Currently on art: Post-FFM 2021, the upcoming studying year, two released games

Hi everyone!

It’s been a while since the previous Currently on art update, so it’s time to write and post another one!

I was actually supposed to write this update (and do a bunch of other things) earlier this week, but I ended up getting sick, which threw a major wrench in all of my plans. Fortunately, it’s not COVID, but my productivity did take a major hit since I didn’t feel up for working on most of the things. Plus, I’m staying indoors basically in quarantine until I’ve gotten better to avoid infecting anyone else and causing unnecessary COVID tests, so I haven’t been able to run the errands I was supposed to.

In other news, FFM 2021 came and went. It was a blast even though there was a challenge or two that brought me a good bunch of headache. The FFM Discord channel also brought its own fun into the mix, as at some point during the month an AI that generates images based on prompts was shared there and mostly cursed mayhem ensued.

This year, the story I want to highlight is my favorite, A Fake News Cake from day 15. I did debate between highlighting it and day 17’s story, A Dark Heart, but since the FFM version of the latter is a majorly cut one, I decided to give the spotlight to A Fake News Cake. The full version of A Dark Heart will be in the upcoming FFM 2021 collection, which will come sometime during the autumn. When exactly, I’m not sure; I’m planning to start working on it in early September, but since my studies are starting around the same time, I may have to postpone that if the initial workload turns out too big.

Speaking of my studies, I have news: a few days into FFM, I managed to finish my last bachelor’s degree course and my degree was approved earlier this month. I’ll be beginning my Master’s degree studies now. Woo! I’ll most likely spend most of my studying time of this semester at home since my city’s COVID situation has once again taken a turn for worse and I suspect that most, if not all, of my courses will be remote ones. Hopefully by the time the spring semester begins, the situation has become so good that we can finally get back to normal, what with more people getting fully vaccinated. At least I want to hold onto the hope that we’ll be able to celebrate May Day like we used to before the pandemic next year and that by the time I get my Master’s degree, things will be fully normal again.

Well, we’ll see how things are closer to the end of the year. I hope the situation will be far better by then. While I wait for that, I’ll try to have a healthier work/life balance and actually allocate time for self-care and personal projects. Maybe this time at least a part of it will stick and I’ll start to lead a more organized life instead of the semi-organized chaos that life has been especially ever since the pandemic hit my country.

In the meantime, instead of working on the web programming project I was supposed to start, I found myself bitten by a Transformers Prime inspiration bug and went on a long-needed revising spree with The Fate’s Way and, at the same time, migrated it to Archive of Our Own from FanFiction.Net since I got frustrated with the appearance of pop-up ads on FFN and decided that TFW, much like Lyokostar 1, can find a better and more organized home on AO3. As a sidenote, before anyone mentions Adblock, I know it’s an option, but I’m of the opinion that if a site gets obnoxious enough with its ads that I’d need it to use Adblock, I’m better off with a competitor (if one exists, which unfortunately isn’t the case with YouTube). Anyways, my TFW revising spree was going on surprisingly well until I got sick, which ground the whole thing to a halt. I’ll be resuming it once I’ve well enough to be certain that my less-than-optimal state won’t affect the quality of the revisions negatively. I’ll probably begin the web programming project once I’ve gotten better AND gotten a functioning Linux installed on my laptop, whether it’s Kubuntu (or some other Ubuntu derivative) or some other distribution.

Oh, and I also made two game jam games during FFM with a friend of mine: Well, Well, Well, a Twine game where you end up into a well and have to get out through underground tunnels, and Campfire Tales, a 1000-word visual novel made with Ren’Py where you can hear a story about ghosts, garlic bread or dragons. I handled writing, audio and a notable part of the coding, while my friend nofuu did suberb art for both games. Please do check them out; they’re both free to play!

Now that what’s happened since the previous post has been discussed, here’s the FFM 2021 statistics!

Now, let’s see how things are going with my projects, as per my project widget:

• Exceptional Jedi: Chapter 9 of Aces is in progress. All writing is at 1881 days. Jedova’s reference has seen quite little progress, although I did get to move to back view’s lineart. I need to make a comic about Valentine Clanker and lots of other drawings. I’ve been creating data on Scrivener to build a wiki of sorts there so that I can flesh things out for writing, although it hasn’t been progressing at all for a good while since I haven’t had much inspiration with EJ. Revising is still in a standtill.
• The Fate’s Way: Chapter 48 is in editing. I still need to redraw the regular Alyssa and also Alyssa’s friends and family and the other important people, like Matti, someday. I’ve revised chapters 1-18 and the halloween special and posted the revised versions on Archive of Our Own as the definitive edition, while the FFN version has been abandoned and now directs any prospecting readers to AO3. I’ve got the revised versions of chapters 19 and 20 waiting for alphareading, but that’ll have to wait until I’ve healed and can put out the best versions of the chapter I currently can.
• Off-DA projects: Nothing has happened here.
• Greenfield: I haven’t edited this much since FFM and TFW‘s revising have taken higher priority (and interest). I’m currently working on editing chapter 3. Read more about the project here.
• Lyokostar: The translation of Lyokostar 1 has been put on a hiatus because I can’t deal with the shitty writing that’s the current original version right now. It’ll definitely be a while before I tackle Altestar 2‘s translation. I’ve got some parts and Megastar 6 still unreleased because I haven’t gotten around to doing it; they’ll appear online at some point. The monthly Lyokostar 3 oneshots in Finnish are on a hiatus because nobody cares. References need to be done.
• A Wandering Aura: I haven’t worked on this at all for a long while since I haven’t found the time and enough interest for it.
• Gaming: Habitica, Duolingo, Pokemon GO and Pokémon Masters EX keep on going. I’ve also returned to playing Transformers: War for Cybertron, but more than that I’ve been playing Ghost of Thushima.
• Other stuff: I’ve got a new FFM reading backlog to go through during the following months. I’m taking a break from making collections. Reading is mostly still in a standstill on the book side, although I did read a bit of Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to The Force. I made two games during FFM with a friend (Well, Well, Well and Campfire Tales). I should get back to video editing.
• Personal life: COVID is still going on, as usual. I’ve gotten my Bachelor’s degree and my first COVID vaccine dose, plus I’ve gotten through FFM and two game jams. The new studying year and my Master’s degree’s studies are starting soon.

I’d say that’s all for this update. Thanks for reading, take care, keep wearing masks and get vaccinated!