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aiweirdness · 4 years

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This is not cozy: AI attempts the Great British Bakeoff

I’m a big fan of comforting TV, and one of my go-tos is the Great British Bakeoff. It’s the cheerful clarinet-filled soundtrack, the low-stakes baking-centric tension, and the general good-natured kindness of the bakers to one another.

What better way to spread cheer and baked deliciousness than to train an algorithm to generate more images in the style of a beloved baking show?

I trained a neural net on 55,000 GBBO screenshots and the results, it turns out, were less than comforting.

What went terribly, terribly wrong?

This project was doomed from the beginning, despite using a state-of-the-art image-generating neural net called StyleGAN2. NVIDIA researchers trained StyleGAN2 on 70,000 images of human faces, and StyleGAN2 is very good at human faces - but only when that’s ALL it has to do. As we will see, when it had to do faces AND bodies AND tents AND cakes AND hands AND random squirrels, it struggled, um, noticeably.

Here are some of StyleGAN2’s human faces. They’re not all 100% convincing (and it’s best not to look at the ones at the edges of the images), but not a terrible starting point for a baking show algorithm that’s going to be doing lots of human faces. From here, I used RunwayML’s impressively easy-to-use interface to finetune StyleGAN2 on GBBO screenshots.

Did it take this knowledge of human faces and apply it to generating baking show humans? No, it did not. Almost the first thing it did was ERASE ALL THE FACES.

Many more iterations later, it has begun to generate humans again, but is nowhere near the performance it once had. I tried training it for longer, but progress had slowed to a halt. This is the usual outcome when you train a neural network for a long time - not an acceleration of progress but a gradual stagnation. If your training dataset was too small, the neural net will memorize your training data, failing to produce anything new. Or with larger datasets, it may even become unstable, its outputs looking more and more garish and abstract, or turning into samey white glue. See that stripey scene near the lower right? High-contrast stripes like that might be a sign of that kind of trouble, a condition we call mode collapse. If I kept training for longer, there’s a chance that more and more of these images might end up stripey like that.

So the baking show images were too varied for the neural net, and that’s why its progress stopped, even with lots of training data. But why did the neural net fail to use its prior expert knowledge of human faces? It may be that its ability to do faces is very dependent on where the face is. If you go back and look at that original set of nicely centered faces that StyleGAN2 made, you’ll notice that when it tries to do faces at image edges, they look a bit of a mess. “Humans with their faces uniformly centered” is mostly within the grasp of today’s state-of-the-art neural nets; “Humans shifted around a bit” is a smidge too difficult.

What is the neural net good at? It’s best at patterns. In the rather distressing image below, note how much more effectively the neural net managed distant trees and support columns and even union jack bunting - all repeating patterns. Even where the neural net ill-advisedly decides to fill the entire tent interior with bread (or possibly with fingers; it’s sometimes unsettlingly hard to tell), you can see that the patterns in the bread repeat.

Human faces and bodies, on the other hand, aren’t made of repeating patterns, no matter how much the neural net may want to make them that way.

In fact, excessive repeating patterns is one of the hallmarks of neural net-generated images. Even when the repetitiveness is more subtle, it still tends to be there, and it’s one of the ways you can detect AI-generated images. At its most basic, a neural net usually builds images by stacking lots of repeating features on top of one another, finetuning the balance between them to produce objects and textures. If it gets the balance slightly wrong, individual repeating features tend to pop out. Once you start looking for the repetition, you’ll see it everywhere.

Given that it’s supposed to be doing a baking show, does the neural net produce actual baked goods? The answer is yes. I trained the neural net a few times, trying different dataset sizes and different methods of cropping the training data, and each time it would latch onto a different texture that it seemed to use as a placeholder for “human food”. Each one repetitive, of course. Would you like voidcake, floating dough, or terror blueberry?

It is seriously easy to try this yourself - you don’t need a fancy computer, or any coding skills. Got a camera and several hundred pictures of your cat? Use runwayml.com to generate your own monstrosities.

Subscribers get bonus content: some of the many amazing pictures that wouldn't fit in this post.

My book on AI is out, and, you can now get it any of these several ways! Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Indiebound - Tattered Cover - Powell’s - Boulder Bookstore (has signed copies!)

#neural networks #stylegan2 #runwayml #gbbo #great british bake off #GAN

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osmw1 · 5 years

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Dimension Wave Prologue

—Live another life in an alternate universe. Phase II of Project Second Life is live! Now accepting new participants, but hurry—offer ends soon!

“Whaddya think?”

The characters and background art were so realistic, they almost had me fooled. This feature took up seven pages in this gaming magazine, so it’s gotta be quite popular.

“I don’t know what to say…”

Two girls—actually, my older and younger sister—showed up out of nowhere with grins on their faces. They stuck this video game magazine in my face and hounded me over the article. Honestly, I have no clue as to what they’re trying to do. Well, I’d be lying if I said I had no interest in games. But the write-up seems to be about an MMORPG. I’m more of a fan of games like Harvest M○○n and Animal Cr○ssing. I like that comfy, casual pace.

“Ugh, you’re suuuch a bummer!” “I know, right?!” “…”

What’s with them? They’re so hyper. Even if it’s me saying, I think we get along well. We game together since both of my sisters are very into it. Well, it’s probably because of my influence on them, considering that I’m the only guy of us three.

“So? So? Whaddya think?” my younger sister asks me in a cutesy voice.

Her excitement is almost annoying, but since she’s my sister, I hold my tongue and continue reading the magazine pushed up against my face.

Dimension Wave

Looks like it’s an online multiplayer. Skimming through the pages, it looks like players get to work together with allies to fight off enemies. All their weapons, magic, and monsters are pretty typical too. Oh, you can also go fishing. I like stuff like that. It’s nice and relaxing. There are various races to choose from too. Oh? The description seems kinda odd. What’s this?

—Continuing with the well-acclaimed playstyle of the first phase, Phase II of the game will also not allow players to log out until the session has been completed. This further encourages players to fully experience a second life in the game. However, in-game time differs from real-life time. Though each session will require years of in-game time to be completed, it will translate to 24 hours of real-life time. This means that even players who are in full-time employment will be able to enjoy all of the content. We are now accepting new applicants, so don’t hesitate to sign up! Please visit the address below for details.

So it says. Oh, that’s right. I remember now. It was about a year ago when they caused a big stir. It was the guy who planned to create a whole “second life” thing in a VRMMO world.

And as it says in the magazine, months and years in the game will only be just a few hours in the real world. The game targets young professional. For the sake of giving them the chance to live a second life, players also can’t simply logout until the game is done. Content is released monthly to pretty high praise, save for a vocal minority. Or so I’ve read on a gaming news website. Even my buddies were raving about it after trying it out. Is it really that good though?

The problem is that people’s demeanors change after playing. I mean, if you spend seemingly years in the game, it’s bound to affect your personality. There’s even this disgraceful bastard who not only got a girlfriend in the game but is still going out with her IRL.

Fuckin’ normies!

… I should mention that cost of entry is rather high. Not only do you need special equipment, but the game itself costs a lot. After all, the developers and retailers need to make money. In short, it’s not spare change for a student at the very least.

“So? How are you going to pay for it?”

Honestly, even if you begged Mom and Dad for it, they’ll tell you off…

“Heh heh!”

My older sister remains reasonably excited and brings out an envelope. The Second Life Project is written as the sender’s address.

“No, you didn’t…” “I sure did! Here’s the acceptance letter.” “How did you get this? Who did you have to—” “Remember that tournament I won a while ago? This was the prize!”

She spoiled the answer but also my joke. The license was a prize for winning a tournament for this fighting game, which was made by another company of the same conglomerate. I’ve read that they’re making a lot of money lately. My sister definitely signed up the tournament just so she could get her hands on the license. It’s almost weird being related with these girls.

“Three people can sign up with one of these licenses, ya know!”

Here is my older sister who’s grinning from ear to ear and my younger sister who’s almost physically buzzing with excitement.

“Three people? That’s an odd number, eh?”

Isn’t it normally two or four? I’ve heard stories of couples who played together and came out with a stronger bond than ever. But I’ve heard that the game made things worse for some people too. In any case, it looks like I’m invited too. … wait, hold on.

“Hey, why don’t we put these up on an aucti—boof!”

Before I could finish my sentence, my right cheek encountered my younger sister’s fist.

“No way, you dummy!” “No, hear me out. Selling just one of these would give us enough money for a family vaca—boof!”

This time, it was left cheek, older sister.

“I believe I can leave the whole taking care of Mom and Dad thing until after I become a productive member of society.”

They sure are loyal to their desires. Well, it’s not the license is mine anyway, so I don’t really have the right to tell her what do with it.

“So, who’s player three?” “Huh?” they simultaneously interjected. “Hmm?”

The two girls stare at me as if I were speaking alien.

“Don’t you want to play too?” “Uhh, not really?”

It does sound interesting, but I’m iffy about VR games.

“And plus, I get kinda woozy from VR setups.”

VR machines and these fully-immersive online games have been sweeping through the gaming industry. Just before, the sci-fi subgenre of cyberpunk was very popular. Fully-immersive online games made a big splash when they first came out as it was almost as if cyberpunk has become reality. A large portion of gamers were very positive about it too.

Firstly—and I think a lot of Japanese gamers can sympathize—is that a lot of these physically-stimulating virtual reality games rub people the wrong way. For example, like how retro-styled games with pixel art are still really popular, people are used to gaming through a big TV screen. It’s hard to transition away from that concept. Even though I was born into a world where beautiful 3D games were the norm, I’m sure there were people who rejected the transition from pixel art to low-poly graphics.

Well, if that’s the case, I shouldn’t be opposed to these fully-immersive games.

Secondly, the games are very affected by the player’s brainwaves. It’s been recently proven that mental output and processing power vary greatly from person to person. In other words, a person’s ability to judge and reason have been proven, which is why fully-immersive VR games—games that depend on those functions—are heavily dependent on the player’s abilities.

To sum it up, there were gamers who were dissatisfied with the apparent unequal starting lines started cropping up. And excluding the small portion of people who physically and mentally fared well, the sales number weren’t so hot. Well, I guess it’s kinda like when touchscreens first hit the market. Those resistive ones weren’t so good and people didn’t love them. But as technology gets better, so will the performance of VR machines, and I’m sure it’ll then be a big hit.

Hmm, I swear I’ve heard someone tell me this before.

“Y’know, big bro, vat-type VR games have built-in brainwave normalizers so that anybody would be fine, right?” “Oh, is that right? I guess that’s why they’re so expensive then.”

Vat-types could be described as high-performance VR machines. They’re different than regular head-mounted display units hooked up to a computer. Vat-types connect the player by immersing them in a vat full of liquid in which humans can breathe. It’s really something straight out of a mad scientist’s lab. And to speak frankly, the reason why vat-types are invitation-only being because this is tech from the near future—it must cost a whole lot of money to operate.

“Well, I get that even I can play, but don’t you two have anyone else you could invite?” “It’s a ticket for three people! It’d be a lot more fun to go as siblings, don’t you think?” “Yup, she’s right!”

It seems like the three of us are closer than I thought. That makes me rather happy, to be honest. And so, that’s why I’ll be participating in Dimension Wave too.

The day has finally arrived. The three of us go to the venue by train.

Even though my sisters rushed me out of the door, a lot of people had arrived already at the event site. We brought a few things with us, including the license and a USB flash drive that was distributed to all the players. Stored in the flash drive was the data of our created characters. It takes quite a bit of time to customize a character, so they got us to do that ahead of time.

I made my macho mountain of muscles about three days ago. Swole characters aren’t ordinarily popular, but I think they’re cool.

Humans, Lycanthropes, Elves, Jewels, and Spirits were available choices for your character’s race and I chose to make a Spirit. Spirits don’t have levels, HP, or MP, so it makes them pretty special among MMOs. They had a bit of information on their official site, but I had to figure most of that out by myself. Jewels seem interesting too, but I ultimately decided on a Spirit.

I like the unique races.

As for my sisters, the older one picked Human and the younger Lycanthrope. I didn’t ask them, but they told me anyway.

“Oh, looks like they’re starting to let people in.”

Even before I had said that, those two were already restless and had begun heading inside. And why am I at the end of the line anyway? Eventually, I handed one of the three passes to a staff member and got in return a key with a blue plastic number tag attached to it. Then, we were split into two lanes—one for men, one for women.

“See you later.” “See ya!”

I waved them a simple goodbye before heading into the men’s changing room. It’s pretty big in here. I opened the locker with my number on it and found a set of clothes inside. Before the event, we were told to send in our measurements along with our authorization codes so that they can get it tailored to us.

I put my valuables inside, though that consists of only my phone and wallet, and put on the special clothes. It looks like a plugsuit straight out of an anime or something. It’s really elastic. The guys beside me are being awkwardly silent changing into their suits. But even without saying, I can tell they’re thinking of the same thing. I think they used to submerge you in the nude, but after some criticism, they came out with these tailored plugsuits. They even contain emergency life-saving measures. That’s probably one of the reasons why it’s so expensive as well. After changing, I double-checked to make sure my locker was locked and then hurried out the door.

“Whoa…”

The vats lined up row by row was really a spectacle seemingly taken out of a mad scientist’s lab. They’re actually pretty big, even though it’s just for one person. It’s as big as my bed at home.

“Let’s see, let’s see.”

There’s a large sticker placed instructing which way to stick the USB flash drive in and how to shut the door. It’s so simple, anyone can get it right with a quick glance. I plug in my flash drive into the port, hopped in the vat, made sure the door was closed, then slowly lied down. There’s still 10 minutes left until it starts. I take the time to think through what I’ll do in the game.

The two of them mentioned that they were picking a combat class, but I had other plans. I’d think I’d like to try the fishing activity that was in the magazine the other day. I know it might be a bit weird to just fish in an MMORPG, but the whole point of this game is to live a second life, right? I’ll live it leisurely. I haven’t thought much about what’s after though. I’m sure I’ll find a goal while I play. Just as I was thinking about that, I suddenly remember that they had an event called Dimension Wave going on, just like the title. I totally forgot about it up until now. I still have to decide on whether or not to participate, but I’m sure my sisters will. I’d like to at least play support for them.

“Oh?”

Time snuck up on me while I was lost in thought. An announcement played as they started to pump the liquid in. It’s green, I thought… but it was just the reflection of a light inside the vat. On second inspection, it’s actually colorless. The vat filled up in a flash. I’ve subconsciously held my breath, but I can naturally breathe in the liquid. What a shock. I really can breathe. Honestly, I wasn’t actually sure until now.

—Reading data 0%・・・100%. —Data import complete. Beginning brainwave normalizer load test.

I can see it. Rather, it’s being projected straight into my brain. A scene prettier than reality appears before my eyes. Lots of people are walking in the streets of this fantasy town. The sound is coming through too. I hear everything from the male voice of the shopkeeper to the noise of shuffling feet and footsteps. In normal VR systems, you get the tiniest hint of lag, even if it’s not much. But in here, not only is it running without so much a hitch, the fidelity is extremely high. That’s specialized equipment for ya.

—Test complete. Game will begin after all processes complete.

It’s a weird feeling. The voice goes directly into your head without me needing to use my ears. I was thinking that I’ve totally entered a sci-fi world, but tech in the real world is more advanced than I thought. I guess you could call it being excited, but oddly, I couldn’t calm down and stop looking around everywhere. But right as I do so, everything disappeared.

“That can’t be good.”

I’m not just talking about vat-type machines, but when any piece of electronic suddenly goes black like if you yanked the plug out, it kinda makes me feel weird. It’s like as if the world that I’ve been living it just suddenly disappeared.

And then—

—Best wishes to your new life!

previously: /ch000/ /next/

(please support me on Patreon or Paypal)

#Dimension Wave #DWV #Average Translations #AvgTL #osm #Yusagi Aneko #Aneko Yusagi #light novels #ln #web novels #wn #ディメンションウェーブ #一般の英訳 #ライトノベル #ラノベ #オンラインノベル #アネコユサギ #異世界 #isekai

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uozlulu · 3 years

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Four hours after posting this quarantine improvement art meme I was like, “Wait! I know what scene to preview!” and so I’ll just post it in its entirety to this post.

First, some background.

This fic is stupid long. This first draft is over 160k and the second draft is proving to be even longer. It’s a slow build TodoBaku centric story (they switch POVs throughout the fic) but there are some side pairings and such. The soulbond is the ability to feel one another’s emotional states, which in turn can amplify quirk output and so forth.

Anyway, this scene happens just before the cultural festival second year immediately after Dabi kidnaps Natsuo (long story). It continues the theme of Bakugou dealing with past trauma and is part of the turning point where Bakugou moves from soulmates are weaknesses towards eventually moving towards developing a thing with Todoroki. This section also acknowledges Bakugou’s crush on All Might he’s had since he was little. The crush, of course, is treated as any crush you’ve had on a celebrity since you were ten is treated. It’s silly, heart pounding, gut twisting, but is going to go absolutely nowhere because it’s a crush on a celebrity Bakugou’s had since he was ten. Those who have crushes probably all have at least one of these. My equivalent would be Glenn Close or Harrison Ford (I know I know).

Also important to note: this is the second draft so this scene will get tweaked before I publish to AO3.

Anyway....here’s the section I should have posted a portion of for the improvement meme.

===

Bakugou sat on one of the benches near the dorm. The wind was a little too cold, but he did not feel like being in his room or on his balcony. He could see a few planets and the occasional star. There was no moon.

Everything was going to hell. His brain could not let go of memories he needed to burry. Midoriya’s notebooks were still missing and there was no way to know if they were misplaced, stolen, or destroyed. Todoroki’s emotional output was still loud and chaotic. There was no sign of Natsuo, Dabi, or the League. There was no way to ensure the rest of Todoroki’s family would stay safe.

Bakugou shivered involuntarily. Restraints, zombies, villains, nomu, the blood, the glass, screeching, the mist, the sludge always present always choking. Bakugou’s breath billowed into the air. His memory was just as stubborn as he was.

Footsteps approached. Bakugou’s attention immediately snapped to the location. All Might looked at him with a tired smile and raised up a hand in greeting. “May I sit?”

“Sure.”

All Might sat. There was space between them. All Might did not stretch his legs out even though it was late enough no one would use the walkway until morning. He looked up at the sky, eyes tracking the planets. He rested his hands on his thighs and said, “A lot of things have happened in a short time. Many of these things have gone unaddressed. It’s not fair to you.”

“Nothing is ever fair,” Bakugou said.

“That might be true. However, that does not mean you have to suffer alone carrying the burdens of two people.” All Might put his hands in his jacket pockets.

Bakugou studied All Might’s profile and then looked away. Bakugou opened his mouth and closed it. He sighed. “I want to be more like you.” He felt All Might’s eyes on him. It made his stomach tighten but not as intensely it did when Todoroki touched him. “I want to be focused. I don’t want attachments.”

After a pause, All Might said, “I have many ‘attachments.’” He continued when Bakugou looked at him, “I chose to put my career and the citizens first, but there was always room for attachments. I worked very hard to keep my private and professional lives separate. It was easy to play the Symbol of Peace, and use it as a shield while also being Toshinori when time allowed.

“That said, there’s nothing too exciting or salacious in my past. I haven’t always been single, but I am now. I have no children or grandchildren. My soulmate is a wonderful woman I only recently had the pleasure of meeting, and I feel the same as I’ve always felt about her since she first appeared in the resonance when I was in high school, like a little sister I never had. You’ve never seen my attachments because I never share them publicly.”

Bakugou blinked. His gaze did not leave All Might.

“There are many types of soulmate connections and many types of connections you can have with people who do not exist in your resonance. You are in control of your own destiny and your own connections.”

Bakugou surveyed the portions of campus he could see form the bench. “I don’t know if I can ignore Todoroki.”

“Do you want to?” All Might’s voice was very gentle.

Bakugou stared off at no specific object. He did not know.

#adventures in fic writing

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theeverlastingshade · 4 years

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The Suburbs- Arcade Fire: 10th Anniversary

Within today’s music landscape it seems unthinkable that an outsider indie band could have achieved the sort of success that Arcade Fire achieved with their third LP, The Suburbs, a decade ago. TS sounds like a culmination of that particular strain of bombastic, orchestral indie rock that Arcade Fire helped popularize alongside the likes of Broken Social Scene and The Decemberists in the early aughts. Indie bands of that ilk existed alongside the margins of what was happening in popular culture until the rapturous reception of Arcade Fire’s debut LP, Funeral, catapulted them into the upper echelons of indie royalty. Arcade Fire were never shy about their ambitions, and positioned themselves as if they were a stadium act right from their first shows. That ambition still hasn't waned, for better or worse, but if their classic debut, Funeral, and the band’s great second LP, Neon Bible, are the urgent ruminations of wide-eyed, pre-maturely world-weary twenty-somethings, than TS is the more multi-faceted, mature record about facing the realities of adulthood. Although TS falls short of the consistency and cohesiveness of Funeral, it’s the second strongest record that the band have released to date, and it’s their last great record. The fact that Arcade Fire have yet to follow it up with another great record only seems to echo its place, alongside other 2010 touchstones like Halcyon Digest and The Monitor, as one of the last classic records of its kind.

After NB, it was hard to say exactly where Arcade Fire were going to go next. Any attempt to simply double down on the anthemic Neutral Milk Hotel/Bright Eyes meets Springsteen formula likely wouldn’t have done them many favors, so instead of going bigger, they got bolder. The band were already known for elaborate baroque arrangements in their music, but on TS these sound less like tasteful embellishments than the focal points of the songs themselves. Songs like “Empty Room” and “Deep Blue” have stunning string and piano arrangements far more impressive in their melodic and rhythmic interplay than anything the band had ever done prior. The songs here are more downtempo, relaxed, and display a wider palette of tonal and emotional frequencies with respect to their first two records. There’s also a stronger willingness to experiment that was much welcomed after the fairly tight uniformity of their first two. So while infectious rippers like “Month of May” and “Empty Room” are largely in the minority here, they do a nice job of evening out the pacing and providing ideal transitions after some of the record’s slower cuts. There are more missteps on TS than on Funeral, but the risks more often than not pay off, and it showcases a wider, more versatile side of the band without compromising any of their strengths. The tone of the record perfectly reflects the transition into the steady thrum of middle-age after the storm of young adulthood has subsided, and the lingering disquiet of uncertainty and fatigue has begun to set in.

Arcade Fire will likely always be a band incapable of not wearing their hearts on their sleeves, and so while they can often slip into heavy-handedness, there’s absolutely no denying their conviction throughout the course of TS. The chorus of the title track couldn’t possibly lay out their intentions any clearer “I can’t believe it/I’m moving past the feeling”. Whether Win is singing about war stripping people of their humanity on “City With No Children” or pondering the simplicity of life before technology stripped everyday things that we take for granted of their agency “We Used to Wait”, the themes of nostalgia, perseverance, and the loss of innocence define the album as a whole. Although earnestness has generally been one of Arcade Fire’s most notable assets, subtly has never been, and Win’s tendency to drop some clumsy lines still gets the better of him from time to time (“The business men keep drinking my blood/Like the kids in art school said they would”, “Like a patient on a table/I wanna walk again, gonna move through that pain”) even as the music around him consistently swells with stirring arrangements and lush production. Aside from a few missteps, Win and Regine both deliver some of their sharpest writing to date, particularly in Win’s case on “Suburban War” a creeping jangle/chamber pop ode to an old friend of his that he’s lost touch with “And while we sleep/We know the streets get rearranged/With my old friends/It was so different then/Before your war/Against the suburbs began” and in Regine’s case on “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”, an epic about the unrelenting march of capitalism “Living in the sprawl/Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains/And there’s no end in sight/I need the darkness; would you please cut the lights?”. On TS Arcade Fire managed to transcend their occasionally awkward songwriting through simplicity, and their belief in the power of the collective.

While TS rarely reaches the highs of Funeral, the best songs here are handedly among the best that Arcade Fire have ever written, and it’s without question their most varied, and diverse set of songs. The album is broken up into two halves, with the first half spanning the intro title track through “Half Light II”, and everything else up through the refrain outro of the title track closing things out. The one-two punch of “The Suburbs” and “Ready to Start” provide an ideal jolt of chiming keys, booming percussion, soaring strings, and Win’s queasy-yelp high in the mix as the disillusionment begins to settle in. These two set the tone for the proceedings and establish the kind of strong early momentum that Arcade Fire records can be counted on for. “City With No Children” and “Rococo” coast along funky basslines that foretell their future forays into disco and synth-pop, while “Half Light II” and “Sprawl II” luxuriate in cathartic, orchestral-fueled peaks coupled with some tasteful electronic embellishments and sublime harmonies courtesy of Regine Chassagne. Those last two songs showcase the mode that Arcade Fire have always excelled most at, one and neither the newfound sonic complexity, nor the heightened lyrical maturity displayed throughout this record has changed that. But everything else they attempt here is genuinely thrilling (even if they don’t necessarily succeed), whether it’s the baroque pop shuffle of “Rococo” or the rollicking garage swing of “Month of May”, or the bar band piano-waltz of “We Used to Wait”. TS is without question the single best distillation of everything that Arcade Fire can do as a band.

Although TS initially scanned like the cresting of a particular wave of indie rock finally penetrating the larger popular culture, the aftermath of its release was nowhere near any kind of oversaturation of indie rock quite like what was the case with the grunge explosion in the wake of Nirvana. The following years saw the industry begin to shift towards an emphasis on electronic music, hip-hop, and r&b, and Arcade Fire remained one of the few bands among their peers that ever managed to tour stadiums. Given how diffuse media is it’s impossible to imagine another band having the kind of initial success that Arcade Fire achieved through the strength of the reviews of their debut ever again without being an industry plant. It took Arcade Fire three years to follow up TS with Reflektor, and whether by creative stasis, or astute reading/being savvy opportunists they returned abandoning any pretense of the arty chamber rock of their first three records in favor of a foray into dance music. The growing pains were blatant, and they haven’t really subsided in the years since, but their artistic progression remains remarkably indicative of where the music zeitgeist has shifted throughout their career, for better or worse. Throughout their first three LPs Arcade Fire challenged the zeitgeist to meet them where they were at. Everything that they’ve released since TS has found this dynamic functioning in reverse, and the quality of their output has reflected the shift. TS is the sound of a band in full command of their craft beginning to strain against an industry no longer willing to invest resources to discover bands like them.

After TS Arcade Fire released the art rock/dance hybrid LP, Reflektor, in late 2013, and the spectacular synth pop dumpster fire LP, Everything Now, in mid 2017. While both of these albums have their moments (more so Reflektor than EN) they both present an immensely talented band straining against their strengths as they watched the zeitgeist pass them by, flailing for a way to move forward without simply going through the motions. As long as they’re active, Arcade Fire will likely remain an engaging live band full of dynamic performers capable of compounding the potency of their grand compositions several times over, even if they’re no longer able to record music that captures a fraction of that spark. But for a brief moment in 2010 it really did seem like Arcade Fire were going to take over the world through ambition for ambitions sake in a way that sort of reminds me of indie acts today who just can’t miss, and continue to get better as they become more immediate ( Alex G, Big Thief, Perfume Genius, etc). Although Arcade Fire’s best days are almost certainly behind them, their first three records still hold up remarkably well as some of the most vital indie rock of the last decade and a half. The shadow that TS casts over the contemporary music landscape is large despite the fact that it sounds like a relic from another era, primarily because of what it signifies. Trends disappear and re-emerge like clockwork, but the strive to break, and remain relevant, remains eternal.

Essentials: “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”, “Half Light II (No Celebration)”, “Empty Room”

#Arcade Fire #the suburbs #merge records #City Slang #mercury records

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soundrooms · 7 years

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Soundrs: Ben Eyes

Welcome to our new Friday feature: #producer #interviews The focus lies on #workflow & #inspiration, in order to provide a way to both gain insight about #music #production and spotlight ambitious #audio #producers. If you want to get featured, send a message here on #tumblr or an email to [email protected]. The questions will remain largely the same. Now let’s get the ball rolling with our first of many Soundrs! Indulge.

Ben Eyes is a sound engineer, composer and live performance artist based in Leeds, UK. He makes electronic music as Quip https://soundcloud.com/quip and is one half of percussion and electronics duo STOCKER/EYES https://stockereyes.wordpress.com/

• What are your inspiration sources?

Sometimes field recordings, sometimes instruments I find new corners of gear I haven't explored. I am a bit of a gear hoarder, but old 80/90s stuff as opposed to new shiny things. I love the Kurzweil K2000 its full of 80s/90s sounds but then you program it and get something contemporary, its Max MSP in hardware. I like to explore timbres and rhythms together so that might be having a drum pattern distorted in a cheap fx pedal or using delay to create new rhythms. I am a sucker for the Roland 707 as my main drum machine but the sound of it gets twisted and messed up. I find the grooves I create with the old drum machines feel more planted and make me want to dance, if that’s what’s needed.

• Tell us something about your workflow.

It is sort of split up into 3 really, I am really lucky in that I have a large room in my little (detached) house, I live in the middle of nowhere so I don't disturb anyone. I have a guitar corner with all my effects and amps setup. Then a keyboard stand with all my drums and synths near to hand - I stand up at this and get grooves and patterns down using hardware. Then a computer and mixer next to each other. I have a bunch of synths on my computer table too. I love tabletop synths so you can just sit and noodle. I tend to get something going on with a couple of synths and a drum machine. Increasingly its a small euro rack modular that i have been building. Everything is synced together and clocked from the 707, but I do some weird things with syncing - I get a 606 to do irregular clock from the tom outputs - this provides sync for the modular and a Korg electribe, which I still use alot and have a load of sample banks for it on SD cards, it makes some messed up horrible sounds and also some very punchy drums. This gets the juices flowing. I will record the jam into Ableton then start chopping or adding stuff. I like to use a mixture of analogue and digital. Posh and poor. So I might use the Pro One with a Casio keyboard but through a decent effects pedal. I think having lots of different sources in a track helps to make the sounds interesting. I started out with nothing, a four track and a delay pedal as a kid. Then a computer a bit later. I ran Rebirth and Cubasis, putting everything together in a sequencer. So having this studio is a complete luxury, a dream really. I managed to get this studio together by working my arse off and getting bits second hand every now and then. I am quite strict about not buying new stuff, there is too much gear in the world so I try and get a bargain now and then. I am a sound engineer by trade so I get offered kit quite a bit. The internet has helped also. My room is pretty full now though so its just a question of me getting time in here to work. I have a couple of different monitor options and a sub which is great. To be honest I keep things really simple. The main thing I guess is I use hardware almost 100% now. Some software compression and EQ but its all sounds from boxes, guitars or my mouth.

• How would creative rituals benefit your workflow?

Well I used to smoke a bit and have a drink to get in the zone, which I have stopped now. I just drink tea. Have a meal with my girlfriend and then get into a flow. I like to loop weird things I might have recorded in my job or just play with a machine until something comes out. Rituals are really important. I cycle a lot and love mountain biking. Also just playing the guitar and using acoustic instruments helps. I have a tonne of guitars and little stringed things. Acoustic instruments are ritualistic, they are the maddest things really. The more I think about a guitar the more it drives me to create something with it.

• How do you get in the zone?

Just relaxing, not thinking too much. I do quite a bit of music to spec, and also study at the moment for PhD in Composition at the University of York. This means I have to switch off really when making "my music". I just use music to relax often. As a way to create something that might be heard somewhere. I gig less now and don't release music much so its more of thing for myself and occasionally others.

• How do you start a track?

Sometimes I setup a load of gear and just go for it. If I have a load of tracks to do for a record I just get three or four boxes going together, maybe drums and two synths then hammer out a load of improvisations. I like to work quite fast so I will stay in this mode for a while. I don't use a pool of samples so every time I start a track I try and record new stuff. Thats probably crazy but it keeps things fresh and I always find out new things. I might have one or two loops from my recorder or phone but usually every things done in the studio.

• Do you have a special DAW template?

No I am not really into that. I have fave effects settings on hardware. Everything runs through a desk in the studio so I just patch in whatever I want and go. It takes 1 second to add a channel and assign an input. I use my whole studio like a template really. So certain FX for certain instruments. Then when I get bored I repatch. I have two patch bays pretty much full so they get used a bit.

• What do you put on the master channel?

Nothing until the end then its an SSL bus compressor or the Fab Filter compressor and a limiter. Maybe a tiny EQ but nothing crazy, I like to hear the dynamics till the very bitter end. Luckily my room is flatish so I can work quite confidently in there.

• How do you arrange and finish a track?

Walk away and come back the next day, then keep snipping. I used to be terrible at editing and getting rid of things but now I am quite ruthless. Its funny how you change over the years. I'll listen to things and think fuck thats terrible it has to go. Come in the next day and get rid. I think thats part of being much more sober now when I make music and more of an idea of what I want. Quite often I have the arrangement in my head so I just snip away. I do automation by mouse and sometimes enter some fx with a MIDI controller. But usually my tracks aren't huge so its quite a simple process.

• How do you deal with unfinished projects?

Every few months I might have a train ride or a hard disk sort. I will go through old stuff and highlight them and try and finish them. I have an album I have just finished that was made like this. Just going back to old stuff until it was finished. I'm really happy with it should be out soon as I am mastering it currently.

• How do you store and organize your projects?

Hard drives - I don't tend to store things on the local disk. Then back up the disks, then back up those. Then the cloud too. Mixes get sent there. I am quite good at backing stuff up at the moment.

• How do you take care of studio ergonomics?

Have separate places in the studio to do stuff, guitar and bass corner then a drum machine/synth section then my computer/desktop synths and mixer. Everything's quite divided up. I love my desk at the moment - it has all the desk top synths and volcas and the mac, so I can just record a groove from synth / drum machine world then sit down and add a nice synth, the TG-33 gets used or an old Novation Nova and edit.

• Tell us something about your daily routine, how is your day structured, how do you make room for creativity?

I work a lot either at the University where I look after the studios and do teching for concerts and I work freelance mixing for bands such as Wrangler, who are quite a heavy live electro band. They tour a bit so I go away a lot. I have been getting into iPads for sketches. I have an albums worth of stuff done on it. Just need to mix it. So yeah I watch and listen to others a lot - recording or mixing live and in a way you get ideas this way for your own stuff. Always learn even when its other peoples work.

• Share a quick producing tip.

High pass filter everything.

Try and make space for everything in the mix by filtering. Don't boost too much.

Don't worry about all the gear. Just get the idea down and it will go from there.

• Share a link to an interesting website (doesn’t have to be music related).

I'm reading this at the moment. I love stories of creative friction, fights between creative people are always interesting because people really feel this stuff. Also I am a member of an institution and I see my own politics and watch the institutional bullshit from a distance. I am lucky enough to have worked at EMS and it's a great place. This is quite eye opening if you are into art politics.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=i7W9CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA169&lpg=PA169&dq=music+box+software+ems&source=bl&ots=5FbKkMKKgt&sig=Zr7Y5pJCvWn7N4HtJbjkgPQz8m8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi6uLj1q5XWAhUMXhoKHaInBQoQ6AEILzAB#v=onepage&q=music%20box%20software%20ems&f=false

• List ten sounds you are hearing right this moment : )

I am recording a band called Roller Trio. Jazz electronics. So I am hearing reverse guitar, bass, sax, acoustic and real drums, the hiss of the mixer, 808 samples and occasional pop of an old sound card ;-)

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thenonconformistcurmudgeon · 4 years

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RANDOM THOUGHTS

As any legitimate writer will tell you, some stories don’t make the final cut. They end up in the editing room cyberspace. Here are a few that went nowhere for me but had a nugget of an idea.

Apocalypse Now/Heart of Darkness

Two cats conversing:

Cat # 1 Did you hear? Fluff’s family forgot to give her wet food one day.

Cat # 2 The horror! the horror!

Clockless

What did people who woke up in the middle of the night do before clocks were invented? The old sundial wasn’t helpful. Can you imagine waking up and not knowing if you have an hour before dawn or 6 hours before dawn. That would drive me wacky. Not like you could pick up a book to read or watch the tube for a bit. Hard to get comfortable on that bed of straw, especially with the mice rummaging in it and your goat eating your bed at the same time. Both you and the family stunk from being around the animals, lack of regular bathing and laundering, and generally covered in soot and ash from fires. Family members full of disease, all living in smaller spaces than a NY apartment. Amazing, that humans survived and multiplied under these conditions.

We have come a long way. That is made clear by my most recent reading of an issue of AARP. They had an article entitled, “The Art of Falling Safely”.

Things you should never say:

When you are out for Mother’s Day dinner with the wife, don’t suggest as a lark to introduce her as your mother to the waitress.

Name the only four Australians you know to a family of Australian’s.

Wood vs. Plastic

Paper or plastic? It was a common question, now mostly replaced by cloth. However, there is another decision that does not get much run during conversations. Wood vs. Plastic toilet seat. I bet their fiercely loyal supporters of one over the other out there. I use to be a wood man myself until moving into our condo that had plastic. Now, waving the plastic seat banner. Easier to clean, doesn’t stain, paint doesn’t disappear, no crashing sound when you drop the seat or lid.

Apocalypse Now Redux

Word on the street is that a former stock boy heisted cases of toilet paper and is auctioning them off a back alley off Lisbon Street in Lewiston, Maine. Other stock boys are being paid to send text messages to folks when a new shipment of toilet paper comes in.

The Shelter on Maple Street

Dateline, North America, 2027: The break-up of the former United States is near completion. The last refugees are streaming across the borders to their newfound homeland, not always welcomed. Hostility has been rampant for the last seven years as the disintegration of societal mores was rapid and rampant. Maine through Maryland is a new nation, as is the former states of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Colorado. Minnesota decided to join Canada. The rest of the nation stayed together with Fearless Leader. These homelands were now divided by politics and race and millions and millions were forced to move so as not to be killed.

In 2020, Fearless Leader declared Marshall Law, disbanded the supreme court and congress, and halted elections. He travelled to his preferred states with gifts of toilet paper and sanitizer, throwing them into the crowd, rallying his followers, promising a rosy future and blaming his enemies for the virus, the poor response to the virus, failing markets, and the thorough dissolution of everyday life. While throwing out rolls to the adoring crowd, he told them that he himself was close to inventing the cure, and they would have it any day now. On cue, the crowd roared and repeatedly said, Lock Her Up, referring to Pelosi.

Things to say to impress others or when on a date:

Did you know that 98% of American Hazelnuts are grown in Oregon. However, the output pales in comparison to the hazelnut crop of Turkey.

Recent Medical Problem

I went for my annual physical and to get my yearly ear wax clean out. When the nurse started the ear wax removal process, she mentioned that the doctor told her I had small ear canals. Actually, I think the nurse said tiny, which sounds immeasurably worse. Imagine going 60 years without knowing about your tiny ear canals. The doctor has never mentioned it to me, has always swept it under the rug, keeping me in the dark. Thus, it is obviously a condition I should have some shame over. Tried starting a support group for the condition but only one guy showed up. He said he was already in 12 other support groups and thought the snacks might be better at this one for some reason. Told him to leave and will suffer in silence. Not that I can hear much from all the wax.

#RANDOM THOUGHTS

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yaldev · 4 years

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300 stories! In this thread: celebration, circumstantial updates, project statistics and story plans going forward!

CELEBRATION:

yay me, i hit the arbitrary multiple of one hundred which is itself only relevant due to our base-10 number system, WHOOP DE DOO

Alright, celebration over. No need to rest on my laurels.

On a non-shitpost note, it often feels hard for me to take pride in my own accomplishments when I hold myself to the standards of the people I admire, who had typically accomplished more literary by my age than I have. Then again, they live in different circumstances than I do.

CIRCUMSTANTIAL UPDATES:

I'm not particularly proud of rate of progress in this place, but I also have to give myself some credit. A shitty breakup some months back with someone who involved herself pretty crucially in this project made Yaldev feel poisoned for a considerable length of time after, and I had to work through my inner storm until the creative muse would return. University's been eating a lot of my time and energy, delaying both that endeavour and Yaldev itself after it was finished. None of this made better by my shitty time-management skills and tendency to spend entire free evenings doing shit I don't even really enjoy. But of course that can't stop me. The kind of person I want to be wouldn't let any of this stop them.

Speaking of university, I've been heavily informed by a literature class I've been taking on science fiction. It's lead to me treating that aspect as something different from a mere aesthetic, fantasy with a coat of fancy paint, but something separate and defined by its own qualities. It's also forced me to do more reading of the genre and come to an understanding of some of its strengths (worldbuilding, creativity through restrictions, aesthetic potential, power in commenting on the present using the future as a device) and weaknesses (worldbuilding, restrictions on creativity, relatability, failing to make the damn characters/plot/prose interesting). In other words, if you notice me treating more scientific aspects of Yaldev differently in future writing, it's probably a result of what I've been learning here.

Above all, the single most important lesson: "bro fantasy writers are just too stupid to write SF bro,, they have arts degrees instead of STEM degrees like SF writers so they're really just intellectual inferiors, you have to have a very high IQ to understand r-"

I'm also not putting too much pressure on myself to go faster specifically because I'm still learning. When I sit down to write a post more historical in nature, it helps if I've done so after learning some more history. Same goes for economics, mythology, science, anything really. I'm still young and I have no doubt that I'll be looking back at much of what I've written and utterly cringe at my ignorance in several fields. To my future self who inevitably does so: I was self-aware of my lack of expertise, I did what I could with the knowledge I had, I frequently broke away from using this knowledge to create total realism in favour of pursuing my creative vision at the time, and I had to write a lot of bad stuff before I was ready to make anything good. So shut up you endlessly self-critical bastard.

COVID outbreak has prompted the cancellation of all classes for the rest of this term. I'll still be having to work on final papers and such, but Yaldev productivity will probably jump up a bit more.

I will be throwing some Yaldev ads out there soon, most likely candidates being Reddit and/or Facebook. If you've arrived here from one of said ads, welcome! Sorry for interrupting you, I was just really excited to show you my stories!

STATISTICS:

This is the fun part, lads! Get ready for some stats and some commentary!

Total Stories: 300

As should be obvious, all numbers are only for the point at which I'm writing this post.

Project Age: 1124 Days

Damn, oldie.

How Long You Have to Wait, on Average, For the Next Post: Approximately 3.75 Days

Yeah, it's nowhere near Beeple's output. Sorry to say that my muse isn't always in this place. I do write something creative every day but it's usually not something that works as canon in here. On that note, I do highly recommend that whatever your creative hobby is, do something every day to practice it, even if it's not much or not for long. You have to keep that part of your brain constantly active to maintain your present skill and remain in a state where you can improve with time.

This number would be lower if not for some of my longer hiatuses. I hope to eventually bring that down to 3.5, for an average of two posts per week across the project's history.

Readers Across All Platforms: 412 (58 on Facebook, 129 on Instagram, 119 on Reddit, 106 on Tumblr)

Howdy y'all! Thanks for being here and reading my steadily-improving crap. I really struggle with talking about my creative projects in real life, including Yaldev, primarily out of a self-trained instinct to shut myself up about it on the understanding that nobody cares - especially not other creative types, since we're all too invested in our own creation to pay much heed to others. I've been trying to overcome that, and you're helping me just by being here to read. That tells me there's potential in this and that it's something that at least some people genuinely want to see. Artists shouldn't attach their sense of self to their creations, but I can't help but feel validated through that.

At the same time, I do often fear that mine is the sort of content that just gets a like tossed at it for the pretty visuals on the way down the endless content scroll, without having made a real impression on anyone or created a lasting memorry. I'll probably always have that worry, which comes as much from a disdain for general Internet culture as anything else. (I say that as someone quite embedded in and familiar with it; at some point you just get tired of it all.)

Stories Per Reader: Approximately 0.73

Makes it sound like a pretty good growth rate, if on average I'm getting one (and sometimes more) new follower per story. I guess "good growth rate" is somewhat subjective and depends on your goal, but for me, having a tangible unit of increase for each at all feels good.

For word counts, all of them include post titles.

Shortest Story: Caged Light (26)

Unsurprisingly, the shortest posts in general are the ones that are excerpts of stylistic machine language. The runner-up is Titanium Hearts, at 32.

Longest Story: Steelflakes (2024)

That's right, the longest Yaldev story is this piece I revised over and over, and which basically nobody read! :^)

The runner-up is Meeting with the Oracle, at 2014.

Total Word Count: 68,689

That's within the realm of a standard novel, but fantasy novels tend to be about 100k words. We just might get there, lads!

Average Story Length: Approximately 229 words

Yep, makes sense. Over time I've come to realize that shorter is (generally) best given the attention span of most social media users. I think 200-250 words is solid, but of course there'll be deviations from that.

STORY PLANS GOING FORWARD:

It somewhat stresses me out how many "unfinished plots" there are. I'm mostly concerned about the fate of Dread Fighter Tarle, Decadin's death, the campaign of Commander Bruzek, Aran's life situation, the fall of the capital city, and most of all the journeys of Inzohm and the Lone Traveller. The last two are especially concerning because they're the only ones where I feel somewhat lost on where to go with it, and since it's literally the chronological end there's a lot of pressure to make it good and let it end with a good impression. That said, I'm not going to force early development for any of these. Sometimes it's a matter of having to wait for good art to come up. This may have to be awhile, since it took awhile for Beeple to start including humans in his art.

It's theoretically possible that some things still aren't tied up by the project's end, in which case I'll do something short and likely artless just to give them a resolution.

When I get to Beeple's later art I plan to be putting more focus on individual cities across Yaldev with it, shining a stronger light on Ascendant culture, and its regional variants based on the remnants of cultures it overran. I'd also like to do more pre-civilization loredumps, about the chaotic landscapes and natural phenomena of early Yaldev in the days before humans tilled the land and dammed the Aether.

Regarding visual consistency: expect variance. Some things in different pieces of art look close enough to each other to be the same object in the narrative, but still have some differences in colour or details that make them non-identical. As the biggest example, most giant disks will be interpreted as the Aether Suppressor even though not all of them will be made of purple crystal with segmenting black lines like the first post depicting it did.

Thanks for being here. What I always wanted as a kid was for other people to be as excited about my worldbuilding as I was, and while I doubt I've hit that extent, I hope my work's had some impact on you.

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clickbliss · 6 years

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Shikhondo is a beautiful hand drawn shooter-em-up that lives for aesthetics

by Amr (@siegarettes)

Shikhondo: Soul Eater

Developer- Deer Farm

Publisher- Deer Farm

Switch, PC

Shooters live on spectacle. A good shooter can get by on satisfying gunplay, but an exceptional one often enhances it with strong aesthetics and world design. Aesthetically, Shikhondo has it nailed. Its detailed, illustrated style evokes both modern anime and traditional Japanese ink paintings, with subtle animated touches. The animation itself uses popular paper doll style techniques, with small distortions to the illustrations to give them a bit more life. It’s an impressive look, and even the UI feels stylish. But even with this close attention to the art direction, Shikhondo has some major inconsistencies, which damage both the art and its readability as a game.

Shikhondo uses a familiar shooter set up. There’s a weaker, wider attack that allows you to move fast, a more concentrated weapon that slows you down and allows more precise movement, a special attack that’s powered by flying close to enemy bullets, and a limited stock of bombs used for clearing the screen. Anyone with experience with shoot-em-ups will immediately understand their function and the back and forth between slow, fast and special attacks serves Shikhondo well. But even here, at basic character control, there are small annoyances. For one, the shot types aren’t separated into different buttons. Instead, one button alters the properties of the main shot button, and the bomb and special attacks share the same button, which changes functions depending on the state, which feels more complicated than it needs to be.

Then there’s basic problems with the UI, which make it difficult to read. When moving slowly there’s a circular meter surrounding your character that fills as your special attack is powered up. It’s a good solution for keeping you focused on the action instead of looking away and getting shot. There’s also another elaborately detailed bar on the right hand side, which only after experimenting did I find out was the same meter that appears around your character. What threw me off was the glowing soul shaped animated icons, which read like remaining bombs, but didn’t seem to deplete when I used any of my attacks.

Turns out the icons were completely decorative, and what was important was the thin bar underneath the icons which showed how full your special attack meter is. The soul icons only acted as markers toward that progress, which isn’t particularly useful since special attacks are only available when the bar is full. As it turns out, there’s also another set of soul icons that I missed near the bottom of the screen, which are the remaining stock of bombs, not to be confused with the other soul icon with the number next to it, which shows how many souls have been collected from enemies.

These might seem like minor issues, but I bring them up because they illustrate the kind of basic visual design problems that mar Shikhondo. It affects not only the surrounding presentation and UI, but basic game elements as well. There are problems with the layering of bullets--enemy bullets aren’t canceled out when using your special attack, and they’ll sometimes sneak through the hail of massive gunfire you’re outputting to kill you. Bosses have elaborate full screen introductions, but they’re much less impressive if you happen to be firing, since your bullets will obscure their artwork by appearing on top of them, even while everything else is hidden under them. So you get this stream of bullets, coming from nowhere, plastered over the elaborate painted character portraits.

Boss fights turn out to be a good illustration of the problems with Shikhondo’s approach to visuals. Their artwork looks great in fullscreen introductions, and often endows them with an intimidating presence. Then they shrink down to the playfield, where they feel miniscule and the details of the character art become lost. Shikhondo’s use of scaling in general feels like a misstep. While scaling pixel art has its own challenges, the game’s scaling hand drawn art creates a very ugly effect and gives even the best illustrations an amateur look. The thickness and quality of lines distorts noticeably, which makes objects look out of place and destroys visual consistency. Not only is it distracting, but it makes the game harder to read at a glance, and hard to play well. This becomes a repeated problem in both boss fights and during the stage. It damages the basic flow of the game, and makes it difficult to get the feeling of a consistent space.

Shikhondo is undeniably a beautiful shooter. Its mix of subtle animations and lavishly painted artwork stands out among its peers. It’s easily got the spectacle aspect of the shoot-em-up covered. But its flaws highlight the other aspect that make a shooter truly great, and the small touches you don’t notice until they’re absent. As it turns out a good shooter can shine with great aesthetics, but great aesthetics can also hide a weak shooter.

#shikhondo #deer farm #switch #nintendo switch #review #pc

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