Category: Uncategorized

By Brooklyn Aitken

Our group project was titled The Outback Way. It was a fairly simple linear moving boardgame that took a lot of inspiration from the (also boardgame) Tokiado. Our game involved going from Perth Australia and moving to Cairns. The group consisted of Dylan Brummel, Max Williamson, and Richard Liu. The division of labour was Dylan handling mechanics and themes, Max was in charge of board design and did the prestation at the end, And Richard worked on marketing and playtesting. 

https://dylanbgameexperience.wordpress.com – Dylan

https://maverickwillomax.wordpress.com/ – Max

https://epicmoviereviews369067971.wordpress.com/2022/05/13/my-role-in-the-outback-way/ – Richard

For anyone wondering about Tokiado the game we based ours off: Tokaido was designed by Antoine Bauza and was released in 2012. In the game, each player is traversing the ‘East sea road’, one of the most important roads of Japan. As it connects two of the largest cities. While traveling, you meet people, eat traditional meals, collect souvenirs, collect cards to complete the panoramas, and visit temples, all to gain the most points and therefore win. The more things you do/buy the more points you gather and the more likely you are to win. 

Tokaido doesn’t have much narrative which in some senses can be good, you don’t have to worry about what this character says about you, or whether or not you connect with them. This left me feeling a bit empty though, where is the drama? when I played the game I was telling people that my character moonlighted as a samurai because I really wanted some backstory. As creative writing student that makes sense. I wanted to know why these people were traveling cross country and what shenanigans these characters could get into. This is why I expanded on the characters the way I did. I decided to not only conceptualise our characters but also to make a few come to life by cosplaying as them. The two I picked were The Runaway Bride and The Youtuber. The YouTuber was a bit easier, I wanted to give 2015 tumblr hipster vibes, hence the aviators and felt hat. I didn’t want to spend a large amount of money though and so I started looking for wedding dresses in op-shops, the one closer to my house was so small that it maybe would have fitted on my thigh, shout out to child brides though, I guess. It was 120 dollars and that included a veil but there was no way it would fit so I went to another op-shop. This one had one that would fit me but was 140 dollars which was out of my budget. I spent the next few days contacting people as well as other op shops and looking online but unfortunately, I had to buy the dress… Then they made me buy a carry bag!

So all together I spent about 235 dollars. Whilst that is a lot of money to spend, I do think I looked really good, and I believes demonstrates how seriously I took it this and my role of establishing narrative and characters. If given the choice I would probably do it again despite being strapped for cash for the next fortnight, but I also I’d probably look into a few more op-shops a bit further out of my way.

The group decided to simply make the bonuses that each character can get copies of the ones seen in Tokaido. We felt making a completely new point system would have been very time consuming and would have had to been play tested multiple times.

We also wanted to make the game a bit more challenging so there are also bonuses along the way that specific characters need to stop at to get a large amount of points (eg: there is a space where The Youtuber can make an apology video and they get an extra 20 points for this). This is based off the bonus stars that are given in ‘Mario Party’ but we also wanted some control so you can block other players from being able to stop there by stopping there yourself, but you cannot get the points. 

So first of all, we live for late and short contextual essays! I am very bad at this, I did the things, didn’t I?! Well actually, that’s not really true I did one and half of the three things I set out to do.

1. An instgram picture of my OC’s that was meant to emulate the Ace Attorney Café artwork.
2. Story rundowns with character style breakdowns
3. A video tying it all together

Ok so number two, I ended up doing all the style breakdowns albeit bad because I often just made choices on cosplays due to their favorite colors or something simple, then I find the representation in it or sometimes not at all!

Victoria- https://theflamingpotato.home.blog/2020/09/17/victorias-design-notes/

Kate- https://theflamingpotato.home.blog/2020/10/27/kate-purloin-design-notes/

Quill- https://theflamingpotato.home.blog/2020/11/14/quill-driver/

Shye- https://theflamingpotato.home.blog/2020/11/14/shye-lee-design-notes/

I halfway through dropped the stories because there’s no way you’re going to sit there and read 6000 words on Victoria Waits. Also, both Shye and Quill appear a lot more in the later games (Apollo era) and I have played half a game of that timeframe. So, all I could do was stab vaguely which isn’t good enough for me, so I just decided not to continue.

The video never came to fruition because I’ve been pulling my hair out over 2000 words essays on archaic writing practices and simply lost time, I’ve also been dealing with so much dysphoria and dysmorphia that seeing myself on camera may cause me burst into flames for so my own mental health I did not complete that part at all!  

I held on so tightly to my folding chair quote because it puts the action back on me, I have to do something. Yeah, they should have invited me, but they didn’t, so I have to do something myself.

I brought 6 meters of green fabric from Spotlight, and the next day I spent 4 hours putting on 4 different cosplays. I simply I did the thing I set out to do. It makes me want to update Shye (I did her so dirty the first time I cosplayed her).

I used my very limited skillset to look up tutorials on Youtube (so do not look too closely) found a pic of a cafe and I put it all together. I think it looks really cute and I am very proud of myself.

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A post shared by Brooklyn/Emily Flaming Potato (@potatoflaming)

As of 15/11/2020 has 80 likes and has seemed to hit a plateau but I have never received that many likes before.

Shye Lee

Shyly

Shye Lee has two outfits but we’ve only filmed in one RIP me!

The first one is when Kate meets her

She’s soft spoken and her strong and somewhat sassy nature is hidden.

She flies under the radar, she wears purely grey, black, and white

her make-up is even mild and it’s hardy there.

Her untamed hair is the most striking thing about her if she wear earrings or hearing-aids you couldn’t tell.

Unfortunately I don’t have pics of her new look. She has a yellow blouse and the same black skirt. Her hair is half up and uncovers her ears, she wears yellow flower earrings. She’s happier and she’s herself!

Here are some characters that act like her

Definition of quill-driver: One that works with a pen: writer, journalist.

We live for our chaotic, pansexual, polyamorous, journalist!

Quill has only been seen in 1 outfit so far. I’ve only ever done her 28 year old outfit.

She wears a blue blouse, black slacks and wears a necklace earring combo. she has her hair in a highish ponytail

It’s simple! Its clean! It’s professional! You could trust her because she lives in anonymity, she does this on purpose, she’s a journalist, she wants to know truth so first she wants you to trust her.

The most eye catching thing is her necklace which was gifted to her by Gaspen Payne on her 21st birthday. It is meant to be obvious.

Quill has been known to lightly cross-dress to blend in and ask questions to men.

Please don’t judge me for this I really want to redo it!

Here are some characters that have her personality

Kate Purloin – Cat Burglar

Back at it again with TikTok Screenshots!

We first meet Kates she’s about 24, and working for Von Karma as his body guard.

Von Karma is known as the demon prosecutor, hence the emblem on her shirt. She has dark make-up and Von Karma buys her a spiked collar.

Von Karma backhands her in an argument, leaving a V shaped scar on her cheek and she leaves his office and joins a gang. She turns her V shaped scar into a triangle after too many drinks.

I unfortunately don’t have a very good picture of Kate when she’s first apprehended by Gumshoe but it is like this. She isnt meant to be wearing the collar, that was a mistake on my part D: she isn’t meant to be scarless either, I didn’t know how to use latex at the time.

and by the time she’s working full time for the police this is how she looks

Her collar is literally reversed, she’s no longer a possession. Her make-up is less heavy and fringe isn’t as drastic. She’s grown up .

Also aren’t the stripes interesting? they’re meant to look like cartoon Criminal outfits.

But they’re the wrong way. Kate can’t change the fact she was a criminal but she can go in a different direction.

Kate, character notes

                Kate Purloin

We first meet Kate when she has been arrested by Detective Dick Gumshoe after stealing his wallet. She speaks cryptically and with attitude until admitting that she was a high-level member of The Sumiyoshi-kai a yakuza gang. It turns out she’s been trying to leave for a little while and thinks jail might be a good way to get some distance anyway. Turns out Gant has other ideas and tells Kate if she can get gang members and some priceless artefacts back then she can walk free with totally clean record. Only catch is that she’d has to be basically attached to Dick Gumshoes side while she’s doing it.

Although she isn’t a part of the police, she has an aptitude for knowing how criminals work and can usually tell if someone committed the murder or not, she shows it with both the Larry Butz and Maya Fey case. As time goes on, we find out that Kate’s past seems to be littered with crime that she learnt from older children at her foster home. She was talented pickpocket and learned to fight but after a while she worked for Von Karma as his bodyguard. Where she met and became fast friends with Victoria. Kate’s boyfriend seemed to hate her newfound success as he was starting to join a gang and seemed to know Von Karma was using Kate.  

Kate waits for the gang to contact her like Gant said they would but she grows restless and she gets an invite to a gang party where they will be discussing the stolen goods so she goes and seeing as she’s not allowed out of his sight she takes Gumshoe after faking that they’re a couple they get invited to the heist.

More time goes on and Kate is the only one who can interrogate Cody and get him to speak and is the one who’s like ‘Detective you didn’t hear it from me but that Dee lady isn’t just a producer!’ and inadvertently helps Maya and Phoenix from being ‘erased’. We also find out that Kate and Dick have met before but is just assuming that the other person didn’t remember. They met a few years ago at the prosecutor’s award ceremony and sort of flirted but then Kate disappeared afterwards turns out that night Von Karma became so enraged with her that he smacked her across the face leaving a V shaped scar with his initialled ring. Kate then proceeded to get drunk and break into his office she was going to commit vandalism but instead cracked his safe and found his shoulder X-rays and a gun, she photocopies the x-rays and leaves them on Victoria’s desk for her to find as she gets into the office earlier than anyone else. She then makes her ex take her to the gang and swears her allegiance to them if they promise to protect her and help her get revenge on Von Karma. After getting exceedingly drunk she turns her V shaped scar into a triangle as her act of faith to the gang.

Around the time of DL-6 Kate and Dick end up sleeping together but agree to keep it chill because things are hectic at the moment. Kate gets called in by her gang and it’s finally the moment she’s been waiting for. Except it ends up with her in jail as Gant had tricked her and there was no immunity but she has a previously recorded phone conversation where he mentions it and although there isn’t enough to indict him it’s enough to get her into the Witness Protection Program.

After 6-12 months in the WPP, Gumshoe turns up where she lives because he was been working overtime to basically capture every gang member who knew her name which he has achieved in the hopes he could bring her back home. She admits that her life has lost meaning and even comes clean about her past.

When Kate comes back the first person, she sees is Victoria. Kate is pleased that Victoria is not dating Edgeworth because he seemed to much like a copy of Von Karma for her liking. Kate decides she wants to be a part of the force permanently so she goes on to graduate police school and even though she’s living with Dick she says that she wants to keep quiet with the relationship at work because she doesn’t want people to think she’s sleeping to the top. For work she’s mainly paired with Officer Mike Meekins. Everyone on the force seem to think Kate and Dick would be a good match. With Maggey going as far as to call it her ‘ship’ (To reiterate Maggey and Gumshoe are very close friends in this universe) So it’s no wonder it comes out after only a few months. Kate sees Cody again and he comments on her being the nicest old person he’s ever met, and she starts to think about having her own children, but it wouldn’t be possible because being part of the gang meant you had to have your tubes tied, which she did.

Kate goes to court in support of Victoria as she is very stressed over the whole Maya being kidnapped situation. Kate is the one who actually catches Victoria as she faints because Phoenix was too busy pretending, he isn’t at least a bit gay for Edgeworth! She stays in hospital with Victoria and then swaps to staying Gumshoe as he recovers from his car crash.

Around this time Victoria leaves for New York and they don’t see each other for around a year but Kate can finally adopt Cody! She starts realising that in order to support her family she’ll have to be the primary breadwinner so she starts working very hard and moving up the ladder even eventually making lieutenant but the she starts clashing with higher-ups because she refuses to wear a skirt! They give her an ultimatum wear the uniform no matter how outdated or lose her job, so she starts wearing miniskirts or leather skirts into work.

Kate meets Shye at a coffee shop and upon releasing she’s deaf and speaks ASL Kate asks Shye to teach her. Shye comes off as sweet and almost timid but under her unassuming looks she’s smart, stubborn, and sassy. Shye makes a few comments about how whilst she’s happily single she hasn’t had a date in a long time. Kate can only think of one single person who she knows well enough, which is: Mike Meekins. Kate also realises Shye won’t be able to hear Mike shouting (which he does with or without the megaphone)! It doesn’t go smoothly though, and Kate is forced to realised she may have in fact jumped the gun and judged them both on disabilities instead of them being a good match. They do go out again and eventually become a couple.

When Victoria gets back, she seems different. She’s back to being nervous and reserved except now she hyperventilates whenever a man gets too close. Victoria admits to having been assaulted by Tristan Turnball. She helps Victoria work through her stuff and after a little while she convinces Victoria that things like this are going to continuously happen unless they make a change and get Kate a pair of pants! Thus Virago is formed! Kate quits the force and puts her modest savings into the business. They start in a basement but eventually move to an office. And Shye even becomes the law clerk and helps with translating for other deaf people and can even lip read and sign other languages.

Kate Kinda becomes the Maya of things but for Victoria, she’s the go between for Victoria and the police. She knows how criminals think and will point out inconstancies with the witness’s testimonies.

Somewhere here Kate and Gumshoe get married.

Virago keeps growing and things fall into place for her.

Kate kinda becomes a background character here; I’m Devastated but there’s only so much I can put her through.

Hi, Hello! How are you? They can’t answer that Brooklyn.

First of all here is my beta which was a fan made video

Look at it, sah cute!

Here’s my video of me discussing it a little bit.

And here’s some time points I want to expand on.

0:14

“This is the video that almost ruined my relationship” They can call me a lot up uncandid is not one. unfortunately this video took multiple takes, so much so my boyfriend who was portraying Gumshoe, had to come to my place on 3 hours of sleep. He was mad. I was mad. also my new nose piercing fell out. I realised that there was no way we could do any filming that day. so I decided we’d just re-record the lines and we’d use editing magic. .

1:15

Parartext of paratext my definition. The Text is the game and all things affiliated with the game from that same company. The Paratext is fan created things that still fit the cannon, cosplays, official fanart. Paratext of Paratext to me is very are removed from the actual source but still makes enough sense for you to understand how it relates back to the game.

1:55

Have some cursed content: https://www.tiktok.com/foryou?lang=en#/@snakeoilsalesdept/video/6882179058164108546

2:15

So I decided to do this project for my beta cause it blended the two things together. My OC and a video.

Ah so you’ve made is this far you must want to know about the garbage time I had making this.

1. It turned out that in all scenes my wig was a mess, and not in a cut way. I looked like a crackhead. How did it even get that bad? I don’t know. so of course we couldn’t use those shots. All the cooking filming was fine it was just the most important part when we were talking to the camera at the beginning.
2. The audio was also super grainy and not great. I obviously couldn’t do much about it, I cant just go out and buy a mic, especially if I may never use it again.
3. So I scheduled a make-up shot and for my boyfriend to bring his mic but I have literally never seen my boyfriend that tired and it was clear he couldn’t act in that state. So I just re-recorded the lines and put them to a black screen (or over shots where I didn’t look like a person who had never seen a hair-brush) because the whole video was going to be a voice-over anyway!

So that’s what I did. I am very tired, so RIP, bye. See you in the next update.

Victoria Waits

Victori a waits

Victory awaits

So this has to do with a lot to do with other characters designs so I’ll make reference to that A LOT! Also enjoy a lot of screenshots from my Tiktok bc I hate taking pictures of myself

When we first met Victoria she’s 18. Her outfit seems to be a reflection of Manfred Von Karma’s. She wears a necktie which is blue and gold ad wears an aqua shirt like the colour of Fran’s Cravat holder? (idk what that thing is, the stone!)

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The same way Fran and Edgeworth also have very similar outfits at the time. Very cohesive colour scheme. Very Daddy’s money too. They all have something blue and gold!

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Later when she works for Edgeworth at 22 she seems to have the same colours just reversed: maroon and Dark grey.

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Later when she works for Phoenix she ditches the bow for a scrunchie in a sort of moment of growth and change. She’s no longer so deeply attached to Edgeworth.

At the end of her metamorphosis she doesn’t really look line anyone else… EXCEPT

• 

Her own Mother: Vanessa. Victoria even has the same set of pearls her mother owned just slightly revamped for a more modern style.

Victoria’s personality notes

I don’t really write characters based off other characters I feel like a lot of female characters can be 2 dimensional but here are some I think she has the capacity to act like.

For awhile these aesthetic picture/collages were very popular so here ya go!