Hello, everyone!

There's a bit of a delay on the page that was going to go up today on account that I did not have access to my computer most of the day yesterday and couldn't complete the shading on time. The page is very action-oriented, so there are lots of individual panels that need my attention.

Hang in there; the fully coloured page should be going up on the site tomorrow, rather than today.

(This was posted in the comment section, but it seemed more appropriate to post it as a blurb entry)

Hello, everyone! Artist/colorist here to give you all a bit of an update as to what the status is on the comic at this time. But first of all, for those that continue to offer us their support and readership despite the gaps in updates, I want to sincerely thank you for doing so.

Besides working on Aikonia, I also work as Lead Illustrator and Artist for Madsoft Games, which means that my attention is divided across a number of ongoing projects that I\'m involved with. Two of these had been recently featured at GDX this year: Bound Against Time and VRNinja -- you can read about these projects in the post-GDX summary on the Madsoft Games blog. Creating assets for both games was where the majority of my time was spent for about 3 weeks, which meant that the Aikonia comic had to take the sidelining seat during this time.

In addition to this, any dear readers who have read the blurbs of previous pages should be familiar with certain personal problems that I was working hard towards fixing, and had actually managed to sort through enough to return to illustrating pages for a short time. I was living in an exceedingly toxic and hostile environment where emotional meltdowns were a regular and repeated occurrence, which worsened my depression and interfered with my ability to take care of myself and concentrate/work on anything, really. The key word here is \'was\', since I am now currently free from my soul-crushing prison and living with some close friends that only want the very best for me. Of course, there was some violent fallout from when I initially broke the news of my intention to move, which resulted in my parent disowning me before they eventually decided to grudgingly accept my decision to leave, not without continued passive-aggressive behavior on their part. In addition to this, I also had to scramble to pack my belongings while this parent was at work to ensure my emotional safety/stability, returning to another friend\'s house to sleep on their couch each night during the whole process. It was an exhausting, exciting, nerve-wracking, and heavily emotional time for me.

Long story short: I needed to move to a new apartment with friends, and haven\'t been able to commit to working on the comic until settling in to my new and exceedingly more healthy/safe surroundings. I haven\'t been able to update anyone of my situation online until the stress/chaos of the whole thing subsided enough for me to organize my thoughts clearly, and I\'m sorry to see that many of you seem very upset. :(

Your continued support is invaluable to the Aikonia team. We haven\'t given up on this comic, it\'s simply a matter of survival/health taking priority over the creation of content, recently. I ask for your understanding and compassion, friends, we are only human.

For those of you that are and continue to be Patrons, I\'m going to be working on sketching the remaining pages for the entirety of this chapter to be posted exclusively to the Patreon for your viewing pleasure. Of course, the finished pages will eventually make it here as well, but at this time we want to reward our supporters on Patreon for the resilience and patience. :)

Hey there, everyone!

As Andrew-David mentioned on the previous page's blurb, I'm feeling much better after having been well-tended by my friends during my last episode of depression. I also want to take this moment to thank everyone that left supportive comments and for being understanding while I was unable to work on the comic. It really meant a lot to be able to check the site on those bad days and see that everything was going to be okay, that my fears clearly aren't based in reality, and that all I really needed to worry about was taking care of myself.

Thank you so very much for your support, and also for your readership -- past, present, and future -- you're all extremely awesome!

Hello everyone,

My deepest apologies for the lack of a page for these past two weeks. I've been in and out of hospital recently, first for physical health reasons as I was dealing with severe migraines, and secondly for mental illness reasons as my depression decided to rise from the depths to eat me alive once again. I have my good days, but my bad ones are severe and have me crippled until they eventually pass. I am currently in treatment for my anxiety and depression, but I try to understand that being so isn't any guarantee against episodes. They still occur despite my medication and therapy, and when they do it's really, really bad.

I'm very disappointed in myself for not being able to keep to schedule and failing to deliver exclusive content to you all, or any content at all, really. I'm working at getting myself better with the little energy I have at my disposal, but it's a process and getting mad at myself for failing at my responsibilities isn't going to be constructive at all in the long-run. Again, I'm very sorry for the inconvenience and any frustration my illness may be causing.

Hey there, friends!

Thanks a ton for all your well wishes and understanding these past few weeks. I'm feeling quite a bit better now and I'm currently adjusting to some new medications, but so far so good. Shaded prettiness is back, heheh~

Also, if you haven't had a chance to check out the new Patreon page, please do so! Every bit of support goes a long way to supporting the web comic and making sure we're all well-stocked on pumpkin spice lattes. ;)

Hello everyone!
Due to some unforeseen personal health stuff, there won't be a page today. Instead one will be going up tomorrow at the usual time. Apologies for the extended wait!
See you all tomorrow~

Hello, everyone!

My name's Karina and I'm the Lead Illustrator at MADSOFT Games on Project Velyria, but I'm also the artist that is behind the the journal entries here on Aikonia. ;)

I'm thrilled to present the first in a couple of guest pages I'll be cooking up in the interim between chapters here, and I hope you all enjoy them. If you'd like to see more of my artwork, here's links to my DeviantART, my personal/sketch Tumblr, and my game development blog at Riftcaller Games, which features my 3D work and personal projects.

I'm also in the long process of putting together a joint webcomic with a very close friend of mine, called Driftwood Hollow, so feel free to follow it as well in the meantime.

Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful week!

- Karina

Hello!

This is Konira Thax, I'm super excited and glad I was able to do another guest comic for the Aikonia series and it's team!

You can find me and my work over on my hub site: Konira Comics and my tumblr

Thank you for reading!

~ Konira

For the last few years, I have been gradually trying to build up my game development career. It's been slow, but, with the arrival of HaxeFlixel, I have been making huge strides over the last year.
I hope by sometime next year to be able to quit my day job and make games full time, but I need to get some devoted supporters, as well as even a little bit of funds coming in to help offset the cost of this 'hobby.'
So that's where I need your help. My game dev partner Tim (Art) and I (Code) just launched a Patreon campaign.
Our goal is to make a totally new, complete game each month. We're asking for people to pledge a few dollars per game to help us build up momentum.
You can pledge any amount you want, but if you pledge at least $5 per game, you will get to download that game when it's complete, and get to directly influence the game's development process by getting previews and giving us feedback!
Check out our Patreon campaign here and if you decide to support us, thank you! If you don't have the funds or don't want to pay us anything but still want to help out in other ways, you can simply help spread the word by sharing it with your friends!
Thanks!
Oh and, sometime really soon, we'll be announcing the game we're working on this month to Patrons only! Become a supporter if you don't want to feel left out!

I love drawing reaction shots. Kat is my favourite because she is, above all else, SO DONE.

Thursday morning had progressed like any other Thursday. I was sitting at work, blinking to keep myself awake as the caffeine from my Doctor-flavored, carbonated beverage seeped into my bloodstream and waiting for something that I could work on to present itself. As is so often the case, I found my internet-surfing digits institutionally manipulating my mouse and clicking over to Twitter where I would certainly find myself bombarded by the typical non-news, food pics, and meme sharing that I could tolerate for a few moments before being able to pull myself away. Today, however, would prove to be different.

It skipped past me almost unnoticed, as it was quickly pushed off the screen by silly pictures of someone's dog, and a whimsical blog post about something internety. The name just managed to catch my eye, and an accompanying link to something on the BBC's website. "Ooh!" I thought, as I clicked the link into another tab, and didn't think about it for a little while. A few minutes and a few more new tabs later, and I glanced up to see the name again, although now chopped off: "BBC NEWS - Sir Terry Pratche..." "Maybe there's a new book coming out, or... I dunno something?" I wondered as I clicked over to read the article. I was wrong.

The actual contents of the article sent a shock through me. I sat, stunned, for fully 20 minutes before I was able to scroll down, past the headline: "Sir Terry Pratchett, renowned fantasy author, dies aged 66" I still haven't been able to bring myself to read through it in it's entirety. I was - and still am - at a loss for what to even think of this terrifying, and terrible new world that I have found myself in.

To try and get an idea for why this loss has devastated me so much, we have to go back a few years to one day in High School. I was complaining about my troubles in finding decent reading materials to a buddy of mine, and - I can almost picture the exact conversation in my head, down to the wry grin, and the subtle cock of his head he gave me as - he responded by saying: "Have you read any Discworld books?"

"Discworld? No... don't think so... is that like Ringworld? I read some of those... didn't get them."

"Nope. Totally different."

I shrugged, and he looked for a minute as if he was going to try and sell me on the virtues of this Discworld of his, but, instead, he shook his head and said: "Hold on."

He rummaged around in his backpack for a minute, digging past unopened textbooks, scraps of papers, and Magic: The Gathering cards before pulling out and handing me a very well-loved copy of Small Gods.

"Here, " he said, as I thumbed through the book, "Read it, tell me what you think."

Then he wandered off to class or wherever it was he was meant to be, and I did the same.

I started reading on the bus-ride home that day, and was glued to the book until sometime around 2 in the morning when I finished the final page, closed the book, and then collapsed into a dreamless sleep. My head already filling up with new ideas and perspectives. I think I even started re-reading it on the way to school the next day, and, when I met up with my friend to give him his book back, he asked: "So?"

To which, I could only reply with eyes-wide: "F---, yes."

I don't like to curse, and I don't do so lightly. The impact was not lost on him.

So began my long love affair with the Discworld. I was now constantly at my library asking them to order books (no one had ever asked for them at that branch before). At the time, Jingo was the latest that had been released, so I had several books to read - out of order, naturally - before I was even close to being 'caught up'.

His writing inspired me to take up writing. It opened doorways and made connections in my brain that absolutely changed the way I perceive the world. It sparked ideas, and has left marks within me that I am still working through to try and truly understand.

I could go on, at great length, until the point where I have completely exhausted all of the words, on the virtues of Pratchett's writing, but, I don't feel like I need to. There are only 2 types of people who would be reading this post. Those who have read his books, and know exactly what I'm going on about, and those who have not. To the former, there's nothing more I can say. To the latter, all I can say is: pick up one of his books, as soon as possible, and start reading. In a way, I kind of envy you. You have more than 40, brand new Terry Pratchett books to experience for the very first time. You have dozens of characters that you have yet to meet, and adventure with. You get to watch Susan come of age and get in touch with her family, Carrot arriving to, and becoming a foundation of the city, the Witches and their adventures and vacations (which are often hard to tell apart), Vimes and his love/hate (but mostly hate) relationship with, well, everything, Rincewind, the most traveled Wizard (or Wizzard?), the body of the University (and their university-sized bodies), and so many, many more... all of which are still new to you, reader. I can only hold on to the memory of starting and finishing a brand new story in the Discworld, there will be no new tales from there for me.

Today, I wanted to take a break in our regular post to share this post with you, our readers. I feel like the throw-away comments and condolences in 140-characters or less that I saw whizzing past on Thursday did not do enough justice to the loss of an absolutely great man.

I hope that each of you can take some time to reflect back on some of the inspiration, joy, or whatever that you have gained from reading something of Pratchett's. Share it with someone, or, if you haven't started yet, well, there's no time like the present.

Sir Terry, your work has made me aspire to tell better stories and build better worlds.

And at the end of all stories, Azrael, who knows the secret, thinks: I REMEMBER WHEN ALL THIS WILL BE AGAIN.

Hey everyone!

In case you didn't know, I released a game on Sunday called SciAnts! You can download it for free on your Android device over at the Google Play Store! Also, we've got a Thunderclap campaign running for the next couple of days, and we could really use your help to spread the word.

Thanks!

This page was simultaneously great and a huge pain to work on. I love being able to really spread out a bit and give a scene some depth and room to breathe, but good lord I think there must be at least 300 books in this scene. Oh my god. It was certainly an experience, and I hope you folks enjoy the resulting page!

Hello Aikonia readers!

Long time with no word from me! I know I tend towards the quiet side, but I always appreciate Aikonia's readers and supporters, and love seeing the comments you folks have on the comic.

Many of you wished me well when I had to take a break for health reasons earlier this year, and I wanted to shout out some thanks to everyone who sent well wishes, everyone who continues to follow the comic, and to Aikonia readers in general -- y'all have been awesomely supportive and a great audience to work for.

As the Aikonia crew takes a brief holiday break, don't forget that Aikonia merchandise is still on sale through January 2nd.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Everyone, thank you for your kind words of support and your inquiries about my health! I am doing much better now, and while there's still a lot of bloodwork and medication-balancing and all sorts of other fun stuff left to do, I'm definitely in a better place. While I was out having my medical misadventures, my computer also unfortunately up and died. That has also now been remedied, and I can get back to building up that buffer and getting y'all regularly scheduled pages again.

Thanks again, and see you soon!

Hey all!
As Andrew-David has mentioned, we've had some health troubles recently that have interfered with working on the comic. Recently, my own health shenanigans have decided to kick it up a notch: I've got some long-term health issues that had been quiet for a couple years, and then decided to throw the very worst party. It's caused a lot of chaos and general lack of good things as my health -- physical, emotional, mental, the whole package -- has gone way downhill. Don't worry, both I and the comic will be fine! We just both need a bit of time to sort things out.

I'll be back soon! In the meantime, thank you all so much for being awesome readers!

Hey Aikonians!

Just wanted to share the project I worked on last month for my 1-Game-a-Month Project. It's a Complete Tutorial on making a game in HaxeFlixel. You can click here to read it!

It's meant to show anyone how to get started with the HaxeFlixel framework and make a simple, but complete, cross-platform game using it. So if you're looking to get into game development, or looking for something new to make games in, check out my tutorial and see how it feels!

Also, TONIGHT, for people in and around St Louis, Missouri, I'll be giving a talk (along with my friends from Butterscoth Shenanigans) about Makin' Games Quickly! I'll be talking about my 1-Game-a-Month Project, and some of the things I've learned from it. If you can make it out, come by and say 'hello', it should be a lot of fun! Details can be found here.

And, this coming Friday, I'll be at the Saint Louis Science Center again for their First Friday event - showing off and talking about games. Come by and play some of my games! More details here.

Until next time!

Hello everyone!
It's been a while since I popped in with a word, hasn't it? It's been a busy time over here, but I'm always grateful for all your comments and interesting speculation! Today I'm pretty pleased to have a character I really enjoyed designing back on the page -- you may remember her from page 12 of this chapter. I hope you like seeing her again too, and I hope you enjoy the page.
Have a great week, y'all!

Hey, everyone! Tim here!
I wanted to tell you about a little experiment I'm doing this year where I make an entire game - from start to finish - each month, every month! It's called, appropriately enough, Tim's 1-Game-a-Month Project!
The idea is to sort of hone my craft, try new things, pick up new ideas, see them out and experiment - all without allowing the development of a project to drag on and bog down for months and months. Each month I'll be coming up with a brand new game idea - nothing that I've already been working on, or thinking about - and at the end of the month, wherever it's at, I'm releasing it to the world.
I'll also be blogging about each game's development cycle, sharing thoughts and ideas to kind of show how the game is shaping up - and I'll share various development builds so you can see the evolution of the game from idea to published form.
I'll most likely be using HaxeFlixel for all of the games during this experiment, because it's amazing and easy to use and will allow me to easily publish for Web (Flash), Windows, and Android platforms.
Each of the games I complete during this experiment will also be 100% free, and open-source, so you can look at the code, fork the repo on GitHub and mess around with it, if you want. The goal here is to just get lots of games made so I can see the process through to the end enough times to be comfortable with it, so that when this year is up and I have 12 new complete games finished, I can jump into a new project which will take all the awesome ideas, concepts, and wisdom I've learned and make something amazing!
So, check out my 1GAM Site and/or follow my Tumblr to keep up with my progress, and be sure to try out the first of my Game-a-month games from February: Meat Bags!

Hey Aikonaughts!

In case you haven't heard, next weekend is the 2014 Global Game Jam! People from around the world are congregating to build games in 48 hours! It's a wild and exciting event that helps bring together talented people. This will be my second time participating in the GGJ (although I've done several local Game Jams), and I can't wait!

If you're free this weekend, check out the Global Game Jam website on how to participate - there are sites all over the world (hence the GLOBAL bit ;) ). It doesn't matter what your level of experience is - everyone and anyone is invited to take part: Programmers, designers, writers, artists, musicians, game enthusiasts, people who don't know what games are but happen to show up anyway, etc... it doesn't matter! Find a team and make a video game OR board/card game and make new friends in the process!