another piece of candy retrospective (Patreon)

i've been putting a more consistent effort into webcomic stuff lately because i have the time and it's something i really enjoy making. i don't think i've ever formally explained how another piece of candy started or the little journey it's been on over the years, so since i've been thinking about it so much, i decided to write it all out!!

let's go~!

some history/background info

i started another piece of candy in august of 2016, as an excuse to draw my characters interacting more outside of the context of their games. the name comes from a show by rock song (i played that game a lot at the time), and because i think of each strip as a piece of candy (but you can't stop eating them... oh no).

i grew up drawing comics (this was definitely not my first webcomic!!) so it comes very naturally to me! when i was a teen, i thought comics would be my career because i really loved manga. but i'm much more suited to games! i still love making comics on the side though--honestly some stories are best told in comic form!

another piece of candy went through a few comic hosting sites before finding its home on comicfury. i tried tapas and didn't like it because it didn't let me make a custom site, and smackjeeves (which i'd hosted a comic on before) got bought out and then shut down... comicfury has a very similar vibe to early smackjeeves, so i'm very happy hosting my comic there!!

it seems like most people use tapas or webtoon these days, but again, i just don't like their format at all... so i'm not gonna bother with them lol. discoverability is not a priority for me anyway, since i feel like it's better to play my games before reading the comics, and not the other way around. i think everyone who reads my comic is someone who sought it out specifically, which makes me happy!

(^this was the original tapas icon! i forgot about it until now...)

the content!

my rules for drawing the strips are:

• nothing is strictly canon (so i can have fun drawing whatever i think of)
• avoid spoilers as much as possible (so fans who haven't played every game will have a better experience)
• keep it pg-13 (no swearing or sexual content)

avoiding spoilers is actually really tricky, because... well, for example, some things about syrup are pretty well established for every game that comes after it  (butterscotch's true form, pastille being a witch). it's also unclear what treat's relationship status is, although... i've been working around this by drawing them in different outfits to give a sense of where we are in the timeline. so in the comic, the triad is vaguely together! maybe once treat is completely finished i can draw a strip establishing them as girlfriends haha.

the age rating was another thing i wanted to stick closely to--some of my content skirts a lot closer to the line (characters say fuck in a lot of my later games) but specifically for the syrup and treat series, i don't let them swear. there's a certain kind of fan who's very put off by periwinkle's overt innuendoes, so i avoid those kinds of jokes too. webcomics are a lot more accessible to a younger audience (the treat fandom in particular skews quite young, being an rpg) so i've been very conscious of that and tried to keep things separated out as much as i can without fully censoring myself.

mostly i just want to have fun! i write things that make me smile, the same as i do for my games. i don't hold back with how silly some of them are, which i think is why i keep coming back to draw more :)

update schedule struggles

initially i tried a M/W/F schedule with some daily updates for the longer storylines, because it was most satisfying for me to be able to share them really quickly like that. but it's a very demanding workload when you have other things going on!!! so i'd take a month off here and there, until october 2017 when i took my first really long break. i only managed to do a few updates here and there during 2018, until the fanmail event in december where i posted daily comics for the entire month.

by 2019, i was REALLY burnt out on comics and didn't update for the entirety of 2020. i'd gone through a few artstyle changes to try to find the lowest-effort-but-still-best-looking way to draw these... i used to skip the rough stage (except for on the more complicated panels) but the art is a little wonky in some places as a result.

it made sense for the time at the pace i was going--the comics were just supposed to be a fun side-thing anyway. but finishing so many comics in such a condensed time period, no matter the level of effort i put in per comic, was always gonna lead to burnout. i always had a lot of fun updating when i did, but my long breaks were very much needed at the time!!

in 2021 i added periwinkle to the cast (since starry flowers had just came out!) and he singlehandedly revived me. i got back to my regular updates for a few months, until i burned out again in may. i'd been working full time on top of making my games for the entire life of this comic, and the M/W/F schedule, while fun, once again proved to be too taxing. at this point i considered these comics to be something i just needed to get out of my system every once in a while, rather than a project i could ever be consistent with in the long term...

current schedule

...which brings us to this year! now i update once a week and it's kinda perfect?! since i'm off social media, it's a lot more beneficial to me (and the readers) to have a stable and known update schedule. i get the satisfaction of sharing early comics with patrons, and i use notion to track what days which comics need to be posted, so i can plan a ton in advance.

(^my spreadsheet to track character appearances)

drawing these strips is a really nice break between working on different games, and the workload is extremely manageable. i love drawing the rough versions in big batches and finishing them whenever i feel like turning my brain off and drawing something simple (and cute!).

since i'm doing gamedev fulltime, i have the mental space to actually think about things and plan better, rather than operating purely on my whims. both have been really fun, but this way is so incredibly sustainable!! i can't emphasize enough how much i love it.

so, thank you to everyone who's enjoyed these comics over the years!!!! i wanna make a print version someday ;_; i love my characters, so i'll keep updating as long as i keep having ideas for more comics!!

<3 nami