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Latest Posts by a-fakelife-blog - Page 6
Indie Game Spotlight: Florence
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we knew this week’s Indie Game Spotlight had to focus on love. Today we’re celebrating the one year anniversary of Florence. Winner of Best Mobile Game 2018 at The Game Awards and recipient of Apple’s Design Award, Florence tells a story of our protagonist, a 25-year-old named Florence who meets her first love, a cello player named Krish. Each level is a different minigame vignette that tells the story primarily through the gameplay and visuals rather than words.
We were able to talk with Sam Crisp, a programmer at Mountains—the craft game studio that created this lovely game—about Florence, falling in love, and new ways to tell stories in games.
How did the initial idea behind Florence come to fruition?
We wanted to make a new kind of mobile game that no one had done before. One that was intimate and emotional and that would appeal and resonate with anyone, even if they didn’t play games at all. We started by playing around with the idea of solving a series of jigsaw puzzles that could tell a story through the metaphors of putting broken things back together. What does it mean when there’s a piece missing from a jigsaw, or if the pieces don’t fit together? Pretty soon we realized we were making a game about the struggles of love.
How did the team choose to focus on modern love relationships?
We need more romance in games! They’re universal stories, and everyone on the team could bring a lot of their own experiences to making the game. Stories about modern love are huge in every media form but are still underrepresented in game stories, despite the fact that games exploring this theme are some of the most interesting and forward-thinking games out there! But practically, we knew we wanted to make a game about a single person going through change in their life. And first love is one of the most transformative experiences we could hone in on.
In Florence, there is a mini-game to create dialogue through a puzzle system. How did the team come up with the concept?
We came up with a lot of ideas for minigames, and the jigsaw puzzle was one of the earliest that still remains in the final game. We had this important scene where Florence and Krish were getting to know each other for the first time and we were trying to find a way to represent that in a minigame. So we asked ourselves, what does it feel like when you go on a date with someone and you go from being nervous and awkward to breaking the ice and feeling like you get along with someone? And we tried out the idea of having to physically make conversation by putting these jigsaw puzzles together, and have the puzzles get easier over time, and the idea just worked. When we got people to play that level and try it out, they understood right away what was happening.
The game can be referred to as a “slice of life.” How was Florence able to gamify everyday experiences?
The interactive language of smartphones and games provide a lot of readymade metaphors for us to work with. For instance, the level Moving In takes the “inventory tetris” from games like Diablo and maps that onto the rituals of compromise involved in cohabitating with someone. Also when Florence is stuck in a bad routine, we made repetitive minigames out of everything, like doing accounting at her day job, scrolling through social media, and even talking to her mum on the phone, in order to show that she’s treating everything in her life as rote, and that she thinks everything is a chore! We went through a lot of trial and error with many different ideas of how to turn everyday life into minigames and what you see in the final game are the ones that worked the best.
How do imagery and colors relay the characters’ inner state?
We don’t have much text, talking or traditional narration in Florence at all so we had to communicate everything to the player through imagery and interaction. Florence’s life starts out dull, colorless and repetitive. When we flashback early in the game and see her as a child, we see that her life used to be full of color but now it’s full of grays. When she meets Krish, he brings color to her life, and that’s the first time we see the color yellow in the game. And at the end of the game when Florence truly finds herself we introduce green to the color palette. The color motifs are subtle but very effective. And there are similar techniques used in the melodies of the music too.
It’s been a year since Florence has been out! What has happened in the past year and what’s next for the team?
The response we’ve had to Florence has been amazing. The game has resonated with all sorts of people all over the world. We’ve had people write in telling us that they played the game at a difficult time in their lives and that the story helped them work through what they were going through. And we’ve seen people be inspired by Florence to make their own games using similar storytelling techniques but telling their own unique story, which everyone here at Mountains is thrilled to see. Right now we are hard at work on the next thing, and we hope to have something to share with you soon!
Already in love with Florence? The good news is it can be purchased at the App Store through Google Play. iam8bit has announced the upcoming release of a vinyl soundtrack for the critically acclaimed mobile game. Accompanying this slice of life story is a gentle, charming, and emotional score composed by Kevin Penkin, now available for pre-order at the iam8bit store.
Hello I’d like head rubs too please 👋
art prints are available on https://society6.com/demianasche
and i’ve turned down every hand that has beckoned me to come
commissions
Mikey’s having some A-time at Afterlife
the new pics killed me!!
fishing
How to Impress Anyone in 30 Seconds or Less
Few things in life will help you more than knowing how to make an immediate great impression. Make note of these impressive habits. Some experts estimate that 85 percent of your financial success comes not from your skills or knowledge but from your ability to connect with other people and engender their trust and respect.
Within seconds, everyone you meet forms an impression that largely determines whether they'll like, trust, and respect you.
Whether you're job-hunting or fundraising or leading an organization, making a good impression is absolutely critical. (No pressure, right?)
So whether you are looking to raise money for your company, or you are managing your team or leading your business, connecting to people and making a great impression is very important.
Here are some tips to help you win hearts and minds in 30 seconds:
Neutralize the fight-or-flight response. The first few seconds of a first encounter are driven by instinctive reactions. Each person makes unconscious immediate appraisals that center around how safe they feel. Be mindful of your immediate signals, and make sure they could never be perceived as threatening.
Respect boundaries. Be mindful of personal space and respect the boundaries of others. If in doubt, follow the other person's cues: if they lean in, you lean in; if they stand back, you do the same. Remember that concepts of appropriate personal space vary by culture.
Feed expectations. In business, first impressions are frequently colored by expectations. We expect people to live up to the image we have created in our minds from their reputation, phone calls, emails, or texts. We expect consistency with that general image -- and without it, we feel some degree of disappointment and confusion. It's not the time to surprise others with a new side of your personality.
Be mindful of body language. It accounts for more than half of what others respond to initially -- so it literally does speak louder than words. Hold yourself in a way that signals attention and an open heart, and keep a facial expression that combines authority with approachability and eye contact.
Stay positive. The language of the brain is pictures, sounds, feelings, and to a lesser extent, smells and tastes. It's much more difficult to translate negatives into brain-friendly imagery than positives. Work to develop a positive explanatory style.
Keep control of your attitude. The general energy you give off is one of the first unconscious things people respond to. If you're frazzled, project calm. If you're distracted and unenthusiastic, project positivity. (You'll not only make a better impression, but you can influence your own mood.)
Manage your moods. People are drawn to warmth, enthusiasm, and confidence more than anger, arrogance, and impatience. Whatever is going on around you, manage your responses to get the best response from others.
Synchronize. Make sure your words, your tone of voice, and your body language are all saying the same thing. Mixed messages put off others, but consistency gives you clarity and credibility.
Use sensory language. Activate people's senses, and mix up your imagery to make sure you hit their strength. Whenever possible, use descriptions of visual images, sounds, textures, motion, and feelings to add meaning to what you're saying.
Be curious, open-minded, and interested. If you can get the other person talking and keep them talking, odds are they'll be drawn to you. Be interested and open-minded; ask questions that spark their imagination and ignite conversation.
Dress for success. Find a personal style that represents who you are and the message you want to send about yourself. Look at your dress and appearance as packaging a product.
Have a personal statement. Have a personal statement prepared and memorized so you can tell others concisely and eloquently what you do, what it means to you, and why it makes a difference. Think of it not as a sales pitch but an engaging and artfully crafted mini-presentation.
Work through these points and you should have a great first impression all lined up.
One final tip as you get out there: Treat every connection you make as if it's the most important thing you've ever done. Because, frankly, you never know when it actually will be.
Get to know the Toronto cast of DEAR EVAN HANSEN on Tuesday, January 29th at 12pm PST/3pm EST during their AnswerTime. Submit your questions here.
My piece for @borntomakearthistoryzine ♥
“Madame de Pompadour by Francois Boucher” 1756
Indie Game Spotlight: YIIK
Get ready to head back to the Roaring 90s for this week’s Indie Game Spotlight. YIIK is a Japanese-style RPG mashed up with the WarioWare series. The characters? A group of Internet Detectives. The plot? Investigate the disappearance of a young woman who vanished from an elevator. Spooky.
We were able to talk with Andrew Allanson, YIIK’s co-creator, who handled the script, dungeon design, music composition, and cutscene directing. Read on!
This game has been a true labor of love. How long did it take to create the game from start to finish?
The game took about 4 years from start to finish. There was some time off in there to deal with our Mother’s death (I develop the game with my brother Brian), but it was largely a rush of working 9-10 hours every day for 4 years.
How does the music in YIIK transform throughout the game?
Like most of the game, it’s a bit of a slow burn. The score starts off with catchy tunes, and the themes develop along with the characters. Slowly both more grand, and more experimental, and things getting stranger in Alex’s life.
I heard the creator of Undertale, Toby Fox, contributed to the game’s soundtrack. How was it collaborating with Toby?
It was a lot of fun! I met him at Camp Fangamer and he was nice enough to try out the demo for the game and offer some feedback. This was before Undertale released, so I spent the evening playing the Undertale demo on my laptop. After I heard the game’s music I asked him if he’d be interested in writing a track for YIIK and he agreed. We talked over email back and forth a few times, and I let him pick a motif from the game to build on. He chose The Essentia’s motif I originally wrote, which is featured near the end of the track. You can hear the song here!
How does the game pay homage to the 90s?
For us it was very important for the game to not feel like a nostalgia cash-in. The setting of the 90s is used because back then the internet was a mysterious place where you could see a ghost story or something spooky and have no way of verifying if it was real, so everyone tended to accept it. This, and because cell phones didn’t exist, no one was constantly connected. The internet was [a] place you had to take time out to explore. This is very compelling as a foundation for a story. Of course there are references to real world events at the time, and things that were popular like Pogs and boy bands.
Will there be a physical release of the game?
Yes! A Limited Run by… well, Limited Run Games.
Want to see more of YIIK? Make sure to head over to their official Tumblr, @ackkstudios, to get some more behind-the-scenes content! YIIK is available now on Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Playstation!
rainy day 💧rainy night
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Pearl
/pərl/ 🔊
1. a person or thing of great rarity and worth.
RWBY
SOON…………..!!!!!!!!!
Just wanted to share this watercolor illustration that will be used as a book cover for the paperback version of 「江の島ねこもり食堂」(Enoshima Nekomori Syokudo). This is a novel published in Japan.
You can see how I painted this in a video I made:
Technical stuff:
Paper: HOLBEIN Waterford White 300g/m cold press cotton paper
Sketch: Procreate / iPad PRO
Line: Mitsu-bishi Hi-Uni Pencils
Colors: my main 48 colour Schmincke set
And this is how the image works as the part of the actual cover (I received the sample book today):
The setting sun
Dee Dee? Dee Dee. Dee Dee!
fawn
I’m afraid I lost myself
The lovers at the crossroads
A step by step process and PSD file of this will be available at my Patreon on february 1st!
Shinra Banshomaru is a good person.
www.instagram.com/rigelrigel