#Who doesn't like a fishing minigame?

[kittnpaw]

꒰☆꒱ agere ds games! /ᐠ 𒒬 ∇ •́ マ

i've seen quitee a few different posts talking abt nice games for regressors but i noticed a lot of them focus on phone games, so i thought i'd to compile a list of my absolute favorite nostalgic ds games bc i (and headmates) like to play those when regressed!!

♡ animal crossing: wild world - if you like playing acnh on switch, consider giving wild world a try! it's a lot more simplistic than new horizons but it's very cozy and the core gameplay is still the same (fishing, catching bugs, talking to villagers, etc.)

☆ nintendogs - who doesn't love nintendogs!! you get to adopt a puppy and take care of them, play with them, enter them in competitions, and so on! being able to pet and brush your doggies with a touchscreen makes it even better.

♡ petz nursery - another pet-themed game, this time you get to take care of a variety of little baby animals! there's lots of little minigames for feeding, cleaning, and playing with them. i find the low-poly newborn puppies and kittens very endearing.

☆ mysims - a very cute little game that has little to do with the main sims games but is fun nonetheless. you play minigames and explore and interact with tourists in a vacation town!

♡ pokemon mystery dungeon: explorers of sky - a spin-off of the mainline pokemon games where you play as a human-turned-pokemon and explore dungeons with a team of other pokemon! it's a little more complex than some of these other games but it has a really good storyline!

☆ cookie shop - a game about running a desert cafe!! you play as a little dog (chocodog) named rose and grow your shop and collect recipes. soso cute

♡ professor layton and the curious village - my headmate would be mad if i didn't include a professor layton game so here's the first one! a silly little game where you investigate a town and solve various puzzles!

☆ the legendary starfy - a game similar to kirby but with underwater sections. it's very cute and i would recommend it if you enjoy platformers or sea-themed things!

interested in playing one of these? even if you don't own a ds/3ds, you can always play these games through an emulator (such as melonDS or delta) ! whether you buy these games or obtain them through other means is none of my business /ᐠ 𒒬 ﻌ < マ

[bardnuts]

assassin's creed valhalla pisses me off so much. no one else in the world is as obsessed with this mediocre game as me. It's so aggressively inconsistent in quality. Pedestrians are T-posing in the streets and my horse clips through any fences he doesn't like, but every now and then it hits you with a cutscene so meticulously crafted you'll feel like you tripped and fell into HBO. I'm convinced there was one guy in the writer's room who was like ten levels above everyone else. Anyone who says the story is boring went in for crazy action and didn't like that they got a relatively grounded historical fantasy instead. why does it have themes and stuff? it's an assassin's creed game. It doesn't need themes and stuff. It has them anyway. The writing is astonishingly competent. I don't understand it. Look at this screenshot. This is the best screenshot i've ever taken. i'm so mad. this game sucks ass. the mechanics make no sense and the combat is floaty and it's so easy to cheese you barely even need to know how to play it. why is the fishing minigame so bad? why is the writing so good? it made me cry. it cracked my egg. look at this screenshot. why is eivor so hot. How did they do that.

"Why is she aiming a bow at the ocean," you may say. Well. I was shooting fish

[crowtaclysm]

I also got into pressure and made a Pressure self insert sort of!

Meet Rivet Stitch!

He got yoinked by UrbanShade because he along with a coulple of friends were tryin to gather intel on the company to expose all the horrible things they had done, plan didn't go as accordin though when the hacker of the group accidentally triggered security, Rivet and his friends had to make a run for it but in their desperation to escape they threw him under the bus, leavin him to get caught. As punishment he was used for experimentation and kept in the site, forced to comply and work as "The Warden" via various control devices they had on him.

He seemed to get along with Sebastian and tolerated anyone he considered innocent working at the site(like janitorial staff and such), when the lockdown happened the control devices he had on went off, leavin him paralyzed and in pain, with no hope to escape, it was Sebastian who found him first and removed them for him.

Nowadays he stays in the site as he knows he has no chance at returnin to society while lookin like this. He resents his ex-friends, not only for usin him to save their asses but because he knows(and it's true) that they never again tried to get in, hack or even contact him to see if he was still alive.

After years of knowin Sebastian as well as spendin time with him after the lockdown, they grew close together, started datin and are currently "married". Rivet is not a big fan of marriage and would rather avoid it, but he went along with Sebastian because he seemed happy with the idea, he likes matching marriage rings with him and loves bein called husband/hubby by Sebastian.

Rivet has the DNAs of a Leopard Seal, a Lion Fish, a Lancetfish, a Shortfin Mako Shark, an Inland Taipan, a Flashlight Fish and [REDACTED]

Size wise he's not as long as Sebastian but he's larger than him, Seb reaches at about Rivet's shoulders. The redacted creature in his DNA is what gives him his size. Rivet is also both venomous due to the Inland Taipan as well as poisonous due to the Lion Fish. His bite as well as anything green and sharp are to be avoided if you want to survive.

His game mechanic has him stalkin the player most of the times, he always spawns in thouse rooms with windows that have Naval Mines outside, he'll be hidin behind thouse, makin constant eye contact. He only becomes a threat whenever the player is underwater, be it crossin a big openin on the site followin the beacons or in flooded rooms. His tell will be the loud scratchin of his claws against the floor and walls as well as his hissin and growlin as he rushes towards the player. If he doesn't see you he very much acts like an Angler(will rush in and out at least twice and at most five times), minus takin the lights out. If he does see you however you'll have to hide in a locker and will get a minigame similar to Pandemonium's or you can avoid him by hidin somewhere out of reach like a vent or a small crevice, he'll claw at it for a bit before givin up and leavin.

Lastly he also has a mechanic in which he will use his natural glow to make the player think it's a beacon and lure them into a hole in the wall that leads to water before swipin at them and draggin them in, if you have another player close by you'll be able to be rescued by them at the cost of 50 points of damage that continuously drain overtime due to his poison unless you use a medkit or pay Sebastian to remove the poison out of you(if you pay him you'll get an easter egg of Rivet laughin and lookin at you from the hole on the ceilin of Seb's shop, Sebastian will also let out a small amused chuckle at Rivet's mockery), if you're solo or your friends are too far it's an instant kill, the tell is easy however as real beacons also have smoke comin out of them while Rivet's fakeout only has the green glow.

And now, a WIP of the gays under the cut:

Lord this sketch is so messy, I'll try to finish it tomorrow.

[teyvatairconditioningco]

I vaguely dip into the WHB fandom and I know a lot of y'all are abandoning ship (same) so I'm gonna take a minute to plug Love and Deepspace.

Honestly, it's raised the standard for otome games; I've played quite a lot and I've never played one quite like this. I went in thinking the character designs were a little bland and it certainly doesn't have the anime-aesthetic I usually like but the men are so damn full of personality and expression it's WILD. I haven't been playing long enough to gauge the gacha, but honestly there's enough going on that I forget it's a gacha game at all (I will remember when Sylus drops, I'm sure). The gameplay is fun and there's a lot of neat little minigames. It of course doesn't have the spice levels that WHB has, but there have been a couple of cards that made me take a lap around the room because WHEW.

ANYWAY, allow me to introduce you to:

World's strongest puppy. Goofy ass sleepy baby man. Has no idea what you're talking about but loves and supports you.

This pouty motherfucker who has not left my home screen because I love him so much. Also appears to be some sort of fish and also a ninja. VERY good with his hands.

Zayne

...

Alright, all two of the Zayne girlies are gonna come at me for that, so he's a doctor and also:

If you're thinking "well actually, Miss Air Conditioner, I play whb for the morally questionable horny demons:"

Coming Soon...

That's all, thanks for reading!

[arafergirl-artdump]

(ENG) Queer and Neurodivergent community around Nintendo (an Essay)

(Was peer reviewed by native English speaker!)

Let me start with a little backstory. I talked with someone when I learned they were neurodivergent. I was surprised because of my own reasons, but they said their friends who were interested in Miis/Nintendo were queer and/or neurodivergent. This became a kickstarter for this.

First of all, hey, I'm queer and neurodivergent! My identity in details doesn't matter right now.

This was interesting because my hyperfixation for nintendo was the fastest hyperfixation i ever diveloped, now it’s DJ Yellow and Student, who is from Nintendo game. I got my switch in 2020-2021 with Animal Crossing and Just Dance, my first ever Nintendo console and first games respectively, so I have little to no personal history with it, even watching gameplay didn't make me interested in it. Yet, I still got into it. So I want to understand why it happened.

Before I'll start: It’s heavily based on me and my experience. Of course, I DON'T speak for every queer and ND person who is interested in Nintendo with my limited sources and knowledge. Also, it’s NOT a sientific research, i will use things from psychology, but it doesn't make me a specialist in it, which i don’t.

Neurodiversity

I think it’s easier for me to explain. I planned to talk about console design first, but I think most people know that Nintendo isn’t really competing with Xbox or Playstation, so of course it's consoles will be different. Well, most people aren't interested in consoles themselves! It’s games! And here’s the kicker.

Of course, big companies like this will be hiring good character designers, any company would. But there is something interesting I found in only nintendo games.

For me, it’s how much they use vivid colors. Well, Nintendo consoles are targeted to Family auditory, so of course it should appeal for kids and adults. But Nintendo games use those 

colors in every game they create, no matter of style or targeted audience.

Well, of course just having vivid characters doesn’t automatically make it appeal for neurodivergent people. But how they’re using it.

I’ll be using examples from Rhythm Heaven not only because of my hyperfixation/special interest/whatever this is on it, but also because it's a pretty good game to show my point.

There's an interesting thing about those covers. They are vivid, have a lot of details and colors, but it’s not overwhelming. Of course it’s not, there’s professionals who work on those games. Still, pretty rare to see that much details (i’ll return to it later)

Games themselves have much less details, of course, if there was the same amount of details as covers, it was impossible to play, but colors are still vivid and… Hey. The picture is moving.

In short: I think that Rhythm Heaven (and other Nintendo games) are pretty good visual stim. Well, of course everything that moves can be used as a visual stim, but let me try to prove things about covers.

I have 4 physical copies of Nintendo Switch games, two of them are by Nintendo.

There's proof. Let’s compare it.

Both covers are definitely detailed, Just Dance has levitating things, patterns on the floor (?) and list or songs, Layton has minigames, characters and this big diamond. But it’s not enough. There’s nothing really to pop up, no visual path. Those details not feels like they’re connected with each other.

Animal Crossing and WarioWare, on the other hand, have this. ACNH has a visual path made out of characters, Warioware has sort of barriers. Also there’s a lot of items on the ACNH cover like woods, lamp, flowers, fish, ect. WarioWare has filters and action lines over it (also can be a visual barrier). All elements have some sort of connection: Tom Nook goes to players, villager is close to Tommy, from villager to C.J., and from C.J. to Issablelle and villager talking. Wario is close to the character, so some sort of connection is here. Also, they are still vivid.

(Of course, it doesn’t mean that every non-Nintendo game doesn’t have the same rules or use them! One of my favorite game is Katamari, that is originally was playstation game)

Even in the Wii period with gray shaders, it didn't made vividness more dull.

(About Miis later)

Queerness

There’s a bit of a complicated thing. Now, there’s a bit of representation that may bring some queers here, but it happened very recently, with DLC for Splatoon 3 “Side Order”, Where appears character Acht, that goes by they/them pronouns and uses “Boku”, written in katakana, “Boku” being masculine version of “I”, that’s also being using by tomboys and gender nonconforming people. (I can’t say if this is specifically katakana or just used like that, but i started using it before this DLC so i guess it might be a katakana thing). Also, nothing beside their pronouns is explicitly queer, so it can't be this reason (at least until recently). Also I think they wouldn’t risk being banned entirely in some countries just to have one character (Hello from Russia!), but there’s coding.

If you don’t know - Coding is when you hint that a character has some trait, usually with design, personality and manners, but don’t show it explicitly. There’s some queer-coded characters in the history of Nintendo, but if i’ll list them all, it’ll be too long. Let’s just say - There’s a lot of Fire Emblem accusations, Birdo, C.J. and Flick, DJ Yellow and Student (of course i should put them everywhere!) and Pearl and Marina, who seems to be canonized and at the same time not.

There’s also stereotypes, of course, like Gracie, who in the Japanese version was presented as a crossdresser man or trans woman. I can understand why it was changed in American and European releases, but really, I wouldn't mind sassy character in new AC game, especially with the rising popularity of such.

Also, I can assume that one of the reasons is character’s that you create become more androgynous, like the difference between inkling boy and inkling girl is almost non existent, especially in splatoon 3. Octolings got the same privilege in Side Order. By the way, about creations…

Mii

Mii’s have no visible differences between genders. Of course, it would be strange and cost-y, but still. Also, there’s no gender lock features. Also, in both versions, you can change anything about your Mii, even gender! Eh? Eh? See what I did here? Uh, nevermind. I thought it was funny.

I can also add neurodivergent and visual stim part, colors are vivid and, well, it gives a lot of creative creation, so you can do faces of neurodivergent people with different face structure (it’s probably have no sense in brouder meaning, i talked about down syndrome, as i know it’s considered neurodivergent. Maybe there’s something else, but i don’t know)

There’s nothing I can say about games. Occasional crossdressing in japanese version of tomodachi life and randomized dialogues isn’t really do anything, maybe one dream where two same-sex Miis can be in the end of a red string and that relationship meter in Miitopia may have some points about queerness, but there’s nothing more about ND thing.

Conclusion of this chapter: Miis are more fruity than got that tism.

Conclusion

There’ll be a lot of my experience.

I still think I haven't come to my main reason yet. I think that the main reason why queer and neurodivergent people are in Nintendo games is because they are safe. What I mean by this is in mainline games, there’s no oppression towards the player. Like Animal Crossing, a game literally about making friends.

When I got this game, I was yet to see social isolation and bullying. Even when it started happening, I was into this game, well, I was addicted. I can be pretty easily attached to someone, so when I had no friends, I was just thinking of villagers as my friends. I just was… comfortable in its world, welcomed even. It was a world where people cared and weren’t judgemental to me. I had this feeling even with games without a player as the main character. Maybe I just got insane, who knows.

Of course I can't speak for everyone, but let’s be real, some of you may have experienced this feeling too. Positive world with absurd problems, where nobody is gonna be mad about if your features would’ve changed or you act differently. In the process of writing this I had a thought that this may be why Animal Crossing’s mean characters were less mean in NH. Just a thought.

It’s funny in some way, if you think about it.

I don’t know how to end it, so let’s end here. I hope I wasn't too much of a mad theorist.

[sprintingowl]

Playtesting Your TTRPG

So, you've built your own system, or a module for an existing system, or even a set of houserules you want to share with people. What do you do next?

Often, but not always, the next step is to playtest it.

Real quick though, three disclaimers:

-Playtesting isn't always possible. If you can't playtest something, you can't playtest it. That's okay.

-Also, rigorous playtesting isn't always possible. If you can playtest your game a little but you can't dump 100+ hours into it, that's also okay. Do what you can.

-Finally, there's no definitive one right way to playtest. What I'm sharing is my approach, but please do what works best for you.

Now, to get started, you need players.

If you've got friends who are willing to help out, great. Recruit 'em.

If you've got friends but you're not sure how they'll feel about the game, ask them.

If you don't have friends who are willing to help out, you can simulate some players. Imagine a person and walk them through the steps of your game, or play yourself as both the players and the GM.

Now, when you playtest, your goal is this: to have fun with the game.

Try to get through a session. Engage the players. Tell an interesting story together.

For any element that breaks but doesn't crash the game, make a note of it and circle back later.

If any of the mechanics break completely in half, rendering the game unrunnable, that's fine. Stop and fix things only to the extent that you can continue play. You don't need to get everything perfect.

When the session's over, ask the players what they thought about the system and if there were any parts of it that they felt strongly about.

Sometimes their answers will tell you as much about the players as they do about your system, but all feedback is good feedback.

If a player is frustrated because they wanted to power-game and your system wouldn't let them, that's useful information! There might be types of players your game clicks with more than others, and maybe you can add some text to let readers know to prepare for this.

Similarly, if a player is constantly getting confused by a dice mechanic, maybe there's another way to explain that mechanic. Try to draft some other versions of that text.

Of course, if the players liked some part of the system, that's worth recording too. If the players light up at your fishing minigame, maybe you can develop that minigame a little bit more.

What you *don't* need to do at this point is worry about whether your game is good, or stress out if the mechanics hit a snag.

The goal of playtesting is to improve a game, so it doesn't matter if the game is good at the start of the process.

I have had systems break in truly spectacular ways, every single mechanic imploding, the moment someone enters a car or tries to assist on a roll. So really don't sweat it if you find some bugs.

If you've got friends helping you, and if they're good friends, they're not going to give you (too much) grief over the system breaking.

And if you're testing by yourself, then you've got even less of nothing to worry about.

After you've gotten your feedback, the final step is making changes to your game. Fiddle with the mechanics, add or remove material, and generally revise the text based on what worked for you as a GM and what the players liked or disliked.

When you're done, you might have an entirely new-looking game, so provided you can keep playtesting (see the earlier note about rigorous playtesting,) schedule another session and see if there's anything more you want to change.

[shieldfoss]

Can You Shoot The Dog

NB: I stole this whole text, including title and tags, from https://cohost.org/mammonmachine/post/2322368-can-you-shoot-the-do

I don't want to shoot the dog, but I do want to shoot the idea of having a dog in the game to pet.

I know, I know, it's pretty mean of me to pull out a gun and unload a full clip into a completely adorable and wonderfully intentioned little trend even if it IS a little bit annoying, and it's certainly kind of an overreaction, but while I've got this gun out and you're listening would you mind if I made a particular hyperspecific point? I take issue with the idea of putting a dog in the game to pet because I think that's missing the point: if you have a dog in a game, you should be able to pet it.

Do you understand the distinction? The only reason for asking "Can You Pet The Dog?" is because the dog, when present, doesn't give the player any way to interact other than what the player normally has, usually gun. Gun is not the ideal way to interact with dog, and developers tend to forget pet but remember gun because petting a dog doesn't do anything. For player's that's exactly the whole point, that there is no point, and that's kind of mindblowing to me. Like, I spend all day every day trying to make a big digital stage and trick people into believing it's real, and they laugh at your antialiasing and say you need to upgrade your version of the Unreal Engine, and then they'll go on to ask why they can't pet a dog. Isn't that funny? They think they see all the fakeness and seams but at the end of the day the human brain is not immune to seeing a picture of a dog and going " doggie :)"

My best friend and streaming partner Fern loves Bloodborne and Souls games more than anything, and one of her favorite things about these games is the ability to wave and gesture at people. They put emotes in those games because of multiplayer, but you can do them whenever you want. Wave to the Silver Knight shooting arrows at the pillar right in front of you. Wave to the boss through the fog door. Wave to the fire keeper—wait she waved back!

You can't "pet the dog" in Bloodborne (dogs in these games are made of knives, unsafe to pet) but you can "pet the dog" (the doll giggles when you act goofy, like a teenager trying to get a girl to notice her). This fake, inanimate world responds back to the player's attempt to communicate with it, even when there is absolutely no mechanical reason to do, an act of communication between player and world that is delighting in and of itself.

This is the spirit, rather than letter, of petting the dog. It's not about a literal dog that you literally pet. You can find a way to put a dog in the game and you can figure out a way to pet it, but it's not very impressive. What I would like to see is identifying what in the game the player wishes they could interact with, simply for its own sake, just because they believe in the game, believe in it more than you who made it does, and want the game to speak back in a way that validates that belief. That is a much harder dog to pet. But isn't the whole point a lot of work for no real point?

Speaking of, while I've got this gun, I feel the exact same way about fishing minigames. A calming and idle pastime in the middle of a very different kind of game is a great idea, but I think you should pick one that suits what your game is about. Yes, Cruelty Squad does have fishing in it, but the real fishing in Cruelty Squad is the stock market. Think about that while I lower my gun and give you a chance to flee.

[bubblewonderabyss]

Corrugated starbound ask game

🌈Which of the basic sb color palettes do you find most pleasing?

💺What is your favorite furniture set? What is your favorite standalone furniture item? Do they go together?

🏠Wood starter house or brick starter house?

👾Which vanilla race is your favorite and which modded race is your favorite? If a representative from each fought, who would win?

🎣What emotion does the fishing minigame make you feel?

🤕Which boss is the hardest?

❤️‍🩹If your save data was somehow lost or corrupted which character would you remake first and why?

🌶️What do you think is your most unpopular sb opinion?

🧰What huge, super ambitious mod would you make if you had the time/energy/skills?

🚪Imagine you are a resident of the starbound universe and you are running away to make your forever home. In your inventory is: two crop seed types of your choosing, a stack of logs, a stack of stone, a stack of water, and some glass. Which biome on which planet are you moving to?

🤿Which ocean type is the best?

🚀Which ship design is the best?

💀Save the cat or save the bunny?

🍴Which alien food do you really really really wish was real?

⛽Gather erchius or buy erchius?

🧸Teddy bear or bear plush?

🌌Favorite expansion mod? Eg. Shellguard, Maple32, Elithian, K'rakoth, Arcana, Frackin, etcetera

🧱Favorite block(s)?

🔦Best flashlight color?

🏪What outpost vendor do you utilize the most?

🎳Funnest toy?

🛋️Top 3 furniture mods?

👤Which npc would you like to know more about?

👥What race would you like to know more about?

💄What's a cosmetic item you wish existed but doesn't?

🪞Which starbound oc made you discover something about yourself, or inspired you to try something new?

🥁Favorite musical instrument?

🔭Favorite celestial body to see in the sky?

🔎What's a small, easy-to-miss detail that you just love?

[biocrafthero]

Not to just talk about Dreamscape randomly but the fic really has me thinking about the concept of nerve memory again. We think of memory being stored solely in the brain, but what about things like our limbs? That's what we can muscle memory, when we react to things on seemingly pure instinct (example of this is when I was watching someone play Wii Play's fishing minigame, and when they hooked a fish my arm instinctively jerked at the sound effect). It's because, from what I know, every nerve stores memory.

This comes back to Dreamscape in the sense of how Sunny is able to "resurrect" Mari in the game because of this one theory I have: the VHS stores all nerve memory. Brain, muscle, doesn't matter, it just learns to read a specific person's nerve memory and retains a ghost of it. It's why a VHS only works for one person if it's already been used, it's because that specific device is now geared to read a specific person. Data can be transferred, but that's just the files, not the ghost of the person itself. That why Sunny had to do all that weird modding shit, because he needed to trick Mari's VHS into thinking she's there and playing the game, therefore making the device dig up its stored nerve memory.

I'm definitely wrong but hey it's cool to think about. The way the fic uses neuroscience to an extent is something I find super cool, especially as someone who takes mild interest in biology.

[danggirlronpa]

3, 4, 7, 14, 15, 21, 46, and 47? Or any combination thereof! I know that's. a lot in one ask. ><;;;;;;

I've done a couple of these already, so I'll skip those! (And I didn't do 46 and 47 just because my back is starting to hurt from sitting up. I'll try to remember to pull this post up again in the morning to type it out!)

3. Did you have a character you hated at first, and then fell in love with? Who and why?

Toko, for sure. Which is intentional - they specifically set her on a much better arc in Ultra Despair Girls, when she went from "metaphorical manifestation of teen self loathing manifesting as misguided romance" to "a main character with an entire arc that has to bounce off other characters in a manner which is sympathetic." Which retroactively changes a lot of her character in THH, too! I think both the implied off-screen character arc and the on-screen character arc we actually see are exceptional, and a great example of how to give depth to a previously flat character, writing-wise.

4. Which character can you absolutely not stand?

BYAKUYA. AND. KOREKIYO. I loathe them. I didn't use to care about Korekiyo either way, but the more people talk about him in certain ways and specifically talk at me in certain ways, the less and less I've liked him. It's grown into a burning hatred. Sorry y'all. They suck.

14. What is your NOTP?

Byakuya//Toko for sure, though Syo//Chihiro is also up there (sorry Syo//Chihiro shippers, the writers' transphobia did me in).

21. What do you think could be improved about Danganronpa?

The obvious thing is the colorism. But from a purely mechanical perspective: the minigames. The minigames in Danganronpa suck. They suck so bad. It's the game's main way of standing out from other Visual Novels. And it is so, so weak.

Part of this is just that I, As A Game Dev, don't like minigames - which, for our purposes, are a self-contained game with mechanics completely independent from the rest of the gameplay. Things like Salmon Fishing or Logic Dive - these don't connect at all to the core gameplay of Danganronpa (logic and deduction) except superficially.

And that sucks. It breaks immersion, and it feels like transparent for padding for time. It doesn't even have the dignity to be fun for the most part!! The move to imitation gambling in V3 to an outright gacha game in Summer Camp really exemplifies this. I know you were looking for a narrative answer here, but I truly believe that gameplay is Danganronpa's weakest point (including UDG, though to a lesser extent).

[raitrolling]

ok now i have Brain Power (AAAAE-A-E-I-E-A-) again i can go back to my thoughts on how my ocs would play Cosy Games cuz i always think its funny how people always assign characters who are Nice People as being solely animal crossing or minecraft or stardew players and its always like 'they have really pretty towns and are nice to all the NPCS uwu'

katrin is one of those people who maybe plays for hours one day but then never picks up the game again. shit like animal crossing is too daunting for her because you put down that game for a week and your town is full of weeds and the animals ask where youve been and it is just Too Scary to return to and face your failures

nancor likes to aimlessly wander around in his games and is prone to getting lost. you check your minecraft server logs and you just see him getting mauled by various mobs. hes having fun tho, dont worry about it

ashe is a Sidequest Guy, always doing all the little jobs for npcs because he likes to be helpful :) he agonises for ages over what gifts to give his animal crossing villagers when he sends them mail because he wants to make sure they like it, he needs a Good Grade In Friendships ok. he would also get up to a point in a stardew or harvest moon game where an npc asks to marry him and then he immediately checks with cheran if its okay for him to say yes or if he should turn them down LMFAO

velour is looking up tutorials for how to design the prettiest minecraft houses ever, and trying to make sure his stardew farms are the most Aesthetic ever. catch him awake at like 5am having spent all night redesigning his entire animal crossing island because he's going to livestream a tour for his YouTube channel and it needs to be Perfect

mikiel could care less about video games, and is doing the bare minimum in any game he'd touch. most likely the guy who does all the combat quests in Minecraft like fighting the ender dragon or the wither so other people he's playing with can get all the items

lucy is a Task Guy, and is dutifully doing every single daily chore in the game as well as trying to finish any quests as quickly as possible to not keep any NPCs waiting. loves fishing minigames, and completed his fishing + bug catching sections in the animal crossing museum within like a week after he learned how to time travel

viltau is a Spreadsheet Guy aiming for 100% completion and get the absolute most out of any game he'd touch, but he is also an Aesthetics Guy prone to completely renovating his animal crossing worlds / farming sim farms on a whim because he's gotten bored of how they look. he is just like velour being awake at ungodly hours trying to redo his island, but rather than doing it for fan approval hes just generally Deranged

glas just likes to fuck around and doesn't care about having any long-term goals in their games, and generally just designs shit to weird out any of their friends who visit their animal crossing island or minecraft server. why is there a corner of their island full of dolls? why do they have big meme murals in the nether? why is their cow named 'daddy milkies'? don't worry about it

vallis gets obsessed with any sort of animal raising or breeding mechanic and tends to forget about everything else. yeah his island is full of weeds and he still hasn't paid off any debts, but check out his rows upon rows of perfect hybrid flowers he's been crossbreeding

[666herescared]

So... This is a little out of nowhere and has nothing to do with my other posts but I watched (these) (two) videos on Sonic.EXE and felt the itch to make my own.

Trigger warning: Blood, Mild Body Horror, Descriptions of Disturbing Events

![PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK]!

Meet Sonic.CHAR, AKA Charic!:

He's just a sketch, but I have a bunch of ideas including stuff for two games {See Minigames for gameplay concept} The first would be a 2D game where you just play five minigames, then choose to either kill Charic or "Play Forever", and Play Forever leads into the second game.

The basic plot for game two would be that you've been sucked into the game now. The second game would include 3D renditions of the minigames, interspersed with lore details told to you by Charic himself. There would be a larger focus on the story and character of CHAR in the second game.

(Minigames:)

Find the Chao - Just a hide and seek style minigame where you find 10 chao. BTW, they're dead. Gotta keep the atmosphere somehow.

Cooking - A fairly simple cooking minigame where Charic walks you through the recipes.

Duo-Dancing - Plays sorta like FNF, but with the context of dancing with this poor sap.

Obstacle Course - Real simple. Charic set up an obstacle course and you have to run through it on a timer.

Fishing - I dunno what to tell you. It's a fishing minigame.

(Backstory:)

Charic, or Sonic.CHAR was an experimental AI that managed to wise up and export his file to keep his home safe. He was intended to be Sonic. Essentially a way for kids to meet their fictional idol.

He was the only of these experiments to be made yet, so his friends were still scripted. He didn't take it well. One of the flaws and reasons he wasn't considered "ready" yet was that he couldn't control his speed, so he'd hurt people on accident.

Don't worry though! He always fixes his mistakes ;] (He taxidermied his friends) They wouldn't ever be perfect again, but he didn't see that, or at the very least, he didn't want to, so he tore out his eyes(Eye? Who knows with Sonic anymore?)

He didn't want to hurt anyone again, so he learned to move slowly and tore his claws out by their roots. He tried something similar with his teeth, but quickly remembered that he needed those. Same with his quills.

He doesn't want to hurt anyone and is desperate to be harmless. He wants a friend! Won't you be that for him?

(Personality:)

He's cautious and kind, but mischievous at times. (For example, the planned opening of the first game, where he jumpscares you, then laughs about it.) He has some major trauma from what he did to his friends and is often delusional - doing things like watching movies or having picnics with them.

He's thoughtful sometimes, like hiding his creepier features when asked. (Hence the blindfold) He loves playing games, but struggles with actually being the one playing, which is why he needs a playmate. He's not bad by any means. Just insane.

(Easter Eggs:)

This will be short because these will just be in one scene for the second game, but essentially, the second game begins with you creating an avatar in a strange closet room. You ring a bell when you're done, Charic comes and gets you, then the minigames start, but you're able to recreate a few of Charic's friends during this. You don't get to play as them, but you can still show Charic.

Amy: "You're do- oh.. Never liked her much anyway.. Pick something else!" Charic slams the door, a teary eyed angry expression evident on his face.

Knuckles: "You're do- oh.. Why are you like this?- Ugh! Pick something else!" Charic slams the door, looking frustrated but sad.

Shadow: "You're do- oh.." Charic shuts the door, a pensive look on his face, then through the door he tells you to, "Pick something else!"

Tails: "You're do- oh.." Charic looks pissed, storming up to you and picking you up by the fluff. "You bastard. THAT'S MY LITTLE BROTHER- Err.." Regret shines through and he puts you down gently. "Just.. Pick something else." He shuts the door. You hear a couple soft sniffles before he collects himself and keeps walking.

(Win Screen:)

Charic applauds you cheerfully, the text, "Congrats!" written behind him. The background includes hand puppet versions of any carcasses around the level.

(Lose Screen:)

The music screeches to a halt and Charic appears in front of you - very close - before backing up and giving a shy smile, encouraging you to try again. The text, "Too bad!" is written behind him for this one.

(Conclusion:)

Yeah, I'm not sure if he even counts as an EXE. It's not in his name, his title, or his personality. He's not a demon or a god, or even an eldritch abomination. Whatever he is though, I'm attached and I think he's cool!

Give me any input you have in the replies/re-blogs, fanart is always appreciated, and as always,

Have fun, and happy scrolling!

[felikatze]

11 for the video game ask meme

11. Do you prefer ‘blank slate’ main characters you make yourself or otherwise project onto, or characters with a set personality and backstory?

OH MAN. here's the thing. there's no such thing as a character without a personality. i ADORE blank slate protagonists beyond belief, for precisely one reason: i love digging for personality. i don't even project. my all time favorite in this genre of guy is of course the rider from monster hunter stories 2, whose character arc is the main crux of the game's plot, all told without speaking a word. you can project on them, yes, but rider still has their own complex inner feelings - their desire to live up to their grandfather, their fear and love for ratha - and they never speak. it fascinates me.

another excellent example is how people characterize the persona protagonists differently, even though they're all 'blank slates', so to speak. their available dialogue choices, their presentation and design; these things show a conistent personality.

it's also fascinating to examine modern FE protags under this lens, particularly the "My Unit" genre of lord. Robin obviously has their own personality. Their love for their friends and their inner conflict is largely uninfluenced by the player, outside of four choices, only one of which has consequences. the only way the player can project on them is through the pairing system - picking who robin marries - as well as their name and appearance. byleth, on the other hand, is a much more traditional blank slate, following the dialogue option formula. and yet, there is still a struggle all to themself. their silence is a character trait, and their lack of emotion is a deliberate writing choice. they have their own arc of opening up and learning to feel through helping their students. additionally, all the things that make them a blank slate are noticed by others! their silence is odd, their stare tense and unnerving. they also love their father, and fishing.

in the end, creating a character with no personality is impossible in a story. no matter what you do, everything is personality. how they move, how they attack, what kind of grunting noise they make when hit, what kind of minigames you can grind for hours, how other characters perceive them, their design, the witty quips for the player to pick - it just doesn't work.

however, my main experience here is explicitly with rpgs, as my examples easily show. there *are* games with a protagonist for you to craft yourself. immersive sims like deus ex, or skyrim. games with much more player freedom than ye olde standard rpg, which has to abide by ye olde standard story structure.

i *have* self made protagonists, particularly in pokemon games. nowadays, i tend to make up an oc on the spot and try to play the game as they would. it's a ton of fun, but i think, ultimately, i prefer characters with an established character. i just also like digging for it.

i probably wouldn't enjoy games much that require the player to make their own stories, since storytelling is one of the main draws of video games for me. i tend to get bored quickly otherwise, and prefer writing instead, if i'm already letting my own creativity loose.

that was a long answer, because i have many many feelings about supposed blank slate protagonists. a lot of people use the term to loosely. there's a difference between characters you can project onto, and characters meant to *represent* you. eh.

[sadclowncentral]

I just started playing Skyrim!! On the switch so I can't mod it unfortunately :/ i wish I could adopt every child. Any tips, tricks, feelings, thoughts about Skyrim you wanna share? :)

okay let me preface this by saying that skyrim is the only game i have ever played in the last five years and the only game i need given the over 1000 hours i have logged on it its the game of all time. it is a source of endless joy. i haven't even finished the main story yet i have too much fun. so here is my skyrim advice from a person who plays it wrong but has the most fun doing just that:

1. THE AUTHOR IS DEAD. FUCK TODD

yes skyrim has a main story allegedly and a civil war subplot but you know what? if that's not what's your vibe right now feel free to ignore it. there is a lot of fun missions especially by the factions like the Thieves Guild or the Companions that can also take up a lot of your time. don't feel pressured. have a look around. kill some draugr. build a house.

2. SKYRIM IS AS IF BARBIE HAD A WEAPON

yes there is a lot to do in skyrim but you know what is the MOST fun? making soup. collecting books and furnishing your home. scouring for flowers and making potions. don't let the ever-present violence stop you from enjoying the fishing minigame. the world is your oyster. to me the game is always the most fun when I give my character a task that the quests don't have, like stealing every bottle of alcohol, collecting dwarves artefacts, and creating an extensive library. whatever floats your boat!!

3. MAYBE SKYRIM WAS THE FRIENDSHIP WE MADE ALONG THE WAY

while the game mechanics don't really enforce that point, skyrim is filled to the brim with NPCs with absolute insane requests and takes and I always do the best to honour them. somebody said something racist about elves and I am one? I am now building traps in the town square. somebody mentioned their love for books passing by? I am breaking into your house and putting them there. there might not be a quest in game but there is one in my heart. ESPECIALLY when it come to marrying someone has to take upmost priority. my loves pre-programmed wishes are my command.

4. DONT BE SCARED TO ASK FOR HELP

there is a lot of parts of skyrim that can be frustrating but a decade old community has circumvented them. increasing carry weight, optimising potion brewing, finding the stones of berenziah, locating that one fucking lever...people have been where you have been. you stand on shoulders of giants, and those giants are on Google! it's not cheating, it increasing your fun at the game!

5. DONT FORGET TO HAVE FUN AND BE YOURSELF

skyrim is a vast world and you can do whatever you want. if you want to complete the main quest or toss it aside to just maim bears for an hour, you get to do that! i play skyrim every rpg oriented and use it as a dollhouse but that doesn't have to be you. you are a free person. just don't forget to have fun!! and if you are bored or frustrated, just do something else. no try harding in MY skyrim community

6. THERE IS A TROLL ON THE ICE PLATEAU ON THE STAIRS TO HIGH HROTHGAR

do not get complacent while climbing the steps the fucker will kick your absolute ass.

[icannotreadcursive]

pls Harvest Moon people you'd marry. I'm one of those Stardew Valley people so it would be interesting to compare

Y'know, I have Stardew Valley for my Switch but completely stopped playing because I am physically incapable of fishing in that game. I have some mild disabilities with my hands but it's enough that I cannot do the fishing minigame, so I can't progress in the story, so I gave up less than 1 game-year in. I know there are mods for the PC version that change how fishing works, but that doesn't help on my Switch and I don't want to buy a game that I'm really not sure I can enjoy twice. All that said, I do have some familiarity with Stardew but because I never got that into it, I don't really remember characters' names even if I remember their sprites.

Anyway.

Harvest Moon!

There are a lot of Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games (they're the same franchise, except for when they're not, but that's another story) and I've only played so many of them.

My favorite game(s) in the series is A(nother) Wonderful Life, which I have put more hours into than possibly all the other videogames I've every played combined, and I spent years with only the version where you play as a boy, and this was before the games allows same-sex wooing, so I have Actual Opinions about which girls from this game I'd marry lol

All 3 original bachelorettes are honestly great--Celia, Muffy, and Nami. I do think I'd get along better with Celia and Nami than with Muffy IRL. And Nami canonically really just wants to marry you so she has a stable place to stay without having to leave town and go home to her alcoholic father, and I am very here for that. Would absolutely marry her, even as a straight woman, cuz she's cool, I think we'd get along, and she deserves better.

if we open up to non-romanceable characters, the woman to marry is Vesta. Big, boisterous, caring, good attitude, fiercely loyal and protective of the people she cares about, runs her own successful farm. Vesta is great. She doesn't get enough love from the fandom.

The bachelors in this game are kinds lame, tbh. I usually marry Marlin when I play because he's the least......something. If he got some damn therapy I could see actually marrying him. But really, Griffen, the guy who runs the bar--non-romanceable in AWL (I think he might be in the DS port/sequel), but he just seems like a nice solid dude.

In other HM/SoS games the guys to marry are Vaughn, the grumpy repressed rancher who barely talks (gee, where else is there a character like that who I love....), Chase the cook who's very cute and kind once you get past the slightly prickly because he's definitely coping with anxiety exterior, and Jack the relatably bored with life but upbeat shop keeper's son with a loving-yet-often-antagonistic relationship with his much younger sister.

So yeah.

That's my thoughts 💖

[starlene]

Okay this is gonna be a strange question but: what musical do you think could be adapted into a video game? It doesn't have to be a Good game, it can just be funny if you want!

That is a strange question, thank you! And an interesting one at that. Let's see...

Well, I think Hadestown might make for a somewhat fun adventure/exploration kinda game. You're Orpheus, your mission is to rescue Eurydice, and along the way, you gotta collect all these magical song fragments so you can amaze the King of the Underworld with your music. The only problem with this would be that no matter how well you do and which choices you make, it would always have the same ending...

For a game that I'd like to play personally, just do a Stardew Valley clone, but your character is a burnt-out world-famous conductor who's moving back to their childhood village in search of a calm and quiet life... Then you can farm, fish, decorate the old school you now live in, collect dalahästar and other fun Swedish items for the local museum, play some music-related minigames, and perhaps even romance a special villager. I think I would pursue Arne.

Thank you, this was fun! Except for that now I feel a little bit sad that these don't exist.