Backwards Burd, Anthology 2

One of the best things I've done this year is record everything I'm told, as it allows me to learn so much better. The problem with Anthology 1 was it felt cheap, this is how people perceived it, even us. It was a good achievement, but people didn't rate us for it. It was printed on copier paper with black ink, and the lay out was bad. We were told that a risograph printer was coming to uni and that we could use that, which excited us. We waited around for it to turn up but it didn't, and with 2 online issues already out we needed to get the printed book out before the end of term!

A few sets of useful people came and talked to us, 2 guys from the guild of Illustrators talked to us about licensing and promoting yourself.

Valerie Perezvon set us up with a little interview with 2 creative agents from Let's Be Brief and we showed them our magazine and our website, and they were like "yeah it's cool you're doing this, but the market's so cut throat, you need to really up your presentation" and explained that their philosophy was doing art and design but cleverly, which I like.

Earlier in the term 2 representatives from GF smith had come in and talked to us about paper, and we also heard a lot about different papers for different printing mediums.

Dan Duran had told us that a risograph printer would be turning up soon and we could use that, we learnt about it and how we'd need to set our files up and waited for it to arrive, but it didn't, and then the week before the end of term we found out that it wouldn't be in until after the Easter holiday, and we need to put a magazine out each term. Because we'd looked into it so heavily we decided to get it risographed anyway, even if we had to get it printed outside. With that in mind me and Dan went off to dittopress, choosing brown for the ink colour and an offwhite paper to print on.

After that we went home and got everything prepared. Sajan was in charge of the cover and the sleeve, we decided a topical joke would be cool, and the new pope had just been elected, so we did a joke about Maradonna's hand of God and the pope being argentinian. Anastasia helped me create the magazine, as I had learnt indesign (making all of our stuff line up so much better) but still not photoshop, and it's good to have a second opinion when deciding what artwork to include. In addition Anastasia took over the branding, drawing out the logos we would use in different areas.

Because we'd heard so much about promoting yourself we decided to include a postcard of peoples names in the magazine, something that would look cool that people could stick up on the wall. Dan was in charge of this. With the indesign document all done we sent it over to Dittopress in the morning and they sent us a quote back. With that sorted Dan and Sajan went to GF Smith's to source paper, choosing a chocolatey Gmund bier to use for sleeves and postcards.

Over the weekend we sorted it all out financially, using our saved funds plus Dan's negotiating with the Student Union we were able to sort it all out.

On monday we prepared the screens to screen print, in addition Anastasia had sorted out a revised flier and logo. We'd said to her before that her work was too designed and not illustratey enough to show us how we wanted to be perceived  and what she came back with was fantastic. A really cool ink splodge bird which was simultaneously messy but delicate, which seemed to describe us better than just text.

Because the text on the postcards was so fine we had to really give the screens a good clean, the first time they were just too dirty and the prints came out bad.

But it all came out great in the end!

To keep things affordable we bound the magazine ourselves, which halved the cost and was a really good learning experience. We saddle stitched them, it was a good step to learning to do the whole process ourselves. Here's a video that the Infinity Collective (a group of 2nd year Graphic Design students) made about us:

In that video you can see how we worked making the books and then chatting about why it is we wanted to do Backwards Burd in the first place.

Battle of the Gods, Character Research

I have recently been going to all the museums I can to influence my character designs.

This follows on really nicely from my Natural History Museum drawings, which I really enjoyed doing. So I stuck with the same method of working that I took away from that, which is drawing quickly with graphite, if it doesn't look good draw something else, you can always go back there and draw it later.

The natural history museum was where I picked back up the 1000 drawings quest, as it's my favourite place in London to go to (I've taken a few people here like: "check this place out it's the coolest" and I asked a girl out by saying do you want to go here and draw with me (she said no, but it's ok, I walk around pretty fast when I'm alone so I get more done) and that's because the building's so amazing to look at whilst your inside, all this fantastic architecture housing what's left of monsters from a bygone era, well it just really awes me.

All of the animal based stuff I tried to draw from the Natural History museum, but then I tried a few others out at the suggestion of my friends. The Horniman was a good one for animals and peculiar looking things that live in the sea (good reference for alien based characters), and the Huntarian was good for a few animals but mostly aliens. I called in at Pollock's Toy museum to get some reference for the Bard & co characters. I went to the British museum to get an idea of ancient cultures that would influence my "Ancient Aliens" themed teams and also old school weapons, but then to get a clearer grasp on armours and weapons I went to the Wallace Collection.

I'm so glad I study in London, drawing from photographs just isn't the same as being able to see all these amazing treasures before your eyes. I looked at some stuff on the internet as well, but it was only ever to check odd obscure things rather than what my actual creatures really looked like.

The other good thing about drawing in museums is meeting people, especially being in London, I've chatted to loads of people from outside the country, who tell me about how things are where they're from, which is especially interesting if they are an art student themselves because it's always interesting to compare how learning is handled, sometimes I've been able to try doing stuff that they've been told to do back home and it's been a good technique to know.

Grug the Destroyer parts 3 and 4

An update on how my Grug the Destroyer comic is coming along. I am now at the mid point of the story, where my characters have been established and I'm now just fleshing out how they interact with one another. I've built up my drawing ability quite a bit since starting and now feel a lot more comfortable to draw multiple characters in one frame, which means that the dialog between the armour pieces is reduced somewhat.

In part 2 I began experimenting with frames that sit on top of the main page and in part 3 I continued this, taking it further. Though part 3 was rushed it does get across this idea that the girl is there to help Grug, and that she fights in a way that the armour set didn't teach. In the original drawings the girls face in the last panel is a more uncertain look, showing she wants to be with Grug but she doesn't agree with what they're doing.

I had however neglected the backgrounds quite a lot when doing part 3, so when it came to part 4 I intended to rectify this. I set the story up more like a stage show, with a constant backdrop that was pleasant to draw. Part of what I like so much now about doing comics is the visual language you can tap into, for instance in part 4 the girl makes love to Grug, in order to get the romantic idea across I set it on a moonlit lake bank.

I got some very good feedback regarding page 2 of part 3, Martin Barrett said that I should stop doing these crooked all over the place frames, as they weren't necessary and were detracting from the images. In page 3 and 4 I rubbed these lines out and made use of the objects, frames and speech bubbles to separate the panels. The image is no harder to read and in fact looks much better. A few little visual language things that I really liked were using a log for Grug's pillow, to get across the idea that his head is hard (which is another way of saying he's stupid) and also having the girl run into the negative space towards the To Be Continued... box. Hopefully prompting the audience to wander what's going to happen to her if she runs into the nothingness. Using this 1 or 2 drawings per page PLUS boxes on top looks a lot neater than my split the page into 4-6 irregular sized panels.

Battle of the Gods: The Battle Rages On!

After Christmas Dan, Sajan and I played BotG (Battle of the Gods) all day every day for a bit over a week. I was the driving force of the rules, but Dan and Sajan both provided some good input regarding ideas for moves and characters. It was a really fun week, baking cakes whilst baked and playing a game, figuring out what works and what's fun.

I have 30 additional monsters now, split into 6 groups of 5 thematically. That is how I plan to package them and it feels like the right sort of number, a range of aesthetic tastes are met; With a cuter more girly looking group (Belles 'n' Broncos) and then a more gothic group (The Afflicted), new shiny tech, clean lines etc (Starfarers), similar to before but rusted and more organic (The Forgotten) then a very organic animal warrior vibe (Jungle Massif) and lastly the more ordered grey area science experiment gang (as yet still unnamed, referred to usually as Bard & Co)

Within the Belles 'n' Broncos:
-Pleasant Fairy 1HP
-Forbidden Mermaid 2HP
-Moonshine Donkey 2HP
-Drunk Flying Horse 2HP
-Magic Powder 4 HP

The Belles 'n' Broncos cover the girls and party vibe, so much so that before they were called the Belles 'n' Broncos they were the Whores 'n' Horses - but I'm trying to keep the game family friendly. They have some good synergy going on, Forbidden Mermaid lures enemys towards her, whilst Moonshine Donkey and Drunk Flying Horse are all about crashing into the enemy and unloading a hefty amount of damage, with Pleasant Fairy there to recover their HP from the recoil. Magic Powder can poison and steal moves, which means that the opponent needs to really consider what they try to engage Magic Powder with.

Within the Afflicted:
-Werewolf 1HP
-Gargoyle 2HP
-Time Ghost 2HP
-Zombie 3HP
-Vampire 3HP

The Afflicted are about not going away, they foil the opponents plans and keep the game going until the odds come out in a way that they can capitalise on and crush the enemy. Werewolf charges up and can then unleash a devastating melée attack, Gargoyle forces the enemy to keep their distance from him, Time Ghost freezes enemys in place, Zombie can zombify enemys so they join his side and Vampire can recover lost HP when he attacks opponents. This means that most of the Afflicted lean towards a playstyle of outlasting the opponent.

Within the Starfarers:
-Cosmic Librarian 1HP
-Kitty Jenkins 1HP
-Slandermun 2HP
-Galaxy Weaver 3HP
-Space Mantis 4HP

The Starfarers are for players that want to rebalance the luck of the dice, but pay for this by having no high strength attacks (except for the Space Mantis who has a powerful and expensive ranged attack). Cosmic Librarian can reroll energy dice, Kitty Jenkins can switch monsters places, Slandermun gets a cheap ranged attack with a downside, Galaxy Weaver forces the opponent to reroll energy dice and Space Mantis blows shit up with his cannon. This means that against the Starfarers your best bet isn't necessarily to take out the strongest monsters first.

Within the Forgotten:
-Crystal Tower 1HP
-Seal 1HP
-Dolphantian 2HP
-Lost Hologram 3HP
-Ancient Robot 4HP

The Forgotten have ways of slipping out of danger whilst still being able to lay down the hurt. Crystal Tower has a powerful ranged attack that needs to be charged up, Seal can cause blockades and channel the opponent into directions he likes. Dolphantian can change the type of terrain for a turn, slowing down an opponents monster or giving a speedboost to his own side, Lost Hologram can switch places with allies and Ancient Robot can lay down the damage and hold his opponents in place. When playing with the Forgotten there's a lot of ducking and dodging before a fast paced knock out.

Within the Jungle Massif:
-Poison Frog 1HP
-Sloth 2HP
-Chameleon 2HP
-Moth Leopard 2HP
-Seven Headed Tiger Man 4HP

Poison Frog can quickly and cheaply poison an enemy, Sloth slows down enemys around him, Chameleon speeds himself up to avoid danger or land a quick attack, Moth Leopard stops ranged attacks from coming in and the Seven Headed Tiger Man crushes some enemys and clamps others in place. The Jungle Massif can be played as a defensive unmovable force or as a lightning strike team, or defensive and then jump in with the killing blow - IE there's a few ways you can play them! :P

Finally, within the Bard & Co:
-Puppet Bard 1HP
-'Onorable Oxen 2HP
-Chatty Sage 2HP
-Psychic Catapult 2HP
-Chimera 4HP

Puppet Bard speeds his close by allies up, 'Onorable Oxen can defend himself to shrug off all but the strongest enemy attacks, the Chatty Sage can redistribute energy within the team, the Psychic Catapult has a strong ranged attack and finally the Chimera can steal moves and poison enemys. Whatever your plan is, the Bard & Co can make it easier!

So that's the teams, all the monsters have been extensively play tested and are all fair and balanced  meaning it's a matter of personal play style preference as opposed to who's the best when it comes to team selection. Not to mention, when it's time to select teams both players pool ALL of the available monsters and then select, meaning that team make up and plan complexity is almost limitless. With 40 monsters to choose from, you can try to come up with an ultimate team that you're really good with, or always use something new, never needing to repeat a past match!

Backwards Burd, printed issue 1

Backwards Burd Anthology 1 is available for purchase now through the backwardsburd.com website, featuring our favourite artworks from the first 2 online issues.

We used the funds we'd gathered by selling drawings at Nolia's11 and having a stall in the East Building as well as some funds that the student union gave to us and spent them at the printers in the East Building, my main goal was always to have the magazine made by the end of term and do the project within budget as I couldn't afford the extra expense. We priced the magazine at £2, which felt fair, and managed to sell quite a few, but we still have 100 odd remaining. I learnt the valuable lesson of it's better to print fewer and have less stock at the end, unsold stock is wasted money. The response was positive, but there were some misgivings about my typography skills. I had used a font called Aharoni for everything, which is quite bold but I'd chosen it because it looked comic-y. In truth because the text was so heavy it detracted from the images, which at times were quite delicate.

None the less I got patted on the back and we felt like we could celebrate our finished magazine. 

Issue 2 of Backwards Burd

Issue 2 of Backwards Burd magazine is out online, go check it out! Goal now is to get a printed anthology ASAP!

Battle of the Gods

You may remember the 10x10x10 blog from a month or so ago, you may also have just read about the midyear exhibition we had. When we had 1 week until the show I realised I had nothing to show that represented me the way I wanted to be seen, I had a shit scrappy looking game, a low quality looking video and then just a very fleshed out idea proposal. As I said that I like real proper outcomes especially I felt that this wouldn't do.

Out of the 3 projects the only one I was excited about enought to make into something really cool within 1 week was the game. So what needed fixing in my game?

Currently nothing happened in playtime because of moving around and attacking being nearly impossible, and needing to move to attack. Squares for movement allowed too few directions, and there were too few squares to warrant moving at all really. I fixed this by introducing a bigger, hexagonal playing area

This is what we played on first to get the rules ironed out. The other thing was that it made no sense that a goat took as many hits to kill as a dragon, so the different monsters needed to have different HP values, and the only way to balance this was to make each player take a group of monsters in their team. 4 felt like the right number, so I changed the 1 0-5 dice into 4 regular 6 sided dice.

Using the 10 monsters I already had I assigned them HP values based on their groupings from before, so Dragon and Squid were 4HP (originally 6, but this was too high) Stone Golem and Laser Shark were 3HP, Fire Ghost and Giant Spider were 2HP and Human Warrior, Milipede, Goat and Eagle were 1HP. Sticking with the 10HP thing from before I decided that players would select a team of monsters up to a total of 10 HP, players could not exceed this HP and they had to take a minimum of 4 monsters.

The way the game now worked was Player A and B roll a dice each, the highest decides whether to choose a monster first or have the first turn. Then players take it in turns to choose monsters, up to a max HP of 10. Then monsters were placed on the field along the edge closest to their player. The 4 dice are rolled, they still represent energy. Originally all energy was pooled, but then creatures like goat would just race forwards and head butt everyone on a good roll or just run up to dragon and machine gun head butt him 4 times. To counteract this the rules were changed to: You had to spend a dice on each remaining monster before you could spend an additional dice on them and each monster can only attack a monster once per turn, it may attack as many monsters as it can but each one can only receive 1 attack.

This meant that high energy attackers (squid, dragon) had to be kept in reserve until towards the end of the game because with only 1 dice they could at best move 2 hex tiles and attack, whereas Human Warrior could move 5 hex tiles and attack, making him more useful early on. This made the 1HP guys feel like pawns and the 4HP guys feel like queens (to use chess terms) with 2 and 3HP guys in between obviously.

Terrain was decided by shuffling the terrain cards and then drawing 1 at random, if your monster was good in that terrain it moved at double speed (1 energy moving it 2 hex tiles) this encouraged players to make sure that within their team they had a range of terrains covered.

Finally to add some variety to the battlefield each game each player took it in turns to place 3 obstacles on the board, making 6 of the hexagonal tiles impassable to monsters. No ranged attacks through them, no movement through them, only around them.

Because the game was so good Dan, Anastasia and Sajan wanted to get involved, because there was a lot to do within 1 week I was happy with this arrangement and tasked them with the drawing of the monsters (excluding Squid, as I already had a cool drawing of a squid from my Natural History Museum drawings).

My initial plan was to have a thick game board that would have a gap in it that I could slide a picture of the terrain into, I planned to have them as print outs but dropped this idea as it felt cumbersome, and the battlefield could just as well be represented by a card that you shuffled and drew out randomly.

original monster card design

original battlefield card design

original card backs design

I had planned to make cards similar to pokemon, but instead decided to make a big deal of the wooden rustic aesthetic. Instead we searched for something wooden we could use for cards, we thought coasters originally but Dan got some mousetraps and they worked really well. Because they were a different size to regular cards (wider and shorter) the design needed to be changed a bit.

monster cards

The drawings are by Anastasia Ivanova, Daniel de Sosa and Sajan Rai, I only drew Squid, but I did the design of the cards. I quite like the variety of styles on the cards, that's the way pokemon does it.

battlefield cards

These are all my own design. We changed the cards to black and white so that when we glued the printed sheets onto the mousetraps and varnished them everything would still stand out.

card backs

Dan came up with this sun and moon conflict idea on the board, and we carried it over to the back of cards. The cards were really successful in the end, Dan glued and varnished them, and they came out like this:

I created a mock up out of foam board for the game board, then placed it over the top of a 60x45x 1.5cm piece of wood.

Dan then took over making the board, here's some pictures of him doing some cool shit:

Whilst Dan was in charge of sorting out the board my part was to make the playing pieces. We searched Camden for little animal toys, a lot of what we found was too big, and we didn't have all of the animals we were after, but I have some experience in sculpting small models out of putty, at a smaller scale than I needed in fact, so it wasn't too hard. At this point a couple of the characters changed, Fire Ghost became Fire Bat and Giant Spider became Science Rat. I tried to sculpt a Giant Spider but it was really hard, I couldn't sculpt it solidly, I needed thinner wire, which is why we changed it to Science Rat when we found a little Zodiac Rat keyring. Some models I just made alteration to the toys, for instance Millipede is an upside down stegosaurus type dinosaur with the legs removed, Stone Golem is a gorilla who had all the fur chipped off, Human Warrior was a toy from a Donald Duck film, so I shaved the duck down so it looked like he knight in armour, then made a sword out of plasticard. Here's some pictures of me making the models:

 Laser Shark, made from  a hippo toy with extra bits sculpted on

 (from left to right) Squid, Laser Shark, Giant Spider

 Fire Bat made from a upside down lion's head with extra bits sculpted on

After all the models were built I attached them to the tops of 2x2x5cm blocks of wood, I primed them with light blue spray paint, as I thought it was a better midpoint between black and white, then painted each monsters name onto the blocks of wood, in white and black, and then painted the models.

Then when everything was glued and dried we varnished the lot, this would protect everything and shade the monster models.

For the obstacles Dan bought some nice looking stones from Camden Lock market. I'm really happy with how the whole game came together in just 1 week, and I think it looks really good. Things that need addressing; whilst the models are quite cool, they keep breaking, I want to make a more totem like object, just one piece of wood carved into with a drawing and the monster name, but I'm considering flat tokens or 3D printed models.

We took the game into uni for the show the next day and everyone thought it looked really cool, I printed up a set of rules so people could see how to play it without my explaining it personally.

Feedback was really positive, at one point I went into the room we were doing the show in and saw 2 girls playing Battle of the Gods, I knew then that the rules were understandable and the board attractive enough to invite play. I was making Christmas cards to raise funds for Backwards Burd in the print room, so I got to the show about 20 mins in, when I got there the lights were switched off and an hour or so long video reel started, I think it discouraged people from wandering around and engaging with any of the things on the walls or tables. To play my game you would have had to stand in front of the screen everyone was watching videos on. I'm glad I didn't put my Perfect Guide video in the video reel, it had enough shit, overly long, videos.

I should probably quickly explain where the game title comes from, I thought it would be cool if you played as a God, and that's why you can summon such an eclectic group of monsters to fight for you all across the world. Plus, I'm hoping people find the title a bit confrontational so it sticks in their minds, or even better gets discussed as a result. Plus it sounds cool and has only ever been a subtitle of things up until now.

I need to make some more monsters, less general, more special unique powers. I will do this over the Christmas holiday, as it's really fun to play and come up with new monsters, try to figure out what they can do, how fair it all is etc, and Dan and Sajan are very happy to play against me and each other to playtest the new stuff.