Keep on Keepin' on - State of the Union (August)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKL4X0PZz7M

Well then, lets get to it.

Thrallworks?

It's making progress, but less so than I'd hoped, due to the amount of individual images in the set and a couple of the other ambitions I hold with this one. There's about...10 full-screen images or so left, not counting character assets, and only 15 days to do them in...in short, a tall order even if I were to quite my job right now to finish them, and downright impossible otherwise.

As an idea of the level of detail, here's a share of the first non-background image in part 2:

So yeah they're taking a while. They are getting done though, and the news can only get better going ahead. I considered just roughing out the remaining pictures and releasing a cut-back version for $10 peeps before the month is out, but I wouldn't want to short-change anyone in that case; I'd be happier for people to reduce the amount they give me rather than experience something not at it's best.

It has made me think about where I can save time going ahead though, if it's possible. I'm struggling for more than 'commission backgrounds' at the moment, as art is expensive and I can do that, and the story is mine so I will write that. Perhaps future works will be more flexible for me, and there will be the chance for more widespead collabing with other artists and writers.

Indeed, even for Thrallworks, there may come a time where I hire on a writer to do side-stories or certain other parts outside of the main story. We'll have to see!

In the meantime, in the last week of this month I mean to open a poll or the like for the $10 patrons so they can pick a new character to Drone. In the full game, at some point early on there will be options to swap out your starting housedrone with others. This is partly an aesthetic choice, but also depending on how I can to do it, it may well come with a very short scene of its own. Perhaps that will depend on the kind of drones chosen. Anyway, the first bunch to select from will likely be a choice of My Hero Academia characters...watch this space!

Volition?

So, as $5+ people know, I've figured out how I can be happy continuing Volition.

It's been a bit of a pain, as on the one hand I really can't charge page-by-page, the lukewarm financial reception vs. the positive verbal reception proves that well enough. At the same time though, I can't do full issues and paywall them in this modern era either...and I can't give my labour away for free when the time I use to do the comic is obstensibly my leisure time!

So we're hitting some kind of halfway house on this one. I'm going to privately draw full issues of Volition, some 20 pages at a time or so, that when done I will release in public for free at one page a week, with all of you patrons getting pages in higher resolution and a day earlier than others.

$5+ people will also be getting sneak-peeks of chapters in progress, either in the roughing stage or the first 3 pages...or both! And if anyone doesn't want to wait for the slow trickle, they can go to my Buy Me a Coffee page and donate a yet-to-be-determined amount (kidding, it's $10) to get the pages at varying resolutions, some PSD's of the work, my author notes and some one-off sketches and pin-up pieces.

For those of you who will've donated at least $25 on patreon between issues though (we're looking at probably 5+ months between them) I'll be giving you a code so you can download these issues for free! So generous, I know.

(Also this first effort is more about completing the chapter I already began, so will be a bit shorter to get out and cheaper to purchase)

I reckon I might delete my comic synopsis too so as not to spoil new people to the narrative. But hey, it's the journey that matters eh? Should be fun!

What Else?

I'm looking at doing something with The Movement. I'm not using any time for art or writing for it currently, but I'm planning out the hierarchy of some of world, how religious compounds function, how 'magic' as it exists in that world works. I'd like to make a game of this one too, along the lines of the CYOA I flirted with last year, episodic, set some time after the more recent ones. This would be more of a...commissioned project though. I'd need some funds and would want to develop some talent to do the art and coding while I focus on Thrallworks as 'The Project'. In the meantime, perhaps I can build up the lore.

Streaming in general I've largely abandoned through not believing there to be much point to it, but perhaps some collaboration can occur in the future on projects like The Movement. A self-contained something might be nice.

And Life?

Life's pretty good. I believe I may be offered a position in the coming week which I'm tempted to take in work...but in so doing, would likely work full-time, which means even less time to spend on this which I'm not okay with. Either way this may end up being enough impetus to leave where I'm currently working to go somewhere else.

Tricky business.

Anyway, I hope you all are doing well, and thankyou for your patronage (if patrons) and time spent reading this. As ever, I remain humbled by your contributions- sensible discourse is always welcome!

Beyond that, I hope you continue to enjoy the works! 'Til the next post!