HUGE Behind the Scenes Post! Armour Astir Stickers, Q&A Thumbnails, Tabletop Art, and Animal Star Chapters 1-5 Sneak Peak!
Added 2024-11-13 23:50:14 +0000 UTCHey all! I've got a TON of stuff to share with you today! From start to finish, it's...
Some of my freelance for the Armour Astir Kickstarter, stickers of the game's mechs!
Recent stray art I've done for the tabletop campaign I run for my partner and friends! Mostly villains, go figure.
My thumbnails for the recent Q&A update! There's two I didn't post (I'm planning to put the one with Pasha in the next update) as well as some doodles of Agent Cloverleaf's spirits that I whipped up for an interested fan!
And attached to this post, a PDF with FIVE WHOLE CHAPTERS of my in-progress novel, Animal Star, for all of you to read. As before, if you've read previous sneak peaks, I'd recommend you read this brand new version from the start. It remains a rough first pass, subject to change! From now on, I'll probably only be posting excerpts to keep the rest a more polished surprise. I hope all of you who have been taking the time to read it enjoy this chunk and look forward to more Animal Star!
That's all for now! Thank you so much for your support, both here on Patreon, after Chapter 8, and during the Eightfold plush campaign! You have my endless gratitude. Look forward to more soon! Hopefully I will have some Chapter 9 development stuff to start sharing with you guys soon. Thanks again!
Comments
This is supremely useful feedback, thank you so much! It resonates a lot with thoughts I've been having about Chapter 1 and I can tell it's really going to help me hone my chisel as I refine Animal Star going forward. I really appreciate your frankness and that you took the time to write this out! I hope you'll consider sharing feedback again when I post more excerpts!
Zack Morrison
2025-01-21 20:01:10 +0000 UTCI LOOOOOVE those mechs so so so much! T0T
Leo Burn'd
2025-01-21 18:10:32 +0000 UTCOkay wow!!! My first experience of Animal Star, having seen none of the earlier previews. You continue to be one of the coolest writers I know (of). Read this comment if you are interested in my thorough feedback... which is only meant to be subjective and personal of course. The first chapter very nearly turned me away entirely, but then I seriously enjoyed the rest. For that first chapter, the floridity of the prose was in hardcore afterburn; in P'nat it occasionally stops me short with genuine confusion, but here that experience was kind of constant. Since there was a lot of new and unintuitive setting to set, I wanted it to be clearer. (For instance, when it was first introduced that animal traits could appear and disappear quickly, I wasn't sure how literal that was. And then I wasn't sure if "dampened" meant the horns glamour completely cut out.) I think I do now have a pretty strong image of the colorful market ring around the ashy crater within a desert waste, but I struggled a lot to glean the literal facts of the location in the beginning, and I often wanted more structural specifics in later scenes. (Took me a bit to realize the ships were hovering on the inside edge of the crater. And that Chalice wasn't up on a balcony while corresponding with Amphora.) Actually, looking at the first chapter again, it's remarkable how much smoother it is to read now that I know as much context as possible. The artful images are a lot more enjoyable. My other turn-off was I find Chalice pretty strongly unlikable. Firstly, because of their condescending attitude, which strikes me as supported by the narrative voice. There's the bit about the merchant not doing the 'required reading', and then of course how they are to Trough. Their pity at their contrived witticisms going over his head made me so pissed off. Then secondly, because they're so aggressively pathetic. Though maybe what really bothered me was how long the narration spent explaining that trait. I guess it would suit my taste more for the unskilled underdog to focus on the challenge at hand rather than wallow. By that token I did find Chalice much easier to enjoy and root for after Ch1, as we got into the pursuit drama and big fight. I liked seeing them do smart tricks and have the badass insistence on avoiding violence. The one moment from Chalice I found really charming was the ironic mental exchange about criminals with Lexander. When it came to the fight, I enjoyed how both Chalice and Marotte seemed kind of fragile when they got hurt, like you could tell they were the two babies of their gangs flailing inexpertly. I wished that when Chalice's words were magically cut off, the line of dialogue showed it, like maybe the quotation stops and the sentence finishes in italics. I found the Dolls immediately more fun to follow than Chalice, though that also coincided with the prose and dialogue chilling out and being clearer. And I really enjoyed Leonette and Lexander in their turn as POV. The whole thing going on with the dialogue is pretty fascinating. In P'nat, the characters sometimes break out those clever-twisty turns of phrase (and I do find them really cool and clever) when posturing in battle or delivering wisdom, and it strikes me as a campy jaunt into anime land. But here they ALL talk like that ALL the time. In the beginning it felt like too much, but as I got used to it and/or it got less obtuse, I realized it's like Shakespeare poetry dialogue; just like what would be in the plays Marotte likes. Which is something I've kind of always wanted to read and/or write. It's such a departure from the brilliantly dumbcore speech in P'nat, but I'm really enjoying it. Actually I noticed the ant butterfly joke was practically the only bit of Paranatural-like casual absurdity that snuck in, and I'm like always ready for more of that, but it's pretty interesting how different the tone is here. Oh and the "funny babyfather voice" -- loved that one. (For better or worse, using the word 'funny' in that way feels solidly claimed by Razor Rex.) The animal and light magic stuff is totally awesome. You're always giving brilliant JoJo-like parameters and strategic applications to the Paranatural powers, but each of those only gets a tiny bit of screen time, so it's awesome to see a whole story doing that with one magic system. I loved seeing the animorphing and shadow tactics come up in all sorts of ways during action and intrigue. I am soooooo into the interlude about the definitions of the magics drifting (and what an elegant poem). Also that one bit getting into fictional etymology, I will eat that up nonstop. In the first chapter I felt like I was failing to grasp stuff, but during the rest I really liked the way the history and politics and magic were gradually interpretable. I love that I figured out for myself that chimeras are when you do too much magic and get animal brain. A lot of the fantasy elements are really intriguingly weird, and I like that I don't understand yet the significance of the dead and extinct being 'in' the star or of the lifelight that comes out with blood. Also, the audacity of all animals being extinct!! The first big chunks of the interludes felt like a chore of fluffy prose, but I enjoyed them more as OP showed more personality and ended up in conversation. I first interpreted the narrator as already pretty impious and knowingly getting into forbidden ideas, but as the writer teased them, it seemed like maybe they were intended to be a strong believer after all? Is the word 'leer' used the way you use it? I always associate it strongly with like a smug catcalling expression. Anyway yeah, I'm really hype to see what becomes of poor adorable little poor funny screwup mutant Marotte, and evil spider, and sassy sexy princess & cop knight. Oh yeah Amphora was definitely fun too but I guess she left the least impression on me. Thanks very much for this cool entertainment. Your work hits a rare level of funness for me that really has helped me get through some times lately. I hope you have fun making more and that my blunt feedback is helpful.
lemon cupcake
2025-01-20 09:20:55 +0000 UTC"I can fix her" lmao that's perfect
Codebracker
2024-11-14 22:11:46 +0000 UTCSo happy to see Isabel complimented!
Buttered Peppet
2024-11-14 21:03:27 +0000 UTCI hope you enjoy it! It's still in a very rough state.
Zack Morrison
2024-11-14 09:23:57 +0000 UTCBeautiful artwork! It's so fun seeing the other Consortium agents' powers, Popcorn-Goku sounds terrifying. PUMPED for the huge Animal Star drop, been super super excited for it. I'll gradually chip at a Animal Star readthru write and send it to you when it's ready, heheheheheh
Sam Drake (FuzzWool)
2024-11-14 08:57:08 +0000 UTCAwww, I love knowing more about Popova's team (and knowing that they're okay)
areyoshi
2024-11-14 05:15:55 +0000 UTC
