For the last 5 years, I've contributed to an art challenge called Inktober. With every year, I've always put my twist on it.

2021: frogs
2022: music albums
2023: anime pixel characters
2024: warlockwolf (part of lobolab)
2025: 31 character designs

As a result, I've learned a lot about my creative process and artistic expression. While it's made for some awesome posters, I realised that I've never created it for any particular reason apart from my own satisfaction. Because of that, there's never been proper utility for it. It's not wrong, but it's selfish.

This year, I'm going to change that. The more I thought about what Inktober could be for, the harder it was to ignore what's happening outside.

How?

By starting my moodboard with purpose. I've had the last 9 months to think about where things are all going and what I can do to contribute to society. With the increasing use of AI, an uncertain economy and natural disasters around the globe, people have been calling it armageddon — end of the world.

There are some guesses to how it'll all shake down, but they're all speculations. Whether it's the fallout or terminators, I believe there will be survivors. I know it sounds optimistic. But humans dominated Earth because we built society on shared survival through community and collaboration.

However, it seems what once made us strong has gradually eroded over years of convenience and conflict as we build a dystopia of our own design. In light of this and to remind ourselves of what we're capable of together, I've decided to design a game.

I've been working on the concept for some time now, and even revisiting some previously designed characters. But I'll reveal those things in time. For now, enjoy the annual moodboard.