#no dice in replicating the bug

[nekofantasia]

Hours after my shift and I still got no clue what I'm doing

[sohkrates]

Slugblaster GOTY Edition just achieved its funding goal today, securing a second printing of a new hardcover edition with Mythworks Publishing (publishers of CBR + PNK and The Wildsea).

I wanted to take some time to talk about why I love this game so much. I was lucky enough to grab a copy of the first printing and also got to do some writing and proof reading for the game.

The Premise is Sick as Hell

Mikey, the author, has thought about this game and the world a lot, and it shows. The game is lousy with style, from the writing to the layout to the art. But the premise itself is a fun and compelling sandbox where you are encouraged to push your character into taking risks, lying to your friends and parents, getting in trouble, getting hurt, and then getting better. It's everything good about coming of age stories, sci-fi tales of the multiverse, and fiction first RPGs.

Innovative Design

Slugblaster is based on the Blades in the Dark RPG rules, and does a lot to change up everything from the cycle of play to the action roll. It replicates the score-downtime-score cycle but moves and modifies the rules in ways that create thrilling and dangerous runs, heart felt downtime scenes that cannot be avoided, and natural conflict that will be resolved one way or another.

Rolling dice is easy and fun, with every playbook able to take risks and modify the rules in their favour. Not only that but each character gets a signature device, like a negafriction sword or a hardlight board, that gives them an edge when doing hoverboard tricks or fleeing creatures like math panthers.

Incredible Writing

This is hard to showcase but I'll just show the first few pages of the first example of play in the book. Mikey has a talent for writing and comedy, and absolutely everything in the book, from the rules to the playbooks to the examples and creatures, are easy to read and laugh out loud hilarious. Even if you never get a chance to play it, you won't regret owning a copy, just so you can get a smile on your face when you need it.

Amazing Art

Mikey has put together a murder's row of artists for this game. It's colourful and cartoony and does a great job of communicating the early 90's era that Slugblaster inhabits. The second edition is gonna get even more art, with maps you can use to illustrate the different worlds you'll explore.

Additional Goodies

This new second edition of the game comes with all sorts of awesome add-ons if you want 'em. Things like:

dice

stickers

a pizza box GM screen

maps

custom fingerboards

a dang skateboard

So please do check it out, spread the word, let your weird ttrpg friends know about Slugblaster.

[lackoftrumpets]

Ok, so, the game is d20 based and uses 6 attri- hey where are you going?

Ya got me. Conspiring Creatures follows the formula that a lot of people know and are understandably sick of. Your character has 6 attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma) that decide how good they are at certain tasks. To accomplish those tasks, the player rolls a d20 and tries to roll higher than certain number to accomplish a success. I'm a big advocate for using other dice systems and that is something I've done for pretty much all my other games. So why change to something I'm not a big fan of? Other than me being a massive hypocrite (which is true), here is why this is my plan. The game is intentionally derivative: Conspiring Creatures is about being the villainous BBEG in a heroic fantasy game. While the game has its own setting and monsters, I wouldn't be surprised if players wanted to replicate villains from the heroic fantasy games they enjoyed fighting or maybe even ran as a GM (mostly from D&D 5e and Pathfinder 2e). Having these six stats be familiar to TTRPG players coming from that part of the hobby would prevent part of the headache of "how do I build a character to represent this fantasy?". The d20 being the main die also falls into this category as well. For the few playtests of this game I have run, simply using the pitch of "its D&D, but you're evil" is a lot easier of a pitch for people to believe when they see the same die they have been using for the last 5 years. The game designer in me wants to do the whole "I could do that better" thing: Shocker, I know. One thing that bugs me about a lot of systems that have this stat spread is that there is always 1-2 stats that get relegated to "dump stat" status. This stat usually being Strength or Charisma (sometimes Intelligence) depending on if your character uses a melee weapon or not. For this system, I wanted to make it so every stat will give a character a spot light to shine while also a weakness they can't ignore. Giving each part of the system's core mechanics an ability score to work with and then force the players to choose a -1 means that their character can't be amazing at everything because they have the systems knowledge to put it in the right spot so it never becomes relevant. Below is the list of aspects that ability bonuses affect right now and it also includes a few things that people might be familiar with if they are not a fan of this type of game, mainly Darkvision and Perception. I'll try my best to write about this later and not forget that I wanted to write more blog posts about this game again (woops).

I want the questionable results of a d20: For anybody who has made a game around a d20, one thing you quickly learn is that there are a lot of number between 1 and 20 that can radically change how a session goes. A heroic fantasy adventurer can quickly become incompetent if they can't roll higher than an 8 and their bonuses can't make success consistent. A great way to kill the vibe at any table. For Conspiring Creatures, player characters have large bonuses to work with alongside fairly low target numbers. The opposite is mostly true for NPCs (with a few exceptions, but that will be for a different post). This game is designed to be a power fantasy after all. I want players to be rolling high and feel good for rolling those numbers, but if power ever goes to their head, those terrifying low numbers can still show up and make them realize why so many villains lose due to their overconfidence. For NPCs, I want most of them to fall over like a stack of dominos, but still leave a small random chance that any of them can make an immortal being bleed. It also makes it so if there is a large number of them the chance of them rolling the higher result more likely, but that is the boring answer.

Thanks for reading to the bottom of all of this! In news that probably shocks nobody who has read this blog, I'm bad about posting about the games I'm working on. I say I'm going to do one thing and go radio silent as I get distracted by something else. The game itself is pretty much finished mechanically and just needs formatting alongside some artwork I'm going to add. I hope to continue making more regular posts about this game because it is something I really need to get better at. Thank you for dealing with my weird posting! It will probably happen again.

[boardgameparadisesblog]

Why are board games better than online games?

In a world where glowing screens dominate entertainment, there’s something uniquely refreshing about gathering around a table, unboxing a board game, and diving into a face-to-face adventure. While online games have their perks, board games bring something special to the table—literally and figuratively.

So, why are board games better than online games? Let’s roll the dice and explore what makes classic tabletop gaming stand out in a digital age.

Real Human Connection Perhaps the biggest advantage of board games is the in-person interaction they provide.

Face-to-face fun: You can read facial expressions, share laughs, and enjoy natural conversation.

Physical presence helps build stronger social bonds—something online games often lack.

Playing around a table encourages teamwork, negotiation, and emotional intelligence.

Nothing beats the look your friend gives you when you steal their last card in Uno.

No Screens = No Distractions Board games are screen-free by nature, which means less tech fatigue and more mindful play.

Benefits of unplugging: Reduces eye strain and mental burnout

Encourages longer attention spans and deeper focus

Fosters present-moment awareness, rather than constant notifications and multitasking

Board game night is a perfect excuse to put the phone down and just be present.

Builds Communication and Social Skills Board games naturally promote verbal interaction—something online games can minimize through headsets and typed messages.

Social skill boosters: Encourages active listening and respectful turn-taking

Helps players practice persuasion, empathy, and strategic discussion

Ideal for kids and adults to build confidence in real-world communication

Games like Codenames or Taboo depend entirely on your ability to communicate effectively.

Tactile Experience and Creativity There’s a reason we love shuffling cards, rolling dice, and moving game pieces—it’s satisfying and engaging in a way digital games can’t replicate.

Why physical games feel better: The tactile experience creates a stronger connection to the game

Beautiful boards and components enhance aesthetic enjoyment

Physical games engage spatial reasoning and fine motor skills

Ever tried building a castle in Carcassonne? It’s way more satisfying than clicking a mouse.

Encourages Slower, More Thoughtful Play Online games often prioritize speed and instant gratification. Board games, on the other hand, invite players to slow down, strategize, and savor the experience.

Benefits of slower play: Better for strategic thinking and decision-making

Reduces anxiety caused by constant action or competition

More inclusive for players of all skill levels and ages

A game of chess or Catan encourages long-term thinking and planning ahead.

Educational Value While many online games are designed purely for entertainment, board games often incorporate learning through play.

What you can learn: Math, language, geography, history, economics—you name it

Critical thinking, logic, cooperation, and time management

Real-world skills in a low-stakes, enjoyable setting

Even a simple game like Monopoly teaches budgeting and negotiation.

Less Reliance on Technology Let’s face it—online games depend on Wi-Fi, updates, power, and platforms. Board games? Just open the box and play.

Perks of being unplugged: No lag, bugs, or loading screens

No worries about system compatibility or in-game purchases

Great for travel, power outages, and screen-free weekends

You don’t need an internet connection to dominate at Scrabble.

Are Board Games Better Than Online Games? While online games offer convenience and global connectivity, board games win when it comes to quality social interaction, creativity, and lasting memories.

They bring people together in a way screens simply can’t match. Whether it’s family bonding, date night fun, or friendly competition, board games turn time together into something truly meaningful.

Board games don’t just entertain—they connect. And in a world where we’re more plugged in than ever, sometimes the best way to play is to unplug.

[gamedev01]

Top 10 Tips for Successful Ludo Game Development

Ludo, a classic board game loved by people worldwide, has transitioned beautifully into the digital space. The online version of Ludo has captivated millions of players, making it a lucrative niche for game developers. However, creating a successful Ludo game development involves more than just replicating the traditional gameplay. It requires a mix of technical expertise, user-focused design, and strategic planning.

In this blog, we’ll share 10 essential tips to help you develop a Ludo game that stands out in the competitive gaming market.

1. Understand the Game Dynamics

Ludo is a strategy-based game with simple rules. To create an engaging digital version, ensure you understand its core mechanics:

Movement based on dice rolls.

Progression from start to home.

Rules for capturing opponent tokens.

Deep knowledge of these elements will help you design a balanced and enjoyable game.

2. Choose the Right Technology Stack

Selecting the right technology stack is crucial for ensuring smooth performance. Common tools and frameworks for Ludo game development include:

Game Engines: Unity, Unreal Engine.

Programming Languages: C#, JavaScript.

Databases: Firebase, MySQL for real-time player data.

Networking: Photon or Node.js for multiplayer functionalities.

The stack should align with your platform (Android, iOS, or Web) and scalability requirements.

3. Prioritize User Experience (UX)

A clean, intuitive interface can make or break your Ludo game. Focus on:

Simple Navigation: Ensure players can easily start a game, invite friends, or join public matches.

Aesthetic Design: Use vibrant colors and graphics reminiscent of traditional Ludo boards.

Tutorials: Include easy-to-follow guides for first-time users.

4. Incorporate Multiplayer Functionality

One of the primary reasons for Ludo’s popularity is its social aspect. To recreate this digitally:

Implement real-time multiplayer features.

Offer modes for online play, local multiplayer, and playing against AI.

Enable cross-platform compatibility for a broader audience.

5. Ensure Fair Dice Rolls

Players often suspect digital dice rolls to be rigged. Use algorithms to guarantee fairness:

Random Number Generators (RNG): Ensure dice outcomes are truly random.

Display probabilities to build trust among players.

Transparency in dice rolls can enhance user trust and retention.

6. Add Engaging Features

While staying true to the core gameplay, adding innovative features can make your Ludo game unique:

Custom Boards: Allow users to select themes or design their own boards.

Power-Ups: Introduce power-ups for strategic advantages.

Tournaments: Organize online tournaments with rewards.

7. Focus on Smooth Connectivity

Multiplayer games depend on reliable networking. To prevent frustration caused by lags:

Use dedicated servers for real-time gameplay.

Optimize bandwidth usage for low latency.

Include reconnection features to handle accidental disconnects.

8. Implement Reward Systems

Reward systems can significantly boost user engagement. Consider including:

Daily rewards for logging in.

Leaderboards and achievements to motivate competition.

In-game currency for unlocking skins or features.

9. Ensure Cross-Platform Compatibility

To maximize your audience, make your Ludo game accessible across devices:

Use frameworks like Unity or Flutter to create cross-platform games.

Optimize your game for different screen sizes and resolutions.

Cross-platform availability can increase downloads and user retention.

10. Test, Test, and Test Again

Extensive testing is vital to ensure a seamless experience:

Conduct beta testing to gather feedback from real users.

Test for bugs, crashes, and performance issues across devices.

Regularly update the game based on user feedback.

Final Thoughts

Developing a successful Ludo game requires balancing traditional gameplay with modern features and technical excellence. By focusing on user experience, incorporating multiplayer functionality, and ensuring fair play, you can create a game that resonates with players worldwide.

With these top 10 tips, you’re now equipped to embark on your Ludo game development journey. Whether you're an indie developer or part of a larger team, these strategies will help you create a game that stands out and delights players.

[krunnuy]

How to Develop a Ludo Game App with a Multiplayer Feature

With mobile gaming, traditional board games like Ludo have entered the digital age, reaching millions of players across the globe. Ludo game development is an exciting opportunity for businesses and developers who wish to tap into this growing trend. Adding a multiplayer feature takes the experience to the next level, enabling players to connect and compete in real time. The article focuses on developing a Ludo game app with multiplayer; it includes all the steps, technologies, and challenges that have to be taken into consideration.

Understanding Ludo Game Development

Ludo game development means creating a digital version of the classic board game, which includes engaging gameplay and user-friendly design. The multiplayer feature is the most vital component because it replicates the social aspect of the traditional game. Popular apps like Ludo King and Ludo Club have shown how multiplayer functionality can increase user retention and engagement.

The potential focus for developing Ludo games will make you create a unique app appealing to the demand while coming across as unique in a competitive market.

Key Features of a Multiplayer Ludo Game App

When designing a multiplayer Ludo game, incorporating the right features ensures a seamless user experience:

Real-Time Multiplayer Functionality

A robust multiplayer system allows players to join games in real time, either with friends or random opponents. This feature requires reliable servers to handle player interactions without latency issues.

Cross-Platform Compatibility

Modern gamers use various devices, so your Ludo app should be compatible with Android, iOS, and web platforms. Cross-platform support ensures that players can compete regardless of their device.

User Authentication and Profiles

Secure login options (via email, social media, or mobile numbers) and user profiles allow players to save progress and build their game identity.

Chat and Social Features

In-game chat, emojis, and friend invites create a lively gaming atmosphere, which enhances the multiplayer experience.

Technology Stack for Ludo Game Development

Selecting the right technology stack is essential for building a high-performance multiplayer Ludo game app.

Game Engine

Engines like Unity or Unreal Engine are excellent choices for Ludo game development, as they offer robust tools for designing immersive game environments.

Backend and Server Infrastructure

A reliable backend powered by Node.js or Python and cloud-based servers like AWS or Firebase ensures smooth real-time gameplay.

Programming Languages

Choose Java or Kotlin for Android, Swift for iOS, and JavaScript for web compatibility.

Database Management

Use scalable databases like MongoDB or MySQL to manage user data and game progress.

Steps to Develop a Ludo Game App with a Multiplayer Feature

1. Conceptualization and Planning

Start by defining the core features and target audience for your app. Consider unique elements that set your app apart from competitors, such as special game modes or customization options.

2. Game Design and UI/UX Development

One more important thing to retain players is an intuitive and aesthetically pleasing interface. Cooperate with experienced designers to create a layout of the board, dice animations, and player avatars.

3. Development and Testing

Begin coding your app and integrating the multiplayer functionality during this stage. Real-time communication protocols like WebSocket are ideal for managing player interactions. Testing is critical to identify and fix bugs, optimize performance, and ensure compatibility across devices.

4. Deployment and Maintenance

Once your app is ready, deploy it on app stores and market it with some marketing campaigns. This is necessary to provide regular updates—new features as well as a bug fix—for those players to stay engaged.

Challenges in Ludo Game Development and Their Solutions

Developing a multiplayer Ludo game app comes with unique challenges:

Latency Issues:

Use low-latency protocols and efficient server management to provide a seamless experience.

Scalability:

Design your app to handle increasing user loads without compromising performance.

Security:

Implement encryption and secure authentication methods to protect user data.

Monetization Strategies for Multiplayer Ludo Games

To make your app profitable, consider these monetization strategies:

In-app Purchases:

Offer players additional dice rolls, avatar customizations, or premium game modes.

Advertisements:

Integrate ads strategically to generate revenue without disrupting gameplay.

Subscriptions:

Provide ad-free experiences or exclusive features through subscription models.

Conclusion

A multiplayer Ludo game app is a rewarding business venture because it combines the traditional board game charm with mobile gaming convenience. By making use of advanced technologies, designing user-friendly interfaces, and addressing common challenges, you can create an app that captivates players around the world.

If you need professional assistance with Ludo game development, AIS Technolabs is the source to take it back into your vision. Our developers are experienced in creating engaging, feature-rich gaming apps specifically according to your requirements. Contact us today!

FAQs

1. What is the estimated cost of developing a Ludo game app?

Costs also vary with features, design complexity, and compatibility over some platforms. It usually starts between $10,000 and $50,000.

2. How can I ensure a smooth multiplayer experience in my Ludo app?

Invest in strong infrastructures for servers, light communicational protocols, and sufficient tests to reduce the glitches on launch day.

3. What are the top features of a multiplayer Ludo game?

Real-time gameplay, cross-platform support, user authentication, and social features like chat are essential for a multiplayer Ludo app.

4. How long does it take to develop a Ludo game app?

Development time can vary, but most Ludo apps with multiplayer features take 4–8 months to complete.

5. Why should I choose AIS Technolabs for Ludo game development?

AIS Technolabs offers expert developers, a client-focused approach, and proven experience in delivering top-notch gaming solutions.

Blog Source: https://ludo-game-app.hashnode.dev/how-to-develop-a-ludo-game-app-with-a-multiplayer-feature

[theresattrpgforthat]

(To clarify, I don’t have any preferences on genre or tone here, just budget. Or lack thereof I guess.)

THEME: Free TTRPGs (2/2)

I’m so so glad that you posted two asks because holy shit do I have recommendations. This is the second part, once again organized into different pieces of advice!

4. Unofficial games based on a licensed IP. 

Yeah, people do crazy things for the stuff they love, including designing an entire roleplaying game and then releasing it for free! Here’s a few that I’ve found.

Unofficial Hollow Knight RPG, by HKRPG Team.

Vast kingdoms, ancient mysteries, and adversaries far beyond reckoning await you.

The Unofficial Hollow Knight RPG is an original tabletop role-playing system inspired by Team Cherry's hit indie title. In HKRPG, players take the form of daring bugs going on adventures in the strange and wondrous world of Hollow Knight and its insect-populated kingdoms. 

What a labour of love this game is. This TTRPG feels dungeon-crawly, which makes sense considering the game it’s designed after. Each bug has hit points, stamina points, and Soul, referring to their magical reserves. Inventory is also tracked, using a pool called Stash. There are three Bug templates available for you to choose: Small, Average and Large, with different benefits and drawbacks for each template. There’s over 100 pages of character traits and abilities, spells, charms and rituals, items and obstacles, which allow for complex character builds.

On the GM side, there’s links to info for settings and NPCs, as well as Lands Beyond, a supplement that allows you to create your own insect kingdoms and gives you four random roll tables to aid you in this creation. If you want to replicate your own little traumatized bug adventure, this game is absolutely for you!

Skyfarer, by Failbetter Games.

Queen Victoria has brought London into the heavens. The High Wilderness stretches out ahead of you; cruel, unwelcoming, and filled with opportunity. Here you make your living as a Skyfarer, working on board a locomotive jury-rigged to fly through these cold skies and raging winds. Your captain has taken you to the Reach, a frontier on the edge of civilization, in search of fame, fortune and adventure.

You will change out here, where the Empire’s light falters and casts deep shadows, where rebels stake their claim on fragments of sky-rock riddled with fungus, where pillagers dig into ruins built by the now-dead sun. 

Players form the crew of a spacefaring steam locomotive. Gunners, quartermasters, engineers, signallers – even mascots – are brought to the fore as the Captain is struck down by misfortune and the crew must band together to get out of (or into) many surprising kinds of trouble.

Using a simple dice-based system, Skyfarer allows players and game-masters to easily tell stories set in the Fallen London universe with plenty of climactic moments, tense stand-offs, and grim decisions. As characters risk life and limb, they’ll accrue Peril – the more Peril they have, the greater the chance of them meeting a grisly and permanent end.

This game uses both d6s and d10s, and leans more towards the narrative side: your character qualities are descriptive, and your abilities are abstract representations, titled Iron, Mirrors, Veils and Hearts. You’ll collaboratively come up with your starting situation, and include details like who your Captain is, what the current crisis is, and what kinds of Allies and Antagonists are involved. 

One thing that’s really unique about this game is that there’s a character that the GM must play - the Captain, someone who gives orders to others, but for the purpose of this game, can’t carry out their normal duties for some reason or another. Once you set up your characters and determine what your starting scenario looks like, you’re good to go!

5. Playtests.

Sometimes the playtest of a game is released free of charge, with all of its editing errors and without any art. These games won’t be perfect, but they contain rules, as much of the setting as the creator has managed to flesh out so far, and the spark of creativity that can pull you into a fantastic community. Get in early on a playtest and you might find yourself holding the early stages of something truly great - and you’ll get a sense of warmth knowing you got to be part of it.

Aeronauts: Flight After Fall, by Electric Purple Studios.

The world is covered in purple mist, the legacy of some cataclysm long past. Through the haze have risen several powerful city-states, built where the mist is thin enough that they are not constantly besieged by the fog’s lurking horrors. Now airships fly above the mist, and a new era of trade and conflict has begun to bustle in. The city-states, previously only in contact through small trading caravans, are now forced to face the reality of different cultures, different ways of life, and the possibility of war.

Aeronauts: Flight After Fall is a TTRPG of grand quests and small moments, of journeys from the tops of the clouds to the depths of the darkest tunnels. You and your friends tell the story of the crew of a small airship, trying to make their way in a world that is rapidly changing around you. Are you diplomatic envoys endeavoring to build connections, or are you a group of ragtag scoundrels simply trying to survive? It’s up to you.

Aeronauts uses a 3d6 system, and emphasizes narrative role-playing, similar to games like Apocalypse World and Blades in the Dark. When you roll, you add up your dice - a 15 is a critical success, 10-24 is a partial success, and a 9 or less is a failure. You will have access to a pool called Focus, which can add a bonus to your check, as well as tokens, which can be gained using certain actions and spent to alter certain types of rolls. Finally, there is a tool called Kismet, which allows characters to establish details within the narrative, either for their benefit or just to put their own personal stamp on part of the story. 

The rules as put out here are simple, but the ways you can use them and your characters go into much more detail, taking up 198 pages in total. There’s rules for different kinds of combat, examples of how to use certain parts of your character sheet, a delve into the lore, and pre-made characters who want to pick up the game sooner rather than later. There’s also a community Discord advertised in case you want to find other players, talk about the game, and get updates about changes as they happen. 

The Modern Eldritch, by Moondog Gaming Press.

The Modern Eldritch leads you into a world run by mega-corps headed by eldritch horrors who demand brand loyalty over blood sacrifice, wizards who believe themselves better than worldly governments, and non-profits who leverage vast intelligence networks to find donors. Players take on the roles of average citizens who have had their lives shattered by these systems, and now must journey through this world to fight for some sense of normalcy. 

The Modern Eldritch utilizes quick character creation, which revolves around crafting motivations and backstory; a wide skill set and freeform magic system which encourage roleplay and creativity to tackle obstacles; and a unique exhaustion system that invites players to gamble with their own sanity to increase their odds of success.

This PDF starts off with a quick introduction to the world and an outline of some basic concessions that the group should agree on before getting ready to play. Character abilities are ranked from a d4 to a d12, and character skills are ranked from 1 to 5. You’ll be rolling dice pools, and adding up the results to determine whether or not you succeed. You’ll also assign positive and negative elements to your character, to flesh them out and give them exploitable weaknesses - this is an eldritch horror game, after all. 

This game is also supported by a Discord server, and also provides a link to a Playtest Survey, where you can send in your feedback for future edits! My only complaint is that the PDF takes a little bit long to load - it takes patience!

6. SRDs - write your own game!

Maybe you have the perfect idea of a game in your head. Maybe you have a setting that you absolutely adore - you just need rules to tell you how to play a character in that setting. Maybe you really really like filling all of your free hours with matching character tropes to game stats and putting together character sheets and writing random tables…. maybe I’m just calling myself out here.

SRDs are tools to help you design your own game in your own setting using rules that have already been sorted out. They will contain advice about the kinds of games that were in the creator’s mind when designing the rules system, and steps through what a character will need. Creators often offer them up for free, out of the kindness of their hearts and the desire to see just how far people can take their rules and bend the genre.

Caltrop Core, by titanomachyRPG.

Ever wondered how to make your own TTRPG? Welcome to v1.0 of Caltrop Core, an introductory game design system using the humble and sharp d4! It's extremely simple and bare bones so anyone can make a game with it, regardless of your experience level! It can have as much or as little complexity as you like.

This game is extremely beginner friendly, and familiarizes you with the core dice-rolling mechanic before introducing you to character building blocks, ways to communicate genre and tone, and optional elements that help characters change the narrative. There’s also an entire collection of Caltrop Core games for you to check out (some of which are free to download!) that really show off what this system can do!

Titanomachy has also released Caltrop Core EX, which they refer to as a “director’s cut” of the regular SRD, and EMERGE8, an SRD that’s designed to help you create your game as you play it. It uses a d8 dice mechanic that takes inspiration from World of Darkness dice pools, as well as a few other tips and tricks that encourage collaboration between players and GM. 

VRBS SRD, by David Garrett.

VRBS is an ultralight system for creating highly improvisational role-playing games that reward creative, heroic action. It has a universal conflict resolution mechanic that requires a single six-sided die. In VRBS, characters are defined by what they do, not by abstract statistics. Characters can attempt anything that a creative hero would be able to reasonably accomplish and they either succeed or grow in the process.

The VRBS SRD is easy to understand and is excellent for games that need a tight session with an easy-to-predict end time. It uses only d6’s - the easiest-to-find dice - and sets up your characters to move through three scenes, plus one scene through each member of the group. Throughout the game, they will draw on a pool of Energy. If you finish the final Scene without depleting your Energy, you are sucessful! Run out of energy, you go home. Try again tomorrow.

Full disclosure, I have designed a game using this SRD before - Mischief by Moonlight, a game about small gods getting up to shenanigans inside a museum where their relics have been trapped. (Go ahead and download it for free!)

Finally…

Games I’ve recommended in the past!

Mothership, by Tuesday Knight Games.

IronSworn, by Shawn Tomkin.

Straight to VHS, by Lost Cat Games.

[dat-bruv-person]

hii, i dont know if u accept requests but if yes, i am interested in your work "oh to be harbinger"? I'm not sure now and I wanted to ask if you could write something in the style where Signora is like an older sister/friend for the reader and reader is dating dottore or pantalone? I'll leave the choice up to you, i just wanted to know how they will react when they see s/o is on the verge of a breakdown

if it's uncomfortable, feel free to ignore it and have a nice day, thank you <3

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ oh to be a confidante

a/n: this is a really nice request! Oh, and also don't be mislead by the title, it refers to Signora rather than the reader.

gn!reader, poc!reader friendly <3

_________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

Pantalone holds you by the waist tenderly, you on the verge of tears. The Harbinger's heart hurts to see you like this: you were always strong and firm, yet a joy to be around. You were fun to tease, and a good sport, which is what attracted him to you. However, this was all because of The Fair Lady: Lady Signora. When you first joined, you were completely different, but she moulded you to become a person of elegance and great strength, so you naturally became the Tsaritsa's favourite: the Tertia Rosa. Signora was your everything, had a deeper place in your heart than even your rich boyfriend. She was your first companion, the first to see you cry and the first to cheer you up. You were her everything, her confidante, her best friend, she vowed to be your older sister. Now you were crying because of her. Oh to be a confidante, you were supposed to trust and embrace each other, never to be the cause of the other's woes.

Poor Pantalone, all through the funeral he could see you were struggling, and through the sealing of Zapolyarny Palace you were practically crying, although tears didn't spill from your eyes. He went out to buy you gifts upon gifts, untied his hair to let you play with it, exchanged coats with you, got you a fluffier one, wiped your tears yet none of his actions seemed to affect you like Signora's did. You lay on your giant, king-sized bed in your mansion, eyes dull and glossy. You couldn't cry. Your boyfriend sat at your bedside with Arlecchino, who'd had a crush on you for quite some time now, but couldn't do anything but look jealously at you and Pantalone together. She could comfortably you wayy better than him. Who cheers a person up with gifts when you have physical affection to show??? Oh to be a confidante, others can replicate your affections and persona, yet they can never be them.

The Knave and Regrator watched with wide eyes as you obliterated Childe. You took out every single gram of your anger onto the ginger, every ounce of pain and anguish. You pretended he was the Shogun, your best friend's killer. She would be crushed like a bug, you made sure of it. You wielded your visions gracefully yet ruthlessly and with brutal strength. Childe might as well've been dead, because you were relentlessly dicing up his body as if he were onions, or apples for a small child to eat. (Pun intended). Oh to be a confidante, the things that you promise and vow to keep and never share to the world may be so deadly, one may commit suicide for the other.

You miss The Fair Lady. You miss Signora. You miss Rosalyne.

[darkmagickingdom]

How about some Oogie Boogie headcanons?

[cracks knuckles] Here we go

This is one I've shared before, but Oogie's one of very few villains who actually likes kids and is surprisingly good with them when he's not trying to scare them

His shadow actually has some magical qualities, but unlike Facilier's shadow, it can't act on its own. He pretty much just controls it and it perfectly replicates all the movements he makes

He can, however, do some neat things with it, such as making it appear in places it shouldn't be (like on the moon, apparently) and he can even make it turn solid to use as a decoy, though he hardly ever does this because it's hard to maintain

All of his supernatural abilities are pretty much just stuff that's meant to scare kids, since he's the boogieman

I have no idea how he does that Kirby thing, but he mostly uses it to eat or to stop people from fleeing

He's actually pretty intelligent as far as construction goes, and basically everything in his lair is something he built himself

His fixation with gambling was something he developed before he became Oogie Boogie -- he lived in a casino as an individual bug and became fascinated with gambling after watching the people who came there every day

His "brain" bug is an earwig, albeit one with unusually high intelligence to the point of having actually gained sentience, and the uncanny ability to control the minds and bodies of other arthropods

No one really has any clue why he can do this, but no doubt Dr. Finklestein would want to study him

He gets mad when people say mean things about bugs or squish them for no good reason

On the other side, he loves meeting people who like bugs, to the point where you could feasibly weasel your way out of getting eaten by him after he's captured you if you start saying nice things about bugs

He's fine with himself eating bugs however because I mean. bugs eating bugs is just nature

He has a sort of psychic link with the other bugs that make up his body, so if any of them get squished, he feels that

He uses different kinds of bugs for different purposes. Spiders and silkworms can fix holes in his body, venomous spiders and scorpions can sabotage his enemies, and fireflies can light up his surroundings

He originally took up singing and dancing as a way to kill boredom while banished, and got so into it that he created his own theme song

Since he was banished, most of the citizens of Halloween Town have forgotten he was real and he's become a sort of urban legend. Lock, Shock, and Barrel take advantage of this to get what they want and have made up a lot of things to add to the legend that Oogie can't actually do

Jack's one of the only citizens who actually knows the truth behind the legend. Even the Mayor only knows of Oogie via the trick-or-treaters' claims

He chose the name "Oogie Boogie" for himself and is super proud of it, which is why he refers to himself in the third person multiple times throughout the movie

The snake he uses as a tongue is not venomous, it's a kind of python native to Halloween Town. Basically a much smaller relative of the giant orange-and-black python that's used as a stocking during "Making Christmas"

The creature that lives in his dice often rigs the rolls in his favor, since he gets pretty mad with it if it gets him a bad roll

And some stuff related to the fan-Descendants

He gives really good hugs

He's one of the most loving and supportive parents on the Isle but you definitely wouldn't guess it from looking at him

This all stems from the fact that earwigs are one of those species of arthropods that actually watch over and protect their eggs/young

He "surprise adopted" Sam after seeing some of the other villains with their Descendants and feeling kind of left out of the whole thing

He's never disclosed exactly where Sam is from, but he's a full human with no biological relation to any of the other villains, so presumably he's from somewhere outside of the Isle of the Lost

Oogie getting his Descendant by kidnapping is a reference to the original myths of the Boogieman, in which he would kidnap children and throw them into a sack. This was also presumably the origin of Oogie's portrayal as a bunch of bugs in a burlap sack, since this legend lead to the Boogieman gaining a nickname that translates to "Sackman"

He got together with Facilier a little while after "adopting" Sam, but Facilier took to the role of Sam's other dad pretty well

He's really good at sewing and made a bunch of little toys for Sam based on different kinds of bugs -- that Sam still has because he's a sweetheart who loves his dad

He taught Sam how to talk to bugs and sometimes sends some of his own bugs along to school with Sam

He gets kind of cowardly when faced with someone who can actually defeat him, but he cares about Sam so much that he'll stand up for the kid against even the scariest villains

[velvetcoves]

some V3 relationship HCs :) (boys)

(f/n)= first name <3

-mod velv

K1-B0 (KIIBO)

★ I LOVE HIM-

★ anyway

★ Kiibo has a basic understanding of human nature, but there are things that he just.. doesn’t get

★ like.. why do you have so many cups?? don’t you need only a couple?

★ and yes, he supposes that rock shines, but why do you need it?

★ you’ll have to explain to him some of your nature, and most humans as well. he’s very interested in learning as much as he can :)

★ after he gets some of it, (which took a while), he’ll start collecting little things that remind him of you. like a crow

★ your reactions mean everything to him

★ if you have any games that require timing, i have one word for you.

★ Kiibo.

★ he can literally pass any levels you’re stuck on

★ did i mention he heats up?

★ even though he’s.. made of metal, he’s surprisingly very comfortable! however, there are times where some parts of him dig into you uncomfortably, but there are solutions :)

★ like sweaters!! and blankets

★ speaking of, i feel like Kiibo would have a love-hate relationship with winter

★ on one hand, he gets to see you in the snow, help you make a snowman, and keep you warm during the cold nights

★ but.. his body gets stuck more often.

★ and the metal gets cold quickly, and he doesn’t want you cold :(

★ but you just remind him of the sweaters and you’ve got a happy robot :)

KOREKIYO SHINGUJI

★ whenever you two go out, he always has to be touching you in someway

★ it’s never something big, and most times you don’t even notice him until later

★ more often than not, his hand finds its way to your back

★ it’s now a habit of his, to kind of lead you with that

★ if his hand isn’t at your back, i feel like it would be somewhere on your arm. like a linked arm, or he’s holding your hand so he doesn’t lose you in a crowd.

★ ok but his h a i r?

★ can i be a simp for hair

★ he definitely would let you, and only you play with his hair. like braiding it, brushing, etc.

★ i feel like he would rarely call you by your actual name, because he uses so. many. pet names.

★ “angel, could you grab that for me?”

★ “dearest, come here for a second.”

★ stuff like that smh oh to be called dearest by Kiyo

★ he’d tease you sometimes as well

★ if you’re shorter than him, he’d definitely hold things above his head so you couldn’t grab them. and if you’re taller than him, then oh boy. he’d hide stuff from you. not important things, but stuff you’d need only in that specific moment.

★ he also really likes to play with your fingers lol it helps him concentrate

★ ok but just imagine.. Kiyo in the middle of a conversation, you’re not really paying attention as you’re screwing around on your phone. suddenly, Kiyo’s soft fingers interlace between yours, giving your hand a squeeze before he begins to play with your index finger as he continues to talk. tracing the shape of it into his mind. almost like he wanted to make a copy of you.

★ he could never try to replicate you, though. you’re so perfect to him.

RANTARO AMAMI

★ TEASE KING. STEP ASIDE KOKICHI

★ Rantaro is definitely that dude that if you’re wearing a hat, he’ll pull it down over your eyes or he’ll just straight up steal it.

★ play with his hair plEASE-

★ his hair is soft, threads through your fingers rather easily, and smells like lime

★ y’all are that couple that has one’s head in their lap as they read or somethin, playing with the other’s hair.

★ he is also that dude that comes up behind you, covering your eyes with his hands as he whispers, “guess who?~”

★ Rantaro actually has pretty small hands, and they’re actually cold most of the time.

★ beware of him and his goddamn hands smh

★ he will definitely stick his hands under your shirt for “warmth” as he so says. you know that he just wants to see your reactions

★ he’s actually god at eyeliner, so if you need to wear some, he’s your guy. hey, the dude has sisters.

★ speaking of, his sisters absolutely ADORE you. usually when you go over to his house they just.. immediately snatch you for 99% of the time and Rantaro is just “😀”

★ he leaves you little doodles everywhere. like he’ll bring you a book you asked for, and like on the 120th page there’s a crow with heels and it's the funniest thing you’ve seen all day

★ he starts laughing when you bring it up, and eventually you both are just laughing so hard at it you can't breathe

★ he has so much fun when he’s with you. he can never repay you

SHUICHI SAIHARA

★ steal his hat steal his hat steal his-

★ Shuichi is flustered rather easily when it comes to you, so use that information to your advantage hehe

★ expect lots of cuddles from him, especially those back hugs. like the ones where he’ll come up behind you and wrap his arms around you, leaning his head on top of yours if you're shorter, or against your back if you’re taller.

★ he’ll let out a small sigh of content as he nuzzles into your form, trying to keep his face hidden.

★ he finds your voice so soothing, especially when you read to him? like watch this:

★ you two are working on one of his cases together. your job is reading out his notes from the scene, your voice a low murmur as he works away. you haven’t noticed that he’s just.. stopped writing, staring at his pen as he begins to play with it. scratchy handwriting is what his eyes rake over, an adoring smile plastered to his face as he just listens. eventually you notice he’s stopped. “..Shuichi?” your soft voice asks, and he jolts a bit, grasped from his daydream. “a-ah.. sorry (f/n).. continue?”

★ more often than not it's your murmurs that causes the sleep deprivation to slap him in the face and just be knocked tf out.

★ helping him with cases is one of your favorite things?? like Shuichi you’re so smart give yourself some credit?????

★ every morning he greets you with a small smile. even though he’s still really tired, he makes an effort for you :)

★ i love funky detective man smh

GONTA GOKUHARA

★ b,, baby man,,

★ if you’re terrified of bugs, he’ll try to keep his little friends away from you, he doesn’t want to scare you at all :(

★ if you don’t mind bugs/you like them, he’ll be overjoyed!!

★ he probably has a bug named after you

★ more often than not, you’ll find them in your room or on your things. usually they’re really gorgeous, he says they remind you of him that day :)

★ he tries to switch up the bugs you find each day, so it’s always a little surprise when you enter your own room

★ ask him to carry you

★ he wants to carry you.

★ pl e a se

★ Gonta is also really warm, and his hands are HUGE

★ expect so many head pats from him. he loves how small you are compared to him

★ boops from Gonta? boops from Gonta.

★ this man straight up craves your cuddles.

★ because of his body temperature and scent of pine, it’s not hard at all to fall asleep in his embrace

★ i feel like he wakes up rather early, so he gets the pleasure of watching you sleep

★ not in a creepy way! he thinks you look so.. peaceful. angelic, is more of the word.

★ he absolutely LOVES seeing you in his clothes. just the way the cloth envelopes your tiny frame, you with your adorable smile and sweater paws?

★ god he loves you sm

RYOMA HOSHI

★ when you two first got into a relationship, he rarely touched you.

★ he literally had no idea what to do

★ he lived all of his life on eggshells, scared of every coming day

★ and then you, his ray of sunshine, just came to him?

★ he’s just so lost

★ however, you knew what to do.

★ you basically taught him that no, you’re not going to disappear from his life at any given moment. you promise.

★ it took some convincing, but you got there.

★ anyway, he doesn’t show too much PDA, but he’s taken up the habit of grasping your sleeve when you two walk together

★ given the fact that you’re likely taller than him, this boy l o v e s your hugs.

★ the way you just envelope him in your loving embrace.. he feels like he doesn’t deserve it.

★ he might tell you so, but you quickly shut him up with a kiss or something :)

★ spooning spooning spooning-

★ he’s usually little spoon, but he’ll be big spoon if you want :)

★ Ryoma really likes being held by you. he feels like time stops, like all that matters is you in that moment.

★ he just feels so safe when he’s around you. he’s gotta get used to it

★ one time when you both went on a date, you accidentally found the main base of the stray cats in your town

★ they LOVED him and now you go there frequently to visit the cats

★ ya’ll definitely have a cat from there too smh you’re so cute

KOKICHI OUMA

★ at the earliest stages of your relationship, i have two words for you.

★ good luck.

★ you are not safe from Kokichi.

★ you are targeted by him.

★ anyway, i definitely feel like he would be so clingy with you.

★ he doesn’t care that you’re in public, he will latch onto you and be a nuisance.

★ holding onto your sleeve, holding your hand, latching onto your leg so you have to drag him around, full on trying to tackle you, etc.

★ p i g g y b a c k r i d e s

★ if you don’t want him to completely annoy you, just hoist him up onto your back for a ride

★ he LOVES it

★ i also feel like he wouldn’t really know what he’s doing at first.. you make him feel so many things, emotions that he thought were buried a long time ago. it’s a bit too much for him

★ patience is key with Kokichi. please just wait for him. he’ll catch up when he’s ready.

★ but when he does? and when you’ve convinced him you’re not leaving anytime soon?

★ you have the most caring and lovable man right at your side.

★ he’s.. so soft with you.

★ Kokichi absolutely adores being held by you. probably the most out of the V3 crew. he feels so secure, so sure of your relationship in those moments. he sleeps best when you’re around, which he desperately needs due the insomnia that plagues him most nights.

★ quiet cuddles are such a treasure to you. he’s usually silent during your cuddle sessions, his head either in the crook of your neck or buried in your chest, inhaling your scent so he can imprint it to his mind. it makes you more in love with him.

★ also DICE adores you-

KAITO MOMOTA

★ he is,, the biggest simp for you,,,

★ literally every single day, Kaito looks at you with the biggest grin on his face because every time he looks at you, he notices a new thing that makes him love you even more.

★ stargazing da te s✨

★ ^ these dates often end up with him going on a rant about the constellations and their movements, star types, etc. and you love him for it

★ his coat is so warm?? you wonder how he wears it 24/7

★ he absolutely LOVES it when you tackle hug him. he doesn’t even care if he was in the middle of a conversation, just feeling the sudden embrace of his s/o makes him melt.

★ those tackle hugs usually end up in him turning around and scooping you up, spinning you around before planting you back down and giving you a sweet kiss

★ PDA? he loves it

★ he NEVER would do anything that makes you uncomfortable though.

★ your PDA mostly consists of hand holding, hugs, all that soft stuff :)

★ he would definitely have to do a double take if you ever wore his jacket.

★ “hey (f/n)? where-“ and he’d just s t a r e at you, his face going ablaze in red

★ he’s like that Tamaki gif

★ yeah that one ^

★ more often than not, you get piggyback rides from him

★ the gentle rock of his body as he walks, his overall warmth, his scent of lavender.. it’s perfect to lull you asleep.

★ he wouldn’t have it any other way :)

[recentanimenews]

INTERVIEW: After 13 Years, Indie RPG Masterpiece Ruina is Finally Available in English

All screenshots of Ruina: Fairy Tale of the Forgotten Ruins taken by author

  This article was made possible through the invaluable contributions of translators Dink and bool, and further aided by context generously provided by writer, translator, and RPG Maker scene dweller Kastel (@kastelwrites). Sections from their answers were excerpted for this piece and edited for clarity and content.

  Last year, at the start of the pandemic, a lapsed member of the RPG Maker community known as Dink stumbled across a screenshot while trawling Japanese free game websites: a black obelisk standing in the midst of ruins. “This is going to make me sound like I've been huffing paint, but this image spoke to something quite visceral for me — like I'd been waiting to find this game. Something about the sepia tones, the light and shadows, the elegance of its very archetype. I knew I had to play it.” Dink had stumbled across Ruina: Haitou no Monogatari (Fairy Tale of the Forgotten Ruins), one of the most acclaimed free RPGs ever made in Japan. Released in the antiquated RPG Maker 2000 engine in 2008 by developer Shoukichi Karekusa, it retains a strong cult following and has even been translated into Chinese. Yet unlike its RPG Maker siblings Yume Nikki and Ib, Ruina is practically unknown in English-speaking countries. Dink decided to change that.  “Once I realized that it had yet to be translated into English,” he said, “it was like I’d become possessed.”

  Ruina is unique. A role-playing game that takes direct influence from tabletop games and gamebooks, it boldly defies conventions established by classic console role-playing games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Rather than controlling the main character across a top-down map, the player slowly uncovers a hand-illustrated map of nodes. Survival in the dungeon requires the use of ropes, pickaxes, and oil for your lantern, resources that are all expendable. Your party members are valuable not only for their combat skills but for their out-of-combat abilities: thieving, sneaking, even swimming. Most of all, Ruina allows for choice and consequence, a phenomenon far more common in western RPGs than Japanese RPGs. Say you stumble across treasure in a dungeon, but are ambushed by thieves who want the treasure for themselves. Do you give the treasure to the thieves? Stand your ground? Or attack the thieves before they can do the same to you? Since your ability to save in the dungeon is heavily rationed, you may find yourself having to choose between restarting a save or living with the messy outcomes of your choices.

    There’s something to Ruina that grounds it in the Japanese RPG tradition, rather than a straightforward riff on Wizardry or Might & Magic. Those earlier games gave you several choices as to building your party, but little in the way of story or character. Ruina is a far more curated experience. On starting the game, you’re offered four “backgrounds” that align you with certain other characters, just one year before Dragon Age: Origins would pull a similar trick. Rather than being given the full freedom to explore a sprawling world, your options are limited to navigating a single, contained dungeon. The characters available to be recruited into your party have defined personalities and quirks — some are already good friends of yours, others are insufferable, and still others have significant flaws that speak to the kind of person they are versus their gameplay function. These are NPCs out of the Baldur’s Gate school, given the illusion of life, rather than the team of personalized murderers you’d recruit in an Etrian Odyssey game.

  Very little else in the Japanese games scene is like Ruina. You could draw comparisons with games like Unlimited Saga and Scarlet Grace, representing the legacy of controversial SQUARE ENIX auteur Akitoshi Kawazu. You could similarly connect Ruina with Yasumi Matsuda’s experimental Crimson Shroud, which takes influence from tabletop to the point that it has the player rolling dice in-game. But Ruina is more accessible and polished than a Kawazu game, and far more fleshed out than Crimson Shroud. Even Etrian Odyssey, with its comparatively barebones story and characters, doesn’t quite compare. Ruina stands alone in the Japanese free games community, a legendary title that people respect but don’t fully understand how to replicate.

    A few days ago I reached out to Kastel, an academic, writer, and translator who is very familiar with Japan’s RPG Maker scene, about where Ruina fit in Japan’s wider field of indie games. “I know many people in the furige (free game) scene who love the game to death,” they said. “But they also found it to be a hard sell due to its unique, almost western take on the scene. The fact that the game is even this popular speaks to something.” Despite its crunchy mechanics and niche inspirations, the game is popular enough to have spawned light novels, an honor not unique to it (other RPG Maker games have accomplished the same) but certainly significant. Kastel drew a comparison between Ruina and Darkest Dungeon, another weird and uncompromising game that draws from both Japanese and western RPGs. “Ruina is sorta different from everything, but you also see dungeon crawlers get inspired by it,” they said. “Not all games take direct inspiration, but you can’t help but see a little bit of Ruina here and there.”

  So why did it take so long for anybody to translate Ruina? Dink isn’t the only person to try his hand at translating it into English; just last fall, another forum dweller placed an ad recruiting a translation team to tackle the game. The unfortunate reality is that translating text within the RPG Maker engine into English requires intensive and repetitive labor. “There’ve been tools developed by vgperson [a prominent translator of RPG Maker games] for RPG Maker 2000 and some other machine translation tools for newer games, but they all remain difficult to use for translators,” Kastel says. “The way games are scripted uses events inside the map and developers rarely name them. So not only do you need to edit it via the appropriate RPG Maker engine, but you also need to go through each event contextless unless the creator actually notes things down.” So, the enterprising Ruina translator doesn’t just need to translate all the text in the game into English. It isn’t even a question of whether or not to manually edit the game’s many pictures and custom menus into English by hand. It’s the sheer difficulty of navigating between thousands of (often poorly labeled) events and variables in the RPG Maker engine, ensuring not to introduce any new bugs or errors in the process, while also finding the time to do all of the above.

    Dink was assisted by a friend of his named bool, who played through the game alongside the translation process and gave invaluable advice and fixes. “Uncovering the mystery in the game's story sort of ran parallel with the translation of the game itself,” bool says. “As the story progressed, the characters would decipher and learn more about the lore of the eponymous ruins within the game, and as the translation progressed, the same held true for us. It really captivated me to be a part of this process, and I started to look forward to each new area that I could explore and each new morsel of the story I could understand.”

  Without bool’s efforts, it might have taken far longer to put together something workable. As it was, it took four exhausting months. “I worked long hours — 12+ hours a day, 6, sometimes 7 days a week on top of my day job — and very rarely used my free time on anything else,” Dink says. “I did manually input the text in RPG Maker 2000, which has raised some eyebrows because there are some very nice tools available for game translation that would have saved me a lot of time. However, a huge advantage of working directly in the editor is being able to see the game more or less as it appears to players. A Notepad file streamlines the basic translation process, but it also heavily obscures context, whereas the editor allows you to see what switches and variables are being used, what music is being played, and sometimes even helpful creator comments, all in the same relative order you'd experience it from within the game.” Dink had one more secret weapon up his sleeve: the experience of working with the RPG Maker engine as an adolescent. RPG Maker has a reputation of being a tool designed to churn out Dragon Quest clones with ease; but nobody knows the intense difficulty of forcing the engine to do something, anything, like a former RPG Maker developer does. 

    The English version of Ruina, as it currently exists, is a workable but inevitably compromised version of the game. Running the game requires installing the Japanese RTP pack of visual and audio resources for RPG Maker to function, along with the use of the EasyRPG player to provide English-language player name entry. There’s the matter of the custom menus, as well. Several of the menus have been replaced with functional English equivalents, but by Dink's own admission they could use an expert's attention to better compare to the original. Other pictures, such as place name displays, have yet to be replaced by English-language equivalents at all. And the strict character limits of RPG Maker 2000 led to some creative truncating when translating from Japanese to English, especially with item and skill descriptions.

  But the existence of an English-language Ruina, one that renders the whole game playable from beginning to end with a readable script, is a miracle. Speaking for myself, I started the long process of learning Japanese two years ago in part so that I could one day play this game, never expecting there might one day be an alternative. Others in the Japanese RPG Maker scene, knowing the brutal difficulty of translating a game made in the earlier engines, were shocked that a game of Ruina’s complexity and length was successfully translated at all.  Speaking for themselves, Dink and bool insist that their own story doesn’t matter much. What matters is the quality of the original game and the hard work developer Shoukichi Karekusa put into its creation. Anything else is an addendum, another version of the game that — while it cannot ever be the original — might at least make something resembling that original experience accessible to others.

    Frankly speaking, I think there’s something to that. The “true” version of Ruina will always exist in its original form, released for free by Karekusa in 2008. It stands as the defining work of a creator who sought to create a unique experience combining the appeal of console and tabletop roleplaying games, with no concessions to market sensibilities. A creator who not only released their baby on the internet for free, but insisted that a game like Ruina must always and ever be free. An austere monolith, it stands side by side with Yume Nikki, Ib, and even Cave Story as one of the great works to come out of Japan’s independent scene. Now any English speaker can pick up and play this new version of Ruina, and learn what that monolith is and where it leads to.

  You can download the English translation of Ruina here. For those who want to learn more about the Japanese RPG Maker scene, I recommend checking out Kastel’s page here.

  Are you a Ruina fan? Let us know in the comments! 

    Adam W is a Features Writer at Crunchyroll. When he is not working through exercises in Wanikani, he sporadically contributes with a loose group of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? You can find him on Twitter at:@wendeego

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a feature, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Adam Wescott

[ironicapparently]

AU Where some of DICE key members are the elite, powerful and rich students of Hopes Peak, such as Byakuya, Mondo, etc.

DICE is as said by Kokichi, a powerful organisation that can manipulate the world with a ring of a phone and with over 10,000 members. Started between the parents of the students but passed down to the actual kids because

A) If any sketchy business was caught between the Yakuza and The Togamis, it could alert people to sketchy business practices and such.

B) Not only would the adults be able to avoid suspicion but can guarantee a place at Hopes Peak Academy, a place where they could meet without suspicion and to have a secure future with bonds with other minor people that could be useful (like somewith a Talent like SHL Adviser).

C) DICE has a front of being a Prank Squad that pranks for fun or for hire and since if kids meet up to prank and act like Kids, that wouldn’t be to suspicion either and if attracts media attention it will have substitutes for the actual 10 Key Members (they are apart of Dice but a separate section).

Members would be:

Chihiro: Hear me out, he, in his own way, is probably one of the smartest and powerful people in Hopes Peak/World.

The man made an AI that is like an actual human with emotions and such, able to replicate human emotions (becoming Mondo), made the AI world and hacked into Hopes Peak’s files (probably a really secure place). This would be really useful, plus who would expect Chihiro to be apart of DICE, making him a good source of information for things around Hopes Peak.

Byakuya Togami: He is considered by ultimate standards to be special (which seems like a very hard feat) and is to inherit the a large company (worth billions probably). Excellent resources for a group like DICE.

He also hates boring things (seen in 1-2), so he would have a reason to want to join in on something petty or spread chaos. He also wouldn’t be suspected to be apart of DICE due to his attitude of being stuck up and having a low tolerance of people in general.

Kokichi Ouma: The leader of DICE and Ultimate Supreme Leader, there is obviously a reason he was chosen for this title and what better reason than to be the head of 10 of the most powerful people in Japan.

Since DICE is described as a Prank Squad of 10 misfits, people wouldn’t really think much behind weird things being attributed to the actual DICE (Powerful People) but the made up one.

Mondo Owada: (Since this is an AU, his brother gave him the title) He is the leader of Crazy Diamond, the biggest biker gang in Japan. This type of power can be useful for manipulating more lower class people to stay in line and can be good for intimidation tactics.

To be honest, if you heard Mondo was apart of DICE with Chihiro, you would probably laugh because the guy seems so serious and angry to be apart of a prank squad.

Celestia Ludenburg: Her ability to gamble could be used for a lot of useful things like she would need to understand probability and risk to Gamble in a way that won’t risk her, put on an act to appear whatever way she needs it to be in her favour and a good grasp on reading people.

This can come in handy with negotiation and such to make sure they have the upper hand in the deal, just intimidate people into giving information if needed, invest money into different stock safely or take the risky move and straight up gamble so actually money to increase their budget if needed.

She, like Byakuya, wouldn’t seems to be apart of a “prank squad” due to her style of clothing (impractical if you want to prank) and her act of being better than everyone.

“Imposter” Ryota : His ability to become anyone and not be doubted is a skill that would be valued in a company like DICE, his ability is probably the most useful for when it comes to spying on famous people in the world by pretending to be a family member or such.

Since he is currently being the ultimate Animator, he would seem unimportant to a prank squad like DICE and seems too serious about himself and his animation to do something like that.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu: Is apart of the Yakuza, a power group of people that could probably take care of any illegal activity needed, he is capable of self defence and intimidation.

He just doesn’t seem like someone who would be able to tolerate Kokichi and also doesn’t tolerate Kokichi that much.

Nagito Komaeda: Canonically, he is actual quite rich but is never mentioned on what his parents actually did. Though it can be implied that they were rich/important due to him getting kidnapped and held for ransom but are on the more quite type or not well known due to the kidnapper not knowing he had no remaining family to pay it off.

His luck can be a useful asset for risky plans and due to his luck keeping him alive no matter what it can probably minimise any death threating senecios. He is also seen to be good at planning,preparing due to his luck and his ideas and ability to find dangerous items (bombs, guns) .

Since he treats all ultimates the same, it can’t be seen that treats Kokichi or anybody better than the rest, but everyone in DICE are fully capable to treat Nagito like how everyone else does, if they want to or not.

Rantaro Amami: As the Ultimate Adventurer, he probably has made connections to different places around the world and is probably the only person in DICE to make an accurate map beside from 3 others. Due to his navigation skills, he can navigate around Hopes Peak without bumping into anyone using different passages (secret and non-secret) to evade and student or guards.

He treats everyone the same and is honestly seems way to chill to be bothered to prank people.

Key Note: He also the well needed Dad of Dice.

Kirumi Tojo: She is literally a maid that can do anything and is the secret Prime Minister of Japan, probably one of the most needed members to DICE due to her ability to do anything needed.

She acts too like a mom to be apart of DICE.

Key Note: She is the well needed Mom of Dice.

Dice was probably a group of pranksters till he was persuaded to be used for the connections between each family and corporations to avoid any suspicion from the media and that’s how it was created.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS:

PEKO PEKOYAMA FOR BEING STRONG AND CLOSE TO FUYUHIKO

GONTA GOKUHARU FOR BEING A STRONG MAN AND THE FACT HE PROBABLY KNOWS HOW TO POISON PEOPLE BECAUSE OF BUGS AND KNOWING OF THE ARE POISONOUS OR NOT AND BEING ABLE TO SMELL POISON SOMEHOW.

ISHIMARU ONLY BECAUSE HE SLIGHTLY KNOWS ABOUT DICE DUE TO MONDO AND CHIHIRO BUT THATS IT.

That’s it for now but yeah hope this is fine.

[dickshardblog]

Resistance is Futile

The virus is real. The virus is here. It is highly contagious and potentially deadly. I think we can debate about the severity and the origins of the virus later, or, we could debate it now, but while staying the hell away from each other and cutting off this thing's lifeline.

Okay, so, it's easy for me to have that opinion. I'm lucky. Kind of. Ish. I've kept my job. Kind of. Ish. My pay has actually been slashed pretty badly. Commission has been cancelled for April and May so I'm going to be getting base pay only. Okay, yeah, I know a lot of people only get base pay and I was one of them for a very long time, and I’m lucky to have gotten anything above and beyond that. But I have been getting paid above and beyond my base pay and I've grown accustomed to a new comfort level. The stimulus covers that for this month, so I’m not feeling it yet.  But I'm lucky to have kept my job and gained the flexibility to do it from home, which is something I've been lobbying for to management for the past four years, anyway.

But the immediate lifestyle adjustments? Fuck, man. This is heaven. Sequestration is magical. I have a valid reason now for telling people to stay the fuck away from me when before I was just an asshole. I never had any desire to go anywhere anyway — and now I have the perfect excuse, and zero guilt. It's fucking fantastic.

Okay, so, I like the lockdown. It's not hard for me. I'm working from home, which is perfection. I want my commission pay back, my performance-based earnings, but aside from that, we can keep this lockdown going for everyone capable of working remotely for just as long as … well, forever. We can just keep this up forever.  

I don't miss anything.  I don't miss eating out. I don't miss going out. In fact, I just had to go out, and it was sheer hell. I needed a VGA cable immediately, so I ordered one from Best Buy for curbside pickup. Traffic is fucking stupid. Fucking assholes everywhere. Nobody at Best Buy was wearing a mask or gloves, and they're walking up to customers' cars handing them merchandise, talking to each other in close quarters.  The guy who handed me my purchase weighed at least four hundred pounds. If he gets this virus, he's pretty likely dead. This thing isn't kind to the morbidly obese. Unfortunately, most of central Indiana is morbidly obese.

Okay, so, all cards on the table, I have ulterior motives. I like things shut down. So, of course I'm going to champion this course of action. But I also just think it's the right thing … nay, the ONLY thing to do right now. The death toll will likely be at or very near 45,000 by the time I post this, and it is climbing steeply on a daily basis. And that's with all of the extreme social distancing most of us are practicing right now. If we hadn't done this, if we hadn't shut down, we'd be over 200,000 deaths, easy, and it would be fucking chaos out there. Hospitals would be beyond capacity, mayhem would ensue. I have no proof of that, it's just what I think. I can't prove something that I think would have happened under different circumstances.

I'm not terrified of this thing. I'm being respectfully cautious. This is a formidable enemy. My goal is to not get it, to avoid it completely. That way I don't roll the immune system dice on this disease at all, and I maintain a zero fault status in the spread of the virus. If I can pull that off, that will be a perfect game, I win. But this thing is highly contagious, and it is in my city, and it is inside far more people than the daily news numbers show because hardly anyone is being tested. Also, a lot of people get it, and they are just fine. If I get it, I will likely be okay. But, that's not a guarantee. There is a risk. People say the mainstream media is collectively sensationalizing this. Well, of course they are, in their way. Of course they're playing it up for ratings, that's what they do.  

But I don't think they are making it sound worse than it is. I was watching a news broadcast and they said that eighty-six percent of the people under fifty who died of COVID-19 had an underlying health condition such as an autoimmune disorder, obesity, diabetes, high-blood pressure, asthma, or being a smoker. First of all, those are all pretty common. That's a lot of at-risk people. But second, that's what they did say. Eighty-six percent of those under fifty who died had an underlying health condition. But what they didn't say, and what I heard was this: Fourteen percent of the people under fifty who died of COVID-19 did NOT have an underlying health condition. That sounds fucking scary.  Yes, that is still a small number. Most of the people who die from COVID-19 are over eighty years of age. So, the percentage of people who died who are under fifty is low, and it's fourteen percent of that number … but still. That's otherwise healthy young people with no underlying health conditions who are dying. Greater risk for the elderly doesn't equal zero risk for the young. That's not how math or statistics work.  

I've watched videos online from real people. Nurses on the front lines in the hardest hit cities describing chaotic and dangerous conditions in hospitals. People who got the disease pretty badly, but recovered, recounting their terrifying near-death experiences. Yes, a lot of people have a sniffle and a cough. Yes, some people remain asymptomatic throughout the life of their infection, remaining symptom free, but still allowing the virus to replicate in their bodies so they can spread it. But this thing just slaps the fuck out of some people, and sometimes kills them, for no reason. Not because they're old, or sick, or have an otherwise compromised immune system, but they’re just simply unlucky. I mean, maybe there’s something we don’t know. Perhaps they all have something in common, some underlying factor that hasn’t been identified as a risk. That’s surely possible. But still — do you have it, this factor? Do I? 

But fear of getting infected isn't the main reason to distance and hunker down.

We should stay locked down and we should try our best not to spread it because it's extremely contagious, and there is a pretty large section of our society, who, for various reasons, really shouldn't be put into battle with this virus. A lot of them don't have a chance, and we, as a society, need to do the right fucking thing and keep this bug as far away from them as we can. And if caring about the sick and elderly is outside of your capacity, just know that you aren't safe, either. It could kill you, too. Fourteen percent of the people under fifty who died from COVID-19 did not have an underlying medical condition or compromised immune system. I'm sure they all thought they would be fine.

I have learned the following by reading articles written by experts in the field.

There are eight strains of SARS-CoV-2 circulating the globe right now that cause the disease COVID-19. No one strain is deadlier than another, they are all very similar to each other. SARS-CoV-2 is not likely to rapidly mutate and go airborne or get into the water supply. Its current method of transmission from human to human is so effective it has no immediate need to try to adapt or evolve. If and when it does need to evolve to try to bypass our eventual vaccine, it will take it a while. Coronavirus evolves, or mutates, at a slow rate, about four times slower than influenza.

I should be citing this stuff, but this is a blog, not a peer-reviewed paper. This isn't shit I've discovered through testing and examination,  and I’m not trying to formulate my own hypothesis. I’m no expert in any of this, I'm just repeating shit I've found from articles that were well-sourced, and anyone can find them by Googling this stuff and seeing where I found it. But I digress, as I am wont to do.  Anyway, more science facts.

SARS-CoV-2 spreads from human to human in both large droplets and aerosol that exit the body during a cough, sneeze, panting, heavy breathing, etc. Any method that would allow moisture to escape the mouth on the breath. The virus can hang suspended in mist for up to three hours and remain active. The virus can live on paper and cardboard for up to 24 hours, and can live for up to 72 hours on plastic, stainless steel, and other smooth shiny surfaces.

So, on a relatively humid day, and, I know, how many of those are we going to see in mid-Spring, right? On a relatively humid day, an infected person sneezes. That infected aerosol can join with the water already in the air, and just float around ready to be breathed in for up to three hours. So, sure, stay six feet away, but if you move into a space someone else was just standing, you're now breathing in what they just breathed out.

I don't care who says what about masks.  I don't need someone to explain to me how and why masks work. I get that the virus is small and can pass through very small openings and to be fully effective a mask would have to be rated to work against particles as small as the virus, which in this case is N-95. But I also understand that if you're sick and you cough and you're wearing a piece of cloth over your face, you're going to greatly decrease the chances that you're going to spread the virus. Yes, small aerosols will make it through, but a lot of the germs will be caught and never enter the atmosphere. So, yeah, masks are prudent. Any of us could have it, and we should try not to spread it in case we do.

I am lucky and I get to stay in my house. I don’t know what lies I’d be telling myself if I had to go out in the world every day like nothing has changed and do a thankless job. Everyone still out in the world and not practicing social distancing will probably get this. I may get this, despite my best efforts. Most of us will be okay. Some of us won’t. 

[vgoccasion]

Reader Mail November 2017

Welcome to the first edition of Reader Mail! Thank you to everyone who wrote in with a question for me. Let’s get started!

VGO: Thank you for writing in James! Please take my answer with a large grain of sea salt, as I am not well-versed in World of Warcraft or MMOs in general.

While I think it is easy to categorize anything that Activision does as a cash grab (they are a profit-motivated publisher after all!), I think that the introduction World of Warcraft: Classic begs for deeper analysis. Blizzard telegraphed this move back in April 2016 when they shut down the largest private server, Nostalrius, which itself was a fan operated instance of vanilla WoW. Blizzard acted completely in its rights to stop that fan project (which violates their copyright) and start their own in-house Classic or “vanilla” WoW servers makes sense. Clearly there is a market of players who are nostalgic for the game in its much simpler form. (Sourced this information from an April 11, 2016 article on Polygon.com: “World of Warcraft fans bid farewell to largest legacy server before shutdown” by Allegra Frank)

As someone partially addicted to Hearthstone, I would love a third “classic” or “vanilla” ladder to check out that would limit players to cards as they existed at launch. I imagine that less sophisticated WoW fans may feel the same way. I trust Blizzard to make experiencing WoW: Classic extremely simple. Having not played more than 6 hours of the game in my life, I am not sure that I could find or access Nostalrius. So this sounds like a win for accessibility at the very least.

My train of thought next moves onto the track of game archival and history. I am only cursorily aware of efforts to keep other deactivated online games up-and-running on private servers. As more games become online services, it will be important to empower someone to preserve games on backup servers so they can be studied for historical context and inform the budding game developers of the future.

This phenomenon popped up just recently with the news that Sony and Altus would shut down the online servers for Demon’s Souls next February after 9 years of supporting the game’s online aspects. That game has spawned its own subgenre of action game (“Souls-like”). Exploring early experiments in game design that have had measurable impact on industry trends is crucial. Demon’s Souls online innovations included showing locations where other players perished and allowing people to leave cryptic messages and warnings for each other. These mechanics have continued on in FromSoftware’s Dark Souls and Bloodborne games, but soon curious players will lose the ability to explore their origin. This news acts as a reminder that games reliant on an internet connection are far less permanent than their offline, physical counterparts.

With a game as old as World of Warcraft — it turned 13 this November— the differences between the basic experience of 2004 and the version available in 2017 must be gargantuan. It is one thing to read about the quality of life changes or watch videos of the game in its original state, and wholly another to actually get hands-on with it and experience the flaws and differences yourself. If just for the sake of game archival and education, I am glad Blizzard is creating Classic servers in-house.

Overall, I think the move is primarily public relations management to try to appease fans who may feel alienated by the closure of private WoW servers. This story nicely echoes Nintendo stepping in to shut down Another Metroid II Remake, better known as AM2R, shortly before announcing the game at the center of this month’s issue, Metroid: Samus Returns, Nintendo’s own remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus. So, cynical cash grab? Only to the extent that protecting one’s copyright and providing a service people have demonstrated demand for can be labeled cynical.

VGO: I have indeed played a small amount of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. The game does a great job of replicating the surface-level appeal of the series. The music, character design, and dialogue all drip with charm. I got serious flashbacks to my time with the GameCube and DS iterations of the game from the title screen alone. I cracked a huge smile when K.K. Slider greeted me at the start of the game.

Nostalgia and aesthetics aside, I have a fundamental problem with the game’s premise, which has held me back from truly enjoying it. The furniture sets all include couches, dressers, chairs, etc. and while I think the design of each set is visually interesting, it feels extremely strange and stupid to set all of this real furniture outside at a campsite. The items you can craft in this game belong inside a cute house. Period.

Dumb gripes aside, I think the nightmarish memes the game has created in its first week of full release point towards the creativity (and unsettling mindset) of its audience. I hope the game grows over time. The game feels incredibly casual, and I could see myself checking in on it from time to time.

The worst sign for my future with the game is that I already find my interest in logging in on a daily basis waning. The core “gameplay” loop centers around a series of checklists, timers, and meters. None of the mechanics show depth enough to interest me in fishing or bug catching for the challenge, as there is absolutely none.

Overall I would give the game a hesitant recommendation, just to experience the quick spark of joy that comes from exploring a new Animal Crossing game. Sadly, that spark failed to grow into an inviting campfire worth gathering around.

David O.: “Query: Have you an opinion on the new Battlefront game, and what do you think of all the negative publicity around it?”

VGO: I will start answering this question by alienating a large amount of my potential readership: I am not that big of a Star Wars fan. I think 5 of the 8 movies are good. I find the lore and universe interesting, but I don’t think it is the coolest shit of all time. So as a nerd with a less than passing interest in the franchise, I would have been happy to ignore Battlefront II and let it sell like gangbusters.

Sadly for the three development teams behind the game (Dice, Criterion, and EA Motive) the press cycle prior to the game’s release consisted almost entirely of stories focusing on outrage over the predatory loot box design in the game. The entire controversy is too lengthy to present in whole here, but online complaints won the day and EA announced they were putting the microtransactions on hold until further notice. This news story acted as a major distraction from any positive buzz the game may have generated.

In terms of the actual reviews, it seems like game has received mixed reception with some reviewers disparaging the quality of the much touted (and John Boyega requested) single-player campaign. Alternatively, some Star Wars fans have been effusive about the quality of the multiplayer and the outstanding detail of the game’s visual and audio design.

The negative fan, consumer, and press reactions have directly impacted EA’s wallet. The game’s UK sales were reportedly 61% lower than its 2015 predecessor in their respective first weeks. The game still hasn’t broken into Amazon.com’s “Best Sellers of 2017 in Video Games” list. The poor sales and backlash against the loot boxes has caused an 8.5% month to date drop in EA’s stock price, costing their investors $3 Billion in value (according to CNBC).

Call to Action Time!

December is Game of The Year month, and I would love to hear everyone’s personal anecdotes about how they played games in 2017! Which game grabbed your attention the most? Which game surprised you? What are your games of the year? Write in by tweeting your answers @vgoccasion or emailing them to vgoccasion@gmail.com. I need your help and input to make each issue of Video Games! (Occasionally) great.

[andreacaskey]

4% of the Google index hit by de-indexing bug, Moz data shows

About 4% of indexed pages were likely affected by Google’s de-indexing bug, according to new data from Moz that comes as Google on Thursday night claimed to have fixed the de-indexing bug at last.  saying about 4% of the Google index was impacted by this bug.

What happened? On Thursday afternoon pages started dropping out of the Google index. Google on Saturday said they resolved the issue but then on Sunday retracted the statement saying it was not fully resolved. Last night at 9:30 p.m. EDT, Google once again said it was resolved.

The data set. Moz said it believes about 4% of the Google index was impacted, according to Moz Marketing Scientist Pete Meyers, who published the data Thursday. However, Moz was able to only look at 23,237 stable URLs in its data set. That’s just a minuscule fraction of an index that encompasses trillions of URLs, so isn’t necessarily an indication of the impact across the entire index.

“I’d like more, certainly, but the pattern seems consistent even as we slice and dice the data, which helps. I feel comfortable that this is a set we know well, historically. Happy to share methodology details for anyone who wants to try and replicate,” Meyers said.

To be transparent, we asked numerous other data providers and none of them were able to give us the answer either because of limited resources, they didn’t have proper data to analyze the impact or they didn’t get our request.

4% of the index impacted. The data showed about 4% of the URLs in Google’s index was impacted. We asked Google numerous times to share their figure and we have yet to hear back from them on this, so we will go with Moz’s data. In the chart below from Moz you can see a distinct drop on Friday, April 5th, with a recovery, and then a similar drop on Sunday, April 7th.

According to Moz, the day-over-day drop on April 5 was 4.0%, followed by a recovery, and then a second, very similar, 4.4% drop.

Here is a zoomed in view from Moz:

You can see a lot more views of this data on the Moz blog.

Why it matters. Not every site was impacted by this de-indexing bug. So the 4% figure does not mean your site saw 4% of its pages drop out of the Google index. It can mean you saw zero pages drop out of the Google Index or it can mean you saw 50% of your pages drop out of the Google index. Each site is unique and each site can be impacted differently by this bug.

You can check Google Search Console’s coverage report to see your indexed pages and how they may have changed. In fact, Google documented that due to this indexing bug, you may see changes to the reports. Google wrote “April 5, 2019: Because of internal management of our Search index, some pages of your websites might have been dropped from our index for a period of a few days without any action on your part. The matter is currently being resolved, no action from your side is needed.”

What can we do about? Probably nothing. Google fixed the bug. We were lucky the bug was over a weekend when Google searches are typically lower than the average. If anything, this is a reminder to not put all your eggs in one basket and diversify your traffic.

Still not fully indexed? Many are still complaining they are not fully indexed. Google does not index all of the web, they haven’t done this ever and in the past several years have said they don’t aim to index all the URLs on the web. To do that, it would be inefficient and not useful. Google’s John Mueller recently said if your pages are not index, that is normal:

One thing to add here – we don’t index all URLs on the web, so even once it’s reprocessed here, it would be normal that not every URL on every site is indexed. Awesome sites with minimal duplication help us recognize the value of indexing more of your pages.

— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) April 7, 2019

So if your pages are still not indexed, maybe go to Google Search Console’s URL inspection too and try to submit specific URLs to Google that way. If there is an issue, the URL inspection tool may communicate the issue.

The post 4% of the Google index hit by de-indexing bug, Moz data shows appeared first on Search Engine Land.

4% of the Google index hit by de-indexing bug, Moz data shows published first on https://likesandfollowersclub.weebly.com/

[lindarifenews]

4% of the Google index hit by de-indexing bug, Moz data shows

About 4% of indexed pages were likely affected by Google’s de-indexing bug, according to new data from Moz that comes as Google on Thursday night claimed to have fixed the de-indexing bug at last.  saying about 4% of the Google index was impacted by this bug.

What happened? On Thursday afternoon pages started dropping out of the Google index. Google on Saturday said they resolved the issue but then on Sunday retracted the statement saying it was not fully resolved. Last night at 9:30 p.m. EDT, Google once again said it was resolved.

The data set. Moz said it believes about 4% of the Google index was impacted, according to Moz Marketing Scientist Pete Meyers, who published the data Thursday. However, Moz was able to only look at 23,237 stable URLs in its data set. That’s just a minuscule fraction of an index that encompasses trillions of URLs, so isn’t necessarily an indication of the impact across the entire index.

“I’d like more, certainly, but the pattern seems consistent even as we slice and dice the data, which helps. I feel comfortable that this is a set we know well, historically. Happy to share methodology details for anyone who wants to try and replicate,” Meyers said.

To be transparent, we asked numerous other data providers and none of them were able to give us the answer either because of limited resources, they didn’t have proper data to analyze the impact or they didn’t get our request.

4% of the index impacted. The data showed about 4% of the URLs in Google’s index was impacted. We asked Google numerous times to share their figure and we have yet to hear back from them on this, so we will go with Moz’s data. In the chart below from Moz you can see a distinct drop on Friday, April 5th, with a recovery, and then a similar drop on Sunday, April 7th.

According to Moz, the day-over-day drop on April 5 was 4.0%, followed by a recovery, and then a second, very similar, 4.4% drop.

Here is a zoomed in view from Moz:

You can see a lot more views of this data on the Moz blog.

Why it matters. Not every site was impacted by this de-indexing bug. So the 4% figure does not mean your site saw 4% of its pages drop out of the Google index. It can mean you saw zero pages drop out of the Google Index or it can mean you saw 50% of your pages drop out of the Google index. Each site is unique and each site can be impacted differently by this bug.

You can check Google Search Console’s coverage report to see your indexed pages and how they may have changed. In fact, Google documented that due to this indexing bug, you may see changes to the reports. Google wrote “April 5, 2019: Because of internal management of our Search index, some pages of your websites might have been dropped from our index for a period of a few days without any action on your part. The matter is currently being resolved, no action from your side is needed.”

What can we do about? Probably nothing. Google fixed the bug. We were lucky the bug was over a weekend when Google searches are typically lower than the average. If anything, this is a reminder to not put all your eggs in one basket and diversify your traffic.

Still not fully indexed? Many are still complaining they are not fully indexed. Google does not index all of the web, they haven’t done this ever and in the past several years have said they don’t aim to index all the URLs on the web. To do that, it would be inefficient and not useful. Google’s John Mueller recently said if your pages are not index, that is normal:

One thing to add here – we don’t index all URLs on the web, so even once it’s reprocessed here, it would be normal that not every URL on every site is indexed. Awesome sites with minimal duplication help us recognize the value of indexing more of your pages.

— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) April 7, 2019

So if your pages are still not indexed, maybe go to Google Search Console’s URL inspection too and try to submit specific URLs to Google that way. If there is an issue, the URL inspection tool may communicate the issue.

The post 4% of the Google index hit by de-indexing bug, Moz data shows appeared first on Search Engine Land.

4% of the Google index hit by de-indexing bug, Moz data shows published first on https://likesfollowersclub.tumblr.com/