So like I used to like the idea of The Office Type. It wasn’t perfect, but I defended it for its well-meaning presentation. Then I kinda fell out of love with it for its (likely accidentally but still) racist caricatures and hadn’t heard from it in months.
Recently however, I got to thinking about it again, and wondered if it was still even in development after the massive backlash it got for the aforementioned racist character depictions (among a few other things). And to my surprise, it was!
And all I can say is… wow. They really stepped up their game and took the criticisms to heart, with I think great results.
The character designs are all varying even if they’re the same type (ex. The pencils, who were once all the same pink, yellow, green color scheme, are now all different).
The black characters have had all their previous aggressive demeanors and other stereotypical character traits removed, or incorporated into less “violent”, but still physical activities, like sports.
(Also they went from three hole punches to binders bc everyone thought people with three holes in them was just… stupid.)
The non-binary characters all now have more identity outside of being just “non-binary”, actually exploring the different genders under the nb umbrella, rather than just treating “non-binary” as a “third gender”.
The trans characters are also treated and designed respectfully and unfetishized (cough rcdart cough).
All in all, I’d say, despite a very rocky start, the people at Heavy Thoughts Studios have taken the criticisms of The Office Type’s early phases and applied them to the best of their ability. Hopefully this upward trend will continue, and The Office Type can be a respectable game depicting different LGBTQ elements.
Redemption arc
i reblogged this once but after checking out their website and the characters, not only do they have specific nonbinary identities that are fairly recently defined (such as demiboy/girl), but for the male/female options, some of them are also transgender! they also provide pronouns for the binary genders. Speaking of pronouns, some of the nonbinary characters also use neopronouns, and some characters are also fans of no pronouns at all.
like they really did put in a lot of effort and thats awesome
But what if half your ocs are softys and not made for fighting?
dating sim
this post changed the game
Hey btw if you don’t know how to program, you should check out [novelty], which is a free Visual Novel creation software. Absolutely no programming required, and it’s super easy to use, I played with it some when I was a teen but the only reason I didn’t do much with it is cuz I made my story complicated and had like 5000 different branching routes that kept spawning new routes and made myself confused LMAO
But yeah, it’s a WYSIWYG with a really straight-forward GUI, if I remember correctly.
It even comes with some free backgrounds and characters and stuff, and this is what it looks like:
Did I mention it’s super duper free? It hasn’t been updated since 2010, but it has basically all you’d need to make a simple visual novel.
Just make sure your DirectX runtime is updated, cuz it can act buggy if it’s outdated, but this program is so old that I doubt it’d even be an issue lol
We knew we wanted to launch our latest gaming feature, Indie Game Spotlight, with a game that would really get Tumblr excited. That’s why we’re kicking this off with the creators of Ooblets (@ooblets), one of the most adorable life simulation games around. You can collect creatures, enjoy town life, discover new crops, operate a farm and all your little Ooblets compete in dance battles. Naturally.
We spoke to writer and designer Ben Wasser and programmer and art director Rebecca Cordingley (@nonplayercat) to give you the low-down of their latest game, soon to be available on Xbox One and PC.
Ooblets is often described as a mix between Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon and Pokémon. What else inspired the game?
Ben: On the writing and tone, I took a lot of inspiration from things like Bee and PuppyCat, Adventure Time, and Steven Universe. Also, our battle system was inspired by a few RPG card games, like Monster Slayers, Card Quest, and Slay the Spire.
What was the most difficult thing the team faced while making the game?
Rebecca: This is always a hard one to answer because making games often involves millions of small difficulties that add up to a giant ball of problems. I think a lot of bigger isolated issues relate to trying to please everyone and all the various platforms, aspect ratios, controller layouts etc. They’re not the hardest issues to solve, but will often just involve busy work or good-enough solutions.
Game design issues are harder to solve because they involve a lot of grey areas and are never self-contained, and that’s where you end up with those giant balls of lots of little problems that you chip away at day by day.
What kind of advice can you give for anyone wanting to make an indie game?
Ben: Don’t wait for the perfect moment to start or think that you need other people to help you. You just have to start making stuff yourself with what you’ve got.
Rebecca:
Try to enjoy the process as much as the outcome / don’t become so focused on worrying about the finish line that you forget to enjoy making the game.
However hard you think making a game might be, multiply that by 10
Learn by doing!
If life were a video game, what would some of the cheat codes be?
Ben: I asked Rebecca for an answer to this and she just wrote “GOVERNMENTJOB TALLBOY” which I think are two separate cheat codes, one for getting a free cushy government job, and the other for her to be taller.
Which Ooblet would improve the world most if it existed?
Ben: I’m gonna have to go with Pantsabear.
Rebecca: Tud! She has a sweet little froggy soul.
When will the game be available?
We’re hoping to launch sometime in 2019. We’re still too far out for a good estimate, but it would be awesome if we could do earlier in the year opposed to later!
Need this game? Ooblets will be available on Xbox One and Steam when it’s ready to launch. Follow @oobletsto stay tuned for all the updates.
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