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Kate Gray

@hownottodraw.bsky.social

5.2K followers 480 following 3.7K posts

I write games and jokes. Sometimes both. 🇬🇧 in 🇨🇦 ⌛ past: games journalist & critic @ ONM, OXM, Nintendo Life, Kotaku, The Guardian, GameSpot, Xbox, Minecraft, etc 🔮 present: games writer @ Moonstone Island, Owlchemy, & Hello Kitty Island Adventure

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Kate Gray @hownottodraw.bsky.social · 15h

oh really? 👀 I haven't tried it yet, but it's been on my list. I'm curious what's good about it (especially for narrative, if you have insights)

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Kate Gray @hownottodraw.bsky.social · 15h

hindsight is 50/50

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Kate Gray @hownottodraw.bsky.social · 15h

Some new lines in Hello Kitty Island Adventure that I wrote! Writerly insight in the alt text (along with actual descriptive alt text)

A screenshot of Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Cinnamoroll is saying "Or think about things..." and the character can reply with one of the following:
1. The meaning of life?
2. Quantum mechanics?
3. World peace?
4. Fermat's Last Theorem?

Writerly insight: I love to write jokes that imply that Cinnamoroll is actually incredibly smart and just never gets the opportunity to use it, because he's usually cast as a very childlike puppy who loves making friends and being cute. Secretly, at least in my head, he's winning Nobel Prizes for physics.

A screenshot of Hello Kitty Island Adventure. TOPHAT, a glitchy character with a big purple tophat, says "I don't feel like my performance has really... changed in any way." You can reply "gotta boost that FPS" or "do we have a VSync setting?"

Writerly insight: TOPHAT is the character with the most potential for self-aware "oh my god we're in a video game" jokes, I think, especially as he isn't an actual Sanrio character, so we can have more fun with him. This quest, called Bug Report, is an inside joke from the developers to the players, in which TOPHAT tries to figure out what a "bug report" is, by catching bugs, because he's heard that "getting rid of bugs" improves your performance and speed, which he likes the sound of. You, the player, obviously know what it means, so you suggest things that might ACTUALLY improve performance. Get it?

A screenshot of Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Chococat is saying "A combination of reverse-wise concave extrusion and shrinking meshes."

Writerly insight: I love when characters spout sciencey jargon. Chococat is the "smart guy", so I usually give it to him. This particular sciencey jargon is pulled from 3D modelling, combined with nonsense. What is "reverse-wise"? Who knows, but it sounds smart, and that's what's important.

A screenshot of Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Pompompurin says (about pizza) "Do you fold yours? I like to roll mine up and eat it like a tube."

The player can respond:
1. I fold
2. I roll
3. I start with the crust
4. I just eat it normally?

Writerly insight: It's always fun to offer the player a chance to go along with the wacky nonsense that happens in the game, where everyone is just a little bit silly. I wanted to come up with several ways to eat pizza like a maniac, including at least one that I have seen someone do in real life (the crust one). I think it's also fun to have the player play the Straight Man role in their responses, where everyone else is being completely chaotic, and you can be the one to gently point out that they've all gone mad. Hence the last response.

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Kate Gray @hownottodraw.bsky.social · 16h

I think I have an idea for your next tattoo

Kate Gray @hownottodraw.bsky.social · 16h

never not freaked out by the six pack in this photo

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Kate Gray @hownottodraw.bsky.social · 17h

is Schmungo my eventual love interest, or my eventual betrayer? Just asking so I can prepare myself

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Kate Gray @hownottodraw.bsky.social · 17h

That's my guess too!

Kate Gray @hownottodraw.bsky.social · 18h

ugh I don't want a whole questline

Kate Gray @hownottodraw.bsky.social · 19h

I accidentally went a different way home, but if it's still there on Wednesday, I will attempt to open it! it's been there for at least a week so I think it might be. I'M SORRY FOR THE CLIFFHANGER

Kate Gray @hownottodraw.bsky.social · 21h

hmmm do I open the mystery outdoor briefcase

a wooden briefcase on the verge outside of a house in a suburban neighbourhood

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Reposted by Kate Gray

Lee Scheinbeim @lee.scheinbe.im · 1d

happy new banana day everyone

a black cat plays with a banana shaped toy

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Reposted by Kate Gray

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 1d

easy for me to say as another Large Account perhaps but: the idea that how you should treat another grown adult turns directly on which of you has more followers is among the most "please touch grass" opinions I encounter on here - and I am a leftist anime enjoyer

Mina Kimes @minakimes.bsky.social · 1d

This guy gives the game away with the misogyny but man—this attitude (if you have a lot of followers you should just let people be assholes to you) drives me nuts.

You walk into my dojo looking for a fight you’re gonna get it lol

@[email protected] on Mastodon @electricheadpt2.cryptoanarchy.network · 1d

This guy rocks (derogatory). You’re apparently a “thirst trap white woman” and were just all simps for thinking he’s a dumbass.

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