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julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

5.1K followers 1.3K following 8.5K posts

writer, gamedev, video game consultant, homosexual. don't call me a solo dev. an example of the live mas mentality. Interstate 35, out now. making: UNANNOUNCED (TBD) https://store.steampowered.com/app/3283890/Interstate_35/

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julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

November 10, 2025 at 3:28 AM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

went for hitting hard and fast and then bunnyhopping my way to safety

November 9, 2025 at 12:38 AM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

you're excited because zohran won. i'm excited because i'm building a little mind map/mission log system and it's working.

November 5, 2025 at 3:25 AM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

White woman looking beatifically to the heavens. "Girl who is going to be okay"

November 5, 2025 at 2:21 AM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

yeah, no, fair. and i know you're not being an asshole. but my answer is, uh, well, it's longer than i can fit so here's what you're getting, because i think you're asking an interesting question and i appreciate this

1/4: well, no-- i don't think you're supposed to assume that the information is diegetic as such (that is, that it exists *in the game world*.) but that to me raises some interesting questions about its role in the narrative of these games, though i will grant that not a lot of them take advantage of those questions. my example of the original dark souls, though, is one that i think *does.*

so, we assume it's non diagetic. great. that means it's being imposed upon the game world from outside, presumably for an outside observer-- us, the player. so what, narratively, does this extra-diagetic intrusion signify?

i think the generally assumed answer for games is that it's intended to either 1) represent what the player character knows but the *player* would not (ie, in-universe knowledge) or 2) it represents diagetic knowledge translated into a non-diagetic form-- ie, procedural knowledge, things like tutorials-- how to jump, how to run, how to drink the sunny delight.

2/4: but what's interesting to me is that the voice of these descriptions-- as you point out-- does not seem to neatly map to either of those assumptions. as you say, Hollows are ignorant as fact of biology, and forgetfulness is a fundamental part of their whole deal. What's more, these item descriptions seem to operate from an unstable place of knowledge where they, at times, know basic facts about the world and setting that even most *informed* people in it would not know-- like there are a couple item descriptions that spoil the twist regarding Gwynevere and Anor Londo, extremely privileged knowledge. Yet the voice or voices of these descriptions don't seem to *always* know these things. They ask questions they don't have answers to. The knowledge being drawn from is not a stable, unmoving thing.

Likewise, they don't neatly graft into the second assumed role, either, as they are, as many people will gladly point out, often *extremely unhelpful for the player.* Lore without context, questions without answers, snapshots of history with no heuristics with which to understand them. People have spent their entire careers as critics and entertainers trying to turn these disparate, barely useful scraps of information into a traditional plot or world, with clear diminishing returns-- gaps that are entirely unfillable. if these are tutorials, they're bad tutorials. and if these are histories, they're written by a maniac.

3/4: so, then, we have text that 1) is not meant to represent the player character's perspective, 2) *does* however seem to largely graft to an in-universe perspective, albeit an unstable one and 3) does not serve a clear utility.

a literary reading of this brings us to the idea of something like what some James Joyce scholars call the Arranger in the novel Ulysses-- an unexplained presence, that seems to exist simultaneously inside and outside the story, which regularly intrudes upon the surface level narrative. Sometimes to provide local color, sometimes to provide gameplay hints, sometimes to casually drop massive secrets about the true order of the fictional world. But never in a manner that is easily explicated.

was this intended? Hell if i know. But I do think-- at least in this specific text-- it is an incredibly clever and interesting thing. It further enforces the sense of Lordran's instability, both as a place within a fictional world that is falling apart and in its role *as a fiction itself.* As a story, told to us the player, and also perpetuated by systems that exist within the diegetic world.

4/4: and from there, that's a reading you can take to a lot of places. to thinking about the historiography of dark souls' world, to the story's themes of reproduction & rebirth as a fundamentally degenerative process, to a wacky deconstructive reading about the ability of game worlds to create meaning at all. and that's why i'm inclined to define the method as epistolary fiction, at least in this specific instance-- because if you take it seriously as a thing the text is doing, you find a surprising amount of meat on those bones.

November 3, 2025 at 12:15 AM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

in other news i worked very earnestly to revise the UI in game2 from "it sort of exists" to "it looks roughly like a video game" and i have made some killer progress actually

A screenshot of game2, with various UI elements scattered around. I would explain further I'm sorry but I'm afraid I'm going to spoil stuff if I write all the fine details.

November 1, 2025 at 1:15 AM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

she was his what now

Agrias, from FF Tactics: 'She is a princess true, the sister of the late king ere she was made his daughter! To lay a finger on her is treason!"

October 25, 2025 at 8:57 PM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

so bill ackman is, uhh, cell saga vegeta? that's cuomo's guy?

a comparison shot of Vegeta in Dragon Ball: on the left sides are times when he points to himself to declare his new power. On the right, showing how every single goddamn time he does this, he gets his shit wrecked.

October 18, 2025 at 9:47 PM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

been a while since i posted my face. here. i'm cute as hell.

julie, with shaggy brown hair and piercing hazel eyes. cute girl. wearing a gray men's undershirt, tanktop.

October 18, 2025 at 1:41 AM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

ready to cause problems

3 boxes holding Magic the Gathering Commander decks, with the three Commanders in special glass cases on the outside of the box. The three commanders are Trance Kuja, Fate Defied, the First Sliver, and Glissa, Herald of Predation. you can read their card text on scryfall.com

October 10, 2025 at 2:00 AM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

Homer Simpson, anxiously pulling at his collar while making an uncomfortable noise.

October 6, 2025 at 7:44 PM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

you know not bad

October 6, 2025 at 2:12 AM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

getting back into the engine for game2, working on that windowed interface

an image of game2-- a "window" featuring a digitized view of a person in an abstract environment, and a body of text in a text box overlapping it

October 5, 2025 at 8:43 PM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

quote from disco elysium. "The Deserter- "That the bourgeois are not human."

October 3, 2025 at 1:26 AM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

like, that's a guts

Absolute Batman, all muscle and shadows, hunched over, yelling OUT OF MY WAY

October 2, 2025 at 8:31 PM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

it's good, at least, that they already printed the worst magic card in the world

Sway of the Stars. For ten mana (!), you get a sorcery that says, "Each player shuffles their hand, graveyard, and all permanents they own into their library, then draws seven cards. Each player’s life total becomes 7."
it restarts the game. why would you have a card that RESTARTS THE GAME

October 2, 2025 at 12:17 AM

julie muncy

@julie.radiantarray.io

my apartment has a closet we weren't really using and it's kinda big so i turned it into a little hangout nook for me with a little mattress and stuff to chill. my very own fainting couch. here is nook, featuring cat.