#Holy shit I've been following the development of this game for like 10 years now
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Life is strange: true colors
None of my friends in real life have played any LIS game, so i will be sharing my thoughts on LIS TC with the Void. If only so it's out of my brain.
I am also someone who has no interest in BTS or LIS 2. I believe everything I need to know about Rachel Amber is in the first game and am not going to play a prequel that just reaffirms that she is complex and mysterious. From what i can tell, everyone's opinions in the first game are all a little bit true and I'm good, thank you. So keep in mind that I've only played the original and can only compare to the original, so I'm probably incorrect.
Also, spoilers if you haven't played it yet. I just played it yesterday because it was on sale. Otherwise, I wouldn't have given it a chance.
Alex gets control of her powers way too quickly.
Hours after arriving in Haven, she has an episode, and then when faced with equally intense emotion, she can deal with it despite herself being in a terrifying position. When Max needed her powers the most, they failed her, and I think there should have been more of a learning curve for Alex. Alex hid away from herself for years, so she is effectively in the same boat as Max. Yeah, she had known her powers for longer, was aware, and tried to manage, but to pull out actively using them so effectively was abrupt.
I apparently beat the game in <10 hours.
Super glad i waited for it to be on sale. I know I missed some collectibles, but dang.
Not a ton of story to play through
I'm replaying now to try and find things i missed, and I know this has a looser timeline than LIS, but I was expecting... more. More plot points, maybe more stakes to deal with. Honestly, the threats to Steph/Ryan could have come sooner so there could be more development there. Maybe Alex pulls back from them for safety. Maybe we find out more about the Big Evil Plot, which I'm still not super clear on what the vote was for. Maybe Alex loses some grip on her control without their stability/support.
Again, it's unfair for me to compare to LIS which was released episode by episode, so they absolutely needed to have distinct and compelling plot points to bring you back. Here, it's split into chapters more like a movie rather than a comic book that you can abandon at any time, if that makes sense.
It was easy to leave Haven
Nobody in that town is shown to give a single f about Alex outside of Bench Girl and text messages. Alex lost her brother, but they all leaned on Alex to fix them or listen to their drama. I get its part of the story, part of who Alex has always tried to be since her mom died. Also, there's helping people with their problems to manage your own problems, and then there is telling the guy who cut the rope you forgive him. Forgiving him was wild to me.
Leaving with Steph was even easier.
Steph is the only one who looked at Alex and said, "Holy shit, you need a doctor," without an ulterior motive. Ryan turned on Alex. Eleanor basically called Alex crazy. Pike and Charlotte were my own fault for not being able to side with Alex, but damn. Even if Steph had been platonic and offered Alex to run away with her, I'd have chosen that.
Also, she is super adorable in her flirting and internal gay panic over being flirted with. And the larp stuff was dope - witch Steph was extra adorable.
Their dad...
...did not need to be in the mine. That felt excessive. I don't remember if there was any notion of Gabe looking for their dad and following the trail to Haven in his effects, hence why I'm starting over to actually read (not skim) over his effects. It felt kind of cheap. What Jed did was awful enough without trying to make the situation more significant in that Haven was nearly the end of her whole family line. If nothing else game decision-wise happened with Eleanor, that would be a good enough reason for her to think Alex is cracked.
Excessive development in texts.
If the events take place over the course of 2 weeks, we get to experience like 3 days, give or take. I would have loved more of the little bullshit scenes that develop relationships instead of having to dice through texts. They don't have to be the intense "i will fix your crippling emotional state" things. Honestly, some of that, like the opportunity to neutralize Charlotte's anger, were overstepping or uninteresting to me.
It would have been great to see where Steph's loyalty had developed beyond being the only one who cared that Alex clearly didn't throw herself down a mineshaft. Maybe play through jam sessions and trade stories beyond Gabe's influence on their lives. Honestly, puzzling out the jukebox song was so much fun, and I wanted more of that.
Charlotte
I don't understand what it is like to lose a lover, especially not like that. Grief does messed up things in the mind, so i can see why she's turning that rage all over the place. I get the hatred towards her kid - ethan was told not to go in the mines, Alex warned them, and they reiterated not to go to the mines. He went to the mines anyway, and Gabe died. Yes, typhon was evil corpo jerkbags and didn't heed a warning, but if he had stayed home, no one would have died. No one would have been the wiser about Jed and typhon.
I am so glad the game didn't make me take her rage away. Anger is one of the stages of grief, and she seems to let go of some of it if you leave her alone. I saw a few reddit threads where folks call her terrible for hating her child, but by her own admission, she also hasn't allowed herself to express her feelings/grief. Bottled rage like that is toxic, and she knows it's awful to have those thoughts, but. Yeah. I feel like I'm getting circular and have been in several spots in here.
This got long, but my ramblings are over. I just needed to get that out of my head. In conclusion: the locals kinda suck(except for Riley), corpo scum is always corpo scum no matter how idyllic the setting, Steph is amazing, and in my game, they run off to Salem together.
If anyone does read this and knows of good fic on ao3 to link for Steph/Alex, I'd love a rec.
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Flint's Expanded Media: Exploring writing
AKA: Holy shit, I can't edit XML.
Flint's Expanded Media is going to be a mod for Project Zomboid (starting to notice the pattern with zombies here?) that adds to the existing radio and TV broadcasts in the game, or overwrites them entirely, based on which mod in the pack you enable.
(PNG) Main mod thumbnail
Flint's Expanded Media: Main
The main mod focuses on adding vanilla-friendly broadcasts that add to the lore but still follows the rules Zomboid's media already follows:
All the businesses are in-universe
Military don't give a fuck
No hope
Nobody knows what caused the virus
Everybody's fucked within 10 days or your money back
I'm planning to add more channels like Life and Living where you get to learn more from the TV than you would in a vanilla game, as well as adding more lore via news radio and making more VHS tapes to give more views on how the initial outbreak was for different people.
(PNG) The Coalition mod thumbnail
Flint's Expanded Media: The Coalition
The Coalition takes Zomboid's main lore and just chucks it out the window. This mod is meant to take place 10 years after the outbreak. So set that erosion level to 12 months, baby! It's time for dead car batteries and a whole lotta green!
The new broadcasts provided by the Coalition sub-mod focus on telling the story of a somewhat reclaimed America (sound familiar?) 10 years after the Knox event. If I get skilled enough at LUA I might make a hook for the superior/subpar/superb survivors mod to spawn special NPCs. Not sure yet.
Both mods are still heavily under development in both technical and story aspects. I've been working on it for a while now, but it's been off and on, unfortunately. More will be posted about it later.
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i was tagged by the lovely @querencva to do this tag game, thank you so much for the tag, i loved doing this! 💜
1. Why did you choose your url?
when i was choosing the name, i had an obsession with billie eilish (which i still do ksksk) and bad guy was my jam, and then i never really got to changing it lol, but it's become my name now so it all worked out!! i also never thought i'd actually get to posting so i just picked something random : ))
2. Any side blogs?
yes, but it's all pure bs so i'd rather not mention it 💀
3. How long have you been on tumblr?
I've been on tumblr for a little over a year actively, only started actually using it towards the end of 2020 and started posting in 2021, earlier i just had the app and didn't use it because i didn't know how lol
4. Do you have a queue tag?
no, i never even use my queue, and the one time i tried i messed it up so 💀
5. Why did you start your blog in the first place?
i've always loved reading and writing and exploring new stuff, and one day i randomly stumbled upon this app when i had my peaky blinders obsession, and i fell in lobve with the blogs and people here. then i started to write and reblog and stuff and i just eventually fell in love with how much fun it was, and when i developed an interest in F1, i met a bunch of people who also shared my interest !!
6. Why did you choose your icon/pfp?
it's a picture of lewis on a bike, which was my favourite photo from that photoshoot!!
7. Why did you choose your header?
i edited all the photo's from the WSJ mag photoshoot together because it remains superior 😌
8. What’s your post with the most notes?
hmm, it'd have to be this one and this one, this and this but y'all have shown so much love to so many of them!!
9. How many mutuals do you have?
i have a few but i'm lazy as a guesstimate would be like 20?? there may be more i'm just not counting 😂
10. How many followers do you have?
currently, i have 710 followers (holy guacamole) and i love and every one of em <33
11. How many people do you follow?
i follow 76 people!
12. Have you ever made a shit post?
i don't know??
13. How often do you use tumblr a day?
way too often, i have no social life 🤧
14. Did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog?
nope, it takes time and energy i just don't have
15. How do you feel about the ‘you need to reblog’ posts?
i think people should have the choice to reblog what they want, but this is a difficult one. if it's about needing help or for a humanitarian crisis i feel the need to reblog it, but once again it depends on personal preferences, but reblogging is just a click of a button and if it makes someone happy or helps them, might as well!
16. Do you like tag games?
i love em!!
17. Do you like ask games?
YES i do but for some reason, i can never get people to participate in ask games lmao
18. Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?
oh lots of em, and as they should be!!
19. Do you have a crush on a mutual?
nope, but i love em all
20. Tags!
tagging @grandestrategia @theonly1outof-a-billion @e44hamilton @lucent-knight @itsallyscorner @heureux4430 @soadoya @quillsink and whoever wants to, as always, only if you want to !! 💜
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Quick announcement 5: About stuff
Previous announcement here
This one is just a short recap of where I am with stuff. The tl;dr is that I'm working on two rise writing requests, I'm writing Haiku's for Risetober, programming something and after that I'll prob make a game. You can check that in my listography.
The spicier and more explained version, under the cut.
So, let's start with an image of my "What I'm currently working on" post on my listography, which can be viewed at: https://listography[DOT]com/4133127403?f=O
(change the "[DOT]" with an actual "." Good tip by 3D to avoid Tumblr's assasination of posts with any links)
For starters, the Lego Monkie Kid fanfic I mentioned in the previous post was published. It's called Warm Soup to heal the heart and can be read here. Not sure if me saying it it's worth anything, but I think it's cute.
As you can see in the list, the next two rise fanfics are in the works currently. I'd say that In the spider's web is 20% written while The nice cafeteria downtown is just planned and has 0 words lel. Both of them have art commisions and both are incredible. I don't like giving dates cause I fricking suck at guessing how long stuff takes me, BUT I'm pretty confident saying that these two will be published BEFORE the end of this year.
Following down, I'm still working on Dialogue Maker, and I actually posted a gif yesterday with the progress, which I'm proud of. The proyect will be open source but I wanted to give it some fixes before publishing it. If my estimation goes correctly, before November ends this will be finished.
Now, to stuff that isn't on this list.
If you follow me (or check #risetober2021), I've been chipping away at @3drottmnt's risetober prompt list. When I was younger (like, 10 years old, I'm 23 now holy moly) I really liked poetry and wrote a bit for school, so I decided to try my hand at writing haiku's. They're nothing spectacular but it's been interesting to challenge myself doing this. I will finish it and without spoilers I plan on trying another thing with them. You can see my posts if you check the hashtag mentioned above.
Now, to the game stuff. Let's be clear that the issue is NOT a lack of ideas. Cause I actually have a notebook where I note down SOME of them. You know how many there are? 14. Fourteen. AND THAT'S NOT ALL OF THEM. The actual number is probably closer to 25.
The main issue I find myself in is that, while these ideas are cool AND can be made, we're talking about AT LEAST half a year for the shorter ones. And half a year in a best case scenario, which (spoilers) 99% of the time doesn't happen.
So, I ended up looking at the ideas, and ended up with two: Both are RPG's made with RPGMaker (since I paid for the program and want to actually use it), but one is more classical "single story" while the other idea is four different stories that take place in the same timeframe of a single night.
I will probably focus on the classical game, because I think that I can manage to develop it without much issue, especially since a friend will be providing art for it.
With that said, I DON'T KNOW when this will be made. Maybe in 2022, maybe in 2025, who knows with how the world is right now. BUT if you have ideas you want to ask me about the game (or any game idea I haev, actually), don't hesitate to shoot me a DM since I like to talk a lot and won't shut up hahaha.
Anyhow, this is everything. If you've read this far I salute you because holy shit that's a lot of words. Thanks for sticking with me, drink some water and I hope you have a nice day :)
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What games are you playing right now? Any recs? I've recently finished Hero-U Rogue to Redemption, and it was so good and funny and heartfelt. What are some of your favorite games?
*My PC is low end, so if yours is too no worries. All of these can be played on a fairly dated computer with no problem. I hope you like adventure games.
Gemini Rue is a pixel cyberpunk adventure game that has, I kid you not, one of the best sci fi stories I’ve ever seen. The shooting mechanic was a little irritating for me, but it hardly stopped me from from getting through the story. It starts a bit slow, iirc, but holy shit is there payoff. 10/10
Game Dev Tycoon was surprisingly addicting in that ‘okay lemme try it whups where did eight hours go’ kinda way. It also takes you through all the eras of game development from PC to Nintendo all the way through to the near future with PS5, and as someone who’s been following gaming and consoles their whole life it was lovely shot of nostalgia. 8/10
Night in the Woods is so story-based that it’s basically a visual novel, and one of the best ones I’ve ever played. The dialogue is lived in and natural, it’s relatable as all get out, and the mystery element is truly ?????????? right up until you get to the big reveals. It’s about time I replay this, actually. 9/10
Kentucky Route Zero is, uh, hard to define from a story standpoint. Like I can tell you it’s a highly atmospheric slow burn mystery, and that’s accurate, but it somehow feels weird to define it. It’s been released in five Acts over the past seven years, I haven’t even finished it yet, but there’s something so.....eerie and meaningful about it even when it drags. It kinda feels like a subdued Welcome to Night Vale. 8/10
Graveyard Keeper is a pixel, crafting, simulation, resource management bit of hilariousness that I only just started, but it became absolutely clear right off the bat that I was going to love this thing. Some poor sod gets nabbed from his contemporary life and thrown into a medieval-based world that’s like ‘welp you’re the gravekeeper now here’s a talking skull to tell you how to give an autopsy and also tidy up the place would you.’ It’s kinda like if Stardew Valley had a really twisted sense of humor. 9/10
Kathy Rain is a pixel detective adventure game probably intended for a younger-ish audience but I enjoyed it just fine. The mystery was well-crafted, Kathy is a compelling protagonist, and the final area went harder than I was expecting (in a very good way). 7/10. (The game comes with voice acting. Mute it and you’ll be fine.)
The Darkside Detective is also a pixel detective adventure game definitely intended for a younger audience given the simplicity of the puzzles. I absolutely did not care. The world and dialogue and references and mysteries are too much fun. This game is just hilarious. I was SO happy to find out that the sequel comes out this year. (Hint: play all of the bonus cases.) 9/10
There are few others that I’m excited about but it’s too early for me to tell if they’ll keep up the greatness or not.
#TSC Asks#PC#Gaming#PC Gaming#Rogue to Redemption looks promising as hell and is going on my list#thank you dear!#Anonymous
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Hey, sorry to come out of nowhere with a question (I wanted to send it on anon), but do you know when RvB actually, like... Gets good? Like, where a good place to start watching it is? I've been watching it on Netflix but the older episodes don't seem to have... aged very well, to put it one way.
Oh, pal, it’s no problem at all. I hope you don’t mind me publishing this! It’s a pretty common question for folks trying to get into RvB for the first time, and I have a fair amount of non-RvB followers out there.
“Good” is, of course, a relative term, but when we talk about where RvB gets good what we generally mean is when it gets a plot that takes itself seriously, and that’s unequivocally season 6, Reconstruction. (For the uninitiated, most full seasons of RvB are between 1 and 2 hours; we’re talking 5-10 minute episodes here, so five seasons isn’t quite as daunting as it sounds.)
Reconstruction is a great season. It is pretty much hands-down the strongest, tightest-written, most internally consistent plot arc in the entire show. What’s more, it takes all the silliness of the Blood Gulch Chronicles (the first five seasons) and puts it in a larger context that actually makes it make more sense. And it has a great reveal at the end, so if you have any intention of watching it, I do recommend avoiding spoilers as much as possible.
You can start watching at Reconstructionand you certainly wouldn’t be the first fan to do so. (Psst if you do decide to start there, make sure you watch the Recovery One miniseries first! It’s not on netflix so that link will take you to youtube.) The singular benefit to that is getting to jump right into serious plot, without messing around with the goofy stuff for five seasons; the downside is that said goofy stuff provides a lot of context for the plot stuff and imo it’s way less of a “holy shit” experience if you don’t have that context to watch all the pieces fall into place.
Here is my honest opinion, which you may take with a grain of salt: if you’re getting a least a few laughs out of the Blood Gulch Chronicles, if you find the characters at all entertaining, it’s worth continuing to at least season 6. While there is absolutely a lot of the early seasons that has aged poorly, I personally still get a kick out of the humor about online gaming culture and military bureaucracy–but your mileage may vary on that. Season 6 will make or break the show for you. If anything will make you want to keep going, it’s season 6.
However.
If you are getting nothing out of the Blood Gulch Chronicles at all–like, you don’t find any of the jokes funny, it’s nothing but an annoying slog and none of these characters are doing anything for you after a couple of seasons–Red vs. Blue is probably not for you. Yes, it gets a plot, yes it gets serious moments and stronger character development, and yes, I really adore some of the characters who show up later on and could gush about them forever–wait, that’s what this entire blog is. ;) But the Blood Gulch style humor, and the Blood Gulch characters, are still the foundation of the series, and set a tone that carries through even into the more serious seasons. And if you don’t like it, you don’t like it, and no amount of Serious Plot is going to make you like it.
One last note! I mentioned Recovery One earlier, which is just one of several miniseries that are part of the Red vs. Blue canon but are not available on Netflix. For first-time viewers I highly recommend checking out this RvB viewing order guide to make sure you don’t miss any of them! It was made by my pal Larissa years ago and I’m hosting and maintaining it now that she’s moved on to greener fandom pastures, and it remains very handy for navigating the series for the first time.
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