itch.io

TyranoScript, the underlying language TyranoBuilder provides a GUI workspace for, is completely free to use just like Ren'Py! TyranoBuilder itself also has a fully-fledged free version; the premium one just adds some extensions to functionality and a few bolt-ons.

"[...] Sometimes I think nothing is simple but the feeling of pain. When I was first asked to write this article, I said sure, because the racism (not to mention the sexism, which is even more pervasive and a whole other piece) on the American New Wave scene had been something that I'd been bothered by for a long time. When I told the guys in my own band that I was doing this, they just laughed. "Well, I guess the money's good," said one. "What makes you think the racism in punk has anything special about it that separates it from the rest of the society?" asked another.

"Because the rest of society doesn't go around acting like racism is real hip and cool," I answered heatedly.

"Oh yeah," he sneered. "Just walk into a factory sometime. Or jail."

All right. Power is what we're talking about, or the feeling that you don't have any, or how much ostensible power you can rip outta some other poor sucker's hide. It works the same everywhere, of course, but one of the things that makes the punk stance unique is how it seems to assume substance or at least style by the abdication of power: Look at me! I'm a cretinous little wretch! And proud of it! So many of the people around the CBGB's and Max's scene have always seemed emotionally if not outright physically crippled- you see speech impediments, hunchbacks, limps, but most of all an overwhelming spiritual flatness. You take parental indifference, a crappy educational system, lots of drugs, media overload, a society with no values left except the hysterical emphasis on physical perfection, and you end up with these little nubbins: the only rebellion around, as Life magazine once labeled the Beats. Richard Hell gave us the catchphrase "Blank Generation," although he insists that he didn't mean a crowd with all the dynamism of a static-furry TV screen but rather a bunch of people finally freed by the collapse of all values to reinvent themselves, to make art statements of their whole lives. Unfortunately, such a great utopian dream, which certainly is not on its first go-round here, remains just that, because most people would rather follow. What you're left with, aside from the argument that it beats singles bars, is compassion. When the Ramones bring that sign onstage that says "GABBA GABBA HEY," what it really stands for is "We accept you." Once you get past the armor of dog collars, black leather, and S&M affectations, you've got some of the gentlest or at least most harmless people in the world: Sid Vicious legends aside, almost all their violence is self-directed.

[...]

If there's nothing more poisonous than bigotry, there's nothing more pathetic than liberal guilt. I feel like an asshole even retelling the story here, as if I expected some sort of expiation for what cannot be undone, or as if such a tale would be news to anybody. In a way Bob was right: I put a dollop more pain in the world, and that was that. [...]"

- Lester Bangs, “The White Noise Supremacists” (from the Village Voice, 1979)

In the end, the only thing simple for us racialised is the feeling of pain. Thank you for inspiring me to scream out about all this in due time.

Thank you for the response! I'll be sure to look out for 1.1 when the time comes, and it'll be exciting to work with the editor and try my hand at some custom charts then. 1/n snapping should especially open up a lot at once...!

I played through the OST side - while the vector graphic style can feel slightly non-uniform for 3D graphics with its varying widths coupled with lack of anti-aliasing, the core (ha) conceit of the gameplay itself is solid with a lot of potential, and the music is very atmospherically on-point. A few thoughts:

• During play, lack of scroll-speed adjustment means it's often hard to get a personal level of comfort with higher density charts, especially with COREplus's style of notes slowing as they approach the judgment line.
• The editor, as offered, is impractical to the point of near-impossibility without at least the ability to navigate by your selected snap - I was ready to attempt a workaround of placing as many notes as I might possibly need and selecting them to move them backwards, but I found you can't select individual notes if there are multiple at once on the same tick... I feel that first and foremost, the ability to scroll and iteratively edit according to your BPM and snap, without being locked to a hardcoded 500ms-step, would make the charting process fundamentally possible. After that, being able to select individual notes of groups would be much appreciated. (I understand there's the option of "play it to chart it", but the editor inputs are nothing like gameplay inputs, not to mention it runs counter to conscious design and experimentation, as well as takes so much time...)
  • (Further to that, LALT makes playback fire when alt-tabbing out of the window.)
• There's also the hardcoded assumptions that beats only subdivide to powers of 2 (i.e. no compound time, triplets, etc.), BPM never changes, barlines align purely to 4/4, etc. - but I understand that those would necessarily come later.

As a fan of the BIT.TRIP series myself, it's extremely exciting to see a work take inspiration, and I think COREplus really achieves something of its own. I look forward to what comes, and to being able to work with it once charting is truly opened up.