TheRedStranger

I can already imagine creepy Joe Biden having a heart attack at this hilarious loophole. Shootie hands, the ultimate spoopy ghost gun. 🤣

Oh! I know what you are talking about now. I thought they went by a different moniker than “original” though. *Checks link* To answer that, yes - they can easily fit. In fact, I believe any delving into the between area of Blast to The Past and Season One requires some form of series of mentors. Children just don’t learn how to hack, fight, and infiltrate, let alone sustain themselves and a hidden society all by their own. There are ten years worth of character and story here that Satam could have explored with more past-focused lore-heavy episodes. Here is the rub though, you basically have two timelines to work with. Sonic saved a key adult figure in Rosie, and that one life will eventually change everything via a butterfly effect. Other adults besides Rosie could have been saved by her information of Mobotropolis for example, or because she could manage resources, or provide a needed service like medical care. These mentors may be gone in Time Line A, but somehow be back somewhere in Timeline B somehow. Heck, even vice versa. With Satam’s forked time line, they have the opportunity to create a fifth dimensional story arc for characters, like in the movie Frequency or Back to The Future, ect. This adds a really fun wrinkle to Sonic and Sally’s character, given they could possibly remember both timelines, though they seemed shocked Rosie was back. I leave the fourth dimensional epistemology up to you all creatively. There is too much fun stuff to ignore this possibility, way too much. As for their individual characters, they would need a more Satam coat of paint in affect. This means less on the nose arcs and subtext. Satam respected its audience enough to treat them as young emerging adults rather than mere children, most of the time. Any betrayal by Trey will be expected and comes off as boring. Everyone expects the “I'm a snake; it's totally in my nature” species trope from a Snake Mobian. It’s okay to have those tropes with orcs and corrupted monster races in a story, sure. But, seeing mobians “species” is more an ethnicity than an ancestral ontology, let’s flip the script sometimes to show their bad cultural flaws are not ubiquitously baked inside them all. Trey seems to not have the military background that the others seem to have, especially Colonel Stripes. In real life, much unlike a lot of writing by left leaning artists like Penders, who subconsciously (and more consciously nowadays) bend their stories to a slight pro-federalism, government and bureaucracy types frankly do more objective and empirical evil, for example look at the anti-private-sector fascist and communist governments of the 20th century in our world. Stalin’s five year plans killed a lot more innocent people than a Ford Pinto or a Chipotle burrito afterall. I personally hate when “private agents” get crapped on and it’s a bad subtext all around implication wise to generalize villian tropes on the basis of career background. With all that said, I would recommend making Trey a more complex character, perhaps motivated by his own prosperity to some extent, but becomes a victim of Robotnik’s authoritarianism. Simple surprise fix to do is reverse his arc. Maybe he starts out a nasty selfish hearted Objectivist, that learns his boss cornering the market through the coupe is bad for business. He hates dealing with the meddling current regime in his line of work, maybe demilitarization means legislation that will destroy his livelihood even after he did contract work for what he sees as the hypocritical and ungrateful royal family, much like a real PMC do with governments that disavow them during the coming next election cycle. He has debts, Han Solo style debts from Jabba the Hutt style debtors. Now all he earned for himself is in the chopping block because of a narrow vote or monarchial dictate. To him, Acorn his already a dictator, better to have one that lets you eat and keeps you out of a very painful default in some heavy debts. And so, he is an early enactor of the coupe. I like the idea that Trey then could not be roboticized even after the coupe, due to the Roboticizor not being tested on many reptiles. He tried to trick him in one, and it failed. So Buttnik casually lied about the incident, and had to use him in a different way until he figured it all out, and used the anomaly as a way to tweak his methods. You could even have Trey as having medical needs that Robotnik promised to help with (and Acorn’s policies made unaffordable). He experiments on him in a way that helps give us legionization or badniks. Long story short, having him start a bounty Hunter to Robotnik and betraying him for better prospects in a world without his centralized control. Ironically you can turn over his betrayal in a dramatic way. And gives you a socio-philosophical spring board to talk about a lot political ideas in a what that is much more nuanced than a lot of those writers that follow into that Hollywood tradition of making the corporate guy (you know the people who made the phone or PC you are probably reading this on) the absolutely evil monopoly guy, while still critiquing and cross-paring more morally debatable right-wing perspectives like pure, hard objectivism. Don’t expect that from extreme partisan self-caricatures like Penders though. I will share my thoughts on the others, but I want to tennis ball Trey around because he needs the most sculpting into something fresh, and perhaps ironically has the most potential.

I am a bit of a soft Satam purist and not incredibly invested into Archie. But I do have one strong opinion, X. Bunnie and Antoine do not have any chemistry. In fact in season two we see she has some deep deep frustration with him. In the episode with the nasty hyenas, he comes off outright mean and condescending to Bunnie, betraying contempt, perhaps due to her station. His creepo kissy fascination with “My Princess” Sally and disdain of Bunnie reveals some possible snobby prejudice. To keep to point, to fit in any relevant Satam context plots pertaining to their relationship would have to be given to someone else, or a major arc would be needed to transition him into something less well...classist? @MoKat@Mike Arcade What do you think? @Akessel92 You have a lot of Archie under your belt, what about you? And @SonicSatamX93 question in general?

How did they get that look? How did they get that sound? How did they make that song, graphic, or from where did that iconic idea come? Those questions are asked a lot by young developers inspired by past game design. Here is where we answer those general questions. When making a retro style game especially, to have verisimilitude, one must consider these resources and aesthetics in order to make a genuine product. There are many games out their that feign a nostalgic look, yet just don’t hit right. I strange mixed example of this would be Undertale. The sound fonts are from original Nintendo games music files, and have a classic retro sound that is true to that aural aesthetic, yet the visuals are deeply disconnected from this. They have an appearance of retro simplicity but are crude compared to the rich detailed spriting of many games from that era. To do better, to make a more genuine aesthetic experience, here is where we catalogue, link, and discuss resources to help with making your work in both visuals, story, and music.

Sega just cannot really capitalize on their products can they? I might be biased, but Cheeze would probably be better product design designer and marketing guy than whoever they have. XD And yes...he was a village burner when he had those sticky hands. I remember him slapping people in car rides after we left the local Mexican restaurant, where he bought let them from a bubble gum machine. 🤣

Ready for tabletop tonight, boyz? @Mike Arcade

Thoughts so far from the Demo?

I was there back then, and I want to see your ideas realized. As for character design, I really do recommend Z Brush. Personally for my music I use Logic X. But unless you want to plunk down for a Mac, you will need to get something else. Matt is a pretty successful music developer (he actually did intro music for Howard Stern of all people), I will contact him and give him his music setup. What are you looking to really “DIY” and what do you want to outsource? Music, design, and programming are very disparate skills, and it’s always good to get help with one developing aspect here or there. The big challahs of game design, like movies and large creative projects like comics, is delegation. It’s the most important talent you must develop.

That makes me concerned that it will be disjointed, a multiverse perspective ultimately cheapens a plot on fundamental philosophical level. Hard Multiverse Theory basically states all our choices really don’t matter, it’s all a random number generator where all potentials are actualized anyways. You make no significant cosmic differences to existence as existence allows all the negative alternatives anyways. Heros cannot never be heroic then, the struggle of good and evil meaningless. You can possibly do alternatives and avoid this background philosophical nihilism. But seeing how these things go...I doubt the lore will be rich enough to justify alternative Sonics in a way them makes them distinct movers and characters. I expect aesthetics over substance and a chasing of that choppily-animated (and overated) Spider-Man movie I never liked.

@Wulfsbane- Give this man 10 points. This is brilliant. We should seriously make one for the writing, design, and game design area for this. Be funny to make one for the music area too. I would love to see someone make the Sonic music for Brown Bread Zone. 😅

I just finished James Luceno’s Darth Plagues and Matthew Stover’s redemption of a flawed movie, the novelization of Star Wars Episode Three: The Revenge of The Sith. Darth Plagues is a tenebrous romp into the seedy underbelly of Star Wars lore. Where the prequels leave you in mysteries where nothing is solved and plot holes seemingly abound, both books respectively show you how the sausage is made, and fills the jarring gaps of the films, which were by way of their filmic trilogy nature were limited in their expression of some seriously respectable lore. In Darth Plagues the messy first draft jumble of Phantom Menace is bandaged up and molded (and a bit lampshaded) into a more cohesive narrative. We see how the Sith used all political ideologies respective weaknesses to their advantage, the rigging a privatized galactic banking system to gain increasing hegemony over a overly bureaucratic galactic senate. Both red tape and lawlessness are deftly manipulated by the charismatic upstart Palpatine (Darth Sidious) while his new master Plagues carries out an ancient evil plan from the shadows. So much of the politics is explained and embraced in a game of conspiracy, espionage, and wet works dripping with blood and venom. Luceno’s prose is freshly Latinate and erudite and flows well from the minds of his adroit characters and offers a novel juxtaposition from the zippy action-oriented focus of the traditional films. You feel like you are sitting aside Thrawnian mastermind perspective over their flashing of blisters and lightsabers, yet all the more eldricht in its approach. The betrayals, the missing links connected, and the new depth you discover about old favorite characters will enrich your Star Wars experience, especially when it comes to the prequels. They only moderate flaw I see with the work is that it feels rushed at the end and deserved to be more than one book. Some plot lines seem to not be fully closed, one whole beginning-chapters character, for example, is literally on pause. There is. Sort of sequel called Maul , but I already know it should have been two books instead of one. Plagues-focused first and then perhaps a more Sidious focused one second. Sadly that is the way of corporate publishing of such a big IP with so many cooks in the kitchen, I can get a since of corporate bureaucracy hurrying the plot along about the end. Overall though this is made up for a bit by making Syfo Dias and Dooku’s characters be more than one dimensional plot points to further a plot, they are given presence and arcs upon the page. As for Star Wars Episode Three, it really dominates the movie hands down. Dooku is fleshed out and his perspective given time to reveal, and Grevious is not a laughable goon with a wussy cough, but a soulless and graceless reflection of the coming Darth Vader . We get to climb into a fearful and doubting Anakin’s mind, and his descent into desperation and corruption in order to save his child and wife is given a more sweeping arc. The Jedi are way less dull and stupid, their dumber actions in the Lucas script lampshaded by Stover writing them as more weary and dogged of Palpatine and certain political mechanizations more detailed in the novel’s plot. Yet this is more aptly toned to Star Wars than Luceno’s more villainous spy-thriller vibe. The flash-Gordon bombast and heroism flashes across the page in dog fights in space and saber fights on warring capital ships. But this fades slightly with later. Sidious looses some trademark cheese that makes him absolute cinema-redeeming fun in the movie. He is instead much more chilling and subversive, and given a more Flemming-esque makeover. He is still larger than life but not in a truly in your face kind of way. Which if both counter points were reconciled, would be absolute perfection to behold. Sidious in the novel has the robust peanut butter , but Sidious in the movie has the sugary junk-foody chocolate. Someone should have mixed them up. Another example is the ending lightsaber fight and an many ways the other more martial fights. Stover adds the technical perspectives and internal drama of the fights into them, which makes them uniquely novelic, and gives us the film version cannot in such deeper character perspectives. Yet the film does do better in showing warriors external complex martial prowess (in many ways too much to the point of some technically showy and soulessness drawn out fight scenes). If Stover made the fights more visceral and martially-minded, diving into each juke and parry with more tension and stake-description, I think it would be another example of perfect synthesis. Sadly, nothing can redeem the needless plot point from the movie script on Utapau that led Obiwan on a carbon copy goose chase from episode two, and served no ultimate purpose but to enrich the villains. It makes Obiwan a useless character in the middle of the story. Grevious in retreat has no meaning as it does not pose any ticking time bomb or big existential threat, it merely prolongs a war Sidious wants to speed up (and would have done anyways by killing the backers of the war on Mustafar). He could and should have easily been a destructive and agenda-ruinous wildcard for both Sidious and a corrupted Anakin and the Jedi Order alike, and both a omen and lesson for a more sauve death machine to come, Darth Vader, in his defeat. Even though both him and Dooku seem to be particular apotheosis of Vader, this subtext does not chain into the plot in any actual and concrete way. The whole Grevious plot line sadly could not be relocated in a more cohesive manner to the story as a whole, but at least Dooku is not just a quickly decapitated waste of a cameo by the late great Christopher Lee in this rendition. And of course, Padame still feels like cheesy Hallmark cringe in some moments. Every love scene with her still oozes with N element of the film’s corniness. Its not how people who love each other really talk and comes off weird and alien sometimes. It feels like a parody depiction of love when expressed directly, though in Anakin’s ruminations it feels more heady and emotional than melodrama of Padame, who feels rather useless to the plot in an active way in her more mandatory from-the-script scenes. She partially has descended into a trope of a pregnant damsel alongside Anakin, which are all script-mandated scenes, yet treated more like an active counter to Sidious in new scenes and scene extensions in which Stover has boldly claimed his creative license. Overall, I recommend both books to any fan of Star Wars, even if not devoted in your love of the brand. If you must read one, read Plagues. But Revenge of The Sith will help to mend your jaded disposition of the Star Wars prequels. Both also flow really well into each other.

There is a lot of buzz on this one. @Nagolcan you do an update on this one for everyone? Oh, and are you going to LP this? You make the ideal choice to crack wise from the POV of a character like Kevin.

How do you think the Custom Character idea could have been improved?

Updates?

I heard ol Robuttnik himself really likes the script. Excited to see what comes of it.

To me preaching to someone’s kids about politics is like rushing to talk to them about sex, possibly even before their parents do. It’s taboo, almost always wrongly motivated, and can get creepy fast, even exploitatively manipulative. Most children swallow up what they see concretely and without abstract nuance. We don’t develop abstract thought until typically early adolescence anyways. For example, if I ask a eight year old if he could lift a feather that weighs 500 pounds, he would most likely say, “no, feathers don’t weigh 500 pounds.” If you do this to someone typically around 13, they suddenly will start saying something like: “If that existed, probably no. It would be heavy and dangerous to touch.” That person is able to abstract much better and consider principles and ideas properly. However, if you say...depict politician X as a evil monster, they will either feel typically two ways, mad, sad, or confused you insulted someone their family may like, and take it as an attack on them; or, they can more literally believe that X is a monster, which helps stimulate ironically the toxic trend we have of demonizing others that think differently than ourselves, which in a modern democracy is hugely counterproductive, and individual life potentially ruinous. You can make a powerful psychological argument, that “woke” cartoons actually are very exploitative of children due to their reactive perspective, or, the more abstract themes will be critically missed entirely, perhaps unwittingly accepted wholesale. And isn’t that the textbook definition of propaganda? It is a form of media designed to be unwittingly accepted by the masses, typically to the point of exploitation, for the benefit of entrenched power group. It is very possible to talk about moral themes to children, bigger and more timeless moral concepts. Star Wars does this excellently. For example, Vader and the Dark Side teaches us that dark feelings like hate, fear, and anger can lead you to being consumed by evil. Hate makes you powerful today, but at a great cost tomorrow. Compassion and redemption are greater virtues that overcome this, much like Luke did with his Father. Another golden example is Satam versus the preachy mess that is Captain Planet. Overall, nuance of ever shifting politics are the opposite of that, they are abstract application of moral ideas children have yet to develop. We must not waste our time trying to make children think the way we want them to think in 2021, but how to think for their own future. That takes altruism though...and I don’t see Hollywood as very altruistic to young people. Just ask young people who had to deal with Harvey Wienstine, Kevin Spacey, etcetera. Ideologically, they are a very creepily incestous little group, clinging onto the power that gained in the 20th century during mass media, and are loosing to a more free and equal social media. Most films and cartoons from the area are created in a 12 mile radius in crazy self-destructive San Francisco. I don’t expect children to get anything positive from that mess.

Are we doing another canon then?

Something you will find interesting @Sorzo: Listen to this. Then listen to this: Can you hear it? And do you get what Williams did here?

http://www.scpwiki.com/joke-scps It is titled, SCP-Evennumber-J

Mike has clearly failed you. I shall supply you one myself: http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-even-number-j @MoKat- you will have fun with this one.

Feel free to share more here for us. It is indeed easy low hanging fruit just to make joke-is-just-reference jokes. I recommend avoiding them non-ironically. Here is a good one. Would like to get in contact with the artists actually. https://youtu.be/VTeleM2qLyo

Is that proto-Ugandan Knuckles?! The missing link is found, either that or Knuckles had a stroke.

I think this one could be made into something pretty interesting with a little more fleshing out. I have an idea for one that is a self-help book that gives you exact personal advice on how to accomplish a life goal, but it always ends with unexpected results or the loss of skills. The more huburistic the person and salacious the desire, the more sleazy the self-help and lowbrow the book becomes on the cover, and the more of a fiasco it creates. The irony is the more limited in scope of advice sought the happier the end.