#in other spaces

[chainsmokingspacepenguin]

week 34 of drawing circles and lines

I have a habit of focusing on big, grandiose mysteries that require a shitload of discoveries to finally piece together. And from running through the scenarios I've created, it's extremely frustrating that there were no small mysteries/victories along the way.

Last week, I mentioned a high level way to approach designing mysteries in a game where the player can practically start anywhere. If you lay out the ideas in a graph, it would look like a ball where the nodes at the edge are starting points, and as you get closer to the center, the number of shared edges gets denser, and alot of crisscrossing of ideas start happening until you get to the center of the mystery.

I'm making each idea locked behind small mysteries now, so that there is that feeling of a gradual increase in understanding of what's going on.

The Structure of Small Mysteries

They need to be small and attract attention

It should be possible to investigate the mystery (not necessarily solve, but some progress can be made!)

Investigating the mystery leads to other mysteries, though for my ideal case, it would be noticing other mysteries that have been standing in front of you the whole time. Solving a mystery gives you insight on how the world works better.

An Example

It can be as simple as:

A building keeps getting struck by lightning

It turns out the building is designed to get struck by lightning

It turns out housed inside the building is a powerful generator. What is it for?

It turns out that there's line symbols in the building, which help you notice that there are other line symbols on other buildings.

Another friend referred to this as "laddering mysteries", which I quite like. Unfortunately, even with this knowledge in hand, it's still a huge pain in the butt to come up with them when you have to take account into what's already in the world and its lore.

Alot of games already do this btw. It's something Tunic does alot. BotW does something that feels similar, but is different (they have large landmarks that attract your attention, but on the path there they have small mysteries to distract you).

[swan2swan]

Whoever conceived and animated this moment, I hope they're doing well and thriving. This is S-rank romance stuff here.

[chaotic-neutral-knitter]

I think one of the kindest things you can do for people with various mental health struggles is just... let people back into your life after they've been absent for a while.

Making friends as an adult is so fucking hard already and isolating yourself from other people is a very common symptom of depression, anxiety, burnout, ocd, trauma, grief, etc. Which means that someone will do the hard work of recovery/healing and resurface back into a world where their previous friends have written them off because they stopped showing up.

So if you know someone where you're like "yeah we could have been better friends but they fell off the map a bit" and that person suddenly reaches out, or starts showing up to events even though you kind of forgot they were still in the group chat... well they may have been Going Through It and you don't actually have to punish them for their absence you can just be glad that they're back.

[girldraki]

this is insane

[evercelle]

it was all so simple then

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

historical drama/sitcom where two gay best friends (woman and man) get lavender married--and proceed to spend the Fancy European Honeymoon their parents paid for acting as each other's wingman

[scriblesandbits]

God IS a middle schooler and we ARE a science project except he does know we exist and has very mixed feelings about the whole ordeal

[remcadll]

Dick is never going to get to have a midlife crisis because Bruce is going through his for him. also because he will not be making it to 40.

[chainsmokingspacepenguin]

Week 33 of being in other spaces

I actually have an answer to the mystery I added last week! (The mystery being of the missing Year 99 Expedition: before the expedition, the Birds were capable of regular space travel, but something happened and ever since then, outer space itself became corrosive, grounding the birds to the atmosphere and travelling exclusively to other planets through planetary junctions like bridges of water that form when planets get close enough) I still need puzzles for Part 2 of the game (Onyx Glacier, Titan's Tempests), but I have a few new POI on Onyx Glacier in mind. Also, I was missing something (obvious in hindsight) from my narrative design. I didn't have multiple conceptual starting points for my story, as in (using examples from Outer Wilds because I'm still obsessed with it), not physical locations like exploring Ember Twin first vs exploring Giant's Deep first, but ideas like quantum objects or a signal the Nomai were searching for. If you lay out the ideas in a graph, it would look like a ball where the nodes at the edge are starting points, and as you get closer to the center, the number of shared edges gets denser, and lots of crisscrossing of ideas start happening. I think that structure is what I was searching for in this sci-fi mystery archeology game I am crafting.

[hinamie]

quick megumi style study

[galactic-magick]

Star Trek makes me soooo crazy cuz you got Picard saying things like "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose."

And Data saying things like "I would gladly risk feeling bad at times, if it also meant that I could taste my dessert."

And Bashir saying things like “You can't go through life trying to avoid getting a broken heart. If you do, it'll break from loneliness anyway."

And Odo sayings things like "It has been my observation that one of the prices of giving people freedom of choice is that sometimes they make the wrong choice."

And I’m just supposed to be normal about it???

[wormspoodle]

flowers 4 u!!

[corkinavoid]

DPxDC Zero Gravity

Things Justice League knows about Danny Phantom:

He's dead (why, how, and for how long is unclear)

He's generally on the 'good' side (but contingency plans have been set up in case of 'future evil self' resurfacing, by Danny's own suggestion)

He's a figure of authority among other dead/neverborn/otherworldly/eldritch/magical beings (however, it's unclear to what kind of authority he holds and why)

He's dating one of the Bats (unclear to who, but none of them confirmed nor denied the fact, which is a confirmation on its own)

He absolutely hates only three things: toast, circus, and Christmas (neither of them explained)

His powerset is so wide that he can't even fully recount it (unclear if it's because he doesn't remember all his abilities or if he can't keep track of the new ones popping up spontaneously)

He's hot [whoever added this, you're not wrong, but I'm watching you - O.]

He has a grudge against Flash (unclear to why, but Flash seems to know the reason and won't budge regardless)

Of course, there are many more things to know about Danny Phantom, but they are mostly suspicions, rumors, and speculations. Like how sometimes the boy seems distracted and bored as if he is only going through a pre-written script; a sign of repeatedly going through the same day a few times too many, as the other time-travellers say. Or like how sometimes he knows too much - the boy is an expert in Kryptonian biology, to Clark's great surprise, and is more knowledgeable about Olympus politics than Diana herself.

There are also little things that are hard to notice and even harder to ignore once you do. How he never talks about family but likes listening to others talk about it. How he pointedly stays away from the medbay and any kind of medical staff. How he stops every time he passes one of the giant windows on the main floor of the Watchtower, smiling dreamily at the sight of vast, open space beyond it.

And then, there's The Thing that no one addresses.

When Danny Phantom doesn't pay attention, he unknowingly nullifies gravity.

The first time it happened, Bruce thought the Watchtower's artificial gravity collapsed. However, he very quickly realized that it was a local occurrence - only a few rooms and a hallway were affected - and, right in the center of it, was Danny, reading a book he borrowed (stolen) from the Wayne manor library.

The boy himself never noticed it. Which made sense, given that he defied gravity all on his own, always floating in the air above the floor.

But the others never acknowledged it either, treating the sudden absence of gravity as a sign of one, Danny appearing somewhere around, and two, him being in a good, if a bit absent, mood.

All in all, it's not the strangest thing that happens at the Watchtower on a daily basis.

And, besides, it's kind of fun.

¤¤¤

Danny, floating in the middle of the game room at Wayne manor, deeply engrossed in a video game: Eat this, sucker!

Tim, using his toes and knees to keep himself from floating up from the couch, not wanting to distract Danny from their match: Oh, you're going down.

Titus in the background:

¤¤¤

Bart, in the middle of a conversation with Kon:

Kon: ...

Bart, looking down at the cup on the floor: ... I guess he left?..

Kon: He literally went through a giant glowing portal two minutes ago, five feet away from you, but that's how you figure it out?

Bart: I have a short attention span, anyway-

¤¤¤

Barry, opening a bag of chips just for all the contents and himself as well to start floating: I swear he does this on purpose, I fucking swear.

¤¤¤

Red Tornado, coming into the training hall of Mount Justice: ...

Young Justice:

Red Tornado: I take it Danny is visiting. I'll leave you to it, then.

¤¤¤

Bruce, walking out of the conference room at the Watchtower to see this on the other end of the hallway, internally: He may be coming this way, I should warn the others in the room.

Bruce, a second later, because he is a little shit deep inside: On the other hand, it's a great surroundings awareness drill, so maybe I shouldn't.

[pien-art]

Nerys!! ♥︎ She has possesed my body and soul these past few days I can't stop drawing her

[roseworth]

best part about comic tumblr is that it is the only fandom i’ve been a part of where no one says “i just love the fandom so much we’ve created such a safe space here 🥺” like i have never seen even one post about how much someone loves the dc fandom. this is not a happy family this is a cold war and im just glad we all know that