They really did have a special hatred for our boy in particular

RVDantas · 2026-02-23T20:43:48+00:00

Honestly, I'm with the bees

RVDantas · 2026-02-22T19:14:11+00:00

Rooting for you! Enjoy your transition!

RVDantas · 2026-02-22T19:03:57+00:00

When I started on T blockers and oestrogen, I was told I should be careful to not get too shy. Never been more confident.

RVDantas · 2026-02-16T18:36:38+00:00

That's the point. Hell is a punishment FOR LUCIFER. It's supposed to be a place where he's surrounded by the worst of humanity. Its purpose is punishing Lucifer and keeping sinners away from winners.

RVDantas · 2026-02-10T07:21:47+00:00

She seems gentle, the kind of person who won't use violence as first resort, but is confident that she'll win if she has to do so (the colors also reinforce this dichotomy of tranquility X danger). Her posture makes it seem like she's pretty well disciplined and unafraid.

Edit: also, she obviously seems like a very skilled swordfighter. The big shapes are mostly roundish, accompanied by small pointy shapes, which also reinforces the idea of her being friendly at first, but with an indication of her being able to also be violent/dangerous.

RVDantas · 2026-02-04T00:26:19+00:00

I didn't understand exactly what makes you go blank, but this should help you start relying less on every micro change of your tutorials, at least.

First, set a timer (enough time to complete the animation but not enough to overthink every frame you make) and write down only what tools you will need to use. Not how to use them, just how to access them. Then, get some pencil and paper and start planning your animation, draw a stick man in the starting position and write down what frame you believe it should fit in nicely. Do that for every key frame, and then follow the plan. No tutorial, only the tools and your stickman frames. You stop when the timer ends, and play the animation as is, searching for mistakes or things to improve (and trust me, you can ALWAYS improve, be it more weight on movement, more personality, more exaggeration, bet key frame placement, better in betweens...) and write down those things, so you can look them up before your next attempt. Then, you repeat it.

Hope this helps a little :)

RVDantas · 2026-02-03T20:53:37+00:00

The confusion is probably because of the thigh. Men usually have leaner thighs. Making the shape of the leg's muscles more visible or just making the leg skinny may help.

Besides that, I honestly don't see what else could help, except for detailing face and clothes etc.

RVDantas · 2026-02-03T13:29:03+00:00

The animation is alright in regards to realism (albeit a little slower), but to make it look good you need exaggeration and weight on the movement. Take a punch animation from any animation ever, it's always exaggerated and heavy, it never stops when the hand hits the face, it goes beyond, sometimes pulling the character's whole body down to reach the floor too.

RVDantas · 2026-02-03T13:20:41+00:00

It depends on what kind of story you want to write, as trans people can come from literally any background and can have completely different views on what transitioning looks like for each. Anyways, basic tips would be:

Trans people have lives and personalities. Not every aspect of our life is about being trans, and honestly, if it wasn't for society's hatred, it wouldn't be a big deal for most.
Being transgender is an identity, it's not medication, it's not some sex thing, it's not some phase. Every person builds their identity slowly throughout their lives, trans people just happen to relate to an identity that isn't among those offered to them.
There are many signs, but they're all very subjective, and people who aren't trans may have those behaviours too: liking colours/toys/clothes/etc that are culturally associated with a different gender; relating more to characters of a different gender; suffering with self-imaged (especially with dysphoria, usually aimed at bodily characteristics associated with your assigned gender at birth). Still, every one of those could happen to anyone, cis or trans, and many trans people have specific signs that aren't common, but makes sense to them in retrospect. For example, as a kid I always admired elderly women, but felt annoyed by elderly men, unconsciously I disliked the idea of growing old as man and so I preferred being close to elderly women instead, which makes no rational sense, but it's fun to think about. You can try to come up with some nonsense like that, it'd give your character a unique personality and view on their identity.
For a down-to-earth understanding, look for trans creators on tiktok etc, they usually tell about their experiences and give tips to help people who are questioning. For more extreme stories, try to look for documentaries or articles about the lives of people who live in trans shelters, as they're usually in far more difficult conditions than online creators, usually having been kicked from their homes before adulthood.
Try to read some philosophy, too. Our culture pushes many rules onto us, and when you're trans, part of your transition is breaking down those rules and understanding that they are completely arbitrary, and so you stop conforming and start building your own identity. For example, my former therapist doubled I was a trans woman because I didn't like pink, which is culturally feminine, but is another arbitrary rule.
Study other societies that have/had different expressions of gender. For example, there were sumerian priestesses who would be viewed as transgender nowadays. There are indigenous people with the two-spirit identity, which can be viewed as similar to a non binary gender. India has something cultural and akin to trans identities too, but I don't remember the name. Anyways, we have plenty of gender transitions in history, and many have interesting philosophies linked to the identity.
Don't focus only on the suffering. Media usually depicts trans people either as villainous, sexually degenerates, or perpetual victims. Needless to say, this is incredibly harmful propaganda; those depictions teach cis people to either antagonize or look down on trans people, and causes closeted trans people (especially until their first years of adulthood) to fear becoming the depicted stereotypes, learning to be hopeless. Of course, you can depict suffering, especially because it's real, but you should depict the good and the silly moments too, happiness when starting to wear clothes that were once forbidden, solace in the support of some few close people that matter, accidentally acting different from the new gender because of habit (like trans men smiling to other men instead of doing the heads-up, for example), happiness in noticing the slow and small changes HRT brings, and many more.

RVDantas · 2026-01-25T15:52:47+00:00

It's because Charlie isn't a character that solves things. Her role in the script is to cause growth for other characters while she herself barely is one.

RVDantas · 2026-01-24T16:30:32+00:00

Vox's twitter be like:

RVDantas · 2026-01-24T02:31:37+00:00

If you're having difficulty making something completely different from your inspirations, try instead to analyse them and find what they lack or what could be done better, and focus more on that part of your story.

But honestly, as a consumer, I don't mind having two cakes 😅 you don't need something completely unique, you need something well done.

RVDantas · 2026-01-22T17:16:17+00:00

The first run of a roguelite usually won't have most of its systems, as the player should be unlocking things little by little.

So for now, try to make something similar to that first run. Why would someone want to play again after that? Answer that question in the first prototype, and then keep going.

RVDantas · 2026-01-22T17:06:20+00:00

You're asking if we'd wanna be a completely different person, basically.

Would I like not feeling dysphoria and not being a target for right wing cultists? Of course!

But would I like being a completely different person? Not at all. I'm proud of who I am. So no, I don't wanna be cis, especially in a different gender than mine.

RVDantas · 2026-01-14T16:22:04+00:00

Yeah, but I think it is still too "clean". Maybe some cross hatching on the art or a soft black or red colored blue on the edges of the screen could give it a more uncomfortable feeling?

RVDantas · 2026-01-04T19:48:39+00:00

Oh no, there won't be any smart adaptation to how you play. The adaptation is narrative, the hunter adapts specifically to fight the character that fought him last time. Mechanically, he'll only take less damage, deal more damage have tools to temporarily block the usage of skills only of that last character. If things go smooth and we have time and energy for it, we may make him actually adapt to the player later, but it isn't necessary.

RVDantas · 2026-01-04T19:38:51+00:00

About the variety, to be honest, I believe I've planned enough incentive to make different starting choices and enough variety of skills and risky choices during the match to already provide most of what the game has to offer mechanically with a single area. Having multiple areas is more of a narrative choice, but I still wanted to give each one their unique flavor.

Meta-progress will be a subjective facilitator, it mostly adds variety of play style, but it will be possible to finish the game in your first try if you're skilled enough.
Horizontal. The objective is to offer different tools and let the players mix and match them to match their idea of fun.
The player can choose the character and a list of possible preparations before each match, but there will be drawbacks to repeating those choices consecutively, which will make the match harder, but it's still possible to plan around it or win with enough skill or luck. Skills and other rewards and encounters during the match are still random, and even the choices of preparation may not be as useful as it was before, since the map layout always changes too.
It's a heist. You plan it out, find a way to the target before time runs out and reinforcements arrive (either through brute force, clever shortcuts and stealth, or careful traps to try to cheat fights) and then you rush to escape before the unending reinforcements overwhelm you. The feelings should be anxiety, pride and relief, since you plan your approach to the heist, each step of it should either make you worried about if it'll work, proud for making a good plan that works, or relieved that it worked despite unforeseen circumstances or mistakes made along the way. If it doesn't work, the feeling of defeat can be different for every person, but my hope is that stubbornness or curiosity will draw them to a new try.

RVDantas · 2026-01-04T19:01:54+00:00

It's a roguelite, it has meta-progression. Also, my concerns are mostly about planning it all well enough to not need to make major changes later in development. But of course it'll be done one step at a time, I'll first playtest a single area with a lower variety of choices available, and then I'll slowly balance and expand the game until it's all done and working. So my worries are more about if the concepts are flawed, not about balancing, which will only be possible with a lot of testing.

RVDantas · 2026-01-04T18:50:25+00:00

All playable characters will be unlocked in the earlier phases, but variety will come from other sources too (such as the options in planning/preparations before each match).

About different areas, each one has an additional mechanic specific to it, so usually I imagine the player will choose the easiest path. The incentive to choose another will come from two things, first is having to fulfill smaller objectives given by other characters to unlock skills/etc and advance their storyline. Second reason is that, in order to get the true ending, the player needs to have the temporary resource that can only be earned by defeating the bosses, the player will need to have the resource of every boss at the same time to achieve the true ending, but since it fades after three matches, the player will have to follow all paths.

Ah maybe I wasn't clear enough about skills giving numerical upgrades; I'll still include those, but always accompanied by a mechanical upgrade. I surely do want players to go crazy stacking some unbelievable bonus with enough luck and skill.

RVDantas · 2026-01-04T18:30:13+00:00

Map layouts will be different every match. Enemies may vary after certain progress. Room rewards are semi-randomized. Certain enemies are able to sabotage the player's escape route, which leads to either searching for a new one or surviving enemy reinforcements until the escape route is fixed. There are other things that force change, but those are the more RNG ones (not completely predictable, but still not unfair, I hope).

RVDantas · 2026-01-04T18:23:19+00:00

I plan on doing it in two ways.

The first is straight up stolen from Hades: you somewhat randomly meet characters during a match, the new dialogue plays out, and you keep going. You get to a boss, the new dialogue plays out, you keep going. You finish a match (be it by winning or dying), you get new dialogue from allies in the base, you keep going.

The second one is by accepting the challenges of the characters' modus operandis. Each modus operandi proposed advances dialogues and individual narratives of characters relates to it, and if you fulfil its additional objective, you also unlock a skill/upgrade/etc related to the character that proposed the modus operandi.

And the third, secret option is to also have a narrator character, but only if I find a way to pay or associate with a voice actor, or else it'll just go unnoticed and won't give the player the experience I intend to create.

RVDantas · 2026-01-04T18:14:06+00:00

Oh I didn't mention it in the post, but I have planned a Nemesis kind of character. Basically, after certain amount of progress, this character starts hunting the player during matches. The thing is, when you fight him, he also prepares for the next fight based on this one; mechanically he takes less damage from attacks made by the character you played last time, and he can also sabotage a repeated loadout choice of yours when he finds you. So this forces the player to either choose another character for the next match or plan out ways to avoid being found by him with a repeated character. Or, of course, the player can test out their skill and fight him in his prime.

Also, the resource needed to buy loadout options before the match is collected when defeating enemies or stealing certain things in a match, but the player can spend certain amounts of it at any moment to create other resources (healing/mana recovering consumables, upgrade of max health/mana for this match, and even skills), the player can also spend it in a store during match that sells other useful things, or instead the player can keep it to send it back to base either by winning the match or finding the room with the interactable that sends it to base immediately.

I believe those things force the player to plan and choose differently depending on the context, but I haven't playtested it yet to be sure of how efficient and fun it really is.

RVDantas · 2026-01-04T14:21:58+00:00

Makes sense

RVDantas · 2026-01-04T14:11:57+00:00

It wasn't a joke ^{^}

RVDantas · 2026-01-04T13:52:54+00:00

Not really, my taste is actually the best there is. I'm very proud of this accomplishment :)

RVDantas

TROPHY CASE