(well, first of all, if this already exists please tell me so i can know how much of a fool i am /lh but i did a surface level search and didn’t find anything (excluding akko))
so, would an original mascot character be something y’all would be interested in having? like an ‘akkoma-tan’ similar to ai-chan (misskey) or pleroma-tan, as opposed to just borrowing akko as the sort of de-facto unofficial mascot character
this is something i’ve been thinking about on and off for awhile now, so i figure i should maybe just bring it up instead of leaving it in a limbo state in my mind for months, so, if no, i can just put the thought to rest and my scribbles in the unused concept drawer, or
if yes it is something that people would be interested in having, then: do people already have something specific in mind, or would i be allowed to run with my own ideas
i’ve got some scribbles and concepts of my own, but they were made with the consultation of approximately nobody, so i’ve been hesitant to actually develop them further beyond the scribbles (my anxiety fears it being rejected if i did)
so, thoughts?
i’m probably gonna hold off on posting any specifics about what i have in mind until i get some form of acknowledgement (sorry for the layer of awkwardness lmao, my brain is unfortunately just like this when in unfamiliar places)
I think having project mascots is fun (whether if it’s a ‘-tan’ or not). I don’t have specifics in mind and would love to see people create and share ideas.
a bit of background first while i deliberate on posting it for real
the first thought i had, from many months ago (september actually), was to try make a sort of mash-up of pleroma-tan, ai-chan, and akko, but i ran out of motivation before i got anything i was happy with (i think i ended up more with just a bootleg orange haired akko)
the second, from only a few days ago, and what sparked me to dig it back up, was from me looking at the akkoma icon and wondering if i could make a kind of just a lil guy creature kind of thing out of it (eg, a ralsei type), but it also didn’t work out (probably because i lack any experience scribbling that sort of character, i could try again if desired though)
and the third and current thought, goes back to the more humanoid girl type of character of the first, but unlike the first isn’t trying to be anything in particular and is instead just their own character (unrelated to pleroma-tan ai-chan or akko), and unlike the previous attempts i actually like the look of this one, but being a distinct character made with the consultation of nobody also makes me a bit more on the nose about presenting it
but, since there isn’t anything left for me to do other than post it now (or chicken out, but i already come this far) so, in the next reply i’ll do that
well, this is it, smol round and probably very huggable
everything i have currently of them are mostly loose scribbles, this one i made sometime after creating this thread but imo its the best looking of my scribbles so it gets to be the one posted
some details remain from my first attempt back in september such as the orange hair, but for the most part its a distinct character unrelated to other mascots, and orange + dark purple is also spooky month colors and, i mean, witchy + spooky month colors, works for me
also, bnuuy? yes bnuuy
i’m going to claim that this is the reason for bunny ears
but the real reason is that there was no reason, it kinda just happened when i was scribbling a couple days ago, i don’t know why it did, it just did, and the silhouette vaguely matching up is a coincidence that i only realized when writing this thread, but i’m taking that as a sign that its meant to be so the bnuuy is staying
so, thoughts?
if people like this design maybe i’ll try putting a bit more detail into them, i have not decided on a name or anything of that sort, i figure if this does become an accepted character i would at least leave that part up for others to have a say in
I love that it keeps the witches (and yes, spooky) theme. It keeps it consistent and is nice reference to Akkoma’s origin (as “pleroma, but more Akko”).
I like that it it’s own thing. We’re all on fedi, so there’s some cooperation one way or the other between projects, but in the end, each project is it’s own thing, so it probably makes sense have a mascot be it’s own thing as well. I also think it looks very distinguishable from e.g. pleroma-tan and Ai-chan, which I like.
I probably wouldn’t have noticed it, but yes, there’s a trace of the form of the logo in there! That’s a nice touch, even if not deliberate.
I really love it! Do you plan to release it under a free culture license so it can be used? Maybe it could also be interesting to think if it can be used somewhere in Akkoma itself (like the Masto-fe can have a mascot I think?).
thanks, i haven’t actually thought about licensing so far (but i can say i would be fine with folks using this character or including it on their instances/software, i generally lean towards the permissive side on things)
would there be a preferred or suggested license to use? the only ones i’m familiar with are the creative commons ones (i feel like i’d lean towards CC-0 for the character itself, and CC-BY-SA-NC for the ‘official’ art, but i’ll wait for input before finalising that)
edit: well i messed that up, any way i can correct my accidental double post? (or can a mod/admin fix that?)
My 2 cents; Akkoma is free software, which implies commercial use is allowed. CC-BY-SA-NC could be problematic if the idea is to include it in the repository. CC-0, CC-BY, and CC-BY-SA should all be fine.
Personally I would prefer one of those, but I’m also just one person, so I’m not sure if other people have strong feelings on this.
alright makes sense, thats why i left that up as i’m fine either way and generally prefer permissive licenses myself
(as an aside i’ll note that by commercial use i was more thinking in the ‘the art itself is the product being sold’ way and less the ‘it just happens to be in a commercial environment’ way, though, to be fair selling other peoples art is generally considered a dick move even when its technically legal under the license, so i doubt that’ll become a real concern (and to be clear in advance, i’m perfectly fine with stickers or something being sold of this character if its art that you made/commissioned and have the rights to))
so, the character itself is to be considered CC-0 from this point on, and unless somebody has a better suggestion the art (so far all images i’ve posted in this thread) i’ll just make it simple and just do CC-0 as well
i have a small handful of variations of this one with slightly different outfits, but those can be posted on fedi or in a gallery page later
though, speaking of fedi, something i feel could be fun might be to have a dedicated account that could boost art and/or serve as a kind of profile (idk, i feel like a mascot character for akkoma having an account on an akkoma instance would fit)
do need to figure out what we’ll call them first though, i’ve codenamed them noma for now but i’d rather not say thats their name unless the community decides so
also on that note, perhaps it might be worth doing some posts or polls on fedi to decide on certain character details, might get a little more discussion on fedi than here (this forum is certainly a bit off to the side) but i held off on it for anxiety reasons because i wasn’t sure if people would care
