Would you recommend the SSSS comic? I know little of it beside the very beautiful artstyle and premise
to answer the question of if i would recommend SSSS as a comic: yes, yes i would.
a description for those who don't know: Stand Still Stay Silent is a post-apocalyptic horror + adventure webcomic set in the nordics (norway, sweden, denmark, finland, iceland) that have been isolated from the rest of the world and gone back to their old gods. the the world outside of safe zones is full of trolls and beasts - humans and mammals that got infected by a horrible virus and turned into monsters. the story follows a ragtag crew that ventures into the old world (derelict denmark) on an expedition to collect books.
the comic updated every workday until it concluded in 2022, and consists of two Adventures. the creator had plans for many adventures with these characters in this world, but ended it after two when she wanted to take a new direction with her life.
what i love about it:
- the art is GORGEOUS. it's been a huge source of inspiration for me. open any page and it's a masterpiece, and you will ask yourself "how the FUCK did she update this FIVE DAYS A WEEK"
- the characters are wonderful and endearing. i just, i love them so much. i am so thankful lalli hotakainen exists he is one of my #1 blorbos forever
- the world is so cool. the blend of chunky sci-fi and norse mythology fantasy magic slaps. it goes so hard. i fell so hard for this comic when i got to the big ferry ship with a viking style dragon head prow added to it. it's everything
- it really really gets nordic cultures. it's difficult to explain all the dynamics and nuances but it just gets it. it brings me as a scandinavian a lot of joy to read a story that speaks to my heart this way. the attitudes, the language barriers, the cultural differences... it was so refreshing to me in a media landscape dominated by american stories. when the pandemic hit, i decided to reread the comic because i found such an odd comfort in seeing how it depicted the scandinavian countries reacting to, well, a pandemic.
- there's kittycats
what i don't like about it:
- the most glaring and obvious flaw is that everyone in the comic is white. there's not a single character of color anywhere, not even i background shots or the prologue. there's no mention of the saami people (the indigenous people of northern europe), either. i believe this was done in ignorance more than malicious intent, but the implications are Extremely Bad and it's been bothering me (AND MANY OTHERS) since day 1. that is the number one caveat i will give to anyone wanting to check this comic out. i've been in the discourse trenches and i am not going to excuse this. it's just bad!
- you can tell in the middle of adventure 2 that the creator has kind of lost interest in the work, around the time when she found jesus i guess. like, very few people can keep up work on the same creative project for years and years and years and i think it's fine that she wanted to drop it, but it's a bit sad to see the comic dragged to its end like a limp corpse, and feeling like the creator no longer really cares about the characters.
- minna sundberg has said and done some questionable things, presumably gotten somewhat radicalised over time, and has also converted to hardcore christianity which is what her new works are about. there's nothing about this in SSSS - there is a moment of christianity represented in the story in a sort of mythological sense, just like the other religions, but this was written before minna's conversion. her new works... are a Choice. i have much to say about them, and i have, and im not gonna rehash it now.
SO YEAH hopefully this will help you take an Informed Choice! i got into this comic in 2015 and was deep in the fandom and it's for better or for worse part of my soul foundation now.
i also recommend A Redtail's Dream, minna's "practice comic" before SSSS, based on finnish mythology and the kalevala.
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Revisiting Gakuen Handsome: Backstory + short review
I think every BL fan has seen something related to Gakuen Handsome at some point in their lives, it's a parody BL visual novel with quite the legacy. It was originally released in 2010 by Team YokkyuFuman and it also got its own OVA and anime adaptation in 2015 & 2016. The protagonist, who is an unnamed seventeen year old boy, moves back to the city after a seven year absence. He enrolls into Baramon High School, a prestigious all-boys school which takes pride in being the best of its prefecture. From now on, his life will be changed forever...
First of all, the developer team's backstory is probably one of the most unique ones. In 2008, eight film students from the Tohoku University of Art and Design formed Team YokkyuFuman (チーム欲求腐満). Their blog mentions that a year later, they attempted to submit the Gakuen Handsome opening movie to the 9th edition of the Niconico Film Festival (their submission was completely ignored). After that, the opening movie was uploaded on NicoNico Douga, where it was quite well received. The description of the video mentions “to be released in 20009”, as they originally probably had no intention to create a full game.
After it became a hot topic on NicoNico Douga, their university gave them permission to organize an official exhibition: Gakuen Handsome Matsuri (or just Gakuen Handsome Festival). Visitors could watch the opening movie, learn more about the characters and take pictures together with the life-sized cardboard cutouts. The exhibition also featured rare merch: A drama CD which would be released in "20009" and canned bread.
This exhibition was apparently not only held once, but many times according to their blog. The game was finally released in 2010 and many fans were happy to finally play it, supporting the team that created it. Togo Mito, who many of you know as the creator of (in)famous BL game Hadaka Shitsuji, also collaborated with them. These are some pictures I found on Togo Mito's old blog, Mizoguchi and Juro drawn by Togo Mito and the Hadaka Shitsuji cast drawn by Team YokkyuFuman.
Even after graduation, it seems like they would occasionally invite some of Gakuen Handsome's creators. In 2014, the university tweeted that they would not be able to host the exhibition that year due to renovations, but visitors could take pictures with the cardboard cutouts. There's also an interview from 2016 on the university's website, in which they talk about how things have been after graduation! I absolutely love how the university supported all of this.
Now about the game itself... Where to even start? You'll have to trust me, but the game is actually good. Many parody games can be quite a hit or miss, but this visual novel is something I still catch myself laughing at years later. The inconsistent art, pointy chins and strange jokes really create an experience unlike anything else. I don't think any commercial company would be able to create something like this, even if they tried. One detail that the anime adaptation doesn't really show is that many different artists worked on this, whose styles widely vary from each other, making absolutely no attempt to create one consistent artstyle. Most characters have at least 2 ~ 3 sprites that often look completely different from each other. For example, sometimes Saionji sensei looks like a clean-shaven teenager/young adult, but in the CGs he suddenly turn into an older looking man with a stubble.
Yes he's talking about eating paint in the screenshot above, why not. Anyway... the voice acting in this game is something else I wanted to talk about, because it adds so much to the game. Of course it's not professional, but I think that's what makes it amazing. You can sometimes hear the voice actors trying really hard not to laugh, and they will occasionally completely mess up their lines. Of course all of those lines are kept in the game and they didn't re-record them. I also loved it when they started swearing in English for seemingly no reason. Also, instead of just avoiding the name of the protagonist (who you can give any name you want) they pronounce it... by improvision. Just imagine how one would try to pronounce a "adfgdf" keysmash and you'll get an idea what it sounds like.
There are 6 characters in this game who you can romance. The protagonist's childhood friend Takuya, who is a bit obsessed with the protein bar Calorie Mate (which is censored in the new version of the game, so you just hear a BLEEP sound), outlaw teacher Saionji, school principal Juro who basically only functions as a save point, student council president Kagami, chuunibyou transfer student Shiga, and last but not least, the captain of the soccer team Mitsurugi, who also murders people with his chin sometimes. The protagonist's sister also has a (non-romantic) ending, which you need to play in order to unlock the extra scenario (which... is a ridiculous murder mystery story for some reason). I also could not find the guide I used a long time ago, so I just looked at some videos on NicoNico to see what others were doing and that worked pretty well...!
My favorite scene is probably still that one scene in Mitsurugi's route, in which he stabs people with his chin. It's also one of the scenes that gets referenced the most in fanart. The context makes it even more ridiculous, Mitsurugi gets really upset that some people like the chunky variant of red bean paste (tsubuan) and decides they should die. After stabbing his teammate and multiple other people he runs outside. The protagonist however, isn't safe either and also gets accused of being a "tsubuan supporter". If you survive though, you get a chance to marry Mitsurugi!
Honestly one of the reasons I wanted to write about this game is because many people only know the OVA and/or anime, but the game is so funny I think everyone should play it if they're interested. I also think the team behind it has such a funny backstory and I love seeing how supportive their university is. Right now the team is still active on their Twitter account and they sometimes create new content. Last year they released Gakuen Handsome Fighters, a short fighting game featuring the Gakuen Handsome characters.
If you are interested in purchasing it, I recommend getting the "Special" edition which can be purchased on DLsite! I couldn't find a working download link anymore of the older version, but I think the creators deserve the support, so I don't regret buying it (it was about 15 USD). It includes the original game and 5 shorter stories which were originally released as smartphone apps. While I think the original game is still the best one, it's fun to explore some of the extra scenarios as well. One of the shorter games takes place in an alternative universe in which the boys live in the Heian period, and for some reason some of the sprites are animated... yeah.
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Hello Miki!
I wanted to thank you for your artwork this year and for immediately getting back on that art grind after your term at uni.
You’re artwork has inspired me so much this year. Your cute, detailed, and clean artstyle captivated me. I seriously stalked your Twitter everyday because I was honestly addicted (😭). You kept me going, and when I felt down I would hop on my computer and look at what you created. Your collaborative canvases were also a blast, and I loved sketching with everyone! This sounds horribly stalkerish when I type it out, and I formally apologize.
Nonetheless, I hope you ignore the creepiness and can takeaway the love from this message. I seriously couldn’t thank you enough for your creativity.
Have an amazing 2024, I hope this year you can continue to make art, stay on top of school, and visit your family. ❤️
NOT STALKERISH AT ALL THIS IS NOTHING BUT PURE, UNFILTERED LOVE AND IM OVERWHELMED!
Thank you so much for being such an active viewer of my work and participating on the server and all the other silly community activities I've done this year. Hearing that you looked forward to my work everyday is... I can't even comprehend that. Not because I don't believe you, but I'm just in awe that anyone would consistently come back to my work to lift their spirits. It's honestly so motivating.
I'm glad my self-indulgent, niche corner of the fanart community is somewhere you feel you can always return to. I'm glad to be blessed with such responsive and supportive people. I'm glad that we can enter this new year together. May 2024 be inspiring, life-changing, and above all the beginning of peace.
Thank you Professor Isaac Newton (your username on the server always makes me laugh. like, I can't believe THE Isaac Newton is a Jojo fan so true, so canon) 🩷
Thank you to everyone 🩷
Miyuki
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Halls of Torment
[ID: The name of the game, Halls of Torment, in big, red letters next to a sword fighter and a person with a bow, surrounded by a horde of undead monsters. End ID]
A while ago, I couldn't scroll 5 min on reddit without coming across Vampire Survivors. Luckily, I really don't like vampires, so I blissfully ignored it, until the day I found this one instead. Now the problem is, I really do like Diablo, and that's how I lost several weeks of my life.
I mean, it's obviously not Diablo. But the artstyle reminds me of Diablo II, which was one of my first video games, with the isometric graphics and character select and flashy spells and big health bubble.
[ID: Main screen of the game, with the Halls of Torment logo above 9 characters standing around a large campfire. Text below reads Choose a hero! The rest of the area is blacked out. End ID]
I don't usually play roguelikes/lites, so I can't compare much, but the game consists of 30 min runs (+ menu time, + final boss) through procedurally generated maps with waves of monsters to be defeated.
When you start out, you are a warrior and have nothing, and the amount of different upgrades you can unlock is a bit overwhelming. There are:
New classes
New maps
Stat boosts
Items
Abilities
Traits
Potions
Everything is tied to achievements, and most of it has to be paid with gold. Beat a certain boss, unlock the next character or map. Deal a certain amount of damage with an ability, unlock a new upgrade for that ability.
Find and save the wellkeeper, and you unlock the ability to send the gear you find up one at a time, where you can purchase it with gold. Find and save the alchemist, then gather potion ingredients and then retrieve (and purchase) bottles to unlock potions that allow you to reroll traits, abilities, and gear, or to remove traits from the selection from this run, or even apply them twice.
[ID: Level up screen, showing a selection of 4 different traits that will increase movement speed, crit chance, area or block strength. Next to it is a box with several different potion options. End ID]
Does it have some annoyances? Sure. The randomness of the abilities and traits can be a pain when hunting for certain achievements — one is to inflict 100k slow stacks, for which I wanted two certain abilities and their upgrades. If I don't get them that run, tough luck, 30 min wasted.
The game is in early access, so things still change regularly, and your overpowered favorite item might get a nerf, or the requirements for an achievement you almost reached change. For a while, I also had some crashes with some of the new skills, annoyingly after 20 min of a run, but those were quickly fixed.
[ID: The game screen, with the left side showing a round health bubble and a blue experience bar, and the right side showing all active abilities, blessings, the agony IV (4) rank, as well as gold, monsters slain, and remaining time. In the middle, the map is basically covered in monsters, with many bright red debuff effects over their heads, as well as fire, and floating damage numbers. End ID]
The effects can be a bit much. You have pretty much every variant of flashing, blinking, glowing, moving lights. Luckily, a lot of the effects can be turned off, and a lot of the abilities you don't have to use ever again once you unlock their achievement.
There is a demo available, but the worst offenders are pretty late unlocks. One item, for example, is a pair of boots that charge while moving and then send out a circular shockwave.
[ID: The item stash, showing the equipped gear of the Sorceress, with 4 fields for loadouts below, and all available items to the right. They're sorted in categories of helmets, amulets, rings, armor, boots and gloves. A note below reads: You can buy new items from the Wellkeeper, once you've retrieved them through the well. End ID]
The maps aren't spectacular, but visually very different, and two of them have fun gimmicks. Some of the quests/unlocks require specialized builds, some brute force, and you can always farm more gold to unlock all items. One thing I love, there isn't only one valid build. I was able to kick ass on pretty much every class.
Watching my weakling warrior grow from dying in 5 min to standing still killing everything on screen with his hands tied behind his back was very satisfying. So far, I got 70 hours out of this, and the last level isn't even out yet. I played all of them on the steam deck, which it fully supports, even if the text is a bit small, and the overcrowded effect mess severely affects the performance.
Best 5 Euro I've ever spent.
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One of the things that irks me the most about the splatoon fandom is when people notice a trend among multiple characters, and then proceed to treat this trend like it's a rule they need to follow when designing characters and that not following this rule is thus bad design.
I specifically bring this up because I see a common complaint from people who complain about Acht's appearance in Side Order, saying that they look "too human"- Which feels completely fucking insane because they're literally supposed to look humanoid and also they are fucking green how do they look too human compared to people who are not green
But I realized what it was- It's the fact that Acht kind of has a taller-shaped head, as opposed to the commonly-seen oval-shaped heads of most inkfish.
For starters- I absolutely hate this mentality of seeing a design trend breaking the mold as being "incorrect", like they made Acht "too human"- it's just introducing an arbitrary limitation for design variety for absolutely no reason. It's not like Acht looking """more human""" in this way makes them homogeneous- the reason it stands out is because it's unique. I wanna know how on earth that makes it bad aside from just "it's not what I'm used to seeing".
But secondly, I also hate this mentality because people act as though it's inconsistent, when... it literally isn't. This is a huge through-line for all of these little 'rules' people invent about Splatoon's designs.
One of Splatoon's biggest strong suits is how diverse its artstyle is and how wildly varied its designs are. Like, literally from day one, inkfish have been shown not to be physically homogenous.
Like... there has never been consistent rules on how you Need to design a species in splatoon, for the better. It's a part of, at least to me, what gives Splatoon its very accepting sort of identity.
Also just to raise a stink and to provide another example of the splatoon fandom doing this, I hate the whole mentality that all inkfish need to have a number of limbs matching squid/octopi. That was never, like, a canonical thing- it's a cute little coincidence, or at most, a cute little nod, with the designs from splatoon 1, but like. Why does this need to be treated like a rule that needs to be followed? Again, people complain about Acht's design, complaining about their tentacles and saying like oh they shouldn't only have three tentacles that's inconsistent, totally ignoring the fact that this has never been a universal trait among all inkfish- Pearl doesn't, a lot of hairstyles in Splatoon 2 don't follow it, and plenty of splatband designs don't seem to follow it either. But more than that, why the fuck would it matter? What are you, a fucking cop? Oh sorry we can't make a unique hairstyle because of this arbitrary rule we made up, inkfish NEED to have THIS amount of limbs because it's imperative that they have this one completely random arbitrary thing in common with squid and octopi.
This also reminds me of Shiver and Frye, because people were the exact same way about them:
"Shiver's tentacles don't look like octoling tentacles!"
"Why are Frye's ears so big!"
"Why are Shiver's eye markings so small!"
"Why are Frye's teeth so pronounced!"
Literally because they wanted to make unique and interesting character designs? I'm sorry, I wasn't familiar you were the God of the world of Splatoon and that you personally knew every inkling and octoling that ever lived and decided that these two are sins against nature and don't look Correct to you.
Genuinely it's just like the most loathesome behavior. If you hate any splatoon character's design for looking abnormal, you're my fucking enemy.
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Small review for Ruined king
//Finally 100% Ruined King, in preparation for Mageseeker. I played through it once when it came out, and played it now after a year and a half so I decided to review it.
TL,DR: 7 /10 game, Good stuff dragged down by nonsense.
The Good:
To start positive, the lore and character interaction in the game is excelent. Just seeing all these different champions interact and discovering the world of Runeterra is something I am so thankful for. The artstyle of the game is gorgeus, the soundtrack is immaculate and the combat (while not perfect) is incredibly fun.
When this game works, it REALLY works, everything syncs up perfectly. You read of Ledros, the lover of Kalista, then find a bounty for him, then you fight him in a badass bossfight and UGH...if the game was this consistent it would be a 9/10 game.
The Bad:
Party management is a nightmare. You may only change party at rest stops, which is bad enough when you need them for a specific enemy, not to mention for an interactive part of the overworld, and you need to backtrack ALL the way to the rest stop to get said party member. Having either and option to change party members on the start menu and/or letting you change it during battles would take a lot of uneeded padding on the game. Speaking of...
The backtracking in this game is excessive to the point of annoyance. There is no true fast travel, some areas have a specific part where they let you fast travel, but only to other parts. So say, if you are in the middle of the Academy in Shadow Isles and you need to go to Thresh's Vault, you need to walk ALL the way through it and to another area entire to arrive to a specific teleporter. I understand if they didn't want you to teleport early game, but getting that ability late game would have made it much less of a chore to slog through.
Those are the only two main issues with the game, however that might just taken a point off the game, from a 9 to an 8. But what drugs the game further is
The Ugly:
This game is AGRESSIVELY buggy.
The only good thing is that nothing I experienced was gamebreaking but there are so many small bugs that they pile on in a giant mountain of annoyance. As an example of some of the things that happened:
An item dropped by an enemy didn't drop, locking me out of the two best enchantments in the game.
Illaoi constantly spawned with 0 tentacles in late game, despite the fact that I had multiple items and abilities that made it so she spawned them every battle.
Chests that you opened and lore/enchantments you found already, will appear in the map as not found, causing confusion when you want to make sure each section is completed.
Important story items can be bought more than once from the markets, making it both a waste of your hard earned cash and in some occasions, make the game easy to cheese.
Enemies will randomly phase through walls to get to you (not the spirit ones, the flesh and blood ones) making the moments where you don't want to fight annoying to escape.
An enchantment will say that it has 100% chance of success...only to fail.
All this and more, while small in a vacuum easily ignored, together becomes almost unbearable. And while I could excuse the game when it first came out for these bugs, as it was just releasing during the tail end of Covid, now after almost two years, it is inexcusable.
Conclusion.
All in all, the game is a fantastic piece for lore fans and those who care for such things, it has a great story with good gameplay. But the weird decisions to pad the game's lenght when it wasn't needed, and the bugs that weren't fixed after so much time makes this game a 7 out of 10.
I remember the excitement when I first played it, how much I loved it, and how hyped I was at the idea that the game would be polished further in the coming months and maybe even a small dlc or updates with fast travel/new game plus/ or more.
But now, playing it after so long, and knowing that Airship Syndicate moved on to a new project means that Ruined King is left as is, I can't help but feel...dissapointed.
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Questions SSO's recent months bring to me.
How can retrofit still be a thing now you only create stuff for gen3 horses ?
How can't you keep a common and consistant artstyle and animations for the same gen ? First gen was consistant, 2nd gen too. Why can't gen3 be the same ?
Why do you keep creating this new saddle pad which doesn't fit the majority of the gen3 horses instead of working on the problem?
Why are you still making items without max stats? Let's be realistic, low stat items are useless crap, people will like them if they have stats as well so why not making everyone happy by making it efficient in races as well?
Why are you releasing that much of non equestrian clothing when you literally only focus on the horse side of the game?
Why this JS limit is still there? You constantly brag about listening to your players but people ask for it since the start, unlike emotes and cafes or overpriced pets that only satisfy a small part of the community.
Why are you so much focused on western things? Breeds, a whole newly designed area with more challenging races, lot of clothes and stuff that look more realistic... While you treat cross country races like a mess where you can put every stupid track you want, show jumping who only have few races but not any real space except an old hall with 3 poor races. And dressage that you deliberately ignored all these years ? Why can't you cut the map to create dedicated small maps for each discipline ? Like, go to Firgrove to find the western ranch, Silverglade and it's wineyard is for show jumping, Jarlaheim and the Jorvik stables for dressage and the forgotten fields could host the cross country. ( btw this calls for a map redesign)
Why can't you write good characters ? It's either a bland generic girl, either a dumb or mean boy, either a total idiot based on stereotypes. Same for the story, it really looks like you let young kids taking care of it.
Why are you making your events so restrictive ? People have lives, they aren't always available at the hours you picked. You can limit the event to, for example, 2 tornadoes per day but don't put it on special hours, just put two every hour and only allow us to receive prized two times a day.
When will you hire professionals and create dedicated teams ? When will you organize that mess you call a team ? You need someone for writing, for the designs, you need to keep a consistency and not having people doing too different things, mostly when they aren't formed for that. I think I'll hurt some snowflakes here, but if you're writing songs, creating horses and illustrations for a game then this isn't a good plan. All these activities require time, lot of time, if you want it to be well made. And that's the reason why SSO suffers from a cruel lack of quality and can't keep a consistency.
Bonus: When will you understand that your new characters are body shaming ? They only represent a tiny part of the population, just like our old ( I mean actual) ones also only represent a small part of the population. You already are excluding male bodies, now you are excluding thinner people ? Older ones ( I don't mean grannies, I mean people around 18-20, like the soul riders) ? People with a very feminine hourglass shape and generous curves ? Forbidden as well. Why shaming them? Can't you celebrate a type of body without spitting on the others ?
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TF2's a funny situation. I think it's pretty clear the game isn't going anywhere til something comes to mildly replace it. But nothing can truly replace the freedom from modern gaming industry bullshit like TF2. (Ignore the gambling bullshit they popularized)
Honestly the game's just a mess and I don't blame Valve for just wanting to move on. Game's nearing double decade old, it can vote soon. That being said, it wasn't a mistake, at most an accident, but not a bad one that the game is in it's current state. You can honestly say it was innevitable we'd reach now, and it's a good thing.
If you look at the core of the game, it's got the potential to be streamlined, like CSGO, you got the base gameplay and different strategies, dedicated servers, leveling up and finding items, etc etc.
But what TF2 does different is it has community servers that aren't consistently in a battle with valve over frivilous bullshit. You won't see valve shutting down servers for letting you give yourself items for that session, but we have seen them do the same for CSGO, SKINS. Not even different 'unlockable' weapons. Skins.
Community servers aren't obscured and hidden, as much as they genuinely tried by putting it next to the broken training mode, they're flourishing and have actual depth to variety unlike CSGO's Deathmatch, Surf, and Zombies.
Item drops aren't shitty skins but actual tangible scrap metal or an actual new item to use. You want a hat? Make some scrap metal.
Valve tried so hard to kill TF2 by making it CSGO and it failed because the game is an absolute fucking mess. You have people who only play competitive, or only play VSH, or Medic vs Engineer, or deathrun, etc etc etc. That's not even getting into them killing modding for the game intentionally and as hard as possible. They really wanted TF2 to be the next CSGO and the only way to do that is to kill the fun outside of the base-game.
You can't streamline TF2 because just like it's classes have sub-classes, the game has sub-games. CSGO is CSGO. TF2 is alot of things to alot of people. It's memes, videos, characters n comics, specific gamemodes, niche communities, hell it's just like Gmod but there's an actual game behind it, with actual characters, story, n settings.
CSGO can really only be CSGO. The hyper-focus fast paced technically charged shooter. It can't be ridiculous and over the top, the artstyle and artistry in general simply doesn't allow for it. And the day they try is the day they pull Saints Row 3-like bs.
TF2 survives out of spite for literally the entire gaming industry. It is the polar opposite to Valve today, with CSGO being the best example of where their mentalities lay anymore. There's no room for bullet spread to be random, which yes is a problem but goes to show how rigid everything has become. Fun dies when balance is the focal point.
TF2 has never been balanced. Ever. You cannot look me in the eyes and say the current competitive scene is using the entire roster of classes or even without banning weapons. TF2 is not competitive, it can be like all things, but it's about fun first, balance second.
That mentality changed when they made competitive mode, trying to CSGO-ify the game, but they realized they couldn't actually hide the community server option. Like they've done in...actually all of their games. L4D being a prime example. Csgo, TF2... yeah, all their multiplayer games they obscure or remove the option for a server browser.
This is because you don't usually play on Valve servers when you go to the community tab, and fuck that, we can't have a fanbase that's enjoyment for the game is spread accross several communities that keep it alive longer than we would like, nah, we want to be able to pull the plug whenever!
Basically community servers to Valve are a nusiannce because of the fact that people are keeping the game alive, when honestly they just want to move on. I assure you TF2 isn't as big a money maker anymore and being constantly asked to update a game they tried to kill is probably frustrating as fuck.
Valve abandoned TF2 because the mess was so fun, cleaning it up would ruin it. And surprisingly, they chose not to ruin it. Leave it to Valve to actually see a terrible fuckawful permanently damaging move, and choose not to do it after dipping their toes into the pirahna infested waters.
Genuinely, be happy. You got a game with a double decade shelf life from the year 2007, that's fucking rare. The company gave up on killing it. You can't force a mother to love their child when they already abandoned it on the street for ya'll to take care of.
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tf when the old scientists from another universe keep exchanging glances whenever they can
I had this as a forgotten sketch since january so I wanted to finish it heh
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Wow, your style of artwork, or artistic expression of characters and scenes, is absolutely lovely. I love the texturing, shading and colors that you bring to your pieces, and I'm so glad I found your blog!
May I ask politely how you developed and improved your artstyle?
This may be a difficult ask, but I am having a hard time myself, finding consistency in the art I make - or staying with a style. To me, it seems to be finding a voice in the artwork I make, and when I view your art (and many others I'm inspired by) it seems clear you have a brand or aesthetic. How did you figure that out? Is what I am trying to ask I think.
Please feel free to ignore this ask, I just wanted to say in the end that your art really inspires me to make my own and I smile when I see your art on my daily scroll.
I hope you are doing well and taking care of yourself. Thank you for sharing your creations online. :)
Thank you a lot, this really made my day
I mostly draw cause I need to be productive, I'll fall into boredom or depression if I do nothing of my hands, so seeing people actually/genuinely like what I do to be ok just boost even more my mood <3
I don't exactly know how I evolved in art to be honest. I just keep doing what feels comfortable on my hands, and even when studying real life photos, my drawings end up being done in the same style everytime.
And I think artstyle is just that; it's what your hands can do while still being at ease, muscle memory kicking in and mimicking reality in their own way !
And it's totally ok if your style keep changing, finding it takes time, it's hard to always understand how forms work and get your brain to memorize it to make it causally later. That's how things go, everyone's style keep changing in subtle ways even when you're experimented ^^ what I was doing last year is already different from my current drawings !
And I must thank you again for your words <3 it was nice reflecting about it !
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