by bulb

What a difference two weeks makes! You might remember we just outright skipped last month’s recap because winter depression is a bitch. Just like 2020 though, things always seem to heat up right before April (well, it was before April when I started this…). Something in the air about it…and hey, growing season starts soon! Better get your overalls out…

Who said you needed 480p anyway?

Here’s a fun little project to start us off. dcb, seeing that there was virtually no way to watch YouTube on an Windows Mobile device, got to work. The result’s winvid, a Flask app that takes a video URL (or search term and the first video that comes up), downloads it, crunches it, and gives it to you to download. The WMV-encoded videos come out tiny (we’re talking 2MB a minute!), yet still completely watchable, even on a desktop. Give it a shot on that Windows 98 or Pocket PC in your life. (It’s just youtube-dl, so I’m told support for other sites may be soon as well? That’d be so sick, watching through my subscriptions on XP…)

And IE5 oughta be good enough for anybody

And Devon redesigned her site once more! Given how big into design she is, her designs always skew to the spirited side, and yeah, this one’s clean. Imagemaps, fits in a 640×480 window, and works in IE5. I love that navigation at the bottom too. Such a clean, minimal way to get links to all your other favorite Somnolians and non-Somnolians in there.

You’re moving to the (Furdew) valley

While this isn’t the truly public announcement of what Caby and I have been up to for the past three months, it’s the first time it’s been down in writing (I think). Furdew Valley, a coming Content Patcher pack for Stardew Valley that–well, see if you can’t guess:

This one’s been in Caby’s head ever since Stardew came out, really. While she’d toyed with .xnb mods in the past, the newer tools deterred her from properly pursuing it until I stepped in. She’s been working on the art and sprites, and I’ve been implementing it and looking for other various things to add or fix (new cutscenes and references to the Somnol Multiverse are on the list…)

As for when it’ll come out…when it’s done. It’s getting close (seriously, I think two giftable NPCs left, and all the marriage candidates are finished), but when it’s done. No pressure on the girl doing all the cute art. u///u

Pain world

And speaking of mods, borb’s been off having fun with her real friends! Nah, I’m just fucking around. (That’s mon.) She’s part of the Rain World modding scene, doing art for what some people are calling “the most impressive joke mod ever made for this game”. Only it’s not actually a joke. Have a look:

If giving a slugcat a gigantic glowing sword sounds like your idea of a good time, be sure to be on the lookout for the Dragonslayer mod sometime later in the year. Probably. borb made me add this in afterwards and I didn’t think to ask for a date.

Art highlights

Funky crop of drawings from people in here this month! Despite everything, Caby got done a good few drawings with full on backgrounds, and borb went ham on some sonas. I can’t condone that, but at least it came out nice.

Coming attractions?

I don’t normally throw “what’s upcoming” stuff into recaps (though maybe I should start), but the blog’s starting to heat up again, so it’s appropriate. Of course, recently I celebrated my third mariversary, and in a few days now, that fateful on again-off again music sharing series airchecks once more. I even saw a new draft from dcb lying around while I was finishing this one up! Hell, maybe we can even get mon in here long enough to finish that draft that’s been sitting in the post list since June 9, 2020.

Beyond that, I’ve got lots to keep me occupied going into the summer, and believe me–the Somnolians do too. Keep watching our blogs and our statuses for further details as they follow. Steady thaw now.