I used to do a lot more random chatter about stuff I was working on, and I thought, ‘you know, that was fun, let’s do that again.’ So today I want to tell you I put a feature in the game and now it’s already given me too many feels.
The game lets you choose a heart-friend for any character (the onu relationship that we see, most obviously, in Pearl in the Void between Keshul and Dekashin). But it “creates” new friendships organically for your characters without your consultation based on their personalities and jobs and interests. These are called ‘drift-friends’, and if those characters stick around in your clan long enough, they’ll hang out together and go from being acquaintances to best friends.
Good enough. But then I thought, ‘but what about childhood friends!’ So I put in something that allowed characters who are youths together at the same time to have a chance to become childhood friends. These friendships form with messages that persist so you can look back and think, aw, they were kids together, also based on personality (“Jeso Jeso Green Bean and Forget-Me-Not made up their own small ceremonies in quiet corners of the camp.”)
You only have a chance to form childhood friendships during your childhood, so once you’re a grown-up, you’ll start forming those drift-friendships based on more complex reasons. But I was really happy to have friendships like this in the game (and hope to put in some rivalries too, later!).
But I didn’t take into account how I would feel when I kept one of the characters with childhood friendships, but traded the other two away, and the message stays on the character sheet. sniffle
Also I just noticed her name! Hah.
Anyway, we’re up to 52 clans, and drifting upwards toward the 100-ish players I hope will constitute a good stress test on the system. If you’re interested in playing, you should join us. Message me for the link!
Or at least, I intend it to be relaxing. Hopefully it delivers.
4:22 minutes
Materials:
- Pen: Moonman Starry Glass dip pen, Mars: https://www.jetpens.com/Moonman-Starry-Sky-Glass-Dip-Pen-Mars/pd/31536
- Paper: Strathmore Writing Series 500, lined: https://www.jetpens.com/Strathmore-500-Series-Writing-Pad-8.5-x-11-Lined-50-Sheets/pd/15322
- Ink: Robert Oster, Rose Gilt Tynte: https://www.jetpens.com/Robert-Oster-Rose-Gilt-Tynte-Fountain-Pen-Ink-Shake-N-Shimmy-50-ml-Bottle/pd/25170
In which I talk about the paper, the paint, and the experience of oils versus gouache. Fun stuff, will do more.
Thank you Locals supporters! Your contribution to my art war chest here is what's powering these experiments and videos. For now I'm keeping them public but I may start doing some subscriber-only videos if you all are interested.💖
Thanks for your comments yesterday on the business post... all very provocative, in a good way. I'll try to respond to all of them today.
Some Alysha misc now, since I'm gearing up for the results of the Kickstarter!
Petrov is giving away coupon codes for every book in the Alysha series (and has some leftover coupons for Marda and the business book). You can pick those up here (and please do! The books are bought already, someone should use them!) https://twitter.com/PetrovNeutrino/status/1457344535843987461
Our own @JudasComplex sent along a sample of the Faith in the Service audiobook, which I've attached for your delight! I... haven't had a chance to listen to it. Don't ask me about my past week and a half or so. Putting it here will guarantee I get to it.
After hearing the amused comments during the livestream, I went ahead and added all the ship type illustrations I have inked from the 90s to the wiki. Glory in the rampant adorableness of their anthropomorphic stylings! See those ...
A little comedy today, at least in the link. Transcript follows.
Hi, all. Welcome to this episode of The Jaguar’s Heart.
A while back I was introduced to a comedy sketch about Cuban coffee by a Mexican comedian, Gabriel Iglesias. ( The sketch begins with him greeting all his fellow Latinos and then backing up to say ‘but we’re all different, aren’t we’ which is a segue into a demonstration of how different Hispanics speak Spanish.
It is hilarious. First, because I am a Spanish speaker and a linguistics hobbyist, and his portrayal of various accents resonated with my experiences in trying to make sense of them myself… Not always easy, since from culture to culture, slang and accent are often totally different (and sometimes grammar! Spaniards use a grammatical construct that has died out in many other Spanish-speaking countries, the plural “you.”)
I also loved it because the Cuban coffee part is real. I grew up with Cubans. I know how we are....
One of the most common things I hear (and say) right now is "the asymmetry is the story." Here's one about how none of us are innocent of the sins we hate in others.
Hi, all. Welcome to this week’s episode of The Jaguar’s Heart.
It’s been weeks since the Baen’s Bar incident and I’m still thinking about it... because the longer I do, the more I feel, overwhelmingly, that it’s obvious that the problem is deeper than “this forum was saying stuff that offended us.” We have to back up to the glaring fact that people on opposite sides no longer consider each other human. Nothing I say will matter because the people disagreeing with me don’t think I’m human. They have denied my humanity; they have not bothered to listen to my beliefs, or have fake-listened to them in that way that people do when they’re so ready to prove you wrong that they’re only using your speech to provide talking points for their own ideas.
We have forgotten how to listen.
Increasingly, we have also ...
Are we enjoying it, or is it too much with a Tuesday and Friday post already? Let me know. :)
From the current sketchbook. I'm scanning so many old pieces that are basically a barely realized face in the center of the page that I wanted to revisit the idea at my current skill level: "just draw a face, but make it specific and interesting." So here are some random Fleet people, and I had a lot of fun doing bearded furry guy, lol. :)
https://mcahogarth.org/gallery/image/146-2026-08-FleetOfficers
Thought I'd share something recent... I did this one a few days ago, because I have not forgotten Surela 3 and am in fact still working on the outline for it. That led inevitably to Surela and Lunet because cuteness. If you follow the link, you can also bounce to the fallowtide children drawing which is a lot of fun. Quite the baby boom during the Fallowtide! (Do you have a favorite kid? I should write a story about one of these kids, but which??).
https://mcahogarth.org/gallery/image/146-2026-16-ChildrenOfFirilith
