#felt good to work in multiple editing programs for this

[xomnus]

RESPITE

[crescencestudio]

๋࣭⭑ Devlog #38 | 2.27.24 ๋࣭⭑

How is it already almost March omfg.

Anyways Happy Valentine's Day month!!! This year, I was swamped with work, so I didn't get a chance to make Valentine's Day art. I did make a Valentine's piece last year though.

BUT we did have beloved @magunalafay make these Valentine's Day cards this year for the community!!! <3 If you missed it, well Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!

She made these as a gift, and I love her very much. Maguna u r so talented

This month was pretty busy for me, but I'm super happy with the progress made this month ^^ I feel like I've started the year off in a pretty good groove after it being all over the place for a hot second, yay!!!

This past month, Etza and Druk's routes. With the revamped demo finishing its revisions, it left a lot more time for me to focus writing on full route development.

If you missed the announcement, I FINISHED Etza's first draft!!! YAAAYYY!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!

That means 4/6 routes are finished in terms of the base writing, which is so exciting to MEEEEE. I've always seen Etza's draft as The Milestone because with their route finished, it would mean the four Central routes are done writing. And to me, while there's a good chuck of writing left, we are nearing the end of it.

There's only two routes left and that means it's about ~100k words which is CRAZY compared to when I had ~300k to write (:cries:). Even if that sounds like a lot, once I start chipping away at those routes, that 100k goes into the "double digits" aka 90k...80k... etc. and that makes me want to pee my pants

We also finished editing Druk's route, yay!!! So we reached a lot of milestones this month ^^

We are nearing the end of the Vui background commissions. It's very bittersweet; I'm so used to mentioning him in my devlogs now </3 There's only like 3(?) more BGs left for him to make, and then all of the BGs for the game will be finished. Very Wild! I think Alaris will have 25ish BGs, and they are all Stunning.

It's been a while since I showed you all a BG, so I'll give you all a preview of one I just got in!

Isn't it cozy? Guess whose house hehe

I personally have been doing a lot of sprite work this month to finish the final art assets for the demo. I added some expressions to Druk and Aisa that I'd been procrastinating (I don't even know why I was procrastinating them). And I finally finished Mom and Kimura's updated sprites! Patreon already saw them, but I'll show the new versions here too ^^

Preview of Mom (left) and Kimura (right) updated sprites. Now everyone's sprite styles are cohesive YAY!!

Aside from sprite work, much of my "art" time has been on finishing up/putting together the last of the screens for the GUI. Specifically, I got THIS BABY up and running. She is my crowning glory.

Memory Screen to Replay Unlocked Free Time Dates

Oh my god.... You all have NO IDEA how much of a pain this was to code. There is a transparency gradient going on in the left and right B&W previews (courtesy of community programming angel feniks/shawna).

And then the effort to have the Titles and Descriptions of the Previewed Date change tilted me on Multiple Occasions. But we finally got it to work thanks to bestie @siyo-koy pointing out I just coded one stupid "if" statement wrong LJAFSLIEFJIEJ. But the effort was WORTH IT because I'm so proud of her!!! I hope you all like it too as a way to relive Free Time Dates. I had a lot of fun with the Titles and descriptions.

I also put together the Stats and Affection Screens

Preview of Personality Stats & Affection Screens

So I coded both of them a bit differently from each other. The Personality Screen shows you a breakdown of your traits so far. Think of it like a pie graph! So in the preview picture, your choices indicate you are 33% Brave, 16% Charismatic, etc. I felt like this was a more natural way to portray personality rather than how many bravery points you've collected so far!

And then for Affection, it works in a more traditional way, where it counts it based on how many you've gotten out of the total amount you can get. This way, as the story progresses, how close you are to the person reflects how much your relationship as developed!

I've also added little descriptions underneath each that change depending on the percentage. So for example, if you have gotten 82% of the affection points for Kuna'a, the description of your relationship might change as well hehe

Other than that, I've mainly focused on getting the demo together. We released the beta demo earlier this month (? LOL). And the feedback has been so kind!!

A lot of this month was spent polishing so that the demo can be ready for early access and eventually public release. I updated sprites, made sure music crossfades with each other so that transitions between soundtracks feel smoother, I added/polished all of the screens I needed to (e.g., Memory Room, Full Credits, Cleaning Music Room, Adding Stats Screens), and I FINALLY as of yesterday added the Voiced Lines!!

One thing I added in the Extended Demo that I'm really happy with is the use of Extended Pronouns (courtesy of Angel Feniks). Below is a preview of how it works now!

Preview of Extended Pronouns Function. Credit to Feniks

Basically, you can choose multiple pronouns for yourself, including custom pronouns (e.g., xe/xem, fae/faer, etc.). On top of that, you can choose how often you'd like the pronouns to alternate (e.g., every line versus every scene) and what kind of terms you'd like to be used for you (e.g., neutral vs. masculine vs. feminine)!

Overall, the demo is getting closer and closer to release!!! Early Access will hopefully be ready by the end of this week or next, so if you all would like access to it, please feel free to subscribe to my Patreon for this upcoming month! Available to Wyvern tier ($5) and up.

I didn't have any time to really play any games this month because I was drowning in work LMFAOSLJIEF. I did play the Threads of Bay demo by @lavendeerstudios and it was GORGEOUS! Very cute game with lovable characters and charming visuals. Andrew, I will have your number

Every other section was really long, so I'm going to throw it here even though it's not market research. But Intertwine recently hit 600 ratings, which is crazy. Thank you for still enjoying that game even if it's not one that is my main focus anymore. I'm really happy people still like it :on the verge of tears:

Anyways, this has been a long devlog. Here's to continuing to Ball in March. Hope you all have a great rest of your month, and I'll talk to you soon! <3

[miggylol]

you mentioned textbanking to reach out to potential leftist voters in the tags on one of your posts - what org was that through? it sounds like something concrete and useful to do

It absolutely was! It felt really satisfying, especially when we'd go back to the campaign Slack channel and learn that we'd hit all the outreach goals for that day and more numbers would be released tomorrow.

Who to work with

I went through my main state Democratic party (so, California Dems) for a few reasons. One: they were keeping an eye on all candidates and issues, so I felt like my efforts were probably being directed toward the area of greatest need/risk. (Why you might not do this route: you really care about certain specific candidates/issues, and don't want to show up to volunteer one day and see that voters are being contacted about other things.)

Two: voters can be contacted by multiple groups, which obviously annoys them after a while. (This was in fact the thing that I did dislike about this process.) People get taken off the contact roster with a STOP response, but as political parties and PACs are forbidden by law from coordinating with each other, being removed from one group's roster doesn't mean they'll be removed from another group's. I liked going with the main party because they've been doing this the longest and have already contacted the most people, so I thought they'd probably have a contact list that was already the most edited. (Why you might not do this route: you don't care as much about this problem as me, and you care more about connecting all people who are aligned with you on [issue] instead of contacting the general left-leaning population.)

Three: this state party approach put me in touch only with California voters, and sometimes they do want to ask a few questions about greater details, or even what you personally care the most about. I felt qualified to talk about pretty much anything/anyone on our state ballot, so that was a good match. (Why you might not do this route: you don't want to be limited to contacting people in your own area, and you instead want to contact voters anywhere about [issue].)

So, broadly put: you can work with your own state party or with some PAC that focuses on specific issues (environment, schooling, foreign policy, etc.), depending on what sounds more appealing based on what I described above. There is of course the option of working with some other state's party, as well. For example, someone might think "well, I'm in IL and that's safe blue, so can I spend my energy elsewhere?" That's what I faced in California, and I decided to help our with our own swing districts and initiatives. But someone else near me might have decided to textbank for the swing states of AZ and NV, instead. That person in Illinois might decide to volunteer for, say, Wisconsin. (Which is probably the best-run state Dem party in the country, by the way!)

You also might do this if you're in a blood red state. It might feel like you're doing more good to volunteer for Georgia or Arizona (slowly turning blue) than to volunteer for your own state of Wyoming (the reddest state in the country). That can be a good investment of your time! On the other hand, it's still valuable to contact the locals. Even if they vote for Republicans, people can vote differently on specific local issues. For example, in Wyoming, there's momentum for huge developments in wind power that some entrenched oil/gas companies are pushing back against. If someone really cares about the environment, they could decide it's better to volunteer in WY than GA.

What does textbanking do, exactly?

You might be wondering if you'll be expected to argue with people, answer complicated questions, or what. No! There are texting portals that have a lot of pre-programmed answers to basic questions, like "What is [candidate's] stance on abortion?" If you contact someone who's argumentative or tells you to fuck off, you just click the "should be removed from list" button and disengage. If you contact someone who has questions you're not prepared to answer, you hop back into the Slack channel and ask an organizer to take over the conversation.

So, what are you doing, then? You are identifying voters who are likely to vote blue but are lower-motivation.

This is an incredibly important step to do in the lead-up to election days. If someone votes left and tells you that they've already taken advantage of early voting, you thank them and click the "has already voted" button. Then, the database removes them from further contact for this cycle, because their vote is banked and no more resources need to be spent on them. On the other hand, if there's someone who (for example) cares about abortion access but hasn't had time to vote yet, or doesn't know if they're registered, etc., they can be aided with information on how to vote/register. They can be offered transportation on Election Day, if they don't have a car. Textbanking helps to target the party's resources the most effectively, and get the most low-likelihood voters over the finish line.

In other words, textbanking is all about reaching tons of people and seeing where to aim more in-depth resources. Textbanking is largely not about converting uncertain moderates into blue voters. That's phonebanking and door-to-door visits, because talking with people is more convincing. But you can identify who might benefit from that kind of follow-up via textbanking.

How to get started

If you're thinking "sure, the state party approach sounds like it'd work for me," that's very easy to get started. Just google "[state] democrats texting" and you'll see a variety of options to get started. Or, you can go to the homepage of the state party, and there will be volunteer options listed there.

Alternately, you can go to the Democratic Party events page and see all volunteer events across the country, of every type. So there's not just textbanking, but other things that may uniquely appeal to you, like helping mobility-limited voters. (You can filter by type of event & location.)

If you want to work with a specific charity or PAC on a specific issue, then you'll need to track down their volunteer options. For example, I went to the Sierra Club and found this volunteer page, which has a bunch of options, but not a bunch of direct outreach. On the other hand, they do seem to have a texting team, but it's only visible if you log in, probably? Unfortunately, charities/PACs aren't as standardized and visible as the Democrats' volunteer options. However, once you become familiar with your organization of choice, then you're over the hurdle.

I find volunteering via textbanking to be satisfying, and also a way to burn off nervous stress during political seasons. Not only is it a distraction from the world, but it's also a distraction that achieves something.

What if I care about something, but I can't find textbanking for it?

At this time, you may be thinking "okay, I'll do textbanking for a ceasefire!" I thought the same thing, and started looking for options, assuming there would be some organization that was encouraging people to contact their rep/senators. And... I didn't find one. I did find multiple charities that made it easier to send emails and letters to politicians via online forms, which is certainly good! But I didn't find any charity that was directing people to those resources via texting the broad voter population.

In cases like this, you may choose to do your own unofficial "textbanking" by making posts about those resources, and drawing upon your own networks like they're the database you're contacting. That's certainly better than nothing, and it's a way to take action. If I see an option for this, I will definitely share this. I am obviously a fan of engagement via textbanking. Obviously.

I hope all that helps!

[crow-caller]

Hey! I saw that you published some books (looking forward to checking them out, actually), but I was wondering how you did that? I'm not out of high school yet, but I've already finished my first draft of book one of my series, and have been working on editing and fixing up the second draft. I do have an editor, which is nice. I was wondering how you published? Any advice/ info would be greatly appreciated!

Hey, cool! My first book legit came out when I was still in high school.

I'm an indie author, so I'll talk about indie stuff... and traditional... and oh dear that's a lot.

Let's go over some pros and cons and what to expect.

Crow's (oops not) Quick Guide to Publishin'

Self Publishing:

This is what I did for Good Angel, Bad End, my duology!

Self pubbing:

+Total control of end product +No deadlines +Full control of changing it at any time -You do all the work (or pay) -It costs you money for jobs you can't (or shouldn't) do yourself like editing -Extremely limited reach of audience, very hard to sell

I queried GA/BE around a bit but ultimately decided to self publish it. It's just too niche for mainstream, being a weird genre mix up with way too queer characters. Multiple neopronouns used by funky angels in magic school slice of life that turns apocalyptic? yeah, I felt it'd be best I just put it out.

You'll need to

Edit the text (I'd recc multiple friends, a paid editor)

Proofread the text (I'd recc paying a pro)

Assemble the text files formatting (for digital, print)

Get a cover

Make pages for it on GoodReads etc and promote it

Self-publishing can be a lot of work. I did GA/BE's interiors myself using first Microsoft word, then adobe indesign for the recent revamp. Using Word/other text programs can give you a fully workable interior file, but abusing the free trial system of adobe will allow more advanced inclusions. Getting ebook files to work is a nightmare, and print can also be a pain- it's a lot of following online tutorials and trial and error I found. Calibre then is the program you use to finish digital files for release.

Costs for editing can be very high. Editing is a high skill, high time job- I got my books done on discount from a friend for next to nothing, but expect definitely a few hundred bucks. Research though fair prices. You don't need to hire someone to proofread or edit, but it is a good idea. That or outsource to many friends, ideally ones who give honest feedback. A proofreader is much cheaper as they only look for errors, I again got it cheap for 65£ per book. Art wise, I bought mine on commission- talk to an artist and make it clear it is for a commercial project and that you have the right to sell the end result. My cover for each book was about 100£

You might notice this is adding up to a few hundred quid, and yes: it cost me like, 350£ or so per book to publish, even with myself doing a lot of the work. This is a lot! Does it pay back? Usually no. I have at this point now "made a profit", but it took years. You can't typically go into self publishing looking for profit.

I really enjoy self publishing GA. It meant I could put a project out that I kinda only made for me, and have full rights to do whatever I want with it. I got to design the cover and choose what to do at every step... but it was a crazy amount of intensive work too. Marketing wise I've found is about impossible- your best bet 100% is to send the book to as many people as possible (digitally) for review and just try to get enough people reading it. Then you hope they like it and talk about it. I've found no other method of marketing particularly useful: word of mouth is still king.

Indie Publishing:

Indie pubbin:

+Don't have to spend any money (get paid) +Professional editing/cover/formatting +Backing of publishing house's marketing team -Deadlines -Less creative control -Contracted -Must query and be accepted

My first book was Angel Radio, which actually I sold when I was 17. came out when I was 18. The timescale for traditional publishing, even indie, is typically at least a year.

There's a lot of indie publishers out there, and we should read them more often. However, being published by an indie publisher (aka, a small, non-mainstream one- unlikely to ever be 'on shelves') takes extra, different work.

Do your research!!! There's a LOT of scam publishers out there. A publisher will never, ever, not even slightly ever, charge you money or pressure you to spend money (like buying your own copies of the book). A great way to check is to just look up 'publisher name + scam'.

Prepare a query letter. This is a pitch for your book, basic book info, and a bit about you. Every publishing house will have a 'submissions' page which explains specific wants (such as several pages of your book or a synopsis), so every application is slightly custom.

Query and wait. It takes many weeks to hear back with queries. Usually you should do them in small batches of like five. It's very rare to get a deal- it may not be your book, it might just be market trends or they already got a book about dragons on order.

DOUBLE CHECK YOUR CONTRACT. Contracts can be hard, so seek help if you want, though I've found my one contract to be not that long and readable. Still, you should always read a contract, especially as a scam publisher might try to trick you there.

Indie publishing is good because... it's more accessible and diverse than mainstream, but still offers the same benefits to authors. Just on a way smaller scale. I don't think my publisher, Harmony Ink Press, did much jack or shit for me marketing wise, and that's pretty typical. Marketing is very hit or miss and very expensive, so the onus is still on you to market (spoilers, these days marketing is on you no matter what). You also have more leeway in edits and covers- I designed AR's rough cover and worked with the artist directly! That's uncommon.

Most indie publishers also have a common royalty scheme where you pay it back. This isn't a hallmark of a scam, it's pretty normal: You get advance cash upfront, but then do not earn royalties until your book has paid itself off. Which it may not. Angel Radio sold for 500$, not a huge amount but not exactly tiny, especially for a teen. But I haven't earned a penny on royalties because it never sold well enough! I think I'm a little over halfway there.

Traditional Publishing

(I don't have a book of this type. yet...?)

Y'know, like, books?

+Large advance +Big support team +Marketing +Books on shelves +Most lucrative and recognizable -Sharper deadlines -Least control and rights -Must query (hardcore mode) -Still marketing yourself

Traditional publishing is the longest timescale and hardest method. Obvs. You again are looking to write a good query, but now you need to go through a literary agent. You query an agent with your book (again, should only ever be free), the agent then essentially queries publishers on your behalf ("out on submission"). An agent is your liaison to the business of publishing, taking a portion of your earnings for the service. You just can't make it into publishing without an agent.

A query letter ideally is... roughly, quickly, this is my format guide.

Hi there [actual agent name]

I'm here proposing my cool book, XYZ of ABC, a GENRE book of ??k words that IS SOMETHING UNIQUE SELLING POINT. MAIN CHARACTER is LIKE THIS but faced CONFLICT when PLOT HAPPENS, in SOME KINDA WORLD OR WHATEVER. THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU WRITE A 2-3 SENTENCE PLOT BLURB. But when TWIST happens, will MC have SOME EYECATCHING IDEA? This book will appeal to fans of THIS KINDA THING and is extra good because RELEVENT DETAIL LIKE OWNVOICES. I believe JUST KEEP SELLING KID. I myself SOME SORT OF ACCOMPLISHMENT LIKE UNI, PAIRED WITH A RELEVANT HOBBY. thank you for your time

Hot and dirty, something like that. You gotta recall at all times this is a market. It is economic. Your passion... matters, but uh. It doesn't matter. Gosh that sounds rough. But make your passion clear but your sound business proposal clearer: You need to show why your book is worth picking over thousands of other queries.

Querying is a horrible torturous process that does help you slowly build up exposure therapy to rejection and failure. Anyways, that will take a bit typically (I've been querying on and off for ten years for an agent, but a lot has been 'off' time). Then you wait and eventually, bam! Probably post some edits, your book is sold.

You still wait a long time though, and have a lot of work to do. So much work. Your book will come out on shelves at the end, sure, but that's still not a promise of success. The author these days is especially the product, and while you start on a higher stage (maybe even the marketing team will f---ing do something), you still gotta claw. There's a high level of scrutiny too on debut authors on any tier, but especially the traditional publishing tier. So your success is very dependent on each book you do, with it being harder and harder to sell books if you aren't doing fantastic.

Still, it's hard to deny the appeal of that mainstream success. Man, I'm chasing it myself! But it's not just easy book out there you go. I'm pals with traditionally published authors and you'll still be very busy, if you can get your foot on the ladder with an agent to begin with. Being on submission generally takes months, and even when your book is with a publisher it may be a lot of time and work before it ever comes out. Even then, hitting the shelves still doesn't mean you're set for life.

Still. Good luck. Go try!

(BTW look at my books, I guess, as a sticker on what I hope is good advice, and good luck! I first decided to try publishing Angel Radio with HIP because of a post by someone else published by them on tumblr... like 10 years ago now....)

Gum ebook

Amaz print

Goodreads)

[astercontrol]

SOOOOO I was not expecting to end up having a Tron-sona but here we are

I have chosen my program name:

Aster.

It came to me in the same... overcomplex, interconnected sort of way that ideas usually come to me.

(buckle up for a wild ride into how my brain works!)

There are many different aspects to why it fits. Here are some, in no particular order:

Means "star." Of course I've always felt a connection to stars and outer space. My first love was Star Trek and it's still right up there.

Aster is also where the word "asterisk" comes from. An asterisk is a cool design that would be easy for me to work into circuit-patterns on a suit--- I'm already designing it in my head!

The appearance of an asterisk is also meaningful for me, because it looks like several lines connecting at one point... and you KNOW how my brain loves to connect things (case in point, this whole post)

An asterisk is used in writing to indicate a footnote-- again, just like my brain going off on a tangent!

What the asterisk means in programming (wildcard, stand-in for "anything") is one of the few programming things I have actual experience with beyond HTML, because it's used in GREP commands, which I use for mass-editing a whole lot of HTML pages at once.

In ASCII, the asterisk is represented by 42, which is my age at this pivotal moment in my life.

There was a whole fan theory that this was Douglas Adams' reasoning behind 42 being the meaning of life... if the answer to the Great Question is an asterisk, then that means "whatever you want it to be." (Douglas Adams denied this, and insisted that the number was chosen at random. Which means that connection happened just BY COINCIDENCE, which I like even better!)

And that meaning fits me too, because I AM a wildcard who can do a WHOLE lot of different things.

(One of which is sewing... the pun "Poly-Aster" is relevant to my fabric crafts, and to the fact that I can ALSO do a whole lot of different partners, lol)

Aster rhymes with Castor who may be my favorite character in Legacy.

Also starts with the sound of "ass" and y'know how I love sexy butts.

(an asterisk also kinda looks like a butthole, though that's really not so relevant to my appreciation of Tron-style program butts)

...Of course, there are programmers all over the real world, and they've got more projects going than there are words in any language...

...so GOOD LUCK finding a name that isn't already taken by some boring RL program...

BUT, the RL program called ASTER is also pleasingly relevant.

It is something called "multiseat software," which isn't anywhere near my own meager programming experience... HOWEVER:

- "multiseat" sounds like it could mean "lots of butts" and that's very cool with me

- what it actually does is allow multiple people to connect to one computer at once... which SORTA resonates with what this identity of mine is for... (interfacing with my peeps online)

Still need to figure out just what sorta job my program-self would have in the Encom system. But needless to say it would be something very versatile, involving connections.

[pyrotechnicarus]

As a writer, do you believe it is better to stick to one project and power through it, or bounce between multiple as ideas come?

It depends on your personality and situation, kind of. What works best for me is working sequentially on one project at a time! Before I started writing with Elliot I was a flit-between-different-projects guy; I wrote a lot of short stories, not by choice, but because it was the only way I could finish anything. At the same time, I was always trying and failing to write novels. Most of the time I'd just end up writing and re-writing the first 50 pages, because by the time I got to the midpoint my writing would be so much better than when I started I felt like I had to go back and make it perfect. With short stories, I could write, edit, and submit them in a frenzy before my internal critic kicked in and I convinced myself they were bad.

Working with Elliot helped me finish my first longform project in TAOPP (he is a great antidote to my perfectionism because he likes my work, and I also trust him to tell me when it's bad. As a writer who often thinks all my work is terrible when I'm in the thick of things, it's literally lifesaving to have a cheerleader who is invested in getting your project out the door, lol.)

Once you force yourself through the mid-project doldrums to have a complete full project, you can finally (finally) see your strengths and weaknesses as a storyteller and start to improve from there. For me, bouncing between multiple ideas was just a way of never having Finished™ something, and instead forever living in that diaphanous perfectionism-poisoned dream world, where you can imagine the perfect, unmade thing but never have to show it to anyone (and therefore never have to confront its imperfections).

I also have a fairly obsessive personality (I can't start a book, I have to read it all the way through that night. I can't just watch a TV show, I have to devour all the content related to it. I can't work on a program for 6 hours and then log off at the end of the workday, I have to write all the code at once. Every game in my Steam library either has 1 hour or 70 hours, no in betweens.) This turns out to be a good quality for a creative lifestyle! Last summer we tried flitting between projects, but it didn't really work for me- I never felt excited to work on the things I was supposed to be working on, and I always felt guilty when I was working on things that weren't as important. This summer has been much nicer, with my residency nicely breaking up my focus on my thesis -- so far it's been two breakneck Thesis weeks, six breakneck Ghost Story weeks, and hopefully I can get headfull about my thesis again once the summer is over lol. My professors say that professional writers have to juggle multiple projects at once, so I'm slowly tempting that skill out of retirement, but for now I'm really glad that I get to focus wholeheartedly on writing the way that works with my brain.

So, yeah! I guess I'd say if you're like me, braving the pain and trying to complete (and release/publish/put up!) something significant might improve your writing way more than slowly chipping away at smaller fare, but I also think it really depends on your personality and what makes you excited to write. Whatever that is, pursue it!

[momental]

Comic Jacqueline Novak is known for wearing the same outfit for her solo show 'Get on Your Knees.' The outfit consists of a loose gray T-shirt, jeans, and white-and-gray sneakers, which provide her with anonymity, neutrality, and comfort. While the show is part standup act, part coming-of-age story, and part philosophy lecture, it is also an athletic feat, leading Novak to often wear a sports bra. However, she has grappled with the belief that she shouldn't wear a sports bra because it is too athletic.

The forty-one-year-old Novak has a youthful appearance and a fascination with elaborate skin-care rituals. 'Get on Your Knees' is a ninety-minute show about fellatio, but it goes beyond raunch comedy and explores the limitations of language when it comes to discussing sex. Novak aims to transform the mundane act into a cosmic experience.

According to John Early, the comic who directed the live version of the show, Novak takes something crude and elevates it into a cosmic frenzy. Fred Armisen, another comic and actor, describes the show as good-spirited and suitable for all audiences, including his own mother. Novak's parents have seen the show multiple times, and her boyfriend, Chris Laker, finds it comfortable and has never been asked if it makes him uncomfortable.

Comedian Jacqueline Novak took a unique approach to developing her stand-up show, 'Get on Your Knees.' Rather than piecing together jokes over time, she wrote the entire set in 2017 and asked her Instagram followers if she could perform it for them. She debuted the show at a party in Brooklyn and went on to perform in bigger venues in Los Angeles and New York. The show gained attention from celebrities like Lucas Hedges, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Emma Stone, and even pop-music producer Mark Ronson saw it five times. Novak takes pride in managing every aspect of her show, from publicity to coordinating performances. She even coded a contactless digital program for the show herself. As she prepares for the release of a special on Netflix, Novak is involved in every step of the process, from editing to closed captioning.

Netflix comedian Jacqueline Novak recently discussed her experience creating her comedy special 'Get on Your Knees.' The postproduction process for Netflix specials is typically completed in less than a month, but Novak's special took five months. Novak expressed her gratitude for the support she received from actress Natasha Lyonne, who directed the special. Lyonne looked out for Novak's creative interests and helped her navigate the pressure of being a good student. Despite suggestions to shorten the special, Novak insisted on keeping its ninety-minute length. Novak meticulously worked on the show for years, even stitching together audio from every performance to determine the best version. Novak's attention to detail extends beyond her comedy, as she even seeks the best deals online with high personal stakes. Corresponding with Novak can be challenging due to her meticulous nature. Novak canceled a tour for 'Get on Your Knees' during the lockdown and has eagerly awaited the opportunity to perform it live.

'By the time we spoke, we’d had so many interactions that I felt we had developed a form of intimacy. 'Waking up in the morning, I was almost, like, I don’t know how to be profiled,' she said on the phone to me one afternoon. 'There is no constitution there. I’m dissolute, or something. I was waiting for myself to come into focus enough.'

Backstage at the Cherry Lane in 2021, Novak applied a light layer of makeup and flat-ironed her hair, which is naturally curly. She and her assistant reviewed the guest list. Every night, Novak pored over the list of ticket holders to see who might show up. 'My awareness of who’s in the audience has a profound effect on my internal experience,' she told me. 'I found out this guy from my high school came last night.'

Much of the show centers on Novak’s fraught quest to successfully perform a blow job in high school. She tells the audience about how her field-hockey teammates encouraged the endeavor. At one performance, three women who had played on the team sat in the second row. This added a new layer of prospective humiliation for Novak. 'Even though I reference things that are my own life and literal, I’m, like, ‘How crass if someone from my town or my high school treats it as if I’m just talking about my life. Excuse you? This is art,' she said. 'Of course, it’s not their job to be exactly what I think they should be.'

Shame is the root of most comedy, but Novak prefers to grapple with shame’s more free-spirited and familiar cousin: embarrassment. Her mother, Naomi Novak, told me that one of her daughter’s first words was 'embarrassing.' 'It’s so ’barrassin’,' she would say. In 'How to Weep in Public,' a memoir-slash-self-help book that Novak published in 2016, she wrote, 'Even as a newborn in the hospital, I tended to turn away and bury my face.'

Novak has two older siblings, and she developed an early analytical streak by observing them at home, in Westchester County, New York. Her mother recalls watching Novak’s nursery-school class through a window and noting that her daughter was completely silent; when she got home, however, she recounted every detail she’d seen. One day, Novak’s teachers called Naomi in to discuss a conversation they’d overheard. A boy had asked Novak, 'Does your mother have a penis?' She’d replied in the same blunt but lyrical way that she talks about sex in 'Get on Your Knees': 'No, she has a vagina. But hers has feathers.'

Naomi’s father was a rabbi, and Novak’s paternal grandparents came from Christian families. The clan delights in mashing up the customs of both cultures. 'We’re a family of analyzers,' her father, Greg, said.

As a child, Novak sought attention through performing, even appearing on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' in second grade. However, as a teenager, she became more scholarly and self-conscious.

Novak's father's reading of 'Think and Grow Rich' inspired him to start his own business and introduced Novak to self-help tools like Tony Robbins tapes. Novak even helped her father start a podcast about Hegel.

Novak's time in college at Georgetown was marked by her involvement in an improv troupe, but she felt self-conscious and found a sense of belonging in her creative-writing courses.

After college, Novak moved to New York and pursued standup comedy while working in advertising. She struggled with depression, which was exacerbated by her job.

After being fired from her advertising agency, Novak moved back into her childhood bedroom and entered what she now calls her 'depression years.' This period has greatly influenced her life and she now prioritizes her physical and emotional energy. Novak tries various products and rituals to combat her depression, such as following a low-carb diet, using a 'vitality swing' for restless-leg syndrome, and experimenting with supplements, THC gummies, past-life-regression therapy, astral projection, energy-healing workshops, and Kundalini-yoga. She also has a unique exercise routine, seeking workouts with a guiding principle or philosophy. However, in the summer of 2022, depression caught up with her again and she even considered signing up for virtual therapy. Novak suspects a connection between her depression and her glucose levels, particularly blaming blueberries for spiking her glucose. This realization leads her to feel humiliated by her efforts to avoid bread. Despite these struggles, Novak's early jokes often revolved around food, with one of her popular bits being about shared appetizers, specifically nachos, and the comedic scenarios that unfold when they arrive at the table.

In 2014, Jacqueline Novak released a comedy album called 'Quality Notions' that would later become the foundation for her show 'Get on Your Knees.' She also wrote a humorous guide called 'How to Weep in Public,' which offered feeble offerings on depression from someone who understood. In the book, Novak encouraged people with depression to fully embrace their feelings. She described it as 'merely a cigarette in the trenches' compared to other books on the topic.

After college, Novak found solace in antidepressants and moved back to the city to pursue stand-up comedy in New York. She became part of the flourishing alternative-comedy scene and formed close relationships with comedians like John Early and Kate Berlant. It was during a benefit show that Fred Armisen saw Novak perform and considered her as a potential opening act. Armisen was drawn to Novak's ability to share observations in a personal and relatable way.

However, Novak faced challenges in breaking through in the comedy scene. Many of her performances were for drunk audiences in small bars who didn't fully appreciate her talent. Despite the obstacles, Novak remained committed to her craft, while her boyfriend, Laker, pursued a more social lifestyle.

In 2017, Novak had a realization that success didn't come from slowly working her way up. Instead, she decided to focus her energy on creating one exceptional piece of work. She discussed this plan with Laker while walking near their apartment on the Upper West Side. Laker recalled Novak's realization that she needed to make one great thing and concentrate on it.

Novak revisited essays she had written in high school and realized that she had always been a writer at heart. She had a deep awareness that her experiences could one day be chronicled. Novak often questioned if she was living enough in the present moment, which she now finds embarrassing. She believed that she should be fully immersed in her experiences rather than nostalgic for them as they were happening.

In college, Novak and Liz Phang bonded over visiting Peter the Great’s cabinet of curiosities in St. Petersburg, Russia, filled with gruesome objects. Phang recalls Novak impersonating fetuses with birth defects stored in jars, showing her creativity. Novak was known for diving into discomfort in her writing, even exploring topics like having sex with someone who disgusted her. Back at Georgetown, Novak continued to write about sex and her experiences. Her essay about blow jobs in high school became the inspiration for her show 'Get on Your Knees.' Novak used clever tactics to draw attention to the show, including involving her friend Early in the performance. The challenge for Novak and Early was finding the right tone for the show, avoiding moralizing or trauma narratives. They didn't want the audience to pat themselves on the back, but rather to engage with the storytelling. One pivotal moment in the show is when Novak is on the brink of her first blow job and she imagines herself as a character in a Vladimir Nabokov story, hoping to make the experience more literary and less daunting.

In 2019, comedian Jacqueline Novak performed at the Cherry Lane theater and caught the attention of scouts from major streaming platforms. Although Netflix initially passed on her, Novak and her agent didn't give up. They invited Netflix's vice-president of comedy, Robbie Praw, to a performance in Los Angeles, which impressed him and led to a deal with Netflix. Novak felt empowered by this success but didn't like being praised for 'finding her voice,' as she believed it was more about finding confidence and tricking people into liking her comedy.

In 2019, Novak and her partner, John Early, moved to Los Angeles and considered their time in New York as a 'rough draft.' During this time, Novak and her friend, Kate Berlant, frequently visited Korean spas in L.A. and discussed wellness and self-care. Despite their initial aversion to podcasting, the two came up with the idea for a show called 'Poog,' which would offer a unique perspective on wellness as a pastime rather than a serious pursuit. The podcast debuted in November 2020.

'Poog' was pitched to various platforms, including Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network, and ultimately signed with Ferrell's company just before the pandemic hit.

Descriptions of the podcast 'Poog' may seem nonsensical, but it quickly gained popularity and earned the loyalty of fans like Amy Schumer and Miranda July. The show's creators, Kate Berlant and Jacqueline Novak, even had unrecorded weekly Zoom conversations with July during the pandemic. One frequent topic on 'Poog' is the experience of dining in restaurants, which Novak considers the pinnacle of social interaction. Novak, who has a tree-nut allergy, carefully navigates restaurant menus and engages in conversations with servers about food options. During a dinner with Novak, she discussed her allergies and allowed the waiter to select dishes for her, creating an entertaining and empathetic dining experience.

Getting Novak to stay on topic is a challenge, so I gathered most of her biographical information from her family and her book, rather than asking her directly. During our conversation, a comment I made about a recent 'Poog' episode triggered a series of tangents. Novak talked about everything from Tracy Anderson to the death of Guru Jagat, bringing pets to restaurants, chia seeds, a cocktail with pistachios, and even the scariness of waiters.

We eventually discussed Novak's Netflix taping, a topic she had been avoiding since signing the contract. She pondered why she got into comedy and what she hoped to achieve. She had been performing her show in both traditional theaters and standup clubs, but couldn't decide which was better. The Cherry Lane theater seemed 'too precious' to her as a creative-writing major. She then expressed her excitement about upsetting expectations in the lowbrow world of comedy.

During a celebration for the taping of 'Get on Your Knees,' Novak appeared a bit dazed after a conversation with Brie Larson. I asked her what made her feel ready to film the special after years of tinkering. Was it pressure from Netflix? Financial stakes? Exhaustion from workshopping the show? Finally achieving perfection?

Comedian Jacqueline Novak recently filmed her one-woman show, 'Get on Your Knees,' for a special on HBO. Novak described the pressure she felt leading up to the taping, comparing it to the pressure of competing in the Olympics. She had to let go of her fantasies of perfection and embrace the improvisation that comes with live performance.

Before the taping, Novak went shopping for a new pair of jeans because her old ones had deteriorated. She ended up buying so many pairs that she had to transport them in a rolling suitcase. Actress Natasha Lyonne, who directed the special, helped Novak select a pair of jeans to wear for the performance.

During the show, Novak had a moment of improvisation when she absentmindedly tucked her shirt into her waistband. Lyonne, who was monitoring for continuity issues, asked her to untuck it. The crowd laughed as Novak jokingly asked where to start from. The performance took on a new element of improvisation.

Despite the unexpected moments, Novak remained confident and thanked the crowd for their support. She reflected on the nature of theater and how it involves everyone facing one direction while she faces the other.

Source Link: The Anxious Precision of Jacqueline Novak’s Comedy

[adachilovebot]

i know bp ended a week ago ( and thank goodness for that ) but its still mind boggling to me how some were entertaining the idea of hui debuting in another group during ptg's 7th year and a few months away from contract renewal after cube CANCELLED their november 2022 cb

as their leader signing an exclusive contract for 2.5 years prohibiting him from ever mentioning the tagons would send ptg to the shadow realm immediately

I've been loving ptg unconditionally (unhealthily too but that's a topic to discuss next time) but I'd never be this blinded to think this situation isn't a massive threat to the group's survival . I've joined the fandom right before rtk ( terrible timing i know) the hui i saw there was determined to disprove mnet's pity party editing " people around me told me if a group doesn't make it during their 3rd year they'll never make it out group is 3.5 yo but I'll prove everyone wrong " i was questioning myself where was THAT hui i fell in love with

I do believe hui was forced to join it was pretty obvious from the "exceptional" audition tape accepted on november 2022 .mnet needed him to create bad buzz around the show the same way yujin did with gp999 tho unlike clc ptg weren't dismissed so they had to create the narrative themselves. tbh I'm still confused as to how hui blurred what he did abt ptg being dead in the eyes of the industry when it was factually false ( the triplets were actively working on music wooki especially had multiple BB50 producers visit for a prod session ) i am *personally* still pissed at him for that ( i know it could be edited but that clip was over 2min long)

a segment that made me cry was during the pentatour to gapyeong where he recorded a message to the boys where he praised them for protecting ptg while he was away and promised hell do his best for the group . this makes everything he's doing even more illogical because buddy you might debut elsewhere for 2.5 years ,????

I'm not gonna hyper analyse a stranger more than what I've already done here but I'll assume he was himself totally lost within his decisions especially after leaving the industry for 21 months he must've felt totally disoriented

but i am still pissed at any ptg fan who was actively campaigning for his debut tho that was S.T.U.P.I.D

fast-forward to now the little 9 boys are all doing well and thriving in their respective programs jinho in phantom singer and yanan in π plan wooseok was featured in maymay entrata's autodeadma ( massive slay go watch it )

although the fandom is full of bp hui akgaes parasites i guess they'll at least buy a ptg album to get into a 1v1 hui fancall we'll have to either tame them or bully them into shutting the fuck up

[bubblesthemonsterartist]

2022 Creator’s Self-Love Extravaganza

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favorite works (fics, art, edits, etc.) you’ve created this year and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you’ve brought into the world in 2022. If you don’t have five published works, that’s fine! Include ideas/drafts/whatever you like that you’ve worked on/thought about, and talk a little about them instead! Remember, this is all about self-love and positive enthusiasm, so fuck the rules if you need to. Have fun, and tag as many fellow creators as you like so they can share the love!

@thelionshymnal dug this one up and while they didn't tag me, I felt the tag in my heart. Therefore, I pulled out the original rules with a little under 24 hours before the calendar flips over to a new year, I think I am safe in saying that my word count for the year is complete.

I did not write a lot this year! Comparatively, at least.* A mere 25,682 words have gone to publish. But it's also been a very disruptive year in that I quit my job of 5+ years, got rid of ALL of my stuff that couldn't fit into a tiny car, drove seven days cross country to a New Better Shinier Job (while writing a final paper), rented a 10 x 10 room above a garage for several months where my cat was very kind by not murdering me, dropped everything to sit at my dad's deathbed, went right back to work the following Monday, finished yet another graduate degree, went on a trip to Maine with friends, moved AGAIN to a much larger much more private space, and uhhh... signed up for yet another degree program. Because I have a problem. Clearly. Oh and I also broke a bone for the first time in my life! It's in my foot! I haven't gone out to do ANYTHING other than get groceries for the last two weeks and it sucks!

2022 has been a lot! More good than bad and overall improvement of everything, but a lot! And I've wanted to write. I've thought a lot about it in the moments before falling asleep! But any progress is still progress and my body comes first these days because in this house we practice self-care.

That being said, what I have put out, I've been immensely proud of. So, in no particular order and without further ado...

On the Event of the Annual Lilias Recruit Hazing Final Exam (ans, gen)

I wrote third person limited! For the first time! It was weird but also a fun to write something where the audience only has the interactions and body language to read.

2. where mended hearts meet (obiyuki, 🍋)

While I haven't been writing proper most of the year, I have been obsessing over @onedivinemisfit's camboy!obi au. It's been my personal problem, like, ever since she first introduced the concept for it and I've been screaming about it every chance that I get. Part of me much much wants to write the whole thing, but also acknowledged that I did not have the time. But also also I knew I was not going to be productive about anything at ALL until I wrote at least a little smutty smut for it. I mean, two consenting adults who are very accommodating of one anothers kinks and traumas? Sign me the fuck up, let's do this.

3. Drabble-Drabble 2022 Challenge (multiple fandoms, multiple pairings, all ratings)

Perhaps because I haven't had a chance to really focus on my writing this year, I wanted to do something uncomplicated. I remember loving drabbles back in my livejournal days. Just being absolutely laid out by 100 words precisely. But I'd never tried it myself so I wanted to give it a shot! I asked and y'all sent in around 30 prompts and I answered 26! It was a blast, highly recommend to anyone out there that wants to try their hand at it.

4. Seven Nights, Night 7 (Hakuouki, Yamachi, 🍋)

I had a moment when I went to see the timestamps of the chapters I worked on this year and it was literally just Night 7 of Seven Nights. It's split into three chapters, but it's 14k words just leading up to the final night, I don't even know what to say, y'all. Yamazaki is just real shy and writing two virgins was a lot harder than I thought (and I already thought it was going to be difficult!). I do really love it, though, they're adorable.

5. Stone Soup (Spy x Family, Yor & Yuri)

I would be remiss if I didn't include the final posted fic of the year (and my first foray into the sxf fandom!). Not only did I write a child's pov, I got to incorporate some real mean food feels into it. All together a real good time! XD

Okay! I've done it! I've said the nice things about me! Now I shall tag people, hmmm... @spoonyglitteraunt @sabraeal @claudeng80 @onedivinemisfit @infinitelystrangemachinex and anyone else who wants a go!

*Word count by year since 2016:

2016- 97,273 2017- 167,645 2018- 138,769 2019- 130,429 2020- 126,435 2021- 91,014 2022- 25,682

[pathos-p]

"Weirdly Specific Artist Ask Game" but i got tagged in it so i am gonna answer all of them 'cause theyre fun

questions by @/i-like-eyes

thanks for the tag @king-chook!! ^^

1. Art programs you have but don't use

i thiiink i have a license for clip studio paint that came with my old wacom tablet but i never rly used it. also used to have krita installed for the longest time but just always felt off to me idk why. don't currently have it installed anymore tho

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even)

to their right is a bit easier i think. not smth i consciously notice, mostly i'm just thinking abt when im doodling on the margins of stuff they usually are looking to the left of the page

3. What ideas come from when you were little

uhhh idk tbh, i dont think much of my art draws from that

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

cityscapes !!! i love cities they r so pretty and cool looking but goddamn theyre so hard to draw

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

80-20? i post everything that i finish. basically the only stuff that doesnt get posted is sketches i give up on

6. Anything that might inspire you subconsciously (i.e. this horse wasn't supposed to look like the Last Unicorn but I see it)

hmmmm not that i can think of rn...

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate

watercolour !! i've tried it a few times and Struggled but i love seeing ppl's work in it

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

so many animatics ..................... also many comic ideas ..................... i get so many ideas that i just never start on or start and only do a little before losing the hyperfocus/fixation and just Cannot continue them. it sucks

9. What are your file name conventions

usually the character name, maybe a bit of description of what theyre doing... idk not much of a convention to it

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

hmm i like jackets :)

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what

yes, usually music. sometimes random youtube videos like stream highlights or video essays.

12. Easiest part of body to draw

uhhh hair? maybe idk. hard question bc it varied a lot depending on what kinda style and just. sometimes smth is hard in a particular drawing then easy later idk

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn't your thing

i cant think of anything i will edit it in if i think of anyone

14. Any favorite motifs

in my drawings i dont feel like i use any much. mostly i pull motifs from whatever im doing fanart of lol. in music, i like religious motifs (but not like. ones abt christ or bible stories, rather heaven, hell, god/divinity, angels)

15. *Where* do you draw (don't drop your ip address this just means do you doodle at a park or smth)

at home pretty much exclusively. in bed lol

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing

idk i feel like the stuff im better at is the stuff i like bc i practice it more for fun lol

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what

not usually

18. An estimate of how much art supplies you've broken

surprisingly little. mostly bc i do more digital art lol

19. Favorite inanimate objects to draw (food, nature, etc.)

weapons and nature. especially ice for nature

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy

i cant think of anything ill add it if i do

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

i love rougher styles, like ones with a lot of visible brushstrokes and bold lines and shit. so cool. idk how to make it look good lol i dont have the confidence in my lines for it

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any

none... probably i should change that

23. Do you use different layer modes

yeah, often i use a multiple layer for shading then a variety to colour adjust at the end

24. Do your references include stock images

sometimes

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

cant think of any

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

there was this poem i wrote about capitalism and how shit it is and someone thought it was abt interpersonal relationships/smth along the lines of a breakup. i rly didnt mind it tho i thought it was cool bc the emotion was not far off, the sense of betrayal and abandonment. just a very very different subject

27. Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? If so, what is it you draw to warm up with

no lol

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)

i ran a zine (digital only) for the dimension 20 zine jam! and also made art+writing for others in that :D also was part of a polygon yt fanzine a while back

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

spider-man (not the MCU, mostly tasm and a few of the comics)

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

IS IT BAD TO SAY A PIECE THAT GOT QUITE A BIT OF POSITIVE ATTENTION ?? maybe

i rly like the cj comic i did i am genuinely so goddamn happy with the result so . even tho it did very well by the standards for the fandom its for and my current follower base it is underrated

alternatively this one https://www.tumblr.com/pathos-p/704380503765221377/tridential-sovereignty?source=share bc it didnt get all that much attention on any social media site but i think its cool !!

(mostly only using recent ones bc i dont wanna dig back further esp onto my old twt acct, too much work lol)

[iamthecomet]

Hi Comet! 2, 10, 22, 24 and 76 for the ask game pleeeeeease.

Hi Miasma!!! Thank you for these! <3 <3 2. Where do you get your fic ideas?

A variety of places! Sometimes an idea will just pop into my head, or a scene, or even just a line of dialogue. Sometimes I'll scroll past a post that says something like "I want more Dom!Rain" and I go "Oh, I want to write Dom!Rain". Usually, though it's just one little thing that pops into my head that ends up snowballing into an entire fic.

10. Do you work on multiple wips or stick to one fic at a time? Always multiple. I am incapable of working on one project at a time (this is true for craft projects, and also reading books). I like having options. But usually, once a fic gets close to being done, I am incapable of thinking about anything else until it's done.

22. Is writing the beginning, middle, or end of the story easiest? Hardest? The middle is the easiest. It's the meat of the story. It's usually where the idea I had is, and so it just flows. I always struggle with beginnings. I usually end up re-writing them several times in the editing process.

24. How do you choose whose POV to write in? This is such a great question and it's hard for me to answer because I don't really know? I rarely make a conscious decision about it. I think it's usually whoever I think is best suited to tell the story--or is the most affected by what's happening.

76. How do you deal with writing pressure, whether internal or external? So, the last time I felt any real external pressure (or let it actually get to me) was when I was in college for writing. Nothing compares to the external pressure of that program, and so I am very good at letting external pressure roll off my back. Things will get done when they get done, and it will be what it is, and I'm doing it for free on the internet and I don't owe anyone anything. Internal pressure is very different and I struggle with it constantly. I am absolutely my harshest critic and I put a lot of undue pressure on myself to be perfect. I do a lot of telling my inner monologue to shut up and just enjoy the ride. It works sometimes.

[unlimitedtrees]

This Freak i regret making in my video game

it is time for me to talk about one of the things i regret making: This Freak

this creature is a secret hidden boss i made for my game 'UNITRES Dreams' 2 years ago and i ended up having Way Too Much to say about them .. read more If You Dare !!!

let me start at the beginning. when i first started working on 'UNITRES Dreams' (which at the time was called 'UNITRES - BRAND NEW WORLD EDITION', one of the big inspirations for me gameplay wise was deltarune. i wanted to try doing something crazy and try to sort of combine the bullet hell like fights in deltarune with a platformer. however there was one big problem: i have never really designed boss fights before

prior to unitres, the only game i made with completely new boss fights was my old fangame 'unlimited trees' sonic 1', and all the bosses in that game were gimmicky but also really badly planned and programmed. aside from some failed attempts in my very first unreleased games, that was all the experience i had with designing boss fights.

having no experience designing bosses and also being a really bad programmer in construct 2, i wanted to try and practice making a boss, and i figured itd be a good idea to try to remake a boss from deltarune, both to experiment with how bosses would work in the game and also as a little tribute to deltarune.

the boss fight i chose to remake was the hidden Jevil fight in deltarune chapter 1, but instead of Just making jevil i wanted to make my own little twist, making a sort of alternate version of the character if it existed in the universe of my game. i made my own character design, named it 'Joker' based off jevil's name in the code of deltarune and wanted it to have its own unique personality n stuff (more on that in a bit..)

when making the actual fight itself, i wanted to try to replicate most of the attacks from the original game, making them work in the context of a 2d platformer. there were a few moves that i felt wouldnt work though, so i had to make a few completely unique attacks. for the first few days i worked on the fight, i struggled badly with figuring out how to get certain things to work (mainly the rotating hearts and the move with the 4 scythes), but i honestly liked how the first few moves in the fight came out... theyre pretty fun to go against and are actually Possible to Avoid.

And then there is the carousel. you see, i am Not a good programmer. i have Never done pseudo 3d stuff in my Life. but i Really wanted the carousel attack from the jevil fight as it was one of the most interesting things from that fight and i felt it could really work in the context of a platformer. However , my implementation of this move was Horrible.

in order to get the 3d carousel effect to work, i hadto look up a tutorial which had an example project that i could use as a base. there was one major problem with this: the carousel effect was a Lot more different from the one in deltarune and i had No Idea what the code fully meant. not only did the sprites not stretch to give the illiusion of them turning around the carousel, but the carousel rotated in the y axis aswell, rather than just horizontally like the one in deltarune, if that makes any sense.

so, i had to spend multiple days of trial and error to gut the example carousel to work how i wanted it to, along with figuring out how to get the sprites to stretch along the rotation. not only that, but i had to edit a ton of stuff just to make it work in unitres' project file, as the original example project file was in a higher resolution and the code wasnt made for unitres' smaller screen size.

eventually though, i was able to get it to work, and im pretty happy with how it looked and how i managed to get it actually working. i still had even More issues with getting collision to work with it (and theres even still a problem in the final game with the player's shield still activating with the further away objects.. which is a Problem which i never figured out), But i managed to pull through and was pretty proud with myself at the end.

There Was One Major Problem , However: it was near the end of like, feburary. i planned on releasing the entire game in may.

that was Very dumb of me in hindsight. i couldve just not put the pressure of a really close release date on myself. but i wanted the game to come out on my birthday in 2019. the game's story literaly involves the date May 9th. i had spent multiple days on one boss fight that wasnt even Complete at that point, when i still had to make the Entire Rest Of The Game in less than 3 months.

And So. the boss was put on hold for the time being. i worked on the rest of the game (and ended up rushing a Ton of things) just to get the game Playable by the end of april. i planned on spending the last days of april going back to the boss fight and finishing it up... but i ended up running out of time to work on the game and had to work on Everything on the very last couple of days.

So. how did the boss finally come out? well. first off, i planned on the boss having completely original music and voice lines like the original jevil boss. i was considering on having the song be a remix of the world revolving from deltarune but including the main leitmotif from unitres as a cute little thing. However, the entire game's soundtrack wasnt done yet, and the joker fight was Very low priority in the ost. so, on the Very Day of the game's release, i had to scramble as i had to implement the new tracks sent by one of the composers the very morning of the game's release, making sure everything worked and could actually be released. so, the fight reused music and sounds from deltarune as a placeholder.

but that's not even getting into the fight itself. a lot of the moves were really rushed, most of them just being a spam of bullets with no thought on how youd actually Dodge them. prior to when the game became 'UNITRES Dreams', the controls and movement were A LOT slower and simpler, so you couldnt quickly avoid attacks.. and the shielding mechanic was a lot simpler and had no parry mechanic for the ??? and ?????? characters, meaning your only choice was to play as Trees if you wanted to survive. lastly, the 'final chaos' move was Very rushed and barely tested. everything in the fight is pretty janky and none of the moves had any sort of choreographing.

after the release of 'UNITRES - BRAND NEW WORLD Edition', it got Barely any attention. i was really disappointed in it and as a whole it was janky and didnt pull off all the things envisioned. So, i began working on a new update for the game, which ended up renaming the game to 'UNITRES Dreams'.

throughout the new update's development, the entire gameplay changed. the movement and mechanics were more complex and Fast, a ton of artwork and levels got redone, and some bosses got updated to be Less broken than before. but the joker fight kind of went neglected. i never was able to get any composer to work on the track for the fight. i didnt really bother messing with the fight's code as it is a Mess. even after UNITRES Dreams released, almost Nobody knew the fight even existed (as the only way to access it was either thru the level select or thru collecting 3 hidden keys in a specific level).

that leads us to today. the boss fight is still in the itch.io version, but i removed it in the newgrounds release as i think newgrounds doesnt allow you to use music from games that you didnt make. ive tried avoiding talking about the boss's existence as im still kind of worried about the fact that i basicaly just copied an entire character from deltarune and put it in my game.. but also considering toby fox is the guy who made the earthbound halloween hack i do not think he is the type to sue some random person's free indie game on newgrounds.

i kind of regret putting this boss in my game. i couldve put the time into making the initial release a lot better.. i also feel bad about not making the boss fight as good as it couldve been... i still think the idea of a platformer bullet hell is really interesting and could be done, but i dont think it is something im really capable of right now.

i think that is all i have to say about this boss fight. i hope you found it interesting. if you are willing to try it.. good luck. it is Possible to beat but it is not very Fun. and also i think it soft locks. i dont remember. if i get sued by toby fox for making this boss... that would be kind of crazy i think. i hope hes heard of 'pepsi in sonic 1'

oh and also. play unitres dreams . ehehehehehe

oh and Also Also... if you wish, you can watch a video of the freak here

[readingloveswounds]

Why did you decide to go to France? Is it essential or important for your research? And did you already know how to speak french? x

Hi!

The second question is quick to answer: yes, I did. I've been taking French since I was 5, I majored in it (+ studied abroad), worked there for ~9 months, and am in a French program for my PhD (required to have native/near-native level). So it's pretty much fine, living here. I'm a little precious about my writing skills but I am reasonably good at it generally.

To the first question:

It is essential for my research. Prior to coming here, I might have said just important, but after having been here, it is essential. My advisor did say that it was extremely important to see things in person and I should have believed him.

Connections! I despise networking BUT I've been able to meet so many people face-to-face who work in my sub-field. That has led to two conference invitations and I hope to ask one of those people to be on my dissertation committee, so it's nice to have a relationship already.

Peace and quiet. I went monk mode this year - I was on multiple fellowships and thus did not have to teach or anything, so my main job was writing the dissertation. There were fewer distractions, though I did see friends and do some traveling, but it was easier to just buckle down and get things done.

It is true that many of the documents I work on have been digitized - but not all. A few examples of why I needed to be here:

PRINTS: All the prints from my first chapter are digitized. However, they are digitized individually - you don't get to experience them as a sequence at all. Which is fine, they were designed to be printed one by one, but as has been shown, a LOT of contemporarily-compiled sets were done so in their entirety or near-entirety. That's actually the reason I gave when I had to provide a reason to the BNF for seeing one of the albums - I wanted to see the sequence.

It changes the experience to see them in order. Something I hadn't anticipated was how much the size of them also influences the experience - they are BIG and it's important to see them in real life at that real size.

It also allowed me to take my own photos - the scans online are high quality, but one of the prints that has a lot of cross hatching to depict darkness is not amazingly well scanned, so it was good to get clearer images.

Related print series are NOT digitized - I wanted to see a German printer's reproduction/extension of the print series. These are not as easily found online in their entirety, and again, seeing their real-life size was very helpful. It makes it clear that the original printers were making images that I would call more effective.

MARTYROLOGY:

There are 15 editions of this martyrology. 4 of these are easy enough to find online, but the first edition is NOT easily found online, so in person was the only way to really see what was going on there.

Being able to see several editions at once gives a good idea of how it has changed over time - the first edition is in-octavo (small enough to go in a pocket) and the final edition is over a foot long and probably about 6 inches thick.

There also isn't a good modern edition of any of these texts - the final one has been edited but it's from the 1800s, so it just felt better to go ahead and reference the originals in this case, especially since I was using three editions to a large extent in the chapter.

MISC:

I got to see a MS in person that I'd written an article on. It's a bit emotional too, to see this man's handwriting. He's been dead since 1630, but here I am looking at the marks he made. This wasn't strictly necessary but it was a really important experience for me personally.

Understandably, but something I hadn't anticipated - it's easier to get access to secondary sources because the BNF has everything, and, obviously prioritizes French critics. In the US, it takes a while to get off-campus storage stuff, but at the BNF if it's not there, I can often order it for that afternoon or the next day.

[readingsquotes]

A secret blacklist? 

One Saturday in mid-October, I arrived at work shortly after the airing of an interview with the prominent Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization, Diana Buttu. 

There had been a commotion, I was told. A producer from The National—the CBC’s flagship nightly news and current affairs program—had apparently stormed into the newsroom during the interview saying that Buttu was on a list of banned Palestinian guests and that we weren’t supposed to book her. 

I heard from multiple colleagues that the alleged list of banned Palestinian guests wasn’t official. Rather, a number of pro-Israel producers were rumoured to have drawn up their own list of guests to avoid.

Later, I was told by the producer of the interview that, after the broadcast, Buttu’s details had mysteriously vanished from a shared CBC database. By then, I had also discovered that the name and contact details for the Palestinian Ambassador Mona Abuamara, who had previously been interviewed, had likewise been removed. It didn’t seem coincidental that both guests were articulate defenders of Palestinian rights.

While producers distressed by the CBC’s coverage of Gaza were speaking in whispers, pro-Israeli colleagues felt comfortable making dehumanizing comments about Palestinians in the newsroom.

In one case, I heard an associate producer speak disparagingly about a guest’s decision to wear a keffiyeh for an interview before commenting that “[the host] knows how to handle these people.” This guest had dozens of family members killed by the Israeli military in Gaza. 

It seemed the only Palestinian guest CBC was interested in interviewing was the sad, docile Palestinian who talked about their suffering without offering any analysis or solutions to end it. What they did not want was an angry Palestinian full of righteous indignation towards governments complicit in their family’s displacement and murder. 

At this stage, I was starting to feel nauseous at work. And then one Saturday night, that sickness turned into anger. 

I had been asked to finish production on a pre-taped interview with a “constructive dialogue” researcher on incidents of campus hostilities over the war and how to bring people together—the sort of interview CBC loves, as it’s a way to be seen covering the story without actually talking about what’s happening in Gaza. 

I carried out the task in good faith, writing an introduction leading with an example of antisemitism and then another of anti-Palestinian hate, taking care to be “balanced” in my approach. But my senior producer proceeded to remove the example of anti-Palestinian hate, replacing it with a wishy-washing “both sides” example, while leaving the specific serious incident of antisemitism intact. He also edited my wording to suggest that pro-Palestinian protesters on Canadian campuses were on the “side” of Hamas. 

I overheard the host thank the senior producer for the edits, on the basis that incidents of antisemitism were supposedly worse. While the introduction of these biases into my script was relatively minor compared to some other double standards I witnessed, it was a tipping point. 

I challenged the senior on why he had made my script journalistically worse. He made up a bad excuse. I told him I couldn’t do this anymore and walked out of the newsroom, crying. 

...

There had been previous attempts at CBC to improve the public broadcaster’s coverage of Israel-Palestine. In 2021, hundreds of Canadian journalists signed an open letter calling out biases in the mainstream media’s treatment of the subject.

A number of CBC workers who signed the letter were hauled into meetings and told they either weren’t allowed to cover the subject or would have any future work on the issue vetted. A work friend later regretted signing the letter because she got the sense that she had been branded as biased, leading to her pitches on Palestine being more readily dismissed. 

[stefanemmanuel211]

Thumbs

Reference

Chosen Topic: Record Album Cover

Software used: Adobe Photoshop

Keywords: Alter ego, Character development, Remorse, Emotions

Creative Concept:

Since the first year when we experimented with incorporating type into photography, I have always been a fan of making album covers. Similar to the M&M assignment. In this edition, I felt the need to create an alternative record album cover art design for one of my favourite artists. I decided to use Photoshop especially since I am using photography in this illo. Over time, album covers have definitely left a huge impact on the history of graphic design. And this piece really speaks a lot of the thoughts and ideas that go into creating this artwork by the musician portrayed by the designer.

Illo Description:

The title of my album cover is a portrait of the sensational XO singer “THE WEEKND”, taken from his 2020 album titled: AFTER HOURS. Being an instant classic R&B along with Hip-Hop elements soundtrack of 2020, from one of my beloved artists. His album culminates the emotional thoughts & and feelings of late nights, being the ideal time to listen to this type of music. The album is portrayed like a scene from a movie, where his music is being used as a vessel for depicting him as this After-Hours character, who wears a red suit jacket with a pair of shades & and has a blinding smile. His effective use of storytelling hints that his After Hours narrative shows The Weeknd evolves into a Michael Myers type of murderer. This has resulted in a mental cost for him where his thoughts are taking over his actions as he is being dragged into his old ways. Due to his past toxic relationships, it has become a psychedelic journey filled with heartbreak and addiction as it reveals the progression of his character across the 14-track list.

When creating my thumbs I made it very rough since I always tend to work more in the program through trial and error, expressing my thoughts and ideas for the final cover. I felt in terms of analogue I have good enough experience but I wanted to improve more on the digital side of things. I am still an avid learner of Photoshop and want to explore more stuff day by day.

After the COMPLETION of my work, I was impressed with the way it turned out to be. Proving that the half-tone, film grain and tweaking with Photoshop's built-in camera raw feature really suited the photo I had hand-picked. His highlighted vibrant shadow in the background showing off his messy afro hairstyle & and unshaven beard; brought out his raw mixed emotions through his facial features behind his blinding shades and bloodied bruised wounds, revealing the uncertainty of his character, which made it so profound. Layering multiple effects on a photo to tweak it to your heart's desire. The image used is from the photoshoot he did when premiering the album. And I managed to find a close enough typeface to his original one which I really loved. Album covers have been the foundational elements which got me interested in design in the first place.

[slaughtermaticgames]

Bigger, Better, Scarier, Slightly less ugly

Since submitting my fractured project to the game jam I've been in a bit of a rut when it comes to game dev stuff. I made a few mini projects just for programming practice but I really didn't know what to do with myself.

I think I found the solution. Even though games like Scary House aren't really what I want to make as a dev; I've decided to reboot the project and start (almost) from scratch.

The issue with the way I put it back together after the blue screen I think had something to do with merging engine files that you wouldn't edit directly (if that makes sense I'm still new so Idk what they're ACTUALLY called). I should have restarted it this way during the jam.

For the game jam I was targeting 5 minutes of gameplay. I think with this remake I want to target 30+. I want to make my house much more detailed and less blocky with more objectives. Maybe even multiple enemy pursuers. I want to have windows in the house and I want to make an outdoor environment for them to show. I'm going to be learning how to really use TrenchBroom instead of just forcing boxes together and subtract/hollow etc. The original map was dog shit and felt very on rails.

Here is my current test scene where I'm just practicing and figuring out how to navigate TB and testing designs with player collision/enemy pathing to see what works and what doesn't. I also have some pretty extensive notes so that I can build things and know they're going to work in engine.

Heres a project screen. I've got my player controller and the enemy in the same scene with no errors. So thats cool. Bare minimum work on the actual programming side. More to come.

I don't think this is gonna win any awards and it may even end up being objectively bad but I will pursue my original vision and use this project to sharpen my "skills" instead of idling. I really enjoy game dev but if I stop doing it long enough I'll just quit. I don't want to quit.

I'm also going to take this opportunity to figure out a good project/life balance. During the jam I worked every waking moment on this project and although I would probably do that again for a jam (thats just kinda what you do). I want to fit game dev into my life more naturally while also holding myself accountable for working on it regularly. I guess thats less related to the project but I just wanted to add that. Also I'm starting like a coding career school thing so I'll have to work around that too.