Possible Delay for Sept. 30th Page Release
on September 22, 2022
at 9:33 am
Due to personal business I’ve been kind of busy this week, so I’m a bit behind. Next week’s page release will probably be pushed back to October 7th, thank you for your patience.
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Soma Journal #4
on September 16, 2022
at 10:30 am
Happy Friday everyone, I almost forgot to write one of these this week. My sleep schedule has been really strange so I’m a bit frazzled, but we’re down to four more weeks of Chapter 2 and I’m looking forward to the break. It will be very nice to get some time to catch a breather before moving on.
My almost daily walks have graduated to almost daily jogs. I’ve never been super sporty so it’s pretty interesting to improve at something physically like that, and I have a pretty good time when I’m not being chased by dogs.
COOL GATE FACTS
Hormicite Worms are custodial parasites that construct large adobe-like colonies, which can be shaped before hardening to hold any shape a person might desire. Hormicite nest is often used as a building material for the hull of dunecutters and other similar dune-fairing vessels, because it is durable, lightweight, and maintained by the inhabiting worm colony.
The hormicites feed on Death, which is thankfully an abundant energy in the Ash Dunes, but this also makes them a necromancer’s worst nightmare as the worms are essentially voids of the energy they require to conduct their business. Normally, this causes feelings of anxiety that would reasonably make anyone a bit testy, but if one were to attempt necromancy in the presence of hormicite worms, they would near immediately be overcome with extreme nausea and a migraine that often takes hours to subside.
I don’t have Hormicite Worm pictures right now so have the rough layout of the Thousand Eye instead.
Soma Journal #3
on September 9, 2022
at 10:30 am
Hi everyone, it’s another beautiful Friday morning for me today. It’s gonna start getting colder out soon which suits me just fine, I hate the summer heat.
There’s about 6 pages left in this chapter, the next chapter will probably be half the length and move along the story faster, which is good for you because it means you get to see things happen more, and it’s good for me because it means I can probably start other projects before I’m 30.
I’ve been toying around with programming and character design for modeling recently, which has been a refreshing experience. I’ve messed around with gamedev in the past so I have a vague understanding of how it all works, but I’m using Unity now instead of GMS2 so that’s kinda new. I don’t really have any plans to use this for a project (Nine Gates related or otherwise), I just like to try new things.
COOL GATE FACTS
Hadia did this immediately after today’s page. Don’t make bones in a hive full of custodial parasites.
-Soma
Soma Journal #2
on September 2, 2022
at 9:40 am
Hi everyone, it’s a beautiful Friday morning out today. I’m writing this three days in advance but that’s still technically not a lie because even if it was raining I’d still think it was nice out.
I’ve been kinda unsure where to put this as far as timing goes, I think having it go up at exactly the same time as the weekly page caused the publishing schedule to screw up a bit and kept it from posting the page. This week I’ll try putting it up at 9:40 AM my time and see if that helps.
Lately I’ve been taking walks to get in shape for important health checkups in the future, as well as personal reasons, and it’s helped me feel a lot more motivated to finish pages. The benefit of having a somewhat varied schedule is that you don’t get bored as easily I guess.
As far as my other personal art endeavors go, I want to try to do more fan art of things I enjoy. It’s just hard to convince myself to put effort into drawing something that isn’t my own thing, especially when it kinda feels like I’m holding up a piece of art to an empty audience at times. So I don’t know, maybe I’ll just do silly goober doodles and see if that sticks.
Oh yeah, my birthday is later this month on the 26th so if you don’t wish me happy birthday I WILL remember and I WILL hold the final page of this comic hostage in however many years time.
That concludes the journal section of Soma Journal #2, it’s now time for…
COOL GATE FACTS
Jeane was originally going to have red or blonde hair, this is because her initial faceclaim was Deborah Ann Woll and her namesake is the final boss of the game No More Heroes. In fact, I even drew our Jeane in the color palette of that Jeane as a joke once ages and ages ago.
That’s pretty much all that I have to say, so see you all next week.
-Soma
Soma Journal #1
on August 26, 2022
at 10:00 am
WHAT IS THIS?
So as part of trying to foster an active community I thought it would be a good idea to try doing a weekly update to coincide with the release of a new page– Think of this as something like a writer’s diary. I figure that most people will return to the site on Friday anyways, so better to have a new one up now than on a Wednesday or something. Initially I was thinking of doing static columns where I’d talk about whatever the column pertained to, but I can see myself struggling to fill all of those every week (Even so, if I move this to a bi-weekly schedule don’t hold it against me). The only static column I’ll have is COOL GATE FACTS; A section for facts and info about certain characters in NINE GATES, generally pre-production (?) stuff or things I’d LIKE to include in the comic but don’t really have the time or the space to.
REFLECTING ON CHAPTER 2
So we’re in the last quarter of Chapter 2 right now and I’m overall pretty happy with the progress I’ve made as a panelist and an artist. I’m pretty sure I’ve more than doubled my original readership since the first page of this chapter, so thank you! On top of that, I’ve consumed a lot of media that’s altered the vibe of NINE GATES over this chapter (for the better, I think), including NieR Replicant and Gideon the Ninth, which are now two of my favorite things and I consider them the last two missing puzzle pieces to really make this my own world.
After this chapter is done in what looks to be October I’m going to take two weeks off, and then another two weeks to build up a buffer for myself so what happened last week hopefully wont happen again, but since we’re in the last bit I wanted to ask for your input as I write the script for this next chapter: What do you think I could do to improve the weekly page releases? Is the pacing of each page too slow, or is it just right?
COOL GATE FACTS
Vasha Fairzant has been a character in the story since I started conceptualizing it something like a year and a half ago. She’s one of the only surviving characters of the comic’s first draft (back when it was called ROYAL), where we were already in a weird fantasy world instead of getting isekai’d into one. The only two other surviving characters are Jeane Waits and Creed Matthews.
The Proto-Vasha was a three-eyed delinquent who rolled with a gang that would’ve picked Jeane up and made her one of their own.
One last thing! Consider this a soft AMA, as in you can ask me whatever you feel like in the comments. It could be about art, characters, the world, or whatever else.
-Soma