Designing The Canis Game
I built the world until it became playable. After months of worldbuilding, card design and simulation testing, The Canis game is approaching its final stage. Now I just have to draw…everything.
Designing The Canis Game
The final stage of building the Mongrel Logic alternate reality streetwear game is approaching.
The comic is written. The card game has been designed, and I’ve just completed simulation testing. I roughly built the deck out of paper, played and…
I lost but there we are.
I will be naming the card game, but right now, The Canis game is close enough.
How did I build the game?
You are not going to like the answer.
Backwards. I spent months upon months since I launched the first T-Shirt designs using my old teenage art; they were characters I had drawn and started developing over 20 years ago, trying to figure out how I was going to tell a story that started there.
I built the world first, played with character ideas and concepts and eventually turned that internal logic into a game. I built a world until it became playable.
Rudimentary Canis Game card deck, used for testing
From 18 Characters down to 4
Over the past week I have trimmed back over forty different concepts, built sequences, and run days of simulation testing. The deck is playable, there are no dead hands, the sequences all work and are well balanced.
My brain has run a marathon.
Sun Eater is coming; it’ll soon be up to you.
Art can start
There is a Kerryn shaped hole in the door.
What comes next?
Sustainable comics and cards. You will finally be able to see The Canis in its true form.
Plus, our newsletter; I am working on making this valuable, different. I know some wonderful people have subscribed, and I will be getting this done soon.
To infinity and be..oh no wait that’s the wrong thing.
Building Worlds
Building an original world isn't always about making progress. Sometimes it's about waiting for the next piece of the puzzle to reveal itself. A founder's journal on comics, creativity and building The Canis one step at a time.
The most frustrating thing about building an alternate reality streetwear game and world is that my brain needs rest in between.
The cognitive load of the past week has been brutal.
Letting the puzzle emerge rather than making the pieces fit is honestly annoying.
I don’t often stare at a blank page for very long, or at least if I do, then there is my first clue, I’m barking up the wrong Tenet.
The Comic
As The Canis underwent its own supernova, and exploded in every direction, I have been trying to work out what goes in the comic.
I already had the story, so how hard could it be right?
A week of hardly anything. Small notes, one hour of progress, and then the end of thought, for the day not just that session. And when I say end, I mean end. Of productivity as well, not just comic book text.
That’s been rough, I don’t like slow. Everything is already slower by its nature, independent brand, solo founder, circular fashion.
It feels personal, when it goes even slower because I’m still going a thousand miles an hour.
But the comic has emerged successfully.
Concept artwork exploring Spineless, one of the Conditions spreading throughout The Canis.
Art is next
This is actually what I was most afraid of but having gone through the comic book tunnel and emerged the other end, with game stronger and story stronger, the art has become what I am most looking forward to. I just wish there were two of me.
Kerryn and Nyrrek
Why am I picturing one with a hunchback?
Printing the comic
I’ll be hiding it online first. Once I have done the work that needs to be done, over the coming months, I will see if people want it. You might have noticed hardly anyone knows we exist yet.
I just need to move house, and then that will be my focus. In the meantime, tell someone you know.
Much bigger than me
I’ve quietly built a behemoth.
Does anyone have any biscuits?
The Canis Game
What exactly is The Canis? After days of trying to define the world I was building, I finally realised the answer was staring me in the face. This behind-the-scenes journal explores the game, the comics, the cards, AI, and a painting from my teens that somehow predicted it all.
It’s hard to articulate how many things I hold in my head on any given day. Building this game out is fun and terrifying in equal measure. I’m sure you can guess why. But in case you can’t, its fun because I get to play for a significant portion of my time, making up star maggots and mapping their evolution.
It’s terrifying because it’s early. Literally no one but me asked for this.
Kinda rule number one of business.
I have a habit of approaching things from a different angle.
It is so actively in development, that I have been asking myself the question, what is ‘The Canis’, is it a world, a universe? Yes me, the builder of it. This has been going on for days.
And only just landed on the right words, roughly sixty seconds ago.
It’s a game. Duh.
Really, I blame my to do list. It wraps around the planet at this point.
Designing the cards
I can’t be an expert in everything and believe me, I am not. I have enough background to build this without feinting each day, but I have gaps.
One rather amusing one, was realising how integrated the cards and comics are. To anyone who has been building games for centuries, I salute you. It was only when I sat down to write the comic that I realised I had to design the cards first.
We haven’t even got to the art yet.
The art
While recording for socials this week, I have been talking about AI. Love or hate it, its here. I only use my own art to generate our AI reels.
It’s how I can test personalities, ideas, concepts, styles, formats without spending 14 weeks trapped in an art cycle that I can’t maintain.
I draw all the hoodie designs, characters, and worlds. I am drawing all the comics, cards and I write the blog, my website and my world. This is not an AI world.
It seems like it has been living in my head a very long time; I found a photo of an old painting I did, and thematically, it’s eery how it is kinda all there without it knowing what it was yet. This was painted sometime in the 2000s.
Eyeballs, weird trees, random entity. That giant sun. Spooky.
Now, I started this all with art from my teens, but finding this photo with all those elements was nuts. This painting has now inspired another world and characters.
I use AI to help research, SEO, editing, project management, and images.
I dream of the day that I can hire writers and artist etc.
The thing that bothers me most about AI, is sustainability. With it being the backbone of everything I build, coupled with no data and warranted suspicion, it remains to be seen how we deal with that, globally as well as individually. This blog is not long enough for the rest of the arguments so moving on.
A painting (and photo) from the 2000s. Looking back, it's strange how many themes that became The Canis were already there.
When are the comics coming?
Now-now. Over the coming weeks I’ll be sharing progress and taking you along for the ride.
And the cards?
Just-now.
Official terminology…
It’s happening now. I have already started. The world is coherent, the game is playable, the system is working, the world is growing faster than I can keep up. I just need to build all the other parts you can play with.
No pressure. When I start licking the chalk I will let you know.