Neonverse is framed as a trilogy of 2D platformers following the adventures of Neon the Pegasus, Onion the Hyena, and Swooce the Patchwork Dog - each stemming from different origins within the world. Throughout the series the three individually travel the lands on quests indicative of typical heroic fare, but underneath it all they're brought together by the plot of a vengeful entity who seeks to tear the world apart at its seams. Confronting this underlying threat leads each of them to deep introspection on the purpose of themselves and their world in the eyes of their creator.
History
The story of Neonverse arose from a small crisis I had during my teens related to my mental health and art. I had a very overactive imagination all my life, and relied very heavily on my internal world and imaginary characters to contextualize my life and my artistic growth growing up. But one year it reached a breaking point where the narratives I created for a series of unfortunate events I experienced bordered on paranoia. After this, I started de-constructing this internal world, and on my way to my catharsis I began contextualizing it on paper as Neonverse, which has been a very healing experience.
That process began in 2018, so I've been writing Neonverse for 6 years now. I'm in the process of codifying it's 2nd major rewrite by taking as many of its inspirations as I can gather and studying them to find my next best direction forward for every aspect of the project from aesthetics to game-engine to writing style.
Medium
The choice of 2D platformer trilogy was an immediately perfect choice for how Neonverse would be presented, so much so that I forwent actually being able to act upon it. I can animate, design cartoon characters, and write a world, but I have only just barely waded into the waters of programming and game design.
The reasoning for the choice are simple however, platformers left an immense impact on my artistic growth and inner world during the time of my life Neonverse reflects, and still do to this day. Super Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog, Kirby and other legacy kid's platformers mean a huge amount to me due to their ties to cartooning and the unique ways they are used in the medium of video games.
My experience running around these cartoon worlds and interacting with them in ways no other medium can offer has imbued me with a fondness for them I don't think could be re-packaged for the world of Neonverse in any other way, and I look forwards to the journey of learning to better realize this as much as I just enjoy using it as a framing device.
Writing Details
One immediate thing you may notice about these characters are their very silly names, it's almost as if a child made them up. They are relics of my past and I am committed to being true to it as much as is reasonable. That line between representing my very personal experiences and making a legible story is also why some details about the world itself may be lacking (like the world's name itself), as I'm still in the middle of that 2nd rewrite.
