#please send me ~[redacted] hires you this time~ energy so I can solve the day job problem

[fox-teeth]

Art of 2023 retrospective 💜. Here's every comic and print I made that had a physical and/or digital release in 2023; plus the crowdfunding and conventions I participated in!

2023 has been a mixed year for me. My art career has really grown, and I accomplished so many things I've been working towards and dreaming about for years. But work at my contract based "day job" mostly dried up, and trying to find the next thing has been an immensely stressful endeavor I have yet to succeed at.

Thank you so much for all the support and love towards my art. I wouldn't have financially made it through this year without it. You buying my little handmade minicomics paid my rent.

I hope one day I can pay all that kindness forward. I hope you are excited for the art projects I've got planned for 2024. I hope things keep on getting better.

[manonamora-if]

Hey dear author.

Some Thick Table Tavern asks incoming:

Who is Baxter?

What happened with Dylan? Is he doing okay as a newbie in the Adventuring Guild?

Have you based the watcher's desire to keep everything as orderly as possible on yourself?

Is Brom a cooking genius or a cooking disaster because I just can't decide?

What's the story about the mage stealing Roscoe's cheese?

Who can hold their liquor better: Roscoe or Ez?

Who's the best dancer and singer in the tavern and out of the main NPC's?

How is Brom's family life?

Why is there a need for a magic mixer? What makes it better than a normal mixer aside form the color change when mixing?

Has The Thick Table Tavern ever come close to bankruptcy?

Some trivia for Nora and Astrid of the Adventure Guild please🙏

How were MC,Ez,Filessandro and Brom hired by Roscoe? Did he choose them because they were the most skilled of the applicants or were they the only applicants to work at the tavern?

Some asks about you:

What motivates you to continue working on and creating interactive fiction games?

How do you do it with creating such incredibly detailed guides and tutorials for everyone to use? Do you have some sort of unending energy batteries that never let you get tired?

Who is your favourite NPC in all of your WiPs including the Thick Table Tavern?

What is your favourite genre to write?

Do you like coding more or the writing part of game creation?

Finally,

sending you tsunami waves of love and positivity💛

-annoyingly curious anon

Alright Anon! Let's get this cracking! I've included your questions in my answers so you don't need to scroll up/down everytime.

TTTT Questions

Baxter is mentioned once in the game: For the love of Baxter, similarly to the phrase For the love of God. Think of Baxter as a Generic Fantasy Deity TM. I did not put more thought into this, just took a random name.

Unsure. Maybe? Probably. He was supposed to be THE Adventurer in the first version (like that story was my draft of last year), before I re-wrote each of these 5 recurrent NPC's storyline (and didn't have time to include it.

Have you based the watcher's desire to keep everything as orderly as possible on yourself? Lol Anon. Thank you for Reading me.

Whether Brom is a cooking genius or disaster is irrelevant (though you can have your own opinion about it). He experiments.

Wizards love cheeses. Roscoe has a lot of great cheeses.

Roscoe and Ezabell have yet to compete in their liquor consumption. None will try to consume alcohol for quantity's sake. Roscoe would probably hold strong/distilled drinks better, Ez would for cocktails (especially sweet ones).

Dunno who's the best dancer/singer. Come back when I've added more story bits.

Brom's Family life is chaotic: tired adults running behind energetic toddlers and taking care of old parents.

The magic mixer is needed because I said so :P (just to give a reason for the colour of the liquid changing every time you add/remove an ingredient.

If there was ever a time TTTT was in financial trouble, someone else would come and take the reins before it would go under. Same thing is the owner retires.

Nora and Roscoe have a thing, and they behave like teenagers about it (her request). The only reason Astrid is not the leader of her group (she is more than capable to be that) is so she can blame Bernard for anything that goes wrong.

Ez barged into the bar and pretended to be the waitress for a full day (because [REDACTED], raised hell during pay-time when Roscoe realised she was not an employee (he was out all day) but also that she made a hella ton of profit. Filessandro is not an employee of the tavern, he was supposed to have his own story to explain that. MC's story is dependant on the background you choose... and will be explained further in a future update.

ME Questions

My motivation for creating is easy: it's fun. I get to solve some coding/writing puzzle and tell stories I like/want to. Continue to work on a project is difficult. I've done the dumb thing of creating hella long things and taking breaks from it (losing steam on it). But my drive to finish my projects (to continue working), not wanting to put out bad writing (after reading a draft), and seeing people enjoy my stuff is more motivating than I thought.

I am exhausted all the time (that's 80% a lie) I create guides/tutorials because I like helping people, and if my stuff helps other not struggle with stuff I have, then I'm happy. The trick with tutorials is: make it simple and explain clearly.

Insert that Arrested Development meme about loving my children equally. All NPCs are fun and become my favourite when I write them. It changes per scene...

Same answer about genre. Don't really have one. Not really fond of horror (that's MelS wheelhouse) or romance (but that's because I need to combat my second hand embarrassment).

When the coding becomes stale, I miss writing. When writing is a bore, I want to code. Maybe I might prefer coding over writing, because the proofreading of coding is more fun than writing, and because it has rules (unlike creative writing). Editing/Proofreading is meh to I wish I was dead.

Me rn:

Thank you ANON!