#ui on the other hand i like to think specifically asked for it
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no one knows where she got it
#pride moth ui for pride month in support of her gay sister#and her gay nearly every single person she knows#and her gay self also i guess#touka has the demon shirt. to me#not willingly though i think#ui on the other hand i like to think specifically asked for it#magia record#ui tamaki
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Spoiler-heavy thoughts about Crick and how the Game Mechanics treat Temenos’s story
So. yeah if you press ‘Keep Reading’ I should probably let you guys know that these thoughts are just a tiny bit unhinged. And again - spoiler alert! You’ve been warned!!
GAME MECHANICS AND UI
- Gonna preface THIS section by asserting that yes, not EVERY mechanic needs to be taken apart under a microscope and re-contextualized into the greater lore of the game. Not EVERYTHING has to mean something to everybody. Some of my classes in game design disagree though and honestly for the genre that Octopath Traveler is, that being a story-heavy role-playing game where the narrative is half the game, I'd say that integrating lore into the mechanics and vice-versa wouldn't hurt - in fact it ENHANCES the experience. The second game does this pretty handily through the EX Skills (the first of the skills being Divine Blessings, and the second being earned at the end of the story.) and the Latent Powers.
Okay the Latent Powers? Honestly that part's mostly for Hikari. Shadow's Hold/Light's Radiance is STILL one of the best examples of Gameplay and Story Integration that this game has
No I swear I don't have a bias for 'other selves'/'deep parts of yourself made manifest' what are you talking about -
I swear I can write an entire separate post JUST about the EX Skills. Mostly for Osvald, Castti, and mOTHERFUCKING TEMENOS AGAIN
aND THIS IS WHY I GO FUCKING BONKERS WHEN I THINK ABOUT THE DEMO VERSION OF THE GAME LIKE WHAT THE FU-
- Literally the fucking emblem for Temenos's story is a staff and a sword over the Sacred Flame like - they REALLY want you to know how important Crick is to this tale
- tHE FACT THAT CRICK IS THE ONE WHO HAS COVER. NOT EVEN HIKARI OR THE WARRIOR CLASS. IT'S CRICK - DOES THIS COUNT AS FORESHADOWING???
I'll like - write here what I should have written in the bath - and that's me being like 'oh it's because he's recklessly protective. OH SHIT IT'S BECAUSE HE'S RECKLESSLY PROTECTIVE'
I fully acknowledge that it doesn't have to be that deep. MAYBE I'm pulling stuff out of my ass. But allow me to go bonkers over Crick and his for-some-reason-worryingly-appropriate moveset
Man I wonder how bonkers I'd go over Malaya if she was allowed to throw hands. I want her to complement Castti's moveset so bad
- Also the fact that both of their kits complement each other. Crick's bulkier build was made specifically with supporting Temenos in mind.
My guy's Sacred Sword reduces the enemy's elemental defense. Wonder if that implies that the Sanctum Knights normally work with magic and/or magicians
aGAIN HE HAS FUCKING COVER which is PERFECT because early-game Temenos can and will faint if a monster blinks at him too hard
Then there's his OTHER skill Godsblade's Shield which RAISES his physical defense to SO HE CAN COVER FOR TEMENOS BETTER LIKE. AT SOME POINT I SHOULD JUST ASK WHY THEY TRIED SO HARD FOR HIM SPECIFICALLY
And I mean. It makes SENSE but I don't think any of the other helper characters really had this level of chemistry in their mechanics as these two do
Emerald and Gus both have healing moves for better survivability considering how squishy Osvald and Agnea are
And it makes sense, Temenos already has access to a healing move because he's a cleric
The thing that separates Crick from them is that neither Emerald nor Gus really have moves to further support their leads on the level that Crick does. Emerald is fast and he breaks well and Gus is clearly meant to be the DPS of Agnea's Chapter 1, but again - Crick has moves tailor-made for Temenos to go off and do his thing
You lose Pirro and Scaracci/ Rai Mei and Ritsu after the intro and none of them really complement the Throné and Hikari and vice versa as much as Crick and Temenos do with each other
The difference with them too is that they have established relationships with their lead characters prior to the story, sometimes even encountered as antagonistic forces
Pirro, Rai Mei, and Ritsu are all bosses that were once considered close comrades of Throné and Hikari
Scaracci displays mutinous traits throughout Throne's Chapter 1
Emerald subverts this by acting mutinous - which, his conflict with Osvald amounted more to a sacrifice of goodwill
He knows Osvald and how he acts even prior to the beginning of Chapter 1, so he's in this category of having an established relationship
Gus averts this completely by just being a genuinely supportive part of Agnea's life
Mechanically, you never have anything to do with these characters again past Chapter 1 - save for Rai Mei and Ritsu being bosses. Hikari's companions also play an integral narrative role in his final chapter, with Ritsu being encountered as a boss again for the final time
Crick is a subversion of all of them in that he doesn't have any direct relationship with Temenos prior to Chapter 1, and though we never use him as a helper character ever again he consistently shows up as an integral part of Temenos's story up until his death in Chapter 3: Stormhail
Weirdly Crick is also the only one out of all of them where the use of Path Actions is required more than once - Osvald has to Scrutinize Emerald at one point
AND GODDAMNIT OF COURSE THE FIRST AND LAST TANGIBLE INTERACTION WE HAVE WITH CRICK IS TO FUCKING GUIDE HIM I'M SO MAD ABOUT THIS BOOKEND IT'S SO MEAN AKSJKAS
And this in itself makes complete sense given that he has larger roles to play outside of Chapter 1 - just not in the same vein as Ritsu or Rai Mei, but the fact is that Temenos's story is VERY good at establishing and building up chemistry between its characters
bUT FOR MECHANICS WE NEVER HAVE TO USE AGAIN AFTER CHAPTER 1?? THEY WENT SO HARD AND I WANT TO KNOW WHY
- It's not as big of a deal as it looks but I also find it funny just how much fun the devs seemed to have with Crick's introduction and entry into the party - using the Path Action to fucking TROLL with him.
- ON THAT NOTE, LET ME FREAK OUT OVER GUIDE AS A PATH ACTION A LITTLE MORE
I saw a post on Reddit earlier about the 'summoning townspeople' Path Actions and it kind of shook my world a little, so I'll just put my response to it here
For a guy who makes it a point to tell people not to follow anything blindly it's INCREDIBLY hilarious to me that Temenos's Path Action is getting people to follow him blindly.
MECHANICALLY, it's because he's the designated cleric. Temenos has Guide, because Ophilia has Guide. But thematically it's interesting to think about just how antithetical it is to his central creed of doubting, and how this specifically applies to Crick.
I did go back and check and yeah - Crick's one of three individual people I was able to find over the course of the stories that has a required Path Action used on them more than once.
Malaya is one other example with Inquire, and she even one-ups him with one use of Soothe. And I'll get to HER when I get to Castti's essay - I mean infodump - because it's like. Somehow even MORE heartbreaking than this instance of Guide
While I'm here I'll also mention Roque, who also has two instances of a Path Action used on him, namely Purchase and Hire in Partitio's Chapter 5
But back to the dramatic aspect of it it's like. I really want to shake the devs because it's so mean of them to have Temenos's relationship with him begin by guiding him towards not only the cathedral but to a healthier way of thinking, and to end with Crick's fucking GHOST leading Temenos to the crucial truth that he's lost so many people to find, including Crick himself
- I won't scrutinize everything about the cleric class itself but I WILL talk about the EX Skills, because to me it's ironic just how mean they are. I'm glad that the irony isn't lost on the fanfic writers like I see you guys use these as fanfic titles - bless you all
First - Prayer for Plenty, the sequel's answer to how absolutely fucking broken Saving Grace was as a passive in the first game. Limiting it to JUST Temenos's natural moveset feels like it should be sending a message honestly - it's a way to prolong the lives of his comrades and he couldn't do that for the ones he held dear in his own story. Can't help but feel like the fact that this is the one he gets from AELFRIC'S SHRINE rubs salt in the wound - no pun intended -
Secondly is Heavenly Shine and it's like. It's a holy nuke filled with divine power that drains Temenos's magic reserves completely. He invokes Aelfric's name when he uses it to and to this day I think the reason it feels cathartic to use is because it feels like a manifestation of Temenos's wrath
Unlike Osvald's own magic kamehamehadouken nuke where he learned it out of a need to protect Elena, Temenos learns this AFTER his story - and maybe it's just my concern speaking but man I really want this to represent his sheer need to go absolutely fucking apeshit like my man is NOT in a good place after his story is done
- This is the part where I go into the tinier, 'definitely stretching this past the realm of MATTERING' details that actually have something to do with the game mechanics
Some of Temenos's class lines are reminiscent of Crick's own. We've drawn the comparison with Temenos's Sweeping Cleave line already and it's adorable
Temenos Sweeping Cleave [insert handshake emoji] Crick Sacred Slash: I'll cleave you in twain!
Reaching even further here. His lines for Lux Congerere and Sacred Effulgence also somewhat invoke Crick's declaration of 'cleaving the shadows from this world', but it's not exact and I'm just indulging
Lux Congerere: Banish the shadows from this world!
Sacred Effulgence: Aelfric, banish the shadows from this world!
I'd also be extremely remiss to NOT mention the recruitment of Ort in postgame and it physically hurts me to summon him because of the way he says 'I will avenge you, Crick!' like DUDE. Oh well at least he's grieving healthily
Sacred Slash brothers let's gooo
There's like. No way that I'll be able to fit all of this in my other thoughts about Crick that are dedicated mostly to his and Temenos's arcs so. It's like not even in a ship sense anymore even if I do think they're fruity as hell
Honestly I'm just glad to get this all out of my system EXCEPT THERE'S MORE, because Temenos's story loves to torture my brain and its themes resonate with me a bit TOO much
#octopath#octopath traveler 2#temenos mistral#crick wellsley#vir rambles about octopath yet again#this time - FOR WAY LONGER THAN IS NECESSARY#these aren't even like half the overall thoughts i have about crick#let alone TEMENOS#i honestly don't know why it matters to me this much#it's kind of scary lmao#this is why i should talk to people more#shoutout to jae for some of the lines here because there really was no better way of putting it#temenos why are you such a STICK#ot2 spoilers
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-Based on a previous ask
If you're taking suggestions for other names for eclipse au iterators, i was thinking sliver of straw could be sliver of stars. Stars and constellations / etc tend to be very important to religions and their surrounding mythology which i think works well with slivers 'mysterious' vibe and also their lore as it is right now. (That we, the viewers know, anyway.)
Additionally, unparalleled innocence could easily be tied to the 'daytime' version of the sky (so the opposite of sliver of stars, since the stars only appear at night.) In the daytime, the skys got clouds and like poets singing its praises for being pure and clear or dark and stormy and 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘺. Could also give innocence a wilder temper because of this?? Could also jab at their canon actions and repaint that in an interesting new way.
I also just did a quick google of the name ino, because innocence could be shortened to ino, and the name relates to both poseidon thalass, and galini. Thalass and galini represent sea and calmness respectively, which could further tie into either the sky and its wild ways. Poseidon is..poseidon.
It would follow the current theme of (character) vs (character), even if only by personality and not conflict between the two specifically. Though a conflict would be neat 👁
Also making sliver of straw sliver of stars would make her partners with Moon Moon considering yk,, moon and stars,,,,, which would also relate back to the mentor-ship between the two. The stars surround the moon, and are also far, 𝘧𝘢𝘳 older and more experienced than the moon could ever hope to be.
Also the visual idea of the stars falling and dying and leaving the moon alone in the night sky is so. So. Hfjdhshsgggz
-no sleep anon
Also im so sorry this is so LONG i just really like space themed things 👉👈 i dont know of sliver has a eclipse name yet but idk stars are neat. I dont know if i shouldve broken this into two or something so um, sorry if this really floods your ask box
AHEM anyways,
To get this out of the way, I won’t be talking about UI in this post specifically just yet because I’m still working on how she will contribute to this Au more. BUT I will keep her idea in mind.
SLIVER ON THE OTHER HAND WOOO!! Sliver of Stars, I’m liking that quite a bit! I thought about her design and thought I would change it up just a little to match the name a bit. Of course her personality I gave her still stays, but I did adjust the colors.
A lot more purples and reds, cream colors and dark colors stayed, and sparkles of course. I was gonna make her more blue because of the dark blue night sky, but I also wanted to keep some of her reddish tones in like the original. So I went with a sunset/sunrise type thing, but dark enough that you can still see stars.
Then we have the constellation. I was searching up a star constellation the was more on the mysterious side and found the scorpion one. It fit kinda well tbh. Blindfold with X stayed, but I did get rid of most of the X’s in the other design. I might add a few more back in but I’ll decide that much later.
Now here is my little thinky process for Lunar Moon and Sliver:
Moon was like Pebbs at the time. Curious of her older iterators intentions/ways of thinking (this was during the time Moon was just built). Sliver taking note of this and allowed Moon to hang around her for quite some time, telling Moon things that she couldn’t comprehend at the time and giving advice if needed. Moon looked up to Sliver a lot and followed in almost every single step she took. That was until Sliver died unknowingly, leaving Moon with questions to be forever unanswered.
Spiraling into her even more aggressive attitude and snarky behavior as an unhealthy way of coping (you can thank another anon for this idea)
How tf did I get here, this was about designing and I started rambling COUGH
Anyways, don’t worry about the ask being long, I don’t mind. Besides, this was a really cool idea and I appreciate it, so thank you❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎
(Wrote this at 2am we sleep deprived together XD)
#rw eclipse au#rw looks to the moon#rain world looks to the moon#rw sliver of straw#rain world sliver of straw#I had a lot of fun putting this together#and I’m always up for more ideas#this au isn’t set in stone just yet so some changes can still be made#whatever the case as long as we are enjoying the ride lol#rain world iterator#rain world fanart#rw fanart#art doodles#rw au#rain world au#anon ask#anon <3#ask me anything
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weird tarot story time
so as background: i'm non-spiritual, a believer in philosophical materialism. have been for a decade and a half. but i'm a sucker for the symbology of tarot cards and the art people make for them. so a few years ago i decided to write a little simulator.
now, obviously if you're gonna do tarot you have to shuffle your deck, right? and shuffling a deck in code is easy; take a decent random number generator, use fisher-yates, done. hell, you don't even have to shuffle if you just pick a random card and remove it. but that's not fun. and part of tarot, as i'm told, is your intentions.
so instead what I do is I write an intentionally bad shuffler. you type your query in, and it converts it to a number using a bad hashing algorithm (CRC32) and then converts that into a stream of random numbers using a really bad algorithm (an LFSR), and then implements a shuffler that's intentionally not perfect (some hand-written thing I don't remember). i run it a few times and verify that there aren't any obvious clumps or patterns and go, okay, good enough.
(the other reason is i get to do cool UI design stuff like this)
so I decide to test it. I type in the query "Is this real?" or something like that, let it shuffle (it intentionally takes multiple seconds to shuffle), and draw the top card. and i get this:
X - History, reversed
now, if you're passingly familiar with Tarot, you might not recognize History. if you're more familiar with it, you'd probably go "wait, 10 is Fortune, what the hell". that's because I decided to use the Tarot of the Silicon Dawn by Egypt Urnash, which adds a bunch of fun extras (including some that, in the sadly-out-of-print physical deck, are gloss-on-black. very fun.) the image here is from the high-res images the artist posted on her site; she let me use them with permission, and I wrote the ascii-ifier myself because I figured it fit the aesthetic. i also did the same thing for the Neon Moon deck, which is more conventional in design (aside from renaming the suits) but has a very nice striking cyberpunk-y color scheme.
so anyway. i'm not an expert in interpretation, and Silicon Dawn comes with a booklet that i'd integrated into my program. so i look over at it and see the first paragraph, emphasis mine:
She bends the world around herself, and binds it about her with a story. Or is she the world, bending into itself, and trying to explain itself with narration? Just the whole cosmos finding a way of talking to itself. At the very least this card may be a reminder that the whole deck can just be an elaborate way of talking to yourself – what story do you bring to these cards, what begs itself to be connected in ways you wouldn't let yourself connect normally?
and I think: "well, I asked it if the occult is real, and History upright is 'this can just be an elaborate way of talking to yourself', so if it's reversed..."
and, like, I know this is just a coincidence. i i know that in a 99 card deck, the odds of getting a specific card reversed are about .5%, so it's not impossible. it didn't change my mind about anything. but it's still the only time i've had a, i guess, genuinely low-probability occurrence with occult stuff.
if you want to play around with it, here's the tarot simulator! nothing ever leaves your computer; i can't see your queries or anything like that.
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Ok this is a bit of a wordy post but bear with me. I've been reading up on the tech literacy discourse and I thought I'd add my two cents, and how it connects to piracy. LONG post under the cut!
I was born in the year 2000, which puts me on the border of being a digital native. I was brought up on tech, but only in my later childhood and teens. I've always considered myself "tech literate," but no more than the usual kid my age.
The first time I ever truly experienced tech illiteracy with my peers was when I was 23, when in one of my college classes a MacOS update rendered the software we used for said class unusable. After a few days a temporary patch was released, which by that point an assignment that utilized the software was due the next day. I followed the patch instructions, which involved navigating to the software files and substituting a designated file with the provided patch. A bit more complicated than a simple update, but the instructions were clear and intuitive enough to easily understand where the file went. The next day, during a class study session, I overheard multiple people come up to the professor complaining that the software wasn't working. After the second person complained with the professor being clueless, I asked the student what MacOS version they were on. Sure enough they were on the latest version, which as we already know is incompatible with the software. I then walked the student through the patching process step-by-step, with them needing to essentially be hand held through the entire process (almost to the point of me doing everything for them). After the patch was implemented, the student thanked me and said "Wow! How did you figure all of this out?" and to me that question was stupid- I just googled "[software] [version] MacOS [version] fix", went to the first result (which was the company website), downloaded the patch zip file, and followed the instructions on the README.txt file. It was so easy, and I couldn't comprehend that this was somehow complicated for other people, especially those my age. I mean we literally grew up using computers. It wasn't until I started learning about tech literacy and learned helplessness that I finally started connecting the dots.
Tech in general is becoming extremely user friendly, almost to a fault. UI and UX simplicity is taking away any critical thinking needed to use any sort of tech. My peers are so used to one-click and/or automatic updates, so the fact that this required slightly more effort than a simple update triggered their learned helplessness. The professor was no help in this case either, since he just extended the due date for those affected with no penalty. I actually ended up making a very detailed (and I mean idiot proof detailed) step by step picture guide with screenshots on how to install the patch for the software for the class. Anyways, back to the main point- How can I blame my peers for not knowing how to install a "complicated" update when they're so used to being spoon-fed simplicity?
But hang on- how was I the exception? I'm just as used to tech simplicity as anyone else, it's not like I'm using anything differently or making things harder for myself on purpose (I'm looking at you, linux users). So why was I the only one who knew how to install this update? It wasn't until I had a discussion many months later with my mom about this tech illiteracy epidemic that I finally thought it through. I acquired problem solving skills through piracy. To start off: not piracy but adjacent- learning to install mods in Minecraft when I was 11 taught me file navigation and what a README.txt file was, as well as the importance of version specificity/compatibility. Figuring out how to play Pokemon roms on the family computer and my iPod touch when I was 12? That's piracy, and it also taught me how to work with different platforms and the art of jailbreaking. Installing custom firmware on my 3ds so I could pirate games when I was 16 taught me how to follow written tech instructions without any visual guidance. Pirating Adobe software on my MacBook in high school taught me about patching files on MacOS. All of this knowledge and inherent googling that came with it made installing the patch for my class software look like a tiny drop in the bucket in terms of complexity.
So why am I saying all of this? Am I suggesting people learn to pirate to become tech literate?
yes.
With everything becoming pay-walled, subscription services running rampant, the proliferation of closed-source "ecosystems" *cough* Apple *cough*, and (arguably) most importantly media preservation, piracy is a skill that will serve you well in the long term. It will teach you critical thinking in the tech sphere, and if enough people learn then we can solve this ever growing epidemic of tech illiteracy. I'm not really sure how to end this post, so if anyone has anything else they'd like to add please feel free to.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
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i just really thinking like... could entire tape thing be a mistake? If creator wanted us to notice that he wouldn't put tape part behind UI which hard to notice
The thing is, the tape disappearing from the background isn't the most important evidence to Eden taking the tape. It's just a detail. The important thing is the lockdown logic. I explained it in my post with a summary of my full theory... and like five other times already, but I get that not everyone sees all my posts. Don't worry about it.
I'll copy paste it here.
-The tape was on the floor after Nico leaves the gym. There's a close-up and everything.
-The last people in the gym before the lockdown begun were Teruko, Ace and Eden.
-No one but MonoTV could enter the gym during the lockdown.
-Rose and Teruko are the first people to enter the gym after the lockdown, stated explicitly by MonoTV.
(Okay, not explicitly explicitly, but still)
-But by the time Rose and Teruko are there, the tape has disappeared. And there is special attention brought to the fact the tape’s disappeared.
There's even an entire animation where Rose can't do a pull-up because the roll of tape is missing.
This implies the time of the tape's disappearance is important, and we are meant to pay attention to it.
The tape couldn’t have disappeared during the lockdown (unless MonoTV took it out, but why would it do that), and it can’t have been taken after since Rose and Teruko were the first people there after it ended (provided Rose isn't lying ig). Since that roll of tape was still on the floor when Nico left, so it can't have been taken before Nico left, that means the tape disappeared when only Teruko, Ace and Eden were in the gym.
Teruko couldn’t have taken it, protag privilege.
I’ve seen Ace thrown out as a possibility, but it just doesn’t really work. Teruko was inspecting his body right before he wakes up, and she never has a reason to look away after he wakes up. She never saw him pick up the tape, though, so it seems unlikely he did. Not to mention the lack of blood on the tape when Ace had blood on his hands the whole time, or the general weirdness of him taking the tape and, like, pocketing it in the first place. Why would he do that? If he wanted a weapon, he’d have taken the wire which was nearby, right?
So, the most logical answer is that Eden took the tape. In fact, she gets knocked down to the floor right around the time the tape disappears from the background.
So, now we ask, why did Eden take the tape? The issue is that there really is no reason for her to do that, unless she went down to the second floor specifically with the intention of picking up the tape (and maybe some other stuff). However, she never tells Teruko she wanted to pick up the tape, which combined with the fact she takes it sneakily and without anyone noticing, would suggest she wanted it for nefarious purposes.
Is it infallible? No, but I cannot stress enough that this is literally the only physical piece of evidence that points to anyone in the cast. It feels a bit odd for it to be unimportant me thinks.
Hope that answers your question! Take care!
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August Check-In!
July has been a bit more chill? I was kind of forced to slow down cause sickness (and other personal stuff), which made progress rather slow...
On the other hand, it was nice to have a bit of a break.... and kind of needed, seeing how my body just didn't want to cooperate...
I have honestly not written a thing in about a month (I don't count editing/coding/fixing), so I'm half-looking forward half-dreading getting back to it.
Long post ahead:
Start with what has been done this past week (hella busy).
Some other me and IF-me-related stuff
Some IF events to participate in
What I'm planning this month
A little re-haul of the templates and guides, getting some much needed TLC:
fixing typos/errors (mainly guides),
editing the credits with more resource links,
and some reformatting/re-organising the code (mainly templates).
Update your games with the latest version!
Or re-download the guides!
ALSO ALSO, this was still technically last Sunday (late), but the SugarCube Guide has been fixed of its broken links, bad formatting, and explanation errors.
But as a bonus, I've found some time to add some extra passages:
The other Engine API
Localization and Translation of a game
Events to trigger code at specific rendering moment.
Some of my older Coding In Twine asks, especially the CSS ones
(Version 1.1.0)
MelS finished checking my comments on the investigation part (still needs to add the missing part), and is processing the ones I left on the exploration side (there are a lot, he's doing his best).
Fixed some minor typos in the French version.
BUT most importantly, the code is now available on my GitHub! Also will be shortly on the IFArchive.
Clarence Street, 14 est maintenant disponible en Français!
I've also added the source code to my GitHub, as well as sent them to the IFArchive.
I made some minor fixes in the UI for the title page and the Restart one (issue with text size).
The source files are also now available on my GitHub and sent to the IFArchive.
Quick list on other IF-me related stuff:
I've finally started AND finished reviewing the Anti-Romance IF/VN entries. That was 20 new reviews (4 I had already done with the NeoTwinies, 1 was mine :P ). If you are interested, check out @manonamora-if-reviews, they are all there. Otherwise, play the entries!
I'll prob go back to finishing replaying the IFComp entries and update those reviews... Or you can submit one for me to play!
@if-confessions closed last Monday - well, the asks box did. You can still read and interact with the posts. Just because I won't be answering for a while doesn't mean the discussions are closed.
Another player has been going through the @neo-twiny-jam entries, and gave me some some lovely reviews on IFDB ! That was a nice surprise!
Some IF Events:
The IntroComp entries are out! While voting is set to start out shortly, you can already check the entries (and maybe think of feedback for the author?). Note: the stories submitted were not complete games.
Also I missed the deadline... I didn't have a working WIP...
There is still one month to submit your intent to the IFComp (@ifcomp). If you don't plan on submitting a game, you can already create an account to vote. I'm not participating this year, so you might see some reviews of mine this autumn.
Over at the @neointeractives, the Single Choice Jam will be ending in about 2 weeks. There is still time to add your story to the dozen already available!
If you are looking to make something a bit more NSFW, the Orifice Jam might be for you! There is a bit more than 2 weeks to add something hole-y!
THE PLAN (for August):
This is what I'm aiming to do, probably not what I'll end up achieving.
Play some more IF games. Maybe not 7/day like this week, but a few of them/week to add to my review pile. I'm getting closer to the top of the Reviewer List... I don't think I'll ever be number 1, but I need 137 more IF reviews to get to the front page (as of today - after the IFComp this year, probably will need more...).
Also I want to be better at reviewing, so practice... Also I want to bring more attention to the French games...
I'd like to swing at least a jam entry for the SingleChoice. Something either silly, or related to one of my WIPs (toying with that...). Maybe testing a new engine for funsies. I have two weeks to think about it...
In the meantime, I need to fix my website. It's a bunch of games behind, and missing some important links too! Also been toying with having a more Web 1.0 vibe to it...
Maybe try to take one one of the WIPs and add a chapter or something (haven't decided which... the folders have been side-eyeing at my complacency).
Add more pages to the SugarCube Guide.
Code the update for TaTEH (dependent on MelS)
And if I can't write a single world, I can pick from the following pile pr probably not too much brain power needed:
translate Escape Goncharov! into French.
fix the bugs in EDOC + overall the French version to match
fix the bugs of TRNT + find a way to add the missing pieces (mayyyybe translate into French?)
fix the formatting of DOL-OS + translate into English
update LPM with the missing content + translate into English
The rest of the To-Do pile is (not month specific):
Finish The Rye in the Dark City (and maybe translate?)
Finish P-Rix - Space Trucker (and try to translate)
Finish Exquisite Cadaver (translation unlikely, current gameplay too complex to port for French)
Add a chapter to CRWL
Re-working TTTT to its originally planned state (lol, not likety)
Re-working SPS Iron Hammer (samesies)
Emptying my inboxes
Let's see what can be accomplished this month!
I would like to check some more boxes of my new year resolutions.
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Steam Next Fest, winter 2024. Just when you're starting to get into a groove with a project, something new comes up to distract you. So it goes.
This one was all over the map — some games I really liked, a few that were kind of a letdown, and a few that were just sort of there. I think this is the first time a batch of demos has removed more items from my Steam wishlist than it's added. More detailed (though perhaps less organized) thoughts under the cut.
Okay so Balatro doesn't really count, I've been playing the demo for this game for months at this point, but I want to mention it anyway. It's a deckbuilder in the purest sense: you're given a plain deck of cards and tasked with scoring points via poker hands, accumulating a variety of buffs and modifiers to literally rig the deck in your favor. It is perhaps the most make number go up game I have played in a good while, and it's addicting as heck. I know some folks who will be playing the full version nonstop when it comes out later this month, and I might be one of 'em.
As far as city/settlement builders go, I don't think Synergy is jumping to the front of the queue when it has to compete with the likes of Laysara or The Wandering Village, but it does have some neat ideas. I do enjoy when I get to treat this sort of builder like a puzzle of sorts, fitting all of the pieces together, and the ways this demo asked me to do so on both small and large scale were just interesting enough to pique my curiosity. Might be worth a look in the future.
Now, a quick rundown of the demos that didn't land quite as well: Planetiles and Kamaeru had charming aesthetics, but the UI in both games felt a bit clunky and the gameplay left me wanting a bit more substance. Train Valley World moved away from the gameplay I enjoyed in the previous two entries in the series, in favor of something I'm not particularly interested in. There were a few other games I found while putting together my list this time around, but either bounced off of (Electrogical, Bounties of Babylon) or didn't get enough to pass judgement (Omnibullet, Overmorrow), so I may need to revisit them later.
Somewhere in the middle, I'd say, was Aarik and the Ruined Kingdom, a Monument Valley-esque puzzle game. It was… alright. I liked it, I just liked most of the other stuff I tried more. I need to sit down and play Monument Valley at some point.
There are two games on this list I'm torn on. Flock is a cute exploration game that reminds me of Sky: Children of the Light and charmed me in very similar ways. Customizing a character, flying around, and observing the game's colorful ecosystem was a lot of fun. Botany Manor is a puzzle game somewhere between The Witness and Return of the Obra Dinn, where you gather clues in your environment and use them to piece together answers to a central puzzle — in this case, figuring out how to make various plants grow. Some neat ideas to be had here.
I really liked both of these demos! But both of them ran into the same problem: I get motion-sick kind of easily, and there's a small subset of video games that make me dizzy if I play them for too long (and sometimes "too long" is, like, five minutes). To its credit, Botany Manor acknowledges this and has options to make it more accessible… but if there's a specific configuration of camera settings that doesn't give me a literal headache, I didn't find it. It's really frustrating that some of the games I enjoyed the most in this list are ones I'm not sure I can physically handle in the long term. I'll keep an eye on them, but… we'll see.
Moving on. Duck Detective is another "fill in the blanks" mystery in the vein of Case of the Golden Idol or the aforementioned Obra Dinn. It's a much more humorous and lighthearted take on the idea, and while the demo was pretty short, it gave a decent enough look at the gameplay and style that I'm interested in what lies beyond.
#BLUD immediately stands out for its hyper-cartoony art style, which it definitely leans into (it's got episode title cards, for crying out loud). It backs up that style with some charming writing and a decent Zelda-ish mix of exploration and dungeon crawling. I'm not sure the combat entirely clicked with me, especially early on before your character gets a proper weapon, but I still liked the demo well enough overall.
Crypt Custodian also took some time to grow on me, but when I did get into a groove I wound up having a pretty good time with it. It's a top-down 'vania — my closest comparison would be Hyper Light Drifter, with character progression and looser movement closer to something like Ori or Hollow Knight. It was a bit of a gauntlet at first, and didn't always give you a lot of direction (apparently that's an upgrade you need to unlock), but once I got a few more options for movement and combat it felt like I could handle most of what it was throwing at me. Seems fun.
For a more direct comparison to Ori, we close out with Tales of Kenzera. This was one of the other highlights of the bunch for me. The movement and combat felt good and offered a lot of options up front, and kept adding more throughout the demo — similar to Ori, it's not the tightest and prioritizes spectacle over precision, but the level and encounter design never asks for too much. The art, animation, and voice work are all excellent, and the story (drawing inspiration from Bantu folklore) shows a lot of promise. I'm interested to see where this one goes, for sure.
#balatro#flock game#botany manor#tales of kenzera: zau#crypt custodian#duck detective#blud game#bryan writes about games
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By now, I'm just too skeptical of A.I. image generators, after:
seeing quotes from the programmers of A.I. image generators say that "overfitting" is expected to be frequent
seeing some image generators' UI include an option for uploading an "inspiration image"
seeing too many examples of A.I. generated images that pretty much steal art, to the point where many people can and have pointed out the specific artist/artwork that is essentially just being used with a filter on it
hearing that the music industry is taking steps to regulate A.I. music generators to limit their datasets to exclude copyrighted music, thus setting a precedent that datasets need to use only copyright-free sources.
hearing people in other fields that use A.I. talk about their concerns about A.I. image generators ignoring ethical sourcing practices that other A.I. in other fields ensure to adhere to
seeing the majority of the advocates for A.I. image generators proving themselves to be consistently frequent harassers and people unconcerned with ethical usage
seeing "AI art bros" charge $50 for art commissions, and other prices comparable to artists making things actually by hand, rather than by tweaking prompts and dials (hand-made is supposed to be the higher price point; ask that person failing to commission a knitter to make a giant, hand-made blanket gift, then complaining that it wasn't as cheap as machine-manufactured knitted blankets from big chain stores)
seeing booths at anime conventions where AI image generators take the limited and difficult-to-obtain selling spaces away from actual artists, AND make commercial sales from essentially stolen image sources.
I still think A.I. image generators could have been a great tool for artists, in the same way that Photoshop helped graphic designers and Procreate brushes helped digital painters. But as long as the datasets are unethically sourced, A.I. generators seem to have been overrun by people who don't know the issues that constitute studying art, and use their misinterpretations of acceptable art practices as an excuse to hurt, not just living artists' ability to make a living wage, but also artists' hard-earned efforts. So many of these AI art bros steal the real art for their datasets, and then either don't give credit to the sourced artist. While many also disregard the wishes of the sourced artists. They don't care about getting the artists' consent. They don't care about respecting when a artist says they don't want their art used as source data fodder. Like the SameDoesSexy A.I. image generator, created out of SamDoesArt's artworks, without his consent, and explicitly in retaliation for SamDoesArt expressing that he has concerns with A.I. image generators. Direct attacks and the constant, frequent, unrelenting harassments from these AI art bros, repeatedly prove that whatever benign usage the A.I. programmers had in mind---"Very few images made on our service are used commercially. It's almost entirely for personal use." (Midjourney founder David Holz to Insider)---is just not reflective of the practical applications of A.I. image generators in the real world. Ethical usage can't be assumed to be adhered to, when so many users are these AI art bros.
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CS373 Fall 2022: Evelyn Vo: Final Entry
How well do you think the course conveyed those takeaways?
I think the takeaways were conveyed well when they were being taught but I honestly don't think I retained them that well.
Were there any other particular takeaways for you?
Most of my takeaways are technical skills I learned while working on the IDB project, especially with React. I had no experience in React beforehand and most of my work for IDB was on the back end but I had groupmates that were already experienced in React and wrote good code that I could just pick up where they left off and contribute well.
How did you feel about cold calling?
Cold calling did and still makes me nervous. I don't really like answering questions about myself. I felt that the question about people's internship experience over the summer could be alienating to those who were not able to intern or who worked for lesser known companies and that it could create an elitist environment. Maybe avoid asking this kind of question in the future.
How did you feel about specifications grading?
It didn't change my approach to the assignments in this class compared to any other CS course. I always just tried to get every requirement down possible. Sometimes my group would get a 2/3 unexpectedly on an assignment where we knew we were missing some key components so maybe spec grading is more forgiving than we thought but I never tried to calculate my actual grade.
How did you feel about help sessions and office hours?
I didn't go to any help sessions or office hours.
How did you feel about the support from the TAs?
I liked working with Canyon who was in charge of checking in with our group. Canyon offered us help whenever we were stuck with something and provided us with some great resources during the project development.
You should have read five papers that describe SOLID design: Single Responsibility, Open-Closed Principle, Liskov Substitution, Interface Segregation, and Dependency Inversion. What insights have they given you?
I vaguely learned most of these principles on the job during my internship this past summer, so these papers gave me better insight into the reasoning behind the design principles.
You should have read two papers that advised minimizing getters and setters. What insights have they given you?
Sometimes I would write getters and setters just because I had always done them for every other class definition I was writing. These papers taught me that if it isn't necessary, don't do it.
What required tool did you not know and now find very useful?
AWS. Although it was very difficult to set up, I think it was an important tool to learn and I'm glad I got to experience creating a fully functioning website with it.
What's the most helpful Web dev tool your group used that was not required?
The mui/material library. This library has many pre-made UI components for input data that were easily customizable. I think this library provides a lot of React components that will save time during front end development in future projects.
How did you feel about your group having to self-teach many technologies?
I didn't really like it. Although the experience was useful and would provide me with material for future interviews, it made signing up and coming to this class very pointless. The lectures about python and relational algebra were the most useful to me but they felt irrelevant to the IDB project. I think if I had the motivation and idea, I could have done this project and self teach myself all the tools I needed to and take a different CS course instead (or do it all in an internship and get paid to do it). I think if the teaching staff had a hand in teaching or at least introducing us to the tools necessary for the projects, it would have felt more worthwhile coming to class. If you teach/introduce any tool in this class, I think it should definitely be how to set up the AWS instance considering how so many teams struggled to stay within Amazon's free tiers. The added stress of being billed $200+ and trying to get that money back along with working on the project and no accountability by the teaching team seems like it could all be avoided with a little guidance on how to set the free tier limits. I remember trying to set up our team's API endpoint and had no idea where to start. I didn't know what I had to google to even start and don't think I would have ever figured out that I had to set up an Elastic Beanstalk instance along with an API Gateway without my roommate who had already learned these things from working at Amazon.
In the end, how much did you learn relative to other UT CS classes?
I learned more technical skills in development technologies than in other classes which I liked, but it felt like I was thrown into the deep end of the pool. I would have preferred a more guided learning experience.
In addition to the questions above, I wanted to mention that my roommate had a female friend take this class and felt discriminated by her group mates. She had gone to the teaching staff about this problem and received no support. We recently read a paper about sexism in the software industry and had a guest speaker bring awareness to this issue for our class. I find it hypocritical that we're told how important it is to support women in this industry yet women don't seem to get that support from the teaching staff. Being so mistreated before our early career even starts contributes to less and less women staying or moving up in the tech industry and if the teaching staff cares about this issue, they should provide better ways to empower their female students.
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I’m having thoughts about the design of the various Professor Layton games as I replay The Last Specter and think about the other games (I also recently replayed a bit of Curious Village, but I’ll get into that).
The order I initially played the games was Unwound Future, then Curious Village, then Diabolical Box, then Last Specter (I’m playing the US versions, I know the titles differ in other versions). I haven’t played any of the other games, though if(/when?) I eventually do it will be interesting to see how they relate
Going from Unwound Future to Curious Village was difficult because there were several UI(/UX?) changes made after Curious Village that, in my opinion, are improvements. One of these is changing the symbol that appears when you tap on a character to interact with them. In Curious Village, it is always a red exclamation point, whether or not they have a puzzle. In subsequent games, this is changed so the exclamation point only shows up if they have a puzzle. If Curious Village is the first game you play, this might not be as bad because you haven’t gotten used to a different setup yet.
There are also some things with the puzzle screens that were improved after Curious Village, like the inclusion of a separate notes overlay, and if I remember correctly the hints system saw some tweaks as well. Might go more in-depth on this later.
In Curious Village, there is no button to back to the title screen/main menu from within the game, so if you want to exit the game you have to turn your whole DS off. This is another thing that was fixed/improved in the later games.
I think part of the reason I wanted to put all of this somewhere is because I played the games slightly out of order, so they impacted my experience with Curious Village more negatively than if I had played them in the correct order. It also makes going back and re-playing Curious Village less appealing.
I’m also having thoughts about the incorporation of a new mechanic in Last Specter to add a detective game-quality to the game. (My thoughts on this are definitely influenced by GMTK’s video on Detective Games). There are some times when Layton asks Emmy and Luke (the player) to answer questions about what is going on to lead to deductions. On one hand, I appreciate this, because it’s nice to feel included in solving the story’s mysteries, rather than just being told. However, the specific way its done (question with three answers) is also interesting because it’s very leading/there’s not too much thought that has to go into actually understanding it, because at worst, after a two wrong guesses you have the answer and then Layton explains things. And he’s asking the questions to make sure everyone’s on the same page, but he’s already figured it out. As a new mechanic in the series (compared to the previous games, I am aware that this game is about 10 years old at least) it is interesting to think about why that specific mechanic might have been chosen. I might make another post about other ways they could have done this and how it could have led to different games/more or less variation from the original games.
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What Makes A Roleplay Blog Too “Intimidating”?
Thanks to those who sent in their thoughts! Please note that these are all based on opinions of a handful of roleplayers and should be taken with a grain of salt. You are in no way required to run or write your blog in a certain manner; this is purely an informative piece.
The answers received came down to one thing: The Mun’s OOC Tone. Trying to figure out the “tone” of someone’s writing is difficult because it’s open to interpretation. It’s why some people will mark your emails as ‘passive aggressive’ at work, for example!
Your Rules page is your blog’s first impression for many. It is easy, especially for roleplayers who have been through a lot of garbage, to write your rules with a firm voice. You are, as you have every right to, setting your boundaries, your no-no’s, the guidelines for your personal space.
However, “aggressive” sounding rules can frighten those who may be more faint of heart away. If you write all of your rules out and at the very bottom add ‘btw these sound harsh but I’m an awkward noodle!’, some people might not even see if it they’ve run away after your first point!
So if you’re deadset on being strict with your rules, maybe add a gentle disclaimer closer to the top to say: Hey, I know these are written very bluntly, but I just like to be direct and clear so there are no misunderstandings! This is for everyone’s safety/comfort.
Passwords are also a difficult situation to navigate. They help the Mun, but can sometimes be offputting to others; I personally have seen a lot of ‘I don’t send passwords’ in rules of various RPers from different fandoms. For me, it isn’t a big deal, but it can be for a lot of others. If you want to come to a compromise, maybe make your rules a post that you can ask people to Like instead. A click is far easier, quicker, and some people even do it without thinking already.
No Entry Points. By this I mean a lack of options for people to start with you. If you don’t post memes, opens, starter/interaction calls, etc. it limits the ways people can reach out to: writing you a random starter, sending you a direct IM, sending you a direct inbox unprompted. A lot of us don’t have a problem with doing this, but there is an equal number of people who do, whether it be to general anxiety or because of past burns when they tried. On the flip side: I know how soulsucking it can be to post these things and get zero interaction. What may be helpful is linking to your open/starter/meme tag on your pinned post, and inviting people to dive into what you’ve reblogged in the past, stating that you’re open to receiving them any time. Heck, if you want to go out of your way, you can make posts specific to starting new interactions that people can dive into!
Difficult UI/Formatting. Everyone has a right to their own aesthetic; decorating your tumblr blog is half the fun of making one! But we’ve all been to a blog that we cannot navigate and/or cannot read. If you want to maintain your aesthetic for a majority of your posts, offer helpful notes in your blog format (i.e link to a mobile-friendly google doc, tell people where to find the navigation) and/or ask them to tell you if they need larger text.
The Pros and Cons Of Exclusivity. As I said at the top of this post, you’re free to run your blog and RP with whoever you want. I myself have a RP partner I’ve known for years, and the majority of our muses are single-shipped with each other, and I don’t really interact with other versions of her muses because I already have one. However, people notice this, and they especially are aware of it when you have it in your rules. This can ward people off (as expected, it’s meant to). If you want to compromise, you can either 1) not mention your exclusivity right off the bat, and allow others to approach you first to discuss one on one or 2) make it clear that you’re open to interacting with multiple portrayals of the same muse, but maybe you only ship with one, or you really want to try and not repeat the same plot ideas between them so you need something unique.
Those are the 5 tips I came up with! Thanks again to all of you who contributed, and if you have any more ideas/opinions, feel free to share them in the replies!
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Indie Game Spotlight: Untitled Goose Game
Oh, boy, do we have an extra super horrible Indie Game Spotlight exclusive for you today! We’re talking, of course, of Untitled Goose Game, a slapstick simulator, where you play a goose hassling a town full of people who would very much like you to stop hassling them, please. It feels a bit like playing the videogame version of an old cartoon, complete with reactive soundtrack. Everything that happens in the game is very low stakes (the goose doesn’t get involved in political scandals, or drive a car off a ramp etc.), but there’s a lot of room for comedic performance in doing things like stealing clothes off a washing line and dumping them in a pond.
The team at House House shares roles a lot, and so the game was predominantly designed collaboratively by four people. We chatted with Stuart Gillespie-Cook, who mostly works on animation. Also within House House is Jake Strasser, largely responsible for the design of levels and environments, Nico Disseldorp who does all the programming, and Michael McMaster who mostly works on art direction and UI. The iconic sound effects were made by Em Halberstadt, and Dan Golding designed the music. There’s also art from Kalonica Quigley and additional UI programming from Cherie Davidson. Stuart Gave us the lowdown on the curious title, the game mechanics, and dream crossovers. Read on!
What's the story behind the title of the game?
This more or less happened by accident; at first, we just needed something to put on a video we were submitting to a festival. It’s become one of the best things about the game, and I’m so glad we stuck with it. I will say it’s a weird thing to explain when your very not-online hairdresser asks you “oh, what game are you working on?”
How did the team come up with the animation style?
The whole visual style of the game is designed to be nice and clean, very readable and approachable. The animation specifically takes a lot of inspiration from slapstick and pantomime—with big, over the top reactions that are impossible to miss. We wanted to squeeze as much emotion as possible out of these people without facial expressions, so everything has to be evoked with body language. We also lean heavily on two dimensional, hand-drawn effects that are lifted from comics—lines to represent the direction of a honk, stars when someone hits their thumb with a hammer, etc.
Untitled Goose Game offers a unique take on the puzzle genre. What other mechanics can we expect?
Because it’s a game that’s largely about interacting with a bunch of people, the game borrows heavily from AI systems in stealth games. Playing with a character’s awareness of where the goose is, where they left their stuff, where that sound came from etc. is a big part of the comedy of the game. So, while it’s less restrictive than most stealth games, and there’s no real fail state (ie. if a character sees a goose, they’ll think “ah, there’s a goose” rather than “I’d better shoot and kill that spy”), those explicit behaviours that are so present in the stealth genre are really important in our goose game.
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If you could have the goose cross over into any cinematic or game universe, what would it be and why?
It would be nice to see the goose chase Postman Pat over a hedgerow. That era of British children’s television has been a huge influence on the game. Otherwise, we’re always open to having the goose in Smash.
Are you ready to fulfill your wildest dreams of becoming a mischevious goose and harassing people? Of course you are! Check out the website to find out how you can get your hands wings on Untitled Goose Game!
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Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992)
Ultima 7 was pretty much my introduction to RPGs, and I could not have asked for a better pair of games to ignite a lifelong passion into that genre. There is a real reason why this is still considered one of the best RPGs ever made.
While Ultima 7 is often discussed as a singular entity, it is actually two separate full-length games with one expansion each. For this post I will focus on the first one, Ultima VII: The Black Gate, as well as its expansion: Forge of Virtue.
I recommend playing the game using Exult, which adds some quality of life features (such as a feeding hotkey and a “use all keys” hotkey) as well as the option to use higher quality audio packs, implement bug fixes, and change the font into something easier on the eyes.
Summary
The protagonist of the Ultima series is “the Avatar”, a blank slate isekai protagonist from our world who has previously travelled to the world of Britannia several times and saved it from many threats, also becoming the shining paragon of the virtues meant to guide its people.
In this game, you once again cross the portal to Britannia to save it from a new and mysterious extradimensional threat. As soon as you arrive, you immediately discover two things:
1- A violent ritualistic murder has just taken place.
2- There is suspicious new organization called “The Fellowship” gaining adherents throughout the land.
It is up to you to investigate these developments.
Freedom
In terms of freedom, the Black Gate has plenty overall but there are areas where it is not quite there.
Once you can manage to get the password to get out of the locked-down town of Trinsic you are free to go nearly anywhere in the game right away and have multiple means of transportation to accomplish this, such as moongates or ships.
And there are some very real rewards to exploring like this as well, such as various treasure caches and other interesting findings.
The world is actually very small by modern standards, especially when settlements occupy so much of it, but both the towns and the wilderness areas are dense with content.
Notably, the game also allows you to perform various activities. From stealing to making a honest living by baking bread (which is something you can do thanks to how interactive the environment is) or gathering eggs at a farm.
Where it falls short is in terms of having multiple possible solutions for quests. Generally there is only one correct option for how to complete them.
That said, there is a bad ending you might be able to find in addition to the canonical good ending.
Character Creation/Customization
This is one of the big minuses of the game. While you can select your name and gender (and with Exult also have a wider selection of portraits) that is about it for character creation.
All characters will start with the same stats and there are no character classes. You can develop your stats through training and specialize through your choice of equipment, but by the end of the Forge of Virtue expansion you will have maxed stats and the best weapon in the game (a sword) regardless, and you will definitely need to cast a few spells to progress the main quest as well.
This can make every playthrough feel much like the last, as there isn’t that much of a way to vary how your character develops or what abilities they’ll end up having. You will always be a master of absolutely everything in the end unless you go out of your way to avoid doing the Forge of Virtue expansion.
Story/Setting
While the game is a bit too obvious and heavy-handed about its villains, there are still many interesting storylines in the game that deal with mature subjects that remain relevant today, such as cults, drug abuse, workplace exploitation, and xenophobia.
However, the setting as a whole is greater than any individual storyline taking place within. With the exception of most guards and bandits, every single NPC in the game is an individual with a name, schedule, living space, and defined personality. This was not the norm in 1992 and even today there’s not many games that really implement this well. The world is also very detailed in terms of things like the services available to you, the general interactivity of the game world, and the sheer amount of things that populate every corner of it.
The initial murder is not only a strong hook for investigation but also a shocking scene in its own right. The Guardian also proves to have a significant presence as a villain, using a mental link to remotely taunt you based on the context of what is happening. For example, if your companions die he may offer you some exaggerated, mocking pity.
Immersion
There is something very interesting and comfortable about just watching the various inhabitants of a town just go about their daily lives. They work during the day, eat at certain times (either at home or at one of the many taverns in the land), and sleep at night. They don’t just strangely repeat one single action during the day either, they may do things like open windows when the weather is nice or turn candles and streetlamps on at night.
In terms of immersion, Ultima 7 is my primary example of a game that does an excellent job of it even if there’s some weirdness going on with the setting. Even after having played so many more games throughout my life, only a few are on the same level as either part of Ultima 7 when it comes to immersion.
Gameplay
There are three broad aspects to the gameplay here that I want to discuss.
The first is combat. It is actually simple enough that you can call it almost entirely automatic. You simply enable combat mode by pressing C and your party will automatically go and fight nearby hostile enemies based on whatever combat orders you have selected for them (by default, attacking the closest enemy).
This is certainly better than having an outright bad or annoying combat system as the whole process is simple and painless, but I still wish there was more depth to it. Your stats, and especially your equipment, still play a role but other than things like pausing to use items or cast spells the whole process is very uninvolved.
I kind of wish there was more depth to it, but at least the other two areas of the gameplay are reasonably good.
The next aspect of gameplay is dialogue, which uses dialogue trees for the first time in the series. Previously, it required typing in keywords, which are retained but as dialogue options you can just click on rather than remember and type.
While the keywords are not really written as natural language most of the time (requiring some imagination to determine the specifics of your dialogue), the system is very easy to use regardless. It definitely lacks depth compared to something like Fallout: New Vegas, but so do most games.
The third and most notable thing is the way you interact with the world in general. It is both extremely simple and very immersive at the same time.
Ultima 7 is a game that can be played entirely with the mouse (though keyboard hotkeys make everything much more comfortable). You can right click a space to walk there, you can left click something to identify what it is, and you can use double left click to interact.
For example, double left click over an NPC to talk to them (or attack them, if combat mode is enabled), double left click a door to open it, double left click a loaf of bread to feed it to someone, and so on.
But there is more. By holding your click over an item and dragging it, you can move it. This has various applications beyond just being how you pick things up and add them to your inventory. For example, sometimes objects may be hidden beneath other objects, or objects may need to be placed in a specific location.
There are some downsides to this system. Particularly, the issue that keeping your inventory organized can be time-consuming when it has to be done by manually dragging objects around, and this can also make looting relatively slow.
Despite this, I think this kind of interaction system has a lot of potential. It just has some clunky aspects to be ironed out.
Aesthetics
Ultima 7 was very good-looking for its time, and although modern players will not be very impressed by how it looks or sounds, it still remains easily legible in a way that some other old games are not. That, and the ability to identify anything with just a left click, makes this a very easy game to make out at the very least.
Some of the music of this game is very distinctive too, and will likely stay with you after a full playthrough.
In terms of style, the Black Gate does have a bit of an identity while still having a very familiar medieval fantasy setting with things like trolls, animated skeletons, dragons, and liches. While there are aspects that help the setting distinguish itself a bit, they are relatively subtle.
If I had to describe the feeling of playing this, I’d call it “open and laid back”. While the main quest deals with a looming threat to the entire world, the game does not follow this overly closely at first, letting you deal with it at your own pace and without having your exploration options limited by the story.
In fact, when I was young I often just ignored that and went to live in a creepy ruin in the swamp.
(Don’t expect many pictures in these reviews, but have one of my “childhood home.”)
I’d say that Ultima 7′s second part (Serpent Isle) has a much stronger and also darker and more isolating atmosphere overall and that has a lot of appeal to me in particular, but the Black Gate is definitely more open and less linear, and I also appreciate that.
Accessibility
It pleases me to say that Ultima 7 remains extremely easy to pick up and play. Even setting up Exult is not complicated in the least.
The gameplay is intuitive and simple, the UI is minimal, stats are basic (and not even that important), and the combat is automatic. I expect that this is not only the easiest point of entry into the Ultima series as a whole but also likely even easier to get into than many modern RPGs!
It does have some aspects that may be a bit clunky, like all the inventory-related dragging, but it’s definitely not obscure or complicated even to someone who has not read the manual (though I’d still recommend doing that). I literally played this game as a tiny child who could barely read or understand English and still got really into it.
The one thing I’d like to point out is that the game uses a type of copy protection where at a couple of story points (including an extremely early one to leave the first town) you will be asked some questions that require using the manual and external map to answer. You can just google the answers for these.
Conclusion
As I write more of these reviews there will be many games that are interesting, but deeply flawed. Games that are worth trying out but maybe not finishing, as well as games that had interesting ideas but that I can’t entirely recommend due to serious problems that will easily put people off.
But I do not think the Black Gate is such a game. I can easily recommend it with no qualifiers despite the fact that it is almost 30 years old. This is really a game that all RPG fans should at the very least try for a few hours, and not only for its historical significance. It is genuinely a good game worthy of its praise.
I will review its sequel, Ultima VII Part 2: Serpent Isle, next.
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A Leaf in a Stream.
The matriarchs of Minari—Youn Yuh-jung and Han Ye-ri—talk to Aaron Yap about chestnuts, ear-cleaning, dancing, Doctor Zhivago and their unexpected paths into acting.
A delicate cinematic braid that captures the sense of adventure, sacrifice and uncertainty of uprooting, Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari might be the closest approximation of my immigrant experience on the big screen yet. Sure, Arkansas is a world of difference from New Zealand. But those dynamics and emotional textures of a family in the process of assimilation—authentically realized by Chung—remain the same.
The film is a wonder of humane storytelling, with the American-born Chung encasing deeply personal memories in a brittle, bittersweet calibration that recalls the meditative, modest glow and touching whimsy of an Ozu or Kore-eda. As Jen writes, “To describe Minari? Being embraced in a long, warm hug.” Or perhaps, it’s like Darren says, “floating along peacefully like a leaf in a stream”.
Neither is alone in their effusive praise. Minari rapidly rose to the top of Letterboxd’s Official Top 50 of 2020, and by year’s end our community had crowned it their highest-rated film. Despite its cultural specificity—a Korean family shifting to the Ozarks in the 1980s—the film has transcended barriers and stolen hearts. Run director Aneesh Chaganty says, “I saw my dad. I saw my mom. I saw my grandma. I saw my brother. I saw me.” Iana writes, “Its portrayal of assimilation rang so true and for that, I feel personally attacked.” The versatile herb of the title, Kevin observes, is “a marker of home, of South Korea, but it can grow and propagate as long as there is water.”
Though a large portion of Minari was vividly drawn from Chung’s childhood, a few of the film’s most quietly memorable moments were contributions from its Korean-born cast.
Youn Yuh-jung as Soonja in ‘Minari’.
Veteran actress Youn Yuh-jung, who’s extraordinary as the visiting, wily grandmother Soonja, traces the origins of the scene where she cracks open a chestnut in her mouth and hands it to seven-year-old grandson David (Alan Kim), to her time living in America. “I’ve seen one grandmother visiting at the time—we don’t have chestnuts in Florida—she brought them all the way from Korea. Actually it was worse than the scene. My friend’s mother brought [the] chestnut. She chewed it and spit it out into a spoon and shared it with her grandson. Her husband was an Irishman. He was almost shocked. We didn’t do that, but I shared that kind of thing with Isaac.”
Most viewers watching this scene will likely recoil in horror, as David does, but co-star Han Ye-ri, playing Soonja’s daughter Monica, notes the practicality of the gesture: “If you give a big chunk to children they could choke on that, so it’s natural for them to do that for their children.”
In another brief, beautifully serene scene—one that is so rarely depicted in American cinema that it’s almost stunning—Monica is seen gently cleaning David’s ears. Han came up with the idea. “Originally it was cutting the nails for David,” she says. “Cleaning your wife and husband’s ears is such a common thing in Korea. Initially the producer or somebody from the production opposed the idea because they regarded it as dangerous, but because it is something that is so common in our daily lives I thought we should go with the idea.”
Neither actress comes from a traditional movie-oriented background. With no acting ambitions, Youn began her fifty-year career with a part-time job hunt that led her to distributing gifts to an audience at a TV station. “It was freshman year from college and they gave me pretty good money. So I thought, ‘Wow, that’s good!’.”
“I’m kind of ashamed about that, as nowadays all the kids plan their future,” she says. “When I talk to the younger generation, they start having dreams about being an actor in the sixth grade. In the sixth grade, I was just playing—nothing. I didn’t plan anything. [Laughs.]”
Han Ye-ri and Noel Kate Cho in ‘Minari’.
Before acting, Ye-ri trained as a professional dancer, and while she wasn’t specifically inspired by movies to cross over into acting, she was an avid film watcher in her formative years. “Working as an actress made me realize how many films I’ve seen growing up.”
“My first memory of a non-Korean-language film left such a strong impression on me, especially the ending,” she says. “The film is called Doctor Zhivago. I saw it on TV and not in theaters. The first film I saw in theaters was Beauty and the Beast. But even growing up I remember because Koreans love films so much they would have films on TV all the time. I watched a lot of TV growing up because both my parents were busy, and in retrospect that really helped become the basis of my career. [Laughs.]”
She also grew up “taking reference from Miss Youn’s body of work to study from, as did many other actresses”. Grateful for the opportunity to work with her on Minari, Ye-ri says, “On set working with her, it made me realize how wonderful it is that this person still carries her own distinct color and scent. And seeing her taking part in this production in a foreign country—she’s over 70—it just really encouraged me that I should be more fearless like her.” She adds: “One of the things that I really want to learn from her is her sense of humor but I think I’m going to have that for my next life. [Laughs.]”
As for Youn’s adventures in early movie-going, she recalls the first Korean film she saw with her father was the 1956 historical drama Ma-ui taeja, based on a popular Korean fairy tale. “I was so scared. I cried so my father had to take me out of the theater.”
“At [the] time, we always had to watch the news on the screen before the movie. It started with a national anthem and every audience from the theater would need to stand up and pledge to the Korean flag. It’s a very stupid thing for you guys but it was like that 60 years ago.”
Han Ye-ri as Monica in ‘Minari’.
For Minari fans who want to discover more of Youn’s work, she recommends starting with the first movie she made with the late, great director Kim Ki-young, Woman of Fire—a remake of his own 1962 Korean classic The Housemaid. “A long time ago I couldn’t see it. Of course I first saw it when it was shown at the theater back when I was twenty. But later on we had a retrospective, so I saw that movie 50 years later. Wow, he was very genius. I was very impressed. That time we had censorship and everything but with that crisis he made that film. That was a memorable movie to [me].”
Youn admits finding it difficult to be emotionally invested watching a film starring herself, including Minari. “It’s terrible, it’s killing me,” she says. “I always think about why I did this and that scene like that. I’m just criticizing every scene so I’m not enjoying it at all.”
Asked which films she enjoys, she offers: “Some other people’s movies like Mike Leigh and Kore-eda Hirokazu. Your Chinese movies I fell in love with. Zhang Yimou when he started. Then later on when he became a big shot, I don’t enjoy [them]. [Laughs.]”
During the shoot, members of the cast and crew caught Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, 2019’s powerful, heartfelt Chinese-American immigrant story. While Youn missed it (“I was just staying home trying to memorize the lines and resting”), Ye-ri watched with interest: “That film also had a grandmother character, so did ours, and these two are completely different. But at the same time from both films you can feel the warmth and thoughtfulness of grandmothers in different ways. To me they are both very lovely films.”
Of her recent viewings, Ye-ri reveals she found Soul made her as emotional as Minari did. “It made me look back at how I live and my day. It’s not necessarily for children but I think it’s a film for adults. [Pauses.] I’m Thinking of Ending Things. I love that film also.”
‘Minari’ is out now in select theaters across the US and other territories, with virtual screenings available to US audiences in the A24 screening room.
#minari#a24#lee isaac chung#lulu wang#the farewell#hirokazu koreeda#Youn Yuh-jung#han ye-ri#han yeri#steven yeun#korean film#korean director#korean films#letterboxd
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My Spier & Mackay Custom Shirt Guide
If you’re looking into having a custom shirt made through Spier & Mackay, I recommend them. Of the online custom shirt makers I’ve tried, they have my favorite pattern. Something about the way they cut the armholes and chest is magic—fitted but not constricting.
The process is pretty straightforward, but it can nonetheless be daunting because the pressure to get it perfect on the first go is high. I’ve ordered a few shirts at this point, and have some tips for getting the best results.
Fit considerations
Measuring
I prefer to measure shirts I like the fit of and combine those measurements into the ideal amalgamation of them all. That gives maximum control over the resulting fit pattern. Below are some tips to make sure you get it right.
Pay attention to their specific instructions for how to measure by watching the embedded YouTube videos for how to do it. In particular:
Neck measurement is measured from the button to the middle of the buttonhole, not the far end of the buttonhole (like some other shirt makers).
Cuff is measured end to end, not button to buttonhole (this is huge; don’t mess this up).
The sleeve measurement is straightforward, but many people have a misconception about how long a shirt sleeve should be. A sleeve should hang about an inch past your wrist when the cuff’s unbuttoned (and your cuff should be cut slim enough that when it’s buttoned, your hand stops the cuff from slipping down). Watch the video of how to measure your body for a shirt and that illustrates where it should go. When you’re inputting your own shirt measurements, adjust accordingly.
The armhole measurement is tricky to figure out. You measure a shirt by laying it flat but that makes the armhole curve a little. The instructions say to measure straight, though. So here’s how to think of what you’re doing to alleviate confusion: Measure the full length of the seam. You can either do that by leaving it curved and measuring around the curve, or pulling it straight and measuring it straight.
Speaking of armhole, my suggestion is to go for a relatively small armhole and relatively loose bicep. My first shirt had a high armhole and slim bicep and it feels constricting. My second shirt had a slightly more relaxed armhole and slim bicep, and it still felt a little constricting. I locked it in at a small armhole, with looser bicep, and it’s awesome. Great range of motion, comfortable, and wearable.
Elbows and forearms. I hate feeling like my shirt might tear at the elbow. But if you have a fairly fitted cuff and relatively fitted bicep (compared with the way many shirts are super loosely cut), that can happen. So I specified the elbow measurement in the comments of the shirt order. That measurement is simply measuring the sleeve from the end of the cuff to the shoulder seam, and right in the middle is where to measure the elbow. Measure it straight across the sleeve.
If you also want to specify the forearm, which might be unnecessary (I did it but if you specify the elbow it’ll probably work itself out), you measure 6 inches up from the cuff seam (where it attaches to the sleeve) and take the measurement straight across. Measure straight across the sleeve.
Do you have to allow for fabric shrinkage?
My experience has been that the shirts are cut accurately, and shrinkage has been minimal. I asked Rick, the owner of Spier & Mackay, and he confirmed that they cut with normal shrinkage allowance in mind, so you don’t have to game the system to get the result you want (which mirrors my experience so far). A few years ago, a couple fabrics they offered had major shrinkage, which got lots of chatter on Styleforum, but he tells me those fabrics were discontinued 2 years ago and it’s been a non-issue ever since.
What if the shirt comes out wrong? What’s the cost for a remake?
Remakes for fit problems that are your own making—say you don’t carefully read the instructions for cuff width (edge-to-edge, not button-to-buttonhole!) and they’re super tight—are half price. To initiate that process, just email their customer service at [email protected] to get the ball rolling. However, like any good company, if the shirt is cut wrong—say you specified a measurement and it comes out way off by more than a normal tolerance—they’ll make it right on their dime.
Design considerations
Collar choices are personal and many design choices are personal, too. But below are some of my preferences based on my own style and recommendations for design combinations based on what I’ve seen good designers do.
Button-downs
The button-down collars from Spier are rockin’. The classic one (C3-K) is really great for almost everyone. The Italian version they sometimes use off the rack for special makes (C22), like the washed denim shirts, is 10% extra cool and a little bigger, but not so noticeably bigger as to call more attention to itself. For those who want maximum collar drama, there’s the biggest Italian button-down (C23), which I plan to test eventually.
Design pairings with button-down collars
Pair button-down collars with the rounded single button cuff and normal placket. On the back, go for a center box pleat if you’re a traditionalist, but side pleats give it a modern twist that breathes a bit of life into the OCBD. Pocket or no is your choice. If it’s striped, specify “one piece yoke” in the comments.
Spread collars
I personally go for either large cutaways (which I like when worn without a tie the best), or large spread collars. So for me that’s the C21 and C19 collars. Big, tall collar band and big, long collar points, which tuck under a jacket nicely and stand tall. However, for someone with a smaller frame and/or shorter neck, the standard version of these collars would also work well (C13, C16, C17).
Design pairings with spread and cutaway collars
Pair these with either the rounded single button cuff or a mitered cuff (mitered is more business-y if that’s what you’re going for). For the placket, a French turn placket is the more business friendly approach; go standard placket for more casual fabrics like chambray or oxford cloth. And on the back, either side pleats or no pleats. I do no pocket, typically. One designer who makes a great shirt that dresses up or down excellently is Sid Mashburn who makes his with spread collars, a standard placket, rounded cuffs, side pleats and a front pocket in all types of fabrics, and it looks great in every situation.
Collar linings (and cuffs and placket, too)
Unusual for many custom shirt makers is the ability to specify collar, placket and cuff linings. Most of Spier’s shirts have a fused interlining of some sort by default but you can specify in the comments box during the checkout process for them to use something different. Here’s the down-low:
There are four levels of collar interlinings ranging from lightest to stiffest. The linings can be either simply sewn in, or fused into the collar, and you can even have them use two layers if you want.
From lightest to stiffest, the identifiers are soft, medium, medium-firm, and firm. My preferences are for the lighter linings, which allow the collar to roll and have some shape to them (which is an Italian affectation; you may prefer the collar to stay starched in place). Here is how I have done shirts so far, and I like it. I may experiment in the future but for now this has given me good results:
For shirts in more casual fabrics like oxford cloth or cotton-linen or madras, I go for a single layer medium sewn interlining. It gives the collar just enough body to shape nicely, but doesn’t weigh it down. Inside button-down collars, it gives the collar a perfect amount of body to roll beautifully, but is thin enough the collar still has some of the charming unlined look. This feels about like how a Drake’s Oxford collar feels to me.
For shirts in business-y fabrics like broadcloth or pinpoint oxford, I go for the single layer medium fused interlining. The fusing makes the collar smoother in appearance, so it’s a bit more professional. It still stands up well under a jacket without a tie on, too. This feels about like how my Eidos dress shirt collars feel to me.
Just remember to specify in the comments box no only the collar lining, but for clarity, also specify that you also want the same in the cuffs and placket if your shirt is being made with a placket. (They might do this automatically but I’m not sure so it’s safer just to put it in writing.)
Basically unlimited options
You can ask them to do almost anything in the comments section. I haven’t gone too far down the rabbit hole with minute changes, but I have specified changes to the base collar pattern. Specifically, I’ve asked them to increase the front collar band height, and requested the collar be cut with no tie space. They accommodated both requests on my orders. (In case you’re wondering, I did that on the C21 collar, which modified it to be identical to my favorite Eidos shirt collar, the “Marcus”).
You can even send in a shirt you love and simply have them copy it, too. I haven’t done that, but if you want to give it a try, email [email protected] and they’ll tell you how to proceed.
So that’s it. Those are my tips for ordering a custom shirt from Spier & Mackay. While the program’s UI/UX on the website leaves a lot to be desired, and I still wish they’d allow you to order fabric swatches, the results and quality of the end product are excellent; and the price is outstanding.
Is there anything else you’d like to see covered in this article? Let me know in the comments below!
(Help support this site! If you buy stuff through my links, your clicks and purchases earn me a commission from many of the retailers I feature, and it helps me sustain this site—as well as my menswear habit ;-) Thanks!)
If you’re just getting into tailored menswear and want a single helpful guide to building a trend-proof wardrobe, buy my eBook. It’s only $5 and covers wardrobe essentials for any guy who wants to look cool, feel cool and make a good impression. Formatted for your phone or computer/iPad so it’s not annoying to read, and it’s full of pretty pictures, not just boring prose. Buy it here.
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