idk man, I just live here...

Hi, I'm AK (or "Doodles"). They/them, Aroace 🖤🩶🤍💜, AuDHD Graduated character animator from Denmark. Born in late 1988; Tumblin' since late 2011. Pronouns.page

[askfordoodles]

Navigation for mobile users:

I realized (a bit belatedly) that mobile users can't easily access my Commission Info and Tag Archive pages, so here are some major ones:

MY ART

**COMMISSION INFO (updated Nov 30th, 2023)**

Crash Bandicoot OC Comic Vol.1 ~ Origins

Crash Bandicoot OC Comic Vol. 2 ~ Awakening

Comic-related asks (Part 1)

Comic-related asks (Part 2)

Neofarious (Crash Bandicoot OC)

Text Post Memes

Crow-demon (my avatar)

Quagsire (pokemon)

My Ko-fi <3

[askfordoodles]

🎵Isn't she lovely?🎵

[acecasinova]

.....Pacer app, I am eating mini wheats,,,,

[maxknightley]

being a jack of all trades is dope as fuck honestly. it's like I'm doing crop rotation inside my own brain

[petefoxshend-deactivated2018062]

“Big Pharma” okay are we talking about how privatization and monetization has deeply corrupted the field of medicine or are you talking about how you think chemicals in the water are making the frogs gay

[greyramblings]

“GMOs”? Are we talking seeds that grow sterile plants and patenting genetic modifications then destroying any competition no matter how small they are? Or are we talking life saving rice with vitamin a to make sure kids don’t go blind in regions not suited for other high vit a veg? … or are we talking about your chidoodle?

[cilantrhoes]

[itsbeeugaymers]

can I reblog for both?

[six-sox]

I’m reblogging for both

[maxbytes]

if tumblr was an online game i’d run my character up to your character and spam the jump button and do backflips and frontflips over your character’s head to show you i’m excited to see you on the dash

[exhausted-archivist]

Interview with Sylvia Feketekuty

A very nice read, with some parts of it I enjoyed below!

Inside BioWare's Narrative Design: Interview with Sylvia Feketekuty - RPGamer

Austin Langer was able to interview former BioWare narrative designer Sylvia Feketekuty. She discusses how the teams tackled exposition, pla

Austin Langer (RPGamer): When thinking about RPG dialogue across different eras, how do you approach balancing clarity and relatability with maintaining a distinct tone for the setting?

Sylvia Feketekuty: [...] Writing for Dragon Age was different. Since Mass Effect takes place in our own universe, you know how the laws of physics are supposed to work there. But each Dragon Age game had to reestablish its particular metaphysical framework of magic and spirits, their effects on different cultures, and the politics of dealing with them, on top of introducing new people and places. In my opinion, at least, there was a lot more to explain to players. Especially in the first few hours.

This is probably why, when I came on to Dragon Age: Inquisition, the narrative team already knew they wanted a diplomat character. Josephine helped to ground the big, political forces clashing around you. Whenever she briefed the Inquisitor, I had Josephine approach it like an executive summary. She knows the Inquisitor’s time is valuable. So, in tandem with your other advisors, she always gave players just enough information to make a decision, but never so much as to overwhelm them.

One of the other quirks I had in the back of my head is that Josephine isn’t quite as efficient in her speech as she thinks she is. The Lady Ambassador is never tiresome! But she’s so seeped in the grand politics of Thedas, she can’t help but try to round out all of the points, in the most diplomatic way possible. Paradoxically, I think it makes her exposition more interesting. That quirk is, I hope, part of Josephine’s charm.

AL: When a character is responsible for delivering critical exposition, how do you prevent that functional role from flattening their unique voice? Have you encountered situations where exposition demands directly conflicted with character voice?

SF: It can be a struggle! I’ve absolutely hit times when a character who needed to be in a scene was not the best choice to explain what was going on. In that case, sometimes delaying part of your exposition is the best move. An NPC learning about what’s going on alongside the player always helps pace things out more naturally.

As for making sure exposition doesn’t flatten a character’s voice: one thing I like to do is give an NPC something to complain about, or worry over, or be excited for. It’s not necessary for very short scenes, of course. But if it’s a larger beat of exposition, try to dig deep for that hook. It helps with even the driest of information. If resources and time permit, bringing in a second NPC for the first NPC to argue with is even better. We always pay more attention when there’s friction.

When I was writing Emmrich’s personal quests in Veilguard, I tried to have a current of worry running underneath his explanatory dialogue. He’s the kind of person who’s always mulling things over in the back of his mind. “Should I tell Rook about lichdom? Can I successfully join their ranks? Will Manfred be all right if I do? Will Rook understand?”

And once Emmrich learns a former friend is behind the sinister events he’s investigating, his anxiety goes through the roof. It was really easy to write Emmrich’s plot exposition after that, because it was so charged with his personal anguish and fears.

Those moments weren’t perfect right off the bat though. I’d like to shout out the other writers, especially Trick and Brianne and Gabriel, who gave feedback that helped bring those emotions to the fore. Honestly, having someone you trust give you candid but useful story feedback is probably the fastest way to improve your exposition (and most other parts of your writing.)

AL: How early in development do narrative constraints like branching scope or VO limits start shaping how dialogue is written?

SF: Right away. I think people would be surprised by how much even “small” branching dialogue-say a shopkeeper who has six different greetings and farewells-can make your word budget skyrocket when multiplied across an entire game. (Especially if your game is fully voiced, and you have to keep actor availability into consideration.)

One thing I wanted from the start of Veilguard was significant branching with Emmrich for players who took the Mourn Watch origin. Since it’s one of six origins, there was only, theoretically, a one in six chance players would ever see that dialogue. On paper that doesn’t seem like a good use of extra words. But I think that kind of branching is what players like the most.

It really pays off a choice you make, and lets you get deeper into role playing a specific fantasy, and changes a relationship with a character. That’s cool! It’s the kind of reactivity I like, at any rate. So if Rook’s a Mourn Watcher, players can complain with Emmrich that no one outside Nevarra really gets necromancy, or gossip about what’s happening back home, and so on. That was very fun for me. I think it was worth it.

[askfordoodles]

(adding another part, for archival purposes, because I really like it)

AL: A lot of RPGs have characters with story arcs where they make a big, life-changing decision influenced by the player. When writing this kind of quest, how do you keep a character’s core beliefs and personality consistent? If the player has such agency over a character, how do you balance their ‘core profile’ so the character doesn’t sound like a totally new character if they do evolve through player choice?

SF: You definitely have to nail down a character’s core voice, their hopes and fears, before deciding how a big choice will change them. Or at least I do. The best thing you can do for yourself at this stage is to plant the seeds of this choice. Everyone has conflicting beliefs or multiple things they hold dear. Even if you don’t come up with the perfect life-changing decision right away, knowing those internal contradictions and yearnings will give a foundation to tinker with it until you get it right.

When planning out Emmrich in Veilguard, for example, I spent a lot of time noodling around with his background and his philosophical foundations before I felt I really got him. And in the first draft of his personal arc, the ending always led to him becoming a lich. The choice was more about how intelligent or not Manfred got. And it was okay, but it wasn’t gripping. It didn’t get at anything about Emmrich.

So I thought about it, and realized I wasn’t really pulling on some of the things I’d set up with his character. Emmrichs’ fear of death, contrasted with his reverence for it; his not-entirely-acknowledged paternal bond with Manfred; whether Emmrich could overcome his self-doubts for his deepest desires. So the choice became achieving lichdom or bringing back Manfred. And after he becomes a lich, Emmrich is even more rapturously absorbed in the spirit world than he was before. And if he decides to bring back Manfred, Emmrich finally takes conscious responsibility for what that little skeleton means to him.

So I would say Emmrich’s voice does evolve, depending on the player’s choice. But in both cases, it was along a journey he’d already begun to take, and rooted in who he always was.

[apolladay]

Which is more tragic?

It was inevitable

It could have been avoided

Voting ended onMay 29

[boba-sea]

[brionysea]

everyone's all about queer subtext until it's aromantic or asexual

[sergal]

big and cutes my me at you

[deinonychian]

#myme

[kaputtsolvi]

What I feel people frequently forget about autistic special interests is that they aren't always information based. They may simply be visual or mental

Someone may have a special interest in a show, but instead of that meaning that they will talk about that show often, it may mean they watch that show extremely frequently.

Special interests are ways of regulating, not simply encyclopedias we have in our heads. Sometimes it's watching something frequently. Maybe only listening to one genre of music, maybe it's a collection, maybe it's an action. I'm tired of it only being seen as autistic people's personal encyclopedias

[corrodedparadox]

S line (the S stands for salmon)

Prints

[soulren]

“Ghosts are real” I can see how you could believe that

“Ghosts aren’t real” it’s very fair and rational that you believe that

“Ghosts aren’t real anymore” I’m about to hear a poem or very sad story

“Ghosts aren’t real yet” the fuck are you going to do

[kazzzistired]

Feeling inspired... Might put off writing and think about it the whole time

[anxietyproblem]

[fial-inka]

the signal catcher 📡