Game Reviews 8 - Click Games

Hello, and welcome to some more game reviews of click games or click-and-point games. These games are great for grinding those precious achievements. 

Meh - A game where you click a computer to fill a bar to gain one point. Each of the 61 achievements didn't pop up while I was in-game, so I didn't actually realise I had finished the game because none of the achievements popped up while I was in the game. All I know is you click to fill the bar, and each time you do it adds a point to your total. Maybe you need to get 128 points to complete the game, but I am not fully sure. You can also spend your points on opening boxes to customise the computer. There is one that is a skeleton, and that's a pretty cool thing.

Apple clicker - 7 achievements for this fruity game. Click the fruit and earn an achievement for 1, 10, 100, 1000, and so on and so forth.

Peach clicker - You will get in-game drops every 3 hours, but they aren't always successful, so even if you aren't going to be around to click the peach, I recommend you leave it open running in the background. The skins you can get are pretty cool and make it easier to look at if you change them up in a long gameplay session. You will need skins to complete a few of the achievements; most of them are decently priced in the Steam market, too, if you want to complete the game faster. 31 achievements to get, it's a decent amount for a free game, and I do love those achievements. The background will change to keep it interesting. Don't stop clicking, and good luck if you try it.

Flag Clicker - Click the flag and gain drops every 3 hours. Not every drop is successful, so prepare to spend a while getting all of the 31 achievements; you may even learn what flags are and what over the course of playing this; you could say it's educational. I know I am not fully aware of what every flag looks like, so it's been a learning experience for me.

Thank you so much for reading, and if you try any of these, I really hope you enjoy them. Good luck with your achievement hunting, and I will see you next Friday with another blog post, possibly more game reviews, maybe another movie review, or something completely different. Have a great rest of your day. :)

Game Reviews Part 7 - Everyone Has Their Vices

Hello and welcome to the seventh installment of my game reviews. I really hope you have enjoyed these games if you have played them, and about 90% of them should be free on Steam, so this should be very inclusive to Steam gamers. Eventually, I will review some games on epic but for now, I have a lot in my Steam library that I have tried and want to share my thoughts and feelings with you. 

Palia - Such a cozy game! You can explore, play games, and develop the storyline. Interact with the characters and give them gifts to level up your friendship with them. You can run around and catch bugs either to keep or sell, make furniture on your plot, hunt the animals in the various locations, mine rocks to find precious gems, and a whole lot more. There is a lot to this game, but not in a way that I would say is overwhelming. I will say it may be overwhelming to catch up with the storyline, especially if you have a friend who has finished it all, but don't worry, you can play at your own speed. It has a wonderful community, and most of the people I have come into contact with have been so lovely. They brought in a new area called the elderwood. If you have motion sickness, you may struggle exploring this area, as I struggle with it, but it might just be a me thing. 4/5

Dung Beetle Adventure - This is a very cozy game, and I don't want to give too many spoilers if others would like to try it, but I got to the last puzzle and had to consult a guide. I only check Steam guides if I am really stuck. The last puzzle needs you to click something so it lights up, and then you can reach the thing your beetle has been asking for since the start of the game. I really could not figure out what I had missed throughout the game in order for it not to just light up at a click. It's a very cozy little game, probably a one-and-done if you are going to try it. I probably will go back and try to figure out what I had missed previously, but for now, I am taking some time away from that one. I might watch someone else play it and see what the difference is. 3.5/5

Placid Plastic Duck Simulator - This game is so chill, I actually fell asleep playing, or more watching what was going to spawn next. There are a lot of dlc's for this game. I would wait for them to be on sale, so it isn't a huge cost when you do choose to buy them. 48 achievements to get, but you may want it running in the background, or if you have multiple screens, you may want it off to the side so you can enjoy it, but do something else at the same time.41 Achievements to get as you progress through the game. 4.5/5

Lost In Random: The Eternal Die - If you want to roll dice and battle one, this is the game for you. There are really cool power-up type things, basically, you pull cards and get through a maze to reach the boss fight. I didn't do terribly well with this one, but the characters you meet along the way are cool, and you don't have to voice said characters yourself. I will be going back to this game eventually because I would love to know what the rest of the storyline is. 3.5/5

Three out of four of these I would call cozy games so if you want a chill day/ night of gaming these could be a good fit for you to try, Lost In Random is not something I would call a cozy game but there aren't too many of these style games that I have tried and it was rather irritating dying in the same few places for a while but once you work out what went well it feels really rewarding. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a great weekend. :)

Game Reviews Part 6 - Click Games Help Me Pass The Time

Hello and welcome to another click game review, since I have found quite a lot more click games, and I am excited to try them all and let you know how they actually are in the coming weeks. But let's focus on this week's four games.

Tapple - Click the middle of the screen and gain achievements fast. This game makes an annoying sound when you click the apple, but when the achievements are coming in this fast, who really cares? The only achievement I couldn't figure out how to get was the hidden button, but because of that, I am calling this completed. I would have rated this 5 stars if I could have found that button. 4.5/5

Silly Linguine Cat Simulator Deluxe Online - If you are going to try this game, I suggest that you buy the auto clicker in the shop its going to make getting chests that much easier in order to complete the 98 achievements quicker. If you want to play it more casually, just spend the money on the chests or the gambling game offers. Collecting all the skins is the aim of the game, but I really like this, so I am hoping the person who made this comes out with another game like it or updates this one (with new achievements). 5/5

Egg - Technically, I put work into this game for 2 days, not continuously, but when I closed it at the end of day 1, I thought it would have an auto save since there was not an obvious button. It didn't save.  I had to start over, and there is only one achievement. On day 2, I decided I needed to get an auto-clicker to assist me in this journey to 10000000 clicks for that one achievement. It took all day, 12 hours, genuinely, to finish this one day. My hand was dying from the amount of clicking I did, and I probably would not have gotten it without the auto-clicker.  I do not like using an auto clicker, but I knew that for this game, I had no choice when it didn't save my progress from the previous day. 1/5

Click to 10 - you get to 10, and it then closes the game, no achievements. 1/5

Thank you for reading. I really hope you enjoy these if you do play them, especially since I did not enjoy the last game very much, but I think that's because I mostly lean towards games that have achievements these days, since I would like to get five thousand achievements this year. Good luck if you try any of these on Steam. I have to note that there are more achievements on Silly Linguine Cat Simulator Deluxe Online since I wrote the review. Have a great rest of your day, and thank you for reading. 

There's So Many Games to Review - Part 5

Hello friends, and welcome back to the saga of Lilly reviewing games. It's not weird, I referred to myself as my name or anything, why would you think that? I really hope you enjoy these as much as I do, its so great sitting down every other week and writing a few reviews or putting them into a post because I do put these out on minimap before hand, if you would like to check that app out or maybe the website, you can track your achievements, share them on the feed and see what other gamers are getting up to. This week is about games I play on stream, so if you are looking to start streaming, these could be a good recommendation. Let's do this. 

Golf with your friends - Great to stream, get your whole community involved, and rage together on the harder to play maps. In all of the experiences I have had with this game, there has always been one person who is better than the rest of us. I keep telling myself I am going to put more practice in before I play it with people, but I never do. This is a game you can dust off and come back to at any point. There is no storyline, just you and the course. You got this! 5/5

Lurkbait twitch fishing - If you stream on twitch this is a great game to keep chat interacting, and you can add your own things to fish up. You can even add sounds to go with the items that come out of the pond. Great for starting so, brb, and ending screens or just the whole stream, do what you want. You can just connect it to Twitch and do your own fishing if you don't stream but want to play. I tried the demo of it, but the demo is just for you, so if you aren't going to stream and use it on stream, I suggest you go for the demo version if it is still available. You can also change the seasons! 4.5/5

Gamble With Your Friends - This could be a good game for streaming because you can get a group of friends together and try to work to make money in a casino together. You will have to start over if you don't meet your daily goal. There are different floors you can unlock by playing the game well. Getting out of bed in the starting area may set off people who have motion sickness, as I struggle with it, but if you play with someone who can tell you when you are out while you aren't looking, you should be all good. Hours of fun can be had playing, so if you give it a go, good luck. There are 55 achievements to get, and they are shared with the people you play with. It would be nice if more multiplayer games did that. A casual mode would be cool for people to practice in, but maybe they will bring something like that in the future. 4/5

Coin Pusher World - The best game I have found for twitch interaction! '!All' to drop coins. There is a leaderboard, and maybe you might see your chat coming to life and appearing on it if you get this game. When I have days where I don't run this, my chat gets upset, so I would say it's a stream staple. Customise your coin, earn tickets to put walls up so you can gain more points with the '!wall' command. 4.5/5

Thank you so much for reading. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and I will see you for another blog post next week. Take care.

Revisiting Some Click Games - Game Review Part 4

Hello friends, and welcome back to me reviewing some games so you don't have to. All of these games are on steam and if you would like to check them out, they are usually free, especially if it is a click game. I emailed minimap about the problem with not being able to sync Epic Games to track those achievements, along with all the other platforms, and they got back to me very quickly. They are hoping to have Epic Games back on the minimap this year, so I am quite excited for this to be a thing again. They also said they had it on the app a while ago, but it needed more work to be up to their standard. It's lovely to hear some really positive stuff from a company. So if you are a pc user using minimap, make sure to check where you connect your accounts every now and then to see if the button to connect Epic is there. Now the life update is over, I hope you enjoy the gaming reviews.

Click me harder - This game has very easy achievements because you can click the character in the middle, but I think you get bonuses for clicking the other characters (one on each side of the main). I managed to complete this game in 25 minutes. I probably could have done it quicker if I clicked the other characters more often. But 100 achievements are pretty cool, so I won't argue it would be cooler if you could change the character's appearance. I did make the character dance by buying the upgrades. There isn't much to this game, but it's free, and the 100 achievements are nice. 2.5/5

Ducks - Finished in 1 minute, I am quite proud I managed to get 1000 clicks so quickly, but if you try this too, please be careful you don't hurt yourself. My arm is achy now, but I would say it's worth it. 3 Achievements, but I think that's pretty good considering it's a free game. You can mute this game in the settings found in the top right. 4.5/5

Fish - Click the fish once, and that is all there is to the game, really. 5/5

My Name Is Mayo - Click games rarely have a storyline, but if you stop to read them, there is a story in there. This was made very well, shout out to you developers for smashing this. It is a little strange, but hey, 50 achievements are nothing to scoff at, and you can get this done in one session. It did take me a while to understand what I was doing, but it's not tricky, really. I wonder what condiment is next. 5/5

Tap Tap Loot - Each click you do = a step forward with your character. You fight enemies just by clicking, so any click with your mouse or clicks from your keyboard. Level up your character's look and hit power with the chests you unlock by completing each wave. You can get common, uncommon, epic, and legendary skins to really elevate the look of your character.  There is multiplayer, and there are 53 achievements to get. If you want all of the achievements, you will have to party up with some friends to unlock a few. It's a good game to leave running in the background, but it has been a little buggy recently when I have tried upgrading my gear. They will more than likely fix this small bug in the next update. 4.5/5

DUCKS - Just click the duck once, and there you are, you should get the achievement its pretty easy. My achievement didn't pop up until I closed the game. It also makes a sound when you click, but because it was only one click, I didn't look to see if you could mute it. 3/5

My Name Is Mayo 2 - This one is better than the first! There were games within the game, it had a nod to Flappy Bird, and there was one where you had to throw pizzas at people because it was part of the storyline that you were a delivery person. I also found out there is a third, so I will have to try that one and see if that's even better than this one, because I wasn't expecting the added aspect of these little games. I thought it was going to be like the first one, where you click the jar, and it gets different outfits, and that would be it. Well done, devs, you did it again! Looking forward to trying number 3. 5/5

Thank you so much for reading. I really hope you enjoyed having the few extra reviews. I didn't want it to be so short, and it didn't seem like it had all that much content, so I may have to do this again when the reviews are a little shorter. See you again in a week for a new blog post. Have a great rest of your day.  

Gaming Reviews w/ Lilly - Part 3

 Hello friends and welcome to another set of gaming reviews, i really hope you enjoy these because I am loving having the time to write reviews about the games I have tried. If you would like to see any of these played there is probably a video or two of it on my channel you may have to hunt for some of the more obscure games such as the click ones but more of the regular games will be out on my channel if not my channel then check out the podcast as we may have a video or two over there. 

Among us - You can play this game on mobile for free but if you do that I recommend you play with a controller so that it makes the movement easier.  I actually started playing this game on mobile, there was a time in college where we all played this in class, such a great day that was. There are mods you can add to this game so it adds more rolls for people to play as, you can get some really cool cosmetics to dress up your characters. Its a great community game to play on stream. I find that I do get bored of this game but its great to come back too after a few months of not playing and then its right back to being fun again. With a few different maps to explore and tasks to do or players to kill its always a laugh. 4.5/5

Disney Dreamlight Valley - Star paths come in often where you do tasks around the valley to complete your quests, you can get some really cool rewards. The developers are always bringing in new characters and I am still pretty new to this game even thought I started on the Xbox, when I got it on steam I had to fully start over so I had none of the previous star path items I had unlocked. Its annoying you can't do cross progression but I am now over it since I have gotten so much further along the storyline now. You can go and visit your friends villages too so I like how they brought that in, You can also join a group of up to 4 people called a dream team where you an send your friends things they request to help them out with their quests and character needs. 5/5

Fishing planet - Such a complex fishing game, the most like real fishing I have experienced on a game. I saw a streamer playing this a while back and thought I need to give it a try. The first area you load into teaches you how to fish, how to keep your lines tight. It is such an immersive game. You can even look for worms in a pile of leaves to use as bait. You can travel around the globe if you buy the different fishing licences or you can just fish in that starting lake if you want to. This could be a good game for you to stream if you have an active chat and struggle to keep up because it is so chill. I will definitely be putting many more hours into this. 17 achievements to get and one is just for completing the tutorial. 4.5/5

Tower unite - This game has so many different things to do; hit the cassino, bumper cars, rollercoaster, shooting, golf, decorate your in game house,  go bowling, shopping and my favourite is going to the arcade. I have played so much on the claw machines that I have 2 whole rooms in one of my condos dedicated to the plushies I own.  There are 651 achievements and I am not even half way through them yet, so if you do buy this game be aware grinding the achievements may take some time. Its good to hang out with friends on this, or play on your own. There are a few games that are 4 people only such as bowling or then you have something like bingo in the cassino and you can have so many people playing that. I am sure there is something on this game you will enjoy. 5/5

Thank you so much for reading I hope you have a great rest of your day and I will see you for another blog post next week. Take care. 

Gaming Reviews - Idle Games

Hello, and welcome back to another gaming reviews post. I realised in my last one that all of the games I chose were very positive, and I didn't say that they aren't all going to be like that. I hope you are having the best week so far. I am just going to jump right into this. 

Knock - This game is okay. I mostly installed it because I wanted the achievements. Sometimes, I like to play click games when I am watching a show, so I have a game up on one screen and a movie or series on the other. This was not a game I could do while watching anything because every click made a knock sound, and yes, that's the name of the game, but I expected the button in the bottom left corner to turn off all sound, not just background sound. I am not a quitter, though, so I had to get all of the achievements before uninstalling the game. There was a creepy dude who popped up at the end after getting all the achievements, and the screen went black. I thought my pc was crashing; it might have had sound, but I had my speakers muted. If I were to go back in time knowing what I know, I probably wouldn't play this again, but hey, an extra 11 achievements towards my 5000 goal for this year, I will take it. 2.5/5

Firestone Idle Clicker - This game, I didn't have high hopes going into it, but I was pleasantly surprised with how many people are happy to answer your questions starting out. Even if you think it's a stupid question to ask, ask it. You never know, someone else may have been wanting to ask it too. The mods are wonderful. I did come into contact with some less-than-friendly people; more often than not, the mods catch it before you do. Join a fellowship (fs) and a guild, level up your characters, fight battles with both your characters and war machines, play cards at the tavern, and more.  I started this game one day after a friend tried it, and I must say it's a pretty good find. It reminds me of DND (Dungeons and Dragons), but it's fully online, and a lot less effort goes into it. I don't think there is a storyline, but I have had a great time meeting new people. Beware of the people adding you as friends and immediately asking for your Discord; they are a bit of a problem, but other than that its a great game. It's also on mobile too! 4.5/5

Burger - A free game on Steam where you just click to make a burger, 21 achievements to get for those achievement hunters. Since it is their 2nd anniversary, they brought in a second burger, so you may be able to complete it more quickly. I am still a little ways off, but I kind of forget about this game sometimes. Feed the cat, don't click B on a controller (Xbox), and don't click your scroll wheel or your right click (I can't remember if it's both, but just be on the safe side). If you do click one of these buttons, you might reset all your clicks. I did this no less than 3 times. If you are forgetful like me, maybe don't play or write a note because so much of my hard work (Just clicking) went to waste. Other than that, I like this game its kind of nice to sometimes have the crickets chirping in the background, but you can mute it in the top right corner. 4.5/5

Banana - 76 Achievements to get from clicking on one single banana. You can change the skin of your banana. Around Christmas, they have an Advent calendar where you can get some extra skins. You can trade up 10 skins of the same rarity for something else, just like Bongo Cat, if you have tried that game. It's pretty simple, but I don't understand the drops, and I will need to commit to this one more often if I want to 100% it. 3.5/5

I believe all of these games are free on Steam if you want to try them out for yourself, and there may be some content from these games already on my channel or popping up soon if you would like to see some visuals. Thank you so much for reading. I hope you found something you would like to try, and I will be back the week after next with another gaming review. 

Gaming Reviews?

Hello friends, and welcome to another post. I hope you are having a great day so far. I wanted to write about an app that I found for mobile recently, it's called minimap, and you can track all of your achievements on there as long as you link your accounts. I will say I have emailed the team asking why there isn't a button to connect to Epic Games, because I am loving the graphs it uses to show you how many achievements you have gained. 

If you are an achievement hunter trying to beat your all time record of achievements this is for you, it lets you post all of your achievements and there is a section where you can write reviews about the games that you play so I am thinking maybe I will do about 4 game reviews in one blog post so it isn't so short but you get to see what I have been up to before it comes out on my YouTube channel or even after a stream. I will start off with the few core games I love, and I will try to keep this as neat as I humanly can. If you do check out minimap, if you would like to drop me a follow, my username is LillyLeather420 YT. 

I know my life isn't filled with a lot of new experiences, but I am more of a home person. I don't like to leave my safe zone, but I do really like trying different games out, so much so that I could not tell you what types of games are my favourite. I do know what games I gravitate to, but only in the title sense, not a category. These reviews will be in no particular order. 

Dead by Daylight - I have over 1000 hours in this game because it is so good. I started on Xbox and then moved to Steam. Don't get me wrong, there are some not-so-great people who play this game, and they can be horrible in end-game chat. There are people who full-on troll whilst playing, but they play how they want to play, and you can play how you want to play. Your game style may upset other people, but as long as it isn't a reportable offence, you should be fine. I have met many great people whilst playing, and that is a giant part of why I continue to play. Because you meet those lovely people who want to farm with you, or you have a funny moment. It's really great to connect with people. I do wish they would have end game chat for Xbox, switch and PlayStation users, but hopefully they will bring that in in the future. Play on your own or with friends. I find myself taking breaks from it and coming back to it all the time. Can't wait for new killers and survivors, and 2v8 is my all-time favourite game mode, so I always love it when that comes back. 4.5/5

ASKA - This game is stunning visually. I streamed it and even played off-stream; I was that addicted to it. It is hard to play on your own, and there is definitely a learning curve. The first winter, I kept dying over and over, so I am a little traumatised anytime winter rolls around, but you just have to be prepared, and I really wasn't. I don't want to scare people away from this game because it is genuinely one of my favourites. I do recommend playing with friends because it will be easier. I think you can play with 4 people. The blood moons can be a little tricky, but if you just follow what the wisps tell you to, you should be fine. I love that there is a fishing aspect because fishing games can be some of the most chilled games, so it's nice to just choose to fish while you let your villagers chop trees, gather food and rocks, build a train and protect the base. You can never have enough flax. If you think it's enough, you are wrong. Get more. You will find you need it for crafting just about everything. Exploring is amazing, and I haven't even gotten into building the ships and sailing across the ocean to new islands. I cannot wait until I am at that point. 5/5

Bongo Cat - This little pixel cat has motivated me so many times to write YouTube descriptions or blog posts and now reviews because I want to be able to open the chests. I will never run out of clicks. It's almost the mentality that most people have for Pokémon, but instead of gotta catch 'em all, it's gotta collect all the skins and hats. You can dress your little typing companion anyway you want, and you can have your friends on the screen too. There are achievements for all you achievement hunters out there.  Try it cause why not its free, and I think you will find you quite like it, sitting in the corner of your screen. I love mine so much. 5/5

Minecraft - I spent a lot of my time before becoming more of a social game player playing Minecraft. I love the updates they bring out regularly. It's nice that a game that is quite old still has people thinking about it. So many great people are in the Minecraft community and actually make a living off this one game all on its own. Your only limit in this is your imagination; you don't have to be creative to play it, though. You can play at your own pace, go exploring, tend to crops, look after your own animals, raid temples, and battle enemies. I see why people love it so much. I love it so much. Build and create or destroy its up to you what you do. Invite your friends to worlds and share in the caving experiences. You might argue that the game has everything, and it genuinely might. 5/5

Thank you so much for reading. I really hope you like my reviews. I may be able to get these out every other week, but when I run out of games I have tried, they will be fewer and farther between. Have a great rest of your day, and I will be back with another post in a week. :)

Besties Across the World - The Power of Twitch

Hello and welcome to another post by me, Lilly. Today, I would like to talk about an online platform that could help you if you are feeling alone.

 It's crazy to think that I have met some of the best people in my life on Twitch; basically, my whole friend group is people I have met on Twitch. A lot of them are from England or pretty close, such as Ireland and Scotland. The group I have all have similar intrests but when someone finds something new, they share it with the group. It's a great community we have created over a three-year span, but seriously, these people are some of the best I have ever met in my life, and I am glad something like Twitch exists where people all across the world have the opportunity to chat and hang out without it being in person.  I actually came across Rambo because of my sister raiding into her, and I am so glad to call Rambo my bestie. This woman is outgoing, has similar goals in life to me, and she will message me every day. Twitch really has changed my life for the better, and you don't need to be streaming to make great friends from the platform. Just make a profile, search for a game you are interested in, and find someone who doesn't have that many viewers. I feel like a lot of people make the mistake of going into the bigger streamers' streams, but a lot of messages in the bigger streamers' chats will get missed. I recommend that you find someone who has single to double-digit viewers, as you may have better luck making a connection with the streamer and their viewers. Just remember, you are never alone. There is always someone out there willing to listen you just have to find them.

A little warning, if you are brand new at twitch there is such a thing as Twitch etiquette. Not every streamer wants to hear things such as bad thoughts or experiences; try to keep the conversation light. Maybe after sending a few messages in someone's chat, tell them it's your first time on Twitch or that you are new and are still learning what to do and what not to do. If you stream do not say in their chat that you stream too, I can only speak for my community but we tend to just give everyone a shout out so it will become known that you are also a streamer, some people will ask if you stream or what you stream, that ids your moment to shine let them know a little bit about what you do. Respect the chatters, respect the streamer, and respect the rules. If you follow this guide, you should be pretty good to go. Good luck in your Twitch adventures.

Thank you so much for reading. I really appreciate your time, and if you are someone who is feeling alone and wants to talk to someone, I stream most Thursdays and Saturdays, 8pm to 11 p.m. GMT. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and I will see you in the next blog post, I do or see you in a stream :)

'Love, Actually: Stories of the 'Verse 2956 Contest' - A Star Citizen Short Story

 
   Our love did not start in the stars, but it's endless just as the galaxy seems to be. 

No, our love did not start in the stars, rather it started on a planet where the greens had become a muddled brown and the sun was hiding behind the smog created by growing industries. Wall-e would be disappointed in us as a society. But, I would like to think he would be proud of us as a couple. Just as Wall-e and Eve stole everyone’s hearts dancing in the dark of space, stars and fire suppressant twinkling in their eyes; our love has soared through the galaxies.

He took to the stars before I did, had to scope out the ships and make sure it was safe. We started by calling Arccorp home, Area 18 was not a very original name for a base but it was sure better then ending up trapped in Area 51. Our first jobs were not very exciting, nor were they very productive. I may or may not have crashed a few times in the process of learning how to fly my Aegis Titan. But he knew how to help me be better. Taking me out of the driver seat. That can’t always be the solution though. Sure, it works out for when we are traveling to the moon that’s veiled in a violet mist that prevents me from seeing the ground and knowing where to land. Or when we are trying to track down Kopions and he needs somebody to help man the gunnery seat. So when we made our way to New Babbage and I fell in love with the little wonderful snowboarding penguin Pico, we knew we found a new home base as well as a new way to make me a better flyer. And so, my little fluffy flight companion became a staple in every adventure we took together. My hubby would be there waiting for me with a fresh friend every time I logged on and woke up in them hotel room beds. Sometimes he even takes me to Crusader to pick up the Stormwal duo Finley and Francis to have play dates with Pico. If Pico could put out a distress beacon, I would be there. Just as I will always be there for my favorite Space Man. Being a piece of candy hunting, loot goblin, who adopts every left behind plushie and fills his cockpit with an army of plushies.

Together we have taken on new planets, discovered new creatures, collected many pieces of ‘candy’ (aka luminalia presents and lunar year envelopes), and many Pico plushie companions guiding us through the adventures we take.

Here’s hoping for many more flights through the stars and many more years of our love.

Lilly's thoughts and opinions on the recent changes to Dead By Daylight

Hello and welcome to some game talk. I try my best to play a lot of games, but I keep going back to a few favorites every time. Dead by Daylight is one of those games, and if you have seen any of my YouTube content, it is probably something related to Dead by Daylight. I don't quite have 1000 hours in the game yet, but as of me writing this, I have 900 hours in the game on Steam, so I am getting there. Dead by Daylight was my gateway into gaming with friends, as I had played a few games on my Xbox and Nintendo DS that were solo, such as Minecraft, Disney Dreamlight Valley, and Nintendogs. But Dead by Daylight was my first game that wasn't really in my comfort zone, and it was multiplayer. My sister said I should try it, and I did. That very night, after I had downloaded it, I hopped into a VC with her friends and tried the game. I wasn't the biggest fan at first, as everything was new, including these people with whom I was now hanging out. For those who don't know, I am an introvert. I don't really like meeting new people or spending time with people, but it has gotten better through streaming, and I am decent at hanging out with people online if I know them a little. Streaming was a way to take me out of my comfort zone, and it really has! I have met some wonderful people through playing DBD and through streaming. I am so glad I tried both. 

Once I got more into the game Dead By Daylight I then experienced some of the different events that they have started doing more often for example the anniversary events of the game being out turned into playing the game as much as possible and getting all the blood points I possibly could because the blood point bonus cakes were in the blood web at the time so it turned into a whole grind situation. Then they started doing the 2v8 limited-time event game mode, and I absolutely love this, as you can play as a killer with your friends. It's so much fun, but it takes roughly 20 minutes to get a match as a killer, and if you are playing survivor, you can get a match almost instantly. I love this game mode so much that I even made a series on it for YouTube, so if you would like to see what I am talking about, you can head on over and check it out. It's called through the killer's eyes. I am recording the content for season two of this series, as so many people loved it. When Behaviour (The makers of the game Dead By Daylight) brought this game mode back, they had added a new feature for the killer. The feature is that if you are playing Killer, you don't have to wait in these ridiculously long killer queues; you can ready up with your friend you are playing killer with for a survivor game. The ratio ends up being 2:1. You get about 2 games as a survivor before you get 1 killer game. This is okay if you like both sides, and I do. However, it can be a little annoying going back and forth. I have been clicking wrong buttons as the killer because when I load into the killer match, my brain is still in survivor mode, plus with my series hanging in the balance, I would like to get more killer games recorded than survivor games. For the series, I like to have a total of twenty-two episodes, just like a regular TV series. 

Don't get me wrong, I love that they have made it so you can play as a survivor while you wait for a killer game. I  just wish the ratio were a little more balanced. They could introduce some incentives to have new people play the game, such as some free cosmetics for simply playing during the event, and not just a login bonus while this specific event is running. Maybe one day they will fix it, but maybe not. One can always hope.

Thank you so much for reading my mad ramblings. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and I will see you in the next one. 

Happy Switch 2 Launch Day!

PlayStation 4 (released 2013) -> 1 million units in 24 hours

Sega Dreamcast (released 1998) -> 225k in 24 hours

PlayStation 2 (released 2000) -> 500k in a weekend

PlayStation 3 (released 2006) -> 197k in 2 weeks

Xbox 360 (released 2005) -> 326k in 2 weeks

Wii (released 2006) -> 600k in 8 days

Game releases are always big days for the gaming community. When people can, they enjoy staying up all night long and waiting in line overnight to become the first to get their hands on the flashy new toy. The launch of the Switch 2 has been no different. 

Gamers flocked to stores over 12 hours before the launch of the system and had overnight parties in stores waiting for the chime of the bell signaling the official release of the latest addition to the history of gaming consoles.

Not everyone may believe that this latest release is an actual improvement, but sometimes we set our expectations too high and fail to realize where we started and just how far we have come.

I unfortunately have not gotten my hands on this latest system just yet, but I hope to someday.

Have you gotten one for yourself?

Content Creator Challenge Day 28: Post or Create a Media Kit

When you go out into the world, you are greeted with advertisements. Even just existing in the world and playing on electronics, you are greeted with advertisements. This is because the biggest way to get something known is through advertisements. Companies advertise new products, and people advertise new businesses. A media kit is just another way of you being able to advertise yourself. Your media kit contains everything anyone needs to know about your brand or your persona in every capacity.

A media kit contains what services you can provide. It includes any color schemes or themes that are used to represent your brand. It encompasses everything you may have done up to this point. It also shows how you can be reached such as through social media or through email.

You start to find yourself early on in your branding/streaming career but you may end up revamping or redesigning and there fore you may end up changing your media kit. You should always consider keeping an up-to-date version though in case you want to reach out to other artists for commissions or reach out to brands for possible endorsements. Your media kit can be essential in these situations.

I hadn't made a media kit up until now but it was not hard and honestly, I thought it was pretty fun and looks really nice! 

Content Creator Challenge Day 26: Share Your Discord

I worked really hard to set up my own discord when I first started streaming, it took some time but I pieced together bits from other servers I had been in and made it include all the things I liked most. Things such as designated channels for different types of conversations like those about superheroes or Disney princesses. Channels that posts for my various platforms can go into so that the community can stay up to date. Channels that not everyone has access to unless they are given special permissions or roles. All the roles you could imagine. Not to mention channels with various bots to entertain yourself if you're bored. Pretty visual titles to break up the monotony of most servers. Emotes to freshen it up and be unique for my server. So many things continue to get added as well, like counts to visually see how our community is continuing to grow. I am proud of what I have managed to accomplish and I will continue to update it as I continue to grow and learn new things!

 
https://discord.com/invite/JqD9sZxh3p

Content Creator Challenge Day 17: Try a Challenge for a Game you Play

Playing games in itself is great. I find it very fun to just run through the game as it was intended to be played and complete the quests that the DEVs have put into place. Sometimes though, you finish the storyline or the game is more open concept and you want to give yourself a harder task to accomplish than what the DEVs thought up. Because of this, gamers of all likes have been creating their own challenges and then some even go on to share them with the community so that other gamers can try and complete the challenges themselves. 

Most games have speed run modes. Lots of games you can reverse controls on. FPS games have different weapon load-out restrictions. Sims has challenges like Rags to Riches and the 100 Babies. Minecraft even has its own hardcore mode on Java where once you die, there is no respawn. You can catch me trying out that gameplay for the first time over on our YouTube once I finish editing the video! 

(Spoiler - I did not die on the first night like I totally expected myself to!)

Content Creator Challenge Day 15: Brands You Want to Work With

Getting to work with different brands is the epitome of being a content creator. Working with other brands or being sponsored by brands is when I think you consider yourself to have achieved influencer status, otherwise, you're kind of just creating a blog of your life and people are getting entertainment out of it on occasion. 

I am currently nowhere near being at the point that I could even think of working with other companies or being sponsored by some, but if I had to pick which of the brands in existence I would want to partner with, these would be them and these are the reasons.

In no particular order;

- Nintendo

    This is a very popular gaming company that was first started back in 1889. Over a hundred years before I was born. And while they may not have always been a huge part of my life, they are definitely the biggest part of why I game. Nintendo and its Mario franchise have helped hundreds of thousands of people to find a love of gaming, including myself. I continue to love Nintendo and its products and continue to throw money at them in the form of new consoles, new controllers, and new games. Sure there might be better ways to game in terms of quality graphics and quality consoles; but that feeling of nostalgia can never be beat. As somebody who considers themselves to be a Nintendo Girlie, to partner with them or receive merch from them would be a blessing beyond belief. 
- El Gato

    This company produces several streamer-friendly gear including their most well-known stream deck which allows creators to easily swap scenes or initiate different on-screen visuals and any number of other things. While I have not had the pleasure of getting a stream deck just yet, I have been using one of their capture card devices since I first started streaming. My capture card allows me to connect my switch to my laptop and OBS with ease. That way I can share all of my content with you lovely folks.

- Disney

    Do I really need to say more? Disney is my childhood and a large portion of my relief when it comes to releasing stress. To be partnered with them is probably a very rarely achieved dream, you need to fit some very strict requirements if you want to work with them.

- Nerf

    Nerf was started in 1969; yes, go ahead and laugh at the number of you immature buffoons. Nerf started with sports balls like footballs and basketballs, it wouldn't be until 20 years later that they would create their first blaster. Since then they have made hundreds of different blasters with some of their most well-known series being the N-Strike Force and the Elite Blasters. More recently, they have been doing collaborations with games like Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite, and more. My family used to have huge Nerf battles, it was a great way for family bonding. There were a couple times that we thought we should make a YouTube channel with our battles. I still love Nerf and still have most of our original blasters but I also now have a large collection of their Fortnite series blasters because why wouldn't I? Being sponsored by them and getting new blasters to try out would be awesome and would make my brothers jealous, possibly even make my dad mad we didn't actually make those videos.

- Build-a-Bear Workshop

    As somebody who used to work for the company, BAB has influenced me in many ways. I am happy to have been a part of their family and was sad that I had to depart but I left on my own accord to follow my dream career path and they understood that. I still go to my local store often and have way more of their plushies than I would have ever imagined when I was little. While I wouldn't stop spending my money with them, having a sponsorship with them where they provided me with the latest Pokemon plushies in turn for showing it on stream would be amazing.

- Deddy Bears

    I only recently came to know and love Deddy Bears but I think they fit our theme very well. Nighttime creatures, things that go bump in the night, plushies. Very much our persona right?

- Littles Laboratory

    A lot of people don't realize it right away but I am a little. I age regress on occasion. The online community definitely sees that side a little bit more than the in-person crowd does but that is because in person I feel very restricted by society and online I can relax and be myself and accept that I have some things in life that I need to work through. I found Littles Laboratory back when they first started out of the upper west coast states out of a single apartment. Before they vanished for a couple years and came back under new ownership. They still have tons of fun designs that they had back then but they now have even more options and have expanded from just adult onesies to underwear for both genders, full pajama sets, tutus, and more. I have not had the chance to order any of their merch just yet, mostly because I haven't had a safe space to order them to and wear them, but also because I want to get in healthier shape before I order them that way they will fit for a while.

Content Creator Challenge Day 12: Tech Setup Tips

When I was first getting started with streaming, I briefly thought about how I did not have a solid PC build to attempt to stream off of. I knew that my laptop might not be strong enough to support the stream and the game simultaneously. But I also knew even less about computers than I do now and I really barely know anything now. Most of what I have learned has been in the process of doing and in being informed by others in the community how I could be improving things. My suggestion to you is going to be to take in any and all advice that people are willing to give but understand that not all of it is going to suit you and your personal setup best. You need to be able to look into things yourself and experiment with different software and different parts as well. 

The one thing I would definitely suggest checking, your RAM. I currently utilize my Lenovo Legion Gaming Laptop for everything I do. And for the first year and a half, possibly two years, I assumed that because it was a gaming laptop, that it would be sufficient for what I needed. I quickly found out that it wouldn't like playing certain games while trying to also stream it and I kind of just accepted that. Until my boyfriend sat me down and explained that when you get a laptop, they only provide you with a single RAM stick but there are usually two slots for RAM in a laptop. For those like me who don't always fully understand computer lingo, RAM is a type of memory storage. Unlike a hard drive or a flash drive though, RAM is temporary storage. This temporary storage point allows your computer to process tasks. If your RAM is small, typically 8 GB, you will barely be able to process a game without lag let alone stream. I believe my laptop had a 16 GB RAM stick in it which allowed me to play games efficiently or stream lesser quality games without issues but would get easily backed up in the case of say a raid coming in to stream. I definitely helped take some of the pressure off my RAM by streaming primarily console games and using a capture card, but even this would still use up some of the RAM in my PC. My boyfriend helped me upgrade to 32 GB of total RAM storage which has allowed me to play more games on my PC with less lag. So check in on your RAM. See if maybe you should consider upgrading it before you try gaming and streaming off of the same device.

My next tip I would suggest, if you have never used your device before and it is not already cluttered with all your gaming software; how much general storage space do you have? I know laptops can not store much to begin with but make sure you are maximizing your storage if you can. I am not a fan of external hard drives because I am scared that one day I will go to unplug it and all the data on it will be lost, but at this point, I also can not switch out my hard drive to my PC because I do not have a way to transfer everything over to a new hard drive without buying a special transfer contraption. And then I would also have to go through the process of reinstalling Windows and I really am not a good enough PC girlie for that just yet. So if you can, make sure you have a lot of internal storage before you start installing all your games and streaming software. You will chew through that space very quickly if you are like me and have lots of games. Or even if you are just like my boyfriend and play games with a lot of space requirements. (The one game that I play with him requires like 103GB of space!)

Another good tip, when it comes to your streaming software; you need to understand and acknowledge just how many applications you are going to be running and how much wear and tear that puts on your computer. When I go live, I not only have whatever game I am playing and my OBS up, but I also have Discord, Streamlabs Chatbot, MixitUp Bot, and usually at least 4 tabs in a browser running. That is a lot for my PC to be running at a single time (although it also is not the most I have seen people have open) and it can start to slow everything down if I am not careful. You need to be able to watch your PC metrics, see how much of your CPU is being used consistently, see how much of your GPU is being occupied, see if the bitrate connection is set too high for your connection to streaming sites. See if there are ways you could potentially limit these applications, do I really need two different chatbots? no, I could realistically combine them into one, I just like how my Streamlabs chatbot lets me have a bot name, and am being lazy with switching over. The point though, some softwares may take up more credentials than others. Twitch Studio was a great stepping stone for me before I moved on to Streamlabs OBS. Streamlabs was very user-friendly and very easy to navigate and adjust my layout, BUT it used up a LOT of my CPU. Part of that stems from the fact that it just has so much to offer you and help you with your stream, the store running in the background really does not need to be doing that. There are ways you can limit its usage and help out your stream without compromising but you should honestly just consider using OBS instead. I know it looks daunting, but you can very easily create a layout for your stream in Streamlabs and then OBS will automatically convert the save files to be used on their software! So definitely take a look at all your options and monitor what it is using on your PC.

Content Creator Challenge Day 10: Behind the Scenes of Stream

Similarly to my day in my life, my streaming setup is not currently anything spectacular. I have at least progressed from streaming off my bed and only playing console games to having a desk and starting to venture more into playing PC games. I don't think my laptop appreciates that very much though. 

When I go to set up for stream, the first thing I do is make sure that I have everything plugged in correctly and accounted for. Then I go through the process of making sure I have plenty of water and snacks, maybe even dinner sitting in my mini fridge for when I am finished. Then I start to go through the process of making sure everything is working properly. I make sure to open up my Streamlabs chatbot and Mixitup bot prior to opening OBS, and then I start doing checks of my scenes, making sure it is detecting all my cameras and mics or games properly. Go through the checks to ensure my commands are functioning properly, and that nothing is lagged out or out of the screen. And then slowly I start amping myself up to hit that go live button. Before I do though, I always make sure that I adjust the stream titles and games on both Kick as well as Twitch because while I may not be a big streamer, I still take the time to multistream on both platforms. Eventually, I would even like to throw Tiktok Live into the mix and try to get some people from there as well. Once I know that everything is seemingly working and that I am being detected through my setup, I hit that button and hope for the best and just try to have as much fun as possible!

There is probably more I could or should be doing to be making more progress in the streaming world but it's just a hobby for me, something for me to do to distract myself and get that serotonin boost. 

Content Creator Challenge Day 4: Favorite Game

You know when you are new to something or somewhere and they make you do those icebreakers? The ones where you list your hobbies or your favorite movies? Why do we do that? How can you make somebody have a favorite anything in a world filled with so many creative exploits?!

Asking me to pick a favorite game is like asking a parent to pick a favorite child. You shouldn't. Sure they probably do have a secret top pick but they probably have tons of favorites for different reasons.

Ask me what my favorite game is? In what scope? Can we narrow it down a little? Do we mean my favorite game right now? Do we mean my favorite Mario-specific game? How about a genre? Favorite console game versus favorite PC game? Like, why must you force me to pick between them all?

I guess I would say my current popular picks are Palia, Dreamlight Valley, and Fortnite but another good fallback is Minecraft. Then of course you have my nostalgic feels favorites which would be any of the Mario Games because I was raised on Nintendo and will be a Nintendo girlie to the very end.

But seriously, I have too many games for you to ask me to pick a favorite, be it Pokemon, Dead By Daylight, Rock Band, Animal Crossing, Phasmophobia, or any number of games!! Why must you torment me so?!

What if I asked you what YOUR favorite game was? What then??

Content Creator Challenge Day 2: Your Setup

How you choose to game is completely up to you. You do not have to let others dictate what you do or do not play nor how you play it. Technology, however, will limit you in many ways.

You are always welcome to stick strictly to console gaming. Just know that you are often giving up good graphics as well as playability in order to have portable consoles versus stationary consoles. Similarly, playing on a console as a whole can sometimes restrict you compared to PC gaming because controllers are only allotted for so many key binds.

My setup is nowhere near where I wish it was but I am grateful for what I do have and the progress I have made.

Back before my time streaming, my time gaming was spent very strictly on consoles. I did not start PC gaming until I was in college and had a laptop that I could play Sims4 on. Now that I stream, I still largely play games on my Switch, but I also now have a better gaming laptop and play a number of games on there. The major downside to a laptop over a PC though is that I am often limited on space and have to pick and choose which games I have installed as well as my laptop can sometimes have problems staying cool because everything is so compact. This does not stop me from getting online and using OBS and twitch and discord and whatever game I may be playing though to hang out with my friends and stream to my community.

My setup as it is today includes; 

- Lenovo Legion 5 

    - AMD Ryzen 7 5800H w/ Radeon Graphics

    - 32 GB Ram

- Nintendo Switch

- Elgato HD60 S External Capture Card

- Kofire UG05 Wireless Gaming Headset

- KLIM Chroma Wireless Keyboard

- Onn Brand Wireless Gaming Mouse

- Bamboo Fun CTE450 Drawing Tablet (for designing emotes)

- GoWeb C90 Pro Camera (used for when I do crafts or mystery package opening)

- FIFINE Gaming USB Microphone (not currently used because I don't have enough USB ports)