#google play console developer

[giftcardzonedh]

Go to the Google Play Store on your Android device or visit play.google.com on a web browser.

Navigate to the "Redeem" section and enter the code from the gift card.

Once redeemed, the balance will be added to your Google Play account, which you can use to purchase apps, games, movies, books, or other digital content available on the Google Play Store.

[sillybrainrotter]

Ok, as promised, games Shigaraki would play according to the most autistic gamer boy I know:

-When Shiggy was a kid he used to play three games on loop: Minecraft, Spore and Lego Star Wars. This is early stage autism in development.

-Now, he became a "PC master race" elitist. He does own a console only to write "this game would be so much better on PC" in reviews.

-He writes lots of reviews but they are... Not helpful. He usually just writes very biased, elitist and toxic comments resulting in him getting banned from writing anything ever again.

-And he does that with every AAA game. He plays all of them, obviously, but he gets bored quickly. He turns them off after 5-6 hours only to write a review that gets taken down by the mods with a speed of light.

-Speaking of AAA games, he would definitely develop this strange fascination with Starfield. Don't get it wrong, he played it for 5-6 hours as well. But for some reason he defends it like his life depends on it.

Autistic boy side note: "Starfield is for jobless egomaniacs who are stuck in the past. So a perfect fit. Also I want to add that Bethesda is fucking shit."

-Then there are souls-like games. He acknowledged that they are good but it definitely took him a while. He started with the Elden Ring. He googled the strongest build, obtained it, got his ass beaten and wrote a lengthy review about how the game sucks ass.

-He hates pvp. He used to play some of the most popular titles but he absolutely hates pvp. This is how he developed his anger issues.

-The last one he played and enjoyed for a moment was Rainbow Six Siege. The extremely high level of toxicity only spurred him on. He got muted for "toxic behavior" and it made him so mad he stopped playing.

Autistic boy side note #2: "No League of Legends. We are past that. LoL is absolute shit gameplay wise. The only ones playing LoL are held hostage by the lore. And Shigaraki is NOT reading all that. He is the type to be into game mechanics only. Also LoL is fucking shit."

-Games he often comes back to and actually enjoys: Helldivers 2, Terraria, Rimworld, Dying Light.

[cpericardium]

This is the story of the time I interviewed at Ubisoft.

When I was a teenager, I became obsessed with the Bioshock series and got it into my head that I wanted to do game design for a living. I'd never seriously attempted it nor did I know exactly what it entailed, but how hard could it be? I gamed!! I had ideas!! I said this to my teacher during a what do you want to be when you grow up talk, and she said, "Oh! My sister works at Ubisoft Singapore. I'll get you an interview."

Emails were exchanged, and someone at the company arranged a "quick chat" with me a couple of weeks later. It was for a QA tester intern position, which I reasoned was sort of like game design. After all, in the Sims 3 it's one rung on the ladder to becoming a game developer. Also I didn't want to anger my teacher. She was quite volatile.

Round 1:

I'd never done a job interview before. I put on a nice blouse and pencil skirt and heels, nervously applied and reapplied makeup which I normally did not wear, and showed up at the office building an hour early. Then as I went up the elevator I realised they never said what room it was. I couldn't very well email to ask now. I'd look like an idiot!! Fuck!! So for an hour, I just skulked around outside various glass doors peering into offices hoping there would be some receptionist around to ask, but there was practically no one there. The email only said "let's have a quick chat at 2pm on x date".

I was about to slink home with my tail between my legs when the interviewer called at the scheduled time. It was a phone interview!!!!! He didn't say that!!!!! I found a dingy secluded stairwell. As if to taunt me, one of the first questions he asked was "have you ever been to the building?"

Me, through gritted teeth: yeah! actually I'm here right now, haha... to scope it out, you know... get a lay of the land..... it's really big... Lots of glass walls...

Him: oh that's nice.

I don't remember most of the questions, but I do know he asked me what my favourite games were. I said Undertale and Life is Strange (they had come out that year), but he'd never heard of them. Maybe I should've said Far Cry or something but what if he quizzed me on it?

Round 2:

I should not have made it to this round. I was coasting entirely on the goodwill of my teacher's sister, who was high up the chain. She interviewed me next. I think her only question was whether I would be okay working long gruelling hours with little support and no overtime.

Me, blissfully unaware of crunch culture being a massive human rights issue in the industry: bring it on!!

Her: what? 🤨

Then she ushered me into a room to take a pencil and paper test. While waiting earlier, I'd frantically googled and memorised a bunch of Ubisoft games, so I could answer the one asking me to list eight of them. I figured I could have gotten away with saying Assassin's Creed and adding a random number to the back though.

The biggest problem was on the other side of the paper: a diagram of a gaming controller asking me to label the buttons. Here's the thing. I'm a PC gamer. Always have been. At the time, my only experience with console gaming was playing Little Big Planet with my best friend when I was twelve, at her house. And I wasn't very good at it! I think I fundamentally lack the hand-eye coordination for console gaming, but that's just a guess because I can count on one hand the number of times I've ever used a controller. And I can count on one hand the number of controllers I have in that hand! It's zero! I knew the wiggly antennae were for movement and the buttons on the sides did esoteric things that people will yell at you to press during crucial moments, but that was it. I ended up labelling the buttons the shapes they were (circle button, triangle button, square button etc).

The interviewer came back into the room after about 15 minutes and said I now had an hour to play an unfinished level of Assassin's Creed, identify as many bugs as possible, and record them on a spreadsheet. And even though she set me up at a computer monitor, I still had to use a controller. Are you kidding me! This was the Victorian era Assassin's Creed. I had never played any AC games before, so I didn't know what were bugs and what were features. Was "can't jump" a bug? Was "invisible wall surrounding staircases"? What was the format and lingo you were supposed to use when recording bugs? I made no progress towards the quest at all (I did not understand it or who my character was), just wandered around and wrote down things I noticed and didn't like until time was up.

Anyway, that's the tale of how I didn't get a job I was woefully unprepared and underqualified for and in retrospect didn't want all that much. Maybe what I really wanted was to be... was Ayn Rand.

[yetitakinginventory]

Rise of the Guardians Dash n Drop

The mobile game by PikPok and released in the App Store and Google Play. It stayed online for years but ultimately was taken down in 2016.

This game, by every right, should have been what was released on game consoles everywhere. The graphics, music, and gameplay are all brilliantly done. The game is fun, addictive, and incredibly challenging without being frustrating. It has only one single control, something that should make this unbelievably simple to play but creates a difficulty in maneuvering around the constant enemies approaching from all sides.

This likely encourages the purchase of boosts in the workshop, but the lack of negative consequences to losing a level means you don't experience the frustration that fuels in-app game purchases.

The price of coins is reasonable for the cost of each lower level boost. For $20 you can get 1,500 Holiday shields, protecting you from 4,500 nightmare attacks. (In 2012 I was making $10 an hour, the cost of the ticket to see this movie was $8)

And that's not the only boost, as you progress across the cities you begin to gain support from your fellow Guardians, who will attack or block the Nightmares to protect your sliegh.

From Sandy turning them into Coins, recouping part of your purchase, to Jack freezing them in place making them harmless or easily breakable if you run into them. These boosts are not just a purchase item, you can collect them as you go, either by themselves or by rescuing Elves on the way.

Like all mobile games they keep you coming back with daily goals, and get you started with rewards for logging in on Facebook and joining their group or liking them. So you don't have to spend real money on coins if you didn't want to.

And a Leaderboard so you could see how you were stacking up with fans around the world.

If you never got the chance to play this, or are feeling Nostalgic, TouchGameplay on YouTube has a video with 15 minutes of gameplay.

And shout out to Pokémon Trainer Ryan on Youtube for attempting to archive the music.

Although its no longer in the app store if you have an older Android phone, or download the Vmos app and run an older version of Android on your phone, you may still be able to download and play the game HERE. This is a fully downloadable app, but I have not been able to verify if it still works disconnected from the developers.

All my love to game archives that do their best to preserve old mobile games.

[rivalsforlife]

Interviews Regarding 456, and the possibility of AAI ports and AA7.

Recently, a bunch of interviews with the producer of the upcoming Ace Attorney 456 collection, Kenichi Hashimoto, have been released. Most of these are in Japanese, discussing various elements of the upcoming ports, including new features like the Orchestra Hall and Story Mode, but a few bring up some interesting future directions for the series, including the possibility of an AA4 anime or live-action drama, AAI2 ports, and AA7. As well, some discuss the influence of overseas sales on the current direction of the series.

**Please keep in mind that most of these interviews (with one exception) were originally in Japanese, and translated with google translate (with some possibly inaccurate modifications by me). As a result, the validity of the translation may be unreliable.**

From Gamer, regarding overseas fans and the increase in sales overseas:

--What kind of opinions and fan base do you get from overseas about the "Ace Attorney" series?

Hashimoto: The “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy” was released in 2019, and the number of users and sales have increased significantly in regions such as North America, Europe, and Asia.

--With the exception of "Ace Attorney Investigations," I think all numbered titles in the "Ace Attorney" series can now be played on current consoles. Was this possible because of the great response to the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy?

Hashimoto: Yes. As I mentioned earlier, it has been well received in North America, Europe, and Asia, and the number of users has increased, and of course there are people asking, "Why are 1, 2, and 3 available but not 4?" So I thought I had to do something about it.

Also, I wanted users to see games 4, 5, and 6, which are now playable on current consoles, so I was able to develop and release them. I think again that it is a very happy thing.

From this Famitsu Interview, regarding the future of the series:

--In 2023, there were musicals and readings of "The Great Ace Attorney", but I'm also curious about the future development of the "Ace Attorney" series.

Hashimoto: After the 20th anniversary of the Ace Attorney series, I would like to prepare various things for the 25th anniversary. The same goes for orchestral concerts, and I'd also like to do plays, musicals, and anime.

The TV anime was made up to season 2 with Phoenix Wright as the main character, but Apollo has not appeared yet, and since it is a courtroom story, a live-action drama seems interesting.

-- Since ``Ace Attorney'' was made into a movie once, there is a possibility of a live-action drama as well.

Hashimoto: That's right. However, it's not like my dreams will come true right away... I hope all the fans of "Ace Attorney'' can look forward to it while imagining the various possibilities in the future.

From IGN Japan:

--What are your plans for the future of the series? Could you please tell me about the possibility of ports of the "Ace Attorney Investigations" series, or another mainline entry?

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell you, there is nothing. However, we have no intention of ending the "Ace Attorney" series here, and we would like to see the series grow older, reaching its 25th anniversary in 2026 and its 30th anniversary in 2031. I don't know when or what I'll be able to announce, but please stay tuned for more information.

--If there were to be a new work such as ``Ace Attorney 7,'' what kind of thing would you want?

It's difficult to balance making a work that fans of the series can enjoy while also making it a work that new players can enjoy, but it is necessary to have the charm that is common to the entire "Ace Attorney" series. This includes the story, the characters, the puzzles, the tempo. These four will be essential for "Ace Attorney."

And finally from Siliconera about the news I've been waiting my whole life for -- this interview was actually published in English!

With so many Ace Attorney collections out now and games released, how would you feel about an Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth collection that includes localization of the second game?

Hashimoto: The development team is aware that fans are hoping for this. Unfortunately, we have no announcements at this time.

Most of this is of course corporate speak of not being able to confirm or deny anything, but this is the closest we've gotten to confirmation that AAI2 might be localized so far. As well, it does sound like the series is doing well, particularly overseas, which is encouraging for people hoping for more. It definitely doesn't sound like they think the series is dead yet!

[incomingalbatross]

LAMC AU (all Evernote content)?

You've discovered maybe the sole Doctor Who document in that list!

So when I posted this, the title was not precisely true. It was going to hold all my Evernote content for this AU (my Evernote period came before my Google Docs period, so older fics are still languishing there) but I got fed up with the transfer process and quit halfway through. Good news, though: getting this ask motivated me to finish that! So thank you. :)

More pertinently, the acronym stands for "Less Angst More Chill" and it is a very self-indulgent AU I developed ages ago, still dear to my heart, where I take the Tenth Doctor and forcibly make him calm down by removing Rose from his era and adding the Brigadier.

(For those curious about the mechanics of how, the divergence point is the TARDIS being found in "The Parting of the Ways" by the Brigadier, Liz, and Kate, en route to a UNIT conference; they step inside and the TARDIS takes them to Nine, before Bad Wolf has a chance to happen. The whole scenario's definitely contrived, but that's what fixits are for, right?)

It's a fun AU for me because it has more Brigadier (you know I think that's always an improvement ;P), the Tenth Doctor is somewhat saner than in canon, and along the way it turned into a sandbox where I could play with all my Doctor Who toys blissfully canon-free.

Snippet:

"Hullo. Bet that was a bit of a surprise--sorry, best I could do. Just a recording, though. I'm the Doctor, by the way." The recorded image waggled his fingers in a wave--facing Alistair, but not quite looking at him. "I probably don't look familiar--don't quite know who's going to see this, so I can't be sure--but trust me, I'm the Doctor. The whole different face thing, it's just . . . something that happens occasionally. Sorry 'bout that."

Alistair sighed, leaning against the console. "Yes, I'm familiar with the concept of regeneration," he muttered. "What's going on, Doctor?"

The image (which had been patiently scratching its ear, arms folded, as if waiting something out), straightened up. "Anyways. That actually isn't the important part here."

"No, really?"

"The important thing is this message. Because if it's playing for you, that means two things. One: I've been separated from my TARDIS, probably forever. Two, and more importantly: You're on the very short list of people I actually trust to take care of the old girl without me."

Alistair stiffened, shoulders falling into military stance without his conscious input, chin coming up and eyes narrowing to focus on the hologram.

The Doctor's image was smiling slightly, contritely. Unfortunately for him, that was an expression Alistair had seen too many times, in the wake of far too many harebrained schemes gone wrong, to be at all impressed by it now.

[p5x-theories]

What We Know About P5X

(last updated 5/15/24)

Persona 5: The Phantom X (P5X) has previously had three beta tests, the first of which ran from March 29th to 31st 2023, the second of which ran from August 18th to 25th 2023, and the third of which ran from January 16th to 31st 2024. The open beta, essentially the game's official launch, began on April 12th 2024. Japan later ran a beta test from November to December 2024. A global launch has been announced for June 26th, 2025!

Here’s a summary of what we know about the game itself so far. Hopefully this’ll be useful, whether you're new around here or not!

I also keep updated posts about the game's story, playable characters, and other useful information, which can be found in this blog's pinned post (along with this post!). Some things may be slightly out of date with official English translations, but I'm doing my best to keep everything up.

Keeping this as succinct as I can, but it's still a little long, so under the cut it goes.

Overview

P5X is a turn-based RPG mobile game with gacha elements, developed by Black Wings Game Studio and published by Perfect World Games. While not directly creating it, it is officially licensed by Atlus and Sega. Atlus has apparently been very involved in its production, including Shigenori Soejima designing the protagonist and his Persona, and Atlus writing the story and collab's plots. This is discussed in more detail in the interviews here if you're curious.

The game's setting has been confirmed to be an alternate/"parallel" world to Persona 5's, though translated promotional information also confirms the plot has something to do with these two worlds interacting through "time and space". While the interaction seems primarily tied to the Collaboration events (see later on in this post), it's supposed to have some relevance to the main plot as well.

As Perfect World Games and Black Wings Game Studio are Chinese game companies, and Atlus and Sega are Japanese game companies, P5X is produced in Chinese and Japanese. The dialogue in-game is voiced in both Japanese and Chinese, with Japanese and Chinese voice actors for the characters. It's currently unknown whether the game will ever get an English cast, but currently the Steam listing says it will not have English audio.

Right now, we know the game is available on both mobile (iOS and Android) and PC (Google Play Games and Steam), and it's been officially stated that a console version is planned for after the game releases globally. The first three of the beta tests were closed betas, available only in China, Taiwan, Macau, and Hong Kong, where players could sign up for a chance to get in, and actual beta accounts were given out via lottery. The open beta requires only a Chinese phone number to sign up, although the Taiwan/Macau/Hong Kong version also allows players to log in with a Google account, and the English and Japanese versions will presumably be similar. Accounts do not seem to be transferable between other methods and Steam, though players can swap between mobile and PC versions otherwise.

Note that there was some confusion about whether the open beta was the game's official launch at first, due to the language barrier. Posts on this blog prior to 5/15/2024 often refer to it as the "fourth beta" instead, and may erroneously suggest it was just another beta test.

There are specifically two main gachas in the game- a character gacha for gaining teammates, and a weapons gacha for gaining better weapons for those teammates. While the game is extremely similar to Persona 5 overall, there are many aspects, obviously including the gacha, that differ from it, which are summarized below and detailed further in another post.

The Characters

So far, there are 27 new Persona users. These characters can be divided into story teammates and "Phantom Idol" (gacha-only) teammates.

The story teammates so far are the protagonist (codename Wonder), an owl named Ruferu in Japanese which has sometimes been translated as "Luffy" by fans (codename Cattle), an athletic classmate of the protagonist's named Motoha Arai (codename Closer), a boy from another class with an interest in cooking named Shun Kanou (codename Soy), disciplinary committee member Riko Tanemura (codename Wind), and stage actor from another school Shouki Ikenami (codename Luce). These teammates have all joined as part of the plot of the game.

The "Phantom Idol" teammates ("Kaidoru" in Japanese) are described as being cognitive beings created by Wonder's Velvet Room attendant, Merope, to assist him in the Metaverse, based on people Wonder meets, though they are only copies. You can find more detailed information about each of them in the linked post, in additional to general information about how they function.

So far, they include Motoha's best friend Tomoko Noge (codename Moko), imaginative first year student Kiyoshi Kurotani (codename Key), Wonder's family friend Kayo Tomiyama (codename Okyann), college freshman from China Yaoling Li (codename Rin), aspiring actor Reo Kamiyama (codename Leon), Yaoling's traditionally-dressed neighbor Yukimi Fujikawa (codename Yuki), fencing high school student Seiji Shiratori (codename Fleuret), injured ice skater Kotone Montagne (codename Mont), an online friend of Wonder's who goes by the name YUI (codename Bui), 10 year-old math prodigy Haruna Nishimori (codename Riddle), unemployed fisherman Toshiya Sumi (codename Sepia), and aspiring puppeteer Miyu Sahara (codename Puppet).

Later Phantom Idols added after the initial release of the game include student working for her family's store Minami Miyashita (codename Marian), 75 year-old saxophone player Chizuko Nagao (codename Vino), flairtender Yuumi Shiina (codename Phoebe), aspiring musician Ayaka Sakai (codename Chord), medical intern Kira Kitazato (codename Messa), flower-loving third year Masaki Ashiya (codename Cherish), fashion student/Shibuya mascot superfan Runa Dogenzaka (codename Howler), firefighter Mio Natsukawa (codename Matoi), racing fan Mayumi Hashimoto (codename Turbo), and recovering singer Manaka Nagao (codename Ange). Alternate versions of characters, such as ones related to events or the character's Confidant, have been added as well.

The full group of Phantom Thieves from Persona 5 Royal also appear as Phantom Idols: Joker, Mona, Skull, Panther, Fox, Queen, Oracle, Noir, Violet, and Crow. Datamining also found some of Wolf’s battle voice lines from P5S at least in the first beta, and an icon from P5S with Sophie in every beta and the official release, suggesting they may later be added as well. Joker, at the very least, seems to have some larger role in the plot, as Wonder has a dream about them fighting at the start of the game, and later what seems to be a Phantom Idol Joker comes out of nowhere to rescue Wonder and Cattle in Mementos. Wonder is also able to use his universe's Leblanc to visit the Leblanc of Joker's universe, and spend time with the P5 Thieves there.

There is also a multi-chapter Persona 5 Collab event, which involves the P5X and P5 Phantom Thieves meeting in strange Metaverse locations that mix aspects of both P5 and P5X's Palaces. Similar to the PQ games, the teams cannot leave these areas until they defeat the ruler of each area, and afterward, none of them seem to retain their memories of the events, though they regain these memories when they enter the next location to appear. Later, a P5R collab event was held as well (see the same link as the original P5 event above).

A Persona 3 Reload collaboration was announced after the conclusion of the P5R collab. The Persona 3 protagonist (as Makoto Yuki), Yukari Takeba, Akihiko Sanada, Junpei Iori, Mitsuru Kirijo, Fuuka Yamagishi, Aigis, Koromaru, Ken Amada, and Shinjiro Aragaki are all either currently in the game, or to be added in the future.

Munehisa Iwai, Tae Takemi, and Chihaya Mifune also return in P5X. Iwai runs the weapon gacha, Takemi sells medicine like in P5, and Chihaya tells fortunes. The other original P5 confidants’ portraits and 3D models have been found in every betas' data, and the Councillor Arcana card was with the other cards in the second, third, and fourth betas' data specifically, but it’s currently unknown whether they’ll actually return in any capacity.

The developers have also repeatedly expressed interest in having collabs with the other numbered Persona series games in the future. Izanagi and Asterius have been in the game files since the beta tests.

Music

Several new songs appear in P5X, several of which feature vocals by Lyn: the first opening song "Ambitions and Visions", the second opening song "Show Stealer", "Last Strike", "Wake Up Your Hero", "Shadow", "Fatal Desire", and "Gone With the Storm". The new instrumental tracks so far include background music for the Palaces, background music for special fights, a new music track for Mementos and some other areas affiliated with Mementos, and some music for P5X's rhythm minigame/side quest, where Wonder plays music as a member of his school's music club.

When Ayaka Sakai (Chord) was added, two songs sung by her were also added to the game. It's been announced that some more new songs sung by Manaka Nagao (Ange) will also be added to the game alongside her.

Locations

The majority of P5 and P5R’s locations have been confirmed for P5X, including Yongen-Jaya, Kichijoji, Shibuya, and Shinjuku among others, but the protagonist lives in a new location called Zoshigaya, and goes to a new school called Kokatsu Academy located in Shimokitazawa. Another school named Kiga High School becomes particularly relevant in the story's fourth chapter.

(Note that not every store is exactly identical to the P5 version; the Big Bang Burger in Shibuya is now called Boom Bang Burger, with no apparent traces of the space theming, and the Crossroads bar in Shinjuku has also been rebranded. Leblanc was also rebranded to a generic coffee shop in previous betas, but in the open beta has been turned back into Leblanc.)

Mementos and the concept of Palaces also return in P5X, though there are some differences. Mementos' floors are no longer randomly generated, and now have set layouts. Related to this, Mementos also now operates as a sort of hub, with characters entering Palaces through Mementos, from the entrance to each Palace located within the massive floors of Mementos. Mementos also has special battle locations apparently similar to “domains” in other gacha games, where completing the fight gives special items to strengthen characters and weapons, generally themed after P5′s Palaces (so far Kamoshida, Madarame, Kaneshiro, and Okumura's Palace-themed "domains" have been found, as well as one that doesn't seem to match any known Palace).

Basic Game Mechanics

For the most part, P5X operates extremely similarly to P5, both in and out of the Metaverse. One notable difference is that there is no calendar- days can pass due to the story, but they're not numbered, instead listed as simply "Yesterday", "Today", and "Tomorrow". There are also more time slots to perform other activities, as Wonder can do two after school activities, two activities even later in the day, and then a final one at night. Performing activities also cost energy, which refills at a rate of 5 per real-world day.

One interesting and more significant change made in this category is that Confidants have a total of 20 ranks, instead of the series-standard 10, though there are still only 10 ranks that actually progress their story. They also haven't been associated with any Arcana, though the P5R Arcana cards have all been found in the second beta's data. A Social Link/Confidant is referred to as a "Synergy" in this game, but this blog generally still calls them Confidants to avoid confusion.

The UI elements of combat look a little different (as well as all the skill animations), appearing to be more optimized for mobile play, but otherwise it seems largely the same to P5, though one notable difference is that Navigator skills can be called in at will (and then have a cooldown), rather than occurring randomly. There is a new kind of special ability called a Highlight, which is similar to P5S’s Showtime attacks where the character executes a special move with their Persona, though not all Highlights are attacks, and some heal or have alternative effects instead.

The protagonist can gain Personas in combat (or from the gacha), though it no longer requires talking to them, and largely only occurs in special battles specifically for that purpose. Challenge battles in the Velvet Room, like in P5R, are available to attempt. Palace exploration also seems relatively standard, even if the Palace itself and the method of entering it is different. One major change is that several shadow/Persona designs have been censored in the mainland China version of the game; this includes Incubus and many others being given shorts, Bugs' stomach being repaired with the blood removed, Mara being given a large hat, Hell Biker and other skeletal Personas having a helmet/mask that obscures the skull, and several female Personas like Lamia being given shirts. However, these changes are purely cosmetic, and also seem to be reverted in the Taiwan/Macau/Hong Kong version (and possibly the Korean version as well).

Miscellaneous

It’s worth noting that because there's a lot of content in the game that has yet to be officially translated to English, new character names can only be absolutely confirmed when they’re either written in Japanese kana (as opposed to the Japanese kanji characters that names are typically written in) or spoken aloud in official material, to confirm which reading of the Japanese name is the intended one for this specific character.

The characters do also have Chinese names, of course, but as the voice acting defaults to Japanese (including in Chinese promotional material), the game is set in Japan, and the English translation is based on the Japanese translation, the names and other terms used by the global release are the Japanese ones. As such, the Japanese names are the ones presented in the Characters section earlier in this post, and are the main ones that this blog uses.

All the codenames, however, are written in English, and thus the most easily confirmed as official.

[atelier-slime]

DRAGON QUEST'S LOCALIZATION SUCKS, ACTUALLY. PART 1

There's a thread blowing up on Japanese twitter right now about the poor quality of localization. It's the first time I've ever actually seen a japanese perspective on the topic, and it's been extremely gratifying to see a ton people from over there talk about specific translation issues they've seen or learn for the first time that japanese media is often given the short end of the stick here in the USA.

Most of the time over here in the US, criticism of localization gets shouted down as whiny fans who think they know better than the translators. It's been heartening to see that people from japan are also annoyed by it, and its inspired me to write up a whole long-ass rant I've had simmering in the back of my mind for years, so buckle up, long post(s) incoming:

Let's start at the beginning with the first thing that ever caused me to start thinking about localization. This little guy:

If you've played Dragon Quest in the past 2 decades, you probably know this guy by the name "Spiked Hare." Not me though! I got into DQ on the game boy, in the brief window of time where DQ's localization was handled by Nob Ogasawara, the same guy responsible for translating every pokemon game up until Platinum. In the DQ games Nob worked on, he chose to translate this guy's name as "Almiraj." Why the huge difference in translation? I'll get to that in a minute.

The almiraj is an extremely minor enemy in Dragon Quest 3. It's pretty weak, and it's only real defining feature is that it can occasionally cast sleep spells on your party members. It's just one of hundreds of monsters in that game, and aside from it's cute design, it's pretty forgettable. As a weird kid overly obsessed with linguistics though, its name always seemed odd to me. You don't really see words that end with a "J" in english. It stuck out enough that one night, when I was bored, I decided to google "almiraj" to figure out what the name meant. It sent me down a rabbit hole (almiraj hole?) that taught me all sorts of cool shit, and permanently altered the way I looked at localization. The path I tumbled down that night went something like this:

The Dragon Quest almiraj is named after the almiraj, a "real" mythical creature described as a hare with a large horn on its head.

The original inspiration for accounts of the almiraj (as well as the jackalope, wolpertinger, etc.) is likely the Shope papiloma Virus, which causes rabbits to grow weird, horn-like growths on their face and head.

It was described by Zakariya al-Qazwini, an Iranian lawyer, author, and all around knowledgeable guy who lived in the 13th century.

al-Qazwini described it in the Aja'ib al-Makhluqat, a massive cosmographical treatise that attempted to describe basically everything in the known universe at the time. It was so popular in the Islamic world that it was copied and translated into dozens of languages, which meant plenty of copies have survived intact to modern times.

The almiraj was brought into the limelight in modern fantasy when it was introduced in the first edition of Dungeons and Dragons, as a relatively weak and unassuming monster as part of a campaign to expand the game with monster suggestions from fans of the series.

Dungeons and Dragons-style role playing games were brought into the digital world with the release of the first Wizardry game in 1981.

Yuji Horii was a massive fan of Wizardry, which he first discovered as part of a developer exchange program when he visited America in 1983. Three years later, he decided to try and recreate the things he loved from the series for console gamers in Japan, and the the original Dragon Quest was born.

One little name was all it took to open up this entire through-line of history that I had no idea even existed before that night. It's a tapestry of human experiences over 800 years in the making, spanning continents, cultures, languages, and medium. It's probably because I'm the type of person who sits around thinking about stuff too much, but I honestly get a little emotional wondering what al-Qazwini would think if he could see the mythical creatures he described all those years ago as little dudes hopping around inside a computer.

And the thing is the tapestry doesn't end there! Dragon Quest is still pretty niche in the west, but in Japan it's fucking titanic. There's an urban legend that the Japanese government banned Square Enix from releasing Dragon Quest games on a weekday, because so many people would skip work or school that it would impact the economy. (It's not true by the way, but the fact that the rumor exists at all is a testament to how huge the series' influence is over there.) I don't think it would be an overstatement to say that what Lord of the Rings did to modern western fantasy, Dragon Quest did to modern Japanese fantasy. Almost every JRPG, manga, or anime with a fantasy setting has the fingerprints of Dragon Quest on it. Countless other works have been inspired by DQ, and those works will go on to inspire others. A million different threads weaving tapestries back and forth across time and borders, all over the globe. And the almiraj is a part of that! It might just be a single, tiny, white and purple thread, but it's still in there helping to tie things together.

So back to the question I asked earlier: Why is it "Almiraj" in Mr. Ogasawara's translation but "Spiked hare" in the current one? Simple: Nob actually translated the name.

You can see on the DQ wiki that the original japanese name of the monster is "アルミラージ" which is literally just "almiraj" written in katakana:

The current DQ team has instead decided that all monster names should be puns. I'm not against puns or anything. "Spiked hare" for a rabbit with a horn is great! I might even raise my eyebrows and exhale slightly if I read it for the first time. Dragon Quest in general tends to have a lot of goofiness in it, so it's not like puns are out of place or anything. My problem is that, by deciding to replace monster names arbitrarily like this, all the little threads start to come unraveled. You lose the ability to look back down the line and discover all these different connections to history and nature and art that you might not ever learn otherwise. The almiraj isn't the only monster to get this treatment. A huge portion of the monsters in Dragon Quest are taken from mythologies around the world, and many of their names are literally already in English, just written with katakana.

The almiraj sticks out in my mind as a particularly egregious example because of just how much I learned because of the foreign-sounding name, but there's plenty of other name changes that have resulted in straight up confusing, ambiguous, or otherwise stupid outcomes in the current localization.

CONTINUED IN PART 2

[iasmelaion]

back on my stardew valley shit because *gestures at everything* and also the stardew valley expanded mod got a big (final) update, and yet again i am reminded that god's most patient soldiers are stardew valley mod developers and the people who answer mod-related questions on the various subreddits, because they have to deal with:

posts that are just "my mods aren't working :(" with blurry photos of incomplete SMAPI error logs taken with someone's phone

answering the literal same question/troubleshooting the literal same issue over and over and over again, often within the same week/month. sometimes this issue even has a whole section of the wiki devoted to it, with the solution. (as an aside, does no one search for answers anymore? I know google sucks now but as someone who just had a mod-related problem, I managed to successfully google and solve it before i resorted to asking someone on a subreddit or discord. it was very straightforward, took like five minutes.)

endless people asking can I use this mod on console?? NO. my stardew valley villain origin story is people constantly. fucking. asking. about console updates and console shit. are console users goddamn allergic to using any search engine ever. god. it's probably very mean of me, but tbh if you have to ask if you can mod on console, you probably wouldn't even be able to mod on console if it was possible, given step one of any instructions would be like 1) undertake this complex/difficult process to jailbreak your switch/xbox/whatever...

recently saw someone post a SMAPI log that had like 800 mods on it, and the person answering their question was so, so gentle and patient about being all "please consider if you need every single one of these 800 mods, because it will be impossible for anyone to troubleshoot for you with this volume of mods, many of which are outdated." my answer would have been more like "800 mods?!? girl, delete them all and start over."

truly terrible signs of declining tech literacy in the number of people who don't know how to do anything with folders and file explorers.

as a related issue, and one not limited to modding, wow, people really just give up on troubleshooting on their own immediately, huh? I guess I hit the millennial sweet spot of tech literacy, but I will always do the straightforward troubleshooting shit first before seeking help. So many people on these subreddits though don't even bother with the bare basics of "actually read the error message, double check if you're using the updated version, uninstall and reinstall, restart/reload, check to make sure you don't have duplicates/old versions, etc." before giving up on figuring it out on their own.

endless patience for the fact that probably a solid 75% of people's mod errors can be solved with: 1) updating their mods; 2) updating SMAPI; 3) not overwriting their mods when updating/replacing them and fully deleting then replacing them (tbf to everyone, it isn't intuitive why overwriting doesn't work); 4) duplicated mods; 5) mods in wrong place; 6) deleting ancient mods that haven't been updated for literal years; 7) mods that actively conflict with each other.

the rich tapestry of life that is the incredibly fucking niche mods some people apparently require to play their game. someone will link a five-year old mod that hasn't been updated since two major game versions ago all "my game isn't working :( can someone fix this mod for me, i need it. :((( " and it's like, idk. a mod that gives everyone bunny ears.

(I am however throwing a stone in a glass house here, as back when 1.6 came out, I was one of these people with the Fat Pony mod, lol. idk what to tell you, but my in-game pony simply MUST look like Kate Beaton's Fat Pony!!!! It is critical!!!! anyway ty to whoever updated that one to be a Content Patcher mod, lol.)

in all seriousness, it's a testament to stardew valley modding and SMAPI that modding is this accessible to so many relatively un-tech savvy users. SMAPI and the wiki modding pages are so meticulously clear and well-documented, plus, ConcernedApe himself has put out multiple base game updates specifically to make modding easier and to let mods do more. even if you don't know shit about coding, SMAPI's log and error messages make it pretty straightforward to figure out where something is going wrong. all that said, i am again in awe of modders' patience in not flinging themselves off a cliff the 10000th time someone fucks something up because they just, like, can't/don't read. "why are my mods not working??" did you, perhaps, read all the stuff in bright red text that is telling you exactly why they are not working? The bright red text that tells you very clearly that the mod has not been loaded because it's out of date? god, i should up my contribution to pathoschild's patreon, the man is clearly a saint.

[duhbatmann]

RDR

"Red Dead Redemption" is a Western-themed action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar San Diego and published by Rockstar Games. It was released in May 2010 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game is a spiritual successor to 2004's "Red Dead Revolver" but is not a direct sequel. "Red Dead Redemption" is the second game in the Red Dead series and is set during the decline of the American Frontier in the year 1911.

The game follows John Marston, a former outlaw, whose wife and son are taken hostage by the government in ransom for his services as a hired gun. Marston is forced to bring three members of his former gang to justice. The story explores themes of loyalty, morality, and the end of the Wild West era as Marston struggles to reconcile his tumultuous past with his family's safety and his own principles.

"Red Dead Redemption" is praised for its open-world gameplay, in which players can explore the vast, fictionalized Western United States and parts of Mexico, either on foot or by horseback. The game features a morality system, where players' actions affect their reputation in the game world, and an extensive single-player storyline with main and side missions. It also includes various multiplayer modes.

The game's open-world environment allows players to interact with the world and its inhabitants in multiple ways. They can engage in activities such as hunting, gambling, and bounty hunting. The game also features a "Dead Eye" targeting system, which allows players to slow down time for shooting accuracy.

"Red Dead Redemption" received critical acclaim for its story, voice acting, gameplay, and music. It won numerous Game of the Year awards and is considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Its success led to the development of a prequel, "Red Dead Redemption 2," which was released in October 2018. The sequel further expanded on the universe, focusing on the story of Arthur Morgan, a member of the Dutch van der Linde gang, which John Marston was also part of.

RDR2

"Red Dead Redemption 2" (RDR2) is an epic Western-themed action-adventure video game developed and published by Rockstar Games. It was released in October 2018 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with a version for Microsoft Windows launching in November 2019, and for the Google Stadia platform in November 2019 as well. Serving as both a prequel to the 2010 game "Red Dead Redemption" and the third installment in the Red Dead series, RDR2 has been highly praised for its story, characters, open-world design, and attention to detail.

The game is set in a fictionalized version of the United States at the turn of the 20th century, in 1899, and follows Arthur Morgan, a senior member of the Van der Linde gang. The story explores the gang's decline as they are pursued by lawmen and bounty hunters across the American frontier. Throughout the game, players experience the challenges faced by outlaws during the closing days of the American Wild West and the onset of the modern age. The narrative also delves into Arthur's complex relationships with other gang members, including the charismatic and idealistic gang leader Dutch van der Linde, and a young John Marston, the protagonist of the first "Red Dead Redemption."

RDR2 is renowned for its vast, immersive open world that players can explore. The game features diverse landscapes, including mountains, forests, plains, and swamps, all teeming with wildlife. It introduces several improvements over its predecessor, such as an enhanced "Dead Eye" system for precision shooting, a more dynamic weather system, and a deeper interaction system with NPCs (non-playable characters). Players can engage in numerous activities like hunting, fishing, gambling, and bounty hunting, as well as side missions and random encounters that contribute to the game's realism and depth.

The game also includes a detailed honor system that affects how the world reacts to the player based on their actions. Positive deeds, such as helping strangers and upholding the law, will improve Arthur's honor, while negative actions, like committing crimes and causing chaos, will lower it. This system influences the game's narrative and character interactions, adding to the player's immersion.

Upon release, "Red Dead Redemption 2" received universal acclaim, with critics lauding its story, characters, and vast, detailed world. It was praised as a landmark in video game design, noted for its ambition and the quality of its execution. The game achieved significant commercial success, breaking several sales records and receiving numerous awards.

In addition to the single-player experience, the game introduced "Red Dead Online," a multiplayer mode where players can explore the game's world, engage in various cooperative and competitive game modes, and create their own stories with customized characters.

"Red Dead Redemption 2" is considered by many as one of the greatest video games ever made, thanks to its compelling storytelling, dynamic open-world, and deep, engaging gameplay.

[flutteragency]

Step to Follow Google Play Store Closed Testing Individual and Organization

Mobile applications have become a most significant part of our lives. App testing was one of the most significant things before it was launched in the market. App testing permits you to gather feedback from individuals, which helps you enhance your mobile app development. This article will provide complete information about closed testing, which supports mobile app developers in making their development more precise and attractive to their valuable clients and organizations. Let’s dive deeper into it.

What is Closed Testing?

Close testing is most useful for testing applications with many testers to collect more targeted feedback and comments. The tester can also use the individual’s email or Google Groups in the testing squad. However, for adding Google groups, the format will be Yourgroupname@googlegroups.com.

When development is done with close testing, it will go into the review phase and permit you to test the app. Also, testers have the power to share ratings and review the app via Google Play Console. That review will not be visible to the general public and will not impact your app’s ratings. Thus, if you are testing any paid app, then testers of that app need to buy it from Google.

What are the steps of adding a user to the closed test?

Google has applied the new app publishing policy for individual app programmers. From November 13, 2023, any experienced Google Developer Accounts will need 20 internal testers to test their app for a minimum of 14 days before they can unlock the production tab demanded for publishing.

If your organization account is under registration, you must follow this process and the Production tab that is automatically available. They will opt for 14 days to publish your application or game on the Play Store. It helps the developers make better apps by getting early feedback from users.

STEP 1: DEVELOPING CLOSED TESTING

Log into your Google Play Console. Now, you can click on the view app option.

In the release section in the left sidebar, click on Testing> Closed Testing.

After clicking on closed testing, you must select from Active tracks. If you have an existing track, click manage the track. If you want to run various tests, you can click on Create Track.

You must write the track name and hit the Create track button.

STEP 2: SETUP THE CLOSED TESTING TRACK

Closed tracking in the Google Play store allows app developers to invite individuals or groups of users for Testing before applying to publishing. It aids in finding and fixing errors, enhancing user interfaces, and improving the overall app quality depending on the feedback you get from your limited targeted audience.

Now, you need to click the tab for the countries or regions, and after that, add countries or regions.

Now, choose the countries where you wish your app to be available, or you need to click the first box to add all the countries.

STEP 3: ADD TESTERS TO TEST YOUR APP

You can add testers in Google Play when you’re making an app and want to get some feedback on it. This means you’re inviting specific people to try out your app before it’s available to everyone. You can either have a closed test where you add testers by email, a join link, or an open test where anyone can join. Testers will get an invite to try your app and give you feedback so you can fix any problems before releasing it to everyone.

Want to help make apps better? You can join as a tester without needing an invite. This helps get more feedback to ensure the app is top-notch before it officially launches.

You need to click on the Testers tab and select your email list. You can even create a new list to add more email addresses. Let’s make these apps awesome together!

If you’re signed up as a solo developer rather than a group, jot down the name of your list, add some email addresses, and save your changes. Remember to add at least 20 emails under the “Add Email Addresses” section.

Google now needs 20 people to agree to be testers for your closed test, so keep that in mind when setting up the testing requirements.

Now, you are required to tap on the Create button.

Check out the Email List you’ve created. In the Feedback section, type in a website link or email address where testers can tell you what they think. Then, click on Save. A window will pop up, so click the Go to Overview button.

If you want to send a link to testers who are joining your app on Android or the web, you can copy the link and share it with them.

But wait! You can only do this once Google finishes checking and approving the release you sent in. The option to copy the link will be grayed out, and you can use it later.

Now, let’s go ahead and click on the “Create new release” button.

STEP 4: MAKE NEW RELEASE

When you release your app on Google Play, you need to ensure that all is set to go properly and work smoothly. This will help the users to get the best experience possible.

To do this, you need to upload the app file that you have got from the WordPress framework or add it from your library under App bundles.

Now, select and click on the “Add To Release” button.

When filling out the Release details section, the release name should automatically show the app’s version number. In the Release notes, you can write any information you want the testers to know. You can even copy and paste that version’s official Flutter Agency App release notes. After that, click the Next button to move on.

Then tap on the “Save” button.

After that, you will see a pop-up window in which you need to hit the “Go to overview” button.

Then click on “Send 16 changes for review.” You will see a list of changes.

When you’re done making changes, a little box will pop up on your screen. Just click the button that says “Send changes for review.” Then, your app will be sent to Google for users to check out. It might take a few days, but hang tight, and soon, Google will give your app the thumbs up.

STEP 5: TESTING A LICENSE

Getting your app licensed in Google Play Console is most important because it ensures that only the people who bought or downloaded your app can use it freely. This helps you to protect your money and ideas from being stolen or used without permission.

While you wait for your app to be reviewed, you can continue working on other projects. If you want to return to the main menu, tap on “All apps” at the top of the left side of the screen.

You need to tap on “License Testing” under the setup in the sidebar.

Opt for the license testers from an email list and hit the save changes button in the Google Play Store.

Finally, you need to click on the save button.

Hence, in this way, your application can perform closed testing, which is only done by the Google Play Store.

After the release is approved by the Play Store, you can share the link with the tester so that they can start the performance testing your mobile app. After 14 days of testing, you need to apply for accessibility to production.

ARE YOU READY TO USE CLOSED TESTING FOR YOUR APP

Steps of Android Plays Store Testing Policy for Individuals

The Google Play Store has integrated the latest and advanced testing needs for the individual programmers who have created their app developer accounts after November 13, 2023. The main objective of this testing is to deliver high-quality standards for the apps that are published on the Google platform. Let’s see some of the steps below.

STEP 1: MAKE USE OF AN INTERNAL TESTING

Before you release your app to everyone, it’s a good idea to do some closed testing on your own first. This will aid you in finding any problems or mistakes before many people use it. You can use the Play Console to invite up to 100 people to test your app before it’s officially released. In this way, you will get feedback and ratings from people you trust, like your friends or family. They can tell you what works well and what needs fixing! Even if you plan on charging for your app later, this testing phase helps improve the efficiency of the application.

STEP 2: SET UP A CLOSED TEST FOR MANDATORY FEEDBACK

Here’s the scope of the new rule for solo mobile app developers. Instead of testing your app with your friends and relatives, you have to pick some testers from outside your development team. These lucky testers will get a special invite from the Google Play Store to try out your app before it’s available to everyone in the general public.

STEP 3: INCLUDE A MINIMUM OF 20 TESTERS

It’s important to have many testers in your closed test. Google Play says you need at least 20 testers to join in. But just putting their names on the list is only part of what you have to do. The testers have agreed to participate in your closed test, which shows they’re ready to try out the app and share their thoughts.

STEP 4: COLLECT FEEDBACK AND IMPROVE

This policy is all about making sure that testing done by people is of good quality. You must have at least 20 testers committed who will be using your app for two weeks. In this way, they can dig into all the features and functionalities of your app. All that is they have to catch any problems that might pop up when people use it daily.

STEP 5: APPLY FOR PRODUCTION RELEASE

Once you’ve completed the closed testing phase and fulfilled the minimum requirements, you can confidently submit your app for production release in the Play Store. The Google Play review process will take the consideration all gathered comments and feedback from your close testers and your app’s overall quality. You will also need to Play Store policies. Therefore, you need to conduct a thorough closed test, so that you will increase your chances of a smooth review and a successful launch on the Google Play Store.

What are the Steps involved in the Android Play Store Testing Policy for Organizations?

The Google Play Store knows that companies and groups making apps have different needs than people making apps on their own. They have a special policy that lets organizations test their apps before they are available to everyone. This helps make sure the app is really good and easy to use.

1. PICKING THE BEST TESTING OPTION:

Closed Testing: Organizations can ask a select group of people outside the company to try out the app before it’s officially released. Unlike individual accounts, organizations can choose who they want to test the app and get specific feedback.

Internal Testing: This lets people within the organization try out the app. Employees can give different opinions on how well the app works and if there are any problems. There’s no limit to how many people can be included in the internal testing process because it helps an organization for analyzing the application.

2. SETTING UP MANAGED GOOGLE PLAY (OPTIONAL):

If your organization decides to use Managed Google Play, you’ll have an easy and simple testing out of apps before they go live on the Play Store for the general people. With this testing service of Google, you can create your private app store only for your organization. This makes it easy to test apps internally and get feedback from your QA team. It will aid you to release the app better than your competitors.

3. LISTENING TO FEEDBACK AND MAKING IMPROVEMENTS:

No matter which testing method you choose, the main goal is to get helpful feedback to make your app better for the users. Encourage testers to give detailed reports on any bugs, crashes, or areas that need improvement in your app. Therefore, by making changes based on this feedback, your app will be more user-friendly and reliable when it’s released to the public.

4. GETTING READY FOR THE BIG RELEASE:

After all the testing is done and any issues are fixed, your app will be ready to launch on the Google Play Store. This final step will ensure that your app store listing will look good with screenshots and descriptions that show off your app to the real world.

How much time will it take for the Play Store to review closed testing for individual and organizational accounts?

Getting your app on the Google Play Store is the most complicated process, so you want to make sure it’s really attractive and creative to the users who are going to use this app. Google has a strict process for checking out all the apps, even if the app is in the testing phase. It might take a while for them to look at your app, but if you know what they’re looking for, you can make sure the best mobile app for a better user experience.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. App Complexity: If your app has a lot of complicated and unconfused features, then there are chances that it might take longer for Google to check it out before it goes live for everyone to use.

2. Update Frequency: If you keep sending the app updates all the time, it could slow things down because each new version has to be reviewed again by Google. So, before sending the new upgrade to the Google Play Store make sure your app is working well and has fixed all the bugs and errors by a QA team.

3. Play Store Workload: Sometimes, there are tons of apps being sent in at the same time, which can make the review process take a longer time and it may also increase the chances of complexity in the app.

INDIVIDUAL VS. ORGANIZATION ACCOUNTS:

Individual Accounts: Google usually looks at your app in a few hours to a few days. It doesn’t matter if you have an individual account or an organization account when it comes to how fast your app gets reviewed with features and functionalities.

Organization Accounts: While Google doesn’t guarantee quicker reviews for organization accounts, having a top-notch developer profile could make the process run more smoothly in the future.

If you know these things, you can make the testing process easier and get your app reviewed faster, whether you have your own or your organization’s account. Keep in mind that a skilled programmer will follow Google Play’s rules give users a good experience and get ready for everyone to use the mobile devices.

Why is my Google Play Store review taking so much time?

When several people are sending in new apps or updates all at once, then the team that checks them out might get busy examining the app. This means they might take longer to look at your app.

If your app is complicated, then you need to buy the plan in the app, or has ads, or need to look at private user info, it might take even longer for them to evaluate it.

Google Play has rules about what apps can do and how they should look. If your app doesn’t follow these rules, they might take a closer look at it, which could slow things down.

Google wants to make sure all the apps in the Play Store are really good. If your app has a lot of problems or keeps crashing, or if it’s hard for people to use, the review team might need more time to figure out what’s wrong.

Sometimes, Google might need more info from you to make sure you’re the owner of the app that you have developed.

If there are any mix-ups or questions between you and the review team, it could make the review process take longer.

Sometimes, there might be technical problems on Google’s end that cause delays in the review process of your business application.

If your app takes longer to get reviewed than expected, you can check the Google Play Console for updates. You can also try and consult with Google Play support to see if they can help speed things up.

Wrap-Up: Improve the App Quality Via Closed Testing and Launch the App

Closed Testing on Google Play is a super important step for app developers before they release their apps to the public. They get a group of people to test out the app and give feedback so they can fix any problems, make it easier to use, and ensure it’s a great app overall. This helps ensure the app is awesome when it’s officially released, which makes users happy and allows it to do well in the app store.

[umnitsa]

The Wolf and the Hare - 3

Summary: Alexei, videogames and blowjobs, what could go wrong?

A/N: I'm back! sorry for the hiatus, life was kicking my ass. Anyway, I was plagued by this image of Alexei lazily playing videogames in his tank top and sweatpants, and I had to admit I could only imagine sucking him, what a sight. <3 (I can't wait for Thunderbolts. Please god, give me this movie)

Pairing: Alexei x fem!reader (you, no y/n)

CW: Just a blowjob and some soccer talk. It's ALL dirty, minors, please leave!

Alexei was terribly frustrated. You didn’t know why, really. You wondered if he was bored, and wanted to let out some steam, inflict some senseless violence and destruction somewhere remote. Maybe even take a lot of lives in the process.

You didn’t think he could stay quiet, you could only imagine how hard the prison years were for him.

He needed something to do.

Something that engaged him mentally and was exciting at the same time.

Videogames could be interesting.

*** He looked so excited when you showed him the joystick. It couldn’t be hard, with all his training. He could fly airplanes, he can play videogames!

To be honest, it took a while for him to adjust to the size of the joystick; his hands were too big for the tiny buttons, but once he got used to them, he became a dedicated gamer.

You kept getting him new games and new consoles, and he developed his favorites. Playing FIFA, he made you sit by his side and happily talked about Soviet-era soccer and Lev Yashin, the best goalkeeper in history.

“You had to see him, Zayats! He was glorious!” Alexei would boom happily, smacking his thigh.

“You’re not that old.” You bumped him with your shoulder, laughing, after a quick Google search.

“You would never know.” He chuckled low, then kicked your foot. ***

Alexei looked hot, in his tank top and sweatpants, occupying the whole couch, legs apart, relaxed, tiny joystick in hands. He would play, absolutely focused, while you oogled his thighs and his cock (he hated underwear, when he was at home).

One day you decided to take advantage of him. With a chuckle, you sat by his side and pretended your attention was on the videogame, your hand sliding up his thigh.

“What are you doing, love…?”

“Keep playing.” You chuckled, rubbing his thigh gently. You could see him squirming and his cock stirring as your hand moved, ever so softly.

Alexei hit the menu button and looked into your eyes, one eyebrow raised, a delighted smirk crooking his lips.

“You want to challenge me, Zayats?” Alexei wrapped his arm around your waist and pulled you to straddle his thigh. You ground against him, rubbing along. He hummed, looking into your eyes with a naughty smile.

“I just want to have some fun without stopping your fun.” You giggled, leaning to nuzzle his cheek. He kept holding the joystick in one hand, the other pressing lightly against your lower back.

Alexei leans and nuzzles your cheek, then kisses your lips ever so gently.

“Sounds like an interesting test of my attention.”

“Why do you keep thinking it's a challenge?” You giggle and move to kneel between his legs.

“You want to see if you can distract me.” You kept giggling and shaking your head. “Well, we both know you can.” Alexei winked and spread his legs, pulling his sweatpants down. He was already half hard, pulsing, and the sight made your mouth water. He chuckled and wiggled his eyebrows, before leaning back against the sofa. “I’m curious how long can I last.”

You grabbed his cock, eyes half-lidded, and he sighed, holding the joystick. The sounds of the videogame restarted, and it felt like you were being cheered. Licking a stripe from the base of his cock to the tip, you leaned forward, feeling him harden against your tongue.

With a grunt, he tensed, as your lips wrapped around the head of his cock, his muscles feeling like steel under your hands.

“Fuck, darling.” His voice weakened. Looking up, you could see his expression softening, as he licked his lips. You sucked harder, and he moaned even more.

Alexei frowned, concentrated, as you kept sliding your lips along his cock leisurely. He grunted, as his team scored a goal on the screen, and you felt one of his hands gently playing with your hair.

“Such a good girl.” He moaned, all the vowels impossibly long; Alexei tugged on your hair, thrusting his hips against your face. Sighing, he went back to playing the game.

After a couple of matches, Alexei just couldn’t keep quiet anymore. Grunts, moans, sighs, and whimpers poured from his mouth, his body incredibly tense as he tried to keep still. He even started whispering in Russian, what you expected were dirty dirty things; you were probably right, with the way he was looking at you.

“Enough.” He growled, pulling from you. “This is torture. You are right, it is unfair when I take my time and tease you.”

“Will you stop doing it?” You asked, startled, massaging your jaw.

“Never.” He laughs; a booming, earthshaking laugh. “Never. But I see your point now.”

“So what now?” You asked, wide-eyed, blushing and squirming. You were wet, aroused, almost desperate. Alexei looked like a work of art, sprawled on the sofa, his cock resting against his stomach, red, pulsing precome from the tip. He blinked lazily, still lost in the haze of the pleasure you gave him.

“Now bed.” He stood up slowly, offering his hand to you. He looked into your eyes, and his intense focus was there, but now that focus was trained on you. It made you shiver. “Now it’s my turn.”

[anbroids]

hi!!! I loved ur hometsuck kids theme sm it made me want to go back into coding after so long(^^; I wanted to know how u learned it and if u have any tips for newcomers. Ty !!

oh holy shit this is ask is SO SWEET :,) thank you so much anon and i’m so happy to hear it made you want to get back into coding! we seriously need a tumblr theme renaissance. what i would give to see people coding and sharing/reblogging themes like the older days on tumblr. life could be dream.

i learned html and css from making my own tumblr themes as a kid! i think tumblr themes are literally such a good introduction into learning front-end development. BUT to be fair i also took a few programming classes and was a big coding nerd in school and that definitely helped me become a lot more comfortable with making themes from scratch and adding custom script. if you are interested in learning javascript, learnjavascript.online is a great source for starting out and getting some practice!

i think a great way to get your bearings is to look at some base themes and poke around at the code just to familiarize yourself with some of the tumblr-specific syntax. @theme-hunter has a great database of themes to look at with some tutorials for beginners compiled here. i think the best way to learn how div blocks function and what you are capable of changing is by playing around with preexisting code and seeing what you can create. i did this until i was comfortable enough to make a few base themes of my own from scratch that i can go back and reference when starting a new theme or coding project.

tumblr also has a list of their block elements online with some introduction to custom themes, which is helpful to reference when styling the features built into each tumblr blog like title, descriptions, posts, notes, etc.

as far as tips for newcomers, here’s a few things top of mind:

google is your best friend, seriously, i can't tell you how many times i am googling the most rudimentary of things because i'm always forgetting little syntax things. chances are, if there's something you want to achieve with code there will be someone on stack overflow with some advice, or a tutorial on codepen or w3schools that you can use as reference.

troubleshoot with inspect element! i usually build my code straight into the tumblr theme html and css on a sideblog, save, and then keep a tab of that blog open that i can refresh and inspect element to look for errors in the console. i think firefox works the best, but i would recommend always loading your blog in a few different browsers since there is css syntax that is specific to mozilla or chrome (eg. custom scrollbars or pure-css animations)

there are lot of browser extensions that can make the coding process easier! i recommend eye dropper for pulling and matching hex codes. i also use fonts ninja a lot for getting accurate weights and names for custom fonts. a few more that come to mind are window resizer and css viewer (chrome/mozilla) if you want to check those out!

happy coding!

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 1 replay, wrapping up Armstrong Nebula:

Gagarin

-Junthor - It has the remains of the colony of an ancient space faring race. Another victim of the Reapers?

-Antirumgun - Interesting description. Pirates come to "trade slaves and stories". That's some jovial alliteration for dark scene setting.

-Some also drill through the ice crust to recover the world's natural alcohol. That's some of the most realistic world building Mass Effect has provided yet.

-Pressha - So Turians do have admirals. I think this might be the only time they're mentioned. Does the Alliance have Generals hidden away somewhere?

-Rayingri - Two planets orbiting each other will result in their mutual destruction in a few hundred years. The Asari are already selling tickets. Good way to highlight how different the Asari lifespan is from humanity's.

Also, whoever wrote the descriptions for this cluster was having fun.

-This is the second planet in the Armstrong Nebula where Geth have killed people who were nearby. Given how huge the galaxy is, how did there just happen to be people in the vicinity of the Geth twice on these four random worlds?

-Well, this is a change of pace. There's an actual base and its surrounded by Dragon's Teeth. Empty - where did the husks go?

(The base, obviously. But how did they get in? Why drag them out, kill them on the Teeth, then put them back inside?)

-Bit foreboding that there are so many weapons and storage lockers, and all but two are presumably empty (since you can only open two)

-Aaaand there are the husks.

-And Geth on the way out. Where were you earlier?

-The Geth outside were the easiest to take out... Thank you, Mako.

Grissom

-Grissom Cluster, Grissom Academy... I'm noticing a pattern here.

-Notanban - So the bioluminescent life that developed forever flees the sun. Until I started writing these notes I did not realize just how much of Mass Effect world building is depressing.

-Solcrum - But there's beauty, too. The sun is gorgeous from this moon. The constant swirling is mesmerizing.

-The Geth coding language isn't known to the Citadel races. So they've developed their own since the Morning War. Why? Deliberately so the Citadel races couldn't monitor them, or was their original language just insufficient as they became more advanced?

-This is the first time I've heard strange noises on Solcrum. According to Google, others have as well. The wiki doesn't mention them, oddly enough.

What are they? The Geth?

-Why do I have to get close to survey Uranium? I feel this violates safety regulations, even if the suit is space proof.

-Descriptions keep labeling ancient artifacts as worthless. Liara is right there. Are you seriously telling me this archeologist isn't carefully recording all these old artifacts we come across?

-Those sounds have to be related the Geth. I also heard them when I entered the base.

-How does Liara keep dying when she has decent armor and barrier? Tali has neither and survives just fine.

- Tali is the one that decrypted the console with the Geth data and makes no comment about it.

It's odd she doesn't. Both Wrex and Garrus have extra dialogue for their loyalty missions.

-It would have been interesting if taking Tali with you on this option means she always makes a copy of the data for herself. Whether you freely offer it or not to her later only would only have impacted your relationship with her.

-Is the Quarian music related to the sounds somehow? Is that what Quarian music sounds like?

-I still want to know more about that Quarian song that plays when the last Geth fall. Why did the heretics use that for their communication, of all things? We've already established they have their own language that the Citadel races don't know.

-On that note, is the Geth language mentioned here the same for the Geth and the heretics? Would have added some flavor if the heretics had created their own.

It sure would have been nice if we could have asked Legion about any of this.

Squad

-Tali's loyalty mission is so odd. It's five parts long, it's not recorded in the journal as for her until you find the Geth Data in the fifth part, and it's very easily missable if you go to the world map instead of talking to Tali immediately. Again, why is this so different from Garrus's and Wrex's?

-Also, after all this work it should have made an actual difference in ME2 and ME3.

-If you go renegade, Tali comes across as very weary. She fully expects the Alliance to refuse to help the Migrant fleet, and recognizes this is just Shepard placing humanity first. She just wishes it wasn't at the Quarian's expense.

Considering she later supports the Quarians going to war with the Geth because she won't not help her own people... At least she's consistent.

Tali and Ashley are both similar in that regard: They expect people to always prioritize their own species and don't hold it against them on a personal level. They just keep it in mind when planning. Tali just has much better tact.

Also, she still sticks around to help stop Saren, so points to Tali for seeing the big picture.

-This is another example of where Shepard's loyalty being to the Alliance is considered renegade. I do think this is intentional; it occurs too frequently not to be. I'm very curious what the original plans for this theme were.

-The neutral option is to give Tali the data.

-Hmm. If you go paragon when discussing giving Tali the data, you say she needs it to destroy the enemy. If you go neutral, you tell her its encrypted. Interesting dichotomy there.

Is the paragon option supposed to be some kind of criticism? It doesn't come off as such.

[demonfox38]

Completed: Okage: Shadow King

I think the game would prefer to speak for itself.

In my previous game evaluations, you may have seen me mention my best friend classified co-conspirator @jeannettegray. As of writing right now, her avatar on multiple services is this:

This would be an image of Rosalyn, one of the lead characters of today's evaluation. Having been given this knowledge, I bet you can put two and two together to figure out how I ended up playing "Okage: Shadow King." Because, let me tell you. I might be a nut for niche RPGs, but I definitely wouldn't have heard of this title without her influence. So, thanks again, JG!

"Okage: Shadow King" is a 2001 PlayStation 2 turn-based RPG developed by Zener Works. It (arguably) stars Ari, a young boy most known for…well. Nothing. Really! That's his schtick. Not that he doesn't have his own personality, but he's literally overshadowed by a bombastic set of characters hell-bent on taking over the world, reforming it to their desires, or stopping the chaos around them with their own tilted bents. To free his sister from a peculiar curse, Ari forms a pact with Stan, the titular Shadow (Evil) King, traveling around the world and defeating other Evil Kings to restore his power. Along the way, he picks up additional characters (including a handful of said Evil Kings, a dipshit scientist, and a mortified hero) and discovers the true nature of the world, all while finding a way to…well, step out of the shadows of others, I suppose.

Possibly by being the most sarcastic bitch in the world!

Now, if you read "2001", "PlayStation 2", and "RPG" above, you may pre-emptively have come to some conclusions about why this game is so damn niche. I checked the release dates just to confirm our mutual suspicions. This had a two months' head start on "Final Fantasy X" and was released in what appears to be the best month for it to come out (more on that in a bit.) So, I wouldn't say definitively that one game ate the other's supper. But, realistically, it only had a couple of months in the spotlight before went into…you know. Components of its own name.

There is definitely something weird to "Okage: Shadow King." I mean, weird beyond the intended vibes. I did some reading on Zener Works to see exactly what they are, as that's not a company familiar to me. It seems like they had a handful of titles in the late 2000s, as well as some mobile game properties (and a pending lawsuit against another company, if Google Translate was correct on their website.) This game is not only their only PS2 game, but seems to be the only RPG they ever built. Additionally, some general information on Wikipedia claims this was originally intended to be a PlayStation release but was then asked to be moved to the PlayStation 2 literally a day before the console's existence was revealed to the world at large.

I’m bringing up the development history because I don't want you to start playing this game and come to the conclusion that your PlayStation 2 is dying. (I mean, they are frailer than race horses, but it's not the console's fault exclusively that things are acting strangely.)

This isn't to say the game looks bad. Anything but! (Well, I guess there's some general distance fog, occasional camera issues, and Madril's kind of an ugly town, but stick with me here!) Honestly, given the character design for this game, I thought that perhaps there was some creative staff overlap with those that worked on stop-motion film/Hot Topic darling "Nightmare Before Christmas." This doesn't seem to be the case. Somebody in the design team was just a major nerd for that film. Like, blatantly stole the hill from that movie kind of nerd. The design team had their inspiration, and damned if they didn't nail it. So, if you're into the aesthetics of that film in particular, this game is a must play for that alone.

Also, one of the character modelers went on to work on "Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night." You know you've got the charming spooky look nailed when the former design team for several "Castlevania" games wants you in their company!

Honestly, the music is pretty good, too. There's a couple of tracks that go a little too heavy on the use of chanting or bagpipes for my taste, but otherwise? Solid. Also? It reacts to you being inside/outside a building and whether or not you are about to die in battle. Responsive music programming! I love that!

The major attraction for this game is its writing, bar none. It's the world's most sarcastic RPG, and I say that with full affection. Like, all of your dialogue options can be boiled down to good/bad/sarcastic. There's no sane man in this universe. They've all been run down and driven to frothing vengeance by those in manic passion for power. Hell, the only thing that even remotely restores sanity in this game is giving up power.

Even with the game's bombastic nature, it can come out swinging with its plot twists. Like, you'll catch some. Obviously, there's a reason that the girl with demon horns and a pink miniskirt has aspirations for becoming a pop icon. Some seem obvious after the fact, like, "Of course, you can't trust butlers for anything. That's always how it goes!" Even the nature of the world itself will explain some issues you rub up against gameplay-wise. The one that really caught me off-guard was the opening for Chapter 5. Like…I don't want to spoil it for you, so I won't get into it too much. But, let's say the bit with Ari having to stand up for himself and regain some sense of personality and appearance was surprisingly resonant for me.

So, this makes a pretty good YouTube longplay video, especially if you're listening to one sans commentary. How about the game part?

Well…how much do you like "Quest 64?"

Not that the two games are all that alike. (Well, actually, maybe in the good music/character design bit.) But, I bring up my tolerance for "Quest 64" in that I love that game despite its online reputation as being the worst RPG on the Nintendo 64. (I mean, have people even seen the opening cutscene for "Aidyn Chronicles"? JFC.) I have a great deal of tolerance for funky RPGs is what I'm trying to say. For me to call an RPG bad, you'd literally have to present something like "Hoshi wo Miru Hito" to my face. Like, poorly functioning, poor audio, and having no final boss bad.

This is a novice RPG written relatively new into its console's library. It's got issues.

If you're gonna play it, you're going to need to have patience with it.

Looking at how it operates, I suspect the game designers were fans of "Megami Tensei" games (like "Shin Megami Tensei" or possibly the "Persona" series, although the timeline isn't quite the smoothest for the latter.)  At least, the occasional Stan chats prior to combat, the focus on supernatural entities, the enemy abuse of curses, buffing/debuffing importance, and HP consuming moves are screaming that to me. There are some tweaks to it that are odd. For example, characters share a special ability pool (LP) instead of having their own points to spend on special moves or magic. This seems to fluctuate based on who is in your party and how magically gifted they are. There may also be some "Chrono Trigger" influence? Maybe? Possibly? I mean, you've got a party of three that trails you and can join up with you to attack a single target. It feels familiar for a reason.

Also, it's one of those RPGs where you can't trade the main character out of the party. And, if he dies, it's an instant game over. Yep. Like, there's an implied plot reason for why this could be so, but damned if it isn't irritating as hell.

Some of the mechanic focus is strange to me as well. Like, there are several levels of curses (think poison/sleep/confusion/reward penalties), and some of these curses can be stacked multiple times to have more severe effects. Meanwhile, the elemental system is just a triangle. It is also a strange triangle if you think too long about it. It's better just to think blue > red, yellow > blue, red > yellow instead of wondering how exactly fire defeats lightning and how ice works almost opposite to every other RPG on the planet. It also has a distribution issue both within your party and the monster populace at large. Like, you only get one fire elemental guy. But, to compensate for this, most of your cast will learn spells to cover the elements that they aren't. And then, it seems like there's not the most even balance of enemies out there, anyway? Like, it seemed mostly blue/red early on, with yellow appearing towards the end to be a pain in the ass. I don't know. It was weird. Like, "Fire Emblem" handing you so many sword dudes when there are so few axes to grind and more spears to dodge. It could be personal bias, but you know that feeling, right? Not as rough as taking a fire starter in Pokémon, but maybe taking a water starter.

Pacing is also a weird issue in this game. Like, there are some dungeons where you step one foot into and can win instantly, and others that require grinding for 10 levels. Your party member pool is strapped to the same three people for almost half of the game. (Trust me when I say you want Kisling out ASAP. Dude's a creep and a dud.) Hell, in trying to get my party evened out to level 60 for use in the final dungeon, I accidentally ended up gaining, like, 37 levels for the main character. Also, Chapters 4 and 5 seem to be significantly bloated, with a great deal of fighting taking place in or around the second town. It's like, blink and Chapters 1 and 6 are gone. Very odd.

So, okay. I've got a few creative differences with the dev team. What I really don't get is how the loading issues, audio volume multiplier, and save erasing bug made it into the wild. Like, I know. Novice game made by inexperienced team on new hardware. But, c'mon. Sony had a QA team on this. They had to pick this up.  

What's frustrating about these items is that I could see both how to fix them and how they just weren't fixed. Like…

The game loads fine when it's one large horizontal map. The loading issues come into play with more multi-roomed environments like homes, dungeons, and towns. Other games work around this by having multiple chunks on one map, then teleporting the player around as they enter and exit spaces. Or, hell, implement a visibility flag and turn that on/off as needed. Could the maps not be congealed, for some reason? Couldn't someone at least give the player a loading screen so I’m not sitting there wondering if my PlayStation 2 is having optical drive issues?

The audio volume multiplier is a weird event where a single sound is being played many times, usually when multiple of the same attacks or spells land at once. All that requires to fix, theoretically, would be implementing a volume maximum to not be played over, then making that volume be whatever the default value for the base sound is.

I saw the save erasing bug happen a whopping 3 times over 40 hours of gameplay, and I had been rotating my saves like a good girl. So, it wasn't something I couldn't recover from. But, holy shit. No. Absolutely not. That could have been real bad. Like, I can only guess what's happening here, but it seems like a file is being purposefully deleted before some new file is written in its place (as opposed to some file updating process) and that the writing process subsequently screws up. This would prevent bad progress flags from being recorded, I suppose, but the opposing situation of losing an entire damn file isn't pleasant, either.  

Considering how much dicking around the publishers asked for in getting this game on the PlayStation 2, I'm going to assume that they're also to blame for these issues getting out. As in, "Well, we've got to ship this by October!" and wham! Bugs pressed.

Even with all of the quirks to the game, it's not the hardest RPG to get through. About the roughest time I had was with Big Bull, and the troubles there involved dealing with Ari dying in two hits and Kisling just generally being unhelpful. Honestly, most of the problems in the game can be solved by ganging up on weak enemies and having a dedicated healing item spammer. (Healing items are super cheap, so might as well cram as many as you can in your pockets!) The rest is just talking to as many people as you can and reading as many signs as possible.

Also, here. Just take this video guide on gear locations. Life is short; don't trouble yourself with something as silly as gear hunting blindly. (At least it's not as silly of a side quest as dodging lightning 100 times or learning a new sport!)

I feel a little bad for coming down on "Okage" as hard as I did at the end. It's funny, thought provoking, and respectful of the player's time. For as fresh and different as it is, I'd play this over several contemporary members of its library. But, for some of its quirks, it does require a little patience. You've just got to know whether or not you've got that on hand.  

Frankly, for its price, "Okage: Shadow King" is quite the bargain, too. Hell, it's even available on the PlayStation store! Can't argue with the fair distribution it has in a modern market.

And, hey! Now I know more about JG's icon! So, it's always nice to have some additional context, especially when characters and stories are important to your friends. But, I do have to wonder how Rosalyn won over Stan for that place of honor. I mean, other than by being classified as a hero.

Then again, it might be a little disturbing being followed by something like this online.