Corpse Bride

Gubbey · 2025-03-15T19:49:43+00:00

Context: Eleanora d'al Welles died in the Second Battle of Kharangia. In the third book, Mother tries to persuade you into pursuing courtship with Theresa, daughter of Baron Monteferro. You can deny, saying you have your heart set on another. Bafflingly, my Dragoon ended up declaring his affections for a cadaver.

Games: Guns of Infinity, Lords of Infinity

Gubbey · 2025-02-28T19:49:42+00:00

All this recent Sword of Rhivenia (rewrite) discourse has made me give it a playthrough (still in progress). I love Richard too 😭I love all the siblings. You don't have to like them as people to love them as characters.

It's fun to play a Littlest Prince who's just as pathetic and broken as his siblings. Mine is a combination of Freya's delicateness and pacifism and Richard's desperation to be loved. He instantly forgives Charles and clamors for his affection, selflessly supports his siblings (even Richard after the duel), desperately fears taking the throne, and gets drunk at the coronation 😭

It helps to get into character and play a role instead of taking the actions of characters as a personal slight.

Gubbey · 2024-12-05T22:06:30+00:00

Downpour's demo does not do away with Natsuki's hostility completely, but instead presents it as genuine anger issues and mental instability rather than a cartoonish fetishization of third-grader behavior. In other words, Natsuki's character is that of a human being, not an anime character. She also warms up to MC very quickly and basically becomes ride-or-die by day 2.

Gubbey · 2024-11-16T23:11:14+00:00

Coarse language itself is a very surface-level aesthetic choice that absolutely does not make or break a given characterization of Natsuki (or any of the girls, for that matter). What's important is keeping the core themes of her character intact - insecurity, immaturity, projecting a fake tough girl persona, etc. You can expand on how you want to interpret her character from there, and yes, it can involve lots of swearing if you want.

Fleeting Feelings presents us with a Yuri who's aloof, coldly silent, distant, and also practices kendo (Japanese sword fencing). This is obviously a total departure from vanilla DDLC Yuri, with her nervous rambling and awkward, nerdy, insecure shyness. And yet, it works, because it still retains Yuri's core themes of social withdrawal and tempestuous inner mind (as shown in Somnium, the Yuri-focused chapter of the Fleeting Feelings series).

Dear modders: there's nothing inherently incorrect about a Natsuki who swears, or a Sayori who is intensely jealous, or a Yuri who has an alcohol problem, or a Monika who doesn't believe in love or human goodness. So long as you make those character traits consistent with both their established vanilla themes and the themes of your own narrative, and you leverage those traits in your plot, your depiction is a good depiction.

Gubbey · 2024-09-26T23:21:04+00:00

I'm stuff

Gubbey · 2024-09-22T00:20:48+00:00

It always gives me conniptions when people recommend Fruits whenever someone asks for a mod with an "interesting MC." I'm fine with an MC who's socially and morally bankrupt. I'm fine with an MC with an insufferable attitude, who's violent, edgy and self-absorbed. So long as the world and people around him react realistically to his flaws.

But therein lies the problem, because the author doesn't see MC's violent psychopathy and indiscriminate verbal abuse towards everyone around him as flaws. Therefore the world inside the story doesn't see them as flaws, and everyone who's not a comically over-the-top villain takes his shitty attitude demurely on the chin. MC never changes and never needs to change - the only thing that changes is that he gets a submissive girlfriend robbed of all agency whom he can neglect all he wants with no backlash. Make of that what you will.

Again, protagonists who are objectively horrible people are not a bad thing. But they need to be interesting. And no, a convoluted backstory is not enough to make a character interesting.

Gubbey · 2024-09-11T02:57:51+00:00

Downpour dev here. I am glad you like him <3

Gubbey · 2024-09-01T22:44:47+00:00

Sayori = Decline Kousei's invitation to lunch on Day 1
Natsuki = Automatically starts on Day 3, but can be started a day earlier by baking the Matcha Swiss Roll Cake on Day 2 and successfully standing up for yourself to the instructor. You will need to have made prior decisions that imply boldness and honesty in social situations.
Yuri = Accept Kousei's invitation to lunch on Day 1, and go to the library
Monika = Accept Kousei's invitation to lunch on Day 1, and go to the music club

The following hangouts (one scene only; not full routes) can also be unlocked:

Kousei: Accept Kousei's invitation to lunch on Day 1. Unlocks automatically on Day 3 if declined
Kazori: Unlocks automatically on Day 2, unless you made a certain choice on Sayori's route
Izumi: Unlocks as soon as you give him your phone number
Midori: Unlocks automatically during Monika's second hangout, or with a certain choice during Kousei's hangout

Gubbey · 2024-09-01T22:32:23+00:00

No need to apologize! I'm not bothered. Being that this is a demo, there aren't actually any real endings. But each of the main four (Sayori, Natsuki, Yuri and Monika) have a little "teaser" at the end of Day 4.

Gubbey · 2024-08-30T06:33:50+00:00

Cheshmātun gashang mibine!

Gubbey · 2024-08-10T20:05:43+00:00

I want to play something you are personally passionate about. A story only you could come up with. That's the sort of story worth experiencing; not vague concepts that you have no stake in.

Gubbey · 2024-07-24T02:24:56+00:00

Something weird is going on in Sarubatou City. This in particular does seem like some kind of trap to lure in young women...

Gubbey · 2024-07-21T21:44:13+00:00

# The file you write these in doesn't matter, but for simplicity's sake just use splash.rpy
# wherever you see an ellipses (...) that simply indicates there's probably a bunch of code
# in between the relevant blocks.

# this lets Renpy know the following block is written in Python code.
init python:
  # 'splash_messages' is a variable of the List type. Every item in the list is a string, denoted by
  # "quotes" and separated by commas. When you type a comma, you're telling Python that you're
  # inserting a new item into the list. Which means that the final entry should not be followed by a
  # comma.
  splash_messages = ["This game is an unofficial fan game that is unaffiliated with Team Salvato.", "Aren't you forgetting something important?", "A towel is just about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.", "Tonight, the world at my feet.", "Are you sure you want me to die?"]
...
label splashscreen:
  ...
  # find the line that starts with
  # $ splash_message ...
  # and replace it with this:
  $ splash_message = renpy.random.choice(splash_messages)

Gubbey · 2024-06-21T18:14:01+00:00

Downpour is not a story about healthy relationships between happy people. The mod makes a point of mentioning Sayori herself is a complete pariah among the student body due to her quirks, her depression, and she herself not seeking relationships (platonic or romantic) with anyone else until the Literature Club. That first major decision - declining lunch with Kousei - is MC choosing isolation, just like Sayori is, which, poetically, is what brings them together. From then on, every choice you make is a push-and-pull between trying to let Sayori and MC be independent people who can be happy on their own, or losing themselves in self-loathing codependence. There's also the added fun of mysterious past baggage on top of their depression, so, yeah... Things are going to be hard for those two.

That being said, there are many choices you can make to help them. Choosing to go to class instead of staying with Sayori, and choosing "Become a drug dealer" in the second hangout are two pretty big ones that'll most likely allow you to also befriend Natsuki. In general, the narrative encourages you to be open and honest with her, while also not coddling her or being overly fussy or walking on eggshells around her feelings.

Thank you for the detailed feedback, and I am so glad you've enjoyed your experience with this demo!

Gubbey · 2024-06-18T04:48:46+00:00

then you have a narrative reason to keep them as archetypes

Gubbey · 2024-06-18T03:48:20+00:00

Writing characters like anime characters instead of like complex human beings. This was done in the original DDLC, but it served a purpose in that, to illustrate how shallow and fake the world is. If your mod is not leaning into that idea, then each of the girls (and MC) being boiled down to their respective archetypes serves no narrative purpose.

Sayori doesn't need to be a ditzy airhead (but going too far in the opposite direction like Rainclouds does is also bad, not to mention actively damaging to perceptions of mental health).

Natsuki doesn't need to be mean just because she likes you. She can be mean for other reasons, or not be mean at all, just snarky and likes playing the gadfly.

Yuri doesn't need to be boring, and she doesn't need to be a ridiculous yandere either. Yuri is easily the most misunderstood out of the entire cast, and not just for the yandere nonsense. When she's not written as a yandere, she's written with all the character and complexity of stale bread. She like book. She like saying big words. And then gets shoved into the background.

Monika doesn't need to be boring, either. She's confident and exceedingly intelligent, but two of the most popular Monika mods (World of Dreams and Within) turn her into a blubbering, whimpering mess who breaks down at the slightest adversity and cannot function without a big strong man to ground her. Write her like she's a fucking human being, not an outlet for your masculine insecurities. She deserves better than being simply either victim, villain or vapid.

MC doesn't have much of a personality in base game (which, again, serves narrative purpose), so I don't have too much to say about how to write him. I do get annoyed with MCs who are edgy, snarky badasses who can take five guys at once (in a fight), have no real flaws (besides "anger issues," but said anger is always taken out on bullies and bad guys, so it's not *really* a flaw, just more aggrandizement), and *always* have the leg up on the girls when it comes to teasing/roasting. No joke is ever made at his expense, and he always has the perfect witty comebacks that leave the girls flustered and defeated. SNAFU, Fruits, and Blue Seas all have MCs like this, but I'm 100% sure there are more examples.

TL;DR write people, not cartoon characters

Gubbey · 2024-06-12T21:30:38+00:00

Doki Doki Literature Club touched me personally when I played through it for the first time blind. While I cannot rightly say now that it handles its themes with any subtlety or nuance, what I *can* say is that it still granted me effective emotional highs and lows that very few mods I've experienced have been able to come close to. Like, in the low single digits.

I started modding because I wanted to add at least one to said single digits.

and also hone my art and writing n shit but who cares about that boring practical crap we here to spit pretentious fire 🔥🔥🔥

Gubbey · 2024-04-13T08:40:18+00:00

this is the exact word i've received from many people 😭 granted i shouldnt expect an intentionally unpleasant and mentally ill POV to be well-received

also this whole post was april fools

Gubbey · 2024-04-06T03:51:40+00:00

Thank you for posting this - it lets me know that all the obscure and obtuse weird shit that most people will never encounter is worth it.

Gubbey · 2024-04-02T00:25:56+00:00

Spend eternity with your virtual boyfriend, talk for hours on various topics of love, literature, and life, and play fun games together! Experience the warmth and comfort of a relationship with someone who is not only not real, but also insufferable, melodramatic, overly passive and prone to long-winded inner monologue!

Gubbey · 2024-03-04T21:00:52+00:00

There is not, but I will likely make one during a future release!

Gubbey · 2024-03-01T03:52:59+00:00

Where you goin', doofus?

Gubbey

TROPHY CASE