#word game design

[prokopetz]

Tumblr 200-Word RPGs 2023

Last November, we did an informal game jam for folks who wanted to write something for Writing Month, but would prefer to write fewer than fifty thousand words of it. You can find the complete list of participants for that event in this post here. There's also an off-Tumblr archive of entries whose authors gave permission for them to be preserved here, if any of those links turn out to be broken.

Last year's collaboration went over well enough that I thought we might dust it off again this year. To be clear, this is just for fun – it's not a curated jam, and nobody's judging winners or handing out prizes..

If you'd like to throw your hat in, just follow these steps:

Step 1: If you're unfamiliar with 200-word RPGs, read a bunch of last year's entries (linked above) or browse the 200 Word RPG Challege archives at https://200wordrpg.github.io/ to get your brain-meats properly configured.

Step 2: Write your own 200-word RPG. If you're not sure whether you have 200 words or not (and with RPGs it can genuinely be difficult to tell!), you can use the word counter at https://200wordrpg.github.io/wordcount to check.

Step 3: Reblog this post and append your 200-word RPG.

Step 4 (optional): Please indicate in your post whether you're okay with having your 200-word RPG archived off-site for posterity – if you don't say anything one way or the other, I'll assume the answer is "no".

(As before, as a courtesy to anyone who's creeping the notes, please restrict non-200-word-RPG commentary to replies and tags until November 2023 is over – let's make the actual games easy to find!)

#gaming #tabletop roleplaying #tabletop rpgs #tumblr 200 word rpgs 2023 #game design #game jam #200 word rpgs

[fandom-trash-goblin]

IN DEFENSE OF CATELYN STARK

Ayama and the Thorn Wood, The Language of Thorns, Leigh Bardugo// Venetian Ladies Listening to the Serenade, 1909 by Frank Cadogan Cowper // A Game of Thrones, Chapter 31, Tyrion IV.

lyanna stark || elia martell || sansa stark || arya stark || alicent hightower || jaehaera targaryen || cersei lannister || myrcella baratheon || joanna lannister || aemma arryn || catelyn stark || sansa stark (2) || margaery tyrell || rhaena targaryen, daughter of aenys i || arianne martell || aerea targaryen

for @tell-them-the-north-remembers, for this post (analysing ned loves my hair. gosh it took some time to find but i rembered that i had it in my drafts. for when i'd do catelyn. hope you like it)

#chose the image because you know/ devastated by ned loves my hair. crying sobbing. dying #catelyn stark #tried my best to colour the quotes the same colour as the designs on the grey-blue dress. didn't work out- blame word for it #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #web weave #webweaving #webweave #webweaves: asoiaf #game of thrones #got #catelyn tully #also fuck tyrion my girl is smart okay. #do you guys think about how until edmure's birth catelyn might have been given a heir's education. because i do

[arthursfuckinghat]

There needs to be a scientific study done on how Rockstar Games' Arthur Morgan is able to provoke the most earth shattering emotions I didn't even know I had in me

#you guys get me right #like you feel it deep in your chest #the joy the anguish the grief #it feels like words aren't enough #and I don't mean it as in “sad moment in video game makes you sad” #I mean it as in “a deep and well written moment that has been slowly building is fleshed out in a video game and I think about for weeks” #when I say I lose sleep over this game I really mean it #I spend hours just laying in bed thinking about everything that happens in arthur morgan's life #it eats at me #I'm not ashamed of how much I have cried over this game #it fucking gets to me #playing rdr2 is the best form of escapism until the story hits you like a stab in the chest but the blade just pushes in further and further #until you're left with a gaping wound #“wow michael I didn't know you were so emotional over pixels on a screen” #except those pixels were acted out and performed by real people and voiced by real people and designed to look like real people #the game's main target was historic realism emphasis on REALISM #to provoke emotions through amazing storytelling #it's okay to feel strongly about things!! #this game man #this game #rdr2 #red dead redemption 2 #mick squeaks #mick thinks #arthur morgan #red dead redemption 2 spoilers

[somnimagus]

colored some more things from my sketchbook! zelda edition this time

[id in alt!]

#loz #legend of zelda #food #specific games from left to right (more or less) are: #twilight princess #wind waker #skyward sword #ocarina of time #minish cap #it feels like i suddenly understand how to color when i do these.. i'm scheming ways to get digital art to click like this for me #but man i used to be obsessed with midna medli saria and vaati as a kid so drawing them again a decade later feels super weird #and adult me now has an additional love of telma ruto and for some reason fledge. i think his design is cute #i don't show my ocs on the internet so you're gonna have to take my word for this but #zelda actually completely sparked my love of character design! i'm still hugely inspired by the older games #plus the anthro designs from botw! i love teba very much #but fi specifically is probably my favorite character design from anything ever. she's perfect to me #fan art #my doodles #my art

[chirpsythismorning]

Say it’s likely there will be a Brokeback Mountain reference in s5 and nobody bats an eye.

Say it’s likely that the final byler fight will be inspired by this scene and society goes wild.

#byler #we could’ve had a good life together! #a fuckin' real good life! #had us a place of our own #but you didn’t want it ennis!! #so what we got now is brokeback mountain!! #that part #it just takes me straight to the repetition of them wanting to play games together for the rest of their lives #how they’ve been sort of hiding behind this idea that really is about them wanting to be with each other #the way it’s focused on in their s3 fight #and then Will bringing it up AGAIN in s4 light heartedly and Mike sort of just being somber about it #and what follows right after it… #idk brokeback mountain might support that Mike knew Will was lying about the painting (unserious) (but no actually) #Dimitri @ Yuri lying about what is wrong with the plane #(even tho we know he’s hiding the truth in his pocket) #: you know it to be true. and yet you continue to play tricks!! #😀😀😀 #and society goes wild #so I think the scenes will be identical? #no that’s not the point #one word gesture or even costume design could pay homage to it for a second during their final fight #with a mention of playing games together for the rest of their lives #and what that actually has meant this whole time… #and it’s a wrap

[heybiji]

I love your art style, ESPECIALLY your DnD art! I wanna give your scarred elf boi a big ol hug! Never has a drow ever made me wanna play the race as much as your art of Dandelion!

oh, he could certainly use a hug lately, please do please do.

and FOLLOW THE DROW DREAM!! just don't be a donut like I was and have them in disguise for 60-something sessions while you are desperate to draw and share art of them but CAN'T

#ask biji #dnd #dandelion treehollow #dnd character #dnd oc #robin peaseblossom #fun fact robin was originally just gonna be a color swapped dande #but right before we were gonna play i was like OH YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE FUN!!! #and designed her last minute in an outfit i HATED HAVING TO DRAW FOR 60 SESSIONS #robin your sleeves were sooooooooooooooo hard to draw #i did think “no way will dande keep this disguise up for more than maybe 15-20 sessions” #hahahahahahahaha #it was my first dnd game and Mistakes Were Made #anyway a dande sketch for you!! #thank you very much for the nice words!

[emry-stars-art]

sorry to bother you, but….

if statled jelly!niel stings, does sleeping jelly!niel sting? Because it seems to be a conscious effort for niel to not sting? Or did I misunderstand this?

what are the scientific implications of sleepy jelly cuddles?

Great question! Thank you for letting me put on my more beach-appropriate baseball cap and do more mer research hehe

So I asked the shark and he told me to mind my business I think.

Unfortunately for him, the manta ray will spill just about anything in exchange for pretty human stuff and I am great at taking notes.

Basically? It seems to me like it’s expected touch vs unexpected, combined with the jelly’s maturing self-awareness. When it’s younger, a jelly mer will start getting control of its sting by ‘turning it off’ consciously. As they get older, it can become closer to “will not sting unless actively startled or for good reason” as the jelly chooses! Think of the sting response like a knee-jerk, throwing-elbows response. Anything less startling isn't worth the effort. Or in jellyneil's case, maybe more of a nervous person's flinch response.

So at this age when jellyneil is awake, it generally won’t sting unless really startled - unfortunately for most mers, the poor thing is a little jumpy and most unexpected touches are startling 🥲

When jellyneil is asleep, there’s more of a “base state” idea happening - however it goes to sleep is how it’ll peacefully stay. So if it falls sleep with someone else touching it, no stings! If it falls sleep in traditional jelly fashion (wedged between rocks or otherwise anchored down) the tentacles and stingers are instinctively in defense mode and I cannot advise getting too close.

If it gets startled awake though? I can only assume it would sting then as well but I can't tell you for sure because the whale and the one shark twin are usually very good about not letting that happen.

There’s some point to be made here about the fact that the stinging is only ‘turned off’ while cuddling/sleeping on other mers - clearly, brushing up against rocks doesn’t desensitize the stingers to other outside stimuli. In open water, the sleeping jelly knows to fend for itself. The presence of another mer seems to be instinctively calming.

But I am not here to wax poetic about it, that’s your job, I just provide the research 🤲

Find the mer au masterpost here 💕

#lmao am I just like out on a lil research boat in the middle of the ocean #or am I at some research facility where Wymack brings all his kids for check ups #why am i suddenly making this au modern?? #I can NOT get existential about this 😂😭 #ANYWAY #‘scientific implications of sleepy jelly cuddles’ #anon did you specifically design that string of words to get all of my interests and joys at once #because it sure feels like you did #fan art #my art #aftg #all for the game #mer au #oops all mers au #mer research notes #lol imma make that a tag now #sharkdrew #jellyneil #jellyfish #whalemack #sharkaaron #….? did we give him a mer name #asks

[kawaoneechan]

Okay so in a game like Animal Crossing, there's a bunch of things all happening at once. You can have a screen full of villagers walking around doing their thing, balloons flying, bugs bugging, a system in the background to handle hourly background music with chimes in between, all that good stuff, while you're doing your own things.

When you talk to a villager, you and the villager both stop on the spot, and a script takes over. That script then makes the villager turn to the player and a dialogue window appears. There may be a multiple choice thing now — "talk", "gift", or "leave" — and the script won't stop, releasing control to both, until what you've selected plays out.

So you have a villager with an attached script. The villager waits for the script to finish before continuing on their merry way, while the script waits for the villager to finish turning to the player. Once that's done, it picks something to say and eventually ends up opening the dialogue window. The script now has to wait for the message to finish writing, and the very next command is an "if" involving the result of a multiple choice question, so now the script has to wait for that to return.

I was thinking for Project Special K I might implement all that as several Tickable objects. Not unlike in SCI, you'd have a big list of things in the game that all implement a Tick method. In SCI, that'd be the cast, and its members have doit methods. It's the same deal, but Tick also gets a delta-time argument. So the dialogue box gets to be its own thing that implements Tickable, the multiple choice box is as well. Inventory window? Yes.

Also the script interpreter.

But all that wouldn't let the villager wait for the script interpreter, which waits for the dialogue box, right? Script execution should be halted until the dialogue box is dismissed. That one villager's AI should be halted until the interpreter finishes, only moving (or rather, emoting) because of embedded commands in the dialogue box's text stream.

So I figured, what if I gave them something like a mutex variable? The villager would have a bool waiting or whatever, and passes a pointer to that bool to the script interpreter they spawn when the player interacts with them. The interpreter is added to the cast list and starts running the code it was given. When it's done, it not only removes itself from the cast but sets the bool pointer so the villager can tell it's over and done with.

Now every time through the loop, the villager's Tick is called and they can tell "oh, I'm waiting for a script to finish" because their bool isn't set yet. The script interpreter likewise can spawn a dialogue box into the cast and have its own "waiting for that darn dialogue box" bool, in exactly the same way the villager can wait for the script interpreter.

Next trick, the dialogue box should remain on screen even when things are done, so multiple choice answers can have the question remain visible. It should only close when a different style of box is called for, or when the script ends. My idea is to always have a dialogue box object in the cast, idling until called for. When the villager realizes the script has ended, they can simply poke the dialogue box and have it close, if nothing else already did.

#animal crossing #project special k #script engines #ramblings #game design #game implementation #what the fuck is a mutex #was that even the right word

[fowlblue]

hail to the king, baby

(i love this terrible man)

#the jackass himself. words cannot describe how much i love (and loathe) him #borderlands #borderlands 2 #handsome jack #this is technically a redraw but I hate the old one SO MUCH so I’m not linking it. just trust me there is improvement. #i have so many thoughts about him as I’m playing through both games he appears in. i need to draw him more but he’s so complicateddd #love his design tho. 100% the inspiration for my Spiro design and I’m not ashamed to admit that lol #my art #I’m posting this at 2am I hope that does not bite me in the ass later

[testsubject24601]

To all the people hating on the new Gods designs in Hades II;

You draw them updated in the same style and then talk

#character design isn’t easy fuckwads #and there’s purpose to why some of the Gods had their designs changed/look different #I’m begging yall to actually think before forming an opinion #hades 2 #hades game #hades supergiant #hades ii #I want all of you to eat your own words and actually redesign them if you hate the designs so much #“bitches be like not my cup of tea and here’s why! but don’t actually have skills to back those claims up or make a difference

[blaiddraws]

screw it. posting leaks. i cannot contain it

gamefreak owes me money

#pokemon #orthworm #submas #ghost worm au #pokemon spoilers #pokemon leaks #sv spoilers #sv leaks #there's probably more tags #words cannot explain how much i am absolutely losing my mind about this #one time way back when. someone mentioned they usually didn't like fakemon. #but they DID like wormgo because he looked like he would be an actual pokemon. like the design looked like you'd see it in the game #or whatever. this is literally proving them right #i am winning. i am getting a good grade at fakemon design which is both reasonable and possible to achieve #been constantly losing my mind the past. what. three days?

[prokopetz]

If you want to write something for November, but you don’t want it to be fifty thousand words long, I have a suggestion:

Step 1: Read a bunch of 200 word RPGs until your brain turns to soup – https://200wordrpg.github.io/

Step 2: Once your brain-meats have been appropriately primed (see above), write your own 200 word RPG.

Step 3: Reblog this post and append your 200 word RPG.

(Please restrict non-200-word-RPG commentary to replies and tags; anybody who creeps the reblogs should see a solid wall of nothing but 200 word RPGs.)

#gaming #tabletop roleplaying #tabletop rpgs #game design #200 word rpgs

[sunnys-side-upside-down]

Blorbo's Eepiest Soldier

Thank you everyone for your kind words, I'm doing better and am back to it <3

#helloo! #thank you all for the well wishes #I have really appreciated every kind word #I'm doing better now and have gotten back to school work #i am so eepy though #eepiest soldier #im also being overworked on my capstone game team and the team lead even told me shes over working me so thats #fun #counting going to this capstone class and meetings and such im putting like 25+ hours in a week for it #and i do have 2 other classes #and a social life i enjoy having #haha #but im happy to do the work cause its good portfolio stuff #except when my producer comes up to me and says "yknow how ur in charge of all the 2d art and concepting and branding and ui and pr? yeah g #make a 3-4 page detailed comic for plot at the start of our game cause we dont wanna cut plot (even tho we dont have time for it) and we #dont wanna show plot through interactable objects and dialogue/text so more work for you even tho u legit dont have time for it #ngl tho i have genuinely been enjoying designing icons and doing model concepts #i made some fire designs recently #please hire me a game company tm #anyway enough of capstone talk #love you all!!! #im excited to graduate and finally be able to change my bio!! #hope you all have a very lovely rest of your day <33 #furry #fursona #digital art #art #eepy

[icewindandboringhorror]

................ he 

#i feel like I posted this already but I also can't find it in any recent posts so... #......he #cats #EVEN if I did post it.. why not poast himb again? it's he #I'm like halfway through actually editing aforementioned costumes and stuff and i WANT to work on sculptures again and I have video #s and that worldbuilding slideshow and all of these things so hopefully like.. more usual stuff soon maybe.. to be posted #for now though yeah.. just cats #The end of the year is also when I panic about the passage of time and how little I've gotten done and how I will never actually be a #sucessful game maker slash author slash cat cafe owner slash set designer slash costume designer slash psychologist #who lives in like Scotland or somehting and also owns my own candle company or something ghbjhb #and will probably just be a mentally ill hermit recluse all my life who dies early of mysterious health issues with 5000 projects left #undone and blah blah the crushing weight of chronic illness and capitalism and so on and so forth #So then I scramble to get projects done to try and meet some goals but usually that means I scatter between projects #so it takes longer to finish all of them. Like instead of dedicating 8 hours to one thing and finishing it one sitting. I'll do 2 hours on #this then 2 hours on that then 2 hours on another things. so they all get done slower even though I'm still technically making progress on #them all. This is also a very poo poo pee pee stink brain way to work and is not like. the most efficent thing but it's just how my brain #organizes tasks sometimes lol #*** #(<ignore this its part of an OCD compulsion lol. anytime you see me type three asterisks I'm not bleeping out a curse word #it's just a Special Secret Foolish Thing I Have To Do At Specific Uncontrolable Times When Brain Says So gbjhhj) #ANYWAY... eeeee #Still haven't resolved my mystery chest injury though so being at te computer for too long is also kind of achey-inducing #Better get over it though because I have like 30+ hours of slideshow vidoe to edit hahaha hee hee hoo!!!!!

[kondietorei]

hm. i wish neku kept his headphones in NEO and wore them around his neck.. i feel like it would've represented how he can keep a balance between staying firm in who he is/his ability to stick close to his ideals as well as being open to hear new things (without having to sacrifice who he is.) especially when his headphones were such a huge part of his design, it feels like completely removing them was not the right choice as it now looks like he has lost a part of himself instead of visually showing that he has grown..

#twewy #neo twewy #i guess #neku sakuraba #idk i have thoughts about this but im not too sure how to put into words #i just really love this guy #as if he is not my pfp #anyway i totally think it was cool when he ditched them at the end of the og game #but that was once significant scene #instead of a significant design choice if that makes sense?? #my txt

[chrysanthemumgames]

May I ask what your current plans are for the poly routes? And if they will be a V format or a full triad?

I love all of your characters and if you choose to go full triad, I think the dynamics would be lovely and a real breath of fresh air in poly representation. But I also understand that that’s a lot of writing, haha.

I remember reading earlier that you were considering a Hekate/Hermes poly, which really delights me as those are my favorite routes! Hekate being a relatively lonely long lived person ending up with two young partners who adore her really hits for me, so I hope that one sticks around. Thank you again for the story! (It’s my current hyperfixation lol)

As it happens, I can finally answer this, because I've done up an outline of the next game and given it a lot of thought.

So.

The poly route will indeed involve Hekate and Hermes, and it will definitely be a triad. There will be extra scenes that specifically build on it, though the route you choose initially will be 'primary' in the sense that that RO's subplot will be the one you're mostly following (and only in that sense; the two of them are not inclined to view partners as primary or secondary, even though some people are and that's fine, too!) But there will be opportunities to weigh in on the other RO's plot, just not as directly all the time, and the second RO will appear in the first one's subplot more often if you're in the poly, if I've planned this right.

Because of all the complications involved even in doing this one poly properly, I've decided I'm only going to do the one, but I am going to try my best to do it properly, so it feels like a real triad relationship.

#ask #game design #the final word on polys