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Fun fact: Check how many wings a bug has! Flies only have two, while other insects have four. This is because the hind wings on flies have evolved into "halteres."

02/13/2024 - Comic and Felt

I have two major updates here! Number 1: I've completed the Comix page as well as the page for A Backwater Repose, and I have multiple pages up already!

I've just started so there's not much to read yet, and the art is kinda iffy, but I plan to see this comic through, and I've done well sticking to my "page a week" schedule so far. Only thing left to do for it is create the character page, which I'll start making assets for tomorrow. I've managed to complete a couple other projects on the side while making the current pages, which bodes well for me having limited, but remaining free time to pursue other things.

Speaking of other projects, we come to update Number 2: I've made my first needle felted piece, who can be seen above! Her name is Delia and she has no arms, but she makes up for it with a shmancy cloak and cute pointy hat. I think she's a wanderer, exploring forests and old places in an 80's/90's cartoon-styled adventure that I will definitely never create.

My goal with needle felt is to create little characters I can possibly sell. Being my first project and made from the wrong type of wool (she's 100% roving, future projects will use a batting base), Delia isn't a proper reflection of the product I want. Preferably I'd like characters ranging from 4 inches to eight inchest tall, all containing much more detail. At least, as much detail as I can manage with wool on such a small scale.

Anyway, this is part of an ongoing effort of mine to gradually find ways to sell my art. Not sure how I feel about comissions, so I'll try instead to create prints, needle felted adoptables, dioramas, and maybe, far in the future, physical copies of A Backwater Repose and Soulbearer.

We'll see what the future has in store. For now I work.

X

01/03/2024 - A Backwater Repose

Blurb: Sheriff and local witch of Red Muskeg County, Mrs. Vera Devoy has filled many roles in her day. But in the aftermath of a murder close to home, she finds herself playing detective in Old Shepherd, a city of ancient ruins wrapped over in new construction. So far from her familiar swamp, Vera feels a fish out of water, and to make matters worse...

She has little time left.

So! This is my webcomic! Well, it will be my first webcomic, once I actually start illustrating and posting pages. This blurb here will probably change a few times over the course of my making the comic. I'm better at writing stories than I am at writing about them, after all!

I must admit that I'm a bit scared to start it. I have a habit of getting into big projects, only to fall out of the mood in one way or another and never get my enthusiasm back. I'm a slave to my own whims it seems, unable to regain momentum once it's lost. But then again, I don't think that's always true? This comic itself should be an example! I've had art block for months. Even while making this site, I fell into a sort of obsession where I could make art, but only if it had to do with the Digital Crawlspace. An obsession which crashed about as soon as I took a week vacation, which left me reeling without any sort of motivation.

This comic is making me excited though! Excited to draw, excited to write, excited to build onto and keep editing this site, even. It's a really big project for me; anywhere between 60 and 120 pages. This is a major commitment, but unlike my other projects, I'm no longer in school. Sure, I work eight hours a day, but when I have free time, that time is mine. No art projects or writing assignments or readings or multi-hour nighttime Toon Boom Harmony sessions all placed upon me by classes. If there is any time for me to start something like this, it's now!

I honestly don't know the point of this blog post. I guess I'm just sharing my feelings going in? I love writing. I love drawing. I've got stories to tell and I think this is a serious option for me to try. So here, three days into the new year, I think it's fitting I make a promise: a page a week once the comic section's up.

Starting isn't the hard part, but I will not let this go unfinished.

X

11/05/2023 - Laika: Aged Through Blood

I would like to preface by saying this is my first time writing a review for anything, really. I do not consider my opinion the pinnacle of truth, nor do I claim it will remain firm and unchanging. That said, I figure this blog should be about what's on my mind, and what's currently on my mind is Laika: Aged Through Blood

Laika is a western motorvania taking place within a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The titular Laika, the story's protagonist, lives in a small settlement named "Where We Live," and acts as her settlement's main guardian and errand runner. The post-apocalypse is not a quiet one, however, as militaristic forces known as "The Birds" (who are indeed, all birds) are encroaching on the wasteland, wiping out all unlucky enough to be caught in their path. Now, you may have been caught by something I mentioned early on. This game is a motorvania, that being a metroidvania in which your character rides a motorcycle. This will become very important in the gameplay section.

In this review I will cover three main points: Music, Story, and Gameplay. "Music and Art" refers not only to the quality of the soundtrack and art direction, but how it's utilized within the game. "Story" encompasses both overall story, as well as worldbuilding and writing. "Gameplay" refers to interactive elements, from combat to getting around.

Music and Art

I will not mince words, the music in this game is great. Uncharacteristically chill compared to the rest of the game, the score is more akin to a proper album than a game soundtrack. The majority of tracks feature lyrics sung by the artist, Beicoli, with a few being quite catchy and emotional, particularly in moments where the game fits the music. I am of the firm belief that more games should feature songs with vocals created specifically for said game, and Laika does not disappoint in that regard. Much like Katana Zero, the emotional music contrasted by extreme violence in the trailer is what immediately sold me on this game, really showing that our protagonist may be committing horrible acts, but she takes no joy in them. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

I feel, however, that the implementation of the music leaves something to be desired. Each song is a collectible you gather by shooting boomboxes around the map, or by purchasing them from gas stations. While playing, you cycle through each song like a playlist, and can switch between which tape you want to hear in the menu. While an interesting idea, I find it a bit lackluster, as no song is area-specific. In other metroidvanias each area has its own infinitely-looping track, which I actually find less irritating, as it gives time for your ears to grow used to the music. But as stated before, Laika is like listening to a playlist constantly on repeat, and it grows grating over time for songs to constantly switch.

Unfortunately for Laika, the soundtrack lacks diversity in energy. Boss themes are my favorite part of a game's soundtrack, and I found the low, threatening boss themes to not quite be enough. They sound tense but not like you're truly in any danger. Likewise I could have done with some more energetic songs like The Whisper for standard gameplay. Something more fitting for when you've got to shoot a lot of birds.

When It comes to the art I can be much more brief: it's incredible. I can absolutely see inspiration from Supergiant's more recent games such as Pyre and Hades, particularly in the promotional art and world design. The characters are adorable, except for the few designed not to be, and all of them have a distict personality you can catch just from a glance. I. Have. No. Idea. just how much effort it must have been to create the map. Unlike Blasphemous or Hollow Knight, the game world is not built from small rooms placed upon a square grid, which allows the developers to construct the world from pre-drawn tiles and setpieces (at least I assume that's how they do it). No, the entireity of the map looks to be hand-drawn, with each individual area being its own separate, but singular, illustration. I'm not going to pretend I actually know how this may have been done, but if each area truly is an entire illustration, the time and planning required to do such a thing is truly impressive.

Story

As you may have guessed from the title, this game is, in a way, a coming-of-age story. The ideas of succession and growing older are quite prevalent in Laika's relationship to her mother and daughter, and even to her relationship with the village as a whole. It's no secret that Laika can't die. Not permanently, at least. Her family line bears a curse of resurrection, passed on from one generation to the next when the daughter "bleeds" for the first time. Laika is the current bearer of immortality, caught between her mother who has long given it up, and her daughter who has yet to take it.

Laika does a good job of telling about its world, but never too much. You learn what you need to learn and the rest is left up to mystery or interpretation. While this approach can feel low-effort at times, Laika certainly succeeds, with each tidbit of information, from details of the world to details of Laika's curse, being both interesting and not quite enough. I think it's always important to leave some questions unanswered, as that is how just about any great piece of lingers in someone's mind for long after they've played/seen/heard/watched/read it... At least it is for me. Laika will leave you wondering and hungering for more, which is, admittedly, a double-edged sword.

I may not be the most observant, but I found the world to be rather sparse when it came to NPC interactions. Plenty can be found in "Where We Live," but throughout the world there are essentially none until later in the game, when most sidequests are completed. I feel it would have made the world feel a little more real if these characters appeared earlier, and possibly more appearing throughout various stages of the game. I would have also liked just a bit more non-sidequest dialogue with the characters in the villiage, anything from random thoughts to telling a bit about themselves. Being someone who likes to go through every character's entire dialogue tree as soon as I see them, I found the dialogue running dry quite quickly, with some characters offering only a couple more lines later on. Some more flashbacks and a bit more buildup to the ending would have been ideal as well. The final boss' dialogue is a bit lackluster as well.

Apart from being rushed, I am mostly fine with the ending. I feel the cutscene was a bit brief through and a post-credits scene was in order, though I can't share why without spoiling.

A final note I'd like to mention is that I am in love with the naming conventions for the areas of the map. Rather than the village having a proper name, it is simply called "Where We Live." Likewise, other places are named along the lines of "Where Our Bikes Growl," "Where Doom Fell," and "Where Our Ancestors Rest." Tells you about the Laika's relationship to a place before you even arrive there.

Gameplay

Needless to say, the gameplay of Laika is incredibly innovative, at least when it comes to the metroidvania genre. Movement is entirely motorcycle based, meaning you hold W to accelerate, S to brake, A and D to tilt/flip, and hit SPACE to change direction. Traversal of the world means ramping from one ledge to another, or throttling along distant straights, or spiraling through loops. I find getting from point A to point B far less tedious than in traditional metroidvanias, and actually in some instances it can be quite satisfying. Platforming is a non-issue here, as most of the challenge comes from the birds.

The birds in question never move, and they die in one shot. However, you die in one shot too. A game without a healthbar, I feel like it's as much about the perfect run from A to B as it is about the actual missions you're sent on. A points system would have been quite at home in Laika, encouraging you to take greater risks while navigating the world. As it stands though it's up to you to find motivation to not die. At the start of the game you face only birds with pistols, but as time goes on more difficult variations begin appearing. Once again straying from traditional metroidvanias, the same bird types are spread across the entire map rather than being relegated to specific areas. It's the combinations which make them dangerous.

One thing I find irritating in games is when they don't build upon their own mechanics. Narita Boy is a perfect example, featuring mechanics specific only to certain areas or even to certain fights, which are then thrown away immediately after. A good game has a sense of progression, showing you something new and incorportating it into the game from then on out. Laika, unfortunately, does not give much attention to the three abilities you unlock: a jump, a dash, and a hook. Without spoiling too much, the dash essentially makes the jump obsolete, and the hook is neither a movement ability nor an attack, having no use outside of specific, rare instances. I was disappointed by this, as it leaves me feeling like there isn't a true sense of progression similar to what you find in Blasphemous, where the map seems to suddenly "open up" with each new ability you get. There are new weapons to unlock, but not a huge incentive to use them except for the shotgun. However, I find the machine gun a good backup for the rare instances the pistol is not enough.

There is also a cooking mechanic which seems quite useful, giving you various buffs which last a generous amount of time. However, you can finish the game without ever opening the cooking menu.

Last bit I want to touch upon for gameplay is the bosses. Like their music, I wasn't too impressed with the bossfights themselves. Most of them feel like a scripted sequence of events to survive, rather than an actual proper fight. To some extent this is understandable. Since you die in one hit and have limited movement, you can't have a boss that's too unpredictable. But something about the bosses just made them feel too easy. It's more satisfying to me to beat Crisanta's third stage with only a sliver of health left than it is to make it through one of Laika's fights with no damage. One was a hard won fight, the other was beaten the only way possible. But I also have to ask if there was even a better way to go about it? Laika's mechanics pose unique problems for a developer to solve when creating a boss, and I can't think of any better ways to go about it.

In Conclusion

Laika: Aged Through Blood is an innovative game which I believe suffers from its position as much as it benefits. A lot of heart and soul was put into this game and it absolutely shows, but it also faces unique issues which cannot be found in other metroidvanias. It is a motorvania after all.

I've written more criticism than compliments for this game but make no mistake, it's good! I would suggest picking it up on sale, but they have a demo, so play it! If the demo seems your thing then pick it up full price, you won't regret it. I know I don't!

X

Music and Art: 8/10

Incredible art, music is great but needs variety.

Story: 7/10

Good characters, good world, could use more dialogue and better pacing.

Gameplay: 6/10

Innovative and fun, but lacks depth and bossfights were not terribly engaging.

Overall: 7.0/10

10/09/2023 - Zine Fest

On Saturday I went on a day trip to Richmond VA for Richmond Zine Fest! I live in Virginia and close enough that it was feasible to drive there and back in one day, so I left early in the morning and got to the public library (where the zine fest was held) around midday, and had plenty of time for a throrough look around!

Before I continue further, I should probably share what a "zine" is! Zines, (short for "magazine") are self-published works, typically taking the form of small booklets. They aren't mass-produced, but are instead small circulation and are printed and bound by the author or a group they work with. Most you'll see are made from a single sheet of paper printed from a copy machine then folded into a booklet, though more elaborate and larger zines are common too! As far as subject matter is concerned, they can be about anything! And I mean, literally anything, from political commentary, to history facts and tidbits, to comics to poetry to collages to dadaist nightmares.

I haven't been terribly productive zine-wise as of late, not really since I started college and I never really regained my steam after graduating. It was really important to me to attend this year's zine fest, as it was the first one since the Big Goof locked us all inside, and I wanted to catch up with some people I hadn't seen.

So how did it go? Well, I'm not great with crowds, so there was a certain level of panic upon seeing how busy it really was in there, but I eventually got the flow and spent about two hours walking laps, eyeballing tables but never stopping unless something caught my eye because I'm too akward to browse someone's wares while they're sitting there watching me. I ended up with a quite decent variety of zines, a couple of which have hit me HARD and were absolutely worth getting. Also grabbed a ton of business cards, a halloween sticker sheet that's too adorable to use, and a couple prints I plan to get framed!

I've definitely been inspired to get back to working on zines from time to time, and hope maybe I can have a large enough variety by next year to even table! In a way I think this entire website could be considered one giant, online zine! I certainly consider my secret pages to be, and might even adapt a couple into a zine format to be printed, because honestly most of said secret pages are just writing projects I don't know what else to do with.

That's not all though! After visiting Richmond Zine Fest I treated myself with a trip to the VMFA (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts). Getting there was tricky, as I tried first to get lunch and gave up. Richmond is bigger than the city where I live, and has a ton of one-way roads with corners made blind by parked cars. And with bigger cities comes heavier traffic, so when I was merging onto a highway packed with cars rushing by, I noticed the yield sign and reacted the way anyone from my city would have when there wasn't a proper clearing to merge:

I stopped.

At which point the seven or so cars which had apparently SPAWNED behind me as I was rolling along the onramp began to HONK IN UNISON, at which I panicked, floored it, and in a blur of events too quick to remember, I had successfully merged into the middle of rapid traffic without being obliterated.

Closer to the VMFA, I made a wrong turn and ended up at an intersection, a two way stop with me waiting at one of the signs. Once more blind due to the parked cars, I quickly shot into the intersection and turned left, not noticing until just barely too late that the road I was turning onto had a median, and the side which I was supposed to be on was, in fact, not the side on which I found myself. I had only just turned in, my car's butt still sticking out into the intersection, so rather than back up I swallowed my pride and drove over the median, the edge of which was conveniently flattened for pedestrians to walk across. A pair of women who had been waiting to cross simply stared on with appaled expressions which suggested that this was most certainly a very common occurrence and I should feel no shame at all for what I had just done, and so I fled the scene feeling incredibly pleased with my display of humanity, and did not confine myself to the VMFA bathroom for ten minutes upon my arrival.

And I absolutely did not spot those same women in the VMFA and quickly stride to another gallery to keep from being seen. That would be prepostrous.

What I did see in the VMFA, however, was a Tiffany lamp which gave me a vision that brought me to tears (it was very beautiful) as well as a number of paintings of British dudes in polo outfits riding(sitting on) horses, which sounds incredibly boring, and would be incredibly boring if not for the commonality that every one of these paintings took place in a landscape of desolate yellow-green fields, golden light, and leaden skies. You were meant to marvel at the men and horses, but it was the empty strangeness of the environments that truly drew me in. They reminded me so much of that place I saw my creature.

Overall I really enjoyed myself, and while I was a major panic boy for half the trip I most certainly can't wait to go again next year!

X

09/22/2023 - Forum Roleplay

So, I'll be honest with ya: I do a lot of text-based roleplay, and used to do a lot more when I was younger. It's something I'm interested so I'd like to talk a bit about it.

So what is text based roleplay, or just rp? Well, it's when you have two or more writers and each plays their own character, and you write an interaction between them by taking turns. There are a lot of ways this can be done: email, chatting/texting apps such as Discord, and especially through forums. Fandoms (essentially, roleplays taking place in a pre-existing setting such as Star Wars, Marvel, Harry Potter) are incredibly popular, annoyingly so, honestly. I've always been partial to using original characters (OCs) from my own settings and using roleplay as a way to develop them.

I first came into roleplaying on the forum for Destiny, way back when the game had just come out.

Let. Me. Tell. You.

Somehow, Bungie created the PERFECT format for forum roleplay with the Destiny companion app. And I say that wholly, and completely free of hyperbole. There are three central pillars as to how it was perfect: 1.-Format 2.-Responsiveness and 3.-Groups.

Starting with format, Bungie's forum had a unique aspect in that each thread posted within a topic area (roleplay threads generally being posted in #offtopic) were not relegated to a single roleplay. Each thread was a setting in which you could roleplay, and each reply to that thread acted as a sub-thread, with replies that could then be replied to. What you get is a tree of branching paths, with #offtopic as the base, then the thread, then the "post" (a reply someone would make to the thread as a start to a roleplay which anyone could join), and then the replies to each post. While it may sound complicated when explaining it this way, it was actually very easy to navigate. Most roleplay forums are missing a layer, with each thread simply being a start to a single roleplay. By having threads act as settings to roleplay in, it was much easier to seek out the genre you were looking for. I should also mention that replies were near infinitely collapsible, meaning that when you looked at a thread, you would only see the posts within and not the replies to each post, unless you dropped them down.

Moving on to responsiveness: you got notifications when you were replied to. Both on the website and in the companion app, you had a notifications tab which would show all the replies people have made to you, and they could the tapped/clicked to take you directly to that reply. This ensured speedy roleplay, as writers were actively informed when it was their turn, and the DMing system would allow you to bug them in case they were still too slow (don't bug your writing partner. This was just to emphasize the app's features). But in short, these notifications allowed for easy, instant navigation, so that no matter how deeply buried the original post became, you could always navigate to it. This also made it possible to accept multiple partners and have multiple roleplays going on the same post.

Finally, and most importantly: The Groups. There was a group system which supported admins, a group chat, and a GROUP FORUM. This group forum was only visible to members and could host events such as tournaments, plots and whatnot, as well as acting as a database to hold all the information for the group's setting and player characters. The chat allowed you to interact with the other group members in real-time and discuss these things... Or you could just hurl insults and be pointlessly antagonistic to each other, as often also occured. The system was perfect but the roleplayers most certainly were not.

The threads, as I mentioned before, acted as settings to be roleplayed in. These threads were hosted by the groups, acting as the public meeting area and main place to roleplay. The group I was most invested in was focused on fighting, and featured the perfect setting: none. I mean, were was a some lore to the place itself, but as far as who you could play, you could use anyone. Many people used canon characters(preexisting characters), some used OCs based in or inspired by fandom settings, and some used purely original OCs. Sci-fi, fantasy, horror, mystery, slice of life, anything was on the table.

I miss it sometimes, but I'm glad the drama's out of my life. I was incredibly immature back then, and terrible at roleplaying too. Using proper terminology, almost every member of the group was illiterate to semi-lit, meaning no one was a very good writer, and posts tended only to be one or two paragraphs, with replies being much shorter. It's funny, I think, that I don't roleplay very often now, but when I do, it's some of my best writing.

Anyway, I just wanted to talk about the forum. All the roleplay groups there are dead now, and half the features I mentioned were removed. I think if someone were to recreate the companion app but purely for roleplaying, it could become BIG amongst roleplayers before sinking into a cesspool of human degeneracy, as these things do. Until next post!

X

09/05/2023 - My First Entry!

Welp, this is my first blog entry! I've been building this site for a while now, and decided to make this fairly simple page after adding a bunch of images to the art gallery. At the time of writing this, I have two secret pages finished, the entrance, the main page, the art gallery, 2/5 galleries within the art gallery, the not_found page, and this blog created. I currently need to add a few fun assets to this blog, as well as finishing up with the dates, titles, and comments for the 2023-2022 gallery.

I got a job recently, the first one I actually anticipate having for an indefinite amount of time. I think that fact really set in after I had a week-long vacation, and came back only to find myself with more responsibility than when I left. For that week I lost all motivation for art, my website, and even for videogames. I'm doing better now, finally getting excited about this again.

It's good I started this site when I did. I'd been feeling myself sinking into an artistic slump for a few months, and it's finally hit hard. This website's been fuelling me though. Can't really imagine drawing anything right now if it's not related to this site in some way.

I feel like I did nothing this year, and to anyone who feels the same: seriously, shut up. You're wrong. I've done soooo freaking much and posted none of it on social media, and somehow my subconscious feels like that means it doesn't count. Seriously, I have worked my butt off, but just because I didn't even allow myself the opportunity to get two likes on each image, that means, apparently, I get to feel like I'm letting myself down. Writing this right now I still feel it nagging, telling me that I should be working harder because I haven't done anything. That's probably what got me in this slump in the first place. Don't listen. Understand that as an artist, you are always working. Do you browse art, watch movies, play videogames, listen to music, freaking read? You're gathering inspiration. Do you do crappy little doodles, or have you started a bunch of big pieces and haven't finished them? Practicing. Have you simply been taking a break? Gathering strength. I have done all these things this year, and I have created a ton of stuff on top, this site being one of those things! It is perfect to want to improve, never stop wanting to get better, but don't let it eat you. We ain't machines, we gotta have some compassion for ourselves.

X