Useful websites / links for rentry , bundlrs , gfx & etc for you!
symbol sanatorium - Links to a google document with a ton of symbols , kaomojis & text layouts. I use it for pretty much all of my recent rentrys.
sozaino.site - Website that's been making its rounds on rentry as of late, useful for graphic making. Has dividers, pngs, frames ~ etc if you have the creative touch.
sozai-good - site I found recently that has a lot of pngs you can download, also has frames and borders. In japanese but isn't hard to translate. Everything is also sorted into sections.
lottie lab - Website useful for animating, can be used to move around PNGs for rentry and the like. I don't use it much myself atm, but it's pretty easy to get the hang of.
scripted.neocities - Neocities full of code you can use for bundlrs or carrd. Also useful for stuff like spacehey and other sites that use CSS / HTML
blinkies.cafe - Easily make or find blinkies here! Great for beginners who want to make some simple things.
emojicombos - Search practically anything and you'll find an emoji combo for it. Useful for finding symbol / text combos and kaomojis.
unicode character table - Has pretty much every single symbol you've seen or needed. You can find what you want pretty easily due to its sectioning. Has stuff like arrows , dingbats , brackets , etc etc..
yaytext - Make your text 𝙼𝚘𝚗𝚘𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚌𝚎! or U͟n͟d͟e͟r͟l͟i͟n͟e͟d͟!͟ easily with this website! May possibly break screenreaders in the process though so be warned.
lorem ipsum generator - Too lazy to generate a block of text to make a page look filled out, well look no longer! This site can quickly generate of block of pure gibberish to make it seem like there's actually text there! Good for newspaper / magazine gfx ~
And that's all ( for now )! I use most of all these sites and find them very useful! Hopefully one of them will prove useful to you too dear friend (❁´◡`❁)
Here's a list of Free tools and resources for your daily work!🎨
2D
• Piskelapp Pixel art + animation
• Krita general digital painting + animation
• Gimp image manipulation + painting
• MapEditor Level builder (orthogonal, isometric, hexagonal)
• Terawell manipulate 3D mannequin as a figure drawing aid (the free version has everything)
• Storyboarder Storyboard
3D
• Blender general 3D software (modeling, sculpting, painting, SFX , animation…).
• BlockBench low-poly 3D + animation.
• Dust3D low-poly 3D (more like Zbrush's zsphere)
Sound Design
• Audacity Audio editor (recording, editing, mixing)
• LMMS digital audio workstation (music production, composition, beat-making).
• plugins4free audio plugins (work with both audacity and lmms)
• Beepcomp chiptune/8-bit/16-bit music synthesizer
Video
• davinciresolve video editing (the free version has everything)
• OBS Studio video recording + live streaming.
For learning and inspiration
• models-resource 3D models from retro games (mostly)
• spriters-resource 2D sprites (same)
• textures-resource 2D textures (same)
• TheCoverProject video game covers
• Setteidreams archive of animation production materials
• Livlily collection of animated lines
I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard
Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.
Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.
Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.
Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.
SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.
SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.
Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.
Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.
Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.
Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.
Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.
A more in-depth guide for creating visual novels, especially in the horror, horror-romance, etc circles
Some of you have seen my previous, smaller post on crafting visual novels, especially in this little space of Tumblr that a lot of us have found themselves in. Since that post took off, I've wanted to create a longer guide to help touch on some points I've thought about for the past few months.
In case you've never heard of me, I'm Kat, also known as catsket. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Game Design. I've been making games for nearly 5 years, and I've been doing visual novels more "professionally" for 2. You may know me for Art Without Blood, 10:16, God is in the Radio, or Fatal Focus. I'm here to help you make your first visual novel.
Please note that my advice does not fit everyone, and you may disagree with what I say. That's okay! It doesn't work for all. That's why there's thousands of resources out there.
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE NEVER MADE A GAME
So, you have an idea for a huge visual novel. Horror, a shady and obsessive love interest, a little bit of woo-hooing. 100k words. Maybe a million. What is this, the 07th Expansion?
I notice a lot of people getting into visual novels are artists first. That's okay! I wanted to do art for games before I realized how much I enjoyed writing. And even less of you have probably touched Visual Studio. Again, perfectly okay. We all start somewhere.
My number one piece of advice? Make shitty games.
What does that mean?! My recommendation to those who have never done games is to make a bunch of shitty ones. Think of a theme, or hell, even join a game jam, where you make a game that fits a theme in a short amount of time. Spend about a week on your game. Focus on making something polished. Polish your mechanics. Polish your output.
I recommend, if you can, to make at least 4-6, if not more, kind of shitty games before hopping into longer projects. Making a game is a skill, just like art, just like writing. And game development is combining ALL of these together into one big soup being stirred by a skeleton hand puppet. You'll get into the rhythm and see what works for you.
It also helps you learn, perhaps, the second most important thing here: do you even like making games? There are cases out there where people have created video games (not saying visual novels) just for clout. That's no fun for you, that's no fun for your players. And you might go through this process and find that you don't like making games. That's completely okay! It's not for everyone.
Also, you can use these shittier games to gather an audience. I've built my audience because, for the past few years, I've been releasing games that slowly give me growing fields of eyes every day. A success story overnight is a rare one. It takes time. It's like building a brand, but you aren't a brand, you're an artist.
REV UP YOUR ENGINES!
Ren'py is the number one engine you will be recommended. It is very beginner-friendly, with lots of tutorials, assets on itch.io to use and download, and support. The engine comes with a few tutorials in the form of games, whose code you can freely browse. This is the engine I use most often. Most visual novels you see are made in this engine.
Twine is a text-based engine that most people use for interactive fiction. You can add images and audio, though, if you don't mind messing with HTML. I use Twine for text games and for outlining for my larger games. Ever played Degrees of Lewdity? Yeah, I know you have. Don't ask why. That game was made in Twine.
RPG Maker has multiple versions and has been used for exclusively VNs if you don't mind fucking around with plugins. It can definitely give your game a super unique feel. I recommend RPG Maker MV, since it has the most resources. This line of engines usually costs money, but it often goes on sale for under $5-$15.
People will recommend TyranoBuilder, but as a user and player, the lack of options and the format the games often come in is just...not fun to navigate. It advertises itself as little to no code, but it's often evident in the final results. Some good games have been made in it, though, so if you want to use it for prototyping/practice, you can. I'm not a fan, but that doesn't mean that fans don't exist! This engine costs money.
Not an engine, but check out Ink! Super useful scripting language that's used for more professional projects.
DEMOS, DEMOS, DEMOS
You've got an idea for a long-term project, and now you want to show it to the world! But wait, wait, don't do that yet!
When should I start advertising my game? This is a personal opinion, but I say that you should not start advertising your game until 50-60% of your demo is complete. Why? As I've discussed with some fans of indie VNs, they can name quite a few projects that have been in the "working on the demo" age for 1-2+ years. I've been in the Kickstarter MMO circles. If you, making a single-player experience with little mechanics to balance and polish (aka a visual novel), are taking that long on a demo, I am going to assume the game is not coming out. There are some games I have seen out here that have been in "working on the demo" phase where I haven't seen a single ounce of what the project will look like.
What should I put in my demo? The purpose of a demo is to showcase the mechanics and the vibes and the mechanics of your game. It's a demonstration. In my last post, I pointed to the Dead Space 2 demo that was showcased at E3 (RIP), that takes place about 2 hours into the story and shows how enemies are defeated, some animations, bits of the story, etc. Usually, because it's less about mechanics and more about vibes, visual novel demos showcase a certain percentage of the full thing (5-10%.) Can you showcase the vibe of the game here and what players should expect? If not, show off another portion.
How long should I work on my demo? Before, I said 3-4 months. That can be true, that can also not be true. Think about how long the demo takes you in proportion to how long the actual game should take you. Don't put too much effort. The demo is to showcase the vibe. It's to see how much the public and fans may enjoy the game.
My game is 18+, what should I do? Make a splash screen when the game is downloaded to let players know your game is 18+. If it's going to contain sexual content, you can hide it with itch.io's adult content filter. Write it on the page itself that your game is for adults only. Don't put your demo behind a paywall. This is genuinely ridiculous. The purpose of a demo is to showcase what a game is like before a player purchases it. That defeats the point of a demo. I've seen this happen, and it discourages players from approaching, especially because most demos never make it past the demo phase. So...I'm paying you $10 for 2-3k words of a game that may never come out?
Should I make a social media for my game? YES! Go for it. These anchors are how people will find your game. Make a Tumblr and open that ask box. Make a Twitter. Go to BluSky. Advertising is not bad. Some YouTubers even take e-mail suggestions from developers. Feel free to shoot your shot. The worst they can do is not respond.
HOW TO SET UP YOUR ITCH.IO PAGE:
Getting your itch.io to a presentable state can be very challenging! There's many ways to do it. I highly recommend using this page image guide for learning how to size your images to make your page pop!
Itch.io themselves has suggested to not publish a page until the game or demo is released. You can make the page and keep it as a draft, but do not publish it until you're ready!
Your cover image is the image that will appear in the search of the website, on any front pages, in collections, and on your profile. What have I seen that works? Key art of one of the characters up close and the title of the game! If you can make it a .GIF, do it! Bitches love .GIFs!
Itch.io recommends 3-5 screenshots on your page. I recommend 1 of these 5 be a .GIF that shows how gameplay feels. This is effective, even for visual novels!
Write a 3-5 sentence summary about your game for the description. What is your story about? What is the draw?
DO NOT BE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO IS GOING TO SAY "This is not like other visual novels. It doesn't have that cheesy this or that or-" No one cares. Genuinely. You're putting down other games in your genre and elevating yourself to the pompous level.
TAG YOUR GAME! itch.io gives you a list of tags to choose from when you go to tag. DON'T USE THIS! Try to go for more specific tags. Arimia has a very good guide on how to use itch.io's tagging system to your advantage.
GENERAL GAME MAKING ADVICE
SCOPE KNIFE IS SUPER USEFUL! Everyone makes games that are way over their workload. It's okay to cut out features and add them later. Prioritize making a finished game before hitting those stretch goals.
PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! Writing outlines is super helpful. I use Twine for my outlines, because you can connect your passages together and make really well-thought webs.
IT'S OKAY TO ASK FOR HELP! Whether it's from friends, professionals, or anything in-between. They can help with assets, editing, etc.
HONE YOUR SKILLS OUTSIDE OF GAMES! Write some poetry. Do some sketches everyday. Improve on your craft to improve your games
MUSIC IS HARD. THERE ARE RESOURCES. Most of us aren't musicians. That's okay. Make sure the music you get for your game is allowed to be used. You can use anything non-commercial if your game will not cost money or donations. I try to do songs in the public domain or free to use overall with credit if I don't have a musician. Consult the Creative Commons website if you're unsure how you're supposed to use a certain piece of music. If you don't use the right stuff, not only can it put you in legal trouble, but it can put streamers in hot water if they play your game and they can't upload the video because music is copyrighted.
PLEASE, DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR UI. Wanna know an easy way to get your game to look more professional? Edit the damn UI for your game. Make a new textbox, even if it's just a black box. Change the font. Eventually, players recognize the defaults and patterns of games made in certain engines and may attribute a lack of UI changes to a developer being lazy. It doesn't take very long to change the colors around and move text! Please do it to add a little pop to your game.
DEADLINES ARE AWESOME. Not everyone works well under pressure, but if you give yourself an infinite amount of time to make something, it'll never get done. Set goals for yourself for how much you can work on something.
IF YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP, GIVE UP. Making things is hard, especially long-term. Emergencies happen, jobs happen, life happens. Let your fans know that a project isn't happening anymore. Don't leave them in the dark. You don't need to tell strangers your medical history or anything, but transparency + honesty are really hot traits. You should use those in your creative work. This is one reason why I advocate for not publishing or advertising things until you know it's stable.
SHOWCASING YOUR CONTENT
People love to see WIPs for games! This is what the devlog is good for! A devlog is a post where a developer talks about and showcases some things happening in the game? What can you add to your dev log?
PERCENTAGES! How much of the artwork is done? How much of this character's route is done?
SNEAK PEEKS AT ARTWORK AND SPRITES!
GIFS! GIRLS LOVE GIFS!
Anything else to showcase your game's content! Posting consistent updates retains and even gains a fan's attention for your work.
RUNNING YOUR TUMBLR
You've joined us, and you've made a Tumblr for your blog! Link it on the itch.io page, so people can come find you after playing your awesome demo!
Do I have to respond to every ask? No. It's your blog. Delete whatever asks you want.
I got a hate comment! What do I do? Delete it and move on. I have a more detailed section on hate below.
I want to interact with [blog]! How do I do that? Reach out to the devs for silly little collabs. If you come onto a developer slightly headstrong, they might feel you are being abrasive or using them for content.
If people make fan content, interact with it! Encourage it! Reblog it. Show your love.
OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS
PROFESSIONALISM IS KEY. These may be pet projects, but you want to appear some level of professional on your actual itch.io page.
Being dismissive of player and fan complaints or criticisms will make you appear childish.
If your game is broken, fix it. I have been told by some amateur developers to ignore game-breaking bugs. It does not make me, a player, want to engage with your content. It seems messy and unfinished.
With the above point, it's 100% okay to have bugs and errors upon release. Every developer and their brood mother has. To decrease these issues, get playtesters. Friends can play your games, spot any errors, and help you point out things that can be improved upon. I recommend having playtesters at every stage of development.
Make sure your game runs before you publish it. Please.
You can still be silly and giddy! There's no reason to not be, especially when you get positive comments! The point of this is to not be outright rude to potential players and fans.
IGNORE HATE COMMENTS. In this case, a hate comment is a statement that contains no constructive criticism and are only here to be insulting or malicious. People are going to leave you with actual piles of dog shit in your ask box. They are trying to provoke you. Giving hate comments any attention, even if you're there to "clap back" proves that they got to you, even if you don't take the hate to heart. They will continue to pester you. Delete any hate comments and ignore them completely. Laugh about them with friends in a private setting, sure.
THINK BEFORE YOU REFERENCE! I know one big thing in this community is adding references to other games in yours, such as plushies of other characters or putting them on posters. The best thing you can do it ask the developer before adding this. How would you feel if some random person you've never met put your character in a video game? Most of us would feel weird and potentially violated. Open communication with devs is awesome. I am usually okay with it as long as someone asks for permission.
As a complete aside, I prefer more tasteful references to other games as opposed to 523482346 plushies and posters. These have been slightly overdone. Why not theme a candy after another game's character? Maybe your characters know each other.
OTHER RESOURCES I RECOMMEND
Devtalk is a server dedicated to independent visual novel creators. You can find jobs, resources, advice, talks, and, like, everything there! Devtalk is super useful. Everyone in there is so cool. They have a really great and comprehensive list of resources that I could not even begin to cover.
Visual Novel Design is a great YouTuber. No other words, check the guy out!
Ren'py and whatever other engine you're using has documentation that's super useful to follow.
Arimia not only has amazing VN resources, especially for marketing, but she also just has? Amazing games that you should check out?
And for a shameless self plug, I'm the lead of Sacred Veins, a collective of devs creating narrative games, whether it be horror, humor, romance, or everything in-between. Come hang out with us!
Yeah I getcha. I was once like you. Pure and naive. Great news. I AM STILL PURE AND NAIVE, GAME DEV IS FUN! But where to start?
To start, here are a couple of entry level softwares you can use! source: I just made a game called In Stars and Time and people are asking me how to start making vidy gaems. Now, without further ado:
SOFTWARES AND ENGINES FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO CODE!!!
Ren'py (and also a link to it if you click here do it):
THE visual novel software. Comic artists, look no further
✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It has great documentation! It has a bunch of plugins and UI stuff and assets for you to buy! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! (You'll just need to read the doc a bunch) You can also port your game to a BUNCH of consoles!
✨Cons: None really <3
Some games to look at: Doki Doki Literature Club, Bad End Theater, Butterfly Soup
Twine:
Great for text-based games! GREAT FOR WRITERS WHO DONT WANNA DRAW!!!!!!!!! (but you can draw if you want)
✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It's versatile! It has great documentation! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! (You'll just need to read the doc a bunch)
✨Cons: You can add pictures, but it's a pain.
Some games to look at: The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo, Queers In love At The End of The World, Escape Velocity
Bitsy:
Little topdown games!
✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It's (somewhat) intuitive! It has great documentation! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! You can make everything in it, from text to sprites to code! Those games sure are small!
✨Cons: Those games sure are small. This is to make THE simplest game. Barely any animation for your sprites, can barely fit a line of text in there. But honestly, the restrictions are refreshing!
Some games to look at: honestly I haven't played that many bitsy games because i am a fake gamer. The picture above is from Under A Star Called Sun though and that looks so pretty
RPGMaker:
To make RPGs! LIKE ME!!!!!
NOTE: I recommend getting the latest version if you can, but all have their pros and cons. You can get a better idea by looking at this post.
✨Pros: Literally everything you need to make an RPG. Has a tutorial inside the software itself that will teach you the basics. Pretty simple to understand, even if you have no coding experience! Also I made a post helping you out with RPGMaker right here!
✨Cons: Some stuff can be hard to figure out. Also, the latest version is expensive. Get it on sale!
Some games to look at: Yume Nikki, Hylics, In Stars and Time (hehe. I made it)
engine.lol:
collage worlds! it is relatively new so I don't know much about it, but it seems fascinating. picture is from Garden!
NOTE: There's a bunch of smaller engines to find out there. Just yesterday I found out there's an Idle Game Maker made by the Cookie Clicker creator. Isn't life wonderful?
✨more advice under the cut. this is Long ok✨
ENGINES I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT AND THEY SEEM HARD BUT ALSO GIVE IT A TRY I GUESS!!!! :
Unity and Unreal: I don't know anything about those! That looks hard to learn! But indie devs use them! It seems expensive! Follow your dreams though! Don't ask me how!
GameMaker: Wuh I just don't know anything about it either! I just know it's now free if your game is non-commercial (aka, you're not selling it), and Undertale was made on it! It seems good! You probably need some coding experience though!!!
Godot: Man I know even less about this one. Heard good things though!
BUNCHA RANDOM ADVICE!!!!
-Make something small first! Try making simple: a character is in a room, and exits the room. The character can look around, decide to take an item with them, can leave, and maybe the door is locked and you have to find the key. Figuring out how to code something like that, whether it is as a fully text-based game or as an RPGMaker map, should be a good start to figure out how your software of choice works!
-After that, if you have an idea, try first to make the simplest version of that idea. For my timeloop RPG, my simplest version was two rooms: first room you can walk in, second room with the King, where a cutscene automatically plays and the battle starts, you immediately die, and loop back to the first room, with the text from this point on reflecting this change. I think I also added a loop counter. This helped me figure out the most important thing: Can This Game Be Made? After that, the rest is just fun stuff.
So if you want to make a dating sim, try and figure out how to add choices, and how to have affection points go up and down depending on your choices! If you want to make a platformer, figure out how to make your character move and jump and how to create a simple level! If you just want to make a kinetic visual novel with no choices, figure out how to add text, and how to add portraits! You'll be surprised at how powerful you'll feel after having figured even those simple things out.
-If you have a programming problem or just get confused, never underestimate the power of asking Google! You most likely won't be the only person asking this question, and you will learn some useful tips! If you are powerful enough, you can even… Ask people??? On forums??? Not me though.
-Yeah I know you probably want to make Your Big Idea RIGHT NOW but please. Make a smaller prototype first. You need to get that experience. Trust me.
-If you are not a womanthing of many skills like me, you might realize you need help. Maybe you need an artist, or a programmer. So! Game jams on itch.io are a great way to get to work and meet other game devs that have different strengths! Or ask around! Maybe your artist friend secretly always wanted to draw for a game. Ask! Collaborate! Have fun!!!
I hope that was useful! If it was. Maybe. You'd like to buy me a coffee. Or maybe you could check out my comics and games. Or just my new critically acclaimed game In Stars and Time. If you want. Ok bye
Hey I know there’s been a spike in RPG Maker users lately due to all these wicked steam sales, so let me quick link you guys to some handy stuff:
Tutorials
No matter what version of RPG Maker you purchased, here’s some good articles on the basics of game making. These include but are not limited to making your first game, the FUNdementals of RPG, how to produce snazzy looking maps, and how to work with a team.
My RPG Maker 2000/2003 tutorials Masterpost
A Starting Point for VX Ace users, plus a Masterpost on VX Ace tutorials AND a nice booklet that covers a lot of things for beginners here!
These are two sites with tutorials for RPG Maker MV in addtion to the main site
Common Beginner’s Mistakes from the Main Site
Here’s some neat forums you can talk to other people about RPG Maker on and get help (English, French, German, Italian, & Portuguese)
RPGMaker.net & The Official Site’s Forums are my go-to for tutorials, but you can find a lot via google search or any of those forums above
Resources
A Graphics Resource Masterpost for all engines
A (mostly) Free to Use Music Masterpost for those who can’t compose (note! some of the links are outdated, feel free to let me know what!)
Here’s My First Game Jam’s resources page
here’s my developer help tag for all of the random resources I’ve collected over the 4 years i’ve been on tumblr
Oh, and if it’s your first time making a game on RPG Maker, check out My First Game Jam (@myfirstgamejam), a 2 week event all about making games on an engine you’ve never used before. Why not make a quick 2 week game for that?
Ok kids have fun gaem makin’ go for the goal kiddos (ง ᐛ )ง
(see, I DID do something for 200 followers. 12 followers late, but it’s something! owo")
All music here is free to use in your games or other projects without charge, either operating on a “Ok to use as long as you give me credit” basis, a Creative Commons License, or is already in the public domain (meaning there’s no copyright on it).
For more information on Creative Commons License works, check here. For an easy to look at graph, check here. Remember, if it’s Public Domain, it’s free to use & redistribute to your heart’s content.
And feel free to add on more resources to this post if you like. c:
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➤ Free Collections Ready for Download
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(don’t worry, it's not all yume nikki in here! Keep reading!)
Plasterbrain’s Yume Freebie Collection - plasterbrain’s Yume Nikki Fangame Sound dump. According to them, they’re ok with you using it for any type of projects as long as you don’t redistribute the pack for money. Check out their sound cloud. They also did music for DREAM VS DREAM, a Yume Nikki fighting game you can play here. Music loops.
Yume Nikki Fangame Month - bwarch’s pay-if-you-want-it-would-be-really-nice-if-you-did-but-it’s-fine-if-you-don’t pack of free to use Yume Nikki Fangame music for your Yume Nikki fan game (I did the art for it!). Has a bunch of rad tracks for you to use! Check out his Bandcamp here, his Soundcloud here, and his Youtube here. Music loops.
The Remains of the 8 Bit Collective - A huge file of Chiptune/8 Bit music free to use from the now down site 8 Bit Collective. There’s a bunch of crap, but there are good ones in there too. Music loops.
Rindre’s Effect Sounds - A few Sound Effects for your Yume Nikki game by our friend pakilusin! Sound effects. She’s working on an upcoming fan game called Redux, formerly the game Flux.
Rindre’s Fangame Music Pack - Some good ambientish tracks by our friend pakilusin! Music Loops. Check out her soundcloud here!
RPG Maker.net’s Music Pack - RPG Maker.net’s form got together and put out a wonderful album full of RPG Music for you to use. Music & loops.
Noyemi K’s Game Placeholder Pack - A pack by noyemik that includes music & chipsets to use as a PLLACEHOLDER for your game. She has some free to use for her game right down here…
Noyemi’s Free to Use Resources - Along with her Placeholder pack, she also has some free to use music & sounds as well. She’s the maker of Amihailu in Dreamland & Hell Diary, two rad games with equally rad soundtracks. Check out her sound cloud here! And her bandcamp here!
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➤ Websites for Downloading Music
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English Sites
Flashkit - Always check if it’s freeware, licenseware, or shareware! Sound Effects & Music Loops.
Freesound.org - Check the licensing agreement on the things you download! Sound Effects and Music Loops. You’ll need an account before you download anything, but the library is just so vast that it’s well worth it.
Partners in Rhyme - They’re mostly for youtube videos, but are ok if you use it in your video game. Music Loops.
Looperman - Focuses on loops for audio software (so if you want to add more to it feel free). Here’s their terms & conditions page. You also have to create an account before you download anything. Loops, samples, sound effects, acapellas, & raps.
Sound Bible - Royalty-free Sound Effects under the public domain & attribution creative commons license.
Media College - has like, 10 loops in the public domain for you to download.
Free SFX - I linked to their License Page because it’s a bit hidden. Free Sound Effects. Yes, you have to make an account, but it’s free.
JWinter Music - A blog that post free to use Music, mostly for youtube videos.
AudioPad - a Youtube explicitly for royalty free music. They have a whole video answering questions about it if you’re confused!
Indie Game Music.com - Specifically for indie games. Music on the site is under three different licenses, so check this page before you go off downloading things. Loops & Music.
FreePD.com - All of it is in the public domain (everything’s free to use because the copyright expired/there was no copyright in the first place). Loops.
Media Collage - Free Sound Effects as long as you don’t sell them yourself.
SampleSwap.org -“You must Log in (or register) in order to download these samples. … 100% of the samples on this site are free, but registration helps us fight MP3 robots and establish controls over how much gets downloaded, and when.“ Samples, Music & Noise Loops, & sound effects.
Dig.CCMixter.org Check each track for a money symbol next to it. If there is none, it’s free to download. Free music.
Incompetech - All music is under creative commons, made by one dude. It’s a LOT of music, & is separated by different genres if you want to search for things.
iBeats - for when you need looping beats for your music. Remember, check the license (some are public domain, some are under commercial use under attribution, and most under a non-commercial license).
FreeMusicArchive.org - most works are under the Creative Commons license. Music & Spoken Word downloads.
Free Loops - Mostly Free Loops & VST Plug ins. Like so many others, check the license before downloading.
Musopen - Aims to be the largest public domain music collection. Go ahead and check if the recording itself as well as the composition is in public domain. Most recordings are. The site offers Classical Music Downloads, as well as Sheet Music.
Japanese Sites
Vita Chi - Free to use for both commercial & non-commercial projects! Music, Screams, & Sound Effects. Mad Father has
PianosDauGe.org - I’m pretty sure it’s free for both commercial and non-commercial use, as long as you don’t redistribute. A bunch of Music Loops. Check out the private policy (in Japanese) here.
Classical Masterpiece Sound Library - Need free classical music and fast? Shazam! Free to use commercially and non-commecially. Alice Mare & The Crooked Man used this site for their classical pieces.
Senses Circuit - Wadanohara & the Great Blue Sea.
Pocket Sound - Free to use Sound Effects! "This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon a work, even commercially, as long as you credit them for the original creation.”
Tami Music Factory - Free to use commercially & non commercially. Check out the copyright page here. Sound effects, loops (Midi & Ogg), and… uh, mobile ringtones if you’re in need of those 0w0”.
Amacha Music - According to the FAQ, it’s free for both commercial and non-commecial use. Music.
H/MIX GALLERY - free background music/loops made by Hirokazu Akiyama. Free for non commercial use only though, you’ll have to pay for a license if you want to use it commercially. Mad Father, the Crooked Man, The Witch’s House, Alice Mare,
Otonomori - According to Rindere, it’s a free to use sound effects website for commercial and non-commercial uses.
Presence of Music - I’m pretty sure it’s just for non-commecial use only. Has music for both standard RPGs & Horror RPGs. Loops, I believe. Ib & the Witch’s House both have music from this site.
*Asterisk* - Free to use Midi files & Web music. Credit is not necessary, but appreciated.
koukaongen.com - Free to use sound effects, music, & loops. Credit is nice, but you don’t need to link back to them. I’m pretty sure it’s noncommercial use only. One of the sites used by the creator of Ib.
Music Material - I’m not too sure what the copyright page says but you can look at it here. Music.
Dova Syndrome - Check out the copyright page here. Music & loops.
A few more found by Rindere - I’m not translating these anymore, you’re on your own. >3< BUT they’re all supposed to be Sound Effects websites.
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Tumblrs
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rabbit-hole-divisions - All their music is free to use. I haven’t heard from them in a while though!
Yume Nikki Fangame Music Sheet - Just something if you like sheet music & Yume Nikki fan games.
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➤ Browser Music Making Programs
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Make Music in your own browser! (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.)
http://www.pulseboy.com - An 8bit/Chiptune Music Maker!
Bfxr - A sound effects maker!
as3sfxr - another sound effects maker! A bit simpler than Bfxr.
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➤ Free Plug ins
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Some Chiptune VSTs (the post warns you that you probably shouldn’t the Toad & Peach ones!)
I’ll be updating this as more chapters are updated and translations are picked up!
Kirby and the Dangerous Gourmet Mansion
Kirby and the Big Panic in Gloomy Woods
Kirby Meets the Squeak Squad
Meta Knight and the Puppet Princess
Big Race in Pupupu Land
Kirby’s Labyrinth Rescue
Kirby and the Great Planet Robobot Adventure
Meta Knight and the Galaxy’s Greatest Warrior
Kirby Clash Team Unite
Kirby’s Decisive Battle! Battle Royale
Kirby Star Allies: The Great Friend Adventure
Kirby Star Allies: The Universe is in Trouble
Big Trouble in Patch Land (incomplete)
Save the Rainbow Islands
Super Kirby Clash Team’s Big Battle
Kirby and the Search for the Dreamy Gears
Meta Knight and the Knight of Hades
Uproar at the Kirby Café
Kirby Fighters: The Destined Rivals
King Dedede’s Great Escape Mission
Mysterious Incident on the Pupupu Train! (incomplete)
Kirby: Welcome to the Starlight Theatre (Will be translated by Key)
Starcutter and the Lying Wizard
Kirby Discovery: Running Through the New World (incomplete)
Kirby Discovery: Break-out from the Isles of Dreams! (will be translated by Maker)
Kirby’s Dream Buffet: Perfect Circle Full Stomach (TBA)
Samurai Kirby
Thank you so much to @friendship-ended-with-pokespe , @deafeninggardenerpanda , @theultimateultimateweapon , @hoshi-no-mahoroa , @makerofmadness , @starcutter-and-lying-wizard , @rosakikoza , @kachikirby and everyone on Twitter who I can’t tag for generously translating these for everyone!
You're doing great! Really love what you've done with the place so far. Now here's something important moving forward. If you are making a neocities - especially if you are doing so with the motivation to fight back against Web 3.0 and reclaim the web as a space for individual users instead of for companies - please, keep the following in mind:
An inaccessible web is not a free web.
Repeat after me: An inaccessible web is not a free web.
Resources for Beginners to Learn About Web Accessibility and Web Design:
W3C's Introduction to Web Accessibility | W3C is the organization that decides on the standards of Accessibility on the web. They are an invaluable direct resource.
A Beginner's Guide to Understanding Web Accessibility
Mozilla's Accessibility Overview
WebAIM's Introduction to Web Accessibility
What is Web Accesibility in 60 Seconds! [YouTube Video]
Accessibility: What's the difference between WCAG Levels A and AA? [YouTube Video]
FreeCodeCamp | FCC provides an extremely beginner friendly Responsive Web Design course. The lessons for this course integrate accessibility standards naturally, and also have individual lessons specifically for teaching accessibility.
FreeCodeCamp's Accessibility Tag on their News Page
HTML Dog's Tutorial's for HTML, CSS, and Javascript
MarkSheet's Free HTML and CSS Tutorial
W3C's Easy Checks
W3C's QuickRef on How to Meet WCAG | I have filtered the QuickRef link to only show Level A requirements. This is the easiest level to meet and is considered the "bare minimum."
Wix Learn's Free Web Accessibility Certification | Resources ✨
Hiya! 💗 Today, I stumbled upon an absolute gem that I wanted to share with all of you. If you're learning about web design and inclusivity as I am, this is something you might want to look into~!
Introducing the Web Accessibility Course by Wix Learn - a game-changer for anyone striving to create websites that cater to all users, regardless of impairments. This comprehensive course covers everything you need to know to build an inclusive online space that leaves no one behind. AND IT COMES WITH AN EXAM AND CERTIFICATE (all free too hehe).
In this course, you'll gain mastery over essential skills, including:
🌐 Creating Inclusive Sites: Learn the best practices to make your websites accessible to people with various impairments, ensuring equal access for everyone.
📚 Accessible Title Tags and Headings: Dive into the world of proper title tags and heading structures, making navigation a breeze for every visitor.
👁️🗨️ Crafting Alt Text and Alternative Media: Discover the art of writing meaningful alt text and incorporating alternative media, providing a seamless experience for those with visual challenges.
⚙️ Optimizing Navigation for Assisted Technology Users: Enhance site navigation for individuals relying on assisted technologies, making their browsing experience smooth and efficient.
💬 The Power of an Accessibility Statement: Learn to create a compelling accessibility statement, showcasing your dedication to inclusivity and informing visitors about your website's accessibility features.
They even have prep courses for the exam! 🤗✨
Here's the link to the course: LINK
Hope this helps someone out there, I will be trying it out and seeing how it goes! 👍🏾
hi, if you've used my comment widget for neocities, i just pushed an extremely important bugfix that you should download as soon as possible. instructions on how to update are in the update log section of the page. if you don't update, replies won't show up for people of different timezones than you, and they won't be able to submit comments! (you may need to hard refresh the page if you don't see the update log)
i want to deeply apologize for the bug and not detecting it and fixing it sooner. i did not intend to leave broken code on anyone's site and i take great care with bugtesting and making sure everything is functional before pushing it live, and unfortunately i missed the mark this time. also unfortunately as is the nature of neocities, i can't exactly push an update to everyone and prompt you to update your site, so if you know anyone using the widget, please poke them on the shoulder to update! spreading this post if you've spread the original post would also be deeply appreciated. thank you so much for your patience. i am doing my best.
it would also be meaningful to me if you could confirm that the update works for you if you live in a non-USAmerican country, with a different timezone or date format. and of course, if you run into any issues with the new update, please let me know and i'll fix them as soon as possible.
