Solar Echoes in 2018: Video Comic

The next thing that you might see early this year for Solar Echoes is a video comic. Last fall, I commissioned artist John Fell to add some facial expressions to most of the alien characters in Solar Echoes. Obviously, the Omul has no facial features, but the other characters all have various ways of showing emotion. The Human, Reln, and Krissethi were of course the easiest, because they all have eyebrows and mouths that can easily be used to convey emotions like happiness, anger, and fear. However, the Chiraktis was a bit tougher—the insectoid has no eyebrows, has fixed eyes that can't be narrowed or widened, and has a pair of mandibles in place of a mouth. The plant-like, mouthless Erwani also presented a lot of challenge, because its four radial leaves and fixed eyes on top of two long stamen really narrow down the options for expression. The Archaeloid's eyes made it a little easier to work with, though, but the Archaeloid lacks eyebrows and has a beak-like mouth that is also fixed and unexpressive. After thinking a lot about how animals show expression (like my dog tilting its head or positioning his ears in various ways), I suggested to John that he use different approaches for these characters. The Chiraktis could tilt its head to show curiosity and use the positioning of its antennae and mandibles to convey various expressions. The Erwani's stamen could be positioned in different ways to convey emotion, as well as the four radial “facial” leaves. And the Archaeloid's tentacles and eyelids could also be used to open up a wider range of emotions. So, with all of this now finished, I will be putting together a short video adventure featuring these alien characters, in the style of typical JRPG video-game storytelling. Be ready for opportunities soon to share your feedback in the development of this project!