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nekropsii · 2 months

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What a about Caliborn makes him so cool in your opinion?

Go keep track of his progression as an artist alongside his development as a character and think about how these are intrinsically linked. Ponder the fact that he is both at his most obnoxious and at his most amateur when trying to ignore his unique style explicitly brought on by his canonical learning disability and mimic others rather than truly be himself. Consider how his explorations of art are genuinely cool, not a bad thing, and how we get some really neat multimedia stuff out of it.

Caliborn may be a shitty little teenage wretch but the way he is portrayed as an artist and as a disabled person is both really good and very real. It comes from a place of love. His learning disability is handled with a degree of gentle care that you would not really expect from Hussie. The place Caliborn's art style ends up in is so fucking sick and I actually unironically love it. The technique he uses is really interesting. It's intentionally reminiscent of an Etch-a-Sketch, and I'm a little obsessed with it.

This is so fucking good. I mean this seriously. He's right - that is some Pure Art Skill.

I just love the way art is employed as a necessary component of his character arc. It's so neat. You don't see visual cues that intricate too often. Usually it's just in character design, but watching his entire art style and even his medium of choice change several times over is fascinating. You can really tell Hussie had a lot of fun with him. He's also just really, really fucking funny. Just about every sentence that comes out of his mouth is Grade A Absolute Fucking Gold, and I'm honestly obsessed with his dynamic with Dirk. This may get me thrown to the wolves, but I personally think Dirk and Caliborn have way more chemistry than Dirk and Jake. Maybe that's because we actually see Dirk and Caliborn interact on screen... Lmao.

Necessary Topic: I don't know why people hate him so much. Like, I understand hating his misogyny and fatphobia, sure, but those are deliberate character points and not just Hussie-isms. I see people act like Caliborn is indicative of Hussie, as if Homestuck-era Hussie wasn't, like, famously really fucking good at writing female characters and absolutely not a misogynist. Caliborn's a parody of Homestuck Anti-Fans - which is a term we really ought to bring back, god, anti-fans are absolutely still a thing and good lord they're everywhere - who really were just shitty little bigoted haters. Calliope, the opposite side of his coin, was representative of, essentially, "the best kind of Homestuck fan" - an ultimately sweet young teen girl who willingly dedicates almost all of her time to this piece of fiction she loves so, so much, who draws a lot of fan art for the joy of it all, has OCs that don't fit any of the design conventions in Homestuck whom she pairs with the characters in it for innocent fun. Someone who has a lot of theories and analyses, writes a lot of fanfic, and is genuinely just having a lot of fun. Everyone loves Calliope. Even the characters in Homestuck love Calliope. They just think she's the cutest, sweetest little thing they ever did see. Caliborn was the worst kind. He sucks on purpose. No one likes him. He is a total nuisance to characters he is by all means trying to impress. I love them both.

It's also just funny that he's a canonical Intersex Transmasc who is probably Gay and this has, like, no relevance to anything about him, really. So no one really talks about it. Gender Hilarious, Gender Nefarious.

#homestuck #homestuck meta #homestuck analysis #cherubs #homestuck cherubs #caliborn #calliope #caliborn.pdf #nekro.pdf #nekro.sms

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waitmyturtles · 7 months

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THE MORNING AFTER: ONLY FRIENDS, EPISODE 12 -- WHEN ONLY FRIENDS GOT 2GETHER-ED

TRIGGER WARNING: EVERYONE'S UP FOR CRITICISM HERE, JOJO AND TEAM, FORCEBOOK, FIRSTKHAO, ALL OF THEM. Read at your peril.

Well. Big deep breaths. I spent a lot of time on a show that had been marketed as not-a-BL, that ended as a BL. As a mom with not that much time to spend on watching and writing on dramas that were marketed incorrectly, I am feeling some kinda way (fucking pissed off).

So many people had amazing takes yesterday, on both sides of the aisle, regarding how the show ended (pro-ending here, anti-ending here, here, here, here, here, and here, and my dear friends @neuroticbookworm and @lurkingshan did heavy lifting on reblogs yesterday, so stroll on over to their blogs for more).

I want to set up a constellation of points to touch upon before I get into the meat of this post.

1) I referred quite a bit to my review of Theory of Love throughout my watch of Only Friends. In that review, I meditate on how the majority of the general global public judges sex, and casual sex, and people who have sex and/or casual sex. Generally speaking -- even in countries that makes as progressive art on sex and sexuality as Thailand and the United States -- that's a rule of thumb that I can rely on. Sex is judged by the majority of the global public.

2) I hate to say it. I cannot believe this happened. But I was right about monogamy being an ultimate theme in Only Friends. Not just a theme, fam. A theme by which people judged others for having open, casual, and consensual sex. Queer sex. Queer sex that is so very often had outside of the constraints of a monogamous relationship.

There was a reason why that holiday party was populated by couples, except for Boston, and Boston had to grovel to them in apology for their friendship. In Only Friends: monogamy wins, and casual queer sex loses.

3) Unfortunately, in part though an analysis of Cheum inside of last week that I accidentally started (ha), I see that points 1 and 2 come together to have created a fabric and framework of judgement that Only Friends ended on.

The last paragraph in this excellent post by @benkaaoi notes that the assumption by a large portion of the OF fandom that the creative choices that were made to end this series were designed to save the sanctity -- economic and otherwise -- of the shipped pairs of ForceBook and FirstKhao. This rings true to me.

Most of the BL shows that I've watched this year are older shows, through my Old GMMTV Challenge, in which I've been studying the changes over time that GMMTV and other Thai networks, have made towards their editorial choices, attitudes, and risks in producing BLs. I included Only Friends on this syllabus to note the show's impact as a kind of zeitgeist measure of how much heat and literary controversy GMMTV could take in airing increasingly progressive queer media -- even though Only Friends wasn't originally intended to be a BL.

To the theory that Only Friends needed to save the ships... and to another theory that the ships needed to be saved in the most moralistically judgmental way that I could have ever imagined (I was actually blown away by how heavy-handed this messaging was) -- I look to the ending of 2gether.

The majority general reaction to the ending of 2gether from within the existing BL fandom in 2020, was one of guffawed incredulousness. BrightWin/SarawatTine did not kiss in the first season of 2gether. It took Aof Noppharnach to come in to make Still 2gether to indicate that these two young men may have been at least vaguely sexual with each other throughout the course of their fictional relationship.

Yet, 2gether was a massive success. Many theorize it was because 2gether was the first big BL to air during the start of the COVID pandemic, and new BL fans had time to be at home and watch shows. But I posit in my 2gether/Still 2gether review that 2gether was also successful PRECISELY BECAUSE IT LACKED SEX (and by sex here, I mean plain old kissin').

As I stated earlier: sex is judged by the majority of the global public. With BrightWin NOT kissing, new fans who may have been implicitly and/or explicitly turned off by physical depictions of queer love could glom comfortably onto 2gether, and watch a BL without the "threat" of physical depictions of two men expressing their love to each other.

Subsequently, BrightWin gained massive social media followings, 2gether made GMMTV buckets of money, and GMMTV went -- well, hot diggity.

Many of us had impressions of Only Friends as...something else than it ended up being. Early on, Jojo Tichakorn, for instance, cited an early non-GMMTV, non-BL show, Gay OK Bangkok, that he and Aof Noppharnach worked on in 2016 and 2017, as being referential to Only Friends. Gay OK Bangkok centered on a group of queer friends, mostly cisgender men with Jennie Panhan in the mix, as they lived their lives and dated away in Bangkok.

I'll tell ya, GOKB didn't end the way Only Friends did, and I'll get into that more in a bit. I believe @benkaaoi, @lurkingshan, and others are absolutely right that the ultimate moralization on casual sex that this show depicted -- and how Only Friends punished Boston for his casual sex -- was an economic decision designed to reflect on the sanctity of monogamy that shipped couples like ForceBook and FirstKhao can sell back to their fans, fans that may have actually flocked to GMMTV shows from 2gether, and that demand a fantasy of devoted monogamy from both fictional characters and professional actors who are actually only just doing fan service to earn their livings. GMMTV has known for a long time how to make money, and money the network doth has made from Only Friends, and from shipping their ships around the world to service the growing fandom.

Casual sex in fiction, casual sex that breaks up the ships.... fucks that economic shit all up.

GMMTV has taught us our lesson, a lesson that we had already learned from the no-kissing rule of 2gether. Loose lips shall not sink ships at this network. And I think we lost a chance for a big and progressively artistic zeitgeist that GMMTV could have taken risks on, if it had the courage to risk depicting something truly novel.

I want to note quickly another framework that I dug into while I was watching this show. I sent a flare to @lurkingshan before I started watching the episode that I was going to, in part, watch this last episode from my personal Asian lens. I wanted to ask myself, as I was watching this disaster -- is there anything happening here that strikes my heart with fear and doom as an Asian?

Indeed, yes. I didn't expect it, but there was a dialogue on individualism vs. collectivism.

Boston. My dear, sweet Boston. Boston, named after a city so very distant from Bangkok.

Boston was punished by his group of friends because he didn't adhere to the rules of the group. His individualistic actions and preferences -- his preferences to "roll alone," as Nick stated, would not work in the frameworks of either monogamy with Nick and/or the group dynamics of the hostel crew.

The link I linked above is an amazing answer to an inquiry I posed to dear @absolutebl last year about how Asian social collectivist paradigms are depicted in BLs. In that question-and-answer dialogue, I asked ABL Sensei about the motif of queer revelations in BLs, and how seemingly straight characters respond in kind to being approached with a proposition to a queer dalliance and/or relationship. Generally speaking, the Asian collectivist mindset is to at least attempt to respond in kind to those kinds of propositions, as one's behavioral habits are designed to be responsive to others instinctually, as opposed to only servicing oneself. To only service oneself is not only seen as selfish, but also as disturbing to the general flow of public existence among one's societies. To respond in kind means that you will not cause potentially disturbing angst to another individual or group. (Collectivism explains why Asian countries performed much better with mask mandates during the pandemic than we in the States did.)

So -- Boston filming Ray, Boston sleeping with Top, created waves in the friend group. He was so severely punished for it.

And the show iterates, and repeats, Nick's preference that Boston move forward alone in Boston's life, because of Boston's tendencies to make decisions that suit himself. As an Asian-American, I mutter to myself: god forbid.

Nick will not commit to Boston -- and yet, will also condemn Boston for making his own decisions outside of the specter of a monogamy that does not exist between Nick and Boston, and that Boston will still get judged for, as referenced in the Sand/Nick conversation depicted above.

In other words: if Boston makes a decision for himself? That's punishable. Because it might hurt someone else's feelings -- a someone else that actually hasn't committed to Boston, and/or allowed Boston to commit himself to.

This group caught Boston in a moralistic and collectivist catch-22, the likes of which I just would have never expected from Jojo and team, even if the creative team faced the economic pressures of the GMMTV bigwigs. I'm sorry to state that I am beyond disappointed in this condemnation of individualism, sending Boston alone, judged, and friendless, off to New York City to live in, what, the immoral boundaries of Chelsea? Homey, get a fucking SWEET-ASS PAD, and FUCK THESE LOSERS, leave 'em BEHIND in your cloud of airplane gas emissions. See you at the La Quinta rooftop bar on 32nd Street, friendo.

Only Friends could have ended so much better. And I understand that in the Only Friends novel, published AFTER the script was finished, that it did end somewhat better for Boston (cc @jinitak, reporting from Thailand, thank you for this heads-up about the novel!).

So. Any-fucking-way. Do y'all know how Gay OK Bangkok ended?

Of many lovely endings for the various GOKB characters, an older main character, Aof, was dating a much younger character, Big. (CC to @neuroticbookworm for our quick convo on this last night.)

Aof was sex-averse. Big wanted lots of sex. Big slept with a lot of people. He loved Aof. Aof couldn't handle Big having sex with other people, and they broke up. It was a lovingly handled break-up, written just gorgeously by Aof Noppharnach.

After their break-up, I thought Big would disappear from the show. Instead. Instead! Nong Big, the little brother to the core group of queer friends that centered GOKB, was welcomed back with open arms. Arm, Pom, Sathang (played by an effervescent Jennie Panhan), and others toasted to Big, telling him he would always be family, no matter if him and his ex, Aof, had broken up. In the queer circles of friends that I'm a part of, exes are not as commonly excommunicated as they are in straight circles.

Only Friends could have been this. Something, a little something, like this.

Instead, Only Friends punished a friend for acting outside of the rules of their group.

Boston was punished because.... because Only Friends had to end up being a BL. For the sake of the moolah, for the sake of collectivism, for the sake of the shippers who'll buy tickets around the world to see ForceBook and FirstKhao perform fan service on stage.

I just didn't think that the show would be so brutal, on so many levels, in the end, to people who want to have casual sex. I don't think any of us expected this. But, it's over, it's done, and the piece has been said -- GMMTV said, no casual sex today, and here's how we actually feel about it.

I'll see you over on Gagaoolala for Playboyy. Deuces, OF.

(It was an absolute pleasure writing meta with the Ephemerality Squad -- onto the next one! @lurkingshan @neuroticbookworm @ranchthoughts @twig-tea @slayerkitty @thatgirl4815 @distant-screaming @clara-maybe-ontheroad)

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canmom · 20 days

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so hades 2 huh

it's fun! i am more convinced after actually playing it than i was in the runup to it. the green colour palette looked a little drab in the videos but it works better for me fullscreen in game, and I really like the second zone's design. the major aesthetic change does go a little way towards making this feel like 'new Supergiant game' instead of just a rehash of the first game.

the difficulty floor is higher than the first game. i think it's well-tuned to go into if you've beaten that one. so far i've played 6 runs, seen the first boss in 5, and and beaten her in 2 of them; yet to get more than about halfway through the second zone after that tho!

the new mana mechanic is kinda interesting, lots of tradeoffs to make. it's a bit more granular than the cast in the first game; you use it to do powered up versions of your attacks, and spending it also charges up the Call-equivalent.

i'm increasingly intrigued by the setting, and i really like some of the side characters like arachne. i think the time skip was a good decision - the story of Zagreus et al. was definitely done. the epilogue ending of the first game was way too neat.

still, starting a revenge plot in media res is curious. especially when Nemesis lampshades the lack of personal motivation. compared to Zagreus's very pressing and relatable motivation (run away from my abusive dad), Melinoë's motivation is a little more abstract - this seems to be deliberate. but it does a fair bit to sell the sort of 'desperate resistance base' setting. it definitely seems rather like they're setting up a twist down the line. but it lacks the immediate emotional hook of the overbearing patriarch in the first game. curious to see how it will work once I've seen more of the story.

as far as the new gods, I'm fascinated by the decision to make Hephaestus and Hestia both be Northern - probably Yorkshire. it's always fun hearing regional UK accents in games. they do also both feel like responses to the criticism that Jen Z never designs fat characters lmao. still, they are good designs. both have satisfying mechanics. Selene also has a really good design I think.

the other gods' mechanics have naturally been redesigned to fit the new game. still broadly the same themes, e.g. Zeus will still be lightning based, but different interpretations of what that means, so for example you have 'hitting an enemy produces a lightning blast behind them' as the primary Zeus mechanic instead of chain lightning. which definitely keeps things fresh. Melinoë's kit has a lot of directional attacks and, with the Cast now being an AOE which slows/freezes enemies, there's a lot more emphasis now on positioning enemies to set up AOE attacks which is interesting.

the witch stuff is quite fun in an admittedly slightly cheesy way. it's definitely pull on aesthetic currents which aren't at all Ancient Greek, like the pointed hats. but hey! I can get into it, it's not like the game's aesthetic has ever been all that strictly historical. even if I am still scratching my head at 'so mote it be'. apparently it's an archaic word meaning 'may', i.e. 'may it be so'.

of course the main thing is, the actual moment to moment gameplay is fun. it flows just as the first game did, and it's just as addictive with the way it spreads out story breadcrumbs. the vfx and such look great, the movement is already super tightly tuned (tbf it's basically the same as the first game with the addition of a new 'hold dash to sprint'), and there's a already good variety of enemy mechanics.

there's some obvious placeholders for some of the UI art and character portraits (notably none of the keepsakes have been drawn yet), but overall it's surprisingly polished for an early-access build. all the voice acting is already there - it's fun seeing the Supergiant voice cast return in new roles.

the meta progression element... there's some neat ideas, like an upgrade system with a limited set of slots that very much calls to mind NieR Automata's chip system. so there are some stronger tradeoffs to make; it's not as simple as 'spend resource, get better' as it was in the first game. and it's clearly possible to advance quite far even without a lot of meta resource investment. so far it definitely feels like my main limit is skill, and I'll progress further once I learn more of the enemy patterns and figure out what builds I like to play.

(though I guess the idea with this kind of game is that the power ups quietly boost you and make it feel like you're getting better a lot faster than you are just learning the game lmao)

overall, it's just really fun to have another Supergiant game to sink my teeth into haha. I still wish they'd continued their streak of coming up with new IPs each time, because they'd come up with fantastic settings, but there's plenty of interest here still.

also the more I work in game dev the more I can appreciate just what a ludicrous amount of polish there is in Supergiant's games. I can only imagine the amount of work it must have taken to tune the feel of everything this tight.

#computer games #hades 2

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chubsonthemoon · 1 year

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Binderary week 3! This is the magical Flower King by @landwriter <3 Gorgeous art by @fishfingersandscarves (thank you for letting me include it!)

This fic is the epitome of fairy tale Dreamling! It plays with the traditional fairy tale structure in delightful ways and has just the most beautiful winter atmosphere. Gloam's prose is so musical and haunting--truly the best kind of story to tell around a fire, or tucked up warm in bed!

Details and more pics under the cut <3

This one was so much fun to design! The fic takes place in the winter so I really wanted to give the book a pale blue/silver color scheme, but the title is also Flower King (and for good reason ehe--the cold has to give way to warmth at some point :3), so I also went for a green/red title page. I also leaned into the fairy tale setting with these really pretty border assets to separate each section of the fic:

The first section pictured above--and YES it ends with "THE END" but it is certainly not the end ehe. Some of that delightful play with the traditional fairy tale structure I mentioned earlier!

I also tried to mirror the progression of the events of fic with the colors of the borders. It starts out with pale/frosty blue for part I, turns to stark black and white for the very short part II, then to increasingly richer hues of blue with parts III and IV, until finally green for the return of spring/summer in part V:

I also had a lot fun with the decals on the cover, which I painted with metallic acrylic in silver, green, and blue! Not a perfect paint job baha but I really liked how it came out. You can also see the ~rainbow~ effect of the holographic HTV I used for the cover/spine titling here as well:

The edges are also fake gilded with the same metallic acrylic paint, buuuuuuut the lighting in my bathroom (where I took these photos, crouched and muttering over the fabric I used for the backdrop LOL (which I bought on clearance at Joann's for a dress I will make...one day ajslkdfjs)) made it kind of hard to photograph T_T so here it is again at my desk!

And that's all from me for this week! One more Binderary book to go, which I hope to have up before the month is out :3 (Well, hopefully. Four days may be a bit optimistic but by god I am going to try XD)

And of course, all my love and thanks to Gloam for giving me permission to bind her fantastic work <333 It was a pleasure, and I'm so happy to have your writing on my shelf!

#the sandman #dreamling #landwriter #Flower King #binderary2023 #bookbinding #fanbinding #ficbinding #not my fic

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c-u-c-koo-4-40k · 5 days

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You know what? I think the process can be just as important for art as seeing those shimmering pretty pieces that come out finally Right. And I do mean Finally...

This plain ass sketch was my first attempt to design Ithio, but it didn't feel right so I moved on and tried again.

Okay better, but the build felt too Bulky for how I envisioned Ithio in my head. It could also be that the pose felt Too confident for a character that had to fight anxiety tooth and nail in order to talk to his crush.

But we did get further and even had some fun design ideas with the horns, battle damage on the ear, and claws (which current Ithio Definitely still has). I might reuse this base for a different OC, but just having done it justifies keeping it for now.

Ahhhhhh, here we go. Now the boy is taking shape. With my preferences discovered in the previous attempts, and my focus pulled in with not doing a full body I could really get a design that may not be permanent, but I can have fun and challenge executing.

Ithio at last! The only big difference between this pic and the one I posted was the hastily done skating rink background.

So yeah, that pretty shy lad took no less than four attempts. And that's not counting all the hemming and hawing and fiddling with the details at each stage.

Point being, every beautiful piece probably took a number of one's you'd consider rough when you're being charitable, and duds if you're feeling self critical.

Every drawing is progress, every ugly duckling is another feather fledged to your future swans. Maybe at some point I'll look at this pic, and think, Wow I could've done X better.

And I will reply, Yep, and I wouldn't know that without this serving as a step stone. Plus I had fun making it. And that's what matters.

Hope you all enjoy!

@kit-williams @nitro-devil @angronsjewelbeetle @barn-anon @bispecsual @bleedingichorhearts @sleepyfan-blog @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan @egrets-not-regrets

#c-u-c-koo anon #c u c koo art #space marine husbandry sentience #oc: ithio #warhammer 40k #noise marine #emperor's children oc #emperor's children

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shakingparadigm · 30 days

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idk if your still busy so obviously finish what your doing before doing anything else but do you know how hyuna's prosthetic latches together?? I think theres like a knee-latch on her prosthetic that's a bit father down than her other leg but theres so much going of its hard to tell whats going in that area

Honestly I'm not sure how the mechanics of it would work, especially since there's got to be some weird alien technology or structure at play there. It's pretty different from what a prosthetic leg is like in real life, so it's tricky to make assumptions based on that, too.

There's some stuff I noticed about Hyuna's leg across the various official arts, though. Mostly the fact that it's inconsistent, and I kind of see a reason for it. Please forgive me as I go on a bit of a ramble.

In her original performance outfit the prosthetic is structured almost like it's just a normal leg molded out of metal. It's a lot more solid and is dark in color, almost black. It also seems as if it goes up to just her knee? Maybe it still goes up to her thigh and she just ripped her pants until the knee for better/unobstructed joint movement. It joins at the ball of her knee and seems to be composed of quite a few different parts, somewhat complicated.

In All-In, Hyuna's prosthetic is still mostly of average leg shape. The most notable difference is that the leg includes hollow spaces, most likely thinner parts assembled together as opposed to one solid leg. It's also a different, lighter color. We can infer from this image that her leg is until her upper thigh.

And then we have the latest one. Hyuna's leg in All-In seems to be until her upper thigh, but this image makes it seem as if it goes much higher than that (although it's most likely an artistic choice. maybe I shouldn't look into it too much. I've learned my lesson 😭). But it's interesting how this leg is the most unique, solid and without hollow spaces, but considerably thinner, more simple.

There's also the fact that you mentioned, the latch being farther down in comparison to her actual knee. It's different from her previous prosthetic legs which seem to join at the knee exactly and are much more similar to that of normal leg anatomy. For this prosthetic, her leg doesn't actually latch at the knee, it latches just a bit below it. The prosthetic knee may look a little lower, but it's just the way she's angled, left leg facing left and right leg facing forward.

Maybe I'm overexplaining something that's already obvious/basic knowledge, my bad. Also I'm no scientist, so I could be wrong.

Anyway, the fact that Hyuna's leg changes quite a bit is interesting. It could be a design shift from the earlier production of ALNST to the finalized version, but I personally like to think that Hyuna's leg changes because she replaces it sometimes. Her lifestyle calls for a lot of action, and while her body can heal itself overtime, her prosthetic leg is prone to wearing and breaking apart.

This is how I see it (just a theory/maybe headcanon):

The leg she has in her performance outfit is one supplied to her by the aliens, which is why it looks much more sturdy, more like a true human leg. They're very advanced, so they'd know exactly how to make one that best suits her. Once Hyuna escapes to the rebellion, she doesn't have access to that kind of material anymore, nor does she know how replicate it. So instead she gets creative, taking scraps of metal and joining them together to make another leg, which is why it looks considerably lighter and less complicated. Whenever her leg breaks, she (or someone from the rebellion) creates a new leg from the material they can find, which is why her legs become progressively more simple and less conventionally "leg-like" . It's no problem to her though, and she's very proud of it.

#sorry it took me a while to get to this! I've been busy #also if there's any inaccuracies with how prosthetics work/wrong terms used for prosthetics pls let me know! i dont intend any disrespect!#alnst #alien stage #alien stage hyuna #alnst hyuna #asks

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midnighttrain-project · 9 months

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Hello everyone! It’s time for another development blog!

Thank you very much for the support I received in the previous post! This time, the focus will be pixel art! In particular, we will talk about the creative process behind the new sprites of the remake.

As some of you may already know, MerúM is the artist in charge of the pixel art in Midnight Train. Let’s ask him some questions about it!

🌙🚂 Interview with MerúM 🚂🌙

Lydia: First of all, could you introduce yourself?

MerúM: I call myself MerúM. I am the pixel artist of Midnight Train: New Moon, and I am in charge of the sprites and animations of the characters. I also worked on Aria's Story and the previous version of Midnight Train doing the same job.

Lydia: The character sprites in Midnight Train: New Moon look quite different from the original version. Is there any reason for this change?

MerúM: Well, before the switch to RPG Maker MV, I was already working on the new sprites and animations for the Midnight Train remake. However, once we changed programs, I noticed that the character sprites were very small compared to the current screen dimensions. I decided that this was a perfect opportunity to redo the sprites from scratch as well, increasing their dimensions and detailing them more than the previous version allowed me, without wanting to move them too far away from the previous chibi style.

Lydia: Right now, you already completed all the characters sprites for chapter 1. Was there any challenge or something you’re really proud about?

MerúM: After changing the sprites, the expressiveness of the characters has improved a lot. Characters now have many more unique animations and expressions, solidifying their personalities. I think this new style works very well with the aesthetic of Midnight Train’s world and makes them look quite unique from character to character.

Lydia: Could you describe your workflow and what programs you use to create your work?

MerúM: For my sprites, I use Aseprite. Before starting with a specific character, I tend to draw their base sprites and their walking animations. After this, I receive a list of events that will occur in the game related to those characters, and then I create the sprites and animations that fit into said scenes using the base sprites as a reference. Usually, I am in charge of designing how these scenes will look in pixel art, but with some more specific or complicated scenes I have received a quick sketch of how the sprite/animation should look like as a visual aid, and thus arrive at the version that best suits the scene.

Lydia: I’m just curious about something… Who is your favorite character from Midnight Train?

MerúM: I think all the characters are fantastic, maybe I could consider Neil Lawton my favorite. I think, in the end, we should all be a little like Neil. Even if you are afraid at first to move forward, just do it. This is what Neil does, he may be afraid, but he faces this fear to survive.

Lydia: Is there anything else you would like to tell us?

MerúM: What else could I say? I think Midnight Train: New Moon brings a story that will appeal to anyone who is passionate about mystery stories. By the way, it's fun to mention that in addition to Justice, Purity and some secondary characters, I have been the main designer of Larissa, one of the new characters in this remake. I hope you play Midnight Train: New Moon and get to know her!

🌙🚂 Progress 🚂🌙

I hope you liked the interview with MerúM! I wouldn't have been able to create my games without his help, as I'm pretty bad at pixel art. I'm excited to see all the sprites he will create for chapter 2! I personally can't wait to see Apollo's animations. Now, I want to report about the development of the game. I’m almost finished with the maps of chapter 2, so I expect to start programming this chapter very soon! Literally, there is only one map left…! I wanted to add a new puzzle to this map, so I’ve been stuck brainstorming ideas… Ahh, it feels like facing a final boss before proceeding to the next step.

Thank you a lot for your support and patience! See you next time~

#midnight train (game)#midnight train new moon #midnight train game

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greetingsfromuranus · 2 months

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I love your art! Do you jave any tips ondrawing in the EENE artstyle?

Thank you!! The best advice I have is to study, study, and then study some more lol. Look at something, try to replicate it, trace over the original to see the underlying shapes, draw the shapes on your own page and replicate it like that, freehand it w/o reference, just see what works! i know it sounds like general advice, but the EENE style, especially once you get to later seasons,is very stylistically and technically complex! You're gonna have to see which aspects of it are intuitive to you, and which ones you'll have to sit down and make yourself learn. I primarily use Raven Molisee's art (lots of stuff on Deviantart and Poshmark more recently) since with his sketches you can see a lot of the underlying shapes and processes! But it would be a good idea to also check out stuff from the rest of the art department, such as Scott Underwood, Jim Miller, and Cory Toomey (you can find a list of em here: https://ed.fandom.com/wiki/The_Creators). Instagram account dawn_of_the_eds has a lot of good references!

You can also study screenshots of the show, especially if you're trying to replicate the colors/linework/movement/etc… I would recommend @ededdneddy-artrefs, as they have a nice tagging system for finding anything specific, but its also a good idea to just look at your favorite EENE clips on YouTube and go thru them frame-by-frame! It helps with understanding how the characters move, talk, express, etc… and you can really nail down the stuff you'd only get a vague idea of from watching the show at a normal speed.

For me, it took me months (minus some breaks) to get to where i am now with drawing the Eds. Someone more studious and hardworking could easily do it faster, but the point is, it takes practice! Practice combined with active, intentional learning! My progress with drawing the Eds has several phases marked by a sudden jump in skill (usually caused by me finally going out and studying some more art, and internalizing what i learned), followed by healthy stagnation, where i get comfortable with the new knowledge and just do the same stuff for a while. If you really wanna get good at drawing them, you can study much more than i do, or have shorter stagnation periods! It's ok to calm down and get comfortable with the characters, have some nice, easy, art making time, its important to not get too stressed or burnt out! But when you're feeling motivated, absolutely take advantage of that!

Some things to remember:

While the characters do have consistent design elements and basic underlying shapes, these are NOT hard rules. REMEMBER AND INTERNALIZE SQUASH N STRETCH! I've tried assigning hard rules to how I draw the eds, and it's VERY difficult. It's definitely important to write down/point out as many design quirks and reoccurring themes/shapes as possible, but just remember that the Ed Edd n Eddy style is extremely fluid and dynamic - and the guidelines you may have thought were 100% true can be shattered at any point. Basically: all rules are optional! Don't draw something because the "rules" say so, draw something because it looks good! Sometimes one rule looks good, sometimes something else looks better! I'll use the teeth as a visual example:

(art in 1st image by Raven Molisee)

Sort of a continuation of the last point - Before EENE, I had a tendency (and still kinda do) to use more symbolic drawing process, the kind of design language you'd use for logos or graffiti, or the kind of style you see in shows like Dexter's lab or Total Drama Island or something - where you get good at drawing the same shapes/lines over and over. The EENE style, especially in later seasons, does not follow the same process as these sorts of styles. For example, I used to look at Edd and say "ok, His head is THESE TWO SHAPES!" And then there would be another, I'd say "okay, 3" and then another, and another and this will keep going on and on and on. Sometimes his ears are at the corners of whatever quadrilateral his head is (like in Molisse's art), sometimes theyre on an edge (like ive seen in Underwood's art), and sometimes you just can't see em! You have to accept that the characters are a lot of things at once, and different things at different times! Like Eddys head is usually a sort of bent pentagon - but is his mouth is enough he's more like a tin-can - but from a more top view he's almost a triangle - you can do this cycle forever.

you can think about it like this: the eds designs (especially their faces) are sort of a collection of features, and the shapes holding them together than be molded and distorted as you please!

Remember that the eds often exist with 3D underlying shapes, not just flat ones! I would highly recommend studying 3d shapes in extreme perspectives specifically. Draw bent cylinders, twisted stretched out cubes, any sort of shape at the most extreme fish-eye perspective you can manage, just absolutely take advantage of them. Bend and distort and break those shapes, dig your foot into their backs and and pull at their corners like you're ripping the arms out of their sockets. Extreme visualization, I know, but Ed Edd n Eddy is a slapstick comedy - there is immense force and stretching and distortion present, you really have to get that energy into your art to replicate the style (even if I'm not great at it yet, it's something I know I must learn).

Specific tidbit that's important & I sometimes forget: The characters limbs can be as long as the pose calls for! They will be fine! If they're holding something above their head, their arms are going to stretch out much longer than normal and it's ok! You can always sacrifice the "accuracy" to the model to get a strong pose/silhouette. Though one thing I've noticed is that their clothes often don't stretch the same way their bodies do! If you stretch double D's arms out 3 yards, his sleeves are gonna be about the same length as always! Except for when it looks better to break this rule, of course :3 basically imagine their bodies are like stretchy rubber, while their clothes are not

(note how his arms are stretched reeeal long in the gif, the look of the action holds higher priority than "correct" body proportions)

Apologies on my lack of notes on Ed specifically, I've drawn him good a total of One time and haven't been able to do it again lol.... Sometimes his head is an upside down triangle, but its bent in a way that i cant find a good pattern to remember it by... though sometimes his head is a square but the bottom stretches downward to become his neck. He's weird as hell, one day ill figure it out!

That's all my advice for now :3 If i think of any more i will add it!

#eene #ed edd n eddy #ed edd n eddy fanart #ed edd eddy fanart

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the-kaiju-family · 14 days

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Hello! Question for you, are their any other Kaiju's? And do Kaiju's powers vary between person to person, if they have any? Thats all! Get a good sleep!

Hello! so so sorry for the late reply, I've been working on designs and my art app keeps erasing all of my progress so I'll have to answer your question via text and screenshots that I have :< I'll def update when i have more art coming out.

Starting off we have:

Liu'er mihou: The Tribes leader

The infamous six eared shadow king has the ability to create a entire ecosystem to wilt and bend to fit his tribes life style. This is hidden behind a even larger almost dome like bubble that is made up of the tribes sacred caves that hold crystals of the dead, giving it a dark purple and black color as the shadows make it constantly spin, blocking out the outside world and protecting the people inside. These crystals hold memories of the past loved ones and where it is a time to mourn and remember those who have passed on to live their next life. These memorabilia also play key roles in ones birth where they are given a stone to proudly wear for their life and given when they die, letting them rest peacefully with their ancestors. (unfortunately this is all i could save before the crash, will update later!)

The Six eared Kaiju has a outside reputation for being a ruthless cannibal and is hungry for power. How this may be true when he was still growing out of his youth, this chief has gone soft as he found peace with his three cubs that were born from his now late wife. Liu'er has the ability to spread out a net of shadow demons to hunt or search for important things both inside and outside of his territory, however he can only go so far before he starts getting hallucinations. He is, as you may think, a ageless and immortal, able to live out the centuries. However, he is still vulnerable to death and can fall in battle. Liu'er still has the same smoke/shadow abilities as he dose in LMK. After getting into a unbreakable truce with the Ice-Bone kaiju, he has the unfortunate capability to create things out of ice, but his tribe and family helped make it worth it, especially during the summers. The lead Huntress

The Chief's daughter: Rose/Rosie (As this is my self insert i will be using first person for her but that will vary) Being the Chief's oldest and first born cub, there was already a lot of pressure and praise from the tribe. It wasn't until the day that marked me 14 years of age, that my father pushed me more to do outside activities rather than just playing with the local children of the tribe. Similar to my mother, I has a deep connection with the forest witch led me to inevitably get my very first kill and get me into training to be a huntress. Abilities are slightly different from my fathers as it had evolved. Things like being able to walk into shadows and come out to the other side of the territory were a main one that he has to become accustomed to.

However, things like the smog/smokescreen that was laced with freezing temperatures made my father realized that his truce had a genetic effect on him.

The sonic screech that was so loud it was silent was something that i had developed when i became a hunter, it was something that was taught to me by my mother to help stun prey and get a clean kill. The guard and the Healer

The Twins: Rumble and Savage Most twins argue who was born first, but for the case of these two, they were born mere seconds apart! Rumble, the one on the left, had earned his spot as a territory guard when he completed his ceremony when he killed a rabid bat that was infecting the fruit supply and making the people ill. He has yet to develop abilities other than shadow travel due to him needing to create some of his own as to make him more of a threat and less predictable. Savage, the one of the left, had gotten his rank as the tribes healer after he managed to kill a unknown creature to the land. Seeing how nobody knew of this creature and how it had rows upon rows of teeth, he was granted the highest praising job as healer, learning little from his mother and is currently being taught by the tribes elders.

The celestial dragon

Ne Zha Found by the Shadow tribes daughter when he was injured, Ne Zha is forever in her debt for not killing him during the struggling and harsh winters they were currently going through. After he killed himself on the mortal realm, Ne Zha had gotten a curse by Ao Bing's father that left him permanently as a Lung dragon, payback for murdering his son Infront of the entire dragon clan. He currently is a rare sighting in the Celestial realm and spends most of his time in the waters of the garden of the Jade emperors palace. Ne Zha has the unique ability to breathe pink and yellow fire that can turn a scalding white if he is angered enough. Sightings say that his flames resemble a storm of petals and leave a root like burn on his victims. Ne Zha can create sharp, body piercing, daggers with local lotus flora that he can control or summon on command of needed. When he is hit with great force petals may also generate. Ne Zha can conjure a protective magic barrier, which serves as a defense against incoming attacks for both himself and others. He also has little familiars

The Yin and Yang Tribe and The Star Tribe

Not much is known about these two tribes other than that they live extremely close to one another and live in peace.

Again, I am so so so Sorry this didnt get out sooner but I will do my best to get the Sun Tribe out next! -

#art #lmk fanart #lmk mk #lmk monkey king #lmk macaque #the kaiju au #lmk #lego monkie kid fanart #lmk sun wukong #the red horse buttock baboon #the long armed gibbon #the bebeh

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pastelcheckereddreams · 5 months

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Four Seasons Manor (四季山庄): Set Layout, Part Two!

I found it. I finally found the second set. I'm so ridiculously proud of myself 😂 All details will be revealed and broken down shortly, here and in a third part, but first let me recap my Siji Manor drafting progress so far:

If you're stumbling over this post in the wild - hi! I draw architectural drafts of cdrama sets, as accurately to the show as I can. A huge amount of research goes into creating my art, and so far no set location has been as elusive as this one. All of my set design projects start with a lot of research and resource gathering, to ensure that I am drafting the sets as accurately as possible. One element of each of my finished pieces is, as you may know, a birdseye view of the set. I include this to show the spatial relationship of the architectural elements I draft, and to give the fictional location cohesion and comprehensibility as a "lived space," further enriching - I hope - your experience of my art and of the show itself.

This process, however, becomes incredibly complicated to achieve when 1) the set I am trying to draft is split across different film locations, especially if 2) I can't find one of the sets.

At the time of my last post, linked here, I had located the set used for the front courtyard of Siji Manor in Hengdian World Studio's Spring and Autumn Tang Park, (what I have begun to call the "exterior set"), and had ruled out the wider set as locations for the main "interior" set - the inner courtyards of Siji Manor where the majority of the scenes in episodes 24-29 take place.

Well friends, just over a year later, I have confirmed that my suspicions in my very first Siji Manor draft post were, in fact, true. The second shooting location for Siji Manor was inside one of Hengdian's film studios. It was filmed in the "Mansion Scene" set, in Huaxia Shed #2:

My journey to finding this set lead me through two other dramas, and to the discovery that this set was also used for part of the filming of WOH episode 5, in Sanbai Manor. By cross-checking all of these scenes, I've been finally able to identify all relevant buildings and map the main set for Siji:

(First part of an insane, dizzying breakdown under the cut. It's long. It's confusing. Godspeed.)

project list | kofi | prints

I will begin by saying that, although I am confident of this layout as you see it above being Siji Manor, I am not certain that this is the full Mansion Scene in Huaxia Shed #2. This is because my only source for the photos above comes from this article, which also includes three photos I've been unable to place in relation to the above map, despite clearly being from the same area. Moreover, because of the lack of wide camera angles or even full use of this above set in WOH itself, my scale/placement of buildings in relation to each other is still a little off. I've also given myself some artistic license with minor parts of the landscaping. That being said, let me break down this set layout for you, and reveal Siji Manor to you all:

WKX and ZZS's rooms

Buildings 1 and 3 are used as WKX and ZZS's rooms respectively. My confirmation of this fact - and many more to come - comes from the drama Mysterious Lotus Casebook (MLC), in which we see a clearer view of the courtyard between the rooms itself, where the kitchen in WOH resides (labelled 2):

Firstly, how do I know that the kitchen where Chengling has his chicken showdown is outside WKX's room? Because we can see it outside in this screenshot:

And how do we know that this room, WKX's room, is the one on the left side of the screen in the Mysterious Lotus Casebook screenshot? Because that room, belonging to Yun Biqiu, matches the layout of WKX's room:

(Note that WKX's room is used as the Princess's room in episode 1 of WOH, and despite significantly different set dressing/modification, her room - WKX's room - bears the same structural layout as Biqiu's. But you probably just have to trust me on that latter point because they like to move walls and floors in the film studios.)

To verify building 3 as ZZS's room (which is likewise used as Li Xiangyi's from MLC), and to show that you can walk straight through this room from the kitchen (2) courtyard into the formal courtyard (5), I'm going to have to let these door panels do the heavy lifting for me:

Did you follow that? Don't worry, I've mapped the route on a copy of the main birdseye view below. Hang in there!

Formal Courtyard

The snowy screenshot above brings us to what could be considered the "formal" courtyard of this mansion - the QHZ snow scene! It is the fact that this scene occurs with ZZS's room to the right (note those door panels) that makes me headcanon ZZS took up residence in QHZ's room on his return to Siji (and that WKX took Qin-furen's....).

There isn't much to say about this courtyard itself, but enjoy these screenshots from MLC:

Now, did you remember those other door panels? In MLC, Li Xiangyi walks from this courtyard around the side of his old room (again - note the door panels) past a small, private seating area for his/ZZS/QHZ's room - labelled as area 4.

This brings him, and us, along the walkway dividing the kitchen courtyard, and the main courtyard of this set. If you're struggling to follow along (as even I am at this point😵‍💫), this is the route I have taken you on so far:

I'm about to divert you into Sanbai Manor, WOH episode 5, for a look at area 7, and then we will dive into the main area of this Siji Manor set in part three.

So, surprise! This set is also briefly used for Chengling's room in Sanbai Manor. I thought I was crazy for this, but damn it, I was right. Here's a view of his "room" which is actually the side of the main hall (6):

It's at this point that I concede it might have just been easier to start this breakdown with the main courtyard and main hall. Whoops.

Anyway, I hope this first part has been an interesting, if chaotic, read. Let me know your thoughts so far! Have you been able to follow along okay? Do I need to clarify anything? What do you think about the revelation of all these sets colliding? (Particularly if part one and the first set is fresh in your mind.)

As always, if you'd like to support my research madness and help fuel my many artistic endeavors, please consider donating to my kofi or checking out my print shop:

project list | kofi | prints

Now, click through to part three below, where I will take you through the main area of Siji Manor. See you there!

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

#nikkidraws #四季山庄 #山河令 #four seasons manor #word of honor #shan he ling #woh meta #word of honor meta #shl meta #woh set design #shl set design #set design #yeeting these from me now it's taken two days to do both of these posts at the same time 😭

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jovieinramshackle · 16 days

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HI HI so for the ask game:

2 for jess, 18 for jovie, and 16 for both of them? :0

Already answered 16 here!

(more asks here!)

We got some witchy lore for Jovie in this one hehe

2. Inspiration: Is your twst OC inspired by any villains? Concepts? Anything Disney-related?

Jess:

I actually made Jess on the spot without much thought behind them a few months ago. However, over time their design ended up being perfect for who they are in the present as a person.

So, I didn't have any character specifically that I based them after, but I focused on Disney-created media for their inspiration as I developed their character.

Made this thing some time ago and finally have an excuse to share it! Some inspirations are loose, some more specific, and some I may not be aware of lmao.

Also, ever since the TADC ep 2 dropped Jess became even more Pomni coded tbh >_<

Fun fact, King Richard is from the Musical Galavant, and Alan Menken who produced a lot of the classic Disney songs, worked as a producer in Galavant too! If you check the songs they have that old Disney vibe, and lot of them feel very twst-like too.

18. Backstory: Tell me anything about your twst OC's backstory. Their childhood, their parents, their siblings etc. Does their backstory affect how they are as a character now and how they interact with the cast?

Jovie:

Jovie's backstory is still a work in progress, so I can't share much about it yet, BUT I can definitely share some things about their hometown :D

(this is all made-up lore and not taken from the game, I'm just having fun with fanon world-building.)

They grew up in a small town mostly populated by magic-users who called themselves witches instead of mages (regardless of gender). Hench why she introduces themselves as a witch.

In their town, they follow a lot of traditional witchy practices, like rituals, a focus on herbs and potions along with getting their hat once they begin their magical education. Jovie's mom, sister and grandma (father not around) have bigger hats than her, the size of the hat showing the level of skill of the witch.

Nowadays, the witch hat is seen as an accessory for special events, but for witches, it's a crucial part of their identity. So, even though Jovie had to take it off in NRC (to stop unnecessary attention) she transformed it into a bow to wear on their head instead.

Along with that, potion-making is an art easily found in her home, as it's used almost regularly either for trade, sale or even for personal use. Some historians even believe that witches were the first to develop a lot of potion recipes that are now commonly taught and used widely.

Witches tend to focus on curses and jinx spells, as historically they used them to defend themselves. against foes.

Witches draw their magic from nature, deeply engaging with it through rituals. Each spring, they focus on planting trees and flowers as a way of reciprocating to nature after using its magical resources.

This practice historically led to tensions between witches and fairies. Fairies view witches as extracting magic from nature and causing harm, while witches perceive fairies as selfish for not sharing nature's gift.

Although this conflict has decreased over time, it's still a reason why witches often live in isolation nowadays and avoid fae kind.

(If I ever make a fan-event for their hometown I'm definitely adding Malleus and/or some other fae character because the potential here is so cool)

Younger witches use wands with a magestone to control and utilise their magic with more ease, but after a point, they leave it and begin using their hands instead.

Although it heavily depends on the community of witches, in Jovie's hometown focus is placed on the moon and stars, with worshipping rituals happening once a year to give thanks to them, as they see them as nature's most magical properties.

Some other communities may focus on the sun, fire, ocean etc.

That's all for now, I wanna expand more on Jovie's background so I'll probably be making posts in the future about it (⁠ノ⁠^⁠_⁠^⁠)⁠ノ

tagging: @ramshacklerumble @thehollowwriter @summerspook @scint1llat3 @skriblee-ksk @cyanide-latte (lmk if you wanna be added)

#twisted wonderland #twst #twst mc #twst oc #twst yuusona #twst ask game #jess ariti #jovie j. jovinston #jovie's writing #ask me anything #moot ask

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blissents · 5 months

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Devlog #1

Hi hi! ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ I don't really post often, but I told myself that starting in 2024, I wanted to share what I've been working on! I'm a solo game dev who has been developing a game called Visionaries. It's a romance visual novel that explores grief and loss.

༺✧ STORY ✧༻

"Visionaries": Special individuals with the ability to look into the past. There are a select handful of Visionaries who can also see into the future.

"What happens after we die?" The age-old question with no definitive answer. Many have constructed their own complex theories and stories to try and explain this mystery.

~~~~~

Explore the world of Visionaries as you wake up in an unfamiliar room, unable to speak and move. You're faced with unusual people (who tend to bicker any opportunity they get) only to later discover that they are your assigned Visionaries. These Visionaries have only one task; they intend on looking into your memories.

What is the purpose of Visionaries existing, and why do they insist on looking into your mind?

If you want to read more about the progress I've made on Visionaries, please continue reading below the cut! ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ

༺✧ ART ✧༻

Most of my time has been spent working on the art! (I can't feel my hand) My main focus is to finish drawing all of the character sprites as well as finish rendering the backgrounds. I've already come up with all the designs and expressions for the characters, they just need to be rendered :,)

I still need to create their little character info sheets (I have no idea what the word is, haha), where you'll learn their names, ages, and all of that fun stuff ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ

Below are some of the sprites :-)

The first two are fully rendered, while the other three need to be finished :,)

As for backgrounds, I have 1 that is fully rendered and 3 that still need to be finished! I'll only be sharing 3/4 today since I'm unsure if I'll be including the one background in the demo.

To be honest, I struggled quite a bit when drawing the backgrounds D: There were a lot of things I envisioned, but unfortunately, I didn't know how to fully portray them. I had some trial and error while coming up with the original designs. That being said, I'm glad I was able to come up with something I felt satisfied with! I'm planning for the rest of the backgrounds to follow the red/brown colored theme as seen in the first photo ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ

Of course, there will be more backgrounds than the ones I'm currently showing! I already have some ideas/drafts for those, but they might change depending on the way the story plays out.

༺✧ WRITING ✧༻

So far, I've planned for the demo to have a little less than 9k words. I'm unsure if I'll keep it at 9k words, or if I'll expand it some more so that there will be more content in the demo :-) We'll see!

As for the overall game, there will be at least 2 routes. There will also be 2 romanceable options (one being he/him, the other being she/they). I'm still figuring out how I want to script all of this, so these aspects may change in the future!

The game will also have options where you can choose your pronouns and name!

Here's a small snippet of the script!

I wanted to show the dynamic between two of the characters :-)

༺✧ OTHER ✧༻

Besides writing and coding, I've been coming up with some ideas for the GUI! I don't have any current drafts of that to share, but I'll hopefully include them in a future devlog ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ I also have plans on creating the cover art for the game, cgs, more backgrounds, and possibly some promotional art (rip my hand, there's so much I need to draw (╥_╥))

I was thinking about composing the music for the game, but I realized I know absolutely nothing about music and wouldn't even know where to start if I had tried :,) So instead, I've compiled a list of some soundtracks and sound effects I might use! Hopefully, I can share that in the future once I've narrowed down which soundtracks I know I'll be using.

༺✧ CONCLUSION ✧༻

My overall goal is to release the demo sometime during this year! Because I'm doing everything myself (art, script, writing, etc.), it might take me a bit longer to get everything done. My apologies for that! (╥_╥)

Besides that, I really just want to start creating and sharing more of my art. Getting over the mental hurdle of being afraid to show my work is honestly pretty terrifying for me. I normally only share the things I create with close friends, but I think it's time to get over this fear of mine! ᕦ(ò_ó)ᕤ

I was able to make significant progress within these past few weeks since I'm currently on my winter break. Classes start back up soon, though, and I'm going to be internship-hunting as well as planning on a big move. I'm still going to try my best to juggle everything so that I can make even more progress on the game! ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ

At the end of the day, all of this is a fun little project I've always wanted to do. As a little kid, I absolutely loved playing VNs (and I still do!). Creating my own game felt like an unreachable goal, but with enough effort, I think it's something obtainable ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ I really just want to create something that others can enjoy!

As a side note, I have some plans to create a little blog (not even sure if it's considered a blog, haha) about the games I've played/want to play! That will be coming very soon!

Thank you to anyone who read this far! You have my eternal gratitude <3

~ bliss ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ

#VisionariesVN #devlog #visual novel #gamedev #game development #indie dev #developer #indie games #otome #amare #otome game #amare game #wip

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tricitymonsters · 3 months

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Progress Report 2/27

Originally, I had been aiming for an early Q1 release of the Introductory chapter. As most of you know, I have been beset with delays in getting the UI/UX implemented. I have sat down with my UI designer and we came up with a delivery ultimatum that will give TCM the UI it deserves, ready to be handed off to a programmer for implementation and polishing. Because of this ultimatum, and because I want to give my programmer adequate time to work, I am pushing the release date of the Introductory chapter into Q2- the release date is slated for MAY 20.

What happened? Essentially, scope was misjudged and my designer was stretched thin between a myriad of other projects and IRL obligations. By December they were beginning to feel the effects of burnout and we agreed to reconvene in January. At this point, we discussed what we could do to mitigate scope creep and set a mutually-agreed upon final delivery date at the end of March, which leaves April and some of May for implementation, bug fixes, and Steam testing.

That sucks. It does a little but lo there is a silver lining! The intro has been delayed but that has not stopped me from proceeding with writing and coding further chapters and getting more art completed. This means there will be a few special occasions where all three characters will get a chapter update in the same month.

So, again, sorry for the push back but I want to avoid putting my contractors into crunch and still give myself ample time to bug test the finished product. Delays are the bane of my existence but we’re all human and sometimes it just is what it is. That being said, I’m very proud of how TCM is shaping up for its big Steam debut and your support in getting there has been completely indispensable.

Final call to action! What does TCM need now? It needs you to wishlist it!

Visit https://store.steampowered.com/app/2414410/Tri_City_Monsters/(you gotta be logged in to see it) and add the game to your wishlist!

This helps the game do better during launch by boosting its performance in Steam’s algorithms. Additionally, having over 1000 wishlists makes the game eligible to appear in daily New & Popular rankings which will SERIOUSLY improve TCM’s visibility to a huge number of players. As of this writing, we’re at about 650 so we don’t have that far to go!

Also to be noted: I will be doing a wishlists drive in a couple weeks where in I donate $$$ to a given organization based on how many new wishlists the game gets. I'm still ironing out the details but this will be taking place here and on discord so stay tuned for that.

#christ i think that was everything!!#game development

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velvet-cupcake-games · 2 years

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Made Marion Development Update, November 2022

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for your patience with our skipped October update. We're in that awkward stage of development where it's a lot of writing and behind-the-scenes work, so we just didn't have a lot to show last month.

The Writing Department:

I've hit my first major milestone in Robin's route! Here's hoping that writing goes ever faster from here on out. It's been a huge struggle for me since my bout with long Covid, because my brain keeps fighting me and making it difficult for me to pull out words. But I've been writing some fanfic and that's actually been helping me make more progress on Made Marion's script as I retrain my skull-encased electrified tapioca to string sentences together. Check our socials over the next month (or maybe just Tumblr, who knows how long Twitter will be up at this juncture) if you're a fan of Gilded Shadows and want to see me playing around with the crew from Quill's route. I'll post a link when I'm done!

The Art Department:

Ysolt, on the left, may be familiar to some of you who check our Discord. She was a possible backer-designed sprite who wasn't claimed by our character design backers, so we collected suggestions from our Discord participants for her design!

At the start of the game, Geoffrey's old Lady Chamberlain is about to get married and quit her job. He needs somebody to run Nottingham Hold, which is partly why he was closing his marriage contract with Marion's father. What happens when his prospective bride disappears or runs away with the Sherwood rebels and he never meets or is rejected by "Lady Anne"? He hires the recently-widowed Lady Ysolt to be his new Lady Chamberlain. She works for him on every route except Geoff/Gui's and Alanna's. She looks quite competent, doesn't she?

On the right is Fawzia. She is many things: freebooter turned smuggler, Meissa's friend, unsung hero of the internal revolt that ended the Nibirian War. She's the reason Meissa has so many nice Nibirian fabrics and art objects in their home. She also helps supply the Rebellion. As someone who left her native Sunjata due to her lack of citizenship status in any city-state, Fawzia is a fan of freedom movements. Fun fact: She will be a love interest in our third planned game,Fatebreaker, which is set during the Nibirian revolt. Sorry to those of you who would like to romance her now - never fear, you can romance her slightly younger self later!

The Programming Department:

Every time I swear I'm done with screens (any of y'all who have played with Ren'py know what I'm talking about), I remember that the darn things can be very useful sometimes.

Neutral endings, like the one pictured above, come with a sepia tone screen. Good endings are full color and bad endings are black and white - perhaps with a bit of blood splatter for those really bad endings.

We are Hiring!

We are currently looking for a freelance 2D Visual FX artist to join our team for a series of commissions over the rest of development. We're looking for some simple animations to spruce up the game, such as sword swing FX during combat scenes and some magic spell effects. Please see our job announcement and if you or anybody you know is a freelance artist with animated VFX skills, contact me via Twitter, Tumblr, or Discord (I don't recommend KS because we're moving quickly and it doesn't always alert me when I have messages).

That's the Made Marion news from November! See you next month!

#made marion dev update #english otome #amare game

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