#tornioduva

[tornioduva]

Dungeon meshi and body proportions

Ok, i'm feeling the rush i got from binging the manga this last week is starting to fade away, i'll be back to being a normal person soon i think. at least, that is before i find a new something for me to dive into uhuh.

Before that happens, i want to praise Ryoko Kui for one last think. The design of the characters!

For years i've expressed (maybe not so much online) my hate towards the "anime style", this homogenization of traits and beauty standards to an artificial degree, and the mass spread and consumption of it. yes, trends exist for a reason, this is not the first nor the last art current to be popular and i'm not the first detractor of one in history. I do think there is something uniquely harmful in this one though, and that is why i'm able to find the energy to be such a pretentious dipshit about it. That is a discussion for another day though.

All this to say that going through Dungeon Meshi and seiing these characters, plus (and in a way because of it) all the additional sketches of the daydream hour bonus sections, was such a breath of fresh air! (at least for what concerns japanese exported stories)

All i could say and praise in regard to character designs in general is perfectly expressed in this video, which i recommend you to watch if you want to hear my opinions (and the video author's too, uhuh):

I want to leave you though with at least one specific praise for me: Falin.

i've seen countless time people (online) just not understanding how people's body work, how much differences there can be and how proportions do distribute and affect the body. in anime I see a lot of short and tall people (mostly women girls) that share the same proportions despite their actual height, and that often leads to think "yeah, she is short" and than she's tall when around someone, or (most often) the contrary. same lenght of limbs, same head to body proportions, and little details like this.

Falin you can tell at a glance she is a tall woman before she's around anyone, even when she is standing near her brother who is taller than her.

Kui did her homework in studying bodies and variations, and, whether consciously or not, she differentiated her in body in subtle but fundamental ways: her head being slightly smaller than her body, the neck being fairly long, and her having somewhat broader shoulders.

I accept that there might be an element of suggestion at play here, considering also how she is dressed most of the time, but I really do think there is a direct effort at differentiation here.

This is the first time in a long time (in a series like this at least) where i've seen a woman carrying herself around others and the space around here kind of like a person like me, tall, would; at first i didn't think much of it, but then i saw her near other characters and....i don't know, i felt a warm, joyful feeling, seeing that i was right in recognizing that trait and being right.

I was especially happy in seeing her next to marcille. not so much for the height difference, but for how different they were in proportions and mannerism. A lesser manga i fear would have used marcille's body type and way of moving and interacting as the default for most other girls, but here she was uniquely herself!

Now, i could've used more extreme exemples to show how this author rocks in body types representations (while aknowledging there could've been even more diversification still), given there are far larger, taller and stranger women, but to me, nailing the little, most subtle details in such a chirurgical manner shows a greater level of mastery and comprehension. As such, Falin left me with a deeper fascination than most other characters.

Sorry for this wall of text, but i needed to let my happy thoughts go, so that i could be free again uhuh.

Feel free to tell me that i'm wrong, or that i should just accept anime media as is. i'm just really happy Dungeon meshi exists as is and i want Ryoko Kui to keep refining her craft, and drawing beautiful women and dwarves.

Plus, this was very much a stream of consciousness, i didn't go into technical details about what i think conveyed what i described, but if someone is interested, or does not get what i'm saying (while expressing it in a curious and gentle way, i won't respond to spiteful assholes), i'll be happy to make a follow up post in which i try to dissect this! For example, i didn't reread the whole manga to find examples of her, i just went to the wiki uhuh. in a follow up post maybe i'll try to go through chapters and pick more specific examples of her.

Anyway, have a good day!

[lackoftrumpets]

The TTRPGs I played in 2023: Part 2

Near the end of November, I asked for recommendations on one page TTRPGs I should play for a event I ran. The goal was to play a TTRPG for about 40-50 minutes before swapping to something new. While I sadly didn't get around to playing all of the recommendations, I still appreciate all of the games people showed me. Reading new game is something I enjoy doing, so I still had fun even if they didn't make it to the table.

Before I go into each TTRPG individually, there was a common running theme between playing all of the games that I feel like I should say. As much as I enjoy the concept and writing one page and other extremely small TTRPGs, I will admit that playing them was a rough experience. Working with that small amount of mechanics and concepts was something me and the table were not used to and I'm not sure if these kind of games are something I will play more of later. Whenever I got excited by a mechanic is one of these games, I always felt like I wanted something more. I think these types of games are great thought experiments for game design, but I can understand why these type of games haven't gotten much traction in the mainstream (with a few exceptions). However, don't let my thoughts discourage you from writing these type of games. I still love making them because its a fun challenge to see how much content you can cram into such a small space. This was something that most of these games did fairly well, so lets move onto that. If you want to check out any of these games or their authors, I have everything linked on this post.

Rollers of the Lost Artifact by JayBlnk6

This was the starting game and it left a good first impression. In this game players are archeologists looking for special artifacts. The simple skill system was nice, but what I really loved was the inventory system. Each item size has a certain shape and you have to fit it into a 3x3 square. I always love inventory systems that force you to play a Tetris (turning a mundane thing into something fun), and this game did a good job fitting it into a smaller system. Since we were playing multiple games at once, the players didn't get to sell the artifact, but I still appreciate the rules where players get a choice on what they wish to do with it.

Rats in Space by Jay Writes

I think the title of this game explains itself. The players are rats in space looking for a special piece of cheese. The theming of this game was a lot of fun to play with. The morale system was also an interesting addition to the d6 system I've seen a lot of one page games (including my own) use. It was fun to see the players start to panic as their moral system got lower because of a large streak of bad rolls. I also really liked the d6 table for determining one last consequence when the cheese is found. The players thought they finally found it, but then realized they had one last obstacle to conquer (that being the horrible smell in the room).

Rough Beginnings by @tornioduva

This was the most unique game I played that night and despite some odd moments, I had a lot of fun with it! The players are simple group of adventurers, but there is a small element of mystery to it. They each have a secret personality trait and one of them is secretly try to sabotage the rest of the group. I love the creative ideas this game had, but it was a bit of an awkward play. In order for the adventurers to escape, the GM needs to roll a 9 from a 2d6 on the scenario table. The first round, I rolled a 9 for the first scenario. The second round, I rolled a 9 after the players went through about 15 scenarios, the majority of them being the players getting HP for succeeding. I love the concept of this game and I think it inspired me to make my own deception based TTRPG, but it was rather clunky. I have no issue with that at the end of the day. I love playing games that take risks and try new things!

By String and Song by @efangamez

I've enjoyed participating in game jams run and reading some games by efangamez before, so when somebody at the game community mentioned one of their one page games but couldn't remember the name, I knew where to find it. While the game they were recommending was Barbaria, I ultimately ended up going with this game because bards seemed like more fun to play and most of the games in this series seemed like they were reskins of each other. I feel kind of bad saying this, but the game just felt like one page D&D 5e. It's a d20 game which seems to be rare for one page TTRPGs and the way everything was written with Skill Checks and attacking seemed to invoke that game. I guess if you wanted to introduce smaller games to people who have only played D&D I guess this could be a good starting point, but I think most people would just ask to go back to D&D. If I had to guess, most of my negative feelings about this game likely come from me just being burnt out of D&D. It was written well and the enemy descriptions were flavorful, but I don't ever see myself going back to play this.

Honey Heist by gshowitt

Whenever I hear one page TTRPGs discussed, this game always seems to be recommended. After playing it, I can see why. The concept of being normal bears trying to break into a convention was already an instant sell. I loved the idea of the balance of trying to keep your bear and criminal parts from not taking over. It was one of the most interesting ideas for a fail state I've seen in a game. This the game we played for the least amount of time because it was near the end of the meeting and we were all tired, but the random animal chaos mixed in with surprisingly intricate criminal planning made for a fun mix.

[tornioduva]

An act of will.

A little idea for a fanart i had (plus any excuse i find to draw something deltarune related is a good one uhuh).

Plus a little bit of making of for those interested:

If you like what i do and would like to support me, feel free to visit my page on itch or donate (all links in pinned post)

If you too have an idea and would like for someone to illustrate it, i'm more than available!

[tornioduva]

Nitpicky rant about Dungeon meshi e Frieren elves

lately i've been reading Dungeon meshi e Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, and i've noticed a recurring detail, that will now bother me till the end of my existance:

Elf ears. Ears in general to be honest, but in elves is particularly visible.

They all share the mickey mouse ears syndrome, where they can only be seen by profile, only facing their insides, no matter the head's rotation aside from when you're behind them.

It's like these authors can't decide whether the ears are protruding or attached to the sides of the head. it's driving me crazy, because it keeps shifting the design i form in my head of the characters.

Like, i'm no expert in anatomy, let alone ears (they are the bane of my existance when drawing them) but i'm pretty sure Frieren ears should look something like this when you look at her by profile:

As i said, i'm no expert, feel free to correct me if i'm wrong, i'll accept the L.

Now, i've seen that, at least in Dungeon meshi, they are able to freely move their ears, so the quick explanation could be "ears too hard to draw in that view, elves just move them and sometimes protrude, sometimes they do not" and i can kind of live with that, but it's too consistent as a thing to believe uhuh.

Anyway, this does not influence my experience with these stories, my opinions on them lie elsewhere; just an odd detail i noticed (that carried in their animated adaptations strangely enough) that now you too can't unsee! you're welcome.

[tornioduva]

...am i alone in thinking this looks kind of better?

ok, so, i caught myself in an obsessive moment in regard to HADES II designs, i noticed something i saw in the first game too, that being a general desaturated greyness when it came to characters with darker skintones. In particular, i saw odysseus skintone being the same as the parchments on his belt, and it started to bother me uhuh.

Let's be clear, i don't think my quick recolor is "correct", now that i look at it, i probably went to the opposite problem and saturated it too much, but still; the "grey" gods (not to be confused with the chtonic ones) do not feel like people with dark skin to me.

that might be due to me just not having in archive people that look like this, and so i spent the evening looking at people trying to understand where this feeling came from, either from personal bias and expectations or from something missing in these designs.

My conclusions are that AAAAH i don't know, but i think it's because they've been colored as if they were light skin people but with no saturation and shadowier. even darker skin people with cool undertones in cool environments do not seem to match. also, a lack of reflection and shine, which seems to increase with more melanin.

i dunno, they are fine as they are, but it kinda bothers me now that i noticed it.

[tornioduva]

If you are feeling down, i always recommend a spoonful of Ralsei in your life.

had an idea with some silly word association and bam, uhuh. drawing the spoon was more difficult than doing Ralsei.

[tornioduva]

Gerudo Redesign (coming at some point)

ok, so, i discovered that i like being active here, it kind of motivates me uhuh. so, while i have energy, i want to give breath to some other ideas and discussion i have and want to make.

So, long story short: i'd like to propose a new look for the Gerudo women from the Zelda series. But this will require some research on my part first. But you can join in it too!

So, while this is a fun exercise on its own, it's been motivated by a specific thing, that being a series of threads on orientalism i read, plus articles and discussion.

One of the things i always praised about the Tears of the wild duology, is the way they built the world, made it feel alive and how grounded and thought of a lot of things were, especially regarding the various people living. and especially regarding the Gerudo, the citadel blew my mind at the time.

At the same time, something always felt off about how they looked, despite being extremely varied and interesting. Like, them showing so much skin in the scorching sun and freezing nights; I appreciate the sight, and i'd love nothing more than to spend the rest of my life being pressed against the midriff of these beautiful women, but it feels like their outfit is designed more for appeal than for...using it. You could say is part of their genetics in being a different race altogether to not suffer extreme temperature, but it does not convince me honestly, at least not while they look so human. At the very least, i think we can convey it better than just "they can", something along the line of the dwarves in dungeon meshi.

Plus they all wear heels and run on the sand.

In addition to my personal gripes, then all this discourse on orientalism added on, all the various borrwed aesthetics in their clothes borrowed from a century of stereotypes, and so on.

All this to say that i very much think a better design, far less rooted in orientalism and fetishitazation. also racism, because yes, having one race of people, amidst other more fantastical ones, being defined different than the regular "human" ones just by being taller, browner, genetically and culturally more violent and living in the desert,

But it requires a good amount of research on a lot of things i don't know, like how people live there, what kind of different actual cultures might be appropriate to represent and maybe some changes in their physical appeareance.

Am i stroking my ego a little in announcing it instead of just making it? maybe.

Mainly though this was to motivate others in joining the discussion if they liked the idea. i'm going to do this research on my own anyway (very slowly though, uhuh), but if anyone reading want to contribute, share ideas, culture, attires, or just their own opinion, feel free too and i'll try to consider them all!

Thanks in advance if that will be the case! otherwise, till we meet again with some actual ideas put to paper uhuh.

[tornioduva]

Avatar the last airbender - a small thought on Aang design

....Ok, so, all the talking about avatar these past days made extremely inclined to rewatch clips and episode from theoriginal. and with that, i developed a particular opinion o a specific things: Aang's tatoos.

Now, we all like the lore and worldbuilding of this world; it has its issues, but it functions really smoothly (not considering Korra). I do think one thing we can all agree too: Aang's tatoos are how they are because they look cool by themselves more than for cultural reasons, but they do even more in his avatar state:

Aang is visually really cool and iconic in both forms, and that is in gran part thanks to the tatoos.

What i want to say with this is: why only Aang has them? or to be precise, why the avatar state interacts with a visual component of the body other than the eyes only with the Air nomads tatoos? other air avatars have them, so it seems to be a peculiarity exclusive to his people. why is that?

And why is that a "problem" with me.

I'll be short with this: i just think all the other avatars should have visually highlighted elements other than just the eyes like aang does.

I just see it as a wasted opportunity, both to add cool properties to the avatar state and to add cultural details to the avatars and their people.

Like, i don't know if it's explained somewhere, i don't remember all of the show by memory, but it don't remember to any explanations as to why. One could sayis because the air temple are the most spiritual one. are you sure? that in the whole world only them have figured out tatoos that connect to the spirit? come on.

it's shown multiple times that spirituality is something possesed by all nations, and each with their own interpretation and local declination, this is just the one of the air nomads. Yeah, maybe adding to the others would leessen the specialness of the air nomads, but i think we would only gain by more visually diverse avatar states.

Like, tell me to my face that it wouldn't be cool to have fire avatar with glowing flames pattern on their fists and feet (maybe face even), water avatars with flowing waves all over their body, and maybe earth avatars with patterns all over their chest and back.

also, one, could say that the tatoos are important to aang, and so maybe this is a uniquely his thing for some reason. well, this opens even more possibilities!

if the avatar state does make things on the avatar's body glow based on their history and feelings, we could have things like hair, fingernails, only hands or feet, the mouth, and stuff like that. something like Anne from amphibia.

Listen, i just want something as badass as this for tthe other avatars too.

This all train of thought started mainly after i rewatched some TloK clips, where i realized how plain she looks if compared to Aang.

Like, she does go hard visually many times (especially here), but Aang just sticks to you.

i'm not sure what i could give to korra that does not clash too much with her design; again, maybe some arm tatoos would do the trick, but, given how her story goes, i think it would be cool if she had something like glowing cracks in her skin, giving a hint on her depowered/unstable character state, overflowing from her.

or maybe even just a glowing shade on the end of her hair.

don't know, i just think this was kind of a waste of good design, there to look cool but to not expand this privilege to others as well.

[tornioduva]

If this continues, i'll start a series where i just associate Ralsei to things uhuh.

Today i was thinking about his pose in chapter 2, how he walks around smug with his hands behind his back, aaaand... so Ralseanort was born, uhuh.

[tornioduva]

I made a small TTRPG!

In this game you'll play as either a caster or a fighter, delving with your partner into the caotic lands known as Lavander mists, regions where magic has drowned everything in a scented ocean of fog and clouds.

It still needs polish and tables for encounters, but it should be playable!

[tornioduva]

A more refined bird dragon, based upon the medieval idea below.

[tornioduva]

Just finished Dungeon meshi (no spoilers, just thoughts)

i'm happy. sooo happy.

it's been a while since a story satisfied me so much. you can say it was like a really good and balanced meal, uhuh.

I don't even know if there were things i didnt't like, i don't think so honestly. maybe just things that didn't interest as much as others, but everything was pretty well written and composed. and the art is consistently good.

The characters felt like real people from beginning to end and never anime tropes (something that even frieren didn't manage to escape in my opinion) and they were all incredibly morally complex. aside from Senshi, he's just a nice guy.

The author even managed to avoid doing one of the things i hate the most in these kind of stories, which is escalating the confilct to a point where the only resolution is to kill/destroy the source of what makes this world interesting, leaving it dull and boring after everything ends. This world, in its "semplicity", managed to stay interesting after the end, i kept wanting more from this world and characters, while being satisfied.

The ending. is good. ntohing more to say, is good, i'm happy it went as it did, aside maybe for a tiny little detail.

Nothing more to say, if you haven't, go read it/watch it, it's really good.

[tornioduva]

GERUDO REDESIGN - Physique part 1

Hey there! so, welcome to the first part of this design journey. it'll probably be quite long, already i wanted to make the first post with a full page of illustrations, but i managed to do only the first part, uhuh.

This redesign will be divided into sections, the first one being the bodies and appereance of this women.

Before starting with vomiting ideas, a few clarifications:

The main goal of this redesign is to make them less of a biproduct of our world's racism and sterotypes and a more grounded species of its own, with more defined characteristics and distinctions from regular humans.

In Hyrule there are many different species with their own characteristics. while the Gerudo are a different species, i personally consider them a subspecies of, without a better in-universe term, Humans, the macro category that includes them, Hylians and Sheika.

When i talk about average characteristics of them, it means that those are the most common and defining of the whole species, but exceptions can and do exists, sometimes even in large numbers, though maybe sparse.

this is a silly experiment of mine, an excuse to excercise while sharing it. many of my ideas will probably be flawed and i never intend for them to be considered "the right way of doing things", they are just my subjective opinion on the matter.

With that said, let's begin!

In the Zelda Canon, Gerudos as a species are defined by:

being able of birthing only women

generally taller than hylians

generally of dark orange skin tone (but as shown in later games, that too also varies), also a mix of middle eastern/african facial traits

resilient enough to endure the harsh conditions of the desert with less equipment than your average Hylian (kinda)

The poity noses seamlessly attached to their forehead

This list alone (hoping i haven't missed something) does not a good job in differentiating them from just a segregated group of regular hylians, just with brown skin and some genetic peculiarities, and thus the icky part. I don't want to reinvent them completely, but to craft a more (to me) interesting species of people out of these bases. Their appeal definitely skyrocketed with the Tears of the wild; though their improvement is mostly in their cultural and aesthetical display of things, there are some things in how they look that i'd like to keep.

Now, onto my first main changes:

I know, sorry if you expected something more drastic. the fact is, i love the way they look in Tears of the wild, and to change them more it would feel too much like making a up a new species to me. so i wanted to build off their canon appeareance.

They are already quite tall (Urbosa canon height seems to be around 6.7 ft, and many cited a girl in a bar lamenting being 8 ft tall)...but i say why not taller. and bigger too! I honestly prefere the idea of them being somewhat giant beings, that impose themselves by presence alone. as they are, yes, in the game you feel the height difference, but somehow it got mundane pretty quickly. so again, with the goal of making them much more striking and distinct from other humans, they are on average much taller and with bigger proportions now!

Another feature that stood out to me in the games was their often really pronounced hips, with these protruding pelvic bones. that is a nice idea i think, so i decided to keep that on average, Gerudo have really protruding hips with really deep dips before the thigh. Probably i could've exaggerated that part even more, i'll try to going forward.

Body hair. here we go, this is the main idea and the thing that may ruffle the most feathers. I thought about what else could make them more striking than they are, then about the fact they always expose so much of their skin to hars conditions, and came up with the idea of giving them a lot of body hair. All this hair has the property of not only maintaing some body warmth and protecting the skin, but it also absorbs the cold of the night and balances it out. i don't know how it would work (magic hair!) but i think it could be neat that their survivability could be tied somewhat to their hair and how much they have of it. On a technical level, to sell this concept even more i think i should'ave covered her even more, but i'm already at my limit since i hate body hair ahah. you're free to draw you're own with fur on it.

A thing that is not represented here for clearness sake, but that will be explored later on, is that they also have facial hair! the way they style it will be in the culture section, but in my interpretation they can also have a beard and moustaches.

One last thing, Muscles. The way the games portray them, especially in Tears of the wild, make it seem like they naturally become shredded while growing up (aside from some chubby ones, but i guess the muscles might still be there, just covered). If that's the case, i honestly do not like it. Sure, it may be that they are naturally a species of naturally muscular women, but i think this misses the oppurtunity of making them more interesting for it. In my interpretation, they are for sure naturally strong, but mainly do to their height; task that a normal hylian would struggle with sure are easier if you're 3 meters tall! They do not acquire definition naturally though, that's entirely u to culture, living conditions and training regimes, which will be explored later on.

Ears. This is the thing that may change the most going forward since i'm not entirely sure, buuut...i don't like it that much that they have the same ears as hylians now. it's not that big of a deal, plus it has a pretty believable explanation, but i prefere a middle ground. Yes, millenias of evolution annd interbreeding with other humans has led to a difference in ears, but i prefere for it to be slightly elongated round ears instead of just elf ones.

And that's it for now, i think it's already a pretty long post uhuh. In the next part i want to explore (with drawings of course) skintones, facial fatures (noses my beloved!), hair colors and maybe something more.

Let me know if you like my ideas so far, i'd love nothing more than to start a discussion and to see other people's ideas flow freely! or to just criticize mine, uhuh.

[tornioduva]

A rant about spaces in games

As a person who's not in the industry and has never been yet in a development environment, and so has mainly just seen things from a player perspective:

Many, MANY, years ago was understood that if you wanted to give the idea of a big place, a big city, a big valley, a big landscape in general, OF COURSE you wouldn't just make it 1:1 in size and just put it there, it would be a waste of resources, time, effort, all for something that's needed only to convey a sense of scale and nothing else. Instead you would put some 2d images in the distance, an elaborate skybox, maybe some 3d more detailed object and bam, you had a big scenery, though fake. if it was a city, you would just put a wagon with fruit and vegetables, or a car, in front of a road that extends and bam, you have the image of a city that extends beyond the corners of the playable map.

Now more than ever instead there is this toxic obsession with "if the player sees it, then it must be explored, or have an active gameplay purpose", and a general perceived distaste for the concept of creating illusion, while going full simulation.

Now, to clarify: this is not a condemnation of all modern games, this is mainly a thing in AAA and AA games, also i'm not blaming any developers (i don't know how a game is made, how much pressure from above you have, how this might be the only way to keep the boat afloat in terms of sales and marketing), and also i can clearly see that this is not a dead concept; the contrary even! There are a lot of modern (though indie) games that take advantage of limited visibility to convey scale, or complexity, guiding the player imagination but leaving it work by itself. The success of games like Iron lung i think speaks volume about it.

The fact is, even among AAA games i liked and had high hopes for, i can't avoid to be a little sad about how bloated they are with this mentality. The two games that sparked these thoughts are mainly elden ring and tears of the kingdom.

In TotK case, i was sad to see how little they learned from BotW, at least in this regard; instead of closing in on the freedom of the predecessor to give a different, more intense and story driven experience, they doubled down on the original formula and expanded even more. Instead of removing, or readapting, the useless empty space in hyrule, the created even more empty space somehow, and filled it with junk that bloats everything even more. I like this formula, don't get me wrong, just...more often than what i wanted to in both games i found myself on the edge of a cliff, on the backside of a mountain, in a small hole, with nothing there and nothing particularly interesting to see or get, and i thought "why am i here, why am i allowed to be here, why isn't this just background seen from a distance"

In elden ring though i think there is the perfect, more poignant example: Leyndell. The first time i was inside the walls and saw the city, i was awestruck. it was beutiful, intricate, interesting, full of peculiar places. i couldn't wait to explore it all and for once in that game i wasn't overwhelmed with "toomanythingstodotoomanyplacestogo"itis, because i wanted to see it all. i love cities, especially old and ancient ones, love exploring them, lose myself in small streets and alleys. i was genuinelly amazed by the fact that it was completely explorable, and absolutely happy for it. After i've seen it all though, it hit me: ...it's a really small city. like, it's big from a player perspective, there is a lot to do and explore. but it's a pretty small city. I live near Lucca, in Tuscany, so i have a pretty good reference to judge it on, and i think (roughly and without measures, have mercy uhuh) Leyndell and Lucca are nearly the same size, Lucca might be bigger infact uhuh. And even if it's not and Lyndell is bigger, still, after seeing it all it FEELS small. because you've seen it all. Compare Leyndell to Anor Londo instead, and tell me which one of the two FEELS like a gigantic, enormous capital, full of streets, palaces and places for people; and of Anor Londo you only explore like a handful of rooftops uhuh. This might be just a sensation of mine, but the fact the capital of the biggest game Fromsoft has made to date feels smaller than in DS1 where you were dramatically more limited in where you could go....well, that to me is a failure of environment design, at least on an artistic side, in regar to setting up the atmosphere, not in regard to gameplay.

Do i mean with this that open world are always bad, that you should always be limited in where you can go? absolutely not! i love having freedom of exploration, and i like the idea that i can go where i can see! i just wish going forward that developers with the resources to do big projects like these are given the freedom, and the guidance, to guide the players more, to build rails on which our explosive passion of playing can be directed on without letting die out on a rock in the middle of nowhere that you're standing on for no reason. A good example for this i feel is outer wilds! you're free to go where you want, but you are limited by what there actually is to explore, plus the central gimmick. also, all there is to explore is interesting and meaningful, without collectables!

Also, i'm not criticizing empty space at all even. I recently played BABDI, and that is a masterful example of empty, "meaningless" space that is there for a reason, which is the atmosphere of the game. the fact you can explore almost all of the city while there is almost nothing interesting to discover aside from few things, contributes a ton the overall atmosphere.

So, what i'm saying is: developers, go to more theatre plays; not the big budget ones, that can afford all they want, i mean the small local ones, that are able to make you fell like you are in a ballroom with a fancy chair, a stool and a lamp.

[tornioduva]

A quick colored sketch of my elden ring character, that i now use in other games too, Lamento.

[tornioduva]

A quick sketch of my Dnd party, the Mistrust group! My character is the creature on the right, Lyzafel Delfante, a cook alchemist.