Sketchdump #007
25th June 2026Salutations! It feels like it has been a while since I did the last sketch dump, but at least I’ve been actively posting some content regarding Gat-Pon’s birthday. I won’t go into too much detail on that here, so let’s just dive right into the bits and bobs I’ve been sketching out recently!
Mercury Merriway Concept Sketch
This sketch is concept art of Volatile Vince’s creator. Her work-in-progress name is Mercury Merriway. For her design, she is inspired by a bunch of different characters, primarily Honey Lemon from Big Hero 6 and Megumi from Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled, along with a few other inspirations.
Right now, I’m thinking about whether to actually integrate Mercury into the game itself. Currently, what I’m working on is a follow-up to my game jam build of Volatile Vince. However, it’s really just meant to be a throwaway project for me to learn the ins and outs of GameMaker. In terms of actually building levels and understanding how the logic works, I think I’ve finally got it on lockdown. I’ve even included some basic save and loading functionality!
Because it is purely a learning exercise and not a commercial release, I am actually tempted to just scrap it altogether and not even upload it to itch.io. It is just meant to be a means for me to understand GameMaker, which I definitely have a better grasp of now. I really wish I had this level of understanding when I was working on Gat-Pon. Depending on what I decide, you’ll hopefully be hearing more from Volatile Vince and its development process soon, even if it’s very short and to the point.
Yet Another A.K.I.I. Concept Sketch
This original sketch was actually done on paper with a pencil. It felt like it had been a while since I sketched something out traditionally first, and then went in to digitise and colour it afterwards.
I just cannot seem to decide on a design for A.K.I.I.; it always seems to change. I think I am finally happy with what she’s wearing. I don’t think her clothes are going to change. But she has had many different concepts in terms of her hairstyle, ranging from plaits and dreads to natural curly hair. I am probably just going to continue to mess around and play with different hairstyles until I finally land on a design that works for her.
Moon Child Fan Art & Album Artwork
If you don’t know what or who Moon Child is, it is an old 90s Amiga game that suddenly had a big resurgence in popularity. As a game dev myself, it is incredibly inspiring to see. I have to get into the mindset that I might make something that doesn’t resonate with people right at this point in time, but if I’m lucky enough, it could have a massive resurgence years down the line.
A friend in the TeckGeck Discord shared some of the Moon Child music, and it immediately captured my soul. I was like, “Wow, I love this! This speaks to me!” I became slightly obsessed with the soundtrack. It’s funny because I know it is a 2D platformer, but I haven’t really seen much of the actual gameplay—just the soundtrack itself.
I tried looking for some album art for Moon Child so I could add it to my collection, but I couldn’t find any good high-quality artwork. So, I killed two birds with one stone: I got to draw Moon Child fan art, and I converted that sketch into custom album artwork for the game. Obviously, it’s entirely unofficial, but the actual lead developer and the composer of Moon Child both reposted it! That is absolutely huge, so a massive thank you to them!
BubbleGum/Zambari 2026
I won’t dwell on this one too long because I actually fully rendered this out for Gat-Pon’s birthday not too long ago, and it was so nice drawing Zambari again. I didn’t talk much about her actual design in the original post, focusing more on the game itself, so I’ll elaborate a bit here.
She is wearing something totally different compared to her normal outfit. I could imagine her wearing something exactly like this if I were to ever make a sequel to Gat-Pon, which has definitely been on my mind. As I mentioned before, if I ever did make a sequel, she probably wouldn’t be the main playable character. She would either be a mention or make a visual appearance, but the game would likely revolve around her cousin instead. It’s all still a work in progress, and anything could change. Plus, before I even touch that, I have another game to finish first, one that is connected to a few of the artworks in this very post.
Sabretooth Queen
Lastly, Sabretooth Queen is a concept design I made for Project Dino Getcha. I knew from the start that I wanted some sort of Egyptian-themed cat character in the roster. Originally, she was going to be a stereotypical Egyptian cat, but I pivoted to making her a sabre-tooth. It actually fits perfectly with the whole prehistoric vibe I’m going for.
Her design pulls from a bunch of different media. She is inspired by Queen Tyr’ahnee from Duck Dodgers and Tron Bonne from Mega Man Legends. There are a few other inspirations in the mix as well, but I will leave it there for now. I want to say so much more about this character and my plans for her in the game, but the time will come when I can talk about her properly.
Conclusion
In an older post (Sketch Dump 005), I mentioned that I was going to stop posting artwork individually and just group everything into these sketch dumps. Well, I am officially going back on that! I feel like I should get to talk about my artwork. Why shouldn’t I? I put time and effort into these artworks, and I should be more proud of that. Moving forward, along with these sketchdumps, I will continue to post more substantial, fully rendered artworks individually so I can properly talk about the story behind their creation.
On a completely unrelated note, it is getting incredibly warm out there right now in the UK. It’s funny because in Sketch Dump 005, I was mentioning how I couldn’t wait until summer arrived. Now it is so hot that it is genuinely hard to breathe! But I’m not going to lie—I much prefer it being too hot over being freezing cold, where it actually hurts to move.
What do you think of the new designs, and how are you managing to stay cool? Let me know your thoughts, and be sure to check out the TeckGeck Store or join the Mailing List to stay in the loop!
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