“Monster” as an Identity
Just as gender, cultural identity, and sexuality are critical aspects of a person’s identity, so can what I call monstrousness. Monstrousness affects our relationship with society’s rules regarding self-expression and creativity.…
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Favorite Gen 3 Pokémon
Continuing from my post on Favorite Gen 1 and Favorite Gen 2 Pokémon, let’s look at my favorite creature designs from Generation 3 and explain a little bit about why I like them.
Aron
Nubs! This Pokémon’s name always made me snort because it just sounds like a normal human dude name.…
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Designing a Monstersona
Wanna make a monster persona? Let’s do it! Monstersonas are awesome because there are no rules or restrictions – it can be almost entirely human-looking but with bizarre behaviors, or completely bestial, or abstract and surreal. Anything goes!…
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Favorite Gen 2 Pokémon
Continuing from my post on Favorite Generation 1 Pokémon, here are my favorite creatures from Generation 2 and my review on their design elements.
Crobat
This furious little purple demon is the final form of the blind, obnoxious Zubat, though I always thought it looked more like an alternative to the huge-mouthed Golbat.…
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Talking To Yourself
Do you talk to yourself?
Yes!
It’s not as weird – or detrimental – as some might have you think. I hear a lot of people, people with absolutely zero understanding of psychology, claim that talking to yourself is a sign of insanity. Really, it’s just socially awkward.…
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Favorite “Dragon Quest VIII” Monsters
Warning: this contains minor spoilers for plot events!
“Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King” is a PS2 game that I inherited a copy of from a family member with no context or prior knowledge of the series. I hadn’t even really played a JRPG before – I know, madness.…
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Favorite Gen 1 Pokémon
I love creature design, and few creatures are as famous and well-recognized as Pokémon.
I played Pokémon Blue on an original black-and-white GameBoy when I was a kid, and transferred my creatures forward to Pokémon Silver when it came out. I was heartbroken to learn that Silver and Gold were notorious for losing all save data after a long period of inactivity (which, to my understanding, is what sparked the release of SoulSilver and HeartGold), which meant that my very first Pokémon, a Venosaur not-so-creatively named “Viney” was lost to me forever, along with a then-ultra-rare shiny Golbat.…
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Favorite Spyro Reignited Trilogy Dragons
The Spyro Reignited Trilogy recently consumed my spare hours; the original was very close to my heart, and I still have my original PS1 discs of the games on my shelf.
Spyro the Dragon, the very first game, has you rescuing your fellow dragons from crystal prisons.…
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Favorite Pet Game Designs
Pet games were ALL the rage when I was growing up. You visit a website where you play Flash games to earn money, buy food from virtual shops, feed and play with your pet to keep its stats up – like a Tamagatchi or original Digimon, only with much fancier graphics, a billion different kinds of items, and, most likely, a crazy-inflated economy where users try to hawk rare items off for your life savings.…
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My Favorite Creepypasta
There’s nothing like a good short homemade horror story to read before bed. Here are some of my favorite creepypastas ever. Make no mistake, the word “creepypasta”, which comes from “copypasta”, which comes from “copy & paste” may make it sound like these are anonymous, author unknown works that get handed around the internet like urban legends, but these are all excellent works of prose (and art, in some cases) that deserve just as much of your attention as any published novel.…
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