Site Changes
Today, the primary changes to my site are adding some artwork I have made recently, and some gifs of the game Mosa Lina. They both have their own new pages.
I had been contemplating adding my new art for a bit, but wasn't sure how I wanted to do it. The original art page has stayed the same for so long that I felt weird about just adding the new images there, and then would I also want to add them to the marquee on my index? To circumvent having to directly confront my neurotic tendencies, I just made a new page for it entirely, confusingly called Art made in 2025. It isn't all the art made in 2025, just what I made in the last few months, but whatever, it is what it is.
The Mosa Lina gifs I added are replays I have saved from my time with the game. I frequently attempt to complete the levels without using items if possible, and have amassed a few decent clips I thought were worth archiving.
Art
The art I have made recently was a direct result of the period of rapid improvement I percieved during my time with Mario Paint. The limitations of the software caused me to change my approach quite a bit and learn new things about creating digital art. However, my time making this new art, post mario paint, has begun feeling frustrating, like I am platteauing again. My entire experience with art, both physical and digital, has been that I am largely unable to shape my art the way I want to and can basically never improve at drawing in styles I specifically aim to improve at. I'd really love to make art that is beautiful, compelling, evocative, etc, but have always struggled at making more grounded pieces, and often end up making things that are exaggerated and cartoonish. I have been trying very hard recently to make moodier, more expresive piececs, which I hope shines through in my paintings. I was recently very inspired by the art of Akiaji Margo, a vtuber, game dev, and fellow neocities user. The way she uses shapes is incredibly appealing to me and I long to make art so nuanced and reserved.
No clue where I am going to go from here, art-wise, but I still feel relatively motivated to keep going at the moment, so expect some more art in the near future. Hopefully I can put more on the 2025 page before I have to make a new page for 2026 art lol.
Gaming
Gaming has been a bit weird lately. The elephant in the room is that I have been playing a lot of Fortnite this past week. *gasp* Yeah I know, but the Simpsons crossover is going on, and it's not like usual where it's just a few skins. The WHOLE MAP is simpsons themed. I have quite a soft spot for the Simpsons, so much so that I used my saved up vbucks from playing like, 10 rounds of fortnite a year to buy the battle pass and max it out. I can now play as Evil Homer, which is especially awesome for me because ever since playing Simpsons hit and run as a kid, I have had the "I am evil Homer!" voice line burned into my brain. AND the line is in the game as an emote which you also unlock from the battle pass, so now I can be evil homer 'til my heart's content.
Before being in the throes of Simpsons gaming, I had the pleasure of playing a brand new game in the Katamari series. Once Upon a Katamari is an beautiful new entry in the iconic Katamari series that is so clearly made with such reverence for what made the games before it so great. The soundtrack here is a standout feature, as Bandai Namco worked with notable Japanese musicians, making not only a great new soundtrack but one with exciting people attached to the project. I am personally a fan of Daoko and have been for some time, so hearing she was working on a track for the game was very cool, and her track is excellent. The promotional video for it is incredible as well. If you have not played a Katamari game before, you should start with the first one, either the original ps2 release, or the version on steam, Katamari Damacy Reroll.
Not sure if I have ever posted about it here but I was ensnared in the gach gaming miasma by Fire Emblem Heroes back in the day and have since played a slew of them. Genshin, Honkai 3rd, and Star Rail, ZZZ, and a few more. Recently, I had been fully out of all gacha games, no dailies in my life at atll. Unfortunately, I have begun playing Chaos Zero Nightmare. It's pretty cool, actually. It's a roguelike deckbuilder that has pretty neat character mechanics. I think I'll be playing it for at least a bit longer, but I did not last very long playing Reverse 1999 despite liking it a fair bit, so who knows.
Tried playing through Fire Emblem Engage recently, but only got to about chapter 14 before I decided I did not like the game enough to keep going. There is no real point talking at length about it, as everyone online has the exact same, correct sentiment that the gameplay is decently solid but the story blows. And for me, I thought the battles took too long, spawned way too many additional enemies, and was just an overall slog. The character balance also felt AWFUL with certain characters being way stronger than others, but what else is new for a fire emblem game huh.
I wish I could say I've been playing UNBEATABLE, a sick rhythm game/narrative driven adventure game but unfortunately the release of it has been pushed back by about a month. I played the original demo White Label years ago and have been stoked for its release ever since, but the recent demo they put out for a Steam Next Fest raised my expectations immensely. I was initially primarily interested in the rhythm gameplay and soundtrack, but the new demo showed off how SICK the world, characters, and writing all were. And it goes without saying that the game looks fantastic, visually. Hopefully in a little over a month, I'll be writing a blog post about how great of a time I had playing it.
Misc
Seems stupid to have something like this have a real effect on my life, but my favorite streamer Grayfruit took a pretty big hiatus last month, that kind of isn't really over yet and it's for sure made me less happy on a day to day basis LOL. He is far and away my favorite content creator I have ever watched, and when long periods of time go by with inactivity from him, it starts being difficult to fill my days. I have been watching a ton of his VODs to hold me over, and community member Joopii certainly helps with her excellent fan edits, but I really hope he finishes working on his NES Zapper video sooner rather than later so I can watch Isaac stream number 900.
This anime lineup for the current season absolutely blows, huh? The best offering is My Hero Academia, which is not a good sign LOL. This One Piece arc is really not enjoyable for me, One Punch Man season 3 is about what you'd expect after season 2, and there is basically nothing else I'd even consider watching in this lineup. Been slowly chipping through Cowboy Bebop one episode at a time, and while I do think it is good, it is nowhere near as good as the world would have had me believe. People talk about it like it's this monumental masterpiece, and I'd use rather different language. I'd say it's a stylish and compelling action series, with cool music and visuals. Maybe it's all downhill for me after experiencing the entirety of Evangelion and its subsequent films.
Wow, long one huh? If you stuck around through all this, I've said it before and I'll say it again, what a creep! But thank you for being interested in my thoughts I suppose.
That's all I have for you for today.
-Jake Spondulio
P.S. E-mail me! sponduliocity@gmail.com
