maerk.xyz

Introducing a New Mascot

Saturday March 2, 2024

Cammy has been the “mascot” of my website before it was even called maerk.xyz. I had the idea to make Cammy stickers with a QR code that would bring you here, then stick them wherever I am legally allowed. Since my drawing skills aren’t so great, I considered commissioning someone to draw the Cammy sticker for me. I decided to just do it myself since it feels more authentic to advertise my own website with my own drawing. But wait… Even if it’s my drawing it still isn’t my character…

So that’s why I made Naomi.

The Idea

I wanted to stick with a blonde girl because I wanted her to be a drop-in replacement for Cammy. I thought it would be cool to give her clothes based on the cabs I own, and feature her in those clothes on the pages for each cab. I’ve been wanting to spice up those pages for a while but was never sure what to do.

The Looks

I knew for sure that I wanted to have multiple outfits to match each cab, but I wasn’t sure which one would be “default.” I was worried that if she’s only ever wearing cab related clothing, she could be interpreted as a human version of each cab. I decided she would need a regular outfit as well as a cab outfit specifically for each cab page.

Regular Outfit

I had a hard time with the regular outfit because I wanted her to look interesting without giving her anime-like elaborate clothes. All I really knew is that I wanted her to wear really baggy pants and feature the site’s bright blue (dark mode) accent color somewhere. The idea to have her always carry a backpack with an arcade stick inside came later. The upside-down F on her shirt is this site’s favicon but inverted. Fun fact: The favicon itself is from my old site using an old domain, which I will not reveal because it is gay as hell.

Versus Outfit

I knew I had to incorporate the Versus lighting bolt gradient thing somewhere, and eventually decided on the pants. Another must-have feature was the orange “winner” hat, but pretty much everything else was up in the air. The yellow hoodie is a nod to all the Versus Cities with yellowed plastic that I have played on. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that wasn’t yellowed.

Blast Outfit

I struggled with this one the most. I was dead set on featuring red sunglasses to match the “Blast City” light on the cab, and sunglasses made me lean towards summer clothes. A Sega Bass Fishing logo on the tank top seemed fitting since that game was on the Naomi (the arcade board), and I read that when Sega Bass Fishing was brought to America, they just used Blast Cities.

Conclusion

This has been a slow process. The scope has exploded into something that feels impossible to finish, so I needed to cap it off and make this post now. Here is what’s next:

1. Cab specific drawings on the Versus (finished, check it out) and Blast pages
2. Finally come back to that damn sticker idea

Let me know what you think, even if it’s negative.