Happy New Year, all! It’s time for my annual media lists, now in video form! Sticking with films and games this year – simple rundowns below, but check out my channel for more in-depth analyses, and be sure to like and subscribe if you want to see more!
After several mid-pandemic years of gradual development, my first computer game, “ANAGOGIA,” is now available on itch.io! To be specific, it’s a work of interactive fiction–a “choose your own adventure” hyperlink story, essentially. It’s a little bit horror, a little bit fantasy, there’s the occasional entity, and as for who or what “Anagogia” is… well, you’ll have to journey through to find out.
In addition to the text, all of the illustrations are mine, culled from a decade-plus of photographs tweaked to fit the tale’s bleak, isolated mood. I have a particular fascination with abandoned places and “liminal spaces” (which are experiencing a bit of a surge in popularity, I believe), and I really enjoyed having an opportunity to stitch all of these quiet asides over the years into a coherent (if not surreal) canvas.
This was my first time using Twine, so things don’t get too complicated–you can’t die or lose, and there’s no complex puzzles to take notes for. It’s more about… exploration, and uncertainty. I was inspired by visual and thematic elements of a real hodgepodge of games–MYST, Silent Hill, and the Dark Souls series, primarily.
You can download for free if you like, but donations are appreciated! And who knows, there just may be some DLC or a new interactive story altogether in the future…
The time has come for another anthology of short, spooky fiction from “The Terragenesis Collective”! That’d be me and some other fine folks in the online creative writing community who previously released It Was a Dark and Stormy Night…, in which my story “Repocalypse” appears (also on YouTube!). This second collection, The Many Lives of Devon Reeves, moves from a classic phrase as a binding theme to one simple similarity: Every tale has a character named “Devon Reeves.” Who–or what–is this individual? Any commonalities may be mere coincidence, or they may mean something greater… check it out here on Smashwords and decide for yourself.
My contribution this time is “A Thing Forgotten,” in which a wayward young man remembers a picture book from his childhood that no one else seems to… and perhaps they ought not to. It’s something of a spoiler, but since I’m really happy with how this turned out, check out the illustration from the talented horror painter Jenyce Garay (@JenyceGArt):
Long time no post! Admittedly, as I get busier with work and focusing on YouTube and Instagram content, this blog has grown dusty. Is there even a place for a WordPress in this age of short, swift tweets ‘n TikToks?
Seems there’s hope for the former, at least! Spurred by the “#CursedFootage” challenge started by Eduardo Valdés-Hevia, a splendid horror artist I follow, I decided to use the ten themed days to explore an idea I’ve had for a while–and mixed-(social) media “found footage” proved to be the perfect format. It’s best if you go in cold, but in short, it combines my fascinations with modern conspiracy theories, creepypasta, and uncanny/liminal architecture.
If the above picture intrigues you, read the rest below… and remember: this is all fiction, and yet are you sure that dent in the back of your closet was always there?
Stumbled on this weird case file in my firm’s digital records. Posting screenshots cuz I can’t leak any privileged info, but… for a landlord/tenant property damage claim, this deposition transcript is freaking me out. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/WtoIxVJ7qp
So my output for at least the last year has chiefly been YouTube content, but I still do write short fiction from time to time. Case in point, I recently contributed to an anthology of scifi/fantasy stories, now available in a variety of formats on Smashwords! It’s a themed assemblage of four tales by four authors, under our umbrella of “The Terragenesis Collective,” which all start with or otherwise incorporate the line “it was a dark and stormy night.” Our goal was to prove that this tired old phrase is still ripe with unique potential, if properly employed–and I feel we succeeded! My contribution, the opener, is called “Repocalypse“; it’s a time loop story, but one unlike any I bet you’ve seen before. In any event, it was a joy and a privilege to collaborate on this collection, and I look forward it to being only the first of many!
As a great author once said, it’s only the end of the world again…
So, it’s been a time since I’ve been on here! Not sure who still follows, but thank you for sticking around if you do, and a fine hello if this is your first time checking in. Long story short, COVID and some associated professional change-ups haven’t made me the creative powerhouse behind the pen that I thought I’d be this year, hence the lack of writerly updates since May.
However, in the meantime, I’ve doubled down on learning how to do video editing and production instead–and I’m really enjoying the more tangible results. In particular, I’ve put out some more film reviews, as well as semiregular uploads of horror game streams from my Twitch! I also did a short film with my brother as intro for the latter, which I’m rather proud of.
Here’s some highlights — please Like, Share, and Subscribe if you can! It’s just a hobby for now, but I really enjoy having more folks see my stuff:
My comedic-meets-analytical review of this summer’s polarizing blockbuster “TENET”!
A minute-longish film merging the creepy and the geeky to introduce my stream vids!
A short highlight vid of one such stream, of a truly weird underwater horror game!
And there’s plenty more on my channel after you click through! I’m always working on getting that much better each time with the technical aspects of content creation, and I hope to put out some all-new videos soon doing full reviews/riffs on old films with an insightful spin. As always, in the meantime, be sure to check me out on Twitter and Twitch as well–streams are 7pm PST on Sundays!
Put on my full-body bandages and fake nose for a Saturday at the cinema with the new Leigh Whannell Blumhouse/Universal movie monster horror film “The Invisible Man”!
tl;dw: It starts off a bit predictable and ends with some plot holes, but overall it’s a fantastically shot, scored, and acted sci-fi thriller that ironically deserves to be seen.
All non-me media from Google Image Search or Adobe Premiere Elements. I know I fell off the wagon with movie reviews, but I’m hoping to get back on in time for the season of renewal that is Spring!
Also, an invisible man walking sim would be incredibly easy to program, now that I think about it.
With Fear Awareness Month over halfway done, I figured there was no time to waste in uploading another creepypasta reading! This time, a piece I found many moons ago on /x/ called “The Lacquer Mummy,” attributed to one “HFPS”. Turn down the lights, turn up the volume, and enjoy!
Long-form “illustration”: Me
Music: “Aokigahara Forest” by IO Echo, from the Ghost in the Shell soundtrack. Will reupload a capella if that gets DMCA’d.
Notes&Sketches 