December 2025 | End of the Year, Preparing for 2026

Posted on by Mrs. Vana

Rimworld Assignment done, Ideas galore

As expected, the final month of the year was a busy one. Nonetheless, I finished the Rimworld task (total of 90+ images, phew!) I had going on from the glorious Mr. V. I also made a lovely Christmas-themed illustration, inspired by the very elusive Sengi. These creatures are just so cute, yet extremely ferocious! The cover for DA! is also done, and the back leaflet is well on the way. Exciting! 

My linguistic services were very much in demand this season, and I can only hope this continues to next year – I mean, have you guys seen what’s going on in the world lately? Would be a wonder if anyone could consume anything soon. Crazy times, huh? Oh, and I also found this podcast I listen to when doing my housewife stuff. Two veterans of the comic industry talk about the craft and the business, very informative – and entertaining! 

I think that’s all the immediate news… So lets get into the meat of it!

Contents

WIP: SCaN

No, you are not dreaming, your eyes do not deceive you, the title truly says ‘SCaN’! (Nearly wrote SCaM, oof!) The development of the first proper game I’ll design has finally kicked in. In this first stunted week of the year I have gone through The Game Design Essentials by Gabriel Chauri in Udemy, just to get my bearings again. It’s a nice course, and provides a ton of useful extra material to read and to deepen your understanding of designing games.

Currently, I am in the process of going through the GDD, re-writing, and taking steps to add things like pillars and such. Really looking into my designing process, and doing my best to adopt some industry tricks and such. Why try to reinvent the wheel, no?

That being said, I still have some hours left in DA!, which I will be doing as a side. Mainly I mean the back leaflet, which is currently in the lineart stage, as well as the legalese page and then figuring out where to put it up. I’m still leaning on Itch.io, even if it is not the usual hot spot for comics. Something about Webtoons and Tapas irk me, I just can’t put my finger on it yet.

What else is coming?

2026 will be a crazy year for me if I can pull it off. I have so many plans and have even made this nifty 2026 Project file for all the things on a weekly basis. You may think I’m joking, but the image above is a real thing. In total, the year will see about 38 projects, if nothing goes tits up. Yep, 38! 

4 main projects, such as SCaN in the beginning of the year, a comic project called Foxteroid, some re-working on the website, and some work on another new idea I had. This latest new comic idea revolves around a short-form thing, where I would explore the world as I see it. IT may be a neat and beautiful way to talk about mental health, things that I saw and experienced when I was still very ill. I thought about making it a political commentary, but decided against it. Too big of a can of worms for me to handle, that one!

So, what are the other 32 projects? Well, they are mostly illustrations, as I will start making the old pixel art I have into the new digital art format. I started the year with ‘Forest Guardian’. Yeah, you know the one, with the constant problems of leaves and such. It was almost ready too, as pixel art, but I figured I’d finish it with CSP. So far, so good, the Guardian looks very… creepy.

(Psst! Check out my Instagram for the old pixel art!)

A Sengi Interlude

As I said in my intro, I made this gorgeous piece of art for the holidays. It turned out to be a great learning experience with CSP (Clip Studio Paint). I finally figured out how to color nicely with overlays, to use the blur tools, and to make (and sometimes break) the lighting with multiply layers and screens. I also found that blurring the shadow lines was fun to do, so we’ll see if that gets into DA! or other future projects in some way or form.

My process of making art is starting to shape up after a year of doing it, too. First come the roughs, then the sketches, then greyscale coloring (flats, shadows, highlights). I usually leave it at that, since my comic style will be mostly greyscale, but it’s amazing to see things become so vibrant just by slapping an overlay on the greyscale image. 

Credit to my lovely husband for telling me to leave the background of this Sengi greyscale, I think it’s a very nice touch. And pleasant to look at. It seems like I’m also gravitating towards softer colors. Something about hyper saturated coloring just pains me. Literally. My eyes can’t handle too much intensity. Must be the greyness off them, too, yes?

Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled programming…

1,000 Hours of Drawing

Yup. That’s the plan. Seeing as I worked as a freelancer about 600 hours in 2025, it shouldn’t be too ambitious to expect some 2-3 hours of drawing on a daily basis. Right? Well, maybe it is, but hey, you can’t say I don’t aim high!

This whole goal will also be facilitated by all the development and comic making, as well as all the smaller illustration projects I have in mind for the year. I’ve also committed to learning more about art, so some of the work may not be seen in public, as I fill my sketch and note books with various practice rounds. Currently, I am standing at 5 hours of drawing. So I better get on it if I don’t want to get left behind! Chop chop, lady, 85h per month is not a task for the faint hearted!

Bullet Heavenly Ideas

Guys, I have a confession to make. I may or may not have slipped into Brotato oblivion. When I first tried it out, I hated it. Where were the outside of the runs stats like in Army of Ruin (or a multitude of the other bullet heavens)? Do I really have to rely on RNG only to grace my runs? Well… ~225 hours later… I have it 100% on Steam.

Ahem! The point of telling you this is that this descent into madness gave me an idea. A grand project for the future, albeit, I will need my lovely husband’s help to do it. He has yet to agree to help, which is devastating. How on earth will I, me who has the math abilities of a just born shrew, going to balance a bullet heaven game without his help! I have to pitch it, and pitch it real good, when the time comes. It would be all about squirrels.

Talking about games…

In my leisure time, as you may have noticed, I play games. And a lot of them. And what better way to put that to good use than to keep analysing them. The analysis of games betters my sense as a designer of what I’d like and not like to do in my own projects. I’m currently playing Deep Rock Galactic: Survivors, once again, since they finally released 1.0. 

Let me tell you… If your game is only played for the joy of trophy hunting… Maybe it’s not the best it could be? Just saying, that’s my current experience with it. I’m the gal who ran around for hundreds of hours in FFXIV hacking at rocks in various zones, just to get a golden pickaxe. That’s what this feels like. Just… Killing time for the sake of some mundane, glittery picture on my screen. But hey, that’s the life of a trophy hunter, eh?

Besides the already mentioned games, I have a list I’m going down. Expedition 33 is nearly complete, so the time for its analysis should be soon. I already played the main story to the end, so it’s just tying up loose ends at this point. Other games in the list include Arcania (a 2010 RPG), Abzu (a 2016 casual adventure), Noita (a Finnish 2020 Action Adventure), Islets (a 2022 Action adventure), and Code Vein (another action RPG from Bandai Namco, 2019). We’ll see if I get to all of them, but by gods, I have start knocking of this crazy list of unplayed games on our collective Steam!

Learning every day

Another big part of the coming year are the various courses and books, as well as art studies I will attempt to do. It all started off with the Game Design course, and will be moving on to art, drawing, manga, more design… even finishing the CS50 course I started so long ago, to understand more about computers and programming. 

The final stretch will bring with it a marketing course. So… look forward to that, I guess? I just had to save the most exciting thing for the last, when I will surely still be brimming with energy and good will. Especially since I will have many projects under my belt, totally not delayed or in the rage-quit bin, waiting for revival…

Ahem! As unfortunate as it is for us creative types, business is a side of this journey we shouldn’t avoid. And as such, I too, need to prepare for the all too engrossing hours of figuring out how to shark my way into some sort of profitability from this all. Scoff as some of you may, there is no shame in getting paid for your work. And in Finland, it is a little bit more annoying to manage. No Tip jars for us!

So, what really comes next?

Seeing as the first week has gone, the next thing in line for SCaN, my current main project, is to start working on the GDD proper. I’ve given myself two weeks to get it done, which seems more than doable. With the excess time, I will begin working on some character design and concept art, just to get more drawing hours under my belt, and to start that side of the project, as well.

The immediate future, this week, brings with it a thorough look at the core, the pillars of the game. And then the work of bringing it back to speed from the ground up. I’ve been so haphazard with my things it’s a wonder I have anything cohesive to go with!

SP: Forest Guardian

I mean, look at him! I’ve done the preliminary work, and will be finishing him (and his surroundings) this month. So far, I’m really happy with how he is turning out.

I’m using the pixel art version of the piece as a base, altering it a bit for a more square format. I’m so excited to be able to add glows and such into it more naturally now, since I am learning CSP fast! So, look forward to this thing coming out at some point.

(And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter/X! I plan on posting snippets here and there of all the progress with Forest Guardian, and the other projects!)

SP: DA! – finishing up

The things left to do for DA! are basically the back leaflet and polishing. The bigger part of the final steps of the project is actually setting up an Itch.io to publish the piece, as well as making a plan to promote it.

I’m so close to the end I can taste it!

In short…

I aim to do the following by the end of January, 2026:

  1. Going through the Game Essentials Course on Udemy (already done).
  2. Making a proper GDD for SCaN, so the development may begin in February.
  3. Going through a book on manga art.
  4. Finishing the Forest Guardian Illustration
  5. And finally, seeing about getting DA! to a place where it only needs publishing.

However, there is a but

Friends. I don’t know how to tell you this… But I shall have a bit of an operation done to me this month. Nothing enormous, nothing life-threatening, a minor slice and dice, so to speak. We shall see how that affects the schedule I’ve set for myself. We all know I’m very easily stressed, and that even perceived stress hits me pretty hard.

Either way, it will be done. I’m hoping that the joy of creation will pull me to my feet and encourage me to continue doing my very chill and relaxed works. I do, truly, get so much out of it when I see my own handiwork. To think that I was capable of doing such things, bringing the things I see in my head to life! The human ability never ceases to amaze me.

It is now, then, that I bring 2025 to its official closing. It was a lovely year, with many new things learned, and projects worked on. 

May you find your way through the darkness of winter, and rise up on the other side, eager and running, headed toward the shining aspect of light in the distance – your best self. 

Have a great 2026, my friends,

Mrs V.

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