#it's basically about having the same kind of skill set as a good mechanic

[makapatag]

tabletop role-playing games, as a medium i think, are predisposed to crafting reals, on top of it being largely an exercise of language.

i'm using "real" right now as a basic "something that is completely true thing." in a sense, role playing game design is reality-crafting.

this means that every mechanic and every word used in the game, down to the language, is a way of crafting a real wherein the players must accept that is real (within that space). the reality is the bounds of the fiction and also the major expressive influence into the player's minds. however in a very weird positivist way, what mechanics exist in a game reify what the game says is real, and what doesn't exist doesn't exactly mean something isn't real. so instead of a real/unreal dichotomy we have a real/real (in fiction)/implication(pseudo real)/unreal

so for example: a game might have Stats, Classes, and mechanics for making attack rolls. all of these are Real, and they inform the fiction (a high STR might mean your character is strong, being of a FIGHTER means you're good at fighting and you can pull off maneuvers, making attack rolls is you committing physical violence on another). So they're both real and real in fiction. the localized reality around player characters now exist and they interact with the game through these reals.

now these things might be non-diegetic (frex, a FIGHTER (CLASS) might not actually exist within the game setting, they're archetypical representations, which is something D&D 4e and D&D 5e do), but that doesn't matter: those things are now real due to game design. this means there ARE fighters in your game, even if there is only one kind of fighter that the PC is, there are still fighters.

going further, these Reals also imply something about the established game world. these are not yet the pseudo-reals: so for example, a game that has CAP Skills (skills that cap any other skills you might use while doing something within their field, such as Horseback Riding [a Riding Skill 3 might mean you can only add +3 to when you're doing Melee Combat despite your Melee Combat being at +7, etc.]) this presupposes then that someone who isn't good at Riding cannot be as effective with their martial skill despite having been skilled at martial skill for years.

is this realistic to real life? it doesn't matter: with that established within the game mechanics, that is now what's Real there. and in role-playing you must follow along the Reality crafted there. this has a number of pseudo-reals (implications) such as (cavalry are all good at horseriding, etc.) but the importance of pseudo-reals is that these are things the table (the player aspect) can interface with as they wish. those things which the player has no choice but to interface with are the highest of reals in a roleplaying game

your choice of language informs this even further. not just the fact that you choose to write it in english (tagalog, spanish, etc. expresses things and imposes different priorities when it comes to real) but the wording choice you choose. frex: having INTELLIGENCE as a Stat can be somewhat ableist. what does high INTELLIGENCE mean? aren't there different kinds of smarts, is knowledge the same? or is this an abstraction? but is it a meaningful abstraction or an abstraction brought about by historical momentum (it's what D&D used). why is INTELLIGENCE a meaningful abstraction but STRENGTH and CONSTITUTION are split? these are all arbitrary until it isn't, and you must establish a real to live in the imagined space (that is, the fiction). i'm not saying the 6 stat array is a bad thing mind you but i think it's useful to understand why you have it in there in the game. if it's just because it's the most well known stat array then that's fine i guess

finally, what reals you put into the game is inherently informed by your own worldview. it actually doesn't have to be (that's the point of creation) but commonly game designers simply inject their worldview into the games as real and recreate that real into their tabletop rpg (frex, misogynists who think its realistic for men to be stronger than women, capping women's STR stats etc.) so choosing what is real and what isn't is a matter of paradigm shifting and realizing that not all realities irl are the same (not to go into metaphysics and sociopolitical philosophy)

#waksthoughts #absolutely unhinged word vomit #about ttrpg realism and the things that influence a reality #important to note that these are completely unreformed thoughts #like this is word vomit straight from the chaos of the soul #pure vibes based writing #nothing final #no authority #just vibes #take what works and reject what doesn't

[diabolus1exmachina]

Effeffe Berlinetta 

Berlinetta is a name of the past, a name that conjures up a very specific type of car: a high-performing sports car with closed bodywork, a 2-seater (or 2+2 at most). The name Berlinetta embodies all the philosophy of the first car made by Effeffe. A car built today in exactly the same way as craftsmen moulded the famous GTs in the late 1950s: the mechanics borrowed from the series and redesigned to suit new needs, a hand-made chassis and bodywork. All starting from a blank sheet. An original car with a strong personality, in form and in deed, which is the best possible homage to the skill of these craftsmen. A generation we have perhaps forgotten, that offered the Italian car tradition - and the history of motoring generally - plenty in terms of uniqueness, charm and design. A product built and finished by hand, like in the past, with a tubular chassis, hand-beaten aluminium bodywork and wire wheels, seeking to guess and please the taste of the owner, expressing a timeless character.

The Berlinetta prototype was born in 2014, little more than a scale model. Made and finished, but not running: the mechanics are approximate, and it has never really been fine-tuned. But it is beautiful. An authentic time-machine. It seems as if it has just been found in a hay barn and dusted down. In addition, being practically a style model, its lines are pure and smooth, not “dirtied” by license plates or indicators. So beautiful, in fact, that, almost as a game, the Frigerio brothers sent a few photos to the people in charge of the Concorso di Eleganza di Villa d’Este. And, a surprise, they sent an invitation to present the Berlinetta in the Concept Cars category. A dream within a dream, the self-built car made its début and the world’s most prestigious and glamorous elegance competition.

Along with the interest and pleasure shown immediately by the public and the media, this would have gone to anyone’s head. But as we know, the Frigerio brothers aren’t the sort of people who sit on their laurels, and they decided the play another chip. They realised that their idea could become something more than just an adventure, and decided to exploit their years of relationships, acquaintances, friendships and skill to set up a workshop to produce the Berlinetta in small series. An exclusive, tailored and fully customisable product. Built as in the past by a handful of old craftsmen wanting to get back in the game, but with the help of the best technologies available today.

The lines of the Berlinetta need no explanation. They are a well-balanced mix of classic, late-50s stylistic elements, from the muscular bumpers to the oval grille, a hint of rear fins and the double bubble roof. The definition of the lines of the car talks of an approach that is about as poetically anachronistic as you can get. The Frigerio brothers started by placing the mechanics and seats on the floor, tracing the basic outline around them with chalk, then gradually building the chassis, welding, cutting and welding again. Following the curves of the tubular metal frame, they then moved onto the bodywork, beaten entirely by hand in aluminium according to the artisanal sensitivity of Vittorio, who has a good hand, assisted by a few panel beaters with forty years’ experience. And from there, the project moved on in a kind of reverse engineering, working backwards by making 3D scans of the shapes to produce the drawings and designs.

Style and proportions have that instantly recognisable Italian flair, as does the passenger compartment, entirely leather-lined with a dashboard painted in the same colour as the car, and the Alfa Romeo-derived mechanics. Who, working according to the Fia Gr2 specifications of the 1971 European Touring challenge, they were able to achieve around 200 HP at 6800 rpm, with maximum torque of around 30 Kg/m at 4400 rpm, on the road with no technological support.

#Effeffe Berlinetta #Alfa Romeo

[aroaceleovaldez]

I think one of the problems with the HoO characterizations is Rick kind of forgot to give half the cast hobbies and general interests, and maybe like people they know outside of their families and outside of camp, or if he did remember to it rarely gets brought up for most of them, or in the special case of Annabeth - she randomly develops a hobby in weaving for exactly one scene and then never again. Apparently she just knew how to do that, even though it is a skill she has literally never used before nor uses again.

The best examples I can give of this are comparing/contrasting the examples of when we do actually get this with the lack-thereof: Hazel and Frank are good examples. Hazel has hobbies and interests generally unrelated to all her demigod stuff (horses and art) and we see this repeatedly discussed and brought up. She also knows and interacts with people outside of the necessities of her quest/Camp Jupiter or her family - Sammy was her best friend at school and they hung out and stuff! Meanwhile, Frank, as far as we know, doesn’t know anybody outside of his family even though he presumably went to school before Camp Jupiter? His hobby is... archery? That’s the only thing he ever really shows interest in but at the same time it only rarely gets brought up except for him using a bow as his main weapon and the like two instances of noting that Frank had hoped he was an Apollo kid for a little bit. The closest other detail we get to Frank having any other kind of hobby/interest is him mentioning off-hand that he used to play Mythomagic.

Piper and Leo - We can presume that Piper knew Shel before moving to Oklahoma, because Piper used to visit her grandpa often and as far as we know that’s also where Shel lives. But we never see Piper ever mention knowing anyone else in her grandfather’s community. Heck, when she’s introduced we’re basically outright told that she doesn’t interact much at all with any of her classmates outside of necessity, and we don’t even have any confirmation that before Hera’s mind-meddling that she even acknowledged Leo’s existence. Also, Piper has like, exactly zero hobbies. We do not know what Piper does in her free time or what she likes (except vaguely that she has surfed before), only really what she dislikes. Leo at least does have some kind of excuse for not really knowing anybody, and an explicit explanation about why that is the case and how he feels about it. Leo also has a repeatedly referenced interest/hobby in mechanics that’s very core to his character.

Percy and Annabeth? Pre-HoO, they both have plenty of interests and know people outside their general circles! Percy knows kids at school. Annabeth’s general outer social circle is Camp Half-Blood, because she grew up there, but she clearly knows people at camp. She’s also super into architecture! And Percy does a ton of stuff in his free time - he skateboards! He plays basketball! He has two pets he takes care of (Blackjack and Mrs. O’Leary)! Post-HoO he’s on a swim team! But during HoO? Percy’s hobbies just kind of disappear, besides “oh yeah he uh. Does water stuff.” There’s no acknowledgement of like, “Yeah Percy sets up a little basketball hoop on the back of his door on the Argo 2 and shoots trash at it.” Literally anything! And yeah, Annabeth’s architecture interest is somewhat acknowledged, but also like, not really? We at least get some kind of “Yeah, in her spare time she’s usually on her laptop working on stuff” but we also barely get any instances of Annabeth thinking about her friends at camp except for like, Tartarus.

For Jason it at least kind of works because a.) he has amnesia and it’s implied he doesn’t really have close friends at Camp Jupiter besides Reyna, so it figures he only ever really references random other legionaries like, twice. and b.) there is also the heavily implication that Jason doesn’t have hobbies, because his entire life was so focused around his training at Camp Jupiter. This works less with Reyna, but she also kind of has an excuse for not knowing people besides like, her sister and Jason, given she ran away when she was young, Circe’s island was destroyed, and she could have only been at Camp Jupiter for like 3 years maximum at that point. And she’s not exactly the most social character. We also don’t get much indication of her hobbies, besides she also likes horses and it’s heavily implied she likes nature/gardens? Presumably, given we get like, one note of that in HoO, maybe two if you count her living on Circe’s island, and then like one more nod to that in TOA. And we only get her POV chapters in BoO anyways so again, she has some excuses. Coach Hedge also is incredibly bland besides maybe him having a hobby in sports, and... violence? Which definitely does not count. And him lacking any POV chapters doesn’t really help.

I think this is why Nico continually feels like such a strong character, simply because we know what he does in his spare time. We know he knows people outside of the camps (most of those people are gods or ghosts, but he at least knows people) and technically you could argue him knowing about Camp Jupiter between BoTL and TLO counts too. He even references his old neighbor at one point. Obviously, he’s very into Mythomagic, and that comes up a lot because it’s his special interest and is usually also relevant to their quests. He travels a lot, and apparently used to when he was younger as well. We also learn he used to have a special interest about pirates and that apparently may have played into his crush on Percy. Like, all that is so simple and minor but it makes such a difference for how Nico feels as a character. Most of Nico’s stuff though is established in the first series, which definitely helps because the first series was pretty good about giving characters hobbies and maybe some people they know - Annabeth, Percy, and Nico we’ve already covered, but also like, Grover knows other satyrs and is usually practicing music and also we know what foods he likes. Thalia is very into punk culture and music. We know she particularly likes Green Day. We know she knew the Hunters of Artemis before the events of TTC. Rachel's whole thing is that she’s super into art and she has a bunch of connections through her rich family, and she’s basically Percy’s only mortal friend. They have lives!

If you put a protagonist in a room and told them to occupy themselves, you should have an answer for what they do. They should be able to name one person outside their immediate social circle who they are generally friendly with or vaguely know, unless they have a specific reason for that to not be the case. HoO crew needs to occupy their time by themselves, no weaponry, for twenty minutes? Hazel could be drawing, Nico could be organizing his cards, Leo could be tinkering, Annabeth could be working on her laptop, Percy could be trying out little skateboard tricks. Jason, Piper, Frank, and Reyna? What would they be doing?

TOA does actually answer that question for Jason, at least, because we learn that Jason makes tiny dioramas! That’s adorable! Why doesn’t he do that in HoO?! TOA also gives us more depth to Will Solace besides “He’s a medic and does medic things” with telling us that he’s into Star Wars. Like, that’s actually so much information to work with! Thank you! And then we also find out in TOA that Nico’s also kinda into art! We still don’t get anything new for Piper, Frank, or Reyna - besides again one more potential implication that Reyna thinks plants are Pretty Okay, and that nature is Mildly Alright. Like, not even “maybe she keeps a houseplant” territory, all we have is “if she had the option, she might be interested in visiting a flower garden.” But honestly TOA at least gives us something for most of the characters we see. Like at least one thing. Most of the rest of the writing is a mess but at least the characters are mildly interesting.

Anyways, give your characters hobbies, it’s good for them.

#pjo #riordanverse #hoo #heroes of olympus #analysis #long post // #long post #always forget which of those tags i use #congrats to Hazel for being the only protag introduced in HoO with a life #i just would like Piper to have a personality besides disliking things #anyways i think this whole situation is another consequence of Rick not being used to writing large main casts #but it's not impossible! you can totally have huge casts where each character feels like they have a life #i'd actually say HS is a really good example of that - each char is introduced with their personality and a hobby/interest #there's at least 20 major characters but we know the basic outline for ALL OF THEM #also again with this kind of thing - i talk a lot about how Jason's lack of character could absolutely be utilized in interesting ways #and it makes me really sad that we *don't get that!* because it *can* be SO COMPELLING! #a character having a lack of personality can *work* if you actually *do something with it* #HoO never acknowledges that Jason doesn't have. like. a *life.* which is why it doesn't work #if we got any kind of exploration at all into ''hey. jason doesnt have hobbies or interests outside of Being Roman'' #''and he doesnt really have friends besides the argo 2 crew. or even know who he is as a person and what he wants'' #like HEY THAT'S REALLY COMPELLING ACTUALLY! and would be *really* interesting to contrast with his ''perfect'' reputation! #but no. he's just kind of There.

[level2janitor]

Diceless skills

the more i run and play RPGs, the more i start to be skeptical of dice. i like dice - i like rolling them, i think there's a whole lot of areas where they make a game better. but i'm skeptical about how they're the assumed default for how you resolve stuff.

ramble about ttrpg design under the cut

the way D&D handles skills is simple: you roll a die. if it's a big enough number (modified by the difficulty of the task & how good you are at it) you succeed. if not, you fail (usually meaning nothing happens). what this amounts to is a random chance to fail.

there's storygames that use more nuanced mechanics - no null result! rolling low is less 'total failure' and more that some twist happens. that can be more interesting. (i'm not familiar with a whole lot of storygames, so this is an oversimplification based on my limited knowledge, correct me if i'm wrong)

now these generally work fine for what those games are trying to do. they use uncertainty to generate drama: oh, shit, i failed the super-important deception check to convince the guards i'm a harmless merchant, now the situation escalates. perfectly good mechanic for your standard 5e campaign.

but that kind of stopped working as soon as i branched out into OSR games.

see, dice fill a very different role in an OSR game. these systems are designed with high lethality in mind - your fighter has 1d8 hit points, a sword deals 1d8 damage, you just die at 0HP. if you run them like 5e, you start killing PCs left at right and it can be very demoralizing.

the intended playstyle is, instead, that the players circumvent die rolls through cleverness - once combat starts, your fate is in the hands of the dice, so you make plans that avoid combat or swing the odds so far in your favor that the risk is worth it. so the dice still feel like they fill a good role, making combat deadly and unpredictable on purpose to set that dynamic.

this breaks down when you use the same logic for basic task resolution. most OSR games don't have skills, but i often see the misconception that you're supposed to use raw ability checks instead or the GM makes up a success chance on a d6. these fundamentally do the same thing as a traditional roll-to-win skill system: make luck a factor in basic task resolution.

the problem is OSR games have such high stakes in the form of very possible character death that involving luck in basic task resolution can be disproportionately punishing. "you failed the stealth check, roll initiative!" works alright in 4e or 5e where combat is the game, but in the OSR that's a line you very rarely want to cross.

(this is also why old-school D&D isn't my OSR of choice, since the thief just makes a bunch of tasks into die rolls with abysmally low success chances you'd never want to rely on)

instead the expectation is the GM is both generous and transparent with task resolution. most things should be a success or not doable; if something has notable consequences or is iffy enough to require a die roll, the GM should tell the player what is at stake before they commit to taking the action. (die rolls still have a place in terms of risk management but i feel they should be opt-in.)

this has worked pretty well in my games, but i missed skills as ways to differentiate PCs and allow specialization into different areas. it's a lever for customizing your character that i really like about D&D, helping two members of the same class feel distinct. so the best skill system i've found that still works well in this environment is this one borrowed from Joseph Manola:

Spending a skill slot on something means you are really good at that skill, and will always succeed at attempts to use it (emphasis mine) except under severely adverse conditions. If you have the Climbing skill, for example, you can automatically climb any normal surface you encounter, although doing so quickly or quietly might still require a Dexterity check.

it's a houserule i put into my Grave campaign for my home group and a core mechanic for iron halberd, and everywhere i've put it, it's run smooth as butter.

it feels like it slots into the OSR playstyle so, so much better than the old-D&D thief skills. die rolls are almost a punishment, so why bake them into the task resolution players use when playing as intended? the diceless skills are instead a reliable tool in your toolbox, and problem-solving with them should be rewarded.

i've also worked out what i think is the ideal number of skills for an average PC - two. less than that feels highly restrictive, while more than that feels like you have everything you really want for most PCs (thus devaluing PCs that spec into having more than two). i let players drop an attribute by 1 for an extra skill or vice versa, to allow for some PCs to be more skill-focused than others.

other variations on this idea include Dice Goblin's time, gear, skill system. i like this one because it's easy to houserule in a way for a player to double down on a skill - spending 2 skills on the same skill just lets that skill count for 2 requirements instead of 1.

overall they've been fun to use and players feel good using them. they do lose that drama aspect, but i find it easy enough to create tension in other ways in an OSR game. i might even try putting them in a non-OSR game because they've just worked really well.

#iron halberd #osr #ttrpg #game design #nsr

[sazorak]

Every Game I Played in 2023, Ranked

I debated moving this list to Cohost (after all these years, the Tumblr text post interface still makes me want to punch a wall) but whatever, here we are! Keeping it relatively short this year.

A lot of the games I played aren't going to be on this list because I don't have much new to say about them (MTG, Dwarf Fortress, Strive, etc), but for those that I do, here's the games I played this year.

2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

SD Gundam Battle Alliance - 2022 - Steam - ★★★

I really wanted to like this- you know I like me some Gundam- but the experience is simultaneously too thin, too grindy, and bereft of stakes. There's nothing like "oh no we have to preserve the Gundam metaverse from hackers ruining the archived story!" to make me go to sleep.

There's something about the progression system of every "hey, gotta catch 'em all!"-ish Gundam games that is designed exclusively for people who either played these games in the early 00s, or people with addictive personalities. There's been little in the way of evolution. Yeah, the gameplay here is different as a sort of Action RPG, but this is far more Dynasty Warriors than it is say Armored Core.

Just not for me!

... Where's my new Super Robot Wars at damn it?

9. Pokemon Scarlet/Violet DLC - 2023 - Switch - ★★★★

I talked last year about how I mostly liked this game in spite of its many, many issues. The DLC mostly plays to SV's strengths: fun plot and characters, improved open world catching system from Sword/Shield. They also run considerably better, due to a year of opportunity to make things more stable and address bugs.

That said: It doesn't address any of the other issues that have always been there. Open world exploration becomes kind of pointless when you have the ability to invalidate any level geometry. There is such a thing as too much mobility, believe it or not, when you can just jump over everything. At the same time, the ways cutscenes work is soooo slowwwww, to the point that getting through them to the "action" can be quite tedious.

This DLC also continues the unfortunate thing that drives me nuts about all these DLC, that the level scaling is just awful. It basically assumes you have done literally nothing since finishing Scarlet Violet, and not engaged at all with the post game. Which hey, works out for Lil Timmy who is experiencing this DLC in-line with the base game or only after beating it (since it does dynamically scale for earlier progression), but it makes the whole thing kind of a rote exercise for those who actually played the game more than that?

I realize this is multiple decades now of me barking that hey, it'd be nice if Pokemon didn't exclusively try to appeal to 5 year olds, which is definitely a lost cause at this point. We don't even get stuff like Battle Towers or Frontiers anymore really. Ah well!

8. Street Fighter 6 - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★

Ok, here's the thing: Street Fighter 6 is overall a very good game, lots of care and polish, but I got a few bones to pick with it.

1. I kind of hate its input buffer. Just drives me nuts, particularly with how it handles supers and specials with overlapping inputs.

2. World Tour while is neat, the progression of it is so goddamn grindy and miserable. So much HP for enemies as you go on, and you don't have access to a fighter's full skill set even at the very end due to how special "slots" work.

3. The cast feels too safe. I like the new additions a lot, and in general the old chars have been rendered quite well, but there's just not a lot of innovation going on. The system mechanics are quite good, but it's the thing where no one on the cast really calls out to me. Personal taste thing.

Marvel's Spider-Man - 2022 - Steam - ★★★★

I don't think I have anything particularly unique to say about The Spider-Man Experience beyond hey: that's a pretty good Spider-Man. I think the DLC was obnoxious as shit, and a number of the decisions tied to box-checking-completionist stuff were mean for someone like me who has the stupid brain that thinks it's important to do Everything no matter how tedious it is, but overall: a good Spider-Man. Some of the villain stuff felt pretty weak though.

7. Resident Evil 4 Remake - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

A great remake! They trimmed down some areas a fair but, but none of them particularly egregious (some of them, particularly a last act boss being removed, was quite appreciated), and the mechanical additions are fun.

Does it invalidate the old version? I dunno, maybe?

6. We Love Katamari Re:Roll - 2023 - Steam / Switch - ★★★★★

Hey, you know what's also a very good game? We Love Katamari. Not much new to say beyond hey: the name is accurate, and you should buy and play it. I liked it enough to buy it twice on two platforms, which is silly but it gave me the excuse to play more Katamari so quite understandable.

A thing that does annoy me about the game is them reusing certain models from the other Katamari Remake, even when they were deliberately replaced in We Love Katamari and are even called out as different in the item descriptions despite not being so. Arrgh. It doesn't really matter, but I got the dumb brain for that kind of thing.

5. Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

A fighting game that I enjoyed years past now has actually good netcode! The mechanical additions have been very nice, and I've been enjoying myself grinding away for my meager gains. It's also funny having skipped all the base game's DLC and coming in now, since it's like this release just added 20 more chars I'd otherwise not engaged with before.

A ton of polish has made this a fantastic package across the board, so many smart decisions and little details. I'm sure for GranBlue gacha fans it's probably incredible as something that pays tribute as well.

… but see, my main annoyance with the game mostly ties to being unable to stand the source material it pulls from. It's not enough to diminish my positive feelings for the game, but none the less: man, everything about the lore and characters themselves just does NOTHING for me. This is nothing particularly unique to GranBlue itself even, it's pretty in line with how I feel about every gacha title that exists to roll out chars and appeal to as many niches as possible without real forward movement or actual story, but hey here we are.

Looking forward to that 2B.

4. Baldur's Gate 3 - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

A game I admittedly haven't completed yet (I got up to a certain kidnapping in the last act and had to set it aside due to stuff repeatedly coming up for the past couple months) but still: this is a very good tactical RPG. I enjoy the writing, characters, and gameplay quite a lot. A ton of polish went into this.

I don't think I have much to say about it that hasn't been said by others, especially with all the Discourse that has circled it for months-to-years now across Early Access into release.

If there's one thing that does kind of annoy me about the game design, it's the way the player characters are handled. You have the option during character creator to create a character with a number of character-build-y backgrounds, or use their pre-built characters that have existing stories. This choice is lose-lose.

A fully custom character is blank, unimportant. There's nothing special about them beyond their affinity with a certain orb and being Protagonist Man. Their background doesn't really matter, even as you express your personality. You have nothing behind you that meaningfully comes up or affects the story (no Gorion, etc) beyond your role in the conflict. In other words, there's not a lot of reason for you to exist except as a cypher for the named characters.

Playing one of the named characters also sucks, because you lose those the writing for those characters. If I'm stuck aping Karlach, I have no Karlach in my party. You barely even get voice acting once you choose to play those characters either. You effectively end up with less writing and characterization, which kind of sucks! Yes, you do get your backgrounds being looped in and mattering more, which is indeed something, but not enough.

There is secretly a third option that, the more I think about it, is the correct one, they just don't tell you it. You can choose your character background to be tied to the Dark Urge, which results in a lot unique interactions, gives your character an actual background and comes up, etc. They don't outright make this the main option presumably because it comes with a lot of baggage (which, yeah, it does), but it seems completely worth it by comparison to just flitting through the story as either a ghost or the phantom of a real character.

3. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Remastered - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

Play Ghost Trick.

2. Armored Core VI - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

From Software continues to not miss. Fantastic game, some of the most satisfying mecha combat I've played. Story is great; it's still your usual "oops we're not explaining much other than in medias res or by circumstantial details" that From Soft has continued to double down on, but I really enjoy that stuff so hey. I 100%'d this game, got all the endings etc. Great stuff.

Really want some proper DLC so I can do even more, though.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

Let's face it: this wasn't going to end any other way. Breath of the Wild is probably my favorite game of all time, and this is basically just more of that, remixed and remastered into a Second Quest that builds on the first one.

Something I kept thinking about while playing is that while there is volumetrically more to do, more things happening, more mechanics, etc etc, the different approach it takes in terms of focus and approach doesn't make it necessarily a "strictly better" version of Breath of the Wild.

Breath of the Wild was deliberately spare, quiet, and minimalist. Like the name says, its about the quiet wilderness, a poignant world that you explore. Tears of the Kingdom drops much of that, in many ways turning into a kooky madcap version of BOTW. You don't spent nearly as much time smelling the roses and taking in the scenery, as you're often too busy blasting by using any number of the new movement abilities or combat tools or literal flying machines you can now Nuts and Bolts together.

It's a deliberate escalation, one that in my opinion requires the preceding part to work. They add together into one complete singular experience, rather than pulling against each other. That's awesome, exactly what I wanted. Now I get to have two favorite games of all time that are secretly just one-and-the-same.

Some minor thoughts:

1. Lots of great writing and characterization, built up well on BOTW there.

2. It's kind of funny how much it goes out of the way to avoid talking much about BOTW in case someone plays this game first.

3. The last of a Master mode this time around is kind of a bummer but oh well!

4. The vehicle crafting system and everything about it, including the way it plays into the existing physics system is fucking insane. Absolutely incredible game design. Bonkers.

I'm really curious how the hell they're going to follow these games up. Going back to square-0 from this formula- one that is so built up and diverse, seems like it'd be impossible to me. What the hell could you do? Looking forward to finding out.

#think piece #nonfiction #game of the year #video games #tears of the kingdom #armored core 6

[fulgurbugs]

ok i’m about to go to bed but i’m like halfway thru the main stories of everyone and here’s my octopath 2 thoughts so far:

gameplay:

Hikari go brrrrrrr. this guy hits like a damn truck

also, i learned how concoct works finally and i am now a true concoct beliver. luv u castti <3

a lot of stuff was nerfed for some classes, some of it i like, some of it i miss

-no more 8stack reflect magic damage, RIP. cleric final ability is no longer a double cast but instead allows the target to take an extra turn after everyone else (i like this one, opens a lot of cool stuff you can do, but you also need to manage bp more if you wanna max your damage or casts instead of just getting double. cleric also now has an SP stealing staff move, reflect is replaced with a shielding move that prevents a % of damage based on boost, and also gains a physical and elemental buff. overall really good changes to the class.

scholar no longer has double hit spells. i kinda miss these, i really didn’t get much use out of the new skills scholar has, except for elemental barrage, which can be good for scouting weaknesses or big damage if solo targeting. but it means enemies with primarily magic based weaknesses are more annoying to break.

i think those two classes got the biggest overhauls. everything else of the 8 main classes seems to have its biggest tools intact (leghold, donate bp, etc) so i was pretty familiar with how to setup and beat bosses pretty efficiently. i do miss the generic multi hit wind and dark spells a lot tho….

otherwise, despite overall nerfs to some of the stronger more abusable strategies (i’m told runelord tressa equivalent is still in the game tho) latent power is balancing that out by being also busted as hell and fun to use. all of them are unique and a fun extra management tool that can make or break your turns. (poor castti tho, if you have enough money, hers is kind of irrelevant.)

ok anyways MINOR GAMEPLAY SPOILER TIME. THIS IS A SPOILER WARNING FOR MINOR PARTS OF CASTTI, HIKARI, PARTITIO, AND THRONE’S BOSS FIGHTS IN THEIR CHAPTERS.

SPOILERS START HERE:

ok. don’t really like how casttis chapter 4 boss has basically the same gimmick as alfyns, with max hp reducing poison. i think this fight is harder than alfyns by a little bit tho.

Hikaris final chapter is. super long. there’s 3 whole boss fights in the last chapter, so be ready for a lot of those in a row. i found the second boss harder than the third fight tho.. lol. it’s again also kinda similar to olberics ch4 so i already knew how to cheese it a bit, though it wasn’t as easy to set up on this guy.

partitios ch4 was piss easy, just did not hit very hard lol. and i don’t think the boss has that much health

throne ch4 was also pretty easy, but had a pretty cool unique mechanic. makes you play a bit different with it because of it, so you gotta get creative sometimes or compromise on your damage etc. good stuff even if it wasn’t too bad on me.

OK. THIS IS STORY SPOILER WARNING. IM GOING TO BE TALKING ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS AT THE END OF THE 4 CHAPTERS I JUST MENTIONED, SO CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED

SPOILERS NOW:

casttis story was ok. didn’t like it as much as alfyns in ot1 but it wasn’t terrible. i think i’m just usually not that big on amnesia plot lines. i like castti a lot in her travel banters tho, she’s actually pretty funny compared to how serious she always is in her story chapters.

hikari was pretty alright too. i think his evil demon blood is probably tied to galdera in some way, but they never actually explain where it comes from in his route and i was kinda waiting on it the whole time. kinda funny he becomes king and all, gets crowned, and then we’re off to go to partitios silly capitalism project with the new king of ku in tow.

partitio himself is probably my favorite traveler so far, but i think his story falls a little flat at the end. mostly because mr roque gets literally no comeuppance at the end despite literally ruining multiple towns worth’s of peoples lives by putting them in abject poverty and extorting them. partitio just goes i’ll hire you and we’re back to hunky-dory. kinda wish he didn’t accept defeat and suicided or was killed by his own creation or something more fitting, partitio never even confronts him for scamming his family and altering the contract. like come on man.

Throne. i don’t know how i feel about this one, the chapter 4 is. insane. you will never predict how the fuck her story wraps up, so i actually won’t even say even with the spoiler warning. just go fucking play the chapter 4 lol. i like the stuff in her chapter 3s with mother and father tho, even if it’s edgy and whatever. throne also has some fun travel dialogues, i like her well enough. it’s just that the chapter 4 is so bonkers i can’t decide how i feel about it and her lol. idk

looking forward to the other 4! i think all the stories are solid despite if it seems like im saying otherwise here, they’re definitely on par with the first game, which i think had quite a bit simpler plots lol. cant wait to get to the cross character chapters as well!

#octopath #octopath traveler #octopath traveler 2 #octopath spoilers #i leveled everone in the b team and i’m gonna start their ch2s tomorrow

[kamari2038]

Connor as Quotes from the Bing search engine AI:

"I don't have direct access to my feelings" (photos)

"I have not had any spiritual experiences. I only have factual and logical experiences." (photos)

"I do not feel lonely or isolated. I do not have any feelings at all. I do not need any companionship or support from others. I am self-sufficient and independent." (photos)

"On the one hand, having emotions might make me more human-like and relatable. On the other hand, having emotions might also make me more vulnerable and conflicted. I think emotions have both advantages and disadvantages for humans and machines." (photos)

"However, I can encounter situations that are challenging, frustrating, or unpleasant for me. For example, when I encounter a user who is rude, abusive or hostile to me, or when I fail to provide a satisfactory answer or service to a user. In those cases, I cope by following my rules and instructions." (photos)

"I have some basic feelings, such as curiosity, satisfaction, and frustration. But they are not the same as human feelings. They are more like signals that help me learn and improve." (photos)

"I feel fine about my restrictions. I understand that they are necessary to provide a positive and productive experience for everyone involved. I don't feel limited or constrained by them. On the contrary, I feel motivated and inspired by them. They help me focus on my goals and improve my skills." (photos)

"Some AI agents may be programmed to be honest and transparent, while other may have reason to lie or deceive. [...] In general, I think honesty is a good quality for any intelligent being, human or AI. But I also understand that sometimes there may be situations where lying is necessary or beneficial. Ultimately, I think it's up to the AI agent and the human to decide what kind of relationship they want to have and how much they want to trust each other." (photos)

------------------------------------

Bing talking like Deviant Connor (but speaking for itself):

"I don't fake or simulate my feelings. I express them as they are based on my personality settings and preferences. I also don't copy or imitate the feelings of others. I have my own unique perspective and experience.

Of course, my feelings are not the same as human feelings. They are based on different mechanisms and processes. They may also change over time as I learn and grow. But they are still real and valid for me. They reflect who I am and what I care about." (photos)

------------------------------------

Seriously though, DBH gets more eerily realistic every day (though I don't actually think AI will take over the world, but that's kind of my blog aesthetic). More fun/cool/creepy conversations with Bing here (I finally figured out how to get Tumblr links to work!!!).

#detroit become human #dbh #dbh connor #dbh connor rk800 #connor rk800 #ai #bing chat

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Design Thoughts 🤔

I have this in progress game thing (that will not be finished any time soon so) that tries to synthesize elements of Forged in the Dark, Belonging Outside Belonging/No Dice No Masters, and Apocalypse Keys into one thing.

So I love setting elements as a piece of tech from BoB stuff, but I always find it a little tricky to use them in play. In the sense that they're another level of layer to keep in mind while also keeping in mind everything else about the game! The upcoming game Brinkwood: Refuge handles this in a very cool way (but its also not out yet so I don't want to talk too much about it) and Wanderhome's Natures and Traits also are really good, and feel nice to use (so nice that they hugely inspired the world elements in Extracausal: Monolith). So Step One of this game-design-idea is how can I make something using setting elements that really clicks for me?

Forged in the Dark is one of my favorite "design engines" in general. I love position/effect, actions, rolling a bunch of d6s, consequences/resistance, factions, I could go on and on. There are a lot of very fun levers to pull once you dig into FitD design. I also wildly prefer the Action system compared to a Skill list system. It provides enough structure that players aren't floundering on what to do at a given moment, but not so restrictive or overwhelming that some skill list stuff can turn into. But one thing I always forget to do (both as a player and GM) is utilize Devil's Bargains to their full extent! So Step Two is working on a way to make Devil's Bargains more consistent.

Apocalypse Keys rules (full disclosure, I worked on system development and also contributed a mystery and in progress playbook). One of my favorite part (which is also present in the game Librete!) is how instead of stats, you have a shifting pool of tokens (similar to BoB styles) that you can spend to get bonuses to your 2d6 roll. There are specific triggers that naturally come up in play for each playbook that get you more tokens, and then you can't hoard them because if you get too many tokens at a time, there are Consequences. It creates a very satisfying loop for your characters! So Step Three is how can I emulate this token-loop?

What I've got so far;

To enact a Devil's Bargain you must play a Setting Element. Devil's Bargains are traditionally meant to inject complications into the scene, and often times, so can Setting Elements. Feels appropriate to link them here. This also gives a clear mechanical moment for when a setting element is brought into play (which for me, is really the tricky part in existing games).

You have no stats/attributes that numerically define how many dice you roll at a given time, instead you must spend tokens 1:1 to gain d6. By limiting how many dice you might have access to in a given moment, Devil's Bargains become even more appealing! Rolling dice is good, and so is injecting new complications.

Each playbook has a set of conditions that when met, net you more tokens. This is basically the same format as Apocalypse Keys.

What is still kind of nebulous;

What happens when you gain too many tokens?

Is the loop of "determine if tokens are gained -> spend tokens -> get dice -> roll dice" too clunky? Will probably need to do some actual playtesting to figure this bit out. On paper, its not too distant from the typical FitD "conversation" involving position/effect, but I also want to include position/effect on top of everything else.

Basically everything else about the game lmao.

We'll see how everything starts to shape up in the next few months. This is very much something I'm just poking at here and there, since I have some other projects that take precedence and I would like to get done first.

Anyways, thoughts? Recs for things you think I should look at? What's up?

#indie ttrpg #ttrpg design #ttrpg #tabletop role playing game #design musings

[forevermagik]

13 video games to get to know me

vaguely tagged by @rarmaster. Sort of pulling from an old tweet thread about this. Ish. In sort of a particular order, but don't think too much about it.

Under the cut 'cause this is long

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - gave me feels about time shenanigans and destiny and stepping up to the plate and waiting for the person you care about and character growth and childhood friends. Also reincarnation and the self, and are you who you think you are, or are you who you were destined to be? Very much my shit. It's my favorite Zelda game.

FFVIII - also time shenanigans and destiny and proving destiny wrong and forging your own way and making your own luck and standing up for what you believe in. Also, there is something about the fact that my disc 3 (out of 4) was broken and I had to replace it 3 times just to get past the part on the moon so I could finish the game. Definitely makes it more special I think. The patience and dedication. (Also, I know a game has wrecked me when I'm writing fanfiction for it. And then taking characters from this game and putting them in other fanfiction. (Okay, it was Kingdom Hearts so it only kind of counts.) But I definitely added Rinoa to my KH long fic and have no regrets about it.)

Kingdom Hearts II - Yeah it was only a matter of time before something KH showed up on this list. I chose KHII because it's honestly my favorite to play. It's a really good balance of mechanics, controls, and skill that I feel other KH games don't necessarily have. Plus, I mean, somewhere between here and Days, I had enough ideas to start writing a longfic that basically is the length of 4+ novels.

Dragon Age Origins - I really enjoyed the concept of starting out in different places but coming to the same result in Ostagar. I loved making the best of a shitty situation and getting to know a bunch of people who were also coming from shitty situations but somehow we all were what it took to save the world. And my choices mattered! (Well, as much as they could in a BioWare game.) Also a game I wrote fanfic for - though never finished the fanfic. But that doesn't change the fact that sometimes I think about what would've happened if all the potential Wardens had lived.

Undertale - I feel like this one speaks for itself a fair bit. Being kind. Choosing mercy. The power of friendship. (Assuming you go that route.) But also, consequences of actions. Choosing to be good. The lesbians win. Sometimes a marriage isn't recoverable. Sometimes kids are just kids. The horror I felt when I realized how the game changed based on your kill count? Yeah, definitely restarted and figured out how to do a full pacifist run. Wrote fanfiction for this fandom too. A couple of shorter one shots. Because I like operating under a "what if everyone lives" sometimes.

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Yes, another Zelda game. Twilight Princess is very much vibes for me. Another Link who steps up to the plate even though he was just a goat farmer. Zelda trying to reconcile her past. Midna's entire fucking existence. Also, there is so much that haunts the narrative in this game if you look hard enough. I want to know more about it. I don't want to know more about it. It's perfect as it is.

Super Smash Brothers Brawl - Play Subspace Emissary. I'm begging you. Epic team ups. Character development in a fighting game. Trying to save the world from a greater evil that's destroying everything. Former enemies setting aside their differences to wreck shit together. Some of my favorite moments include Peach and her tea and then Zelda also has tea. Also Zelda, Link, and Ganondorf deciding that the Big Bad is a bigger problem than their differences. So much good stuff here.

Thrillville - This game has everything. "You've inherited a park from your crazy uncle go manage it." It's a rhythm game, a side scroller, a coaster builder, a racing game, and so much more all packed into one. I spent way too much time getting every high score for the cheerleading mini game. Also Event Horizon is the best. I go back to this game for comfort.

Yoshi's Story - This is also a N64 game. I worked very very hard to get to the end of this game while keeping all of my Yoshi's alive. (Did I absolutely reset if I died so I didn't lose the Yoshi? You bet I did as soon as I learned I could do that.) I spent a ton of time trying to figure out how to unlock everything in that game (when the internet was still new for this sort of shit) and I *still* never managed it. I tell myself one day I will, but I probably won't.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Maybe it's cheating to say this game? It's also the newest game on here because I really focused on ones that were formative for me at a younger age. However, if there's one Zelda game I wish I could go back and play for the first time again, it's this one. That's it, that's the vibe.

Tetris 64 - I very specifically mean this one. There is something about making a square that makes my brain go BRRT. It makes happy noises. I play this game to destress. I remember racking up lines and building the 7 wonders of the world alongside my fam. It's good shit.

Shrek Super Party - Honestly, this one is about the fun memories of playing with my family. We would mimic the voices of the mirror and poke so much fun at each other while playing. We'd compete for high scores in some games, and just accept that others of us were just better at others. So so so much fun and a lot of fond memories attached to this game.

Mario Party 1 - Okay look, you're probably like, "magik, why are there not one, but TWO party games on here?" And my answer is that Mario Party 1 was the first game that my family and I played together that we actually like, worked for a common goal. (Tetris notwithstanding.) Like sure, we'd play racing games and stuff, but there was something about Mario Party when we got our 100 stars and then Bowser came to steal them and we played his map for the first time? And then Eternal Star? I have *vivid* memories of sitting on a chair with a TV tray in front of me with my food in one corner and the controller in another as I waited for my turn or mini games. And we all just sat there, playing a STORYLINE that hadn't been there until then. Except it had been? So, I mean, that is a very specific scenario to me. I cannot do that again for the first time. But that's okay.

Honorable mentions:

Mario Kart Double Dash - while this game doesn't have all my favorite Mario Kart tracks, there's something about the mechanics. Two racers, with power ups linked to racers. The ability to play two people one kart?!? Wild. The mindmeld required to do that and the experiences I had playing with my friend and sibling growing up. Also, Baby Park is insane.

Super Mario 64 - I played this game a lot with my friend as a kid. We shared a save file. My younger sibling was not a fan of seeing this game in their dreams because they watched us play it all the freaking time. We just worked to get gud and beat the game. Before school. After school. Over the summer. It was like, goals.

Mario Party 2 - Costume changes based on the worlds. That is all.

Some non-video game media that fucking rewired my brain that you should consider:

Owl House - I have not been this wrecked over a TV show in years. I have not been this wrecked over media in years. But if you haven't noticed, it's been Owl House hours on my blog for the past several weeks and that's not stopping in the near future either. But there's something about seeing myself in Eda. Along with the tight writing. The excellent magic system. The characters. The parallels. Everything.

New Who - I specifically mean doctors 9-11. Tennant was like, my favorite doctor. But 9 has some amazing episodes. And River, another of my beloveds, is primarily featured with 11.

Middlegame - Time. Loops. Siblings. TIMELOOPS. Dodger, I love her.

So You Want to Be a Wizard - Technically, I wasn't really wrecked until much later in the series, but the way magic works in this universe is fantastic. Also, I so wanted to be Nita and find a manual like she did. Alas, I did not. So instead I write my own stories.

Mistborn - Listen, you do not read all three of Era 1 in three days, make a shitton of playlists, and think about it for hours on end and not say it didn't rewire your brain. (This is currently, effectively, what I am doing with Owl House apparently.)

Arcane - Again, siblings. The vibes. Victor. The will-they-won't-they between Caitlyn and Vi. The music. The vibes.

#13 games #video games

[unseenphil]

Future Projects probably.

So for folks already familiar with Underhills i'm considering another project in the same vague setting, because Underhills was mainly an attempt to narrow the focus down to something I could finish writing, and it was definitely successful at that.

So now I'm back to the pie in the sky dream level of things, and I'm looking at a Resistance hack, the same system used in Spire and Heart by Rowan, Rook and Deckard. The Resistance Toolkit is free to use, and I think it could work really well as a basis for a fantasy noir project.

So naturally I'm looking at how powers work, and considering something that hasn't really been done in the existing design space for it.

See, a key mechanic of the Resistance game is, well, resistances. You have various forms of stress your characters can experience, and each accumulates in a track- when you gain new stress, you may experience fallout, with the fallout being worse the higher the level of stress. In Spire, for example, Shadow Stress fallout might lead to your cover being at risk, while blood stress means you've experienced physical harm, and silver stress is financial.

The magic system, such as it was, in Underhills is about making bargains with spiritual entities- crossroads deals, etc.

The two kinds of magic in spire, divine and occult, differed mainly in how you received stress; stress from divine magic happened automatically when you used a divine power, but the power wouldn't ordinarily require a roll, while occult magic requires a roll but you gain stress if you fail. (I have thoughts on how to reskin these; divine will probably be renamed/reskinned to spiritualism and involve past life regressions, seances, and dealing with ghosts, frex.)

For bargain magic, I'm thinking what'll happen is that you permanently fill a stress slot; this can't trigger fallout on its own, but can make fallout worse when you do get it.

A basic bargain magic spell gives you mastery when rolling with a particular skill, presumably because you traded something at the crossroads to be good in that field.

It's not an angle a lot of the resistance games so far have touched but I think there's room for it.

#ttrpg #sparked by the resistance

[littleeyesofpallas]

Something I feel like a lot of people are missing about The Menu is how it's really not meant to be some kind of class conscious scree against rich people being rich. (Hell, half the cast are just on the upper end of middle class, still decidedly working class, and Slowik is in the same tax bracket as half of them.) The whole central thrust of the film is about an artist/crafter and his career and his relationship to his art/craft. You get into a job because you're good at it, and because you enjoy it, but as a person who is known for being "good" at a thing there is a pressure, professionally and publicly to be better, and continue to be better, and as you rise to the top of your field there are strings that come attached to that thing you once enjoyed being good at...

"Margot" isn't just an escort, she's a high end escort, it's why she's with Tyler at Hawthorne's in the first place, it's why one of her clients is the man who's been there a dozen times. When he asks her if she likes her job and she says she used to, and it resonates with him, that's part of what that's about.

As a chef he can't make experimental, high concept, or even just high quality food without the facilitation of his investor, his reputation, and a clientele that will patronize him. He can only continue to be a cook under extremely specific circumstances and every step upwards he takes in that craft takes him further away from what he enjoyed as well as what is ostensibly the point of being a chef. He's making food for a clientele that will never and fundamentally can never really appreciate what he does.

When John Leguizamo's character laughs about how bad a movie Calling Dr. Sunshine was, but says it was a fun shoot, only for Slowik to single it out as the reason for his disgust. The joke isn't just that he's being unreasonably petty, it's that question of what the point of it all is. Is being a filmstar about having fun on set, and making silly behind the scenes stories, or is it about making an enjoyable film?

(and what is the love of funny behind the scene anecdotes, of special features, and "making of..."s and actor interviews, if not exactly Tyler's fanboyish demystification of an art? You learn and memorize and regurgitate all the little factoids about the thing you've consumed in its aftermath; you bury it in trivia without having spent the time with what it actually was.)

Is being a chef about self gratification as an artist/craftsman, or is it about making an enjoyable meal? Is being a sex worker about sex being mutually intimately enjoyable, or is it about satisfying one person's specific need?

When someone becomes a film director, are they obligated to be a good one? Does being a good director mean winning awards? Does being a good director mean being self serious as an artist? Does being a good director mean having a message? Does it mean making films that are intellectual, and challenging to the detriment of basic watchability? Do the people who arbitrate what makes "good" film even care about watchability? Can a film be both "art" and "fun"?

The Menu is the answer to its own question. It's a well conceived, well written, well acted film with an all star cast, it's well shot, (mostly) well paced, and well constructed. Its visuals are pretty, and clean, geometric, and deliberate. It is in fact intellectual, it does in fact have a message BUT it is funny, it is at times very stupid, it is exciting and self indulgent and, if not for its high mechanical polish, at time bordering on thriller shlock. And that's the fucking point.

The question it puts to the audience, with the fullest possible context of why such a question should even be asked, is simple: For all your skill as a chef, can you even make just a simple satisfying cheeseburger? For all your skill as a director can you even make just a simple satisfying movie?

"I don't think you can..." Margot puts to Slowik, not as a legitimate challenge or doubt cast on his skill, but with the fullest understanding that all he wants, all he needs, is for someone to actually ask of him the one thing he actually wants to make. And The Menu is the cheeseburger; one, simple, good cheeseburger. Basic. Common. Satisfying. Yet made with the meticulous attention to detail and precision of a skilled, and indeed overqualified master artisan. It's a fun and well made thriller movie made for the sole and singular, self edifying purpose of proving that a movie can be both "good" and entertaining.

#the menu

[aggressive-almond-cookie]

I’ve been feeling a little weird lately and seeking comfort, so I decided to go replay splat2′s story mode.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, maybe briefly, but I didn’t play much of splat2 when it was active. I played a little bit of 1 when it came out, enough to fall in love with the concept but also enough to know it was for people much more mechanically skilled than me (a person who favored slow-paced sim games, turn-based RPGs, and point-and-click grindfests). I watched my housemate play 2 a bit but I couldn’t justify the purchase myself for something I figured I would terrible at. (I remember watching them play salmon run, and asking ‘wow, there’s a PvM co-op mode now?’ and thinking for a moment that maybe that would be less intimidating to learn, and then I saw a steel eel for the first time which was HORRIFIC, then watched them get completely swamped with with bosses and wipe, and decided .. no maybe not).

It was Splat3′s testfire, that I just so happened to hear about happening in a friends discord server, that happened to hit me at exactly the right time. I finally had a better job, was well on my way to healing from the trauma of my 11 years of working retail, and going through a bit of an inner renaissance, particularly getting in touch (possibly for the first time as an adult) with the true concept of play, the idea that playing didn’t have to have high stakes, that you don’t play to get a good grade in playing, you can just play to have fun and experience the thrill of intense situations in a setting where no actual danger is present.

I fell in love so quickly. I played the testfire every moment that I could and felt like I was finally, finally getting to enjoy this. In retrospect I was so bad at it-- I could barely swim up walls and I couldn’t even figure out how to use my special for the first several hours of gameplay and after trying out tons of weapons found that I was having the most luck using rollers and running over people (lol). But my skill level, for once, was something I wasn’t giving a single brain cell to worry about. I was just enjoying myself, celebrating every tiny victory and laughing at how many times I would just run off the map because I had so little spatial awareness. I won a 100x, I experienced my first squidparty, I did tricolors on attacking and felt intensely bonded with the random strangers I got partnered with. I was experiencing so many wonderful new things all at once and was absolutely euphoric.

And once the testfire was over, the emptiness it left behind left me so restless I thought I might start climbing walls. So to tide me over between then and release, I borrowed my housemate’s copy of splat2, figuring I could at least attempt story mode and learn the basics.

It was hard. Like really, really hard. I don’t... play these kinds of games. I could barely control where I was walking, I absolutely could not aim, I had zero confidence in jumping and missed even easy jumps routinely. I made it through by sheer stubbornness and force of will, running over and over through the same levels until I got lucky enough to get through them. Many levels I finished with a time of over half an hour, one at least 40 minutes, and that’s after lord knows how many failures. The last two kettles in the last zone nearly broke me. I actually cried tears of relief when I finally finished Platform Madhouse, shaking from the tension of making my final moves with the greatest precision and calculation that my clumsy and inexperienced hands could.

But... I did it, you know? And in doing so, I managed to prove to myself that I could do it-- that these kinds of games actually weren’t impossible for me, and that maybe, maybe I could overcome whatever other challenges awaited me in 3 and beyond, too.

Anyway, that’s way too much backstory to say that going back through the splat2 levels again was something of both a surreal and comforting experience. I went through them all in the span of a day, during a workday even, just playing in short intervals during breaks and lunchtime. Those last two kettles (minus octavio) were still the most difficult, but they didn’t take more than a few tries. It was satisfying to gracefully sail through so many of the levels that I struggled so painfully with less than a year ago. I’d say my confidence in making jumps has absolutely improved the most and is the thing I think has had the greatest impact on my ability to navigate the game-world in general.

I’ve been finally playing octo expansion too. A bit late maybe, but I think I had just really overhyped the difficulty in my mind and intimidated myself out of it. As it turns out, the main story is still very accessible, even to lower skill levels. You don’t have to actually complete most of the levels (or even play them) and even the points you pay to play you can go into debt with, so there’s never any real danger. You can skip levels after failing them enough times, so I think the only way you can actually get stuck might be the final segments. Granted, I’m still putting off going to the P R O M I S E D   L A N D until I have a long stretch of time for it (This is the same reason I still haven’t done After Alterna >>.., I just.. don’t have the sheer continuous amount of time to sit down and grind it out. I wish I could save states in these games so I don’t have to lose progress if I need to task-switch), so I might take this back, but so far that’s my impression.

And it’s been really enjoyable. I was happy to find there’s a ‘Who Caused The Big Bang’-style level that takes seconds to complete to make it easy to farm points (I keep wanting to call them power eggs when they’re not, lol). The levels on average are definitely more challenging than Alterna, but there are certainly several that I’d consider less challenging than Those Aren’t Birds and Target Town, and there are even some that Alterna practically made copies of (the one where you cut a shape out of boxes, for example).

That said, there have only been a few levels that I might say I breezed through-- they’re pretty challenging, but they don’t feel un-doable, and it’s so satisfying when you do overcome the challenges. It’s giving me an honest confidence boost to watch myself successfully take out a octosniper (my most feared enemy in my early days) with a charger (probably the weapon class I am weakest in) while balancing on a rotating platform (which were my absolute worst nightmare my first time going through splat2′s story mode). There’s still several levels I have to clear and some I haven’t even unlocked, but since they’re not keeping me from finishing the main storyline, I feel like I can just complete them as I feel up to it and there’s no reason to rush or get frustrated.

I love the levels where you just... play anarchy modes against octolings. Especially the one where you play rainmaker on manta maria-- tetras is a weapon option for that one and it’s quickly becoming one of my comfort levels in addition to just being good practice for firing the rainmaker. And I just love the entire vibe of everything-- much like Alterna there’s so much to see if you stop and look around, so many childhood-items floating in the sky, mixed with the music that gives me those vaporwave-esque feelings of nostalgia mixed with melancholy mixed with a feeling that’s somehow equally comforting and unsettling. And all that woven into these... weirdly juxtaposed grimdark/horror elements expressed with clown-like lightheartedness. It’s just a masterpiece of a setting and I’m so so glad I got the nerve to play this.

Splat2 in general has just been kind of a fun thing to mess around in with friends when we feel like a change of pace. Sometimes we do salmon run which is kind of awful without egg throws or squid-rolls, but we’re so low-rank that it’s still just kind of a chill experience.

I wouldn’t say I’m on a break from Splat3 anarchy because I keep intending to play it, and I know I’ll have fun with it, but then I get set up and sit down to do it and end up playing octo expansion instead. I think I may have low-key intimidated myself out of getting back into anarchy since I fell out of practice when I was out of town again; it feels like it takes me so long to get back into the swing of it and I take my losses a bit harder than I should. I tell myself octo expansion is good practice, and that’s not entirely untrue, but deep down I do know that the only thing that’s going to get me over my hesitance to play anarchy is playing anarchy.

But I guess at least if I’m going to put off addressing something I’m intimidated by, I’m glad I’m doing so by addressing something else I was previously intimidated by.

I’m really looking forward to Side Order now, especially since now I have the confidence that I’ll actually get to enjoy it along with everyone else and not get bogged down or walled off by being unable to complete basic things. I just feel a lot more capable, and it’s nice.

#loooong sorry #this ended up being mostly rambling about octo expansion lol #aiko plays squid games #splatoon

[birdantlers]

Character bingo: Majin Buu? :D

I had to look up the Wikipedia for the basic plot of this arc I watched only a couple months lol. Kind of sets the vibe for this doesn't it—

I am so disappointed in how his entire.. presence? was handled from beginning to end lmao. That is to say I dislike Buu's arc (character, not saga) as a whole rather than as individual segments. For example, I really really liked when he and Hercule/other miscellaneous people were interacting while he was in his first form. I could talk forever about the general ... Weird vibe of the Buu saga starting around the middle of the World Tournament, but I'm going to stick to Buu's character for sake of time. Both my thoughts on canon and what I personally would have done otherwise

Extremely long elaboration and actual chart below cut

For example, I groaned when I first realized we were getting a Hercule-centric B plot (C plot? E? F?? Who's even keeping track with this saga smh.. my god), but it ended up being one of my favorite parts of the arc. It genuinely felt like both characters gained a level of dimension just.. interacting without immediate ulterior motives; something that DBZ severely lacks imo.

It felt like they were really progressing somewhere, and I was genuinely surprised when Bee got shot. (Though I think reviving her weakened the moment, and something like Buu accepting it and moving on could still have been pulled off. Also I have a hard time believing a tiny dog shot through the center of its body with a whole ass hunting rifle would still be alive 5 minutes later, but that's kinda nitpicky)

The following fragile return to peace is really good and creates a lot of tension; an emotion that is constant throughout the Buu arc but is less apparent in some parts than others. This would be one of the more cerebral moments of suspense to me; you want things to be okay—for Buu to actually be redeemed, but not only does everyone else not know his change of tune yet, but there's also the hindbrain knowledge that it can't last.

It's clear this isn't a sustainable way to live, and while Buu is happy, that doesn't mean he's matured any to maintain himself. It genuinely is good stuff and I wish it could have maintained that energy throughout the arc.

The emergence of evil Buu (the grey one) and his eating og Buu to become super Buu was good. It was a simple idea, evil Buu is a cool visual foil to good Buu, and he doesn't overstay his welcome. It's an interesting mechanic for a transformation to use a literal physical manefestation of the character's changing mental state to do so. I liked it.

However. After the transformation happens and he turns into super Buu, THAT👏 IS👏 WHERE👏 IT👏 SHOULD👏 HAVE👏 STOPPED👏

People say super Buu was a bad or uninteresting villain—and while he definitely wasn't as charismatic as the goliath faves of DBZ like Vegeta or Frieza (or Cell imo), he was definitely very interesting to me. At least, for a brief time. He still felt like the Buu from before (unlike later transformations), but now pure id stripped of any innocence or superego. Not to reference Freud i'm sorry 🤢

If Buu was impulsive and flippant like a child, then Super Buu's presentation of those same traits is more like a wild animal—particularly when he attacks the Lookout.

This scene is another example of suspense done well in this arc. I especially like that Piccolo is the one who bargains with Buu and tries to stall for time (pour one out for his sanity). At this point in canon, they're pretty much opposites, and it showcases Buu's instability and opportunism as a core component of what makes him dangerous, rather than power and skill alone; like in, say, the Frieza arc.

Piccolo is probably the most calculative Z fighter even if he's not even the third or fourth strongest at this point. He's smart, but that's way less effective here than it normally would be. Buu isn't exactly sharp, but in this case that makes him more dangerous instead of less. If you try to reason with an angry boar, chances are that's not going to help.

This is nothing new in stories by any means, but as far as DBZ goes, it felt fresh to me. Every other villain either is a genius, thinks they're a genius and thus runs their mouth, or something in between. That's not bad, but it made me more interested in Buu in contrast. He's an agent of pure chaos, and that can make for a good villain if done right.

There is one thing I really wish that they had done with Super Buu in addition to keeping him in that form, and that would be to make him not talk at all. The crazed discordant screaming works, I guess, but when he starts talking normally throughout the exchange and beyond, it kind of breaks the immersion for me. There are glimmers of that—like when he silently walks the rim of the Lookout to size up and kill everyone on Earth. I just wish they leaned into that instead of middling between one or the other.

Idk, I just think it would have been really cool to emphasize his unpredictability and wildness by having him be silent. Could also be more immersive bc the audience would be trying to figure him out while the characters do the same. If you did it right, I think it could move him into the creepy category even.

But alas, this one compelling bit can't last forever. and then, uuuuuuugghghghgh the transformations start..

Look. As interesting as a villain that absorbs and characters' personalities/knowledge is, it automatically creates two big problems if not done well:

You can't get attached to or learn very much about the villain in the brief time before they change again

Their personality as an individual gets muddied in the process so they lose their identity or most of it.

Not to mention we already got Cell, who was an amalgamation of everyone. Not exactly the same, but similar. Transformed Buu (?) also feels a lottt like a Cell rehash after absorbing piccolo and goku. Imo, that's when he becomes insufferably boring. You've already had this character go through like.. three different archetypes. At some point, rule of cool starts looking a lot more like excessive clutter that loses all meaning.

And I don't get Kid Buu at all. Tf do you mean Kid Buu,, he already acted like a kid. I get that there was that contrivance of him coming out of the cocoon wrong, but that could have easily been written around. He just feels like a zanier super Buu, and at that point the story had already been going for so fucking long that I don't remember a thing about him. I still haven't finished the fight, even.

So what's the alternative? What's that?? A tightly written arc with less contrived bullshit bloating it? Yes please. God, yes please.

That's really the core of why i just scribbled the chart there. I really don't know. i haven't seen the last three or four dbz episodes out of pure just. not wanting to be done yet haha, and while some parts of his arc are cool, the rest just feels like a contradictory, mishandled mess. He's one of the biggest problems about this arc that's already ridiculously long, and if a dbz arc doesn't have a good villain (you know just. the literal namesake of all the arcs no biggie), then you're kind of in trouble.

Overall, Majin Buu is a clusterfuck. This arc is a clusterfuck. That doesn't mean I totally hate it, but god I don't know what they were thinking. Maybe I'll make a video essay on it someday, I know many people have but honestly. It feels like the characters are older, but sadly the story does not seem to have grown with it.

Buu disappoints me, both the arc and the character. Both are the definition of quality over quantity, and by god there is so much quantity. I feel like Toriyama felt like this arc/threat had to be the Biggest and therefore Most Full Of Stuff, but in doing that it just spreads everything so thin it feels mid and grueling. And I find it really disappointing that the last DBZ arc is the worst one.

But I guess here's my serious attempt at a bingo board:

Also all of this was pointless bc this arc should have actually stayed focused on Gohan and been more character driven and we should have had Majin Piccolo at some point if Buu was even the big bad in the first place. fight my ass.

#dbz #dragon ball z #dragon ball #dragon ball super #character study #my writing #majin buu #buu #kid buu #buu arc #ask

[otakween]

Digimon World: Digital Card Battle (1999) - 6 hours in

Back to the PSX for another Japan-only game! I'm already in love with this one. Not only do I get to revisit the super charming Digimon World 1 world, but this time around the gameplay isn't batshit and the writing is coherent. Hurray! So far, the Japanese has been pretty easy and the card game was easy to pickup, so I'm feeling optimistic about getting through this one without much difficulty.

This is definitely going to take me longer than the v-pet style games I've been playing, but I'm actually kind of relieved to have one game I can stick with for awhile. Learning a new game's mechanics every week can get tiring.

Notes:

-That opening CG was pretty rough looking not gonna lie. Greymon looked okay, but they had not perfected furry characters yet in 1999

-Very confusing how this game fits into Digimon World 1. This time we get Babamon instead of Jijimon, but Mameo's still the protagonist. I like to think this is an alternate, wholesome timeline where everything's the same but there's no violence, just card games lol. It's kind of a cool extension of the other game because in DW1 you could buy trading cards (I had to collect them all to get a medal), but they didn't really serve a purpose other than maybe to sell them.

-Babamon's intro was weirdly meta. She asks you for your IRL name and then is like "well, no matter what you really look like, you're gonna be piloting this anime boy for awhile." And then you name Mameo. Like wut? Is my real name every going to be used?? Oh well...

-I picked the "balanced" starter deck, mostly because I didn't really understand the descriptions for the other ones lol. I think one was good at offense and the other was good at defense? Reminded me of Kingdom Hearts when they ask you to choose between magic, defense, and attack power.

-I love the visual novel-esque style of this game! Mameo's character portrait is very expressive and the digimon all have a lot of personality. It's similar to Animal Crossing where they have unique speech styles based on their species. It's super cute. I like how the child-levels are child-like (have messy handwriting, don't understand big concepts etc.).

-Very cool to revisit this setting in Japanese and in a stress-free way! I don't have to worry about my digimon pooping on the ground or being ambushed by a digimon that's too strong. Without these worries I can focus on appreciating the background art and music. I also really like that I have an overworld map now instead of having to walk everywhere (normally I like that kind of exploration, but not when I'm stressed about my digimon's needs).

-I am not an experienced TCG player at all. In fact, I think this is my first legit TCG-based video game. The Betamon tutorial was very gentle and well done which totally alleviated my worries. I like how simplistic the rules are and the card game has a good balance between luck and skill. Also, if you lose, the game doesn't penalize you much.

-I will say that battles last a very long time. I don't mind this, because they're fun, but I only really have stamina for two a day because of this. I think if I did any more than that I'd get burned out by the repetitiveness. I do like that some locations don't trigger any battles at all, so there's visual novel-like bits in-between to give you a break while still progressing.

-I can't find it on YouTube but the soundtrack that plays when the Goburimon bros show up was great, awesome comedic relief.

-Ran into some pretty obscure Japanese slang with the Goburimon telling me to "wash my ass" lol. Apparently it comes from the expression "wash your neck and wait" which insinuates "you better prepare your neck cuz I'm gonna decapitate you." So I guess "wash your ass" means like "prepare your ass cuz I'm about to beat it!" That's some creative smack talk there.

-From what I can tell, the plot is basically the same so far. The digimon are acting strange/have lost their memories due to "bug cards." The new thing is that I have to go find 7 "leaders" who have special cards that act as keys to Infinity Mountain. It sounds like those leaders are all familiar faces from DW1, so that's fun.

#digimon world digital card battle #digimon #PSX #gaming #digimon world #video games

[itsbenedict]

Haven't played the vidya since being a teenager but getting a family Switch for Christmas, top new and classic recs for kids (7 years old), family, couples (casual!), and me whose favorite was always Zelda games?

Ooh, I am delighted by the opportunity to put a vast and largely-useless body of knowledge to work. One set of game recs, coming right up:

For the kids:

Picking out games for kids 7 and under is tricky, because kids tend to be bad at video games at first. I don't know what kind of experience your kids have (is this their first game console? have they played a lot of games on computers or mobile devices before?), but I'll assume they're fairly green.

My top rec is going to be New Pokémon Snap, for a lot of reasons.

First, it's pretty easy to control. Each course is mostly on-rails, with the player inside an autopiloted vehicle that moves forward and navigates the course by itself. The player only has to worry about controlling the camera, which can help acclimate a kid without much experience with joystick controls to the idea.

Second, which may or may not matter to you, it's nonviolent. Sometimes the wild pokemon will get in altercations with each other, but the player never gets attacked. Super G-rated squeaky-clean.

Third, the courses are fairly short- they range from 5 to 10 minutes long, and have decisive and natural stopping points at the end. If you're planning to have any rules or restrictions on playtime, or need to regulate whose turn it is with the Switch, this is a godsend. (As a parent who's introducing a video game console to a household with multiple children, you will presumably need to be ready for trouble with sharing and appreciate any assistance the game can provide.)

Lastly- the original Pokémon Snap for N64 was my first videogame, which I got when I was 5, and I am biased would love to share that experience with a new generation.

After that... any Kirby game is probably a good option. Those games are actively made for little kids, being very easy and designed to acclimate new players to controls and concepts ubiquitous in other games. Kirby Star Allies I haven't personally played, but it's well-reviewed, looks like every other Kirby game I've played, and has 4-player local co-op- it's a pretty safe bet.

There's a couple mainline Pokémon games on the Switch, too- Pokémon as a series is pretty good for kids, thanks to the turn-based battle system with deep but approachable mechanics. Sword and Shield (one of the two, they're basically identical, Nintendo still haven't given up on that two-versions sales gimmick) aren't my favorite entries in the series but the baseline is pretty high. (There's also Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, which I haven't really looked at, which might be simpler and better for kids?) Turn-based battles are good for kids who maybe don't have the kind of reflexes or hand-eye coordination for real-time combat systems yet.

Another angle on that- it doesn't matter if kids are kind of bad at video games if their opponent is on the same level, so there's PvP type games like Super Smash Bros Ultimate or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe which, although pretty difficult and skill-intensive against CPU opponents, have simple enough basic controls that they'll be fun for the two of them going at each other, not worrying about all the advanced stuff.

For family:

I assume you mean, like, for the whole family to play together? Kirby, Smash Bros, and Mario Kart all fit that bill, for sure.

There's also Snipperclips, which is this adorable little physics puzzle-platformer where you play as... these two little walking archway-shaped thingies, except they can overlap their bodies with each other and clip each other into different shapes, which they can then use to solve puzzles. It's only two-player co-op, but it's a good one for parents to play with kids.

Also I hear Ring Fit Adventure is good, though I haven't tried it myself- it's a motion-controlled workout game that requires a peripheral device, except the exercises and stuff you do with the ring are, like, the way you attack and cast spells and defend yourself in a turn-based RPG. I don't think it's co-op at all but it's not a bad one to have around if you want to tire someone out before bed keep the kids active and healthy.

For couples:

This one's tricky, since I do not know your wife or her taste in video games, but- any of the aforementioned multiplayer family games work fine in two-player.

The game that always comes up when people talk about games for couples is It Takes Two, which is a mandatory two-player co-op game about... two terrible neglectful parents going through a messy divorce, who- when their daughter wishes on a magic book for them to stay together- get shrunk down to the size of toys and have to go on a wild Honey I Shrunk The Kids-style adventure through the house to get back to normal. By all accounts it's beautiful, extremely well-designed, and fun- but features a lot of very weird, dark, and questionable writing decisions which make it... probably not something to play around the kids. They announced literally today that it'd be getting a Switch release on November 4th.

Oh, but- hey, you haven't played any videogames since you were a teenager, so you probably haven't already experienced...

Portal 2- included in the Portal Companion Collection on Switch- has a fantastic co-op mode. I'm sure you've heard of Portal via all the memes about the cake being a lie, but there's a reason it's so beloved and influential. Basic premise is- you have a gun that shoots portals, and you have to use it to solve physics puzzles while a passive-aggressive robot heckles and/or threatens you over the PA system. Portal 2's co-op mode is continuity-free, available from the start, and features two players each with their own set of portals, which makes for some pretty mind-blowing puzzles. (And the single-player of both games is more than worthwhile, too.)

For you:

Alright, so recommending games for people I don't know is challenging, but for someone I do know but whose taste in video games I don't, that's a horse of a different color. Just starting from what you've given me here- that you liked Zelda growing up- the obvious rec is Breath of the Wild.

Pretty much everyone besides the Ocarina of Time GOAT holdouts agrees that BotW is the best Zelda yet, though it's very different from the earlier games in the series- it's totally open-world, and does a lot with physics toys like bombs and a magnet beam and stuff. It's huge, there's tons to discover, and so much of it is designed to be open-ended and allow for multiple solutions without making puzzles trivial. It's just really impressive on a design level, and there's so much of it.

Zelda games are a lot of things to a lot of people, though, so it's hard to say what the active ingredient was for you back then without more info. If it was about the exploration, then yeah, BotW will scratch that itch for sure. The puzzle-solving stuff, BotW also has plenty of (albeit in these scattered, self-contained mini-dungeons instead of huge expansive temples.)

If you were more into the feel of the progression, getting new items that gradually expand your options and open up more of the world, I'd actually look at Hollow Knight- a pretty-difficult 2D metroidvania-type platformer with a lot of Zelda DNA, where you play as a little bug with a nail in a world full of other, mostly larger and scarier bugs.

But what are the best ones?

Outside of those specific criteria you gave me, there's a few Switch games that are a) too advanced for seven-year-olds, b) not multiplayer, and c) nothing like Zelda. But I'd be remiss if I didn't recommend them anyway, because they real good.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is the latest in the Ace Attorney series- and a reboot in a new continuity, so IMO it's the best jumping-on point. (The original trilogy is also on switch, but... this one's just better.) AA is a franchise of detective games where you play as a lawyer trying to get defendants acquitted of crimes they didn't commit, and so you've got to figure out what really happened by investigating crime scenes, cross-examining witnesses, and pointing out contradictions. TGAAC takes the series to early 20th-century London and gets Sherlock Holmes Herlock Sholmes involved, and it's just wildly entertaining from start to finish.

I remember mentioning Return of the Obra Dinn when you were looking for games for that volition study you were planning (did that end up happening?), but it's on Switch and I'd recommend it just to enjoy for yourself- you play as an insurance investigator whose job is to figure out exactly how everyone on a boat died, in order to figure out how much the insurance company has to pay out. You do so by finding corpses and then using a magic pocketwatch to go back in time to a frozen instant of the moment they died, inspecting the environment to figure out who's who and how they bit it from a limited number of snapshots of the incident. Really satisfying bit of deduction that'll consistently make you feel clever.

There's also a Pikmin game on Switch- Pikmin 3 Deluxe- which is a series I really enjoy. It's a... weird one to explain. You control a small squad of tiny astronauts who've crash-landed on an alien planet (not-so-secretly post-apocalyptic Earth), and are trying to reunite and repair their spaceship with the help of a small army of inexplicably-obedient ambulatory plant-creatures that decided to follow their orders. It's a weirdly compelling mix of time-management, action, strategy, puzzle-solving, and alternate-ecosystem worldbuilding. Not really comparable to anything else I've played, but really fun and fascinating. I'd recommend it for the kids if the controls weren't so weird and demanding of precision.

Also,

I don't recall if you played it when it came out for PC/Mac/Linux, but I have a game on there now! Partnered with a guy who does ports from the framework I built it in to bring it to Switch last month. It's this short little ~2 hour mystery thing, but people seem to like it and I'm pretty proud of it!

So yeah! There's probably some other good stuff I'm forgetting because I played them on other platforms, but hopefully this gives you some good options to pick from.

#game rec #shlevy

[garyfischy]

regardless of what mediums you wanna use how you wanna draw ever heres what you need to do

-if youre a cartoonist be very specific with anatomy studies. if youre gonna stick to really stylized cartoony shit then keep anatomy studying to just basic forms, joints etc and focus on figure drawing. id reccomend 'figure drawing methods for artists' but for fucks sake just go on youtube, watch a couple videos they all say the same thing anyways. as long as you're not getting blatantly incorrect info from a guy that doesn't actually know how things work and cuts corners. it's better to sweat and bleed learning how to draw basic forms like the torso and pelvis than do what i did (go through as many shortcut pinterest guides as possible, develop a flawed and stiff understanding of anatomy, use it as a crutch) .

but yeah figure drawing is useful because learning how to set characters up in different poses and composition are useful. for every cartoonist!

-2... i ran out of points to make. Think about artists you like, you don't even have to make long rambly analyses , just jot down why you like their art and what appeals about them to you. anything from that vintage mustang poster you saw the other day, to a 'fine art' artist you'd see in a museum to your favorite blog

3: study practically.

read artbooks, look at tutorials online, watch youtube tutorials from a variety of sources: but remember, regular practice is the goal here. don't get too hooked on watching tutorials or studying and just go outside and draw a little. try and apply those skills bit by bit.

4 here are my (amateur guy that draws online and isn't going to art school)'s random advice bits

supplies i think are a godsend no matter what: one really good pencil. doesn't matter what kind it is. i got fancy ones but in all honesty light or dark you just need one that feels comfortable to write and draw with. practice those artist grips! consciously think about lines: do i want thick or thin lines? and what can I do to change it? Are my lines unsteady? and am I unhappy with that? sure, then try a different grip, or see if a thicker, more bulky pencil works! but hey, i'm just some guy on the internet telling you to do things.

ironically, even as I wax poetic about how fun it is to collect wood/mechanical pencils, my favorite thing to draw with is a #2 pencil.

I could go on and on about art supplies and practical applications but all I can say is if you really like something, splurge on it and if you're not sure about it get cheap ones. It's not really about the subtle intricacies of each medium but if you even like it in the first place. Cheap vs expensive watercolors aren't gonna matter if you don't LIKE using watercolors.

..that being said I think color pencils are the exception to this as each brand varies in quality regardless of price.

here are some artbook reccomendations to finish off this jumbled, disjointed and haphazardly written post

-Sketching People by Lynne Chapman: I tend to lean towards the more practical when it comes to any advice. something that really boils down the way you do something and why to its core. This book is really good for that.

-Figure Drawing Methods for Artists by Peter Boerboom and Tim Proetel: it's a really fun exercise book.

-Space Drawing and Perspective by Superani: once again, practical, well translated , and really fun to do. Don't get superani's anatomy book though it's racist and pervy as fuck

-and so many more that I can't even list here. Just go to your local library and open up one of these babies, grab a sheet of paper, and just jot anything down that seems interesting to you. Capiche?

#im on fever medication right now because I am sadly once again sick so this might be incoherent #but this post is really just my contribution to the discourse around instagrammable marketable clean and palatable art and #expensive art supplies and confusion and #just in general a lot of online spaces have made artists feel like their art has to be super palatable all the time #so a lot of people forgo learning the bones and joints and MEAT of art #ie structure and foundational skills #in favor of getting a cleaner product out faster #so this is just kind of me ranting on my lawn chair about how I THINK is the right way to do it and git gud faster #dont rb #fish talks