In grade school we learned the normal way to do multiplication one day and then the lattice way the next, except I was sick the day we learned the normal way and they never went back and reviewed it and neither did I and so to this day I only know how to use the lattice method
Yeah it took me a while to figure it out, but I DID! So for me and you and everyone else going “wait wtf just happened????” I present a more step by step breakdown!
So you start with a grid with as many squares as needed to write one number across the top and one number down the side. And draw these diagonal lines through them. Yes you should extend them out the side.
THEN you basically multiply the numbers that match with each square, put the tens digit in the top triangle and the ones digit in the bottom triangle. Like so:
so once you’ve done that, you start adding up the numbers in the DIAGONAL column/row thingies from the bottom right up to the top left, like so:
You only want one digit (tho I assume if the very top/last row somehow gets 2 digits that’s ok, but ONLY in that position) and you’ll carry over to the next column, like if you were adding normally.
Then you start at the top left and just take all the numbers going down and around and put them together!
It does take up a lot more space and has a few more steps than the more traditional long multiplication, I think, but for people who struggle with that I think this would be a handy tool!
Here’s a screenshot of the more traditional style to compare:
I hope this helps! I had to figure it out on my own bc I was never taught this either. :)
Not to be all "the children have forgotten the sacred texts!" but I just saw someone refer to a ship between two people who are good friends in canon as a crackship.
Hon. No. Crackship doesn't just mean "not canon". It's difficult to imagine two people who spend significant canon time together as a crackship. Crackship is when you write Galactus getting fucked by Tony the Tiger.
the first osprey is the father, the one that comes later is the mother.
ospreys are not eagles, they're ospreys
ospreys only eat fish, that's why they don't register this starling as possible food
the starling got home safely
the starling was not trying to eat the eggs, it was mostly curious and you can see it trying to hop under the osprey every time the osprey tries to sit down again--this is because the starling is still a baby and has the instinct to get under an adult for warmth, even though it mostly has its feathers. this scares the osprey because that is a Foreign Creature near its eggs.
at the end of the video you can see the ospreys starting to turn the eggs. birds do this so the yolk and/or embryo don't stick to the shell of the egg, which is bad for the egg's health.
ospreys have eyes adapted to seeing beneath the surface of the water!
can i ask about your vn process? like what are you using to make it (or coding from scratch?) and how are you structuring the process of making the script and sprites? i'm planning to make my own vn for my ocs but i'm not sure where to start
Oh gosh, this will probably be a long post, but I will start by giving the short answer and give the longer answer on a read more:
Short Answer: I did mock-ups, then wrote the entire script, did a test build on Ren'Py to figure out if it all works out, and now im slowly drawing all the final assets while implementing the full story onto Ren'Py. (Right now I have about 1/4 of the story already in the program!)
Long Answer / General Tips and Advice
First off, a bit of background: I'm a multimedia major, a designer, and have worked as a game dev for half a year. I have even done a postgrad in creative programming, so I have a lot more experience with these types of tools than most.
General starting tips:
- Learn to use GitHub, I have used it in the industry and in classes, everytime you change something in a game, you want to back it up, on the github server so when things break (which they will) you can return to an older version
- Play games on the engine you want to use; that is the best way to know exactly what that engine is capable of and what's likely available as tutorials somewhere.
- You can use things other than Ren'Py, a friend of mine is using Tyrano Builder for her projects due to being scared of Python. Or you can even use RPG Maker, which I've used in the past and is quite fun.
- There's no shame in a small 1k word test before committing to a long game you can use what you learn for later (but do try to be insane about it otherwise you will procrastinate, the reason I haven't made a game for my OCs but am doing one for Shuake is because... well, I'm insane about Shuake.) Also it's playing games in the engine you want to use that will inspire you to the type of things you can include in your game.
-If you do commit to working on Ren'py, write your script in this format:
c "dialogue"
(c=character initial) It will save you a lot of time since you can just copy paste this whole thing into ren'py script and then just need to write changing emotions / scenes (there's an example further down)
Now, onto the actual process thus far, you can see most of it if you scroll through my blog.
These were my first mockups, but that doesn't mean you need to commit to them either; in fact, this is what the final battle screen looks like:
Don't be scared of changing your mind as you work on the game; things will come naturally, and changing things because you have a better idea is usually a good thing. But a base idea is always good to fall back on.
After I was set on this idea, I immediately decided to write the entire script (20k words) I don't know if I can advise this if it's your first project, especially if it's long or if you have very, very complex ideas, because if you want to do something unique with the gameplay, you should test your code first to know if you can commit to that idea and not have to rewrite it later.
This is what my script looked like once I was done: Color coding can be useful to guide yourself but it's personal taste
Then I moved onto reading the script aloud by myself/with friends to check for janky dialogue (which I'm still fixing) while also working on the code, you can see all my code working here, with just sample text. It's also important to use sketches when you are just testing; don't spend hours on an asset you don't know if you will get the chance to use.
Ren'py isn't hard to learn; in fact, one of the only programming languages I never learned was Python (what Ren'py uses) and I have had not much difficulty adjusting to it since it's quite a simple one; for example, once you have most things set up, it's as simple as this:
The only things I've had to code/change from a default ren'py project are adjusting textboxes to be images instead, the position of the characters on the screen, and unique menus for choices.
You can also change fonts and colors, but all that code is already built into the default. Honestly, try it out, poke around, and you will get the hang of it. You can find a tutorial for anything you want to change somewhere on forums/reddit/other communities. There's even a Ren'py manual that taught me about how Callbacks work, and it's how I got my characters to make little bleep noises when they speak.
So yeah, I'm at the point where now I'm just slowly finishing all the artwork (since there will be a lot of it) and copying all the text onto ren'py. And considering I've only been working on it for a month and had to take a break for 1.5 weeks, I would say it's been a pretty smooth process and less scary than one might imagine!
Anyway, I hope this helps! I'm no Ren'Py expert, of course, but I know my way around organizing my work at the very least.
As to where you should start: Have an idea, draw some mockups, play games in the engine you want to use, mess around in the engine long enough to know you can use it successfully, write the script, and so on.
Good luck, and if you have any other questions, feel free to reach out! <3
tbh a lot of my advice boils down to “hey you know that terrible horrible looming thing you’re doing your best to avoid and distract and escape as much as possible but no matter what you do it just keeps looming and looming and ruining your life”
Instead of a stoic hero and a chatty villain or a chatty hero and a stoic villian imagine if they’re both chatty. Just, the villian trying their best to kill the hero while the two of them have a in-depth discussion about their opinion of pumpkin spice
