DARKEN'S PROFILE

*blows dust off ancient readme.txt*



Currently working on: The Machine that Breathes https://store.steampowered.com/app/1126210/the_machine_that_BREATHES/ (Please wishlist!)
the machine that BREATHE...
A tunneling machine finds itself injected into a body resembling a human.

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Greetings from a Goddess of Chaos and Garbage

yeah it's easy to confirm that it isn't, my question still stands though

Greetings from a Goddess of Chaos and Garbage

welp, it would be really funny if it wasn't max lmao

welcome, uh totally unrelated question, would you put coheed and cambria music in your game?

A.I. Generation and RMN

im trying to think of a demographic that doesn't get into discourse

A.I. Generation and RMN

i think he's making a joke because you apparently need to feel empathy for the hypothetical people in their hyper specific situations involving a technology method that's only recently become a thing. but also ai takes no time at all so it's a no brainer, but also it takes a lot of hard earned effort so if you ban it it's a wasting a lot of collective effort. i guess

the consequences are not worth arguing for anyway if you can't get past the actual principle of the matter. like im going to assume putting a lot of effort into something doesn't let you skip RMN's submission guidelines in any other case.

Countering the Psychology of Touch Encounters

I don't know if your assumptions about being chased are correct but I do get what you mean. There's uhhhh... a skill dissonance happening. Touch encounters have a weird fuzzy issue of randomly testing the players avoidance real time skill in a game mostly about applying tactics, knowledge with all the time in the world. It only kinda works for deciding risk rewards of who gets to ambush but it's never handled that well.

I really prefer encounters that are about draining the player's resources no matter what. Want to run away? Pay some gold. Want to ambush? Take a risk with a valueable resource. Want to fight? Make sure you don't take too much damage or waste too much items. The path to the boss should test to see if you're doing that well. It should be about tradeoffs not "play an unrelated pac-man mini game" to determine how encounters start and maybe even avoid them 90% of the time. That's just me though. Paper Mario is all about having mini games in like every interaction so it sorta makes sense in that extreme.

I'd ask why you even have touch encounters in the game other than "Theyre the only alternative to random encounters" because they're not.

Idea for Forum Signatures

i remember when forum signatures were removed, man people were not happy

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Buildings!

Yeah I'd say top left is the most interesting because of the structure/shapes and that roofs are going to be where you get the most mileage. middle bottom is obviously the least, but even that could use dormer windows or the roof having a more broken up Clerestory shape. The Mansard pyramid-like roofs are okay but strength is obviously is that they're modular and stackable. Middle top would be improved just by shifting the 2nd floor up a tile just so it doesn't look like the tops are merged.

Some terms and variations: https://retipster.com/roofs/ course they depend on the culture/town vibe you're going for but actually the roofs do vary alot even within an area. as an exercise I would jam as many roofs and dormer windows everywhere like to an insane/unrealistic degree just to see what shapes come out.

concept artists do it all the time
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/473440979585593044/

shingles also don't have to be perfect or even. some could be missing or look like they've been damaged. This top down game art by noiracide i think does a good job at conveying that the buildings feel cobbled and jumbled together. storm damage, constant repair, scaffolding, or even just the house being in the middle of construction is a good excuse to break it up.

Buildings!

Yeah top down is often limited in portrayal. But a starting point is the same as doing cliffs: verticality generally makes things more interesting regardless of functionality. Aside from providing shelter, buildings save space by having stairs and floors so putting in and implying a lot of elevation layers is a good idea. By varying the sizes of those elements you get something that looks inherently interesting.

https://www.spriters-resource.com/resources/sheets/6/6354.png?updated=1460953627
https://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/saga3/sheet/10137/
https://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/trialsofmanajpn/sheet/133286/

Silhouettes are a pretty good way to break out of the blockyness or at least to fake it. More importantly though this example implies elevation not in the first floor that the player can walk under. So foreground elements that are part of the building that you can walk under are good too. Pillars, courtyards, tunnels etc. Huge problem is when you're only able to walk around the building and not through or over it.



This can tie into setpieces or world building. Imagine a city with no stairs but a lot of ladders, what if buildings had table legs that you could walk under and you entered them from climbing a ladder in the center? Stuff like that I think can spill into good design overall.

Also diagonals, lottsa diagonals. Walls don't have to be straight or flat. Building segments can go into more than 4 directions. Applies to stairs as well, it's annoying but stairs side to side are usually more interesting than north/south ones.

https://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/ff6/sheet/6687/

Last and biggest idea is just, don't listen to the grid. Abandon othrographic projection in favor of perspective for dramatic shots (Sunset fudges between the two but generally makes the camera lower angled). Sunset over Imadhal is the best example of this because it doesn't bother placing houses flat and straight on. As long as the walkable areas (mostly) obey the grid. Yeah it's handdrawn but you can still make custom tiles that break the flow once in awhile, and the principles still apply.



Another inspiration I use is Yume Nikki fangames, they use a sort of earthboundy oblique projection and get mileage out of the fact that walls can be diagonal but there's still some shots that work really well. I follow a YM fan account that posts these and whenever I see them I always feel like I'm limiting myself when it comes to thinking about top down projection and space.

(warning image load)


edit: also uploaded some references I think would still be interesting if you were forced to project them gridded top down, but they enforce a the principles listed. https://imgur.com/a/fF5REwj be a neat mapping exercise actually.

Goaling It 2024

author=kentona
That reminds me I should pour myself a drink.

Truthfully, after having a drink or two to get a little buzz makes me feel "normal" - like my brain settles down and gets more coherent and focused, instead of the frenetic buzz that is the usual, where i am thinking about 3 different things and having imaginary conversations and visualizing situations all with like a constant music soundtrack in the background (right now it is BWH - Stop).


this suddenly sounds like a better drug than concerta.

Goaling It 2024

Yeah I boosted characters to level 2 after some basic ability checks before combat because the HP values on level 1s are nuts and is probably the hardest level to be at with no flexibility (and also I'm just playing with two roommates). We're nearing the end of the free Frozen Sick adventure but I'm probably going to make my own adventure next and just bastardize the existing setting. The JRPG/RPGmaker part of my brain still has me ripping encounters from existing adventures to make sure it's somewhat balanced (and just rename wolf to bandit or whatever if the theme doesn't match because fuck it). Also the PCs managed to convert some NPCs into their religion so I gave them cultist "followers" as controllable companions to offset things more.

The gist I get from this hobby is that it's really about tooling the content around the player preferences. If they like RPing or escape room scenarios then just make it mostly about that, or put in a very arbitrary puzzle gimmick that autowins combat if they figure it out. Though it also works both ways I guess, players have to care and know what they want. The curse of the DM is that you become the most invested and care the most and the dynamic/vibe is everything.

But yeah I hope it adds to the social bonding with the fam. There's a snow storm coming on dnd night and I got the miniatures and mats ready in case the power goes out. It's fun to get off the computer but still do something nerdy with other people.