The Ursa Major Awards is an annual award show that recognizes the best in furry arts. 2023 was an INCREDIBLE year for me, and not just for my music. I worked
on a lot of games, been to a lot of cons, and built a great little fan
community. Below is a little voting guide so you know what to nominate
to help me out!
I mean, this video pretty much covers it. I put on a lot of awesome shows at a lot of new cons and I'm starting to be recognized more. Finally, I'm getting somewhere!
Once I hit the big 3-5, (now I'm 36 for clarity's sake) I've made peace with getting older, and I'm officially in my late 30s. However, the furry fandom is filled with awesome people still having this creative, energetic spirit, even in old age, and that's what I wanted to capture with my song Gray Muzzle.
I'm just very wary of how it's all going to GO WRONG. After my FWA show, I was worried that something bad was going to happen to me on the way home.
It's still a struggle to recognize that GOOD THINGS CAN HAPPEN TO ME WITHOUT SOME KIND OF KARMIC RETRIBUTION. That sounds easy, but when you're acutely aware of the cost of EVERYTHING, it takes the joy out of the small accomplishments. And when you've perceived everything as transactional, it can make relationships where people just want to be around you make you feel like you did something wrong if you've never ACTIVELY tried to impress them.
Sometimes, things are just free.
FAVORITE SONG I MADE THIS YEAR: "Hop On"
Number one with a motherfucking bullet. Long time fans would know I sang it at FWA 2022, but this makes when I actually finished it and started performing it live.
EVERYTHING clicked here: I found a range and delivery that fits me perfectly, and it's "What if a Disney Villain sang turn of the millenium pop punk?" I mentioned this was originally supposed to a collab with Teddy Wynton, but as schedules changed I finally decided to knuckle down and finish it myself.
The song is about just not... feeling right when a good opportunity presents itself. You're out with friends, peoples are getting all up ons, but you're just not there, and you have to force yourself to tell the little voice inside your head to just shut up.
this came to me in a living fever dream and god DAMN it's so sick. Granted, I made it up in a Pomodoro stream when I decided to tune my guitar to Drop D and let it rip, but that's neither here nor there. All I was given was
Fox is no slouch in the music department himself. He's not a composer, but my job on the FITF podcast this season was JUST musical arrangement, and he picked out the (royalty-free) tracks to use. For someone who claims he has no musical knowledge, a lot of his picks were inspired and on POINT, even suggesting transitions and ways to Frankenstein the track to what's needed.
He has given his 100% to every aspect of production on this where you don't even NOTICE that it's done independently.
Chord Progressions is a slice-of-life VN that takes place in a music store, and, even in its early stages is very charming as you play Eddy, a fox from a country town who moves to the big city. There's a lot of sweet moments and plenty of intrigue in what's only the first couple "days" of story. I liked Extracurricular Activities, and this is very much along the same lines.
I voice Darrell, a big ol' hunky lion who plays metal! It's fun seeing everyone's reactions to this, and in the next build, you can listen to a song the author BowserPuma and I worked on called "Fuck Around and Find Out".
FUCK YES, my music finally made it into a video game!
While it's not much, I'm still pleased people enjoyed this to varying degrees. It's still very well put together, and now you can put your OWN models! Wait, I do have a couple models from VR Chat/VSeeFace...
This was a fun one I NEVER saw coming, but that's the great thing about the furry community: You'll find creativity in unexpected places to help magnify the expereince!
From the copy:
The show's all wrapped up, and lucky you! Thrash invites you out behind the venue where he's got something stiff for ya! With notes of rosemary, lime, tequila, woods, pits and balls musk~ Note this does come with the 18+ label. Proceeds go to the thrash panda himself!
Shoutouts to ENBIETY for helping me arrange the meeting and for their input with the scent.
The base of this was a drink called the Salty Raccoon, which is made up of Tequila, rosemary syrup, and lime juice, but then EN came up with the suggestion of forest-y stuff, and trash. Then the "story" of the scent clicked together: a post-show hook up with Thrash where he's brought a stiff drink and stiff... muscles.
TREND I LIKED THE LEAST: "AI Will Put You Out Of A Job!"
Ma'am, I'm an Engineer. And my job is in no risk of being automated.
But I love making art and those who make it, and as I say on my Pomodoro Streams:
ART IS A SERIES OF DECISIONS
If you can't do something, or feel something else, and still proceed, THAT'S A DECISION.
We may not always get "why", but at the base level we can shrug and go "well, that's we got at the end"
Those championing AI, cackling with glee over putting "those creatives" out of a business, while they waste water on images of Drake doing 9/11 or whatever, are no one special. They're either salesmen looking to profit off of it, or are so afraid of producing something to be judged on that they offset it by having a program automate everything.
As Bianca Del Rio put it, what DO you do successfully?
TREND I LIKED THE MOST: Won't Get Fooled Again
WELL, despite the people above, the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America both got great deals for their strikes, and people for the most part seemed to be on their side!
Every cynical ploy going "Well, golly, those GREEDY WRITERS AND ACTORS want to take away SPIDERMAN from you!" was met with "well then pay them"
Which paved the way for UPS and the Auto Workers to ALSO go on strike and get better deals!
And now, with what's going on in the Gaza strip, the public seems to for the most part, seems to support a full on ceasefire, even Republicans! Though I think that's more "Finish your Ukraine first >:("
"B-but Hamas!" "Yeah, and that was absolutely horrible, however, we've been through 9/11 and now we know how bad all that stuff the US did looks on the other side. No thanks, stop the genocide. Free Palestine."
WHY DIDN'T ANYBODY TELL ME ABOUT THIS SOONER? Dead By Daylight
Played this a long time ago on the Xbone as part of Game Pass, but didn't put much time into it. However, I also had gotten it free via Epic Games Store, and during a Backlog Blitz, I actually played a few matches, and enjoyed it!
"Enjoyed" is actually a very strong word here, since it was more "a very engaging tension", but you know, you get the deal.
Basic premise: You play as either a survivor who, along with three other survivors are tasked with repairing five generators, or you play the killer who has to down the survivors and "sacrifice" them by hanging them on a hook.
Sometimes the game can get away from you on either side, and as I've learned with Lethal Company, unless I'm a big fucking pisspants baby I am magnetically attracted to Things Killing Me. Regardless, the developers put a lot of effort and attention to making each killer FEEL different, and like the movies themselves, make them entertaining spectacles.
As I said before, I die a lot playing survivor so I'm unable to get that much nuisance out of the different survivors, but who doesn't love a good "OH SHIT, THAT WAS CLOSE!" moment.
The honeymoon period for the game is over, and I haven't touched it in a while, but I wholeheartedly recommend it if you are interested in ANY major horror franchise. They'll find someway to get you.
*cries in 2 Resident Evil DLCs*
I DIDN'T REALLY LISTEN TO TOP 40 RADIO THIS YEAR OR NEW MUSIC IN GENERAL SO LET'S JUST MOVE ON TO THE GAMES
OLD GAME OF 2023 RUNNERS UP:
5. Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People (PC)- The best from Telltale's infancy period that I finally put to bed this year, which made my old Millennial ass feel relevant again, if only for a bit.
4. Sherlock Holmes and the Devil's Daughter (PC)- A game that, while a tad overloaded with minigames, does a really good job by providing a fun, episodic adventure that puts me in Sherlock Holmes's hot Ral-Zareky shoes for a bit.
3. Adastra (PC)- I now get why all you people simp for Amicus, and like all Echo Project games, while it's presentation is straightforward , it is exceedingly well written for what started at off as "I got in a fucked up mental place while writing Echo, now I want wolf sm- oh i acidentally wrote a text on queer identity and murdering fascists"
2. The Darkside Detective Series (PC)- Can be obtuse at times like most point and click adventure games, but DD 1+2 use the opportunity to make even the most mundane interactions entertainingly silly.
#1 OLD GAME OF 2023: Final Fantasy 6 (PC)
I have never been one for JRPGs, as the overarching plots always feel too long, and the side bits too numerous to be overwhelming, but Final Fantasy 6 is the one that got through to me, and I enthusiastically wrapped up every last morsel I (reasonably) could.
A lot of people praise the game for things like combat, or writing, but I loved its PACE. Each play session (of about 2 hours) is felt like the episode of a TV show: A character would be introduced, or there would be one new development, or one location we'd have to go to, and I was eager to return to it week after week.
One major departure that you can say got my attention was the setting: instead of a typical swords and sorcery fantasy setting, it takes place after a major war has essentially rid the world of magic. Everything runs on "MagiTek", combining Magic and Machinery, putting FFVI more in the realm of Steampunk as opposed to full on Fantasy. The game also starts with your party fully powered, so you have a chance to play around with the combat before each new character introduces their new mechanic.
OH, THE CHARACTERS! After every new introduction, I was able to make a silly little description that jumped out:
Then as the game progresses, their story changes, not just in reaction to the main plot (dictatorship and The Joker try to revive magic so they can solidify their grip on the world), but we learn more about their history, which in turn can change how we perceive them.
Every FF fan is going to have their own favorites, and some may argue this was a TERRIBLE one to start with or not as good as some other one, but it's the Final Fantasy I finished, and it left enough of an impression on me to make it my number one old game of 2023.
NEW GAME OF 2023 RUNNERS UP:
5. Dangeresque: The Roomisode Triangulate (PC)- I guess this is the year of "Two Homestar Runner Games in the #5 Slot" where I still find this now relic-y webseries entertaining after all this time!
4. Advance Wars Reboot Camp (Switch)- Two games from my teenager-dom now spit-polished and readily accessible, with the music even MORE ear-wormy!
3. Baldur's Gate 3 (PC)- I know this feels a little too low, for a game where I can make my DnD character, solve problems in numerous ways, fuck a bear, while STILL happening upon something new around every corner, but I... didn't beat it yet, which with a game as meaty as this is (hopefully) understandable.
2. Chants Of Sennar (PC)- Thanks to Nyx for getting this for me, because this game is very much My Thing, where I'm left to figure so much out via context and I feel like a smarty when I get the right answer AND can see the evolution of the languages you have to decode and how they relate to the societies you find yourself in.
#1 NEW GAME OF 2023: Hi-Fi Rush (PC)
Despite all of the layoffs and fuckery at The Game Awards, it was a pretty good year for gaming, and Hi-Fi Rush, for me stood head an shoulders above the rest. I was awestruck at Chants Of Sennar's ending, but Hi-Fi Rush made my cry.
A game that came out of nowhere starring a dork who wants to be a rockstar in a brightly lit cartoony hack-and-slash rhythm action backed by alt-rock? 100% Bastardcore Game.
Combing Rhythm Games and other genres have been a mixed bag in the past:
Metronomicon mixed RPG spellcasting and Amplitude, but it was a little
TOO easy to fall into a zen-like state and leave strategy by the way
side. Metal Hellsinger I couldn't get into, because I don't play
shooters the same way I play rhythm games, so it was too much for me to
get into the rhythm game flow state, but that meant my shooting strats
were in effective.
Hi-Fi Rush finds the sweet spot that makes
EVERY action feel quick and easy to do by giving me a variety of attacks
on beat, a grapple hook to get to far away enemies, and a parry, so I
don't break flow by having to move too much for a better vantage point
and then get back on beat.
This is a Wwise-ass game, by which I mean, this game uses every part of its soundtrack. The environment pulses in time to the background music, from basic level features like pipes and bushes, to platforms and conveyor belts you have to jump on. The guitar notes that accompany successful hits are in the same key. As you build up your combo, so does the background track. Stages of a boss fight are broken up into the "Verses" and "Choruses" of the licensed soundtrack.
Now, in this age of streaming and overzealous copyright infringement,
there is a "Streamer Mode" where you can use alternative tracks, and the
in-house cover bands did a wonderful job.
We can argue about how "dated" the licensed tracks are, but Hi-Fi Rush follows in the footsteps of Martin Scorcse and James Gunn to absolutely NAIL the needledrops at the right time. "Lonely Boy" by The Black Keys, a song that's felt generic for a while and used in 100s of soundtracks and commercials, starts off our little adventure as previously mention Dork Who Wants To Be A Rockstar, Chai, makes his way through Vandelay Industries (From Importing and Exporting to Robotics?) as part of the Armstrong Robotics progress, ignorant of those scheming behind the scenes.
"Invaders Must Die" by The Prodigy, a song you use when you want to give your action movie a bit of nerd cred, is the the background of all out brawl in the employee cafeteria. In a company that only employs robots.
Not going to go into spoilers, but there is one section in the game where Chai goes, "I AM a rockstar!" that I mentally keep drifting back to get me through the rest of the year.
And all THAT, is what puts Hi-Fi Rush as the best 2023 release I played in 2023!
ANNUAL REMINDER I SHARE A BIRTHDAY WITH MC BAT COMMANDER:
