I'm an Artist, BE an Artist

• 1 new image added to Illustrations

Recently I announced the release date for the UFFC Alpha release (more information can be found at www.uffc.club )

Truthfully this tweet has been a long time coming, I'd been wanting to create this project for years now and it's finally going to get its foot out the door with an early-release.

That said, it points to a much larger issue that's been going on behind the scenes and it was because of the fallout from the TFTuesday podcast that ultimately made the picture crystal clear to me: I lost my way as a creator.

Somewhere between graduating from Art School in 2017 to 2019 my focus shifted and (for better or worse) my view on creation expanded exponentially. Suddenly my goals went from productivity to learning skillsets to create more efficiently and uniquely and, while I could go on and on about this, the consequences to my endeavors have culminated here: In May I'll be 5 years removed from Art School, I'll have accomplished only a few of the things I set out to do after my very hopeful graduation.

That's not to imply that I've done nothing, the things I have done are pretty substantial:

• Made 190 page graphic novel and published a book
• Earned a Master's in Software Engineering
• Learned the fundamental In's and Out's of Business
• Completed 2 years of Americorp and got a job as a Software Dev
• Learned 3D software and made my own functioning VR model
• Became a helpful figure in my community

But my dream as a naive' Art school grad was to have a successful line of products people enjoyed and be recognized as a figure in the creator community. Not someone who's worshipped (god no), but someone people recognize who does good work.

Reaching the 5 year mark of post-graduation and I haven't achieved any of that, I'm still in the same damn starting/low-level location of the game. I did make Zach Cooner, which people enjoyed, but it was never as good as it could of been and never reached the level of recognition I wanted due to my own lack of knowledge and planning on the subject.

My other listed projects are just that, projects on a list. Before, I made every excuse not to start working on any of them; "I need to focus on work", "I'll do it after completing this course", "I'll start when I have money", "Let me learn this skill", and on and on those excuses went. The reality of the situation is I was afraid of failing.

But now that the curtain has been pulled back, I realize that the pain of not getting these projects created has outweighed my desire to focus elsewhere. I'm 26, soon to be 27 - my high school reunion is next year and I don't want to look back and consider my 20's wasted time and walk into that event with regrets. I've learned what I could with the time I had, any other lessons and skills will have to be picked up along the way during production.

What Next?

It's about to be April 2022, there's still time left to get a lot done. For now, I'm going to be focusing solely on the UFFC.

I had started programming this project in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and it's, by far, been the most difficult project that I've ever programed (MMA simulator). Low and behold, I did it and come 4/29/22, it's release will happen.

Afterwards I'm moving right into creating ZC Vol 2

This project has been a long time coming and its world and characters have been fleshed out exponentially since the end of ZC vol 1.

(Snag your copy here: Free Copy )

After that I'm creating HOWL

Werewolf Visual Novel hopefully I can have out by Halloween.

In conclusion, it's time I start getting back to why I went to Art School in the first place and what I want to leave behind when I'm gone from this world. Hope you'll all be with me for the ride.

KZ3