He/They, 30s. Romhacker/game designer, pixel artist, and fanfic writer, particularly interested in Pokemon SV, but you may have seen me around SMW Central too. I hope to see you all build and share the worlds and selves of your dreams! Much more active on Bluesky, unless you wanna yell at me to change that
I've been working on a Pokemon fangame called The Broken Mirror for the past little while. If you enjoyed the emphasis Ham's League Club had on exploring Nemona, Arven, and Penny's characters, continuing their arcs, and just hanging out with them every day after Scarlet/Violet's DLCs didn't really deliver on that, this is kinda like that as a real standalone game -- a sequel in a new region that I'm so excited to share someday. (More info under the cut)
[back of the box blurb voice] Gather up the Zero Crew, hop on Miraidon, and train up new teams together in the misty valleys of Orgul, where one of the toughest Pokemon Leagues yet has taken form. Unexpected encounters hide around every corner, but you'll have plenty of time around the fire to reflect and plan your next move on a journey where your only home is each other.
Can't say much yet because I do love surprises, but the features I've planned out include:
A full-length adventure with 8 Gyms and whatnot
A return to dangerous dungeons with top-down puzzle design
A healthy balance of freedom to explore and structured progression
250+ Pokemon dex carefully chosen and individually rebalanced
Heavy emphasis on character stories; button-mashers will be shot
Adventure, chat, battle, and relax with the crew just about anywhere
Dozens of emotive dialogue portraits so you know how they feel
Custom GSC-era art and tilesets, as you probably noticed
The best 8-bit music I can borrow (maybe I'll make some too)
Modern mechanics, including Terastallization and improved Raids
A level cap per badge; learning will get you further than grinding
Gyms that ask you to counter their playstyles, not just their types
Tons of new or redesigned moves and items, available through...
A crafting system that actually exists for a reason (gasp)
A tastefully small handful of familiar faces from other regions
Trauma
Cuddling
Hope
A creator who knows what scope creep is
There still has to be an endless lv100 postgame though, for me
Basically any mindless task has a more engaging alternative
I'm not gonna give a concrete release date -- it'll be done when it's done. Right now i'm just flitting around doing what I can with art, maps, design, story, etc. while I wait for some of the uncertainty about the next Essentials GSC engine update to settle down. Worst case scenario, I'd have to make it look and sound retro by myself more than I planned to.
From now on, though, you can follow progress on this by checking #SVTheBrokenMirror on my socials, or read my other stuff to get an idea of what you're in for. Thanks!
I think it's funny world-building how like, so at the center of Life we've got Water. Arguably The most important resource. Colorless transparent substance that molds to any container and we die without it and quickly. And all organic functions of society hinge on its availability. Could fight a ton of wars over this thing.
And well beyond organic life, modern society's great human invention is the Electronic Magic. Our greatest minds invented the Electronic Magic and it sends information around the world instantly. Our infrastructure our economy our modern life, minute by minute by minute, hinges on utilizing the great Lighting Technology.
BUT ☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️ DO NOT. DO NOT EVER. get the magical Elixir Substance of Life and Living and Healing, Water, IN the Electronic Device. The water keeps you alive critically but it KILLS the Electronic Device instantly and catastrophically. This Says something.
I'm imagining a world where RPGMaker somehow made it as the de facto codebase for software and you have to navigate your banking app by walking around in a huge room full of NPCs named "make deposit" and "make withdrawal" etc and there's loud as fuck stock music playing
casual pokemon player meme: I would like to have sex with this animal
competitive pokemon player meme: Bro thought he could switch his 252 Spe Borgulon into 252 SpAtk Choice Codpiece 2x Funny Dance STAB Mega Booboobus Peerless Tsunami 💀
this is the top post of all time on r/stunfisk (the competitive pokemon subreddit) and is has been a running joke for so long. sometimes i reference it and forget and have to explain it.
oh and one of the absolute ogs.
gonna put a few of my fav stinkposts on here too also.
i think we should be ridiculing them more for this. you don't get to try and go all "queer website" when your staff likes to go on nuking sprees targeting the trans fem users
would be remiss not to mention that the rainbow notably straight up just removed the trans flag colors from it. like they’re gone. it’s the progress flag minus the trans flag colors.
It's Ivan The Elephant, now in the process of being turned into a marketable plushie! With your help and a cool $2 (as a deposit to purchase the plush if this campaign reaches its pledge goal), this 9" tall version of Ivan can rampage and murder within your very own home! Thank you to Gimme Swag for making this possible!
Pledge your $2 here and make Ivan The Elephant REAL!
Ivan's right! If the goal isn't made, you WILL be refunded your $2!
oh yeah reminder not to give the evil fucking scum who run this website a goddamn cent this month when they inevitably roll out whatever theyre selling for it. Find a trans woman to pay instead
Thinking about how about half a year ago this video came out and I got to this bit:
And I literally said, very quietly to myself "...No. No way. They didn't—they wouldn't."
Because we've seen this scene before, right? In a thousand anime, a million movies, we've all seen the teenagers looking at fireworks together, and one turns to the other to say something, sees the look on their friend's face and stops, because that look on their friend's face is more precious and important than anything they could have to say. That moment when they realize something about themselves, or confirm something about themselves.
We've seen this scene before, but I couldn't fathom that this was intentional. Even having played Scarlet and Violet, where Nemona looks at the player and essentially says "my treasure is you," I couldn't imagine that was what they wanted from this scene—after all, she has the same line in-game regardless of whether you're playing a boy or a girl. The queer implications aren't unintentional, per se, it's just that it's less work to let her have the same dialogue regardless. I never assumed it was set up with a female player character in mind, because why would it be?
But this scene...that's just Juliana. A custom Juliana design, no less! But they didn't mean it that way, they couldn't have meant it. This is the largest media franchise in the world. There was no way.
...And then this happened immediately after:
And I literally started crying because yes, yes they did, they would and they did, holy shit.
"My treasure is you."
I know a lot of younger LGBTQ+ folk don't understand what a huge deal this is, but it is a huge fucking deal. I'm old enough that I remember when too much implication of queerness in popular media could get a series shut down entirely, so I'm always blown away when I see even an inkling of representation in a major media franchise—even if it's definitely just a matter of programming convenience.
This is absolutely not just convenience, this is completely intentional and equally overt, and over half a year later I still get super emotional thinking about it.
also worth noting that, in the language/country where scarlet and violet are set, "tesoro," meaning "treasure," is used the same way an english speaker might say "honey" or "sweetheart" (afaik), and nemona not only still calls her that but declares it more overtly, no "essentially" about it
They need to eat less because they're so small and weak. Why are they so small and weak? Because they eat less. Let's base our entire society on this distinction.