Take Care of Yourself

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Take Care of Yourself

Take Care of Yourself is a "motion graphic novel" that I wrote and drew in 2017. Often in entertainment, online video games are depicted as positive realms of fantasy and escapism. I wanted to create a piece exploring the nuanced effects that an online game has caused on the protagonist. This is produced in an era where companies openly patent and use predatory tactics to target consumers with a predisposition toward addiction.

[The link to view it as an interactive piece (with movement and sound!) is here.]
[dA mirror link]

Because of the short time frame for this project, I drafted an outline of the script within two weeks, and then intended to have the entire comic story boarded within the next two. From that point on, I finished linework within four weeks, and applied color by the next month. All the while, I was refining and collecting/applying feedback. The last two months were spent collecting sounds and testing the interactive elements.

My biggest precedent in this project was to do justice to the struggle of game addiction. The consequences of playing these games long-term don’t manifest in someone’s life falling apart but instead a consistent malaise that penetrates every moment that they aren’t playing. It was also important for me to deliver on an ending that accepts that mental health takes time and effort, but was nonetheless satisfying.

I made use of the software Madefire to accomplish my goal of adding movement and sound. The shareability of this project was critical to me, so and this software's ease of use made it ideal.