zichqec

[zichqec]

Etc. Jam 2024 has concluded, and here are the results!

Before we get into it, just a reminder that Etc. Jam will be moving to the start of the year, and will take place before Ghost Jam. That means we'll be hosting another one in a few months, so keep an eye out if you'd like to participate!

This year's event was announced at the last minute, so there wasn't as much participation as last year. Even so, there were 8 projects by 7 participants!

Of those projects, 3 of them were balloons, and there was one shell, freeshell, calendar skin, guide, and plugin.

3 projects were completed in just 24 hours, completing the 24 hour challenge, and 3 users completed the variety challenge by creating at least 2 projects of different types!

Congratulations to everyone who participated!

And without further ado, see below for the list of projects!

Sheet Cat, a freeshell by SmokyCinnamonRoll

[Download]

Gingham Balloon Pack, a balloon pack by Auden

(Server exclusive, only available to download in our Discord server at this time!)

Ghost Balloon, a balloon by Galla and Zichqec

[Download]

Bloodbag, a shell for Hydrate by vita/yuyudev

[Download]

Ghost Pumpkin, a balloon by SmokyCinnamonRoll

[Download]

Spookylendar, a calendar skin by Teacup is battling horrors

[Download]

How to make a SSTP‐Compatible .LRC File for SSP, a guide by idk

[Read]

Spectre, a plugin by Galla and Zichqec

[Download]

[zichqec]

Freeshell "Lollipop Tanktop"

I made another freeshell! This one's a girl with a tattoo and a lollipop. Her leg moves back and forth, occasionally kicking forward.

She comes with all the recommended expressions, as well as variants with eyes pointing in different directions and some alternate arm poses. (Altogether it comes to ~400 combinations!)

She also comes with 9 premade color options and 9 tattoo options, which you can mix and match to get something you like! You're also welcome to create your own colors and make custom tattoos if you like (there's a psd included).

It's free! Go check it out! Make a ghost! You could take this freeshell, stick it in Simplicity Template, and make a ghost without doing ANY art and no code other than settings and writing your scripts! Writing simple little ghosts is really fun, I highly recommend it.

[zichqec]

Hello, and I hope today finds you Hydrated! Hydrate day (8/20) has once again come and gone, and that means we had another 8/20 Hydrate Shell Jam in the Ukagaka Dream Team Discord server!

Not sure what that is? Please check last year's event results for more info! In short, August 20th is considered "Hydrate day", so I host an event where folks make new shells for @internetteacup and I's drink reminder ghost Hydrate! The only """rule""" for what a shell can be is that it must be something that could theoretically hold liquid, or it must itself be liquid.

As you can see from the banner above, this leads to all kinds of creative entries! This year, we had 12 shells created by 11 devs. And many of those shells have animations and/or dressups! Definitely download and check them all out, the banner doesn't do them justice.

See all the entries under the cut, and read more about the event on its wiki page!

Also, many thanks to @internetteacup for designing the announcement banner for this event!

fallen umbrella by whataphantasia

Cup of Dirt (hydrate) by SmokyCinnamonRoll

Bubble by Internet Teacup

Zelda Goddess Statue by Kris

Pumpkin Punch by Vita (yuyudev)

I died and turned into a well hydrated hamster by Galla

Turkish Tea by niSa

Spider Web by NoraSpectre

Spigot by Zichqec

The Petpet Puddle by Okuajub

Leaking from somewhere by Zichqec

yours and mine by idk

[zichqec]

Hey, appreciate you listing my event (Aughost 2024) 😊 but a couple notes here:

It's hosted by me as an individual, not the Ukagaka Dream Team! It's a subtle difference but it is one I go out of my way to make.

It's open to devs/ghosts of any language! I've been sharing the prompts with the Japanese community as well.

There are no submissions, ghosts that participate won't be listed anywhere because this style of event isn't suited for that. Additionally, anyone can use the prompts at any time if this month doesn't work out for them 😊

Also, a note for Ghost Masquerade: we asked for permission to participate, since the event organizer has to check over submissions to ensure the content is acceptable. That means for entries not in Japanese, they have to use machine translation to check the entries. All correspondance also takes place in Japanese.

It is very gracious of them to have allowed our participation, and it cannot be guaranteed that they will maintain this policy going forward. If you want to participate, please make sure to read over their rules carefully 🙏 If we are respectful when we enter their house, it is more likely we will continue to be invited back

recent + upcoming Ukagaka events (August 2024 edition)

PuniUka ぷにぷに (punipuni) is a mimetic word, meaning “squishy.” It is often used to describe the squishy feeling of chubby cheeks or arms in Japanese, this is an event for creating fanart and free shells for ghosts in a chibi artstyle. keep in mind that this is strictly for chibi (stubby legs or arms, 'super deformed' simple toony styles) style shells and fanart (NO 'lolisho' or nsfw permitted.)[entry form] (submissions open: 1st of August - submissions close: 31st of August)

Ukarte Karte (or karute) refers to a patient's medical records or chart in Japanese, It's a German loan word. Ukarte is an event for all kinds of hospital, medical and illness themed Ukagaka creations; like ghosts, additional shells for pre-existing ghosts, or extras like balloons. in this event creating ghosts based around your personal experiences with chronic illnesses or those you know personally is allowed. you can make it comedic or serious, it's up to you, however you must remember to add a content warning if your submission includes grotesque or sensitive imagery/themes , R-18G, R-18 content, etc. (submissions open: ? - submissions close: 30th of November deadline: 11/22〜30)

Aughost 2024 Aughost 2024 is an event to be hosted in August of 2024. It is a month long personal challenge, similar in concept to events such as Inktober, but focused on writing. The stated goal of the challenge is “to write new dialogue for one (or more) of your ghosts”, with 100 dialogue prompts being provided throughout the course of the month to aid in writing. this event is primarily for English speaking ghost devs and is hosted by @ukagakadreamteam! (submissions open: August 1st - submissions close: September 1st)

Ukahaka 3 anything themed around your death/the death of the Ukagaka user. artwork, screenshots, writing, any medium of expression goes. The ghosts that the project are centered around are not required to have to be currently available to be publicly downloaded. (Submissions open: 16th of July - submissions close: 1st of September)

Ukagaka object head festival 2024 (伺か異形頭ゴースト祭2024) themed around ghosts with “igyou-atama” (異形頭) or, literally, “strange-looking heads.” (Submissions open: 14th of September - submissions close: 16th of September)

Ghost Masquerade 6 this event has already concluded and closed submissions, but you can check out the entries and contributions here! there's a lot of very handy plugin downloads this round, Ghost Masquerade also encourages English speakers to participate, so please check back next time if joining collaborative projects similar to Ghost Jam interests you (submissions closed: 18th of May)

[zichqec]

It's been forever since I posted art here, and I probably won't make a habit of doing it again, but...

It is July the 4th, and that means that today is the 10th anniversary of the first drawing I posted to deviantArt. And posting to deviantArt for the first time is what really and truly kicked me into doing art all the time, and trying to improve at it.

So, this drawing is a redraw of that.

But a little history. The first time I drew Dialga was actually an art request in 2011:

I did this on a not-art-website, and I didn't even know what Dialga was at the time, really. But I liked the drawing.

Then a few years later, I had gotten into pokemon, and I played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, and I really really loved Primal Dialga. The color scheme, the soundtrack... it's so good. So, I drew Primal Dialga... and I posted this to dA on July 4th, 2014.

Someone left a comment saying it was cool, and that was enough to inspire me to draw a bunch more things and start posting there in spurts. 6 months later, I took tracing paper and fineliners, and made a clean lineart of the above drawing that I could add color to digitally.

I was trying, but whoof this one is rough 😂

Anyway... here we are, 10 years to the day from that second drawing, the first Primal Dialga I did. I've learned a ton, I've grown my skillset, art has opened all kinds of doors for me I didn't realize it would open.

I made a timeline of my art journey, as well. I don't imagine this is going to display well on Tumblr, but, well... view the full size if you can.

It's been an interesting 10 years. Here's to another decade!

(But again, I'm not likely to start posting art here again, besides ukagaka. I'm just doing it now because this is an anniversary I've been looking forward to for a long, long time...)

[zichqec]

Freeshell "More Tuna Please"

Do you want to make a ghost? How about a ghost of a cute catboy? No? Well here's a freeshell anyways!

He comes with a little tail animation, all of the recommended expressions, plus eye options for each, plus some extras I threw in for funsies, and a couple of arm poses. Altogether, the combination of all these pieces adds up to 135 surfaces (and you can use \i[] tags to add a sweat drop or blush to any surface that doesn't have them, for further flexibility!)

I also included a psd file that you can use to recolor him! You can use him as-is, but I think it would be really nice if every use of him made him a slightly different cat.

He's FREE go DOWNLOAD HIM NOW and MAKE A GHOST. Slap him into my Simplicity Template and pick a topic to write about, and you can make a ghost without doing ANY art and ALMOST NO CODING! You could have a ghost TOMORROW if you really wanted!!

If you're interested in making a quick, simple ghost with this, but you don't know where to start, feel free to chat with me and I'll indoctrinate you into the ghost-making ways :3c

[zichqec]

ATM Machine v2.0.0

An update to a ghost that everyone here definitely knew about, because I definitely didn't just not post the original version to Tumblr!

Do you want to work for a bank and service their ATM? No? Well now with the power of ukagaka, you can! Work your boring day job and earn a small but steady flow of cash, while listening to annoying bank advertisements. Or maybe there's another way to earn funds more quickly...?

Changelog:

Added custom artwork for the shell. The original clipart is now available as a separate shell called Joypixels.

Added a custom balloon, called Unyu Bank Notes. If you already have ATM Machine installed, you will need to install the balloon separately from here.

The balloon's 6 color options can be changed between in ATM's menu.

Added 200 dialogues.

Added 2 minigames, which can be accessed after you "log in".

Migrated to the Simplicity Template. As such, the ghost now has responses to various SSP functions, the same as Simplicity.

Updated to YAYA Tc571-8.

Added crime.

You can download the ghost from my website, or read about it more on our wiki!

(Not sure what ukagaka are? Start here!)

It also comes with...

Unyu Bank Notes v1.0.0

A silly money and Unyu themed balloon with 6 color options in 5 sizes each.

Download the balloon here, or read more about it on our wiki.

That's all for now! Happy April Fools' Day, yes this is a real update/release.

[zichqec]

BEHOLD, A NEW GHOST

A 6 WAY COLLABORATION, MADE IN JUST 4 HOURS USING A COLLABORATIVE TEXT EDITING SERVICE

IT HAS 600+ DIALOGUES AND 10 SHELLS

DOWNLOAD HERE, OR READ MORE HERE

COLLABORATORS: Galla SmokyCinnamonRoll Softie Teacup is Zdzisiu who is Teacup who is Zdzisiu who is Teacup Zichqec ☘

EMBRACE CHAOS

[zichqec]

SSP Angel v1.1.0

It's SSP Angel's release anniversary! 🥳 🎉

To celebrate, we've brought you an update with corrections to various information, additional glossary terms, a ton of new content, an optional floating animation for Angel, and more!

Some highlights from the changelog:

Added ~100 new non-tip dialogues, bringing the total to 200.

Updated some incorrect information and wording, in the tip dialogues and in the menus.

Corrected/updated glossary definitions: AYA, Dressup, Freeshell, Ghost/Ukagaka/Nanika, Interval, Kawari, MAKOTO, SHIORI, Sakura Script, Satori, Surface, Ukadoc.

New glossary definitions: Animation, Element, Middleware, Owner draw menu, and Supplement.

Added new questions to the "How do I" menu: Fast forwarding through text, Using the ghost explorer.

Added the ability to ask who they are in the question menu, to have them reintroduce themselves.

Added a new troubleshooting option related to installation trouble. This information was originally in the "How do I" menu and has been moved.

Added a dressup to Angel that allows her to float up and down.

Added a response for switching to the PH Gijinka shell, and responses to that shell's hat dressup.

See the full changelog on my website. Get the update via network update, or download them from the link above if you don't have them yet!

[zichqec]

Simplicity Template v1.0.7

I don't post much here these days, so I've skipped a few update posts for this template. But this one is an important one, so I thought I would share it here also.

It has now been a year since I released the Simplicity Template out into the world, and what a year it's been! People have made a lot of really cool stuff with it, and seeing my work making an impact has been very humbling.

I've made a lot of little updates to the template here and there over the past year, cleaning things up, and fixing a few bugs. There are a few more things I would still like to clean up, but today's update is pretty small, despite its significance. Here's the changelog:

Updated YAYA to Tc571-8, and updated the base dic files.

This includes an update to YAYA's English error messages! The translation has been cleaned up and should be easier to understand.

Updated some links in the readme that were out of date.

Fixed the readme stating the incorrect version of Simplicity Template.

You can download the latest version of Simplicity Template here.

The wording of some of YAYA's error messages have been confusing for a long while. But starting today, I hope that that's going to become a thing of the past. With a cleaned up translation, hopefully creating ghosts in YAYA will be smoother in the future, for new and veteran devs alike!

Note: if you have a ghost (in YAYA) that you're currently working on, you can update YAYA to get these updated error messages! The newest release is available here.

If you're not sure how to update YAYA, I have a guide about it here.

Happy ghost-making, everyone!

[zichqec]

Multiverse Sans Phone Event Fix

This is not my ghost and I am not offering to do any development work for him. But on several occasions, folks have entered our Discord server looking for help with a bug in one of MVSans's phone events that completely prevents progression. So, I decided to make a little patch for him to make this easier.

This is what the intro to the bugged event looks like:

If you've seen this text and clicking the "Click to continue" option does not work, then this patch will fix it for you.

Download the patch here

To install the patch, follow these steps:

Download the file above, it should be called mv_sans_phone_fix.nar.

Open MVSans.

Check in his settings to ensure that you're on the latest version. This patch was made for v1.4.2 Stable, and may cause other versions to break. (If you're not on the latest version, update or download a new copy of the latest version.)

While MVSans is running, drag and drop the mv_sans_phone_fix.nar onto him. He should appear to be installing something.

When he is done installing, he should appear to reload. He will not say anything about completing the installation, that's normal. The ghost is now patched. (If he does say something, it's likely an error. If so, please report it to me and I can try to help.)

If you had already seen the intro to this bugged event, then please close and reopen the ghost. This should bring up the intro again, and you should be able to proceed.

If you have any problems with this supplement file, please do tell me about it! But it's a pretty small fix, so as long as you use it with the correct version of the ghost, it should be fine.

If you have any other problems with this ghost, you can send an ask to the @ukagakadreamteam blog, or ask in our Discord server. There is also a page for him on our wiki which has some general information about him.

My knowledge of this ghost is very limited, as I haven't used this version very much. So, other people who have used it may be able to help you more.

[zichqec]

Hello Zi, I just thought I'd write a little something to thank you for all the things you do for this community, i just saw the 2023 summary and I don't think I can ever thank you all enough for your contribution, the Dream Team is truly the pillars of English ghost and I hope you are all proud of you

If one day my dream of making my own ghost becomes true it'll be all thanks to you. So many dreams have already became reality thanks to your hard work, isn't that wonderful ?

Ohhh thank you so much for taking the time to send this! This means the world to me to hear <3

It makes me so glad to know that my work is helping people! My dream is to see ukagaka fully realized in the English community the way it is in the Japanese community, and for making a ghost to be a normal creative project and not seen as a huge, insurmountable task that only the most determined people can accomplish.

There's a long way to go and a lot of resources yet to make, and sometimes I feel like I'm just treading water when I'm staring at my monitor at 2AM, revising a draft for the 4th time. But messages like this really make me feel like the effort is worthwhile, and that I should continue on, because my planned future projects will make an impact.

So, thank you for this <3 It really is wonderful to see people making so many things, and having so much fun exploring ukagaka. Best of luck with your own ghost projects! If you eventually make a ghost, I'd love to see it!

[zichqec]

I forgot to reblog this one.

I wrote this, please go read it!! We did SO much this year.

Also some other things that happened with my ghost stuff that I didn't share in the post (since it was about community things and not me):

I overhauled my website. There's still work to go, but it's a lot better on the whole now, and is much easier to add new stuff to.

I also made a ghost in the month of August, and the shell for him is one of the best shells I've ever made. Certainly the most complete.

I made a bunch of free code assets, I released like... somewhere between 8 and 11 ghosts??? And a bunch of balloons and stuff too. I haven't been keeping up AT ALL with posting my ghost activities here lol, you have to go to my website for that.

And some other stuff besides. It's been a big year, and I'm so happy to see all the progress we're making.

Summary of 2023 in the Ukagaka Dream Team

Hey folks! I wanted to write up a summary of all the things our community has gotten up to this year, and celebrate everything we've made and done. A lot happened in 2023!

I wrote the summary as an article for the 伺か Advent Calendar 2023, and you can read it here.

Do check it out, there's a lot to see! If you've been out of the loop for a while, this may be a good way to get caught up. Additionally, if you're not in our Discord server, then there are some things in that article that will probably be new to you.

I think the trajectory the community is on is very good right now, with more and more English resources coming out all the time, making ghost development more accessible and varied. The next few years will be an exciting time for English ukagaka!

If this article goes over well, I'd like to continue writing summaries each year. So, let us know what you think.

I look forward to seeing what 2024 brings for ghosts!

[zichqec]

This has been a long time coming. It used to be something we dreamed about, but now it's reality and I'm so glad.

Please please check this out, and read my article about it as well. I contributed to this and put so much work into it.

I think this will do a lot to make English ghost development easier!

Ukadoc has been translated into English!

Ukadoc, the official documentation for SSP, has an English translation now!

For those that don't know, Ukadoc not only includes information about all the various SHIORI Events and SakuraScript tags you can use in ghosts, but also information on how to set up files like install.txt and descript.txt, information on how the overall file structure of ghosts/balloons/ etc. should be set up, guides to setting up shells, nar files, network updates, and more! There is a ton of information contained in this document, and it is an invaluable resource for developers.

And as of this month, it's available in English! No more fussing with machine translation and struggling to parse the multitude of run-on sentences and mangled terms. Our translation is readable without the extra steps, and you can view it here.

The translation isn't perfect, about half of it was done with machine translation and a lot of tenacity. If you find a wrong translation or something confusing, please report it or submit a fix on the project's repository.

A ton of work went into this project. If you'd like to learn more about the project and how it came together, there is an article here with information! Please check it out!

[zichqec]

Another ukagaka event! I wasn't expecting to make so many things over this weekend, but I got a lot done and I'm very happy with all of it ^^

If you're interested in ghost dev, you should join us and try out making a balloon or a shell for an existing ghost! It'll get you started and teach you some of the basic things you need to know

Etc. Jam 2023 has finished up in our Discord server, and here are the results! We had a really great turnout, with 27 entries by 11 participants.

6 of those entries were completed within the first 24 hours of the event, and 6 of our participants took on the variety challenge, where they made at least two submissions of different types (e.g. a balloon and a calendar skin)!

A lot of folks tried out making things they'd never made before, and several of the entries were made specifically for the benefit of other aspiring developers! So if you're interested in becoming a ghost developer, be sure to check out the new offerings!

Without further ado, please check under the cut for the entries from this event! You can also read more about the event on it's page of our wiki.

Balloons

Bob, by FrankT:

[Download]

Pixeloon, by StrangelyKai and Galla:

[Download]

Sky Balloon, by OdieDogXP:

[Download]

Terminal Balloon, by Vita:

[Download]

VN Style, by Idk:

[Download]

Wedges Balloon Pack, by Galla and Zichqec:

[Download]

Shells (for existing ghosts)

Cavatappi, for Noodle, by Zichqec:

[Download]

Conchiglie, for Noodle, by Zichqec:

[Download]

Correctly Drawn Flamingo, for If I Can't Have Shrimp No One Can, by Galla:

[Download]

Farfalle, for Noodle, by Zichqec:

[Download]

Flele Template, for FLELE, by Idk:

[Download]

Macaroni, for Noodle, by Zichqec:

[Download]

Needy, for Needle, by Idk:

[Download]

Penne, for Noodle, by Zichqec:

[Download]

Rotini, for Noodle, by Zichqec:

[Download]

Freeshells

Computer Bug, by Vita:

[Download]

Hammock Buddies (DEMO), by WhatAPhantasia:

[Download]

kittypunk, by SmokyCinnamonRoll:

(This one is only available for download in our Discord server!)

Strawberry Shortcake, by Aegisghosts:

[Download]

Calendar skins

Catlendar, by Zdzisiu:

[Download]

Eyeball Tracker, by WhatAPhantasia:

[Download]

Irken Doom English, by WhatAPhantasia:

[Download]

Irken Doom Irken, by WhatAPhantasia:

[Download]

MLP Calendar, by OdieDogXP:

[Download]

Terminal Calendar, by Vita:

[Download]

Wedges Calendar Skin Pack, by Galla and Zichqec:

[Download]

Guides

Notepad++ tips to improve your ghost dev experience, by Zichqec:

[Read]

[zichqec]

Do you want to hang out with a tired old man in a cave? Of course you do!!!

Made during the month of August, Xander's Refuge is a ghost made with the prompt "a ghost of an ancient deity that always seems tired, and is looking for a safe place to hide". He's a very straightforward ghost, but he has about 100 random dialogues to entertain you.

Besides this, he also makes for a good idle companion! Even between dialogues, he will sometimes change poses so that he's not sitting still all the time. This includes an idle smoking animation! He'll do this even if you turn his dialogues completely off.

And that's it, that's the ghost! As I said, extremely straightforward. But, I hope you will enjoy him nonetheless! There is a fair bit of content here, and my main focus was keeping the scope super small so I could make it all as polished as possible.

Download him from my website here!

(By the way, I overhauled my website and moved URLs! It's not totally finished yet, but you should browse around the indexes. I have many ghosts and related things available!)

Don't know what a ghost is / how to install this? Read up here!

Also, if you want to read more about this particular ghost and how he works, check out his page on the Ukagaka Dream Team Wiki!

[zichqec]

8/20 Hydrate Shell Jam 2023 Results

Hello, and I hope today finds you hydrated! If you're not aware, yesterday (8/20) was Hydrate Day, and that means we had the 8/20 Hydrate Shell Jam in the Ukagaka Dream Team discord server!

In 2020, @internetteacup and I made a drink reminder ghost on 8/20, called Hydrate. Since then, many folks have made shells for it to give it different looks! The only """rule""" I've given is that any given shell must be something that could—at least in theory—hold liquid. And folks have taken that idea and made all kinds of strange and fun "drinking apparatus" with it!

So, now I host an event on 8/20 where folks have 1 day to make shells for the ghost! It's a fun creative exercise, it's a really easy way to get into ukagaka dev if you've never done it before, and we have a lot of fun seeing what folks make.

I hosted this event last year as well, but never shared it on Tumblr. You can see the results of that here!

So, with that context given, here are the results of this year's event! We had 11 entries by 9 participants, most of which have dressups of some kind, and a few which are animated.

See all the entries and their download links under the cut!

After the rainfall, by Zichqec. A leaf with water droplets, which sticks to the right side of the screen!

Dollhouse Drinks, by Galla. Tiny pixel cups, which come in a wide variety of colors!

Haiidrate :3, by Okuajub. A cat paw shaped cup, with various drinks inside!

Hot Spring, by StrangelyKai. A nice pixel art of a hot spring!

Hydrate Enhancer, by idk. A shell based on MiO brand water enhancers, which comes in a variety of flavors!

Milkshake, by Aegisghosts. A decadent milkshake, with several flavors, each with their own tasty looking toppings!

Paint Splatter, by StrangelyKai. A splat of paint, which comes in a variety of colors and patterns, and even has instructions on how to add your own!

Planetary, by WhatAPhantasia. A whole entire planet to drink! Comes with an appropriately sized straw, and some other dressups.

Reassurance Bucket, by OdieDogXP. The reassurance bucket from The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe! Comes with a few sticker dressups.

Tiered Bowls, by Zichqec. A set of tiered bowls, which hang from the top of the screen! A dressup can be used to turn the water on or off.

Very Sad Statue, by SmokyCinnamonRoll. A very sad statue which weeps eternally!