Platypus of Truth

 The Mother of all Photo Dumps? I beat Diablo I. Never played it before. Missed it in 95 in favor of StarCraft. After that, it was the critically acclaimed action rpg, Titan Quest (an improvement on the Diablo franchise in many ways). Coming back to Diablo in 2026, I can say that it has lost nothing over the years. The experience of playing Diablo is one of ever-growing dread and tip-toe care. If you've done everything right, you will survive that final encounter on your last health potion with your poor little rogue. After that... comes one of the greatest surprise endings in gaming history. Tragic. Looking at other games I'm aware of, the first Diablo is unique. The sequels are power fantasies devoid of the Resident Evil-like dread. Titan Quest is triumphantly optimistic. The Legend of Zelda can only go so dark and remain Nintendo's 2nd "killer app". Diablo feels like a first session of 80s DnD or Advanced Heroquest. It is an indomitable monument at the turn fro...

 

 

  I've been playing the first Diablo game. I missed this when it came out for obvious reasons. I was also busy with Starcraft. My roommate loved Diablo I and II, so I got a lot of exposure in college. After grad school, I played a ton of Titan Quest, so it's been good to visit the arpg font. That said, i missed a great game. Diablo is like playing Hero Quest on a computer. It is by intent like your first game of Dungeons and Dragons back in 4th edition. It's also much more of a horror game than anything that followed. I tense up and hunker down when I play. Every decision has to be carefully planned. There's no bravado in kicking down the door unless you want to die. It's also played alone. Unless you go online, there's no Merrill to lighten the tension of Ander to save the day with an auto-heal. You're on your own. My first play through is with the rogue because I can see her red hair and boots in the all pervasive gloom. Wonderful game.

  Reading The Return of the Shadow and trying to imagine earlier versions of the Black Riders.

 

 

 

  A couple group images that feel like they need stories to go with them. One has a dungeon crawl feel and the other looks like a dark fantasy. The new sketch book is here, so that will be starting soon.

  Some Frazetta, some real world, some other Sword and Sorcery. Still love that tri color. A new sketch book is on the way, so it will need some new subjects. Any ideas?

  More Amazons under the influence of Frazetta. 

  Yeah, I just really like this color scheme and leaning to draw horses. You're really supposed to limit yourself to three colors and just alter value and saturation, but i cheated a bit by adding yellow for the hair.

 

  Reaching the end of the sketch book. We've got a little bit of everything here. There's Metroid, an Amazon, original character concepts, a Wizardrobe from Zelda, Terra from Final Fantasy, and a Frazzeta skeleton. Many of these bring historical study, backgrounds, and figure drawings all together. Those 3 fields have been the theme of this particular book, and its good to be bringing it all together on the final pages.

 Adding color to older pen and marker work. Nothing like getting to the end of a sketch book and finding that you've created your own personal coloring book!