WOW HOLY HECK Welcome new folks!

So happy to see all these new faces joining our ranks of the Critters :) 

In all seriousness, HUGE thanks to Jasonafex for the shoutout and cross promo! I'll be doing a thing for him once my cross promo is done :> It'll be something we can all enjoy ;) - Until then, go check out the game his crew is making!  https://www.patreon.com/Jasonafex/posts 

I'm sure y'all are familiar with the quality of content they pump out, and if you aren't, click that link and just look at the banner! HOT DAMN~

Again, I'll be doing a proper cross-promo-review when my piece is done, I just wanted to give mad props for him reaching out about this Cross Promo thing AND making a lil trailer for us on twitter!

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Carrot Thoughts: SO this cross promo thing is something I've been ABSOLUTELY hoping to do ASAP! Networking/meeting new folks is like 25% of the fun of the art journey. And the shitty part about making a game, is you're so dang busy, you kinda forget to meet folks >->

In addition, I've noticed the current state of the Furry Fandom is quite separated. More recently we've all been struggling to find a place to call home, and it seems like Twitter has kinda taken that spot - despite it being an absolutely terrible "gallery" for artists. 

All the more so, once we introduce Patreon to the picture, it's even further segmented the fandom! Don't get me wrong, I'm SO grateful for the opportunities Patreon has provided. But the furry fandom in particular has been in disarray, and this new platform (One that promotes the individual, and exclusivity) ends up furthering the isolation in the fandom. (Not patreon's fault, simply the timing with the fandom)

Maybe that's just me. But I have a ton of friends these days that are very hard to keep up with because having things as "patreon-exclusive" can make stuff a lil' weird. And patreoning each other (throwing the same 5$ back and forth) actually ends up costing us money! It's not a lot, so it's a decent work around, but needless to say, the social aspects of it all are weird xD

SO! Since we actually FIRST started this project, it's been a huge goal of mine to help bring down some of that exclusivity, and opening the door to other projects that my fellow furry homies are pursuing! When jasonafex reached out to me about doing this, I was immediately onboard, and I've got a few other friends to be working with very soon =)

I wanna see a community where we're all stoked for each other's passion projects and pushing each other further and further. I know we wanna make some really ground breaking shit - And it's SUPER difficult to do on our own. The road ahead is so much easier with friends around :>

So yeah! The crosspromo/buddy system will continue! I've already got Jasonafex's banner on my main page of the patreon and there will be many more to come <3!

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OK finally let's talk about this picture I mocked up.

If you recognize it, YOU'VE PLAYED PERSONA 5! Congrats! That game FUCKS.

While I've been binge-ing it, the way their "response" design worked really stuck with me! We've got a very similar set of problems that we need to solve, that this particular UI satisfies like 95% of it. Obviously I won't be stealing this exact aesthetic, but it's awesome to see how this design solves a lot of our issues!

Our current response system has the choices on top of the screen. This "works" functionally. But doesn't exactly describe who's talking. It doesn't exactly direct where the player should be looking. AND the whole design/clarity of it is DEPENDENT on a buncha dumb effects like dropshadow/white text/AND multiply gradient layer. 

The later is ESPECIALLY the biggest reason why I'm not 100% into our current design. That's literally the concept of "Polishing a Turd" - You can spiffy it up to work, but fundamentally, it's not a strong UI Design.

In addition, doing something like this highlights a bit more of Rascal, and we can get a lil fancy with it (like persona 5 has occasional lil accent animations) for important stuff!

By having Rascal appear this way, this also becomes are FAR more demanding and engaging UI Design. It's obvious where we look, and it's obvious what the choices are. Persona 5 particularly does a really stellar job with clarity, but by going this direction, we don't have to rely on those dumb effects like before.

I'm stoked to mess with this and figure out a unique design that accommodates these qualities :> Should have it in next month's build! 

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OK that's it. Welcome again new folks! To those interested, make sure your Discord is hooked up!