Sell Out Vault 10

A Blog about Villainy, Entertainment and Shameless Self Promotion.

Suburban Man-Eater Postmortem-


Suburban Man-Eater, an interactive short story that we originally made for Alexa, is now available in text form here on Twisted Jenius for you to check out & enjoy.

The story was an experiment of sorts, to see what we could do with this kind of interactive audio technology, in terms of creating dark entertainment. We realized that compared to our normal 3D video game projects, this would be relatively simple and it would give us some experience and insight into the creation of these kinds of voice apps, as well as the market for them. It was clear based on the popularity of Alexa and similar devices that there could be an emerging market for smart speaker apps. Though in retrospect it seems that the most in-demand ones tend to be more practical in nature. Obviously certain mediums lend themselves to certain types of content and I think that the method of input and practical limitations of smart speakers tend to make them more appealing for general utilitarian purposes, as opposed to story-based interactive entertainment.

Although I doubt we're going to be specifically developing any more interactive short stories for smart speakers, it's good to occasionally experiment with new things like this. Suburban Man-Eater acted as a kind of project between projects for us, and it didn't require any kind of major investment of resources. And the experience of briefly dabbling in this realm of pure audio entertainment seems to have only further reinforced our preference for working in 3D video games, a largely visual medium, by providing contrast and something different. I think that it also allowed us to think about story telling in a new way, with the branching multiple choice scenarios. It was a unique challenge.

While Suburban Man-Eater might be sort of a one-off "tried something new" project for us, we are very pleased to add it to our growing collection of dark entertainment, kept in this cabinet of curiosities known as TwistedJenius.com.

- False Prophet

Lucky Number 13-


That's right, Twisted Jenius is now a teenager!

It was 13 years ago tonight that Twisted Jenius first crept into existence. Like a black demonic feline, it defiantly strut across the path of the world and boldly shattered the mirror reflecting many of the standard norms of society and sanity. And even now it continues to beckon a precession of willing fans to stroll under it's tilted ladder of dark fun.

One of our most exciting projects is a game that we announced earlier this year called Terror Chasm, which is now well into full development and you will definitely be hearing more about in the months ahead. So join us in this anniversary celebration by unfolding your umbrellas and raising them high above you as a salute to inspirational villainy, all from within the comfort of your own home. And you can be sure that Twisted Jenius will continue to spill the salts of hypocritical goodness and boring mediocrity, without ever bothering to fling a single grain over it's dark, pointy shoulder.

Yes, for all of us who love lurking in the shadows and continue to move forward with our dastardly dreams, we are all truly fortunate. Luck is on our side!

- False Prophet

New Happiness Tip-


I've previously written about happiness in one of my Evil Rants and even did a video version of it featuring many tactics and strategies to help you capture the elusive hobgoblin of happiness. However, for anyone out there who is still chronically suicidal, wallowing in the depths of your own despair (or maybe just feeling a little bit down occasionally), I have another basic insight for you that might help you on your journey towards becoming happier.

The thing to understand is this- we suffer when our blueprint, meaning our ideas, values and beliefs about how reality and our lives are supposed to work, don't match what's actually happening. It's about the incongruence or contradiction between the way we think things are supposed to be going for us, and the way they actually are. If you believe that a part of your life is supposed to be happening a certain way, that you were supposed to have certain things, or that certain things are supposed to be going well and they aren't, you are going to be unhappy about that. If you have the belief that you are supposed to be fit and in shape, but you are 100 pounds overweight, you are probably going to be miserable in regards to that. If your story is that you think you should be making "X" amount of money, and you're making significantly less than that, you are going to be frustrated about that area of your life.

Simply put, when reality doesn't live up to our expectations, we get pain. On the other hand, when things are going way better than we thought they would, and some area of your life is exceeding expectations, chances are you feel great about it. The challenge is of course that life often doesn't give us exactly what we want. So how do we deal with this? The old school spiritual approach is to detach yourself from ego and other earthily and material concerns. But this kind of philosophy doesn't sit well with the ambitious, achievement oriented villain in me. I like material and earthly concerns. So instead I have another suggestion. In fact there's 2 ways that you could go about dealing with this, depending on the situation.

The first is to start to move your life in a direction where it begins to more closely resemble your blueprint of how it should be. Basically you need to take action to improve. This is something I'm very passionate about. If you're not getting what you want, then you should go find a way to get it. Change what you're doing and you will change your results. The really cool part is that if you begin to make that change and start on the journey to improving that situation, you will already be happier. You don't even have to fully accomplish what you're trying to do or arrive at the point where you want to be, you just have to begin the journey and you will see an upswing in your happiness. Just the progress you made will make you a lot happier.

But sometimes we can't get exactly what we want no matter how hard we try. This is because there are many aspects of reality that we simply cannot control. In fact the only 2 things in this entire universe that we have any direct control over are our own thoughts and actions. In cases where it is impossible to have what we think we need to be truly happy, we must change our own story about what it takes to be happy. We have to realize that happiness is the ultimate goal of getting that thing that we thought we wanted anyway, and even if that doesn't measure up with reality, we still have the power to make ourselves happy. To do this you have to examine yourself, question why you wanted that thing, and what you thought that thing would give you. Then you have to get creative and find another blueprint, another way to meet that need to feel the way you need to feel in order to be happy.

If you are truly depressed it is because your life doesn't match the way you think it should be. And if you are suffering this way for a long time then you probably feel like you're helpless to change it. That feeling of powerlessness is what leads to a lot of suffering. So in order to remedy that you simply have to find a way to get your life to match your expectations for it. And that means you either have to change your life, or change your expectations. Either way it's worth it, because either way will make you happier. And another quick hint is that often this requires changing a little bit of both.

- False Prophet

Value of Amorality -


Moral certainty is the enemy of both empathy and effectiveness. It causes you to be righteously judgmental of others while simultaneously limiting your own options.

There is something despicable and damaging about self righteous superiority. When people treat right and wrong like a fact instead of their opinion and act like everyone else should care what that opinion is and follow it. Expecting the rest of the world to adhere to your values and beliefs is a good way to be very disappointed, and it's typically extremists and fanatics that believe their version of "right" is the only acceptable one. But the truth is, just because something is important to you doesn't mean that anyone else has to care. Why should they? After all, they're just as selfish as you are about their own priorities and they have things that are very important to them which might completely conflict with what you believe is "truly right and just". This is why it pays to be morally flexible.

Always remember, the more rigid you are, the more things there are that can break you. It's the most flexible and adaptable people, the people with the least rules, that are usually the happiest.

- False Prophet

Conquering Your Fear-


Hello minions! Tonight we have another villainous video that provides some simple tips and tactics for overcoming your everyday fears and anxieties and becoming a more powerful and effective version of you. After all, conquering your own fear is one of the first steps to becoming more terrifying yourself. And for more general observations on the topic of fear, check out this classic Evil Rant I did about it a number of years ago (damn, I've been into this stuff for awhile) - Evil Rant: Fear

Enjoy!

- False Prophet

Happy Holidays! -


Happy holidays! Here's another group of dark motivational messages and villainous wisdom clips, collected here for your viewing pleasure. Forbidden knowledge is the gift that keeps on giving (well that and sentient, self replicating A.I.)

- False Prophet

12th Anniversary-


Twisted Jenius is 12 years old this month, and for your viewing pleasure we have a montage of villainous wisdom and dark knowledge for you. Enjoy!

- False Prophet

Interview with Ari Bach-


Here's an in-depth discussion I had with my friend and Twisted Jenius contributor, the brilliant writer/director Ari Bach! We talk about his film Jealous Gods, his creative process and the future of filmmaking and where entertainment is going. Enjoy!

- False Prophet

How to be Happy-


Here's 11 practical tactics for increasing your happiness, that you can use regardless of what's happening in your life. I packed a lot of information into this one, because I wanted to provide a great source for you to find a number of different techniques for happiness, all in the same place. I also tried to include a lot of the psychology behind it, so you can use that as well and understand why these things work the way they do and give you a foundation to build off of.

I'm not sure that there's any skill more worthwhile than learning to be happier. We can all really learn something from the Happy Piranha!

- False Prophet

Twisted Jenius is 11 years old today!-


It's October 1st, the 11th anniversary of the founding of Twisted Jenius. The winds of change continue to blow, our diabolical growth and sinister evilution progresses. Cool things are coming this year...

- False Prophet

First Sell Outs Previous Sell Outs
Next Sell Outs Latest Sell Outs