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Christy Dena @christydena@zirk.us
1mo
Question: Any ideas for what I use instead of a shoe to represent my human character?

For my tabletop game prototype (which is an adaptation of my digital game in dev), I have a shoe to represent the human figure. Its a game about bugs working together to stop the human destroying the backyard. I want to give the sense of size disparity and the clomping nature of the human stepping on them.

I've just found out there is a superstition around shoes on tables: it's bad luck. Thoughts? TY!
Photo of a table with tiles depicting grass. There are little wooden bug characters, with wooden sticks connecting them. A minature sneaker is across two tiles.
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1mo
@christydena Maybe a magnifying glass? Or is the "burning the ants" thing too dark? A lawn mower could be fun. Or a giant foot? With fun articulated toes.
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Christy Dena @christydena@zirk.us
1mo
@fastfinge Thank you! All good ideas!

Yeah, I was thinking of foot! My only reluctance is they wouldn't be doing a garden remodel with bare feet. But it would make them a bit more vulnerable. Lawnmower = fun!
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1mo
@christydena You could make it a tough foot, covered in dirt and calluses. Depending on your message you could lean into the "humans are kind of disgusting" body horror vibe with the foot. Or make the gardener the sort of well-intentioned hippy who gardens in bare feet, yet is unthinkingly destroying the homes of all the bugs anyway, if you're going for a message about how just having good intentions isn't always enough.
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Christy Dena @christydena@zirk.us
1mo
@fastfinge Nice ideas! Great!

Yeah, it seems I'll need to reconfigure what the human represents. At present, they're anti-wild-nature. They want a pristine, manicured backyard. At present they represent colonial-capitalist thinking. The idea that they 'civilise' the world. They're the status-seeking couples and corporates destroying themselves and the world with their individualist short-termism. The bugs are about individualist and collectivist activism.

I'll keep mulling! TY!!
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Guy LeCharles Gonzalez @glecharles@gardenstate.social
1mo
@christydena @fastfinge What about a golf ball or tee? It's the symbol of pristine lawns here.
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Christy Dena @christydena@zirk.us
1mo
@glecharles @fastfinge Oh, that is an interesting angle! Something that represents the end product.

FYI: The mechanical action of the human is they "destroy" each tile/ground they walk on & also leave non-native plants. On destroyed tiles without non-native plants, a bush-tailed possum leaves poo. Fly can eat the poo and repair the ground again.

A symbol of the "makeover" result will help keep up the colonial-capitalist message. TY!
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