Insight: Meme Language (Patreon)

I don't usually do this kind of thing so I'd like to experiment...

Recently I've released a new branch of a "Meme Language" mod for Darkest Dungeon, the people who been watching my streams know of this by now:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2593366018

and I wanted to share how do I make a mod like this, since this is my second meme language mod, and the 4th that has been in production:

Usually I try to aim for a game that has "meme potential", it's like a potential for shitposts or jokes to take place naturally, a chess game doesn't have much meme potential for example, cause there's not much to the game text-wise.

Cause this is the major goal of a "meme language", it's for the text to work as sort of a meme being applied on top of gameplay, like I do in my videos, but from the game itself.

I usually do this by just writing out of my mind at first, I start writing good replacements that come to mind, like replacing an item's name with a meme name that fits the theme, or a description for a gamemode, or the term "players" for "gamers".

The real magic begins when all of these little additions start finally pilling up, and you end up with things like this:

It's after a good chunk of the contents are replaced that I start the "second phase" of these mods; adjusting.

I constantly check back on the jokes I made to see not only if there's a better meme I didn't think about, but if there is a joke to be made related to the game, an example of this would be a terrible item in a game, like the Garland in Don't Starve, which is a terrible newbie trap with horrible stats, initially I made a flower joke to fit the theme of the hat, but thinking of the context of the game and how the item is used, I eventually renamed it to Crown Of Gay, to kinda also make new players think twice about making it

Usually people cherish these game-related jokes more than just memes, and I always try to make memes fit and make sense, its not just slapped in at random to "fill up" the game.

I feel like this is probably the main characteristic that has made my Meme Language mods more popular than other random meme rewrites, the attention to every joke and meme placed in the mod, so it all piles up into a wonderful thematic.

I also hold a big list of "values" that these mods follow, cause memes can be anything and can vary from cringe to old, from fresh to dead, from dank to 2016.

My biggest value is to try to keep repetition to a minimum, this way every meme gets a chance to shine, no matter if its the troll face, no matter if its among us, no matter if its December 16, 1991.

Additionally, this also means that I only get to meme once, so usually I move jokes and memes around a lot until I finally find the PERFECT spot for a meme to be in, one that couldn't be replaced with anything else

Although I often run into a problem with these mods, the vulgar language and the somewhat sexual themes (like making jokes about big anime tiddies) almost always mismatch the game's ESRB ratings and age classifications, so I often have to account for that and consider what to do, should I really keep tentacle hentai jokes on a Celeste Mod (which is rated E)?

This is a very silly problem, because while this makes my mod +18 or rated for teens and adults, it does not make it NSFW, because my mod doesn't add hentai or big anime tiddies, it merely mentions it, and often times it's to tell a VERY good joke (the Shambler in DD is called Rule34, and that's probably the best joke for him)

https://www.twitch.tv/arcangie/clip/SarcasticPreciousDootCeilingCat

I usually give a warning when I do go a bit too far with my jokes, because obviously I would go that extra mile, it's memes, when its meme business I don't discriminate, and unfortunately, porn is a big part of the internet culture and a big part of meme culture, it wouldn't be the best "meme language mod" if it limited itself.

But my hypocrisy does shine here, cause I do draw the lines on somethings; I try to avoid memes that are very offensive like memes around race and ethnicity, topics that are very sensitive like pro-life or 9/11, and jokes that can push too far into hatred;
for example: its funny to joke about furries, but making jokes on exterminating them might be pushing it too far.

But one of my favorite details when making these mods are the lore and story, yes!
I often try to come up with "mini-stories" that eventually connect and make one giant joke that is delivered all along the way, picture the following:

You head to the Potion Seller in Risk of Rain 2, and you finally have enough Bitcoins to unlock the Gacha Girl that is frozen in ice, and when you do get to play the Avatar, all her abilities are named after the 4 elements, with a twist at the end.

You quite literally can't make this up, it's a twisted tale that writes itself thanks to the mountainous amount of jokes and memes that are being thrown along the way.
This really makes the experience something special for the people playing, cause the more stories that write themselves the better.

I think one of my favorites is the fact you have to enter the Deep Web in Don't Starve Together and go through Troubleshoot Monkehs and Animatronics and Metal Gear and Depression and Anxiety just to arrive at the Cursed Content station and get your Dorito Crown. The best illuminati joke I ever saw come into fruition.

The final thing to note, is that I only release a meme mod when I believe enough things are renamed or joked upon to a point the whole experience never gets old.

I currently have a meme language mod for Risk of Rain 2, Darkest Dungeon, Celeste, Don't Starve Together and Lobotomy Corp, and I only released 2 of these (DST and DD)

I work on these on my spare time, and clearly I'm not paid to do these mods, patreon pays me to make videos, so it's really hard to maintain these mods at times, because it's a whole creative process that needs a LOT of content to finally be releasable to the public, and this is the main reason I haven't released these other mods yet, cause they're still not feeling that complete on contents.

If you read this far let me know what you think about these Insights and if you'd like to hear more about other stuff I make, maybe videos? who knows... I hope you enjoy Meme Language tho, I've worked on the DST mod since 2018, and it was my first large scale mod ever. the Darkest Dungeon mod has been on the works for a full year, and I've been working on Risk of Rain 2 since the game was released.

I'd love for my head to stop stressing me every time I work on updates for my mods, but it's hard, I'm paid to make videos, not mods.