(Film Still from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, 1958)
A classic piece of cinema for a classic gatekeeping manoeuvre.
Being told they believe you, while also telling you it couldn’t have happened, is really just a nicer way of calling you a liar.
If you’re wondering how to move forward or worried you're bound to get a response like this, here's is a solid primer about talking with your employer to help you get your bearings on what to do.
I'll spend the next few days focused on writing, coding, reviewing, and of course trying to post the file on itch.io (which has been a pain recently) until the beginning of September (or what I consider the beginning of September) of course I'll still be here but it might take me longer to respond etc.
As you may know, November is coming up, and that marks the 2-year anniversary of writing CT:OS and Merry Crisis part-time!
I have big dreams for where to take Monsoon Games next! A little about me: I'm a full-time urban planner, but I'm considering taking a 1 year break in 2026 to see some of my game ideas to fruition. I want to know how viable this is, and what you guys are interested in, to best plot out my next steps.
I've created a google form to better understand what to prioritize and what next steps are viable for the next 2 years.
If you're a coder/programmer or artist and excited to find out more about collaborating, I'd be really interested to share more about the project(s) and discuss!
(For more information on the roadmap I've got in mind, click here. For more information about some of the projects I'm interested in pursuing in the future, click here.)
Click read more to also read the revamped 'mission statement' for Monsoon Games - but it's also updated in the current pinned post!
Monsoon Games is a small indie game studio that creates story-rich, character-driven games. We want our games to create a cozy space that feels like home - in all its varied and unexpected forms.
We are passionate about making games that tell diverse stories and experiences, feature strong, memorable characters, and most of all, create moments that are both heartwarming and thought-provoking.
Whether it’s exploring the rollercoaster of navigating life as a college varsity athlete (College Tennis: Origin Story), or the bittersweet struggle to figure out where ‘home’ is after a messy breakup (Merry Crisis) - or quietly carving out a new life as a diner-owner on a distant moon (Space Diner-WIP), our games invite players into rich, unique worlds full of colorful, diverse characters.
Let's get into what I'll be doing with this event, yeah?
First, I apologize if my reblog on Fei's post is a partial cause to everyone spiraling and leaving or panicking. Genuinely that was not my intention, and I moreso was trying to reduce the emotional toll that this sort of situation could have. I realize that's probably not helpful, and I think I blew a simple post out of proportion by linking it to everyone in TAOCC which could have contributed to the stress. If you feel as if that was what happened or your anxiety was not helped from that post, I am genuinely sorry.
Now, what am I gonna be doing now? I haven't made it a secret that I've been ebbing away from TAOCC for a while, I've talked about it pretty openly so that you all can understand what I'm doing. I hoped that maybe this would feel less like a bag of bricks being dropped on you from the stratosphere if I mixed this new personal story with my rp stuff. Whether that worked or not, I have no clue. Up to interpretation.
But let's get into this, yeah? I'll try to make this as easy to follow and stress free as possible. If you don't want to read everything, keep an eye out for any text that looks like this sentence.
If you are looking for my old pinned post, here it is!
Are you leaving Taocc?
Leaving the group? Absolutely not! No way. I am with this group forever unless something royally fucks up and it genuinely would be in everyone's best interest to disperse. I consider TAOCC to be the group of us friends that have grown close and bonded through our love of this series and the characters we made for it, even if those characters are now something else entirely. No way am I actually leaving the group. Please don't think I am, I don't think I could bear that.
Are you going to be staying with RP then?
... nnnnnot quite, I think. A big part of my personal disconnect with TAOCC was how serious the roleplay got. It wasn't a fun silly thing where people could interact at any time and do whatever; roleplay now feels very story-based and driven, and it all contributes to the large overarching plotlines that go in more directions than kernels in an air popper. That heavy need for rp'ing to continue the story instead of having silly things that didn't have much impact became really strenuous, especially when we take into account all the angst. The angst being such a relevant and important part of the roleplays and plot also drove me away from TAOCC roleplay, but I don't think I need to talk about that again.
BUT! But but but but. I'm not fully stopping roleplay here. I think I'm going to just reduce it to silly things like fluff, ships, crack, anything that isn't overly serious or angst riddled. Can some of the RP still be serious? Yeah. But for a vast majority of it all, I'll be sticking with small fluffy things that generally don't contribute so heavily to a massive overarching story and stuff that only builds on itself. If we want to say there are any huge developments in plot or story for TAOCC, I honestly feel better just saying it happened and then treating it however I feel at the time, whether that be leaving it alone or drawing smth for it or whatever. It's all chill.
So... what's next?
To start, I'll be working on the roleplays that are currently happening and taking no more unless I really want to. This includes the Quin roleplay, wtv is going on with Boxsprings, Razzie and Rubio reuniting, the fate of Egypt's young girls, and Rubio visiting his family.
The big stuff will be worked on while all that is happening; You all have seen my interest in making a Galazy project out of my TAOCC characters... and that's what I'll be doing! Think of it as a sort of split in the road, or better yet, sticks going in different directions but growing from the same branch. I've gotten this far with my characters and their development, and now it's time to explore a new path. All discussions of my characters and this new project will be discussed on my main blog as well. Please note, my characters as they are now, in TAOCC, will still exist. Both versions- the TAOCC version and the Galazy version- will be canon. A lot of the storylines and developments I've made will be the same. I have new ideas for how they all come into being and what everyone is. RP kinda set them on their adventures and gave me an idea of what each person is like or about, and they'll all continue to be like that. So, both versions are canon. However I'll be mainly continuing with my characters' stories, lore, and the main plots on this new project, while the TAOCC versions will simply be a past version to roleplay with that's still canon. They'll still have all their development. Most of them will probably have the same mental health issues that won't go away. Growth will be on a "why not?" basis. That's the best answer I can give you right now, but I'll probably be able to give you a more clear one as this goes on.
What about their relations with other TAOCC characters?
Those will remain the same in TAOCC, don't worry! I will be starting off this Galazy project with just my characters' relations with each other, but in TAOCC, nothing will be affected. Hell we can probably even keep up with them by having fun fluffy/happy roleplays with different groups, simply without story importance. Think of it just as how sometimes roleplay characters from completely separate worlds or groups will interact, just for fun, and it'll be something strange and beautiful. Noncanon relationships kinda thing, but they're canon! Just, only canon in the TAOCC version unless they become a co-character in this new project.
Does this also go for ships?
Yep, all ships I currently have between my and others' characters will remain canon as is in TAOCC! I'm not breaking up Lancia, or Chocorocks, or Goldenrain, or Boxsprings, or any of our other ships. Unless the other mod(s) involved want(s) to break up the canon relationship, everything is where they currently are. And the best part about this is that if we do decide to break up the canon relationship? We don't need to roleplay that! We don't need to make ourselves sick over watching our characters fall apart in real time! We can just say that it happened, and it happened. It'll be as easy as that.
As for the Galazy project, yes, I will be forming my own ships with my own characters and (almost) exclusively my characters. I'm not a stranger about what ships I like personally either, I think that's even more evident than the above. So you'll probably be getting a lot of IceDragon, Platonic SongDragon, Odeaia, Star Hoes, and whatever else I decide. Some of my characters will stay single as I don't have a ship for them between my own personal characters or they'll be reserved for someone else, but we'll cross those bridges when we get to them.
What will happen to your TAOCC blogs?
They'll all remain up and available for questions, roleplay, and nostalgia! I'll probably edit them all to reflect these changes, and that'll undoubtedly take a while. I think the only thing that I haven't decided is if I want to set all the current stuff to private. I really wish I could do a "mutuals only" kind of privacy setting that doesn't involve filling out a password every time you go into a blog or just something to hide it but still give certain people access for the sake of appearing "fresh" and "clean", but I can't, so I either private those posts or I leave them up. In the interest of nostalgia, I think I might leave them. I'll just need to figure out a way to be satisfied with them kinda being left in the dark- I may rb this post onto all of them with an "All activity before this date is archived" tag or smth.
What if there are developments made in RP here that don't reflect the story of this new personal project?
This is where that fork in the road metaphor comes into play again. Developments here will be reflective of the TAOCC canon but not the Galazy canon, simple as that. I've gotten comfortable enough with the concept of many canons to keep things separate, so I encourage you all to keep them separate or at least not be stressed them as well.
What do you have for this new project so far?
OKAY! IN SHORT! It's going to be a sort of fantasy world with a large continent and many islands, where the locations of where all of my characters are will reflect that of their digital worlds. Everyone will be born as they appear now, and the "human vs. AI" thing will instead become "organic vs. nonorganic" depending on what someone is made of. Icia, of course, will still be the flagship protagonist with varying deurotagonists, and will travel to each place at least once, likely multiple times depending on where the arcs bring her. The Kingdom will remain the most unchanged and be almost exactly how I envisioned it in TAOCC: an isle with a coastal village and castle on the cliffs, home to rare dragons, and more. The isle is surrounded with ocean, and when you get far enough, you'll reach the unnamed continent, and the town where all of my circus OCs live. Other areas like a Blackwell equivalent or underwater kind of world more than likely will exist. And if anyone is curious, yes. The Stormy Digital Mountains will also exist in the Galazy canon.
As I said before, people are born with the features you know them to have. Meaning Icia was the blue-skinned, ice-haired "retry" daughter of the unnamed Marino-paralleling family, baby Slyn had tiny baby snakes slithering in and out from around his swaddle, baby Astrion has always had his little magical galaxy hands, and so on. How do their parents have kids like this? Magic. How do these kids grow up with strange and amazing abilities such as Gaia's ability to grow flowers? Also magic. Yes, this will be a "it's magic, nothing makes sense" sort of story, other than how the magic is used. And yes, almost everyone can use this magic. It's almost like a commodity or luxury. Since there's no digital world to be transported to, concepts such as reanimation, necromancy, and others will be explored. But, some of the world may be more tech based than others. It'll depend.
What I haven't decided are a lot of the naming stuff. In my mind the kingdom is still Islevenport, but I hate how easily it can be audibly called Elvenport or Alvinport. Other name considerations I've had stick a lot with the ocean or beach theme, because the kingdom is, of course, a coastal one. I've been looking up different words related to the coast, beach, and ocean in different European languages, but right now the idea I like is Thetasia, or Thetivia, or something alone those lines. It's inspired by Thetis, who is one of the 50 Nereids (sea nymphs) of Greek mythology and a water goddess, but I'm still exploring. It just has to be related to the ocean in some way.
I also don't quite know what I'm calling this project yet! I kind of want a Latin name though, and the first one I found is Marmoris. It translates to being something of marble, but is culturally used to describe the appearance of light reflecting off of the water's surface. Gonna keep exploring though, I also sort of like Amicus Aequus, meaning Equal Friend (I think).
For the time being, this project is just going to be referred to as The Kingdom Isle, because the main story is about the Kingdom, and I'll rename it when I come up with something better.
And finally, this will entirely be a leisure project. Very little, if any of this, will likely be published/monetized or shared to a larger audience. It's just meant for fucking around and having fun lol.
Will we still eventually see the lore and things for your characters that you haven't revealed?
Absolutely! I have a lot of lore that I haven't yet revealed about a good deal of my characters, and just as many plans that haven't come into TAOCC fruition but I've wanted to explore forever. You will indeed see and receive lore for all of my characters, and since so many of them will have slightly new backstories bc they stay in their world, you'll probably be getting new lore for the same characters you know and love ;)
Could my OC participate in or be part of this project still?
The short answer is, probably! There will definitely be some restrictions just for the integrity of this project though, especially in the sense of like. Gods, immortal beings, plot heavy characters, etc. For most OCs, I think I'm going to see them in the sense of a sort of AU canon where it includes these other characters, it'll just depend. This is one of those things I'd really have to think more about, especially bc I only have a very select few friends who I know I'd be okay with their OC being genuinely canon part of this derivative.
Kingdom OCs may be a different story. If you have a preexisting kingdom OC (or one I've helped make for you), I'll probably be chill with them remaining in the kingdom and filling their castle role, but I'll just ask to talk with me if you really want to put them in the plot or anything beyond the smaller, filler stuff. Again, this is stuff I really have to think about. And again, if you don't want your character to be part of this project but you still want them to be a part of the kingdom, the TAOCC Kingdom is not going anywhere. They will remain relevant lol, trust me. We can always do kingdom stuff here.
Are there any other special actions you're taking with this transition?
The biggest one is Starro.
In short, Starro's getting a HUGE redesign. Remember when I drew him as an Octoling for the Splatoon AU? I'm aiming for something like that. He'll be a solid middle mix between Antonio Marino and TADC Starro.
Speaking of which, this means I'll be splitting Starro up into 2 versions, the Galazy version and the TADC OC version he was meant to be originally. TADC Starro will remain the same as he is now appearance-wise, minus the button up. His lore will be a lot more vague and Icia won't exist alongside him in TADC, so he'll indeed be alone and experiencing a whole plethora of other issues in that way. Galazy Starro will take most of those backstory details and also probably be part of a traveling circus troupe once he reaches his "headset" age, and then he and Icia will run into each other years later, and their journey will go on from there. He also will still have his ability to transform into a distorted terrifying monster (again, magic lmao). And also, no. Galazy Starro will not have visible spring legs. He will however still have his stars, and some sort of extra acrobatics adaptation. We'll see how that goes.
Other than that, I think I'm going to turn this blog more into a sideblog for spam, reblogging, semi personal stuff, and roleplay, especially because I wanna stop separating these OCs from my audience on my main blog. There'll be a lot more intertwining of the posts from both blogs lol. I'm also kinda considering changing this blogs handle, but I'm not entirely sure yet. We'll see. I might go for that stellata-galaxia one I mentioned a bit ago.
If I go back to making TADC OCs, they'll be much more like the original spirit of TAOCC, being animated toy-like creatures. So probably a really big plush dragon with floppy head and arms syndrome (inspired by my biggest plush. Had that one for a while lol.)
How do you feel about doing this and having wanted to for a while?
I agree with a lot of people in the sense that this is bittersweet. When the first post about this came out in the morning, I won't lie, I had flashbacks. I was nauseous for a bit, I had cold pooling down my spine, it was kinda terrifying and brought back memories I wanna forget. But after a bit the anxiety went away, which is why I made that first response post. Admittedly, I had kinda expected something like this to happen for a while, so I guess I was just planning in advance so I would know what to do when this finally happened. And it's nothing against any of you all, I just had a feeling that eventually, TAOCC may ebb away, and if I told myself I was overreacting to that feeling then I likely would have taken this way harder and it'd be a lot more painful to everyone. Yeah, I do admit it's sad to see this thing we've worked on for years kinda drifting into pieces, and there are some memories that make me wonder if this is the right course of action. Hell this whole time I've been typing, my heart had been beating hard enough to make my phone shake in my stagnant hands, or for me to rock slightly with every pump. That kinda tells me that this needs to happen, even though what it entails is scary.
But at the same time, I'm... kinda excited? I've had so many personal ideas in mind that I can really, truly explore now, and even though I don't have many people to talk to bc this can be a sore subject, it really is sort of exciting! I get to have my own jurisdiction over more of my characters and their environments, I feel as if I can better handle plot holes or inconsistencies, it's kind of nice to feel as if I'm duplicating the tangled yarn of TAOCC and leaving the original as it is, in all its beauty and love, while slowly untangling the duplicate.
That eagerness doesn't change that this is still really difficult. I'm hearing a lot of really upset opinions which is completely valid, and it's really upsetting to see people panic or spiral over this kind of thing. I don't want that to happen, and I don't want anyone to feel as if they're dying alongside this project bc legitimately, it's an awful feeling. That shit really sucks. And it pains me that so many others are handling this too, which is why even if this does disperse, I don't want anyone to feel as if it's all ending forever. Who's to say we won't still have fun ship roleplays, or tea parties between characters, or anything that's not completely draining? What I personally am leaving behind is the obligation to roleplay things I'd rather just say exist rather than act them out through words over a screen, bc that's what killed my passion for TAOCC. Not anyone else.
So I emphasize a lot with those fears and anxieties, because it's completely valid. We've had this thing going for YEARS, lol. It's normal and understandable to feel lost now that it's changing in ways that feel more distant. And I also am sad that the golden days of this group seem gone and unattainable anymore, but simultaneously I'm eager to explore this new chapter and use these characters in so many unique ways. We got a long way ahead of us.
Do you have anything else you want to say?
I really hope this whole post 1. Made everything a bit more coherent, 2. Quelled some fears or anxieties and brought about understanding of my next plans, and 3. Didn't completely destroy anyone's self esteem by making a me-thing out of my characters and worlds that others still had a part in. I'm not undermining or intending to undermine the work we did at all, especially because everything you all have put into my characters and worlds and stories is still canon in TAOCC (seriously, I would not have gotten this far and skilled in development without yall). For the most part I'm very happy with this plan, and will be going about editing my characters on Toyhouse AND Artfight to reflect these changes, but I'll still keep other relationships available and encourage those ships instead of restrict them to just my characters. After all, both projects, in my eyes, are canon. Some of this may change when we talk on call.
No one else should feel pressured to do what I'm doing either. I'm doing this because it reflects my own creative passions and explorations, and allows me to feel as if I'm growing and stepping into new eras with my art and storytelling.
If anyone else has more questions, please comment them below or send me an ask. I'll be happy to answer them. In the meantime, this will replace the pinned post, which is available back at the top of this post.
Please remember though, no matter what, I love this community, and I love YOU. I will never stop endorsing and encouraging your creative endeavors, and you will always have a star shining to support you even from miles and away. I love you all SOOOOOOOOO much. Please talk to me if you have anything to ask, contribute, or discuss. I'll always be here. <333
