Workin' on a small side project:

https://goo.gl/forms/MAds4XXrTJH5OgxA3
https://goo.gl/forms/MAds4XXrTJH5OgxA3
https://goo.gl/forms/MAds4XXrTJH5OgxA3
https://goo.gl/forms/MAds4XXrTJH5OgxA3
https://goo.gl/forms/MAds4XXrTJH5OgxA3

Feel free to share this around - the more responses, the better!

So, small side project I'm working on. Shhhhh.

I'm trying to come up with a fairly all-inclusive list of "types" of furries. I've started a small list, but I'd like some help working on it. Would love to hear feedback/discussion/suggestions.

None of these categories are mutually exclusive. Most furries fall into more than one category, but almost nobody is part of ALL of them.

Controversial subjects are fine: things like "are bronies really furries?" and "should we really be listing zoophiles?"

I've also split this into two lists, because - like it or not - sexuality seems to be a big part of the fandom, and it's worth discussing, but I think it deserves to be discussed separately.

TOP-LEVEL CATEGORIES:
- FANTASY: People who really like anthro races from fantasy games/books/mythology/stories.
- FURSUIT: People who really like fursuits.
- ROLEPLAY: People who like making/owning fursonas, especially for the purpose of roleplaying (RP or ERP).
- FANDOM: People who are mostly interested in a single franchise: Lion King, Zootopia, MLP, etc.
- SOCIAL: People who didn't start out furry, but joined the community to socialize with friends who were already furries, and stuck around because we're cool.
- ANIMAL FAN: People who really just love [real] animals, and hang out with furries because we like them, too.
- DEALER: People who participate in the community to sell art, costumes, or something else.
- SOUL: People who feel a strong spiritual connection to an animal, or believe they ARE an animal on the inside.
- CHAPERONE: People who only participate in the community because they have a friend or a family member involved in the community.
- ESCAPISM/REINVENTION: People who use furry characters as a way to escape reality or reinvent/discover themselves.
- CREATIVE: People who like to draw, write, or animate, and enjoy being part of a low-stress / high-acceptance creative community.
- SEXUAL: People whose primary "furry" interest is something sexual (see below).

SEXUAL CATEGORIES:
- OPENNESS: Someone who appreciates how open-minded, sex-positive, and progressive the furry community is. (Some overlap with OUTCAST?)
- OUTCAST: Someone who feels like their sexual orientation or fetishes make them unwelcome in the "outside" world, but are welcomed in the furry community.
- EXOTIC: Someone who is sexually interested in exotic creatures, whether they're aliens, monsters, or anthro people.
- EXPRESSION: Someone who likes artistic/fictional depictions of sex, because they feel more expressive/genuine than porn. (And furries make lots of that)
- IMPOSSIBLE: Someone who is sexually aroused by things that cannot (macro, transformation) or should not (rape, snuff) happen in reality, so they turn to art (and furries make a lot of art).
- FETISH CROSSOVER: Someone who participates in the furry fandom because they're interested in a different fetish that shares a little bit of common ground (like zoophilia or "puppy play")
- TACTILE (FURSUIT-SPECIFIC): Someone who is sexually aroused by the comfortable, fuzzy feeling that murrsuits offer.
- ANONYMITY: Someone who enjoys the lack of inhibition that anonymous online roleplay (or in some instances, anonymous murrsuiting) offers.

Go tell him happy birthday!

Hey, I'll be at FWA! Copypasta:

Where are you staying?
Marriott Marquis Atlanta

Means of transportation?
Flying

Sharing a room with:
Sochi

What is your gender?
Male

Relationship Status:
Sochi!

How old are you?
29

How tall are you?
6'0"

Which languages do you speak?
English, C#, JS, AS3

Where will you be most of the time during the day?
Before noon: sleep, duh
Afternoon: wandering the lobby, killing time, chilling in the room
Evenings/Nights: room parties, wandering the lobby

Who will you be with?
Sochi, mostly, plus whoever we find to hang out with!

What suit(s) will you have?
No suits

Can I dance with you?
I don't dance 8D

Can I touch you?
Maaaaybe? Introduce yourself first. :P

Can I talk to you?
Definitely!

Can I hug you?
Sure!

Can I take photos of you/with you?
I'm... actually not a big fan of photos. Sorry ><

Can I buy you lots of drinks?
Hell naw, man - nobody's gotta buy me anything! But we can definitely swing by the bar!

Do you drink Alcohol/Smoke?
Drink a little, don't smoke

Can I give you lots of money?
Absolutely not - you guys are already doing way too much of that :P

Can I hug or snuggle with you?
Hugs, sure! Snuggles, maaaaaaaaybe - check with Sochi.

Can we hang out?
Hell yeah! Hit me up if you've got something going on - I'm usually looking for something to do / somewhere to hang out!

Are you nice?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Other cons you may go to?
BLFC, AC, IFC, MFF

Attending any events?
Probably some of the gaming / gamedev panels!

How can I find you at the con?
fekfek on telegram!

Can we go out for a dinner?
Sochi and I are usually up for dinner plans!

Are you buying art?
Not planning on it, but maybe!

What do I have to watch out for, when I am meeting you?
I'm terrible at names and keeping conversations going!

What is the best way to contact you?
Telegram: fekfek
Twitter: fekfekfekfek

May I kidnap you to my room?
Nah

Last time/last con/last meet/last chat we talked so much and now you forgot my name! Why?
Because I'm a terrible human being!

But for real, I was awful at names even before I started meeting so many people. It's nothing personal, I promise! I've legit forgotten Sochi's name before. 8D

Will you tell me your room number and can I surprise visit you?
Naaaah

I have a personal question for the convention. May I ask you that?
Yup yup! Hit me up here or on telegram

Those of you who watch my streams are probably aware that I do a lot of multistreams with , the developer behind Sexy Mad Science.

In a delicious twist of fate, Draite and I each started working on very similarly-themed games (Rack 1 and SMS) at almost the exact same time. When we found out about each others' projects, we decided to have some fun with it, and have included some crossover content in our games. We've also talked about doing some collaborative work at some point. :D

If you haven't already taken a look, go check out Sexy Mad Science, and if you enjoy it, support Draite and SMS on Patreon!

D&D:

Session 16: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnz-CaKu8AY
Session 17: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ib6Tmhjh34
Session 18: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeCH6NkDnLo

- - - - -

ANE:

I'm at Anthro New England! Hit me up if you see me around. :D

- - - - -

R2CK:

The next build is basically ready, but I updated Unity to resolve a crash I was running into, and I need to rebuild lightmaps before I can push the build live, so it might be a couple days. Patch notes: furry.science/patchnotes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqYSKfmzuGY&index=19&list=PL-BDXjT0afHMekgJ3AGj_XmvlxNww6R8m

My normal Wednesday game is off for the holidays, so I'm gonna grab four folks who respond to this journal and run a one-shot session on Wednesday evening from 7PM (EST) to midnightish.

If you'd like to play, respond below. I'll start picking some people and shooting Roll20 invites so you can start setting up character sheets!

I'll edit this post with all the specific character creation details once I've picked the players, but the general idea is:
- 5th edition. No experience required
- Game will be streamed! We'll play using Roll20, using Discord for voice chat
- You will be playing mercenaries/adventurers who have been hired to investigate some desert ruins where a local politician believes a guild of assassins are plotting a coup.
- Everyone will begin at level 4, with standard starting equipment plus 3d100 gp worth of equipment.
- Races permitted: http://fek.onl/dump/races.html
- Classes permitted: all, including most of the Unearthed Arcana variants (ask first if you end up picking one)

Session 12: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEspAaImU0g
Session 13: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLrvmx3hXMQ

9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAY1oZTR_DA
10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQJYIKX5Pzs
11: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZFgzLj5LoY

Side note, because some people have asked about it:

If there are four or five people who would be interested in running a one-shot D&D thing while we're there, I might be down to DM it!

- - - - -

Where are you staying?
Hyatt (Main Hotel)

When are you arriving?
Nov 30

When are you leaving?
Dec 5

Means of transportation?
Driving

Sharing a room with:


What is your gender?
Male

Relationship Status:


How old are you?
29 right after the con

Which languages do you speak?
English, C#, thieves' cant, druidic

Where will you be most of the time during the day?
Gaming rooms, main lobby, up in the room

Who will you be with?
and friends

What suit(s) will you have?
None

Can I dance with you?
Oh yes, I totally dance all the time. Definitely.

Can I touch you?
Maybe?

Can I talk to you?
Definitely!

Can I hug you?
Sure!

Can I take photos of you/with you?
No thanks - not a fan of photos in general, but especially not at furcons :P

Do you drink Alcohol/Smoke?
Occasional alcohol

Can I buy you lots of drinks?
I'm good, but feel free to grab one for yourself and pull up a chair!

Can I hug or snuggle with you?
Wait, didn't you just ask about hugging?

Can we hang out?
Very possible! If you catch me down in the lobby, there's a good chance I'm looking for something to do.

Are you nice?
I am very friendly, but not very talkative! This sometimes comes across as apathety / snubness, but it really just means I'm bad at keeping conversations going on my own. :D

Are you buying art?
Who knows?

What is the best way to contact you?
Telegram: fekfek
Twitter: fekfekfekfek

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDcfPHvy3KA

Also, there won't be a session this week - we're down a player, and I might need to duck out early tonight. Check back next week!

As many of you have noticed, the old Tricider pages I was using to collect feedback / suggestions for Rack 2 are barely functional. Tricider is a nice system, but it runs like shit, and took 20 minutes to load a single page (if it would even load at all, that is).

I've gone ahead and set up new feedback pages on a more stable platform. You can now submit your suggestions and vote for species over here:

General Suggestions / Fetishes: http://furry.science/ideas
Species: http://furry.science/species

Hey there! I was recently interviewed about what I do, and a few of the questions are things that come up very often, so I figured I'd post 'em here.

---

Starting with high school, describe your educational background chronologically.
I took my first programming course in sophomore year of high school. My programming teacher was extremely flexible, which played a huge role in my enjoyment of game development. While many of the other students were satisfied with just doing the standard coursework, I was very eager to put what I had learned to work making games, and my teacher was very supportive of this. He would often let me spend several weeks at a time working on a minigame, offering help/guidance when needed, and grading me based on how well I learned / applied my learning to whatever project I had been working on.

After high school, I went to college for Media Arts and Science, with a focus in game design. By this point in time, most of the curriculum was stuff I had already learned in high school. I was very fortunate to have two professors in college who were just as flexible and supportive as my high school teacher. Instead of making me stick to the curriculum, they encouraged me to pick my own projects, ask them for help when needed, and simply grade me based on how well I used the resources available to me to teach myself.

After college, I spent a couple years freelancing through a website called Elance. I believe this site has long since been sold/rebranded, but it was simply a marketplace where people could post jobs and freelancers/contractors would bid on the jobs. I did a good deal of basic web development and graphic design through this site, but I also did a fair share of game development, often for advertising agencies. This was a wonderful opportunity to continue learning game development in a "real world" environment, and was arguably the most useful portion of my entire game development education history.

If you had to do it over, relating to your career or education, would you do anything differently?
As much as I enjoyed college, I do not think it was a worthwhile investment for me. When approached by young programmers, especially those aspiring to work in game development, I often encourage them to focus on building a portfolio, not a degree, and to look at college as an option, not a requirement. College is often touted as a mandatory part of a young person's education, but there are many industries where experience and a strong portfolio are more important than formal education, and game development is one of those industries.

Game development is something that can often be learned autonomously, especially with the resources available online. A college education is a great way to force yourself to remain motivated ("I paid for it, I should probably do my work..."), but if you are eager enough to pursue game development without any outside motivation, you can save yourself a tremendous amount of financial heartache by teaching yourself online, and freelancing to learn the ropes of working in a professional environment.

What advice would you give to me as someone interested in pursuing a career path similar to yours?
The three most important pieces of advice I give to new developers are all very closely related.

The first piece of advice is general: you need to do. Not think, not talk, not plan - do. There are a lot of people who talk about making games, and want to make games, and learn about making games, and even plan out a few games they'd like to make, but they never actually sit down and make anything. In my experience, it is better to simply sit down and do something, even if you haven't fully planned it out, than to get stuck in an endless phase of analysis and planning that never actually leads to work getting done. People will tell you that you need to plan better, you need to write game design documents, that you need to establish procedures and think before you act, but while those people spend years planning out their perfect game (which will never actually get made), you will actually be making games. It will be sloppy at first, but you will learn naturally, over time, how to design and plan on the fly. You will learn to think ahead while working.

The second piece of advice is specific: you need to learn how to program. It is certainly possible to get a job in game development as an artist if your art is incredibly good and you have a strong understanding of how "art for games" actually works, but it is not easy. A background in programming will give you two things: first, an extremely important perspective on what actually goes into developing a game / why your art needs to be formatted in specific ways, and second, the ability to sit down and make a game on your own, without depending on someone else to do the programming for you. Learning to program gives you valuable insight into the development process, and self-sufficiency that will make self-education much easier.

The final piece of advice is also fairly specific: you need to prototype. Instead of writing down ideas, prototype. Instead of drafting game design documents, prototype. Instead of asking if a game mechanic sounds fun in theory, prototype. Take a week and just make something very quick that demonstrates a core mechanic of your game. Is it fun? Start adding more features until your prototype becomes a game. This ties back into my first piece of advice: you need to sit down and do instead of sitting down to think/talk.

Finally set up a proper bug tracker:

http://furry.science/reportabug

After a good deal of deliberation (and procrastination), I've settled on a final group for the D&D campaign, and we'll be playing on Thursdays from 6PM-10PM EST, starting tomorrow!

The final group:

DRAITE playing Elizabeth, a human rogue
SMERG playing Cognate, a worgfolk fighter
BISMARK playing Sayed, a half-elf warlock
TERWIN playing Covi, a foxfolk bard
BLUEBEAST playing Mulic, a genasi druid

We may occasionally float other people in, as needed, since a couple players have unpredictable work schedules. I'll try to post openings in advance for anyone who would be interested in playing cameos!

Hey folks!

Apparently there is a fake email going around claiming to be FurAffinity offering access to R2CK for free or something like that.

THIS IS FAKE. DO NOT OPEN IT.

Sunday was the last of my offline Sunday games! My brother is moving out of town, and we've talked about maybe continuing the campaign online on Sundays, but if we do, it'll be a good ways down the road (and probably won't be streamed).

This means it's almost time for me to start DMing my streamed sessions again! Since I'm trying to keep Sundays free, I'm going to start checking with a few folks to see who would be available on Thursdays. After I sort out a final group, I suspect I'll pick up the campaign on Thursday evenings, starting on September 1.