing as some journalist/reporter who winds up at the hotel after a weird flood blocks his path back to wherever he was going, idk. he’s playing up the part of an almost stereotypical obsessed and boisterous fella “looking for the truth” (except lol he has no idea wtf is even going on). think: is loud, hotheaded, reckless, and smokes as though he still has a good supply of cigarettes left. in reality he’s someone else but it’s not like that’s gunna be revealed to anyone anytime soon, right? as i said work in progress hdasbhkhfdb i swear i’m okay at writing @ravenhousehq

[yournameoverandover]

FOLKLORE: 1st Listen

1. The 1 - “I’m on some new shit” Love the production ooooo..... “If you never bleed then you’re never gonna grow.” Why does this remind me of HAYLOR?!?!!? Omg my heart. “It woulda been fun if you woulda been the one” Wow!!!!!! “And if my wishes came true it woulda been you” Wowowowowow!!!!!! WHAT AN OPENER

2. Cardigan - High heels on cobblestones what an IMAGE. I love her range here omg. “Baby kiss it better, Iiiiiiiii” I LOVE the breathiness of it. A friend to all is a friend to none, you tell em girl!!!! This song is so COZY I just feel like war, and soft listening to it. So much piano. “You drew stars around my scars but now I’m bleeding.” So softttt “Leaving like a father” 🥺🥺🥺 “These hands had to let it go free and this love came back to me// I knew you’d come back to me”

3. The last great American dynasty - Ok I was not excited for this one. The initial synth is interesting. Rebecca who tf is Rebecca? Saint Louis and Bill? This is specific.... Hmmmm okay I see a trend of blaming women. THE RHODE ISLAND SET HOLLA!!!! Dali?! Hmmm maddest, shameless now... What’s the twist in the bridge tell me? OMG IS THAT HER HOUSE!!! AHHHHHHH YES OMG!!!!! Loudest yessss! LITERALLY A SOMG ABOUT HER HOUSE I CANT. I like this chorus so much

4. Exile - I’m stoked for this one. Mucho piano. Omgggggg the vocals well done Bon Iver!!!!! “You’re not my homeland anymore” BROKEN HEART. “Now I’m in exile seeing you out.” There’s the title... Balancing on breaking branches :( “I’m not your problem anymore, so who am I offending now.” Awww “you were my crown” proceeds the exile line, that’s so sad and beautiful like THEY WERE ROYALTY IN LOVE. I love this interplay of perspectives holy shit this bridge. Her voice is so delicate and his is so strong they are just CHEFS KISS together!!!!! Like sneaking out a movie theater? This album is PERFECT for midnight release. I am obsessed with the ending of this song OMG. J’adore.

5. My tears ricochet - Ok time for track five I am not ready. Ooo floaty vocals me gusta. Omg it’s like a wake?? I love how she says loved you, cause I loved you. It’s almost British. Oooo SAVING FACE BURN GIRL. “You know I didn’t want to have to haunt you.” This is so prettyyyyyyyyy. It’s like Clean gets a whole album! “Just not home”. “Miss me in your bones.” “Stolen lullabies” THESE IMAGES LIKE WHAT. Not sure where the title fits in with the other story like if she’s dead how is she crying? Does he just not really care? Is he a robot? Hm. Much to think about

6. Mirrorball - TRACK 6 mirrorball. PLEASE be about the outfit to end all outfits! Kidding. Definitely not lol. This sounds like a middle school slow dance song.... shining just for you 😍 definitely a middle school slow dance song. “I can change everything about me to fit in.” Ouch Taylor. This is like the softest thing and also the saddest thing how she feels she has to try to keep his attention the whole time. I wasn’t expecting it to be sad?!

7. Seven - Aptly named seven. Ok we’re not waiting here let’s go. This has a little strummy country vibe? “Are there still beautiful things” powerful question. “Passed down like folk songs, the love lasts so long”. This feels like a song about her childhood. I really like this melody. It’s so gentle and pretty 😍

8. August - {WOW APPLE MUSIC WAY TO CATCH UP WITH THE FUCKING WORLD I HATE YOU. Okay we’re back!!!} Salt air?! I already love it. And rusty doors. Yes. Okay my birthday feels safe. “August sipped away like a bottle of wine cause you were never mine”🥺. Wait this is like happy retrospective WHEN WE WERE STILL CHANGING FOR THE BETTER, FOR ME IT WAS ENOUGH TO LIVE FOR THE HOPE OF IT ALL. “I can see us lost in a memory, august slipped away in a memory, cause it was never mine” this is so freaking ethereal and pretty. And she is repeating the hope of it all?! Inject this directly into my veins ughhhhh

9. This is me trying - “I didn’t know if you’d care if I came back” I love how she has all these images of bumbling and fumbling and puts it next to her saying she is trying, working on that communication. “I got wasted like all my potential. My words shoot to kill when I’m bad” Wait I have so many amazing lyrics I can’t even keep up with it what is happening. “It’s hard to be anywhere these days when all I want is you”

10. Illicit affairs - curious about this title???? What’s going to happen. Oooo a sneaky love thing going on. “Clandestine meetings and longing stares”. LITTLE DEATH TAYLOR SWIFT I SEE YOU LE PETIT MORT. “Dwindling mercurial high”?! Damn girl!!! Ooo okay no more orgasm things, just about lies now. Death to lies. “You showed me colors I can’t see with anyone else” “you taught me secret language I can’t speak with anyone else” Wait is it over?! The sudden endings WOW.

11. Invisible string - I keep hearing all these colors and all I can thing is RED. “Invisible string tying you to me”. I just LOVE all these pretty floating songs! “She said I look like an American singer” Omg I wonder if this is about her meeting joe IT IS IT IS THE DIVE BAR IS BACK. “One single thread of gold” ugh I love the running themes this woman uses! “Now I send their babies presents 😍” “hell was the journey but it brought me heaven” I LOVE THIS SONG OMG

12. Mad woman - I’ve been so curious about this OKAY!!!!!! TAYLOR SWIFT SAID FUCK IT HAPPENED. “Every time you call me crazy I get more crazy what about that?” “No one likes a mad woman YOU MADE HER LIKE THAT” OH MY GODDDDDD YES TELL THEM TAYLOR. “Doing your dirtiest work for you” holy SHIT Taylor this is scooter’s call out song and I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS. “I’m taking my time because you took everything from me, watching you climb over people like me” I CANT KEEP UP TAYLOR THIS IS SO SHARP OMG and the dRUMS MY SOUL LEFT MY BODY

13. Epiphany - WHEW okay lots I’m still processing so epiphany whatcha got?! “Something med school did not cover, someone’s daughter, someone’s mother.” Omg aNOTHER HOSPITAL SONG SERIOUSLY Taylor baby no :((((( “you dream of some epiphany, just one single glimpse of relief to make some sense of what you’ve seen” I wonder if this is for nurses and caregivers?

14. Betty - oh HELLO harmonica!!!!! Is this one of the love triangle songs? TAYLOR SAID FUCK AGAIN TWICE IN ONE ALBUM! I WAS NOT EMOTIONALLY PREPARED FOR THIS!!!!! I like the melody in this though, it’s so pretty and it reminds me of her older stuff! WAIT FUCK IS IN THE CHORUS SO SHE’S SAYING IT A LOT AHHHHH. “A figment of my worst intentions” omgggggg what a great line?! Okay wait this has SO MANY CARDIGAN PARALLELS AT THE END THIS IS ONE OF THE THREE. SO IS CARDIGAN what is #3?!

15. Peace - interesting starting song hmmmmmmmm. Sounds more bluesy! “Our coming of age is come and gone.” So she can’t give peace- “I would die for you in secret, the devil’s in the details but you got a friend in me.” This song is really hitting a lot tbh. “It’s like I’m wasting your honor.” Taylor this is sad 🥺 “the rain is always gonna come if you’re standing with me”

16. Hoax - hOW are we already at the end?! I like the super gentle piano in the back. “Your faithless love’s the only hoax I believe in. Don’t want no other shade of blue but you.” She’s so vulnerable and this is really hard to listen to. Love was just as hard as when they pulled you apart?

Physical Album Update on (TBD)

1. The lakes

[techmomma]

Okay you fucks, here we go. The unfinished chapter. I had a bunch of other chapters planned but only as basic concepts of where I wanted to take Tech as a character. Typically I’d have concepts and flesh them out as I neared the end of a chapter, keeping things open until really put to page.

So first, I gotta admit one of these parts I haaate to divulge like this because it was absolutely meant to be a visually scary thing and describing it in text takes away all the spook factor. But I’m not finishing the chapter so it’s not like it’s about to spook anyone anyway, so might as well describe it.

There were actually two creatures. One was to be explained. The other, well… that friend was just going to lurk in the background, leaving hints but never explained or even touched on. There was going to be a single gag of Tech eating a can of beans as an asker mentions the weird shadow skull thing that had shown up while he was sleeping, and the very next panel would be the fire put out and Tech clearly GONE in a very NOPE NOPE NOPE. That friend was this:

Rusty and I came up with this one and I still wanna use it someplace. There were gonna be some neat creepy animations to it. It probably left some weird hollowed out deer carcasses. Very very Search and Rescue Horror Stories vibe.

So for the actual plot! There were two versions that I actually never ultimately decided which route I wanted to take. One was a little bit safer, the other, while much more poignant and thematically appropriate, being a much darker route that I actually liked a lot, but couldn’t decide if I wanted to take Tech’s blog in that direction or go that dark. Not, y’know, grimdark. But there’d be some death. But there are parts in common for both versions, so I’ll describe the common beginning, two separate middles, and common endings.

We would follow Tech through these very old burnt-out woods, the recent victim of either a wildfire or volcanic eruption. It’s a long, quiet montage of Tech travelling, much like the long, quiet travel scenes in Samurai Jack. I took a lot of inspiration from Jack and the Lava Monster, replacing the ash fields with an ash forest, basically. As he travels, he finds a lake and he notes that the lake is technically artificial. He notes that it’s an ancient mound dam, and that it was likely to aid in trapping fish. Finding the dam, he follows the dry riverbed as it meanders through the black forest. Following it, he finds an absolutely ancient, overgrown village almost unrecognizable from the forest itself. He practically stumbles on it when he probably smacks face first into a big tree in the riverbed.

Version 1: Safe version

Tech explores the quiet, bleak village, nearly unrecognizable. This part of the forest, while not exactly thriving, was spared some of the fiery destruction, but is still being choked out by ash. He moves into buildings, finds the remains of life, and touching various things lead to visions of the ancient people who lived there. Always a different person, various stages of life, seeing things through their eyes as if he were them.

This is where Tech would likely first meet the spirit. And it is… not happy. He recognizes it from of the local native equestrian’s stories, and knows that it means business. There’s a mad-dash scramble for his life into the woods, where eventually the ground collapses under him and he falls into an ice cave. For now, he’s safe.

There, in the ice cave, he sees remains of life, again. This place was likely used as another altar or shrine, some writings on the wall. Tech likely has another vision, and he starts to put together the pieces: by damming the lake, encouraging their food supply, the people that had lived there had unintentionally hurt the forest. The spirit, a protector of the village, could only watch sadly as its village began to fall into despair, moving away one by one, causing great and terrible pain to the spirit that had loved them deeply. The anger and eventual choking of the forest, long after the people had left for greener pastures, had turned the spirit into what it was now.

In this last vision, Eddy sees that the tree he’d run into was no tree: in his vision, it’s a revered statue, a shrine, meant to be cleaned by the running river.

Ergo, the solution, obviously, is to return the river.

Version 2: darker version

Again, I did like this version better, but y’know. Being an mlp blog that typically tried to stay relatively within the tone of mlp, if maybe for a PG-13 audience instead of a G-rated audience. This one really pushed on my limits of what I really wanted to show in the blog, so you can see my dilemma.

Tech, again, basically stumbles on the old village, but rather than being alone, he actually finds a couple other people in the area too. Either hikers who made very poor life decisions or some other guards who’d gone out to make another sweep for injured civilians and gather clues in the process. But after some introductions, they all decide to explore the village together.

And this goes very… poorly. Tech realizes much sooner, perhaps having heard more of the local stories than version 1, that there is a shrine they need to find. It needs to be cleaned, in order to satiate the spirit. So he and this gang search everywhere for this shrine, there aren’t any visions. Over the course of exploring, each member is picked off one by one. As in, they die. Blatantly. Eventually it’s just he and one other, and maybe during a lull, they have a candid conversation. But they’re picked off too.

So it’s just Tech. Tech eventually finds the shrine, completely on accident. He stumbles into the tree, realizes it doesn’t make the right noise, and wipes away some ash to reveal stonework. It’d big and there’s too much mud around the base to clear entirely. He’s enraged and heartbroken that it was there, right there. And they missed it. And once more, he is the sole survivor.

So, like version one, the solution is to return the river.

Back together

Either way, Tech runs back to the dam, alone. He doesn’t have enough magic pull to bring down the dam with just his magic, so either he uses some good ol’ physics with some boulders to smash open the dam a la BOTW boulders and magnesis, or he gets the attention of the guards who stopped him from before, and all of them bring down the dam. The river makes a big entrance, something something this probably sounds like a certain Disney movie but I made this plot five years ago. >:U

The river returns, the village is washed away but the shrine remains standing. The spirit, once monstrous, transforms back to its original form. In version 1, Tech visits the shrine again, there’s likely a beautiful illusion of springtime and the flourishing village, vanishing into ashy reality as the spirit walks away. He moves on, there’s likely a scene in a diner nearby with locals talking about the dam, and possibly returning to the area. In version 2, Tech has a moment of breaking down, sitting for a long time on a high cliff, before a very quiet and heartbroken return to Ponyville. Both versions have him approach only to stop on the hill overlooking the valley, indecision clear on his face, and turn around to leave again.

So there ya go! Maybe it lived up to whatever you might have imagined it would go, maybe it didn’t! But I really did enjoy this chapter a lot and am still pretty mournful that it never got to come to light. I think I would have had the most fun with this one. But c’est la vie, que sera sera. Maybe I can frankenstein something from this in a later project. 

Maybe someday I’ll say what Tech’s super secret magic ability was. ;3

[challengerbmxmag]

Sam Waller Interview

Sam Waller co-runs, the UK based Central Library, “a shop in the North West of England that sells zines, DVDs and other interesting bits and pieces.” He’s also part of the current resurgence of quality independent BMX media with his Red Steps magazine. In addition to that he finds the time to contribute to Challenger with his quarterly column, ‘Notes From A Fancy Island’ and of course, ride. And, when you talk to Sam, you can tell that riding reigns supreme.

Sam and I email back and forth fairly often because of the column but also about other random stuff like old spots, concrete skateparks, music, etc. It’s fun to email with Sam so I figured it would also be fun to ask Sam some more in-depth questions. Hit the link below for the full interview.

All photos by Gaz Hunt. Thanks, Gaz!

I know you live in Manchester, England now but where did you grow up and what is your BMX origin story? I grew up in the complete middle of nowhere in a place called Colton in the south of the Lake District. Whilst the countryside in film and television is often shown as a tranquil, quaint place, the reality is a fair bit different, and Colton in particular seemed like a hotbed for strange stuff going on. Only recently a large farmhouse was burned down by a wild woman who owned loads of pigs. She was exiled from the county, but the pigs remained to cause havoc.

Anyway, my older brother has played guitar since he was six or seven, but as I was a useless at it and couldn’t get my hands to move properly, I felt obliged to find a similar all-encompassing past-time.

I was mad on Formula 1 racing for a while (thoughts go out to the Schumacher family), and I went to a karate lesson once (a hobby quickly scrapped after the whole hour was spent being taught how to bow honourably), but up until the age of 12 or 13 it just felt like I was dawdling about.

All of this changed when, for some reason I’m not entirely sure of, me and my friends decided to make some jumps and drops and stuff to ride on our mountain bikes in some woods near a dual carriageway.

One of my friends knew some older lads from nearby who had proper bikes and Little Devil hoodies, so I think they must have planted the seed of raditude with him, but I think at that time I was just happy to be out the house and not playing Tekken 2. We later found out that the woodland we’d chosen was a popular dogging site frequented by truck drivers (I'm not sure if 'dogging' exists in America - maybe look it up), and quickly moved our spades and everything into another forest. By that point the damage was done and my mind was snagged.

After a bit of bouncing about on a mountain bike, I then splashed out on a second hand Standard that someone had painted post-box red, affixed some stunt nubs and never looked back (or lookbacked, for that matter).

The nearby town of Ulverston had a pretty big riding and skating scene, but thinking now about us lot trying to lay down ‘street style’ in this small historic market town, we may as well have been the Jamaican bobsleigh team — the rough ledges were strictly for stalls, and the closest thing to a flatbank was a grass verge round the back of a Texaco garage.

What were some of your biggest inspirations as a kid and what about now? I always think about how the 16 year old me would probably make fun of some of the things I'm into now. Is that the case with you at all? Apart from the receding hairline and the slight increase in responsibilities, I think I’ve stayed pretty much exactly the same since I was 16. Back then I think my favourite film was probably Natural Born Killers, and my favourite album was maybe something like Bad Moon Rising by Sonic Youth. Whilst I’ve maybe expanded my interests a little, I’ve pretty much been in a rut since then.

I’m not into memes or internet humour in the slightest, but I remember someone once showing me a video of a wrestling fan in America crying and shouting, “It’s still real to me, dammit.” That’s how I feel about a lot of things I was into back then. A lot of people who I went to school with moved on from being into music and films and pissing around on bikes, whilst I’m still snagged on it all, listening to The Minutemen and wearing check shirts. It’s pretty stupid really.

What's The Fancy Island? Good question. Just next to Strangeways prison and only a mere stone’s throw from Manchester’s slick centre, lies a true rat-pit of questionable activity. I’ve seen loads of stuff happen here, such as an aggressive man chase a prostitute with a two-by-four and a creep lying in an alley trying to lure small boys into his lair.

In amongst all this, there’s loads of naff wholesale shops that sell everything from low-end Halloween costumes to fake Air Jordans made out of cardboard and fuzzy felt. All these shops have mad names like EEZZEE and Vibe Centre.

Getting to the point now, coming up with titles for things is pretty difficult, so a few years ago when I was cobbling together a zine, I nicked the name Urban Mist from one of these shops, and then, when I went to set up a Tumblr during the carefree pre-Instragram era, I nabbed ‘Fancy Island’ from a similar establishment.

I think Fancy Island has closed down now, but it’s no doubt been replaced with yet another shop with a daft name selling cheap batteries and t-shirts with swear words on the front.

Whilst I’m explaining names, I’ll state that Red Steps is a classic spot in Manchester that I ride past on my way to work every day. It boasts a rusty, needle-thin flatrail, a few small stair-sets (that are indeed red) and a large flow of gormless students to crash into. I’m not too sure why I named a magazine after it, but it just struck me as a funny name for a spot and I was struggling to think of anything else.

One thing I struggle with is balancing how to take BMX seriously while balancing a sense of humor about it as well; i.e. it's pretty goofy but is also this amazing vehicle for new experiences, ideas, and a pretty incredible community. Do you ever think about this? Like with most things in life (except crucial necessities like eating and breathing), riding bikes is pretty stupid and abstract if you try and think about it too hard. That said, I don’t see why bike riding should look goofy (apart from actual goofy-footed grinding - as a self-confessed goofy grinder myself I’ve got a lot of time for George D, Ralph and Dave McDermott) — riding is loads better than pretty much all other activities, but it’s constantly being made to look daft, when it could so easily look dope.

I think to stay juiced and not turn sour, you’ve got to completely ignore most things going on with riding and stick firmly to the bits that you like. I treat riding like music or films or anything else. In the same way I don’t go to the cinema to watch big summer blockbusters, I don’t spend my free time watching Corey Martinez edits or endless hours of footage from some zany mega-comp.

I’m a simple man. As far as riding is concerned, I like smith grinds, bottles of Heineken, Galaxy chocolate, black and white photos, sitting on benches and talking complete nonsense. The rest of it is irrelevant to me.

I constantly hear/read people complain about the lack of BMX magazines but there's so much cool stuff being printed right now. We've discussed this in email a bit but it seems weird that people are complaining. It's almost like people just have an idea of what they think a magazine should be and if it doesn't have look or read a certain way they are just confused. How do you feel about all of this? A solid group of people do buy things and support these independent projects and whatnot, but I think it’ll take a while for the loud-mouthed Instagram warlords to come to terms with the fact that the new magazines around might have different names to the ones they used to subscribe to 15 years ago. I suppose it’s maybe easier to talk about the lack of magazines out there than actually go to the effort of seeking them out, but having said that, it’s not exactly hard to find stuff these days.

I remember years ago hunting down anything beyond Dig or Ride was an absolute hassle involving a lot of e-mail mither and blind faith - but now with yourself, Berks St. and 90East stocking interesting stuff in America, me and Clarky doing Central Library over here and the newly formulated Wiretap down under, it’s easier than ever for anyone to get their hands on zines and DVDs and all that.

The new stuff that’s coming out now is ten times better than Dig or Ride ever were anyway. Endless contest reports and dull bike checks have fallen by the wayside, and I haven’t seen a photo of Jimmy Levan’s zebra-print leggings in years. Things are really looking up.

What do you do for work? Thoughts on pursuing money via BMX and also what's the best job you've ever had? By day I work in an office writing stuff for a clothes shop. As you can imagine, trying to come up with an interesting way to talk about the 659th blue shirt you’ve seen this week can get a bit tough, but I can’t complain too much really. The office is fairly warm and there’s a kettle in the kitchen.

As for pursuing ‘serious wonga’ via riding, I’m one step ahead of you. Central Library has just received big investment from Duncan Bannatyne and Deborah Meaden (of Dragon’s Den fame), meaning we’re finally able to stock all those bizarre Caramac-coloured tyres that real bike shops seem to stock. We’re also expanding our print line to offer crime fiction and the Goosebumps novels. My main aim in life is to become one of those creepy industry characters who spends their time sniffing around young and naïve talent in the hopes of flogging a few ‘dad caps’.

My finest job was probably working for my dad in the family trade of dry stone walling (which explains my surname). I’m not sure if dry stone walls exist in America, but they’re those fairly humble looking stone walls you see dividing up the fields and forests around the English countryside.

Anyway, building them isn’t too bad as far as manual labour goes. When it’s raining and you’re miles up some hill wallowing in the mud lugging big stones around with nothing more for lunch than a chicken and mushroom Pot Noodle and a Penguin biscuit, then it’s a little miserable – but on a good day when the sun is shining and you’re working with ‘good stone’, it’s hard to beat.

The best days were when my dad would fall asleep just a few minutes before the end of the lunch hour, basically extending the break for at least another 45 minutes. Thinking about this job now, I’m not sure why I ever gave it up.

Do you have any other hobbies besides riding? Yeah, but I’d say the lines were pretty blurred. This is maybe a pretty boring answer, but I suppose riding lends itself to other hobbies pretty well. I might be wrong, but I don’t think keen swimmers or budding javelin-throwers get into photography or making videos in quite the same way. It’s sort of like the ‘pillars of hip-hop’ or something – riding, taking pictures, messing round with video stuff and generally snooping around all fits together nicely (or at least it does in my peppered mind).

It’s not like I’m slipping on my Etnies t-shirt for my weekly two hour power sesh and then the next night I’m wearing some short-shorts down at the climbing wall. Even when I’m on holiday with my wife, I’m still just snooping around the same way - we’re not buying tickets for some naff rollercoaster or dining out at exclusive restaurants with Abe Froman.

Are you able to take time off of riding and not feel like you're missing out or feel guilty? I have one friend who really goes in on the guilt tripping if I don't ride. Related: You said you like sitting on benches. Can you do that on a nice day? At the age of 28, I’d like to feel like I can just about deal with a few missed sessions. Obviously I still need a comprehensive run down of spots seshed and feats accomplished when I’m away, but it’d be mad if I was out all the time. The human body can’t handle that much raditude.

Fear of things going un-photographed does creep in sometimes, but Clarky will have filmed it anyway, and Gaz and Wozzy are better photographers than me, so if they’re about then hopefully someone caught the action.

Moving onto the subject of benches, these babies really come into play during my dinner break at work. I get on fine with everyone there, but when the clock strikes twelve I’m not going to be sat in the office spilling reheated chilli over my keyboard… I’m straight out into the city centre on full sit-off mode – hopefully getting into some daft conversation with one of Manchester’s many vagabonds.

A few months ago I was sat in town when I was approached by a fairly scruffy gentleman who was bleeding loads from his forehead after someone kneed him in the skull. The rest of my lunch break was spent trying to sort him out a bit. One meal deal, some wet wipes and a pack of king-skins later, he seemed alright. You don’t get these hijinks sat inside all day.  

I was just thumbing through the new Red Steps (nice job) and I just realized how much I enjoy your interviews -- what is it that you like about interviews? Not trying to stroke the ego here but you are really good at it... Cheers. Any ego strokes are much appreciated. This maybe sounds a bit daft, but I want to know everything. This is probably evident to the people who know me, but I’m a complete mither, completely hassling everyone with questions all the time.

This pesky nature extends into everything, meaning that I spend a lot of time reading a lot of interviews about the things that I’m into. I buy a lot of old copies of magazines like Wire, Ray Gun and Sidewalk on eBay, and even though the interviews contained within those pages might have been conducted in the corner of a pub maybe 25 years ago, they’re still worth reading today.

A proper interview with a little intro and some photos laid out nicely on a page… it’s mint – it’s a finished thing – sort of like a well-edited video or something. I know a lot of people are into ‘podcasts’ these days, and that’s fair enough, but to me – they’re not complete enough. I don’t want to hear people say ‘um’ and ‘err’ all the time, and I want something sick to look at (and by that, I don’t mean a load of pundits sat around a table with headphones on).  

I’m going to rattle on here whilst I’ve got the chance. Anyone reading this who gets the opportunity to answer questions for an interview, a ‘bike check’ or anything else…don’t just write a lazy sentence for each answer – go mad. Tell some funny stories. Or if you’ve got nothing to say, just make something up. No one cares about how responsive your headtube angle is or how you ‘usually just cut the bars down’. This could be your only chance to air your thoughts into the wider world, and you’re going on about what PSI you put in your tyres? COME ON PLEASE TRY HARDER YOU BORING GIMPS.

(above) Spread from Sam’s zine, Latvia Photos. (below) Cover of Sam’s zine, Around Town.

You also make photo zines/books not related to riding. Do you have any high art aspirations with this stuff? No real aspirations I’m afraid. Wine gives me bad heartburn, so I generally try and swerve anything resembling a gallery opening schmooze-off. As I was sort of saying before, making photo zines is just an extension of everything else. I like taking photographs, so it makes sense to put them together. It’s all pretty small-time really – it’s not like I’m getting thousands printed.

To be honest, it’s all a complete faff that I could easily avoid by not bothering and just sitting around watching American power-dramas, but it’s good to have stuff to look back on – even if it’s just a 40 page zine that nine people will see.

Crouching under a tattered old curtain processing rolls of film every night whilst being mithered by my cat isn’t particularly glamorous and I’d imagine there are probably easier ways to get cosy with the artistic elite.

What's your favorite slang word? Going back to my walling days, my dad uses some pretty intriguing slang terms. Unlike inner-city slang, which will usually be documented in music or useless BBC3 comedies, these more rustic words don’t get much recognition. I don't use these terms myself, but I certainly respect them. Here’s a few choice cuts…

“A few skins on the job” – a large workforce “Keitel” – a fairly humble work-jacket “Bait” – lunch “Bray it – hit it “Kessen” – when an unclipped sheep falls over onto its back and can’t get up due to its weight. This happens more often than you’d think.

You can buy scoop up a copy of Sam’s magazine, Red Steps, in the Challenger web shop here, look at the online shop, The Central Library, that Sam runs with Clarky here, and check out some of his other photo zines/books here.

[crusherthedoctor]

It goes without saying: the first level always matters. If it doesn’t leave a good impression, it would hardly motivate you to give the rest of the journey a chance, would it? Being in fanfic form aside, Beyond the Stars is no exception, and because of this, Gleaming Meadows was actually one of the longest zones to work out. Viridonia is meant to stand out from previous Sonic settings after all, and kicking things off with a poor man’s Green Hill wouldn’t cut it.

Since the first level in a Sonic game usually tends to be either a hilly area (Green Hill, Emerald Hill, Seaside Hill) or an urban area (City Escape, Westopolis, Windmill Isle to an extent), I decided a good way to set this zone apart would be to... combine the two! This was inspired very much by Neo Green Hill from Sonic Advance, since although that zone wasn’t a city, it did add some minor urban elements the further it went on, most notably the bridge at the end where you fight Eggman. So as tribute to a forever underrated installment, Gleaming Meadows does that too, but in a different way.

Creating Zone 1: Gleaming Meadows

1-1: Blossom Fields

What’s a good way to make your first level stand out from all the Green Hills? Give it more than green, obviously. While it’s important that the entire adventure is full of interesting locations, I really wanted the first level to sound as gorgeous as possible in order to leave a strong first impression for this new journey, so what better inspiration than tulip fields, particularly those of the Netherlands?

The added use of yellows, oranges, reds and pinks already help set it apart, but there’s also the fact that although there are some lakes and rivers here and there, it’s not particularly coastal.

This aesthetic not only serves to get things off to a good start, but it also sums up the running theme with Beyond the Stars in general. Namely, that although plenty of the basic level tropes will be familiar to us all, many of them will be handled in rather different ways, thus proving that as long as you can think outside the box, there’s plenty of life in them yet. Some examples are more extreme than others, but other times, even a simple change of colour, weather, or time of day can make all the difference.

I mentioned in Chapter 1 proper that the cliffs in Blossom Fields have unique markings that convey a vague, lore-hinting narrative. I couldn’t find a better image to explain how this would look, so I’ll have to resort to this shot from Paper Mario:

See the cliff behind them, with its starry patterns on the soil? That’s basically the gist, but with a more complex pattern.

Also mentioned was the addition of a tunnel near the end of the stage, which is one example of the Neo Green Hill-esque hillside with minor urban elements that I intended.

Don’t assume the inside is drab however. On the contrary, it comes with abstract graffiti in a style reminiscent of the Colinton Tunnel in Edinburgh:

Very Jet Set Radio, eh? In addition to simply being more interesting this way, I figured it fit Sonic perfectly.

But you might question what a tunnel inspired by Edinburgh is doing in a level inspired by the Netherlands. Well, this is another running gag with Viridonia. While not always the case, a lot of times there’ll be combined aspects of real world inspiration, as opposed to Unleashed and its clear cut Not-Greece, Not-New York, etc. This is not just me throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, there is in fact a purpose to it, as it’s one of the more subtle ways of showing how peculiar Viridonia can be compared to other places in Sonic history - partly due to the Ethereal Zone - with only the Little Planet truly competing with the island in that field.

And y’know, it gives it that extra bit of identity and variety, eh?

Now, with music choices to explain what sort of musical atmosphere I’d have in mind for each level, I’m gonna have to use basic links from now on, since I rediscovered the hard way that Tumblr only allows up to five or so direct posts. It’s also worth noting that if this were a real game, it would do what SA1 (and, uh, ‘06) did before it, with each level having at least two different bits of music for the appropriate sections to add even more flair. I’ll still be listing two examples each for extra comparison’s sake, so with that said...

First Section (the fields): Opening Demo (Sonic Mega Collection) Ending B (Sonic Advance 3)

Second Section (the tunnel): Topical Tropical (Sonic: Before the Sequel) Shooting Ristar

1-2: Swanky Suburbs

Continuing the Netherland theme going on, the local town has a touch of Giethoorn to it, with its calming rivers and little pathways. Though unlike Giethoorn, there would be some cars and short roads sprinkled about.

Again, really wanted to convey that feeling of low-key beauty and coziness, and provide more justification for why Sonic and Co would come here for a vacation. But that’s not all: when it comes to the houses and other buildings, the red and white colour scheme is more based on those of Portugal:

And of course, you have the local parks as well. You can even interact with the slides and swings if you want, because you’re never too old to make the kids wait their turn.

First Section (calm): Neo Green Hill Classic The Amazon (DuckTales Remastered)

Second Section (when Badniks start wrecking things up): Wave Ocean ~The Inlet~ (Sonic ‘06) Andy’s Neighborhood (Toy Story 2)

1-3: Yellow Hills

As we go on, we leave the Netherland influence behind, and with the countryside in sight, the clue is in the name. Lots of yellow to be had indeed.

And inbetween all these fields, we have some villages, of which the rural vibe suits the place just fine.

Then as we go into farmyard territory, the yellow actually starts taking a back seat in favor of red, because I guess even I’m not immune to the subverting expectations fever. Hopefully I’ve done it in a way that isn’t asinine though.

The barnyards would be the stereotypical red and white, since it works well enough with the autumn colours, and can still pop out despite there being so much red surrounding them.

And yes, there are many farm animals hanging around here.

Yes, that includes horses.

No, they’re not Trudy’s family.

First Section (yellow): Tornado Alley (Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex) Mount Lineland (Super Paper Mario)

Second Section (red): Green Hill ‘12 (Tee Lopes) Menu (Mario Tennis)

1-4: Rusty Mill

A wooden mill doesn’t leave a lot to the imagination, so it would look pretty much exactly as you’d expect, albeit a tad more old and worn.

The same goes for inside, really. Since the interior of mills are tricky to find interesting images of when elaborating on your quirky Sonic the Hedgehog zone, I’ll be using another game for comparison instead, specifically Donkey Kong Country 3:

Except multiply the cobwebs by five.

It’s decayed, and a bit grim, but not enough to the point where it would feel like it’s near the endgame. Yet another thing I go in hard on in this story: escalation. In order for later zones and climactic moments to be more striking and impactful, you gotta start off by taking it easy. There’s still action to be had, and there’s still mysterious and/or ominous touches here and there, but it’s for the purpose of organically building things up, so that when things do escalate, you actually feel it when shit starts going down. Pacing, boys and girls! Learn it!

Then again, as with Angel Island in S3&K, this place gets set on fire halfway through, so maybe I need to remember my own lessons. But on the other hand, also like S3&K, it still pales in comparison to what happens later, so...

Lastly for today, when you’re fighting the fearsome Paindozer, the section of the mill that you confront it in suspiciously takes a form more akin to a old fashioned warehouse. Like... IKEA, I guess. But on fire.

So congratulations, you got through IKEA Zone. Looks like Eggman should have stuck with B&Q Zone instead.

First Section (calm): Pogo Painter (Crash Bash) The Walk of Life (Rayman 2)

Second Section (on fire): Vs. Rotatatron & Refreshinator (Sonic Colours) Set Point - Match Point (Mario Tennis)