Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

Little spectral baby versions of the four gods in my volcano game. Hatching magic eggs on the board releases one of these to help you (via complete chaos, as a dinosaur hatchling would, but it IS help, nonetheless!)

#gamedev #dinosaur #art #digitalart #paleoart

Four brightly-colored prehistoric animals rendered with starkly underlit ectoplasmic flesh, arranged floating on a black background. They all have blank white eyes but are smiling to indicate they are friendly. From left to right, top to bottom, they are a blue dunkleosteus, a red tyrannosaurus, a green quetzalcoatlus, and a purple brachiosaurus.

February 17, 2026 at 5:51 PM

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

Help, I set the dodo on fire again

#gamedev #indie #art #animation #gif #animal

February 13, 2026 at 1:50 AM

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

*sniffs u*

got any earwax?

#art #cat #animal

A silly cel-shaded digital art of a calico kitty's face, up close. It's drawn from the perspective of a person trying to sleep but then the kitty shows up and steps on their chest in search of a humble, home-made snack. She has big green eyes and sort of business-like attitude, the same vibe a kid has when they ask if you got games on your phone.

February 7, 2026 at 10:24 PM

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

I should draw one of my characters wearing JNCOs

February 6, 2026 at 5:46 PM

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

So who else read the latest Adobe email and then turned and looked directly at the viewer, in the style of The Office

H. McGill @hannahcomb.bsky.social · 14d

Is Adobe's endgoal really to stop people from, you know, drawing? In their ART programs?

February 5, 2026 at 2:36 AM

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

Is Adobe's endgoal really to stop people from, you know, drawing? In their ART programs?

February 2, 2026 at 11:02 PM

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

Welp, time to make a bonkers weirdo portfolio website layout design that nobody in their right mind would ever commission, to respectfully indicate that nobody should commission me to design websites

January 30, 2026 at 9:53 PM

Reposted by H. McGill

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

Surprise indie game drop!

Tittivillus Teaches Typning is the ultimate educational* typing game, perfect for if you're a 12th century monk trying to get his fancy manuscript in time to please a grumpy abbot!

*not

#gamedev #indie #medieval #art #game #gaming #itch #demon

chromokun.itch.io/typning

Cover graphic for the tiny but fierce indie typing game, Tittivillus Teaches Typning. It has a lockup in medieval-looking letters on a gold label, hovering over a plush green background. The titular Tittivillus demon pokes up from somewhere offscreen, just his blue batlike horned face visible from the nose up (and a little bit of his friendly smile). His wings spread out behind him and are mostly cropped by the graphic's constraints. Regrettably, as of typing, this game does not have any purposeful built-in accessibility functions for low-vision or blind users. The general consensus on the play experience is that it's a really nice typing game but the demon (and the accompanying main gameplay conceit of typos coming back to haunt you) can go jump in a lake.

Cropped screenshot of the game, depicting the player character as a hapless monk in front of a vintage Dell computer from the early nineties. The monk is wearing soft blue robes including a snood cap and long flowing sleeves with enough room to stuff his belongings into. The monk is sitting in a chair in front of a desk with a nice green tapestry, with a chunky beige keyboard for his fingers to eventually flail over and press. The monk appears to be inside of a stylized cathedral of some sort with fancy tall gothic windows looking out on quiet darkness. The monk has a speech bubble overhead: "So if I don't make any mistakes, I don't need to worry, right?" is what he says. It has a pointer finger shaped like a medieval marginalia indicating that the player may proceed to the next bit of dialogue at any time.

December 26, 2025 at 7:32 PM

Reposted by H. McGill

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

Attention all crows: One weird trick will save your life!

(Color and contrast touchup of my old comic, based on one of Aesop's fables)

#comics #animal #corvid #bird #art #digitalart

A two-page spread of a digital cel-shaded comic about a thirsty crow on an ancient Greek desert island. The hooded crow (gray with black wings, head, and tail) soars through a blisteringly dry sky, under the heat of a white sun. The crow spots a lekythos, or ancient Greek pottery that can stand upright and has a handle and a spout on top. The lekythos is handsomely painted with red clay, black paint, and white paint in geometric stripes. The crow alights on the top spout of the vessel in order to peer inside. A bright blue avian eye lights up: This lekythos is full of liquid! However, the lekythos's spout is too tall for a crow's beak to reach all the way down to the drink. Desperate, the crow first spots the skeleton of someone else who died of thirst, but notices a solution nestled in the bones. Bit by bit, the crow picks up a pebble at a time, depositing it into the lekythos. It takes all day, beyond the sun setting over the ocean, but finally the crow gets a precious sip. It appears that perhaps the liquid is a bit alcoholic...or maybe crows just like to sing as they flop uselessly in the earth after a day of hard work.

January 29, 2026 at 2:33 AM

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

Attention all crows: One weird trick will save your life!

(Color and contrast touchup of my old comic, based on one of Aesop's fables)

#comics #animal #corvid #bird #art #digitalart

January 29, 2026 at 2:33 AM

Reposted by H. McGill

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

You were just chilling on a beach when...Thylacine photobomb!

(From my game about animals fighting each other on a volcanic roulette board)

#Gamedev #art #thylacine #animal #Indie #nature #animal

Digital, cel-shaded artwork with a painterly flair. Crop of an idyllic tropical island vista during sunset, brutally interrupted by a thylacine pouncing from nowhere. All we see of said thylacine is their face in an extreme closeup, jaws open, teeth out. It seems to be smiling but might just want to bite us. It also has a single paw raised, showing off some pretty pink toe beans.

January 23, 2026 at 12:41 AM

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

You were just chilling on a beach when...Thylacine photobomb!

(From my game about animals fighting each other on a volcanic roulette board)

#Gamedev #art #thylacine #animal #Indie #nature #animal

January 23, 2026 at 12:41 AM

Reposted by H. McGill

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

My least favorite thing about competitive board games is when I lose, I don't get to keep playing

In my volcano roulette game, players who get knocked out come back as horrible lava ghosts. You're down, but not out!

#Gamedev #animal #horror #art #character

Digital cel-shaded art: Character portrait of an undead mammoth who has risen from a fiery grave in order to enact revenge on their killer. The mammoth's flesh is made of magma, while its skeleton is made from blue volcanic rock. It has fire for hair and flames lick up its trunk. Its eye stares soullessly from a halo of flame. The tusks are also molten red-hot, like freshly fired metalwork.

Digital, cel-shaded portrait of a Galapagos tortoise who obviously died in a volcano-related incident, but seems kind of chill about it. After all, if your flesh was made of magma and you had a red hot superheated shell, and all your bones were on display but in a cool way, and you weren't in any pain or suffering, your own life might improve. The tortoise has flames framing its soulless white eyes.

Digital, cel shaded portrait of a dodo bird that got roasted a little too long in the oven. Clearly it should have been spatchcocked because all the moisture is locked up in its bones, which appear to be made of blue rocks. Its flesh went far beyond charred husk and straight into active magma territory. The dodo's tail, eyes, and hairdo all turned to flame, and its beak is molten red hot, ready to nip back at those who would nip it.

Digital cel-shaded art of a thylacine who clearly saw better days...days before it got thrown into a lava pool and returned as a vengeful magma ghost. It is politely sitting and asking you to reconsider whether you would like to give it a treat or not. Just because its flesh is made of molten rock, and you can see its blue skeleton, and it has flames shooting out of its ears and eyes, and its teeth are all lit up like some industrial accident involving cars and fire, doesn't mean it's not a good boy who deserves pets.

January 19, 2026 at 5:18 PM

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

My brain: I wish there was a game I was familiar with and wanted to play some more, as like, a comfort thing. It'd be nice if it was like Hades

Also my brain: How about Hades 2?

My brain: No!! That's scary and new!

January 19, 2026 at 10:41 PM

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

My least favorite thing about competitive board games is when I lose, I don't get to keep playing

In my volcano roulette game, players who get knocked out come back as horrible lava ghosts. You're down, but not out!

#Gamedev #animal #horror #art #character

January 19, 2026 at 5:18 PM

Reposted by H. McGill

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

Which animal would you be? Pinta Island Tortoise, Dodo Bird, Woolly Mammoth, or Thylacine?

(These are all the player characters in my game about playing roulette on a volcano!)

#gamedev #art

Cel-shaded digital art of a bright green Pinta Island Tortoise's portrait. It's somewhat stylized to look like an animated character, but mostly looks naturalistic in its design. The tortoise looks happy but also fairly neutral.

Cel-shaded digital art of a Dodo Bird's portrait. The Dodo mostly hews to scientific reconstructions, but has been given bright purple feathers in front and orange feathers in back, as well as a fancy pompadour on its head.

Cel-shaded digital art of a stoic Woolly Mammoth's portrait. It's been drawn based on scientific reconstructions of the animal, but the luscious eyelashes have been exaggerated, as well as the deep caramel pool of the eye.

Cel-shaded digital art of a Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger)'s portrait. It mostly looks like old photographs of this extinct animal, including a big soft nose and plaintive eyes. The yellow of its fur has been exaggerated and it also has a little bit of cheeky tongue sticking out of its mouth.

August 30, 2025 at 4:22 PM

Reposted by H. McGill

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

Putting the finishing touches on this digital landscape art for the victory screen in my volcano game

I don't have any more landscapes left to paint for the game and I honestly feel lost -- is this artistic separation anxiety lol

#gamedev #art #landscape #digitalart #indie #purple #sunset

Digital painterly art of a vast, luminous and cloud sunset touching down on a glassy ocean. Rays of yellow light shift from orange to purple as they become more distant from the sun. The scene is framed by distant island mountains with pastel beaches. Ash clouds cut out a section of the foreground, collecting around a lava pool and a winner's podium made out of blue volcanic rock. The losers will be depicted as remaining in the volcano, while the winner gets to dash off into the sunset.

January 16, 2026 at 5:33 PM

Reposted by H. McGill

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

Ahh! What a beautiful day to get ripped apart by sundering lava blasts and searing ash falls

Some painting work for the character select screen on my volcano roulette game

#gamedev #art #landscape #tropical

Long, panorama-style crop of painterly digital artwork depicting green island slopes full of acai palm trees. The viewer is situated right underneath the nearest-most tree so that they can look up through its fronds. The sky is clear and blue, indicating a clear day -- but not if the distant volcano has anything to say about it. A plume of ashen clouds rises from the mountain's peak.

January 14, 2026 at 5:42 PM

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

Putting the finishing touches on this digital landscape art for the victory screen in my volcano game

I don't have any more landscapes left to paint for the game and I honestly feel lost -- is this artistic separation anxiety lol

#gamedev #art #landscape #digitalart #indie #purple #sunset

January 16, 2026 at 5:33 PM

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

One of the gods in my volcano game is a brachiosaurus. It looks intimidating but was one of the easiest gods to rig in Spine2D, by virtue of being a head on a stick

It also has (objectively) the funniest T-pose of all the gods

#Gamedev #art #madewithspine #dinosaur #indie #digitalart #Spine2D

Screenshot of a volcanic brachiosaurus god popping out of a lava pool to rain destruction down on foolish players. The brachiosaurus has flesh made of magma and all of its bones, hardened by geologic forces, are visible within its body. It has purple fire lighting up its eye and red-hot teeth. The god arches its neck and roars. An eruption frames the god: A bright column of lava spouting into the sky, and a billowing storm of ash in the background.

The T-pose of the god: Just its head on a stick, it looks a little scared and confused about what to do as it juts off into nowhere at a random angle.

January 15, 2026 at 5:45 PM

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

Ahh! What a beautiful day to get ripped apart by sundering lava blasts and searing ash falls

Some painting work for the character select screen on my volcano roulette game

#gamedev #art #landscape #tropical

January 14, 2026 at 5:42 PM

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

Hello #PortfolioDay! Come play some little games I developed as the artist with my software engineer spouse! (Can be played in-browser with no download required.)

Also be on the lookout for our next game about extinct animals and a volcanic roulette board.

chromokun.itch.io

#Gamedev #Indie #art

The game's title screen, including a luxuriously embellished 'Tittivillus Teaches Typning' done in the style of the Book of Kells. It has a few modern customizations in the face of Tittivillus, an abbot's face, a pirate worm, a snailcat, a skull, a horse with a cross around its neck, a big viking ship with a dragon's head, a fat king cat, a bird with a flower on its head, and three rabbits with jobs in sattelite architecture, writing, and sewing. These medieval miniature additions have personal private meanings that will not be shared here. The title screen has a distressed monk at the table in the foreground, which is the player character in-game. Regrettably, as of typing, this game does not have any purposeful built-in accessibility functions for low-vision or blind users. The general consensus on the play experience is that it's a really nice typing game but the demon (and the accompanying main gameplay conceit of typos coming back to haunt you) can go jump in a lake.

Screenshot of the starting screen for the Flappy Bird clone, 'apis Volat.' This game has a white medieval bee instead of a bird, and the bee flaps across a velvety pea-green landscape with mysterious plants dotting the countryside. Stylized borders with leaf motifs mark the top and bottom of the screen. The game's title sits in the middle of the screen, and features hand-drawn medieval-looking black letters, a flower, and a monk's finger pointing to the flower from inside of the 'o' in 'Volat'.

Screenshot of a title screen for a simple Puzzle Bobble style game featuring a big fat calico cat. The game is called 'Meowy Catmas 2' and the cat has already snatched a big marshmallow-looking 2 out of the title. Colorful bubbles fall behind her and gather in a big pile of purple, yellow, blue, and white. This cat may look innocent but trust me she is a troublemaker and she deserves every bit of punishment these bubbles represent. This game sadly does not have any blind- or low-vision accommodations but the gameplay is boilerplate Puzzle Bobble from the paws of a little fat calico cat: Shoot bubbles, match bubbles, pop bubbles.

Full illustration in cel-shaded, digital art style. It depicts many animals fleeing the ashen clouds of a volcanic eruption, in which the skeletons of ancient prehistoric gods lunge out after them (quetzalcoatlus, dunkleosteus, apatosaurus, and T. rex). The illustration is primarily blue with some pops of color for each animal. The doedicurus (prehistoric armadillo) is grayish-green as it leaps ahead of an enormous T. rex's snapping jaws. The yellow thylacine springs out a bit further ahead. Closest to the viewer is a green Pinta Island giant tortoise, which is probably for the best since it is going to be too slow to escape without a head start. Next is a screeching purple-headed dodo with a yellow beak. An orange woolly mammoth charges forth behind the dodo, trumpeting as it goes. Up overhead are a troop of brown and white capuchin monkeys jumping down from...who knows where.... A giant T. rex charges forth out of the clouds with lava-red teeth, ready to eat them all if it catches them! We're not sure if this game will have any blind or low-vision accessibility features, but we'd welcome input on the concept from someone who'd benefit.

January 13, 2026 at 4:28 PM

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

Retouched one more old comic with fresh new colors, more weird stuff, and I have also ultimately decided I enjoy drawing eyes

If said eyes are shamelessly faux-anime then so be it, this is my beautiful hole; I dug it for myself and I'm not climbing back out

#comic #memoir #webcomic #writing #art

This is a one-page digital comic with three panels. The first panel is of the author/illustrator in a gray hoodie covered with silver stars. They hold a pencil aloft. It sparks with colorful little stylized stars and swirls meant to symbolize either creativity or antagonism, maybe both.

Narration: Writing is like...

Panel 2: "Hello!" bursts out in 3D yellow letters. "Let me put vivid hallucinations directly into your brain!" These words meander through a psychedelic landscape of pink, blue, green, and yellow chaos, featuring an old-timey Saturn drawing; stars; a green bacterium with flagellum waving behind it; a Boeing jetting out of this scene before it gets stabbed by the author's pencil; a half-seal, half-pelican creature named Norman wearing a dapper hat and cane; a peeled banana; cheese; and a bucket full of pink slime. The panel ends with a very, very sharp pencil poised to poke into someone's ear.

Panel 3: The author, in real life, demands that their partner, Devin, "Experience an emotion!" while threatening their ear with the pencil. Devin cowers over the manuscript. "I feel it! I feel it. wagh," he says. He's sweating bullets.

January 12, 2026 at 7:13 PM

Reposted by H. McGill

H. McGill

@hannahcomb.bsky.social

Redid this comic depicting a moment from early in the pandemic. It's based on a real conversation we had, although the cashier might not have been this hairy, exactly!

Mostly adjusted the colors to be brighter and the background to have more depth

#comic #memoir #indie #webcomic #animal #bear #art