Nascent Soul Studios @nascentsoulstudios - Tumblr Blog

Posts

viridiansilverr

Hoshikaf Week: Day 3

SOULMATES

(au where everyone gets their soulmates first words)

wavepriisms

reminder that next week we get richeh body slamming a cop

idiot-mushroom

my friend wanted me to make this

I would just like to know where would you be best available to answer questions about phoenix rising demo most likely. Plz let me know if tumblr isn't the best platform and you would prefer Cog forums or something else. Thanks! And also let me know if you're currently not available to answer any questions regarding the phoenix rising demo at all. It's understandable if you're not currently available but I would just like to recieve an answer about your availability. Thanks!

I'm happy to answer questions anywhere. I haen't been on the IF forums or the Choice Of forums in a few months, because I feel incredibly guilty about not being able to work on my game when I'm there. But You can message me here, there or via Discord, if you'd like. DM me, and I'll give you my discord tag.

#phoenix rising #indiegamedev #indie game

Hi I've been following this IF and account for a couple months now, And I would just like to ask if there's an estimate of when the demo of phoenix rising would be released?? I love all ur posts btw, its just I'm really excited when it would be released. Thx for your time.

Thanks for reaching out! As of right now, I don't have a computer strong enough to work on it (I need several programs open at once to be able to code effectively, and my computer stutters when I hae Discord and Chrome open at once.). It's not fun and it's been ruining my ability to work on many of my projects. As an update, the last time I was able to work on it, I was in the middle of a very large De-Bugging issue. I have no idea how long that would take me to fix, but I had mentally estimated at least two weeks on that alone, if I had those whole two weeks to work. But considering my full time job and other responsibilities, it's a bit difficult to say. Just know, I have NOT given up on this project.

#phoenix rising #indiegamedev #game dev #indiedev

malcolmschmitz

ANNOUNCING: BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS

Hey, friends! I've got an exciting new announcement for you- the Super Secret Project that's been taking up most of my writing time is (starting to) come to fruition!

I'm partnering with Choice of Games to bring you an interactive fiction story called Bright Young Things: a game of justice, heroics, and an ever-widening gyre. It's a 1920s superhero story- think one part Jeeves and Wooster and one part The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

The world’s hung over from the War and the Flu. But the night’s young, the music’s loud, and you’ve got a city to protect… During the Great War, both sides used xyltraxazine- a dangerous new chemical weapon- to incapacitate the enemy. After the War, people who’d been exposed to xyltraxazine began to change, and not all for the better. Some of them gained strange abilities- incredible strength, inhuman speed, flight, shapeshifting, invisibility, or even mind control. The zills walk among us, and you never know who is one until they lift a motorcar. Some lost their minds, becoming anti-social, vicious, or outright murderous. The d—-ed blighters want to destroy the world for the fun of it. Unfortunately, these two categories overlap… and that’s where you come in. London needs a hero; you need a distraction. Discover your superpowers in 1920s London. Choose your past- were you a poor soldier? An ambulance driver? A rich kid in the officers’ tents? Choose your powers- are you a Herculaen, a speedster, an icarus, a skinchanger, or an invisible? Help the citizens of London - for fame, fortune, or the joy of doing the right thing. Fight petty crime, stop a runaway train, and kick the blighters into next week. Keep up a double life- or don’t. As a widowed person of quality, you’ve got to keep up appearances. Lords and ladies don’t acknowledge all this super-hero rot– and they certainly don’t participate in it. Will you hide behind a mask, or defend your do-gooding? What will you do when you have to be in two places at once? Fend off your feckless “friends” and hangers-on… or convince them to help you stop the end of the world as you know it. Romance a messy young lord, an excitable pilot, your steadfast valet/lady’s maid, a canny cub reporter, or your childhood friend turned anarchist blighter. Or love them all, come what may. Balance Society’s expectations on your love- or flout them, and pursue forbidden romance. Uncover a blighter conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of government… or discover the method to the blighters’ madness, and join them. Save London from utter destruction, or rebuild it in your image in the aftermath.

I'll talk more about this project on Patreon (and on Tumblr) as it progresses. Release date TBA- keep an eye on my Patreon (and/or email list and/or Tumblr) to see when it's coming out!

nascentsoulstudios

SUPPORT US WHERE YOU CAN!

Where you can find us:

Tumblr (Here!) Bluesky Choicescript Forum - The WIP page for Phoenix Rising Royal Road - Two Webnovels we're publushing Patreon - Support us Financially!

What We're Working On

Phoenix Rising - An Interactive Fiction Game set in a Fantasy version of Tang Dynasty China, where your character works in the Imperial Palace. Will you join the harem, or will you find love outside of duty?

Stone Age Mama - A web novel on Royal Road. A transmigration story of a woman from our world ending up in the body of a young mother of 2 (soon to be 3!) in a prehistoric world! But this isn't our world, no. There's strange magic afoot! A slice-of-life survivalism homestead-building love story, not just of the romantic kind. Come watch Belbet raise her babies!

Transmigrator Turned Beast Tamer Princess - A web novel on Royal Road. An Isekai story of a woman from our world being summoned into a Fantasy Chinese Cultivation world, where her knowledge of PopCulture Monsters will be imeasurably helpful! An epic Cultivation Progression Fantasy based around taming monsters both known and unkown and using them to defeat evil! If you like Pokemon, this is for you! Have a great day!

leiaham

You ever think about Hans Christian Anderson's Wild Swans but set in a fantasy historical c-drama where the Empress Dowager curses the 12 imperial princes?

Well apparently I did, so I made a little cover for that hypothetical situation and had a lot of fun with it!

#game inspo #game dev #game writing #game design #game developers. game development #indie game #indie game dev #indiedev #indiegamedev #indie games #interactive fiction #if

interact-if

How long a prologue and a chapter are supposed to be? First time if writer here and I’m looking for any advice :)

Heya!

I’m definitely not qualified to give writing advice (am just bumbling along with everyone else), but here’s how I see it:

A good prologue/opening chapter performs one of many functions in a story, and I’d say instead of wordcount, think of whether whatever you’ve written has achieved the following:

Set the scene (i.e. what’s the world like, what’s the protagonist’s life like?)

Establish a point of view (usually the main character’s)

Set the stylistic tone / voice for the rest of the IF (so readers can go: hell yeah, or eh, I’m out.)

Introduce the protagonist (their personality, sometimes even their backstory) and maybe ~2 key side characters. (Note: Since it’s an IF, this definitely means giving the reader at least 3 choices that significantly shapes the contours of their character (this could be whatever attributes you choose: background, main skills/focus, personality, attitudes to something major in their world/life etc. It’s also where I usually see authors injecting 2-3 more minor choices on appearance etc. but this is optional)

Hint at a central conflict or tension or theme that you’ll be exploring (e.g. this is where you can already start to foreshadow the things that the protagonist will have to face).

Lay out the inciting event, which pulls the protagonist out of their usual ’setting’/life (see above) and thrusts them into their first ‘conflict’ (Note: This doesn’t actually have to be an actual conflict, maybe the best way to think of it is the first ‘question’ that the story asks of its character. E.g. Percy Jackson defeats an evil teacher at his school and everyone pretends there’s never been a teacher by that name. WHuuut??) (Again, in the context of an IF, I’d say at least 1 choice here to allow readers some significant input / agency on how the story continues to unfold after the inciting event would be really powerful here. It doesn’t have to be a major branch, but at least something that triggers a variable that will be revisited somewhere down the line / affect the story later on).

P.S. I think the ‘inciting event’ thing is probably the most important thing of the lot, because that’s kinda how you achieve the rest (the best way to start fleshing out a protagonist/character is to see how they respond to something big!)

If your prologue + first chapter does all of the above, I’d say you’ve successfully:

Piqued your readers’ interest

Hit the first emotional ‘beat’ of your story

Helped them decide if the story is something they’d like to read

Built a good foundation upon which readers can start to fall in love with your story, setting, and characters!

Some people can do it in 40k words (I see this as a ballpark figure for my own IFs), some more, some less :)

#game inspo #game dev #game writing #game design #game developers. game development #indie game #indie game dev #indiedev #indiegamedev #indie games #interactive fiction #if

yingtan

Veil of Shadows 月鳞绮纪 (2025), dir. Edward Guo

#hanfu #chinese hanfu #hanfu girl #hanfu guy #hanfu man #hanfu couple #tang dynasty #ming dynasty #jing dynasty #qing dynasty #song dynasty #wei dynasty

niteshade925

A fairly good general reference video about historical/traditional fashion of various cultures and peoples (including hanfu, but not just hanfu) that have been part of Chinese history:

The video is arranged in chronological order, below are the timestamps:

0:24 - Warring States period/战国 hanfu (for those who don't know: hanfu/汉服 is the historical and traditional outfits of Han people/汉族)

1:16 - Western Han dynasty/西汉 hanfu

2:11 - Jingjue Kingdom/精绝 and Loulan Kingdom/楼兰 historical outfits

2:45 - Eastern Han dynasty/东汉 to Three Kingdoms period/三国 hanfu

3:51 - Northern Dynasties/北朝 Xianbei/鲜卑 historical outfits

4:46 - Southern Dynasties/南朝 hanfu

5:25 - Sui dynasty/隋 hanfu

5:56 - Tang dynasty/唐 hanfu

6:38 - Sogdian/粟特 historical outfits

6:59 - Tubo Empire/吐蕃 Tibetan/藏族 historical outfits

7:38 - Huihu/回鹘 historical outfits (Qocho Huihu Kingdom/高昌回鹘 and Ganzhou Huihu Kingdom/甘州回鹘; note: Huihu people are the ancestors of the modern Uyghur people/维吾尔族)

8:21 - Nanzhao Kingdom/南诏 historical outfits (of the ancestors of the modern Yi people/彝族 and Bai people/白族)

9:07 - Five Dynasties/五代 hanfu

9:57 - Northern Song dynasty/北宋 hanfu

10:38 - Liao dynasty/辽 Khitan/契丹 historical outfits

11:21 - Jin dynasty/金 Jurchen/女真 historical outfits

12:07 - Western Xia/西夏 Tangut/党项 historical outfits

12:37 - Dali Kingdom/大理 historical outfits (of the ancestors of the modern Bai people/白族)

13:20 - Southern Song dynasty/南宋 hanfu

14:00 - Yuan dynasty/元 Mongolian/蒙古族 historical outfits

14:58 - Yuan dynasty women's hanfu

15:24 - Ming dynasty/明 hanfu

16:24 - Qing dynasty/清 Manchu/满族 traditional outfits

16:59 - Qing dynasty Han women's outfit

**Note: as mentioned by the OP, due to the lack of suriviving physical artifacts for some time periods/cultures/kingdoms/dynasties, there is a certain amount of speculation in this video based on other artifacts/records like wall murals, paintings, figurines, and historical records.