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behold my dinky games and little arts!! DEMAKE86 comes out AUGUST 6TH!! more details + links here: https://carrion.0xpossum.dev/demake86/

[opossumcarrion]

about carrion

HI MY NAME IS OPOSSUMCARRION

Born 199X, they/it pronouns, living in the US.

I make art and videogames using Godot, Blender, GIMP, Pixaki, and pen and paper.

I've been in the Metroid community under various aliases for decades now. I've been employed tutoring, making VR submarine training sims, in cybsersecurity and neural-network research, and in fullstack software dev. I love making cool things on The Computer.

I am currently working very hard on my tiny homage game, Legally Distinct Action Adventure Platforming Game set on a METEOROID, or DEMAKE86 for short, which most of my posts here will be about it:

Demake86 will be a tiny open-source Metroidvania you can play for free in your browser when it releases on August 6th!! Find more info + my links here.

[opossumcarrion]

releasing august 6th btw

[veeranger]

- blonde

- bounty hunter

- transgender

- in a fighting game

- was a big deal when it was revealed she was a woman

[froborr]

Since this is coming up in the notes: Samus is not trans because a dev referred to her with a slur as a joke in an interview a few years ago.

Samus is trans because every piece of paratext for the original Metroid clearly depicts her as a man--not just the English instruction manual, but Japan-only manga as well. She is presented as male, universally, until you play the game, descend into chthonic/inner space to grapple with an explicitly female-coded brain, and the reward for doing so swiftly and skillfully is getting to finally present female. It almost certainly wasn't intended as a transition narrative but it is absolutely a transition narrative--no credit for representation should be given to Nintendo/the devs, but nonetheless she is ours and always will be.

[opossumcarrion]

THANK YOU! The "Samus is trans because a dev made a transphobic joke in 1994" always rubbed me the wrong way.

To add explicit context, Super Metroid devs were interviewed in 1994, and they were asked to share a "secret about Samus" that they alone knew. The responses to that question vary from no reply, to remarks on her appearance, to game tips, to jokes. And one such response was "Samus actually isn't a woman," (omitting the slur in the second half of the response). Even in the most generous interpretation, it's not a shining bit of representation.

This interview got picked up 20 years later with a well-intentioned article arguing Samus is trans, with that interview as the lynchpin piece of evidence.

IMO, the interpretation of a transition narrative is only strengthened by further releases, and the lore expressed in backstory. To express it briefly, her backstory is explicitly as a transcultural adoptee raised Chozo, her story arc is explicitly a transhumanist one, she is explicitly transformed into a unique species (human/Chozo/Metroid), and every game is resolved by transforming your body (her suit is part of her body) to complete the mission. But Samus is also constantly running into ancient prophecies from long-dead civilizations foretelling her arrival and the swift deliverance that comes with her. Samus was born a normal human child, but she was molded and molds herself into the singular role she plays in the galaxy.

The most consistent thing throughout Metroid, in every piece of canon, in every game across every short and long narrative arc, is the mutable nature of the self.

To go into headcanon territory, my understanding of Samus is not exactly as trans, but more that she was raised alone under a Chozo gender culture that we don't exactly understand. I think of her female gender as simply the most compatible way for her to interact with a gender binary.

For what little we know of Chozo gender culture, (nearly?) every Chozo we know of is male. Is it possible they were explicitly not-gendered and simply defaulted to male as a neutral pronoun? Is it possible they were highly patriarchal, and this became their downfall? If the extinction of the Chozo was owed to this gender imbalance, would it not be natural that Samus - representing the future of the Chozo - must be a woman?

[opossumcarrion]

You might find some of this familiar, but it isn't!

Samus, huh? Never heard of her, that's Relan.

Morph ball? That's the tuck ball!

Missile pickups, nah- each tank gives you one, make it count! Hitpoints recharging? Nope, tread carefully. Save stations? You can beat this game in 8 minutes and 6 seconds, you won't need em

[opossumcarrion]

Check out the Carrion Critter Club community on Discord - hang out with 1 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

Discord server!!

It's early, but Demake86 has a Discord server now, the Carrion Critter Club, anticipating we might have nearly DOZEN of members who want to discuss the game, or hang out.

Applications for an alternative alliterative alias for the server are welcome. By God it's gotta be alliterative though.

[opossumcarrion]

HAY! We have a site now! You can find all the links to Demake86 on other platforms there :) + a small lore dump!

I worked really hard on the background so check it:

plus, a new sceenshot :^)

[opossumcarrion]

ope

[opossumcarrion]

made this in blender ahead of metroid prime 4's launch last year :)

[opossumcarrion]

"Legally Distinct Action Adventure Platforming Game set on a METEOROID", or Demake86, is NOT a Metroid fangame!!

It's a VERY original game!! With a very Original the Character (do not steal!) Her name is Relan!

If you're a lawyer here for some reason, please go tell your boss how little copyright infringement is going on.

[opossumcarrion]

August 6th, 1986 is a really special day, and Demake86 is an homage to that day :^)

The conceit: Pack a Metroidvania into 8^6 pixels! 8x8 pixels per tile, 8x8 tiles per room, 8x8 rooms in the whole contiguous map.

Can you beat it in 86 seconds?

[opossumcarrion]

hi everyone

:^)