#mmm-dev

[chattercap]

MindMindMind Postmortem - Exploring Social Anxiety (with a hot British ghost)

Hello everyone, it's Chattercap!

I'm honestly flabbergasted and incredibly touched that so many people have not only given MindMindMind a try, but also left such kind thoughts and comments! (The game has been out for just over a month and has received well over half the plays and ratings of my most popular game, which has been out for almost a YEAR at this point…)

I first came up with the idea for the game last year, when I was working my 2023 Otome Jam project, Karamu! I was chatting with my friend lenlen (who is a wonderful dev who makes games that are even more heartfelt than MMM, please give them a try!) when I came up with the idea of "what if anxiety…was a yandere?" (I mostly proposed this because len is not the biggest fan of yans, haha!) It was mainly a joke, but the more I thought about it the more I liked the concept.

At first when I thought about anxiety, I thought I would make him a very creepy, scary person. Maybe someone like Sadako from the Ring: someone who just tries to terrify you for no reason. But then I reconsidered the concept. After all, we don’t feel anxiety for no reason, do we? Anxiety isn’t just out to make our lives harder. In fact, it derives from gut instincts that are supposed to help our survival: fear about fitting in, fear about the future, etc. So I came up with Geist: a well-dressed, well-intentioned, over-protective man that ruins your life with his presence. He’s cruel, but he “means well”—after all, if he’s not a little mean, you won’t really understand, will you?

As a definitive answer for “what is Geist?” Geist is, of course, at least partially a metaphor for anxiety. However, he’s also meant to reflect an abusive relationship, one where the abuser isolates you and makes you dependent on them. He’s somewhat based on toxic friendships that I’ve had in the past with people who casually put me down and encouraged my isolating behavior (maybe because it made them feel better about themselves, or maybe because they wanted to make sure that I always had time for them, and no one else).

However, if you do want a “not strictly metaphorical answer,” here’s the canon one: Geist was a child who attended your middle school many years ago. At the time, he was socially awkward and ostracized from his peers, and he died at an early age. Since then, he haunted the school, not quite able to overcome his regrets of never experiencing real friendship—and when he saw you, he recognized a kindred spirit. He grew attached to you and started haunting you, offering you “advice” based on his own experiences. He’s convinced that being alone is better for you (and he’s afraid that you’ll no longer need him).

As for Kalei, I really did want him to be the perfect guy to get the MC’s anxious butt out of their shell. He’s chill and outgoing; he never judges you or takes things too seriously. He’s rabidly nerdy about the exact same things that you’re nerdy about. But at the same time, he has anxieties of his own. He grew up on the islands, and college is the first time he’s ever spent a long time away from home. He quickly found a close friend group at university, but he doesn’t quite click with them, not completely. He worries about how he acts sometimes, and he doesn’t want to come across as overbearing. I think that when you’re anxious, it’s easy to focus on yourself: you’re the weirdest one in the room, everyone is looking at you because of how strange you are. But everyone gets nervous, even outgoing guys like Kalei. Everyone struggles sometimes. (You’re not alone, even if it feels like it, haha!)

MindMindMind is a little different from what I usually put out, partially because it's so mired in my own experience. It’s obviously not a 1:1, and the protagonist differs from myself in some fairly significant ways, but a lot of the thoughts and insecurities presented are thoughts that I’ve had in the past. It was a little strange, delving into my “old self” like this. In some ways, it was like standing in the mind of a stranger, but in other ways, it felt like I hadn’t changed at all. Writing Kalei’s ending was quite cathartic—that’s what I wish would happen. I wish that anxiety was a guy, standing in front of me, so that I could tell him to leave me the hell alone. But it’s not, and the process of overcoming anxiety isn’t that clean. Some days are good, and some days are bad. Some days you can see how far you’ve come, and some days it feels like you’ve been standing in place for months. But…it gets better. And it’s going to be all right.

I’ve got quite a few projects lined up this year! I’ll admit that my games are pretty varied in terms of genre and concept, but they’ve all got my “flair” to them, so I hope they’re enjoyable nonetheless! My next project is Actala: The Hero’s Shadow, a big fantasy/mystery romance game set in a magical world rife with political strife. After that, I’ve got 3-5 projects lined up for the rest of 2024 (fingers crossed that I can get most of them done). I have two yandere projects, Hanasu - the last part of the Karamu trilogy about a girl’s clingy ex-boyfriend, and an unnamed fantasy themed game featuring…a female LI this time! Get ready for some toxic yuri shenanigans! The project that is most similar(?) to MindMindMind is planned for winter! It’s a contemporary drama that also deals with issues of mental health (and particularly with suicidal ideation); it’ll center around themes of mortality. It’s a ways off so I’m not quite ready to formally announce it, but if you’re interested in seeing updates (about this or any of my other projects), I post most of my major announcements on here and Twitter. I also post frequently on my Patreon with sketches, writing snippets, sneak peeks, high resolution art, and weekly devlogs.

Thank you again to everyone who supported this project - the beta testers, the VAs who collaborated with me, my game dev friends, and, of course, the players. I hope to see you again for another project!

Chattercap

[faeyun]

okay hehe what is you guys dream eiffel tower?? mine personally is sunghoon and dev patel

[louroth]

Leith :]

[timperi-fan]

I love your peri and timmy fanfic so muchhhh!!! 💓💓💓 always shy to comment tho but I'm always here, reading each amazing chapter that comes out ✨✨✨✨

Aw, thank you!! If you're too shy to comment, you can always leave anon messages like these :) I appreciate them a bunch!

I wish I had a good progress update on the next chapter, but I'm kinda struggling with it so I've been letting it sit. That, and I've been thinking a lot about another little mini-series I might start posting. (It's Anti-Cosmo/Timmy, teehee.)

But, for your kind words, here's a snippet :)

“Then I can move on to phase two: getting revenge on Peri and his worthless boyfriend.” “I couldn’t agree mor— Wait.” Irep cut himself off abruptly, eyes widening. “What did you just say?” “Uh…” Dev frowned. “I was talking about getting revenge on Peri. You know, for constantly lying to me and ignoring me?” “No no no, no.” Irep shook his square head. He was still smiling, but it had taken on an almost manic edge. Combined with the intensity in his eyes, Dev had to fight the instinct to take a step back as Irep drifted closer to him. “After that. You said Peri and his boyfriend?” “Uh, yeah.” Dev deflated some, though his frown remained. “What about it?” Irep’s smile didn’t change. “Are you sure you’re using that word correctly? Surely, you mean a boy who’s a friend, don’t you?” “Uh, no. I’m not stupid.” Dev rolled his eyes. “I’ve seen them kissing.” There was a barely noticeable twitch of Irep’s eyebrow. “Is that so?” 

[soupspkmncorner]

think im going to restart pokemon x today or soon because i have an idea involving miss miku

[covertleathers]

I'm always thinking about the devs' deliberate decision to give Davrin these incredibly gentle doe eyes. They gave him GIGANTIC DEER EYES (lucanis voice: like halla, you see?). Like, I love how intentional every bit of his design is to portray these 'contradicting' elements of gentle man and rigorous hunter. mmm i love him

[hoes4matthew]

chris blurb !!

vibrator / fingering (m) / sub!chris

"and- and um- i-..also- oh fuck!" Chris' legs began to shake both from your fingers very quickly moving in and out of him, hitting that spot each time, along with a vibrator running up and down his dick. Loud high pitched moans coming out of his mouth.

"i- I went- shit ...too 7/11...b- but t- mnh- the machine was broken..'' He manged to stutter out. The poor boy barely even got his words out without moaning between each one. His eyes rolled back.

"mhm. Keep telling me 'bout your day." You said with a teasing tone. You turn up the vibrator more, your fingers hitting just the right spot as your curled them. You smirked at him as he squirmed around with tears in his eyes.

"mmm I.." He cut himself off with a moaned. Both your hands got faster, causing his hips to lift up off the bed he whole body trembling slightly from pleasure.

"fuck! Mommy!!" He nearly screamed out. There was no doubt his brothers didn't hear him, but he didn't care by now. Pathicly whimpering and moaning out your name..

"shh..do you want people to hear how pathetic you are for me? For my fingers." He quickly shook his head, biting down on his bottom lip hard. Doing his absolute best too muffled his moans.

"mmn! c- gonna- ah!" He whines, his attachment too stay quite failing almost immediately. As his back arches off the back cum spurtee out his dick and onto his stomach and your hand. He panted heavily, his hand going to your wrist as you didn't stop your fingers nor the vibrator.

"no..no- too much... please incant take it.'' He rasped out, gripping onto your wrist. Tears rolled down his eyes, his legs closing around your hand.

You just giggled at him before pulling away, turning off the vibrator in sliding your fingers off of him. His breathing was heavy as his head feel backwords, his legs still shaking and his body trembling.

"holy shit."

@br4ttyeilish @dev-sturns @1c3b4th @fratboychrisera

[ceroro]

The second bat to the heavens dev log ( but its mostly rambles actually ) READ HERE!! :

mmm yes

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

all the fanarts of yuu and grim supporting ace through his um awakening as well as ace casting his UM as of late has been making me go crazy 🥹 theyre all so tender and all so beautiful we're getting fed.

And them finally giving us a clearer picture of ace's insecurities is just so?? The build up and the pressure and then the internal monologue where everything comes crashing down when hes forced to face just how weak he is. I really liked that this part of him has finally been explored by the devs waaah.

I also really love how he parallels yuu in a way, the both of them being this "ordinary" person, the both of them lacking the power to protect those whom they care for. Usually yuu takes a step back and the story focuses more on the dynamic of the boys with each other and letting the yuu kinda be like this player self insert but as if late the story seems to be putting a lot of emphasis on yuu's importance and impact on ace which feels like something twst or games in general wouldnt normally do? Because it feels like it makes a chara particularly close to a neutral character and potentially being unfair for other charas duo that others may like idk how to explain it

Im kinda curious as to your thoughts on this, or more specifically ace and yuu's dynamic over the course of the story from their first meeting up to now. Cuz yuu feels like a person or place where ace turns to for reassurance and protection/comfort in a way, like their very existence gives him courage to push forward

[More about Ace’s UM here!]

d hi issgusJkaja I-I haven’t been scrolling on socials the last few weeks so I had the chance to see much fan art (other than what friends have shown me) 😭 but I’m sure it’s very tasty content!!

Yeeeah, I was waiting on the devs to finally get around to addressing Ace’s insecurities. in book 5, we had a brief mention of being being shocked Deuce got his UM before he did, then he was out of commission in book 6, and finally early in book 7 he deflected from the idea of Yuu going back to their original world. Suffice it to say, they addressed both the UM and the Yuu issues so well; it was really heart wrenching to see Ace in denial in his own dream and then struggling with his self confidence in Riddle’s dream. No more cocky attitude and brazenness, ahahah… only vulnerability 😈

Yuu is the one to calm him down when he’s panicking. The one giving him encouragement, the one holding his hand/shoulders (you get an option for this), the one talking him through this overwhelming feeling. That’s so powerful… It says a lot about their bond with their friend.

I love that Ace gets his moment. The first NRC student we met is the final one to get his unique magic—a magic he is able to take hold of, despite his doubts, thanks to Yuu’s reassurance and coaching. The first encounter was the domino that led up to this. First enemies, then friends. Through thick and thin, trials and tribulations, together until the bitter end. And when you think about it, they’re similar in their insecurities too. Worried that they’re not enough, that they’re ordinary, that they don’t contribute as much as they should, that they can’t protect the people they care about. It’s a great parallel, and that really slots in nicely with Twst’s recurring themes and imagery of characters mirroring each other.

Mmm… I think I understand what you’re getting at? Because Yuu is a self-insert type of character, you’re saying it is odd that Ace specifically has been getting a lot of screen time and bonding with Yuu compared to what the other characters get with Yuu. And that it’s giving Ace stans (and yumes) more fanservice than stans of other characters, so it may feel a little unfair? If I’m understanding you correctly 😅

I think that’s kind of hard to judge, honestly. Ace got like zero involvement in book 6 and was not that important for the latter half of book 5. One could argue all this attention in book 7 is just making up for what he didn’t have in prior books. You could also say that it makes sense for Ace to get more of the spotlight given his importance in the prologue, how “the guy that begins it all also ends it all”, and his well-established relationship with Yuu. To go even further, some might point out that other characters like Malleus get this “special treatment” too. Yuu barely gets any time to bond with the OB boys one-on-one, but they get to be Malleus’s secret buddy for most of the main story (even if they technically only physically meet around 5 times total). I don’t take issue with how Ace was handled; this was a long time coming and he deserved it. It’s not like other characters didn’t also get their moments in other parts of the game or events or what have you 🤷‍♀️

While I definitely think Yuu’s friendship is very precious to Ace, I wouldn’t go so far as to say “Yuu feels like a person or place where Ace turns to for reassurance and protection/comfort in a way, like [Yuu’s] very existence gives [Ace] courage to push forward.” I think that’s stretching it a bit. Maybe it’s somewhat true for book 7, since Ace centers his happiness around Yuu’s presence and seizes the courage to charge in with his newly acquired UM after Yuu cheers him on. However, I never got the sense that Ace thought of them as a source of comfort and courage prior to book 7. For a large part of the main story I just got the sense he was a misbehaved idiot with a heart of gold.

Ace bullies Yuu at first and then becomes a reluctant ally when their interests align (ie not getting expelled) in the prologue. Yuu grants him temporary housing in book 1 and supports him as he tries to earn his way back into the dorm and then even as he resists Riddle’s rule. Ace goes pretty far to defend his own stance, but arguably also Yuu’s honor, as I believe he rushes in to punch his dorm leader when he insults Yuu’s lack of education. He joins the investigation but doesn’t really help much in book 2. The he assists in fulfilling Azul’s deal to save Ramshackle and the anemone’d students in book 3. There’s also the infamous scene where he jokes about sleeping in the same room together. He is gone for most of book 4, but makes a long and tedious trip back (with Deuce) to address Yuu’s SOS message. Ace is a VDC/SDC participant and has that whole dilemma with Deuce getting bis UM before he does. In book 6, he is knocked out fighting Ferrymen and tearfully reunites with his friends at the end of the book. Early in 7, he is quick to dismiss the idea of Yuu going back to their world—and then this culminates in his own dream and his actions in Riddle’s, which I already discussed earlier. A lot of other small moments occur as well, showing Ace eating with Yuu, going to class with Yuu, etc.

A majority of the behaviors I recall are either Ace and Yuu casually hanging out or Ace rushing to protect them from something, be it insults or physical/magical blows. It’s not a ton of Ace overtly depending on Yuu. I don’t even think I could find any implications of him depending on Yuu in his dialogue or through more subtle cues. He certainly gets emotional when Yuu is involved, but this by itself doesn’t necessarily mean he looks to them for reassurance. Ace has always been pretty guarded, even expositing that no one at NRC would offer you a helping hand as late as Lilia’s farewell party. It’s only when we get to late book 7 that Ace starts changing his tune.

[chattercap]

I had a fun time drawing the plumerias for Kalei's shirt! Plumerias aren't the Hawai'i state flower, but I associate them with the state the most!

(Fun fact, plumerias can indicate a woman's romantic status when worn in the hair!)

MINDMINDMIND is a supernatural, psychological romance game about a man who has stalked you ever since you were a child. You call him Geist. When you befriend a new boy at college, Geist will do anything to keep you in his grasp. I'm developing it for NanoRenO, and it will be released on March 31st!

[hellosweetart]

"Mmm....sorry, but...is something wrong with my delivery?"

"No, silly! Its perfectly fine! I appreciate your service, Mr. Mosses."

"Oh...you're welcome."

(I beg the devs to give him a happy moment. Please, he badly needs it)

[supersonicbrat]

need a fic or blurb about a really subby touch starved noel finally getting head from his gf he hasn't seen in soo long

dev’s notes: definitely could’ve made him subbier but he is indeed touch starved ‘n kinda pathetic. apologies if this flows awkwardly, i haven’t written anything smutty in a bit!

cw -> 18+ content, boyfriend noel, m receiving oral.

“I missed you, y’know…” Noel mumbles against the swell of your cheek. His skilled hands grip your hips, squeezing them beneath his palms until you gasp a bit. A grin plays at your lips while he tucks his face in your neck, inhaling your scent like it’s his lifeline.

“You keep sayin’ that, you sap.”

You can’t help but wind him up a teeny bit, placing your hands over his own in the process. His deft digits become entangled with yours as you wiggle on top of his lap. You back away and look down at him, mischief gleaming in your eyes, fully brought on by the way he simply hasn’t been able to get enough of you since he came in from his flight this morning—

“Y’should’ve just came to the states with me. Would’ve been brilliant, wouldn’t have had to wank off so much.”

“Oh, sorry.” You whisper, “I’ll make sure to put my job on hold so Mr. Rockstar has a touring sex pet next time.”

“Sex pet is a lil’ much, innit?”

He says that, but he has no complaints when you slide down to your knees in front of him with expertise. You get nothing but a raised eyebrow and a heavy exhale, until your hands make a move for the button and zipper of his jeans and then his lips start moving again, eyes nearly rolling back into his head when it’s your hand instead of his own finally wrapped around his cock and stroking him just the way he likes.

“Jesus, love. Y’have no idea how much I thought about this. Looked at those polaroids I took for the road every night.”

“Mmm…” You hum at the sentiment, but you’re getting more eager by the second, “You’re talking too much, I think.”

That’s the last thing you mumble before your plump lips are wrapped around his head. You missed this, too. Missed making him feel good, missed watching him writhe through your lashes and hear him give you throaty whines with your burning ears. It all builds your confidence up, giving you the determination you need to turn your bashful licks and teasing sucks into him slipping down your throat until he’s melting into the sofa and tears are rolling down your heated cheeks. A sign of all your hard work, along with the mess your drool seems to make on him.

Noel tries his hardest to goad you on, but all that falls from his tongue are curses and groans, some words you can barely understand but try to piece together— “That mouth’s too fuckin’ good,” his words are breathy, letting you know he’s far gone, “Y’can do whatever y’want to me after this, darling— swear it.”

[faeiri-tft]

PLEASE do the toontown online rant i want it so badly

this post kinda got away from me, and by "got away from me" i mean this 3000 word toontown rant is Part One. there will be a Part Two to this later in which i actually talk about the fanservers i wanted to talk about. anyway let's go

toontown online (tto) was a children's mostly-turn-based subscription MMO released in 2003. after a few years of obviously being on life support, disney gave a one-month notice that tto (and several other games) would be closing on september 19th, 2013. on the same day the game closed, the fan-run server toontown rewritten (ttr) was announced (with multiple other fanservers/fangames/reimaginings being established since), and is a few months away from outliving the original game

see, one thing about tto that allowed fanservers to crop up so quickly and easily was that it had, um, interesting choices. very interesting choices. like, "kids could use a code injector to turn their backyards into giant mashed-together nightmarescapes"-level choices

(loose video description: a rabbit toon running around a chaotic mismash of rooms, obstacles, and npcs that Should Not Be There. audio caption: Evanescence's "Bring Me To Life".)

but ok let's talk about the actual game first.

toontown online (tto)

the game starts with you creating your player character - you can pick from eventually-9 species, a couple body types, and 2 dozen preset colors. the gender code is a spaghetti nightmare but you won't learn this until the fanservers come about so don't worry about it. you're then taken to the Toontorial, which explains maybe 20% of the game's mechanics before setting you loose into the main game

the toontorial also gives you the basic "plot", such as it is: Toontown is suddenly* under attack by a bunch of boring businessrobots called the Cogs. their goal is to turn toontown into a dreary gray featureless corporate hell; their business activities are so boring that they're physically painful to be around. luckily, they can't take a joke, so the toons have figured out how to defeat them: by playing pranks on them until they laugh so hard they Explode

*originally, the game installer had a little animation giving a backstory for the Cogs' creation. this was never referenced in game, removed pretty quickly, and i think even the devs kinda forgot it existed

that's...pretty much the whole story! in that context, your toon progresses through all of toontown, helping some mostly-pretty-interchangeable shopkeepers, reclaiming buildings from the cogs, eating ice cream, etc. occasionally, the cogs would Come Up With New Tricks (read: major content update) and the toons would Find A Way To Fight Back (read: same major content update). that was the closest thing to Plot, unless you count "the devs scheduled a bunch of invasions of high-tier cogs right before the game's closure". but...i doubt most the kids really expected a Plot. mickey mouse was there

the gameplay:

the Free Account

there were two...pretty different approaches to playing toontown online. when the game launched, there was a 3-day free trial to the entire game, after which you got kicked entirely until you subscribed. at some point, this was changed so that the first area, Toontown Central (TTC), was Always Free - you could do all of that area's quests/"taskline" and limited activities, indefinitely, and in theory this would make you beg your parents for the rest of the game

i have no idea if this actually got more subscriptions or not. from what i can tell it just spawned more warrior cats

(source)

there were. a Lot of warrior cats. there were some other social activities, too, such as Fashion Shows (with your limited range of clothes) and Begging Subscribed Players To Summon Cog Buildings To TTC and Getting Chat Banned. ...however, as one of the subscription kids i didn't really interact with this side of the game, so i'm not the best person to talk about it

2. the Paid Account

mmm look at those crisp clear graphics. hell yes

a subscription account gave you access to this whole map, along with all these areas' tasklines. to progress through the game, you must complete a variety of "ToonTasks" for the Toon Resistance (it's called that. their catchphrase is "Toons of the World, Unite!". you were giving disney money for this). these reward you by increasing your max health (your "Laff Points"), slowly unlocking more combat options, and sending you to different, higher-difficulty areas of toontown

some of these tasks were...longer than others. generally, though, they all boiled down to: "just go fight some cogs"

combat:

(source)

toontown battles are turn-based: the players use their attacks ("gags") first, and then any surviving cogs attack you with, usually, office equipment and puns thereof (unless the cog is e.g. a Loan Shark, in which case they can just fucking bite you). if you defeat a cog, it explodes; if the cog defeats you, you "go sad" and are sent back to the safety of the playground, lose your gag inventory, and can't leave until you heal.

early on, most your battles are 1v1, but later on almost everything is a multiplayer 4-ish-v-4.

an...interesting feature here in the game's early days was that you could only Type Your Own Words to someone who shared their "friend code" with you IRL. otherwise, you had to use this thing:

(source)

you had a set list of phrases you could string together, which generally covered most the things you wanted to say. but it could get frustrating when you wanted to have a real conversation with your toontown friends! so...as the source above mentions, people obviously found ways around the system. turns out that if you let players move objects around their houses, they will use that to Draw Letters and pass their friend code along regardless

eventually - before the warrior cats, of course - disney presumably realized this system was pretty goofy (🥁) , so the game got a real chat, albeit one that functioned on a very strict whitelist. my favorite is that it didn't let you type numbers, however you could just say won too tree for hive etc. like. disney i really don't know what to tell you. anyway

(isn't he charming)

cogs come in levels 1-12, with levels displayed above their heads, and as you'd expect their damage output and HP increase with their level. however, the game doesn't...actually show you cog HP? instead they have a little colored light on their chest that fades from green to red until they explode. you see numbers on all the damage you do, and you see your own HP/laff, but never the cogs'. also lategame cogs are Too Tall For You To See Their Level once they line up for battle (which isn't actually that bad but it's funny). there's a formula for HP per level, but it's never mentioned in-game. i guess someone can teach it to you but then you have to watch them type "a level tin cog has won tree too health" and is that really worth it

(as you can tell i just…don't get this. "my kid is practicing arithmetic with toontown!" - marketing angle expressly denied by god. the stealth edutainment was right there)

anyway! in theory, you have seven base combat options ("gag tracks"), which combine in a variety of ways:

toon-up, which restores your teammates' health;

trap, which does guaranteed high damage but only if someone uses lure;

lure, which stuns the cogs for a few turns and is the only way to make trap work

sound, which does low damage to every cog;

throw, which does medium-high-ish damage to one cog; multiple throws combined give percentage combo damage, and hitting a lured cog will also add percentage "knockback damage";

squirt, which is exactly like throw but less damage;

and drop, which does high damage but cannot hit lured cogs, and has low accuracy unless you hit the cog with something else first

each gag track has 6 levels, which you unlock by using that gag track a bunch. you can't carry as many of the high levels with you - i mean, putting one piano in your backpack makes perfect sense, but two is just silly, right

a few years into the game's lifespan, level 7s were added - these were huge AOE that you could regain with every 500 track EXP. there was also something called "organic gags" to promote the please-log-in-every-day gardening system

every player starts with throw and squirt, and throughout the game you slowly unlock four more gag tracks. your choices are permanent: once you have your six tracks, you're locked out of the seventh forever.

in theory, all of this opens up a huge variety of combat options!

in practice, the battle strategy looks something like this:

use sound

as mentioned, almost all of lategame will be 4v4 battles, which means sound will almost always outdamage everything on earth. you don't even need four foghorns (the highest normal sound gag) to break 200 AOE damage, and the highest health a cog EVER has is 200*. and two of the boss battles can reward you with gag restocks and heals that you can use mid-battle with no consequences (other than having to grind for those rewards a bunch). and failing THAT, you can just...ration your foghorns and take 2 turns to clear a set of cogs, interspersed with healing.

(*okay there was something called "v2.0 cogs" but they were...strange, and we just used sound anyway)

sure, once level 7s were added you could use those occasionally. and you could fall back on lure+throw if you didn't want to use your sound restocks. but even then, for most of tto's existence there was something called the "knockback bug" which. well. just look at it

(link for transcript. it's tvtropes sorry)

if you are a target-audience eight-year-old this translates to "lure + throw will only do enough damage if the cogs Feel like it." like it's really just insult to injury at this point. this was the result of One misplaced variable and was not fixed until the game closed

in the tto era, if you didn't have sound, you were kinda doomed to be kicked out of every fight forever

(bonus fun fact: there were Four entire battle themes and they were 40-second midi loops. let me out)

the bosses:

each of the four cog departments has a Boss Cog. to face off against them, you have to assemble a cog disguise and collect enough merits/stock options/whatever to be allowed into the boss's office.

(pictured: your convincing disguise)

when you enter, your disguise pops off due to Reasons, and you have to fight through...a bunch of waves of normal cogs. it's basically a really long normal battle. once the minions are dealt with, you have to, inexplicably, do a live-action battle against the boss themself:

(loose video description: four toons defeating the CFO by using magnet cranes to hit him in the face with safes for 32 seconds.)

the live-action rounds aren't supposed to go this quickly, but it's still...kinda strange? certain reoccurring game areas require Parkour, but there are no battles like this outside of the Four bosses. the CFO's room is the only place you see these cranes and they have A Lot Going On. the other 3 bosses have their own unique weird mechanics. before the first boss was added we neither had nor needed the ability to Jump. it's just weird

once you've defeated the boss, you're given a reward of varying usefulness (the best/most unbalanced reward type is Unites, which are a free heal or gag restock you can do inside or outside of battle. essentially lategame toons can simply choose not to die. riv2u etc.)

and, um. then you get some more merits/stock options/whatever and do it again. and again. and again. and again. and agai

the grind:

so the thing is that tto was a subscription mmo. every addition to the game had to be measured, above all, in terms of "how can we best get kids to beg their parents to give us money." this especially shows in the suit grind:

(source/source)

you have to defeat each boss 78 times in order to get all their laff points - and as you proceed, you have to defeat an increasing amount of cogs to even be allowed into the boss (although once you max you get in for free).

by far the easiest way is to run through the designated HQ facilities - basically, cog fights interspersed with some platforming or minigames. you only collect your merits/whatever at the Very End of the facility. the only way to increase what a facility gives you is if your last battle ends during an "invasion" - a timed period where One Specific Cog replaces all street cogs, usually summoned with boss rewards.

the sellbot HQ grind isn't so bad. bossbot HQ - the endest-game HQ - frequently requires you to do an hour-long facility and on six separate occasions you have to do seven of them. if the invasion ends before your final battle, you have to sit around until someone summons another. if you lose your internet connection because it's 2008, or if your parents make you come to dinner, or if hacking or the game's general bugginess cause a server reset because you're probably in the busiest district for the invasion bonus, you have spent that Entire Hour On Nothing. the CEO (bossbot cog boss) probably also takes an hour because you and your fellow players are 10

this shit, combined with laff points locked behind gardening (time-gated), racing and golfing (multiplayer minigames with absurd requirements), and fishing (RNG-based with some fish being absurdly rare. i watched my mom fish for one every day for a month), meant that maxing a toon took Years, if you managed it ever.

it wasn't, um. it wasn't good

ok so what else is wrong with this game:

i had "aged out of the game" (lol) by the early '10s, so i'm not the best person to do a writeup of the hacking/scripting situation of those days. that said, what i'm going to do is give you a few examples, and i want you to just...look at them

(source)

(source). early '10s youtube was funny i'm trying to decide if i miss it

(source). fun thing to note here is that other players had collision, so a swarm of t-posing toons could just barricade the gag shop if they wanted to

(video description: toon who has Replaced His Head Model With An Anime Logo throwing thousands of jellybeans at everyone) (cw mild flashing just in case? and also the feather headband accessory)

i should note that the Bring Me To Life vid i started with was client-side, meaning only the player could see their technicolor hellscape. this guy's face was server-side. i do Not Think you should be able to do that

(video description: a player demonstrating use of a bot to get into the nutty river district, followed by other players using it to go to different game areas)

the above video was posted on august 17th, 2013. if you don't want to watch an Unregistered Hypercam 3 recording at about 5 frames per second, what's going on here is:

the player goes to a specific location and says a specific speedchat phrase.

a bot toon teleports to their location and provides some prompts on how to use it

the player tells the bot, via speedchat, to teleport to the (currently closed from the outside) busiest district so the player can follow

these "taxi toons" were server-sided, persisted across server resets, were made by a future fanserver dev, had younger kids referring to them as a "glitch" as if this were something that could Accidentally Happen, and stayed functional until the game closed

like...a lot of the "hacking" was just baby's first script download. this one - afaict also created by the laughing man head guy - is like...the fact that after years of no substantial game updates, someone effectively programmed their own "QOL feature" (note: not actually good for the poor mid-00s server being turned into a clown car) into a silly disney MMO and it just fucking sat there for a year is just. it's just.

i don't know what this is. this is not Playing The Game Toontown Online. this is nothing. this is everything. there are comments from 2013 on some of these videos saying stuff like "hackers killed toontown", but your game cannot have this happen if it is not already dying

and, like...it was. i'm not sure how many moderators there were by this point, but at the very end of tto, the number of active devs was One. the original devteam recently brought this up at the 20th anniversary celebration: devs just...slowly started getting pulled from the game, one at a time. there were a few updates after bossbot HQ - Field Offices, which i've basically never heard anything good about in their tto form ever; the Silly Meter, a yearly event...thing whose main function was to add unskippable dancing-inanimate-object cutscenes to your street battles; Parties, which...yknow parties were okay actually. i accept parties. but they weren't exactly a Major Game Update like the ones that had come before. in 2011 we gained the ability to Wear Hats. in 2012 the test server got some actual QOL updates that never made it to the main game; the final test server update was some maintenance in february, and then nothing for 18 months. disney was not providing enough resources to address the scripting because disney was not providing enough resources to address toontown. imagine being the last dev standing on an MMO that was older than some of its players, was losing its business model to mobile gaming, and spent most of its life falling apart at the seams. just imagine it, for a second

it couldn't have kept going, not like this.

on august 20, 2013, the closing announcement came: we had a month left of toontown online. the test server shut immediately; subscription refunds went out, and the game became actually F2P for the month; the part of the announcement that went like "we're shifting our focus to other games!" made a bunch of twelve-year-olds hate club penguin as if club penguin wouldn't also close in a few years; all the holiday events went off at once; and...

there wasn't a "thanks for playing!" popup. everyone online just got kicked, all at once. it was finally over

hey wait.

[dev-and-peri]

Existential dread, the finest Tea

How is your day- or is it night? Have a cookie!

From Hyacinth, the cookie lover

Mmm- Thanks for the cookie! Dev, you want some?

*Dev snatches the cookie and runs, giggling.*

Oh well... *Peri summons another cookie for himself.

Existential dread, huh? Not sure what you mean by that, but... To each their own, I guess. Our day was pretty okay, for once. Kid's got school tomorrow though, so things are probably gonna drop fast, knowing him.

Thanks again for the cookie! Dev's chowing down fast, so it must have been pretty good. It didn't have any lactose though, did it...?

Periiii...

Well, I'd better go! See you around, Hyacinth!

[just-a-carrot]

Could I ask for 9 and 20 for the Artist Ask Game?👀

9. What's the longest you've ever suffered from artblock?

Ohhhh... hmmm... that's hard... I feel like, mmm, when I get art block, it's not so much that I can't draw (or write) at all, it's more so that I can't work on the same thing anymore, even if I technically want to and/or know I should. I've never really had a time where I just couldn't draw for days on end. But I've had many days where I could only draw one thing and nothing else for days on end. Or where I couldn't even bear to open up Ren'Py even though I knew I should. I had a few times like this during production. After finishing Arc 4 I did Spooktober and then after that had a major game dev block for a few months where I barely got started on Arc 5. Then after Arc 5.2 an even worse one. Which is why I made OC instead. Then I feel like I've been in the middle of a major block since releasing the finale I'll be honest. There have been many days, weeks, months, where I've only been able to draw stuff that brings me intense self-indugent happiness as you've probably noticed LOL and I just feel unable to draw anything else. Though I've had spurts of inspiration. When I first started working on the remaster was one of them, suddenly filled with motivation, then I hit another huge slump and I've been barely able to touch it. Then I started BT and became filled with inspiration again. But even with that I still have slumps where I just can't bring myself to draw. And I still find it hard to draw anything that's not something I'm incredibly compelled to draw. I guess I don't know if that's art block or not but it feels like it as that's not how I felt during most of production.

20. What motivates/inspires you artistically? (topics, emotions, etc)

Genzy I mean I kid but it's true in a way LOL harking back to the previous question and just being completely mentally blocked to work on anything that doesn't deeply resonate inside of me. But more seriously, I would say anything that tugs fiercely on my heart. Very deep emotions that touch me to the core. Sometimes I feel like so many things in life, stories, experiences, just leave me numb and cold. I need things that are very intense to make myself feel alive. Sometimes that is thoughts of love. Especially yearning. Love with pain. The longer and more painful it is the better LOL Also just tragic love in general. Whether fulfilled or unfulfilled. I also am really moved by tragic things in general. Stuff that makes my heart hurt so bad it feels real. This is also why I like horror but not in the jumpscare kinda way but more in the intense emotions it brings out in characters. The way they react to things. The drop you feel in your gut when the world comes crashing down. The tragedy that horror can create. I guess. I don't know gjfjdjd I feel like I seek out intense emotions in stories the way I seek out intense flavors and intense sensations and intense brain-go-buzz music. Because I want to feel things that will take me away from life and reality.

[hirayaea]

in xavier’s myth, when he goes off to his dad and fights him about the protocore he says something odd

this conversation always led me to believe the previous queen was the sacrifice — because it looks like it could be implied the king and queen were lovers? which means mc was already the previous queen because xavier has established that they’ve been sacrificing the same girl over and over

but then it made me wonder — if that’s the case, who is xavier’s dad?

my first theory was that prince and king were clones of each other maybe and xavier goes dark down the line but I was like mmm need more data

but after seeing sylus im like omg MAYBE HE IS THE KING HE AND XAV HAVE SIMILAR FEATURES and since he is a potential love interest it could work out

I usually don’t like posting theories because I like just waiting for the devs to cook but this one ate my brain

ty peace out