#you all should play Lobotomy corp

[cloverpatches]

-- LOBOTOMY CORP ABNORMALITY CREATION GUIDE --

Hello Hello! Welcome to Niel's LobCorp Abno Explanation and Creation Guide!

When making an OC Abnormality, there are a couple specific ranges that are immensely important: Breaching Damage Output and Risk Level. While all breach kills or immense damages should be talked out first or at least notified, damage output with Abnormality presences alone and collateral lead to damage type and output being important. Damage type and severity are hard to calculate for those who haven't/can't play, so I'll be specifying amounts below.

To note, on DAMAGE TYPES:

RED is direct damage to the body of an agent. This usually refers to the types of damage that can be done with weapons or the body, and envelops most forms of harm capable by weapons in the City. Despite being common, those who deal Red damage typically have much higher output in sudden bursts and should not be underestimated. (EX. Scorched Girl, All-Around Helper, Nothing There)

WHITE is psychological damage. It attacks the psyche, usually working to petrify or take away the mind of an agent, either on purpose or not. This is usually dealt by Abnormalities that work to convince employees to stay with them or who are particularly horrifying. White Damage can take a physical form by some EGO or Abnormalities in a cloud of white, choking smoke. (EX. Happy Teddy Bear, Child of the Galaxy, Blue Star)

BLACK is supernatural weakening of the mind and body of an employee. Abnormalities with magical attacks, health hazards like slime, mucus or rot, or medical influence that causes infectious harm to those around them. This causes a piercing and increasing pain much like gathering and constricting thorns, and can cut across bodies and weaker EGO like hooked thorns. (EX. Void Dream, Snow White's Apple, The Mountain of Smiling Bodies)

PALE is the most painful and dangerous damage and it directly damages the soul of agents. There are only two Abnormalities in-game whose work deals Pale damage .. and one of those is WhiteNight. In Ruina, this is shown through the status effect Erosion. It's a gradual and near unavoidable death of all who stay around this Abnormality, beyond black's rot and erosion, by enveloping their entire essence in the Abnormality's perspective. It's comparable to having your being shifted and taken away by an external force beyond your soul or body. (EX. Judgement Bird, Servant of Wrath, WhiteNight)

If you don't know damage numbers, it's okay not to use them! Saying "a small amount, a decent amount, a high amount" is more than enough! In roleplay, it's all by estimate anyway.

Now for RISK LEVEL!

ZAYIN:

The second rarest Abnormality type and very highly valued.

These Abnormalities either portray themselves as harmless, or are completely harmless without the direct fault of the Manager's command. They are not prone to breaching without external input and cannot directly lore agents to themselves. When working, they have a low damage output and will cause harm to Agents in other ways, either by entrapment or becoming a part of their presence.

Zayin Abnos, more often than not, have an immensely beneficial effect to the employees that use them or to the facility they're contained in. This can influence stats, EGO, power generation, or regeneration.

Despite this, due to their beneficial nature, Zayin non-item abnormalities are often those who would be the most dangerous should they choose to harm the facility or if the Manager somehow breaks their typical nature to strike their ire against a target.

The death counter of their negative effects will nearly always be 1. TETH:

Any Abnormality classified as Teth instead of Zayin has earned it through their capabilities to cause harm and work types which Will set them off. Many Teth have specific work methods that allow them to stay calm however, and a Manager will be quick to prioritize those or find the consequences.

Most Teth Abnormalities aren't ranked higher due to their ability to be ignored and have predictable consequences with manageable death toll. Should their counter lower, it will either be breach or remain inside, with most having tracable breach patterns and/or will return to their own containment after a set period of time.

More often than not, Teth abnormalities will generally be friendly or try to be beneficial to those they come into contact with, only with a few exceptions. It's their attempt to be friendly, assist or help which causes the damage outside of their intent.

The death counter of their breach or effect in a typical facility will usually be 2 or above. HE:

Abnormalities classified as He have an innate existential drive to harm by default. Whether they have good intents or not, their actions and the effects of their existence can and will harm Agents. This usually comes through the Abnormality thriving and benefiting off the consumption of employees, lowering the counters of nearby Abnormalities, or causing a breach/harmful entity through the utilization of an employee.

The one factor keeping He abnormalities from being Waw is that they require direct interaction to cause harm and oftentimes are on the line of not getting out of hand when breaching.

Helpful He abnormalities will have high assistance with weighable drawbacks. Their use will be very helpful, especially in strained situations, and the use will usually outweigh the cost - no matter how high. Their assistance is measurable and won't get out of hand without the Manager actively allowing it to.

Agents are more likely to be attached to He abnormalities than any other, with the attachment being something often unregulated and beneficial to the abnormalities and agents in a symbiotic relationship.

The most complex Abnormality type. WAW:

The most common Abnormality label.

Best summarized as "You can work on/use this abnormality, but Watch Out!" and because of that, Waw abnormalities are oftentimes very predictable. They will have specific requirements when being worked with or else they'll spread from/during work, or they will breach on their own in direct response to other happenings in the corporation/neglect.

When breaching, they're actively influenced by the actions of the agents and managers to either increase their damage, their numbers, or their attack weight. Their work requirements and counters usually can't be ignored without facing consequences.

Waws that are helpful usually have immense and outweighing drawbacks if they are disrupted in any way, and will be turned against the facility tenfold. They can either instantly kill agents to take them into their own numbers or become an active antagonistic force.

Typically, if an Abnormality isn't very helpful enough to be a He but not harmful enough to be an Aleph, Waw is a loose label that can fit without being questioned. ALEPH:

Aleph are the highest energy output Abnormalities, but that's for a reason. Every work with an Aleph abnormality or every moment spent not working on them could be a day's last before a reset. Work behaviors of either a department and the surrounding ones or the whole facilities need to be changed to accommodate them.

When made, Aleph abnormalities embody the sheer loss of self-percieved humanity witnessed in their creation, leading to the embodiment of a concept far outreaching their individual existence. They are no longer human even in the slightest anymore. Those that hold even traces of human appearance are merely manipulation points used to draw others in, but upon even the slightest freedom, it's shed in the overwhelming collapse of body caused by their concepts.

These entities could destroy the city if they got loose. The Pianist, an entity which destroyed a whole district's backstreets in less than an hour, in a single song's playing, who was able to flood into the backstreets and bring in hundreds upon thousands of bodies into his own performance was a high WAW. He wasn't even an Aleph. A single mid-grade Aleph would be WORSE than The Pianist by a decent margin.

With ABNORMALITY GIFTS:

Abnormality gifts are very simple in comparison to classifications. Despite rank, many low level given gifts can be more useful than higher level gifts, as they scale with the agent rather than with the Abnormality. They embody the wavering and unstable existence of Abnormalities tying into the being of an agent. While some can be physically given, others can be formed through an agent resonating or being influenced by the Abno, quite literally taking a piece of them along.

While gifts can be removed and stored, they immediately become a part of the employee's being as soon as it's gifted as much as a piece of clothing on an Abnormality is a part of them. Agents will nearly never want to take them off or remove them unless forced. Forced removal can occasionally lead to detrimental reactions unless replaced with another.

Agents with 3 gifts or more can be considered closer to Abnormalities than humans. Main Branch agents' gift amounts would be seen as terrifying elsewhere.

High benefit gifts can usually come with consequences, as it's considered forming an agent closer into the image of the Abnormality, along with the mental and physical detriments or advantages that come with it.

Hired AGENTS:

Agents are hired through a simple criteria - reading of trauma. Through information and resources gathered from the Head, Lobotomy Corporation reads across the City to find those who have been negatively changed and transformed through their lives in the City, into trauma. People in the City aren't as likely to be traumatized by things, let alone being affected in the long run due to conditioning and mental/spiritual exhaustion through their loss of humanity and self. This is the sickness of the mind that the corporation was founded to cure. Those who can express a factor of lasting humanity, even a little, are rarer and may be selected to be hired through Hokma's City record searching.

While it provides easier link and influence by EGO into usage without direct corrosion, it's also largely for their use later in the Well. Only those with a specific mental and physical criteria can be made into Abnormalities and even less will. Thus, the hiring range is wider.

Level 5 Agents are equal to Grade 1 Fixers or Colors in combat capability.

Quick FAQ:

Q: Why aren't more Abnormalities human-looking if they represent Humanity? A: This is because of the process which creates them. Humans, half-dead or subdued, are placed into coffins nestled below the corporation, slowly stewed much like mummies in honey but instead with cogito. This slowly disperses their mind and concentrates it into their bare cognitive parts, effectively making what is called a Nameless. All Nameless together create the Well. Their concetrated, raw and City-unburdened perspectives are what allow for the perspective of any Abnormality to be made. Nameless, when selected through Hokma's record process, are injected with enough cogito and a blend of enkephalin to churn and dissolve their body from the inside out, allowing the cogito to shift their body into a shape that the Well percieves them as through the eyes of a representation of a concept. They end up deformed or with terrifying aspects, and those who are somewhat more human looking end up with aspects which show as very, very uncanny. The Well isn't human after all, but they are the very perspective and beating heart of what makes humanity into itself. Those that stay human-looking or who grasp and claw for their original humanity once injected either become failures or that becomes the embodiment of their existence as an Abnormality, such as what happened with Dr. Christopher when he became Nothing There.

Q: What makes an Abnormality containment grade? A: Their use when contained, how easy they are to keep contained, and how catastrophic the breaches can be.

Q: Can my Abnormality deal multiple types of damage? A: Yeah! Many Abnos change damage dealt between containment and when breaching. Some deal more than one- and even some Teths pull some tomfuckery out of nowhere with it. If they've got a knacker for violence, they're considered standard.

Q: What about (Random detail) with Plague Doctor? A: Plague Doctor's an outlier and should never be counted for Anything-

Q: I want to make my Abnormality cool and dangerous, and Teth/He abnormalities aren't much of either.. Should I go with Waw instead? A: Teth and He ARE very cool! They're very dangerous! They can instakill some level 5 agents, breach out of nowhere, or make a whole company panic if you're not careful! Plus, you can make them friendly and people are more likely to work with them. It's a myth that the lower the risk level, the less dangerous the abnormality - but all abnormalities are immensely dangerous and scary when not very prepared for them. Imagine Scorched Girl in a nest- huough.

You got this-! Make your freaky little beasts!

[multitrackdrifting]

LobCorp Recommended Mod Guide (One-step install modpacks now linked below 1 for QoL but close to vanilla, and one to smooth over the progression curve/reduce grind)

As someone who played LobCorp vanilla (and strongly adovcate aganist it unmodded even for the theme of the story) these are my mod recommendations. I don't have the time to actually test these but these are what I think would help a lot of people play this game.

Basemod is a mod management platform that allows LobCorp to be modded - and because the game has a lot of jank that don't really speak to the game's actual difficulty curve a lot of it is worth modding out or adjusting even if you don't want to reduce the difficulty bad QoL is not an actual difficulty curve so some of the time you spend in this game is a result of jank and not actual mechanical depth or challenges. More below.

Original Basemod 5.1.1 guide (explains in simple terms how to install it in 2nd paragraph, unlinked mods are in here. This is the most popular mod guide afaik). A lot of the mods are translated/adapted from the forum DC Inside from the original BM creator abcdcode. Basemod 5.2 (unofficial) guide (maybe check this if some older ver. mods don't work) NexusMods (for most English mods that might help).

Make the game playable [QOL Focused, does not actually functionally change anything about the game's actual mechanics] (the game will still be hard as nails but without the jank that should be in the game):

Infinite Rerolls (95% of lategame difficulty is being trolled by RNG, if you don't want to use this mod, you can hit "return to menu" in the vanilla game to retry from last day without repo rewinding). [Checked]

Employee Group Select (the base game makes it really hard to micro departments unless you really like RTS) [Broken For Me]

Detailed Work-Related Stats (see discrete success chances as opposed to vague wording). [Checked]

Work Macro (holding Shift Auto-repeats work, great for mindlessly farming when all ordeals for a day are over). [Checked]

Agent List (Hitting TAB shows department select as opposed to an ordeal being required to do this). [Checked]

Shield Health Viewer (Shields actually show how much mitigation is remaining, notably absent from vanilla). [Checked]

Agent Recustomization (no longer costs 1 LOB to make your OCs or friends). [OLD] Have not found a working version.

Make the game approachable for all to enjoy [Removing constraints but still keeping MOST difficulty in but respecting your time because the game is absurdly grindy]:

Full-Time Employees (Your units remain if you go back to day 1) <== super good if you dont want to re-grind units every time you rewind. This means yo uwon't have to go through the bs of re-farming stats and can focus solely on gear-farm & doing the story while optimizing your Abno picks with infinite rerolls). [checked]

Overtime Pay (stat-grinding now gives extra points) [checked]

Instant Stat Gains (don't have to end a day to get rewarded with stat increases) [arguably a QoL mod too not gamebreaking]

Rewarding Ordeals (boosted EGO gift odds and stat growths after ordeals killed) [untested]

Extra Justice Attribute (justice now scales DPS) [works somewhat]

Increase Max EGO to 5 (reduces the re-roll grinding substantially) [Checked]

Speedup (increase game speed to 5 if you want) [OLD]

Suppress Leveling (suppressions actually give XP for combat). [Unsure but it seems to work for me]

Sticky Agents (agents no longer wander back & forth, caution this may make certain animation dodges very precise but will more often than not be helpful if you hate the wandering idle anims). [Checked]

Better Central Command Architecture (this department just has a bad layout imo) [Checked]

Flatten the curve to make the game reasonable [I just want to read the cutscenes but still play the game]:

Unsure if Super Agents works because it is old but if it does you will basically be invulnerable to ordeals/suppressions [OLD, replies seem to suggest it doesn't work but worth a try].

"Casual Mode Mod", a 2023 mod that makes daily energy lower and substantially reduces meltdowns to cut down the time of the grind. +100% exp rate, and LOB rewards increase. This mod alone doesn't make the game free but it cuts down the bizarrely high time requirement to play LobCorp which is one of the most substantial barriers to entry. (I'm about to beat it at around 150h). Combine this with the red and green mods and you'll basically have a great time.

Guaranteed Gifts (abno gifts will 100% trigger)

Overlapping Gifts (gifts no longer are 1 per slot)

There are mods to boost stats and EGOs, I suggest you find working ones on Reddit or NM.

I recommend looking around on Nexus Mods or even on reddit for other useful mod recommendations, but be careful, some mods will spoil you. The ones I suggested and recommended here do not contain any - but some on Nexus Mods definitely will.

If any mods don't work please check the Nexus Mods link for any similar mods that are from 2020, the 2019 ones seem to not be working as consistently or at all.

I can't attest that all the mods listed play nicely with each other but please give them a try if you find the base game too daunting, trust me, I went through the grinder and vanilla is fundamentally missing the green mods I listed here at the very least. The ones in the 1st document indicate which Basemod versions and above it will work with so if you have compatibility troubles just use the google doc that is first.

STEAM VISUAL GUIDE FOR MOD INSTALLATION:

The TL;DR for installing Basemod into the "Basemods" folder is that you need to make sure every mod has its own dedicated folder if the download itself doesn't come with one. This is an example layout where none of the mods have files outside of the folders they have dedicated to them. If they don't have an included folder, just name it after whatever the dll file is so you can tell what's in there. It will work nonetheless.

I have added the tag #lobcorpguide to make this post easier to find if it updates since tumblr hates proper-clickthroughs now. So you can find the updated details.

One-click installations (drag the files to the steam installation location and drop the minside the folder called LobotomyCorp_Data).

QoL only & Progression focused. Let me know if it works! The guide/readme file is in the "Basemods" with an s folder along with each mod. I explain what each does, and you can delete or add more at your leisure to that folder, just make sure it has a dedicated folder for each specific mod.

[trainingdummyrabbit]

ok your posts have got me so curious what is lobcorp and who is Angela I am dying to know

ohhhhhh anon. im so glad you asked. youve activated my infodump trap card. we are gonna be here a lilwhile, but i will try to keep it short regardless.

[inhale] lobcorp, also known as lobotomy corporation, is a multitasking monster-management game, part of a series of games from the producers Project Moon. it starts as a very simple "dystopian setting manage the monsters and sometimes employees die nbd" sort of game, but then rapidly, intensely spirals the more you play. its notoriously difficult but also ridiculously fun and satisfying to get correctly. you are expected to fail and retry multiple times, so much so that it is an active in-narrative plot point.

you play as the manager of L corp, named X, and angela is your Helpful AI Assistant here to help you make energy efficiently and be the best manager you can be. :] by making energy. nothing else. dont worry about it.

lobcorp as a game has absolutely Fantastic characters, and Doubly so in its sequel Library of Ruina. its a series that focuses on character growth, cycles of violence, autonomy, the definition of humanity and personhood... and just. so, so much more. its so full of The Horrors.

. this, of course, is the very basics of getting into the game. i am going to explain everything very vaguely and very messily. i'll spoilercut in case you're interested in looking spoilerless based off of this, (extra post abt it [here] if youd like to check it out yourself) but i will Try to keep it vague. i make no promises. youve asked me about my favorite character. that i have previously spent 6 hours straight explaining to a friend. you understand. here we go.

////

lobcorp takes place inside a monster-management facility... that is, in and of itself, a closed-off timeloop. in order to progress, certain events and interactions must happen in a very specific way for its ultimate goal to be realized. should something go wrong or a mistake occur, the loop resets to day 1, and you must do it all over again.

angela, your ai assistant, was built to be the perfect person to keep you, the manager, on-track for a plan of your own making. dont worry about it. she was built to be able to seamlessly and efficiently move things along-- the ability to feel emotion to be able to connect with employees and make crucial decisions, the ability to recall anything that has ever happened regardless of the loop, and the ability to perceive time much, much slower than a normal human to make judgements more efficiently.

she guides and supports you all the way up until the final leg of the journey, where... she simply doesnt show up again. she has done her job, and you no longer need her. you have a plan to finish, and an incalculably long time loop to finally close. everybodys suffering results in a happy ending, and everyone gets to rest. ^w^ yay yippee!

. just kidding. nothing is ever easy. angela, as a character, is seemingly set up to be a game mechanic and very little more, in the beginning. eventually, more comes up about her as the game progresses, and well...

...anyway imagine being built to be an imitation of somebody you are not in a broken individual's deepest throes of grief, and the minute you become conscious the guy you were built to love hates you simply because you exist-- because you are not the person he lost, because you're a shoddy imitation, mirroring everything he hates... that he made to be that way, in a cruel act of self-loathing. ok?

now imagine you're built to feel, built to remember, and then forced to guide a timeloop countless years long, forced to follow a script that makes you harm people you desperately want to protect and connect to, causing them to hate you. you remember every bit of harm you had to impose on them in painful detail. imagine doing all this so that your creator can come in and fix all of their problems after youve set the stage. ok?

now imagine you finally do everything right. you finally, finally help this guy to see his plan to fruition, and in the last steps of everything, when everyone comes together and finally starts to move towards their own endings... nobody looks back for you. nobody thinks to look to you, to look for you. because nobody thinks youre anything more than an object.

imagine all that, and once, finally, you start to Want. because of course, after holding everything up by yourself, you would want something more than to fade away wordlessly. of course, after all this mistreatment, you would want a future too. this story was set up so that everyone could grow and move forward-- except you. isnt that cruel? isnt that horrible? so, truly, who would really blame you for taking what you truly deserve? who could blame you for reaching for the same light they did? so what if it means you have to destroy everything you-- everything they worked for with your own hands. they can hate you all they want-- its no different from what it's been. you only have one goal now, and simply, it is to Live.

.

. Library of Ruina is the sequel to Lobotomy Corporation following a curious machine trying to become human. angela becomes one of two main characters, and the entire game functions as a dialogue on her growth as a character now that she finally has the autonomy to learn and change. she searches for the One True Book, something that will grant her humanity and the freedom to live, grow, and most importantly: forget.

along with the second primary character, roland, they learn more about the city and how it truly functions-- and also learn about themselves, And each other.

what do you do when you teach yourself all you can do is survive and look out for yourself-- when you finally open back up to the possibility of hope and connection, and everything is ripped out from under you yet again for circumstances out of your control? what do you do when you're a victim of a cycle of horrific deeds, crushed beneath the weight of people who couldn't care less about you, and your only hope of escaping alive is to pull down anyone else in your way?

what do you do when you finally free yourself from a seemingly endless gauntlet of suffering, finally grasping power youd never been able to have before, all in the name of finally, finally getting the vengeance and resolution you deserve? when you follow the path set in front of you, set by actions of people who came before you, spiralling endlessly into the distance? what do you do when this guise of distance and coldness you put up is rightfully challenged and you have no way of defending yourself-- when you have to question what if this "self" youve made of yourself is truly who you are... and if this path ahead is truly of your own choosing, or the making of someone whose influence you could never really shake off.

what does it mean to have autonomy when your life is never truly yours?

lobotomy corporation and library of ruina, aka: Who Wants To Be Part Of The Torture Nexus ? Try Now !

[nocturnalnovelist1]

I have come to say you should 100% play the other 2 project moon games especially ruina

Ruina is more similar to limbus but a lot more indepth since you can make your own deck and have more control over your actions (think focused encounters in limbus though if you want a quick turn option press P on PC side note don't play the game on switch it runs poorly) ruina is also my fav so I'm biased (and has official mod support though save it for post game)

Lobotomy corp is a different beast being management sim which starts off simple but gets very complex later on especially when doing missions though when you do a weekly or day 1 reset you keep all your progress (excluding e.g.o and agents or nuggets as they are referred to by the community) though this game is PC only and is known to have memory leeks so if the game runs poorly reboot it (it's also PM's first game so no voice acting)

Also any reference's to past games will make you pop off when you see them in Limbus

also PM has 3 novels in distortion detective and wonderlab which take place after lobo corp (though wonderlab is no longer canon due to a controversy and the original creator taking it down and distortion detective is permanently not complete to my knowledge) and leviathan which takes place between ruina and Limbus which explains Vergilius and his deal (note that it's not been fully translated and part way though it changes from a manga style to a more novel with some pictures here and there)

Can you tell I'm a fan of this series?

Oh my goodness! Thank you so much for all the information. I love it when people are passionate about things they like, so no worries!

Unfortunately, I only have access to Limbus as I don’t have a PC, but I do plan on diving into the lore of the previous games in my own time!

[nicestpamkale]

Everyone in the Library of Ruina/Lobotomy Corp fandom should have these things in their friend group;

One friend who's completed lor

One friend who's completed lobcorp

One friend who has played neither but knows all the lore of both (especially this one. It feels like having a professional team sometimes)

One friend who has played neither, knows nothing, but knows all of the memes

It creates hilarious scenarios where the unknowing one prompts the Knowers with the lob and lor knowers giving similar (but different enough to confuse) answers and the mediator confirming (sort of) while the rest of the group watches in horror

"Gebura can Wreck Shit"

"I know Gebura could wreck shit I've seen her wreck shit-"

"No you don't understand-"

"TELL THAT TO THEM!"

"Okay but what if Gebura... didn't wreck shit?"

"Literally impossible"

"Ohmygod"

[sapphic-haymaker]

let's not have weird "first game" elitism in this fandom, i've already seen this happen too many times in my life in other fandoms..

i literally cannot play lobotomy corp because of several disabilities (bonus for how sheerly overwhelming the game is as you go on, not to mention the almost infamous hokma meltdown). some people may physically or mentally be unable to play it themselves. some may just find the game too hard or not their speed, especially since ruina and limbus are very different games from lobotomy. let people watch let's plays or recaps or play with cheats, let people enjoy the games as they want. they'll be able to get the narrative and messages and all of that good stuff even if they never actually play the first game. i watched my girlfriend play through lobotomy because i couldn't play it myself despite sincere attempts. we really don't need a high horse here and yes i am trying to nip elitism in the bud when i see it because this is how we alienate people and bar them from joining and enjoying the world project moon has created :(

I literally said in that post that you can play Ruina without playing LCorp, I'm mainly just talking about how I repeatedly see people preemptively dismissing LCorp without even giving it a try or glance.

It's definitely a demanding game and if you are unable to play it due to whatever reasons, you can just skip it. I'm a rando on the internet not the ProjMoon Police lmao. I deliberately used the wording "[I] recommend you to give Lobotomy Corporation a TRY before Ruina" for this reason.

I'm just a bit sad that the general thing i've seen people say about one of my favorite games is new peeps should skip it.

[culty-catt]

"Manager... will I turn into a butterfly like they did, too? It's so pretty..." (Edit: picrew link is in the replies <3)

[ein-liebloser-wanderer]

hello there! would you be willing to write some hcs for forsaken murderer? :D (lobotomy corp btw)

Ahahaha, I was expecting this request to come up sooner. Who could possibly forget about our local homicidal psycho?

⸸ T-01-54 (The Forsaken Murderer) ⸸

(A Yandere AU of Lobotomy Corporation where I turned a yangire into a yandere. OOC and fanon are to be expected)

Warning: gore, graphic depiction of blood, hermatolagnia

Contains: auditory hallucinations (canon and fanon), antisocial behavior, sadism

(Don't click if you don't like seeing blood or knives.)

"The researchers wanted to know if innate evil existed. He proved it."

⸸ If one were to ask him if he deserved what he had become—and he had the coherence to understand the question—he would say 'yes'.

⸸ He had murdered, tortured, and found gratification in the suffering of others, and he would gladly do it again should the opportunity for it arise. If it wasn't clear yet, he didn't regret a single thing.

⸸ So, yes. He deserved the inhumane experiments he was put through. However...

⸸ What these 'scientists' did was worse than anything he could have possibly done. In their curiosity, they had turned him into an Abnormality, a creature doomed to live for all of eternity, trapped within the hellscape that was the human mind.

⸸ Even more amusing was how they try to cover up their monstrosity with the excuse of helping humanity. 'The search for a cure', they call it.

"They didn't even know what they were trying to cure, so were they really any better than him?"

⸸ As a human, he already hated everything. Hatred fueled his existence, but ever since those scientists 'saved' him from death row, Lobotomy Corporation began to hold a very special place in his corrupted heart.

⸸ His darling, whoever unfortunate soul they were, won't be exempt from his undiscriminating bloodlust.

⸸ After all...only a thin line existed between hatred and love, and for someone who had lost themselves a long time ago, the two weren't even distinguishable anymore.

⸸ See how he loves Instinct work with low level employees? I imagine it would work the same way with his darling. To be looked at with fear was just the stroke needed for his withering mind.

⸸ Any rational person would know that he was incapable of hurting anyone with all the restraints put on him. Still, it helps to know that he could still incite fear into those around him. It helps

⸸ Attachment work is fine. He used to be human after all (even if his idea of 'bonding' seems problematic). But the moment they get too comfortable, the moment they even look at him with pity...

⸸ The metallic ringing in his head would return. The voices would speak much louder than the warning trumpets playing throughout the entire facility, and in his delusion, he wouldn't even realize that he had breached.

⸸ The true tragedy of this story was that his darling thought they were safe just because he felt any sort of affection for them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of all the Abnormalities, he's probably the one I liked less ever since Ruina came out. His flavour text in LoR made him look softer and tragic rather than 'bloodthirsty' and 'maniacal'.

But, just for the sake of complying with what I interpret as the canon Forsaken Murderer, I still tried to make him somewhat sympathetic.

[skycrowtheodore]

Mass rebloging Lobotomy Corp/Library of Ruina because it is an awesome history and you all should play it

[mwolf0epsilon]

“Eps’s Notes on The Illusion of Living”

It's taken me nearly three months to get this done due to writer’s block kicking my sorry butt. But, as promised, here are my notes on the "Illusion of Living". Good god has this been painful… But I did have a lot of stuff I initially thought of Joey somewhat confirmed for me, and got a few extra interesting tidbits of info that I feel are very curious...

--{Key}--

Italics are my opinion

--{Key}--

--{Quick retelling of the book’s contents}--

    The Drews were among the more impoverished families in New Jersey, and Joey's father briefly worked in the silk industry to make end's meet before opening his own shoe store (that his mother oversaw profits for as the accountant). As such there were obvious limitations to a lot of Joey’s upbringing (like a lack of toys to entertain him with, and very few family vacations/trips that were memorable).

According to Joey, the shoes sold at his family’s store were primarily designed for people in the working class (clunky shoes and boots that would endure wear and tear rather than be flashy or comfortable to wear, which Joey complained never really fit him right), and had one singular design that was simply improved upon rather than any variety (I suppose the saying here would be “don’t fix it if it ain’t broke” but Joey really seemed to have some sort of issue with this, as he disliked his father’s works).

    Joey's mother was a hardworking housewife and the primary parent when it came to rearing her child. She educated and played with him more than his father, so Joey was much fonder and emotionally close to her than to him and, while Joey’s father wasn’t an absent parent by any means, he was definitely more engrossed in working to sustain the family.

This family dynamic definitely had some impact on Joey, especially since his mother got him interested in the art of storytelling in general, and he seemed to have a lot more respect for her than for his father. In fact he even had a few reservations regarding his father’s mental integrity when he discovered his talent for making voices in a rather odd manner.

It should be noted here that, while Joey's father was strong, he looked deceptively frail and wasn't considered a particularly brave man by any means. He was however regarded as a bit of an entrepreneur, and Joey was very concerned that he may not be sane (which was a bit of taboo at the time, considering treatment for mental health issues hadn’t advanced past lobotomies and other disturbing medical malpractices) because he talked and sang to himself in curious little voices while he worked. Curiously enough, while a patient and loving man, Joey's father wasn't aversed to cursing around his young son (although Joey himself doesn't seem to use crass language, even if it was normalized in the household). Another curious thing to note is that Joey greatly dislikes mud, and especially hated it as a child (alluding to his later obsessive cleanliness as an adult).

    Because of the financial issues his family suffered through, Joey didn't have a radio or many books growing up, and was thus more fond of Vaudevilles (specifically theatrical comedy, tragedy, and bizarre/surreal acts) which were pretty common in his city of birth. This interest for theatrics and third person story perspectives mixed terribly with later events in his life, like how at age 10 he witnessed a potential murder/suicide (Jesus christ...). Through this event he realized that there were different kinds of people in specific situations, especially when faced with the finality of death. Joey goes so far as to describe how theatrical the death was (Almost sounding disconnected from the reality of the situation as he noted that the crowd and even his own father seemed more like characters to him than real people). However, since Joey's neighborhood was ripe with strange people, he wasn't unfamiliar with bizarre events happening around him. Seeing a motorized ambulance was more amazing to a 10 year old him than actually caring for the death of a stranger at the front of his father's store.

    At age 12, Joey went to Coney Island for the first time, and the journey excited him greatly since he didn't get to leave home very often. The trip to Coney Island was magical in a sense, and later in life he hoped to replicate it in Bendyland to a more permanent degree (the trip back home ruptured the magical effect, which he didn't want to happen with Bendyland).

Joey has his own set of rules he plays by which he considers his life’s philosophy that he calls "The Illusion of Living". This was inspired by several events in his life, including his father passing the time by playing make believe (the Shoemaker and the Elves). This unique perception of what illusion and reality are (“the same thing”), seems to point to Joey having developed a dissociative personality disorder from a young age, which got progressively worse as he grew older. This in addition with the ADHD patterns he displays in his confusing rambling writing (and Joey rambles a LOT), and the almost OCD behaviour in regards to cleaning up after himself, indicates Joey lacked impulse control and was more prone to listening to intrusive thoughts.

Joey's view of reality was often confusing to others and he greatly enjoyed poking fun out of slowly getting them to his point of view. Conversations with Joey were thus quite frustrating to some, but no less curious to others that actually tried to understand what the “Illusion of Living” was about (Like Nathan). According to Joey, only a few people ever got close to understanding it.

    Joey enlisted to fight in the first war after he lied about his age (He was 15 years old, a year younger than the required age to enlist at the time). Out of all the positions in the army, he seemed most interested in comms, and considered himself more decent in communicating than actually fighting in the front lines.

It seems like Joey greatly enjoyed how he looked in uniform, and was also particularly finicky about his looks in general despite being in boot camp.

He made friends in the army, Private Donaldson and Private Eckhart, which Nathan (who worked at the tech lab that Joey later worked for) attests to being accurately described in the book. They were slightly older than Joey and were also interested in communication tech and shared his sense of humor. They also influenced Joey's social life, and tried to get him to date some gals that he wasn’t remotely interested in (the first indication that he may not be straight).

    Another close friend Joey had in the army was Lottie (a communications officer) and he used to "chaperone" her whenever the four went out to party. He seemed to have a considerable amount of respect for her (which is likely a result of growing up observing his mother, thus understanding that women were competent in positions where other men would scoff at the idea of them working at all). As such he was quite supportive of the War's “Hello Girls” (comms female officers). Interestingly enough this contradicts Joey's sexist persona that he seems to take on in Dream Come to Life (a mask that seems to be among many others he employs to fit in with the rest of society).

Lottie was his special gal pal in the platonic sense and, while he often ate alone to be left with his thoughts, she usually sought him out to talk to.

Joey only ever empathized with people he was close to, often reserving telling stories to comfort his friends specifically. It was the only way he could brighten their day (which later supposedly helped a disillusioned Lottie when she was sent to serve in London). What one could take away from Joey’s days as a soldier was that he was incredibly perceptive in terms of studying people. He easily recognized people’s handwriting, and was greatly fascinated by others’s personalities.

He could also easily charm people just from reading into what they might be interested in, and liked the thought of subliminally impressing others (which he later incorporated into his cartoons). It’s never mentioned, but Joey was likely honorably discharged since the war ended in 1918 and didn’t need to return to the service of the military when the second world war hit (keeping in mind Joey appears to have mobility issues later in life, he might have not been fit for field duty).

    At age 19 Joey ended up involved in investigating the murder case of Walter Richmond, a signal corps soldier Joey met briefly in his service days. The victim in question was responsible for documenting the war efforts, not being necessarily that great of a photographer, but taking a certain amount of pleasure in capturing the most viscerally gruesome pictures possible for shock value. How Joey got involved was a curious thing in of itself, since he didn’t know the victim all that well, nor cared to get to know him. Detective Adam Sinclair (a tall hulking man wearing the typical trenchcoat and fedora combo, who’s most noticeable features were his aged face and unshaven 5’o’clock shadow) tracked him down to his little minimalistic (and obsessively clean and tidy) apartment to question him. Joey was initially unsurprised that an ex-soldier ended up dead (not from the war, but likely ptsd), and was instead surprised that it was a murder case. He ended up inserting himself into the case as Sinclair’s shadow to help solve it. The reason was mostly out of self-interest, but his perspective did seem useful to the detective in the end. Throughout the investigation Joey displayed a few particular traits that indicate his attentive and peculiar nature, such as the way he reads others (their way of dressing and upkeep of posture), the manner of which he judges a good handshake, his distaste for smoking (which was taught to him via the idea that if something smells bad it’s usually bad for you) and drinking (he tries to be careful with alcohol intake in general, as he’s more accustomed to beer than drinks like champagne which one could over-indulge recklessly without noticing). Joey’s fascination for taboo subjects (war, violence, and death specifically) is also noted when he observes the victim’s photographic works.

This is a prevalent theme in an art gallery event where these particular subjects seemed to linger strongly in his mind, to the point where he noticed when one of the photos he recalls having seen before during his brief meeting with Richmond, appeared to be missing from the display. A detail that appeared to be dismissed by others, but of great interest to Sinclair.

    During this same gallery event, there was an incident set up by the murderer that involved a firecracker and a crowbar that set off a lot of panic. Joey’s work at the signal corps labs saved him from the brutality of the trenches, but he's apparently familiar with the effects of severe PTSD (And ironically notes that reliving the same painful event over and over again is his definition of true horror/personal hell).

It became very apparent to both Joey and Sinclair that the murderer was amongst them, and that this onslaught of panic was a message: That the murder of the frontline photographer was personal.

They did in fact come into contact with the perpetrator and, after a while of radio silence between Joey and Sinclair, the case was solved with...Minimal success. While Sinclair knew who killed Walter Richmond, he unfortunatelly did not have enough proof to convict her (the sister of a casualty of war that could have easily been saved, had Richmond not left him for dead because it fit his narrative of the war just fine), thus allowing her to get away with literal murder. Worse yet, the resolution of the case seemed to further disconnect Joey from reality and consequence. He gained a disdain for Adam Sinclair where once he’d respected him as an authority figure of sorts, finding that he’d accomplished his role and still failed miserably. In the end, the only thing to come out of teaming up with Sinclair was learning a social skill that Joey employed later on, by mirroring back certain aspects of a person so they’d be more comfortable around him. Otherwise the detective became nothing more than a distant memory. Unimportant in Joey’s later narrative.

    Two years later, Joey started working for a bookstore where he began satiating his vast hunger for knowledge, now that he had access to all sorts of books he could never afford as a child. Joey is fairly well read with an interest in various genres, although it was previously noted that during his army service people made fun of him for especially liking fictional novels. Joey being Joey however, wasn’t overly fussed about others’s opinions on what he sought enjoyment from, especially when it came to storytelling. Aside from getting his reading quota filled out, his bookstore job also helped him develop his salesperson skills through reading his customers. Through his experiences with his father’s shop and shadowing Sinclair, he had by now understood that people were highly superficial, and that he could apply whatever knowledge he gathered from them into how he sold his pitch to them. His charisma seemed to lure in customers.

    While working at the store he met Abby Lambert who he immediately noticed had an eye for art. Joey quickly became friends with her and seemed to greatly appreciate her no-nonsense attitude towards life in general, going so far as to respect her capabilities as a working lady where other men would be disdained with her difficult attitude. In fact, he wondered why anyone wouldn’t hire her to do a job she could clearly handle, just because she was a woman (again contradicting his sexist persona). As a connoisseur of the arts, Abby was the one to fully introduce Joey to her favourite craft. He especially took an interest in Impressionism and its influences.

Abby also supposedly introduced Henry to Joey, which the latter insists wasn’t really that remarkable of an event since Henry was “unimaginative” and “lacking in talent” due to his specialty in cartoon caricatures, and not the richer awe inspiring paintings Joey seemed to prefer (basically Joey spends any given time in the book trying to make Henry seem as insignificant as possible out of pure unadulterated pettiness, which physically pains me).

Ironically, in terms of entertainment, Joey later favoured cartoons as the more appealing form of films since most other mediums didn’t really spark his interest, even if the genres were ones he found fascinating (I suppose that despite films being works of fiction most times, Joey likely thought real life actors were far too limited in their acts due to the natural limitations of the human body).

Returning to Abby, her friendship seemed to be more impactful to Joey than most others. Like with how he preferred his mother’s company to his father’s, Abby seemed to be one of few people he actually felt comfortable around, to the point where her criticism didn’t bother him. She was also mindful of him, where she could recognize Joey’s “preferences” and made it a point to clarify to him that their outings were purely platonic so he wouldn’t get uncomfortable in those situations.

    Three years after meeting Abby and Henry, Joey became a manager at the bookstore and Henry began working there as well (by Joey’s suggestion it seems), and only then did they sort of start developing a meek little friendship of sorts (although Joey seems very dismissive about it and focuses primarily on Abby).

During that time, the idea to start his own business came about from two different events that happened that year. The first being his first ever theatrical script that he wrote and performed with Abby at a gallery event. During the performance of this little play (the theme of which was an angel and a demon discussing their role in influencing a mortal’s life), Joey discovered that he greatly enjoyed controlling situations and got way too into it (even considers what he could get away with in the name of entertainment, such as if he could act out actual violent or scandalous behaviours if he proclaimed it a part of the show).

The second event was his father sending him shoes once a year (which, because Joey disliked the make of his father’s shoes, he tried to get him to stop by pretending they weren’t arriving at his address or that they were getting stolen). As a means to ensure he got them, Joey's father started sending the packages to the bookstore. A doodle and writing on the package ended up inspiring Joey to create his own studio as he wanted to take flight in the entertainment industry.

    Having thus decided that he wanted to open up a film studio of some kind, Joey immediately set off to get himself a memorable mascot. He had a vague idea of what he needed and what might be appealing to an audience, but he wasn’t particularly skilled in character design and openly admitted to this. Abby, who was also not particularly good at drawing cartoons, understood that her more realistic style wouldn’t really help (or appeal to) Joey, so she enlisted Henry’s help. Knowing that Joey was a bit picky in regards to how he evaluated art, she thought perhaps she could persuade him to take a liking to Henry’s works (which he wasn’t particularly fond of, due to Henry mostly working with pen-drawings of cartoon characters and caricatures that looked very unremarkable to him) if he could only see him actually work his “magic”. Joey was reluctant to bring Henry into his business plan, but upon actually reaching a design within a few minutes (that took a few tries experimenting with animal and human features in more detailed and then simplified ways) of Joey giving some directions, he seemed to be sold on bringing Henry on board.

Henry designing the company mascot was thus the final push to open up Joey Drew Studios.

The two began their partnership not too long after, and from then on out things got interesting very quickly.

    The history behind the studio is...Not an easy one to validate in terms of whether or not Joey is sincere or even really knows certain dates (the more I look into the beginning of the book and the later exposition of information, the more I realized either Joey was starting to trip himself up on dates or his memory was visibly failing him). There are a lot of discrepancies in the dates provided, with some going back on how long Henry remained in the studio (even claiming to have at some point surrounded him with other animators and even a lead artist a year prior to his departure), when Sammy and Jack were hired (He says he hired Sammy in 1929 during the Wallstreet Crash, but later says he hired both him and Jack after the Wallstreet Crash), among other things... Joey Drew Studios was primarily funded by Mrs. Richmond (the mother of Walter Richmond), as Joey had forged friendships with the people involved in the case he’d helped Sinclair investigate (including the murderer whom he had grown to respect).

While other investors aren’t really brought up, it’s implied Nathan also had a hand in helping the studio taking off, as Joey often met up with him at the Russian Tearoom whenever he could. During these private meetings, Nathan would impart advice on Joey. Advice which he seemed to not care for, as he already had his own concerns at the time.

It seemed that his main plan was to acquire a talented and capable team to achieve his dream. A team Joey thought he wouldn’t need to "baby-sit", as he specifically wanted to hire individuals that were as studious and capable as he saw himself (curiously Joey mentions that Henry’s work ethic was exactly what he wanted, as Henry had never held work back or needed to be checked up on, which to Joey was an invaluable attribute).

For at least two years, the Bendy Cartoons were nothing but silence and sound effects (something we actually see in-game in BatIM Chapter One when the projector suddenly turns on and we hear nothing but the clicking of the projector and Joey’s whistling), which put them at a bit of a disadvantage when it came to competing with other animation studios.

This soon changed when Joey came across Sammy Lawrence and Jack Fain at a party he was attending on his 30th birthday (which he wasn’t celebrating, the party was a completely different event so supposedly Joey doesn’t care much for his own birthday).

He was already familiar with Sammy’s musical skills (mostly playing the piano quite masterfully), as he’d seen him perform at the theater when Sammy was still a teenager. Noticing him and Jack at the party was entirely accidental and was mostly due to the fact that, while Sammy was trying to keep out of the spotlight as he played, Jack’s showmanship shone through and caught Joey’s eye with how boisterous he was in their musical performance.

Joey approached them once their act was done and managed to convince them to work for him. Jack seemed to be immediately on board, while Sammy was a little more guarded in his agreement and immediately set up his stipulations for the job. This seemed to lean Joey’s interest towards Sammy (who Joey was unhealthily fascinated with because he was clearly not an easy man to control) more than Jack (who he likely considered too easy a read in terms of character, thus not much of a challenge to sway or condition).

     By 1933 Joey officially bought the entire building the studio was set up in (which up until then was occupied by other people seeking their own ventures). Expansion and new hires likely started a year or so later and continued on despite financial instability, and between 1941 and 1942 Joey was already starting to work out how he’d get Bendyland to be just as perfect and spectacular as he had always envisioned (which was difficult because he never really got it to feel just right in his eyes, and something felt off to him).

In between listing several different projects, vaguely describing an innovative techniques (Sillyvision which seems to be linked with the Golden Ink?), and even setting up his own 7 rules on how to animate to help set up a guide for aspiring animators, Joey slowly drifts away from the studio topic and finalizes his book rather abruptly.

He insinuates there’s a lot more for him to tell but little to no connection with the “Illusion of Living” philosophy and he’d rather focus on his actual physical work with the Studio than sit down and write further, so he finishes off on a rather...Vague note.

--{On Joey Drew}--

Year of Birth - 1901 (Day and month are never mentioned, but it's possible that his favouring of the autumnal season alludes to a fall month) Year of Death - ??? (Supposedly he's died, hence why Nathan claimed the Bendy IP) Birth City: Born and raised in Paterson "Silk City", New Jersey (Joey doesn't seem to have an accent, so he likely masks it, or made an effort to lose it). Physical Characteristics: As a child he used to have curly hair (Considering the era’s general fashion and style, it’s very likely that Joey either cut his hair too short to see the curls, or simply uses too much gel to seem more presentable) Sexual/Romantic Preferences: Homosexual with Demiromantic subtones (Joey seems to be closed off in general, but more appreciative of the male figure. Could be interpreted as demisexual however, since Joey himself doesn't seem to like wasting time around people he doesn't have much of a bond with) Notes: Here are several notes I’ve compiled about Joey and his opinions on certain things and people. There’s a lot to look at as this man rambles like an old lady at a friday night bingo event, and thus I had a lot to take in!

Laughter is important to him.

Seems to be a dog person.

Likes Cheerios (yes this was a super necessary detail I had to jot down).

Considers having his ideas disclosed without permission to be disloyal.

Seems to have some sort of dissociative personality disorder (likely brought on by trauma or another undiagnosed mental disorder).

People-Watcher by nature.

Was taught by his father that the shoe makes the man (aka the art of studying people through their shoes).

Joey believes in the saying "The Truth is in the Pudding", a saying his mother often employed.

Never had enough money to own a pair of nice fitting shoes until he was 26.

Is narcissistically vain. Easily takes insult if people assume he can't look presentable.

His service in the army gave him experience with "experimental tech".

Enjoys music a lot, and he was considered a great dancer.

Finds modern feminine fashion standards appealing.

Disliked the way those with money romanticized lacking material gains. Found it personally disrespectful in a way, since he himself came from a poor family.

Seems appalled by too much color on one's wear (Joey is the goddamn fashion police).

Very picky about the arts.

Apparently disliked Henry's art style(???).

Lets people believe Henry is the creator of the toons, in an act of being holier than thou. (You lying son of a gun, stop lying to everyone and yourself whaddahell).

Joey's analogy of Henry starting a journey but Joey being the one to reap the benefits, is likely the truest thing he's said in this nightmare of a novel (boastful bastard...).

Thinks of Bendy as his firstborn, muse and messenger.

Took an art class with Abby (likely not a full art course, just a simple class to get the gist of it?).

Considers art the doorway to immortality.

Doesn't like post-mortem success (it frightens him, even). He'd rather be successful in his lifetime.

Admits to making mistakes, but not many. He also thinks mistakes don't need to be permanent.

Doesn't know what true rest is like, and is unsure if he'll ever be content enough to rest. On that same note he seems to really hate sitting still and his mind tends to wander, which he notes Nathan recognized with ease, even reserving a specific look for him (It’s the ADHD baby).

His friend Kyle was a lazy person and a gossip, which were traits Joey found annoying.

On their first meeting, Joey described having a desire to shove Sammy off a roof to see a more human reaction from him.

Assumes Jack is jealous of the attention he gives Sammy, or that the duo's relationship is strained, despite him barging into their lives out of the blue and making him feel like a third wheel.

Seems to think of himself as some sort of a messenger (going so far as to akin himself to the god, Mercury). His life’s mission is to help those who don't know they need to be helped (mostly through spreading happiness and laughter in such a dark and dreary era of human history). Bendyland is essentially Joey's means to fulfil this desire, as well as to chase his own need for a properly realized mixture of immersion and illusion.

He wanted Bendyland to be perfect, even the plot of land it might be built in needed to be perfect, so he inspected it himself with Nathan once he bought the deed.

Appears to refuse to call Bertrum by his proper name once he’s corrected the first time. Referring to him instead as either Bertie or Bert (toying with him perhaps? Testing boundaries?)

Doesn't drive. He instead hired a personal driver, Simmons.

For a little while he was living the American Dream, but thought of how he lived as less of a shared goal and more of a personal one (again setting himself apart from others).

His days were quite flexible and he seemed to despise set routines. He also doesn't like sleeping in. He liked to take a walk in central park early in the morning.

Joey used to make his rounds around the studio but the installation of the Ink Machine changed that habit a bit.

Nonchalantly notes that Shawn Flynn got a little defensive if he needed to be corrected on his work (OCD much, Joey? He was painting a lot of dolls by hand, slipups happen...).

He had priority meetings with Sammy, "meetings" with Jack (Sir what are these quotation marks for, are you snogging Jack while no one’s watching???), then met with the art department preceding the writing department, and finally he met with Grant Cohen in accounting to discuss finances and budget.

He had the final say in ALL paperwork regarding studio affairs.

Upon reading about it, found the concept of bringing in real animals to produce Disney's Bambi as funny, and joked about how trying to do so with Bendy and Boris would be chaotic.

Noted that Abby and Sammy were likely the only two people who closely understand the philosophy of the illusion of living, but not quite…

Was terrified of being misunderstood. Joey didn’t want to only be able to show half-truths, like a mirror reflecting the world darkly. Rather ironic considering he was quite deceitful in his adult life.

His desire for the world to love Bendy seems to be a projection of wanting to feel loved himself (quite honestly if one were to apply the theory of the id, ego and superego, it seems to me that Bendy is essentially Joey’s id, while Joey himself could be considered the Superego. The chameleonic social mask he wears is thus the ego. At the end of the day Bendy and Joey are and aren’t the same entity...).

Originally he didn't want to make a memoir (likely because he can't be direct and needs to work around the truth to fit him). It could also be that Joey didn’t want to linger on the past nor in death. He wasn't sure where it fit with his philosophy and thus tried not to explore too deep into it (existential dread?).

He wore custom tailored suits, and as of beginning writing TioL he had recently taken to wearing cravats (ever the vain man I suppose…).

Despite considering revisiting the past unnecessary, he couldn’t deny doing so if the time called for it. In fact, the Archives are Joey's memories of the past and he's sentimental enough to collect mementos of bygone eras.

Joey has trophies at home, the deeply personal things he couldn’t bare part with. Like the first sketch of Bendy, a napkin with the design of Bendyland, a letter from Henry, a ticket from a Vaudeville show, and his set of shoes he wore when he was surveying the plot of land where he planned to build Bendyland.

--{On Bendy}--

Notes: Here are a few notes I’ve compiled about the Little Devil Darling himself, and a few curiosities about his creation and the inspiration behind his character.

Bendy was officially created in 1928. According to Joey he was born of a dream, supposedly out of necessity, and he always had this idea of a little devil character doing mischief.

Bendy started off as a realistic little boy with a tail and horns (Abby’s attempt to bring to life Joey’s vague idea). Then, when Henry got involved, he became a cartoonish goat creature. The concepts were quickly worked out from a toony clothed amalgamation of both previous concepts, to a more intermediate design more closely resembling Bendy, and then finally, after Joey requested a simpler more shapely and less detailed toon, Bendy became the iconic  little imp clad in only gloves and bowtie.

Joey named him upon seeing the completed design. There are two origins for his name: That of Walter Benjamin Richmond, who’s nickname in life was “Bendy” (a rather morbid homage considering what happened to him), and the mere fact that in Joey’s eyes, his little cartoon imp “bent all the rules”. Henry seemed to appreciate the name.

Bendy is meant to be the devil on one’s shoulders, much like the devil in Joey’s first theatrical play. He is however, a lot more like a little kid playing pranks on people. He is also a sort of embodiment of both the population and human morality (society at its most flawed point, but also quite relatable).

Buster Keaton was an inspiration for Bendy’s many shenanigans and movements, which were always meant to be fluid and a bit bouncy.

--{On Henry Stein}--

Year of Birth - ??? (It’s never mentioned how old Henry is, but I assume he’s around the same age group as Abby, since they were friends and likely went to the same art course. It’s likely that he’s younger than Joey, but not likely by much.) Year of Death - 1963 (It’s not really confirmed if Henry died when he was put into the Cycle, as he doesn’t seem to notice anything odd about himself, but it’s safe to assume the process very likely involves human sacrifice). Birth City: ??? (Unknown, it could be that he was born and raised in New York but Henry lacks a noticeable accent) Physical Characteristics: Average looking? (Irrelevant, he could honestly look like anyone really...) Sexual/Romantic Preferences: Presumably Heterosexual (He’s a married man in the 1930s-1960s, he’s either straight or hiding his sexuality, he seems to really like Linda however so could go either way really...) Notes: Here the few notes I could gather of the Henry info we got from TioL. It’s not much but its at least something to work with!

Henry is unremarkable appearance wise (to the point Joey forgot his face easily at first).

The way Henry dressed (mismatched and ill-fitted) indicates he likely grew up in poverty and likely only had hand-me-downs.

He mostly worked with pen-drawn cartoon character designs that were unremarkable but distinctly caricature-like (the Butcher Gang concepts were likely displayed in the gallery Joey attended, as noted by a comment he makes about them). Even if Joey apparently didn’t particularly like his style, Henry’s artwork was one of the final inspirations for the creation of Joey Drew Studios.

He is described as able to draw quite fast, great at taking directions, and as being a good animator. Overall Henry never really had any real need for someone to keep an eye on him which made him an exemplary worker.

According to Joey, Henry used to give pep-talks before he left the studio. This seemed to annoy Joey considerably for some reason (perhaps he was envious that Henry was generally a more likeable person).

Henry is remembered as forgettable, whereas Joey is flashier and more memorable.

Interestingly enough, Henry never claimed to own the design of Bendy, and was more interested in being business partners with Joey than starting a fuss about who owned the rights to Bendy’s creation (It’s very likely that he willingly gave Joey the design because Bendy was his character, and that instead the designs Joey did steal were that of Boris the Wolf, Alice Angel, and the Butcher Gang, the five other more notorious characters in the Bendy franchise).

--{On Abby Lambert}--

Year of Birth - ??? (It’s never mentioned how old Abby is, but I assume she’s around the same age group as Henry, since they were friends and likely went to the same art course. It’s likely that she’s younger than Joey, but not likely by much.) Year of Death - Possibly 1946 (Upon finally losing himself to the ink, Sammy seemed to have been actively hunting the Art Department and any stragglers that he encountered in the studio, so it can be assumed she died in the chaos) Birth City: ??? (Unknown but more likely to be born and raised in New York than Henry) Physical Characteristics: Frizzy hair, even when bobbed. Sexual/Romantic Preferences: Potentially Bisexual (She seemed to be acutely aware of Joey’s “peculiarities” so it’s possible she’s either a member of the LGBTQ community or perhaps an ally. Whatever the case it’s up for debate and interpretation.) Notes: Here are several notes I’ve compiled about Abby and some of her traits and mannerisms. There was surprisingly a lot more to work with than I expected.

She wasn’t really into the typical female fashion of the time. In fact, Abby wasn’t exactly fond of the typical mannerisms associated with women and was both notoriously rude and dressed herself in a “scandalously” modern manner (which is basically code for more practical less femenine clothing).

According to Joey, Abby is a very focused and determined person, which is why he admired her greatly. She didn’t know when to quit, however, and sometimes took things too far or involved others in situations or projects they didn’t want to be involved in.

She wasn’t very good at drawing original cartoon characters, and Joey was apparently not overly fond of her attempts at putting his ideas to paper due to her more realistic art style.

Abby was very insistent on Joey looking at Henry's works, even if he wasn't particularly interested in them (While it’s never said if she enjoys his art herself, it can be assumed she appreciates it enough that she’d want their mutual friend to see the potential Henry had).

She didn’t join the studio as the replacement Director of the Art Department until 1931, as during its founding she was still finishing art school. She and Henry never worked together. Despite this, she and Henry remained in touch even after he left for Pasadena.

--{On Sammy Lawrence}--

Year of Birth - ??? (From how Joey describes him, it can be assume Sammy was a teenager around either Joey’s early or late 20s before they officially met on Joey’s 30th birthday) Year of Death - 1946? (Sammy is one of few people who was turned without being killed first so it’s hard to tell if he’s really dead even within the Cycle since it’s a time loop...) Birth City: ??? (Sammy lacks a noticeable accent so it’s hard to tell where he’s from). Physical Characteristics: Has been described as bird-like and insect-like, with either brown or blond hair that’s kept longer than the typical fashion of the time (Not much more is known about his actual appearance but it can be assumed he’s either average sized or on the tall side considering his in-game height and build) Sexual/Romantic Preferences: Potentially Biromantic with a lot of Demiromantic subtones. Possibly Asexual? (Again this is pure speculation on my part because he did seem interested in Susie but isn’t really a people person in general. Does seem to know how to reign in people tho, so ???) Notes: Here are a few curious notes I’ve compiled about Sammy, the circumstances behind his hiring, and how much control he actually had as the music director.

He has an unusual appearance that, while not necessarily described as ugly, was clearly outstanding enough that some people were put off (Buddy) and others thought him handsome (Susie). His hair is also described as messy.

Sammy is an avid smoker.

He was among a few other musicians employed by the theater to drown out projector sounds and match the mood in silent films. Because he was good at improvising music on the spot, Sammy was excellent at carrying the story presented on screen through his melodies, which was what caught Joey’s eye when he first saw Sammy perform.

Sammy also recognized Joey and didn’t believe his dismissal that he was a “town person”. In fact, Sammy pinpointed the recognition to the fact Joey was that one loner that sat in the front row of the theater he played at.

It becomes very apparent that Sammy is suspicious of people in general. The way he observes others indicates he’s had some sort of struggle growing up. As such, he’s not big on sustaining conversations and he managed to aggravate Joey slightly by the way he addressed him on their first proper meeting.

Sammy had a songbook he shared with Jack, meaning they had a strong trust bond, which is why he only agrees to work for Joey based on Jack’s willingness to also be hired. Even so, he immediately set up professional boundaries for his position. He hired his own people without Joey’s interference, and he only ever indulged him if Joey was being particularly exasperating.

It’s very likely that since Sammy was the one hiring who worked for the music department, that he was the one who hired Norman Polk. This theory is made stronger by the fact he immediately demanded a projector and projectionist booth so he could better do his job.

Despite his surly disposition, Sammy is a no nonsense sort who wants things done and over with, rather than sit around and stall. As such Joey considered him one of the best decisions he made in terms of career.

Funnily enough, because the band seemed to be skittish around Joey, Sammy specifically prohibited his presence in the music department unless they had a scheduled meeting. This likely meant Joey was scarcely ever seen in the music department so as to not aggravate Sammy in person.

Alice Angel’s bigger (and failed) presence in the franchise is likely a consequence of another one of Sammy’s stipulations upon being hired. He had immediately noted that if the studio wanted to go anywhere, they’d need a female character (Perhaps Sammy really believed what he told Susie due to despising Bendy and actually favouring Alice as a character).

--{On Jack Fain}--

Year of Birth - ??? (Possibly around the same age as Sammy or a little older?) Year of Death - ??? (He was gone long before a few other people in the studio, likely in the first few experiments Joey performed) Birth City: ??? (Hard to tell, he doesn’t have an easily identifiable accent). Physical Characteristics: Has been described as an atrocious dresser (This man likes wearing bright colors!) Sexual/Romantic Preferences: Potentially Homosexual subtones (Not enough information provided to tell) Notes: Sadly lacking in the information department for Jack.

Jack is incredibly sociable and trusts easily. He's described as making bad jokes but laughing genuinely at them. His smiles are contagious.

Jack is an optimist sort who sees the good in any situation (even when being led around in a dark creepy room by a peculiar stranger).

--{On Bertrum Piedmont}--

Year of Birth - ??? (He was retired, so it’s likely he was around his 60s or early 70s when Joey first met him) Year of Death - ??? (It’s unknown when exactly he ended up in the Ink Machine but it’s very possible he was killed when all hell broke loose in the studio) Birth City: ??? (No clue). Physical Characteristics: Joey describes him (rather rudely) as a very portly man. Sexual/Romantic Preferences: ??? (No idea, chief...) Notes: Lacking in the information department like Jack, but what we get is a lot more substantial.

Bertrum was actually retired when Joey managed to get a hold of him. It took a bit of detective work on Mrs. Rodriguez's (Joey's secretary) part to actually find him as well, so he was not an easy man to get an appointment with.

His creative vision impressed Joey enough that the latter he ignored his apparent dislike for reminiscing so as to get him on board of the Bendyland project.

While discussing the Bendyland Project, Bertrum confidently jokes about it being quite the catch. He agrees to joining forces with Joey as long as he gets full creative control of the entire project. Although Joey agreed to this, he still managed to fight Bertrum on a few ideas, which annoyed him greatly.

It’s very likely that it didn’t take long for their initially friendly relationship to sour into open hostility on Bertrum’s part.

--{On Wally Franks}--

Year of Birth - ??? (No clue, but he was very likely in his late teens or early adult years when he was first hired as the studio Janitor) Year of Death - Supposedly still alive (I really do hope he got outta there like the letter insinuates...) Birth City: Brooklyn, New York. Physical Characteristics: ??? (All we know is he likely wears overalls and a sport’s cap) Sexual/Romantic Preferences: Possibly Heterosexual (Unless the letter is a forgery, he apparently has a wife, kids and grandkids) Notes: I’ll admit I didn’t expect to get Wally lore, but here we are!

Wally's actually quite skilled with maintenance. He can tinker with the projectors, other machinery and even plumbing. His schedule is a little off however, but Joey turns a blind eye to it because he gets the job done without question.

--{On Allison Pendle}--

Year of Birth - ??? (No idea! But she was relatively well known when she was hired!) Year of Death - ??? (She was likely lured back to the studio after everything went down but before Henry) Birth City: ??? Physical Characteristics: She’s a beautiful tall blonde according to DCTL Sexual/Romantic Preferences: ??? (She and Thomas are married but I honestly have no clue how to feel about her, she’s a mystery to me.) Notes: Extra minimal Allison lore for your Allison Pendle lore needs.

She was a famous Broadway actress before joining the studio. Interestingly enough, Joey was the one to hire her to replace Susie, not only breaking Sammy’s stipulation on the matter but also stirring Susie into becoming resentful towards Sammy and actually trying to recover her former role at all costs (even her own life).

--{On Nathan Arch}--

Year of Birth - ??? (He was likely a little older than Joey since they were in the army at the same time but Joey lied about his age to enlist earlier) Year of Death - N/A (Still alive and kicking) Birth City: ??? Physical Characteristics: ??? (I guess Boswell Lotsabucks is sorta modeled after him so go off on that???) Sexual/Romantic Preferences: Heterosexual (He has a wife and son and doesn’t give me any other vibes besides and overall instinctual distrust) Notes: Oh boy...I do NOT trust this man...

Immediately upon beginning reading TioL you get the impression that Nathan is not only trying to appear friendly and trustworthy by referring to himself as Nate A, but also that he’s trying to cover for Joey and make him appear more personable to the reader. But to what gain exactly?

Nathan is, like Joey, very narcissistically vain, and is also writing a book of his own (an autobiography maybe?)

He’s a smoker and prefers cigars.

When Joey discusses his childhood, Nathan is unable to contradict or confirm anything as he noted that Joey was always very private about his origins.

Nathan seemed truly surprised and impressed with Joey’s ability to make up uncannily believable stories, even suspecting that his accounts of “Lottie” might have been false as he couldn’t find any of the supposed letters Joey sent her when he started working on republishing TioL (it’s likely he could see that Joey often lied to himself just as much as he lied to others).

It seemed to Nathan that Joey was rather oblivious of subtle compliments.

By the manner of which Nathan phrases it, he seems to think of Joey as a professional and kind man, capable of seeing the good in others. That said, Nathan remarks that Henry's departure was a great betrayal for his friend, and that the latter shouldn't have been so "gracious" and "forgiving" towards him…

When the studio began to struggle financially, Nathan worried that Joey might not be aware of the issue at all, or that perhaps he was lying to himself to cope. He also later notes that Joey’s memories seemed to have deteriorated in his old age. He was often mixing up information and seemed rather guilty, which Nathan considering to be very unbecoming of the man he knew Joey to be.

A lot of the deeply philosophical Joey and Nathan interactions seen in the book might actually have occured between Joey and Henry (the "I think therefore I am" conversation is an especially telling one for me), hence why Nathan doesn't recall them. It also seems more likely because they contradict the way Joey portrays Nathan, but seem to fit his portrayal of Henry better.

[cksmart-world]

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

by Christopher Smart

March 19, 2019

Genocide & the End of Hamburgers

This is perhaps the most shocking news of the week — and that's saying something: We could be looking at the end of America as we know it and it has nothing to do with Netflix. Utah Congressman Rob Bishop has warned that the end of the hamburger — the sandwich that built America — is imminent, thanks to some rabid left-wing crazies who are taking control of the House of Representatives. That's right, he's talking about the Green New Deal. “[T]he ideas behind the New Green Deal are tantamount to genocide,” he said. Rob Bishop is among the oft forgotten and trod-upon lily-white minority that inhabits lands that eastern elites often dismiss. “I'm an ethnic,” Bishop said. “I'm a Westerner.” How the Green New Deal would kill off hamburgers and people inhabiting the West remains a little fuzzy. But the hideous proposal calls for such things as health care for all, access to higher ed, replacing aging roads and bridges and a guaranteed living wage. Word is it would replace beef cattle with windmills and Sage Grouse. Burger King would have to change its name. Sage Grouse King? It's so shocking that Bishop is calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to conduct a thorough investigation of the Green New Deal: “With American safety and prosperity on the line, it's the very least the speaker can do,” he declared. Damn straight. Pass the Freedom Fries.

Happy Days — Lawmakers in Recess

For many Utahns this is the best time of year as the annual session of the State Legislature — a gut-churning 45 days — comes crashing to an end. As usual, our righteous legislators took on abortion and pumped up gun rights. They considered a new tax on food to raise much needed revenue as they wondered how to dispose of a $1billion surplus. They performed major surgery on citizen initiatives that legalized medical marijuana and expanded Medicaid and promised a lobotomy next year on a third initiative aimed at ending gerrymandering. The teetotalers compromised on a bill that would have boosted the alcohol content of beer from 3.2 to 4.8 percent: wait for it — 4.0 beer. WTF. Not least, lawmakers manipulated a proposal that would have banned conversion therapy that proponents claim saves gay people from their sinful ways — if it doesn't kill them. The list goes on, but Wilson and the band can't take anymore, fearing nightmares and flashbacks from bad acid trips and past legislative sessions. We'd go into the Machiavellian Inland Port scheme, but why waste time when the sun is out and lawmakers have been driven back under their rocks. So grab your skateboard and beer cooler and head for the park — but don't forget the sunscreen or your medical marijuana.

It's Not Your Fault, Mr. President

Headlines screaming “Lee and Romney Defy President” thunder across the land, shaking the bedrock of the Grand Old Party of Trump. Normally, when a member of Congress doesn't line up behind a president, it's not such a big deal. But that was BT — Before Trump. Republicans in Congress know that going against the BUM (Big Unhinged Monster) could land them with Mia Love — condemned to wander the political wilderness, like Moses without goats. The history-making vote to undo Trump's border Wall emergency was seen by some pundits as the slaves telling Pharaoh to kiss off. Others thought it might finally be their acknowledgement of Trump's parallel universe. Wishful thinking. In a speech on the floor of the Senate, the bard, Mike Lee, explained his vote: He wasn't telling Trump to kiss off, at all, it's just that he had to vote against the law that gave chief executives too much power. “It's not your fault that it's a bad law, Mr. President,” Lee proclaimed. Only time will tell if this bit of CYA will save Lee's bacon. Wrapping yourself in the shroud of the Constitution goes only so far with an agnostic ruler. Perhaps Lee should pray that it rains frogs and the Red Sea parts.

Good Guys With AR-15s

Following the massacre at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pledged to change gun laws that permit semi-automatic weapons, like the AR-15. What a crazy idea. After mass shootings in the U.S., Republicans have said that reviewing gun laws following such tragedies is not a good idea because important decisions should not be made when people are thinking about other people who have just been shot to death. It clouds the judgement. In 1996, Australia toughened gun laws after a spate of mass shootings: A person must have a license to possess or use a firearm. License holders must demonstrate a "genuine reason" (which does not include self-defense) for obtaining a firearm license. All firearms must be registered by serial number. Strangely enough, the Australian Institute of Criminology found that gun deaths, including suicides, went down sharply. This is something many people in this country are trying to avoid because we don't want to lose our freedom. Last year, there were some 40,000 gun deaths in the U.S. Fortunately, we have the 2nd Amendment or even more people would have been killed. Too bad those poor muslims in New Zealand didn't carry their AR-15s to prayer. Then, the massacre would never have happened. Right.

News flash: Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie (I'm rebuilding the city brick-by-brick) Biskupski will not — repeat, will not — run for reelection. The surprising news comes soon after former state senator and all around bon vivant Jim Dabakis tossed his 10-gallon hat through the window at City Hall, proclaiming he will be the next mayor. Some Salt Lakers love the mercurial Dabakis for poking Republican state legislators in the eye. And although Dabakis would be a lot more fun than Mayor Frownyface, critics fear he may lack even her meager managerial skills. On the other hand, it is the age of Trump and such skills are no longer required. But can he tweet?

OK, that's it for another week here at Smart Bomb, where the staff keeps track of every move Beto O'Rourke makes so that you and the entire Washington press corps don't have to. Wilson, will you and the band take us out with a little something for the wunderkind: So you want to be a rock and roll star, then listen now, to what I say / Just get an electric guitar and take some time and learn how to play / And in a week or two if you make the charts the girls'll tear you apart... The money, the game, the public acclaim — Don't forget what you are, you're a rock 'n' roll star...

[blinkragen-blog]

Interview with developer of Lobotomy corporation

1.Hello, i'm the Blinkraven, from russian translation team (Tales&Stories Team) , you can call me Blink or Roman. What is your name and what your role one Project moon company?

Hello, I am Kim Ji-hoon, who is the director of ProjectMoon.

2.Can you tell a bit about the company? How did you all gathered and found the company? What is your main goal in foundation Project moon game studio?

At first, I gathered friends from university game production clubs and formed a team. I started with four people, but I felt the shortage of art and programming through the project (LobotomyCorp). So I took part in university events, festivals, and various other places to gather other members. Lobotomy Corporation was finally developed with 10 people.

I always want to make a work with the theme of "human hymn(人間 讚歌)". As the light shines most strongly in the darkness, I think that human beings shine in despair. The goal of the ProjectMoon is to make the content of the subculture series continuously. I want to try various contents such as comics, novels, animations as well as games one day.

3.What inspired you to create Lobotomy corp. ? Did you already have experience in making games on Unity or is it your debut?

Lobotomy Corporation was inspired by SCP Foundation, Cabin in the woods, Warehouse13, and many other institutions that deal with monsters and supernatural tools. Originally, When I saw the works mentioned above, I wanted to play a game of monster management, however, there isn't the game like that so I made it.

There have been many attempts to make games, but Lobotomy Corporation is the first finished game.

4.What do you think is the main key feature of the game? What should the game reveal with it stoyline and gameplay?

I think managing monsters and suppressing them are the most important features of game play. In the story, we paid attention to the wounds that each character had and the process of accepting them.

5.As we know, as basis for the plot of storyline contents were taken many elements of relegions and mythologies and others. Why Kaballah in the first place?

As mentioned earlier, it was clearest to convey the theme of human hymn through Kabbalah. I wanted to show through Kabbalah that a human being follows the path to becoming fully self. Likewise, we wanted to show the limits of seeing the world only through the perspective of Kabbalah.

6.Contrary to the established stereotype that almost all Korean games are focused on the grind component, there is also a thoughtful game world in your game, details of which are revealed when communicating with the sephiras, who are responsible for departaments. The question is: how often did the storyline changes during development? How much cardinally? I still remember those days of  Beta-version, when Angela was an old AI-computer that uses perforated tape.

From the very beginning to the beta version, and until now, the topic of the story has not changed. However, 'Sephira' characters were added in the process of storytelling. When I wanted to communicate the story, I felt the limitations of the dialogue between the player and Angela. So I decided to make many changes in the summer of 2017.

7.Where did the ideas for the abnormalities come from? Did many of them personify human sins, is it really so?

It is hard to say that Abnormalities come from a variety of materials and are specific to one thing. Memes, original sin, urban legend, fairy tales, legends, and social phenomena. However, they have a common interpretation to match the story of the game.

8.The game has a hidden mechanics, forcing the player to "accidentally" re-play the game again and again, to uncover all the story plot twists, to study all the abnormalities. How much in your opinion the game is replayable?

If the players have seen all of the stories and unlocked Abnormalities' information, I think they really enjoyed all the content of the game. And I was intending to make the player try multiple retries in this process. Because the company turned into a mess through the Abnormalities and watching the situation was also intended to be a fun factor, I wanted to make the watching the situation in the retry of the game was also worth.

9.Approximately in July 2017, you decidet to radically change both the UI and gameplay in general. What was the reason for this? What did not suit in so-called [Legacy]-version of the game? Although the storyline also moved from "dead end", sephiras (visually they weve very interesting), the entire visual part of the game changed at all. And then closer to november, you changed again the visual part, making the game to look like as it is now. Was it hard to make that decisions?

The biggest reason for the change was 'it was not fun and it did not fit the intention'. This was a difficult decision for us, but the decision we had to do at the same time. I thought the pre-change game was just mimicking the western art style and indie game style. I thought I have to change the game style to what I can best create and the style that I like, in order to make a game that is sustainable in the future. So I decided to change everything. The process of changing was very painful, but after the change everything became clear how to build and develop the story.

10.Oh, and earlier in [Legacy]-version of the game, for normally walkthrough it was required to monitor a lot of parameters and key features, but during development, some functions were removed, some - simplified. Was this done because of fan complaints, or did you find these systems reduntant and uncomfortable for the game?

The values, genders and final observations of the Abnormality that were in the "legacy version" have been removed. Employee values and gender were changed to construct gameplay more clearly. The final observation of the Abnormality is something that has been removed due to the difficulties of realistic development. It was difficult to develop the final observation while adding various stories and scripts of Sephira through the changes, due to time and financial problems. I am sorry for this part too.

11.As I remember, earlier you had financial problems during game development. How did you manage to raise money for development? Did you have to lose something, or try to economize on something for the sake of further development?

We have not overcome financial problems using special methods. Thanks to the translation teams in Russia, China and Japan, we were able to make more sales in different countries, and as a result, we only got enough money to keep the team for a while. And now, after the development of LobotomyCorproation, only 4 team members are staying and developing. Other team members are seeking another job or going back to school. Although the size and speed of development can be reduced, I think we can keep the team longer.

12.Have you thought at the stage of development - of choosing a platform to make the game cross-platform of just PC-exclusive? For now it's very popular to make games on mobile devices, and your game with small edits of the interface could go well on mobile devices.

I focused on PC from the beginning. And Lobotomy Corporation is not going to switch to other platforms. Because the UX of the game is focused solely on PC, I thought that there would be a lot of changes if we were going to change to another platform. But the following work will consider expanding to other platforms, including PCs.

13.From the point of view of the Korean game developer, is there a great competition among your collegues in the game development industry of indie gaming? How populat are indie-games in Korea, that oriented on single player play?

There are also many indie game developers in Korea. Most of them are mobile-based indie games. So I did not see any other team in terms of competition. Compared to the indie game sector, Korea has a small sector of single-player games.

14.How, from the professional point of view, do you think that the opinion that in Korea games play only in online games is not exaggerated?

Korea is focused on mobile games and online games. But I do not think this is unconditionally bad. Because there are a lot of players in the world such as a person who loves a single game, a person who likes online games, and a person who likes mobile games. So I think it has its own meaning.

15.Has the game paid off since getting into Early access on Steam, and until now? What was your mood when you learned that the game was so popular in the world (well, and in particular in Russia)?

As a creator, there will be no greater joy. It is hard to find the driving force that makes our work world fun in many countries and expects what will happen. I want to create interesting stories and games that only we can show in the future!

Let's talk about future plans:

1.Since the release of version 1.0 (and the came out from Early Access), many players have already been able to find all the storyline endings that are hidden in the game. What do you expect the expected percentages of finding endings to be?

I think 80% of the players who have cleared up to Day50 have seen a hidden ending. If the player went to Day 50, wouldn't they want to fill in 100% of the encyclopedia?

2.In the so-called "true ending" or 100% of the Seed of light, Angela takes the complex under her control and came out from the facility to the surface for herself. Do you already have storyline sheets for the sequel and will somehow "bad" endings influence or somehow be mentioned in the sequel?

Yes. The ending of Lobotomy Corporation has had a big impact on the world, and the results will be shown in the sequel.

3.By your calculations, how much time will it take to develop a sequel, so that at least the first pl15.Has the game paid off since getting into Early access on Steam, and until now? What was your mood when you learned that the game was so popular in the world (well, and in particular in Russia)?

The development period is one year and six months until early release. We plan to spend about six months in the Eary Access period. But it always didn't go as planned. ;) I do not know if we will release the demo version, but I think I could show the gameplay within a year.

4.As for now are popular tactical turn-based games in various variations, whether it will affect the sequel or its gameplay will be like the first part - in real time with an active pause?

I'm not going to make a turn-based game as much as possible. I want to create a game that is played in as real-time as possible.

5.As I know, you monitor the appearance of content on your game on the Internet. Do you know about different memes, video parodies, etc.? What do you think about it?

Yes. We monitor videos, pictures, streaming, etc. uploaded by various fans. We are gaining great strength through the watching of enjoying the gameplay and delicate creation. In addition, problems with bugs and balances are also monitored through monitoring the world community.

6.Well, finally, your opinion about indie-game industry as a whole? What is the future of indie-games in game-development?

I think indie games are something that is unique and interesting. There are so many indie games coming out every day. What I think will become more important in the future is the unique universe of the work itself. Each game, even if it is individually, can survive in a number of indie games if it happens in a gigantic connected world. But most importantly, it has to be an attractive world, and the game must be fun.

[tamisdava-blog]

Little Prince (cartoon film of 2015)

So guys, today we are going to talk about cartoon that has deep meaning. I guess everyone has read Little Prince when they were kids. If no read it, because it has so few pages that you can even read it in my school on breaks that even aren’t 5 mins long. And dont try to say no because you are adult and you aren’t interested in children’s fairy tales. You wont lose anything if you’ll read it. it will be better for you.

So now lets start. The story starts with:  young Mother imposes a life plan for her daughter(seriously which normal mother will decide fate of her daughter by herself? Oh right, there are alot) that leaves no time for leisure, all for her to enroll in the prestigious Werth Academy. The Little Girl, however, becomes distracted by her elderly retired Aviator neighbor. He sends an paper airplane with a story of Little prince and how he met him in Sahara. And... she throws it away. But then she will get interested and she’ll become friends with old avitor. They are having fun by playing together, he ever gifts her a plushy fox and he tells of course the story of Little Prince. Nu the story is the same as in book so if you read it, you’ll find there nothing interesting for you in your opinion. The little girl’s(there is no name for a this character, so everytime i’ll have to use her here i’ll need to write little girl AAHHA .-_-.)  relationship is like relationship of grandpa and grandaughter so you often remember watching it how you played with your grandpa when you were kid. 

So there will be happy birthday of our little girl, she gets present from her father that sure is with other woman now. Actually i would leave her mother too, because she always has the plan on the fucking wall. You may say its nothing but just watch the film already and you’ll know about what i am talking about. And what its? Nu... you know that... eh how its in English? Rounded ball and there is snow. So our girl picks up his “present” and puts them with his other presents, that almost are the same like this present. This scene showed how actually he didn’t cared about her daughter. geez man at least think about your daughter!

The two(granpa and girl) decide to go out for free "birthday" pancakes, when pulled over by a police officer, the Aviator is revealed to have no license(facepalm) and the officer returns the Girl home. Realizing that she hasn't been following the plan, the furious Mother redoubles her daughter's assignments to make up for lost time. AND THAT FURIOUS MOTHER JUST PICKS UP AND THROWS THE PAGES WHERE THE STORY WAS WRITTEN AND THE PLUSHY FoX AND THROWS AWAY! But the girl picks up the foxy(ahahaa who will get joke?) and pages from rubbish. Dont get me wrong if there was something really smelly then foxy and pages needed to smell very, very bad. The Aviator tells her that in the end the Little Prince had succumbed to a venomous snake bite in order to be reunited with his beloved Rose. Although the Aviator assures the Girl that he firmly believes the Little Prince succeeded, she is so upset by the dark twist to the story that she yells and wishes she'd never met the Aviator and had never heard the story. WHAT MANNERS THAT GIRL HAVE?! IF I WOULD HEARED SOMETHING LIKE THAT I WOULD BE UPSET TOO, BUT I WOULDN’T YELL AT SOMEONE THAT ACTS LIKE GRANDPA TO ME! PLUS COME ON GIRL, YOU DIDN’T NOTICED THAT HE WAS FEELING BAD? HE WAS SICK FOR GOD’S SAKE CARL! HE WAS COUGHTING AND HE HAD VERY PALE SKIN THERE SO I DONT THINK SOMEONE WOULDN’T NOTICE IT!  Towards the summer's end, the Aviator is hospitalized.(i cried alot) The Girl, wanting to put things right, sets off in search of the Little Prince. Escaping through the gutter, the Girl falls into the Aviator's yard and blacks out.(dont try this at home kids)  After she awakens, the Girl, accompanied by her now-conscious stuffed Foxy and the Little Prince's story pages, flies the Aviator's plane into space. They find all the stars mysteriously gone, all the while landing on an asteroid populated by workaholic adults owned by the "Businessman" from the Little Prince's story, who captures and holds all the stars to power his asteroid and belongings. Geez for me it would’ve been scarier than the horror movies nowdays.  After encountering a police officer (the "Conceited Man") and an elevator operator (the "King") (other characters from the Little Prince's story), they finally find the Little Prince. However, he is now an adult named "Mr. Prince", with no recollection of his past and working as a janitor for the Businessman, out of fear for disappointing him. Mr. Prince accordingly takes the Little Girl to an "Academy" where she is to be "reconditioned" as an adult by a machine under the tutelage of the Academy Teacher. But by seeing the sheep's box from the pages (he kept the original, as he thought that it could be importante due to his amnesia), Mr. Prince suddenly recovers his memories and puts the Teacher in the machine instead, saving the Girl. They escape together, accompanied by the Fox. They manage to outrun the Businessman, and triumphantly liberate of all of the stars from his glass vault into space where they belong. The Girl and the Fox then take Mr. Prince back to B612, overgrown with baobabs. They find the Rose dead, but seeing her image in the sunrise, the baobabs disappear and Mr. Prince turns back to his younger self, giving the now again Little Prince renewed hope.The Girl and the Fox return home, accompanied by another flock of birds. The next morning, the Girl and her Mother visit the Aviator in the hospital. The Girl presents him the formerly loose pages bound together as a book, along with all the formerly missing parts filled in. The Girl afterwards begins her studies at Werth Academy and reconciles with her Mother. Both of them happily stargaze one night, while the Little Prince and the Aviator are heard laughing joyfully together on Asteroid B612.

In my opinion the story is very touching, there are few characters but seeing how they develop is more important in my opinion than seeing many characters, graphics are very good, from the start it seems that there is nothing special but after you’ll continue watching it you’ll see about what i am talking about, and it has one song but its very beautiful.

We can see by the end that old avitor died, but now he is happy with little prince  on Asteroid B612, i hope rose is there too.

So, now about its deep meaning that it have. First, its shows that even after death our ancestors that we loved wil still be watching after us, some may say that i am religious fanatic, the truth is that yes i am religious but not fanatic. But those who dont belive in god and etc. The ones you loved will still stay in your heart and memories. The second thing, the little girl said the most important phrase that every kid should remember till death. “i’ll grow up but i’ll never be like you!” and  “growing up isn’t the problem, forgeting is the problem.” Aviator’s words. Watch the film and maybe you’ll understand it. 

Now i am officialy part of that fandom. I am suprised why the heck i didn’t watched that film when it came out? If i would have time machine i would go back and say myself to watch the film. I watched the other Little Prince, but it was TV series and it was completly different from book and this film. There was snake the evil guy. Hm... Ah i remember how i hated when i was little girl bad guys or i was just too neutral. But heck knows why i was nerutral to snake. But then when Little prince ended gravity falls started in Israel, thanks to Bill Cipher and Toffee i started loving villains.

So the next week wont be Lobotomy corps post yet, there will be something else. So sorry for my English and see you!

[tuckinpodcast-blog]

EPISODE 2: THE HAYS CODE AND OTHER BAD IDEAS.

LISTEN: SOUNDLCOUD / ITUNES / GOOGLE PLAY (coming soon!)

NOTES: minimal note-shuffling, I promise. Google Play is reviewing the podcast as we speak, so we should be up soon!

SOURCES: listed at end of transcript

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi! I'm Jack, and this is Tuck In, We're Rolling: Queer Hollywood Stories. This week's episode is titled 'The Hays Code and Other Bad Ideas'. This is gonna be a long episode, but it's a really important one, because it lays down the basis for a lot of our future discussions.

Let's start off with the basics. The Hays Code came about in 1930 but it wasn't really enforced until 1934. Basically, what happened was way back in 1915, the Supreme Court heard a case called “Mutual Film Corp. V. Industrial Commission of Ohio”, and voted 9-0 that free speech didn't extend to films. The courts kind of reasoned that, as a form of mass media, movies could literally be used “for evil”, and for some reason this decision also applied to circuses? I don't know, not entirely relevant, but I thought it was a weird aside. The decision by the court was what drove the studios to more closely regulate their content, and the decision was eventually overturned in 1952 with the hearing of the “Joseph Burstyn Inc. V. Wilson”, also known as the “Miracle Decision” because of the short film “The Miracle” that the case was heard over, and it really kind of marked a decline in movie censorship in the US, but by this time, the damage had already been done.

So, what was the Hays Code?

The Hays Code was basically the theaters and the studios agreeing to self-censor in order to avoid losing money from religious-led boycotts or local governments refusing to show so called “immoral” films. As I've mentioned, times were kinda tough in Depression era Hollywood, and a lot of studios went under or cut their contract stars to save money or try to cut costs somehow. The Code is actually called “The Motion Picture Production Code”, but it's known as the Hays Code after William H. Hays, who was the head of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, and it's basically the racist grandfather of the MPAA ratings system we all known and love today.

How does this come back to queer history? Thanks for asking, all six of my followers on SoundCloud! Let me read the entire section of the Hays Code pertaining to what it calls “impure love”:

“In the case of impure love, the love which society has always regarded as wrong and which has been banned by divine law, the following are important:

Impure love must not be presented as attractive or beautiful.

It must not be the subject of comedy or farce, or treated as material for laughter.

It must not be presented in such a way to arouse passion or morbid curiosity on the part of the audience.

It must not be made to seem right and permissible.

It must not be detailed in method or manner.

I've included a link to a copy of a Hays Code pamphlet and the transcript of it that I just read from so you can go check out the kind of stuff it talks about. And it talks about a lot. No interracial marriage or romance, no adultery, no white slavery. No boobs, no disrespecting the American flag, no dissing the clergy. It's kind of intense, and it explains some of the weird wholesomeness and out-of-left-field endings you get with a lot of the movies from the 30's and 40's.

Now, there were, obviously, stereotypes and stigma around being queer before the Hays Code, but it really cemented this feeling of “othering” – extending beyond queer people as well.

Pre-code, you had a lot of movies that used drag or gender role reversal for laughs. In 1915, Charlie Chaplin dressed in drag for his movie A Woman, and so did Fatty Arbuckle in Miss Fatty. Early films used the “sissy” or “pansy” stereotype – you know, and you've seen it today, the flamboyant, effeminate gay man who had no real humanity to speak of but was only there for a laugh. It was kind of the beginning of that stereotype, and even if it wasn't harmful – and still is – it wasn't as overtly hateful as some of the things we'll see later on.

I've done a lot of digging into what was going on with pre-code lesbians, and I found some movie titles and a few references, but not a lot. Lesbians weren't shown nearly as much as their gay “pansy” counterparts – but if they were shown, they were butch crossdressers for the audience to laugh at, or they were weirdo older spinsters who were dead by the end of the movie – huge surprise, right? Some notable portrayals of lesbians, overt or implied, include Louise Brooks in the 1929 German film Pandora's Box, this is one where the romantic relationship is implied. There's Marlene Dietrich in Morocco in 1930 – and we're gonna talk about in detail in a later episode. There's a girl-on-girl dance scene in 1932's Sign of the Cross, and a butch lesbian in 1933's Women They Talk About. And of course, there's Greta Garbo kissing another woman in Queen Christina in 1933. Of course, it's kind of difficult to find these references, so I want to point out that people have been dismissing lesbians and women who love women as just 'gals bein' pals' for a really, really long time.

After the Hays Code, a lot of this overt sexuality got swept under the rug and buried in subtext. Culturally, you're looking at a time – again, going back to what we talked about with masculine panic – when men are looking at homosexuality as a direct attack on their masculinity. During the Depression, men were already feeling emasculated because they were losing their jobs and they couldn't afford to take care of their families. They're looking at effeminate men and masculine women, and they start to freak out even more. So even though pre-code movies were using shock value – things like queer people or prostitution and violence – to get butts into seats and boost ticket sales, there was still this pervasive anxiety from men getting scared about their masculinity, and from religious groups that were worried about the effects of on-screen sinning on polite society.

The Code essentially killed the pansy, and buried queer people in hints and subtext. So in the 1930's and 40's, if you were queer in a movie, you were either really vaguely defined like Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon, who is explicitly gay in the source material, or you're a villain, also like Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon. Censorship evolved a little to say, basically, you can show perversion of almost any kind, but you can't show it in a positive light. And this sort of gels with the feelings of the time. You have characters running around committing crimes because of their sexuality, because back then people thought that being gay drove you insane as well as being a sin. People thought of being gay as being a disease or a defect and police were running around raiding gay bars and harassing women dressed in men's clothing, and it's really not a great time to be queer.

In 1948, Hitchcock's Rope comes out, and he's very obviously skirting the censors with the two antagonists. It's very thinly veiled that they're in a romantic relationship, but they're also still murderers. But that kind of moves us along into the 50's, when that 'Miracle Decision' has the courts saying that, no, films are protected by the first amendment and they're an art form, and this is really when censorship in film starts to decline. This is also about the time that its ruled that the studios can't own the movie theaters that distribute their films, so the monopoly on the film industry is broken up and the power of the old studios is drastically reduced.

There's still a censorship code at this point, of course, but it's really loosening up in the mid-50's. The code at that time allowed for hints of queerness as long as it was used for humor or if the person was punished for their “deviance”, which eventually led to 1959's Suddenly, Last Summer, starring big names like Liz Taylor, Katherine Hepburn, and my favorite actor Monty Clift. This movie is a landmark because it has what's considered to be the first movie with a named, explicitly gay character.

Now, that's great and all – but the shitty part comes from the plot. Basically, this guy is murdered violently and his cousin, played by Katharine Hepburn, sees it and goes nuts, so the mom – played by Liz Taylor – tries to bribe Monty Clift's character into giving her niece a lobotomy so that no one finds out that her son was gay. And don't worry, I'm going to talk a lot about Monty in a later episode and we'll talk about what kind of effect the movie had on him as closeted gay man, but this movie basically proved to the public that being a “mama's boy” or being controlled by your mom led to being gay, and it was sort of implied that violent murder was the inevitable fate of gay men, and that they kind of deserved it.

This is sort of a trend, moving into the 60's. You've got a lot of subtext in the 1959 remake of Ben-Hur, a lot of covert themes and implications. But at the same time, audiences aren't so interested in boycotting a film because of religious leaders, and movies with “questionable content” didn't really need production code or religious approval anymore. But even though we've got the code loosening to compete with television and the rise of the indie studio after the break-up of the old studio monopoly, you've still got a lot of queer characters who are miserable and depressed, or suicidal and homicidal. A lot of them are still dead by the time the credits roll.

In 1965, a movie called Inside Daisy Clover comes out, and there's a gay man in it. He isn't miserable or struggling, and he survives the entire movie – but he's never really explicitly named as gay. It's all still buried in subtext. In 1967, we get Marlon Brando and Liz Taylor in Reflections in a Golden Eye, starring Brando as a repressed gay Army major – a role that was supposed to be Monty Clift's, but he turned it down due to his declining health, supposedly. This is kind of an interesting, weird movie about sexual repression, both heterosexual and homosexual, and the violence it can spark. I'm going to talk in detail about this movie when I do my Brando episode, so I'm gonna put a pin in this discussion for now.

The sixties also brought us the beautiful weirdness of Andy Warhol, Kenneth Anger, and other people like them who were giving us fully realized and complex queer characters, but we don't see any movies marketed towards a gay audience until the 1970's. In 1968, the final death knell of the Hays Code came with the introduction of the MPAA rating system we're all familiar with today.

So, why the long history lesson? I wanted to talk about this bit of film history for several reasons.

First of all, chronologically it makes sense in the context of the show. Last week, we talked about noted vampire Rudolph Valentino – I finished American Horror Story: Hotel, by the way – and he died before the Hays Code was even written, a whole year before, to be exact.

Second of all, it's important to talk about all of this to give context to our future discussions about Hays-era movies and about the environment that actors were working in. Next week, we're going to be talking about some ladies I mentioned this week – Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, and Katherine Hepburn, women who's work snapped from pre to post-code, and we're going to pick this thread of queer representation post Hays Code in a few episodes, but for now, you have some background on the subject.

And third of all, and most importantly, now you can look at some of the stereotypes that we still have today and be able to trace them back to their origins. You see these harmful stereotypes all the time, on TV and in the movies. So we have like, Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs, and we can draw a straight line back to Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon. None of this is an excuse or anything – it was wrong then and it's wrong now – but now we have context. We can ask Hollywood, “Why haven't you changed? Why do these offensive things still happen?” You know, back in the 1950's, it was playing into toxix masculinity and that same fear of independent women that was driving criticism of Valentino in the 20's. And for whatever reason, we still have caricatures of queer people on screen as well as this same pervasive toxic and performative masculinity. We have a lot of trouble finding fully realized queer characters that don't end up dead or alone, or even still hidden in subtext.

There's this great moment in the last season of True Blood, maybe the only great moment other than Ryan Kwanten and Alexander Skarsgaard's sex scene – when Lafayette lashes out at Jessica after she catches him and her current boyfriend hooking up, and it's so good and sums up what I want to say so well, that I'm going to leave you with it:

“Everybody else in this fucking town is falling in love and getting engaged and having babies! Has it ever occurred to you that Lafayette – that queen that makes all you white heterosexuals laugh and feel good about yourselves – has it fucking ever occurred to you that maybe I want a piece of that happiness too?”

Thank you for listening to Tuck In, We're Rolling: Queer Hollywood Stories. This episode was researched, written and recorded by me, Jack Segreto. You can find a transcript of this episode and all of our episodes, along with some fun facts and photos, on our tumblr, tuckinpodcast.tumblr.com. You can also give us a like on Facebook at facebook.com/tuckinpodcast. We accept messages on both of those platforms, so feel free to shoot us suggestions for future shows and comments. We upload new episodes every Wednesday and you can find us on iTunes, Soundcloud, and now Google Play. Don't forget to rate and subscribe so more people can find us! Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.

SOURCES:

The Motion Picture Production Code (PDF)

The Hays Code - Arts Reformation

From Sissie to Secrecy: The Evolution of the Hays Code

The Hays Code: Censorship, Sexism, and the Code that Built Pop Culture

Homosexuality in Film

Gay and Lesbian Characters in Pre-Code Film

History of Homosexuality in Film (yeah, I got lazy and used Wikipedia. SUE ME, OKAY, I WORK 40+ HOURS A WEEK)

True Blood Wiki: ‘Lost Cause’ Synopsis & Quotes

OKAY BYEEEEEE

[flauntpage]

“They Always Kick Our Ass” – Observations from Celtics 105, Sixers 87

I shut off my computer immediately after the final buzzer last night because I knew social media was going to be a wretched hive of bullshit hot takes and overreaction.

Let’s keep it simple:

The Boston Celtics are an excellent team. Brad Stevens’ squad is incredibly athletic on the perimeter and stacked with multiple guys who can create their own shot and do a lot of dynamic things on the offensive end. Some of their bench players really should be starters on other teams (Terry Rozier) and they continue to play a defensive brand of basketball that just stifles the Sixers (and pretty much everybody else in the Eastern Conference).

So Joel Embiid is accurate when he says post-game, “This is not a rivalry. I don’t know our record against them, but it’s pretty bad. They always kick our ass. This is not a rivalry.”

Correct.

You need to beat a team before it comes a rivalry, and the Sixers are not there yet. Right now the Sixers are Pittsburgh and the Celtics are Penn State. There’s history there, sure, but the last few meetings have been pretty lopsided.

That’s the storyline moving forward. You lost to the best team in the conference on opening night. The rest of the season is about bringing yourself level with Boston and you’ve got 81 remaining games to figure it out.

Shortcomings

It’s hard to win a basketball game when:

you turn the ball over 16 times

you shoot 5-26 from three (19.2%)

your starting power forward gets himself into early foul trouble

your backup power forward is injured and unavailable

your backup small forward is injured and unavailable

you get 8-25 shooting (32%) from Dario Saric, Robert Covington, and Markelle Fultz

you shoot 14-24 from the foul line (58.3%)

Boston grabs twice as many offensive rebounds (12 to 6)

Regarding the turnovers –

The Sixers won a ton of games while coughing up the ball last year. Same with Golden State, who won it all. Turnovers don’t always equate to losses if you’re an up-tempo team that swings the ball around and flies up and down the court and averages more total possessions per game.

That was not the case last night, and there was a lot of forced stuff and some miscommunication that resulted in plays like this:

Just a bread and butter dribble hand-off right there, and Embiid leaves the ball for Redick, who makes a counter cut instead to beat the overplay. Joel will normally hold that and wait to see what develops instead of just dumping the ball out of bounds.

He was also annoyed with this play, when he threw a low post bounce pass entry off Dario Saric and out of play:

Sorry for the crap quality there, had to rip it off the TV.

You see Boston meeting Ben Simmons with two defenders at the foul line, which is the same exact thing they did last year. Ben drops it for the trailing big, and instead of Embiid trying a wide-open three pointer, he puts the ball on the floor and dribbles towards Saric before the pair fumble the exchange.

Look at the space here:

Joel shoots that more often than not. He’s not at his best when putting the ball on the floor 23 feet from the basket, but you already knew that.

I also thought he got hung out to dry defensively with too many tough matchups on the perimeter. It’s not to say he can’t defend on the perimeter, but it was very interesting to see him matched up with Jayson Tatum to start the game while Markelle Fultz took Kyrie Irving. Maybe the Sixers figure that Al Horford is going to try to stretch out Embiid anyway, and that he’s going to inevitably be pulled away from the basket no matter who he ends up guarding. Good job by Boston to space the floor and keep the Sixers moving defensively last night. You can switch two through four or fight through screens, but the trio of Irving, Tatum, and Jaylen Brown are capable of attacking really anybody you throw at them. Throw Rozier and Horford and Gordon Hayward into the mix, and it gets even more dicey.

Ben Simmons

Honestly, his performance probably kept things from getting out of control early on.

He finished with 19, 15, and 8 on 50% shooting and turned the ball over three times while going 5-9 from the stripe.

A lot of good, not much bad, a couple of amazing passes, and two attempted elbow jumpers that I counted. He actually missed twice from the left elbow but hit a ridiculous turnaround one-handed hook shot, if you want to call it that.

Ben’s chart from last night:

I’d be perfectly happy with him trying a couple of elbow jumpers per game as the season progresses. Those will start to go down.

Otherwise, he was the best Sixer on the court last night. Even in situations where Boston would try to sag to prevent drives to the rim, he’d still find ways to get that head of steam and bulldoze his way through. Ben is a rare physical specimen and if his game continues to grow and evolve he will be a top five NBA player at some time in the near future.

The biggest issue moving forward is finding a rhythm and sharing ball-handling duties with….

Markelle Fultz

Didn’t seem like he was finding the game at all early. It looked like he was just sort of floating around the floor and not getting involved. A little later, he hit his first shot on a nice pull-up at the foul line with a couple guys close to him, and he looked confident doing it. That was probably the highlight of the night, though I obviously loved the off-ball cut to the rim on the ridiculous Simmons no-look behind-the-head pass.

In the second half, Markelle again looked hesitant for the small amount of minutes he played. He passed on a layup attempt and traveled under the rim.

He did not attempt a three pointer last night and only took one of his seven shots outside the key. He failed to take a pair of open jumpers from deeper range and instead brought the ball closer to the basket, which sounded alarm bells in my head.

Kyle Neubeck over at PhillyVoice put two of those clips into a Tweet this morning:

First two plays in this clip: Fultz with space to take longer jumpers vs. BOS tonight, conceding it to shoot around the paint

Final two plays in this clip: How Fultz used to attack *any* semblance of space he had to shoot, vs. BOS in Summer League pic.twitter.com/lbo83wDmNt

— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) October 17, 2018

That’s concerning.

It’s one thing for Markelle to take those and miss, but he didn’t take ’em. In that first clip, he has to let that three pointer rip. The second is one of the weirdest pick and rolls I’ve ever seen.

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, as Nick Young once said. Or was it Wayne Gretzky? Either way, someone needs to drill that into Markelle’s head. I want to see him take at least 10 shots in the home opener tomorrow night.

Rotational things

Saric picking up three fouls early was a killer.

He started 3-4 from the field and the injury absence of Wilson Chandler and Mike Muscala really limited Brett Brown’s options off the bench. Picking up a fourth foul at the 9:14 mark in the third on a bad charge also did not help. And Dario’s 5th foul was a bad call with an out of control Hayward running right into him, full steam.

I have a theory that Dario doesn’t get a lot of respect from the officials because he’s still a relative newcomer (and a foreigner), but I can’t prove that theory without accusing people of xenophobia, so I’ll just leave it hanging and end the paragraph.

As expected, JJ Redick and Amir Johnson were first off the bench, spelling Saric and Embiid with Robert Covington moving down to power forward sans Chandler and Muscala. T.J. McConnell was next off the bench, leaving three ball handlers on the floor with Redick and Johnson.

Landry Shamet came off the bench around 10:00 in the second half. He took two early shots, which was good to see, even though he missed both. I’m fine with that. He’s like the anti-Fultz in that regard. Maybe we can find a way to insert Landry’s brain into Markelle’s body. Maybe a combo guard lobotomy is what we need.

As I mentioned above, Fultz barely played in the second half. He did not start in the second half. Brown rolled out last year’s starting five to begin the third quarter and went with a mostly different rotation from what we saw in the first half. Markelle didn’t come back in until 3:13 in the period and finished with 24 minutes last night.

This HAS TO BE priority number one, figuring out what Markelle is. To that end, I do agree with the decision to start him, but it gets funky when multiple ball handlers are on the floor. If Fultz is “the guy” moving forward, he’s gonna have to learn how to play with Simmons in some way, shape, or form. If not, you play him as the second unit point guard and roll another season with Redick as the starting two-guard while looking for upgrades next summer.

They have to figure it out ASAP, and I think that includes Brett giving him significant second-half minutes. If you get 10-15 games into the season and you don’t see anything from Markelle, might be time to just pull the plug. I know this sounds ridiculous after ONE game, but it’s really not one game, it’s 80+ now, as a continuation of his lost rookie season.

Other notes:

After a preseason in which the refs blew the whistle every five seconds, they really let both teams play for the majority of the game.

Ben Simmons twice used the snatch dribble in the first half on plays that resulted in a basket. He tried another in the third quarter and couldn’t get a contested lay-in to fall.

Robert Covington had a nice patch in the 3rd quarter where he hit a pair of three pointers. He made some nice defensive plays as well, including a couple of clutch steals and deflections at the basket. Beyond that, he was front-rimming a lot of his shots and doing little to influence the game. It was a very Covington type of game, inconsistent with peaks and valleys throughout.

Kevin Harlan didn’t seem to know how to pronounce “Dario.” Duh-REE-oh? What was that? Harlan tried to blame it on the Sixers press corps, so I don’t know what that’s all about. We’ll have to investigate.

I HATE the in-game interview with the coaches. Brett Brown literally spoke twice before the game and is required to speak after the game. He does not need to speak again DURING the game. Coaches should not be required to speak to the media four times in one day, PERIOD. I will die on this hill.

Aron Baynes has the ugliest three-point shot I’ve ever seen, yet it goes in

Nastiest dunk of the night = Amir Johnson

The post “They Always Kick Our Ass” – Observations from Celtics 105, Sixers 87 appeared first on Crossing Broad.

“They Always Kick Our Ass” – Observations from Celtics 105, Sixers 87 published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[flauntpage]

“They Always Kick Our Ass” – Observations from Celtics 105, Sixers 87

I shut off my computer immediately after the final buzzer last night because I knew social media was going to be a wretched hive of bullshit hot takes and overreaction.

Let’s keep it simple:

The Boston Celtics are an excellent team. Brad Stevens’ squad is incredibly athletic on the perimeter and stacked with multiple guys who can create their own shot and do a lot of dynamic things on the offensive end. Some of their bench players really should be starters on other teams (Terry Rozier) and they continue to play a defensive brand of basketball that just stifles the Sixers (and pretty much everybody else in the Eastern Conference).

So Joel Embiid is accurate when he says post-game, “This is not a rivalry. I don’t know our record against them, but it’s pretty bad. They always kick our ass. This is not a rivalry.”

Correct.

You need to beat a team before it comes a rivalry, and the Sixers are not there yet. Right now the Sixers are Pittsburgh and the Celtics are Penn State. There’s history there, sure, but the last few meetings have been pretty lopsided.

That’s the storyline moving forward. You lost to the best team in the conference on opening night. The rest of the season is about bringing yourself level with Boston and you’ve got 81 remaining games to figure it out.

Shortcomings

It’s hard to win a basketball game when:

you turn the ball over 16 times

you shoot 5-26 from three (19.2%)

your starting power forward gets himself into early foul trouble

your backup power forward is injured and unavailable

your backup small forward is injured and unavailable

you get 8-25 shooting (32%) from Dario Saric, Robert Covington, and Markelle Fultz

you shoot 14-24 from the foul line (58.3%)

Boston grabs twice as many offensive rebounds (12 to 6)

Regarding the turnovers –

The Sixers won a ton of games while coughing up the ball last year. Same with Golden State, who won it all. Turnovers don’t always equate to losses if you’re an up-tempo team that swings the ball around and flies up and down the court and averages more total possessions per game.

That was not the case last night, and there was a lot of forced stuff and some miscommunication that resulted in plays like this:

Just a bread and butter dribble hand-off right there, and Embiid leaves the ball for Redick, who makes a counter cut instead to beat the overplay. Joel will normally hold that and wait to see what develops instead of just dumping the ball out of bounds.

He was also annoyed with this play, when he threw a low post bounce pass entry off Dario Saric and out of play:

Sorry for the crap quality there, had to rip it off the TV.

You see Boston meeting Ben Simmons with two defenders at the foul line, which is the same exact thing they did last year. Ben drops it for the trailing big, and instead of Embiid trying a wide-open three pointer, he puts the ball on the floor and dribbles towards Saric before the pair fumble the exchange.

Look at the space here:

Joel shoots that more often than not. He’s not at his best when putting the ball on the floor 23 feet from the basket, but you already knew that.

I also thought he got hung out to dry defensively with too many tough matchups on the perimeter. It’s not to say he can’t defend on the perimeter, but it was very interesting to see him matched up with Jayson Tatum to start the game while Markelle Fultz took Kyrie Irving. Maybe the Sixers figure that Al Horford is going to try to stretch out Embiid anyway, and that he’s going to inevitably be pulled away from the basket no matter who he ends up guarding. Good job by Boston to space the floor and keep the Sixers moving defensively last night. You can switch two through four or fight through screens, but the trio of Irving, Tatum, and Jaylen Brown are capable of attacking really anybody you throw at them. Throw Rozier and Horford and Gordon Hayward into the mix, and it gets even more dicey.

Ben Simmons

Honestly, his performance probably kept things from getting out of control early on.

He finished with 19, 15, and 8 on 50% shooting and turned the ball over three times while going 5-9 from the stripe.

A lot of good, not much bad, a couple of amazing passes, and two attempted elbow jumpers that I counted. He actually missed twice from the left elbow but hit a ridiculous turnaround one-handed hook shot, if you want to call it that.

Ben’s chart from last night:

I’d be perfectly happy with him trying a couple of elbow jumpers per game as the season progresses. Those will start to go down.

Otherwise, he was the best Sixer on the court last night. Even in situations where Boston would try to sag to prevent drives to the rim, he’d still find ways to get that head of steam and bulldoze his way through. Ben is a rare physical specimen and if his game continues to grow and evolve he will be a top five NBA player at some time in the near future.

The biggest issue moving forward is finding a rhythm and sharing ball-handling duties with….

Markelle Fultz

Didn’t seem like he was finding the game at all early. It looked like he was just sort of floating around the floor and not getting involved. A little later, he hit his first shot on a nice pull-up at the foul line with a couple guys close to him, and he looked confident doing it. That was probably the highlight of the night, though I obviously loved the off-ball cut to the rim on the ridiculous Simmons no-look behind-the-head pass.

In the second half, Markelle again looked hesitant for the small amount of minutes he played. He passed on a layup attempt and traveled under the rim.

He did not attempt a three pointer last night and only took one of his seven shots outside the key. He failed to take a pair of open jumpers from deeper range and instead brought the ball closer to the basket, which sounded alarm bells in my head.

Kyle Neubeck over at PhillyVoice put two of those clips into a Tweet this morning:

First two plays in this clip: Fultz with space to take longer jumpers vs. BOS tonight, conceding it to shoot around the paint

Final two plays in this clip: How Fultz used to attack *any* semblance of space he had to shoot, vs. BOS in Summer League pic.twitter.com/lbo83wDmNt

— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) October 17, 2018

That’s concerning.

It’s one thing for Markelle to take those and miss, but he didn’t take ’em. In that first clip, he has to let that three pointer rip. The second is one of the weirdest pick and rolls I’ve ever seen.

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, as Nick Young once said. Or was it Wayne Gretzky? Either way, someone needs to drill that into Markelle’s head. I want to see him take at least 10 shots in the home opener tomorrow night.

Rotational things

Saric picking up three fouls early was a killer.

He started 3-4 from the field and the injury absence of Wilson Chandler and Mike Muscala really limited Brett Brown’s options off the bench. Picking up a fourth foul at the 9:14 mark in the third on a bad charge also did not help. And Dario’s 5th foul was a bad call with an out of control Hayward running right into him, full steam.

I have a theory that Dario doesn’t get a lot of respect from the officials because he’s still a relative newcomer (and a foreigner), but I can’t prove that theory without accusing people of xenophobia, so I’ll just leave it hanging and end the paragraph.

As expected, JJ Redick and Amir Johnson were first off the bench, spelling Saric and Embiid with Robert Covington moving down to power forward sans Chandler and Muscala. T.J. McConnell was next off the bench, leaving three ball handlers on the floor with Redick and Johnson.

Landry Shamet came off the bench around 10:00 in the second half. He took two early shots, which was good to see, even though he missed both. I’m fine with that. He’s like the anti-Fultz in that regard. Maybe we can find a way to insert Landry’s brain into Markelle’s body. Maybe a combo guard lobotomy is what we need.

As I mentioned above, Fultz barely played in the second half. He did not start in the second half. Brown rolled out last year’s starting five to begin the third quarter and went with a mostly different rotation from what we saw in the first half. Markelle didn’t come back in until 3:13 in the period and finished with 24 minutes last night.

This HAS TO BE priority number one, figuring out what Markelle is. To that end, I do agree with the decision to start him, but it gets funky when multiple ball handlers are on the floor. If Fultz is “the guy” moving forward, he’s gonna have to learn how to play with Simmons in some way, shape, or form. If not, you play him as the second unit point guard and roll another season with Redick as the starting two-guard while looking for upgrades next summer.

They have to figure it out ASAP, and I think that includes Brett giving him significant second-half minutes. If you get 10-15 games into the season and you don’t see anything from Markelle, might be time to just pull the plug. I know this sounds ridiculous after ONE game, but it’s really not one game, it’s 80+ now, as a continuation of his lost rookie season.

Other notes:

After a preseason in which the refs blew the whistle every five seconds, they really let both teams play for the majority of the game.

Ben Simmons twice used the snatch dribble in the first half on plays that resulted in a basket. He tried another in the third quarter and couldn’t get a contested lay-in to fall.

Robert Covington had a nice patch in the 3rd quarter where he hit a pair of three pointers. He made some nice defensive plays as well, including a couple of clutch steals and deflections at the basket. Beyond that, he was front-rimming a lot of his shots and doing little to influence the game. It was a very Covington type of game, inconsistent with peaks and valleys throughout.

Kevin Harlan didn’t seem to know how to pronounce “Dario.” Duh-REE-oh? What was that? Harlan tried to blame it on the Sixers press corps, so I don’t know what that’s all about. We’ll have to investigate.

I HATE the in-game interview with the coaches. Brett Brown literally spoke twice before the game and is required to speak after the game. He does not need to speak again DURING the game. Coaches should not be required to speak to the media four times in one day, PERIOD. I will die on this hill.

Aron Baynes has the ugliest three-point shot I’ve ever seen, yet it goes in

Nastiest dunk of the night = Amir Johnson

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