Steelheart Redux

Sci-fi action-adventure webcomic (Currently 200+ pages) about a boy and a sentient robot dragon uncovering the legacy of mechanized war. Independently managed story, worldbuilding, character design, illustration, and serialized production,

Project Type

Personal Project

Role

Creator, Writer, Illustrator

Narrative, World-Building & Process

steelheartredux.webcomic.ws (also on ComicFury and Tumblr)

Steelheart Redux is a long-running original sci-fi action-adventure webcomic that has been in active development for several years. The story takes place in a world locked in an ongoing conflict between human-controlled robot dragons and destructive rogue ones. It follows a fifteen-year-old protagonist who ends up bonded to a robot dragon believed to be dangerous, and gradually uncovers what’s actually going on behind the war.

The project is built around exploring the world through space, pacing, and environment rather than heavy exposition. Locations return and evolve across chapters, letting the setting carry a lot of the storytelling. Tone shifts between quieter character moments and larger action beats, with humor used to balance darker themes and keep the story grounded.

Production is supported by a hybrid 2D/3D workflow designed for speed and consistency over a long timeline. Characters and environments are modeled and rigged in Blender, then used for posing, perspective, and hard-surface reference. Final pages are illustrated in Procreate, with lettering and effects handled in Photoshop. This approach makes it possible to move quickly while keeping designs on-model and backgrounds consistent across hundreds of pages.

Steelheart Redux functions as both a narrative project and a production exercise. It demonstrates long-form story planning, environmental storytelling, and the ability to maintain visual quality and momentum over sustained solo development—skills that directly carry over into narrative-focused game art, environment work, and cinematic pipelines.

What I Learned.

Steelheart Redux has been my longest-running personal project, and it’s where I learned what it actually takes to sustain a story and a visual pipeline over time. Working on the same world for years forced me to think about pacing, consistency, and efficiency in a way short projects never really do.

Some of the biggest takeaways:

How to pace a long-form narrative. Balancing quieter character moments with action, and mixing humor with more serious themes, taught me how to keep a story readable and engaging over hundreds of pages.
Environmental storytelling matters. Reusing locations and letting them change over time helped reinforce the world and support the story without relying on heavy exposition.
Speed comes from smart tooling. Using Blender to build and rig characters and environments made it possible to move quickly in 2D without sacrificing consistency or perspective.
Consistency beats perfection. Maintaining momentum and visual clarity across a long timeline mattered more than over-polishing individual pages.
Owning the full pipeline changes how you work. Writing, drawing, revising, and publishing everything myself made me much more aware of what scales, what breaks, and where time is actually spent.

Redux continues to shape how I approach both storytelling and production, especially for narrative-driven and environment-focused work.

Other projects

OuterTide

SCAD Capstone 25/26 - First-person exploration game about a space freighter pilot who crash-lands in an asteroid field and must find a way to survive its alien environment, repair their ship, and escape. Made in Unreal Engine 5.5.

Night of the Living Bubble

Global GameJam 2025 - First-person-shooter following a cashier at a home goods store who must wield a nail gun to defend his workplace and beyond from the machinations of an evil scientists and her beastly creations. Made in Unreal Engine 5.4.

Xolo & The Forgotten Gods

SCAD Capstone 24/25 - A 2.5D Metroidvania rooted in Mesoamerican mythology, featuring shapeshifting powers and hand-crafted environments.

Other Game Jam Projects

Metamorph, Treeversal and Eye Love You from past GGJs

SCAD Classwork

Various SCAD Game Dev Program Classwork

Keeper

Short Narrative Comic · SCAD Generate 24-Hour Comic Challenge: A lone robot encounters an angel and uncovers the truth about a world that has already ended.