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jbbuckybarnes · 4 years

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Advice for getting started & making friends 💕

Since Tumblr ruined the original answer post to the ask: Hi!!! Thank you. I’ll go a little more in-depth with the answer and I hope you don’t mind.

1. Always know that no matter how good or bad you think your writing is: There are Wattpad books that were made into movies, so there will always be someone that will like what you write.

2. Tagging. Is. Important. Even though Tumblr is incredibly bad with its tagging system it’s always good to use tags so people following them can see your work. Try not to tag stuff wrong though. Did that a few times without noticing it and people were not happy about it. Understandably so.

3. Also always have warnings on your works and if there is something trigger warning worthy put it in the tags of the post with “xyz tw” and/or “tw xyz”. Also put age warnings in case you write 18+ content.

4. Utilize the option to block tags in case you wanna follow someone but you don’t wanna see certain fandoms/celebs. That also works for trigger warning tags.

5. Don’t feel bad about low reblog numbers. I have this amount of followers now and most of my works get 3-8 reblogs.

6. Don’t be afraid to tag some friendly bigger blogs in your first works. They might love what you do a lot. I, personally, am always up to be tagged in stuff.

7. Join writing challenges. Usually 50% of the bigger blogs have some kind of writing challenge going on. Those are great to get exposure and find other works to interact with. My current one is HERE.

8. When it comes to making friends it really depends. I think interacting frequently is a good start, but I found actual Tumblr DM’s to be the most helpful. Write your favorite writers that you liked a particular piece of their work or if you know you both have another shared interest, you can send them a Tumblr post about that. Example: I send baking enthusiasts cool looking food posts. But sometimes even DM’s don’t lead anywhere. Some people on here just don’t really want to make friends.

9. Interact with people’s personal posts. You’ll learn a bit about them from those. For example: I know that @buckyland has a cute cat and prefers greenery in pots and not vases (lmao).

10. Self-promo: I made a Discord server for MCU writers and it’s still going steady. Link for that is in my bio. We’re always excited for new people on there.

11. Asks are a great way to support writers beyond reblogging. Ask games are a great way to interact. Sending Requests is also appreciated by most people having open requests.

12. Decide if you want your own asks to include anons or not. But be prepared that if you enable anon asks, that you might get some dumbass spewing bullshit in there every few weeks (at least if you interact a lot w others). Vividly remember my first hate for interacting with my favorite writer.

13. Depending on how much you write you can plan your fics ahead. I, for example, publish most of my chapter based works once a week and only start publishing once they are at least 75% written. Others have ongoing works but I feel like the consensus on it is mostly “wait until you have a good idea of the ending or a rough outline.” @captain-kelli for example, writes her 'Call Sign: Renaissance’ series as an ongoing work but knows where it’s going and plots it out accordingly.

14. Know where to get inspiration. I personally have just trained myself to create everyday. Fiction, non-fiction, art, graphics, etc. It’s a good habit to have, but if you don’t have it you might wanna start an inspiration list or a side blog where you spam all your inspirations. Pinterest also is a good place for that.

15. Research how to link something in the mobile bio to put your masterlist there. There is this wonderful error Tumblr has, where you can’t change your profile on mobile or those links will vanish, so be aware of that. Just save that HTML code in a document lol.

16. Speaking of documents. I suggest writing your works in Google Documents, since it has a document history to refer to in the awful case of someone stealing your work. Preventative measure.

17. If you want a specific theme for your blog on desktop, you can DM me, I have tons of resources saved on another blog of mine.

18. For a nice mobile theme, you can visit @whimsicalrogers, search for headers and icons on Tumblr or request them from talented people per ask or DM. *cough* I make some too. *cough*

19. Oh, I also almost forgot this, but ALWAYS put a “Read More” break after more than 500 words in your posts. On desktop it mostly works in the normal editor, but there are also HTML codes in case it doesn’t work or you are on mobile. Basically, learn a few HTML basics for Tumblr in general, they always come in handy when this hellsite decides not to work.

Bottomline: Don’t be afraid to interact with your nickname being there front and center. Let yourself get seen. If your fandom blog is a side blog you can link them to each other in the bio like I did.

PS: The main reason why I got so many followers very quickly was for writing 31 smut pieces early on and tagging them well. Please know that follower count doesn’t mean much on here as long as the algorithm is trashy. Stick with interacting with people you wanna befriend and don’t let yourself get down too much over little reblogging.

But, of course, always try to find and reblog new people. That keeps the community alive and also spreads your name a bit, as well as the names of others.

If you need more advice or have any questions feel free to DM me or another blogger you trust.

To all my fellow bloggers: Feel free to leave more tips under this post. I’m sure I forgot at least one thing lol-

#mine #rebecca talks #advice #writer advice #writing advice #asks #tumblr advice #ask #community

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ask-the-guiding-light-cast · 5 years

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Guiding Light turns two years old today!

It’s crazy to think this all began only a couple of years back... and also hilarious it falls on the same day as “International Mystery Dungeon Day” over on Twitter. More after the cut. This is gonna be a long one, so I appreciate anyone willing to read this. ^^

For a long time, I had been a casual consumer of fan fics. It started in the late 2000s when I was in a Spyro craze thanks to the more story-driven Legend of Spyro trilogy. I had an itch that I needed scratched and FFN fulfilled that to some extent. I also looked at some Mario fics, including Paper Mario: The Temple of the Sun, which I greatly enjoyed and thought did a good job adapting the formula that made Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door so beloved and putting a unique spin on things.

But it was until the early 2010s that I actually started getting back into Pokémon games with Gen V. After Emerald, I fell out of touch with Pokémon for a time. When Gen VI came around, I dipped my toe into the fandom through Twitch livestreams, but also through reading a few anime-based fics that are very long and still going, even now.

At the same time, I ended up buying PMD: Explorers of Sky... and damaged my cartridge before I could properly finish the game with my Vulpix/Riolu team. So, I watched cutscenes for what I missed on YouTube, then got Gates to Infinity and, later, Super Mystery Dungeon and had fun with both of them... though more for the stories and characters than the actual gameplay. Truth be told, I don’t care much for roguelikes at all.

It was during the gap in time between Super’s release and the first official footage of Sun & Moon in mid-2016 that I found myself hit with a recurring thought: “What if someone made a PMD story where the hero and the partner are forced to fight one another with the fate of the world at stake?” I wound up (loosely) brainstorming an idea for a PMD story revolving around an antagonistic Hoopa character who would use its ring portals to collect entire communities, including the Pokémon living in them... all so that he would never be bored. This would lead him to “collect” the partner to add to his “toys,” so when the hero shows up, he’d sic the partner on them.

But that was as far as I got with the idea. I ended up graduating college and took a job with late evening hours. It left me pretty tired and exhausted and unmotivated to do much of anything. I withdrew from the parts of the Pokémon community I was involved in.

Then the Generation VII games came out and, while divisive in the fandom, I found myself really liking some of the concepts. There were so many times when I thought, “Gee, I wonder what this would be like if it were in a PMD game?” For example, one of the ideas I had was a sort of edgy rival rescue team akin to Gladion, which would have a Midnight Lycanroc, a Zoroark, and a Type: Null character in it.

So, toward the end of 2016 and early 2017, I started creating an idea for a Choose Your Own Adventure story with the intent of putting it on this really small forum I was a part of. It would be a Gen VII-themed PMD story, but because I didn’t think that sounded interesting enough, I decided that, not only would the human keep their memories, but they would be from the real world and be a major Pokémon nerd. The idea was that the choices the readers made would affect the relationship between the human and partner. I even came up with a point system. The more points the readers earned for their choices, the “closer” the relationship the hero and partner would have and the happier an ending the story would get. If the hero and partner couldn’t stand each other, one of them would likely end up working with the bad guy and winning. If they became steadfast friends, they’d work together to save the world.

Unfortunately, the forum shut down before I got too far into planning it, so I shelved the idea and continued focusing on my job. And things stayed that way for several months, until I ended up getting into med school and scrambling to move.

During the downtime I had when I wasn’t doing moving related stuff, I decided to look at FFN again and found Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Defenders of Warmth. I wound up reading through the entirety of the story quite quickly. I guess you could say it sparked something in my head. The fic itself focuses on what, at the time, was the newest Gen (Gen V). It also has multiple humans and is set on a continent separate from the canon locations (which were just the Air and Grass Continents, since Gates and Super didn’t exist when the fic was written). In short, it renewed my desire to pursue my idea of a Gen VII-flavored PMD story.

So, I set about creating my story outline. It is so... so much different from the actual story, though I’ve gone into that in previous posts (search for #amby answers). Originally, I used Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time as the framework for the fic: an alien invasion in a colorful, comedic world. I took more specific cues, too. Zero was meant to be a (mostly) silent antagonist a la Princess Shroob, for example.

The problem was, I really didn’t have much confidence in myself or my abilities. I’d like to say I was writing for myself, but I really did want validation, too. I think any author is lying to themselves if they say they don’t feel this way at some point. Because of this, I figured if I put the fic on FFN, it would get ignored. The site’s huge! There were, at the time, around 85k fics in the Pokémon section alone. (That number’s since gone up to over 90k!)

Given I had experience with forums, I decided to post it to Serebii, because the fic community seemed much smaller and more open to giving feedback to one another. In an effort to try and, y’know, establish some connections, I actually read other pieces and reviewed them before posting any stories. This also helped me build up a backlog of chapters and prove to myself I enjoyed writing this enough to keep going.

When I finally did post the fic, it was a bumpy start, for sure. I do think I made a lot of mistakes out of the gate, including uploading chapters way too quickly for readers on Serebii to (reasonably) try to keep pace. That probably cost me a few potential readers... or made them silent readers who I never ended up hearing from. Which is why I’m especially thankful to @girl-like-substance (who I can seem to tag, drat) for all of the well-thought-out feedback given throughout the fic’s run. I don’t think I would’ve made such significant strides in my writing otherwise... and there are plenty of long-running fics where the quality tends to stagnate.

In any case... it was thanks to a request from @deliriousabsol to put the fic somewhere more mobile-friendly that I chose to mirror Guiding Light on FFN starting in October 2017. I would’ve kept going on Serebii had she not asked so nicely, so she’s the one you can thank for it showing up there! (She’s a fellow author who does cyberpunk-themed fics and art and her characters have cameoed in the fic.)

And, honestly, I’m just... beyond shocked at what wound up happening to the fic once it hit FFN. Well, actually, for the first several months I was lucky if I even got a comment when I put up a chapter. I’m not sure any of the people who first commented on FFN still follow the fic anymore. I haven’t seen/heard from them at all, so I assumed they moved on with their lives.

In any case, around March of 2018, the word count on FFN passed 300k and... somehow, the fic starting getting more attention. Like, a lot more attention. This was... not really something I was even remotely prepared for.

(Yes, this means there’s gonna be a giveaway. More on that later.) I never would’ve thought I’d reach a number like this. I never imagined I’d meet another PMD author who’d be willing to do a fun collab (thanks @virgil134, Spiteful Murkrow, and Namohysip). I really did not imagine that I’d ever get fanart of characters that I wrote (huge thanks @thebreak-ofdawn, @ask-nicky-and-others, and @cresselia92). I mean, above everything, I not expect the fic or characters to resonate with anybody the way it wound up.

A part of me feels like I don’t really deserve it. I’ve made a lot of serious gaffes with writing this. When initial Serebii feedback had people intrigued by Shane’s jerkass attitude (when I didn’t actually intend for him to come off as a jerk), I dialed things up in the hopes I’d keep their attention. It probably cost me readers. Then there’s the slow pacing of the early episodes and the mistake of making Special Episode 3 as long as it was... which my speaks to my (bad) tendency to give into some of my strongest impulses even though I had an outline I was trying to stick to.

And, I mean, there’s also some of the “shamlessly shameful” stuff I’ve done with the fic. I’m not fooling myself. Guiding Light has grown progressively more furry and, uh, probably fanservicey, too. All the big furbait (and some scalebait) ‘mons are accounted for. There’s a lot more sexual humor when I initially promised myself I would stay away from romance and keep everything platonic. I practically turned Xerneas into waifu bait, if some of these asks are anything to go by. This blog certainly didn’t help in that regard. Maybe I’m just being my usual nervous self?

I am worried that this fic’s performance has, somehow, affected my thoughts and behavior. There are very popular fic authors who let their popularity get to their head... or chose to open up Patreons (something that makes me uncomfortable) or start doing things like taking commissions for written pieces, which is understandable... though I think it’s an easy way to lose your passion for writing. I guess some of that worry stems from a debacle I learned about on a Discord server I’m in, but that’s not something I’m comfortable discussing publicly.

And I haven’t even talked much about the blog itself. Like, it somehow passed 100 followers? Where? When? How? I don’t actually draw stuff like many other Pokéasks. And, like, for a lot of folks, I have no idea if they’ve actually read the fic or just check in on the blog. It’s the same with the fic, I suppose. If you’re a silent reader/follower, I would really love to hear from you! I promise... I don’t bite or anything. I’d love to know what (if anything) you’re thinking. And if you’re a blog that’s following this one and we haven’t interacted, please feel free to reach out! It’s honestly hard to tell if people like what I’m doing, so any feedback is always appreciated.

In any case, if I haven’t lost you by now, I guess all I can say is... thank you. Thank you all so much for all of the support... whether it’s on the fic, the blog, or both of them. I really do hope this final episode can meet your expectations. I’ll try my very best to make this an ending to remember. Nothing would make me happier than to hear you guys enjoy it and feel it does justice to the PMD series.

Sorry for all the rambling. The inbox is open again if you’d like to send any messages for the ficaversary. Again, thank you all so much! You’re the best!

#ooc #long post #fic anniversary

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rolonoise · 7 years

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I’ve been playing DUSK

I’m 90 minutes in and I feel compelled to make a blog post about it. Here’s my thoughts on Dusk. Dusk is a retro inspired first person shooter game that I’ve linked to previously. It doesn’t pretend to be a Quake-like 90s shooter while really being a procedurally generated rogue-lite. No. It really is a retro-inspired FPS. It has actual levels designed by an actual person, that offer variety, good map flow, carefully crafted challenge, and a sense of progression. It’s good is what I’m getting at. It’s amazing how much secrets they manage to cram into each level; I actually feel like I’ve learned something about level design from playing Dusk. Each level is full of secrets, some quite fiendish but virtually all of them signposted and dangled in front of you in some way. The gameplay feels really smooth but took some getting used to. When I started I was surprised by the sheer speed at which everything moves. It took some getting used to; I initially thought it was too fast, with my character shooting across whole rooms and colliding with walls, but after taking a break and getting back to it, I didn’t have any issues with it at all. In fact the movement is responsive, precise, fluid, and just all around satisifying. Is it because I’d just come out of an extended map testing session using a keyboard only Chocolate Doom setup? Or has it really been too long since I last played Quake? Whatever the case, I jumped back in and had an absolute blast.

Did you know the best way to avoid a scarecrow’s shotgun blast is to sideways power slide while you blast him away with the double barrelled shotgun? Combat feels really awesome.

Levels feel Duke 3D influenced, semi-linear environments made with ‘abstract realism’. They all look like real places but not at the expense of gameplay. There are also some underground sections that feel very Quake-like.

Combat happens in encounters like in Doom or Duke, not in the arena style shooting of Painkiller, Serious Sam or Doom 4. While there are a few arena style challenges these are far from the norm. There are also some miniboss encounters which I found unusual for a Doom/Quake style game, but which are very welcome. Difficulty and Accessibility Let’s talk about challenge. I played the game on Ciro Miede (hard mode, basically) and following the Gggmanlives review I expected it to be similar to Doom’s ultra-violence. Well, it wasn’t - it offered up a hell of a lot of challenge, but there are other difficulties too. Difficulty doesn’t seem to affect the numbers of monsters, it alters their AI and other variables. Lower difficulty enemies move slower and take a bit longer to react. You also start with more health and your armour (actually called morale) is a lot more effective. I really like this kind of difficulty. I intentionally played a lower difficulty setting in a ‘tanky’, non-exploratory style, and did very well. While experimenting with lower difficulties, I felt pleased with the range of abilities it could cater to. Difficulty levels vary from Accessible (for people with reduced mobility) to Ciro Miede (true hard mode) and Duskmare (a one shot kills novelty hard mode). I really think that the different difficulty levels will accommodate any gamer, and Dusk is probably the most disability friendly FPS game I’ve seen.

I find that interesting that Dusk is so inclusionary since most faux-retro indie games try to market themselves as exclusionary - things for high skill people who remember the Good Old Times and not filthy casuals. Dusk though, seems to be made by people who really love 90s FPS games and who want everyone to try 90s FPS games because they’re great fun. It really says a lot about them and their game, which seems to be a true passion project. There’s a wider lesson there I’m sure. When the big AAA games companies try to make games “accessible” they alter gameplay according to narrow focus groups and strip out or water down core features for a (possibly imaginary) ‘casual’ audience. With Dusk, New Blood have made a game able to challenge ‘hardcore’ FPS veterans while also accommodating ‘casual’ newbies without sacrificing the complexity of their design. Story

You wake up hanging on a meat hook underground. A disembodied voice calls out “Kill the intruder” and three huge guys step out of the darkness with chainsaws. You pull yourself off the hook and grab two sickles. It seems the whole town of Dusk has been overrun by a mysterious cult, so you’d better kill everything.

That is quite literally the entire plot, but I look forward to over-examining the level visuals and announcing that Dusk has the ‘deepest lore’.

The atmosphere really is something special. It’s horrifying. Despite being a game about over the top running and gunning, Dusk exudes a bleak, oppressive horror atmosphere. It’s scary.

Dusk is separated into three story episodes. Only episode 1 is available at the time of writing, but buying Dusk gives you access to all three just like the Dooms and Dukes of old. Episode 1 (“The Foothills”) is the protagonist escaping the farms and entering the town of Dusk. It shows influence from Redneck Rampage, Blood, and every kind of hillbilly-themed horror film. Episodes 2 will supposedly have more of a military base or Half-Life theme, while episode 3 will be heavily Lovecraftian and probably Quake-inspired. The protagonist is mute, but communicates via text pop-ups. Everything about them is up to you to decide, but do note that there is a dedicated button for doing tricks with you gun and a secret ‘smoke cigar’ option. The disembodied voice talks to you a few times in episode 1, sounding exactly like I imagine all 90s heavy metal band members to sound like, and he may or may not be the mind-destroying Great Old One waiting for you at the end of episode 3.

Conclusion

To summarize, I’m really pumped about Dusk. The devs have made all the right noises and, even better, they’ve actually followed up on that with decent gameplay and strong map design. It’s clear there’s a lot of love gone into development.

Dusk really is a return to form for the FPS genre.

#dusk #video games #new blood #dusk fps

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theunemployedrogue · 7 years

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Rogue’s Fics Masterlist & FAQ

Due to the limitations of tumblr mobile in regards to custom pages and linking to tags in blog descriptions, I’ve created this post to serve as a (hopefully) mobile-friendly quick ref. This post contains links and descriptions of my fanfiction written for Voltron, Dragon Age II, and Rise of the Guardians. Several fics written for various other fandoms are not included here -- if you wish to find all of my material, please search the “roguefic” tag on my blog. Fair warning that some content/pairings may be potentially triggering.

Please find more information as well as the links/descriptions under the “Read More”.

---FAQ---

What fandoms do you currently write for?

As of 2017, I only write for the Voltron: Legendary Defender fandom.

What pairings do you write for in the VLD fandom?

I am a multi-shipper and pro-Shaladin (all characters are written as 18+ in my content). Primarily I write for Shance (Shiro/Lance).

What type of content do you typically write?

My content is generally pretty tame. I enjoy writing short, fluffy one-shots the most, though I have written chap fics and explored darker themes as well. I generally do not write a lot of NSFW, though on the occasions I do I will always label it as such.

Do you use content warnings?

Yes. I try to tag anything I think may be potentially triggering or squicky.

What’s your crosstagging policy?

I DO NOT crosstag -- meaning my fics featuring a ship(s) are not tagged with individual character names or gen tags, only the ship name. I do this out of respect for people who do not want to see shippy material when browsing a character’s tag or general fandom tag.

HOWEVER, due to tumblr’s shitty search function I cannot guarantee you won’t run across my material in certain tags. Search picks up words within a post in addition to the tags.

Do you take fic requests?

I am open to fic requests, though I cannot promise I will respond in a timely manner or at all, unfortunately. My ADHD and work schedule make writing somewhat of a challenging pastime. Also, I never have anon enabled, so you will not be able to submit a request anonymously.

---MY FANFICTION---

Voltron: Legendary Defender

Shiro/Lance (Shance)

Home is Wherever I’m With You (AO3) Rating: PG (will change when final chapter is posted) Type: Multi-chap/WIP Description: It’s been one month since Lance officially started dating Shiro, and he wants to celebrate the occasion. Things have been going great and their friends assure him Shiro is head-over-heels for him...but Lance can’t help but feel a little worried. If Shiro likes him so much, why haven’t they been intimate yet?

Smooth Rating: G Type: One-shot Description: Written for Shance Fluff Week prompt “First/Last”. Shiro and Lance meet for the first time. Modern AU.

All of You (AO3) Rating: G Type: One-shot Content warnings: Mention of scars Description: The team takes a day off to relax on a tropical beach planet, but Shiro doesn’t want to join in the fun. Lance suspects something is bothering him and tries to get him to open up, which leads to more than one secret being revealed.

Black & Blue & Red All Over Rating: G Type: One-shot Description: Modern AU. When Lance shows up to the gym with a limp and covered in bruises, Shiro assumes the worst (spoiler: It’s nothing bad! Nor anything kinky, surprisingly)

Guess Again Rating: G Type: One-shot Description: Keith confronts Lance about something he witnessed during a team mind-melding exercise…too bad he’s got the wrong culprit.

Keith/Lance (Klance)

Alone Again (Naturally) (AO3) Rating: PG Type: Multi-chap/WIP Description: In a world where people rely on auras to identify potential friends and lovers, Keith Kogane is considered a freak. He’s never been able to see another person’s aura, nor has anyone ever seen his. Of course he’d get stuck saving the universe with Lance McClain -- a romance-obsessed boy who has vowed to search the cosmos for the one whose golden aura marks them as his soulmate.

[Follows the canon VLD story with significant tweaks to events and characters. Tags/rating will be updated as needed. This is primarily a slow burn Klance fic, but features several other pairings as well. Please see first chapter notes for full details.]

Dragon Age II

Fenris/Anders (Fenders)

A Belated Lullaby (AO3) Rating: G Type: Multi-chap/WIP Description: After failing to save the life of a young mother, Anders finds himself in a rather inconvenient situation. Fortunately, he's not alone.

Jealous Rating: PG (no actual sex, but sexual references) Type: One-shot Content warnings: Alcohol use, jealousy/possessiveness Description: Insp. by this post: ‘we’ve been fucking with no strings attached but i just saw you go upstairs with another guy and im drunk and following you both upstairs to punch the shit out of him’.

Untitled Rating: G Type: One-shot Description: A short fill written for the following prompt featured on fenders-prompts: Hate!sex’s fluffy cousin: hate!cuddling. Anders and Fenris may not be each other’s biggest fans, but Anders’s panacea aura does wonders for Fenris’s markings, and Fenris’s lyrium calms down Justice and restores Anders’s strength better than a full night’s sleep. So whenever Fenris has a bad pain day, or Anders is exhausted from healing and Justice won’t let him rest, they cuddle. HATEFULLY.

Point of View Rating: PG Type: One-shot Notes: Also features Merill/Isabela (Merribela) Description: A short fill written for the following prompt featured on fenders-promptsnfills: Anders and Fenris are celebrities (of any type) who have a very public rivalry/feud/mutual hate going on. Tabloids love them, their fans are involved in an epic fandom war, everyone thinks it will one day end in violence…. until the day paparazzi catch them on a date/kissing/having sex/doing something unmistakably couple-y.

3 Fenders Drabbles Rating: PG-13 (NSFW/references to sex, but no explicit sex) Type: Drabbles Description: Written for the following prompts -- ears & neck, foreplay, hair.

WineWords Rating: G Type: One-shot Content warnings: Alcohol consumption Description: Fenris and Anders are in an established relationship. They manage to keep it under wraps until Fenris has a few too many drinks and makes out with Anders at the Hanged Man. Anders wishes he could take a dose of the same liquid courage to deal with his own little secret…

Unfair (AO3) Rating: G Type: One-shot Description: Anders pays Fenris a house call and gets an unexpected surprise.

All That I Can Give (AO3) Rating: PG Type: One-shot Description: After being in a relationship with Anders for six months, Fenris still isn't ready to tell their friends. Anders tries to reach a compromise.

Untitled Rating: PG Type: One-shot Description: Anders/Fenris, for the prompt: Imagine your OTP+ chilling out together in the summer. The temperature eventually rises so high that Person A decides to ditch their clothes and wear only their underwear. Person B follows suit. What happens next is up to you.

Flirting With Flowers Rating: G Type: One-shot Description: A short ficlet based on the “Imagine your OTP in a florist/tattoo artist AU” prompt. Featuring tattoo artist Fenris, florist Anders, and piercer Isabela. Fluffy pre-slash.

Fenris/Anders/Hawke (Fenhanders)

Fair Enough Rating: G Type: One-shot Description: Hawke tries to win Anders a prize at the fair, but he’s terrible at games. Fenris isn’t.

Rise of the Guardians/Guardians of Childhood

Pitch Black/Jack Frost (Blackice)

Tomb Lilies (AO3) Rating: R/Mature Type: Multi-chap, complete Description: Desperate to save the life of his sister, Jack promises himself as blood slave to a vampire named Pitch Black in exchange for her health. Unbeknownst to Jack, Pitch is an ancient, immensely powerful vampire that has become a threat to his brethren. When Manny, a vampire lord fearful Pitch's uncontrolled power will permanently unravel their society, hires a team of vampire hunters to kill Pitch, Jack has the chance to escape at last...but does he truly want to leave Pitch? Vampire AU, colonial era.

Black Celebration (AO3) Rating: Ranges from G to Mature Type: Collection of one-shots Description: Pitch reaches Jack before the Guardians and takes him on as an apprentice. Feelings develop after Jack begins to desire physical attention after three centuries in Pitch’s company.

Kozmotis Pitchiner/Jack Frost (Goldenfrost)

Concussion (AO3) Rating: PG Type: One-shot Description: Dr. Kozmotis Pitchiner gets a rather flirty patient.

The Dismantled Sky (AO3) Rating: R/Mature Type: One-shot Content warnings: Homophobia/homophobic violence, dubcon, implied character death Description: 1945. Kozmotis isn’t where he wants to be when it happens, but there’s a small comfort in having someone to suffer aside him. Originally written for BlackIce Week theme, “Post-Apocalyptic”.

Gen

Until the Clock Strikes Twelve Rating: G Type: One-shot Description: Pitch is stuck in the body and mind of a small child, with no recollection of who he is, until his next birthday. North takes Pitch under the protection of the Guardians, convinced that they can turn his life around if they shower him with love and affection for as long as they can. The only problem is, no one knows Pitch’s birthday, so there’s no telling when he’ll revert back. Jack & Pitch (friendship) centric.

#roguefic #about #personal

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faizrashis1995 · 4 years

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How to become an Android developer - Android development basics

As a beginner, one of the hardest things is just knowing what you need to learn. Besides taking a look at how to become an Android developer, we will also discuss why you should learn Android development. Here at CodeBrainer, we come across students who ask us what kind of topics they need to learn before they become proficient in Android development. The checklist isn’t short; nevertheless, we have decided to list most of the points that beginners should check-off.

First I must emphasise that this is a checklist but you can skip a step and you don’t need to learn it all in one week. It will take quite a bit of your time, but in the end, you will have enough skills to start a project of your own or start asking for internships, help a friend or acquaintance or even start applying for jobs.

We will try to explain a little bit about every topic. But some things you will have to research on your own, nevertheless let us know if you think we should add something to the list.

How to become an Android developer - Checklist

In our opinion, these are the skills and Android development basics you should conquer:

Android Studio

Layout Editor

Emulator and running apps

Android SDK and API version

UI Components and UX

Storing Data locally within the app

Calling REST APIs

Material design, styling and themes

Java or Kotlin and Objective programming

Debugging

Learn how you can start creating apps with Flutter.

How to become an Android developer - WHY?

As I said, before we can talk about what to learn and how to become an Android developer, we have to talk about why you should learn it in the first place. A lot of students wonder where to start and to be perfectly honest; Android Development is an excellent place to start. There are a lot of reasons; I like Android because it is accessible to anyone and you can install development tools on most operating systems. For example, I run Android studio on my MacBook Pro :D

Great IDE (Integrated development environment)

We will talk about Android Studio later, but for now, let me just tell you since it has grown to version 3, the IDE is excellent. With every version, we get more help in so many logical ways, that you will not even notice you are using artificial support.

Easier to start than web development

I like web development, but I still like to promote mobile development to beginners. Why? With mobile development, you get a friendly environment from the start. The thing that makes mobile development better for beginners is that we all use mobile phones all the time. You get a feeling of how an app should look like and what kind of functionalities you will need. With web development, it is harder to get a feel for the whole website, since you are looking at only one page at a time and then doing another google search. Most of the time, you already own a device, and you can install an app directly to your device and show it to your friends. In fact, I guarantee they will be amazed at what you can do.

Huge market size and mobile usage is still growing

The mobile application market has an excellent projection: by 2021, it is expected that the number of mobile app downloads worldwide will reach 352 billion. Android has a 76% market share compared to iOS, with 19%. We do have to be fair and admit that iOS is a better earner. Google Play earned $20,1B in revenue, while the App Store made a revenue of $38,5B. Google Play grew about 30 percent over 2016. And without doing any precise calculations, you can clearly see that this is a great market to work on.

New technologies are coming fast

Google is favourite to be on the cutting edge of technology all the time. No to mention, more and more of it is available for developers to use. Google is opening its knowledge about machine learning and artificial intelligence with development kits. And these improvements are available to Android developers very quickly. This will keep you on the edge of curiosity and keep you in touch with the ever-evolving world of IT.

Wide range of services for developers

Apart from new and cutting edge technologies, Google offers a lot of services to us out of the box. Maps, Analytics, Places for location awareness apps. A Great place to start is Firebase that offers notifications, analytics, crashlytics, real-time database (develop apps without the need for servers). Additionally, for launching apps all around the world, Test Lab could be a great partner, since you can test your app on a bunch of different devices.

“Android developer” is a great job to have

There are now 2,5 billion monthly active Android devices globally, and it’s the largest reach of any computing platform of its kind. Globally speaking, between 70 to 80% of all mobile devices are Androids. There is a massive demand for new Android developers out there. And because the market is growing, there is a lack of Android developers all around the world. All in all, it is hard to determine an average salary for the whole world, but the fact is that you will get a decent salary for your knowledge no matter where you live. In the light of what has been said, let's take a look at how to become an Android developer.

Android Studio

Since Android Studio is the best IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for Android development, this is the first thing you must conquer. For the most part, our content focuses on explaining about Android Studio as we explain development for Android. This goes the same for the Layout editor and the Code Editor.

Android Studio - Layout Editor

The Layout Editor is part of Android Studio. In fact, this is the place where you design the UI (User Interface) for your app. The main parts of an Android project are XMLs for designing activities, drawables and other resources and Java (or Kotlin) files for all the code you will write. Of course, on your path on how to become an Android developer, you will encounter more advanced projects where you will also learn about the structure of a project in detail.

But what I love most is that with the layout editor you are using a drag&drop approach and you can immediately see what you have done. You can place elements on the layout. You can group them into containers or views all using just your mouse. And this is great for beginners because you can get familiar with the code while already using a development environment. Even for mature developers, using visual tools helps when setting up screens, and in the layout editor, you can simulate the size of devices so that you can check if your design will work on all device sizes.

In addition, we have added a more in-depth look into Layout Editor as well. Check our Layout Editor blog post, learn about it and also find out a little bit about a few hidden features, so that you will develop your activities (screens) with ease.

Android Studio - Emulator and running apps

As we are creating apps for Android, and we want to run them to see how they look. One of the first things we need for that is an emulator. In fact, Android Studio has the ability to run an emulator out of the box. It has a lot of features. It runs fast and looks nice. All in all, it is a perfect tool to have. Generally speaking, this is just like going to the store and picking the best specs for your device, but in our case, it will be a virtual one.

Unfortunately, sometimes you have to prepare your computer to run an emulator. Here is an extended manual on how to configure hardware acceleration for an emulator or read our blog post on how to run an emulator.

You can also run an app on your mobile phone. This a good approach as well, as you check the touch and feel on a real device as you develop your app.

Here is an explanation on how to install drivers to run an app on your device.

Android SDK and API version

This is really a broad topic since it contains all that Android is about, all its functionalities. But as a beginner when you are starting to learn how to become an android developer, all you need to know is where to look for a new version, how to install it and a few pointers on which one to use.

A simple explanation would be: SDK (Software Development Kit) is a bunch of tools, documentation, examples and code for us, developers to use. API (Application Programming Interface) is an actual collection of Android functionalities, from showing screens, pop-ups, notifications… everything. We will give you a hint, use the API above 21 since this will get enough of devices to work with. And for a new project always aim for the last three major versions.

UI Components and UX

User interface components will link your app together, all the code, knowledge and data will be presented with some form of UI. UI means “user interface”, and this is what a user sees. UX means “user experience”, and this is the flow through the app, interactions, reactions to a users input, the whole story that happens within the app.

Of course, the best source of getting familiar with UI components would be our Calculator course since it explains most of them in great detail.

We have a few more blog posts explaining other UI Components, like a spinner, radio button and mail performing checks in our registration form blog post.

Storing Data locally within the app

Storing data is essential for every app. It can be as simple as storing emails for a login to a full-blown database with tables, relations, filters… Moreover, we think you must go step by step on this topic and learn a little bit about what data is, what are entities, and where to store them.

The first topic we cover is in our blog post about storing data within sharedPreferences, and you should read it. The next issue is storing even more data by using Room, which is a great implementation of ORM (object-relational mapping) and is part of Android. In fact, ORM lets us work with data as classes in our code, this is a more modern approach, but Room still allows us to use SQL statements if we want to.

Calling REST APIs

All the mature apps use some kind of REST (Representational State Transfer) calls. For example, if an app wants to know what is the temperature outside, in some city, it would use a REST API to get the data. If we want to login into a social network and get the list of friends we would use a REST API. This is a topic strongly linked with storing data since we are storing and reading data just not within an app but on a server. In short, the main topic to learn is how to transform data from a REST API to local data structures and classes. And be sure to learn how to react if an error occurs and how to send data to a server.

Material design, styling and themes

If you are thinking about how to become an Android developer, you have to learn how to create a nice app easily. For beginners, it is best to use material design and the Android Support library, which can help us make an app that will look great even without using a designer. All things considered, for mature apps, we will still use a designer to prepare a UI and UX, but for Android, it will be based on some variant of material design anyway. To summarize, on your path of how to become an Android developer, learning material design is essential.

Java or Kotlin and Objective programming

Both Java and Kotlin are excellent languages to start learning. Java has more structure to it. But Kotlin is more modern in style. And both are good choices. Java is the right choice if you want to broaden your skills with back-end development since developers for Java back-end are in very high demand. Kotlin has a shorter implementation; this means you see less code, and more things are done for you.

We are still teaching Java since it can be used elsewhere as well (Java backend for example), but Kotlin is a great choice as well. No matter what we choose for our language, we will have to learn some basics about it. In our courses, you will learn about Primitive Data types, Strings Control Structures (If, switch…), what are methods and of course all about classes (Inheritance, Interfaces and Abstract Classes). Arrays, sets, maps and other extended data types help us when working with a lot of data. For example, storing a list of people, list of cars, TODO tasks…

Why is it important to dive deep into essentials? Having a good foundation on essentials and Java basics will help you develop more complex applications while keeping them simple and organised at the same time.

Debugging

Debugging is an important part of programming since a lot of unpredictable flows will happen in our apps and we need a way of figuring out what went wrong, what was the source of an error and find a code that produced that error. When learning how to become an Android developer this might look like a tough topic, but at the core, it is something that will help you learn more advanced topics with ease since you will know how to track what the application is doing behind the scenes.

Making your app ready for Google Play

Equally important to all the skills mentioned above on how to become an android developer is, opening your app to users all around the globe. All things considered, this is one of the primary motivators for building apps in the first place. We must have knowledge about signing our apps, how to upload them to Google Play, what kind of text descriptions we need, screenshots we will show in the store... We need icons, designs and texts. All in all, this knowledge will come in handy a lot. In the first place, it will help you distribute an app to the first test users in the alpha store and then move to a more broad audience with beta and the final step with the public release.

How to become an Android developer - Conclusion

This is just a short list of topics we here at CodeBrainer think that you need when you think about how to become an Android developer. And we all want for you to be a great developer and make us proud. We will add advanced topics as we go. Advanced topics will just make you stand out from the crowd and give you comprehensive knowledge about Android. In the long run, what you need is experience, and this means practice, and then more practice.[Source]-https://www.codebrainer.com/blog/what-to-learn-checklist-for-android-beginners

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Best WordPress Video Portfolio Themes | Templified

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Best WordPress Video Portfolio Themes

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