meganaut

[meganaut]

VIPRPG: An Overview From a Complete Japanese Illiterate

Something I developed a strange taste for at some point during my more boring days of working for a medical transcription company was watching videos of various Japanese RPG Maker horror games.  It was great, really.  A lot of visual distraction, but since I didn’t really have the language to read them, it allowed me to concentrate on my work while still having something narratively interesting going on in the background.  I knew about a lot of the more prominent titles before other people did as a result; stuff like Ao Oni, or MIsao, or The Crooked Man.  I can even tell you what the two games VGPerson has on an upcoming list are.  (Hint:  They both feature female protagonists.  SO DESCRIPTIVE.)

As a result of this, however, I discovered an oddball, very Nico Nico Douga and 2chan specific sort of phenomena primarily through the “Free Game” and “Horror” tags: a little something called VIPRPGs.  They remain something of a guilty pleasure of mine, for reasons I’ll explain in a bit.  I suspect they’ll remain obscure to Westerners, and probably rightfully so.  Still, I have a weird urge to discuss them, even though I recognize they have a lot of very problematic elements.  So here’s a little overview of the concept; I might go into detail on some of the main characters later.  Bear in mind I’m going into these almost entirely based on my personal perception, since I can only barely read some of the characters; I may actually be completely off!  Which may or may not be a bad thing, honestly.

What IS a VIPRPG?

Holy shit that’s a lot of characters.

It’s a little hard to explain, honestly, especially for someone like me who can only sort of guess at what’s going on.  The main gist is that they’re a series of RPGs which originate primarily from 2chan.  They primarily use a combination of the built-in characters from RPG Maker as well as a ludicrously massive cast of original side characters they’ve developed over the years.  Whether there’s more connecting elements than that I’m uncertain, I’m afraid.  (And yes, I know it’s weird writing about something I barely understand.  That hasn’t stopped SOME people.)

The most emblematic of the VIPRPGs, at least on Nico Nico Douga, is the “Mosimo Series,” or “What If Series."  The original ones started with a basic concept:  Take the most generic, "hero gets quest from a king and goes to fight the demon king” plotline you can get.  Then come up with odd variations on the same; for example, “What if this character was the hero instead,” etc. etc.  It eventually blossomed out into less a proper game series and more a series of RPG Maker vignettes.  Some of them focus on the heroes, yes, but just as many (if not more) focus on the Demon King’s Army, or other characters.  The playthroughs are rarely talked over, and instead almost treated like an ongoing anime of sorts, or at least they are on NND.  The result is an almost endearing, ongoing sort of world, where you begin to recognize certain characters and character groups.  Much like the OS Girls, 2chan managed to take very odd, characterless characters and give them, well, character.

Okay, So Why Are They a GUILTY Pleasure?

This isn’t what it look – actually, no, it’s exactly what it looks like.

Yes.  Well.

The main thing to note is the source of these things: 2chan.  Which means the whole series, particularly the Mosimo titles, have a very strong 2chan sense of humor.  In other words, expect terrible no-homo jokes, uncomfortable sexual (and, ugh, rape) humor, and way too many characters with little girl representations.  Needless to say, they’re not exactly the sort of things you show to civilized company no matter how seemingly innocent the storyline otherwise is, especially since they have a bad habit of springing said tasteless humor on you without warning.

Ew.  Why the Hell Are You Watching These Things?

Adorable.

Because God help me, I’m attached to the characters.

Something weird happens when you see essentially the same characters doing silly little slice of life stuff or little adventures over and over: you start identifying with them as actual characters and not just sprites.  It really is almost like following a manga or anime, albeit one made in a janky old game making engine and written by probably far too many different writers.  You start going, “How will Alex’s journey go THIS time?” or “Oh damnit, what’s Dark Elf doing NOW?"  Furthermore, some of the entries actually exhibit some absolutely astounding uses of the engine, to the point where you marvel that the thing was even created in RPG Maker to begin with.  Some of the entries are almost more proofs of concept than anything.

So yeah, that’s my guilty pleasure.  I wouldn’t exactly encourage anybody to run out and watch any themselves, lest they worry about my lack of lefty or feminist cred.  But I DID say they’re "guilty” pleasures, right?

WONDERFUL! *kaboom*

((Most non-game pictures courtesy of viprpg.org.))

[meganaut]

i enjoy captioning things a lot so sometimes i'll try my hand at makin lyric videos. i made these backgrounds to hopefully sorta fit in with the album art. i dont think ive posted the backgrounds anywhere aside from the vids themselves, so i'll dump em here.

[meganaut]

icon commission for @meganaut

[meganaut]

more of Deltarune on CRT        :+) 

(a little hard to capture what it rly looks like on a phone camera but it’s pretty similar, a bit less glow in real life but it’s close, the way the light kinda streaks and smudges is nice, some of the colors are very vibrant ) 

[meganaut]

VAG BEAN

[meganaut]

oh no i turned into Spamton oh nooooo

[meganaut]

I finally got to use Windows 3D Movie Maker.

#w3dmm #windows 2000

[meganaut]

Quake 2 fucking sucks.

As a somewhat experienced autismo aficionado of retro FPS games, nothing infuriated me more than playing Quake 2 and being mildly disappointed in it. Its probably not a bad game but I REALLY didn't like the first impressions. I was impressed by the CGI cutscene. Very cool 90s terrible CGI. I love me a good bad. And then the game started. With a pistol. That SUCKED to fire. And then I realized Quake 2 just made me cringe. And gay. That last part was a lie. If it made me gay that would be more beneficial than the life-sucking gameplay of the pistol. I dunno what it is about that pistol but it just feels WRONG. I'm not biased towards shotguns or anything. But holy shit that Pistol felt like I was shooting with a starter Unity project gun. It even crashed my fucking hard drive and demanded I pay money for a sub-par Game Engine. The pistol barely gave me any feedback. When I shot an enemy I couldn't even tell if I hit them or not. The feedback was atrocious. Just like my pull-out game. And thank god Quake 2 can't get pregnant. After 20ish minutes with the game, I couldn't do it anymore. I'm sure Quake 2 is a fine enough game, but as someone who really enjoyed Quake 1... I was ... A tiny bit disappointed. And by tiny, I mean big. Big as in my dick. My dick as in... Fuck me. Also the RTX version looks terrible. YEAH I SAID IT. I HATE HOW IT LOOKS. At least the controls are better in that version. Jesus. Medal of Honor is a better sequel to Quake.

#quake 2 #review #first impressions

[meganaut]

THE

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO lets get ROIIIIIIIIGHT INTO THE NEWSSSSSS. Where's Pepper Adventure? On hold. Yes baby i am once again putting MORE PROJECTS ON ***HOLD*** HOLY [[smoked salami]]. I think I'm just burnt out on working on games and big projects. Right now in this moment in time, I can't enjoy the work I do anymore. I can't work on games or comics anymore. I've found myself more enjoying the idea of a game/comic moreso than actually working on it. I think I really fucked myself over by working on a webcomic non-stop and then making 2 whole-ass games and trying to work on a third one. I think I just need time and space away from "worky" things. My capitalistic desires of productivity have to be put on hold... For now. If anyone is looking forward to Pepper Adventure, I'm really sorry. You can take solace in the fact that its not cancelled. I absolutely wanna finish Pepper Adventure, its just too great of a project for me to ignore. Too great and too do-able of a project. I just need time to recover.

I know I don't update my blog often, but if you like livestreaming, I'm (mostly) active on my youtube channel over here! I've been doing a lot of livestreams lately and I've been enjoying it! It's fun to talk to myself and pretend I have an audience and am in desperate need of psychiatric help. In all seriousness though, I have been having fun doing streaming. Even when nobody shows up its just nice to sit around and talk to myself and play a game I do (or don't) enjoy. Its been nice. If you do wanna see more stuff from me, your best bet is that youtube channel. Not only do I stream there on weekdays (sometimes), i also upload edited videos of my shenanigans in games. You can find all my past streams here! Lets talk card games

After playing Inscryption I've found myself absolutely enamored and infatuated with the card game genre. I've played tens of card games, even obscure games like the Pokemon Trading Card game. I've tried dozens of card games and man, I just can't get enough. Also there's a shit ton of games that mimic most of Hearthstone. B r e h The card games I've found myself enjoying most are: GWENT Pokemon TCG (yeah im serious) Inscryption (what a fuckin game bro) Mythgard (bruh moment) Elder Scrolls Legends (yuh)

Here are my indepth thoughts on the games:

Gwent:

is fucking good mate. I've played quite a few card games, many I like, many I absolutely dislike, but Gwent is the one I've been coming back to more than the others. Its a simple card game. The object of the game is simple, get a higher number than your opponent. Each card has a number, each number contributes to your overall score. Just get the highest score and WIN. Its that simple. What makes Gwent great is that each card has different abilities and stats that allow it to do different things under certain conditions. Some decks straight up have their own abilities and stuff they can utilize. Gwent is what I consider a deceptively simple game. Its easy to get into. And you can pull off so much shit with cards. I don't want to say its complicated, but it can be. Not like Yu-Gi-Oh though, I hate Yu-Gi-Oh. That shits REALLY complicated. If you ever wanna try out a card game that isn't Hearthstone, Gwent would be my recommendation.

POKEMON Trading Card Game:

is a card game that exists. No really, its real. They don't actually sell Pokemon cards for the sake of selling Pokemon cards. They actually have a game to use those cards in. I know, its absolutely INSANE. Its gameplay is pretty unique. You draw cards, you use Pokemon cards to battle for you (just like the real games). However, you also draw energy and Trainer/item/whatever cards. The energy cards you put on your Pokemans to allow them to do moves (and retreat). I could go on and on about the rules since its a bit more complicated than Gwent. The object of the game is to defeat at least 6 of your opponent's pokemon. For me personally, this game allows more skill and thought than the OG pokemon games would allow. Instead of JUST 6 pokemon, you can have a ton more at your disposal (you can only have so many benched tho). Since each Pokemon has only 2 moves (sometimes 1), you have to REALLY strategize what to do at every turn, maybe switch out Pokemon and stuff, maybe use a Trainer card to heal your pokemon. There's a lot that can go thru your head in a game of Pokemon TCG. Its nice. Sadly you kinda get jackshit in terms of actual Pokemon cards when starting out. You'd have to grind a bit in the online mode and hope you can win with your wimpy starter decks. I haven't played too much of this game, but I can safely say I enjoy the game for what it is. It might not be my first recommendation for bestest card games, but its definitely on the list. You can't do much in the game if you don't sign up with the website. Its nothing unusual, but I feel you should keep that in mind that you gotta create an account first.

Inscryption:

i'll say more about this later cuz im not gonna re-edit this post lmao

Mythgard:

is good... with a pretty big fuckin caveat. There's a lot of Hearthstone games out there that take more than just a "little" inspiration from it (and i guess MTG by proxy). Mythgard is no different. However, Mythgard does quite a LOT to stand out from the crowd. You can move your cards around when they're on the battlefield, you burn cards in order to raise your "Mana" bar. There's a lot going on in Mythgard. Its a pretty fun game, I don't go too indepth with it since its mostly the same Hearthstone stuff that you'll recognize immediately. Plus, I haven't played as much of it as I would like to. I would recommend this game... But there's a BIG caveat with it. You have to register an account with them. Now this doesn't sound too bad, after all I mentioned that the Pokemon TCG does the same thing. Why is Mythgard different? Maybe I'm just paranoid but when a SMALLER game company that I have never heard of asks for my personal email account I get kinda... Sketched out. I don't know if other people feel the same way, maybe its just me but I would consider that kind of a catch in Mythgard's case. I might say "fuck it" later and sign up just to play more of the game. I genuinely enjoy Mythgard but I would be wary of that kinda thing if I were you.

Elder Scrolls Legends:

Once again, another Hearthstone type game. Its not bad though. It has a singleplayer campaign that is really interesting to go thru. I found myself enjoying this one the most out of the Hearthstone-like games for some reason. There's 2 lanes you can play in that alter the gameplay. One of them gives you a stealth ability that basically makes your card unable to be targeted or hit until it attacks. Sad that the game is no longer being worked on and has been mostly abandoned for a couple years now. Its pretty fun. I'm kinda getting tired of writing so I'll just leave it at that. On the topic of Inscryption tho. Man. MAN. M A N . what a game. No spoilers, since I truly believe Inscryption to be a game worth playing blind for. More than Undertale/Deltarune. Its just THAT good man. Absolutely love the simplistic gameplay in the game. I was thrown off quite a bit when the game kept... Well, "changing". But I eventually grew to like the entirety of the game. I cried like a bitch when it was over. Not on stream, sadly. That would've been good content. I cried a day after the stream.

I absolutely wanna say I want to update this blog more often. But at this point every single blog entry I make ends with that condolence. I'll make no promises. Keep gaming, fuckers.

#card game #game development #livestreaming

[meganaut]

Revenge of the Return: The Sequel

HELLO! I'm a dude.

I do dudely things.

I also never update this blog because I'm too busy doing Dark Souls and chill.

So what have I been up to? Where has the Naut gone?

Well, I'm still around. Still scheming in the background.

In the last post I made, I mentioned how I was working on "Slick", a webcomic that I've been wanting to do since 2014 or whatever and I was halfway done with the first comic.

Yeah I stopped working on it. For now its temporarily cancelled... Again. For the 20th time in its history.

I made great progress on Pepper Adventure, but I've slowly been finding myself stopping... And just, not really being productive at all.

I don't know if I can call it "Burn-out". Since I've already been doing a lot of breaks while working on projects. I think I've just been getting lazier. Laziness bred from burn-out, or some shit.

This lazy-burn-out has, however, gotten me to finally start playing some games that I missed playing or never got a chance to play while going full work mode.

And this has led to my new-found love of DARK SOULS.

I played Dark Souls 3 on a whim, was shared from a friends library. I've had bad experiences with Dark Souls 1, so I didn't expect anything much better from 3. Turns out, that 3 is my new favorite gmae of all-time.

Bought a copy of it, replayed Dark Souls 1, played through Dark Souls 2, got a PS5 and played Bloodbhorne and Demon's Souls; I just got extremely obsessed with the Souls-like genre. And still I'm not satisfied. I need M O R E.

Playing all those Souls games have helped me mentally quite a bit too.

I think I mentioned I was learning C Programming in my last update too.

Like everything else, its mostly being put off. I'm still massively interested in learning programming.

I plan on getting into Java at some point. I've had a buddy recommend Java to me. Looks interesting and it might teach me things a little bit better than the 70's language known as C.

My current plans right now are to work on Pepper Adventure and chill.

I'm kinda gonna try to work on a single project at a time. I think the problem I've been facing is that I'm trying to do a million things at once and not completing a single task.

As of now: I'm gonna be working on Pepper Adventure and playing a lottaaaaaaa video games.

Thats it. That's what I've been up to.

See you later, space cowboys.

[meganaut]

time for an update

Yo where the fricc is that Meganaut guy???? Oh there he is, updating his tumblr blog he forgot about again. Yeah sorry about that, my dudes. A bit has happened since the last post. To summarize, I've been taking a break from projects to unwind. I've been having a hard time focusing on my projects as of late. Youtube and Twitter and whatnot have been too distracting for me. I spent at least 3 or so months trying to figure out where I am mentally and coming up with a game plan. I'm officially back in business, now slowly, but steadily, making progress on my game. I don't really have much to show. But rest assured; Pepper Adventure is still being worked on. Ontop of still working on my game, I've also been working on ANOTHER project. A webcomic. While not quite Antagonist Super Society, it is a webcomic I've been wanting to do since... Fuck, before 2014? Something like that? It is called "Slick". A story about a world ruled by a Dark Lord.

Progress has been slow on this too, but I'm halfway done with the first comic. I'm not planning on doing this comic monthly. That would absolutely take all my free-time (including my non-free time). Slick is, as of right now; A comic that I'll do whenever I want. Whenever I grow tired of doing Pepper Adventure constantly or if I feel the time is right, I'll work on a new episode of Slick. It's a more serious story than what I'm used to working on. Not really much of a comedy... It's more akin to an 80's action film that crossed paths with a shonen anime. The first episode will be out when its done.

On the side, I've been learning how to PROGRAM! CODING FOR FUCK'S SAKE! I've always wanted to make games myself but I'm too stupid to understand Unity/C# or Unreal Engine/C++. Nor can I properly learn Godot Engine/GDScript. It's been a struggle for me to learn coding as a concept in general. Not even GDScript's Python-like syntax does it for me. And I know PYTHON! I decided the best approach to this oddly specific problem that only applies to me is to just... Go off on the deep-end. All languages are related to C to some capacity. So... FUCK IT. I'm gonna learn C! Learning the basics so far, but the plan is that if I master C, I'll have mastered every other language and everything else will be easier by comparison. Eventually I'll be able to churn out cool games by hand, right? So yeah, that's the current state of things. Not gonna promise that I'll post more, cuz I'm just gonna forget this website again lmao Peace.

#update #webcomic #game development #programming #c language

[meganaut]

#NFTumblcryptids

[meganaut]

Making steady work on my game. Made this animation a little big ago. He punchey!

#indie #rpg maker #rpg #dev log

[meganaut]

Here’s a shotgun i drew for Pepper Adventure.

[meganaut]

Remember Remember, Development on Pepper Adventure continues on November!

October was the month I decided to take a break on game development. At least from Pepper Adventure. Obviously I made Vehicle Simulator in less than a week in October, but I mainly just needed a break from Pepper Adventure. Sometimes when I work on projects I’ll just overdo things and work nonstop to the detriment of my own health. So I felt it was necessary to take a break on October. Besides, October is legally MY month. Halloween was invented by me and me alone, anything else is pure FICTION. So with that said, Pepper Adventure is officially back on track. I’ve also decided to pick up on Godot Engine and learn some GDScript whilst I’m not working on Pepper. I want to be at a point where I can seamlessly transfer myself over from RPGmaker to Godot without much of a hassle. I also really want to learn programming. I know a lot about the dark arts of game making, all except coding/programming/scripting. For some reason I’ve developed an obsession with the C language. I simply detest C# and C++ as coding languages for games. But for some reason, C is starting to stick with me. I’m definitely gonna make “Learn the C language” a part of my list. My list of chaos. It’s a very unorganized list, admittedly.

[meganaut]

I finished Vehicle Simulator! A horror game made in less than a week. A totally normal vehicle simulator with nothing spooky about it whatsoever! You can play it on your web browser via the Newgrounds link, but if you prefer to download it, I also have it available on GameJolt/Itch.io. https://gamejolt.com/games/vehicle_simulator/550409 https://meganaut.itch.io/vehicle-simulator

#indie #horror game #horror #rpg maker

[meganaut]

I’m currently working on a horror game. I call it Vehicle Simulator. Without giving too much information, its about driving a truck. I had the idea for this game for almost a year now, I planned on making it in Unity or Unreal Engine, but I lack the knowledge and experience to create the game in either engine. So I opted to use RPGmaker instead. I decided to work on this game a few days ago, give or take. Basically a week before Halloween I decided “I NEED TO MAKE A HORROR GAME BEFORE HALLOWEEN IS HERE”. Now I’m making it. The game should be relatively short, I don’t expect it to take long. I’m mostly done with it anyways. Hopefully it can be done here real soon. Then I can get back to my main game project.

#game development #horror game #horror #indie