It snowed for the first time this year! Finally! It's all I wanted for the winter season. I guess I have the polar vortex to thank, with global climate change making it too warm to get snow until global climate change sends a blast of dangerously cold ass air to places it shouldn't be going.

I've got the brace off my wrist. There's no more stiffness, but it's been replaced with the usual stinging pinched nerve pain. It's always something isn't it? But it means I can go back to being productive. 

I am trying very very very hard to not justify "remaking" Nocti in a new MV file. I'm 99.9 percent sure that using the Database converter tool is what lead to the yanfly keyboard config no longer working. It works fine if I don't have button common events enabled, but I need those for the effects, and using two yanfly plugins means it has a nice synergy. I've tried using Mano's Keyboard config but I can't get it to show up in Yanfly's option core. I tried finding the symbol but ??? I don't know. There's a fix for Visustella's option core but that's MZ. I'm trying not to stress about it but the damn thing worked for years and I fucked everything up by wanting to make my switches and variables easier to navigate. SIGH........

I'll survive. Maybe I can commission a new keyboard config plugin, or ask in the Mano thread how to get the symbol for MV. I don't know. After spending three plus hours last night trying to figure out what specific part of the code caused the fuck up and why, while not knowing a lick of javascript, has tired me out and I'm done with it. For now. I have too much to do to worry this much about it.

I also have some commission work to finish. The first CG was sent, the second one needs to be sketched out, and the Monika outfit is 3/4s done. Despite it taking a lot time to get them finished it's still a lot faster than it used to be for me which rules. I won't post anything online until the mod is released, but I'm quite proud of my rendering work. The layout/posing is a little basic for what I would do with my own DDLC mod based off the main game's CGs but it turned out exactly how my friend wanted so if he's happy I'm happy. 

Started Jenna's route in Echo, and one thing I really appreciate about the game is how you're never re-reading prose during events that span every route. There's at best a few lines of dialogue copied in places when identical events happen. Carl's birthday party is a great example. It's a lot of extra work but it's something I wish other visual novels did more often. 

It's interesting to see people compare Echo to DDLC, because there are some surface level similarities. It usually leads to genuine critiques that I agree with, but it also ends with saying DDLC is the worse of the two. The usual complaint is that DDLC's meta horror isn't diagetic and therefore inferior. One must remember that DDLC was not marketed as a horror game at all when it first came out. It takes hours to get the reveal, teasing you with characters' hidden depths that you would get to explore in a regular story. Echo wears the fact that there's horror elements on its sleeve, so it has to be smarter with how it implements the surprises. I have a lot of Opinions on meta horror because it's one of my favorite genres and I continously get let down by devs who don't put their whole pussy into it or give the game away waaayyy too fast.

Besides that I blazed through Inscryption at the speed of special interest Autism. God that game is so good. I bought it years ago but always put off playing it until my new favorite Video Game Essay Guy said he was going to make a video about it. I found out about Flaw Peacock by seeing his seven hour "Who's Lila" video and going "Lol I'm never going to watch a seven hour video about a game I never played". And then I did. Now I'm obsessed.

^ Flaw Peacock about to drop an extremely thorough exploration of a story's themes and symbolism while respecting author intent. 

I don't have any big New Years resolutions. Just get more art work done. Eat more of my favorite fruits. Get back on the Vital Bracelet train. Do more writing for the website. There's no point in setting myself up for failure. 

Okay I should probably... start doing actual work now instead of navel gazing.

Current Mood: Ready to Info Dump