Saturday Casual Gaming 20: Scream Collector

Game: Scream Collector
Publisher(s): PuzzleRoo, MarcLinn1, TTLRiot, carolyn7
Type(s): Casual, Idle, Holiday (Halloween), Clicker, Incremental, Pixel
Hours Sunk: 100+
Publication Date: Oct 17, 2016
Platform(s): Steam, Kongregate (PC)

This game is a lot of fun, but it's a heck of a commitment at the same time!

You start out with a little shack, and when you click on it, it gives you "Screams", which are your basic currency. You can then spend the screams on upgrades and features to make your haunted house bigger, badder, and more full of creepiness!

As you can see, there's a lot you can get with Screams!

As you work on your house, you'll sometimes find special items that can be used to interact with the scene, like Ghost Traps, Hammers, Buckets of Water, and Soup (apples or eyeballs). Sometimes a familiar outline will appear silhouetted on the moon, and if you click it, it explodes into bats, which you can click for bonuses, free spins on the wheel of fortune, and even the second currency - blue gems.

Blue gems are necessary to progress, but thankfully, a lot of the stuff you do gives them to you, so you're not going to be hurting for them for long.

The spins are used for the first kind of gambling game you can play on here - and there are no bad spots to land on!

Yay! Gambling!

The other use for Blue Gems, however, is to access the second of three scenes. It's taken me two years to build up enough gems, but I'm now inside the house! That's right, you can go inside your haunted house!

But it's not all moonlight and nightshades, friends...

When you go into the house, you have to upgrade that, too, but your Scream currency is no good here! Instead, you have to earn "Chills" (The drippy shape near the 1.08U). Chills serve the same function as Screams, allowing you to build up the inside of your house.

As for that weird black ghost with the orange face, that's where you reset your progress to get bonuses to your Scream or Chill income (there's a reset ghost on both screens, and I haven't had the guts to hit it for the inside yet, so do so on the inside at your own peril!).

You may have noticed, too, that the inside-gems are purple! That's because there are gem based upgrades to earn in here, too.

And there's a third scene, one I probably won't reach until next year if I keep up this pace...

The Dungeon.

There's not a whole lot about the Dungeon online, yet, but mark my words, as soon as I'm in, you'll hear about it! (Again, probably next year. This game is a grind.)

Here's the thing about Scream Collector: It's a really fun game, it looks cool, you can tell these guys have worked really hard on it, and I really appreciate that it's so popular (over 800k plays on Kongregate alone) and that they still update it after two years.

It's just...

It's really hard, guys.

Especially if you have bad eyes and things to do!

But it's too fun not to play, and it's great to get back into every year when fall starts up.

So 10/10, will play more.

That's all for me this week, folks!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

PS: I'm going to try to make tomorrow's food today, so I'm sorry if I fail at the last minute on Survival Sunday!!!

Filmic Friday 20

Format: BluRay

It's that time of year, kids!

The air is cool, the leaves are changing, and the squirrels are roughly the size of Volkswagens. It must be time to break out the nostalgia-bomb arsenal and get to work remembering safer, sweeter times!

First up, we've got the best Halloween film without the holiday in the title: Hocus Pocus. Fight me.

Does anyone else miss painted box art for movies?
Because I really, really miss this style.

If you're too young to have watched it before or too old to have watched it as a kid, or even if you just missed out, here's the basic plot:

A young man named Max (Omri Katz) and his sister Dani (Thora Birch) move from California with their parents (Charlie Rocket! and Sephanie Faracy) to Salem, Massachusetts just in time for Halloween. I don't know why, probably something to do with one of their parents' jobs. It's always because of business/money in the 1990s. Max is bullied by the older kids in town (Larry Bagby as Ernie "Ice" and Tobias Jelinek as the suspiciously named Jay) and has a crush on one of his classmates, Allison (Vinessa Shaw), and he absolutely doesn't want to take Dani out Trick-or-Treating.

Unfortunately, his airhead parents make him drag Dani around to do just that, but their fortunes change when they wander into Allison's family's party and meet up with her. Dani, being a bratty little sister in that 1990s way, exposes Max's crush and humiliates him by letting Allison know that he really likes her "Yabos" (breasts... you know, for kids!). Unperturbed (and how chill is this girl?!), Allison decides to really spook the heck out of the new kids by dragging them to her mom's creepy witch museum dedicated to the murderous Sanderson sisters (that would by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy).

There's a legend about how if a virgin lights a specific candle (which is conveniently displayed, uncovered and unguarded, by a bunch of lighters because of course it is) on a Halloween night with a full moon (which it is), then the witches will rise from the dead. And by the way, the movie opens with these same witches murdering a child and being hanged. You know. For kids.

A 1990s movie with curious kids, a cursed object, and the potential for mortal peril?
Gee... wonder what's gonna happen.

So of course, Max lights the candle, freeing the Sanderson sisters, who decide they're going to suck the life out of literally every child in Salem, starting with Dani.

You know, for kids!!!

That being said, they end up with an ally.

Remember how I said that in the beginning of the movie, the Sandersons straight up murder a kid? Well they also turn her brother into a cat, who is still guarding their house and trying to keep just this from happening.

And yes, that does look a bit like Salem the cat.
But he's played by McGee from NCIS.
Baby Tim McGee = 300 year old catboy.
Wut.

Since they're back despite him literally trying to rip Max's jugular out, he decides to help these idiot 20th century kids put the witches back where they belong.

And yeah, the movie gets pretty traumatizing. There's a temporary cat death that involves a city bus, parents not believing kids no matter what evidence is presented to them, kidnappings, attempted murder, aaaaannnnndddd....

Doug Jones as a foulmouthed zombie (once he slices his own mouth-stitches open with a pocketknife)

Yeah, this movie probably traumatized a lot of people back in the day. Including me.

In the end, of course, the kids foil the Sanderson sisters' plot (complete with great musical number), Thackery Binx the cat is reunited with his sister Emily (to many tears), and Max & Allison get together. The only one who gets literally nothing but her life is Dani. Which is actually okay, because it's literally her fault her brother almost dies at the end (if the zombie who has become friends with you puts you in a hole surrounded by salt and all your friends are saying stay there, then you do it, you don't go wandering off to help the zombie get his head back. He can get it himself!).

In conclusion, you should watch this movie for the Halloween season! I strongly suggest pairing this movie with some white cheddar popcorn and peanut M&Ms, as long as you aren't prone to migraines. It also goes well with warm cider, pumpkin muffins, or anything else Fallish and/or nostalgic to you!

That's all for me, today, folks :)

Go Enjoy Something!!!
FC

Thursday Art Walk 20

Today was easier than last Thursday. I finished all of my art before noon!

Unfortunately, Google hates syncing my Drive.

So who knows when I'll ever get to post this dumb stuff.

Inktober 2018, #19; "Scorched"; Ink on index card, 2018
Return of the squirrels!

Inktober 2017, #19; "Cloud"; Ink on index card, 2018
This is supposed to be a crystal ball with a moon and clouds.

Inktober 2016, #19; "Flight"; Ink on index card, 2018
If it's not clear enough, this is a witch, polymorphed into an ermine, flying in a basket with a pair of shears and a knife so they can go gather their herbs, etc from hard-to-reach places.

Inktober 2018, #20; "Breakable"; Ink on index card, 2018
This is a peaceful tea between a witch and a witch hunter.

Inktober 2017, #20; "Deep"; Ink on index card, 2018
A were-anglerfish waits for her prey.

Inktober 2016, #20; "Squeeze"; Ink on index card, 2018
Someone wanted some blood orange juice.

Inktober 2018, #21; "Drain"; Ink on index card, 2018
A diver tries to flee the drain!

Inktober 2017, #21; "Furious"; ; Ink on index card, 2018
The void lives and is very upset that you haven't fed it yet this morning, missy.

Inktober 2016, #21; "Big"; ; Ink on index card, 2018
Eye see you.

Inktober 2018, #22; "Expensive"; Ink on index card, 2018
Hope it was worth it...

Inktober 2017, #22; "Trail"; Ink on index card, 2018
After Hansel & Gretel visited the witch...

Inktober 2016, #22; "Little"; Ink on index card, 2018
A tricksy pixie trapped beneath a glass.

Inktober 2018, #23; "Muddy"; Ink on index card, 2018
The creature wants them boots.

Inktober 2017, #23; "Juicy"; Ink on index card, 2018
Big spider likes flies with some oomph.

Inktober 2016, #23; "Slow"; Ink on index card, 2018
Yay slugs!

Inktober 2018, #24; "Chop"; Ink on index card, 2018
Yeah, let's make some mushrooms and... oops.

Inktober 2017, #24; "Blind"; Ink on index card, 2018
I dunno. I just like it.

Inktober 2016, #24; "One Dozen"; Ink on index card, 2018
This was supposed to be long, not tall. Oops.
Also, these are all dark and/or ghost type eggs from Pokemon.

Inktober 2018, #25; "Prickly"; Ink on index card, 2018
Because if I ever have a cactus, it'll be in a jack-o-lantern pot.

Inktober 2017, #25; "Ship"; Ink on index card, 2018
A ship passing in the night.

Inktober 2016, #25; "Tired"; Ink on index card, 2018
The ermine witch is sleepy!

That's all from me for today!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Wednesdaymania 20

It's never easy, learning that someone famous has a terrifying illness, but it's even harder when you have been slagging on the guy for years. This is what I'm facing right now. Of course, what I'm facing is nothing compared to what Roman Reigns faces.

This is a man who has lost his brother (Rosey), who has been pretty broadly disliked by wrestling fans, and who now has given us one of the most painful moments in recent history on Raw.

Because Roman Reigns has leukemia.

And it's not the first time.

And from the way people are reacting, it doesn't sound good.

I'm not an oncologist. I don't know the specifics about what kind of leukemia he has. All I know is that this is not his first battle with the cancer - he was diagnosed 11 years ago and went into remission. When cancer comes back, it's never a good sign, in my experience.

This brings up all kinds of feelings for me, because Roman is easy to dislike. He's smarmy when he gives the scripted promos they hand him, he's mediocre in the ring when you compare him to Daniel Bryan or Kenny Omega, and he's had a rocket strapped to his butt for years that's stalled out because we don't like to be told by a company that someone is great (look how we've treated John Cena, who's also a perfectly nice guy). But here's the thing - Roman's not a bad wrestler or a bad promo or even a bad champion.

He's good at all these things.

He's just not at the level they keep telling us he's at, and that's so intensely unfair to the guy. Had the Shield lasted another year or two (maybe three, who're we kidding), then I think that A) Seth's knees would be in better shape, B) Dean would probably look less stoned half the time, and C) Roman would've become a People's Champ like his first cousin once removed. WWE never really gave Roman a chance to find himself.

Which is why the fans immediately leaped on the hate train like a pack of howler monkeys, myself included.

But it's really hard to hate a guy with three kids and cancer.

So I'm not going to pretend anymore. Roman's a fine wrestler. I don't hate the guy, and if the fight goes well and we're lucky enough to have him in the ring again, I look forward to watching him get the title back. To be honest, the cooldown of absence can only make him more popular. We're in Poochy territory with the guy, right now.

I hope the fight goes well and that he can Superman Punch this leukemia right back into remission.

Then I see the Shield standing together at the end of his announcement after telling the crowd that he'll "Take any prayer you send (him)" and I get very afraid.

Seth was weeping the whole time. Dean wasn't much better.
Neither was anyone else.

Your friends don't cry like this when you've got an easy fight ahead.

Leukemia doesn't as often hit people in the 19-40 crowd, either, and he was first diagnosed at 22.

That's frightening.

So I wish Mr. Joe Anoa'i every advantage in his fight.

And I hope that, even if I never see him set foot in the ring again, that he gets to attend his children's graduations, their weddings, the births of their children.

I hope he recovers and is able to live his life to its upper limit and beyond.

So get well, Roman Reigns. And know that even your haters are pulling for you.

FC

Talk About Tuesday 20

Soft kitty indeed.

It's a cool and gray day, today. The perfect kind of day to wrap yourself in blankets and sip on coffee and watch really bad tv. The kind of tv you don't want people to know you watch. It's also the kind of day that makes me want to curl up in bed with a pulpy novel or an old comic and just veg. I don't particularly look forward to having to get dressed and move, but it's "good for you" and "I'll die if I don't move sometimes" and whatever.

So I hope that nearly 1/10 inch of rain per hour I saw last night on the forecast is a vicious rumor that isn't going to happen.

(Goes and checks weather)

Huh. Look at that. It's going to rain half as much. Nice.

...

Why is the word "snow" showing up on my weather forecast in the last full week of October?!

And why is it happening tomorrow?! Trace amounts? Sure. I've heard that before.

Ugh.

...


Anyway, atmospheric drama out of the way, I really do like this time of the year. I like the shorter days and longer nights, the sunlight filtering through the leaves, the crisp air, dragging out my sweaters, and bundling up in thicker blankets at night. I like the silly specials, the spooky "special episodes", the creepy books and art!

Halloween was my second favorite holiday as a kid, but when you're a kid, it's hard to top Christmas. I'm pretty sure that there's a direct correlation between understanding how hard it is to shop for people and my growing love of Halloween.

You don't have to buy stuff for Halloween unless you want to. It's perfectly acceptable to turn off all the lights on Halloween and pretend you're not home on Halloween.

It's much harder to do that on Christmas when your family wants to visit :P

So today is a lazy morning with mocha and chocolate digestives and a sleepy kitty in a recliner. I'm working on the pumpkin, little by little, and on a hat for myself (I have a similar pattern in magenta, but I want a sea green one), and on my Inktober drawings.

If I were more ambitious, I might try to make something for Sunday today, but I'm not. Instead, I'll tell you that I found a cookbook from 1977 in my library's free book bin. It's the Better Homes & Gardens Oriental Cook Book, and it's...

It's cringy, but not as much as you'd expect.

I'm looking forward to trying some of these recipes. Really, I want to work my way through the different cookbooks I have and try a little bit of everything - Thai, Sri Lankan food, Santa Fe cuisine, Asian pickling, the weird random recipe cards I have buried in one of my chests upstairs... I have a little bit of everything here and there, and there's a whole internet besides! Now all I have to do is gain access to ingredients, the kitchen, time, and people who'll eat what I cook.

Z can't eat everything, guys. Most of these recipes have a ton of servings. Z & I would explode.

It's all good, though. I'm sure there will be times where I can cook for an army and times when it'll just be the two of us. I'm a little terrified of the soup recipes I keep finding because...

I love French Onion soup, but I don't want to have to eat 16 servings of it.

Sixteen servings!

S I X T E E N

Anyway, I'm just bumming around on here right now, working on one of the games for Saturday, drooling over how awesome the Sk8-Hi MTE shoes from Vans look, and slowly draining 2 liters of water.

I think, however, that I'm going to let you guys go for the day :)

Go Enjoy Something!
FC


This week's blogs were brought to you by the following coffee-buyers:

ZC, MC

Fiber Monday 20

So, I settled on a cabled pumpkin because I'm insane, but also because I really love treble crochet stitches.

What's a treble crochet? It's a three-part stitch! I'll show you how!

Now, as for cabling, that's the fun part - it's all about crosses and runs. Again, I'll show you.

Step one is to determine how wide you want your pumpkin to be (how many ribs will it have?) and then we'll do some basic math.

One rib = 12 stitches across (3, cable [6], 3).

I wanted a 9 rib pumpkin, so that's 108 stitches across! That's a lot of stitches!

That's all 108 stitches, chained out as usual.

Our next step is to make our first row. We'll be doing this by making 3 half-double crochet stitchs (hdc) followed by 6 double crochet (dc) stitches, followed by 3 more hdc. The pattern would therefore look like this:

ch 108
1) *(hdc 3, dc 6, hdc3) repeat from * across.

You should end with three hdc.

To form your hdc, you wrap your yarn around your hook and insert it into the 3rd chain from the hook. 

Then you wrap your yarn around the hook again and pull it through the chain.

Here are your three loops that you should have!

Now you're going to wrap your yarn again and...

pull it through all three loops! Congrats, that's your first hdc!

To make the other two hdc, just wrap around once and put through the next chain and repeat the process.
When you have three hdc, you want to wrap your yarn once and proceed to the next chain.

A dc is much like an hdc, but there's just a little more to it!
Pull your yarn through the stitch so you have three loops like before.

Wrap your yarn again, just like you're making another hdc...

But only pull it through the first two loops!

Wrap your yarn again and pull it through the last two loops and you'll have your dc!

Now make 5 more dc and 3 more hdc!
There is your first rib!
hdc 3, dc 6, hdc 3.
Now do that for the length of the chain!

And here's your fancy first row!

Things get a little weird after this point.

You're going to chain 2 and hdc in the first three hdc of the next row.

Then you'll skip the first three dc - don't worry, we'll come back to them!

Wrap your yarn twice around your hook, then kinda slide it behind the 4th dc.
The stitch should be in front of your hook like so.
This is called bptc (back post treble crochet).

Wrap your yarn and pull back through the stitch so you have 4 loops.

Wrap and pull through 2 (3 loops on hook)

Wrap and pull through 2 (2 loops on hook)

Wrap and pull through 2 (1 loop on hook).
Repeat for the next 2 dc.

Now that you have three slanted back-post trebles, you're going to want to go back to that first dc and repeat the pattern! Bptc in each of the three dc you skipped.

It looks ugly and confusing here, but I promise it's worth it!

See how it crosses in front of the first bptc we made?
That's how we get the braided effect of a proper cable!

And here's all six tc done with three hdc afterwards to wrap it up!
First cross of the first cable complete!

Now do that for the rest of your row!

In written terms, this line appears like this:
*(hdc 3, skip 3 dc, tc 3, return to skipped dc, tc 3, hdc 3 in next 3 hdc) repeat from *

So now that we have a cross, you'll probably notice some gapping behind the crossed tc! Well, that's not gonna hold stuffing (and we'll be stuffing this pumpkin!), so we'll have to close it off somehow.

The best way I've found is to make your turning ch2 and hdc in the first 3 hdc of the next row, then go back to the ends we dropped with the bptc. It'll look really weird and might be hard to get the hang of at first, but once you do it, you'll probably be able to keep track. You can use stitch markers (like a safety pin or an earring without its mate or a twist tie if you don't own specific stitch markers) to keep track of what you'll be putting your new dc into!

It will kinda look like there are two tops to the row - you want the one behind the bptc.
Not the one on top of the bptc.
Make 6 dc in these stitches.

And follow that up with an hdc in the next 3 hdc.

Here's a clearer picture!
Not shown are the tops of the bptc, which you can use to count to where you need to come back in with the hdc!
Basically, hdc the first three, then dc in the lower tops, count out your six bptc, then come back in with your next 3 hdc.

The back of your piece will kinda look like this once you're done with the whole row.

I don't actually know how to write this part out! If anyone can come up with better notation than me, feel free to write it out in my comments!

Now that's not our cable's first run, that's our backing. Our first run is next.

Chain 2 (turning chain), then hdc in the first 3 hdc, bptc in the posts of your previous bptc, straight across, then hdc into the next 3 hdc.
ch2 *(hdc 3, bptc in bptc, hdc 3) repeat from * to end.

Here's our run!

A closeup of the run shows the distinctive braided/crossed over shape of a cable!
And that's our first cross and run!

Now, of course, you'll still want to make another backing row over this, much like the first one. It's even easier to notice this row, though, because now there are 3 sets of tops, and you only want the middle ones!

This kinda looks inappropriate in real life, but I've flipped the first layer of backing down so it's easier to see the middle section.
You're going to do all dc in these middle rows with hdc on either side.
Again, count your latest bptc tops to make sure when to come back in with the hdc!
ch2 *(hdc in hdc, dc in middle section of tops, hdc 3)

You kinda end up with these pockets on the back. These will block our stuffing from all coming out!

This is the back of our project!

And here's the front.
You can kinda see one of the backing flaps at the end there!

A closeup of our backed cable!

Now you're going to want to repeat the rows in this order:

Cross
Backing
Run
Backing

And if you keep that up, you'll eventually make your way up in length. In real life, my first cross/backing/run/backing run has given me a piece that is 1" to 1.5" tall, That's not much. If I want a 13" tall pumpkin, my early estimate is that I'll need 9 more of these combos (if not a full 13!) That could take a while!

Keep coming back on Mondays to see my progress! If I'm right, we'll be doing a lot more sewing on this project!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC