(no subject)

literally just dawned on me that with my current printer, i can print french flaps and belly bands for my next doujin, and just hand-fold them :o

they're print design peripherals that are very common with JP doujins but i haven't seen a US indie printer know what i'm talking about it when i mention it, lol, even the fancy boutique ones (peow.studio's doujin here is an excellent example of both, with foil to boot.)

making a mental note after all of these Q4 projects are out, next January I want to mock up this for my ashes & ghost doujin.... bonus that mocking it up in advance there will give me good dimensions for my next doujin in 2026 since it'll be the same size (zihark-centric, very likely selfship centric.)

doing french flaps/belly bands would have absolutely killed the negative brainwidth I had for a&g, but i'm under no illusion this next one is going to sell like. five copies at maximum, lol (selfship doujins aren't really a thing, and it's not even spicy). so it'll be a nice easy one to play with perks like this.

there's a general dead dove tellius doujin i kinda want to do for RD's 20th anniversary (and would be better timed marketing-wise), but he's waited long enough for his <3

(no subject)

replaying elden ring has given me the distinct sensation that this is what we all wanted twilight princess to be in 2005.

i say "we" since i was online in zelda fen about that time, and there's a whole history of the reaction to the first major trailer and how overhyped it (accidentally?) got online. was the genuine start of nintendo scaling back the timeline between "first trailer" and "release" due to that backlash.

i don't have time a full analysis essay but i just starkly compare this sensation of moving around an actual forest in ER, huge actual forests with deer that take forever to ride through much less walk through .... as much as i enjoyed Tears for the first time in a long time for 3D Zelda, it's not the same. there's something about simply walking around a tree and noticing all the details that immerses you in ER.

even the sheer depth of katana/swordplay in ER; for ... seven? button combinations, the combat is deep. timing, sneakstrikes, crits, the meta-game of dodgerolls.... truly mastering these feels like the spiritual point of being taught those lost sword arts by that ancestral skeleton in twilight princess, where it had to compromise with being a kinda-gimmicky combo.

i've learned to appreciate twilight princess for what it was/is, don't get me wrong - but just. man. ER is something special. one of those decade-defining games that does what it wants to do extremely right.