So, A While Ago I Figured Out That Video Games Can Kind Of Answer What Kind Of Struggles You Face In

So, a while ago I figured out that video games can kind of answer what kind of struggles you face in your actual life.

When I realized this, I was playing Hatsune Miku and noticed I'm decent at most the hard and extreme songs, but I refuse to play them unless I can get a perfect chain on them. It's so bad, that even Cantarella's extreme and extra-extreme is unplayed despite me being able to play both of them. Like, I can learn pretty much all the songs, but if there's even one part I can't play, I won't play it at all.

That told me, just like in real life, I'm scared of failure even if I'll do 99% well on it. If it's not 100% (perfect) then I will just leave it until I rot and die.

I really hate that I'm like this.

But, on a less painful note, I also noticed that in games like The Legend of Zelda, I'm cheap as hell and will wait until the very last second before spending my rupees. Aka, in the older games, I would wait until my counter was max before buying potions or upgrades of items.

In the later games, I would avoid spending at all until I got the wallet upgrades and even then scarcely would I spend my money.

I think what that is relates more to me being perpetually broke irl. I'm scarce with my money because I know I should keep as much as I can for... whatever I may need.

Also, a not so good bonus is that I will play through most the Zelda games without potions or other healing items (like I usually play hero mode first if I can). Even in games where I have a potion in my inventory, I just won't use it when Link's health is low rip me in A Link To The Past. I think that means even irl I will destroy myself before even thinking about asking for help, which is obviously a terrible way to live :)

This is how crazy I sound before an idea is finalized...

[[sosososososososos, I finally remembered that idea I had. It’s supposed to be the opposite of a typical kdrama. How do they always have the popular girl being a bitch and the “ugly” regular girl as the MC who winds up getting the better guy? Well fuck that, we’re gonna write the “regular” girl with the guy (whoever that is) and they have a lot in common (maybe they’re into some show or something and that’s how they get to talking), so he’s crushing on her and she’s crushing on him. The popular/pretty girl has been this guy’s friend since they were kids and they’re “supposed” to end up together, but instead of these girls being at each other’s throats, they instead form a friendship waiting for this guy to get his head out of his ass and pick one of them.

Like ex. (MC sat on her bed re-reading the assignment that was due in less than two hours.

“Man, I should have really worked on this sooner.” She groaned as she clicked through the pages trying to find the answers somehow, as she worked, there was a knock at her dorm door.

“Ugh, come in,” she said and the door opened.

“MC!” She looked up, recognizing SP’s voice. “You and LI went to the dock?”

MC looked up seeing the post of her and LI. “He seriously posted that?”

“No, someone caught you two and sent it to me as “blackmail” against you. I ghosted them for a while, but then they posted it anyways.”

MC sighed. “These people are more interested in this relationships than I am.”

SP giggled and sat down on the bed. “Tell me about it… but seriously, was it fun? Is he a big romantic?”

“Kind of, I think he was nervous though.”

“Aw, how cute! Think he’ll take me there one day?”

“I doubt it, he thinks you’re more of a restaurant date type.” SP scoffed.

“He would.” SP rolled her eyes, but moved on…

This is how most my ideas sound when I first make them

some people think writers are so eloquent and good with words, but the reality is that we can sit there with our fingers on the keyboard going, “what’s the word for non-sunlight lighting? Like, fake lighting?” and for ten minutes, all our brain will supply is “unofficial”, and we know that’s not the right word, but it’s the only word we can come up with…until finally it’s like our face got smashed into a brick wall and we remember the word we want is “artificial”.

Courage from Love

The night seemed as if it would stay uneventful, but right as it hit midnight, Cassie's phone went off. Knowing the only person who'd be calling her, she went and answered it with an eager smile on her face.

"Hey, what's up Haku?"

"I honestly wish it was nothing." His voice was irate, not very much so, but it was noticeable to Cassie who was more than used to his soft spoken tone.

"What's up? You sound upset."

"Sorry if I do. It's just so stupid. No one wanted to go back to the dorms to get this… thing they bought—I think it's some kind of drink—so I eventually offered to go get it for them."

Cassie sighed slightly. "Sometimes you're too nice for your own good."

"Tell me about it." He sighed. "I just thought to call you for some company."

Cassie smiled and sat up in her bed as she listened to Kohaku talk. As she did so, a resolution to this dilemma occured to her.

"Hey, maybe… I could just get it for you instead."

"Really? You don't mind?"

"No, I'm cool doing it for you."

He let out a relieved sigh. "Honestly, it'd mean a lot if you could."

Cassie then got up. "Where is it?"

"It's one door from my dorm. I'll just meet you halfway, so tell me when you get to my dorm."

"Alright, let me get changed real quick."

Cassie got up and went to her closet, however, it dawned on her that she'd be going outside on one of the busiest days on campus. Everyone was having parties, going out, or hanging out and she'd have to go past them all.

Worried about appearing strange amongst all the night owls dressed up, she decided to dress as she would during the day and found a decent enough outfit to go out in.

She picked up her phone and headed for her door.

"Oh, by the way, I think what they want is pretty heavy, so take your backpack."

"How'd they forget something like that?"

"I could take a guess."

Cassie giggled at Kohaku's more than annoyed voice, but she went for her spare backpack, the one she took on exam days when she didn't need to carry around five notebooks. It was styled like a bear, so she held it in her arms while leaving her room.

It didn't take Cassie very long to get to Kohaku's dorm.

"Okay, I'm here."

"Alright, they said the door should still be open, it's two doors from my dorm." Cassie followed his direction and went to open the door. It was unlocked, but unfortunately for her, a group of students were inside.

Cassie froze for a second and someone looked back seeing her.

"What are you doing here?"

"Did someone invite her?"

Cassie tried to speak, but nothing came out. A few in the room snickered at the frozen appearance of the girl before them.

Someone then said, "come on, what are you here for?"

Their impatience wasn't lost on Cassie and she just gave a small shrug.

"I'm getting something for a friend."

"Cassie?" Kohaku's voice on the phone snapped her attention back. "It should be on the floor near the bed."

Cassie looked there and found what Kohaku was referring to, she quickly went over and retrieved the bottle. She said nothing else and scurried out of the room. Some annoyed sighs followed her closing the door and Cassie just hurried out as quickly as she could.

"I got it…"

"Was someone in there?" He asked.

"Uh, yeah, I guess some people were having a party." Cassie left the male dorms. "But, where are you?"

"By the courtyard."

"Okay…"

Cassie couldn't help but think about the partygoers in the room. She hoped they would just ignore her, but a part of her couldn't help and think that they were laughing at her, getting enjoyment out of the encounter after she left.

Her walk down the sidewalk slowed and her very invasive thoughts came to the surface, making her gaze drop further and her mind run miles around the last few minutes. Every which way that could have happened went through her head and she almost wanted to revert time to do it again.

Cassie made it to the courtyard and found Kohaku waving her down.

He jogged over to her and while he had a smile on his face, it faded when he saw Cassie.

"Hey… what's wrong?"

She looked at him. "Nothing, it's just something stupid."

He pursed his lips. "Cassie, you're tearing up." He reached and grabbed a hold of her face in his palms.

They were cold against her skin, but his gentle touch was enough to mitigate that. Cassie's frown only got deeper and eventually she spoke.

"They just… I just think I bothered them. I'm sorry for making you worry over something like that."

Kohaku took a sharp breath. He gave Cassie a bitter smile and pulled her in for a hug.

"You're so cute… Cassie, you're making me wanna just stay with you for the night."

Cassie shrunk in his hug, but nuzzled against him as she always did. "No, you should go and have fun."

He pulled back and locked eyes with her. "No seriously, stay right here." He took the bottle from her bag and jogged off.

Cassie watched him drop the bottle off to someone. He spoke for a second and immediately turned back to Cassie where he rejoined her. Kohaku reached for her hand and turned them back in the direction of the dorms.

"Kohaku, no seriously, go and hang out with your friends."

"Does it seem like I was even enjoying that?"

She pouted. "No, but-"

"So don't worry about it. I'd rather help you not think about those jerks anyways."

Kohaku's hand was cold, but feeling it against her palm made her warm up, slowly that warmth crept to her face and her mouth turned up in a smile.

"Some day, your friends are gonna hate me because you always dip on them for me."

He chuckled. "No one would hate such a cute girl. Really, why'd you dress like that just to go out for a second?"

They stopped and looked at one another. "I'm… cute?"

Kohaku's face grew red as she looked up at him. He scratched behind his head and started to walk again.

"Well, I just think you could have dressed in any kind of way, really."

Cassie smiled at his embarrassment and happily walked beside him; knowing even if she was nervous and anxious, it didn't matter once they were together.

Words into Potions: a month-long writing challenge!

We're excited to announce Moon + Seraph's newest event...

Words into Potions (or, WIP!)

Join us this March 1st - 31st for a month-long writing challenge, where any and all types of writing goals are welcome! Use our event to draft a whole novel, outline a new WIP, finish a short story, or accomplish anything writing-related!

We have lots of exciting freebies to help you along the journey!

Track your milestones on a free, downloadable map

Collect digital writing-themed badges

When you reach your goal, randomly pull 1 of 12 digital tarot-inspired cards

Plus, to celebrate our birthday and the event finale on March 31st, we encourage you to post an introduction of your WIP(s) and a wrap-up of all the progress you made. Tag us and we'll reblog your post!

Optionally, join our Discord server to get more out of the Words into Potions writing challenge!

(Learn more about the server here.)

Earn special Discord roles by doing writing sprints

Participate in a weekly writing marathon, where we collectively try to reach a larger goal

Weekly WIP question trades, where we talk about each other's stories and encourage each other to keep writing

Share links to any progress updates you post on Tumblr in our dedicated event promotion channel, and we'll reblog them here

For a sneak peek at our free rewards and more details, read on below!

If you're going to participate or just want to help spread the word, please give this post a reblog! It's very hard for posts to be seen on Tumblr right now, and we really, really want this to find as many writers as possible.

Take a peek at a small section of our milestone map!

As you journey to your writing goal in March, you can also journey through a forest and collect different ingredients from mythical characters, creatures, and locations! Our map milestones are percentage based, which means they'll work for any goal you choose. Whether it's words, pages, hours, or anything else!

This is a super high-res file, so you'll be able to set it as your desktop wallpaper, zoom-in on all the details, and even print it as a poster! (We'll share more details on our printing recommendations when we release the full map mid-February.)

Here's 3 of our 38 writing badges, designed just for this event!

When we get closer to March we'll release a full list of our badges for you to reference and download throughout the month, or if you're in our Discord server, we'll have an automated system for you to claim your badges!

We encourage you to share the badges you earn on Tumblr, along with your progress! Please @ us in your posts if you do, so we can reblog and encourage you!

Reach your goal, and randomly pull 1 of 12 digital, tarot-inspired cards!

These are digital, downloadable cards that you can share on Tumblr, set as a phone lock-screen, and even print! We'll have size options for different desktop/phone wallpapers, as well as some dark mode versions! (Printing recommendations to come!)

Things to Know:

Words into Potions begins on March 1st 2024 and ends on March 31st 2024.

This event is geared toward original fiction writers, but all are welcome to participate.

Our Discord server is 18+ only, with no exceptions.

Our milestone map is free for personal use, but under no circumstances are you allowed to use it for commercial use (any situation in which you profit, financially or otherwise). You may not modify it in any way that obscures the Moon + Seraph watermark, and you may not claim that you created it.

Our writing badges are also free for personal use, but not commercial use, and you can't claim that you created them.

Our tarot-inspired card rewards are also free for personal use, but not for commercial use, and you can't claim that you created them.

Have questions? Send us an ask!

We're very excited about this writing challenge, so we're more than happy to answer any questions you have!

Okay, now onward to little things that don't really matter in the grand scheme of things. I also finally figured out the genre of game this would be and that's a social game.

I'll start with:

Cosmetics/Character customization

So, I'll start first with general cosmetics. I have a very strong itch to play a game where I can customize both my character and the house/room/plot of land they reside in without the game being either farm based, purely fashion based, typical gacha "wait 30 years or watch an ad", or just "anime" style with no other designs. Because of this, one of the first things I thought of was creating a separate mode where the players could customize a character to their liking, with their pronouns, and more than just "generic anime" hairstyles. There would obviously be generic anime hair styles, but there'd also be afro styles and other poc styles (I'd have to do some research on any other group outside of African though).

In the main mode, you wouldn't be able to chance the MC outside of her name. Her appearance would be locked kind of like Link or the Persona protags. Once you've played through a story and completed it with the MC, you'd be able to replay it as your customized character in the freeplay mode.

There would also be a place for the players to design their own apartment/house/plot of land (depending on what makes the most sense) and through the game's various mini-games, you'd be able to unlock items. Some items would be harder to get and would require playing a mini-game or going through some sequence properly to unlock something. We're going for replayability＼(＾▽＾)／

Since I was thinking for this game to be FtP, I had to come up with something to still make money, but make it accessible for everyone to get everything in the game. So, it made sense to have the paid options be simply to speed things up or get extra of something in case someone is lazy as hell and doesn't want to replay something. However, the option to play it normally isn't a slog either, it's just like playing any game normally vs. cheesing the the area.

Also, I wanted to add this little note but I didn't know where, but I also really wanted this game to be interesting for gaymers as well. I do have family who happen to fall under that category so I have a little--just a tiny bit--of knowledge when it comes to that.

In this case, the game wouldn't be to catered to physical things at all. Obey Me! does a pretty good job keeping the MC gender neutral, but it has its limits and I'm going to push them as hard as I can! (pause) Being who I am, I don't really fit into any category very well as I don't like most traditionally girl things and I'm uninterested in most guy things, so almost all the time my characters interact romantically in a way that you could use any pronoun and it would work. I don't like the term handsome and most certainly do not think the words "pretty" "cute" or "beautiful" only describe women. Usually, my descriptors are general and describe the way someone's appearance makes you feel (ex. if someone has pretty eyes I'll usually just say their eyes are captivating or they're easy to get lost in.)

Events

I wasn't exactly sure what this would be considering I don't want to become an Obey Me! with bi-weekly events that drain your resources, but I also didn't want to make events that had items locked behind their event period and once they were gone, they were gone. I also know apart of the fun with events is working really hard to get something special, so if it's available all the time it wouldn't be very much fun. So, my fix for this was to dog tag a page from Obey Me!

They have it where after six months(?) events come back and the players have free access to participate again for four days so long as they have a consumable. I still don't want it to be exactly like that, so the easiest solution is just to have events rollback when their original date passes (ex. if there's an event during April, then April the next year, the events returns for the same amount of time). Simple and effective.

As for the events themselves. I actually tend to write a holiday special for the bois every year so the usual New Year's, Christmas, Valentine's, Halloween, and Thanksgiving would be celebrated, but I've always wanted to incorporate many celebrations from various places. Things like Mardi Gras which is a celebration that's pretty centralized in one place. Obviously, that would mean some research, but I already have most of the characters having different backgrounds (Brayleigh is French, Jessica is half Japanese/French, Ankara has Pacific Islander in him, Terumichi is Korean, Amai is half Black/Japanese, and Shugi is whatever I need him to be lol) so it'd be pretty easy to use their backgrounds and try and incorporate some festivals, holidays, and other special occasions in here!

And of course, the events would have special outfits for the boys to be dressed in, don't worry. You have no idea that a kimono Aki, demon Akuma, beach Koto, and casual Ankara live rent free in my head.

CGs/character art

I say this a lot, but I'll say it again, I can't draw; however, if I ever did find someone to work with, I'd have a lot of character CGs and just so things can stay as inclusive as possible, their character art would be anywhere between just solo art of the character in question or art with a character insert (maybe like a hand or something)

side note: the only reason I'm not too into having a character insert is because it feels generic and like it's almost impossible to account of every position with a certain hair style or skin tone. I know some games have done it, but they more or less prove my point. In this case, I think less is more.

The CGs more looked like just beautiful art of the character from a scene or of them in a stylized outfit. Being able to have a gallery full of each one would be a dream~

Other/Misc.

There's not a lot more I wanted to add, but some small things would be to have a challenge mode for each of the mini-games and achievements for random things.

This is just a off the cuff thought, but it'd be cute to have the overworld city somehow have online multiplayer where people could chat with other people in the city or play solo (since I am more of a solo player anyways).

Competitions kind of rub me the wrong way, but it'd be nice to have some rankings for the mini-games

I guess I'll add this part to the first reblog: I didn't want the game to have bad endings because they usually just making the player feel like shit for having an opinion, so it made more sense to have it like Phoenix Wright where you're playing the story as the MC and to have a separate freeplay mode where character's choice would matter. It might be too ambitious, but having the freeplay mode have different endings sounds interesting.

A small ex. would be in one of the short stories, Cassie is sick and Akihiko comes over to take care of her. The players would then have the option to reject him and see a different route play out, almost like a what-if scenario.

But, for now, that's all the ideas I feel I can share. If I come up with anything else I'll add it, but like always...

Thanks for reading multiple

🍂

Here again after my usual hiatus this time though it was because of real world shit, aka setting appointments to get my teeth removed yay but I wanted to post something.

So, just today (or yesterday it's 2am for me) I finished a page on my website about an idea I got about a game idea. This is pretty common for me, but I wanted to share it here in case anyone was interested :D

Anyways, here's a little preview and you can read the full thing here if you want.

I was also considering making proofs of concepts about some of the mini-games I talked about and other collectables, but who know if I'll get around to that with all the other ideas I have in my head.

Either way, that's the post~

🍂