#End-to-end game design and development solutions

[elevancotech]

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[prokopetz]

why do you think indie metroidvanias specifically take so long to make, and is there a solution that you'd like to see them go for? (i know that would likely mean a compromise of some kind, but like, you know)

The reason why is fairly obvious: the classic metroidvania formula makes it very easy to fall prey to unintentional scope creep and is a positive nightmare to QA.

Non-linear progression gating based on precision platforming challenges where the player's basic moveset is constantly changing means every little thing needs to be rigorously tested in every part of the gameworld, carefully checking every room with every combination of abilities the player could conceivably possess for a wide range of failure states.

Is there some combination of abilities that allows the player to get into this room, but not out of it afterwards? Is there some combination of abilities that allows the player to do things in an order you didn't expect? Does that variation in sequencing in turn create situations where the player can end up somewhere without an ability you had assumed was required to get there? And so forth.

Even once you've got everything tested, it's not over. Every tiny change during development, even as small as adding or subtracting a couple of percentage points from the player character's jumping height or walking speed, can potentially have a domino effect that introduces a whole new set of failure states. It's not a pretty picture!

As for solutions, the one most solo or small-team metroidvanias end up adopting is to put a damper on the exponential QA explosion by linearising progression. If you haven't flipped the right switch or visited the right room, the door simply doesn't open, the progression-critical cutscene simply doesn't trigger, and so forth. Even big-name metroidvanias often make judicious use of this one: for example, Super Metroid has certain doors in the early game that just arbitrarily will not open until you've collected a couple of specific items from the game's combat-free introductory area.

The trouble with this approach is that if you use it to the extent that's necessary to keep your QA responsibilities at a manageable level for a small team or solo developer, you functionally end up with a linear, level-based platformer that makes you walk from one level to the next. Whether this disqualifies a given title from the "metroidvania" label is a demarcation problem I'm not interested in litigating, but folks who expected a more open world experience are quite understandably going to be disappointed.

The approach I'd prefer more indie metroidvanias take is to keep things under control by limiting their scope. Not ever damn thing needs to be the next Hollow Knight; many classics of the genre can be completed in well under an hour with good routing even without employing modern speedrun tech. Similarly, some of the best indie metroidvanias are those with the smallest maps; Alruna and the Necro-Industrialists, probably the best example of open-world map design of any metroidvania published in 2024, has a map that's scarcely twenty by twenty screens, and its routing is downright fiendish.

(One of my perennial probably-never-gonna-happen projects is to design a full-featured metroidvania targeting a two to three hour casual playthrough whose entire map can fit on a single screen while remaining at a vaguely playable zoom level, in the style of titles like 1 Screen Platformer.)

[pyrrhiccomedy]

A DM’s Fair Play Guide To Plot Twists

I love running a game with a lot of surprises. The challenge to pulling this off well is that, unless you’re playing a one on one game, your players outnumber you: and between them, they have a good chance of figuring out what’s going to happen, no matter how sneaky and clever you are.

The first way of dealing with this - which I’ll just call the bullshit way - is to not give your players the information they need to solve the mystery. Don’t let them find out about the secret society until it’s too late. Don’t give them any reason to suspect that their NPC ally is planning to kill them. Don’t let them find the murder weapon, don’t let them locate the witnesses, don’t give them the chance to skip to the end of their investigation.

This sucks, and if you run your games like this, you’re going to piss off your players. Because it isn’t fair.

In mystery literature, a “fair play mystery” is one where the reader is given all of the information they need in order to figure out the solution before the Big Reveal. It’s what makes the reveal good: that GASP, the “oh shit, the knife! the knife from the party! that was hers! I forgot!”

Pulling off a twist in a fair play game is an incredible feeling. Your players will think you’re a genius (or an absolute dick bastard, which is just as good) and they’ll respect it more when they land in hot water that they plausibly could have avoided. So how do you run a fair play game without your players figuring out the twists ahead of time, given that you’re definitely not smarter than all of your players put together?

By fucking with their expectations.

Here are some things that I keep in mind, to keep my players guessing. And it’s important, with all of this, that if your players see through something, let them have it. They should figure out a lot of things on their own! But if you’re regularly seeding your stories with all of this stuff, eventually your players will miss something. Those are somethings you can build on. The same way that a low level enemy who gets away once can keep coming back again and again until they become an important antagonist, a misapprehension your party proves to have a blindspot for can grow and develop until they get smacked with a breathtaking twist. 

What’s a twist if not the sudden overturning of an assumption you never thought to question?

1: Make your powerful friendly NPCs know a lot...but not as much as the players think they do.

Player characters often end up with powerful allies. It would be very convenient for the party if those allies always had accurate information. Make sure they don’t always enjoy that convenience.

It’s a balancing act: you want your powerful NPCs to be powerful. You want this alliance to be meaningful and beneficial to your players. But give your NPC an Achilles heel of some kind, when it comes to the information at their disposal. The Noble General commands powerful forces and knows the lay of the enemy’s land well...but that doesn’t mean he knows what every squadron and scouting party is up to. The Political Mastermind may know the ins and outs of the court, and have keen insight into the motivations of others: but he has an enemy who pisses him off so much that he loses all objectivity around her. The Powerful Wizard can call upon great magic to aid the party: but his divinations aren’t as accurate as he thinks they are, and he’s prone to finding, in his signs and omens, what he wants to see, more than what’s actually there.

Most of the time, their information should be good! That will make it more likely that your players will trust them the one time when it isn’t.

2. Let (apparently) less powerful NPCs sometimes know more than the players think they do. 

Most NPCs aren’t the Noble General or the Powerful Wizard. Most NPCs are Daves, designed to get the players from place to place. Most of those Daves know about as much as you’d expect them to. But some Daves have plans of their own.

You don’t always have to signpost with big blinking lights which of your NPCs are ‘important,’ and which ones are ‘unimportant.’ Sneak in a crafty Dave from time to time. That assistant they talk to, every time they go to see the prince? That bitch knows everything, and she’s almost ready to make her move. 

3: There is no such thing as a completely reliable witness. 

If the players only get information from one person, that information should be flawed in at least one, potentially small, but important way. Smart players will seek a second opinion, or at least allow for the possibility that their information may be incomplete. But even smart players get out over their skis sometimes.

4: Let your NPCs be aware of the power of a first impression. 

If an NPC gives a strong first impression of being a particular kind of person, it’s because they’re comfortable giving that impression. That might be because it’s who they are. But maybe not.

One of the first characters the PCs met in a VtM campaign I ran was Gawaine. Gawaine was a good old pine-scented man’s man, with salt and pepper stubble and a blue Ford truck. He listened to AC/DC, and talked about the war. He was affable and honest and willing to lend a hand. You already know Gawaine. Everybody knows a Gawaine. Gawaines are trustworthy, salt of the earth types. You don’t necessarily think to question a Gawaine.

That’s exactly why Gawaine was such a useful persona for Krystiyan, the Tzimisce Voivode, a cruel and alien sculptor of flesh who “never left his haven.” There were plenty of clues that they were the same person, but that campaign was in its endgame before the players put them all together.

5: Sometimes, dangerous and villainous NPCs should be helpful and cooperative. 

Not even necessarily because they’re manipulating the players, or even deceiving them about their true natures, but because their interests and the players’ interests genuinely align...for the moment. 

One of the easiest levers in your players’ brains to exploit is the expectation that people who help you are your friends. Even if your players know, consciously, that they shouldn’t trust this person, most of the time they kind of can’t help it, if the NPC is genuinely helpful to them and at least a little charismatic. 

6: Sometimes, good and valuable NPCs should be unhelpful and uncooperative. 

No matter how mature your players are, there’s a natural tendency to react to uncooperative NPCs with a reflexive, “Hey, fuck you! We’re the protagonists! This guy is an asshole!” so from time to time have a helpful, honest, good-aligned NPC have a wholly justified but as-yet-unknown-to-the-party reason to flatly refuse to deal with them.

7: Every NPC should have a secret. 

Not necessarily a bad secret. Were it to be revealed, it might even make the party like them more! But for their own reasons, the NPC does not want their secret to come out, and they will lie to the party to protect it. Players go crazy when they realize they’re being lied to, and often jump to some wild assumptions about your NPC’s motivations. I’ve had an NPC lie about the opening hours of a shop, and had the PCs assume that they were black market dealers for the villain when the dude just wanted to be able to close early so he could go smoke weed in the park.

8. As a DM, it’s polite to remind your players of the common knowledge their characters would possess...even when it doesn’t reflect the truth.

We all know it’s tedious when the DM calls for a roll when you’re just asking for common knowledge. I shouldn’t have to make a roll to know the dumb space word for plastic in a Star Wars game. I shouldn’t have to make a roll to know who the Holy Roman Emperor is in a game about medieval vampires. The DM should supply common knowledge for free, whenever it comes up.

That doesn’t mean common knowledge is true.

This is different from just lying to your players, because you don’t put the weight of DM word-of-God behind it. It’s not “You would know this guy is a Ventrue, based on XYZ.” It’s “it would be a common assumption that this guy is a Ventrue, based on XYZ.” He might not be a Ventrue. It might in fact be extremely important that he is not a Ventrue. But if it is commonly assumed that he’s a Ventrue, that is - word for word - something you can share with your players. If they don’t look any deeper than common knowledge, that’s on them.

9. Obviously untrustworthy NPCs provide great air coverage for less obviously untrustworthy NPCs.

The obviously untrustworthy NPC might or might not be planning to betray the party. But if you introduce two untrustworthy NPCs in the same storyline, and one of them seems normal and cool and has a genuine plot-related reason to be there, and the other one is Jaffar, Jaffar’s gonna get clocked, but Susan over there will probably slip under the radar, and might even get tapped to help out with the whole Jaffar situation. They might get Susan’s number, by the end of the session. Susan might become an ‘ally.’ Susan might even get romanced by a party member. Play your cards right, and Jaffar might just end up a footnote in the introduction of Susan, Scourge of Worlds and most hated NPC in the entire campaign.

10. Your villains should always have a secret plan B.

Your villain isn’t stupid, right? And your villain probably isn’t so arrogant that it is inconceivable to them that their plan might fail. They’ve been planning this ritual for ten thousand years, after all. It’s always possible that some plucky band of heroes could show up at the last minute and murder your high priest, or steal your amulet, or seduce your second in command. So what does your villain have in his back pocket to make the players go, “Oh, shit - he planned for this!”

This may mean that there is a whole separate plot happening, running alongside the main story. This is great, because when weird things happen, the players have to figure out whether this is part of Plot A or Plot B, and working out who did what and why gets a lot more interesting. If they end up foiling Plot A, great - your villain was also secretly behind Plot B the whole time, and will transfer all of his resources over to that. 

Sometimes your players will figure out that Plots A and B were both the same plot the whole time, with the same villain at the head, and they’ll feel like the smartest people on the planet, and it will be their favorite moment of the entire game. That’s great! You gave them that!

Sometimes, they won’t. And when the villain of Plot A, apparently defeated, starts laughing and reveals that he was also the mastermind behind Plot B, which is now too late to be stopped, that will probably be your favorite moment of the entire game.

[colliecross]

hi. can i ramble about sasasaap and loop and the differences between games for a sec? i hope the answer is yes because i am perfectly normal about this topic!

ISAT and SASASAAP spoilers ahead!

so. So. SO.

As we know, because ID5 was still developing lore and stuff for ISAT while making SASASAAP, many things weren’t yet finalised and/or implemented yet.

One of these things would be the concept of ‘Bonding’ replacing ‘Marriage’. Bonding is a cool concept and helps distinguish the game’s world from real life, but it also gives explanations for certain design details (aka earrings). All 3 Vaguardian party members have earrings in their designs, there’s at least one bonded couple in Dormont’s House and we also know it’s seemly a traditional thing.

HOWEVER, the term ‘bonding’ ISN’T used in SASASAAP, with The Housemaiden’s draw content saying to have ‘wedding related stuff’ AND in her ramblings about the “HANDSOME YOUNG MEN FALLING INTO BEAUTIFUL HEARTBREAKING MADDNESS” horror anthology mentioning the heroes ‘marrying’ the monsters.

Now we could just chock this up to prologue weirdness, however to fully comprehend Loop, we must consider everything in SASASAAP to be canon too. And this then would include these small details.

Therefore, can you imagine, Act 2 Loop, in the mist of the internal nightmares their new existence has, notices the odd changes in Dormont’s House. Beside the fact nobody is calling it ‘The Castle’ and rooms are not where they remember them, they watch Siffrin interact with The Partner in the room before the Library. They funnily enough have the same reaction as their Stardust: [What’s a bonding earring?] But it doesn’t seem that important so whatever. But Siffrin then later asks about it, and they both learn about bonding more. And Loop is just confused. This is NEW information to them. What?? Nail in the coffin for them however would be in eastern dead-end on the 3rd floor.

Glossing over the fact that this room that they’ve explored so many times has now been deemed irrelevant by The Universe, there’s that same book. But Mirabelle mentions ‘bonding’ with monsters instead. And it all clicks.

Although Odile saying that bonding is only popular in Ka Bue, connoting that it might not be the only form of “marriage”, the word “marriage” is still never mentioned, so we can assume it doesn’t exist. Loop now has to contend with the fact that this entire concept has now been erased too. They’re now the sole living being who is aware of what ‘Marriage’ is now. They will forever see a ring on someone’s finger differently then the rest of the planet. Another thing that that’s been taken from them.

Now if you’re a shipper, this is the exciting part. Post-ISAT loops AU, and Siffrin + Family are travelling to Nille, with Loop along for the ride. Our dear star is being forcefully loved by everyone around them, and therefore for shipping purposes, they fall for someone. For the sake of example, Sloopis (Isa x Sif x Loop). Now time-skip. The trio are preparing to be bonded together. However, a problem has arrived. Loop doesn’t have ears. Loop can’t wear bonding earrings. Their partners try and figure out a solution, both worried that Loop would feel left out. But then a long-forgotten memory resurfaces.

And so Loop brings up the concept of marriage to Siffrin and Isabeau. How it’s like bonding, but with rings on your finger instead. And the duo go CRAZY! Sif is happy to hear more about Loop’s world, understanding the pain of losing their history, and Isa is fascinated by the style.

And so, when it is the time to exchange accessories, Loop is given two rings instead, from both of their partners, made with love.

[keehomania]

business proposal (제안서) — kim seokjin (김석진)

✧.* 18+

a closer look reveals the hidden multitude of narcissists roaming freely across the earth. they moved through life as ordinary figures—doctors, lawyers—sharing the same vulnerability of human blood. yet, there lingered a belief in their superiority, an unspoken arrogance. among them, businessmen appeared to embody that conceit most profoundly.

kim enterprises had the value of 1.5 billion won. a leading technology firm specializing in cutting-edge ai solutions and smart home devices. founded on the principles of advancing human-technology synergy, the company designs state-of-the-art gadgets that seamlessly integrate with daily life. under the visionary leadership of kim seokjin, the president’s son, the company has gained a reputation for pushing boundaries and setting new industry standards. currently, it lies at the forefront of revolutionizing smart technology, with a diverse portfolio ranging from intelligent automation systems to next-generation personal assistants.

impressive, really. it'd have been much more impressive if he was as likeable as his company. he was a narcissist in the purest form, no matter how much he cared for the company and his employees. only because no care would amount to the kind he put into himself.

the company had been running smoothly under his care for nine years, as his father had fallen ill and was unable to sustain it on his own. he knew he was making the right decision when he deemed seokjin the next heir, the next in control. he was smart, charming, persuasive. he knew every corner and end of a business deal, how to tie the knots and when to cut off loose ends.

“kim, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person. i must say, kim enterprises has been on our radar for quite some time.” seokjin shook his hand firmly, returning the smile. “the pleasure is mine, james. i've been following your company’s progress closely as well. it’s impressive how you’ve carved out a niche in ai development.”

james’s eyes lit up. “thank you. we’re particularly interested in your smart home integration systems. from what i understand, your latest model has seen a significant uptick in market share.” seokjin’s smile widened, “yes, our quantum series has been a game-changer. we’ve seen a 30% increase in market penetration over the past year. the integration of adaptive ai has really resonated with consumers, allowing for a more intuitive user experience.”

james nodded, clearly pleased. “exactly. that’s why we’re keen on a partnership. our research indicates that your technology complements our upcoming product line perfectly. what terms are you envisioning for this deal?” seokjin considered the question thoughtfully. “given the scope of the integration and the potential for cross-promotion, i’d suggest a revenue-sharing model. we propose a 60-40 split in favor of kim enterprises for the first two years. this would allow us to leverage your distribution network while providing you with a substantial stake in the revenue generated.”

james raised an eyebrow, thoughtful. “that’s a fair proposition. but considering the development and marketing costs, how about adjusting the split to 50-50 initially, with a performance-based adjustment thereafter?” seokjin weighed the offer, then nodded. “i see your point. let’s compromise at 55-45, with a performance review after the first year to reassess the terms. we can draft a detailed agreement to reflect this.”

james’s expression softened into one of admiration. “agreed. your understanding of both the technology and market dynamics is impressive, kim. it’s clear you’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

seokjin’s eyes sparkled with resolve. “thank you, james. i believe in building partnerships that are beneficial for both sides. our goal is not just to expand our market presence but to also deliver exceptional value through innovative collaborations.” james raised his glass with a smile. “well said. i look forward to working with you. let’s toast to a successful partnership.”

he truly was a natural, he knew exactly what to say and how to say it. however, even if he was reluctant to admit it, he couldn't have done it on his own.

you navigated the room with a calm, poised demeanor, your sharp eyes scanning for any potential issues or tasks that needed attention. you approached seokjin with a subtle nod, a tablet in hand. he acknowledged the gesture, his eyes flickering with appreciation. “i’ve just received the finalized draft of the agreement,” you said quietly, sliding the tablet over to him. “i made sure to include the revised revenue split and the performance review clause you discussed with james.”

he glanced at the document, his expression approving. “perfect timing. you’ve captured all the necessary details. thanks for handling this so efficiently.” james, intrigued, looked at you. “i must say, it’s clear that you play a crucial role in ensuring everything runs smoothly. your attention to detail must be invaluable.”

you smiled modestly. “thank you, james. it’s my job to make sure that the priorities are met and that every aspect of our deal is thoroughly managed. it’s a pleasure to contribute to the success of our partnerships.” as you stepped back, you made a quick call to coordinate a follow-up meeting with the legal team, ensuring that all paperwork would be processed without delay. your presence was a testament to the meticulous planning that underpinned seokjin's success.

although he was the brains behind the operation, you were the one that made sure the operation was in action. you coordinated all of his appointments and travel arrangements, handled all of his phone calls, drafted all of the reports and presentations, organized all of the meetings, supported all of the projects, and so much more. you were good at your job, and you loved it.

it was one of the many reasons why that same night, in the back of seokjin's limo, he had met your words with a look of horror displayed on his face. you remained stoic as you adjusted the hem of your dress, pushing your hair past your shoulder before meeting his gaze once more. “you want to quit?” you nodded in confirmation. the question itself held more shock than intended, but he couldn't help it. your announcement had put a dent in the night. you had been his left hand for exactly nine years and, out of the blue, you had announced that you were ready to leave the company.

the city lights blurred past the windows as you sat in the back of seokjin's sleek, black limousine. the leather seats were soft beneath you, but there was tension in the air that makes you sit a little straighter, hands folded tightly in your lap. seokjin was beside you, scrolling through his phone with a practiced ease, oblivious to the storm brewing in your mind.

“it's personal,” you explained, trying to keep your tone even. “i have some matters in my life that need my full attention right now.” he stared at you, disbelief etched on his features. “after nine years? just like that?”

“i'm sorry,” you said, your heart aching with each word. “but it's something i have to do.” seokjin's jaw tightened, but he nodded curtly. “if that's your decision, i won't stand in your way.” the rest of the ride passed in heavy silence, the atmosphere between you both laden with unspoken words and shared sorrow. you could only gaze at the fleeting cars through the window, oblivious to the hurt etched into what was supposed to be his stoic expression.

that night, he found himself tossing and turning in his grand, empty bed. sleep eluded him, chased away by a persistent nightmare. in it, he saw a woman with long, black hair, her back always turned to him. no matter how much he called out and cried, she never looked back, slipping further away with each step. he woke up in a cold sweat, the image of the woman haunting him. the clock beside his bed read that it was only four o'clock. frustrated and unsettled, he spent the rest of the night staring at the ceiling, unable to shake the sense of impending loss.

the following morning, he stood in front of the mirror in his expansive bedroom, the morning light filtering through the curtains. his shirt was buttoned, but his tie lies undone around his neck. he waited, as he always did, for you. when you arrived, your expression was composed, professional. "good morning, vice chairman."

he nodded, his eyes fixed on your reflection in the mirror. “morning, secretary (y/n).” you stepped forward, deftly tying his tie with practiced hands, the sound of your name stinging more than necessary. the proximity, once a simple part of your routine, now felt charged with the weight of your impending departure.

he gazed at himself in the mirror, his ego surfacing as a way to mask his vulnerability. “do you see that? the beauty?” you glanced at the mirror, assuming he meant the sunlight casting a golden glow across the room. “yes, the sunrise is beautiful.” a faint smirk touched his lips. “no, not the sunrise. me. my aura.”

you suppressed a sigh, knowing that it was nothing but the the standard for him. “yes, very dazzling, vice chairman.” satisfied, he turned away from the mirror and straightened his suit jacket. “let's go. we have breakfast at my parents' house.”

the drive to the kim family estate was quiet, the earlier tension replaced by a heavy resignation. seokjin's family home was grand, an imposing structure surrounded by meticulously maintained gardens. inside, you were greeted by his mother, her warm smile a stark contrast to the austere demeanor of the chairman. “good morning, hyeon. (y/n), it's always a pleasure to see you.”

“good morning, mother,” seokjin replied, his tone polite yet distant. the chairman nodded at you both, his presence commanding respect. “let's eat.”

breakfast was a formal affair, the table laden with an array of traditional dishes. conversation was polite, centered around business and family matters. seokjin's parents were unaware of your decision to leave, and you caught seokjin's gaze more than once, a silent understanding passing between you. as the meal progressed, you couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness. that world, so intertwined with his, had been your life for nearly a decade. leaving it behind wouldn't be easy.

breakfast ended, and the chairman suggested that he and his son retire to the study room for a private discussion. you followed his mother to the sitting room, where she invited you to join her for tea. she was a gracious host, her demeanor warm and inviting. “how have you been, sweetheart? it feels like forever since we had a proper chat,” she said, pouring tea into delicate porcelain cups.

you smiled, taking the offered cup. “i've been well, mrs. kim. thank you.” her eyes sparkled with curiosity. “tell me, what do you think about my hyeon? he talks about you often.”

you paused, considering your words carefully. you knew she was an older lady, so you didn't question the way she misnamed him. her memory had probably grown shabby. “he's an exceptional leader, very dedicated to his work. it's been an honor to work with him.” she nodded, her smile widening. “yes, he's always been very driven. but tell me, is my son seeing anyone? he never mentions these things to me.”

you shook your head. “despite all the girls around him, he's not dating anyone.” mrs. kim's eyes widened in horror. “he's not— gay, is he?”

you stifled a laugh, shaking your head again. “no, mrs. kim, he's not. he's just very focused on his work.” she sighed in relief, placing a hand over her heart. “thank goodness. it would be wonderful for him to finally get a girlfriend. he's not getting any younger, you know.” you couldn't help but wonder at her words. the idea of him with someone else felt oddly unsettling.

in the study room, seokjin's father, chairman kim, sat behind an imposing oak desk, his expression stern. “i heard a rumor, seokjin. (y/n) is quitting?” his jaw tightened, but he met his father's gaze steadily. “it's true. but i won't let it happen.”

chairman kim raised an eyebrow. “and how do you plan to stop it?” seokjin's voice was firm. “i'll find a way to convince her to stay. she's indispensable to me.”

a moment of silence passed before chairman kim's lips twitched into a faint smile. “are you dating her?” seokjin blinked, momentarily taken aback. “no, father, i'm not.”

the chairman feigned a dramatic gasp, clutching his chest. “oh, i feel faint. my son, the great seokjin, not dating his perfect secretary.” he rolled his eyes, a rare display of exasperation. “i've seen your medical records, father. you're perfectly healthy.”

chairman kim waved a dismissive hand. “you should do your father a favor and find a wife, give us grandchildren. it's time you settled down.” seokjin sighed, the weight of his father's words lingering. he had never been in a relationship, and neither had you. it was one of the reasons you knew you had to quit. your life revolved around your work, as did his. only, you weren't satisfied with that. it wasn't that he wasn't attracted to anybody, because he was, but nothing mattered more than his craft. he felt off about women touching him, in any case. it made him anxious, and brought up memories he fought to keep hidden.

you and seokjin departed for the office, the morning sun casting long shadows across the driveway as the car pulled away from the estate. the ride was initially silent, both of you lost in thought. he finally broke the silence, “what exactly did you mean by personal matters?” his tone was careful, almost hesitant.

you turned to him, offering a small smile. “i'm looking to settle down, vice chairman. i want to get married, have children.” he fell silent, the weight of your words settling over him. the rest of the ride to the office was steeped in an unusual quiet, your declaration hanging in the air like a specter.

upon arriving at the office, he moved through the halls in a daze. his usual commanding presence seemed diminished, his mind clearly elsewhere. he entered his office, finding his younger intern already there. “good morning, vice chairman,” jungkook greeted cheerfully, his youthful energy a contrast to seokjin's subdued demeanor.

he barely acknowledged him, slumping into his chair. jungkook, sensing something was off, leaned forward with a curious smile. “you look like you've seen a ghost. what's up?” seokjin rubbed his temples, sighing. “it's secretary (l/n). she wants to quit.”

jungkook raised an eyebrow. “oh? did you try offering her a promotion, bigger pay, fewer working hours?” he nodded in response. “i did. she dismissed it all. said she wants to settle down, get married, have children.”

jungkook's eyes twinkled with mischief. “and that shocked you?” seokjin glared at him, but his grin remained unshaken. “why does it bother you so much, vice chairman? do you like her more than just a secretary?” the question lingered in the air, met with silence. his mind raced, trying to comprehend why your decision affected him so deeply. he couldn't deny the pang of jealousy at the thought of you with someone else, starting a life that didn't include him.

jungkook leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “maybe it's time to ask yourself why her leaving matters so much to you.” he remained quiet, lost in thought. How could marriage and a family be more important than the bond you shared with him? the realization struck him hard—perhaps it wasn't just about losing an exceptional secretary. maybe, just maybe, it was about losing you.

a knock on the door disrupted the tense silence between the two men. you entered, carrying a tray with a steaming pot of tea and three cookies on the side, exactly how seokjin liked it. the aroma of the tea briefly lightened the atmosphere. he looked up, his expression softening momentarily at the sight of you. “thank you, secretary (l/n).”

you placed the tray on the table, pouring a cup of tea for him and setting it in on his desk. “i've sent out emails looking for a future secretary. one of the primary candidates is on her way.” jungkook observed the way his face twisted with hurt at your words. despite the pain evident in his eyes, seokjin maintained his composure. “join us while we wait for her.”

you nodded, taking a seat beside the young intern. the room fell into an uncomfortable silence, broken only by the ticking of the clock. seokjin sipped his tea, the familiar taste doing little to ease his troubled mind.

a few minutes later, the door opened, and a young woman entered. she had a bright, cheerful demeanor, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. “hello, i'm jung keulgi. it's an honor to be here.” seokjin straightened, adopting his usual authoritative posture. “miss jung, are you ready to devote yourself to a perfect company?” she beamed. “absolutely! i'm very excited for this opportunity.”

you couldn't help but roll your eyes at the narcissistic question. “are you prepared to handle working for someone with an ego as big as the company?” keulgi sensed the underlying tension but maintained her cheerful facade. “i'm sure i'll manage.”

seokjin continued, his tone growing sharper. “will you stay devoted instead of quitting due to silly things like personal matters?” the tension in the room escalated. you snapped, unable to hold back any longer. “are you done, vice chairman?”

his eyes flashed with anger. “about as done as you are, secretary (l/n).” keulgi, clearly uncomfortable but trying to stay positive, interjected softly, “if you hire me, i'll do my best.”

seokjin didn't take his eyes off you as he replied, “you're hired.” as he turned to you, his voice was cold and demanding. “you have a month to turn her into your carbon copy. after that, do as you please.” the room fell silent once more as the weight of his words settled over you. keulgi glanced between you and him, her cheerful demeanor now tinged with apprehension.

he stood, signaling the end of the meeting. “that will be all for now. welcome to kim enterprises, miss jung.” she nodded, offering a hesitant smile. “thank you, vice chairman.”

as she left the room, you remained seated, the gravity of your situation sinking in. seokjin's harsh command echoed in your mind, a painful reminder of the rift that had formed between you. jungkook, sensing the need for a distraction, cleared his throat. “well, this is going to be interesting.”

seokjin shot him a glare. “you're dismissed, jungkook.” with a playful salute, he left the room, leaving you and him alone once more. the silence was heavy, filled with the unspoken emotions and unresolved tension. he finally broke the silence, his voice softer but still edged with hurt. “you can have the rest of the day off.”

you glanced up at him in disbelief, but you weren't willing to argue any further. all you could do was nod and bow before leaving the room. he was alone, once more. he couldn't do anything but watch as you left, gulping as if to hold himself back from calling out your name. you could train all the candidates in the world, yet it would never be the same.

you stood at your kitchen sink, washing the last of the dinner dishes as the sun set, casting a warm orange glow through the window. the evening was peaceful, the kind of tranquility you had been craving. as you dried your hands and prepared to head to bed, the sudden blare of a car horn startled you. peeking out the window, you saw seokjin standing next to his sleek black car, looking up at your house.

heart pounding with a mix of surprise and curiosity, you hurried outside. “vice chairman? is everything okay?” he shook his head, a slight smile playing on his lips. “no emergencies, secretary (l/n). i just needed to see you.” you frowned, puzzled. “at this hour? what's so urgent?”

his eyes locked onto yours, intense and searching. “are you serious about quitting to settle down?” you nodded, feeling a familiar pang of sadness. “i am. i'm ready to put all my attention on a relationship.”

his expression shifted, the gravity of your words sinking in. he took a deep breath, and then, to your astonishment, he did the unthinkable. he dropped to one knee and pulled out a small velvet box, opening it to reveal a dazzling diamond ring.

“marry me, secretary (l/n). i'm rich, handsome, and more than capable of giving you everything you want.” you stared at him, completely taken aback. his usual confidence seemed both reassuring and out of place in this moment. he continued, his voice earnest, almost pleading. “i'm perfect for you. accept my proposal.”

his words hung in the air as you tried to process what was happening. finally, you leaned in close, your face inches from his, and inhaled deeply. seokjin's heart stopped, anticipation flickering in his eyes. but instead of a kiss, you pulled back, your expression skeptical.

“are you drunk, vice chairman?” he blinked, clearly taken aback. “no, i'm sober. i'm serious.”

you laughed softly, shaking your head. “i believe you. but vice chairman, i don't want a perfect life with a perfect man. i just want to be with an ordinary guy from an ordinary family.” his face fell, his confident facade crumbling. “why not me? i'm perfect!”

you smiled, despite the annoyance of his narcissistic words clawing at your nerves, and you chose the easy way out. assuring him that he was nothing but flawless was the only way to get him to stop talking about it. “that's exactly why. you deserve someone who sees you that way, but it's not me.” the rejection hung heavy between you as you turned and walked back into your house, leaving him kneeling in the fading light.

the following day, he recounted the entire incident to jungkook, who listened with wide eyes. when he finally finished, the intern burst into laughter, unable to contain himself despite the glares from his boss.

“vice chairman, you can't just propose out of the blue like that, this isn't the eighteenth century,” jungkook said, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

his frown deepened, but he couldn't argue with jungkook's logic. “so, what should i have done, then?” he shrugged, still grinning. “maybe start by asking her on a date? get to know her outside of work. build a relationship first. you can't skip straight to marriage, no matter how perfect you think you are.”

the elder mulled over his words, realizing the truth in them. he had acted impulsively, driven by a fear of losing you, but dating? he was actively unfamiliar with the entire thing. in fact, he thought it was pointless. nothing but a waste of time, but if it meant stopping you from quitting, maybe it was wasting time in the best way possible.

you sat in your office, typing away at your computer, but your mind kept drifting back to the previous night. the image of your boss on one knee, his earnest proposal, and your subsequent rejection played on a loop in your head. the weight of your decision and its implications loomed large.

“hey, (y/n),” a familiar voice broke through your thoughts. you looked up to see kim namjoon, the head of finances, standing at your desk. his expression was a mix of concern and curiosity. “is it true? are you really leaving?” you offered him a kind smile and nodded. “yes, namjoon. it's true.”

the news seemed to ripple through the office. baekhyun and sooyoung, who were nearby, immediately voiced their protests. “you can't be serious!” baekhyun exclaimed, his usually cheerful demeanor clouded with disappointment. sooyoung nodded vigorously. “yeah, you've been here forever! what are we going to do without you?”

keulgi, who had been quietly observing, chimed in. “i've heard so much about your amazing work. it's going to be hard to fill your shoes.” you felt a pang of guilt but tried to reassure them with a smile on your face. “we'll all stay in touch. it's not like i'm disappearing.”

sooyoung then brightened, a mischievous glint in her eye. “how about we have a dinner after work? to welcome keulgi and to honor your nine years of hard work.” you hesitated, not wanting to make a big deal out of your departure. but keulgi's encouraging smile swayed you. “come on, it would be nice.” with a reluctant smile, you agreed.

the moment was cut short as the door to the office opened and seokjin walked in. the room fell silent, all eyes turning to him. he let the silence hang for a moment before speaking, his gaze locked onto yours. “am i invited to this dinner as well?” the tension was palpable. baekhyun hesitated before responding, glancing around at the others. “of course, vice chairman. you're welcome to join us.”

seokjin's smile was tight as he nodded. “very well. i'll see you all there.” he left the room as suddenly as he had entered, leaving your heart heavy with unspoken emotions. namjoon broke the silence, his tone light but his words carrying weight. “is it just me, or did it suddenly get cold in here?” the others murmured their agreement, exchanging glances.

“i don't know what's going on,” baekhyun said, shaking his head. “but he's been awfully on edge lately.” you remained silent, the weight of your decision and seokjin's reaction pressing heavily on your mind. the upcoming dinner promised to be an eventful one, but you couldn't shake the feeling that it would also be pivotal in the worst way possible.

you stood in front of your mirror, giving yourself a once-over. you had opted for a casual outfit, perfect for the laid-back atmosphere of the local barbeque spot where your colleagues were hosting your farewell dinner. just as you were adjusting your hair, a loud honk interrupted your thoughts. curiosity piqued, you peered out the window to see none other than seokjin, leaning against his car, looking as out of place in your neighborhood as a peacock in a flock of pigeons.

you opened the window and leaned out. “what are you doing here?” he glanced up, a smirk playing on his lips. “i'm not here to propose again, if that's what you're worried about. i'm here to pick you up.” your eyebrows shot up in surprise, “why?”

“isn't it so ordinary of me to go with my coworkers?” he replied, clearly pleased with himself. you shook your head, amusement dancing in your eyes. “yes, well done, vice chairman. give me a minute.”

you grabbed your bag and headed downstairs. as you stepped outside, you noticed his attire—an expensive suit that screamed high-end fashion. you stifled a laugh, knowing he would stand out like a sore thumb at the spot you had all agreed on. nonetheless, you entertained his gesture and got into the car. the drive was filled with light conversation, mostly about work and the upcoming transition. despite the casual nature of the evening, you could sense his effort to blend in, which you found oddly endearing. when you arrived at the restaurant, the familiar scent of grilled meat and beer wafted through the air, making seokjin's face contort in mild disgust. you chuckled at his reaction. “welcome to the real world, vice chairman.”

inside, your colleagues greeted you warmly, their eyes widening in surprise when they saw their boss. he maintained his composure, though you could see his discomfort. at the table, he attempted to take charge. “what's everyone drinking?” he asked, clearly expecting a sophisticated answer. “perhaps an old variation of whisky?”

a stunned silence fell over the group, everyone staring at him in disbelief. you nervously laughed. “they only serve beer and soju here, vice chairman.” for a moment, you expected him to bristle at the lack of his preferred drink. instead, he stifled a sigh and nodded. “beer it is, then.”

as the evening progressed, you found yourself reminiscing. it had been nine years since you first joined kim enterprises, and you vividly remembered celebrating your first day in this very spot. you were drinking beer when a younger seokjin had approached you, his demeanor confident and slightly arrogant. “do you know who i am?” he'd asked, and you'd honestly had no clue. little did you know back then just how egotistical he was.

now, years later, you watched him attempt to navigate this ordinary setting. as the night wore on, you noticed the subtle signs of him getting tipsy. his cheeks flushed, his laughter louder and more uninhibited. eventually, you decided it was time to call it a night. “i think i should take him home,” you said, standing up.

your colleagues protested, but you promised to make it up to them. they relented, and you guided a slightly unsteady seokjin to his car. the drive to his house was quiet, his head leaning back against the seat, eyes half-closed.

when you arrived, you helped him inside, supporting his weight as you guided him to his bedroom. you gently eased him onto the bed, intending to leave as soon as he was settled. but just as you were about to turn away, he grabbed your wrist, pulling you down onto the bed. you fell on top of him, your faces inches apart. his eyes, though slightly glazed, held a seriousness that made your heart race. “pretty ordinary of me to get drunk off beer, right?” he slurred, a lazy smile on his lips. your breath caught in your throat. “yes, very ordinary.”

“thank you, secretary (l/n),” he mumbled, his eyes closing. he fell asleep almost instantly, his grip on your wrist loosening. you stayed there for a moment, your heart pounding, before carefully tucking him in. you watched him for a few seconds longer, your emotions a whirlwind. finally, you tore yourself away, quietly leaving his house and heading home, your mind a jumble of thoughts and feelings you couldn't quite name.

the following morning, you arrived at the office early, keen to begin the handover process with keulgi. the usual hustle and bustle of the workplace greeted you, but today there was an undercurrent of anticipation and anxiety. it was the beginning of your final month at kim enterprises, and you wanted to ensure everything transitioned smoothly.

as you were explaining the intricacies of the office dynamics to keulgi, seokjin entered, looking visibly worse for wear. he massaged his temples, clearly nursing a headache from the previous night. you couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt. you followed him into his office, where he promptly sank into his chair, wincing slightly.

“good morning, vice chairman,” you greeted, trying to keep your tone professional despite your concern. “morning,” he muttered, barely looking up.

despite your concern, you exited the office, re-joining keulgi in order to show her around. “so, these are the folders you'll need to keep track of—client files, project updates, and financial reports. everything is color-coded for easy access. emails are prioritized into high, medium, and low urgency. make sure to flag anything that needs immediate attention.”

she nodded, absorbing the information. “got it. and what about his schedule?” you handed her a tablet with his meticulously planned itinerary. “his schedule is very tight. make sure to coordinate with all department heads and external partners. he's very particular about his meetings being on time.”

as you continued the walkthrough, keulgi mentioned, “oh, by the way, i noticed one of the legs on his chair was falling apart, so i put it together with some cables.” your eyes widened in shock, “what kind of cables?”

“rubber cables,” she replied, confusion etched on her face at your reaction. your heart sank. without another word, you rushed into seokjin's office, your pulse racing. the sight that greeted you confirmed your worst fears. he was on the floor, shaking, his head in his hands, his entire demeanor shattered.

“vice chairman!” you cried out, rushing to his side. “i'm so sorry, she didn't know—” he didn't respond, his breathing erratic. you quickly reached for the chair and cut off the rubber cables. the moment they were gone, his shaking subsided, though his face remained pale and his expression haunted. keulgi, realizing the gravity of the situation, joined in the apologies, her voice frantic. ”i'm so sorry, vice chairman. i didn't know—“

seokjin's gaze was ice cold as he finally looked up at you, his eyes filled with a mixture of anger and something you couldn't quite place. “is this how you're carrying out your duties, secretary (l/n)?” you stood there, stunned and silent. the warmth and camaraderie of the previous night seemed like a distant memory. his words cut through you like a knife, and for the first time, you had no response.

seokjin struggled to his feet, regaining his composure with great effort. “leave,” he commanded quietly, the tension in his voice unmistakable. you and keulgi hurried out of the office, the weight of the incident heavy on your shoulders. outside, you tried to reassure her, but the shock of your boss's reaction lingered.

inside his office, he sat down once again, burying his face in his hands. he mentally cursed himself for his harsh words. his eyes fell on the rubber cables now discarded in the trash can, and a shudder ran through him. memories he'd fought to bury resurfaced, and he struggled to push them back down. the trauma, long kept at bay, clawed its way to the surface. he knew he had overreacted, and he hated himself for it. he had to apologize to you, but the thought of facing you after what had just happened seemed insurmountable. how could he explain the depth of his fear, the reason for his reaction? for now, he could only sit there, the remnants of his vulnerability on display, hoping he hadn't irrevocably damaged the fragile relationship he had with you.

he sat behind his expansive mahogany desk, its polished surface reflecting the ambient light filtering through the large, floor-to-ceiling windows of his office. the cityscape of seoul lay sprawled out behind him, but his attention was far from the view. instead, his eyes were unfocused, staring blankly at the stack of documents in front of him. his mind was elsewhere, fixated on the conversation he'd had with his intern just days ago.

jungkook, seated opposite to him with his laptop open, was discussing the final preparations for the launch of their new art gallery. the young intern's enthusiasm was palpable, his voice animated as he detailed the latest developments, the artists who had confirmed their participation, and the final touches needed for the grand opening. but despite his energetic briefing, seokjin's mind kept wandering back to a single, pivotal point in their earlier exchange.

“you can't just propose out of the blue,” jungkook had laughed, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “you need to take it slow. ask her out on a date first.”

seokjin's usually sharp mind was dulled by the weight of those words. proposing had seemed like a logical solution to him. a clear, decisive action to keep you from leaving. but now, in the wake of jungkook's advice, he realized how absurd it must have seemed. how uncharacteristically rash and desperate. the thought of asking you out on a date, a simple date, felt strangely daunting.

“vice chairman? are you listening?” jungkook's voice cut through his reverie, pulling him back to the present. he blinked, forcing his attention back to his intern. “yes, jungkook. i'm listening. the gallery—” he trailed off, struggling to find the thread of their conversation.

he raised an eyebrow, a knowing smile playing on his lips. “the gallery launch is on track. but you don't seem very interested today. is something on your mind?” he sighed in response, running a hand through his perfectly styled hair. he prided himself on his composed and unflappable demeanor, but today, he felt anything but. “it's nothing. just some personal matters, as some would say.” he couldn't bare to focus on the project at hand. no, in fact, he was ready to execute a project of his own.

the soft hum of conversation and clinking of cutlery filled the air as you and your friends settled into a cozy corner booth at a chic restaurant. the atmosphere was relaxed, with warm lighting and comfortable seating that made it perfect for a catch-up lunch. your girlfriends were animated and full of news, and you found yourself caught between genuine happiness for them and a pang of wistful longing.

one of your friends, jiho, was regaling the table with stories about her recent wedding. her eyes sparkled with joy as she described the ceremony, the heartfelt vows, and the beautiful reception. you smiled and applauded her enthusiasm, but inside, you couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. the idea of finding such happiness seemed elusive, and your heart ached slightly at the thought.

“you're going to love being married,” jiho said, her voice full of contentment. "it’s just wonderful." you nodded, offering a supportive smile. “i'm so happy for you, jiho. it sounds like it was a perfect day.”

as she continued sharing details, your other friend, minji, leaned in, her eyes twinkling with a mischievous glint. “speaking of perfect days,” she began, “i have something to tell you. my husband’s friend saw your profile on social media and, well, he’s been asking about you.”

your heart skipped a beat. minji's husband had been a close friend of yours for years, but you had no idea who the friend in question was. the idea of someone from his circle showing interest was both flattering and daunting. “what’s he like?” you asked cautiously. minji grinned. “he’s a nice guy, charming and successful. i think you’d get along. how about we set up a blind date?”

you hesitated. the idea of a blind date was daunting, but the prospect of meeting someone new, especially someone vetted by friends, was appealing. you glanced at your friends' eager faces and took a deep breath. “okay, i’ll do it.” minji clapped her hands excitedly. “great! i'll set it up and let you know the details.”

just as the conversation shifted to wedding anecdotes and dating possibilities, a cheerful waitress approached your table with a friendly smile. “excuse me, ladies,” she said. “we’re conducting a survey to improve our service and, in exchange, we’d like to offer you a free appetizer. would you be interested?” your friends, always up for a little extra perk, agreed enthusiastically, and you followed suit. the waitress handed over a clipboard with a short survey and left to fetch the appetizer.

thu looked over the questions with mild curiosity. the first asked, “ideal date spot with your significant other?” the second, “ideal activities with significant other?” and the last, “ideal gift given by significant other?” you answered thoughtfully, trying to balance your idealistic dreams with the reality of your current situation. as you finished filling out the survey and handed it back to the waitress, you felt a slight nagging sense of familiarity with the tone of the questions. they seemed familiarly bosay and demanding, almost like they were trying to gauge your relationship ideals with a hint of urgency. but you brushed off the feeling, focusing instead on the excitement of the impending blind date and the lively conversation with your friends.

in the dimly lit rec room of seokjin's luxurious house, the soft clack of pool balls punctuated the otherwise quiet evening. jungkook lounged on the leather sofa, his gaze fixed on him, who was confidently taking shots at the pool table with practiced ease. the game seemed to serve as a backdrop for their conversation, but jungkook's attention was focused on the stack of papers spread out on the coffee table.

“you did what?” his voice was a mix of incredulity and disbelief as he stared at the surveys before him. the questions and answers were neatly recorded on the forms, and jungkook couldn't believe what he was seeing. seokjin, with a proud smirk, took another shot, his movements graceful and deliberate. “i paid the restaurant to hand out those surveys,” he said, a hint of satisfaction in his tone. “i wanted to see what kind of answer i'd get. and now, i need you to find the one with her name on it.”

jungkook’s eyebrows shot up in shock. “you’re seriously crazy, this is way over the top.” ignoring the incredulous glares from his elder, he picked up the stack of surveys and began sifting through them. his hands moved quickly, flipping through each paper as he muttered under his breath. “this is insane. what are you trying to accomplish?”

seokjin, meanwhile, remained focused on his game, the smirk never leaving his face. his confidence was unwavering, but jungkook could sense a trace of anxious anticipation beneath the surface. after what felt like an eternity to him, he finally spotted the survey with your name. he held it up, slightly hesitant. “here it is. this is the one.”

his eyes lit up with a mixture of excitement and triumph. he rushed over, snatching the paper from his hands with a deft movement. his gaze was fixed on the survey, and as he read through your answers, his smirk broadened into a genuine, if somewhat smug, smile.

“how childish,” he remarked aloud, his voice laced with a blend of amusement and satisfaction. he began reading your responses aloud with a playful tone. “ideal date spot: an amusement park. ideal activities: rides, very charming. ideal gift: a teddy bear.” jungkook watched, his initial skepticism replaced by bemused curiosity. “seriously? you’re actually taking this seriously?” he had never been more serious.

the call came just after you wrapped up your brief lunch with your friends, the sound of seokjin’s voice crackling through the speaker, urgent and commanding. “you need to meet me immediately,” he said, his tone brooking no argument. he gave you the coordinates, and you found yourself driving across town with a mix of curiosity and trepidation. arriving at the amusement park, you were surprised to see it eerily quiet and closed for the night. you sat on a bench near the entrance, trying to piece together what he could have possibly wanted in such an unconventional setting. the minutes ticked by slowly until seokjin finally appeared, stepping out of the darkness with his usual confident stride.

“what’s going on?” you asked, rising from the bench to meet him. “why did you bring me here?” his eyes twinkled with a secretive glint. “we’re going to be here for the night. i have a ‘free pass,’ so to speak.”

you blinked, puzzled. “a free pass? but the park is closed.” seokjin simply smiled, taking your hand and leading you towards the entrance. “just follow me.”

as you walked through the empty park, the moonlight casting long shadows across the deserted grounds, you couldn’t help but feel a mix of excitement and apprehension. he guided you to one of the rollercoasters, and despite your protests, he insisted on riding it first. the rollercoaster roared to life, and as you climbed higher and higher, your heart raced with a blend of thrill and terror. when the ride finally came to a stop, you were visibly shaken, your hands still gripping the safety bar as if it were your lifeline.

he turned to you, his face stoic but his eyes searching. “did you have fun?” you hesitated, your voice trembling. “it was fun, i guess.”

he raised an eyebrow, sensing your unease. “why do you seem so hesitant?” you sighed, feeling a bit embarrassed. “it was too scary. i wasn’t expecting it to be so intense.” he looked at you with a mixture of concern and amusement. “then why did you go on it?”

“because you asked me to,” you admitted. a smile curved his lips, and he quickly shifted gears. “alright then, let’s go on rides you want to enjoy.” your face lit up with relief and excitement. you led him towards the merry-go-round, and as the ride spun in gentle circles, you felt a wave of childhood nostalgia. you waved enthusiastically, feeling the pure joy of the moment. he watched you, his gaze softening as he took in your happiness.

the merry-go-round went around seven times, and as you disembarked, you couldn’t stop smiling. seokjin then guided you into the park’s restaurant. to your surprise, the place was completely empty.

“what’s all of this?” you asked, glancing around in awe. he shrugged casually. “i rented everything out for the night. consider it a going-away present.”

your heart fluttered at his gesture. “thank you, vice chairman.” he smiled, slicing a steak and placing it in front of you. as you dug into the meal, he glanced at you with genuine interest. “why did you enjoy the merry-go-round so much?”

you hesitated, then opened up. “it was one of my favorite rides as a child. i used to watch it from afar, because my parents never had the money to let me actually ride it.” hiw expression softened, a shadow of sadness crossing his face. “i'm sorry to hear that.”

the meal continued in a comfortable silence, broken only by the occasional clinking of cutlery. after you finished, hw told you there was one more surprise. “just be patient,” he said with a hint of mischief in his eyes. curious, you followed him outside to a spot overlooking the sea. As you waited, the crackling sound of fireworks filled the air, bursting into vibrant colors against the night sky. your eyes widened with delight as you watched the display.

“isn’t it pretty?” you asked, turning to seokjin. his gaze was fixed on you, not the fireworks. “beautiful,” he replied, his voice low and sincere.

the car ride back was filled with a charged silence. as you stared out the window, a memory of the survey and its bossy tone flashed in your mind. you turned to Seokjin, your eyes wide with realization. he looked at you with a smug smile, clearly enjoying the surprise. before you could ask more, the car pulled up to your home. he exited and opened your door, handing you a large, stuffed teddy bear from the trunk. you were overwhelmed with gratitude and, in a moment of pure joy, you hugged your boss tightly.

to your astonishment, he hugged you back, his embrace warm and reassuring. as you pulled away, both of you were so close. too close for comfort. you knew better, stopping yourself as you glanced at the time. “it’s getting late,” you said softly. he nodded, his eyes reflecting a mix of emotions. “good night. i'll see you in the morning.”

the morning sun streamed through your bedroom window, casting a gentle glow over the room as you prepared for another day at work. you had almost forgotten about the stuffed teddy bear seokjin had gifted you the night before. as you reached for it, something shifted inside its pocket. curiosity piqued, you reached in and pulled out a small, elegant box.

opening it carefully, you found a delicate silver necklace inside. the intricate design and glint of the metal took your breath away. you were momentarily stunned, not expecting such a thoughtful gift. after a moment of hesitation, you decided to keep the necklace. you slipped it into your pocket, planning to wear it later.

at the office, you settled at your desk, the necklace still weighing on your mind. as you worked, you fished it out of your pocket and admired it, the silver catching the light. unbeknownst to you, he was watching from his office across the hall. his gaze softened as he observed you, a small, admiring smile on his lips. the sight of you, glowing with a mix of wonder and appreciation, made him think how gorgeous you were.

you finished adjusting the necklace around your neck, and as you headed to the bathroom, your phone rang. it was minji, her voice excited and insistent. “hey, i was just wondering if you’re still up for that blind date with my friend today? i know it’s short notice, but he’s really looking forward to it!”

it took a moment for the reminder to hit you. the blind date slipped your mind amidst the whirlwind of yesterday’s events. you agreed, albeit with some reluctance. “sure, i’ll meet him. just let me know the details.” as you entered the bathroom, keulgi emerged from a stall behind you, startling you. she had apparently overheard your conversation.

“are you going on a date?” she asked, her voice filled with surprise and curiosity. caught off guard, you nodded, glancing around to make sure no one else was within earshot. “yes, but please keep it quiet.” keulgi, ever enthusiastic, promised to keep it to herself. however, her enthusiasm got the better of her. as soon as you left the bathroom, she couldn't resist sharing the news with the rest of the office.

when you returned to your desk, the atmosphere in the office had noticeably shifted. colleagues whispered excitedly and shot you curious glances. the office buzzed with the news of your impending date. seokjin, who had been outside his office listening to the commotion, seethed with jealousy. his earlier soft smile had vanished, replaced by a scowl that betrayed his irritation. he paced back and forth, trying to control his frustration.

the excitement and chatter from your colleagues did nothing to ease his anger. his mind raced with thoughts of the date and the implications of your newfound interest. he couldn’t shake the feeling of possessiveness that gnawed at him, and the thought of someone else taking you out only fueled his frustration. the more he listened to the enthusiastic reactions of his staff, the more he felt his grip on his emotions slipping. he knew he needed to act, but he was caught between his pride and the undeniable feelings he had been trying to cast away.

the date began at a quaint, upscale café, where you met your blind date, taehyun. he greeted you with a polite smile and an amiable demeanor. as you made small talk, discussing interests and hobbies, taehyun seemed genuinely pleasant, though his compliments caught you off guard. “you look absolutely gorgeous tonight,” he said with a warm smile.

you blushed slightly, feeling a mix of embarrassment and surprise. “thank you,” you replied, attempting to refocus the conversation. as you chatted, you noticed that his tie was hanging loose and uneven. it irked you more than you expected, and you reached over to fix it, hoping to tidy up his appearance. he watched with a smile as you deftly adjusted the tie, clearly appreciative of the attention to detail.

just as you were about to continue the conversation, a loud, urgent yell interrupted the moment. “secretary (l/n)!”

you and taehyun both turned to see seokjin striding toward your table, his expression stormy and his eyes locked onto you with barely concealed anger. your heart skipped a beat at the sight of him. “vice chairman?” you asked, confusion mingling with concern. “what’s going on?”

he stopped in front of your table, his demeanor tense. “i need to see you urgently,” he said, his voice firm and unwavering. you glanced at taehyun, apologetic. “i’m so sorry, it seems to be an emergency.”

you followed him outside, where he led you to his waiting car. the drive began in silence, the air thick with unspoken tension. the car came to a sudden stop in the middle of the road, and you turned to seokjin, your anxiety growing. “what’s the matter?” you asked, trying to keep your voice calm despite the unease you felt.

his gaze was cold, his usual confident demeanor replaced by a stern, almost menacing composure. “never do that again,” he said, his voice carrying a tone of finality.

you frowned, confusion clouding your expression. “what do you mean? what did i do?” his eyes locked onto yours with intensity. “never let me see you with another man like that again.”

you didn’t respond immediately, and his jaw clenched as he seemed to wrestle with his emotions. finally, he added, “i don’t want to see you with anyone else. it’s not something i'm willing to accept.” the confession left you stunned. you stared at him, a mixture of surprise and realization dawning on you. the implications of his words were clear, and the protectiveness in his tone was undeniable. the car ride continued in silence, with the weight of his words lingering between you.

back at home, you went through your evening routine, attending to various tasks around the house. the day's events had left you both physically and emotionally drained. you found solace in a small ritual that had been a comforting presence throughout your life—your diary. sitting down at your desk, you pulled out the well-worn book, its pages filled with a mixture of memories, dreams, and sketches. as you flipped through the pages, you came across a series of drawings. they depicted a younger you and a boy, playing and laughing together. the accompanying writing read, “i miss you, brother.” the words tugged at your heart, and you felt a pang of sadness.

the drawings were a testament to a bond that had once been a central part of your life. as you closed the diary and set it aside, you felt the ache of missing something—or someone—important. the day’s events had stirred up memories you weren’t quite ready to confront.

later that night, as you drifted off to sleep, the familiar haze of dreams enveloped you. in your dream, you found yourself in a dimly lit basement, a place filled with shadows and echoes of the past. the little boy from your diary appeared, standing before you with a stern expression. you felt tears streaming down your cheeks, overwhelmed by a mixture of regret and longing. the boy began to scold you, his voice echoing with an authority that seemed to pierce through your sorrow. despite the scolding, you felt a deep sense of gratitude.

“thank you, kim soo—seo—” you started, trying to recall his name. but before you could finish, the boy cut you off with a tsk. “no, stupid. my name is kim seo—” the name was just on the tip of your tongue, but you couldn’t quite grasp it. the dream began to fade, and you woke up with a start, heart racing and breath uneven.

sitting up in bed, you felt the weight of the dream pressing on you. the name “kim seo” lingered in your mind, but it was elusive, slipping away before you could fully remember. the dream had left you with a deep sense of loss and confusion, and you were left grappling with the fragments of a memory that seemed to evade your grasp. as you lay back down, you couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something significant you were missing, a connection that was just out of reach. the memory of the dream and the name echoed in your thoughts, haunting you as you tried to find solace in sleep once more.

seokjin arrived at work the following day with a heavy air of exhaustion surrounding him. he trudged through the office, his usual confident stride replaced by a sluggish, disoriented gait. as the morning wore on, it became increasingly clear that he was struggling to stay awake. his head bobbed with fatigue as he sat at his desk, his eyes slipping shut despite his efforts to remain alert.

concerned, you approached his desk, gently shaking his shoulder. “vice chairman, are you alright?” when there was no response, you shook him harder, your worry mounting. his body felt unnervingly heavy, and it became clear that he was deeply asleep, his breathing uneven. panic surged through you as you realized the severity of the situation. without hesitation, you grabbed your phone and dialed for emergency services.

the paramedics arrived swiftly, their professional demeanor a small comfort amidst the chaos. you watched anxiously as they wheeled him into the ambulance. your heart pounded in your chest, and despite knowing it was likely nothing serious, you refused to leave his side.

in the hospital, as the medics prepared him for further examination, they reassured you that his condition wasn’t critical. “he’s just exhausted,” one of the paramedics said. “it’s likely just severe fatigue. you can go in once we’re done.” when you were finally allowed in, he was still asleep, his face pale and drawn. you took a seat next to him, trying to steady your breathing as you buried your face in your hands. the sight of him, knocked out cold, was deeply unsettling. It reminded you of something from your past—something too familiar.

as you stared at him, your thoughts drifted back to the boy from the basement. the way he was unconscious on the floor when the lady had taken you—the same position, the same labored breathing, the same pale complexion. the memories came rushing back, painful and vivid. the name “kim seo” echoed in your mind, but it didn’t quite fit. then you remembered the boy’s full name, “kim seohyeon.” the realization came with a jolt. “kim seohyeon,” you whispered to yourself, the name feeling strangely natural as it rolled off your tongue.

your relief was fleeting, however, as a chilling thought struck you. seokjin’s mother had asked you not even a couple days ago, “what do you think about my hyeon?” it wasn’t just a fragment of a bad memory—it was a piece of a puzzle falling into place. hesitantly, you turned your gaze back to him, who remained motionless. your heart raced as you said, “kim seohyeon.” your voice was shaky, trembling with the weight of the revelation.

for a moment, the room was silent, and you felt a brief sense of relief as though your words had broken the tension. but then, he stirred, his eyes fluttering open. his gaze was bleary, and he blinked at you in confusion. “what is it?” your heart sank as you saw his groggy, disoriented expression. the name you had just spoken had clearly registered with him, but his response was laced with irritation and confusion. you were left grappling with the enormity of the realization that seokjin—kim seohyeon—was more deeply connected to your past than you had ever imagined.

you took a deep breath, trying to steady the storm of emotions surging within you. “kim seohyeon,” you repeated, your voice trembling as you looked at seokjin. his eyes, which had been closed in exhaustion, flew open at the sound of his name. the shock and recognition dawned on his face as he fully grasped the situation. “it was you,” you said, your voice laden with disbelief.

your heart pounded as you pieced together the fragmented memories that had haunted you for so long. “i remember now,” you began, your voice quivering. “there was a boy—you were in the basement with me.” his expression shifted from confusion to horror as the realization sank in. “the dreams i’ve been having,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. “a black-haired woman, a basement—i’ve been dreaming about it for weeks.”

the pieces began to fall into place for you. “the boy i kept searching for, the one i couldn’t remember clearly—it was you. we were together in that basement. i’ve been trying to find you all this time, but i didn’t know it was you.” the enormity of the realization hit you like a tidal wave, and you began to sob uncontrollably. you had spent your entire life searching for the boy from the basement, the boy whose memory had haunted you for years. to discover that he was right under your nose all along, that seokjin was the one you had been seeking—it was overwhelming.

the flood of emotions surged through you, and the connections you had been struggling to piece together suddenly fell into place. the cables, the fear, the strange sense of familiarity—all of it made sense now. the sobs wracked your body, and you felt a deep, raw anguish as you realized how close you had come to losing him without ever knowing.

his gaze softened as he watched your breakdown. his usual composure and egotism crumbled in the face of your distress. weakly, he reached out to you, his hand trembling slightly. “it’s okay,” he said softly, his voice filled with a tender concern that was rare for him. “i’m here.” you hesitated for a moment, but then, seeking solace, you moved into his embrace. his arms wrapped around you, providing a comfort that felt both foreign and deeply familiar. you continued to cry, each sob a release of the pent-up fear and sorrow that had built up over the years. he held you close, his own breath shaky as he struggled to process the gravity of the situation. he stroked your hair gently, his touch soothing and steadying. the warmth of his embrace provided a sense of security that you hadn’t felt in a long time.

as your sobs began to subside, he pulled back slightly, tilting your chin so that you looked up at him. his eyes were filled with a mix of empathy and resolve. “you found me,” he said softly, his voice trembling with the weight of the moment. his words, though simple, carried a profound meaning. the realization that you had finally found him, the person you had been searching for, was both a relief and a heartbreak. in that moment, the intensity of your emotions reached a peak, and he leaned in, closing the gap between you.

his lips met yours in a kiss that was gentle at first, but quickly grew more passionate. it was a kiss that spoke of the pain, the longing, and the deep connection that had been forged through shared battles. you responded, kissing him back with equal fervor, allowing the years of separation and anguish to dissolve in the intensity of the moment. when the kiss finally broke, you both pulled back slightly, breathless and awestruck. the weight of the past had been acknowledged, and the connection between you was solidified in a way that was both profound and healing.

he looked into your eyes, his expression a mix of vulnerability and resolve. “we'll be okay,” he said softly, his voice filled with a newfound determination. you nodded, feeling a deep sense of relief and hope.

the weeks following the revelation passed in a strange, uncomfortable silence. despite the deep bond you and seokjin now shared, an unspoken tension lingered in the office. the connection between you had shifted, but neither of you quite knew how to bridge the gap between your past traumas and your present reality.

he had revealed to you the reason behind his name change to seokjin. his parents had insisted on the new identity as a protective measure, believing that if seohyeon no longer existed, the woman who had once terrorized him would never be able to find him. this revelation, while reassuring, had also created a chasm between you two that was hard to navigate.

one afternoon, as the silence in the office grew increasingly heavy, he called you into his office. his demeanor was serious as he gestured for you to take a seat. you entered, your heart racing slightly, unsure of what to expect. “thank you for coming,” he began, his voice steady but laced with an undertone of something you couldn’t quite place. “i need you to do something for me.” you straightened in your chair, adopting a professional tone. “what is it?”

seokjin looked at you with an intensity that made your breath catch. “i need you to be my girlfriend.” the words hung in the air between you, and you were momentarily stunned into silence. “what?” you managed to ask, your voice betraying your shock.

his gaze softened as he continued, his expression vulnerable. “i’ve been thinking a lot about us. after everything we’ve been through, i realized how much i care about you. i need you in my life, not just as my secretary, but as my girlfriend.”

his confession touched you deeply, and you felt a swell of emotion rise within you. “vice chairman” you began, struggling to find the right words. “i didn’t expect this.”

he nodded, his gaze never leaving yours. “i know. it’s sudden, and i understand if you need time. but i wanted to be honest with you about how i feel.” the sincerity in his voice, combined with the gravity of his words, made your heart ache with a mix of relief and hope. you were touched by his honesty and the way he had finally allowed himself to be vulnerable with you.

he then leaned forward slightly, his expression shifting to something more earnest. “there’s one more thing,” he said, his voice lowering. “i need you to kiss me.”

your eyes widened at his request. the gravity of the moment, coupled with your feelings for him, made your pulse race. you nodded slowly, feeling a surge of emotions—affection, longing, and a deep connection. you stood up and walked over to him, your heart pounding in your chest. his gaze followed you, his expression a mixture of anticipation and tenderness. as you reached him, you leaned in, closing the distance between you.

the kiss was tender, filled with the emotions you both had been holding back. It was a sweet, unspoken promise of a new beginning. he responded gently, his hands resting on your back as he deepened the kiss. when you finally pulled away, both of you were breathless, your faces flushed with the intensity of the moment. he looked at you with a soft smile, his eyes reflecting the vulnerability and affection that had been building between you.

his voice was soft and teasing as he traced his fingers gently along your back. “this means you’ll be my girlfriend, doesn’t it?” the playful tone in his voice, combined with the tender touch, made you smile despite the whirlwind of emotions you were feeling. you nodded, feeling a mix of excitement and affection. “yes, it does.”

his eyes lit up with a genuine smile, his teasing demeanor giving way to something more heartfelt. “i’m glad to hear that. i’ve been wanting to ask you for a long time, but i didn’t know how.” you laughed softly, shaking your head. “you didn’t need to wait so long. i think we both knew how we felt about each other.”

his smile widened as he pulled you into a gentle hug, his arms encircling you with a sense of relief and contentment. “i guess it’s true,” he said, his voice warm and sincere. “sometimes, the things you’re looking for are right in front of you.” they really were, as it seemed.

the next few days at work were marked by an underlying tension that neither of you could quite shake off. seokjin was noticeably less cold and demanding, a stark contrast to his previous demeanor. the change was subtle but significant. he found himself taking more interest in your presence, often waving at you from across the office with a grin that was almost boyish. each time you waved back, his smile would widen, and a look of genuine joy would light up his face.

the change didn’t go unnoticed by your colleagues, who observed the shift in seokjin’s behavior with a mix of curiosity and suspicion. however, no one dared to comment, respecting the unspoken agreement that something had clearly shifted in the office dynamics.

as the days passed, his new feelings for you started to manifest in ways he hadn’t anticipated. while he relished the sweetness of your new relationship, he found himself increasingly aware of the more physical aspects of your presence. he couldn’t ignore how his pulse quickened when he noticed the way your tight skirts accentuated your figure, or how the sight of your bare legs and hair pulled back made him sweat in the middle of meetings.

he tried to maintain his composure, but the intensity of his feelings became difficult to manage. his attempts to focus on work were often disrupted by thoughts of you, and he struggled to keep his desires in check.

one afternoon, unable to ignore his escalating emotions any longer, he called you into his office. his voice, usually commanding, now carried a hint of nervousness. “can you come in here for a moment?” you nodded, entering his office with a sense of anticipation. seokjin closed the door behind you and gestured for you to lock it. his eyes were intense as he watched you comply. he then moved to pull down the blinds, casting the room into a more private, dimly lit atmosphere.

“what’s going on?” you asked, your voice tinged with concern as you approached him. he looked at you with a mixture of longing and hesitation, his gaze fixed on yours. “i need you to understand something,” he said softly. “it’s not just about what we’ve been through, or about being together. i—”

he paused, taking a deep breath as he reached out to pull you closer. the seriousness in his eyes gave way to a softer, more vulnerable expression. “i need you to know how much i care about you. and right now, i can’t help but feel…”

before he could finish, he leaned in and kissed you. the kiss was different from before—less tender, more urgent and needy. it was filled with the intensity of emotions that had been building up inside him. you responded to the kiss, your own feelings mirroring his. the kiss deepened, and the world outside the office seemed to fade away as you both lost yourselves in the moment.

it was a kiss that spoke of months of unspoken yearning, a kiss that shattered the professional façade you had both so carefully maintained. his hand found the small of your back, pulling you closer. his other hand cupped your cheek, his thumb tracing the outline of your mouth as you kissed him deeper. his tongue slipped past your lips, tasting, exploring. you gasped, your body responding instinctively to his touch.

that was it. the moment you had both been waiting for, the moment that would change everything. you could feel the tension in the room, a tight coil winding tighter with every passing second. the sound of a zipper echoed through the room as seokjin stood, lifting you onto his desk. your legs wrapped around his waist, and you could feel his erection pressing against you, hot and insistent. your breath hitched as he kissed along your neck, his teeth grazing your skin, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake.

he stepped back for a moment, looking into your eyes, searching for permission. you nodded, unable to form words, and he took that as his cue. his hands found the buttons of your blouse, deftly undoing them one by one. your bra was next, revealing your tits to his hungry gaze. He took one in his hand, squeezing gently, and your moan filled the room.

he leaned in, taking your nipple into his mouth. you arched your back, the sensation shooting straight to your core. he sucked, his tongue flicking over the sensitive peak, and your hips rolled against him. he groaned, his grip on your hip tightening. the anticipation was palpable as he reached for his belt, his eyes never leaving yours. you could see the need in them, the same need that was building within you. as he stepped closer, you felt his hardness pressing against your thigh, and you knew there was no turning back.

he whispered something in your ear, something filthy and thrilling, and you could feel your cheeks flush with arousal. his hands found the zipper of your skirt, sliding it down with a sound that seemed unnaturally loud in the quiet office. your skin prickled with excitement as the fabric fell away, revealing your lacy underwear. his hand slid under the fabric, his fingers finding your wetness. he groaned again, his breath hot against your neck. “you're so wet for me,” he murmured, his voice thick with desire.

you nodded, your eyes closing as he began to stroke you, his touch tentative at first, then growing bolder as your moans grew louder. your body was on fire, every nerve ending alive with sensation. you knew you were his, and he was yours, in this every stolen moment of passion.

with a final tug, his hand found your bare skin, and you gasped as he touched you, his fingers exploring your folds with an urgency that mirrored your own. you could feel your core tightening around his touch, desperate for more. he pulled back slightly, a smirk playing on his lips as he watched your reaction. “you like that, don't you?” he asked, his voice a low growl. you nodded, your eyes glazed over with desire. he leaned in, capturing your mouth again in a bruising kiss as his thumb began to circle your clit. the sensation was overwhelming, and you felt yourself getting closer and closer to the edge. you didn't know if you could hold on much longer.

suddenly, he stopped, his hand moving away from your panties. you whimpered in protest, but he just chuckled, a dark sound that sent shivers down your spine. “patience,” he murmured, “we're just getting started.”

with surprising strength, he flipped you over, so that you were now lying face down on his desk, your ass in the air. he stepped back, and you could feel his eyes on you, taking in the sight of your exposed body. you felt a thrill of exhibitionism, knowing that he was seeing you in such a vulnerable state.

he leaned over you, his breath hot on your ear. "you're so fucking beautiful," he whispered, his voice filled with lust. his hand came down in a firm smack on your ass, and you yelped in surprise. the sting was quickly replaced by a warmth that spread through your body, making you wetter than ever.

he smacked you again, harder this time, and you moaned. the sound seemed to spur him on, and his hand began to move in a steady rhythm, alternating between gentle caresses and firm slaps. you felt yourself getting wetter with every hit, your body begging for more. “do you like that, baby?” he asked, his voice strained with his own need. “yes,” you managed to gasp out, your voice shaky. “more.”

he complied, his hand coming down harder and faster, each smack echoing through the room. you could feel yourself getting closer, your body trembling with the effort of holding back. and then, with one final, brutal slap, you shattered, your orgasm ripping through you like a storm. he leaned down, his breathing ragged, and kissed the back of your neck. “you're mine,” he murmured, his voice possessive. “mine to claim.”

and with that, he reached for his own pants, his hands shaking with desire. he freed himself, and you could feel the tip of his cock brushing against your wetness. without another word, he pushed inside you, filling you up in one swift, agonizingly sweet motion. you yelled, the pleasure overwhelming as he claimed your virginity, your body stretching to accommodate his size.

he didn't stop there, though. he began to move, his hips pistoning into you with a relentless rhythm that had you seeing stars. you could feel every inch of him, and it was more than you had ever imagined. each thrust was a declaration of ownership, each moan a promise of more to come. you pushed back against him, meeting him halfway, your body moving in perfect sync with his. you were lost in the sensation, the pain and pleasure melding into something indescribable. your hands gripped the edge of the desk, knuckles white, as you held on for dear life.

“fuck, you're tight,” he grunted, his voice strained. “so tight.” your response was a whimper, your throat too tight to form words. all you could do was moan and arch your back, taking him deeper, letting him fill you completely. the room spun around you as he picked up the pace, his hands digging into your hips as he drove into you. you could feel his climax building, his breaths coming in harsh pants against your neck. and then, with a final, guttural groan, he came, his warmth flooding into you.

you collapsed onto the desk, your body spent, as he pulled out and leaned over you, his chest heaving. he kissed your shoulder, his breathing slowly returning to normal. the room was silent, save for the sound of your ragged breaths.

for a moment, you both just stayed there, basking in the afterglow of what had just happened. but reality began to seep back in, and you felt a sudden rush of self-consciousness. you were his secretary, and you had just had unprotected sex on his desk. the implications of your actions were just beginning to hit you.

seokjin must have noticed the change in your demeanor because he leaned in, whispering in your ear, “don't worry, i've got you.” his words were soothing, but they didn't entirely ease the anxiety coiling in your stomach. he helped you sit up, and you both began to straighten your clothes, trying to erase the evidence of your passionate encounter. your heart was racing, and you couldn't help but steal glances at him, seeing him in a new light. “we can't do this again,” you said, your voice barely above a whisper. “what if someone finds out?”

he turned to face you, cupping your cheek. “they won't,” he assured you. “this is our secret.” his eyes searched yours, and you could see the determination in them. “but if they do,” he trailed off, a smug smile playing on his lips. “well, then they'll just have to deal with it. you're my girlfriend, after all.”

you couldn't help but smile back, his confidence infectious. but deep down, you knew that this was just the beginning. the line between professional and personal had been irrevocably crossed, and there was no going back.

✧.*

a/n: literally no one asked for this idc this is so funny to me i based the name off one drama and the plot off another goodbye

[emblemxeno]

Hot Take Time!

I think the breakthrough revelation that the Sonic fanbase had about the series' reception during the 2010's, where full-force sincerity in its stories was mocked for being cringe and willingness to stand out in both a gameplay and artistic sense resulted in beloved games being panned retroactively, can be easily applied to FE Engage.

Engage is the most fucking sincere plot the series has had in over a decade. Yes, despite being the guy whose fav FE game is Fates, I think that game was still bogged down by the prospect of following up the blowout success of a game like Awakening and had too many instances of putting in a lot of ideas to see what worked rather than putting the full weight behind a select few core elements.

SoV had the baggage of being a remake while still needing a modern appeal, and ended up with a lot of contradictory aspects. And 3H doesn't know what it wants to be and never did from the ground up.

Engage is different. It wanted to be a grand celebration of 30 years of this great series. It wanted pizazz. It wanted spectacle. It wanted to say "we fucking love this series and we love the fans who supported us."

The characters are flashy and striking to make you remember them. The music is bombastic, with a wide variety of styles so anyone can find a favorite track. The presentation is beautiful, with great visuals and phenomenal sound design. New uber powerful mechanics balanced out by incredible map design, supberb flow, and responsive game feel.

But the sincerity shines brightest with its narrative. The core messages are well written!

Sometimes knowing when to retreat is better than foolhardy bravery. It's always worth considering someone's background and feelings before casting them away. There's never a single easy solution to your problems, and if you think there is, you'll end up repeating the same mistakes. You can find family with anyone, and are not bound solely by those who you're born to. To live authentically as yourself is beautiful and should be celebrated.

The game believes all of those things to a degree which really hasn't been seen since the series was on the brink of death.

But that sincerity was treated as unpalatable, cringe, and plain awful.

The fandom for a series that routinely and infamously has terrible armor designs now suddenly throws a fit because "flower girl has silly dress" or "these characters have face paint/tattoos."

The single laziest form of criticism for FE casts that has permeated the community since Awakening released, that being "the cast is one note tropes that have no personality or development outside of them", came back in full fucking force with Engage.

And it's pretty damn sad. In my opinion, sincerity shouldn't be mocked. Sometimes, you should take a minute and ask yourself "Is it bad, or is it just not my thing? Am I writing off an entire cast's writing because I don't like some character designs? Do I have personal preferences that aren't being met in this instance, and should I learn to grapple with saying that instead of just writing off the product as fundamentally terrible or, at best, half-assed?"

At some point, looking inward and considering community wide commonalities has to be recognized as a factor for why products are received the way they are, rather than just laying blame at the devs' feet for "not making a good product that people wanted." After all, word of mouth is the reason why FE even got this far, considering FE1 was effectively a sleeper hit because people who played it spread the word despite mixed reviews.

TL-DR, Engage isn't cringe, YOU ARE!!!

[youhavethewrong]

Yuiviews: The Too Kyo Games Library

After ending the Danganronpa series in what is basically rebellion against over-sequelization, writer Kazutaka Kodaka, artist Rui Komatsuzaki, and composer Masafumi Takada left the apparently horrible to work at company Spike Chunksoft to join the writer of the Zero Escape series Kotaro Uchikoshi and form their own small studio: Too Kyo Games. Throughout the years, they've kept a consistent output of creative and unique mystery and action games and stories. But in spite of how good they are, a lot of them have flown under the radar, as people in general aren't really aware of Too Kyo Games existing. So, to hopefully rectify that a little bit, I come to you with a list of the things they've made so you can see if any of them strike your fancy!

1. Master Detective Archives: Rain Code

Okay this one was still published under Spike Chunksoft, but the developers are still Too Kyo games so hear me out.

Amnesiac detective Yuma Kokohead is called to Kanai Ward, a city of neverending rain shrouded in mystery. In a place where the truth is hidden by a mega corporation, it is his duty to join a group of world-class detectives with special talents in solving the many murder cases that seem to be around every corner. He is accompanied in his journey by Shinigami, the god of death, who has the power to take him to the Mystery Labyrinths - bizarre construction where finding the exit equals reaching the truth.

The gameplay consists of 3d exploration in the city of Kanai Ward, along with action minigames and puzzles whose solutions lead to figuring out the whodunnit and howdunnit of each case!

A highlight of the game for me is the character of Shinigami, who adds a very macabre vibe to the murder mysteries by making inappropriate jokes and enjoying the whole thing a bit way too much. This game is like Detective Conan for insane people, and I loved it dearly, so I don't know if that's a good thing about myself.

(Probably not)

The game's available on Xbox, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. As of the time of this writing, the Steam version is on discount.

2. Akudama Drive

Not in the mood for games? No worries, here's an anime!

Taking place in a dystopian futuristic version of Kansai, Akudama Drive sees a society that labels particularly dangerous criminals as "Akudama", and heavily persecutes and punishes them for their transgressions. In this society, a regular girl is accidentally roped into a 6 Akudama master plan to perform an Ocean's 11-type heist by a mysterious mastermind.

(One of the characters in this image is the mastermind, and it's not the girl)

One big highlight of the show for me is the animation. Komatsuzaki's art and designs feel particularly difficult to bring to motion in 2d, but this show pulls it off really well with some clever lightning and other stylization techniques. Also, the show has a theme of how society deals with what it deems "undesirable", which resonates a lot with me.

(...for no reason in particular)

The show's available in Crunchyroll and perhaps some other sites too idk.

3. World's End Club

Not in the mood for a game or an anime? Well, how about something in between!

This game tells the story of the Go-Getters club, a club of kids who, during a field trip, experience the end of the world. There's very little I can say about this title's premise without giving most of it away, so instead I'll focus on the atmosphere it creates.

Since this game deals with young children rather than adults or even teenagers, the story is a loooot lighter than other Too Kyo Games projects. It is really lighthearted and even adorable at times. I'm particularly fond of this one scene where the main cast rides this ridiculous 12 person tandem bike while singing a little song.

However, don't let the lighter atmosphere and Take's cute designs fool you. There's still intrigue, heartache, and plot twists that will leave your mouth agape. After playing so many games by the same writers, I thought I was ready for anything that they could throw at me. This game proved me wrong.

(This and more philosophical debates await you in this title!)

Still, World's End Club is a much more relaxing time than the other games on this list. What I think most people would consider its biggest downside is how light it is in terms of gameplay. It's about 80% cutscenes, 20% gameplay. And the gameplay that is there is just extremely basic 2d puzzle sections. However, I don't think this is an objective negative. Me personally, I just see it as an extremely fun interactive story, rather than a game. When I sit down to play it, I think to myself "okay, time to see what happens next", rather than "time to push myself to overcome some difficult platforming challenges", this isn't Pizza Tower. So if you go into it knowing how light the gameplay is, I think it's an extremely delightful experience.

(I haven't beaten it yet, but it has already pulled like 5 plot twists on me, so I'm expecting about... 15 more)

World's End Club is available on Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Steam.

4. Tribe Nine (The Anime)

What's that? Youre in the mood for both a game and an anime? Weirdly specific request. And Tribe Nine is more than prepared to grant it to you!

Tribe Nine (the anime) takes place in an alternate world where (recently christened) Neo Tokyo has been broken into turfs, controlled by groups of people called "Tribes". Each tribe decides which turf is whose by way of Extreme Baseball, or XB - a version of baseball where the field is entire towns, and beating the crap out of each other is both allowed and encouraged.

(Only if you're holding the ball though, they're not monsters)

Although I know this is a recommendation, I gotta be honest and admit that the animation's not the best most of the time, and some character designs leave a lot to be desired. That being said, it is undoubtedly a unique, entertaining experience. The characters are fun, the story gets really intense when it means to, and it never gets to the point of being too self-aware. Yes, I'm counting that as a positive. I want to see some stories that take themselves seriously once in a while, dang it. Yes, that guy hit a baseball so hard it broke the Tokyo Tower's tip off. Yes, it's extremely stupid. But consider: who gives a shit, it's rad.

(There's also 4 identical-looking guys all voiced by the same VA. Call that a cost-cutting measure if you will, I'll call it hilarious)

The whole anime's for free on Youtube, with English Subtitles. So you don't even need a Crunchyroll account, you can watch it right now if you want! The playlist's not in order and it's got some weird edits to add ads for the music, but eh. Other options are available if need be.

5. Tribe Nine (The Game)

"Okay, so remember that anime that we made a couple years ago that very few people watched and had practically 0 cultural impact? I've got an idea: let's dial the extreme factor to 1,000, redesign all the characters, make new ones, and release its sequel as one of the best god damned free games people can play".

If that's not how Tribe Nine (The Game) came to be, I've no clue what the circumstances might've been.

Tribe Nine (The Game) may be a sequel to the anime, but it takes place in a world that's very different from what we see in Episode 12. A new threat, Zero, has emerged and taken control of the country. His extreme technological prowess and orbital lasers are as ridiculous as they are deadly, and he's in the perfect position to force the group of rebels that's risen to defeat him into a series of extreme games of strategy and deception.

XB still has its place of course: in the form of action debates that shift the balance of power in each territory.

(Okay I know what you're thinking: "Action Debates? Isn't that the Danganronpa thing?" Well, no. You see, this one's baseball.)

Tribe Nine's biggest downside is that it's a gacha game. And if that's something that deters you from it, I completely understand. However, if you're still willing to give it a chance, I cannot recommend it enough. The game is filled to the brim with content, the action RPG gameplay is extremely fun to master, and as of now can be played start to finish while completely ignoring the gacha aspect, as it just offers additional content, not necessary content. It might as well be a full AAA game that you get for free, because that's exactly what it feels like.

("Look I know every other apple in this basket is poison, but trust me, this one's juicy af and it tast- why are you looking at me like that")

Tribe Nine is available on Android, iOS, and Steam.

6. The Hundred Line - Last Defense Academy

Okay, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it: This game is just straight up better Danganronpa

(Put the gun down put thE GUN DOWN I CAN EXPLAIN!!)

THL-LDA takes place in a world where humanity lives in underground domes, and regular attacks from unknown entities are a daily thing. One day our protagonist, Takumi Sumino, is kidnapped by a weird little... egg guy called Sirei, and made to stay 100 days inside a fortified academy. He and other people around his age are then forced to defend "something important" inside the school from invaders, by becoming pseudo-soldiers that use Hemoanima, special weapons that give them Kill la Kill-style uniforms that transform with their blood to enhance their powers and allow them to fight back.

(If this game isn't at least partly inspired by Kill la Kill, I'll assume that using your blood to get a super-powered school uniform is a daily occurrence in Japan)

The gameplay itself is divided in the expected vn sections (complete with minigames and side activities!), and the "defense" sections, where it plays like a really good Tactics game.

I'm usually not one to get too deep into Tactics games (I've tried FF Tactics, Disgaea, and Fire Emblem and sucked at all of them), but this one really pulled me in with how much freedom of choice you get, and how seamlessly it blends story and gameplay. For example, instead of getting a couple moves per unit, you get a certain number of Action Points per turn that you can distribute however you want. You can either move all units once or one unit 6 times. Certain actions will give you more Action Points, so good strategy and thinking ahead can lead to long combos that really punish the enemy.

(Pictured above: Gameplay instructions)

With 100 different endings and 500+ CGs (holy fuck), this is the most ambitious game Too Kyo games have released yet by far. And as soon as you start, you can really tell how much care went into it. In a way, it really feels like the culmination of everything these developers have worked on up to this point.

The demo is extremely generous too. I personally got 7+ hours of gameplay from it, so you've got a lot of time to see if you like the game or not without committing to spending money on it. By the time I was done with it, I was already so hooked with the story and fond of the characters there was no doubt in my mind I'll buy the full version as soon as the May paycheck hits.

(No points for guessing who my favorite character is)

The full game is currently available on Nintendo Switch and Steam.

Extra - Death Come True

Okay I'll be honest, the only reason this one's an extra and not a proper entry is because I haven't played it yet, so I can't say anything about it other than how interesting it is that it's the only FMV entry in Too Kyo's repertoire. However, it's made by the same people who've already made 11 things I've really liked, soooo... like at some point you gotta start giving artists the benefit of the doubt. I think it's fair to assume this one probably rules too. I'm also buying it with the May paycheck I haven't gotten yet and already spent half of.

(I'm also gonna play it on a discord call with my friends, so we can pick the story together. That's not relevant, but isn't the ability to do that an undervalued feature of FMV games?)

Death Come True is available on Steam, Android, iOS, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and probably a Smart Fridge if we try hard enough.

Conclusion:

Too Kyo Games is one of my favorite development teams. They have not disappointed me yet, and have given me unique experience after unique experience. Their style of storytelling is unlike anything else I've seen, and every time I check out something made by them, I end up being moved in new ways.

However, they're also currently facing financial difficulty due to none of their projects being breakout hits, or even hits as big as Danganronpa was. I think creativity and effort like this deserves attention, so if any of the entries above peak your interest, make sure to check them out! Especially if you ever fell in love with Danganronpa, as I think that's proof that this team is capable of making things that resonate with you. And after all, the people behind it have kept improving their craft more and more over time, so wouldn't it be fun to give them a chance to give you even more stories that give you new feelings and experiences~? 💖

[sanshofox]

At this point I am really wondering how the entertainment industry, especially gaming industry, is going to uphold/maintain themselves.

One layoff after another. How are people from that industry supposed to find a new job there when layoffs are happening everywhere? Do studios really think there’s longevity when they aren’t even willing to hire newcomers/juniors so there‘s adequate supply in the work force? Because look at how it’s currently going: investors want more and more money, the workload increases, but people are getting fired, leaving a smaller team to do said work, even distributing them for 2 or 3 projects at the same time, only to crash in a burnout or in later years go into retirement. Then who’s left? AI? Are you kidding me? As if games aren’t becoming more and more repetitive anyway, because of some „safe recipe for good numbers“ strategy. Creativity and the people behind it are suffering.

It’s been almost 2 years since I saw a junior 3D character artist offer. Ever since then it’s been a desert. And it’s not looking all too bright in other departments either. It’s now even a thing in job descriptions where they want you to have „AI abilities“. So as a junior or regular they want you to feed their machine, so in a few years they can fire you. The audacity.

Another audacity are those layoffs just to rehire people for a smaller price (can’t tell me otherwise. For me this is a tactic to put pressure on the work force to say yes to less money otherwise they will stay jobless). People that made projects what they are today, who are seniors and leads for a reason, out of a job just like that. Make it make sense (it doesn’t).

Studios like ubisoft now openly saying that they want to focus on AI, like assets completely made by AI to „save time and money“ and expand AI onto more fields. Shame on them.

The way creative industries like gaming finance themselves is also their biggest poison. And I only see a solution in that by regulating investors demands and upper positions sheaningans. They can’t have „absolute power“ anymore. It’s destructive and greedy and not realistic. Games can not be linearly successful. For the game design „recipe“ to improve it needs iteration just like when you work in a project for example and work on a design that needs to be iterated until it‘s improved or solid even. We see time and time again that „business/numbers people“ and creatives do not go hand in hand. We see an extreme imbalance.

I would predict that with less creative new input and letting mainly AI do the work consumers will be less and less entertained because everything seems to be and look the same. It will stagnate. And then crumble. And the industry needs to start like it did before. And that’s what I guess for the big companies.

With the layoffs happening and not enough job offers in return I could see that big talents get together to build their own studios now and we may get an era of new successful and growing studios happening that may even replace the current triple A studios one day in the future. They may even change the financing game. We saw successful games happening through platforms like kickstarter more often. So it might lead back to a „power to the people“ thing. Having an idea for a project and seeing if enough people agree and invest to see it happening. There’s room for improvement in that system. That’s all what it leads back to; in the end the consumers need to be satisfied to make it a creative and monetary success. BG3 and larian studios was a good example for that. It’s what made coral island grow and grow too. So there‘s potential.

Feel free to comment your theories. I really would like to see what others think about the current state of gaming studios and how it will or could develop.

[ganondoodle]

totk is like a highly polished alpha build of a game to me

graphic- fantastic, i just love botws style of graphics, its the perfect blend of something more realistic but very stylized and timeless

visual design- great, i cant stand anything sonau (zonai), and ganondorfs concept art is better than final (and still involves lots of annyoing stereotypes) but overall still pretty solid

sound design- phenomenal, it really is, the underground, the rain on the parasail? unmatched, already loved botw but they really outdid themselves here

music- possibly best in the series to me, like ... theres so many fantastic tracks, in isolation i love so many of them so much ... which sucks bc being connected to such a lackluster rest sours them badly

mechanics- working but undercooked/unfit for the world, its impressive they got ultrahand working at all, but its still clunky/quickly frustrating and badly balanced also contributes to utterly destroying botws world design- this ability was simply not made for this world and is in the end both detrimental to it and itself, bc that mechanic could have truly shined in a game REALLY build around it (... if they could manage to balance it well and stop handing you the solution, it would be funyn if it werent so sad how many times the game literally doesnt even make you engage with its main gimmick bc it just hands you the prebuild thing) time reversal breaks every puzzle/challenge, also unbalanced, ceiling jump is the most harmless but i still think it lets you skip too much

writing- worst in the series, where would i even start with that, not a single character is written well/interestingly, most detrimentally the main characters, .. like all of them, zelda, ganondorf, rauru... and the "story", its barely even bare bones, its plain cardboard with an old divine right propaganda slogan written on, continuity in a direct sequel is non existant, there is no follow up on anything, why did they call it that when they dont seem to have any love for anything botw did given how much they trample over everything it established, i struggle to believe they actually thought this was good, theres has to have been trouble during development

world design/changes- a joke, ... i dont know how people dont feel scammed by how little was actually changed, no, a few rocks sprinkled througout are not meaningful changes, i was one of the people not worried about them reusing the world bc i loved this world and was sure theyd meaningfully change it- god how wrong i was; the sky and underground are both like the bare bones with textures and placeholder rewards/points of interest, they both do not matter at all and their potential is yet again utterly, painfully, wasted and only add more points of destruction to the map in case of the sky, and both add confusion about everything, not the good kind of intriguing confusion, the bad nothing makes sense confusion it really does seem like they put some quick changes into every main point of interest where most players would go to make them think they changed things when .. they only changed these parts, barely, either bc they knew everyone would skip around the world anyway so it wouldnt be worth it, or bc its ... unfinished

game design/structure- baffling (bad), connected to the point above, but it truly is beyond me why they repeated the exact same structure as botw while removing what made that work, why would you repeat every point of interest of the previous game, i know zelda games always have their regions and thats where stuff happens, but they REUSED THE SAME WORLD, you CANNOT repeat the exact same points in the same world, you just cant, its the same places, the same characters, the same structure (aka dungeons being less interesting/easier titans (divine beasts) with a paint job in structure), you basically erase the well integrated ancient tech civilization to replace it with another, not well integrated, more boring and overly pushed into your face, ancient tech civilization and make them the answer to everything that ever was (BORING), the same story structure (but worse, like the memory system but remove what made it work in botw)- AND THEN repeat the same points in the underground too? thats bonkers, literally baby bananas

dungeons/puzzles - worse than botw by FAR, as mentioned above, dungeons are less interesting titans with a paintjob (plus an extraordinarily awful cutscene, which is repeated like FIVE TIMES almost word for word), they serve no purpose but to act like they are totally real traditional dungeons when they are not, they are laughing at you, shrines are back with a paintjob with less interesting puzzles (if they even have one given how many just give you a spirit orb knock off) that can all be skipped, though the puzzles can often not even be called that (put log over gap WOOOAH puzzle) among many awful and unecessary tutorial ones (its not bad to have easy ones, but aside from the few ones that take all your stuff away -omg restrictions in MY freedom tm game??- which are the best ones, to have none be even a little challenging or not utterly skippable without even using glitches, its like they didnt even try to stop you from cheating, which is like being given a skip button with no strigns attached, doesnt even let you feel smart bc you dont have to try to cheat)

UI/controls- awful, you cant tell me this was tested by real people playing for longer than 10 minutes at once, how did the ghosty sage control scheme and arrow/weapon fusing get through this, HOW, its unbelievably tedious and detrimental to any fun (as im doing with my rewrite, a crafting system would have been so good here ..... like a proper simple crafting system, have the materials, craft your new arrow types in stacks etc) the ghost sages are not only utterly useless in combat, but clog your screen, play distracting animations as soon as you look at a slope, you constantly accidentally activate them or the wrong one bc its mapped to the main interact button!!! if you use them say goodbye to your framerate, fights are now spent chasing after some ghost guy whos actively running away from you, they do not invoke a feeling of 'connection' to my 'friends', they are invoking feelings of hatred and frustration

performance- ... passable (if you dont have the sages out .... well, it runs better than pokemon scarlet so i guess its fine, the lag when closing and opening the menu is rly annoying, especially combined with the finger and patience breaking menues and how often you need to open a game pasuing menue, but fights with a monster horde AND the sages out? yeah no its as bad as pokemon scarlet at its worst, not to mention the chaos of having five useless ghost scramble around you getting knocked around by enemies)

price- a scam, this game is not worth 70 bucks, its just not, if you get a used copy and dont spend more time in it than it takes for you to just go straight to the main points, or if you dont care about anything else but dicking around with a clunky building system ... then you can have some fun with it yeah ..... still not worth 70 money, theres probably better building games out there for less too

it jsut feels not done, not finished, its presentation and some parts are highly polished and their marketing for it is unlike anything i have ever seen, but its so .... unfinished, no amount of epic visuals is gonna let me not think of this game being half done at best, after what, 6 years of development no less? with most assets already being there and being reused unaltered??

(i am holding tightly onto the theory of it either having an extremely troubled development that is being hidden bc of their reputation, or some sort of neglect in order to focus on other more lucrative projects, this is just all too weird to me)

[fireflysummers]

Heroes, Gods, and the Invisible Narrator

Slay the Princess as a Framework for the Cyclical Reproduction of Colonialist Narratives in Data Science & Technology

An Essay by FireflySummers

All images are captioned.

Content Warnings: Body Horror, Discussion of Racism and Colonialism

Spoilers for Slay the Princess (2023) by @abby-howard and Black Tabby Games.

If you enjoy this article, consider reading my guide to arguing against the use of AI image generators or the academic article it's based on.

Introduction: The Hero and the Princess

You're on a path in the woods, and at the end of that path is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin is a Princess. You're here to slay her. If you don't, it will be the end of the world.

Slay the Princess is a 2023 indie horror game by Abby Howard and published through Black Tabby Games, with voice talent by Jonathan Sims (yes, that one) and Nichole Goodnight.

The game starts with you dropped without context in the middle of the woods. But that’s alright. The Narrator is here to guide you. You are the hero, you have your weapon, and you have a monster to slay.

From there, it's the player's choice exactly how to proceed--whether that be listening to the voice of the narrator, or attempting to subvert him. You can kill her as instructed, or sit and chat, or even free her from her chains.

It doesn't matter.

Regardless of whether you are successful in your goal, you will inevitably (and often quite violently) die.

And then...

You are once again on a path in the woods.

The cycle repeats itself, the narrator seemingly none the wiser. But the woods are different, and so is the cabin. You're different, and worse... so is she.

Based on your actions in the previous loop, the princess has... changed. Distorted.

Had you attempted a daring rescue, she is now a damsel--sweet and submissive and already fallen in love with you.

Had you previously betrayed her, she has warped into something malicious and sinister, ready to repay your kindness in full.

But once again, it doesn't matter.

Because the no matter what you choose, no matter how the world around you contorts under the weight of repeated loops, it will always be you and the princess.

Why? Because that’s how the story goes.

So says the narrator.

So now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about data.

Chapter I: Echoes and Shattered Mirrors

The problem with "data" is that we don't really think too much about it anymore. Or, at least, we think about it in the same abstract way we think about "a billion people." It's gotten so big, so seemingly impersonal that it's easy to forget that contemporary concept of "data" in the west is a phenomenon only a couple centuries old [1].

This modern conception of the word describes the ways that we translate the world into words and numbers that can then be categorized and analyzed. As such, data has a lot of practical uses, whether that be putting a rover on mars or tracking the outbreak of a viral contagion. However, this functionality makes it all too easy to overlook the fact that data itself is not neutral. It is gathered by people, sorted into categories designed by people, and interpreted by people. At every step, there are people involved, such that contemporary technology is embedded with systemic injustices, and not always by accident.

The reproduction of systems of oppression are most obvious from the margins. In his 2019 article As If, Ramon Amaro describes the Aspire Mirror (2016): a speculative design project by by Joy Buolamwini that contended with the fact that the standard facial recognition algorithm library had been trained almost exclusively on white faces. The simplest solution was to artificially lighten darker skin-tones for the algorithm to recognize, which Amaro uses to illustrate the way that technology is developed with an assumption of whiteness [2].

This observation applies across other intersections as well, such as trans identity [3], which has been colloquially dubbed "The Misgendering Machine" [4] for its insistence on classifying people into a strict gender binary based only on physical appearance.

This has also popped up in my own research, brought to my attention by the artist @b4kuch1n who has spoken at length with me about the connection between their Vietnamese heritage and the clothing they design in their illustrative work [5]. They call out AI image generators for reinforcing colonialism by stripping art with significant personal and cultural meaning of their context and history, using them to produce a poor facsimile to sell to the highest bidder.

All this describes an iterative cycle which defines normalcy through a white, western lens, with a limited range of acceptable diversity. Within this cycle, AI feeds on data gathered under colonialist ideology, then producing an artifact that reinforces existing systemic bias. When this data is, in turn, once again fed to the machine, that bias becomes all the more severe, and the range of acceptability narrower [2, 6].

Luciana Parisi and Denise Ferreira da Silva touch on a similar point in their article Black Feminist Tools, Critique, and Techno-poethics but on a much broader scale. They call up the Greek myth of Prometheus, who was punished by the gods for his hubris for stealing fire to give to humanity. Parisi and Ferreira da Silva point to how this, and other parts of the “Western Cosmology” map to humanity’s relationship with technology [7].

However, while this story seems to celebrate the technological advancement of humanity, there are darker colonialist undertones. It frames the world in terms of the gods and man, the oppressor and the oppressed; but it provides no other way of being. So instead the story repeats itself, with so-called progress an inextricable part of these two classes of being. This doesn’t bode well for visions of the future, then–because surely, eventually, the oppressed will one day be the machines [7, 8].

It’s… depressing. But it’s only really true, if you assume that that’s the only way the story could go.

“Stories don't care who takes part in them. All that matters is that the story gets told, that the story repeats. Or, if you prefer to think of it like this: stories are a parasitical life form, warping lives in the service only of the story itself.” ― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

Chapter II: The Invisible Narrator

So why does the narrator get to call the shots on how a story might go? Who even are they? What do they want? How much power do they actually have?

With the exception of first person writing, a lot of the time the narrator is invisible. This is different from an unreliable narrator. With an unreliable narrator, at some point the audience becomes aware of their presence in order for the story to function as intended. An invisible narrator is never meant to be seen.

In Slay the Princess, the narrator would very much like to be invisible. Instead, he has been dragged out into the light, because you (and the inner voices you pick up along the way), are starting to argue with him. And he doesn’t like it.

Despite his claims that the princess will lie and cheat in order to escape, as the game progresses it’s clear that the narrator is every bit as manipulative–if not moreso, because he actually knows what’s going on. And, if the player tries to diverge from the path that he’s set before them, the correct path, then it rapidly becomes clear that he, at least to start, has the power to force that correct path.

While this is very much a narrative device, the act of calling attention to the narrator is important beyond that context. 

The Hero’s Journey is the true monomyth, something to which all stories can be reduced. It doesn’t matter that the author, Joseph Campbell, was a raging misogynist whose framework flattened cultures and stories to fit a western lens [9, 10]. It was used in Star Wars, so clearly it’s a universal framework.

The metaverse will soon replace the real world and crypto is the future of currency! Never mind that the organizations pushing it are suspiciously pyramid shaped. Get on board or be left behind.

Generative AI is pushed as the next big thing. The harms it inflicts on creatives and the harmful stereotypes it perpetuates are just bugs in the system. Never mind that the evangelists for this technology speak over the concerns of marginalized people [5]. That’s a skill issue, you gotta keep up.

Computers will eventually, likely soon, advance so far as to replace humans altogether. The robot uprising is on the horizon [8]. 

Who perpetuates these stories? What do they have to gain?

Why is the only story for the future replications of unjust systems of power? Why must the hero always slay the monster?

Because so says the narrator. And so long as they are invisible, it is simple to assume that this is simply the way things are.

Chapter III: The End...?

This is the part where Slay the Princess starts feeling like a stretch, but I’ve already killed the horse so I might as well beat it until the end too.

Because what is the end result here?

According to the game… collapse. A recursive story whose biases narrow the scope of each iteration ultimately collapses in on itself. The princess becomes so sharp that she is nothing but blades to eviscerate you. The princess becomes so perfect a damsel that she is a caricature of the trope. The story whittles itself away to nothing. And then the cycle begins anew.

There’s no climactic final battle with the narrator. He created this box, set things in motion, but he is beyond the player’s reach to confront directly. The only way out is to become aware of the box itself, and the agenda of the narrator. It requires acknowledgement of the artificiality of the roles thrust upon you and the Princess, the false dichotomy of hero or villain.

Slay the Princess doesn’t actually provide an answer to what lies outside of the box, merely acknowledges it as a limit that can be overcome. 

With regards to the less fanciful narratives that comprise our day-to-day lives, it’s difficult to see the boxes and dichotomies we’ve been forced into, let alone what might be beyond them. But if the limit placed is that there are no stories that can exist outside of capitalism, outside of colonialism, outside of rigid hierarchies and oppressive structures, then that limit can be broken [12].

Denouement: Doomed by the Narrative

Video games are an interesting artistic medium, due to their inherent interactivity. The commonly accepted mechanics of the medium, such as flavor text that provides in-game information and commentary, are an excellent example of an invisible narrator. Branching dialogue trees and multiple endings can help obscure this further, giving the player a sense of genuine agency… which provides an interesting opportunity to drag an invisible narrator into the light.

There are a number of games that have explored the power differential between the narrator and the player (The Stanley Parable, Little Misfortune, Undertale, Buddy.io, OneShot, etc…)

However, Slay the Princess works well here because it not only emphasizes the artificial limitations that the narrator sets on a story, but the way that these stories recursively loop in on themselves, reinforcing the fears and biases of previous iterations. 

Critical data theory probably had nothing to do with the game’s development (Abby Howard if you're reading this, lmk). However, it works as a surprisingly cohesive framework for illustrating the ways that we can become ensnared by a narrative, and the importance of knowing who, exactly, is narrating the story. Although it is difficult or impossible to conceptualize what might exist beyond the artificial limits placed by even a well-intentioned narrator, calling attention to them and the box they’ve constructed is the first step in breaking out of this cycle.

“You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage.” ― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

Epilogue

If you've read this far, thank you for your time! This was an adaptation of my final presentation for a Critical Data Studies course. Truthfully, this course posed quite a challenge--I found the readings of philosophers such as Kant, Adorno, Foucault, etc... difficult to parse. More contemporary scholars were significantly more accessible. My only hope is that I haven't gravely misinterpreted the scholars and researchers whose work inspired this piece.

I honestly feel like this might have worked best as a video essay, but I don't know how to do those, and don't have the time to learn or the money to outsource.

Slay the Princess is available for purchase now on Steam.

Screencaps from ManBadassHero Let's Plays: [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6]

Post Dividers by @cafekitsune

Citations:

Rosenberg, D. (2018). Data as word. Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 48(5), 557-567.

Amaro, Ramon. (2019). As If. e-flux Architecture. Becoming Digital. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/becoming-digital/248073/as-if/

What Ethical AI Really Means by PhilosophyTube

Keyes, O. (2018). The misgendering machines: Trans/HCI implications of automatic gender recognition. Proceedings of the ACM on human-computer interaction, 2(CSCW), 1-22.

Allred, A.M., Aragon, C. (2023). Art in the Machine: Value Misalignment and AI “Art”. In: Luo, Y. (eds) Cooperative Design, Visualization, and Engineering. CDVE 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14166. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43815-8_4

Amaro, R. (2019). Artificial Intelligence: warped, colorful forms and their unclear geometries.

Parisisi, L., Ferreira da Silva, D. Black Feminist Tools, Critique, and Techno-poethics. e-flux. Issue #123. https://www.e-flux.com/journal/123/436929/black-feminist-tools-critique-and-techno-poethics/

AI - Our Shiny New Robot King | Sophie from Mars by Sophie From Mars

Joseph Campbell and the Myth of the Monomyth | Part 1 by Maggie Mae Fish

Joseph Campbell and the N@zis | Part 2 by Maggie Mae Fish

How Barbie Cis-ified the Matrix by Jessie Gender

[forevergoldgame]

Episode 1 Progress Update, Part 2

We're in the process of putting all the story scenes we've written in-engine! As we go, Dan's hacking through the remaining art assets, and I'm tying up some loose ends related to systems and variable storage.

Keep reading for more details!

Writing, writing, writing

At this point, the draft mentioned in the previous update has been more or less fully realized. There's still plenty of editing to do, of course, but the episode's narrative is complete aside from a collection of short variable scenes.

We won't reveal too many specifics just yet, but the scope of Episode 1 will take you from Quincy's last day as mine inspector through to the christening of the Prince's Convoy. Along the way, you'll meet most everyone from the demo (save for Oscar and Imani) as well as a few characters you haven't, make foundational choices about the kind of man Quincy is, and actually get a proper introduction to the setting and conflict.

Changes to: art, character designs

You may have noticed some of the portraits in these screencaps are different from the demo. Once Episode 1 is out, it will be much harder to make design changes, and so we've decided to take the opportunity to revise a few character designs we weren't happy with. Nothing too crazy, but you might see a change of hair style or color here and there.

Art updates might happen here and there throughout development as Dan's work evolves, but the character designs themselves are less likely to such alterations after release. (Not counting diegetic changes in appearance, of course.)

[PICTURED: Dan's faltering suspension of disbelief over Lucas's ability to continuously dye his roots while traveling. ]

Changes to: systems, traits, and more

As we wrote Episode 1, I spent a lot of time rethinking the back end. Writing an entire episode gave me perspective on how the systems I wrote for the demo did and didn't work. I could talk at length about this, but most of said systems (like experience/leveling and reputation) were not represented in the demo due to its small scope. Seeing as no one would really understand or appreciate the details, I'll try to keep it brief instead.

LEVELING: Originally, leveling was going to be based on earning experience points. EXP would be awarded for completing quests and attempting skill checks, but we found that pacing an EXP curve in a game like this was a lot of work for a system which is ultimately at odds with a story based more on "narrative" than "winning." In the end, we did away with the concept of EXP in favor of a leveling system that is tied to main story progression.

REPUTATION: You may recall from the demo that Quincy's statistics listed a few different reputation continuum: rebel or orthodox, apathetic or ambitious, and so on. These were going to be tallies that kept track of the player's cumulative actions so that the system could easily calculate how certain characters felt about Quincy in a somewhat organic way. However, once we got writing, we realized the system was needlessly complicated, full of logistical holes, and redundant with other decision tracking handled by other parts of the system. And so, I replaced it with...

IDEALS: Ideals are somewhat like traits in that they alter text pertaining to Quincy's inner monologue and offer the player special dialog options. However, unlike traits, Quincy's ideals are somewhat malleable. If a Quincy with the "earnest" ideal continuously lies at every opportunity... well, eventually someone will notice.

AFFINITY/FRIENDSHIP: Much like reputation, the affinity system from the demo was both overly complicated and too simple to do what it needed. We knew we wanted something more organic than the standard "you completed my sidequest so now I'm in love with you because you're the main character" RPG approach since Forever Gold is more story-based, but the solution I came up with... was stupid.

I won't say how the new affinity system works - it'd spoil some of the magic if I told you exactly what actions the game was tracking and why - but it's simple on the back end while having enough complexity to create interesting roleplaying.

TRAITS: Traits have largely remained the same but have gained more importance as other systems shifted. In addition to the eight available to choose in the demo, there are three more to see in Episode 1. A few of them have been tweaked or renamed for clarity: the two traits that shared the name "Haretouched" are now called "Pariah" and "Maverick" to prevent confusion, and "Cleithrophobic" has been expanded into "Wilding" so that it better acts as a parallel quirk to Plutonist.

BETTER TOUCH CONTROLS FOR MOBILE + SMOOTHER NAVIGATION FOR DESKTOP: As it says on the tin. A lot of navigation that felt like it should have been swipeable on mobile or scrollable on desktop wasn't. But it is now!

In closing...

We're getting there. Man are we getting there. We've been pulling crazy hours on this lately.

-LS

[mtb-tv]

Sleepers Were Never Meant For Labor

Sleepers can't be THAT efficient. Not more efficient than regular robots on factory lines or more advanced futuristic drones. They're practically a money pit, if you ask me. 1 out of 10 Sleepers escape...lets say every year. Given the intuited size of Essen-Arp and all its locations (factories, mining colonies, refineries) where Sleepers are working...let's be charitable and say that two-hundred Sleepers escape every year. These Sleepers would also take Stabilizer with them, or find a way to source it on the outside, so that's stock of Stabilizer going missing and out of Essen-Arp's hands. Not only that, but then they have to spend more resources sending Hunters down after them. Essen-Arp created a whole new class of Sleepers just to perform as Hunters and nothing else.

Now consider this - during Sabine's questline in Citizen Sleeper 1, what do we learn what Essen-Arp is most known for? Bionics. Bio-synthetic medicines, and other such augments. That's what they copyright, that's what they produce and develop, that's their main export, THEIR market share. Why would they get into the business of Slavery all the sudden with a fledgling android program in the form of Sleepers?

I think Essen-Arp has a larger end goal here, they're working toward a...Final Solution, if you'll pardon the comparison.

Are you perhaps familiar with Warhammer 40k's Adeptus Mechanicus? The "Machine Cult" as they're often referred to. You don't need to know the specifics, but they're fanatical transhumanists who aspire to the "purity of the blessed Machine" they worship a Machine God, and its prophet called the "Omnissiah". They forsake their flesh with reckless abandon, replacing parts with superior augmetics.

Now consider: Sleeper frames are objectively superior to human bodies. Even with their "planned obsolescence" and constant degradation. That's just a prototype, it'll be patched out in later models. Sleeper frames can go days without eating a damn thing. They don't need to breathe. They're immune to disease. They need no water. They produce no waste. They can work in extreme and hostile environments that humans would need extensive protection to even go into. They can interface with machines in precise and unique ways. Multiple characters remark throughout both games that Sleepers can work longer and harder than humans with a more consistent output, and these are just Sleepers who have been on the run. Who have been running on fumes and spite for their creators; Imagine what a Sleeper in its prime could accomplish...

Sleeper technology is in its infancy. Unable to be fully exploited for its full worth. All the Sleepers that exist in the setting today are prototypes, test subjects, control units. There are legions of Essen-Arp scientists and engineers observing them, testing them constantly logging data, tweaking formulas, adjusting designs for the eventual Perfect Sleeper so that only the most wealthy and powerful could upload their minds into, and become Gods in the Machine

Anyway, theory over

[unsoldd]

TADC Prompt

AU: Escaped, as well as Human Caine + Bubble

Relationships: Bunnydoll, Showtime, Gangle x Zooble, and Kinger x Queenie

<•>

In this alternate universe Caine was actually the first human trapped in the digital circus game by his own brother, Able, because he wanted their company all to himself. But Caine figured out that if you twist the ear piece of the headset then you could leave the game. But to make sure Caine would not try to escape they trapped his six year old daughter Bethany (Bubble) in the game as well. They manipulated Caine and Bethany’s minds to make them believe they were AI, and so when new victims were trapped and were confused why Caine was an AI but could not do anything they gave him admin commands. They also made sure Bethany (Bubble) had no arms so IF Caine did end up remembering he would not leave because he would be leaving his daughter behind.

Caine and Bubble do end up remembering that they are real people and not AI thanks to all the members of the circus glitching into what we see Pomni enter in episode two with Gummigoo. They then leave thanks to Caine and enter the human world…

That’s when we learn that when one day passes in the digital world it is only an hour in the real world, so they haven’t missed much… if you don’t count Caine, Bethany and Kinger, as well as the rest which have been abstracted (and we also learn that when a human is abstracted they actually leave the digital world). That’s when we get everyone’s real names:

• Caine the Ringleader is actually Caine Eden, co-founder and head game designer for C&A, as well as a single father to his now (whatever age) year old daughter Bethany.

• Bubble the Assistant(?) is actually Bethany Eden, only daughter to Caine Eden.

• Kinger the Chess Piece is actually Kenneth King, AI specialist for C&A (thanks to the 7 years of computing science in episode 3), husband to Quinn King and father to Paige King.

• Queenie the Other Chess Piece is actually Quinn King, curator of insects (because she likes bugs), wife to Kenneth King and mother to Paige King.

• Pomni the Jester is actually Paige King, algorithm developer for C&A, daughter to Kenneth and Quinn King.

• Ragatha the Rag Doll is actually Ruth Ann, solutions architect for C&A, younger sister to Arthur Ann and Randy Ann.

• Jax the Rabbit is actually Jackson Burrow, app developer for C&A, older brother to Jane Burrow.

• Gangle the Mask is actually Gabriella Satin, team behind the design in making for games characters at C&A, twin sister to Gabriel Satin and girlfriend to Zara Parts

• Zooble the Rubix Cube is actually Zara Parts, games developer for C&A, partner to Gabriella Satin.

• Kaufmo the Clown is actually Kyle Smiles, machine learning engineer for C&A.

<•>

Appearances can be all up to you and you do not need to keep the names or jobs I have listed on top.

Of course like my other prompts this is free to use and credit is not need. I was just bored and thought this was a good idea. And I’ll gladly take in suggestions that you think will be a good story and expand upon it.

[study-with-aura]

Old photo Fall 2024 Goals Breakdown

Academics:

Score 90% or higher in all coursework - All As!

Read for 30 minutes each day outside of “class time” (American Literature) - finished 14 non-school related books (Stateless, We Are All So Good at Smiling, The Do-Over, Dark Room Etiquette, The Davenports, Midnight at the Houdini, Only This Beautiful Moment, Stars and Smoke, Ab(solutely) Normal: Short Stories That Smash Mental Health Stereotypes, Five Survive, She's Gone, Remind Me to Hate You Later, The Love Match, A Heavy Dose of Allison Tandy)

Study vocabulary daily (Spanish 3)

Be on track to complete the first half of Khan Academy US History by end of year (Honors US History I) - at 40%

Be on track to complete Khan Academy Algebra 2 course by end of year (Algebra 2) - at 47%

Complete one Spanish, French, and Chinese lesson on Duolingo each day

Practice piano for 2-3 hours a day, 7 days a week

Complete and pass RCM History 9 exam in December (Music Appreciation)- I'll know results soon, but I am confident enough to say that I did at least pass because I felt really good after finishing it

Character/Spiritual:

Earn Senior My Promise, My Faith Y2 Pin

Complete one Senior Journey and earn the Award Pin - Senior Outdoor Journey

Earn at least nine Senior badges - Earned 11 (Outdoor Art Expert, Coding Basics, Democracy for Seniors, Digital Game Design, App Development, Behind the Ballot, Adventure Camper, Outdoor Journey Take Action, Cybersecurity Basics, Cybersecurity Safeguards, Cybersecurity Investigator)

Earn Senior Gold/Silver Torch award (Teen Leadership Program + Senior Outdoor Journey)

Earn VIT pin - mentored our Juniors through their Agent of Change National Leadership Journey by planning activities and facilitating them + planned activities for several of their badges

Volunteer a minimum of 30 hours in the community - volunteered 168.75 hours (this includes the library, the mission + holiday hours, and the leadership program, but does not include mentoring hours and planning)

Meditate for 10 minutes each day

Complete daily Bible study each day

Other:

Post studyblr updates at least 2 times per week - I fell off near the middle of the semester

Limit video gaming to 6 hours Friday-Sunday, 3 hours max per day - I stopped playing at all at the same time I fell off from posting (but I am playing again now over break)

[easternmind]

J A P A N o F I L E S # 10 – Like The Baseless Fabric

[ The preponderance of Playstation titles featured in this series should not raise a single eyebrow. It is becoming increasingly evident that, parallel to this emancipatory system’s decade-long victorious streak, ran an involuntary cultural movement of unfettered creativity and ingenuity, guided in its first steps by the baton of Sony’s music division. The number of digital artifacts within this library that are deserving of extended explorations is as vast as it is varied in nature. The following is a pristine specimen firmly within the grand lineage of graphical adventures, whose astute assimilation of Western influences is not only structural, but also thematic and aesthetic. The first draft of this article dates from mid 2007, from a time long before the Eastern Mind Tumblr existed. Since then, a considerable amount of research and commentary has been made available online. And yet, much remains unsaid. ]

~ Paper Trails ~

The invention of the printing press in the 15th century tends to overshadow the technological revolution introduced by the production of paper. It may be altogether impossible for the contemporary reader to fathom the scale and scope of this innovation in its fullest expression. Although the papyrus was commonly used in ancient Egypt, the most direct ancestor to modern paper originated in China, with recorded uses in the 2nd century, spreading across the far east and central Asia in the ensuing centuries. By the 8th century, it was carried to Persia by Chinese prisoners in captivity. For hundreds of years, the Islamic world safely guarded to itself the secrets of paper making, having incorporated considerable improvements to the production process. The first use of paper in Europe is attributed to the Moors, and is estimated to have occurred in Spain sometime in the 11th century.

One notable advancement took place in the province of Ancona in Italy in the 13th century, where one of the early production centres of paper in Europe developed as a result of exchanges between local artisans and incarcerated Arabs. It was there, in the town of Fabriano, that the concept of the watermark - as it remains known to this day - first originated. As is true of any other craft in medieval times, paper mills, too, were organised as guilds, each bearing their own unique brand and emblem. The increased importance of ascertaining provenance precipitated the need of a solution that could permit each sheet’s manufacturer to be readily identified, in due course setting the standard for papermaking across Europe for many centuries. Watermarks are obtained by carefully manipulating how the paper fibres mesh during the production stage, a technique that remains preserved to this very day as a resource to deter counterfeiting of high-end stationary, stamps and bank notes. In a sense, the watermark represents authenticity, deeply imprinted into the object of one’s creation, such that it’s at once concealed from plain view and indelibly present. This clever concept acts as thematic binding in The Book Of Watermarks, one of the most peculiar creations of this matchless era of Japanese game design and the only independent videogame creation from graphic artist Takashi Kobayashi. An ode to classical culture and artistic creation, it invites the player to explore the vistas of an imaginary island on an expedition to recover a series of lost books that have vanished, all save one: the homonymous master catalogue from whence all human knowledge streams.

[ Visually reminiscent of Mont Saint-Michel, Iris and Ceres’s terrain was modelled after Ebisujima and Mikomotojima, two small islands in Shimoda, Izu. ]

~ This Rough Magic ~

As sweeping as Shakespeare’s influence on all genres of fiction has been, even to the English language itself, the medium of videogames appears to have remained suspiciously impervious to it - in any meaningful capacity, at least. From what direct adaptations of his work have been attempted, the lion’s share of which minor affairs, only the 1984 IF adaptation of Macbeth by the long defunct Oxford Digital is deserving of fond remembrance. Game critics and analysts were late to identify a formidable, if cunningly muted undercurrent of Shakespearean tragedy in Japanese role playing games, dating back to the mid 1980s. It took the blatant theatrical elements of Final Fantasy IX for specialty magazines to so much as utter the dramaturge’s name in relation to the long-standing series. By the time the twelfth episode of this series willed out, no doubt owed to the divisive choice of an all-English voice cast, the acknowledgement was near commonplace. It would be fair to assert that the bard’s wit and wisdom has found its finest representations in digital interactions when more loosely fitted onto an original game design, as opposed to the myriad of spiritless and lacklustre transliterations. At that, The Book of Watermarks has more than merited its mention as a self-styled adaptation of his 1611 mystical comedy, The Tempest, from whose dramatis personae and plot it borrows but a sprinkling of fragments. Whereas the original tale is firmly footed on inter-character conflict, political power plays and a fervour for revenge, the entirety of those elements were cast aside in the game into a state of deliberate neutral abstraction. Prospero, whom the great playwright likely modelled after the bibliophile John Dee, is depicted herein as a benevolent sorcerer in need of aid; while the element of agency, Ferdinand, washes up on the shore of his enchanted island not as a result of a resentful spell, yet by mere happenstance.

[ The name Ariel, after the spirit that serves Prospero, is employed in the game in relation to two symmetrical male figures wearing a vine leaf crown, who more closely resemble the figure of Dionysus, or Bacchus as he was known to the Romans. ] Earlier versions of the game developer’s website made reference to the usurping Duke of Milan, Antonio, and his banishing of the wizard brother to a remote island. They also cite the old Neapolitan advisor, Gonzalo, who smuggled thirteen books from a library onto Prospero’s boat upon learning of his expatriation. Such personages and events were, at the last, excluded from the game proper. Ariel, the air spirit, whose role was traditionally played on stage by an actress, was converted to two statuesque masculine figures guarding the quarters. The names Iris and Ceres, the two intervening gods of the Roman pantheon, were repurposed to identify the two islands shaped by the rightful duke’s thaumaturgy. Though the game opens and closes with two quintessential citations from the play, that which occurs in between is informed by countless other sources of inspiration whose identification begs closer scrutiny.

In many respects, the game’s visual presentation does little to conceal the occasional parallel to Peter Greenaway’s 1991 acclaimed Prospero’s Books. Itself a loose, eccentric and schismatic adaptation of selected aspects of the bard’s valedictory opus, the film stands as an apocryphal, homage fiction rendition of the magic tomes from which Prospero gathered the knowledge to protect his daughter - themselves a secondary element in the play. The picture’s processional enumeration of its twenty four books - one for each frame of the cinematic second - is distinctly mirrored in the game’s own structure and exposition. Prospero’s garments as is the use of brief imagetic interludes to showcase each book vividly bringing to mind the intricate visual compositions for whose composition and editing Greenaway enlisted the expertise of NHK studios in Japan. Combining their revolutionary Hi-Vision HDTV technology with the unique capabilities of Britain’s own Quantel Paintbox software, film, video and computerized graphics were layered atop one another to striking effect. This collaboration opens up interesting possibilities as to how the motion picture may have earned some degree of following in Japan that year, establishing it as a topic in dedicated media, securing a theatrical release and, in time, spawning this interactive disquisition.

In Shakespeare’s play, the books represent the wellspring from whence Prospero’s magical powers derive and grant him agency - for without them he's but a sot. In Greenaway’s film, they are a living mechanism of Prospero’s fantasy as it unfolds, an element of seclusion and control over the remaining dwellers of the island. In Book of Watermarks, however, the books serve a twofold purpose: they are the object of an elaborate fetch quest and the most visible emblem of the humanistic component at the centre of its themes; countermanding the construct of mageia with techne, the ripe fruit of Human imagination. In other words, a knowledge so advanced, so out of step with its time that it bound to be misinterpreted as sorcery.

One striking aspect about the game is its absolute detachment from the ubiquitous religious components inherent to the cultural heritage it wishes to commemorate. Taking into account that the action takes place in a fictional southern archipelago in the year 1611, this very observation raises a critical question. One of the principal locations of the game, the Quattuor Angelus Aedes, flaunts a virtual replica of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris that preserves the Gothic splendour in its entirety, save for the fact that it was sanitised of any Christian iconography. It would be safe to assume that this is owed to the same commercial concerns that, for the near entirely, have kept religious cogitations far afield from video game development. Here, exceptionally, it lends a beneficial clue as to how the game may wish to be interpreted.

[ Prospero’s library designs went through a few iterations, all of which distinctly borrow a number of elements of Antonello Da Messina’s seminal painting San Girolamo nello studio. Notice the raised room and the two-light window at the center and colonnade. ]

~ A Polymath’s Reverie ~

It is by no means accidental that The Book of Watermarks is set during the late Renaissance. Even the most superficial study of Prospero’s digital books will leave little room for doubt as to their evident alignment with Enlightenment values, memorialising as they do the great triumphs of Man alongside a set of mystical references that evoke the principles of early Italian Humanists such as Ficino or Pico della Mirandola. Some constitute a direct correspondence to actual historical writings of great historical import. The remainder navigate a liminal space between history and fantasy in service of the thesis that human progress is owed to ancient knowledge, often transmitted through the written word, many of its records erased by time and preserved only in oral tradition. This knowledge, this magic, is at the nucleus of the civilizational apogee that was the Renaissance. All books, without exception, are presented with a certain reverence and visual flair, the discovery of each lost manuscript imparting a greater sense meaning to the resolution of its spatial, alphanumeric or geometric enigmas; a recompense that transcends the congratulatory and manipulative positive reinforcement games so frequently cajole their unwary players with. On occasion, the puzzles themselves are themed after the contents of the reacquired book. The linear and immutable order in which they are found is denotive of their premeditated Pythagorean numerical attributes. A closer scrutiny of each tome yields bounteous returns.

I - Book of Navigators An imaginary book on shipbuilding, oceanography, geography and astronomy, herein said to have belonged to Prince Henry the Navigator, a towering figure in the context of maritime expansion of the Atlantic islands and Western Africa under whose leadership the mighty Portuguese caravel was introduced. It nonetheless renders a striking allusion to the scattered knowledge of the seas and of shipwrighting that was directly or indirectly inherited by Portuguese sailors from seagoing Phoenicians, Romans and Arabs. The number one stands for individuality.

II - Book of Architects A purely fictional book from ancient history that is described to have inspired the twelfth century French abbot Suger to introduce the Gothic style. Though it is correct that his contribution is widely acknowledged among early adopters of this architectural current, there are no known books on the construction of the mythical Tower of Babel - contrary to popular belief, no such passage as much exists within the Old Testament. Though the concept of verticality is instrumental to both these references, the Babylonian edifice’s height symbolized the human ambition of supplanting the divine, while Gothic architecture’s efforts to reach new heights were rooted in a desire to ascend nearer to the heavens. Number two stands for symmetry. III - Book of Elements of Geometry The description provided, albeit specious, is rooted in some knowledge of history. The abbot Saint Bernard de Clairvaux was neither a mathematician nor an architect, nor was he known to have possessed any books on such matters, but his pure interpretation of the Rule of Saint Benedict gave rise to Cistercian Order, whose ascetic theology embraced the ideal of a simple monastic life nurtured by work and prayer. These were the guiding principles behind the austere and unadorned aesthetics of Cistercian architecture that came to characterize the proto-Gothic. The concept for the book in question may be inexplicitly sourced from Euclid’s Elements, namely its thirteenth century translation whose influence over key figures of Renaissance art, from Da Vinci and Dürer to Brunelleschi and Alberti, is well established. The number three is associated with the principle of harmonious creation.

IV - Book of Labyrinth The notion of a book that antecedes Daedalus is as provocative as it is unfounded. Himself a reference belonging to Ancient Greek folklore, no work of this skilled builder and father of Icarus echoes more in eternity than the Labyrinth of Crete, built to trap the fabled minotaur. The afterword of his getting lost in his own maze is accurate to Ovid’s account in the narrative poem Metamorphoses. The numerical implication relates to the four directions, which is further expounded by the maze-like segment of the game.

V - Book of Fabrica De Humanis Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem is an innovational sixteenth century treatise authored by the Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius composed of seven volumes, featuring detailed illustrations attributed to the artists at Titian’s workshop. For shedding new light on human anatomy at the cost of dissecting cadavers, thus overturning many of Greek anatomist Galen’s widely accepted conclusions, Vesalius faced persecution from the Church and was trialled by the Inquisition. Though he was spared from death at the burning stake, the return trip from his compelled penance and pilgrimage to Jerusalem caused him to become ill and perish prematurely in the Greek island of Zante. Five is the sum of the first even number with the first odd number and concerns the number of extremities of the body and the senses.

VI - Book of Roses Prospero describes it as a book containing the origins of poetic love and the sonnet form, later adding this was the definitive guide to romantic manners once owned by Petrarch and, two centuries later, Shakespeare. An altogether imaginary codex likely gleaned from an assortment of Ovid’s works Amores, Ars Amatoria and its continuation, Remedia Amoris, the ancient Roman poet having been a notable influence in the works of both. Inversely, there is less legitimacy to the suggestion that his elegiac meter was the root of the Italian sonnet found more famously in Petrarch’s Il Canzoniere. The reference to roses is itself an intrepid intimation to the medieval French poetic allegory Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. The number six is illustrated as a hexagonal star, made of two triangles, the perfect union between man and woman.

[ The Villa Forma’s walls are sumptuously decorated with an assortment of Italian paintings, including Tiziano’s Amor Sacro e Amor Profano (above), Giovanni Lanfranco’s Il Consiglio degli Dèi, as well as Guido Reni’s Aurora, the last two from the Baroque period. ]

VII - Book of Necronomicon At first glance, the reference to a meta-fictional book within the corpus of H. P. Lovecraft's literature may sound entirely out of place. However, as it shall be discussed later in this text, this is an amusing, self-referential play on words meant to evoke the developer’s previous works. The claim is that the book contained knowledge of death and the journey of the afterlife places it in neat thematic alignment with the ancient Egyptian funerary texts commonly named Book of the Dead, the Tibetan Bardo Thodol or the incunable Ars Moriendi. The mention of the book once belonging to the library of the order of Saint Francis of Assisi, seeped though it may be in artistic liberty, gravitates around a kernel of truth. After all, the Catholic friar and mystic did travel to the East on a mission to convert the sultan of Egypt. Later representations of the saint often include a skull as memento mori and testament to his moribund ponderings on Sister Death. In great measure, his followers preserved the symbology of death in their doctrine, best exemplified by the eighteenth century edification of the Chapel of Bones in the south of Portugal. Seven stands for spirituality, the convergence of physical four and the spiritual three.

VIII - Book of Astronomicon Inspired by Manilius’ first century poem the Astronomica, often named the Astronomicon. Divided into five books, it pertains to a moment in history when astronomy and astrology stood as inseparable subject matters, rendering a parallel between the twelve signs of the zodiac and the human body. Some historical inaccuracies in the archduke’s chronicle are rather conspicuous. The books were originally written in Latin, negating the stated claim of a later translation - probably an acknowledgement of their fifteenth century compilation by Lorenzo Bonincontri. The poem was not known to have been a direct influence on Giordano Bruno’s cosmology or his adoption of the universe’s infinity as a model, a concept entirely absent from Manilius’ attempt at immortality; nor was it ever proscribed by the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, ostensibly due to how unobserved it was both at the time of its creation and during the Rinascità. In addition, Bruno was burned at the stake in Rome, not in Venice, his ashes cast to the Tiber. For the Pythagoreans, the number eight aptly denotes infinity.

IX - Book of Aesthetics Said to have been owned by the Medici and single-handedly instigating the styles of Da Vinci and Michelangelo, it finds a close resemblance in Vitruvius masterwork De Architectura dated from ca. 20 BC; no doubt a pillar of the artistic production of the renaissance whose relevance greatly transcends its inestimable worth as a compilation of centuries of Greco-Roman architecture, having become a reference on proportion and harmony that guided the principles of painting and sculpture for centuries. The book was surreptitiously preserved among ancient monk’s manuscripts until the early humanist Bracciolini recovered it in the fifteenth century. The pervasive image of Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, presumably steered by Andrea’s early rendition, is regarded as the first accurate pictorial rendition of Vitruvius’ writings. It would be important to mention, in brief, that the modern usage of the term aesthetics in this context - as coined by Baumgartner in the mid-eighteenth century - is forgivably anachronistic. The number nine stands for wisdom, altruism and intuition.

[ There is a singular ambiance in The Book of Watermarks that speaks of the creator’s obsession with light, shadow and texture. Notice the sun-drenched surfaces that punctuate the composition’s impeccable diffuse lightning display. ]

X - Book of Polychronion The medieval prototype of the contemporary best-seller, the Polychronion is the necessary abbreviation for the seven volume history Ranulphi Castrensis, cognomine Higden, Polychronicon (sive Historia Polycratica) ab initio mundi usque ad mortem regis Edwardi III in septem libros dispositum. Authored by the Cesterian Benedictine monk Ranulf Higden, this all-encompassing history records a voluminous assortment of events from Genesis to the reign of Edward III, and is believed to have been concluded circa 1327. A well-placed annotation by Prospero speaks of the 1482 edition by English printer extraordinaire William Caxton, based on an update to the Polychronion by John of Trevisa in the 1380s, to which Caxton contributed nearly another century of recorded history, naming his coda Liber Ultimus. It represents the ceaseless process of writing history. The number ten possesses pythagorean numerology ties with the act of creation and the interrelation between all things.

XI - Book of Le Viander As books offer nourishment for the mind, so does food for the body. Le Viandier, often translated to the food provider, is a collection of more than a hundred recipes created by Guillaume Tirel ca. 1300. The title may also be understood to mean a collection of recipes. His large, aquiline nose earned him the sobriquet Taillevent, the wind cutter. Tirel went from being a simple cook for Jeanne d'Évreux to becoming the Premier Ecuyer of all royal kitchens in France. His was an invaluable contribution not only to French cuisine and the appreciation of Bordeaux red wines as part of experiencing a meal, but the concept of fine dining itself, including its decorative, at times theatrical facet. The number eleven has long been understood to mean a sin due to naturally exceeding ten (commandments). Quite the guileful hint to gluttony.

[ An illustration from Cesare Cesariano from the 1521 edition of Vitruvius’ De Architectura, included in animated form in the ninth book of aesthetics. ]

XII - Book of Silence An explicit invocation of the seventeenth century hermetic illustration catalogue Mutus Liber by unknown author Altus. Or is it? Upon discovering the book, Prospero refers to this wordless volume as being sequestered away in the library of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II as its previous owners. This presents a problem due to the fact that the Mutus Liber was published in La Rochelle in 1677, some fifty years after his death. The Dengeki guidebook adds another layer of mystery by way of a mention to the seer of seers, John Dee. The resolution to this quandary may come in the form of what is perhaps the most inscrutable book of all, The Voynich Manuscript, which Wilfred Voynich said to have one been bestowed to Rudolph II by the English sage. This ventures into the realms of historical conjecture, as there is no established relation between the two. The number twelve is the base of the Babylonian duodecimal system, a symbol of perfection resulting from the multiplication of alchemy’s four elements by the three fundamental principles.

XII - Book of Silence An explicit invocation of the seventeenth century hermetic illustration catalogue Mutus Liber by unknown author Altus. Or is it? Upon discovering the book, Prospero refers to this wordless volume as being sequestered away in the library of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II as its previous owners. This presents a problem due to the fact that the Mutus Liber was published in La Rochelle in 1677, some fifty years after his death. The Dengeki guidebook adds another layer of mystery by way of a mention to the seer of seers, John Dee. The resolution to this quandary may come in the form of what is perhaps the most inscrutable book of all, The Voynich Manuscript, which Wilfred Voynich said to have one been bestowed to Rudolph II by the English sage. This ventures into the realms of historical conjecture, as there is no established relation between the two. The number twelve is the base of the Babylonian duodecimal system, a symbol of perfection resulting from the multiplication of alchemy’s four elements by the three fundamental principles.

~ The Book of Watermarks ~

Paper and ideogram weaved into one tome at the heart of the narrative, it is said to be a compilation of all books ever published. Also called The Catalogue of Babel, its contents are written in various languages from Sumerian to Akkadian, Arabic, Greek and Latin, evoking the linguistic incompatibilities of the old fable. A conceptual inversion of the book as the athenaeum itself that turns all preconceived notions about the game on their head. A relic from time immemorial unfolding, announcing its presence through symbols as words, words as symbols; simultaneous the book number zero of the quest and the thirteenth, as Zeus was the thirteenth deity of Olympus, a symbol of arrogance, totality and of the sublime. For all its extolment of classic antiquity and its rebirth, its epicentre shudders with the erudition Jorge Luis Borges’ late modernist, early postmodernist literature . If Shakespeare’s swan song holds Watermarks together like bookends, it is the unbridled genius of the twentieth century Argentinian author that helped to edify its towering achievements.

[ The interior of Prospero’s library is modelled after the master work that is the Library of the Trinity College Dublin, conceived by the eighteenth century architect and engineer Thomas Burgh. ]

His 1941 short story The Library of Babel takes place in an imaginary library of unfathomable proportions, each of its innumerable hexagon-shaped rooms containing the same number of books, each containing the same arbitrary amount of books, each page the same amount of lines, arbitrarily composed out of the same set of twenty five orthographic symbols. The dwellers of this convoluted structure firmly believe that because the library contains every possible permutation permitted by this limited character set, it must therefore also possess every word ever written by Man in the past, future and, perhaps more astoundingly, texts that never were, and never shall be.

Tortured by their despondent existence, librarians find solace in their own creeds. Some cling on to the messianic hope that one of the rooms in the library must have the one book containing the foundations to a complete understanding of the library’s system, as well as the ability to decode the remainder. And that if such a master book were to exist, whoever read it would be as a god. In this universe of stone and paper, every person is a librarian and the library is their cosmos. A later story named Book of Sand revolves around an approximate idea of a book of obscure provenance, sold to the narrator by a Bible seller who claimed to have obtained it in India. The book is described as endless, written in a language that cannot be deciphered. No two pages are the same, and new ones materialise whenever the book is opened. It contains illustrations although, in fine Borgesian form, there is no discernible account provided of what they are.

There is a most prodigious orientation not only within the internal themes explored in the game, but one that extends to these its most substantive influences. Borges and Greenaway’s opuses are characterised by a maddening obsession for books and their metaphysical properties, capable of containing entire worlds, nay universes; their characters, consumed by the exasperating pursuit of knowledge, at times defeated by the futility of the search. Likewise, Kobayashi’s quest for books is ultimately a futile one: despite all of the player’s effort to overcome challenges and solve enigmas, as with Shakespeare’s and Greenaway’s Prosperoes, so does this one break his staff and drown his book; an inescapable act of liberation for chaos to be restored from fastidious and fruitless order.

~ Metal, Wind and Water ~

Born in 1968 in Misawa, Takashi Kobayashi began his career in the videogame industry working as a graphic designer at Henk Rogers’ Bullet-Proof Software studio in Yokohama. Having joined the team at the time during which the studio was leveraging their rights to the Tetris name through mostly insipid spin-offs, he soon grew weary of his assignment and looked elsewhere for employment. His name Perhaps due to his preference for mechanical games over digital ones, he found his way into KAZe, a Tokyo-based studio specialising in Pinball and Pachinko video games. His first project was the Super Famicom game Super Pinball: Behind the Mask in 1993. His visual artistry came to greater prominence with two of the studio’s most acclaimed titles, Digital Pinball: Last Gladiators in 1995 and its sequel, Digital Pinball: Necronomicon the following year. Aficionados of the genre look back fondly at these titles as pertaining to the zenith of the studio’s production and of digital pinball games, with abounding praise for the game’s faithful recreation of real-life tables through astute programming and the outstanding visuals. Chief among them, Grasshopper Manufacture founder Suda Goichi and the dearly departed Kenji Eno, both of which were Kobayashi’s acquaintances.

[ Top: picture of the original game proposal document, with apologies for the low quality of the available capture. Bottom: screenshots from the concept video presented to SCEI, with great emphasis on the tower of Babel, edited out entirely from the final product. ]

While still employed at Kaze, Kobayashi came in contact through an acquaintance with producers at ARC Entertainment and SCE. This presented him with the opportunity to make a pitch to one of Japan’s greatest game publishers, with a known appetite for novel and inventive ideas. The concept behind “Book of Watermarks” was brewing on his mind for long and so a proposal was presented and received so much enthusiasm that an option to gain employment at Sony was made. Kobayashi did not intend on restricting his career to videogame production and politely declined. It was from this sponsorship that the Watermarks, LTD. studio was born, a veritable independent endeavour situated in a fifty square meter apartment in Shibuya, where he and two former members of KAZe, Mie Owashi and Hiroki Uraguchi worked for the better part of three years.

[ Top: Some animated sequences in 3D were created using EIAS, later completed and polished using Adobe After Effects. Parsimoniously, Kobayashi purchased older versions of the software tools. Below: audio files containing voice overs and music, coming from the US and Europe, were put together at the SCE Aoyama Studio using Mac Pro Tools. ]

Whereas Silicon Graphics workstations were widely adopted for game and game advertisement production in the second half of the 1990s, particularly among major studios, The Book of Watermarks was entirely created using Windows and Mac personal computers running affordable software. For terrain modelling, the studio used Animatek World Builder. Building and object modelling was performed in Form-Z software and later imported into 3D Studio Max for rendering and scene composition. A minority of elements seen in the final product may also have been designed in Softimage. Kobayashi strived before a very specific lighting balance for the visual composition of the game. He recalls it as the most time-consuming segment of the game’s graphics production. For instance, the interior space of the Quattuor required as many as seventy five individual spots in lieu of a generic ambient lighting, accurately representing light entering the ceiling apertures and generating complex contrasts. Realism was by no means the intended objective of his lengthy pursuit, rather a more oneiric, painterly look.

Although chroma key technology was the industrial standard for blending filmed footage and computer graphics, this was an easy road that could not be taken. Three months before any filming was done, Kobayashi organised the storyboards, wardrobe and set construction, maintaining contact with the staff at Culver Studios in Los Angeles, and lensman John Le Blanc using the phone and fax. He moved to LA three weeks before filming began to oversee the final preparations. For the most part, the varied props that adorn Prospero’s studio were rented from specialty shop: a pair of navigator’s terrestrial globes, frames paintings, copious amounts of hardcover books, some framed paintings, assorted busts, charts, a feather quill and ink jar, a chess set, a sextant, a narghile, an hourglass and a lute. The all-important staff wielded by the duke has to be created to match the concept art ideas. Glistening metal objects were made to look weathered with the use of ordinary brown hairspray. As with the composition of the game’s visuals, cinematography was a key concern, requiring an entire day to adjust to the intended Caravaggista result, obtained with the use of tungsten lights. All footage was converted from 35mm film to D-1 tape.

[ Stills from the lost D-1 digital conversion of the footage shot at Culver City Studios in Los Angeles. It was of great importance that the bookshelves included the letters ANNO MDXICIX, as 1599 was the year in the game’s chronology of events in which Prospero built the library. Further below: a humorously composed clip of the filming sessions which can be unlocked within Disc 2 of the game upon its completion. ]

The actor playing the role of Prospero was the late Jack Donner, whose wide-ranging career as guest star and supporting actor in a variety of North-American TV productions made his a recognizable face for more than four decades. He was chosen through a casting company for which received nearly thirty applicants. Amusingly, he recalls, some submitted their video audition tape wearing a tuxedo. Kobayashi only had the opportunity to meet Donner two weeks prior to the shooting sessions. Remarkably, he is cast to play his first and last role in a videogame at a moment when he began being invited to perform more frequently in movies. Despite his fifty odd years of experience, this was also the first time he was involved with the process of dubbing, due to the absence of any audio capture during filming. This was the part of the work he considered the most taxing. His training and vast experience as a stage actor made him peculiarly eligible for a part which he plays elegantly and credibly. At seventy years of age, his piercing look and graceful gestures amplify the aura of sophistication and ambiguity the game intensely required, somehow managing to stand a cut above the average acting performance in the context of digital games.

Another one of Kobayashi’s initial intentions for this project was to honour the true origins of The Tempest, whom many scholars have attributed to Silvester Jourdain’s chronicle of his accidental discovery of the Bermuda islands after being side-tracked by a sea storm. For this reason, he sought to implement this type of music although in a manner that was refined, contemporary sounding and at the same time linked to the British isles. Given the designer’s admiration for Enya’s new age music, the aforementioned concept video submitted to Sony played to the sound of her emblematic 1991 single, Caribbean Blue. A puzzling parallel is suggested by the fact that the Irish musician’s most famous album is titled Watermark. Be that as it may, this is merely a diverting coincidence, as the word, as symbolically employed in the poem that Enya wrote and which inspired the song, refers to another application of the same English word, that of a mark that indicates the level to which a body of water has risen.

An unidentified person at SCE pointed Kobayashi in the direction of her sister and former fellow Clannad band member, Moya Brennan, whose musical identity resonated even more with the Irish folk theme tradition. Her 1998 album, Perfect Time, was released in Japan early in the year and provides the aural blueprint for the three themes which she, Dennis Woods and Graham Murphy composed and recorded at the Production Suite studio in Dublin. Her ethereal vocalisations result from a process of overdubbing the same recorded phrase up to one hundred times, condensing and magnifying her voice into her signature ethereal lacework.

Additional music was commissioned to composer and multi-instrumentalist Maartin Allcock, of Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull fame, and recorded in the Chipping Norton Recording Studios at Oxfordshire. Brennan’s themes are sparingly played in key moments of the same such as the introduction and closing, while Allcock’s music accompanies most of the book announcement segments. One in particular, that of The Book of Necronomicon, stands out due to its dissonant use of a boldly cranked up electric guitar overdrive effect, an intentional flashback to the heavy metal sonorities of KAZe’s pinball game. Far too engrossed with production back in Tokyo, Kobayashi was forced to review the themes as they were completed over the phone.

[ The creation of Book of Watermarks was a book hunt of its own. The need for references and illustration required Owashi and Kobayashi to consult and acquire a great many books, scouring bookshops and even calling in favours from friends living abroad to ship editions that could not be found in Japan. ]

The debugging process was done by a quality assurance team at SCEI lead by Shinichi Yoshida. Various members expressed their discontentment with how the game’s story concluded with the destruction of the books irrespective of how well the player performed. The day before the Book of Watermarks was released, a press conference event was hosted by Jiro Ishikawa from TV Asashi at the Ginza Sony Building’s Somido Hall, to which Kobayashi, Owase and Arc Entertainment Executive VP Ryoji Akagawa were invited.

The game received ample coverage in TV, newspapers and dozens of magazines which, from early on that year, previewed the game, making a clear distinction in their approach to this as an adult production to tell it apart from the common videogames of the time. SCEI veteran Hironori Komiya, together with Hiroe Suzuki, worked hard to synthesise this very same take in the way they tackled the game’s package design so as to signal to audiences the uniqueness of this offer. It isn’t known how well the game performed in the market. Attempts were made to hire a CG animator later that year, in preparation for the studio’s next project, Style Laboratory, set to explore the world of fashion in videogame format like no other game before on the newly launched Microsoft Xbox. Alpha footage of the game was released in a DVD press kit handed out at Tokyo Game Show in the Autumn of 2001.

Shortly after, the Watermarks studio, founded on principles of independence and originality, suffered a major setback when an agent embezzled them for one hundred million yen from the production budget, forcing the ensemble to fold. A chance meeting with a director at Panasonic who was openly fond of his games opened the opportunity for him to design computer graphics movies for their new LED screen placed on the façade of a building in Akihabara, then the largest one in existence in Japan. At present, Kobayashi has a solo venture under the label McGuffin & Co., producing bespoke, high-quality CGI movies for public venues. At the moment of this article’s conclusion, a new series on the complex Japanese tradition of dressing in layers, entitled KASANEIRO, premiered on YouTube. He clings on to his long-held ambition to publish a graphic novel blending the Japanese manga and Franco-Belgian comic codes into a single creation.

~ What's past is prologue ~

By the turn of the century, pre-rendered 3D puzzle adventure game had grown into a market segment all its own. The phenomenon erupted at the dawn of the nineties, galvanized by the introduction of the CD-ROM format, albeit firmly rooted in the great graphical adventure model that captivated more mature audiences the previous decade. Most disruptive among them were the two highly experimental discs published by Synergy Inc. in 1991, Refixion and Alice: Interactive Museum. The resounding international success of Myst and The 7th Guest encouraged existing companies like System SACOM to seize the moment and thrive within the niche, as well as new and exciting studios like WARP Inc. to emerge and stir it up. Largely a defunct category today, it is all too easy to overlook the motives why graphical adventures resounded with a large number of players, a genre that so readily traded interactivity for audiovisual splendour and in rare occasions, weave some of the richest thematic tapestries the common game experience could ill afford.

The Book of Watermarks stands firmly within this tradition of simplified mechanics, linear progression, chimerical landscapes and trying riddles. It seeks not to redefine the existing template, rather to utilise it as the resource with which to convey important commentary on the nature of knowledge at the height of the information revolution. The pleasurable promenade through splendorous regions, grandiose venues and enlightening discoveries represent only the alluring surface atop a well of studious meditations on the origins of modernity and the human condition itself.

That which it may arguably lack in structural finesse it more than amply makes for with its unique take and potentially profound implications, letting on just enough about its intentions to maintain the player or spectator engaged and at the same time motivate the right audience to extend its journey in deep thought. It courageously preserves the conclusive moral of the stories it celebrates. In The Tempest, the magus compassionately relinquishes his powers in the name of reconciliation. In Prospero’s Books, he abdicates knowledge as the mechanism of control. Similarly, Watermarks concludes with the submergence of all books and the undoing of the islands, an act to restore chaos from order, to bring the microcosm of illusions to a close, to compel the player to see the deep blue ocean as a blank page to resume their reality from. This can be construed as a comment on the futility of play itself. Recommended links: - The Watermarks website (archived) - ASCII coverage of The Live Tome event - McGuffin website and YouTube Channel Author’s note: I wish to thank Kobayashi-San for his availability to answer my many questions, as well as for his effort to locate additional resources without which this article would not have been possible. More JAPANoFILES features JAPANoFILES #9 - Under The Tokyo Sky JAPANoFILES #8 - Chronicle of Opening a Shina Soba Shop

[infinitebrians]

Favorite Games of 2023 Part 4: Pseudoregalia

I knew Pseudoregalia was going to be good the minute I started the game and did the input for the Mario 64 side flip jump and the game’s main character Sybil did her own version of that satisfying jump. One of my all time favorite things to do in a Mario game (or any game) is that side flip, a jump that is as practical as it is just simply satisfying to do. Sybil being able to do that jump without needing any of the power ups found in the game told me that the developers of this game knew the importance to making character feel good jumping around in a 3D world. Her movement only gets better from there with a bunch of new platforming abilities that makes her capable of getting what feels like anywhere in that game world if desired. The pure control you have over Sybil's platforming capabilities gave me so many great moments of pure curiosity to experiment with what could work. What's better is watching friends and others play the game and figure out their own solutions to the game's open ended platforming design. There are no wrong answers in the world of Pseudoregalia, just results.

This game was a complete surprise in just about every way, just the best feeling platformer I’ve played in a long while in this small, cleaned up former game jam game. I’ve followed the main dev rittzler on twitter for a few years because the gameplay clips of their work have all looked fun and impressive and they always shared other really cool indie dev work as well. So, I was excited to finally play Pseudoregalia when it was announced to be released. It's super low price (6 dollars USD) and being something I was able to finish in the span of one day alone was a huge breath of fresh air in this current gaming environment. It’s something I’ve been personally thinking a lot about recently is the appeal of a simpler, lower priced game. It’s appeal to me coming from playing something that never needs to be some sort of omnipresent, super game. Instead, Pseudoregalia presents itself in a humble statement of, ‘here, enjoy a few hours jumping around this wacky maze like castle as a goat bunny lady!’.

I'm not a person who typically ever has a desire to replay a game right after finishing it, I usually prefer to immediately move on to another game that I've been wishing to play for for a while. Pseudoregalia is a game I've played four or so times now from start to finish, I even started another playthrough in preparation for this drawing/writing and found myself wanting to play it all the way through again. Its the first time I found myself actually physically seeing the appeal of speedrunning, a hobby I always just enjoyed as a spectator. Pseudoregalia just lends itself so neatly to that part of me that loves routing out a path for stuff. How quickly can you find all the vital movement abilities for Sybil? What's unnecessary, what can be improved, what can be gathered while on the path of gathering something else. From at least my perspective of not actually investigating the proper speedrunner's routing, the options feel immense. From these handful of times replaying the game I've gotten a good handle of finding my way around the map and a good idea of how to get a lot of the really important movement abilities almost immediately. It also made the game feel quite different from how it felt to me with my first playthrough, what was once mysterious and labyrinthine was now a familiar playground.

That is one thing I will miss when doing those repeat playthroughs is that sense of discovery that occurred with that initial run. Soon before Pseudoregalia came out, I watched a lot of Videochess and spaghoner's exploration and documentation of the incredible Mario 64 hack, B3313 ( https://youtu.be/pLKB0SG0i8c ). I found that hack incredible at creating a sense of uneasiness and wonder from simply keeping you constantly guessing what was next behind each door something even those two expressed while streaming. During my first playthrough of Pseudoregalia, I was completely lost in that castle and was constantly finding paths that led to new zones or ones circled me back to old ones from hours ago. It was a pretty incredible feeling of discovery that only wore out it's welcome at the end when I just needed one more big key necessary for progression. What helped make exploration in both of these games engaging the whole time is that aspect of having a really fun character to move around as while being lost. It was okay with being completely lost because I could still just keep doing these long jumps into wall kicks that just make Sybil go fuckin' fast in an immensely satisfying way.

I think in the time it's taken me to think about this game again, and briefly revisit it in preparation for this art/writing I've come to decide that this is probably my favorite new game of 2023. In a year full of fantastic platformers to pick from, this one was just a class above in terms of movement design and movement application.