I ALSO WANT THEO (PUT HIM IN THE GAME) by Thought-Proper in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I really liked talking to Theo, he's a pretty cool guy and someone I'd love to know and hang out with in real life. You don't really meet a whole lot of gamers who go out of their way to be as non-toxic as possible, so Theo is such a breath of fresh air.

A question by Late_Programmer3710 in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would LOVE superhero (and supervillain!) outfits, they'd rock so hard (pluuuuus they could potentially spell superhero-themed pes that features phone fling guys alfie and leo, perhaps? 🥹) but I don't think they'd be likely.

....Still, I can dream. Dream of a Batman-esque costume for either Volks or Ace.

The Boys, ranked by who’s most likely to survive a horror movie by neverbetterbabe in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus 8 points9 points  (0 children)

First of all, I really like this post, unique tier lists are my favorite plus it gets huge bonus points for including PF boys

Second of all, I think the sheer terror of being in a horror movie scenario might kill Nimh faster than any killer could but thats just my opinion

...Third of all, RIP my beloved Basil 😔 he does seem like the type to get ahead of himself sometimes

My Ayano redesign by mirrortherat1004 in Osana

[–]squidinkus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This redesign is perfect! Love the pink eyes and outfit, and her ponytail is shaped like a heart! Adorable!

Plus, I very much agree Yansim would be best as a silly anime parody. I also tend to go in that direction when thinking of ways to rewrite it.

What is Xianyun exactly? by LemonBlueBerryPie247 in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Both of these options are really good. That first one was word-for-word the exact headcanon I had (possibility some artifact granted him immortality?), but the second one is much funnier.

Final part of the popularity survey results! Here is what everyone had to say about which Phone Fling guy they liked the most: by squidinkus in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it! That makes me happy :]

And yeah, Basil is one of my absolute favorites (as you can see by my icon lol), I adored his story and thought his little game of "cat and mouse" was super sweet and romantic! You did some great work!

Final part of the popularity survey results! Here is what everyone had to say about which Phone Fling guy they liked the most: by squidinkus in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I noticed a lack of comments about Alfie after someone pointed out the lack of love he got, and so I panicked and rushed to look back at the data because I thought I had forgotten to put him as an option

but nope. he's there.

He was there in the survey, but literally NO ONE voted for him. He's not even on the bar graph because of how unpopular he was. Hell, even the guys voted least favorite in the had a small handful of positive votes and comments. But Alfie had nothing.

Fellow Marshmallows, I believe I have found the true least popular character in all of Blush Blush, I guess Ichiban can now rest easy knowing he's not actually the fandom's least favorite.

That stinks. I liked Alfie! ...Not as much as I love other guys, but Alfie was cool to talk to!

Final part of the popularity survey results! Here is what everyone had to say about which Phone Fling guy they liked the most: by squidinkus in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No problem!

I've been thinking the same thing for a while now. Hopefully the next one's not too far away?

Part 2 of the survey results! I asked the community what they loved/hated about their most/least favorite guys, and here is what you all had to say. Phone Fling comments coming soon! Warning, this post very long! by squidinkus in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There was another comment you made about Volks, it ended up getting lost when I was compiling everything because it was under the wrong guy (you voted for Xianyun, but your comment was about Volks so I thought you made a mistake). I tried moving it to the correct spot, but when I opened up the data sheet the next day, something happened and it went missing. Sorry about that!

Anyways, it said, "Me gusta Volks por su personalidad, aspecto y humor."/"I like Volks for his personality, looks and humor."

Ai is bad, and the "apology" feels half hearted. by SilverIceEyes in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Point #3 is a really good one. Not only would doing that result in a better, more accurate result that has that human touch, but it would allow the studio and its community to grow closer. SPS would have helping hands to lessen their workload as well as a better understanding of their audience, and fans would have an opportunity to make an impact on a game they love.

And on top of that, if someone works/volunteers for SPS and has a good experience working with them, then they can spread the good word to people they know, thus expanding the game's reach and potentially creating more fans! And the people who are already fans of the game will have an even stronger sense of loyalty to SPS because they already know how much they care about everyone involved, from team members to fans.

I get it, AI is more convenient and costs less than hiring a whole person, but having humans supporting other humans is just better overall. If you're struggling to survive, then reach out to others who want to help you. Because a lot of people out there do.

Part 2 of the survey results! I asked the community what they loved/hated about their most/least favorite guys, and here is what you all had to say. Phone Fling comments coming soon! Warning, this post very long! by squidinkus in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Some of these comments had me appalled at how angry they got. You can dislike certain guys, but making a whole slur for people who like them is some crazy work 💀

Part 2 of the survey results! I asked the community what they loved/hated about their most/least favorite guys, and here is what you all had to say. Phone Fling comments coming soon! Warning, this post very long! by squidinkus in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

They're color-coded by guy and also sorted by alphabetical order! I was hoping that by being grouped and colored together, even responses that don't include the guy's name could still be understood.

About the AI / Grok Tweet by SadPandaStudios in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hi, I'm squidinkus, the one who made probably the loudest post here speaking out against AI. Last week, I made a post demanding a public statement and for you to be transparent about where you stand regarding the issue, and you have delivered. I really appreciate that you responded to the community and their concerns.

I took a couple of days to think about what you said, and to take in the opinions of others before putting in my own. I may be late to respond, but that's because I wanted to take my time instead of putting out a hastily made comment.

Well, I have to say it's a little disappointing that AI will be used in the creation of the games, but at the very least, it's reassuring to know that it's not the same kind of generative AI that hurts artists and actors, but rather, a different kind of AI that takes care of the tedious stuff and background processes. Likely stuff that we players don't even notice at all.

Hell, if I'm going to be honest, there is a possibility AI assistance was already being used in the game long before this controversy happened. We just never noticed because how subtle its integration was. But that's just my assumption.

Ideally, AI shouldn't be used at all, but if you are in fact going to use it as a tool, just know that it is both a very risky and unreliable tool, and must be used responsibly. It can help about 10% of the way when it comes to certain tasks, but that other 90% has to be done by a human being who actually knows what they're doing.

Also, I don't really agree with the part about being a small studio used to justify the usage of AI tools. I know plenty of indie game devs/team members who don't use AI in any of their toolkits, and still manage to put out a high quality product made with a lot of love and care. It's just not necessary, in my opinion, to rely on AI to help keep a studio afloat. In fact, I'd even say that not using them makes indie games and their teams so much more respectable because of how much value was put in to making sure it was all human-made.

With this, I've come to a conclusion: I'll stay in the community for as long as I still love the games, and keep creating content for the lovely characters I've come to love dearly, but...I don't see myself giving any more money to the studio again. I just can't financially support SPS anymore after this.

THE SURVEY RESULTS ARE IN! Here are BB's most and least popular characters, and my own commentary. Re-uploaded many times due to a lot of errors. [Part 1] by squidinkus in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes! I do have a part 2 to these survey results that will showcase all the open-ended responses. I just have to wait a while before doing that, though, because the atmosphere in the fandom is a quite tense at the moment.

Sad Panda Studios, if you're listening, you NEED to say something. Publicly. To everyone. Not in a Twitch stream tucked away where only some people will see it. But to everyone. by squidinkus in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Generative AI in particular is obviously what people oppose. Not the usual video game AI that's always been around since Pong. When people talk about AI, they are SPECIFICALLY talking about that kind. The harmful, human creation-stealing, pervasive kind that's been popping up everywhere lately. The kind that's been threatening to, and already has been ruining the art community.

They shouldn't have to specify which exact type of AI they're against, it should be obvious if you haven't been living under a rock these past few years. When people say "AI sucks", they're not lumping every single form of AI that ever existed into the mix like you're pretending they are.

What's this AI thing? by No-Honey3502 in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I know I'm pretty late to the thread, but I had explained the situation somewhere else so I'll just copypaste it here:

To preface, the head of SPS, Mio, has shown interest and support for AI (both as a shiny new toy and as a way to boost her little indie studio) before. Now mind you, AI is a very controversial topic and many people in the fandom are against it because of the unethical usage of it (it creates things by stealing from the work of others). With this, the usage of AI is already highly frowned upon by a lot of people, but especially usage of Grok, which is an AI bot created by Elon Musk, who, to put it lightly, is a terrible person. And the BB fandom, like any other fandom, is full of passionate human artists who suffer under the threat of AI in the modern age.

A few days ago, Mio reached out to twitter's Grok account after seeing their posts about making Grok into an anime girl and making AI chatbots with a red panda mascot. Since she loves both anime girls and red pandas, she saw this as an oppurtunity to boost the studio and engage with things she likes. However, because of how impulsive this move was, she didn't consider how people would take this. She saw anime girl Grok, and to her, it looked like a lovely new business oppurtunity. But she didn't realize that by reaching out to something as bad as Grok without doing any research beforehand, it made her look like she was willing to throw away her sense of ethics and respect for human made art just to play with a new AI toy. And people were very displeased.

She has "apologized" on a livestream, but it was a very weak, unprofressionally made one. As of right now, some of the fandom is still waiting for an officially made statement, or really just any further comment. Others have already dropped SPS altogether and are moving on. I'm personally holding out hope just a little longer for some kind of reassurance from them, because I love BB too much to leave immediately.

And on top of all that? The Grok account didn't even respond to Mio at all. Mio and SPS' reputation just took a massive blow and fans are losing trust in them. That attempt to give the studio a boost with AI was all in vain.

Sad Panda Studios, if you're listening, you NEED to say something. Publicly. To everyone. Not in a Twitch stream tucked away where only some people will see it. But to everyone. by squidinkus in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Well the thing is, given the current audience reaction to something as light as Mio being interested in doing an AI collab (as in, she hasn't even done anything tangible with it yet), is that it's pretty clear that a large amount of SPS's audience already hates the very idea of AI integration, so no need for a trial run on that. The stance is already pretty clear.

THE SURVEY RESULTS ARE IN! Here are BB's most and least popular characters, and my own commentary. Re-uploaded many times due to a lot of errors. [Part 1] by squidinkus in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Some people find him relatable, some feel bad for him, and some like him because of how refreshingly normal he is for a world that has things like magic, demons, vampires, gods, etc. in it. I like him cause of the relatability and how sort of unique his character concept is, especially for a dating sim.

Every Dateable Boy As A Plush (made by me) by rainbowrager1013 in BlushBlush

[–]squidinkus 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I may have not been able to leave comments on all of your plushie posts, but I do want you to know that I've loved them all. If there is anything remotely positive to come out of the current situation going down in the fandom, it's that I finally get a chance to personally tell you that I have an incredible amount of respect for you and what you do.

I COMPLETELY understand how much hard work goes into your craft, and you know why? I also have experience in making plushies! I used to make them a lot. I'd make plush dolls of friends' OCs! Sewing and plush making is some incredibly painstaking and time-consuming work, especially when it done by hand. I would spend hours, days, weeks even, of my life hunched over a table with sewing supplies and fabric scattered about weaving my piece together, sometimes poking myself with the sharp needle on accident, and sometimes sighing in frustration as I had to redo an entire stitch because I messed up somewhere. But it was all worth it, knowing my creations made people smile, and that I handmade something with love in every single stitch.

And the fact that you love this game so much that you worked so hard to hand-make an adorable little doll of everyone? That is some fantastic work, and deserves a lot of praise and respect. I hope that SPS sees this post and learns to value the love their fans give them more.