#custom painted game console

[theconstellarium]

Does anybody here like pretty, customized old-school game consoles??

I did this last year & I'm still kinda proud of it.

[little-artworks]

Hi hello I'm back with another thing I did!

[molluskmirage]

if you dont watch bad’s pov, the eggs might seem to survive by magic, someone took care of it its fine. Bbh took care of it. It wasnt magic it was him. Bad would spend hours every. Single. Day. To make sure all eggs were safe.

the bbh residence is always filled with eggs. All eggs have access, and some come when they need help and others come just for a good time. Did you know bad was building a custom dungeon just for chayanne? That Tallulah would spend hours confiding in him and Bad would spend hours consoling her? Did you know Leo would teach Bad spanish and her last sign on quesadillas island was “I love you tio Bad”. Did you know that pomme asked her parents if Bad could adopt her and bad then asked if it was alright as well, then formally adopted her? Did you know Richas would hang out every night after his parents went to bed, draw and make jokes? The painting of cellbit, and the painting of the eggs walking together were all painted at or with Bad. Did you know that Ramon has a secret ender pearl room at Bads to keep him safe? Did you know he and Dapper are bff’s irl and in game are so cute and funny together, Did you know they would build create machines in the yard together?

bad would never win if all the eggs die but dapper. Bad is so attached to every egg he hasnt left the server. He’s provided every egg with multiple armor sets to keep them safe. He’s the last to leave each grave and returns each birthday to sing to them and share gifts.

bad maybe a menace to other players because he cant face his feelings but the one thing he holds sacred is the eggs, he’s always genuine and doing anything And everything he can to support them, even if it harms him. He loves the eggs.

[gravitycircuit]

Patch 1.1.0 is out -- NOW ON STEAM! Just in time for the holidays! Other PC platforms (EGS, GOG, Stove) will follow in due time. However, due to various development circumstances, we could not get this new patch ready for console porting in time before the holidays. We will inform you more later when we are better aware of the release timeline for consoles - so we ask for your patience.

Without further ado though, here are the Patch Notes for Gravity Circuit 1.1.0:

New features

Boss Rush: Guardian Corps HQ now features Combat Memory Bank, a computer which lets you refight any of the game's bosses at your leisure. Good for practice, or for chasing record times!

Armor paints: Prim, a painter NPC that hangs around in the Guardian Corps HQ, now offers swappable armor paints, allowing further customization! These armor paints each bestow new abilities or effects, so give them all a try! Prim will explain to you how to unlock the paints to her shop.

Quality of life additions

Loadout swap: A dedicated button for quickly swapping loadouts on the fly. During gameplay any unset or empty loadouts are skipped when the button is pressed, so you can choose to use only two loadout slots, or all three.

Slide: A dedicated button has been added for sliding. Down and jump will still continue to work, but this button may be useful for those who need it.

Hookshot - vertical: A dedicated button that locks the hookshot's aim only to upwards vertical directions. This may help with any platforming involving the hookshot, for those who might need it.

Mouse control mapping: You can now map mouse buttons on PC, in addition to keyboard keys.

Effect Timer: An additional toggle setting has been added to the game's system options menu. This toggle adds on-screen visuals for certain effect durations, removing ambiguity. This setting is enabled by default, but can be toggled off at any time.

Burst techniques

Cycle Kick: In-game shop price reduced from 2000 to 1500.

Surface Render: In-game shop price reduced from 2000 to 1500.

Gravity Freeze: Affected area increased, damage slightly increased.

Piercing Drill: The chain portion now also damages enemies, not just the tip, making the technique easier to use effectively.

Flying Strike: Fixed an issue involving the Speedrun Mode, where it was possible to accidentally skip acquiring the technique by saving and quitting during the Opening Stage (Central Station). It was still possible to buy the technique, but Flying Strike is intended to be given to the player for free.

Gameplay

Pass-through platforms: Kai can now gain sprinting speed by holding the run button (or having "inverse" run button behavior enabled) when dropping through pass-through platforms.

Sprint jumping when hugging walls: Previously, if Kai was hugging a wall while grounded (holding left/right while up against a wall), Kai would be unable to gain sprinting speed when the run button was held (or having "inverse" run button behavior enabled) when jumping. This behavior has been fixed.

Hopkick: Kai's hopkick (up+attack while grounded) has been sped up by a few frames based on player feedback.

Telefragging: When Kai is struck by a hazard (lava, spikes, crushing), Kai will perform an Emergency Warp to last safe ground. Because this behavior could sometimes lead to Kai respawning inside an enemy, Kai now automatically defeats any enemy around him.

Data chips

"NPC" type data chips: Research cost reduced from 150 to 100.

Stage changes

Highway: Fixed an issue where it was possible to skip over the stage's checkpoints with certain actions.

Ore Mines: Fixed a certain area not having correct camera triggers when entering it in a specific way.

Guardian Corps HQ (visuals): Additional sign has been added to hint towards the location of the training facilities.

Guardian Corps HQ (design): Additional platforms added to make reaching the Training Room easier.

Guardian Corps HQ (training room): When Dave the Training Dummy is hit, the Training Room door will be inoperable for a few seconds. This is to prevent players from accidentally exiting the room while performing combos.

Guardian Corps HQ (NPCs): "Prim" and "Shock" NPCs have switched places. Their dialogue has been adjusted slightly to match these changes.

Final stage: Additional respawn points added in a certain section.

Localization

Chinese: A certain scene had an issue where the talking characters were accidentally reversed, and there were other issues involving few untranslated words. This has been fixed.

English: Fixed a slight typo in Pat's dialogue.

Misc

macOS: Loading times improved by changing some code, that made some of the game's threads run slower on systems with M1 chips.

Speedrun Mode: If the in-game timer is enabled from the game's system settings, Speedrun Mode is enabled by default when launching the game (if Speedrun Mode has been unlocked). This is so that speedrunners do not need to remember to toggle this setting every time they launch the game.

General code performance: Slight improvements across the board in various places, that cumulatively help the game run more smoothly on lower end hardware.

[juette]

a comprehensive guide to custom villagers

when making my custom villager it was very difficult to find good tutorials as many of them would point to deleted pages or only cover things i already knew, so i have decided to make my own complete tutorial. please let me know if you need any aditional help! i will try my best to keep this tutorial up to date and clarify it if needed.

it's important to note that these villagers will NOT show up in online play and dream towns. since only your game is edited, other players will see whichever villager you've replaced instead of the one you've made unless they also mod their game.

first things first, you will need a hacked 3ds with luma3ds and an SD card for this. you can probably play in citra, but i dont really know how using mods in citra works so i will focus on luma3ds for this tutorial.

if you haven't hacked your 3ds yet, do not follow a video tutorial: they can become outdated very easily with no indication of it and following outdated guides makes it a lot more likely that you'll brick your console. follow the guide on 3ds.hacks.guide instead.

other software you will need:

hackingtoolkit9ds to decrypt and unpack the rom

kukkii to extract the textures and put them back in

a drawing software (can be anything, even mspaint) to edit the textures

blender or another 3d editing software to preview what you're doing

010 editor to edit the bin and .umsbt files

step 1: getting a rom

if you're simply downloading the rom online, you may skip this step.

for those who wish to dump the rom from their console, you must first turn it on while pressing the START button to enter godmode9's menu. click the HOME button to see more options, then select "Title manager", then select where you've installed the title (SD card or the console itself). a list of all your installed games will appear. scroll down to Animal Crossing New Leaf or Happy Home Designer depending on which game you want your villager to be injected into.

once you've chosen the game, select "Manage title..." and choose either "Build CIA (standard)" or "Dump CXI/NDS file". you may then shut down the console and insert the SD card into your computer. the rom will be in the folder \gm9\out on the root of your SD card

step 2: decrypting/unpacking the rom

drag and drop your rom to the "PackHack" folder that hackingtoolkit9ds is in. rename it so that it doesn't contain any spaces or special characters.

open up hackingtoolkit9ds and type either CE (for .cia roms) or CXI (for .cxi files) in the window that appears depending on the format of your rom. it will ask you to write the name of your file without the extension. type it and press enter and wait for it to do its thing.

step 3: making your textures!

you'll find your extracted villager models in the folder \ExtractedRomFS\Npc\Normal\Model

the first three letters in each .bcres file name represent the species. open up one of the files of the species you want to make yoir villager be. it doesn't have to be the file of the specific villager you want to replace as we can rename it later, but do be careful that certain villagers have slightly different models than the rest of their species (tucker having tusks or étoile having hairpins, for example)

since i wanted to make an elephant with tusks, i've picked tucker as my base. he uses model elp09.bcres

click the "Batch export PNG" button and choose the folder you want the textures to go in. you may then edit them as you wish. your textures do not need to be semi-transparent like the extracted textures are.

i like seeing the way things look as i work, so i get a copy of the model as a .dae file to open it in blender. you may get those from models-resource.com or you may extract them yourself using ohana 3ds rebirth, though ohana can be a bit unreliable at times. blender's "texture paint" tab also allows you to draw directly on the model, though i don't find it precise enough to my taste so i mostly use it to lay guidelines for me to draw over.

once you're satisfied with your model, make sure to draw the different expressions as well.

eyes 0: neutral

eyes 1: half-blink

eyes 2: blink

eyes 3: angry

eyes 4: sad

eyes 5: happy closed (think ^_^)

eyes 6: surprised

eyes 7: >_< face

mouth 0: neutral/smile

mouth 1: half-open

mouth 2: fully open

mouth 3: frown

mouth 4: half-open frown

mouth 5: fully open frown

you do not have to follow those expressions exactly: for example, being a plush elephant, tusker's mouth moves up and down as he speaks instead of opening and closing.

once everything is done, open the .bcres file in kukkii again and import all of your textures in the right slot (i've found the mass import button does not work for me), then save the file.

step 4: editing names and catchphrases

note: if the villager you are replacing is already in your town, editing the catchphrase in the game's files will NOT change it in-game. similarly, if you are putting the villager in your town with marc robledo's save editor, they will have the catchphrase of the villager you've replaced unless you change it in the save editor yourself.

editing a villager's name or default catchphrase is quite simple, but the new name/catchphrase cannot be longer than the old one. if it is, it will mess up the names and default catchphrases of all the following villagers in the game files.

since you can edit the villager's personality in the game files, simply pick a villager with a long enough name and the right gender. you may also look at the villagers' favourite colors and styles on nookipedia to find one that most closely resembles the villager you wish to make.

since i want tusker to have the sisterly personality, i looked at all the sisterly villagers and i found that pashmina's tastes were close enough, so this is who tusker will be replacing. since her id is goa08, tusker's model needs to be renamed to goa08.bcres

you will find villager names in \ExtractedRomFS\Script\Str\STR_NNpc_name.umsbt and \ExtractedRomFS\Script\Str\STR_NNpc_name_ASR.umsbt

scroll down until you find the name of the villager you wish to replace and change it. the dots between each letter are NOT periods! make sure not to delete them. if you do delete one, or if the villager you're replacing has too many letters in its name, you can copy a dot from another name and paste it between the letters or in place of the extra letters.

catchphrases are found in \ExtractedRomFS\Script\Str\STR_NNpc_habit.umsbt

step 5: editing birthdays, species and personalities

you may skip this step if you only wanted to edit the villager's name.

first, download this template.

then, open up \ExtractedRomFS\Npc\Normal\ConstPack.bin in 010 editor and click View -> Line Width -> Custom Width... and enter a value of 34 to make all the villager IDs align.

next, click Templates -> Run Template and select the template we've downloaded. a list will appear at the bottom of the window. scroll through it until you reach the villager you wish to edit, (it will be highlighted in the top half of the window) mine being goa08.

clicking the arrow to the left of struct VillagerConst will reveal a list of all the data this line contains. i will show you how to change birthday, species and personality.

the page we downloaded the template on shows a list of "cases" for each field . for example, for the species field, we want tusker to be an elephant, which is case 0x01 on the page. we will thus type 0x01 in the u8 Species field of 010 editor. the same thing goes for the u8 Personality field. sisterly is 7.

the birth month and day simply require the date. tusker's birthday is may 1st, so i typed 1 in the u8 BirthDay field and 5 in the u8 BirthMonth field. leave everything else alone.

step 6: putting them in the game

luma3ds makes it really easy to put your villagers into the game as long as you pay attention to the folder structure of the original rom.

on the root of your sd card, there should be a folder named luma, and within it a folder named titles (if there isn't, you can create it.)

within that folder, create a folder named with the title ID of your animal crossing game. that title ID will depend on the region of your game.

you can then create a folder named romfs in which you will place your mod files while respecting the path of theoriginal files. for example, the path for the models will be \luma\titles\<game title ID>\romfs\Npc\Normal\Model

when all the files are in place, pop your sd card back into your 3ds and open the game. if the villager isn't in your town, use wisp and an amiibo card (or wumiibo) to see if they show up properly.

and that's it! enjoy your new villagers <3 feel free to tag me in your custom villagers, i'd love to see what you make!

did you find this tutorial helpful? you can buy me a ko-fi as thanks!

[joojconverts]

  4t3 Conversion from Lilis-Palace’s INTARSIA | Biedermeier 

A 4t3 conversion from a beautiful early XIXth century set, inspired by the “Biedermeier” period, now to ts3! I took my time converting this one lol, so I think I did a good job, considering my focus is CAS! A tooon of presets and stuff to say, so please read all if possible! Hope you like the set! Enjoy! <3

Also it took me so long to figure out how to make these gifs it’s kinda embarrassing lol

————— —————

Known Problems:

Not exactly a problem, but more of a disclaimer/workaround: As you probably know, wallpapers don’t have the presets system objects have in the game. At least not in the catalog, because they turned into individual wallpapers in it, and kinda creates a mess. So my workaround is, if you don’t want to scroll a lot and want it to be more organized: choose the kind of wallpaper you want (regular one or the one with wainscoting) and choose any of its presets on the catalog. Put it on the wall, and then pick the CASt tool (R) and click on it again. On the little presets window at the top left, you’ll see all of them, now organized! Sorry for the inconvenience, but there’s nothing I can do if I wanted to keep the customization!

The table and the desks will clip with the sims’ feet because of their designs! Sorry, but nothing I can  really do about it without changing the entire mesh + also happens in ts4, so...

Also the secretaire’s desk doesn’t work well with computers, because they will clip with its drawers! Again, nothing I can really do about + also happens in ts4!

The table mirror is not fully functional, since we don’t have that in the actual game! I say not fully because you can in fact use it when it’s on the ground, but not when it’s above a surface. But come on, no one will put a TABLE mirror on the ground lol. Sorry!

Also the dresser’s drawer is not animated because I wasn’t able to make it work, so the sim will just push the air lol. I’m so sorry but to make it work I’d need to do some mesh job I’m still not able to do!! Other than that, it works fine!

————— —————

ALL OG CREDITS GO TO @lilis-palace​​! THEY’RE NOT MY MESHES, AND THEY’RE NOT MY TEXTURES, I JUST CONVERTED THEM TO THE SIMS 3! AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PROVIDING THE PSD FILES FOR THIS SET! <3

————— —————

THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE DOWNLOADING:

All the items are functional, apart from the deco clock and the wallpapers, that is! They’re all found where they are supposed to be (for example: tiled stove > fireplaces, portraits > paintings and posters) and they have fair prices, not too expensive, not too cheap!

Both kinds of wallpapers have the majority of the presets as overlay textures, but in all of them the top white decoration and the little wood trim at the bottom (or wainscoting) are recolorable! There are three presets which are completely recolorable tho, as seen in the gifs!

All the surfaces and items which have some additional space for decorations (dresser, tiled stove, console, pedestal, both desks, and table) have a LOT of slots! Most have 30-40, but the secretaire’s desk has 50+! They support small and medium decorations, with full rotation! All to have more customization! I hope you find that useful!

The portrait has a lot of presets, as seen in the preview gif! The border is recolorable in all of them (1 channel)! I’m so happy I was able to put all of them in the game (and even more impressed tsrw let me do so).

The chair also has some presets with their respective masks, with an additional solid preset for you to put any pattern or material you want on it!

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SimFileShare |  Dropbox

Update 08/04/22: Fixed issues with some slots in the Women’s desk, the pedestal, and the console. The items on them would reset and disappear after exiting and loading your game again. Please redownload!

💖 buy me a coffee or become a patron!

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Credits and Special Thanks:

Lilis-Palace for the meshes and textures + PSDs

@katsujiiccfinds​​​ @emilyccfinds​​​ @sssvitlanz​​​  @xto3conversionsfinds​​

[thesims4blogger]

The Sims 4: New Game Patch (August 3rd, 2023)

Maxis has just released a new patch for The Sims 4 fixing bugs found on its latest expansion pack, Horse Ranch.

If you have auto updates enabled in Origin’s “Application Settings”, the game will auto-update once you open Origin. If you have auto-updates disabled, you will need to manually update by clicking the game in your library.Advertisement

Your game should now read: PC: 1.99.305.1020 / Mac: 1.99.305.1220 / Console: Version 1.79.21

Howdy, Simmers! We hope you’re having yourself a rootin’ tootin’ good summer (or winter for our friends in the Southern Hemisphere)! The crew has been super excited for The Sims 4 Horse Ranch Expansion Pack finally to be out in the world and we have loved seeing y’all’s fantastic Horses and homesteads! One teammate was telling us about a young stallion she had growing up named Starbuck. He was feisty and seemed a bit wild to some folks. However defiant Starbuck seemed to be, though, our teammate shared a special bond with him that was unmatched (despite him being more than happy to take an apple from anybody!). We hope you create your own special bonds with your Horses in the game! We have a few ranch maintenance notes to share, so kick up your boots and settle in. –     SimGuruJoAnna

Bug Fixes

Base Game

The female outfit with a foldover sweater (yfBody_EF18LongPant_RedandWhite) now keeps its hands to itself when the camera is far away.

Circular Roofs once again haveshingles that lay properly.

L-shaped stairs that are two or more tiles wide no longer have a misplaced triangular section on the side.

Floor and Ceiling Pattern names have been updated since they now apply to both. Try them out for Painted Ceilings if you have not already!

Lessons about camera controls now have images that include the updated “Free Camera.” If you haven’t tried it out yet, use it to check out Ceilings that you now can customize!

Growing Together

The “Screen Smarts” Moodlet that children get for watching the Brainchild Learning television channel now has text in all languages.

Horse Ranch

Live Mode

Dazed newborn Foals that are fed an Age-Up Treat now become adults who maintain their “Horseness” when going on rides so they don’t walk upright like Sims.

 Sims occasionally were stuck staring into space while starting activities such as eating or cooking. It turns out this was a possible side effect of going home from another location via “Ride Home”. Well, no longer! Sims now can enjoy their post-ride meal.

Sims on Horseback who select a “Community Job” from the Ranch Community Board now remain mounted in most cases when heading to the Job.

For new games inChestnut Ridge, Emily now only recommends affordable starter lots.

The Welcome Wagon no longer sometimes overstays its welcome because nothing says ‘Welcome to the Neighborhood’ like a bladder mishap on the porch.

“Ask About The Community” on aChestnut Ridge resident now consistently shows the neighborhoodRanch Community Board when selecting “View Board.”

Horses that are uncomfortable now shake their head less frequently while trotting or cantering. To learn more about how a Horse is feeling, just hover the cursor over the Horse or ask an unhappy Horse “What’s Wrong?”

Horses move more naturally while walking, trotting, and cantering.

Horses runningaround for Fun now run in more direct paths and avoid running through Gates.

Horses now are less likely to loop through Gates.

When engaging camera auto-follow on the active Sim who is riding on a lot with walls set to “Medium” or “Tall,” the rider now remains firmly mounted instead of skyrocketing above the world. Sims are better off exploring worlds from the relative safety of the saddle!

Sims keep their hands on the reins when their Horse moves on his or her own.

Sims making Nectar no longer freeze up when another Sim uses certain greetings with them or when making jokes about Body Hair. It’s just a neighborly hello with jokes on hold until after the Nectar is made!

The Mysterious Rancher now pays the full amount of Simoleons when a Sim sells multiple bottles of Nectar at once.

Selecting “Hire a Ranch Hand” on a Ranch Community Board and then switching to a Child now shows the initial Sim’s phone interface after selecting “Call to Hire Ranch Hand.”

Horse Training options that the Sim cannot afford now have a tooltip that correctly states the Sim’s name.

Sims who are not Father Winter no longer travel to locations such as the Equestrian Center via fireplaces. Chimney transportation is reserved!

Sims now can enter only one Horse Competition at a time. This prevents Horses from sometimes getting confused and staying in the Equestrian Center.

Sims who lose an Elder Horse friend or acquaintance to death or who witness one passing now have a “Mourning Horse” Moodlet. Rest in peace, noble steed.

On Horse Jumps, “Practice Advanced Jumps” now kicks up dust from the ground properly when the Horse knocks off the top rail.

When selling many Mini Goats or Mini Sheep in rapid succession, the chance of one being left behind and i n v i s i b l e is lower now. If you encounter this, “Save” and “Reload” to resolve the issue.

Lots you can visit no longer have the “Place Animal…” interaction.

“Sniff” and “Nuzzle” interactions with Foals and Adult Horses no longer occasionally contort the Sim’s arms.

Manure/poop is more performant at the gameplay engine level. You heard that right – we “polished” this fertilizer powerhouse.

Horses in locked, enclosed spaces or who otherwise cannot get to the edge of the lot now can be sold successfully.

Build Mode

Rust’n Chic Table Lamp now can live a life independent of walls. It now slots onto the typical horizontal surfaces rather than snapping to walls.

Paddock Fencing and Sturdy Ranch Fencing now can be built withrounded corners.

Rancher’s Dream Window’s black design now is fully black.

Cormac Pine End Table’s white design now has a white swatch.

Create a Sim

Selecting a premade shape for a Horse’s head now preserves the Mane and Tail Color and any Feathers. Did you know in real life that the Arabian’s concave head profile is described as “dish”-shaped and muzzles (noses) with a convex profile are called a “Roman nose”?

Horses now are fully visible after undoing accessories while the “Coat Color & Pattern” section is still highlighted. No i n v i s i b l e Horses here!

Premade face shapes for Sims were missing for games that had Horse Ranch and not Werewolves. They’re back now!

“Plan Outfits” for Foals now includes Mane and Forelock selection.

Foals now have better framing in the Gallery. Who can resist that cute face??

The English riding outfit (ymBody_EP14RidingDressage_LogoBlueLt) now shows up with the “Feminine” filter.

The fringejacket (yfTop_EP14JacketFringed_SolidBrown) now tucks into bottoms properly.

The “Jumpsuits” category for the “Masculine” filter no longer includes a few errant tops.

The “Boomtown Maverick” Styled Look no longer has two errant color swatches.

[terrainofheartfelt]

FOR THE ASK GAME!!!!

dair + adrenaline kiss

serenate + good morning kiss

aw Stars I could never say no to you 🩷

✨Serenate + 1 …good morning.✨

Dair + 22…in a rush of adrenaline.

The church has an industrial sized kitchen, and an industrial sized loading dock to go with it, meaning a New York City alleyway big enough to drive through. 

So, Blair slips out through a side door into the alley, just as Dan pulls up driving the tastefully decorated Rolls Royce Louis picked out from a fleet of classic car selections.  

Dan reaches across to open the passenger side door, shoving it open, leaving her to wrangle her petticoats into the front seat. 

She shuts the door once she’s certain no custom made tulle will get caught in it. Perhaps it would have made more sense to just climb in the back. 

She glances at Dan, and the pure ridiculousness of the whole situation hits her. There’s a prince waiting at the end of an aisle for her. And yet, she’s in a car with Dan Humphrey. Because she wants to be. 

But did Dan really have to pick the car with Just Married painted on the back windshield?

“This was the only car with the keys in it,” he blurts out, like he can read her mind. 

Dan. Perfect attendance Dan, Dan who prosecutes every rule in the Scrabble dictionary, car jacked to get her out of here. 

She’s not sure her heart has stopped pounding in the last hour. She feels energized enough to lift this car over her head.  

“Blair?” Dan asks gently. “Are you sure about this?”

She swivels around to see him staring back at her, and she’s suddenly never felt so sure about anything in her life. 

She launches herself over the center console, clutching Dan’s lapels in her hands to haul him to her, like she did the first time. That kiss had been a question. This one is an answer. 

Dan makes a startled noise in the back of his throat, but doesn’t hesitate to kiss her back, his hands coming up to cup her face like he’s been waiting for her. 

She breaks away with a gasp, Dan breathing just as heavily, the thud of his pulse tangible under his morning coat. “Drive the car.”

He nods, dazed, then lets go of her to grab the gearshift.

[tailing-sun]

The Transfer Seven (Rainbow High OCs) Bio 5: Renzo Cárdenas

COLOUR: Electric blue

YEAR: Third

GENDER: Male (cis)

FOCUS: Digital Media & Graphic Design

STYLE: Daring. Flashy. Cyber.

QUOTE: “Be the hero of your own adventure.”

BIO: You wouldn’t know it at first glance, what with his slick, ultra-modern sense of fashion and his charisma and confidence, but Renzo is proud to be a geek. He’s been a tech fiend since he was a little kid, and as technology evolves Renzo makes sure to change with it so he’s never out-of-touch. Before his junior year, he was noticed by Rainbow High after one of his indie games won Best In Design in a major online contest. Now learning the skills he needs to start his dream graphics company, his geek pride has only increased. His coolest outfits are inspired by those of video game characters and he even cosplays at school events. He also loves to experiment in designing controllers and consoles, so whenever a fellow gamer wants a new custom fit for their setup, Renzo’s the guy to call.

OTHER:

-He was born in Spain and is 16.

-He’s made up nicknames for the other transfers (“Prima Donna” or “Prima Vera” for Vera, “the Mermaid” for Coral, “SiSi” for Sienna, “Peps” for Pepper, “Mad Hatter” for Aubrey, and “Mags” for Magnolia).

-His fashion sense is inspired by the cyberpunk subculture and old sci-fi movies. Tight spandex in bright colours all the way down, radical shades, and accents so neon blue they glow in the dark.

-The social butterfly of the Transfer Seven, Renzo regularly hosts video game-related hangouts and tournaments at the end of each midterm for students to face each other in fighting games, racing games, party games, etc.

-He loves all kinds of games, from beat ‘em up to RPG, console to PC, triple A to indie, but his favourite type of games are VR.

-The game he designed that landed him a spot at Rainbow High was a racing game called FormulaOne VR.

-He has ADHD, with heavy emphasis on the “hyperactive” part.

-Likes to paint his nails, but can only ever do one at a time before he gets distracted by something else.

-He has a crush on Brianna Dulce.

-He’s part of a healthy gaming rivalry with Zooey Electra and Pinkie James from Shadow High.

-In terms of music, he loves speed rave.

-When texting, expect him to bombard you with memes. (Thanks @sunshine7eyes )

[ladyfly]

Time For A Change

You hated it. With every fiber of your being you hated it. It was like an affront to everything you loved about Sun and Moon. You had to wait though. A surprise is not a surprise if everyone knows.

Your chance arrived sooner than you thought. Months of planning and prepping were about to come to fruition. Sun and Moon had a major upgrade. Stars aligned! You got to know about it a month in advance!

Sun and Moon were upset when you told them you couldn't go with them today. You had said you had too much paperwork to do. They understood really they did. That didn't mean they had to like it. They felt you were overworked.

Calling the custom furniture store to have the bed, mattress, and other furnishings delivered was easy. So was calling the moving company. Once management learned you paid for everything they let the workers in with no fuss.

Cleaning the shit hole glorified storage closet was easy. You made the tunnel between rooms bigger. One room was painted to look like the painting starry night. Moon really liked that one.

The other was painted to look like Venice - Grand Canal by Leonid Afremov. A painting Sun liked. He said he wanted to visit someday. This will have to do for now.

As each set of workers arrived you helped out where you could. It was 6pm when the last of the workers left. It was up to you to arrange everything sans the rug and bed.

The first room you enter from the daycare is set up as a game room with a TV and consoles. The second room was the bedroom. You had to pay extra for them to set the bed up in the other room. Worth it though.

You were so tired when you were done. A short nap wouldn't hurt. You laid down on the bed to rest a little bit. Just a little bit. Too bad a little bit really meant two hours.

Sun and Moon returned to the daycare. You were not at the security desk. Curious. They couldn't hear anything either. You must be up in the tower. They called their wires down and took off to the tower.

They entered the first room and gasped. It was clean! There are two bookshelves filled with their things and space for more. A plush black rug sat on the floor. A blue couch on top.

The walls are painted like Sun's favorite painting. A TV hangs on the wall. A blueray player, consoles, and games sit beneath it in an entertainment center.

Sun was confused "What? Why? Who?"

Moon Laughed weakly "Do you really have to ask? Y/n."

Sun and Moon explored the room taking everything in. Clearly you had worked hard.

Moon spotted the tunnel first "Is... Is that larger?"

Sun nodded "Yeah... it is."

They comfortably crawled through the tunnel. The first thing that caught their attention was the clean floor. All the pillows, blankets, and stuffies were in neat little piles. The walls were painted like Moon's favorite painting.

Several bags of glow in the dark stars and planets are neatly arranged on a desk in a corner of the room. A comfortable chair sits at the desk. Three beanbag chairs dot the room. The arcade cabinet has a stool in front of it.

A strip of RBG lights light the room up in a soft red glow. A large bed big enough to fit them sat against the far wall. The bed sheets are black with a red plush Sherpa blanket. Soft and warm.

In the center of the bed is you. A single packing peanut stuck to your hair. Sun pulls it off with a soft laugh. Moon quietly crawls onto the bed behind you. He motioned for Sun to join him. They spend the night cuddling you close to them.

[debaroohoo]

So I'm buying a house. Like. A whole dang house. As someone who's pretty terrible at being an adult, this process is terrifying. I keep going back and forth between being excited and wondering what the hell I think I'm doing. In an effort (probably in vain) to keep my brain focused on the latter, I'm making a list. All pros, no cons since I don't need that in my life right now.

Hopefully no more very brief power blips at the start of minor storms that like to happen when I'm in the middle of playing a video game. This actually happened earlier and what prompted me to start typing this up as I waited for my internet connection to come back.

No more sharing a wall with a guy who likes to crank up his music for a couple hours each night. Headphones are useless, my brain knows it's there, so it seeks out the annoyance against my wishes.

No more sharing a…floor? with people who like to yell at their barking dog and crying child to shut up.

I'll finally have a bathroom (2 bathrooms!) that hasn't been used by strangers. Removing the sliding shower door and cleaning the questionable crud on the bottom a few years ago nearly made me throw up three times (that is not an exaggeration) and I've never felt truly clean since then.

No more living right next to the county fairgrounds. Hearing cows and sheep and roosters once or twice a year is kinda fun. Concerts so loud that the noise makes my walls and windows shake, not so much.

More room for activities!! And storage. Really looking forward to the storage and having more shelving so I don't have to keep any of my favorite junk hidden away in boxes.

A better kitchen! There are some recipes I haven't tried in a while (or never tried at all) since I don't have enough storage space (see above) to keep various cooking gear on hand.

A GARAGE!!!!!! My poor car hasn't had a roof over it's head for most of its life and I'm tired of how filthy it gets. The headlights have so much built up gunk on them I haven't bothered trying to clean since being outdoors 24/7 means it'd probably get bad again eventually. I'm weirdly looking forward to cleaning those and wonder if there'll be a noticeable difference in the light quality.

No more lugging groceries up the stairs. The garage leads right into the kitchen plus I won't have to shut the back hatch between trips if I can't carry everything in one go since I'm paranoid someone might try something funny in the few seconds my car would be out of my sight. Plus, I won't have to worry about wasps trying to build a nest in the door cracks. ...Hopefully.

Garbage and recycling pick up! I'm mainly happy that I won't have to take my recycling to a drop off center anymore. I tend to let it pile up…

Closer to family! I currently live on the opposite side of town. It's not a long drive to see them, but it'll be nice to be only 2-5 minutes away.

Customizing!!! I know I can technically paint the walls in my apartment if I wanted to, but putting everything back to normal before moving out would be a headache. If I want to go ham and Jackson Pollock up a wall I can do as I damn well please.

I will have a patio! It's small but it's a place to put a chair outside!! I can sit outside and not have to worry about making eye contact with neighbors!!!

Complementary to #13 - I will have a YARD! I can GO TOUCH GRASS. I can get a DOG someday. I'll have to get a fence installed first which won't be cheap, but that's okay because DOG.

The front door is purple. PURPLE. That was actually a paint choice the builder had and I took it. When I give directions to my house I can tell people it's the one with the purple door. No one tell my dad. He would uh...totally approve and I want it to be a surprise. Yeah.

I can mount a TV. Again, I technically could do it in my apartment but I don't really trust the walls to hold up… Anyway, I have a plan to move my consoles and other things currently hooked up on the TV stand to a shelf where I can have better cable management. That means no more cable jungle! Seriously, I wonder if the space behind my TV can be considered a fire hazard.

I think that's all I've got for now? I'll probably think of more to add to the list, but that covers most of it. If you read all that…what the hell man, I appreciate it but I know you've got better things to do with your time.

[insaneiceshard]

Pokemon Pixel Font(Black & White 2)

BOY YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE THE DAY I'VE HAD!

Alright first things first here's the font I made, you'll understand why it's here later! PLEASE shoot me a message if the link doesn't work, that last thing I'd want is a dead end for a poor artist.

RIGHT, so I've been working on a Rain world AU where all the RW characters are placed in the Pokémon universe. I've already drawn Rivulet's sprite but I wanted to put them on a game's UI just to make it look realistic. I looked online and Pokémon B&W2 looked the best and I can make animations for the slugcats as well! When I downloaded the UI and got to work replacing all the text, I realized something very unfortunate.

Pixel fonts fucking SUCK.

Every single fuckin one gets labelled as "8-bit" or "meant for pixel art!" BUT THEY'RE ALL LYING TO YOU.

I haven't scoured the internet but the most popular ones look nice, but as soon as you scale them down to anything below 12 pixels they look like absolute dog-shit. This isn't horrible, for most people 12 pixels is enough! but when you're trying to replicate a game's Ui...

I tried adjusting the alphas in Krita, applying the text in Paint, scaling the image and then applying the text. NOTHING worked. The core issue was that Pokemon B&W2 had it's own custom font and nothing I could make would look anywhere close as good.

At this point my autism got activated (if it hadn't been already) and I had the brilliant (downright shit-brained) idea. It would just be easier if I made the font myself.

Good god I wish I had just looks a bit harder. I still have no idea if someone has done what I have, and I'm still too lazy to look!

I made the font. I scoured for tons of screenshots from dozens of websites to replicate every single character down to the pixel. I kept having issues where my font heights where constantly getting bigger and smaller. Spaces that used to be 3x3 were 4x3 when I looked back. I chocked this up to my disabled ass not being able to count 9 pixels. 10 pixels, no- now its fuckin 8.

I need you to know that at this point I had been working on this for 4 hours. 4 hours of squares and numbers. My brain was reduced to fucking mush. And then Gamefreak took the mush, put it in a blender, and fed it TO THE FUCKIN VOID SEA.

Different consoles used separate fonts. You can tell because the UI's are different everywhere the characters are sightly shorter. This makes sense, If you have a smaller screen, reducing the font size by a pixel could save you some valuable space! But at this point it had already done it's damage on me. I'm not proud of it but I cried. I have no idea which characters had been effected because I used so many different references that I just gave up. On top of all this, the games have something weird going on with the shaded parts of the text and the only way I could somewhat replicate it was to use 3 different text layers.

So. To anyone out there who specifically needs the Pokémon B&W2 font, you have it now. It's not perfect, but it'll do.

I hope no one has to go through what I did.

Ever.

oh- and here's what the final product looks like.

[little-artworks]

Resources for customizing your very own game consoles & controllers

So since my custom Nintendo 64 post has blown up, I've been asked a few times for a guide on how I did it - so I've decided to put together a masterpost of sorts!

Your first step in customizing any consoles or controllers will be to completely disassemble it & get all the electronics out, separate out any buttons & port covers, etc. You can find tutorials for disassembling probably most if not all consoles with a quick Google or YouTube search; here are a couple I have used:

Nintendo 64 (VERY good tutorial & includes spray painting guidance too! Highly recommend giving this a watch even if you're not doing an N64)

Gamecube (this is technically for modding a Gamecube, & does involve more disassembly than you'll need to do necessarily, but has the basics)

Reassembling the top portion of a Gamecube shell (it's a bit tricky)

Gamecube controller

Once your console is completely disassembled, the next step is to wash the shell & all parts you want to paint. Easiest way is to just fill a sink with dish soap & water & wash just like you're doing the dishes!

Once everything is nice & clean, dry it thoroughly or allow it to air dry. When it's dry, use painter's tape to cover the jewel or any stickers you don't want to paint over, & a craft knife (Xacto is my knife of choice) to carefully cut off the excess tape around the jewel and/or stickers.

Next, you'll want to rough up the surface of everything you're going to paint with some 600 grit sandpaper. You're aiming to take the shiny finish off the plastic - if your surface started out black, you'll be looking for it to appear a little whitish. It doesn't take much. This helps give the paint a better surface to hold onto. Once you're done sanding, give it a thorough wipedown with some damp paper towels to clean up any stray particles.

And then it's painting time!

I use spray paint, starting with a flat white primer, then a few coats of color, then a clear top coat. You'll want to be sure you get a paint that specifically says it works on plastic - Rustoleum is my go-to.

Another thing to bear in mind is you definitely want to read all of the instructions on the can! It's important to do any painting in a well ventilated area & wear breathing & eye protection.

The process for me took a lot of patience as my particular spray paint requires me to recoat within one hour, or after a full 48 hours (and I think this is common with most/all spray paint - the reason is to prevent bubbles & uneven finish). Also, for the type I used, it has maximum plastic adhesion after 5 to 7 days, so even once I'm done painting I generally wait a full week to put things back together to be absolutely on the safe side.

As an aside, related specifically to what I did on the ones I have painted & if you're looking to do something similar, the white flecks are also spray paint applied a little differently. I just sprayed white paint onto on a paper plate, holding the can very close to the plate so I could get a good little puddle of it; and for my best results yet, I dipped a toothbrush in the paint, held the toothbrush above the surface, & hit the brush to splatter the paint. (If you want to do this, I highly recommend testing it out on some cardboard or anything but your equipment first to be sure you like the result/know how you want to do it.)

Another option is to just use a small paintbrush & manually paint dots, but I personally like the splatter effect better.

As to the gradient, that's something I just trail and error'd & experimented until I got it right. If you want a smooth blend between multiple colors, you want to avoid using painter's tape to make any hard lines. It can be challenging to get all the paint where you want it to go (and stay away from the parts where you don't want it), but patience is key. I've found just sometimes using a piece of paper (held in my free hand) helps to keep the paint off one area of the shell, but again even that can be tricky & requires some practice & trial & error.

If you make any mistakes, one blessing is that spray paint is very forgiving. You can always either paint right over or sand off mistakes & start over!

Happy crafting!

[secretgamergirl]

A controller with a scroll wheel, you say?

Well this is a little funny. Yesterday I posted the first part of a series of post on the fine details of how computers work, mentioning how I've been looking into this as part of a personal project I've been working on, and today I wake up to see Masahiro Sakurai posting a youtube video lamenting the lack of... this exact thing I'm working on.

Apologies for how much cat hair is in this photo, that's a bit of an occupational hazard, but this here is a photo I took back in September when most of the parts I had to order were in for the prototyping of this thing:

That's a really bad MS Paint mockup, but yeah. I'm designing my own game console, and one of the key features is a big ol' scroll wheel right in the center of the controller. Another is that I'm planning to just put all the designs of the circuit boards and 3D printer files for the casing/buttons up online for free, making it this totally open DIY thing where anyone who's a big enough nerd can just make a couple downloads, order some dirt cheap components, and build their own copy of the system (or people with better setups than me can build and sell them, whatever). So I'm not super worried about anyone stealing my ideas or whatever, but I WOULD like to establish a standard and all that, and figured it was worth noting that this is something I've been slowly working towards for like a year or two now, and didn't just get the idea from this video:

But yeah, now that the idea's out in the public consciousness, here's the plan for the controller (that I was planning to keep under my hat until I had a working prototype and some demo software sometime next year).

First off, the plan is that this is to be the standard controller for a whole console I'm also plucking away at designing, which is a bit more ambitious of a project, so I figure I might as well make it compatible with something that's already out there. So specifically, I'm designing this so that you can take one, plug it right into an SNES (or with a different connector at the end, an NES, because turns out they use the exact same input handling standard and it's just the shape of the plastic on the end that differs), and have it just work. Or mostly work anyway. I'm hoping I can process a signal out of the scroll wheel in a way that it either just needs the 3 extra bits of the input signal I don't have buttons for in my design (more on that later) or failing that, I can get it to output the same sort of signal as one wheel in the SNES mouse, which just rides along the second data line very few things use. I think that plan might break multitap compatibility and require an extra chip on the controller PCB, but it would leave this slightly more compatible with existing games on the same hardware. I might also do something weird with the button mapping to be sure NES select is on a shoulder and it works right out of the box with that whole library.

Working out exactly how to handle signals from the scroll wheel happens to be the point I'm currently stuck on by the way. I got this baggie full of rotary encoders for just a few cents which... almost fit in my first draft 3D printed wheel housing, but I have NO documentation on them, not even a part number/manufacturer besides "H-9," the pins don't fit a breadboard, and I've kinda been scrambling for rent so I can't afford a nice multimeter or oscilloscope to poke around with. Plus again I need to redesign this wheel print to even get it to spin right, and... this was a gift from a friend with a printer who is Not Local. Solvable problem, just needs more time and/or outside expertise.

But yeah, once I have those kinks worked out, it should be easy enough to get a custom board design made, replicas of end-cap of the controller cord are another problem easily solved by ordering a 1 dollar part or 3D printing something. The actual cord might be tricky since I don't know where you actually order something like that from, but it should be easy enough for anyone who doesn't mind a little assembly work to put one of these together and have it good to go for any software made with it in mind, or retrogames where you don't mind a weird button count. So... what's the pitch on this scroll wheel anyway?

Well for starters, there's the stuff Sakurai got into this morning. Any sort of RPG or text heavy game can use it to quickly scroll through menu options, or stuff in a text-heavy game. You could also pan the screen with it, something a lot of early 16-bit games assigned to the shoulder buttons or holding up and down while getting used to the new options the hardware was giving them.

Past that, you'll notice in my design it's at a 45 degree angle. I might have to tweak it a little, but my thinking is for a game that uses it heavily, one thumb or the other can slide over easily enough (I'm going for a pretty compact overall design) so we can have some games where you take your thumb off the D-pad, and have this nice analogue steering wheel. Nice for fine control in a racing game, or if you want some little radio-tuning/safe-cracking sorta deal.

Alternatively, move your right thumb over, use the D-pad to steer, shoot and dodge or whatever with shoulder buttons, and use the wheel to rotate a turret for a twin-stick sort of game maybe.

Or just use it for the sort of stuff mouse based games stick on the scrollwheel. Changing weapons, changing powerups... I'm planning to officially label the directions "hot" and "cold" to encourage weird gimmicky things like... I dunno, a platformer where you have a thermostat in your controller you can always mess with, freeze water coming out of pipes, crank up flame jets? Have a shot charging mechanic where you just really crank it to get to max strength? Weird minigame stuff. There's some fun space to explore with it.

Then we have the rest of the design here... which basically comes down to me being just plain sick of how every controller made by anyone in the past... 20 years give or take has kind of the exact same layout? 4 good face buttons, a D-pad, 4 shoulder buttons, 2 sticks, and 1-4 annoying to reach tiny awkward middle buttons, and we're just kind of overdue for a change-up?

Like first of all, hey, this is just too many buttons. There's a ton of games that really only need a D-pad, and maybe 3 buttons (attack jump pause) and the two things that aren't fully standardized is how awkwardly placed the D-pad is and how awful and awkwardly placed the pause button is. Shoulder buttons can be nice, but I've never really felt like 4 of them awkwardly crammed on the rim has been really useful or ergonomic, and that's coming from someone who's been playing a ton of FF14, which gets more use out of them than anything else I could name. And really, aside from games doing fake twin-stick stuff and using the whole grid like a second D-pad, I'm having a really hard time thinking of any game I've ever played that really makes good use of 4 good face buttons? Like people will use them if they've got'em sure, but unless you do that keyboard style thing where you lay the controller on a table and use all your fingers, you can really only comfortably hit 2 face buttons without sliding your thumb away from them, maybe comfortably make a quick pivot to a third.

Also, really, a lot of designers just sort of feel compelled to map SOMETHING to every button, even if it's clear the design didn't really need them. So basically I figure I'll try kinda just taking a "less is more" approach here. Here's the buttons that it's comfortable to rest your thumbs and fingers on, here's a dedicated pause/menu button where people often stick a kind of redundant menu button, here's my gimmicky scrollwheel. That's it, work around that.

I'm also going a little Gamecube inspired (literally using replacement membranes for one in my prototype design, even). Gonna make a great big primary button and use different shapes for the other two. Trying to label these in a less arbitrary fashion than most. If shooting a gun is a thing you do in this game, and there isn't a real good reason not to, default it to this nice right trigger you can hold down all the time. If we're advancing through menus or jumping or holding down gas in a car, here's the big GO button. Need brakes, need to break stuff with a melee attack? Go back in a menu system? There's your other face button. Have a quick dash move or a run you hold down, let's just use the other shoulder.

So yeah. That's my controller. Need to work out the kinks on the scroll wheel, source a cord, and hopefully I can slap things together and this will be something you can just order bits for piecemeal and put together for like, $5-10 after shipping? Maybe less? The parts are shockingly cheap so far.

But yeah if anyone has any insight to the scroll wheel or cord issues, let me know. Also the whole thing is presently a tad back-burnered because I am in a serious financial crisis and I don't want to have electronics spread all over my table if I have to abruptly find a new place to live if I can't scrape next month's rent together. So as usual, donations are incredibly welcome.

[aikos-filibuster]

For Fun or For Funds?

or " Are gaming communities becoming less about play and more about monetisation?"

A Personal Note

Entering my early 20s, I reflect on my early days of being exposed to the idea of gaming, I remember watching Disney Channel and during their breaks, they advertised the Disney Channel website where you could play flash games based on the cartoons being aired. I asked my father about it, and he beckoned me to the study room where our old family computer was. He opened up Internet Explorer and hopped on the Disney Channel website. That was the beginning of my personal relationship with gaming. Then it led to my father buying me a PlayStation 2, a major turning point as it allowed me to experience real gaming on a dedicated platform. Back then, gaming was simple as its main purpose was escapism, where you would come home from school or work, hop on your computer or console and forget about the day’s worries for a while. There was no such thing as subscriptions, content locked behind a paywall, or using real money to earn you an advantage over your opponents or to enhance your experience in general. And casual gaming was what it meant on the tin; it was a casual activity where you did not put much thought into it and was merely something to pass the time. Times have changed, and the only time you see gaming mentioned in the mainstream is of how much money was won by an Esports team and how famous you can get from gaming competitively and I personally can make a case that “Mammon” has even entered the realm casual gaming.

Gaming communities: A new cash cow?

The first culprit of the monetisation of gaming communities is the rise of professional gaming. More and more you see games that are tailormade to be played at tournaments and you’d rather watch other people play and win millions rather than to play the game yourself. The rise is popularity for games such as CS:GO, Fortnite, League of Legends, and most recently Valorant where you specifically train to play in Esports tournaments in the hopes to win money places profit over fun. It is not to play competitively, it is stressful, and the desire to win big pushes some to even abuse substances to keep themselves awake to get more hours of training just to hone their skills just for that littlest edge over the competition because the dollar sign is such a powerful drug in of itself. One just needs to look at how lucrative this new burgeoning market can be as in 2021, the global esports revenues totalled up to over $1.6 billion dollars, and looking at the geographical information, over half of that was generated by China and North America. I believe a lot of this monetisation and commercialisation of gaming communities comes from coverage of gaming by the mainstream media. Before the advent of esports as we know it, mainstream media painted gaming communities as sort of men who refused to grow up and continued to play with toys instead of spending time “normally” like watching television or taking more “conventional” interests like being a sports fan or going to your favourite musician’s concert. Instead, these gamers keep up to date with the latest gaming news. How odd! Now that events like the COVID-19 pandemic have changed the world’s attitude to gaming communities and what they do, suddenly the market has experienced unprecedented growth in the past 3 years. Now we see even governments paying close attention to what happens among gamers, seeing it as an opportunity for youths to specialise in to bring pride to their state, being recognised as a legitimate sport alongside field and track. The commercialisation of gaming has made the communities appear as mere customers to investors and even gaming developers. They saw how much money they can make, and now their as bold as ever in throwing money onto the growing money pile that is the gaming market. I remember a time when my mother scolded me for playing video games, asking sarcastically how much money I make. Now she sends me headlines about an esports team winning millions in a recent tournament. Funny how opinions can change so sharply. Now we even see the rise of film adaptations of video games, where Hollywood executives who have never held a gaming controller decide to make a film cash grab by taking advantage of the nostalgia of gamers they looked down upon decades ago.

Still for fun?

In conclusion, the statement that gaming communities are becoming less about play and more about monetisation can be quite interesting to answer, and to give it an answer, I would give a simple yes. Gaming communities will feel the changes in the environment that they hold so dear. They would be lying if they say they had not seen the massive cashflow into and around the games they love, and for some, it’s a given due to the nature of the games they build communities around. The more honest gamers will tell you they know the corporations who invest in the games see the communities as generic customers and a source of revenue, and the companies that churn out their games have become bold in their attempts to maximise their profits, sometimes at the cost of the soul and effort that used to be put into creating cult classics like we saw in the days of yore of gaming.

References

[blackr23]

231124 1p.

ROCK AND ROYALTY

A private holiday with Hyunjin of Stray Kids, who made a comeback with the mini album <樂-STAR>.

BY BAZAAR 2023.11.24

The price of the jacket and turtleneck is undecided, the earrings are 440,000 won, the ring on the right index finger is 420,000 won, and the ring on the ring finger is 650,000 won, all Versace. 

The barocco pattern trench coat is 4.45 million won, the shirt is undecided, the pants are 1.16 million won, the earrings and necklace are all 850,000 won, all Versace. 

Q -I said that every time I do a photo shoot, I stand in front of the camera as a different person. What kind of person were you before filming Bazaar today?

H- I wanted to show the charm of darkness in a different way from the Versace holiday campaign. I think taking a pictorial is no different from standing on stage. It's a moment when you have to immerse yourself in something. Today, my mindset was, “I am the strongest!”

Q - What styling did you feel was most “mine”?

H- I liked the concept of the photo shoot when I wore a trench coat. He wore a serious-looking coat, but as a prop, he added a game console, which may be the exact opposite of the atmosphere. That was really nice. I mean, I like old paintings. I usually like to paint in the impressionist style with modern objects, so I felt like today's style matched the wit and texture.

The coat is 5.16 million won, the jacket is 1.59 million won, the pants are 1.59 million won, the earrings, necklace, and rings on both hands are 1.25 million won, all from Versace. 

The barocco pattern coat is 5.16 million won, the inner knit zip-up and pants are priced at undecided, the ‘Medusa Bigi’ sunglasses are priced at 360,000 won, and the earrings are all Versace. 

Q - Stray Kids became the first K-pop artist to headline ‘Lollapalooza Paris’. Tours and festivals must have been different.

H- that's right. It was my first time attending such a large-scale festival and I really enjoyed it. Besides, I really love the city of Paris. It was great just to be there because it was a gathering place for all the arts I pursue, but performing in front of 60,000 audiences was exciting. I can still remember the cool, pleasant night air.

Q - I wore Versace back then too.

H- There were two outfits. One was a Versace edgy suit, and the other was a two-piece that I first saw at the La Vacanza fashion show. Both outfits gave me the confidence to express myself freely. I remember a two-piece that seemed to express the heat of the stage well in passionate red. And because it was a custom outfit, I was able to perform on stage with even more pride.

Q - I am often praised as a ‘stage master’. Are there any habits you've lost or gained over the years you've been on stage?

H- In the past, I tried to let out my excessive passion as is, but these days, I think I try to hold back. Before going on stage, “I’m the best!” Instead of the same hip-hop music, I started listening to calm music. It wouldn't be fun if everything was just strong, so I should have thought a little more about strength and weakness. At some point, I thought that if I got too excited, I might not be able to enjoy it properly with the audience.

The barocco pattern coat is priced at 5.16 million won, the price of the inner top is yet to be determined, and the ‘Medusa Bigi’ sunglasses are priced around 360,000 won, all from Versace

Prices for the jacket, shirt, pants, and earrings are yet to be determined. The large-sized 'Athens' tote bag is priced around 2,960 won, the small-sized tote bag, and the cross-shaped mini-sized bag are each priced at 2,290,000 won, all from Versace. The single earring is from the artist's collection.

Q - The new mini album 〈樂-STAR〉 is an album that is organically connected to the previous 3rd full-length album. What is the ‘axis’ that Hyunjin is in charge of?  

H- The previous album was '5-STAR', so this time I chose the 'rock' of 'joy, anger, sadness' and named it 'Rock Star'. This is an album that came out after many twists and turns, so I really want to enjoy it. The title song was also released with the mindset of not just measuring anything but having our own festival. I'm very greedy, so I have to try everything, even if it's hard. After that, no matter how tired I am, I quickly forget it. This time too, “Let’s do it, let’s do it, let’s go!” A little bit like this (laughter)

Q - Is there a rock star you admire?

H- For me, it's Post Malone. In terms of genre, I like hip-hop or R&B, but I think rock star in the dictionary definition also has a lot of appeal. The fact that you express yourself without measuring and taking control of the stage with confidence is cool and I agree with you. Sometimes I think maybe I want to be a rock star too. (Laughs)

Q - The music drama content ‘SKZFLIX’, which has been anticipated since last year, is finally scheduled to be released. How was your experience acting with the members?

H- It was fun to watch the process where I acted like a mirror and the other person acted in the same way. You're talking with a different voice and tone than usual. It was so funny that there were a lot of NGs. We still have small memories of laughing with each other, but we will never watch videos from now on. (Laughs)

Q - It's a movie club concept. Is there anything you want to film if Hyunjin becomes a director? What kind of movie do you think will be made?

H- I also really want to direct. I enjoy creating, so I plan on producing my own videos in the future. It's still not enough, but if I grow further, I want to film an independent film. It will be a work that incorporates the music and aesthetics I created. Just imagining it makes me happy.

Q - At the end of the teaser, it seems like a confession to the fans: “No matter what happens, we will go see you.” As we grow and change, the existence and meaning of fans will also change. What do fans mean to Hyunjin now?

H- It still amazes me how much my fans love me unconditionally, even in my shortcomings. I want to listen to my fans’ stories about why they like me and how I am different now from before. As the number of fans increases, I may end up caring less, so I try to pay attention to that. They make me happy just by sharing my little TMI, so I'm trying to communicate more. It is something that makes me think that my daily life is happiness for someone else, so I should make myself happier.

The padded jumper is 3.19 million won, the anorak is 2.14 million won, and the earrings are all Versace.

The double-breasted jacket is 4.27 million won, the turtleneck is 1.41 million won, the pants are 1.59 million won, the earrings and rings worn on both hands are priced undetermined, and the loafers are 1.2 million won, all Versace.

Q - Where do you feel happy?

H- Actually, I don't know the answer yet. I think that if I was happy even for just one second during the day, I was happy that day. Even if you are not happy today, you can still think, “You were happy yesterday.” Of course, I put in a lot of effort for just one second of happiness. Even if you paint and make music that you like, you are not always happy. I think positively that if I can laugh even at a pointless joke with a friend, that's happiness.

Q - Has your perspective changed this year? I was wary of being judged solely on appearance. 

H- It's still the same, but I feel a little freer. (Laughs) Now, I feel good when people tell me I'm handsome. In the past, I was upset because my appearance didn't seem to be the result of my efforts, but now I can accept it as is. However, I want to be seen as a warm person rather than my appearance. I like warm people. I tend to find a little warmth even in cold people, so I hope other people see me that way too.

Pattern coat is priced at 5.16 million won, inner knit zip-up is priced at 1.59 million won, pants are priced at 1.59 million won, ‘Medusa Biggie’ sunglasses are priced at 360,000 won, earrings and necklace are priced at 1.25 million won, and ‘Odyssea’ sneakers are priced at 1.25 million won. All Versace.