Ville V. Kokko's Blog, page 2
June 12, 2022
"Less Bittersweet", or: I'm really publishing a webcomic
Last August, I announced that I was getting so inspired by something that I was considering creating a fan webcomic.
Well, my current status: I'm really hoping to start publishing it next week.
The name of the webcomic is still what I said was my working title then: Less Bittersweet. And now that I'm announcing it, it's time to reveal what it's actually based on. Unfortunately, I'm immediately going to have to say it might not make sense to read the comic without having played the game. Maybe you should just play it? I loved that game for a reason, you know. And it's available free and quite short.
The game in question is the visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club! (DDLC for short). The name sounds so silly I wouldn't want to mention it without going ahead to explain what the game is actually about, but that's just what I was going to do next anyway.
DDLC starts out looking like a light-hearted anime style thing, the kind of game whose object is literally just to date cute high school girls. Although, if you pay attention, you may already notice early on that there's something more going on... And of course, there's that content warning. Well, eventually the game takes a total turn and becomes very dark and anything but generic. It seems most often to be classified as psychological horror, although there's a lot more going on.
Honestly, I'd recommend it to almost anyone. It can be downloaded for free on Steam or ddlc.moe. (There's an expanded paid version, DDLC Plus. I wouldn't recommend anyone to start with that - the original works better as it is, although Plus is okay for added content afterwards.) It also takes only about four hours to finish normally. And it's absolutely brilliant.
The one caveat is that people who are too sensitive one way or other might not want to play it. It's not necessarily the scariest game in the regular sense of horror - though your mileage may vary - but it features horrible things happening and may not be safe for people with issues with anxiety or depression. It's written with lots of empathy and emotional intelligence, though... which probably causes it to be all the more shocking, but shocking in a way that makes you think and feel.
So, enough about DDLC, and back to Less Bittersweet. (So, what do I say about it anyway?)
I was inspired by the characters of DDLC, their tragic fates, and the thought-provoking ideas in the game's premise. As such, my comic is going to be set after the ending of the comic (the special one, not the normal one, which is even darker), and trying to make it, well, [points at the comic title], while still following the logic of the original story in one possible interpretation. The comic is not going to be nearly as dark, although it will still have the same themes, even the dark ones. I guess it's mainly drama-comedy, besides being vaguely anime-related, speculative fiction, and metafiction.
One of my motivations for actually doing this was and is how many things there are to learn that I can only sort of do now, or only have a clue about, that I all need for making and publishing a webcomic. I stepped in pretty deep in that respect. It's going to be a learning process throughout, and it's going to show. But, well, I can write already, and draw somewhat, so none of it should be awful even at the start.
It's pretty clear that my intended audience are established fans of the game. The comic works best if you know the game and get the references. But, well, it only takes four hours to become one...
I will post a link to the comic when it's actually online.
Well, my current status: I'm really hoping to start publishing it next week.
The name of the webcomic is still what I said was my working title then: Less Bittersweet. And now that I'm announcing it, it's time to reveal what it's actually based on. Unfortunately, I'm immediately going to have to say it might not make sense to read the comic without having played the game. Maybe you should just play it? I loved that game for a reason, you know. And it's available free and quite short.
The game in question is the visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club! (DDLC for short). The name sounds so silly I wouldn't want to mention it without going ahead to explain what the game is actually about, but that's just what I was going to do next anyway.
DDLC starts out looking like a light-hearted anime style thing, the kind of game whose object is literally just to date cute high school girls. Although, if you pay attention, you may already notice early on that there's something more going on... And of course, there's that content warning. Well, eventually the game takes a total turn and becomes very dark and anything but generic. It seems most often to be classified as psychological horror, although there's a lot more going on.
Honestly, I'd recommend it to almost anyone. It can be downloaded for free on Steam or ddlc.moe. (There's an expanded paid version, DDLC Plus. I wouldn't recommend anyone to start with that - the original works better as it is, although Plus is okay for added content afterwards.) It also takes only about four hours to finish normally. And it's absolutely brilliant.
The one caveat is that people who are too sensitive one way or other might not want to play it. It's not necessarily the scariest game in the regular sense of horror - though your mileage may vary - but it features horrible things happening and may not be safe for people with issues with anxiety or depression. It's written with lots of empathy and emotional intelligence, though... which probably causes it to be all the more shocking, but shocking in a way that makes you think and feel.
So, enough about DDLC, and back to Less Bittersweet. (So, what do I say about it anyway?)
I was inspired by the characters of DDLC, their tragic fates, and the thought-provoking ideas in the game's premise. As such, my comic is going to be set after the ending of the comic (the special one, not the normal one, which is even darker), and trying to make it, well, [points at the comic title], while still following the logic of the original story in one possible interpretation. The comic is not going to be nearly as dark, although it will still have the same themes, even the dark ones. I guess it's mainly drama-comedy, besides being vaguely anime-related, speculative fiction, and metafiction.
One of my motivations for actually doing this was and is how many things there are to learn that I can only sort of do now, or only have a clue about, that I all need for making and publishing a webcomic. I stepped in pretty deep in that respect. It's going to be a learning process throughout, and it's going to show. But, well, I can write already, and draw somewhat, so none of it should be awful even at the start.
It's pretty clear that my intended audience are established fans of the game. The comic works best if you know the game and get the references. But, well, it only takes four hours to become one...
I will post a link to the comic when it's actually online.
June 7, 2022
Presenting at my first conference - and thereby got my first nonfiction listing here on Goodreads(!)
I'm attending a philosophy conference in Vilnius in a couple of weeks, my first one, and doing a presentation related to my doctoral dissertation. And now I noticed that means my abstract for it has been published in Beyond Free Will: Variety in Understanding of Choice, Luck, and Necessity - abstracts (Vilnius University Proceedings, #23), which has its own ISBN, so I added it to Goodreads and thereby to my profile.
I've been waiting to have a nonfiction book in my profile for a long time. This is something at least.
I've been waiting to have a nonfiction book in my profile for a long time. This is something at least.
May 30, 2022
After Dinner Conversation Season Six collection out
My short story "The Only Punishment" can now also be found in the collection After Dinner Conversation - Season Six: After Dinner Conversation Short Story Series, which just came out on Amazon as an ebook today. Costs only five dollars, so I don't even want to calculate how cheap that is per story. Okay, 20 cents. The print book is coming out in about a week, too.
I now have 10 different books recognised under my name by Goodreads, not that I'm counting or anything.
I now have 10 different books recognised under my name by Goodreads, not that I'm counting or anything.
May 20, 2022
By the way, Camp NaNoWriMo April 2022
Oh, yes, I could talk about this here a bit too. Much as I did in last NaNoWriMo proper, in last month's Camp NaNoWriMo (which is kind of a less formal version), I was working on my upcoming fan webcomic Less Bittersweet. This time, I set a custom goal since it was allowed, based on counting pictures in place of words again, and drew crude thumbnails for the comics coming after the ones I'd sketched more thoroughly during NaNoWriMo. Some writing was also involved, because I didn't have the dialogue for all of those ready, but I wasn't counting that.
I'm supposed to start publishing the actual webcomic next month. Yes, it's close to really happening. Then again, I have SO MUCH left to do if I intend to get that done...
I'm supposed to start publishing the actual webcomic next month. Yes, it's close to really happening. Then again, I have SO MUCH left to do if I intend to get that done...
February 5, 2022
I got published on the National Novel Writing Month blog
Here: Writing Fanfiction: Tips for Avoiding Common Pitfalls
They just asked me to write something as a long-time participant.
They just asked me to write something as a long-time participant.
January 27, 2022
Two new After Dinner Conversation publications out
So we have:
After Dinner Conversation - Season Five: After Dinner Conversation Short Story Series
Kindle edition (paperback coming up later), with my "Have A Nice Eternity!™" and
After Dinner Conversation Magazine (February, 2022): Philosophy Ethics Short Story Magazine
with my "The Only Punishment".
My list of works on Goodreads just keeps on growing.
After Dinner Conversation - Season Five: After Dinner Conversation Short Story Series
Kindle edition (paperback coming up later), with my "Have A Nice Eternity!™" and
After Dinner Conversation Magazine (February, 2022): Philosophy Ethics Short Story Magazine
with my "The Only Punishment".
My list of works on Goodreads just keeps on growing.
January 1, 2022
My latest story available for free on The Antihumanist
The third edition of The Antihumanist is out, and contains my short story/flash fiction piece "In the Café at the Boulevard d'Auseil". You can just go here and read it for free.
If you know the Cthulhu Mythos, you can try to guess which three big names from it are implicitly referenced in my story without being mentioned.
December 8, 2021
Coming up: "In the Café at the Boulevard d'Auseil" at The Antihumanist
I'm really starting to get going with getting stuff published. Seems like there's something new all the time. (I haven't even talked about the Finnish nonfiction here.) This time, I submitted a 1,000-word story to a publication called
The Antihumanist,
and I got word today that they've accepted it. Maybe it's because it's a reimagining of aspects of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos on the basis that humanity's place in them wasn't as insignificant as it should have been.
They don't just publish fiction, I was also going to send in an essay but couldn't send both during the same submission period, but this turned out just fine this way. Hopefully, I can offer the essay later.
I'll tell more when I know more.
They don't just publish fiction, I was also going to send in an essay but couldn't send both during the same submission period, but this turned out just fine this way. Hopefully, I can offer the essay later.
I'll tell more when I know more.
December 6, 2021
By the way, NaNoWriMo 2021
National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo for short, is an international (yes) event where you write a 50,000 word novel sketch in the thirty days of November. I've finished it about five times in previous years and failed to finish about equally many times as I got less motivated and had more distracting stuff going on.
Just as a announcement, I cheated this year and drew instead of wrote, making my project about drawing a practice version of that fan webcomic I'm planning. I counted one "picture" (a character or notable background or the like) as a thousand words. I only finished the first extended scene and a few random panels from elsewhere in the story... but I got practice and brought the project one step closer to actual completion. And I finished the so-called 50,000 words.
I'm too afraid to promise yet, but really do intend to make it so that there will be an actual webcomic one day.
Just as a announcement, I cheated this year and drew instead of wrote, making my project about drawing a practice version of that fan webcomic I'm planning. I counted one "picture" (a character or notable background or the like) as a thousand words. I only finished the first extended scene and a few random panels from elsewhere in the story... but I got practice and brought the project one step closer to actual completion. And I finished the so-called 50,000 words.
I'm too afraid to promise yet, but really do intend to make it so that there will be an actual webcomic one day.
November 17, 2021
After Dinner Conversation AGAIN: "The Only Punishment"
It figures that a magazine built around philosophically interesting short stories would be a good publishing venue for me. Too bad it also pays even less than most others, but I've given up trying to make much money for now in favour of just getting stuff published.
So yes, I just had a third story accepted for After Dinner Conversation. This one is called "The Only Punishment", and it's about a futuristic punishment that may be the most humane one ever... but is it also brainwashing?
So yes, I just had a third story accepted for After Dinner Conversation. This one is called "The Only Punishment", and it's about a futuristic punishment that may be the most humane one ever... but is it also brainwashing?
