#travis using the CANON color coding

[slightlyhopefulromantic]

some middle-aged man yaoi. as a treat for myself. for morale

[neurodivergent-loverboy]

30 Days of Autism Acceptance

April 7: Talk about autism in the media. Do you think that autism is typically portrayed well? Badly? Is there anything you'd like to see more of when it comes to autistic representation? Who are your favorite autistic characters? Do you have any headcanons?

I'm a day late again, oops. But anyway!! This is something I fuckin love to talk about! I wrote a whole essay last semester on Spongebob being autistic-coded, and whether that was good or bad. General conclusion was that his autistic-coded traits are mostly portrayed as negative (annoying, childish, etc) and it has a noticeable impact on how the audience treats him. So, not very good. Most autistic-coded characters are not very good representation; there's just so many one-dimensional stereotypes. And a sizable chunk of the explicitly autistic characters I've encountered leave a lot to be desired, too. Even they fall into the traps of stereotypes.

What I would love to see more of, honestly? Autistic characters made by autistic writers. We're the experts on our own experiences, not anyone else. Not parents or siblings or even medical professionals. I'd also love to see more diverse autistic representation. More diverse traits shown, of course, but also intersecting identities. Such a huge majority of autistic characters are white and cis male with no other disabilities and either straight or ace-coded. And of course there's real autistic people like that, but not 90+ percent of us! I would love to see more media featuring autistic people of color, autistic people with additional disabilities, queer autistic people of all kinds, autistic girls and nonbinary people, and all sorts of intersections beyond that! I'm hoping to contribute to good autistic representation with my own writing, and honestly, my favorite autistic characters are my own. I have yet to see many portrayals in media that honestly satisfy me.

But I headcanon basically every character I can as autistic or otherwise neurodivergent! Just cause I can, and cause I love projecting. Here's all my neurodivergent headcanons for The Adventure Zone, since it's my most active special interest right now:

- Angus is autistic

- Magnus is ADHD (that's actually canon babey! Travis said so!) and dyslexic

- Barry is autistic

- Taako is autistic

- Mavis and Mookie are both autistic and ADHD

- Lucas is autistic

- Duck is autistic

- Indrid is autistic

- Sir Fitzroy is autistic

To sum up, *snatches up all the characters in my little neurodivergent hands*

[kuipernebula]

So I’m making a self insert team for RWBY and decided the theme was going to be Video Game Characters - using the justifcation that the self-insert is based on a Create a Character (I’m not sure yet if it’s the Code Vein protagonist or the Mii Gunner from Smash - probably the Mii Gunner though, since the Arm Canon translates beautifully to RWBY)

I have Squall locked and loaded, he’s basically already a RWBY character. I don’t even have to change his name to fit the color rule. (I’ll be using his Dissidia design - his KH design is probably his post-timeskip look)

For the others is where I’ve been having trouble, but while looking up characters I found out about Shinobu from No More Heroes and? She’s so good? God I knew I should have finished watching No More Heroes. Anyway she’s going on the team, using her dress from 2 (because Beacon already has a uniform) (Her post-timeskip look is her Travis Strikes Back look)

The last girl I’ve yet to figure out. I’m working on it - I have considered Mika Jougasaki from Idolmaster (using her Granblue design), Bayonetta/Cereza from Bayonetta, Zelda from Zelda (but specifically the BoTW Zelda), and Aqua from Kingdom Hearts, but nothing has really stuck. I also considered Rouge the Bat, giving her a human deisgn with her bat wings for an easy Faunus with her kick-based fighting style. That said, I could also do a humanized Amy with her Hammer...

[zenosanalytic]

Movie Buzz

So I went to go see the new Bumblebee movie and I liked it.

I wouldn’t call myself a transformer fan. I was big into the series when I was but a wee snek, but I never followed the comics, or made a Thing out of owning the toys, or really got into any of the shows other than Beast Wars, and I’ve never really been into collecting in general(except for a short period where I was big into fantasy model building&painting), which seems to be a big part of the fandom.

And, of course, the Bay films --as the audio-visual manifestation of an inner ear infection-- make me physically ill(this is not metaphortalk), and --as the audio-visual manifestation of macho marketized misanthropy -- morally disgusted/exhausted(a reaction which certainly isn’t alleviated by the whole, aforementioned, “making me nauseous” thing).

So it isn’t something I would have typically thought of as my sort of thing or bothered to go see in theaters.

But, I follow Lindsay Ellis on Twitter, and sub both Her Youtube and Black Nerd’s(and I’m a long-running David Willis fan), and they’re big Transformers fans, so I kinda have my ear vaguely to the earth re: Transformers stuff and when Ellis and Meadows made a Reaction Video/Review for Bumblebee, I saw it and thought “ok I have to see this film”.

And it’s just great. I don’t want to spoil anything(and btw that reaction vid has spoilers so, watcher beware) so I’ll just say this about it: Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts. Which, kinda cribs from Ellis a bit, tbh, but it’s really the most accurate thing to say about the film’s emotional impact on me. It’s a fun, sincere, competent, visually coherent movie. And I want to emphasize the “Visually Coherent” bit: The Transformers LOOK like Transformers, they are individually distinct, they can be easily identified, they’re even-flipping-color-coded(as in canon). The two main villains even have an inverted Red Oni Blue Oni dynamic it’s Gr8. Bumblebee lifts some visuals and story elements from The Iron Giant, the first Men in Black, and (yes, I’m not kidding)The Shape of Water; it’s view of the late 80s-early 90s period is probably a bit too rose-tinted; and it’s antagonists are cartoonishly villainous, but none of that hurt the movie for me. In fact that stuff, in that they are all common elements of the anticynical, pre-Edge 80s-90s films like Flight of the Navigator which it is obviously a love-letter to, make the film stronger, in my opinion.

It’s certainly a very nostalgic film(verging on being too nostalgic; there were a few 80s references which were almost too on-the-nose, but in the moment I felt they fit the characters and I laughed), but I personally felt like that helped to establish and strengthen the Sincere Sentimentality which Travis Knight and the rest of the crew wanted to make its emotional heart. While they skirted up to the cliff separating time-distorted-fondness from commercialized memory, they thankfully didn’t tip over it. There’s also some, shall we say, oblique symbolism in a few scenes for the weirdos out there which, being a weirdo myself, I really enjoyed uwu

It’s also a very funny film, which brings me to my My Main Concern about it. I worry that the nostalgia may get in the way for people who didn’t live through(or in the cultural wake of) the 80s. I worry this because, while my theater was verging on full attendance(very good for a Thursday early morning show), me and maybe 3 other people seemed to be doing most of the laughing. Given, audiences in my particular end of Texas tend to be pretty subdued/polite, but the film had about the same joke-concentration as Deadpool and definitely NOT the same laugh-concentration. The thing is I don’t know if this is because of younger audiences not connecting with the older setting- and reference-jokes, or because of the humor being subtle and situational rather than the super-obvious reference and physical comedy that Deadpool deals in. Anyway, while all of the performances are great and funny John Cena, in particular, does an excellent job in a simultaneously comedic and antagonistic role as, what I’ve read, is supposed to be a GI Joe cameo, setting up a potential spin-off franchise.

The only complaint I have --and it’s not really a complaint so much as a taste difference or maybe just even a plot-bunny watching it left me with-- is, and this is potentially

<<<+++SPOILER+++>>>

territory here, so be advised, but:

I wish she’d gone with him. I feel like it’d have been a more interesting and honest-to-the-character(and franchise, given TF always has a human audience-standin character) ending, though I also see how it’d have gone against the feel, themes, and homage they were going for with the movie, and been a bit too confident about getting a sequel-chance.

Oh, and having Bumblebee turn into the Camaro at the end I didn’t like. But, then, I ALWAYS thought the Bay films having BB be a Camaro was a dumb and asinine decision, and it’s a big reason why I never watched any of them in theaters to begin with. BB’s supposed to be a friendly, reliable, and approachable character who makes it easy for audiences to sympathize with and care for the Autobots(and thus boo the Decepticons for putting him in danger), and there’s nothing more friendly, reliable, and approachable than a slugbug. Turning him into a Camaro was always an act of pathetic male insecurity; since their reissue in the late 90s, Volkswagen Bugs have been heavily marketed to women in the US(I’m convinced because they’re small and quiet), and so Bay --a man whose whole career is basically an audio-visual cathedral to his masculine insecurity-- couldn’t stand that, and made him a generic “muscle-car”(*requisite gigantic, space-visible wanking motion*) instead. I get that they had to include some nods to this being a “prequel” rather than a reboot, but I’d have preferred this not be one of them.

But Anyway: Hailee Stanfeld was Great, Pamela Adlon was Great, Lendeborg and Drucker were Great; I loved how they focused on friendship over romance and Memo was cool with it; it’s just a really Competent, Good, Fun movie you guys.

Aaaaaand I guess I had more to say about it than just “Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts” :p :p If any of this sounds appealing to you and you’ve got the free time&cash, plz go see it, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

[ghostcultmagazine]

Ghost Cult chatted up Darkest Hour guitarist Mike Schleibaum to discuss their recent live album "Live In Lockdown - The Complete Collection.” Mike caught us up on how the band spent their lockdown days, their live album, raising funds for The Black Cat club, the longevity of the band, some backstory on some of their biggest upcoming album anniversaries, launching their crowdfunding campaign with Patreon, a big update on Mike's new ESP signature guitar, and the progress made on a new Darkest Hour album! Interview with Keefy (https://ift.tt/2LlAx1W). Video editing by Omar Cordy of OJC Photography (https://www.instagram.com/ojcpics​​​​). Theme music by Salted Wounds (https://ift.tt/31seIpV). #darkesthour #mikeschleibaum #lockdownsessions #ESPguitars Darkest Hour - Live in Lockdown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdlBKWGOPyk Learn about Mike’s Signature ESP! https://ift.tt/3fd7zQJ Purchase it here: https://ift.tt/3vQUVxa Filmed on September 26, 2020 as a benefit for Washington D.C.’s legendary venue Black Cat, Darkest Hour invited guest guitarists Fred Ziomek (ex-Darkest Hour), Kris Norris (ex-Darkest Hour), Buz McGrath (Unearth), Doc Coyle (Bad Wolves / God Forbid), Fella Di Cicco (Dreamshade) and Mark Heylmun (Suicide Silence) to join them via satellite as the band performed 11 of their greatest hits (+ 1 cover song) spanning their 26-year-long career thus far. A download / full video of this legendary concert and limited 12-inch vinyl will be available in the coming months. Darkest Hour will continue to roll out the distribution of the Live In Lockdown - The Complete Collection audio, video, and limited 12-inch vinyl via their Patreon. Live in Lockdown is free and only available to all Darkest Hour Patreon subscribers at this time. Subscribe now to immediately receive a download code for the audio version of the album and be automatically reserved for the future video and Vinyl component. https://ift.tt/2R8LoD8 Darkest Hour is: Aaron Deal, bass John Henry, vocals Travis Orbin, drums Mike Schleibaum, guitar Follow Darkest Hour: https://ift.tt/3vQUW4c https://ift.tt/35Sp5Eo Buy the gear we use to make these videos: Sony A7 III - https://amzn.to/38DZ7Y5​​​ Canon 80D - https://amzn.to/38CgSXX​​​ Desview Mavo-P5 Camera Field Monitor- https://amzn.to/2OlokzN​​​ Deity V-Mic D3 Super-Cardioid Directional Shotgun Microphone with Rycote Shockmount and PERGEAR Cloth - https://amzn.to/3qJOvx7​​​ NanLite PavoTube II 6C 10" 6W RGBWW LED Tube with Internal Battery - http://bit.ly/NanLitePavoTubeII​​​ Sound Devices MixPre-3M for Musicians - 2018 Model - https://amzn.to/3vnI3iD​​​ Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 Di III RXD for Sony Mirrorless Full Frame/APS-C E Mount - https://amzn.to/3vn0xjp​​​ Flexispot Height Adjustable Desk Standing Desk Sit Stand Up Desk with Memory Controller Home Office 48 x 30 Inches - https://amzn.to/3eAByDf​​​ Kondor Blue Mini Quick Release Plate for Camera Tripod/Gimbal/Video Monitor/Magic Arm Flash Bracket/Stabilizer - https://amzn.to/2Q0C4QS​​​ Newmowa Dual USB Charger for Canon batteries - https://amzn.to/3eHD2Mh​​​ Gearlux XLR Microphone Cable Male to Female 25 Ft Fully Balanced Premium Mic Cable - 3 Pack - https://amzn.to/3tnhBUR​​​ ProMaster Reflect Disc 5 in 1+ 41'' Studio and Outdoor Reflector - https://amzn.to/3qNCZRc​​​ Mcoplus Mco-X1EM Metal Hand Grip Bracket Plate as GPX1EM Replacement for A9 A7III A7RIII A7RII A7SII A7II A99IIA - https://amzn.to/2OU3irz​​​ Tamron SP 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC G2 for Canon EF DSLR - https://amzn.to/3lfusFE​​​ Sigma MC-11 Mount Converter Lens Adapter (Sigma EF-Mount Lenses to Sony E Cameras) with Altura Photo Essential Accessory Bundle - https://amzn.to/2NexyNu​​​ Manfrotto Befree Travel, Light Weight, Fluid Drag System Professional Video Tripod, Black (MVKBFRL-LIVEUS) - https://amzn.to/3le5syw​​​ YONGNUO YN600L Pro LED Video Light/LED Studio Light with 5600K Color Temperature and Adjustable Brightness - https://amzn.to/38Bi0uT​​​ YONGNUO YN300 Air LED Camera Video Light with Adjustable Color Temperature 3200K-5600K for Canon Nikon Pentax Olympus Samsung - https://amzn.to/3qKik0o​​​ Kamerar Dfuse Collapsible Softbox - https://amzn.to/3tniP2p​​​ Aputure Amaran MC RGBWW Mini On Camera Video Light,3200K-6500K,CRI/TLCI 96+,HSI Mode,Support Magnetic Attraction and App with USB-C PD and Wireless Charging - https://amzn.to/3lcaI5R​​​ Sound Devices MX-LMount Battery Sled for MixPre-3 - https://amzn.to/3vozRPe​​​ Lexar Dual Slot USB 3.0 Reader Professional - https://amzn.to/3vkQGdW​​​ Get Ghost Cult’s Entire Kit: https://kit.co/OJCPICS​​ This video includes a shoutout to Through The Occulus (https://ift.tt/3b1TNip). To get your band a shoutout in one of our future videos, subscribe to Ghost Cult on YT, IG, and Twitter, and then check out pinned Tweet for the details! by Ghost Cult Magazine

[nd43taags]

7, 8, 17, and 18 for the writing asks?

7: Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Okay Cartography is my all time favorite piece I've done and I’m particularly proud of this bit from the last chapter:

These were new to this body, but there were others.  Older ones, burned up with your former self.  A cut on the small of your back from your best friend on the day she got engaged.  A scrape on your chest from drunkenly falling out of a tree after a few bad decisions.  A crescent shaped scar on your finger that reminds you of home and family.  A long-healed rash that you were cured of with the power of patience and nail polish.  A wound, infected and raw, that left you feverish and shivering on a cold winter night.  A sickly cut across your stomach that would have killed you if fate hadn’t intervened.  A pair of mangled hands, bleeding from the knuckles after trying to dig your own grave.  A split in your lip (and a missing tooth) from a frightened deer that you were trying to help.  A grazed shoulder and a deep wound where the arrows of your enemies had pierced you.  A face peppered with glass, carefully cleaned and quickly stitched up by your lover.  A tree of burns spread up your body that rallied a city to your side to overthrow a tyrant.  A callus on your finger from when the love of your life taught you something precious  A scratch from a frightened kitten on a stormy night that never quite healed right.

Like it’s literally just a list of what happened in the chapters in the reverse order that they happened, but I tried hard to give each one a serious punch to it.  I really like this piece because I just really connected to it and worked my ass off on it to get it just right.  Like, I worked harder on this fic than I did on term papers in college.  I care very deeply about Magnus Burnsides.  And it turned out really good??  Like I’m hyper critical of myself but I even enjoy rereading this fic and I’m the one who wrote it.  Someone commented that it felt like canon and while it’s my headcanon, that’s like WHOA.  Such a compliment!  I really took that to heart.

The rest of the questions are under the cut!

8: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Want and Need, aka the fic I wrote before I realized I actually shipped Taagnus.

“Dude I just…  I feel bad,” Magnus said.  “You wouldn’t have had to give up all your blankets if Merle hadn’t gotten hurt.”

“Yeah, well, the old man didn’t help any by blowing his spell slots,” Taako admitted.

“I just don’t want you to think I don’t care about you guys,” Magnus sighed, and he caught a hint of surprise on Taako’s face.  “Nobody should have gotten hurt.  It’s my job to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

He thought he sensed Taako scoot just a little bit closer to him.

“Nah I mean…  well you take the big hits, but nobody could have seen that arrow my dude,” he muttered, “and maybe it wouldn’t have happened at all if I hadn’t been fucking around with levitating at the time.”

“It’s not your fault Taako.”

“Well it’s not yours either!” he answered, and now it was Magnus’ turn to be surprised.  This was probably the closest thing he had ever gotten to an apology out of Taako.

One of my big weaknesses is character voices?  I’m great with my own characters, but established characters I tend to co opt them so bad they can become unrecognizable.  I think I got pretty close to how Justin and Travis would have behaved in this situation.

17: Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

Despite the fact that literally all of my ongoing pieces are jumbled anachronic narratives, I am incapable of writing things in pieces and assembling those pieces later.  With very few exceptions, you can assume anything you’ve ever read of mine was written in the exact order that I published it in.  My brain works in one direction.

18: Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?

For not fanfic yeah!  I’m pretty loosey goosey with the fic, but for my other projects I keep timelines and such.  Right now I need to revisit this ridiculous calendar I put together I put together detailing literally every day of a school year for a dating sim I was working on.  It was CRAZY, lots of color coding.  I’ve used things like character webs too, especially for writing setups for LARP games.  Generally speaking tho I’m very unorganized and I am constantly losing whatever outlines or notes I make.

[animalloverdev]

Would you guys have any tips for aspiring indie visual novel developers working in very small teams like yours? Stuff that you didn't think would matter or things you didn't think would happen, but once they did, you thought 'oh man, I wish I had thought about this before/somebody had told me about this!' In case there aren't any: what do you guys think are the most difficult parts, and what are the best parts, of working in a small team?

I was originally going to go off in this one by saying that we’re definitely not successful enough to be giving out tips. But Animal Lover was well rated and we *did* actually release it. So screw it. I’ll pass this one to Maia for artist tips after I ramble on for a little bit.

Universal Tips:90% of the people who email you after you release a game on Steam are blowing smoke up your ass. Proceed with caution.

Making video games is hard. Even games with minimal gameplay like these. You’re not taking the easy route by doing a visual novel, you’re just taking a route that a small team can actually manage to make.

Small Team Tips:If you’re not paying them (whether at all or for a non-livable wage), be patient with them. This means planning out how long it will take, getting a rough estimate of how long the project SHOULD take, and then multiplying it by four.

Wear multiple hats. This is non-negotiable. There’s no room in game development for ‘idea guys’. Prepare to code, prepare to do SOME visual development, some sound design, some UI design, some writing, some whatever. If you have just barely enough money to make an indie visual novel instead of a full-fledged AAA release, then you don’t have enough money to make everyone else make your dreams come true.

Writing Tips:Write a book first.

No, seriously, write a book first. Maybe write a few.

Writing a visual novel was like writing a book, which I’ve done, but then when the book is done, you need to edit it, which is par for the course... but then with Animal Lover, no matter how done the script was, there was something to do, always. Like always. Always. If you’re not prepared to write a novel by itself, you’re certainly not prepared to write a novel that you have to code and potentially add branching paths for.

Visual novels are writing heavy, and even though writing standards are certainly not sky-high right now, you want to have good writing, because if you want to differentiate yourself from the pack even a little, you don’t want people saying “Yeah, the writing was okay” when 80% of your game is writing. This also means that visual-novel writing tips hew pretty close to regular writing tips. On that note:

Characters are key. I am a dude who loves a complex plot, but complex plots in mediums where you can’t rely on environmental storytelling and visual inference (it’s hard to implement in visual novels, though we tried with Kyle’s hair in the canon ending and with the different markings each character has based on their animals), complex plots mean lots of explanation. Which we didn’t even totally avoid in Animal Lover. Any more complex and it would have gotten boring.Thusly; focus on characters. Visual novel players (dating sim or otherwise) are there to interact with characters.

Learn to write in-code. It’ll save you time.

The only thing maybe more important than character in visual novels is pacing. In a dialogue-heavy medium, it is easy to forget how much time it’s been since the last big event happened. Keep an eye on where you’re spending the most time, what you’re interacting with at any given time and whether or not you enjoy reading it.

Comedy has value. Animal Lover is not the steamiest otome game out there, and steaminess is the general consensus for what games have the most value. Yet, somehow, people are drawn to Animal Lover. Comedy endears readers to characters, makes them remember their time spent fondly and actively engages readers. If you can make it funny, do make it funny. Animal Lover gets dark, but the moments spent laughing before that happened gave it value and made the dark stuff heavier.

Producer/Director Tips:Explore your engines. We did our game in Ren’Py, which worked and we managed, but we spent our time wondering if it would have been easier or more flexible in Game Maker or TyrannoBuilder. It’s not that we regret it, we just didn’t know.

Be as unique as you are. This is seriously only going to do good for your game. When I think that maybe Animal Lover isn’t selling as well as it ought to, I remember the other visual novels that have come out I haven’t even heard of because the art was standard or the writing was ‘meh’ and didn’t really capture anyone’s attention. As an indie, it’s just a good business move.

Dream big; settle for less. Not less as in lesser, but I had a few big studio songs and some really huge ideas to include in the game. Those big ideas led me to the small ones we found (like putting Bottom Over Top in the BIG SCENE or to having the multiple-faces thing for the characters) and they made the game better.

Maia’s Tips:

First off I disagree with Wil’s point about “writing a book first”. Plenty of people have made and posted vn’s on newgrounds and deviantart without having written an entire book before. Just understand that it takes more than just writing a story. A lot more.

Art wise, the biggest lesson I had to learn was that some of the super cool game stuff just wasn’t feasible for one artist. (I wanted a majority of the game to look more like first person illustrations with unique moving parts and body language. You can see why I didn’t do that).   The Second biggest lesson I learned was hire more artists. Or work with a buddy, I know people like to make these for fun. Video games require art in places you may not even have considered before. There’s characters and all they entail, including unique items (extra outfits, one-time items or expressions, backgrounds, every part of the UI and menus, any little details you want to add like the button changing color when you hover/click/idle etc. It goes on. 

Edits can really pile up, so it’s good to tackle a single aspect at a time. All the bases first then all the clothing, all the buttons on menu A, B then C. You get the point. It can waste time if you have to keep going back to fix or adjust something because a color didn’t match up, or you approached it differently than the 4 others you spent good time planning and executing (looking at you Miguel. Fuck your blinking I hate you.)

Art takes time and preparation. I used to work pretty quickly, but mostly that’s because I didn’t used to as much consideration into my drawings. But you also have to balance Quality and Speed so you can do good work while making deadlines.

Preparing for a game is incredibly important. Your first designs should not be your final designs. While it won’t always be the case, you need to keep in mind that the more you draw a character, the more small changes will occur causing your design to evolve and become inconsistent. Creating reference sheets and mock ups for each character, item/accessory, or icons is a very good way to keep tabs on consistency.

THe last thing I can think of for now is that it’s really *really* good to look up lega information, even if this isn’t a project you’re aiming to sell. I’ve found it extremely helpful to learn about contract creation, copyright information, business building etc etc. 

Oh, and you’re second question

Working in a team for me was pretty difficult and a lot of fun at the same time. I had a blast chiming in to tell my thoughts or ideas on whatever dialogue  we were discussing, or making design changes to something more interesting from the request of Travis or Wil. On the other hand, there’s a lot I wanted to do that I either had to defend or change at their behest. They also had to do this! And it was a big learning experience to have to compromise and discuss with these guys. It feels good to have gone through all this, because the game turned out really great, and I’ve never been prouder of something I’ve created.  It was tough at times, but the experience and growth I gained was genuinely worth it.

10/10 would do again.