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alex-the-nonsensologist · 7 months

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Disney Dreamland - Part 6: Discoveryland

Here it is, the final part! This area follows in the footsteps of Discoveryland in Paris, allowing more creative freedom than the traditional Tomorrowland. The land would be divided into two major “time periods”, one based on Victorian era / Belle Époque steampunk, and the other based on a high-tech modern day digital era that would evolve from said steampunk era. There would be a decent amount of greenery in the land, none of those lifeless metal tree sculptures. Trees could be in their natural form in the steampunk half, while in the modern day half they could be trimmed into neat geometric shapes.

Timeless Square

This area serves as the entry point from the hub. It is in-between the two major time periods of the land, bridging them. Would feature a detailed astronomical clock tower landmark.

“Discoveryland Thru the Years”: Successor to Carousel of Progress / Progressland, one of the four New York World’s Fair attractions. Tells the land’s “history” progression from the turn of the 20th century to the modern day, and ends with an optimistic hope for the future. I didn’t call it a carousel to avoid confusion with the other actual carousels I put in the park, but it is still a rotating theater.

Discoveryland PeopleMover: Successor to Ford Magic Skyway, one of the four New York World’s Fair attractions. A relaxing classic ride that weaves all throughout Discoveryland, including through various attraction buildings. The only challenge would be creating a vehicle that matches the aesthetics of both time periods of the land.

Discovery Academy

The steampunk-inspired half of the land. While the theming uses elements of British Victorian steampunk, the architecture would mostly be modeled after Art Nouveau / Belle Époque Paris. I want the vibe of the area to be similar to a college campus or museum, but a really fancy inviting one, not a cold imposing one. In the center of the building is the Automaton Courtyard, a garden courtyard to rest and relax, but also part-walkthrough attraction. Would feature lots of fancy automatons and 3D zoetropes that guests can activate. Includes:

Butai Karakuri theater: Performances by Japanese automatons.

Steampunk Carousel: In the center of the garden. Animals could be artistic sculptures made of metal and gears.

Gift shop that sells mini wind-up automaton toys, and features coin-activated booths for drawing automata that produce souvenir pictures.

This area also includes:

Escher Exhibit & Mathmagic Land: Walkthrough attraction inspired by the artwork of M. C. Escher, particularly the multi-dimensional maze of “Relativity”. Guests can also view optical illusion sculptures such as the Penrose triangle and the Impossible trident. Alternatively, I wouldn’t mind an attraction based on “Donald in Mathmagic Land” either. Giant numbers and “square root” trees would dominate the landscape. Interactive geometric shapes and puzzles.

Astronomical Orbiter: This indoor version features a planetarium ceiling that projects the stars and colorful galaxies so guests can actually feel like they’re flying through space. Diverting for both riders and guests still waiting in the queue. Inspired by the Chamber of Planets in Fortress Explorations from Tokyo DisneySea.

The Time Machine: Dark ride inspired by EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth. Travel through various time periods from the age of dinosaurs to the start of the Victorian era (so as not to conflict with the fictional history of the land).

Cafeteria: British, French, and Indian cuisine. Buffet.

“Paris Métro” station: As mentioned previously, this is probably not feasible idea, but I think it’s very neat. Provides underground transport between Discoveryland and Mysteryland (the Mysteryland is themed to the London Underground). The tunnels could contain zoetropes for guests to view during the ride, which tease the theme of the destination land.

Explorer’s Landing

Technically part of the Academy, but features attractions that are “off campus”. Inspired by the original concept of Discovery Mountain for Paris. Features a lagoon for the submarines, and a mountain range for the other rides to blend into; would somewhat resemble the Mysterious Island from Tokyo DisneySea.

Soaring Skies / Weather Kites: Airships are a core part of steampunk, but I wasn’t sure where to put such a ride in my park that didn’t disrupt sightlines. I eventually settled on a version of Soaring. I love Tokyo’s iteration, but sadly, my version of the ride does without the fantasy aspects and GORGEOUS fantasy artwork, but the queue will still feature neat “history of flight” and weather exhibits. Ride vehicles would of course fit the steampunk aesthetic. Most important of all, I want the ride movie to focus on skyscapes and natural landscapes, not famous landmarks (I personally don’t mind the landmarks version, I think it was balanced out nicely with some nice landscapes, but now all the ride movies are the same which is boring). I want winding rivers through forest valleys, fluffy white clouds over mountain peaks with machines blowing clouds on the guests, golden sunsets over the sea, lightning storms with thunder and actual wind blowing and rain spraying the guests, and a starry night sky with a brilliant rainbow Aurora Borealis over a snowy tundra. The building exterior and queue could resemble a giant air zeppelin in an air hangar, similar to the Hyperion in Paris, based on the unbuilt Discovery Bay concept. In hindsight, this area probably has too many rides, so this attraction could also be moved to the Wild Western Frontier area in Adventureland, and be rethemed to environments of the American West, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific Northwest.

Journey to the Center of the Earth: I absolutely love Tokyo DisneySea’s version. It's one of the best rides out of Imagineering, but in my park, this would follow the original drop tower concept for Paris.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea / Expedition Atlantis: Suspension ride like the one in Tokyo DisneySea, with water filled windows that bubble to create the illusion of being underwater. Could either be another take on Jules Verne’s novel, or based on the Atlantis movie. Either one works.

The Nautilus underwater restaurant: Seafood dishes. Table service.

Lunar Mountain: Based on Paris’s original De la Terre à la Lune incarnation of Space Mountain. I love the idea of a giant cannon firing guests into space, and I especially love the cannon’s design with the classical illustrations of the sun and the moon on it. I also prefer the look of Paris’s more secure seats. I’ve only ridden Tokyo and Orlando’s versions, and as fun as they are, I always get an irrational gut feeling I’m going to be decapitated during the ride.

Journey to Treasure Planet / Journey to Mars: Omnimover dark ride. To sell the idea of blasting off into space, guests would ride in a “rocket elevator” prior to boarding, similar to the entry performance for the Space 220 Restaurant in EPCOT. Treasure Planet is another movie that deserves more recognition, but due to it taking place in another universe with its own separate world-building, I am also okay with this ride having an original story instead. Perhaps a trip to Mars with a secret civilization living under the planet’s surface. For reference, I’m thinking of something inspired by the Castle in the Stars graphic novel series by Alex Alice. The building facade could resemble an observatory.

“Planetarium restaurant”: Would feature international dishes not available in the Small World buffet. Table service. The Space 220 Restaurant was really neat (if a little overpriced), and I would love a steampunk version in my park.

Disney Dreamland Railroad Discoveryland station: Art Nouveau steampunk style.

Discovery Institute

The modern digital half of the land. Discoveryland opens a new campus dedicated to computer sciences. I do not want this area to look sterile like the current Tomorrowlands, though I might be okay with it resembling Shanghai’s version of Tomorrowland; I have heard their glass structures described as “organic” and I quite agree. I want the architecture of the area to be a believable evolution from the Art Nouveau steampunk, with the curves of Nouveau transforming into the curves of something resembling what Tokyo has planned for their renovation of Space Mountain.

Visions of Tomorrowland: Based on an idea I once had of a version of Tomorrowland that represents alternate timeline futures. This ride could show different “what if” scenes of different Discoverylands. There could be a main story featuring a scientist as our host, the inventor of a multiverse portal, showcasing his invention to guests, and along the way we run into alternate versions of the scientist from the other realities. One version could be a classic mad scientist from a dystopian world, bent on conquering other dimensions and exploiting their resources, and our host has to fight them off. I guess you could describe this as a much more immersive sci-fi version of the Jungle Cruise. While I would prefer this to be a ride, I guess it could also work as a stage show.

Adventure Thru Inner Space: I have heard nice things about this ride and would have loved to experience it. Shout-out to @disneylanddilettante.

Robot Showcase: Omnimover dark ride. This ride is basically just an excuse to show off high-quality animatronics. Animatronics for days! Could include Baymax, Wall-E, and Lil Bulb as cameos in the ride.

“Robot Cafe”: Based on the unbuilt concept for The Great Gonzo's Pandemonium Pizza Parlor. This restaurant would have robot animatronics deliver guests’ food by way of an overhead "train track" system.

Cyberspace Arcade

Technically an area within the Discovery Institute, but significantly different enough to require its own description. The entire area would be indoors. Guests are “digitally transported” into Cyberspace. For visual reference, I’m thinking of the concept art for the (maybe canceled?) Play! Pavilion at EPCOT, but without the Ralph Breaks the Internet branding (I LOVE Wreck-It Ralph, but the sequel not so much) and without all the Disney IP spam (I’m already putting in three movie based rides, so the IP quota has been met). I want the area to feel more like a representation of a private server, or at least a single website, instead of the broader Internet (the Internet is a very scary family-UNfriendly place). The "sky" would have cool graphic projections, similar to how Mamoru Hosoda visually portrayed the Internet in Summer Wars and Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! As for the three movie based rides, I want the explanation to be that the scientists wanted to be able to travel into their favorite video game worlds, and here is the result. The entrances to each attraction could look like a giant icon you can click on. There could also be an actual arcade area, for guests to just relax and chill. That area would feature actual working console games of Fix-It Felix Jr, Sugar Rush, and Hero’s Duty.

“Cyberspace Playground”: Guests can physically change the environment by interacting with it. If anyone has watched Infinity Train, think of something like the first episode’s Grid Car, but on a grander scale. Could utilize interactive projection mapping.

Videopolis: Stage for live entertainment and dance parties. Just an excuse to have a specific area dedicated to the 80s / 90s. …I just really miss the 90s, okay? I also think the retro music would add the perfect energy to the area.

Star Command Astro Blasters: I honestly just put this here to help balance queue wait times with the other two major rides, and to have at least one thing based on retro space aesthetics. Between this and Toy Story Mania, at least this has physical sets and is less rushed. There would still be plenty of kinetic energy on the ride (not at all like the embarrassingly lifeless and static Ant-Man and Wasp update in Hong Kong). I would only change the animatronic Buzz to at least have a real face though. And maybe at the end of the ride, everyone could get free stickers or postcards or some other physical reward so that it feels like the points earned meant something. I would also emphasize that the context here is Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, NOT Andy’s Buzz from Toy Story.

TRON Lightcycle Run: I have no personal attachment to Tron, but my friend @mewtwowarrior loves Tron, so this indoor coaster is included just for her. Shout-out to @pureimagineering for the idea of two different colored tracks that wind around each other in twists and turns as the two groups of guests race against each other. At the end of the ride, the unloading dock would flash the colors of the track that wins.

Sugar Rush Speedway: Wreck-It Ralph is my top favorite Disney movie. While the movie’s themes of mid-life crisis, rejection by society, and found family would be difficult to adapt into an attraction, this ride can at least embody the “love-letter to video games” aspect, and recreates one of the most visually stunning worlds Disney has ever designed. Sadly this ride makes no references to Ralph, King Candy/Turbo, or non-Princess Vanellope (which includes her glitch, hoodie outfit, and the kart she and Ralph made together), as those aspects are specific to the console in Litwak’s Arcade, and adding them to this ride would have sad implications that Mr. Litwak gave up his console and thereby separated the Sugar Rush characters from their community in Game Central. Alternatively, having the entire Arcade be themed as Litwak’s could fix that, but then would raise questions of why Mr. Litwak let a research team experiment on his games and interrupt his business. So it’s best that this Sugar Rush is a “generic” console to make things simple. That said, I have no issues if the candy shop makes reference to the movie’s events, or with having Ralph and Vanellope as walk around characters (we can say they’re visiting this Arcade via the Internet). When thinking about the queue, I considered it could wind through the candy box grandstands, so that guests that are still waiting for their ride could double as a cheering audience for the guests before them. The theme song by AKB48 would of course play on a loop. On the ride, guests would “race” through rich environments such as Gumball Gorge, Cherry Bomb Cakeway, the Frosty Rally ice cream mountains, and Diet Cola Mountain. To make it feel like a video game, there could be “power-ups” located throughout the ride. The guest that “claims” the power-up first (perhaps by pushing a timed button in their vehicles) gets the advantage. Power-ups can cause some karts to speed up or opponents slow down, or activate obstacles and surprises. Would it be a hazard to shoot “sprinkle” confetti at the guests? Alternatively, this ride could also possibly use virtual reality headsets to enhance the experience with visual effects and make the ride feel like even more of a game, as demonstrated by the Mario Kart ride at Universal Studios, a ride with gorgeous physical sets that is maximized by the VR (again, emphasizing that VR should not be a replacement for good physical sets and effects). The guest who wins the race could receive a free framed souvenir snapshot of their victory.

Finish Line Sweet Treats: Candy shop, bakery, and ice cream parlor. Based on Vanellope’s Sweets & Treats on the Disney Dream cruise ship. Guests could make their own kart cake at the Kart Bakery. Sundaes are served in trophy cups and replicas of Vanellope’s kart like the ones on the cruise ship. The Ralph-in-a-cupcake red velvet cupcake is a must. Would also feature a selection of Japanese sweets such as konpeito and mochi. Giant cotton candy like the kind you’d find in Harajuku.

Closing thoughts:

There was a lot I wanted to include, but couldn't think of solutions for, such as attractions based on Zootopia and Monsters Inc. But I'm quite happy with this end result. (I say this like it's actually being built, and not an elaborate daydream in my mind, lol.)

As you might have noticed, my park does not feature Marvel or Star Wars in any capacity. While there are some Marvel shows I like, I do not consider myself a Marvel fan, and I have little interest in Star Wars. And quite frankly, I think that visually, they clash horribly with most Disney aesthetics.

There are a lot of minor things I forgot to mention, like there would be plenty of benches and sitting areas with shade, plenty of restrooms, the food would have effort and quality put into it to be worth theme park prices, and backstage would have plenty of space and comfortable break rooms for Cast Members. Not related to the park itself, but I would also like to imagine the Cast Members here are paid and treated well, and have a good amount of free benefits, like park tickets and room and board for out-of-town residents and interns.

I realize that in order to accommodate everything I want, this park would have to be MASSIVE, at least the size of Shanghai Disneyland. I just like far too many things. I realize it would have been smarter to break off some parts for a second park, but I'm just too fond of the idea of having everything all in one place.

As I mentioned, I REALLY love carousels and could not resist putting so many themed carousels in my park. They might not be exciting rides, but I legitimately think they are GORGEOUS works of art that add perfect visual beauty and musical atmosphere.

Much like Walt's initial sentiment, I don't think my ideal park will stay this way forever. Who knows, in a few years I might update this. We'll see. Thanks for taking the time to read these. :)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The rest of the park:

World Galleria

Adventureland

Mysteryland

Fantasyland

Create-It-Land

#disney parks #disney dreamland #armchair imagineering #tomorrowland #discoveryland #wreck it ralph #the tomorrowland problem #theme park design

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extremelyputridfishbreath · 6 months

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hope you don't mind me asking, what's up with ncp?

bad writing quality, wasted my buddy @/selfawarecobalt's time by having him draw something for a party that (as of now) never got used and also didn't credit him for drawing the hydro hopper stampbook page, inaccurate mascots (but hey this was one of scrabble's direct influences so when you think about it it's actually Good /j), the flash client is extremely laggy and can be borderline unusable with how many ads it has, probably some other gripes im forgetting atm

buuut since i'm already complaining about ncp i might as well talk about cpl too in case anyone wants to know my deal with that, it's owner did not (at least by the time of this post i do not Know if it has happened since then) repay memorydatas/garianna, a former member of staff the 8 dollars and pizza he owed her, posturing themselves in a way that makes them look more official, ben worked on this game too and did Not get credited on the official site anywhere at any point while he worked on the game. also they have a habit of acting like they created features from the original game so...lol?

like this is from their latest post about their wayback (basically renamed anniversary party) and...bro. you didn't craft NOTHIN', every single wayback party room is not only official art but with waaaay worse quality for zero reason. like i cannot stress enough that the swfs are ON club penguin wiki for most parties, a lot of them didn't look so grainy and at the very least nothing from 2008-2009 looked this bad.

there's also the problem of pointless changes nobody asked for that don't suit the game and make things more difficult, and nothing is a better example than their new psa test. and like, hey. i fucking love the psa/epf, i always have loved the psa and epf even when i was playing the original game as a kid, almost every oc i post about (torrent, richter, rolly, gin, scrabble, blanche, sonata, etc) is either associated with the agencies as well, an agent or is their adversary because it's my favorite part of the game. i'm not against changing the quiz to keep it fresh. and if we got a entry exam like the epf's (before they replaced it with the new as3 HQ :( i really wish they made an actual new test for the epf after blackout, but whatever) that would've been really cool! or if they had more fun questions like say, "what would you do if a villain was in front of you RIGHT NOW!!!"

but like. let's look at the original quiz, taken from club penguin mountain's tutorial for it. as a refresher, your account needs to be 30 days old in order to become an agent on the original game and typically the average cpps that has the psa around sticks to that age restriction.

pretty straightforward because y'know, middle schoolers were the intended audience. maybe a little boring for new and old fans, but still understandable and pretty obvious what the answers are, regardless of if you remember them from playing as a kid or not. the only change is how you activate the quiz, because in the original game the ui was different (image below is from a walkthrough video from 2008)

meanwhile, with cpl... (as taken from cplcheats)

the original psa quiz was, like i said: straightforward. answer the questions correctly and boom: you're an agent! and if you get it wrong, that's okay- you can try again as many times as you want until you get it right.

the club penguin legacy psa quiz is going to alienate new and old players. it's not straight forward: you are presented with the code screen with no context as to why and no text prompt when it happens. you aren't going to puzzle this out without explicitly being told what to do: even if you found the boiler note by yourself, nobody is going to know to click the coffee stand note because it was never clickable in the original game. but activating the quiz at all all depends on you thinking to walk over to the changing booth...which players wouldnt typically do if theyre trying to become an agent. it's just a baffling choice. the code idea isn't bad, but it needs more context (ex: revamped quiz you do that gives you hints on where to find the paper slips before you enter the code).

#im not gonna talk about how using paige's expedition design and calling her a psa agent makes zero sense continuity wise #continuity errors that retroactively make nothing about the cpl psa storylines make logical sense. i will not talk about continuity errors #nobody but me cares about-#like yeah. club penguins (epf) timeline is kinda a mess but still.

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magnum-caelum · 11 months

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Arkinhan Streamer AU!

Arkinhan Squad : AKJA League (? in the works)

Kaia: - Streamer Name: WaMoonie (Wammie) - Likes simulation games she can play with her friends (minecraft, stardew) - FPS are her guilty pleasure;; her viewers get a little FPS streams as a treat<3 - Refuses to do horror games unless Kayron is in the same room as her

Kayron: - Streamer Name: Crescence (or Cres. Originally was supposed to be "Crescent" but he wanted to make it fancy) - Has the best "Just Chatting" streams. Man's so fun. - Likes puzzle games, will play FPS occasionally (he just kinda forgets they exist) and he's insanely good, despite rarely playing

Akyri: - Streamer Name: Aki - Almost exclusively does FPS, then discovers gacha games (Genshin) and then her content totally switches for like six months straight - The type to whisper-scream playing scary games - Gets shy doing non-gaming streams but appears a lot in her friends' non-gaming streams

Jalecxia - Streamer Name: Anjellic (Jelly) - Plays a lot of Overwatch, says it "calms them down" - Mains Widowmaker and Ana (looooves the snipers. and is good at playing them too) - Fans refer to something called the "Jelly Effect": everyone has some sort of crush on them

Onika - Streamer Name: ArtsyOni - Does a lot of art streams and just chatting streams. People love her personality. - Gets convinced to do horror games. Falls for it every time, is in a love-hate relationship with the adrenaline rushes. (her reactions are really fun though)

Aeon - Streamer Name: Naeo (his name but rearranged. really doesn't care) - He's pretty quiet but does scream whenever he gets scared (whether its an FPS or actual horror game) - Lots of plants in the backgrounds of his streams, does tutorials on how to care for them - Doesn't solo queue, likes playing simulation games with Kaia

Asterion - Streamer Name: Novaaa (Nova and Novaa were taken) - Has pretty quiet, aesthetic streams for the most part. Lots of crafts and talking/singing, vlogging - Study streams, dabbled in tarot reading/divinations for a small bit then ended up not really doing them on stream - Gets dragged into playing horror games with the rest of the gang - Hates it, but loves them, so he does it

NIRAS TRIO : SCF (Sword Crown Flame)

Exali: - Streamer Name: Blade - Loves 5v5 games. League, Val, OW, you name it, she plays it - Is really good at them too. Has a chaotic but fun/genuine energy. Her and Yunitan are an unstoppable duo when playing games - Also likes reacting to music videos. She's always simping for someone onscreen

Adazan: - Streamer Name: Quilpobu (Pobu) - Study streams! He gives the best tips and walkthroughs. Is carrying half the populations' GPA. (think khan academy, organic chemistry teacher type beat) - Does play games occasionally tho. Sucks. But it's so fun to watch him do his best. (Xyria and Yunitan: "ZANNA PICK UP THE GUN. WALK OVER IT AND PRESS F" Adazan, voice rising: "WHERE AM I?? WHA- WHY DID IT JUST SAY I'M THE LAST PLAYER ALIVE?? XYRIA YOU PROMISED I WOULDN'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING") - Does cooking videos too

Yutan: - Streamer Name: Tantan - Games. Reacting to games, playing games. He does a lot of new game reviews, has definitely helped out more than a few indie game designers - Is known for being super kindhearted. - Appears in a lot of his siblings' streams. Just him walking back and forth in the background, making faces at the camera, etcetc. - Doesn't really do non-gaming streams but everyone begs him to do a just chatting stream one day

#> arkinhan streamer au

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manonamora-if-reviews · 11 months

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The Familiar by Groggydog

============= Links

Play the game See other reviews of the game Read the walkthrough Read the post-mortem See other games by Groggydog or follow @groggydog

============= Synopsis

You are a witch's crow familiar, headstrong as anything but still young and untested. What starts as a normal day soon takes a harrowing turn when your pacific caretaker, Valmai, is struck down by a terrible hex of mysterious origin. Now it's up to you, little bird, to cure your caretaker and discover the hex's source. Are you up for the task?

============= Other Info

The Familiar is an Adventuron parser-choice hybrid, submitted to the 2023 Edition of the SpringThing. This game was designed for beginners in parsers. I alpha/beta tested this game.

Status: Completed Genre: Puzzle, Fantasy, Parser

CW: / Note: some animal violence (by other animals), illnesses and death

============= Playthrough

First Played: Alpha+Beta Tester Last Played: During the SpringThing Festival Playtime: around 2 good hours (I am slow) Rating: 5 /5 Thoughts: Save the damsel in distress illness, but you're a crow.

============= Review

The Familiar follows Fran, a familiar in the form of a crow, as she embarks on a quest to save her witch mistress who has succumb to an illness. Through a series of puzzles and exploration, Fran uncovers a secret plot and fights for her mistress's life.

Spoilers ahead. It is recommended to play the game first. The review is based on my understanding/reading of the story.

I am a sucker for a good simple puzzle and a cute story, and this is no wonder this game made it to my top list of the SpringThing this year (well, it was already a favourite of mine while I was testing it). From its clean and simple aesthetic, the gorgeous pixel art for each "room", to its delightful characters, The Familiar is such a well rounded game.

Obviously, playing as a crow, you are limited in your abilities to help your bedridden mistress (it is a magical wonder you can get her a blanket). Still, the puzzles are constructed in a way that would be doable for a crow to solve (and you a smart little one). Cawing your way into town to get attention, pecking people to move them out of the way, or picking up and dropping objects in the right place, you manage to acquire all needed ingredients to save the witch.

And you are not alone in the process. Meeting first Hazel, a mouse familiar whose master perished not long before the game, who will tend to your mistress while you fly to fetch the ingredients (turns out, it's not the flu but a curse, whomps...). Then a trio of NPCs in town: Miroger, who's bother has died, Cecile, who needs help writing and sending a letter to her lover, and Frederik, who knows a good deal when he sees one. Each helps you getting one ingredient in exchange for a small favour. Finally, the evil wizzard's owl coming at the 11th hour to stop Fran.

But how does it end then? With a happy ending, for course! This is still a feel good story at the end of the day, one that makes you feel satisfied when the ending screen comes around. The day is saved, the mistress is healed, and you made some friends along the way.

What I really appreciated from it was how inclusive the game was for beginners (or terrible parser player like me), as you are limited to 5 verbs (TAKE, DROP, LOOK, PECK, CAW), there is an available tutorial to teach you the controls, and a thorough walkthrough is included in case one is stuck.

I wanted to give a special shoutout to the artwork, considering how long it took to make 30+ pixel art headers, many of those heavily detailed. Those truly gorgeous small pieces of art enhance the atmosphere of the setting, from the cozy home, to the luscious forest, and the different and vibrant parts of the industrialised city. If it all felt like a pixelized version of a Ghibli movie, that was on purpose (the author confirmed the reference).

Anyway, I'm going back to fly after that darn letter...

#The Familiar #Groggydog #review #adventuron game #complete #interactive fiction #SpringThing #2023 #fantasy #puzzle #parser-hybrid #other

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scorndotexe · 1 year

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☕: Scorn?

oh you wanna hear me talk about scorn? i'll talk about scorn (mild spoiler warning)

scorn is a fucking incredible game. the visuals and art design are gorgeous and exactly my level of fucked up. absolutely astounding visuals. while i love indie games and don't think games need to have good graphics to be good games, it's certainly something to see such a disgusting (complimentary) world in such high quality. nearly everyone agrees on this and the ones who don't just call people freaks for liking it.

everyone blows the "combat issues" out of proportion. sure, i can see how it would be bad if you had to fight all the time, but the thing is you don't have to. it's discouraged. in my opinion, the first step is letting the creatures move out of the way while staying back a little. the second step, if the first one fails, is running away. the last resort is fighting, and often it fails. i briefly got pretty good at the combat before realizing i could just run away from most of the creatures.

but less than smooth combat is a staple of survival horror! while scorn may not be traditional survival horror, it does have some of those elements (just as it has some puzzle elements without being a full on puzzle game).

the puzzles were fine. i'm gonna be honest i looked up walkthroughs for most of them because i'm terrible at puzzles in games despite thinking the genre can be amazing but i didn't feel like it detracted from my experience. however, that doesn't mean that i would have preferred an absence of puzzles. i enjoyed their presence and didn't mind them, though in some cases they could have been better integrated into the world. but that's not a major complaint.

i do think the boss battle is definitely the weakest part of the whole thing. it was a little too long for my taste and the fact that i had to do it, albeit a shorter version, again was annoying. however, it made up for it quickly with some wonderful body horror and narrative. the last few moments of the game were some of the strongest.

speaking of the narrative, holy shit. scorn is so different to every other game you can find, and the way the narrative is presented is no different in that regard. i thoroughly enjoyed it. the wordless storytelling was such a breath of fresh air. too many games these days (and older ones too--thinking of you, alan wake) overexplain every single aspect. it was wonderful to have a game tell you nothing and show you everything you need to be shown. i don't think every game needs to be wordless, and despite my near-constant bitching about cinematic games (and fucking david cage), i don't have a major problem with cinematic games. i do think some just want to be films and don't do enough to be games except drag the story on further than you want them to, but cinematic games are. fine. games with words are also great, you can't just separate "games with words" into its own category. but there's something to be said about how scorn presents itself to you. there's something to be said about how it's on you to observe and interpret and figure things out. a lot of games don't want you to figure them out. they want you to follow the objective markers and watch the next cutscene. it gets tiring, and i don't even play that many games like that nowadays. scorn uses its medium to its advantage.

people have said it's a walking simulator. (bizarrely they've also said the combat was added to stop people calling it a walking simulator. cause that makes sense.) it is not a walking simulator. it has puzzles. it has combat. the story isn't happening at you, you're part of the story.

and personally i love the story. the dynamic between scornguy and the parasite is so compelling to me, and i do think the ending was perfect. the alternative would have felt much cheaper and unearned to me. and i do love tragedy.

lastly, i don't understand how people actually want a sequel or dlc. did you see that ending. did you understand the themes. what do you think they'll add?? a different ending if you pay 15.99? new guns for 9.99? the "loads of cut content" (there isn't that much--the artbook mostly shows concept art and there are two cut areas, only one of which was cut due to time and financial constraints) for 29.99, messing up the pacing entirely? because it's a well paced game, with a few exceptions.

it's not a perfect game, but which game is? and it's not my favorite game of all time or anything, but it's definitely a memorable experience. i wanna recommend it to people but also i know i shouldn't. please play scorn if you like weird fleshy games. pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease

#thank you for this #i've been wanting to talk about scorn #this is so long and not even that detailed #but i have a lot to say about scorn #scorn #asks

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syrupwit · 1 year

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I've been playing a bit of Grim Fandango. The puzzles, I couldn't hope to solve without a walkthrough; the writing, art, voice acting are incredible and Manny charmed me from his first scene

#games #grim fandango

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zscribez · 10 months

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update from my gaming marathon

played through gorogoa (my most recent purchase) today and it has very gorgeous art but very short unfortunately so i was able to complete it quick. puzzles weren’t too difficult but i did consult a walkthrough a few times when i got slightly stuck on some bits

continued my play of 2064 read only memories and honestly im surprised that game does not have a bigger fanbase, its worldbuilding and themes center trans and disabled experiences with gene splicing technology allowing for FURRIES

THERE’S A CHARACTER WHOSE CANCER TREATMENT LED TO HER BECOMING A CATGIRL

anyway, guess i’ll continue posting about 2064rom because it needs a bigger fanbase. it’s really well written and i got emotional just now at a very major plot reveal ;-;

also i met Gus and i love him now and im mad that there’s no option for me to flirt with him

#zee.txt #2064 read only memories #2064rom #still im surprised there's not more noise about this game #the retro graphics #UI and voice acting gives it a certain kind of charm #and again it's a refreshed take on tackling trans and disability themes within a sci-fi framework #it's a very queer game #im encouraging more people to check it out #it's a fun time

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iasmelaion · 11 months

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an assortment of my random thoughts about tears of the kingdom

No real story spoilers, because, real talk, I do not play these games for the story or the ~lore~. I am here to yeet my beautiful small son Link across the stunning landscapes of Hyrule, completing shrines, side quests, and murdering monsters at my whim. I will, perhaps, eventually get around to doing more of the main quests. First though, I must upgrade all my armor and get more hearts. So miss me with your 19481203 posts about the Zelda timeline, idgaf.

This game is so good in ways that are almost invisible until you realize how much work must have gone into making the experience so good and seamless. There’s so, so much freedom in the game--in terms of what order you can do things in, how you can solve puzzles, what play style you use at all, the things you can build with ultrahand, and of course the basic freedom of the map(s) themselves and how you can traverse them--and it’s not until you think about it that you realize how difficult it must be to design a game with this much freedom without breaking things left and right. An enormous part of the pleasure of this game, and to a lesser extent Breath of the Wild, is knowing you can just go off and do whatever, and the game will be like “cool, that’s valid!” or “hmm, interesting, I’ll allow it.” Sure, there are certain intended sequences or progressions, and there are ways to play the story parts in more narratively cohesive ways, but as the proliferation of challenge runs attests, you can also just do whatever whenever. It’s great, and I already know I’ve ruined myself for other games in this open world genre by playing BOTW and TOTK.

I like the new abilities in TOTK much more than the abilities in BOTW. (Though pour one out for remote bombs, that shit was useful.) The new abilities in TOTK all work together to help you solve problems in the game in multiple ways, allowing for both a lot more creativity and a lot more clever ways to be lazy. (recall elevator, my beloved) It’s super impressive, and it makes the game a lot more engaging than if there were only one or two intended solutions to any given problem.

Any more fiddly efforts with Ultrahand honestly make me motion sick (something about the way the camera moves plus the rotation, magnesis in BOTW caused me similar issues), so I’m probably never going to be building elaborate contraptions. Luckily for me, functional but hideous atrocities of Hyrule engineering are perfectly cromulent ways to get through the game.

I’ve done two temples so far (Wind and Fire), and looked up walkthroughs for both of them. Not because the puzzles are hard, but because lol my ability to get around in one of these things is tragically limited. I have an awful sense of direction and/or ability to navigate these temples, it was the same for me in BOTW. And like, in BOTW, do NOT ask me how long it took me to get my ass to Kakariko Village, it will only embarrass us both. So yeah, I look up walkthroughs just to spare myself the frustration of spending hours lost in the damn temple.

I also haven’t updated from 1.1.1 because I love me that duplication glitch. Like, listen. I would like to do SOME things other than play Zelda, and that means skipping some grinding for materials. It’s making the game much more fun for me, without breaking it entirely.

Little musical details I love: Link humming while he cooks! ADORABLE. Hestu’s little music and dance number every time he upgrades your inventory slot! Makes me smile every time, and made me lol in delight the first time! That music when you get yeeted out of a tower! Amazing and thrilling! Just in general, this is a very sonically pleasing game.

Also visually pleasing! I frankly don’t like photorealism in video games. Elden Ring looks hideous and unpleasant to me, Horizon Zero Dawn and Red Dead Redemption and the like edge awfully close to the Uncanny Valley, etc. I want more stylized, cartoonish art styles, and BOTW/TOTK is basically the ideal for me: painterly, gorgeous, and Ghibli-esque in the landscape, and pleasantly cartoony in the characters.

The act of exploring is still so rewarding in this game, even with a reused map.

LINK’S OUTFITS. I love dressing him up, and I super love the gender nonconforming vibes of it all. Unfortunately, I do go for best stats, armor-wise, and end up in the Twilight set most often now because I upgraded that to the max, but in my heart, Link is wearing that Frost armor set with the cute minidress with the back cutout all the time.

I built Link a house! It’s an architectural atrocity but oh well!

Was a bit of a steep learning curve, combat-wise, because I went in full of BOTW-arrogance, because I had, like, so many hearts and such good armor by the end of my playthrough there, and then you start off TOTK with none of that and suddenly red bokoblins are one-shotting you. Humbling. Should have remembered how thoroughly I failed the Master Sword trials. Definitely did remember that every time I died in the Proving Grounds shines.

Regained some combat arrogance though upon finding a way to cheese Lynels. I’m not sorry, even if this is definitely a glitch and not just the consequence of creative problem solving. Listen, I am simply never going to learn to flurry rush properly, so this is just going to have to do.

Anyway, this game is very good. Like, so good. I am going to spend all summer playing it and I’m going to have a blast.

#totk

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stonyponyofficial · 2 years

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i finished my portal series marathon that i started bc ive seen so many good posts about portal recently and i just have a few thoughts rn so here's my self indulgent post about them ;w;

i first played it when i was maybe 11 or 12, not the first one mind u, i jumped right into portal 2, and i didn't play the first one until now lol. back then my brain clearly wasn't done developing bc i had such a hard time with all the puzzles like i was absolutely looking up walkthroughs and let's plays at almost every room at a certain point. well partly bc i was 11 and had limited spacial reasoning and also partly bc i rented it through gamefly so i had to beat it really quickly and return it... but despite all that i still loved portal 2 as a kid like. i didn't used to express my liking for things through making art for it but after i played portal 2 i went and made my own companion cube by just like spray painting a cardboard box grey and white and gluing some heart shaped foam on it. i kept that thing for years and years and years it was so dear to me, god i wish i had pics of it. it was so sloppy but so earnest too. anyway when i first played 2, i liked the easter egg aspects a lot, like finding all the ratman rooms and secret scrawlings were soooo fun and compelling to me especially since i wasn't really invested in the story beyond getting to the end, but since ive only grown fonder and fonder of the series since i first played it, playing them both now makes me notice and appreciate soooo much that i just couldnt have back then and i love them even more. anyway thank u portal for literally always being there 🧡💙🎂

#portal #🧡💙🧡💙🧡💙🧡💙#violet originals

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sleepymarmot · 2 years

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Jedi: Fallen Order liveblog

Warning: there are a lot of complaints here. A lot. Seriously, I’m a glass half empty person, and I wrote down everything that annoyed me. I’ve done the first objectives on Zeffo and Kashyyyk, and I have no problems with what little of the story I’ve experienced, but I’m not happy with the gameplay-story balance and many things about the gameplay itself.

Anti shout-out to whoever packaged the game because 1) installing it took 45 minutes with my CPU loaded to 98-100% 2) it tried to restart my PC after installation. What the fuck? I guess if you can’t buy a game legally you have to pay with bullshit instead...

Would it have killed them to accompany the tutorial level with a, you know, actual tutorial?! I kind of figured you jump with the spacebar because it’s common across games, but I had to open a walkthrough to find out, after about 5-10 minutes of walking around and dying repeatedly, that there’s a rope somewhere in the dark (foolish me following the game’s advice on brightness settings) and you also jump onto it with the spacebar. Dropping down from the grates didn’t work with the specified key either, I had to mash the whole keyboard in blind rage until something finally worked. And then the game froze on the “lock target” tutorial, twice.

Am I or, for that matter, the other characters really supposed to believe that a normal, non-force sensitive person can perform all these feats of acrobatics?

Ideologically it’s very funny you’re supposed to replenish the force meter by attacking enemies. Are you sure I’m a light-sider?

Alright, the droid is super cute.

I am continuously amazed at how well-animated and expressive Cal is. (I’m so spoiled by good mocap in newer games; if the next DA game won’t have it I’m going to be disappointed.)

Once again, a tutorial that doesn’t fucking tell you what to do...

At first I had flashbacks to a certain planet from KOTOR, but now I’m more reminded of Inquisition (especially due to the art style) and Andromeda (the Vault, huh). Nothing new in video games...

Why would there be a list of force-sensitive children if the Jedi take infants as soon as their force sensitivity is discovered?

Oh cool, I can customize my lightsaber already!

God I must have done the jump with two ropes about 20 times... The one time I got to the other side I got immediately overpowered by the enemies. The second successful attempt was many reloads later. At least there's a save point right before it... Oh god this was so fucking stressful. I made a series of successful jumps and then failed some and then I had to walk a pretty long way with literally zero health and healing items knowing I’d have to redo it all, possibly several times... I was so relieved to get to the meditation point at last.

Sick of getting killed by these stupid rams. I’m switching to story mode.

Finally! I was getting sick at looking at these pushable objects and being unable to push them.

And here we go to Kashyyyk again, hunting down memories encoded in mysterious orbs. It’s as if I never left KOTOR. Diversity win: an ancient sage interred in this sarcophagus used they/them pronouns.

I managed to lock myself in a fucking tomb?? After a few minutes of panicked running around the small chamber and slashing at the bars, I reloaded and redid the last step of the puzzle before that, then watched a walkthrough. Apparently, the chamber was supposed to lock, because it’s actually an elevator, but in my case it didn’t seem to activate. (This part of my gameplay was sponsored by the Buried and Edgar Allan Poe. Legitimately triggered my normally nonexistent claustrophobia...)

I LOVE it when I try to wall run and instead I smash into the wall and am thrown into the abyss.

I had to read the walkthrough and backtrack from the crash. Why give me access to an area if I can’t explore it?

This planet took FOREVER. There’s way too much stuff and almost no plot. And after that hell, it’s very immersion-breaking to see Cal swagger onto the ship and casually chat with Cere. He should be falling onto the nearest surface and sleeping for 8 hours! Also, aren’t you all on the run from the empire, why aren’t you rushing to buckle up and escape into hyperspace?

I do not understand what the fuck I’m supposed to do.

Oh hi Saw Gerrera! I just saw you in a movie yesterday!

I see, it’s a “fuck the arachnophobes” planet.

The lack of the current quest objective on the HUD or at least somewhere in the menu hurts sometimes. Coming back to the game in the morning, I couldn’t remember what I was supposed to do next, and had to look it up in a walkthrough.

Fuck these double ropes and whoever designed them! After about 20 tries, several deaths and two videos I finally figured out that you need so swing not only forward but also backwards to achieve enough momentum, and even after that I needed several tries to actually execute it. Sometimes I couldn’t even grab onto the rope properly: jumping onto it didn’t work, and instead I jumped straight up and fell to my death. I couldn’t figure out by myself the puzzle with the propeller you need to activate either.

Had to go revenge-kill a security droid for the XP and then got to the roof for the surprisingly huge fight and had to take another one of those again -_- As usual, enemies that specialize in CC are infuriating. How dare you hold me in the air by the neck, you stupid Vader wannabe?!

My Inquisitor from DAI, now in third person! I had to listen to this random NPC’s voice for a few seconds before I figured out who it belonged to.

There’s another tomb? Another area of the same size on that godforsaken planet?

Omg, this cute critter is now mine? :O

The game wanted me to go onto the ice slide. I did it flawlessly on the first try. Then I walked in a dark corner, it turned out to be an elevator, and it brought me... back to where I started. I thought “well it’s an elevator, I’ll just get back down on it” but it didn’t work. I had to slide on the ice through spinning turbines again, and this time I fucked it up several times. Then I fell off a wall. Then I got killed by a ram. Rinse, repeat, get killed by the same ram again. Then I gave up on the XP and decided to get to the objective a different way. I tried to trek around the entire area I’ve already seen just to get to a place I’d already visited but couldn’t do shit because it became accessible before it became plot relevant. Then I realized that the way I got to the crash site seemed to be blocked now, wandered around for a long time looking to a way back, then discovered with the help of a video walkthrough that the only way out was to go forward through a ton of environmental obstacles like the damn pulverizers and the double ropes I complained about earlier, and make a giant loop... ending in the same place in the ice caves with the turbines, the elevator and the ram. So, lots of time wasted for nothing. Great game design, folks!

---

Alright, I reached the quest area and I'm going to pause there. It’ll be a few days until I can play again, so here are some of the impressions outside of what I wrote about in the liveblog:

Exploration: Way too much work for almost no reward. The more I play, the more frustrating the collectibles and echoes become. If 99% of unlocks are cosmetics, couldn’t you make them varied and interesting instead of recolors and tiny pieces of lightsaber decor you never see anyway? Echoes are so flavorless and empty it feels like the writers are afraid to step on the canon’s toes. As for the level design, see the numerous complaints above. I do like that the items and pathways are color-coded to indicate whether you can interact with them right now or not. I also like that, at least so far, there’s no pressing emergency “save the world”-type narrative that would conflict with the incentive to explore.

Mechanics: There is way too much parkour and, unlike combat, you can’t turn down the difficulty. Well, maybe “difficulty” is not the right word, because my real problem is how unreliable and unresponsive it often is. The difference between failure and success can be a split second or a camera angle, and you get no indication of what you did wrong. In combat, I keep attacking air even after turning the auto-targeting on. The skill tree doesn’t have much to be excited about. Unlike many other games, I don’t look forward to coming back to the game just so I could use a favorite combat skill of mine. Fus-ro-dah-ing enemies off of ledges is fun, but I can also do that in Skyrim or Mass Effect. I do enjoy that we can use the same skills on both in combat and on the environment. It’s good that the enemies aren’t health sponges, and that difficulty settings are about something other than HP numbers. I appreciate that respawning doesn’t undo your progress, but the lack of inability to make multiple manual saves makes me nervous: what if I get stuck, or what if my only save gets corrupted?

Story, progression and immersion: The story is hard to judge at this point because there’s been so little of it. At the beginning I was excited, but turns out, it was just an intro, and the main part of the game is 95% gameplay (which I’m not a fan of). I’m glad the PC isn’t immediately overpowered, but it’s immersion-breaking how he can dispatch trained anti-jedi troopers but has problems with wild animals, and especially how he takes so much time to remember and relearn the basic things he learned years ago. Seriously, it’s been so many hours and I still can’t pull things with the force! The writers also didn’t make even the slightest attempt to justify the respawn mechanic in-universe. The planets look more like playgrounds than real places; at some points stormtroopers yell something like “how did this guy get in here” and honestly I sympathize, but also, how do you get places, did you hang up all of this parkour equipment for yourself? At least for the first tomb they gave the excuse that it was something like a training ground. Another shadow hanging over everything is that during the OT there aren’t supposed to be any Jedi except Luke, so should I not get attached because all of these people are going to be dead within 15 years?

Overall, the game manages to remind me of half the games I’ve ever played even though I have not played anything from the genres it belongs to according to the internet. It feels more like Generic Video Game than like Star Wars, at least so far. When I think Star Wars, I don’t think “parkour and grinding for collectibles”, you know? I have problems with pretty much every aspect of game design; the older I get, the less patience I have with the games that fundamentally don’t respect the player’s time. When I looked up the playtime for this game, I assumed it would be much, much tighter. I don’t know how much time I’ve spent on it so far, but I doubt my playthrough is going to fit within the 17-30 hours that the internet described. People have called it “story-driven”! If 90% gameplay/10% story is story-driven then what counts as not story-driven, irl Lego?!

Still, I am not frustrated enough to quit. I look forward to exploring the next areas and experiencing the story by myself instead of relying on random youtubers. I’ve seen too many spoilers already, and I hope to encounter them in the actual game sooner than later.

#star wars #jfo #blah blah blah

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