#ambient multiplayer

[gamereporter]

PUBG MOBILE celebra 7 anos com mapa inédito e modo temático exclusivo

PUBG MOBILE, um dos jogos mobile mais populares do mundo, está comemorando seu 7º aniversário com a Atualização 3.7, trazendo novidades empolgantes para os jogadores. Entre os destaques estão o novo mapa Rondo e o modo temático Dinastia Dourada, além de eventos especiais e uma colaboração musical de peso. Rondo: um novo campo de batalha expansivo O aguardado mapa Rondo é o maior já lançado no…

[evifsev]

Drama of working in multiplayer mode.

[mseden-fries]

Someone asked me a question earlier, but it wouldn’t let me respond to it so I’ll try my best to sum up some of the things they asked me. they asked me about my comic making process. I should be honest I’m almost a complete amateur. I wanna say I’m self-taught, but that’s not to take away from all of the YouTube videos and tutorials that I’ve watched online. Somehow I just ended up putting them together and into what I have now.

To start off with I almost always try to write my script first. after the script, what’s most important to me is the expressions on the characters faces. I think more than anything that gives me the best direction to my writing. As you can see with my first image, sometimes it can be as simple as just drawing stick figures this just gives me a directional idea of how my paneling’s gonna look. I’d say on average. I do up to three drafts the first draft direction. The second draft is a better idea of that direction and the third draft is all the cleanup so it’s ready for line art 

I usually separate my characters by specific color. This is so when I go into color, it’s easier to see which characters need what.

You can call me a bit of a cheater, but I like to use closed lines when I draw my characters. that way I can use a reference layer to just fill in the colors instead of having to do it manually or using my magic wand tool. 

I also utilize the pallets on Procreate to pick their colors

When it comes to shading, I like to use multiplayer layers and erase out the lighting. I might use some ambient lighting here and there with a dark pinkish purple this is going to depend on where your scene is taking place, but since mine is an alleyway, my multiplayer layer is at 40 opacity. For the characters, I usually use my syrup brush to blend in some of the less harsh shades. When it comes to my backgrounds, I like to use my glowing brush to erase out the lighting.

I still myself have a hard time drawing backgrounds I struggle to find where to put my characters in place some people find it easier to draw the background first and then the characters and although I do agree, that’s easier to establish the shot, I need focus on my characters. So what I usually do is draw my characters in a box and then draw that box in a space and that space becomes my background.

 I play around a lot with the Procreate effects that they have I use a pen called, burst for dramatic feelings, like a burst of energy or a burst of emotions I might use a comic dotted layer for something more comedic or action based. 

When it comes to brushes, I use a pencil for the sketch, a gloaming for the shading and syrup for the outline. Those are the main pens I use and everything else is effects. 

My organization isn’t always the best either, but this is how I usually do it. Panels and bubbles are at top, including the special effects like for example if I were to write the word ‘shake’ If Helga was shaking or blush, if Arnold was blushing, this would be in the bubble layer.  under that would be panels under that would be characters and in that folder I would have line art, then lighting and shading then color and that follows the same formula for background. 

This is a general breakdown of what I do in my comic, and I couldn’t say at all, but I hope it gives you an idea of what I do. again I’m no professional and you should take all my advice with a grain of salt. My best advice is learned by doing I think if you looked at my first chapter and saw my latest chapter, you’ll see my improvement and my paneling in my expressions in my establishing shots and in my color shading. So if you wanna make a comic, just make it and learn as you go, your first one isn’t gonna be a banger more than likely but it’ll be the best learning experience, in my opinion. If you guys have any questions, I am an open book! Feel free to ask me anything.I stream on my TikTok when I make my comics so if you want to watch the process, you’re more than welcome to tune into that but I’m not gonna lie. It’s a bit tedious to watch 😂 I’m @eden_fries on most platforms.  

[nobodyexpectsthe]

okay i'm going to do a veilguard critical post and i want to start it with this post by david gaider that has lived rent free in my brain since i read it.

and i want to be clear as i begin this rant that i am critical of studio leadership. not the development team themselves, because god fucking knows they tried.

i cannot emphasize enough that the game we got is not the fault of individual writers, or game designers, or any creative team leads. the issue came from people way, way, way above their heads.

and that is extremely important to remember that veilguard's active retooling had only been in play for, what, a year? from 2022 to 2023? when the games industry decided it was time for record layoffs?

where like their entire QA team got shitcanned?

and devs had to fight to get more than two weeks fucking severance?

if veilguard had remained an always online multiplayer experience i think it's story would have been praised, because the story was not meant to be the main draw. the gameplay and character customization was. any story in an online game that isn't an mmorpg is generally praised - even if its a stupid mystery box story where you're just drip fed tiny details that will take actual years to pay off.

in a singleplayer experience in a franchise that people went to because of it's storytelling the whole thing just falls so short.

but for me the issues went so much deeper.

i like most of the character concepts. i like most of the ideas the game was built on, but the execution made me angry.

needing to constantly leave and come back to the lighthouse to pop new quests was frustrating. if they dropped me in the middle of the hub it wouldn't have been so frustrating, but to talk to lucanis i have to go from one end of the map to the other.

there was nothing to do at the lighthouse besides that and i guess upgrading my armor. i can't talk to my companions. i can't even like - prog conversations between them? why can't i use my caretaker points to build out areas for my companions to hang out in, drop some fucking items in there associated with them, and maybe get the conversations i want to hear instead of lucanis talking about fucking coffee for the sixteenth time?

there's a dining room. why can't i use that to get ambient banter conversations?

why am i at the fucking mercy of what the npcs want to do?

so much of the gameplay felt like a holdover from the multiplayer version. things that wouldn't have bothered me as part of a game that was meant to be played in realtime, with idk the conversations being daily login incentives,

but nothing stood out to me as bad as the quest recaps did. the quest recaps actively fucked with my ability to get immersed and stay immersed. they were either clearly a holdover from when there were meant to be huge real time gaps between content drops or an extremely poorly thought out addition that really only made the stop-starts of every quest that much worse.

and the little pop-ups that reminded me why a character did a thing or felt a certain way were infuriating. that just happened. literally at the start of this quest.

the companion quests don't change. they come to conclusions on their own, and even if you try to sway them in another path it doesn't ultimately change anything? i think emmrichs is the only one you can drastically affect the outcome of.

like yes, game, you are not terribly complicated. i have a handful of choices so if a character is doing something or saying something directly related to a choice i pushed them to make, i would assume that's why.

except i had no actual choices. i have replayed dragon age 2 & inquisition multiple times just to see how different scenarios play out depending on my choices. i have played BG3 to fucking death to see how little dialogue options get called back.

i am not talking the grand sweeping choices at the end of the game. i am not talking about the four different endings - which i actually did not enjoy at all.

an ending where everyone dies because you didn't amass enough political power and/or recruit all the party members would have fucked hard actually.

and see, one of my favorite rpgs of all time is tales of symphonia. that's a jrpg. that has a set plot, a set way things play out, you cannot change it except for one small detail - your interpersonal relationships.

i do not need to drastically change the ending of the game, i need to feel like the little stones i throw make little ripples. i need to see that my actions, the person my character is, has an influence on the people around them, their willingness to stand with them and follow their orders, and veilguard didn't give me that.

what i got instead was the illusion of a choice.

what if instead of rook assigning people to missions (THAT IT HOLDS YOUR HAND THROUGH TO PICK THE RIGHT CHOICES) it came down to a matter of trust? what if you gave an order and rather than following it, your teammate / the faction decided you knew jack shit actually and deviated from the plan?

or what if their unhealed personal trauma actually came up in the thing that gets them killed? what if instead of it being cinematics, it was something you had to play through ala DA2? where you have the option to try to salvage the relationship one last time before they either die or get themselves killed?

why was i a fucking spectator in this game that was supposedly built around the strong bonds the veilguard had? because like the whole ~hero of the veilguard~ thing falls flat to me if their fatal flaw isn't ultimately what destroys them.

an ending where i got fed up with the same boring repetitive sidequests & didn't go back and forth from the lighthouse often enough to get

the fact that the game auto-saves at key choice points too is indicative that they know this is not a replayable experience.

looking @ corinne bus.che's departure from bioware and her statements, i don't have a lot of hope for the company. i think that she's saying in the politest way that things are still bad and she's moving on to greener pastures and hopes that the studio can fix itself.

and i say this because i'm remembering the actual months of all hands meetings where execs said the same thing over and over again right before they dropped that projects were being scrapped, games were being sunset, and layoffs were imminent. and my boss, bless him, was trying to reassure me that my team was safe.

only for him to log in one day and find out that someone above his head had laid off team members without his say or input. and how this happened again, and again, until i was the one sending him a text message bc i'd been called into a meeting with someone above his head. my whole team was devastated, our already small size reduced even further, and the workload became that much more stressful to everyone left.

and it kept coming. the way the SLT undervalued anything that wasn't their own fucking jobs was disgusting. heaven forbid you don't lose your bonus. but sure, okay, hq needed that luxury spa the almost entirely remote team will never see.

i had to sign stuff saying i could never disparage the company so i could get my severance.

i remember sitting in allhands meetings with my team, watching the divide between the people who actually make the fucking game and engage with the audience & the people who call the shots grow bigger, and bigger, and bigger until we had a blowout during a meeting regarding our bonuses structure changing THREE DAYS after another project was cancelled AND THE COMPANY HIRED AN ADDITIONAL CEO.

i have been the person in meetings with an exhausted dev team, listening to the writer say they want to do more but the studio won't let them. i've seen the artists showing off work they know will never see the light of day because their project was doomed. i've seen the team lead with defeat in his eyes saying they desperately trying to explain to SLT (who had no knowledge or care about the IP what the project needed to succeed) only to be dismissed.

and like, that might not be her energy. that might be my disillusionment with the industry speaking, but it's so fucking sad. so fucking sad.

she's currently getting a lot of flack but like - it's not her fucking fault my dudes!!! the game was pushed out on a crazy timeline, there were layoffs, she inherited so many problems.

i hope she uses her title and experience to find a better studio to work at and has the chance to make the crpg she wanted to. i hope that studio understands that you can't just staple trends from other games & genres onto yours and make it a success, because bioware & EA sure don't.

i genuinely hope baldur's gate 3 and larian's entire approach to game design forces these grifting finance bros out of the industry and i wish so desperately the discourse would focus on how that is the fucking problem here. but i don't think it will.

i'm going to be so surprised if bioware isn't stripped and sold for parts after mass effect 4 drops. i've seen it too many times at this point.

ips are only as strong as the people making them. and if you have created an environment where these people are leaving in droves, or are constantly anxious for their job security, or you keep interrupting it and retooling it to chase a trend, you've fucked yourself and don't even understand why that trend is popular.

why in the fuck is someone going to pay for knockoff of a better game that's doing numbers with an active playerbase? do you seriously think that the dragon age skin you put over it does anything for that?

i am so tired of the conversations around this game centering on how 'wokeness' ruined it. it didn't. these have always been progressive games. the issues with vg came from people far removed from the writing, design & art process. i think a lot of the clunkiness of the game came from the fact that these stories had no fucking time to develop and grow naturally, they had to be shotgunned bc they had no time to do anything else.

when all is said and done, my honest impression of veilguard is that its a miracle it came out. it is. it genuinely is. few games get out of development hell after that long, let alone in a playable state with any redeeming qualities.

but that miracle isn't enough for me to forgive all of its faults. the slog that was act 2 damn near killed me. there was no narrative pacing with the companion quests. there was... no quests outside of the companion quests. it would have been one thing if i was doing a main story quest and then everybody had feelings related to that quest, but i think 99 percent of act 2 is purely fixing everyone's emotional problems so they don't die in the final battle.

anyway the last thing i'll say is i've seen a lot of people criticizing the team for fluffing the project up. and... man, i hate to tell you this, but they can't say anything about it right now. they just can't. and more than that, like... they are allowed to have pride in what they managed to pull together. the fact that game came out at all is, and it cannot be understated, a miracle.

if there are expirations on their NDAs & non-disparagement clauses, we're going to get some tea in 5 - 15 years.

[hansolsticio]

▶ 𝐄𝐏. 𝟎𝟏: "𝐒𝐔𝐂𝐂𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐈𝐑".

— 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲: multiplayer (𝗣𝟭: leitora × 𝗣𝟮: bang chan). — 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲: 3731. — 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀: demônios e variantes, somnophilia, power play, hard sex, degradação, orgasm denial, pain kink, misticismo, spanking, dacryphilia & blasfêmia. — 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸: closer — nine inch nails.

Dentre os princípios que regulam a atividade humana (ira, avareza, gula, inveja, orgulho, preguiça e luxúria) e que, inclusive, eram, de maneira muito audaciosa, nomeados como "pecados", você acreditava existir uma sétima norma responsável por reger as demais: a hipocrisia. Esse sétimo pilar é o maior responsável pela existência dos outros seis. A hipocrisia faz com que os outros "pecados" caíam sob o domínio da repressão que, por sua vez, os torna mais cobiçados ainda — o peso de um "não" faz com que a ideia do que poderia acontecer através de um "sim" digna de obsessão.

Repressão e vontade são faces de uma mesma moeda e você sempre sentiu muita satisfação em saber disso. Especialmente porque um dos princípios que regem os humanos é responsável por te mover. A luxúria é alvo muitas interpretações divergentes. Uns descartam o quão prejudicial ela pode ser devido ao seu caráter temporário — se comparada aos outros pecados —, outros a veem como uma instância muito fraca devido a sua mutabilidade: há até a crença de que a luxúria poderia transicionar e tornar-se amor.

Todas essas hipóteses em nada te afetavam. A Luxúria só te servia para uma coisa: te alimentar. E é por isso que você voltava mais uma vez ao mundo humano...

[...]

As três velas dispostas em cantos distintos do cômodo bem como a ausência de espelhos ou de qualquer objeto refletivo explicitavam que ele talvez fosse habituado com esse tipo de situação. Seja por devoção ao Asmodeus ou por ter Lilith como patrona, Chris parecia saber receber bem as suas visitas.

Chris.

Os nomes deles eram a única informação que lhe era dada antes que fosse consumar qualquer ritual. O peso de saber o nome de alguém era inigualável — especialmente quando se é um demônio.

Sentia-se pulsar só de encarar o corpo grande em cima da cama. Estava quente e dolorosamente vazia, a fome irradiava num calafrio teimoso pelo seu ventre. Machucava. Fazia com que você tivesse vontade de se curvar. Precisava desesperadamente de alívio. Precisava levar tudo de Chris. Ele quem te chamou até ali, então ele que lidasse com as consequências das próprias escolhas.

Não era costumeiro que se importasse com a aparência física daqueles que te invocavam, mas era inegável que o homem era atraente. O corpo forte te fazia pensar que talvez ele duraria por mais tempo que a maioria, seria prazeroso destruir cada célula de resistência dele, uma a uma.

Um cobertor fino adornava a cintura do homem. Ele suava, parecia desconfortável com a temperatura do cômodo. Você jogou o tecido de canto, não se surpreendendo ao encontrá-lo completamente nu. Chris não decepcionou suas previsões: era forte e grande em todos os aspectos. O pau semi-ereto fez suas pupilas dilatarem, queria brincar. Não perdeu tempo, abaixando-se entre as pernas dele. Esfregou o narizinho conta as coxas do homem, selando a carne firme logo em seguida. Arrastou os lábios desde as bolas pesadas até a glande rubra.

Levantou os olhos, mas Chris ainda não havia despertado. Agarrou a extensão com as duas mãozinhas. Roçou a bochecha contra a cabecinha, bateu no próprio rostinho com ele — completamente obscena. Finalmente mamou a glande com fome, não ficaria surpresa se já estivesse gotejando de tanto se molhar a esta altura. Fechou as pálpebras, abocanhando mais da extensão, forçava a cabeça para baixo — queria engolir tudo. Movia-se inquieta tentando apertar as perninhas, estava praticamente de quatro no colchão, era uma tarefa difícil.

Os receptores sensíveis notaram quando a energia do quarto se alterou, a promiscuidade no ambiente não era mais só sua — Chris havia acordado. Quis levantar para olhá-lo, porém foi empurrada mais para baixo por duas mãos fortes. Mal engasgou, habituada com a sensação. Mamou com mais fome ainda agora que a luxúria dissipada pelo homem começava a te alimentar. A boquinha percorria toda a extensão, deixava a saliva escorrer. Ele grunhia, puxando os fios do seu cabelo totalmente desmedido.

O gostinho de porra fazia seus olhos revirarem, enfiou uma das mãos no meio das pernas, massageando o clitóris sensível da melhor forma que podia. Retirou-o da boca só para cuspir na pontinha, masturbando a extensão ao que finalmente conseguiu olhar para o homem. Chris tinha a cabeça jogada para trás, dava para ver o pomo-de-adão se movimentando sem controle. Ele espasmava na sua mão, as veias abundantes deixavam claro o que estava por vir. Colocou-o de volta na boca, sugava a cabecinha, batendo uma apertadinha no restante.

Gemia para si própria, impaciente. Queria logo. Precisava engolir tudinho, era uma necessidade fisiológica. Massageou as bolas pesadinhas e foi o suficiente para fazê-lo esporrar na sua boca. Seu corpinho tremeu, sorvendo o semên espesso com devoção. Obcecada pelo gostinho meio amargo, quase não foi capaz de tirá-lo da sua boca, sendo praticamente obrigada pelo homem que precisou te puxar pelo cabelo.

"Você demorou...", ele murmurou. Os olhos estavam fechados e a boca sustentava um sorriso meio grogue. Você não se deu ao trabalho de responder, levantou-se arteira, sentando no abdômen marcadinho. As orbes afiadas o encaravam como se você estivesse prestes a devorá-lo.

Rebolou a cintura, aproveitando o contato gostoso dos gominhos tímidos com seu íntimo molhado. Abriu-se mais por puro instinto, esfregando o pontinho carente com mais força. Apertou os próprios peitos, beliscando e maltratando os biquinhos de um jeito delicioso. A cabeça pendia para os lados, praticamente cavalgando em cima do homem.

Christopher parecia hipnotizado, assistia você se satisfazer totalmente depravada, como se ele sequer estivesse ali — como se fosse indigno de sua atenção. As mãos grandes envolveram sua cintura, mas você foi rápida em afastá-las de você. Fez questão de machucá-lo com as garrinhas pontiagudas, detestava brinquedinhos libertinos. Ao contrário do que ele provavelmente estava pensando, Chris estava ali para te servir — não o inverso.

Estava prestes a liberar os próprios feromônios, precisava deles para colocá-lo à sua mercê. Porém foi jogada em cima da cama num só empurrão. A cadeia de fatos que resultou em você de bruços no colchão com Chris sentado em cima das suas coxas virou um borrão na sua cabeça. Os olhinhos arregalados encarava a cabeceira, cogitou virar a cabeça para trás, mas seus cabelos foram agarrados no mesmo instante, suspendendo seu tronco para fora do estofado. Começava a se sentir perturbada, era como se ele previsse, como se...

"Não é minha primeira vez, _____.", disse com escárnio. A menção tão casual ao seu verdadeiro nome te fez travar, entrou em pânico — não sabia como prosseguir. "Achei que um demônio reconhecesse outro.", ele acrescentou em meio a um risinho sinistro, um calafrio cortou sua espinha. Precisava ir embora.

O corpo grande se debruçou em cima do seu, a respiração quente agora batia na sua nuca. Pela primeira vez em todos os seu séculos de existência, sentiu-se vulnerável. Não tinha ideia do que o homem era capaz de fazer com você.

"Que foi? Assustou? Faz assim não... abre as perninhas, abre.", o timbre grave fez você se molhar, mesmo aterrorizada. Estava presa num limbo confuso, se fosse humana talvez não se sentisse assim, mas o caráter sórdido da situação fazia seu corpinho de demônio queimar de desejo. No fim das contas, tudo em você já havia sido corrompido. "Não é um pedido.", alertou, o pau meladinho roçando contra a carne da sua bunda. Você não viu outra saída senão obedecer, espaçando as pernas para deixar que ele se abrigasse no meio delas.

"Espera, vo-"

"Cê 'tá aqui 'pra eu te usar, não tá?", foi interrompida no segundo que decidiu falar, Chris fez questão de firmar ainda mais o aperto nos fios. "Então fica quietinha.", não esperou que você respondesse. Para ele, a resposta era afirmativa. Fim de conversa.

Um miadinho deixou seus lábios quando ele forçou para entrar, ficava apertadinha nessa posição. O homem não pareceu se importar, socava fundo, indo devagarinho para ser capaz de sentir o jeito que você apertava — era como se não quisesse deixá-lo sair.

Você não pensava mais. Porra, claro que não. Tornava-se uma vadiazinha obcecada por pau no segundo em que tinha um encaixadinho em você. Foda-se que era a porcaria de um demônio em cima do seu corpo nesse momento. Não se importava com as consequências, só queria gozar gostoso. A carne latejava por isso, estava longe de se livrar da dor que a fome causava. Se preciso fosse, morreria por isso também — dada sua natureza, não haviam outras opções.

Chris parecia tão sendento quanto, o quadril batia contra a sua bunda sem piedade alguma. Assistia à suas tentativas patéticas de rebolar contra ele, a cinturinha não tinha força alguma para ser páreo contra o peso do corpo masculino. Socou com mais força, fazendo questão de enfiar até a base — te deixaria larguinha se era isso que você queria.

"Você gosta tanto assim?", o questionamento saiu meio ofegante. Um gemidinho manhoso foi tudo o que você foi capaz de oferecer como resposta. O homem riu em desdenho. "É patético como a classe de vocês é inferior. Lilith deveria treinar as cadelinhas dela melhor.", o tom era degradante. A ofensa deveria ser suficiente para pisar no seu ego, mas já se sentia tão estúpida para gozar que mal tinha certeza do que ouviu.

Com muito esforço conseguiu colocar a mãozinha em baixo do próprio corpo. Os dedinhos desesperados esfregaram o clitóris com força. Massageava, apertava, até mesmo beliscava na tentativa de se fazer chegar lá, mas nada surtia efeito. Estava presa na borda, sentia o aperto gostoso do orgasmo bem no meio do seu ventre. Porra, queria tanto isso... era absurdo, mas queria tanto gozar pro pau de outro demônio, queria melar ele inteirinho

"Não percebeu ainda, putinha?", o homem interrompeu seus devaneios. Outra vez, se melou mais com o timbre dominante. "Você não goza. Não até eu deixar.", esclareceu.

Não.

Porra, não, não. Isso não.

Não teria como ele ser capaz de fazer algo assim, teria? Era injusto. Não fazia sentido.

"Vai dar 'pra mim caladinha até quando eu quiser. Não é isso que vocês fazem?", forçou sua cabeça contra o colchão ao que se retirou do seu buraquinho. Você quis chorar, bater nele, foder sua bucetinha com os dedos até gozar por conta própria... tudo ao mesmo tempo. O peso de um orgasmo arruinado machucava mais do que deveria. Era patético o jeito que seus buraquinhos se apertavam, carentinhos, precisavam de qualquer coisa.

Ele te virou com a mesma força que usou anteriormente. Sequer olhava na direção, as mãos abrindo suas pernas de um jeito rude — como se você não passasse de uma buceta que ele estava prestes a usar. Tudo nele causava desejo na sua cabecinha depravada. E agora que tinha noção da verdadeira natureza de Chris, sentia-se curiosa com o fato dele falar de maneira tão secular — a forma humana escolhida por ele deveria ter a personalidade mais resistente do que aparentava. Duvidava de tudo, da maneira com a qual ele conseguiu te trazer até ali, do fato de você não ter percebido antes, duvidava até mesmo se o nome dele era mesmo 'Chris'...

Tão grosseiro quanto antes, enfiou-se de uma vez só. Você se perdia no rosto austero, tenso, como se te odiasse, como se sentisse nojo de você. Não pôde deixar de rir baixinho, apertando-se com o quão gostosas todas as circunstâncias faziam aquilo parecer. Chris forçou seu pescoço para baixo num movimento só, cortando parte do seu ar. Seus olhinhos foram parar atrás da cabeça, choramingando burrinha de tesão.

"Quer que eu pare, hm?"

"N-não... Chris, eu... mais...", as palavras saíram entrecortadas, incapaz de se expressar com coerência.

"Fala direito comigo então. 'Tá agindo como se nunca tivesse dado a porra da buceta.", rude. Seu buraquinho se apertou mais. Arrepiava-se, a pele queimava. "Tá assim porque quer gozar, é?", bingo. "Caralho, eu sei... dói 'pra cacete, não dói? É uma delícia.", sussurrava embriagado, agora ia lentinho. Um sorriso maldoso adornou os lábios grossos. "Quer descobrir uma coisa, vadia?", outra vez, não te deixou responder: "Dói mais ainda se eu te deixar sem nada...", retirou-se num movimento só e foi como se tivessem levado um pedaço da sua própria carne. A sensação de vazio fazia sua visão ficar turva, era quase desesperador — e totalmente antinatural, deveria ser feito do outro demônio presente.

"Espera! Espera... Não-", a garganta coçava com a sensação, tudo em você agora parecia dependente daquilo. "Chris! Chris, porra... por favor...", engasgava-se com as próprias palavras, forçando o quadril contra o nada, incapaz de fazê-lo entrar outra vez.

"Você é uma puta tão patética, nem dá 'pra ser chamada de demônio.", zombou ao que ria do seu estado. "Que porra de súcubo que fica burra por pica, hein? Não faz o menor sentido.", entrou mais uma vez e você jura que quis chorar com o quão delicioso foi tê-lo de volta. Não sabe que porra de poder ele tinha, mas ia acabar de te matando se não fosse capaz de impedir. Queria raciocinar, mas quase se babou inteira com o jeito que o pau gostoso estava abrindo sua entradinha. Inferno, jurava nunca ter sido comida tão bem assim — se pudesse foderia com outros demônios pelo resto dos seus dias.

Entretanto, precisava voltar a si. Mostrar a que veio. Seria enxotada pelo Asmodeus se ele ao menos cogitasse que isso aconteceu e que, muito pior, você se deixou ser usada — droga, provavelmente nem sobreviveria para ser expurgada. Resolveu voltar ao princípio, se liberasse feromônios suficientes talvez fosse capaz de sair dessa situação. Só precisava ser rápida, só...

"Tenta qualquer gracinha e eu acabo contigo.", a ameaça veio acompanhada de um tapa firme no rosto. Seus olhinhos reviraram. "Te mando arruinada 'pro seu mestre, nem que 'pra isso eu tenha que te arrastar pelos nove infernos.", rosnou as palavras, acertando um tapa do outro lado ao que sentiu você espasmar. Estava definitivamente estúpida, choramingando com a ardência gostosa que sentia na pele machucada. "Porra, quer gozar até quando apanha... Que brinquedo de merda que você é. Não serve nem 'pra isso.", desdenhou. Porém você estava distante. Reduzida a nada, envergonhava a própria espécie. Não racionava, mal ouvia, sequer respirava.

A visão turva fez um péssimo trabalho em te deixar ver o momento no qual ele se aproximou novamente. O nariz foi pressionado contra a pele do seu pescoço, arrastou-se pela pele quente sondando seu cheiro como um animal faminto. Sentiu a língua áspera rastejando por ali logo em seguida, o corpo inteiro encolheu-se, os olhinhos reviraram mais uma vez. Chris grunhia, parecia mostrar apreciação pelo gosto do seu suor.

Era confuso. Sentia-se cheia e drenada ao mesmo tempo. Não aguentava um mais segundo sequer, porém precisava que ele te libertasse, que te desse o que você tanto ansiava. Queria que Chris acabasse com aquilo de uma vez, que fizesse doer. A cabeça movia-se de um jeito inerte na tentativa de acompanhar os movimentos da boca dele.

O homem soltou seus pulsos, a destra pressionou seu baixo-ventre contra o colchão — um esforço inútil, não é como se você pudesse se mexer. A canhota esfregou seu íntimo sem delicadeza, estava encharcada, a entradinha minava uma mistura de líquidos diferentes. Tentou fechar as perninhas, mas o corpo grande no meio delas te impediu. Chris moveu a mão com mais velocidade após sua tentativa, fazia um barulho pegajoso, nojento. Ele sorriu ao te ver tremendo, as mãozinhas molengas indo até os pulsos do homem, forçando as unhas afiadas contra a carne.

Queria chorar, a garganta arranhava no ímpeto de implorar por clemência, mas não o faria — não era da sua natureza, sequer sabia como fazê-lo. Queria ele longe de você. Queria ele dentro de você.Te tomando, te enchendo de tanta luxúria até que você não fosse mais capaz de raciocinar. As pernas abriram-se, forçou o quadril para cima com a força restante que tinha, ofereceu-se mais uma vez. Precisava de mais. Mais um pouco.

"Vai deixar eu acabar com você, não vai?", o timbre cortou seu corpo num arrepio. A glande avantajada roçou contra as dobrinhas maltratadas. E você sorriu. Droga, parecia certo. Só sorriu, completamente mole. Chris soltou um risinho anasalado. "É a puta mais burra que eu já comi.", entrou de uma só vez, como se te punisse pelo seu comportamento. Novamente, você quis se curvar com o impacto, mas a mão que pesava no meio do seu corpo não te deixava sair do lugar.

Caiu totalmente fraca no colchão quando ele voltou a estocar, balançava junto com o movimento. Parecia não acostumar, ele te abria gostoso 'pra caralho. A boquinha já abria novamente para gemer, os lábios tão secos quanto a garganta. Tentou forçar a bucetinha por conta própria, estava embriagada de prazer, mas não parecia suficiente. As mãos dele te agarraram pela cintura, suspendendo parte do seu corpo para fora do colchão. Movia-o como bem queria, fodendo contigo sozinho, como se fosse um brinquedo.

Era rude, o impacto fazia sua pele arder. Sentia-se tão perto da borda, todos os músculos do seu corpo se contraíam. Mas conseguia ver no sorrisinho dele o quão longe do alívio você estava. Patética, queria chorar. Qualquer resquício de força parecia deixar seu corpo, estava mole, totalmente maleável. Só notou os próprios olhinhos se fechando quando recebeu um tapinha no rosto.

"Não desmaia, porra. Aguenta.", ele cuspiu entre-dentes, impiedoso.

"Chris... eu tô- hm...", praticamente soluçou. Estava tão certa de que iria gozar que quase chorou quando sentiu a sensação se afastar novamente. Os olhos arderam, a boquinha tremeu — merda, não, não, não! Não podia. Era a porra de um demônio. Agir como uma humana ridícula e quebrada te colocaria num dos níveis mais baixos dentro de qualquer categoria. Significaria assinar seu atestado de fraqueza. Mas se sentia tão rendida à sensação, só precisava...

Levou uma das mãozinhas fracas até os seus seios. Tontinha de tanto tesão, ansiava por qualquer estímulo. Beliscou os biquinhos, recolhendo a própria saliva para esfregar contra os a carne macia. A entradinha pulsava, sentia ela vazar. Mesmo tão cheinha, parecia não ser suficiente. A mão grande circulou seu pescoço novamente, você sabia o que estava por vir. Os olhinhos se apertaram assim que Chris esporrou mais uma vez, era quente demais, se arrepiou inteirinha. Sua cabeça girava só de pensar, tinha tanto dentro de você... sentia o fluido pegajoso escorrendo entre as suas pernas.

O corpo agiu por conta própria, levou os dedinhos até o clitóris sensível, estimulando-o sem ter dó. Ignorou o aperto contra o seu pescoço ao que se fodeu contra o falo pesado dentro de você. Agia do jeitinho que Chris havia te descrito, como uma cadela desesperada. A língua escapava para fora da boca, quase babava, choramingando uma série de palavras desconexas. Comportava-se de uma maneira desprezível. Convulsionava por prazer, por tesão, por não ser mais capaz de suportar... não sabia.

"Porra, Chris... deixa... deixa eu- Ah!"

Ele debruçou-se por cima de você, o rosto agora próximo, a mão ainda no seu pescoço — fodia como se não sentisse nada.

"Deixar o quê, sua puta do caralho?", se fez de desentendido, quase rosnando as palavras contra o seu rosto.

"Seu- hm! filho da puta... seu- porra, eu vou acabar contigo...", sequer sabia mais o que falava. Sentia raiva, queria torturá-lo da pior forma, tirar qualquer resquício de 'vida' existente dentro do corpo dele. "Gozar, porra, me deixa gozar...", choramingou, os dedos esfregando o pontinho sensível com mais força. Chris gargalhou, você era ridícula.

"Eu 'tô deixando, não tô?", desdenhou. Socou o pau com mais força ainda, ia fundo, machucando o buraquinho com gosto. "Anda, _____. Goza vai.", ordenou, tendo a plena consciência de que ainda te impedia.

Um senso de fúria te encheu, detestava ser alvo de escárnio — aquilo feria seu orgulho da pior maneira. Quando foi capaz de perceber, já estapeava o rosto acima do seu. Descontrolada, arrastava as unhas afiadas pelas costas dele com força. Chris sequer se movia, o risinho insistente ainda zombava de toda a situação. As sobrancelhas do homem franziram ao sentir um tapa mais severo no rosto — e você definitivamente não era fraca —, a cabeça dele caiu para frente. Você gemeu ao senti-lo te encher pela enésima vez.

"Porra de puta gostosa...", grunhiu baixinho, ainda sentindo os efeitos do próprio orgasmo. Seu corpo amoleceu ao que praticamente experienciou o prazer junto com ele. Era a parte mais desalentadora de ser um súcubo, um orgasmo é a expressão mais elevada de luxúria — a sensação te embriagava todas as vezes. "Bate de novo, vagabunda.", ordenou, mas sua mente lerdinha não foi capaz de processar. "Bate, porra! Tô mandando.", soltou seu pescoço, balançando seu rostinho com uma das mãos. Você finalmente obedeceu, acertando o rosto dele num só lance — Chris não pareceu impressionado. "Mais forte.", murmurou. Outra tentativa, a cabeça fraquinha só conseguia se concentrar na porra dele escorrendo para fora de você e ele não demorou a notar. "Cacete, você é tão estúpida...", sussurrou com escárnio "Bate direito e eu te faço gozar. Anda.", sabia que agora você era incapaz de negar.

Respirou fundo tentando agrupar algum pensamento coerente. Dessa vez, pesou a mãozinha, batendo com toda a força que tinha. O impacto fez o homem tombar o rosto, sorrindo satisfeito. Você também não deixou passar despercebido o jeitinho que o pau dele espasmou, liberando mais um pouco do líquido viscoso. Sua buceta se apertou toda carentinha, molhou-se ainda mais, porém sequer tinha espaço para vazar a lubrificação quentinha. Olhou-o em forma de súplica, sentia o ventre arder. Doía de tanta vontade...

Chris tomou seus lábios num solavanco. A língua serpenteou para dentro da sua boca de um jeito caloroso, fazia a garganta queimar. Seu rosto ardia com o sal das próprias lágrimas. Estava liberta, finalmente. Era excruciante, sentia o homem rastejando dentro de cada parte do seu corpo. Sentia-se pertencente a ele e isso não era, de maneira alguma, natural. Mas era tão... gostoso, gostoso 'pra caralho. Sim, era muito mais do que você podia suportar. Não conseguia respirar, sugando desesperadamente a língua do homem acima de você. A saliva escorrendo pelos cantos dos lábios, por mais que você tentasse engolir cada gotinha.

O corpo parecia envolvido por um líquido gelatinoso e quente.

A mente se apagava e talvez...

Só talvez.

Você não acordasse outra vez.

# — © 2024 hansolsticio ᯓ★ masterlist.

[eurothug4000]

INTERVIEWS WITH OLEANDER GARDEN, CRISPPYBOAT AND ADAM PYPE

For my current video on fictional dead MMO/servers in games (https://youtu.be/AXSJ27bTRzw), I interviewed some developers with experience creating such settings. Oleander Garden (Autogeny), Crisppyboat (NetEscape) and Adam Pype (No Players Online) kindly took the time to discuss the creation of their respective games, with their answers compiled here:

What gave you the inspiration to use an empty MMO setting?

Oleander Garden (Autogeny):

The post-vaporwave / hauntology / Dan Bell deadmall universe was at its apex when I started working on Autogeny in 2018; mostly I wanted to play with that sense of longing for lost futures, & put it in conversation with the ideas the Pagan games had been orbiting around (i.e. contemporary technological mythology, poetic-making, degraded game forms). The dead y2k MMO format was a fun solution that had a little tie in to everything I wanted the game to think about.

Crisppyboat (NetEscape):

The idea came to me when watching Redlyne's video series on dead mmos, and theories about cults within them. Just the atmosphere that brings with it, a seemingly derelict digital landscape, rich in history from past users, now occupied by some malevolent force (or one that’s always been around) really fascinated me! Especially with the popularity of liminal spaces, I really connected with the idea of exploring the online equivalent of that. For this game jam version it was on a fairly small scale (only about 4 areas) but we’d love to explore that idea with a more believable expansive online space, that was really the heart of the idea for me. Sitting alone at night and logging into an abandoned online game, shifting through the past memories of long forgotten players in a vast digital space. It has this sort of unnerving feeling to it, why's this still up after all this time and who knows what could still be around. 

Adam Pype (No Players Online):

I was actually doing an exchange at the time when I was making the original version of the game (from 2019) at a game design school in the netherlands. i reallyy hated this class because it was super designed focus without much practical work, and im really more of a design-by-doing person. anyways, one of the assignments was making a map for Unreal Tournament, and it was this tedious process of having to block out the level and then write endless documentation about the design process. i guess the class was super triple-A focused or something. since halloween was coming up and i was still doing game-a-month at the time, i really wanted to give a go at making something super scary. and as i was doing this assignment i really enjoyed just walking around the little map without any bots, and just taking in the vibes. i did a little extra flair to my map by adding ambient sounds to it (i have a video of that actually, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_22Q_oNwk0) and it really did a lot for the atmosphere. then i remember that as a kid i used to play GMOD a lot with my friend, and because I was always hosting the server and our computers were very slow, it would always take like 10 minutes at least for my friend to join. adding that ambient sound really reminded me of that, because gmod maps always have this ambient sound in them that's a bit unsettling. i remember being so scared to wander around on my own because these maps were always known to have jump scares, so i would just wait at spawn for my friend. so i realised that this would make for a cool horror game. i originally planned to just port the map into unity, but then i decided against it because it wouldve been more work than it was worth. so i really quickly made a map that didnt make a lot of sense and made it somewhat symmetrical. ironically, not thinking about it too much made it so good, because the map is a bit disorienting, which is perfect for a horror game. it's a little bit funny that i found the most success by making a multiplayer map that was badly designed instead of what this class was trying to teach me. :-)

Did you initially have specific themes you wanted to explore or did the idea of having an empty mmo setting come first?

Oleander Garden (Autogeny):

Ideas came first, setting later! A month before the game came out I still wasn't 100% sure I was going to commit to that framing device actually - otherwise it would have been a straightforward haunted-EXE type of deal, like luna game (2011) or those 2010s haunted video game creepypastas. I'm glad I went with it; 'digital space you inhabited' is a much cooler ('weightier?') frame for this sort of story.

Crisppyboat (NetEscape):

I think the setting had developed first before any specific themes came to mind, but to me NetEscape in a lot of ways represents the melancholy that comes from the loss of fun, safe virtual spaces. Like many people I grew up in these spaces and to see them shuttered in favour of a handful of social media platforms really fills me with a sort of nostalgic sadness, as genuinely I felt that these spaces were really important for kids and young adults. The term "dead internet" comes up a lot nowadays and I feel in part it can be attributed to the sort of forced migration towards a handful of social media platforms devoid of the liberties and expression niche online spaces provided for people. Other than that, existentialism as a theme kind of just fell into place when attempting to craft a story for the concept.

What was it about the empty server/MMO concept that helped you explore the game's themes?

Oleander Garden (Autogeny):

I think the multiplayer and especially persistent-multiplayer character of an MMO makes that kind of game world feel a lot more like /a space/ and less like a strictly authored object; that helped make things feel 'lived in', 'decayed', 'lost', &c. in a way that really worked with the whole 'self-making out of techno-mythic-rubble' thing the game was going for.  Likewise, I suspect the 1995-2004ish era of MMO design in particular - which was much less authored, much more sandboxy, much more scattershot and weird - is (A) /especially/ good at producing that impression, and (B) developed out of a very specific mythical-ideological project which has now been abandoned: the prevailing y2k notion that one might live a 'second life' in a 'digital world', which seems almost quaint or pastoral today. I figured this would produce a certain feeling of dislocation, of 'living in the ruins'.

Crisppyboat (NetEscape):

We use the internet as an escape from reality, and now with the progression of time a lot of these places no longer exist or stand dormant. The empty mmo, to me, represents a sort of time capsule for people you’ve never met. A public space where people put so much of themselves into it, you get to learn so much just through the fragments they’ve left behind. It’s this sort of melancholy nostalgia that I hope we can really channel in the game’s full release.

Adam Pype (No Players Online):

the first version of the game had no story at all. i just did the whole setup of being alone in a multiplayer game, and then a ghost showing up and it ended with a jumpscare. i showed this off at an event on the last day of the month and was planning to publish the game the day after. people really liked the setup but they were dissapointed it just ended on a jumpscare and had no point to it. so on the walk home i thought about adding a story to it. at the time i was really kind of against (or uninterested even) in adding a narrative to my games. looking back on it it's a bit stupid, but i figured it would be a good opportunity to try out adding a story to one of my games. so that same night i quickly added in a story by having the developer join just before the end and explaining that the ghost was his dead wife and that capturing the last flag would undo all of his work. it was a bit rushed, and most of the critique i got was that it was a bit cliché. but without it the game would have been super uninteresting and nobody would have liked it as much. really goes to show that people really like a story :) lesson learned! now many years later we're doing this big version of the game because the original was such a success (mostly thanks to the ARG i think). since i'm now much more of a matured developer I wanted to really focus in on the story and work it into something that is actually interesting, has depth, cool characters, and not just a story about a dead wife stuck in a game (which is a bit of an overplayed trope maybe). but, i had to work with what I had, since it is a successor. i think the direction we're going in now is much much more interesting, making it about old tech more broadly as a vehicle for horror and also telling the story about the relationship between john and sarah, and giving sarah more agency. for the full game we are kind of purposefully doing the opposite of what the original did. by not letting john say anything until the very end, and making sarah more of the main character. in the end I think the game is also much more about grief and using the concept of a dead person stuck in a game and the obsession of the developer to revive her as a kind of allegory about creative work and obsession over your work preventing you from finishing it. this is something i personally quite strongly believe in, that it's important not to let a project take control of your life, and making it so important that it never gets done. the unfinished fps game prototype is so much about this, here is this game that had so much potential and interest, but the developers were so busy trying to make it into this impossible thing that people just lost interest and it never becomes something real or alive. the dead server is literally a testament to a dead idea, a dead person, an unfulfilled potential and a constant reminder of not being able to let go.

What is it about this setting that lends itself well to the horror genre? What kinds of things in the empty server/MMO space did you specifically think about including and/or subverting to make the experience scarier? 

Oleander Garden (Autogeny):

 Living in the shadowed ruins of a gestalt social project which has fallen away and left monoliths behind - this is the essential characteristic of the 19th century European gothic novel, and the 20th century southern gothic that followed. Maybe we could say that 'living in the ruins of an MMO' works as a sort of '21st century gothic', i.e., that the dead server spooks us for the same reason dead castles spooked Bram Stoker, and dead plantations spooked Faulkner. It's not the space, precisely: it's the social field that created that sort of space, and the way its influence still lingers. Playing too much Everquest will probably destroy your life, but there's something fantastical and romantic about early Everquest stories - people waking up at 3AM to go kill a dragon with 70-odd strangers in their shared digital space. There's nothing romantic about Meta or AI-girlfriends: only the life obliterating part survived. In the home stretch of development I tried to give Autogeny lots of little details that would scream 'early MMO' in particular. Open world dungeons with bosses to farm, impossible zone transitions: this sort of thing. I don't know if it would have worked if it felt like Final Fantasy XIV, you know? It had to be an old MMO.

Crisppyboat (NetEscape):

We tried to play with sound and limitation to generate horror. Sound played a huge role, (masterfully provided by louceph) stuff like repeating footsteps and ambient noise really added a lot to the overall experience of wandering alone. Taking inspiration from Iron lung, I really pushed for the on screen navigation system to give a bit more anxiety in the moment, having it be limited, and a bit harder to quickly turn or walk if you catch something in the corner of your eye. We sort of quickly realized that there were a lot of pitfalls in presenting the game in a totally accurate, realistic way without confusing the player, we actually had to patch in a notification sound for the file system just cause a lot of people would never bother actually checking the photos they took during the game. In the games full version we’re going to try and add stuff like working text chat/emotes, and other core staples to really give it that believable feeling, the jam version turned out nice but I’m really excited to go extra hard on hammering down what makes a game feel like a real abandoned mmo. 

Adam Pype (No Players Online):

I think old tech, limitations of old tech and just old design standards or quirks or imperfections are all things that make something feel a bit uncanny and scary. games nowadays are so juicy and smooth and responsive you are constantly at ease because you're being taken care of, there is no friction. all those small things, those small barriers make the game feel like an ominous force, or like a big heavy lid on a tomb that you have to tear off. there's something powerful with horror when you have to make a player do something tedious with the anticipation of the scare. going through that old server list menu really feels like you're undusting something. you also can't jump, you cant look very far ahead. it makes it all feel so evil... then there is also the subversion of it, adding things for authenticity that have no point. you have a gun but there is nothing to shoot, you have a player list but nobody is online, you have a match timer but the match never ends, even delivering the flags doesnt have a point because there is no game because nobody is on the other team. it makes the whole environment feel like you're not welcome, like it's just this graveyard and all you're doing is trampling the flowers. another thing is that everything in the game is "in-story". the game's story is about someone being on this mysterious computer and discovering old and scary things. it's cool because everything from pressing buttons or opening applications, none of it is OOC, it's all supposed to be the experience of discovering this thing that wasn't meant for you, this invasion of privacy and literally uncovering some old skeletons. this is kind of the core design principle for the game, if one of the games in the forum is a bit badly made that's like part of the story cause it's a hobby gamedev. everything is supposed to be authentic and part of the narrative. the full game will have no open ends, every single file and link or application has a point or some subtext.

Has there been any interesting feedback from players that made you think about the empty server/MMO setting in a new way?

Oleander Garden (Autogeny):

Yeah! It especially makes me smile when I find some cool new dead-mmo game, and it turns out the developer liked Autogeny, and figured they could do the idea better, or in a different way. I wasn't sure if the conceit was too particular, but it seems like it really resonated with people - it's like I got to contribute a little formalism to the tapestry of weirdo indie-game culture, you know?  It's cute and it's probably the main thing that keeps me feeling positive about the game. Now I get to play different games, by different people, with their own ideas about the gothic digital-plaza.

Crisppyboat (NetEscape):

Well, one thing that I sort of regret for the demo version was implementing the text chat and emotes as fun visual dressing rather then actually functional, a lot of people kept interacting with it like they’d be able to have full conversions in the game, it’s something we’d like to do for the full release but it wasn’t possible on this jam version. A lot of feedback was also related to the overall story and how it was presented. We plan on focusing way more on the actual exploration of the abandoned space, as that seems to be what people were mostly interested in (as am I haha). Of course the actual way in which the story was presented (taking photos to get files) was not realistic to a mmo at all but I think there's a lot of potential towards the connectivity between actions in the game and the desktop itself. Hypnospace comes to mind as a huge inspiration, doing something similar to that but in 3D would be great. It makes me really excited to explore mmo staples like photography, mini games and other realistic features, turning them into puzzles throughout the full game. We also found a lot of people were annoyed by the slow movement, but I felt that element would be super important for the kind of slow burn anxiety that we went for with this jam version, plus you’d move pretty slow in those old games haha.

There's a pretty big amount of interest in dead MMOs/game servers these days! What is it about them that you personally think is intriguing? Is it mainly just nostalgic elements or are there less prominent aspects that you think make them so interesting?

Oleander Garden (Autogeny):

I don't think it can just be nostalgia, in the empty sense of 'consumer fantasy'. If that was the case, you would expect consumer activity to follow a similar pattern to e.g. console game nostalgia (buying lots of knick knacks and status signifiers, attaching cultural value to a particular major corporation, &c.) Instead, we got this cool thriving scene of DIY horror, and illegal pirate revival servers! Critically, the dead mmo genre is not /just/ pro-forma nostalgic-horror (e.g. afraid of a terrible, romantic past) but also, as Mark Fisher might have said, essentially 'Hauntological' - it's oriented towards a speculative /lost future/. There's a certain longing for a separate digital world, and a new realm of human activity Online - which seemed totally possible, until the real world got digitized, and the digital world died an unceremonious death. From this the dead-mmo form can draw all the drama and emotional weight of a failed revolution, in our deeply repressed cultural milieu, where emerging revolutions fail before they get started.

Crisppyboat (NetEscape):

Honestly I think it’s just the generation that had been raised on mmos like this having grown up with nostalgia for these spaces. Online chat games have basically come and gone, contained in a specific generation of kids, and I think it’s pretty profound how impactful it still is on us. For me just the idea of an online games player legacy really fascinates me. In a way it's almost like exploring an abandoned home or school, where you get the opportunity to catch glimpses of lives and relationships etched into the environment. Like any abandoned or “liminal space” I think people find it intriguing based on the mystery of discovery, finding something clearly human made, and stopping to think how or why they did it. It's an extremely fresh and untapped market, because it is so relatively new, there’s a lot of potential. We see it a lot in internet horror, stuff that at this point has been around for decades, where we can start collectively referring to it in media.

Adam Pype (No Players Online):

everyone keeps telling me this but i haven't really looked into it! it doesnt surprise me though, i think this fear of being alone in a multiplayer game is a pretty shared experience and everyone who's had it is now old enough to make games about it. i wasn't really inspired by any game in particular, i would say the main inspiration i had was Petscop, which is also about an abandoned unfinished game that has a whole layer under it revealing some ulterior use for the game. this whole idea of a game being a facade hiding some grand conspiracy under it is soo interesting to me. it's like easter eggs or 4th wall breaking stuff, or little out of bounds areas. it makes you think about what's hidden underneath all of this stuff you were meant to see. i've always as a kid thought so much about "what if there is a whole other level behind this wall" or like these creepypastas like Ben Drowned or even the luigi stuff in Super Mario 64. the idea that this thing you know and love has something sinister and it was always there you just never noticed will always play well into people's fears.

A huge thank you to Oleander Garden, Crisppyboat and Adam Pype for taking the time to be interviewed.

Oleander Garden: https://x.com/void_hyacinth

Autogeny: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1165750/PAGAN_Autogeny/

Crisppyboat: https://x.com/CrisppyBoat

NetEscape: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3344890/NetEscape/

Adam Pype: https://x.com/adampi

No Players Online: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2701800/No_Players_Online/

[autism-unfiltered]

More Life Hacks to Make Your Days Even Brighter (ASD)

Noise-Filtering Apps:

While noise-canceling headphones are great, sometimes they might not be practical. In such cases, noise-filtering apps can help you focus by playing ambient sounds or white noise through your regular earphones.

Visual Timers:

Time management can be challenging. Visual timers, available as physical devices or apps, can help you better understand the passage of time through visual cues.

Sensory-Friendly Clothing:

Opt for clothes made from soft, breathable fabrics that don't have tags or seams that could irritate your skin. Some brands specialize in sensory-friendly clothing.

Aromatherapy:

If you find certain scents calming, consider using an essential oil diffuser in your living space. Make sure to choose oils that you find soothing.

Task Decomposition:

Breaking down tasks into smaller, manageable parts can make them less overwhelming. Use a task management app or a simple notepad to list these smaller tasks.

Virtual Social Interaction:

If face-to-face social interactions are stressful, try starting with virtual interactions. Video calls, online forums, or multiplayer video games can be a less stressful way to socialize.

Chewelry:

If you find oral stimulation calming, consider investing in chewelry—jewelry designed to be safe to chew on.

Emotional Check-in Apps:

Sometimes, it's hard to identify what you're feeling. Emotional check-in apps can prompt you to assess your emotional state at different times, helping you become more aware of your emotions and triggers.

DIY Sensory Box:

Create a small, portable sensory box filled with items that help you self-regulate. This can be a quick go-to when you're feeling overwhelmed.

Mindfulness Techniques:

Mindfulness can help you become aware of your sensory experiences and emotional state. There are apps and online courses designed specifically for neurodiverse individuals.

Remember, these are just suggestions. What works for one person may not work for another, so feel free to adapt these hacks to better suit your needs. Your journey is your own, and it's okay to find your own path to comfort and happiness.

[cityandking]

🛏️🎮🌳🎭 for minah, bran + dai!

xoxo thanks babe // yet another oc ask game

🛏️ What does your OC’s bed look like? What would they like their bed to look like?

MINAH — currently her bed mostly looks like a pallet laid out on the floor or a cot or a barracks somewhere around western thedas. she's got the bedroll (fairly recently restuffed I think) and a few blankets—from the troupe, from the wardens, and I think she miiiiight have "borrowed" one from the Leroux household in Serault (look, it's winter, she's cold). She'd like her bed to be an actual mattress in a private bedroom with actual pillows and an actual comforter and freshly-washed sheets and maybe a bed warmer (either of the "hot water bottle" or "fun nighttime friend" variety, depending on her mood)

BRAN — has a big cozy inset berth in her cabin that's honestly more nest than bed—loads of pillows and blankets, pretty much never neatly made. it's truly her perfect idea of a bed and she loves it. it can be a bit tricky when the seas are extra rough, but usually if the sailing is bad she's up on deck anyway.

DAI — at his dad's house he's got a very simple bed a little on the narrow side (it's a bit of a squeeze with zaref) with many many blankets because the mountains get Cold. in selto he's got the opportunity to set things up exactly how he wants, so he has a bigger bed (better for sharing) with fewer blankets but of far better quality—izzy turned him onto high thread count sheets and now he can never go back :( (he probably steals a throw or something from back home when he settles in selto as his home base — nice to have a little piece of home with him)

🎮 If your OC lives or would live in the modern world, would they like video games? What would be their favorite game?

MINAH — ok well I was going to say she'd enjoy a casual mobile game and that's it, except then I was overtaken by the vision of minah hunched over a controller and swearing over mic at some mindless multiplayer shooter so I think I have to say she's like, an overwatch girlie. I don't think that she'd enjoy single-player campaigns very much and she wouldn't have the patience for steep learning curves of anything technical but she'd enjoy a multiplayer. she'd rather play a tabletop, though (easier to palm the pieces when nobody's looking)

BRAN — I think bran would enjoy a single-player rpg every now and then because she loves to live out big and impossible stories, but she doesn't always have the patience for finishing them (she should play uncharted. bran would love uncharted.)

DAI — dai would definitely game. he'd enjoy intense stuff that requires a lot of focus and strategy and ambient worldbuilding; he likes having a concrete problem to solve and things to uncover and I think gaming would really scratch that itch for him. I feel like he'd get really into the soulsborne games? or simulation/strategy games maybe

🌳 Would your OC survive for a week on their own in the wilderness?

MINAH — it depends on if she can prepare in advance or if it's sort of a naked and afraid situation. if she could prep food/water/etc. she'd be fine; if it's more of a hunting and foraging situation she could make it but it wouldn't be pretty. she's got crazy survival drive but she's really not made for roughing it, at least not solo. she's a city rogue, y'know?

BRAN — depends on the wilderness, but unless it's some richly vegetated tropical island with fresh groundwater I'd say no. she's made for cities and trading and being able to buy provisions and having other people around

DAI — as a level 20 demigod, yeah no problem. without magic he'd find it tricky but I think his soldier training probably included a survival course so he's got the basic skills (plus a +6 to survival) so he could make it work

🎭 What is the one thing your OC regrets most? Would they undo it, considering how their life turned out?

MINAH — oh god where to start. top 10 questions to haunt her when she can't sleep. she wishes she could have stopped it. she wishes she'd known. her biggest regret is leaving, but there was no way she could have stayed. there was no choice. she had to go. she had to.

BRAN — leaving ellis alone in that big house with the burden of the family name and obligation. sometimes she wishes she'd taken him with her, but on the run and on the water is no place for a child, and she'd been barely more than a child herself. she still regrets it, though

DAI — the hurt he put his friends through when he sacrificed himself to close the portal to the Abyss. wouldn't change it and stands by the decision. but he'd have spared them the grief if he could.

[fannedandflawless]

✨ Immersive Hogwarts VR Fitness Modes–FanSnap style ✨

Run, regret, repeat. Burn calories and maybe find Snape.

I usually have one of those long Hogwarts Walking Tour clips running in the background while I'm working—it's atmospheric, it's vaguely productive, and occasionally delusional. I've even seriously considered buying a foldable treadmill just to slide it under the sofa like it's a secret shame. Sure, I know VR Hogwarts exists. But it’s always the serene kind, isn’t it? Quiet castle, ambient music, just vibes. And I thought—what if it wasn’t? What if it were absolutely unhinged? What if we turned cardio into chaos? Hence, a series of delightfully absurd VR fitness modes that might—just might—finally get me to exercise. (But only if I don’t have to leave the house.)

⸻

Strolls, Stealth & Spite

🕯️ Night Patrol (Low-Intensity / 80–100 bpm)

Role: Professor, Prefect, Head Girl/Boy

Walk slowly through castle corridors after curfew

Bonus points for pausing near stained glass and sighing dramatically

Includes optional Rule Breaker detection: spot and chase stealth students mid-stroll

Catching one deducts House points and earns a cardio spike of vindication

💥 Rule Breaker (Stealth Walk)

Goal: Get from your dormitory to a randomly assigned location without being caught

Avoid Filch, Peeves, creaky steps, and professors with sharp observational skills

Cloak optional. Breath control, essential

⚖️ Patrol vs. Breaker (Multiplayer Mode)

Mode: Two-player competitive stealth & pursuit

Night Patrol player: assigned to roam set paths and detect movement

Rule Breaker player: must sneak to assigned locations without being caught

Each player sees only their own role's map; Patrol has limited vision cones

Ends when the chosen round timer (10, 20, 30 mins) runs out or a successful capture occurs

Bonus: yelling "POTTER!" optional but encouraged

⸻

HIIT (Highly Inconvenient Internal Turmoil)

🔪 Dungeon HIIT: Troll in the Dungeon

Role: Terrified First-Year

Sprint from dungeons to Great Hall

Optional heart rate spikes from random sound triggers

🐍 Dungeon HIIT v.2: Chamber Run

Role: Desperate Second-Year

Sprint through narrow pipes into the Chamber of Secrets

Includes balance sections, sliding mechanics, and panic cues

Boss-level finish: basilisk proximity = max heart rate zone

🕷️ HIIT Bonus: Follow the Butterflies

Role: Panicked Best Friend

Ron wanted to follow the butterflies. Ended up running for your life from Aragog’s children

Distance: Unknown. Just run

Goal: Escape the Forbidden Forest before you're webbed into cardio oblivion

Unlocks only after completing both Dungeon HIIT modes

🪄 Ministry Mayhem HIIT (Battle Mode)

Scene: Department of Mysteries, Hall of Prophecy Choose your allegiance:

With Harry: dodge spells, rescue friends

With Death Eaters: chase Harry, set traps (like Mario Kart chaos)

Heart rate zone 3+ guaranteed

🌲 Relentless Flight: Forest of Dean Run

Role: One of the Golden Trio (likely Harry, but with Hermione's cardio)

Run through the woods, evading Death Eaters

Minimum heart rate: Zone 3 — drop below, and you're at risk of capture

Choose your endurance goal: 10, 20, 30, or 45 minutes

Random panic spikes triggered by crackling twigs, distant spells, or Ron shouting from nowhere

Bonus: Slightly increased shame for tripping on roots

🧪 I'm Late for Potions (Mid to High Intensity)

Goal: Get to Dungeon Classroom before Snape closes the door

Choose starting points:

Great Hall → Dungeon (Warm-up jog)

Bell Tower Courtyard → Dungeon (Steady run)

Grand Staircase → Dungeon (Winding path, no shortcuts allowed)

Hogwarts Gate → Dungeon (Endurance sprint)

Hogsmeade End → Dungeon (Obstacle mode: weekend crowd vs weekday ease)

Late = Detention. Repeat 3x = Lockout 3 days

⸻

Leisurely Regret Routes

🏃‍♂️ Hogwarts House Marathon

Goal: Run laps around Hogwarts grounds

Choose distances: 3KM, 5KM, 10KM, 15KM, 20KM

Gain badges: Fat Friar Finish, Ravenclaw Rhythm, Gryffindor Glory, Slytherin Spite

🛷 Hogsmeade Rally (Outdoor Route Mode)

Goal: Traverse the winter trail from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts—the long way

Choose terrain: Slush, Ice, or Cobblestone Madness

Avoid slipping, tripping, and being tempted by Honeydukes mid-route

Bonus if you make it back to the castle without buying a single thing (doubly hard in multiplayer)

Optional: Carry a paper bag from Zonko’s as resistance weight

⸻

Snapewife Mode: Expanded Universe

🪞 Snapewife Mode: Free Roam

Walk for minimum 30 min inside castle to "possibly" encounter Snape

He moves randomly; you must wander with purpose

🔍 Snapewife Radar Mode

Mini map shows where Snape was 10 seconds ago

No fast travel, no Apparition. Find him before he disappears again

🔥 Anti-Snilly Sweep

Your mission: Find Lily & Severus and separate them

Must walk entire castle until both are spotted

Bonus: Optional mini-game dialogue to derail the ship

⸻

🪑 Judging is Cardio

Unlocks only after completing all other modes and difficulty levels above; shame and emotional exhaustion must be fully accumulated before this passive-aggressive cardio can be initiated

Role: Professor McGonagall (with Severus Snape)

Stand beside him and silently judge Lockhart through an entire class period

You cannot cast spells, move, or speak

Only permitted action: smirking in sync with Snape

Burn calories through pure disdain

Passive points earned: +1 Sarcasm, +2 Smirk Timing, +3 Internal Eye-roll Control

Bonus Features:

All modes track distance, heart rate, and shame

Unlockable soundtracks: Duel of the Fates (String Quartet Edition), Snape’s Footsteps in a Corridor at 2AM, and Slytherin Common Room Lofi Mix

⸻

What do you think? I’m perfectly aware this idea is completely absurd, but honestly, if someone ever made a mod like this, I’d download it before my tea went cold. It sounds utterly delightful. Also, I may or may not be trying to justify the purchase of a treadmill that’s destined to become a boutique towel rack in six weeks’ time.

[octobersmog]

Abby Sciuto + Gamer S/O Headcanons

Pairing: Abby Sciuto X Reader

Word Count: 291

Warnings: None

Masterlist | Request Something!

A/N: these are some very self indulgent hcs while i try to get back into the swing of things on here lmao,,can't wait to get things rolling again !

When she isn't buried knee-deep in her work, I HC Abby to be heavy into a mix of RPGs, MMOs, survival horror, and a select few FPS, along the lines of The Elder Scrolls, Resident Evil, WoW, Half Life, Halo, Devil May Cry, etc, and not really venture much outside of those genres.

She leans more into multiplayer rather than solo gaming,,but there's a few solo games she does enjoy immensely and could talk about for hours

If you both happen to play the same MMO, she is 100% the type to wanna reroll some new toons and quest together with complementing classes, and eventually the pair of you become unstoppable.

In that same vein, she would also totally pull McGee into a gaming session if you two needed some extra help with a quest.

However, if your taste in gaming turns out to be polar opposites, then a compromise has to be made if the two of you want to game together. The usual go-to is Minecraft; Abby takes care of the exploring and caving side of things while you take charge of building a house for the two of you.

You also end up introducing her to some games that she'd never think to pick up by herself. She's very partial to games with a cute art style.

She can get very competitive if you two are ever pitted against each other in a game and will very rarely, if ever, go easy on you, even if the game in question isn't actually that competition focused.

Date night gaming sessions are a common occurrence when she isn't tucked away down in the lab; ambient lighting, low music playing in the background, and a plethora of snacks while you both game the night away.

[plumadot]

Completely understandable. Then if you're looking for small, more cosmetic related mods, I definitely still suggest optifine or sodium, as well as xaeros, but I ALSO suggest possibly a fireflies mod (most are ambient) and vanilla tweaks. If you're looking for a decoration mod (one that adds more building blocks and decorations) I have a couple suggestions for that, but it does seem like you're going for a fairly vanilla pack

yeah definitely more vanilla kgfjdkgj i just started a 1.21 creative world and even just the addition of new copper and tuff blocks is overwhelming to me, let alone full decoration mods like chisel and bits!!! gkfjdgkjf i have 0.01 experience with multiplayer servers and mods in general, so i'd like to keep it as simple as possible...

[mistakenot4892]

Nebula vledbog May '24

This post was crossposted from cohost.

It has been a busy month on the dev branch. A lot of forward progress has been made on the Shaded Hills fantasy map, and several big rewrites have gone in and are under active adjustment and review.

Nebula SS13 is an open source project based on the Baystation 12 version of Space Station 13. SS13 is a topdown multiplayer simulation game where you play the crew of a ship, station, colony, etc. depending on your fork and map, with the Nebula and Bay forks having a focus on roleplaying and simulation interactions.

Notable changes

A big chunk of the work this month has been adding subtypes and variants for the fantasy map. You can now override things like loadout options, backpack types, survival box types, and starting cash options on a per-map basis. The fantasy map has also had a lot of aesthetic adjustments made to lighting and turf colouring to make things look really nice.

Penny has finished removing a billion unused procs and vars, cleaning up the code significantly.

Lots of clothing has been generalized. The /accessory subtype has been removed, and combining clothing items has been generalized. Shirts can be freely matched with pants, suit jackets no longer come with full business casual attached, and more.

Penny has also gotten the dev branch compiling on OpenDream, an open-source BYOND alternative with a lot of potential. The OD compiler is also included in the continuous integration testing for each merge to the dev branch, identifying problems that would be missed by the linter or the base BYOND DM compiler.

Penny has also resolved a really annoying issue with map edge lighting causing weird artifacting, making edge transitions much nicer visually.

The daycycle system has been gutted and reworked to take advantage of our much faster ambient lighting. Instead of crawling left to right across a single level, daycycles are now applied to entire z-level chunks, and can be customize with individual periods, lighting changes, and temperature. Dawn is bloody red, evening is dim.

Storage has been datumized! This is a bit of an arcane technical change, but in essence it means anything can have the ability to act as storage and hold items inside itself. Previously this was restricted to a single specific item subtype.

Supporting code for quadrupedal (or hexapodal, or n-podal) species has been merged, and immediately caused all simple animals to believe they had no legs and fall over. Working as intended. Grafadreka (reworked from the Polaris version) will be going in soon...

Bugs of note

C4 immediately melts at room temperature when spawned, making it very hard to attach it to doors or walls.

Taking the 'synthetic brain' aspect to fulfil your beep boop robot roleplay needs appeared to work fine, but five minutes after you spawned it would delete your brain and kill you.

You can use a lighter or welding torch to 'carefully heat' yourself, a mechanic intended for chemistry, but one that results in your hands becoming white-hot beacons that instantly melt anything you pick up.

Due to hairstyles defaulting to a human buzzcut when hidden by gear, neo-avians and yinglets manifested a floating buzzcut two feet above their head anytime they wore a hat.

Current priorities

r5 is very close to being ready to go. Once the robot bugs are sorted, we can finish off this staging period and start on r6.

The MVP TODO list for Shaded Hills is down to 10 or so items - getting through that before r6 staging would be ideal, since Shaded Hills being incomplete on staging/stable would suck.

I really want to completely dismantle the /under subtype and make all the various uniforms into component clothing items. It's much nicer for customizing your character and making outfits for jobs etc. than the current arrangement. As of my current PR, there's only ~200-odd uses of /under in the codebase, so we are closing on victory (act now).

[mossy-green-aka-ferrythem]

Thinking about how both genius and evil Lethal Company is in it's audio design. Like it has some of the best audio ever in terms of helping you identify absolutely everything in your surroundings, but it also has the indoor ambient sounds, which are designed to deceive you at every turn. Like, a loud creaking noise that sounds like a vent opening (when that is in fact not the vent noise, it just exists to fuck with you, and mislead you) and a whole bunch of other ambience that is so deeply horrifying, so deeply unnerving, that you are reminded why this game is built for multiplayer lmao

[the-damned-and-divine]

"Well, I haven't died before and I've never tried it, but here's what I imagine would happen if I did..." Satan began, counting on his fingers.

"First theory is that if I go down, the Sin Energy (otherwise known as SinergyTM) contained within me---derived from every ounce of anger, every kind of hatred and act of violence felt or committed by mankind---would flow back to Earth. This would send every living being into an insatiable bloodlust that would ultimately drive humanity to extinction and make the planet uninhabitable for thousands of years."

"Second theory is that the Sinergy becomes an ambient force that either condenses into physical form or gets absorbed by certain individuals---in which case, my metaphysical mini-mes and the recipients of my essence will vie for supremacy, absorb each other's powers and eventually become the next Sin of Wrath. Highlander rules, basically."

"Third theory is that the Sinergy is my de facto 'soul' and would behave similarly: so my body dies, my soul gets judged and I go to one of two places. But lemme be honest, this one sounds kinda redundant. Nothing would have fundamentally changed with this."

"Fourth theory is that the Sinergy---both empowering my form and constituting my form---separates itself from the mangled remains of my once-angelic form, essentially 'purifying' me and doing a hard reset. Whatever happens to me after that will just happen."

"Fifth theory is that I get respawned. First time would probably be a long-ass bitch of a wait, if we're going by multiplayer video game rules. Of course, this theory is predicated on the notion that I'm either a force of nature or integral part of every person's soul that nobody CAN get rid of."

"And then, the sixth theory is that I just fucking explode. For real, I'm like this massive fireball and every bit of anger is like a drop of gasoline poured onto me. My willpower is the only thing keeping these flames from burning EVERYTHING, so whoever actually does kill me, enjoy getting yourself and everything you know blasted to shit! Fucking RIP Bozo!"

[nintendowife]

I rolled the end credits in Easy Come Easy Golf on Nintendo Switch in June. Very fun arcade golf game, filled with good vibes.

Easy Come Easy Golf is the latest title by the developer Clap Hanz famous for Everybody's Golf / Hot Shots Golf series. Their golf game expertise and pleasant design philosophy shows here too.

There's a twist on the normal golf formula here: you don't play as one character but as a team of 9 characters. Each character is assigned to tee off on one hole of the course and the next character handles the next hole. Your characters gain exp and their stats improve as you use them.

Easy Come Easy Golf was originally a mobile game and unfortunately that shows in the gameplay mechanics that have been simplified a bit. The triple-click shot mechanics are fine and work well but they lack the more intricate real-time mechanics that were used to apply spin in the Everybody's Golf games (here spin is applied on ball before swinging, not during). As a result the gameplay doesn't feel quite as engrossing and satisfying. Also the visual feedback on swings and ball travel has been toned down which takes away some of the excitement of making a successful swing.

Weather, ball lie, surface, etc. affect how the ball travels, just like in their earlier games. There are some differences here it seems and I still have trouble predicting how much wind affects the ball. Reading the green based on the animated grid is quite similar with earlier titles. I still haven't managed a hole-in-one on a regular cup course and I've been playing the game for some time now.

If we continue with the negative points, the music department here is lacking. Gone are the fantastic course specific tunes for example. Most of your golfing is spent in silence, accompanied by some ambient sounds.

The golf courses are well designed with some tricky narrow points, water hazards and bunkers. Carefully weighing the risks is a key to success - will you attempt to cross a lake with a top spin swing to have the ball bounce from the water surface or will you play it safe and take a detour, resulting into extra shots? Progression is a bit grindy as you unlock more courses and playable characters by earning stars from tournaments. You can also unlock alternate costumes and color variations for characters.

Difficulty level is very forgiving. The game's CPU opponents feel significantly easier than the ones in Everybody's Golf / Hot Shots Golf, so don't worry if you're not the best golfer out there.

What this game truly excels in is character design. The whimsical caricature-like designs really hit the spot for me. There's 30 different characters with a lot of variation on body shapes, ages, personality, etc. The characters have their own strenghts and weaknesses - some are great playing in the rain, some may have great power but poor control in their shots. Character animations are unique and quite humorous at times. Rosie Weaver, a calm teenage girl with bad posture is one of my favorite characters, along with the refined lady Madam D. and older grandma-type Bella Donna.

What I especially like in Clap Hanz's games is the way the game encourages you to improve your skills. Challenging yourself and noticing how you're getting better and better is an addictive feeling. Even if you're bad at the game at first, the game gives you positive feedback and gently pushes you to try again. You might lose a tournament but at least you got to see some funny animations when your character is boiling with rage! The cheery, positive mood is a great stress-reliever and infects with a good feeling.

My experience on the game is purely from offline single-player mode. The game also offers some kind of online multiplayer possibilities which require Nintendo Switch Online subscription.

Based on the single-player content on offer here, I'd recommend Easy Come Easy Golf to anyone looking for an enjoyable, laid-back golf game. This game offers a lot of good fun but it is a downgrade from Everybody's Golf / Hot Shots Golf in some ways. It took me about 45 hours to roll the end credits. After that there's still tournament ranks to reach and more characters to unlock so you probably won't run out of content too fast. I'm hoping one day Clap Hanz will delight us with a sequel that's been built for Switch from the ground-up, includes more finesse on gameplay and adds music on courses.

[skyboxeye]

Capturing the ambience of Gears of War (2006)

The original Gears maps have stylized yet beautiful look that still holds up today. This guide will look at the abandonware 2007 Windows release, and the 2006 Xbox 360 original, rather than the remastered Ultimate Edition.

Obtaining the game

If you’re only concerned with capturing the multiplayer maps, you can download the standalone AI Bot version of Gears (it’s also great fun!). For vanilla versions of the game, check out pinned messages in the Gears PC Community discord. Refer to PCGamingWiki for troubleshooting on getting the game running.

Extracting sounds

Use umodel to extract UPKs in Gears’s Sounds directory e.g. G:\Microsoft Games\Gears of War\WarGame\CookedPC\Sounds.

Enabling console commands

Inside your WarInput.ini file:

[Engine.Console] ConsoleKey=Tilde TypeKey=Tilde MaxScrollbackSize=1024 HistoryBot=-1 bEnableUI=True

This will enable the console, with history and output display included.

Capturing footage

Open your console, and use TOGGLEUI command to hide the HUD. ghost and walk will toggle between free camera mode and normal player control, respectively. 

You can also load into a given map with open or servertravel, e.g. open <map name e.g. mp_gridlock>. We can specify a Game argument to enter with freecam* mode e.g. open <map name e.g. mp_gridlock>?Game=WarfareGameContent.WarGameFreeCam.

You can also activate spectator mode inside the editor (see below) by holding Ctrl and pressing the playtest button. However I found this only offered a window display, and there were rendering artifacts on some maps.

*I found on some versions of the game, open loads maps with player-character control, while others loaded into a free-camera mode. I believe this has something to do with Debug vs Retail versions but I'm not sure.

Identifying sounds

By passing certain launch options, we can open the game’s editor to inspect how sounds are configured on each map. Example shortcut:

"G:\Microsoft Games\Gears of War\Binaries\Startup (No-Cd).exe" editor -cookededitor -installed

To find each map's random ambient audio events, open the Kismet panel:

Click Level tab in main browser window2. K -> button on the level box

These random sounds emit from a set of target objects on the map, using the options visible in the event’s panel (e.g. below, volume of 0.25 and pitch of 1.0).

We can also use the LISTSOUNDS and LISTWAVES console commands during gameplay to see which sounds are loaded and currently playing respectively. The latter also shows the sound’s current playback volume.

Always take care to note each sound’s configured pitch in the Editor, as it can vary! Indeed, you’ll find that Gears’s maps create their immersive soundscapes by permuting the position and pitch of only a small number of assets.

New Hope project

This is an ambitious mod for Gears 1 which may make the above easier.

Xbox 360 version

The Windows version's presentation differs slightly from this original. Access free camera mode by using Heebo's tools.

If you can't get these working, be sure you are running the required version of Xenia Canary. Also enable all Extra Custom Types, and enable MEM_MAPPED in Scan Settings.

Putting it all together

Combine your static positional sounds, randomized Kismet sounds, and captured footage using an editor like Shotcut.