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MICKEY 17 (2025)

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Nomai (Outer Wilds) Pattern

Solanum, my beloved! (just kidding!) I am so happy to share this pattern for the Nomai from Outer Wilds - it is a bit of an involved pattern, and probably not for beginners, but I will do my best to explain what I did! Please feel free to message me if you have questions. As always, if you use this pattern, please link back to my page, and tag me here on tumblr or @ erin.gurumi on instagram! I love to see what people make!

Technical stuff:

I used a 3mm crochet hook and these yarns:

Loops and Threads Impeccable in Walnut Tweed (horns)

Red Heart Super Saver in Warm Brown (face)

Red Heart Super Saver in Cream (hair)

Red Heart Super Saver in Paddy Green (space suit)

Red Heart Super Saver in Gold (trim)

Raspberry scrap yarn (glove/shoulder/thigh)

White scrap yarn (boots)

^Head: Rather than the usual amigurumi method of starting from the top/bottom of the head, I started from the front of the face and worked toward the back - this let me make the back of the head in the cream color to better match those ancient Nomai murals!

6 sc in a magic circle in Warm Brown

inc 6x to make 12 stitches

(1 sc, inc) 6x to make 18 stitches

(2 sc, inc) 6x to make 24 stitches

(3 sc, inc) 6x to make 30 stitches

1 row of 30 stitches

Add eyes (I used 12 mm cat eye safety eyes), and nose/mouth (you can do embroidery, paint, etc... I used marker!)

Switch to Cream, 8 rows of 30 stitches

(3sc, dec) 6x to make  24 stitches 

(2sc, dec) 6x to make 18 stitches

(sc, dec) 6x to make 12 stitches

dec, until closed, stuff and finish off

^Ears:

Make two of these of course! To make a teardrop shape like this I start with a round amigurumi shape then kind of flatten it down -

6 sc in a magic circle in Warm Brown

inc 6x to make 12 stitches

dec 1x to make 11 stitches

dec 1x to make 10 stitches

dec 1x to make 9 stitches

from here, decrease until the shape is closed, then add one sc to the top to make it extra pointy - flatten the drop and attach to the sides of the head!

^Legs/torso

This is the usual method I use to make "standing" humanoid amigurumi, where you make two legs and then connect them by crocheting around them - this time it was a bit more involved because of the many color changes and doing a couple rows of crocheting in the back loops so that I was able to attach her tabards and collar

6 sc in a magic circle in White

inc 2x then (inc, sc)4x to make 10 stitches

1 row of 10 stitches in White

change to Green, 5 rows of 10 stitches

change to Gold, 1 row of 10 stitches

change to Raspberry, 3 rows of 10 stitches

Stuff and finish off one leg, stuff and keep the other leg

Torso:

As I'm making the torso, rather than counting how many stitches until I get to a dec, I just eyeball where the decrease will go (for example, in the center of the back, or behind a leg)

On right leg, color change from Raspberry to Green, chain 1, slip stitch into left leg, sc around both legs (~20 stitches - if it ends up more, just decrease in back to that)

1 row of 20 stitches

1 row of 20 stitches in back loops (important for adding the tabards!)

1 row of 18 (one dec behind each leg)

1 row of 17 (dec in back)

1 row of 16 (dec in back)

1 row of 15 (dec in back)

1 row of 13 (one dec in front, one in back)

1 row of 12 (dec in front)

change to Cream, 1 row of 12 in back loops (important for adding the collar!)

1 row of 12

Finish leaving a long tail for connecting the head

^Front Tabard

This is where it gets a little wonky, as I was really just eyeballing the widths of the front and back tabards and using what I had available in terms of the backloops. I also found that crocheting one way resulted in the "flaps" tending to point upward rather than downward, but... I'm not sure if it has to do with how you hold your hook?

Holding ami upside down, attach yarn by right leg with a slip stitch, sc 4

turn, sc 4 (repeat 11x, or however long you want the tabard to be)

^ Back tabard:

You know, I realized part way through that in the back of the Nomai space suits, they actually have two separate bits of fabric (it's super hard to tell from the front!) So I think if you wanted you could make it more accurate you can split the rest of the back loops in half and do this twice, it is basically the same as the front!

Holding ami upside down, attach yarn by left leg with a slip stitch, sc ~13

turn, sc 13 (repeat 13x, or however long you want the tabard to be)

After finishing both the front and back tabards, I crocheted around it with the Gold yarn. Just slip stitch the yarn into one of the stitches (it looks like I started in the back left corner) and crochet around, possibly going into the back loops at the waist if you need to! In the bottom left pic you can see I tried with a White trim first and didn't like it, so I switched to the Gold!

^Collar:

Quite similar to the tabards, except that I went around the neck a couple times to make the shoulder and back collar before starting to crochet back and forth to make the longer front piece.

Start with ami upside down, attach yarn at ami's right shoulder, sc around the back loops (12 stitches)

On second round, increase in every sc, (24ish) -

Stop when you are where you want the collar's front piece to start (I would say ~ 2 stitches past the center of chest) chain 1 and turn, sc 3ish across (or however many you want , chain 1 turn, sc across again (only two rows tall).

Attach Gold in the back and add trim similar to the tabards

^Arms:

Straightforward, but a bit of a pain due to all the color changes in such a small space! Believe in yourself!

6 sc in a magic circle in Raspberry

1 row of 6 stitches in Raspberry

change to Gold, (inc, 2 sc)2x to make 8 stitches

change to Green, 4 rows of 8 stitches

change to Gold, 1 row of 8 stitches

change to Raspberry, 3 rows of 8 stitches

At this point I attached the arms to the body, saving the head for later (I probably could have attached the head now, I just didn't want to while experimenting with her antlers and hair)

^Antlers:

I was surprised at how not-bad these turned out, as I really was winging it... I used the foundation single crochet (fsc) stitch (look up tutorials for this!) and some futzing with the orientation of the pieces to make the "branches" - I honestly don't know how necessary it is, but here's what I did:

Lower antlers (make 2):

5 fsc, turn piece upside down, 2 fsc

finish off and re-attach yarn with slip stitch at turning point, 1 fsc

Upper antlers (make 2):

8 fsc

finish off and re-attach yarn with slip stitch 2 stitches from end, 1 fsc

Upper connector (make 1):

5 fsc, leave tails for connecting

I used a candle to VERY CAREFULLY burn the fuzz off the antlers, so they would be a bit smoother and shinier. If you want to do this, please be cautious, mindful of the type of fiber your yarn is made of, and if you are little, have an adult help!

I then attached the connector to the two upper antlers (just using the tails and knotting them together, but I am sure a dab of hot glue or fabric glue would work fine!) and attached all antlers to the brown yarn of the face, then finally attached the head to the body! As for weaving in ends, ugh I just tried to tie them off and hide them as best as possible!

Adding hair: I reached the image limit, but adding hair is pretty straight forward - What I do is cut lengths of yarn ~2x as long as I want the hair to be (in this case about 7 inches), and then use the crochet hook to thread them through a stitch. If you want them to be more secure, you can tie a knot, but I never bother since my plushies aren't handled very heavily. Since the back of the head was already done in Cream, I didn't feel like I needed to add hair until all the surface was hidden, so I just added until I liked how it sat! Make sure you add hair under her chin for a cute lil goat beard!

PHEW! That is a lot! Let me know if you try this pattern, especially if something seems unclear or wrong/missing, as I am not sure I did a great job explaining all of it! And please, tag me here or @ erin.gurumi on instagram if you end up making her, I would love to see! Outer Wilds is such a special game and I am very happy with how she turned out! Good luck!

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games that use music and sound as narrative/gameplay devices

I think oftentimes people think of visual elements of games as part of game direction, but I think sound and music can be just as important, and I've been thinking recently about a few games that use them as significant gameplay/game design elements. If you've ever played a horror game that built tension with its music or had super gross sounds to accompany the gory visuals, or a puzzle game that had musical motifs that connected related clues together, or even a mobile game with super satisfying sound effects for matching tiles, these are all different ways that sound design and music direction in a game can contribute to better gameplay experience. Having different soundtracks for different regions of a game and having good sound effects for important gameplay elements are really important parts of overall game design, and something that I do really think is undervalued and under-discussed when it comes to games analysis/criticism. We can talk all day and night about yellow paint and ugly HUDs, but getting into the nitty gritty on music and audio as part and parcel of directing players and creating an atmosphere, along with being built into gameplay itself, is something people don't do super often.

And here I'm talking about sound design not just in terms of having a great soundtrack or having some element of music as part of the game, but as sound design as a part of the game design itself, leading players to make certain conclusions or better understand the narrative. Sound and music can direct players in the right direction of further gameplay, contribute to character development and background, connect different concepts and provide clues, and even in a super subtle way can make a game feel more realistic or more visceral, but they can also be a literal part of the gameplay, whether that means players are using the music as a lead for part of an investigation or it contributes to understanding the narrative or tells you where to go next through actual direction and detection (a la using a radio to find where music might be coming from).

This list is by no means exhaustive, I'm just being a nerd about a few games I'm familiar with, so if anyone can think of other games with really significant sound design and musical direction, particularly that tie in with gameplay, please feel free to add on!! Most of these are puzzle/investigation games because that's what I play the most of, and where I think this really hits in terms of adding to the gameplay itself. This does also come up far more often in games involving music as a subject matter, go figure, so I think that's an interesting meta element as well.

Outer Wilds - Outer Wilds uses music, both diagetic and nondiagetic, to signify certain characters, groups, and events. The character associations in particular are a significant element of gameplay, and help differentiate the various characters throughout the game. Outer Wilds also uses music and sound for other gameplay aspects-- the player can use the signalscope to track down quantum signals, distress beacons, and other leads on the mysteries within the game; all of which are needed in order to fully complete it. I don't want to put too many spoilers here, maybe I'll add more in a reblog, but for now I'll just say that I've never seen a game that so successfully used sound and music to create a really spectacular gameplay experience.

Immortality - Though more subtle than Outer Wilds, Immortality also uses music and sound to direct players and build connections across the game, allowing the player to put together the mystery of Marissa's life and career. The music provides hints about a certain significant gameplay element and ties across characters to allow the player to make the right connections and know when to focus on a particular scene.

Return of the Obra Dinn - Return of the Obra Dinn, similar to the above games, uses its music as part of its game design, having particular themes and uses of the music to direct players in certain directions or to show what gameplay aspect a player is doing/meant to do. The music swells when you're looking at a specific scenario, the sounds when you fill out the journal are absolutely banger, and the voice acting and sound effects during the scenes helps to build the larger picture of what happened on the Obra Dinn.

Enigma do Medo/Enigma of Fear - Enigma do Medo is HUGELY inspired by Outer Wilds (I'm working on a very long post about all the inspirations and references, never fear) so it makes perfect sense that it would also include a lot of sound and music elements within its game design. The use of several tools and the significance of music within the game is a huge part of the gameplay, making sound design a really important element of the game because you have to use the music and sounds as clues, just as much as anything visual or found in documents, to put together the mystery of the Perimeter. Enigma do Medo has some really brilliant game design that comes in part from those Outer Wilds inspirations and in part from the devs really understanding how to direct people to find the right pieces of the puzzle, how to make people curious and interested in the mystery, and how to make sure it all stays nonlinear but still easy to follow (for the most part). And the overall sound design and music direction is just incredible, cannot stress that enough, it's one of the strongest elements of the game outside of the investigation side of things.

Killer Frequency - I think Killer Frequency has a bit less of the game direction side of things here and more of the gameplay element-- finding and using the right music during certain moments of the game does become significant, but the music doesn't itself direct you towards further investigation or gameplay really, and the gameplay itself is limited to mostly playing records/tapes/CDs, which, while relevant to music and sound, is less interesting, at least to me, than the music actually relating to the mystery. But I think it does build on itself and do some interesting things with the premise, so it's definitely not a bad game by any metric, and if you're into the interplay between video games and music (and enjoy horror), you'll probably enjoy it.

Sable - Sable doesn't do anything as gameplay-centric as the rest of these games do, but the sound and music are INCREDIBLE, the latter done by Japanese Breakfast, and the way the music ties in with each region and the relationships between the player and the atmosphere, the other characters, and the central gameplay element itself (your glider) is really significant. Also I absolutely adore this game and I wish more people would play it. (It's even on sale on Steam right now!!)

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A Bunch of Friends!!

Careful! Spoilers under there...

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I painted the background on the standing picture I provided for the event and made it into an illustration card!

The composition of the picture is similar to the last card, but I like the atmosphere 👍️

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I love when I’m watching a tv show that’s supposed to show me something futuristic and sci fi and it’s just this stuff glued to something else

Like you can’t fool me. That’s my friend the tube. We are well acquanted

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twelve spending 4.5 billion years punching through a 20ft thick wall of azbantium, a material apparently 400x harder than diamond, dying repeatedly in the process, all so he could get clara back... like whether you see them as platonic or romantic you cannot deny that he quite literally loved her to death

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I was climbing to my feet, trying to see how Miki was damaged, when I froze. Something looked wrong because Miki’s chest was crushed, its processor, memory, everything that made it Miki squeezed to nothing in one flex of the combat bot’s hand.

sometimes the lil guy who tried to be ur friend gets crumpled like a tin can helping u

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PresAux: Don't you ever want to talk about your emotions, SecUnit?

Murderbot: no

Ratthi: I do!

PresAux: We know, Ratthi

Ratthi: I am a maelstrom of emotions

PresAux: We know, Ratthi

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I love that the fact Gurathin being a spy from the Corporation Rim was something that Martha Wells informed the Weitz brothers about for the TV show; the part the show added was the drug addiction angle:

"En el libro, Gurathin cuestiona a Matabot y, en cierto modo, se le puede considerar como el villano de la obra, porque Matabot quiere que le dejen en paz y odia a Gurathin. ¿Por qué [Gurathin] es así? Hablamos con Martha sobre cuál es su historia personal, y en este caso, él era un miembro de seguridad antes de unirse a Preservación Knox.  "Básicamente, Gurathin es un adicto en recuperación, que es algo que David Dastmalchian es en la vida real. Es una voz acreditada para hablar de lo que es ser adicto en recuperación. Así que no nos limitamos a poner eso ahí. Dijimos, 'Martha, ¿está bien si esto es parte de la historia de este personaje?' Y ella pensó que era interesante, así que lo usamos."

Translation from Spanish:

“In the book, Gurathin challenges Murderbot and, in a way, he can be considered the villain of the piece because Murderbot wants to be left alone and hates Gurathin. Why is [Gurathin] like that? We talked with Martha about what his personal story is, and in this case, he was security before he joined Preservation Aux. “Basically, Gurathin is a recovering addict, which is something that David Dastmalchian is in real life. He’s a well-known voice for what it’s like to be a recovering addict. So we didn’t just put that in there. We said, ‘Martha, is it okay if this is part of this character’s story?’ And she thought it was interesting, so we used it.”

Source: Hobby Consolas Interview with Chris and Paul Weitz

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Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones in Doctor Who S3 EP8 - Human Nature

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Murderbot 1.07 · Complementary Species

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Murderbot 1x07 "Complementary Species"

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Murderbot 1.07 · Complementary Species