Category: Updates

We reached 1,000 Instagram followers!

Posted on August 23, 2022 by eczarnik

We reached 1,000 followers on Instagram!

Milhamah fans, thank you for helping us reach 1,000 Instagram followers!

There was a time not too many months ago where I thought we’d never get over 200 followers. After a long hiatus of making comics, I came back to the platform and realized that algorithm changes dried up the likes we used to get.

Thankfully, I gradually found an engaged group of anime fans, artists and Japanese readers who liked Milhamah’s outlandish characters and settings.  From here on, I’ll continue to do my best to create the best battle manga about linguistics that’s out there. And don’t worry: More Japanese translations are on the way! 

The above dance animation will likely be the first of many dance and action animations that I’ll make to mark milestones and important announcements. I’d love to create rough animations of some of the manga’s action scenes someday.

Meanwhile, If you like Shem ‘Etzem’s adventures, tell your friends. And visit our Etsy shop (AksanyahStudios) and buy some stickers, print comics, dice and more!

Milhamah RPG Version 0.1 released!

Posted on December 7, 2021 by eczarnik

Milhamah RPG Version 0.1 is released!

“In this tabletop adventure RPG, the linguistic parts of speech come to life, wield ancient alphabet powers and fight an apocalyptic war to overthrow a new Tower of Babel’s tyranny.”

After a year or two of worldbuilding and concepts, I recently entered a game jam to finally put together a Version 0.1 of my “Milhamah: Fighting Words” tabletop RPG on Itch.io.

In the end, I didn’t have time to finalize all the enemies, items and speech acts I had envisioned. But in 12 days, I got 53 pages organized and formatted, including core rules and a character sheet.

I can’t wait to finesse a few concepts and get another version out. I’ve already been doing an in-depth proofread of Chapter 1 and found a few errors, some due to formatting issues with InDesign. I plan to fix those errors in the next few days by releasing Version 0.1.1. And I hope to add a few speech acts and bad guys that I really wanted to add. Stay tuned!

Tiqwah in B&W

Posted on December 28, 2020 by eczarnik

Tiqwah in B&W

Not a whole lot of news today. Just trying out different Clip Studio Paint techniques and sketching Tiqwah Tawit in black and white. I’m not sure yet how much time black and white inking and tones save compared to the color vector stuff I’ve done with Animate, but I’m guessing it will save at least one-third the time.

While making Tiqwah, I might as well create some tentative stats for her:

Tiqwah Tawit (aka Tiqṿah Taṿit)

Shoresh: תוי
Kind: Ben Adam
Affiliation: Holy Tongue Society
Part: Determiner (Article)
Size: Medium
Liability Points: 14
Stats: DOM: 2 VIG: 1 GRA: 1 CRE: 2 WIS: 3 PEA: 3 BLE: 2
Skills: Leadership: +1, Ranged Weapons +1
Equipment:
Abilities:

 

In the meantime, I’ve also been fleshing out the command structure for the ‘Ivrit Revival Movement for the Milhamah RPG. Keep following for more news ahead!

‘Milhamah’ launches first video game demo

Posted on December 2, 2020 by eczarnik

Get your game on, and prepare to fight a global censorship empire to save the future of free speech in action-arcade style!

Aksanyah Studios, a metro Detroit-based media and entertainment publisher, today released its first playable “Milhamah: Fighting Words” video game demo.

Aksanyah invites gamers, streamers and more to test the demo’s play mechanics, follow “Milhamah” on social media, donate to the project and watch the game grow.

Plot

“Milhamah,” which follows the 2018 indie comic series, is set in a world where the linguistic parts of speech become living warriors. The plot is loosely tied to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible’s Tower of Babel story:

“The Bavel Macrostructure promised an era of peace with ‘one language, few words.’ But its decadent dictator, Beli Ya’al, strangles speech and curates a consensus of lies.

“Bavel’s empire seeks to control the 22 letters that formed the universe — so its broadcast tower can brainwash the world. Only the sentient parts of speech, Shem ‘Etzem and his Holy Tongue Society, stand in the way. They’re using the ancient alphabet to fight Bavel’s brainless Guf soldiers. 

“‘Milhamah’ means war. It’s a biblical apocalypse for the freedom to tell the truth!” 

Fight Bavel's Guf soldiers.

Gameplay

The “Milhamah” demo, created through the Godot game engine, lets players try out the basic combat system. Move around your character, Shem ‘Etzem, and attack enemy Guf soldiers with punches or bone shards. Defeat them for points and healing Medicinal Eye Bandages. Stay alive as long as possible and earn a high score, but beware: The enemies also grow stronger over time!

Aksanyah plans to upgrade the demo every few weeks into a full-fledged game with lots of new features. In the next three months, the game’s development will focus on a dynamic inventory system plus new enemies, weapons, abilities, battlefields and items, including the 22 Hebrew letters.

Get involved

Dodge enemy bullets

Play the game by clicking the “Video Game” link on this site’s top menu, which connects to itch.io. If you like the game, please donate to our project over there. It will help us release faster updates. Also, spread the word on social media, and tell your gamer friends about it!

Keep updated on “Milhamah” news via the following websites and social media:

  • Milhamah.com
  • @MilhamahSeries: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Parler
  • @Milhamah: YouTube, Niconico

Game credits

Publisher: Aksanyah Studios
Music: Threadborn

Medicinal Eye Bandage

Posted on November 25, 2020 by eczarnik

The Medicinal Eye Bandage is a healing item.

Behold the Medicinal Eye Bandage!

This bandage is based on the רפא shoresh root and family, which largely deals with healing. In the “Milhamah” video game, your wounded warriors may pick up this poultice dressing full of glinus leaves. The item then heals heroes who apply it to their head or eyes.

A few days ago I finished a sprite animation for this item, and the game demo is shaping up nicely. My recorded video footage of designing it will go in an upcoming devlog.