#we re-started the very first campaign we ever played in the system we wrote together also and it's been so fun

[vulpixelates]

my wife's staycation is officially over 😔😔 she just went into her little office 😔 i am in mourning

[barilleon]

Rockets Underground #01: A DevLog Begins

Some years ago, I started putting together a Forged in the Dark game called Rockets Underground. It's fanfiction: you play as Rocket Grunts with partner Pokemon, attempting to impress your boss and make it in Goldenrod City. I ran a few playtests that were fun as hell, but then I got distracted and never finished it or put it anywhere.

I'd like to at least get a beta version out there soon, so I've picked it back up again. I'm running a west marches-style campaign in my discord server using the system, and in between sessions I'll be tweaking and adding mechanics and systems.

Next week is the Session Zero, and I figured maybe I should document the process here, so...here we go. This post concerns how I got to where I am now with the game! If you're interested in this DevLog, read on!

The Beginning

Before I even played Blades in the Dark, I fell in love with the system. I have always been enamored with stories about criminals. When I thought hard about where that came from, I realized that it was always about Team Rocket. That's no surprise. My crush on Giovanni (and all the executives) is well documented. I've written fanfiction and role played as these characters since before I was a teenager. I really wanted to play Blades in this universe I know and love so much, but there's a few GLARING issues with re-skinning Blades to fit in the Pokemon Universe: the tone and setting are completely different. And building Pokemon into a game like Blades is a real challenge that requires a brand-new system bolted on, probably.

Deconstructing the Blade

Up until this point, I'd only ever made supplements for existing systems: stat blocks, player options, adventures, etc. I'd never hacked an entire system before. This ended up being a daunting task.

It's hard to take a game as tight and cohesive as Blades in the Dark apart and rearrange it to suit your own needs! I didn't really know where to start. That is, until I found Thoughts on Forging in the Dark by Small Cool Games. It is the FitD system reference document, but deconstructed. Picked apart like the mechanical pencils I used to break so easily in high school. And once you have the mechanics picked apart, you can put the pen back together - with a stronger spring, or different color graphite (is that a thing you can do?? Is this metaphor even working?).

My starting point was figuring out what parts of FitD I wanted to keep and which parts I wanted to replace or throw out entirely.

I organized all my thoughts into a Notion hub. You can see the structure here:

This proved to be really helpful, because I could drag all the different components around the page and group them together while I was trying to figure out the best way to structure the information.

In the overview page, I wrote a basic list of ways that the game differed from vanilla Blades. Namely:

Instead of Stress, Trauma, and Vices, Rockets accrue Debt, gain Strikes on their team's permanent record, and Moonlight in their second job. Debt and Strikes are squad-wide, but otherwise these values worked like their Blades counterparts.

The "attune" ability is replaced with "commune" because in this world it's more important to commune with Pokemon than it is to channel spirits (and the spirits are usually Pokemon anyway).

I did away with turf rules, but for the beta I'd really like to find a long-term system to replace it with.

One of the biggest decisions in building your crew was choosing which Rocket executive was your boss, which would determine their expectations for you (and the tone of the campaign)

Each Rocket got one standard-issue Pokemon, which had a few special abilities (magnemite could float, koffing could produce smoke bombs, etc). The thing I was proudest of, though, was how I handled the inevitable Pokemon Battle between a Rocket and the 10-Year-Old Child:

First Tries

I ran two playtest sessions of Rockets Underground a year ago, and they went very well! But when folks filled out the feedback form, I started to see some similar complaints: the world of Goldenrod City was too small, they wanted a better system for Pokemon battles (not happening, sorry, the Battle Roll is the perfect encapsulation of being a loser Team Rocket grunt), and the "Debt, Strike, and Moonlight" system didn't quite work as a total replacement for Stress, Harm, and Vices.

I'd like to change a few of those things before I start running this game again in May (namely debt, strike, and moonlight). Overall, the system is in a great place, and I'm excited about it!

I'll be posting regular write-ups here about the playtests and the process. If that's interesting to you, cool! If not, at the very least this blog will help keep me accountable.

[loopy777]

RE: WIPs game: do I even want to know what Dicebenders is is it another scam how many times are the Gaang gonna get arrested for scamming

No, this time it's me scamming people. XD The dice in question are the RPG Dungeons & Dragons kind.

For a while I was doing a screencap webcomic in the style of "DM of the Rings" and "Darths & Droids" with another creative fan named Captain Boomerang. I was the scriptwriter and selected the screenshots for each panel, and Capt-BA would assemble the comics and improve my scripts (a process that did frustrate me a little, as I felt locked out of the revision process, but I did like the results. I just felt like I wasn't holding up my end of the partnership a bit). I wrote a story bible explaining the characters and storytelling rules, planned out the adaptation of the entire AtLA premiere, and had less detailed plans for the rest of the series, but we only got 6 comics in before Capt-BA went on a trip and never returned to the internet. I did manage to re-establish contact with her long enough to get permission to continue the comic, but the problem is that I have no image-editing skills whatsoever.

If I could find comic-making software that I know would do what I want and be easy to use, I wouldn't mind dropping some money on it, but everything I've looked at is trying to do lots of things I don't need. I only want a way to import existing pictures into comic grids, and then easily add dialogue bubbles. That's it. But the stuff I've found is more about image-editing than comic assembly, and it takes me an hour to put together a dialogue bubble that looks good. So I have 3 scripts that were never produced, which along with the planning docs are what's in that WIP folder, and I don't ever see myself going beyond that.

Besides, someone else already managed to complete something like this, and while I'm not a fan, I don't need to be. At this point, Dicebenders is dead. I'm glad I tried it, and it's a shame it didn't work out, but I'm happy with the other projects I've done instead.

I am squatting on an empty Tumblr for it, though.

Anyway, to share something new, here's the first section of the Story Bible I wrote to make sure Capt-BA and I were on the same page in terms of characterization. The rest of the bible details the plotlines for full series.

AVATAR: THE LAST DICEBENDER

BIBLE

Premise- A small group of players attempt to run a fantasy martial arts RPG that winds up essentially becoming the Avatar saga, or something very close. The main point of the series is comedy, based mostly on ridiculous links between Avatar and RPG's. Sometimes the humor will be in the vast difference between what happens in the comic, and what happens in the cartoon with the same screenshots. Other times, the funny will come from the unexpected ways they converge.

SPIRITUAL PREDECESSORS

DM of the Rings- The original, and my personal favorite. It's a good showcase of how to run a single quest together, while using narrative jumps to skip to the good bits.

Darths & Droids- A similar project, this stands out from its predecessor in two main ways. The players and GM are more friendly with each other, and are more or less having fun with each other. There is also a running, coherent storyline in both the game and in the lives of the players.

Benders & Brawlers- This is actually an existing attempt to do Darths & Droids with Avatar. This is helpful as an example of what we DON'T want to do, retell the Avatar story in a completely straightforward manner, with RPG players behind the characters.

CHARACTERS

None of the characters will be given real names. The players shall always be referred to by their character names, although this can be done in a teasing, ironic manner. When the characters are speaking, their dialogue bubble must always be attached to an image of the character.

The Gamemaster- The GM is a female in her early teens. She is a geek, and a bit of a social outcast for it. Nevertheless, she's trying to make that work for her, although she's not quite mature enough to make it happen yet. She has just discovered RPG's, and in her enthusiasm has gone all out in starting her own campaign. The only problem is that she doesn't know how to recruit players, so she ropes her best friend and little brother into playing with her. This is the GM's first campaign, so she'll a little in over her head. She knows the mechanics of play, and what she's supposed to be doing as GM, but doesn't have the fine skill in crafting an engaging RPG experience. Still, she wants to do her best, is willing to learn, and has a positive attitude about the whole thing. The GM has a strong crush on the Sokka player, but the only way she can express it is by having all the female NPC's flirt with the Sokka character.

Katara- Female in early teens, and the GM's best friend. Katara's player was friends with the GM from when they were both in grammar school, so while they have grown up into wildly different personality types, they are fully loyal to each other. Katara is popular, and outgoing, and doesn't care or know about geek stuff at all. She's only playing the game because the GM begged her to. At first, Katara is clueless about RPG's, and frequently questions or ridicules the mechanics of the game. She never quite gets into the idea of role-playing, but quickly takes to the idea of meta-gaming. She'll have her character act like a righteous do-gooder, because completing missions and fighting bad guys earns XP. She hoards items that will boost her stats. She'll advocate abandoning a mission/plot if it doesn't pay out enough rewards. Katara's player also can tend towards trying to Mary Sue her character, but this is inconsistent and usually shot down by everyone else.

Aang- Male in junior high, and the GM's little brother. He plays simply because his sister has cajoled him into it, and there are hints that he's getting some kind of reward or payment for it. He abuses his position by forcing the GM to give him what he wants in the game, even if it breaks the rules- access to the restricted Airbender class, the ability to bend all four elements, overloaded stats, an Avatar State that protects him from dying, a magic super flying cow ride, etc. However, it's important to note that Aang's player isn't a jerk. He's just immature, and like all kids, just always goes for what he wants via the easiest path, and doesn't realize that he may be causing trouble or hurting feelings. He's enthusiastic about trying out this RPG thing, but he has trouble coming up with any action beyond attacking or retreating. He's also hyper aware that the GM and Katara are girls. He is too old for cootie concerns, but thinks that girls are fundamentally different creatures with their own incomprehensible concerns. Having a big sister, he doesn't find this a big deal, just part of life. Aang's player is too young to be a geek. He likes cartoons and sports and fantasy and school-dramas. He also tends to follow whatever his sister likes.

Sokka- Male in late teens. This guy is your quintessential RPG player. He has is own top-quality dice, he's played campaigns and systems of all kinds, and knows the tropes of the hobby cold. He's a huge geek for all things geeky, but roleplay is easily his favorite. He's a social outcast, but he's made friends among his fellow geeks, and thinks life is just fine. Sokka's player joins when he meets the GM at the comic/games shop they both frequent. The GM was buying some sourcebooks and material to support the fantasy martial arts game she's running, and Sokka noticed, asked about it, liked what he heard, and got permission to join the game. What Sokka doesn't realize, because he is a geek and neither has experience with it or realizes it's even possible, is that the GM is sweet on him. This manifests in the character Sokka's canon luck with the ladies, only kicked up a notch. *Every single* female NPC flirts with him, whether it's appropriate or not. Sometimes player Sokka notices and tries to roleplay it, and sometimes he's just plain confused. Sokka has a few quirks. His best set of dice are his Lucky Red Dice, which always roll high when he needs it, but have been tested and proven to be fair dice. He also mandates that every character he plays use a boomerang; he was turned into a geek by the first video game he ever played, a Legend of Zelda title, and his favorite weapon from those games are the boomerang. Each of his characters has a unique, named boomerang.

Zuko- The GM's favorite NPC. She created him to be a compelling, dramatic character, with a complicated back story, moral struggles, badass loner personality, angst about his existence, a darkly noble quality, and a cool scar. The GM intended Katara to get to know Zuko, for her to try to woo him away from the side of evil, and perhaps to even have a romance with him. The PC's, however, couldn't care less about him. To them, he's just another mini-boss, and the fact that most of his character development is happening "off screen" means they don't realize that he's recruitable. A frequent gag is Zuko delivering a stirring monologue while no one pays attention.

Iroh- Background NPC. The GM tries to use him to give (ignored) hints to the players.

Toph- (tentative) A male munchkin gamer who picked a long list of weaknesses in order to get superbending. Toph's player is a friend of Sokka's player, brought in after an "incident" with his old group, and causes some initial resentment in the group when tries to show the n00bs how its done. Cowing Toph's player is a major victory for the GM.

Momo- NPC, but maybe make him a talking sidekick who gives the players hints when the GM is really exasperated?

Azula- the GM's best favorite villain. Azula is the GM unleashed, letting her take out frustrations on the players in both combat and harsh taunting. Eventually the GM comes to like the character so much, she retcons mental health issues into the character's backstory, and has her pet NPC, Zuko, spare her.

[lsgingasblog]

Of Sunshine and Woes

Once again late entry. In this I tried combining day 3 laughter with day 4 spoiling akko.

To read in AO3:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15380559/chapters/35693691

Goodness. I finally finished having a conference call with representatives of the noble families.

Ever since our last summit with the UN the agreements reached were less than satisfactory and as a result the heads of each house were rather put-off to say the least.

In a sense I do understand where they are coming from but with the anti-magic terrorist and the magic superiority one at odds it’s only reasonable that tension is high between the magic and non-magic community. It’s been like this for years already.

And that’s discounting all the alien invaders, which luckily enough is the reason why the magic and non-magic community isn’t at war yet, the mutual enemy of sorts gives them a reason for cooperation.

Space patrol is also present but they are seen with even more animosity than anyone else. Also it doesn’t help that they don’t stick around.

Luluco has of course, but after one particularly disastrous press-conference she and the rest of the galactic force opted to help in private if we ever do need it.

The organization Ursula had roped me in that summer after our first year, Star Nobles has a fairly good cooperation with Space Patrol forces and they have gotten us and the world out of some pretty fatal binds.

One in particular I was sure Akko and I were goners.

We luckily survived, but we would come to find out a consequence of that event.

2 yeas ago when we started to try for a family. We tried everything from various potions, spells and even in-vitro and nothing would work out with either of us.

We found out both of us got irreversible damage in our system concerning procreation.

This left both Akko and I rather crestfallen.

However things between Akko hardly turn out predictable.

I stare at my wife. The television is on and she’s sound asleep. No surprise there.

The amazing charion kids show is on, followed by the Constella friends, the show based on the children constellation book Akko co-wrote with Ursula.

I notice the blanket falling down and I go grab it to cover Akko and her protruding belly.

It would seem miracles never do stop occurring when we are in proximity of each other.

Good thing Luluco suggested a space trip to make us get away from all the tension and sadness a few months back.

We did consider adoption of course, but we needed time to come to terms with how things were.

It was like a honeymoon again and we’ve been to space previously already a few times.

Despite it all being away from our respective jobs did wonders and about 2 months after our 2 week trip in space I noticed akko having puking spells, dizziness and other symptoms.

Having known our particular conditions I could never imagine what it actually was, even having done a quick check-up for akko, it left me baffled and we went to the doctors and even they couldn’t explain it, but there it was with no amount of uncertainty. We were going to be parents.

I look at my wife’s lovely features as I softly move away a stray hair. We had the day off today and we had gone for a short walk and to a nice restaurant to eat. The rest of the day was spent relaxing at home, until I got called and practically demanded to be in the conference call. Akko wasn’t too happy to have her pampering cut short.

She’s too adorable and I still feel dazed at times thinking this is our reality. That we found each other again at Luna Nova, found love and support in each other, married and now we are embarking on another adventure together.

“Mhmmm….Dia…?” she reaches out for me. Her eyes are still shut, I smile and proceed to grab her hand and slowly sit down next to her.  “I’m here love”

Akko squints her eyes open and starts pouting. “You’re late” she petulantly announces while having moved away from me a bit.

“Hmmm…the conference call ran late, you know how it gets with them….”

“Yeah those old windbags don’t know when to stop nagging” Akko dramatically throws her head back but starts peering sideways back to me.

“Might I remind you I’m am technically one of the noble families love? Am I to assume you are calling me an old windbag as well? And what about Croix and Ricardo?”  

“Yup all of you’s” she announces boomingly despite only being us two in the room. My wife is as incorrigible as she is adorable.  I can’t even stay mad and my smile slips through trying to feign offended.

Akko notices and smiles my way. She leans again to my side on the coach.

Our lives are still hectic and all the new nine witches have been fairly busy these last 10+ years after luna nova.

Various breakups, marriages, adoptions, deaths, births and wonderful new experiences as well as perilous and life threatening ones.

Despite all of this, through all the ups and downs I always find myself gravitating and finding solace, peace and happiness in the woman now wrapped in my arms.

The blanket while not immensely big is just about enough to cover us both.  We finally open our eyes, reveling in each other’s presence and the sheer luck and miracle to not only be having a child, but to even be able to have this special and dare I say idyllic moment.

We focus back on the tv. It looks like re-reruns of Amazing Charion and Constella Friends are over. It would appear Andrew is on. Well a re-run of yesterday’s press conference anyway.

‘Our nation’s and planet's progress is important, but so is communication, cooperation and communication.’

Goodness, a mere 15 years back if anyone had told her Andrew would be a liaison for the magic and non-magic world I would laugh at them, but people change. I am one such example as well. While I am always grateful of the people I go to help as a medical practitioner, it is amazing the amount of people Akko manages to positively affect and bring joy to just by existing in their life.

“We made that happen” Akko points at the screen. I am brought back to present. Andrew has brought his little 3 year old boy up the podium. Andrew’s dad no doubt coaxed him into using child for the campaign for minister of state. Andrew prefers his privacy after all, but the pride on his face while holding his son couldn’t be more genuine.

Akko has a huge smile on her face so I curl my lips into a teasing smile.

“Don’t think we played a part in little Michael’s conception Akko”

She pouts but then smiles towards me with a mischievous glint in her eyes

“Well technically we did though! If we hadn’t set up-“

“If you didn’t setup Andrew and Blair up you mean” I quipped back

“Don’t try to be coy with me Dia!” she flares up her nose and has a determined look on her face.

To be fair it was a team effort. Although it was Akko that started seducing me on the idea.

“I can assure you both are the guilty parties”

“Andrew!” we both said in unison.

“Auwntie Diana, auwntie Akko!” the little 3 year old comes running clumsily towards us, but stops from jumping on us, remembering the caution Andrew told him about Akko and the baby.

So he gingerly climbs on the couch right in the middle of both of us. We both proceed to give him a kiss on either check and he adorably goes into a giggling fit. This being so infectious we had a laughing spell as well in the process.

He is a precocious little boy, light brown hair and sea green eyes like his dad, his lighter hair color no doubt from his witch mother.

As much as I adore little Michael there is something to be said about someone just barging in

“I take it you forgot how a doorbell works Andrew?”

Akko doesn’t even bat an eye at us anymore and is too engrossed in playing patty cakes with Michael.

Although to be fair since Akko and Andrew ended up working so many years together in the liaison department they both had keys to each other’s house and long distance relationship for both Andrew and Akko with Blair and I bonded them more together.

Can’t say I’m not jealous by the time I couldn’t be there to keep Akko company, but we each have our own dreams and goals to work on, of course while supporting each other as well.

Also luckily we haven’t stayed apart ever since 1 year ago, hence why we decided to start a family.

“My apologies Diana. I did ring a few times, but since I got no answer I decided I would leave these fresh soursop and coconut water for Akko anyway since I though you guys might be asleep. Also Michael was being rather insistent on wanting to see both of you”

Akko looks up while continuing the patty cakes motion with Michael. She shoots Andrew a huge smile of gratitude and he nods in return.

She has been craving those particular food these past 3 weeks. Figures it would take something like pregnancy to make Akko have healthy and balanced eating habits.

I mean sure she instilled some nice eating habits into Akko and so did Andrew, Lotte and Ursula, bless them.

“Thank you this is very much appreciated” I direct towards Andrew with an amicable smile. All things considered Andrew and I have come a long way, in large part due to the lovely person I can amazingly enough call my wife.

“Think nothing of it. Blair also had a peculiar craving for exotic fruits so I frequented this particular fruit vendor. I had exchanged contact information back then, in case of any late night cravings or anything of that sort”

I offered Andrew to sit down on one of the other couches but he declined saying it’s already a bit passed Michael’s curfew and Blair will have his head.

So he proceeds to scoop Michael up while the boy protested, but you can see him starting to rub his eyes, trying to get the sleepiness out just so he can stay up a bit longer.

He gives us a wet cheek kiss each and a hug goodbye. Luckily Andrew doesn’t live far away from us so Blair shouldn’t be too angry.

Just as Andrew was about to leave the front door he turned around, Michael already dozing off in his arms.

“You know as much I was initially annoyed at both of you for the whole setting up scheme, I do have to say thank you for making this happen”

We smile, but Akko had a cheeky smile on. Goodness.

“No need to be so descriptive Andrew, that’s all you and Sarah. Also the kids’ right there, have some decency” Akko deadpans.

Andrew rolls his eyes. “Goodnight Atsuko, Diana” smirks as he closes the door behind him.

“It’s Akko. We’ve known each other for almost 15 years. You did that on purpose Hanbridge” Akko mutters, although I’m sure she would’ve said in high volume if a slumbering Michael wasn’t present.

“Let’s go to bed” I pass a soothing arm on her back. Akko leans into my touch.

“Mhmm…kay....Di…I love you”

I swear those words coming from her never gets old, if anything my heart swells even more every time I hear it now as impossible as that might seem.

“Love you too Akko”

So we head up to bed. Having Michael over I’m sure has made us looking even more forward to have a giggling child of our own. We already have laughter, crying and playing around here, with Akko its hard not to after all, but adding another member to our family sure feels lovely.

[comicsinkcorporated-blog]

Interview with Screaming Villains, developer of Night Trap 25th anniversary.

CI: So how did development for Night Trap 25th anniversary first come about?

SV: It honestly started out as sort of a joke. Sometime after the failed Kickstarter, hardcore fans started attempting to recreate their own remake of Night Trap and some gaming sites were writing articles about it which I found kind of odd especially since they either didn't work or barely worked. I was already messing around with FMV stuff as a hobby and a friend of mine came up with the idea of myself making a working version running on a phone.

I threw it together in about 3-4 days, posted a video of myself playing it on Youtube and sort of remained anonymous about it. I got a local arcade owner that I know to post the video on his Facebook account since he was friends with an absurd amount of retro gamers and it started to spread and got about 5000 views within the first 24 hours.

The website fmvworld.com found it too and decided to contact Rob Fulop (one of the creators of Night Trap) to get his opinion on it. Another website called segabits.com also contacted Tom Zito (producer of Night Trap) to find out if he had any involvement so that sort of put me on their radar. After that I figured "what the hell?" and sent an email to Tom at about 3am and got a response in about 15 minutes. He just asked a couple of questions about it and asked for my phone number. The next day, he called me and 20 minutes into the conversation he asked if I would like to do an official version and I said yes.

CI: Limited Run Games PS4 version of Night Trap remains their fastest selling game, while the Nintendo Switch version may end up being their best selling game. Were you surprised by the popularity of this remaster?

SV: I don't think anyone was expecting that. It just came out of nowhere which I think helped a lot so thank god my friends were able to keep their mouth shut while I was working on it. Originally, there was only going to be 5000 copies of the game available. Once the announcement was made Josh Fairhurst from Limited Run Games and myself were pretty much stuck on Twitter the entire day so we definitely wasn't expecting the reaction it got.

After that, Josh said something like "We might need to increase the quantity" which at the time I don't think they ever exceeded 5000 on a game so it got bumped up to 6000. After that, he came back again and said "Maybe we should add a collectors edition" so now we're at 8000 for PS4. Then it was "Let's release a big box version for PC" so now there's another 2000. It just kept growing and growing and still didn't meet demand. What's funny is the guy that made the announcement trailer and myself was constantly googling Night Trap that day just to see what was being said but then we went to the trending section on Youtube and we're like "Oh my god! The trailer is trending higher than Gucci Mane!" For a brief moment a game that a lot of people considered terrible was all of a sudden popular and I think that's rad.

CI: What do you think it is about Night Trap that has made it so beloved amongst fans?

SV: It has a b-movie feel to it and doesn't take itself seriously. A lot of hate that it gets is sort of undeserving. The popular ones are usually "this is barely a game" or "this has bad acting". NT was made 5 years before it was finally released and intended for a console that used VHS tapes and the acting is very similar to 80's horror/thriller films. Unfortunately, it was the wrong time period when it was finally released in 1992 and at that point nobody was really reminiscing about the 80's like they do today. The fans that are super hardcore about Night Trap are usually gamers that have a great interest in movies in general. What surprised me was the number of people that I've talked to that said Digital Pictures influenced them to pursue a career in the film or tv industry.

CI: Were there any notable, unforeseen difficulties during development?

SV: Engine restrictions was the biggest issue. I figured out pretty quickly that a lot of the gaming engines available weren't really designed with FMV in mind so because of this I think the video quality suffered more than I would've liked. Luckily, this is no longer an issue with future releases.

CI: How did the Limited Run Games physical release come about?

SV: The dudes from My Life In Gaming actually brought it up. One of those guys lives down the street from me and very early in the development process I told him I was working on Night Trap and wanted a documentary to go along with it since it has a crazy history and I thought it'd be a cool promotional tool. He immediately suggested that I work with Limited Run Games. Over the next several months I kept telling him that I'd think about it whenever he brought it up.

About a month before the game was announced, Coury came to my house to film my interview for the documentary. After we were finished he brought up Limited Run again so I told him to go ahead and tell them what I was working on. Ten minutes later, I got an email from Josh Fairhurst. Limited Run is super rad and I honestly can't imagine doing any game without their involvement so I'll most likely harrass them with each release that I do. They actually ported Night Trap to Nintendo Switch. I can't say anything bad about those dudes. They've helped me tremendously.

CI: So the Nintendo Switch version of the game comes with Japanese & French audio, was this something Screaming Villains commissioned themselves? Did Night Trap have an original Japanese and French release? And what was the reasoning behind including the new audio?

SV: The Japanese and French audio actually came from previous releases. I got ahold of copies of the game that were originally released in Europe and Japan and just ripped the audio from the disks. Before it was released I started getting messages and emails asking for additional language options so that's where that idea came from.

CI: So Night Trap as a copious history with Nintendo, when the company called out the game out in court, vowing it would never appear on a Nintendo system, which lead to some bad blood between the original Devs and Nintendo. How did it feel to finally put Night Trap on a Nintendo System?

SV: I think it's cool. Digital Pictures always released their games on Sega consoles and 3DO so it's super rad that one of them finally ended up on a Nintendo console. Definitely long overdue. With Night Trap getting released on there with a Teen rating without cutting any content might hopefully stop people from claiming that the game uses violence against women to move the story further which is absolultely ridiculous along with everything else that people claim is in there that doesn't even exist.

CI: What was the decision to go with Double Switch as the next FMV game to remaster?

SV: Double Switch just seemed like the obvious choice since it's the same type of game as Night Trap but everything is improved on. You could I guess call it the spiritual successor to Night Trap. It's also my favorite game from Digital Pictures. I think it was expected too. Back in February, I met a lot of the people that worked on Friday The 13th The Game. When I was introduced to the Executive Director Randy Greenback the first thing he said to me was "Are you doing Double Switch next?!" Josh from Limited Run was campaigning for it pretty hard too since his aunt is a childhood friend of Debbie Harry who appears in the game. A very short teaser for it was showng during the Limited Run E3 conference. While watching the conference there were people leaving comments like "Just announce Double Switch already!"

CI: Night Trap special editions in the past have come with cassette tapes, patches, and even a VHS tape. Can you tell us if Double Switch special edition will come with anything like that?

SV: It most likely will but I have no idea what since I haven't really talked to Limited Run about those options yet. Usually what happens is they throw an idea at me and I pretty much agree to all of them. They're huge Sega nerds like I am so I trust them with their ideas. The idea of pogs came up for Night Trap but we ran out of time so it wouldn't surprise me if that happened with Double Switch.

I'm sure it'll come in a Sega CD jewel case too since Limited Run ordered about 15,000 of those. I will say that it's getting a completely new cover since the original ones are kind of lame and don't really fit with the type of game that it is.

It looks super rad! DS also has a super rad soundtrack that was done by Thomas Dolby, who wrote and performed the hit song "She Blinded Me With Science" so I was hoping that a stereo version of the soundtrack existed so we could release that but sadly it's all mono.

CI: There was some rumors that Screaming Villains have been working on bringing, Marky Mark: Make My Video to the PS4. Can you confirm this?

SV: Oh dear....that was a joke that went too far. What happened was Josh Fairhurst and I kept getting our tweets captured and used as news articles for very minor stuff. I hated it because I wasn't used to this sort of thing since Night Trap was my first console release and Josh was beyond frustrated with it because of a random person making a negative comment about Nintendo, which led to a gaming site writing an article claiming that Josh spoke negatively about Nintendo when it wasn't even him or even anyone affiliated with LR.

They were forced to update the article and admit that they were wrong. After that, we started tweeting each other about a re-release of Marky Mark but making it sound official like it was an actual thing that was happening just to see if anyone would start turning that into articles.

One night, I took it a step further and made a working version of the game running on a PS4 in about an hour and then the next day we both posted a link to a video showing it. That got yanked from Youtube within the first 20 minutes. We used to talk about it all the time trying to figure out how to make it happen since the idea is too ridiculous to ignore but no. No remake of Marky Mark Make My Video.CI: What other FMV games do you want to bring to modern consoles?

CI: What other FMV games do you want to bring to modern consoles?

SV: My original goal was to get as many games from Digital Pictures as I can which is pretty much happening now. Night Trap and Double Switch aren't the only ones coming. Outside of DP releases the goal is D which was originally released back in 1995. I feel like there's a ton of different things you can do with that one.

CI: Lastly is there anything you would like to say to the readers?

The obvious thing would be thank you to everyone that played NT25. It was a stressful process so it made me happy to see that people that were fans of the original enjoyed it. Also, if you're a fan of Digital Pictures releases then stick around because some super rad stuff is coming!

[jewrocker]

Small Town Racism is Alive and Well.  Even if You’re White.

____by Joshua Aaron___________________________________

PROLOGUE:  I don’t normally post articles by other writers on my blog.  However, after friends of mine told me what they’re experiencing in their community just outside of Austin, I thought it worthy of a share.  Even with millions marching/protesting from sea to shining sea, small town racism is unchanged/unaffected.  And it doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, green or purple.  Call someone out for their separatist views, and you may suddenly find yourself the target of that same vitriol. - DF

_______________________________________________

I want to start off by saying, the story I am about to tell is my personal experience. In no way should it detract from the hardships that people of color face every single day, nor should it detract from the incredibly inspiring actions of the BLM movement or other organizations around the country fighting for equality.

I’m a white male with a white wife, living in a nice house in the suburbs of Austin, TX.  I’m completely aware of the privilege I enjoy, and have lived my life trying my best to stand up when I see an injustice.  And, while recent events called on me, as well as my wife, to do just that, we experienced, for the first time, the backlash that can occur when blowing the whistle on hate.

We moved here about seven years ago from Los Angeles. While our intention was not to move to the suburbs, this move gave us an opportunity to work together from home, and spend quite a bit more time enjoying each other’s company.

Austin is marketed as a city with "progressive views, abundant culture, and Texas charm".  Compared to other parts of Texas, that’s probably true … as long as you’re white.

My wife decided that she wanted to be more involved with our community and, subsequently, was invited to become a member of the Architectural Control Committee (ACC). Towards the end of 2019, and after experiencing what the HOA (Homeowners Assoc.) Board of Directors was (or, more accurately was not) doing, one of the board members up for re-election opted not to run again. My wife saw this as an opportunity to enact real change in a community of over 600 families - a community where the majority of neighbors often expressed their disapproval of our “Do nothing HOA Board”.  She spoke with another board member, whom she voted for the year prior, about her potential run and received very encouraging feedback. The board member even offered to help with her campaign, and expressed her desire for “real change” to take place.

That board member, who we will call “Glenda”, came to our home unexpectedly this past holiday season and gave my wife a gift card for her amazing work on the ACC. That night is where our story really begins.

Prior to Glenda’s visit, our social committee held a neighborhood holiday party. While they’re free to call it a “holiday” party all they want, it was undoubtedly a Christmas party, complete with plenty of bible quotes and Santa Claus. As a longtime resident and member of the social committee, Glenda is heavily involved in planning events and has a loyal (we had no idea how loyal) group of friends who assist her.

Our community is made up of a diverse mix of religions and cultures. During this party, both my wife and I heard from many of our Indian neighbors that they felt their cultural heritage and religious beliefs had been excluded in favor of Christianity. As my wife had recently decided to run for the HOA Board, after the party, she and I spoke at length about their concerns, and how to address inclusivity within our neighborhood.

Back to the night Glenda came to our home. As we spoke, my wife and I raised concerns that HOA events had a tendency to exclude many of our neighbors. We explained that, rather than just make it about Christianity, we, as community leaders, should represent/honor the cultures of everyone in our neighborhood, i.e. the food, customs, clothing, songs, etc. To our complete surprise, this did not sit well with Glenda. As she responded to our suggestions and comments, she made clear her distaste for “those people” who were the ones responsible for taking her religion out of her children’s school, and forcing them to sing songs from, or learn about, other religions.  “Those People” were the very ones preventing her and her family from celebrating Christmas “the way [she] used to”.

The comments made by Glenda in my living room obviously stem from a much larger and systemic issue playing out before us every minute of the day on social media. It’s our belief, seeing two white faces, Glenda felt comfortable expressing views she wouldn’t ever consider sharing with the general public.  When people, especially those in positions of leadership, espouse racist remarks, they are telling the rest of us that it is acceptable behavior. It is not. The actions of an HOA will never save lives, but as we have seen, unchecked racism can spread quickly and that is what can cost them.

To say we were shocked and appalled by Glenda’s words is to put it lightly. However, rather than expressing the bewilderment and disgust we both felt, we decided to take the “Don’t Hate.  Educate.” approach.

Politely, but without backing down, we explained that the Indian culture in particular was a chance to celebrate beauty and diversity. Sticking to her guns, Glenda continued to press her point of view. We kept up the appearance of calm, but quickly and peacefully ended this exchange. After that night, everything changed.

From that evening on, Glenda was distrustful of my wife and I - No more casual conversations or unexpected visits. Glenda even retracted her offer to help my wife run for the board. All of Glenda’s friends, who previously offered to help with her campaign, disappeared overnight.

One of the major platforms of my wife's campaign was to make our neighborhood more inclusive.  She openly advocated for it on social media, as well as in person when we campaigned door to door. More than two-thirds of the voting community decided they, too wanted their community to be more inclusive, and she won the election. Things seemed to be moving in the right direction. Wrong.

Glenda’s disdain for my wife followed her into office. Every proposal, policy, and suggestion she ran on was blocked and/or obstructed by both Glenda and the other board member. After my wife volunteered countless hours of work for the HOA drafting charters and policies, the board members would routinely blindside her by publicly denying motions they had privately approved of, just hours before.  Small town politics makes our Congress look like a well-oiled machine.

Last week, at the most recent board meeting, the situation came to a head. Sure enough, when my wife's items came up, the other board members, who at the last meeting approved her moving forward with all of them, blocked her at every turn, refusing to answer why. We were flabbergasted. Once again, all this time and effort she spent, not to mention the board having no problem wasting HOA dues paying the neighborhood's attorney to review everything, was thrown away for the simple, petty reason of obstructing her. I had enough. When it was time for residents to speak, I made my voice heard and I called them out for their actions.

For the past six months I had held my tongue about the conversation in our living room with Glenda. Make no mistake, I wasn’t hiding it, but in order to support my wife's endeavors via her position on the Board, we both opted to keep it to ourselves and, instead of starting a war, we would do our best to enact the change we, and an overwhelming majority of our community, wanted.  However, at this point, silence was no longer an option.

I wrote a lengthy, yet poignant, response to the board and posted it on our community Facebook page, at the end including the nature of Glenda’s comments in our home a few months prior. I didn’t bother going into the detail I have in this article, and instead chose to disclose a small snippet of that evening’s events in the hopes that the members of our community would realize it was time to stand up and fight for the neighborhood they supposedly wanted.

Believing that conversation to be the turning point of our relationship with Glenda, I thought it pertinent our neighbors know why she was so passionately driven to discredit my wife's efforts. There were many layers in my argument, but in the end, the only thing recognized by the community were the two sentences that mentioned racist comments.

What happened next came as a shock to both of us.

The vocal majority came directly to the defense of Glenda, without exception. Not a single person questioned if her statements were possibly “misconstrued?”  There was no acknowledgement from anyone about the obvious and immediate degradation of the relationship between Glenda and us. Instead, to our utter disbelief, there was steadfast, outright denial that anything of that nature could have ever escaped Glenda’s lips. Not a single person would even entertain for a minute the possibility the person they’ve known for years could be a racist. Instead, we were the ones shamed. We became the outcasts.

Below is a list of just a few of the things that have occurred over this past week:

We were called liars on social media by the vocal majority, and were told we have no credibility.

We were threatened with legal action by way of a libel lawsuit.

My wife's access to our community website, as well as her admin privileges on our neighborhood’s Facebook page were removed without her knowledge/consent.

I was banned from our neighborhood’s Facebook page from posting or commenting.

Just after the latest HOA Board Meeting, a silver pickup pulled up in front our home and shouted at us through a bull horn.

The day after the meeting, a silver sedan sat parked in front of our house, then sped away as soon as we opened the front door.

My wife has been threatened by a person of “authority” in our neighborhood with fabricated allegations of criminal activity.

This person has also threatened the business we own, as well as our personal and professional reputation, claiming to be sending allegations we know to be false, to the county, state, and media.

As millions march to protest blatant, undeniable examples of racism throughout our country, it’s the ones whispered behind closed doors, the ones not captured on audio or video, that can often have the most damaging long term effects on our society. We chose to speak out against the accepted norm;  Against the thinly veiled racist practices and actions of our community, and we are now experiencing the ramifications of it.

As the backlash unfolded, my initial instinct was to make it go away and protect my family.  I deleted the Facebook post the day after the backlash, but I’ve felt sick about doing so ever since.  What does it say about me that I would remove that post?  My wife and I spoke with our friends, one of whom is former Huff Post contributor, David Fagin, and it was suggested that we document our experience with the hope of continuing the conversation, regardless of the ramifications.

Forget about a neighborhood Facebook page. Instead, tell anyone/everyone who will listen about what is happening to us, and, most likely, to many others as we speak.

This is everywhere. We need to stop accepting the oppression and exclusion of the people next door as “the way things are.” That’s how we try to live our lives.

As far as my wife's seat on the board, after lengthy discussions, we came to the conclusion, rather than spend the next several years being met with incessant opposition simply trying to help a reluctant community, she will resign her position.  Instead, we will both focus our efforts to affect change wherever we can, no matter how small.

I’m not proud that it took me so long to call attention to these racist statements made by a person of authority in my community. As a white family, we have the privilege to sit back and stay quiet, thinking it won’t affect us directly, but apathy and silence in the face of such behavior only serves to empower it.

Racism and hatred have no place in this world and it’s up to each and every one of us to stand up, speak out, rise up, and make our voices heard.

J.A.

[berniesrevolution]

JACOBIN MAGAZINE

Twenty years ago, the Teamsters’ national strike against United Parcel Service (UPS) produced panic, if not outright hysteria, in the corporate boardrooms of the United States.

The editorial writers of the Wall Street Journal were at their wits’ end:

The UPS strike is so weird it’s hard to know where to begin. Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that the mighty Teamsters has suddenly decided it must paralyze the nation’s parcel-distribution system to have it out over mostly voluntary part-timers and various pension arcana. These matters may be worth an argument, but Armageddon? What’s this weird, awful strike about anyway?

Everybody else, though, seemed to get it.

Then-New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote that the UPS strike “is best seen as the angry fist-waving response of the frustrated American worker, a revolt against the ruthless treatment of workers by so many powerful corporations.” Even right-wing Chicago Sun-Times columnist Dennis Byrne didn’t have to think too hard about it: “Working men and women have paid dues enough; it’s time to pass around some of the prosperity.”

With 185,000 Teamsters on strike for nearly three weeks beginning on August 4, 1997, fighting under the slogan of “Part-Time America Won’t Work,” the UPS strike proved to be the most popular strike in a generation. Now that the US and world economy revolves around the burgeoning logistics industry — dominated by giant corporations like UPS, FedEx, Walmart, and the quickly growing Amazon — we should look back to the 1997 UPS strike for lessons on how to revive a dying labor movement, and how to hit capital where it hurts.

Contract Campaign

The future of the Teamsters hung on the outcome of the 1997 UPS contract.

Ron Carey, the Teamsters’ first reform-minded general president, was elected to office in 1991 against two old-guard slates in the first government-monitored, rank-and-file election in the union’s history. The majority of his slate were members of the Teamsters for Democratic Union (TDU), the longstanding Teamsters reform group whose origins were in the radical rank-and-file movements of the 1970s.

Carey won the election with a little more than 48 percent of the vote, shocking the media, labor officialdom, and major employers who thought he didn’t have a shot at winning. The TDU imprint on the victory of the Carey slate was unmistakable. Post-election, TDU concluded:

A close look at the election results shows clearly that where TDU organizing has been strongest, the Carey Slate win was strongest — even in the opposing camp’s back yards.

Carey’s triumph set off a chain reaction of events that toppled the sclerotic leadership of the AFL-CIO in 1995 and culminated in the 1997 UPS strike. Soon after taking office in 1992, Carey cut his own salary and eliminated the many perks of office held dear by previous old-guard officers and staff such as limousines and private jets — the infamous “Teamsters air force.” He also began the difficult and painstaking process of removing dozens of corrupt local leaders, many connected to the mob.

He shocked UPS in February 1994 with a national safety strike after the company unilaterally raised the weight limit of packages, in violation of the contract. The company was not expecting such a militant response to a move they considered to be their prerogative. Clearly, UPS was dealing with a different type of Teamster leader.

Carey won re-election in 1996 against an old-guard slate led by James P. Hoffa, son of the notorious and presumed-dead Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa. It was a physically demanding and bruising contest. Teamster employers clearly favored a Hoffa victory as akin to something of a welcome counterrevolution in their eyes. “In all honesty, my clients’ interests are best served by a return to the Old Teamsters,” declared Gary Marsack, a Milwaukee-based lawyer representing Teamster employers, and a former grocery industry executive.

Ron Carey and the reformers triumphed in no small part due to Carey promising major gains in the upcoming 1997 contract. In order to win those gains at UPS, the Teamsters organized a contract campaign on a massive scale. “First, you have to get organized. You have to have something that brings you together. When you are organized, you then create the leverage you need,” recalled Ron Carey. The leverage Carey wanted could only be achieved by a national contract campaign.

Rand Wilson was tapped to be communications coordinator and campaign strategist for the contract campaign. Before being recruited by Teamster friends to work under the new reform leadership, Wilson had worked since the 1980s as a union organizer and led several important labor-centered political campaigns.

Steven Greenhouse, the labor reporter for the New York Times, observed Wilson in action during the fractious 1996 Teamster convention in Philadelphia:

Tucked in a booth belonging to the union’s Parcel & Small Package Division, Rand Wilson was preoccupied with another, distant battle. He was buttonholing dozens of UPS shop stewards and stuffing their pockets with a booklet called “Countdown to the Contract.” It contained a month-by-month calendar until the July 31 strike deadline and gave myriad tips on how to escalate pressure on the company and build a communications network to keep workers informed and involved.

“The International Union began sending bulletins to every UPS member’s home,” Wilson later wrote. Fellow communication department staffer Matt Witt,

highlight[ed] the importance of Teamster families’ involvement in the upcoming contract campaign. Nine months before the contract deadline, every member received a survey asking them to help shape the union’s bargaining priorities.

Wilson crafted the membership survey with Ron Carey and Ken Hall, a West Virginia Teamster and the new parcel director for the Teamsters. The survey asked members what priority the union negotiating committee should place on either creating more full-time jobs, winning wage increases, or improving pensions. The “Countdown to the Contract: UPS Teamster Bargaining Survey” was more than a long list of questions. “The bargaining survey was a very important part of the contract campaign,” according to Wilson.

Working closely with the Research Department, we put a lot of effort into how we framed issues so that the questions didn’t divide full timers from part timers, or feeder drivers from package car drivers. The distribution and return of the surveys was just as important because that allowed the leadership to gain intelligence about which locals had the organizational capacity to get a large number filled-out and returned.  It signaled who were willing to actively participate.

It was expected that UPS would continue their push for major concessions from the union — possibly greater ones than demanded in the past. Unsurprisingly, the survey found that for 90 percent of part timers, the top priority was creating more full-time jobs. The Teamsters Research Department produced a well-documented booklet Half a Job Is Not Enough that revealed, among many other shocking things:

The last Teamster-UPS contract was negotiated in 1993. Since then, the part-time work force at UPS had grown by 43 percent, while the number of full-time jobs has grown by only 10 percent. UPS has hired an additional 46,300 workers, but more than 38,500 of them have been placed in part-time jobs. Therefore, 83 percent of the new jobs at UPS have been part-time jobs.

It was not just the growth in the number of part-time jobs at UPS, but the shift toward part-time work.

Of course, one would expect part-time employment to grow, as the company expands. However, the shift to part-time jobs is way out of proportion when compared with overall growth in the economy. Since 1993, the volume of packages handled by UPS grew by eight percent. Total company revenues grew by 26 percent. But part-time jobs grew by 43 percent, much more rapidly than the company as a whole.

UPS made over $4 billion in profits during the life of the 1993-97 contract. It was well positioned to create more full-time jobs and close the wage gap between part-time and full-time workers and UPS workers knew it. More than 100,000 of them signed a petition demanding that UPS stop increasing the number of part-time jobs and start creating more full-time ones.

During the past two contract negotiations, the Teamsters struggled to successfully counter the company’s daily propaganda broadcasts at “Pre-Work Communication Meetings” (PCMs). For this contract campaign, to ensure a regular flow of information to the ranks, Ken Hall instructed

all Teamster local unions to set up “member-to-member” communication networks. Under these networks, each steward or other volunteer was responsible for communication with approximately twenty workers. The International Union deployed education staff and field representatives — some of them UPS rank-and-filers — to help locals get the networks established.

The “member-to-member” campaign was certainly the largest initiative ever in the union — if not the entire US labor movement — to involve 185,000 rank-and-file union members in a contract campaign.

We Wanted People We Could Count On

The Field Services Department was to play a crucial role in the upcoming contract campaign. Carey created it soon after taking office for his first term, and it organized contract campaigns and ran strikes for contracts negotiated by the international union in Washington. Field Services Department director David Eckstein worked closely with Rand Wilson, training a crew of field representatives for the upcoming UPS contract campaign.

Eventually forty people, drawn from a cross-section of the varied Teamster membership including freight, car haul, warehousing, and UPS, were trained to focus exclusively on the campaign. “We wanted people we could count on,” David Eckstein recalled. “We wanted to create an army the company couldn’t buy.”

The field representatives were expected to work around uncooperative local officials, mostly old-guard figures allied with James P. Hoffa. “We had a lot of resistance in Minnesota and Wisconsin,” Eckstein remembered. Carey and Eckstein held two-man meetings with local officials about the upcoming contract. Eckstein vividly remembers Carey laying it on the line:

I know some of you don’t like me, but this is a national contract campaign and it is going to happen. We have two plans: Plan A is where we give you everything you need to move the campaign in your local, and Plan B is the same as Plan A but we move it in your local without you.

According to Eckstein, Carey made it clear that the full weight of the general president’s office would be brought to bear on uncooperative local officials — including the possibility of the nuclear option, trusteeship, in which the international union would seize control of a local and dismiss much of its leadership.

On March 7, four days before national negotiations began, the Teamsters organized a national contract meeting with two representatives from each of the 206 local unions representing UPS workers to outline contract goals and strategy.

Three days later, UPS Teamsters rallied in ten major cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Seattle. “UPS is a billion-dollar company,” Carey told the media, “that can afford to provide good full-time jobs with pensions and health care.” The rallies around the country gave UPS Teamsters confidence that the international union was solidly behind their most important demands and grievances.

On March 11, contract proposals were exchanged. As predicted, UPS, despite making record profits, demanded wide-ranging concessions on subcontracting, pensions, and health care coverage.

(Continue Reading)

[sitabethel]

re corporate-conspireshipping, who did seto fall for first? was he aware of the conspireshipping going on in the background beforehand, or was he the 'first' of the harem (bc we all know ryou's in charge obvs) to appear?

I sort of answer that in this old post, but here’s an extension to the beginning bit. (So to sum up: he falls for Ryou first, but not until well into the RPG. Yes he knew about the the corporate fracturshipping going on beforehand. Ooops, I just realized that fracturshipping and conspireshipping are different ships [like just this moment realized you said conspireshipping instead of fracturshipping], but I already wrote this so, um, have an extra Bakura on the house?)

Card games, Seto wanted card games, but it was more than card games, Seto wanted the passion. He wanted to be challenged, he wanted the drive to push himself further than he’d ever had before and come through that trial of fire in a new transcended state, and one person had ever given him that level of intensity.

 Atem.

 Thus, Seto restored the Puzzle, fought Diva, acquired the Cube, and build a ship that would allow him to penetrate that impenetrable veil between this world and the Other. In that moment he saw him, the Pharaoh, rising up from a golden throne with an amused grin. There, in the land of gods and spirits, Seto had put everything on the line with a challenge to a card game.

 “If I win,” Atem said in a warning voice. “You can never come back. It’s not time for you to be here, Seto.”

 “Oh I don’t plan on returning.” Seto smirked. “Because after I win, you’re coming back with me.”

 Atem sighed as if he expected no less but didn’t have the heart to tell Seto that his desire to bring Atem back was impossible. Atem descended down the steps, a duel disk that matched Seto’s appeared on his arm. He stood in place- as fiery, determined, and set on winning as Seto remembered him.

 “Let’s duel!”

 Hours later … Seto won.

 And Atem came back.

 His idiot cheerleaders rejoiced. They thanked Kaiba, as if he did it for them. They recounted the old times and explained everything Atem had missed since he left, but Seto didn’t care about any of it. He wanted another match. He’d beaten Atem in one world, now he’d beat him again in this one. Their rivalry picked up where it’d left off, only far more fierce, until one night the tension broke when Seto slammed Atem against a wall and smashed their lips together with angry, graceless, force. Atem grabbed Seto by the hair and pulled them closer, breaking the kiss only to add bites to Seto’s throat.

 They wake the next morning sore, and scratched, and exhausted despite the hard sleep. They do it all again after the next card game, and the card game after that. It’s everything Seto ever wants.

 Except all the empty moments in between.

 The Pharaoh has many admirers, and he loves Yugi most. There are many nights without cardgames. Seto buries himself in work as usual, swears he’d glad for the opportunity to get things done, but there are too many long nights, and too much caffeine. Seto also finds himself being dragged to group gatherings, and he hates it. Seto often forsakes Atem altogether in those moments, and goes off to a quiet room to catch up on his emails via his cellphone, or take a powernap on a spare couch. During one such nap during Honda’s birthday party, Seto can hear voices entering the room. He’s a light sleeper, so it wakes him, but he doesn’t want to participate in the conversation, so he keeps his eyes shut in hopes that the speakers will see him and move on.

 “But how can you live with him? After everything he did to you?”

 It was Atem’s voice, so Seto cracks an eye open, wondering what the conversation is about. The next voice is Ryou’s.

 “I keep telling you, I didn’t bring back the Spirit of the Ring- Marik did. I was trying to rescue the Thief King.”

 “I thought they were the same.”

 “They are, and they aren’t, the spell made them two separate people, although they’re still a little connected. It’s complicated.” Ryou exhaled. “The entire thing was complicated, but no one was really happy until we all came together.” Ryou tapped the spot on Atem’s chest where the Puzzle used to sit. “Our own puzzle, all our broken edges fit together.”

 “But they said Bakura still has Shadow Magic.”

 “Quite honestly,” Ryou said in a straight, upfront manner. “I don’t think he’s completely human, not physiologically. He’s more of a chimera.”

 “Then how can you blame Yugi for asking me to talk to you?”

 “I don’t blame Yugi for anything. I know he’s concerned, and I’ve tried to assuage his fears on multiple occasions, and I do appreciate that everyone cares enough to worry about me, but I’m not leaving them. Atem, I love them all.”

 “But, Ryou-”

 “Oh look, Seto’s asleep on the couch.” Ryou walked over to the sofa and pulled the throw off of the back in order to tuck it around Seto’s body. “We shouldn’t wake him. Let’s go back to the party and finish this conversation later.”

 Seto shut his eyes when Ryou approached, so he didn’t see them leave, only hear footsteps. Before he opened his eyes again, he heard Ryou speaking directly to him.

 “Sorry to use you as a scapegoat, Kaiba, but I had that conversation with Yugi a dozen times already, and I just don’t have the energy for it tonight.”

 “You knew I was awake?” Seto opened his eyes.

 “Of course, unlike Atem I pay attention. I’m sorry if we woke you” Ryou dropped to the end of the sofa, leaning back, but keeping enough space so that he didn’t press too closely to Seto’s feet. “It’d be different if I was bruised, or hurt, or if I cried to them about being mistreated, but things like that never happen. They’re all very sweet to me, even Kek.”

 Seto made an acknowledging sound to show that he was listening.

 “You know, we finished our last Monster World campaign last week, and next week we start a new one. You should come play with us.”

 “I prefer Duel Monsters.”

 “Yes, of course, and I normally wouldn’t invite you, but you see, our next campaign is a dragon universe, and I think you’d love it.”

 “… I’m listening.” Seto tried to resist, but couldn’t. Dragons were the one thing that could still distract him from anything, even Atem.

 Ryou shifted to his side so he could look at Seto. His left arm braced against the couch, making white hair spill down his left side.

 “It’s a world where characters form telepathic bonds with a companion dragon. It makes for an interesting battle system because each character has to play as their job class and as their dragon class, and there’s several species of dragons. There’s a species the size of a large house cats, it’s sort of meant for thief classes. The most common species is a type of wyvern the size of a horse used for knights and mages. There’s even huge, shapeshifting dragons that can masquerade as humans- which also means there are half dragon offspring of all the major races as well.”

 “That… does sound interesting,” Seto confessed. It sounded amazing, actually. Part of him felt like he did as an excited orphan hearing about the Blue Eyes White Dragon trading card for the first time.

 “Join our campaign. It’s only once, sometimes twice, a week, so you’ll still have plenty of time for card games.”

 Noise from the party that went on without them echoed through the closed door. Seto glanced at the barrier keeping Ryou and himself isolated from the rest of the group. Seto never really fully belonged in that group, and he supposed Ryou had always been standing on the edge of it as well.

 And dragons!

 That boyish excitement filled Seto. He could be a dragon knight on a white mount. He could bond with three dragons. Even if it wasn’t part of the campaign, he was sure he could figure out a loophole and do it. He could-

 Spend a night doing something that didn’t involve waiting on his royal majesty to grace Seto with his presence, something that wasn’t work or staring at the ceiling.

 “Okay,” Seto heard himself saying. “Next week. Give me your address and I’ll be there.”

[topicprinter]

TL;DR: Back in 2018 we launched our beta. We did every possible mistake. We relaunched and so far, it is going quite smoothly. This is the story of all the f*ckups and lessons learned.---Our horrible 2018 beta launch.In 2018 we did our small, invite-only beta launch. It was the first time we ever did something like that, and of course, we walked into it blissfully inexperienced. The excitement, the stress, and stage-fright of finally pushing the product we’ve been working on to the people who signed up to our smoke tests was a fantastic rush. It ended up being one of the most enriching experiences our team ever had. We failed. Hard.Instead of folding and disappearing into the darkness, we did our post-mortem, learned and kept going. The product failed, not the idea; our approach failed, not the concept. “ What do we do when we fall? We pick ourselves up.” And that’s what we did. We came out with a stronger team. It’s more difficult to kill us now, we just refuse to die.Here’s a short story of how NOT to launch a startup:It’s March 2018 and our to-do list is almost empty. Two solid years of designing, coding, good days and bad days. We turned a few drawings into a fully functioning music web app. Music was playing through it, loops syncing… this is perfect.The interface is exactly what we need. I pushed hard for that design. I thought it was perfect. My background is in economics, I’m color-blind, and awful at drawing. Naturally, I’m the best-suited person for the job.We had thoroughly tested the idea. The first round of Smoke Tests helped us to validate the idea — before a single line of code or design meeting ever happened. The response was overwhelming: people wanted this. That was the initial spark that jump-started this madness. We lined up the core working team and plunged into work. It took time, more than we ever thought it would take. I wish I could say we are a team that goes from idea to launch in 3 days. We’re not. Most teams aren’t. We’re no exception.A month before, in February 2018, we took the app to the rehearsal studio and played with it (we’re all musicians). It worked. Did some stress tests. Worked. The browser can hold multiple high-quality audio files streaming at the same time. This works.We got an extra batch of loops from friends and users who subscribed to the smoke test, we ran a Facebook campaign to get more people for the launch. We had music, users lined up. Just a few more touches and we’d be good to go.We coded a basic admin interface, an email-based invite system and our social media was packed with content. We were getting ready to launch a rocket to the moon. And so, by early March, we could see the light at the end of the tunnel.L-Day (launch-day) was set for April 20th, 2018.We were getting anxious. I was bursting at the seams. I was very, very anxious. I was so anxious, I bought a ticket to Amsterdam (we’re a remote team, Federico, our CTO, lives in Leiden, The Netherlands) without much thought — “I’m flying over there to launch this, is going to be awesome!”. Was it my wedding anniversary around the same time I was supposed to be in Amsterdam? Yes. Was it Federico’s anniversary also around the same days I was crashing at their place? Yes. Did I think about it when I bought the ticket? Nope.During that final month we did the migration to Amazon S3, did a backend cleanup, tested the invite system, our admin system, a basic analytics Federico built and we were — almost — good to go.Spoiler alert: did I mention anything about thorough QA? No, I didn’t. Did I mention anything about UX testing for the interface? I think I didn’t. Any hints of where this is going?My ticket to Amsterdam was for April 19th, arriving on the 20th. A 90-minute flight from St. Louis, MO (where I live) to St Paul, MN; a 3 and-a-half hour layover and then 8 hours to Amsterdam. Almost 13 hours of travel time. The same day you decide to launch. This will work, of course.April 19th came. I packed, said goodbye to my wife and got on an Uber to the airport. Not before I made sure to send the first batch of “Welcome to XXX, here’s the link to log in” emails to some users. I wanted to “test” how that went, see what kind of response we’d get and iterate — on my way to the airport and flying over the Atlantic!For the following 20 hours, I behaved like a maniac. Got to the airport, checked in, went to the gate, double espresso, opened the computer and kept going. Re-read a few Paul Graham essays, my notes on 2 books on launching products and previous notes I made. Got to St. Paul, MN; another double espresso and listed all the early users, friends and family who would get the email.“Group 5 for Amsterdam Schiphol is now boarding”. Closed the computer, got on the plane, opened the small table, opened the computer and started to re-write the templates for the invite emails. “Sir, you have to close the computer and your table, we’re about to take off”… Sh*t… “We have reached 10,000 feet, it is safe now to use your electronic devices”. Opened the computer, finished the template, planned the next few days, wrote templates for all the follow-up emails, got my notes and the flow of actions for each scenario. 8-hour flight. Not a single minute of sleep. I’m on a roll.Landed in Schiphol, met Federico, got on a train, arrived at his place, said hello to his wife, fresh pot of coffee, opened the computer, sent 223 invite emails + follow-ups, ate an entire tray of lasagna together with Federico, kept going for another hour, went out for beers.System crashed. Please stand by…April 21st, 2018. Noon. Wake up. Feel I’ve been hit by a train. I need coffee and a decent breakfast.I check my emails and there’s not a lot happening. Strange… OK… we check the app analytics, a good number of sessions but not as many as users on the database. Not even half. OK, maybe it’s early. Let’s wait a few more hours. Early evening comes by, let’s apply the follow-up flow of “hey did you get our invite?” and for those who logged in, ask for feedback. Emails sent. Let’s wait.And the answers started to roll in…“None of the links have worked in the emails I’ve received… the invitation, the email login confirmation or when I downloaded a drum loop”.“I first tried on my phone and it was quite hard to navigate, there was an odd control issue that happened whenever the screen rotated. like it would get the horizontal and vertical screen controls mixed up or something. ““I was trying to access it from an android smartphone and the page was really unresponsive.. in fact I couldn’t get anything to work.”And a lot more of the like. This is not looking good.There were multiple issues that were being reported, and given the time difference between the US (where most of our initial users were) and Europe, there we were… pulling hotfixes like maniacs at 2 AM.When you logged in to our app, we used to send you to the “Profile” view, where you had to fill your personal info (name, instruments you played, your social media, etc). We realized that a lot of users were staying in that view and not doing anything, which was very strange. And then, we got an email with a video.You can watch the video here https://youtu.be/xrh7Ly_Cwk4What followed were two weeks of fantastic feedback (fantastic = you’re doing it all wrong). We fixed all (or nearly all) the bugs and let users know when they were fixed. But, there was still one problem that needed more time to fix: the interface was horrible. The same user who sent the video was kind (and awesome) enough to — instead of sending a note -, he actually sent an audio explaining why our product was not working for him.Audio here https://soundcloud.com/tomas-sawada/robinsfeedback/s-r3gVkAnd that was the case with many others. The interface wasn’t good. Users were confused.A month after the launch our engagement was almost nonexistent. It didn’t matter how much we pushed, nothing was happening.Launch: failed.We let a few days go by, but we felt strong. I don’t know why. I was brain-fried (no surprise there), but still eager to understand, learn and keep going. The team was the same. And so, we did a post mortem. An honest, as unbiased as possible, exercise to understand our next steps.Below, the main points we arrived at:What worked:We managed to generate demand and users to the application and the idea; this validates that we are on the right idea.We managed to generate feedback from users. This was vital to understand our failures.We developed an analytics system that allows us to quickly understand what’s not working.We understood very quickly that things had to change. Within a month of the launch, we were working on the redesign. This means we are being agile to understand the problems and addressing them.We reached 65% of the beta users' goal, and although the beta process is not over, we had an interface that didn’t help much. It was a good number to start.We managed to implement all the features we set out to do, with very efficient code and excellent browser load. That’s important.Users sent us music. We did not have to persuade people with money, gifts or other methods.Contacting users through email gives them the initial push to access the app. For a small launch, it is effective enough.What did not work:We did not achieve our user goal, recurrence, and engagement.Based on user feedback, the interface was not intuitive. Only 1 out of 65 users had a recurrence and solid engagement.Only 1 person used the feedback tab that we implemented.30% got trapped in the “profile” view, which led many to not return.We launched without doing QA or usability testing. The rush to launch blinded us of the obvious.The services offered were too many: Jam, Sell, Connect. We communicated everything together and tried to cover everything. It was confusing for many users.What we learned and have to change for the next versionThe interface has to be easy to understand.We have to simplify things to the fullest. From the offer to the UX, to the communication.QA Testing (cross-browser and cross-device).We have to do UX testing with users several times and fix things before launching again until we see that the application makes sense. Let’s be super critical of what we do.More personal contact with users. While we were sending emails, perhaps we lacked more direct contact, which prevented us to understand the context and use cases.Launch small and incrementally add users. Let’s never again launch to everybody at the same time, especially if we have not thoroughly tested.There’s a limit to the “launch fast and iterate”. If you frustrate your users and they hate the experience, then there’s nothing much to iterate. They’re gone.This experience could have easily killed our team. In fact, an experience like this killed the previous team that Federico and I formed a decade ago. What is most surprising to me is the fact that I repeated mistakes, especially launching like this and doing exactly the opposite of what I should have done: be calm, collected and launch in the most efficient way. A decade ago, we launched a product in some similar fashion — although it wasn’t a code-based product — and I (we) crashed and burned. I few weeks after this 2018 launch I felt like a complete idiot. It’s not a nice feeling to have. Never again.My burnout lasted for a few months, and the team rallied and pushed through like spartans. We want to keep working together. The product failed, the idea didn’t. Our approach failed, not the concept. But we had to change a lot and learn. We changed the interface, we now do thorough QAs, UX tests with users. We don’t take anything for granted.But, most importantly, we’re creating a process for launching products. We still have a lot to learn, but we’re getting closer. We’ve made tons of mistakes, and we’ll keep making them. If we’re making mistakes, we’re moving forward.This experience didn’t kill us. It made us a stronger team. In fact, as of January 2020, we are doing our second launch, incorporating 100% of the lessons we learned. So far, it is going quite smoothly. And while things took longer than expected (don’t they always?), we’re proud and happy with what we’ve learned and achieved over the past two years. We’re here. Up & running.Cherish your failures, they are amazing learning experiences!!Hope is useful for some of you before you embark on a launch spree. May the force be with you.