#because 2d ability to make a character and 3d ability to see it in my head are Very different than being capable of making it in a program

[moldwood]

a little more blender tutorial before bed. pshoooo

[digiflora]

𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐏𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐘!

ꪆৎ choso ⸝⸝ sukuna ⸝⸝ gojo ⸝⸝ ino wc.

summary. life as a streamer creates all sorts of potential interactions- whether between other creatives, or just some random person in a csgo lobby...

contains! ꪆৎ streamer au ⸝⸝ cosplayer reader (choso) ⸝⸝ some suggestiveness + downbadness lmfao ⸝⸝ nerdjo my beloved

𐔌 gia's notes! ☆⌒(ゝ。∂) woioi chat. i've been on such a 2020 first lockdown nostalgic kick recently im ngl... hence the title of this fic LOL. and lowkey the content too 😞 you can kinda tell that i ran out of steam while writing this... but o well

streamer!choso [@/ch0k4m0] who is relatively well known- technically, for his gaming abilities, though what solidified his online fame was his rather candid commentary, with seemingly no filter between his thoughts and the words that come out of his mouth. that, and his looks which had broken the internet when he had face revealed, catapulting him from a fairly unknown but well loved streamer to regularly getting hundreds of thousands of views on his streams.

his current streams mostly consisted of him working his way through resident evil. viewers could expect to see a decent progression within each stream due to choso not being completely useless at playing the game, alongside his dumb comments diminishing the fear factor of the franchise ever so slightly. and of course, his ever so subtle crush on the character ada wong.

'chat oh my GOD i've never been so in love with some pixels before'

'ada baby please, just one chance. i know that i'm 3d and you're 2d but we'll make it work'

every time a cutscene of her plays, there's an absolute torrent of messages and donations teasing him for his poorly hidden crush, ones that choso takes the time to properly read through during his breaks in the stream. such an occasion happens now, with choso reading out some random comments when a new donation rings out, the text to speech voice that comes with it bearing a demand

'choso you need to look up this account RIGHT NOW and look at the video they just posted'

his brow furrows as he reads the username, deliberating on whether he should actually follow those instructions or if his viewer was just trying to mess with him. ultimately, he conceded to his chat's wishes and opened a new browser window, typing it in.

a mere few hours later after the stream, you found your notifications to be blowing up more than usual. you had posted a new cosplay video earlier today, but even then there was a little TOO many notifications to be your usual audience. you noticed that you had been tagged in an edit, inclining you to click on that before wading through the likes and comments. every time that you received one it was a special kind of joy, with the knowledge that someone enjoyed your cosplays enough to inspire them to make something. you hear the music begin to fade in once the edit loads, though the intro clip has you confused as you don't think that you've seen it before.

obviously, you recognise choso, the handsome and funny streamer who got really popular recently, and one that you have unfortunately joined many others in appointing as your resident e-crush. you weren't big on watching streams, but every time a clip of choso appears when you scroll, you can't help but watch the whole thing, partially for its entertainment value, and partially because of just how cute the guy looked on your phone screen.

so really, it was quite the surreal experience to hear your username fall from his lips as the clip plays on your phone, and you watch the edit in disbelief

'am i spelling this right, chat?'

'and the latest video, right- oh it's, holy fuck-"

the beat then kicks in. clips of your ada wong cosplay flashing across the screen, one final flashbang of choso's face as he watches your video with an almost comical expression of awe. you're left absolutely flabbergasted as the video begins to loop, clicking on the comments to see what the hell was going on

'get in damn line choso 😩'

'BROOOODJFNSJG I WAS WATCHING THE STREAM AND I JUST KNEWWWWW SOMEONE WAS GONNA MAKE AN EDIT WITH THAT CLIP 😭😭😭'

'the stream was like 2 hours ago this edit was so fast wtf'

'it should have been meeeeeee ughhh'

'the way choso scrolled thru her ENTIRE account and then followed her... that man's finally got a crush on a real personnnnn'

that last comment captures your attention specifically, and sure enough, you see his username amongst your many new followers. it pays to get noticed by a popular streamer, you suppose.

and then, to your utmost surprise, you also see his name pop up within your dm requests

@/ch0k4mo: sooo are you in need of a leon kennedy by any chance

the dm isn't exactly suave, but it has its intended effect as you blink at your screen as you process it, finally letting out a squeal of excitement, screenshotting the message shamelessly. your friends are not gonna believe this. and then, only after running laps around your room and waiting for your erratic heartrate to return to a normal tempo, you type out a shaky response.

@/yn: funny that you ask that, cos i had a few video ideas in mind ;)

you can only hope that on the other end of the line, choso is having a somewhat similar reaction to yours.

streamer!sukuna [@/kingkuna] who is notorious for causing chaos online, whether on fps games such as cs and valorant, or even on the more inane roblox games where he makes a living off of terrorising little kids. actions speak louder than words, though the streamer is quick to utilise both when instilling terror on whichever server has the misfortune of having him

'i do this for the love of the game, chat'

'well, that, and because bullying little runts is fun'

all of these actions, streamed live every wednesday and friday, helped to garner sukuna a rather.... distinct reputation.

despite being considered an asshole for all intents and purposes, sukuna had somehow amassed a following, all from his persona of being an online troll.

so this week's particular stream was especially shocking to his fans for all of the wrong reasons.

it started off like any other stream, sukuna casually reading off the odd message in his chat whilst preparing for the stream, retorting some snarky comment that has the chat getting more and more riled up, all with a shit-eating grin on his face.

it was more or less a love-hate relationship between him and his chat, though everyone seemed happy with the dynamic, expecting no less from the streamer.

this stream in particular was particularly anticipated, if the steadily increasing viewcount in the corner was anything to go off of, probably due to the fact that this wasn't quite like his other streams. despite the countless hours of his content, very little was known about sukuna, and as a 1 million subscriber goal, the man had acquiesced to people's demands for a q&a.

it started off as well as it could have, with rather generic questions rolling out. but of course, knowing sukuna's audience (and his lenient moderators), some raunchier ones started to worm their way through

'does it... jiggle when i walk? mods, get this clown out of here'

sukuna rattles through the questions, his fans clearly revelling in his embarrassing childhood stories, in the knowledge that his hair is not dyed, and how he views his streams as training to continue defeating his nephew in fortnite whenever they play together.

and then, finally, the fated question

'kingkuna i have to know for all the ladies out there... do u have a gf??'

it's a special donation message, one that rattles off loud and clear in a way that absolutely cannot be missed, though with the amount of time it takes for him to respond, he may as well have.

'hm, wouldn't you like to know?'

there's a torrent of outraged messages, before a deep booming laugh emits from the man.

'ehhh, i'm just fucking with you. of course i do, she's my forever girl.'

there's another torrent of messages in chat, though they're now oohing and ahhing at just how uncharacteristically sweet the streamer is being. his eyes flit over the incoming messages, his grin widening as his gaze lifts to somewhere beyond the webcam's reach.

there's a silent exchange, no words needed before sukuna reclines back in his chair, his legs spreading as he makes room for whoever's coming into frame.

'she's right here, too. everyone say hi to y/n'

and when she situates herself right on his lap and his arm wraps around her waist, the chat goes crazy. the streamer seems to remember his regular image, cackling at the desperate onslaught of messages eager to get even a morsel of information about the two of you, instead starting to click away at the preparations needed before he ends the stream

'oh would you look at the time, looks like i'll be having to end the stream now. see you suckers on wednesday'

'byeeeee!'

you can't help but chime in, giggling and waving right at the camera before the stream shuts off, and you feel sukuna begin to truly relax into his chair, shuffling you impossibly closer to his chest, hugging you to him and burying his face against you.

'aww, you big baby'

'dunno what you're talking about'

you giggle at your boyfriend's antics, though definitely used to them by now. instead, you get comfy, letting sukuna use you as his personal pillow as you card through his hair with one hand, the other unlocking your phone and you begin to scroll through twitter. #kingkuna1m was already trending thanks to the premise of his livestream, and you can't help but click on the tag, looking through some of the most recent tweets.

'never would i EVER have expected SUKUNA of all ppl to be relationship goals'

'praying on his downfall fr 🙏🙏🙏 he doesn't know how good he has it'

'he's so EVIL for ending the stream like that omfg'

'the way he looks at her IM SICKKKKK ☹️☹️☹️☹️'

that last one comes with a video, a hasty screen recording of those last few moments of the stream as you wave at the camera, though you're focusing on the shamelessly lovestruck expression on sukuna's face as he watches you. it's enough to have you giggling and kicking your feet right in his lap, and he grumbles, his spare hand catching onto your flailing ankle

'quit squirming, brat'

'but you're just so cute, kunaaa'

you show him your phone screen, and it's your turn to study his face as he looks at the video impassively, though he can't hide the little twitch of his lips.

'my camera must be faulty, gotta get a new one'

streamer!gojo [@/sago] who is affectionately known by his fans for being a big fat nerd. it's not like he tries to hide it, the background of his setup decorated avidly with all sorts of posters and memorabilia from his favourite shows and games. compared to other streamers, too, gojo wasn't one to particularly shy away from details of his personal life, his laidback and easygoing persona making it easy for people to become regular viewers of his streams.

on said streams it was commonplace for his chat to ask him questions about himself, and more often than not he would give them an answer- and on one of these such occasions is when he let slip the fact that he had a roommate. and that in itself isn't anything too worldbreaking to hear, but it's the way he almost lights up as he mentions your name that has his fans intrigued.

even more interesting is gojo's reluctance, for lack of a better word, about relinquishing more information about you. how quick he is to change the subject, or act as if he never read the original message at all.

and in an impressive effort which has the streisand effect in strong contention to be renamed to the gojo effect, this only further instils a need for his fans to know everything that they possibly could about you.

it's arguably one of his most well-loved bits with an incredibly long longevity, with a large amount of fanmade compilations of him at least alluding to it

'who's my roommate? i'll let you know when i find out'

'come back with a warrant, fed'

'that's some very personal information there which i would be hesitant to spread online. what do you MEAN i was telling you all about where i grew up 2 minutes ago-'

(you get the picture)

therefore, it's a rare and delightful treat whenever a new tidbit about you is let slip by the streamer. the day that your name got accidentally revealed by him on stream was a day for the books. and of course, since gojo's fans were deranged, your insta account and subsequent face reveal were soon to follow.

and once the cat was out of the bag, gojo seemed to begrudgingly relax about your secrecy. you started popping up in streams a bit more often, usually just a face peeking in to the room of gojo's setup, a sneaky wave that satoru would notice later and grin to himself about. he's got a highlight reel of your appearances on his twitch profile that he likes to rewatch more than he cares to admit.

one time, he even had you sat next to him during a just chatting stream, the two of you shooting the shit. his fans were quick to point out how red the tips of his ears were throughout the whole stream. and how he looked at you like you hung the moon and stars whenever you spoke. and how he kept looking at you like that even when you weren't speaking.

it was never official, but satoru's feelings for you were.. rather obvious to anyone with the time to tune in to his streams. his touchiness regarding you seemed to make a lot more sense now, and became the newest aspect of satoru's life for his chat to ruthlessly mock.

today was just a regular stream- some mindless shooter game that satoru was way too invested in, no mentions or guest appearances of you. until now.

the door opened in the background of the stream- satoru's eyes flick up just before the door even moves, as if he had a sixth sense just for you- and you storm into the room, closer to annoyed than your usual cheery self.

'toru, you forgot to take out the bins. they're being collected tomorrow so don't leave it too late

and just like that, you're gone again. there's not even an ounce of hesitation before satoru is getting up from his desk, headphones coming off despite the yells of his teammates for him to stop fucking around and help them rush a.

chat is making their usual comments, a spam of their love for you and excitement that you've made an appearance. a few keener watchers were geeking over the toru nickname that's sure to make their way into the next y/n and gojo compilation video.

and despite all of this, satoru's heading out of the room.

'my girl's mad at me guys, i gotta go fix it'

and he's only gone for a few minutes, at most. but it's like an implosion of oncoming messages, all scrolling past his screen with no eyes to see them.

gojospinkietoe: FIRST TORU THEN MY GIRL!!!???? OHHHH MY GOD 🥺🥺🥺

iwatchmen: the gojoyn fans are gonna loveeee this

gojoyn5evrrr: SOMEONE CLIP THAT

funnily enough, satoru doesn't even realise the slipup until he's almost back to his room. at least he can blame the blush this time on having to have gone outside very briefly.

it's not exactly the same as his usual slipups when it comes to you- usually, there's at least an element of truth to them, but this appears to be sourced from somewhere deeper in his brain, a lot more of a subconscious desire that he hoped wouldn't breach into the conscious realm.

not until he was ready, at least.

streamer!ino [@/yunglean4ever] who's more of an up and coming streamer.. but he's slowly and steadily making his way up the rankings!! his game of choice is usually an fps, with his default usually being csgo. or something like that. he enjoys the straightforward nature of it. and teabagging his opponents when he's in the mood to be a little shit.

during these livestreams he's met many a different player, some friendlier than the regular silence or automatic irritated mood that most seemed to have- or some russian guy screaming words into the mic that was anyone's guess as to what it meant.

and while interacting with said teammates is always a promising aspect of entertainment, ino wasn't one to remember most of these interactions, save for a few especially distinct ones.

one such occasion is when he meets you. you've got your mic on, which is always more appealing for ino than having to communicate via typing or reading chats, and even better is the almost instant connection that the two of you make. you giggle at his silly username, he indignantly defends his love for drain gang, and the rest is history.

one match played together turns into a friend request, which turns into becoming a party, which turns into playing duos, which turns into goving each other your discords, which turns into many more rounds which extend way after ino ends his stream.

it was merely a start to this new... something, but with the way that ino caught himself laughing a little too hard at your mildly funny jokes, he had a feeling that it would turn into something much more.

so when he boots up his pc the next day, it's not much surprise to him that there's some giddy emotion that he feels when he says a message from you

'wanna play? had a lot of fun last night w u :D'

he couldn't type out a response fast enough to contain his excitement.

⋆˚࿔ jjk masterlist

⋆. 𐙚 ˚ ... or, try reading hopelessly devoted to you

[blueskittlesart]

What's your wishlist for the next Zelda game? Personally I really hope we get Sheik again

i feel like my list of wants is a bit. idk. less corporeal than most peoples if that makes sense. mostly I want them to do something they've never done before. I want them to get experimental with it. I want something that looks nothing like breath of the wild (or any other game on the market.) I think it would be cool to get a proper mainline 3d game where the art style harkens back to 2d pixel graphics, but not necessarily in the very on-the-nose way that la/eow did. I want something that is both the bright, colorful, animated vibe that zelda is known for while also being experimental and different. I absolutely do not want them to get stuck in the cycle of attempting to clone their most recent successful game--honestly, in my ideal world we would never get another open-world zelda. I think it might actually be cool to allow the pendulum to swing back the other way and do something extremely linear. I think that well-built, dynamic dungeons should definitely be a focus moving forward because as much as i love botw/totk i think that their dungeons were their biggest weakness. modern game design gives devs the ability to build puzzles on a scale that was completely unimaginable for most of the lifetime of this series, and i honestly think that dungeons have been kind of underutilized in zelda in recent titles. botw hit on SOMETHING with the divine beasts but the actual puzzles weren't nearly complex, interesting, or story-important enough to get all the way there, and totk swung back in the wrong direction with its at times infuriating dungeon design. EOW honestly had the most compelling dungeon design of the more recent releases, and I think it once again got CLOSE to the mark by making them overtly story-relevant, but the puzzles were once again lacking in complexity and the game's unique element (echoes) wasn't quite utilized to the degree I think it should have been. I would also love to see ganondorf become a more central character again--I think that while his absence in botw was justifiable and didn't take away from the story, the weird way in which he was shoved into totk after the fact made the entire story significantly weaker. I'd like to see new ganondorf incarnations, and I'd like them to play significant roles in the story from the very beginning in the same way that oot ganondorf did in the 90s-10s. Similarly, i would also love to see the triforce come back into play! I think that balancing the more classic elements that fans know and love with a new, innovative art style and gameplay is the only way to allow the franchise to maintain its cultural relevance and keep players engaged moving forward. and yeah seeing sheik again could be cool too

[cloverandstuff]

To be Hero X is...so much better than I ever could have imagined.

When I initially saw clips of the show on youtube, I loved the animation style, but I was scared that the plot or even concept might be executed in a poor manner.

I was scared that I might find Lin Ling boring, and predictable. And when I saw Moon, I was even more scared of what they planned to do with her, since the clips made it seem like she would just be the tsundere stereotype.

But I was so wrong and I am so happy about that.

The concept of the whole show is so beautiful and they execute it remarkably well in the first and second episode. The artstyle only helps, with the combination of 2D and 3D helping to setup emotional beats. I managed to grasp the power system easily, but it still has the ability to remain complex (cause whenever something is based mainly on realistic emotions, it's bound to get complex)

They establish the world setting and plot setup in a very entertaining way in the first episode. The suicide is fucking hilarious, with the tone shift that it does. But it's not funny to Lin Ling, and when he has to tell anyone, he genuinely seems distraught or upset over it.

Speaking of him, Lin Ling has my sense of humour. He is shy but also just unapologetically himself. He hesitates but it's not annoying or unreasonable. He's bold when he needs to be and it doesn't feel wildly out of character.

Episode 2, however, was my favourite out of the two. Mainly cause it adds so much more flavour to the characters.

Lin Ling is a genuinely kind person who isn't just doing shit for Moon to get her to like him back. He really just wanted to make her happy, and makes the choices to achieve that, even if it isn't necessarily what he wanted.

Moon, while still having the essence of tsundere in her, proves to be kore than that. We don't know the way her relationship worked with Nice, but she hated being chained. She didn't want fame nor money. She wanted the freedom to travel. She is aggressive but she isn't cruel to Lin Ling. She acts childish and playful, and doesn't stop herself from having fun.

And her arc in that single episode? She wanted to stop being an accessory to Nice, and just be her own person. When she gets to have that, she chooses it over Lin Ling, because she know what she didn't want. She made the choice she knew would make her happiest, and Lin Ling respectdd that, even if he was upset.

(I ship them. I actually ship them so much. They deserve each other.)

Original Nice was given the justice he derseved, with it not being a case of "old hero was actually an asshole and the new guy is much better". He is complex and flawed, with many complex emotions.

I don't have OCD, but based on my undertsanding, OG Nice seemed to be a good representation of that. Suddenly having obsessive thoughts with perfection, to the point that it affects your personal life and relationships, makes sense for him. He hadn't had these thoughts before and when his powers declared he would, it affected him deeply.

His persona was not wholly fake, because he genuinely wanted to be a hero. He was mainly a performer before (with the few clips we see of his life before), and that translated into his persona.

Then we have Wreck. My god, Wreck is just so unique in the series. When he appears first, you are intentionally made to believe that he's jealous of nice and wants Moon. In fact, most of the times he shows this anger is mainly in the romantic 'scenes' between Nice and Moon.

When the wedding happens, he aims straight for Nice. Because he wants answers. He wants to kniw why none of his texts got responses. When he gets punched, he immediately knows that Nice isn't his Nice.

His character revolves mainly around a false narrative you are fed, before he outright breaks every piece. He cherishes Nice, and mourns him when he finds out about the suicide. His dreams, which began with him, seem near impossible to continue now that he's gone.

I don't know how his story will be continues, but I hope he shows up. He is a genuinely good character that I would love to see elaborated more. Especially since he is the only one left who seems to truly know Nice.

[jovial-thunder]

Pre-alpha Lancer Tactics changelog

(cross-posting the full gif changelog here because folks seemed to like it last time I did)

We're aiming for getting the first public alpha for backers by the end of this month! Carpenter and I scoped out mechanics that can wait until after the alpha (e.g. grappling, hiding) in favor of tying up the hundred loose threads that are needed for something that approaches a playable game. So this is mostly a big ol changelog of an update from doing that.

But I also gave a talent talk at a local Portland Indie Game Squad event about engine architecture! It'll sound familiar if you've been reading these updates; I laid out the basic idea for this talk almost a year ago, back in the June 2023 update.

We've also signed contracts & had a kickoff meeting with our writers to start on the campaigns. While I've enjoyed like a year of engine-work, it'll be so so nice to start getting to tell stories. Data structures don't mean anything beyond how they affect humans & other life.

New Content

Implemented flying as a status; unit counts as +3 spaces above the current ground level and ignores terrain and elevation extra movement costs. Added hover + takeoff/land animations.

Gave deployables the ability to have 3D meshes instead of 2D sprites; we'll probably use this mostly when the deployable in question is climbable.

Related, I fixed a bug where after terrain destruction, all units recheck the ground height under them so they'll move down if the ground is shot out from under them. When the Jerichos do that, they say "oh heck, the ground is taller! I better move up to stand on it!" — not realizing that the taller ground they're seeing came from themselves.

Fixed by locking some units' rendering to the ground level; this means no stacking climbable things, which is a call I'm comfortable making. We ain't making minecraft here (I whisper to myself, gazing at the bottom of my tea mug). 

Block sizes are currently 1x1x0.5 — half as tall as they are wide. Since that was a size I pulled out of nowhere for convenience, we did some art tests for different block heights and camera angles. TLDR that size works great and we're leaving it.

Added Cone AOE pattern, courtesy of an algorithm NMcCoy sent me that guarantees the correct number of tiles are picked at the correct distance from the origin.

pick your aim angle

for each distance step N of your cone, make a list ("ring") of all the cells at that distance from your origin

sort those cells by angular distance from your aim angle, and include the N closest cells in that ring in the cone's area

Here's a gif they made of it in Bitsy:

Units face where you're planning on moving/targeting them.

Got Walking Armory's Shock option working. Added subtle (too subtle, now that I look at it) electricity effect.

Other things we've added but I don't have gifs for or failed to upload. You'll have to trust me. :)

disengage action

overcharge action

Improved Armament core bonus

basic mine explosion fx

explosion fx on character dying

Increase map elevation cap to 10. It's nice but definitely is risky with increasing the voxel space, gonna have to keep an eye on performance.

Added Structured + Stress event and the associated popups. Also added meltdown status (and hidden countdown), but there's not animation for this yet so your guy just abruptly disappears and leaves huge crater.

UI Improvements

Rearranged the portrait maker. Auto-expand the color picker so you don't have to keep clicking into a submenu.

Added topdown camera mode by pressing R for handling getting mechs out of tight spaces.

The action tooltips have been bothering me for a while; they extend up and cover prime play-area real estate in the center of the screen. So I redesigned them to be shorter and have a max height by putting long descriptions in a scrollable box. This sounds simple, but the redesign, pulling in all the correct data for the tags, and wiring up the tooltips took like seven hours. Game dev is hard, yo.

Put the unit inspect popups in lockable tooltips + added a bunch of tooltips to them.

Implemented the rest of Carpenter's cool hex-y action and end turn readout. I'm a big fan of whenever we can make the game look more like a game and less like a website (though he balances out my impulse for that for the sake of legibility).

Added a JANKY talent/frame picker. I swear we have designs for a better one, but sometimes you gotta just get it working. Also seen briefly here are basic level up/down and HASE buttons.

Other no-picture things:

Negated the map-scaling effect that happens when the window resizes to prevent bad pixel scaling of mechs at different resolutions; making the window bigger now just lets you see more play area instead of making things bigger.

WIP Objectives Bullets panel to give the current sitrep info

Wired up a buncha tooltips throughout the character sheet.

Under the Hood

Serialization: can save/load games! This is the payoff for sticking with that engine architecture I've been going on about. I had to add a serialization function to everything in the center layer which took a while, but it was fairly straightforward work with few curveballs.

Finished replacement of the kit/unit/reinforcement group/sitrep pickers with a new standardized system that can pull from stock data and user-saved data.

Updated to Godot 4.2.2; the game (and editor) has been crashing on exit for a LONG time and for the life of me I couldn't track down why, but this minor update in Godot completely fixed the bug. I still have no idea what was happening, but it's so cool to be working in an engine that's this active bugfixing-wise! 

Other Bugfixes

Pulled straight from the internal changelog, no edits for public parseability:

calculate cover for fliers correctly

no overwatch when outside of vertical threat

fixed skirmisher triggering for each attack in an AOE

fixed jumpjets boost-available detection

fixed mines not triggering when you step right on top of them // at a different elevation but still adjacent

weapon mods not a valid target for destruction

made camera pan less jumpy and adjust to the terrain height

better Buff name/desc localization

Fixed compcon planner letting you both boost and attack with one quick action.

Fix displayed movement points not updating

Prevent wrecks from going prone

fix berserkers not moving if they were exactly one tile away

hex mine uses deployer's save target instead of 0

restrict weapon mod selection if you don't have the SP to pay

fix deployable previews not going away

fix impaired not showing up in the unit inspector (its status code is 0 so there was a check that was like "looks like there's no status here")

fix skirmisher letting you move to a tile that should cost two movement if it's only one space away

fix hit percent calculation

fix rangefinder grid shader corner issues (this was like a full day to rewrite the shader to be better)

Teleporting costs the max(spaces traveled, elevation change) instead of always 1

So um, yeah, that's my talk, any questions? (I had a professor once tell us to never end a talk like this, so now of course it's the phrase that first comes to mind whenever I end a talk)

[descendant-of-truth]

Rise of Lyric has by far some of the most consistently expressive character animation of any 3D Sonic game ever, and frankly I think Frontiers should be embarrassed that it isn't at minimum on the same level as it, if not better.

Because here's the thing: RoL still looks awkward at times. Mouth shapes can feel a little weird, the eyebrows don't always seem to know what they're supposed to be doing, little things that give off the impression that it wasn't quite as polished as it wanted to be. But it's still LEAGUES above Frontiers, even with the progress it's made over other mainline games.

And look, I really can't claim to know how the models they're using work because I don't have the ability to mess around with them myself, but at this point I'm starting to wonder if they're just... not particularly stretchy by nature?? Because I can't imagine any other reason for them to be so stiff even when the animators are doing their best.

To prove my point, let's compare a very similar expression and pose of Sonic's from Frontiers and RoL respectively.

In both of these scenes, Sonic is expressing determination to fight in order to save his friends. In Frontiers, this is from the Final Horizon update, right after Amy, Tails, and Knuckles sacrificed their corporeal forms in order to bring Sonic back from corruption. Sonic is currently feeling the weight of that sacrifice full-force, lamenting that they gave up their chance at freedom for him, and uses that pain to push himself forward to really save them this time.

In Rise of Lyric, Sonic is staring down a robot army led by Metal Sonic as the door in front of them closes. He's already ushered Amy, Tails, and Knuckles behind him into a suspicious temple of sorts, but he's prepared to fight in case it doesn't close fast enough. He was told twice not to open the door in the first place, but he was concerned for his friends, and decided to prioritize protecting them over their own desires to keep fighting.

With such similar framing, it's hard not to see how Frontiers' expressions fall short. Both Sonics have their eyes narrowed, the bridge of their eyebrows scrunched down to separate them into two distinct shapes, and they're holding their fists up. But in Frontiers, it's not very clear what emotions he's feeling just by looking at him. Sure, he looks kinda determined if you squint, but at a glance, he looks almost more neutral than anything.

And it just gets worse the more you think about it because by all accounts, he should be having a MORE intense expression than the one in Rise of Lyric! I mean come on, the guy practically died five minutes ago and is gearing himself up for another round of Titan fights. He should be looking exhausted and utterly spent but like he's still gonna keep going somehow.

It got to the point where, halfway through writing this, I decided that it wasn't enough to just talk about what his expression should have looked like, and that I was going to put my money where my mouth was and redraw it myself.

I scrunched his eyes and brows down closer to how they are in the Boom screenshot for the determined look, made him look upwards with his irises instead of staring blankly ahead, and pulled up his lower eyelids to add an edge of desperation to him.

I kept his mouth in the same position, but tried to make it look a little more... angry? by curling it up on one side and showcasing his top teeth more. Finally, I changed the position of his body and arms a bit, to make it look like his whole body was tensing up along with his face.

These are all Extremely Doable in 3D animation - the only part I'm uncertain of is the mouth, since I tend to draw mouths with a very 2D mindset. But on principle, it should not be hard to shape his eyes to match his emotions. That is the absolute bare minimum of what you want your character models to be capable of in a professional setting.

And it's driving me nuts that Frontiers, savior of the Sonic games' credibility among the masses, is still being outclassed by what's considered the "second 06" of the franchise. What is happening over there that this keeps being a problem

[amilluh]

How do you do humans because the processes has allways been complicated for me I normally need a temp let or something to make it work?

LOVE this question. Normally when i draw people, its a mix of shapes and lines, like this.

Now, I know its not as simple as just looking at my bases and getting the picture, but i love this question BECAUSE i get to talk about one of my FAVORITE THINGS, that being 3D concepts in a 2D space! When i started drawing I was suuuper inspired by 2D cartoons, I started with tracing Sonic X screenshots lol. But I ALSO wanted full control of my characters and my art, and i wanted the ability to draw them doing anything, anywhere.

So, you HAVE to start thinking about the drawings themselves as 3D concepts in your head, it's not an instant process, and it takes lots of anatomy practice. For that i have used LINE OF ACTION: Figure Study. I've used this slideshow style array of photos to practice, the key is KEEP GOING!!! They probably won't look amazing, and that's OKAY!! The only times my art ever regressed is when I stopped all together.

Try some rounds of the program, I typically did the 30 second timer, and make sure you're just focusing on the OVERALL SHAPE of the people, not any intimate details! Slowly, Surely, I promise you will start to pick up on the small details it takes to make a human out of thin air.

It really helps to map them out in a way that gets the 'bare-bones' out first. Think how logically a skeleton and a body COULD move at all.

Don't be afraid of mixing and matching shapes for different people! It encourages a sense of diversity in your art, people are different anyways. Sharper shapes for angular looks and softer circles for softer people. After I use my shapes, I draw an outline, almost mapping the skin over the skeleton, imagining what the layers of muscle/fat would do, before I give them a more "fleshed' (haha get it cus its like their skin) out look.

I don't wanna overwhelm you with a jumbo answer, so ill TLDR. 1. add the basic skeleton pose, just shapes and lines. what you want them to be doing. (Play with shapes!) 2. draw over again, imagining how their flesh and skin would react to gravity and such as you draw over again as a basic bare body. (or ignore gravity, both are fun regardless.) 3. Continue with anatomy practice, weather with images on pinterest or Line of Action. (Genuinely just love that website and i was suggested it myself many many years ago)

It's always a template, just making my own at this point lol. But never give up and im eager to see what you create! I'm always open to more questions!

sorry the answer was just giving u work to do tho 😔😔

[periwinkla]

HOW. DO U POSE HOW DO U DRAW POSES. I WILL EAT YOU AND STEAL THIS ABILITY

( ˶°ㅁ°) !! Well, I did go to art school and they did make me practice drawing mannequins from photo refs over and over xD I actually had the issue of them looking too static back then. That's to be expected though, 'cause that's what learning is all about. Making tons of mistakes LOL So first, don't be scared to use references. But, I would suggest looking at reference even when you want to draw a made-up pose. Taking inspiration helps a lot. Sometimes I see a pic and I try to 'move' the characters in my head or add other characters in. For example I used this as a base for the latest piece with the wrightworth family (Nap Time): https://pin.it/52sFkmRm5 (the middle pic) There are other times where I make it all up in my head, but I do still look at inspiration to get some ideas. Like when I have no clue what to draw xD And as ideas come to mind, I move the characters in my head. I mostly do this because I can't sketch too much (chronic pain), so I need to do most of the work in my mind. Many artists do many sketches of different poses and choose one of them though, and that seems to work for them. See what fits you best! To train your imagination, I suggest doing some poses yourself. Silly ones, cute ones, etc. Also pay attention to your hands and feet. Those are very expressive parts of the human body. They can make or break a pose. Sometimes I look at my hands and move them to figure out how to draw a gentle gesture, for example. It's important to figure out how the characters fit in the 3D space. Drawing is complex because the medium you draw on is 2D, but usually you're trying to give the illusion of a 3D space. Take your time.

[underlocker]

i high-key love how bad's explaining the concept of being a fourth-dimensional being because it just makes so much sense from both his character's perspective and ours

trying to explain it is like trying to explain to a 2-dimentional creature how we move around in 3D. it's not really something that can be explained. its just an intrinsic property of the world we live in. we can move from here to there in ways 2D creatures simply cannot comprehend because this third axis we have is something they don't.

imagine there was big wall right in front of you. but, being a 3D creature,you can see a path to your left that allows you to simply walk around the wall. a 2D creature in the same position would marvel at your ability to seemingly phase through the wall, despite the existance of the clear path around it.

and you could explain this to the 2D creature all you'd like, but in the end, a good majority of the important details are left up to imagination. what does this supposed 3rd dimention really look like? what does the world look like with the ability to see into it? what is this path the 3D creature can see that it cant, and what does it involve?

that's what's goin on here. this 4th dimention is something bbh could see that the rest of us simply can't. in this dimention, time was something that could be traversed with ease, like walking across a room. like the path around the wall that we can see that a 2D creature couldn't.

it's such an amazing portrayal of character and it makes my brain go brr in the best possible way

EDIT: i am seeing liveblogs that are telling me bbh used this exact metaphor to explain the 4D thing. i love this i love this i lOVE THIS

[muninnhuginn]

Episode 2 To Be Hero X Liveblog

For context on my knowledge going into the show, check here. The gist is I'm going in relatively blind minus a few specific points.

Now, onwards

Oh, okay, the pre-credits has a lot of info in the space of maybe five seconds

aha. The Incident. we meet again.

New person framed between Nice and Moon as it talks of their relationship. Empty cans to the forefront, the healthiest of character intros. That mole on the face should hopefully help me identify them anyway (I say as though this show doesn't have people change physical traits).

"If I can't have something, neither can anyone else." alright, yandere type.

2d backstory this time resembles a kid's comic. Thinking stuff like the start of Look Back, aspects of TBH. Fantasy-like, essentially. Annnd swivels into the 3d as 'reality' hits.

"Thank goodness. Everything's okay." x doubt.

Distance!

oh- you know, I was going to keep screenshotting the distance between them but I think if I do that, I'll have to capture the entire episode

Marketing + branding again. Power is gained through it, as we already knew. The influencer backstory to Moon just backs that up. Being seen as a commodity rather than a person. Moon being saddled as the girlfriend role against her will. The fact she was glad Nice was dead (unclear at this stage whether it was because og Nice sucked or if it was simply a case of two people being forced to be together creating resentment).

"So we have to make sure Nice exists forever, no matter what." Hm, okay, horrifying. That tracks.

"I'll give you some time to think it over." <- well now that's just sus-- oh she's locking them in until they agree. Fair enough

The music can't be the same but why does the background music here whilst LL is blushing sound like that Squid Game OST.

Wasn't warned about the crimes against pianos. I can't look :pensive:

"He can't stand any imperfections or uncleanliness." Noting down for if/when Lin Ling goes that way--

"You're you. Why must you become him?" <- themes

Thinking of the choice of fruits being red on their white clothes + the flash of Moon's body with blood on it.

My guess about her being unable to portal away had been that she had lost the ability as her fame became more attached to Nice's. That she became sidelined as she became only known in association with. The actual answer is... well, the logic follows, but the end result is worse than I'd considered.

Whoa, one month. Didn't think they'd let it take that long considering you'd presumably want to keep content being created for them to not lose their Trust etc.

Not sure what I make of this in the context of og Nice committing suicide.

"It was my job to turn black into white. To make the impossible possible."

....

Oof, everyone on their phones streaming/taking photos and the prominent drone. Really capturing the whole aspect of them putting on a show.

Wreck as a parasocial fan, I see. Okay, so the whole "I object" thing being an act makes sense, but Wreck said the same thing as the start of the episode about "if I can't have something then no one can" so... same person or no? The villains are also cast by the same people as the heroes, makes sense, given it's all a marketing thing. You only get strong heroes with strong villains.

"Speak. Where is Nice?" So the ramble about not answering messages etc was legit then :V. Mask off, yes, same guy as pre-credits.

"What's going on with him?" I wonder :V.

Into 2d as Lin Ling quotes a thing that was never said to him about making the impossible possible. 2d is indeed fantasy/the 'idealistic' world.

Finger tutting.... wait, sorry, getting distracted. But yeah, wanting an excuse to see Nice so badly that he'll fight him if it means he gets to see him.

Neither Lin Ling nor Moon fully recognising why they're sad because she's not "dead" so why should they be? It's the fact they're parting that's upsetting.

Also yiiikes, everyone back with their phones out, part of what is ostensibly a private moment, and yet, it never would be.

Back to distance between them, with Nice in the middle, immediately followed by the news confirming Lin Ling is in it for the long run. Yay visual metaphors ig.

"People will only believe things they want to believe, even if it's a lie."

People can't lie to themselves about fear -> trust vs fear back on the menu. See, I'm presuming for now that Spotlight's actually a different organisation from Nice's, but at the same time, I don't want to rule out that they're secretly the same given we already have one confirmed 'setup villain'. That said, Fear breaking Trust would presumably take down the Trust system, so in theory, there's no motivation for Lin Ling's marketing body to want this. Will keep them as an outside organisation, then. Though, possibly involving former heroes/villains who've turned against the system due to their own experiences.

Misc:

This is the first time I've realised the ending song is actually supposed to be in full English. I always presumed it was just specific lines until I saw the subs there, oops.

We never actually got an explanation for Moon's body covered in blood. I know Lin Ling thought it was a dream, but if that is the case, it's a pretty weird one to have.

Also, wondering when we'll get more crumbs about the Incident. Both episodes have referenced it thus far as a turning point for Nice.

Genuinely surprised the final shot of Lin Ling before we turned to the arc plot wasn't him looking small in the midst of the huge room. Shows love to do that stuff

[do-you-have-a-flag]

putting aside the ethics of 'A.I' videos in their creation/usage/waste/economics, just on a purely technical level one thing i find interesting is no matter if the result looks photorealistic or like 3d CGI- it's all technically 2d image generation.

unless specifically used as an add on in a software for 3d rendering, of course, pretty much every ai video you see online is 2d art. the space rendered is a single plane, think of it like doing a digital painting on a single layer. the depth/perspective is an illusion that is frame by frame being rendered to the best ability of prediction based on data it has been fed.

obviously videos of 3d models in animation are a 2d file. like a pixar movie. but in video games you do have a fully rendered 3d character in a 3d rendered space, that's why glitches that clip through environments are so funny. it's efficient to have stock animations and interaction conditions programmed onto rigged dolls and sets.

by contrast if you were to use a generative ai in a similar context it would be real time animating a series of illustrations. of sounds and scenarios. the complexity required for narrative consistency and the human desire to fuck up restrictions hits up against a much more randomised set of programming. how would it deal with continuity of setting and personality? obviously chatbots already exist but as the fortnight darth vader debacle recently shows there are limits to slapping a skin on a stock chatbot rather than building one custom.

i just think that there's so many problems that come from trying to make an everything generator that don't exist in the mediums it is trying to usurp because those mediums have a built in problem solving process that is inherent to the tools and techniques that make them up.

but also also, very funny to see algorithmic 2D pixel generation being slapped with every label "this photo, this video, this 3d render" like it is at best description cgi, let's call it what it is.

but i could of course be wrong in my understanding of this technology, so feel free to correct me if you have better info, but my basic understanding of this tech is: binary code organised by -> human programming code to create -> computer software code that -> intakes information from data sets to output -> pixels and audio waveforms

[multbasa]

The reason why I don't mind that Zelda doesn't wield a sword in Echoes of Wisdom is because I never cared for having a "female Link".

Some people in the past have told me "why play Princess Zelda when Nintendo could just make the main character customizable or have a female option", and honestly, I hate that idea. I think it devalues Link as a character to just make him like the Pokemon Trainer or Squid Kid, and I personally enjoy Link being a more androgynous character which Nintendo really leaned towards in BotW and TotK. If Link is divided into "boy Link" and "girl Link" then that androgyny gets discarded. Not to mention that BotW/TotK made him so bland in so many cutscenes where he barely emotes at all despite having a lot of personality in the rest of the game: making him a generic self insert will just make him more bland out of necessity so people can project onto him. I much prefer Link having his own personality like in Skyward Sword or Wind Waker etc.

I want to play Princess Zelda because she has her own cool powers throughout the series. I don't need to play a female character because it's a female character, I want to play Princess Zelda or other versions of her like Sheik or Tetra because they're unique.

Furthermore, I do enjoy having unique gameplay styles. I'm really interested in Echoes of Wisdom because it is different. The 2D Zelda games don't really have much going on in the sword fighting department compared to the 3D games: they're very straightforward. It would be interesting for them to expand 2D sword fighting in the future somehow but I don't really know what they would do besides "swing sword, block with shield, attack weak point". The ability to summon minions to fight for you and to spawn all sorts of things sounds very exciting to me personally because it's going to be a very different game than past 2D Zeldas.

I hope that in the future we see more and different Princess Zeldas to play, and personally I would love some co-op titles where I can play with someone else. (It was my hopes and dreams for both Link and Zelda to be playable in TotK when it was first teased. Running around Hyrule with someone else like my twin would have been an absolute joy especially if Zelda had her own unique moveset.)

I just prefer variety. I don't play each Zelda game because I can swing a sword, I play it for the Ocarina of Time or the Wind Waker or the Minish Cap or the masks in Majora's Mask or all the other unique aspects of each game. The sword—besides Skyward Sword—is a method to hit stuff with but it's not often the star of the show, and I am usually disappointed when other items are not useful outside of their respective dungeons. I like how Nintendo is trying to incorporate abilities into the broader gameplay rather than specific uses like in the past because it gives me more options that just "identify the specific item needed in this situation" or "hit the weak spots like this with that".

That isn't to say that there can't be criticisms. For instance I noticed that spawning something with the staff is done by pressing the Y button and there's the whole scroll through items thing. I worry that only having one button assigned to this ability means that there will be a lot of menuing. I am hopeful that Zelda will have more options for different items besides the staff because the other face buttons are free for other things. The D pad icon also leaves space for 3 different things on the left too, so I am interested to see what other abilities Zelda will have available to her. Nintendo is not a stranger to hiding things about upcoming games, so I think there is a good chance that there is some else besides the staff in this game.

Anyway, I just wanted to get this off my chest. I am a female tradesperson, so I don't appreciate anyone insinuating that liking the different playstyle is tied to sexism and the idea that Zelda can't wield a sword (she did in Twilight Princess). I just don't think that a sword and shield is something that every game needs especially in a 2D Zelda where the other abilities are generally more interesting to me.

[ckret2]

@bluefrostyy said: How did bills eye moved from his corner to his center XD

That's a terrific question I actually have a serious answer to!

So for context this comment was left on a post with this image:

About the writing system used in Bill's home dimension. I also illustrate him with an eye on his corner in other posts about his home dimension.

Small diversion: I actually do also occasionally illustrate him with an eye on the inside of his body to represent "psychic" perception (that is: the ability to see the third dimension)—

—as in his home dimension, having an "eyeball on the inside of your body"/inner eye is a non-literal visual metaphor for psychic powers (equivalent to how humans use the phrase "third eye").

But that's just supposed to be a visual metaphor to represent him looking at the third dimension; in reality his eye's in the corner where it belongs. Diversion over!

So I've mentioned recently that one of the consequences of living in a 2D universe is that to someone looking in from "above," a shape's perimeter is their outside/skin, and their internal organs are all on the inside of their shape—completely open and visible to the third dimension. (This is backed up in the original Flatland novel, where the main character Square mentions the visiting Sphere touching his "insides" because the sphere can reach it through the third dimension.) So if you were looking down on Bill's dimension you'd see this, exposed organs and all:

(just an illustrative example of the concept, I don't actually think their guts look LIKE THAT.)

Which means that for Bill to become the Bill we know today, at some point after he left the second dimension, he got skin or armor or an exoskeleton "over" and "under" his body to hide & protect his guts from being poked in the third dimension.

All of which is to say: since leaving the second dimension, Bill's had to make some SERIOUS surgical alterations to his body to accommodate living in the third dimension. Covering his guts is just one of MANY changes he continuously made over the eons since burning his universe.

Relocating his eye from a corner to the center of his body is just another thing he's had to do to adjust to 3D existence. An eye on one corner that's designed primarily to see in a thin horizontal line and that requires him to hover horizontally to see isn't as useful as an eye on the "inside" of his body that faces flat out toward the world and allows him to hover vertically. The new position WOULD look grotesque to a normal shape from his own dimension... but, hey, they've been extinct in the wild for a trillion years, so who cares.

For my writing needs I don't think the exact mechanism by which it was done is relevant. (Surgery by another shape doctor who'd moved to the third dimension? Snapped his fingers and did it himself automatically because he has godlike power? Slowly migrated as his body adjusted itself over time to accommodate his needs, the same way humans' muscle structures or bones can gradually change in response to how they live their lives but extended over billions of years?) What matters is: it was done deliberately, in response to living in the third dimension, because that's where he needed his eye to be.

The other survivors from his dimension—Kryptos, Hectorgon, Amorphous Shape—also have eyes in the middle of their bodies and also started off with eyes on their corners. (Hectorgon appears to have a mouth instead of an eye, but as Bill showed us in the penthouse scene those are the same organ for his species. Kryptos kept his eye in the original place, but it IS now forward facing, and he added a mouth in the middle of his body like the others.)

I think Bill was an early adopter of the new eye position: because being stupidly OP means it was easier for him; because he's not afraid of looking like a freak to his peers; and because since childhood a large part of his identity has been being "psychic"/"having an inner eye" so the idea of making that literal came naturally to him, it's making him a freak in a way that also highlights what makes him special.

[biggaybunny]

Thinking again about the original Spyro games and 3D space in games.

The move to 3D was a tough one for platformers. I think we can all agree on that. Even fondly remembered titles from the era of the N64 and the PS1 were known for having tough or clunky platforming controls. Camera problems, awkward character control, issues with depth marking, difficult gaps; there were all sorts of problems. Hell, the platformer genre shrank to near-nonexistence in the coming generations of games; Mario Sunshine for the gamecube, the first 3D mario after 64, is considered one of the weaker entries, despite having gone to extreme lengths to try and compensate for the difficulty of platforming in 3D (they gave you the ability to hover in air and correct missed jumps, this wasn't by accident).

But back to when platformers were first breaking out into 3D, you can see that a lot of different strategies were used to try and compensate for the difficulty introduced by the new dimension. Crash Bandicoot is well-known for its tactic of restricting the player to two dimensions at a time, giving you obstacle courses of various types to run through, but mixing them up between and even within levels so you still felt like you were playing a 3D game. Other games would give you a double jump to help correct yourself, though the examples I can think of were games that came out a little later (like ratchet and clank for the ps2), so they had the benefit of seeing what worked and what didn't for the first wave. Mario 64, interestingly, simply toned down the difficulty of the platforming challenge, as well as the punishment for failure in all but a few areas (mario had never had a life meter in the 2D games, and certainly wouldn't survive falling in lava in those). You might expect me to say "and that's why Mario 64 was more successful" or something, but that's not my point, and honestly, I think discussing that would be beyond the scope of what I'm trying to get at.

So what I'm trying to get at is that the move to 3D required anyone who wanted to make a platformer to think about space. How they wanted to handle space, how they wanted the player to interact with space. For the platformer, space itself, the geometry of the game, is crucial. Now, obviously, every game is affected by its geometry. A shooter is drastically different if enemies can only come at you from a corridor or from any direction. I'm not saying it's not important for other genres, I'm saying it took even greater importance for platformers. Because it's not enough to say, okay, the player can move in any direction. You have to go a step further. How can they move through every direction? What limits them? What details are there to the geometry that aid or impede that? How many directions can they move at any given moment? In a lot of platformers of the day, a lot of the actual challenging platforming sections tended to happen against walls, or in areas where the player had only to move forward and back, or side to side, at one time, neither both at once (you see this in basically everything Rareware made for the n64).

Spyro (remember what I originally said this post was about? lmao) embraced the possibilities of 3D like no other early platformer did, in my opinion. While Crash put up guide rails and Mario slowballed the challenges for you, Spyro was about using the depth and breadth of the 3D world. Other platformers jump vertically, but Spyro went horizontally. Your challenges weren't above you, they were over there. Yes, way over there. In the distance. Yes, all the way over there. You can't translate Spyro back in to 2D because it actually used all 3 dimensions. What you could see, you could get to, and not by walking over there, but by using your skills. For me personally, as a child, I never even saw the draw distance limitations as a downside. Gliding over a vast chasm and watching treasure and enemies "come into view" as I got close was exciting! It was exploration! Seeing a place and figuring out how to get over to it was a challenge. Trying to eyeball a trajectory and see if I'd make it was exciting. It was all made possible by using the distance and depth of the world, and the relative height of regions of the land. The entire 3D landscape was there, for you to traverse in fun and interesting ways.

There were some drawbacks, yes. Missing a jump in a traditional platformer is often something you find out quickly, and you can quickly learn and iterate on your mistakes. Missing a glide in Spyro often wouldn't be apparently until the 14th second of a 15 second glide, and by the time you got back to where you jumped from you couldn't be sure where, exactly, you had jumped from and if you just needed to try again. The level design was also often hit or miss with clueing you in to the existence of hidden jumps. And by necessity, levels had to full of large open gaps most of the time, which often make the world feel empty and kind of eerie. But I think these are all things that could've been solved with a little bit of iterating on them and some cleverness. Just take a look at how well Crash 4 works after the first 3 Crashes kind of hit a wall with their formula.

I really think that even modern entries in the 3d platforming genre struggle to take advantage of the potential of their world as well as the original Spyro did, at least conceptually. It's a shame the series has been mismanaged as badly as it has for as long as it has, but then again, even the original trilogy was getting pretty bad by the 3rd one. It's just a really hard formula to get right, it was probably a lot easier to copy what everyone else at the time was doing and add more gimmicks and minigames and side characters. So instead of getting to explore rich magical landscapes with a unique moveset as a cool little purple dragon, we got to go skateboarding with Hunter.

I fucking hate Hunter.

[c0ntr0l-c0re-angel]

Hi hi I wanted to ask for your deconstruction of Rhys. I love him to bits but I think it clouds my perspective and I would love an outside perspective on how to write him >.<

Hi!!

To start off, I am obviously not a professional, but i do have over 10 years of writing experience, and I like to think I’m pretty good! Take everything I say with a grain of salt, and I encourage you to come to some of your own conclusions as well :)

Splat, the co-owner of this account, has some things to say too! Rhys is one of his favorites, so he’ll tell you some things about him, and I’ll add some writing tips at the end.

Even though the choices you make can affect his personality in tales, there still is a lot of core features that remain the same through most, if not all playthroughs.

He's extremely loyal to his friends, it’s obvious that they're crucial to not only his arc but his characters, and he is quick to defend and help them to the best of his abilities.

Rhys does display fear in many situations in tales, especially in the starting episodes, but I believe he's a brave character. Despite being afraid, he moves forward regardless of that. If he WASN'T brave, he wouldn't have been able to brave some of Pandora's hardships. He's a lot more capable than people give him credit for.

He isn't without flaw, of course. he's ambitious, and he can be a real asshole. BUT, that doesn't erase the fact that he tries his best to be somewhat kind as well. The two statements can exist at once. We read a book analysis on the Borderlands franchise pre-bl3 that talked about how his masculinity is portrayed differently from most other boderlands men. (The book is called Ain’t No Place For a Hero, check it out.) It elaborates on the good in him, and despite starting out the story AS a "villian", he still has an actual heroic [kind, good, etc.] nature. As opposed to Jack, he is a foil in that way.

Rhys' is a very complex character, I don't blame people for having many interpertations. I think many of them can be good, and even I have some trouble writing him sometimes. Balancing out his core traits definitely helps, and not leaning too much into once of them can help lots.

-Splat

I concur!! lol

Anyway, they are right. The key to writing any canon character is to rewatch the series and take notes! Think about him as a 3D box instead of a 2D one. He has personality traits like ambition, yes, but there is always a reason for his ambition. He’s not just blindly like that- everyone was nurtured to act, or BE, a certain way

Is he a coward for being afraid of Vasquez, of Hyperion, or is he a brave guy for pushing through the fear to do what he believes he needs to do. Based off of that, you can keep expanding. He’s headstrong- he does what he needs to do because he BELIEVES he either deserves it, or it’s what he wants for him and his friends.

Speaking of his friends, at every turn in Tales, if you go what I consider to be the canon route (being that you refuse Jack at the end of the game) he chooses them over his end goal. This proves while he is headstrong- he’s not blind. He loves his friends, and is willing to sacrifice everything he ever wanted to keep them safe- which means he’s caring above being ambitious.

These are all personality traits you can pull from moments in the game. Your best friend when writing Rhys is to think of him as an onion. Yes, i’m quoting Shrek. He has layers- ambition and swagger on top- but when you peel it back, at his core, he does his best to do what he thinks is right (after leaving Hyperion).

Just keep in mind that every character does everything for a reason, and reread when you’re not sure you’ve done something right.

-Doglin

(and a good tip for writing dialogue is to repeat it with his voice in your head, and see if it sounds like him)

[acksolotel618]

HEY!! YOU!! YES YOU!! 🫵🫵

I heard there was a...Gravity Falls and Ninjago crossover AU that I havent heard of before and I too...am a nerd for both of these shows..................

SO WHATS THIS S11 AND GRAVITY FALLS CROSSOVER I HAVENT HEARD ENOUGH ABOUT?? 👀👀

This is important btw I'm going to go FERAL like PLS WDYM OUR TRAUMATIZED ICEY EMP GUY GETS HALF POSSESSED??

EEEEHEHEH OKAYYY SO (keep in mind I have NOT read the book of bill yet due to not being able to easily get it in my country, I'll be getting it around december possibly?? So Bill 2nd dimension lore may be a bit off, not sure tho!!)

Also this will probably be a bit of a long rant, and possibly a bit messy and I have no idea if it'll make sense to anyone other than me..

Also Bill would have a nickname for Zane but I'm still brainstorming one so I guess he's just..Zane for now(/ref)

The basic idea is that Bill replaces Vex. We're gonna think about Bill's ability to see the 3rd dimension and how he's 'outcasted' like Vex's formlessness. Instead of him destroying his dimension, he travels away from everyone in a corner of the 2nd dimension and develops a personality quite similar to how he is in GF canon. (with a bit of Vex dropped in there but they're incredibly similar anyways).

Zane gets blasted by Aspheera but instead of ending up in the Never Realm, he ends up in the 2nd dimension, quite close to where Bill was at the time. Much like Zane and Vex, Bill saw Zane, Zane didn't see Bill. (I'll probably draw a visual on what Zane and Bill would look like in the 2 dimension compared to 2nd dimensional beings some time in the future).

Bill discovers another 3rd dimensional being! Yay!! (Bill pressures Zane into a deal by saying he can help him find home. (Play on words - Zane's new home is a mix between the Emperor's Castle and the Fearamid). Bill possesses Zane, navigates his robo brain, sees a whole thing in Zane's mind about his fear of memory erasure, ignores it, finds a way to erase his memories, and pulls a Vex.)

Bill possesses Zane in a way that Zane is still consciously inside of his body, but kind of shares it with Bill?? If this makes sense. So it's like a split personality sort of cliché thing between person and demon. Zane is still there so he can still power the scroll of forbidden spinjitzu, but Bill can project his own 3 dimensional 'powers' on it too.

Bill uses the scroll to turn the 2nd dimension 3 dimensional more intricately, unlike in GF canon where it just destroyed the entire thing.

And, due to time moving differently in Bill's perspective.. uhh Zane is there for a bit longer than 60 years 😁😁😁😁🤣🤣!!! (millennia)

Since the dimension is now 3D, 2D beings, (eg. Bill's family, diff shapes,) they have to try their best to navigate a 3D plane as 2D shapes. Basically moving across walls and some of the weird shit Bill and Zane make during this like, slightly ice oriented weirdmageddon.

Over these millennia, there would be times where Bill would go and explore other dimensions and bring back the henchmaniacs and all that, leaving Zane to just go insane and with all the weirdness around him, not knowing who he really is other than what Bill tells him. He tries his very damn well best to make sense of everything but just can't even though it's all he remembers.

Zane and Bill also form a close relationship that's kinda like a mix of Zane and Vex's relationship (power imbalance, and in the sense of how Vex manipulated Zane and would probably scold him for not doing stuff) and Bill and Ford's (In how they interact. Acting as if an idea was their own, praise, false sense of equality in their relationship).

(Also when I say 'relationship' I'm not necessarily saying I ship any of these characters romantically.)

There's probably so much more I could say, ESPECIALLY to do with the angst aspects, and I probably will rant more about this some time, but that's basically the big idea. But things may also change because I'm still building the AU up because it is actually quite a big thing to me :33