@NovaSquirrel@chitter.xyz
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NovaSquirrel

@NovaSquirrel@chitter.xyz

I'm a hobbyist game developer who mostly focuses on old Nintendo consoles, but I've done projects on PC too.

I'm a furry and I like to make cute characters and also make games about them! Check out my Toyhouse to see my characters: https://toyhou.se/NovaSquirrel

I'd like to meet other people who like to do lighthearted, story-driven roleplay.

I post NSFW sometimes but I tag it, so please be 18+ if you follow.

Feel free to reach out if you have common interests and wanna be friends! [she/her]

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

NovaSquirrel, to random
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I really want to see new mascot-focused media that's NOT horror. It really sucks to have the thing I'm most passionate about wrapped up in something uncomfortable more often than not.

NovaSquirrel,
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Platformers are probably where I'm going to find the actually good sincere stuff, especially with the long history of platformer mascots that people still continue with sincerity, though it would be cool to see other genres too and things that aren't necessarily games

NovaSquirrel, to random
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It's very cool that there's been My Little Pony roleplay on Second Life recently, but I wish it would stop getting scheduled in a way that overlaps major downtown events so I don't have to leave them early

Or the next one looks like it'll overlap some holiday related family stuff, which is less ideal (maybe I'll be able to hop on my laptop? mystery)

Maybe I should just ask if we can start having events that aren't consistently at 3 PM on Sunday

NovaSquirrel,
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Okay the scheduling is specifically to make sure it's accessible to Europeans, which I can appreciate. I've been to lots of roleplay stuff where I felt like I couldn't properly participate because I'm in the Eastern time zone and I can't stay up to 3 AM when I've got work the next day.

NovaSquirrel, to random
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Here's some art I got today of Maffi as a toy, but also a Care Bear. It's part of an attempt to explore trying to find a form that's really euphoric but not erotic.

Art by https://x.com/luvporbol

NovaSquirrel, to Furry
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Trying to spread awareness again for Tilemap Town, my visual MU* and hangout: https://novasquirrel.com/town/

It's open source and has a documented protocol, and is designed around the idea of collaboratively designing 2D maps with other players. You can use custom graphics for map tiles, and custom player graphics (if you can make a 32x32 doodle of a character, you can play as them!)

I've been working on it since 2017 so the software has had a lot of time to mature, but I've had a hard time helping it find its audience. If anyone knows how to reach people interested in lighthearted SFW furry I'd really like to know. I'm also hoping to specifically establish fantasy themes if possible!

A mouse standing on a bridge between multiple small islands with buildings on them
A blue bunicorn standing outside some sort of library
A blue bunicorn standing near some buildings and some roads. There are some windows open showing an inventory, build tools, and mail.

NovaSquirrel,
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@kit That would be because it's a modern reimagining of an old BYOND genre; there used to be tons of games like this with varying levels of polish

NovaSquirrel, to random
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Fort Wayne had a really cool playground at Lawton Park which I liked going to because it had these really big wooden structures and felt kind of dense, like you were hanging out in a fortress of some sort.

Apparently it got torn down over the previous few months for an "upgrade" and I don't like it haha. It's so much less dense now and everything is smaller, and really feels like it's aimed at smaller kids.

Of course I still have the excellent Promenade Park which has its own very large cool structures but I don't feel weird hanging out there as an adult.

Photo of the same park, showing off some smaller structures, including one that looks like a little building
Photo showing off the same park but as it is now, made of metal and plastic instead of wood
Another section of the park as it is now, showing an area made for smaller kids

NovaSquirrel, to random
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I want to make game dev into a more social thing, but it's hard to find people wanting to talk about engine design and algorithms outside of an NES-specific context. Also a lot of people are very secretive anyway.

NovaSquirrel,
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@notimetoplay I actually already do this (referring to https://blog.novasquirrel.com/blog ) and it hasn't worked so far (people just favorite and don't respond to it), so I feel like you have to do it in a particular way

NovaSquirrel,
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@notimetoplay I'll have to give it a try

NovaSquirrel,
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@slembcke Thanks, I'll take a peek around!

NovaSquirrel,
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@slembcke I really like how your water wave simulation article invites you to go ahead and modify the code to see how it changes the result; that helps a lot with making it intuitive.

These are neat articles and I like seeing game dev stuff that's applicable to engineless games too. I didn't realize that custom allocators could help that much (though few of my projects have to take cache into account).

NovaSquirrel,
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@slembcke It's a lot easier to just say I'm not using a game engine than to try to change what people think of when they hear "game engine"

If it now normally means a huge complicated codebase meant to support every kind of game, then my games definitely do not use one of those, and I definitely do not make those

NovaSquirrel, to random
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I'm glad the Tamagotchi Connection rerelease means I'll have a Tamagotchi I can recommend people that doesn't have big strings attached like "isn't in English" or "is like $100+ on eBay" or "has almost nothing to do"

The Tamagotchi Pix is still easy to get and does seem pretty good, though the color ones seem like a very different kind of experience and also eat batteries fast. Being unable to pause except taking out the batteries isn't great either...

NovaSquirrel, to random
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Really funny aspect of giving my Neopet a sword is that it makes some dialog lines almost seem like they're threats. And lines that don't look like threats just seem extra silly.

A faerie Cybunny wearing a hat and holding a large sword on some sort of cliff. Underneath is dialog saying "It's not fair, I wanted the pink Uni!"

NovaSquirrel, to random
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I like magical girl stuff a lot and I want to get some intuition for how to write it so I can use it in roleplays. I'm guessing a lot of that is just making sure I have a lot of exposure to the genre while also trying to actually pay attention to tropes and how they do things, though adapting stuff from anime into a format that's purely text seems nontrivial. There's gotta be fanfics at the very least that I can look at to get a hint for how to approach that.

NovaSquirrel,
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@asie I wasn't sure if there would be novels in the genre or not (probably not for any series I'm familiar with?) so I'd have to go looking around. I would expect comics to generally just show rather than describe, though I have seen them just kind of narrate over stuff before.

NovaSquirrel,
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I specifically feel like there's actually a lot of potential in crossing magical girl stuff together with Care Bear stuff, and that's what https://toyhou.se/7023679.rosy-sky is meant to explore. It's something I'm really passionate about and I want to give myself the tools to really fully realize it. I have two other people who would want to play the role of other critters on her team and I think I could have a lot of fun!

For instance, take a look at this intro, which really feels like it has 80s anime intro vibes and "power of friendship/love" theming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lpeFfAA2LQ

NovaSquirrel, to random
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Catching up on MLP: Tell your Tale, and I can't tell if it suddenly got much more "magical girl" in presentation in the second season or if I'm just looking for it now.

They keep repeating character-specific rhymes, accompanied by magical looking effects (that sometimes just fill the whole screen and give it a different background for a moment).

NovaSquirrel, to random
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I feel like the combination of Neopets and Tamagotchi Connection v4 and v4.5 satisfy most of the stuff I want out of a virtual pet, which makes it a lot less urgent to try and make one myself, though I still think the ideas I had (revolving around trying to focus the whole thing around companionship, coziness, and directly interacting rather than just picking a menu item) would result in something distinct and very cute, so I still want to give it a go someday.

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