⚔️ Hirei

Freelance GFX/Artist/PM for Games and VNs | Marketing/PM By 🌞 and Adventuring Artist by 🌙 |

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

Commission Status: WORKING ON BACKLOG! I won't be accepting any more new work until 2022.

Check for Current List: https://t.co/P5J6PW8pMK

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

Don't be the one guy who likes to victim-blame.

[Stebe 🤖 VTuber | 🛫Offkai Soon @SirStebe]

Shout out to the ONE GUY that clicked on a phishing link allowing his account to get hacked...

we have a current queue of 130 people, calls waiting at the 4.5 hour mark, and more people emailing in complaining that we're not helping them

Please don't be that guy

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

@SirStebe Can you PLEASE not victim blame? The hackers do improve at what they do, and it's normal to make one mistake.

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

Feel free to send your death threats to me :D

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

Seeing certain people whine on the KS pages when one of the fulfillments is delayed gives me joy cause they are so dumb for not realizing that the administration is making it difficult for fulfillment for ALL sectors. 1/2

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

Yeah I know some of these peeps are reading my Twitter/X but frankly idgaf as someone who works in the industry. They haven't seen Project Phoenix or one of the board game KSes! (2/2)

[Brother Ming 🔜 AX KH-520 @BrotherMingGame]

This list of identical elements is pretty much ALL of the rules to Sento. I get it; it's a great game. It's easy to learn, elegant, and it took me THREE YEARS of trial and error, iterating, and playtesting to refine.

Proof:
Playlist of the various stages of development of Sento from 2018 to 2020
https://t.co/iPGzVtaZD4

Pictured below:
An iteration not shown in videos when the game became a 2 to 4 player racing game with marbles being fuel and your tray being your engine. (A picture of what actual board game designing looks like.)

Every game designer knows they have to iterate on designs over and over. Especially if you're being directly inspired by another game. Most designers would want to put their own spin on the game by changing how the mechanics work, but what did Power Well change?

- Different art for different playable characters
- Displaying attack lists horizontally instead of vertically on the character board
- Using health bars instead of health dials to visually track HP
- Different theme of a water well instead of arcade machine
- Metal wish coins instead of cardboard arcade machine tokens
- A gate piece on the tower to hold secure marbles in place when pulling marbles
- Expendable resource instead of a tug of war resource for kicker ability activation

So, of these changes, only 1 can be attributed as design or development work while the rest are cosmetic, which, coincidentally, is exactly what a publisher does when they sign a game from a designer!

The designer does not fiddle with the apparatus design; that's on the publisher to figure out. The designer doesn't decide the theme or art direction —that's the publisher again. Functionally, Power Well is publishing my design.

Source:
https://t.co/tOQjDcwYqV

[Brother Ming 🔜 AX KH-520 @BrotherMingGame]

Yesterday, Power Well, who is claiming to be making a “spiritual successor” to my game, formerly known as SENTO (a game which was shown off in 2020 at Pax South, BGG Con, and Pax East), posted a 50+ page document accusing me of extortion by calling them out for refusing to credit me.

But even with 50+ pages, they never once list out the actual similarities and differences between their game and Sento, so let's jump into that first.

IDENTICAL Elements:

- 1 vs 1 dueling game where you play as a unique character with asymmetric abilities.

- Same marble tower design and layout with 3 lanes of 5 marbles (with marbles in the same 3 colors).

- Identical gameplay where players take turns clearing 1, 2, or 4 marbles of the same color to activate a 1, 2, or 4 marble attack corresponding to the marble's color on your character sheet.

- Identical clearing rules where you can only clear marbles from 2 lanes: the middle lane and the lane closest to you, and that marbles must connect orthogonally without backtracking.

- Identical HP system where attacks deal damage to 3 separate HP bars, each corresponding to the 3 different colors of marbles and their move sets.

- When an HP bar hits zero, that color of attacks become disabled, but that color of marbles become WILDs that can be used to bridge and connect your other marbles.

- Each marble you clear as a connector this way restores 2 HP to that move set's HP bar.

- At the start of your turn, you can re-activate any broken move set at it's current HP level and immediately regain access to that move set.

- Identical win condition where you must pay 1 coin whenever you lose an HP bar. When you've lost 5 coins, you lose the game.

- When you lose an HP bar while you already have a broken HP bar, you must pay 2 coins instead of 1.

- Instant game over if you have no HP bars active.

- Every attack has a kicker ability that can be triggered in addition to the base attack.

Proof:
Article from @TychoBrahe that briefly but accurately describes Sento's mechanics:
https://t.co/nmvSOciA8h

Full play through from @lovethynerd who explains the rules in full detail:
https://t.co/VpK5ymdO9l

Very recent Interview by @TheGeeklyGrind with Power Well at Pax West explaining the rules to their game
https://t.co/OquxDJr7KQ

Bonus: when asked about inspirations during the above interview, they fumble their way through some generic answers, then admit it’s based on a game they played at Pax South, but conveniently forget to credit whose game that is.

Pictured below:
Left - Sento at Pax South 2020
Right - Power Well at Pax East 2024

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

@aged__vanilla @PowerWellGame Hi, your imgur link isn't working!

[Brother Ming 🔜 AX KH-520 @BrotherMingGame]

FINALLY! Re;MATCH, the marble puzzle arcade fighting board game, will be launching on KS next year!

A game so great someone copied it 1 for 1 after playing a prototype demo at Pax South. They're even calling it my game's spiritual successor 😂

So follow the project on KS now! (Thread on copycats below 1/x)

https://t.co/WJXKZ3my3v

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

@shinhoroko Congrats! You are doing such great things!

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

@shinhoroko @AnimeExpo I finally got one. If your ticket has been sitting for a month, try to reach out to another department!!!!

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

After a month I got sick of waiting and asked via email to someone on panels to escalate. I finally got my badge after they looked into it. If I hadn't reached out to another department myself, my ticket would've sat there forever. TY to @jmitsu and @shinhoroko for helping.

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

Annnd still no industry badge from Anime Expo ;w;

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

Well guess I won't be getting an Anime Expo industry bage lol. They still haven't replied back after a week.

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

@Bishounen_P HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

@verdelishJP @brisanbear I appealed it and haven't heard back yet hahaha.

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

@debaoki Oh congrats! I'm still waiting for my appeal x.x

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

Update on Anime Expo Industry Badge: No appeal reply yet!

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

Plus we give AX money with booth stuff.

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

Update on @AnimeExpo industry badge status: Sent an email for re-eval. Waiting to hear back. Mentioned that I am the Head of Marketing for J-Novel Club, a Kadokawa owned company, and that I've done industry booths/ panels for them. If this doesn't work... no one has a chance.

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

The only reason why I say no one has a chance is because JNC has literally been at Anime Expo for quite a couple of years and I'M LITERALLY THERE TO CONDUCT BUSINESS ONLY AND NOT ATTEND FOR FUN.

[⚔️ Hirei @reiterasu]

@shinhoroko perfect.