The stream is starting in the next 5 minutes! You can join us HERE!!!

Howdy all!

So, I've been doing a ton of brainstorming and discussing with my partner in crime/fiance, Osric, and tonight I feel like we made a very real breakthrough on the future of Origins. I really want a chance to sit down and chat with everyone about the changes going on, so I'm setting aside some time this coming weekend to do just that...

I would like to start doing a weekly art stream, but I've not had a lot of time to prep for it and I feel chatting out the new direction will be more beneficial at this point. So I will be doing a Question and Answer session on my Twitch channel (link) this Friday @7PM Central Time. I realize not everyone will be able to make it, so if you have questions you are welcome to PM me in advance and I will make a list and address them in addition to taking questions during the stream. Now, this is why I'm using Twitch. I will record this session so that anyone not able to attend can watch it later.

My desire is to be very forthcoming and transparent as always. So please don't hesitate to bring up whatever is on your mind. I'm looking forward to having a discussion with all of you. I'm very excited for the new chapter of Origins and I hope to get everyone else excited, too.

First, I want to apologize for taking so long to get this written up. It's been on my mind a lot the last couple months and I just wanted to figure out what was going on in my own head before trying to share it with everyone.

It's no secret that Origins (and before it, DDW) has been struggling to get off the ground. We're essentially in the same place we were in when we started - in Alpha - and for me that's very frustrating, I'm sure it is for you all, too. There's been so many set backs, mistakes, hiccups, and let downs that for the last several months my impulse has been to scrap the whole project. We tried, we failed, why bother trying to breath life into something that so obviously is doomed to flounder in the shadows? But, that's not fair to all of you, who have struggled and fought right along side me all these years. There's something about Origins that has drawn an amazing community of people and I really, really don't want to let you all down. You guys love this place, the art, everything and while, on one hand, that's completely baffling to me, on the other, it gives me inspiration and courage... two things I have sorely been needing lately.

I won't be giving up on Origins, but I feel like we've been spinning our wheels on the current path and that the time has come for us to make some important changes. This is where things get really scary, so please bear with me...

I've been watching, following, and researching a lot of successful artists and creators for the last couple of years. From sculptors, to character artists, board game creators, authors, etc. and I've been trying to think of ways to apply that knowledge to Origins as a pet site. My goal was always, "how can I improve upon pet sites by using this knowledge?" But here's the thing about pet sites... They're expensive to make, maintain, and run. There's a ton of artwork, programming, writing, and effort that goes into creating them. Sometimes sites manage to pull everything together and come up with an amazing game, but not without a heap of work and maybe some other ingredient I've not figured out. We had a successful Kickstarter and we're still slogging our way forward. It didn't have the impact we needed and I couldn't begin to say why. Our fans are invested, interested, and supportive, but something just didn't click that allowed us to explode into the wild success of sites such as Aywas or Flight Rising...

Those reasons are why I want to move Origins away from being a pet site. I want to get the pet feature re-released here to allow for users to have all the pets we promised and that have been finished. I also want to get old DDW back up so people have access to their ponies and unicorns again (this is held up by hosting costs atm). But once that's finished, I want to focus more on making Origins into something tangible. Physical products, including a physical RPG card game, art books, figurines, bookmarks, t-shirts, etc. My interest is in creating beautiful art, with interesting/fun characters and great writing to back it up. That's where my heart and passion are and I feel strongly that Origins will leave the mire if my whole heart is spurring it forward.

I realize a lot of people here are mainly interested in pet sites, so I do understand if this is not the path you were hoping for from us, but at the same time, I do hope many of you will stick around if only to see what we have in store. I will be starting to host weekly Origins art streams and will use this site and our Facebook page to keep everyone updated. I want the community to stay strong here, because this is where Origins was born and that is still very important to me. Thanks for reading all of this, please feel free to contact me with questions. I'm going to try to get a clearer picture "drawn up" and then I'll share it. I want to be as transparent as possible! I love you all and appreciate you sticking with me thus far.

You can always reach me in the Origins Discord Channel - Click Here to Join!