Grahame Turner
15+ projects backed in 2024
15+ projects backed in 2025
CREATOR
20+ projects backed in 2026
13 days ago
Project Update: Who's the 3%?
Polygonal sun rises on the DreamScape, and we look out at the vast sky box. Good morning, DreamScapers!
I get an email from BackerKit every morning letting me know how many people have completed their orders, and how many are outstanding. The rate has been at 97% for several weeks now, so I'm putting a quick update together to prod whoever's in the missing 3%. It's still a few months out, but I wouldn't want you to miss out. If you're not sure that you clicked all the buttons, maybe hop into the pledge manager and double-check.
Work continues apace. I am near the middle of the mood board/stock and spot art gathering phase. Folks who've read the three older books will already know that they feature a lot of royalty free art from Unsplash and Pexels, among other websites. NASA concept art is a fantastic resource with exactly the right retrofuturistic vibes for Orbital Blues, and makes up the covers of all four books. (I almost always grab more stock art than winds up in the book, so we get to call that "mood-boarding" and not "pack-ratting")
This is a process that's got two main challenges for me: First, a lot of Vaporwave and Cyberpunk-flavored art feels too modern for the '70s and '80s vibes we're going for in the game. Orbital Blues is a game where technology does one thing, but the Internet is a pretty flexible tool. Which means that it's really, really easy for the art to pull the look-and-feel toward the ultra-modern. In art-hunting and editing the manuscript, I'm trying to keep the DreamScape really focused on having a really broad "single-function", namely communication in a simulated space. By having games, shopping, and business all in one place, we are stretching the definition, but... that's innovation, baby!
The other challenge in 2026 is the prevalence of AI Slop. I am only using human-generated art in the book, and I do as much due diligence as I can. For non-commissioned, royalty-free art, I'm prioritizing art that was published prior to 2023. Anything more modern, I check the artist's profile to see if they use AI to generate art at all, and avoid artists that do--just in case. It's not a 100% guaranteed strategy, but I'm pretty confident in it.
I get an email from BackerKit every morning letting me know how many people have completed their orders, and how many are outstanding. The rate has been at 97% for several weeks now, so I'm putting a quick update together to prod whoever's in the missing 3%. It's still a few months out, but I wouldn't want you to miss out. If you're not sure that you clicked all the buttons, maybe hop into the pledge manager and double-check.
Work continues apace. I am near the middle of the mood board/stock and spot art gathering phase. Folks who've read the three older books will already know that they feature a lot of royalty free art from Unsplash and Pexels, among other websites. NASA concept art is a fantastic resource with exactly the right retrofuturistic vibes for Orbital Blues, and makes up the covers of all four books. (I almost always grab more stock art than winds up in the book, so we get to call that "mood-boarding" and not "pack-ratting")
This is a process that's got two main challenges for me: First, a lot of Vaporwave and Cyberpunk-flavored art feels too modern for the '70s and '80s vibes we're going for in the game. Orbital Blues is a game where technology does one thing, but the Internet is a pretty flexible tool. Which means that it's really, really easy for the art to pull the look-and-feel toward the ultra-modern. In art-hunting and editing the manuscript, I'm trying to keep the DreamScape really focused on having a really broad "single-function", namely communication in a simulated space. By having games, shopping, and business all in one place, we are stretching the definition, but... that's innovation, baby!
The other challenge in 2026 is the prevalence of AI Slop. I am only using human-generated art in the book, and I do as much due diligence as I can. For non-commissioned, royalty-free art, I'm prioritizing art that was published prior to 2023. Anything more modern, I check the artist's profile to see if they use AI to generate art at all, and avoid artists that do--just in case. It's not a 100% guaranteed strategy, but I'm pretty confident in it.
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