New risky move

Those who have been supporting me for a long time know that I am somewhat "unpredictable". I mean, one moment I do illustrations, then I do comics (colored manga), then I do animations.

One might think that I have no "artistic identity", that I move from one artistic discipline to another, that I'm constantly experimenting to see if I can find "the place where I belong". The truth is that I do.

But despite all that "randomness" that makes me unpredictable, there is a clear pattern: I always draw giant women in the style of Kanahebi.

I feel it's time to take the next step: programming a video game.

What are the risks and opportunities?

My advantages: I can draw like Kanahebi (pretty close), I can animate (somewhat rough), I can model in 3D (basic level), I can program (Python, "advanced" level; C#, basic level).

My disadvantages: I have no experience in video game programming and design.

And why do I have to make this kind of risky moves? Why don't I just do what I love and what I'm good at: making illustrations?

Because of the AIs! Now illustrations are worthless. That's why I raised my commission prices exaggeratedly: to abruptly decrease demand, because I don't want to work on something that no longer has any value. Before AIs, illustrations were valued, but now, almost nobody cares.

And if the illustrations have no value, do I give up making illustrations? Why do I want to make a video game?

AIs generate beautiful drawings in a matter of seconds, but they could hardly make illustrations with the precise poses, the precise lighting, the precise angle and other characteristics that a human artist can do.

I, as a human artist, know that I have no chance to compete with AIs. Nor am I going to try, it is clearly a losing battle.

But as I said before, a human artist has the advantage of being able to make illustrations with very specific characteristics beforehand.

The "solitary" illustrations (isolated, without being within a context) have no value anymore. Therefore, if I am going to have to illustrate again, it will be because there is a context that needs it.

Last month I did illustrations for the cover of Little Snatcher. I did them myself with the specific characteristics (such as the horror atmosphere) that I wanted for its context: Little Snatcher.

I want to make a video game because I want a context, a context that makes my illustrations and animations have value.

And how do I plan to make the video game?

I used to plan to make it in Unity, but after the "charge per install" scandal, now I don't feel confident with that engine. I'll give Godot, a free and open source engine, a chance.

Now I will have to learn Godot from scratch, reading the documentation.

And what happened to the prototype made in Unity?

It is difficult to explain. That prototype had been developed by a third party (Spongey3D), who was the only one who had said prototype (and all the assets).

He and I had a friendly relationship, but suddenly and without warning, he started to "hate" me, blocked me from Discord (and banned me from his personal server), deleted me from Twitter, abandoned the project and deleted (according to him, "accidentally") all the assets related to it.

In other words, the prototype made in Unity simply disappeared (that's what I assume, for now).

I felt bad that day, no one had ever played that trick on me before. Now I am more paranoid with people who seek to "friend" me.

If he wanted to withdraw from the project, he could have told me in a friendly way: "Hey Aurum, I don't think I can continue with this project due to my personal issues. We'll stay in touch."

But no, he quit suddenly, claiming that I'm doing something illegal to "profit" from the game.

Legal issues?

I am not profiting DIRECTLY from the game because I am not selling it. The plan is: to make the remake (revival) of Little Snatcher financed through VOLUNTARY DONATIONS, the game would be published for free.

Come on, it's no different from what others do: there are creators of MODs for video games and they receive funding through voluntary donations (on Patreon). And there are others who even make remakes of other intellectual properties, and also receive financing from voluntary donations.

Little Snatcher is an informally published video game (so it seems), it's a "brand" that isn't even patented (it seems, too). However, it's not that I'm going to take over Little Snatcher, but that I want to give it a second life and complete what Kanahebi couldn't complete.

Let's see if someone explains more about this matter to me, I admit that I am not educated in legal matters.

What will I do now?

With all these points clarified, I'm going to start studying video game programming in Godot. I'm going to spend this month learning the basics, and I'd have to tell you what I learned (every 2 weeks), maybe posting my experiments and test games. Something like a "devblog".

And I know that you are here financing me because you want me to continue making "art." Yes, I will continue, but within the context of Little Snatcher Remake. I'll see if I can offer you something this month, but I warn you that it will be unambitious.