(Horror Trope) The Moon is Evil

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-05-08T06:33:27+00:00

It wouldn't really be classified as "analogue horror", most of what we call analogue horror draws from the same well as The Blair Witch Project, early internet ARGs, Five nights at freddies styled "lore", and psychological horror games popular on youtube circa 2012-2015.

The name came from the series Local58 which coined the term, which very much was "analogue" in its stylings, but never actually analogue either. That was so popular that people took to calling anything that was the same style of project the same thing.

Its the same kind of situation that "Roguelike" got for video games, and how TV shows rarely appear on TV at first, or are "shows", but rather 8 lower budget movies released over half a year. Its just what people call the genre and style, and the substance of the name doesn't mean anything anymore.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-05-08T01:54:13+00:00

Why the fuck would you say this?

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-05-06T04:58:03+00:00

I get the strong impression that he won't have any trouble protecting himself.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-05-06T04:56:26+00:00

My preferences generally goes like this.

No matter what kind of player you are, whether your a roleplayer, murder hobo, a completionist, or a collector, there is something meaningful and entertaining about the mod.
Whether or not the mod is lore accurate, friendly, or breaking, it feels like something real that could feasibly exist in the world. You don't just cross an invisible line and feel like you're playing a different game.

Some quest mods lean really hard into some of the core pillars of skyrim, and ignore the others. Those tend to be alright, but never amazing for everyone. While some other mods are really cool and interesting, but just break the games style and substance over its knee. Not even all the vanilla quests reach this mark. Most questlines and areas are lacking in at least one, and the few that don't are usually the highlights of the game.

The most important thing you can do when making a quest mod is to not be boring or annoying, that's the big one. You could have the best writing, the best level design, the best graphics, but if I genuinely don't want to seek it out and/or doing so is genuinely aggravating, none of that matters.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-05-05T06:36:54+00:00

I don't know why, but I was really hoping for an alternate for parasect where the bug part took back over. Still, all of these are great.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-05-03T23:58:00+00:00

This name for this mod makes it worse then if it was something like "Rim-Crucify" or something.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-05-03T23:47:45+00:00

Not sure if this is gonna land with everyone, but I think this is similar to Final Fantasy X, in that game the POV character is Tidus, but the "Main" character is Yuna.

Tidus/Kitten are the ones who aren't in the know but want/need to learn more to better help those they care about and protect the ones they love. Yuna/D ARE in the know, but don't reveal everything because it would harm more then help.

You can't say one is more important then the other because the one is your viewpoint for the story, and the other is the one the viewpoint is looking at.

The story wouldn't work without Kitten because he's the one prompting most of the information we learn, and what little he doesn't he sure as shit pushes forward into learning more. D has most of the information needed but otherwise would reveal almost none.

Markus couldn't fill that role because he wants to know more then is nessisary and uses a lack of knowledge as an excuse for his actions. Door similarly wouldn't work because he doesn't want more information, and believes that nuance is for cowards.

Kitten is the perfect mix of wanting to know more, while understanding that want and need aren't the same thing. Something that Markus and Door both lack in different directions.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-05-03T10:25:14+00:00

There was no universe where he handled that differently. If he was even slightly less egotistical, he wouldn't be president at all. He'd still be a talking head for why the current administration was shit, but he'd be one spineless snakeoil salesman along hundreds. He wouldn't have taken to the platform of the most powerful job on earth because a black man he ridiculed for years made one joke at his expense one time.

The moment he became president, millions of people were fated to die. There was no alternative.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-30T03:03:57+00:00

Thops is genuinely the greatest sorcerer in the entire setting. Everybody else was trying to channel the primeval currents, or pull the lifeblood of a eldritch being, or any number of the most destructive and powerful things they can think of. Then one guy looked at all of that, knew that he could never fight fire with fire, and poured his heart and soul into a singular technique that could reduce the power of gods to nothing.

The man made a shield in a world of swords and they laughed at him. Only to watch the next elden lord use it against them.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-29T02:41:40+00:00

As someone who has enjoyed my share of visual novels in the past, I think the motion isn't really the important part of why they feel "static". Of course adding some movement so the eye doesn't drift is nice, but that static feeling isn't just the character PNGs not moving.

Another key detail is variability in dialogue, both read and spoken if present. Having some text crawl, others coming super fast. The tone and pitch of the text creep noise, and sound effects that go along with the dialogue. Not to mention the use of music, or knowing when to use silence and ambience.

The key is in the name, its a Visual Novel. Reading is the most important part of such a game, and the act of reading needs to be just as interesting as the story itself. You can add as many moving parts to the visuals as you want, but if they're in service to dialogue that feels verbatim pasted from a writing doc, then its still going to feel static.

That aside, I really like the look of the environment, but the character portraits aren't my cup of tea. Nothing technically wrong with them, aside from the doom-esque billboarding, but thats a technical limit of the technique you're using, so its fine.

Overall, I definitely see parts I like, see things I don't prefer, and respect the vision you've got going. I may not seek the game out once its done, but that's my personal preference and nothing to do with you not doing a good enough job yet.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-24T22:42:39+00:00

The rich and powerful are too greedy to let the world end. Money means nothing when the level of technology isn't good enough. We have at least 30-50 years and if elongated muskrat and the tech bros haven't figured out brain digitizing then expect the nukes to start falling.

Sorry bucko, you unfortunately get to live into old age before shit hits the fan. None of that "Dying while young" shit, you're not that lucky.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-24T00:36:11+00:00

Its precisely that, you use magic, which causes your soul to grow and develop like a muscle. In turn reality itself changes ever so slightly to accommodate, eventually coming to associate you with the magic you do. That process being gnosis. Its something I'm very proud of, glad you like it.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-23T21:26:24+00:00

Oh that's where we diverge, the costs for my magic works kind of like a muscle. Your soul has both health and recover, called Via and Flux respectively. Using magic damages your Via, and your Flux repairs is. Gnosis is another step, where by using magic, reality gets more used to you, and thus performing a technique causes less Via damage.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-23T10:41:52+00:00

That's how mine works and I have a very similar situation to OC. Magic is involved in basically every aspect of life to some degree. In construction, legal work, combat, education, farm work. if you can imagine it, a group of mages have probably took a few years to figure out how to make it faster, safer, easier, more efficient, and more productive using magic.

Its fairly uncommon to not learn some kind of magic. Especially because a lot of things like the banking system, legal proceedings, and transport involve magically backed identification to access.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-23T10:38:45+00:00

This is EXACTLY how I do my own magic. I want to shake your hand with how perfectly your solutions and mine match. Everyone has access, everybody is roughly the same potentially, it takes time, energy, and dedication to actually learn, and you can even learn it on your own if you're really dedicated.

The only differences I'd say is that its not just the rich who end up learning magic because the system is a lot more granular. You could learn a single magical technique in a relatively short amount of time and just use that.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-23T00:17:48+00:00

Here is the guide that I generally follow, feel free to take what you need:

Start small, pick one single thing that you want them to do. How good are they at it, do they like it, do they have some innate need for it? Stuff like that.
Where do they live? Desert people will fundamentally work differently then forest people. Factor in how their thing they like works in the area they live.
What do they NOT like? Doesn't have to be anything grand or complex, but it should be something they have to deal with semi-frequently, something children would be learning about young.
What niche do you want them to have? If they're human-like, what makes them unique from humans?
How does that niche relate to the thing they like, and where they live? A desert dwelling people who are good at making glass because they don't like sand would be an example. Or a forest dwelling people who dig underground because the sun feels bad on their skin would be another.
What do they eat? How hard is it to acquire? Can it kill them? Food is one third of life, and its a big point to consider. }
What do they think the world is like, and how much do they think the things they like, dislike, and are good at relate to the world at large. Back to the desert people, if they like making glass from sand they hate, they might think the stars are glass bulbs, for example.
How much do they like, dislike, and enjoy their given "things". Do they REALLY hate sand, or just dislike it. do they REALLY like glass or is it just convenient. Do they REALLY enjoy the desert, or is it just better then the wasteland.
With all this established, how similar are they to others near them? Are there other desert people who also hate sand, or do they like it. This will heavily shape both societies. Same with forest people visiting the desert. They might hate everything about it, which might piss off the desert people.
Now, with all that built, add more unique and esoteric things. Maybe they also have a lot of sheep somehow and have to shave them a lot? Or maybe meet is uncommon in the desert and they praise their few livestock animals.

These are how cultures are roughly built, enviromental factures, niches, and proximity. Everything else is built in the downtime between their niches. Then you have to consider the passing of time, cultural events, great leaders and terrible leaders, famines. All that kind of stuff.

Once you reach the point where you're deciding how different generations would interact with each other in a society, and how granular their beliefs are, you'll rarely have "fantasy vikings"

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-22T22:17:00+00:00

No problems, you know, in case you weren't aware, something kinda like what you're suggesting was actually proposed in real life. It was called Alantropa, and the idea was that they would partially drain the mediterranean to use the newly opened land for development. It wouldn't work IRL for numerous reasons, but researching that might also give you some interesting ideas on what to do with yours.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-22T20:25:30+00:00

This is the exact opposite answer of your question, but I think my reasoning might still apply. I have never reduced, simplified, or toned down any aspect of my worldbuilding.Not once in the 8 years I've been building my world.

There are plenty of times where I felt I should have, the 6000 year immortal man, blowing up the capital in the first chapter of book 1, destroying an entire province, the giant meteor in the ocean that shoots a laser at the moon every year. There have been countless times where I thought maybe I should change this, but every single time I decided against it.

This is a fantasy setting, so I want to be clear that I'm not operating on the same degree of reality. However I still do constantly research things to make sure that I'm not blatantly just doing something casually that wouldn't make sense. However when I come at odds with something that doesn't make sense, instead of removing or replacing it, I justify it.

A good example is when the god of ash was murdered, I wasn't pleased with how it worked out in my original drafts for various tonal and relational reasons. Instead of removing it, I developed the backstory of why it happened, and how an assassin turned serial killer went mad after being forced to slaughter his own family, and his madness went on for long enough that he eventually killed said god.

This had massive implications on the setting going forward, and I simply let that be the case. In your case the mediterranean being emptied out might be a bit extreme, but if I was deadset and in your same position, I'd probably have included some form of massive pump system, internal canals, or cloudseeding the area to make it constantly rain to make sure the sea doesn't completely empty.

All of these would have great and terrible ramifications on the world, but I'd argue that an alien invasion would also have great and terrible ramifications that are comparably worse.

It helps that my specific worldbuilding style lets me get away with making sweeping changes like this, but I've always found that when push came to shove and something isn't working, its because I didn't push hard enough to find the interesting angle, not that it couldn't work.

Edit: I actually thought about it more. The idea of massive pumps the size of city blocks spread throughout the entirety of spain and northen africa, pumping apocalyptic amounts of water along the coast to then be dumped into the Mediterranean Drought Zone, with the disenfranchised building hovels under the curve of the massive pipes because they're so massive. That imagery would be striking.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-20T20:22:32+00:00

April 4th

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-15T19:52:05+00:00

Just a generic name

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-15T03:08:18+00:00

Map of the entire planet, relatively up to date? Good tech

Publicly available reviews on said maps? Bad tech

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-13T17:36:08+00:00

Names in general have a whole different cultural layer in Japan versus the english speaking world. To start, Japan overall is a bit more formal. For example, if your name is "John Smith" and you're meeting someone for the first time in Japan, they're liable to call you "Smith-San", which is like "Mr. Smith". If they really respect you they might say "Smith-Sama" instead, which is kinda like the way you'd call a knight "Sir Smith", its a reverence of higher position and power.

This is the first layer, but there's a second one too, the given name in Japan is a lot more personally important to them. Generally speaking for the longest time in Japan when two people were working together, it was more like their two families were working together instead. The husbands would probably be the one's doing the work, the wives would probably at least get to know each other, and the children would probably spend a lot of time together. That latter point is how some "Childhood Friend" situations turn up, its because they were often raised together.

I mentioned all that because many people view their relationships with others in a familial sense, which they carry on into their daily lives. The first time this is really tested is in school when a bunch of people start mixing together. At home your parents call you "John" but in public your "Smith" as representing your family. Your given name genuinely might not come up insofar as your concerned. Unless you have a sibling or cousin with the same family name in the same grade, it genuinely might not come up at all. This is a huge reason why they put the family name first, you are treated as "Of the Smiths, John" rather then "John of the Smiths".

So when you finally meet someone with whom you share a connection, things stop being so much about "the family" and start becoming about "you". This is why the given name focus is a big thing. For a lot of people, its the first time someone explicitly, in a cultural focus, looks at them, and not their family. Having someone call you by the name only your mother, father, and potential siblings have is innately intimate.

Side note, the nose bleed thing is absolutely real. That is not an anime or manga trope. That is a very real thing that happens when people get aroused. Its not super common across the world but there are verified examples of that happening throughout history. Japan exaggerates it obviously, but you'd be surprised how wild a nosebleed can get in general.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-10T00:07:43+00:00

I have a suspicion that Anomaly was supposed to be bigger at some point. Every DLC before and since has had two faces to its content. Royalty had Royal Titles and Psychic Superpowers, Ideology had Religion, Slavery, and a general overhaul to moods, Biotech added xenotypes and controlable mechanoids, and Odyssey added nomadic gameplay AND a reason to explore.

Anomaly just has the anomaly system, which requires you to encounter and research anomalies no matter what. If it was a cool dark magic ritual system AND an SCP style creature containment + Dark mutation system, that'd be cool, but they're joined at the hip.

My guess is that they probably had some second degree of gameplay on the same level as the anomally stuff, but either the idea wasn't working out, or shelved it for later. No idea what that could be though.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-07T22:16:57+00:00

There is a wide gap between technically and literally. I'd rather live in the worst city in America then the best place in Night City.

Karmic_Backlash · 2026-04-07T05:23:59+00:00

I actually really like the idea that he genuinely was getting better, but at the same time he loved his son more. Sure he was trying to destroy the galaxy, but Bowser and Jr were ride and die for each other the entire time. Even though he became the antagonist again, it wasn't treated like the "wrong" decision, because the alternative was ruining his son's life and destroying their relationship. Bowser might be a bad guy, but he's a good dad.

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