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.
Dance Tenet
The game has officially started. A quick update on The Canis, comics, cards, and why Tenet dancing is somehow the least strange thing happening around here.
There is a small chance that I have lost touch with reality. That’s not a bad thing; I am building another one.
The Canis is an original world expressed through streetwear, comics and playable artifacts.
It’s On
Raptor 1 and Raptor Wakes as dusty recovered artifacts.
There is much to be revealed, but the game has officially started.
Hours of web building, alt text, and thousands of moments in between figuring out language and images, and I can’t stop thinking about the cards and the points system behind them.
I cannot wait to get started on the comics and the cards. I’m a systems person. This really is my bag. I have wanted to make my own comic for as long as I can remember.
The Cards
The first part of The Canis streetwear game is live; the cards are an additional layer. They will be playable. More on that when my brain produces it. Signal Lost.
The Comics
Trying to take this on by myself might be the most insane thing I have done yet. Most comics are made by several people. I still have a business to run, designs to create, story to write and characters to develop.
Thankfully, half The Canis writes itself, the hard part is getting it out of my head.
Please send help. We accept magical caterpillars, beans and dolls.
The world is evolving.
I think moon eaters are coming. I know Logic is growing something else. Tenet will most likely hijack my brain at some point.
And Ultraviolet is somewhere in another universe, getting more annoyed by the minute.
Can a Streetwear ARG Change Clothing Recycling?
Can storytelling change clothing recycling? This article explores why I'm building The Canis, a streetwear ARG designed to make sustainable fashion more engaging.
We all know fashion has a waste problem.
Some of you might not know how big it is.
Less than 15% of clothing is recycled globally each year; yet we produce 92 million tons of textile waste in the same period.
Most of that ends up burned or in landfill.
Can storytelling change behaviour?
People are not going to stop producing fashion. It’s a part of who we are. How we make it, what we make it out of, and what we do with it after, is all going to change.
Historically, we’ve never had to worry about what happened to it after we were done. Can how we feel about what we’ve bought change that?
A photo representing the circular fashion process, organic cotton fibres clean enough to break down and reuse.
Why organic cotton isn’t enough.
If it was only that easy. Changing how people behave is hard.
Cotton is one of the most toxic fabrics on the planet, synthetics and micro plastics are another big topic. We’ve seen incredible and ridiculous innovations in textiles, but these are more often clickbait than sustainable.
GOTS certified organic cotton is grown free from harmful chemicals making it easier to recycle.
But organic cotton alone is not the main reason why most people buy.
Building a streetwear ARG.
The world I am building has game play elements. Comics, games and a series are in the pipeline, but the overarching question is how can we change behaviour?
A small incentive is a start. But is it enough to make you go through the steps of returning a t-shirt?
We all have clothing we value; we tend to keep those items. Often regardless of condition. What we do with the stuff we don’t want, or is damaged, is barely a thought.
The Canis is the experiment.
Do we not recycle because that’s the way it’s always been and ‘all it will take’ is a few regulations?
How long will these regulations take to become globally enforceable?
Or can we do something about it in the meantime?
I’m not saying I have the solution. But maybe, when you’re done with your tee or it’s looking a little haggard, you’ll hear Tenet’s voice saying, “The Canis takes it back” and scan the QR code.