'Ey. Um, it's been a long time since I was active here. Or anywhere, really.
I've picked up a lot of cool skills in the last couple of years-- game design stuff, Unity Engine, 3D modeling, a little 3D animation... basically, all the knowledge I need to be an independent game dev. I even have a couple published game projects now. While I've been busy making games, I gradually lost the drive to post things around here, because it's not really the type of content I want to focus on anymore.
More recently, I've sort of missed sharing my work, and I've decided it's time I restart my online presence. As part of that, effective today, I'm moving to a new DeviantArt account. There are a couple reasons I'm choosing not to simply continue using Platypusofdoom: I want to start fresh and separate myself from any cringy posts or comments I might have left behind, and I definitely don't want to pay to change my username. I don't plan to deactivate this account completely, but over the next several days I will likely take down whatever art I don't feel like keeping on the Internet anymore.
You can probably expect to see a lot of game dev work on my new account-- things like character models, environments, level maps, and so on-- in addition to the same variety of video game fan art I normally do. As for Paper Mario: Double Darkness, which has kind of been my signature project to date, it's going on hold for a while. I don't see much point in continuing to tweak and redesign a game concept that's already basically done. The only reasonable next step for that fangame is to turn it into a playable demo, which is something I would be interested in doing someday, but it'll have to wait until I have the time and stability to focus on such an ambitious project.
My new home is https://www.deviantart.com/emoglobin-64 . Hope to see you all there! -Emo
PM2D Revision 3: Stellar Sorcery
Anyway, while I was gone, I made some big, exciting plans for Paper Mario: Double Darkness. Since my last major update to PM2D in 2015, I've learned a lot about writing and game design, and it's about time I put it to good use by giving the game another new revision! The changes I plan to make this time around are mainly narrative in nature-- I want to rework the story to be more cohesive and less derivative from The Thousand-Year Door, as well as shift its tone to be a bit less needlessly edgy. I don't know how much new concept art I'll be creating for this, but you can definitely expect a new plot synopsis and new character profiles. I'll also continue putting out regular-ish PM2D gameplay mockups to illustrate what the game would actually look like.
Finally, one of the things I've been busy with over the last few months has been programming short game demos in Unity. The thing is, most of these demos are pretty rough prototypes, since they're just meant to show off basic gameplay mechanics, but there are a few that I think turned out well anyway. Would anyone here actually be interested in playing them? If so, I may polish one or two of up so they look nicer, then post them here.
Well, that's it for this journal. See ya next decade!
Basically, don't expect to see any new art from me for the next few months. This doesn't mean I'll be off the site entirely-- I'll still check my page now and then in case anyone tries to contact me. I also might post a thing or two from my classes; I'll likely have to create some concept art for game prototypes, and I'm also trying a 3D modeling class that looked interesting. But that'll only happen if I like how that art looks, and again, taking time to really polish art is not going to be a priority. If all goes well, I should be back to my usual art schedule sometime around New Year's. Until then... see yas!
Becoming an Author AND a Game Developer
Sound like something you'd want to read more about? Well, if so, you're in luck, because it's getting published!
About a year ago, a bunch of people in my narrative illustration class happened to be working on some short stories, and the teacher was impressed enough that he offered to help put them into an anthology and publish them. Since then, the class started putting tons of time toward refining and editing each other's stories, and almost everyone jumped on the writing bandwagon. Now, I'm not much of a writer (hell, just putting this journal together took like two hours), but I actually already had a short story I had written for my fantasy literature class the year before, which I figured I could revise and improve easily enough.
That story, 28 Shadows in the Fog, became my contribution to the class anthology. It takes place in my Arcana Crew world, about 150 years prior to the present setting, on the haunted island of Creepy Hollow. It demonstrates much of the world's lore regarding spirits and necromancy, and also sets up the backstory for one of Arcana Crew's six main characters. And, aside from all that, I'm freaking proud of it. Good writing really doesn't come easily for me, and it took me a good two years to bring this story to a point where I was happy with it. Unfortunately, due to publishing restrictions and the length of the story (about 50 pages), it had to be truncated. So actually, only the first few chapters and then a "TO BE CONTINUED" are being published. But hey, at least I can look forward to it being continued.
Anyway... if you want to check out my story, as well as all the other amazing horror, sci-fi, and fantasy stories of my classmates (most of whom are honestly much better writers than myself), the anthology is titled Maine After Twilight, and should be released by the end of the year. Keep an eye out for it!
Hmmm... What else is new? Oh, I'm in college now! My Game Design program is really fun so far, and I've already gotten to work on a lot of interesting projects. Currently, I've been designing levels for a platformer about a snowball escaping from Hell. Pretty exciting stuff!
This means it's likely I'll be posting more game development-related art. My workload has been pretty tough lately, leaving me less time for fanart, whereas I'm literally getting grades for making visual documentation for game development, so it's pretty clear my priorities have to shift a little. The stuff I make for my classes probably won't be related to my current projects, or even each other, most of the time; the subject matter will keep changing along with whatever I'm designing at the moment.
And that's pretty much it for today. See ya!
Memes, commissions, and more memes
I've been making a LOT of memes recently, most of which I haven't posted here because they really don't fit well with the rest of my art. But that won't be a problem anymore! I now have an alt account to post all my random Internet nonsense. If you're interested, take a look at Emoglobin64.
Also, seeing as I have no money and lack the self-confidence to get a real job, I've decided to finally try out commissions. I don't expect much from it, really, but it's worth a try. I'm still finishing up some of the example art for the pricing guide, so it'll be a couple weeks or so before I post it and open for real. However, if anyone already thinks they'll want one, you can ask me to reserve a slot.
Since I've got about five other writing assignments I have to work on, I'll keep my journal short today (for once). Later!