today i cleaned up 100+ hamtaro rainbow rescue sprites. to print and hand cut as little sticker flakes. did u think i was normal 🤨

Hisuian Zoroark is one of the sickest designs in pokemon, but the model on that bloke is FUCKED. It's really bad. If they bother to port her over to other games, you know they ain't changing that model, either, 'cept to make the textures paler & duller.

I continue to despise pokemon, despite being a pokemon fan, I fucken guess. At this point, I gotta go all in on summat else, like Cassette beasts.

How did you enjoy Undertale Yellow's pacifist route? Have a favorite song/character so far? (also did you see my comment on the youtube channel that the annoying dog in the steamworks was a Fun Event lol-)

I'm also assuming you're planning on doing Neutral and Genocide at some point.

I enjoyed it a lot!! The spritework was excellent, I loved the little QOL improvements in various places (like being able to run), the characters were all so charming...so glad I played through it all! And yes, I did notice about getting a fun event with annoying dog in Steamworks! (Speaking of, Meltdown's one of my favorite songs...also gotta love Starlo and Axis's battle themes!)

I am planning to do a neutral run in the future (but not until after my surgery), but I don't really do geno runs. I've never done them for UT or DR, so not gonna do that here. Especially considering the boss battle difficulty, I'd hit that wall pretty hard and not get through it! I did look up the geno run on YouTube, and DANG how all that ended!! I have to draw certain characters because I love the design but man that last scene just suckerpunched me!

Spoiler-free review of Undertale Yellow:

I don't ever post on Tumblr but this is going here because I really want to talk about this game.

So first of all I wanna preface this by saying that when the demo came out, a very long time ago, I watched a playthrough of it and wasn't too impressed. This made me not very inclined to try this game when it released. But I was wrong. This game rules. (I decided to play this entirely because I found out there was a fennec fox character. Sue me.)

So first of all, if you like Undertale, you will like this game. It's just Undertale, but more! It's more Undertale! I'd even go so far to say that it's more Undertale than Undertale, since by my reckoning it's longer and has more content.

I should also say I have only played the pacifist route. Should I wait until I've played the other routes to review it? Yes. But I really wanna talk about this game.

This game has really amazing spritework. There was one point where I had to stop just to admire the spritework of a scene. Undertale intentionally doesn't have fully polished sprites as part of its charm which is fair. This still keeps the Undertale artstyle but makes it look so cool. There's so many cool animations it's great.

The music slaps so much it's so good I love it.

The writing and characterisation are great. In a way, I'd say it's even more character-focused than Undertale, since you can argue that the entire story is about one specific character. There were several moments that made me laugh out loud and several moments that made me cry. Which is exactly what you want to see.

The gameplay was really fun, especially the battles. There were some really unique battles here that switched up the battle system in ways entirely different from Undertale. It felt more difficult than Undertale too, but not punishingly so, which was also nice.

There's a fennec fox woman.

I will admit the game starts fairly slowly—the demo content (the Ruins section) isn't anything amazing, but once you finish the second section it really starts coming into its own.

One reason I didn't like the demo is because I disagree with how close this game takes place to Undertale in the timeline lore-wise. Which is petty. But honestly, after finishing the game, I can fully excuse that, because it makes for an amazing story.

Characters from Undertale (with one notable exception) are largely relegated to cameos, which I think is the right decision. It lets the game focus more on its original cast of characters and makes it feel much less fanservicey.

This game expands on Undertale's ideas and world in very interesting ways—exploring concepts that Undertale didn't delve much into.

Honestly, I think this game could stand on its own. I think you could play this without knowing anything about Undertale and it'd still work, which is a testament to how good it is.

There's a fennec fox woman! (I'm mostly joking about this, but come on. She's so cool)

If you like Undertale, play this game. It's literally free! IT COSTS ZERO DOLLARS. Here's the link to download it: https://gamejolt.com/games/UndertaleYellow/136925

(Longpost) Shining in the Darkness: Early Impressions.

I mentioned it offhand once, but I was going through Shining in the Darkness for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Just beat the first floor (I think), so I'd figured I'd talk about how I'm currently feeling about it (Tl;Dr I'm liking it).

It's the first game in Sega's Shining series, but rather than an SRPG like its more known Shining Force games, SitD is a first-person DRPG.

Meaning of course I had to go and try it. As if I don't have like 4 or 5 other DRPGs in my backlog (give me a break i just like the genre...).

And overall, I can say it's a neat game so far. Although the earlygame might put some people off.

Storywise, it's simple: You are tasked with rescuing a princess who, alongside your father, disappeared within a nearby labyrinth. I do recall the Shining series' plots becoming more complex the further you played. But if it's as simple as it looks, I can't say I mind much.

Similarly, the gameplay is pretty standard for the genre. You explore large mazes in a first person perspective along your two teammates - fitting the Fighter/Mage/Priest archetypes each.

Rather than learning multiple spells, it seems that your party members instead upgrade the few skills they do have, with the option of choosing which version of a spell you'll use.

For example: Milo, the healer, can cast a Lv2 or Lv1 Heal spell depending on which is more convenient. It's a pretty neat mechanic, which I'm pretty sure was later used in Shining Force.

So far it's good: The main character can tank hits and retaliate with normal attacks. Your priest can heal as well as equip heavy weapons. And your mage can cast ailments, debuffs and elemental spells.

The one caveat with the earlygame is that your teammates don't show up at the start.

Instead, you have to explore throughout most of the first floor on your own, up to fighting the first boss.

There is an escape item, as well as another that lets you see your current location. And by all means, the main character can survive on his own once he gains a few levels. But he learns no magic whatsoever, so the only healing available will be via items, and the only way to deal damage will be via normal attacks.

So basically, the earlygame will be spent on farming until you have enough money for better equipment. The first boss makes sure you do that, as it will kill you and receive no damage in return.

Thankfully, as soon as you beat the first boss and finally get access to your teammates, the game runs much smoother. As per usual with the genre, the mage happens to learn a sleep spell early on - making the larger encounters much more manageable.

While on the topic of encounters: apparently, the game changes what you find depending on your level.

At first, fights often had just one to two slimes. but after level 8 it was pretty common to see up to four or five of them at once - mixed in with other, more powerful enemies. It's a really cool concept, one I haven't seen in other DRPGs.

Overall I'd say the game is pretty fun so far. There's a lot of charm to the spritework, the music is great, and I would recommend it. Provided you can handle the earlygame grinding/soloing. Unlike EXP, it will take a while before you can afford better equipment.

Do you have any tips for recreating the Deltarune sprite style?

Hmm... I'm not entirely sure if I've got any 100% full proof tips for the style (nor will I pretend I'm an expert on the style), but I'll give what I can for ya! So, first up, for any given color on a sprite, I'd suggest only using two colors. One brighter highlight, and one darker base/tone. the shading in DR doesn't tend to get super complex, so most of the time having only two tones for a part should work super well. Bonus points if one or both of the colors are then reincorporated into other parts too, like using one section's highlight as a shade for another, or using the same shade for multiple colors.

Second, a few in-between pixels can help give depth to sprites. You ever see those one or two pixels in-between an outline and the base color, and it uses the same color as the shade? Well, those are in-betweens, and while UT and Lightworld style sprites don't tend to use them, the Darkworld sprite tends to have way more of them, and they help distinguish Darkworld sprites. Third, don't be afraid to use a different color than outright black for your character outlines. There are a lot of sprites that use pure black like Lightworld sprites or sprites for Darkners, but if you're making a darkworld sprite for a Lightner, than get a little creative. Use a very dark tint of whatever their main color is, and that'll help them feel like more of a lightner. It's not a hard-n-fast rule (Berdly uses a black outline despite being a lightner), but it's a tool that can be used.

Fourth, use plenty of ref material. Take other DR sprites, compare them to your work, see what might be different, how you could fix it, and just try your best. And finally, remember that DR's stlye isn't perfect, has plenty of imperfections, and that it's ok to go for designs that aren't super consistent. It's part of the charm in my opinion, because even if it's definitely improved since UT, the spritework is still obviously no Metal Slug or anything, and I kinda love it for it. If you've got differences or flaws between your sprite and the official style, just remember that the official DR sprites are also pretty inconsistent, so your problems might not even register as looking wrong. Sometimes it's even fun to embrace a sprite's initial mistake and then turn it into something amazing/fun. And so uh... yeah, there's my tips. Not really sure if it helped all that much, but I hope they do! If I'm being totally honest here, my style's actually more closely based upon the style of the Undertale mod Bits and Pieces, as it's what I originally was mimicking, and it just so happened to be conveniently similar to DR's style. These are a few character sprites that I made in the style of the mod, with these all being the winners of a contest the community had to get NPCs into the mod (and the final two are mine).

I'd also made some sprites in past that were for a game project I was helping out with. It never saw fruition, though the styled was obviously influenced by the Undertale style, but they were different and they were also... well, a little rougher considering I made them when I was just getting into pixel art. I still like them and I don't think I did too bad for at the time, but it definitely doesn't match my current style (plus, the project's kinda dead in the water anyways)

as i've been replaying dual destinies, i've been thinking about its aesthetic shift to 3D. i have a lot of thoughts about 3D game aesthetics, but what it comes down to here is asking "would this animation work better in 2D?" and honestly? the art team sure did know how to take advantage of smoother animations, camera control, and three-dimensional movement. something like yuri cosmos spinning in his segway would have taken a ludicrous amount of spritework for a single visual gag, but in 3D it's just about rotating the model. a lot of full body movement like that can be done more freely now. being able to have ted tonate intricately put together and take apart a bomb, that would be *so* hard to do in 2D, and it's still hard in 3D too, but they pulled it off! even though choppier movement works better for a lot of animations, there's a good few where the smoothness really works, like on blackquill, athena, and hugh. there's a lot of visual gags that would be an absolute nightmare to do in 2D, but we get to see them here! but we do still miss out on a bit of the exaggerated human charm of hand-drawn or pixel art. like, stylization in 3D is incredibly fucking difficult, and requires a load of good tech and personnel. ace attorney is and has always been a budget production, so a bit of that would inevitably get lost. but it gets pretty close! it can do the thing sometimes! and it leans into 3D's strengths when it can. aaaaah, game development is so fascinating!

My Thoughts On: CrossCode

As Steam’s 2023 Summer Sale rolled around, I was itching to grab at least one game before the sale came to a close. I had heard of CrossCode from a YouTube video a while ago and kept it in the back of my mind until a sale rolled around. After weighing up any other potential games I’d like to grab instead, I settled on CrossCode. Lo and behold, I was beyond pleasantly surprised with my experience and enjoyed it more than I imagined I would. I wouldn’t hesitate to call it one of my favourite games I’ve played this year, which says a lot considering I had just spent an ungodly amount of hours in Tears of the Kingdom just a couple of months ago.

Crosscode is an Action RPG developed by Radical Fish Games. Originally a hobby project, CrossCode was successfully funded on IndieGogo and fully released in 2018, following a 3-year tenure in early access. In 2021, the game would receive a paid DLC, adding a significant amount of post-game content. This lengthy development time has resulted in an extremely polished product that has clearly had so much love, dedication and care put into it. I’ve tried to keep this little write-up extremely light on spoilers in case a wandering soul finds their way here and decides to play the game themselves.

CrossCode is set in a sort of faux-MMO. Games about games aren’t rare nowadays but CrossCode’s take is well executed. The setting can be difficult to explain in summary, and is easier to get the jist of when playing the game yourself, but I’ll try my hand. CrossCode takes place in CrossWorlds, an MMO that exists in the far future. Instead of traditional MMOs as we understand them, CrossWorlds is not in fact virtual. CrossWorlds itself takes place on a terraformed moon and players don headgear, much like virtual reality headsets that we know today, allowing them to control their characters, called avatars.  A great deal of effort was put into maintaining the illusion of a highly populated MMO world. The protagonist, Lea, is a player logged into this game herself. Your party members are in-universe players and behave as such. You’ll see other players running about the world and chatting about the game and the experiences they’ve had within it. This MMO-based world allows the game to toy around with genre convention, engage in meta humour, subvert player expectations and tell a story that is entirely unique to the setting.

CrossCode’s visuals are a clear homage to the art found in SNES classics. Player and party sprites are cute and charming, but appropriately readable. Effects for powerful abilities are striking and flashy, while sprites for large and dangerous boss monsters ooze with menacing detail. Spritework for the game’s numerous locales is delightfully vibrant, a particular favourite of mine being Sapphire Ridge. Pictured below is Autumn’s Rise, the game’s first major area.

I heavily enjoyed CrossCode’s soundtrack, composed by Deniz Akbulut. Battle themes are upbeat and electric, matching the pace and energy of the game’s combat. Dungeon themes on the opposite end, are moody, thought-provoking tracks, acting as appropriate backdrops to the game’s unrelenting puzzles. Tense story beats have appropriate tracks that set the mood wonderfully. Particular favourites of mine are Autumn’s Rise and Lea!. Autumn’s Rise is the track for the game’s introductory area of the same name. It is welcoming and upbeat, with a palpable air of discovery and excitement, serving as the perfect introduction to CrossCode’s journey. Lea!, as its name implies, is the protagonist's main theme. A calming and pleasant track that finds its motif used in several other places in the game’s OST. Keep a keen ear out!

CrossCode’s moment-to-moment gameplay is extremely polished, with Lea being incredibly responsive and easy to control. Lea's base arsenal consists of a chargeable, bouncing projectile and a melee combo, as well as a dodge and guard. The depth of this combat system can be found in the game’s skill tree and element system. Its skill tree allows players to upgrade certain attributes and unlock stronger forms of Lea’s four base abilities named combat arts. These combat arts make use of an ‘SP’ meter, with stronger arts requiring more SP to use. SP slowly restores on its own, but does so even faster when dealing damage to enemies. This motivates the player to stay active in combat, always building up SP in order to continually throw out powerful offensive or defensive abilities. Elemental modes allow Lea to swap between a number of elements on the fly, altering her current stats and damage type. Each element offers an entirely new set of combat arts, resulting in a large amount of options at Lea’s disposal at any moment during a fight. This also makes unlocking each of the game’s elements exciting, as each element introduces further variety in both combat and puzzle solving. Combat itself is fast and frenetic, requiring quick thinking and understanding of both enemy attacks and weaknesses to come out on top. Enemy encounters specifically were a highlight, with each enemy type having unique behaviours and their own individual strategies in order to take them down. This ranges from attacking them during an indicated phase of vulnerability, attacking a specific part of their body or building up a stagger meter by attacking with an element the enemy is weak to (and many more!). CrossCode also offers numerous pieces of equipment that offer certain modifiers to Lea’s skillset that allows the player to further specialise and build to their tastes. However, seeking out specific pieces of gear can require some extended material grinding. I generally ignored extensive trading and only picked up gear that I already had the materials for regardless, but after finishing the main story and picking out select pieces of gear I wanted to craft in order to tackle some post-game content, I did have to spend some time running around to grind out the necessary materials.

CrossCode's dungeons wear the game’s 2D Zelda inspiration on its sleeve, with large, labyrinthine structures, featuring puzzles, enemies, locked doors and a final 'boss' key the player must collect to face the temple's last challenge. CrossCode does a phenomenal job at introducing a temple's major mechanics and continuously building on them as the temple progresses. What goes from a single, simple interaction will eventually become an entire web of puzzle elements that weave together to create a challenging, but satisfying experience. Many puzzles will require tight and consistent execution beyond figuring out the solution. A temple's primary puzzle mechanics will also be used in enemy rooms, as well as the temple's boss, wrapping the experience up with a nice little bow. The amount of unique and varied interactions present in CrossCode’s dungeons is staggering, especially considering that Lea’s primary method of solving puzzles is solely through the use of her bouncing, ranged projectile. Admittedly, while I feel CrossCode's temples are very well executed in terms of their design, I did find myself fatigued at times. Dungeons are long and involved, and the ever-increasing complexity of a dungeon's puzzles often left me tired. Although  I may be partly to blame since I was playing such large bursts, I’d probably feel different had I taken the game slower! Still, I never felt the puzzles themselves to be poorly designed. CrossCode has a certain ‘language’ to its puzzle design that made it easy for me to get the idea of what a room was asking of me. This didn’t mean I solved each puzzle with any semblance of swiftness, but upon entering a room and getting past the initial shock of, “Wow that’s a lot of things”, scanning the room and the puzzle elements it contains made my brain begin churning with various ideas. Following this, I enjoyed experimenting with what was available in a room, slowly putting together what the puzzle’s final solution may be. This concludes with solving the puzzle itself, which as mentioned previously, is an execution test, requiring me to put my potential solution to work with well-timed and precisely-aimed projectiles. I fell into this engaging loop of ‘scan’, ‘experiment’ and then ‘solve’, feeling very satisfied after each room I cleared. Besides the puzzles themselves, the developers included visual aids like floor markings to be a subtle guiding hand for a player. I’ve only done a single playthrough, but I look forward to running the dungeons once more with the experience I’ve now garnered. Related to puzzles, CrossCode offers accessibility options that allow the player to tune puzzle speed to their liking. While I never found myself making use of this feature, it is appreciated for players that have difficulty with or aren’t interested in its puzzle gameplay.

The rest of CrossCode’s gameplay is found in exploring its vast locales. Areas consist of many rooms filled to the brim with enemies and collectibles. Players can blast away flora for materials and hop across terrain. The game offers many chests which contain valuables outside the player's reach that require platforming across an area’s geography to reach higher up ledges. Also littered across these areas are numerous mini-puzzles. While not as substantial as their dungeon counterparts, they offer a distraction from combat and platforming, often leading the way to chests and opening up shortcuts to make navigation simpler. One of my few qualms with CrossCode is found here. The game’s isometric perspective means judging heights and distance for jumps can be unintuitive. By the latter half, I found myself ignoring some of the more deviously placed chests because I just didn’t have the patience to seek out one specific ledge I needed to climb up and then fall off three times on the way to the chest by misjudging my jumps.  

Much like any RPG, CrossCode features a bevy of sidequests alongside its main content. RPGs regularly fall subject to menial and tedious sidequests and I was happy to find that CrossCode’s were generally enjoyable. This isn’t to say the game is free from the usual affair of “Bring me 7 yum-yum apples”, but several sidequests offer entirely unique content and interesting spins on existing mechanics, especially further into the game. They’re still rather inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, but I found them worth playing through for the extra dialogue involving Lea and her current party, on top of the extra bits of gameplay they provide.

CrossCode's protagonist, Lea, is subject to much praise. Silent protagonists are not at all uncommon in games, especially RPGs, characterised by, of course, their silence. Usually, the intent is for the silent protagonist to act as a sort of vessel for the player to interact with the game and make what they will of their experience with its world and characters. This does not mean silent protagonists are entirely devoid of character, there'll usually be some tidbits of information and personality that the player can come to learn. For the most part, though, the silent protagonist’s fellow party members will usually do the heavy-lifting in terms of dialogue. CrossCode's Lea approaches the trope differently in that her silence is an important aspect of her character and underpins many of the interactions she has with those around her. Upon awakening, Lea learns that she is incapable of speaking due to her avatar's speech control module malfunctioning. Exceptions lie in a few ‘hard-coded’ words she has available to her, like the simple and iconic, “Hi!”. While she may not have much in the way of words, she is extremely expressive, owing to the game’s numerous, vibrant portrait sprites, each beaming with personality and charm. The game is rather dialogue heavy, and Lea will be meeting and starting up conversation with many characters on her journey. She is incredibly reactive and will regularly make her thoughts known through body language and expression. For example, exasperation when tasked to do something trivial, joy when greeting a friend and a palpable smugness when she succeeds. She is motivated, friendly and competitive, with a slight ego and an occasional knack for tomfoolery. Furthermore, Lea’s limited vocabulary results in her needing to be creative in the way she uses the words she has available to her. As a whole, Lea is a phenomenal protagonist that makes CrossCode all the more memorable and compelling.

As for the game’s other characters, CrossCode is an a unique position in that your traditional RPG party members are other players within CrossCode’s MMO setting. This results in party interaction that is intended to mimic that of banter between friends during an online play session. While travelling around the game world, party members will comment on the design of an area you’ve found yourselves in, the absurdity of the enemies you’re fighting and much more. To further cement the online party experience, party members, of course, lead real lives outside of the game and will mention goings-on in their days. Some may even need to log-out of the game after a long play session, leaving Lea to her own devices. Much like Lea, there are an abundance of portrait sprites for each party member, with an equivalent amount of care and detail put into each. In combat, party members are AI controlled, running about and fighting enemies independently. This lack of control and the way in which the AI for party members functions holds up the illusion of party members being players themselves. I enjoyed that as Lea’s skillset grows ever-larger, her party members will follow suit, choosing upgrades for themselves and purchasing their own new equipment. The party system and the way characters interact during exploration are effective in evoking that feeling of forging connections through online gaming and running through vast virtual words with newfound friends.

I’d prefer to keep thoughts on the game’s narrative to a minimum but as mentioned earlier. It is rather slow to start, but uses this time to get the player accustomed to its unorthodox setting and allow time for Lea to come into her own and forge bonds with others. I found myself eager and excited for major story beats, which the game certainly delivers. There is a particularly stellar extended story sequence that has still stuck with me weeks after completing the game. I did find the game to have some pacing issues, more particularly in a section with minimal story content and three large dungeons back-to-back. The player is able to complete side-quests and the like between these dungeons, but it is a rather long stretch and I did find myself yearning for a more substantial reprieve from the barrage of puzzles. However, this section of the game followed rather heavy and extensive story content so it is effective in allowing the player, and Lea, to decompress.

I would recommend CrossCode to anyone that enjoys smooth, fast-paced top-down combat and tough, execution-based puzzles on top of an intriguing narrative with fun characters and exciting story beats. It saddens me that it has fallen off the wayside in the wider indie gaming sphere. I feel it truly does deserve to be heralded in the same light as its more well-known indie contemporaries. CrossCode is a phenomenal first outing for Radical Fish Games and I’m looking forward to their next title, currently in development under the name of Project Terra.

44. Pokemon Crystal (GBC, 2000)

Huh! Didnt expect to get back into pokemon this year! Ive only played 3 games before tackling this one.

X, Sun and Ultra Moon.

I enjoyed them quite alot!

I was expecting something that was a little rough in some corners but was still enjoyable but to my surprise, it holds up really well!!

Im going to be fully transparent and just tell you to try it out if you want a fun RPG. Its great!!

So where do I begin!

Uhh. Johto is super fun to explore! They made it in such a way that going back to previous areas is quick and easy. Once you get the bike you can go zooming all over the region in little to no time!

Going back to previous towns to gather items, do daily events and fill the pokedex is not tedius at all!

It also makes exploring the region for secret goodies a whole lot of fun.

Johto has such a unique flavor compared to every other region in the series, its just a treat through and through!

even crazier is that they put the entirety of kanto as post game!! thats nuts! you get a whole new area to explore which will take you 18-30 hours to check ever corner of it and you get the WHOLE REGION OF THE PREVIOUS GAME

Pokemon Crystal provides so much content its impresive! I was always in awe at how they managed to fit such a big game into such a small cartridge!!

Especially considering the game has sprites for so many differnt types of pokemon- with animations!! This was the game that introduced the animated sprites!!

(This was played on the 3DS virtual console release)

They look so nice!! the sprites are super charming in general! the upgrade to gameboy color makes the game a treat for the eyes, the spritework is just really really nice.

I know im the thousanth person to suck off pokemon for being... pokemon. An international sensation but what can I say! its fun!

Alright combat... yeah its pokemon alright, its pretty basic working on a rock paper scizor weakness wheel... well like three wheels but you get the idea.

Its simple but engaging enough and you have some liberty in how you make your team with TMs... I say that but they are one use items here... that sucks ngl.

Actually I think thats a good place to start with a couple of areas the game could be better.

To start, walking. The areas are small enough so walking isnt bad, the speed is manageable but it might test the patience of some players.

It takes a solid bit to get the bicycle (jeez idk if I want to play red and blue knowing theres no bike)

Again, one use TMs.

why. The only thing that acomplishes is limit how the player can build their team greatly.

VERY easy to miss things. You can miss the radio chip and map chip easly (I was REALLY CLOSE to missing them), exploration would be way more annoying without the map

Those are some of the mayor complains I have, other than that... yeah I dont have alot that I hate! its a lovely time.

L A N C E I S H A C K A N D A F R A U D

W I T H T H O S E F U C K I N G D R A G O N I T E S

8.5/10

Games with a UI that links to my ideas

I'm not really sure what I'd consider linking to my ideas. A psuedo-neon aesthetic? An infinite runner? I guess we'll see.

Yeah, I am analyzing Subway Surfers. It and games like it were among my biggest inspirations for Sweat Pursuit, but I couldn't get the perspective right on Scratch, so I went for a side-on view instead. The UI is actually somewhat minimalist, round-edged translucent black boxes with white text on top. It's a pretty good design, nice and readable, while not blending into the background.

Here is Angry Gran Run: Turkey Edition, another one of my inspirations. The UI is a lot more tangible this time around, being comprised of boxes, either with a blue light corona texture or a brown wood texture. Your distance and coins are shown, as well as the current Bingo keyword (a holdover from Subway Surfers, I'd imagine) at the top. This game uses a coin-multiplier system that I don't really understand - I think it's just a float var that, when it reaches a certain level, increases the end-of-level multiplier.

Doom isn't exactly the most direct comparison to Sweat Pursuit on a surface level - then again, it's a fast-paced game utilising both 3D space and spritework, with a complex set of maths calculations at its core, so maybe it is. The UI is what I want to focus on. It's a big bar with the various numbers placed across it. It's basic, but a little obtrusive, which is why re-releases changed it up.

As you can see, far less obtrusive, though it lacks the bulky charm of the original HUD. That one actually resembles the original Sweat Pursuit one considerably well.

There's not much of a comparison to Sonic, except both games are fast. As you can see, the three key variables are shown in yellow, to contrast with the primarily darker environment. It looks alright, but it's nothing special. The black outlines of the text help to distinguish it from the background further.

--

Obviously, in a game where things are moving very quick, and your reflexes need to be on point, things need to be relatively readable at a glance. Specifically in first-person shooters, I've been seeing a transition from the tried-and-true "numbers in the corners" formula to a sort of "racecar" UI, where all the information you need is right on your crosshair. It's an interesting idea and part of a very visible push to quicker, slicker FPS games. Obviously, Sweat Pursuit isn't an FPS, but this whole tangent does relate to making a good HUD. I'll probably just re-use the Scratch HUD, but make the background translucent like it is in Subway Surfers.

I'm sleepy and code isn't helping

So sometimes i wake up and I'm just a sleepy little guy. Like, the nappinest little lad who can't seem to be awake and would rather just honk shoo honk shoo. This is one of those days. I recently rediscovered plants vs zombies and I'm gonna be real a lot of my mental energy and prime adderall hours have gone to these silly little plants and their undead adversaries. Regardless, I must forge on, and so the last few days I've made progress nonetheless.

Yesterday, I was especially tired because I had a particularly bad bout of nightmares (these ones involved a big aquarium which sucks, and also my first ever teeth-falling-out cliche) so I wasn't able to code the way I'd have liked. However, I powered through and nonetheless practiced some spritework so as to avoid a Zero Day. I've decided that a good way to practice and become familiar with Aseprite is to create a Minecraft texture pack, a "how I got into GameDev" video I watched a ways back and cannot find. I did the texture for the Acacia Door, and given my present artistic ability it was fairly flat, though definitely charming. It remains to be seen if this will be the aesthetic for the whole pack.

Today, having slept a little better, I did the next few modules in the Little Town tutorial from the other day. Today I learned how to create invisible walls, alter the animations from a spritesheet, create collision masks for my environment, set alarms, and create regular random animations. I can't get my character to collide with the NPC correctly, and I know it's an issue with the code that checks for object collision and stops her moving. However, the tutorial man hasn't brought up this issue yet, and when I identified the problem and tried twice to fix it on my own. On my first attempt I altered four lines of code and implemented a cool feature wherein the game wouldn't start at all. On my second, I altered two words and made it so that my character zipped across the screen at light speed colliding with nothing and appearing above all other sprites :) Code is sick and I'm really excited to be good at it someday.

For the rest of my productive day I think I'm gonna make a few more Minecraft textures, and take it easy since it's such a sleepy little day. Also, note to self: I need to practice writing a little more. I used to be really good at just coming up with stuff and being charming and cute and descriptive, but for some reason that skill has just kinda left my wheelhouse. I think it's because I haven't written music in a while and that flexes the same creative muscles, so it may come back when I compose more frequently, but also maybe do some writing exercises just to stay sharp for when it comes time.

ily<3

due to the questionable quality of official pokemon games lately i’ve seen more people promoting playing free fangames and romhacks which i think is great bc i love those, so i thought i’d share a few of my faves. :)

(i’m not sure if every creator would want them to be directly linked so i’ll just say most fangames are available on the pokecommunity games showcase or the relic castle project showcase, and most romhacks can be found prepatched on gbahacks.)

pokemon insurgence

fangame. probably my #1 favorite. so much effort was put into this. interesting world with a lot to do in it & a ton of replayability. the difficulty can be pretty high if you want it to be (though you can turn it down for an easier time as well). but of course the main draw of insurgence is the large number of special retyped pokemon (above you can see my ice/electric gallade and ghost/dragon charizard) who all have great spritework.

pokemon blossom of the soul

fangame. i tore thru this one my first playthrough bc it just has a very addictive pace and so many nice features & QoL touches. (wild pokes visible on the overworld! access the PC from anywhere! sped up day/night cycle!) no fakemons or new retypes in this one but it includes like every official pokemon including the swsh ones which not many fangames offer yet.

pokemon sienna

firered romhack. this one is more than a decade old and is a bit rough around the edges, including many of its fakemon designs, but that’s part of what i like so much about it - it just has a very charming back to basics vibe to it. you can tell the creator had a lot of passion for the project.

pokemon electrum

fangame. a lovely revamp of the johto games that makes the region more environmentally diverse, adds new areas (the whirl islands are like their own little region here), gives the gym leaders more to do in the story, includes all the betamon, etc. unfortunately for some reason HMs are still needed for progression which is the main thing that brings it down for me. but it’s still really recommendable.

pokemon altered

firered romhack. it’s just firered... except every single pokemon has been retyped and had their sprites changed to match, some of them with silly results, and others you’ll end up wishing were official forms.

Name: Miru

Debut: Pac & Pal

Miru is one of those “obscure” Pac-Man characters. She’s not REALLY obscure, and is in fact the titular Pal of Pac & Pal, and a big part of the game! Any in-depth Pac-Man Fan knows Miru. To most, though, anything beyond Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and the Ghost Gang is obscure.

Not me! I play Pac-Man for the world and characters, and I am NOT kidding! And Miru here is one of my very favorites!

As mentioned previously, Miru is Pac-Man’s pal, and is featured in Pac & Pal, the second sequel to Pac-Man after Super Pac-Man! Ms. Pac-Man is more of an official mod than a sequel, and is sort of a spinoff, despite its much bigger fame than the true sequels. And honestly, it is, conceptually, far less interesting, even if the gameplay is more widely appealing.

In Pac & Pal, there are no dots, and no Power Pellets! There are ghosts and a maze, but this time, the goal is to collect all the items within, by flipping over cards to unlock paths. To fight ghosts, Pac-Man can now collect various items to use various attacks that are functionally identical, but have different fun visual effects! He can even play a trumpet to make them happily dance! It is so charming!

The most important thing about Pac & Pal, however, is Miru! The Pal! As a Pal, Miru will try to collect fruit as well, bringing them to the Ghost House. This does help complete the level, but it provides many more points for Pac-Man himself to collect the fruits, so stealing them back from her leads to a higher score. Stealing them back when she is just trying to help seems kind of rude, but she is described as “playful” and “mischievous”, so I think it’s fine. She probably finds this whole thing fun!

Pac & Pal did not come to arcades outside of Japan, but they did an “unsuccessful” test run, where it was rebranded as Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp, simply replacing Miru with Pac-Man’s dog. As much as I love Miru, I feel a bit like Chomp-Chomp works a bit better as the Pal here. A happy little dog would be more universally seen as a friendly character compared to one that kind of looks like the ghosts, and instead of stealing back fruits from a mischievous friend, it’s now like your dog has picked up something he shouldn’t have, and you need to get it back! Both characters are very cute and should coexist. I think Miru should walk dogs as a fun little side job, and walk Chomp-Chomp when the Pacs are busy! A trusted family friend.

What IS Miru? She’s good! She’s safe! But what about her species? It is kind of vague! There ARE some sources that say she herself, despite her very different anatomy, is in fact a ghost! This would explain why she brings the fruits back into the Ghost House to collect them. Is this her house, too? Notably, though these sources are American plug-and-play blurbs, so I’m not sure how “canon” they should be taken as. For all we know, they just saw a non-Pac entity in a maze and assigned it Ghost. One even calls her Pal instead of her name! That’s what I like to think of her as. a Pal. It is her species, to me.

After Pac & Pal, Miru only ever appeared in rereleases and small cameos... but then, this. Get a load of this!

For Pac-Man’s 20th anniversary, a Pac-Man DLC was released for Minecraft, where the main selling point for most people was to play mazes in 3D and create your own... but for me, it was that MIRU IS HERE! And she is PLAYABLE! Ms. Pac living in copyright hell has led to a miracle! Miru is the only character besides Pac himself to be available by default, and the only non-Pac-Person playable! It may have been 38 years after her debut, but for such an obscure character, I think that having one of your two unique appearances be in PLAYABLE form is pretty amazing! Thank you to whoever decided to add her here!

Finally, Miru will be returning again in 2022, as Pac & Pal is included in Pac-Man Museum +, the latest game collection! Look at this lovely spritework from the official website! Also, they call her Mil in this game. They do that a lot. It is a good time to be a Miru fan, I think! And hopefully you agree now that I have blasted you with my Beam That Turns You Into A Miru Fan! Have fun!

having finished the main campaign of BDSP here’s my honest review

PROS

-Faster pace is much appreciated. the original games were notoriously slow. the new exp share cuts out grinding for the most part letting you play the parts of the games that at actually fun

-HM removal thank god

-pokemon following you is back! it’s a bit wonky but it is adorable

-a lot of the fights that were difficult in the original are still hard here. cynthia almost beat me bad and i thought i was prepared well for her. several gyms i struggled with in the originals i struggled with again here.

CONS

-as gamefreak seems to be insistent on doing now, the exp share cannot be turned off. this led to a problem where if a pokemon in my team was overleveled, they would stay overleveled even if i didn’t use them for a huge part of the game.

-Affection bonuses tied to Friendship level. (surviving killing blows randomly, randomly curing themselves of status, higher crit rate) There’s no way to turn this off which really annoyed me, and friendship gain is unavoidable. by endgame you get a huge advantage by having pokemon who just cheat for you. i know pokemon is a game for babies but i really wish this was a toggleable setting or they spent 2 seconds putting an amie clone into the game so that there could be an affection stat again.

-wonky controls. if two interactable things are next to each other, have fun trying to interact with the right one. sometimes it’s hard to walk into doors and everything is set on a grid but your own movement. it’s janky and pretty annoying

-contests were completely gutted. i have no idea why this was done as there was already a functional 3D era contest hall in the ORAS games, but it’s an extremely simple and lame rhythm mini game only now. i loved these as a kid so if the game is trying to nostalgia bait me why’re they gone?

-the graphics. I’m gonna be real, even if this game looked polished (which it doesn’t) it’d still look ugly to me. in terms of lack of polish, we have things like team galactic battles taking place in random purple voids, trainer models look pretty ugly and unfinished, trainers popping in and out of existence when pokemon use certain moves, little to no overworld animation (characters tend to waddle awkwardly around on the grid in cutscenes, tho the player character doesn’t need to use the grid) which looks extremely stupid with the chibi overworld models sometimes since they’re much more detailed than the original pixel sprites

in terms of the game just looking plain ugly in my opinion, it really has a lot to do with the trainer overworld sprites. occasionally the camera will zoom in for dialogue and it looks stupid every time. the chibi models have no charm whatsoever. characters like cyrus look laughably dumb, especially in cutscenes that still entirely use chibi models. This may be nostalgia on my part, but the original DP spritework is incredibly charming, while BDSP already looks dated to me. the 3D recreations of original sprites with the larger character models in battles do not good either. look not to mention i did encounter a few graphical bugs (and one pretty major one) playing the game. it feels like it lacks polish

-no QoL changes were made in terms of problems with the originals. no evolution items are moved to better locations, no pokédex shuffling, no battle frontier, nothing. the game is faithful to DP to a fault

My overall opinion is that the games are mediocre and definitely not up to par. The pokemon formula works because it’s fun! it’s why any pokemon game is still fun to me, and the reason i played this game at all, and still had fun while i was playing it. but these remakes keep are overly faithful to the bad parts, change a lot of the good parts, and are objectively worse versions of a game that was already pretty great. if you own the original DPPt and can still play it, there’s honestly no reason to pick up this game. it’s a nostalgia baiting cash grab that didn’t make me feel nostalgia for DPPt, it just made me want to be playing the originals instead.

Day by day, watching you disappear Wishing that you were still here beside me On my own, swimming against the tide There's nobody on my side but your memory Then you'll rise right before my eyes On wings that fill the sky Like a phoenix rising Like a phoenix rising

Annihilator - Phoenix Rising

On January 17th 2021, me and my close friends sat down to watch my partner stream a brand new game for us all; one that had been on our radars for a while and one that I personally had only heard of a few months prior. We had a choice between this and two other games, and I'd decided completely on a whim that I wanted to see something new. The trailer for the game had me intrigued—by all accounts it didn't look like something I might have played of my own accord, and yet it drew me in with the combination of its colorful, charming spritework, the bittersweet, wistful music, and the morbid allure of something darker lurking just underneath the surface, beckoning me to discover what this seemingly unassuming little number truly had to offer. So, it was decided—that was the game that they would be streaming for those of us that were equally as curious as me.

"I'm planning on streaming Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass tonight," they said, pinging everyone in the process. "If you're interested in seeing that at any point, say so."

We gathered around, waiting patiently for other members of our circle to situate themselves before the stream began. In retrospect, I've never seen such high attendance rates for a stream in our group before, and certainly not for a game that so few people knew about. Something about it just pulled everyone's attention.

Harsh static filled the airwaves, all but drowning out the otherwise gentle tones of a woman's voice before fading to black. Her voice soon returned, cooing a soothing lullaby to her young son as they sat underneath a tree atop a rolling sea of clouds, illuminated by what could have been either a sunrise or a sunset.

"Oh! What a sleepy boy. I thought you were going to sleep all day. Wouldn't that be a shame?"

She pauses momentarily, petting the boy's hair and letting the cool breeze blow over their skin. Then, she hits us with the line that would stick with us long after the game had concluded; the line that would embody everything it had to say for us and everything it wanted to teach us.

"Today's a special day. Do you know why? It's another day I can spend with you!"

And today truly was a special day, for I couldn't have ever imagined that my life was about to change forever.

I had an essay written specifically for this. A lot of words, countless words, pouring over my love for this wonderful, incredible game, detailing every rhyme and reason why I treasure it with my entire heart and soul. I read that draft, and then I re-read it, and then I re-read it again, and again, and again, and I realized that, sometimes, less is more. I have so much to say about this game. A lot of words, countless words; I could say each and every one of them, and only a few of them will truly matter. So, I'm only going to choose the words that will matter.

Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass taught me an important lesson—one that I needed to be confronted with in a situation where I had no control over the narrative; where I couldn't walk away. I came to love Jimmy like my own brother. I felt the love his family had for him. I felt how real they were as people. When I realized what was going on, I believed them when they said that everything would be alright. I continued to believe them even as things got worse, and worse, and worse, but his family had hope. No matter what, they always had hope. So, I did, too.

I wasn't ready to walk out of that door. It would have been easy to turn around and return to that special little place beyond the closet and pretend that everything was okay. But the mourning words of Jimmy's family and the somber rumblings of A Closing Window would always be there as a reminder that this was not how things were meant to be.

I wasn't ready to walk out of that door. But I took Jimmy's hand in mine, and we stepped outside, away from his home and away from his family and away from everything he'd ever known and loved, and I said goodbye.

And he said, "I'm sorry."

The interactive nature of video games made them the perfect medium for Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass. If it had been a novel, if it had been a comic, if it had been an animated series or a feature-length film, I would only have been an outsider looking in. Instead, I was an active participant in Jimmy's life. I experienced the world through his eyes; I became a part of his family. It was our journey, and our journey alone to partake.

And yet, for every input I made in battle, for every moment I took out of our day to stop and speak with his family, for every little detail of his internal world I paused to appreciate, I did not control the narrative and I was never, ever promised that luxury.

Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass taught me that life is cruel.

Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass taught me that life is beautiful.

Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass taught me how to let go.

Learning how to accept finality wasn't the only thing that I took away from this game. I met someone important on the way; someone who would reveal and force me to confront aspects of myself I'd long since buried and impact my identity in ways that would lead to a better me.

That someone was Buck.

Buck is a complicated character, because in talking about him, I talk about myself. He is all at once who I was, who I am, and who I want to be.

I'm a trans man. I was Buck's age when I realized. I've been at odds with my identity for the past nearly eight years, trying to find a sense of self that makes me happy in a situation where I'm not afforded it. I'm also extremely dysphoric, and this negatively affects both my self-perception, and my interactions with other men.

Me and Buck are a lot alike. We're freakishly alike. Mannerisms, speech patterns, phrases, personality, personal taste, past experiences, hangups, familial circumstances—we have it all in common. I'm a big brother, too. There's also a big age gap between me and my siblings: thirteen and fifteen years. To say I can relate to this character is the understatement of the century and that's why it's difficult articulating my thoughts about him, because when something or someone is so specifically personal to you, you're going to have a lot to say. And when you're faced with your own reflection, you discover things about yourself you never knew; things that you could never have imagined are so painful to recall.

Seeing him struggling to compartmentalize the situation, lamenting his utter lack of control, wishing that he was stronger, adopting destructive habits that hurt himself as much as they hurt everyone around him, becoming distant and emotionally withdrawn as his only effective coping method, taking his surplus anger and frustration out on other people who don't deserve it; it's all just a little bit too real.

But it was realizing that Buck's relationship with Jimmy was the same as my relationship with my own siblings that hurt the most. It was an unimaginable, scathing pain that took everything else and put it all into perspective, and it made me look at all the worst aspects of myself and made me wonder, "are they scared of me, too?", "do they think I hate them, too?". It was a horrifying, visceral thought that I could never have imagined would hurt so, so deeply. But the difference between us—the only difference between us—is that I can mend our relationship torn apart by illness and familial strife.

Buck can't.

When I look at him I don't just see myself—I see the me that I could be. When I was seventeen, I dreamt of a me who was tall; rough; tough. He could tussle with the best of them. Nobody questioned him. He was cool. He was everybody's brother. People knew not to mess with him or his loved ones, because he'd kick their asses. But the best thing about him was that he was happy.

I gave up on that dream for a long time. I'd resigned myself to the me that was, because the me that could be seemed so unattainable. He wasn't who I was ever meant to be.

But seeing Buck made me remember what it was like to dream. He embodied the me that I dreamed of, and the me that was. I had a realization that maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't have to dream anymore. He's the me that I will be.

There's no other game like Jimmy. I don't think there ever will be. It'll forever hold a special place in my heart for the immeasurable influence it's had on me and for the ways it's taught me to think about life. It wasn't just a masterful work of art and a showcase of the creative flexibility of writing, but unintentional therapy in that being forced to confront the inevitability of death meant I learned to accept it, and my once daily ruminations stopped altogether. I've been much, much happier since then. I'm slowly coming out of a fifteen-year-long depression and engaging with the things I used to love again. I started working out so I can turn my future into my present. I've been inspired to create, inspired to learn, and I've been considering picking up guitar sometime in the future—if I still haven't made a true heavy metal cover of Gut Punch by then, assume nobody's made a game yet that fixes my crippling performance anxiety, haha.

All this preamble for the words that matter most:

Thank you, Kasey. Thank you for writing such an incredible experience that is unlike any other. Words alone cannot do this justice, nor can any picture I could ever paint, but the fact I even get to say this at all and be heard is more than enough for me. I look endlessly forward to your future endeavors, and you will always have my full support.

To another year of this beautiful game existing.

Wings of fire Tearing into the night And we'll fly away

2021's Winner is...!

I would like to congratulate everyone who participated on this year's events! Admittedly, this year's contest yielded less entries, but on the other hand, the entries this year had a lot of effort put into them.

Even so, I recognize that there are things we need to improve on the team as hosts as far as the contest is concerned. That being said, we will now proceed to list off the winners!

1st. Lancer's Really Cool Birthday Party For My Dad That's In Jail (FT. My Best Friend) - By Ellis and TmntLeo

Writing Fidelity: 49/60 Art Fidelity: 60/60 Pacing/Lenght: 33/40 Creativity: 37/40

"LRCBPFMDTIJ (jesus that's a mouthful) is one of the best comics in the contest. Though it suffers from being a first part and the story being left incomplete, the content on display is meaty enough to make up for it. The writing is pretty sharp, and it is a visual treat. Easily the best, though, again, I have to take out points for being a part 1. " -Fms

"[...] They've managed to demonstrate the power of teamwork and dedication, both in the comic and in its development, and it's something that I think is fantastic." -Subna

"[...] I haven’t got much else to say. Just a really strong, solid entry." - CHAOS_FANTAZY

2nd. Afterwards - By Superkirbylover

Writing Fidelity: 41/60 Art Fidelity: 48/60 Pacing/Lenght: 31/40 Creativity: 32/40

"SKL’s Afterward was pretty good, if not a bit bogged down by the ending. The Alphys stinger at the end did leave a bitter taste in my mouth for the wrong reasons, I feel as though it could have been cut, and the comic would have been better off for it. I don’t particularly like how Alphys is so open about her feelings. That being said, the rest of the comic makes up for it. Visually it is pretty similar to UT, but the amount of animations, expressions, and original poses for the characters are charming and really gives it an edge. It is just a solid entry that manages to stand up on its own terms." - Fms

"Oof. That was heavy. It’s honestly a little difficult for me to fairly evaluate such an emotionally charged story, but, hey, “Story That Makes You Sad” made me sad, so mission accomplished, I guess! [...] Other than that, I have to say I’m very pleased with this, and even more pleased to know I inspired it." - CHAOS_FANTAZY

"[...] That said, the comic is presented very concise, and the spritework plus the animations seem great to me, especially the Frisk sprite being lifted by Toriel and how consistent it remains, [...] I thought it was great, no absolute complaint at this point." - Subna

3rd. Sans' Night - MultiSoulZero

Writing Fidelity: 45/60 Art Fidelity: 26/60 Pacing/Lenght: 35/40 Creativity: 30/40

"Sans’ Night was the most pleasant surprise from this contest. It’s a simple premise executed wonderfully, a stand up comedy act from the skeleton himself. The visuals have a lot of little blemishes (the text box borders changing constantly, for instance) that add up. The comic only takes place in one room, and there’s not a lot of movement involved in it. The visuals are sufficient to carry the writing, but they feel lackluster in comparison to other comics. The comic is also really simple and there’s not much of a plot. But it absolutely nails what it tries to do, and I believe it deserves credit for achieving it. The writing feels in character, and it’s pretty entertaining, and it’s entirely self contained. … Though, being honest, the fact that this is one of the best comics in the contest is slightly upsetting. Still, a good read." - Fms

"[...] It’s almost fiendishly brilliant to make a comic like this—doing the absolute bare minimum so there’s nothing to poke holes into. If it’s all a meta-joke about how that’s what Sans himself would do, then this comic is utter genius, but I really can’t go as far as to assume that. As is, I have to say that I hate that this is one of the stronger entrants in the contest." - CHAOS_FANTAZY

"……….Jesus christ. You actually did a 50+ panel comic of Sans doing a comedy show, wild. I admit that the first time I read it my impression was more negative than anything, probably because the screen does not show much more than Sans walking from one side to another, but after giving each comic a second reading, and talking to the rest of judges on each entry, it was there when I noticed that the strength of the comic was in your writing." - Subna

That being said, due to the amount of judges and opinions, we did not have the time to put a comprehensive document with all of the reviews in one place.

We will release it in due time, ideally before the day ends. But, for the time being, have this spreadsheet:

Thank you for participating! We hope we can grow to improve this contest next year.