Revel Romp Compendium, Yohz Hylan Lore Compendium

Naming Stuff (I Should Probably Reformat This for a Proper Blog Post)

tbh I wasn’t planning on posting this to my blog at all, this was going to just be a personal notes thing so I could bounce ideas off of an LLM and work from there, but now that I’ve already written this up I may as well yeet it into the blog where the few people who check it can see it?
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Okay, I guess this is going to become my long-running “Naming Stuff” thread??? Maybe???

My LLC is named HeliumSqueeze LLC. There’s all a lot of implied balloon-fetish/bubble-kink themes and some implied inflation-adjacent themes, but on the whole it’s not meant to be an erotic brand so much as kind of an innuendo-laiden playful cartoony furry-friendly brand. The usual visual associated with the logo are balloon fruits. Sometimes an overinflated peach, sometimes tight overinflated carrots.

Honestly sometimes I think about the friends who encourage me the most to really go ahead and pursue these ideas and not be held back by doubt, and I can’t tell if they just have a genuine shared interest in these themes in general because they’re coming from similar inspirations to what they already love, or if there’s a sexual element to their interests, or if they’re acknowledging but fretting over the complex mix of sometimes-kinky sometimes-not themes? Or if they just really really trust in my judgement more than I do. I love my friends. I wish them the best and want to help them and make them proud. I wish I felt the same kind of self-confidence and pride for myself that they seem to feel for me.

Anyway, uh.

The iconic “species” tied to the brand are Squee (sorta like if Mimiga were made out of balloon materials and absorbed microplastics and sunlight to survive) and Squee Helibuster (Sorta like the midpoint between a Fallout Equestria pony and a Yoshi from the Yoshi series. But mostly a heavier, less size-change-y, and more crystal-claws-y counterpart.)

At current, the tentative brand names are:

* aPuzzle: Popping Spree / Jam Blow Blast First Impact – Balloon busting and item breaking puzzle game. Probably takes place in Yozh Hylan or Emmelpi.

* aRogue: Festival Vanguard – A fairly basic multiplayer dungeon crawl with some space elements. Takes place some time in the late future of Yozh Hylan.

* Bouncing Flash – A side scrolling beat ’em up with a Freedom Planet (which I do not own) inspired location and Capcom VS Series inspired mechanics. Takes place in a relatively isolated portion of Yozh Hylan (Gleed, Avarice, and the Rizqi Islands collectively form a countpart to the China and Hong Kong areas of Asia.) Occurs fairly early in the timeline.

* Metal Bubble Dragon / Su Busteberos – A self-serious Mega Man 8 inspired action-platformer game featuring Dr. Metal – a huge cybernetic bear reconstructed by Dalliance Arms Corporation after a should-be-fatal accident- and his created assistants Bubbles (role of Rock) and Ripple (role of Roll). Kind of a companion sister-piece to HOLLOWROUND and its events. Takes place in Yozh Hylan sometime after Bouncing Flash and simultaneous to HOLLOWROUND, using the same nanobubble tech established in Bouncing Flash.

* HOLLOWROUND / Bubble Menace – Action Packed third-person Sin and Punishment style (first-person in the original RAMP version of Bubble Menace) shooter game originally built in GZDoom based on Grand United Nation of States, Texas, during the Lunawakenings of the Bubble Menace, and the Big Boom resulting in instability and earthquakes following the spread of stray roaming Beast Balloons throughout the south-western coasts of GUNS. Takes place in Yozh Hylan sometime after Bouncing Flash and simultaneous to Metal Bubble Dragon, using the same nanobubble tech established in Bouncing Flash.

* CAPTIVE SPACE PUPPY THIGHS – An affectionate parody visual novel of Freedom Planet (which I do not own). Where Freedom Planet is a little dark, mostly family friendly, 90s cartoon inspired, and has a title that has very little thematic relevance to its content. CAPTIVE SPACE focuses on A: Explaining away the awkward inner-thigh exposing outfit Milla had in FP1 by way of a plausibly-unconnected Warhound character who has the same skimpy leotard-hardnes uniform but without the hoodie. B: by asserting these Warhounds were made captives to The Warlord in exchange for not having their homeworld destroyed, their role among the forces is that of Captives in Space… and the player Puppy (well, I guess a Hound since the game starts on her 18th birthday)’s Thighs are exposed. C: Once arriving on the Planet on a secret mission from her mother (against the commands of their captors) to find the missing offspring, the Puppy gets to experience what Freedom is in a sense more real than her long fleeting memories of the homeworld she was captured from. If Freedom Planet gets to have a name that is thematically irrelevant, this entire game is about living up to that name in every possible way without bearing the branding.

* SCALEBEA.STS#0777 / ZEPHYRBEASTS/ aGun: Yozh Hylan – Set in contemporary-future Yozh Hylan, this fast-paced grounded action game takes the high speed grounded action and racing-like vibe of Sonic Generations, Sonic Forces, and Super Hang-On, and mixes it with sweet bouncy colorful vibes of Yoshi’s Island and sprinkles on a little bit of item-based combat inspired by Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep’s command decks, Yoshi’s six shot system, and Sin and Punishments over the top boss fights and on-rails action. This primarily follows the Squee Helibuster trying to make their way in the world and defend their more docile Squee kin while dealing with the reputation left in the wake of the Beast Balloons of the Bubble Menace, the ramifications of their original creators being escaped criminals, various overenthusiastic fans wanting to use them like playthings, terrified long-standing locals fearing resource drain from the multiplying Squee numbers, and just generally trying to survive whatever conflicts may come their way as the island of Caliber continues to expand and define itself separately of its former role as a GUNS territory. Having my own “Sonic Forces” type game to play with and being able to bring in all of the various things from Yoshi’s Island, Yoshi’s Story, and Fallout Equestria that resonated with me the most into its own unique identifiable identity and formula is kind of a dream-project of mine, and one that I don’t truly expect I’ll get to complete within my lifetime.

* Fluff Around and Find Out / Pump Up Or Puff Up / Eidolon Static Compile – A “Bunnylike” inspired by Rabi-Ribi, Tevi, Bunny Must Die, Alice Escaped, and Dust An Elysian Tail. Kazhooey “Zooey” a foul mouthed Zoobe-inspired rabbit lives in a world of docile bunnies until the BloonBurrow Habitable Zone in which she lives is gradually invaded by small flying dragon-fairies from another Zone far across the OoB. Long ago a predecessor of the docile bunnies traveled into the OoB, made friends with the playful trickster Dragon Fairies and the immensely powerful LibraryHounds (implied to be the same creatures as the Warhounds of SCPT) of the OoB wilderness. Their offspring eventually built their own Habitable Zone for the fairies where their kind could grow and prosper. Since then, the fairies grew to know Bunnies and their iconic (playboy) Bunnysuits as icons of power akin to superheros, but the numbers of the bunnies (and bunnyhound hybrids) have since dwindled. A rogue fairy traverses the OoB to find the BloonBurrow to grant those docile bunnies the power to restore the glory the fairy knew their kind could have. Ribbon Badge (welding her iconic Pafu Pafu Hammer/Pump) traces the rogue fairy to the land and takes it upon herself to train Zooey to tame her new powers of Embiggening to expel the rogue fairy, tame the other bunnies going rampant with their new uncontrolled power, and repair and grow their home zone by bringing in fresh Data Bubbles from the OoB to undo the damage done and house their freshly swelling numbers. While there is no clear explanation for it yet, most habitable zones have an aesthetic a lot like a themepark in the middle of a furry convention with fursuit aesthetics aplenty.

* Emmelpi – Audibly a corruption of MLP, this in-world fiction is basically My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but if all of the ungulates were lagomorphs and dragons were… still dragons, but now quadruped and a little more velociraptor/kangaroo-esque.

* Yozh Hylan / Yohz Hylan – Audibly a corruption of “Yoshi’s Island”, this is the main “series” setting most of the other stories are contextualized into being in in the form of in-world fictions or named events in history.

* Bounce Bounce / bounce Bounce BOUNCE – this is admittedly more of a general tagline than a title of anything specific.

The Systems of Embiggening:

Specific to the Bunnylike, the fairy dragons and the bunnies specialize in a handful of types of power of Big:

* Amplify – Mental and Projectile “growth” of power. Also more “ammo”.

* Bellow – “Bottom” or “Belly” expansion, limited hovering, agility improvements, powers that evoke leg or thigh use.

* Cushion – More typical cartoony “balloonlike inflation”. Works like Dig-Dug’s pump or Klonoa’s Wind Bullet in most cases, though the lightened weight can allow friendlies to take less damage from physical impacts. Also allows floating and being blown and thrown around, ally or otherwise. Can be resisted via Blowback.

* Deluge – Increase size/weight/physical strength as if filled with “juice”. An allusion to Blueberry or Hydro type stuff. Slower, heavier, can use crushing attacks like buttstomps and bellyflops. Easy to be bowled over. No Blowback, but can ricochet on surfaces from hard impacts.

* Embiggen – Uniform growth in size and power, the “ultimate” form of Big power. Can armor through low power projectiles and strikes with fighting-game style grey life. A bigger target, but far bigger threat. Can also be applied to physical objects in direct contact like the Pafu Pafu Hammer if the welder is strong enough to hold and control it.

I used to personally use the username RevelRomp in a lot of places before having the RevelRomp Dalliance and the Dalliance Arms Corporation have a major role in Yozh Hylan. Now I usually go by Ann in honor of my late mother. That was following a relatively short lived transition to AnnieWuzOK, which was a pun on Annie Mae / Anne May from a Havoc Fox “anime” joke Dusky once made. Before that I tried names like Retl (which I dropped because search engines would autocorrect to Retail), Kahli Lh’tail (an audio corruption of my first and middle names), Kilo ( still like that name honestly, but it keeps being associated with drugs), MollyJTG (loosely inspired by Molly Fyde and by Holly Songsteel, a character I had for a short lived DnD Campaign), Travisuped (I barely remember how this came about, I think I was thinking of “Upped” as in powered-up and Travis because of some anime I had seen around the same time I was playing Quake 3 Arena Demo or Unreal Tournament Demo on Dreamcast for my first time with a cousin that was visiting), NTU (a terrible alt name I kinda regret ever using), Mask11US (the first username I ever had), Scalebea.sts#0777 (a name I using as a “band” for the music I made for the games I wanted to work on for my LLC, I haven’t done much with it lately and have since kinda pivoted towards rebranding it Zephrybeasts to better tie in with the Beast Balloons and the idea of Zephyrkin), and Fickle Luminescence (which I feel kinda reflects my actual behavior of jumping around interests somewhat erratically, and a persisting fondness for colorful and pretty glowing lights and holograms and cyberspace digital world vibes).

And I think aside from getting into my weird naming shenanigans with characters like First Post (Pinkie Pinks), Rhonda Thundertits Rubberbreaker the squirrel, Hard Reset (Rez), Mia/Pepper, Jean/Jam, etc, I think that’s most of the relevant important or recurring names one would need to analyze, understand, and recommend new names and titles based on my interests, preferences, and existing tendencies in naming.

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Some bonus thoughts that I will almost certainly never get around to:
A: A sports game where participants are graded on the specific moves and precision of execution used for popping a series of specifically themed large balloons. The closest comparison I can think of are skating competitions with judges scoring the performances.

B: A simulation/modeling game where a music-loving CD-hoarding anthro goat named Casino finds herself in the employ of a fetish club under the ownership of Dalliance Arms Corporation that markets itself as an “adult game center”. At first Casino is bashful and shy about the unexpected balloon-centric nature of her job as an entertainer at the establishment, but in time she becomes a beloved figure of the establishment by customers who trust her to help make decisions and solutions for all sorts of personal goings-ons in their lives… as well as the ever-present customer-taste-specific balloon-show for particular customers to earn generous tips to grow her music collection. (I have no idea how one designs an organic “ending” for these kinds of simulation inspired games.)

C: A series of short novels exploring the day to day lives and adventures of various Squee Helibusters where they get to really show off their personality and how they deal with the good times and the worst times.

D: A fast-paced side-scrolling 2.5D shoot-em-up where dragon-fairies traverse the “Wilderness” of the OoB in search of much-needed supplies and the answers to questions that the LibraryHounds had been trying to solve for many years.

E: A 3D Platform-Racing game along the lines of Rayman Rush / Rayman R / Rayman Arena. The characters come from all over Yozh Hylan bringing their unique skills and interests in an attempt to win the prize money and the opportunity to have an episode of Emmelpi written about _anything_ they wish.

F: A Disgaea-inspired or Fire-Emblem inspired turn-based tactics game following the events of Bouncing Flash where Dazzle Flasher and the Dazzle Buster faction band together throughout Rizqi to rebel against the growing influence of GUNS’s Dalliance Arms Corporation, increasingly authoritarian policy-making from Gleed attempting to strip away the formerly granted “two governments” democracy of Rizqi, and attempts to deny the existence of Rizqi as a separate sovereignty by Alavice. Dazzle still has her signature bouncing-on-bubbles gimmick here, but as this is a tactics game and not a platformer, the utility and presentation is very different.

G: A Heroes of the Storm inspired real-time strategy / MobA type game where fursuit-like anthro characters in skimpy outfits encounter each other among the transfer lines of the somewhat-tamed sections of the OoB. These sections aren’t as high risk as the “true OoB” but because it is so popular to search for resources here, they can’t help but scrap with each other to try to collect the Data Bubbles they need to make their dream Zones a reality. Many of the abilities involve pouncing/pinning/bouncing-on other characters in suggestive ways to make them burst and return to their home zone temporarily, opening up opportunities to push ahead towards high-value objectives. The first team to either clear 5 major objectives or to completely destroy/disconnect all of the lane lines from the opposing Hubs wins.

Art

FLUFF AROUND AND FIND OUT Pump up or Puff Up!

1 Comment

Game Design Document: Fairy Dragon “Bunnylike” thingy

“There are five recognized types of Embiggening. If you truly wish to grow strong, you must understand them all.”

In this world there is the Out of Bounds Zone, then there are Habitable Zones, built by organized groups or powerful individual who scavenged Data Bubbles from the OoB in plentiful numbers and used those to turn their dreams and desires into real places. Those places very often take the form of theme park-like and convention-like living spaces.

The first drawing of Ribbon Badge, before she was given her name. Here she is clearly flying and deflecting or throwing some kind of orb, despite having no visible hair or wings.
The first drawing of Ribbon Badge, before she was given her name. Here she is clearly flying and deflecting or throwing some kind of orb, despite having no visible hair or wings.
Some more sketches of Ribbon Badge with her actual hair and wings. The right-most version here is closer to the intended look, bunnysuit, holographic dragonfly wings, and a more technically accurate Pafu Pafu hammer.
Some more sketches of Ribbon Badge with her actual hair and wings. The right-most version here is closer to the intended look, bunnysuit, holographic dragonfly wings, and a more technically accurate Pafu Pafu hammer.
Her name is Ribbon Badge. She is a fairy and she's supposed to have holographic dragon-fly wings and long pink ponytail hair. Not to be confused for Ribbon Dancer, who is a completely unrelated Squee/bunny.
Her name is Ribbon Badge. She is a fairy and she’s supposed to have holographic dragon-fly wings and long pink ponytail hair. Not to be confused for Ribbon Dancer, who is a completely unrelated Squee/bunny.
This Air Pump is a strong catalyst for the power of Embiggen. It's called the Pafu Pafu Hammer (ใƒ‘ใƒ•ใƒ‘ใƒ•ใƒใƒณใƒžใƒผ) It's also secondarily designed to be used as a melee weapon, held by the grip and swung so that the shaft extends the head. Typically the ends are given decorative power orbs which become pressurized by the shaft's pumping, but those can be removed for a more pancake-y impact, or replaced with a hose for directing the flow of air.
This Air Pump is a strong catalyst for the power of Embiggen. It’s called the Pafu Pafu Hammer (ใƒ‘ใƒ•ใƒ‘ใƒ•ใƒใƒณใƒžใƒผ) It’s also secondarily designed to be used as a melee weapon, held by the grip and swung so that the shaft extends the head. Typically the ends are given decorative power orbs which become pressurized by the shaft’s pumping, but those can be removed for a more pancake-y impact, or replaced with a hose for directing the flow of air.
A revised version of the Pafu-Pafu Hammer, now with the grip being placed lower to better swing with, smaller hand guard/base, a rough sketch of how the rechargable pressure cylinders work, and shifted weight on the head to make it easier to swing. Not very balanced for specifically pumping, but considering it'll be charging the cylinders during normal swings too, that's probably fine.
A revised version of the Pafu-Pafu “Hammer”, now with the grip being placed lower to better swing with, smaller hand guard/base, a rough sketch of how the rechargable pressure cylinders work, and shifted weight on the head to make it easier to swing. Not very balanced for specifically pumping, but considering it’ll be charging the cylinders during normal swings too, that’s probably fine.

1. Game Overview

  • Title: [idk probably something like Balloony-Kazhooey & Ribbon’s FLUFFED UP BIG BUNS Very Loud Day in Wonderburrow Zone ]
  • Genre: Action-Adventure, Platformer
  • Target Audience: Fans of cute characters, whimsical settings, and unique gameplay mechanics
  • Platform: [To be determined]

2. Story and Setting

2.1 World

  • A realm inhabited by fairy-dragons and empowered bunnies
  • Originated from an exiled bunny who gained power in the Out of Bounds (OoB) area
  • Recent influx of dragon-fairies into the original rabbit’s realm

2.2 Plot

  • A rogue fairy is spreading power to formerly docile bunnies
  • Main character accidentally gains powers when trying to crush what she thought was a pest in her food supply and must learn to control them
  • Conflict involves tracking down the rogue fairy and helping newly empowered bunnies
  • Expelling threats from the bunny zone

2.3 Main Characters

  • Kazhooey (Zooey): The protagonist, a bunny who accidentally gained powers
  • Ribbon Badge: A powerful character who trains Kazhooey
  • (Jerry?) Rogue Fairy: The antagonist spreading power to bunnies

3. Gameplay

3.1 Core Mechanic: Embiggening

Five types of growth-based powers:

  1. AMP (Amplify): Enhances mental or physical attributes, empowers projectiles
    • This is typically either mental growth (which would not necessarily be visible), or chest growth (which I am reluctant to lean into because I really don’t like the objectification of the chest area, but I’m sure it might be better for sales to a certain audience). Empowers most projectile attacks and provides more “ammo” for more demanding abilities.
  2. BEL (Bellow): Boosts agility and provides limited hovering
    • This is typically either a non-visible boost to one’s jumping/kicking/running abilities and potentially limited hovering. Or it could be a visible belly-focused growth that increases durability and the ability to deflect or withstand physical attacks. More mobility to avoid/negate projectiles that don’t directly hit a weak point, but taking a direct projectile hit probably sends the character tumbling towards the ground with the power knocked out of them until they land or do some kind of resource-draining recovery.
  3. CUS (Cushion): Inflation-like power, affects mobility and teleportation
    • The simplest and most straight forward. Works like Dig Dug on most things. Not painful, but can be scary for those who don’t know what’s happening. When something “pops” they probably just get sent somewhere else. Possibly the OoB if they don’t have a Home Zone, Possibly somewhere very nearby if they have strong determination and resistance. Probably to the nearest friendly face if they’re not under immediate threat. Also the absolute easiest to resist by anyone with power and can result in Blowback. Makes the target light and easy to throw around for some amount of time.
  4. DEL (Deluge): Increases size, weight, and power, affects mobility
    • Makes the target big, heavy, immobile, and juiced up with power. It might be done to one’s self temporarily to enhance a big hit or to use a crushing attack like a buttstomp or belly flop. But it also makes it easy to bowl the target over or roll them around slopes and generally kick them about like a ball until they’re out of juice. Blowback isn’t a thing with this, but the target can ricochet if knocked about.
  5. EMB/BIG (Embiggen): Uniform growth, increases overall power
    • This is more of a uniform “magic-like” growth in size while preserving form. Aside from giving the target less space to move around in, this kinda just makes them straightforwardly more powerful in exactly the way one would expect if the character were simply made bigger. Probably good for using more demanding physical weapons, but bad for evasion. Might make the character “armor” through low power projectiles: they take the damage (or maybe borrow the grey-life idea from fighting games if we want to allow technical “no-damage” runs without ruling out this form) but aren’t interrupted by it.

Power System Notes:

  • Powers can potentially be combined (max two types)
  • Possible RPS-style interactions between powers
  • Different effects for “friendly” vs “hostile” applications. Friendly omits a specific penalty. Hostile omits a specific benefit. Incidental omits none.

3.2 Ribbon’s Weapon: Pafu Pafu Hammer

A multi-functional weapon that serves as both a melee hammer and an inflation device.

Forms:

  1. Deflated Form: Compact for storage and carrying.
  2. Filled Form: Default state, full size with recessed orbs
  3. Necked Form: Extended shaft for specialized use
  • Configurable valve-orbs: pushed in, both unblocked, or hose-connected

Mechanics:

  • Gas Cylinders: Six internal chambers that store compressed air.
  • Pumping Mechanism: Refills gas cylinders through shaft movement
  • Triggered Release: Rapidly expels stored air for powerful effects

Functions:

  • Melee combat
  • Ranged air blasts
  • Target Embiggening (inflation)
  • Air-propelled movement
  • Puzzle-solving applications

3.3 Gameplay Loop

  • Explore environments
  • Encounter and battle inflated enemies
  • Solve puzzles using Embiggening powers and the Pafu Pafu Hammer
  • Gain new abilities and upgrade existing ones
  • Progress through the story, uncovering the mystery of the rogue fairy

4. Art Style and Audio

4.1 Visual Style

  • Cute, colorful characters with a mix of bunny and dragon features
  • Whimsical, cartoon-like environments
  • Playful animations emphasizing the inflation and growth mechanics

4.2 Character Design

  • Kazhooey: [Details to be determined]
  • Ribbon Badge: Purple dragon-like creature with long floppy ears
  • Holographic, computer-glitch style wings or dragonfly-like wings
  • Wears a bunny suit (not shown in current concept art)

4.3 Audio

  • Upbeat, adventurous music
  • Comical sound effects for inflation and deflation
  • Unique sound design for each Embiggening power
  • Think Bubble Bobble, Puzzle Bobble, Yoshi’s Island, Klonoa

5. Technical Specifications

5.1 Target Platform

3-6 button gamepad devices.

5.2 Development Tools

[To be determined]

6. Marketing and Monetization

6.1 Target Audience

  • Fans of platformer and action-adventure games
  • Players who enjoy cute, whimsical aesthetics
  • Gamers interested in unique mechanics and gameplay innovations

6.2 Unique Selling Points

  • Innovative Embiggening power system
  • Multi-functional Pafu Pafu Hammer weapon
  • Cute characters in a whimsical setting with hints of deeper lore
  • Blend of combat, puzzle-solving, and exploration

6.3 Monetization Strategy

[Ask Nicely To Not Starve]

7. Development Roadmap

7.1 Milestones

[To be determined]

7.2 Team Structure

[Solo]

8. Appendices

8.1 Inspiration and References

  • Games:
    • Direct Bunnylikes: Bunny Must Die, Rabi-Ribi, Alice Escaped, Tevi
    • Spiritual Bunnylikes: Dust: An Elysian Tail, Luna Nights
    • Adjacent: , Klonoa, Dig-Dug, Banjo-Kazooie, Sonic series (Amy’s Piko Piko Hammer), Lyrical Nanoha (Graf Eisen)
  • Themes: Bunnies, Balloons, Inflation, growth, fairy tales, technology “glitch/runner as magic” fusion. There’s a little bit of innuendo, but the whole thing is not really meant to be “Sexy” so much as silly-funny.

8.2 Concept Art

[Include links or descriptions of existing concept art, such as Ribbon Badge sprite sheet and Pafu Pafu Hammer sketches]

Uncategorized

Out of Meds

My apologies in advance, I am diabetic and I deal with depression.

My current doctor is refusing to renew any of my current prescriptions and thus far has not given an explanation for why.

I’ve been trying to use the same clinic for years now and they repeatedly give me issues. I use them because they are one of the closest I get to but now it’s becoming clear I need to find somewhere to go that’s closer because most of our cars no longer work so I can’t just up and go to any appointment whenever I want. And I still owe different places money so while I’m trying to catch up on those debts I can’t exactly go shopping around for the “optimal” health care.

But I am sick of getting jerked around by Emory Clark-Holder in West Point, I’m sick of being paranoid, I’m sick of trying to figure out how I’m gonna get my meds refilled and how I’m gonna get to appointments, I’m sick of darn near every other thing I eat screwing up my body dude, I don’t know what they’re expecting me to DO


I can’t just up and walk down to the clinic whenever I want it’s a freaking HOUR AND A HALF WALK best case scenario

so anyway if I seem particularly irritated or very avoidant of any kind of social contact I am Not Okay right now and it’s probably better that I’m only Available when I feel I can deal with being Available.

i nearly cried over our dog walking to another room, and I ended up shouting at someone who explained something very obvious and sensible, and I have a meeting in like two hours and I have absolutely no clue how I plan to get through that as if I were normal. I screamed so much my throat hurts and I don’t want to talk anymore.

sry

Uncategorized

DO NOT COVER D&D ON YOUTUBE

For any of my friends who are into Dungeons and Dragons or anything related to Wizards of the Coast, if you depend on revenue from your Youtube account to survive

DO NOT COVER D&D ON YOUTUBE.

DO NOT SHOW the Handbook, even if the embargo or review guide said that you should.

Honestly I’d recommend not even taking the review deal.

So… why not? If you already like D&D and are going to share it anyway and want to let your friends know how cool the new D&D is, why wouldn’t you do a video on it?

You Will Be Copyright Striked On Youtube. Copyright *Strike* not Copyright Claim. Remember, a Claim might just redirect the revenue from your video, but a Copyright STRIKE can kill your channel and potentially your entire Google Account if you rack up too many of them. And if they’re doing that even to people they directly approached for the purpose of having review videos go up, then they’re probably not going to be any nicer about it to smaller teams. Do please please please, take care of your financial and social well-being and DO NOT COVER D&D ON YOUTUBE.

maybe I’ll post some lore stuff or art next time, sorry for more downer stuff this time around

Art

I Will Try To Remember To Post The Other Art Later

Posting this one now because I actually like it

okay also I guess I’ll add this one too

smol fairy dragon with a hammer probably about as big as her entire body

and as the tradition goes, she will be named Ribbon because all Bunnylike Metroidvanias tend to name the fairy/companion Ribbon (or Fidget if you’re Dust)

okay uhhh send blog

Revel Romp Compendium, Yohz Hylan Lore Compendium

(SENSITIVE CONTENT WARNING) In Which I Whine To Two Different LLMs (Claude and Gemini) About My Concerns Regarding the Characters Jean (Jam) and Mia (Pepper)

A digital sketch of Mia Asterisk in her usual orange outfit.
A digital sketch of Jean in his usual "sunset" attire.
A digital sketch of Bea in her typical hand-me-down clothes from Mia (Pepper) and her personally-bought Bee-themed jacket.

Okay so I need to lead this one with a big SENSITIVE CONTENT WARNING because I’m talking about some topics that might genuinely be rough on people. Specifically:

  • The following is a log of my chat with some “AI” LLMs. If you’re not cool with that, probably don’t want to read this one.
  • It will discuss complex power dynamics in person-to-person relationships.
  • I heavily speak of of psychological manipulation.
  • There’s themes related to body dysphoria and transformation. (Hi, I’m Enby, expect this theme to come up a lot.)
  • There are references to age-related appearance discrepancies in adult relationships. (This is the one where I feel kinda touchy because I’ve met people who deal with this kind of thing.)
  • There is depiction of experimental biology and reproduction.

If you’re very sure you’re cool with that, click on through. But please be mindful of your health and limits. Don’t just click through just because I wrote it, only continue if you’re gonna be alright.

So uh. I guess here’s the break (If you are viewing via the desktop view, click on the number 2 to the right of the “Pages” text below):

Pages: 1 2
GNU Linux

Transitioning to Wayland on an NVidia GPU Be Like

I’m trying to favor using Wayland instead of X11 since it is better in most ways, but also man whatever it is with NVidia and Wayland that just makes some apps completely unusable? Kiiind of a pain.

Closing the JetBrains Toolbox and relaunching it seemed to fix whatever that graphical glitch was though, so that’s nice????

Music

In Which I Whine About The Music of Freedom Planet 1 and Freedom Planet 2

Freedom Planet 1 has a much more dance / rock / synth-rock soundtrack going on with a 90s kind of flare, while Freedom Planet 2 skews a lot more orchestrated, jazzy, and fusion electronica with only a couple of tracks that have the synth-rock/dance vibes of FP1. And I feel like a lot more of that is down to the instrumentation than the composition.

For anyone who paid for the Freedom Planet 1 Official Soundtrack, I think Track 67 “Beta Schmup Stage” along with it’s accompanying commentary kinda highlights this the most. Taken out of context, one could probably easily think that track is actually from FP2, especially past the 15 second mark where it drops the synth-driven intro for orchestra strings and fairly light overdrive guitar. The guitar is probably the most FP1 thing about it.

In a similar way, most of FP2’s boss tracks would be impossible to mistake as FP1 music because the pacing and vibe is radically different. However, “Boss – Arena” is a very butt-rock style track with a constant driving pace and simple but compelling bass line that feels right at home with FP1’s soundtrack pieces. The rock and overdrive guitars are the things that brings its identity closer to FP1 than FP2, but the…organ (0:11 – 0:34)? type sound used to fill the sonic space for much of the intro kinda detracts from that vibe and feels like something else.

When we go back to Freedom Planet 1’s Major Boss Battle, that song is far more of a dance piece than a rock piece, with catchy and memorable leads, a simple on the beat percussion track, and the guitars largely being background edge for the bass and occasionally a highlighting factor in the upper end of the lead parts. But the bulk of the melody is being carried by synth saws with plenty of delay and reverb.

The counterpart track in Freedom Planet 2- “Boss – Robot A”- is… not that. It’s decidedly synth-y yes, but something is going on with the mixing that results in a lot of the instruments seeming to overcrowd the same frequencies.

  • The bass used in Robot A feels lighter and more “distant” and doesn’t have the edge of Major Boss. It’s using the same galloping pattern that is used in FP1, but the dynamics don’t seem to put as much emphasis on this as its counterpart. Or perhaps it is, but it’s being buried in the other layers of sound?
  • No idea what’s up with the organ sound here (0:03). And it tends to crash into the same soundspace as the new synth lead (0:06) becoming muddied. This new synth in general tends to fall kinda back in the mix in general, which is not great as it feels like the bit it’s playing was meant to be the focal melody.
  • The Breakbeat is actually a really good choice imo and probably hints more at what this track was going for that what it achieved.
  • The guitar (0:31) is reasonable, but it feels like it’s maybe a little too on the clean side for a boss battle theme. I dunno.
  • So this is another part where things get kinda weird. We have what I describe as a hypersaw melody lead (0:46) which works pretty well and kinda has the FP1 vibe, but it doesn’t have the delay nor the reverb one might expect this kind of energetic lead instrument to have. And I don’t know why? It ends up making the rests feel a little jarring too.

Like. I just dunno, that’s the one where it feels like the intent was to simply have a modern update remix of the original iconic boss theme and it ended up feeling like a completely different song and spirit. But it’s still melodically recognizable as the same motif.

There’s also Boss – Robot B. It’s got a bit of a jazzy saxaphone thing going with bouncy synths and percussion. And quite a bit of the background sirens going on to lean into the idea that the Main Four characters are now effectively the law enforcement / disaster response team. Or maybe just to evoke a general sense of “WARNING, DANGER AHEAD”.

Overall, neither the pacing, instrumentation, or composition of Robot B really reads as a boss theme at all to me. It’s solid music. Just. Doesn’t feel like something to get up and motivated to, and definitely not in the spirit of FP1 though it’s clearly not trying to be.I do like the guitar riff they bring in at (0:45) though.

Not much reason for me to bring this up right *now* in particular. I’ve been trying to figure out what I’m going to do for the soundtrack for my RAMP 2024 submission. But the way the soundtrack is almost an entirely different vibe from Freedom Planet 1 is something that’s been bugging me since Freedom Planet 2 released a year (or two, almost?) ago. Some of the issues of the perceived quality of the music seemed to have been simply down to the volume being unintentionally low in-gameplay in the earlier versions of FP2. But FP2 wanted to set an identity for Freedom Planet that was all its own without being forever tied to the fandom roots. It succeeded. Just, this is one of the things I much prefer the original for.

That’s not to say that I think FP2 is a bad game or that I don’t love it. I kinda favor the two games almost equally, though for very different reasons. FP1 I enjoy a lot for its boss battles and soundtrack. FP2 I like more for the characters, environments, and overall quality of life improvements (Carol is so much better in 2, probably the most comfortable character to play in the game compared to being fairly plain and painful to play in FP1). Or to put it another way, Freedom Planet 1 has the specific gamefeel and audio aesthetics I’d want to build fangames off of than FP2. Freedom Planet 2 has characters, settings, and lore I’d be much more interested in seeing fleshed out with with fanwork or supplemental content than FP1.

(And frankly, feeling that way kinda hurts because FP1 is an absolute nightmare to do any kind of meaningful gameplay modding or additional content for, while FP2 is much much easier to mod and add things to, but I feel like I’ve already gotten all of the enjoyment from its mechanics that I’m going to get. Short of people making brand new boss battles or something anyway.)

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Playing Steam Games on KDE Neon

TL;DR:

If your Steam Client is flickering rapidly on your fresh Linux install:

  • Go to Steam->Settings->Interface->Client Beta Participation -> Steam Beta Update.

If your Steam Client seems to refuse to launch any of your previously installed games (that you probably had installed on separate harddrives when you were running Windows:

  • Steam for Linux does not like NTFS for some reason. Games that I moved to my main drive work perfectly. So I’ll probably just get an extra SSD for my SATA USB adapter, reformat it to something more appropriate, and just play from that.

—

So after the recent announcement of “Microsoft Recall” for Windows where it captures screencaps of the user’s activity every 3 seconds and feeds that into their machine learning algorithm (which includes looking at adult content, entering payment information for online purchases, online healthcare services, private video calls, or any kind of remote-work you may be doing which could involve PII) I finally went ahead and dropped Windows 10 for KDE Neon.

There’s been some frustrations here and there, but it is working for the most part. Main problem bugging me right now is that the emote picker pops up a separate application and when I choose an emote it gets copied to clipboard instead of added to the textbox I had selected.

I was also having some issues with Steam for a while, but now I’ve got that working (as mentioned in the TLDR section. To repeat myself:

Got it fixed!
For the client flickering: Go to Steam->Settings->Interface->Client Beta Participation -> Steam Beta Update.
For most of my games not launching from my other drives: Steam for Linux does not like NTFS for some reason. Games that I moved to my main drive work perfectly. So I’ll probably just get an extra SSD for my SATA USB adapter, reformat it to something more appropriate, and just play from that.

Oh Hey, You Found My Blog. Congrats.