Tag: video games

Resilient Hero

Video games. I play them a lot. I’m reluctantly close to the end of Spider-Man and I’m already thinking about what I’m going to play next.

Something that comes up over and over in video games, often very tediously, is the story of the hero. I get it for the most part, even if this narrative and character can seem repetitive in game after game.

No matter what I say though, I can’t deny how drawn (full pun intended) I am to the hero and their journey, just like everyone else.

So here’s my hero:

black pen drawing of abstract shapes filled in with patterns that come together to depict a hero character balancing on a platform, surrounded by intimidating shapes that surround the hero.
Obviously, platformers are on my mind

Sexless, abstract, colourless. Yep, that’s my hero!

I specifically thought about games like Ninja Gaiden (FULL DISCLOSURE: never played it, only watched) and Risk of Rain (played the ever-loving crap out of it) where you are stuck in between all these enemies and obstacles, and you die over and over trying to get past them.

For this drawing, I chose not to have a clear path for the hero to traverse, which is common in the type of game I’m thinking of. Instead, we see a paused image of them defending themselves stoically against all kinds of nameless terrors.

We all have heroic qualities that we are drawn to, and mine is resilience. That’s what I tried to get across. The hero is reaching out between what is thrown at them to show that they recognise an opening – and they won’t be surrounded by all this crap for much longer.

It might be one of my more empowering works!

“fan” art

This is fanart, in a way. But I didn’t draw it on some loving whim, although there’s nothing negative to be said about those who do such things. Expressing your love, even for creations of others, is quite a beautiful thing. It’s just not what I do, not exactly. Just…in a way, like I said.

manny

I prepared a one-off tabletop RPG adventure for two of my friends to take place over 2-3 hours. My friends designed their characters as having recently died and now, after death, they had to face a set of challenges to get into Heaven. I hence called the “The Afterlife One-Off.”

The main NPC they interacted with was Manny from Grim Fandango; he acted as their shepherd through the adventure. I could have chosen anything or anyone, but I chose my favourite character. I drew for many aspects of the game, but I didn’t really “need” to draw Manny. This was a nice visual to put up on the screen (we were playing over Discord) at the start of the game. I could have used a picture from Grim Fandango itself I guess, but I wanted to draw him. And so I did.

My fanart, in my way. Now I can say that I fondly took the time to draw Manny Calavera even when I don’t typically draw anyone else’s characters. That, to me, is a special love.