Building Worlds

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?

Conditions, Myths and Cards

You ever have that wtf have I done moment? How about several of those in a short period? Welcome to my world.

I’m pleased to say nothing is broken. Creativity is flowing.

But I have butterflies the size of chickens in my gut because now I am also a TCG designer.

Classifications in The Canis: Characters, Tokens, Conditions, Entities.

Don’t Panic

As I’ve been building this sustainable streetwear world, I have been thinking about art.

Everything you see on garment or on a physical product, I have dawn myself. In a world increasingly filled with AI-generated imagery, authenticity matters.

Like everyone else, I use AI while developing ideas. The Canis is still young. A couple of months old, give or take. Honestly, I've completely lost track of time

The cards on the site are version one mock-ups. The final thing I know will take longer, I am not even sure if people care enough to want them, so a lot remains to be seen.

I’ve been panicking about TCG’s because, I’d like our cards to be really good.

I've spent enough time around things like D&D and trading card games to know how much work goes into them. I'm not trying to dethrone Pokémon, Magic and D&D. Far from it. If anything, I'm increasingly humbled by the ridiculous amount of effort that goes into building these worlds and systems.

It’s okay, like I said, don’t panic. But I am not going to try sell you version one mock-ups just so you know. Like I said, we’ll do them properly. The same goes for the comics.

Writing The Canis

Everything is completely intertwined with The Canis, I move when it moves.

From writing the mythology to character development, it genuinely has been unfolding.
Partly through my own reverse engineering genius, and partly through completely strange moments of insight.
Like at midnight last night, suddenly thinking, we have a sun eater, we might as well have a moon eater.

Don’t ask, I have absolutely no idea what that is. (Please not another worm)
Anyway.

Okay, bye

So much to do.