Generic Human Blog @bloodarbiter - Tumblr Blog

Your silent watcher stops to wait atop the cemetery gate.

#artists on tumblr #illustration #halloween #black cat #witchery #gothic americana #a messenger who never sleeps #jennabarton

theartofanimation

Cassandra Jean - http://cassandrajp.tumblr.com - https://www.instagram.com/cassieclare1 - http://cassandrajeanart.blogspot.com.es - https://twitter.com/CassandraJP - https://society6.com/cassandrajean/prints

#fyiart reblogs

luvrie-deactivated20210224

Dante and Virgil in Hell (IG: sarashakeel).

creekfiend

That post about triggers reminded me also of this seminar I went to a few years ago at a dysautonomia conference which was about chronic pain. The doctor giving the talk explained that a big problem in treating chronic pain is doctors not understanding or accepting that the brain is really good at making shortcuts. We accept this for things like “practicing the tuba” or “playing a sport” or other things where repetition forms a pathway in your brain which then becomes automatic – we all have stuff we do so much that our bodies seem to simply do them without our conscious input, right? Because it is generally beneficial for the brain to go “oh, it looks like we do this thing a lot. I am just gonna go ahead and put this shortcut in, so next time doing it is easier”

The problem is, THIS APPLIES for things like pain. This is why lingering pain after a major injury or surgery etc, even after the physical injury has healed and there is no PHYSICAL reason at the pain site for there to be pain anymore, is common. Unfortunately your brain is not immune from applying the microsoft clippy technique of “hey there, it looks like we are doing this thing an awful lot! I am going to install a shortcut for you!” with stuff like pain. And once those shortcuts are established, you can’t really get rid of them easily if at all (think of something you used to do all the time but stopped doing for several years and your body just automatically remembered exactly how to do it right away when you picked it up again!)

This is depressing. Because it does mean that “there is no physical cause of pain” is meaningless when dealing with chronic neurologic pain (and therefore the approach of “let’s find the cause and treat that” is not always super helpful), and because a lot of medical professionals don’t fully understand or accept it and will approach pain management like “weaning you off” management is a reasonable goal.

But I also find it weirdly comforting because it makes me kind of… Sympathetic to my stupid idiot animal brain in a way. Like, my brain is just trying to help me be able to create a helpful subroutine so I don’t have to consciously think about.. Like… throwing this spear at an antelope! Or whatever!!! It Doesnt know!!! My man Cornflake got the spirit!!!!!!!!

Anyway. I think I have posted about this before but I wanted to articulate it better. This applies to stuff like coping mechanisms that become maladaptive too. Ur brain makes pathways. Those you can consciously alter with hard work but your first INSTINCT may always be a certain thing that is no longer useful, bc of these shortcuts. That is just brains. That is why you can’t get stuck getting angry with yourself about your first instinct in difficult situations, you have to suspend judgment and move past them.

So yeah

yuumei-art

Continuing with my #inktober catch up, this is day 21’s prompt, Drain. Sometimes thoughts get lost in the heart.

I’m slowly getting the hang of these new markers now :)

choodraws

i read it for the articles

slimetony

lets make a videogame how hard can it be

slimetony

nevermind you have to know shit about computers

hthrthebear

hey!! sorry to hijack this post, but there are a bunch of ways you can make videogames without knowing shit about computers!!

for starters, there’s Twine, which is fucking great for making all kinds of interactive experiences (it’s what Crystal Warrior Ke$ha was made in so you KNOW it’s good) at all skill levels (i picked it up and made a game in two minutes a few nights ago)

if you want a bit more involved experience there’s Inform 7 which is a simple language for text-based adventure games that reads like slightly-weird English and also relatively easy to learn

you can do some pretty fucking cool stuff with Unity (my personal engine of choice) but you may need to dig a bit farther to get at the good stuff. there’s lots of really good presets though (i made an entire game just mixing and matching pre-existing templates and adding in my own art, won an award at a game jam for that one) and if you want help the community’s pretty dang friendly from what i’ve seen!

this is just a taste of what’s out there from what i’ve seen, but there’s so many cool resources out there. if anyone wants help getting started, i’m around to give you a leg up on making something in the coolest, most unexplored art medium around!

auttoton

I’m addin’ to this post because lowering the barrier to entry for making games is super important to me!!!! If y’all have any questions about making games, you’re welcome to come and ask! I made this list a while back with some friends, so it has some of the programs John already mentioned.

2D Editors:

GameMaker : Potential for pure drag-and-drop “programming”. It is recommended to read-up on the program’s functions to make good use of it. Good for prototyping. Uses its own language called Game Maker Language (GML) that is similar to a C language (e.g. C++ or C#). For both Mac and PC; free version available.

Construct2 : Drag and drop level editor that uses an “If-Then” event sheet structure for programming. Good for prototyping and for beginners. For PC; free version available.

GameSalad : Drag and drop with no code requirement. Good for programming. For both Mac and PC; free version available.

Solpeo : HTML5 based game engine for 2D and isometric game development. Some programming knowledge needed. Platforms supported: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 9+. Free version available.

Stencyl : Drag and Drop “programming,” templates you can edit the variables/values for.

Scratch : Lego-block-style coding platform by MIT; totally free and a great intro to thinking in code. Very kid-friendly and comes with a community site. Browser version available.

3D Editors:

Unity : 3D editor that creates 3D games. Can build games for browser, as an app, or for mobile devices (iOS and Android). For both Mac and PC; free version available.

UDK (Unreal Development Kit) : Full-fledged, highly advanced editor. Features a complete set of tools that go from level design to visual scripting to cut-scene creation. Uses it’s own programming language called Unreal Script that can be arranged with Kismet, a visual code editor. For Mac and PC; free.

2D Art/Animation Software:

GIMP : Free photo editing and digital painting software.

Easy Paint Tool SAI : Free digital painting software with a UI similar to Photoshop.

Mischief : Free digital painting software with an endless canvas.

3D Art/Animation Software:

Sculptris : From the company that created Zbrush, this free software is ideal for beginning 3D sculptors.

Maya : Animation, VFX, lighting, and rendering software.

Magical Voxel : Voxel Art (3D Pixel Art). Very intuitive and quick to pick up.

SketchUp : Architectural modeling software, great for creating 3D environments and buildings. Free version available.

Text-Based Games:

Twine : Create interactive text stories using Twine’s visual map system that links your game together. Easy to learn and use. End result is browser-based. For Mac and PC; free.

Quest : Interactive text stories that you can build in-browser.

Ren’Py : Create visual novels using a modified version of Python that reads like a combination of stage directions and a CYOA novel. For PC, Mac, and Linux; free.

Audio Resources/Editors:

Indie Game Music : This site offers free indie music with no need to worry about royalties or licenses.

Audacity : A free, open-source, cross-platform sound editor that allows you to record and arrange sound.

Super Flash Bros. : This site allows you to record theremin-like (8bit) sounds and export them as .wav files for your games.

FL Studio : Free music composition software.

Miscellaneous Tools:

Donjon RPG Tools : Randomly generates maps, items, XP, etc.

W3Schools : Web-code tutorial database: HTML, CSS, Javascript+.

Debut Video Capture : Video screen capture to record Let’s Play videos, showcase your game on Youtube, etc.

Korsakow : Free tool for creating interactive and database films.

Processing : Flexible programming language used for visual and interactive artworks and simulations.

From Student to Designer, Part 2 : Tips for making a well-rounded, solid portfolio

Places to Publish/Share:

Itch.io : Platform for self-publishing games

Philome.la : Place to share Twine Games

nicejewishguy

@slimetony how does it feel to have your shitpost be turned into a helpful resource

slimetony

It feels like a betrayal of every tenant of humor I subscribe to. Helping people is an alien concept to me. It makes me upset.

traceytonight

nebty

So The Arcana’s pricing scheme is exploitative and terrible and I’m astonished nobody is talking about it.

The standard response from the developers is that all of the paid content is ‘optional’, but you know what I want out of my romance game? Romance. 90% of which is paid content.

Also, this assumes I don’t want to pay for the game. Except I do! I backed it on kickstarter! I want to give these people my money. But I also don’t want to be bled dry.

This isn’t even getting into how the kickstarter promised backers the game itself as a reward, then reneged on their promise, offering a paltry $10 refund to make up for it (which will buy you a grant total of 1 chapter for 1 character’s route).

This kind of business practice hurts other kickstarter projects down the road, because it erodes people’s trust in the platform. A lot of indie otome game devs rely on kickstarter. But my experience with The Arcana has sure made me think twice about supporting any other projects.

The worst thing is I like the Arcana. The art is gorgeous, the characters are fun. I supported it on Kickstarter. I told my friends to support it on Kickstarter. But I can no longer turn a blind eye to how Nyx Hydra seems to be willfully exploiting their fans.

quilleth

Not to mention, the Wheel of Fortune feature, which they keep pointing to as a means of earning coins, is still bugged, and has been for the last 3 updates, without any transparency on the progress of solving that bug. $10 per chapter is just too high. Even assuming there’s only 10 chapters that are paid (though it looks like it’d be more if they plan on doing the full arcana), that’s still $10 a chapter, for 10 chapters = $100. For one route, $300 for all three of the current routes available. I’ve pledged $100 or more to kickstarter games before, and that gets me: the FULL game, alpha access, bonus content, free downloads, and other bonuses. With just the game itself being maybe $30

Extra content is the story unlocked by the trinkets. That doesn’t have any influence on how the story unfolds for a player. The paid options in a route do effect how the story reads to a player. I play other games with paid content in routes, and I am ok paying 5-$10 for that extra content, provided that 1) that content remains unlocked, permanently, and 2) I know that the normal route’s story is just as in depth, and frankly, the unpaid content in Arcana isn’t. And you can’t deny that it’s not as in depth as the paid content; the scenes are shorter, and there is less growth of a relationship between the player character and the love interest. And this is an otome game- the focus is on the relationship, or should be.

Instead of the focus being on getting the content out ASAP, the focus should be on answering costumers’ concerns, and if it means they need to take longer to get content out, but we get lower prices or a definite answer about a PC version (preferably both), then I, at least, would be perfectly happy to continue to support the game. But as things stand, I’m not sure I want to continue giving my support to company that isn’t really listening to our concerns and taking action to rectify them and continues to charge exorbitant prices to do so.

prismsession

I for one don’t like making accusations until I have the numbers to back it up.

So, who likes math?

Disclaimer: These are all very rough calculations as I don’t have accurate data on the Wheel of Fortune to work with, but I’m giving the devs the benefit of the doubt whenever in makes sense, so I think these are accurate enough for the purpose of making a point.

Another disclaimer: No, I am not a poor high school/college student. I have a stable, well-paying job and frankly, could afford to spend the amount of money the devs are currently asking for and gladly would if I didn’t feel like I was getting scammed. Because yes, even willing and paying players have their limits.

Keep reading

bloodarbiter

For real. I LOVE the Arcana's story and characters, but I can not justify paying for a single book out of pocket purely for the fact that it's so damn exploitative. This is absurd.