#[hopefully this provides enough dialogue for you to work with!]

[dukku-of-catempty]

Linking my translation of Red Candle's interview yesterday here, also typed out below. I didn't translate everything, but hopefully it's enough for fans to get a glimpse of their game dev process. Interview vod here.

Ninesols was delayed twice. As their first try at a metroidvania, they found out there's a lot more to be done. Their first game play video was actually an accident. Someone clicked the wrong button on the obs and it became a live stream.

For the interview today, we have 2 of the 6 co-founders of redcandlegames, Henry and Vincent/4wei, plus the game play designer Lighty and Art designer Pege/XiaoHe.

Game Dev Process

Back then Yi was a head shorter, pretty close to Hollow Knight. Devs call it the "Hollow Cat era". It took them 1-2 years to progress from Hollow Cat to 2D Sekiro.

Q: You've already set such a high bar for game play (hollow knight, sekiro), why did you have the same high standard for art and story as well?

Henry:(points at Vincent) this is all him. I said, just focus on the game play! Then he decided to throw in the story

Vincent: I didn't set it out to be so dialogue heavy. But simple gameplay doesn't keep gamers playing, they have to be invested in the world to want to play more.

Vincent: I wanted to save budget so I thought, comics, they're simple enough. Turned out they were costly too. Pege got the other end of that. She drew all the in-game comics.

Pege: Comic works in that you can get up close to the characters and see the details, their expressions.

Their initial inspo for the artstyle was Akira... really reaching for the heights of everything

On the designing process:

Vincent: pacing comes first, whether it's story, combat, or the gaming experience

About 35mins in: Lighty explains the initial concept of TaoPunk

Vincent come up with keywords and Pege designs the character. For example, Goumang was "princess, tsundere", Lady Ethereal was based on "Zhuangzi and the butterfly dream".

40min, Pege explains the character designing process

Pege had the hardest time designing JieQuan. Girls are easier.

Vincent: he's the typical straight macho dude

MCs: what do you mean straight? All I see is 🌈

Vincent wanted there to be a low point for the gamer, since the first 3 bosses were relatively easy. He drew inspiration from Bloodborne and MGS, and JieQuan was born as Yi's tormentor.

Pege's favorite character is Ji, based on his character design and gender.

Vincent: I said Ji can be a they, but Pege insisted on him being male.

MC: So we can actually see stuff under his skirt

Henry: Yi had to struggle to not get flashed during the fight

Lighty also likes Ji best, because of his character. He likes his views as an immortal.

Henry also likes Ji best, because of his combat pattern. Out of all the bosses, his combat pattern is the only one thats entirely original. He wanted to make a 3rd stage.

Since all the characters came from Vincent, he doesn't have a favorite, but is impressed by how popular some of them are. Lady Ethereal's fight was actually the least costly. The platforming was a budget choice. Including the jumpscare, Ethereal was the easiest stage to make.

Vincent: Even the bgm. For Lady Ethereal, I didn't need to tell the composer what I want, they finished it perfectly.

Henry: This is a collaboration where everyone provides their expertise, and Lady Ethereal is an example of us working extremely in sync.

They ran out of time and funds at the research center, and were not entirely satisfied with it even when the game launched.

Solarian was based on Middle Chinese. Old Chinese sounds close to Vietnamese and is too hard for the VAs to pronounce. Vincent thinks since the game is sci-fi in ancient times, a new language is needed for immersion.

Everyone's stressed at the end of the project: it's been five years, and the game hadn't been tested by the mass public, so they weren't sure how it'd be received

Solarian language and Voiceover

Vincent: in Taiwanese we have checked tones, libiodentals, we digged deeper into these traits and referenced Taiwanese/Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese and Middle Chinese for the Solarian language. Our Solarian expert, Sheng-Han Lin worked on it for 3 months. He even wrote a program where it converts a word into Solarian automatically, complete with KK phonetic symbols.

Basic Solarian words/phrases:

(Making these up, tone numbers are mandarin)

Bi³ Suen² = big brother

Shuai² In³ = Hello Friend

Why⁴ Song⁴ = Stop right there

Uen Zai² Chok = got it (I think?)

Ket Do³ = thank you

Vincent: first thing I said to the VAs was "sorry". Even after the recording process they still weren't sure what they were saying 😂

Many thanks to our voice director Neven Chang. It's the VAs performance that convinced me that Solarian is an actual language.

The Solarian characters came out of the need for there to be inscriptions on the background architectures, but modern Chinese characters breaks the immersion, so the art team came up with the idea to use the CangJie input method.

Vincent: initially we wanted to use the oracle bone script, but it's too time consuming, we needed something systemized. We do have our own Solarian font tho.

Solarian font has been dicephered here

Fan made font

Q&A section!

First question: are there plans for future nine sols DLCs?

Vincent: we still have a lot of work, like console ports and adding more languages, plus the crowndfund reawards... so currently we're looking to finish these first.

Vincent: as you know, we are a bunch of overachievers, so if there is a DLC, there's no telling how long we'll work on it... but atleast for me, I do hope to tell more stories in this world. That's all I'll say for now.

Q: will there be merch?

A: Yes, all the crowdfund rewards will also be sold as merch, like the art book and physical game pack, but at a higher price. Not the figure though, they're already finished, to make more we'll go bankrupt.

Unless, there's a really high demand for it 👀

Q: were there any additional plot you had to cut due to lack of resources?

.

*SPOILERS

.

.

.

.

A: Chien's boss fight, Ji's 3rd phase, Yi fighting himself in Eigong's soul sanctum, a TianHuo last boss, Abacus was supposed to be Yi from the past, Kanghui, the dragon... we cut a lot

Vincent: There are two plotlines I stood my ground on: the revenge plot, and the relationship between Yi and Heng.

We actually changed Shuanshuan's story a lot. Initially he was supposed to be super energetic and run around all of New Kunlun.

Q: there are a lot of ways the player can fight in #ninesols, were you worried about it being too hard?

A: Yes. It's very parry focused, so if you can't parry, you're dead. The Story Mode was made out of this fear. But from the response we've got so far, it seems to be ok.

Vincent: the real problem is gamers having false expectations. Souls fans get frustrated with the parrying and combat fans get frustrated with the dialouges. So we have to let the gamers know, this isn't hollow knight, isn't Sekiro, this is Nine Sols.

Q: what do the lyrics in the bgm mean?

A: they are all really simple. Like "heroes are forged in agony". For Fuxi and Nuwa, their keyword was "Peony Pavilion", opera related, so the composer incorporated 牧虎關 into their battle bgm.

All #ninesols boss music was composed by @/FFXX_sound. 4-5 of the songs were recomposed after betaing. The boss fight in plumblossom village wasn't supposed to be this hard, but the bgm was too fire, so the team adjusted it.

Vincent: the composer could choose whether to use Solarian or Mandarin lyrics. I was there during recording. We got a talented Taiwanese men's choir to sing for us. Four professional singers singing "Huh! Hah! Heroes are forged in agony!" It looked ridiculous.

For the ending song, redcandle wanted to connect to the international audience, and Collage fit that perfectly. Plus our fans kept recommending them to us. Communication was smooth, apparently Natsuko is a gamer and really liked us.

Taopunk was a mix of Eastern and Western cultures, so it was decided early on that there would be English lyrics in the ED.

There was an ARG on discord where fans can uncover the ED bit by bit.

There are also plans for future interactive games like that

Q: what are some challenges for the EN locoalizatuon?

A: It was pretty smooth, we had a lot of help from our discrod server, including JP proofreading. Both EN and JP TL was actually done in a month before release. We just posted our beta dialougues and everyone came to help us.

Lady Ethereal used to be FuDie, but it sounds terrible in English, so she was renamed.

KangHui used to be GongGong, but it's too confusing to non mandarin speakers.

Eigong too, she used to be Yigong, Yi as in change, but players may mistake her to be related to Yi.

Solarian society trivia:

-they are a matriarchal society

-the average age of death is 140

-cats are evolved from Solarians

They are working on more languages, all of them EU ones. MC asked if there are plans for SEA languages. They say that'll require ppl fluent in these languages, since the other TL are mostly done by community members/fans.

2-3days after release, their text file was hacked. It's a Google doc, Lighty went on there and found someone typing Italian text there, all correct dialougues. They kicked them out then emailed the Italian.

The Italian : I'm just a player, I just want to help.

They translated pages of text, the team was terrified. Security breach!

the Italian said thank you to the team for being patient with them, cause they did the same thing with other games and got severe responses.

RedCandle: thanks but please don't ever do it again.

Q: are you satisfied with the response from non CN speaking players?

A: Yes. Most of the reviews we got were English. It's our goal anyway, to break the culture barrier.

There are of course some surprises.

MC: you mean the furries?

A: the amount of fanart was unexpected

Vincent: I was also surprised by the response we got on reddit. We actually realized our goal, so I was pretty happy with that.

Q: any plans for a new game?

they've worked on nine sols for 5 years already, pretty drained right now, so (as a team) theres no new content planned yet

And here comes the funniest part lol (clip)

Q: any plans for a new game?

Vincent: Having ideas for a new game is one thing, but we still--

(Thunder claps)

Vincent: 😱 Did I say the wrong thing? I'm sorry! OK? We'll start working on it!

Discussing the ending...

Devs consider the true ending a good ending. Its ok if life has no meaning, having lived is enough and all that.

And ED is Collage's take on the ending.

I'll end the thread here, though there are 30mins more to go. Many thank to Wenlobong for hosting the interview, and Red Candle for making the game! Really hope #ninesols will get more recognition

[touhoucrackmonth]

We're back!

After almost a year, the Touhou Crack Month is back for a second edition, hopefully filled with many more fun pairings and fun fics, and for this second edition, artworks as well!

What is this event?

This is a month-long AO3/Tumblr event where artists are given randomly-generated crackships, and have to desperately wrangle with whatever absurdity the RNG has wrought upon them. This event is meant to celebrate creativity, originality and adaptability in shipping.

If you're looking for a challenge, something to break your routine, a breath of fresh air, or want to experience with never-before-seen interactions and dynamics, look no further!

Proceedings

The event lasts the whole month of March 2025, starting on March 1st at 00:01 and ending on April 1st at midnight (both CET), ideally all works should be published before that deadline (not that it's a huge deal if they aren't). Each participant will receive their pairings on March 1st, each distinct from everyone else's.

You are only expected to make a single fic or artwork, but if you are really determined, nothing stops you from making even more than that, of either kind! There are never enough crackships.

Guide for potential participants (keep reading)

To participate, simply sign up using the form provided at the end of this post. In there, you can select different options to customize your experience. First is a 'difficulty' setting:

Easy: 4 randomly-generated pairings, with one to choose from for your fic.

Normal: 3 pairings.

Hard: 2 pairings.

Lunatic: only 1 pairing, so no choice!

You also have options to exclude some characters, for instance if you know them too little, or if you don't want to make ship content involving them.

For writers

Completed fics are to be published to the official AO3 Touhou Crack Month 2025 collection.

For visual artists

Completed artworks are to be published on Tumblr, under the #thcrackmonth2025 tag.

Eligible pairings

There are some restrictions put on the pairings, both to avoid uncomfortable ones, and to ensure the "crack" in the name isn't cosmetic.

Generally, eligible pairings are those where the two characters have no significant canon dialogue, interactions or strong backstory links (the latter case covers pairings such as Miko/Saki). Generic, one-off fight banter generally doesn't count (especially relevant for playable characters), nor does VS mode-exclusive dialogue (not counted as canon), nor do very brief manga/print work scenes (e.g. the big banquet of Silent Sinner in Blue).

Also excluded will be ships with strong fanon presence despite little canon basis, such as "successive bosses" ships (e.g. Wriggle/Mystia, Doremy/Sagume).

This event is yuri only, so male characters are excluded. Non-humanoid characters are also excluded unless otherwise specified by individual participants.

Note that these rules aren't exhaustive and I may exclude some other pairings in keeping with the general spirit of the rules above.

General rules

No NSFW, no intense depictions of abuse be it sexual or not (e.g. pedophilia, child abuse, etc), no incest (though all such pairings are already ineligible). Beyond that, there is no issue with delving into more mature themes, as long as they are tagged properly.

FORM LINK

The sign-up form is available here. Make sure to read all the instructions properly.

In case you have any additional questions, just send an ask to the blog and I'll try to answer the best I can!

[miitopiaenjoyer]

The Injury.

Part 8 out of 10, Written Form.

<Prev, Next>

TW for injury, blood, and body horror in the fic!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/64627909

This is half of Part 8. The artwork for Part 8 will be in the following post.

This art series has been a sort of teaser for this fic. Note that the fic basically gives away the ending of the art series; if you'd like to experience the art series first, the fic essentially contains spoilers. Inversely, Part 8 Art Form will give away the big reveal of the fic, and the following parts which will be posted in the coming days will give away the fic's ending somewhat. Both the art series and the fic contain unique aspects. They can be experienced in any order; please feel free to look at everything in whichever order you'd like to best! Personally, I'd recommend reading the fic before proceeding to the artwork, but that's a personal preference. Either way, it should still be enjoyable.

If you'd like to read the written version first, do so now. If you'd like to experience the art version first, proceed to the second half of Part 8, which will be posted shortly after this post goes online.

Spoiler-free rambling under the cut! :)

SURPRISE!! IT'S A FIC!! BETCHA WEREN'T EXPECTING THAT, WERE YA?

Yep, that's right! This series has actually been fanart of my own fic this ENTIRE TIME! As I was writing it, I just sorta started sketching scenes one day and didn't stop. So I figured, hey, you know what'd be fun? If I post them in the leadup to actually posting the fic! :D

I've never tried to do something like a fic art series before, so I hope it turned out cool! Making it has been really fun. :)

The new fic is very similar to my other fic, admittedly, but there are a fair few differences. Hopefully they're enough to make it feel distinct as its own piece! As I said in the fic summary, it's a lot like a funhouse mirror version of my other fic. So, take that as you will.

Although this series has covered a lot of what's in the fic, I tried to be sure that the scenes I drew out provide additional insight into how certain events happened. In a similar vein, the fic adds more depth to areas this series does not cover in as much detail, and has moments that aren't included. I believe that you can easily enjoy one and not the other without any issues, but I did my best to make sure they're both worth reading/looking at, so if you haven't already, I'd sincerely appreciate it if you checked out both! Either way, I thank you for reading this far and looking at this post! I'm really grateful for the support this series has received so far, and I appreciate it dearly. :)

Again, since the fic is complete and the series isn't, it will give you an idea of where the next few parts are going to go. If you'd rather experience the art series first and not have the ending given away by the fic, I'd recommend waiting to read it until the end! That said, the events of this series so far have actually only covered about half of the fic itself; the part count is just a lot further along because I focused on drawing the action-oriented scenes, and the second half of the fic is more dialogue-heavy. I think that since the action is largely over (aside from the Big Reveal) and the rest of the story depends a lot on words, this is a good place to read the fic itself. The "intended" order in my head is Art Pieces 1-7, Part 8 Written, and then the rest of the art series, but again, I've tried to make sure it can be enjoyed in any order. It depends on what you like best!

I was a bit conflicted about when in the art series to post the link, but I believe this is the best way to do it. If you decide to read the fic now, then that should be a great way to experience the story, and hopefully the context of the fic should make the rest of the art more enjoyable. In any case, I really hope you like it!

I worked really, really hard on this fic, and I really hope whoever reads it can feel the love I put into it! If you have any questions or comments about it, please feel free to share, either here or over on AO3! I'd be happy to ramble on about it. Regardless, thanks again for the support it means the absolute world to me, and I hope to see you around for the rest of the art series! :D

[sapphim]

Hi, I'm so sorry if this is a stupid/annoying question- I've tried to find answers on the internet but haven't found anything so I thought I'd ask you.

I've been trying to make a mod in the dao toolset that edits dialogue/scripting for the city elf origin, and I've been trying to figure out how to "package" the files into a mod, like the kind that people upload to nexus mods. Would you mind telling me how I'd do it? I've tried exporting the files into a folder in my override but that didn't affect my game, and neither does the built-in builder to player packager :(

Again, sorry if this is annoying or if you've answered this before!

hey no worries! providing your mod either as an add-in or as an override are both valid choices for distribution, but the toolset has a lot of little quirks which can cause problems if you're not familiar with them. I don't know what problem you've run into that it isn't working as expected but here are some thoughts that may help:

this post links to several tutorials (and other resources) I recommend often. woe to go is very thorough, while jwvanderbeck's custom item tutorial (from the final linked post, here) is a very good step by step through the entire process of creating a mod.

things get screwier with ownership and export paths when you're editing existing SP resources rather than creating your own. get in the habit of regularly checking modules\Single Player\override\toolsetexport for either your modded files or for junk files you didn't mean to export but the toolset chose to anyway. these latter files can monkey up your game if they're not deleted. (this post lists all possible export paths).

(there are probably nuances to getting things set up exactly right when editing SP resources so this kind of stuff doesn't happen but I've always just winged it and hoped for the best and then lightly regretted it later lmao. I don't advise that but it puts me in a poor position to offer better advice).

you probably already know this but add-in (builder to player) mods need to be installed differently from drag-and-drop mods. I prefer to use DAO Mod Manager rather than the built in installer.

scripts need to be compiled in order to do their thing. .nss (script source) files don't do anything in game. you need those .ncs (compiled script) files for your mod.

hopefully that's enough to get you up and going! it IS pretty complicated especially these days without the collective knowledge of an active modding scene

[forgottenwriter]

ForgottenWriter's Guide to Writing: Getting Started, Part One.

So, I mentioned before that I might do this, and a few people were interested. I decided to actually put my money where my mouth was for once; this guide is going to be a practical guide to writing for a beginner. Now, this one is aimed at people who want to do stuff in fandom spaces, but a lot of what I am going to be doing here is also relevant to original work. I'll start you off with the basics, and help to teach you everything I've learned over the many, many, many years that I've been doing this.

True to its nature, this article will be pretty basic, but as we go, I'll get to more advanced stuff and concepts. You want to know how to do a proper character arc? Or characterise someone? Or make dialogue flow naturally? Or attract readers? Or really, anything like that? I'm your girl, and just because we don't cover it right away doesn't mean we're not going to cover it. But before we get into that, who am I and why do I get to give you these lessons? Well, I'm a writer, and a pretty successful one! Not only have I been in fandom species since the early 2000s, I'm also a self published author and writer of commissioned fiction. I live and breath writing, and not only do I think it's incredibly important, but I also treasure it as something that we all can have, and which can help us connect to one another.

I've been writing for a long time. Counting it all, I've been writing for almost two thirds of my span of life. I've done a lot, seen a lot, made a lot, fucked up a lot, and learned from it - hopefully a lot! My list of achievements include a fairly successful web novel-ish quest which ran for multiple years at hundreds of comments, votes and discussion per chapter, a 70K word steampunk novel, and a series of decently successful short stories published under a different, business name.

tl;dr, I'm not saying that I am an expert here and we always have more to learn. But I am saying that i know the basics, and know them well enough to make a living doing this shit, so let me pass on a little bit of what I know to you all if you're in any way interested.

So, what do you need to get started with writing? I'm going to be treating you like you know absolutely nothing here, and handing you some of the basic tools. The first thing you're going to want to have is a word processor of some sort. Back in ye old days, there were really only two games in town: Microsoft word and OpenOffice, but these days, there are a ton more options. I'll go over some of them and weigh the pros and cons.

Microsoft Office Microsoft office used to be the standard. Back in the old days, if you could use this, you would. Believe it or not, I don't hear it used much anymore, but if you happen to have it, it can serve well. It's formatting is still universal, and it provides a good grammar and spelling checker.

The downside of this is that it's paid, and microsoft can be pricey. It tends to be bundled with other programs, so if you already have it, you can use it. If you don't, it's not worth coughing up the cash for this alone. Also, it's had some AI controversies I believe, and some writers don't trust it. LibreOffice LibreOffice is an off-shot of OpenOffice, which was Microsoft's big, open source rival for writing back in the day. OpenOffice boasted that it could offer everything Microsoft offered, but for free. That's true! But I find it has a bit of a steeper learning curve. That said, I don't believe they've dipped into AI, and to this day, they're still free and can export documents into various formats.

If you want an word processor but don't want to pay, this one is pretty near the top of the list, and it's what I used for years and years.

Google Docs Google Docs is also a word processor, but differs from the others in several key ways. The first and most important is that your work is saved to the Cloud; you can access it from any computer. This also means that it doesn't matter what kind of computer you're running - LibreOffice won't run well on a chromebook for example, and Microsoft Office has no hope in hell, but anything will run Google Docs. Docs is also free, and has essentially unlimited space. Technically, limited, but if you're only writing, you'll probably never hit it. In my experience, the spelling and grammar checker is worse on google docs than Libre, but this is a minor complaint, and the main drawback of google docs is twofold.

Firstly, if your google account is ever lost, compromised or blocked, you lose everything. Your documents will be deleted, and you will instantly lose access without warning. Now, I rarely hear about this happening, but it's something to be aware of.

Secondly, AI. Google is very AI happy, and there has been suggestions in the past that they harvest information from google docs without permission. This has never been proven, but comes up somewhat semi regularly within author circles. Make up your own mind how likely you think it is.

Generic Word Processor These are things like Notepad, or some other brand of word processor. Typically, they won't serve as well as the ones I've name-dropped above, but you can write on anything in a pinch. The most important thing is to find something that works and clicks with you.

I spent years operating off LibreOffice, and before that, it's ancestor, OpenOffice, and nowadays I do most of my work via Google Docs.

These are all you will need to start writing in fandom spaces. Now, there are more advanced tools - especially if you're aiming to get published, but we can cover those in a later post. They don't matter right now.

[karagna]

Hi there!

I saw the game you coded and I think its really awesome!

I've been thinking about making a game for awhile but was always intimated by the fact that I don't know how to code things you said in the post for "A Pound of Flesh" that you hadn't done it before and I was hoping you might be able to point me toward some good resources for learning!

Thank you!!

HIHI!! So for 'A Pound of Flesh', I used the visual novel building system called Renpy to make it! It's basically a free software that streamlines a huge part of the visual novel making timeline and its also the main reason why I was able to develop it by myself in 36 hours.

Renpy uses Python to code visual novels, and when you download it, it immediately prompts a tutorial that teaches you the basics of coding in it which you can replay. It's not too in depth, but it provides enough that I was able to understand the main functions and also some other cool stuff that Renpy can do! Honestly because i only had 36 hours I didnt have time to pour over much resources, a lot of what I learnt came from typing in my questions into google and praying someone had asked it before in either a visual novel dev forum called Lemmasoft or reddit (and it often worked). Most people who help out will also give their own code that worked so I kinda reversed engineered it to learn on my own Tbh I'm sorry I couldn't help more! I kinda just went in hoping the best and didn't think I'd come out with a finished product.

But hopefully the forums and their website I linked down below will help you out if you decide to try Renpy out for developing! It's honestly not as hard as I thought it would be, and if you use Visual Studio Code there's even a plugin which highlights code for you making it so much easier to see what's part of the dialogue and what's actually just code

Forum link: Link Quickstart help website: Link

[cvoyage618]

How do I know I'm ready for a writing workshop?

Hello new writer! Considering a workshop to get feedback on your latest project? That's a fantastic idea! Workshops are an amazing experience and great way to work through ideas faster while gaining personalized insights on what you can do to improve your work.

But, as I'm sure you know, the workshop is not a glamorous space. It's a bunch of creatives, all at different levels of experience and from different genres, sitting in a room together, debating what makes a work 'good' or 'better'.

It's tough! You never know what other people's intentions are or what they think is appropriate in a workshop space. If you've never been critiqued before, the experience can be jarring, unpleasant, and overwhelming. So before you sit down at the coffee shop or click into that mysterious Discord call, make sure to ask yourself some essential questions I've listed below.

What do I want from this workshop?

Before attending, it's incredibly helpful to understand what you are hoping to gain from the experience. Consider what you are struggling with most in your current project. Are you facing writers' block? Is there a scene that just isn't working? Or a character you just can't make sense of?

When you have an answer to this question, make sure to communicate that to your fellow workshop attendees. If it's a decent workshop, they'll take your question and use it to inform the feedback they provide you with. Hopefully you walk away with an answer to your question and ladder to scale that block with!

These types of questions can also help direct feedback if your fellow workshop attendees are less familiar with your genre or style. By giving them one or two things to focus on (character voice, narration, dialogue, etc.), you can help direct their attention to the parts of the piece you want to address. Without doing this, some workshop attendees might get distracted by their own personal writing hang ups or resort to giving generic advice.

What are the limitations of my genre or style?

To start, if you can't clearly describe what genre you're writing in, I would seriously consider that before attending a workshop. Being able to describe your piece concisely and effectively to a group of other writers makes a huge difference when they're providing feedback.

It's really common for workshop attendees to be older, retired individuals, so they are coming to the space with a lifetime of different reading experiences. You may think your piece is clearly science fiction, but the 2,500 words they get from your work may not clearly communicate that to them if they have preconceived notions about what science fiction must look like.

I, for example, once brought a piece in asking about the character voice in a fantasy piece, and another writer told me that my language wasn't 'fantasy' enough for a piece with an elf protagonist. This man was older, so it was easy enough to assume he was thinking of The Lord of the Rings when he spoke. But my project was always going to be closer to Legends and Lattes then to anything Tolkien, so I just had to smile, nod, and take the feedback politely while knowing I wasn't going to use it at all.

Speaking of -

Can I handle critique? How do I know if I can't?

This might be the most important question to ask yourself before you step into a workshop, but it is really hard question to answer if you've never shown anyone else your writing before.

First and foremost, most workshops do not require you to bring writing in. You are more than welcome to show up and provide feedback while bringing nothing of your own. If this is your first time trying a workshop, do that! This is a great way to gain an understanding of what kind of feedback other writers provide, and to start building your definition of 'good' and 'bad' feedback based on the critiques you give others.

The more you practice giving feedback, the more clear it will become when others are not providing kind, constructive responses to your work. It's important to remember that critiquing is a skill like any other, and its one that aids your writing ability as well as your fellow writers'. Once you know how to critique others, you'll get better and better at reading your own work for revision.

Once you've got answers for all three of these questions, go forth and explore! There are so many fantastic spaces where writers gather, try out a few before you decide where to settle. And if someone in the group is particularly helpful, reach out! Exchange longer work with a friend. Ask questions. Build community.

[noxxytocin]

20 Questions for Fic Writers Tag ✍️

Thank you for the tag @myokk 🫰✨ This looks fun!

How many works do you have on AO3? 4 public and 1 anon!

What's your total AO3 word count? 18,969 words (public)

What fandoms do you write for? For now, I'm focused on Hogwarts Legacy. But I do have some pretty intense ships in other shows, like Stranger Things, so I might dip my quill into those at some point.

Top five fics by kudos? My most popular fic by kudos is Bury. It���s quite amusing because I knocked it out in one night after a few drinks and some seriously intense feelings. It’s my least polished piece, which just goes to show that AO3 readers are all about those spicy, quick reads and I love that, haha.

Do you respond to comments? Absolutely! Every comment notification makes my heart a bit brighter, so I reply to them with as much warmth as I put into my fics.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I don't think any of my stories end on an angsty note—I'm more of a fluff enthusiast.

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Perhaps, Insomnium.

Do you get hate on fics? I don't believe I receive enough attention for that to be a concern. However, I do review all comments before they are posted for this very reason, so that I may block any unwanted individuals, if necessary.

Do you write smut? Yes, but in a very delicate, poetic manner. Smut, to me, possesses a certain elegance.

Craziest crossover? None.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge, though I do believe I have inspired some writings. I don’t particularly mind if I encounter similar works after mine has been published. Writing is meant to be an inspiring endeavor, and that is precisely the purpose of inspiration.

Have you ever had a fic translated? I have a close, French mutual who helps me double-check my French in my fanfics, and I know a decent amount.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Well, my husband provides me with a great many ideas for the fics I’ve written, so I would certainly count his contributions. He is an excellent beta reader!

All time favorite ship? I couldn't possibly choose that...I have so many ships. I don't believe I have a favorite; they all occupy equal space in my mind.

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? None, I am confident that I will finish all of mine in time. I've just been busy!

What are your writing strengths? Transforming risqué themes into romantic fluff is my specialty. I can take a rather smutty idea and turn it into tooth-rotting fluff. It’s more of a curse than a strength, really, haha...I also enjoy crafting dialogue and capturing the canonical personalities of characters. When writing Sebinis, I make a point of watching extensive videos of their lines to accurately capture their mannerisms and language.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language? It’s fine as long as it is executed properly. A minor mistake is forgivable, but it genuinely irritates me when I encounter French in other fics that is clearly incorrect, especially when the writer or beta says that French is their first language, yet this is not evident in their sentences. My French beta mutual has even remarked, “Yeah, no, they're lying” It drives me mad, as I am certain this beta is deceiving the poor author, and yet I cannot address it myself. It is not my place, and I am well aware that it would only result in the individual defensively justifying their lies. Hopefully they will find out eventually...

First fandom you wrote in? First ever?....hmm....I am honestly not sure...maybe (cringe) homestuck??? But that was in 2011 or 2012, hahaha...

Favorite fic you've written? One that I am currently doing for Sebinis...but I can't share because it's for an anon writing fest!

Surprise - no 20th question! 🫴✨ Tagging: @luminousecho @the-invisibility-bloke @shyinsunlight @steve-black-hl @moltenwrites @the-golden-comet @the-letterbox-archives @mirdeli @esolean @gaunts-angel @jamiemoonymark @crime-in-progress

[cienie-isengardu]

@sakairz129 commented on She [mother] would...

I have a couple of doubts. I know the history of mk from the ninth game, so I don't know much about the previous games and stories. I didn't know that they had a sister or what happened to their mother, could someone explain to me? 😭

Sure, I will do my best!

Mortal Kombat 9 (2011) is the reboot that started the alternative timeline, in which Kuai Liang and Bi-Han were abducted as children and trained to be Lin Kuei assassins.

"An assassin of the Lin Kuei clan, Kuai Liang commands the power of ice and cold. Unlike other members of his clan, he and his older brother, Bi-Han, were abducted as children by the Lin Kuei and trained in the techniques of assassination throughout their lives. [...] (source: Sub-Zero’s MK9!BIO)

In this timeline, we don’t have much information about Bi-Han & Kuai Liang’s biological family besides this BIO and MK11’s intro dialogues (Noob vs Sub-Zero, Sub-Zero mirror matches) that mention their grandfather was a Sub-Zero before them.

Original timeline usually described Bi-Han and Kuai Liang’s origin as unknown however the Bi-Han-centric game Sub-Zero: Mythologies provided more detailed backstory:

Somewhere in the northern most parts of Asia, there exists a secret clan of assassins and thieves known as the Lin Kuei. This group has existed for centuries and thrives on the evil intention of the people who pay for their services. Its warriors are chosen at birth to be raised apart from the workings of day to day civilization and are stripped of their former lives. Only the clan knows their existence [...] Born in America, Sub-Zero was the oldest of three children, which included a brother and sister. Their mother wanted a normal life for her sons, who had already been chosen by the Lin Kuei to become warriors for the clan. She tried in vein to hide them from their father whose own life in America was only a cover for his true identity and purpose. Eventually they were found and their father returned with them to his homeland. Their mother and sister were never seen or heard from again. Sub-Zero learned of his ability as a young adult. It was passed on to him by his father, a fourth generation Lin Kuei warrior himself. The ability to harness the element of cold is one that takes years of practice. It's full potential realized only by those who've mastered it at the latest stages of life. Sub-Zero's skills have the ability to develop much faster than those of the other Lin Kuei. This was realized by the Lin Kuei Grandmasters who picked the young warrior to take his deceased father's place as the next Sub-Zero. (Source: mythologies.dragondata.com or mksecrets.net)

The source is not clear if Bi-Han & Kuai Liang's mother was a Lin Kuei herself or if she was a "normal" woman married to working under cover Lin Kuei assassin. We know only that she didn't want her sons to be used by the clan and tried save her kids. Sadly, her fate is not confirmed either, as the "never seen or heard again" may means Bi-Han's mother and the youngest sister were killed or (hopefully) they managed to run away and hide well enough to never beed found by Lin Kuei.

Please keep in mind I know this backstory from those two websites - I suspect this originally comes from Sub-Zero: Mythologies Prima Guide or something like, but sadly I do not own a copy to confirm - or deny - it. However, the mythologies.dragondata.com is listed on wikipedia as an official Sub-Zero: Mythologies website and its archived version you can check out for yourself here.

I personally, until proven wrong, assume this is an official original Bi-Han & Kuai Liang's backstory.

[ofsilentthings]

Writer Interview Game!

Thanks @kalmiaphlox for tagging me!

When did you start writing?

I've written since I was a kid. Got heavily into fanfiction as a teenager ... and then promptly stopped when I entered college*. Didn't start up again until about 2020; there were stories I wanted to tell of my D&D characters that didn't come up during gameplay. (Having a pandemic to keep one at home helped as well). Picked up fanfic again in 2021 when, after beating Bloodborne, I found a little site called Archive of One's Own...

* I did co-write a play that was produced at my college; it was about Lewis Carroll's relationship with Alice Liddell, the girl for whom he wrote ALICE IN WONDERLAND I ended up playing Lewis Caroll in the production, which was a treat. Probably fed a secretly-held love of men's 19th century fashion.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

I love shows like Babylon 5 or Deep Space 9, as well as a good documentary. I also like reading play scripts.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

Someone once compared my writing to F. Scott Fitzgerald and I about exploded with joy. Other than that I love a good (translation) of Gabriel Garcia Marquez or the aforementioned Fitzgerald. Edgar Allen Poe in terms of sheer variety of word use, as well as horror inducing terror.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

I have an office with my various fandom paraphernalia around me; but I do a lot of writing on the couch so I can be in the same room as my family. If I get to be alone I love writing outside, or barring that, my local library.

What's your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Listening to music. Even if the lyrics aren't exactly what I need, the tone or mood of a piece can be enough for me to start imagining.

Then again, some of my favorite fics have started from dreams I've had.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

I write a lot about parenting, because I am a mom; perhaps it's a way to explore the ways parenting can go wrong (and how it can go right). I also seem to write, at least recently, about marriage. I have a lovely happy marriage, but I'm not sure people would know that by the demented marriages I often write about.

What is your reason for writing?

I have fun making up stories, but I find myself needing an outlet to explore some idea of humanity - often an aspect of some part of my life or past that I want to understand better. My stories are me showing my work about various themes in my own life. I don't want to provide solutions or definite answers, but rather, present a situation or feeling and go, 'what do you think?'

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

If I touched a single person with my prose or character situation or if I even made something beautiful from something horrific, then I consider it a win.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

An engaging writer that makes a reader think about their smut.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

World building and, occasionally, dialogue.

How do you feel about your own writing?

I think I have a strong command of a scene - dialogue and scenes between two people are a strength of mine. I have a strong understanding of character motivations and how to present multi-layered characters to an audience, hopefully without judging them too much.

I'm proud of how far I've come in terms of descriptive text; sentence variety, invoking memories and all the senses is something I am experimenting with. (Not every sentence needs to be complex.)

That being said, I wish I knew more words. I'll read something and be reminded of words that I had forgotten, or, even better, learn new words. I want to fill my writing with texture, so that when you read it it tickles all parts of one 's imagination. (I like words.)

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely for yourself, or a mix of both?

I have struggled a lot with writing what I like, because I know what I like is a specific niche; I try to find a way to write things people will like or comment on but also speaks to bigger themes. I can't write just smut, for instance - there has to be some sort of pathos or character change. In the end I do like most everything I write, because otherwise I wouldn't bear to see it on the screen/print.

tagging @wikipedianna, @karnaca78 , @slothquisitor, for writer fun.

[foodfightnovelization]

Hey there! I found your blog last Wednesday, and I gotta say, it's about time someone showed this misbegotten movie some love! I've also been reading Ziggy Cashmere's ebook Drawing For Nothing, which includes all sorts of old material from the film - and even directs you to an early draft of the script! Awesome-sauce! Aside from that, I want to know your thoughts on the proposed franchise Larry wanted to make out of the movie, including sequels, video games, books, live stage performances, etc.?

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you're enjoying my blog, and yes, Drawing For Nothing is fantastic isn't it? There's a lot more where that came from too, with Ziggy currently working on a documentary called "ROTTEN: Behind The Foodfight" (see my last post for more info on that). It should be coming out very soon, so stay tuned for that! I was fortunate enough to be involved in it, even making a small cameo at one point, and I can't wait for everyone to see the plethora of incredible behind-the-scenes material he's uncovered.

And yes, I read that early draft of the Foodfight! script a while ago and I'll talk about it some more once the documentary is out It's a draft from April 2005 and is VERY similar to the novelization, but there are still a bunch of interesting differences worth discussing. For one, the script includes all the real-world mascot cameos intended to be in the movie (such as M&Ms, Pringles, Oscar Mayer etc.) which were excluded from the novelization presumably due to brand deals not extending to merchandising. This actually leads to some surprising changes in the plot and dialogue, some of which I find incredibly funny, so there'll be a whole lot to talk about!

Anyway, as for my thoughts on the proposed franchise? I think it could've worked, I really do. Not to the extent Larry Kasanoff dreamed of- I don't think there was anyway the proposed "Foodfight! On Ice" show was ever going to happen (there's no way the Brand X soldiers could goosestep in iceskates, come on now). I think that's dreaming too big too soon, the "Disney On Ice" shows didn't happen until Disney had already been making movies for decades. That said, I do think if the production of Foodfight! hadn't been so horribly mismanaged and had come out when it was intended to it would've been somewhat of a hit, and to that end some of the merchandising ideas were really smart. Stuff like the tie-in videogame, children's books, and videogames were just what a lot of movies had back then- this was 2006, every movie had a sidescroller on the GBA and a 3D platformer on the PS2. From what little we've seen of the game it's impossible to know how good it would've been, but those kind of movie tie-ins are usually pretty harmless.

As for the other merchandise, a lot of it WAS released...and I think it's pretty great for what it is! If all of the books, toys etc. had just released alongside the movie as intended, then they'd just seem like exactly what they are - merchandise made to promote a recently released children's film, and there'd be nothing much to discuss about them. They're all only so fascinating because the movie itself came out so badly, and so the merchandise provides a glimpse at what might've been had things gone better. That said, I still desperately want to make a post talking about the Deluxe Sound Storybook at some point, and hopefully I'll get the chance soon.

I don't think Foodfight! ever would've been popular enough to warrant a sequel- I think it would've been like Hoodwinked where some people look back on it fondly but it's largely been forgotten over the years, and I don't think Threshold (the studio who animated Foodfight!) would have ever been the "next Pixar" like Larry Kasanoff thought they'd be either. But maybe in another world, where the production of Foodfight! went as smooth as butter, for a time there'd have been a real Cinnamon Sleuth Cereal with a free Dex Dogtective toy inside. Ten years later someone would make a post on Reddit saying "Hey! Anyone else remember Cinnamon Sleuth?" and a series of pointless arguments about the movie's blatant commercialism would fire up in the comments. And that wouldn't be such a bad legacy to have, right...?

[rayless-reblogs]

For the author ask game, 5 and/or 11?

5: How do you know when a story is "done"?

Hm, that's a good one... I've often started projects without a strict outline, but I don't think I've ever gone into a long project not knowing how it ends. But that's not quite what the question is.

Even if you know exactly how things are ending, there's still the question of "When have I written enough?" And I definitely have trouble with endings! Like I said last week or so, I want a story to have closure, but I never want it to feel too pat. Having an ending too wrapped up and perfect feels very artificial to me, and I enjoy some elements of ambivalence and ambiguity even as things close -- this issue wasn't resolved ideally, this thing could still happen, A was solved but B was a byproduct of it. The fanfic-writer in me likes the idea of fairly open endings, because that gives the reader room to speculate and put their own interpretation on events.

I think for me, the ending comes when I feel like the mood is right. Obviously I need to clear up everything the story requires to be cleared up, but after that I want to make sure the tone feels right, then I can hopefully land on a memorable closing line and make my exit.

With Eola, the most recent book, I struggled with its ending for literal years. I wasn't sure what was bothering me about it except that in some vague way, I didn't know if it was enough. Without outside help, it can be hard for an author to figure out if a feeling like this is a real problem, or is it the usual creative angst of your work not living up to the unattainable ideal you saw in your head? Unfortunately, there's no measuring cup you can pour your story into to make sure all the measurements are right.

I remember talking about it to a friend whose writing sense I really trust, and they reminded me about climaxes and how somewhere, whatever's happening, the protagonist needs a moment of choice and agency. Looking back over Eola's climax, I realized I hadn't done that, meaning that not only was my protagonist's arc weaker, the climax didn't offer much catharsis, so overall there wasn't a very strong sense of the story even ending. So I went back to the climax and beefed it up.

When it came to Eola's epilogue, I'd rewritten it many times. I'd added and subtracted details, but never entirely changed the ending itself, and I'd always felt discontented with it. But because I went back a step and improved the climax, it improved the ending too. Which made me feel better about setting it down and saying, "Okay, this is done."

So the best I can say is -- it's done when it feels done? That's not useful, I know. Someone needs to invent that measuring cup. The mathematical side of writing the ending is making sure you've covered all the narrative beats you want to. But the non-mathematical, emotional side is ending when it feels right.

11: What punctuation do you love too much?

This is embarrassingly easy. The long hyphen, the em dash. I don't know why it started, or exactly when, but I do remember one of my high school teachers remarking to me, "I liked hyphens a lot at your age too." Well, I'm sorry, Mrs M, but I'm not that age anymore and I'm still drowning in hyphens. I'm making a conscious choice not to use any at this exact moment, but they fly in like darts most of the time.

I think part of it is that the em dash feels more expressive than a comma. If I write, "The Boxer heard a sound behind him, the evil pitterpat of Asher's cat," that works fine dramatically. The comma provides an adequate dramatic pause as you read. But ninety-nine times out of a hundred, I'm going to write, "The Boxer heard a sound behind him -- the evil pitterpat of Asher's cat." For me, it simultaneously pauses the reader for that dramatic beat and rushes them along, adding tension and energy.

And that's fine as far as it goes. But it goes too far. I will also throw that em dash into dialogue, and character descriptions, and onto the ends of paragraphs, and if I'm feeling really saucy, onto the front of paragraphs.

Reading my stuff over, I start to feel ridiculous. There's always a stage where I go through and try to kill as many em dashes as I can stand, making them boring little commas (ugh) or breaking lines into shorter sentences/fragments. Anything to stop there from being an Overdramatic Em Dash in literally every paragraph.

Maybe I haven't actually answered the question. Maybe I don't love the em dash. Maybe it's my greatest enemy.

Thanks for the asks!

Meme here.

[primal-con]

How is your "Different Kind Of Rescue" fic coming? Have you taken a break?

Mkay, perfect opportunity to give a lil update! So first and foremost, I won’t be giving progress updates on here anytime in the future. That doesn’t mean I’m not working on it, it’s just that sharing where I’m at kinda fucks with my flow for some reason so I’m refraining from doing it. I don’t wanna make any promises I can’t keep.

In that same vein, I am still working on A Different Kind of Rescue! I’m not abandoning it, even if it takes me a decade I swear I will be finishing this fic. However I haven’t been working on it for the past year (ish) because of how crazy things have been for me. I had to give up pretty much every non-essential responsibility for a while to handle the big stuff and just didn’t have time or energy to write.

Third and most important thing is this: even though I won’t be sharing progress as I work, I still love every like, comment, ask, and every other bit of engagement you all have offered me regarding this fic. I won’t be responding to anything asking when I’ll be posting next or how far along I am, but I will always make time for the dialogue you guys provide me. In fact, it’s comments that inspire me to keep going with this story and keep me fueled! Memes, art, questions, suggestions, conversations about RB and TFP, even just a simple “love this chapter” are all readily encouraged and increase the rate at which the next updates will arrive. Your guys support means the world to me and it’s what keeps this story going, hopefully with enough luck it’ll get me through this next chapter <3

[gallabitch73]

NEW YEAR'S ASK GAME FOR FIC WRITERS

Thank you to @energievie for the tag!

To close out 2023…

1) What fic did you have the most fun writing this year and why? Or, if you can’t decide, what was most fun about writing this year for you?

Starving. It wasn’t my first fic, but it was my first Gallavich fic, and I am really proud of it.

2) What’s a scene/story that you finished and felt “wow, I really accomplished that, that actually went so well”?

I think that Mickey’s dialogue in “Starving” was very true to form, as well as Ian’s behaviors. I felt really good when I went back and read over it and also when I read some of the comments.

3) What helped provide the most inspiration for stories, if anything? Was it poetry? A song on repeat? A gorgeous gifset? A walk outside? A book you read that made you want to change everything? Whatever it was! Tell all.

I honestly just wanted to know what we missed when Gallavich first started out, so I made stuff up, LOL!

4) What is something you want to share about what you’ve written this year? A particular line, a comment that made you feel really good, a scene that was difficult to write — you get to choose! What do you wish someone would ask you about when it comes to what you’ve written?

The Galladrabble for “Truce” was a real trip. I did a three-parter, which I thought was funny and good, but not very many people read all three so they didn’t get it. I wish someone would have asked about one part so I could have told them to read them all together. It was a bit raunchy though…most of my stuff is. I have no life beyond Gallavich, LOL!

And to start off 2024…

1) Do you have any writing/creation goals for the year? What are they?

I’m currently working on three different writing projects and just posted half of one today. I just want to become more prolific, and to stop convincing myself that my ideas are not good enough to become stories.

2) Is there a fic or idea that you’re really excited to be able to continue to work on in the new year (shout out to my fellow fic writing folks who take forever to finish wips, sometimes it’s nice to be able to continue working on something even if you wish you’d gotten it done! Now you get even MORE time with it!)

I started something late last year that I am VERY excited about. I think it could be really good if I  don’t get in my own way. I certainly like the plot that I came up with. Now, just to build the story around it.

3) What’s something new in your writing you want to try/are going to try? A different writing style? Different fandom? Darker works? Fluffier? Longer or shorter?

What I posted today was darker, and its companion piece will be darker as well. I’m going to branch out into Sci-Fi this year! Maybe create some new worlds! We’ll see!

4) What’s something you love about your own writing that you will continue to appreciate in the new year?

I love my dry wit and also my dirty sense of humor. But, I also appreciate how I can write something sweet and emotional when it calls for it. I will continue to appreciate those qualities in the new year, and hopefully I’ll be able to incorporate those things into my new works.

[projectguilt]

GUILT - Friday Blog #3

I still feel its early days, and my planning is erratic, not going to beat around the bush on that point, hands up, guilty as ever.

I am still darting back and forth between publishing formats, at least for now. It still being quite early into my public lens of operations, I am looking to possibly step back from my attempts to novelise GUILT as I work on the screenplay, focussing more on getting at least the first term out there in the open, before I revisit this idea. I would quite like to have all my key dialogue's outlined clearly in blank and white, before I am comfortable enough to look back at the efficacy of working into both complete script and novel. Next update. Instead of publishing as planned, the final part of day week one, and then looking towards publishing the start of week two, I infact reconsidered how I wanted the end point of week one to play out. I had it scripted to be largely glossed over, but upon getting ready to post this, felt it a little disservice to the potential plot.

If found myself questioning why my first introduction act to the book/season would I want to simply breeze past probably the defining point in starting university, that is plunging head deep into a social life of new interactions and experiences? So, what started as a 500 word montage of sorts has been expanded into a 4.5K word script, split nicely into two distinct chapters for publishing. First, Thomas's introduction to a small numbers of key characters, and secondly, Thomas experiencing his first taste of social night-life at university, both quite important happenings for a fresher, and both strongly ingrained in my head from my time at uni. Alas, this is not all I have worked on this week. My final update. On-top of the week ahead that is for the most part complete for publishing already, I have been working on my descriptive and visual characterisations for Year One, and a few beyond. 12 of the 16 notable named characters for season one are fleshed out, the only outliers being full series teaching staff and additional minor character (a regular drag queen).

I aim to have a post-format sorted to share these characters individually as they are introduced soon, to provide readers with a thorough written description of the characters, alongside an image of a concept for that character, that has been generated and carefully planned, rendered and detailed in a state of the art industry-standard character creator software *cough* Sims 4 *cough*.

Anyways, the entire first act is now released in its intended entirety, and now I can move onto Thomas's first week of study, hopefully with a little more gusto now I have some more groundwork behind me.

Thankyou again if you've been tuning in with this progress so far.

See you next week, with week one underway!

-C

[scasuallypursuits]

#15: Locking in during my commission. Also reviving my game dev tool thing.

Mostly did commission this week but at the end of the week, re opened an old project.

I intend to finish this commission this week but a heatwave blasted through the area and as a guy with no AC, I can't work during at this heat. Ended up only working only at night. Though I did end up moving my sleeping schedule more into the night so I can skip the hot afternoon. Actually works too.

With this new work time, hopefully, I can finish this out this week cuz it's been a month since the initial commission. Also be able to do the zelink thing right after this also.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------At the end of the week, I don't feel like doing art during the hot hot afternoon but my mind still needed some stimulation so I re started my game dev tool, "Dialogue System." Using godot with the Dialogue Manager addons as a base. It only provides the writing the dialogue part of the system so I need to hook it up to all output stuff of it.

When I find this good enough, I intend to make this a component I could use in my future project. I plan to battle test this with a small game. I'm thinking like a dialogue heavy game to fully use the system. Nothing too complicated though. Case of the golden monkey is probably the gameplay loop but you can walk in the overworld rather than click and point game. I don't intend this to be a good game since this mainly a test, so to prevent me from over polishing and taking too long, I'll probably just kit bash random free assets from the internet.