Okay Listen I'm Really Happy That We Finally Are Getting Some Affordable LN Events And All, That's Really

It's Sugar Bowl Hetagame Jam Time!

We're all ready to go! Check my reblog of this post for the link to the information, because if I put a link in the tumblr post, Tumblr isn't gonna show it in the tags! :)

Anyway, we hope to see you there!

(photos via @snickers)

👀 I made this dumb thing for our dumb Guidebooks game

Do you guys make/made trailers for your games? I want to see them❤️

Me and my one diamond vibing waiting to see what the devs are gonna throw out next

Yknow this is one of my favorite parts from this story because yeah,

He has a point. A good one.

Is peace born from heavy restrictions and loss of free will even really peace? Or is it just keeping everyone in line and susceptible to control? We all know about Queen Elle and how she's a bit of a tyrant. Who benifits from this kind of thing most? Not the average person. If everyone in Miraland's free will was forcibly repressed like this, only those in control could really benifit from it. Lawmakers, leaders, royalty. Nidhogg was one of those people. But he saw the heavy restrictions everyone was under, and how that sort of thing could so easily be taken advantage of, I'm sure. How could he not?

For example, look at the Iron Rose. They steal designs, right? How do you have to solve issues in Miraland? Styling Battles. But the Iron Rose is full of elites, as we've been told many times before. The average person would never be able to win, thus creating a near flawless system where Elle is free to take whatever designs she pleases, only making herself stronger. This is tyranny at its finest. If you control the system, you win.

Now obviously Nidhogg's methods of fighting for freedom leave much to be desired. He's resorted to kidnapping, invasion, theft, and murder. None of which are okay, obviously. But bad practice doesn't make an idea any less valid. Every person deserves to be able to make their own choices, even if these choices do end in violence or bloodshed. Restricting free will is just immoral when you get down to it.

This interaction Post-Lunar is very important to the narrative's true identity coming to light. This story isn't about good vs. evil, peace vs. war, order vs. chaos; It isn't so black and white.

It's about Idealism vs. Realism.

Nikki is an idealist. Fully swept up in the idea that the pre-existing peace is wonderful and the best thing ever. After all, Nikki is from earth where bloodshed and violence are essentially a daily occurrence. Who wouldn't wish for a bloodless paradise? We do, however, get to see a little bit of her idealist nature breaking down in reflection in her dreamweaver, but that's a different story altogether. This is why her characterization can be seen as lackluster, there's much more focus on her idealistic nature and blind faith in the system than there is on any other character traits she may posess. It's important for her to be seen as a simple idealist.

Nidhogg, on the other hand, being born and raised in Miraland, is our realist. He's seen what the restrictions of the blood curse can do and be used for, and he's decided it's time to end it. We've seen it get used and abused to target and take advantage of people with weaker styling skills time and time again, but it's never really focused on at all, save for Lunar's encounter with Mela. The fact that Nidhogg allowed Nikki to try and style battle him as opposed to attacking was probably an example that the system was flawed and could easily be abused. After all, we all know how we had to lose to him 15 hecking times because of his cheat skill that nerfed our points. He was not only trying to win, but also trying to break down Nikki's idealistic veil. When he refuted Lunar's assertions about fate, he was essentially once more opposing the system. The system says you can't do this, so you can't. That's no way to live, for him. Nidhogg is fighting for a world where everyone is fully free to choose their own paths, even if those paths lead to violence or bloodshed. To him, oppression is worse than death.

Now, as to where Nikki's friends fit into this, that's a bit more complicated. Most of them seem to be leaning a bit more towards realism, yet they follow and support Nikki. This is a case of the "weak" flocking to and following the "strong." After all, not a single one of them has managed to beat Nikki in a styling contest. She's irrefutably the strongest in this case, and they know it, considering you can see them turn to Nikki immediately whenever there's an issue that needs to be solved via styling.

As well as that, she's also a figure of idealist hope. If Nikki can make it work in Miraland, surely everything is fine, right? The system is fine and there's no issues, right? Yeah. After all, look at Nikki! Winning for peace and morality! If peace and morality can prevail in this world, then everything's okay!

But everything's not okay.

Just because someone strong seems to be fighting for peace and morality doesn't make the world safe. We know this. Nor does it make the restriction of free will moral. The fact that Nikki exists in Miraland at all is essentially a fluke. Queen Narini brought her there to "help change the world's fate," the true meaning of which we've yet to see. Miraland's system thrives off of the peaceful veil and complacent attitudes that idealism creates. If Nikki had never come to Miraland, what would have happened? Chances are, most things would have gone nearly the same, just without Nikki's presence. Think about it, Nikki has never changed the outcome of any large issue. (In the story we have right now, I'm fully aware of what happened on 4 dreams, but that was different. Bobo is her friend, of course she would have power there.) She can't. She's sticking too hard to her idealistic nature, hoping and believing that everything will be alright. In essence, Nikki is passive in nature, while Nidhogg and his allies are active in nature. And activity will trump passiveness every time.

Nikki's existance is a blinder to those who follow her. Her idealistic outlook and slew of wins definitely make it seem like there could be a place for the existing system to stay in Miraland.

But there's really not. At least, not the way it is now.

It's too easily extorted. Want to win? Take people's designs and cloth. Now they're powerless to stop you. At least in a real fight a person could still resort to using their fists or their surroundings to fight back, or even certain strategies.

So now we come back around to Nidhogg. If there's one thing we can say about him, it's that he's strong-willed. Who else would willingly bear tons of pain just to fight for the freedom of those who'd sooner see him dead than accept his help? If he'd gone about it differently somehow, I'd be pretty comfortable saying he could have stayed a protagonist. But, the thing is, he didn't really have a choice.

Nidhogg's situation is very "damned if you do, damned if you don't." If he had stayed quiet and complacent in his role as Prime Minister, he would have to watch people get taken advantage of daily by the system, knowing that there's a better way, but not having the will to change it. Everyone would still love him, but I have a feeling he'd grow to hate himself and his inactivity.

But if he followed the path of freedom, people would need to die. People would need to get hurt. People would hate him for everything he did, no matter what he did. No matter his motives. No matter if there were other options or not.

Did he really have to kill Lunar? No, not really. But Lunar was ready to fight him. Even if he'd tried to settle things without bloodshed with her, she probably would have attacked him anyway. So in the end, he really didn't have a choice. He knew how it would seem. He's fine with being "the bad guy." Because the bad guy is the one opposing the system.

Nidhogg is a very morally grey person, and he knows it. He accepts it. But he also knows the flaws of the system he's fighting, and to him, those outweigh his own flaws and his own mistakes and immoral actions. He wouldn't be able to understand someone like Nikki, so complacent and idealistic under such a truly oppressing system.

In order to make ripples, someone has to throw the first stone. That's how it always is with change. Someone has to speak up first, and sometimes, those who need the change the most will hate them for it. Because they don't even realize that they need it in the first place. A society like Miraland's does a good job of creating an illusion of stability and peace, so much so that I'm sure most citizens don't even think twice about the fact that what they are allowed to do in order to solve problems is limited to one thing, else they'll experience horrible pain. It almost sounds dystopian when you think about it.

So basically Nidhogg has a really good point and I really hope the writers don't throw it away just to show that Nikki is moral and good and wonderful and all things can be solved peacefully!

Because sometimes they can't, whether we like it or not.

I know what Bobo said afterwards but honestly Nidhogg has a point and I am pretty sure he is implying something else we don’t know about yet. Such a cool and nice chapter, it’s just a shame that Ransa doesn’t have a talksprite.

I'm so excited for the upcoming jam!! Will y'all be doing annual jams from now on?

I'm glad you're excited! I'm pretty excited too, hopefully it'll end up being an enjoyable time for all involved! ^^

As far as hosting annual jams goes, that's really situational and depends on a lot of things that we don't know yet. For example, I've hosted before, but the other two haven't, and it may end up becoming too stressful or unenjoyable for one or both of them to where they wouldn't want to host again. It also depends on how many jam participants we end up getting, how well what we've planned goes over, whether or not the time frame ends up being a bad one, if someone else claims our ideal time frame before we can in the future, etc.

There's also some things that are rather case-by-case. Because we could plan to host again next year, let's say, but if someone's schedule suddenly becomes hectic, we'd either have to work around it, host without them, or cancel.

In the end we just really aren't sure, because in a way if you change anything at all, (which you probably want to, to try and find the most stable formula to create a fun, low stress experience for everyone,) each jam is sort of like hosting for the first time, but with just a bit more knowledge going in.

It could also depend on the general opinion of the jammers on how well we hosted. If our jam finishes and everyone feels we've done nothing but create a trainwreck, then chances are low of us hosting again, at least until we can get a solid idea of what we did wrong and try to figure out how to avoid it at all costs in the future.

So basically in the end all I can say is "we'll see when we get there." Personally, I'd love to host a jam every year if that were possible, but it may not be, we can't say for sure, yet.

My Published Hetagame Masterlist

I decided this should probably be my first hetagame-related post that I make right now since I know I have an (outdated) page full of information and links to my games BUT you can't find that on mobile and I'm too lazy to edit that right now SO I'll do my best to keep this list up to date This list is gonna contain both my solo projects and group projects I worked on.

#1 is Child's Garden This was a group project between myself, @unlimited-trash-spill @sanctuaryofstars and @noizy-bunny Game page description: Go on a little misadventure with a group of kids trying to save their beloved kindergarten from closing for good! Hijinks include launching traitors off into the sky, stealing a random bike to avoid responsibility, getting your parents arrested and more all the while trying to raise funds! Do you think you have what it takes to jump on this crazy bandwagon in hopes of making enough money to save the kindergarten? And their pudding! Never forget the pudding. The game has a warning for serious topics taken lightly, since all of the main characters are children, after all. There's also two mentioned ships which consist of two of the pairs of parents in the game, FrUK and AusHun.

deviantart.com

[Hetagame Reupload] Child's Garden (Demo) by DeathSquadOfficial on DeviantArt

#2 is Guidebooks (See the game page description for the full name I'm not typing all that lmao) This was another group project between the same people as above. Game page description: 17-year old Ludwig Beilschmidt has been invited on a camping trip by his friends Matthew, Ivan, and Kyle! He agrees, and soon enough finds himself at the campsite where the four boys intend to spend a week getting closer to nature and just having fun! The only problem is, this is Ludwig's first time in the woods. Ever. He's always been more the sort to stay home and review flash cards, rather than go outside and explore. On top of that, it turns out that Matthew isn't that great at keeping Ivan and Kyle in line. That sort of thing was usually his brother Alfred's job, who's been banned from coming with them due to Alfred-brand shenanigans. So it seems that this trip has already started out badly. Can they pull it together and end up having a fun time? Or will this camping trip end up going south? Find out in "My Friends Invited Me to go Camping, but My Only Experience Is Reading Guidebooks!" The only thing worthy of a "content warning" is that there's swearing so if you don't like that be aware ig The game contains no ships, but speaking of the game I made a dumb stupid trailer for it that's linked on the game page and I'd be very happy if you guys checked that out I worked really hard on it at the time.

deviantart.com

[Hetagame] Guidebooks (Complete) by DeathSquadOfficial on DeviantArt

#3 is Apple Butter This group project was only between myself and @unlimited-trash-spill. Game Page Description: A short and relaxing Ukraine-centric game made within 14 days by Maple and Cune. Grow apples on your farm and pick them! Cook some delicious food!  Go shopping for more ingredients! Feed your ghost friends (at the graveyard)! Chat with your neighbors and coworkers! Help preparing for the town festival!

The only thing really worthy of a 'content warning' is one of the ghosts gives brief description of the situations leading to his death at one point, that involves fire. He doesn't go into detail, but it's there nonetheless. This game also has no ships in it.

deviantart.com

Apple Butter (hetagame) by DeathSquadOfficial on DeviantArt

Now we're getting to my solo games So technically speaking I have two currently published games but one of them is old and bad and I'm currently working on a reboot so please ignore that one thank you.

#4 is Freedom This one was a solo project that I decided to see if I could make in six days. And I did. So that's a thing. Game page description: Alfred is standing in a dark room. How did he get there? There's no way of telling. Where is he? There's no way of knowing. How long does he have to escape? Ten minutes. And it's your job to get him out.As far as warnings go, this game was made for halloween, so there's what you'd expect from a halloween game, mostly blood and cursing. Uhhhh yeahhhh that's it

deviantart.com

Freedom [Short Halloween-ish Hetagame] by MapleSweater on DeviantArt

This page will be expanded as I/we eventually put out more games.

The Adventures of Unamused Boy part 7-1

Wow I'm still trying to do this, huh? Yep. Yep I am. Anyway here we go. Part 7.

Also I am confused as to why my nikki doesn't show up as my avatar in my own style diary anymore buuut whatever

Also also this is 7-1 because I wanted to post the captions seperately from the full images as seen below but hey guess what image limit yay

So this part will be in two parts and from now on I'm not doing this again because tumblr is picky

Also for a 3rd also the 50 character limit in SC is killing me

I finally fINishEd this HELL SUIT I am the

win ner

Hahahahaaa take that

This suit is

In my opinion the least worth it suit in the game because It's a hell suit but the prize is so bad

But I needed to make it for Nikki's Dreamweaver so I am accomplished now yee

So I'm sure others will come along and get better scores

This is within the first hour of the new chapters being available after all

But I just wanted to share my

First ever top 5 score

On a maiden quest or otherwise

I feel so accomplished???? Highest I've ever gotten was top 50 and that was still within the first few minutes of a new chapter being up.