#i don't understand how game development and programming works

[ieatpastaatnight]

Working on some of the character profiles. Just so I can make sure their personality and such stays consistent throughout the story. (I should've done this way earlier, but we live and learn)

#ticci toby #slenderverse #slenderman #slender proxy #jeff the killer #creepypasta #jane the killer #toby rogers #pasta the game #I hate tagging with the burning passion of seven suns #I have no idea how I'm ever gonna finish this game #I hope I can somehow turn the development of this game into a school assignment #so I can work on it as homework #I can't wait till I have a playable teaser I can release #You guys don't understand how hyped I am for this project #I am almost finished writing/ programming the prologue #I'm still undecided wether to release the prologue as a teaser or wait till I have more content. As the prologue is like #only 5 minutes of gameplay. #choices choices

[plottwiststudios]

Women of Xal II Kickstarter: Delayed?

Hey, have you heard of the overly ambitious visual novel titled "Women of Xal" for Steam and Itch.io? (PC/Mac/Linux) Because that plays into why we might need to shelf the series for a few years. Full breakdown under the cut. (No spoilers)

For those who have gotten the True Ending, you should be fully aware that the story is about to vastly expand outside of Xuna's castle. It's a narrative must where everything that happens, happens well outside the scope of the original game in so many ways. And let's talk about scope! Especially if you have no idea what's so staggering about the original Women of Xal visual novel:

600+ optional choices we painstakingly programmed

Branching paths that people are still asking for guides on

A dozen romance options

Poly and gay options that interact with one another

Voice acting from now VERY popular voice actors

A 15 hour story full of mystery, lore, and tense politics

110 track soundtrack

4 Endings

Animations

Thousands of art assets (Bless Cat)

Years of hard work and long nights

No AI Art

100% positive reviews as of this post

Recouped $6000+, or roughly a fraction of the cost of development. After 2+ years of being released

Note that very last bullet point. Doing things for the art and passion is amazing and all, but I can't be investing literal thousands of hours into creating a game for a subset of a subset of a subset of people. I have bigger projects I want to finally get to work on. Ones I really hoped Women of Xal I would help a bit with funding. But it's not. And because of certain facts about the game, it may never be able to do so. To no fault of any of the players.

When I made Women of Xal I, my time was more readily available and I was quite a bit younger. The cost of running a company and creating a game like WoX as the first product hadn't quite hit me. I was also silly enough to believe "if you make it, they will come" to a degree. That part makes me grin in a not fun way.

But these days I have a job that takes me away from creating, but does pay the bills and debts. Debts I don't want to get into again in order to create the sequel that will undoubtedly come with far higher costs due to the game's scope. I have a better understanding of the costs of hiring returning and appropriate talent necessary to create a game better than the last. (I don't personally believe in being satisfied with an intentional steep downgrade.)

Yes there is the Kickstarter option for Women of Xal II, but there are plenty of costs and time investment that makes it an unviable avenue to explore during this point in time. After all, who but the people who sat down and explored everything the first game had to offer would understand how we came up with a $50,000 Kickstarter price tag for a visual novel's sequel? Especially since too many will look at the first Kickstarter and believe we made the first game with only $14,000.

I have thought about giving Women of Xal I a modernized facelift with a smaller Kickstarter, complete with a ton of new features and fun ways to streamline and highlight the narration's strong points, but there's a LOT of baggage that comes with that, including not wanting to go backwards when I still want to create my "pipe dream" projects.

So I'm thinking we'll give it a bit more thought these next few days, and if we can't think of a solution that we haven't already tried, we'll officially announce the delay (and before you suggest your own ideas, know that there's a 99% chance we've already tried it).

A long, long post just to say I do sincerely apologize for having people wait longer, but I am literally still a few thousand dollars away from paying off all my debt that came from funding the first game. It's a micro-trauma I do not feel inclined to repeating again. When the franchise is in a better place, or I am emotionally/physically, I will return back to Women of Xal to finish the story. If I cannot, I will release a summary of events that transpire after the first game's true ending.

But for now, I'm going to focus on financial and emotional healing, and creating projects that I feel will be more appreciated by both myself and people who are turned off by what "Women of Xal" offers.

Thank you all for supporting our small company these past several years. <3

-John

#Women of Xal #Visual Novel #dating sim #indie game #gaming

[anonymous-dentist]

Okokokok I need some help understanding something and you’re a writer so I trust your judgement. I keep trying except I’m just making myself more upset. I just want to start enjoying the new story with everyone like normal

In a story, how do you take revenge against something/someone with plot amor?

I feel like the revenge>failure>anger>revenge cycle would get a bit repetitive right?

I’m just trying to think of this in term of story and character development and I’m failing to grasp how this will work in a way that’s productive

I think that the events over the past few weeks or so are meant to show that the Federation doesn't have as much plot armor as you think it does. Because it's spread so fucking thin right now between the kidnapping of Ron and the murders and the dark matter and the Mini-Mes getting taken and the eggs and the president going missing. They don't know what's going on and the workers are scared and in hiding and literally only Foolish is chill right now, and that's because he's become such a good spy that even the "higher ups" love him. He's currently in the process of doing what Cellbit spent months trying to do, and he's going to succeed.

But this isn't about the Federation, it's about Cucurucho, aka the thing Cellbit really wants to destroy even if he's telling everyone , who was apparently proven to not even be a part of the Federation at all today! Apparently, the Census Bureau isn't a Federation employee like. At All.

So this begs the question: how do you kill a God?

The answer is that... well, you don't. Not when you're Cellbit, and that's exactly the point of what he's doing now. He's not going after Cucurucho specifically for a reason: he knows he can't win. Which is why he's going after the regular workers first. That way, he can start dismantling the Federation from the outside as others dismantle it from the inside (he knows about Fit being a spy, and he technically knows about Foolish even if he doesn't believe him all the way.)

We all think the Federation has plot armor, but it really doesn't! All things considered, the islanders have won against it several times! Between the eggs basically going rogue and breaking whatever programming they were under as Federation creations to get attached to their parents, ElQuackity the Federation Plant losing the election due to islanders' interference, Cellbit keeping the Federation from killing him by killing himself, the Mini-Mes being stolen, Pac and Mike escaping prison, Felps and Cellbit escaping their prison, Baghera escaping the island in the first place, the islanders becoming friends with several workers to the point of said workers defecting from the Federation, Forever and Pac being freed from the influence of the Happy Pills, and literally everything Fit and Foolish have managed to do while undercover, we've seen the Federation lose, and I think we forget about all of this because, well. It is Torture Island.

The plot armor here isn't necessarily the Federation's. It's Cucurucho's, and it's Cellbit's real target. But he knows he can't do anything to it yet, and so he's going for everything around it, and then, when he's strong enough or whatever, he's going to go for Cucurucho itself, and he's made it bleed before, actually, way back during the first Hide and Seek game day. He's just waiting for another opportunity, and he's waiting very patiently. (LOL)

It looks hopeless now, but this is legitimately day one of the arc. It's no use doomposting or anything when we haven't seen who's gonna help Cellbit out, because we know that some of the strongest people on the island possibly would. Like Etoiles, who legit doesn't give a fuck about killing Federation workers because he did quite literally kill like 20 in ten minutes or so, EZ. And Roier, who is genuinely one of the strongest non-Etoiles pvpers on the island. And Maxo, who has a literal nuclear bomb.

My advice as a writer? Just chill and don't think about it too much. I can see how awesome this arc is going to be because Cellbit is an EXCELLENT storyteller. It's not worth worrying about when we don't even know all the factors in play yet.

#asks! #anon!

[dmbakura]

I really don't think people are saying that the game is bad, but rather that Larian is focusing too much on adding fan content instead of fixing actual game breaking bugs.

I don't really understand that criticism either? They've fixed plenty of bugs with each update and the next patch is also going to have a bunch of bug fixes. Not to mention the actual creative content of the game and the technical side would be different departments. Game development is a lot more complex than people think and updating one thing can see a bunch of other things break, especially with a game as huge and complex as this. It's not as simple as "just fix all the bugs before adding anymore content" because realistically that's not how programming works

[sincerely-sofie]

Check-in for 01/28/24

It's been a while since I did one of these. Time to remedy that!

I've been doing well in my assignments, but due to some registration issues at the start of the semester I was unable to sign up for any web development or programming classes :< It's nice to take a break, but I'm really worried about getting stagnant in those skills, and maybe even losing what I've learned over time.

This is where a couple of new projects come in: A blorbo database and a tool for drawing pokemon from memory. These things are going to keep me avoid stagnancy and help me develop my web dev and Python programming skills, and I'm real excited to talk about them.

First up, let's talk about that tool for drawing pokemon from memory. I love drawing pokemon from memory, but it's a bit of a struggle to find tools online that work well for a solo experience when you're doing this challenge alone. So I made a program in PyGame to solve this problem, and I've actually already completed it! It was a great learning experience when it came to getting a taste of APIs, and PokeAPI really helped me do all the heavy lifting with it. I also ended up using ChatGPT to help me understand how to phrase my questions and the things I needed to research. This is the end result:

If you click "Get Random Pokemon", the program will provide a pokemon's name. The point of it is to draw the pokemon as best as you remember it, and then click "Show Pokemon Image" to see how you did. You will then have the option to get a new random pokemon, which clears the image from the window.

There's a lot of stuff I don't understand about how the program works--- APIs evade my understanding, and Tkinter is a dark art beyond my comprehension. But I was able to make a program that solved a genuine problem for me for the first time, and that's super exciting to me!

Now, for web development--- long story short, I'm making a website dedicated to cataloguing my OCs that's very much inspired by tumblr user @snekkerdoodles's personal site on neocities, which I regularly stare at in an effort to motivate myself to make cool things like it (everyone reading this should check his page out IMMEDIATELY and tell him how cool it is). Here's the screenshots of the WIP I'm chipping away at right now:

I don't have much to say about it, as the interesting stuff will really be the content of the pages, and I still have yet to finish the template page I'll be filling with my OCs' information. However, I can say that I'm very upset with the lack of proper teaching that took place in the first (and currently only) college web dev class I've taken. I spent an entire semester doing my own research to learn everything they were supposed to be teaching us. I'm still very peeved about that.

To summarize this very rambling post I'm too sleepy to edit properly, I'm making a digital blorbo encyclopedia, and I finished making a little desktop app thingy, which means I need to summon a new programming project. I'm tempted to make it a video game... maybe I should turn back to that visual novel idea I had ages ago and boot up RenPy!

#let me know if you'd prefer I untag you! #I'm still so uncertain of tagging etiquette on Tumblr #stuff by sofie #sofie checks in #web developers #web development #web dev #programming #coding #codeblr #python #software development #app development #pygame

[krisp-xyz]

Found your work. You inspired me to take another shot at technical art and graphics programming. Do you recommend any specific resources for getting started and beyond?

Thanks so much! Really glad I could inspire you to do that bc graphics and tech art things are so much fun :D

(Also sorry for the late response. I've been a bit busy and was also thinking about how I wanted to format this)

I'm mostly self taught with a lot of stuff and have done lots of research on a per-project basis, but Acerola and Freya Holmer are two of my favorite channels for learning graphics or technical art things. Shadertoy is also an amazing resource to not only create and view other's shaders, but learn about algorithms and see how people do things!

While I don't have many general resources. I'll steal these resources for graphics programming that Acerola shared in his discord server:

For getting started with graphics engine development: DX11: https://www.rastertek.com/tutdx11s3.html OpenGL: https://learnopengl.com/ DX12: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d12/directx-12-programming-guide Vulkan: https://vulkan-tutorial.com/

For getting started with shaders: catlikecoding: https://catlikecoding.com/unity/tutorials/rendering/ the book of shaders: https://thebookofshaders.com/ daniel ilett's image effects series: https://danielilett.com/2019-04-24-tut1-intro-smo/

For getting started with compute shaders: Kyle Halladay: http://kylehalladay.com/blog/tutorial/2014/06/27/Compute-Shaders-Are-Nifty.html Ronja: https://www.ronja-tutorials.com/post/050-compute-shader/ Three Eyed Games (this one teaches ray tracing AND compute shaders, what a bargain!): http://three-eyed-games.com/2018/05/03/gpu-ray-tracing-in-unity-part-1/

I also wanted to talk a little bit about I do research for projects!

A lot of my proficiency in shaders just comes from practice and slowly building a better understanding of how to best utilize the tools at my disposal, almost like each project is solving a puzzle and I want to find the most optimal solution I can come up with.

This is definitely easier said than done and while a lot of my proficiency comes from just doodling around with projects and practicing, I understand that "just practice more lol" is a boring and kinda unhelpful answer. When it comes to projects like my lighting engine, I came up with a lot of the algorithm stuff myself, but there were certainly lots of details that I learned about from past projects and research like ray marching (calculating the ray intersection of a distance function) and I learned about the jump flood algorithm from a tech artist friend (calculating distance functions from textures)

Each new algorithm you learn in various projects ends up being another tool in your toolbox, and each project becomes a combination of researching new tools and applying the tools you've learned in the past.

One last example. I made a Chladni plate simulation in blender (that thing where you put sand on a metal plate and play noises and it makes patterns) and it started with me researching and looking up chladni plates, I watched youtube videos related to why the sand forms the patterns it does, which ended up being due to how the sound waves displaced the plane. I googled some more and found the actual equation that represents it, and used it to simulate particle motion.

Figure out some projects you want to do and just do some googling or ask for help in game dev discord servers or whatever. Lot's of research on a per-project basis is honestly how you'll learn the most imo :3

#game dev #guide

[felassan]

Edmonton radio station interview with Alex Kennedy, lawyer for the former BioWare employees who are sueing for better severance: [link]

Description:

"Seven former employees of BioWare are suing the Edmonton-based video game developer for wrongful dismissal. They allege they were let go without cause, and that Bioware and its parent company, Electronic Arts, are not offering them reasonable compensation. We talked to Alex Kennedy, their Edmonton-based lawyer."

Transcript of segment:

Host: "Seven former employees of BioWare are sueing the Edmonton-based video game developer for wrongful dismissal. They allege they were let go without cause, and that BioWare, and its parent company EA, are not offering them reasonable compensation. Alex Kennedy is their Edmonton-based lawyer, and joins us on the line this morning. Good morning Alex."

Alex: "Good morning Mark."

Host: "So how did these seven former employees come to be fired from BioWare?"

Alex: "Well, on around August 23rd of this year, 50 people were let go without cause from BioWare. That was about 20% of their workforce. So these were among the 50 people who were let go."

Host: "So what kind of work would they have done for BioWare?"

Alex: "A wide variety of things. One of the people, I'm allowed to share her identity, is Mary Kirby, who's done a lot of writing for BioWare's sort've, central games, and is the creator of a lot of very popular characters. But we have people who did programming, we have people who did sort've, directing of the games, and all sorts of different, different, functions."

Host: "And were these plaintiffs, were they long-time employees of BioWare?"

Alex: "Oh, yes, yes, one of my plaintiffs, one of my plaintiffs was 23 years at BioWare and he started when he was 20 years old, so, most of his life has been at that job."

Host: "Now when the layoffs came here, was this part of an overall restructuring of EA, or was it specifically at BioWare? What happened there?"

Alex: "Yeah, my understanding is that this has to do with the larger restructuring at EA. It's strange, EA is doing pretty well in terms of its profits. I think, if I've read correctly, that they made $400 million last quarter. But they still wanna remove 6% of their jobs for some reason. I'm not, I don't really understand how those decisions are made, to be honest."

Host: "So what amount of compensation has BioWare offered for letting them go?"

Alex: "Yeah, I can't give the exact numbers because, you know, that was offered in an offer to my clients, but we would suggest that the amount that they gave is probably less than half of the amount they would be truly entitled to in court."

Host: "And so, are we talking about just severance, or are there other things that are involved in compensation that you think should be considered?"

Alex: "Well, the issue, part of the issue in this particular case is that what BioWare offered was just based on the base salary that my clients were receiving. But in Canadian law, generally speaking, it appears to be that people who are removed from their jobs, when they receive severance, when they receive notice, it should include all of the benefits, including things like, even stock vesting [?], or profit-participation [?], that a person was engaged in at the time that they were fired. So in these cases, because that was absent, my clients are winding up not only with less money in terms of the amount of time they should be paid, but also less money in terms of the total amount they should be paid."

Host: "Now are these contract workers that have things spelled out, and so wouldn't the contract sort've indicate how much they would get?"

Alex: "Well, there is a contract in some cases, although not all of my plaintiffs' cases, but there is a contract in some cases, but, it has a term that appears to be illegal, which states, as I said earlier, that any severance will be based on the base salary and will explicitly not include any benefits. It seems to be contrary to Sections 57 and 61 of the Employment Standards Code."

Host: "Can you tell us how much your clients are asking for then, in damages, or, then, I guess, in severance?"

Alex: "Yeah, well, I'm asking, in my clients' case, for about 1.5 months of severance for every year worked in service at BioWare. We're also asking for a one million dollar punitive damages just based on the fact that the contract was illegal and that BioWare, despite the fact that this has been drawn to their attention, is continuing to stand by that being the requirement."

Host: "So, why the punitive damages?"

Alex: "Well, again because, when my clients are paid the small amount that they, that BioWare has essentially decided that they're entitled to, that already does not include their benefits. So my clients are put in a situation where, in order to pursue their legal rights, they have to, you know, live on a small amount of money that's been allowed to them. On top of that there have been a couple of cases where, you know, as we indicate in our Statement of Claim, that BioWare has failed to give proper information to new employers, and also that the requirements that BioWare put on my clients are pretty onerous in terms of preventing them from finding appropriate new work."

Host: "What are we talking about there? Are these NDAs, or are they restrictions on where they can work?"

Alex: "Yeah, they're NDAs. And how that applies in terms of people who've done a lot of creative work can be very difficult. You know, my clients worked on a game for about, say, 3, 4, 5 years, game hasn't been published yet. They're not really in a position to be able to say, 'oh, well I created this and that, and this and that', they can't really speak about it, so they have to say, 'well I worked at BioWare for 5 years, and I can't really say what I did'".

Host: "NDA, by the way, is a non-disclosure agreement, for those who don't know about the acronym. So have there been any special challenges for your clients in trying to get back into the workforce?"

Alex: "Well yes, I mean, my clients, you can imagine, a lot of my clients have been doing this for, as I said, majority of their adult lives. They're not sure if they wanna continue this. They are in Edmonton, where, there's a, you know, it's good that we have such a vibrant software industry, but, you know, it's limited in terms of what they can do. 6000 other people have been let go from the computer games industry this year, so it's hardly a wide-open market at this point in time."

Host: "Now these layoffs came in August. Are you anticipating a long haul here for your clients, or what do you hope the timeline is?"

Alex: "Yeah, I mean, we always hope that a matter will settle. But, in reality, BioWare's stance to date has been that there's simply nothing to negotiate, and 'take us to court', so, you know, obviously I hope that BioWare changes its mind, maybe this is a big misunderstanding or something like that, but, you know, as things stand right now, we have to go through the entire court process, which, as you know, can take quite some time."

Host: "Alex, appreciate you coming on to talk about it today. Thanks very much."

Alex: "Thank you."

Host: "Alex Kennedy is a lawyer representing seven plaintiffs who are sueing BioWare for wrongful dismissal. The allegations made in this lawsuit have not been proven in court. CBC did reach out to BioWare for comment on this lawsuit, but we did not hear back from them by deadline."

[source]

#dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #long post #longpost #too much txt to pop this in a block quote i think sry ^^

[izicodes]

Hello, I'm only wondering how you would go about building a track to get a job in these lines of works, if you have advice. Thank you :)

Hiya! 💗

I have some advice yeah! Do bear in mind, the way I got into Software Development, now focusing on Web Development, was:

A couple of months of self-studying HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Python

Applied for a Software Development Technician apprenticeship - working in a company whilst studying at a college (had to do it online because of COVID restrictions)

Completed the apprenticeship + 2 exam certificates in Programming and Software Development

The company I did my apprenticeship hired me straight after I passed.

Other people had similar routes e.g. via higher education at a university or college, or did the complete self-study route and got a job at a company or just freelancing. Everyone's journey is different!

Building a successful track to get a job in Software Development requires a combination of a lot of things and not just learning how to program. I will assume you want to get into Web Dev, but this can be applied to other areas e.g. Game Dev or Moblie Dev. Here are some steps you could take:

Education and Skill Development

The most obvious: you need the skills...

Could find schools, online schools, colleges or universities to learn the subject: This is if you can. Some people learn better with a teacher there to help them so maybe attending a school setting is better for you!

Online courses and tutorials: Enroll in online platforms like Coursera, Udemy, or Codecademy to learn specific programming languages (such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript), frameworks, and development tools commonly used in web development.

Build a portfolio: Create a collection of projects that showcase your skills. Develop websites, and web applications, or contribute to open-source projects to demonstrate your abilities to potential employers. Use places like GitHub or GitLab!

Practical Experience

If you don't have the opportunity to be already working in a company in their IT department for experience, try these two types of experience you could try for experience:

Internships and part-time jobs: Seek internships or part-time positions in software development companies. This provides hands-on experience, exposes you to real-world projects, and helps you understand industry practices.

Freelance work: Take up freelance web development projects to gain practical experience and expand your portfolio. Platforms like Upwork and Freelancer can help you find clients and build a reputation.

Networking and Professional Development

Join online communities: Engage with online forums, developer communities (such as Stack Overflow), and social media groups to connect with like-minded individuals, seek advice, and stay updated on industry news.

Create a presence and show off your coding journey: I am a huge advocate for this. I had friends that I've mentioned on my blog that got their first developer job solely because they were posting their projects and learning journey on their Twitter accounts. For example, my friend Hikari (her Twitter) got her job because the employer saw her tweets of her progress then he noticed her portfolio page and asked for an interview with her - then she got the job. Try your chances with this method!

Contribute to open-source projects: Collaborate on open-source projects on platforms like GitHub. This not only helps you enhance your coding skills but also showcases your ability to work in a team and contribute to larger projects! Working in a team is a key skill!

Hope this helps! Thanks for the ask! 🙌🏾💗

#my asks #codeblr #coding #progblr #programming #studying #studyblr #tech #comp sci #software developer #career advice #job advice

[ettadunham]

inon zur, the man you are.

is this cheating? maybe. possibly. probably.

okay, so context. i have been doing this thing where i play a random adventure game spit out by a random generator program i created (because i'm a nerd). as a result, every now and then, you'll find a short write-up about some weird obscure little video game on my tumblr blog. it's just one of the many things that you have to put up with if you decided to follow me for whatever reason. sorry.

then one day, said randomizer spit out syberia 3, and let me tell you, i was delighted! this was the first time i had a game i already played on my list, so obviously, this meant a replay. but not just any replay. i now had to replay the entire series! obviously.

is this what i've done for other games that came up before? no. but you guys don't understand.

syberia is my special little guy.

syberia 1 and 2 are not only largely the reason for my long-lasting obsession with adventure games, they have arguably raised me. i am the human person i am today because i played syberia while listening to complicated by avril lavigne when i was 12. these are the foundations and building blocks of my personality. everything that's wrong with me comes back down to this.

so, yeah. to say that i was excited to get back to this one is a slight understatement. i was vibrating on a frequency previously undetected in human physiology.

i also start with all this to emphasize that, yeah. i have my rose-tinted nostalgia glasses on when it comes to these games. that doesn't mean i don't have my criticisms, especially looking at the game today, but... i cannot not love syberia. it's just science.

i should probably talk about the game itself at some point though, right? i can't just assume that the one person reading this (i see you! hey! thank you <3) is as familiar with the ins and outs of voralberg automatons as i am. so, let's do a synopsis.

syberia is a 2002 point-and-click game about a lawyer named kate walker, who hyperfixate on her work mission to find an old man a bit too much, while going on a train adventure with an autistic-coded automaton named oscar. hijinks ensue!

the game was designed by french developer benoît sokal (rip, king) as a follow-up to his previous game, amerzone. as a kid, i have played through all of his games i could get my hands on, but it's been a while, so i can't quite tell you how much those hold up. from what i remember, he definitely liked his adventurer protags... as well as some potentially questionable depictions of made-up indigenous people.

...let's circle back to that after syberia 2.

but yeah, while we're here, let's actually get some of my criticisms out of the way. this is a game from 2002 written by a french dude and... you could say that it's of its time among other things. for instance the man kate is looking for is mentally disabled, and the game is a bit too liberal in its use of the 'r' word to describe him. (and yes, it was considered an offensive and derogatory term in 2002 too, people were just more inclined to use it back then.)

there are other aspects of the game that one might critique as well, that i mostly find charming. the dialogue is at times clunky (almost as if it was written by someone whose native language is not english...), but the voice actors do a nice job adding character (and possibly tweaking their lines just enough) that it absolutely works on me to this day. it's a little wacky, a little silly, the puzzles sometimes require some pixel hunting, but that's just how these games work!

this one also had the cocktail puzzle, which, in my opinion, is one of the best in the entire series. it really has everything! when i become super rich, i'm going to build that cocktail machine in my house.

other highlights of the game include the big communist boi looming over you in komkolzgrad and just... any other automaton or mechanical machinery in the game. including your train, obviously.

the overall aesthetics of the game? immaculate! i want all my devices to work with a wind up mechanism now.

the one thing though that, in my opinion, truly elevates syberia over its contemporaries is its music. god, the music!!! most people might be familiar with inon zur through his scores for games like the later fallout or dragon age games, but to me, he's always gonna be the guy who went so insanely hard for this somewhat niche little adventure game series.

his score coupled with the automaton designs and the beautiful scenery? absolutely breathtaking. prettier than any modern game.

in conclusion: kate walker, call me!

EDIT: as it was just pointed out to me by @greyaged, the first syberia game was actually scored by nicholas varley and dimitri bodiansky, and only from syberia 2 onwards did inon zur become the series' main composer. needless to say that they all did a fantastic job, but i definitely want to give an extra shout out to varley and bodiansky here, now that i know that they were the ones responsible for this particular game's score. the tracks and motifs they introduce here carry over to zur's scores, and they definitely cement syberia's legacy as a game series with one of the most memorable video game soundtracks in my book. <3

#adventure game extravaganza #mse's playing adventure games #mse's replaying syberia #syberia #video game #Youtube

[sol-consort]

Do you think it confused the other species that the turians of all people are the ones humans bonded with best? First Contact and the minority of humans who hate aliens aside, the most emotional species in the galaxy latched right onto the most emotionally constipated species.

Oh, it definitely confused them. Because other species have had attempts at bonding with the turians before.

The salarians were too hesitant and cautious for them.

The asari acting superior and looking for their own interest.

The krogans are fun to wrestle with, but their core beliefs are just too different for them to work together.

So what's better than the galaxy equivalent of overly curious animals who just can't sit still without packbonding with something around them?

Don't forget that even on earth, humans have this weird relationship with birds. They tend to accidentally mate with us because we pet them so much. Hell pigeons have been in a symbiotic relationship with us for so long that they can't leave our cities anymore. It's their jungle now.

And turians like any other birds would probably latch onto the humans giving them chin scratches and dextro seeds.

Much like how talented bartenders take it as a challenge to make non-alcholic versions of cocktails. I feel like human chefs and scientists would try their best to create dextro versions of our food just so the Turians could eat it. Humans made wine suitable for cats. Why wouldn't they make dextro chocolate ice cream for their beloved turians' neighbour?

We're loud, expressive with our emotions, blunt with our flirting, and very, very ready to latch onto an alien for eternity. Turians gotta respect our loyalty and countless attempts to understand their culture, truly understand it and not just an on papers clinical documentation.

We're also relentless. We fail at something and keep trying. We had so many people die when we first discovered the artics, but we still kept sending researchers over to figure it out. No, like it was voluntary, we were so interested in this cold freezing hell that talented people kept agreeing to go there even if it cost their life.

I bet you every turians have met at least one human they admire, we're stubborn and petty, but use these traits to accomplish something and as fuel for our passions.

Look at how fast the humans bounced back after first contact war. Dude, if it was the asari or hanar, I bet you, my liver, that they'd never let their war with turians go and always hold a grudge.

Not that humanity didn't hold a grudge, but when all the new generations are seeing are friendly adorable featherless birds who are so fun to poke and tease until they come out of their shell, it's hard to remember the grudge from a war you weren't even old to participate in.

We've had countless wars with ourselves, the turians aren't special. And when an entire race is raised upon public service and discipline like them, they must be so repressed for a wild human to come along and be a bad influence on them.

Like live a little! Make bad choices, take risks, and be a little more selfish. Likewise, there are humans who will come along and help strengthen their core values, give your best to others, stay honest and loyal, and help people without looking for payback.

Turian and human duos become far too common that they're excluded from the galaxy program to integrate every race into each other's military and jobs.

Every turian ship has had at least one human working on it. Some even develop a taste for dextro food and cut any risk of contamination by never bringing other foods onboard. Teaching the other turians fun games or showing them human music. The humans proved they could keep up with the turians, even join in on their wrestling matches just for fun.

and while the humans didn't have the same thing because of how much we outnumber them, every human ship at least has met a turian ship and sent them a hello or told them their ship is very pretty then moved on their way.

And it's not all sunshine or rainbows. There are incidents where turians and humans just could never agree or meet eye to eye. Especially with how blind turian loyality to their group can be and how individualistic humans are. Turians are used to accepting orders from highers above without questions, while humans are used to having a vote and a say in every important decision.

We think giving up our individuality is basically the same as dying since you are truly alive if you're not free to be yourself? Nothing defines you in this life but you, doesn't matter what group you leave behind.

they think giving up their clan is basically the same as dying. Because exile must have meant death for them before, if someone isn't loyal to their group, how can they be loyal to anyone?

Some humans and turians just could never get along, but the majority of them proved their ability to overlook the differences and work together despite all.

Turians who become close to humans learn how addicting the taste of freedom is. Humans who are close to them learn how reassuring being a part of a community is.

There is a reason why C-Sec is mainly made out of humans and turians. We both are looking to make a difference in our own way, prove a point, or find a purpose.

I like the idea of humans and turians being the first races to ever look past each other's different appearance and actually see each other's spirits. The first two races to pass the test of the universe and work together and start relationships despite knowing they can't have children, fall in love, and grow old together.

The novelty of an alien falls off very quickly. It takes a human 3 months to develop a habit. After 3 months, you'd stop introducing your friend as Viteponia the turian and just start introducing them as Via, my pal.

You'd even forget the fact they were a turian, like they obviously are, duh, but you just don't think about it anymore. To you, they're Via, the person who held you back from texting your ex and the person who you share your dextro snacks with. You bring them over to your family and forget to mention the fact they're a turian.

I think at some point, turians would try to get you to wear face paint because they forgot you're human and got sad over the fact you don't have any clans. That you're such a good and loyal person, you don't deserve to be bare faced, so here, let them paint your face with their clan colours.

Also I think they're very curious about human hair. Birds love human hair, pulling at it, sitting in it like a next, even using it to build their nest. Turians must have looked at human hair and felt a very weird primal urge to touch it and test how it feels.

#☆turians #☆humans #☆human kink #alien human kink #☆fluff

[itlivesproject]

hiii! your project is AMAZING and you're all so talented 😭😭 but i have a question if you feel comfortable with sharing. which apps/programs you guys used to recreate the game? I'm interested in developing my own games but have no idea where to start. can you give me some tips? 🙂 tysm anyway!

If you want to make a standalone visual novel, then the program we use, Ren'Py, is perfect! It's free and designed specifically to make visual novels easy to make for everyone, including beginners. I had literally zero understanding of programming when I started working on ILW and just figured it out through tutorials, asking questions on forums, and trial and error.

This is the Ren'Py link.

Because this is long, under the cut I'm sharing some things you'll need to think about if you want to make a visual novel:

Your team:

You don't have to have a team of people helping you with this. You can do it alone. However, I will say that ILW would not be what it is if I had just tried to go it alone. It is so much better than anything I could've dreamed of when I first got the idea. More people on a team = more ideas, more constructive criticism and feedback, and more heads going in together to make a better product. But if you want a team, you need to make sure you maintain an attitude and environment that is open to suggestions and contributions from others. Be ready and willing to throw out ideas you like if it no longer works or someone thinks of something better. Nothing kills the creative spirit faster than defensiveness and competitiveness, so to have a well-working team, open-minded members and sharing your ideas and criticism in a positive way is extremely important.

Art:

This is one of the first things you should really nail down, because if you start working on your game but never figure out the art, everything else will go to waste. For most VN creators, they usually hire out for art. For us, since this is a free fan project, our artists worked for free. We were also lucky to already have a bunch of backgrounds and assets from Choices that our artists could edit, so we didn't have to make dozens and dozens of entirely new backgrounds. If you're going to have to hire out, I'd try to really compress the amount of art you'll need - plan ahead and cut down unnecessary characters who'd need sprites, maybe use a silhouette for unnamed characters, and limit the amount of backgrounds you'll need, because backgrounds take up a lot of space, they take up a lot of time to make, and they're expensive.

Programming:

Obviously, programming is a big thing. If you have enough motivation, you should be able to figure out a lot of this on your own. If you use Ren'Py, be sure to read the documentation, watch a lot of basic tutorials, and just get into the engine and start getting your hands dirty! It seems like a lot at first, but once you get the feel of it, it's actually not too complicated. When it comes to programming, I recommend simplifying everything as much as possible. When I first started ILW, I didn't simplify things much (because I was figuring things out) so what I used to do in three lines of code I now do in one. Limiting the amount of code you ultimately end up writing GREATLY diminishes possibility of errors and bugs. Also, try to get as organized as possible. Make as many folders, subfolders, and text files as you need. Don't try to put the whole script in one file, don't put all the images in the same folder. Good organization goes a long way to making everything a lot easier to keep track of.

Game structure:

Piecing together a branching game is honestly quite a puzzle. Before going into working on your game, you should sit down and figure out game mechanics. What points do you want to include? Personality? Relationship? Romance? Skills? Some kind of narrative scale akin to blood vs shadow? Figure out what points systems you want to include and then figure out how that's going to impact the story and where. When creating love interests, don't just create a character and assume they'll fit themselves into the narrative. Focus on the character as a character first, meaning determine how they fit into the story's narrative, and then think about them as a love interest second. If you do this, it will make them a better character and a more satisfying love interest. Finally, start the game knowing how much variation you want. Do you want something with immense, diverging endings? How much variation do you want within one scene? Because interactive fiction is so determinant on player choices and there can be so many routes, it's not a good idea to just go with the flow and see what happens, because otherwise you won't be able to reconcile all the different routes you likely created. So figure out the overall structure for your story in terms of mechanics before you really start on planning.

Planning and writing:

Once you have the previous stuff figured out, then you can start actually planning the story and eventually, writing it. Again, I'd recommend you figure out the previous stuff first because if you start planning and writing immediately, but then it turns out you can't solve the programming, or can't get art, then all this work will have been for naught. My advice on planning: do NOT skimp out! Additionally, to make the love interests feel more important to the story as a whole, I would recommend the technique of arc outlining, which is essentially when you take each love interest separate from each other and plan out scenes that tie into the story to further their individual character arcs. Doing this makes it easy to figure out where tender relationship and intimate moments can go, and those moments will be more interesting because they're connected to an actual plot point instead of just being like "it's sexy time!" Once you have your plans, you can start writing. Depending on how long your story is, writing can be really difficult. It takes a lot of time and thought, and burnout is real.

Music:

You'll want to figure out how you'll get music for your game. Again, creators usually hire out for this. On the Ren'Py forums, there's actually a specific topic for music that helps you network with composers who are looking for jobs. For us, again, since we're a fan project that's not making money, we could use 1) Choices music 2) tracks from a music library I have a deal with and 3) as a composer myself, I wrote some original tracks. Also, if you're looking for free sound effects, freesound.org is actually perfect for that. It's where I got the siren, forest, and ghost voice SFX!

Distribution

Distribution can be tricky! For ILW, we originally wanted it to be playable online, but we eventually removed that option because 1) saving online was complicated 2) the quality wasn't as good and it couldn't run smoothly and 3) we didn't want people who could download it, play online and have a bad experience instead of downloading it. If you offer an online option, most people will take it. For indie games, I think using something like Steam or itch.io is the way to go. Unfortunately, that will make it so it's not available on Apple products, but to get it on Apple you have to package it specifically for Apple which is difficult, and you have to pay $100/year to be allowed to have it up on the app store in the first place.

Hopefully this helps! This is really just scratching the surface, but here are some things to think about if you're interested in making your own visual novel.

#ask #anon #mod win #writing tips #visual novel #visual novel tips #renpy

[dropintomanga]

Meguru Bachira (Blue Lock) - Accepting the Monster

"Tell me, monster. What should I do? What will it take for those two to acknowledge me?"

If there's one hidden truth that's apparent once it's open, it's that we all have dark sides. With happiness comes sadness, with joy comes anger. We can't have yin without yang. However, there's so many of us who can't accept that we sometimes have inner monsters. We carry trauma that builds up over time stemming from childhood experiences and begins to take a life of its own when unchecked.

I'm going to talk about a very notable character whose claim to living is their inner monster and that's Meguru Bachira from Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura's compelling hit soccer anime/manga series, Blue Lock.

To describe Blue Lock in a nutshell, it's about young Japanese soccer strikers (players whose specialty is goal-scoring) being chosen to compete in a very rigorous training program called Blue Lock for a chance to become a striker strong enough to help Japan take on and surpass the world's best soccer teams. Bachira is introduced during a initiation game of tag, where whoever has the soccer ball last in their possession once a specific amount of time expires is removed from the Blue Lock program. Bachira "tags" the series' main hero, Yoichi Isagi, who had a chance to "tag" a fallen player and drive them out. Instead, Isagi tags a more competent player after Bachira encourages him to "tag" a stronger player. Bachira and Isagi would then form a friendship after that moment, where the former explains to the latter that he has a monster instead of him and is looking for fellow monsters and potential ones in the making, one of which is Isagi. The two would form a team and they looked inseparable.

Instead, Bachira was taken from Isagi after a game in the Second Selection phase of the Blue Lock program due to a rule stating that winning teams in that round can take any one of the losing team's players. Isagi becomes determined to take Bachira back from the team that took him and also prove himself to that team's captain, Rin Itoshi. When the time came for Isagi and Bachira to "reunite" in a rematch between the two teams, we finally learn about Bachira's past.

Bachira grew up really loving soccer more than anything else. He loved it so much that it irked his fellow peers. Bachira became bullied for being a bit too weird about soccer. Bachira's mother tried to comfort saying that Bachira is following the "monster" inside his heart. That "monster" was imploring him to keep playing soccer since Bachira's mother had a creative "monster" that drove her work. However, Bachira's "monster" starts to become problematic as coaches and other players noted how invisible they feel when they play with Bachira. Bachira notices that the people around him don't have monsters, but he still does and takes pride in it. However, the monster inside him starts to grow into extreme loneliness.

The first time I saw Bachira's past and the monster, it made me think about one thing - the Hearing Voices network. It's a mental health support network for people who hear voices in their head, see visions that are out of the norm, and/or have unusual experiences that can get extreme. Individuals facing their conditions are often treated with a lot of disdain and a lack of understanding. They have to deny and suppress their thoughts out of fear of being deemed crazy.

Bachira says that no one understands how he feels and what he sees. He was having a mental health crisis that went beyond depression and anxiety. Something that couldn't be easily fixed. It wasn't until he met Isagi that his perspective started to change. Isagi was Bachira's first real friend.

People talk about how some major mental health problems are caused by brain chemistry and bad genetics. But you know, sometimes, they are caused by a lack of attention when growing up as a child. What if relationships that were supposed to aid in your social development suddenly disappeared when you start to feel differently about things within good reason? What if the one thing you love was suddenly occupied by people who didn't want to be around you anymore?

Why wouldn't a "monster" start to appear in the face of terrible social context?

Bachira's monster was a response to his trauma and it becomes more apparent once the final Second Selection game was played. Bachira notices that Isagi and Rin are starting to eclipse him. He becomes hesitant over how to play during the match. Isagi and Rin's monsters were on a very different level because they were about surpassing their own limits first and foremost. Bachira also comes to a realization that because of Blue Lock, he doesn't need the monster anymore and not rely on other "monster" players (like Isagi) to justify himself playing soccer.

Bachira's words about not needing the monster anymore makes me think about how certain labels can be useful at first, but end up being harmful once they fulfilled their purpose. I don't know about any of you, but I felt this way when I was struggling with my "clinical depression" label. I carried it to a huge deal, but over the past few years and meeting new people that changed my outlook, I've been trying to shed that label slowly. I want to believe that I can still do great things and meet loving people even if my condition says otherwise.

I think about the people who receive mental health diagnoses and have been told that they're doomed. Next thing you know, their lives spiral out of control. What's worse is that the people who are supposed to help actually end up doing more harm than good. They get told that there's some things that are considered stable parts of life (i.e. hold a full-time job, have a romantic relationship, etc.) they can't do anymore. I think about the discrimination they face when it comes to not being "normal."

While some things are definitely affected for the worst, I do believe that people with mental health problems are more capable than they think. We can make good lives for ourselves with the support of others who believe the same. We can definitely take on the most basic things alone, but we definitely need people to treat us with compassionate understanding. Blue Lock may not be a mental health clubhouse, but I love how its unique combination of egoism and communal setting changed Bachira. I know there's definitely people like Bachira out there who want something that drives them to better themselves while bettering others.

And about the monsters inside of us, I think it's harmful to shame them. You better damn-well acknowledge them like Bachira did. They were doing the best they could to protect you. Though I think about something Bachira's mother said to Bachira when he was sad - believe in the monster in your heart. Sometimes, the monster in your mind is a lot worse than the monster in your heart. It can rationalize every thing that happens to you in a very binary fashion. The monster in your heart is your true/base desire and I believe Bachira finally awakens to that as he just wants to play soccer with joy no matter what anyone else says.

That's the kind of monster I want more people to embrace.

#Meguru Bachira #Blue Lock #childhood trauma #mental health #monster #dark side #manga #anime #Muneyuki Kaneshiro #Yoichi Isagi #Yusuke Nomura #sports manga

[sarurun42]

hey sarurun

been a fan for a while and i was wondering if you could give advice on your pixel art journey

Hello!

First of all, thank you for following and supporting me! It means a lot!

Advice, hmm, I'm not really a good teacher or anything but I'll try to give you a sense of how I got to where I am now.

I grew up with old SNES-era games; think Yoshi's Island, Link to the Past, etc, and eventually got a DS where I mainly played Pokemon, and developed a fondness for the sprite-art, especially the animated ones featured in the fifth generation.

My first computer wasn't too powerful and I couldn't play too many games, so I settled for a few sprite-based flash games that had small communities online. After a while I saw others editing the sprites to 'customize' their characters further, and I gave a shot at it myself to try to trick my friends into thinking I had cool items that didn't actually exist in the game (it didn't work, but I found myself having fun doing it), but this was probably my first real experience with the medium.

After that I mainly focused on non-pixel art for a while, really trying to get better at anatomy and rendering.

In 2018 I realized I had to get serious with my art. I'm a really scattered person and bouncing between illustration, painting, 3d stuff and other mediums wasn't helping so I decided I have to choose one thing to really go all-in on, for some reason that was pixel art.

Though before then I didn't really look up any tutorials or actually read anything about pixel art, so I was somewhat new to all the concepts and techniques. I started with a free browser editor called Piskel and started to do mainly small avatars and sprites in it. It's a very limited program but was a good starting point to see if I really wanted to commit to it.

At some point I got sick of Piskel always crashing on me, caved and bought Aesprite, at that point there was no turning back and I decided to go a bit further and also buy a book called 'Pixel Logic' (there's a free preview of it here), I read through it and honestly learning about pixel art, and seeing examples of terms and such really helped me understand what makes pixel art... pixel art. (There's a bunch of free tutorials out there if the book isn't for you, and for Youtube tutorials I'd suggest Brandon James Greer and AdamCYounis )

From there it was really a lot of experimentation and trial and error of what worked and what didn't, and believe me there was a lot that didn't. (Pixel Daily prompts really helped me in keeping a somewhat consistent practice going).

If you're just starting out, don't be afraid to make mistakes and don't save cool concepts for 'when you'll get better'. That time will never come as, while you're getting better, you'll always want to get *even better* and the goalposts will just keep moving. Just do what you want now, have fun and experiment with it.

You don't need fancy programs or equipment to make pixel art either, as long as you've got a mouse, a basic image editor, paint, piskel, librepsrite, etc, and the will to go through with it, you can make it happen. It will just take time.

Good luck on your journey!

#tokuanswers #pixelart #ask #answered asks

[nucleiaster]

Having some trouble progressing with shaders, I feel there's a lack of reference material (tutorials etc). Could you guide me to some materials that you used to progress in this field?

Yes, of course ! I don't know your degree of familiarity with shaders, or what platform you're writing them on, so these resources are going to be very Unity-centric, since that what I'm familiar with ! But a shader is a shader, no matter where you create it, so it should not be complicated to adapt these resources to your needs. I personally started with Gabriel Aguiar Prod's Shadergraph tutorials. He doesn't go in depth into the how and whys of shaders, but it's a good starting point to get a feel of how it works.

For learning how to write shaders, both Xibanya and Cyanilux are very good resources : Xibanya's Shaders for people who don't know ho to shader focuses on writing shaders for Unity's Built In Render Pipeline; and Cyanilux has a very detailed article on writing shader code for the Universal Render Pipeline, and a more general intro to the shader pipeline that goes into how shaders work in general. The book of shaders is not attached to any particular engine and provides interactive examples of the concepts they present.

When it comes to tutorials, I really like the work of Ronja's tutorials, Harry Alisavakis, Minions Art, Roystan and Alan Zucconi. Also, Simon Schreibt makes a lot of game effects breakdown and has a series of posts explaining render pipelines from an artist's perspective.

I also want to mention Catlike Coding, Inigo Quilez and Acerola who are on the more technical side of things. Reddit and the Unity forums can also be really useful if you're stuck. Oh, and don't hesitate to dive into Unity's shadergraph documentation when you need a specific function (remap, gradient, blend mode...) : each node comes with a code snippet and it's a lifesaver.

For the maths, I unfortunately don't have a lot of resources. You can go without for a while, but eventually you'll have to know some vector maths and matrices, either for more complicated effects or if you want a better understanding of what's going on in your shaders. The book 3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development by Fletcher Dunn and Ian Parberry has really helped me link abstract maths concepts to what happens on my screen. I also got Mathematics fo 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics (third edition) by Eric Lengyel (it has a skeleton on the cover, how cool is that) but I haven't gotten through it yet.

I probably forgot a few blogs or youtube channels, but these are the ones I always come back to ! I hope these will be useful to you, have fun creating shaders !

#ask #not art #how many times did i write shaders in this post #also i am very much still learning so maybe some more advanced resources eluded me because i couldn't understand them yet

[flame2ashes]

Hey, can I ask how you do the mesh swapping? Super impressed and clueless over here. I'd love to do something like that, just have no idea where to begin. TIA

Sure! It might seem a little intimidating at first when you look at the files at a glance, but with a little patience and understanding of the logic behind how the files work, it becomes easier every time

So, mesh swapping. The only reason why I started doing it was because I wanted content of my Shepards interacting but I didn't feel like drawing, so I just modded my game instead. I've done this for over a year now but tbh I'm not a very advanced modder; a lot of trial and error occurred and I ended up sticking to methods that were familiar to me and worked for me.

The Legendary Explorer GitHub actually has a Wiki that contains tutorials on how to do certain things, and this includes how to replace meshes for characters! The tutorial in question shows how to mesh swap Garrus with Saren in LE2, and how mesh swapping works in LE3.

I'm writing this with the assumption that you are totally new to making mods for Mass Effect. I'm gonna be real: a lot of the stuff I'm saying here might be re-hashed information if you've read the tutorial already, tho unintentionally. Hopefully you'll still find it helpful 🙃

Stuff under the cut:

To get started, you will need:

Legendary Explorer (to actually mod the game)

ME3Tweaks Mod Manager (to help you set up DLC mods) (tho if you're already modding the game you already have this lmao)

A legitimate copy of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition for PC (it sounds obvious, but I'm emphasizing that it has to be legit as a warning. If problems arise and you have a pirated game, I won't be able to help you. Neither will the ME Modding Discord.)

For more advanced mesh modding stuff, you'll also need:

Blender (I use version 2.8 for safety) (3DS Max is also an option, but Blender is the software I use. Also, Blender is free.)

A PSK/FBX importer/exporter script for Blender (this is the one linked in the LEX github tutorials, and works with 2.8. That being said, this script supports 2.9 or later and basically does the same thing, but only works with PSK/PSA. Use whatever works for you. tbh I actually use the latter script, albeit not the latest version)

Unreal Development Kit 2015 version (this will help you convert your files to UPK, which is the format your mesh needs to be in for import)

An image editing program for textures (GIMP or Paint.net are the ones people recommend. Personally I use Paint.net most of the time because it's a more lightweight software)

ALSO NOTE: If you've installed texture mods to your game already, RESTORE YOUR GAME TO ITS VANILLA STATE. The general rule is to never make mods on a texture modded game, even personal mods.

If you're using the LE3 Community Patch and Framework, make sure you follow the mod page's instructions on how to make mods with it. (If you don't have the LE3 Community Patch and Framework, I highly recommend it. A lot of mods use the framework, and generally it's a pretty good and non-invasive mod to begin with)

What you want is to get familiar with the types of files you'll be using. For mesh swapping, you'll be using meshes, materials, and textures.

In Legendary Explorer, you'll be using these programs:

Package Editor - you'll be doing most of your editing in this program. You'll get to access basically everything contained in a PCC file. You'll also be able to import/export textures through this program.

Mesh Explorer (AKA Meshplorer) - this will display all the meshes contained in a PCC file. This is where you can export and import meshes as well.

Asset Database - once you get the databases set up, you'll be able to search and access the game's files and assets more easily, including files from DLC mods.

TFC Compactor - If you've imported new textures, this will help compact and repack your TFC files. You only need to do this if you've added new textures and created a new TFC for them.

--

So for the Citadel DLC tango scene specifically, it was actually a mix of mesh swapping and Interp editing, but for our purposes here we're going to focus on the mesh swapping (though I will show the Interp edited scene to see the edit more quickly).

I'm going to focus on how I mesh swapped James with Kaidan for this part. Since we're working with in-game files, you don't actually need Blender or the UDK Editor for this example. But it should be a good starting point for understanding some aspects of mesh swapping.

Anyway, which files do we need for the actual mesh swapping??? If you're unfamiliar with how the game calls its files, then it may be impossible to find out. Luckily, ME3Tweaks Mod Manager has an ASI mod that will help you determine which files are being accessed at your current point in the game. (The character mesh tutorial linked above will tell you more about it, but for quick reference you will find it under Mod Management > ASI Mod Manager. The mod itself is called Streaming Levels HUD.)

The HUD will look like this in-game:

The list you'll see in-game is every file called within the cutscene, but the one you actually need will be BioH_Marine_00_NC, which is the file for James' casual appearance. This will be the one you'll be modding. For Kaidan's casual appearance, you will need BioH_Kaidan_00_NC.

(For future reference: if you use the LE3 Community Patch and Framework, and a character you want to swap with has a file within the framework, use the framework file instead. For example: if you wanted to modify Miranda in any way, use the Framework's file for Miranda.)

Now that you know the files you need, you can use the Asset Database to look up the files. Once you find them (you can copy/paste the file name in the search box to quickly get to them faster), you can right click the file and choose the option to see them in File Explorer.

Now that you have the locations of the files, you can get started :)

Step 0: Make a DLC mod

Generate a new ME3 DLC mod that you can actually place the files in. To do this, go to the ME3Tweaks Mod Manager, then go to Tools > Generate new DLC Mod (Starter Kit) > Mass Effect 3 (Legendary Edition). This tutorial will pretty much tell you what you need to fill in the required fields.

tbh this can be done even after you finish modding your files, but it'll be easier for you to generate the mod first, as it will also create a folder for your mod.

Step 0.5: Copy the files you need into your mod folder

Once the mod has been generated, take the files you're going to modify (in this case, BioH_Marine_00_NC) and copy/paste them to the CookedPCConsole folder. Re-naming the file is not required; if you install a mod with incorrect PCC file names then the actual files won't get modded.

To access the mod folder, right-click your mod in the Mod Manager and select "Open mod folder".

Step 1: Open James' and Kaidan's files in Package Editor

You'll need to open two instances of Package Editor. Open James' NC file in one instance (the one in your mod folder) and Kaidan's NC file in the other. Keep them side by side and make note of which side is which.

Side tangent: you can actually associate .PCC files with Legendary Explorer, which will allow you to open them to Package Editor directly from the File Explorer. To do this, click on the gear icon in the main menu of the toolset, then in the window that opens, click on the Files tab, then click on the "Associate .PCC and .SFM Files" button. You can also do the same with the other options. (To ensure your settings are saved, click "Save to File".)

The Package Editor windows will look similar to this once you've opened the files (this is Kaidan's file):

On the left is the file tree for the entire PCC. The right side displays several tabs of information for the selected file, such as Properties, Metadata, Binary Interpreter, and Script Editor. (These are the common tabs; other tabs will display depending on the kind of file you're viewing.)

You'll see that I've already highlighted Kaidan's head model (ignore the fact that they spelt it as Kaiden. We know the truth. But also don't ignore it because all his files are labelled with this spelling, so keep it in mind when searching for his textures or meshes). Generally when you open a package file, all the folders will be closed. So for future reference, here's some useful terms to know:

If you see a folder or file with HMF or HMM, that's a human asset. HMF usually means Human Female, while HMM means Human Male. ASA is for Asari, TUR is for Turian, etc. etc.

Folders/files with the term HED will indicate heads.

Folders/files with the term HIR will indicate hair.

Folders/files with the term ARM will indicate bodies. CTH will indicate casual outfits. NKD will indicate naked bodies. In some cases there will also be different terms for armor parts, but generally for NPCs they will all be a whole body mesh anyway.

Kaidan's' head mesh is labeled as BIOG_HMM_HED_PROKaiden_MDL(SkeletalMesh). You'll know it's a mesh because of the M symbol next to it. (SkeletalMesh means that the mesh has an armature). Likewise, you can also see Kaidan's textures. You'll know it's a texture because of the multi-coloured square next to it (also it will end as Texture2D). Kaidan's body mesh is labeled HMM_ARM_CTHb_MDL. When you right-click on the mesh file, there will be an option to open it in Mesh Explorer. Here's what it'll look like there:

On the list on the left, you'll see two items: his body mesh, and his head mesh. If you compare it to other characters, you might notice that they usually have a separate mesh for the hair. Kaidan's, on the other hand, is part of his head mesh, for reasons only known to the developers.

On the right is the actual viewer for the mesh. This shows the mesh and any materials associated with it. It's a surefire way to find out whether you've placed the materials on the mesh incorrectly.

Lastly in the middle-bottom is the Binary Interpreter. This shows you information such as which materials the mesh is using, its rotation origin, the number of LODs it has, and how many bones the armature has (RefSkeleton). For our purposes here, the section you need to note is the Materials.

(For future reference: The Binary Interpreter and the Mesh are also available to view within the Package Editor.)

Anyway, now that we know where Kaidan's meshes are, it's now finally time!!! To import them!!! Into James' file!!!

Step 2: Import Kaidan's stuff into James' file

Back in your two Package Editors opened side by side, go to Kaidan's file, click on HMM_HED_PROKaiden_MDL, and then drag it towards James' file to drop it in. To keep things organized, I would usually drop it in the same folder as the other head mesh, so for this case, open the folders in James' file to show the James folder under BIOG_HMM_HED_PROMorph, then drag Kaidan's head mesh into it.

Once you do this, this window will pop up:

Click on "Clone All References", as this will also import all associated objects along with the mesh.

This is what you'll see:

If there are no issues, this alert will pop up as well:

Along with Kaidan's head mesh, it also imported his textures and his materials. Great! Note that when files are highlighted in yellow, it means that a change has been made (the change in this case is that they were added to the file). Repeat for Kaidan's body mesh.

We now have Kaidan's head mesh, body mesh, and associated materials and textures within James' files. Are we done? Hahahaha *Cries*

We're not done. We now have Kaidan's stuff where we want them, but the PCC is still referencing James' stuff. If we save and install this mod now, nothing will really change in game.

So here it is. The actual mesh swapping for this example. Are you ready?

(If you've gotten this far, save your file. While you're here, you can also take a moment to look at the files you've imported to get a better understanding of what they look like in the editor. If you've never seen face textures before, brace yourself.)

Step 3: Change the references so that Kaidan's stuff is being referenced instead of James' stuff

First off, we need to actually know where James' stuff is being referenced. Right-click on BIOG_HMM_HED_James and then click on "Find References". It will open a window that looks like this:

Here, you'll see where James' head is being referenced. If you double-click on the entry, it will take you directly to it. In this case, it's here:

It's a little hard to read, but the first property in the export is SkeletalMesh, and in italics, you'll see that it's the file path for James' head mesh. You will need to replace this with the file path for Kaidan's head mesh.

When you click on the property, a textbox will pop up:

Here, you will need to input the index number for Kaidan's head mesh. Currently, it has the index number for James' head mesh.

Here's Kaidan's head mesh file name again:

(I swear to god BioWare why would you name him Kaiden in the files. We're suffering already.)

The index number here is 2406. This is what you'll input the textbox. Click Set once it's inputted.

And there we go. The SkeletalMesh entry is now referencing Kaidan's head mesh's file path. If you right click on James' head mesh and click Find References, the list will now be empty.

Repeat this for the materials. These are a little trickier. Most likely, the references will be found in multiple places, but will always be under an export called MaterialInstanceConstant_XXXX (the X represents numbers). To make sure it works properly, you will have to reference the materials in the same order as they're listed on the mesh's Binary Interpreter.

For these cases, click on the MaterialInstanceConstant, then under the export properties on the right, click on Parent. In the textbox, input the index number of the material you want, then click on Set. It'll be a lot of back and forth, so I recommend noting down the index numbers (I usually just screenshot the Materials list under the mesh's Binary Interpreter).

Once you're done, you'll realize....oh yeah. James' head mesh has more materials than Kaidan's, which means there's an extra MaterialInstanceConstant on the list. In this case? Just set the extra ones to 0. Literally, just set it to 0.

Continue until all the references point to Kaidan's head and body meshes and materials.

Cool, so now that the files are pointing towards Kaidan's stuff, are we done??? Maybe??

Almost. Remember when I said that Kaidan's head mesh includes his hair, and other characters have a separate hair mesh?

Yeah.....James' head includes a separate hair mesh. If you were to save and install this file to the game now, the hair will show up over Kaidan's head.

So what's a person to do?? Well, you basically know the steps now: locate James' hair mesh file, then right-click it and click Find References. Go to said references, then under the Properties where James' hair is being referenced, change the index to 0. Repeat for the hair material as well.

And now!!!! You are done with editing. Hopefully. Save your file.

Step 4: Install your mod to your game and launch the game see the changes

(If you haven't done Step 0 and 0.5 yet, do those steps first.)

Alright! Your file is edited and placed within the appropriate mod folder. You can now select your mod in the Mod Manager, click Apply Mod, and launch your game :)))

Step 5: ????

Hold on let me check if this actually worked and I didn't just bullshit you for an entire tutorial-

Yup, it works!!! Ignore the fact that the Interp edit is still there lol. If you followed this tutorial, Kaidan will show up when James usually shows up in the scene (I.E. in the middle of the actual dance), or any time James shows up in his casual outfit.

Now, if you got to this point and there's still an issue, you'll have to go back into the file and check what's wrong, make the fix, save the file, and then Apply Mod once again. Apparently it is possible to apply your mod while the game is still running, meaning that you just need to reload your save to see the changes, but I don't usually do that. However, if you're able to do this, it's a huge time saver.

To summarize this tutorial:

Step -1: Find the files you will need for the mod.

Step 0: Generate a mod kit in ME3Tweaks Mod Manager for your mod, then place the files you will be changing into the mod's folder.

Step 1: Open the file you will be changing, and the file you will take the assets for your mod, on two different instances of Package Editor.

Step 2: Import the assets you need into the file you will be changing.

Step 3: Change all references to point to the assets you imported.

Step 4: Save file, click Apply Mod in Mod Manager, launch game to check

Step 5: ????

Step 6: Profit, unless there's an issue, then go back into the file to fix it. Repeat steps 4-6.

--

Extra things to note:

If you make similar mods like this and only want them to work in specific scenes, you will need to disable the mod when you're done using it. Otherwise the mesh swap will happen in places you didn't want them to, like this:

(Pictured: John Shepard cooking the shittiest eggs in the world while holding the frying pan by his fingertips because I forgot to turn off my mesh swap mod. Sir I love you but pls)

Try to remember the mount numbers your personal mods have. One time I realized one of my mods wasn't working because it was the same mount number as a mod I downloaded. If it turns out your mod's mount number conflicts with another, don't worry! Use the Mount Editor tool in LEX to change your mod's mount number. (I advise changing your personal mod's mount number instead of a downloaded mod.)

Keep all your files organized for your own sanity.

Make backups of your mods!!! Honestly, making backups is always good practice.

tbh I had so much more to say, but then I hit the image limit, which snapped me out of it. Since you asked how to get started, I will save you from being overwhelmed from all the information I was about to give you. Instead, I'm going to list some other things you can do that can help you understand mesh modding a little more:

Follow this tutorial on adding a casual outfit/armor for Shepard to wear. The first mod I ever did was porting an outfit mod I liked from the original trilogy to Legendary Edition. It helped me understand the files you use for mesh swapping, and will give you a chance to actually use Blender and the UDK Editor.

Download the Thane Mesh Swap mod, not to play, but to analyze! The mod is literally mesh swapping Kaidan with Thane. Compare the modded files to the vanilla ones; you'll also see the extent of the files needed to make a full character mesh swap.

If you're still wondering how I got Ashley as Shepard for the tango mod, then I'll tell you: I used the Custom Head Mesh Framework. Instead of a custom Shepard, I just mesh swapped Shepard with Ashley. Tutorials by the mod author are here :)

Finally, here's the invite to the ME Modding Discord. There's useful information, useful links, and most of all, people who can answer any questions you might have. (I'm on there too; I just don't speak a lot. It's okay to ping me!)

If you have any more questions, or want more information, feel free to send me more asks. Again, I hope this was helpful to you :)

#Anonymous #Mass Effect #Mass Effect Modding

[atwas-creations]

With the insanity that Unity's recent decisions have caused, I, as an aspiring game dev/designer, am looking to see what else is available. We all know about RPG Maker, GameMaker Studio, Godot, and Unreal. But if you're like me and have little to no understanding of code and limited finances, here are alternative indie engines I've scrounged up:

Idle Game Maker, the one I'm currently working with, built by Orteil of Cookie Clicker fame

Bitsy, and an associated pixel art tool called Pixsy

Pocket Platformer, similar to Bitsy, and code-free

Rogue Engine- requires download, but apparently, there's a tutorial

GDevelop- both 2D and 3D engines, has tutorials, and even has an option to playtest games in development and provide feedback (I am definitely trying out this one in the near future)

Heaps.io-requires download, and this honestly looks a little over my head right now, but might be worth checking into when I get a better understanding of code

Stride- 3D games, requires download, has docs and instructions so you can learn quickly

Bevy- 2D games for browser and mobile

LibGDX- now we're getting into engines that can make REAL games, some of the games in their showcase are on Steam

Defold- according to their showcase, this was used to make that mobile game Family Island that you've seen in so many ads

Love- don't be fooled by the childish font on their home page, the games in their showcase look amazing

HaxeFlixel- apparently used to make Friday Night Funkin'???

Armory3D, which apparently uses Blender

Solar2D, and here's their showcase- looks decent enough

Solarus- I didn't recognize the name, but I know I've heard of this, I've seen Zelda fans use this one. You have to download their launcher to play the games on PC.

DOME, which uses its own programming language

FNA, which calls itself a "reimplementation of Microsoft XNA"- if you remember, XNA no longer exists, but Eric Barone used it for Stardew Valley. FNA has been used to make games like Rogue Legacy (it's a real game, I got it on Steam).

Monogame- a direct descendant of XNA, being used for Stardew Valley's updates, and used to make a whole host of other popular indie games including 2 of my favorites: Axiom Verge and Celeste (so yeah, I'm definitely checking into Monogame if it's still around by the time I learn C#)

RPG in a Box, which looks really blocky and rough, but appears to be a cheaper solution than RPG Maker, especially for those new to the field. I already paid for RPG Maker, so I don't know if I'll use this one, but I'm putting it here for anyone else who may want to try it.

Adventure Game Studio- not sure how difficult it will be to use, but I'm seeing some decent-looking games in their showcase

RPG Paper Maker, which, I guess, makes 3D games out of pixel art? Says it's free to use, but if you want to sell your game, you'll need to buy a license. Fair enough, I suppose.

Narrat, another one I am DEFINITELY going to try, at least while I'm still learning. Has its own, very simple, easy to read script that is a step above Idle Game Maker's script, but not quite as complicated as "real" programming languages. Make RPG's and put them on Itch.io.

Ren'Py, for visual novels (apparently Doki Doki was made with this!?!)

Decker, can be used for various kinds of applications, not much for game-making, but maybe with a little imagination....

Engine.lol- I'm, uh, not sure what this is, but could be good for generating ideas.

EbitEngine- describes itself as "dead simple," used to make Bear's Restaurant.

Raylib- no tutorials, no built-in assets, you MUST know how to code- but it looks like a no-frills engine if you do know how to code. I don't, so I won't be using it, but if you do, go right ahead.

PyGame, which apparently uses Python coding language.

And this article listed all these and a few more that I didn't list here because they looked too expensive or too complicated.

There's also a Pixel Game Maker on Steam. It's 90 bucks right now (ouch!) but if you can get it, it looks like it'll be worth it.

#game development #game engines #game design