#And I REALLY loved the idea of Kirby being able to (safely) wield the Dark Matter Blade and having to use it against Noir

[desultory-novice]

...UH OH...

Just kidding as this is all very good stuff, Mechalor Anon! Can't draw it, because it's a lot, but I will drop some corresponding text/lore on you, based specifically on your "The HWC misguidedly brings Zero Three back in Planet Robobot" concept (with a touch of the sword/brush thing) because it did latch onto my brain!!

(This is the LAST major event I do in this doomed timeline though)(1)

[Planet Robobot] [Apologies AU "Snowflakes" Timeline] [Secret Boss Fight - "NULL v0.3"]

:Kirby enters the room: :There is no one there: :Suddenly, the whole building shakes: :A horrific scream, overlayed atop itself, is heard:

:A door opens and Susie rushes out: :It shuts behind her, then shakes with a thud: :Eyes downcast, she murmurs to herself:

Susie: "...What is that machine thinking...? Why would the Mother Computer...ask for something that awful to be...?"

:She finally sees Kirby is here and puts her business face back on:

Susie: "Ahem! You're back! And you've found our secret lab."

Susie: "Clearly, you don't appreciate the miraculous wonders of science and technology as much as some of us..."

:The door bangs again, interrupting her: :There is another piercing dual scream:  :Susie flinches at the sound and begins shaking:

Susie: "...I can't do this anymore." 

Susie: "Listen, think what you like about us being here, but I just need a little more time. I can't let anyone interrupt this!"

Susie: "My original plan was to distract you with our latest in wide-area suppression, fresh off the assembly line but..."

Susie: "...I can't go back in there... We excavated this dreadful THING out of your planet, so YOU handle it...!"

:The door behind her opens as she flees the scene: :Slowly, white sludge begins to spill out from the open door: :It rises into a burbling bubble with a single slit of a closed eye:

:The bubble then cracks right down the middle where the eye sits: :The split orb unfolds into two limp halves each with a smaller, half-lidded eye: :Inside each of the sphere halves one melted-looking half of two figures, a boy and a girl: :Each vaguely familiar figure has a single wing (one dark, one light) made of grasping fingers:

-

[BOSS: NULL v0.3] - Pause Screen

Of all the biological data the Haltmann Works Company unearthed from this planet, the Mother Computer seemed especially interested in this. However, it found it could not fully analyze it to its satisfaction due to the "unknown bond" sustaining the creature's core. It would ultimately deem the project a failure.

[IE: Star Dream is trying to understand Zero for its own purposes but cannot and could never understand the deep "love" that ultimately brought about Zero Three; just like it could not understand Haltmann's love and would delete it]

[BOSS: NULL v0.3 EX] - Pause Screen

Though Susie always tried to follow the mother computer's directives faithfully, she deeply questioned this particular project. When the directive came to "use" the creature in spite of the unhappy children's souls inside, it strengthened her conviction that Star Dream had to be separated from her father.

[In EX form, the sibling-goo is dark matter black instead of snowflake white; Noir's wing is blood red instead of corruption purple; their eyes remain the same]

-

NULL v0.3 plays out as a very unusual boss fight. It is somewhat timed, because v0.3 will damage itself with its "attacks," thrashing about. And if you leave it alone for long enough, it will kill itself. Or you can defeat it with regular copy abilities. Both of these lead to the "normal" boss fight ending, where v0.3 rips itself apart, both sides screaming as the white bodies melt away into nothing. 

However, like in Super Star, this boss will provide you with special, unique battle-limited Copy Abilities if you inhale the right attacks from it: "Dark Sword" and "Light Painter."

Attacking the "swordsman" side of v0.3 with the Dark Sword ability will make it attack you more aggressively. However, if you try to turn Dark Sword ability on the "painter" side, you will be met with a vicious, un-blockable counterattack from the swordsman side that will knock the ability out of you and cause it to swap sides again.

If you try to use Light Painter on the swordsman side, it will cower away in the background, ...guiltily... keeping its distance, however you can lure the painter side closer to you and reduce its aggression levels again by attacking the painter side with Light Painter.

If you succeed in the task of defeating v0.3 with proper use of the two copy abilities, you are rewarded with a different end fight cutscene, where the white body coalesces into a giant sphere once more before melting away, revealing Adeleine and Noir, looking as they did before, who then dissipate peacefully into sparkles...

--

...Man I want to make video games so bad...

AHEM! Here's Mechalor Anon's uncropped asks that inspired this!

Thanks for the appreciation and glad you liked what I did with Zero Three! Sorry I couldn't include Bandee in this more. I really did dig the idea of him using the paintbrush like a spear though!

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PS: NO MORE HURTING THEM, OKAY? ^^ ; < message to myself

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(1) I say this again to myself because after the "good" ending, someone out there is going to suggest, "Well, if they were purified they could come back in Star Allies! Maybe each of them sporting white hair! They could be a swap character, like the Mage Sisters. It would make King Dedede happy..." which... okay, sure, maybe yes!

Bu~t I have a huge backlog of stuff INCLUDING other Apologies stuff to do so I'm still declaring Snowflakes to be a "failed Noir" timeline!

[gaming]

Indie Game Spotlight: Cat Lady

Get ready to live your ultimate cat lady dreams this week with our latest Indie Game Spotlight. Cat Lady is an action roguelike game where Ally, our cat-loving hero, goes for a nice visit to Grandma’s mansion… only to find that it’s haunted! Grandma’s many cats gain magical abilities and team up with Ally to pound and paw perilous poltergeists in the ever-growing mansion—featuring a cute art style, cats that need rescuing, and tons of upgrades for your weaponized kitties.

We chatted with Will Lewis, co-founder of Rose City Games and director of the game, its artist and animator Jake Fleming, programmer Nic Biondi, and designer Christian Scandariato. Read on!

Which games or movies inspired Cat Lady?

Will: My head jumps around a lot when I think about the inspiration behind Cat Lady. I grew up playing a lot of dungeon crawlers and was always a fan of exploring creepy and dark medieval settings, but never really played roguelikes. Playing a lot of interactive fiction adventures like Dark Castle and King's Bounty on Mac, or newer indie games like Bernband over the years really kept those interests in my head. After watching the funny, over-the-top scene in Invader Zim in which Dib gets lost in the mall’s parking garage, I started working on an interactive fiction where you needed to find your cat in a series of weird dark places, and I think that was the only thing I ever wrote down that linked cute cats with creepy mansions. This was years before the release of Cat Lady’s gameplay inspirations like Nuclear Throne and Binding of Isaac, but Jake and I explored the general style of something that might come from my original idea and things just kind of came together from there! It’s also been super fun to work with Jake’s character design style to mesh that cute and creepy vibe—he definitely comes up with awesome stuff that I would never think of.

Jake: I’ve always been a fan of limited color palettes, which probably stems from playing a lot of games on NES and Gameboy growing up. With Nintendo being the console I ended up having as a kid, I got very accustomed to cute and quirky characters like the cast of Kirby or even River City Ransom. I remember seeing a Boo for the first time in Super Mario Bros 3, and thinking it was simultaneously adorable and terrifying. From a conceptual perspective, the NES game Stinger had a very profound influence on me in terms of enemies in Cat Lady: There are some very fun and weird inanimate objects that, for some reason, are alive and trying to kill you!

The original concept for Cat Lady was created at a game design jam in 2017. How much has changed from then to now?

Will: Cat Lady has changed a whole lot since then, but thankfully not too much! The art has certainly changed: cats were originally tiny, with tiny eyes and little to no expression. We had a lot more facial details on ghosts, even more so than the main character, Ally. We learned from The World Next Door that people loved the archetypes and being able to level-up their characters, sometimes even more than using them in some cases, so you’ll now see numerous cats with very different facial and body details which gives them much more personality.

We also made a big change in gameplay: Ally used to have a flashlight, which she used to reveal ghosts and mark objects in the environment as safe. Once cats started shooting fireballs and punching everything, we thought there’s probably no need to shine a light on a box if you’ve blown it up with magic, and removed the flashlight mechanism.

What has been the team's favorite thing to create in the game?

Will: Personally, I really really like writing the backstory and lore. Cat Lady is a way more combat-focused game, but there’s still a reason for why everything exists in the way it does!

Jake: The visual vibe! The relationship between cute, creepy, and weird is something I’m always toying with. I love hearing feedback like, “Oh wow. That is adorable…and gross!” It can get kinda boring if everything is nothing but cute. Take Kirby for example. I think everyone can agree that Kirby is a pink squishy little ball of cuteness. HE ALSO SWALLOWS HIS ENEMIES WHOLE AND CONSUMES THEIR POWER. Cute and weird.

Christian: Levels! Creating the bulk of the content is always a good time. Also Puddles the blobby, watery cat. Puddles is my favorite.

Nic: Cat Lady has been a dream to work on, so it’s hard to pick just one thing as my favorite. If I had to pick something, I think it would probably be the level editor and content tools. I enjoy making systems, and it’s been really fun to see the awesome cats, enemies, items, and levels the team has created using those tools.

If you could have any famous cat appear in the game, who would it be and why?

Will: I would want Scuba to be in the game because she’s the cutest. Or any famous sneezing cat. Or a British Shorthair but that’s not necessarily a famous cat.

Jake: I know this isn’t a real cat, but it’d have to be Garfield. That dude loves lasagna.

Nic: Oh, that’s a hard one! It would either be Keyboard Cat or Grumpy Cat. Grumpy Cat would be rocking a suit and wielding a powerful gavel celebrating her successful “Grumppuccino” litigation. Keyboard Cat would, of course, be driving a motorized baby grand piano around and flattening all who stand in his way.

Ready to get your paws on Cat Lady? You will, of course, be able to purchase it on Steam, where you can also wishlist the game to keep track of announcements like the release date. And their website has a newsletter you can sign up to that will keep you up to date on additional announcements!