Regarding More Shapes + Raves + the blog's future
So you might be wondering why I mostly moved on to making Kirby fan art and other interests, from making the S3RL Trilogy. This sudden loss of interest in making MSPR wasn't explained very well by me, but given the current state of things right now, I should say it.
Right now, the old iteration of More Shapes + Raves has been considered "canceled". This is mainly because of the comic's development being hit by major scope creep coming from suggestions made by my friends and myself. With a scope so huge, the comic's ideas became disorganized and very arbitrary, unnecessarily causing too much growth and less motivation to make the comic.
A plan I have been considering for a long while is to reboot MSPR. The core concepts (such as Raver Dimension, Neko Nation, Rave Six, etc.) will be retained, however I'd need to change up some things to prevent a potential case of scope creep coming for the reboot, such as the addition of unnecessary ideas and songs. Given the return of activity on the Interdimensional Library Discord, MSPR's reboot might be one more chance to spring the comic back in action.
Some things to keep in mind for the MSPR reboot:
All panels will be remade in a 1920x1080 resolution to match the highest screen resolution rendered in Just Shapes & Beats. They will also all be made in Inkscape, in comparison to past S3RL Trilogy panels, which mainly made use of MediBang Paint.
The musical aspect of MSPR may be potentially toned down. I haven't been in the mood lately to make musical songs for stuff like lore, backstories, etc. Instead, MSPR will continue the traditional storytelling and dialogue that the previous stories (Hexagon's Adventure and Fiveside Force) have.
The playable flashback acts will be completely removed. Think that's way too much from the original scope. These will be relegated back into regular cutscenes.
The intro act may be completely changed. I think there has to be a more coherent reason why Fresh rediscovered the Ravortexia in the first place, not just by finding some random book on the ground.
Some songs will be retained, but there might be some new ones too. Additional fights that were introduced in my Mixtape concepts (like Endless Summer) may be re-incorporated into MSPR.
The Rave Six, as of now, is based on guest characters that represent the vocalists of various S3RL music, and other celebrities and friends in real life. To lessen the connection to the real deals, some names of the characters will be changed. I've done a few ideas with HexaCryonic about this.
Most importantly, the skeletal structure of the lore and backstories used in MSPR will be kept, but they will be refined over time for a more coherent storytelling. This includes the backstory of Raver Dimension, Fresh, etc. while also coherently tying it in with aspects of JSAB Story Mode including the Lost Chapter.
Teasers will be handled better, as I might include things like more song hints, WIP art teasers (in the Interdimensional Library server), and more.
Regarding where the MSPR reboot will be posted, they'll be posted to any Just Shapes & Beats servers that I'm in, but these will be the most active places where you can find the S3RL Trilogy and MSPR:
This blog (obviously). @pentriahex
Interdimensional Library (JSAB Comic Server, where S3RL Trilogy also gained popularity there)
Berzerk Studio Official Discord
r/kirby Discord
These are just some of the basic plans I had in mind for a potential MSPR reboot, and there might be more in the making as the reboot plans are still developing. However, this is not all what I have in mind:
Raverian Encore: MSPR & S3RL Trilogy Extra Mixtapes & More
If you have been following my works in the Berzerk Studio official Discord server, you might have noticed I've been developing some "extra levels" that still have ties to the MSPR theming. Most of the time, these are levels that have very arbitrary song picks.
If you don't know what extra levels are, these are levels in Just Shapes & Beats that do not have any ties to the main story, and must be unlocked by other means (eg. collecting Beatpoints, performing certain actions, etc.) There are already obvious examples such as Tokyo Skies, Paper Dolls, and even tracks like Deadlocked and the Strike the Earth (Shovel Knight) remix by Danimal Cannon, but I'm sure you'd already know that by now.
The songs revealed for Raverian Encore were:
Caleb Hyles & Ironmouse - Omae Wa Mou (Silva Hound Remix)
Crispy & KungFuFurby - Electrospire (from SMW Central Production 2)
Shirobon - Counter Format
S3RL ft. Lexi - Heart Thief (Promoted from EleCyon Mixtape)
I'll be eventually posting these later on the S3RL Trilogy blog, but this is not important right now. I want to discuss more about how I'll be handling extra content going forward:
Scrapped levels and arbitrary level concepts will most likely end up in these so-called "extra mixtapes". Notably, there will be three mixtapes, each containing new levels that are tied to the theming of the three stories in the S3RL Trilogy.
There are three colors of mixtape: purple, green, and yellow, corresponding to Hexagon's Adventure, FIveside Force, and MSPR.
The purple mixtape is called "Extragon-N-On", and is obtained after completing the OctoChaos boss battle in Hexagon's Adventure.
The green mixtape is called the "Side Five", obtained after liberating Planet No. 5 in Fiveside Force.
The yellow mixtape is "Raverian Encore". I planned this to be given by the Rave Master after Triangle begins his quest to reassemble the Rave Six in Act 1 of MSPR, and I'll keep that too for the reboot.
The old iteration of More Shapes + Raves will be archived as a separate thing when I make the S3RL Trilogy downloadable in the future.
Some scrapped levels and even mixtape levels may be subject to being added in the MSPR reboot, but this is purely based on my decisions.
Concept art and the MSPR plan documents may be shared in a separate download if I do decide on doing that.
The future of the blog
Right now, More Shapes + Raves is still being re-developed as a reboot, so I can't say I'd be posting much of the comic here. However, since this blog is designed for the S3RL Trilogy in general, I'd want to clarify some things:
I originally planned on reblogging most of my old comic posts from Hexagon's Adventure and Fiveside Force on my main, which also used to be the S3RL Trilogy blog before rebranding as my main Tumblr account in general (which also has a main focus on Kirby fan art). However, I decided that I'll be just making new posts on this blog for Hexagon's Adventure and Fiveside Force, as I do plan on rewriting most of the comic captions and dialogue.
The state of the comics will be kept as is, with some exceptions. I really should note once again that Fiveside Force admittedly took way too much from Decagon's JSAB comics (which are sadly cancelled as of now), and as a result I'd need to remake some of the panels.
In regards to the above, the worst offenders I've seen were that one PentaBoss scene in the Perfect Rave battle and the meet-up of Lord Apeirogon with Marga in the introduction of Act 4, and I'm not sure if the entirety of Act 1 and the Monsta boss battle in Act 2 counts. In this regard, such quality does not match up with my current standards, as I've now strived to push for more original content nowadays, and as a consequence I'll just be remaking some panels in Inkscape.
There will be now unique tags for the blog's posts, which I will explain in the following section.
If ever the S3RL Trilogy has concluded, there are plans for the blog to switch over to just being a comic blog for my Just Shapes & Beats universe in general. I also plan to repost some of my old Tumblr ask art for posterity purposes, and also revive an old JSAB Flower OC I've adopted from the Bountiful Blossoms JSAB adoptable blog (thank you once again).
Anyways, next part is least important but is something I'd want to talk about in the event I do plan on posting comics to the blog:
Blog Tags
I'd want to promote the use of blog tags to make it easier for people who want to navigate my comics. The planned tags would be:
#hexagon's adventure - This is for posting comics related to Just Shapes & Beats: Hexagon's Adventure.
#fiveside force - This is for posting comics related to Pentagon & The Fiveside Force.
#more shapes plus raves - This is for posting comics related to More Shapes + Raves
#the s3rl trilogy / #s3rl trilogy / #s3rltrilogy - These are the main tags of the blog in general.
You may also use these tags in fan art, just be sure to tag this blog or send me an ask for posterity purposes. I'd like to see what you've made.
Anyways, that's pretty much it then. I hope you are still patient enough to look forward to the eventual revival of MSPR and to the blog in general. Thank you for the patience and the long read, and I hope to see you again soon.
If you also want other non-JSAB content, you are free to check out @cyonofgaia, which is more dedicated to all my passion projects in general.
