#ive been working on designing a lot of characters ive had concepts in my brain for coming up on askadelcatty

[nems-defunct-corner]

this is so off topic but i wanna put this here instead of putting it on askadelcatty but

it makes me so happy when i see someone discover theres a spoiler folder on toyhou.se ASFDGDH

[epiicaricacy-arts]

oh we’re still so young, desperate for attention

this was super experimental so i will talk about my process (+ clearer version) under the cut

i’ve been looking at a lot of “messier” or more textured painting styles recently and an artist that stuck out to me is clariondeluna ! they posted a self-portrait recently that i really liked and i was super interested in the brushwork seen in their work. i love all the textures and how the shapes feel so loose yet everything is so detailed.

that’s not a method for me at all!!!! i cannot paint like that at all and the stuff i like to paint is very different to theirs. which is okay!!!! i had no intention to copy this artists style so closely like with what i tried to do in my raiden painting, i just wanted to try this style out :^)

it’s been a goal of mine to avoid over-rendering like i tend to do a lot, and i think i’ve been doing good with that recently! the mindset i’ve got going on right now is that if i find myself staring at it too hard for too long, i have to leave it and move on. if there’s still something wrong with it, i can fix it later once ive got a fresh view!

i’ve been trying a lot of things with my art this year. i always try to challenge myself with each piece, and to end the year off i wanted to be as uncomfortable as i possibly could be with this painting. i let myself draw whatever i wanted because i still wanted to enjoy it, but everything i did in this process was new, including parts of the subject matter.

i’ve never drawn a head at an angle like this, and i struggle with drawing mouths open. i don’t do bold lighting like this, and if i do, it’s not fire. i’ve never drawn fire! i also rarely work with warm colours and i hate using green, so i combined those to be my colour palette. i like working cleanly so instead of having a dozen different layers for one section, each section only had 1-2 layers for rendering. instead of clipping masks i would simply paint over things loosely and clean it up later. i never like having limbs cut off in a drawing so i had his other arm go GOD knows where. i don’t like weird patterned backgrounds so i made myself figure out how to like it!

IS THIS MY FAVOURITE PIECE OF ALL TIME. no. absolutely not. but i’m very proud of how this came out with all the challenges i put on myself. i WANTED to get better at these things and be more broad with my art, both in terms of the styles and subjects i portray.

okay let’s talk about wtf this drawing is

for those who don’t know, the design in this painting is my fatui/“Father” lyney fan design (read the design post here). the concept isnt super complicated and i don’t really have much explanation for it, but i wanted to combine the story of how lyney wanted a delusion before getting his vision, fire eating circus acts and how olympic medalists will bite their medal to prove it’s real??? don’t quote me on that i’m like 75% sure that’s a thing that happens. i don’t watch sports though so im just believing someone i heard on the internet ages ago.

anyways. i think fire eating acts are cool. and i think the fact that lyney wanted a delusion is very interesting to me. scratches my brain in the right places. and yk as a magician lyneys character revolves a lot around fooling people and creating illusions so i guess what im saying here is that lyney is trying to prove to himself that this power he’s been bestowed is real. bc his whole life his only constant has been lynette so he is trying to see if he can trust this new power. cause i guess this is an alternate universe where lyney does eventually become “Father” but he never got his vision ??? idk im not making lore for this i just wanted to dress up this funny little guy.

ok i’m done

thanks for reading

here’s my dog

[rileys-battlecats]

omg?? i adore everything ab all of ur work, but especially ur warriors oc stuff. all the characters are so well-characterized and designed. and also the names?? did i mention designs?? honestly mudpaw is one of the most relatable characters ive ever seen. also i love that the other apprentices are actually understanding and more like actual children cats instead of existing to be mean. (ok that sounds like im saying children aren’t mean i promise some of them are)

but like, to the actual question/s. how did you come up with the concept and get it to this point? in that one commentary video you made, i remember you mentioning that he used to be mudstripe, and he was a serial killer (sidenote that’s actually so baddie) although you decided that you wanted to tell the story of a victim rather than a villian. but did it take a lot of thinking to get micaclan as a whole to this point, or did it just kinda come naturally? also im so sorry i typed an entire essay

WAAAAHHSVDJHSDJAB THANK YOU :') also you don't ever have to apologize for sending me essays in my inbox I love asks like this <3 <3

The story and world as they are now have developed incrementally over time. In the beginning, I never really intended to make anything more for this story beyond "Johnny". I had a very specific animatic visualized for that song (because I'd been listening to it on loop for days lol), and I made characters and a story that fit with the idea.

After making and uploading it, though, the characters and their story kept knocking around in my brain!! I wanted to expand on them, and to develop them more. If my memory is right, "Johnny" was the first time I'd ever made a video telling a story of my own making (previous projects had all been stuff from existing media), and I was excited by the idea of making more :) the storytelling aspect was really interesting to me!

I started coming up with more details in my head, things like character traits and names and the next story beats I wanted to portray. By the time I made "The Garden", I'd worked up at least a loose idea of the story in my head (though I wasn't sure where exactly I was going to take it in the end at that point), and I had designed most of the clan members (mostly to fill backgrounds tbh).

Then, some folks in the youtube comments started asking about references for the different characters, and I started this blog to share them! This is definitely the point where I got REALLY into worldbuilding and fleshing out characters haha. Each reference I posted included a little bit of text about the character, and I got to put to words some of the ideas I'd had previously. Or, it gave me the opportunity to come up with some character traits for background characters I hadn't given much thought to previously! Then people started engaging with the blog more, and having people ask questions gave me the opportunity to think about lots of different aspects of the story, characters, and world. From there, it feels like the entire story expanded, bit by bit, detail by detail. So it definitely took a lot of thinking, but that thinking happened pretty naturally over time, if that makes sense!

[angevinyaoiz]

Haha thanks for appreciating my art! 

Yeah, it’s funny because I think Henry II/Young Henry is objectively some of the BEST lesser known Dadson dynamics out there that’s sadly underexplored—you have political bedsharing, “the son and the father are one,” Co-Crowning ceremonies (There should be more dadson AUs that steal the concept of associative kingship) bodies and souls bound together, guilt, shame, divorce, the Love and Fear of faetc etc… 

the only unfortunate thing Is that dadson is generally not something I get super excited about personally. >_< I can see the visions and recommend them but it’s not really what gets me going….I’ll leave that to the pros (tho I DID have some art concepts here and there in mind but who knows if I’ll ever get to it..)

Anyways, back to the main subject—for memory lane look at these, the very FIRST art I did of him I’m pretty sure! Alongside Frederick Barbarossa and Richard. You can tell I was just working directly off random ref images without knowing anything lool

Also this one! Early art. Where he’s extremely shota. I still think this is cute, but it doesn’t look like HIM to me.

I still like these pieces…I had fun with them. I miss putting him in the historically inaccurate green caftan

Philip’s design overall has been an interesting process! I think my initial designs for the Plantagenets have refined over time, but they more or less stayed the same from the beginning, while his was kind of an evolution. It’s a bit hard for me to look at my old Blondelippe art because it’s so different from how I think about and draw him now, lol.  I was initially influenced by a few things:

there were a couple of fanarts/drawings of a Philip that was blonde, so I ran with that .

I think I might have initially mixed up art with that of Philip IV Le Bel, who has had portrayals where he’s a Pretty Blond

In some medieval artworks especially in later centuries, there are portraits of him that look blonde but only because of the stylistic conventions.

Also, my initial fandommy delusion interpretation of his character (when i was mostly dabbling from the TLIW stuff only) was influenced by the certain BL and shoujo archetype that pops up that usually consist of blonde, french-coded characters with childhood sexual trauma who are also guarded and conniving and sometimes straight up evil. so I thought it would be fun to run with that, and also be an obvious visual signifier that I was working in more a Yaoi Delusion state than a Realistic Historical state.

I ended up kind of veering away from this as I started to do more research and realized I was a lot more interested in reading about historical details. I was less familiar with Philip, but I had fun reading and getting to know his character I think a lot more in a way that I liked. My art is influenced by my aesthetic fujo preferences, but I also like a sense of background knowledge and consistency in my brain. For me I wanted the Philip, both the historical philip and the rpf dolly i’ve reconstructed, to feel more specific to me. There are already plenty of conniving blondes out there (I didn’t want people to mistake it for an APH France…lol) so kind of designing him as brunette with the goofy, severe bangs (influenced by his statues, and by the 19th century portrait) was a fun design. It also worked a lot better for black and white comics, like in “In Exchange for Honor,” And as well serves as a nice visual contrast since I draw the brothers + Henry usually as all varying degrees of blonde/redhead… THAT’s for Yaoi aesthetic reasons lol

I’m actually not sure if there IS any info on his hair color in real life, and tbh I guess i’m not interested in that (also he balded so it becomes irrelevant). I think it’s fun because I can draw him very pretty for my delusions if I want but also has a kind of dorkiness to him that I think is extremely important to lean into. I also feel like, I wanted a design that could look distinct and cute, but also could look more Adult if I wanted to, I draw him a kid a lot but I wanted the vibes to translate into older designs as well.

A big part that stands out to me reading about the historical Philip is the contrast between how Serious and Sacral the Frankish kingship is how important Philip was as the god-given heir blah blah blah, but also with how WEIRD he was. Making serious and laudable logistical decisions and policies one moment, but also making baffling and confusing decisions in his personal life and relationships. He’s kind of a mess in a fun way, it leaves a lot for the imagination (and evil imagination) to wonder wtf was up with him. In a way, even though the TLIW richphil dubcon backstory is Completely Made Up, to me I feel it doesn’t feel completely out of place thematically, since to me there’s something inherently sus/erotic about the status of purity/sacralness and the transgression from childhood vulnerability that is necessary to emerge into true power…Anyway I could write more Yaoi Essays but this post is meant to be about aesthetics.

It is impossible to escape the influence of TLIW Timothy Dalton in attitude, even if not in aesthetic, since he is probably the only major portrayal of Philip in the anglosphere I can think of. I feel that influence definitely comes through unavoidably, although I also try to round him out a bit when I write him. TLIW!Philip (in both movies and all plays) is showing him behaving at a very specific point in time; he starts off being condescended to, then exits the film smug and unscathed. It’s a big contrast from even modern Philip portrayals like in Confessions de l’Histoire where he’s more of a whiner and Richard’s punching bag.  

In The Devil’s Crown, Christopher Gable in The Devil’s Crown is a bit more subtle, and follows a more subdued and calculating Philip who grows into his person over time. I like him a lot because he’s very stiff and formal compared to Henry and Richard’s expressive gesticulating, but he holds a lot of disdain and rage inside him.  I think his portrayal in TDC definitely has influenced me a lot, I love how he glowers at Richard during all their encounters. It’s both very serious but also kind of cute…Also I’m entranced by his ballet photos. In a way they kind of cycle all the way back to that ethereal kind of “getting bewitched in the woods” unnerving shoujo feeling that I was originally getting a whiff of originally.

FUNNY ENOUGH, I feel I even still get some influence from….Solomon’s Crown of all things.. I make fun of it of course for its uwufication but for all my haterisms natasha kind of cooked with leaning into the weirdly ageregressiony Pure Special Little Boy feeling that pops up fetishistically in that book (in denial of course), the only difference for me is that I feel like that fetishistic aspect can be used deliciously for Evil (“purity” can be weaponized, after all) character traits rather than making a character Boring as hell

[melissa-titanium]

uh violence ask game

12

ok . ok. i'm gonna talk about my two current faves right now because imFucking deranged

khan. im so serious .he is so fucking interesting i honest to god havent rewatched md in a hot second but if you think about his concepts & how he acts in ep 7 AND HONESTLY EVERY SINGLE EPISODE THAT HE'S IN . he's just. hes just so interesting??? i don't see people talking about him alot for reasons that are totally justifiable but just once i wish to see character analysis that isnt about n or uzi..

i want to know about his dynamic with nori. i want to watch his descent into depression (?) after she died & i really, REALLY want to see his redemption. because he does care. everyone is capable of change, and even if he's had a few hiccups in his appearances in the show, i really think he can improve. he DOES care. even if he's forgotten how to show it. i find the conflict between him and uzi very interesting esp involving n. because i think he understands n's a good friend for uzi but there's that innate fear he's immortalized in his brain after having to put down his wife who was attacked by the very creature uzi's new friend is.

the guy's clearly traumatized. he lost his wife, he's emotionally distanced from his child, he's clearly poured himself into his work. and this is from the . like. ten minutes of screentime he's gotten. like COME ON. even if you have no interest in him you have to admit there's a lot there to unpack. even if you have no interest in HIM, you have to admit it's fucking hilarious that his pringles logo ass pulled NORI of all drones. come on. i'm also very curious because he seemed to be a drone that came from before the core collapsed... assuming he and nori were similar ages, he must have had personal run ins with humans. i wonder what that was like

i can completely understand where people are coming from when they say they dislike him because he reminds them of their dad. but i guess i have a different opinion on him cause of how My dad was? i don't know i don't want to get super personal about fictional robots but to put it bluntly i don't have a relationship with him. a lot of factors in my life that weren't directly his fault lead him to being pretty absent in my life and i guess i connect alot to khan because i kind of. wish. he w as . my dad ? i dont know. khan is like an exact parallel of my dad if he Cared. so like. yes :) i have a weird affinity for khan haha. mr uzi!

ok. mob psycho. other than my absolute faves who are hilarious & underrated , inukawa, goda, mezato and TOME <3333 ... my absolute fave has to be tsubomi motherfucking takane. i have not read the reigen spinoff, but i'm REALLY fucking hoping we get to see more of her in the spinoff. because. she's so interesting. she's so fucking interesting.

the entire series presents her as this unobtainable thing of goodness, the end-all of mob's goals. this is ESPECIALLY emphasized in the show which makes her (in the words of ONE i think) more heroic in appearance... and by that i mean they gave her yaoiful eyes. like they made her really pretty in the show to emphasize how mob's looking at her through rose tinted glasses, which is such a cool detail because as the story progresses we see her with her original comic design as mob realizes she's just a person like him! she's literally the driving force of the entire narrative, but barely gets ANY screentime... in the moments we do see of her, she shows a lot of interesting traits. but BESIDES her interactions with mob, there's so much more i find interesting about her. i've only been into mp100 for a month and ive only watched it maybe 6 times so please forgive me if my information is skewed.

in the divine tree arc... dimple points out how she's very openly honest about her wants and is not afraid to deny someone, no matter how forceful. she's literally the only fucking person next to teru who was described as being able to withstand the mind control. not even fucking reigen could.

she rejects a shit ton of people in one of the arcs i can't remember. but literally the fact that someone asks her "why :(?!" when she rejects them and she's like. oh do you really want to know? and goes out of her way to ROAST THE FUCK out of this random ass guy.

in the confession arc, mezato talks to mob about the things she's learned about tsubomi (which is gay as hell btw. i know she's a reporter but god damn) about the fact that she appears to feel strongly about maintaining her image. she's very polite upfront with friends she talks with, but when she's alone/away from other people seems to drop that facade into something more disinterested/distant... which sort of tracks, considering a lot of people only want to connect with her because of her looks/the popularity she can give them by interacting with them. that gets exhausting, i can sympathize lol. she also seems to have trouble trusting others / feels like she's constantly got to be on guard. maybe her place in the school's hierarchy is really the only thing she has? i don't know, but her reaction to literally. sneezing in front of other people was so overblown it really seemed she thought her life would be ruined if her friends saw her needing a tissue which is so interesting to me.

EVEN RITSU DESCRIBES HOW DISINTERESTED SHE SEEMED IN OTHER PEOPLE when she left them playing hide & seek as a kid LOL. like she's in her own little world. my takeaway from her scenes is that she's constantly keeping everyone else at arm's length because she doesn't trust anyone. to her, everyone just wants to get close to her because they want the positives coming from being near her, not because they want to get to know her. everyone seems to know her behind her mask... which i know i said i wouldn't compare her to mob (and i'm not! i just find this comparison interesting, she's incredible on her own) but they have this in common from my understanding. mob has also hidden himself away from the world via insane suppression & masking because he had an experience that taught him that expressing himself was dangerous. tsubomi hides herself away from the world with masking I Think because she believes it's dangerous/can cause unnecessary grief to get close to other people because they'll always fuck with her in the end (hence the fucking. sneezing scene IDK WHAT TO CALL THAT SCENE HAHA)

so like. mob's infatuation with her is like him grasping at a life that's out of his reach... when in reality, she's not on a higher level than him -- she's just like him. i don't know i'm thinking about this now. okay. i really like tsubomi.

[littlest-bugz]

current hyperfixation? (feel free to infodump!!)

YIPPEEE!!! This made my day FR!! Thank you, mutual <3

ANYWAYS

This is kind of embarrassing, but I’ve been deeply invested by my own OCverse for going on 8 years now. Its my Special Interest, which sucks because,,, im the only one who can make content of these stinkies,,,,,

I really find it hard to hyperfixate on anything else because of the fact Ive been invested for so long (except for Web Design and coding, which I wont infodump about, since its literally all for these stories, deadass).

It is not fun at times because 1) all the characters live rent free in my head and criticize how I write them in my novels [that DID life] and 2) its SO hard to make new projects and get attached to them. Ive been trying for 2 years to make a horror project out of one concept but I seriously cant get fully invested and it SUCKS. Let me make my silly little horror web series damnit!!!!! (@ my brain)

I have 3 novels and one fantasy series im working on so,,,, Infodump time >:3c

TWs: Terminal Illness + brief mentions of (mental institute) hospitalization, murder, war, and some others that I’m not 110% sure the exact tags for them (basically kind of cannibalism, but between nonhuman species). Other than terminal illness, they’re super brief mentions, but still proceed with caution.

Right now, I’m working on one of the books I’ve been writing for nearly my whole time writing. Ive been only working on it since feb 1st (it’s, like, the THIRD draft tho).

Blurb about book

Melissa is a bassist in a rock band she formed with her high school friends. Just as her, and her friends’, career begins takes off, she gets diagnosed with a terminal illness. With a month left to live, and a shit ton of unfinished business, she invokes her best friend’s patron deity who is capable of miracles, Flip. Melissa and Flip make a pact to keep her alive until her business is over, but oh no! Melissa has caught the eyes of another god, and a pretty shitty one at that. How is she going to make her last months peaceful if she’s being hunted down by a god?

The working title is called “Ensuring Your Spot In Hell” because Flip is, essentially, a demon in the universe (rules an infernal ring of hell- it means I would have to explain the worldbuilding around hell and its A LOT), but titles are!!! So hard for me!!!

A list of random facts about the book™️ because I don’t want to write full paragraphs bc I can go on forever if u ask me to:

Flip’s name is a shortened version of his actual name, Fli’pyek. Furthermore, the domain Flip rules over is that of Wrath and Violence

Trinity (Melissa’s childhood bestie, and the friend that worship’s Flip) is a hereditary witch and pagan. Her family has been worshipping Flip and practicing witchcraft for several generations! They literally have their own holy book (generational BoS/Grimoire/whatever u want to call it).

Melissa had been sick with the disease™️ since she was 16. She just neglected the shit out of her own health (me too bestie, me too). It easily could have been prevented if she went to the doctor back when she was, at least, 18 years old, max 24.

At the time Melissa is diagnosed with her terminal illness, she’s 26. By the time she was supposed to die, she would’ve been freshly 27. Has anyone heard of the 27 club theory before? Or is it just an obscure reference I made LMAO

Melissa has extended biological family that worships Flip! It gets super awkward when Melissa visits them with Flip lol

The other primordial god that Melissa finds herself in a predicament with is named Ama, the god of Cruelty and Torture. Not a swell guy to get mixed up with, that’s for sure!

Melissa has an orange and white cat named Cheddar!

Flip always smells like whiskey and freshly cut tobacco. At all times. It’s bc his blood smells like it (and tastes like it too, but why are you tasting it? /j)

Any other facts might be getting into spoiler territory, BUT!! Thats the one Im working on rn, in February. In January I worked on another book, but that one honest to gods might be too triggering for this acc for an indepth thingy like the book I just did. It’s being rewritten to not be so triggering, but bc it’s a throw up of some of our trauma, it’s not an easy task to censor it.

REGARDLESS, Here’s a rundown of ALL of my main novels (minus the one I already talked about)

The Case of Twin Woods [mystery, drama, crime] (the one i worked on January)

Chastity hates her life. She hates her shitty job, she hates her shitty friends, and she hates her shitty family. After opening up too much to an online friend about her chronic suicidality, Chastity gets taken to Twin Woods Mental Institute, the state’s mental institution. There she befriends an eccentric group of patients, then finding out something terrible might be going on with the head warden, Leon Bellamy. She takes it upon herself to find out and solve the mystery, but she may have bitten off more than she can chew.

Untitled One (but leaning towards the name of ‘Jealousy’ or somethin idk) [drama, romance, crime]

Mia has a quiet life. She works at a library, she fosters cats, and by all means, has what could be considered a ‘boring life’. One day, she gets laid off from her job under the excuse of “cutting costs”, leaving her without a job and severance. While scrambling for a job, she finds one at a local cafe, the most frequented one in the city. There she befriends one of the regulars, a cold, quiet man named Zander, and after she unknowingly helps Zander’s brother, she becomes significantly closer to him. However, her boss, a bitter ex of Zander’s, hears about their ensuing closeness and decides she doesn’t like what’s going on. One failed dinner party and murder attempt later, Mia is left scrambling to hide that she killed Angelina in self defense. Will she be successful in hiding the murder? Or will the justice system make quick work of her?

Untitled Fantasy Series (has about 2 actual novels and 3 novellas… a possible third novel too) [drama, romance]

book one

Since his birth, King Sunshine has known his fate. He is to be sacrificed for the greater good of the realm he resides, killing his oppressive father, but losing his life in the process. It’s a prophecy that has been laid out since the beginning of Racktokian history, one King Sunshine was never able to escape due to his father’s unspoken rage at his own murder. After meeting a Vurtock for the first time, a species his father only used as cattle, Sunshine finds himself quickly entangled in a plot to overthrow his own father to liberate the Vurtockian race. He knows what he has to do, but it isn’t easy.

book two

The great war tore apart the country King Sunshine called home. His father left no stone unturned from his rage, and public opinions split the people. In the rubble of his home, he builds a new country founded on the importance of the civilians, only to be elected as a King in place of his father. Living in the palace he always called home, but had tried to escape, he finds that his father keeps sending assassins to make attempts on his life. One assassin, a vurtock with nothing to lose, hits a soft spot in Sunshines heart. After deescalating the attempt on his life, he offers the vurtock to stay in his castle until they’re able to find the proper resources to help him build a life in the new country. Far away from the oppressive dictatorship of his father. Yet, as his guest begins to stay for longer than intended, he sees that yet another step in the prophecy will begin.

Despite how the second book blurb is written, it’s more from the vurtock’s point of view than Sunshine’s. I just had a total brain fart.

The novellas for the fantasy book follow the POV of other important characters, such as the ruler of the Vurtockian rebellion, the POV of other rulers. For a while I wanted to write one from Raphaël’s POV, but I decided it wouldn’t be worth writing a whole book about a piece of shit finding joy in the pain he causes. Like, no thanks, ill pass.

Theres a possible 3rd book that would essentially be an extended epilogue, since the prophecy doesn’t stop at Sunshine’s death. I just haven’t thought as far as the 2 books and 3 novellas, in terms of outlining the books and stuff.

I honestly could give TONS more info on the fantasy books because that part of my universe has been around nearly the whole time Ive been writing. I have maps of the world, maps of countries, maps of even just cities, house and castle layouts, moodboards, art. Visual references galore. Not to mention the playlists for each character + each book. I also made a document called “The Remian Bible” because it has everything about the world in it, including the alphabets of the languages, grammar structures for said languages and literally 5 holy books for the religions even tho they wont evEN BE TALKED ABOUT IN ENOUGH DEPTH (why did i do that to myself /lh j/. It doesn’t help that I still want the write the holy books in their native languages… oo,,, and imagine writing the actual novels in the native languages,,,,). It’s honestly kind of,,, surreal how much time Ive put into this world 🧍 Like??? Damn,,,,

BUT YEAH!!! Those are all the books that take place in my ocverse + some other info!!! The things that are my hyperfixation,,,, My own books and world LMAO— The books don’t include half of the ocs in my ocverse tho, so thats where the website im coding comes in. It’ll have short stories based on the backstories of various characters on it, and Yes, even the background characters will be on it bc Im fucking bonkers and fleshed them out, even though some of them are in one scene for 2 minutes.

That being said, if anyone, or u mutual (if u read this wall of text), found any of this interesting, or wants to read even just the prologue of any of these, DM me!! I’m always looking for beta readers!! Or people to talk to about it too, that’d be fantastic. I really need beta readers, so seriously. DM me if u want to read my cringey stories!! I can give better in depth tws too!!!

EDIT: I need to mention that I go through spurts of hyperfixating on only one book or series. Thats why its both my hyper fixation AND my Special Interest

[lilyoutloud]

heres my ghoulia Thoughts before i make any permanent (paint) changes to anything.

for the sake of this post i put her back in the beloathed skirt 👍 i dont hate this design overall but there is so much i dislike. i miss the 2010s emo meets mid century meets dead girl vibe of ghoulias orginal style. i don't have a lot to say about sir hoots a lot, im glad he returned! but i really dislike the art style of the gen 3 pets.

i have to say, i enjoy all of the accessories that come with this ghoulia. I love the return of brain puffs!! the hand-held gaming device is incredibly cute, and being a gamer feels appropriate for ghoulia's whole nerdy/geeky/weird girl vibe. i love the return of deadfast on the board. i kind of like that she skates, but i hope shes still clumsy like she was in gen 1. her backpack isnt in this picture, but i adore the brain texture, and just the general facts that the signature dolls all come with book bags instead of purses. i love a doll backpack!

the details on these boots are awesome in classic mh fashion. i plan to repaint the boots to be cherry red, and then bring back out the little details. the platforms are also brain textured, but the glossy black paint makes it hard to photograph. the headstone earrings are perfect, no notes, i would wear these. the glasses are cute, and i like the bone shaped detail on the glasses arms, but the lenses are thick and kind of hide her face. might see if i can carve them down to just the frames cause i do like the shape.

the outfit pieces are.... lacking. the beanie is ok, it fits her head nicely, and the brain is cute, but it just feels like a very lazy piece to me and im indifferent to the grey jersey fabric.

I hate the skirt. its not that it doesnt feel like a mh piece in concept, but it doent feel like a ghoulia piece at all to me (bright pink and green pvc/leather miniskirt feels much more venus to me no??). It also fits her horribly. it rides up, it makes her look blocky and awkward, she can't sit down in it, and its a big highlight to how much i miss the cherry red over the bright pink for this specific character.

i like the shirt and jacket a little better. the shirt fits her very nicely, and while i don't love the unfinished edges it's definitely on par with a lot of the little gen 1 crop tops. i wish it was a nicer, softer cotton t shirt fabric though. i feel the same way about the fabric the jacket is made from. the jacket is my favorite piece from her outfit, it feels the most ghoulia to me. the monster movie font of the brains ribbon down the sleeves is cute and reminds me of her original mid century motifs, as well as the bomber cut. also more brain print haha. its ok, monster high has never been subtle. i just miss the secondary cherry motif she had before. it worked so well!!

this outfit feels kind of lame for a signature doll. as is, its pretty understated compared to the others, and none of the pieces are as nice as the quality of draculaura's shorts, pink blouse, or pink bustier (at this time she is my only other g3 doll). i think that with AT LEAST some different fabric choices this same design could have been better.

my ghoulia also came with deep seam lines on the back of her thighs, which my draculaura has as well. ive seen others say the same, I think all gen 3 mh might have this leg seam. also, random holes in her feet?? but neither of these things really bother me much. overall, i think shes very cute, especially with a bit of a restyle. i love the shades of blue in her hair (though it tangles very very quickly with handling. like i said about draculaura, the lack of brush seems like an oversight). the green skin is really growing on me, i miss grey ghoulia but the green isnt nearly as bad as i feared and as time goes on i kind of like it. i feel like shes too pretty right now, in a princessy and also in a not dead enough way, with the soft pink lips and the blush on her cheeks and the bright eye makeup, but her cheeks are much less full than they seem in her stock photos, which is such a lovely suprise. while her face and jaw are wide, her cheekbones are quite high and angular and while her cheeks arent sunken the way her gen 1 mold's are, they aren't round at all. im excited to restyle and slightly customize her, and i plan to post again when shes all done 👍

[earth2068]

I'm not sure if these questions has already been asked or not, but:

1. What inspired you to start your webcomic?

2. Do you have any early concepts or old character designs?

3. Do you have any scrapped scenes that you've had to/ decided to cut from the comic?

I hope you're enjoying your car trip! :D

1. well, ive had the story half-baked in my brain through most of high school, but it wasnt until i was in vacation in oregon the september after i graduated high school that i was like "yknow what? i have enough writing experience now, and i dont have a project going on at the moment, and if i dont start working on something soon, i will surely lose my sanity and commit a crime" (it was near the beginning of the pandemic and i go crazy when im not working on a project), so, on a whim, i opened a google document on my phone and started writing the first chapter with no outline. it is a very good thing i was scripting this ahead of time and could revise it later because otherwise the first chapter would be much worse on account of being written by someone incapable of giving a fuck about proper writing procedure at the time. this was followed by me writing more and more chapters, and by the time i was halfway through writing chapter 6, i was like "hey, i should probably start drawing this" and then on november 1st 2021 the comic officially launched. so, to answer this question in totality... boredom-induced mania?

2. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many. viridian used to have a crush on vermillion, at one point i was going to start the story with the ARACHNID kids (including flynn) already knowing each other, SPI used to look a lot more like B-MO from adventure time, etc. this tends to happen when youve had the story in your brain since you were 14 and the characters since you were 10-12. however there is a reason i dont have those old concepts/character designs anymore and it is bc i dont like them ._. but ill drop these old flynn doodles from before i revamped his design

old art beloathed -_-

3. same answer as 2! there are lots of deleted scenes that i either didnt like or just felt like they wasted time. as we go further into the story, ill probably point out the parts where they wouldve gone. i already mentioned this in the discord, but the scene with lucille in verms car used to be a bit longer and ended with flynn saying "is that a death threat"

[ruewrites]

I spent ten whole minutes writing a fucking essay in tags and because I use dumb fucking mobile it crashed and DELETED MY WHOLE BREAKDOWN OF YOUR FIC AND WHY ITS THE BEST IVE EVER READ. Anyways, now I’m writing you an essay in notes as to why you’re the best fic writer and im gonna try cram it Into your inbox, i just need to talk Abt how great it is and I want you to know how great you are

I wanna talk about your character building. It’s amazing, it’s beyond that, it’s perfect. At no point did I feel like it was fake or exaggerated. I particularly loved Lucifers story and character and I really feel like you did him justice, even from the very first chapter when he was caring for a tiny little asmo in the park Right the way through to the wedding,, outstanding, honestly. Not to mention his and Diavolo’s relationship, it was love,y to see what where essentially background characters have their own arcs too, y’know? Felt so real. Mammon and Levi, I LOVE the two of them and the sibling dynamic you portrayed was flawless, one of my favourite scenes was the Stake out for the admirer in the car? The arguing and back and forth was honestly hilarious and I honest to god was laughing, bit to mention the part when mammon raids asmos room and finds the letters? I was so nervous but so excited, I loved seeing protective but loving older brother dynamics. (The phone call where Levi demands asmo says over will never not be funny). One of my favourite relationships was the one between asmo and satan, seeing how the two of them were closer and especially the part where asmo visits Satan and they just gossip? It was so sweet honestly it was actually heartwarming, even if Satan threatened to punt a child. Seeing Satan support asmo all the way through was one of my favourite parts, you made every character so lovable it’s insane, and I haven’t even MENTIONED the main relationship!!

Solomon and Asmos developing relationship from when they first met, to the main story to the end is honestly so satisfying, even if waiting for the next chapter was stressful at times (I Hope you know exactly which Time I meant. You really left asmo in the bathroom crying and thought that I WOULDNT be distraught? I had to spend all week thinking about that everytime I saw asmos face, I was CRUSHED. made the ending so satisfying though). The whole concept of these anonymous letters which are designed around what Solomon just knows will make asmo happy is honestly so sweet and the fact that he worked so hard to give them to him without him knowing and had his roommate write them is,, insane but in all the best ways, exactly how I imagine Solomon would be, you did him so good. Infact let’s take a Minute, not to talk about your amazing fic, but about your amazing LETTERS, I mean, hello? What are you? Some kind of bored god whose decided to bless us? Each and everyone of them was gorgeous. You write POV so well too, whilst never getting like, too bogged down by any particular aspect. I particularly loved the small things, like Solomon knowing the coffee orders amd Asmo ‚accidentally‘ designing everything to suit Solomon.

Sorry for not sending this sooner, I deadass dreamt that I sent it and then found it unfinished in my notes. Anyways, wanted to let you know you’re my fave writer and I would die for you. That is all. Happy holidays! P.S i have NO idea how to fix the strange way my tumblr formats asks, I apologise. I wanted to send this anon because I don’t know how ok it is to send a short essay of thanks to fic writers but I really dunno how many ppl you have that fucking bother you with every update, I just love your writing a lot. Thankyou!!

First of all, thank you so incredibly much. Like, I love this a lot a lot. All of this is so incredibly sweet of you to say and every now and again I go back to read it because ahh???? I just enjoyed writing WBT and I didn’t think that people would actually enjoy reading it, even now that concept is just so mind boggling to me. I know I’ll be going back and rereading this for a while to come now. It just makes me so happy. Thank you.

If I’m being honest, I felt super worried about writing those dynamics, especially when it came to the brothers and other side characters. Honestly the stakeout scene in the car was one of my favorite scenes to write with the brothers. I wanted to throw in a little bit of familial comedy. I was hoping it would come across as funny, so I’m happy to hear that it did! I’m also happy you enjoyed the ‘Over’ bit. I’m also happy you enjoyed the sweeter moments of the sibling relationships. Sibling dynamics are complicated, but in the end, they’ll always be there for each other.

Ahah, yeaaaaaah. I knew it would hurt, and honestly I felt a little bad about leaving you guys hanging like that, but I made sure I didn’t leave you there. The pacing was another thing I had initially been worried about, so I’m happy that that also came across well. Solomon is a bit of an odd one isn’t he? But he’s odd in the best ways. Oh the letters, sometimes it took me a while to come up with them. I wanted to make sure they sounded sweet, but I was worried about them not being great. Just hearing that people liked all of these things makes my brain stop? Like it never fails to shock me that people genuinely liked this. Your kind words make me blush (0////0). Thank you so much! Like I genuinely wish I could say more, this is just so kind.

No need to apologize! I really enjoyed this! I put a smile on my face. The first time I read this I teared up a little, and I’m tearing up again now. I can promise you that I belive that fic writiers 100% appreciate this like this. Knowing that other people enjoyed something that I really enjoyed writing makes me feel so warm on the inside. People don’t really bother me, and I certainly don’t consider contact a bother :3. This is so incredibly sweet and I love it so much. I can’t even begin to express my gratitude. Thank you so incredibly much. Like, thank you. I hope I can continue to bring you more joy in the future. I wish I could express how much I genuinely love this. Thank you.I love this, and I’m so happy you loved WBT.

[thedappleddragon]

today was fine if not just a bit off. I woke up at noon for the first time in weeks because I accidentally stayed up til 4 am. I fed my cat, took a very relaxing shower (btw I know people sometimes read this and I feel like I should mention that I shower more often than just when I mention it in these posts. ive been thinking about that for weeks), did laundry, and drew ponies in my backyard. I only did about 3 pages of drawings in my sketchbook, but there were lots of characters on each page, and I like all the drawings :) and I shared them with sammie and she friggin loves the mlp designs!! ex bronie gang I guess. I’m having a ton of fun this is au of an au, and next I want to figure out what our ~elements of royalty~ would be. I did some research and found some concepts that could work, but tbh I think the best way to assign them would first require figuring out how our princesses rule their own kingdoms, how they would win the competition of new supreme ruler, and what would be their downfall. I'll probably dedicate more brain power to this tomorrow and maybe brainstorm with the group. BUT the most interesting part of today was going to my dad’s work to possibly get a PART TIME JOB! I printed out a reference sheet and filled out an application and headed over there with my dad and followed him around while he did his job and waited for the manager to have a free minute. they were really busy tho so I just sat near the paint swatches until he could scan through my papers and ask me to call him tomorrow. I drove home and hung out for an hour until 8 when my dad was supposed to get off work. I took his car home because the red one wasn't working and my sister took the nice grey one and my dad needed me to drive him home. I ended up sitting in the parking lot watching tiktoks for 45 minutes until my phone died waiting for him lol. he joked around imitating my brother and I from when we were in marching band and practice ended early and we were hungry and tired. I had helped mom make chicken earlier when she was feeling sad about not being able to walk or do anything and just wanting to eat, but I already ate that earlier and instead of eating it again, I made chicken and broccoli and added leftover pasta and Alfredo sauce and ate that instead. it was pretty good but I added too much pepper. 9/10 I'd make it again. then I got full and laid down with my cat, cuddling her and playing harvest moon. now its like 12;30 and I can hear mice chewing on construction paper but I'm going to choose to believe its rain outside because otherwise im going to be too mad to sleep

[cruisercrusher]

i totally wanna hear what you have to say abt rebels!! personally im a big fan and ive never seen anyone specifically not like the show so im interested in ur thoughts !!

Ok please keep in mind I do not at all pretend to be unbiased because clone wars is my most favourite thing ever so every Star Wars thing ever gets compared to clone wars it’s like my thing

The core of why I’m not fond of rebels is because to me none of it felt impactful. I’ve actually watched I think 3 out of the 4 seasons, because my d*d made us all watch it as a “family” and imma be real with you chief. Years down the line I struggled to remember the main characters names. Almost none of it actually stuck with me in any meaningful way, someone will mention something that happened in an episode I did watch and I’ll be like damn i have no recollection???? But also like having gone back and taken a second and third look at the show I’ve gotten the impression that even within the show nothing has that much impact, maybe the last season is different idk but it feels very one note to me and at times shallow in the story telling. Nothing sticks, because the characters retain a degree of staticity throughout what I’ve seen, and Disney very clearly had a set formula laid out for how the episodes/arcs would go that left little room for the ballsy storytelling and character development we got from clone wars.

It’s a little disappointing because I think there were things in rebels that had a lot of potential, rebels as a whole had a lot of potential but Disney really put a stranglehold on Dave Filoni and the rest of the creative teams creative ability.

That being said, I really don’t like the animation either. Like, really don’t like it. I feel like it lacks depth and texture, and I don’t like a lot of the character designs, and the backgrounds are a little flat, and the way the characters move is weird to me. They’re just a tad too fluid and a touch too expressive that for me it reads as very uncanny valley, it actually took me out of it sometimes.

(Also the human skin tones all looked kinda off to me I was like I don’t think that’s the right undertone babes that’s too much yellow. Too much yellow babe)

As well as the fact that the animation stayed pretty much exactly the same throughout the series, and had none of the actual real innovation and groundbreaking animation that the clone wars had.

Going back to the story telling, and again, this is Disney’s fault, there were a lot of missed opportunities for them to go really hard. There were a lot of lessons in clone wars (like always question authority, and Capitalism Bad, and War is Futile, and sometimes the people who are supposed to be the good guys aren’t necessarily very good) that Disney is just straight up afraid of. Like clone wars really had a lot of more left leaning themes that is simply too much for the conservative, one percenter, trump supporting Disney executives and shareholders.

An example of this I feel would be when they introduced the clones. If I could have I would have done that arc very differently. And don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing grandpa Rex! But the way those episodes were executed felt a little. Dissatisfying? Maybe not quite disrespectful, but then again imo the story of the clones is THE MOST tragic one in all of Star Wars and those episodes had an element of levity to them that I don’t think fit. That arc could have been really deep and somber (and they could have done at least a little to acknowledge the rampant ptsd the clones must have, especially Wolffe who shot down his general and father figure against his will) yet the script didn’t really do those characters justice at all.

Also, I would have written Sabine’s character very differently. For one, I would have made her at least twenty, because with everything I know about it her it’s baffling that she’s supposedly only like sixteen. Makes zero sense. I don’t get it. Also I would make her a butch lesbian. Like a total mean dyke. We need more of those and I think Sabine could have mean dyke potential.

Now. The inquisitors. Dear lord. Again, could have been really cool, but tHOSE SPINNY LIGHTSABERS DRIVE ME INSANE HOW DO YOU FLY WITH THOSE IT SHDHJSJFJD FORGET THATS NOT HOW THE FORCE WORKS, THATS NOT HOW PHYSICS WORKS!!!!

Barbie life in the dream house had better animation because they were actually supposed to look plastic. Also, rebels yoda haunts my nightmares.

And I specifically don’t like Ahsoka’s character design either. I like her outfit but she looks less like Ahsoka to me and more like Ahsoka’s cousin. Her skull is a different shape. Why is it a different shape? Did she have jaw transplant surgery? Where is the consistency. We literally see an older version of Ahsoka during the mortis arc and she actually looks like herself (and looks really cool!) but Rebels Ahsoka looks nothing like that? I don’t understand. It makes my brain hurt to think about it

Alright, I’ve said a lot of negative things, so here’s a positive: I really appreciate Chopper. I just love chaotic astromech droids who feel nothing but unbridled bloodlust at all times. It is so funny. I appreciate him

And, bearing in mind I haven’t seen the whole episode (because I don’t want to) mostly just gift sets and clips, but the episode where Maul finally finds Obi-Wan on tatooine and they have their final duel?? Very cool concept, lots of potential, I just wish the lightsabers weren’t so SKINNY WHY ARE THEY SO SKINNYYYYYYY

I think that’s about everything? Barring the fact that for the longest damn time I thought none of the characters had fingernails because I mistook Ezra’s layered gloves for fingerless gloves and thought he didn’t have fingernails and that freaked me out? Yeah I think that’s about all my thoughts. I tried to have as little blantantly comparing to clone wars as I could because that’s not exactly fair, of course rebels was never going to be on the same level as clone wars. When it comes to well done cartoons I think it’s like. Way up at the top tier is Atla then clone wars in second place, and then literally everything else is wayyyy below it because that’s just how it is tbh. Anyways hope this satiated your curiosity!

[flockofdoves]

list of webcomic recs for @gynandromorph based on what they said they might be interested in but also i’d rec these in general they’re all good

i honestly don’t read much furry stuff beyond your work?? not on purpose its just the circles i tend to find things in are more human character centric i guess so sorry theres not many furry comics on here even though i know you said you have a preference for them

also sorry for word salad, i have pretty bad brain fog today lol but i hope this is legible/helpful!!

finding home - one of my top favorite currently updating comics tbh and i’m even more confident in saying that now after just an hour ago reading beyond whats currently posted publicly by finishing the second volume i got in its recent kickstarter. i love the scenery and atmosphere of this comic and i love the care put into developing the main characters and their relationship and backstories and trauma and stuff. everything in this from the page layouts to the dialogue to the worldbuilding feels really well thought out imo

buuza - less than a year old still so i’m only just starting to get a real feel for it but i’m excited for seeing whats to come. i know you said with your vision certain art styles can be harder to read and i feel like that could be a problem with this though?

charity case - one of the comics i read that i most consistently appreciate for how effective its art and page layouts are

non sequitur - not a story or anything just a bunch of one shot comics but their concepts are always so fun and creative

fables and tales - same thing as last one, a bunch of one shot comics

backdoor - on hiatus right now but while i always enjoyed it, as its gone along i’ve become a lot more invested in it and the creator was always good but continues to improve in art and story telling really markedly imo

decale - story isn’t very far along but i love the character designs and the characters are all so expressive and the way the creator animates some panels is a lot of fun imo

sakana - one of the currently updating comics ive been keeping up with for the longest time, its a lot of fun and i like the character designs a lot

i know you prefer consistently updating ones but for a few finished ones theres

puu - one of my all time favorites, it went places i didn’t expect from reading it when it only had a couple updates. really beautiful

hotblood - i love the art and paneling in this one and its sequel zarco a lot, the one thing worth mentioning but not necessarily a bad thing is the main characters are like (intentionally) not very likeable people kdjfgfhkdf but its so pretty

shootaround - one of my all time favorite comics its storytelling really got to me

also theres definitely a lot of comics that i need to catch up with again that feel like they might be more something you might like than a lot of the ones i’m currently up to date with just because i lost a lot of my RSS feed bookmarks a while back and then the ones i didnt immediately remember to bookmark again i fell behind on and i’ve honestly not felt like i’ve had the energy to pay attention to comics that are more serious/really conscious in developing plot and such over the past year and have more just read a lot of lighthearted stuff to fill the time or comics i kept up with on tapas instead of through RSS bookmarks. i really want to get back into a lot of comics but for the time being i feel weird reccing things that i’m over a year behind on (or longer, some of these i last was into mid high school so idk how they hold up) so uhhhh Disclaimer most of these i’m behind on by 2+ years even though i really want to get back into them but really quickly theres

dead end (finished now i think)

espaced (on hiatus)

o human star

widdershins

goodbye to halos

this is probably way too long sorry about that!! i get really excited about comics

i hope this can be of some use and also i just want to say thank you for making your comics, you’re one of my favorite comic creators and i admire and am inspired by your work a lot

[babblish]

23 & 39?

I’m going to answer these out of order as I ended up explaining Uhl fic’s entire backstory and it got it super long and should really go under a cut. I hope you don’t mind, it’s a looong read.

39. What is your greatest strength as a writer?

I think ultimately it is that I have around 20 years of writing experience (I legit started when I was around 10) and I’ve finally gotten to the point where I can execute my vision for a scene/character/whatever and be happy with what I’ve written. Obviously I don’t think my writing is perfect and I’m forever going to be chasing that goal, but being able to go back over my writing and not despise it was a surprisingly hard skill to learn and I think it’s my greatest current strength because now I have the confidence and motivation to continue.

23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.

That has to be Whispers Within, I haven’t actually written a full length anything before and I am getting super close to finishing it now which is amazing to me because in part it feels like healing.

To explain this, I started the fic when my disability took a nose dive and I needed something to help me exercise my brain and make me feel like me again. At the time I couldn’t focus on a lot of “adult media” like Orphan Black, Game of Thrones, Sense8, etc because those shows were very long, very complicated and literally impossible for me to follow the plot of at all. 

HOWEVER Trollhunters shone out to me and I’d just lie in bed watching and rewatching and rewatching. Before this I liked the show, I had been introduced by a little man of around the age of 4 and by episode 20 had falling in love with the trolls and the changelings. I had my own changeling OC, a seer named Tristan, which I didn’t really do anything with beyond arting and assigning a backstory to, and maybe shipping him with the usual suspects. Season 2 came around and I fell in love with the human characters as well. I was doing a Cert IV in graphic design and sometimes I’d have it playing in the background as I was working on my assignments. Not always, but I recently started watching Voyager from the beginning and I’d need the occasional palette cleanser.

At the beginning of 2018 I crashed really hard, and the obsessive rewatching began. Especially the episodes S2:8-10, I literally watched one of those for each meal every day. At this stage I couldn’t write at all but I already had Tristan just sitting there in my head. Up until this point I’ve always been able to be creative, I first became disabled at 14 years old and as a response all of my identity became focused around sedentary things I could do alone, see: arting, writing, conlangs, worldbuilding etc. And almost over night I could no longer do any of those things. But creativity doesn’t go away and I lost myself to daydreaming since that was all I could do. As brainfog is an inherently unfocused plane, character ideas about new creatures merged with fandreams about Tristan and they twisted and curled, slightly different each time, and eventually became Sam.

And then in late May and early June, three things happened to me that gave me the drive to force myself to write even though it was so hard for me. 1. My doctor told me if I didn’t use my skills I’d lose them forever. (this isn’t actually true, dr was just a dick, but it was like that no fear, one fear meme). 2. Season 3 of Trollhunters came out and Bad Coffee did things to me and I dove straight into AO3 hungry for a fic that didn’t exist, although I found others such as Days in the Sun by @seagullandcroissant and was further inspired, and 3. My now SO confessed her feelings for me and we started dating. Suddenly I had the deep need to write, even if it was silly or high concept drabble. The concept of Sam’s visions was a way for me to make sense of that and give me a good contrivance to write little bites of speculative fiction within a universe. And due to my SO not being a man I suddenly had some intense internalised biphobia and felt the need to validate my queerness for my own personal reasons, and due to our relationship being LD, a sudden need for sappy domestic fluff.

At first it was so hard, it’d take me all day to write a short paragraph. But then it hit me that, I couldn’t art but I could paint with words. So the visions got more experimental, and I finally started feeling like myself again. I picked a love interest from ToA because that world was already in my head and I had just started learning German on Duolingo as more brain practice, so Uhl randomly became the guy. You have no idea how close I came to picking Walter but there was already so many fics about him out there and like… none about Uhl and I was salty.

Initially I had zero intention of putting it out there in the world because I was going through some internalised stuff about writing fan fiction over my own worlds, but then I shared some of with my SO (enduring the mortifying ordeal of being known) and she liked it so much that over several months I came to the decision that I actually I did want to want to be active in the fandom and have met some amazing people through it. I definitely have no regrets and for however long that I continue writing, Whispers Within is always going to be dear to me for these and a number of other reasons.

[ask-shakespearehigh]

Q&A post with the Mods!!!!

This is going to be a long one oh boy

How strict is the delineation of creative control vis-a-vis characters/plays between the mods? (@pedanticlecturer)

We generally have the plays split up along lines of “what we know”— we have a list at the very beginning of the blog. Sometimes we’ll draw the others’ characters (mostly me drawing some of Star’s…) but even then the final say on characterization is up to the “main” mod for that play — mod aster

what aster said -- mod star

What is your favorite play? What is your favorite character in terms of how they were written in the source material? (@pedanticlecturer)

I think my favorite play overall is Macbeth, just because I like the vibes (and the fact that I too could kill Macbeth), the fact that you don’t say it’s name in theatres, and the fact that it’s a play I did a full read through and analysis of in class. Favorite character? Puck from Midsummer. — mod aster

uhhhh,, hmm. ive always had a soft spot for midsummer since i saw it with aster esp bc of how fun the costumes were. of the comedies it has the largest potential to be the most visually pleasing bc of the concept of fairies,,,and im gay and dramatic so i love that. id die if i got to costume design for midsummer,,,or be in it,,,yeah. fav character. hmm. probably mercutio?? i recently saw a version of romeo and juliet where mercutio was played by a woman and oh my god it was amazing!!! not to mention mercutio’s portrayal in baz luhrmann's INCREDIBLE version of r n j!!! (I based my mercutio design on him) he just spends the entire time making dick jokes. love that. -- mod star

How do you answer asks so fast? I mean it's great but I'm impressed 😂 (Anon)

Personally, it’s a mix of: notifications on, quick drawing speed, and using the blog to avoid my class work — mod aster

aster is fast and (as you can see from all of my answers) im lazey -- mod star

Are there any elements/characters of the plays you're covering that you would have liked to work into this blog's plot, but couldn't due to the constraints of the setting or the synthetic nature of the blog? (@pedanticlecturer)

I wanted to make everyone gay but unfortunately due to plot constraints we have to have some hets but that wont stop me from making it lgbt as possible. -- mod star

I did want to make The Tempest more of a central play, but it just didn’t translate well. Similarly, other supernatural elements like the witches in Macbeth. This isn’t so much a constraint mentioned, but my own time/energy means that I want to show the Macbeth backstory, in a specific format, but I can’t right now— mod aster

Is there a hierarchy of import when it comes to each play's individualized impact on shakespeare high's general arc? If so, what plays are crucial to the foundation of the story? Which ones did you do mostly for shits and giggles? (@pedanticlecturer)

This is phrased like an ACT question and i might not answer it right so sorry in advance but: mod aster and i only selected a few plays for each of us to do given we dont know all of shakespeare’s works, but we tend to put more emphasis on the the more well known. But it also comes down to 1. How much we have plotted out for each play and 2. What the followers ask about most. Our two most popular are hamlet and macbeth bc people are familiar w those but around march caesar always becomes relevant again. I didnt even have designs for some of the characters until someone asked about them. -- mod star

I would say the same as star— it generally comes down to what people ask about. I will say that the overall plot is sort of separated into “has happened” and “is happening”. Like, the human potion of Midsummer, Julius Caesar, and Macbeth are all in the “aftermath” portion, while Twelfth Night, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet, among others, are happening. We’re trying to incorporate as much as we can, and I don’t think any of them were really put in without some thought.— mod aster

What personal significance does shakespeare hold in ur guys' lives? (@pedanticlecturer)

I go to a theater school rn and so ive dealt w shakespeare (although not all of them) it also helps that i was in loves labours lost last year as moth and that i read hamlet and r n j. Theres also a theater in my state that always does One Big Shakespeare per season and they always do them super well!!! My love for shakespeare probably started w seeing midsummer at that theater w mod aster!!! So. Theater kid rights!! -- mod star

To be honest, I got back into Shakespeare Because of the blog. I’ve been friends with some people that got really Pretentious about Shakespeare, and it kinda put me off of it. I did have a book of abridged plays (the plays’ plots written out in prose, basically) that I read as a kid, which is what got me into not only the plots of a lot of the plays, but also the idea of having them illustrated. And, same as star, the theater in state does the One Big Shakespeare— and they tend to do some really cool things with the costumes, setting them in diff time periods. I haven’t been able to see any lately since I’ve moved, but they still slap. — mod aster

🥰😘💙🥰🥰💜💟🥰I 😍💗💚😍😍LOVE🖤🖤 YALL ♥️♥️🧡💛💚💝❣️💕💘💖💗💓💞💝❤️💛💜 okay now i have a question i swear— how long have the two of you been doing art??? and what were your first shakespeare plays??? (@hellaghosts)

Uhh i started drawing when i was like idk 12 and i have the giant boxes of sketchbooks to prove it!!! I moved to digital art at abt 14-15 but mostly stayed traditional until this yr when i got a Neat New Tablet so some of my sketchbooks are sitting abandoned rip. My first shakespeare was either romeo and juliet or midsummer nights dream and i love both of them v much!!! I have a very old piece of art that i did for r n j for my freshman class assignment on it and it hasnt aged well alsdjfjafd circa 2016 i think??? -- mod star

Oh man. I started drawing when I was about 10, but it was Bad. I don’t think I got much into drawing again until I was about 14? Sometime around the end of middle school/beginning of high school. I would say I started getting into drawing as more than doodling/coloring edits sometime around 2015-16? I would draw on my iPad with my finger, then I got a tablet for my computer, and now I pretty much stick to my iPad with an Apple Pencil. My first Shakespeare play was….. uh…… probably Midsummer???? I have No idea. We would go to plays when I was little, so I honestly don’t remember if I saw others before. It may have been Romeo and Juliet— I had that book where it was the original and the “modernized” with the little dog that explained things— which, if you know it makes sense, but if you don’t is probably a bonkers answer. — mod aster

Do you think this blog has like? An overarching thesis (be it b/c intentionally or simply b/c ur own take on the world has bled thru to the point where u believe it’s central to the piece at this point)? (@pedanticlecturer)

Not gonna lie, I had to read that like three times AND dm you to figure out what you were asking from us and all I have is “be gay, respect women, write your own happy endings”. — mod aster

This blog started with an ides of march shitpost and you think we have enough brain energy to write a whole thesis? I projected feelings of found family onto my half of the blog but idk if that counts. Be gay do crime 420 69 -- mod star

What’s the nature/rough dynamic of ur relationship? How do y’all know each other? (@pedanticlecturer)

Met mod aster when i was like 4 and even tho we didnt live close we became like, best friends although the Best part didnt start until we were like 13-ish and eventually we talked like non stop (about anime and homestuck. Yknow. 13 year old kid things) and we didnt see each other a lot bc of Distance and now its even worse bc aster is in colleg.,e but we consider each other siblings regardless of family bc we’re adopted into our own respective families so that bled over into our friendship and it would feel weird calling him anything other than my brother now. We’ve seen each other at our best and worst and if you really want a good insight on what we’re like as siblings watch griffin and justin mcelroy’s overview video of catlateral damage wherein i am griffin and he is the long suffering justin. -- mod star

Star is basically my long distance sibling and functionally the only cousin I recognize bc like their parents are basically an aunt and uncle and like our dads look enough alike that we’ve both accidentally gotten the wrong dad for a hug or similar so like. Anyways yeah Star is the Griffin to my Justin, complete with our absent middle brother who we love dearly— mod aster

Dubiously relevant q but what kind of music do y’all listen to when u do art (if that is indeed a habit either of u partake in) (@pedanticlecturer)

It can depend on the piece? I was working on some (unrelated) oc prints that were song-focused, and for those I just listened to said song on loop. Sometimes I have playlists. Sometimes I’ll just be in a Mood and throw a song on loop. But a lot of time for the blog, I’ll listen to The Adventure Zone for the billionth time, because I have Too Much Attention. I’ve also, on request from Star, linked the most recent “loop song”.— mod aster

I tend to obsess over the same like 3 songs every few weeks so those get listened to on repeat but it also depends on the tone of what im drawing or who im drawing i might genre switch bc of that. If im drawing ophelia i stick to lana del rey and if im drawing hamlet its the neighborhood, horatio is sufjan stevens etc. i have categorized,. Most of the characters i draw into different songs/genres/energies of music but not like i ever follow that. Sometimes i just pull up a really long nonsense video and forget to draw. Essentially: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -- mod star

How’d y’all come up with ur pseudonyms? (@pedanticlecturer)

I love space so much and my main blog is starryeydsailor space gay rights!! Im also tiny and full of energy and bright so basically i;m star -- mod star

Uhhhh i was like “hey i want to do uhhhhhh flower?” And then I google searched flower names until I found one I liked —- mod aster

How did you end up deciding the rough timeline of events in canon? (@pedanticlecturer)

It’s mostly determined by like. How we choose per story? If that makes sense. Like, we just take story by story, and decide “is it happening, has it happened, and when?” And then we fit them together in relation to each other just by dint of. All existing at once. Like, I knew I wanted Macbeth to be in aftermath, because like, even though there’s no murder, the way I’ve translated it to the AU is still kinda heavy, and it’s something that I don’t know that I could do properly if it were happening right now. Also, it’s more interesting IMO to have them at different times. Tl;dr we wing it per story and slot them together— mod aster (mod star agrees I just can word better, in theory)

If you could tell the story of shakespeare high in a different format than an ask blog, would you? Obviously y'all are making very good use of the format, but would you want to write this as a animated series or like? a comic book? or is the form inseparable from the story? (@pedanticlecturer)

I kinda wanted to do a webcomic or maybe to plot develop through like, animatics but the element of surprise comes from the asks we get and really makes us think so the blog is a good start. We didnt think we’d get this far -- mod star

Pretty much what Star said— there are certain elements where it’d be neat to do as a comic or as an animatic. Like, the fantasy dream is like, an anthology webcomic of each story, where you can like, see other characters in the background and stuff. But to be honest, we develop a lot by what we’re asked— there was a post about developing worldbuilding by being asked questions and then pretending you’ve thought about the answer, and it’s not far off. Personally, it’s hard to just lay out a story, because I have a whole WORLD and what’s relevant? What are people interested in? It’s by getting questions that I can then focus in on an area to develop. And yeah, we Super didn’t think we’d get this far lmao — mod aster

Any headcanons about your characters that you don't think will ever come up on the blog through asks or plot posts? (@pedanticlecturer)

I could make a whole separate post for this!!!!! Mostly its voice headcanons (and by mostly i mean like 1 or 2) or relationship hcs!!!! -- mod star

Honestly same. I don’t think I have voice headcanons for mine, though I bet I could find some. I’ve got a bunch of miscellaneous headcanons that just kinda float around, but like they’re scattered, too numerous for this post, and also not always things I’m sure are canon yet.— mod aster

[bedlamgames]

Q&A #111

After a far too long a wait leading to far too long a Q&A. Enjoy!

Anonymous asked:

Have you considered adding another way to get the effect of the Denial mantra besides Hypnosis, maybe a Corruption or something? I like the effect, which makes it a little unfortunate I can't get it on trained slaves due to the degree of exclusivity between training a slave vs hypnotizing one.

- - There is a mechanic where some slavers with either Hypnosis or a bunch of other potentially mind affecting traits have a chance to implant certain mantras on certain trainings. Denial isn't one of them yet, but I can definitely see that being included on a future training.

Anonymous asked:

One thing I noticed about dwarf player characters is that they are the only dwarves that start out without having the Resilient trait. Could you please make that something that dwarf players start with to match up with their in game counterparts?

- - That's a really good shout. Added the trait to all of the regular dwarf starts.

Anonymous asked:

Hey! I was wondering if you are ever going to be releasing a guide on some of the older assignments? I am a bit of a completionist and there are just a small number of them i have yet been able to beat. Most of these being the ones iwht unique characters. Ive gotten critical succes so many times without recieving the unique. So will there be any guides in the future or is there any forum of chat where ppl with knowlegde on all of this recide?

- - There is a wiki and there's a link to it on the tumblr on the No Haven page. There's threads on Hypnopics Collective and TFGames, and possibly other places too. There's also the discord for patrons where people are always happy to answer those questions.

Anonymous asked:

Some questions how the like and dislike system works. What are a characters likes and dislikes based on? completely random or are there things that can affect them. Are they set in stone? so if i have a general chat, find out a character hates smithing will he always hate it? Also from aesendril and Kiruna seem to have a relationship status in their examines. Can you get these for random or your own characters too? Can two of my slavers have that kind of relationship or is it only the 2 uniques?

- - They're rolled at the beginning of the game, and do get affected at least partially by their traits. So someone who started with Leader will like being a Second-in-Command or Spiritual Leader more, and visa versa for someone with Follower. There are morning events where they can shift upwards and downwards. There are relationships that can form between slavers. So far there's a couple of assignments that can form relationships for good and bad. There will likely be other ways for them to happen in future.

Anonymous asked:

Are missi9ons like the reign of thw witch queen a one time thing even if you do not go on it? Sometimes it appears a bit to early in a playthrough and i jusut dont have the slavers to do it. Does that mean i lose the chance of ever doing it? The mission private passage has a bunch of really cool uniques. One of the best assignments you have in the game imo. But after getting one of the uniques i can´t seem to get the mission to appear again. Is it bad rng or is it locked after getting a unique?

- - There's only a couple of assignments like Witch-Queen that are one offs and I've had that feedback from others so now it won't appear as early as it used to. Glad you liked it! Funny you say that too as this week we've been doing some polling games on the discord where various stuff gets matched against the other in random eliminations and Private Passage was voted best assignment ever (Spectacle of the Sacred was second, and third place was A Deluge of Oozes). Bad rng I'm guessing, as it's made to be repeatable.

Anonymous asked:

What was the inspiration for your game? It says on your page here that you were inspired by the doff system from STO, could you elaborate a bit on that? What with games like Fort of Chains seemingly being inspired by your game, I tried to look at whether this "text-based procedurally generated weekly quest party management" genre existed in the non-adult sphere, but I couldnt really find anything, which is surprising, considering that this would probably be attractive to the DnD community.

- - Pretty much exactly that. Didn't have much interest in that MMO, and yet the concept they had of collecting various lower deck type officers who all had their own traits, and then sending them off to do various stuff from raiding enemy ships down to putting on a play (no lie, that likely will be a NH assignment sooner or later) for various rewards I found to be surprisingly compelling. So like with WR where I took a chan dice roller game and thought can I do this in RAGS, I had the same thought with the doff system. Of course I've complicated and expanded on the idea a whole bunch since.

Also was unaware of Fort of Chains, but on looking they do give me a shout out which is most appreciated, thanks!

Anonymous asked:

any ability to move some of the traits like strong right arm or revears to the encampment ? just so it cleans up the PC

- - Strong Right Arm and Recruiter should be removed after the game starts, but yes that's a good idea. What I'll likely do is redo that miscellaneous full custom options and all of those Encampment specific which makes sense as they're not so specific to the player themself.

Anonymous asked:

Is it possible to play on mobile?

- - That's one of many reasons I'm working to convert the game to Twine so then it should be playable by anything with a browser.

Anonymous asked:

Not sure if I am extremely unlucky or its an actual bug, but I seem to roll only male slavers when I choose females as preferred gender in general orders.

- - It was a bug, and will be in the next public release coming soon.

Anonymous asked:

Have you considered adding a solo game mode where you start with no slavers whatsoever? Also, any plans to add the options to start with other advanced traits such as Flier, Riding, Bimbo, etc to full custom characters? Looking forward to the next update!

- - I have yes. The idea was to do a 'super-villain' style start under the scenarios where you'd have some big advantage to counteract the lack of staff, like being better at planning, being better at seducing minions, or just having lots of gold and a better source of mercenaries. Fleet is already in there, Flying possibly, but I like having that as part of slaver upgrades as a big perk from that, and Bimbo is available in the patreon TF edition version.

whitewolf1414 asked:

Hello just curious. Will it be possible in the future for the player to get images for the encampment, as well as images for specific buildings inside the encampment, like your personal tent or lodge? Will we also be able to use those buildings in the later future, maybe for the next major game you work on? And second question. Will the other slavers be able to follow quest threads (like extra actions) on assignments or is this only available for the protagonist? Thanks :)

- - I would definitely like to get more images of the encampment like that one I got with the wright, succubus, neko, tentacle beast, and sleeping lamia. There's going to be at least one assignment I have planned that's so long you'll need to designate a leader for it if you don't go yourself and then that way they'll be the one to get to make the various choices that come up. I'm also thinking it'll be fun that you'll have a choice for them to try to take over when they get back in case you liked playing them so much.

Anonymous asked:

I keep getting the JIT prompt and brain too smol to figure out

- - In the readme file that comes with the game there's a link to a page on the patreon available to everyone with a full step by step guide of how to get the game to work.

Anonymous asked:

Is there anyway in No Haven to remove the Puppet Leader status? It seems really complicated to recover and I would rather just promote a new leader at this point, but I can't get my current character enslaved no matter how intentionally bad I do. I would definitely like to see some kind of functionality that allows your current character to give up, either being enslaved or leaving the encampment. I really enjoy the game otherwise.

- - There's not. If you get puppet leadered you become immune to being enslaved, as the encampment basically treats you like a slave by that point anyway. I can definitely see a case though there should be a way for things to go bad enough that both you and whoever is puppetting you ends up being enslaved. Could be a fun event that.

Anonymous asked:

When re you going to finish/improve the biomancy.

- - Biomancy is getting an improvement in the next release via a reward from one of the new assignments. That also was one of the needed steps on the storyline I have in mind for it. As to finishing? Well that could be awhile. There's a commission I need for the ending that will need to be done, likely when I can afford it as a bonus as it's one I want to keep as a surprise so will be only in the game. There's also at least one or two more assignments that will also have general usage outside of the storyline. I know how it ends, and that's all been worked out. I do though need to work out some more of the mid-steps and I'm not sure at this point how many there should be. Definitely will be at least one though and that will also need a commission.

Anonymous asked:

why doesn't the rough landing download link work?

- - Ah, I see tumblr has played silly buggers again where it breaks links cause why not. ...And I can't edit the page as tumblr is threatening to reset my theme. This is one of the many, many reasons why I mainly use twitter and patreon these days. Okay the link is basically right, just delete the 'https://href.li/?' at the beginning and it works fine.

Anonymous asked:

More like suggestion: can we make "Truly Divine" not show at the very start?

- - I think that's fine? It's not like Witch-Queen where it only appears once, and not all assignments you start with are going to be viable options.

whitewolf1414 asked:

First question. will there be extensive player character exploration? Second will there be extensive character interaction between everyone at the encampment? Third and final. Will there be a character image mechanic in your future builds of this game. Say like crushstation made with their game female agent. Thank You. :)

- - Not sure what you mean by that one? Yes I do want to do more interaction between your slavers so they're not all focused so much on you. That will likely be more in dilemmas. Third, likely not. I prefer to keep that as a patron thing so I can give it more care and attention.

Anonymous asked:

Level 1 kinky draenei guard named Qualmore Findel i went to draenei territory south east tried to go east and found a chest. tentacle beast i try going east another chest another beast east once more chest white potion. Not sure if its a bug but i decided to report it anyway I'm using the twine version of whorelocks revenge. Looking forward to future updates.

- - Well people did say they wanted to see more chests :D More seriously, WR is pretty much on hold due to the hostile reception the Twine conversion got. If you do like it, want to see more of it then please let me know, and I'll then be more likely to come back to it. Not a lot of point developing something that's a cat when people keep moaning that it's not a dog, and doesn't even bark, but if you do like the cat, and happy with it being a cat, I'm totally down for coming back so it's not such an unfinished cat. It's also entirely possible that metaphor got away from me so far.

Anonymous asked:

Completing the "Truly Divine" quest causes the potential slaver value to get stuck at -1, thus preventing the recruitment of any more slavers via level up bonus.

- - That should be fixed for the public release.

Anonymous asked:

Hey, I recently found the whorelock's revenge game, and I really like it. The only thing is that I really want to play this game as an Android game with the latest version. What would be the best way to make this happen? I'm currently playing through my smartphone's Chrome browser.

- - Hey someone else who likes WR! (see a previous question in this Q&A for context) I'd need to learn how to code for android, or there'd need to be someone interested in converting the twine version. So not out the question, and would be potentially be a good project to look at when the No Haven twine conversion is done if the other project I have in mind doesn't pan out.

Anonymous asked:

Are you a girl

- - Sure if it makes you happy.

Anonymous asked:

Is the latest update really more than 6-7 months old? There doesn't seem to be any information about it here or on twitter, and every patreon post is locked so we can't tell anything from that either...

- - This year has not been great to put it lightly. Then this one still does puzzle me. I do a public post on the patreon that's also linked on the twitter every two weeks, and I've given updates on how things are going. I've checked on another browser where I wasn't signed in and it worked fine? I've also been posting the patch notes on the current patreon release on the twitter as twitlongers so there also should be no issue with accessing those.

Anyway, the new public release will be out very soon indeed so you won't have to wait much longer.

[gamerzcourt]

Nier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Discuss What Games They Admire MostNier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Discuss What Games They Admire Mostvideo games

New Post has been published on http://www.gamerzcourt.com/nier-psychonauts-and-other-devs-discuss-what-games-they-admire-mostnier-psychonauts-and-other-devs-discuss-what-games-they-admire-mostvideo-games/

Nier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Discuss What Games They Admire MostNier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Discuss What Games They Admire Mostvideo games

These past few years have yielded an amazing roster of games that we personally love. With so many fantastic experiences out there, we began to grow curious over what games developers particularly enjoy. During our time spent at this year’s GDC, we had the opportunity to interview a wide variety of game developers and key figures in the industry, so we decided to ask what current game they find inspiring and admire the most, and why.

As you’ll see from the responses below, the games each developer adores might not come as a surprise to you, especially if you’re familiar with their work or tastes. Others had some surprising picks that you probably wouldn’t expect. What current games do you admire the most? Let us know in the comments below. And be sure to check out feature detailing the 25 best games you might’ve not heard of that we saw at GDC 2018.

Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, Directors of Cuphead

Jared Moldenhauer (left) and Chad Moldenhauer (right)

Jared Moldenhauer: I have a library of 100+ games that I’m working towards currently. But one of the earlier games that I chose and found very rewarding was Hollow Knight. It’s an interesting and challenging Metroidvania. And the visuals and the universe that they created, and the feeling within all the characters; I was happy playing every minute of it.

Chad Moldenhauer: I recently started and really enjoy The Witness. I was looking forward to that for a long time!

Yoshinori Terasawa, Danganronpa Series Producer

Yoshinori Terasawa: I love the Persona series. I adore the sense of personality that those games have. I really like how cool and stylish they are.

Rami Ismail, Producer of Nuclear Throne

Rami Ismail: So many games have really sparked me. Games that really stand out to me are Engare and Farsh, by Mahdi Bahrami, both games based on this Iranian heritage. I was very impressed by This War of Mine, which gives a unique perspective on war. Just seeing that tremendous shift in perspective translated into a game that is so powerful and poignant, that reminds me that there is so much more out there.

Tom Kaczmarczyk, Producer of Superhot

Tom Kaczmarczyk: Our game director [Piotr Iwanicki] who actually came up with the idea, he often cites an indie flash game called, Time4Cat, as one of the inspirations, because it did have the same sort of time automation mechanic. For me, I love Hotline Miami because of its action sequences. A lot of what we pick up come from action movies, and from the way people design cinematic experiences where you fall into a certain archetype of a situation, and you immediately understand what’s going on.

Tim Schafer, Founder of Double Fine (Psychonauts, Brutal Legend)

Tim Schafer

Tim Schafer: Lately, a game that really made a big effect on me–it sounds really cliché–but Breath of the Wild was a huge thing. I just loved it. Everyone loves something different about games, there’s no one game that’s perfect for everybody, but it made me realize that my number one thing is exploration. I’m constantly exploring and surprised and I just love it and I play it all the time. I also love Loot Rascals, which is a great roguelike, and I’ve recently been playing Persona 5, which is just amazing. Amazing style and tone, it’s so polished.

Jason Roberts, Director of Gorogoa

Jason Roberts: In 2017, I was a big fan of Inside and Night in the Woods; those were big games for me. I’m big on tone, mood, atmosphere. These are important to me. And I love those games. And I also, this year, I think Florence and any game from Annapurna are just very carefully, precisely created with tone and atmosphere. That’s what I value.

Dean Ayala, Hearthstone Senior Game Designer + Dave Kozack, Hearthstone Lead Narrative Designer

Dean Ayala: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. It’s a roguelike released back in 1997. A lot of the Hearthstone design team plays it. It’s super old-school.

Dave Kozack: It has been in continuous development; it’s one of those community projects. That’s why the name, Stone Soup. But we played a lot of rogue-likes while we were working on Dungeon Run, and that was one of our favorites. It’s just something we keep coming back to as a team. It’s a lot of fun.

Ian Dallas, Creative Director of What Remains Of Edith Finch

Ian Dallas

Ian Dallas: For me, the last game that affected me emotionally in a strong way was Universal Paperclips. A game about clicking on buttons and manufacturing paperclips that I just found myself lost in for 8 hours. It was really like a troubling emotional experience, and it’s amazing that it comes out of just text on a webpage. It reaffirms the power of video games and the way that they can teach you things about yourself and about the world that you couldn’t really internalize in any other way.

Chelsea Hash, Technical Artist of What Remains Of Edith Finch

Chelsea Hash: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Their commitment to the multimedia format and drawing from different rendering styles to support their vision was something that I was glad to be able to experience, something that was willing to think outside the box.

Damon Baker, Nintendo Publisher and Developer Relations

Damon Baker: I can’t choose one game. It is like choosing my favorite child! There are so many different types of experiences. Most recently I am working my way through Night in the Woods. I haven’t been able to play that previously, and having a lot of flights lately has given me more flexibility to get through a lot of indie content. Of course, I totally enjoyed Celeste. I vowed not to use assist mode on that game at all and beat it; but it took me 1800 deaths or something to get through it, but it was a beautiful game.

Matt Thornson, Director of Celeste

Matt Thornson: I’ve been really enjoying my time with Into the Breach. It’s amazing!

Victor Kislyi, Wargaming CEO (World of Tanks)

Victor Kislyi: Civilization. All of them, because I started playing from Civ I. Now, believe it or not, before playing World of Tanks last night I was playing Civilization and I was playing on the plane on my way here. Civ 6 is amazing, and it was my MBA. I’m a physicist by education but, playing Civilization, all those layers, economy, exploration, politics, military, science, religion–your brain is trained to juggle those multiple layers like almost instantly, or at least very, very correctly. And, that’s a good analogy with business, people, finance, media, failures, exploration, etc., etc. I think Civilization, as a concept, as a game, actually, is more valuable to humanity than Mona Lisa.

Yoko Taro, Director of Nier: Automata

Yoko Taro: I think that Grand Theft Auto IV and Super Mario Bros. are two big games that influenced me when making Nier. But with games from the past–not modern games–I felt more freedom or challenge as a player. Let’s say we have a black background with a white dot on it and let’s call it the space. I feel like that really creates freedom, especially in terms freedom of imagination, and challenging the dev team to create a world without really being able to express that world visually. In that sense, I feel that in the past, game developers were trying to create a new frontier. They were trying to expand the world, expand the universe of gaming industry.

Yoko Taro (left) and Takahira Taura (right)

Now that the game industry has matured pretty much now, a lot of people actually go for a more safe game. They try to make all the consumers happy with that one game. I think that that actually limits to what they can do and I feel that no one is really trying to expand that arena or expand that world anymore. I am a little bit sad about that.

Takahisa Taura, Designer Of Nier: Automata + Metal Gear Rising

Takahisa Taura: When The Witcher 3 came out, we all played it and had fun with it, but we also looked at it to see what would we do if we created a game like this. We were using The Witcher 3 as a learning experience on how to create an RPG. I think that’s where it all started. Well, that’s where we came from, so it wasn’t too difficult of a task to create a JRPG.”

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