My partner and I decided our big project this year was going to be a fanmade zinethology celebrating Vanillaware, one of our favorite game developers. Their art and stories have been really inspiring over the course of our artistic journey, and with this year being their 20th anniversary there was really no better time. 

I was in charge of the whole design of the book, which meant covering the typography, spot assets, layout, etc. I also got to design the cover! Vanillaware has a fascination with the feeling of going out and tasting beautiful food, something I really wanted to capture with the book's overall design. The cover is a vignette of a fancy café, while the interior is evocative of a menu placed on a table, table settings and silverware strewn throughout.

I also got to submit a few of my own pieces to cover the two game titles exclusive to Japan. The left is Kumatanchi, a sort of pet sim for the Nintendo DS, and the right is Grand Knight's History, a tactical RPG where you train and level your own army. I also finally got to exorcise an idea I've had in my brain for a while centered on an isometric castle siege using Vanillaware's impish little mascot Vanilla boy.

The book is now up for free with a bunch of additional goodies like digital wallpapers & printables, and I couldn't be more proud of it. If you have even a passing interest in Vanillaware or the samples shown here, I definitely would recommend getting a copy. 

You can find the bundle on itch.io here! https://mycelinet.itch.io/vanilla-extract-zine

This whole project was a combined effort of 20+ artists and writers, but my work was done between Clip Studio, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe InDesign