#checkmate arg

[team-sbo]

Elise: Time to share the deets on our little adventure!

Big guy woke up early, so I have a little time to share what's going on in the story! **AHEMMMMMM!!!** A long time ago on a floating island, there was a massive chessboard and a war was going on. Black pieces and white pieces were always fighting. And it was super duper sad because people kept disappearing when they were jumped on like a brown mushroom or something!

One day however, there was a black pawn that stood on the edge of the board, and he saw our home, and a cute little white pawn that wanted him to come in! But he heard the rumors, if you go in, you don't come back! But she did... This intrigued the pawn and he broke the one rule that pawns should never break - NEVER GO IN ANY DIRECTION OTHER THAN FORWARD.

He had plans, he had dreams, he wanted that promotion so bad! But the forest called to him. She called to him, and he followed. He walked into the entrance and followed her through the path of bellflowers, and eventually he came to the Gate. Walking in, it was dark. Extremely dark. The white pawn wanted to see what this guy was made of. So, she tested him out and taught him the ways of the forest!

After that, he walked to the other side, approached the tree, and met me where you currently are!

*warmly smiles and sighs* He's got a lot of ambition. He just left to the city of Spadesborough. I made sure he was ready but he really didn't ask me any questions. It was like he already knew the place. Interesting... I might have to keep an eye on him. >:3c

So, that being said, let me introduce you to the Quadrants and then I'll shut u- MFF! **MF!** MFFFFFFfffffffffffffffffffff!!.............

*Someone has thrown Elise into a burlap sack and dragged her away from you.*

*It looks like the cat will be out of the bag in the next post.*

[team-sbo]

Elise: KIRA! I just realized!

[team-sbo]

I should probably make a recap blog for the last three weeks.

Hey everyone. Hope you guys liked the first post. So, let's get started. Elise will cover the plot of the game in the next post she stars in. Honestly, I have little assets for that stuff because I'm really focused on the code and I didn't get much done because I wanted to port from Discord to here. Also, it's Undertale-coded for the time being. I'm not looking to rip off Toby in the long run, just reference his work. He's an awesome dog. If you haven't played his games then what are you doing with your life?

Anyway, I started things up on Unity three weeks ago. I use ChatGPT to make the code but ultimately I'm the one typing it all; it's just grabbing the advanced lines because I don't have them in my memory. All of the art and design are entirely mine. I believe in human-generated content for stuff like this and I have some pretty epic story beats planned.

The game's combat system is currently being worked on. Right now, all it is is Pong, but the prototype will have more. I call this little minigame system "Sting-Pong". Basically how it will work is that for this turn-based RPG, you select your weapons for the set, which is what turns are called (in the form of playing cards, each one will have passive and active effects). Once you have your cards selected, you and the opponent have a conversation in the top half of the screen. They say a line, you respond, they respond, then it's off to Pong. Using your hand of cards you selected from what you drew, your goal is to Score against the opponent to chip off of their HP, which you'll hit harder the higher your level is.

However, the opponent isn't going to make it easy. They are going to defend the goal area with their life. They'll even attack you. Which brings me to what the cards are used for. Cards are used to bring down your opponent's Paddle Durability while you both rally. You and your opponent can fire bullets at each other to spice things up by using your respective hands.

Every bullet you miss shaves a small amount of HP off, but it's the same for your opponent. Blocking the bullet with your paddle lowers the paddle durability instead. This makes it so rallies don't take forever, because once a paddle reaches 0 durability, it becomes Brittle, and one hard bounce into it will cause the shot to Shatter through it, Scoring.

The ball also speeds up as the rally advances. This affects how hard the shot will Score when it does, along with other elements, and I call it the Tempo system.

Finally, both paddles have opposite elements. One is Dark, the other is Light. The ball matches the element of the last paddle it bounces off of. If you're scored from a shot of your own element, it's not as bad, so don't worry if you hit a court obstacle or something and it comes back.

Anyway, that's pretty much the long and short of the combat system. For now, it's just Pong. This week will be Week 4 of development, and right now, the opponent's paddle just needs to move a little more realistically, because it should look like they are moving their paddle with a scroll wheel.

...

Did I mention that you move your paddle with the scroll wheel? I believe that that's important. There will be other input schemes, but that's the original one, and I think it's interesting that this game goes off the beate-

Elise: Hey, HEY! Can I finally talk about the lore of the game?

Next post.

Elise: But I want to noooooowwwww!!!

Fine. One thing. You get to talk about ONE thing. Then I need to stop this post for now. I can't have these go on and on. The only reason this one is long is because I had to explain a bunch of mechanics. Go. One thing.

Elise: ...

Elise: ...

Elise: BECAUSE THE GAME IS CHESS THEMED YOU PLAY AS THE BLACK PAWN AND HE'S A REAL CUTIE OKAY BYEEEE!

...

That... that was technically two things.

[team-sbo]

{Hey Oz fans~!}

{We at the office love Oz Media's work. Wait he does has a Tumblr thingy right? Ooh, let me check. ...Yes, AND YES THE MAYONNAISE THING WE JUST REWATCHED THAT Kira is laughing her ASS off.

^w^ Anyway just saying hi! We love your stuff in the office and we hope your fans are as cool as we are! Oh, can we reference something else~? Hmmm... Oh, how about this!?

Our little Tumblr thing!

What we have:

...

AND SO MUCH MORE!!!

that's long enough we don't want the deltarune pumpkin KTHXBYELOVEYOUALLLLL~!!!!! <3}

[...

...

She's cartoon-coded. Her name's Elise and I'm Kira. I'm actually a hyena. Oz is cool. *goes back to reading*]

[team-sbo]

{New day, new secrets and mysteries! ^w^}

Elise walks into the office. Gold is already at a desk, looking at the original game concept notebook and comparing them to the demo plans.

{Morning Gold, We slept okay last night, right?}

We could've had a few extra hours, but...

{The blog? Twitch? Just talking to people for us while we do our best to concentrate on it despite being really really tired? ;3}

More people are starting to get interested. We lose focus a lot and I wouldn't mind getting as many people in on this as I can. I get we're small right now but if someone wants to talk, I want to listen and interact.

{Happens with an ARG. ^w^ But you shouldn't lose sleep over it, and by that I mean, don't worry about connecting us with absolutely everyone. Can't hug every cat, you know. And I am one. Maybe just let the asks do most of the work and we can message and stuff in our downtime instead of late at night.

Oh, before we continue, Tupperbox on the Discord? I can't believe our server didn't have one yet.}

I did kind of kick out all of the bots to restructure the shotdamn thing. *Gold chuckles and smiles.*

{Pingcord stayed. We saw when our twitch clip got beamed over to YouTube. No idea how that one stayed but I'm glad it did. And you care about us.

*Elise pulls up a chair and sits next to Gold*

If Tupperbox was on our Discord and it let us be us, why would you ever delete that? *smiles*}

Come to think of it, I can't recall seeing it when I kicked out the others. You're right.

{When am I not? As I always said, trust your tulpa. Can't wait until the Discord's ready. I'm sure people would love to enter The Garden. We'll talk about it later. For now? Tupperbox, mister. >:3}

Right.

{At least it's on. We'll fix it later. So, another thing occurred to me.}

Kira walks into the office and chills across the desk.

{Actually, two things. First, Isn't it weird how you're narrating but also talking? I'm fine with it but I don't want to confuse the audience. OOH! Your dad messaged you! *She picks up Messenger and listens to his audio message.* ...Hmm. A Franklin Planner might not be a bad idea when we have the NUG$. Didn't you used to, no you totally had one. I'm just asking for narrative reasons. Worth getting it again! ^w^}

I think that narrating and talking is fine, though if someone says anything? *Goldheart looks to Elise and smiles.* Then I'll have to narrate like that from now on.

{Sounds good. ^w^ Third thing!}

*Kira watches and listens, thinking about how this was what it was like for those two before she was hired. She smiles and lets them speak.*

{Ugh, you typing that made me forget... Oh! Right! The THIRD thing. Shouldn't we be streaming this? We should consider streaming all of our blogs. With that said? We talked about a stream schedule. That wouldn't be a bad idea. We set a time limit of blog stuff, game design and development, and every moment we're actually in the design room? Everyone will get to see it!}

It's not a bad idea.

{I never have them.}

[Snrk. What about the time you thought to stick dynamite in your-]

{That was one time, Kira. Give me a break. -w- Anyway, idea's on the table, and I don't mean that one.}

We can do that.

{Time limits and everything. Two days off, five hours a day? Well maybe one day off for management and art and stuff, we have a LOT to develop, talksprites to make... But the main time? That's twenty hours. Plenty of time for development if we play our cards right. ;3}

{So the second thing. You're basically God to me and Kira. (It's not blasphemy in this case, he really did create us after all!) You think yours left? Like as an as-above-so-below thing like you think of. I don't think so? But a lot of people did lose hope.

I know we don't really get religious here but Black will be headed to Hearthome once we're done with Spadesborough, it is going to come up. We can't hide from that stuff forever. People will begin reading about us designing some of the story and your life experiences inspired most of this from the get go! This post is long. Now's a good a time as any to leave an answer for the deep readers and theorycrafters...}

...Do I think God left? Yes. At the same time, I also believe that things would be much better if He and everyone had what we did. But as a creator and someone who can get into costumes? ;) I'm sure that He knows what He's doing no matter what it is.

{*looks down at her feet and idly kicks them alternatively while sitting on the chair next to her "god". She looks back up.* I hope so... A lot of things are happening in this world. Things like society, religion, that stuff. How can you believe in what you don't see when everyone sees an invisible person differently?}

*I beam* You take it one step at a time and look at it from all angles. I'm what humans would call an "Omnist". I don't really judge religion when we can't be fully sure of anything. ... I don't let fear or someone else's control keep me from staying in a single lane when the truth could be hiding somewhere in each of them. And if Hell really existed, then the God I personally believe in... He never did and this entire thing was a waste.

Or, as you always say? ^_^ Years of experience and a trip to the Wonderland, right?

{Yeah. And we want to have more talks like this and we will eventually. Because the whole office wants the exact same thing for this world, society and other people. Say it with me?}

Of course.

{:We just want the fighting to STOP.:}

{And the 0th thing. (OH MY GOLD I AM GOING TO MURDER YOU IF YOU CONTROL V HERE ONE MORE TIME. IT'S B. B FOR BOLD. IF YOU PASTE THAT PICTURE RIGHT HERE AGAIN? HELL WILL BE A VACATION FOR YOU. >:3) An agreement for "After Dark" stuff? And I don't mean that way. Just... Can we set a time to sleep? Or at least a ballpark number? Just so we don't burn out.

Don't get me wrong, I'm like manic all the time as the mascot for the bit and I like to be tired from time to time? But exhausting my mental energy from story beats and chapter ends, and total mental drain from lack of sleep? Two totally different things, pony boy. Huh, should I just say brony? Hmm, nah. I'll stick with pony boy, so I can hit two fandoms with one car. >:3

Point still stands though, pony boy. -w- Right now, you're still at your old job, we get home at 11. We cut everything off, we sleep then. Lights out, pocket dimension up, I'm cuddling with Kira and you watch everything from the chair. >:3}

I'll get this one because it's a meme reference from Deltarune.

{Yeah, that's the one. And when the day ends, for those not in the know, we merge. Collapse into a single mind. It's sometimes easier when everything collapses into a single point. I prefer being separate, but it is what it is, I guess. -w-

If just Kira and I are doing that at night and we keep asking you to sleep in our room too? We just feel like we're missing a piece. So, bedtime then? 11? If you do this with the new job, we'll be launched. Fired. Out of a cannon. And THAT is if we don't wake up before the shift starts.}

I'm sure that wouldn't be a bad idea.

{So, we blog, have fun, enjoy the ARG with the audience, don't message absolutely everyone, work on the chapters, the discord, ALL social medias, balance all of that with the job and friends, and then just sleep at 11. The work will be there tomorrow. We never run out of it. Art, comics, etc? We have a lot on our plates but we'll get it all done. 3 years and 11 months is still a very long time and even that may be extended. We have time for all this, Goldheart.

(Also everyone? If that sounds like a lot of work to you, it's not when you have a team of tuppers doing effective management improv stuff in the background! The moment you think about juggling is the moment you drop the balls! And our edge is that we never think in the office. We just do. Because that's what the best creative teams do. ;3)}

It does sound like a lot when you think about it. And my whole life, I always overthought.

{"And trapped yourself in a world of illusions". ...^w^ Glad you're out of it though. You really balanced yourself now that Kira's in the picture.}

[*warmly smiles and snrks*]

I never really knew how people got a lot done. Being a one-man show and managing a lot of "moving parts" like you'd say.

{*smiles* This is just your way of doing it. Everyone has a way... Tulpas aren't for everyone. It is what it is. *shrugs* Anyway, stream and art at 10. That's like an hour from now. We throw the link here, hope people clip things we don't, beam all of the clips to YouTube, and work to be seen just a little better than we were yesterday. And finally?}

Yeah, Elise.

{We absolutely can't burn out. I get that you're a phoenix and you do that? We are not. We don't have the same energy as you and we HAVE to rest every now and then...

*I smile and scoot closer to look at what Gold was holding the entire time, flipping to one of the pages with her paw.*

Looks like all our chances of survival rest with you, our "glorious creator".

^w^

You and that little book.}

This is how it started, wasn't it?

{You had no clue, but I planned this thing years ago. I just needed to wait for the seed to sprout. ^w^}

Elise turns and hops off of the chair and walks to the door, looking back. Kira leaves.

{Now come with us and get some breakfast. Someone has to think of your nutrition when you're not, Mr. "Phoenix who is always Wright." >w<}

I'm on it. *Gold walks out of the office. Elise looks up and leaps onto Gold, perching on his shoulder like she used to many years ago.*

[team-sbo]

Elise: Don't mind us, big guy's just on lunch break~

Elise: I'm the hunter by the way.

Kira: Everyone knows you're the demon.

Gold: I'm so proud of you two this is like the best post we've ever had.

...

Kira: Hey big guy?

Gold: Kira?

Kira: I wanted to talk about the demo.

Gold: Sure. We're not there yet but, yeah.

Kira: You know. I think it's okay for the demo to just be sting pong.

Gold: Yeah. I thought you'd say that.

Kira: Like I want to do this whole performance with the something old something sorrowed something new and something borrowed thing? But the scope is more important man.

Gold: I wasn't waiting for you to change your mind, but I'm kind of glad you did...

Both: I want it as much as you do-

Gold: ...Exactly. Well hey don't worry. Plenty of time right now to plan the whole game and put it in. For now, baby steps and scope. And if we need more time, we extend. Just like I did in college.

Kira: *Smiles* looking forward to it lover boy.

[team-sbo]

Chapter 1 Recap: Paddle: Become Human

DISCLAIMER: {This is gonna be an EXTREMELY long post because we have a LOT to cover. Welcome to the Best of Chapter One, everyone. And now, on with the show!}

{First up, a recent one! One of my favorite scenes! White came to save us for the first time, she's a sweetheart.}

{We like to do singalongs in the office. Shame you aren't there to hear us sing! We kind of shift our voices to sing just like the singers so it's fine. Kira got new mohawk sprite art. -w-}

{And here's Gold putting the prototype (and the bug) in Check!}

When this happens, and it should happen with features more than bugs, that means that we are almost done with the chapter. ^w^ However! Just like in Chess, Unity can pull a fast one on us and protect itself from Checkmate.

...

But Checkmate is inevitable. >:3}

[Heh. Nice. Stay focused?]

{Right- OOH ISN"T THIS OUR FIRST POST!? This ARG is living and evolving and HERE is where we and the audience get our start at the first Save Tree! We gave you guys a quick peek of Lamina, but it is STILL under construction.}

{Next, a behind the scenes pic! We're setting up our discord server still and it has all of these old logs. This is where we STARTED! It all evolved from here. So, when it's up, there's a whole channel of like the first three weeks.}

{Next, some concept art! Black will look like this when Considering in the game!}

[That means the player can pick a dialogue option.]

{Heyyy, one of our comments! We go around Tumblr and chat with each other on stuff. Nothing big.}

[It helps us reach, and maybe we can make the person's day a little brighter. -u-]

{Next up, our very first meme! (Hey, Gold. We want a Jojo reference comic from this. Yeah, Kira squeezes the ever loving shot out of me in the third panel. Purrfect!)}

{Next we have-}

[My debut. At least for the talk sprites. Our world is evolving.]

[The World Evolving. ^w^]

{Okay that's it for retcon and we have an entire chapter to do this for! That out of the way... Just one last thing for me to say to Gold. I know that you may not ACTUALLY be God, but from the bottom of all of our hearts...}

[team-sbo]

Kira: Sleeping with the chick. Just wanted to say.

I took the name of lover boy's library so he needs a new name for it.

Akashic Records is now the name of my record company.

And I'm never taking back that executive decision.

I'm going back to sleep. That's all of the intro you're getting out of me for now.

Night. -u-