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-Merluvli

Monster Prom Mod Project

The various media you see on this page are all products of my own for fun project of creating a Mod for Monster Prom that features two of my original characters- Lani and Momi, a set of sea jellies oracles based off of Sea Nettles.
I have built them from the ground up from design, to the script, as well as their voices. There has been plenty of feedback and suggestions I have taken into consideration from my fellow creatives and friends to further ensure a fun and eye-catching result. Thanks to the mod tools built within Monster Prom, I have had the pleasure of exploring how building, naming, and organizing game assets for this kind of game would work while still having quite the amount of creative freedom in building events and weaving an entertaining side story within an existing game. It has been a welcome challenge trying to emulate a style that would blend well with Monster Prom's own style. I opted to try and get close, but still have my own flare shine through.Lani, the pink jelly, tends to be more expressive and comes off livelier than her sister, Momi, the purple jelly. With the nature of Monster Prom, I try to remember to do bold expressions but to always keep Lani's a bit more exaggerated than Momi's.

Below are some test voice lines I recorded for each of the girls as there is also the ability to add custom sfx in the Monster Prom mod tool. I figured if I was going to explore with the tool, I should try out all possible functions in order to make my mod stand out and keep things refreshing!

I set a deadline of six weeks to keep myself on track and test my ability in creating a project of this scale from start to finish. Considering I am the only one on this particular project, I made sure to give myself enough time and an emergency period in the event a life emergency happened or some unforeseen circumstance prevented me from working.It is scheduled for completion by April 15th with a formal launch happening the following week.
All major event writing is set to be complete by March 26th in order to give myself 3 weeks to focus just on creating assets and configuring all writing and visuals within the mod tool as well as time allotted to promo material.

Mari and Errol

Mari and Errol are two original characters created by myself and a client turned friend, Mr. Undisclosed.Mari was conceptualized and designed completely by myself while Errol was created and is written by Mr. Undisclosed. They commissioned me to design Errol and his alt appearances.Since then, we have collaborated on numerous ideas and concepts for images, for testing sprites, to mimic No Straight Roads style of visuals and writing while still bringing our own unique twist and bringing these characters to life, but mostly to explore and build upon these characters in a joint capacity. Of course it is also quite fun to simply do so. Most of the time these illustrations, short projects, or animations happen naturally just out of discussion, but since a lot of the times I was testing out new approaches to coloring and attempting lineless art using these characters, I thought it would be nice to give them their own section in my portfolio.When designing Errol, I was given a paragraph style description to work off of as well as a few small reading selections that Mr. Undisclosed had written with this character. We communicated and worked through any suggestions, alterations needed or updates to make sure he ended up with a design he was pleased with.As the months pass, I often use the two as muses for trying out new poses, new coloring techniques, learning angles, and also to illustrate various scenes or thoughts either of us come up with. Purely for enjoyment with the occasional inspiration striking from reading something articulated so nicely I can't help but bring the vision to life.

I created this promotion video mostly for myself to practice animating the talk sprites I had made for Errol and Mari as well as to create hype for No Straight Roads: Encore Edition release on steam last year. At that point in time, I knew well my artwork would be in game and was quite excited to be able to share the good news after the release. The idea to make something to commemorate the moment struck me so I enlisted the help of Mr. Undisclosed to create a script I could animate these characters to. I opted for setting them against a screenshot I took from my own playthrough in-game and then made the scene and animations!

Published Work In "No Straight Roads: Encore Edition" and "Vinyl City Pride"- An NSR LGBT+ Fanzine

On this page you will find the artwork that is published and found within Metronomik's "No Straight Roads: Encore Edition" as well as the fanart pieces I created for the Vinyl City Pride zine! The zine itself was reviewed and praised on a livestream hosted by the Metronomik art and dev team!No Straight Roads: Encore Edition is available on Steam, PS4/PS5 and the Vinyl City Pride Zine can be found here.

You can watch a full Timelapse of my Zine alt cover hereHere you can view some of my traditional concepts for the making of my 2 Page spread Zine piece as well as the early sketch concept for my zine alt cover piece!Quite a bit of my larger or more complex pieces start out on paper first. Then, when I am home I continue working on those concepts via CSP to get a digital finish!

Works In Progress

A various assortment of wips, animatics, and pieces I felt should be seen.

For more info, business inquiries, or to readily contact Merluvli, send an email or fill out the form. Below are links to all other socials, shops, and places to show support for Merluvli if you so choose.

Meet The Artist

Alexandria McBride, aka Madam Merluvli, is a 29yr old, Black Hispanic woman. She is a self taught 2D digital and traditional artist with well over 12 years dedicated to the craft, harboring 5+ years of commission, freelance, and teamwork experience as well. She often draws both Original Characters as well as fanart for various games and franchises. In 2021, her love for No Straight Roads landed her an opportunity to have her work featured in No Straight Roads: Encore Edition, launching her debut as a published artist! Alexandria works as a medical receptionist during the day while honing her creative skills during off hours. She works well with others, has a big heart and an undying passion for creation and uplifting others on their own pathways to success! Having been born with Rheumatoid Arthritis, she does her best to make the most out of all situations in life and cherish the time spent on Earth.
Merluvli's hobbies include: drawing, writing, cosplaying(both making her own costumes and performing), and singing."Despite all of my life's hardships, I will continue to choose love."