(Cross-posted from my itch.io devlog as it's relevant here, too.)

​Hello, everyone! We had a pretty great launch this past weekend on itch.io, and I want to thank each and every one of you who decided to drop by the page to check it out! Even if you decided it wasn't for you, I appreciate you giving me that chance.

In this first public build since returning Four-Letter Word to active development, I implemented a player survey to get some generalized feedback. In many ways, the experiment was very successful and probably got more respondents than I might have heard from otherwise . However, in some other ways, it was a little lacking. This was mostly due to some poor execution on my part. When setting up the survey, I tried to strike a good balance between getting targeted, usable feedback and going too granular and having a billion different questions to answer. Unfortunately, I didn't do a great job of it in some areas, and so some of the responses I received are a little too vague. For instance, when people selected "Pacing" as an area that needs improvement, that left me unsure whether that meant the pacing was too fast, too slow, or just uneven in parts. I also thought that the breadth of topics was broad enough to encompass every bit of the user experience, but I still got some very confusing results that are difficult to parse, such as one respondent who rated all characters but one 5/5, (the one outlier was 3/5) and said that all of the art and audio was great as it was, and yet when asked about their overall experience with Four-Letter Word, they chose the "Satisfactory, but needs major improvements in many areas" option. So while there is a lot of great data collated in the survey as of now, I am going to have to look into improving it in the future to eliminate some of the confusion.

This also leads me to another point; while it's been very nice to hear from more people than I used to about what did and didn't work for them, I do miss having a conversation about it. In the past, when I released new public builds, I would get more long-form feedback that gave me a much clearer picture of that person's thoughts, and the ability to have some back-and-forth discussion about it to clarify points was invaluable. The survey's strength, meanwhile, lies in showing me the broad strokes of what's been successful or not and which areas are in need of the most work in terms of raw numbers. Ideally, I would like to have both. Some of the survey respondents did go the extra mile to write their opinions in their own words, which is awesome and greatly appreciated, but even in those situations, not being able to have a discussion about them is fairly limiting for me. I don't want to ask too much of your time, as I know you've all got plenty of other things to juggle in your lives that are much higher priorities, but if you're able to make the time to write to me somewhere where both you and I have the capacity to respond to each other, that would make my day! (The comments sections of either the public release devlogs on itch.io​ or the submission file on FurAffinity​ would be ideal.)

In the meantime, I would like to address some of the individualized criticisms and suggestions I've already received through the survey that I feel warrant some attention. In most cases, this is either because I don't fully grasp what is being said or it's something I'm unable to deliver on, but want to offer an explanation as to why so it doesn't seem as though I'm simply ignoring the feedback. If the criticism was clear and understandable, I usually won't go out of my way to comment on it because there isn't really much else to say other than I've heard it and it's something I will try to work on in the future.

"If you are going for a "messy" look, if i could name it that way, then you are doing dreat job. Otherwise I would recommend to maybe work with someone else(if you are already not) and ask them what they think about it. I can just imagine how hard it is to do a game by yourself, so tell your ideas to someone you trust and get from them their honest opinion."​

So there's two parts to this comment I want to talk about. The first, if I understand it correctly, lines up with the most common complaint I've received about the art in Four-Letter Word; the character sprites need more refinement. In the intervening years between when I stopped development and picked it up again, Ren'Py introduced a feature that allows for composite images. I am planning on converting characters on a one-by-one basis into these composite images, and while doing so, I will take the opportunity to touch them up and make them more presentable. Hopefully you'll all be happy with results, but it will be a long process.

The second part of this comment is the reason why I wanted to tackle this one first, as it pertains to the reasons for my other responses as well. Yes, Four-Letter Word is a one-man show, and yes it is difficult and very time-consuming, but that also isn't going to change. This devlog is already running quite long, so I don't want to bog it down with an overlong explanation as to why, so if you are interested in hearing more about this, let me know and I can do another devlog summing up the pros and cons of going solo and why I won't ever hire another person to work on this specific project (though I am open to the idea of collaborating in the future on other endeavors.) For now, just know that even if I wanted to, I simply can't afford to pay anyone else to work with me at this point in time.

"I would recommend you to res it up to 1080x720 so more details and UI quality improvements can happen and so do the sprites, I think the sprites could go for a soft rework, that is, doing the sprites again with your current style so the game doesn't become an amalgamation of different sprites."​

This was actually a concern of mine when I picked up development again. While newer VNs are made in widescreen formats, back when Four-Letter Word was first created, 4:3 800x600 was pretty standard for Ren'Py VNs (you can see this in some other VNs that existed around the same time, like Echo, Blackgate and Repeat.) I was worried that modern audiences might not accept a low resolution VN anymore, but uprezzing the game would not be a simple task. This is because Four-Letter Word currently has 400 art assets between its backgrounds, images, and UI folders, and all ​of them would have to be overhauled to some degree. Aside from the backgrounds, every image was drawn to size, which means to match a higher resolution, character sprites would have to be blown up and then painted over, and UI elements would have to be redone entirely from scratch. Backgrounds, while originally drawn larger, would not be the right dimensions and would have to be extended and blended extensively to make sure the additions were seamless. Since, like I mentioned before, I am a one-man development team, this would be a long process. I estimated the whole process would take a few months and posed the question to my patrons on Patreon. Since they would essentially be paying for several builds with no new story content, I wanted to know whether they thought putting development on hold to uprez the VN is something they thought would be worthwhile. The majority voted against it, and when I asked the opinions of other VN creators on the FVN Discord, the consensus was that it simply wasn't worth it. That said, as I mentioned earlier, I am planning on converting sprites to composite images and giving them a makeover over time, which is something I can ​do concurrently with story updates, so there will be improvement on that end, at least.

"It's kinda pedantic, but the songs sound very much like it was played through a MIDI player. It could be more authentic with either better VST instrumentation or live instruments."​

I don't believe it's pedantic at all, and believe me, if it were within my means to, I would love ​to have much higher fidelity sounds to work with. You're absolutely right that my VST library is vastly out of date, and the only somewhat modern additions to it are all freeware, and thus don't sound as good as they could. Like before, this all comes down to cost for me. I simply can't afford to get better plugins, and definitely ​can't afford live recordings. If you or anyone else does have recommendations for some free VSTs that are big improvements over my current batch, I would be happy to replace them, though!

There are some other responses I received that I would like more clarification on, but without a means to have a discussion with any of the respondents, it's a bit impractical to do so, so I would like to end by encouraging you to open a dialogue with me if you have any specific concerns you'd like to bring up. Don't worry, I won't bite your heads off or anything like that! I understand that all of these criticisms and suggestions come from a place of caring about the project and wanting to see it be successful, and I feel very fortunate to be able to create something that matters enough for people to care. Thank you for your time!

Hey, guys! Just wanted to let you know that version 0.1.1 is finally out for patrons over at my Patreon. It feels amazing to finally get another build out! A public release will be uploaded here two weeks from now if you don't want to/are not able to support the project. I hope you guys enjoy!

For those of you not following my Patreon or Twitter, I just published a post laying out how things are going to move ahead for both my Patreon and Four-Letter Word. Just making sure I'm covering all my bases by notifying those of you who are just waiting for public builds to hit my FA.

Hey, guys, just wanted to let you know about a couple of developments. First off, I've been wanting to restructure my Patreon reward tiers to bring them more in line with modern standards. I put a proposal up in a Patreon post outlining where I'm at with it currently. If you're a patron or thinking of become one, please let me know your thoughts!

The other thing is I have a Twitter now. Since it's come to my attention that a lot of people don't really check this site frequently anymore, I set it up just to tweet notifications for livestreams and Four-Letter Word updates. Don't expect any other activity from me on that account, though. I'm avoiding using it as a typical/personal social media account for the sake of my anxiety, haha.

So I believe I'm all caught up now with the messages I missed over the past 4 years. Something that struck me was that across my comments, notes, emails, and Patreon messages, each place I looked there were people wanting to let me know how much Four-Letter Word meant to them. I'm under no illusion that FLW is anything more than just a visual novel; it's not going to go on to cure cancer or win a Nobel Peace Prize. At its heart, it's just a piece of software that doesn't aim to do anything but tell a story. That the story would reach so many people at crucial stages in their life and help shape who they'd become or resonate with them and their struggles and hardships, though, is nothing less than remarkable to me. I think that's something worth doing, and besides, I don't like leaving things unfinished. So, with that said, Four-Letter Word will continue.

There are going to have to be some changes to the development process if I'm going to avoid falling into the same trap as before. For that, I will need to consult patrons on Patreon because it will involve deciding on a content schedule update, among other things, and since patrons are the ones who are footing that bill, it's only right that I listen to just their opinions on those matters. If you've been wanting to help support the project but have been waiting for it to be green-lit again, now is a good opportunity so you can have a say in its future. Thank you!

Four-Letter Word on Patreon

Wow, okay, where to start?

I guess, first of all, I want to apologize for my very long, very unexplained absence. I know I've worried a lot of people, some of whom thought I had died because of how thoroughly and suddenly I vanished. To those people in particular, I'm very, very sorry that my shortcomings caused you to worry and, though I wish I hadn't given you such a scare, the fact that you were so concerned about my well-being was honestly very touching. This community really is full of some of the most compassionate people in the world whom I never thought would even spare a thought for someone like me, let alone worry that I might be unwell or even dead.

Also, I want to apologize to anyone who's been financially inconvenienced by my disappearance. When I knew I wasn't going to be able to update Four-Letter Word for an indefinite amount of time, I was a little too slow on my decision and there was a month (maybe two months; my memory of this time period is a little hazy now) where there was no new build but Patreon was still charging my patrons. I couldn't figure out how to put a freeze on my account so I switched the billing cycle from monthly to per creation in the hopes that, as long as I didn't make a new post on my Patreon, no one would get charged. As I had not withdrawn any of the funds from my Patreon balance for that period of time, I then tried to refund every one of my patrons for the period(s) where there was no update but they were still billed. However, Patreon's UI for refunding (at least at the time) was pretty lackluster. I had no way of knowing who I had already issued a refund to and Patreon seemingly allowed me to at least attempt to refund the same person multiple times so there might have been instances where I lost track of whether or not I had refunded a patron and tried to refund them again because I didn't want to miss anybody. I had a lot of patrons at the time so I got a little mixed up and my Patreon balance actually dove into the negatives (I assume because I did in fact refund some people multiple times) and I still might have missed some people. If my actions caused you to lose money in some way, I'm deeply sorry. I never had any intention of screwing people out of money so generously donated to my personal project. I'm truly very grateful to anyone who's ever pledged even a single dollar to me in the course of Four-Letter Word's development and I'm sorry for letting you all down.

All that said, I'm sure the next question many of you have is why? Well, that also comes back to Four-Letter Word. When I first started work on the project, I was very excited and put a lot of work into the first few updates. Like, a lot of work. The problem was, at least in my mind, I had set a precedent. I felt like people expected to get at least that much content each and every update or they'd be disappointed or maybe even regret pledging money to me. It was no small deal to me that people were willing to part with their money that could have easily gone to any number of much more worthwhile causes or things with far greater cost-benefit ratios to them. The last thing I wanted to do was betray that trust that I felt I had built between pledge and creator. The problem was that this was often not very realistic.

As things progressed, I thought it would get easier and faster to produce but I felt like a bit of a hack leaving so many things to Ren'Py's factory presets. So, even as I continued to try and make sure every update included a similar amount of content to consume, I was trying new things - many of them dead-ends - and spending more and more time working on the project and finding myself crunching more and more towards each deadline. I began to develop a very unhealthy relationship with my work where I was becoming very ill and stressed and began experiencing panic attacks. Even though no one had ever explicitly stated they would feel cheated if I produced a build that wasn't as much of an update as the last, I still held this deep-seated, irrational fear that that's how everyone would feel. In fact, I'm still not convinced that it's not true but I do at least have enough distance from the project now, after all these years, to acknowledge that there wasn't any factual basis for that fear. It might seem like a minor thing to be concerned about but as someone who's always worried too much about what other people think of me, it really was enough to make me mentally shut down. The fact that the build that never was released (but was half-finished) just had way more of everything than any of the past updates had added just exacerbated an already untenable situation.

As to why I was silent about my departure outside of a handful of friends, it's because I was too ashamed of my anxiety and my circumstances, which was entirely of my own making, and did not want to admit it to anyone. To this day, I've never even spoken about it to my family. I only ever told a few friends, (even fewer than the number that knew I was definitely still alive) although I guess that's changed now. Honestly, I've wanted to write this journal several times over the past couple of years but I've never been able to muster the nerve until today, and even then, it's only because I was unable to sleep. I couldn't stop thinking about this whole mess and how to organize my thoughts to explain it even semi-coherently. Even as I'm writing this, I'm sick to my stomach, shaking and dreading hitting that "Create/Update Journal" button, thinking about how everyone's going to judge me when they read this and see me in a different (worse) light. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm half-right. I don't know, and I may never know, but at some point I just have to be okay with being afraid and doing it anyway.

A lot of time has passed. This site seems to have changed a lot and feels entirely alien to me. Patreon has, too, and I'm not even sure if I remember my login information for that account. I don't think my Livestream page is even there anymore. (That's one thing that's actually dead!) I'm back, I think, but I'll definitely need some time to dust off the cobwebs and familiarize myself with everything again. I've been thinking about dusting off Ren'Py (I'm probably dozens of versions behind, now) and picking up Four-Letter Word again but I'm not sure if anyone even cares about it at this point since it's been so long. I'll have to take a very different approach to it for my own mental and physical health and I haven't exactly decided what that will be. I'll have to gauge interest in the project to see if it's worth pursuing again before I think about it too hard, I suppose. I'm not even sure how I'll do that but I guess, for a start, you could just let me know your thoughts since you've read this far through this monstrous journal post to get to this point. If you've never engaged with my visual novel and have no desire to, or you have and have no interest in it, or you would like to see it return and maybe even support it via Patreon again; all of that is very valuable information to me and it would be very helpful to know where it stands with you before I make any major decisions.

Thank you for taking the time to read all of this. I really appreciate it.

edit: An update on FLW.
edit 2: Some other updates.

... I'm not a big fan of fursuits in general, but I absolutely love watching fursuit dances? lol

Like, just look at this shit:
https://youtu.be/6ZTSB5sko0s

I mean, I could watch people pop, lock, or b-boy forever, though I don't think I'm alone in that, (seriously, just try and tell me this doesn't put a smile on your face [link]) but there's something about fursuit dances that is very much a "greater than the sum of its parts" sort of deal for me. I don't think I could really ever explain why.

Maybe this sort of stream of consciousness shit is better served through Twitter or something, but I refuse to use social media, lol. Anyway, for those of you guys who are missing FLW content, there should be a new public build up tomorrow. Still working on figuring out a few things before I'm ready to upload it, (who knew something like dynamically changing font colors required a deep dive into Ren'py functionality?) but you guys are definitely going to get two builds worth of stuff. 0.0.9 ended up being a patron-only build quite by accident, because I was super unhappy with the writing I did in that build and wanted to revise it for the public release. Unfortunately, it was a major rewrite that took so long that it was practically February when it was done, so I figured it'd be best to just give you guys 0.1.0 all at once.

1. Finish watching season 5 of Game of Thrones.
2. Try not to freak out about turning 30 next year.
3. Deal with my Monster Hunter withdrawal by watching hours of videos of bats crawling on the floor while listening to the Nargacuga theme and giggling a lot.

I THINK I CAN DO AT LEAST ONE OF THESE.

Hey, guys! Just a quick heads up to let you know that I was a couple of days late on this month's patron-only build, so you should expect it to go public a week from now instead of a week from the first. Sorry for the trouble, and thanks so much for giving my work a look!

Where are all these watches coming from all of a sudden?

Sometimes I get the urge to do something embarrassingly nerdy, then I talk myself down from it. The conversation usually goes something like, "Sleep on it. If, when you wake up, you go, 'wow, that's a dumb fucking idea,' THEN YOU WILL KNOW." And it always works out that way.

I'm glad I can be my own second-hand embarrassment police!

After using my old animated Tigrex avatar for almost my entire stay here on FA, I feel like I need to retire it. I haven't played a Monster Hunter game since Tri, so it feels a little disingenuous to keep using it. It was super weird seeing the first one I had in my avatar list (it's been so long since I last changed it, that I forgot FA keeps your old ones, there.) But, man, did it look rough as hell. I don't tend to think of myself as improving much in my art at all, especially since I do so little of it, but it is really jarring to see something you did five years ago and noticing the difference. Strange as fuck, man.

Hey, guys! Sorry for the inconvenience, but I think the Android version should be working now. I'm just going to give up on trying to include expansion APKs, as it seems like those are only necesssary for distribution on Google Play (which I have no interest in anyway.) Hopefully this build should work normally. Please let me know if it's still causing you any problems. The link on the earlier upload has been updated.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16499551/

Thank you!

Over 20 years later, and this man finds a new way to keep being my hero.

https://youtu.be/xuWkvyeAu0E

Also, some good news! I think I'm mostly over my illnesses. I've still got a bit of a fever, but it's pretty mild and ignorable and only a very occasional cough. I'm going to try and get back on the train and start work on the VN tomorrow. Thanks for your patience, guys!

February has not been a great month for my health. Right at the end of January I developed a fever and a bad cold that eventually developed into bronchitis, which I'm still in the process of getting over (it's mostly just lingering cough now, though.) However, almost two weeks ago I came down with an intensely painful sinus infection. I've been on Amoxicillin for a little over a week now, and a couple of days ago, almost all of my symptoms disappeared, only to resurface again yesterday, I've still got a couple of days left on this prescription, and if my health doesn't improve, I'll go consult my doctor again. As is, though, I'm unable to spend more than a few minutes at a time at a computer due to the severe pressure in my head, dizziness and nausea it causes me.

For this reason, I have no choice but to put commission and visual novel work on hold until I recover. Since it's very unlikely that I'll have a build ready for the first of March, I'd advise my patrons on Patreon to cancel their pledges before the end of the month so you don't get billed for nothing and then re-pledge a couple of days into the next month (I'm assuming that will work, at least.) I apologize for any inconvenience that may cause, but I couldn't figure out a way to freeze my account or put payments on hold. Thanks for your understanding!

I haven't really seen anyone talk about this yet, and I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around this VAT MOSS bullshit. I'm completely inept with things like international tax laws, and being on a mixture of antibiotics and hydrocodone might be making me even dumber about this stuff, so apologies if I've gotten this entirely wrong.

So, what is VAT MOSS? As far as I can tell, it's a new European regulation put in place (effective as of January 1st 2015) that targets big corporations that try to divert sales through low-VAT (Value Added Tax) countries in the EU. It's a tax on digital goods sold in the EU, BUT it's determinant upon the location of the consumer, and not the seller. This means that, even though I am a Canadian resident, I would have to pay this tax on any business transaction of digital goods with anybody from the EU. It's so carelessly implemented - and the EU is being very stubborn about not having a VAT threshold in place - that it affects sole traders and very small companies.

Now, just paying the tax itself is already bad enough, when people are often-times already charging below minimum wage rates on commissions, (personally, I price my work at an estimated rate of $10/hour, and minimum wage here is $11/hour) but that's far from the worst part. The real issue is all the hoops you have to jump through and all the paperwork you have to keep on top of. As an example of the kinds of things that would be required of me to be VAT MOSS compliant, here's a snippet taken from a community weblog (http://www.metafilter.com/145004/In-which-the-EU-unintentionally-declares-war-on-knitting-designers):

"You're now responsible for paying taxes to the European country in which that person lives. You must register for a tax number in an EU country (you can pick which one) and then register for a MOSS account. You must collect three non-contradictory pieces of evidence that prove where the person lives. You must store that information for ten years, and you must follow EU privacy laws when you store that information, which includes a requirement that you use a server based in the EU. You must keep track of the VAT rates in each of the 28 EU member states and make sure you pay the correct rate."

So, basically, as an independent, I am pretty much never ever going to be VAT MOSS compliant. Does this mean that now I have to pretty much say no to any European clients for commissions? That sure seems to be the case at the moment, and would be the case for a lot of artists, here and elsewhere.

The other issue this raises is Patreon. They've received some rather dubious tax advice from PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) regarding VAT MOSS, and are just not dealing with it at all. A lot of people are panicking and assuming this means the onus is on non-EU creators to do the above with each and every payment from every EU patron. VAT MOSS has specific exemptions for people selling through third-party platforms, but this is only if that platform themselves deal with VAT MOSS for you (which Patreon currently refuses to do.) However, it seems rather strange to me that Patreon creators would be held liable if this issue was ever raised by the HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.)

According to a blog on the subject (http://demonarchives.com/vatmoss-webcomics-patreon/), this is not the case at all.

"How this applies to you as a Patreon user is subject to some complication.

The complication arises from the fact that, in many cases, you are not supplying any goods or services to your customers, but instead receiving donations to support your endeavours.

If however you are supplying content that is not freely available elsewhere, including early access to content that will later be freely available, then you are deemed to be supplying goods and services to which VAT applies.

This does not however mean that you are responsible for paying or managing the VAT on these products. This is because you are not directly receiving payments from those customers, nor supplying content to them.

You are supplying content to Patreon, which accepts users’ subscriptions to that content and pays you based on the number and level of subscriptions that they receive.

This means that Patreon is the merchant as regards taxable transactions and is therefore the entity responsible for managing and paying that tax to the relevant tax offices.

—As a side note, this would not be difficult for them to do, a simple script set up on their subscription pages could apply the appropriate amount of VAT to reward tiers for the user’s region. Patreon would then only have to make one payment, per country, per month, provided that they stored the relevant data on a secure third party server within the EU—"

If anybody has any clarifications or corrections to anything here, it'd be greatly appreciated! This whole mess is extremely confusing to me and it's making my head hurt just thinking about it.

Hey, guys! For those of you who are already $5+ patrons for Four-Letter Word, I'm trying out the creations system test sending messages out to you guys. I'm making this journal in case you guys don't get e-mail notifications or check Patreon regularly, as I'm still a little clueless as to how this whole thing works, haha! I'd also like your guys' permission on something, and there's a little goodie in there for you guys, too, so check it out!

If you're not a patron yet and would like to be, check out: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15608193/

Thanks!

https://youtu.be/2ecS0yKnNLA

I don't know if I could love this any harder, rofl!

I hadn't thought about it before, but this comic put mantis shrimp in a new light for me.

Are these things the JoJos of the animal kingdom?

https://youtu.be/XFkPqh0z-_Y

Think about it.

Referring to this post on Artists Beware: http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/746150.html

I've never really participated in that community; I just kind of lurk to keep myself aware of potential problem customers. From what I'd seen, Bazeel had done a lot of good work busting scammers that were brought to light through AB, and I'm kind of shocked he's been "let go", and also a little worried. Does anybody have any more info on this? I'm not really sure what happened.

Hey, guys, I wanted to let you know about a couple of things. First of all, the next page of Four-Letter Word is likely to be pretty delayed. I'm pretty swamped with commission work at the moment, so I have very little free time to spend on the comic. Each page was already a 3-4 day project on its own, so it could take me a few weeks or more to get the next one done. I'm really very sorry, but I have a responsibility to my commissioners to ensure a quick turnaround, and I have to prioritize them over personal work. Hope you guys understand!

The other thing I wanted to talk about was donation rewards. I know it's a lot to ask for you guys to send money for essentially nothing, since the comic is being made freely available. No one is obligated to pay anything, so I want to do something nice for the people who are generous enough to help support the project. I've had trouble thinking of exactly what I could do, though. Some people have approached me with the idea of cameos, but personally, it's just not something I want to do. I don't like the idea of what is essentially other people's intellectual properties in the comic. I just feel like it weakens its integrity and I'm paranoid about running into issues in the future because a character someone else owns is in it. All that aside, since I already have everything pretty fleshed out, any cameos would have to be nonspeaking background roles, which I feel would ultimately just not be satisfying for most people anyway.

So, what I've decided to do is provide extra content for people in the form of some additional illustrations and mini-comics I won't be posting anywhere. None of it is stuff I planned to put into the comic to begin with, so you can just view them as extras you won't really need, but are nice bonuses as thanks for helping me continue with working on the series.

- Everyone who donates a total of $10 USD or more until Chapter 2 is complete will receive an additional illustration via e-mail.
- Everyone who donates a total of $30 USD or more until Chapter 2 is complete will receive both the artwork and a short mini-comic via e-mail.

I'll be doing the same thing with Chapter 3 when I'm able to get to it. I know I'm just creating more work for myself, but this project is something I'm feeling really passionate about, so I'm also just happy to expand on the story a little bit. Chapter 2's donator bonuses are going to focus on the relationship between Asher and his father. The illustration will be of their relationship while Asher is still just a baby, and the mini-comic will focus on what it's like when Asher is a young adult in college. The dynamic between the two of them will be, well, quite different between the two works.

One last note; if you donate or have donated in the past, please send me a note with an e-mail address you would like me to send artwork to, along with your full name as it appears in your PayPal account so I can verify I am sending things to the right person. I might be blind, but I couldn't find an e-mail address anywhere on the notifications for the donations I've received. I guess it's because they aren't shown for gifts?

If you like the comic and would like to support it, please consider sending a tip to my PayPal: khommissions[at]gmail[dot]com. If you wouldn't mind leaving "flw tip" in the note so I know what it's for, it'd be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Hey, guys, I'm opening up for commissions again! This time around, if you would like a digital painting commission, I'll only be accepting livestream ones. The turnaround is just much faster for everyone involved, and scheduling specific times for commission work helps me set aside time for working on other projects. Icon and comic work is still available to anyone unable to attend livestream sessions.

Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday are my most flexible times for livestreaming. I can make time on other days, but you will have to check with me what times during those days are best for you to see if we can work something out.

Click here for my up-to-date price guide and terms of service!

If you are interested, please send me a note. Thank you!

omfg, lol.

https://youtu.be/FIO-5-NHsZw

P.S. Still in the process of recovering from an illness so the next page Four-Letter Word is gonna be while longer yet. Sorry for the delay!

1. Open this and pause it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLtiEBB1pi0
2. Click the little CC button in the bottom-right of the video window.
3. Turn it ON and where it says "Japanese (automatic captions)", click that and change it to "Translate Captions."
4. Click on "Afrikaans - Afrikaans" and change it to "English - English".
5. Hit play, and enjoy!

I love how the autotranslation changes Green into some confused-as-fuck Japanese businessman, and how apparently Mewtwo is hiding out in "the cave of Canada." I don't want to give away too many of them, but some of my favorite mistranslations are "Okido Hakase" (Professor Oak) -> "Old-old medical", and "Kamekkusu" (Blastoise) -> "Korea sumo", lol.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects.....-the-guardians

I really never thought I would, but there's no way I can not throw money at Yasumi Matsuno. Him and Kamiya are, like, my video game heroes (and you can fucking bet I will totally pledge to any Platinum Games Kickstarters, if such a thing ever existed.) Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story are two of my most favorite games ever, and I feel preeetty certain that FFXII would have been phenomenal as well, if Matsuno didn't have to step down. First day up and it's got almost $100k in pledges, so it's looking promising!

The $1.3 million stretch goal to have Hitoshi Sakimoto compose the game's soundtrack better fucking happen. MAKE IT SO, PEOPLE.