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shinidamachu · 3 years

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15 Questions to Get to Know me Better

1. What is your favorite food and beverage?

Catupiry and chicken pizza with Coca-Cola (or Guaraná Antarctica, I keep going back and forth between the two). Any kind of pasta (or carbs, really). I’m also a salty, sour and spicy food enthusiast.

2. What is currently your favorite fandom?

Inuyasha. I know it sounds contradictory, considering how unhinged the fandom has been since the sequel was annouced. And I debated for good five minutes if I should just answer “Inukag” instead, because it’s the part of the fandom I engage with the most.

But despite how much the fandom has changed (not for the better) there are other aspects of it, other than Inukag, that I really love, so it didn’t feel right to reduce it to Inukag, even though they are the main reason I’m here.

The Inuyasha fandom was the first I wrote fanfiction for. And I love the events we create, the fanworks, the friends I made here. From all the fandoms I’ve been a part of, it was by far the one that gave me more reasons to leave but at the same time it was the one I simply couldn’t quit.

3. What shows are you currently watching?

None. Professional life has been overwhelming and I’m not really in the place to start a new show, so I just rewatch the ones I love. Again. For comfort and white noise. Today was Jane The Virgin day.

I’m also trying to catch up with the ones that are still running, like Brooklyn Nine-Nine (this new season is on fire, by the way). The last “new” show I started was Community and I was loving it. Hope to get back to it soon and finish the whole thing.

4. What’s your strength?

Interesting question. Gotta go with kindness for this one. At least that’s what I try to be.

5. What’s your weakness?

Oh, boy. Where to begin? I’m egocentric. I’m anxious. I have the attention spam of a golden fish. I tend to avoid conflict at all costs and sometimes people walk all over me for it. I’m a procrastinator who is also somehow a perfectionist. Low self steem, intimacy issues: you pick one.

6. Pet peeves?

Well, I feel like people who lick their fingers to turn over a page are attacking me, personally, and should all rot in jail. They don’t belong in society and never will.

7. What’s your ideal type?

Must make me laugh, must see me at my worst and still want to be with me. I love being on my own, so my ideal type is someone I enjoy being around as much as I enjoy being by myself. Or even more. Also, kids are a deal breaker because I don’t want any. And our political instances have got to align, at least in some key issues.

8. The last food you ate?

Cuscuz and scrambled eggs, dinner of the champions.

9. Favorite animes?

Inuyasha

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Dragon Ball

Pokemon

I know! I’m pretty basic, anime wise. And chances are I’m gonna keep it that way for now.

10. Regular pastimes or hobbies?

Writing, reading, blaming capitalism for all of my problems.

11. Favorite characters?

Dude. It’s impossible to list everyone. I’ll keep it simple and stick with the characters I’m currently more invested in.

Inuyasha and Kagome.

Zuko and Katara.

12. All-time favorite show?

A hard one, but the answer couldn’t be different. I have yet to watch something better than The Good Place.

There’s no such thing as perfection, especially when it comes to tv shows, but to me it is the one that gets closer.

It was both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Funny, fresh, beautifully written. The cast was talented and diverse. The characters were unique, relatable and flawed. Their development was substancial and satisfatory, not only as individuals but also with each other.

I keep coming back to it whenever I need comfort. Or to restaure my faith in humanity. I have no doubt we witnessed the creation of a timeless, iconic show.

13. What are you doing right now?

Listening to music, replying to this ask game and trying to get some work done.

14. How are you?

Ordinarily okay. Like, as okay as one can be as a 24 years old in this time and place. Everything feels urgent and unimportant, hopeful and hopeless at the same time. It’s like I’m watching my life pass by as I wait for it to click together.

Physically, I’m just getting over a little bit of a cold. Mentally, I like to think I’m doing fine. Totally clueless, yes, but I’m really trying to do my thing and become the person I aspire to be.

There are so many things to be grateful for, even if not everything is how I wished it was. I’m just trying to focus on the good for now.

15. Favorite rest time activities?

Sleeping after daydreaming about super vivid scenarios, mostly about fictional characters, that will either never happen or leave me alone unless I write them down. Going to the beach. Listening to music. Watching movies, tv shows or football games. Haging out with my family. Scrooling through Tumblr. Check out number 10 for more.

@higurashi-shrine this got really long and really personal, so I just decided to make my own post rather than pilling up on the original. Hope it’s cool. And thank you so much for tagging me. I loved reading your replies!

ANYONE WHO HAS READ IT THIS FAR: YOU ARE NOW OFFICIALLY TAGGED TO REPLY THIS GAME YOURSELF. I MEAN IT. TAG ME SO I CAN READ YOUR REPLIES AND GET TO KNOW YOU BETTER!

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sumofn · 3 years

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MEET THE MUSE.

Rules: Answer in-character. Repost, don’t reblog.

Tagged by @harmonicrecord Tagging whomever also wants to do this but hasn’t?

► NAME ➭ "Natural Harmonia Gropius. ... N is preferable, if you don’t mind.” ► ARE YOU SINGLE? ➭ “To my knowledge.” ► ARE YOU HAPPY? ➭ “Sometimes.” ► ARE YOU ANGRY? ➭ “I try not to be. Certain examples have made me very wary of that state.” ► ARE YOUR PARENTS STILL MARRIED? ➭ “I do not know if they ever were.”

NINE FACTS!

► ‘BIRTH’ PLACE ➭ “Unova, somewhere, I think. I was not yet cognizant of or concerned with geography at that age.” ► HAIR COLOR ➭ “Pale green. I’ve heard it referred to as ‘mint’, but also as the color of trees.” ► EYE COLOR ➭ “Unsaturated blue-green, I think. I don’t have reason to look at them often.” ► BIRTHDAY ➭ “I’m not sure. I celebrate on March 14th.” ► MOOD ➭ “These questions are making me uncomfortable. Is there a reason for them?” ► GENDER ➭ “I am still attempting to understand the human concept of gender. For one, I am not sure why so many human cultures still place an emphasis on biological sexual expression over gender. With modern medicine and living conditions, there is no need to focus on the reproductive capacity of fellow humans. Even couples with similar sex organs have options for reproduction, and children are very likely to survive into adulthood, ensuring the survival of the species even with low birth rates. However, the standard terminology of gender also confuses me. To my understanding, gender expression is a wide spectrum that is not easily defined by the two or three terms in common usage. Different cultures also expect genders to be expressed in sometimes contradictory ways. Aside from the fact that many languages developed with gendered terminology and shifting terminology takes time, I don’t understand why humans are not allowed to be simply humans, and express themselves in whatever way is the most accurate and appropriate for them at that moment, with no regard to terminology.” ► SUMMER OR WINTER ➭ “I prefer summer. It’s easier to find food and safe places to sleep.” ► MORNING OR AFTERNOON ➭ “Afternoon. I don’t always have a very stable sleep schedule, but I’m likely to be awake and active by afternoon.”

ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE!

► ARE YOU IN LOVE?➭ “I’m not sure. How do you know?” ► DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT? ➭ “I don’t think so, though in certain circumstances I do believe you can recognize some sort of a connection between yourself and another at first sight.” ► WHO ENDED YOUR LAST RELATIONSHIP? ➭ “I have not had a romantic relationship. If we’re talking about other sorts of relationships, there were ... a great many relationships ended in a largely mutual but violent manner a few years ago.” ► HAVE YOU EVER BROKEN SOMEONE’S HEART? ➭ “Very probably.” ► ARE YOU AFRAID OF COMMITMENTS? ➭ “Very much so.” ► HAVE YOU HUGGED SOMEONE WITHIN THE LAST WEEK? ➭ “Human, no. Several pokemon friends!” ► HAVE YOU EVER HAD A SECRET ADMIRER? ➭ “If they are secret, how would I know?” ► HAVE YOU EVER BROKEN YOUR OWN HEART? ➭ “I’m not entirely sure what that means.”

CHOICES!

► LOVE OR LUST ➭ “I’m not sure I have the experience to make this choice.” ► LEMONADE OR ICED TEA ➭ “Lemonade, please. I generally don’t need caffeine.” ► A FEW BEST FRIENDS OR MANY REGULAR FRIENDS ➭ “With humans, a few best friends. With pokemon, I know I cannot maintain close relationships with most of them, but I would like to be friends regardless.” ► WILD NIGHT OUT OR ROMANTIC NIGHT IN ➭ “Is ... a normal night an option?” ► DAY OR NIGHT ➭ “I prefer day when humans are involved, but night can be a very good time to be alone or with pokemon friends.”

HAVE YOU EVERS!

► BEEN CAUGHT SNEAKING OUT ➭ “I’m sure Father knew where I was at all times, unless the triad was kind enough not to inform him.” ► FALLEN DOWN/UP THE STAIRS ➭ “I did not encounter human-made stairs until I was approximately seven years old. They were beautiful, but they were a challenge. So ... yes.” ► WANTED SOMETHING/SOMEONE SO BADLY IT HURT? ➭ “Yes.”

PREFERENCES!

► SMILE OR EYES ➭ “I don’t like looking directly at human eyes, but they can indeed be more expressive than mouths. I’m still learning how to read them well.” ► SHORTER OR TALLER ➭ “I ... am admittedly uncomfortable with humans taller than I am.” ► INTELLIGENCE OR ATTRACTION ➭ “This feels like a false dichotomy.” ► HOOK-UP OR RELATIONSHIP ➭ “Again, this is an odd choice. Is not a ‘hook-up’ a type of relationship? But if we’re referring to preferred relationship duration before intimacy ... longer is much preferable.”

FAMILY!

► DO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY GET ALONG ➭ “ ... Family is a very broad term, and likewise the answers will be quite varied depending on the family member.” ► WOULD YOU SAY YOU HAVE A “MESSED UP LIFE” ➭ “Yes.” ► HAVE YOU EVER RAN AWAY FROM HOME ➭ “I have run away from everything.” ► HAVE YOU EVER GOTTEN KICKED OUT ➭ “Arguably, that happened at the same time. And then my home collapsed. It was a difficult experience.”

FRIENDS!

► DO YOU SECRETLY HATE ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS ➭ “Why would I be friends with someone I hate? How would that be possible?” ► DO YOU CONSIDER ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS GOOD FRIENDS ➭ “Human friends, yes.” ► WHO IS YOUR BEST FRIEND ➭ “My brother.” ► WHO KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU ➭ “No one, unfortunately, though I suppose my father holds the most information. That has made learning things about myself and my past very difficult.”

#{headcanons;#N's experience in Plasma was of a nearly ungendered society #Clothing and behavior was based on role and status without any reference to male or female.#So going out into human society at large #where so many cultural expectations are dependent #on whether other humans assume you're male or assume you're female #was a frustrating experience.#He will 100% respect whatever someone tells him about themselves #(they are of course the expert on their experiences)#but he also still doesn't consider himself part of human society #and doesn't want to sort any of that out in relation to himself yet.

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maine-writes · 4 years

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Maine Creates a Pokemon League

After much discussion, a few friends and I settled on our favorite Types of Pokemon.

Maine (Me!); Dark, Psychic, Poison

Patty; Fighting, Dark, Electric

Brie; Ice, Normal, Grass

Washington; Fairy, Psychic, Ghost

Lena; Fire, Fighting, Flying

David; Dragon, Fairy, Ghost

Owen; Water, Grass, Fire

Gabrielle; Steel, Rock, Ground

Jess; Bug, Poison, Flying

Maybe we should become Gym Leaders of our own region! Here's a few ideas for our Pokemon characters.

Maine; master of deceptions and secrets, employs poison, confusion, and underhanded tactics in battle. Appears as friendly and harmless, infinitely devious.

Patty; rebellious and destructive, enjoys going all-out in battle. No defensive strategy. Unrestrained and rough, best described as "a bit much".

Brie; Contradictory and sassy. Prefers contests over battles. Loves Eevee. Disinterested in actually being a Gym Leader.

Washington; Odd, has reality-warping powers. Finds the creepy cute. Looks like a cinnamon roll, acts like a cinnamon roll, can actually kill you. Same goes for his Pokemon.

Lena; Sporty and competitive. Trains Pokemon to maximum potential. Unfortunately shortsighted in hindsight and hopelessly scatterbrained.

David; Mythical hero personality, interested in epic legends and powerful Pokemon. Strategy is unpredictable, but always leaves a lasting impression.

Owen; Peaceful and easygoing. Likes a simple strategy. Akin to a benevolent teacher with infinite patience and humor.

Gabrielle; Possessing an uncommon endurance and grounded mindset, prefers a defensive strategy where her Pokemon outlast opponents in harsh weather.

Jess; New at being a Gym Leader. Employs evasiveness and poison in battle. Takes her job seriously, but has no idea what she's actually doing.

9 Gym Leaders, 3 Tiers of 3.

Tier 1, Beginner; Owen, Brie, Jess

Tier 2, Intermediate; Washington, Gabrielle, Patty

Tier 3, Advanced; Lena, David, Maine

So my wonderful idea is that our region's League Challenge differs from others in that it all boils down to two contestants in a tournament between challengers who collected all 9 Badges, who then team up against the Gym Leaders of Tier 3 and the toughest of Tier 2, effectively an Elite Four; Patty & Maine and David & Lena.

Then the finalists battle each other before facing the Champion.

If the region had to have a antagonistic Team, there would be 2. One, with a "Team" name, would be led by Maine, tasked with weeding out the weak and unworthy from the League Challenge. One of his "underhanded tactics". The other would be a truly villainous organization, aiming to profit from having a specific Challenger win, by any means necessary. Sort of like an evil Silph Co.

The League Challenge is organized by the League Committee, a group of 5 individuals who make the entire competition possible.

Traditionally, a seat is reserved for the leading Pokemon Professor of the region.

Another seat is reserved for the previous Champion, who is expected to give up the seat when the current Champion is superseded.

The remaining 3 seats are given to influential people in the region, from industry leaders to wealthy sponsors. For the most part, nobody but the Committee knows who sits in these remaining seats, as their identites are kept secret. Apart from the Professor and previous Champion, there is the Spokesperson, an individual who acts as the public face of the committee in televised events and conferences, but any of the former can act in this capacity and the Spokesperson may not actually hold a seat in the League Committee.

It isn't all that difficult to register for the League Challenge, simply sign up, attend a preliminary test battle before a certain date at a certified facility, then go about your merry way. The opening ceremony is optional, but an unforgettable experience. Or gain entry via sponsorship.

But Challengers must clear each Tier of Gym Leaders before moving onto the next. Beat all 3 of Tier 1 before challenging any of Tier 2, and so on, but not in any particular order.

And that is the Pokemon League Challenge!

#Pokemon #i do love late night story development

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villains4hire · 4 years

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Lusamine (Pokemon: Sun and Moon)

(This muse is somewhat triggering. Containing mind-break. Simulated drug mind-warping because of certain elements that involve her own personality and mind)

Do I want them to die: It doesn’t matter really. She doesn’t directly oppose many protagonists unless they’re in the way of her goals. I will not kill her.

Important note: If you just want the anime personality and only that one? I am more than willing to just have that one. I just have less happy Lusamine anime icons at the moment.

Will I have/get icons: pokegirlsky-rpicons for manga and guiltfree icons for the video game icons and her mother beast icons. (I’ll get more when my usual source from animated shows isn’t wigging out) Tag: mother beast Age: 49 (Self-experiments has slowed or halted her aging down completely) Sex: Masculine. Gender: Trans Female. (I’ve had a few people in the past get kinda gross with me before when it comes to ‘ ‘hetro presenting’ couples having trans people in them’. So hey, test-tube babies are a thing and Lusamine is more than smart enough to make it work through science, so there you go if you need an explanation) Race: Artificially Evolved Human. Sexuality: Omnisexuality. Personality traits: (Do note that some of this still exists in her personality and will be listing her warped-mind traits, do consider that it’s still there but toned down and she has better control/knows better for some of it and ignores her toxic feelings) Doesn’t know right from wrong at times even if it should be obvious. Bubbly. Kind. Incredibly informative and intelligent. Compassionate. Empathetic. Happy. Easy-going. Loving. Delusional. A bit of a romantic. A day-dreamer. An inventor. An innovator. Always moving forward. An incredibly strong will. A tad thoughtless but also thoughtful. Logical. Contradictory at times. Dark. Sadistic. Can have bursts of anger and outbursts. Cruel. Abusive. Knowledgeable. Intelligent. Can read others rather well. Can be analytical but also emotional. Witty. Is somewhat wise. She’s a mixed bag and isn’t all too consistent personality wise and is a very conflicting character to even herself. Mental traits: Already had reconstructed her being, but her mind has further warped from her exposure to the nihilego poison. Her brain is that of a super genius, capable of great feats of intellect that even outdo her own supercomputers at times. (Like, some of the stuff she can do in her head in canon and create is actually insane, but it’s anime I guess so yeah: over the top) Physical traits: A tall, somewhat slender but I make her a tad chunkier than canon. Only a tad though. Green Eyed. Blonde. Powers: In any other universe? Humans from the Pokemon Universe would have superhuman endurance and durability considering what they can withstand, so that’s a power. She has genius level intellect, specializing in many branches of technology, but her obsession is dimensional research and understanding reality. To which she has a disturbing amount of innate knowledge on it seems. Pokemon Team (Default, Casual Team for battles that don’t really matter): Clefable. Bewear. Lilligant. Milotic. Lopunny. Mismagius. Pheromosa (Maybe, my Pheromosa is basically her ‘Pikachu’ in terms of following them) Pokemon Team (For battles that do matter) Milotic. Pheromosa. Celesteela. Naganadel. (Then random ones from her original team, no other ultra beasts will appear unless doing pre-detox Lusamine) Mother Beast Form: (Instead of using Pokemon? You fight this form instead because that was honestly a disappointment that you didn’t. It even had six tentacles to show the forms for six pokemon so I presume. It has a total of six phases corresponding to the tentacles. Each are effected by a type for two times damage, but then immune to a random three elements and then affected by half for another 3 and then normally by others. She will swap between these phases to confuse and befuddle opponents. Her main attacks are beam attacks and barriers along with deflection. She is on par with several legendary pokemon combined as I headcanon that her unique biology is what her allowed to fuse to the Ultra Beasts rather than being outright absorbed, meaning if left alone long enough? I would’ve had it to where she would’ve assimilated into the pokemon, her main body disappearing and becoming a hivemind for the nihilego with her strong will and sentience of what keeps her mind intact with an alien minds, personalities and her mind further warping added on top of her own mental traits. Maybe I’d be willing to rp this out in an au, but for now? No unless someone requests it. Motivations: To love her L̴̛̝͙͖̟͓̮̗̳͌̾͆̊̃̌͌̑̈́͟ͅí̢̛̛̦̩͖̺̻̟̺͒̃͒̚͠͠l̡̨̛̝̯̤̻̿̏̃́̌̔̈́̚̚ḻ̰̺̙̘̳̮̻̉͗͑͋̐͛̓͘͞͞ỉ̡̮̣̃͛̓̅͛͢͠ͅė̸̗̳͈̬͇̙͋͐̓̏̾̑̅̉͝ Nihilego and become one. (Pre-mind warp) Post mind-warp: to become better. To grow past what she did and became. To make amends with her children even if they hate her in the end. She at least wants to make their lives better even if they may never love her like they used to or can’t/don’t want to, but she accepts that. To help people and pokemon. To still stay friends with her husband Mohn even if he doesn’t remember her anymore. To maybe find new love when she’s in a better place mentally. Backstory:

I pretty much explained my canon take on the character, but overall she will be relatively canon, just incorporating the anime and the video games, though using the storyline of the video games. The anime I’m not as familiar with other than the first few gens, and nor am I too interested in other than seeing Ash finally win the championship for the Sun and Moon season.

https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Lusamine

#mother beast #bios #ooc #villains #redeemable villains #redeemed villains

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barbosaasouza · 5 years

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‘Monster Garden’ Developer Talks About the Healing Power of Play

Zack Wood, developer of Monster Garden, shared some of their design thoughts about their monster-befriending game, and how play and imagination can bring about personal healing and care.

What got you interested in exploring friendship with a game?

Zack Wood, developer of Monster Garden: When I played RPGs growing up, I loved getting new characters and choosing which would be in the party for different missions. I wanted them to interact with each other and for the unique combination of characters in my party to affect major story events, but in most games it didn’t seem to matter much at all.

Harvest Moon 64 was the first game I played where befriending characters was a major part of the game, so I naturally loved it and other games in the series. But in the end, friendship is just a secondary element in Harvest Moon games, and you can pretty much ignore it if you want to.

So, for a long time I wanted to make a game where meeting and making friends with characters was really the core of the game.

Why do so using monsters? What was the importance of making friends with gaming’s most maligned group?

As an artist, monsters are a chance to get imaginative and have fun with character designs, so I always appreciate it when games create some nice monsters. But for me, having to fight them clashes with the sense of delight and wonder they inspire. I want to savor that feeling of encountering something mysterious, so I often wish fighting monsters to the death wasn’t the only way most games let you interact with them. I’d rather help them, get to know them, or just let them be.

A game like Pokemon might seem different since the monsters are allies instead of enemies, but trapping monsters in balls and only releasing them to do your bidding in battle isn’t actually very nice either, when you think about it.

And I don’t think it’s by chance that monsters tend to be either a threat that must be destroyed or cute creatures to capture. It’s because monsters represent the unknown. That’s why they’re so much fun to design, but also why they’re used as a generic stand-in for scary and bad things. Anyone who’s played enough RPGs has heard it before: “There have been more monsters in the forest lately. Something must be wrong…”

It makes sense as a convention since unknown things can be scary, but they can also be met with play, curiosity, or all kinds of other approaches, which I think opens up a lot of new area in game design.

In my game Monster Garden, I wanted to add a sense of mystery and surprise to dialogue by letting the player choose which of their monsters will talk without knowing exactly what they’ll say. I think this makes the monsters feel more autonomous and the dialogue feel more surprising than if the player just chose from a list of pre-written responses.

So, to answer your question, I wanted to show monsters some love and respect for a change, and also to savor the element of the unknown that makes monsters so much fun in the first place. If you’re interested, I wrote about why games need more “monster love” in this post on Gamasutra as well.

Of course there are also games like Undertale where players can choose between killing monsters or being pacifist, and I think that’s a positive change from many games. But in Monster Garden, I wanted to embrace monsters with a more thoroughly loving approach. Instead of just choosing whether or not to kill monsters, I wanted to let players choose different ways of peacefully interacting with them and getting to know them better.

You seem to have a great interest in ‘healing games.’ What would you define as a healing game, and can you tell us some examples you’ve found?

One way I think games can be healing is by inviting the player to explore, play, and experiment with its world without having to worry about being caught in a proving ground and punished. It’s hard to feel anything like healing when you’re busy just trying not to make a mistake and lose.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn comes to mind as a game that manages, despite being an action platformer, to be thoroughly forgiving and never really put you on the spot. I don’t know if I’d call it deeply healing, but it’s definitely going in that direction.

These days there are also lots of walking sims and similar games with no way to lose, and although I think that can definitely be relaxing, I also think that a special type of healing is possible when there are challenges in a game, but when you aren’t punished for approaching them in the wrong way.

Of course, that’s next to impossible in large games with multiple overlapping systems where there’s no way to account for all the things that the player might do. So it helped that Monster Garden is only 30-45 minutes long and very simple. That enabled me to account for every way the player could possibly interact with the game’s three levels and to make something fun and different happen in each case (usually introducing a different monster).

Another way games can be healing is by explicitly focusing on personal healing experiences (which I think can be just as healing for the developer to create as for the player to play).

Two games come to mind as examples (although I haven’t played either one, unfortunately): Papo y Yo, a game about a boy dealing with an abusive alcoholic father based on creator Vander Caballero’s own experiences, and That Dragon, Cancer, a game about struggling with a child’s cancer diagnosis.

I’d personally love to see more games that combine playful, non-punishing gameplay with content that draws on personal healing experiences.

What unique power do you feel that games have to ‘heal’? How can games capture a kind of soothing interaction?

Once I asked for examples of “healing games” on Twitter, and people mentioned many games that I wasn’t expecting (Way more people responded than I expected, too, which reflects how much people appreciate the healing side of games).

Some of the games people mentioned involved winning and losing based on player skill like Celeste and many Legend of Zelda games, while others simply had a relaxing atmosphere like Viridi. Others were games people had played during a tough time in their lives that gave them a much needed break or connection with other players.

The variety of responses made me realize that all kinds of games can be healing, and that it naturally depends a lot on the individual player.

But in all cases, I think the key to games’ unique healing power is the that they let us play. When you’re at play, you feel more relaxed and open to change and seeing things in a new way. It might sound contradictory, but I think fun and play can be the key to serious healing.

What draws you to explore healing power in games with your own work?

I didn’t set out to make a “healing game” when I started working on Monster Garden. Initially, I just wanted to learn how to use RPG Maker and to design and animate a bunch of pixelated monsters. What I was consciously trying to do was make a more “playful” game in terms of being less punishing and more gentle, with a focus on characters and friendship.

Also, around the time I started working on Monster Garden, I had been learning a lot about play and playfulness at indie game events where physical games were presented alongside digital ones. I had been realizing that I just like playing around and having fun with people more so than competing and winning or any of the things normally considered core to games (like mechanics, narrative, etc.).

I had also discovered the work of Bernie De Koven, a proponent of fun and play whose work in the 1970’s is one of the reasons Physical Education programs in schools in the US use more games and playful activities (Stuff like that big rainbow parachute thing that everyone wooshes up in the air and then runs and sits under. I remember that being so much fun in elementary school, but in retrospect it was so simple, not even a game at all…which I think was one of Bernie’s main points, actually).

He had a background in theater and worked to spread theater warm-up games, childrens’ games, and “folk games” throughout his life. I had also done some improv theater and loved the warm-up games more than actual “scenes” or acting, so I appreciated his approach and writing a lot.

It turned out that he was a proponent not only of playing physical games with other people, but also of playing with yourself in your imagination. He wrote about exploring the “inner playground” of your imagination, and I love imagining things, so I was naturally intrigued. But it turns out getting in touch with your imagination and learning to let it guide you is actually kinda tough and takes a lot of practice. You have to learn how to trust yourself and get past obstacles you encounter along the way that stop you from letting yourself play – in other words, it can be a deeply healing experience.

Through that process I imagined a lot of fun, silly, and sometimes scary things. So, when it came time to work on Monster Garden and I needed content beyond the basic idea of a playful RPG about monsters, I used these experiences as the foundation for the game’s structure and story.

In a sense, you could say Monster Garden is about the healing process of learning to see scary, unknown things as fun friends instead of frightening foes.

Why do you feel it’s important to explore this sort of play and interaction in games?

Lately I’ve been seeing myself as a “playful artist” more than a game designer because I realized I just want to make things that invite people to play, whether its through a game with other people or a silly moment they enjoy all by themselves.

For me, play, playfulness and the healing and fun that come with them are the real treasures that games have to offer. I wish we had more playful games, which I think would also mean more healing games. Games that are thoroughly warm and welcoming instead of cold and confrontational, where you don’t have to worry about the fun suddenly ending because you messed up.

I think this is still new territory in game design, but trends like “wholesome games” and “care wave” in indie games show that people want more of these types of experiences. It’s an exciting time to make and play games, and I’m personally looking forward to seeing what new ways people come up with to have deeply healing fun!

The post ‘Monster Garden’ Developer Talks About the Healing Power of Play appeared first on Indie Games Plus.

‘Monster Garden’ Developer Talks About the Healing Power of Play published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

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