Roundup II
December 1, 2012 by The Dave
It’s that time again! That time where I dig through Twitter and Starmen.net and other site to pull out things we’ve posted which didn’t get posted to the blog.
I’ve got some tracks from Stitch, some character sprites, and some really old things this time. Click on through to get started.
Hotel Themes and More (via Twitter)
Stitch has posted some familiar sounding Hotel themes as well as our hint house theme on his Soundcloud account. You can take a listen in the player below. The songs he’s released previously are there too, for your listening convenience.
Sprites (via Starmen.net)
McMaxxis posted a sprite sheet of the main characters on Starmen.net, saying the following:
If you’re curious, I don’t think anyone will care if I show the completed directions we did a while back. Zack’s emblem will probably change, though. Animations are a pain!
That’s all you guys get though! * stare *
Really Old Stuff from Forever Ago (via Starmen.net)
Jojora posted some really old sprites and animations from when he was working on the game near when the project first started. Nothing posted reflects the content of the game anymore though. It’s just neat to see what was going on back then. I think some of this stuff predates me joining the team, which was fairly early on.
» Check out the post over here.
That’s all I could dig up for this post. If I missed something, post it in the comments and I’ll doodle a picture for you or something. 
The music is melodically sound, but a lot of the percussion and harmony tracks, and things besides the main melody really, feel kinda… seperate from the melody, and kinda make it a chore to really listen to the song.
Like int he Hotel Day theme, the shakey-shake percussion-stuff that’s way far to the right, really feels out-of place, way to the right and all loud ilke that.
Something to think about?
I guess I’d say a lot of the music feels kinda disjointed. All the parts of the music are playing, but they don’t really mesh together to make it really fun to listen to, imo.
This is so epic! Will there be a guide/walkthrough so I know what to do so I don’t get stuck?
We need to see who made the cut and their application, maybe also like an honorable mentions and their work as well. No?
I am sooo loolking forward to this…
Great work guys!! Are those sprites just early concept art? I really love how Meryll looked back then..White and red is totally her color!!
Anyways it’s always good to hear that this project is up and running!!
Me and my friends are so psyched about mother 4
Please give us more news soon! :-O
We’ll be waiting!!
I kinda wanna see a easter egg where you find Ness’s Hat on top of a mountain or something…
Tomas grows impatient! Tomas lets out Fanboy Screech! The Dave dodged the sound!
So how bout that new update? It’s really all I care about anymore. The game could come out, and I’d still only want to see a new update. (Well maybe not).
The Belring city music reminds me of a certain city at the afternoon in Pokemon White and Black.Keep going your making an unique rhythm.
I miss ben. ;___;
creepypasta is too forced otherwise.
or just not very scary at all.
and holy shit asuras wrath is fvkkin intense.
its one of the few emotions I like to focus on.
incredible boss fights.
it might even be my favorite.
it might even be fair to say that trickles excitement into the rest of my life.
this is a new topic.
we shall maintain both.
Two topics at once?!
I don’t know if my mind can take this.
What is the new topic?
Did I miss something in the two weeks I wasn’t active on the site (comment section wise)?
Not really. Nothing ground-breaking, or revealing towards the game development.
Mostly a lot of arguing.
I miss ben
;___;
You shouldn’t have done that.
What’s Asura’s Wrath?
It sounds like a cult.
http://www.google.com/search?q=asuras+wrath&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari
minecraft is getting deified with that documentary on xbox live.
like they invented the concept of sandbox building
or that their sandbox simplicity is einstein incarnate.
I agree that simple and focused efforts generally turn out better,
but minecraft was a guarentee with the burning saint that is the 8bit scene that even this fangame could be hardpressed to deny, as well as the prevailence of source modders already present in the semi-deep web. it wasnt a stroke of enginuity, if anything it was a new record in how fast everyone could reach the integral cliff and make sure everyone you know knows about it. if anything it is genius marketing.
cuz legos hadnt existed for 20+ years before minecraft.
well the buildup of 18 hours would make it foreboding,
but again
rape isnt the focus
and the characters of the park would all aim for the most uncomfortable experience for the player
but really it was just a thought
it isnt something I had been ruminating over.
okay I quit.
this is the new comment thread.
Hooray for a new page! No more “ctrl+f”-ing for me.
I don’t agree with you, Tourist. Although initially hearing the word “rape” doesn’t chill my bones or make me numb, the idea and ambiance of rape would sink in and really affect the player as the game went on. The concept of something doesn’t hold much emotion until you experience it, whether simulated or not. I’m definitely not saying someone should get raped to make this game effective, but Slender had the same thing going for it.
Anything that’s intended to strike fear, or at least uncomfortableness, will be doubted before experience. I thought I wouldn’t be scared by Slender before I played it (the thought of being chased by a thing with no face seemed so hilariously irrational!).
Then I played it at one in the morning with my friends,
and I refused to touch the keys without them holding me down or controlling the flashlight!
It’s all much more intense and passionate and real when it actually happens!
I would prefer to distance my idea from slender for obvious reasons, it wasnt the inspiration for it, however it might not be possible to seperate their similarities because the core mechanic is the same. but then again slender is not the first one to come up with it by far. nor was amnesia.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_Night:_Beyond
2004
and theres an even older one that was about a guy with giant scissors hunting you in a mansion.
that one sounded ridiculous, but opening a door to see him coming up the hallway is pretty tensing.
but really the idea stems from my overall inability to be scared by what is deemed as horror nowdays. I think slender is still highly over hyped for what it is but it was the first in awhile to stir any reaction out of me. fuckin necromancied the meme though. its goin on like it was made the day before and not like its been around for 10 years. let alone it was a fuckin sa meme and those are all terrible even by meme standards.
but I digress. horror games work best when theyre visceral and ambient instead of organized and planned. why are you grabbing pieces of paper in slender? why are you being chased by a serial killer with giant scissors? who cares because theyre right behind you.
plus as a general note, some mechanics take you by surprise even in games that arent scary. like being caught or hit when you didnt know you were being chased. most of my big scares have been in games that arent horror games. its all reactionary, and thats the core of it.
Horror genre doesn’t scare much anymore as well. What would scare me more is an established setting turned sour…. that’s why I suggested the Earthbound hack. But, then you’re wandering into creepypasta haunted games territory… which have been cliched since the successful BEN drowned.
That does sound very creepypasta-esque. With that hack of the Pokemon game and Slender originating from there and whatnot…
…actually, I hardly know anything about creepypasta, to be honest. I know a lot of the creepiest things I’ve found came from there, though (hence the name, I suppose).
Things rarely scare me, but for some odd reason the BEN drowned creepypasta did. I guess it was effective taking a game I love and twisting it.
Also doesn’t hurt that the moon children website was creepy as hell.
it was less about twisting a favorite game, and more about how real it seemed. when you make a horror media, you build the corners for which the monsters to hide behind. but since there IS a corner, you KNOW and EXPECT there to be something behind it. fear isnt an intelligent body, it relies purely on your untethered uninhibited reaction. It might even be reaction itself. therefore you gotta invoke visceral feelings and fuckin cloak yourself in it to reach anyone effectively. despite what you think, people arent desensitized, when theres a gun in their face theyll drop shit just like everyone else. what they ARE dull to, is the constructs of contemporary horror. shock was always a cheap trick, was always gonna be a novelty.
which brings us to ben.
its scary because its raw,
its unexpected,
its visceral.
the monster wears the skin of unused character models and hides behind programming corners and stalks you in a way that doesnt require walking of even movement.
its more like a corrupted cartridge than a planned out plot.
in a sense its nonsense,
and THATS where its effective. if it had been planned and programmed, and written specifically to be scary, it would have been far less so.
which is what you dont seem to be getting,
scary has to hit your gut before your head,
which is why a rape game cant be much more than a rape game,
cuz its not the rape that will fuckin give you the sinking feeling.
its hearing the footsteps
or wondering what youre getting raped for
in the sense its the lack of answers.
*the case in point being when ben stopped being creepy cuz the guy kept going with it and trying to build a narrative around it. its was too contrived. same with people making creepypasta for the sake of creepypasta, they try to emulate and and become contrived right out of the door.
however the imitation/emulation/artification recycle paradigm diatribe is a totally different topic.
not trying to be dark or edgy, Im trying to lock on and tap in to real emotions. and it would. isolation, and vulnerability are key components. slender is effective because you cant fight back, all you can do is run and you know youre being followed. same with fatal frame to an extent. or any game where you have no physical attacks. then the other main fear is fear from foreign behavior. what scares people most about killers is how unhuman it makes them, the lack of implied kinship or regard for any other life in a very real way. all the ugly characteristics of life that get swept away or masked in our consciousness, like the bile you feel when you see a human bone sticking out of a wound on a human arm, or fingers bent backwards. it makes you cringe, because it breaks this special little built up mindset about ourselves, we dont really think of ourselves as animals till we get reminded of it, and serial killers are glimpses of that. and the final point to drive it home is that itd be real. rape happens, it aint zombies and aliens.
but regardless of how much I explain, my words will always betray the viscera Im trying to get across. Id have to make it and show you, because we dont have the same snapshots in our minds of how it would be. itd be less about a story and less about rape and more about the ambient expressions of them.