Almost a week out from this year’s 810 day, I wanted to circle back and highlight a specific project that was featured there: a preview of the fan-made game Bionicle: Masks of Power, by Team Kanohi.

The preview not only offers a demonstration of the current combat system (which looks very fun!), but also showcases the game’s impressive visuals, animations, music, and sound design...including fully voice-acted dialogue in the Matoric constructed language I’ve developed over the years (see here and here). You can hear some snippets of this dialogue near the start of the video above. 

The dialogue translation has been in the works since last year, and I expect some documentation of the lines to be made available at some point, so that interested people can actually read what’s being said in the language. All in all, it’s quite something to get to experience the end result, even if just an early preview. Hearing the language spoken “naturally” in a context like this is a treat. The voice actors did (and continue to do) a terrific job, and I’m really happy and gratified with how it’s turned out so far. There’s a lot more to come!

All kudos to Team Kanohi--please check out their website and socials (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube), and also support Bionicle: Masks of Power by wishlisting it on Steam. 

[song] francisco javier pérez - 'songs of the lily pads (ga-koro day),' from the bionicle: masks of power soundtrack (2023)

idk, I'm just feelin jazzed about this art.

BIONICLES ARE BADASS!!!!

Come on Lego hire thies people they are doing all the leg work for you and saving you money!!!

I don't post much Bionicle, here or on my main, but I am doing as well as I can to maintain my hype over Masks of Power

Like, holy cow! This looks amazing and I want to play it so badly. Where are the people working on this beautiful game, and how can I give them money to let me play it?

It makes me want to make a game and make art and create *things*

Older Rocky Spokes getting Excited for a Brand New Fan-Game for “Biochronicle”, which got cancelled 10 years ago just like Bionicle...

Steph's Year of Recovery

So! Danny noticed that a new face had made it's way into town. Two new faces actually, an older lady known as Dr Leslie, and a girl about his age called Steph.

He first met them when he was at the hospital for one of his parents. They had stood too close to an explosion again, and he met them while he was in the waiting Area.

Dr Leslie was a strict but obviously caring older woman, who seemed to be the one taking care of Steph as a kind of maternal figure, or maybe more like an Aunt. She greeted him simply and then walked away to talk with the Secretary, leaving him to talk to Steph.

Steph was a blond girl in a Wheelchair, and he could see bandages piking out of her clothes as he talked to her. She explained that she had been in an Accident a few weeks ago that left her wheelchair bound for a while, and that she had come to Amity for their surprisingly good Medical Centers.

He and Steph got along really well, and by the end of it he asked her for her Number so they could continue talking later. They stayed in touch, and when she was finally permitted to leave the Hospital, he introduced her to his friends. They all got along like a House on Fire, both figuratively and in one memorable case very literally (Vlad had pissed them off okay!)

Eventually Steph recovered enough that she moved from a Wheelchair to Crutches, and their shenanigans got even more chaotic (Vlad hadn't even pissed them off, this time was just for fun)

The only thing Danny could complain about was the fact that Steph was hiding something from them.

She said that she had been in an Accident a while ago, which was why they had come to Amity in the first place. But Danny knew it was more than that.

He could sense lingering traces of Death coming from her after all.

...

Steph honestly loved her current life.

Sure she had lost everything, her home, her health, her friends, her life, but she had gained new things too! Like Danny and the Gang! They were honestly some of the best friends she had ever had, and for some reason they just clicked with her instantly.

Danny was interesting and funny, Sam was vegan and a badass, Tucker was smart and witty, they all fit with her personality perfectly! It almost felt like she bad been friends with them for years. (She ignored the way her heart skipped a beat when she saw them)

But she still couldn't shake the sense that they were hiding something from her.

She knew it had something to do with the Ghost Problem in the town. And wasn't that a kicker, there was a whole Supernatural Ghost Outbreak in this Town and nobody knew about it. Dr Leslie had said that Amity was off the map enough to hide from Bruce, but she hadn't mentioned it was hidden from the Justice League itself!

Danny, Sam, and Tucker definitely knew more about it than they let on however. Whenever a Ghost Attack would happen, at least one of them would rush off with some practiced excuse and return after the Ghost Attack was over all dirty. She could guess what was going on, and she really didn't like it.

(This had killed her, she had died doing what they were doing, she didn't want to lose them)

Eventually she had to confront them, coincidentally on the same day they decided to confront her.

"Are you Vigilantes?" / "Did you die?"

"..."

"What?" / "What?"

ty lee is by far the most underrated atla character imo. as far as minor principal players, it’s easy to disregard her as the least fleshed out fire nation kid, the most underdeveloped. her role as a foil to any of the main characters is vague, and many people just assume she’s there to bring some sort of levity and humor to azula’s plotline. she’s dismissed as the pretty ditzy girl, or even (shudders) “the bimbo.” but when you actually make the effort to consider what we do see of her, to extrapolate from her few yet crucial scenes anything regarding her underlying motivations, you quickly realize that one of the most layered, multifaceted, compelling, intriguing, ambiguous, and perhaps even straight up insane characters in the entire show has been hiding in plain sight all along. and also that that’s the entire point.

I think a lot about Leo’s tendency to push his way into the spotlight despite clearly being a natural in the shadows. Hell, you could argue that his worst moments are when he’s forcing himself onstage, and his best are when he does things no one notices until it’s already been done.

Kieran has me in a chokehold. His character arc is so GOOD. You can tell that his bitterness and anger doesn’t just come from everything that’s happened to him recently. It’s pretty obvious that he’s been living in Carmine’s shadow for a LONG time and she’s always kinda treated him badly. But it wasn’t until the player character came along that he was finally able to voice that in his own way;; Just when he thinks he’s made a true friend in someone, someone that can and will stand up to his sister and is able to defeat her in battle (which inspires him to start speaking up for himself more), Carmine steals them away. And that’s a big betrayal to him. He clearly has self esteem issues which leads to him thinking that Carmine was talking shit about him behind his back and getting the player to believe that he wasn’t worth being friends with. And that makes him think both of them were laughing at him and making fun of him. And THEN the player goes and takes the last thing that Kieran has, the last thing he truly cares about: Ogerpon. It’s no wonder he got so frustrated and petty and lashed out 😭 Still breaks my heart to see but they did a really good job showing that progression of him losing more and more of his patience with Carmine. And him generally feeling like everything he cares about is being torn away. And losing to the player over and over just makes things WORSE. He’s not strong enough to beat them, he’s not strong enough to stand up to his sister, he’s not strong enough to be worthy of Ogerpon, he’s not strong. He needs to get stronger. Stronger and stronger and stronger.

GODDDD. He’s going to live rent free in my brain forever now. I can’t wait to see the direction they take with him in The Indigo Disk

Luffy Week Day 6- Sun!

Are you paying attention to who you see 👀

By 1993, the CIA had developed masks so real they couldn't be detected in face-to-face conversation.

Imagine the progress they have made over the past 30 years!

You can tell but you have to research the people and compare. 🤔

I want to try and do these comparison shots whenever I remember to. You might recognize these outpost assets from our 2022 gameplay reveal, new and improved for 2023! In an effort to squeeze out as much graphical power as possible for all the foliage in Le-Wahi the wood kit has been converted into trim assets for optimization. As a treat to myself the windmill has been given a MNOG-Machinery style make over. Hope you all have fun exploring the various grained surfaces of Le-Wahi come 2024!

I just wanna point this out. Entraptas physical mask is so symbolic and important to her character. It symbolizes masking, a common autistic coping mechanism, and we literally see her lower her mask when uncomfortable or trying to hide her feelings. Her physical mask is also her metaphorical way of masking. It also is a nod to her special interest in mechanics as she wears mechanical and practical clothing.

Your art is BEAUTIFUL. Big fan of your characterizations and posing. :)

If you need requests—my favorite LU character is Four!

Four!!! He's one of my favourite's too! Also, thank you for your kind words <3