Learning Adobe After Effects And Wanted To Try And Put Some Of That To Work On My Recent Moon Presence.

Piper

character by @milleart

Maggie Robertson (voice of Lady Dimitrescu) dramatically reads journal entries about the creation of her daughters. Nicole Tompkins on the right is the voice of Daniela :) [x]

Hawta Mahmood

The sign hung awkwardly, nailed to the trunk of an old, warped tree.

“the woods are full”

They tossed it aside as they made their way to the camp site, never questioning what the woods might be full of, or who had written the sign. They’d look back on that moment, later.

All I do is take pictures of other people's characters

one thousand moths in bloodborne coat dot png

something about horror as a genre is very inherently similar to romance, but it’s differently romantic. it’s like if romance could be compared to a rabbit, then horror is a hare. a hare is the same shape-ish as a rabbit, but it’s different; it’s upturned and eerie and comes at you from a sideways angle.

i think this connection between the two genres is the presence of love. love as a concept. romance is the genre that beautifies love, and horror is the genre that explores love in ways that aren’t beautiful. horror is the monstrosity of love gone sour, or the absence of love, or the emotions that the intensity of love and pain birth. slasher horror is monstrous obsession, while existential horror always has a narrative that makes you rethink what love means, what being human means. just like romance.

sorry if this makes no sense but i’m willing to talk about this if others discourse politely!

blasphemous tidbits

the architecture in blasphemous was based on the architecture of seville

cvstodia is spelt so even outside of the in-game font

francisco goya’s art allegedly also gave the makers inspiration

the idea for blasphemous started when the creative director and CEO & producer of blasphemous talked about “how a game using cultural references from the Spanish folklore solely would look like in the eyes of an international audience”

the “fourth boss was particularly challenging to design [artistically or programming-wise], and there is a lot going there lore-wise.” (i don’t know which they mean by fourth boss)

many and much of blasphemous’ characters and lore were inspired by 16th c. and 17th. c. legends of seville

the creative director and level designer are big fans of berserk

the makers of blasphemous plan to add free DLCs and further content in the future, incl. kickstarter stretch goals and expanding the story

the makers may consider adding a spanish dub of the game in a later patch (english voiceover was a specified kickstarter stretch goal and they had no money left for funding a spanish dub)

the penitent one wears a senbenito. penitents during the spanish inquisition wore these conical hats as punishment while processioning through the streets

seville, the makers’ home city, was the headquarters for the spanish inquisition (explains a lot)

animations were not made by rotoscoping. blasphemous had multiple animators, each with their own style and method. one animator actually recorded himself practising sword martial arts as a guide (although it was not used for rotoscoping)

ideas such as teleporting to enemies, double jump, and multiple dashes were discarded as they wanted the penitent one to feel “weighty”

they experimented with a holdable block but removed it because they felt it encouraged passivity and removed tension from combat

the parry is an “exploration” tool, encouraging players to learn about different enemies’ attacks and timing, and decide how best to defeat an enemy

“exploration + risk/reward was a big part of our [gameplay mechanic] decisions“

castlevania symphony of the night was a huge inspiration, and doom was a (lesser) inspiration for the combat part of the game

the level designer likes cinemassacre, mark brown and jim sterling, and loves no man’s sky. apparently the team watches every single video of mark brown’s lol

coding crisanta was “specially hard” as she has many different states and animations

“Every part of the lore and dialogues were made individually and not as a whole.“

the makers of blasphemous have 200+ animations of the penitent one

the level designer loved bloodstained and said they would be up for a crossover thing with the developers of bloodstained if the opportunity came up

the most blasphemous thing that has happened is one of their producers made a t-shirt of some cool concept art of blasphemous, “disgracing” it. the t-shirt is apparently really ugly

they found it difficult to convey the penitent one’s feelings because of the helmet, so they tried to convey it through animations. they said feeling was important and that the penitent one is feeling a lot throughout the game

the music composer was inspired by dark ambient music and ancient flamenco, and experimented with several middle-age instruments and electronic synth

blasphemous’ combat is not actually based on dark souls at all, “at least not consciously”

every time you have fallen onto spikes and died, it has been a necessary cost to make death and the penitent one feel physical and real in-game (rather than, say, appearing at the edge of the spike pit with less health). or so i interpret this

the shape of the Tears of Atonement and that the Penitent One sketches with blood, etc. is based on the pose of the Twisted One

they are going to add map zoom

level design was done by testing again and again and again by trial-and-error and using iteration

it was difficult for them to get the feel of hitting an enemy to be satisfying but it was also important to them to get it right

info gathered from news updates on the blasphemous steam feed and from a blasphemous AMA on reddit

What to Remember as You Sit on Your Porch

You are not alone. Something is beneath the old wooden boards; it has always been there. Sometimes, if your eyes are quick enough, you might see its long, jagged fingers poking through the cracks in the porch boards, reaching for your boots. Keep an eye out, do not let them get too close. 

Be aware of the sounds you hear. Something might very well be sneaking up on you. Keep your ears sharp.

Noises from beyond the treeline should be considered with a grain of salt. Do not move from your place at the sound of a scream, that is how they lure you in. Not all screams are screams and not all laughter is joyful. 

Play music loudly and often. Whether it be from your guitar or your ancient radio, the noise will distract you from the insane chorus beyond your property. 

I know you might think that the noise might draw unwanted attention but be assured; whatever is out there has already seen you. It knows you are there. All you can do now is drown out its voice. 

Should someone approach you, watch their feet. If you can’t see any, get your shotgun ready. 

There will be a figure standing at the treeline. I will save you the trouble of finding out, yes it is wearing a sheet and yes it is watching you. Try your best to ignore it, it shouldn’t come any closer, but should you find yourself dragged towards it, be sure you are laden with rolls of string. 

Extend no kindness to any creature that drags itself to your steps. It may seem cruel to turn away a wounded stray dog but when the thing sheds its skin to stand at its full height (the young stand a good 8ft) and shrieks at you in your mother’s voice, you will know you did the right thing. 

The light from your porch acts like a beacon in a storm and many will follow it to your door. You will see many things that have loped their way through the woods, things that do not belong here. It is at your discretion how you treat them but be wise and do nothing for free or out of kindness. You do not want any of the things to be in your debt, lest they return to repay you. 

Post-cosmic-horror apocalypse surreal exploration simulator