Hey everybody!
It’s been a while since I updated this blog (uh huh… two years, I know), but I did say I was going to come back to it, which is one of the reasons it’s still up. Quite a bit has transpired since I last posted, I’ve been working on several projects quietly in the background since last time, and events have happened – some good things, some not so good things, but we’re remaining productive and optimistic.
If this is your first time here, welcome! This is the blog where I talk about my various game projects, of which GigaMaidens is a big one. But I also talk about the universe they take place in – the Tabbyoko universe, which I will explain shortly. In summary, this universe is a big one with several protagonists and games planned, several of them much smaller projects than GigaMaidens which remains a “main event” game of this universe, and I hope that these smaller projects help me form a ladder up to that game. That’s not to say I’m resting on my laurels just trying to make minimum viable products! I’m putting my all into these games, trying to make them quality experiences as best as I can, and hopefully establish this universe in people’s hearts. I can’t wait to introduce you.
If you’re reading today’s post for stuff pertaining ONLY to the GigaMaidens game, well, I hate to disappoint you, but today’s post is only tangentially-related at best. You see, this is more talking about the broader universe and history of some of the characters in it, which are planned to be protagonists in their own adventures. Think of it like this – if you’re here for Avengers news, today’s post is only about Spider-Man. Sorry! I’ll have more to talk about regarding GigaMaidens in the next post after this, which is still being drafted up, so hang tight.
But if you’re interested in learning a bit more about the universe and some of my other planned projects, stick around and read on.
First things first, for veteran readers that may not know – @GigaMaidens is on X and you can follow it here: https://x.com/GigaMaidens
Kasha also has her own dedicated X account, @NyaItsKasha! follow it for the Kasha game projects I’m working on as well as occasional art and other Kasha-related stuff. https://x.com/NyaItsKasha
I am also pleased to announce that Kasha also has an alpha demo for her first game, Kasha vs. Kritters! You can play it for free on itch. I’m busy working on this and hope to have a full release within the year. Check it out by clicking the logo below.
Kasha vs. Kritters is an arcade-style action game where the goal is to defeat all the enemies invading Kasha’s house. Kasha makes use of her ability to turn her tail into a broom. As it stands, this demo only has one level that infinitely repeats, but more levels, enemies and stuff are coming soon. Give it a try here!
Now, let’s just chat about life, Kasha, and Tabbyoko, and let’s see if I remember everything I was gonna talk about. I think I was gonna blather on a bit more about Kasha.
Since November 2023 I’ve been writing up a big lore blogpost about the main protagonists of GM that elaborates on various story details, but I haven’t had time to finish it and I’m still in the process of writing it.
So first of all, “Country of Tokyo” was the old name in the lore and in the blog for what is now called Tabbyoko, which is the place Kasha and several of the GigaMaidens characters originate from. It’s called that because of the word “Tabby”, and everything in Tabbyoko is named after cats or cat-related terminology. It’s also generally a catchall word used to refer to the universe they’re from. In-universe, and on this blog, it was previously referred to as the Country of Tokyo due to it being located in the pacific ocean, but the country of Tabbyoko actually has very little to do with Japan. There are reasons for this in the lore that I will go over this in the big lore post I’m working on.
Half of the cast of GigaMaidens originates from this universe – namely Sachi, Milchi, Naoko, Dai, and a few other GMs I have yet to talk about. There are many characters in this universe, protagonists and antagonists that all have the potential to star in their own adventures, and Kasha is one of the main protagonists of Tabbyoko. The intention is to make her the “Mario” of this universe – she is more or less the lead mascot character of this universe as well as of my studio or label or whatever I end up calling it.
Kasha is the protagonist that represents the light side of this universe, so her adventures offer a funnier and more optimistic outlook than the darker side, which is primarily represented by Sachi and her team of magical warriors, “Thaumasoldiers”. I will talk at length about Sachi and her exploits in my next post.
For the uninitiated, Kasha is a catgirl who has the magical ability to transform her tail into anything she wants based on different flavors of milkshakes she drinks. She lives in the country of Tabbyoko with her older sister figure Milchi, a very tall amazonian tiger woman who dotes on her with care and affection. The two of them live near the sea in a fabulous estate owned by Milchi’s parents – Mellow Rock, a stone architecture in the shape of a tiger. Kasha has lots of tales that I plan to share through video games and possibly other mediums later if all goes well. Hers are just one of the many goings-on in this universe, and the other protagonists of Tabbyoko are the heroines of GigaMaidens which I will talk about next time.
Kasha wasn’t always a video game focused character. I can’t exactly remember when I first designed Kasha, I think it was around the time I was about to enter high school, which was 21 years ago, but then I remember I had begun conceptualizing the COT universe in 2001 (I know I was working on SOMETHING…), and I can’t remember if Kasha existed at least in concept around that time – I think she did?
Tabbyoko’s universe was different, with different characters. It was mainly conceptualized as a way for me to deliver mean-spirited anime parodies and a part of that satirical nature still exists in its DNA, but has largely been restructured. Kasha, Milchi, Dai and Sachi’s team are the primary characters who have survived the plot restructuring, and they’ve become its main characters while other designs I made have gone by the wayside. My main character was originally a very poorly drawn self-insert with a red hat – not even trying to hide it, it was just me as a “bubble figure” (guy made out of circles). I think I first uploaded a drawing of Kasha in 2004 but I remember art took me a long time to make back then (I was always a struggle artist) so I can’t remember if I at least had her in concept prior to this. This frustrates me, because it means that Kasha as of this year may actually be 24 years old and I still haven’t released anything with her. I feel bad I haven’t given my characters anniversaries or kept in mind when I created them. I think Kasha’s birthday is in March?
Let’s look at some of my old artwork of these characters while I try to not be embarrassed by them.
Shortly after I drew this version of Kasha I came up with Milchi’s first design. At first she wasn’t Kasha’s adult caretaker, but instead she was Kasha’s biggest and oldest friend who was still a kid herself. She formerly used some kind of voodoo staff that would turn into various kitchen utensils, most commonly a spatula that she would use to flip people over like pancakes. Also she had tiger paw-like feet, a feature that no longer exists on her, because I felt it didn’t make sense for her to have paw feet but not paw hands.
They also both had a friend named Pisha, who still exists in the lore. Pisha is a character I regard as Kasha’s player 2 character, her Tails or Luigi equivalent. Pisha was originally a very tragic character who was beset by bad luck that Milchi and Kasha tried to help make feel loved. These days she is simply an independent friend of Kasha’s who, despite being younger, has more knowledge than her due to spending a lot of time reading. Far less unlucky than she was before. For some reason I never drew her eyes, I was gonna get around to it but it never happened, so I ended up leaving her with this dejected kinda shagdog hairstyle that looks like it obscures her eyes. Wasn’t my intention.
These characters have been with me a long time and I feel bad that I never ended up making anything with them. Maybe I’ll correct that soon? Yeah yeah, I know, I’ve said that before.
For a while I wasn’t sure what form it would take. Took me a long time to decide what I wanted to do with them. I had lots of things in mind, like animation, webcomics, or games, but I kinda stretched myself too thin and wasn’t able to figure out where I wanted to go with them. I ended up picking games as the medium for them but unfortunately that’s probably the hardest thing I could’ve picked since it requires all of the skills of the other mediums and then some. I keep telling myself, how hard could it be? And well, the experience has been humbling to say the least. Nonetheless, I will continue – the plan has not changed, I would like to release Kasha’s first game before I proceed on further projects like GM and Kasha’s minigolf game. I am still giving myself time to study Unreal and make the remaining content for KVK and I ask that you continue to be patient with me as I roll this stuff out.
Now, since it’s been a while, I will talk about a GigaMaidens-related story that happened in January 2024. For a while during 2023 I had come into contact with a contact from an indie publisher (both shall remain nameless) that wished to help me get GigaMaidens made. I was initially excited for it, but of course there was a catch to them helping me without charging me a fee – they wanted me to make a character of theirs playable.
“Oh boy,” said I, “I think I’ve seen this story before”. Reminiscing about tales of kickstarter games that were ruined by people holding them hostage until the devs rolled the red carpet out for their OCs. This contact gave me a bit of leeway in how I’d interpret their character and got me interested by saying I was allowed to make my own version of it that fits within my universe. Okay, I thought, that didn’t seem so bad. So we began talking tnd I designed a version of their character that I kind of liked, and I was even beginning to think of ways to incorporate it into the game and lore. I actually kinda got excited for it.
Unfortunately, they didn’t like my version of their character. And that was just one of many different factors that caused the business relationship to eventually go up in smoke. In addition to demanding changes to the character they kept piling on a number of stipulations that would result in the publisher owning the GigaMaidens IP instead of me, being forced to use their version of the character, not being allowed to use some of my character designs because of percieved “loli” content (this one really puzzled me), and, well, just a lot of crappy things that became overwhelming. It reached a tipping point when this contact ended up saying something unkind about my artist friend Yilx, who you guys know as the promo artist and additional character designer for GigaMaidens. Suffice it to say, that was the last straw and I ended up deciding I no longer wanted his help, so we dissolved the agreement and went our separate ways, and now I’m kinda lost in the desert on GigaMaidens once again. I suppose I have a map of sorts, but it’s gonna take me a while to get where I want it to be.
So yeah, that was some disappointing news that transpired at the very start of 2024. But now it’s 2025 and I am on the lookout for new paths ahead of me, so we don’t skip a beat here. My journey continues.
One day we will arrive at Pera World. Until then I will press on.
Next time, whenever that happens, a longer post talking about the protagonists of GigaMaidens – Sachi and the Adore Stones. That one’s still in draft at the time of me posting this. I will continue writing it and tell you all about them in due time!
I leave you guys with these Kasha models I made. What do you think? Would you play a 3D Kasha game with the style of the model on the left, or the model on the right? Just asking out of curiosity, I have more ideas for what I want to do with Kasha after KVK. That’s right, I sorta finished the smooth highpoly Kasha model. Let me know your opinion in the comments. Thanks!
Until next time.
-PJ
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