#custom made koopa shell

[oh-hell-help-me]

July 14: National Motorcycle Day

As any good Kingly Parent would do, Bowser had long since commissioned a private racetrack and personalized Karts for his kids to use.

In fact, it was an early Wintertime Present- something intentionally early to both provide the opportunity for his kids to ride their Karts without snow-related hazards and to stave off their explorations for the other gifts he had hidden.

Even now, he had a variety of extra parts in the event their tastes changed, their Karts break, or (before Luigi was in the picture) that Peach could customize her own to race against the kids.

The first two happened less than he anticipated, but he was the least disappointed with how the third possibility changed.

While he never expected Luigi to want to do anything more than cheer on the sidelines, he is pleasantly surprised to have his husband be eager to ride alongside them.

He is also surprised to see him craft his own Kart- a motorcycle, to be precise.

It was different from his husband’s usual selections in Kart races- lacking any logo or mimicry, and apparently modeled after earth-based motorcycles.

He would have teased Luigi over its plainness (seriously, he could at least add some flames), but…

The Kart ran faster than anything the Koopa Kingdom had ever produced, and seeing it run the track for the first time had left him and the kids staring after Luigi in shock.

And when he came back in record time?

Iggy was the first to bombard him with questions, with Junior and Larry a close second and third before his human was swarmed with giddy questions and requests to ride the Kart.

(To this day, Bowser still doesn’t know how Luigi was able to deny their puppy eyes.)

So, when Luigi requested to race him on the track, one on one, Bowser hadn’t thought much of the look in his eyes when he teased about eating dust before he even started.

Coming from the same person who has rigged the whole castle with a stereo just to share some music? He really should have seen it coming when he opened up the Royal Garage-

And was faced with a black, flame-painted motorcycle.

In his size.

He swears that he hadn’t made some weird noise in surprise, but the amusement shining in Luigi’s eyes told him otherwise.

"Do you like it?"

Yes- yes, he did. And if his brain would work enough to let him say that, everything would be great.

"I know it might be a bit plain for your tastes-"

What is he talking about- it had flames!

"But I think the late-night tinkering on the improved acceleration makes up for it!"

He- he did all that? On top of his work in the castle?

"I- I’m not sure if the seat is comfy enough- it’s a bit hard to craft one that will support your shell-"

'Support his'- screw words when his mouth can do better than talking!

Like a good husband, he takes Luigi by the hips- pulling him closer with one hand as the other tilts his wonderful husband's head up and he leans down-

And it's criminally easy to melt into the softness behind his lips, easy to pull him even closer as he feels a gentle hand caress his jaw, trace under his horn, and lightly grip his hair and tug him closer-

But they have to breathe, and while Bowser is willing to part for a moment, the way Luigi came back flushed and panting nearly made him risk asphyxiation just to kiss him longer.

"I... I guess that's a 'yes'?"

"Luigi, love," Bowser lets their noses press together, torn between peering into his eyes and the urge to smother his husband with kisses- "My smart, thoughtful light-of-my-life. Of course it's a 'yes'."

[lore-of-the-mushroom-kingdom]

So, shells in the Mario world are not necessarily biological but more like a type of clothing and possibly power up with variations of a single shell. While not everyone remembers this but Koopas quite often could be kicked out of shells and run around without one Super Mario World, Super Mario 3D Land, Super Mario 64, etc. Even in the original Mario Bros the Shell Creepers exit their shells to flip it. In Paper Mario 64 the Koopas of Koopa Village have their shells stolen by Fuzzies, one Koopa mentions their shell is custom made, this shows them to be something that can be ordered and worn. This is further shown with characters like Bowser in the RPG games switching out shells, and Mario using the Blue Shell power up. They also seem to serve as power ups themselves Bowser gaining abilities from different shells, certain shells in Super Mario World being able to chase Mario down when piloted by a Koopa, or even how when a Yoshi eats the SMW shells he can spit fire or grow wings. The shells are probably made by a company that is connected to the Strike Equipment from Mario Kart who Mario Red, Green, Bowser, and Spiny shells for kart races. We also see shells being worn by non Koopa creatures as well that don't normally need shells like Goombas and Ant Troopers. Yoshis themselves could be a Koopa as mentioned in a previous post, and like Koopas they are born without their shells. Some shells might even be extra heavy causing Koopas to go on all 4.

[asingleietsist]

"A Green Queen" AU Short

"Assembling"

In a news station along the coast of Rainbow Road. An interview is conducted in the studio of

"So your highness, what's it like having the King and Queen of the Koopas over?", A Koopa with a microphone and headset asks.

"They're such a lovely couple! I'd expect nothing less from such mighty powers, but I would've thought the King would marry someone less... Fragile?", he sighed, feigning distress. "To think they'd leave magnificent and strong troops under the leadership of.. this poor individual. I pity the King, truly.."

"Uh huh... Well your highness, putting the Darkland information aside, intel from your troops in the Mudai Kingdom have speculation to believe that the Princess is staging an attack for the throne! Do you feel threatened by such bold statements?"

He glared at the Koopa, unimpressed. "Heh.. my father easily thwarted her and her silly little castle. As a young cub, seeing her plead for mercy from my father should be a warning to her. The throne is nothing but secure, if anything were to occur, so to answer your question: No."

"Nothing but confidence! G-Good to hear.", The newscaster glanced over at the lakitu ushering him to hurry it along. "N-Now for our last question... Your pendant. At your coming of age ceremony, you were given it by your advisor. Most of the public knows of its power, but wonder what spells were strong enough to wipe out armies, destroy a castle, and cause such a strong leader to grovel at the fee-er- paws of a King."

Khufo gave a cheeky grin, playfully swinging his tail, "I think leaving that to the imagination would be best, hm? I know my enemies are watching closely, so to disclose such information-"

The screen turned black as the stand vendor leaned over his stall, "Are you gonna trade it for something or what?"

"O-Oh, right! Sorry, uh... Do you like mushrooms?", Mario laughed nervously.

The stone creature grunted, "not much use for it here. What else ya' got?"

"A few power ups... Water, maybe some apples?"

"Hm, if you get at least five, I'll give you the shell."

"Got it!".

Mario tried to whistle the yoshi over but it simply stared at him as it ate an apple. "Hey don't eat that!"

It rolled its eyes and strolled over. Mario reached into his stash, "First the shell, then I'll give you the bag. Deal?"

"Fine fine.", The vendor grumbled. They placed the hollowed Koopa shell onto the stone board. "Apples, pipsqueak."

Mario reached out to pick up the shell, "let me try it on first-"

"A-UH, nope! You trade it or no deal!"

"Ugh.. ok..", Mario pulled out the sack and handed it over the counter. The vendor smiled and handed over the shell before gazing at the sack happily.

The small plumber started to put his feet through the holes near the bottom and squeezed his guy into the narrow opening. "Is there no easier way to get this on?!"

The vendor glanced over and pointed to a small hinge on the side of the shell.

"There's a latch separating the lower and upper halves, genius."

Mario began taking it off midway just to check and as he unhooked it the shell opened. "Huh.. do they all have this? Why would they.."

"Nope, I made it myself for customers, an easier way to sell em."

"Oh ok, that makes sense. Wait.. where'd you get this from? Aren't they attached to-"

"Have a nice day kid.", The vendor munched. They chewed messily, leaving Mario to stare in disgust.

"Uh-huh... Thanks, I think?.."

He grabbed the yoshi's reins and started off to the next vendor, he finally had confirmation on where his brother was with the beast. He wasn't sure how long they'd stay until setting off again. He'd hope he could at least check if his brother was ok before they departed to who knows where.

'He better not have laid a claw on him. I can't have him hurting anymore.'

Canonicity is up for interpretation.

Author's note:

It's meee!! I just wanted to clarify a bit that there will be some ocs included into the fanfic and that once the school year begins, chapters will slow down a bit. I will try to finish as many as possible before then, so you're all not waiting months for a new chapter.

On a brighter note, new art pieces will be made for this au and posted onto here and exclusives along with ref sheets will be up on Ko-Fi by the second week of August for simple donations! They'll also be up in September if you don't want to pay for early access! I'll be happy just sharing these tbh you'll also probably see landscape art for some scenes in chapters as well, so stay tuned.

Last, but not least. Don't forget to drink water n take care of yourselves. Peace out ✌️

[thekoopalingsandstuffs]

Who's shell is the most durable?

None of them are really more of anything than the others, I don't think...

Shells, in this AU, are clothes. You can take them off and switch them out all you want. Motley, Mauve, Koops, Kamek, and many others go against the "societal norms" and choose to wear full wardrobes instead of shells. (However, most other species can't wear shells themselves because... How do I say this... Shells weren't designed with their bodies in mind) This is why Major Burrows wears a shell as a hat. Shells just aren't compatible with his body.

You can customize them, too! Some have spikes, some don't, and you can get all sorts of different colors!! If you're in the Koopa Troop, you are made to wear a specific shell type based on your rank, like in the real-life military. Lemmy actually wears "girl shells," which just means that his has a LOT of pockets on the inside (Instead of just one or two) for all his knives and such. [Where do you think the kids store their wands?? POCKETS!!!]

That being said, I guess one of the Koopalings could have a custom shell that is tougher than others, but... Eh. As of right now, they're all equally durable.

{Things are different in SKB, by the way. The shell is attached to your body when you're born and can't be replaced. They look different depending on your breed. If curious, ask over there!}

[fanfiction-butterfree]

The Nanny Named Luigi

CHAPTER IV: Fried cheep cheep

A mattress not too hard or too soft. Pillows as light as air, and yet firm enough to cradle a neck. Closets for any clothes anyone could ever want. An olympic sized pool. Four bubble baths. A team of chefs capable of making every meal. A life of luxury few could dream of, that would be a dream vacation for most people. And yet for one green ex plumber this was far from a fantasy. 

Luigi finished unpacking. He was only going to be there for a week and often wore the same outfits several days in a row so he'd only packed a few clothes. 

There was a  knock on the door. 

Luigi: Come in! 

A male koopa wearing a purple bowtie, a purple shell with white edges and a white body with Bowser's logo in purple on it, and purple shoes, entered the room. 

Male Koopa: Lunch is going to be served in 45 minutes, so the Chef would like to know what you would like to eat for lunch, sir.

Luigi: Hmm do you have any pasta? 

Male Koopa: Chef can make any pasta you want. 

Luigi: In that case can I get tagliatelle with a mushroom cream sauce? 

Male Koopa: Yes sir. Anything else? 

Luigi: Nothing else. But can I ask you something? 

Male Koopa: yes sir. 

Luigi: Why do you call me sir? I'm just the nanny. 

A small smile appeared on the koopas face

Male Koopa: The staff heard of your little display at the front door. 

Luigi: What…How? 

Male Koopa: The youngest member of the royal household, and his most trusted siblings told everyone what happened. 

Luigi: Oh… should I be worried?

Male Koopa: On the contrary, all three were most impressed, and seemed to have taken a liking to you. 

Luigi: Oh ok. Wait siblings? Who? 

He assumed the koopa was talking about Bowser Junior and possibly Morton, but he had no idea who the third could be. 

Male Koopa: You'll find out in due time. 

The koopa was getting ready to leave his room. 

Luigi: Can I ask you one more question? 

Male Koopa: Yes sir. 

Luigi: What's your name? 

Male Koopa: It's James sir. 

Luigi: Thank you James. And call me Luigi. 

James: Yes Luigi. 

He left the room. 

The nanny in green spent the rest of the time until lunch trying to remember the names of Bowser's children, and learning the layout of the wing in which they lived.

He felt someone tug on his shirt. 

Luigi: Yes? 

He turned around and was greeted by the grinning face of Bowser Junior, and the calm face of Morton Junior. 

Morton: Lunch is ready.

Bowser Junior: Wanna walk with us? 

Luigi: I'd love to. 

The three slowly made their way to the large dining room. 

Morton Junior: I did some research on you. 

Luigi: What did you learn? Oh and duck. 

All three ducked as a large sword missed the human's head and almost hit a startled koopa. 

Morton: That you're uncle Mario's brother, that you got dumped by your fiance for being a loser, and that you've never been a nanny. 

Luigi: Hey I didn't get dumped for being a loser! Jump. 

They jumped just as a trap door opened underneath them.

Luigi: I got dumped because I wanted to get married and help build up the cleaning company they owned, and they wanted to f.. I mean date the customers. 

Bowser junior: What's a fiance? 

Luigi: Someone who you're going to. Hang on. 

He turned around, took a step forward, and slammed his fist into the large stone block headed for them, shattering it instantly. 

Luigi: Marry. 

Bowser Junior: Oh ok… When were you going to get married? 

Luigi: Tomorrow. 

Morton: So if they hadn't dumped you'd be..

Luigi: Preparing for the best day of my life…. 

The nanny in viridian noticed the somber look on his wards faces.

Luigi: At least according to my dad! 

Morton and Bowser Junior: huh? 

Luigi: I never really wanted to get married anyway!  

Luigi heard heavy footsteps and what sounded like a mace being dragged on the floor. 

Morton: So why were you going to get married? 

Luigi casually threw a green fireball over his shoulder, scorching their would-be attacker.

Luigi: Tax purposes.

The trio made it to the dining room. 

Lunch had been set up on the table. There were several platters of varying sizes with food on them. Each with a gold plated name card showing in front of them

There was a large pepperoni pizza with a side of chicken wings, and several bottles of bomb berry soda for Lemmy, Larry, and Iggy. 

A large Caesar salad with lots of bacon, and a heart fruit smoothie for Wendy.

Two bacon lettuce and tomato sandwiches, and a glass of orange juice for Morton junior. 

Grilled eggplant and northern mountain beans, on a bed of rock noodles served with a spicy peanut sauce, and a glass of snow tea for Roy. 

A beef Blooperton served with orange cloud artichokes, pink asparagus and a rich demi glace, a bowl of consomme sprinkled with gold leaves, a chocolate and peach souffle topped with fresh vanilla ice cream, and a glass of freshly squeezed grape juice for Ludwig. 

Macaroni and cheese, a brownie, and a glass of milk for Bowser Junior. 

And tagliatelle with a mushroom cream sauce, and a glass of water for Luigi.

The family gathered around the table and grabbed their platters.

Lemmy, Larry, and Iggy took their food to one of the smaller living rooms, to watch play a video game. 

Wendy took her food to the pool to get some swimming in before eating. 

Ludwig took his food to the music room to practice piano. 

Morton took his meal to the library to study. 

And Bowser Junior took his lunch to his bedroom to watch tv, leaving behind Luigi and a slightly singed Roy. 

Luigi sighed as he looked at Roy

Luigi: Truce? 

The young koopa threw a mace at the human. 

Luigi caught the metal weapon with one of his hands, which seemed to glow with an emerald ember, and melted the spiked object effortlessly.

Roy gulped, as he saw the man's eyes light up with the same green fire as he'd seen before.

Roy: Truce. 

Luigi took a bite of his pasta. It was good, very good in fact, but not as good as his mother's cooking, his brother's cooking, or even his own cooking. 

Luigi: So umm how's your food? 

He asked trying to distract himself from his meal

Roy: It's alright. 

Luigi: Do you eat this often? 

Roy: Yes. 

Luigi: Oh. Ok. 

The pair sat in silence for a bit eating their food. 

Roy: Can I ask you a question? 

Luigi: Sure! 

Roy: Can you show me how you make green fire? 

Luigi: I umm well ok i'll try. 

He held out his palm and a small white flame appeared, no larger than the head of a pencil. The color shifted to lime green and grew to the size of a fist. 

Roy: Wow!

The prince stared at the flame, transfixed by the ever growing shades of green that appeared in the ball like blaze. 

The man whose clothes matched the color of the hot orb, extinguished the sphere. 

Roy: Can you teach me how to make a fire like that? 

Luigi: I'm not sure, but I can try. Under one condition.

Roy: Name it. 

Luigi: Stop attacking me. 

The royal with pink sunglasses thought for a few seconds, before extending his hand

Roy: Deal! 

Luigi: Deal! 

The pink shelled koopa grinned and the human smiled.

The rest of the day was tiring for the former cleaner. He broke up a few fights between Lemmy, Larry, and Iggy, dodged a few fireballs shot by koopas unknown, looked through the library trying to learn more about his own fire , avoided a few traps, tried keeping an eye on the other koopa children, and tried ignoring how many of the staff kept an eye on him. 

He went to the dining room around dinner time, finding it empty except for James. 

Luigi: Where is everyone? 

James: Eating in various rooms. 

Luigi: Why? 

James: It's been that way for years. 

Luigi: Well where's Bowser? I haven't seen him since I unpacked. 

James: Eating in his office. 

Luigi: Ok… Can you send my food there? 

James: Yes, but might I ask why you'd like me to do so. 

Luigi: Because I don't want to eat dinner alone in a house that isn't mine. 

James: Understood sir, I mean Luigi. But he might not appreciate being disturbed

Luigi: I spent the day trying to avoid getting maimed by his children. The least he can do is keep me company for dinner. 

Before the butler could respond the nanny in green set off to his boss's office

With determination and a bit of loneliness Luigi went to Bowser's office and boldly knocked on his door. 

Bowser: Come in !

Luigi: Hi, I was wondering if it was alright to eat dinner here? At least if it doesn't bother you too much…

Bowser: Why? 

The king of the koopas asked, assuming that his kids had driven him out of the rest of the house. 

Luigi: I wanted some company. 

Bowser: You want…me as company? 

Luigi: Yes… 

Bowser: Are you sure? 

He asked the question for the simple reason that aside from Mario and Kamek almost no one ever wanted to be near him unless they had some ulterior motive. 

Luigi: Yes. Would you be ok with that? I can leave if you don't want me to stay.

He replied unsure of where this was going

Bowser: No no please stay! It just caught me off guard. 

Luigi: Oh ok ! 

Bowser: I'll get someone to bring your food here.

Luigi grinned

Luigi: Already taken care off

James brought in his dinner

Grilled cheep cheep, potato croquettes, and fried green beans. 

Luigi: I really didn't want to eat alone. 

Bowser laughed. 

The king's dinner consisted of medium rare steak, fried rice, and a mix of various local vegetables fried including Da Wugui turnips, and Kame roots.

Bowser: Ever had dinner with a king? 

Luigi: Once but he wasn't nearly as handsome as the one in front of me. 

Bowser: Sucking up will get you nowhere. 

Luigi: Shame. I was hoping to get a raise, or maybe a private pool. 

He said feigning disappointment. 

Bowser: Bold requests for your first day. 

He chuckled. 

Luigi: So if I ask tomorrow I might get what I want? 

Bowser: Ha! Maybe! But next time you won't have to knock. 

Luigi: Is the king inviting me to his private quarters? 

Bowser: Only his office. 

He grinned. 

Maybe it was the tiredness, maybe it was the jetlag, maybe it was something else. But for now the former plumber felt like he could relax around his brother's former adversary. And relaxing was something he hadn't felt he could do in a long time. 

[pokerninja2]

More Mario Kart icons, this time with every partner from the first two Paper Mario games!

These were all really fun to work on, for different reasons. For partners based on common Mario enemies, it was fun to edit that enemy's icon to fit the partner, and for the rest like Vivian, it was fun coming up with original designs to suit them. Now, to go over some insight about the making of these:

Goombario and Goombella's icons are actually based on this emblem from Dr. Mario World. To my knowledge this is the only actual Goomba emblem, as he doesn't appear in games like Mario Kart or Mario Tennis. I was originally just gonna do a silhouette of their mouths/teeth, but this worked way better.

Kooper was easily the easiest icon to make, literally just a recolor of Koopa's emblem. Koops has a green shell, so to make it stand out, I decided to make it cracked and put a band-aid over it. Both because he has a band-aid on his nose and fits with his clumsy personality, and as a reference to his Shell Shield attack.

Was at a loss at what to do for Bombette so I settled for a profile of her head and ponytail, similar to King Bob-omb's icon in Tour. I almost did that for Bobbery too, but the hat was way too much of a hassle to draw, and it probably would have been too busy anyway. So instead, I made it the little anchor symbol on his hat. I think it works!

Cheep Cheeps don't have an official emblem to my knowledge, so I just did a profile of Sushie, and put her underwater to make her a bit more unique. Lakilester is just Lakitu's emblem with his glasses and hair added onto it. Parakarry's icon is based on the letters from Paper Mario 1, with Paratroopa wings attached. Lady Bow is obviously based on King Boo's emblem, just with ribbons instead of a crown. And for Watt I just did another front-facing profile. Kind of looks like a Smash Ultimate stock icon now that I think of it!

As for the rest of the Thousand-Year Door party, Yoshi / Yoshi Kid / Mini-Yoshi / whatever you wanna call him has the egg, but with the colored spots from the egg he hatched from. I also put an explosion effect behind it to make it more action-packed - he's from the Glitz Pit after all!

Flurrie is definite the most, erm, "customized" of all of these icons, and if she were to get into Mario Kart (she never will lmao) Nintendo would likely do something completely different with her. But I think the heart and earrings work well. Vivian's icon is her hat with a purple V, it's another pretty custom one and the hat on its own could have worked just as well, but I like it, it's cute like Vivian! And finally, Ms. Mowz is her mask, ears, and tail. Black backgrounds are normally reserved for evil characters like Bowser, but I kinda had no choice if I didn't want her ears to be invisible lol.

And that's that! Not sure if I'll be making more icons after this, at least with a specific theme. Might do some assortment ones where I just do a random group of characters. But I hope you enjoy these in the meantime.

[guifrogarts]

Figured I'd show a VR world I have created for my personal enjoyment that, for some very good reasons, I don't plan to make public on VRChat:

Welcome to Mushroom Kingdom!

Or, a portion of it that I've idealized, with a custom lore. Made with various Nintendo assets (if you were still wondering why I keep it private) found in places like The Models Resource and Hello Fan Gaming, third-party assets and shaders (some free, others I paid for, like RED_SIM's sky), and some custom models/textures I've built myself, all assembled into one piece on Blender + non-static objects and terrain added on Unity.

Some would say that the emergence of this place in Mushroom Kingdom was an unlikely event. Located on the west side, which is the same direction where the Koopa Kingdom may be found several miles away, Koopas and Toads co-exist here. The picture above shows my favorite area—a mushroom square that stands nearby the river and a Toad-managed toy store featuring a sign from Mario Kart. (I actually tried to give shape to many brands depicted in the game, here. Just keep going through the post for more pics!)

The Koopa homes were inspired by the architecture found in Koopa Village, from Paper Mario. Notice that the roofs are, indeed, Koopa shells, but bigger. As you may probably already know, Koopas are not born with shells—these are forged in Koopa Kingdom to cover their bodies. The house roofs are built via the same process!

Also, light poles from Mario Galaxy! Because, in this kingdom, power comes from Power Stars.

Also, can you find the floating Lakitu...?

The house with a blue roof is my place! It is actually (almost) fully decorated, and it's where I spawn in this world. There is something that feels special about being in a normal-looking house, surrounded by fantasy.

Why the lack of ceiling lamp? Trust me, I have no idea either... ;P But look, I have an air fryer! And a succulent plant! And a small fridge!

This one is an older picture, as you can probably tell by the sky. (A different skybox was used.) But still I love it. It perfectly depicts how Toads's houses look like, and then again, these designs come from Mario Galaxy.

Another old pic I love - and yes, this world actually does have animated NPCs, if you were wondering! But they're few.

Also, remember what I said about Mario Kart signs? Take a closer look at the buildings on the left. :3

The vending machine is an asset from VRC Prefabs. I just customized the textures with the help of Photopea, so we can really drink a bit of Princess Orange in the streets!

This is the main plaza. The flags depict icons of Toad and Koopa (the latter was designed by me), and are a symbol of diplomacy and friendship between Toads and Koopas, despite all the disasters and mishaps that have previously affected their relationship, thanks to the long-lasting war between Mushroom and Koopa Kingdoms that is highly unlikely to end in the foreseeable future. Or, at least, as long as Bowser remains in power...

I created the facade with "Kinoko Station", too, in a way that Koopas and Toads were both represented by a single icon. The whole area is entirely commercial, so you'll find Toads selling mushrooms, Koopas selling peaches, a cafe, an ice cream parlor...

…and even an egg market! But those over there are not meant for eating, they're weapons to be thrown at your enemies. It's not rare to find Goombas wandering about and trying to spoil your day, so these eggs can come in handy for those who don't have a Yoshi friend with them.

YAAAAY for Mario Odyssey! The Crazy Cap is here, too, for all your clothing needs! And a place for Koopas to enhance or service their shells.

Mario Kart has so many different brands, I didn't manage to take advantage of all of them yet.

And here, we have entered a Toad house. Not sure how well I depicted it, but I tried to make it look a bit like Paper Mario Toad houses.

I'm yet to make a Koopa house interior.

Although you don't see any signs of Yoshis here at the moment, this area is meant to be a Yoshi community. Notice the fireplaces, just like Mario World and Mario Galaxy depict as part of their homes. They all live outdoors!

And that's it, for now. I wish Nintendo was at least a tad more lenient towards their property, much like Sega and how they've handled Sonic fan games using their assets. While VRChat is free and you may sometimes find public Nintendo-based worlds, I prefer to make sure I'm playing safe. This world is such a smorgasbord of different things from different games, sadly I feel it's impossible for me to make it playable for everyone to enjoy... TwT But I hope these pictures can inspire others, and make them as excited as I did while exercising creativity to turn things we really enjoy into something real. ...Or virtual, depending on your perspective. But if you want to make things public, please be careful, and make sure you plan ahead to avoid committing the same mistake as I did in the process of making something this big: create original stuff, use third-party stuff you have the rights to use, don't mix up copyrighted assets!

I will now end this with a short video. Hope you have enjoyed the trip!

(P.s. This is just me testing a simple Udon script where clicking a button triggers a trip through a Mario tube by animating an invisible station object while I'm sitting. The song in the background is available here.)

[ivydoomkitty]

I'm late to the party! 🥳 I'll be doing a few of these to make up for it! This Bowser was designed specifically for me by the incredibly talented @zachfischerart , with the entire concept being based off the Koopa shell and horns I had already made 2 years before the art piece was made. I created this costume and dedicated it to my late furbaby, Streaky, who was always ready and available to meowdel my costume pieces for me. I dyed my hair to match the character when I first debuted it and then decided to just work with my own hair as it changed. I also changed and added many additional pieces to the original breastplate to fit the scales on the boob part of the plate. A few cool notes about the costume: Zach changed the design on the corset piece after we sourced and were set on the corset fabric we were using (made by @castlecorsetry). The gradient on the shell and shell design on the armor is based on my shell I had previously made and hand painted. It's not airbrushed (the most common question I'm asked about). This is the OG badass, Bowser aka King Koopa. This is NOT Bowsette. The wonderful @jackicraft gifted me the original raw breastplate after me telling her my ideas for wanting to create the Bowser armor. It was so sweet of her and a piece I cherish! I also custom dyed the boots, and hand burned the dupioni silk skirt bits. That part was so much fun, but also nerve wracking. I made it in 72 hours on my hotel floor at SDCC. The final paint job took 2 weeks. After debuting the costume, I decided to remove all the paint from it, add more details to the brrsstplate, seal it, and then do a complete repaint on the entire armor. This was absolutely a passion project and love letter to my cat Streaky, to the art of cosplay, and to my deep love for the Super Mario World/Fandom. @worblana @cosplaycentral @cosplayofcolor #sdcc #cosplayofcolor #poccosplay #latinaboss #latina #cospositive #maker #worbla #womanowned #diy #worbla #supermario #supermariobros #bowser #bowsercosplay #plussizecosplay #kingkoopa https://www.instagram.com/p/CNtbrSDHjIc/?igshid=17bhauxukxskb

[aquillis-main]

Also I thought how at the end of the adventure, when the final boss got defeated and a few days have passed where Jr. Troopa and their partners recovered. Said partners pitched together their coins to buy Jr. Troopa a custom made Koopa shell, with each part of the shell being painted in a different color that matches one of each partner.

OHhhhhhhhhh! That would be So cute! I’d love to see that!

[thatk9panda]

King Koopa x F!OC (Chocolate Pie)

Junior and his 7 siblings were having a lazy Sunny day in the Castle's main room just off the Boarder-line of the Mushroom Kingdom, that their Father has yet to claim for the true inhabitants of the land, the Goombas from his once Romantic target, Princess "Peach" Toadstool. Junior sometimes forgets that his Dad was trying so hard to make her his new Mom since he was younger, but now having a mind of a curious child, Junior cringes at his actions, it's so embarrassing but things have changed now. His dad, King "Bowser" Koopa has changed, he no longer fights for the land for the Goobas that begged him to get back because he is the sole only being powerful enough; a falsehood. Time and time again, Bowser fails his missions by Mario "Jump-man" Mario at every turn. Junior sets down his stuffed toy in the shape of a comically detailed bomb with an irate expression as if ready to explode at any bated breath. Stepping out into the all decorated corridor Junior hears his Father's booming voice. "Junior! Do get your Mother for me, Son. She's oversleeping again." Bowser was leaving the kitchen holding a giant pie in his scales. No doubt to Junior his Dad is having Dessert for lunch. "OK, Dad." Junior jogged the carpet steps of his home to his parents' bedroom. Yes, Peach isn't his mom but that's OK. She's still great! After a few minutes of walking and jogging to save time, Junior arrives a tad bit breathless, his excitement to see his mom pushed him to sprint down the hallway. The door to the room was away from others 'close-by' and detailed with rubies and golden frames, his Dad once had a simpler door but upon her arrival, he ordered something Mario wouldn't be able to get through so easily, Window was out of the question, coming in from it just led you to a different part of the castle altogether at random even if you see her from it. Junior can't figure out if his Dad forgot to change it or the two agreed to keep because it was set up all nice. The door remains unlocked without caution, The room was darkly lit, a few candles lines the walls on all four walls, half of it burns to keep the room total darkness has the thick curtain blocked the open stone window. Junior tip-toes on his claws to avoid being noisy has he approaches the bed in the center of the room against the parallel wall of the entrance. Thick blankets nearly cover the tiny human woman under it, nearly, her hair was spread through the white pillow in contrast to her golden pink thick curls. He pokes what he assumes is her shoulder, his action repeats in a motion of swaying her back and having her body maneuver back to its original position. "Mom, wake up. Dad says you're sleeping the day away." "Nooo... So comfy." The woman groans as she buries herself deeper into the warm covers she longs to connect with. "Mom." Junior deadpanned calls. His expression was a look of mild annoyance but a sneaky plan formed in his mind last second. "Dad's eating your chocolate-chip pie." Silence. "Can I have a minute, Junior?" She made no action to move yet her voice sounded much wider awake, Junior left the room, closing the door behind him and made his way downstairs, she'll catch up. Junior hears the door open and quickly close and outcomes running is his Dad's wife and his and his siblings' Mom, Averie. All of her custom dresses were simple and breezy, King Bowser finally gave him on her outfits, she seems happy to wear something loose and flexible, Averie told him that Bowser used to think that she would sneak away at night but having on such restricting garments would make escaping difficult for her unless she stripped down and that would be obvious of her actions but now the two have reached that step of trust. He's so proud of his Dad. "Where is your father?" Averie stumps for off in her heels strapped at her ankles for grip. "Outside in the Garden!" Averie took off in a marathon, the servants and occupations continue on with their day, not a one-bit concern for the heavy footsteps fast approaching and quickly fleeting away. The castle sure is lively now more than over, they wonder why it wasn't like that before, why did a human girl from a different world have to come and make that change? The desire for the answer didn't linger long before everyone 's mind went elsewhere. Junior arrives downstairs towards the front entrance of the Castle, he opens the door just as Averie's voice rang through the green grounds of the Garden growing off the side of the Castle. "Bowser! Where's my pie?!" Heavy, Very Heavy footsteps shake the grounds as he can barely see his Father fleeing deeper inside the Maze of roses. Averie quickly finds him, the stomps end. King Bowser has just finished savoring the pie he has taken from the kitchen, oh his wife- tasty pie, good pie. He loves her chocolate-chip pies the best, no question. Too bad he's going to get into trouble for not sharing it like it was intended for and she slaved so hard in the kitchen the night before to prepare it just right, he would felt guilty if it weren't worth eating. Maybe he can try recreating it so he'll be in less trouble. "BOWSER!" His flaming red eyebrows nearly extend off his face, his spine stiffens as he hears the voice he loves so much scream his name in bloody-murder. And today I die She was approaching closer, Bowser didn't consider hiding deeper inside the Maze, but he didn't feel he needed to, he was sure he had time to even hide the evidence... unless. Junior's snark smirk filled his thought bubble. Traitor! He told her! He took off, leaving the empty crumble foil pan on deserted on the ground. Averie is fast approaching now. He can feel her presence climbing his spiked shell. Here it comes. Having been romantic with her for awhile Bowser has come to where rope around his shell so she'll have something grab, especially since his arms are far much wider for her to grab. She stepped on his tail as leverage and roped her way up to his shoulder, Bowser was too big for the tight space and not all that fast compared to his wife. He falls on his stomach, defeated as she grips his horns in victory, he looks to the side of his eye to see she one again isn't dressed like a Queen of the Koopas, having natural bed head curls crown her face, skin clear of the drool that always cakes the side of her lip and eyes for reasons only he knows, yet she stands as graceful as a Goddess, Bowser has never witness beauty such as this and he prays he is the only lucky man to see all of it. "Bowser, you ate the pie! I made that today's dinner with the Princess!" She pouts as she leans close, her frame blocks the sun from him, darkening his sights as he glances up, he cares not for eating that Delicious pie but the upset tone she uses telling him he done wrong, twist his stomach. She remains on top of him, legs on either side of his shoulders as if to keep him pin but he and her as well as everyone knows that's impossible but he plays submission from time to time to make her feel better. Her fragrance, he finally inhales when the pie's smell faze from his nostrils. Her scent is hers and his, such an intoxicating aroma. He grows excited, no! Bad! Not now, Now you're in trouble. "I'm sorry, My Love but you know how weak I am to your desserts." He uses play on words. "No! That's not okay, you know how hard I worked on it and how I was gonna show off, why didn't you just eat the other ones? I made your favorite Cinnamon Peach, knowing you were gonna try something like this." She pulls at his horns as 'punishment' poor girl, she's only digging herself in deeper. "I didn't see it." He lied. True, Cinnamon Peach pie was his favorite, he had Peach's name in it and Bowser order Averie to bake it for him whenever he failed his mission, which was nearly every other day. Dark days indeed, how she would work for hours, sleep rarely and looked like a piece of trash took form. How he hates the old him for treating her like he did. His desire for Peach nearly cost him a Happy Ending but that all changed when she intentionally went against his wishes of another pie to the Chocolate-chip that fell in love with, it was also her favorite as well. "Liar." Call out. Her face gets closer. She stares down to his huge yellow lips before meeting his eyes again. "Stop lying." "Okay" "Don't say Okay then do it again." "Okay" "Bowser!" King Koopa, reaches an arm, gripping her ankle and pulling her under him. She doesn't fight it, he always reclaims his position as 'Top' when he feels she had enough of being Bossy to the King. She folds her arms under her chest, prepping them up with a squeeze. "Over it yet?" He asks, voice powerful and in control. No response, she moves her head to the side with a huff. Bad move. Bowser has grown to love the fight she puts up. It was different and unique. He opens his fangs and gently nip the skin of the meeting of her shoulder and neck, she shivers at the pleasant love bite, she relaxes her arms, positioning herself in a much comfortable; Legs spread apart in a loose spread out pose, her arms bend over her head to wrap his biceps keeping his upper body from crushing her. He pulls himself closer to the ground to nip her again, she shivers at the contact. This tiny woman, that hasn't cringe at his touch and advances just so willingly complies to his love. He really did miss this chance. He hasn't taken much thought to why. He was just longing for a woman in his and his children's lives, that why she would ever never crossed him, even as the two make sneaky love making out in the open of the garden. He can't figure out where this passion came from. He never had these feelings for Peach, of course, he wanted her, he loved her but this activity has never crossed him when he thought of her. Enough comparing the two, there's only one and she's lying under me right now. The Queen and King receive and gives each other a longing kiss in the middle of a Hot day, luckily Bower's huge form shadows hers from the impossible heat. She pulls away, always the one to be out of breath first, she pushes at his chest to separate the two. "Okay, I forgive you, Now let's go back inside. I have to remake a pie." She suggests. After all this, Bowser had other plans. "Not right now. You have something to take care of first." He states out lustfully to his beautiful and submissive Queen.

[thatgamble]

(CCP) bowser x f:oc

Junior and his 7 siblings were having a lazy Sunny day in the Castle’s main room just off the Boarder-line of the Mushroom Kingdom, that their Father has yet to claim for the true inhabitants of the land, the Goombas from his once Romantic target, Princess “Peach” Toadstool. Junior sometimes forgets that his Dad was trying so hard to make her his new Mom since he was younger, but now having a mind of a curious child, Junior cringes at his actions, it’s so embarrassing but things have changed now. His dad, King “Bowser” Koopa has changed, he no longer fights for the land for the Goobas that begged him to get back because he is the sole only being powerful enough; a falsehood. Time and time again, Bowser fails his missions by Mario “Jump-man” Mario at every turn. Junior sets down his stuffed toy in the shape of a comically detailed bomb with an irate expression as if ready to explode at any bated breath. Stepping out into the all decorated corridor Junior hears his Father’s booming voice. “Junior! Do get your Mother for me, Son. She’s oversleeping again.” Bowser was leaving the kitchen holding a giant pie in his scales. No doubt to Junior his Dad is having Dessert for lunch. “OK, Dad.” Junior jogged the carpet steps of his home to his parents’ bedroom. Yes, Peach isn’t his mom but that’s OK. She’s still great! After a few minutes of walking and jogging to save time, Junior arrives a tad bit breathless, his excitement to see his mom pushed him to sprint down the hallway. The door to the room was away from others ‘close-by’ and detailed with rubies and golden frames, his Dad once had a simpler door but upon her arrival, he ordered something Mario wouldn’t be able to get through so easily, Window was out of the question, coming in from it just led you to a different part of the castle altogether at random even if you see her from it. Junior can’t figure out if his Dad forgot to change it or the two agreed to keep because it was set up all nice. The door remains unlocked without caution, The room was darkly lit, a few candles lines the walls on all four walls, half of it burns to keep the room total darkness has the thick curtain blocked the open stone window. Junior tip-toes on his claws to avoid being noisy has he approaches the bed in the center of the room against the parallel wall of the entrance. Thick blankets nearly cover the tiny human woman under it, nearly, her hair was spread through the white pillow in contrast to her golden pink thick curls. He pokes what he assumes is her shoulder, his action repeats in a motion of swaying her back and having her body maneuver back to its original position. “Mom, wake up. Dad says you’re sleeping the day away.” “Nooo… So comfy.” The woman groans as she buries herself deeper into the warm covers she longs to connect with. “Mom.” Junior deadpanned calls. His expression was a look of mild annoyance but a sneaky plan formed in his mind last second. “Dad’s eating your chocolate-chip pie.” Silence. “Can I have a minute, Junior?” She made no action to move yet her voice sounded much wider awake, Junior left the room, closing the door behind him and made his way downstairs, she’ll catch up. Junior hears the door open and quickly close and outcomes running is his Dad’s wife and his and his siblings’ Mom, Averie. All of her custom dresses were simple and breezy, King Bowser finally gave him on her outfits, she seems happy to wear something loose and flexible, Averie told him that Bowser used to think that she would sneak away at night but having on such restricting garments would make escaping difficult for her unless she stripped down and that would be obvious of her actions but now the two have reached that step of trust. He’s so proud of his Dad. “Where is your father?” Averie stumps for off in her heels strapped at her ankles for grip. “Outside in the Garden!” Averie took off in a marathon, the servants and occupations continue on with their day, not a one-bit concern for the heavy footsteps fast approaching and quickly fleeting away. The castle sure is lively now more than over, they wonder why it wasn’t like that before, why did a human girl from a different world have to come and make that change? The desire for the answer didn’t linger long before everyone ’s mind went elsewhere. Junior arrives downstairs towards the front entrance of the Castle, he opens the door just as Averie’s voice rang through the green grounds of the Garden growing off the side of the Castle. “Bowser! Where’s my pie?!” Heavy, Very Heavy footsteps shake the grounds as he can barely see his Father fleeing deeper inside the Maze of roses. Averie quickly finds him, the stomps end. King Bowser has just finished savoring the pie he has taken from the kitchen, oh his wife- tasty pie, good pie. He loves her chocolate-chip pies the best, no question. Too bad he’s going to get into trouble for not sharing it like it was intended for and she slaved so hard in the kitchen the night before to prepare it just right, he would felt guilty if it weren’t worth eating. Maybe he can try recreating it so he’ll be in less trouble. “BOWSER!” His flaming red eyebrows nearly extend off his face, his spine stiffens as he hears the voice he loves so much scream his name in bloody-murder. And today I die. She was approaching closer, Bowser didn’t consider hiding deeper inside the Maze, but he didn’t feel he needed to, he was sure he had time to even hide the evidence… unless. Junior’s snark smirk filled his thought bubble. Traitor! He told her! He took off, leaving the empty crumble foil pan on deserted on the ground. Averie is fast approaching now. He can feel her presence climbing his spiked shell. Here it comes. Having been romantic with her for a while Bowser has come to where rope around his shell so she’ll have something grab, especially since his arms are far much wider for her to grab. She stepped on his tail as leverage and roped her way up to his shoulder, Bowser was too big for the tight space and not all that fast compared to his wife. He falls on his stomach, defeated as she grips his horns in victory, he looks to the side of his eye to see she one again isn’t dressed like a Queen of the Koopas, having natural bed head curls crown her face, skin clear of the drool that always cakes the side of her lip and eyes for reasons only he knows, yet she stands as graceful as a Goddess, Bowser has never witness beauty such as this and he prays he is the only lucky man to see all of it. “Bowser, you ate the pie! I made that today’s dinner with the Princess!” She pouts as she leans close, her frame blocks the sun from him, darkening his sights as he glances up, he cares not for eating that Delicious pie but the upset tone she uses telling him he done wrong, twist his stomach. She remains on top of him, legs on either side of his shoulders as if to keep him pin but he and her as well as everyone knows that’s impossible but he plays submission from time to time to make her feel better. Her fragrance, he finally inhales when the pie’s smell faze from his nostrils. Her scent is hers and his, such an intoxicating aroma. He grows excited, no! Bad! Not now, Now you’re in trouble. “I’m sorry, My Love but you know how weak I am to your desserts.” He uses play on words. “No! That’s not okay, you know how hard I worked on it and how I was gonna show off, why didn’t you just eat the other ones? I made your favorite Cinnamon Peach, knowing you were gonna try something like this.” She pulls at his horns as 'punishment’ poor girl, she’s only digging herself in deeper. “I didn’t see it.” He lied. True, Cinnamon Peach pie was his favorite, he had Peach’s name in it and Bowser order Averie to bake it for him whenever he failed his mission, which was nearly every other day. Dark days indeed, how she would work for hours, sleep rarely and looked like a piece of trash took form. How he hates the old him for treating her like he did. His desire for Peach nearly cost him a Happy Ending but that all changed when she intentionally went against his wishes of another pie to the Chocolate-chip that fell in love with, it was also her favorite as well. “Liar.” Call out. Her face gets closer. She stares down to his huge yellow lips before meeting his eyes again. “Stop lying.” “Okay” “Don’t say Okay then do it again.” “Okay” “Bowser!” King Koopa, reaches an arm, gripping her ankle and pulling her under him. She doesn’t fight it, he always reclaims his position as 'Top’ when he feels she had enough of being Bossy to the King. She folds her arms under her chest, prepping them up with a squeeze. “Over it yet?” He asks, voice powerful and in control. No response, she moves her head to the side with a huff. Bad move. Bowser has grown to love the fight she puts up. It was different and unique. He opens his fangs and gently nip the skin of the meeting of her shoulder and neck, she shivers at the pleasant love bite, she relaxes her arms, positioning herself in a much comfortable; Legs spread apart in a loose spread out pose, her arms bend over her head to wrap his biceps keeping his upper body from crushing her. He pulls himself closer to the ground to nip her again, she shivers at the contact. This tiny woman, that hasn’t cringe at his touch and advances just so willingly complies to his love. He really did miss this chance. He hasn’t taken much thought to why. He was just longing for a woman in his and his children’s lives, that why she would ever never crossed him, even as the two make sneaky love making out in the open of the garden. He can’t figure out where this passion came from. He never had these feelings for Peach, of course, he wanted her, he loved her but this activity has never crossed him when he thought of her. Enough comparing the two, there’s only one and she’s lying under me right now. The Queen and King receive and gives each other a longing kiss in the middle of a Hot day, luckily Bower’s huge form shadows hers from the impossible heat. She pulls away, always the one to be out of breath first, she pushes at his chest to separate the two. “Okay, I forgive you, Now let’s go back inside. I have to remake a pie.” She suggests. After all this, Bowser had other plans. “Not right now. You have something to take care of first.” He states out lustfully to his beautiful and submissive Queen.

[grandmasterhand]

World of Nintendo 4″ Hammer Bro.

As such a high ranking member of Bowser’s army, Hammer Bro has not gotten a lot of figures. Perhaps the only one I can think of is the Figuarts “statue” and the tiny Furuta Choco Egg figure! Jakks Pacfic just released their version! (if you can call it a release when only online retailers and regional stores carry him)

Out of the box he’s…good. The sculpt and articulation you want are absolutely there. The Koopa troop figures have always been standouts in the posability department. However some very poor decision making in the late stage of development changed the absolutely perfect prototype to…well he looks like he has seen the horrors of war.  

    Prototype-Final Product-Figuarts for Comparison

They raised his eyeballs up over his cheeks and then raised the pupils within the eyes. He looks ridiculous and off-model from any game appearance. Jakks had it perfect! and they changed it.  

On the bright side he is exactly the same size as the aforementioned figuarts non-posable figure. That is to say the parts are all the same size. The WoN one does have a neck that adds a bit of height. And since Bros always come in pairs, that means I won’t have to overpay for another WoN Bro online- my collection is complete! However I decided to take on a little bit of work to make them twins and not just Bros!

Jakks chose a dark amber skin tone for Bro which I preferred to be lighter and brighter. The figure came apart and got a full skin-tone repaint. I filled the weird mouth seam as well. I could have shortened the neck here to make them exactly the same height as the figuarts, but the point of the action figure is the articulation and it would definitely be hampered. Real turtles can stick their necks further out of their shell anyway, so it stays! After, that I made some water slide decals of better eyes and placed them correctly. 

What you see in the header images is the final custom! I have some other lofty plans which you may see later, but I am happy for now! Boomerang Bro has been spotted in Target’s system and I went to GameStop and pre-ordered Fire Bro already. That said, running changes are not unprecedented as they fixed Inkling Boy’s eyes and color in a later release. Let’s cross our fingers that Jakks changes their faces back to how they should look! A wider release of Hammer Bro himself with a fixed face would also be appreciated!

[globalmediacampaign]

Accelerating your application modernization with Amazon Aurora Machine Learning

Organizations that store and process data in relational databases are making the shift to the cloud. As part of this shift, they often wish to modernize their application architectures and add new cloud-based capabilities. Chief among these are machine learning (ML)-based predictions such as product recommendations and fraud detection. The rich customer data available in relational databases is a good basis for transforming customer experiences and business operations. Organizations that store and process relational data seek to adopt ML services in the cloud quickly and broadly. In this post, we see how Amazon Aurora Machine Learning, a feature of Amazon Aurora, makes it easy to make ML-based predictions on relational data, using a video game as a use case. Databases and ML Incorporating an ML algorithm into a software application has traditionally required a lengthy integration process. It typically involves having a data scientist, who selects and trains the model, and in some cases an application developer, who needs to write application code to read data from the database, format it for the ML algorithm, call an ML service such as Amazon SageMaker to run the algorithm, format the output, and retrieve the results back to the application. It can take several days or weeks to build an integration that achieves an application’s scalability requirements, especially if there are low latency requirements measured in milliseconds, which is typical for product recommendations, fraud detection, and many other applications. And after the integration is built, it requires maintenance when updating the ML algorithm or when the input data deviates from the training data. Aurora Machine Learning simplifies the integration process by making ML algorithms available to run via SQL functions directly in the application. After you deploy the algorithm in SageMaker, you can run a SQL query in Aurora, and Aurora does the heavy lifting of efficiently transferring the data to SageMaker, managing input and output formatting, and retrieving the results. In our example, we show how to train a fraud detection model, then deploy it to SageMaker so a software developer with little to no ML expertise can add predictions via SQL statements. Let’s play a game! To demonstrate how we train a fraud detection algorithm and call it from an application via SQL statements, we use a video game use case. Our goal is to find cheaters—players who write bots to play on their behalf or coordinate with other players to gain advantage over legitimate players. Let’s explore which ML models can detect these cheats and how to run the analysis from the customer application using SQL. The scenario that we simulate uses a successful multiplayer game launched in late 2020 on AWS. Although the game is a lot of fun, the customer care team received complaints about players cheating in the game. Our task is to catch these cheats and remove them from the game, so we want to build a cheat detection system that extends the customer care application and provides hints with good efficacy. We assume the customer care application uses an Aurora MySQL database, and we minimize changes to the application by using Aurora MySQL tools. The game we use is SuperTuxKart, a free and open-source kart racing game. Players take actions like collecting and using cans of Nitro. They also use various power-up items obtained by driving into item boxes laid out on the course. These power-ups include mushrooms to give players a speed boost, Koopa shells to be thrown at opponents, and banana peels and fake item boxes that can be laid on the course as hazards. Player actions are defined as a collection of game actions such as kart steer, brake, drift, look back, and more. Cheating allows bots to benefit from power-up items while steering or braking the karts. Our main goal is to classify player behavior and distinguish between human and bot actions. After classifying suspicious player actions, we cross-reference these players with other customer records that are already stored in the application’s database. Key data includes customer care history such as in-game microtransactions and customer care events. Therefore, we train two models. The first identifies bots by classifying player moves, and the second detects suspicious in-game microtransactions.  The data pipeline and schema In our scenario, the game server runs in Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS). The player actions are written to the game server standard output. We used the Fluentbit project to stream the server stdout to Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose. Kinesis Data Firehose stores the player actions in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and we load the data using an AWS Lambda function to an Aurora table called actions. To enable rapid response to cheat activities in the game, we need to minimize the ingestion latency. In our example, we ingest the game events as online transactions. The time it takes to get player actions into Aurora from the time the game action took place is a few minutes and scales horizontally as Kinesis Data Firehose and Lambda scales. The game play actions are defined as the struct Action: struct Action { int p_guid; int m_ticks; int m_kart_id; int m_action; int m_value; int m_value_l; int m_value_r; }; The game server emits player game action logs in near-real time as the game progresses. p_guid is the player unique identifier, m_ticks is a counter that increments upon any player action. m_kart_id is the player kart unique ID. The m_value, m_value_l, and m_value_r fields indicate the action’s magnitude; for example, when a player attempts to slow down abruptly, the brake action carries the max integer 32768. It’s similar for acceleration and kart steering. create table if not exists actions ( id int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, p_guid int, m_ticks int, m_kart_id int, m_action int, m_value int, m_value_l int, m_value_r int, class tinyint, primary key (id) ); To train the cheat detection model, we facilitated hundreds of legitimate multiplayer game sessions and bot simulated game sessions. (One of this post’s authors played many rounds of SuperTuxKart with his 9-year-old son—not a bad way to gain a reputation as a cool dad.) We used the class field to manually classify the game sessions into legitimate and bot sessions. Prior to each game session, we captured the last game sequence ID; after the session, we updated the classified with 1 in the case of a bot simulated session or 0 in the case of a legitimate game session for the sequence of player actions: update actions set class=1 where id>Num and class is null; Formulating the ML problem The next step is to look at legitimate player actions and compare them with non-legitimate player (bot) actions. We used SageMaker Jupyter notebooks to discover trends that distinguish between the two groups. In the following graphs, the X axis is the player ID (id) and the Y axis is the value of the ticks (m_ticks). The red plot shows bot game actions, and the blue plot shows legitimate human player actions. We can see that the bot game action frequency was more consistent than a legitimate human player, which gives us a way to differentiate between the two, as we now discuss. The game simulates a kart’s motions that move at a dynamic acceleration along a non-straight line. We can use fundamental kinematic physics to calculate the average velocity and acceleration changes and train a linear regression-based model that predicts bot or human kart velocity and acceleration. We found that the values of the actions generated by a bot are distributed differently than a human player. We attribute the findings to a naively written bot, and to the behavior of the specific human player level that tends to generate more hectic action values than a bot that knows the right path to take. In the real world, bot writers improve their bots continuously to avoid detection, and we have to continuously refine our detection capabilities. The good news is that the methodology we propose here is not limited to the specific bot implementation, and can indeed be continuously refined. In the following section, we package the SQL statements with MySQL views that calculate the actions’ velocity and acceleration for brevity and demonstration purposes. Let’s first calculate the player actions’ velocity, vel, in a session for bots and humans, using prev.class=curr.class as follows: create or replace view v_actions_m_value_velocity as select id,m_action,m_kart_id,c_v,p_v,(c_v-p_v) vel,c_v_l,p_v_l,(c_v_l-p_v_l) vel_l,c_v_r,p_v_r,(c_v_r-p_v_r) vel_r,party_size,session,class from ( select curr.id,curr.m_action,curr.m_kart_id, curr.m_value c_v,prev.m_value p_v, curr.m_value_l c_v_l,prev.m_value_l p_v_l, curr.m_value_r c_v_r,prev.m_value_r p_v_r, curr.party_size,curr.session,curr.class from actions prev, actions curr where prev.id=curr.id-1 and prev.class=curr.class and curr.m_kart_id=prev.m_kart_id and curr.m_action=prev.m_action and curr.party_size=prev.party_size and curr.session=prev.session and party_size=2 order by curr.m_kart_id,curr.id ) v In this example, we assume a session (curr.session=prev.session) is tagged (bot or human) during the data ingestion to Aurora. We also include moves made by a single player curr.m_kart_id=prev.m_kart_id, same party size (curr.party_size=prev.party_size), and same classification (prev.class=curr.class). We then use the velocity values and calculate the average acceleration, accel, for bots and humans in a similar way, as follows: create or replace view v_actions_m_value_accel as select id,m_action,m_kart_id,c_v,p_v,c_vel,p_vel,(c_vel-p_vel) accel,c_v_l,p_v_l,c_vel_l,p_vel_l,(c_vel_l-p_vel_l) accel_l,c_v_r,p_v_r,c_vel_r,p_vel_r,(c_vel_r-p_vel_r) accel_r,party_size,session,class from ( select curr.id,curr.m_action,curr.m_kart_id, curr.c_v,curr.p_v,curr.vel c_vel,prev.vel p_vel, curr.c_v_l,curr.p_v_l,curr.vel_l c_vel_l, prev.vel_l p_vel_l,curr.c_v_r,curr.p_v_r, curr.vel_r c_vel_r,prev.vel_r p_vel_r, curr.party_size,curr.session,curr.class from v_actions_m_value_velocity prev,v_actions_m_value_velocity curr where prev.id=curr.id-1 and prev.class=curr.class and curr.m_kart_id=prev.m_kart_id and curr.m_action=prev.m_action and curr.party_size=prev.party_size and curr.session=prev.session and curr.party_size=2 order by curr.m_kart_id,curr.id ) v To observe the acceleration and velocity patterns, we populated two DataFrames using the following simple queries: select id,accel,class from v_actions_ticks_accel where class=0 select id,accel,class from v_actions_ticks_accel where class=1 As we discussed earlier, the class column differentiates between bots and humans: class=1 is bot acceleration, class=0 is human acceleration. We can see that the kart average acceleration values accel generated by bots (class=1) scatter across a broader range of values, whereas human game actions (class=0) tend to be extreme. The average acceleration distribution can be used as a logistic function to model the classification binary dependent variable that indicates if an action was made by a bot or a human. Therefore, we use the SageMaker linear learner built-in algorithm to predict human or bot action, and combine this player move model with a separate, in-game transaction fraud detection model for a fuller picture. The cheater detection process We used Aurora as the data source for data exploration in our Jupyter notebook using the MySQL Python client, and also used Aurora to prepare the data for model training. After the model was trained, we hosted it in SageMaker with the endpoint name stk-bot-detect-actions. We defined a function in Aurora that calls the classification model against freshly streamed player data, as in the following code: DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS bot_detect_actions_score; CREATE FUNCTION bot_detect_actions_score( value int,velocity int,accel int, value_l int, velocity_l int,accel_l int, value_r int,velocity_r int,accel_r int, m_action_0 int,m_action_1 int,m_action_2 int, m_action_3 int,m_action_4 int, m_action_5 int, m_action_6 int ) RETURNS varchar(256) alias aws_sagemaker_invoke_endpoint endpoint name 'stk-bot-detect-actions' ; For more information about calling SageMaker endpoints from Aurora, and how the two services work together to simplify ML integration into your applications, see Using machine learning (ML) capabilities with Amazon Aurora. Our model endpoint accepts a player action record in a multi-player session. The record includes the action value, the average velocity, and average acceleration of the player move. The idea is that the call to the model is done via a SQL query triggered by the customer care app. The app queries the MySQL view v_actions_m_value_accel and m_action_encoding. The following query scans unclassified game records (class is null) and assumes that unclassified game events are the latest to be scanned: SELECT bot_detect_actions_score(c_v,c_vel,accel,c_v_l,c_vel_l,accel_l,c_v_r,c_vel_r,accel_r,t2.i_0,t2.i_1,t2.i_2,t2.i_3,t2.i_4,t2.i_5,t2.i_6) as cls FROM v_actions_m_value_accel t1,m_action_encoding t2 WHERE t1.m_action=t2.m_action and class is null The model query returns suspicious player moves as classified by our model, when cls>0. It’s a good starting point for further investigation of these players, but not necessarily the final determination that these are bots. We also use m_action_encoding, which is populated in the notebook after encoding (OneHotEncoding) the m_action values for better model accuracy. A customer care representative could now call other models against these suspicious users to get a more accurate picture. For example, the customer care application might use a player microtransaction classifier or player auth activities using the following MySQL queries: SELECT t.timestamp, t.playerGuid FROM (SELECT timestamp, playerGuid, auth_cheat_score(uagent, day, month, hour, minute, src_ip_encoded) cls FROM auth) AS t WHERE cls>0; SELECT t.timestamp, t.playerGuid FROM (SELECT playerGuid, timestamp, trans_cheat_score(month, day, hour, minute, name_encoded, uagent) cls FROM transactions t) AS t WHERE cls>0; Cheat detection is an ongoing game of cat and mouse between us and the cheaters. As soon as they discover the methods we employ, they’ll surely learn to overcome them. For example, they write bots that produce less predictable player ticks, so the ML problem morphs and requires continuous data exploration. Detecting bots with the players’ actions requires us to look at game session snippets with all their attributes, such as a series of player ticks, activities, and values of a specific player. The supervised algorithms employ a logistic function to model the probability of a bot or a human. We could also explore other model options, such as Naive Bayes or KNN, which are outside the scope of this post. How a customer care operator can use the model Our solution implements a stored procedure that, given a player name, compiles the user’s recent game sessions, queries the model, and updates the classification prediction in the players’ session tables (ticks_session_sample). A customer care application can expose the cheating indications in the player page that a customer service representative can view. The representative could trigger calls to other models for detecting potential fraud, such as credit card or suspicious logins. After the representative is satisfied that the determination (human or bot) is correct, we can add the results into the next training of our ML model. Try it yourself You can try this end-to-end solution, but for those who don’t have time to set up the EKS cluster, deploy the game server, and train the model, we offer a sample dataset that we trained. If you choose to use the sample dataset, skip steps 1, 2, 4, and 5. You can load the file to your Aurora MySQL and train the model as instructed in step 6. Create an EKS cluster with a worker node group. Deploy the game server. Create an Aurora MySQL cluster and allow SageMaker calls from the database. Configure the data pipeline: Enable player network datagrams. Create Kinesis Data Firehose. Deploy FluentBit to stream the player actions to Kinesis Data Firehose. Play the game, a lot! Then play it against bots. Train and deploy the model. Play another game with bot and call the function. Hopefully, you catch the bot! Conclusion ML adoption is a complete process that includes integration into data sources, model training, inference, and continuous updating and refinement. As you build or move your applications to the cloud, make sure to take advantage of the ML services and tools AWS built. We encourage you to read recent announcements about these topics, including several at AWS re:Invent 2020. If you’re not ready to build your own models, you can still work with a data scientist or use the many pre-built models available. About the Authors Yahav Biran is a Solutions Architect in AWS, focused on game tech at scale. Yahav enjoys contributing to open-source projects and publishes in the AWS blog and academic journals. He currently contributes to the K8s Helm community, AWS databases and compute blogs, and Journal of Systems Engineering. He delivers technical presentations at technology events and works with customers to design their applications in the cloud. He received his PhD (Systems Engineering) from Colorado State University.   Yoav Eilat is Senior Product Manager for Amazon RDS and Amazon Aurora. He joined AWS in 2016 after holding product roles for several years at Oracle and other technology companies. At AWS, he managed the launches of Aurora PostgreSQL, Aurora Serverless, Aurora Global Database, and other major features. Yoav currently focuses on new capabilities for the MySQL and PostgreSQL database engines. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/accelerating-your-application-modernization-with-amazon-aurora-machine-learning/

[1upmushrooms]

The First Rebel Chapter 4 (1up Deadfic)

Chapter 4: Prepping for a Road Trip.

That nightmare I had about Koopa felt so real, the crescent moon in the window, the torn up office, that fire, Christ that fire. The only thing I can do is deal with it as it comes. Who's knocking at the door anyway?

The Rebel got up from his coat, apparently having pulled out the pillow and blanket and walked to the door. He opened the door to find Wario with a box filled with thousands of items. Inside it were fuses, little windup legs, wind up keys, gun powder, matches, circle shells with many holes, little gadgets that connected to the wind up key, little caps with holes in them, black, white, and grey paint, some black string and cu-tips. This made the Rebel smile.

"Finally," he said, "I get to do what I love."

"Did I get everything?"

"Yep, everything's here. Now if you excuse me..."

He took the box from Wario, put it on the desk and motioned Wario to leave as he closed the door.

"The manufacturer is at work."

He sat at the desk, and took out a long white sheet. After laying it on the desk, he took out the cu-tips, circle shells, and gun powder. He carefully took a drip of gun powder and put it on the cu-tip. He then took the circle shells apart and started spreading the gun powder with the cu-tip on the shells. For about 4 minutes he did this until all shells were completely full. Then he took out the gadgets and the matches. He quickly assembled each gadget to look like a sort of elaborate match lighter that would raise the match to a hole that lead to a black string which light up to the fuse.

He carefully put the match in the hole where it was supposed to go, doing the same thing to the other gadgets and matches. Then he put each elaborate match lighter into each shell that had the right holes to connect to. He took out the wind up keys and connected each of them with the shells that had the right holes to connect to. He then took each half of a whole shell and carefully combined each half as to not have the gun powder slip out. Now he grabbed the caps and tightly screwed them on the top of the shells. Then he took out the fuses and the wind up legs. He first put the fuses on the caps, making sure they wouldn't fall off. He fit the wind up legs on the bottom part of the shells. Then, he took out the paint and paint brushes. He completely covered the shells in black while adding two bits of white paint for the eyes.

Finally, he put the black string where it was supposed to go while connecting it with the fuse. It was done; he managed to make about 80 of these in about an hour. Opening the door revealed Wario standing right outside, he threw one at him.

"You're a patient man Wario."

"These are nicely done." Wario said, admiring the smoothness of the weapon.

"I learned a few tricks before I got locked away."

"So what did they call these things again?"

The Rebel gave a wicked grin as he said, "B-bomb."

Wario grew a smile himself as the B-bomb was thrown back at the Rebel. Wario then went to deal with things of his own as the Rebel was left to think:

Well, I got the weapons, Wario's got the men, Mona's got the car, and everything is ready. All we have to do is not get caught and we're back in the city. I can't wait to get my hands filled with Koopa's blood. I've waited too long to do such an easy task and nothing's going to stop me!

The Rebel got on his coat, took the papers which he wrote on plus the stuff they bought at the thrift store and headed out the door of his quarters. In the main area he saw Mona aiming the flamethrower at a car while Tyler stood and watched. In about 3 seconds she fired and the flaming fireball hit the car at 100% accuracy. Tyler was then given the weapon.

"And that is how you do it baby," she said while giving his hair a stroke.

The Rebel walked to them after putting the items down.

"What are you teaching him to shoot for?"

"It's not the first time" She said, "I taught him a month ago but when he's going he has to learn how to shoot well."

The Rebel was surprised by this,

"Going," he said, "As in with us?"

"What did you think I meant?" Mona said getting slightly irritated,

"Are you sure that's a smart thing to do?"

"Of course, he's becoming a good shot."

The Rebel walked closer to her, seeing Tyler aiming the flamethrower.

"I'm not sure that he's useful for the trip. He may become a burden, he may even get killed."

"Well he can't stay here, I can't take that risk."

"Ah yes so bringing him into a bigger risk of danger is the smart thing to do."

"What's the matter? Your bleeding heart can't help but not let an innocent boy possibly get murdered?"

The Rebel looked at her, giving her the creeps as he slowly whispered:

"No, I just want to make sure that you're fine with the possibility of having his blood on your hands."

He rubbed her hands with his own as he added:

"Perhaps literally."

That was enough. Mona yanked her hands from the Rebel and gave him a nice punch in the gut.

"You like talking about my kid getting killed?" Her fury was dripping from her mouth that shook along with her body.

"You like getting him killed?" The Rebel spurted as he gasped for air due to that vicious punch.

Mona threw him a scowl as she walked outside the warehouse with the items to put in the car. The Rebel gave a look at Tyler shooting at the car with complete accuracy.

Maybe he's useful after all.

He then walked to Tyler with a little grin.

"So," he said, "You excited?"

Tyler stopped practicing and looked at him.

"I guess so. It's pretty important huh?"

"Yeah, you could say that."

"So what is it really, the trip I mean?" Tyler said while checking out the flamethrower with deep interest.

"It's nothing, just a meeting with your dad's friends."

"And you don't know them do you?"

"Not really, no."

There was a block of silence there until Tyler broke it as he aimed the flamethrower at the car.

"So...you're saying we're screwed."

"Yes, that's probably the outcome here."

Tyler threw the flamethrower at him.

"You better practice then."

The Rebel scoffed, "Me, practice?"

He then aimed the flamethrower at the car. Turning it to the side and with one hand he pulled the trigger. The fireball travelled to the car quickly and lit it up like a house fire. He turned to see a very impressed Tyler.

"Wow." He said, "Where'd you learn how to shoot like that?"

"At my own home when I was 8," He said looking at the damaged car, "So is that all your mother taught you do when in battle?"

Tyler thought for a bit, "No."

The Rebel looked away as he said, "Oh, well what else did she teach you?"

He then heard a noise as he looked back and saw Tyler holding a switch-blade.

"Hand to hand combat too huh? Jesus, your mom's not wasting time."

"Who's Jesus? Another one of your friends?"

"Umm," The Rebel gave out a chuckle as he said, "Never mind."

"Well anyway, Mom's been helping prepare for the trip."

The Rebel dropped the flamethrower.

"Well, with trips like these, you can hardly blame her."

"Can you help me practice?"

The Rebel stood there, watching Tyler twirl the blade around.

"Sure, if you want me to."

Tyler then ran forward as the Rebel grabbed his hand with the switch blade and twisted it though not to the point where it'd him. However, Tyler pulled out another switch blade and swung around. The Rebel however was on his guard as he grabbed the other hand. He then began twisting both hands but Tyler escaped with a nice kick in the soft spot. Falling to the ground, The Rebel released both hands and then whacked a switch blade out of one. Tyler tried to get it back but by the time he reached for it, The Rebel already had it.

Both blades clanged as the two went at it for about two minutes. Tyler then punched the Rebel and almost stabbed him, stopping at his chest. They both couldn't stop breathing, or sweating for that matter. Tyler let him get up as he took both switch blades and put them in his pocket.

"Well, I think you're ready." Tyler said,

"Yeah, hey, have you ever used a B-bomb before?"

Tyler shook his hand. The Rebel got one out and wound up the key. Soon, the fuse lit and he raised it with his left arm aiming it at the car. When the fuse was almost out he threw it at the car, the bomb landed in the window. In a matter of seconds the car exploded with great force as he and Tyler hid in another room. When they went back they found the car in half, one side was on the left and the other was on the right and both were on fire. They both got a bucket and filled it with water. After a couple of minutes the fire decreased.

"That was awesome," Tyler said.

"If you think that was awesome you should have seen what happens when you turn it all the way."

"QUIT SCREWING AROUND," Wario screamed, "COME ON LET'S GO!"

You don't need to shout. It seems Tyler's more trained for combat than I thought. Then again these are Wario's friends and he's been known to hang around with the incredibly dangerous. It could be worse though.

Outside was the old car that Mona drove to get here. It was an average looking car that had a trunk filled with supplies. The windows were cracked; the passenger door was severely dented, and from what The Rebel could tell the brakes were almost off. He got in the passenger seat with Wario and Mona as Wario turned the car on. Tyler slept in the back, stretching across the four foot seat while resting his head on the inside of the door. Soon after 5 minutes the car was already out of Petals-Burg and headed into the next town. When they approached this town called "New Hope", Wario parked the car next to the sidewalk and got out. Mona followed as the Rebel got out of the passenger door.

"Should we wake the kid up?" He asked Wario,

"Nah, this won't take long. It's just a little meeting."

The Rebel looked at Mona but she ignored his glare. The place where the meeting was held was an old diner that looked like it forgot it wasn't in the 1950's. It was called "The Classic Eatery" and it barely had any customers. When they walked in they found the place, to be mostly deserted. The only customers there were a group of three at the far back. Two of them wore masks and held flamethrowers while the one in the middle just sat there, laying his back on the chair while smoking a cigarette.

His red jacket had more colour than Wario's hat and his white pants were whiter than his own teeth. His face had that "I don't care what the hell you say to me" look to it as his white glasses only reinforced the fact that this guy was intimidating. He motioned them to come over to where he was as he took a long drag from his cigarette. Wario was the first to walk over as he shook the man's hand.

"How are you Jimmy?" He said with a grin,

Jimmy flicked his cigarette into an astray and got out another.

"Good," he said, "I've had better days but I'm good."

-------------------------------------------------

Author’s Note: So for starters, there’s this minor detail about the crescent moon showing up in last chapter’s dream. At this time, I was fixated with Disney’s Alice in Wonderland and the one visual that stuck out to me was the crescent moon that eventually turned out the disembodied grin of the Chesire Cat. I then thought “This world is supposed to be a rather insane one, practically run by madness. Wouldn’t it be cool to have the crescent moon be a visual reference to this. As if it’s a sign that says: “We’re all mad here”. Of course now, the idea doesn’t seem as brilliant as it used to but hey, it’s interesting trivia.

After that, we get to see a big clue (the first clue since I think the second chapter) that the Rebel’s more than just a pissed off ex-worker who’ a jerk at times and may be more sinister than we initially thought. Yeah, there’s anti-heroes and all, but this seems to be goingway beyond that.

We then get to see how this fic’s version of the Bob-Omb’s work, with a huge load of detail....that probably wasn’t necessary but hey, I was on a groove at the time and thought “hey, wouldn’t it be cool to show someone making a Bob-Omb?”

We also get to see more bonding between the Rebel and Tyler with demonstration of the weapons the group have collected and a switch blade battle...that’s a bit ridiculous now that I read it again but I don’t think it’s too bad.

And finally, we see that Mona wasn’t the only Warioware character that came to this universe. But we’ll save that for a later time. ;)