Hello dear readers!
It’s almost the end of January (can you believe it?) and it has been a very busy couple of weeks here at Penflower Ink headquarters. Game design, art commissions, socialising… it’s been a lot, but mostly fun!
Game Design Update: Albo!
Albo: Origins
Who or what is Albo, you may ask. Well, after some doodling around with my collection of lovely – if somewhat stinky – sharpie pens, I stumbled upon a discovery.
I was thinking about the new game system I’ve been developing (see my previous issue) and specifically about the word ‘tag’. Images of graffiti sprang to mind, so I started playing around with big chunky letters and bright contrasting colours. Then I thought about how tags are used in this game. They are stuck on to the character to personalise them and make them unique: kind of like how I used to decorate my diary and laptop with stickers.
These two trains of thought converged, and arrived at the destination: ‘Albo’.
Albo is an abbreviated Italian word for album, usually of the sticker variety. As the player characters would be collecting tags, they would themselves become something like a sticker album.
I also just liked how the word sounded!
Evolution of a Logo
It was while I was going through this whole process that I was scribbling away with those aforementioned sharpie pens. How many fun and interesting ways could I write the word ‘Albo’? Could I make it look stylised like graffiti, but still clearly legible?
As you can see from the photos below, I eventually ended up trying to turn the word into something resembling a silly smiling face. Latching on to this idea, I kept tinkering with it until I finally arrived at a design that I really liked. The lower case ‘A’ looking like a winking eye, the ‘LB’ turning into a nose, and the final ‘O’ functioning as the second wide open eye. Below it all, a big smiling face, with a tongue sticking out.
I love this silly little guy so much, I turned him into a set of stickers – which I feel is very appropriate!
Pictured above: the home-printed Albo logo stickers, some of which I have already cut out and stuck around my side of the home office.
Pictured above: the page-ful of doodles, that eventually culminated in the final ‘Albo’ logo design (bottom left-hand corner).
A Lot of Art for Albo
I was so inspired by this process – and the delightful result – that I decided to have a go at designing some equally silly and vibrant characters that one could make when playing Albo.
I knew they had to be vibrantly coloured and stylised, but I also wanted the ‘tag-stickers’ to be visually present in the design.
First off was a ‘Beefy and Hairy Beach Wizard with a Staff’. I liked the original pencil sketch a lot, but was unsure as how to ink and colour it. Thus, I traced over the pencil lines twice, so I had three copies to experiment with.
My first experiment was with the sharpie pens again, but I didn’t like it. Too chunky, and the colours didn’t translate well when scanned or even photographed.
Next, I tried using posca pens. Instead of doing a black outline again, I decided to use complimentary darker shades of the interior colours. I really liked how this looked, but it looked a little too messy when scanned. I also couldn’t rub out the pencil lines once I had put down the ink, so in some parts they are still visible.
Pictured above: the first two attempts at colouring in the beach wizard.
My last experiment was going back to basics, but incorporating what I liked about both of the above attempts. Namely the bright colour palette, and the complimentary coloured line-art.
I scanned the black and white image and coloured it in digitally. I love how clean it looks, but still keeping that colourful, zany cartoony-ness that I wanted.
Pictured above: the final beach wizard illustration, digitally coloured.
Having settled on an art style, I went ahead and designed two more characters (see below): a ‘Tenacious Old Sleuth with Robot Arms and a Pet Cat’ and a ‘Dinosaur Warrior Sword Punk’.
These were so much to design and draw, I am almost certainly going to keep throwing together random tag words and make some more.
Commissions Incoming: A Spooky Lighthouse!
In the previous issue I shared the first of two illustration commissions for Peter Eijk.
Below is the second, which features a group of intrepid kid investigators exploring an scary old abandoned lighthouse. It might not be as abandoned as they thought…
Pictured above: the second illustration for Peter’s upcoming Pine Shallows project.
Since completing the above commission, I have already been asked to make art for another two big projects. A third one is on its way later in the year! I’ll share more news on each of these if/when I can.
Real Life News: Socialising and Networking!
Amidst all the game designing, doodling and commissions, I ALSO left the house and met people (astonishing I know!). Since moving to our new home my wife and I have slowly taken steps to create a local TTRPG network of our own. We want to have a group of people we can play games with in person.
Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve got to know some people who volunteer at the local equivalent of a community centre. We attended a board game night there on the 10th, which was lovely. We’re also planning to start a monthly TTRPG group in March, in which we hope to share some of our favourite indie games.
Another bit of socialising, that is tangentially TTRPG-related. We also hosted a lunch party for some old friends of mine! It was kind of scary hosting for someone other than our parents. Nonetheless, it was great to get back in touch. We also discovered that they’re interested in board games and TTRPGs as well. The cult must grow!
Media Spotlight!
- Sideways is back, with an excellent video essay on the song ‘Hellfire’ from the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
- Weird Place’s latest video is on the Italian TTRPG scene!
- Another great video by Andrewism: ‘Nobody Wants To Be Working Class’.
- Want to make some cute fungi-themed decorations for your home? Let musician June Westfield show you how to craft some clay mushroom shelves!
- Sghorbi! – a new minimalist dice rolling RPG zine by Hairic Lilred.
- A reminder that the No ICE in Minnesota jam is still open for submissions!
That’s all for this issue!
As always, thank you so much for reading.
One last reminder that if you feel like supporting my work, you can buy something from my website or itchio, join my Patreon as a paying member, or commission me.
If none of the above are doable for you, please consider spreading the word about my work to your friends!
New subscribers to the Penflower Post get a special discount code to use in the shop, as a thank you.
Until next time,
– Penflower
