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I’ve been doing a lot of work on Pox, the third member of The Also Rans, and the last character for the base game. In the story, she was kicked out of The Hero’s party because she didn’t do enough “deeps.” Pox doesn’t actually know what “deeps” refers to, but she absolutely swears she can do that thing, whatever that means, just so that she can play more. What she is is a tank, and her improbable…

Daily writing promptWhat is one question you hate to be asked? Explain.View all responses “Pox not at all like be asked shut up. Is not even make sense to say! Pox look up, but nothing there at all to make shut, and when Pox try ask what they want shut, eyes get all bugglybulgey and then they flop their arms all looseygoosey like they just need to drop something heavy but not actually because…

Daily writing promptDo you believe in fate/destiny?View all responses “The Divine’s plan is no more ours to know than They choose to tell us. We cannot act other than blind, and cannot know our path except in comparing our steps to where our heart has told us we strayed from that path.” I’ve had a lot of success with Alastrina’s prayer card. I’ll show off a few of these in an upcoming post once…

Daily writing promptDescribe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.View all responses I started writing The Also Rans (which you can read fun bits of) as a wild inspiration on a trip. Then I realized how saturated the book market is, that I don’t have the knowledge base to create a video game, and board games require a lot of understanding and tweaking to make them work. And then I…

What bores you? On my authority as a gamer, and the fact that I am on the internet, makes me an authority figure on the subject of what games shouldn’t do. And since I am on the internet, I expect my opinions should be stated as fact and obeyed by all, as a proclamation from the lord of gaming on high. And of course, the internet is full of such blowhards already, so my piteous yelp for…

I am impressed enough by what AI art can do that I forget that it needs a lot of training to be even vaguely competent at a task. When you’ve gotten it decently trained on a specific character, and ask it to change the appearance of that character in some unique way, generally it can wow. Unfortunately that builds a lot of trust in the “artist,” like “oh hey you made a really good pot, can you…

Daily writing promptShare one of the best gifts you’ve ever received.View all responses “The best gift I ever received? Not getting stepped on. Or kicked. Or threatened to have axes thrown at me. Or skipping the threats and just having axes thrown at me. Today has been my favorite day because none of those things has happened. Yet. But who knows, the day is young and there’s always time for…

I’ve had a month of pretty solid design work, and am flowing a lot more on Jo’Jaxon, the Splizzball pitcher known for improbable throws. In keeping with his character trait, there has to be some randomness in how he does his throws, and I think I’m ready to share off at least the basics of his gameplay. But first: An art! I fed the original Jo’Jaxon sketch into Gemini and kinda medievalled him a…

All credit to https://teesperky.com/product/attack-magic-summon-item-coffee-sticker/ Gamers’ tolerance for randomness in games is very much a sliding scale. Dealing with randomness can be fun and dynamic, and certainly makes for more storied games. Your success based on randomness.. well, that’s a whole lot less interesting. Nobody plays Chutes and Ladders for the hard tactical play, since the…

So I had some time to put in some work on the art. Embracing AI art brought in some changes for the good. Classic Flonk. Which is like the monster bug version of classic Coke(r). Brown, bouncy and spiteful.This is where I left off with StableDiffusion. Describing Flonk like a payara fish and a horrible cockroach hybrid got me pretty close.After some bashing, Flonk has teeth, a charming smile,…

Daily writing promptList three books that have had an impact on you. Why?View all responses I’ve spent about 13 years working on one of my own, so The Also Rans is definitely high on the list of books that had an effect on me! And yeah, its a plug, but a highly relevant plug that you can read part of right here for free! Ok, but seriously to the prompt. Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and…

Daily writing promptDo you practice religion?View all responses “Yes, of course, and practice is absolutely the correct term for it. If we were able to get it completely right, then there would be nothing to turn our eyes from the gods or their will. Unfortunately, living in the world as we must, there are always opportunities to.. well, let stray thoughts occupy our hearts.” “The other aspect…

Daily writing promptWhat is the legacy you want to leave behind?View all responses My book/game, of course! Not the only legacy I have going for me, but as this is a project I have been working on (off and on anyway) for well over 10 years, it has one of the longest lifespans of anything I’ve played a hand in, and maybe fittingly, it is something I wanted to put out into the world. The…

Daily writing promptHow do you feel about cold weather?View all responses When I first started writing The Also Rans, I didn’t really do worldbuilding. Oh, sure, I knew about the idea of it, but it really was hard to come up with a reason to do all that worldbuilding if I didn’t see the characters in the story doing anything with it. Not having aspirations of making a gajillion lore bibles and…

There’s a certain creative freedom when you don’t need a specific art to show up. Maybe its because humans like drawing monsters, or maybe its because AI art naturally gravitates towards making monstrous freaks when you tell it not to, but either way, it can be really creative when you don’t tell it “give me an orc” or “some gnolls plz.” Sure, it can do stock fantasy monsters, but give it a…