#general-ask

[chattercap]

Hi! I'm playing MMM and am really enjoying it! :D But what I find really interesting is how your visual novel is made in Godot instead of Ren'Py. I wanted to ask how you make your games in Godot/what tips would you have for someone who wanted to use Godot?

Ohh thank you so much for playing; I'm glad you're enjoying it!

I'll be honest, I do not recommend my method of making games in Godot to anyone, haha! I started off with Unity, and during that time I coded my own custom framework (instead of using a pre-built one like NaniNovel) because I wanted to practice coding. After the Unity fiasco, I swapped over to Godot as it was open-source and supported C# code, and I ported most of my C# code over to Godot without many changes. So currently I use mainly a custom framework written in C#, besides the code relating to my animation program (Spine2D).

If you want to make games in Godot, I would actually recommend NOT doing what I did. I would

1) Code your games in GDScript if you have no plans to port your game to something like Unity and you have no experience with C# coding. GDScript is much easier to learn, and Godot currently has a bit more support for GDScript. C# support is very good, but not 100%.

2) Use a framework. Rakugo is a framework specifically designed after RenPy for Godot; I haven't used it, but it looks very nice and seems worth looking into. At the very least, I would use a dialogue manager - Godot Dialogue Manager and Dialogic are the main ones.

Now for actually making the framework, I would emphasize simplicity and modularity.

Simplicity: VNs are VERY lightweight. I was actually worried about the performance of MMM, as I used fairly heavy animation rigs and I didn't optimize it, but I've gotten reports that it works quite fine (well, even)! So don't worry too much about optimizing, and just try to make things simple and optimize later if needed (for instance, for searching for audio files, images, etc. - I just search by the filename using strings, even though this is inefficient/inoptimal).

Modularity: This is a general game design principle, but it's good to make it so that different parts of your game are as independent from other parts as possible. Only give access to information/variables as absolutely necessary, and control how variables are changed very strictly. This helps to reduce bugs and makes it easier to bugtest! I found it helpful also to organize the parts of the VN into different "systems" that all function independently - each of these systems can be deactivated or reactivated separate from each other, and they can also be tested as such as well.

If you want to know how I separated mine, they are:

Backgrounds, Audio, Sprites, CGs, Panels (mini CGs/cut-ins), GUI, Story (also contains a mini manager for Story Flags), Dialogue/Text Boxes

If you want another example of a VN made in Godot, I actually took a look at this one to see if it was "possible". It might be worth looking at! They did a lot of cool things that I didn't implement, such as a time rewind feature and more dynamic CG/sprite movement.

I hope that this was helpful! Best of luck if you decide to pursue Godot development! I'd be very happy to have more Godot VN devs in the community~

#general-ask #godot engine #visual novel development

[elftwink]

if you're about to get top surgery, you may hear a voice in your head telling you to make a joke about getting something off your chest even though it's overplayed. im here to let you know it's your imperative and sacred duty to not only make the joke but to tell it to every person you talk to. and that you are right it would be funny as fuck. this is not sarcastic if you tell enough people one of them will have never heard it before and also it's still funny to every person who has heard it listen to me this is a once in a life time opportunity— [i start getting dragged out by the palace guards] commit to the bit!!! if you don't you'll forever wish you had!! heed my warning or forever suffer the cons— [castle door slams shut behind us]

#good idea generator #dont ask why we're in a castle. live in this fiction with me. suspend your disbelief

[batrachised]

on one hand I get why people talk about the vanity of the instagram age, but on the other one time St. Ignatius of Loyola got his leg shattered in battle and discovered upon recovery that he could no longer wear his favorite tight leather boots due to the way his leg had set and so decided to rebreak his leg without anesthesia because he was that determined to wear his fashionable boots again...what i'm trying to say is that this man might have existed before instagram, but at heart he was an influencer

#ofc to be fair this man had a Personality #and tbf instagram has unique issues characteristic of social media in general... #and yet #st ignatius going on live “so many of you have been asking for boots update...”

[tacticaltaxonomist]

Declutter Tumblr

The new layout it a whole mess. Thankfully Xkit can already help with a bunch of this! I'm sure it'll give more options soon.

Vanilla Tumblr:

(I have marked in red what can be removed. The tabs can be set not to stick, so you will really only see them at the top of your dash. Empty box on the left for hidden notifications and shop sparkle, i just didn't have any. I'm EU so no Live for me).

Xkit Rewritten Tumblr:

The settings I use:

#tumblr #xkit rewritten #tumblr dash #tumblr dashboard #undescribed #tactaxtalks #// well this escalated quickly! remember i'm just some guy #but if you want help with xkit or general tumblr feel free to send an ask/anon/dm

[ot3]

i love the artistic stylings of studio ghibli as much as anyone else does but im kind of sick of anything with like vivid environments and big blue skies being branded as ghibliesque. because its like. you know where else you can hypothetically find some vivid environments with big blue skies? my friend the great and wonderful outdoors are here for you

#in general just assuming all media is drawing from The Most Popular Example Of A Thing #rather than being like hey maybe both these things took inspiration from the same parts of our world #just feels kind of unfair and reductive a lot of the time #not to say its bad when something IS inspired by ghibli but its kind of the professional version of being asked 'wow is that anime'

[tinystepsforward]

idk how many of you remember this but a few years ago tumblr ran a universally panned ad campaign for (us american) pride month that went "the gayest place on the internet".

well someone planning that campaign dropped in to ask the queer automatticians for advice on that and universally me and the other trans people involved were like "don't do it. i am so serious. don't do it. people on tumblr won't understand that it wasn't automattic who instituted the porn ban, or they will, but they'll recognize that automattic hasn't done anything, hands tied or not, to reverse it. nobody will like this. it will be a disaster." and they thanked us for our thoughts and went ahead with it anyway and then had to do retrospectives about how badly it went and were like "we just didn't know" and [gestures] yeah [edit: i think the person who rbed saying it was queerest place on the internet was right, my brain is fried, sorry! and that's... even worse lmao]

#tony muses #hello new followers. for clarity if you are expecting intense amounts of goss about tumblr specifically i am not your person #when automattic first acquired tumblr they asked queer staff who wanted to transfer over to something that was dear to a lot of us #and i specifically did not want to shit where i eat so to speak #which was the right choice. i just have other info about automattic more generally

[its-tortle]

— taylor swift albums as months of the year —

#thought about adding ttpd as november #but i did not feel sure enough #also i think folklore is a mix of august/september and evermore is a mix of november/december #but i went with the later months because september is also a retrospective of summer and december includes the experience of november yknow #i hope that makes sense #and i hope my general album to month decisions make sense also #feel free to ask me about my reasoning #or fully disagree with me lmao #taylor swift #ts #taylor swift albums #tortle makes things #ts debut #fearless #speak now #red #1989 #reputation #lover #folklore #evermore #midnights

[peach-pot]

(if you don’t mind reblogging this post, that would be groovy ^_^)

#first and last time I ask people to reblog a post on the post lol #hannah talks sometimes #this will be my ‘general tumblr population poll’ #and then I can compare it to my blog one #it’ll still definitely be like. my side of tumblr because it’s starting on my blog but. eh you get it #asexual #aromantic #polls #aspec #arospec #acespec #asexuality #aromanticism #lgbt

[nortedwayfinder]

I think the funniest thing about Shadow adopting/kidnapping Classic Tails is that the latter shows up in the original game completely out of nowhere, so feasibly this could be the perfect explanation for how he properly enters the Sonics' story

Anon is big brain for this

#asks #my art #sth #sonic x shadow generations #sonic fanart #sonic the hedgehog #classic sonic #miles tails prower #shadow the hedgehog #shadow tails friendship supremacy #unbreakable bond #and shadow's here too now

[queenangst]

idk if this is a young fan thing or new fandom culture but some of yall think fics are abandoned way too quickly. a few months or a year or two is not unusual to go without a fic update. sometimes fics take longer to write, other times writers have rl events, or maybe there's multiple fics and one gets more priority. there are tons of reasons for fics not to be updated every week or every month. it also isn't uncommon for people to come back and update fics after a number of years—ive read updates that took five, or ten years. people's lives change, but they still want to tell their stories. personally, i never consider a fic abandoned unless the author has said so; though if it's been a few years i manage my expectations. but a last update being a year ago is... generally not a sign that a writer has abandoned their fic

#*esp if they're still actively writing #this is all in my experience but. Yeah #also asking if a fic is abandoned after a little while is... kinda rude #and to ME personally asking in general is kind of rude #bc my logic is if i decide to abandon my fic ill tell u. so u don't have to assume

[canisalbus]

What if I told you that RoobrickMarine went and wrote an entire novella starring my 16th century dog couple? It's very canon-adjacent, well researched and thoughtfully put together, has inspired me a ton during these past months and it's now publicly available at AO3. I highly recommend it.

✦ Separation ✦

#content warnings for sex violence self harm and general angst #six chapters 41K words #people who have asked for longer stories of these two please give this one a look #I've watched this unfold since late may? early july? and it's been an exciting experience #I'm not a writer I think it's better than what I could've come up with #honestly though the way he managed to get inside Machete's and Vasco's heads was uncanny their mannerisms and thought processes are spot on #some of the events aren't canon but they might as well be #and most of the background details and backstory tidbits are accurate believe me he's very well versed on their lore #big history nerd so the worldbuilding is intense #you get to meet the dog pope #there's saint sebastian #roommate hijinks #it gets kind of bleak at times though so be mindful of that #it's not all fluff and good feelings #Separation #Heinaven #RoobrickMarine #own characters #own art #artists on tumblr #CanisAlbus #Vasco #Machete #anthro #sighthound #dogs #canine #animals #if you end up reading the whole thing it would be really sweet if you left a little comment as a thanks for his hard work

[beescake]

im a sollux kinnie and ur art is great. like a delicious meal. 1 million courses. my compliments to the chef.

AOGHHH TYSM I REALLY APPRECIATE IT

in gratitude i present a little guy doing setup for the first time 🐝

#FR MEANS A LOT TO ME THANKYOU 🥲🙏 the chef analogy is so sweet too i love it #apologies i take a while to answer asks.. generating ideas #ask #anon #homestuck #sollux captor #2023 #vioart #now im curious to know #question for sollux appreciators at any point in time - #was there any specific moment that made u connect w him most? #like for me it was when he became relieved and happy after the voices stopped #as someone plagued by 24/7 internal monologue. being "free from the voices” sounded absolutely euphoric to me LMAO #watching him talk abt finally being able to think clearly and hear his own thoughts...... gOD. MY BIGGEST ENVY OF HOMESTUCK.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Am I the asshole for setting traps for a family friend's pet?

I'm an inventor/electronic engineer by trade, and my inventions are very expensive and usually somewhat fragile, but a friend of my daughter's has a pet that keeps getting into my apartment and damaging them (knocking them over, knocking stuff onto them, pushing buttons to cause malfunctions, etc.) It's really hurting my livelihood.

So, I decided to set traps for it. Just non-lethal stuff — no poison or anything like that, mostly just various boxes and cages to keep it away from my inventions. But my daughter doesn't seem to approve.

AITA?

(Context: I'm 47M. Pet is platypus, 6)

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole #fandom aita #unreality #phineas and ferb #dr. doofenshmirtz #perry the platypus #the length of this one almost disqualified it--i generally like a bit more from a fandom ask--but that last line hit me like a brick #so it gets through

[ash-and-starlight]

one day, in a thousand years

#I THINK I HAUVE COVID #oh to meet your love after a thousand years at a museum exhibit of your past lives #thinking about them makes me so sick so ILL DISEASED #I AM NOT IMMUNE #spc i’m cursing u forever for this wtf. WTF bro wtf #ouyang’s last thoughts were a desperate plea for esen to wait for him. #he has NEVER called him by first name he has NEVER asked him anything #and his last thought is asking him to wait #and esen does. bc he would have given ouyang anything he asked for #god i hope u get rawed so good it makes up for all the lost lifetimes u earned it #he who drowned the world #she who became the sun #the radiant emperor #general ouyang #esen-temur #(zhu also present in the golden imperial dragon and the golden light of gayness that brought them together again) #my art #not super proud of how it turned out tbh tbh it looks better in my head 😔😔 #would’ve stayed in the drafts if not for my need to feed this 4 ppl fandom #and if not for robin motivation nfngdjfb ty kissa you forever #id in alt text

[abd-illustrates]

💛 The Boi 💛

Hello, hope y'all are doing well! (^^)/ Wanted to make a quick post to let y'all know that my annual January curse has breeched containment and I'm currently in the middle of organizing sudden household repairs and unexpected medical appointments and miscellaneous stress sgdfgh-- 🫠 All that to say: no new video this week while I'm stuck grappling with all of the above sgdfksfd -- but here's a doodle of Heartless in the meantime! I wanna figure out a more solid design for his ghouls 🤔👻

#artists on tumblr #abd illustrates #heartless #It always feel wierd to ask this kind of thing - but if any of y'all would like to help the channel out in this trying time #then going back and rewatching some of my old uploads would genuinely be super helpful 🙏💖 #(i say the channel 'cause of how wierd it feels to ask that but rlly it'd be a big help to me fr) #My flat is fully topsy turvy rn and it's been really bonkers trying to get any work done in the midst of sorting out repairs sgfhksdf 🫠 #ANYWAY! i hope yalls tuesdays and week in general are going so good 🫵✨ #and if they're not! i hope they get better real soon

[yeoldenews]

Hi I was wondering if you know of any good resources to get good vintage names that aren’t typical and boring (Fred, Edward, Alfred etc)?

Some of the names in the Santa letters are certainly peculiar and it made me wonder what kind of names those “vintage baby names” lists are leaving out 😜

Thanks! And happy new year 🎊

One place to get a good general overview of what names were like in a certain era is the Social Security Administration's lists of popular names that go back to the 1880s. The further down the lists you go the less common they get. However these are still all names that had at least a few hundred occurrences, so you're not going to have any Gloyds etc..

I personally always try to find names from primary sources (newspapers, census, vital records, etc.) as you're more likely to come across unusual names that don't make the top 200 lists.

Also keep in mind that name popularity varied greatly by location. Just because there were a bunch of Juanitas in Tulsa in 1930 doesn't mean there were that many in Boston.

Honestly if anyone is working on a specific project and needs names from a certain location/era (i.e. you're writing a novel that takes place in London in 1627) feel free to message me and I'd be happy to work with you to compile a list from primary sources. I love this stuff and will use any valid excuse to spend an evening digging through 17th century baptismal records.

#if you buy me a coffee I might even make you a simple custom name generator #I do this for myself all the time because I'm a party person who really likes spreadsheets #names #history #historical fiction #writing resources #asks #@sir-sleepalot #writing reference #character names