Filmmaker
Game Writer/Artist
Comic Writer/Cartoonist
Mecha Artist
Designer
Digital Product Developer
Reno Raijnes
Goals/Journey
I just want to write, design, make games, mecha art and cartoons, and produce video and hang out in the art department.
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I also like to freelance in web dev, game writer-for-hire, cartoonist-for-hire, design support, creative writing coach. and I'm writing an e-course and making digital spaces.
I try to write 19 manuscripts every 17 months, in order to complete 57 in five years. and I aim to make nine massive five-year indie video games from 2023. I'd also like to develop four digital products in ten years from 2023, 12 comic strips in four years, and two tabletop games
I have been a fiction writer, scriptwriter and toy/game designer for 27 years. I have a strong aptitude for 2d art direction, video production, cartoon story development, digital product design, instructional and critical analysis communication and product management - which I have been doing for 8 years.
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I want to make people think and feel and help beginners express themselves better - by telling stories, designing play, building mecha and comprehensive, epic and immersive theoretical constructs. Communicating the “how” of creative development, curating creative content, developing cartoons and making tools and digital products that solve problems.
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How do I want to serve the world?
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Finding beginners who show alot of potential and have a strong voice. who are creative and tell great stories or design unique constructs. But don’t have access to funding or the tools - to articulate their ideas as a means of expression, well enough to be taken seriously. And giving them the tools to get better exposure and climb the ladder to recognition, and the resources to be able to create consistently.
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Providing introverted nerds and lonely rebels with experiences they can enjoy alone or with a partner or friend.
I am a world-builder. The world-builder style of fiction writing has become overpopulated, but none are as sophisticated and well-loved as Stephen King’s Derry – Maine, Dune, Discworld, the DC Universe including Wildstorm, the Image Comics Universe, Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, X-Men, Narnia, Cronenberg’s New Flesh and the worlds of Jim Henson, Dogme 95, Ender, Tony Wong, Buster, Nny, Roald Dahl, Animaniacs, Bill Gaines and Cow and Chicken. Also L. Frank Baum’s Oz.
I grew up in the oldest town in the UK, Colchester – in rural Essex. I came over to New Zealand with family when I was six years old. Coming from a strict primary school where I had to wear a shirt and tie, to a small school where it was so hot we didn’t even have to wear shoes. I went to school in a small shearing village with six other kids. Holidays were skiing or road trips or camping. Growing up with the Spectrum, C64, Acorn Archimedes and Amiga. In the early 90’s in Turangi, I was introduced to the Sega Master System. And I would soon begin learning to make video games with a BBC Micro emulator in BASIC. And also writing rpg rulebooks and card game mods. Fast forward two years. In High School, around the same time I got the school's high score in the algebra exam (98%), I began reading Stephen King. Inspired by “It” at thirteen, I wrote my first unpublished novel, 300pgs. A few years later, I wrote a short story that got a good mark, in my last year of high school – 1999. (I was told it had elements of writing expected of someone two years my senior.) I'm heavily inspired by the following studios: Semisecret Software, Panic!, SloClap, Sensible Software, Twisted Pixel, Neostream, Erik Svedang, Joylabz and Foddy.​​​
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As far as gaming, I almost exclusively stick to Star Wars on PC, steam indie, emus for sega/snes/ps1, MTGO, win xp discs, ps3 (eventually also amiga mini + DS lite.)
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In a twitter topic on whether or not video games rot the mind, I said "visual interactive art stimulates your thought muscles, and your imagination, sometimes even improves your instincts. this is something other than rot."
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My entire life I’ve been fascinated by materialising society’s fears, misery and absurdity, the disturbing and creepy, psychosis, nightmares, delusions, visions and fantasies. with respect to those older processes which are lasting in their effect/revealing something new about something old. the dismantling, evolution, criticism and analysis of minds and processes – their function in society and how they themselves function.
My top 22 favourite video games are: Magic: the Gathering Online, Land of Illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse, Another World, Discworld 2, Limbo, Earthworm Jim, Lemmings, Close Combat, Joust, Mortal Kombat 2, The Sims 1, Gain Ground, Robocop VS The Terminator, Syphon Filter, California Games, Astro Warrior, Rampage, Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX, Marble Madness, No Fear Downhill Mountain Biking, C.L.O.P. and Ms Splosion Man.
re: Walden Two: ” “What is the Good Life?” The book’s answer is a life of friendship, health, art, a healthy balance between work and leisure, a minimum of unpleasantness, and a feeling that one has made worthwhile contributions to a society in which resources are ensured, in part, by minimizing consumption.”
My style is the New Zealand experimental indie vibe. And the gothic intellectual self-analytical, bleakly absurd and quirky, grotesque, morbidly precise in action and setting, overtly introverted vibe. I like powerful, unique and immersive mindfuck stories.
My favourite genres to write in are grimdark, urban or suburban post-modern techno-fantasy, hard scifi, epic horror, quirky suspense, introverted drama, and action/drama with scifi and/or nostalgic elements (sometimes in a fantasy setting.)
Reno Raijnes
My Career So far...
The fertile mind of a pro writer and expert at managing tiny-budget projects. A creative machine, constantly creating innovative, fiercely cerebral, powerfully expressive, internally investigative, intensely imaginative and often both absurdly morbid and deep... self-flagellating... grotesque... sensual... and partially insane, partially a study of the evolution and dismantling of the brain (and the creative process,) with specificity in the settings and the violence – of: designs, art, screen stories, digital products/spaces/tools, and writing, which are also sophisticated and comprehensive in detail.
More than an optimist, I'm a romantic. I'm looking for four responses to my work: 'There's no denying that was brilliant, but I'm not sure how it made me feel.' or 'I love how that made me feel, and made me think. But it wasn't a good feeling, it was all my feelings.' or 'After reading/watching/playing that, I need a stiff whiskey. And I haven't had a drink in 6 months' – self-destruction as a tool for self-analysis. The last response is that they are moved to change themselves, or change the world. It doesn't have to be a 'happy happy, joy joy' experience, just significantly positive in the action it provokes, even if that is just thinking.
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I am an expert at three things: writing, managing tiny-budget creative projects, and cartoon/design art ideally with a narrative.
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After college, (1yr Cert in TV, Theatre and Radio 2000, Bachelor of Applied Arts - Screenwriting 2011, Grad Dip 2d Digital Art and Cartooning: The Learning Connexion 2013,) it was taking a long time for me to get through the gatekeepers with a piece of writing, though my poetry was doing well. And to get a movie together. And to learn enough coding to make software and games. And I had no money to develop toys. And I didn't want to upskill my web coding without learning to make games. So I started freelancing, and I was helping people. I found that I was very good at helping them better articulate their means of expression. I was good at helping people with technology who weren't confident themselves. I was good at making cartoons and happy to do something special and unique for the enjoyment of a single individual. I was customising web templates and learning Javascript and Wordpress just by tinkering. And sometimes I would write for games, affordable pricing for small grassroots teams who wanted excellent writing in their projects. Or I could give feedback or help them write their design documentation, rules or prototype. And I was open to doing narrative or design work and/or art direction for interactive spaces and mechatronic art.
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I still do freelancing. But I've started developing my own work as well.
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I do have a goal to write a truly great novel in a similar vein to dolores claiborne, the stand, it, superfolks, the witches, discworld: night watch, diaspora, I lucifer, walden two, the martian, microserfs, sleepers, speaker for the dead, dracula, london revenant, fight club, night watch by lukyanenko and the forever under-rated sims by f. paul wilson and darkfall by stephen laws.
the 5 types of writing that I do
Writing to send to publishers and digital publishers, producers, contests: webcomics, graphic novels, comic book series, screenplays, scripts (tv, theatre), ride/attraction designs, novels, indie video games, theoretical design books, tabletop games/rpgs, narrative essays.
Writing to collaborate with indie developers – as above
Writing e-courses and self-published writing/sketch art: blogs, cartoons, ebooks, comic strips.
Writing and designs which I also produce (movies, songs for video, mechatronic games, interactive spaces and puppetry amusements, LARPs, interactive animated visual novels, indie video games, animation, toys, CCGs, CMGs, digital products and game art.)
Creating design which is both reactive to excessively progressive technology and respecting my deep and powerful need to create something new.
Creative Influences
Richard Garfield
game designer. He has the gift of invention. He created a game-changer and that's what I want to do.
Creative Influences
I have been reading DC comics since discovering Clayface, Captain Atom, JSA/JLA, Hal Jordan and Plastic Man as a kid.
I later discovered: Cerebus, Metabarons, Wetworks, JLI, Michael Holt, Uncanny X-Men, Ravage 2099, Wildstar, Hellshock by Jae Lee, Sensei by First Comics, Tony Wong, Wolverine and Daken, Cable and Deadpool, Bishop, Punisher, Spiderman villains, Spawn and Ken Reid.​
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Still into those but getting more into: X-Men: Maggott, Marrow, Chamber, Omega Red, X-Man, Wildstorm, Curse of Spawn, Silver Surfer, Swamp Thing, Suicide Squad, Sinister Six, Death’s Head, Checkmate, Lucifer, Slave Labor Graphics, Bill Loebs and Sam Kieth, Marvel Zombies, Elseworlds, What if, Generation X, Atom Smasher, Spectre, Argus (bloodlines), Thanos, Dr Strange, Richard Thompson, Earth X, X-Factor, Captain Britain, Batman ’66, X-23, Youngblood, Wild C.A.T.S. and Black Adam.
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I love visual storytelling. Scriptwriting for both screen and sequential art is one of my core passions.
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
2011:
Graduated with a degree in screenwriting
2012:
Won a 10hr mentorship for my novel in development from the NZSA
2013:
Graduated from my final college with a Grad Dip in cartooning and 2d digital art
2022:
feb 13: a new song for video called "zip, way, path"
october 20: second song, “Pink and Blue”
march 6: first Reno Raijnes merchandise will be released
develop webcomic strips and a webcomic and our first digital product
finish writing my first novel 26yrs in the making
2023:
develop my own Manga
may: third song, "Zombies Exposed"​​
An FX video in 2yrs with audience reaction
2024:
Animated short films due
7 game narratives due
launch new audio e-course
2025:
6 production design mood books due
12 comic strip merchandise via teepublic
self-publish a new kind of novel
2028:
first of 3 issues of a comic book which I'm writing, penciling and
digitally colouring in 3 panels monthly
November, develop a digital prototype of an original tabletop RPG/CMG with network software
a small indie video game project about dungeons
first 30mins of an animated feature film to make in 7yrs, 10mins per year
2031:
develop 400hrs of coding for a digital version of a video board game
2032:
develop a toy prototype on a $4k budget and record development on video
2033:
finish first two massive indie video game projects “The Mechanoidz Project” and “Peddler: Extended” and 8 other core products, also experiment with AR
2034:
$4k the first mechatronic amusement developed by me as a project for a museum/theme park
2037:
a major feature fiction video movie project on a micro-budget
$4k develop a feature documentary video movie
2068:
9 massive 5yr indie video game projects from 2023 (ideally with some
Javascript help)
Song Premise
Zip, Way, Path (a work-in-progress premise for a song)
When it all falls down,
And you haven’t far to fall.
When home is where your heart,
Was gutted from your work, in the thick of it all.
And boy does it hurt, the sweat in your wounds.
When you’re living for that grand passion,
But something still beats.
Like a mad aimless mission,
And everything repeats.
The dark and the light;
Sith and Jedi Knight.
Not the dark knight.
Batman did return within the hour.
And you need to shower,
So filthy is your grand, beating plan.
Your red muscle in the chest, it waits, and is flea-ridden.
And the ending implodes, unbidden.
And that knight did console your broken wishes.
Tears for fears, related and ambiguous.
Immigrant and indigenous.
And that night you dropped out of the sky.
Fell on an island of broken bones.
Couldn’t sweat enough to fly.
But could still hear the sweet and silent tones.
Too many royals, not enough thrones.
The song of the afterthought, of the soul you brought, to eat.
Too many legless chickens, not enough feet.
And a hundred dozen things toot sweet.
And you’ll never not eat meat,
Culinary linguistics, something sophisticated, and oh so petite.
Too good, this part of yourself, to cancel or dismantle.
Maybe you wish you was humble, to avoid the rumble.
And you hear it cry “It’s not over!”
Dive for cover, gibber, lament and mumble.
There is no ending!
And you hear it drone, “Takes time, the mending.”
In the caves, on the phone.
Rambling to the metronome.
Too long, deep under the Chateau.
And no more stripping the nail from your toe.
Wishing for the feast, and the candles.
The sheer opulence.
See the priest, and oh the essence, of that which he covets.
Ripping divots with a golf club, oh the tumescence, when you can’t stop the toe stub.
In your cerebellum.
In Belgian waffles, it’s bedlam.
And see the light, sparkling dew on his eyelids and pores.
Smoking incense and S’mores.
Still it goes on, and still it’s wrong.