Silksong has released me from my cryostasis

like a Communist

But the reason I don't actually consider them Communists is because absolutely none of them hold to actual communist theory. Like, more than once I've had an argument where I've quoted the labor theory of economics and their response was to call me a libertarian.

The term "Communist" has been pretty divorced from the reality of "someone who believes in communist theory" since the 1950s.

Although, to be devil's advocate, and because I am incredibly literal-minded. "Profit" means value in excess of what is needed to produce the thing. If you spent 200 dollars paying your apple pickers, and made 150 dollars from selling your apples, you did not make a profit on apples. You too a 50 dollar loss.

So, in a literal sense, "no one should make a profit off food" means "food should be provided at-cost, including payment for the laborers, the irrigation, the land usage, etc."

but the funniest part of this is not that they were debating the exile of a man who has been dead for over 500 years.

What I’d give for one of the Cinderella remakes to go into how when you’re in an isolated and abusive situation, sometimes you need to be saved and you’re not weak if you can’t escape by yourself

She’s impossibly wealthy. The dress isn’t a fabric he can recognize, but it’s beaded with cut diamonds, faintly milky opals that shimmer with a rainbow, little pale aquamarines, and somewhere are little bells gently ringing with each step - he’s a Prince and he can’t afford to dress like that. The slippers ring too … there is nothing like that crafted by the hands of humans. That’s fairy stuff. She has an in with them that eclipses royal politics. She is powerful in the Old Ways.

All this wraps around the poorest woman he’s ever seen in his entire life, and he’s seen some very, very, poor people in his time.

Poor in money, but poor in “oh you poor thing!” as well. This is someone who has been robbed blind. This is someone who carried themselves waiting for the lash, for a browbeating, for harsh, cruel, abrupt, punishment.

He expects her to be haughty, or hard, or meek or… something else… but she’s just nice. She’s just … nice.

The rigid posture comes out of his back, his tongue unsticks. She’s like sitting by the embers of a low, calm, fire. He feels warmed and rested simply speaking to her. He wonders if it’s magic, and it might be, but if it is it is magic that is her own.

And that terrifies him, because he’s trained to see these things and he knows someone with a cruel hand is waiting to douse her, and snuff her, and beat the last glimmer out of her shining eyes - eyes that put that dress to shame and and and and… she’s gone.

Oh god, she’s gone. It will be all over her sweet, kind, warm face that she transgressed and … oh god they’ll kill her, whoever they are. This will embarrass them and if there’s anything he knows, it’s that you don’t humiliate someone who has power over you and walk away unscathed.

And all he has is a fairy slipper that will only ever fit her foot (it’s not merely shoe size, it’s a kind of spiritual fit as well), and the vain hope that he can keep such a bright light from burning out. It doesn’t even touch his heart that what he’s feeling is a kind of pure philia, not until it enraptures him soul to bones, all at once. Oh god, oh no, oh shit… he’s reached well above his station, but…he can try to be good and worthy.

I'd individually render the poses to get that early 3D shine ✨ Here's some of them at their original resolutions! I would work from text descriptions from Toby, and sometimes there'd be a Paint sketch to help out. Gigi drew the concept that I modeled from and some poses too!

I had a lot of fun pushing myself to match the dynamic poses Toby had in mind for Tenna - making him so crazy and expressive was something I couldn't have done without his prompts. He'd draw the faces on afterward too, which really brought Tenna to life!

(lots more after the Read More cut...!)

⊹ Look, I've watched enough true crime documentaries to know that most fictional interrogations are absolute garbage. You've got your detective screaming two inches from someone's face, maybe slapping the table, threatening to "throw away the key" while the suspect dramatically confesses everything in tears. BUT Real interrogations are boring as hell and fascinatingly manipulative.

⊹ First mistake: the bad cop routine. Real interrogators are your new best friend. They're offering you coffee, commiserating about your terrible childhood, nodding sympathetically while you explain why you "had to" do it. The Reid Technique (controversial as it is) relies on building rapport, minimizing moral blame, and offering face-saving scenarios. "We know you didn't mean to hurt anyone" works better than "YOU'RE GOING TO PRISON FOREVER."

⊹ Second: nobody's getting tortured into confessing in legitimate police stations in democratic countries. It's illegal, unreliable, and creates unusable evidence. If you're writing enhanced interrogation or whatever euphemism we're using, that's a different kettle of extremely dark fish, and you need to research actual documented cases rather than Jack Bauer fantasies.

⊹ Third: time. Real interrogations last HOURS. Experienced detectives will talk about anything (sports, weather, your childhood dog) for ninety minutes before casually circling back to "so where were you Friday night?" They're looking for inconsistencies, watching body language, letting you talk yourself into corners.

⊹ Fourth: lawyers shut everything down instantly. The second someone says "I want a lawyer," legally, that's it. Interrogation over. All those scenes where cops keep pushing after someone lawyers up? Inadmissible evidence, case dismissed, detective possibly fired.

⊹ Plus IMPORTANT--the psychological chess match. Show the detective noticing micro-expressions, strategically revealing evidence, using the suspect's own words against them. "You said you left at 9pm, but we have footage of your car at 10:15." The suspect's internal monologue frantically recalculating their story.

Communism robbed our country of the wealth Estonians had worked for for 20 years previous to accumulate before being occupied by Soviet Union

Communism ripped apart thousands of families all over Estonia

Communism caused thousands of Estonians to die in labour camps, thousands of miles apart from their families and homes

Why do people on this site find that so hard to understand

This happened in my lifetime. It’s the only genocide recorded of a country’s own people. Done in the name of Communism. Estimates of the total number of deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies, including disease and starvation, range from 1.7 to 2.5 million out of a 1975 population of roughly 8 million. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge_Killing_Fields The Great Leader, Pol Pot, was never punished. There were no trials for what the communists had done. The Vietnamese - another Communist regime - had invaded them to stop the atrocities. If anyone else had done it, it would have been denounced as an invasion by Imperialists. But because the Viets did it, there was no justice.

Once the Vietnamese Army had defeated the Khmer Rouge and installed a government (People’s Republic of Kampuchea) the UN, and by extension most governments, still treated the Khmer Rouge’s “Democratic Kampuchea” as the government. This continued right through to 1990. The US was one that voted for that to be the case.  Eastern Bloc countries recognised the Vietnamese installed government.

They not only sat back and watched it happen. They fucked over the people that stopped it.

The thing about fan feedback is that sometimes, it CAN be valuable! But not at face value, and that's the other half of the problem. "Oh, my players hate my potion mechanic, I should probably axe it" NO. THEY are not experts in your game design, YOU are.

Fan comments should be sorted into three categories:

People who know what you're trying to do and want to help you reach that (DO NOT COUNT ON ANYONE BEING LIKE THIS)

People who like the idea but don't study game design so don't know what would fix it AND fit your vision (90% of players)

People who want your game to be EXACTLY like their ideal game and do not care what you have in mind/do not want the game you're making (DO NOT LISTEN TO THESE AT ALL COSTS)

Number 2 is where you need to be able to dissect, if you want to take in feedback at all.

"My character feels too slow"

Gut reaction: Increase player speed. <- WRONG. You are doing a patch job based on blindly accepting randos' critiques. You're gonna have cascading problems from this (NPCs too slow in comparison to PC, enemies need rebalancing to account for the speed, world size and clock need adjusting, etc)

Reasons your character might feel too slow:

Animation speed doesn't match the movement speed (slightly too fast, needs tweaking so players don't feel like they're running in place)

There isn't enough to do/see between point A and point B (players are too focused on walking, they get bored without things to look at)

Time moves too fast (clock is running at too fast a timescale, players don't feel like they can do everything they want to before it runs out)

^ THIS is what you should be taking away from user feedback. Rinse and repeat.

Everyone hates the potion mechanic? Maybe it's useless compared to the other options around, or the minigame for making them is too difficult. Tweak balance to give it more use/enjoyment.

This character is too mean? Maybe players feel like they don't have the option to be mean back, and it's making them feel like a doormat. Maybe they're tired of so many characters being mean, so you should add one or two more nice characters, or make your already-present nice characters a touch more sweet. Maybe the aggressive commentary or snarkyness needs better pacing to feel like it's earned.

Or maybe your commenters requesting this are part of that 10% that want your game to be JUST LIKE "game I played before but slightly to the left" and you should IGNORE THEM.

You can't please everyone. You SHOULDN'T please everyone. User feedback has its place, but YOU have to develop the critical game design skills to recognize what the ACTUAL problem is beneath the complaints, if one exists at all.

Your target audience should be:

YOU

Your best friends/mutuals who you want to like your game

That's it

STICK TO THAT. Fill out your vision! Get an actual QA team that knows game design and have THEM give you feedback on the mechanics you doubt! As long as you're committed to your vision, you'll cultivate an all new audience who loves what you've made, how you've made it!