September Round-Up '25
HUGE NEWS!!!!!!!!!
My Partner's Game Released!!!!
X-YZE is out NOW!!! Chris has worked on this game for nearly 2 years, it's incredible that it exists; it's filled to the brim with love and super fun gameplay, nearly entirely created solo by my partner. I contributed character designs (the player, most bosses, some enemies), in-game portraits, playtesting, and proofreading for the script, but it's really Chris' game. Writing, coding, designing, music, sfx, in-game art - Chris does it all!!!
It's free to play, but if you choose to support it by paying $10 or more, you get some really awesome goodies that I helped create such as a fancy concept art book with my commentary, a super slick enemy manual with my art, Chris' original map sketches, and more! There are even royalty-free sound effects and the soundtrack - both of which Chris created all himself - available as well! Please support this tiny indie project, even just by checking it out or spreading by word of mouth - it would mean the world to me!!!
People have asked if I referenced Mega Man X6's cover with this cover art I made, but I actually hadn't seen it before I drafted this up!!
Look at the player go!!! Bumping all the fellas!!!
Here are some previews of the bonus content you can get, specifically the concept art book and enemies guide! Support the game with $10+ to see more!!
IRL Celebrations
I've been doing everything possible to make Chris feel celebrated with such an accomplishment now completed! But even beyond that, I just love spending time together and trying new things. Lots and lots of yummy foods were shared!
We were also able to celebrate my little niece Evee's first birthday! It was nice to see my family in town since we live so far away from each other.
We went to Little Tokyo's Silent Hill f event to enjoy one of its special desserts - the "Ara-Abare" strawberry roti with strawberry marmalade filling and rose petals - as well as check out all the cool decor around town. The dessert was incredibly tasty, made ESPECIALLY good because we got it fresh out of the oven!!
More Projects
Another game that I was a part of also released earlier this month: Chrono Gear Warden of Time! This game had a MUCH bigger team than the solo project Chris made, and it also overflows with heart. My contribution was playtesting with an emphasis on accessibility. The whole team's been working hard even after release to make it as polished as possible; I'm very proud of all my friends!! Please consider trying it out if you enjoy speedy platformers with cool game mechanics!
My buddy Event Horizon's latest single, We Who Fly Into Twilight, featured more of my artwork! Inspired by adorable healer Hyacine from Honkai Star Rail, I infused a lot of joy and cuteness into this cheery artwork. Give this a listen if you need a song to lift your spirits!
Undertale's 10th Anniversary
If you know me, you probably understand that Undertale is a pretty special game to me for a plethora of reasons. The hope it instills, the kindness it preaches, the way the gameplay is designed for you to figure out every monster's little quirk just to become their friend, and the importance of love at its heart... this game is so much more special than simply because "it's funny." The stream event Fangamer and Toby Fox put on was hilarious, as well as greatly impactful as someone who adores the game so thoroughly. Toby's also just extremely funny and it was a blast hearing his text-to-speech voice mispronounce "banjo kazooie" as "banjo kaz-wah," among other silliness. What an absolute delight to have witnessed such an exceptional event!
Early Universal Spooky Movies Bonanza
Practically every night this month Chris and I have been exploring movie history from the earlier 1900s with very old Universal movies! They're the ones who started the monster movie industry, and as a film history enthusiast, it's been thoroughly interesting to me to see how movies have evolved. Let me take you through some awesome movie history as I share a bit of what I learned for many of the films we watched! Click the movie titles to watch most of them!
We started with the Spanish Dracula (1931) back-to-back with the English Dracula (1931), both of which were filmed on the same days: English during the day, and Spanish at night. Phenomenal acting in both versions!!! I personally can't pick a fave of the two because I thought they were both wonderful, but I do particularly like Bela Lugosi's debonair demeanor in the English version. Dracula's Daughter (1936) happens immediately after Dracula's story, featuring a vampire who doesn't want to be a vampire, which played out in a very intriguing way.
Frankenstein (1931) is a fantastic adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel. Bride of Frankenstein (1935) is interesting - much of the story is construed from a portion of the original book (Frankenstein) but adds in much more, including a mere 5 minutes of the "bride" monster (this really surprised me). The director James Whale actually didn't want to make a sequel to Frankenstein, worried about being stuck as a horror director, but decided to go through with it by finding inspiration from the original novel on where to take (and end) the story, as well as taking inspiration from his experiences as an openly gay man in Hollywood for themes of rejection and specific subtexts. And then from there we saw Son of Frankenstein (1939), which felt like it was stretching the series a little thin but was still a fun watch! Basil Rathbone plays a wonderfully mad heir to the throne of Frankenstein.
The Wolf Man (1941) is, for some reason, always hailed as the main film of the series despite being the second made, but I personally didn't like it!! It's just about some guy creeping on a lady and features some not-very-good makeup. The ACTUAL beginning of the films - Werewolf of London (1935) - is far more enjoyable in every aspect, and made me laugh out loud often from how bonkers the characters were. I really wish that one were recognized more; it ended up being one of my favorites of the month!
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925, which we watched it on its 100-year anniversary!!), both starring the fantastic "Man of a Thousand Faces," Lon Cheney, as the titular monsters. He did all that superb makeup himself!! Both are silent films, yet with how they presented the title cards you can feel the emotion each line is said. I enjoyed these versions of the stories, especially Phantom, and found the acting by Cheney super dramatic and powerful.
The Mummy (1932) is much less intense than its 1999 remake, which 'til this point was the only film of the series I was familiar with. The Mummy is just some guy!!! He feels too normal to be the "villain" which makes it all the more amusing. I thought the special effects were neat, despite making me laugh.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1913) is actually what kickstarted all of the Universal monster films! There isn't a recording with any audio (as it is a very old silent film) so Chris and I watched this with Silent Hill 2's ost playing as bg music hehe. It was pretty short at a mere 26 minutes and was a bit hard to make out what would be happening plot-wise, but it was neat to see such an early film take on horror!
The Invisible Man (1933) wasn't my favorite since it was just... a guy. Going a little cuckoo. Which isn't "monster" to me per se, though you could definitely qualify his actions as monstrous with how he treated others and structured his nefarious plans. I'm not really sure why he's considered one of the iconic Universal monsters...? I did enjoy watching him dance around as a pair of pants at least.
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) has some cool history attached to it. Released at the peak of when 3D movies were a thing, this film was recorded in 3D and post-processed to 2D for reaching a wider audience as the fad phased out. Chris and I saw a colorized version (which means color was added to the film's original black and white scheme through special methods), and noticed that they got a lil' funky sometimes - likely due to the original 3D effect's encoding! The plot of the movie is pretty basic, but WOW what a cool creature costume!!! Very impressive looking monster, with two versions of the suit meant for dry filming and water filming.
The Old Dark House (1932) was awesome, one of my favorites of the films we watched. Funny enough, it seems like audiences of the time didn't agree - it did fine the first week at the box-office, but then had negative word of mouth reviews that made the ticket sales dip dramatically. Surprisingly, it did better in the UK, with lots of praise from the press there, and apparently is viewed well in most recent times. I can see why - it's funny in a dark kind of way, with surprises throughout and spontaneous things that just kind of continuously grab you back into the story. This was also considered a lost film for a really long time, until a print of the film was found in Universal's warehouse in the late 1960's. This lead to a restoration of the film in its entirety, and the rest is history!
The Black Cat (1934) and The Raven (1935) are both inspired from Edgar Allen Poe's short stories of the same names. I enjoyed both of them, especially seeing Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi showing off their wide acting prowess for two very different roles. The Black Cat went some places that I couldn't have predicted, and while The Raven leaned more into silliness, that didn't make the "horror" any less tense. Both were very interesting little peeks into psychological horror of old!
Other Older Horror of the 1900s
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) was a surreal treat from beginning to end. Lots of striking stage design, tints of color in scenes to add mood, and visually explosive and weird as can be. It made me feel like making something strange of my own immediately after watching it! The movie is hailed as the beginning of psychological horror in cinema so I'd been meaning to watch it for years, and I would definitely recommend it to those who want to see something odd yet inspirational.
Mark of the Vampire (1935) has a slow start but gets intriguing as it goes on. LOTS of creatures, including very cute real bats, and a twisty story to make you wonder what's really happening! Also features Bela Lugosi as a vampire, just like in Dracula!
I revisited some of Alfred Hitchcock's works, The Birds and Psycho. I was in middle school the last time I'd seen The Birds so I remembered practically none of it, but my main takeaway is that there were many cute birds in the film and the behind the scenes of this production is pretty messed up!!! Psycho I view more favorably, especially for the phenomenal acting (particularly with the scene between Norman Bates and Detective Arbogast), though the psychiatrist analyzation at the end was overdoing it a bit...
One more double-whammy from Hitchcock; we watched both his versions of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 and 1956) back-to-back. Both the scripts were drastically different - with the second iteration of the film being written while filming was happening and pages being airmailed in?? - but had a very similar premise as it's based on the same story. There's a funny quote from Hitchcock himself about the vast differences in the films: "...the first version is the work of a talented amateur, and the second was made by a professional." Despite it being twice as long, I greatly preferred the 1956 film myself, and can actually understand exactly where he was coming from regarding his statement!
October is upon us!
I'm actually dreading tomorrow since it's when I'm finally getting my dental stuff taken care of (ugh), but otherwise this kicks off my favorite time of year! I adore Fall, and for October I indulge in spooky movies every day of the month. I'll also have a special streaming series on Twitch, which I'll try to update with schedules at the start of each week! Please know that some streams may need to be switched around since my energy will vary with the medical appointments I have, but otherwise, I plan to stream not-so-spooky Halloween-ish games on Mondays ("Monsterdays"), and slightly spookier games on Wednesdays ("Hallowednesdays"). Thanks for reading - let's enjoy Halloweentime together!
Thank you CreeperBoy90 for the very first X-YZE fan art!!!!!! Look how cute the player character is here!!!