The Rackety Esperus

Hey all! I haven't been around for a while since my University course finished, but I'm back to update on what's been occurring.

I've now got a job at Cleantech Business News, which is a magazine dedicated to the green Cleantech industry. Despite this, I fully intend to carry on with my artistic projects and I have a backlog of work to upload to the blog which will be on within the next few days.

I have a lot of ambitious side projects that I was working on during the last few months, including a digital comic, a Critters RPG game, a "Ni No Kuni Wizard's Companion-style" bestiary, T-Shirt designs for Qwertee, and many more. I hope to get right back up to date with this blog soon, and hopefully I can keep updating it a little more often!

It's almost halfway through the summer holidays, and University is officially over. I've been trying to keep busy with personal projects, but it's been hard not to take advantage of the fact that it's a holiday, so I've mainly been resting up!

I do however have some small indie projects that I'd like to follow through on, mainly to bulk up my portfolio but also to learn new digital painting techniques and game design methods.

I'm currently planning five projects, some more developed, others less so:

An RPG (tentatively titled 'Light of the Deity') which I'll be developing using RPG Maker VX Ace. The story focuses on a pair of young adults who are sent as messengers to a far away city regarding an upcoming religious war, but the pair are soon entangled in deceptive espionage, despotic rulers and a shocking truth behind the "Deitors". I've been doing mainly concept work with this at the moment, and I feel I want to leave this project until last to fully devote my energies too, as I have used it during my University course and I wish to develop my skills on other programs rather than milk RPG Maker to death!
A platformer game (untitled at the moment) that will be a blend of classic gameplay such as Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse blended with modern elements from Journey, Limbo and Braid. I want the game to have a unique visual style, and will focus on philosophical, classical and astronomical themes in an extremely surreal, psychedelic environment. It concerns an ambiguous protagonist in a hooded cloak exploring an ever-changing, unknown world inhabited by embodiments of sin and virtue. The player must reach the end of each level, whilst solving puzzles, avoiding enemies and defeating bosses. Story is told through snippets of Latin phrases that are collected by the player, and has a 'karma'-based ability system which leads to multiple endings. I have a program called Construct 2 which I'm currently working with as a potential game engine.
A three-panel comic strip entitled 'Literal Larry', about two young boys who discuss media they've recently watched, played or experienced. The crux of the strip is one of the boys (Literal Larry) who hears the titles his friend relates and subsequently imagines what the media entails, usually resulting in hilarious responses based on his literal way of imagining words. An example is his friend suggesting Bioshock, and Larry immediately imagines a Little Sister drinking BIO-logical washing liquid and being 'shocked' by the foul taste.
A card game based on weaponry. I've always been fascinated by medieval weaponry (as I'm a RPG fan, and I did an art project concerning them in college) and this is a chance to do some work on weapon design. I've done a large amount of research into weapon classification (such as differing sword types like a shortsword, longsword, broadsword, great sword, etc) and I feel I have enough material to do a card game. Gameplay will be focused on multiple 'sparrings', which involves two players pitting a weapon against each other and seeing which one defeats the other, similar to Rock, Paper and Scissors, except that players may enhance their chances of success by using shields and protectives.
A set of collectible cards. As of yet, I haven't done much research into what subject matter I want to depict, but I'm inspired to do something in similar vein to The Garbage Pail Kids, as I love the play-on-words and black, gross-out humour style.