thunderboltfire

[thunderboltfire]

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Last brush stroke game

I was tagged by @wolfsong-the-bloody-beast, thanks for the tag! :)

Rules: this is like the "last line game", but for (visual) artists! Take a super close-up screenshot / small cropped area of the subject you're painting right now and share it with us <3

The first personal thing in a good while! I've come back to an old sketch to wind down after more serious work. I don't know yet how it'll turn out, but it's a second sketch iteration of the same topic and this time I've resigned to throw the pefectionism out of the window. Will it be as pretty as I wanted? Probably not, but I want to have fun with it.

tagging: @daily-rayless , @gwinaesfer (only if You want to, no pressure!)

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A fun thing is that this particular fameous line of racehorses is comprised of mares. Shirayukihime is considered a founder of this color mutation, then her daughter is Buchiko, and her daughter below is also white Sodashi, who actually raced with quite a bit of success. AFAIK all the progeny of Shirayukihime is either white, spotted or near-white, but Buchiko has probably the most striking spotting and that's why she's the most recognisable.

huge, huge fan of the racehorse Buchiko

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That's... interesting. I didn't knew it was an existing word, let alone a name for a legendary giant poisonous water rat which kills cattle XD

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(I've written an essay in the tags so I can as well put it in the reblog)

Cozy game is a very vague term and I think it's mostly an aestetic descriptor that also describes some of the gameplay qualities, like a relaxed pace of the game focused on slow but steady progress and rather forgiving and manageable core mechanics that by default put more emphasis on dilligence than on reflex or strategy.

Of course the relaxing qualities are subjective and You can stress Yourself to death micromanaging and speedrunning Stardew Valley, but by default those mechanics should lead to a more slow-paced, accessible gameplay.

Most of the games I've seen it used for were life SIMs, farming RPGs or slow-paced shop management games with cutesy graphics meaning to evoke relaxed and welcoming atmosphere. Applying the term to any low-poly and/or pixel game regardless of its actual genre mechanics and atmosphere is as weird as claiming that Baldur's Gate 3 is a 'girly game' (also a vague internet-borne descriptor) solely because You can make a pretty character and change the outfits.

It's not to say that there aren't games that expand upon the convention of a cozy game. A good example of a game that's actually playing with a convention of a cozy game is e.g. Graveyard Keeper, which has all the trappings of a slow-paced cutesy farming SIM except it's all made fun of in... quite a morbid way. Mechanically - and to a certain degree aestetically too - it fits the bill. It's very much a slow-paced farming/business management RPG/SIM and it has a really fun stylised top-down pixel artstyle with soft colors. The thematic whiplash is clearly a very intentional subversion of expectations.

Cozy game if used correctly (which it often isn't) is a useful quantifier for people seeking particular qualities of gameplay. It's basically on a same level as 'hardcore' which includes mostly unforgiving games with either a default high difficulty or a very high entry point of mechanics. I've seen it used for soulslikes but also Darkest Dungeon (which is a turn-based roguelike) and even Kingdom Come: Deliverance (historical RPG) due to its limited saves opportunity and challenging fencing mechanics. I think in this case it's also a matter of certain gameplay qualities, which may be influenced by mechanics, genre, or to a certain point, aestetics and atmosphere.

cozy game means fucking nothing. i saw someone call firewatch a cozy game. the game about child death. i saw someone say dredge was a cozy game thats secretly horror. theres nothing secret about the horror the main plot is about necromancy and the world ends. what the fuck are you talking about. is it bc the art style is nice to look at. oh im gonna watch my favorite chick flick the descent. what are you fucking talking about

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[we doin the veil now? i got a poll - ]

Should the Veil have come down at the end of DATV?

- Yes, it would have been best for the people of the world in-universe

- Yes, it would have been more narratively satisfying/coherent

- Yes, both

- No, it would have been worse for the people of the world in-universe

- No, it would have been less narratively satisfying/coherent

- No, both

- Even further nuance

- Results

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sometimes you just gotta say żal pl and move on

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@rayless-reblogs That's probably not AI! It looks to be an equine compression suit. Apparently they aim to help in muscle regeneration after excercise. They look unreal on most of the photos, but there's at least one brand that sells them, and they have quite a lot photos of it from different angles. Upon further inspection, the suits look to be put on with zippers, and come in several colors including leopard print XD

horse sneaking suit

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da2 is crazy because it's like almost (A L M O S T) a perfect demonstration of like. power schisms and how dominant colonialist religions gain their influence through control and fearmongering and how said fearmongering works specifically because the system is Designed to isolate and dehumanize groups of people who inevitably lash out and fight back, creating the exact circumstances for a dominant power to claim the moral high ground and further suppress the marginalized population. not to mention how it touches on the way the system even abuses its own participants by preying on their desperation or vulnerability to gain their loyalty and THEN turning them into disposable pawns that rely on it far more than it relies on them. and then in the midst of this you play as a victim of that exact same system where your whole life has been dictated by fear and secrecy and the constant looming threat of being taken or having your family taken from you, and then when you finally work your way above the system you still aren't free because the person at one of the highest points of the hierarchy is willing to turn your family and friends into hostages to ensure your compliance. and this isn't even mentioning how this is the same game that just Happens to be separated into three different periods of time where your class status and social standing is drastically shifted in each one so you experience every angle of this cycle of systemic oppression. and then at the very end when you choose between upholding the status quo or protecting the marginalized and persecuted population you get a wildly different outcome as the protagonist. rebelling and going against the grain makes you a fugitive who has to abandon the very home you fought tooth and nail for because the system is now hunting you down for attempting to disrupt it. but if you choose to maintain it you rise to one of the most powerful positions within the system. and the only difference in how you get there is you can only obtain power through massacring the oppressed population in its entirety, demonstrating how this exact cycle is maintained through violence and subjugation. it's oppression at its most brutal and honest form. victims will always be victims unless they comply to the will of the oppressor.

and then you go online and you find out the writers have been writing thinkpieces on why the templars are actually the good guys on twitter and you're actually stupid as fuck for interpreting this as a commentary on institutionalized oppression

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 "I like flowers, I like animals, my name is -"

"your name is?"

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Stop companies from killing games!!! (EU and UK edition)

Tired of buying a $60 game that stops being functional a year later when big corp decides to pull the plug on its support? Tired of companies being able to brick things you own because they feel like it? Tired of beloved games becoming lost to time?

There is currently an initiative being pushed in both the EU and UK for game companies to be held accountable for keeping at LEAST some version of a game functionable.

The movement is currently in dire straits but has been gaining a ton of traction lately that could bring it back. If you are a resident of either, there's things you can sign to get things moving!!

ROUGHLY ONLY A MONTH LEFT TO SIGN!!! ONLY EU OR UK CITIZENS CAN SIGN!!!

LINK TO EU INITIATIVE

LINK TO UK PETITION

And for more info, you can visit the Stop Killing Games site!!

While this movement only applies to Europe at the moment, it has the momentum to ripple outwards to other countries if we keep it alive and continue pushing back against companies that want to pulp games they don't deem lucrative enough.

If you are unable to sign, consider passing the post around! I doubt anyone WANTS their favorite game to die forever, so if there's enough eyes on the movement we're bound to make progress. Thanks for reading

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Go my scarab

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repost of a piece I did few years ago

“Solas knows everything about us. Who we are. How we work. Our strengths and weaknesses.”

“Then we find people he doesn’t know.”

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🌷˚ʚ💗ɞ˚ 🌷🌷˚ʚ💗ɞ˚ 🌷🌷˚ʚ💗ɞ˚ 🌷🌷˚ʚ💗ɞ˚ 🌷

Powyższe to tylko kilka wybranych przeze mnie najorygnialniejszych imion solenizantów z 6 lipca. Pełna lista (za wikipedią): Chociebor, Dominika, Gotard, Ignacja, Lucja, Łucja, Maria, Nazaria, Niegosław, Teresa i Zuzanna.

🌷˚ʚ💗ɞ˚ 🌷🌷˚ʚ💗ɞ˚ 🌷🌷˚ʚ💗ɞ˚ 🌷🌷˚ʚ💗ɞ˚ 🌷

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*places her delicately on the table*

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Due to irl stuff, I probably won't be very active this year (for sure not as active as last year). Nonetheless, see You at the ArtFight!

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In Inquisition, all my inquisitors had veil-green eyes to match the anchor.

In Veilguard, all my Rooks have a fat ass