flora

27 | she/her | I love video games a normal amount

[florasgamejournal]

Buy Now or Wait? How Gamers Feel About Early Access

I’m one among the many gamers eagerly anticipating Fields of Mistria’s full release on August 5th. I haven’t actually played much of it, despite hearing it recommended again and again as an incredible life sim, full of content and worth its price, even in early access! But I’ve held off. And now that early access is finally reaching its finish line, I’m asking myself: why did I wait? More…

Buy Now or Wait? How Gamers Feel About Early Access

[florasgamejournal]

What Black Tabby Games Gets Right About Content Marketing — and What Indie Devs Can Learn From It

Scarlet Hollow is an episodic horror-mystery visual novel and dating sim. What a combo! I was immediately drawn to this niche blend of genres, and when I read “a branching narrative so dense that you’ll see less than 1/5 of the game on a single playthrough” in its Steam description, I was sold. And, to my delight, it delivered. It’s a beautifully written story, and after one playthrough, I’ve…

What Black Tabby Games Gets Right About Content Marketing — and What Indie Devs Can Learn From It

[cokibby]

nah, screw it

[carlyraejepsans]

I really, really love Susie and Noelle's scenes during the Holiday Manor segments of chapter 4. Not just in a yuri sense, but specifically because there's this little meta game being done with Susie, Dess, and her memory + how it's preserved and like... the Idea Of Undertale in our perception as an audience.

Deltarune is "A game you can play after you complete Undertale", right? Toby calls it that himself. It is steeped in the expectations we have from that game. Its characters. Its plot points. Its motifs. The impact it had on us as a story, both from the audience's perspective AND from the creator's. Back when chapter 1 first came out, Toby talked about his anxieties regarding this new project, and being unable to "make us feel what we felt with Undertale".

Watsonianly, in Deltarune's story, there is this insanely intricate web of small town drama and trauma and history between Hometown's residents.

...and in barges Susie.

Susie who is the new girl. Susie who doesn't know anyone. Susie who has no respect or attachment to the "mythology" of Hometown, both in a religious sense and in the sense of the history of the people who live there.

Susie who, in the manor, says she "never played the original dragon blazers". Only Dragon Blazers 2.

To me she feels like a sort of implicit allegory for the new Deltarune fan? The one with ZERO attachment to Undertale. Because they never played it or because they played it afterwards. The one experiencing THIS story for its OWN sake.

She's unshackled by the core theme of nostalgia that binds every other character, because the objects that inspire it in Kris or Noelle or Hometown as a whole, they mean nothing to her. They hold no sacredness, no significance. So she tramples over them. A sort of desecration through cluelessness.

Which is EXACTLY what she does with Dess' memory! With her room, kept perfectly still and unchanged in the years since she disappeared, her guitar shoved in the closet to gather dust.

These are objects that MEAN something, that hold an incredible significance, to Noelle and to Carol and what and who they lost. They're something that (presumably) Carol preserved in an obsessive need to hold onto everything left of her daughter.

And it stagnates. It's frozen. It's no less dead, just because it is preserved.

...and it's precisely by desecrating that reverence that Susie is able to breathe new life into it. To create new connections with Noelle. To quite literally Make Art.

Waltzing into Dess' time-frozen room, not giving a fuck, plopping down against her bed waiting for us to make noise. You can see Noelle warn her to leave the room untouched, but she follows her shortly after. The ice melts.

Later, grabbing the guitar. playing it (badly!) but playing it for the first time in actual years. Making Noelle laugh. Reminding her of her sister.

It... kinda reminds me of the reverence we as an audience have for Undertale as the original source material.

Think about it. Didn't Toby have to calm everyone down when he released chapter 1 and reassure us that playing Deltarune would leave the ending we got for undertale untouched? Because people would be preventing themselves from interfacing and experiencing and CONNECTING with a new story, with a new piece of art, out of fear of it affecting... the one they'd already experienced. the one in the past, the one they'd already finished and closed and left to sit untouched on their desktops ever since.

This aspect of Susie is the thematic beating heart of chapter 4. It's the potential, the fire Gerson sees burning in her eyes.

And it ties back to Susie's own trauma and abuse and her being forcefully cast as the villain. Someone bad, broken, not good enough. Someone who should keep her nose out of things outside of her range.

Her confrontation with Carol when she snatches the guitar from her hands... sure she might not know the history/the context/the """sacred texts""", and that CAN isolate her and negatively affect her ability to navigate the social situations in Hometown (and allegorically her artistic output. she can't play the guitar, the piano, or write all that well), but she HAS value. Her perspective has value just by virtue of being new, original, revolutionary, her own, something SHE and only she can bring to the table. And those can improve through practice, dedication, and support. Ralsei himself, while well intentioned, makes the same mistake by shutting her healing skills down.

Total knowledge and reverence for Dess' memory and the past has frozen the Holiday family (and Hometown as a whole) in the past. It's locked them in stasis. they know how things were. they know how things "should be". they cannot deviate. every week they worship a prophecy that dictates their past, present and future.

"Only then will the worlds will be SAVED". But should that really be the goal...? When you save a game, you preserve the things you've already done in it. The only thing you can do is overwrite it or start again. It's an inherently cryogenic process.

...In the game MOTHER 3, The Dragon is a mythological creature slumbering under the crust of the earth, kept in its sleep through 7 magic needles. The needles can only be removed by someone who knows the move PK Love, when its power is needed. Once the last needle is removed, the Dragon will follow the heart of this person, good or bad, by bringing on the apocalypse and destroying the world.

And making a new one.

[florasgamejournal]

Your Video Game is Alive: How Deltarune masterfully breaks the fourth wall

Featured photo from IGDB’s Deltarune press kit. Warning: This blog post contains spoilers for chapter 1 of Deltarune. It’s 2008. You’re 10 y

Dr. Steven Conway‘s made a career studying video games and player experience (by the way, how come no one told me this was an option in high school?) and proposed that, instead of describing this reality-warping experience as a fourth wall break, a more appropriate term would be “the magic circle”, originally coined by Johan Huizinga. This term describes the special space that players enter when engaging with a game.

In his article, Conway explored ways the magic circle can be manipulated for player experience: contraction and expansion. The magic circle contracts when control is taken from the player and given to the game itself, conveying its sentience. It expands when the non-diegetic becomes diegetic, establishing the player and their world as existing within the game’s universe. Deltarune accomplishes both, creating a uniquely immersive experience. The player is just as much a character in this game as any other.

[mimosa-sexypeople-contests-2026]

Tumblr Sexyman Contest 2026 Final Round

Senshi (Dungeon Meshi)

Ryland Grace (Project Hail Mary)

Mr. Ant Tenna (Deltarune)

Voting ended onJul 20

Tenna art by @9Aaaalt29 on twt

[fwugradiation]

“And if you’ll give me 40% of the MOST POPULAR VOTE, I’ll give you my SPECIAL REWARD... A year’s supply of NON-GLOOBY SLIME!!! Never or BARELY used!!!” Tenna concluded his speech with a huge smile, jetting his hands up in double peace signs.

The crowd roared in confused enthusiasm as Tenna gave a gracious flurry of low-FPS bows, pausing only for the occasional stink-nose at his audience plants who weren’t throwing enough 3D roses.

Eventually, the room fell silent. It was Senshi’s turn to speak.

He puffed out his chest, took a long, sweeping look over the audience… and shook his head.

“I can see not all of you are eating properly.”

The crowd murmured with embarrassment.

“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but it’s time to take the turkey out of your icebox. I have seen the ingenious technology with which your people store food... and I have also seen the waste which results from such convenience.

“The food you take had a life. Beasts grew fat on the grass of the field, plants grew from the sun’s rays, and mushrooms grew from minerals in the cracks of caves. And yet, it sits in your iceboxes, collecting moisture until it perishes.

“Eat what is given to you. Because its life will make you stronger, too.”

Without another word, Senshi left his podium and stepped away from the stage. The crowd murmured in confusion. “Is he really like that?” somebody said. “I only remember reblogging the photosets of him tripping and showing ass.”

--

Back in the Green Room, Tenna wrung his antennas nervously.

“Y-y-you think they liked me!? They HAD to!! I mean, I don’t know what Asgore was thinking, getting that weird haircut and running that food waste campaign, but… YOU thought I did good, didn’t you, Kris?”

Laios nodded aggressively, a streak of blue face paint peeling from his forehead.

“You did AMAZING, Tenna! By the way, now that we’ve seen all your insider campaign secrets, do you have any more videos of Susie? Especially her tail... If I could get a look at that, I could finally tell if she’s a dinosaur or --”

THWACK. Fake antlers butted Laios’s head.

“LAIOS?? Weren’t we dressed up to help SENSHI???” Marcille hissed, gesturing awkwardly with her hooves.

Suddenly, Tenna turned to the two adventurers.

“Hey, WAIT a second. SOMETHING’s not right here...”

Laios and Marcille held their breath.

“Where the heck are my POINTS!?”

Just then, the door opened. Chilchuck took one step into the room, whistling and holding a large bag.

Everyone turned to him.

Chilchuck paused, took a step backwards, and closed the door.

“CHILCHUCK!!!” yelled Tenna.

“How come Chilchuck got to stay Chilchuck!?” yelled Marcille at the same time.

--

Meanwhile, in outer space somewhere, some guy was making out with a rock.

[hugdog]

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO BE SAD ABOUT?

[fawnspotholiday]

More on the Noelle & Asriel/Flowey connection

Flowey and Noelle express similar frustrations that the people around them are video game characters.

Flowey exhausting all the dialogue options.

Noelle noticing townsfolk don't notice things they should.

Flowey & Noelle noticing everyone around them are locked into paths.

Both jaded from their self-awareness, with a human offering freedom.

[raiseupyourbat]

IM SO GLAD OTHER PEOPLE ARE FINALLY TALKING ABOUT THIS.... I've been trying to compile a bunch of comparisons between them but I've still got more to go and its not tidy yet, so for now I'll just add some extras here (sorry that its a bit small and hard to read!)

[calmparticles]

first meal together & also the last

[idkwhatsw]

yummy protein

[florasgamejournal]

so these parralels are fascinating to me

This is intentional, right? They’re conveying the same idea, this frustration towards mindlessly following the normal route, following the script, maybe even following the *prophecy*.

And there’s an implication here that “getting lost” means breaking the script, going where you’re not “supposed” to.

What this could mean for “Lost where the forest would grow, the children followed the pointed tail. The poor children!” is… interesting. What it could mean for the children is interesting, and that it’s part of the prophecy is also interesting.

[s-guacamolearts]

Out of bounds V2

[northflowerowo]

catboy wayne.... the enkitty

[karliahs]

having a thought I can't fully articulate about how normally video games conceptualise player agency as being part world reactivity and a much larger part power fantasy. and how scarlet hollow dials down the power fantasy but has a level of world reactivity that is absolutely off the charts. perfect for a horror game. you can see the ripples of every action you take no matter how small, but you can't save everyone. maybe not even yourself

[artcat69]

screenshot of the year

[benjimint]

beware of the kaw who speaks in uelueuelele

[arrimorr]