Dan Martin

Today's Surprise Charge

You may be wondering why you've been charged from my Patreon out of nowhere. Well, I've been pausing the billing cycle each month manually since last year, unfortunately this time round I left it too late and Patreon wouldn't allow me to pause on the day of charging, which is very unfortunate given I planned to WARN you all in advance if I was to start taking money again.

Rest assured, I'll be refunding all charges once Patreon has processed it all and from here on out will opt to temp...

Pausing Patreon charges for a while!

Hello PATRONS! I've decided to pause Patreon charges for October and will continue to pause each month's charges until I have a more concrete idea as to what's next and once I've figured out what to actually offer patrons from here on out. Rest assured I will notify you all on here and on the discord when I start charging again. Just doesn't feel right taking your money at this point in time. Massive thanks for all your support up until this point despite the fluctuating activity, I really do...

Patron-exclusive Desktop Wallpaper

Hey patrons!

First off, immense thanks for sticking around despite the lack of on-site activity. While I may be more active in the Deathbulge Patron-Exclusive discord channels, I appreciate that might not count for much if you're not particularly fussed about Discord. I really appreciate that you have stuck around during this time and I completely understand those that have cancelled due to me not being as active. Honestly, I consider it a miracle and a thing of great flattery that I ha...

Discord Server ~PREMIUM ACCESS~

Alright so LET'S BE REAL. I feel like I've been very bad at having much of a presence/interacting with you guys on here. But since the Kickstarter and making the Discord, I have realised how good Discord is for just being around to chat, being available, talking about the game n whatever else. I've been very engaged with it! So I've decided that it would be CRAZY not to get all you lovely patrons in on the party as well. IT'S THE PLACE TO BE.

While all Kickstarter backers have access t...

Draft Interiors

Getting straight into tackling one of the biggest hurdles of the whole game. Designing the main starting town. That's a lotttttt of visual content. Exteriors, interiors. Countless NPC's. So many doors to kick.

Given my usual focus on characters and jokes. I don't have as much experience when it comes to designing backgrounds, town layouts + interior design etc. So I've been kinda surprised at what I've been pulling off so far. I'M EXCITED.

40 hours left on the Deathbulge RPG Kickstarter

Hey everyone! Just thought I'd post a reminder here too that the Kickstarter for the video game is ending very soon! Here it is if you're interested: https://kck.st/2STRdE4

Thank you to all those that have checked it out/played the demo/backed the project/told friends. I can't wait to deliver on this ABSOLUTE MONSTER OF A KICKSTARTER REWARD.

A BIG IMPORTANT UPDATE [PLEASE READ]

Hey guys!

I feel like a full-on post detailing the state of Deathbulge has been very long overdue. I apologise for general lack of communication, so here goes!

As you may very well have noticed, two things have happened. The weekly comics have suddenly stopped (save for the occasional comic out of nowhere) and a Deathbulge video game has been announced and is already beyond its funding goal on Kickstarter and we still have 9 days to go. And yes, those two things are connected.

Bulgémon Twitch Stream in 4 hours!

I recently decided that due to my apparent knack for drawing these things superquick based on suggested themes, I'M GONNA STREAM MYSELF drawing silly Pokémon based off YOUR IDEAS.

It'll be happening here: https://www.twitch.tv/deathbulge at 5PM GMT/Noon EST, which is about 4 hours from now. Hope to see you there! 

Deathbulge RPG Kickstarter NOW LIVE!

Some of you may have seen this about ALREADY but YES! The Kickstarter launched on Tuesday and is doing INCREDIBLY WELL. AHHH!!

Check it out here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/deathbulge/deathbulge-battle-of-the-bands 

Enjoy the SICK VIDEO. Really happy with the amount of positive feedback on both the demo and video, as both took a VERY LONG TIME (Demo...

NEW DEMO BUILD 4 U

How's everyone's Sunday? BORED? I hope so cause I got something to FILL YOUR TIME WITH. A GAME DEMO. OH BABY. Here's a doc file with all the necessary download links and information. There's links for PC Mac AND Linux!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h_GMVIbZc0tI4pLsxD5sEFzGJwLPghvXuH6YTK4s3sw/edit?usp=sharing

Have a GREAT TIME, MY LOVELY PAT...

DEATHBULGE GAME DEMO [PATREON BUILD] IS HERE!

I know I said I'd release this in early January and this is more like mid-January but WHATEVER. HERE WE GO. DOWNLOAD THE GAME DEMO HERE !!!!

I hope you have a lovely time. It's far from perfect right now but we have a good month or so to add/iron things out before the planned Kickstarter Launch around mid/late February. We'd love to hear your thoughts/questions/COMPLAINTS! (I noti...

GAME DEMO COMING SOON

The official Kickstarter launch for the game is in February, which will come complete with a PLAYABLE DEMO. But YOU KNOW WHAT I THOUGHT WOULD BE SICK? If Patrons got a SPECIAL EARLY build over a month in advance. This will also double as an opportunity for you to be a GAME TESTER of sorts, to voice any opinions/concerns about the game which can be taken on board and addressed for the FEBRUARY LAUNCH.

Hope you're excited. We're all workin hard over here. It's gonna be a mad couple months withou...

Devbulge - BAND ANIMATION

Not sure what I'm gonna do with this. Originally designed for the Kickstarter page or for the title screen but I feel like it's giving off heavy LOADING SCREEN VIBES. Luckily I kept the bench separate from the characters, so could even do a thing where as the characters join the party in the game. They are added to the BENCH LOADING SCREEN. That would be pretty sick.

Unless you guys have any BETTER IDEAS.

Devbulge - Platinum Scrumptious Dialogue Faces

You might recognise these CATS from the dancing animation I posted before. I was particularly ELATED about how SICK these came out. So I thought I'd do a cool collage of the drawing process for them all. I still need to touch up the shading here and there but other than that, I'm definitely improving rapidly as I do these. Which might be a PROBLEM. Seeing as Faye is the main character and I did hers first and so hers are gonna look THE SHITTEST. A redoing might be in order, for the full game tha...

Devbulge - Kickstarter Video BEHIND THE SCENES

Starting on the Kickstarter video ALREADY cause even though the Kickstarter won't be until like February next year at the earliest. The video is easily one of the most daunting parts of preparing a kickstarter. So I'm GOING IN BABY.

There's some really sick music in the demo (courtesy of my pal Leslie Wai) that I'm using for the video too. I'm so tempted to share it with you guys but ahh, I feel like this video will be such a great way to hear the track for the first time, I don't want to ruin...

OLD SECRET DEATHBULGE COMIC

Alright it's been long enough. So as you may already know, I did a Kickstarter for my first book back in 2014. And in the book one of the pages had a seemingly pretend URL at the bottom. HOWEVER, hahahahahFUCK.com DID EXIST, I PAID FOR IT MYSELF, and if anyone thought to check, would be greeted with a question regarding what was on another page of the book, should they type in the RIGHT THING, they would be greeted with this SECRET COMIC.

Only a handful of people have let me know that they've ...

Devbulge: Game Class Art

If you saw the booklet I posted earlier. You will know this game will feature a class sytem. Much akin to the classic RPG classes but MUSICALLY THEMED.

I drew up some fancy images to be used for the Kickstarter video and possibly other promo stuff. I'm not sure if they'll be in the game. The idea is that these images will show up to introduce a class as the characters explain/transition through them during the video. IT'LL BE FUN.

Speaking of FUN, I had a lot of FUN with the TYPOGRAPHY f...

Deathbulge Game PROMO BOOKLET

I designed a fun little 4-page brochure to hand out at London MCM later this month to HYPE THE GAME. Figured I'd post it here too, in VERTICAL FORM. While I've been posting tidbits here and there I don't think I've really delved much into the main narrative much. So here's a nice little SUMMARY. Of course, I'd be happy to answer further questions you have regarding any of this :)

Hopefully there's no typos cause I've already SENT IT OFF TO PRINT. I've proofread it once already but you never kn...

GAME DEMO SCREENSHOTS

Hell yeah, the demo is really taking shape now. You can run around, activate a cutscene, get into fights, WIN FIGHTS, LOSE FIGHTS. CAUSE GLITCHES. I've taken some screenshots WHILE DOING ALL OF THAT, BECAUSE I CAN, THE PROGRAMMERS SENT ME A SICK BUILD TO PLAY. A lot of this may look familiar from previous posts earlier in the year but that was before a WHOLE LOT OF PROGRAMMING TOOK PLACE.

Of course, nothing here is finalized. All the moves in the combat menu are the same for one thing haha, TH...

GameDevbulge: Dancing Animations

If you thought walking/running animations were hard, try DANCING animations. Hoo-boy. I made these up as I went along so it's a miracle they resemble anything close to dancing. I'm super happy with them though. But yes. This is one of the bands that will appear in the game. They are a 2-piece glam synth band who love dancing. Walk into their house this will likely be their idle animations. I wonder what music they're dancing to. Probably their own creations, or No Parking on the Dance Floor by M...

Devbulge: Metal Band T-Shirt Design

I'm thinking about doing a run of shirts as part of the game's kickstarter. Since the game is an RPG with musical themes, I thought it would be cool to combine METAL BAND SHIRT AESTHETIC with RPG FINAL BOSS AESTHETIC (though I suppose there's quite an overlap there).

I basically merged the whole band into one being. You can see Ian in the middle, with Faye and Briff behind. I guess there's no use denying that I was inspired by the two final bosses of FF7 in particular when designing this.

Devbulge #429

Hell yeah this is a particularly momentous comic. I had toyed with "painted-style" backgrounds in the RPG comics but this was the first time I attempted to use it for characters too. I guess I stuck to just backgrounds before cause I felt lack of outline meant a high risk of lack of visual coherence. But I guess if you colour in with enough detail it'll be fine. Looking back on the RPG comics, especially in the TNT one, I didn't like how the characters looked against the background at all. Figur...

Devbulge #428

Not much changed from sketch to final for this one. Though yeah there was initially gonna be a variety of phrases plastered all over the BAPTIZE BOYZ'Z outfits. But I figured they were spewin enough sick phrases already. And I liked the little logo of the pacifier in the splash, like they're a full on cult or something that tours the world to ensure THOROUGH baptisms. Because clearly some people just don't fucking cut it.

This was actually inspired by going to a baptism a couple days prior. I ...

Devbulge #427: ANIMATED GIF EDITION

Here's a fun one! Due to the incredibly complicated visuals of this comic. I end up drawing out 4+ sketch layers that gradually increased in complexity/accuracy. Usually I only need 1 or 2 before I can confidently start drawing the final linework.

Rather than just post all the layers as separate pics, it turns out putting them in an animated loop makes it dance around in a very fascinating way.

BULGE MOODS

Hey everyone I GOT SOME GAME FACES FOR YOU. The faces that will appear alongside dialogue to capture the TONE of what they're saying. If there was ever an area of the game where my comic background comes in handy, IT'S RIGHT HERE BABY.

These should be sufficient for what's required for the demo based on the dialogue that's already been written out, but we shall see. CAN ALWAYS DRAW MORE. I guess it would be nice to have one of Faye actually smiling lmao.

It's been a fun exercise drawing ...

#426 A DAY EARLY

Just finished this and couldn't wait a whole day to share it with THE MASSES cause I'm really happy with how it came out. So here's a patron-exclusive SUNDAY RELEASE.

Maybe this makes up for the entire month of no weekly comics? Probably not. BUT IT'S SOMETHING.

EARLY VIEWING SPECIAL: Devbulge #426

There has been great progress with the game. Just in case you guys were wondering why I've gone a month without posting a comic! I'm not a complete SLACKER. Thank you so much for bearing with me.

HOWEVER. A weekly comic will be hitting the site on Monday. Above is what I plan to post. Continuing on with the RPG family theme, albeit with less of a focus on typical family tropes and more of a RPG JOKE that just happens to have the same characters.

I like the idea of them being buff in all ...

More Game Animations

wiki wiki wak wak

Game Haircuts

So the plan for the game is to have different CLASSES each with their own SPECIAL HAIRCUT. Each character will have 9 unique haircuts to reflect each class and of course I'm throwing in some real silly ones cause I know you love that shit. I'll leave you to have fun speculating what some of the classes are based on these haircuts alone.

The classes won't really be showcased much in the playable demo but IT'LL BE A THING I SWEAR.

Devbulge #420

Hell yeah. The 420 comic, this one was a lot of fun. I was really happy that it did well. Something about the last 2 panels I find really funny but I couldn't explain why, it felt risky to go ahead with it but I'm glad I did because it's encouraged me to go with my gut more.

This was also the debut of my rainbow jacket that I wear at conventions regularly. It's nice that I've been able to sneak it into the comics so when people see me at cons it'll be like HEY HE ACTUALLY DOES HAVE THAT JACKET...