#azerty draws

[jockw]

my guy adobe fresco sucks. i think ill switch back to clipstudio lmao

the brushes sucks ass, the eraser is difficult to tell the exact size when theres no underlined circle - unlike ibis paint, which gives you a lot of options to edit your brush, this program is very limited. and the most annoying ive had to come across is when i want to use the pencil brush, tfym i cant just manually click on it??? you srsly want me to look at my azerty keyboard to find p or b???? smh

overall adobe fresco isnt so bad if you just wanna do easy doodles or so, but when i wanna draw lumberjack lenore.... how dare you limit my options??

[spacelandz]

I fucking love azerty he's so fuckign ugly but it's on purpose and whenever I draw him it feels like the "why is my hamster so fucking ugly" meme because he can be so cute and winning or he can just be the most ugly little gremlin in my lineup and that's just really magical about him

[firespirited]

The reason i struggle with typing and it’s going so slow is that I have dyspraxia and minor dyslexia. I struggled to learn to read and write until age seven something broke through and I began to recognize full words instead of letters, even then writing on the line felt like pulling something heavy. If you were to draw a blank keyboard, gun to my head I couldn’t place any of the letters (aside from azerty/querty as that’s the name) despite staring at one for twenty plus years.

I can’t rotate a cow in my head, I have to really concentrate to even bring up the shape of the word COW because the animal isn’t tied to a word but the concept that is expressed as cow or bull, vache vaca kuh bovine. Somehow thousands of doll faces are in my head but not the symbol covered button thingy that’s been in front of my face since the age of 14.

My brain isn’t mapping the letter keys to fingers either, that’s what I tried the first week and it wouldn’t take: instead this odd brain is mapping the sound of the letter in my head to the sensation/position on the finger.

It’s stupid but so is the rest of my locomotion in general: I have more chances of catching something you throw at me if I close my eyes the moment after you throw it. I regularly walk by the way it feels against my feet not by what feels balanced because balance is telling me that the world’s moving or on an incline: put out my arms, close my eyes and try to reset it.

When someone has down syndrome, the motor control area for speech is missing so their brain has to route it through other areas which is why down’s folks think fast but speak slow, it’s a very frustrating sensation to have your brain zipping around but having to compress speech so you’ve got to let them finish their thought without butting in and develop other “shorthand” with your down’s friends and acquaintances: the way we use memes or gestures to convey things fast.

Anyway brain plasticity is fascinating! My friend A who’s dyslexic can read and write forwards or backwards or upside down at the same speed: the same process is being used to decrypt the glyphs we call letters. She’s also incredibly smart but had to drop out of uni because of the amount of skim reading required for research even with control F and highlighting it takes her brain too long to decrypt. Society in general and the internet specifically is built for a very specific amount of “literate” and I often wonder what it’d look like if we communicated less in writing.

[fjoundfjamily]

@ohnoitsadalek knows

[id: a screenshot of a message that reads “the real q is always does your dnd char FUck” /end id]

[evangelrosearts-blog]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HEALING album by @inlovewithaghost !!!!

Heres your beloved witches celebrating the day with you!! :)))

[shannanigansart]

This gold ink on black paper is my shiiiieeeeettttt <3 I’ve become obsessed with ILWAG again! So here’s an @inluvwithaghost ‘s Azerty doodle!

[ironischphan]

I drew Dan and Susan for @botanistlester from her God au

[insainsage]

SHORT SUMMARY :]

Call me Azerty

I am part of the lgbtq+ (but that’s all u get the rest is not for u to know/lh)

I use the pronouns they/them

RULES

ASKS. I am happy for writing and drawing requests just letting u know that writing is not my favourite thing to do and I’m really bad at English, spelling and punctuation and all that jazz so if u want a better story go to @blockyshieldmaiden and if u want better art go to @krazykatlyn

MAIN RULES

- NO NSFW. Please be safe for everyone I do want to be family friendly.

- ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING (but no nsfw). I mainly watch dsmp and read wings of fire (definitely recommend) and warriors but if u want anything else I am fine with doing a bit of research (just Might take some time)

- BE PATIENT. I am a minor and I do go to school and I do have a life so y’a u get the gist.

- BE KIND. I want this place to be a safe haven for everyone ik when I was struggling I used something to distract myself soo just follow the rules.

- HAPPY. Be kind, positive and that’s stuff if ur not then it’s good to get into the habit.

- I will not write/draw adult x minor (unless it’s 17 turning 18 or something)

- NO DISCRIMINATION. Just read the rules above.

- INFO. Don’t try to pry information out of me, what I say is what I say and u get nothing more.

- LGBTQ+ I am part of this and I am proud. Just be kind about it

If u do not agree with the main rules then go. I don’t want u here.

DONT BE SCARED I DO NOT BITE

REQUESTS ARE OPEN (cheering in the background ‘WOO WOO’)

In the end we are all people that don’t listen to the stranger danger rule.

Mutuals:

@blockyshieldmaiden

@krazykatlyn

Anons:

It’s so lonely :[

[kaz0ey]

SIX MILLION YEARS LATER, I DO A DRAW

Redesigning Azerty, Their appearance was too similar to a character in a comic

CHANGES NEED TO BE MADE

[red-velvet-panda]

I was lucky enough to draw Azerty in the New Years Covert Fic (and art) exchange! This is an illustration from Chapter 7 of her Modern Coffeeshop AU fic. (It might be laundry day and Paz might have accidentally wanged Din with a football to the face :D)

Super adorable and recommended reading! https://archiveofourown.org/works/27255430/chapters/69035985#workskin

[phoenotopia]

2020 July Update

Things have gone slowly... again.

The good news is that the game is now submitted to the console "authority" and it's entirely off my hands. Once it gets through the console "checking" process, it can get a release date and we can sprint towards release. Until then, it'd be at least a month's wait or more until I hear anything. Understandably, their checking process is impacted by Corona, so wait times are increased.

On my end, I was also slow to submit the game. I submitted it late late June, since I ended up spending 7 weeks fixing bugs (and not 2-3 weeks like I estimated in the last blog post). There were just SO many bugs - now squished, thankfully. Since this is a blog post, I'll talk about what kind of bugs I've been fixing.

The other thing that slowed down the submission process was simply due to unfamiliarity with how these submissions proceed. There were pages and pages of stuff to read, guidelines to follow, and legalese to wade through. It really made me wish I had a publisher to guide me through the process. But I was able to clear it with a couple days work. I had an impression that the submission process went like A->B->C->D, with no room for concurrency. Turns out I could have done steps B & C at the same time and sped things up by 2 weeks... So that's that. I'm taking that as a lesson for next time.

The Console Revealed

What is this console that I talk about so stealthily? So that this blog update isn't completely unexciting, I'll reveal which console I've been working on until now. Drumroll please!

It's Switch!

We actually got the Switch dev kit in late 2017. From my understanding, around this time in the USA, the Switch kit was quite hard to get for indies as it was just starting out and high in demand. So I was surprised that my application got approved. I didn't know it then, but the game would still need a few more years of development...

Tweaking performance and fixing bugs

Here you can see my "expert" playtest setup. Since the Switch is more powerful while docked, I needed to playtest it in handheld mode, so I could catch and profile any problem areas where the framerate was unsteady. The most common thing that caused framerate drops were areas that went overboard with lighting. For these areas, I'd tweak or swap out the lights with alternatives that looked similar while also being less computationally intensive. Maintaining 60 FPS is a must!

An old camera (Nikon D3100) trained at the screen recorded my playthrough and would let me rewind to any moment a bug occurred. It could only record in 10 minute chunks, so I'd have to repeatedly repress the record button. On the plus side, because it's so old the movie file sizes were small and convenient.

The number one bug that I tracked and fixed in the past two months was what I dub the "Gear Ring De-equip" bug. The Gear Ring functions as customizable shortcut keys for the player to map items and tools (see an old video demonstration HERE). Through regular use of the inventory, somehow the equipped items on the Gear Ring would be de-equipped. It was an elusive bug since the de-equip event would happen very quietly and you would only suspect something had gone wrong much later. By then, the trail had gone cold and you weren't sure if a de-equip had actually occurred or if the player had simply de-equipped the item themselves. Two other playtesters noted that something left the Gear Ring in their playthrough, but I dismissed them. "Are you sure you didn't just de-equip it yourself?" It was a bug that bred mistrust and discord. I didn't truly believe it until it happened to me...

Luckily, with the camera setup, I was finally able to track it. In the literal 67th video, I caught a live instance of the bug occurring. After which, it was all too easy to recreate the exact same inventory and gear ring setup and replicate it.

(With this exact item layout, combine the 2nd item with the 14th item... and viola! Gear Ring de-equip!)

After fixing this bug, I then proceeded to fix it 5 more times. Every time I fixed it, it would later reappear through a different mechanism. 

Why do bugs like this happen? Underneath, there are two lists of items. Tools on the right and items on the left. Items can occur multiple times because they're consumable. Both lists start counting their indexes with the value 0. However, both items and tools co-exist on the gear ring. So to uniquely identify an entry you need both the item ID and the data index. Failure to check both data types resulted in bugs like the Gear Ring de-equip. Now throw in a bunch of item operations that can confuse the system. You can split items, combine items, swap items, or discard items. The more freedom you allow, the more ways there are for the system to trip up.

If you didn't get all that, that's alright. It was needlessly complicated. Imagine doing more and better and with less code and less bugs! Such a thing is possible if you start with the right design. I'm definitely taking notes here on how to design inventory systems for next time. In the meanwhile, I'm very confident I've squished all inventory related bugs.

Other bugs squashed and features implemented in the past 2 months include the end game arts not unlocking properly, collection percentages climbing beyond 100, stray doors floating in the sky, low HP sfx blaring when loading different files, balance tweaks on bosses, a max HP display when the menu is open - too many to count really! It was only after I fixed them all that I was confident enough to move forward with submitting the game. I apologize for the delay this will cause!

PC version back in progress

You may recall in the March 2020 update I talk about how in pursuing the Switch version, I unwittingly ruined the PC version. Well, since the game is "done" now and I'm waiting for it to go through the checking process, I've started working to reclaim the PC version.

And there is some good news to report. The PC version can compile again! Of course, it will need to have some work done, since it was late 2017 when I last had a functioning PC build. 

The opening menu is broken, the underlying save file system needs to be updated, and the controls... oh Lord, the controls. Controls were probably the #1 factor in pushing me to pursue a console version first. There are just so many controller options. Even just the usual suspects are numerous: Xbox, Nintendo, Sony, Logitech, Hori, 8Bitdo, Steam...

One of the number one complaints received regarding the flash game (which was keyboard primarily) was that I didn't allow controller rebinding to start. It was then that I learned of the vast array of different keyboard types.

(Ever heard of an Azerty keyboard?)

I shan't make the same mistake twice! One of the things I'll definitely tackle is the Right/Left face button feud when it comes to which should one should be 'confirm' and which one is 'cancel'. I want to allow the player to choose which is their "YES" and "NO" preference and allow that to overlap other actions like Attack or Jump.

Even after control bindings are taken care of, some things just won't translate well. The right control stick is currently used to access the gear ring and for fishing. Keyboards have no right stick. Aiming the crossbow with a full 360 degrees of range is done with the left control stick - if keyboard only, would the crossbow simply be locked to the 8 cardinal directions? What about those tutorial prompts with button graphics (e.g. "Press 'B' to Jump"). If using the playstation controller, it'd need to be the CROSS symbol. How many button graphics are we gonna load into the text module? What if the player, mid-playthrough, decides to swap out controllers? Indeed, there are many issues to tackle where controls are concerned...

Perhaps I'm overthinking it because even some AAA games get this wrong (Dark Souls has 'B' as 'Yes' on Switch, and it's not remappable, which I find quite annoying). I've seen games on consoles where the controls wouldn't mention the console's controller at all but instead mention a mouse and keyboard. Or, if you remapped the controls, the tutorial prompts still showed the old control bindings, making for a confusing experience. I definitely want to do the controls justice, so this will take some time.

Phoenotopia DISCORD Channels

Ryan and Firana have been running a Phoenotopia discord since late 2017, which I promoted on this blog once. It's been a couple years and it turns out that the old discord link I promoted expired. It's long overdue, but their channel could use another shoutout. Here's their channel : https://discord.gg/cnjrYST

Also, Khalid recently reached out to me about creating a Phoenotopia discord as well. I see no reason why we can't have 2 or more discords, so he has created that one with my blessing as well. You can find his discord here : https://discord.gg/cfnsCwy

I personally don't use Discords, since I'm very busy and there's too much new tech to keep up with. I hear there's a Tik Tok now? Should I create a Tik Tok for Phoenotopia? Hmmm...

Anyway, if you'd like to chat with other people who are similarly enthused for Phoenotopia, do check them out!

Fan Arts

We have five new fanart submissions this time around from regulars and new alike.

Cody G. returns with this pair of sketches of Gail. One seeks to answer the question, "how is Gail so strong?" Cody's answer is that under her sleeves she's actually really buff! This might be the most ripped rendition of Gail yet. Also, in the right drawing, the letter 'E' kinda melds with her bat, making it look like a keyblade!

What if Gale was a Shrek character? A new artist, Samu Kajin, from tumblr answers that question with a rendition of Gail sporting ogre style antennae. Samu Kajin says she can be called "Gaek" or "Shrale". I like the poncho!

Shafiyahh returns with a pretty portrait of Gail. Unlike their previous digital pieces, this one was made with color pencils! I like how her hair blends pink and purple colors together, and this pattern is also present in the eyes. Reminds me of a certain character. And the eyes are so sparkly despite using color pencils! Major props!

Negativus Core also returns with this relevant image of Gail, masked and running, presumably from Corona. It gave me quite a chuckle! I like the angle and tilt of this run pose because you can see the sole of her foot - that's how you know she's at full sprint! A skillful blur localized to her left foot show's just the right amount of motion. Gotta love the robot's expression too!

A rare 3D art has emerged. Dany Q crafted this adorable figure of Gail that is as cute as a button! I like how well it translates the pixel character over to 3D, capturing the 3 stitches on her shirt and even catching her stray strand of hair. It kinda reminds me of a Wallace and Gromit character, so I can picture it moving and animating in that unique claymation style.

Next Time

I'm ~80% confident we can clear the Switch console checking process and drop the trailer with a release date before the next blog post. But once again, if things go slowly, you'll hear from us in 2 months...

[lonp]

healing!!!!! healing!!!!!!!!! HEALING!!!!!!!!

@inluvwithaghost

[purpledumass]

EEEE I FOUND THE PERFECT TABLET AND MOM'S GONNA TAKE IT FOR ME I DON'T CARE IF IT'S SLOW IT'S WHAT I NEED OMG

The only minor inconvenience is that it's a qwerty and I use azerty- it's gonna be hard to get used to- though if anyone knows where to find or if there is even a azerty keyboard thingy please tell me ! I don't wanna get bullied 'cause the m and the p are not where it's usually x'D and I already miss them when I write lol-

It is pricey- linda- over 1000lei, but it's still worth it. Apparently the lines are wiggly and stuff, but I like having it not so perfect, I don't like perfect lines pvp but I'm so excited to get it ! We're not taking it 'cause we need to get the money but after that I'll be able to draw on a tablet again and make the comics I so want to continue ! And more art projects ! I don't post a lot 'cause I need not to make spoilers - or I am stabbed, lol.

Andit'sportabletoosoIcanbringittoschoolandnoonecansaynothinghahahahhahahahahahahaha

[elis-corner]

haha nah im not

i was looking at ur xisuma fanart again and the arms are just done in a way that makes me feel like youd stare at peoples arms

idk

I do actually XDXD

I have a bunch of photos of muscular models, actors, and Xisuma, some as they came and sometimes I adjust the settings of the photo to make the dark and light more distinct. When Azerty sent me a photo of Ranboo as that anime girl for MCC the first thing I did was save the photo and a copy of it zoomed into the arms. Looking at muscle diagrams helps, sure, but seeing how light reacts to their form is my preferred way to learn it!

So yes I stare at people's arms, and yes I have at least five photos from each of Xisuma's guitar videos saved onto my devices, each particularly chosen to best assist me in learning how to draw arms, fabrics, etc.. I shall now point out that an almost thirty six year old man has no right to go crazy on screen in tight tank tops. Not like I'm objecting though.

[graphrofberk]

Hey can you recommend some good httyd and rtte blogs? Especially ones with fanfiction? Also do you make those gifs yourself? Because they're amazing.

Hello, yes I make gifs myself, thank you so much :) I don’t read fanfictions so i can’t recommend you sorry. 

@justgotawesome @httydofdreamworks @fankakm @azerty-kd @queenelinor @tarched @leffie-draws-fanart @animateddragons @frosty-viking @rafxsulfuslovestory @slavicviking @fanwriter02 @nightfurylover1112 @fangirling1998 @httyd-graphics @thedragonmaster @berkedits @dragonlovertr @only-girl-on-a-dragon @hiccupsgreeneyes @chiefhiccstrid @astrid-gifs @fearless-hofferson @snowprincess-artist @bgsdragons @ashleybenlove @kingofthewilderwest @mirka-dragon @welcometoberk @icelandiceel @lutavero @drchee5e @hello-em75 @dragonlover7860 @peachdoxie @aeviking @jackiejack6

I could forget somebody.. ohh sorry if I forgot you! 

[villefrancois]

1 GEEK AZERTY en vaut 2, un visuel à personnaliser ici : https://t.co/eVTNRGkfif #Apple #iOS14 #samsung #android #google #microsoft #BillGates #ACNH #NintendoSwitch #PlayStation5 #Nintendo #PS5 #popcorn #XboxOne #PS4 #twitch #twitchaffiliate #twitchstreamer #game #gamer #geek #tshirt #teeshirt #mug #casquette #tablier #sacentissu #badge #dessin #drawing https://www.instagram.com/p/CBxCT_dqArO/?igshid=6nlqpayzrrf3