https://kazjester.itch.io/work-sucks-vn-adventure

I already did a gallery post on this but consider this a follow up where I spoil or talk about parts of it.

- Alt-V (V for vacuum) enables debug mode, which allows you to speed-skip text and manually adjust stamina.

- You can fail every stamina check except one, and in many cases these actually progress the game/story because of how I approached the idea of stamina. Using stamina is more of the "roleplay" aspect of struggling against monsters and being sucked in.
- There's a hidden scene with art if you fail pulling Terra out of the blue monster's mouth. The stamina gate is very low but it's easy to set up.
- There's multiple ways of interacting with the pink monster. This includes if Terra is there or not, but if she is there, there's additional interactions if you start getting swallowed or try backing away, causing it to inhale Gayle, Terra gets caught in it, too!
- The Pit is straight forward but I discovered that most people don't use the vine for the obvious reason. The vine requires backtracking to find and most players find it on the way out, which is fine because it's used to unlock a secret area later. I wonder what I could have done, but I think for now this is fine. Just a lesson learned. You can use the vine without losing it, in a specific circumstance!
- While I didn't believe in game overs for this particular prototype, Inside The Pit you can get a fake game over by failing to hang onto the Probe without using the vine, and letting yourself get sucked.
- There's 2 ways of getting out of the monster in the Deep Woods! One way isn't hidden too hard, but the main way is a lot more indulgent in the idea of playing around inside a monster's guts.
- If you never use the vine, you can reach the Glass Plains from the Deep Woods after you complete all three jobs.

As for what I'd want to improve on this engine... there's a lot, but here are some short term thoughts:
- Writing: I only did a rough pass and didn't go back to fix typos or spelling errors because "lol prototype" but the biggest mistake I made was not planning out the story beforehand. There was... a LOT to keep track of!
- UI: have an actual pause menu and options
- Save/Load states
- Music: First time trying to make music for a game! You know what I forgot to do? Make the main parts of songs or parts where they change! I want to keep practicing, as a side thing.
- Game over states: Not gonna lie, there's a fantasy in game over states and it would be fun to have some outlandish game overs
- Unlocks: Save and reveal cutscene artwork, character poses, etc.

I had fun doing the intro! Thoughts? I guess it's a vehicle for more vacuums, in many more ways than one.

Should I just start uploading Pressure △ Flow comics to the Work Sucks site as some sort of bizarre continuation? Like I don't want to make a new site but it's there, collecting dust, and if I enjoy making comics in this new format, maybe I'll use the same format for Work Sucks?

I really do like the new format. Let's hope I can do follow up comics that are more focused and just a couple pages, 5 at most, for little mini scenarios. The first one I just finished is meant to be a vague intro to the whole premise.

https://bsky.app/profile/kazjester.bsky.social
https://bsky.app/profile/kazjester.bsky.social
https://bsky.app/profile/kazjester.bsky.social

Sucky jokes, random doodles I don't post on FA, and way too much thoughts on vacuums and pressure based occurrences? Why yes you can now find that on Bluesky, without needing an invite!

TLDR upfront: clickbait title, still working on Inkbolt, but there's just so much stuff I wanna draw.

As I'm working currently on the back half of the next reel of Inkbolt, in a way I'm kinda glad I chose the "chapter by chapter" format I did, because right now I'm struggling with a couple ideas I was already aware of when I stopped working on Work Sucks:

"I'm not cut out for doing weekly webcomics, and the content I make is so niche it will never be something that can support me on its own."

And you know what, those are both okay! As I said I'm still working on Inkbolt, but I can't just be making one comic, I work full time! I want to do animatics, those are so much fun. I want to draw art for my friends, and fan art of people's characters I really find charming.

I'm also working on a spiritual sequel to Work Sucks that cuts out the work but keeps the "sucks" part, and this time it takes place inside a vacuum!

But yeah, the weekly webcomic drive died in me half a decade ago, and as I pursue career goals and want to work on many things, I don't think it'd ever come back. But I DO LOVE drawing comics, and I hope you enjoy the ones I continue to make like Inkbolt and Pressure △ Flow!

Want to follow me on social media so you can see me embarrassingly blurt out things about vacuum/vore and other kinks or post sketches that I normally don't post to FA?

Mastodon: https://meow.social/@kazjester
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/kazjester.bsky.social

Dunno which one will become my main as Mastodon is pretty cozy right now but Bluesky is more about blurting out random stuff. We'll see! Keep in mind I'm still trying to rebuild audiences a bit so you'll see some recent/old art pop up but I'd appreciate the follow and/or support!

This one's going to take a bit as I need to also work on the next comic chapter. Poke-anthro themed and dedicated entirely to a bout of vacuum peril: https://twitter.com/KazJester/statu.....971348483?s=20

Want to get Inkbolt updates, news, and full size pages in Telegram? Follow a new channel that ONLY posts Inkbolt pages:

https://t.me/inkbolt
https://t.me/inkbolt
https://t.me/inkbolt

Just a status update because I know it's been a while. Turns out, when you work full time, and you take a break from the comic to do things like vacation, or start a bunch of animatics (which were a lot of fun) that bites into a lot of time to do these huge comic pages for Inkbolt.

That being said, I only have 1 comic page left before I make the title image and start posting! I'm pretty excited, it's the first chapter beyond anything I had previously worked on with the first run. A bit of a confession, I kinda didn't work on any pages while I was uploading last chapter. Whoops! Hopefully that won't be the case again, but I figured after a year of posting Inkbolt, the break was nice.

I'm really excited to start sharing Reel 5. It's got some really dynamic panels and even better character faces. I can't believe I've stuck with it this long, and look forward to what I have planned for Reels 6 and 7.

https://www.youtube.com/@kazjester

You know, I figure since I can't do videos on FA, and I want to do stuff with sfx regarding that animatic I just did, I'm going to upload my TV vore and future vacuum stuff animatics to a youtube channel. So until FA either supports a video format with sounds, or it fixes long gifs, check out the TV vacuum vore one I did here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvT2lrdF5jM

Quill Sparks, the coder of the website, added a really COOL new feature recently that lets you view an entire Reel's worth of content from a single page. Considering I just posted the last page of Reel 1, this is a good time to check it out! The link for each reel will be on the archive page with a "full reel" button.

https://inkboltcomic.com/fullreel.php?reel=1

I hit a weird spot where I'm still having trouble getting into wanting to draw pages of Work Sucks again. Shame, but I kinda pivoted, and I'm excited to say I've finally been working on InkBolt once more.

To say I've learned from the first time I did it is an understatement. I reflected a lot on what worked for me and what didn't, and the big problems I was having with the setup and storytelling (or lack thereof) that wasn't sitting well with me. A lot of that is story and structure related, but an immediate thing I hope people notice is that I'm going to try and put the "ink" into InkBolt with the new way I've been inking the comic.

The pages I'm making are huge, well, tall, with the express purpose of feeling "animated" as you scroll down them. I'd say each single page of InkBolt will be like 2 pages of Work Sucks. I plan on releasing this comic weekly, but with a catch that focuses on my available time and energy.

My plan is to release the comic weekly, but only after I've finished a chapter. Chapters are going to average 10 pages each, with multi-parters divided up as needed. So I'm not releasing chapter 1 weekly until I finish inking chapter 1. And while I post chapter 1, I'll be working hard on chapter 2, and so on. I feel like this also affords me an additional benefit, I might take a week or two break here and there (these pages are a ton of work!) and by focusing on finishing chapters before I post them, then at least you get to see a whole section of story before I take a break.

I waited a while before wanting to make a post because I wanted to make sure I was doing this project for real. The good news is, I've just finished inking page 7 of 10 of the first chapter! Hopefully in the next month, and a bit of a site overhaul and other prep as needed, I'll have the first page of InkBolt posted.

Just thought it's been a while, want to post all the places I regularly post WIPs or random sketches that may not show up here. I think of all the art galleries I still enjoy FA the most, but if you have other preferences:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KazJester
Telegram Channel: http://t.me/WindFunnel
Pillowfort: https://www.pillowfort.social/KazJester
DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/kazjester
Picarto (if you want to follow/know when I go live): https://picarto.tv/KazJester

Can you believe I've been working on art around the Work Sucks comic for 10 years? Well, I guess in a sense, the comic kinda died down around 2016 due to personal, career, and health reasons, but it was always a blast to work on. It was kind of around that time, and trying to do Inkbolt as well, that I realized I'm not really cut out for doing the whole weekly/bi-weekly webcomic thing. Working full time always was the priority, and well, work didn't suck as much anymore :P

If I could do it over again, I'd release little mini comics that tell smaller chunks of story, or make Work Sucks more about 1-off encounters with characters and monsters that are more... BITE sized. Hmm, you know what the fun part of that is? I can still do that! I still want to sorta continue the current arc with Gayle and Socks' adventure as it'll lead to a lot of fun encounters with vacuum monsters, but I think I'm also just okay with Work Sucks' world being a place I can visit artistically now and then, with characters I can draw whenever!

Webcomics are just... I don't have time for that, haha. Even if I do InkBolt again, and trust me, I want to, I'd rather release it one bout/chapter at a time, and not burn myself out, and try other people's patience, thinking I can do comics on a weekly basis anymore.

I think I have other aspirations as well, like maybe taking my mage comic idea and making that a book instead, but I struggle with the idea that people would want to read my writing, or that it "deserves" to be a book because I just wanna write about fuzzy things getting constantly sucked into stuff. Thankfully, really wanting to see that hyper-specific thing is a pretty good motivator for writing and drawing!

https://www.pillowfort.social/KazJester
https://www.pillowfort.social/KazJester
https://www.pillowfort.social/KazJester

I hope it takes off and gets better. I miss Tumblr and its features, so I need to get into the process of updating regularly again and following others.

http://t.me/WindFunnel

This isn't going to replace any galleries, it's just a place where I can show off sketches, especially works in progress of my comics! Since I'm more of a comic maker than doing single pieces, this is a way to show what I've been working on despite the time between finished pieces, and hopefully will encourage me more to do more sketches as well.

http://t.me/WindFunnel

A new journal to push back the previous one since it's so out of date. But HEY I'm back doing Work Sucks again and it feels awesome! So, some thoughts on that in no particular order:

- I tried overly making it focused on story in a more linear fashion, and I tried making it super loose and all over the place without a plot, and I think I enjoy the comic being a lot more about characters and story beats (while also constantly getting hoovered into things).

- It's going to be bi-weekly for the most part, so I have time/energy to work on other projects both career-related but also just other stuff I wanna do like side art and comics. I'm going to take it chill with the process, but it does encourage me to not "waste" time and even sometimes I've even smashed plot points closer together in the comic so far just because it lets me get to the stuff I wanna see faster!

- I've actually kind of wished the comic had longer moments of peril, or had more fun showing off the windy and vorish elements, so I think I've pretty much let go of any worry if I dwell on any of that. In reality I don't think anyone will notice a change, but to me, the thing I've always wanted to see more of was longer scenes of hoovering peril that... don't burn me out or disinterest me kinda like what happened in the "vacuum mines".

- Big thanks to Queso_ok for doing the coloring! I still have plans to work with others on future pages, and one of the ideas I had was to commission a third page each month that features a side story or different arcs, or just adds to the current arc to keep the story going. Might work out, and I hope it does!

I did a few page/panel concepts you can find here:

Initial concept - https://twitter.com/KazJester/statu.....91719292538881
Unfinished sketch test - https://twitter.com/KazJester/statu.....41629312790528

That "unfinished sketch test" was as if I was gonna wrap up the mini arc that I burned out on, but I think instead, screw that, I'm just gonna move on with the comic like I should have been doing. I really am missing drawing the comic, but between a new career and new found interest in game programming, it's hard feel motivated to work on a weekly comic.

I'm gonna go at my own pace. I've thought of a nice concept for a new chapter. Gayle goes exploring a location where vac robots are popping up, while Terra trains a new hire, that would offer a lot of fun imagery and even more vacuum and monster peril. Socks would also be returning on top of a couple new characters, so I want to see if this motivates me to jump back into things!

Hey all, I've been enjoying writing a lot lately, and after doing that first WSSS I wanna do more! There's something really satisfying about writing with a cast and world that already exists.

Any tips on writing and uploading stories to FA, though? I didn't have much luck uploading it as text, and didn't want to lose the formatting I did. I know it supports some of it, and the stuff I'd use, but it's a lot harder to go back and add it after writing a story with the formatting already part of it.

So I'd appreciate any help, and feedback, when it comes to writing or uploading stories here!

Hey guys, this news update is well overdue. I wish I would have done it sooner but for whatever reason I was pretty bad about that here, and just bad about Patreon updates in general (I haven't been charging as well, just to make that clear).

I've not done much comics lately outside of personal side projects. I still want to work on Work Sucks, InkBolt, and any other comics I feel inspired to. Heck, right now even working on a new series for myself, and getting back into drawing. But otherwise, I feel like I've dropped the ball in explaining myself.

So about Patreon. The experience was great. I'm so thankful for your support and doing all the rewards and doodles was a lot of fun. Right now I'm at a point in my life where I don't have a lot of free time. Doing weekly comics feels like a lot already, and I feel that at this point committing to a week to week schedule is something I just can't do atm alongside my career goals. So for now, I don't know when I'll start charging again. Be sure that if I do, I'll make sure to notify well in advance. I just don't produce comics as often as I used to, and I feel like I just can't keep up in general these days.

As for comics, I think... I just got burnt out on doing a comic about work, while I'm working full time, but I still want to do it because I really like the characters and situations. I want to do InkBolt because I like the toony action premise. I want to mess with side comics because it's fun to branch out.

It's not fun to stay up late to try and get these out weekly if other stuff came up or work's been hectic. I can't stay up until 2am every night like I used to. My comic output, as long as I work full time with overtime here and there, is never gonna recover. I don't want that pressure anymore, for my mental and physical health, and currently my career goals.

It was super fun, and if things change with work, I'll change what I do for Patreon, but right now, I gotta focus where I need to, and thank you all for all your support, all you've done, and all the fun doodles I got to do.

Day after UPDATE: All is okay, cleanup starts, but we're safe here.

Hey all, just an update that though I wanted to get back to uploading comics this month, hurricane Irma is crossing paths with my city so safety comes first! We are as prepared as we can be, but if this is anything like past storms I'm probably gonna lose power for a bit, maybe for days, and stuff is gonna be messy for a couple weeks as we clean up and get back to normal.

So, for anyone else in Florida or nearby coasts, stay safe! Wishing ya all the best. I'll most likely post updates on my Twitter, otherwise on my Tumblr.

Hey all!

Turns out I got pretty sick, and have been out of commission for a couple weeks. This is on top of doing OT for work too, so that one-two combo really laid me out for a while. I'm starting to feel better, but this one got pretty bad, so I'm kinda considering May a wash for now.

I'm looking forward to getting back to Work Sucks and InkBolt, but going to take a week or so to chill and work on some concept doodles and personal art, then get back to comic stuff.

As always, thanks for the support! I'm pretty excited about what's to come with my art <3

http://kazjester.tumblr.com/post/14.....nt-focusing-on

Put together a tumblr post with all my favorite panels from Work Sucks. Made me miss working on it a lot, like a-lot-a-lot.

I hope I get back to working on it, and find that spark again, but at some point you have to try new things. I'd love to one day find the time to work on new things but also return to Work Sucks (because, hey, it's a pretty good excuse to draw furries getting sucked in by or gobbled up by monsters on top of being a fun world to draw).

InkBolt's coming along, and I have 6 pages of buffer ready to go, so expect a soft reboot soon and new posts! Who knows how it'll turn out. I hope it's just as entertaining, or even moreso, and maybe the dream is to make something that can reach even more people while still being 100% me.

Still ... thinking about it even made me a little sad to not be working on it right now, but either way I thought I'd share my favorite panels from the comic :D

Hey all,

First off, I'm definitely going to be back into some personal projects soon. Things are kinda balancing out in my life, so I'd like to get back to doing a lot more art now that I feel up for it <3

Secondly, I've been thinking that I'd like to stream games a bit more often too. I figure it could be fun, and with the microphone on, may help me get more confident about speaking and such, in a weird way.

You can follow my Twitch channel at: https://www.twitch.tv/kazjester

I don't think it'd be good to post updates here, as I do that enough for art streams, so follow me if you want to see me try out a handful of games and streams. I'm pretty open to audience interaction.

Hi all, I know this is such a bummer to hear (for me as well) but due to some health issues (don't worry, nothing life threatening) and things I need to take care of, I have to take a bit longer of a hiatus.

It really sucks launching a brand new comic and to immediately put the brakes on it, but the way I look at it now, this gives me time to still draw for it, building an even bigger buffer, as I take care of myself and address these health issues in the meantime.

I hope that this means that when I come back and have that buffer, I can really knock this new comic out of the park. In the meantime, thank you all for your support as I go through some rough times, but hopefully I'll come out stronger after :D

See you in a couple months! You'll still see drawings from me here or there when I'm not working on comics, and I'll be still streaming comics if you want a sneak peek.

~Kaz

http://thevacuous.tumblr.com/

I've been drawing these alien sketches a bunch lately. I love the concept so much I wanted to try out a very in-character and darker, more adult-oriented, tumblr blog featuring these aliens being gobbled up by all sorts of monsters.

Will focus on mostly soft vore and other similar content. AKA you know me by now and what I draw, so when I saw it's more NSFW than usual I mean just more straight to the point with all the fetish content.

So who knows where it'll go, but check it out and reblog/share if you like this experimental little blog. These little alien dudes are a ton of fun to draw and a nice break from the comic stuff I've been working on lately.