#Future Design Programme

[happywebdesign]

Preferable Future of Food

[hayanahed]

Emergency: Help Evacuate My Family From GAZA WAR

Dear Humanity,

I'm Haya from Gaza , from a family of 8 people: my parents, two sons, and four daughters (two of them suffer from allergies).

I've witnessed the evidence of the tragedy that has struck our lives in Gaza, where my family and I have survived amidst numerous previous wars. But today, we face the most dangerous and fierce battle in the current war. The urgent need intensifies for us, as we have nothing left and are unable to secure our basic needs such as food, water, and safe shelter.

Here is our story - On October 7th, our lives changed forever, my family and I evacuated from northern Gaza to southern Gaza, hoping to return soon, but it wasn't meant to be. Our home was surrounded, burned, and then completely destroyed, Our home, once a fortress of hope, now lay in ruins, a stark reminder of our shattered dreams.

The night before we left from the north to the south was terrifying. Shelling sounds were everywhere, making a loud noise that felt like it went through our souls. Every explosions shook the ground like earthquakes, sending shockwaves of fear through our trembling bodies. filling us with fear. The air smelled of destruction and blood, making it hard to breathe. When dawn came, we saw the devastation around us, realizing our home was now a symbol of loss and despair.

We ran into the streets and with each step we took into the unknown streets, we felt as if we were plunging deeper into the abyss of our shattered existence, leaving behind everything we own in our home: Clothes, important official documents, the car, and literally it's almost everything - the enormity of our loss weighed heavily upon us.

Our home it was where we found hope, safety, and made precious memories. Losing it felt like losing years of our lives, leaving us adrift amidst the wreckage of our shattered existence.

A brief video depicting the devastation that struck our home and our entire neighborhood in Gaza.

Desperate Plea: Escaping Gaza's Allergy Nightmare

I, Haya, suffer from severe allergy to penicillin-derived medications, and my sister, Amal, also suffers from severe allergies to medications from my family such as Paracetamol and Ibuprofen.

These allergies create a deep sense of fear and anxiety for us, as we live in a constant state of tension and fear of anything that may require a visit to the hospital. We fear being given inappropriate medications due to the unavailability of suitable treatments in Gaza because of war or lack of awareness and not informing the doctor of our allergies, which could lead to serious consequences threatening our lives.

MY Father Income

Our dreams are heading towards oblivion in the labyrinth of an uncertain future

My story, along with my siblings, represents a united team of four individuals, three of whom are skilled programmers and one graphic designer. We work as freelancers in the world of freelancing.

As for my younger sister, she is a student studying at the College of Architecture. She has always carried a big dream in her heart, a dream of being part of changing Gaza, of making it more beautiful and better. She looked forward to the day when she would receive her degree and start building this dream. But the beginning of the war changed everything. The destruction of infrastructure and universities cast shadows of despair over her dreams.

When I think of my brother in Belgium, I can't help but feel deep sadness. He has been suffering from unbearable anxiety and insomnia since the outbreak of the war. Sleep eludes him at night, and his physical and mental health collapses under the weight of these heavy burdens, negatively affecting his performance at work. Problems and challenges pile up in front of him without the slightest opportunity for rest.

We all feel psychological pressure and extreme anxiety. The war hasn't been limited to external attacks but has deeply infiltrated our daily lives. We search among the rubble for a little safety and the basic resources for survival. Every day comes with a new challenge that we must overcome.

As we sway amidst the rubble of shattered dreams, our souls wrestle and our hearts beat strongly challenging the ravages of war.

Our parents earnestly seek a way to rescue us from this hell, feeling the heavy responsibility for every moment we spend under the shadows of fear and destruction. They dream of a safe place where they can build for us a better future, filled with security and hope, for we deserve life in all its meanings of comfort and peace.

Perhaps this fundraising campaign represents a light in the midst of darkness, it is indeed the only hope we cling to firmly.

I appeal to the world as a whole to hear my cry and the mournful cry of my family in Gaza. We need the helping hand that reaches out to wipe our tears and build a bridge to safety.

Your donation is not just a donation; it's an opportunity to rebuild life and brighten a better tomorrow. Be part of our hopeful story, for we need your hand to start anew.

The purpose of the fundraising campaign

The goal of this fundraising campaign is to rescue my family - my parents, my siblings, and me - through the Rafah Crossing to Egypt, which currently requires $5000 per person. This campaign is our only chance to stay alive, and I humbly request your assistance at this critical time. I will provide you with a comprehensive breakdown of the expenses, committing to transparency and clarity.

All of our important links are here https://linktr.ee/hayanahed

Verified by :

⭐️ operation olive branch, number 26 on their spreadsheet. (On Master list)

⭐️ Project watermelon,line 249 on their spreadsheet. Or you could see it as number 212 here is the photo for more clear proof

Thank you for your kindness and support.

.جزاكم الله خيراً

yours sincerely;

Haya Alshawish.

[geekonik]

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[harrie-cc]

The Klean Collection - Part 4

This month I focused on creating the Klean Home Office. I focused my attention on what a designer's home office would look like/contain. I have wanted to make shelving like this for quite some time & was excited to try out Sims 4 Studio to angle the slots, unfortunately many painful hours later after trying to troubleshoot why exactly the rotation didn't work in game, I managed to come up with a workaround, so that you can still snap flat books and deco items onto the slanted shelves at the correct angle. For some peculiar reason the rotated slots would not work unless I locked their orientation. As a result once an item snap into one of these slots it will stay at the 45 degree angle even when you snap it to a regular slot. If I did this for all the slots to work it would end up being very difficult for you to effectively clutter all the other shelves as all your items would snap to these angled slots instead. So I've created only 3 of these slots on each shelf to help you to orientate your deco items to the correct angle. They are located in the middle and either end of the the shelf, so you should be able to avoid them while decorating the regular slots on the other shelves. I think this issue is down to EA changing the slotting information in the game as it a very simple process to rotate these slots and both programmes I used to do so ended with the same result. Fingers crossed this is changed in the future so I don't have to irritate myself and you all with such a workaround and they just work how they are supposed to! 

Items Include:

Bookshelf configurations 1 to 5 (short & medium)

1 tile bookshelf configuration (short & medium)

Left ending bookshelf configuration (short & medium)

Right ending bookshelf configuration (short & medium)

Bookshelf post (short. medium & tall)

Desk chair

Glass desk

Statement desk/ conference table/ dining table

Design portfolio

Open design portfolio

Pantone swatch books (3 options)

RAL swatch books (2 options)

Fabric sample book

All items are Base Game compatible and you can find them by searching KLEAN in the build/buy catalogue.

As per usual textures are linked between similar items, so if you download the unmerged file, make sure to include all items from that family, so the textures appear correctly in your game.

Now Available on Patreon Early Access

Public Release: 7th April 2024

[ranfordgallus]

I like to headcanon that jimmy has an older sister who's a "gamer girl" and her gaming skills inspired him to love gaming and program games himself when he's an adult

Her sisters future? Basically just your average streamer, streaming games and such, she's also a programmer too...and she's pretty much proud of jimmy working for a popular group (wild kratts), being a pilot...etc.

Yes her career being a famous streamer is mediocre compared to jimmy being a pilot, working with THE WILD KRATTS...it's her passion, she's doing what she loves..that's all

However what type of "gamer girl" is she? No, she's not a goonbait, a vtuber/pngtuber? Errrhhhh i mean...yeah, pretty much, she also does irl streaming with her face showing..

This makes me wanna design her, and name her too...

[thrilling-oneway]

IKIZULIVE / LOVE LIVE! BLUEBIRD master post

I'll be compiling what we know about Ikizulive so far to try and bring info about the project over to people who don't use twitter and are interested in getting into it. This post will be edited as more information is released so check back for updates.

About Ikizulive

Ikizulive or Love Live! Bluebird is a new project under the Love Live! franchise. While little information is known so far, their activities will primarily be held on YouTube and Twitter. It's speculated that this will be a Vtuber project possibly similar to Bandori's Yumemita spinoff, but that hasn't been confirmed yet. The official youtube channel can be found here, and the official twitter account here. Each character also has their own personal Twitter account, which will be linked in character bios below.

The project officially launched on May 12th with the release of character designs and their debut song, What is my LIFE?. More information will be revealed in the first cast stream on June 17th.

Story information

Not much about the story is known so far, but you can piece some information together from the tweets made by the girls. The girls attend an online high school called Love High School (Love学院高等学校, Love Gakuin Koutou Gakkou), which they shorten as L High (L高, Lkou). The academy has satellites schools in Asakusa, Tokyo (near Otonokizaka) in a multi-tennant building, Fukui (Fukui prefecture), and Umeda (Osaka prefecture). The facilities at the schools are poor, and they don't have a uniform. There are rumours that they may have to close due to a lack of funding and decreasing enrolment. Four of the girls at the Tokyo branch have started a school idol club called (roughly) Hard Life Club (いきづらい部, Ikizurai Bu), named such because they claimed an unused club channel on their school server which used that name.

The story is set at some point in the future after the Hasunosora story. On the character page of the official website, there is a heading that says "What are school idols". The description reads:

Idol groups that once existed across the country. Winning Love Live, a school idol competition, attracted a lot of attention at the time.

Interestingly, the group/project color is orange. Honoka is also quoted on the website. Though I might be thinking too hard about it...

Polka Takahashi (高橋ポルカ)

Self-intro

Twitter: @/polka_lion CV: Honon Ayasaki Image colour: Yellow Birthday: August 18th

A first year at L high's Tokyo branch. She enroled in online school after to failing her high school entrance exams due to being really bad at maths. She lives with her grandmother in Tokyo while her parents live overseas in Argentina. She doesn't like tight clothes and prefers skirts and shorts that are easy to move in, as she likes to dance, so she's happy about not needing to wear a uniform. She's not very good at using a computer, and Mai had to help her with learning how to use it and signing into lessons. She learnt about school idols not long after starting high school and decides to find some friends to start a school idol club with. She officially started IkizuraiBu with Mai, Hanabi, and Akira not long after.

Additional info:

She is 157cm tall (the same as Chika and Honoka, etc)

She doesn't know her blood type

Her hobby is taking naps

Her skills are the ability to nap everywhere, getting approached for street interviews often, and winning lucky draws

Her favourite foods are noodles (especially udon) and chocolate

She also likes cola, McDonalds, and ham cutlets and croquettes from the shop over the Sumida River

She claims she can understand cats

She uses a lot of emojis in her tweets

She speaks in third person

Mai Azabu (麻布麻衣)

Self-intro

Twitter: @/My_Mai_Eld CV: Rina Endo Image color: Blue Birthday: February 13th

Another first year at the Tokyo branch. She enrolled in online school so she could focus on her hobby/'job' as a programmer. Her parents made her attend in-person classes, and she reckons this is because she missed a lot of classes in middle school due to staying up all night and sleeping during the day. She values simplicity and doesn't like wasting time on school because it takes away from programming time, so she plans on watching her online lessons at 2x speed. She finds Polka a bit annoying at first and thinks she is the type of person who could easily fall for a scam. Mai also seems to be interested in making money, and wants her name to be known around the world. She is vice-president of IkizuraiBu.

Additional info:

She is 154cm tall (same as Nico, Ruby, etc)

Her blood type is B

Her hobbies are programming, datamining, and playing Minecraft

Her special skills are using a soldering iron and DIY

Her favourite foods are fruit (melon and grapes) and hamburgers

She likes the TRON Project

Has a younger sister who auditioned to be an idol and passed without telling her

She uses the nickname Maimai (My Mai?)

She likes ice cream, and would like an ice cream machine at school

She mentions using an avatar for her idol activities, suggesting she may know about vtubers

Akira Goto (五桐 玲)

Self-intro

Twitter: @/G_Akky304250 CV: Seri Miyano Image color: Light green Birthday: July 9th

A first year who moved to Tokyo from Numazu to attend L High. She's aiming to be a professional wall climber and has a strict training regimen and diet, and trains every afternoon after school. She's amazed at Polka's ability to make friends so quickly. She meets and befriends Polka by the river after school one day, and at some point decides to join IkizuraiBu.

Additional info:

She is 164cm tall (in-between Mari and Lanzhu)

Her blood type is O

Her hobbies are climbing, cycling, and strength training

Her special skills are handstands, Athlete Food Meister qualification, gift wrapping, and making things by hand

Her favourite foods are kale and nut salad, dried fruits, granola bars, and milk

She has heard of both Muse and Aqours

She lives with her aunt

She uses the ocean wave emoji in a lot of her tweets

She also enjoys cycling, and sometimes sings on her bike rides

Hanabi Komagata (駒形花火)

Self-intro

Twitter: @/hanabistarmine CV: Kokoro Fujino Image color: Red Birthday: June 11th

A first year at L High's Tokyo branch. She enroled in online school so she could balance school with working at her parents' kimono shop, and so she didn't have to join a club. She loves kimonos and wears them all the time, even wearing one to school. People often stare at her because of this, but she wants to normalise kimono-wearing in everyday life. She is stalked and abducted by Polka after school one day, but they hit it off as friends and she joined IkizuraiBu. She wants to be a modern-day Yamato Nadeshiko and kimono idol.

Additional info:

She is 160cm tall (the same as Riko, Shioriko, etc)

Her blood type is A

Her hobbies are kimonos and reading

Her special skills are fitting kimonos, calligraphy, and cooking food in the microwave

Her favourite foods are matcha sweets, mochi, and pasta

She's the only daughter in her family (she could have brothers, it's not specified)

She's good at hanafuda

She knows some English from helping tourists at the shop

She mostly tweets about kimono, and about what kimonos she thinks would suit others

Miracle Kanazawa (金澤奇跡)

Self-intro

Twitter: @/MiracleGoldSP CV: Aiha Sakano Image color: Pink Birthday: TBA

A second year student at L High's satellite school in Fukui. She's a pastry chef and runs an online bakery called MiraMiraMiracle Patisserie. She enroled in online school so she had more time to practice baking on her own after not liking the methods taught at confectionary school. She meets Noriko at school and offers her a muffin, but Noriko is incredibly shy around her. She finds this cute, and keeps bringing her more cakes. According to her self-intro, Polka convinced her to join IkizuraiBu so she could promote her bakery, but this has yet to happen in the story.

Additional info:

She is 152cm tall (the same as Hanamaru, Natsumi, etc)

Her blood type is AB

Her hobby is baking

Her special skills are baking, cooking, and pulling all-nighters

Her favourite foods are sushi (especially urchin and salmon roe), karasumi, and monkfish liver

She refers to herself as Mii (ミィ) instead of a traditional first person pronoun

Although her name would normally be read as Kiseki, it is officially read with the English translation. She also often writes her name in katakana (ミラクル).

She's only following Noriko

Seems to like coming up with nicknames, considering she uses three different names for Noriko

She offers a discount to classmates who order from her bakery

Noriko Chofu (調布のりこ)

Self-intro

Twitter: @/Noricco_U CV: Ria Seko Image color: Purple Birthday: April 4th

A first year student at L High's Fukui satellite school. She wants to be a voice actress, and is part of an agency, but she failed her recent audition. She thinks she's a boring person, and is extremely shy and struggles with interacting with others (social anxiety?). She wants to go to voice actor lessons in Tokyo but says her mum won't allow it, so she's looking for a part-time job to pay for it.

Additional info:

She is 153cm tall (the same as Leah and Ceras)

Her blood type is B

Her hobbies are watching anime, and reading manga and light novels

Her special skills are singing (she has perfect pitch), cleaning, and playing setter position in volleyball

Her favourite foods are sweet things, including baked goods. She liked puddings, cream puffs, and things with custard

She likes VTubers

She's only following Miracle

Miracle calls her Norichan or Norinori

She likes SpyxFamily

Yukuri Harumiya (春宮ゆくり)

Self-intro

Twitter: @/Yukuri_talk CV: Yuki Okumura Image color: Light blue Birthday: September 22nd

A first year student at L High's Umeda branch who enrolled so she could prioritise her ballet and theatre lessons. Her dream is to be an otokoyaku (woman who plays male roles) in Takarazuka Revue, although whether this dream will be possible is uncertain. She has an unspecified illness that is affecting her ability to perform. According to her bio, she joins IkizuraiBu to help Polka, though this hasn't happened in the story yet.

Additional info:

She is 165 cm tall (the same as Lanzhu)

Her blood type is B

Her hobby is theatre

Her special skill is ballet

Her favourite foods are somen noodles, jelly, gratin, hambuger steak, baumkuchen, and pickled foods

She isn't following any of the other girls

Aurora Konohana (此花輝夜) / Rollie

Self-intro

Twitter: @/rollie_twinkle (lmao) CV: Akane Amasawa Image color: Hot pink Birthday: January 3rd

A second year student at L High School's Umeda branch who has transferred from America. She's originally from Japan, but moved around abroad a lot due to her parents' jobs, with them currently being in LA. She thinks taking care of your hair and appearance is very important. She also makes videos talking about cosmetics and describes herself as an influencer.

Additional info:

She is 162cm tall (the same as Eli, Dia, etc)

Her blood type is O

Her hobbies are fashion and beauty

Her special skills are makeup, making coffee, playing soccer and matchmaking couples

Her favourite foods are coffee, baked beans, fried egg, and crispy toast (english breakfast...)

Like Miracle, despite her name being written in Japanese as Kaguya, it's pronounced like the english translation

She calls herself Rora (ローラ) in some tweets, and Midori calls her this too.

She talks in a lot of English, similar to Mari

She brought back souvenirs from LA, including a local team baseball cap, Anastasia cosmetics products and Trader Joe's eco bags

She's only following Midori

Despite her profile saying otherwise, her character description says that her motto is "love is justice"

Based on the "born this way" motto in her profile, she might be a fan of Lady Gaga

Midori Yamada (山田真緑) / Little green

Self-intro

Twitter: @/LittlegreenCom CV: Honoka Kotomori Image color: Green Birthday: May 7th

A first year student at L High School's Umeda branch. She's an environmentalist, and is always thinking about ways that she and others can help the environment. She spreads awareness about climate change and ways that people can combat it on her twitter account and by putting up posters at school.

Additional info:

She is 155cm tall (the same as Rin, Kasumi, etc)

Her blood type is A

Her hobby is camping

Her special skills are puzzles, identifying plant specimens, bug catching, fishing, stargazing, and kendama

Her favourite foods are smores, waffles, cream stew, and strawberries

She's only following Rollie

She recently worked a Earth Fes event and she donated her wage to the WWF

She met Rollie while working at the Earth Fes

She hates dodgeball

She liked reading a lot as a child

Shion Sasaki (佐々木翔音)

Self-intro (No profile card, her intro is different to the others)

Twitter: @/ShaunTheBunny CV: Aoi Suzunose Image color: Grey Birthday: November 11th

A first year-aged girl. She doesn't seem to like school very much and often skips classes. She also has a difficult home life, and mentions feeling a constant weight of parental pressure, and gets into arguments with them sometimes. From many of her tweets, it's apparent that she has depression. She mentions in one tweet that people online probably know her better than anyone who knows her in real life. She also releases videos/streams on another platform, including a video of her new school uniform.

She does not have a school profile card on the website, and it does not mention what branch she attends. It's possible she has not enroled yet

Her height and blood type are not listed in her bio

Her hobbies are social media, puzzles, reading, and model kits

Her special skills are violin and piano

Her favourite foods are meal shakes, french fries, ramen, and spicy foods

We do not know where she is from or where she lives

She's not following any of the other girls

She uses the pronoun boku (ボク), the third main girl to do so after Mia and Tsuzuri

She likes her new noise cancelling headphones

She also likes nighttime/midnight, since it's time that she can have to herself, and sometimes wishes morning wouldn't come

She likes coordinating uniforms

Seiyuu information

Here is a list of the seiyuu and their known twitter accounts/birthdays:

Polka: Honon Ayasaki (b. December 31st)

Mai: Rina Endo (b. October 4th, 2005)

Akira: Seri Miyano (b. January 5th, 2007)

Hanabi: Kokoro Fujino (b. March 31st)

Miracle: Aiha Sakano (b. May 31st)

Noriko: Ria Seko (b. September 19th)

Yukuri: Yuki Okumura (b. October 13th)

Aurora: Akane Amasawa (b. January 19th, 2003)

Midori: Honoka Kotomori (b. January 23rd)

Shion: Aoi Suzunose

(Yuki Okumura does not have a twitter account, and no information about Aoi Suzunose has been found online)

The seiyuu will do live activities such as streams and concerts just like the other generations. Their first stream will be on June 17th!

[skewedcanvas]

Unfinished Crossover TADC AU Ideas

A list of TADC Crossover ideas that I had started but never finished. It usually ended up with me drawing only a handful of the cast before burning out and moving onto a different project.

Helltaker AU

In this AU each of the cast were either a demon, angel, or fallen angel. They didn't replace the characters of Helltaker, but rather were inserted into the universe as their own beings. In true Helltaker fashion, they all were all sharply dressed in nice suits.

Pikmin AU

In this AU the general premise was that each of the cast were new undiscovered pikmin species. Caine in this case would take on a similar role that Olimar and Alph had.

Megaman AU

In this AU each of the cast were different Robot Masters built by C&A Robotics with the exception to Caine, or Dr. Caine in this case, who was the lead robotics expert, designer, and programmer.

Sonic AU

In this AU each of the cast were different mobians (and possibly robots) within the Sonic universe. This is actually the most recent crossover I made which I may or may not continue.

Other AUs

These AUs didn't really have a plan and had little to no lore written at all. In order they were Ben 10, Castle Crashers/Battle Block Theater, and Animal Crossing. The only thing really planned was that Gangle was going to be a Thep Khufan for the Ben 10 Crossover.

Concepts

Lastly these are crossover ideas/concepts I have written down, but haven't done anything with. I may or may not do something with them in the future, but currently they are in artist limbo.

Splatoon - Cast as species from Splatoon.

Digimon - Cast as Digimons.

Inside Out - Cast as personified emotions.

Persona - Cast are human with personas matching their models.

Muppets - Cast as Muppet version of themselves.

Legend of Zelda - Cast as if they were in the LoZ series.

JoJo - Cast are human with stands matching their models.

Cassette Beasts - Cast are human with their monster reflecting their models within the digital circus.

[ganondoodle]

botw2 (totk rewritten) ganondorf design post 2.0

(the better, less rambly one, bc i shouldnt be allowed to write when its past midnight- not deleting the other one bc i am a little whimp and am getting so bad decision paralysis over it its made me cry, this one is more heavy on design and the basic plot of the game)

Basic plot summary (shorter version- longer version at the end):

sheikah in service of the ancient queen discover remnants of the past while excavating for luminous stones, these remnants were being defended/kept safe by the sonau (engl. zonai) little shy cave dwellers who have kept these last ruins save but secret bc they thought it could lead to disaster seemingly aware of the ever repeating cycle and believing it to be not divine but a self perpetuated one built on the one sided history of the past, which is a threat to hyrule and its golden legacy; these ruins speak of a world threatening evil being born as the king of the gerudo, the ancient queen thus plans to lure him into a trap to seal him away before he can realize his destiny, he learns of it however and is forced to confront the queen through breaking into the castle, she sees that as a confirmation of her fears and it escalates into a battle between them that kills everyone that was in the throne room except the young princess- the queen sealing ganondorf as the room and parts of the castle is destroyed and buried beneath the ground. (the game largely revolves around finding clues about it, especially in sealed off caves of the now long extinct sonau)

except for the scene in the throne room nothing is clearly shown of the past, but it is the background behind everything

(zeldas main struggle in this game will be having to come to terms with her families legacy, what she thought and was taught not being true, the dark secrets buried everywhere, and perhaps trying to be better, now that all of hyrules been destroyed and the lands and people yet survived)

Mummy version:

what you discover beneath hyrule castle after going to investigate the failing of shiekah tech all around, it is a clearly shiekah made system all around, though the chamber you find him in was built around him after the sealing, it being implied they used his spiritual power as the main energy source for all future tech, once disturbed the seal breaks and fuses to zelda (similar to the og trailer with link) he wakes up, the shock of suddendly being back in this broken body leading him to rather viciously attack them, the mastersword breaks and link loses his arm, the cave crumbles and zelda flees as she drags link behind her- the cataclysm happens and links gets his shiekah tech arm.

(in the little sketch there is a very roughly approximation to where ganondorf is located at the start and mid game fight, the arena you fought calamity ganon in is in reality a sphere with the lower half being an energy reserve for the royal family and further down the mechanism for the rising pillars from botw, its located between the castle and ganondorfs chamber, to quickly react when the malice build up has reached a critical point to detect immediately and start the defense programm- its all broken but still explorable after the mid point)

ganondorfs body is very damanged, the hole in his chest from the seal leads into an empty cavity, the ribs broken and bent in a swirling pattern like a gravitational pull, his right arm was desolved over time as he defensively grabbed the queens arm in his last moments; the face is more bone and there are no eyes, he does not move his jaw to speak, his hair is more like smoke after a certain amount of progression in the game the castle that fell into the underground (current hyrule castle) bc of the cataclysm is made accessible, as you venture in link is grabbed and pulled further in, seperated from zelda, she later rejoins you in the dungeon, acting all normal unless you are observant and see her using her left arm only and walking past things she normally wouldnt- at a certain point once the camera is not watching her, she suddendly starts to attack you viciously, as it was ganondorf in disguise- after the second half the real zelda breaks into the room with your friends in tow (yunobo, teba+tulin, riju, sidon) and he drops the disguise, the rest of the fight is against his mummy form, at the end of which is the cutscene of the confrontation with the queen, it is the only time you are given a direct window into the past. (plus its shown in that cutscene he has the ability to disguise himself as others, but only AFTER you have encountered it as to not ruin that moment..)

post revival/restored: this is how he appears at the end of the game, the last dungeon is within the forgotten plateau, there is a longer cutscene of zelda and him talking while tension builds until the fight begins once your friends arrive (sidenote, this is also only unlocked with more progression, including the koga and deku dungeon and the master sword restoration quest)

this design isnt fully how he was in the past but fit to the circumstances now, but restored to the best of his abilities; he is older (50+) with greying hair; i wanted to make him look both strong and a little worn out, but with a vibe of incredible power he is well aware of as well as warmth the outfit is elaborate but mostly aimed to be practical, its easy to see he used to be a proud king, and still is, even if no one remembers him anymore; he wears a little armguard on the left to for deflecting purposes, his belt is also switched around to how it was originally to make drawing his sword easier with the left arm; a little wooden boar figurine carved from the wood of long extinct trees hangs on his belt, a gift from one of his daughters perhaps he wields magic with ease and his moveset makes it clear just how good of a fighter he is, even after thousands and thousands of years without motion, his moves are controlled and practiced- the magic is also NOT just based on malice, malice might be what keeps him alive now but its not all he is, he wields lightning and simpler moves with other elements, perhaps implying that magic was more widely spread back in his day .. or he has learned to wield it in part to the repeated interactions with the other races (both in the past, and as calamity ganon- it is made clear that whatever the malice eyes saw he saw as well, (also explaining how he can speak their languages) though it is also implied that the calamity as such is not fully his own making, but something familiar reaching out to try and help him break free -NOT anythign demise related, leave the guy alone- but going with the idea of the calamity having been what remained of oot ganondorf after degrading over all this time- a kindred spirit reaching out to take revenge together in a way

Beast Ganon(dorf), normal

Beast Ganon(dorf), charging magic

phase 3 of the end fight, after phase two he takes out all your friends and tranforms, chasing you (link and zelda) through the ground until breaking through to the surface of the plateau where this battle takes place.

his design is loosely inspired by the smoke version of calamity ganon and twilight princess beast ganon, his face and teeth mostly from the calamity- his back is split open with a shiekah tech spine, given his connection to it via being its power source as well as overtaking it in botw, reddish smoke eminating from it, hes has 5 limbs as he is still missing his right arm, the big dark arms are made of malice and in phase 2 he takes one of those big arms to 'rebuild' his missing one, though it is not as well usable like a real one, his braids carry over thoguh now dark black, when charging magic it lights up in waves; the tail is flat and he moves not all that beast like, more draconic really, able to float for short periods of time and 'swim' through the ground reminiscent of moldoras his attack pattern is changed to fit this appearance, but he still uses magic in varying ways, thouhg swiping and biting after you as well, he will sometimes go for zelda directly but she will usually protect herself in a bubble of light- typical weak point is within the mouth though he makes sure to not give you alot of opportunities, typical staggers migth include destroying a front leg (since those are all made of goo)

my aim with this was to create a beast version both familiar and very different, with the vibe of, this is still him, just another appearance, though angered and more agressive he has not lost himself, perhaps even enjoying it a little, feeling a little more alive again, though he does not care for this world, he is a stranger here, this isnt his time and all that ever mattered to him is long gone, destroyed or forgotten, now all that matters to him is to end zeldas rotten family

Phase 2 and Phase 4 (out of order bc big boar lad wouldnt fit on here)

in phase 2 he 'rebuilds' his missing arm with one taken from the boar form, as it appears afterwards, he changes his sword into a larger one during the second half and can change its hilt length on the fly, making it both a big sword and a spear- the malice arm will be used to mimic some of links abilities, like the hookshot, grabbing onto you from afar, pulling you closer or flinging you around, while still being largely a swordfight with magic- he can aim lightning directly at you just as you can via the shiekah arm and rijus ability, if you are quick enough you can activate it at the same time as he does and catch the charge instead, either refilling your magic meter or deflecting it back at him (like the god ol back and forth)

phase 4 is the final phase after beast (phase 3) his design is a mix of all forms, he is larger than in 1 and 2, furry all over and although much more human again his hair is all smoke like, the armguard fused to his arm like golden scales and the wound in the chest now broken open again with malice eyes staring from within

after phase 3 it seems like the battle is over and zelda steps up to do just as she did at botw end, but before she can finish it a swordslash cuts off half her right hand, as ganondorf isnt done yet and changed from phase 3 to 4; zelda is then disabled for this last fight (no fighting support and repairing weapons), shes been taken to safety by your friends, who finally managed to follow you up here, and you, link, are now the last one standing- his moveset is a mix of it all, quickly changing between swordplay and swipes, magical abilities and grab attacks, it is faster than the previous ones and he dodges much more as well, its meant to really be a challenge

(also heres a sketch of his swords?)

Long plot summary: the shiekah in the service of the ancient queen of hyrule discovered ancient remnants of times long past (aka the old titles, long forgotten) while excavating for luminous stones (as they were developing their tech and needed something to fuel it) that speak of a world threatening evil born as the king of the gerudo, which the queen takes as a warning of the past, and as there currently is a ganondorf as the gerudos king who refuse to unite under her banner but are otherwise on neutral terms she plans to imprison him in a stasis between life and death before he can become that world threatening evil she now believes he is destined to be in order to save everyone and delay it from returning as long as possible (assuming there will be no other male gerudo born while the current one is technically still alive)

(the discovery of said remnants of the past also involves the shiekah persecuting the sonau (zonai), little shy cave dwellers who keep their distance from everyone and have kept these last ruins save but secret bc they thought it could lead to disaster seemingly aware of the ever repeating cycle and believing it to be not divine but a self perpetuated one built on the one sided history of the past, self fullfilling prophecies, which is a threat to hyrule and its golden legacy)

its a plan enacted over years, including secretly manipulating things to make the gerudo farmlands wield bad harvests (NOT in a 'desert was green and lush uwu' way, but they have had their techniques to thrive), forcing them to trade with hyrule and starting to depend on it- the goal being to put ganondorf under so much pressure until he is willing to let go of their sovereignity for the sake of his people or otherwise willing to talk, the meeting with the queen however would be to lure him into a trap and enact the seal

ganondorf here is a new one, he is named so in honor of old myths and legends, he is older (50+) and has two daughters, a proud king and firm in his stance to not bow to anyone yet wanting to avoid conflict for the sake of his people and family; he learns of the scheme before its fully realized, including that the many years of failing crops and dying animals might not be a play of nature after all (through hyrule soldiers talking too much after a having a few too many drinks? something something about their view of the gerudo, since thats always in the games, lets make use of it no?) he sends messengers and messages to the queen, requesting an audience, but she rejects all of it and refuses to talk with him, as the plan isnt fully prepared yet and she has become fearful of him over the years of obsessing over the warnings of the past and the worlds fate, as she sees it, depending on her and the success of it

at some point he has had enough of it and disguises himself and his two most trusted advisors/warriors (potentially his mothers?) as the shiekahs leader and two underlings to finally get to the queen, aiming to confront her about everything- it works and they are let into the castle, overwhelm the guards locking the doors so its only him, his advisors and the royal family with a few taken out guards etc. the queen sees this as a confirmation of his true nature coming through though- he can see there is nothing he could do to convince her he is not what she thinks he is, he attempts to be diplomatic but she is unwavering in her faith

she gives him a choice, to be sealed willingly so he can be remembered as a noble king who gave his life for the world before he became the beast that would threaten to destroy it all, or refuse and risk war and defamation. he refuses of course and a fight ensues, escalating to the point of the throne room itself being send below the earth and the death of everyone within it, with the exception of the young princess of hyrule (who will go on to keep this secret safe and spin the story her way)

it is implied that ganondorf had not told alot of people about hyrules schemes, wanting to deescalate the situation and it ending in a way no one anticipated, but theres remnants of old gerudo villages hidden away as some stayed loyal to him, likely of one of his daughters, as the world turned his legacy into a frightful tale and the gerudo falling under hyrules rule, one chose to resist as the other chose to bow

( .. i hoped to strike a balance between what i like and what zelda stories usually amount to while leaning much more clearly into a hyrule critical lense .. without, hopefully, being too overtly so)

(i thought about making the mid game cutscene into a rough comic or storyboard but im honestly very unsure about it all again q-q)

(i hope this version is better, i will never post these drawing again i swear im done with this part ..)

[dostoyevsky-official]

Elon Musk Wants to Get Operational Control of the Treasury’s Payment System. This Could Not Possibly Be More Dangerous

I understated the extremity and danger of the situation we’re in even as a Judge on Friday issued a more comprehensive injunction against the executive orders which were designed to impound funds, OMB guidance or not, across the federal government. I also understated all the things ordinary Americans are in “danger” of learning about. It's now not just the “legal plumbing,” it's the payments plumbing too. This is now also the closest thing we’ve ever had to a payment system constitutional crisis.

So what happened? According to reporting on Friday — first at the Washington Post and then in more detail from CNN as well as the New York Times — the Fiscal Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury David Lebryk has been put on paid administrative leave and plans to resign after refusing to give Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) access to the operational details of the Treasury’s payment system and the data it processes. In particular, Musk’s DOGE team has been asking for what the New York Times reporting refers to as “source code information” since December and has been rebuffed. The CNN reporting specifically states that they were inquiring about the technical ability to stop payments.

Lebryk's understanding of the operational systems that undergird the functioning of the United States Treasury is far and away unparalleled. In particular, he is widely credited with being the person who is overwhelmingly responsible for the undisrupted continuity of cash inflows and outflows at the Treasury during the recurrent debt ceiling crises of the past 15 years while concurrently ensuring the debt ceiling limit was not breached.

[...] The danger is also not in the near future, it is here. Follow up reporting from the New York Times Saturday evening in an article straightforwardly informed readers in its headline that “Elon Musk’s Team Now Has Full Access to Treasury’s Payments System.”

[...] The internal treasury payments systems must function correctly; it just also matters what purposes it is being designed for. 

Musk and his cronies are clearly aiming to redesign the payments system to serve their agenda. This is not the attitude of people who are trying to simply technocratically make the payment system more “efficient.” They have a very clear and specific agenda, which involves unilaterally cutting spending, particularly spending they perceive to be going to their ideological foes. Is “Wokeness,” the “Green New Deal,” “Marxism,” and “Gender Ideology” going to be the new definition of an “improper payment"?

[...] Without political control of the payment's heart, the Trump administration and Elon Musk must chase down every agency and bend it to their will. They are in the process of doing that, but bureaucrats can notionally continue to respect the law and resist their efforts. They are helped in this effort by court injunctions they can point to. This is bureaucratic trench warfare. But if Musk and Trump can reach into the choke point, the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, they could possibly not need agency cooperation. They can just impound agency payments themselves. They could also possibly stop paying federal employees they have forced on paid administrative leave, coercing them to resign.

[...] For the past 36 hours (writing these words at Midnight on Saturday) my mind has returned over and over to the idea that they have been asking for “source code information” to the Treasury’s internal payments system.

[...] Anyone who knows or has known computer programmers of mission critical legacy IT systems can tell you about the stories of rafts of consultants who have come and gone attempting to understand how the system works so they can “modernize” it on the cheap. The vast majority of the time these consultants are either not able to do what they promise or are honest about the cost of updating the system without a mission critical system “going down,” leading management to balk.

[...] Does Elon Musk understand any of this? Does he have any grasp of the scale and complexity he is trying to reach into and exercise “influence”? Currently the most urgent and profound danger is not what he intends to make this sprawling apparatus do. The most immediate danger is what might break in the process of trying to get this apparatus to do what he wants.

[...] Elon Musk, however, has never shown respect or understanding of the concept of a mission critical IT system. All he sees is “inefficiency” because he doesn’t understand that there are some things in this world that need to function no matter what and you spend the additional money to make sure it runs, including when it's being updated.

This is ultimately not that big a deal when it comes to Twitter — Twitter can go down for a few hours, even a few days. [...] To put that another way, the same cannot be said about the system that makes sure the federal government is able to make payments reliably and on time. [...] It's also important to state that the number of people who comprehensively understand these legacy IT systems can likely be counted on two hands — and that may be optimistic.

[...] There is nothing more important on the entire planet than getting Elon Musk and DOGE out of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service and allowing career civil service employees to run the Treasury’s internal payments system without capricious and self-serving interference from billionaires and their allies. This effort must fail if we are to safeguard any semblance of due process and lawfulness in the executive branch. A vague anonymous promise that DOGE only has “read only” access is not enough. They need to be rooted out so that we can return to the slower moving, less dangerous, “five alarm fire” constitutional crisis we were having as of Friday morning.

[druidgroves]

itch.io is doing a bundle of games for $10 in support of gaza !

"In response to the ongoing crisis in Gaza and occupied Palestine, we're creating this bundle to raise funds for the organization Medical Aid For Palestinians. From the organization's website: "MAP's vision is a future where all Palestinians can access an effective, sustainable and locally-led system of healthcare, and the full realisation of their rights to health and dignity. Through our programmes in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and Lebanon, we work with trusted and experienced local partners to achieve this vision. Our programmes, designed and delivered by Palestinians, provide access to essential health services and build local knowledge and skills to address Palestinian health problems. In times of humanitarian emergency, we are ready to respond rapidly with aid and assistance. MAP is also committed to bearing witness to the injustices caused by occupation, displacement and conflict. We speak out in the UK and internationally, and ensure Palestinian voices are heard at the highest levels, to press for the political and social barriers to Palestinian health and dignity to be addressed." This bundle will run for two weeks, from October 26th-November 9th, 2023." (bolded emphasis mine)

[hummingbird-games]

2024 in Review (Indie Games)

2023 | 2022 | 2021

Helloooo gamer friends!!!

I'm so tired.

Lol.

Anyhoo, y'all don't care about that!!! Y'all are here to see what games I played and what the heck I have to say about them! Reminders: I don't bash games I didn't like, and I try to post more in-depth thoughts and reviews and general yapping to Gem's Game Gems.

DEMOS

When Stars Collide - I am by no means a sci-fi girlie. I need a HEAPING dose of fantasy or fantasy elements to help me out. That said, y'all might remember how I went feral for Gilded Shadows, so I am locked in for this journey with WSC. It's just as mysterious and lore intense as GS, but also just as intriguing and engaging!

Love Me, Love Me Not - I looooove when a game charms me to pieces??? Our MC Addie, the introduced LIs, the story, the art??? Where do I begin?? Anyway, please check this one out y'all! I'm impatient for the full game (shocker, I know).

Threads of You: Beyond the Bay - So my thoughts and reactions for this one are on the side blog, but I really enjoyed the demo and I have eyes for Chris, Vince, and Alex hehehe.

Lost in Limbo - While I'd been keeping tabs on this game for what seems forever because of the character art that originally caught my attention, I almost didn't finish the demo because it was lowkey disturbing (I'm a wimp and not all horror is made equal). But!!! BUT!!!! I push through to the end, had a good time, noted that I need to play the full game in the daylight with the music turned down low. And I absolutely adore Ara and Xal so, so much.

A Simple Twist of Fae - Absolutely no one cares, but I read a lot of manga this year. Like, a lot-a lot. Like, ~180 books and 1/3 of that was manga. Anyhoo, When JMB announced she was cooking up this game, I was impatient to get my grubby hands on it. AND THEN I PLAYED IT AND IT WAS THE SHOJO INSPIRED GAME OF MY DREAMS?!?! Like.....I wish I could both have it on my computer and also on my bookshelf. Final build dropping when??? (Also the UI design is utterly delightful, I cry.)

The Summit Library (FULL DEMO) - The last time I reviewed this game, we got chapter 1 as a taste, and I was. Locked! In!! The full demo gives us the first 2 chapters as well as the previews for all the romance routes and while giving everyone a whirl I'm *still* undecided on who to go for in the future, I must mention this: TSL is so aspec friendly???? I do love a game with smut, don't get me wrong looks at College Craze but sometimes I have my moments of being overwhelmed/sliiiiiiightly repulsed and the variety of options you have to choose how you react and interact with the various LIs in this game is amazing. (I have more thoughts on this, so I'll try to remember to post to the sideblog, but please understand that this game is totally worth your attention and time imo!!!)

Fully Released & Played (at least 1 playthrough)

Rabbit Trail - This. Game. Is. SO. Cute. *punches the air* 😭🥹(Copy + paste of my review on the itch.io page -> This was so charming, so fluffy, so cozy, just delightful all around??? I've only reached one ending so far, but René is just the cutest protag to play as, and his interactions as he delivers his mail made me cheese so dang hard! (Also, I wanted to fight his parents for not properly appreciating their kid LOL))

Stuck by Design - I checked this game out because I was looking into games that fellow programmers had worked on, and this cozy game stumbled onto my lap. The music was perfect, the UI is beautiful and clean, and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance of the VA for the LI, Yuki.

Wake Me Up If You Need Me - I called this game older!HSDJY MC x Ryan coded and I'm still right. The voice actor MAKES this game, and the interactions the player has with Reed is so flippin' delightful?? All my love and adoration to the game developer. May they make more beautiful games.

CTRL FREAK - The developer team brought us The Faithfulness of the Universe which is a banger in its own right, and CTRL FREAK is the team's commercial, finished project that I also found delightful. The soundtrack and the animations are chef's kiss 💛

Breathless Winds - Ooo, baby, ooo. So. If there is only one game you play from this list and you have some spare cash to spend (at the time of writing, the game is on sale!!!) please, please, check this one out. It left me absolutely spellbound, both the orginal demo, and then the full game. While I didn't get to blog fully about this one, and I only tackled 2 of the 4 routes, this game is absolutely everything. This is my indie game of the year. Poppy and her journey resonated with me, and between the music and the art, everything just came together so perfectly.

Wake Up Magical Girl - Listen TF up, if miseri creates it, I'm gonna play it, idc, idc. That being said...this game had a kick to it that when I finished my first playthrough, I had to stare off into space and gather myself. It takes the concept of magical girls and heroism and gave me a teeny tiny existential crisis, but other than that, I'm fine, it's fine, play this game, thank you.

Sleeping Under Spells - God, I love me a game where I get to argue with a LI. I love it. Bonus points if it's lowkey stupid stuff we're bickering over LOL!!

Our Wonderland - Yeah, uh huh, you thought you'd escape me talking about this game this year, didn't yah???? Too bad. The fifth and final arc dropped this year and I played it and I cried and felt for the briefest moments that life was okay. To say something different than my review of last year, I love that this seems to be the game that helps fellow ace devs find and flock to each other, I'm not kidding 🤣 so thank you Carrot for helping us fellow aspec peeps feel seen and validated and understood!

I Watched a Full Game Playthrough and Highly Recommend

Replay Boys - Okay so technically at the time of posting, there's still one more video I'm waiting to watch (Naja of BlerdyOtome uploaded her stream to YouTube) but my Godddddd. I've had my eye on this game for FOREVER but I was lowkey waiting for it to move to itch.io (I'm still a lowkey Steam hater 🥹) anyhoo, watching this absolutely wild game made me go ahead and buy a copy for myself to replay at a later time, but it's just great. The summary only scratches this surface of what the game entails 🤣

Gemi’s Gushies

(a list within a list of games that have devs trucking along in the background and I want to spotlight for y’all)

Save the Villainess - Life got away with me and unfortunately I never finished my play of the demo BUT what I have played was fun and I hope to return to this in the new year!

Woman of Xal 2 - Plot Twist Studios is on that Sequel Train with the next installment of WoX!!! Which I'm VERY excited for!!! I've unfortunately only completed one playthrough of this game, but the first game is definitely a masterclass in replayability, and I hope next year I'll be able to do a second playthough as I wait for game 2's Kickstarter!

...

And that's 2024! Any shared favorites?

- Gemini 🫶🏾

[asgodsfall-if]

Public update: Chapters 4 & 5 out now!

I'm happy to deliver a brand new public update that concluded the core story of act 1 by adding chapters 4 and 5. What you'll get to do in the new chapters:

Chase down the few remaining leads

Witness a calamity that shakes the city further into chaos

Stand face to face with a goddess (and possibly receive her blessing)

On top of that the demo now includes the up to this point Patreon exclusive side content including a mission with Paoni and an opportunity to witness a vision of the future. The new total word count for the demo is now slightly over 113 thousand words including code.

You can try the demo here:

With the main parts of act 1 concluded I will most likely use this chance to fill out the side content starting with most likely the opening to Mesar's and the werewolves side quests. Unless there's something else you think I should do first. Either way stay tuned and I hope you'll enjoy what this update has to offer. Sameless Patreon and Kofi plugs:

[marmaladeinlemonade]

Ppl will complain about Pressure updates and devs while forgetting Pressure is NEW.

Ik tumblr has more users with common sense but the amount of tiktoks and tt users say that the game was at its PEAK two weeks after the game's release just bc you could climb Sebastian, he wasn't (visibly) married (it was always written into his character), and tolerated the players slightly more is INSANE.

Most games, at that, aren't at its peak gameplay and story a month after release!!

"The anti-climbing mechanic doesn't even fix anything!" Yeah because you climbed Sebastian several times over ofc at SOME point you're gonna get softlocked bro. Maybe try playing pressure for a reason aside from harassing seb.

I genuinely feel like the pressure fanbase tend to forget that Pressure is from roblox programmers in a small developing group. This isn't Hoyoverse or DevSisters where the game is fully polished with information on all characters and a finalized world building upon release because the company has more time, money, and skilled labor to develop that. It was made in ~1 year and a rushed release.

Not only that, but Pressure is a passion-project. It isn't driven by money, which means there's not much of an incentive to please the playerbase with fan service content that changes lore/characters so people can buy it. (Fan service as in any content made to make ppl happy) So, developers are going to choose what they want to do with the game bc they don't care whether or not you play. Zeal said so first thing in his interview with Breadian.

Amazing features that enrich gameplay and world building such as Sebastian killing walldwellers and the DiVine being able to kill you, Navi-AI turning into a new character, and several new room types are hinted to come to Pressure but nooo!!! Its somehow cooked and unsavable because of ONE form of characterization YOU deem incorrect not even knowing the character's lore. Right.

Edit: Pressure has a future as a roblox game that values storytelling and immersing the user in it's world. We need rblx games like it that put work over profit so people stay on the platform. Especially when older and new games have become money hungry over time.

Its really crazy how people be biting the hand that feeds them. Seb could easily be replaced with an expendable or unknown void like jeffery as a merchant npc if this continues. Online users will really be out her acting like the person who wrote and designed their favorite character is all of a sudden BAD!! And their favorite character is RUINED!!! And TAKEN AWAY FROM THEM!! Because their personality wasn't made to please the fanbase.

Yes, Sebastian hates you. Not pouty tsundere hates you, he is literally keeping you alive against his own will by mr. Lopee. He not tryna fuck bro 🔥

[everygame]

Special Delivery: Santa’s Christmas Chaos (C64)

Developed/Published by: Dalali Software / Creative Sparks (Thorn EMI Computer Software) Released: 1984 Completed: 05/12/2024 Completion: Got a high score of 8750. I’ll take it!

Writing about old video games for an audience of very few could seem like a thankless task–especially when they’re as awful as Christmas Crackers. But there’s a reason I do it. One, I just love playing games, even if they’re so crap I give up on them in minutes. Two, I just love learning. I love discovery, I love finding out things that are new to me about video games and their history. And sometimes, if I’m lucky, I find out some things that no one has really paid attention to before.

I never thought playing a completely random Christmas cash-in on C64 would bring me anything like that.

Special Delivery: Santa’s Christmas Chaos is a game for C64, Spectrum and Atari 8-Bit released by Dalali Software under Thorn EMI’s “Creative Sparks” imprint. At the time it sank without trace due to, apparently, a lack of marketing. After playing it–and I will get into that–I did my usual investigation into the developer, and was quite prepared to dismiss Dalali as one of the many fly-by-night British game developers of the 1980s–they appeared to be only a going concern between 1984 and 1989 and didn’t have any particularly notable games to their name. They were responsible for ports of Rescue On Fractalus and Lilttle Computer People to Amstrad CPC, but largely seem to have had the bad luck of being most related to 1986’s Biggles game. The weirdest thing about that is that not only did I really like the movie on which it was based (which I’m sure no one else remembers but me) when I was a kid, watching it on telly several times, I’ve actually played the game! It was on Amstrad Action #68’s covertape (along with How To Be A Complete Bastard!) and, as vague as my memories of it are now, I’m sure I played it loads of times. Less than How To Be A Complete Bastard, admittedly.

This led me to dig a little further, and sometimes things just fall into place, because I found an astonishingly in-depth article from Sham Mountebank’s When Were They Now? blog (a new one to me) all about Dalali. I think Mountebank slightly buries the lede however, because digging into the linked articles it seems absolutely remarkable that Dalali is not only in the ranks of the earliest companies to have been founded (or co-founded) by a woman, but very likely the first game company founded by a Palestinian: Hanan Samara.

Hanan Samara, pictured in Computer & Video Games March 1985.

Game companies had been co-founded by women before–most famously Sierra, by Roberta Williams and her husband Ken in 1979–but I think Samara’s story might be unique.  According to an interview with ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast she believes she might have been the first female assembly programmer in the UK, starting out by converting software to work for the Arabic market. Moving to work for Thorn EMI, she’d see a Humpty Dumpty puzzle game–programmed by her future husband(!) Chris James–and be “hooked.”

After coding Jumbo Jet Pilot for Atari 8-Bit for Thorn EMI, it seems that she made the leap to founding Dalali–named for her mother’s maiden name (as her mother said go for it, while her dad said to get a job at IBM...) with another ex-employee, Adrian Wadley.

Something I really appreciate about Samara’s story is that she immediately brought herself to game design, with Dalali’s first game “Jinn Genie”. While this kind of Arabic-theming undoubtedly seems stereotypical today, in an interview with Popular Computing Weekly it is clear that this is an early example of someone trying to represent their culture via the art of video games:

“Jinn Genie is a game that incorporates many of the basic myths and children’s stories of my culture–I am an Arab, a Palestinian, and all the ideas of genies and so on are familiar to me.”

Jinn Genie, on C64.

The most disappointing thing, to me, is that Samara is, at this point, unheralded outside of a blog post, one short podcast, and about… three short articles featuring three pictures that can be found on archive.org! She’s one of the UK’s earliest female programmers, game designers and founders, perhaps the first Palestinian game developer, and she has managed to run Dalali since 1984 because it’s still going–they just stopped making games.

Samara’s story isn’t mine to tell, so I hope that institutions like GDC, The Video Game History Foundation or The Strong can find out more and champion her. Figures such as Muriel Tramis have gone from overlooked to winning the Legion of Honour, and if I can help get the word out about Hanan Samara, just a little bit, I’ll feel I’ve done my part.

But I know what you’re asking now.

“But how good is Special Delivery: Santa’s Christmas Chaos???”

So let's return to regular programming. First, I’m going to note that I believe I have played the wrong version of this. When it came to games, Samara was an Atari 8-bit coder, and it is absolutely transparent that Special Delivery is based entirely on Jinn Genie–both feature a flying section, a climbing section, and a section with floors and ladders. It does feel like I should have played the Atari 8-bit version to experience the most representative version, as I did with playing the C64 version of Pirates, let’s say.

(It’s worth mentioning here also that the ANTIC podcast–recorded seven years ago now–even notes that the version of Jinn Genie that Samara coded, for the Atari 8-bit, seems to be lost, although Samara does say that she has a copy of it somewhere. Aforementioned institutions could probably help with that too. What that largely means, though, is that the Atari 8-bit version of Special Delivery is the closest you can get to playing the original Jinn Genie.)

To be fair, the C64 version seems pretty close to the original (the ZX Spectrum port is… not).

As I’ve said previously, my expectations for a Chrimbo cash-in have been low, and no matter how much this is sort of a reskin of a previous game, that it’s got an idea and an actual design exceeds anything I’ve expected. At first glance you might go “well, isn’t this just Santa Claus again?” (or even Santa’s Sleigh Ride.) But it’s honestly much more–even if it is still a bit weird.

In Special Delivery, you’re first flying across the screen in Santa’s (somewhat confusingly drawn) sleigh, collecting presents that… angels are dropping. Which implies that this is in fact the historical Saint Nicolas, or maybe I’m just overthinking it. You’re trying to collect a target number of presents, but you lose them if you crash into clouds (odd) or accidentally collect a demonic present dropped by a devil (who appear rarely, but look very much like angels, annoyingly.) Losing presents won’t kill you, but Santa has a set amount of hours in the night, and you lose an hour if you get struck by the lightning that occasionally appears from the strangely firm clouds.

If you collect enough presents, you get to land on a big house to put presents under the tree. First this requires you climb down the chimney, which in this situation is: huge, full of ladders, and lit so flames keep climbing the ladders that you have to dodge. Once you’ve done that, you’re actually in the house, where you have to Solid Snake your way to the tree, drop off the present, grab the front door key, and then leave through the front door, while the residents run wildly from one room to the next, seemingly out of their nut with either excitement for Christmas or hatred for Santa. Get hit by a flame or grabbed by a resident and you’ll lose an hour.

Interestingly, if you don’t collect enough presents, you don’t get to go into any big houses, but you do get to drop presents down the chimney of some wee houses. You only really pick up big points for going into big houses, which raises the concerning idea that Santa only gives a fuck about you if you’re rich enough to live in a big house.

But to be fair, the people in big houses seem absolutely determined to not get pressies, keeping their fires roaring and attacking Santa on sight, so perhaps he just likes the challenge. “I hope Santa doesn’t show up” they’re saying, “we’ve got all the stuff we need in this big house. We don’t need wooden toys or whatever the historic Saint Nick would be handing out, he should give those to the poor people in the wee houses.”

More fool them, I checked Wikipedia and he was dropping off bags of gold coins through people’s windows. (Admittedly to stop them being sold into prostitution.)

Anyway. Even before I knew the exciting context for Special Delivery, I was struck by how… weirdly ok it was! Maybe it’s just how bad the other Santa-em-ups have been (well, I guess I didn’t hate Merry Xmas Santa) but the different sections largely make sense together, undoubtedly because it’s based on Jinn Genie. The main problem really is that it just doesn’t control very well. Flying the sleigh is stiff, and when you’re actually controlling Santa himself, he reacts very slowly to your input, meaning you have to time presses based on the lag, and I probably lost most of my lives in the chimneys as a result–it might be better on the Atari 8-Bit, so more fool me.

Special Delivery is not really the kind of thing that’s going to hold your attention for very long, but it does actually manage to be playable and feels properly festive. I’ll celebrate that.

Will I ever play it again? I was surprised to see a non-zero number of people say online that playing this is a bit of a Christmas tradition. Well, I don’t think I will be taking it up, but I do fancy playing Jinn Genie at some point now--maybe once that Atari 8-bit version is found!

Final Thought: In my research I was surprised to discover not only had I played a Dalai Software game before, I’d also played a Creative Sparks game, similarly loads of times: Danger Mouse In Double Trouble. Strangely, it has the same multi-game design as this (and I guess, a lot of the computer games of the era) but suffered a lot more for them not having any meaningful connection and mostly being rubbish. Even as a child I remember enjoying just the jungle level and suffering through the rest to get through that. The things you’ll do when you’ve got nothing else as a child.

Every Game I’ve Finished 14>24 is OUT NOW! You can pick it up in paperback, kindle, or epub/pdf. You can also support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi! You can pick up digital copies of exp., a zine featuring all-exclusive writing at my shop, or join as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

[theroyalsandi]

Danish Royal Family - The Danish Royal House released a new portraits of Princess Isabella in celebration of her upcoming 18th birthday on Monday the 21st April 2025. Also included an itinerary for the Princess' birthday celebration. (Photos were taken by Steen Evald) | March 06, 2025

HRH Princess Isabella’s 18th birthday On Monday, 21 April 2025 (Easter Monday), Her Royal Highness Princess Isabella turns 18 years old. The birthday will be marked officially on 11 and 15 April in Aarhus and Copenhagen, respectively, with celebrations that pay tribute to the communities of the young generation with culture, creativity, sustainability and volunteerism as the principal elements. The following official events will take place in connection with the 18th birthday of The Princess: Friday, 11 April 2025 14:00 at Aarhus City Hall → The City of Aarhus hosts a birthday event at Aarhus City Hall that will be a tribute to the city’s many young talents in the creative fields such as music, sport, cuisine and design. Young, Aarhusian designers present a fashion show with a focus on sustainability and future materials, upcoming musicians entertain on the stage, elite dancers in training put on a performance and students from the vocational education programmes offer birthday cake. Among the invited guests, there will be approximately 100 young people from local youth organisations and educations. In addition, another 50 young Aarhusians with companions will get the opportunity to participate in the event via a lottery. Tuesday, 15 April 2025 19:30 The Royal Danish Theatre’s Old Stage → The Princess and The Royal Family attend a birthday performance on The Old Stage of The Royal Danish Theatre. The Royal House of Denmark, in cooperation with The Royal Danish Theatre, invites the young generation to entertaining, exciting and varied performing arts that are both classical and modern. The theatre will be filled with a young audience, as more than 1000 young people ranging from the ages of 17 to 24 from the whole Realm will have the opportunity to get tickets to the birthday performance via a lottery. Details about the lottery can be accessed on The Royal Danish Theatre’s website: www.kglteater.dk. DR will broadcast the birthday performance. In connection with The Princess’s 18th birthday, new portraits of The Princess taken by photographer Steen Evald in Frederik VIII’s Palace at Amalienborg are published today. The portraits can be downloaded from The Royal House of Denmark’s media bank on kongehuset.dk. The guidelines for use of the portraits appear on The Royal House of Denmark’s website. News media information concerning Princess Isabella’s birthday will be announced at a later date.

[mariacallous]

If there was a pro-Palestinian movement that wanted to capitalise on the disgust at the destruction of Gaza, it would be moving now to demand a compromise peace.

Western and Arab governments should use every sanction to enforce the removal of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, it would say. They are designed to so change the demography of the West Bank that a Palestinian state becomes an impossibility.

 Since Netanyahu came back to power in a coalition with the far right,  mobs have wrecked Huwara and other Palestinian villages.  It is not too fanciful to imagine a future when ethnic cleansers will run riot.

Western governments have already made tentative and, from the point of view of any robust and principled supporter of Palestine, wholly inadequate gestures. They have issued sanctions on groups that fund extremism, and left it there.

But instead of the global left demanding that the world begins to lay the groundwork for compromise, it insists on war, and a war to the death at that.

I could moralise about left ignorance. I could say its position that Israel is a settler colonial state is at best a half-truth which fails to acknowledge that its population is made up of the descendants of refugees from Arab nationalism and European fascism.

Let me for once avoid preachiness, however, and say that from the practical point of view, the global left has adopted a disastrous position.

It’s worse than a crime, it’s a blunder.

In any war to the death, Israel will win. It has nuclear weapons and a population under arms

Those who urge the abolition of Israel by chanting “from the river to the sea/ Palestine will be free” or by demanding that the descendants of Palestinians refugees have a right to return to swamp the Jewish state may think they are being principled. But they are playing into the hands of the Israeli right.

Netanyahu tells the West that he has no partners for peace. By supporting the programme of Hamas and Iran, the global left is proving him right.

When Iran attacks, the Israeli right can say completely accurately that its enemies want to wipe Israel from the map. And look what happens then. Not just Western countries but Arab states like Jordan defend Israel.

Two can play at the game of demanding total victory, and one side has all the advantages.

As the charter of the hard-line rightist Likud party put it, in  language which sounds familiar: “Between the Sea and the River Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”

If I were Palestinian, I could imagine myself wanting Israel gone. But the hope of total victory has been a disaster. In 1948, 1967 and 1973 the Arab states tried to wipe Israel off the map and succeeded only in strengthening it.

There is still a great deal of argument about what Hamas thought would happen when its terrorists attacked Israel in October. One theory holds that Hamas was possessed with the same delusion that misled the Bolsheviks in 1917, and hoped to ignite a general uprising.

The Arab masses failed to rise up on Hamas’s behalf and Iran made it clear it was not prepared to engage in more than token warfare with Israel.

Once again, an attempt to wipe out Israel has brought harm to Palestinian civilians.

If you doubt me on the dangers of going for a purist, maximal strategy and demanding total victory, listen to a true leftist, Norman Finkelstein.

There was a time when I admired his attacks on the “Holocaust Industry” and Jews who exploited Nazism to help Israel.

But after my own experiences of left antisemitism, I became suspicious of an argument which, when taken to extreme, was used to maintain the pretence that anti-Jewish racism did not exist, or barely existed, and that accusations of antisemitism were log rolling by cunning Jews seeking to exploit the compassion of naïve gentiles.

The parallels with anti-black racists who claim their opponents are merely “playing the race card” were too obvious to labour.

No such qualms held Finkelstein back. He helped build the anti-Israel movement in the US, and you might have thought his comrades would have listened to him.

He gave a speech at the student sit-in at Columbia university saying they should not chant for the abolition of Israel and for a Palestine “from the river to the sea”.

If you leave “wriggle room for misinterpretation,” he said, your enemies will exploit it.

The speech was a faintly embarrassing performance. Finkelstein is an old man now, and he rambled down many rhetorical cul-de-sac​s. At the end the students just laughed at him and began chanting “from the river to the sea/ Palestine will be free”.

A part of the explanation for their disastrous flight to the extremes lies in the appeal of ​Manichaeism.

People want to feel wholly virtuous and by necessity want to believe their enemies are wholly evil. In these circumstances, only the co​mplete destruction of evil from the river to the sea will suffice. It’s simply not enough to say that Israel must merely withdraw from the occupied territories. Satan and all his works must be renounced.

You might object that some protestors say they want to replace Israel with a sweet, multicultural liberal democracy. But this is progressive thinking at its woozy wishful-thinking worst: an argument made in clear bad faith.

If they were serious, they would damn Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Iran who want to create an Islamic state. But it is not just that they do not criticise radical Islam, they barely acknowledge its existence. If you listen to the speeches at the rallies and sit-ins, Hamas and its ultra-reactionary blood-stained ideology are simply not mentioned.

The effort is self-defeating. By going to the extremes, a protest movement has a Manichean appeal but it plays into the hands of its enemies.

The “evaporation theory of protest” explains the phenomenon. When the Gaza war ends, and let us hope that it ends soon, most of the protestors will drift away and get on with their lives.

As they evaporate, all that is left will be a residue composed of the most committed and the most extreme.

They will carry on campaigning when the cause is all but forgotten. When Palestine and Israel are no longer in the news, they will still be there.

And when the next war begins in Israel/Palestine – and I am afraid that there will be a next one – they will organise the protests, write the extreme slogans and set the maximalist demands.

This is why the far left dictates the terms of left-wing protests, and why those protests fail.

Or to put it another way, this is why Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour party and then lost every election he fought

I could be wrong. Perhaps the global wave of protest will bring change for the better. I hope it does. But I fear that, as so often, Palestinian people will be worse off than they were before.​