It feels like the right time to dredge up some more art from the old tumblr account, which, as you might recall, mainly functioned as my Dragon Age fanart gallery.
The new Mass Effect is coming out soon, and of course I’m excited about that, but it also makes me rather nostalgic for DA and for the ways in which I’d made that world my own. Some time soon I’ll make a post about character building and RPing as I approach it; I was recently sorting through old piles of childhood art from when I was 12, 13, 14, and it was strange to realise that I did the exact same things then that I do now: creating characters, creating or adopting worlds, sometimes publishing stories (I used to photocopy pages at my dad’s office, and staple them together in editions of 25) and sometimes keeping them private, for myself. It was inspiring, actually. At 13, I didn’t engage in half so much corrosive over-thinking or second-guessing. Though I did have a habit of giving all my characters tragic but convenient bouts of memory loss.
marianchurchland.com 
I’ve always wondered why you took down your tumblr
It had so much cool art on it!
I can get a little trigger happy with these things.
I got a PS4 last month and bought Dragon age Inquisition as one of my first gamea and am currently playing through it. It’s great! Your art is so good. It really fits with DA. Btw, really enjoyed the final issue of Arclight. Are you working on a new comic?
Thanks so much. I’m working on new things, but they’re all Schrodinger’s comics until they’re complete.
Soooo much Dragon Age goodness! I’m excited about the new Mass Effect game, too, but I do tend to love fantasy even more than science fiction. Having the DA RPG has provided me with a lovely outlet for my fandom (my player’s character is running around Kirkwall in the midst of Act III of DA2; he bargained for passage aboard Isabela’s ship when she returned to the Free Marches). I’m also still playing through the Inquisition DLC, so I technically haven’t completed the story (I got to the final boss fight in The Descent and gave up on it out of frustration and boredom; I’m in the middle of Jaws of Hakkon, and have yet to begin Trespasser), but I still feel a longing for more. I’ve also gotten attached enough to my Inquisitor and his voice (a male Elf mage who, in my headcanon, was a member of the Circle at Hasmal when the Mage-Templar War broke out) that I haven’t really done any replays of the main game. I need to get over that, though, so I can play through some of the other romances (but once you go Cassandra, it’s hard to go back).
As usual, your fantasy artwork is beautiful and inspiring to me! And even though I’m not a Final Fantasy fan, I do enjoy the FF-style drawings you did of Cassandra, Varric and Solas.
Trespasser is fantastic – you should play it even if you never finish the rest (I liked them just fine, but I could take them or leave them at the end of the day). Trespasser is the best part of the game!
And you should consider FFT, too. It holds up over time, and it’s totally different from every other final fantasy game. There’s barely a family resemblance.
I am not a gamer. Are there any games that feature a hand-drawn world in a style like yours? Or any hand-drawn style for that matter. I’m imagining something that moves and feels like old-school animation and gives away the drawings underneath. Would that be fun for anyone? I love seeing and/or imagining the lines underneath what’s been digitally edited, if that makes any sense.
There are probably recent indie games that meet this description, but I don’t know them to recommend. I wish I could develop one, for myself!
Holly, I would recommend The Banner Saga and The Banner Saga 2. They have an illustrative/animation style that grabbed me immediately and aren’t too many worlds removed from Marian’s work. The gameplay and story (at least as far as I’ve gotten in the first game) have been pretty good, too.
Oh – one more, since I’ve been playing it lately. Though it’s a different visual style (it most strongly resembles Mike Mignola’s style, I think), the game Darkest Dungeon is quite good and has a heavy-ink hand-drawn look to it. Again, the animations are very limited, so it’s not going to be anything like, say, classic Warner Bros. or Disney, but I really enjoy its dark fantasy look.
Hey, thanks for recommending! I had a Nintendo 64 in 5th grade… I feel like my gaming exploration stops there, but who knows!
In your youth, were you also deeply moved by Final Fantasy Tactics?
Oh yeah. I feel like I never shut up about FFT, in fact – it’s one of my favourite games ever.
I still have my memory card with the save from that dark dungeon where you find some crazy stuff.
very naic
Have you ever played the DA tabletop RPG? I just got it and I’m very excited to run a campaign :D
I wish! I’d kill to play it. (If there are any Vancouver people who are doing this, well, I’m just saying…)