#learned a lot too and it was super fun I highly recommend

[crualex-de-vil]

V doesn't stand a chance against those bedroom eyes 😍

[cup-o-stars]

How to draw like you no borax

Good question!

I'd warn against following my process (at least if you want to learn), but I'll be honest and show you, lol. (Heads up: this is just how I do FAN art. When having fun, I generally care less about the fundamentals.)

1. I slap down super rough sketches, jotting lines/expressions like bullet points of my idea. Pretty much stick figures with just enough detail to remember who's who later. Not shown here, I also move, resize, and add details to express the intended composition if I'm planning something larger. You may notice a lot of curved lines / haphazard circles.

2. I refine the sketch by drawing it with more intention and build structure with slightly blockier shapes. If I'm really struggling with a pose, this is also where I'll find references or look at myself for bits and pieces to fill in the gaps. (When practicing, I would highly recommend using a reference from the start so all your limbs are an appropriate length and you don't need to say things like "that's passable" right before posting. If you're a perfectionist you'll leave that thought with the rough sketch.)

3. I'll decide around here whether or not to leave the sketch as is or commit to lineart (not likely). I guess I'd say I "shape the lines" here by going over some to add thickness/weight, and by adding basic sort-of-shading to break things up a little. Then I'll just fill in space if the page looks empty. (Usually this is where I incorporate the borax, but I hear baking soda works nicely if you're worried.)

4. Onto coloring. I don't feel confident enough to pretend I know what I'm doing here, lol. I just choose my base colors, imagine the general direction of the light source, then add minor gradients to the light and dark layers so they don't look flat. Then I just add some BS highlights and outline them. I've only recently found the motivation to properly practice coloring and just go with the flow tbh.

You may notice that Nami's forearm is too long, her hand looks like a pancake and Chopper has no joints! My kind sibling explained to me once that my anatomy is poor, but cohesive enough that nothing stands out too bad, lol. That's why it is important to use references!! And if you're me, practice all parts of anatomy at the same time with full bodies so that even when you're at a loss, your hands aren't that much better than your feet.

All in all, to draw like me, just have a very hedonistic approach to art, ha. Draw what you want, avoid getting burnt out on any single piece (sometimes that happens when you try to perfect drawings one at a time), and follow my personal motto:

Make fun, not masterpieces.

Idk how helpful this was, but there you have it!

[k9catastrophe]

A BIG list of entirely free games therians and alterhumans can get !!! This isn't like an ad for them or anything, but when i was younger i never really had games that fit my theriotypes :( so why not start now!! this is in no real order.

These are all games where you play AS the animal, most of them being semirealistic? They're all free, so they aren't super realistic sorry!!! These are all also games i find on my tablet, so im not sure if they're available on pc!!

Wildcraft: As of today, Wildcraft updates every once and awhile, usually for the Wildpass thing they do almost weekly[? i took a large break from this game, forgive me if im misremembering.] Wildcraft was made by Turbo Rocket Games in early 2018. The multiplayer servers arent as active as they used to be, but it's still fun to play with friends sometimes!! I usually play in singleplayer though!! (Also, there is a settings option to make it first person, and one to hide the buttons!)

Playable Animals: Right now there are 12 land animals: Wolf [Default], Fox [Common], Lynx, Bear, Lion [Rares], Cheetah, Horse, Eagle, Crocodile, Tiger, Gorilla, and Kangaroo! [Ledgendaries], all of which are obtainable through the chests!! There are also 9 transformations [which are more difficult to get !!]: Raccoon, Deer, Hippo, Giraffe, Gazelle, Hyena, Rhino, Parrot, and Snake! There are also 5 Sea creatures: Dolphin [default], Stingray [Rare], Shark, Seal, and Sea turtle! You can have up to eight family members for every animal, who are also customizable! [not including transformations]

Customizability: There are TONS of skins and accessories for every animal, and you can adjust the size of their body parts, making your character entirely customizable! There are also LOTS of pets!

I give it a solid 10/10!! I've loved this game since it came out!! Me and my brother @whisperrdrrop [hii] played it like the year it came out!! I highly recommend playing this one ! >w< The community also has tons of fun creepypastas, and though the only real one is 'Niddhogg,' it's super fun to just learn about them!

Wolf Tales (Home & Heart (IT MIGHT BE 'WILD ANIMAL SIM' NOW IDK)): (The icon may have changed, my ipad doesn't update icons very much!!!) As of Today, Wolf Tales has basically stopped updating from what i can see. However this doesn't take away from the fun of it!! The game was created around 2020 by Foxie Ventures. Servers are multiplayer by default, but there is a singleplayer option!

Playable Animals: There are currently only 5 animals: Wolf, Fox, Bear, Wild/Big cat, and Dragon! All are unlocked by playing through the quests, though you can use moonstones (ingame 'rare' currency) to auto-buy most of them! Your families/packs are grown through opening chests and breeding!

Customizability: There are quite a few skins for every animal, ranging in rarity. you can obtain skins through buying the 'summoning' of the animal you'd like with moonstones and getting a random skin, or buying one directly. Skins are also not changeable! Let's say you're a grey wolf, and you get the sand wolf skin. You would have to enter your den and find that skin, and switch into that one, meaning it could have a different level! There are also LOTS of pets, though i do not remember how to get them. The only way to change your character is through changing limb sizes, there are no accessories!!

I give it a nice little 9/10, as much as i love this game i don't play it too often, but it really is fun! I think i got this game when it came out, and it was really fun watching the game and the community grow and change!! When i joined, not every player had a jump button, and there was this cool feature called 'Clans' (replaced by the player clans, sadly :() where there were 5 packs that you had to either defeat the alpha of or become besties with, and you'd get a packmate of any rarity from them daily!! My bestie pack was called 'the moonrise pack' and the #1 public enemy was 'The tooth pack' or something. I definitely recommend it :3!!

Ultimate Wolf/Fox/Forest/Savanna/Dinosaur/Cat/Shark/Bird/Jungle Simulator: they made a LOT of these games. These are only the ones that are free on my tablet, but im also seeing 'ocean,' 'dog,' 'arctic,' and 'lion' simulators for a dollar, you'd have to check and see if those are free. I'm mostly focusing on the WOLF simulator here, because i do NOT want to download all of those games. There is no multiplayer option for any of them. All made by gluten free games, no idea the release dates.

Playable Animals: The animals depend on which game you get. I know forest has bears, Savanna has cheetahs, Dinosaur has T-rex, triceratops, and ankylosaurus, bird has parrots and eagles, and jungle has tigers, but these are definitely not every animal !!

Customizability: you unlock a skin for every few levels, and you can tint them, but that's about it. For every game. There's like... 8-15 for most?

I give it a 7/10. As much as i do really, really love this game and all the memories playing it, it's really not the most entertaining game out there. If you're really bored and have nothing to do, sure, go wild with it!!

Dog Sim: I just got this game and it's so silly !! Made by Turbo Rocket Games in 2016, the multiplayer servers are surprisingly still decently active! Obviously it doesn't update anymore.

Playable Animals: The only animals in these are: (you guessed it) dogs. There's a single skin that... might? be a wolf, and there's two robo dog skins. There's a total of 38 skins!

Customizability: The only thing you can customize is your breed, sorry!

Other than that, theres a LOT to play with! With 5 bosses, 25 enemy/prey creatures, 1 map, 1 den, a max level of 200, a maximum family size of 4, 20 achievements, and 30 quests, there's plenty to do!

I give it a nice 8/10, the only points taken being because the game itself isnt the highest quality, and the models arent all 10/10, but it's still a really silly game! I do recommend it :)

Cat simulator - animal life: created in 2019 by Pocket Games entertainment, i think this one is pretty cute! With active multiplayer servers!!

Playable Animals: Just kitties! silly little kitties on big adventures!!

Customizability: Lots of cute skins and accessories!!!

There are tons of quests, camp upgrades, and more included in this!!

I didn't play this one for too long, but there are some pvp servers aswell. Overall really cute game, not too buggy/laggy! 10/10 :3

Wild Cougar Sim (3D): Another game made by Turbo Rocket games before their big success that was Wildcraft, Cougar Sim was created in 2015 (I think? I'm only finding the youtube trailer, dont be afraid to correct me.) I'm not seeing an option for multiplayer unfortunately :(!

Playable Animals: Yeah, It's just Cougars! What did you expect?

Customizability: With eight skins (Must be purchased with ingame currency), 9 coat marking options (Almost like tattoos!) including a Shark, Wolf, Lizard, Scorpion, Butterfly and Bird (Phoenix?), and options to change body/limb sizes, there's actually really good customization here!

With 3 unlockable family members, 30 quests, 20 achievements, 18 enemy/prey creatures, 4 biomes, and 8 dens, there is plenty to keep yourself busy with here! That accompanied by the fact that this isn't even a bad looking game, i honestly give it a nice 10/10! Very cute game, not much lag, pretty good in terms of realism, it's pretty cool!! :)

Dragon Sim Online: Yet another game made by Turbo Rocket in 2016, i quite like this one! With semi-active multiplayer servers!!

Playable Animals: Quite a few different types of Dragons, varying in element, colour, and breeds!

Customizability: With 4 elements, 46 (VERY pretty) skins, and limb/body adjustment sliders, you can customize your dragon pretty well!

Similar to both Cougar Sim and Dog Sim, Dragon Sim has plenty to offer: 30 quests, 20 achievements, 27 enemy/prey creatures, 3 bosses, 6 islands and 4[?] dens, there's plenty there to keep you busy! another 10/10 from me :)

[hansoeii]

Hello! Hope you're having a great day/night! I absolutely adore your art, you are one of my favourite artists. I love the way you shade and do backrounds. Also everytime I get into a new show I immediately see your art for it??

I was wondering if you had any advice on drawing more realistically (backrounds, anatomy etc) but still keeping a style?

Hey hey!

Thank you so much!

I have a pretty good understanding of facial structures, because before I got into drawing more semi-realisticly, I heavily focused on realistic portraits. Here are some example, these are from around 2019!

(yes, I was really into danmei and kpop back then, haha)

I just always loved drawing/painting faces and it was all I did. But at some point I realized that I wanted to do more than that because just portraits felt super restricting. So it took me around 2-3 years to somewhat find my style. Thought it would be fun to show a little timeline! Advice will follow afterwards :)

2020

I began working on my OCs in 2020 and since I didn't have an exact reference to work off of, I struggled a lot. My art from this year is super wonky.

2021

Still wonky, but the Lokius obsession was the jumpstart into finding my style! My work from this year is all over the place haha, I was experimenting a lot.

2022

This first ofmd piece is pretty much the first drawing where you can see where my style is gonna go, which I think is pretty cool! This is the year I made the biggest progress cos I was drawing SO much. These two pieces are only six months apart. The one on the right was the first time I gave drawing a background a proper go, too! It was a good year.

2023

And this is where I am now! I'm still constantly learning and improving, but I'd say I have a style you can recognize now!

Now here comes some actual advice, haha:

What I highly recommend you to do is to study your favorite artists as much as you can! I have like 5 A4 sketchbooks all from 2020 that I filled with sooooo many studies, where basically all I did was look at artists I like and copy how they draw stuff, to try and figure out how to stylize certain things. Some of my favorite artists are Ami Thompson, Velinxi and TB Choi. But I also liked to just scroll through pinterest and study all the art I came across that I liked! For example, if I saw a really great drawing of a pair of pants I would copy it many times in my sketchbook and try to learn how they stylized the folds. Doing this for a prolongued period of time will naturally improve your own work! It'll be difficult at first, but you gotta push through, it's gonna be worth it!

I also highly recommend studying unique faces to try and avoid the same-face syndrome. Find some cool looking people and try to draw them as simple as you can! Maybe even draw a little timeline where you first draw them as cartoon-y as you can, and keep going until you end up with a more detailed, realistic drawing. Maybe in the middle of it you find a step that feels the most fun to you, so you can try to build on that! It's a great way to figure out what kind of style might be the best for you.

Here are some cool faces I found on pinterest!

I have a pinterest board with many more!

One REALLY important part of learning how to draw all kinds of things is to understand forms and shapes and how to manipulate them. I have so many pages in my sketchbook filled with just shapes that I drew from all kinds of angles without any references.

This is a great video on it:

6 Ways to Draw Anything by Proko

Learning how to do this is so crucial! Young artists often think they first have to learn all kinds of detailed anatomy before doing anything else, but all that's gonna do is make you tired and hate drawing. Shapes are where it's at! Once you understand how shapes work and which ones to use for certain parts of bodies or objects, drawing is gonna get so much easier! Once you understand them, you can get into details such as muscles and bones!

And honestly the most important point is to just absolutely love what you're doing! I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for the fact that I get extreme hyperfixations on certain media that turn me into some kind of beast where I can suddenly draw 10 detailed illustrations a week, haha. Just be passionate about what you do, find something you REALLY love and go crazy!

I really hope this was somewhat helpful! My inbox is always open if there's any more questions :)

[gia-d]

Do you have any recommendations on how to learn bookbinding? It looks super cool, but I don't know where to start.

It depends on the type of bookbinding you want to get into, my focus is primarily on hardcover case bound books, so if that is what you are keen on, here are some resources that I found incredibly useful while learning:

YouTube

DAS bookbinding has a whole bunch of really detailed, professional tutorials that are incredibly useful. He covers multiple types of binds and techniques and they are all very easy to follow. (I always laugh when I watch his videos tho because he’s Aussie like me and he has the EXACT same shitty tiles in his workroom that I have in my house.)

Sea Lemon does bookbinding amongst other crafts, and while her videos are shorter and less in depth, they are very friendly for beginners and offer alternatives if you don’t have all the tools/equipment at home

Omgreylo is great for if you are doing fanbinding, she also has videos on typesetting, which is something you’ll want to learn too if you are planning on fanbinding. Her videos are also very chill and sometimes I’ll just watch them to relax because I’m a nerd.

Ingenious Designs has some really good videos on some more advanced skills like edge gilding and working with leather bound books. He’s also really charismatic so his videos are fun and informative.

I’m probably forgetting a few, but those channels have all been super useful. The other thing that I do and highly recommend is just browsing the bookbinding and fanbinding tags on tumblr, reddit and instagram to see what other people are doing. A lot of people (including myself when I finally remember to actually take pictures and record the process) will post progress photos alongside the finished project and will talk about the process. Most people are quite happy to answer any questions you might have about their projects too so don’t be afraid to ask.

Also the most important piece of advice I can give, if you are serious about bookbinding, GET YOURSELF SOME SHORT-GRAIN PAPER. It makes all the difference in terms of quality, ease of use, and durability.

Anyways if anyone else has any other resources or tips they think are useful, please feel free to add!

[izicodes]

Learning C++ | Log #1

Friday 20th October 2023

I have been studying C++ for some time now, and I'm really happy with my progress. I really thought it was a super difficult programming language (I am jinxing it right now, aren't I?), but what I mean is that even the beginner stuff would be hard. But it's not!

Two days ago, I stumbled upon a website called Saymor Academy, buried seven pages deep in Google. I decided to check out the CS107: C++ Programming course, and I'm so glad I did! I've been learning so much, and it's been a blast, especially since I'm taking the course along with my friend over on Discord teaching me C++ too.

Learning can be challenging, but it's also incredibly rewarding. Once I master the basics, I'll be able to create all sorts of amazing things. I can't wait!

In the meantime, I'm just enjoying the journey~! So if you're ever thinking about learning C++, I highly recommend checking out Saymor Academy. It's a great resource, and it's a lot of fun!

☆ What I learnt today...

History of C++

Syntax

Comments

Data types

Variables

User Input

⤷ ♡ my shop ○ my mini website ○ pinned ○ navigation ♡

[sierra-touge-bitch]

so the touge scene in los angeles is super awesome, i (the EG) went there over the weekend with my bf (the tofu 86)

another AE86 came up the mountain too, a cool treat to see

some more stories below

watching this whole group go by was like the coolest thing ever! felt like that bit in initial d first stage when the redsuns first pull up

i wish i got to take more pictures but my phone was dying. anyway, first of all? holy shit those roads are fun. very technical and the pavement is great. can definitely see why it's popular

also you can like just hang out at the top of the mountain for a bit and people will pull over and say hi and talk about the roads or your car or whatever. like maybe 5 minutes after we parked, a guy in a GR Corolla (in the first picture) came over to talk to us (it was kinda funny since he was following us at the base of the mountain but we like totally left him behind on the run up). we also talked a lot with a couple that had a GT86, a guy with a miata, and a younger dude in a BMW

all sorts of different people come up there. new cars, fancy stuff, older cars (like ours), basically every sort of sporty car was up there running the mountain

everyone up there was super cool and excited to talk to people from out of town. they were also surprised when we said our local touge roads are basically barren and we're the only ones ever up there. i also talked to another girl with an EG with a k swap, she was awesome. truly an inspiration to us women in touge

one guy in an older BMW led us on a run into the canyon and back, it taught me a lot about how to reach the limits of my car (especially that i definitely need a new radiator)

my thermostat actually ended up like sealing itself shut with some silicone that was in it so i had to get a new one the morning after. luckily it was at the end of the night, so we just pulled over and slept on the side of the road in our cars. the guy in the miata we had talked to earlier that night passed us and asked us if we were all good. reiterating, everyone up there is so fucking cool.

also apparently one of the fastest drivers in the area is a tesla? the locals just said don't mess with him

10/10 highly recommend if you're in southernish california and like driving. you'll learn SO much from just driving around with the locals. even if you don't really attack the mountain, you can talk with so many cool people about cars n shit

[vinelark]

hey hey! i love bbts so much, it makes me so happy whenever i reread it✌️one of the (many) things i love about it is the core four friendship! so i was wondering, do you have any recs for fics with fun yj dynamics?! no pressure ofc, either way i hope you have a lovely day ☺️✨

hello! so sorry this took forever! also so glad bbts makes you happy on the reread 🥰

first, some of my absolute fav core four content: coralreefskim's comics and cryptocism's comics. great art, great dialogue, great codependent friendship nightmare polycule genuinely endearing "would kill for you would live for you would save the world with you but more importantly would never let you live down that typo you made in the groupchat that one time" vibes all around.

and a few fics:

Into the Brighter Night by shoalsea

when a past enemy comes back for tim, the batfam learn a lot about tim and his young justice adventures in the fallout. this one's long and plotty and has that super compelling trope of the POV character watching an interaction where the reader is in on the jokes but the POV character isn't--basically a great sort-of-outsider POV on the core four, plus, from what i could tell, almost every other yj character at some point.

a study by bernard dowd by cv_angels

a short, hilarious fic with timber and implied future timberkon, in which tim (sort of) reveals his identity and that leads to kon and bart and cassie meeting bernard.

Lipstick on the glass by kerosceene

i'm a broken record with this one, but it's just. 🤌🤌 it starts out focused on timkon but part 2 has college-age core four halloween shenanigans. cassie has a civilian gf. bart dresses up as a meme that doesn't exist yet. kon is in the dragriculture club. tim loves his friends (and boyfriend) so much. it's just so heartwarming and good.

The Mystery of the Superboy Shirts by Aviatricks

silly oneshot with tim going full obsessive detective mode about everything but his own feelings, good yj squad dynamics, bart being a passable liar, and some timkon.

Detours by miyaji_08

i've also rec'd this one before (twice, even) but once again it fits the bill, because the core four scenes in this are so good. it's a reverse robins au where tim becomes roommates with kon and bart and cassie, who are superboy, impulse, and wonder girl but have no idea (yet) that tim has his own secret identity, too. so there's identity shenanigans with all four of them, classic reverse robins tim angst, some enemies-to-lovers and oh-my-god-they-were-roommates timkon, and a really fun final action sequence. it's part 2 of a series and i highly recommend reading part 1 first, but if you want to dive right into the core four aspects you can probably piece together the context as you go.

[shima-draws]

You blogging about One Piece Treasure Cruise is really making me want to play it…is it fun? Do you recommend? :D

FROTHING AT THE MOUTH UMMM HI YES you should get OPTC and play it it’s SO much fun. I’ve only been playing for about a month (?) or so and I’ve been having a TOTAL blast

I know that generally gacha games can be really hit or miss for a lot of people but I will highly recommend OPTC bc of the MASSIVE amounts of freebies they give out. I’ve played lots of different gacha games over the years and I’ve never seen a game give out as much freebies as OPTC has;; There’s multiple different game modes you can do and they all have different rewards where you can literally just. Choose the character you want. There’s some game modes where you can challenge the same boss over and over and get multiple of the same character to increase their level to the max. They’re stupidly generous with their rewards too like just by leveling up or beating a certain quest or doing a challenge x amount of times they’ll give you a sugo rare (basically a 6 star character, the best units in the game) for free! FOR FREEEEE!!! Also they give tons of unique rewards to rookie players as well so just by getting the game and starting it for the first time they will bury you in Stuff :)

A lot of gacha games are pay to win but honestly you don’t need to spend any money in OPTC to A. Have fun and B. Win harder challenges. It really just depends on how you build your crew and with all the free handouts you’re BOUND to get some really good recruits even at the very start. And if you don’t mind spending a little money they do have achievement packs that unlock whenever you hit a certain level, and the rewards are very generous.

Anyway coughs now that I’m done ranting about how much free shit they’ll give you the actual gameplay is a lot of fun too, like I mentioned there’s lots of different game modes but they generally all revolve around the whole building your crew thing. And a few of these game modes will reset every couple weeks and let you get new characters/rewards so things are always changing and updating! They just had an event to get a free 6 star Bonney and then super evolve her into a 6+ star with her in her Egghead outfit and like.

Bro. That’s so RUDE,,

I will say they do dump a lot on you so it can be really. Confusing and complex lol. I wouldn’t say I know the ins and outs of this game QUITE yet but I have learned a lot of things since I started playing, so if you have any questions feel free to come ask me 🥰

Also the game’s 10 year anniversary is happening (Franky voice) SUPER soon so now is a great time to start playing bc they’re definitely gonna give all the players heaps of rewards ;)

Anyway I’m totally not obsessed with OPTC can’t you tell

[shellsweet]

How do you do turtle anatomy? Do you have reference sheets that help?

This is kind of a hard question to answer! There are multiple ways to answer this, but to start here’s just a speed video of one of my recent sketches and a rough draft of how I usually begin a gesture drawing for a figure. I know I’m a visual learner, myself.

But there are a few tools I highly suggest! Some you guys have probably heard a million times!

Use references! Take a bunch of photos (of yourself or online searches), or check out professional anatomy drawings and trace over them to learn the shape language. What looks like tubes, circles, triangles, ect. The more you do this, the more you’ll start learning to break down each part of the anatomy into simple shapes to build upon.

There are also tons and tons of great anatomy drawing tutorials on YouTube!

Be messy, it helps for more expressive lines because you can always erase the excess.

Believe it or not, I also recommend just watching people draw and just studying people in real life too, build up that visual library in your head. Absorb that as much as possible to see how other people are tackling drawings, you’ll pick up all kinds of techniques.

For turtles in general, I take lots of inspiration from super hero comics/shows, the plastron (chest plate) plays a huge part for me in forming the entire figure, everything else pretty much follows after and I’m not afraid to make a ton of awkward mistakes to get where I want the figure to go.

Practice lots and don’t forget to have fun. Lord knows I’m still learning and still got a long way to go too. :)

[simlicious]

My game recommendations

I had a reblog in my drafts folder for a couple of days to keep working on it and when I was done I saw that the original poster sadly deactivated reblogs on their post. They lovingly suggested that simmers should indulge in other games too, and I couldn't agree more. It is a special feeling to dive into a new game, learn new mechanics, and have a very different experience from the last game you played. I really put a lot of work into my answer, so I decided to make a new post for it.

I'm a simmer and a gamer (simming since 2000), gaming since 1994 or so. I used to play Everquest II way back when and dabble in Elder Scrolls Online but I quit for Baldur's Gate III which has me obsessed for months now, highly enjoyable. Sims 3 has fallen a few steps on my top 10 list in recent years, but I use it as a creative outlet anyway and do not tend to judge it against other games much. I do judge Sims 4 though, which is a sad state of affairs. I can have fun in it if I spend the time in CAS, or for the first 6 hours in a new expansion - but it's just too expensive for its little value, especially compared to other games on this list.

City Builder/Automation games:

Factory Town: super chill cozy vibe, automate logistics for your pixel-people town. Lovely game

Timberborn: build a town for cute beavers!

Farthest Frontier: a nice city simulation with some logistics and events such as raiders invading the town

Satisfactory: one of the most ambitious automation games, with amazing graphics, for people who like to puzzle, analyze/calculate, and really use their heads while gaming. I like to play it as a challenge and see how far I can take my spaghetti conveyor belts!

Frostpunk: a harrowing/grim atmosphere, dystopian, make hard choices for your town

Simulation games:

Roller Coaster Tycoon and Planet Coaster: I love building super scary rollercoasters and then riding them and trying to get people in the park to ride them too

Strategy games:

Anno 1800: I can spend my entire life in this game it feels, it is engaging and relaxing all at once - love this so much!

Action/adventure games:

Assassins Creed Origins: stunning world, super detailed visuals and fun combat mechanics

Scifi/Exploration

No Man's Sky: At first I thought this was more of a casual game, but prepare for a lot of grinding and long-ish quests. It is fun to discover new plants/creatures and name them!

Survival games:

Raft: great to play with friends too and it has a relaxed vibe but also survival mechanics that keep you engaged

The Long Dark: I love the art style and music so much, the story mode is great, the survival mode can be very challenging depending on settings and it is super immersive. Wrap yourself in a warm blanket to play 😂

Subnautica: my favorite game ever before Baldur's Gate 3 dethroned it! It is a game that will guide you to leave your comfort zone time and time again, but you choose when you feel ready for it. You can really follow your own pace and exploring the vast, beautiful, and terrifying depths of this ocean planet is absolutely immersive and filled with surprise and wonder. It has also very chill and calm base-building elements to counteract the scarier moments. The soundtrack is one of the best in terms of evoking feelings/ building atmosphere, do not turn off the sound while playing this game!!!

Storytelling games:

Life is Strange: a classic, it's fun to explore what we could change and what the consequences would be if we could go back in time.

Firewatch: very emotional and touching, leaving a lasting impression

Casual games:

Bridge Constructor Portal (the dark humor is a bonus, it's fun and trains your analytical thinking!)

Carcassonne (like the tabletop game, chill puzzle game)

Simulacra (you uncover a mystery on a phone, interesting idea!)

Retro Games:

My favorite old/retro game would be Black & White (from 2001), which I played when it originally came out, I loved it so much! The free camera was revolutionary at the time. You play a god who is powered by worshippers whom you can either provide and care for or reign terror over, and your actions decide your alignment, good, neutral, or evil. You get a creature that you can train (and will be more or less useful to your goals or disrupt them depending on how well you train it). IIRC, you can train the creature either in the story mode or sandbox/skirmish mode and then go back to story mode with a stronger creature. The mouse gestures which activate miracles in the air felt like a revolutionary new idea back then. The game is not available officially anymore, but it is downloadable from some abandonware websites and the community-made patches so it is still playable today! Writing this, I had to reinstall it right away... the nostalgia!

RPGs:

Cyberpunk 2077: it's just iconic, the city energy and car drives are nice, the story is interesting and it feels immersive

The Witcher 3: great quests and story, beautifully crafted open world

Baldur's Gate 3: I could also talk for hours about Baldur's Gate 3. If there is one game out there that everyone should have tried once in their life, it's that one. It really lets you try any strategy you want and did not actually expect to work in a video game, but in BG3, it does. Even cheaty ones like pushing enemies from a cliff or using explosives to blow stuff up. If you got surprise-attacked but have no weapon handy, you can throw a grease bottle at the enemy that can make them slip and fall, and then you can throw your burning torch at it to light everything on fire. You can stack boxes to climb up to reach something (or throw a goblin body onto someone's head, because it's perfectly normal to carry those around with you). You can be sneaky and steal stuff, even rewards from enemies. Don't like fighting? You can talk your way out of most fights if your character has the necessary skills and still complete quests that way. 95% of NPCs have something to say, and if you click them again, they will have another line. The narrator is awesome. The companions have so much character, the banter is great and every character has its own story arc and goal, the voice acting is phenomenal all around. Definitely get the talk-to-animals skill and use it on all animals, you'll have hilarious conversations! It's worth every penny, even if it's not on sale (and I hardly ever buy a game at full price, so that is saying a lot). Thanks for reading, I hope you feel inspired to try some new games! Have fun 😊

[sleepy-hart]

So while working through game concepts and deciding what to work on next, I've been refreshing my Godot skills. Wanting to get back into 3D and prepare for doing more narrative heavy games. Made this demo to learn nathanhoad's excellent Dialogue Manager addon and also test drive Kenney's new Godot platformer kit.

I'm really, really enjoying Dialogue Manager so far and feel it has a tonne of potential. Think it covers a lot of things I've been looking for:

Direct engine integration is super useful, as well as using custom resources to store dialogue. They're also text files so can still use external editor to update

Straightforward syntax, reminds me a lot of ink and yarn. As well it's named node approach feels familiar

Able to access global game variables for conditionals, and having conditional based loops and choices is very straightforward

Also able to call methods directly within dialogue, which is super powerful when combined with signals (showing/hiding coin UI mid conversation, playing sound effect)

Lots of options for random dialogue choices - just used the single line ones for now but in docs have seen they also have option for setting custom probabilities, just ncie to add more flavour

Hyped it has a built in approach for translations (create IDs and reference CSVs) that looks like integrates with Godot's localisation tools - a bit of a future thought but glad it has stuff to help built in

Docs you can mention you can create dialogue resources at runtime. Can imagine this being very useful - an example would be creating a record of all lines seen to replicate Ren-py's "log" feature.

The methods for displaying dialogue are super flexible. At the moment just used their example balloons but looks like it should play nicely to let you build custom GUI - and maybe even multiple forms (e.g. dialogue scenes vs flavour barks in main game world). Think next experiments will focus on this.

There's a few more things I'm keen to learn and see if they're feasible with this - "disabled" choices that still appear but can't be accessed would be nice, also looking at how you can integrate this with an audio system for voice acting - I think they have an example that includes voice acting?

Only thing I'm a bit nervous of is it looks like it can only grab variables from autoload/global scripts, so when putting into actual game will need to take care with save systems and methods for loading choice variables into a choice master global so we aren't keeping too much in memory at once. But if I'm wrong on this assumption, or others have approaches, more than happy to be corrected on this!

Also really enjoying Kenney's 3D platformer kit and it's been fun and . Making the shopkeeper bot was super simple. All the details on the original character model are modelled so just adjusted the face and for changing colours just had to move UV islands for limbs and face to different parts of the pallete textures.

Haven't tried this technique for modelling and texturing before but seen it crop up a few times so will definitely experiment with this in the future. Also might help with optimization - I think most of the materials in the pack refer to this single image texture? By default the pack only has the model glbs and a single colormap png so assuming that's how it's working.

Original plan was to fill in the shop with another pack so there's a few little platform challenges within this, but they all needed collisions adding so might add that in future. But main aim was focusing on the dialogue and think we've got a good approch going forward, and highly recommend the add on for other Godot devs making narrative games!

[knee-stockings]

So I’ve been listening to lots of podcasts at work lately to break up the monotony of my office job. Mainly they’re horror, suspense/thriller, drama, that kind of thing. Trying to give ratings without spoilers~

(Check out updated pod recs here)

The Left Right Game (a journalist investigating an urban legend that gets increasingly more dangerous as they go): 5/5, this being one of the first ones I listened to set the bar really high tbh, it was great, immersive sound design, genuinely suspenseful and creepy moments, interesting plot, my only gripe is that I didn’t love the ending but I couldn’t dock a star just for that, highly recommend, maybe I’ll retire to Wintry Bay someday 

Alice Isn’t Dead (delivery trucker goes searching for her believed dead wife, comes across supernatural towns and creatures and a conspiracy that goes way deeper than one missing woman): 5/5, so so good, enjoyed a lot, I loved learning the truth about the Thistle men, still don’t completely understand oracles but that’s okay, some delightfully creepy moments, this will be high on my recommendation list (also it’s by the Welcome to Night Vale people, which I actually haven’t listened to lmao)

Harley Quinn and the Joker: Sound Mind (it’s a Harley Quinn origin story basically): 5/5, very enjoyable, sound design great, plot was fun, I don’t know how accurate this story is to the original Harley Quinn origin story but I liked this a lot

The Burned Photo (two women try to fight a familial curse haunting their bloodlines): 4/5, not bad at all, I thought the sound design was great and immersive but I thought the monster’s voice was a bit goofy idk, the plot wasn’t bad though ofc it was pretty bittersweet and sad in the end, tho I think it was never going to be happy for everyone involved

Blackwood (group of teens investigate the town urban legend and uncover more than they bargained for): I can’t decide…3.5 maybe? It was okay. I didn’t love it or hate it, I’m pretty neutral about it. It was interesting enough

Gaslight (girl goes missing and then reappears to her best friend years later with little explanation): 3/5, feels like there should be another season, wasn’t as dramatic/suspenseful as I thought it would be (maybe that’s my own fault tho, from the description and stuff I thought there would be more to it)

Ice-Cream (teens suspect the friendly neighborhood ice cream man of abducting little kids and uncover a dark secret): 4.5/5, interesting and a lil creepy, there’s something oddly funny about hearing someone scream “fuck you Beelzebub” even in context, sound design is pretty good and voice acting is great, finale was also pretty good but I’m docking half a star bc of that very last bit and bc I said so, overall short n’ sweet, no pun intendo (I’m kinda glad that it’s only the one season and not super long, gives the feeling of not overstaying its welcome. Also in awe that they made it within like a month, gonna go listen to their other podcast Cascadia too)

Cascadia (submarine expedition to uncharted waters, gone wrong, we almost died!?): 5/5, by the Ice-Cream people so I expected great sound design and voice acting and said expectations were met tbh, yes god love the drama, ocean depths are inherently scary to me so this is top tier horror, season one was chef’s kiss beautiful and I heard season 2 is coming so I’ll be waiting eagerly for that

Listening now:

Within the Wires (season 1 is relaxation cassette tapes from another world, season 2 is a guided museum tour I think): also by the WTNV people, interesting so far, the plot that unfolded in the first season was cool to watch as it played out, but also I am so sad. I like it so far

Rabbits (girl goes searching for her friend who disappeared because of this mysterious Rabbits game): feels like a really slow start after a few episodes, I kinda wanna get to more action soon please

Wake of Corrosion (apocalypse where characters are trying to find other survivors and also answers): mild shrug, not sure what to make of it just yet. Only like 2 episodes in so I think I need to give it a bit

Ars Paradoxica (scientist accidentally invents time travel and is thrown back to the 1940s): pretty interesting so far, science is fun 

Spoiler comment for Cascadia under the cut bc it's the one I just finished and I have Thoughts

As much as I enjoyed Cascadia, when I think about the expedition for more than 2 seconds I get confused. Not the whole alien thing, that’s fine, it’s Badger and Maria and their ulterior motives. Why in the world did Badger spend millions of dollars to make a submarine that’s faulty on purpose? And there was so much media coverage around it so the second something went wrong reporters were practically beating him over the head with microphones, so why risk so much bad press? Plus sacrificing three other talented divers who trusted him with their lives??? That’s the most confusing to me. There’s no way Badger foresaw them getting attacked underwater and losing Declan alone, so he must have been fully prepared to lose captain AND crew. Holden said that he saw Badger as a father, and yet he chose Holden to die? He said he handpicked them, so what did Holden, Alia, or Iris ever do to him to deserve being sent on a suicide mission? Doing all this just to get rid of Declan and be with Maria doesn’t feel right. Feels like there should be something more there. Tldr: surely Badger had another reason for conducting the suicide mission, right? Also since season 2 starts with Lila all grown up, a diver just like her father, I wanna know her opinions of her mother and of Badger. Did she learn about her mother’s betrayal? Is Badger still involved in funding deep sea diving or did the FBI take him out of that? Omg who’s the father of her little sibling…I’m so curious…

[unrealwasteland]

Roosmav fic recs: G and T rated

Explicit fics get a lot of love in this fandom, but there are also many amazing fics with lower ratings, and I made this rec list to highlight some of my favorites. As always, I'm trying to include a little positive note on each fic, and I hope it doesn't get too repetitive because there are only so many ways to say I absolutely loved something.

No archive warnings apply to any of these fics.

live with me forever now by apfelhalm 700 words, G, no archive warnings apply magical realism

"Wow", Mav chuckles, "65, can you believe that?" "You don't look a day older than 60," Rooster says, but what he really thinks is: 50, more like. His own temples and mustache have been starting to turn grey a couple of years ago, but Mav's hair is still jetblack. Maverick may or may not be immortal.

This is a wonderful little ficlet. Technically an AU, but it definitely feels like it could be canon.

out in the wide open plane by Lacerta 3k, G, no archive warnings apply canon divergence: aircraft mechanic Bradley, accidental confession, reconciliation

He didn’t expect they’d run into each other, not like this, not here, in the middle of nowhere in the Mojave Desert. One reason why he took this post in the first place was the luxury of not working with hotheaded fighter pilots. The main appeal is still the birds, of course – the state of the art jets, fastest to ever exist. From the day he joined his first aeronautics class, Bradley knew working on cutting-edge aircrafts was his real dream come true. He should’ve known Maverick would be enticed by their allure, too. * When Bradley talks to himself in the empty hangar, he's sure Darkstar is the only one listening to his confession.

This is very beautifully written. The accidental confession scene means the world to me.

half of my heart by plingo_kat 4k, T, no archive warnings apply post-canon, getting together

As a kid, Mav always seemed larger than life. Whenever Bradley would see him he’d always have a new story, some cool activity to do, be appearing at the door with a kiss on the cheek for his mother and slinging his leather jacket onto an only lightly occupied coat hook along the hall. And during the mission training, he’d flown circles around the best pilots Rooster knew, himself included. It was only after they’d been released from medical, poked and prodded and provided with various compression braces and pills, that he gets to learn Mav the man: someone who lives alone in the desert and likes it, who can be the life of the party but can also spend days saying nothing at all except the occasional soft endearment to his machines.

Lovely and really well written. I adore the characterizations in this one.

Blood is thicker than water, but blood is even stronger by Fuddlewuddle 1.5k, T, no archive warnings apply post-canon, fluff, sharing a bed

Mav and Bradley are at a hotel and have to share a bed. It's everything Bradley wants but not sure he's allowed to have.

This is super sweet. Lovely take on the "only one bed" trope.

the first four knuckles by thekookster 6.5k, T, no archive warnings apply background relationships, pov outsider, character study

eighteen, twenty-two, twenty-five, twenty-nine, thirty-three— and the question remains: who is Bradley Bradshaw, really?

This is an incredibly well written Bradley-centric fic. The last chapter especially is a work of art.

some bunny to love by notyourwinter 4k, T, no archive warnings apply shapeshifter au, crack treated seriously

He'd asked his mother once, when he was a kid, why it felt so much easier to be a rabbit sometimes, rather than human, and she hadn't had an answer. She just gathered him up in her arms and said, "I know it's hard to be different, sweetheart. But you're my Bradley bun, and I love you." It's Top Gun: Maverick, except sometimes Rooster is a bunny.

Amazing take on such a cracky premise. This is cute and fun and I highly recommend reading it.

The next 3 fics have been included on my previous rec lists, but they deserve to get mentioned again:

Coffee Corner by Brenda 4.5k, T, no archive warnings apply coffee shop au, fluff and humor

"Wow." Bradley's future husband frowns — very attractively — as he grabs an apron and puts it on, deftly tying it in the back. "Wow?" "Shit, did I say...sorry." Bradley wants to sink right into the ground. "I'm not...you're real, right?" Because Bradley's pretty sure he's still asleep and having the best dream of his life.

The 'fluff and humor' tag is on point – this is a really fun and heartwarming fic.

I can't promise you anything, but I can tell you I'll never leave by othersideofthis 6.5k, T, no archive warnings apply western au

“Didn’t think you’d show your face around here again,” is the first thing Pete says when Rooster turns up at the ranch. Not “hello,” not “how you doing.” Not “don’t you know it’s been 15 years and I’ve thought about you every day.” No.

I love western AUs and this is really good. Perfect example of how to include canon elements in an AU setting.

can't start a fire without a spark by hazelmotes 5.5k, T, no archive warnings apply 5+1 things, crack treated seriously

Five times the people around Maverick and Rooster thought what is with these two? and one time they didn't have to. In which there is scheming, reminiscing, wagers, long-suffering sighs, sex toys, and Springsteen. Always, always Springsteen.

This fic was a lot of fun to read, and the different POVs in this are super well written.

[ghostinthegallery]

One Year Fanfic Anniversary!

It is officially one year since I posted my first 40k fic on AO3 and really started putting myself out there in the online community (parts of it anyway). And I wanted to do a bit of a retrospective. Some stuff I learned about writing, fanfic, fandom etc.

it is much easier to start writing once you let go of wanting to get everything 100% “correct.” Characters, setting whatever. People don’t care nearly as much as your inner critic thinks. Or if they do…you can just disagree. It’s fanfic, playing around with ideas and interpretations is the point

i started writing with original work so transitioning to fanfic was a shift. But the things i learned about pacing novels are still invaluable. If you really want to level up your writing, definitely study how novels and short stories are structured

that said structuring a long fic is different from structuring the novel. Chapter releases mean each section almost becomes a short story in and of itself. This also means things get way longer than you expect (rip my word count)

referring back to the original texts often is 1) fun 2) helps you notice things you didn’t before and 3) helps prevent the spread of fandom misinformation. Cite your sources! Especially in Warhammer, our fandom infosphere is a mess

I don’t let the comments drive where my story goes in the broad sense, but they do influence certain details. It’s fun being surprised by what/who readers latch onto. And occasionally a comment has reminded me of something that exists I totally forgot about/didn’t even know. So I look super smart if I pretend that was my intention all along :D

Something should change between the beginning of the scene and the end. Internally or externally or both, something should be different

people did not bash me in the head with the judgement hammer when i decided to publish smut. This has been very liberating. Perhaps too liberating XD

smut is a great way to practice writing short stories. Sex has a clear arc (set up, build up, climax, come down), it is a great space for character exploration, it necessarily involves relationships between characters. and you only need a few scenes (often only one scene) so it stays short. This has been great practice as someone who could not write a short story to save my life

idk if this has mattered but i feel not allowing anonymous comments on AO3 has saved me a lot of grief.

carving out a small fandom space is the way to go. Curate your feed. Block liberally. Don’t engage with people who annoy you, it is not worth it

reblogging and interacting in the comments has been an awesome way to meet people. Highly recommend

Encouraging other people (especially newer creators) to create gets you more art so definitely do that (kindly of course)

robots really are sexy

[omg-physics]

Worm Bin Tutorial

Disclaimer: the information I’m giving is based on my own personal experience and research. Some of the things that work for me may not work in a different setup. If you’re interested in learning more, I’d highly recommend the book “Worms Eat My Garbage” by Mary Appelhof.

Why have a worm bin?

It’s a great way to dispose of organic matter while minimizing methane emissions! Landfills aren’t set up for aerobic decomposition, so food scraps in landfills often give off a ton of methane emissions when decomposing, which is a pretty potent greenhouse gas! Also, worm castings are an excellent fertilizer/mulch/soil amendment.

A worm bin is super low-maintenance once you figure out what you are doing. It doesn’t smell bad and can be kept indoors—I keep mine by my desk in the winter! And I think it’s pretty fun. Also, your trash won’t smell as bad when it isn’t full of rotting food!

Making the Worm Bin

Really what you need here are two containers. One of them you put a bunch of holes in, and that sits inside the other container. The holes are important because they allow for drainage of water (which is then caught by the external container) and diffusion of oxygen. I used some kitty litter buckets for this, and they work great! The lid is really useful.

Pro-tip: you don’t need a drill to make the holes. If you have a knife or razor blade, you can press it into the plastic and rotate it, which makes nice, round holes.

The bin with holes in it sits inside the other bin, but there should be space for water drainage/collection and air permeation.

Worms

The worms you want in general are “red wrigglers” or Eisenia fetida. These are sometimes sold as bait worms, but in my experience the “red worms” are actually European Nightcrawlers (labeled “ENC”). Those can also work, but they prefer different conditions from red wigglers (I believe they live deeper in the soil) so they might not be as successful. You also need a lot of worms to start out with, like a pound of worms. I had the best success going to a local vermiculture business and getting a pound of mixed worms (red wigglers, European night crawlers, and Indian blues). I think the mix is useful since having a couple different species makes the bin more resilient.

Note: buying local is really beneficial here. When worms are sold online and shipped, the sellers “dehydrate” them a bit to help lower weight and prevent overheating. The worms will be perfectly healthy after you give them moist bedding again, but you’re going to miss out on bacteria and other beneficial critters that could come with the worms if they are fresh.

Setting up the Bin

An important thing I have learned from experience: you can’t just put food and worms in a bin and expect things to work. You also need bedding. Bedding is filler material, like newspaper or coconut coir. I mostly use newspaper I buy from a local vermiculture business. I tried ripping my own paper and once it got wet it turned into a solid layer, whereas the pre-ripped newspaper I buy has a fluffy consistency.

I’ve also tried using peat moss as bedding, but that didn’t work so well—I got a huge spike in the more population (maybe from acidic conditions?). Peat moss also isn’t great for the environment in general.

The bedding is important because worms shouldn’t eat too much food or too much of their own poop (castings) as both are bad for them. Bedding should be topped off when possible. When you add food to the bin, use a shovel to bury it in the bedding. This helps things rot properly, prevents mold and bad smells, and keeps away critters like fruit flies.

Other Critters

Your worm bin can and should have other critters in it! Some in my bin include mites and springtails, who both help the worms break down organic matter. However, there should be a balance between other critters and the worms. If something appears to be taking over, you might have a problem. I’ve also had fruit flies in my bin—this didn’t end up being a huge problem as long as I only opened the lid of the bin outdoors.

Worm Bin Maintenance

Once you get going, the worm bin doesn’t require much maintenance. I keep a freezer bag in my freezer and fill it up with food scraps, and once it seems the worms are mostly finished with the last feeding, I’ll thaw the bag and feed them again. (Freezing is helpful because it’s a convenient way to preserve the scraps, but it also helps to kickstart breaking down, since freezing damages things.) Be careful not to over-feed the worms, as this can lead to a sour bin and/or string-of-pearls (which is a pretty disturbing worm ailment).

Also be careful of what you feed the worms. You can look up lists of dos and donts online, but in general, stick to plant matter, and don’t feed them aromatic herbs or citrus. Also make sure to feed the worms plenty of crushed eggshells, as this provides grit and halos to regulate the pH of the worm bin.

The worms should be kept in a location with temperatures that are comfortable to humans. They don’t do well if conditions are too cold or too warm.

Make sure to dump out any water that accumulates and add bedding when it’s needed. I use this to water plants, and I haven’t had any negative effects, but some people will say you shouldn’t do that.

Once the bin starts to get full, you can remove worm castings. There are fancy ways to do this, but I just dig through the bin and scoop out any areas that are nearly all worm castings and then remove any worms/eggs that are in the castings by hand. The castings can be mixed in with potting soil or used on top like a mulch. (Although be careful: Ive heard worms are an invasive species in some areas so check before you potentially introduce them to the ground.)

Conclusions

So that’s it! If you want more information, I encourage you to do your own research. Although try to seek out multiple sources—not all the information out on the internet (or even in books) has been properly vetted. I can also try my best to answer questions based on my own experience, but I’m still relatively new at this.