I made a zine! About a fictional videogame! sponsored by a dear industry friend, who I approached while panicking about my food insecurity and bills.
WO, the Zine, is the reprint of the instruction manual of a videogame made for the AKASA Entertainment System stands as evidence for the existence of Hole Eye Games, a developer who went bankrupt shortly after the release of said game. WO, panned by critics as being too dark for its core audience, is mostly forgotten by the casual player, though it has developed something of a cult following in the passing decades. Hole Eye Games' other titles fared no better, and are mostly forgotten.
However, WO might have just saved two kids who chanced upon it in their late teens. WO, the zine, reprints the game's manual in its entirety, including the handwritten notes of Fiver (Jonah Lovelace) and Rosary Sepulchur (James Patron) as they traded the cartridge and the booklet back and forth during the darkest days of their lives.
Solace can come in the strangest forms. Sometimes, it comes as a videogame about being a giant rabbit and climbing into your best friend/crush's corpse to defeat Satan.
If you want your own copy, you can buy it here!
It's 48-pages long, full color, glossy cool paper and stuff. I'd be super grateful for any support you can give, and spreading the word. I'm too shy to talk about my stuff. I don't even know where I should be talking about it.
Fun fact: I broke my left arm (my radial neck) and my right hand (my trapezium) while in the process of making this. Not due to the process (it was a stupid skating accident where a giant dude barreled into me hockey-style), but the fact it's actually been made and is out now is something of a miracle to me.
Another fun fact: the printing studio I hired for the project was so helpful, understanding, and knew what I wanted to a T. And the weirdest thing is, I found them from a ten year old Reddit post where they were discussing making a SNES-style manual with another Reddit user. I sent them a message, and what'd you know, it turned out they live in the same country and the same province as I do. What are the odds?
Thanks so much for reading this far! Videogames were my main source of escapism through a very rough childhood, and have continued to be, and I felt I owed that its due homage. I also wanted to emulate what it feels like to love something that may be critically panned for being unentertaining, but is still very dear to your heart because of what it means to you and your friends. I'll stop yapping now. Thank you so much. ❤️