dwam-crack-blog - Tumblr blog

[dwam-crack-blog]

the thing is with chloe it's weird to say she objectively has no good qualities. you say "she's not funny," "there's no reason to like her," that's your opinion. she's brave, she's energetic, she's dedicated, she's loyal, and she never accepts bad things happening to good people. i agree with your commentary on the time travel but your criticism of the main character writing is ironically very shallow for someone criticizing lis's "shallow" writing.

You’re conflating her bravery with recklessness. Sure, she’s “brave” to throw Max under the bus if David finds her with weed and the proper chance arises, she’s “brave” to lie down on some train tracks, she’s “brave” to take a dip in the swimming pool at night, she’s “brave” enough to break into a school and snatch money labeled for the handicapped fund, just as she is “brave” to fire off a gun and get herself shot accidentally, just as she’s “brave” enough to kill a man and/or his dog if things go south. Her one arguable instance of bravery comes at the very end and even then, it’s not as if she condemns Max if Max decides to just let the town die. And it hardly redeems the rest of her actions or makes the rest of the experience somehow worthwhile in retrospect.

Her dedication counts for little when she’s dedicated to: arguing with her mom who truly just wants to help her, arguing with David and declaring him a villain even before she has any sort of objective proof of his faults (especially and painfully evident in Before the Storm), breaking rules because “she’s a rebel”, killing Nathan even when Max goes back in time to explicitly tell her not to do that and that no good will come out of her acting recklessly. It’s more stubbornness than actual dedication. The only true act of dedication is wantingto find Rachel (which she wasn’t really terribly dedicated to until she and Max crossed paths - and even then it took a while for her to get her gears going).

Chloe never really demonstrates her loyalty, either. Wanting to find Rachel is just natural human instinct. She loves her, why wouldn’t she want to find her? And when had she proven herself loyal to Max? What does she actually do for Max or Max’s well-being? The story never gives an opportunity to even establish that much. The narrative, as I’ve said, is her dragging Max along - the entire situation is made entirely about her. She uses Max on scenes like the traintracks and the bottle shooting as a means of distracting herself from things she doesn’t like in her life, she gets Max to (somewhat creepily) wear Rachel’s clothes, almost like she wants Max to be a substitute for Rachel; she has Max break rules time and time again - things that could very well get Max expelled. Hell, even in the alternate timeline, she asks Max to KILL her - never taking into account Max’s own feelings on the matter or the fact that Max could very well go to jail and have her life ruined if she’s ever caught afterwards.

And her “not accepting bad things happening to good people” isn’t something she should be praised for; it’s just common morality. That doesn’t excuse the rest of her actions.

if you see her as a good character, as I’ve said in my opening, more power to you - totally respect your opinion, but no matter how desperately I try to find some way to see her in a positive light, it falls apart one way or another.

In addition to just seemingly not having any good qualities of an enjoyable character in my eyes, she has no good qualities of a well-written character, either. As I’ve said, she never learns anything from her behavior or grows as a result of her mistakes (she CAN’T because Max UNDOES them all - and even in the instance where she does, the game’s design of illusion of choice prohibits it), and her presence on-screen was personally just frustrating. She COULD’VE been a well-written character, while remaining the exact way she was. Wouldn’t have necessarily made it for a great experience for me then either, but I would’ve acknowledged the author’s intent and been able to see what they were going for. Frustratingly, though, she wasn’t written in a way where she gets to do anything aside from just be a destructive factor to herself and the people around her. And by that point, it’s hard to make it a problem of opinion and more a problem of what the story does badly in terms of character development.

Looking back on it, it’s almost as if that first section of EP4 was designed around the writers going “hey, this is actually what Chloe’s all about, it’s just the shitty circumstances that changed her” - but it doesn’t MATTER precisely because she ISN’T that person throughout the experience.

Again, if you like her - totally fine, totally respect that. But she made the experience insufferable and I cannot find any sort of objective justification as to when I should’ve liked her or why.

[dwam-crack-blog]

Motivation and the Fears of Losing It

Getting burned out is the worst thing. But it's even worse when, even when I'm inspired and I have an idea I want to work on, I've gotten to know myself well enough that I can pinpoint exactly when that inspiration will cease and I'll have no motivation to keep going. It doesn't actually matter whether or not I'm actively working on the project or not - once the deadline's hit, that's it. Gone. There's absolutely no desire to touch the thing with a ten-foot-pole ever again.

That's how I work, at least.

That knowledge that something as inescapable as that awaits me is both productive and depressing at the same time.

Productive in the sense that, since I want to see the project done, it means I have to get it done before the deadline my brain imposed for me -- which means I have to work on it consistently and deliver at least a rough draft in an extremely short amount of time. That work ethic is something I've become known for in the small circles I'm present in.

Obviously, the issue with that approach is that the project itself isn't really given enough time to breathe during  the idea stage -- because it has to get done fast, all changes and deviations from the original concept are made on the fly and have to be final. Which - again - obviously makes the final result not as it could've been. The quality of writing, too, becomes more and more questionable as I get closer and closer to the end of the process. The justification for that being that as bad as a certain section might be, it's nowhere near as bad as it would've been had I hit that burnout stage and forced myself to see something through during it -- which is entirely accurate.

It's all or nothing, and that's kind of the worst part. It means that regardless of how quickly I work and how much good work I think I'm putting into something, if I'm not fast enough, all of that work can potentially go to nothing or be half-assed for the remainder of the process, making the final product something I'm unhappy with in the long run.

Take, for example, a fancase I did called The Empty Turnabout. I worked on that thing like a madman. I wrote around 6000 lines of dialogue, give or take, over the course of a single month.

And then, bam.

Suddenly, I didn't feel like doing it anymore. At a stage where I still had a quarter of it left to go.

Five months or so later, I would come back for it, and replace that entire quarter with around 500 lines of dialogue in a single night, call it quits, and release it. It was, of course, blindingly obvious to many, given the sudden conclusion, that that wasn't how it was meant to go - but I went with the route of just defending it as it was (and still is). Needless to say, it's a case I'm not fond of.

Another thing I would do during the process is, as I mentioned, make changes on the fly. Those changes aren't necessarily always done in the interest of creativity, but rather so I could save on time. Ideas that I find too grandiose or tiring - but ideas that I would be building up to - I would replace with watered-down versions to keep the story moving. Sometimes, I'd maybe even find writing a necessary scene too boring and decide to write something completely different - breaking the narrative flow to the point where, as a result, I would create a rippling effect that would change things about the entirety of the story remaining. And I would roll with it and simply change the story on the fly to compensate -- that's just how desperate I would be to avoid slowing down.

A good example of that would be another one of my fancases, Turnabout Curtain (the very first version), where its trademark bizarre story structure was a direct result of me just adding in scenes I wanted to see in the place of scenes that should've been there but I didn't want to write.  It was when I was fairly young and didn't really have a sense of restraint.

One might say: "well, you SHOULDN'T write scenes you find boring to write -- if you're motivated to write those alternate scenes, then the player will be just as enthused to read through them!" but it's not really as easy as that. Scenes that are boring to write aren't boring to write because of their content necessarily - it could be boring because I already know what's going to happen, it could be boring because I find the thing the scene leads to to be far more interesting, it could be boring because I simply know it takes too much time to do, etc. etc.

You can sort of start to already pick up the part that makes this depressing - in my obsession (and it really does become an obsession at certain points) to get something done, I'm sacrificing my own vision and ultimate enjoyment of the final product - doing whatever it takes to just get it done. And that means that, once it IS done, my emotional investment with is fairly low, making it easier for me to just move on and forget about the love I had for the project in the first place when thinking it up.

Hell, even this very post I'm just trying to cram out because I feel like I won't be in the mood for it if I take a break from writing it now.

Now, don't get me wrong here. I still like most of the things I've finished, but most if not all of the major flaws in those works could've been avoided had the process not been the way it was. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to get something done - if you ask me, getting something done, regardless of the ultimate result, is far better than sitting in your room and thinking of endless ideas that you're never going to actually bother to sit down and do.

But wanting to JUST get something done after a certain point ultimately hurts the project, not only affecting the final quality, but also ensuring that working with me is extremely difficult. In my need to get something done quickly, I'll try to get other people to move at the same pace as I do so we could reach the end, and be less willing to communicate about certain ideas.

All or nothing.

It sucks, but that's just sort of what I've gotten used to.

[dwam-crack-blog]

The Issues With “Life is Strange”

Well, here we go again. It's 2 in the morning, my feet feel a bit cold, I have a compilation of worst MasterChef moments running in the background, and I feel like ranting about a game I must've ranted way too much of at this point. "Why do this?" you might ask. And really, I have to wonder myself. I suppose there must be something about Life is Strange that genuinely pains me to my very core and forces me to scream at it to the point of incomprehension at every opportunity to do so. Nevertheless - this will, hopefully, be the last time I do so, because I intend to explain all my grievances with the game once and for all.

To make things perfectly clear from the get-go: if you like the game, don’t see any of the flaws I’ll bring up, all good. If you acknowledge the game as flawed, the criticisms I bring up here are ones you're familiar with, and you enjoy it nonetheless, more power to you. I can't take that away from you, and it's not my intention to do so. The purpose of this is to examine the game, point out its flaws to the best of my ability, and seeing what lessons in writing and story structure can be learned as a result.

The game is divided into five episodes, which were originally released over the course of 2015, similarly to the way Telltale Games handles its releases of episodic games. And speaking of Telltale, the comparisons to their games and LiS were always more or less inevitable, given that LiS is a story-driven experience mainly based around the same illusion of choice present in Telltale games. Still, that's perfectly fine, obviously - Telltale doesn't own the monopoly on story-driven games; I'm merely trying to give the idea as to how LiS plays and how it should be viewed. It is, ultimately, all about the story and the way it’s experienced.

And it's the story that's the biggest problem.

I won't be giving a summary of the game here - for those interested in following along but not wanting to bother playing through the game, a Wikipedia summary should be enough to get the gist of the plot. Admittedly, a summary on its own probably won't give you the idea of all the points I'll be bringing up here, but I'll try to be as elaborate as I can.

Full spoilers ahead, obviously.

CHLOE

This one is my biggest issue with the game, but undeniably the most subjective. A lot of people like Chloe. A lot of people think Chloe is an amazing character. And I can understand that. I really can.

Chloe, as a result of losing her father, became disillusioned with the world and her place in it, thus becoming your well-known "rebellious teenager". She got kicked out of school, she smokes weed, she hates her stepfather's guts and disobeys him at every turn, causing a divide between her and her mother, and she breaks every rule there is to be broken. She's the "cool girl".

Except she's pretty awful. She's reckless, she's irresponsible, she's selfish and needs for things to go her way, and, whether she realizes it or not, at times even manipulative.

And you may point out, rightfully so, that a lot of Chloe can be seen among today's teenagers. After all, just because we find her behavior to be wrong and her actions nonsensical at times, it's not as if we can't find an even worse version of Chloe in a generation of people who think it's a good idea to put Tide Pods in your mouth. And it's not as if we can't find some of our younger selves in Chloe.

And you're correct. Chloe, you could argue, is a pretty "realistic" character in those respects. Her actions are "realistic". Most teenagers - even those who've never had Chloe's life experiences - are selfish, reckless, needy and occasionally manipulative.

The issue with Chloe is not in terms of her portrayal or realism, however. I can handle an unlikeable character. The issue is in terms of story. There's nothing - nothing to her character aside from "she's relatable in some respects to some teenagers".  None of her irresponsible behavior actually leads to actual character growth (except that one possible route in which she kills a guy, but she ends up getting over it right in the next scene, so).

First, we have her relationship with Max. Max, from the very beginning, idolizes Chloe. In fact, from the moment they meet, Max becomes somewhat of Chloe's sidekick. And it's kind of funny how, despite Max having time travel powers, it's CHLOE who ultimately drives the plot forward. Max's powers are generally used to just clean up after Chloe's messes. As a result, Chloe's rebellious behavior actually ends up changing Max more than our actions ever could, and the game wants us to notice it.

Unfortunately, in the process of doing this, the game also makes it clear that Max sees nothing wrong in Chloe's behavior.

Chloe tells Max to hide in her closet from Chloe's stepdad? Max does it. Chloe then later  gets mad at Max for doing exactly as she was told, for not stepping out of the closet and standing up for Chloe when the stepdad finds weed? Max doesn't really care. (Fun fact: Chloe actually gets mad at your regardless of what you do - hide in the closet/don't, stand up for Chloe/don't, take the fall for the weed in Chloe's room (SHE DUMPS THE BLAME ON YOU, BY THE WAY)/don't; it doesn't matter, she always blames you afterwards for doing something wrong.)

In another episode, Max gets a phone call from a friend and Chloe IMMEDIATELY gets upset if Max answers it. Of course, MAX knows that the friend calling is deeply depressed and needs all the help they can get, but regardless of what you choose - picking up or not - Max sees nothing bad in Chloe's actions.

Chloe suggests they go LIE DOWN ON ACTIVE TRAIN TRACKS AS FUN, and Max is, of course, all aboard! Even when Chloe gets stuck and almost gets run over by a train, Max never considers Chloe's actions as horribly irresponsible and considers maybe not listening to her advice.

Chloe wants to break into the school? Alright. Chloe wants to break into the principal's office? Of course. Chloe wants to take an envelope from the principal's office marked as 'Handicapped fund' filled with cash, so she can pay off her dealer? Nothing wrong there. (The game later tries to imply that wasn't actually the handicapped fund, but too little too late by that point. Chloe didn't know it, and that's what matters.)

Chloe suggests you wear clothes belonging to her missing girlfriend? Sure, Max sees nothing really wrong with that (nor does anyone else, come to think of it).

There is a section in the game where you go back in time - you leap back in time - to warn Chloe not to do something that will result in everything going to shit. Chloe knows you can time travel. Chloe knows that you know what will happen.

Chloe will not listen to you if you don't sound convincing enough, even though the first thing Max says, point-blank, is that bad things will happen as a result of her actions. In fact, the only way you ultimately convince her is by bringing up something completely irrelevant to the situation. You could justify this scene as Chloe being upset, but come on. There's being upset and then there's being irrational and stubborn to the point where it's just insulting.

There is only one moment - one moment in this game where you get to call out Chloe's behavior. Where Chloe admits that she's angry over her father dying. But nothing comes out of the conversation. The two just keep on going with the same tempo, Max still trailing along and following unquestionably.

The reason I'm saying all of this is because I'm trying to show that the game itself isn't actually trying to acknowledge Chloe's behavior as bad or destructive. The adults who call her out on it are people who have flaws too major compared to Chloe, so Chloe is intentionally given the higher ground over them, even when they have a point. The other characters don't seem to particularly care or know the extent of her behavior.

We, the players, are also never given a chance to do so in the game itself. Which is funny. In a game about choices, we're not actually given the opportunity to not like Chloe - despite the game giving us opportunities to do so with other characters. We're never given a chance to not do as she says.

Which, too, you can rationalize as saying "well, you're not PLAYING as you, you're playing as Max! This is Max's story, not yours!" In which case, I have to point out two things. The first - why give the option of choice to begin with, then? I'm not really changing the plot or Max's character, so what's the point? Chloe is the main focus and arguably the true main character of the game, and if I have no effect on her, what am I really doing?

And the second, more important - it makes Max's character even worse. Her one and only arc in the story is thus essentially gushing over how cool Chloe is and how awesome of a friend she is, with an underlying pessimistic undertone of enabling other people's bad habits. That's "Max's story".

Of course, that's not what the game intended. The game wants us to like Chloe. The game wants our thinking process to match Max's. The game's design is just nonsensical otherwise. The fact that they gave Chloe a whole prequel series is nonsensical otherwise.

When Max thinks "Wow, Chloe is so cool!", the game is both equally establishing that Max likes her, but also pinging the player and going: "Chloe's cool, isn't she? You like her, right?"

And if you hated Chloe up until the very end, the game tries even then to give some payoff for her behavior and redeem her. At the end, when Chloe tells Max to go back in time and let her die, we're supposed to think of her as the selfless hero. We're supposed to think that she learned something. That deep down, she never wanted to hurt anyone.

It was all leading up to something!

...Except, if you then choose to not do that, let everyone die and not sacrifice Chloe, the two stare blankly at the town as it's destroyed and then drive out like nothing's happened. Chloe doesn't seem particularly devastated as she was at the thought of her mom probably being dead.

Hm.

Oh, well. Chloe's steampunk, so it's all good.

The worst part about all of this is that, in the midst of all this bad stuff I've just mentioned, and with my assertion that the developers wanted you to like her, and given how much people seem to like her, you'd think I'd be able to show moments where the writer bothered to make Chloe likeable or relatable in way other than just "rebellious teen". But I can't. And that could be me just not liking her preventing me from seeing any sort of redeemable traits, but. I mean. She's not really funny, she's not entertaining, she's not caring towards Max in ways that matter. And she doesn't appear to make the effort to be any of those things. There's no moment I can point and say "that's what makes Chloe Price a great character." Because there's nothing her to make her one.

What I'm saying is - you can justify Chloe's actions, but that doesn't mean that they bring anything to the narrative or make it better, nor that they make the game actually a good time to play or provide anything interesting to the table. Yes, her dad died. So?

And the reason this upsets me the most is, as I've mentioned before - Chloe is the driving force of this entire game. Everything revolves around her! You're trying to drive a car with no fucking engine here!

Imagine "Catcher in the Rye." Holden is basically Chloe with much the same flaws - but the dude had an actual arc to him. He actually learned something from his experiences and decided to make an effort to change. We also had a chance to sympathize with him and see the world through his eyes.

THE TIME TRAVEL

It makes no sense and is horribly contrived.

Supposedly, the principle of it is that Max stands in place and everything around her begins to turn back in time. But what if Max, say, had a conversation, ended that conversation, walked away, and turned back time to somewhere that would've been mid-point in that conversation? Wouldn't it have, to that person, seemed as if Max just teleported? If it is, nobody seems to bring it up.

The time travel powers also conveniently break during Episode 2, allowing all time to be frozen for just enough time for Max to reach the roof to try and attempt to save Kate's life. This never happens again.

In Episode 5, the game brings up an interesting point about what happens when Max significantly changes the timeline - that the timeline itself still exists to some degree, and that there's always a Max left behind, stuck in that timeline. Or that, as Max is leaping through time to the future, from event A to event B, there's another Max taking her place in real-time in the period between those two events actually happening, destined to be overwritten once event B is reached. Those are both genuinely interesting points. Neither are ever expanded on, though.

But above all - how in God's name does Max's time traveling cause the hurricane? Like, there's a point in Episode 5 where Max just concludes "I caused this by fucking with time too much!" But... how does she know that for sure? Why couldn't have a natural disaster simply happened? Max had noticed oddities in weather, sure, but nothing suggesting she HERSELF was responsible for it. And you'd think Warren, "the science guy", would've pointed that out when she told him that theory! And wouldn't have coming back in time to let Chloe be killed be using time travelling, anyway, and thus fucking with the timeline regardless, thus leading to a hurricane happening?

I mean, hadn't she already tampered with the timeline by burning a photo all the way back in the past, thus tampering with all of the events that photo's existence would've drawn in the present?

MAX, THE PROBLEM SOLVER

During episode 4, when Max discovers that her saving Chloe's dad caused Chloe to later get into a car accident and become paralyzed, she went back to the branching point. And instead of trying to both save her dad and yell to Chloe "DON'T GO DRIVING ON THIS SPECIFIC DATE", she just... dramatically burns the photo, chooses to let Chloe's dad die, without any other ways of further reversing it.

Alright.

You could say it was a one-time thing, but she does it AGAIN later in Episode 5 - instead of looking for an alternative to warn everyone (or at least the people she cares about) the hurricane, she destroys the photo - the only useful gateway into the past.

WASTED OPPORTUNITY

In Episode 4, Max travels to another timeline (through the aforementioned chain of events of saving Chloe's dad), and is there for about 15 minutes. The section served no other purpose but culminating in a scene where Chloe asks Max to euthanize her. It's supposed to be an impactful moment for Max's character, but... What does it actually do? It's only ever referenced once, in an event I mentioned earlier - when trying to convince Chloe not to go and do something incredibly stupid. That's it. It had no ultimate purpose in the story and it didn't really change much about Max's character aside from making her love Chloe EVEN MORE.

Why couldn't we have spent more time in that alternate timeline? Rachel Amber was still missing there, as well. Was Nathan still the one who killed her? If so, maybe we could've had Max investigating the disappearance on her own, leveraging her seeming popularity to get information, and then later use it in the original timeline? Couldn't the fact that she hung out with cool kids have been used to also help flesh characters like Nathan and Victoria out by humanizing them in actually decent ways and giving them actual reasons for us to like them, instead of last-minute "I'm not SO bad".

RACHEL

It's funny, how, the main mystery - the thing you're supposed to get hooked on - is Rachel's disappearance, yet you basically learn nothing about her. Chloe tells you how great she was. You find out she slept with Frank. You find out Nathan killed her. You maybe see her ghost in the form of a deer. And that's about it.

How were we supposed to get emotional when she inevitably turned up dead? What were the stakes? She could've turned up dead in episode 1 and it would've made little to no difference in the grand scheme of things. The only payoff here was Chloe's suffering, but even that we can't truly understand because we can't truly understand how much she cared for Rachel - and that's because all throughout the game we were just told about Rachel instead of shown any of the impact she's had on other people.

You could say she has a presence in the prequel, but that's beside the point - I'm talking about LiS as a standalone work. (Not to mention, that prequel doesn't really elaborate on a lot of things when it comes to Rachel's actions related to LiS, such as that Rachel/Frank thing.)

BAD PROGRESSION

Most of the clues Max and Chloe find during their investigation are absolutely irrelevant - the only real headway is made in Episode 4. Most of the things until then can be summed up as dicking around, or just dead ends. And the information they use is the result of someone else's - David's work - that up until the point they bring it out, we had no real reason to believe he would've had on him. Because if he had, he SHOULD'VE acted on it. (Why, for example, didn't he never once catch Nathan and Jefferson suspiciously interacting? He clearly knew something was up with the barn, given that he gets to it in EP5 with no problem, but why does he do nothing until that point?)

The mystery is, essentially, trivial, because it's never treated as a mystery. Characters take breaks plenty of time in it to just talk about random things - it never feels like we're actively participating in solving anything, nor does it feel like the characters themselves are actively trying to solve it until midway through EP4. The story is just filled with digressions, making its progression incredibly murky. Especially since those digressions don't actually contribute much aside from showing off more of Chloe's destructive behavior or futile attempts at making us like her.

In other circumstances, it might've worked out, but given its pacing and the actual length of the story, it doesn't gel smoothly here at all.

ATROCIOUS DIALOGUE

Sure, most of the characters are teens. And just like Chloe, you could argue most of the bad and cringeworthy dialogue can be justified by modern teens just using cringeworthy dialogue.

But not even teens try to throw out some hip modern jargon in EVERY FUCKING SENTENCE. At some point it stops being realistic, turns into the Steve Buscemi "hello fellow kids" meme, and then goes into downright depressing territory when you realize you're stuck with this dialogue for the entirety of the game.

It actively hurts the experience of playing the game.

The game's usage of language in general makes most characters out to be cliched stereotypes. Victoria plays the role of the bitch. Kate is the good Christian girl. Warren is the nerd. David the former army man. The principal who is secretly an alcoholic. That skateboard dude. The drone girl. Shit, I don't remember their names anymore! They have no real depth to them beyond that -- at best, as I mentioned before, it tries to say "ah, but there's more to us!" but at points where it doesn't even matter anymore. Either because we're just going to undo everything through time travel, or because they'll never play a part in the story again and it's obvious that they won't.

AWFUL VILLAIN

The main bad guy is basically a dude who is obsessed with taking photographs of women looking vulnerable. He sounds(as in, the voice actor's delivery is) cliched, resembling that of a cartoonish villain - he's melodramatic, he's not frightening, his reveal as the culprit is predictable, his motivations for his actions are given about as much of an explanation as I just gave you. He has no actual presence in most of the story - not even the finale; he's gone for half of it. Part of that is because of that whole "background character that wasn't quite in the background is the villain" trope but also because of the point I brought up before about the investigation not being a main focus from the get-go.

___________________________________________________________

In conclusion, I do not like Life is Strange.

Most of its characters are dry and shallow, the main characters being only step above that, but not to the point where the experience is anything less than excruciating. The mystery is badly paced, doesn't know how to build up stakes or tension, which is a problem given that it's the only thing that you can truly say HAPPENS in the game.

And you may say - "what about the time travel?" I mean, after a while, it just ends up being sort of... there. "I can time travel now, cool, let's go take a dip in the swimming pool." It's badly thought-out and honestly feels like an afterthought in the writing process. And look, I'm not asking for everything to be explained; I don't need to know entirely how it works or where it came from, but it should be consistent or at least address blatant flaws in it. And it should be utilized in a somewhat interesting way, instead of spending it on absolutely mundane tasks or epic leaps of time which just get undone about a minute or so later.

The only real thing to give credit here are the visuals and the music - both of which felt wasted in the long run.

Is Life is Strange the worst thing to happen to gaming? No. But it’s numerous problems in story left a sour taste in my mouth - both during and after playing it. The fact that it’s been years now and I still haven’t entirely gotten over it says quite a bit, I’d say.

[dwam-crack-blog]

The Surrogate

This is the first thing I’ve written in a long while. Well, as far as short stories go. It’s pretty rushed and sloppy but I’ve never been the type to not show off my work, regardless of how good or bad it might be, so. Hope you like it anyway because that’s just the way I am.

And because of ego.

Mostly ego.

____________________________________________________

Bone marrow makes up about a little over 4% of the average human being's body weight. And like with everything in the human body, it's one of those things your biology teacher smirked about as he mused over how such seemingly "small" parts of us can have such a huge impact on our daily lives. If he was the religious sort, he might've tried to maybe sneak in the ol:' "Have you ever noticed how the human body just... works? Hmm... Almost like a machine! Ah, but machines are designed by us, their creators. Why, almost as if..." He probably didn't go any further than that because the principal was just dying to have his ass and, let's face it, everyone would've gotten the point anyway.

Still, your snarky biology teacher probably had a point. For something that tiny, the damned things really do put in work.

...Huh?

Bone marrow. I'm talking about bone marrow.

It produces roughly 500 billion blood cells per day. That's billion with a 'b'.

But see - you're not surprised. Because of course you're not. The human body is awesome like that. It does all this crazy shit that you know is crazy shit because everyone keeps saying it's crazy shit. There's no real 'oomph' to it anymore.

Then again, there's only so much 'oomph' you can give when you glance at the body of your average Joe Schmoe. It's just kinda… There. It eats, it sleeps, it sits down at the TV and watches other relatable Joe Schmoes go on about their daily lives of eating, sleeping and sitting down to watch the TV. And I'm not dissing Joes out there. Like, the beefcakes aren't doing any better. You look at them and it's just... gross, right? But more importantly...

It's all kind of boring.

The human body is boring.

It's little more than that action figure you begged for your mom to get you as a kid, promising you'll play with it every day ever, and then left on the shelf to gather dust until you eventually sold it to some collector so you could afford getting high the next Friday.

Now, with the way you're looking at me, I'm starting to think you're not really relating to me much here. Well, you'll be pleased to know that I'm not relating to myself either. I'm doing that thing where I pretend to understand how the average high school mind works in hopes of getting you on my side.

I know. It's pretty shitty. And I get that.

But the human body is also shitty. On top of being boring, it also falls apart. It's fragile. For all the praise that I really do have to give it, claiming it's a crowning achievement of anything is kind of sad. It's weak against things it doesn't understand. It must suffer and hope to overcome.

Break one bone and it becomes a hazard to literally everything surrounding it.

Breathe a certain element every moment or you die.

Ingest a certain amount of food or you'll pass out.

Ingest too much and you'll have a heart attack.

Get hit in a certain part of your skull, and it goes right to the brain.

Oh, and the brain -- the brain can rebel. The brain can lie.

As a product, the human body is a disgrace.

As a machine, though, it exists to be improved.

 I mean, that's--That's what...

 Sorry. Give me a sec here. No, don't-- just. Stay there.

 ...I wasn't always like this. I didn't think about these things.

But at some point, life just kicks you in the teeth and it's more a matter of "having to" rather than "wanting to".

And for me, it all started when that thing bit me.

I shouldn't call it a “thing". It was human. Once. Homeless, by the looks of it. Makes sense. They're usually the best targets. Their blood generally has the least taste to it, so you can detach yourself from the situation. No need to drag them to a dark corner when they're already living in one. They're too weak and tired to resist. And even if they scream - nobody ever comes.

...So I've heard, anyway.

 My transformation took about two days, I want to say. I went to the doctor and he said I checked out fine. He joked about the bite marks. I joked, too. It was before... well, everything. Nobody knew.

Stop looking away. I'm just... getting my thoughts in order. I'm not trying to treat you like an idiot. I want you to understand.

On the third day, I realized I couldn't leave my home. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't even peek out the window. Drawing the curtains wasn't enough. At first, I thought it was a migraine. A fever.  But it eventually got so bad that I got electrical tape and used my bedsheets to cover the entire wall. I spent hours checking to make sure I did it right.

The idiots keep saying even now that it's because it burns us.

But that isn’t it.

It blinds.

Because of the shift in the circulatory and digestive system, the amount of blood sent across the organs changes. It increases. That's why the "feeding" was even a thing. We had to compensate for our new body's demands.

In that shift of priorities, the amount of blood going to the eye sockets jumps. It becomes unable to figure out how to properly handle extremely lit areas. Light refracts incorrectly and falls on the wrong nerves, causing pain. No image is produced.

I'm -- look. I'm telling you all this so you can understand what your dad was helping me out with, okay? He made these lenses for me. He did good work. Nobody else has them. They're just for me.

Do you get that?

Do you understand how much he meant to me?

 Wait. Wait, no.

No, that's... I'm sorry. I'm still kinda freaking out, I guess. I mean, you're the one sitting here with--

...

Heh.

Well, there's a nervous chuckle out of me. I'm on the right track here.

 ...It didn't take me long to figure out what was happening. Or, at least, take a guess. I mean, I could literally see my body shift and change just by looking in the mirror. It made me sick, but I couldn't even puke. I was hungry, but I didn't WANT food. I pissed and shat blood.

And just a few hours later, I felt better than I ever did in my entire life.

I rushed out of my apartment. The night air was cold but it was like I barely felt it. Like I was sitting back in my comfy chair in some control center and just enjoying the ride. Of course - I didn't have any superpowers.

And by the way, that whole thing's bullshit - just gonna lay that one out there. It's pure bullshit. It doesn't happen. It's a myth. End of story.

You can't fly. You can't run fast. You can't sparkle.

Although - you remember how every part of the body gets an increased amount of blood flowing through it?

I really did mean every part.

So, naturally, I went to my girlfriend's. She seemed more surprised over seeing me smiling than how pale I looked. But I shrugged it off by just saying I was sick.

And goddamn. What a night.

What

a horrible

fucking night.

Don't get me wrong. The sex was fantastic. While it was going, at least.

Then I gave her a little love bite and...

Well.

I did say I didn't eat anything. And, I mean, not like I was really, seriously thinking that I was a -- look, you get it, right?

Right.

She said I bit her too hard. I mean, of course I did. So, she ended up kicking me out.            

We hooked up a few times after that. Once all of... this... was out in the open. I mean, why not, you know? We can't have children. STDs can't touch us. So why not have some fun?

Okay, okay. I get it. I'm getting gross. I guess I was just kind of bragging.

 Right. Not the right time.

 I made my way home. Dawn was nearing and although I didn't have everything figured out, my paranoia was rightfully telling me to start picking up the pace.

The city was quiet for a change. The streets dead and empty. I could hear my own footsteps echoing.

My own footsteps... and the sound of a car, swirling as it desperately tried to regain control.

The driver was a retired shoes salesman who'd just found out his wife got full custody. The usual. He went to a bar. As you do. He got drunk. Of course he did. He drove back home, thinking about he was going to sit down and watch some TV about more Joe Schmoes. As everyone does.

And then, he fell asleep. Naturally.

And he hit a pot hole. What else could he have done?

And by the time he woke up, he was too confused to remember to hit the brake. God forbid he had.

So, I guess it's quite natural that he ended up smashing into me; smushing my body tightly between fresh grafitti and the hood of his 1986 third generation Ford Mustang.

I cried a lot. I screamed a lot.

Dawn had broken.

 I woke up in a hospital bed. They said they'd given me a transfusion. I nodded. They asked if I could hear them. A bone in my neck was broken and I instinctively jerked my head slightly forward in shock. They took that as a "yes".

They had questions. About me. About my blood.

I didn't know what to tell them.

It's kind of hard to believe, looking back on it. We'd supposedly been around for centuries, and yet THAT was the only time someone had ever landed themselves in a hospital?

Even now, I can't believe it.

 The part that followed, I guess you know better than I do.

Suddenly, Joe Schmoes weren't looking at themselves anymore. They were looking at something new. Something different.

Something not boring.

 They didn't experiment on me, but that's only because I became such a poster boy.  I was the one they'd invite to the talk shows. I was the one getting on TIME magazine. I was the one getting all the fake Twitter accounts made under his name. I was the one getting to suddenly have my hair slicked back so I could actually look like fucking Dracula. I was the one that had people ship him blood in packs neatly placed in ice containers. Poor things didn't know my manager was getting some for me on a weekly basis. (I never asked from where.)

No. No, they didn't experiment on me.

It began with the homeless - and it continued with the homeless. And about that part, I know about as much as the next guy. They're still doing it. I mean - we all know they are. Uh - you mind if I smoke here?

...I'll take that as a "whatever".

 So that's how I came to know your dad. By just being an interesting new thing at a certain point in time.

He sent me his invention in the mail. I'm still shocked he got it through shipping.

His idea was simple, but frankly - genius.

A machine that would increase the productivity of the bone marrow - doubling the blood cell count made in a day. It made sense. Without the need for food, the only thing the body solely relies on is BLOOD. That's what makes us special.

Our bodies take blood to make more blood.

Our bone marrows can take a little bit of something and make even more of it.

Magic.

And your dad figured out how it could make us even more. So much that there was no need for "feeding". We had become self-sustaining. A perpetuum mobile!

Yeah. It was magic. And your dad was the master of the arts.

 Of course I called him. Of course I called my manager. Of course I called whoever came to fucking mind.

And of course what happened next happened.

"Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein." What a shitty title for a duo. But your dad liked it.

 And once the word got out - well. The same thing that always happens happened.

The whole world wanted to piss and shit blood.

 No more worries of getting old. No more worries of starving to death. No more fear of heart attacks. Of getting too fat or too skinny.

Get stabbed? No trouble - just increase the Marrow Machine to 11 and no blood loss for you! Get shot? Stay cool, my dude - your senses are so dulled, they can cut you open and just take the bullet out as is!

 And after the Spanish government pulled off that Mr. Burns scheme of covering up Barcelona with a big giant dome to hide the sunlight?

It was a fucking riot.

I mean, literally.

But it doesn't matter how much you scream or shout. Change is change. Sooner or later, you're forced to accept it.

And here we are.

The whole world, in darkness.

And yet, here I am, still wearing the lenses.

 ...Your father was a smart man.

He realized that with the way things are going, it's only a matter of time before the scales tip and you become just a skeleton in a museum.

It's evolution.

 Unfortunately, this... all this... didn't make us any smarter.

For all the advantages we have, we're not immortal. We just think we are. And it's only a matter of time before the high wears off and everything goes back to normal. To being boring and predictable. To the endless bickering and bloodshed. And there's gonna be a lot more blood.

And by the time everyone realizes you can still die from getting your head cut off, there'll be way too few of us left.

And it won't matter how much we fuck.

That belly will never grow again.

It isn't just evolution.

It's also the final chapter.

 Your father, being the smart man that he was, also realized this. And he rejected it.

While it was true that two of our kind could never procreate... amid all this chaos and noise... nobody had actually bothered to see what happens when a human womb carries a tainted child. It was sort of unthinkable. Like bestiality of sorts.

But he wanted to try it. He had to.

And so he chose the only specimen he could find. That he could get away with.

 You.

 I don't know what he told you.

I don't know what he did to you.

I don't know about the things that went on behind closed doors in this house.

 I didn't know about any of this.

I didn't know... it's mine.

I had nothing to do with any of that.

I'm just the guy who got on TV.

 But also, I...

 I do know that he's dead.

His corpse is in the basement.

I know that you killed him.

And I know that's that.

I know that.

 ...What happens now is up to you.

I don't hate you.

I don't want to hurt you.

I know it'd be wrong if I did.

But to be perfectly honest, I... don't care what you do.

 I just want to go back home and get some sleep.

I don't want to be here.

I don't want to be having this conversation.

I don't want to keep saying these things to you.

I don't want to keep trying to get you to understand that  I--I really didn't...

That none of this was what I...

 ...I don't want to keep rambling.

I don't want to think anymore about how I sound to you.

I don't want to keep deciding what I should do right now, as his friend.

 His body smells.

 Your father was a smart man.

I'm sure he would've known what to say.

 But... But there he is.

Down there.

 ...I'm tired.

I want to go home.

I don't know what you want me to say.

 ...I bet you just want me to shut up and leave you alone.

 Yeah. Yeah, okay.

Do what you want. It's your life.

Enjoy the time you have left.

I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm not father material. In any way.

So keep that in mind in case you choose to...

 Right.

 I'm keeping the lenses, though.

On some days, I see kids - kids that got turned - hurling stones at the dome.

 It makes me think.

[dwam-crack-blog]

If you could re-write any of your currently released completed fancases, which would it be?

Probably the Empty Turnabout.

I would keep the central characters and Apollo’s development and the way it’s presented, but re-work the crime (probably have it be something different altogether) and have a far more satisfying conclusion.

[dwam-crack-blog]

Phoenix Wright but it's A Thousand Words starring Eddie Murphy

Never seen the movie, but looking at the premise it’s not something I would ever make a case on.

Sorry!

[dwam-crack-blog]

A case where body swapping happens.

I’ve already sort of done my take on that in a fancase I did.

Can’t really say which one, since kinda defeats the point, I suppose.

[dwam-crack-blog]

I've been developing ideas based around this prompt for a while now and I'm interested to see how you might be able to interpret it: a case in which the defense attorney is the guilty party and both character and player are aware of this from the beginning.

This is one of those ones I’d have to come up an entire plotline to and have all the small details figured out, so I’d just give the basic concept.

Of course, you have the standard possibilities like: Playing the whole thing straight until it turns out at the end that, even though the player believed they were the killer, they were actually just buying into the culprit’s plot, or that the player was somehow trying to outsmart the protagonist while playing as them, thus proving their guilt without the protagonist catching onto it (something like the aforementioned Incompetent Turnabout, I guess), or have it just be played completely straight and have it work more like a character study.

But what I would do is put the player in the position where - they do know they’re the culprit. They’re defending an innocent man. But the catch is -- if they fail to prove him innocent, they’ll be killed. Now, at first, it seems simple enough, but as each witness is proven to be innocent one after the other, the noose begins to tighten and the attorney is forced to figure out how to get out of the situation. As things stand, they would either have to confess to the crime to not be killed, or avoid jail time at the risk of being murdered. I think that would be really interesting and could prove to be a better version of the aforementioned character study. If we come to understand why the committed the murder and the events leading up to it, we’ll understand why just confessing to save his skin might not be the right, or even just option.

For example, say that Kristoph murdered Phoenix in jail. And the player knows it. At first, you hate Kristoph. You truly despise him for what he’s done. He did it in such a way where it appears he has an alibi, despite the established motive. The one suspected was a corrupt politician, who was near the crime scene. He demands Kristoph to defend him (Kristoph is still a defense attorney, much like Simon is a prosecutor, so it should work out) and makes it clear that Kristoph would be killed by other inmates should he fail. Kristoph accepts, thinking the other inmates near the crime scene would make the perfect scapegoats. One by one, though, they all fall through.

Through the case, you learn why Kristoph killed Wright. You find out that their relationship wasn’t as clear-cut as AJ made it out to be - they became actual friends and Kristoph felt genuinely betrayed. He understood the Smith thing. Phoenix was doing what he believed was right while getting revenge (even though, even then, Kristoph never intended for Wright to be sent to jail and was genuinely trying to save him). What he couldn’t forgive was the Misham trial. That, in Kristoph’s mind, was just adding insult to injury. Especially since we could learn through flashbacks that it was never Kristoph’s intention for Vera to even be arrested or suspected, and that he regretted giving her the nail polish. He’s also angry because in his mind, with the information Phoenix had, he could’ve potentially stopped the murder -- yet he instead organized the jury trial just so he could humiliate and destroy Kristoph on the stand again, while soiling the courts with people who he believed were too easily swayed to bring the right verdict. People called Kristoph a monster, yet Phoenix got off scott-free.

In the end, Kristoph would have to choose whether he was okay with staying quiet and being killed, or speaking up or being called a monster again.

We could also make Klavier the prosecutor to spice things up.

Dunno how I’d end it, though, but I think I’d call it:

Pride of the Turnabout.

(Since both Wright’s and Kristoph’s pride would’ve led them to that situation.)

[dwam-crack-blog]

Beginnings

Given that I've randomly decided i could just use this place for blogging in general, I think I'm going to keep this first post relatively short.

I've been in the Ace Attorney fangaming "community" for several years now. I like to believe I've presented a substantial amount of content during those years when it comes to fancases. It's something I've personally, for the most part, enjoyed doing, and I hope the people who've played those fancases enjoyed doing so just as much. I also like to believe I've been around long enough to say I'm relatively experienced when it comes to witnessing how most projects -- both successful and unsuccessful -- are started, developed and ultimately concluded.

I'll be drawing attention to the unsuccessful ones here, for a moment.

Imagine yourself as a teenager. Maybe even a bit older. You've played a game you like. You really enjoyed it. Like, really enjoyed it. Something about it spoke to you. It got your imagination running. You kinda wish there was more of it. Then - lo and behold - you found out people have made an engine, maybe engines - that would allow you to create something like that. You check it out - you take a look at some of the stuff that's already been made with it. You think to yourself, "hey, that's pretty cool!" You maybe become a bit more familiarized with how the engine works, what it can and can't do.

Then -- you get this cool idea. It's a really good one. Like, so good you can practically picture it. It's a scene. Maybe even the final battle. You can hear the epic music. You can see the dialogue playing out. You can imagine the positive comments those other projects have gotten. Fuck it, maybe you even imagine an article in PC Gamer mentioning your game, claiming it to be a crowning achievement. You finally decide: "I'm gonna make it!"

So, you think it a bit more. You go to a forum dedicated to this sort of thing. You write out what will end up being your thread. You're careful to make sure you give just enough information about it. Too much, and it becomes a cluttered slog. Too little, and nobody will take you seriously. Chances are, you can't do art. But that's okay, you figure someone will help you out with that.

Granted, you're not entirely sure what you'll do if no artist comes along, or even if the project will be able to lift off the ground without it. But you're relatively sure it'll turn out fine.

So, you put the thread up. You get a few responses. Few people like the idea. Few people say they might consider joining, but nothing concrete. Someone asks you about how much you have so far. You tell them you're planning things. You give some arbitrary percentage - perhaps slightly larger than what even you feel is actually the case, but not like they'll be able to prove you wrong.

Eventually, someone comes along. It's an artist. They like the idea. They agree to work with you.

And thus, the project can finally happen. You're excited once more. The images of those cool scenes start coming back to you and you can't wait for it all to play out. The hype is real. More people are posting and expressing support. It's coming alive!

...But keep in mind I said "can happen".

In those aforementioned several years, I've seen this exact story play out many, many, many times. There are variations - sometimes the creator doesn't ask for help, says they can do it all themselves. Sometimes, they need even more than just an artist. Sometimes the project just ends up never happening exactly because there was no backup plan in light of there being no artist.

(Keep in mind, I am primarily talking about the perspective of an AA fangame developer, obviously things differ in other projects.)

There’s a lot of things that can happen here. But in the end, it comes down to one of these two conclusions:

The project lead plans everything out as promised, writes out the script and transfers what he has to into into the game, along with the artists' support. Everything seems to go smoothly, as if through a sheer miracle. Maybe there are some hiccups and hiatuses along the road, but fuck it, the job’s done.

More likely, however, the project dies for one or more of the following reasons:

The project never even leaves the planning stage. It turns out that the lead was far more interested in imagining all those fantastic scenes than actually making them a reality, always telling themselves: "ah, the means are there, it'll be done someday, now let me tell you about all these Japanese names I came up for my characters!"

One or more of the team's crucial members gets caught up in situations beyond their control and they're unable to do any work, slowing the project to a crawl, eventually killing it as others move on with their lives, as well.

The team members (most likely including the lead) don't understand the time and dedication necessary for something like this and are either unable to cooperate properly together, or simply cannot manage their time to make their work efficient. In other words, progress is too slow. Interest is significantly lost. Both from outside observers and within the team. Time passes and, very likely, my earlier point happens - where real life just catches up with them and the whole thing goes quietly into the night.

It just becomes boring to work on.

 Now, to be perfectly clear -- I'm not saying there's blame to be found in any of these situations. Sometimes, things just don't turn out the way you want them to. It goes without saying that, if you gathered a team, that you’re not going to want to have their work go to waste. Most, if not all people, have that level of professionalism and courtesy within them to have the mentality of “I got you into this, I have to finish it”. Of course you'll want to get it done.

But you can't get blood from a stone.

And, frankly, you're in no position to claim you'll get anything done. Your determination, and your honesty, and your sense of responsibility be damned. Things change. Stuff just ends sometimes. Someday, you could wake up and realize you just don't want to do it anymore. What do you do then? Force yourself to work to make a half-hearted product? Pass your vision along to someone else and later be unhappy with seeing how that vision’s slowly being changed without your consent? If you’re working alone from the beginning, you can’t even do that.

Here's the common thread here.

People really like the beginnings of things. I don't mean that just with fan projects. It's like that with literally anything.

It's exciting. Makes your heart beat faster. Gives you the shakes. Feels like an impulsive decision that was somehow still calculated. Thinking about winning? Nah, no need. You’ve already won!

But in most cases - in cases where things end up not working out - it's actually exciting because the entire time you're thinking about the destination, not the actual journey. Or, maybe that’s not even it. Maybe you’re just so caught up in the moment that the idea of failure doesn’t even cross your mind, leaving you unprepared when things start going bad. You're young, and you're inexperienced, and you just tell yourself you can do it. And hell - you probably can!

...Thing is, at one point or another, you just don't want to. Maybe because more important things will start happening in your life. Maybe because you weren't honest with yourself about the commitment you were willing to pour into it. Maybe things were out of your control and, again, you weren’t prepared enough to fall back on anything. Maybe because... shit, I don't know. Could be any number of reasons.

My main piece of advice here would be -- before you do anything, anything at all -- get as much work done you yourself can possibly do. If you consider yourself a writer -- write out the script. Nevermind the art. If there's something in that script your artist can't do, you'll make a compromise.

If you're the artist, get art done so you can show it off to other people (who knows, if nothing else, might be a good way to hone your skills?)

If you can code - fuck it, code in some of the script! Even if you’re unhappy with the dialogue, at least have the structure set up. Find a way to speed up processes. Make things extremely fast for you when the time to act actually comes.

If you’re a combination of these three - well, answer should be obvious enough.

But do as much as you can so that when the time comes to make that thread where you either need help or you're just announcing the project to the world, you have something to show to people. To prove that you're in it for the long run. But more importantly, prove to yourself that you're in it for the long run.

That way, you:

Have people be able to trust you enough to apply for help

Have sped up the amount of time the team will need to create the project, since a part of the work is already done

Have a better understanding of your own project and what exactly you want from it; plus, are able to communicate your ideas way more clearly

Even then, there's no guarantee things won't fall apart. But you'll have done everything in your power to truly push yourself to make your dream a reality, and not just jumping into the fire, not knowing what you're doing.

This was probably a really roundabout fucking way of making this point, and I don't even know if half of this shit is comprehensible to someone who has never been in the kind of forum I'm talking about here, but I felt like ranting so, eh.

[dwam-crack-blog]

And I guess my other one (that I can currently think of is) - if you could re-do the whole Umineko x Ace Attorney thing (so it doesn't go into the maddening depths of whatever Vanilla Curtain was) what would you do at this point?

I’ve admittedly sort of gone away from thinking crossovers are a good idea in general since then. With most franchises, there’s heavy expositioning and no guarantee that anyone not familiar with the non-AA franchise could properly enjoy the case.

I suppose the best way to do it at this point, without really having it become a headache, would be to have a case similar to something like PLvAA, but with a twist -- a witch is accused of murder and Beatrice shows up as the prosecutor, using evidence instead of red truth to prove that the murder would’ve been impossible for a human being to commit.

It’s something that would take a lot of time to plan out, so I’m not sure if I can take the idea beyond that at this point, sadly.

[dwam-crack-blog]

A case in which the client/defendant is guilty, but the attorney knows this, too. (Whether or not the player knows it to begin with is up to you)

Hm, I suppose what you had in mind was something more like a murder case in which the attorney knows his client’s guilt and it plays out more or less traditionally in terms of a case. But I feel like aside from that, there wouldn’t be that much too it, gameplay or logic-wise. Of course, you could go with the obvious “present the player as if the defendant is guilty then have a twist in the middle of the trial that they’re innocent”, but let’s go with some other ideas I’ve got here:

On one hand, you could have something like -- you don’t tell the player, the case plays out normally, and only at the end you find out that the defendant was guilty and that you’ve unintentionally painted the attorney as a monster. So, you get to replay the trial and make sure to solve the cross-examinations not by pointing out contradictions, but using the evidence to support certain statements, thus explaining the contradictions raised in the first playthrough and implicating the defendant even more as you go along.

For example, during one cross-examination, you could point out that the prints on the murder weapon belonging to the defendant couldn’t have possibly gotten on there in the scenario presented in the testimony. However, as you play through again, you could press certain statements and eventually conclude that there was something the witness had forgotten to mention (or just omitted believing it would implicate the defendant, when it did the exact opposite). So, you expose the witness as having to mention that part (in an attempt to further incriminate/put pressure on them), but then have the prosecution realize they can use that hole in reasoning to explain the problem regarding fingerprints later.

Basically, the goal would be to set yourself up to fail without the attorney in question ever realizing it.

I would call it:

The Incompetent Turnabout.

The second idea would be to not only make the attorney aware of the defendant’s guilt -- but have the entire court know he’s guilty from the start. Have it so that it has already been established 100% that the defendant committed the murder. The trial itself is actually based around sentencing and determining whether or not the murder was premeditated or committed in an act of self-defense.

For example, a woman stabs her husband in their apartment. She claims it was self-defense, but the prosecution is convinced it was all premeditated. The case would mostly consist of going through the events of the day through the point of view of witnesses who would claim they witnessed her making preparations for the act, and either proving there was a misunderstanding or they’re just plain wrong.

Sounds somewhat boring on first glance, but what I would do is this: the case would be filled with flashbacks regarding the couple’s relationship. At the start of the trial, where it seems like the odds are against the woman and that she really did kill him out of hatred, you’d see flashbacks of them being genuinely happy together, thus making you genuinely doubt that what happened was really an act of brutal murder. As the trial draws near its end, you start to see the relationship fall apart in every way possible, thus explaining how it’d even gotten to the point where she had to kill him in self-defense.

I’d call it, I don’t know, uh...

A Turnabout Made in Heaven.

[dwam-crack-blog]

If you could take the Turnabout Tomorrow universe and add more trials to it, what would you do?

This is more something that’s related to one of my past fancases, but sure, I can talk about this, too.

Spoilers for one of my older trials, Turnabout Tomorrow incoming (not to be confused with Turnabout For Tomorrow from Dual Destinies):

Basically, one of the things people told me Tomorrow failed to focus on more and I agree - was Eileen. I think there’s a really good concept in there. And if I could make a case series out of Turnabout Tomorrow, it would go something like this:

Case 1: Turnabout Tomorrow

Case 2: Takes place two years after the events of Turnabout Tomorrow. Eileen wakes up from her coma and learns that Cross is dead. Yet, even in death, she can’t shake him off and throughout the entire series, she would be haunted by a hallucination of him, serving as an “assistant”. From this point on, the series would actually work as a prosecutor game. Case 2 would introduce our main players and serve more as a way of establishing the universe further rather than serving as a complete mystery. There would be a case, in which Eileen prosecutes a defendant, who is guilty. Through the trial, the defense uses underhanded tricks and psychologically pushes Eileen with her past mistakes. The hallucination of Cross would help her through it, and she would win the case.

Case 3: Is set in a prison, with Masterson being the defendant. In this case, he would be innocent and at some point during the trial, she would understand to truly pursue the truth and go after the defendant, finally overcoming the things that had sent her towards her suicide attempt in the first place.

Case 4: In this case, Eileen is tasked with prosecuting the case of a man accused of being a serial killer, much like “E”. The issue is -- it’s nigh impossible to pin him as things stand. The person who arrested him was Eileen’s brother, and he’s convinced he’s their guy. And he’s right. But the entire trial would be figuring out how he could’ve committed the murders, especially with having alibi for certain ones. It would be a way of actually going in and countering each of Cross’ points he’d made during the end of Tomorrow, thus finally overcoming Cross himself and destroying the hallucination, letting Eileen fully rise from the ashes.

[dwam-crack-blog]

DGS but after it ends its revealed that its Phoenix Wright using the Assassin's Creed Animus machine

Well, as I’ve said, I don’t like just flat-out using concepts that are sort of the core concepts of something well-established at this point.

So let’s do something fucking ridiculous instead.

The entirety of DGS is actually a hallucination Phoenix had upon falling from the burning bridge. After all, it’s kind of weird how he got off so scott-free. So, instead of that, let’s say that hitting the water caused him to have some sort of brain damage that was never picked up on. As DGS ends, Phoenix wakes up in a hospital, with memories of what happened, but acknowledgment that what he’d seen was just a figment of his imagination. After all, Sherlock Holmes? Iris Watson?

Pls.

...Until, that is, during one case, where he inexplicably finds himself hallucinating back into the DGS era, as Naruhodou, into a completely different case. He keeps switching back and forth before he realizes, after doing something in the past, that the present had changed.

He is effectively reliving his ancestor’s past, and changing the future from it -- be it in terms of interacting with the ancestors of people involved in the current case, influencing certain events and making accusations which influenced the future of the city itself.

However, the case in the past ends with Naruhodou finding himself in mortal danger -- by pushing the criminal known as Moriarty off of Sherlock and the two falling into the Reichenbach fall.

It’s not DGS that was the hallucination. It was the future itself.

The case would then have Naruhodou pull himself out of his come and back into the real world of his time.

Dunno what I’d call this one.

A Turnabout Beyond Tomorrow, maybe?

[dwam-crack-blog]

Liar Liar but with Phoenix Wright

I mean, kind of pointless, given that Phoenix isn’t exactly prone to that amount of lying. I also don’t like the concept of taking from concepts that sort of define certain movies, so let’s just stick with the central theme of “a liar who saves himself by finding the truth”.

Let’s assume this is an alternate universe.

The case opens with Phoenix rushing into the defendant lobby. Maya is there. She seems surprised to see Phoenix. She’s also partially angry he’s so late. The trial is about to start and Phoenix rushes into the courtroom with her.

As the trial begins, Phoenix expresses how nervous he is about what’s going on and what’s about to happen, and the case transitions to the previous day, at the beginning of the story.

Phoenix actually works for the mob, tampering with both evidence and the crime scenes to get the job done. Whatever it takes.

On one such assignment, he gets a young girl - Maya Fey. She’s set to be the future wife of the Don’s nephew, so he has to quickly clean up the crime scene and work the evidence in her favor, despite her insistence that she’s innocent. During the initial interview, she seems to not really understand what’s going on and is puzzled by Phoenix’s appearance there. Phoenix concludes that she’s simply been uninformed of the kind of man her future husband is. Phoenix is given all relevant information regarding the case from his assistant, Apollo.

The “investigation” portion, instead of actual investigating, would be visiting forgers, intimidating witnesses and planting evidence, plus messing with the crime scenes.

Phoenix is told there was a woman in black seen at the scene, and he decides to use her as his scapegoat. He pushes the witnesses into lying about her presence on the scene and gains her fingerprints by breaking into the police station later that night, planting them onto the scene later.

However, upon trial’s start, Phoenix realizes something’s wrong. The person that shows up in the defendant lobby... it’s not Maya Fey! No Maya Fey even has anything to do with the case. It’s instead -- a woman dressed in all black! And she’s pissed that Phoenix never even came down to visit her in the detention center.

Apollo reveals his betrayal. Oh, the family HAD hired him to take the case. ...but the person he was asked to defend was the woman in black. Apollo had simply found the name Maya Fey as one of the people in the detention, knew of Phoenix’s ignorance and the fact he wouldn’t share any details implicating the mob while they were in an interview with guards present, so a misunderstanding was bound to happen. That was step one - just making sure Phoenix doesn’t know that his client is actually the woman in black.

And thus, he’d effectively turned the witnesses - and the evidence - against the woman in black and against his own case! If all went according to Apollo’s plan, the woman would be found guilty and Phoenix would become dead meat.Thus, Phoenix is forced to try and find the truth -- despite it being tainted by his own lies.

And he’d manage it -- at a certain point in the trial, despite everything, he’d not only pinpoint the real culprit - but also frame Apollo as the forger. And so, the woman would be found not guilty.

The case doesn’t end there, though.

Apollo, would, in his rage and desperation, admit to Phoenix’s ties with the mob and offer to testify in exchange for immunity. Phoenix, hounded by FBI agents that had monitored the trial, escape the courtroom, and enter a random room, hoping to escape. He’d run into Maya’s trial and decide to work as her attorney, using her trial as a hiding spot.

He would get her declared innocent by going through the trial earnestly.

I’m not sure how to end it, though. I imagine something like the two of them bonding during her trial to the point where she lets him hide out in Kurian Village or something, just until everything blows over - which would lead to an Epilogue in which Phoenix finds inner peace or something and gives up his life of crime altogether, staying at the village, never being heard from again?

Dunno.

I’d call this one.

Honor Among Turnabouts

[dwam-crack-blog]

Play as an AA victim in the events leading up to their death

I’m actually doing something like that!

In my newest case, Turnabout to El Dorado. The events, admittedly, are set across the months leading up to their death, but still -- I’d say it fits into the category.

[dwam-crack-blog]

what's the most dwam crack thing you can write that involves nothing supernatural?

I guess itdepends on what you mean by "supernatural". Obviously, ghosts are outof the picture, but do we count stuff like time or inter-dimensional travel? Ifso, there's quite a few ideas I've had (one which involved Phoenix from analternate timeline causing time paradoxes in the official timeline as a way oftesting abilities and how timelines act upon having a paradox created in them,all in the hopes of finding a way to cause a paradox in his original timelineand save the people he loves in a tragic and seemingly unavoidable incident).

I'll assumethat's not what you're looking for here, though, so let's just throw away anyelements that don't take place in the "real" world.

And in that case,it's not really the crack idea itself that matters much -- but rather how it'sexecuted. For example, take something like Apollo going crazy. How do youportray that? From the lens of another character watching him go insane? Notterribly nuts. How about from his point of view, then? Well, okay - how do yougo about doing that? If the entire case is from his point of view, then you'dhave to establish a certain atmosphere beforehand. And make sure that it's slowbut clearly visible. The idea is for it to happen gradually. And then, as itnear the end -- you pull out all the stops: you make events start appearing outof order, showing off characters who aren't supposed to be there, conversationsthat he couldn't possibly be having, slight changes in the backgrounds, musicand atmosphere, evidence starting to appear and disappear, etc. etc. And as youreach that climax, you show off more and more of those fancy graphics.

...But now I'mtalking about the original Turnabout Curtain, which I've already done. So letme give something a bit more concerete here. Something where the idea itselfwould be something completely ridiculous.

______________________________________________________________

So, okay. Here'sa fun one:

Phoenix is on a plane,returning from Borginia to Los Angeles. There isn't a terribly high number ofpassengers. Phoenix is intending to go to the bathroom, but is beaten to thepunch by a man, who enters the bathroom and locks it behind him. Seeing as howit's the only bathroom, Phoenix decides to wait patiently by the door. Heleaves at no point.

He eventuallygets tired of the bullshit and, as one of the flight attendants if passing byhim, asks him to open the door, because it's been over 15 minutes. The flightattendant checks the door, is unable to get a response. Eventually, the door isopened, revealing that -- the man is gone!

A little whilelater, however, one of the passengers, initially believed to have beensleeping, is found dead in his seat, a knife hidden under the newspapers in hislap.

One of the otherpassengers is arrested for the murder.

Phoeniximmediately suspects the mystery passengers is his man, but CCTV footage showsnobody leaving the plane. And the police ended up searching the plane throughand through. There was no such extra person. Especially since there's no recordof them ever even being on the plane!

Through countlessinterrogations of the other passengers, Phoenix eventually concludes that themystery man had gotten on the plane in Borginia by hiding in the cargo space ofthe plane. As for how they left? The bathroom had an air vent through whichthey crawled through onto the other side of the plan, with no passengerspresent. They then jumped out of the plane by stealing one of the parachutes.An accomplice, one of the flight attendants, closed their exit point behindthem and refuses to name who it is they helped.

That's the simplepart of the case.

The casetransitions to days earlier, to Athena, in LA. She's been called to investigatethe theft of a precious antique knife -- one of a knid. As the player willimmediately recognize --  that's themurder weapon in the case of the airplane. A murder which still hadn'thappened, obviously enough. The theft is resolved and the culprit for thatcaught.

However, there'san issue. Phoenix confronts Athena and says that the murder becomes impossible.The murder happened an hour after the knife was stolen -- at the time whenPhoenix's plane was still up in the air. Meaning someone would've needed toteleport onto the plane. Which should've been impossible. Not to mention, evenif someone had maanged to steal the knife in LA... the culprit in question snuck onto the plane in Borginia. Another impossibility.

The solution tothis, however, will be quite simple.

Phoenix is anidiot.

Throughout thecase, when referencing time, instead of relying on official autopsies orevidence that had some sort of timestamps on it, he would refer to his ownsense of time -- and his own watch. So, he would memorize that the crimehappened at a certain time.

Due to differringtimezones, he never reset his watch, meaning that the victim wasn't murdered anafter after the theft, but 6 hours after the theft. The culprit had gone toBorginia in an attempt to sell the knife, found out the knife was worthless.His partner, the victim, had tricked him and intended to leave him stranded inBorginia, taking all of his official documentation for good as an act ofrevenge. The killer snuck onto the plane, killed the victim, retrieved hisdocuments, and then escaped -- all with the help of a stewardess, who knew thevictim from before through an undetermined event.

Phoenix had rememberedto reset his watch before he went to bed, so he wasn't late for the trial andcompletely forgot about the whole ordeal until afterwards.

Any more detailsthan that, I don't have figured out.

I'd call it:

A Turnabout InThe Distant Skies

[dwam-crack-blog]

First Post

I swear, it’s as if God himself did not want me to open this Tumblr.

I first wanted to do this on Curious Cat, which took forever, with the site for some reason not wanting to decide whether or not I was logged in, whether or not I was setting up an actual username or just the title of my page, whether or not I had even fucking registered -- all with the added bonus of not even opening the site until the fifth try.

Lovely, truly.

Tumblr was smoother, also kind of wonky while setting up, but that could’ve just been my browser or something. Still, seems relatively simple to use, so should be no problem, I hope.

The point of this is to let people send in their fancase prompts, off of which I’ll build actual premises. First time trying, so dunno how well it’ll turn out, if it’ll get attention at all.

Also -- might post some of my thoughts on writing -- be it on AA or general at one point or another here. Will see.