Out Of Time

Out Of Time is a class project that grew far beyond its original scope. The plot for it quite literally came to me in a dream, where I ran through its forest, surrounded by its teeth. That month, deciding to revisit my old love of eldritch/cosmic horror, I was reading foundational short stories of the genre often before bed (Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft), watching let's plays of indie games at lunch, drafting character designs in class. Considering how much time of my day was dedicated to these universes, it's no wonder they followed me to sleep.

The book assignment was the midterm, that first took two weeks, then a month, and then I had to speak to my professor about the scope of what I had undertook. She encouraged me to cut nothing short and push it to its extreme conclusion, which I am incredibly grateful for. The final product is a hand-drawn hand-bound hardcover CYOA graphic novel. It's also multimedia, as many of the style pages' details are embroidered with black thread, and the title is embroidered on its fabric cover as well. The digital porting of it took a few long weekends.

It ended up being very multilayered, and taking influence from other sources (the works of Emily Carroll especially, with something a little Night In The Woods about it too). The setting plays somewhere between Northeastern France and the Middle Atlas (both my origins on my father's side), tied together with dream-logic and slight crush-on-your-best-friend undertones (and above all, the anxiety of feeling like the outsider at home but even moreso away from home). Overall a very personal piece that I sunk a lot of time and effort into, and I'm proud of the end result. It's a little room of my mind, in gameified book form.

The final product is 58 pages long including front and back covers (53 scanned story pages).