the mortis work log

[skinstealer]

next week's oneshot has been outlined. get ready for our first post-void session writing.....we're nervous, but very excited.

[skinstealer]

it issss felid factor dayy

going to work on getting today's public update done up and see if tony's down to write stellaris'. if we have extra time, we might try to work on outlines for other oneshots and projects!

[skinstealer]

also we will be doing more valentine's day sketch requests later. just got really tired/fibro-y yesterday.

[skinstealer]

slow day, not sure if thosee valentine's day sketches are happening but we shall see. for now, i took a break from our brain exploding to scribble down a schedule for the current scheduled oneshots- we have a rough timeline for when all of the currently rolled solo ones for our system should be happening, and i am pleased to announce that if we keep up our (fairly leisurely) pace of 2 oneshots minimum a month, we're stocked up until december! it's more likely that it's going to be more than 2 due to como collab and como solo ones, but we're pretty confident in our ability to deliver 2 a month without issue. if we have time, energy, and Big Inspiration, we may do more just on our own!

our goal as well is monthly twines...this month was going to be a surprise twine for LSDjam but it was just not in the cards to work out, so we're saving that idea for next year's jam. this month...will be the universal constants episode 1 mirror! perfect for if you want a personal archive of the project, and/or if you want to tip us and como for our hard work! it'll be name your price, so hopefully it gets us some more traction on itch.io like frostbite did.

in general, we've been having a lot of thoughts on how things should be viewed from a career perspective. we'll be honest, the forums and discord have gotten really slow over the years, and while we will always maintain both to the best of our ability, i think us and como are going to start looking at those two as a social space for us to have fun and post stuff at a low stress pace, vs going OH GOD OUR BUSINESS IS DYING. because frankly: itch.io has been doing really well for us, along with the oneshot/kaleidoclub funding. commission wise we feel the least stressed we've been in years due to moving away from visual art as an imperative, and itch.io and our patreons have provided solid funding for things. we are going to be taking on a few additional expenses starting next month, so we'll see how it goes, but i think it's to the point that if we get serious and try to release one twine a month, whether that's a smaller kaleidoclub twine, a project mirror, or a BIG project release, we could seriously gain traction and make this work financially. the forums and discord will still be our focus socially seeing as itch.io does lack engagement (which is a big motivator for us, we love talking about our work), but we're definitely going to try and just get silly with it and have fun on here vs trying to force ourselves to be The Most Professional Ever. i dunno! i think it'll be good.

longer post than we usually do in the work log, but if anyone has feedback, please feel free to drop that here or on discord!

[skinstealer]

finished the backlog update! yaaaaay

[skinstealer]

tending to forum stuff to start today, got a blog entry and an infinite fusion update post to do....didnt get a whole lot done on the wizit oneshot prep yesterday so i guess we are doing that today. may also try to knock out some TCP design comms from a while back? we'll see!

[skinstealer]

the wizit oneshot is now outlined, and thanks to the question game we have a really good grasp on maurice and numfi's characterization! should be able to write it next week.

[skinstealer]

today's todo

• update question game roster with this week's characters
  
• have a mini petz gameplay session and blog about it to warm up the brain
  
• make a pokemon OC
  
• design new character(s) for The House and update that
  
• get images inserted into the universal constants twine
  
• work on the jimbo twine for next month
  
• character dev for jay's roster of guys
  

[skinstealer]

we actually got all of that stuff done yesterday! yayyy! well, today's our off day, so while we're going to be doing Some Things, it's not gonna be a big work day. here's the plan

• finish image descriptions for UC and get that update out the door (como is finishing the last panel as we speak)
  
• get the last images linked in the UC twine so we can send it to vyn for CSS style matching
  
• do a gameplay session + blog it
  
• tabletop is happening somewhere within this but should be fairly low stress
  
• pokemon OC nonsense (maybe 2 today...need to catch up!)
  
• petz sendouts
  
• continue to work on character notes but casually this time
  

[skinstealer]

ok ended up only doing the universal constants stuff and tabletop yesterday but tuesdays are off days anyway so ~yay~ anyway

gameplan for today. wednesday is dedicated PCA development/prep day so i think it's time to look over episode 2 and make sure our ducks are all in a row for that, as well as start doing update divisions and a final check over on episode 4.
aside from that...

• we did do a gameplay session yesterday so i gotta get that posted. heartthrob time!
  
• pokemon OCs. For Real. it's serious business
  
• the house update?
  
• maybe petz sendouts if im not dead from PCA shit
  

[skinstealer]

OH JESUS CHRIST IT'S BEEN SIX MONTHS
OUR LIFE IS SOMEWHAT BACK TOGETHER NOW
WHEE

uhhh stuff we will probably be doing this week- as always no promises, this is more for our own reference than anything.

• we are working on a NSFW twine with como! it should be out early september at latest. it's universal constants relevant, and features a character we haven't had on screen in a very, very long time...and it's technically originated as a oneshot donation! wow, two birds one stone!
  
• plaything update not currently planned, us and shivers both have a ton going on right now and it's just not ideal. similar for route 2B for MT 2.0- soon, but not now.
  
• MT 2.0's first update for issue #2 is in fucking hell right now because our shoulders have been dead for a while. the first panel out of 4 for it is done, but it fucked up my arm real bad last night and i kind of want to wait for the move to be over and see what happens then. we'll see, but probably not this week.
  
• we move on the 2nd! we're getting the last prep work done for it IRL, and should be okay for it. it's gonna be a fucking stressful day, but the end result is us getting to a new, permanent home- and one us and como can share safely for a long time to come. as such i have a shitload of cleaning to do, by our metrics anyway.
  
• we have started taking petz commissions, and are trying to get into a regimen of doing Something hexing-related every day. this may sound like overdoing it, but petz is one of the few things we can do that doesn't put any physical strain on us, and is a self soothing activity once we make a habit of it. our best coping periods in our last living situation were when we were taking nightly time to do petz. that's the goal!
  
• as such, we're alternating Work Hexes and Fun Hexes. today was a fun hex day, so...tomorrow? work. gonna be doing a request hex for a friend, Rats on discord. it's gonna be a spoooooky clown. hooray!
  
• probably one session of our infinite fusion egglocke squeezed in there, that would be nice. it'd be sitting down with pokemon for 2 hours sometime, which is easy enough to squeeze in. we'd really like to blog about that, too!
  
• if the stars align where our brain works and we have the spare time to do it, we're gonna try to finalize route 2A for MT 2.0. it is almost fucking done with its final draft. i'm gonna lose it. 
  
• probably gonna squeeze in a couple of SS14 sessions. not gonna make that nightly/daily, but it'd be nice to make time when opportunities arise.
  
• also como has to go fucking get barbecue from the barbecue place nearby because jesus fucking christ we move in a week and we have a 50 dollar giftcard and that shit is not cheap and we want it. this is important. i will not be reviewing that because it would be highly identifiable and i don't want to doxx myself. thanks
  

things i would like to get back to in the near future-

• we are working on a petz solo RPG and i really need to fucking get back to it. it's pretty sick and our playtesters enjoyed it a lot.
  
• obviously, return of plaything and maze trials when our body and brain are fucking behaving enough for it. those two projects are HUGE priorities for public posting rn, so stay tuned.
  
• our other public posting project priority (wow) is, of course, universal constants. who could have guessed? episode 4 is halfway rewritten, we have one more big scene to do for the main draft. that is likely waiting until our mystery NSFW twine is written up, which means the epiosde ideally won't be worked on too long after we move. this one's gonna be a doozy. please brace for horny because we are unhinged and unchained from here on out.
  
• we are currently watching Stone Ocean and i am developing opinions on it. Big opinions. brace yourself for full review when we're done with it, which may even happen before the move, we shall see
  
• we have uh. a couple memoir pieces we're working on. we've hesitated to write directly about our life, but...recent stuff makes us think we probably should. not just the hellish experience of the past 4 months, but all of the huge life revelations we had in the process. a lot of it is stuff that i've never seen people talk about, and i feel like it's kind of things that Need to be talked about, and demonstrated. so we'd like to, and we have some good stuff for it. stay tuned, one of these things is gonna take five million years and the other is probably sooner? we'll see. not planning on posting previews for either of them publicly.
  
• petz videos and streams....
  
• getting a shitload of twines out. we were going to this month and then we got run over by like 5 metaphorical cars in a row and somehow came out better for it- but we do have twines to get out. current roster of stuff lined up ASAP: a chunk of plaything in twine form (will probably take a bit, we want to add bonus content), MT2.0 #1 (will involve written bonus content that i gotta figure out, as well as some fancy javascript work!), universal constants episode 3 (fairly straightforward, this one will likely be first seeing as i can do it in an evening if i'm in the right headspace for it), and i feel like i'm forgetting something but we are starting there.   
  

other things...

• one of the hex commissions is a trapling variant- halloween themed! whoo! this means we're gonna get off our ass and release some wattplants files for petz properly...anyone interested in poking around with those?
  
• i'd like to figure out some threads related to the SS14 server we have going on, though i'm not sure if vyn would be up for linking the IP outside of the discord...still, it'd be nice to have somewhere to post about it. we'll see.
  
• slay the princess gets the director's cut soon(?) and i'm gonna explode. we will probably post a lot about that.
  
• when beastie ball comes out i will explode even more and you will never hear us shut up about it until the end of time.
  
• we will be getting VEEERY into toy collection, crafting, and photography at the new place. you have been fucking warned. the posting will not stop. beware.
  

[skinstealer]

good afternoon folks i am waiting on aforementioned barbecue. as it turns out the site DOES accept gift cards for delivery and i was lied to. so that's coming soon

i am guessing twine work will get done today but we'll see. depends on how como is feeling
shoulders are doing pretty good so far but i am not about to test fate. gonna let them rest today, take muscle relaxants tonight now that i know they aren't sending me to turbo hell, and then do some stain removal stuff tomorrow, ideally. gotta get that done.
messaged our new landlord about moving stuff. should go fine.
i think i will settle down after food to do a petz comm while watching jojo. clown time!

that sounds solid for now, i think. we'll see how it goes, i'm a little head-fuzzy today from having to do four goddamn phonecalls but with some food and rest i should be a-okay. onward.

(also, as a refresher- comments, questions, and casual discussion ARE welcome here!)

[skinstealer]

okay, well. that was the best meat i've ever had in my life. shoutout to the local barbecue chain and pork belly burnt ends. i feel like crying now, it was that good.

which brings us to Tasks, because that absolutely blasted my energy back. como is writing some project stuff atm and i don't want to disturb him, so i'm going to work on some slugs i think. our petz bazaar shop cleared out nearly entirely overnight so i gotta restock that son of a bitch.

here's an optional question for those reading (and you can answer this whenever not necessarily immediately as i post it, open question)- if YOU had to make a cool color palette, what would you base it on? it'd need to have 14 colors, but similar hues/etc are fine, and limited palettes aren't really a problem. what would you do?

[King-Clod]

I'm always a sucker for sunset color patterns, or general sky themed ones

[skinstealer]

[image description: a bunch of nudibunches- petz bunnies with seaslug + sea snail features- in shades of blue, teal, purple and cream]

bitches love my slugs (i made these last night but whatever)

[skinstealer]

I'm always a sucker for sunset color patterns, or general sky themed ones

this gave me an excellent idea for a palette, actually. noted for later!

[skinstealer]

[image description: more nudibunches, this time in bright, vibrant colors- especially pink, green, orange and purple.]

slugs x2. i nap now

[skinstealer]

our friend will helped us make a gimmick batch o'slugs. hooray


[image description: 6 nudibunches. 2 of them have bright, neon colors on black, 2 have a heat-map style color scheme, and 2 are magenta and cyan.]

[skinstealer]

well shit got kind of fucking weird and crazy. hello! i have a lot of updates but let's just keep to the big one for now:

WE CAN DRAW AGAIN

namely, we have completely switched over to trackpad art. it is fun as fuck and causes WAY less fucking strain on us than tablet. it's almost like we hate working with tablet and have wanted to return to trackpad art as a primal urge that we ignored for years. incredible! we want to draw so much fucking more, and in LARGE amounts- but now with breaks! as it turns out it is way easier on our brain to pick something up and put something down when it doesnt feel like there's a physical commitment. healthier work habits ahoy!

so, we definitely love art again- here's two big evidences of that.

first off: a fusion grid adopt batch! it will probably be a bit before these guys are fully unleashed because i want to do ~presentation~, but they'll be 35 USD each. around half of them will probably be preclaimed by the folks who helped us pick the types for this test run, but we'll see. i'm going down a list to have people pick.



[image description: a grid made up of tiny previews of TCP hybrids, with the left side of the grid being vintage, armor, antihero, and dog types, with the top side being proxy, bisection, bedtime and chaos. i promise these will be described better when the full designs are revealed for the big thread.]

this is our first time doing something like this, and i'll be honest- i'm fucking obsessed. this took under 3 days to make 16 little guys and i'm insanely proud of all of them. this should be a fun way for us to flex our design muscles, and get some income in the same stroke. good stuff. it was also very fun to figure out what traits go into a hybrid from each type, consistently...i'd love to see what yall think too.

secondly...


[image description: a couple of closeup crops from an illustration. in one, a distressed TCP face is covered by some sort of sliced surface featuring a scribbly spiral eye and wiggly mouth. another is a small pretzel type TCP, looking freaked. another is a fleshy closeup that's harder to make out.]

ROUTE 2C IS BACK IN BUSINESS

i made the cover for 2C in a few hours! far longer than usual for us, but frankly, it came out stunning enough that i don't think people would even be able to tell the difference between it and our old style unless they were looking for it- and we can only go up from here.

2C has...i think 2 panels to do, and then update 1 can come out. then we're back in business, just like that. hooray!

i hope this stuff makes yall excited too, because goddamn

[skinstealer]

beige here, updating this again i suppose. we shall see

uhhh current docket. we have three twines planned for the last 2 months of 2024, potentially some smaller ones mixed in but We Will See. one of them is almost entirely done and is LONG overdue (universal constants ep 3 lol) but needs some pretty serious editing work to meet our current prose standards. MT 2.0 #2 is obviously one of the other major ones. we'll be finishing 2A...this week or next, god willing, and then it's a matter of getting everything organized and polished up.

the third twine...well, it's even more overdue than the universal constants one. yes, folks

it is time

for the plaything mirror twine.



the first chunk of it will be up through the pool scene with cross, and will be a whopping 23k words long. we're looking at an estimated 40k words for issue 2 of MT2.0, and UC is around 8k words. you're going to have plenty to read this winter!

ideally thisll get us back in the saddle on releases. UC ep 4 is well under way and is over halfway finished writing-wise, and we're hoping to knock out a large chunk of it with como today and with any luck, wrap up the script for it by the end of next week. MT2.0 issue 3 we are waiting on finishing #2 in entierity before doing the heavy lifting of dev work, but will probably begin character development in our background processing this week. how does that work? maybe an explanation for another day.

today, my plan is finishing the UC ep 3 edit (hopefully) so i can get that bitch in twine ASAP. saying itd be out today is kind of pushing it, but this week would be nice, especially with the election threatening to make us doomer out. we'll see. we've been fussing with TCP designs again as well and that's been very nice, so i'd like to do a couple of those in between more in-depth work for enrichment and also commission fulfillment. aside from that...

we'll see. let's start there.