Chapter 8: The Hostage, and the TWS soundtrack!

Hi everybody!

Sorry for the delay on updating! It’s been a busy time preparing for the Channel A kickstarter!! So today I’m posting the missing page and the one I should have posted yesterday. I hope you enjoy where this subplot is going!

In addition, my darling Clark Powell has released the Official Those Without Shadows soundtrack! Well, the first part, anyway. There are a few tracks here that haven’t appeared in the story in any way yet! I hope you look forward to some of these. At least one will be appearing in a game in Chapter 9. Please look forward to it, and support Clark!

Now that we’re in the middle of con season, I also wanted to note the cons I’ll be appearing at now that I’ve got that together. You’ll be able to find me at:

DCAF: Dartmouth Comic Arts Festival: August 19th
Capercon: September 21-23rd
Hal-Con: October 26-28th

I hope you come visit me if you’re around!

-Dawn & Team TWS

BACKPOST: Chapter 7: The Conflict COMPLETE!

Hello my darling readers!

Thanks for reading The Conflict! This is the final page in Chapter 7. If it seems like a cliffhanger, that’s because we’re in a three-chapter arc that I’ve been referring to as the “Ganymede Arc”. Unfortunately, we couldn’t solve it all in the course of a single chapter. I promise, it’ll be good!

Now that we’re in the middle of con season, I also wanted to note the cons I’ll be appearing at now that I’ve got that together. You’ll be able to find me at:

DCAF: Dartmouth Comic Arts Festival: August 19th
Capercon: September 21-23rd
Hal-Con: October 26-28th

I hope you come visit me if you’re around!

-Dawn & Team TWS

BACKPOST! Chapter 6: The City complete!

Originally posted 31/05/2018.

Hello!

Sometime before the previous update of The City game segment, my patreon pledges broke $50 per month. A long time ago I promised that if that happened, I would post the rest of the chapter at once. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice until afterward, but getting the Atini game online was pretty stressful. It was probably for the best that I didn’t worry about having these ready then, too.

But, here they are now!

Stay tuned next week for the debut of Chapter 7: The Conflict.

-Dawn & Team TWS

BACKPOST! Those Without Shadows: Back to weekly updates!

Originally posted 24/05/18.

Hi everybody!

Thank you so much for your patience! Today I’m updating with the next game segment: The City. It might not look like much compared to the other games, but I made it myself! Well, and with the support of Team TWS. Thank you, everyone! Moving forward, I’ve learned a lot about code and will be able to proceed on the game segments faster, by myself! With backup. I really cannot stress how I couldn’t have done this without Sean and Christian.

Now that’s taken care of, I hope to brush up some other things on the site, too. I realize that the game in Chapter 4 is in bad shape, and I can update the credits and about page. Look forward to that too!

From here out, and until further notice, we’ll be doing one page a week again, every Thursday. I hope you stay tuned! :)

-Dawn & Team TWS

Webcomp: the not-Webcomic

Webcomics have evolved beyond being what we formally understand to be comics. We use the word “comics” for them because, while they sometimes don’t look like comics or sound like comics, readers don’t have language to call them anything different. We say “webcomics” because they’re often image-heavy stories we read online. I believe that this simplification can be harmful to people who are creating narratives outside the box, because it’s difficult to find our market. How will people know what to look for when what they want isn’t anything like a webcomic?

This is what I want to call a Webcomp: a Composite Web Narrative. A webcomp is a story where the medium is the web, and it utilizes any and all of the features available to it in that format. There is no operating terminology for this form of storytelling that encapsulates what it is. Most often, readers will refer to it as a “webcomic”, in spite of everything that it isn’t, because it’s the best word we have to describe it.

Let’s get into this in some more detail.

Continue reading

The State of Those Without Shadows

Hey everyone! Here’s what’s up lately.

We’ve been working on the next game segment for EVER, I know. It’s almost done, but considering how inexperienced I am in programming, I can’t say for sure when that will be. The good news is that it means the next one will not be nearly so difficult. I’ve learned so much, so I won’t be starting from zero again.

While I’ve been working on that, I’ve also been working on some supplemental materials, like the Tiberias body pillow and Sating Southwise Saanvi.

I’ve also started writing the upcoming TWS chapters all at once. After this we’ll be going into what I’m calling the “Ganymede arc”. I don’t really want to tell you much about what it means because most of it is discussed at the end of chapter 6. Out of world, it means that I’m writing what will probably be two or three chapters at once, and cutting up the format afterward based on how it functions best.

I’ve made this offer before and I am going to make it again. When the game segment goes up, I will upload the full remaining pages of chapter 6 at once if my Patreon gets up to $50 per month in patrons. I hope this incentive doesn’t seem unfair. I thought it would make a good and small goal, and if we don’t make it, it’ll just be business as usual. Chapter 6 is 9 pages long, and the game is on page 6, so it’s three weeks of buffer to burn.

Anyway, I’ll let everyone know when we’re in the final stages of game playtesting and hopefully from there, it’ll be a matter of a week or two. Thanks for your patience!

Let’s go to GDC 2017!

HELLO EVERYONE

I’m just going to leave a list of publications I’ve made this year if you’d like to support me! I’d love to go to GDC again, so any funding help you could provide would help me very much.

Also it feels good that I can see what I got done this year.




The Last Nine Years
PDF | Hardcopy

This was a project between me and my pal cephiedvariable over 2015-2016. We released it on PDF in February, and started mailing out the book in April.

It’s an Otacon/Snake Metal Gear Solid Fancomic. 108 pages.


Costume Fairy Adventures
Order here

Costume Fairy Adventures - Core Rulebook

I did a LOT of art for Costume Fairy Adventures, mostly over the course of 2015. You can get PDFs and print-on-demand copies on DriveThruRPG!



In Defense of Fandom
PDF

A small zine I made for TCAF this year, when there was some hubbub about artists making money on fan work at conventions. I had stuff to say about that.


Those Without Shadows

Minerva regards the viewer, a finger over her lips to quiet you.

Well, that’s a work-in-progress. Read it for free!


Snapback by Christian DeWolf
Order here

Snapback icon

Christian did a whole lot of coding for TWS over the summer, so in repayment I illustrated his book about Go. It’s very funny. Christian is very funny.


 

Playerprophet’s 2016 Sketchbook
PDF

Here’s a collection of the stuff I’ve been working on this year! Little snippets of the big things, but with all of the high-res images I’ve worked on for prints, commissions, and funsies. Please take a look!


Playerprophet’s 2016 Sketchbook 18+ EDITION

This is probably going to happen soon. Keep an eye on twitter for an 18+ patreon too!



Here are a few other ways you might also be interested in supporting me. Thank you all so much for your time and readership.

 Gumroad | Storenvy | Redbubble
Patreon | Kofi | Commissions

I will also happily review your game/comic/whatever!

TWS Hiatus Questions – On Games!

Those Without Shadows, Hiatus Questions episode 2!

Why do you use games along with art and writing as your storytelling medium?

Whenever you meet someone who writes, it’s always interesting to ask why they write. Not as in some spiritual dreamy answer, but what inspired them to start writing. You’ll find that the medium in which they like to work is often (but not always) the medium that originally inspired them.

I am a person who learned to love storytelling with video games. Like your average millenial I didn’t think this through to consider programming as an employable goal. I didn’t want to make games, I wanted to write stories. This is one of the reasons TWS has the format it does.

Continue reading

TWS: Hiatus Questions – On History and Evolution

[Those Without Shadows HIATUS QUESTIONS: episode #1!]


[Why are the animals reptilian?]

All of the animals in TWS that are non-sentient are either based on bugs, fish, reptiles or amphibians! This is because the world is young, and evolution hasn’t had much time to change things.

Continue reading

Chapter 6 Update and Game Prep Hiatus

Hi everyone!! I hope you’re enjoying chapter 6 so far!

As you see in the subject line, this will be the last update for this chapter until the next game segment is ready. It isn’t very long, but it does have some new features we have to figure out. Please bear with us!

As with last time I will make the offer: if my patreon reaches $50 per month, I will post the entire second half of Chapter 6 when the game is posted. What do you say?

Thanks everyone!

-Dawn & Team TWS