FA+
Shop
FOAMGaP pt 6: Darksiders Warmastered Edition
General | Posted 2 years agoi can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
I remember hearing Jokes about this being a 3D Zelda clone back when the original came out. However, when I played it for a bit back in the day I never got that vibe; I also only played the game for maybe 2-3 hours before moving on to something else. having beaten the game in full now, I get those jokes though I’m not sure being a Zelda clone is a bad thing really, especially since it does its own thing as well.
Honestly int the early game it leans more into the realm of a 3D Beat ‘em up/hack and Slash and left me feeling my oats as I’m pulling out Babi’s first DMC style combos against the early game enemies. And honestly as you unlock secondary weapons and new moves, even as the game starts showing its 3D Zelda like design the early items have some combat application. Sadly by the mid to late game you have all the combat tools and abilities and the encounter design starts to focus on big body enemies that don’t suffer much hitstun from a lot of attacks. Though given there are some broken combos in the game, such as using the upgraded jumping gauntlet attack to ground bounce standing enemies and then loop jumping and using same attack in an infinite loop like it’s the saddest dribble combo ala the Hokuto no Ken fighting game, maybe that’s for the better; though the high health pools and Ludacris damage output of enemies you have to deal with isn’t enjoyable…
Though by the time the combat falls off a bit the 3D Zelda energy comes roaring in full force, though continued forced enemy encounters don’t let fully cover the aforementioned issues. I suppose the fact that the real Zelda dungeon like level design starts to hit its stride with the area that gives you the hook shot, I mean the chain shot, I mean the chain pipe, I mean the abyssal chain. Jokes aside it is a well implemented, if derivative, tool and the next item, the Voidwalker (aka totally not a portal gun), is even better with that dungeon being on of the big highlights of the game with its puzzle designs. Sadly that’s the last real tool you get and it shares the issue a lot of the other items have in that outside of their designated dungeons they don’t see any puzzle application, only the nominal combat applications early tools are given.
Honestly this review is probably coming off more critical then I actually feel about the game, this isn’t a bad game and I am looking forward to the sequels coming up in my backlog as they have a good base to build from and be something great. though from what I’ve heard the hack and slash/beat ‘em up gameplay is leaned into a lot more heavily, which I don’t dislike, but as a classic 3D Zelda enjoyer who feels BotW and TotK are only ok some fresh classic 3D Zelda style gaming would be nice; especially with the high points this game had on that front to build from
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
I remember hearing Jokes about this being a 3D Zelda clone back when the original came out. However, when I played it for a bit back in the day I never got that vibe; I also only played the game for maybe 2-3 hours before moving on to something else. having beaten the game in full now, I get those jokes though I’m not sure being a Zelda clone is a bad thing really, especially since it does its own thing as well.
Honestly int the early game it leans more into the realm of a 3D Beat ‘em up/hack and Slash and left me feeling my oats as I’m pulling out Babi’s first DMC style combos against the early game enemies. And honestly as you unlock secondary weapons and new moves, even as the game starts showing its 3D Zelda like design the early items have some combat application. Sadly by the mid to late game you have all the combat tools and abilities and the encounter design starts to focus on big body enemies that don’t suffer much hitstun from a lot of attacks. Though given there are some broken combos in the game, such as using the upgraded jumping gauntlet attack to ground bounce standing enemies and then loop jumping and using same attack in an infinite loop like it’s the saddest dribble combo ala the Hokuto no Ken fighting game, maybe that’s for the better; though the high health pools and Ludacris damage output of enemies you have to deal with isn’t enjoyable…
Though by the time the combat falls off a bit the 3D Zelda energy comes roaring in full force, though continued forced enemy encounters don’t let fully cover the aforementioned issues. I suppose the fact that the real Zelda dungeon like level design starts to hit its stride with the area that gives you the hook shot, I mean the chain shot, I mean the chain pipe, I mean the abyssal chain. Jokes aside it is a well implemented, if derivative, tool and the next item, the Voidwalker (aka totally not a portal gun), is even better with that dungeon being on of the big highlights of the game with its puzzle designs. Sadly that’s the last real tool you get and it shares the issue a lot of the other items have in that outside of their designated dungeons they don’t see any puzzle application, only the nominal combat applications early tools are given.
Honestly this review is probably coming off more critical then I actually feel about the game, this isn’t a bad game and I am looking forward to the sequels coming up in my backlog as they have a good base to build from and be something great. though from what I’ve heard the hack and slash/beat ‘em up gameplay is leaned into a lot more heavily, which I don’t dislike, but as a classic 3D Zelda enjoyer who feels BotW and TotK are only ok some fresh classic 3D Zelda style gaming would be nice; especially with the high points this game had on that front to build from
FOAMGaP pt 5: This Way Madness Lies
General | Posted 2 years agoi can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
This is the latest game from indie Dev Zeboyd Games, a developer I am rather fond of due to them exclusively making retro style JRPGs that have mechanics that fell very ‘we love classic JRPGS but know the mechanical design can be a bit lacking so lets address that’ in their design. Honestly I would probably recommend pretty much any of their games if you have any interest in JRPGS, especially old 8 or 16 bit era ones. However, this game doesn’t seem to work on a conceptual level and I can’t Pin down why…
The basic idea is 90’s era anime magical girls mixed with Shakespeare. this bizarre mashup takes the form of a group of highschool(?) girls who are teleported into Shakespeare’s plays to defend them from monsters and such derailing the stores. a great example is the beginning of the game; a cold open to four of our heroines walking out of a portal into Romeo and Juliet and after the expected transformation sequences find man eating plants have overrun the city (leading to one of the most ‘I never knew I needed this’ with a partial rewrite of “Feed Me” from Little Shop of Horrors into Shakespearian English).
After the intro sequence the settles into a flow of the main characters (mostly) normal day to day lives and theater club shenanigans with trips into various altered Shakespeare plays popping up to act as gameplay sections. While on paper this isn’t bad in practice, the gameplay sections and the day-to-day life story stuff feel complete detached from each other with no real overlap beyond the main characters being in both parts. It does feel like there are some arguable attempts to add some connection with mysterious multiversal shenanigans and monsters from the Shakespeare play segments popping up in the real world every once in a while, but they often go nowhere.
Gameplay fares better in that it uses a tweaked version of the battle system used in Cosmic Star Heroine which is really the best that Zeboyd Games has come up with yet and just generally a well-designed system. Though it does feel like one step forward one step back with some changes they made; for example, you can now see an enemy’s ailment HP (the way status ailments work is that abilities that inflict ailments reduce an enemies HP for that ailment with the ailment being inflicted upon hitting 0 ailment HP) along with detailed elemental weakness/resistance details, however they have removed the visible turn order. In addition, they have removed equipment, instead having characters gain passive abilities as they level up which you can equip up to three of, a very cool design idea as these passives pretty much all have something more to offer than basic stat boosts. However one thing that is a little off putting is the fact that for most of the game you are give n a preformed team form the initial six playable characters, which is really only a problem as the team comps you get are weird leaving you with odd things like: 1 buff focused character, 1 debuff focused character, 1 multitarget focused damage dealer, and 1 highly random pseudo jack of all trades.
Really writing this I think I finally figured out what left me just not feeling this game: it’s a disparate selection of interesting and good ideas that never really coalesce together. I already mentioned the play based sections vs the slice of life stuff feeling detached from each other, but even the plays have a tendency to very quickly devolve into vaguely <insert play> themed dungeons above any really story (be it the play itself or original things revolving around what’s going wrong in the play’s world). And overall, the story feels like its trying to tell an actual narrative with occasional comedy (as opposed to the farcical absurdist comedy fests Zeyobd Games sometimes does) but never leaves room to flesh out its characters or original ideas. The combat works, but I’ve seen it in their prior two games (there are even some abilities that are all but directly lifted form said games) inn an arguably bettern handled state and the weak narrative doesn’t gave much incentive to play forward and get to that next story segment. I can’t really say this is a bad game, but it just feels almost incomplete, or at least like it could have used some more time in the oven before being released.
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
This is the latest game from indie Dev Zeboyd Games, a developer I am rather fond of due to them exclusively making retro style JRPGs that have mechanics that fell very ‘we love classic JRPGS but know the mechanical design can be a bit lacking so lets address that’ in their design. Honestly I would probably recommend pretty much any of their games if you have any interest in JRPGS, especially old 8 or 16 bit era ones. However, this game doesn’t seem to work on a conceptual level and I can’t Pin down why…
The basic idea is 90’s era anime magical girls mixed with Shakespeare. this bizarre mashup takes the form of a group of highschool(?) girls who are teleported into Shakespeare’s plays to defend them from monsters and such derailing the stores. a great example is the beginning of the game; a cold open to four of our heroines walking out of a portal into Romeo and Juliet and after the expected transformation sequences find man eating plants have overrun the city (leading to one of the most ‘I never knew I needed this’ with a partial rewrite of “Feed Me” from Little Shop of Horrors into Shakespearian English).
After the intro sequence the settles into a flow of the main characters (mostly) normal day to day lives and theater club shenanigans with trips into various altered Shakespeare plays popping up to act as gameplay sections. While on paper this isn’t bad in practice, the gameplay sections and the day-to-day life story stuff feel complete detached from each other with no real overlap beyond the main characters being in both parts. It does feel like there are some arguable attempts to add some connection with mysterious multiversal shenanigans and monsters from the Shakespeare play segments popping up in the real world every once in a while, but they often go nowhere.
Gameplay fares better in that it uses a tweaked version of the battle system used in Cosmic Star Heroine which is really the best that Zeboyd Games has come up with yet and just generally a well-designed system. Though it does feel like one step forward one step back with some changes they made; for example, you can now see an enemy’s ailment HP (the way status ailments work is that abilities that inflict ailments reduce an enemies HP for that ailment with the ailment being inflicted upon hitting 0 ailment HP) along with detailed elemental weakness/resistance details, however they have removed the visible turn order. In addition, they have removed equipment, instead having characters gain passive abilities as they level up which you can equip up to three of, a very cool design idea as these passives pretty much all have something more to offer than basic stat boosts. However one thing that is a little off putting is the fact that for most of the game you are give n a preformed team form the initial six playable characters, which is really only a problem as the team comps you get are weird leaving you with odd things like: 1 buff focused character, 1 debuff focused character, 1 multitarget focused damage dealer, and 1 highly random pseudo jack of all trades.
Really writing this I think I finally figured out what left me just not feeling this game: it’s a disparate selection of interesting and good ideas that never really coalesce together. I already mentioned the play based sections vs the slice of life stuff feeling detached from each other, but even the plays have a tendency to very quickly devolve into vaguely <insert play> themed dungeons above any really story (be it the play itself or original things revolving around what’s going wrong in the play’s world). And overall, the story feels like its trying to tell an actual narrative with occasional comedy (as opposed to the farcical absurdist comedy fests Zeyobd Games sometimes does) but never leaves room to flesh out its characters or original ideas. The combat works, but I’ve seen it in their prior two games (there are even some abilities that are all but directly lifted form said games) inn an arguably bettern handled state and the weak narrative doesn’t gave much incentive to play forward and get to that next story segment. I can’t really say this is a bad game, but it just feels almost incomplete, or at least like it could have used some more time in the oven before being released.
FOAMGaP pt 4: Koa and the five pirates of Mara
General | Posted 2 years agoi can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
So this is actually a game I backed on Kickstarter (you can even find my name ion the credits, along with a couple hundred/thousand people, if you have the game yourself.) something else I backed made a mention of it being something the were looking forward to. And yeah this one is a pretty nice little 3D platformer that goes for a more level clear focus than the open ended collection style, something I feel like there are not enough of out there; Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy a good collectathon good movement (which is more common in 3D games for whatever reason) and a fun linear obstacle course ius great and you just don’t see them that often.
As for the Game itself, honestly its pretty fun. The move list isn’t super extensive (walk, run, jump, bum slam, and roll maneuver that can be chained into a long jump) but the levels work really well with them and the roll is honestly enough to carry thing on it’s on. The roll works by pressing run right before landing form a jump, you can then press jump during a roll to long jump, and the long jump predictable counts as a jump so you can roll out of it and then long jump out that roll so on so forth. Honestly ignoring the ability to do these long chains of rolls and long jumps it’s a pretty boiler plate platformer with some decent level design, but the long jump loops give a great sense of speed and takes some good timing to use so it really does feel good to use; it also kind of breaks the level design.
So far as I can tell there are no areas of the game that require the use of the roll or long jump to pass so long jumping can get you past a solid number of jumping chnagles the game throws at you. More so though the sped challenges the game gives you are where the real breakage comes; every level has a time trial and each work has a level where you race 4 NPCs though a slightly modified level, and mastery of the long jump/roll can make getting golds on most levels pretty trivial with you reaching the level end in half the time of second place and racking up gold medals in time trials like no ones business. Though given the long jump isn’t a super easy move to use I don’t feel like this potential breakage is bad, kind of feels like when I stumbled across the skill combo of dual wield+spellblade in FFV when I played it in Middle school.
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
So this is actually a game I backed on Kickstarter (you can even find my name ion the credits, along with a couple hundred/thousand people, if you have the game yourself.) something else I backed made a mention of it being something the were looking forward to. And yeah this one is a pretty nice little 3D platformer that goes for a more level clear focus than the open ended collection style, something I feel like there are not enough of out there; Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy a good collectathon good movement (which is more common in 3D games for whatever reason) and a fun linear obstacle course ius great and you just don’t see them that often.
As for the Game itself, honestly its pretty fun. The move list isn’t super extensive (walk, run, jump, bum slam, and roll maneuver that can be chained into a long jump) but the levels work really well with them and the roll is honestly enough to carry thing on it’s on. The roll works by pressing run right before landing form a jump, you can then press jump during a roll to long jump, and the long jump predictable counts as a jump so you can roll out of it and then long jump out that roll so on so forth. Honestly ignoring the ability to do these long chains of rolls and long jumps it’s a pretty boiler plate platformer with some decent level design, but the long jump loops give a great sense of speed and takes some good timing to use so it really does feel good to use; it also kind of breaks the level design.
So far as I can tell there are no areas of the game that require the use of the roll or long jump to pass so long jumping can get you past a solid number of jumping chnagles the game throws at you. More so though the sped challenges the game gives you are where the real breakage comes; every level has a time trial and each work has a level where you race 4 NPCs though a slightly modified level, and mastery of the long jump/roll can make getting golds on most levels pretty trivial with you reaching the level end in half the time of second place and racking up gold medals in time trials like no ones business. Though given the long jump isn’t a super easy move to use I don’t feel like this potential breakage is bad, kind of feels like when I stumbled across the skill combo of dual wield+spellblade in FFV when I played it in Middle school.
FOAMGaP pt 3: Super Lesbian Animal RPG
General | Posted 2 years agoi can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
The title of this game is honestly half the fun. Seriously the title was legitimately part of what prompted me to buy this game, the other half was reviews describing it as a JRPG with mechanics; something I am rather fond of and seek out especially in indie games. That said while saying as such is not wrong, this is an RPG that is more enjoyable for its story (or maybe even characters) than the gameplay.
From a gameplay standpoint things actually start pretty strong; there is a second in battle resource that is gained by performing character class relevant actions and is needed for the more powerful abilities, the fighter of your party has special abilities that attack from different directions that enemies have various weaknesses and resistance to, elemental spells can leave some form of lasting effect on targets, in the tutorial dungeon features an enemy that reacts to certain elemental magic being used on it by transforming, Accessories focus on applying unique effects and abilities rather than straight stat buffs, and there is a unique form of equipment called spell books that allow you to equip a character with a second set of skills. That said the Gameplay doesn’t quite hold up to the potential the early game presents; the fighters directional attacks tend to be more trouble then they are worth since there is no way to tell an enemies weakness other than trial and error (save for the final battle) and due to their cost you can only use on of said abilities every other turn (not to mention more straight forward and similarly/more powerful abilities being available), the enemy I mentioned in the tutorial dungeon is seemingly the only enemy like that in the game, the linger effects left by elemental magic tend to be lopsided in their usefulness (fire is damage of Time, Ice is paralysis, water seems to do nothing) and there are almost no direct follow up actions that take advantage of these linger effects beyond their innate value. Really the biggest problem is the combination of game balance and the aforementioned secondary resource, star points.
Put simply the star point acquisition requirements are very narrow and the characters are almost over balanced to fit their role in battle; for example the tank of the party only acquires star points for taking damage, so evading attacks (which also allows counter attacks) are bad for them, to the point that when early on I used a combination of an evasion/counter attack boosting accessories and spell book that gave them a cheap evade/counter boosting ability I quickly abandoned it in favor of a far more generic tank build because the one I had come up with really only let them use normal attacks which only did modeling damage and the counter hits were no stronger. So while accessories and spell books can give you a wide variety of builds and strategies to use; most of them pales in comparison to the most standard ones based on the characters class.
Though for all the complaining about gameplay I really liked this game; by the time the gameplays shortcomings started being noticeable the story started picking up and is rather enjoyable really made by the fun and interesting characters. I suppose the strong presence of trans characters and same sex couples along side the irreverent occasionally 4th wall leaning humor might not be to everyone’s taste, but if none of that is a problem (hell maybe even if some but not all of that is a problem) I would say its an enjoyable, short buy sweet, story.
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
The title of this game is honestly half the fun. Seriously the title was legitimately part of what prompted me to buy this game, the other half was reviews describing it as a JRPG with mechanics; something I am rather fond of and seek out especially in indie games. That said while saying as such is not wrong, this is an RPG that is more enjoyable for its story (or maybe even characters) than the gameplay.
From a gameplay standpoint things actually start pretty strong; there is a second in battle resource that is gained by performing character class relevant actions and is needed for the more powerful abilities, the fighter of your party has special abilities that attack from different directions that enemies have various weaknesses and resistance to, elemental spells can leave some form of lasting effect on targets, in the tutorial dungeon features an enemy that reacts to certain elemental magic being used on it by transforming, Accessories focus on applying unique effects and abilities rather than straight stat buffs, and there is a unique form of equipment called spell books that allow you to equip a character with a second set of skills. That said the Gameplay doesn’t quite hold up to the potential the early game presents; the fighters directional attacks tend to be more trouble then they are worth since there is no way to tell an enemies weakness other than trial and error (save for the final battle) and due to their cost you can only use on of said abilities every other turn (not to mention more straight forward and similarly/more powerful abilities being available), the enemy I mentioned in the tutorial dungeon is seemingly the only enemy like that in the game, the linger effects left by elemental magic tend to be lopsided in their usefulness (fire is damage of Time, Ice is paralysis, water seems to do nothing) and there are almost no direct follow up actions that take advantage of these linger effects beyond their innate value. Really the biggest problem is the combination of game balance and the aforementioned secondary resource, star points.
Put simply the star point acquisition requirements are very narrow and the characters are almost over balanced to fit their role in battle; for example the tank of the party only acquires star points for taking damage, so evading attacks (which also allows counter attacks) are bad for them, to the point that when early on I used a combination of an evasion/counter attack boosting accessories and spell book that gave them a cheap evade/counter boosting ability I quickly abandoned it in favor of a far more generic tank build because the one I had come up with really only let them use normal attacks which only did modeling damage and the counter hits were no stronger. So while accessories and spell books can give you a wide variety of builds and strategies to use; most of them pales in comparison to the most standard ones based on the characters class.
Though for all the complaining about gameplay I really liked this game; by the time the gameplays shortcomings started being noticeable the story started picking up and is rather enjoyable really made by the fun and interesting characters. I suppose the strong presence of trans characters and same sex couples along side the irreverent occasionally 4th wall leaning humor might not be to everyone’s taste, but if none of that is a problem (hell maybe even if some but not all of that is a problem) I would say its an enjoyable, short buy sweet, story.
FOAMGaP pt 2: video game announcement hype stuff
General | Posted 2 years agoSo my plan was to talk about games I had (semi)recently beat adding some more broad game stuff as I felt/found it. However given that Nintendo and Sony just had big trailer/announcement fests and I have thoughts that feel like they would fit something like this thing I’ve decided to do. So lets start with Nintendo since there are more topics (but maybe less overall to be said)
Mario vs. Donkey Kong remake
I’m not sure how I feel about this. This was a fun game that I really enjoyed when it first came out on GBA while I was in high school, and with the series going to lemming like gameplay after this before going dormant for several years seeing this style of puzzle platforming come back is great to see. HOWEVER, this game is only the second-best Mario puzzle platformer in my opinion and the best, Donkey Kong on Gameboy (a.k.a Donkey Kong ’94), feels more deserving/in more need of a remake. Then again in practical terms since MvDK used images of 3D models for sprites the graphics might be much easier to update (use the original models) and thus the game easier to make…
Super Mario RPG remake
I spent a lot of time with the original when I was a kid and really loved it, so when the remake was originally announced I was excited, and curious for the new unexplained UI elements. Now that we’ve gotten more info on those have to say sounds interesting; perfect timed attacks now making normal attacks multi-target feels like a more fun and fulfilling way to address clearing though trash mobs as you did in JRPGs of that era without resorting to spamable AOE spells, the triple moves gives another more carrot like rather than stick like encouragement towards mastering timed attacks, and I am always down for good JRPG super bosses. Speaking of which I am really curious how Culex is going to end up looking.
SaGa Emerald Beyond
This came out of nowhere, but I am rather happy. Always had a soft spot for the SaGa games (perhaps the fact both The Final Fantasy Legend and SaGa Frontier begin some of the earliest JRPGs I ever put much time into a s kid might explain it) and this seems to take a lot of gameplay DNA from SaGa Scarlet Grace which, aside form an overly aggressive level scaling system, has a lot of great mechanics especially with regards to combat. Also getting looks to be going with the fantasy/modern-day/sci-fi/fuck-it style of world akin to the final fantasy legend games and SaGa Frontier so yeah for that as well.
Tomb Raider I-III remastered
Yeah this was interesting to see, and while I don’t know if i would say I’m hyped for this, given I like cinematic platformers and am fascinated by the idea of how they would work in 3D I am interested in these; it saves me from a lot of research into version differences and emulation or having to play Haydee (I do wonder if all the people lusting after her have ever played the game with its abundance of player unfriendly if not outright malicious design)
Trombone champ
I have no interest in this game, but the fact the switch version lets you use the IR sensor on the joy-con to control the game kind of like you’re playing a theremin amuses me way too much.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Why are they bringing Pauline into the game, now I have to decide between playing as her or Daisy. I’ve always used Daisy in Mario Spin of stuff since Mario Kart DS. When Mario Golf Super Rush came out i wasn’t sure which I would use, then the game ended up not being fun so it didn’t matter. But Mario Kart 8 is good, I still play it from time to time… well guess we’ll have to wait and see what her bike outfit looks like
Paper Mario: the Thousand-year door remake
This is cool. I mean i’m excited, but compared to so much of the internet going rabid over this announcement I feel like there is something I’m missing. The original Paper Mario is a game I really love, while the whole of Mario spin off RPGs could be described as lean well made JRPGS Paper Mario 64 also has a level and equipment system that is simplified from most RPGS but is also filled almost entirely with meaningful and interesting choices. tTYD is that but more which feels like a good thing but could also be counterproductive (‘we are expanding and adding to this game that was great in part for being so lean and tightly focused’). Maybe this is a ‘I don’t have nostalgia for it so I’m not as innately excited’ kind of thing
Alright so now on to the Playstation (or since I don’t have a PS5, PC… I hope…) stuff
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Gotta admit I’m pretty excited for this, the ~18 month for Remake to be on PC was well worth it, the combat system is great and the leveling system has some cool ideas (though UI design definitely needed some work). One of the highlights of the design was the mechanical character design so the fact we are getting Cait Sith (who looks to be some offense focused stance based character) and REDXIII (who from things said in interviews sounds like they might be more defense by way of DMC3/4/5’s royal guard with interviews post trailer mentioning a unique revenge gauge) joining the playable ranks (given the mentioned there will be some ‘accompanying’ characters like REDXIII was in Remake and we have seen nothing of Cid I suspect Vincent is not going to be playable) I suspect its going to be even better, especially with the hole double attacks thing they’ve been showing in each trailer. While the trailer has some intriguing story beats shown (seriously what is up with Zack?) but really I’m just here for the Gameplay and it looks I’ll be eating good, hopefully before 2026. Also they mentioned the Weapons, will we get to fight a/the weapons?
Star Ocean the Second Story R
So I’m a big star Ocean Fan, having beaten every game except 6 (which I’m playing through now) and Blue sphere (since as far as i’m aware there is no English translation of any type) and while I wouldn’t say SO2 is one of my favorites, a lot of that is likely due to barely remembering beyond liking it when I beat during middle/high school and people lauding it as the best and shitting on my favorite entry (The Last Hope) alongside some questionable game design (that the more I think of it is a mix of very of its time and genre design cliches mixed with Tri-Ace quirks I tend to like) that if stumbled across reading up on it. This has left me very interested in this remake, giving me an easy way to replay and evaluate the game, and its place in the series, with some updated game design so with the announcement of a demo (especially when I learned it wasn’t PS4/PS5 exclusive) I jumped to download and play it, and well… The combat mechanics have potential and since I opted to use Rena and set the Difficulty to universe (hard mode) the early sections with just Rena fighting alone had me planning on the fly getting spacing and timing down the exploit breaks and win fights, then Claude joined and I got into a boss fight that rather than trying to fight smart was won by stun locking them with normal attack spam which became the standard strategy for everything going forward. Item creation has received some great updates regarding UI and overall giving more info and making things easier to grok, but the demo was very limited on using IC so I’m holding my judgment. Also the Demo was a bit buggy: party AI would just stand there and do nothing or refuse to attack, when I first got to the overworld forest and mountains were floating above ground and any time I rotated the camera or enemy symbols spawned in the game would lock up (though steam still showed 144fps despite this) for a split second though this did stop happening after entering a town and going back to the world map.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong remake
I’m not sure how I feel about this. This was a fun game that I really enjoyed when it first came out on GBA while I was in high school, and with the series going to lemming like gameplay after this before going dormant for several years seeing this style of puzzle platforming come back is great to see. HOWEVER, this game is only the second-best Mario puzzle platformer in my opinion and the best, Donkey Kong on Gameboy (a.k.a Donkey Kong ’94), feels more deserving/in more need of a remake. Then again in practical terms since MvDK used images of 3D models for sprites the graphics might be much easier to update (use the original models) and thus the game easier to make…
Super Mario RPG remake
I spent a lot of time with the original when I was a kid and really loved it, so when the remake was originally announced I was excited, and curious for the new unexplained UI elements. Now that we’ve gotten more info on those have to say sounds interesting; perfect timed attacks now making normal attacks multi-target feels like a more fun and fulfilling way to address clearing though trash mobs as you did in JRPGs of that era without resorting to spamable AOE spells, the triple moves gives another more carrot like rather than stick like encouragement towards mastering timed attacks, and I am always down for good JRPG super bosses. Speaking of which I am really curious how Culex is going to end up looking.
SaGa Emerald Beyond
This came out of nowhere, but I am rather happy. Always had a soft spot for the SaGa games (perhaps the fact both The Final Fantasy Legend and SaGa Frontier begin some of the earliest JRPGs I ever put much time into a s kid might explain it) and this seems to take a lot of gameplay DNA from SaGa Scarlet Grace which, aside form an overly aggressive level scaling system, has a lot of great mechanics especially with regards to combat. Also getting looks to be going with the fantasy/modern-day/sci-fi/fuck-it style of world akin to the final fantasy legend games and SaGa Frontier so yeah for that as well.
Tomb Raider I-III remastered
Yeah this was interesting to see, and while I don’t know if i would say I’m hyped for this, given I like cinematic platformers and am fascinated by the idea of how they would work in 3D I am interested in these; it saves me from a lot of research into version differences and emulation or having to play Haydee (I do wonder if all the people lusting after her have ever played the game with its abundance of player unfriendly if not outright malicious design)
Trombone champ
I have no interest in this game, but the fact the switch version lets you use the IR sensor on the joy-con to control the game kind of like you’re playing a theremin amuses me way too much.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Why are they bringing Pauline into the game, now I have to decide between playing as her or Daisy. I’ve always used Daisy in Mario Spin of stuff since Mario Kart DS. When Mario Golf Super Rush came out i wasn’t sure which I would use, then the game ended up not being fun so it didn’t matter. But Mario Kart 8 is good, I still play it from time to time… well guess we’ll have to wait and see what her bike outfit looks like
Paper Mario: the Thousand-year door remake
This is cool. I mean i’m excited, but compared to so much of the internet going rabid over this announcement I feel like there is something I’m missing. The original Paper Mario is a game I really love, while the whole of Mario spin off RPGs could be described as lean well made JRPGS Paper Mario 64 also has a level and equipment system that is simplified from most RPGS but is also filled almost entirely with meaningful and interesting choices. tTYD is that but more which feels like a good thing but could also be counterproductive (‘we are expanding and adding to this game that was great in part for being so lean and tightly focused’). Maybe this is a ‘I don’t have nostalgia for it so I’m not as innately excited’ kind of thing
Alright so now on to the Playstation (or since I don’t have a PS5, PC… I hope…) stuff
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Gotta admit I’m pretty excited for this, the ~18 month for Remake to be on PC was well worth it, the combat system is great and the leveling system has some cool ideas (though UI design definitely needed some work). One of the highlights of the design was the mechanical character design so the fact we are getting Cait Sith (who looks to be some offense focused stance based character) and REDXIII (who from things said in interviews sounds like they might be more defense by way of DMC3/4/5’s royal guard with interviews post trailer mentioning a unique revenge gauge) joining the playable ranks (given the mentioned there will be some ‘accompanying’ characters like REDXIII was in Remake and we have seen nothing of Cid I suspect Vincent is not going to be playable) I suspect its going to be even better, especially with the hole double attacks thing they’ve been showing in each trailer. While the trailer has some intriguing story beats shown (seriously what is up with Zack?) but really I’m just here for the Gameplay and it looks I’ll be eating good, hopefully before 2026. Also they mentioned the Weapons, will we get to fight a/the weapons?
Star Ocean the Second Story R
So I’m a big star Ocean Fan, having beaten every game except 6 (which I’m playing through now) and Blue sphere (since as far as i’m aware there is no English translation of any type) and while I wouldn’t say SO2 is one of my favorites, a lot of that is likely due to barely remembering beyond liking it when I beat during middle/high school and people lauding it as the best and shitting on my favorite entry (The Last Hope) alongside some questionable game design (that the more I think of it is a mix of very of its time and genre design cliches mixed with Tri-Ace quirks I tend to like) that if stumbled across reading up on it. This has left me very interested in this remake, giving me an easy way to replay and evaluate the game, and its place in the series, with some updated game design so with the announcement of a demo (especially when I learned it wasn’t PS4/PS5 exclusive) I jumped to download and play it, and well… The combat mechanics have potential and since I opted to use Rena and set the Difficulty to universe (hard mode) the early sections with just Rena fighting alone had me planning on the fly getting spacing and timing down the exploit breaks and win fights, then Claude joined and I got into a boss fight that rather than trying to fight smart was won by stun locking them with normal attack spam which became the standard strategy for everything going forward. Item creation has received some great updates regarding UI and overall giving more info and making things easier to grok, but the demo was very limited on using IC so I’m holding my judgment. Also the Demo was a bit buggy: party AI would just stand there and do nothing or refuse to attack, when I first got to the overworld forest and mountains were floating above ground and any time I rotated the camera or enemy symbols spawned in the game would lock up (though steam still showed 144fps despite this) for a split second though this did stop happening after entering a town and going back to the world map.
Faceless online art monkey grows a personality pt1
General | Posted 2 years agoi can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
So been a bit out of sorts the last few months (very busy at day job and summer heat that puts the already stupidly hot summer heat where I live to shame likely contributing). hopefully that’s over with but during that time a few thoughts and outlooks that I ultimately opted not to share (a fairly common occurrence), but I also started pondering whether that was a good idea. I actually spent a bit of time pondering that and figured maybe it wasn’t a good idea; however given the subjects of those thoughts and my penchant for pithy ye catching titles lacking in nuance figured it might be worth starting in the kiddie pool than diving into the deep end so why not talk about games that I’ve beaten recently and see how that goes? So yeah going to do a few journals here talking about games that I’ve beaten recently (read last month or two) and depending on if I enjoy this/whether how people react to it might keep that up or just keep it a short prelude and dive into the aforementioned thoughts at some point. So with that preamble out of the way…
PIKMIN 4
So I was first introduced to the Pikmin series with Pikmin 3 on WiiU and honestly it might be my favorite game for the WiiU (which might sound like damning praise but legit I do love the game) and after beating it went back and played Pikmin (liked even if it was simpler and jankier than 3) and Pikmin 2 (couldn’t stand it and never got past the second overworld area) and even picked up Pikmin 3 Deluxe on Switch. So you can imagine I was int6erewsted when Pikmin 4 was announced; only to become wary as more prerelease material came out and I looked more and more like a sequel to Pikmin 2 then 1 or 3. I ultimately opted to pick it up day 1 and after ~100% it (just missing platinum ranks on some Dandori challenges and all battles, also haven’t done the fit for a feast missions) I can comfortably say: I was right but that’s not as bad as I feared
So what I loved about Pikmin 3 ( and to a lesser extent 1) was the whole planning and optimizing things to get as much done in a limited time (both within a day and within the overall meta timer of the game), or as the cool kids seem to be calling it now Dandori, and the lack of any outward systems like that in Pikmin 2 (caves the main mechanic and mode of play pause the day timer, there is almost nothing meaningful to do above ground where the day timer is a factor, and there is no meta timer in any capacity) is really what put me off the game. But while Pikmin 4 has some of the same things (caves feature prominently, no meta time limit to push you towards optimizing things) it gives meaty above ground sections that feel like optional playgrounds for that Dandori playstyle (even if it’s not overtly enforced/encouraged), the aptly named Dandori challenges (basically 3/Deluxe’s collect treasure missions which is where I’ve likely spent 80%-90% of my playtime in 3/Deluxe), and in post game Olimar’s shipwreck tale give and outlet for that playstyle that I just never found/felt in Pikmin 2.
Beyond that the night expeditions are fun game mode (Pikmin but it’s a tower defense), Dandori battles are… fine (though a lot of that might just be my deep dislike of the split screen UI it uses), and Oatchi is simultaneously overpowered while not giving you the enjoyment of a proper second captain.
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
So been a bit out of sorts the last few months (very busy at day job and summer heat that puts the already stupidly hot summer heat where I live to shame likely contributing). hopefully that’s over with but during that time a few thoughts and outlooks that I ultimately opted not to share (a fairly common occurrence), but I also started pondering whether that was a good idea. I actually spent a bit of time pondering that and figured maybe it wasn’t a good idea; however given the subjects of those thoughts and my penchant for pithy ye catching titles lacking in nuance figured it might be worth starting in the kiddie pool than diving into the deep end so why not talk about games that I’ve beaten recently and see how that goes? So yeah going to do a few journals here talking about games that I’ve beaten recently (read last month or two) and depending on if I enjoy this/whether how people react to it might keep that up or just keep it a short prelude and dive into the aforementioned thoughts at some point. So with that preamble out of the way…
PIKMIN 4
So I was first introduced to the Pikmin series with Pikmin 3 on WiiU and honestly it might be my favorite game for the WiiU (which might sound like damning praise but legit I do love the game) and after beating it went back and played Pikmin (liked even if it was simpler and jankier than 3) and Pikmin 2 (couldn’t stand it and never got past the second overworld area) and even picked up Pikmin 3 Deluxe on Switch. So you can imagine I was int6erewsted when Pikmin 4 was announced; only to become wary as more prerelease material came out and I looked more and more like a sequel to Pikmin 2 then 1 or 3. I ultimately opted to pick it up day 1 and after ~100% it (just missing platinum ranks on some Dandori challenges and all battles, also haven’t done the fit for a feast missions) I can comfortably say: I was right but that’s not as bad as I feared
So what I loved about Pikmin 3 ( and to a lesser extent 1) was the whole planning and optimizing things to get as much done in a limited time (both within a day and within the overall meta timer of the game), or as the cool kids seem to be calling it now Dandori, and the lack of any outward systems like that in Pikmin 2 (caves the main mechanic and mode of play pause the day timer, there is almost nothing meaningful to do above ground where the day timer is a factor, and there is no meta timer in any capacity) is really what put me off the game. But while Pikmin 4 has some of the same things (caves feature prominently, no meta time limit to push you towards optimizing things) it gives meaty above ground sections that feel like optional playgrounds for that Dandori playstyle (even if it’s not overtly enforced/encouraged), the aptly named Dandori challenges (basically 3/Deluxe’s collect treasure missions which is where I’ve likely spent 80%-90% of my playtime in 3/Deluxe), and in post game Olimar’s shipwreck tale give and outlet for that playstyle that I just never found/felt in Pikmin 2.
Beyond that the night expeditions are fun game mode (Pikmin but it’s a tower defense), Dandori battles are… fine (though a lot of that might just be my deep dislike of the split screen UI it uses), and Oatchi is simultaneously overpowered while not giving you the enjoyment of a proper second captain.
Looking for some basic suggestions
General | Posted 2 years agoSo following up on the prior Journal i decided bite the bullet and buy Sketchbook Pro, so far seems like the right choice, though i'm still setting things up and want to do a basic drawing or two to test things out and make sure everything is good. Sadly my brain seems to be in 'large project or nothing mode' so i'm having trouble coming up with basic drawing ideas. so why not source ideas from my Watchers; so here is what i'm, looking for
1) single character (OC preferred but not required), some form of visual reference needs to be provided
2) a pose or simple scene
if you have something that fits please comment below.
as a heads up this is all going to be very off the cuff and played by ear; i'll do at least 1 or 2 drawings and its mostly a what inspires or sounds interesting to me situation.
1) single character (OC preferred but not required), some form of visual reference needs to be provided
2) a pose or simple scene
if you have something that fits please comment below.
as a heads up this is all going to be very off the cuff and played by ear; i'll do at least 1 or 2 drawings and its mostly a what inspires or sounds interesting to me situation.
Anybody have any experience with Sketchbook Pro
General | Posted 2 years agoParticularly the Desktop version?
So for a bit of background: i use Autodesk SketchBook to draw, and have been for a number of years. However recently its been having issues and generally not being the most stable software (for example the 6th part of the Dazzling's Growth drive almost didn't get made due to a glitch when it was almost done causing difficult to resolve issues nearly making me rage quit the project), and since the software became free to download in 2018 and there have been no updates since 2019 i figured it was time to start looking into a new drawing program. However i just learned that it in fact it is still being supported it's just no longer under Autodesk and seen a slight rebrand (from SketchBook to Sketchbook Pro).
This seems like the obvious solution to my issue however given i would have to by the software again (though $20USD isn't exactly breaking the bank) through the Windows store (for which i have a wholly unsubstantiated distrust of), and there isn't any kind of demo to make sure the things i loved about SketchBook (most prominently the Canvas navigation controls, some of the default brushes, and the minimalist but functional UI) are still in Sketchbook Pro so i was curious if anyone out there had any experience with Sketckbook Pro, especially if you also had experience with Autodesk SetchBook
So for a bit of background: i use Autodesk SketchBook to draw, and have been for a number of years. However recently its been having issues and generally not being the most stable software (for example the 6th part of the Dazzling's Growth drive almost didn't get made due to a glitch when it was almost done causing difficult to resolve issues nearly making me rage quit the project), and since the software became free to download in 2018 and there have been no updates since 2019 i figured it was time to start looking into a new drawing program. However i just learned that it in fact it is still being supported it's just no longer under Autodesk and seen a slight rebrand (from SketchBook to Sketchbook Pro).
This seems like the obvious solution to my issue however given i would have to by the software again (though $20USD isn't exactly breaking the bank) through the Windows store (for which i have a wholly unsubstantiated distrust of), and there isn't any kind of demo to make sure the things i loved about SketchBook (most prominently the Canvas navigation controls, some of the default brushes, and the minimalist but functional UI) are still in Sketchbook Pro so i was curious if anyone out there had any experience with Sketckbook Pro, especially if you also had experience with Autodesk SetchBook
No Subject
General | Posted 3 years agoi can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
So You might have noticed a theme with the last two things I posted: Macro and Growth based subject matter, and being part 1 in a series. So yes it’s Macro March, and I have too much ambition and no chill. So here’s what is planned/in the works for the Month
So A few days ago I posted the first part of a growth Drive featuring The Dazzlings (Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk), from Equestria Girls, being gifted a bottle of Jumbo Gro. This will of course lead to height growth (quite a bit if the response to part 1 is anything to go by) but as with other stuff I’ve drawn involving ladies growing from Jumbo Gro there will be some expanding curves; and if you paid attention to the figures I’ve interpreted them as having you can probably tell in what ways specifically.
The general rules of the growth drive
1) The Dazzlings will have a height multiplier that increases based on Faves and Votes made via Comment
2) Votes/Comments will increase the stated Dazzling’s height multiplier by a set value, while Faves will increase all three’s height multiplier by 1/10th of that value (i.e 10 Faves equals 1 comment)
3) Since Jumbo Gro is shown to become more effective the more someone partakes of it, later rounds will see the effectiveness of Votes/Comments and Faves increase quite a bit
4) Only one vote will be counted per user/account
5) There will be a total of 6 parts posted once a week
6) New parts will go up Mondays@13:30 MST(20:30UTC) and Voting will close for said part the following Friday@18:00MST(SAT@01:00UTC)
So back near the start of February I did a poll regarding which of My Characters (Amanda, Nyuujou Megami, Amber, Fang, and Jamie) would look best as a giantess. Using the results of I am going to do a series of pinups starring them as increasingly larger giantesses with the placing on the poll being the main determiner of their size. Look forward to the poll winners being exceptionally large
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
So You might have noticed a theme with the last two things I posted: Macro and Growth based subject matter, and being part 1 in a series. So yes it’s Macro March, and I have too much ambition and no chill. So here’s what is planned/in the works for the Month
Dazzlings Growth (contest) Drive
So A few days ago I posted the first part of a growth Drive featuring The Dazzlings (Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk), from Equestria Girls, being gifted a bottle of Jumbo Gro. This will of course lead to height growth (quite a bit if the response to part 1 is anything to go by) but as with other stuff I’ve drawn involving ladies growing from Jumbo Gro there will be some expanding curves; and if you paid attention to the figures I’ve interpreted them as having you can probably tell in what ways specifically.
The general rules of the growth drive
1) The Dazzlings will have a height multiplier that increases based on Faves and Votes made via Comment
2) Votes/Comments will increase the stated Dazzling’s height multiplier by a set value, while Faves will increase all three’s height multiplier by 1/10th of that value (i.e 10 Faves equals 1 comment)
3) Since Jumbo Gro is shown to become more effective the more someone partakes of it, later rounds will see the effectiveness of Votes/Comments and Faves increase quite a bit
4) Only one vote will be counted per user/account
5) There will be a total of 6 parts posted once a week
6) New parts will go up Mondays@13:30 MST(20:30UTC) and Voting will close for said part the following Friday@18:00MST(SAT@01:00UTC)
PART 1 (CLOSED)PART 2 (CLOSED)PART 3 (CLOSED)Macro Pinup series of My Characters
So back near the start of February I did a poll regarding which of My Characters (Amanda, Nyuujou Megami, Amber, Fang, and Jamie) would look best as a giantess. Using the results of I am going to do a series of pinups starring them as increasingly larger giantesses with the placing on the poll being the main determiner of their size. Look forward to the poll winners being exceptionally large
GIANTESS FANGMEGA GIANTESS AMANDAMEGA GIANTESS AMBERAnyone know good options for Creating PDFs
General | Posted 3 years agoSo i've been thinking on doing Comics, mostly a few short (~5 pages) ones for the moment, but hopefully tackling much larger ones in the future. However i was also thinking about the logistics of posting comics: specifically while posting individual pages would be fine (probably as a page a day once i've finished the full thing) once everything is posted i would want to do/post a collected single version and pdfs seem like the best way to do that.
However doing a bit of research into making PDFs has left me a bit dry on results. While i have found some freely available options (since while i'm sure Adobe has the best tool for making PDFs given their subscription model for stuff something i'll probably only use 2-3 times a year is going to be cost prohibitive) they all seem to be for copying text documents into a pre and maybe adding a pretty background. they do allow for adding and positioning images but not custom page sizes (the format/workflow i use doesn't use standard a4 or 8.5x11 page proportions) and double page spreads don't seem very viable (sure i can slice the image in half but then the first problem i mentioned comes back with a vengeance).
So rather than spend even more time digging through websites that make me wonder if i should run a virus scan afterwards even without downloading anything figured might be smart to ask if anyone has any insight or ideas
However doing a bit of research into making PDFs has left me a bit dry on results. While i have found some freely available options (since while i'm sure Adobe has the best tool for making PDFs given their subscription model for stuff something i'll probably only use 2-3 times a year is going to be cost prohibitive) they all seem to be for copying text documents into a pre and maybe adding a pretty background. they do allow for adding and positioning images but not custom page sizes (the format/workflow i use doesn't use standard a4 or 8.5x11 page proportions) and double page spreads don't seem very viable (sure i can slice the image in half but then the first problem i mentioned comes back with a vengeance).
So rather than spend even more time digging through websites that make me wonder if i should run a virus scan afterwards even without downloading anything figured might be smart to ask if anyone has any insight or ideas
Which of My Characters would look best as a Giantess
General | Posted 3 years agoSo i have an idea for a project in mind, however i want to get opinions to help plan and organize the idea.
So click the link below to vote for which of my characters (up to three) would look best as a giantess
https://strawpoll.com/polls/Q0ZpRJ076nM
So click the link below to vote for which of my characters (up to three) would look best as a giantess
https://strawpoll.com/polls/Q0ZpRJ076nM
Ask My Characters
General | Posted 3 years agoSo as you may have noticed I recently put up an intro sheet going over details of my characters personalities and such, and in the description I mentioned the idea of taking another stab at doing an ‘ask my characters kind of thing’. So Lets do that, ask my characters stuff in the comments, I’ll try draw answers to the stuff that I find fun or interesting but will still try to give some kind of response ‘from them’ to any questions
In case you missed it here is the intro to my characters:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/50646936/
Visual References for my characters are below
Amanda: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36241966/
Nyuujou Megami: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36803621/
The Cow: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/41453375/
Amber: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46181944/
Fang: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46300305/
Jamie: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46418156/
In case you missed it here is the intro to my characters:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/50646936/
Visual References for my characters are below
Amanda: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36241966/
Nyuujou Megami: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36803621/
The Cow: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/41453375/
Amber: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46181944/
Fang: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46300305/
Jamie: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46418156/
Going into 2023
General | Posted 3 years agoi can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
So a new year is beginning, so what kind of things did I have in mind going into this new year?
So given a journal I made back in October I suppose this comes as no surprise that this is something I was thinking of doing, but yes I do plan to start doing commissions this year. This does mean that requests will not be a thing going forward outside of special occasions. That said it might be a few weeks before I actually start taking commissions as there are a few things I still need to figure out (how I’m going to process payments, determining how many I take at a time, etc). I’ll probably post a separate journal to get some info to help with that sometime soon.
Also planning to open one of these, not planning to do anything specific with it, but being that I as someone who like to support artists but isn’t big on commissioning them for various reasons; having Patreon or something like it is worth having as an option for people like me.
So if you missed it, last year I did some 3D modeling stuff, while one 3D model thing but whatever. Given I learned such stuff back in college many years ago, and have owned a 3D printer since early 2020 ( actually 2 now but one needs some repair work) this is something that I’ve been wanting to get back into for a bit and i plan to do so. That said don’t expect it to be become a core thing I post it tends to take me much longer than normal drawings if the one I did last year is anything to go by
So given that I probably to some degree fall into the “Macro Artist” camp and I actually had an idea or two that I was thinking about doing as Macro March projects, but the more I think over them; while they feel appropriate, I’m not sure they feel right. Maybe its just one of those things never having done a themed month art thing before so there is some aspect I’m overthinking, but I suppose if anyone has any insight or ideas feel free to share them.
If your curious about the ideas I originally had; one was an image set using my various characters and playing with the joke that giantess pose for landscapes not portraits and various types of photography, while the other was an image series/short comic staring NM and Jamie playing with/explaining some math concepts by way of giantesses. The issue was the first idea feels a little flat and lacking in… something, though not sure what exactly. As for the second, well the idea is sound and I rather like it, there are a few issues that bother me a bit (the math concepts in question result in a size leap from country/continent sized to universe sized, also it feels more ‘Math Geek’ than ‘Macro’ in a few ways) and is kind of ballooning in scope the more I think about it.
So i tried this a bit last year and i kind of liked it but with the response it occured to me i didn't really have any info on my characters personalities overall (much loose the sort of Cannon/setting they are in) so i'm planning to do a sort of intro sheet to them and after that i'll give the concept another shot
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
So a new year is beginning, so what kind of things did I have in mind going into this new year?
Commissions
So given a journal I made back in October I suppose this comes as no surprise that this is something I was thinking of doing, but yes I do plan to start doing commissions this year. This does mean that requests will not be a thing going forward outside of special occasions. That said it might be a few weeks before I actually start taking commissions as there are a few things I still need to figure out (how I’m going to process payments, determining how many I take at a time, etc). I’ll probably post a separate journal to get some info to help with that sometime soon.
Patreon
Also planning to open one of these, not planning to do anything specific with it, but being that I as someone who like to support artists but isn’t big on commissioning them for various reasons; having Patreon or something like it is worth having as an option for people like me.
3D stuff
So if you missed it, last year I did some 3D modeling stuff, while one 3D model thing but whatever. Given I learned such stuff back in college many years ago, and have owned a 3D printer since early 2020 ( actually 2 now but one needs some repair work) this is something that I’ve been wanting to get back into for a bit and i plan to do so. That said don’t expect it to be become a core thing I post it tends to take me much longer than normal drawings if the one I did last year is anything to go by
Macro March
So given that I probably to some degree fall into the “Macro Artist” camp and I actually had an idea or two that I was thinking about doing as Macro March projects, but the more I think over them; while they feel appropriate, I’m not sure they feel right. Maybe its just one of those things never having done a themed month art thing before so there is some aspect I’m overthinking, but I suppose if anyone has any insight or ideas feel free to share them.
If your curious about the ideas I originally had; one was an image set using my various characters and playing with the joke that giantess pose for landscapes not portraits and various types of photography, while the other was an image series/short comic staring NM and Jamie playing with/explaining some math concepts by way of giantesses. The issue was the first idea feels a little flat and lacking in… something, though not sure what exactly. As for the second, well the idea is sound and I rather like it, there are a few issues that bother me a bit (the math concepts in question result in a size leap from country/continent sized to universe sized, also it feels more ‘Math Geek’ than ‘Macro’ in a few ways) and is kind of ballooning in scope the more I think about it.
Ask My Characters
So i tried this a bit last year and i kind of liked it but with the response it occured to me i didn't really have any info on my characters personalities overall (much loose the sort of Cannon/setting they are in) so i'm planning to do a sort of intro sheet to them and after that i'll give the concept another shot
What did you like from me in 2022
General | Posted 3 years agoSo as i was looking through stuff form people i follow i saw a handful posting something along these lines and figured it might be fun/insightful/interesting so why not. so yeah what the title says...
looking for Thoughts on Doing Commissions vs Patreon
General | Posted 3 years agoSo I won’t lie, monetization of my drawings is something that’s been floating in the back of my head since early mid 2020, not in a sense that I’ve been looking to make money at this; but more that in late 2019-early 2020 I had one or two people ask if I took commission that made me realize I might be able to make some money from drawing, and if that was true it would arguably be stupid not to. Of course we are 2-3 years out from that and I haven’t really done that, this is due to a number of things (researching the commission process, trying and failing to cut back on doing requests, trying to figure out how to determine and set prices) but part of it also the fact that I have some reservations about the whole doing commissions thing. I had recently thought of Patreon as an alternative but the way I would probably end up running it might be counter productive ton making money, which raises the question of ‘why bother then’.
I had been thinking about putting something into effect on this front stating next year, but the more I think about it the less certain I am of how to proceed. So I figure since the general lot of you (that being my Watchers/Followers) all will probably be the ones who will end up being customers if anyone does, I figure why not see what get your opinions these options. So basically what I’m going to do is lay out my thoughts on each option (and how the Pateron option would work as well) and I want you lot to sound off with any thoughts, questions, or opinions you have in the comments.
So I despite thinking it over and researching for the last 2-3 years I don’t really have a solid Idea on price but rough ball park would probably be something along the lines of $35-$60 (USD) for a single character and basic/no background (e.g: Electra, Erika Yoo-jeong Park, DragOOn Cheerleader Mink, [https://www.furaffinity.net/view/38127781//]Moxie Malons[/url]) with proper backgrounds probably being an extra $8-$15 and extra characters being an extra $15-$30 each
1. My tendency towards doing request might give it away, but I like drawing other peoples ideas and doing stuff for people so Commissions feel like a logical option
2. This is pretty much the monetization option for artists online
1. So my enjoyment of drawing stuff for people is probably the best example of doing good things nice things for selfish reasons; I like drawing things that I wouldn’t think of and there are even some subjects (particularly macro and hyper) that despite liking them I don’t think of. Just by proxy of going from free requests to paid commissions I’m probably going to price out some people (and thus lose access their potentially interesting ideas)
2. The way that I like to handle requests is a bit different from how most artist handle commissions and probably is less professional in a way that is maybe not great when money is on the line; that said I like that way of doing things for a reason and changing from it while not undoable is not something I’m looking forward too.
3. Kind of a subset of two, but I have a tendency to take, my time with requests for various reasons and that time might be a problem when people are paying money.
So going this route would leave things basically the same and would keep/go back to doing request (doing the randomly chosen/wheel spin thing like I did for the DeviantArt 500 Watcher and Furaffinty 100 Watcher request raffles) with Patron’s having twice as much of a chance; essentially each patron’s request would take two slots on the wheel, so if there are 15 requests with 5 coming from patron’s each patron would have a 10% (2/20) chance while non patron’s would have a 5% (1/20) chance. Beyond this if I ever do any polls Patrons will end up similarly higher weighted, I might also add the option to make requests outside the normal raffles (acceptance of request not guaranteed and dependent on my interest in the request and my personal circumstances at the time).
1. The main pro here is that this pretty much directly address CON #1 about commissions (arguably my main concern about that) which is a big advantage
2. Things largely stay the same with no major changes or upheavals of things.
3. Could be beneficial long term to have a Patreon set up already for other not drawing related projects I would like to get to at some point
1. I’m not sure this approach will see any kind of success at actually making money, and while in either case the money is more a ‘cool thing I could that has benefits to it’ rather than a ‘I really need/want money’ but why go through the extra work of setting up a Patreon if it’s not going to make any money
2. Since requests would be a common occurrence, what would I do in special occasions like watcher milestones.
Ok this more a cop-out than actual choice, but it is an option and after writing all this; I’d be lying if I said it didn’t have some appeal to it. Also having to deal with self-employment taxes that would likely come form either situation has its own concerns.
Anyways pleas comment any thoughts, questions, and especially opinions.
I had been thinking about putting something into effect on this front stating next year, but the more I think about it the less certain I am of how to proceed. So I figure since the general lot of you (that being my Watchers/Followers) all will probably be the ones who will end up being customers if anyone does, I figure why not see what get your opinions these options. So basically what I’m going to do is lay out my thoughts on each option (and how the Pateron option would work as well) and I want you lot to sound off with any thoughts, questions, or opinions you have in the comments.
COMMISSIONS
POTENTIAL PRICES:
So I despite thinking it over and researching for the last 2-3 years I don’t really have a solid Idea on price but rough ball park would probably be something along the lines of $35-$60 (USD) for a single character and basic/no background (e.g: Electra, Erika Yoo-jeong Park, DragOOn Cheerleader Mink, [https://www.furaffinity.net/view/38127781//]Moxie Malons[/url]) with proper backgrounds probably being an extra $8-$15 and extra characters being an extra $15-$30 each
PROS:
1. My tendency towards doing request might give it away, but I like drawing other peoples ideas and doing stuff for people so Commissions feel like a logical option
2. This is pretty much the monetization option for artists online
CONS:
1. So my enjoyment of drawing stuff for people is probably the best example of doing good things nice things for selfish reasons; I like drawing things that I wouldn’t think of and there are even some subjects (particularly macro and hyper) that despite liking them I don’t think of. Just by proxy of going from free requests to paid commissions I’m probably going to price out some people (and thus lose access their potentially interesting ideas)
2. The way that I like to handle requests is a bit different from how most artist handle commissions and probably is less professional in a way that is maybe not great when money is on the line; that said I like that way of doing things for a reason and changing from it while not undoable is not something I’m looking forward too.
3. Kind of a subset of two, but I have a tendency to take, my time with requests for various reasons and that time might be a problem when people are paying money.
PATREON
HOW IT WOULD WORK:
So going this route would leave things basically the same and would keep/go back to doing request (doing the randomly chosen/wheel spin thing like I did for the DeviantArt 500 Watcher and Furaffinty 100 Watcher request raffles) with Patron’s having twice as much of a chance; essentially each patron’s request would take two slots on the wheel, so if there are 15 requests with 5 coming from patron’s each patron would have a 10% (2/20) chance while non patron’s would have a 5% (1/20) chance. Beyond this if I ever do any polls Patrons will end up similarly higher weighted, I might also add the option to make requests outside the normal raffles (acceptance of request not guaranteed and dependent on my interest in the request and my personal circumstances at the time).
PROS:
1. The main pro here is that this pretty much directly address CON #1 about commissions (arguably my main concern about that) which is a big advantage
2. Things largely stay the same with no major changes or upheavals of things.
3. Could be beneficial long term to have a Patreon set up already for other not drawing related projects I would like to get to at some point
CONS:
1. I’m not sure this approach will see any kind of success at actually making money, and while in either case the money is more a ‘cool thing I could that has benefits to it’ rather than a ‘I really need/want money’ but why go through the extra work of setting up a Patreon if it’s not going to make any money
2. Since requests would be a common occurrence, what would I do in special occasions like watcher milestones.
LEAVE THINGS AS THEY ARE
Ok this more a cop-out than actual choice, but it is an option and after writing all this; I’d be lying if I said it didn’t have some appeal to it. Also having to deal with self-employment taxes that would likely come form either situation has its own concerns.
Anyways pleas comment any thoughts, questions, and especially opinions.
Just some things i felt might be worth saying
General | Posted 3 years agoRequest status: Closed
I can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
Feels weird that its taken me 35 years (well won’t be 35 years until the 12th but since I plan to spend that day lying in bed swapping between playing on My Switch and my newly purchased Steam Deck as battery and USB-C charger on my nightstand require/allow I’m, posting this now) to realize the extent to which my brain works different from other people’s (or at least the vaguely defined common consensus/outlook on things), but some recent interactions relating to art stuff have made me more aware of this. As such there are some things that; while I figured not saying the opposite implied my outlook, maybe that’s not the case so I might as well say them out loud at least once.
I AM OK WITH MY WORK BEING REPOSTED
Given I have both knowingly seen and unknowingly stumbled across reposts of my drawings this is probably not super important to say but since we’re here and its relevant I will say it. I am perfectly ok with my drawings being reposted, linking back to me in some way shape or form is appreciated if you do of course.
I HAVE NO QUALMS WITH OTHER PEOPLE DRAWING OR USING MY CHARACTERS
(https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/bardicdragoon/folder/704011/Original)
I’m not sure how much people not being ok with this is a thing, but I have seen people who are not ok with such things so I figure it’s worth saying (in part since the number of followers I have seems to be in a range where the chances of people thinking off doing fanart might be getting larger than ‘technically non zero’, at least if I drew my own characters more often). So Feel free to draw or otherwise use My characters as you feel fit, just at least try and keep them in character.
ONE MORE THING
I feel this should not need to be said, but if only to CMOA her anything I have said here applies to me and my work/characters, always respect any given creators preferences and outlooks and don’t use my or anybody else’s outlook as a blanket way to approach every persons work.
I can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
Feels weird that its taken me 35 years (well won’t be 35 years until the 12th but since I plan to spend that day lying in bed swapping between playing on My Switch and my newly purchased Steam Deck as battery and USB-C charger on my nightstand require/allow I’m, posting this now) to realize the extent to which my brain works different from other people’s (or at least the vaguely defined common consensus/outlook on things), but some recent interactions relating to art stuff have made me more aware of this. As such there are some things that; while I figured not saying the opposite implied my outlook, maybe that’s not the case so I might as well say them out loud at least once.
I AM OK WITH MY WORK BEING REPOSTED
Given I have both knowingly seen and unknowingly stumbled across reposts of my drawings this is probably not super important to say but since we’re here and its relevant I will say it. I am perfectly ok with my drawings being reposted, linking back to me in some way shape or form is appreciated if you do of course.
I HAVE NO QUALMS WITH OTHER PEOPLE DRAWING OR USING MY CHARACTERS
(https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/bardicdragoon/folder/704011/Original)
I’m not sure how much people not being ok with this is a thing, but I have seen people who are not ok with such things so I figure it’s worth saying (in part since the number of followers I have seems to be in a range where the chances of people thinking off doing fanart might be getting larger than ‘technically non zero’, at least if I drew my own characters more often). So Feel free to draw or otherwise use My characters as you feel fit, just at least try and keep them in character.
ONE MORE THING
I feel this should not need to be said, but if only to CMOA her anything I have said here applies to me and my work/characters, always respect any given creators preferences and outlooks and don’t use my or anybody else’s outlook as a blanket way to approach every persons work.
2022 Mid-year checkpoint
General | Posted 3 years agoRequest status: Closed
I can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
Right i guess since i did something like this at the start of the year, doing one (a bit late) for the mid-point of the year seems like a decent idea.
King Size Caren
This comic is currently the only big (pun not intended) project I want to get done at the moment. That said I am going to put starting it again off until at least next year. In particular I want to try and sort out a better pipeline for working on drawing as my current method/speed feels very poorly optimized for working on comics; however I also want to try and actually get 52 drawings done in the span of a year and a comic is going to put a hamper on that. That said I do have at least 1 (technically 2 but I need to figure out how to get into the Giantess city forums to confirm a few details for the second one) standalone drawings based on the story so look forward to that.
My Characters
So the ask my chrac5ters thing was fun to do, but not sure I would say it was successful. I might take a second stab at it after putting together something with an overview of their personalities and the loose story/cannon I’ve come up with around them to better explain who they are and maybe make questions for them more viable. That said I am still the situation of wanting to do more with my characters but having trouble coming up with ideas on what to do with them, so if anyone has any suggestions.
Journals
So recently I’ve been thinking over various subjects and looking to engage in discussion or get other outlooks on them. the thought occurred to me that using journals could potentially give an outlet for that. But since a decent part of wanting to do this is to start/engage in discussion wanted check if there was any interest in something like that
OBSCURE FANART POLL
So, the recent poll I did ended with a tie between Star Ocean 3 and Azure dreams so I’ll do something with both the ideas I have. Though I’m a bit curious how what I have in mind compares to what people were thinking o would draw, particularly given the very waifu centric options tied for the win.
VIDEO GAME STREAMS
So going to take a stab at doing this (technically again since I did for a few months a year or two ago) The plan is to stream for a few hours Sundays starting at 1pm PST. Going to start this week playing the LiveALive Remake and just going through games at a chill pace, probably overanalyzing game mechanics. Streams will be at https://www.twitch.tv/bardicdragoon, VODS (as well as old Lets plays) have and will be posted at https://www.youtube.com/user/BardicDragoon if you want an idea what to expect
I can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
Right i guess since i did something like this at the start of the year, doing one (a bit late) for the mid-point of the year seems like a decent idea.
King Size Caren
This comic is currently the only big (pun not intended) project I want to get done at the moment. That said I am going to put starting it again off until at least next year. In particular I want to try and sort out a better pipeline for working on drawing as my current method/speed feels very poorly optimized for working on comics; however I also want to try and actually get 52 drawings done in the span of a year and a comic is going to put a hamper on that. That said I do have at least 1 (technically 2 but I need to figure out how to get into the Giantess city forums to confirm a few details for the second one) standalone drawings based on the story so look forward to that.
My Characters
So the ask my chrac5ters thing was fun to do, but not sure I would say it was successful. I might take a second stab at it after putting together something with an overview of their personalities and the loose story/cannon I’ve come up with around them to better explain who they are and maybe make questions for them more viable. That said I am still the situation of wanting to do more with my characters but having trouble coming up with ideas on what to do with them, so if anyone has any suggestions.
Journals
So recently I’ve been thinking over various subjects and looking to engage in discussion or get other outlooks on them. the thought occurred to me that using journals could potentially give an outlet for that. But since a decent part of wanting to do this is to start/engage in discussion wanted check if there was any interest in something like that
OBSCURE FANART POLL
So, the recent poll I did ended with a tie between Star Ocean 3 and Azure dreams so I’ll do something with both the ideas I have. Though I’m a bit curious how what I have in mind compares to what people were thinking o would draw, particularly given the very waifu centric options tied for the win.
VIDEO GAME STREAMS
So going to take a stab at doing this (technically again since I did for a few months a year or two ago) The plan is to stream for a few hours Sundays starting at 1pm PST. Going to start this week playing the LiveALive Remake and just going through games at a chill pace, probably overanalyzing game mechanics. Streams will be at https://www.twitch.tv/bardicdragoon, VODS (as well as old Lets plays) have and will be posted at https://www.youtube.com/user/BardicDragoon if you want an idea what to expect
Obscure fanart Poll
General | Posted 3 years agoSo I've been feeling a bit blah and uninspired lately, and its hitting a sort of viscous cycle point where not working on something is stressing me out. So i've had a few ideas for fanart bouncing around my head but none of them are absolute must draw ideas, so i figure i'll see what interests you lot the most and go from there. link to the poill is below.
https://strawpoll.com/polls/6QnM740OoZe
https://strawpoll.com/polls/6QnM740OoZe
100 Watchers Raffle results
General | Posted 3 years agohttps://youtu.be/dvn60f7lxVA
Did i put too much effort into that? i feel like i might have put too much effort into that...
anyways congrats to
checkerboardcn, 
CharliesKorner, and 
Syris22
Did i put too much effort into that? i feel like i might have put too much effort into that...
anyways congrats to
checkerboardcn, 
CharliesKorner, and 
Syris22Mastasia
General | Posted 3 years agoI can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
With yesterday’s Drawing of Racheal Roundrack, I have officially drawn all of the models from Mastasia. Fells a bit interesting to say that given I didn’t really start intending to do the whole lot of them. Initially I just did a one off drawing of Rina due to inadvertently being reminded of the Site with a vague idea of drawing one or two more of the models later maybe. However given that those drawings turned out to be pretty popular and I was having fun; so I decided to roll with it and draw all 12 of them. Took just over 2 and a half years (well counting form when I did the Rina Drawing) to do but it was a good experience overall.
That all said is that it for the Mastasia Drawings? No. Well I’ll probably take a break from it for a bit but I did have a few ideas for more Mastasia Drawings. To start with I want to take another shot at drawing Rina as it’s my least favorite of the drawings I did despite being possibly my favorite model from the site. Also there are a few specific videos/image sets that might be worth a drawing of their own.
Beyond that I have always been planning to do something related to the various pairings of models that popped up. However what that would entail as a grander plan I’m not sure as I don’t really feel like doing every pairing that was done on the site, but if I don’t do all of them how do I decide which ones make the cut?
Also an interesting idea I had while talking with someone was some kind of crossover of Mastasia and its Sister Site Futanaria; Specifically the four models who appeared on both sites (Bianca, Stefani, Nikki, Janeen, ad Racheal) in a sort of selfcest pinup/scene (e.g Nikki Nipplicious X Nikki Noblong).
Speaking of Futanaria I have also considered doing some fanart of the models from that site as well. Not all of them (it took 2.5 years to draw 12 Mastasia models I don’t even want to think how long it would take to draw the 79 models from Futanaria) but at least some of my favorite models and maybe even scenes from that site.
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
With yesterday’s Drawing of Racheal Roundrack, I have officially drawn all of the models from Mastasia. Fells a bit interesting to say that given I didn’t really start intending to do the whole lot of them. Initially I just did a one off drawing of Rina due to inadvertently being reminded of the Site with a vague idea of drawing one or two more of the models later maybe. However given that those drawings turned out to be pretty popular and I was having fun; so I decided to roll with it and draw all 12 of them. Took just over 2 and a half years (well counting form when I did the Rina Drawing) to do but it was a good experience overall.
That all said is that it for the Mastasia Drawings? No. Well I’ll probably take a break from it for a bit but I did have a few ideas for more Mastasia Drawings. To start with I want to take another shot at drawing Rina as it’s my least favorite of the drawings I did despite being possibly my favorite model from the site. Also there are a few specific videos/image sets that might be worth a drawing of their own.
Beyond that I have always been planning to do something related to the various pairings of models that popped up. However what that would entail as a grander plan I’m not sure as I don’t really feel like doing every pairing that was done on the site, but if I don’t do all of them how do I decide which ones make the cut?
Also an interesting idea I had while talking with someone was some kind of crossover of Mastasia and its Sister Site Futanaria; Specifically the four models who appeared on both sites (Bianca, Stefani, Nikki, Janeen, ad Racheal) in a sort of selfcest pinup/scene (e.g Nikki Nipplicious X Nikki Noblong).
Speaking of Futanaria I have also considered doing some fanart of the models from that site as well. Not all of them (it took 2.5 years to draw 12 Mastasia models I don’t even want to think how long it would take to draw the 79 models from Futanaria) but at least some of my favorite models and maybe even scenes from that site.
100 Watchers Raffle (closed)
General | Posted 3 years agoSo just Hit 100 Watcher's here, So why not do some Requests to Celebrate. However, I want to try doing a raffle to see how that goes.
Rules:
1) Watchers only
2) Keep in mind what i will/won't draw (as seen here: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9571236/) when making your request
3) Please nothing too complex; try to keep it to no more than 1-2 characters
4) This will close at 4/22 at 8PM PST
5) Post your request in the comments of this Journal, if Its within the rules/ i'm willing to do it i'll reply with a number
6) after this closes i'll pick form the range of numbers using a random number generator to choose the winners.
Rules:
1) Watchers only
2) Keep in mind what i will/won't draw (as seen here: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9571236/) when making your request
3) Please nothing too complex; try to keep it to no more than 1-2 characters
4) This will close at 4/22 at 8PM PST
5) Post your request in the comments of this Journal, if Its within the rules/ i'm willing to do it i'll reply with a number
6) after this closes i'll pick form the range of numbers using a random number generator to choose the winners.
Ask My Characters (test run)
General | Posted 4 years agoI can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
So I have finally finished drawing profile/references for my characters, which makes a good moment to test an idea I want to do; an Ask My Characters… thing.
In simplest terms I feel like I don’t draw my own characters enough, but also tend to have trouble coming up with good ideas for them. Add in that I want to flesh them out a bit more why not crowd source ideas from my audience by having you ask my characters stuff and do (quick?) drawings to respond.
Well I do want to do a more formal intro drawing with all of them together and the summary of the kind of loose story setup they exist in, a test run to gauge interest and viability of doing this wouldn’t be a bad idea and since I now have profiles for all of them done I think doing such a test is viable.
So if you have any questions or things you want to ask or say to any of characters feel free to do it here; links to the profiles of each character are below
'Manda: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36241966/
Nyuujou Megami: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36803621/
The Cow (my avatar): https://www.furaffinity.net/view/41453375/
Amber: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46181944/
Fang: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46300305/
Jamie: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46418156/ and https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46418207/
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
So I have finally finished drawing profile/references for my characters, which makes a good moment to test an idea I want to do; an Ask My Characters… thing.
In simplest terms I feel like I don’t draw my own characters enough, but also tend to have trouble coming up with good ideas for them. Add in that I want to flesh them out a bit more why not crowd source ideas from my audience by having you ask my characters stuff and do (quick?) drawings to respond.
Well I do want to do a more formal intro drawing with all of them together and the summary of the kind of loose story setup they exist in, a test run to gauge interest and viability of doing this wouldn’t be a bad idea and since I now have profiles for all of them done I think doing such a test is viable.
So if you have any questions or things you want to ask or say to any of characters feel free to do it here; links to the profiles of each character are below
'Manda: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36241966/
Nyuujou Megami: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36803621/
The Cow (my avatar): https://www.furaffinity.net/view/41453375/
Amber: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46181944/
Fang: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46300305/
Jamie: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46418156/ and https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46418207/
Going into 2022: Requests and other projects
General | Posted 4 years agoRequest status: Closed
I can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
Well it’s a new year and so here’s some things I was thinking about/planning going into this new year
Since I suspect this will be the section of greatest interest to the most people (also I am looking for input/opinions as well) I suppose I’ll start with this. Aside from the one outstanding request I still owe I’m not sure if I will continue doing requests.
While I really enjoy doing requests, a number of factors have made me wonder if maybe its time to move to doing commissions; namely this last batch of requests feeling like demand has well surpassed supply (read: how much I can deliver in a reasonable time frame), this last request I’m still working on putting me at a milestone like number of requests (101), the frequency of offline people who learn I draw/do requests advising I should be getting paid for that work, and even a few people asking me if I do commissions (as opposed to requests), and the general fact that this last year has been really good for seeing numbers go up for my drawings and related things. That said changing over to commissions has its own questions/concerns to me personally, one of the bigger ones (or at least the one I’ve spent the most time thinking about) being how much being whether some people I really enjoy doing request for can/would commission me. This is admittedly based on baseless assumptions about the financial situation of all but strangers on the internet and lots of self-doubt but still it gives me a lot of hesitation regarding whether this otherwise very logical sounding idea is a good one.
At the very least something needs to change in how I handle requests, I’m just not sure what the best option is; change over to doing commissions, keep doing the same thing but be more selective in what I do, or maybe find a way to have my cake and eat it too by mixing the two options (though I haven’t come up with a way to do this despite all the thinking about this I’ve done)
Looking over my drawing I’ve noticed I don’t draw my characters much. Well there are a few reasons for this, I have an idea I’ve been considering to potentially address this. I’ve seen various artists do a sort of ‘ask my characters’ thing where they then make drawing responding to questions people ask of there characters. I’m still thinking over whether I want to do this, but i also want to see if this is something people would be interested in or not . While I’ll do a proper who my characters are kind of thing if I decide to do this, I would also like to do a very limited test run of the idea to make sure its doable; so if anyone has any questions they want to ask my characters fee free to do so below.
This isn’t something I have much of a plan or idea for, mostly just want to give it a try. Theoretically I can do 3D modeling (by which I mean I learned over a decade ago and haven’t really done it since), and I bought a 3D printer in early 2020 with the idea of making custom figures/statuettes for myself so i kind of feel like trying to relearn and work on stuff like that would be a good idea.
So I kind of left this project half completed, but I do want to finish it; though I’m not sure what tat will mean in the long run. At minimum I want to get drawing done of the remaining 5 models, though I also kind of want to do various pairings that the site used, maybe a few drawings based on specific videos/picture sets, and even a few more drawings based on Futanaria.
So I can’t remember if I ever said it publicly, but the attempt to do a comic based on said story is not continuing, mostly because I want to do a fresh start form the beginning; that said starting with something that large as my first attempt is not a great idea so I want to do a shorter segment of the story that should only run ~10 pages at most (compared against a ~60+ page full story comic ) that kind of has almost all the things I like about the story condensed into a shorter run. Also with the idea of a full comic on the back burner I’ll probably do a few more one off drawings based on the story as well.
I can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
Well it’s a new year and so here’s some things I was thinking about/planning going into this new year
Future of Requests
Since I suspect this will be the section of greatest interest to the most people (also I am looking for input/opinions as well) I suppose I’ll start with this. Aside from the one outstanding request I still owe I’m not sure if I will continue doing requests.
While I really enjoy doing requests, a number of factors have made me wonder if maybe its time to move to doing commissions; namely this last batch of requests feeling like demand has well surpassed supply (read: how much I can deliver in a reasonable time frame), this last request I’m still working on putting me at a milestone like number of requests (101), the frequency of offline people who learn I draw/do requests advising I should be getting paid for that work, and even a few people asking me if I do commissions (as opposed to requests), and the general fact that this last year has been really good for seeing numbers go up for my drawings and related things. That said changing over to commissions has its own questions/concerns to me personally, one of the bigger ones (or at least the one I’ve spent the most time thinking about) being how much being whether some people I really enjoy doing request for can/would commission me. This is admittedly based on baseless assumptions about the financial situation of all but strangers on the internet and lots of self-doubt but still it gives me a lot of hesitation regarding whether this otherwise very logical sounding idea is a good one.
At the very least something needs to change in how I handle requests, I’m just not sure what the best option is; change over to doing commissions, keep doing the same thing but be more selective in what I do, or maybe find a way to have my cake and eat it too by mixing the two options (though I haven’t come up with a way to do this despite all the thinking about this I’ve done)
Ask my Characters
Looking over my drawing I’ve noticed I don’t draw my characters much. Well there are a few reasons for this, I have an idea I’ve been considering to potentially address this. I’ve seen various artists do a sort of ‘ask my characters’ thing where they then make drawing responding to questions people ask of there characters. I’m still thinking over whether I want to do this, but i also want to see if this is something people would be interested in or not . While I’ll do a proper who my characters are kind of thing if I decide to do this, I would also like to do a very limited test run of the idea to make sure its doable; so if anyone has any questions they want to ask my characters fee free to do so below.
3D stuff
This isn’t something I have much of a plan or idea for, mostly just want to give it a try. Theoretically I can do 3D modeling (by which I mean I learned over a decade ago and haven’t really done it since), and I bought a 3D printer in early 2020 with the idea of making custom figures/statuettes for myself so i kind of feel like trying to relearn and work on stuff like that would be a good idea.
Mastasia Drawings
So I kind of left this project half completed, but I do want to finish it; though I’m not sure what tat will mean in the long run. At minimum I want to get drawing done of the remaining 5 models, though I also kind of want to do various pairings that the site used, maybe a few drawings based on specific videos/picture sets, and even a few more drawings based on Futanaria.
King Size Canary Comic
So I can’t remember if I ever said it publicly, but the attempt to do a comic based on said story is not continuing, mostly because I want to do a fresh start form the beginning; that said starting with something that large as my first attempt is not a great idea so I want to do a shorter segment of the story that should only run ~10 pages at most (compared against a ~60+ page full story comic ) that kind of has almost all the things I like about the story condensed into a shorter run. Also with the idea of a full comic on the back burner I’ll probably do a few more one off drawings based on the story as well.
cheap/free comic panel layout soft
General | Posted 5 years agoSo i've been bouncing around the idea of taking another stab at doing a comics (hopefully being less ambitious than before as I've learned I don't do well with large projects, or at least need to drastically change how I approach them) but one issue i had before was setting up panel layouts using my drawing software of choice (Autodesk Sketchbook) and so was thinking of getting Clip Studio paint to make the process easier, but then i realized i'm probably just going to create the layout export as a PNG and open that in Sketchbook to make the actual comic which makes buying a full piece of software seem excessive so was curious if anyone knew any software aimed at doing something like that that would be cheaper
Can you accidently create a fursona?
General | Posted 5 years agoSo, I've been bouncing the idea of making an anthro bison character in part because it can be seen as a protracted/obtuse way of referencing myself, this then raised the idea/question of if this character idea is a fursona. whilst tumbling down a rabbit hole of questions (What does that even mean, how would i do that, does it even make sense) a thought occurred to me: This exists, which is to say I have an anthro character i use as an avatar for myself; which from my understanding is what a fursona is? Given i have used that character as an avatar for myself for likely over 10 years it seems weird that It might have been a Fursona this whole time and i never realized it.
