420 - Art VS Product.
HELLO AND WELCOME to another Monday post, gentlemen and bros. How was your week? Are you looking into the future thinking, 'I still have time,' or looking into the past thinking, 'How did it come to this?' Well, that would depend on your age, I guess. Well, in any case, this should do it for the intro. Let's do this thing already!
NEW AI SLOP. My Discord channel is full of awesome AI creations, and some of them go harder than they have any right to. For example, this one featuring our beloved L.O.L.A. taking matters into her own hands. I absolutely love how unnecessarily badass this one looks. Unfortunately, I forgot to write down the name of the uploader, and now I can’t find it—I feel very embarrassed. But the “ai-n-stuff” channel is way too packed to be able to find anything there now. Anyway, the full version of this poster is in the attachment, so make sure to check it out.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK. A few days ago, YouTube actually recommended me a decent video for once. It’s nothing revolutionary—basically just a reiteration of the old and tired argument that “things were better back in the day.” But if you’re into that kind of thing, you might enjoy it. Anyway, here’s the link, just in case: https://youtu.be/WOQbEBcQ0bo?si=cluTJULtEcpBPT_6
THE MATING SEASON page in the store has been updated and now includes a freshly assembled APK file. Big thanks to Xaljio for finding the time to compile this one for us. I tested the game from start to finish on my phone, and it looks and plays great. ^_^
ANOTHER AI SLOP. This one is by Mr.Lazare, who has completely overloaded my inbox with absolutely fantastic AI creations over the past week. Seriously, there are so many that I don’t even know what to do with them. T_T Maybe I should put together a RAR archive and just share it next Monday or something. It would probably have to be a patrons-only post, though, since some of the pics occasionally contain naughty bits. In any case, I thought this pic of my avatar checking out Dahr’s Oddities store with the girls was extra cute, so I decided to share it with you all. The full version can be found in the attachment to this post.
THE SHOP. New Item at the store/gallery. Another blast from the past completely overloaded with absolutely unnecessary details. Even these days, I tend to spend a lot of time on each one of my illustrations, but it's nothing compared to how I used to do things back in the day. Well, in any case, another old commission from JCP, featuring Duke Nukem, of all characters. Go check it out :)
THE MANUALS. Do you know those vitamin C tablets that you drop into a glass of water, and 3 minutes later you have a healthy carbonated drink? I am very skeptical about its actual health benefits, but it tastes great and I love it. (Too bad you're not supposed to take more than one per day.) So I buy a pack of these tablets every few months, open it up, and throw the very colorful 'How to use' instruction into the garbage bin. And this morning while I was doing that, a thought struck me: how come this unknown pharmaceutical company can afford to put fully colored manuals into their pill boxes, and freaking megacorporations like SONY and Nintendo can't? That's it. Just another depressing thought in my head.
AND YET ANOTHER AI SLOP. You'll have to forgive me for spamming you with AI stuff, but I honestly don't know what to do. There are so many good ones. This one was sent to me by Mr. Lazare again. Uncompressed version is in the attachments.
TOKYO XANADU is one of my favorite games when it comes to the whole school-setting JRPG genre. I beat it once on my PS4 (a long time ago) and since then wanted to play it again, but the moment never felt right. A few days ago though, I felt like I needed a bit of a morale boost, so I decided it's now or never. I went with the Japanese version since that's what I've been trying to do with all my games lately. It allows me to farm extra 'purpose points' and say to myself: 'I am not just playing a game, I am also learning.'
THE NOSTALGIA. Nothing beats visiting the local electronics store and watching a trailer for the first Legend of Cold Steel game with the local kid who sometimes complains about how modern games just have no soul. Good stuff. I really missed this.
THE WORK. Good news everyone. The Reporter Trainer development is going according to plan—with no end in sight! You know that 'Coming Soon*' joke? Well, I say we add another asterisk to it. So, Reporter Trainer is coming soon * *
SERIOUSLY THOUGH, if I had to point out one thing that I find absolutely unpleasant about game development, it would be the necessity to spend so much time working on something while not being able to share it with anyone. That being said, I wouldn't have it any other way, of course. You know I don't like incremental updates/releases like many other indie gamedevs do. Anyway, it is what it is, pay me no mind, I am just venting. All is good, the work continues, and I will see you all next Monday. Laterz.
-Aka-
A few links just in case:
subscribestar.adult/akabur
Comments (26)
I have started watching TMNT animated. So I will be fully ready, when the game releases soon*
I hope you mean the 80's one! :)
Can’t wait for Reporter Trainer… Looking forward to updating my Akabur game library!
Soon** ^_^
Damn! That Ai Ashelin looks so HOT!
I know! #^_^#
I will be checking those links after I look for that Ashlynn on the net. You know she is one of the best girls.
Yeah, Ashelin will always be one of the hotest girls :)
What a packed post this week 😄 First of all, the L.O.L.A. poster was made by Nanarul, L.O.L.A. biggest fan (you forgot his name again! 😅). He’s the one behind that badass version, so credit where credit is due. As for the AI overload… I’ll gladly take responsibility for spamming your inbox 😇 It’s just too much fun experimenting with your characters in different styles (the Pixar ones were especially surreal to see). But honestly, those reinterpretations only work because the original designs are strong and full of personality (and good memories). That said, the real highlight for me this week is still Skater Girl. Avy keeps looking better and better. There’s something very confident and natural about her presence now, even small previews feel alive. And I’m really happy to see the “doll” approach back for the main characters. That system adds so much flexibility and nuance, but I know it must take a ton of time to build properly. I don’t mind waiting. If the result is a complete game packed with details, polished scenes, and carefully crafted text, then take all the time you need. When a game ends up feeling cohesive and rich, nobody remembers the wait, but everyone remembers if it was rushed and disappointing. I’d much rather wait longer for something that feels like a full vision than get something too early and "half-baked". Take car!
As usual, thank you for crediting the person who shared that awesome poster with all of us :) I am glad you like what you see of Avy so far. I am doing my best to keep the spoilers to the minimum so that when you finally play the game you'd feel like you discovering thing and learning about her on your own :) Yeah, well, I actually do mind waiting, lol. As an artist I want to just share my work right away and get my dopamine spike :) But at the same time I know that I only have one chance at a good first impression, and that is why I release my games the way I do: fully finished and polished to the maximum of my ability. Anyways, coming soon ** P.S. Thank you for your patience.
Ay, glad you're well and things are coming along! I had a funny thing happen recently. One of my cousins, playing my old PS2, commented to me that he was tired of modern games because 'they just feel like they aren't written as well, anymore.' He's like 12 lol. I pointed out it's hard to fit in good writing when they're so busy making sure the shells fly out of your rifle realistically and he got a chuckle!
Your cousin sounds like smart young man! :) And yes, it's much easier to infuse your project with soul when you have a small team. They days literal hundreds of people usually work on one project, -_-
Call me boring or old or hater or whatever, but when I see a pic and realize it's made by AI, I completely lose any interest to it. I dunno, I just can't care less about all those details, composition etc., no matter how "good" all this looks, my brain instantly marks it as "another effortless AI shit" and swipes all my attention away from it...
Well, AI is here to stay and there is nothing we can do about it. If I could erase it from existence, I would do so without hesitation. And I would do the same to smartphones and every console released after PlayStation 3. Streaming services would be next. And after that, I would destroy all electric cars, and after that, I would nuke all the subscription services... and lose all my Patreon income. And just like that, I would be back taking foot fetish commissions. Hm... When I look at it that way, AI is the lesser evil. >_<
Mr Lazare still can’t understand the signal , and leave our senpai alone
Actually, I would rather MrLazare keep on going. That way I could complain about it next Monday while sharing all the amazing creations he keeps sending me :)
Holy crap! You used my gif. You just made my day.
Dude, those videos you shared are awesome. It was really hard to decide which one to use for the gif. I especially likes the April one. :)
Four twenty 🔥
That's right! The streak continues!
That last gif is also an AI product?
It’s pretty good, right? Just don’t look at the bag's strap on her shoulder. :)
Epic news, and cool stuff, yes AI can do some really incredibly stuff for ourselves, but it's still not consistent enough to make good comics, but still for pinups it works great, thanks for sharing
Yeah, it still feels like nobody know what to do with AI and what to use it for exactly. :)
U cute
No u