A Change in Scope

Hey! So I figured it was high time to do one of these check-ins so that I can help y'all see what's coming next for the Patreon.

Long story short: I have too many projects on the go at once, and I need to cut back my scope to focus on ONE project in addition to whatever commissions I do. As I am currently working on a 12-page flat colour comic commission while writing this, I realized just how much I am trying to do with no employment and limited resources for these passion projects.

Now, this isn't to say I will give up on everything! This just means that, in the time I have available, I want to be able to see a finished product - and that means starting with one thing and seeing how that can bring in more support.

SO! With all of that being said, I figured you all should also have a say in what I'm working on since you're helping to support me - and YOU folks would be the ones seeing the works-in-progress and the early results! That's why I'll be doing a brief rundown of each of my little projects and where I see them going - then you'll be able to vote on which you'd like me to focus on (understanding the others will take a backseat for the time being).

Without further ado, here we go!

Project Urban Fantasy: Revolutions of Myrathra

This has been probably my oldest project to date, with some of the most development surrounding it. To summarize poorly, a group of queer twenty-somethings are dissatisfied with their city and its treatment of its citizens, uncovering the influence of an enigmatic entity known only as "The King" that has been hiding in plain sight. With the power of collective action (and some magic powers), it's up to the people to see a change in the world around them. It's an urban fantasy story of love, mental health, empathy, and community, with a focus on seeing the fantastical in the mundane.

Currently, I have the first novel in the series drafted, and I would like to work on illustrations for the book as a light novel before pitching it to a publisher (or trying to get it self-published).

Project Bene Elohim: Little Gods Play With Dice

This is one of my more recent ventures into coding and writing for a visual novel, of all things. It's a survival-game style story about angels and humans partnering up to complete weekly tasks for the sake of the cosmos. Inspired by Olympus Overdrive and The Age of the Gray, I wanted to see something a bit different from what I typically do and so I decided to try it myself.

Currently I have 4.5/10 chapters outlined, with the prologue chapter in Ren'Py and trying to get some placeholder sprites set-up.

Project Pageturners

This one is a little different, taking inspiration from fairy tales and things like the Fables comic series, Changeling: The Lost, and H*mestuck, of all things. A tabletop RPG module set within Powered By the Apocalypse, you play as a Reader - a person who can peel back the pages of reality to see the story that you live in, as well as the role that you play.

The big draw of this game would be that you are making a character with two playbooks - one that defines your source of power (your Colour), and one that defines how you use/employ it (your Role). This can lead to familiar fairy tale archetypes such as the Red Hood, or the Blue Fairy.

Currently I have most of the playbooks written, so I'd need to set them up in PDF playbooks for playtesting and get some fun graphics made.

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And finally - not in the running for voting, but still figured I'd bring it up:

Midsummer Knight's Dream

A Pokemon Mystery Dungeon style game idea where you are turned into a fey creature from folklore, and are now exploring through procedurally generated dungeons on behalf of Queen Titania (and I guess King Oberon as well).

This one requires more coding knowledge than I currently possess, with a LOT of sprite-work. Have a little guy I've been practicing for it:

It's an idea I've been bouncing around with a friend of mine, who is currently going through graduate school - therefore I don't feel comfortable going forward without their "okay". It also needs more people who would be interested for the sake of scope, and I have no idea how I'd go about recruiting help for that with the money I currently have - so I'm putting this one on the back-burner for now.

And that's basically it! So now you're caught up to speed on what I've been working on, and what I'm hoping to do. In an ideal world, I could get more support for my Patreon to help supplement this, but for now I think scaling back my projects and focusing on ONE to get finished and out into the world is for the best.

Thank you for reading through all of this and for your patience and understanding - I know it's not always fun to hear about these kinds of obstacles, but I hope that involving you in the creative process can make this a bit more enjoyable to see what comes next!

Lots of love,

Aximeck