This month is packed with progress and excitement! So I will skip over the usual musing and let’s cut to the chase!
Here are the things that kept me busy this past month, aside from the day-to-day ‘job’ related stuff…
Creating and hacking stuffs
Game Dev
Qin - I am excited to announce that this game is now available on Google Play store (playable on Android phones and Chromebooks), Itch.io & gd.games (any devices with browsers, such as PC, iPads etc) It’s a pre-release version therefore completely free (no Ads, IAPs), please give it a play and send me any feedback.
Drawing
Weekly project drawing (comics) - here is a taste of the comics I’ve done this month - full 3-panel versions are on most of my social feeds, Artstation, and of course, my (paid) Patreon page.
Easiest way to make sure not to miss them is to follow the social links on the LinkTree profile)
Study drawings (pardon the snail :p that one was rushed)
#FanArt (always fun to do!)
In October I will follow the tradition (since 2019) to participate in #inktober event and posting drawings daily. My weekly comics, study and fan arts drawings will be paused for this month.
Writing
Book#2 project -“100 Drawings of Tang Dynasty Poems” (唐詩一百畫) - I’ve been making great progress editing this book, but it’s looking like it may take longer, hopefully will be publishing by the Christmas holiday time.
The pre-released drafts of this book will continue to be published/shared with my Patreon members every week!
The Web
Heta Studio - This month I spent quite some time working on a more concise business plan. It is semi-finalized and execution has begun with three major invocation steps:
In addition to my drawings and publications, the new focus will be on the game development - with the charter of “making games that are fun, AND helps to learn things” (begging to differ from “making games that are educational but only try to be cute and playful”).
Website redesigned - when the site was started in 2020 I had no clue what it was going to be. I ran at least 2 major iterations to make it the PoC of business ideas (1st was just a blog, 2nd was a creator incubator idea…). This time the site is revamped to reflect the new focus.
having a game development process designed to be slim and scalable (using Notion) - we are now on the 3rd ever [agile] sprint to drive progress/impacts
Dedicated business profile/pages on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X (aka Twitter), in addition to Youtube. The LinkTree page was updated to reflect this.
My Patreon members continue to get all the full resolution arts and pre-released writing pieces every week! I am also looking forward to providing soft copies of my books and games to my patrons later this year.
Merch Store - no updates, but check them out!
Consuming Stuffs
Reading - Continue reading “Tracers in the Dark” by Wired’s Andy Greenberg
Gaming - Continue to play The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom; stopped Torchlight II… I peaked at some of its reviews and they all agree on the story being not very interesting, so I am not spending my time grinding for a game without a great story. Played through Tacoma, a short and interesting indie game about space, corporate greed, and AI, and reminds a lot of 2001 Space Odyssey, very relevant to the current hype on AI tech; explored Inscryption and Falconeer both very interesting games.
TV/Movies - Get Out (yes, it's great!); Love & Death ('love' it!); White Lotus (binged the first season, interesting); Junk Head (this is a gem recommended by the great Animation Obsessive - available via Hoopla);
That’s it for this issue of my newsletter! If you really finished reading the above, I thank you, and wish that my sharing would either entertain you, or inspire you (if you’ve been thinking about your own creative projects).