Sickly Nays

I've been sick, so naturally, it's all that's been on my mind in terms of what to draw...

This sickness sure doesn't seem like it's ever gonna get better... I ended up losing my voice, so here's Jibu.

I've been feeling really sick, so here's a quick doodle of Pubby. 

Global Game Jam 2019

Over the weekend, my brother and I participated in the Global Game Jam! This was our 4th time creating a project for this and it was super fun.

Download the game here!

Here's the title screen for our project. Originally it was based on some old VHS tape covers.

The theme for the GGJ ended up being home, which is perfectly themed for The Nays! Our entire series is based around this concept of figuring out what home means to them, so it was perfect.

Almost too perfect. At first, we weren't sure what to do because we didn't know how to tell all of these ideas in such a short game. But we ended up making something we're both really proud of.

We went with a very simplistic pixel art style, which is something neither of us has really explored in-depth, so it was a really fun experiment. We got way more done than I was expecting, and I was impressed we actually managed to fit almost all of our ideas into this little game for the weekend.

I think this sums up our game best. This is my favorite background that my brother drew and it includes most of the character sprites that I created.

This is a screenshot of one of the mini-games I coded and created the interface for. It was based on one that I made back in VX Ace, but I hade to entirely recode it since there were updates and I wasn't entirely sure how I did it at first.

This is a scene from the opening of the game where they're gathered around Shelter 128 in Tag World.

This was an in-progress screenshot we took before the whole interface was fleshed out. This was one of the first mini-games I made.

And this is a sneak preview!

Overall it was a very successful Game Jam and I think it was probably our best! I wrote this post entirely after no sleep for 24 hours, so I'm trying to keep it fairly short.

Just go play the game for yourself and you'll get to experience everything we worked on!

Download the game here!

Character Interaction Sketches

Some sketches I've done of multiple characters!

Just a couple of BFFs hanging out.

Mikey is obsessed with Gojo and thinks they're best friends because they used to be neighbors, but Gojo is annoyed by him and does not think the same at all.

Digital Sketches

It's been over a month since I've drawn digitally.

I decided to do this quick doodle of Scott tonight. Also, recently Scott has been playing VA-11 HALL-A, so I referenced Jill for this pose and the background was kind of inspired by cyberpunk in a way.

Kai takes this photo of Mushy and says "We are heading to Frank Lady World on the Timeless Subway to find our friend Terra!"

First 2019 Sketches

This is my first post (besides the first drawing) that has drawings I've done this year!

This is my first time digitally drawing Fabiana! I drew her once in my sketchbook, but I tried to recreate that drawing digitally so I could practice drawing her and figure out a color scheme.

I decided to design some new clothes for what Trekkon could've been wearing when he first joined Death, but before he's officially initiated into the Death Association.

Marker Doodles

Before Inktober, I was testing out the markers I had to try and figure out what style I wanted to do for the month. So I made some doodles as practice.

Chozu's Like 30

I made this for my brother's 30th birthday, which was a few weeks ago.

We've both been playing VA11 HALL-A a lot recently, so I recreated some of the scenes from the Shard of the Orient Eventure in the style of VA11 HALL-A.

Chozu's Like 30 from Michelle Rakar on Vimeo.

Here's a gif of Moz in full quality.

And here's a still of Rosie.

Nays on the Twine: Moonwake Edition - Continued!

Almost a year ago, I worked on a story in Twine for a few days that involved tons of story choices, as well a bunch of story conditions and limitations to make it more fun to write. 

I decided to pick the story back up and finished Chapter 1! Here are the moments from the chapter that I'm planning to put at the top of each page.

I started writing Chapter 2 of my Twine story last night, and here are some of the moments from the beginning of the chapter! This one takes place during the Timer Eventure.

Choose Your Own Adventure Test

I was experimenting with some choose your own adventure stories, so I made these quick illustrations for a spur of the moment story.

First Drawing of 2019

It's time for the New Year's tradition of drawing Cipo! This is the 10th one I've done, so it's the 10 Year Anniversary of this tradition.

Since this year I'm planning to work on my interactive story some more, I thought it'd be fitting to draw a scene from one of our newest Eventures: Terra's Disappearance. He picked up this saying from Kolo who started saying goodnight to The Nays in this way for some reason. But this is also the first drawing I've ever done of a Linkship (and the interior, too!).

Here's a process gif of it:

Finished Nay Sketches

Some Summer 2018 sketches that I put a bit more time into!

A scene from the PSChat Eventure after Trekkon experiences the loss of someone very dear to him.

If Zandra needed to be undercover, she might look something like this.

Digicember: Ridley & King K. Rool

Getting towards the end of the Digicember drawings!

Digicember Day 29: Rabiah & Summer as Ridley

Digicember Day 30: Tomocumber & Meushi as King K. Rool

Digicember: Snake & Sheik

More Digicember drawings!

Digicember Day 27: Araylee & Chozu as Snake

Digicember Day 28: Satsuto & Urom as Sheik

Digicember: Villager & Joker

These ones go together since until Joker's officially in the game, Ted plays as Villager. Willus will take his place as the S Nay Villager representative once Joker's released, though!

Digicember Day 26: Spicco & Ted as Joker

Digicember Day 25: Jennie & Willus as Villager

Onwards to 2019!

It's 2019, a new year, and with that, some New Year's Resolutions.

Before I start talking about what I plan to do in 2019, here is my summary of art over the years:

(For a bigger version, go here!)

Just like 2018, I'm planning to keep on posting every other day here on Blogger. I'm still behind on posting, so this month and next you may still see some art from the end of 2018, but I think that's for the best. It puts less pressure on me to post every day. Overall, I know myself too well that I can't stop myself from posting to my other social media sites on a daily basis.

Last year was so busy that I didn't end up having time to practice fundamentals like I wanted to. I still want to push myself to try and find time to do it, because I have noticed some of my art slipping without it, but I can't guarantee anything.

My current solution is to start making more personal sketches again so that I can focus on being looser. I'm thinking about using more references so that it might be able to help me work on anatomy more.

Though I want to be more open with projects this year, I do have some plans. I want to create more Eventure drawings, whether they're sketches or fleshed out animations. I just want to work on my interactive story website, because it's something I'm really passionate about. I'm thinking if I even make one a day, I could end up finishing a few of them by the end of the year. This is what I've found to be the best way to tell my story, so maybe I could actually finish it before I get old and die (which I found out wasn't probably possible if I were to keep doing the comic style, haha)!

I'm thinking that I might go back to doing some of my Nay-A-Day drawings when summer comes around. This'll be the first summer that I'm not out at camp, so it'll be my opportunity to draw some of the summer characters on their actual birthdays.

Those are all of the art-related resolutions that I have, but I also have a few more personal resolutions that I've been thinking about.

I want to create a semi-public blog or journal where I post a photo a day. Right now I have a Wordpress blog that's private, and I'm still not sure if I wanna make it public or not. But that'll be a personal project where I can just keep track of what's going on in my life better. This could act as a gratitude or positivity journal just to kind of keep my spirits up. This journal isn't anything big, it's just something that I could use as a way to reflect on the days better and share whatever's going on in my life. I might make some polls on my social media sites to see if anyone would be interested in actually viewing this thing, but for now, it'll stay private.

I really like making organized lists, so this year I want to use some software to better organize things in my life. I've already started on a few, but I want to make an organized site that stores every video game I've ever played and any memories and other things about it. I also want to make some more organized lists or sites related to The Nays, so that I can organize all of the information a lot better. And I still want to revive my dream journal where I can easily search and add entries. These are all things that'll probably happen regardless of if I plan them out, but I think it'll be fun.

And then I'd like to get back into learning music again. I bought a midi keyboard last year and never actually fully learned how to play the piano. I'm going to try and push myself to learn it because it's something I've always wanted to do. This could even be just a small practice once a week or something, just to kind of start figuring things out.

So yeah, I have lots of ideas for 2019, but nothing is set, kind of like how 2018 was. I just wanna keep staying inspired and working on projects while working a full-time job. Since 2018 went so great, I'm hoping the same for 2019!