#blogofkylelab

[blueberry-lemon]

An introductory guide to getting into Sonic the Hedgehog...

…if you're a grown-ass adult who is busy and doesn't want to play a bunch of video games but thinks the characters look sorta cool.

If you've ever been curious about Sonic as a series but haven't known where to start, I have some recommendations! I think Sonic is a cool and still somewhat unique thing because it takes cartoony characters (like a Mickey Mouse or Felix the Cat) and lets them jump around in cool action sequences through the lens of a shonen anime. It's colorful and usually pretty light-hearted, and I think the character designs are pretty iconic.

There's two handy places you can start without prior context, to see if it's something you'd be into...

Getting Started: If You Wanna Read Something

The IDW Sonic Comics

There were years of different Sonic comics back in the '90s and early 2000's, but the franchise got a complete reboot and fresh start with IDW Publishing in 2018. If you're looking for the most straight-forward way to get into this world of characters, I think this is a great start. You don't need any prior knowledge whatsoever to crack open issue 1 and get started. All you need to know is "Sonic and his friends protect the world by fighting against an evil scientist named Dr. Eggman, who they just recently defeated after he briefly took over the world."

I love these comics and I feel that the writers and artists who work on it have a really good sense for this series. Reading issues 1 through 12 will get you the first major story arc. If you like it so far, I highly suggest reading up through issue 32, when another major story arc concludes. After that, the world's your oyster! Unlike the tangled web of Marvel or DC comics, IDW Sonic has a very simple and linear reading order. You pretty much just read the issues in order, and occasionally there are spinoff stories that are optional to read.

Getting Started: If You Wanna Watch Something

Sonic Mania Adventures

Maybe comics aren't your thing and you want something even quicker. These are a series of animated shorts that are lovely. Conveniently, they've been compiled together by Sega into one little video right here.

It's a great intro to some of the main characters, and combines cartoon slapstick with some amazing action sequences.

There's also a nice little epilogue short.

Sonic CD's intro cutscene

If I had to pick a single 1-and-a-half minute clip to embody what I like about this series, it would be this very simple intro movie that plays before Sonic CD. Check it out!

Sonic Origins/Sonic Origins Plus Cutscenes

In 2022, Sega released a compilation of the classic Genesis games on modern consoles. In it, they added a few animated cutscenes. You can watch those cutscenes, plus the Sonic CD intro and the Sonic Mania Adventures episodes, all compiled into one handy Youtube video.

Taking The Next Step: If You Wanna Read Something

The Archie Sonic Comics

You might have heard that Sonic had a comic series published by Archie Comics from 1992 to 2016. This was a vast, overarching series that wrote an original story by weaving together ideas from the different Sonic cartoons and games. It went through several different writers, many different artists, and obviously spanned over multiple eras of pop culture.

It's pretty cool! The fact that it was so long-running, and the fact that Sega wasn't very strict with what the writers could do, led to a lot of buckwild lore, new characters, and plot developments. That said, it's also pretty bizarre, complicated, corny, and cringey at times. There is a stretch in the middle that is pretty infamous among fans.

You have a few options for jumping in.

Option A: You can start at the very beginning and read all of it. If you do this, it is going to be like a One Piece / Homestuck / etc. kind of undertaking, and you're going to be pushing through the good and the bad of huge genre and tone shifts. That's your call!

Option B: You can brush up on the main characters on a wiki and then start at Issue 160, when Ian Flynn (who now does a lot of work on IDW Sonic) became the lead writer. More specifically, you can jump in at the start of a new story arc by starting at Issue 175.

Option C: You can start at Issue 252, when there is a universe-altering event that essentially retcons all of the characters and plot threads from the previous writers and starts completely fresh. Easier to keep track of and you won't have to worry about all the previous plot and lore.

If you want something you can read in a single sitting, you should instead read Sonic: Mega Drive, a short-lived miniseries published by Archie that follows "Classic Sonic" characters (aka, the same vibe and art style of Sonic Origins, Sonic Mania Adventures, etc.) It's really great!

Taking The Next Step: If You Wanna Watch Something

Sonic the Hedgehog (OVA) aka "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie" (1996)

This is, essentially, a 1-hour Sonic anime movie. You can watch it in Japanese or in English. I adore it. It makes up its own lore and continuity so you don't need to know anything before going in, besides generally knowing a one-sentence synopsis of who Sonic, Tails, and Dr. Robotnik are. It's action-packed, well-animated, and has great music. Enjoy! Sonic X If you're enjoying what you've seen so far, and you want something much, much longer...there's an official 78-episode anime adaptation of Sonic called Sonic X. It's an original story that loosely pulls together some ideas from a few of the games. It's mostly intended for a younger audience, but I hear if you watch it in the original uncut Japanese, it feels a little less "for kids."

Other Ways To Get Into Sonic

There's some great video essays on Youtube about the series!

Professional animator Dan Floyd did an in-depth video looking at the highs and lows of Sonic character animation in the games starting from Sonic 1 up through Sonic Forces.

Super Bunnyhop plays through the first level of a bunch of Sonic games to compare how the mechanics, physics, and level design feel throughout the games' history.

Liam Triforce has a great deep dive on the franchise's music.

You can play The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, a murder-mystery-party themed visual novel put out by Sega. It's nice and short, so you can finish it in an afternoon.

If you haven't seen them already, you can check out the live-action/animated hybrid films Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 featuring Ben Schwartz and Jim Carrey, they're pretty good. That Sonic Prime cartoon that's currently on Netflix is pretty good too.

This may sound strange, but honestly you might enjoy poring over the sprite sheets from the old games. In particular, I really like the sprite animations from the GBA games, like Sonic Advance and Sonic Battle.

Sega is pretty lax about allowing noncommercial fan games, so there's at least a hundred different Sonic fan games out there by hobbyist developers. Check out the Sonic Amateur Games Expo and the Sonic Fan Games HQ.

You can watch LPs or cutscene compilations of the games on Youtube! If you watch Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes, you'll get a crash course on most of the characters.

And finally, of course...you can play the games if you want to! There's a number of them that are available on Steam, Switch, Xbox, and Playstation if you don't have access to older consoles.

There's a lot of different angles to come at Sonic as a franchise, and lots of different entry points. Have fun!

[blueberry-lemon]

Shouting into the Void about Palia, which has begun its open beta.

Palia is a "cozy sim MMO set in a fantasy world", as pitched by the developers at Singularity Six. If I had to set it up in one sentence, I would pitch it as something like "what if an MMO didn't need to have combat?"

Which is something I'm really excited about.

To clarify, I think the MMO term is slightly misleading. When you log on, you're sent to an instance of around 25 players or so, similar to how Sea of Thieves works. For what it's worth, I think this is actually a preferable experience versus being a "true MMO" with hundreds of people crowding around the town area. I think they made the right call.

Although I have some small critiques and some reservations about recommending Palia during its open beta state, I'm having a really fun, relaxing time and I'm really looking forward to how the game grows. Full thoughts below.

--- I'm sure people will be quick to compare Palia to Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. This is valid, and probably something the developer wants you to do. Like those games, Palia is about relaxing and having a good time in a simple town with charming NPCs.

That said, I think the closest analogs to how Palia works are actually Disney Dreamlight Valley and Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles. Dreamlight Valley I think is the most direct competition, so to speak. It's funny to see that another developer got to the multiplayer pie before Disney's teams were able to fully add multiplayer, lol.

In Palia, you dress up your character and you customize your home. I think the art is really great, and the animation has really impressed me. There's a great variety of outfits (although to be clear, 30% of clothing options are available from the start and the other 70% is, for now, premium currency only.) There's unfortunately only 2 choices of body type in the Open Beta, although the devs claim that more are coming.

There's a shocking amount of customization for your house and your lawn. At least, picture Animal Crossing: New Horizons but with better controls for dragging and dropping where you want everything. People who like setting up their plot of land will have a good time. You can even expand your property to make it larger.

The core of Palia's loop involves you hopping around between progressing the Main Story and progressing 8 different skills: Cooking, Hunting, Bug Catching, Gardening, Foraging, Fishing, Furniture Making, and Mining. In addition to this, you're progressing your friendship meter with the different NPCs and, if you'd like, selecting one to Romance.

There's some really smart innovations in Palia that I like.

For example, your Mining skill only increases when you PICK UP the ore loot that drops from destroying a vein of ore. Why is that? Because you're supposed to work together with friends and strangers. If the skill increased for each time your pickaxe struck the vein, then you'd get annoyed if your friend helped you, because working together would destroy the vein in less strikes. If the skill increased for destroying a vein, then only the person who got the "last hit" would reap the exp reward. In Palia, so long as a player strikes the vein at least once, the loot will drop for them when it's destroyed. This way, anyone around you can "get their hand on that ball" by helping strike the vein at least once. This encourages working together, sharing the loot, etc. The same goes for chopping trees: anyone who contributes at all will get the wood that drops. This naturally encourages people to work together. There's no reason not to, because you're not "stealing" the loot from anyone else or "stealing" the exp.

Cooking is the most fleshed out co-op experience from what I've seen. Recipes require ingredients and a stove or prep station. Then, when you start the recipe, you do minigames to chop ingredients and stir them. So long as any player contributes an ingredient or does one of the minigames, they get the full exp and the finished dishes from cooking, even if that contributing player doesn't have the recipe. So if your friend loves cooking, and has a bunch of recipes, they can initiate the cooking and then you can bring the mushrooms and do the chopping. Then you all get to level up and get the dishes.

Even activities like Fishing are more fun to do together. If you fish near someone else who's fishing, you'll both get a buff that makes the fish bite your hooks much sooner. It stacks higher the more you fish together.

Another smart innovation: a rework of the infamous "stamina meter." This time, it's a Focus Meter. If your Focus Meter drops to 0, nothing happens. You don't pass out, you don't starve, nothing. However, if you DO have Focus, you get a Exp Gain Multiplier. This encourages you eating dishes to stay well-fed without punishing you too strongly if you ignore it.

And then, lastly, the core conceit of the game: there's no combat or danger. Although there is a Hunting Mechanic, it's completely one-sided, like hunting deer (which the game is quick to tell you are overpopulated in the area.) You can't die, you can't get hurt, you don't take fall damage, you don't even have health, period. I think this is great at trimming the unnecessary parts of a game like this and keeping it truly relaxing.

Although I'm having a fun time, I can't wholly recommend the open beta of Palia for everyone. The game is still early in its life and is missing a lot of important UI/UX and central features. The Pause and Settings menus are pretty sparse. You can only have 1 character so far, there aren't multiple character slots. You can't even change your characters name once you've made it, so choose carefully. In addition, you might feel like there "isn't enough to do together" if you play with friends, which is similar to a complaint I have about Animal Crossing multiplayer. It's mostly a chill hangout game about fishing next to each other.

There are a lot of things in the game that still need to be fleshed out, but I'm really happy with the core structure they've set up. Once this game leaves Open Beta, I think it'll be an easier recommendation, especially for folks who have enjoyed Disney Dreamlight Valley. I think these devs are smart about how they're handling the core desire here: wanting to play a game like Final Fantasy XIV or Stardew Valley without having to worry about combat or stamina.

My partner and I love to play these relaxing zone-out types of games. While trying Atelier Ryza recently, my partner said: "I just want a game where you zone-out and pick stuff up off the ground." My friends, we finally found it. It's called Palia.

You can find the Palia Open Beta on PC, and the game is slated to release on Nintendo Switch.

[blueberry-lemon]

"Companies are so bad at marketing these days"

In the past few years I've been intrigued by the common complaint that companies are so bad at marketing these days.

Usually it's in the instance of something like:

"I hadn't even heard of X game but it looks awesome. The publisher is awful at marketing their new games!"

"Nobody watched Y show, even though it's really underrated. Netflix/HBO Max doesn't do anything to market their shows!"

And to be clear, I think there's a lot of truth to this. Maybe even more so for TV shows on streaming than anything else.

But my other immediate reaction is that there are also a lot of other factors than just the company's incompetence.

For example...

Don't a lot of people use adblockers? or avoid watching anything with commercials? or fast-forward past commercials, or skip ads, or avoid looking at things that have advertisements?

Magazines are mostly dead, which I feel like were the DOMINANT way to hear about media, either via the coverage or the print ads. People were exposed to so many new things through TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, Nintendo Power, EGM, etc

The "discoverability" on digital storefronts and streamers like Netflix, Nintendo eShop, etc is pretty bad and makes it tough to hear about things you'd like. This is honestly where I point the finger of incompetence.

The best way to hear about things you'd like would be to follow smaller publications or curators/tastemakers that you trust. But sadly, big corpos and big social media companies have really financially choked those types of publications out. How likely is it that you're reading Netflix's official tweets or Square Enix's official tweets regularly? How likely is it that you're keeping up with episodes of Jimmy Fallon or other such schlock to see where the marketing departments sent their actors out to?

The likelihood that you'll stumble on something new and cool in the aisles of a physical store are, y'know, plummeting rapidly at this point.

I'm not saying this to defend the companies or their marketing or anything, I just think that their marketing department's hope in this day and age is that "posting on official social media and paying for some digital ads" will suffice, but people are rapidly not even looking at those things anymore. I think people hope that these cool shows and games will come across their timelines on their own, which is hard to rely on. You pretty much have to seek it out intentionally.

[blueberry-lemon]

Akira Toriyama

I got into anime, manga, and art itself because of Dragon Ball. My earliest memories of exploring the internet and expressing myself are thanks to Dragon Ball. It led to pixel art and comics and making friends and wanting to learn to draw and write.

Toriyama gave us so much.

I'm happy to know that I'm not special in this regard, that a million people around the world picked up pencils because of his work. To this day, nothing puts a smile on my face like an unexpected DBZ reference. It's pure childhood joy.

I hope his final few years were peaceful and happy. I wish nothing more for all of these hardworking creators than a peaceful retirement for themselves.

[blueberry-lemon]

My favorite way to see how culture and comedy change over time is to listen to a playlist of Weird Al, who is generally considered a beloved and fairly "clean" comedian, and notice how one out of every three songs has a line that makes me go "ooooof, were we really saying that word back then??" and "yikes, he was really punching down on that one."

[blueberry-lemon]

Where to find me from now on!

It's silly to make it an announcement like this, but I'm gonna try to step away from both Twitter and Tumblr.

Current plan is to maybe log back in once a week to check my notifs.

You can find me on all the other places. kylelab on Discord, feel free to reach out and chat about anything.

I hate doing this because I really wanna keep up with the cool people on here that I've interacted and talked with. But we'll figure it out. I'm most active now on my personal blog, which is also a hub for everywhere else you can find me.

Please don't hesitate to reach out to me everywhere else and chat or drop me a line or a silly meme or anything at all! I'm shy and lonely! But I get distracted and frustrated with this place enough that I'm gonna try being shy and lonely somewhere else.

Hopefully you come with me!

*dramatically flips the light switch off while I'm leaving the room, like it's the series finale of me existing*

[blueberry-lemon]

Something that makes me equally sad and hopeful

is that I notice that people all over the internet still deeply wish to talk to other people.

Like, no matter how niche the topic or "unnecessary" it would be, no matter how barren the community, I always see people trying to strike up discussion, put out surveys, engage in friendly (and sometimes not friendly) debate, poll people's opinions, express their innermost feelings, etc.

Even with blog posts getting 0 Shares, tweets getting 0 Likes, community Discord servers that like 8 people bother to join, people are still trying to reach out to others. To discuss their favorite hobbies and interests, ask for advice, GIVE advice, joke around with each other, and just shoot the shit.

On one hand it's sad to see when it's unreciprocated, or falls apart, or when people seem really lonely. And sometimes it's a little cringe. But on the other hand, I think being lonely or a little cringe and wanting that human connection is really good.

It goes without saying that I'll be incredibly depressed if the internet devolves into a lot of AI-generated sludge content and/or content meant to game views, half of which could be views from bots anyway. Or stuff going on with Twitter and how you can monetize the engagements.

There's a lot of things you can do using the internet that are more solitary (for example, watching a show on Netflix or purchasing things or scrolling through tiktok algo) but I still think at the end of the day, people young and old are hoping for a real human connection, no matter how small or mundane.

[blueberry-lemon]

"It's nice to be nice."

For a brief time after graduating from college, I worked at a before-school program at an elementary school.

While I don’t think I have the fortitude to work with kids in the long-term, it wasn’t so bad. At times, it was kind of relaxing. My supervisors were cool. Most of the kids were pretty chill.

Some of the kids were less chill. They would misbehave, in typical elementary school fashion. My supervisors had various different tactics for dealing with that, which worked pretty consistently. Usually it was a time-out, or a stern talking-to, or something similar.

One of my supervisors had a common refrain that she would try to teach the kids if they had done something mean to another: “It’s nice to be nice.”

She would say it loud and clear, for everyone in the room to hear. On its face, it was a bit corny and redundant. It didn’t really…convey much. It was a handy turn-of-phrase that was meant to instill a sense of compassion among the students. Be kind to each other. It’s a "good thing” to do!

Since a lot of the kids were already in 4th and 5th grade, I doubt that the phrase did much to change any behavior. It’s the exact kind of platitude that I would ignore at that age, given that it doesn’t sound like anything besides “stop breaking rules.”

For some reason, it did stick with me though.

It pops back up into my mind every so often. “It’s nice to be nice.” It lacks nuance or cleverness, which I think is maybe the best thing about it. Maybe it’s deceptively wise. Or maybe I’m overthinking things.

It’s possible that my level of social exposure is low, and that my expectations are lower, but I’m over-the-moon when a stranger is friendly to me. Even if they’re paid to be friendly, like a grocery cashier or a hotel clerk. I don’t really feel like they should feel obligated to do it, even if it is their job, so I still find it a flattering bonus when it happens. It puts a pep in my step.

The same goes online.

There’s something about a low-stakes, respectful, cordial interaction that just…[chef’s kiss]

So much on the internet is about being funny, or smart, or educational, or persuasive, or cruel.

The older I get the more I’m like…what about just being nice? Maybe it’s worth a shot.

And yes I can throw a million disclaimers here: I’m not talking about respectability politics, or pandering, or inappropriate levels of toxic positivity. I’m not talking about distracting from the real issues, or avoiding politics, or donating all of my time and energy on fixing depressed strangers. I’m not talking about being parasocial weirdos or overstepping our bounds with accounts I follow.

I just mean regular old, day-to-day, casual friendliness with peers.

It’s fun! Almost intoxicating!

There’s nothing more fun now than a quick, casual exchange with someone online where we respect each others’ boundaries and gush over a shared interest. Or reaching out to actually leave a nice comment on something instead of just scrolling by, etc. etc.

I’ll stop now before I sound like corny old internet boomer. You get the idea.

All of this is to say that when I make an effort to actually reshape the interactions I have online, it makes me feel like there was actually a point to this whole internet thing. It makes me feel slightly less alone, and less trapped in my own head.

Even though it’s easier now than ever, I really don’t want to streamline my online experience into a never-ending timeline scroll of “content.” An endless refreshing of things to make me laugh and things to make me mad. I want it to be an actual exchange of ideas, and of kindness and support. A place where I can show small kindnesses in the same way that I should try to small kindnesses to people in my real neighborhood.

That boss of mine might have been cooking. Maybe it really is nice to be nice, even just for its own sake.

[blueberry-lemon]

[lmfao i realized after posting this that, visually, this accidentally looks like some sort of ad or blazed post on the dashboard. im so sorry hahaha] I've always wanted to keep a journal.

In high school, I was really into reading journal comics (they're still one of my favorite genres of comic by far), and started drawing one myself. I drew a comic once a day, every day, for all of 10th grade and kept it in a binder to show friends at school.

I did scattered little journal comics after that, just a strip here and there. Then, in college, I had a storyboarding professor who had us draw on an index card on each day of class to mark how we're feeling. Inspired by that, my roommate and I drew a post-it of what we did each day and stuck it on the wall for two semesters. In other words, 1-panel daily journal comics.

I like journaling because it helps put the good days and bad days into wider perspective. Even the deepest pits of anxiety or sadness are eventually faded away and joined by really happy and mundane days.

Since then, I've tried a Hobonichi Planner. I've tried poems on Cohost. I always fall off. I've tried the Daylio App and Notion. I feel too guilty and embarrassed once I've missed too many days.

Then I heard about "5-Year Journals."

Each page is a day, for example "January 5th." No days-of-the-week listed. It's split into 5 sections, for different years. You write in it each day. Then when the year comes around, you keep using the same journal, writing underneath your previous year's entry.

This really appealed to me for two reasons.

It won't be a huge deal if I miss a day, or a week, or a whole month. I won't feel guilty because it doesn't really matter. It's not putting the book to waste, there's no day-of-the-week listed to make the page feel obsolete the year after, and I'll just get those days I missed when I come back around in 2025 or 2026. So even if certain years have gaps, each page will eventually have something.

It'll be fun to read the entries from previous years as I keep going, and see how I've changed.

So far I'm having a good time! I recommend them. Brand-wise I got a Levenger although I'm sure there are cheaper versions. Or just do it in a spiral notebook, who cares? With my handwriting I can fit like 4 or 5 sentences per entry. The fact that I'm not posting them publicly, or drawing anything, will probably help me.

[blueberry-lemon]

throwing a grenade into subs vs dubs

Something that fascinates me about the "subs vs dubs" debate for anime is that the common knowledge/reputation is that the subs are the one with the "better" writing.

And yet...over the past few years, when something has had a really high-quality dub, I've flipped back and forth between the sub and dub and I've noticed that the sub is usually:

quicker, shorter, simpler

designed to be quick enough to read

slightly more awkwardly worded or bland

more literal

and the dub is usually

more interesting, more nuanced

more natural to what an english-speaker would say

conveys the character's personality more

in a comedy, often funnier

People can watch whatever they prefer, and it's always best to have a choice, but I wonder if the reputation will ever start to shift. I like subs and dubs pretty much equally, but I've noticed that if a show has a REALLY good dub, that will do a lot more for me than the sub will. Obviously the dub's limitation is more in the realm of "matching the mouth animations" but tbh I'm surprised how rarely that ruins the writing nowadays, in the hands of a good localizer.

[blueberry-lemon]

My Top 10 Favorite Indie Games of 2022! There were so many cool indie games this year, all of which were very very different, but here's the small sliver that I'd like to shout-out.

You can also view the list here on Backloggd.

Number 1: Crystal Project

A truly unique RPG. Imagine Final Fantasy 5 with open-world BOTW exploration, 3D platforming, and it's all left to uncover on your own.

A special experience I'll never forget, and now has Randomizer options to do it all again.

Number 2: Potionomics

A really in-depth potion shopkeeper game with loads of charm and strategy. Brew potions, send out adventure parties, boost relationships with NPCs, and do deckbuilding sales negotiations. The loop is so satisfying, and the art is beautiful.

Number 3: Orb of Creation

Incremental game, idle game, clicker game, whatever you call it, this is one of the most mechanically interesting of any of the ones I've tried. Advancing through the unlock trees is the primary puzzle itself, using all sorts of systems at your disposal.

Number 4: Citizen Sleeper

I haven't finished quite yet, but this is a really engaging story about life under oppressive systems, scraping by the best you can, and making alliances with other folks who are desperate. The dice-slotting mechanic is so smart here.

Number 5: Grapple Dog

A colorful, charming, and beautifully animated platformer. Very satisfying to go through levels, get the collectables, and challenge yourself to bonus levels. If you master it, the sense of momentum is so fluid.

and the rest of the list...

Olli Olli World

Chained Echoes

Neon White

Trombone Champ

A tie between Super Kiwi 64 and Lunistice

My Top 10 Favorite AAA Games of 2022

Splatoon 3

Marvel Snap (small design team, but i'm counting this as AAA)

Pokemon Legends Arceus

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Triangle Strategy

Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Live A Live

Marvel Midnight Suns

Multiversus

Elden Ring

There were lots of other cool games this year, like Chiki's Chase, Tunic, Nobody Saves The World, Poinpy, Tinyfolks, and Kardboard Kings!

Excited for 2023.

[blueberry-lemon]

hardcore burnout

This came up randomly in a conversation with a friend and I realize now it's probably safe to talk about it publicly.

I had never really known what "burnout" felt like until 2019 when it happened to me. Unfortunately, there's not really a clean, happy ending because I'm still not sure I've actually recovered from it by this point.

I was doing a combination of 7th Beat Games work [where I currently work] while also trying to do freelance at the same time and the freelance was what did me in.

For years I had been doing commissions and freelance work for various Youtubers. Depending on the Youtuber, it was sometimes really fun and fulfilling! Other times it was drudgery.

The final straw was that I animated, like, a 9-minute Fortnite cartoon for this guy. Really crunched on the deadline, really rushed it. I think at some point he deleted it off his channel for underperforming or something, and he never sent me the final version, so I don't even have the cartoon.

After this, I was completely burnt out. On animating, on drawing, on everything.

I couldn't stand to draw anymore. Couldn't hold the pen, couldn't sit in front of my computer and make anything. I've barely animated since. It just completely drained all of the fun for me. All I wanted to do was lay around, and not think about art anymore. Trying to draw felt like a mental version of nausea, like trying to force a fork full of food into my mouth.

The love that I had for art from before 2019 never really came back in full force. It's still really hard for me to draw, or animate, or focus. I'm extremely grateful to everyone who has bought our games at 7BG as it has allowed me to continue this career. I haven't been able to figure out how to reignite the spark or get my old motivation back in the years since. Not sure if I'll have to try to "pivot career path" at some point, or go back to school or something.

I've tried drawing a series of autobio comics discussing my experience with burnout as a hope of warning other artists on social media about what it is like but...y'know...burnt out on drawing before I finished them. Lol.

To be clear, not really bitter about that specific Youtuber, it was just bound to happen because I was being careless. From what I've heard through the grapevine about him, his company kind of fell to shambles in the years since due to mismanagement. Lots of start-and-stop projects that never took off. I guess we have that in common now.

[blueberry-lemon]

You've probably seen this image. I've seen it many times. I have mixed feelings about it.

It's a funny image, and represents a good cause. It's usually posted by people who want to support fairer working conditions for game developers, and want to show support for smaller titles.

It's usually posted in contrast to something like Cyberpunk 2077, Watch Dogs: Legion, The Last of Us: Part II, or God of War: Ragnarok.

There's a part of me that cringes every time I see it, though. I imagine there may be other game developers who feel similarly.

I think the reflexive cringe comes from the phrase "shorter games with worse graphics." People being paid more to work less sounds great, tbh, and barring any sort of production pipeline blocking, I think most devs would be into that.

These are the thoughts that fly through my mind when I hear people say "I want shorter games with worse graphics."

Short compared to what?

Shorter than Elden Ring? Shorter than Hollow Knight? Short like Venba? Short like Celeste? How short could a AAA game be before, even despite posting this phrase, you'd find it unsatisfying or incomplete? How short could an indie game be before you don't consider it a "real game"? Games can be anything from Ulysses to a haiku, but it rarely seems like people are talking about the haiku style of games.

What does "worse graphics" mean?

I just can't imagine a world where "worse graphics" could possibly correlate to Hi-Fi Rush, Undertale, Hollow Knight, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Celeste, Mario Odyssey, Wind Waker, A Short Hike, or Hades. Even though those are the types of games that I often see people use this meme in support of. Those games have incredible art that talented artists worked really really hard on. It feels like a bit of a sting to associate those beautiful games with the term "worse graphics." That phrasing, sadly, implies that photorealism is the bar by which all other games are compared.

Forever Games

Where do replayable games, like roguelikes, tycoons, crafting games, and farming sims land on the realm of "shorter games"? They're not inherently any shorter than a big AAA game, and they're designed to be replayable and to suck your time in. That can be great, but it also might be a treadmill that is not inherently any more honorable than a game trying to tell a linear story.

Are you really "not kidding"?

This meme has a very confident, smug energy and I think that tone invites this question: Do you REALLY want shorter games with worse graphics? I know this is going to depend on the individual lives of each human being who's ever reposted this meme, and it can never be truly answered, but it really begs the question of whether or not people REALLY DO WANT "shorter games with worse graphics." Because let me tell ya, there's a lot of shorter games with worse graphics right now and they ain't selling very well. Check the Steam reviews. Ask devs how many copies they sell on itch. There are many devs out there who make shorter games with worse graphics and no matter how many times people post this phrase, people don't seem to flock over to support those projects. And that sinking feeling of "oh, these folks don't mean the games that my friends and I post regularly on itch, they mean Hi-Fi Rush and Wind Waker" is a little bit demotivating, given the gusto with which this meme is posted. There are people whose whole careers hinge on the hope that there's an audience out there that wants "shorter games with worse graphics" and there doesn't seem to be an actual sea change that's helping those projects out. There is a treasure trove of games out on itch that you can play in between hyped releases, but most people's playing habits don't seem to shift.

Lastly...

...there are thousands of devs out there who work hard, collaborating with other devs and artists, to make their games the best they can be. Devs work hard to bring their artistic vision to God of War: Ragnarok or to Bomb Rush Cyberfunk or to experimental indies with intentionally-ragged art styles. Everyone is putting their heart into their art to make something that will connect with the player. Sometimes, this can be pulled off by 1 or 2 people. Sometimes, this will require hiring more onto the team. It's slightly dissonant to see people say they want to see "worse graphics" when you're trying to get a job in texturing or particle effects and want to deliver something your team is trying to push a boundary on. This is true in both small projects and big projects. Artists are putting their stamp on Horizon Forbidden West just as much as they're putting their stamp on Venba. There are artists looking for work in the indie space who want to make better and more beautiful "graphics."

Anyway, no disrespect to people who post this meme. I understand that it's a show of support and solidarity. I understand that it's just a joke. I know that it's not a big deal.

But I'd be lying if I said that these mixed feelings didn't flash through my mind every time I saw this hedgehog. Figured I would share them.

[blueberry-lemon]

Five years in, finding a routine

Although mostly on accident, I’ve been working as a game developer and freelancer for the past five years.

That means that I work from home, and have to “be my own boss” on a day-to-day basis. I kept myself chained to my desk long before the pandemic came along, which meant I didn’t get the whiplash that a lot of people got from having not choice but to start working from home

That said…in all this time, I still haven’t found a very good routine for actually making it all work for me in a healthy way. Yikes.

I’ve always struggled to find the right rhythm for work-life balance. How to focus (maybe there’s some anxiety or attention deficiency secretly at play), how to avoid wanting to take breaks, how to find time for hobbies without feeling guilty, how to structure my “schedule.”

It probably doesn’t help that because our team is all around the world, we get up to all sorts of inconvenient time zone tomfoolery. Big bursts of work that has to be done immediately upon waking up or right before bed.

Now, in 2024, I am trying to finally put a structure together. I recently moved to a new apartment in a new town, which felt like a good time for a fresh start. Here’s what I’m up to so far.

I’m trying to wall off “weekends” as time for leisure as best I can. Even within that, it’s even better if I can wall off a little segment of time for a “hobby,” like drawing purely for my own fun instead of drawing for work. Obviously, sometimes work emergencies crop up and you just have to do them on the weekend.

I’ve dabbled with a Virtual Assistant for about 10 months to keep me organized (which went okay) but I’ve scrapped the whole thing and swapped over to an eight buck paper calendar pinned up next to my desk. Less fancy, but less pricey. My parents were great at keeping a huge calendar updated on the fridge when I was growing up. I was a fool to try to live without a physical calendar after high school. It’s made planning for the future “feasible” instead of “overwhelmingly impossible.” Google Calendar was never cutting it for me.

I use a really simple to-do app called Tasks (from Tasks.org). I had thought that maybe I could keep all my to-dos organized this way, but honestly it’s better for things that I need urgent phone notification reminders for. Like “do this right this second.” The rest I’m trying my best to track on the paper calendar.

I’ve started music lessons, going to the gym, and therapy weekly at the start of 2024. Not only do I love this trifecta, but it has also helped structure my weekdays for better and for worse. Can’t get work done while I’m doing those things, but it’s hopefully improving my life in a general sense.

And lastly…I’m writing this right now from a co-working space. I’ve always considered finding a place where I could take a laptop and get work done outside of my apartment, to try to separate “home” and “work” just a little bit more. A place to ignore distractions. Or, honestly, a place where I can’t do household chores or go grocery shopping as an excuse to not do work while feeling productive.

I considered libraries and cafes, and am still open to those as options, but this co-working space is actually really great so far. The vibes are immaculate. It’s peaceful and quiet without feeling lonely. There’s free snacks.

Hopefully this is the beginning of something like a healthy, productive routine. Definitely trying to prioritize finding something sustainable so that I can at least make it another five years in game development without going crazy.

The secret to getting out of my head and out of my bad habits could be getting out of the house.

[blueberry-lemon]

hot take alert

I feel like we're in a weird space right now where a lot of stylized 3D-modeled games just.....don't look SUPER great visually? I think because they don't have the budget or the time or the processing power to pull off what would work better?

Like there's games that I LOVE how they look...like Mario Odyssey and Mario Wonder, or Kirby and the Forgotten Land, or Pikmin 3 and Pikmin 4, or Dragon Quest 11.

But then there's games like the new Dragon Quest Monsters, Sonic Frontiers, Sonic Superstars, Super Mario RPG Remake, Pokemon Scarlet/Violet, Detective Pikachu Returns, stuff like that...where stuff feels really off?

I genuinely wish that more publishers would start taking "make games in 2D again" as a genuine option for games that have lower budgets. Something about how the colors and lighting and such work for a lot of lower-budget games just makes me regret that they're 3D at all.

Big credit to games like A Hat In Time and Penny's Big Breakaway and Flock who feel like they accept their limitations and tackle an art design they can fully pull off.

Long story short I guess I just wish there were more AAA 2D games. There's still so much on the table that could be done with 2D.

[blueberry-lemon]

Two-Dimensional Writing

I think there’s a place for characters, and stories, that are two-dimensional. In fact, I’m willing to die on the hill that sometimes it’s just more fun (and “better writing”) to aim for two-dimensional characters if it fits what you’re going for.

Before writing this, I was curious if there was an actual agreed-upon definition of a “two-dimensional character.” When used casually I feel like we all generally understand what we’re talking about, but I figured before I ran my mouth I should at least check if there was a textbook definition.

Most of the results I got on Google were Reddit and Quora threads of people debating the definition, along with a couple of other like-minded bloggers trying to explain it. So I guess the term isn’t exactly scientific.

So I guess I should try to define it. I guess I would say something like this:

One-dimensional character: Only exists in the world or story to serve a single purpose

Two-dimensional character: A character lacking realistic depth. Lacks complex thoughts, feelings, history, and may not behave like a “real person” would.

Three-dimensional character: A character whose thoughts, feelings, and history feel believable and “realistic”

I think most times that people refer to a story as having one-dimensional or two-dimensional characters, it’s meant as a dunk. But I don’t think it has to be a dunk!

Two-dimensions lets you play in the world of archetypes and expectations. When I think of two-dimensional writing, I think of games like Fire Emblem and Chrono Trigger, where you totally “get” a character’s vibe as soon as they join the party. I think of shows like K-On and One Piece, where you’re invited into the running gags by quickly understanding what a character would do in any scenario.

I don’t think playing in this space needs to be thought as synonymous with “bad” or “lazy” writing. If I’m being honest, I’m pretty sure it’s usually an intentional choice. It’s fun to play in a well-established genre, or toss around some well-worn character tropes, as long as you’re doing it well. Sometimes you’re dealing with a story or game that has a huge amount of characters, and it’s important to write them in such a way that people can recognize them, learn their personality and backstory, and remember them as soon as possible.

On the audience side, sometimes it’s fun and convenient to start something and immediately jump up like “oh, THAT’S gonna be my favorite character!” and then see if your prediction pans out. It can be fun to have a favorite type, or an archetype you like to see, and find out how a new writer puts their own personal twist on it. Or sometimes the depth and the fun of the story is how they take the toolbox of two-dimensional characters you know by heart and arrange them in different combinations with each other. Or place them in unexpected scenarios, where we can finally see how Character B, Character E, and Character H are all going to interact and get themselves out of a challenging situation.

And lastly…sometimes I think a work isn’t quite built for having three-dimensional characters. Either it doesn’t actually have the proper amount of time to explore a person’s full depth, or it clashes with the tone of what it’s doing. It can also, if you’re not careful, make your realistic-seeming characters all become a bit bland and unmemorable, because they don’t have any notable trait to latch onto. Maybe your intention was “this is gonna be a fully three-dimensional, believable person” but all you ended up with in execution was “this is a boring, relatable, average Joe.”

(Obviously, if you CAN pull off a realistically believable cast of characters and have the time to flesh them out…more power to you, I love that too.)

I think it’s also important to remember that the genre-archetype, two-dimensional style writing is not exclusive to any particular genre, mood, or emotion. Heart wrenching dramas can play in tropey two-dimensional spaces, just like comedies can. And maybe the secret sauce to your two-dimensional writing is how you set something up to have one tone and then hop to another tone for a moment of surprise.

So honestly, give me the two-dimensional archetypes. Give me the RPG characters who have like 2 notable traits and 3 emotional states. As long as you execute it well, add in a few surprises, don’t make real-life stereotypes, and have fun with it…I don’t think there’s anything wrong with playing in that space. It works for a reason!