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Prose – “The Wandering Bell”

The Wandering Bell

By Anthony Jutz

My bell echoes its whisper on the cool, damp breeze through the ruins of my village. It provides a ward against the hungering ghosts of my friends and family, who didn’t survive the wrath of another man’s god. I rummage through the remains of my ancestral home, longing for a keepsake, or at least some semblance of a reminder of where I came from.

I can feel their ice-hot breath breathing down my neck, blinding by their own rage and betrayal. It wasn’t me who gave away the secrets of our village’s ancient, magical defenses, but I was outside the walls when it happened. They don’t recognize me anymore.

No longer able to tolerate the air of spiteful remorse, I leave the village with a small pouch of seeds exclusive to my home. With all that was turned to ashes, someone needs to sew fresh growth upon this land. My magic within shall be the only memento I need.

Update – 20 June 2019

Hey friends! It’s been awhile! I’ve been somewhat off the radar for the past month or so while I develop better habits with my art and life in general. Art-wise, most of what I’ve been up to has been delving back into writing, and doing a lot of studies. I can’t share much of it yet, but here’s a bunch of sketches I’ve done!

Also: I turn 30 tomorrow (June 21st)! Yay moving on to the next era of my life. Here’s to more cool art and more personal growth!

Poem – “Shadow of the Moon”

Shadow of the Moon
By Anthony Jutz
 
Fractured and deranged,
The moon-beast shambles through the wood.
It hungers for fresh kills,
Not of its own, but to steal from others.
 
Standing erect it gazes on,
The dull maroon of blood shines in the light of the moon.
The corpse of a doe, fresh and sweet,
Ripe and inviting, calling its name.
 
Lumbering forward, the moon-beast
Lurches toward its prey.
The wolf, its foe, lays broken at its feet.
Soon to be remade anew.
 
Fungal spores float upon hot breath,
Carrying new life into the flesh of both Cervid and Canus.
Reborn, they will carry on their function,
Much like that of the moon-beast.
 
Another shambles, another beast,
To spread a plague upon and without.
It reanimates life into its own making:
To unmake the Earth.

Poem – “Bury”

Bury
By Anthony Jutz
 
Bury it down,
Deep, like in a furnace
Or perhaps a volcano.
 
Bury it down,
Let it fester and rot
So you can use it as fuel.
 
Decayed, decrepit,
Hungry for rage that has yet
To become potent.
 
Fill your bones with it,
Drown your lungs in it,
And let it drive you to overcome.
 
A swamp may absorb the flood,
But that swamp is filled with life.
Feed it your decay and watch it grow.
 
Mile-high mangroves standing tall and proud,
Your rage turns to relief:
The pain and tears have turned green.
 
Now a home for life,
Overcome and
Reborn.

Poem – “I am a knife”

I am a knife
By Anthony Jutz
 
I am a knife,
Or perhaps a dancer.
I do a twirl on the edge,
Perhaps of myself or maybe a great abyss.
 
The world is a sheath,
Or perhaps a ripe fruit,
Ready for the knife.
Sliced in twain it holds my form, regardless.
 
Reality is but a moment,
Shifting between breaths.
It runs along the edge of the knife,
Of me,
Standing on the tip or perhaps over a precipice.
 
This moment,
But a pinprick.
The feeling bubbles and drops off.
 
Falling to the ground, it disappears,
Followed by another,
And another.
 
It forms a pool of deep red
Containing a reflection of me,
Or perhaps the knife,
Dancing on the edge.
 
The edge burns with potential,
Another moment aching to be.
The feelings flow in and out,
Awaiting my decision
To take the plunge.

Update – 03 May 2019

Wow, jeez, it’s been over three months since I’ve updated this blog. Been a weird few months too, but it’s been relatively decent. Lemme give y’all a synopsis.

Through early Feb, I was on a great roll with art, and then through the rest of Feb and into March I was in a bit of a funk; same for with most of April. I got some work done on the game, did some good writing, and have done a few cool illustrations since then.

However, most of my time has been spent working on handling my depression better. Hence why this blog has been neglected for so long. I’ve still been posting on my Patreon every couple weeks, at least. Most of those posts end up free for the public to see, if you’d like to catch up on my activities there!

More art and such below:

Continue reading Update – 03 May 2019

ODP: The Cave

Hey everyone! Now feels like a good time to make a post about my current project: I’m making another small video game!

Ominous Doom Planet: The Cave is a narrative platforming game about a space exploring scientist getting lost in a deep cave filled with dark secrets. What forbidden knowledge will they gain from this chasm on a planet on the edge of reality? Well, you’ll have to wait til it’s finished to find out!

Here’s some screenshots of what I’ve got of it so far!

As you can see, I’ve got the basic art and enemy AI working, in addition to having tileset going. There’s also some invisible things such as features that make level design a much more expedient process. Also not shown is player movement and jump physics.

This was achieved in the first couple weeks of development.

During the third week of development, I got dialogue boxes working, including creating my own font and outline sprites. This coming week, I’m hoping to get multiple lines of dialogue working from the same interactive object.

I’m posting updates every week on Twitter, to the #ominousdoomplanet hashtag. Hopefully the game will be out by summer, depending on how everything goes! See you next time!