Saturday Update! (Patreon)

Hello everyone! Sorry for the late update! I had a rough night and accidentally slept in a lot 😅 But it's still Saturday so let's get the show on the road!

I have a few extra things I wanna talk about so this might be a longer one!

Art Finalization: 380/743 | 51%

If you're not interested in my blathering please scroll to the bottom haha!

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Alright, let's start with the least fun topic [ and get it over with LMAO ] - increasing censorship.

Last Saturday I was blindsided by an email from Etsy stating that they took down my Strade daki listing for showing too much penis. I was surprised since as far as I knew, Etsy was welcoming to adult content.

However, my fears grew as I looked into it and realized that Etsy had quietly announced an update to their content rules a month ago- to go into effect on July 29th. As a seller, I was not sent an email or otherwise made aware of this change.

The new content rules are a massive puritan wipe. No more cartoon penises, no more dildos, no more BDSM gear, no more cross stitch with the words 'choke me mommy', and extra infuriatingly-no more gender affirmation devices like packers or synthetic chests.

Instead of cleaning up the search options and giving sellers an adult category of their own that minors and uninterested buyers would be opted out from by default- they have chosen to go the 2018 Tumblr route and simply broadly ban the content.

For myself, I manage to get by on the outskirts still. I have marked all of my items as 'mature' [ penis or not ] because I want to be compliant and I dont want my items shown to minors. Unfortunately, there is no option for consenting adult buyers to see my items in the results. My store can now only be reached by direct link, and I fear it will hurt my sales.

So far though, I still seem to be making some sales. My buyers appear to spreading the word of how to reach my shop, and I am grateful.

However, I remain fearful and concerned about the future. Many sellers with longtime businesses are much worse off than I am, and I am scared these bans will continue to spread.

Several American states have already outright banned pornography and I would say that 80-90% of my customers are American.

Even though I am loathe to mention politics in an arena with comments, I am forced to beg you all to please consider the precarious situation adult content creators are in right now. If you are American and you believe in the right of consenting adults to buy and consume sexual content that is produced safely, please vote to preserve that freedom in November.

My ability to fund and produce YKMET:Lawrence and YKMET:Ren over the next years may hang in the balance.

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Next up, in an entirely different direction- something more fun! Last week I got some light heckling over my art style and it gave me the idea to talk about my art direction for people who might be simply curious about why I've deliberately changed my art approach for this new game.

I'm sure you've noticed that my art style for YKMET is quite different from TPOF. It's more cartoonish and simple. I actually have a few reasons for this!

Game Tone: The first reason is the tone of the YKMET series compared to TPOF. TPOF [ aside from some paranormal style callbacks to BTD ] has a very 'realistic' tone, in that all of the characters are humans and the scenarios are meant to feel like 'something that could happen'. The art style reflects this, and everything is drawn with a bend towards realism. There's heavy detail and realistic shading. I wanted the game to feel kind of like a live action movie, if that makes sense.

In contrast, YKMET [ which is based on the old BTD games ] has much more 'fantastical' flair, with more strange characters, strange scenarios, and an art direction that I would describe as 'wonky'. I wanted YKMET to preserve these vibes. I want these new games to feel more like an interactive comic book than a live action production.

Time Management: The art style I am using for YKMET takes much less time to draw than TPOF's art did. TPOF had around 180 CGS and around 150 sprites [ not including the DLC ], and it took over 3 years to produce. YKMET has, as you can see above, 743 images for me to produce [ although some are mere components of sprites ] and I want production to be under 2 years.

My art direction for YKMET revolves around a feeling of motion, change, and fluidity. This means a lot more coding animation, more different poses, and more images in general. Part of my reasoning for making TPOF's DLC was actually to test this new approach to sprites- and people seemed to love it, so I went ahead and brought it into YKMET. So far, I feel like this approach is really paying off and the feel of the game is very fun! I hope you all agree once you get to play it too ^o^

Personal Pleasure: I have to mention that I simply like drawing in a more cartoony style. The roots of my art style are cartoony, and my art from many years ago actually resembles this new YKMET style more than TPOF's semi-realism. I have a long history with heavy black lineart, comic-book approach, and stark shading. I just really enjoy it! Working on the art for YKMET has been a very enjoyable and fun experience for me, and I believe that will shine through in the quality of it. This isn't to say I didn't like working on TPOF or I regret that art- I do not. I even think that learning to draw in a more realistic way really boosted my art skills in a way that's evolved my cartoony approach and made something new and exciting.

All in all, I am confident about my new approach. I really think people are going to enjoy the look of the new game ^o^

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And now for the chunk you've been waiting for- Sprite time!

Last week I worked on two sets of sprites that go together. Ren and Strade in a part of the game that I would classify as 'new content that is only very loosely based on the original BTD story'.

Since this content is more spoilery, I'm afraid I'll have to hold back more and only show a couple pics:

 Sorry I can't show much of Strade haha!

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Thank you all so much for your support and for sticking with me as times get tougher.

I'm always going to keep doing my best and I will keep fighting! I won't give up!

Stay cool and safe this weekend- and see you next week!