tag directory in the tags of this post, mobile friendly project list under the cut. the current project is usually at the top
Ten Seconds to Midnight
Taro Storløkken-Lund was cursed with a nervous disposition, however blessed with a terrifying face whenever he gets nervous. He's able to use this to his advantage to survive in the world of the affluent-- a world in which his position is precarious. He's been born into it, and yet is an outsider. He conforms perfectly, and yet hides a great many secrets that, if discovered, will surely lead to catastrophe. His skills are put to the ultimate test however, when a benefit gala he attends is taken over by a deadly game… and its proctor reveals something harrowing: it's not 1972 anymore, and everyones' lives have gone horribly wrong.
Final Danganronpa 3: The Killing to End All Killings
A rewrite of the killing game from DR3's Future side. The Future Foundation's directors are trapped in their own headquarters and forced to kill each other. Munakata is our protagonist and POV character. Some stuff changes, some stuff stays the same.
Danganronpa Another Episode: Despair Tour
Set during the Tragedy. Nakajima Isei, a wannabe information broker, hears a rumor that the Kamukura Project might've had a second subject. Eager to bring hope to his fellow survivors-- and desperate to be remembered-- he sets out to find this alleged second subject once and for all. Joining him as his bodyguard is former friend Moroboshi Ichito, Ultimate Wordsmith… and Yozo, the man they both blackmailed in second year, with horrible consequences for all three. Hopefully something better happens this time!!
Visual novel style with an explorable top-down overworld and many easter eggs to find a la Ultra Despair Girls.
Danganronpa: At Sea
Set at the tail end of the Tragedy, after Despair Tour. Horigome Kouji, the now-graduated Ultimate Archivist, has spent the Tragedy in his family's bunker instead of being on the surface using his talent. On a food run, he meets Ultimate Wordsmith Moroboshi Ichito, who invites him on an excursion they're planning-- board an abandoned cruise ship and sail away from the mainland, onto a remote island to wait out the Tragedy. But once they set sail, a killing game also enters the water! And just where is this boat going, anyway?
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random shit i had to research for this fangan, in no particular order, with no indication of narrative importance. MOST of these are for minor details except for some which are randomly extremely plot relevant
uchinaaguchi (the language of the ryukyuan people, the indeginous okinawan populace)
nihon hidankyo
bull markets. yes the stock term
70s era japanese asylums. notable because there were zero english results so i had to search in japanese and translate the results
japan's involvement in wwii BUT 👆🏽 only the last year or two of it
lithium
chronic pain specifically from ballet
monsoon season and how strong they are. the game explicitly does not take place during monsoon season
xxy syndrome
sperm banks
postmortem sperm extraction
i know too much about sperm now and wish to go back
social stigma hibakusha face. none of the characters in the roster are hibakusha and all of them in fact were born after the end of wwii
unlucky numbers in japan
the ikegami hl-33 camera (i found footage of a news station showing off its features and footage from it, which was a REALLY cool find actually)
history of gunpowder
gynocomastia
the year that homosexuality was taken oit of the dsm as a mental illness (1973, a year AFTER the fangan takes place)
random shit i had to research for this fangan, in no particular order, with no indication of narrative importance. MOST of these are for minor details except for some which are randomly extremely plot relevant
uchinaaguchi (the language of the ryukyuan people, the indeginous okinawan populace)
nihon hidankyo
bull markets. yes the stock term
70s era japanese asylums. notable because there were zero english results so i had to search in japanese and translate the results
japan's involvement in wwii BUT 👆🏽 only the last year or two of it
lithium
chronic pain specifically from ballet
monsoon season and how strong they are. the game explicitly does not take place during monsoon season
xxy syndrome
sperm banks
postmortem sperm extraction
i know too much about sperm now and wish to go back
social stigma hibakusha face. none of the characters in the roster are hibakusha and all of them in fact were born after the end of wwii
unlucky numbers in japan
the ikegami hl-33 camera (i found footage of a news station showing off its features and footage from it, which was a REALLY cool find actually)
history of gunpowder
gynocomastia
the year that homosexuality was taken oit of the dsm as a mental illness (1973, a year AFTER the fangan takes place)
random shit i had to research for this fangan, in no particular order, with no indication of narrative importance. MOST of these are for minor details except for some which are randomly extremely plot relevant
uchinaaguchi (the language of the ryukyuan people, the indeginous okinawan populace)
nihon hidankyo
bull markets. yes the stock term
70s era japanese asylums. notable because there were zero english results so i had to search in japanese and translate the results
japan's involvement in wwii BUT 👆🏽 only the last year or two of it
lithium
chronic pain specifically from ballet
monsoon season and how strong they are. the game explicitly does not take place during monsoon season
xxy syndrome
sperm banks
postmortem sperm extraction
i know too much about sperm now and wish to go back
social stigma hibakusha face. none of the characters in the roster are hibakusha and all of them in fact were born after the end of wwii
unlucky numbers in japan
the ikegami hl-33 camera (i found footage of a news station showing off its features and footage from it, which was a REALLY cool find actually)
history of gunpowder
gynocomastia
the year that homosexuality was taken oit of the dsm as a mental illness (1973, a year AFTER the fangan takes place)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
it feels more Official once i make a post on my actual gamedev blog but im FINALLY actually working on a fangan. as in "full roster finalized, cases outlined, script starting to be written" working
im really really sick today so i'll reveal more info as time goes on but for now: the game is called "ten seconds to midnight" and its about atendees at an upscale 1972 benefit gala being told that they're in a simulation, decades have passed, and their lives in the real world have all gone horribly wrong
its kayday today!!! its almost like its..... kay day...... KAEDE!!! LOVE HER!!!!! i did her normal outfit first and then experimented w freckles w the other 2 lmao. which is the best?? who knows....
"I love you but you're doing wrong in a way I cannot condone" and "I hate you but you're being wronged in a way I cannot stomach" are top tier and I need more of them.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
instead of actually working on stuff i'm doing sprite edites instead. freckles and no frequles . request if u want so i have more of a reason to not work on stuf.f. peace and love on planet momota <3
Edit: Now available in Google Doc format if you don't have a Tumblr account 🥰
Hello, my name is Tofu and I'm a professional pixel artist. I have been supporting myself with freelance pixel art since 2020, when I was let go from my job during the pandemic.
My progress, from 2017 to 2024. IMO the only thing that really matters is time and effort, not some kind of natural talent for art.
This guide will not be comprehensive, as nobody should be expected to read allat. Instead I will lean heavily on my own experience, and share what worked for me, so take everything with a grain of salt. This is a guide, not a tutorial. Cheers!
🔹 Do I need money?
NO!!! Pixel art is one of the most accessible mediums out there.
I still use a mouse because I prefer it to a tablet! You won't be at any disadvantage here if you can't afford the best hardware or software.
Because our canvases are typically very small, you don't need a good PC to run a good brush engine or anything like that.
✨Did you know? One of the most skilled and beloved pixel artists uses MS PAINT! Wow!!
🔹 What software should I use?
Here are some of the most popular programs I see my friends and peers using.
Stars show how much I recommend the software for beginners! ⭐
💰 Paid options:
⭐⭐⭐ Aseprite (for PC) - $19.99
This is what I and many other pixel artists use. You may find when applying to jobs that they require some knowledge of Aseprite. Since it has become so popular, companies like that you can swap raw files between artists.
Aseprite is amazingly customizable, with custom skins, scripts and extensions on Itch.io, both free and paid.
If you have ever used any art software before, it has most of the same features and should feel fairly familiar to use. It features a robust animation suite and a tilemap feature, which have saved me thousands of hours of labour in my work. The software is also being updated all the time, and the developers listen to the users. I really recommend Aseprite!
⭐ Photoshop (for PC) - Monthly $$
A decent option for those who already are used to the PS interface. Requires some setup to get it ready for pixel-perfect art, but there are plenty of tutorials for doing so.
Animation is also much more tedious on PS which you may want to consider before investing time!
⭐⭐ ProMotion NG (for PC) - $19.00
An advanced and powerful software which has many features Aseprite does not, including Colour Cycling and animated tiles.
⭐⭐⭐ Pixquare (for iOS) - $7.99 - $19.99 (30% off with code 'tofu'!!)
Probably the best app available for iPad users, in active development, with new features added all the time.
Look! My buddy Jon recommends it highly, and uses it often.
One cool thing about Pixquare is that it takes Aseprite raw files! Many of my friends use it to work on the same project, both in their office and on the go.
⭐ Procreate (for iOS) - $12.99
If you have access to Procreate already, it's a decent option to get used to doing pixel art. It does however require some setup. Artist Pixebo is famously using Procreate, and they have tutorials of their own if you want to learn.
⭐⭐ ReSprite iOS and Android. (free trial, but:) $19.99 premium or $$ monthly
ReSprite is VERY similar in terms of UI to Aseprite, so I can recommend it. They just launched their Android release!
🆓 Free options:
⭐⭐⭐ Libresprite (for PC)
Libresprite is an alternative to Aseprite. It is very, very similar, to the point where documentation for Aseprite will be helpful to Libresprite users.
⭐⭐ Pixilart (for PC and mobile)
A free in-browser app, and also a mobile app! It is tied to the website Pixilart, where artists upload and share their work. A good option for those also looking to get involved in a community.
⭐⭐ Dotpict (for mobile)
Dotpict is similar to Pixilart, with a mobile app tied to a website, but it's a Japanese service. Did you know that in Japanese, pixel art is called 'Dot Art'?
Dotpict can be a great way to connect with a different community of pixel artists! They also have prompts and challenges often.
🔹 So I got my software, now what?
◽Nice! Now it's time for the basics of pixel art.
❗ WAIT ❗ Before this section, I want to add a little disclaimer. All of these rules/guidelines can be broken at will, and some 'no-nos' can look amazing when done intentionally.
The pixel-art fundamentals can be exceedingly helpful to new artists, who may feel lost or overwhelmed by choice. But if you feel they restrict you too harshly, don't force yourself! At the end of the day it's your art, and you shouldn't try to contort yourself into what people think a pixel artist 'should be'. What matters is your own artistic expression. 💕👍
◽Phew! With that out of the way...
🔸"The Rules"
There are few hard 'rules' of pixel art, mostly about scaling and exporting. Some of these things will frequently trip up newbies if they aren't aware, and are easy to overlook.
🔹Scaling method
There are a couple ways of scaling your art. The default in most art programs, and the entire internet, is Bi-linear scaling, which usually works out fine for most purposes. But as pixel artists, we need a different method.
Both are scaled up x10. See the difference?
On the left is scaled using Bilinear, and on the right is using Nearest-Neighbor. We love seeing those pixels stay crisp and clean, so we use nearest-neighbor.
(Most pixel-art programs have nearest-neighbor enabled by default! So this may not apply to you, but it's important to know.)
🔹Mixels
Mixels are when there are different (mixed) pixel sizes in the same image.
Here I have scaled up my art- the left is 200%, and the right is 150%. Yuck!
As we can see, the "pixel" sizes end up different. We generally try to scale our work by multiples of 100 - 200%, 300% etc. rather than 150%. At larger scales however, the minute differences in pixel sizes are hardly noticeable!
Mixels are also sometimes seen when an artist scales up their work, then continues drawing on it with a 1 pixel brush.
Many would say that this is not great looking! This type of pixels can be indicative of a beginner artist. But there are plenty of creative pixel artists out there who mixels intentionally, making something modern and cool.
🔹Saving Your Files
We usually save our still images as .PNGs as they don’t create any JPEG artifacts or loss of quality. It's a little hard to see here, but there are some artifacts, and it looks a little blurry. It also makes the art very hard to work with if we are importing a JPEG.
For animations .GIF is good, but be careful of the 256 colour limit. Try to avoid using too many blending mode layers or gradients when working with animations. If you aren’t careful, your animation could flash afterwards, as the .GIF tries to reduce colours wherever it can. It doesn’t look great!
Here's an old piece from 2021 where I experienced .GIF lossiness, because I used gradients and transparency, resulting in way too many colours.
🔹Pixel Art Fundamentals - Techniques and Jargon
❗❗Confused about Jaggies? Anti-Aliasing? Banding? Dithering? THIS THREAD is for you❗❗ << it's a link, click it!!
As far as I'm concerned, this is THE tutorial of all time for understanding pixel art. These are techniques created and named by the community of people who actually put the list together, some of the best pixel artists alive currently. Please read it!!
🔸How To Learn
Okay, so you have your software, and you're all ready to start. But maybe you need some more guidance? Try these tutorials and resources! It can be helpful to work along with a tutorial until you build your confidence up.
⭐⭐ Pixel Logic (A Digital Book) - $10
A very comprehensive visual guide book by a very skilled and established artist in the industry. I own a copy myself.
⭐⭐⭐ StudioMiniBoss - free
A collection of visual tutorials, by the artist that worked on Celeste! When starting out, if I got stuck, I would go and scour his tutorials and see how he did it.
⭐ Lospec Tutorials - free
A very large collection of various tutorials from all over the internet. There is a lot to sift through here if you have the time.
⭐⭐⭐ Cyangmou's Tutorials - free (tipping optional)
Cyangmou is one of the most respected and accomplished modern pixel artists, and he has amassed a HUGE collection of free and incredibly well-educated visual tutorials.
He also hosts an educational stream every week on Twitch called 'pixelart for beginners'.
⭐⭐⭐ Youtube Tutorials - free
There are hundreds, if not thousands of tutorials on YouTube, but it can be tricky to find the good ones.
My personal recommendations are MortMort, Brandon, and AdamCYounis- these guys really know what they're talking about!
🔸 How to choose a canvas size
When looking at pixel art turorials, we may see people suggest things like 16x16, 32x32 and 64x64. These are standard sizes for pixel art games with tiles. However, if you're just making a drawing, you don't necessarily need to use a standard canvas size like that.
What I like to think about when choosing a canvas size for my illustrations is 'what features do I think it is important to represent?' And make my canvas as small as possible, while still leaving room for my most important elements.
Imagine I have characters in a scene like this:
I made my canvas as small as possible (232 x 314), but just big enough to represent the features and have them be recognizable (it's Good Omens fanart 😤)!! If I had made it any bigger, I would be working on it for ever, due to how much more foliage I would have to render.
If you want to do an illustration and you're not sure, just start at somewhere around 100x100 - 200x200 and go from there.
It's perfectly okay to crop your canvas, or scale it up, or crunch your art down at any point if you think you need a different size. I do it all the time! It only takes a bit of cleanup to get you back to where you were.
🔸Where To Post
Outside of just regular socials, Twitter, Tumblr, Deviantart, Instagram etc, there are a few places that lean more towards pixel art that you might not have heard of.
⭐ Lospec
Lospec is a low-res focused art website. Some pieces get given a 'monthly masterpiece' award. Not incredibly active, but I believe there are more features being added often.
⭐⭐ Pixilart
Pixilart is a very popular pixel art community, with an app tied to it. The community tends to lean on the young side, so this is a low-pressure place to post with an relaxed vibe.
⭐⭐ Pixeljoint
Pixeljoint is one of the big, old-school pixel art websites. You can only upload your art unscaled (1x) because there is a built-in zoom viewer.
It has a bit of a reputation for being elitist (back in the 00s it was), but in my experience it's not like that any more. This is a fine place for a pixel artist to post if they are really interested in learning, and the history.
The Hall of Fame has some of the most famous / impressive pixel art pieces that paved the way for the work we are doing today.
⭐⭐⭐ Cafe Dot
Cafe Dot is my art server so I'm a little biased here. 🍵
It was created during the recent social media turbulence. We wanted a place to post art with no algorithms, and no NFT or AI chuds. We have a heavy no-self-promotion rule, and are more interested in community than skill or exclusivity.
The other thing is that we have some kind of verification system- you must apply to be a Creator before you can post in the Art feed, or use voice. This helps combat the people who just want to self-promo and dip, or cause trouble, as well as weed out AI/NFT people.
Until then, you are still welcome to post in any of the threads or channels. There is a lot to do in Cafe Dot. I host events weekly, so check the threads!
⭐⭐/r/pixelart
The pixel art subreddit is pretty active! I've also heard some of my friends found work through posting here, so it's worth a try if you're looking.
However, it is still Reddit- so if you're sensitive to rude people, or criticism you didn't ask for, you may want to avoid this one. Lol
🔸 Where To Find Work
You need money? I got you! As someone who mostly gets scouted on social media, I can share a few tips with you:
Put your email / portfolio in your bio
Recruiters don't have all that much time to find artists, make it as easy as possible for someone to find your important information!
Clean up your profile
If your profile feed is all full of memes, most people will just tab out rather than sift through. Doesn't apply as much to Tumblr if you have an art tag people can look at.
Post regularly, and repost
Activity beats everything in the social media game. It's like rolling the dice, and the more you post the more chances you have. You have to have no shame, it's all business baby
Outside of just posting regularly and hoping people reach out to you, it can be hard to know where to look. Here are a few places you can sign up to and post around on.
/r/INAT
INAT (I Need A Team) is a subreddit for finding a team to work with. You can post your portfolio here, or browse for people who need artists.
/r/GameDevClassifieds
Same as above, but specifically for game-related projects.
Remote Game Jobs / Work With Indies
Like Indeed but for game jobs. Browse them often, or get email notifications.
VGen
VGen is a website specifically for commissions. You need a code from another verified artist before you can upgrade your account and sell, so ask around on social media or ask your friends.
Once your account is upgraded, you can make a 'menu' of services people can purchase, and they send you an offer which you are able to accept, decline, or counter.
The evil websites of doom: Fiverr and Upwork
I don't recommend them!! They take a big cut of your profit, and the sites are teeming with NFT and AI people hoping to make a quick buck. The site is also extremely oversaturated and competitive, resulting in a race to the bottom (the cheapest, the fastest, doing the most for the least).
Imagine the kind of clients who go to these websites, looking for the cheapest option. But if you're really desperate...
🔸 Community
I do really recommend getting involved in a community. Finding like-minded friends can help you stay motivated to keep drawing. One day, those friends you met when you were just starting out may become your peers in the industry. Making friends is a game changer!
Discord servers
Nowadays, the forums of old are mostly abandoned, and people split off into many different servers. Cafe Dot, Pixel Art Discord (PAD), and if you can stomach scrolling past all the AI slop, you can browse Discord servers here.
Twitch Streams
Twitch has kind of a bad reputation for being home to some of the more edgy gamers online, but the pixel art community is extremely welcoming and inclusive. Some of the people I met on Twitch are my friends to this day, and we've even worked together on different projects!
Browse pixel art streams here, or follow some I recommend: NickWoz, JDZombi, CupOhJoe, GrayLure, LumpyTouch, FrankiePixelShow, MortMort, Sodor, NateyCakes, NyuraKim, ShinySeabass, I could go on for ever really... There are a lot of good eggs on Pixel Art Twitch.
🔸 Other Helpful Websites
Palettes
Lospec has a huge collection of user-made palettes, for any artist who has trouble choosing their colours, or just wants to try something fun.
Rejected Palettes is full of palettes that didn't quite make it onto Lospec, ran by people who believe there are no bad colours.
The Spriters Resource
TSR is an incredible website where users can upload spritesheets and tilesets from games. You can browse for your favourite childhood game, and see how they made it! This website has helped me so much in understanding how game assets come together in a scene.
VGMaps
Similar to the above, except there are entire maps laid out how they would be played. This is incredible if you have to do level design, or for mocking up a scene for fun.
Game UI Database
Not pixel-art specific, but UI is a very challenging part of graphics, so this site can be a game-changer for finding good references!
Retronator
A digital newspaper for pixel-art lovers! New game releases, tutorials, and artworks!
Itch.io
A website where people can upload, games, assets, tools... An amazing hub for game devs and game fans alike.
A few of my favourite tools: Tiled, PICO-8, Pixel Composer, Juice FX, Magic Pencil for Aseprite
🔸 The End?
This is just part 1 for now, so please drop me a follow to see any more guides I release in the future. I plan on doing some writeups on how I choose colours, how to practise, and more!
I'm not an expert by any means, but everything I did to get to where I am is outlined in this guide. Pixel art is my passion, my job and my hobby! I want pixel art to be recognized everywhere as an art-form, a medium of its own outside of game-art or computer graphics!
This guide took me a long time, and took a lot of research and experience. Consider following me or supporting me if you are feeling generous.
And good luck to all the fledgling pixel artists, I hope you'll continue and have fun. I hope my guide helped you, and don't hesitate to send me an ask if you have any questions! 💕
My other tutorials (so far):
How to draw Simple Grass for a game
Hue Shifting
I made an imitation of the "Danganronpa fabric texture" that gets applied over most of the character sprites. Here's Monokuma to demonstrate
Feel free to use this imitation texture for your own characters, sprite edits, or however you want. Credit to me is appreciated, but not necessary for it's use. You don't have to ask for permission
Some usage notes below the cut
I find the "overlay" layer mode usually behaves the most accurately to Danganronpa, but you may prefer "multiply" if you don't want to modify your colours too much
My texture is twice the resolution of normal sprites for higher fidelity. You might want to shrink it by half if you're drawing in Danganronpa's usual size. My texture also tiles, so you can duplicate it if you need it larger
Danganronpa usually uses the texture over fabric and hair, but not skin, so you should mask out the texture in those regions. Notably however, Monokuma's whole body is textured, including his red eye
i feel bad for being sassy cos i realized now this poor person is asking about the background of images like this
which is obviously not handmade. sorry for getting confused, it happens more often than you think that people accuse me of using a filter for my pixel art or something
so here is a tutorial for aseprite on how to crunch the colours of a photo like this into any palette !!
step 1. find a royalty free photo or take one yourself
heres one i just took on my camera
2. open it in aseprite and change the image size to be smaller whatever you need
MM yes nice and crunchy
Select a palette of your choice on the left side of the screen on the palette panel. use the middle icon to open the palettes dropdown.
i am using my palette i made at 20k followers, you can download it free here
once you have chosen your palette, in the top bar go to sprite > color mode > indexed. it should automatically choose the nearest colour it can from your palette for every pixel
as you can see its quite messy and i do like to clean it up a little but it looks good messy too like old games!! sorry for being sassy
Kamukura Izuru would be a certified cryptid if he hadn't spent the majority of his time pre-despair ridden apocalypse in whatever ungrounded facility he was locked up in. Every good cryptid starts with reports of a sighting, but I suppose a myth could work just as well. They were seeking applicants for the project, pior test subjects before him and Komaeda, with his all-seeing eye had an inkling about it. Human experimentation beneath the pristen school of Hope's Peak Academy? That would spread like wildfire. He could be their Russian sleep experiment.
(Don't- ...Don't go looking that up if you're not familiar with the story by proxy of the Creepy pasta golden age. That Spirit Halloween animatronic used for the pasta is still unsettling to look at. I'm legally required to warn you about that.)
Kamukura is a very conflicting character for me. On one hand, he feels representative of how even intellectual and perceptive individuals can be manipulated at any level. That situational deviations can make us more susceptible to brushing off red flags from individuals we trust or are familiar with or are dependant on. But on the other hand, I still can't decide if I prefer him with Hinata's original olive eyes in the demo or if the red ones go so hard they justify the change.
I realized ego plays a massive part in Kamukura's life. His reason for existence is to be this epitome of social expectations. He was exceptional and a conformist, everything that Hinata was not. Of course, he has a supremacy complex and views nontalented as beneath him. It's the ideology the scientist, surgeons, and Enoshima fed him. I doubt Enoshima's faux confessions of admiration and love won Kamukura over. He could see through her, yet still went with her anyways out of a theoretical interest. She promised something his multitude of talents couldn't do, and that's better than sitting around getting praised for doing nothing.
Even when he knew she was manipulative, he went and got played anyway. He still used the USB to infiltrate the Neo World Program. It's moments like these where I wished we could have seen his internalized thoughts. We were in Hinata's head all the time, either in the second game or the anime, yet Kamukura didn't get that, and it really alienated the audiences connection to him.
I really like that boat scene, even if the English translation wasn't the best at capturing the character's speech patterns and tones. Seeing him be passive-aggressive towards one of Junko's cult members to vent his frustrations and redefine his superiority over nontalents is just as human as he was during Nanami's tragic death. Or when he destroyed those Monokuma heads. His ego was punctured, his intelligence was challenged, and he is sulking. I enjoyed that because it reminded me of the way Hinata would later communicate with Komaeda. Blunt, dismissive, and frustrated.
Kamukura's dehumanizing state of living was very important to tell a human experimentation story. His bed is just a mattress on a frame in a large empty room. His clothing is Hajime's uniform from the Reserve Course, and he probably slept in that suit, not realizing more comfortable clothing existed. I wish we had gotten to see snippets of his life while in the facility, the way the scientist and doctor would weaponize him. Do you think they talked to government officials around him? Forced him to perform in rigorous tests and training to make his speed and strength so advanced? Did he physically eat dietary adjusted food, or was it all through a tube? Perhaps I'm just a psychology nerd, but I really was looking forward to an anime or game exploring his captivity and surgeries. Perhaps his room was so empty because they needed to extinguish any sense of individuality for him. No outside media, no time to organize his thoughts and question his world.
I'm surprised Kamukura hadn't gone mad with all of those talents or the isolation. I wish we got to see him continuously balling up his fist like he does in his sprite. Maybe twitches and spasms in his face and limbs, bouncing his leg to show how restless he truly is on the inside. He was always overwhelmed, bored, and expected to be perfect. Real kids have to deal with that, and we already know the psychological effects of neglect. Add on the neurological surgeries, potentially being lobotomies, and suddenly, the games have become a psychological horror instead of murder mystery.
He is Hinata's idolized version of himself. We all have interpersonal expectations for ourselves that can manifest in unexpected or even delusional ways. Hinata so desperately wanted to be more than the average, unexceptional person. That speaks to us as an audience. We all want to be important and not another face in the crowd, especially when standing out can give us a sense of purpose and our efforts recognized. Kamukura is just the extreme form of this idolized personification. Hinata mutilated the parts of himself for a predetermined purpose instead of accepting himself in a world that expects the unrealistic.
Kamukura's hair was changed to be more free flowing than stagnant for the simple purpose of making his encounter with Komaeda feel more like a dance. And that rules.
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Yeah I getcha. I was once like you. Pure and naive. Great news. I AM STILL PURE AND NAIVE, GAME DEV IS FUN! But where to start?
To start, here are a couple of entry level softwares you can use! source: I just made a game called In Stars and Time and people are asking me how to start making vidy gaems. Now, without further ado:
SOFTWARES AND ENGINES FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO CODE!!!
Ren'py (and also a link to it if you click here do it):
THE visual novel software. Comic artists, look no further
✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It has great documentation! It has a bunch of plugins and UI stuff and assets for you to buy! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! (You'll just need to read the doc a bunch) You can also port your game to a BUNCH of consoles!
✨Cons: None really <3
Some games to look at: Doki Doki Literature Club, Bad End Theater, Butterfly Soup
Twine:
Great for text-based games! GREAT FOR WRITERS WHO DONT WANNA DRAW!!!!!!!!! (but you can draw if you want)
✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It's versatile! It has great documentation! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! (You'll just need to read the doc a bunch)
✨Cons: You can add pictures, but it's a pain.
Some games to look at: The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo, Queers In love At The End of The World, Escape Velocity
Bitsy:
Little topdown games!
✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It's (somewhat) intuitive! It has great documentation! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! You can make everything in it, from text to sprites to code! Those games sure are small!
✨Cons: Those games sure are small. This is to make THE simplest game. Barely any animation for your sprites, can barely fit a line of text in there. But honestly, the restrictions are refreshing!
Some games to look at: honestly I haven't played that many bitsy games because i am a fake gamer. The picture above is from Under A Star Called Sun though and that looks so pretty
RPGMaker:
To make RPGs! LIKE ME!!!!!
NOTE: I recommend getting the latest version if you can, but all have their pros and cons. You can get a better idea by looking at this post.
✨Pros: Literally everything you need to make an RPG. Has a tutorial inside the software itself that will teach you the basics. Pretty simple to understand, even if you have no coding experience! Also I made a post helping you out with RPGMaker right here!
✨Cons: Some stuff can be hard to figure out. Also, the latest version is expensive. Get it on sale!
Some games to look at: Ib, Hylics, In Stars and Time (hehe. I made it)
engine.lol:
collage worlds! it is relatively new so I don't know much about it, but it seems fascinating. picture is from Garden!
NOTE: There's a bunch of smaller engines to find out there. Just yesterday I found out there's an Idle Game Maker made by the Cookie Clicker creator. Isn't life wonderful?
✨more advice under the cut. this is Long ok✨
ENGINES I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT AND THEY SEEM HARD BUT ALSO GIVE IT A TRY I GUESS!!!! :
Unity and Unreal: I don't know anything about those! That looks hard to learn! But indie devs use them! It seems expensive! Follow your dreams though! Don't ask me how!
GameMaker: Wuh I just don't know anything about it either! I just know it's now free if your game is non-commercial (aka, you're not selling it), and Undertale was made on it! It seems good! You probably need some coding experience though!!!
Godot: Man I know even less about this one. Heard good things though!
BUNCHA RANDOM ADVICE!!!!
-Make something small first! Try making simple: a character is in a room, and exits the room. The character can look around, decide to take an item with them, can leave, and maybe the door is locked and you have to find the key. Figuring out how to code something like that, whether it is as a fully text-based game or as an RPGMaker map, should be a good start to figure out how your software of choice works!
-After that, if you have an idea, try first to make the simplest version of that idea. For my timeloop RPG, my simplest version was two rooms: first room you can walk in, second room with the King, where a cutscene automatically plays and the battle starts, you immediately die, and loop back to the first room, with the text from this point on reflecting this change. I think I also added a loop counter. This helped me figure out the most important thing: Can This Game Be Made? After that, the rest is just fun stuff.
So if you want to make a dating sim, try and figure out how to add choices, and how to have affection points go up and down depending on your choices! If you want to make a platformer, figure out how to make your character move and jump and how to create a simple level! If you just want to make a kinetic visual novel with no choices, figure out how to add text, and how to add portraits! You'll be surprised at how powerful you'll feel after having figured even those simple things out.
-If you have a programming problem or just get confused, never underestimate the power of asking Google! You most likely won't be the only person asking this question, and you will learn some useful tips! If you are powerful enough, you can even… Ask people??? On forums??? Not me though.
-Yeah I know you probably want to make Your Big Idea RIGHT NOW but please. Make a smaller prototype first. You need to get that experience. Trust me.
-If you are not a womanthing of many skills like me, you might realize you need help. Maybe you need an artist, or a programmer. So! Game jams on itch.io are a great way to get to work and meet other game devs that have different strengths! Or ask around! Maybe your artist friend secretly always wanted to draw for a game. Ask! Collaborate! Have fun!!!
I hope that was useful! If it was. Maybe. You'd like to buy me a coffee. Or maybe you could check out my comics and games. Or just my new critically acclaimed game In Stars and Time. If you want. Ok bye
Seriously cannot recommend GBStudio enough for beginners, it makes making a gb/gbc game pretty simple, it's also FOSS (free, open source software) and the devs in my experience are very responsive as is the community
A quick and easy to use drag and drop retro game creator for your favourite handheld video game system.
Worth noting that ren'py and gb studio will happily let you add whatever ridiculous code you want on top of their frameworks. GB Studio will straight up dump the entire engine as a CMake project if you want to work in assembler or C, so if you don't like the way something works you can change it.
A while ago, I made a doc filled with pretty much evwry cheap and free resource I could find for game dev, and Im still working on it. Highly reccommend checking it out.
