#now improved with Game Accurate Dialogue

[the-meme-monarch]

real ones remember when i originally drew this. it’s okay if you’re not one of the real ones, here it is

[04tenno]

HI HELLO that clip is really something! First off I really appreciate all the translation stuff you're doing and the character analysis posts they give me life AH. I don't want to be that guy tm but do you mind breaking down the part you put down as "Well [we're thinking] that he lived...that's no joke" ? To me, it sounds like there's a lot of incomplete thoughts/sentences, but at the same time I'm a little hard of hearing so might not be getting all of it.

This isn't trying to call you on anything, I'm interested in improving my own Japanese as well and I really would love seeing the breakdown !

First of all, thank you so much for writing in! While I'm pleased with the reception, it's quite rare to get comments on the translations themselves (perhaps understandably so, the work of a translator should be and often is "invisible"), so I'm thrilled to have your support! I'm also always happy to see others enjoy my Unmitigated Braindumping to Snap recently.

And you're more than welcome to be That Guy™ because I was hoping for a chance to talk about this! As I mention in the disclaimer at the start, it's really difficult to make out what's being said in some parts. The commentary and gameplay is almost at equal volume and there's crosstalk both with the commentators and with the in-game dialogue.

That's sort of why I had to have the clip professionally transcribed (although my initial point of interest wasn't what was in the clip I shared; I actually glossed over Yokoyama's comment entirely at first and only noticed it in the transcript). Even then I had to fill in some of the blanks myself, which I only managed because I have some much-needed context on the series and commentators.

There's also the matter of stylization. In this case, I was going for natural human speech rather than a literal translation, but I also had the constraint of having to make everything fit to one line (or about thirty characters). I'll go into those aspects as they come up.

Anyway, without further ado, let's break it down!

The clip in question for context. To stay on-topic, I'm only covering what Yokoyama said from 00:18 to 00:36. I'm starting a bit earlier than the point you mentioned, but the context is important to establish in terms of how I chose to translate what was said.

[00:18–00:25] Yokoyama: [知]ってんだよ・・・　勝ってんだけどさ・・・　こんなに簡単にさ・・・　まぁ、ちょっと。

Interestingly enough, the transcriptionist and I had significantly different ideas on what was being said here because he's sort of slurring his words at the start of those first two lines. As a cohesive whole, though, I believe my interpretation here is accurate.

「知ってんだよ・・・」 -> Literal: "I know..." (emphatic, explanatory) -> Final: "I know..." Easy enough to pin down and translate, as he's already repeated this phrase multiple times at this point.

「勝ってんだけどさ・・・」 -> Literal: "[Someone/Something] won, you see..." (emphatic, explanatory, with the slight nuance of introducing an idea) -> Final: "He won me over..." The trickiest line, because it's very difficult to make out the 「か」 sound at the start. This is where I had to rely on context, because while most verbs starting with a sound in the 「あ」 column simply didn't make sense with the surrounding lines, that in and of itself doesn't narrow it down to one possibility. So I had to consider what Yokoyama might be wanting to express here that could be considered a newly-introduced idea within the context of the conversation, and I recalled that at the time the tweet at the end of the video was posted, Yokoyama had "denied allegations" that he liked Mine. His views in the past would come as a surprise to anyone talking to him now, particularly when he always speaks highly of Mine, so the nuance works. Then the association formed of him being "won over" by Mine, so that's what I ended up going with. He technically doesn't say who or what "won," or in what sense, but I think it's fairly clear.

「こんなに簡単にさ・・・」 -> Literal: "This easily..." (emphatic, explanatory) -> Final: "Just like that..." Pretty straightforward. It connects directly with the previous line, so the verb had to be something that can be (and was) done easily. Although he "denied allegations" at the time, a decade ago now, he's warmed up to Mine (and Hijikata) considerably. So as mentioned before, these three lines form a cohesive whole, which you get the sense of from their similar structure.

「まぁ、ちょっと・・・」 -> Literal: "Well, [sort of/a little/a little while]..." -> Final: "Oh, well..." I'll explain this one further below, because it's not an independent phrase, but the start of the next thing he says. It should be noted that the fact he takes so long to finish this thought shows that he's taking his time to consider his words carefully. But for now, all I felt I needed to do here was make the "bridge" clear by ending this line and starting the next one with the same word.

I did say I'd only cover what Yokoyama said, but as an aside, Santo(?)'s line drives me insane. I hate, hate, hate leaving anything as [unintelligible], but even the transcript was of next to no help here.

[00:29–00:32] Yokoyama: ちょっと生きてましたでさ、やっぱ獅童さん呼ぶのも辛いじゃん。

Now we're getting to the meat of it. And by a stroke of pure luck, there are no ambiguities here at all on what's being said, so I won't keep you waiting!

「ちょっと生きてましたでさ、」 -> Literal: "And [he's] been alive for a bit," (emphatic, explanatory) -> Final: "Well, [we're thinking] he lived," The nuance of 「ちょっと」 here is arguably the trickiest part. Of course, in my translation, I opted to emphasize the bridge between the two thoughts instead of fully interrogating the "meaning" of 「ちょっと」, but it is really worth taking a closer look at. Because in one sense it's sort of a filler word, a buffer. But in another sense, weighing the potential meanings of 「ちょっと」 against each other here is crucial in understanding who he's talking about and what he means. In this context, it can only be describing either time or certainty, and the emphatic, explanatory nature of 「で」 and 「さ」 cancels out the idea of it being a matter of certainty. That's why I've been hammering that in so much. So if instead it's about time, saying this about Nakamura, saying "he's still alive and therefore can participate in RGG," would be incredibly weird, disrespectful, and out-of-character for Yokoyama. So it can only be about Mine. It can only about how long it's been since they came to the conclusion he's alive, and, in a sense, how much thought they've put into it. This is sort of where the issue with character count came up; I wanted to say "we've been thinking" to convey these ideas, but I just didn't have the space. But that's an addition by me based on an inference, because I didn't want anyone to, as I mentioned in my original tags, expect too much. The most important takeaway is that Yokoyama says in no uncertain terms that Mine is alive. And I didn't include this because it goes by incredibly fast and I wanted to keep the spotlight on what Yokoyama was saying, but Santo(?) agrees. It's not Yokoyama's personal opinion (which he typically qualifies extensively even if it's for something that doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things, like Kiryu being a virgin in his view). It's a fact that's known to RGG Studio. Mine is alive. It's just a matter of whether we'll see him again and when.

「やっぱ獅童さん呼ぶのも辛いじゃん。」 -> Literal: "Still, inviting Shido-san back would also be tricky, right?" (assertive, inviting agreement) -> Final: "But getting Shido-san back, that's no joke." Very straightforward. He does slur his pronunciation of 「辛い」 as 「つれぇ」, but that's undoubtedly what he's saying. (Side note, a number of his characters also talk like that; some at RGG Studio say the "Yokoyama-ism" comes through at times.) What I'd like to point out here is the usage of 「も」, or "also." The implicit meaning is that getting Nakamura back is tough, but it's tough in addition to something else. Because of what he says next, I believe that "something else" is figuring out how to write Mine back in and do him justice. This wasn't particularly important to me to convey in the translation, because I thought it was fairly clear, but maybe I should've? It really frustrates me that so many people automatically jumped to the conclusion that this would be an arbitrary, poorly-thought-out decision despite Yokoyama acknowledging that it wouldn't be. I guess a number of people didn't watch that far into the video, though.

[00:33–00:36] Yokoyama: だから、その、やっぱ・・・　やるならガチなんだよね。

Final stretch, let's go!

「だから、その、やっぱ・・・」 -> Literal: "So, [if we do] that, of course..." (emphatic) -> Final: "That being the case..." Again, very straightforward. Elevating the level of assurance conveyed in the sentiment as a whole.

「やるならガチなんだよね。」 -> Literal: "If we do it, we'll have to do it in earnest, won't we?" (emphatic, inviting agreement) -> Final: "If we do it, we'll do it right." This is one of the most important things in the entire video. Of course there's the openness to actually going for it, that's important in and of itself, but the emphasis on doing it right? That's something people always miss. Because if they want to get Nakamura back, if they want to write Mine back into the series, they DO have to do it right. And they want to! It's just ridiculous to me to see people gloss over this completely. Like, I was the one who "broke the news" about Lau, one of the people who broke the news about Kashiwagi, but none of these were decisions made lightly. Yokoyama is the first person to shut down "fanservice" for its own sake, and I know that because I've seen him do it time and time again with my own two eyes, even if it would be relatively benign like having Mack show the player how to use Photo Mode in Ishin or having Akiyama show up in Kiwami. When he makes these decisions it's because they've been weighing on him for over a decade. He was literally talking about how he wrote RGG Mobile as an "apology" to Kashiwagi for killing him off in 2013. It took him ten years to get to the point where he was willing to bring Kashiwagi back, but people act like he just flipped a switch, and it's simply insanely out of touch with how things are actually done at the studio. And perhaps I'm in the minority here, but Kashiwagi's death WAS a waste and bringing him back couldn't have been handled any better, in my opinion. I can see their commitment to "doing it right" because they have.

Sorry to get so heated at the end (honestly, I'll probably never be "done" talking about this), but I hope at the end of it all, I've answered your question adequately! For such a short clip, there really is a lot going on, so there was a lot of ground to cover. Feel free to send follow-up questions if you have any, I'd be happy to expand on anything I may have missed (although, with any luck, I haven't missed much).

[fearowkenya]

Cold-blooded, ruthlessly efficient, and cruel in its methods. These are words that can be applied to an alligator, sizing up its target as it lurks beneath the surface and waits for the perfect opportunity to drag it into the depths. The same words can equally apply to Shuuji’s father, who never stops watching his every move, judging Shuuji for missteps he doesn’t even know he’s making as he tries to live up to unclear and impossible expectations.

Stressed, scared senseless, and operating entirely on adrenaline. These are words that can be applied to somebody attempting to escape from an alligator, desperate for a shred of hope. The same words can equally apply to a participant in a game of capture the flag, where one team’s lone survivor fights for their life in hopes that a singular small success will turn the tides.

Shuuji gets a weird text at the worst possible time. Ryo risks his neck for the sake of the team. There’s alligators.

yeah im not posting the entire fic under the readmore , im not prepared to spend another two hours of trial-and-error on formatting. anyway i have so much to say about digisurvive but im unfortunately not the type to talk about stuff unprompted until im much more confident n comfortable. instead i'll talk about the First Ficwriting Experience Since 2016

ive seen all four endings but i havent done what im calling my Victory Lap playthrough yet. what i mean by Victory Lap is that i got my guys at lvl 80+ and the only real purpose of going thru it all again is to see any early-game missed dialogue and take unnecessarily-meticulous character notes

im not about to claim to be a Blorbo Expert w a PhD or anything but i think ive got a pretty solid understanding of the bulk of the characters and can manage a pretty accurate portrayal . shuuji and ryo are definitely the easiest characters for me to write , and im anticipating that the same will be true for kaito. i cant say for certain tho since i havent explored his voice much yet but im more or less confident that i can do a good job

at first i was like oh god oh fuck i cant write aoi but i thought about it for 2 seconds and it turns out that uhhhhhhhh i was a lot like her when i was a teenager. the insecurities are exactly the same, it is so horrifyingly uncanny. so for me, saki is the one that i find the most difficult to characterize and i love that because it seems so deliberate. this girl DOES NOT want you to perceive her and is doing her best to ensure that you do not notice that she has anything to hide. if you are good at writing saki, i have a lot of respect for your tremendous power

but thankfully sakis presence in this is minimal so i dont have to worry about that just yet. what i AM worried about are my formatting choices. i think theres a lot of potential in fucking around with indentation, typeface, and text placement, so im taking a swing at trying to push it further than i have before. i think it can serve so well to imply when something is happening, what else is happening at the same time, and how it makes the characters feel without having to outright say so. i dont want it looking like a geronimo stilton book tho so i gotta learn to strike a balance lmao

SO much of the way i enjoy character portrayal comes from tone and nonverbal communication, especially really subtle stuff like eye movement and body language. i think it can be so challenging to write that stuff in a way that doesn't feel clunky or encumber the pacing. the thing im practicing right now is saying stuff without saying it, and also trying to improve my imagery & symbolic language. im having a lot of fun with it

mkay im actually late for work so i need to post this damn thing and move on my with my day. thanks for your time!!

[modeapk]

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[bryantgolden]

DEVLOG 0.0.7 | House of Wolves

I remember having some kind of file organization in mind when I started Game 2, but looking it over now... I can't remember what it was. What a mess! Something to improve in Game 3. Also, Game 2 is officially called House of Wolves. Now that we're on the same page, I can stop calling it "Game 2."

Finished Room 6. Coding. I'll work on art later!

Finished first draft of writing. Scenarios. NPC dialogue is written on the fly.

Updated the simple morality system. "Fixed" might be more accurate...

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

*Game in development. Things will look differently in the final product.

Consider pledging to my Patreon: patreon.com/bryantgolden

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 1 replay, wrapping up Artemis Tau and Hawking Eta:

Sparta:

-Antalya once had an atmosphere and liquid. Now the atmosphere is stripped and the liquid is frozen. No one's sure why. Could it have been the Reapers?

-There's a bio-dome in an asteroid with a Prothean disc. Were they possibly hiding from the Reapers?

-Why can't the distress beacon be disabled? Yes, I killed the Thresher Maw, but that's optional. Maybe we should turn it off so no one else gets lured into Thresher Maw territory?

-What's up with that burning Mako? If it's from the team that got killed, why is it on fire? It's no where near the Thresher Maw

-Why do I need to travel to the Citadel to inform Kahoku? He's been on the phone this whole time. Can't I call him?

-Cerberus is Alliance black ops in ME1, only recently went rogue, and is cartoonishly evil. ME2 retcons a hell of a lot.

Macedon

-Patavig is suitable for Volus colonization. So the Alliance is negotiating it with their patrons, the Hierarchy.

I was not expecting that. You'd think the Volus, the setting's merchant race, could handle their own negotiations about planet rights.

If they can't - no wonder they don't have a Council seat. If they can't even handle negotiations for their own species, how can they make decisions for others?

-Shepard to Dahlia: You should have trusted me.

Dahlia to Shepard: We have trust issues in my family.

That got a cackle. I wish Dahlia had come back, I quite like her.

Athens

-What were the original plans for this system? It's the only that has no planet to land on or ship to explore. Surely something must have been intended for it. What was that, and why was it left in as it is?

Century:

-According to Hackett, Kyle convinced his followers that the Alliance is the source of all their problems.

I don't think he's entirely wrong. Kaidan suspects that several element zero exposures were intentional. The early amp implants cause all kinds of problems. Brain camp killed several kids and traumatized the hell out of the rest.

The only place that will reliably welcome biotics is the military. That's not the Alliance's fault, but are they making any steps to improve the perception of biotics to the rest of humanity?

-Hackett wants Kyle brought back for treatment. How accurate is that? He's responsible for the death of two Alliance negotiators.

The wiki doesn't specify what happens if Kyle is persuaded to surrender. Is he actually treated for PTSD, or thrown in a cell?

-Klendagon's Great Rift is from a Mass Accelerator 37 million years ago.

I think the general assumption is that this from whatever killed the Derelict Reaper. Is that confirmed anywhere?

-Gotta love Shepard. (Fine, me, but it's not like the game gave me renegade points.) Finds prefab buildings and loots them before finding out the status of the inhabitants. Hope they didn't need those supplies!

-I think the game in general doesn't do enough to convey how charismatic Shepard must be. The blue paragon options just don't seem special enough, for example, to talk Kyle around when the negotiators weren't able to.

Squad Talks

-I think something is bugged. Garrus, Wrex, and Tali all talk as if we're near the end game. I've done one main mission!

-Garrus: Will we ever find Saren?

Good question, since I haven't actually been trying to do that. Sorry Garrus, there are a lot more UNC worlds to visit.

-Garrus seems to take Saren's actions very personally. He wants Saren dead. Is this really just because Saren's a rogue spectre? It feels like they have a history, but the games never indicate such.

-Why is Garrus's dialogue handled so differently than the others? Wrex and Tali have investigate options you can always check. They update through the game. With Garrus, it's always a new conversation or just "Shepard".

-Wrex is so burned out at this point. He's given up on everything. Despite what he says, he clearly doesn't like killing Krogan mercenaries when they're numbers are so low. But he's so depressed he'll do it anyway.

-Tali: "Near the end with Saren"??? Tali, we haven't even seen him yet. All we've done is find Liara, and that was a dead end.

Citadel:

-Using Conrad's wife to talk him out of becoming a spectre is amusing, given that in ME3 his wife isn't real. No wonder he's so confused when you bring her up.

-There aren't any human merchants on the Citadel except Dr. Michel. Intentional, to show how new humanity is?

-The armor humans and Asari can wear is called human armor. Is that just a human convention?

The Asari have been around much longer than humanity. Does everyone else call it Asari armor, and think it's weird that it just happens to fit humans too?

Or is Shepard just too cheap to buy Liara proper armor? :) You have Barrier, Liara! My old armor is close enough, put it on and throw barrier up. You'll be fine.

-The inventory micromanaging in ME1 is exhausting. I dislike how ME2 eliminates nearly all of it, but ME1 had so much room for improvement. There were so many small tweaks they could have made to improve the experience.

[yukidragon]

More SDJ Headcanons

Isn’t it great that Sunshine in Hell has finally hit the Explicit rating? I know I’ve been looking forward to it. Thank you for being such a horny touch starved clown, Jack. You gave the fic the adults only rating it was always meant to have.

Now, as I turn my attention to working on chapter 7, I’ve been musing more about the lore, both canon for the game and the canon I’m building for my fic. I figured it might be time to make another post of my headcanons. You can read the first post I made here.

Just to make it clear, the canon for the game and my story’s canon are slightly different. Let’s face it, I’m not Jambee or working for them, so I have no knowledge of the actual lore to go with, just my speculation and what I find fun. Also, it’s important to keep in mind that the lore of the game changed from the first demo to the second, and it might change again for the final game.

One thing Jambee clarified on their twitter is all the stuff posted on their twitter is basically for the fans’ entertainment, and only what’s in the actual final game or the official twitter is definite canon. As such, speculation of things found on their twitter may or may not be accurate to what’s actually going on.

Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t use those fun little possibilities for Sunshine in Hell. :3

Though I will say that not all my headcanons are set in stone either. I think a couple have slightly changed since the last time I discussed them, but that’s the nature of a developing story. Like SDJ, what comes out in the final product is canon for the story of Sunshine in Hell with everything else being a little more nebulous. That said, I figured why not share my speculations and plotting with the fandom anyway?

As always, remember Something’s Wrong With Sunny Day Jack is an erotic horror game that is for people over 18 years old ONLY. There is sex, violence, and disturbing topics in both the game and in these headcanons at times. Thus all the juicy bits will be going under a cut. You’ve been warned.

Also, there are potential spoilers for Sunshine in Hell in my headcanon theories. I’m not going out of my way to cram them in, but they’ll no doubt crop up sometimes as I discuss these theories.

Obligatory tags for @channydraws and @earthgirlaesthetic. If you want to get tagged when I make the next headcanon post, just let me know!

Setting and Themes

Jambee said in a twitter post that SDJ is going to have a strong emphasis on the entertainment industry and its darker side. This made me reexamine some details I attributed to Jack’s past in the imagery, particularly the pills and scalpels.

It’s no secret that the industry has pushed its workers to dangerous extremes, particularly addiction. Given that Jack talks about being “clean” in his traumatized moments, it might not just be about his change in identity as Joseph Cullman to Joseph Haberdae, but also a reference to him no longer having bad habits as Jack. No more drugs, no more smoking, and possibly no more drinking.

There’s also the fact that other dialogue from Jack hints that he had struggled with addiction in the past. Now, this might be related to just his nicotine habit, as that is a nasty addiction in and of itself, but the way he emphasizes how something that feels good for you can’t be bad is the kind of logic addicts use to justify getting their fix. Their drug of choice makes them feel good, so how could it be bad?

The scalpels, I suspect, might be related to plastic surgery. It’s no secret that there’s a lot of body shaming in the industry for its stars. This I’m much more iffy about since Jack doesn’t appear to have changed much in appearance from before he was an actor to when he died. It is possible that someone else underwent the knife and the results were less than... stellar.

A possibility is, say, Rory Rainberry’s actor deciding to improve his appearance through surgery. If we go back to the theory that he’s the person who murdered Jack, then it could be resentment towards Jack not needing such treatment to look pretty. With a botched plastic surgery, Rory would no doubt be replaced and filled with resentment. If Rory’s axe to grind was for both Jack AND the studio, it’s more reason for the studio to scrub all knowledge of the whole thing.

Personally, I’m still not convinced that Rory’s actor was the murderer, but I do find it suspect that he’s the only actor not shown talking about Jack years later with the other two... Something happened to him, something that had him be conspicuously left out of a retrospective interview about the ‘84 incident.

All that said, I do still think Jack’s past as Joseph Cullman plays a huge part in things going so horribly wrong for him as Joseph Haberdae.

The sad thing is that history repeats. Ian is an aspiring actor. Shaun is an aspiring director. All three love interests have heavy ties to the entertainment industry. Given the hints we’ve gotten so far, I think they’re going to be struggling under the same kind of weight Jack did. A teaser image showed Shaun looking worn out. Another showed Ian saying he has to hide the fact that he’s dating from his agent. Both don’t really say good things about the industry.

I suspect these will be expanded on in the main game. I believe that no matter what route sunshine takes, the story is going to unfold to reveal some dark sides to the industry that affect the guys very negatively. Then, of course, there’s the yandere ghost(?) who won’t let the other guys be love interests for his sunshine so easily...

Jack is a Ghost(?)

In the official game store page, Jack is called a “ghost(?)” I find that very interesting. When we look at how another ghost character is handled by Jambee, Elias Gallagher, he presents differently than Jack does most of the time. Elias is more the typical image of a ghost - faintly glowing blue, translucent at times, legs disappearing into a wispy smoke, showing signs of how he died... We do see Jack sort of like that at times when his trauma slips through, and when his wounds appear on him, but I suspect he’s not quite a ghost anymore.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe Jack is still the man who used to be called Joseph Cullman and Joseph Haberdae. I don’t think we’ve got a tulpa situation on our hands where Jack is a separate entity made from the memory of Joseph. I think that whatever means that allowed him to manifest as a solid entity to his sunshine made him change from a ghost to something a little different.

As I said in my previous headcanon post, Jack has manifested into reality because he and Alice made an agreement. Jack has a piece of Alice’s living human soul inside him, while Alice has a piece of a ghost’s dead soul inside of her. This connection between them is going to have affects on both of them.

This is how Jack is warm and has a heartbeat, as well as body fluids. This is a conditional situation due to Alice still being alive and her choosing to, in essence, share her life with him.

In a way, the agreement - this union of souls- is kind of like a marriage between them. Maybe Jack isn’t that much different from Elias after all.

This does suggest that there’s the potential for Jack to continue to change, to become stronger and have more of an impact on the living world. Alice is already giving him this much power, and I imagine it’s possible that he could gain it from others as well given he has the potential to influence other people when his yandere impulses come out to play...

As the bond between Jack and Alice grows stronger, there will be more changes that take place. In the “yes” route, these changes are positive. In the “no” route though...

Good thing Sunshine in Hell is going the “yes” route, huh? What can I say, I’m a sucker for happy endings, and in the end, I want Jack and Alice to be happy together. This is one thing that I refuse to change about the story no matter how my headcanons expand. Jack/sunshine is my OTP!

Alice and Love

On that note, let’s get to the main conflict of the story - the love life of the game’s protagonist. It’s pretty clear that most of the issues sunshine has stems from how the relationship with Ian fell apart. It’s why they are so resistant to accept Jack’s love and support, especially when it comes to Ian. In fact, they act as though they aren’t deserving of such kindness and love.

This, of course, holds true for my version of sunshine, Alice.

To put it bluntly, Alice is very scarred and twisted up inside by her relationship with Ian.

The issues don’t entirely stem from Ian, but he did the greatest damage to Alice.

As mentioned in the previous post, Alice and Ian were both very unpopular with their peers. We’ve seen Ian insulted for his looks, and Alice was as well. This resulted in self-confidence issues for the both of them. It was a topic that they bonded over and supported each other for. It played a part in strengthening their friendship that eventually led to their romantic relationship.

This also gives the two of them issues when it comes to being viewed as attractive to the opposite sex. As the two got older, there was this strong sense of disbelief that people could find them attractive. Ian’s glow up was noticeable, and it’s a part of what got him attention in his dreams of becoming an actor. It was impossible for him not to be flattered by all the people complimenting his looks and flirting with him. He had no experience with dealing with flirting, so at times it did lead to him awkwardly returning the compliments and flirting back without really intending it to actually mean anything. At the same time though he started to really come to realize that he was seen as handsome now, by more people than just Alice. He was attractive, desirable... Alice was no longer unique in wanting him. If he wanted to, he could date so many other people...

That said, Ian never intended to cheat. Isn’t that what a lot of cheaters say? It was a moment of weakness, it just happened... He was living a plane’s flight away from the only home he had ever known, all of his friends and his childhood friend turned partner. He was lonely, but he made so many new friends at his new school. He was making connections, building his dream. He missed his partner though, that support and love Alice gave him. But these new people flirting with him... that felt good too, and there were so many attractive people around him... All it took was one night of poor judgement, and he did something he never thought himself capable of.

Alice also experienced being flirted with while she was in a relationship with Ian, but unlike him, she didn’t react positively towards it. Sure, it was flattering when she noticed it, or at least it should have been, but it was much more alarming. (Much like when Nick flirts with her at the shop.) Growing up being insulted for her looks made her see herself as ugly, unappealing. What she and Ian had was special, genuine, real... or at least, she believed it was. She always felt Ian “saw past” her unappealing outer appearance to see the beauty inside her, not seeing her body as anything desirable to anyone without “love goggles” affecting the view. So anyone flirting with her outside of her relationship felt fake, like a trick. Were they just setting her up just to mock her if she agreed?

In Alice’s teenage years that did happen, unfortunately. She was confessed to and it was turned around to be a joke because she was “fat, ugly, and weird” and “who would wanna date a whale like you?” and implications that anyone who DID find her attractive must have had a sick fetish. It makes her dubious about random people flirting with her and their intentions even when she was single. When she was in a relationship, any advances were even more unwanted, but she could easily rebuff them by saying she had a boyfriend.

Then of course there’s the issues the SA Alice went through that affected her feeling attractive...

Alice knew who Ian cheated on her with. It was a female friend he made at his school, someone her friends told her to watch out for, who Ian said she had nothing to worry about. She heard that woman’s voice over the phone during the call when Ian confessed everything. That “friend” was skinnier with bigger breasts, just like all the girls in those ecchi manga Ian liked to read for “research” on how to have better sex.

Learning how to have sex via porn, whether it’s hentai/ecchi/pornographic videos/etc. is not a good way to have healthy sex by the way. Their sex life was, unfortunately, flawed.

As shown in the afterlife moment, Ian tends to get swept up in the pleasure of the act. Alice almost passed out during the blowjob because he took over and wouldn’t let her try to pull back. She let him because she loved him and wanted him to feel good. He didn’t even return the favor to her after he finished. But it was fine. He was happy. They were happy. They were cuddly and in love. Alice was too wiped out from nearly passing out from lack of air too so it didn’t matter...

Ian is very meek and apologetic in personality, but in bed he’s far more rough. Instinct and poor sex techniques come more into play than anything else, softened with words of love and apologies if things get a little painful. In a lot of hentai/ecchi, there’s this mindset of “just bear with it, it’ll feel good soon” when it comes to penetrative sex. The afterlife moment gave hints of that, and even in the “yes” route there are signs of it, as Jack comments that he doesn’t want to hurt Alice even as she’s being impatient to have him inside her.

Ian being unintentionally rough with Alice but being contrite and apologetic was something of a theme in their relationship. It was never intentional, but mistakes always seemed to happen.

So much of their relationship was Ian being sad and pitiful, needing to be comforted and reassured. He apologizes so often it’s just his thing. He is apologetically himself, as Alice thinks of him. His life was so sad and he was her only friend, and only she could be there for him. If she wasn’t there, he’d have nobody...

So Alice tried to forgive Ian. She really did. She said she did. She thought she meant it too. She just could never forget... and now she saw all the things in her relationship that were wrong... things she ignored for the sake of love.

In the end, trying to make it work despite the cheating incident didn’t last long. The cheating incident was the beginning of the end. These bad habits cycled back around again and the trust was gone. It made Alice realize that what Ian wanted wasn’t her. He was scared of losing what they had and felt nostalgia towards her, not love. He was in love with their past together, the support, stability, love, familiarity, and security she brought to his life. However, as a romantic partner she was just “convenient” for him while he had no options, and now that he has them...

Well, Alice forgave him once already. She always forgave him. If he slipped again, surely she would just forgive him again.

Shaun helped Alice realize this was likely going to happen. He helped her see the unhealthy cycle she and Ian trapped themselves in.

These revelations proved to Alice that no one would be attracted to her, not when there were so many better, far more desirable people out there. At best, she would be “just a hole to fill” until they found someone better.

So Alice, overall, doesn’t see when someone flirts with her unless it’s blatant, like being asked if she has a boyfriend. She doesn’t believe attraction towards her is genuine. Not from Ian, and not from anyone else.

This, naturally, is the biggest obstacle Jack faces when it comes to finally receiving his sunshine’s love, but he’s willing to put in the work. He’ll do whatever it takes to prove to Alice that his feelings are real and that she can trust him. Fortunately for him, their agreement allows her to actually feel his feelings, even if she doesn’t fully realize that she’s feeling it. It goes a long way in helping her heal and eventually accept that she can be loved and desired just for being herself and not some “ideal” that she thinks she can never compare to.

Shaun did have a chance of getting through the walls Alice built around her heart with his sincere feelings, but without such a supernatural empathy sharing ability, it would take him a lot longer. We’re talking years of slowly helping her trust that he genuinely wanted her seriously and not as a temporary thing or because it was convenient. Alice doesn’t assume he’d use her or cheat on her, but she just can’t see herself as someone worthy of loving or desirable for anything more than as a temporary fling.

Unfortunately for Shaun, his timing was all wrong, and Jack already came in to occupy the hole in Alice’s heart by the time he had the time to make to try and lower the walls around her heart.

Ian has no chance of getting back together with Alice. It’s not because she no longer loves him. She still loves him. She hates that she still loves him. She wishes she didn’t. She knows they’re not good for each other even if he refuses. She no longer believes he loves her, no matter what sweet words he says. No matter how guilty he makes her. No matter how many friends he convinces to talk to her about him because he’s so sorry and maybe he deserves another chance and those who knew the two of them for years are expecting them to get over this eventually... It’s why he won’t stop trying, not until things go back to the way they were...

Background Cast

This headcanon post has gotten pretty long, so I’ll just finish off with something not so doom and gloom. I’ve come up with some designs for other employees at Yogurt-topia. Let’s face it, three people aren’t going to be enough to keep the place running, no matter how much one in particular is run ragged with overtime trying to keep the place afloat. Five might not be enough either, but here are the four members of staff who work with Alice and their basic design details I’ve thought up so far.

Boss

Married man in his late 40′s/early 50′s.

Balding, kinda chubby, the typical business owner type appearance.

Certainly not the worst boss to work for, but he does pile way too many hours on his few employees.

He will delegate as many duties to the staff as possible so that he won’t have to put in too many hours himself.

Thinks Alice is the most reliable member of his full-time staff so he’ll push as much of said responsibility on her as she’ll take.

Carol

I already went into her details in the last headcanon post, so I won’t rehash those details here, but bring up a couple other thoughts that came to me since then.

Isn’t in a relationship or looking. She’s out and about to enjoy her youth by dating around.

Looks out for her junior co-workers, but will absolutely escape her own responsibilities and leave it for them.

Liz

The nickname “Liz” is short for “Lizard”.

Yes that is their legal name.

Skinny and tall, they’re in their early 20′s and work part time between college classes.

They have long dark brown hair dyed green at the ends, tied in a ponytail while at work, and bangs that cover their eyes.

Don’t ask what their eye color is. They will never let you know.

They have a number of tattoos and piercings.

They sometimes still wear the clown nose part of the uniform even though it’s now optional.

The clown nose is pierced in multiple places.

Despite being kind of a jerk, they can be a reliable worker.

They’re not exactly chummy with their fellow co-workers. Get the work done, get the paycheck, then get out to go party with their actual friends, that’s their motto.

Susan

The youngest of the staff being her late teens, she is also a part timer.

She likes to wear cute buttons pinned to her hijab and uniform.

Big bright brown eyes and glasses.

Despite being youngest, she is still taller than Alice by a couple inches.

Actually enjoys the job, loves yogurt, and finds the clown theme to be fun.

The most pleasant member of the staff to be sure. She gets along with all her co-workers very well. She’s very optimistic and cheerful.

Susan is Alice’s favorite co-worker to work with, though she does worry that the teen isn’t ready to face how cruel the world can be...

I hope you all enjoyed this second round of rambling about my Sunny Day Jack/Sunshine in Hell headcanons. I have more I could ramble about, but that will wait until next time.

[a-tale-never-told]

//Nagito at face value has a very blue and orange morality but when you look into it it’s a very stereotypical black and white morality with a different coat of paint. In his mind Hope = Good, Despair = Bad. That actually makes him a very easy character to write.

//Yeah, that's what I believe as well once I actually started to write him, and saw how just that he's so much fun to write him, as a character. I honestly believe that as of writing the last ask, he's probably the most accurate to his portrayal, besides Fuyuhiko. And I'm honestly very proud of how I write Komeda's characterization in this blog, as evidenced by the following chapters.

//That's what you guys might've been noticing the massive improvement of quality for these newer chapters than the older ones. Ever since I watched Weeby's analysis of the characters, and tried to research what they say and act on the wiki, the games, and in ASOOT since this is technically set in the world of ASOOT, the quality of the characterization and the dialogue has improved massively, like with the Twilight Syndrome Gang chapter doing well, and the chapter with Hajime and Natsumi having a genuine and normal, realistic argument about Natsumi's behavior is the most successful by far, though I could've done better on the last story chapter, but that's because I was busy and got burned out by all the stuff I had to do, hence why it didn't do so good compared to the others.

//Still, I have faith that if I keep this style of quality writing going, and make the characterization and dialogue more natural and grounded, then I'll be almost guaranteed to succeed. I especially need to work on how I write Ibuki for the most part, since she's probably the most OOC out of the entire cast at this moment, though that speech to Honami is something I could see Ibuki doing, even if it is a bit too odd.

//Either way, I can say for certain that the characterization and dialogue are going to be drastically improving as time goes on. I've been focusing less on the history part and far more on the characterization writing, and judging from what I'd seen so far, I think that was the best option, despite me being a massive fan of history. You cannot have a story without the characters, as while the worldbuilding is certainly helpful in getting us to know the world, it's the characters that truly carry the rest of the story, and without them, nobody will care about your story, which is why I started to focus more on the writing.

//That's not to say that worldbuilding isn't going to happen again in this blog or won't be relevant, but my current focus as of now, is on the writing and characterization, and it will stay that way, with worldbuilding and comedy being the second main focus.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

one thing that really ✨irks✨ me is how out of character the writing for clementine is. not just the plot itself, but the actual words and phrases clem says, it just sounds nothing like how she speaks canonically.

Mmhmm, I talked about this in my post going through the pages, but the dialogue written here for comic Clem sounds nothing like game Clem.

I might be more forgiving if this felt like more her. If this was someone who was actually a fan before being hired and wanted it to be an accurate portrayal of the character, then sure, I'd still be annoyed that Clementine left Ericson and AJ behind, but I can get over that. I can separate this from the games.

But by now we all know Tillie wasn't a fan of the games before she was hired, she confirmed that. She played through the games really fast and got to work and it honestly feels like that's what happened. It feels like someone writing fanfiction for the first time, they've only played the games once, they're unsure how to approach it, but instead of trying to find an accurate voice for the character they're just using their own voice... if that makes sense? It's taking Clementine, stripping her of her canon voice and personality, and just substituting one you made up... and it's not an improvement.

Like... I think there's a fun discussion to be had about fanfiction and what makes it so great, what can make it terrible, why we create it in the first place. Is accuracy to the source material really that important when usually the point is to change the canon into something else? Why would that matter?

But in saying that, I'm mostly referring to stories you'd find on ao3... not works published by Skybound to make money. This being a book I can buy off the shelves of Barnes and Noble make this very different, y'know?

Again, allow me to post this link that'll give y'all the transcripts to TWDG, any season, any episode. All choices and dialogue are there, it's a handy tool for anyone looking to write fanfiction for TWDG but need more references to how the characters speak and react to different choices.

Anyway, while the art itself is an improvement in my opinion, the dialogue needs more work.

[cuppachar]

Gotta say I love Fifa 23 for putting Ted Lasso and the Greyhounds in the game, now we can see the boys while we wait for season 3 and there have been plenty of hugs between Roy and Jamie in all the videos I have seen. It's kinda freaky, how accurate the game characters look to the actual actors! I hear Phil Dunster himself is obsessed with playing as Jamie Tartt in the game too lol!

I've never played Fifa before but now I have the strongest urge. Before Ted Lasso I never really watched football either, but it's strangely inspired me (also, no doubt it's been heavily influenced by Jamie's lookalikee Grealish).

And I love that Phil Dunster plays as Jamie. I'm just imagining him doing the Jamie accent and doing some random improv dialogue to go along with it.

'there have been plenty of hugs between Roy and Jamie in all the videos I have seen'

Even Fifa ship my boys

[daydadahlias]

16, 17, 20, 40🗿, 44, 56 for the writer game :D

how are u today?

why thank u for asking <33 im very curious abt this little face emoji and cant wait to figure out the reasoning when I go look at question 40. also i'm great! I finished my sophomore year today!! summer and fanfic here i come <3

from this ask game <3

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

oh too many. always too many. literally cannot even count the amount of docs in my google drive. i'm trying to focus on MiM right now but there's this fucking weird mashton fic tentatively called Sweet Tea I want to write at some point that's about Ashton owning a rodeo. it's like... subversive sugar daddy.

17. What do you do when writing becomes difficult? (maybe a lack of inspiration or writers block)

talk to friends! If I'm really struggling with something I'll hop on over to someone (usually Ashley these days <3) and say "hey, do you have any ideas for this?" Or, sometimes, I just like to talk through things and I'll solve my own problems by just discussing them w/ someone!! Molly and Crystal especially are great sounding boards <3

20. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

yeah, to be honest I think if you've read all my stuff, you'll notice I'm a bit of a one trick pony. I reuse the same lines, the same style, over and over again. I say "just" a lot and "well" and "made to love" and stuff like that. My dirty talk is basically the same in every fic lol. I incorporate writing/theatre into a lot of fics as well! And I'm a whore for some violent imagery. Like the whole "it's so BLANK it hurts." Usually it's shit, like, "it feels like home so much it hurts." I love describing love as being painful <3

40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

hehe ok now i know what the little rock guy is for. well, I'll just say that fanart is literally the nicest thing ever and I dont think I will ever have enough words to accurately express just how much I love receiving stuff for fics. getting art/moodboards/edits is just a whole other level and something I never really considered I would get when I first started writing fanfic. and I have a little folder on my computer where i save every moodboard / piece of art anyone's ever made me for a fic bc it's a really really beautiful thing I'll never take for granted. As for specific stuff... uHhh. I don't know!! I can say that I always love black and white style the most and, like, sketchy stuff. I don't know, my favorite thing is seeing what people choose to draw / make!! i wanna know what readers like; it doesnt really matter what I like. <3

44. What mistakes do you keep making no matter how many times your beta corrects you?

most of my mistakes are html formatting. and, then, grammar stuff is usually just, like... I happen to look over it. i swear i know grammar you guys i do it for a living :sob: but sometimes it sneaks through the cracks. im also an overwriter by nature.

56. What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

oo my dialogue. I think I make people talk like people and that shit is hard to do. because my dialogue used to be <33 really really bad <33 so there's definite improvement. I think you can see it just between my earlier fics and now tbh. I've definitely improved as I've kept writing!!

[egg-emperor]

Alright best case scenario for Frontiers SAGE is actually the island’s AI and isn’t a bad guy. The AI telling Sonic what to do is Eggman’s AI using Sonic to take over the islands for Eggman. Sage is in total defense mode trying to stop Eggman’s AI and the Titans are important for that. In the end Sonic beats enough of the Titans for Eggman’s AI to take over free Eggman and give him control over the islands last island Sonic needs to beat Eggman. Worst case Eggman’s al turns on him.

Yeah despite the details we've gotten I'm going to try to keep my hopes up, especially because game canon Eggman specifically is so special to me and I'm really hoping the best for his characterization, that he'll remain consistent like always and it will really feel like Eggman, regardless of what "interesting directions" they take him in, as they put it. I remember the early synopsis in various articles that released the night of The Game Awards and Sega said it wasn't accurate but that doesn't seem to be the case though, as these small bits of info we've been getting from people that have played the game since seems to be adding up with that.

At first, the concept sounded like another classic Eggman betrayal plot and made me nervous as the very first bit of information we got, especially after the huge improvement from it in Forces, where Infinite didn't end up turning on him. But now that we know a tiiiny bit more and it seems that Eggman has a bigger role than they've been letting on but also slightly hinting at and things that have been said in people's impressions, I want to believe this could be something interesting and not so painfully predictable. I hope the way they're trying to make everything seem all mysterious means there's going to be some cool twists and a fun role for Eggman.

It said SAGE is Eggman's AI program, if that part was in fact accurate, as it was from the synopsis they apparently said wasn't entirely accurate but who knows, it seems a lot is turning out to be true. But I feel like there's a possibility for a concept still similar to what you're saying even with that, or at least I hope it will go something like that, instead of just more same old overdone betrayal. Maybe there's more to it, since they've already revealed the whole AI and Cyber Space going crazy thing and it seems to happen around the beginning of the story from the looks of things. So there's the entire story for things to potentially take some interesting turns and provide some great Eggman moments, hopefully!

I really wanna try to stay as positive and hopeful as I can while still being cautiously optimistic and not get my hopes up tooo high. But at the same time, I just really don't wanna keep worrying that they'll mess up Eggman's solid and consistent game canon portrayal. But it's Sega providing the "story, backstory, and plot beats" while Flynn is working on the dialogue, so I really hope they've got this down and deliver a good faithful in character Eggman, regardless of what his role in this story may be. 🙏

[bosskie]

undefined

Molluck is not alone anymore!

Yeah, I just added that Slig NPC and some dialogues to him. (Y) I have also done some other fixes and improvements, as you may notice. There is also a pause screen now but it’s basically just a yellow stencil text saying ‘paused’. Yeah, my favourite font may be quite obvious...

But yeah, the Slig will have more functions in the future since he is currently just walking around randomly and can be spoken to.

Man, it’s a little challenge to draw this small stuff smoothly and accurately since the max size of the image is 16x16 pixels in my game but I kinda like that challenge.

[riddlerosehearts]

more baldur's gate 3 playthrough thoughts--this time, i've completed both shadowheart and astarion's companion quests and also stumbled upon more sidequests! maybe someday i will finally manage to finish my first playthrough of the game!

so i randomly stumbled across the house of grief because i keep freaking getting lost LMAO--but before going in, i talked to shadowheart so i could get her back in the party, and she had dialogue talking about the grafitti she drew? interesting, i knew there was grafitti of hers somewhere around the city but i don't remember encountering it while having her in my party. i suppose i must have, and simply didn't hear her comment on it. anyway, since i'm at the house of grief now i figured i might as well go ahead and go there.

i ultimately had shadowheart do the mapping of the heart because she said she wanted to and it seemed like the obvious best choice for the story (she even disapproves if you don't let her), but first i let my tav do it just to see what would happen and wow it was actually really interesting to think over the answers to those questions! here's how i had him answer them, along with viconia's shockingly accurate assessment of his flaws:

for the last question, "i would be restless" would've also been a good answer, but i just picked based on what my first instinct was at the time. these are neat character building questions tbh.

oh yeah, i should also say that my whole party hit level 12 a few battles ago! and i feel like i've seen a lot of complaints about how you'll most likely hit max level by mid-act 3, because people dislike gaining exp and having it essentially go into the void + being unable to keep improving your characters. but tbh i like knowing that i'm already as powerful as i can possibly be and if i'm having trouble, all i have to worry about now is my equipment and build! in most games where the max level is 100, i either never manage to reach that at all or only hit it while doing postgame content after the main story is over. so i actually like this change of pace. and maybe it's just me being bad at games, but even at max level i still find the combat challenging and fun.

the choice with shadowheart's parents... i was really annoyed at having to make that choice for wyll, and i could see things going either way with shadowheart, so even though elenion would absolutely save her parents if it were up to him, he told her to decide for herself what's right. she chose to save them and i am so proud of her. seeing her cry and say she feels like she doesn't deserve to be anyone's daughter almost made me cry, but now her parents are in camp and everyone is happy! what a beautiful resolution to her quest. i imagine elenion, who hasn't actually visited his mother in a long time, would go to visit her in the city as soon as possible after this.

i wasn't sure what i should do next so i just, went ahead and grabbed astarion and took him to confront cazador because why not! i had to google how to get to the palace and i'm not sure how i was supposed to naturally figure it out tbh but maybe that's just me. anyway, meeting sebastian and the gur children was really interesting and unsettling. and so was hearing astarion talk like he'd be totally fine with having to sacrifice 7,000 souls in order to ascend, even though i actually knew about that part already.

anyway, i did manage to defeat cazador and first of all act 3 is really making it clear that i am absolutely horrendous at this game 😭 i think i was so excited to get through the story that i just didn't take the time to properly learn the mechanics as much as i should have, but oh well, i'm still having fun even if i have to retry the battles a lot sometimes! and wow uh. i've barely even used astarion on my team in this playthrough but holy shit i love him. seeing him get covered in blood from stabbing cazador to death like that was kind of hot. i did not expect him to break down crying after killing cazador!?!?! i wish you could walk over there and give him a hug. i used the hugging mod i have downloaded to do that right after the next conversation with him at camp. just really felt like he needed it. i'm also really proud of him for, when you say you think the spawn should be released, admitting that they're innocent and shouldn't have to suffer for his mistakes, and then coming up with a plan for them to live in the underdark. act 1 astarion would definitely never have done that.

karlach is so sweet and wholesome it makes me wanna cry sometimes.

i love that minsc has something to say about pretty much all of the companions. i love how he has so much respect for both karlach and wyll, especially with how much karlach looks up to him. also fucking love that he's all jealous of halsin for beating him at arm wrestling and that he needs boo to tell him that rather than being scared of blood, astarion might just possibly be a vampire. and he doesn't like gale because he uses big words like "posterior" and because boo is scared of tara adkgjdh 😭

he wouldn't tell me anything about shadowheart though?? he said it would unwise to talk about her behind her back. idk why that is, but i really hope i'll be able to ask him about lae'zel after i get her back.

i found volo?! he stayed in our camp all the way until the end of act 2 since i never let him do eye surgery on anyone, and then he just unceremoniously disappeared, so i was wondering where he'd gone off to. elenion didn't really care because they can't stand his ass, but oh well, they saved him anyway because unfortunately they don't see "being extremely annoying" as an acceptable reason to leave someone to die, and now he's back at camp again! i also started the "avenge the drowned" quest, and then found the society of brilliance lodge and--oh god no this made me remember that one society lady in act 1 who wanted the githyanki egg, which then made me remember lae'zel is carrying that egg around everywhere and nurturing it, and she got kidnapped. we have put the egg in danger. blurg tasked us with saving omeluum but i really want to get lae'zel back, actually.

going to end this post here, but yeah, i think i probably will just go ahead and try to kill orin next. i miss lae'zel a lot, and i think it would feel wrong to go to the house of hope without her.

[govindhtech]

With Generative AI, NVIDIA ACE gives digital avatars life

NVIDIA ACE This article is a part of the AI Decoded series, which shows off new RTX PC hardware, software, tools, and accelerations while demystifying AI by making the technology more approachable.

Nvidia ACE for games The narrative of video games sometimes relies heavily on non-playable characters, but since they are typically created with a single objective in mind, they may quickly become monotonous and repetitive especially in large environments with hundreds of them.

Video games have never been more realistic and immersive than they are now, partly because to amazing advancements in visual computing such as DLSS and ray tracing, which makes interactions with non-playable characters particularly unsettling.

The NVIDIA Avatar Cloud Engine’s production microservices were released earlier this year, offering game developers and other digital artists a competitive edge in creating believable NPCs. Modern generative AI models may be integrated into digital avatars for games and apps by developers thanks to ACE microservices. NPCs may communicate and interact with players in-game and in real time by using ACE microservices.

Prominent game developers, studios, and startups have already integrated ACE into their products, enabling NPCs and synthetic people to possess unprecedented degrees of personality and interaction.

NVIDIA ACE Avatar Giving an NPC a purpose and history is the first step in the creation process as it helps to direct the tale and provide dialogue that is appropriate for the situation. Then, the subcomponents of ACE cooperate to improve responsiveness and develop avatar interaction.

Up to four AI models are tapped by NPCs to hear, interpret, produce, and reply to conversation.

The player’s voice is initially fed into NVIDIA Riva, a platform that uses GPU-accelerated multilingual speech and translation microservices to create completely customizable, real-time conversational AI pipelines that transform chatbots into amiable and expressive assistants.

With ACE, the speaker’s words are processed by Riva’s automated speech recognition (ASR) technology, which leverages AI to provide a real-time, very accurate transcription. Examine a speech-to-text demonstration in twelve languages powered by Riva.

After that, an LLM like Google’s Gemma, Meta’s Llama 2, or Mistral receives the transcription and uses Riva’s neural machine translation to provide a written answer in natural English. The Text-to-Speech feature of Riva then produces an audio response.

Lastly, NVIDIA Audio2Face (A2F) produces facial expressions that are synchronized with several language conversations. Digital avatars may show dynamic, lifelike emotions that are either built in during post-processing or transmitted live with the help of the microservice.

To match the chosen emotional range and intensity level, the AI network automatically animates the head, lips, tongue, eyes, and facial movements. Furthermore, A2F can recognize emotion from an audio sample automatically.

To guarantee natural conversation between the player and the character, every action takes place in real time. Additionally, since the tools are customizable, developers have the freedom to create the kinds of characters that are necessary for worldbuilding or immersive narrative.

Nvidia ACE early access Developers and platform partners demonstrated demonstrations using NVIDIA ACE microservices at GDC and GTC, ranging from sophisticated virtual human nurses to interacting NPCs in games.

With dynamic NPCs, Ubisoft is experimenting with new forms of interactive gaming. The result of its most recent research and development initiative, NEO NPCs are made to interact with players, their surroundings, and other characters in real time, creating new opportunities for dynamic and emergent narrative.

Demos showcasing many elements of NPC behavior’s, such as environmental and contextual awareness, real-time responses and animations, conversation memory, teamwork, and strategic decision-making, were utilized to highlight the possibilities of these NEO NPCs. When taken as a whole, the demonstrations highlighted how far the technology can be taken in terms of immersion and game design.

Ubisoft’s narrative team used Inworld AI technology to build two NEO NPCs, Bloom and Iron, each with their own backstory, knowledge base, and distinct conversational style. The NEO NPCs were additionally endowed by Inworld technology with inherent awareness of their environment and the ability to respond interactively via Inworld’s LLM. Real-time lip synchronization and face motions were made possible using NVIDIA A2F for the two NPCs.

With their new technology demo, Covert Protocol, which included the Inworld Engine and NVIDIA ACE technologies, Inworld and NVIDIA created quite a stir at GDC. In the demo, users took control of a private investigator who had to accomplish tasks depending on the resolution of discussions with local non-player characters. AI-powered virtual actors in Covert Protocol opened up social simulation game elements by posing obstacles, delivering vital information, and initiating significant story developments. With player agency and AI-driven involvement at this higher level, new avenues for player-specific, emergent gaming will become possible.

Based on Unreal Engine 5, Covert Protocol enhances Inworld’s speech and animation pipelines by using the Inworld Engine and NVIDIA ACE, which includes NVIDIA Riva ASR and A2F.

The most recent iteration of the NVIDIA Kairos tech demo, developed in partnership with Convai and shown at CES, dramatically enhanced NPC involvement with the integration of Riva ASR and A2F. Thanks to Convai’s new framework, the NPCs could communicate with one other and were aware of things, which made it possible for them to carry stuff to certain locations. In addition, NPCs were now able to guide players through environments and towards goals.

Virtual Personas in the Actual World Digital persons and avatars are being animated by the same technology that is used to make NPCs. Task-specific generative AI is making its way into customer service, healthcare, and other industries outside gaming.

NVIDIA extended their healthcare agent solution at GTC in partnership with Hippocratic AI, demonstrating the possibilities of a generative AI healthcare agent avatar. Further efforts are being made to create an extremely low-latency inference platform that can support real-time use cases.

Hippocratic AI creator and CEO Munjal Shah said, “Our digital assistants provide helpful, timely, and accurate information to patients worldwide.” “NVIDIA ACE technologies bring them to life with realistic animations and state-of-the-art graphics that facilitate stronger patient engagement.”

Hippocratic’s early AI healthcare agents are being internally tested with an emphasis on pre-operative outreach, post-discharge follow-up, health risk assessments, wellness coaching, chronic care management, and social determinants of health surveys.

UneeQ is an independent digital human platform that specialises in AI-driven avatars for interactive and customer support. In order to improve customer experiences and engagement, UneeQ paired its Synanim ML synthetic animation technology with the NVIDIA A2F microservice to generate incredibly lifelike avatars.

According to UneeQ creator and CEO Danny Tomsett, NVIDIA animation AI and Synanim ML synthetic animation technologies enable emotionally sensitive and dynamic real-time digital human interactions driven by conversational AI.

Artificial Intelligence in Gaming ACE is only one of the numerous NVIDIA AI technologies that raise the bar for gaming.

With GeForce RTX GPUs, NVIDIA DLSS is a revolutionary graphics solution that leverages AI to boost frame rates and enhance picture quality. With the help of generative AI tools and NVIDIA RTX Remix, modders can effortlessly acquire game assets, automatically improve materials, and swiftly produce gorgeous RTX remasters with complete ray tracing and DLSS. With features like RTX HDR, RTX Dynamic Vibrance, and more, users may customise the visual aesthetics of over 1,200 titles with NVIDIA Freestyle, which can be accessible via the new NVIDIA app beta. By providing streaming AI-enhanced speech and video features, such as virtual backgrounds and AI green screens, auto-frame, video noise reduction, and eye contact, the NVIDIA Broadcast app turns any space into a home studio. With NVIDIA RTX workstations and PCs, enjoy the newest and best AI-powered experiences. AI Decoded helps you understand what’s new and what’s coming up next.

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Ultimate emotional value

The image of an intelligent agent has no boundaries

Users have no limits in exploring the boundaries. AI dialogue APPs often take HE Tuber advantage of this human weakness to attract user retention, which also makes AI dialogue APPs always controversial in terms of ethics and morality.

For example, in March 2023, the American AI chat APP Replika was banned by Italian regulatory agencies from using the personal data of users in the country for actively sending pornographic information to users.

This is because most of the current AI chat apps mainly rely on paying to unlock the number of conversations or making money through a subscription model. This approach that touches the heart of human nature is the fastest way to attract users to pay. At the same time, this kind of paid profit model that exploits the benefits also makes AI chat APP has suffered a lot of criticism.

The large model is like a dream machine, weaving a dream called love for these marginalized people who deviate from mainstream society, but the price is a fixed number of dialogue replies that need to be unlocked for a fee. A user told Xiaguangshe that Synclub's agent has a limit on the number of replies. If you want to chat freely, you must top up, and you also need to pay to unlock different scenes. In her view, this payment model is simply "hard money" and is exactly the same as previous overseas interactive novels represented by "Episode".

In the past, the overseas interactive novel track was also a fast lane for China's pan-entertainment to go overseas. However, because this single paid-to-unlock model has gradually fatigued users, the MAU of the three head products have been reduced by about half in 2022. Now the three giants of interactive novels It has gradually stepped down from the altar, and its revenue has dropped sharply. Among them, Maple Leaf Interactive, the parent company of "Episode", also turned to the short drama track and developed the popular Reelshort.

If the AI ​​dialogue APP does not innovate and improve the original model, I am afraid that the story of interactive novels failing overseas will happen again.

In addition, some investors have also expressed their concerns about Xiaguangshe. In this track, there is no successful model in China that can be directly copied to overseas "dimension reduction strikes". Can domestic AI chat APPs be born killer overseas? APP (phenomenal application) has yet to be tested by time, so Minimax did not go all in Glow, but chose to bet on the underlying large model.

However, in the competition among large models, when the volume basic model has entered the stage of volume AI native application, AI chat APP is undoubtedly an effective path for large model companies to explore to C applications.

The industry once believed that exploring a healthy profit model that can attract users for a long time is a difficult problem that must be solved before phenomenal applications can be launched on this track. But in "It's over!" After the popularity of "I'm Surrounded by Beauties", many practitioners have a little more confidence in this track, because they discovered that the popularity of this kind of phenomenal game sometimes does not lie in the exquisite production content, but in accurately providing users with The ultimate emotional value. However, the demand for this kind of emotional value has always existed for a long time. For practitioners, the next "It's over!" "I'm Surrounded by AI" may not be far away, and the entry of Byte and other Internet companies also illustrates the potential of this track.

As the discussion of carbon-based life and silicon-based life becomes more and more popular, perhaps this will also become the first station for humans to deal with silicon-based life.