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[overcookedsushi]

The Retcon King Death of a story, and Rebirth of the same story...

This character has been through more redesigns and rewrites than any other character, and is probably one of the few characters to survive a complete scrapping, technically twice~ I always wanted a character based on the King in Yellow... The general aesthetics and art I would see would looking him up always gave me so much inspiration. In the earlier drafts of the story, a Analog Horror/King in Yellow/ Eldritch parasite was the main antagonist in the story, and would remain that way for quite a few story rewrites. But eventually I simplified the story immensely, and it's whole plot, character, driving force, all of it was wrote out of the story entirely. It would be a good few laters till I decided, "You know what? I want him to be in this freakshow somehow."

The very first draft was an incredibly simple idea. King in Yellow/Carnival Barker/Old Tech was the combo. The idea was really simple, him speaking into a mic, being the announcer and generally being very glitchy, staticy, analog horror adjacent.

This could have been generally fine and would have made for a great announcer character for any future game taking place in the freakshow itself... but, I was still remembering my old version... the main villain reduced to a voice and nothing more? I couldn't do it...

So I tried another design... Going for more intimidation factor, but also trying to balance the three aspects of the combo idea. Slowly making it more of a Tech Priest who would also wear yellow and have lots of static...

I definitely tried to make this version work... and again it definitely could have... but it didn't feel right. It was very visually busy, but something was missing. And I knew what was missing... it was his old story.

I was so damn attached to his old story, but I couldn't just drop him in wholesale. In the old story he kills Pin and literally consumes all time and space. I needed to find a way, but how? Most of these characters were deaths of nonliving things. I loved the idea that he represents the death of the first draft and is bitter about not having his fame and spotlight. But it wasn't until this next design that it started to click.

This is when it started to make sense to me. He wasn't just the death of a story, but the death of a whole story. Filled with characters, places, ideas and plot points that will never see the light of day. It is kind of hard to explain what I mean without revealing something really crucial about him... but I also don't want to reveal it yet, or ever till I can do it properly...

But he is the death of a particular story, one that did start but never got a chance to end. One could never imagine the bitterness a character like that would have towards the author if it could have free will. To be born, and to be told you will thrive, but forgotten and your story never told. No conclusion, no closure.

In a weird round about way...

This is my apology to a very specific character. Not the villain of the first draft, but a character I never got to use to their fullest. Someone I was proud to have made, and legitimately upset I never got tell the tale of. Plot twists, personality quirks, hardships and betrayals and revenge stories that will only ever be known by me. The Retcon King is my way of giving closure to a character I wanted to have an ending but never got one.

And it is because of this, this personal connection, the character now thrives. Representing the death of a story, and bitter resentment and anger towards leaving the most treasured among us sealed away in a flesh palace that will one day die by itself.

Make your dream game. Tell your dream story. Create your dream comic. Don't let your children rot away forgotten.

[overcookedsushi]

Kill your Darlings

So I’ve been building a Freak Troupe for few years now...

Zey have not been really posted here, I don’t really use zis site as much as I really should, and I do plan on starting to bring ze rest of zem over…

It started as only nine, but ze numbers have been steadily increasing as more and more ideas flow and come to me…

Each freak possessing ze same rules:

1. Some kind of monster. Folklore, Cryptid, Fantasy… Ze more obscure ze better~ 2. Some kind of circus/freakshow/street sideshow or main attraction… 3. Some kind of hobby… Originally I had much more restriction on zis rule in particular, but I eventually let up on zese restrictions to give myself more options…

Zis zese rulesets, it vas originally just supposed to be some art exercises to help me develop better as an artist, but after ze 3rd and 4th ones… it became somezing so so much more to me Now zis all zat said, I have been vanting to make a character based around a Nuckelavee for a vhile now… Ze design is so fucking cool, I love how uncanny and lobsided zey are depicted as… It vas one of ze designs I vanted to make as ze original set of nine even… but it just never looked good to me… it alvays failed… and I tried so hard... viz so many iterations... and I vant to share zat story as a cautionary tale... -------------------- I do not have it on hand, but ze very first iteration vas basically half a torso on unicycle, viz sword hilt sticking out for head... (Unknown Monster)/Unicyclist/Forger as your elements... Ze design vas not developed enough to survive ze cutting room floor vhen ozer designs simply out shown it, so zen came ze first design I have records of...

Zis is vhen Nuckelavee and daredevil became inseperable in my mind, I vas convinced zis vas paring zat HAD to vork... But zis design in particular, ze horse felt to veak, ze rider bit to normal persay?... Scrapped.

V3 felt bit better, and honestly had I tried to vork bit more on zat horse zis is probably ze design I vould have ended up staying viz, but horses are hard... So vhat better decision to make zan to replace ze horse viz somezing I suck even more at draw?

Viz him being daredevil, having him have bike make sense to me... I really did love ze idea of ze bike being just rocket viz vheels, but cars and bikes are still a veak point for me...

I vould try to make ze bike bit more streamlined so references could help more... and I did like it... I still do... Big problem zough, ze Nuckelavee disappeared in zese iterations, it became more of a headless horseman... If I vas villing to separate Nuckelavee from boz Daredevil and ze idea of having bomb head, zen zis design also vould have been great... but I couldn't let go of ze ear vorm of an idea...

So I tried again... came up viz sketch zat yet again I vas super happy viz... but I could not for ze life of me get ze colour to look good or to pop in good vays... So I tried to make some big changes...

I tried to take ze same idea, same pose and give it different zeme... Again... despite loving it, it just didn't look quite right once I started to try and give it full render, so I scrapped it again and tried again...

Ze last one gave me ze idea of "Vhat if zis vas ze concept of ze Horseman of Var"? And idea created zis character... A cactus knight vielding a gun lance, whos spikes could put anyone in frenzy... Var vhere ever he vent... but it had anozer problem... Nuckelavee vas replaced viz headless horseman again... Daredevil vas replaced viz jousting... ze original idea of him being a drug addicted has been missing since he lost of bike... Eventually I had to ifnally admit to it... ze design vasn't fucking vorking... So I took all ze elements I vanted and gave zem new homes... My very first unicycle idea vill get ze daredevil idea... basically sticking half a mummy on one wheel and called it cast... basically a joke character... Ze Nuckelavee vill be saved for ze Horseman of War... Attached to a train, called "Engine of War" And ze new character I basically just created, tvisted and warped...

Weed Wacker... Dullahan/Jousting/Pumpkin Carving... Originally all ze cactus vas suppoed to be pumpkins, but zis is ze character zat replaced ze last iteration... Killing it... It only felt appropriate for zem to be vearing pieces from him like a trophy. I vorked on zis character for vell over year... so many times if I had been able to disconnect some ideas from eachozer I could have been done so much sooner... but I held onto one zought for so long... it caused ze death of so many designs zat vill likely never see ze light of day again... Alvays been open to huge changes... No idea is so precious it is immune to execution... Kill your darlings... it vill help you in ze long run.

[overcookedsushi]

First (and second) attempt at some Enemy Designs.

Admittedly... Zis took a vhile... So I took a stab at designing ze "first" vave of enemies you should see... Ze downridden Firekin. Unfortunate Waxkin who vere exhiled from ze golden city and have to live in self made towns... Generally peaceful, but zey are starting to fight back... As ze starting enemies, zey should be to hard to fight... zough I still vant zem to pose some kind of challenge... If ve can code ze enemies how ve are hoping, zen each vill have zeir basic moveset along viz environment specific actions and specials zat fill viz different criteria for each one... But I am getting ahead of myself a bit... here vas ze first pass at zem~

Rough ideas, but admittedly not to much "consistency"... From Left to Right ignoring ze PC: Cannon Fodder, Assassin, Brawler, Defensive, Suicide bomber, Weapon User, Ranged And here is ze second attempt... since vhat I vant to talk about next needs ze changes to be seen...

First, vhile is still not perfect, I feel ze visual consistency is SO much better! Zeir is still some zings I am not 100% sure on, but I am much more happy viz zis line up... I vanted zem to feel like a makeshift militia, but still ahve some cult vibes present vizout being heavy-handed... (Ze heavy handed cult fanatics come later~) Some major changes from ze two as vell. Ze suicide bomber vas changed to a more subdued support/buffing role... and ze veapon expert vas scrapped so zat vay all enemies can use veapons... Instead ve have our dedicated Jumpy Boi... Anti-air~ Also vhile it is still considered ranged, I might also try and make our ranged enemy a thief too... But zat is somezing ve vill see once ve get to actual gameplay coding... Zis is all still drawing board for now~ I could keep going on and on about ze zeoretical movesets and specials, but I am just trying to come up viz some designs for now so I have somezing to vork on vhile my partner learns unity coding... Hopefully I can have some more out soon... zen soon I can try my hand and some honest Animation~

[overcookedsushi]

Been meaning to actually post my shit on different places for years... and continuously dumpster catch on fire got tedious, so let's finally try zis~ (I'm not used to zis site, so apologizes if I am doing it entirely wrong...) ------ After four to five years of drawing concept art for projects zat might never happen, I finally decided to focus and start getting some concrete ideas going...

Right now... I don't have much to show, but I definitely have ze vision in my head for ze end goal... Blend of Dead Cells fluidity, Aztez combat, maybe some Pizza tower for great feeling platforming... and ofcourse Fire fighting~

Going to try and keep my scope reasonable for now, considering I am self taught in art and animation and have basic coding at best... but I do have atleast one Playable character concept in mind...

I'd love to have multiple PCs to choose from... since Beat em Ups are a HUGE inspriation... but if I have to limit it to one PC, this is going to be our main Fire Fighter... Entire moveset centered around kicks, speed and committing to movement vizout much say in vhen you "necessarily" stop...