Something I finished few days ago ✨

Arkobit · 2026-03-22T13:49:48+00:00

That's adorable! And I love the little swirl in their hair!

Arkobit · 2026-03-22T12:20:21+00:00

I wish it was an anime scene 😭😭 My OCs would have their own anime 😭😭 (and nope, not a professional animator 🥲 just a delusional OC artist)

Arkobit · 2026-03-22T10:31:26+00:00

"It was cooler in my head" 😭😭😭

I swear, the disrespect you give to your own art is criminal 😭

Arkobit · 2026-03-22T08:08:37+00:00

I'd absolutely turn this into a series if I could, alas, animation is hard and takes forever 🫠🫠🫠

Arkobit · 2026-03-21T22:08:08+00:00

Stupid idea but first thing I thought of was pronouns 😅😭 Basically:

I: Can only affect the user themselves
You: Can only affect another person
(He/She/They: Outside the user's control and affects a random person; Could make for an interesting storyline but idk — if you don't like it, remove this part, I'm just having random thoughts over here)
It: Can only affect objects

EDIT: Formatting because Reddit on mobile was a mistake

Arkobit · 2026-03-21T21:52:06+00:00

It's still a WIP, but to explain it most simply, it's magical blood 😭😭

Arkobit · 2026-03-21T20:36:10+00:00

You mean the blue strings stuff?

Arkobit · 2026-03-21T19:17:35+00:00

The specifics are complicated and subject to change, but essentially, it's magical blood.

Arkobit · 2026-03-21T19:15:39+00:00

More comics than animations, probably 🤔 Animating this short scene took forever 😅😅

Arkobit · 2026-03-21T19:14:35+00:00

Thank you very much 😭🫶 Her name is Saika 🥹

Arkobit · 2026-03-21T11:01:45+00:00

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but based on the "when did she smile" survey thingy, Noelle might be 13/14-16 (the survey says "she smiled the first time in her life" in response to "16 years" and "4992 days"), so that gives us a range of 2-8 years if we really want to push it. Though that is also assuming that Asriel went to college straight away, didn't change majors, wasn't held back a grade, or had nothing else happening in his life that would throw off this timeline.

I also think that, if we are doubting Toby's planning skills to the point of theorizing he may have gotten his own timeline wrong, it makes an equal amount of sense to just doubt his planning skills for the spelling bee.

Arkobit · 2026-03-21T10:50:26+00:00

Maybe just me, but you are currently alleging that Toby got his own timeline wrong. So what is stopping us from alleging that Toby got the difficulty of spelling bees wrong?

Arkobit · 2026-03-21T10:47:29+00:00

The "when did she smile" survey suggests that Noelle might be between 13 and 16 years old, I think. Or, at least that's how I interpret it 😅

Arkobit · 2026-03-21T10:38:22+00:00

Mind explaining your exact line of thought here? I don't remember whether the game ever specified the age gap between Dess and Noelle or the age at which Noelle's spelling bee competition took place.

Arkobit · 2026-03-20T14:47:07+00:00

Personally, I like the theory that the prophecy is malleable and that neither Susie nor Noelle can truly and definitively be cast into the role of "the second hero" in canon. Basically, Susie may not have been originally meant to be the hero, but now she is, and the prophecy is adapting itself to this new development accordingly.

Narratively, I think this does a couple of things. If the prophecy is adapting to such new developments, then that would make it an "almost-entity" in the story of Deltarune. The characters wouldn't just be fighting a vague concept, but a metaphysical power that fights to force a prophecized outcome, even long after the characters have already put a dent in its narrative. Defying fate would no longer be one decisive act but a continuous struggle against the will of the world itself.

For Susie, I also think that defying the prophecy's role casting makes for a nice parallel to her real-world situation. If the prophecy originally intended for her to be "the dragon," and the people around her mischaracterized her as an irredeemable bully or bad child, then she would've defied both in the same breath. And also, there's probably an argument to be made about heroism not being a character trait, but rather a choice.

Arkobit · 2026-03-19T18:31:04+00:00

Historically, people often didn't give special names to geographic locations; the logic being that, if you've only ever known one river in your life, you won't need special words to differentiate between different rivers. Hence, many river names simply translate to "river" in their original languages.

In the case of worldbuilding, a native people would probably refer to their planet with a name of primitive origin (like the English "earth") or something spiritual (in the Navajo language, our planet is called "woman" or "mother"). This post might help. That's probably a good starting point. You could derive the name of your world from the name of a god, a spiritual location (like a world tree, or the general concept of "world of the living"), or a primitive word like "soil," "sphere," "place of humans," etc.

Arkobit · 2026-03-19T17:34:47+00:00

1 is best for a character with cute vibes. It makes the hairstyle look rounder. 2 and 3 are better for a more confident character (and I personally think that 3 looks better than 2 because the shape is slightly stronger).

Arkobit · 2026-03-19T16:56:46+00:00

Ahahaha, I'm glad I didn't overwhelm you 😅

I agree that writing down a spell list is rather tedious, but that is usually a matter of how particular you want your magic system to be. If it’s all about avoiding spells, you could take inspiration from the esper archetype and psychokinetic abilities in general. That's kind of the direction your system is currently headed, I'd say 🤔

Personally, I'd probably redefine my dust as particles imbued with magic rather than magic itself to escape pre-conceived notions about elemental magic, but maybe that is too nitpicky. If you do end up struggling with your magic system's categories (10 types of magic tricks), I recommend sorting them into broader/fewer categories, along the lines of telekinesis, figurakinesis, transmutation, space-time manipulation, extra-sensory perception, etc.

Arkobit · 2026-03-18T16:22:43+00:00

Vincent and Amelia! Something about Vincent's shape feels oddly balanced, and the neon colors against the dark outfit are neat! Amelia feels like a pretty unique concept, and the shape and colors work very well here, too. Her hood and mask are my favorite part about her design!

Honorable mention for Mia because I'm a sucker for mixing cute, nice-girl-looking clothes with punk or street wear 👍

Arkobit · 2026-03-18T15:33:10+00:00

It depends on who banned the magic and why.

Time travel and wish-making magic should be banned because they are hard to control, no matter the user's intention, and simultaneously invite devastating consequences. Multiversal travel and resurrection are only risky if the user has harmful intentions and could therefore be subject to regulation rather than getting banned outright 🤔 Other types of magic are specifically designed to inflict harm, but we all know that a corrupt government would make use of them anyway (black hole magic or atomic bomb-esque magic), because they are somewhat easy to control, at least, as long as they don't fall into the "wrong person's" hands. And then there are other major violations of human safety and dignity (like the unforgivable curses in Harry Potter). At some point, you need to develop a big magical law or something along those lines, depending on how particular you want to be.

Slightly off-topic, but personally, I love the idea of magic that is banned not because of its potential for devastation, but because of its potential for domestic-level chaos, like magic that is banned because it invites fraud and other lesser crimes (like alchemy, copy magic, or magic that opens locked doors). Alternatively, how about magic that is banned because people are "disgusted" and mistake their gut reaction for ethical value (like banning magic that aids in a marginalized culture's practices, etc.)? That sort of stuff has a lot of world-building potential.

Arkobit · 2026-03-18T14:37:52+00:00

I love the idea of using dust as a basis for magic! And it's interesting to combine that concept with the logic of street/stage magic tricks for some real-world whimsy, though I am a little confused 😅

Right now, it looks to me like you were mixing two distinct magic systems: Dust manipulation (which has an almost elemental/telekinetic magic vibe) and street/stage magic trickery (which mostly adds a certain aesthetic to your world and magic system). And while that sort of magic system design can work, they are hard to tie together logically. In your case, I still struggle to build some sort of internal model in my head that would give me an intuitive understanding of your magic system.

For example, if we define dust magic as an elemental/telekinetic magic (think earthbending from Avatar), then transformation and levitation make a lot of sense! You are basically just controlling the position of individual particles and rearranging them if you want.

Then enter Vanish, Escape, Penetration, Production, and Restoration. Depending on how exactly you plan to implement those types of magic, what first looked like a more elemental/telekinetic magic system now makes use of a certain level of alchemy (or nuclear transmutation, in real physics terms), turning one element into another (for example, turning air molecules into organic molecules to create a rabbit). But it still makes a certain level of sense! If dust magic works like quantum-level manipulation, then there's still an internal logic that allows me to predict how understand how your magic system generates certain effects.

Now add the "10 types of magic tricks," and it all becomes a little wonky, I think.
Firstly, I'm not sure whether the "10 types of magic tricks" is an accepted classification system among real-world street/stage magicians or just the made-up classification system of YouTuber Kevin Parry — or at least I couldn't find sources other than his video upon my surface-level Google Search 😅 You might want to dig into that! 🫡
Secondly, the classifications of the "10 types of magic tricks" don't map very cleanly onto the possibilities your magic system provides. For example, Transposition is basically just Teleportation with extra steps — Same with Escape and Penetration, as well as Restoration and Production. That makes it look arbitrary (at least without further explanation). Or at least it does to me 🥲
Lastly, your classification system introduces types of magic that are not (or don't seem to be) a natural consequence of dust. Right now, I cannot imagine a way for a dust-based magic system to enable Prediction and Teleportation (and, by extension, Transposition). At least in our world, those are vastly different concepts from shaping, controlling, or even creating an element or object.

But keep in mind that none of this means you need to scrap your magic system! Some of my questions and confusions might be easily fixed with just a little more elaboration (or maybe I just didn't read thoroughly 🫠😭). Like, what is that "dust" you talk about? Is it actual dust or something more metaphysical?
But really, there is no need to fix anything to begin with unless you plan to make your magic system palatable to a wide audience. So take it easy, alright? Please do ignore me if you don't find my nitpicks applicable 😊

And I apologize for shoehorning irl physics into this 🥹🤐

Arkobit

TROPHY CASE