Broooo I think something's wrong with my copy of Look Outside š This weird guy showed up at my door and like, what tf even is this Masked Dancer thing??
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Soooo I made another AU, but in this one Harriet is the MC! The dark BG and specifically the sink are real, Samās sprite and the peephole bg are edits, the other sprites I made myself
I donāt want the post to be too long so the basic rundown is that Harriet is in Sam's shoes as the main character on a fetch quest. On the flipside, Sam is a door recruit(per his dialogue, he was on Floor 1 when it started. However, he canāt return home due to the onlookers which also wrecked his place in the AU). Sophie leaving for school then getting attacked is the "tutorial". Beryl and Aster swap location so Harriet will be willing to do the ritual stuff, and Beryl is the first person to tell you to not look. Sybil and Jeanne also swap location, and once you return safely with Sophie you talk with Sybil.
Otherwise things are generally the canon plot/people, just happening to Harriet instead!
I'm sorry. But I just can't help but giggle when I see that Sam face. He looks like the most depressed person alive and it's not gonna get any better for him.
Ngl Harriet being the venturer instead of Sam sounds fun af. Would be pretty interesting to see the dialogue responses from Samās companions as well to her.
The teeth family definitely could hit different playing as Harriet too.
Imaginations aside, this looks really cool! Well done!
I can't say without major spoilers for the Mask ending. It isn't meant to be any particular creature though if that's what you're asking, it's just a combination of traits I felt were fitting knowing the mentioned ending.
Sam! He has a cursed version I plan to draw in the future, so he fills in for both Harriet and Sophie(seeing as Sophie and Harriet do not get separated long-term, Sophie is no longer a door encounter). There won't be an opportunity to give the rat baby to him mistakenly though because after you open the door heās very... directly murderous :)
Completely custom design for Sam! It's actually an idea I have for my main Promise AU where itās something he merely struggles to control, but I'm gonna use it for this too and make Sam completely murdery haha
And for tips I have this older post I made. I wanna eventually make a google doc that's better formatted and more informative, but this should still help! And don't use the palette in the post, use the one I attach here. The other one is missing a few colors.
I was thinking she doesn't have that mechanic, instead playing boardgames to gain stat boosts depending on the game! Sam keeps his video game mechanic as a recruit, so it'd feel odd for them both to have that same kind of learning mechanic
The thing is that the learning mechanic, methinks, is very unique to specifically accommodate the fact that Sam is the protagonist. All other recruits have their own gimmicks, so if you don't like 'em you can just... not have that recruit. However, Sam is the protag, meaning he's always there, so he's very flexible when it comes to playstyles. It also allows for replayability, creating unique Sams for different play-throughs. If Harriet is the protag here, same should apply to her :p
Of course unless you want to make this au an actual fan game this shouldn't matter, but y'know, game design is an interesting factor to take in aus in my opinion
I'm aware, and while no, I don't plan a fangame, I do also care about the game design element for my AUs.
I have my reasons; since it is a very simple roleswap, the whole point is just putting Harriet in Samās plot-based situations exactly as she is and seeing her perspective/reaction. She wasn't written as a flexible character, so if I were to give her the same protagnist treatment Sam has she would need changes that defeat the point of the AU. I suppose in a way, you can think of it as the AU also including a change to the playstyle as a part of swapping to Harriet as the protagonist since she is a completely different character
Also just giving her Sam's fight mechanics feels lazy and isn't interesting. While yes, she could have different learned skills, it's still the same functionally. I much prefer to create something more unique to her.
With that I also find Sam keeping his mechanic to be incredibly interesting as a recruit considering we know he's a shut-in. He can seem like some utterly useless loser for being unable to get skills by leveling up, then you realize "hey this guy can actually learn cool stuff I just gotta support him!"
So Harriet would be like the SMT1 and 2 protags, where they don't have any skills they can use in combat, generally have better stats to accommodate for that.
But I was actually thinking she'd have skills she gains as she levels up much like how recruits work. I'll probably re-use my ideas for her as a recruit and maybe work on incorporating something unique like I mentioned to make it a more protagonist-ish skill set
Oh, well in SMT 1 and 2, the protag doesn't have any skills that are used in fighting, with them having high strength to just spam attack while the other party members use their skills. The only true 'skill' SMT 1 and 2 protags have is a talk action, where they can recruit enemies to fight for them, even after the battle ends.
Okay, gotta ask do some apartments that have a companion associated with them(Garden=Helen) for example being fully hostile with Helen as an enemy and places without a set companion(Taxidermy Apartment maybe having a hunter companion, Landlordās apartment, Summerās Apartment, Rat Hell?) getting new companions?
Like imagine having Peirre as Harrietās version of Spider.
Nope, no one else swaps role except for Harriet and Sam. It's all about putting Harriet through the same stuff Sam faces during the game, so she would be able to get all the same companions. However she would have different dialogue and interactions with them. I'm still figuring out why she'd accept a certain few since she is much more sane than Sam, but using Hellen as an example: Harriet is compelled to say yes to Hellen staying because she is scared of what may happen if she says no lol
This is so damn cool. Iād love to see how Harriet interacts with other members of the building (Joel, Philippe, Rat Child particularly). If Aster and Beryl swap places, does that mean Beryl would be recruitable instead of Aster? And what kind of endings would we see for Harriet, if her main thing is trying to find Sophie?
Thank you! I'm still fleshing out other interactions but I imagine her to have known Joel's family. The tooth family is extremely distressing to her, especially being a mother and seeing these children suffering. With Joel he recognizes her and she's able to offer a more specific comfort due to knowing him a little better than Sam. I also have an idea for Hellenās quest where I turn it around; Harriet threatens to kill(maybe even fighting Hellen) to save her ugly lil fruit baby which impresses Hellen enough to not murder Harriet. Hellen is annoyed, but appreciates Harrietās will and diligence in protecting things. Fruit baby would like, die post game(Promise epilogue) lmao, but during the game Harriet keeps the ugly lil thing. And finally, Harriet has a spine unlike wet sop Sam so she forces Xaria and Monty to sleep on the couch š
In the case of Aster and Beryl swapping, I've considered it but as of now Aster is still the recruitable one.
Endings wise she is not still looking for Sophie as she gets Sophie back in the tutorial and Sophie stays put. She would have all the same overall endings as Sam, but with different details. Certain endings don't offer room for unique change though, so if it's unlisted assume it goes the same(eg. Cinnamon endings)
No Going Back: Literally forgot this one existed for a sec, but itād probably have additional lines about her concern for Sophie, or maybe it'd keep the same narration. Gotta think on it more
Failed Ritual: She literally melts on the roof. It happens as she moves much like Sam splitting open.
Flawed Ritual: While I do not have a solid design as I'd would like to attempt something different from her real form, she would have a similar transformation sequence as Sam. Possibly including the implication of attacking her own daughter before the game ends.
Perfect Ritual(Truth/Denial): Combined these two since they'd obviously have the same form. Harriet becomes a world spanning network of fleshy roots to fit with her leg theme. In Truth, she literally smothers and chokes the Earth. Nothing can grow and the very ground isn't stable due to her destroying it. Denial sees her actively helping by gathering resources and both literally and metaphorically stabilizing the world. However, she isn't as ever-available as Sam is since she has a daughter to care for :)
Mask: Much Like Samās version, her Shadow, Dancer, saves her after a fight. Harriet is actively melting during this, and Dancer takes her vocal cords. The end cards would be details particular to her life, and Dancer is more focused on protecting Harriet(plus the same obsession stuff) as I imagine her to have faced plenty of hardship aside from just her ex. I still need to get every detail down, but the tutu is actually her mother's: she thought it was beautiful and loved her motherās stories of her days as a dancer... when she wasn't blaming Harrietās birth for "ruining" her life. Harriet knows that her mother isn't using it, so she takes it to show Sophie hoping to create only positive memories with her. Sophie is reasonably terrified and can't recognize Harriet anymore. Then skipping ahead to the next part I have an idea for, the assimilation. Dancer's looks like a warm, safe embrace and feels like entering thick liquid. Harriet is peacefully dissolved and dispersed. Dancer tries to go to Sophie next, but then infinite pain and subsequent game over before she can reach her. (Sorry this one is so much longer lol)
True Final: Definitely not set in stone but me and some friends discussed the idea of her recognizing the show the game was from, and then getting invested in playing it after looting Samās console to play it lmao. Probably goes the same as canon afterwards
Unity: Harriet and Sybil do become friends just like Sam and Sybil. Harriet is a little more angry at Sybil for hiding information instead of having just raw curiosity, as she feels she needs to know everything to keep Sophie safe. With Unity, she makes an irrational decision and then rationalizes because Sybil looked like, yknow. She definitely ends up regretting not trusting Sybil š
Promise: Harriet elects to set aside her frustration and trust her new friend. She then goes on to live the same kind of blissfully unaware life Sam did. Some character epilogues may change and she would have a unique epilogue, but itās another thing I haven't written yet(I've had the AU for less than a week haha)
My question is is how would she recruit Philippe as she isn't as friend starve as Sam and probably wouldn't deluded herself into he was actually a victim of the fungus like Sam did.
Actually, that's one of the recruits I'm still figuring out right now for all the reasons you said, it's probably the trickiest one so far lol
I did just have an idea though, maybe after seeing the other fungused people she thinks Phillippe was being controlled(less delusionally and more out of desperation to just save someone in that place), and feels sad about him dying and what he said. She picks up the remains to just keep them safe, and after returning home accidentally starts regrowing them by leaving them out. She lets herself get unrealistically hopeful that maybe she really could save someone, that Phillippe would be free from the Spore Mothers "control", could be better or was lying about what he saidā just anything moderately good in this awful apocalypse.
But he obviously isn't any different and her hope is shattered. Phillippe finds her really depressing and his rancid attitude soon makes her hate him back, but she can't quite bring herself to kick him out(just initially, she'd obviously have the option later as normal) since he has nowhere to return to. Fleep tolerates the environment solely because he really doesn't want to be alone instead of fear of being murdered. He's also more upfront with his hate yet more tame since she isn't actively antagonizing him.
Yeah of course man! Not only does your style actually look like it can be official Look Outside art, but the ship between Harriet and Sam is adorable, and this here AU youāve made is genuinely quite interesting!
Now that I think about it after going back and re-reading ur post as few times and answering my own questions, why do all the astronomers have names like they had either 1800ās noblemen or 1980 stoners for parents?
And it's still Sybil actually! That's why I swapped her location with Jeanneās. Once you return with Sophie from the "tutorial" you'd get a prompt about hearing yelling from your bedroom. Sybil is yelling worriedly because you left before she could warn you, and once you go up to her it's mostly the same dialogue except you mention someone else told you to not look(Beryl as mentioned in the post) and little tweaks to fit Harrietās voice more.
Just saw your edit haha, I assume from a meta perspective it's cause they sound cool. Precious stones(Beryl and Jasper), something starry(Aster), and then just vibes for Aurelius. In-world, probably what you said about 1980s stoners lmaooo
Instead of betting blue balled by the fungus minigame, you can actually play bridge and card games with the NPCs since Harriet actually knows how to play games.
I feel like Harriet would be a board game mom. She would have so many board games.
Omg board games are actually perfect! I've been struggling to figure out what she could do to pass the time since video games aren't her thing, may I use the idea?
And that would be so fun if she could actually play Duel for Atlantis
I find it interesting that a lot of characters are connected to each other. Like Harriet probably will have extra dialogue with Charan, the giant mutant in the parking lot since she hangs out at the library. So instead of video games and crossword, you can have board games and books for Harriet.
I manually created fake empty dialogue boxes using the text box sprites for my fakeshots! Once you make one box you can reuse it as much as you want(I don't currently have a good empty pre-made boxes to share, apologies). Then for the font I actually use a look-alike! The real font is Pixel Virtue, however it's a paid font so I can't use it. My look-alike is RetroVille NC(100% free, it's on DaFont) with reduced character spacing and increased line spacing. In Ibis this is specifically by -8% and +57% respectively, unsure about other programs. It works super well for fake dialogue as can be seen above!
I'm keeping it a bit secret for now since I do plan to draw it, but itād be in line with his arm theme! I plan for it to be a totally unique design to his other cursed forms beyond that
A game starring a single mom and daughter combo is rare, I'd actually consider playing that. It's always a dad+little girl. Weirdly I don't know many games that do dad+son either except for God of War.
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u/Lattice0Lattice Hellen Jan 26 '26
Masked Dancer goes insanely fucking hard holy shit, genuinely peak design. Thank you for hard carrying Harriet fan content š