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Hooray! I’m So Glad You’re Here!

Hi! Hello! Various other greetings!

You’ve made it to my website, and I think that’s wonderful. I’m Josh Closs (they/them), and I make a bunch of comics, write a handful of short stories and novels, am currently making a video game (no link for that one yet), and sometimes stream games on the internet. If you’re interested in learning more about those things, those links will help you on your way! If you scroll down from this post, you’ll (probably, if the internet is working the way it’s supposed to work) see my latest comics! If you want to start from the beginning for any of my comics, please use this link instead!

If this is your first time exploring my works, I suggest you peruse my short stories (scroll down a bit on this page) and try one that catches your interest. Or the comics! The comics are also good!

You can also watch me play video games on Twitch every Monday and Friday afternoon (for the time being, at least)! It’s a good time and we all enjoy it.

If you’re looking to contact me, please use this page! If you’re looking for biographical information about me, please use this page! Those are two problems I can help you solve!

Finally, if you want to stay up-to-date on my latest works, this site is a great way to do that! You can sign up below (for free!) for emailed notifications when I post.

By signing up, you’ll get the posts from this site beamed directly to your inbox! No Algorithm to get in the way. It’s a win-win for both of us!

That’s all I have to say for now! Have fun looking around!

Love,
Josh

January 2026 News: Happy (That the) Holidays (Are Over)

Hello, friends!

Now, listen. I love Christmas. I do. I think it’s neat. And even if it wasn’t personally my thing, I could appreciate that it’s a time for people to be merry as the cold sets in (above the equator, at least), and that’s not a bad thing.

But.

Until you’ve worked the returns desk before, during, and after Christmas, you do not know its dark side. And its dark side is grim, y’all. It changes you as a person. Fundamentally.

(If I had a genie-wish to spare, one of them would be to make it so that people only get 80% of your money back on their returns. I think that’s the break-even point where most people would say “Yeah, there are costs involved with putting this back on the shelf/returning it to the manufacturer, even if it’s still in perfect working order,” while the people who use stores as rental facilities would maybe, maybe change their habits.)

(Actually, I’d just use the wish to make it so anyone who buys something with the intent to return it has one bad Food Oopsie within the next week for each item. Spaghetti sauce on their favorite shirt, ice cream scoop lands on the ground, etc. I think it’s a fair tradeoff.)

Anyway.

I had intentions to make a big wrap-up of what I did in 2025, but I don’t have enough to show off for that to be worth it. I drew a lot (okay, a fair amount), wrote… some, and did a lot of gamedev work, along with my Twitch streams, but most of my work this year has been building up skills that I hope to use in 2026 and beyond. Well, that and surviving the personal and worldwide hells of 2025, as well as working retail.

One of my main goals in 2026 is to not start any new projects. I have about ten things that I want to finish before I start anything else, and I think that about four of them are finishable in the next twelve months. The others are more ambitious and/or ongoing projects; things I’ve talked about, like The Devil That Knows You, The Hartvane Chronicles Book II, Star-Crossed Mercenaries, or ongoing streams like Backlog Busters Brigade. (I don’t think I’m going to manage to play every game ever made, but I’ll keep playin’ ’em anyway.) There’s also an unannounced one, so if/when I start talking about something that makes you say, “Whoa, that’s really ambitious to be doing on your own,” that’s the thing I’m talking about now! I already know it’s a lot! But I’m gonna do it anyway!

Making art is one of the few things that I can do without an ounce of guilt. I never feel like I should be doing something else instead. I thought that would change when I quit Patreon in 2024, but it still feels important, if a bit less urgent. I wish that there was more (or any) financial payout for me doing it, because it would be really great to not work where I’m working anymore, but for now, I’ll try to keep my chin up and keep making things. It’s hard. It’s painfully hard at times to not have what I make get the audience I think it deserves, because I want people to enjoy the things I make, by orders of magnitude more than I want financial recompense. But ultimately, I need to make these things for myself first and foremost. Anyone else enjoying them is gravy.

But it’s delicious, delicious gravy. And if I ever make something you enjoy, I would love for you to tell me so.

I think that’s all for now. See you in February, if not sooner, y’all. Take care of yourself and each other. Enjoy art made for humans, by humans.

Love,
Josh

December 2025 News: Wow It Sure Is December 1st Over Here!!

Hi-ho, y’all!

I don’t know about you, but The Holidays™ are already demolishing me. I suppose that comes with the territory when one’s day job is retail, but y’all, I’m ready for January.

That’s not to say I intend to be a Scrooge or a Grinch or a third character who doesn’t like Christmas but then does so it’s kinda weird to use their name as shorthand for not liking Christmas, but this December is going to be Busy with a capital Buh for me. I feel like I’m almost starting to get back into a creative groove, but when I come home from work exhausted and sore, making things is tough. (Why does retail make you sore, you ask? Well, you know those eight-foot artificial Christmas trees that people buy and then return when it doesn’t fit in the space? Yeah, somebody needs to handle those returns! I’m that somebody!)

I hope to have something to share with y’all in 2026, but I’m stuck in Make the Things Good mode at the moment. Thank you for your patience! See you in the new year!

Love,
Josh

P.S. If the Wham!s and Mariahs are beginning to grate, I offer you Sufjan Stevens’ Christmas music catalog. Enjoy!

November 2025 News: Gotta Keep On Keepin’ On

Hello, friends!

Did You Know?: Making things is hard! Even in the best of circumstances, it’s hard to take an idea from inside your brain and put it down on literal or metaphorical paper. Doing it while working a full-time job and living through *gestures broadly at everything*? Yeah! It’s tough!

I say all of this not to make excuses (…Well maybe a little bit to make excuses), but to set more realistic expectations for myself. Since, even if nobody else does, I know that at least I read these posts, so I should include a message for myself. Making an entire game is hard! Even if it is just a tiny li’l game, it’s still a game!

So I’m trying a new approach to game-making for my li’l game. I’m going to spend two weeks focusing on a more narrative-heavy game, then switch back to my current mechanics-heavy game, and alternate back and forth for… The foreseeable future! I hope it’ll help get me out of my current rut. I’ve been making progress, but it’s slow, and being stuck in slow progress is not my idea of a good time.

Those are all of the words I have to write for the moment! I hope you had a spooktacular Halloween, and that your November is one to be thankful for. See y’all next month!

Love,
Josh

October 2025 News: May I Live in Uninteresting Times? Please?

Hello, friends!

Do you, uh. Do you ever feel like you’ve been living in an unprecedented moment in your country’s history for almost the last decade and you’re ready to live in precedented times again?

Just curious.

September went by both fast and slow, and now it’s time for Spooky Season! Nice to have the normal horrors available to us again. I’ve spent the last month working on a smaller game that’s almost entirely mechanics-focused, because that’s one of the big roadblocks I’ve been struggling with. It needs at least another month in the proverbial oven, but I’m excited about the progress I’m making! More news to come on that front.

I think that gamedev is where I’m keeping my focus for the rest of the year. I had ambitions for a while after starting a day* job that I’d be able to work there and balance multiple projects, but at this point, I’m happy if I make any progress at all in a given week. If there are any wealthy benefactors out there looking to be a patron of the arts, please let me know and I’ll happily be a benefactee!

Short update this month. Hope y’all are well, or at least surviving. Hang in there, friends.

Love,
Josh

*I wish my shifts were consistent enough to always be during the day…

September 2025 News: Goodbye August, It’s Been Nice

Howdy and hello, friends!

This past month, I drew a picture of August Mina every day! And I also spent way too much effort over a period of 2-3 days in pre-pro making a 50-frame animation for one of those days!

(See if you can spot the animated one! Somehow!!)

I’ve done this for the past two years, and it’s a fun exercise to explore a character’s design in different outfits, poses, etc. I didn’t have a specific theme in mind for any particular day pre-planned (except the 8th), so sometimes coming up with that was the toughest part. If you want to stretch your creative muscles, try it with your favorite character! If you want! I’m not your boss!

I haven’t had much time for other things worth sharing, but I think I have Issue 3 of The Devil That Knows You‘s script all but written, and I have some silly ideas for jumping back into gamedev, which is usually a good sign or a very bad sign. We’ll find out!!

I hope you’re doing well! It’s… Well, the world is what it is out there, but we can still be there for each other. That’s nice, isn’t it?

Love,
Josh

August 2025 News: I’m Melting! I’m Melting!

Howdy hey, friends!

As a wise man once said, it’s hot in McKinney. When I go outside, my brain, it is soup. And not a nice chilled soup, either.

Thankfully, air conditioning exists.

Progress has been… better? this month, but is still slow. I did a little work on Video Game, and I have most of the next issue of The Devil That Knows You… scripted. I didn’t meet my goals! But that’s okay! Sometimes goals are just there to look pretty, and maybe inspire us to do better if we’re lucky.

This month, as has been my tradition for the last few years, is the August of August Mina, where I draw a picture of my semi-original character August Mina every day for the whole month! You can follow along by following me on Bluesky and/or Tumblr. What fun!

(I know I won’t remember to upload them here for the next 30 days, but here’s August the 1st!)

My long-term goals for the year remain the same — finish Issue 3 of TDTKY and get something like an alpha for the game done. Will that goal do more than look pretty? I dunno! But I’ll let y’all know about it, one way or the other.

Love,
Josh

July 2025 News: So, Uh, About That

I bring some free advice for you today. You’re free to take it or leave it, but I recommend you listen.

Or, y’know, read.

Unless you have a text-to-speech situation going on. In which case: Butt soup. (I hope it was funny when the voice said “Butt soup.”)

Anyway. The advice is this: If you have a great deal of personal/family stress going on in your life, that is not a good time to declare that you’re going to Figure Things Out and Get Back To Making Art In Earnest or whatever I said last month.

I’m not going to delve into details because this is the internet and I know better (if you have my number and you need deets, you can text me), but it was a bad June for me. The good news, such as it is, is that July currently looks far more promising, which means I might actually open up Unity to work on game development this month! That’d be a treat and a half.

I’m trying to be gentle with myself. Both in the sense of being patient and forgiving, and also in the sense of setting my goals low. One of my biggest mental hurdles with getting Unity back open is the sheer amount of Stuff I need to do once I open it. It’s overwhelming! So I’m going to try and finish one thing on my to-do list for the game this month, and get pencils done for the next issue of The Devil That Knows You. I’d hit a roadblock with that, and I’ve realized that I was trying to do Thing A before Thing B, but Thing B should actually happen first (I think), so I’m going to try writing what happens if Thing B happens next. Is that sufficiently vague?

Maybe.

So. Yes. I have a plan. I have low ambitions. Because ambitions you can realize are better than ones you can’t. I’m hoping that success can lead to success, and you’ll be seeing a finish Issue 3 of TDTKY before the end of the year, and a substantial game update around that time, too. But if not? Hey, that’s okay too. I’m figuring this out as I go. And that’s the only way I know how to do it.

Love,
Josh

June 2025 News: The Best-Laid Schemes of Mice

Howdy and Hello to the Internet, and particularly you!

Last month, I said I was hoping to get back to that whole game-making business. I… didn’t! But I did do something else instead.

This little animation is five seconds long! It also took me most of my free time last month to finish it! Animation is hard, y’all, especially because I’m just starting to learn it, but I had a lot of fun with this. Look forward to more in the future, I hope!

Between finishing that and, for my purposes, finishing Blue Prince (I haven’t gotten all of the achievements, but I need to step away from that game), I think I’ll have time to dive back into game-making in June. But, as Robert Burns wrote, the best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley. And that’s okay!

That’s all from me! Happy Pride to those who Pride. A miserable June to those who are haters. See you soon, internet friends!

Love,
Josh

May 2025 News: Not Too Bad

Howdy and hello, friends!

A short update this month. I haven’t gotten much internet-facing work done for a number of reasons, the most pleasant of which being my new-found obsession with Blue Prince. Highly recommended if you enjoy a puzzle game and don’t mind being confounded for hours on end, along with a bit of a tussle with some random number generation.

Having published a novel and finished two webcomics, along with dozens of theatrical performances and countless other artistic tidbits, it fascinates me how quickly various forms can reach “Not Too Bad” status. Not quite the “Good Enough” status, where you can share it with the public and feel proud of it, but where you can look at it for yourself and say, “Hey, this is not too bad.” Even within a given medium, there can be a lot of variety; a story might reach that point after its first draft or its twentieth. But of all of the forms I’ve tried, video games take the longest to reach that point. I’ve made a game that’s functional and can be played, but I’m still not at the “Not Too Bad” stage. There’s a certain volume of story and art and sound design, along with general je ne sais quoi (almost spelled it right on my first try!) that it still needs before I can look at it and feel good about it.

This isn’t to say that I’m not proud of the work I’ve done on it so far! I’ve grown a lot throughout this process, and I’ve developed a lot of skills I wouldn’t have any portion of otherwise. I’ve also grown a lot more forgiving of some things I see in games, and less forgiving of some others. Specific examples aren’t coming to mind, but perhaps some will arrive as I think on it over the course of this month.

All of this to say: I haven’t worked much on the game-making in the past month, but I have plans to get back onto that particular horse in the one ahead. And if you ask me if I’ll have a game that I consider Not Too Bad at the end of this month, I’d have to say that I…

May.

Get it? Get it???

Love,
Josh

April 2025 News: I Made a (Pre-Alpha for a) Video Game!!

Hello, friends!

I’m currently in the midst of four consecutive morning shifts at Day Job, including one tomorrow where I need to be in there at 7 AM (awful, unforgivable, how dare they), so this will be a fairly short update.

As you can see from the title, the gamedev has been going fairly well! If you’d like to play the Pre-Alpha for the August Mina Coffeeshop AU Adventure (title pending), you can grab it by downloading this Google Drive folder! (Windows only, sorry!) Alternatively, you can watch me play through the dang thing!

The game is still very rough around the edges, and pretty much everything still needs a lot of work, but I think the very core of the game is in good shape, and that’s good to see!

This is just about all I worked on in March! I did a few other little things, but either they’re not done enough to talk about or weren’t memorable enough for me to mention them. (Other than my Twitch streams every Tuesday evening, which are a delight!) I’ll need a bit of a break after the maelstrom that was finishing the Pre-Alpha, but I hope to have some neat news coming your way by the start of May.

See you around the internet, pals!

Love,
Josh