#input placeholders

[codingflicks]

Placeholder Color Change using CSS

[ayakashibackstreet]

Finished the Enstars portion, friends <3

[vaadazen-codes]

How To Get Started Making Visual Novels

Wanna make a visual novel? Or maybe you've seen games like Our Life, Blooming Panic, Doki Doki Literature Club, etc. and wanna make something like that? Good news, here's a very basic beginners guide on how to get started in renpy and what you need to know going in! Before you start, I highly recommend looking at my last post about writing a script for renpy just to make it easier on you!

LONG POST AHEAD

Obviously, our first step is downloading it from their website

thankfully, its right on the home page of their site. Follow basica program installation steps and run the program. I highly recommend pinning it to your task bar to make it easier to access.

From there, you're met with the renpy app, it's a little daunting at first but let's talk about what all these buttons are for.

Projects

This part is simple, it just lists the current projects in the chosen directory. You probably won't have any in there of your own. You should still see Tutorial and The Question!

Both of those default projects are super helpful in their own ways, i highly recommend testing out the tutorial and playing around with it just to get comfortable with some of the basics.

Create New Project

The first step to actually making your game into a game!

You'll be met with a prompt letting you know that the project is being made in English and that you can change it. You can click Continue.

From here, you'll be asked to input a project name! Put in your games title, or even a placeholder title since this Information can be changed later! (this is also the title the folder will be in your file browser, be sure to name it something you won't overlook)

Now we get to choose our resolution!

If you have no idea what to choose, go for 1920x1080! This is the standard size for most computer monitors and laptops, but it will still display with moderately decent quality on 4k monitors too!

You can choose 3840x2160 as well. This is 2x the measurements of the default, with the same ration. These dimensions are considered 4k. Keep in mind, your image files will be bigger and can cause the game to have a larger size to download.

Now we get to choose our color scheme!

Renpy has some simple default options with the 'light mode' colors being the bottom two rows, and the 'dark mode' colors being the toop two rows.

You can pick anything here, but I like to choose something that matches my projects vibes/colors better. Mostly because depending on how in depth you go with the ui, it minimizes the amount of changes I need to make later.

Click continue and give it a minute. Note: If it says "not responding" wait a moment without clicking anything. It can sometimes freeze briefly during the process.

Now we should be back at our home screen, with our new project showing. Let's talk about allll that stuff on the right now.

Open Directory

This just opens that particular folder in your local file explorer!

game - is all the game files, so your folders for images, audio, saves, and your game files like your script, screens, and more.

base - this is the folder that the game folder is inside of. You can also find the errors and log txt files in here.

images - takes you to your main images folder. This is where you wanna put all of your NON gui images, like your sprites, backgrounds, and CGs. You can create folders inside of this and still call them in the script later. EX: a folder for backgrounds , a folder for sprites for character a, a seperate folder for spirtes for character b, etc.

audio - Takes you to the default audio folder. This is empty, but you can put all your music and sound effects here!

gui - brings up the folder containing all of the default renpy gui. It's a good place to start/ reference for sizes if you want to hand draw your UI pieces like your text box!

Edit File

Simple enough, this is just where you can open your code files in whatever text/code editor you have installed.

Script.rpy - where all of your story and characters live. This is the file you'll spend most of your time in at first

Options.rpy - Contains mostly simple information, like project name and version. There aren't a ton of things in here you need to look at. There is also some lines of code that help 'archive' certain files by file type so that they can't be seen by players digging in code however. Fun if you want to hide some images in there for later or if you just dont want someone seeing how messy your files are. We've all been there

Gui.rpy - where all of the easy customization happens. Here you can change font colors, hover colors, fonts, font sizes, and then the alignment and placement of all of your text! Like your dialogue and names, the height of text buttons, etc. It more or less sets the defaults for a lot of these unless you choose to change them later.

Screens.rpy - undeniably my favorite, this is where all of the UI is laid out for the different screens in your game, like the main menu, game menu, quick menu, choice menu, etc. You can add custom screens too if you want, but I always make my own seperate file for these.

Open Project - this just opens all of those files at once in the code editor. Super handy if you make extra files like I do for certain things.

Actions

last but not least, our actions.

Navigate Script - This feature is underrated in my honest opinion, it's super handy for help debugging! In renpy you can comment with # before a line. However, if you do #TODO and type something after it, it saves it as a note! You can view these TODO's here as well as easily navigate to when certain screens are called, where different labels are (super great if your game is long, and more. It saves some scrolling.

Check Script (Lint) - also super duper handy for debugging some basic things. It also tells you your word count! But its handy for letting you know about some errors that might throw up. I like using it to look for sprites I may or may not have mispelled, because they show up in there too.

Change/Update GUI - Nifty, though once you start customizing GUI on your own, it isn't as useful. You can reset the project at any point and regenerate the image files here. This updates all those defaults we talked about earlier.

Delete Persistent - this just helps you delete any persistent data between play throughs on your end. I like to use it when making a lot of changes while testing the game, so that I can reboot the game fresh.

Force Recompile - Full disclosure, as many games as I've made and as long as I've been using Renpy, i have never used this feature. I searched to see what it does and this is the general consesus: Normally renpy tries to be smart about compiling code (creating .rpyc files) and only compiles .rpy files with changes. This is to speed up the process since compiling takes time. Sometimes you can make changes that renpy don't pick up on and therefore won't recompile. In these cases you can run force recompile to force it. Another solution (if you know what file is affected) is to delete that specific. rpyc file.

The rest of your options on this right hand side are how you make executable builds for your game that people can download to extract and play later!

Sorry gang! that was a whole lot of text obviously the last button "Launch Project" launches an uncompiled version of the project for you to play and test as you go! Hang in tight because my next post is about how to utilize github for renpy, so you can collaborate easier!

[foone]

i was curious about the origin of the name Foone so i tried to look it up but all i found was you! did you invent it for yourself? that’s cool

Yeah. Accidentally.

It's "Foo" (a placeholder word from computer science: FOO, BAR, BAZ, QUX. It comes from the Smokey Stover comic strip from the 30s, but they got it from a badly translated cup that was supposed to say 福, meaning "prosperity" or "good luck") combined with a weird Commodore 64 keyboard quirk which makes it type random letters.

I was playing a Commodore 64 game once, I entered my initials as "FOO" (because I didn't care what name was put in, it wasn't getting saved) , then the weird keyboard turned it into FOONE (because it wasn't an initials input, it was a name input, and I could type more).

I liked the name, I kept it, and now some 18 years later or so it's my legal name.

[eggedbellies]

I drew a stinky guy! Admittedly he doesn't have a name yet, this is just a placeholder name... obviously... but if anyone wants to purchase him, I can input whatever name you desire! Drawn by me, no AI. Big stinky guy. I have some story ideas for him but haven't written them down in case the buyer wants to do something different! $40 if anyone is interested!!!

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! So I’m writing a book about three main characters two of which have autism and ADHD. One of them also has a prosthetic leg and a stutter, I’m aware of your no questions about prosthetics but my question is more based around the stereotypes of how I’ve written it so I’m hoping that’s okay.

The book isn’t entirely based around them being disabled, it’s a part of their character but the book is more about overcoming challenges and not entirely based on being disabled, however said character got her prosthetic leg through a car accident where he leg got crushed and had to be amputated. I didn’t really think at the time about how stereotypical that was and now I’ve realised that it is. Is there anything I could do to make it less stereotypical? It’s difficult to change her story since the book is almost fully written but to give more insight into the fact that not all disabilities happen from accidents I could have another character with a disability they had from birth or developed not from an accident?

Thank you :)))

Hello!

Standard disclaimer that we don't have amputee mods right now (follower input welcome as always) so I'll focus on the "stereotype" part.

The Car Accident being the cause of a character's disability is probably a stereotype, but it's not taken out of nowhere. A lot of people become amputees, get spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, etc., from vehicular accidents. I don't think that it's a problem for this to be why your character is disabled. It would be cool if there was more variety in how characters become disabled, but that doesn't mean the "stereotypical" ways are incorrect (they are usually based on reality, and just overrepresented when compared to other things. Where are all the diabetic amputees at, etc.).

That said, there are ways in which you could make it more complex and, by proxy, interesting. The bigger issue with the "car accident" plotline is IMO that it's used as a "default disability cause" and it's just there as a point in the backstory, but it doesn't seem to affect the character at all in the present. Which just ends up being boring because it's just used as a default placeholder rather than an actual backstory event.

Try to think how the accident affected your character, and what other experiences they had because of it. Are they afraid of cars? Or were they, but aren't anymore? Are they very audibly against drunk driving? Did they have any funny stories from support groups that the hospital could've involved them in? Do they struggle with PTSD?

These are random questions obviously, but basically try to think of the accident in broader terms of how it impacted the character outside of the literal disability. That will be both less stereotypical, and more interesting.

As for the last point; it's usually a good idea to have a wider range of disabled characters (it's already great that you have multiple). So if it's possible, it could be helpful to add a character who became disabled in other ways as well. Since one of your character is already a traumatic amputee, they would probably know at least a few other amputees, and (depending on the general demographic) there's a high chance a lot of them would just be diabetics or have other chronic conditions which lead to them becoming amputees. So that's something you could mention, even offhand, just to acknowledge that other kinds of amputees are very much out there too (which might sound obvious, but believe me that a lot of people are unaware that there are other amputation causes than "literally got it chopped off via physical trauma").

Hope this helps,

mod Sasza

[myheadsgonenumb]

Lowkey begging for a brit picking on common nicknames and who they're used for cos i keep coming across 'poppet' and like- no hate but it's giving me such a massive ick bc that's used pretty exclusively for children 😭 i feel like i'd be super helpful for folks having reference for which ones are more familial/platonic/romantic/any, could throw in some more regional ones too like 'me duck' n 'pet' n stuff like that !!

Ooh, OK this is a really interesting question and quite difficult to answer because the usage of pet names is very regional so I can only give a partial response. I'm in Yorkshire, in the north of England - if any other Brits come across this and have more to add please reblog with your regional input!

I'd say "poppet" is a no in general. I think, if it's used at all in HP, it's used by Aunt Petunia to refer to Dudley, which should tell you something about it's general soppiness and yes, it would be used exclusively by adults for children.

I think the famous one that everyone thinks of when they think "Britain" is "mate". I'd say this is used more frequently towards men/boys than it is to women and that, while women will use it, it is more likely a man calling another man "mate". HOWEVER I would say it's used more between people who don't know each other that well, or at all, rather than between actual mates. It's not never used between friends, but often it is a placeholder word when you don't know someone's name.

In Scotland they use "pal"... but I think there can sometimes be a bit of an edge to that. If they're calling you "pal" they're not being friendly!

In the north we use the word "love" a lot. And everyone uses it on everyone (people claim that men even call other men "love" but I've lived in the north my whole life and never actually heard that). This can actually cause a bit of cultural misunderstanding when the southerners venture past Watford Gap. A lot of southern women take offence when a northern man calls them "love" seemingly out of the blue (e.g asking them "are you lost, love?") as they think the man is being sexist. He isn't. That's just how northerners speak to each other. Men call women it, women call other women it, everyone calls children it.

"Duck" and "ducky" are similarly northern but are falling out of use. They wouldn't look out of place in a Harry Potter fic, though, as long as the fic had similar vibes to canon, because the books have that slightly old fashioned (even for the time), cosy feel to them. The would be used by older characters to younger ones.

"Dear" and "Dearie" would also come under the same umbrella- grownups taking to children, or possible very elderly adults. "Dear" is now a bit contentious, as there used to be a car insurance advert where Michael Winner told a woman to "calm down, dear, it's only a commercial". Later David Cameron, then Prime Minister, caused a ruckus by quoting the first part to a female MP in the House of Commons and it is now seen as quite sexist and patronising. However, adults do patronise both young people and the elderly, so those two groups might still get called it.

"Pet" is northern, as well, I think, and more likely to be used by older people. Either older adults talking to younger ones, or an old man calling his wife it.

Where the north say 'Love' to everyone, I'm told the south west call everyone "My lover". Everyone - strangers, children, your gran. Everyone. It's not sexual or romantic at all.

"My lovely" (or just "lovely") is a less hilarious variation on the same, and one I use quite a lot with the teenagers I work with. Other adult to children terms of endearment tend to be "my love" "love" "sweetheart" (that one is used a lot) and "darlin'" (the g is not pronounced).

Equally, though men chatting women up might also use "love" and "darlin'". (Somehow the darlin' sounds different when its a chat up to when its being used on a child though, I think you put more emphasis on the "Dar" - drawing out the ar sound - if its a chat up.)

When it comes to people in closer relationships - whether familial or romantic, they still might use "love", sometimes "honey" or "sweetheart" (possibly "Darling" with the g if they are quite posh), but a lot of times the names will be much more personal and will vary family/ relationship to family/relationship (my mum has always called me "pumpkinella"). Going back to Petunia, you see her use a variety of personalised names for Dudley - like "Diddykins".

A bit like British people can take any word and make it mean "drunk" they can take any word and turn it into a term of endearment. Pretty much pick a noun and there will be a loving parent calling their child that somewhere in the UK, and it would be a nice touch in your fic to have individualised terms of endearment that various parents call their children. examples are things like "bug" "bunny" "chicken" "squish" "mush" "tinkerbell".

When it comes to romantic relationships, I think age plays a large part in which word is more common. Older couples will use "love", younger ones will use "babe" (but just to throw a spanner in the works, its OK for an adult to call a child babe as a term of endearment and everyone gets that that's not sexualised or romantic).

"baby" is the same (though only a parent would call a child "baby", whereas an adult acting in loco parentis might use "babe") and used by parents to their children and between romantic partners.

I think, generally, the same words are used for and by all people, and the meaning of it is simply changed by the context. There's very few (possibly none) generic terms of endearment that you couldn't use with your romantic partner or child.

When it comes to young people talking to other young people - I don't really hear anyone use them out loud, unless they're being ironic (terms of endearment do tend to be a thing that you start to use as you get older) but on snapchat they call each other "pookie" "bestie" and "babe". These would all be terrible in a HP fic, however.

Back when I was young (and all this was fields) we didn't have group chats and so didn't call each other terms of endearment at all.

I've still never heard a boy call another boy a term of endearment (beyond "mate" - as per above) and that certainly didn't happen (in my experience) when Harry Potter is set. One thing boys did do in the past, which seems to be dying out (at least where I am) is give each other nick names based either on their name or something about their appearance e.g a boy whose last name was "Hobson" was called "Hobbo", "Shaw" was "Shawwy", names got shortened more e.g "Dave" and then there was names like "Ginge". This does seem to have died out totally where I am, but would be time appropriate for HP.

I think because Brits are quite reserved, terms of endearment are either used where the person isn't actually dear to them, and so there is no real meaning behind it (though it is used to be friendly) or in total private with loved ones. And when they are in private, the names can get weird and wonderful and totally unique.

We are far more comfortable showing genuine affection in public by insulting each other. So where I've never heard boys use actual terms of endearment on each other, I have heard them say "you wanker" or "you daft cunt" and mean it affectionately.

It's not all the time, every other sentence though. When someone has done something worthy of being laughed at for, their friends will laugh at them for it and use insults but it will all be in good fun. In my experience with teenagers today, it's not really an everyday occurrence to just call someone a "wanker" out of the blue, unless they're trying to wind them up/ start a fight. But in context of someone having been an idiot, then it's gloves off for insults between friends.

I hope this helps. I think the key is to not pepper every sentence with them and mostly have older characters using them towards younger characters. When it comes to romantic or familial relationships, you can't go wrong with "love" but it will come across as more authentic if you use something a bit offbeat and unique to that relationship. Just pick a word and make that "their word". And you can use insults as affection, but it has to fit the context. Someone has to have done something daft in order for them to affectionately be called a "daft cunt".

[lsd-astronaut]

70s AU Lord of the Rings

Something short loosely based on this post by the lovely @pipis-took :) taking care of my mental health dw guys, i just really wanted to write this

"ARE YOU READY TO ROCK'N'ROLL, PEOPLE!!??"

A dull thud from the other side of the tempered glass was the only answer to Peregrin Took's (Pippin for anyone that had known him for more than five minutes) bold declaration into the mic in front of him. The glare caused by the recording booth's white light—seriously, how many times had he input a suggestion for the studio to change the lights to a warm hue?—made it quite difficult to see what was happening on the other side. He could see arms flailing around, and he smiled thinking "wow, Boromir surely has some groovy dance moves, and we haven't even started playing", but Merry's furrowed eyebrows towards him made the little grin disappear as soon as it had taken form.

Finally, the unsure silence was broken by the crackling of an intercom, and Aragorn's kind, albeit tired, voice made way among Boromir's muffled expletives in the background, who was being barely restrained by Legolas and Gimli.

"Pippin, if you would refrain from screaming into the microphone without prior warning, that would be appreciated—"

His voice was cut short as he was shoved aside by a Boromir that looked seconds away from imploding like a dying star (oh, that could be a nice lyric). He was shouting so loudly, the intercom mic cut at random intervals, leaving many sentences to the receiver's interpretation. "You little fucker... Almost made me... my eardrums fucking explode... this equipment... more valuable... any of you put together!"

"Oh, but I was simply setting the mood, mate!" replied Pippin good-naturedly, as if simply dismissing the validity of any kind of anger towards his person. "Everyone does this in their tracks; think of it as a little gift for the fans." Merry was quickly shaking his head. Whatever for?

"The mood?! For what? May I remind you that the track that we're currently recording is The Edge of Night?"

"A great song if I do say so myself!" Pippin smiled as he took a drag from his fag.

"STOP SMOKING!" Boromir sighed in a great show of restraint, probably aided by Aragorn's calming but brave gesture of putting a hand on his shoulder and lowered his voice. "Look, I've had it with your shit quite enough, I think I've been very patient for you, even with this absolute dogshit of a tracklist you submitted."

"What's wrong with our tracklist?" Pippin gaped at the rest of the band for support, but Merry had busied himself with the tuning of his guitar, and Sam and Frodo were completely useless, oblivious as they were in their private little conversation.

"Oh well, let's see. Track 1: 'Pippin's the Best', Track 2: 'Took Forever', Track 3: 'Peregrin Rules'... Shall I go on?"

Had he not smoked as much pot as he had, maybe Pippin would have blushed in some kind of embarrassment, but his inhibitions and filter were completely down, and thus he truly did not care what this St. Bernard-looking man had to say about him and his artistic choices. Why, he had made reference to the rest of the band in one of the tracks! Fairly benevolent from Peregrin Took, fourth child of Paladin and Eglantine Took, wasn't it?

"Those are just placeholder names! Haven't you seen that before?"

"Oh, yeah? Then why are the supposedly official names crossed out, and your childish ones highlighted in every colour of the rainbow?"

"Duh, because they're pretty?" Pippin took yet another drag. "Don't get your panties in a twist, Boro."

That was it. The straw that broke the camel's back. The drop that tipped the glass of water. Wow, why there were so many phrases for this kind of situation?

"ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH FROM YOU." Now, not even the Three Hunters, as they liked to be called, could calm the raging man in the other side of the glass. He pointed at Pippin before storming out the studio. "I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU EVER AGAIN."

Silence came over the entire recording booth, and Pippin shrugged before turning to his cousin, who was putting his guitar in its case.

"You're gonna kill the guy one of these days, Pip." The younger singer laughed in response. "What is so funny now?"

"Now, now, my dear Merry. I think that hypothetical situation will happen quite soon. This weekend, actually." At his cousin's evident confusion, he rushed to clarify. "Faramir has invited me to have dinner with him and his family."

Merry stopped in his tracks and turned to Pippin in disbelief. "Faramir? That Faramir? You? When? What? How?"

"Oh, you remember that party we were invited to last week by Gondor discography? I will only say that he is a very compelling conversationist, and that the closet in that venue was unexpectedly spacious."

"So, that's why I couldn't hear or see you after an hour. Still, it surprises me that you managed to get him." Merry looked at him like he couldn't believe it even after the explanation, and Pippin scoffed.

"Are you just jealous because you can't get that bird Éowyn?" He put a hand up. "No need to deny it, you're always all over her. At this point, it's getting a bit pathetic. Faramir knows her, maybe he can organise a date for you two."

And with that, Pippin left a speechless (and blushing) Merry, and walked up to Frodo and Sam to discuss the pub itinerary of that night.

Alright, so the band is actually just the four hobbits because like it or not, they're the ones that get the people to listen and watch. Pippin is the singer and the piano (Freddie Mercury who), Merry the guitar, Frodo the bass, and Sam the drums. Boromir is the public relations guy, which means he has to mediate absolutely everything bandwise at the cost of his sanity. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli were part of a small band called The Three Hunters, but now they just do sound checking and all that stuff.

Faramir is the director of Gondor Discographies. Pippin is a lucky guy.

Éowyn is part of a very famous duo band? she sings in with Arwen. She thinks Merry is cute, but none of them have the guts to actually confess to each other. Arwen and Aragorn are engaged.

[maripr]

I do have a theory about deltarune that's not as smart as other people's theories, so don't really look too much into it

Also I'm not trolling

My theory is that Kris is Chara. Not as in haha Kris is evil and is gonna destroy the universe.

But that Kris is the actual human who fell down and we named in Undertale. They seem to be a troubled kid, with both good and bad qualities. I think Chara is the "true name" in the sense that it's a placeholder name for the PLAYER

So in Undertale the player and the fallen human end up having the same will to destroy everything just to see what happens in the genocide route, overwriting frisk's personality. But Chara introduces themselves as the demon that comes when people call its name.

Meaning literally when the player inputs the name. That's why Chara is the "true name". At the end of the day, it's the player who's to blame. Chara confronting us at the end of the genocide route is kinda like the game turning on us, like "this is what you wanted after all"

The character we name in Undertale has a backstory and gets corrupted into a demon by us in the genocide route, while possibly just being a narrator in the pacifist.

I simply think Chara is not a real name lmao.

The difference between Undertale and deltarune is that the fallen human is long dead in UT and the barrier between them and the player is thinner. In deltarune they're still very much alive and resisting our control.

Basically this is my theory: Chara is the True name of a completionist player. Kris was the true name of the human being who fell down and died in Undertale, but survived and grew up in deltarune, albeit with a difficult upbringing.

This also makes me wonder if Frisk exists in the deltarune universe and if we're gonna meet them

[arnethmyndraavn]

Shinsouban Heart Build - 07/2024 - New Menus, Fonts and Bugfixes Update

This update is mostly bugfixes, new menus, new fonts, and better multi-language support. A different group expressed interest in translating the game to Spanish so placeholders have been added for them. English is still only fully translated up to OP3 (after that some JP will appear). Most recent builds can be downloaded HERE Windows, Mac, Linux, Android are supported Project introduction Video Installation Guides

Project Discord https://discord.gg/vsQ2ZDah5r We can still use more volunteers! JP -> EN Translators and Proofreaders are most needed but any help is appreciated! (Most of the translation comes from the Anniversary fan patch, but there is new content in this version)

Detailed Changelog Below:

Changes: * New Options menu * New Credits menu * Better side button assets on main menu * Added more fonts with more supported character sets * Replaced video files with higher quality ones from the PS Vita version * JP is used as a fallback if other languages are missing an asset * Asset loading now handled by JSON files that are easily modifiable * Placeholder added for Spanish Language pack (A separate team is looking to translate this game in the future) Bugfixes: * Name input should no longer fail when valid name is input * Videos should no longer be skipped if they take longer to load Known Issues: * Font size defaults to small - change it in the menu and it should save and not be a problem again * Possible conflicts with player prefs from previous versions of the game (if the game doesn't boot please let me know) * Possible color inversion on Android (not sure the cause) please report any bugs or typos you find!

[codingflicks]

Input Placeholder Color

[pawborough]

Beta Expectations and Our Development Goals

Hi everyone! This document serves as an outline for starting expectations when beginning Closed Beta. 

Things to remember as we move into Closed Beta are: 

Cursing is allowed! We’ve dialed back our filters quite a bit, but absolutely no innuendo or sexual content. Details are outlined in our TOS.

In this beginning, the application feels closer to the Alpha state than it does the full game. It is in a mid-development limbo, which is why we are stressing that it is the Closed Beta state. Our biggest milestones have been backend technical foundations that have taken significant time. If the game were a cake, we have finished baking the base, which is what we’re starting the testing for. We’ll be making aggressive updates throughout the next few months of the test, which will introduce the “frosting,” and advance general playability. We plan to roll out new mechanics every month. You will find a list below of what these goals are.

Temper your starting expectations, but get excited for how much we’re going to continuously develop and update!

We will not be moving into Open Beta until we feel the game is close to done. Think of Closed Beta as phase 1, and Open Beta as phase 2.

Things will break the moment you try them. This is normal and expected. Always report!

Because of this, things won’t be very fun yet. But as we roll out improvements and new things, users will get to give live feedback on what they want to see and how things feel.

Early Access will be less smooth than full Closed Beta as we detect the kinks of letting more people in en masse. It’s the nature of early launching. Brace yourselves!

In the same vein, several aspects are temporary. Topher takes the place of icons in the queue, and compromises we’ve made for early economic simulation (example: a placeholder merchant to simulate the Processing mechanic) will be barren. NPCs are sketches, UI colors may be temporary, and UI banners are sketches.

Any and all prices of items or features are temporary or subject to change. Things like the price of kit rolling or accessory items will be tooled.

All updates and communications with testers will be posted publicly instead of through email. Eventually, we’ll use the site forums, but not until we can guarantee no more content wipes, and we’ve developed the sticky system on the User Dashboard.

Everything in this test, minus your username, password, account ID, and purchases is temporary. Your account content will be erased at some point in time, and when it is your Kickstarter and Alpha reward codes will be re-activated for use.

If anything is broken about your code, please report! We’ll fix it!

Any premium purchases you make will be restored upon wipes, and exist in this state as a means to support us moreso than to stimulate longterm collecting. By purchasing any currency, you’re helping us develop! But please do not feel pressured!

Bundles will be added come the full Closed Beta.

Pelt submissions are open for user testing, but you’ll have to re-submit upon any wipes.

When you complete registration (entering your DOB and confirming agreement to the TOS), your founder and follower IDs will be reserved, so you can take your time going over the details.

These starting cats will be wiped completely, and when Open Beta begins, follower and founder IDs will be totally up for grabs again upon first-come first-serve login and confirmation.

We’ll be around to grind for the next two weeks. Then, in two weeks, there will be a bit of a lull as our developers take a breather and regroup, and we’ll be back in March. We’re making this plan known so it doesn’t look like an abandonment or nervous silence. We’re simply planning rest and pacing ahead of time!

We’ll be sending out periodic surveys to get honest criticism and check how the economy is feeling.

The first survey is ready and waiting for your input! This survey focuses specifically on the economy, and can be filled out once per day. Please do not feel pressured to do so every day, but we encourage you to respond as many times as possible. Your input is immeasurably valuable for the fine-tuning of our economy, and guaranteeing the long-term enjoyability of the site. Please find the survey here.

With over 700 items on this site, we may have missed necessary data entry for some as we learn the ins and outs of our own program. Always report and we’ll fix it!

Some accessories are in the re-coloring queue, and if so will have their recolors seeded into the economy as we finish them.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. We’re ready to hit the ground running, but it will be a long journey. We’re excited to embark on it together!

Here is a list of things available from the get-go (hopefully useable, if not they will be!):

Cooking and Crafting

Daily Duties

Flea Market and Merchants 

Breeding

Dress up and general cat customization

Beta retirement (bare bones)

Cat relationships and cross-cat gift giving

Archetype discovery (we are adding new ones as you play!)

Forum posting and custom board creation (image hosting!)

Cat profile CSS boxes

User profile CSS boxes

Storage and stash functionality for item organization

Bank functionality for currency storage

User customization settings (icon selection, pronoun and slogan editing, Borough swapping, username swapping)

Crest application

Beta guild play (basic errands)

Multiplayer guilds

Incense and metamorphic functionality

Pelt submissions (the refined pelt rules are a work in progress, because for this chaotic testing phase we’d like everyone to go nuts and have some fun! The only steadfast rules are no gore, copyrighted materials, religious iconography, or sexual content!)

Friend requests and adding friends

Premium shop (intended for user support, benefits are bare for at least the next week or so while we focus on user bug reports)

Now without further ado… here is what we’ll be working on in the coming months, in order of general priority! Open Beta will not happen until we finish this list.

Replacing frontend assets with final renders.

Updating item cards to reflect dynamic button displays depending on the page in which the card is being viewed.

User report system for all user-ran content.

Wardrobe functionality; full sandbox dress up available to any visitor.

Infrastructure for sharing sandbox creations in comments and forum posts; text language like :catID: to paste an image link of a cat.

User to user DM functionality.

User to user private trading.

Item database and lore encyclopedia.

Processing functionality + dye system. For now, recolors are seeded in a temporary merchant.

Visual faunapedia record for fauna studying (including unlockable lore.)

Adding a slew of archetypes. Dedicated archetype collection page with user featured display.

Sitewide search functionality of all user content.

Aesthetic updates to comments + addition of comments onto cat pages.

Splitting the Undercoat into two patterns: Dilute (dynamically lightened) and Standard.

Adding a white patch selector into the creator and founder designer.

Dashboard refinement + forum news widget and stickies.

Splitting cooking and crafting to bring back Winnipeg and keep the mechanics more organized.

Farming.

Much of it has been started already, and we’ll continue to share our progress. We plan to stay in Closed Beta likely over the summer, but it will be as long as these developments take.

And then we will move into Open Beta! Where we can focus on the following:

User notebook entries (blog posts.)

Forum board updates to better accommodate posting

Sitewide tagging and filtering.

Cross-account breeding.

Dedicated Guild refinement and updates.

Achievement system.

Referral system.

Team features like a team hoard, team notes, and shared scenes.

Refinement of any feature feedback we get :) 

And from there… it’s full launch, baby! 

Again, a marathon, not a sprint. This list may seem long and arduous, but we’ll continue visual content updates (patterns, breeds, etc.) throughout the length of development.

Let’s get crackin’, catfolk!

[and-with-that-there-was-writing]

Hey so just learned non fanfics aren’t allowed on ao3 at all and will get taken down so I might not upload my story I’ve been writing there.

Why I say might is this is part of the little newsletter thingy that pops up to the top of your screen:

“AO3 is an archive for fanworks, not other kinds of content.

AO3 has a very specific purpose: to host fanworks, and only fanworks. Our definition of "fanwork" is broad: fanworks can take many shapes and forms, including fanfiction, fanart, podfics, fanvids, fancrafts, fannish non-fiction, original works that use fannish tropes, and more. AO3 was designed by and for fans to be a place where fanworks like these could be safely preserved and shared. We will not expand our mission or services to host non-fanwork content.”

I am kinda unsure if my story falls under the category of fannish tropes or not. But I have a bit of hope I could still maybe post it because of this excerpt:

“What are some examples of non-fanworks?

Works that are not fanworks should not be posted to AO3. These include (but are not limited to):

Fic searches or requests for recommendations

Advertisements for roleplay partners or servers

Personal messages to other users

Updates, polls, or announcements

Reaction, blog, or vent posts

Spam, shitposts, or memes

Reposted novels or other published works

Placeholders and other empty works

Links to or lists of works you've read or created

Ideas or prompts for fanworks

Requests for other users to provide you with ideas or prompts for fanworks”

To me this seems less geared towards original works on the site and more geared towards stuff that’s not writing. But overall I’m unsure and would greatly appreciate some input! Soooo….

Right now I’m trying to figure out what ao3 considers a “fannish original work” and will reblog this post woh a screenshot of the answer.

I hope you all have a lovely, lovely day/evening/night!

Edit: okay so part of the reason I’m so inclined to not posting it on ao3 straight up is I don’t wanna bother the volunteers with another work up there they have to take down

Another edit: here’s ao3’s verdict on what is allowed in terms of original works!

My story is mine and not for making money! Just fun old writing! So I can in fact put it on ao3. I’ll probably put it on both ao3 and Tumblr!

[its-me-frankie]

How smart are you, really? 💚💛❤️ Traffic/Life SMP AU announcement!!

Hullo everyone, I have some exciting news! I'm planning a Traffic SMP Smart College Kids Club AU, and it's going to be a rollercoaster! What happens when a bunch of freakishly smart college students come together for an academic competition beyond their wildest dreams?

These college students are ridiculously smart, each with their own specialized area of expertise. They're part of an exclusive, invitation-only club called The Watchers, and their ultimate goal? To win the Smart Life (placeholder name) Competition the toughest, most mind-bending. intellectually demanding academic competition in the world. It's got everything from physics to philosophy, pushing their brains to the very limits.

I plan to tell this story from the perspective of my OC, Amma. Amma knows statistics better than the back of her hand. She thrives in her small social circle and complex equations, so what happens when Amma and her best friend, Gemini Tay, get cryptic matching invitations to an after school club at the nearby coffee shop?

I suppose the bigger question is this: How smart are you, really?

Oh, this is so exciting for me! Right now I'm just in the planning stages, but I do want to hear your input! I have a few specific questions I'll ask, but I also want to hear your general thoughts, where this might be headed, etc. I am currently a very busy bee so nothing is set in stone. I'll probably take breaks, write little chunks at a time, and whatnot. This is also my first time using ao3, so we'll see how it goes.

Thanks for tuning in! See you soon!

- Frankie <3

[quins-makeshift-menagerie]

I say let mini q decide once there a bit older I think it’s interesting to give them their own input in creative idea it might get them interested in art or pokemon

Or they just say pikachu and move on with their life

Pff oh don’t worry. Whenever she’s able she can give me all the input she wants. Whatever I come up with would be more like a placeholder until she’s old enough