#i feel like i should tag these posts so i can kinda track our progress

[happymeishappylife]

DC CW Shows

I finally caught up on all the DC Universe shows. Quite an accomplishment for me considering I was 2 seasons behind. It feels good to finally get caught up to speed, but some of them are starting to feel like chores getting through them, rather than fun entertainment. A concern that gets amplified by the fact that the producers want to add on 2 more shows to the line up. So I felt like it was a good idea to breakdown my thoughts on each of the shows and what I liked/didn’t like. Plus then I will break down my thoughts on Crisis, because I have a lot of them. I’ll also rank these as I go as far as which ones I liked best, beginning with least to best. So let’s begin:

#7 - The Flash

I used to love this show so much. The first two seasons were a lot of fun and I loved all the characters so much. Thanks to the writing though, I can’t honestly say I don’t like this show much at all anymore and that’s kinda sad. Part of the reason is it became soooo angsty. Like the reason The Flash was great, was it was the antithesis to the angst on Arrow which made it so refreshing to watch. Now it’s like everyone must suffer some sort of pain over the tiniest things or worse, they become entrapped in characters and situations like its been haunting them for years when it only got introduced a couple episodes ago. At this point the only characters I care about are Caitlyn/Frost, Joe and Cecile West, Wally (when he’s on, which is like never), and Ralph. And that’s painful that Hartley won’t be returning to fill that role anymore because he was the only one who still could joke and laugh around like old Team Flash.

Season 5: Overall season 5 had a pretty solid storyline despite some of the angsty writing. After a while though I got pretty sick of fighting Chicada over and over again, especially Grace’s version. My one big pet peeve with it though was the relationship of Nora to Barry and Iris. I’m sorry. I can’t honestly picture any 20-30 something meeting their adult daughter and automatically assuming the role of an actual parent and treating her like a preteen. That always felt super weird and uncomfortable. Not to mention it happened almost automatically with little to no hang ups on ‘is this really our kid? Should we trust her?’ Plus then it created angst between Barry and Iris which I’m really over at this point in the series because their relationship was never my favorite to begin with.

Season 6: A hot mess. Granted, because of Crisis and Covid-19, the season probably didn’t get a fair chance to play out to it’s full potential. But cutting the season into two arcs didn’t do it any justice. Especially because instead of having character growth, I felt like a lot of the characters regressed. Take Barry for instance. The whole first part of the season is him prepping/training the team to take over for him after Crisis since he believes he is going to die. Only when he doesn’t, he assumes the role of leader still without actually leading. He stops telling his team members key details and putting aside the fact he killed the speed force, he stopped being a hero. The whole fight scene with Mirror-Iris, was so bizarre to watch. Yes, Barry would never hurt the real Iris, but she’s not and instead he just stands there and gets stabbed over and over, crying at the end that she’s not there. It’s really hard to watch.

#6 - Arrow

Arrow used to be in my top 3 slots as last I left it. The storylines were still on point. But leading up to Crisis and the show ending, there were some things that worked for me and some that didn’t. Still, kudos to the team for standing their ground and saying that we’ve told all we can tell, let’s put this show to bed and give it a close it deserves. It made the ending super emotional, but at the same time satisfying despite, Oliver’s death in the universe. My only complaint is the fact that the producers can’t put it fully to bed and now want to reboot Arrow all over again with Mia and the canaries. Don’t get me wrong watching strong women take more of the leading roles is awesome, but not to tell and retell the same storylines.

Season 7: The first half of the season when Oliver was in Iron Heights was not my favorite. Mainly because as it continues to develop it was like all the reasons he got put in Iron Heights to begin with no longer mattered. Diaz is still on the lose, he’s still playing his games in prison, and really what was the point? Now the second half of the season where we focus on his rehabilitation into society and working with the SCPD to track and take down his sister Emiko, was actually good. Too bad it got horribly overshadowed by a time travel flash-forward storyline to introduce and make us care about Mia.

Season 8: Obviously this season was the closeout season and the season leading up to Crisis. But I liked the way they treated it. They gave cameo spots and guest starring spots to former faces like Thea (she’s still freaking awesome), Tommy, Moira, and even Merlyn came back. My only complaint was that all of sudden we did have another time travel situation on our hands to meet our future kids. Thankfully I felt Arrow overall took that development better than the Flash, which since that was only a couple episodes and not a season, says something about the writing. Plus the post-Crisis pilot for the Green Arrow and Canaries felt a little out of place given everything that happened and a little insulting.

#5 - Supergirl

There’s parts of Supergirl I still absolutely love to pieces and the writing that are still doing it the justice that started the show by telling storylines of not only heroism, but commentary on today’s events to help push for progress. I love the whole cast of characters and think the acting has been great. My only complaint is with Season 5 and the fact that the show is beginning to find its tipping point of being less than stellar. I mean, I still enjoy it, but it’s beginning to show its where and tear so I’m worried what’s going to happen as it continues forward. Especially as it gets hyperfixated on Lex Luthor, who don’t get me wrong is a fabulous villain, but isn’t that Superman’s arch nemesis, not Supergirl’s?

Season 4: What a great commentary to tell throughout the season that parallels the feelings and conversations being had about immigration in our own world. I thought the idea of the Alien Amnesty Act squaring off against Ben Lockwood and his Agents of Liberty was not only great commentary but great story telling. I also loved that we got to introduce Nia Nall into the series because she’s fantastic and has become one of my favorite characters. I even love the twist reveal of how Ben Lockwood isn’t the enemy, it’s really Lex Luthor and his communist Supergirl clone. Plus Jon Crier plays an amazing Lex Luthor.

Season 5: Don’t get me wrong, the stakes and the storylines with Leviathan and Obsidian North, I do think are important and worth telling, but they detracted from the main storyline that developed at the end of last season which was Lena and Kara’s new relationship. Yes, it was still hit on and explored, but by far that was the storyline I was interested in seeing the most, not Ramah Khan or Virtual Reality horror stories. Also, while I like Lex, thanks to his antics during Crisis, the second half of the season felt hijacked and became this witch hunt. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to see what he and Lillian are doing, but I wish it played out more in the shadows and less of the actual screen time. I’m also glad Lena is back on Kara’s side again. But Brainy better not be dead! He’s one of my favorites even if his motives during this season were hard to watch.

#4 - Batwoman

I actually really, really, really liked Batwoman’s first season. Getting to know the badass that is Kate Kane and watch the horror’s of Gotham play out week to week was such a refreshing change of pace. After all, The Flash and Supergirl are undeniably heroes and must carry those burdens(?) as they fight for truth and justice. And Oliver was a vigilante, but while he took down drug lords, weapons dealers, etc. the stakes of being a vigilante in Star City is nothing compared to wearing the cape in Gotham. I loved the cast and seeing the stories play out of their past and how they connect to each other and also how some of them discover who Batwoman is, was fantastic. Even as creepy as Alice is, I enjoyed seeing the performance of the completely unhinged and psychotic villain take the stage to play out her twisted fantasies. I also appreciate the openness that Kate brought to being an out and proud lesbian, even revealing her super identity to a teenager to prove that it does get better and lesbians can be awesome is super freaking powerful. I even like that with the shortened season, it didn’t feel like we got robbed of an awesome storyline, but now we get to why this ranks fourth on my list instead of higher: Ruby Rose left the show and we get a whole new Batwoman. I get that this is out of the hands of the producers and the writers and I am super sad to see her go. But its hard not to feel like we lost a whole season of introduction and development to just reset and begin again. I’m not sure how they will handle it, but I do hope that a lot of the cast stays and stays in their roles. Especially Luke and Mary who are a great team. Mary is also like my all time, instant-favorite character because not only is she super wicked smart, but she has so much humanity in her so I hope she still continues on the show.

#3 - Stargirl

 Yes, yes, this show is still airing which is why I can’t speak to the overall season arc in finality yet, but I absolutely have been loving this first season. Again, what a refreshing new reality to step into and what a great new storyline to pursue. This rag-tag group of teenagers becoming the new Justice Society of America is a fun telling and already, the stakes of the Injustice Society are so high! Like I was expecting that it was going to be like the other shows where slowly by slowly we meet all the bad guys in different seasons, but instead it feels a little flipped since we don’t have all our new heroes on the stage yet. Still I love Courtney and her relationship with Pat as she discovers these secrets of his past and their new home of Blue Valley. I love her recruiting reasoning to bring Yolanda and Rick into this crazy plan and even her acceptance of Beth becoming the new Doctor Midnight. Plus, the show keeps surprising me because on one hand, giving these teenagers these powers to help them redeem their self esteem is a great storyline, which is why I was expecting them to force us to like Cindy since the beginning of that episode was leading up to maybe becoming friends with her, but no. Turns out she is the super bitch and super villain of the show and that’s kinda awesome. Also I like how because their teenagers, their secret identities aren’t really that secret, which makes it’s kinda fun, but also dangerous. We’ll see how the last 3 episodes play out, but I can’t wait.

#2 - Black Lightening

Talk about real gritty, dark, and powerful storytelling. I enjoyed the first season, but these last two have been a real punch in the gut in good ways and the writers have been outdoing themselves to provide heartfelt, real, honest emotions and discussions to the world of superheroes, compared to the other shows. And it’s hard, but the gruesome nature of the show also highlights some of the real struggles going on in the Freeland Community which of course highlights the issues in our own world around the Black Community. The whole spinal chord ripping scene will haunt me forever and not only because they keep replaying it, but because of how insane that was. The cast is also great and I love that at the end of Season 3, it’s not just a family of super heroes, but a group of powerful metas squaring off against the government and the most dangerous threat of all so far: Gravedigger. Gives me goose bumps just thinking about it.

Season 2: Now that the whole family knows the stakes of what they have gotten themselves into with Tobias and revealing the girls have power, I love the way we got introduced to the ASA and the pod kids as a menial threat while still struggling to take down the perceived ‘bigger threat’ that is Tobias. Jennifer also having trouble coming to terms with her powers and how to use them I think was a great way to explore that not everyone wants to be a superhero, especially in antithesis to Nyssa who is a full on badass as Thunder and Blackbird. Watching Khalil’s story in this go from obedient lap dog to a runaway and finally a victim of Tobias’ violence was hard, but I felt was justified throughout and made him that character you want to root for, even when not everything he’s done has been great.

Season 3: What a harsh turn of direction. A full on occupation of Freeland, house arrest, killings on the street, and an underground railroad of metas or suspected metas completely changed the tune of this show. Watching each of the Peirces struggle to find out who the ASA is, what their doing, if their actions are justified and if the Marcovian threat was real was really fascinating to watch. The showdown with the Marcovians too with a whole team behind them was also a nice change of pace, even if their mission didn’t end the way they expected. I think the amplified stakes though of what happened and what’s to come will continue to develop into an incredible show, minus one now big problem I have, but I will detail that out below when we talk about Crisis.

#1 - Legends of Tomorrow

You can fight me, but Legends of Tomorrow is the best goddamn shown on this network for one simple fact: They don’t take themselves seriously. There is no real angst and because of that it makes the adventures so fun and so hilarious that its such a great break from all of the other shows. Plus, because they keep swapping new and old cast members into the show, it always feels new. Kinda that Doctor Who spirit, which I love. That and because there are hardly any rules to a time travelling group of heroes who don’t really want to be heroes, you get ridiculously themed episodes like Bollywood Musical or TV Crossovers. It is what makes the show a total blast.

Season 4: As the team gears up to track down magical creatures throughout history, you get the introduction of permanent team member, John Constantine who I freaking love for his cool, aloof character and yet sarcastic and sassy contrast to the sunshine and bro-squad that is Ray and Nate. I also love that the season not only was about capturing these magical creatures, but fully rehabilitating Norah Dhark into a good guy now accidentally turned fairy godmother. To be honest, I definitely did not see that one coming. I like that fighting the demon lord also helped transition the show from Season 4 to 5 to fight hell spawn creatures. Quite a leap from the original Legends concept, but again that’s what makes this show so fresh.

Season 5: Part of the other fun of Legends is getting to see old characters get reinvented. I loved the storyline with Charlie and her reveal to be Clothos, one of the 3 fate sisters and the reason the ancient loom got destroyed. I also loved Tala Ashe’s portrayal of Zari in a different timeline because the difference between tech-geek, super smart Zari and social influencer extraordinaire Zari were well done. Plus we got another awesome bro-squad member in Behrad who I hope sticks around for a while. The only bummer was saying goodbye to Ray Palmer. Ray has been one of my favorite characters in the Arrow-verse and seeing his exit was sad and partly because I think it could have been handled better. Like don’t get me wrong, seeing him have to get approval from Damian Dhark to marry Nora was entertaining and I’m glad he isn’t dead like Dr. Stein or Leonard Snart, but I just feel like the exit was a bit rushed. The good news is, it opens the door for Ray to return and I hope we get to seem in the future.

Alright...... To end this long spiel, let’s talk about Crisis on Infinite Earths and what that now means for all these shows. Because unfortunately.... it can’t be ignored. And I’m sorry to sound pessimistic, but to be honest, Crisis wasn’t my favorite story and was too hyped for the end result.

The only show who came out better for Crisis, in my opinion, was Arrow. Mainly because the story of Oliver’s last sacrifice to reboot the universe was the only one that made complete sense and doesn’t complicate the show after it happens. Granted it could be because it was used as the show’s exit, but still. I used to love crossover episodes and getting the whole team together, but now because there is soooo much going on in each show and such a large cast, these big multi-night and multi-universe shows just feel scattered because you are constantly hopping around and between each of the characters and all the individual storylines don’t matter. Like remember when Barry and Oliver would actually talk about what they were up against? Miss that. That and Oliver, Barry, and Kara stole the show even when it was other shows turn to shine. Like Kate was hardly in it, even in her own episode and the Legends weren’t in it at all. It was just Sara and Ray which was disappointing because as Crisis was their season opener, you missed a real chance to have the Legends save the day. Don’t get my wrong, there were some great moments during crisis and I liked the nod to past versions of the DC characters, including Brandon Routh getting to play Superman again, but overall it just made chaos for things that don’t make sense post-crisis.

Like yay, all our favorite heroes are in one place and created the justice league to help each other, but once Crisis is over, nope sorry, no one can be bothered to borrow a hero friend. Like that makes sense for some shows, Batwoman for instance isn’t that close to everyone and her storyline is so rooted in her own family drama, that ignoring the other supers made sense. The Flash’s stakes weren’t high enough to involve anyone else, so fine. And Legends of course travel through time and so aren’t around, fine. But Supergirl’s takedown of a longstanding secret group of people capable of bending Earth’s elements to create catastrophic events, isn’t enough to at least reach out to Cisco or Luke for help tracking them? That seems underwhelming. Plus where are the aliens in all the other cities now? Or the metas in National City? That’s a pet peeve, but more so because of the biggest twist in Crisis:

Pulling Black Lightening into the Arrowverse. Like the shows writers and producers, I think Black Lightening works better outside the Arrowverse which was the intent and goal from the get go. Pulling Jefferson Pierce’s family and world into the same Earth as all the other shows, no longer makes the shows storytelling as strong and maybe it was because this was a last minute decision, but there is just no justification post Crisis as to why they had to come in. I mean, The Flash and Black Lightening have metas related issues, you would think that alone would be a prime source of teaming up. Especially when Cisco goes out on a worldwide quest to document metas, you’re telling me skipped over Freeland? And where’s our favorite Kyrptonian to fight for truth, justice, and the American way as Freeland is being occupied by the ASA? Oh, what too busy going after Lex Luthor? Sorry, I’m not buying that Kara Danvers ignores racial injustice. Like I get that maybe it was a way to be able to use Black Lightening later in cross-over events, but the fallout from bringing them in this season with everything going on is a huge mistake in my opinion. And heck, having shows exist outside each other is probably a good thing. Too many and these crossover events don’t feel fun anymore, they just feel chaotic. I think I’m with the Legends on this one: the crossovers aren’t worth it anymore.

[ilkkijangege]

131

Work from Home Chad Chronicles Part 2 because I've already reached max capacity on the other one 😂

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15/09/20

Today, I noticed that he removed "Pizza time 🤩" from his status now and changed his profile pic to Peter Griffin.

The first one really dampened my mood because I was the one who taught him how to add that and it was meaningful to me. Is that a sign that he's moved on? 😂 Or am I overthinking this again?

I prayed about him again last night but I really don't know. How can I date him? It's going to be a year next month and it's killing me. Help.

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21/09/20

Had my interview for the QA role on Friday and I feel like it went really well as in super well na I am really hoping na I will really get it.

But a realisation occurred to me, if God gives this to me, I am going to have to take it as a sign na he wants me to focus on my career. I wouldn't be able to date Chad because I will be above him. It truly sucks but we can't get everything in life, we would need to sacrifice something in order to get to where we want.

I've been wanting to progress in my career for the longest time and it's either I choose love or career. I want to experience love but if a career opportunity comes knocking on my door, this is what I'll have to choose. My mom chose her career over love, she was able to provide for her family and in the end, she found love. Maybe that's the path God wants me to take.

Whatever happens Lord, take the wheel. If you want me to be with him, then I'll gladly accept that too.

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29/09/20

So I didn't get the QA role and he didn't get the SME role either...

So it means, I have to make a move on him at some point since we're still level 13s.

However, meeting the parents really scares me because his parents are rich and I feel like I am so out of their league. I mean, they may be nice people and all but I don't know how they'll feel about me.

I'm thinking wayyy too ahead, it's not like he's even agreed to go on a date with me like 😂

Anyways, I think I still need a lot more time to discern about this.

Also quite sad that both of my wing women has left the company. 😭 I'm alone in this game called love now. I mean if he leaves as well, then it's going to be much easier for me to move on.

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8/10/20

So I was looking into our office's Workplace platform and there was a post about 5 weeks ago from one of the SMEs and he was asked to tag the team.

He didn't tag me...but he tagged the new joiners on our team.... I know I may be overthinking this but cmon how could you forget about me?

Is this a sign I should move on and move to a different company?

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25/10/20

Okay was curious about the number on his linkedin, added it on WhatsApp and if that is still his phone number, omg how cute he has his dog as his profile pic haha

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30/10/20

So a year has officially passed since I started growing a crush on him. ARGH I HATE THIS 🥺

Had a dream that I confessed to him on messenger because he was leaving the company. I saw that he said "yup" before i opened the thread so I thought he said yes to a date with me but he just replied to my message where I said the message can be deleted in one click if he rejects me. Then I saw him in the office collecting his stuff and we just ignored each other. Weird dream tbh haha.

Then in another dream that followed, I also confessed to him via messenger but this time, he said yes to a date with me.

Honestly, I am very anxious when I finally ask him out. I am thinking January, so I can let the holiday season pass by and hopefully Ireland will be in Level 2 then so we can sit in a café. But I was also thinking of going on a walk in St Stephen's Green Park.

I'll just really have to take a risk and just go for it. I just hope he'll be man enough to reject me, if ever, rather than to seen zone me. I'm praying for a positive outcome but we'll see. Even if I get rejected, it'll be a life experience and we're still working from home so I won't see him and I can just ignore his messages on our GC etc. Also I can leave the company if ever, but honestly, I don't want another job til I become a trainee solicitor, I just really want a raise.

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4/11/20

So today seems like the first anniversary of Entry 50, where we both said we preferred American Pancakes and when he waved goodbye to me. 😂

Haaaayyy, if only things were different now... But really, it will be hard for me to delete these entries if ever he does reject me. Or maybe I'll just forget about this blog for a few years until I find my special someone and I'll be more okay with deleting these entries.

Also, he started playing Hollow Knight, hahah same like xD

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3/12/20

It's been 3 months since last talked and it's been sad, ish but not too bothered.

So I decided I was going to finally ask him in the new year and decided to give myself a deadline of January 15. At this point, I just really don't care anymore, I want to get it over and done. If he doesn't reciprocate then that's okay.

BUUUUTTTTT 2 new QA roles opened up for our project and I heard it's being fast tracked where interviews are likely to take place in 2 weeks time because of new people joining the project. I am really confident about it this time and if I do get it, my ultimatum now is if I don't start my QA role by January 15, I am still going ahead with it. But even still, I still kinda want to go ahead with it, what harm can 1 date do? If we do go on more, we'd definitely need to inform the higher ups because they may not let me be his QA.

Anyways, I really hope I do get this because it really is my time.

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14/12/20

Like seriously, why is my intuition of him leaving in January so so so strong? I guess we'll see when our January schedule is released.

PS I have my QA interview tomorrow again and I am dying. Everything will be okay.

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15/12/20

Yep, butchered the interview so hey Chad, I am definitely going to ask you out on January 😂

[cryamore]

MINI UPDATE PART 1: Backer-only Discord Server Questions

Mirroring a recent Kickstarter update over here on Tumblr to try and keep all the social outlets up to date.

This has to be split into two parts because Tumblr only allows five embedded videos per post.

Thanks for everyone’s comments and support on the previous Kickstarter backer only update! A good number of people have joined the Cryamore Backer Discord server that I started up.

We’ve got about 132 members on there right now and it may grow a bit more once I send out the invite to the Paypal backers as a means to get them caught up with what’s been going on behind the backer-only posts. I just have to mirror the backer-only posts in somewhere like Dropbox for their prolonged perusal and prepare a short list of Q&A in case they have any queries and I’ll send out this draft I’ve done.

With that said, I wanted to make a short update reiterating questions gathered from the Discord channels and sharing some of the things we feel we can have non-backers see since it won’t spoil the game... too much.

FoolishWolf asked: I guess my first question is if it is possible to give an ETA on the project at this point?

Rob: We want to be finished this year. We're currently in the "Polish" phase where all the moving and working parts are in, it's just a matter of cleaning up presentation, major bugs, and final art.

Alan: There are going to be gameplay polishes too as we go along. The mechanics we've got are now all adjusted to any suggestions we've taken in from our publisher's testing but we'd like to see if during the backer tests, anyone feels it could be improved further.

That's fair. I guess this is just the marketer in me, but is there gifs and videos that maybe you can release for the community for #Indiedevhour and #screenshotsaturday that we share around. Kinda get the hype train going?

Rob: We want to get back into doing more of that, yeah. Now that we're polishing stuff up.

Alan: We'll be sharing stuff as often as we can on Discord which we'll then pool together for the mini updates.

Clay | Terminally Nerdy asked:

Once the game is in a “playable” preview state, would you all want someone to stream/talk about it?

We’re absolutely okay with it as this would help reinforce the fact that the game is legit. We’ll make sure to mark which builds are public ready.

Can you get Atlus to port the Persona series to PC, and will Jack Frost be in the game?

We sadly don’t have that kind of pull but I personally would like to see the Persona series on PC too.

Phosphatide asked:

How close is it to the proposed "40+ tracks" from the Kickstarter?

We’re pretty much within the forty track count already. I’ll share surasshu’s answer here as it’s better to hear it from one of our composers.

here's a link to a larger version (just adjust the zoom) in case Kickstarter decides to shrink the whole thing to an unreadable point.

fpwong asked:

What do ppl usually use for programming AI in Unity? UE4 has inbuilt behaviour trees but idk if unity has anything of the sort.

Alan: We’re not sure about other people using Unity but for us, we’ve been using a mix of C# and FlowCanvas/NodeCanvas to achieve an easily tweakable AI system. It’s the same thing we used to set up our cutscene/dialogue system too, so it’s multipurpose!

Rob: This video is quite outdated though; It’s mostly the dialogue on example there and a few older bugs but that shows how the dialogue tree is set up, how it can control objects to walk away from the scene, change sprites and more.

Brendan (luigimeistersa) asked:

Hey dev guys. Does Cryamore have any kind of buffs you can apply to Esmy?

Alan: We sadly don’t have much in way of buff abilities besides things like Oxy Barrier which provide you with a protective bubble and allow you to breathe underwater or other abilities like Time Paradox and Shadow Cloak. You do get a Well Rested buff though from sleeping at the inn though and the buff comes at various tiers.

Can you bind them (abilities) to the row of number keys on PC?

Alan: We're using Rewired for Unity to support keybinding and a variety of controllers (here's a list) so you should be able to rebind controls to any key you wish on a desktop keyboard.

Rob: Controllers may be more limited for keybinding in comparison, however.

AreYouSmarterThanACheeseGrater asked:

So, how are you going to work sleeping? Will time advance a set number of hours or will time progress to the next morning/evening?

Alan: Here’s an excerpt from our design document to easily explain how sleeping works.

Take note, costs are subject to change but sleeping in specific beds advances time by a set amount and you get better rest in a shorter amount of time from the more expensive rooms at the inn (to be fully rested and free from fatigue for a day in just two hours would be amazing). You do have the option to be cheap and just sleep in your own bed but you use up more time in a day.

Downing energy drinks is a way to stay awake without having to sleep but you can only carry so much and it won't fully restore your fatigue and you'll eventually find yourself sleeping on the ground, helpless against any threats around you.

shadowreaper5 asked: Are you still looking for help? I can't draw or code, but if you need someone to poke every corner for bugs I'm your man

We'll put out a public call for assistants when there's nothing else left but the art polish push, there's a bit of design polish that Rob and I still have to work on here and there but when the backgrounds and pixel tracing are all that's left, we're hoping we get many applicants that're willing to stick through.

As for poking every corner for bugs, I've currently given 13 members on the Backer Discord @tester status. Having them on Discord will help us all communicate as they run the builds. I expect we're going to have a few questions of why the game won't start when loading a save (recurring bug that happened in old builds regarding data from a previous build being kept in the %appdata% folder on Windows systems and conflicting with the new build)

Does your [insert magic equivalent here] regenerate quicker if you sleep in a bed/inn?

Alan: In our aim to nail down the fun factor without sacrificing too much of the original vision, we decided to make EP regenerate automatically.

You should see it in action in this older stress test video that Rob shared on the Discord server.

As you can see, the blue meter to the lower left goes down each time Esmy uses a skill. The meter is actually comprised of a number of cells but displays as a meter, the cell count is shown to the right of the meter as EP <number>. Each ability eats a number of cells, i.e. an ability like Ignite Lv1 costs = 1 cell but Shadow Cloak of any level will use = 4 cells. A channeled ability like Boulder Dash will eat up a cell every second.

Cells can be increased by finding certain collectibles in the game.

Rob: You can also see in the video above that even in-editor, the game runs pretty smoothly (60FPS+) with 8 monsters and numerous adds it summons.

Alan: I've personally tried it on my own PC with a 1GB video card from 7 years ago and it runs fine in-editor and runs even better on a compiled build.

lemon-rev asked: With your post regarding the update, I can now fully understand why the game looks at is base level, playtime on each of those levels sounds great, but are they leveling, completing quests, just beating up mobs, I am sure each of those other sections that have to be redone for unity as well as the type of content for each one.

Some context is necessary here for the non-backers reading this. During the previous backer update, I mentioned the listed completion times we got for each dungeon when we had testers run through it, here are those numbers...

Northern Caverns v1 Build: 20-30 minutes

Rime Rapids v1 Build: 30-40 minutes

Molten Mountain v1 Build: 30-40 minutes

Terrestrial Woods v1 Build: 40-60 minutes  

Vale of Gale v1 Build: 40-60 minutes  

Sunken Ship v2 Build: 40-120 minutes

Mekanika v2 Build: 40-120 minutes

Phantom Marshes v2 Build: 40-120 minutes

The v1 builds were before I ran a level design revamp over the layouts so those numbers can go up. All in all though, that's currently around 4.6 hours worth of dungeon crawling (and there's one dungeon unaccounted for still).

With that bit of context given, to fully answer lemon-rev's question, take note, these are all approximate numbers as there was a guide provided for the publisher testers to consult and these numbers also DO NOT include boss fights, cutscenes or enemy ambushes. There's also the time required to head out into the overworld and look for and access those dungeons so we estimate that we could hit 12 hours at the very least of regular gameplay without completing any sidequests and hopefully 16-18 hours if you try to 100% the whole game.

sky asked: Is Linux still planned?

Yes! This is also why we're going to have to reach out to our backers for testing assistance as we've only been able to test on PC and Mac so far and do not have much if any Linux testbeds.

We've had a number of people on the Discord server that I've tagged as willing testers and we look forward to working with them soon!

CONTINUED IN PART 2

[tribelamag-blog]

http://tribelamagazine.com/forgetyourfriends-acrostic/ TribeLA Magazine • Los Angeles   photo by Johnny Ramos California Newgaze. T Natalie Durkin (TribeLA Magazine): Give your band a Tagline. Pony Curtis (guitar/vocals in Forget Your Friends): Down till we’re underground. Charlie Kennedy (vocals/guitar in Forget Your Friends): Forget Your Friends, but don’t Forget Abo... #Acrostic #Allartallthetime #ForgetYourFriends #FYFtheband #LosAngelesBand #OkToHeartRecords #Tribelamagazine

New Post has been published on http://tribelamagazine.com/forgetyourfriends-acrostic/

Forget Your Friends Does the TribeLA Musicians Acrostic Interview

  photo by Johnny Ramos

California Newgaze.

T

Natalie Durkin (TribeLA Magazine): Give your band a Tagline.

Pony Curtis (guitar/vocals in Forget Your Friends): Down till we’re underground.

Charlie Kennedy (vocals/guitar in Forget Your Friends): Forget Your Friends, but don’t Forget About Us.

J. Peters (bass/backing vocals in Forget Your Friends): Heavy and hypnotic.

Adam Jackson (drums/samples in Forget Your Friends): California Newgaze.

R

ND: What got you started in music? What is the Reason you are where you are today?

PC: I got started in music when I was in middle school, my older brother had some friends in bands and I always thought it was so rad, once I started doing it for myself, I fell in love with it, there isn’t any other way to express myself that is as rewarding as grabbing a idea for a song out of the air and making it my own, I’m pretty much a junky for music…the whole band is.

CK: I actually moved to California in 2011 to pursue my dreams in creating music professionally when I met Pony and Jay at the studio for my audition to join the band and since recording “Antarctica” with Forget Your Friends, we’ve continued to progressively build our sound to bind the colors in our heads into music that we consider, Newgaze. Our hope and belief in the music we create together has kept us inspired because we each equally care deeply about our California Newgaze sound and want to offer a new style that music lovers can relate with.

JP: Hearing music for the first time and other bands. As soon as I got into music I knew that’s what I wanted to do. So I pursued it and haven’t looked back since.

AJ: I’ve always been heavily around music from an early age, started in school marching bands working my way up to touring the country… kind of a trip haha. [On the reason he is where he is today:]When I stopped telling myself ‘I can’t’.

I

ND: What effect (Influence) do you hope to have on us?

PC: I hope I can influence people to side step out of their box, check out of life’s busy [mess] for a while and just vibe out to some jams.

CK: I’m hoping that we can invite everyone to enjoy our sound as we don’t really fit in with any specific genre, but we would wish for a universal audience to be open to hearing what we’re bringing out in to the music world. We want to influence a certain common ground for everyone to have different reasons for liking us instead of catering to what is normally accepted by society and essentially, what is expected. We want to break the binds of tradition and reach out to everyone who may want or need a release from the real world, but who can still rock out in our dream world of aggression and nirvana.

JP: Hopefully positive and insightful.

AJ: I believe you have to see us first hand to understand that..

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVKlfUtBYmT/?taken-by=forgetyourfriends

B

ND: What do you do when you’re stuck (Blocked)?

PC: Time…if I force something it never comes out as rad as it would’ve if I would of just let it materialize naturally, I gotta check out sometimes and it’s always totally helpful, I play music ‘cuz I love it, so if I’m not feeling it I accept that and take a few off.

CK: I try to make a great escape from reality by letting my mind feel all of the pain and emotions that we sometimes hide from even ourselves. I’ve heard that if you’re having a hard time trying to remember something, the best thing to do is to think of something else. So I try and apply that to my writing, if I feel like nothing is coming naturally, I stop entirely and make a great escape, then come back to it with new inspiration.

JP: Take a break and walk away. Wait for the energy to return, it always does. You can’t force creativity.

AJ: I focus creative energy on other projects in between so if it’s music I’m having a creative block with I focus on filming/photography and vice versa.

E

ND: What fires you up and gives you Energy?

PC: The sun, I’m a sun sign so if I’m feeling [bad] I just go lay in the sun for a bit, it always recharges my energy for sure….and passion tea no sugar extra ice from Starbucks.

CK: Life! Feeling alive and having HOPE gives me energy. I try to surround myself with positivity because sometimes I lose track of what life is supposed to mean, instead of just living in the moment where we should be inviting every opportunity that may come our way!

JP: Performing. There’s no feeling like taking the stage to fans who are waiting for you or discovering you for the first time.

AJ: My fans, most definitely.

L

ND: Can you share a Little known fact with us?

PC: Redheads cover only about 2% of the population.  If you’re like me, a blue-eyed redhead, then you only cover about 1%; making myself one of the rarest humans in the world….so you’re welcome for knowing me.

CK: I was a Junior Olympian swimmer at one point in my life. And now I hate getting in pools all together.

JP: Ummmm. I’m allergic to apricots. If I look at one I’ll die.

AJ: Trumpet was the first instrument I started with as a child. I was a band geek!

A

ND: Where is your favorite place in Los Angeles? Where would you take visitors? If you could defend the city in one sentence to someone who doubts it, what would you say?

PC: One of the best parts about LA is the music shops & record stores, you can find any & everything & I know you can find anything online but hunting for a record or guitar in person is always much more satisfying! LA is basically the internet in real life, you can find whatever you want at just about anytime, you just gotta [work] to find it.

CK: I love this cafe called Happy Days Cafe because they’re open until 2am and make the best stuffed churros in the world where they have vegan and gluten free options!

JP: Definitely LACMA and probably a show at The Whisky A Go Go with a walk down Sunset to see the weirdness. And for any doubter I would say, “how can you doubt a city that dreams so big and wears so much leather.”

AJ: I think if I have any plans to take you anywhere, it would have to be to one of my favorite restaurants Lee’s Tofu. Not only is the food good but the waitresses are kinda rude, it’s great lol. LA offers so much importance from its diversity and culture so don’t knock it til you try it you feel me?

M

ND: Briefly chronicle your creative process. How do you like to Make art?

PC: Usually it’s morning or night, I can’t seem to catch inspiration mid day for some reason…but it always starts on my acoustic guitar, I will get random melodies and guitar ideas stuck in my head and kick em around with the band see if anything sticks.

CK: I love writing songs first on my acoustic guitar and even recording a tune that I’ve had in my head during the day and building from that. We all write together so it’s really fun when we each vibe on an idea and expand something that wasn’t really there expect for in our heads, into reality.

JP: Creativity is a hard thing to describe. I love hearing other artists speak about how they write their songs, most have the same answer, it just happens, you pick up your instrument and it happens.

AJ: To be honest I always love going in with no plan to my writing process. Whatever is happening naturally in that moment is what excites me. Most importantly believe in what you’re creating, always.

U

ND: What is coming Up?

PC: We have a new 4 track EP we are about to drop on oktoheart records this fall/winter it was recorded at Big Bad Sound in LA as well as Wormhole Studios in Canyon Country, CA. We had Alan Day from the band Four Year Strong fly out from Boston to produce it & Roman Marisak for engineering/mixing, we are so excited to share it with everyone!

CK: We are releasing an EP by the end of this summer that I couldn’t be more excited to share because the songs mean the world to us and I really feel like this is the sound we’ve heard in our heads for all these years of being a band together.

JP: A lot I’m sure, we never stop. We have an album coming out later this year, SPELLS, and we will be hitting the road soon to promote that.

AJ: Definitely some more music videos, new music for sure.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BaPbqS0Hc9S/?taken-by=forgetyourfriends

S

ND: Describe your Style – musically and otherwise.

PC: We are a California Newgaze band, our style is like Shoegaze grunge with a heavy alternative punk vibe…we feel like with our sound, we are in our own place stylistically, that’s one of the reasons we spell “Nu-Gaze” like “Newgaze” it’s not the traditional way people are used to seeing it, but we really love how the people that are into us totally get and understand the movement, we are pretty much the first band on Instagram to start tagging Newgaze…so we totally feel like it’s ours and the fans’ own little cult, most of our shows are with bands we don’t fit in with but we love it.

CK: We are Newgaze/California Newgaze which is a harder/darker tribute to shoegaze. My style is always all black everything, yet with some metallic or glitter to accompany: I feel like this also describes our sound haha.

JP: Musically, we are a grinding buzzsaw of mass distortion and spacey undertones. Heavy and hypnotic.

AJ: I really love when I hear different interpretations of how fans creatively perceive us. We’ve been told we sound like if Deftones and Slowdive had a baby… yep that pretty much sums it up haha.

I

ND: What is the best advice you’ve received and the best advice you can Impart on us?

PC: To not get caught up in outside expectations, set your own bar, success is what you make it, just do you.

CK: It’s simple, but the best advice that I go by is still to “Follow Your Heart,” and as hard as that is to do sometimes, it always keeps me in check and keeps me going.

JP: You only live once, take chances, so don’t look back and say “I wish I did that”. Just go out and do it.

AJ: ‘Don’t be an idiot’… Changed my life.

C

ND: Any Closing words?

PC: Stay Gold.

CK: Winter is Coming.

JP: Thank you for the opportunity to answer these questions, some I’ve never even really asked myself.

AJ: Yes, we always love meeting new fans and existing fans so next time you see us at a show come say hi!!

  more Forget Your Friends

Apple Music / Facebook / Instagram / SoundCloud / Spotify / Twitter

Pony Curtis

J. Peters

Adam Jackson

Charlie Kennedy