#I guess I'll add the dev tags?

[doughguts-art]

Finch! Lot's of Finch stuff completed this week,,

Some of these are cleaned up RP doodles with a friend, so that's why you see Michael and the Cocos (both an oc and original spectre design belonging to that friend)

[bloggingboutburgers]

Hi ! I don't know if you've heard of it, but I recommend you In Stars And Time ! I've seen your comics about aro/ace rep and this game is super good at it, in addition to the fact that it's an amazing game in general. (slight spoilers below)

There's a (human) character who's aroace and struggles to accept herself, and it's heartwarming to see her understand over time that it's okay to feel like this and she doesn't need to change <3

There's also the main character, who is ace and some flavor of aromantic, and their relashionship with Mirabelle (the aroace girl) is veeery qpr looking, so it's basically a given for the fandom now (fandom that's actually very respectful of aro and ace identities)

The dev (@/insertdisc5 ) is French too !

And there's amazing enby représentation !

So uh thank you for reading all this, I am sorry to bother you but I've been thinking about your blog and I wanted you to know that this game existe, plus it's really not known enough which is sad..

If you decide to check it out, that's awesome but make sure to check the trigger warnings ! It's basically the hurt/comfort trope but on a much bigger scale

Have a good day ! (Or whatever time or the day it is in the US...) I love your comics <3

Thank you for the recommendation! We actually started the game with my partner a while ago (we didn't expect any French at the time so going into that blind was hilarious), but then I guess life came up and we got out of time and never continued it yet... We still aim to get to the end of it at some point!

(On that note I believe the creator is Canadian actually? Maybe French-speaking Canadian? ...But idk I might be wrong)

Yeah either way we haven't gotten to the point where any character is confirmed to be aroace. There's definitely hints and relatable moments which have been very satisfying (hints of other things in other characters too tbh), but nothing I could call a confirmation of anything, so I guess we have much to see still! (...Well, now I guess who the aroace character is supposed to be, if anything, didn't know that yet 🙈 I'll add a spoilers tag in the tags if that's OK!)

Definitely liked what I've seen thus far though, it's been a vibe, and from what I've seen I'd recommend it to anyone for any reason, it's a very intriguing came in a good way and the character designs are pristine^^ So yeah, it deserves to be known!

[whmp]

in case you're just here for the good stuff, i'll be tagging my personal ramblings as #whmpersonal so you can avoid em BUT this is tangentially related to the game project i'm working on, so stick around i guess? tl;dr: i'll probably make a more coherent post where I ask ppl for help (especially artists). also, i'll be more attentive and answer your asks faster, hopefully. : )

anyway, after a bit of a "review" of my creative process (and i guess my uhh way of living in general?) i've noticed that it's a huge clusterfuck. and that it has been since i was a kid. without some external pressure or an imposed structure (like deadlines, parents or strongly worded emails) i just sort of relied on random surges of productivity to carry me through life. on one hand, it's kinda fun: most of the time i'm not doing anything valuable and then all of a sudden i condense weeks worth of work into several sleepless days during which i feel like An Immortal Unstoppable God. lighting bolts shoot from my fingertips, my eyes glow in the dark, and my caffeine-to-blood volume ratio is hovering around 1.

unfortunately, it's not really sustainable. the "not doing anything valuable" stage that takes up most of my time is not me just chilling. it's me freaking the fuck out about not doing anything despite wanting to and finding myself just. not able to. not to mention that some things just need minor, but constant maintenance - at best i'd just forget about them and face the consequences later on. at worst i'd be acutely aware of them while procrastinating, clueless as to what's wrong with me.

couple that with a couple other unhealthy habits, a microscopic attention span and wow, i fit like all the criteria for adhd. i gotta admit i was super sceptical at first when doing any research, since, well. how the fuck am i even supposed to gain any unbiased insight into this. anyway, i spent a stupid amount of money on an official diagnosis (seriously why is this not covered by insurance gsygx), it took a million meetings and tests and i get a piece of paper that says i have add and deserve some medication.

this has also made me realize that i'm spread out super thin when it comes to projects. i love every single one of them, but im going to have to be a bit more realistic in terms of what can remain in "when it's done" limbo and what needs a bit of a push. the whump game is unique in that it's not just me who wants this to eventually get released. so! what this means is that it needs a proper, project structure. not a .txt on my desktop where i keep a backlog of missing features. but must important of all, it needs ~*people*~. this is the first time i took a step back and estimated how much time everything would take me and yeahhhh i was being very optimistic when i said "playable build in 2023" lol. i've been hesitant to ask for help bc 1. i'm stubborn : ) 2. im bad at coordinating stuff 3. i can't pay ppl - like seriously, there is one person making a model for me (if you're reading this sorry i didn't ask if you want a tag but this is just a personal post where i keep yapping) and it's looking so clean and professional,,, you gotta sell this as an asset.

HOWEVER im getting past the mentality of "i gotta do as much as i can by myself". and also taking meds so that im able to focus on tasks (both gamedev-related and others) and actually pay attention to what im doing. which is great news for development! and answering asks! ill be making a dev post where i tag all the ppl and will also ask for help.

that's it. im on a train rn and bored out of my mind so this is why this post exists, sorry. anyway check out this screenshot of a moment in clone high that i relate to deeply.

[theothersarshi]

Tags from @captainsaku:

#Everything Sarshi said is EXTREMELY on point#and I have very little to add except that#coders DON'T KNOW about the translation issues#so it is usually the case that we will get an excel spreadsheet with a column for Spanish to insert translations in#and the UI elements are completely out of context#so half the time we're just guessing based on vibes#especially because the teamwork doesn't always happen#this kind of stuff gets outsourced to hell and back and asking the client directly is sometimes an impossibility#so you have to go through your outsourcer who needs to ask the client and hear back from them about it#and let me tell you#sometimes the reply from the client is completely useless#anyway all of this to say that yes it's an actual challenge

Yeah, "Here's the spreadsheet, send it back by [date]" and translators scrambling to translate based on vibes is pretty much default.

Developers not knowing what we need is also sometimes painfully clear (see: plurals with an "s").

And questions being answered in very unhelpful ways is a #mood. (PSA: NEVER ask "or" questions. Don't say "Do you mean X or Y here?", because the answer will often be "Yes" and you'll want to shoot someone.)

I think Ao3 might be better at some things than some clients - it's volunteer work and everybody wants things to go well, and there would be no outsourcing to the lowest bidder, so that's a huge plus. I assume there could be some sort of communications system set up between devs and the localization team for answering questions and fixing any bugs that show up while testing.

Concrete discussion based on Ao3's actual code under the line.

If you want to get a feel for how things work, it's worth looking through the files @zz9pzza linked to to get an idea of what Ao3 looks like under the hood. I've just opened this file: https://github.com/otwcode/otwarchive/blob/master/config/locales/mailers/en.yml

The first thing I noticed:

faq_link_text: Collections FAQ more_info: html: For more information, visit our %{faq_link}. text: 'For more information, visit our Collections FAQ: %{faq_url}' subject:

It's clear "faq_link_text" replaces "%{faq_link}" in the html version. However, it's not clear if "faq_link_text" is used in any other context. (I'd assume not, but let's not assume)

Because Romanian syntax is unlike English syntax, "our Collections FAQ" would be rendered in this order: "Questions our frequent about collections". In other words "our" goes inside the phrase - it even goes inside FAQ!

If "faq_link_text" is only ever used in this context, I can move "our" from the html to "faq_link_text" and make it work:

faq_link_text: our Collections FAQ html: For more information, visit %{faq_link}.

But if there's even the slightest chance of that text being used elsewhere, I'll drop "our" and leave it implied that it's Ao3's Collections FAQ. (

I'm in luck because titles and direct objects look the same, so I don't need to find extra workarounds; I'm not sure what other languages are like in this regard)

The second thing I noticed:

anonymous: "[%{app_name}] Your work was made anonymous" anonymous_unrevealed: "[%{app_name}] Your work was made anonymous and unrevealed" unrevealed: "[%{app_name}] Your work was made unrevealed"

"[%{app_name}]" looks like a thing here, but I'm not sure what it is. "Ao3 Your work was made unrevealed"? Something's off about that. I'd also need to ask about this.

The third thing I noticed:

one: The link to set your password is good for %{count} day. other: The link to set your password is good for %{count} days.

This one will be a small issue for Romanian and a larger issue for Polish.

Romanian has a small variation for numbers over 20, where we add an extra preposition: "1 string", "19 stringuri", "20 de stringuri". In practice, for software, people just let it go.

Polish will be in more trouble, because their pluralization rules are more complicated. They have something like, singular, plural, 5+ plural - and they're different enough that you can't just let it go. I don't speak Polish, so I can't give you more details, but the issue popped up so often in projects that I became aware of it.

So you might need to come up with different sets of pluralization rules for a few outlying languages.

I understand what a nightmare backdating multi-language compatibility would be, but it's a terrible shame that AO3's interface and tags are so hardcoded to English. It seems like the best solution might be to use the AO3 source code to essentially make AO3 clones for other languages, a la Wikipedia, but duplicating AO3's volunteer base for every language would be an arduous undertaking to say the least.

--

[salemssimblr]

Sims 4 Gameplay Tag 

! SIMS 4 GAMEPLAY TAG !

I'm sure many tags like this one already exists but I figure we can never have too many!

20 questions related to sims 4/gameplay:

-

1) What is your favorite build/buy category?

Yo, all of them. How you want me to pick one?

2) Do you randomize your sims traits or select them every time?

I normally carefully select traits depending on the sim I'm making, but sometimes I'm lazy and randomize or even use the story function in CAS, but it's rare.

3) How do you prefer to play the game? (Legacy challenge? Rotational? Just for picture taking/storytelling, etc?)

I'm a builder through and through and usually spend hours upon hours building. Sometimes I'll get the wild hair to actually play the game but it's admittedly rare for me to play for very long. I also spend a lot of time in CAS making sims to render.

4) What is your favorite cheat?

MOO, hands down.

5) What is one thing you WISH EA would add to the gameplay?

GENERATIONS.

6) What is your favorite expansion pack and why?

Uhhh probably seasons. I think the game would feel so boring without weather, and the bb objects are some of my fave to use.

7) What is your favorite game pack and why?

Gotta be a tie between tiny living and dream home decorator, cause I'm a builder lmao. Those packs have some of my favorite bb stuff.

8) Which pack do you think is not worth buying? (including stuff and kits)

Bust the Dust. It only adds annoying gameplay, and while the dust bunnies are cute, they're not that cute.

9) How often do you play the sims and for how long?

Pretty often, and usually for a few hours at a time, at least.

10) Can you remember the first sim you ever made in TS4? If so, describe them!

I've made so many sims over the years, I couldn't possibly remember haha

11) What is one gameplay mechanic you wish that sims 4 brought back from ts2 and ts3 respectively?

The pets mechanics from 2 were fantastic, and generations from 3.

12) Do you use reshade during gameplay or only for pictures?

Usually only for pictures, and then only for pics of builds or sims I plan on sharing for download.

13) How big is your mods folder?

Way too big

14) What is your favorite type of lot to build?

Residential, probably.

15) Do you edit your sims kids after they age up or leave them as they are?

It honestly depends. I will ALWAYS edit their outfits cause EA just has no sense of style, but for genetics I usually try to keep their essence the same if I do edit them.

16) What is your favorite world in game and why?

Brindleton Bay. Fight me on it.

17) Which of your sims is your favorite and why?

I really don't have a favorite overall. You'd never know it by my renders all featuring the same sims lmao but I don't actually play with them in game, just use them for the renders. I usually have a favorite per household.

18) Do you think EA cares what the fan base says about the game and its future? Why or why not?

Yes and no. I think the dev team does care about what the fan base says, but that the corporate level just wants money.

19) Would you still play the sims if you didn't have a simblr?

Yes! I've played since s1 but this is the first simblr I've had.

20) What is one thing about the gameplay mechanics that you really love or appreciate?

Why is this so hard to answer??? LMAO I guess because I don't often actually play the game. So I'll cheat a little and say the build engine on sims is actually pretty good. Finicky, but overall decent.