7/7 This project pushed me to rethink how we visualize menstrual health. It’s not just about softness, as period products often suggest. It’s about disruption, resilience, and healing. Read here: tinyurl.com/periodloss

6/7 Here’s a peek at the layers behind the character illustrations. The outlines were drawn digitally, but the watercolor washes add vibrant blends and organic edges that make the art feel alive and human.

5/7 As a watercolorist at heart, I wanted to use real paint, not digital, to show that a real person who cares made this. I love the “happy accidents” that watercolor washes create. They bring brightness and unpredictability to the work.

4/7 You can see the concept evolve across the page, from the early geometric shapes to using the glitch circles fully, even to highlight key text. The visual motif became a way to guide the reader through the emotional and narrative arc of the story.

3/7 I went back to the drawing board and developed a motif of whole vs. glitch cycles. I wanted to pull readers in from the start. Early on, the glitchy geometric shapes and soft watercolor clashed—until I leaned fully into the idea that “circle = cycle.”

2/7 I first wanted to use soft watercolors to reflect emotional tenderness. But my graphic colleagues noted that menstrual challenges don’t feel “soft.” A new idea emerged: Kandinsky-like geometric shapes + Spider-Verse-style glitch to show a disrupted (but not broken) cycle.

@tierneymaps.bsky.social thank you!! <3 It was so meaningful to work on. Hope it will resonate with many:)

thank you! It was a very meaningful project to work on :)

thanks:) the art is done in photoshop, and we use svelte for our development rig.

:) Thank you, Evan! We had a lot of wacky ideas and fun making them come true :D

9/9 At a time when so much is uncertain, I’m grateful the team @graphics.reuters.com reminds me there’s so much more to news reporting than sharing the latest topics. Here’s our small way to add a dollop of joy to the world💗 Stay for the credit scene for all the creative minds behind the project!

8/9 When asked where I draw inspiration, honestly, it's pretty random. When I was drawing the frames for the growing flowers, my Xmas cactus was budding. Somehow, I thought, maybe I can combine my cat(Nori)+cactus= cat-us? I followed my gut, and it became my favorite thing created for the story.

7/9 Creating a pixel world was a new challenge. I’m used to freely brushing, and now every pixel placement needs to be intentional (or so says the pixel art gurus). However, the “pixel-pushing” was quite therapeutic. Much love and gems were added. Did you notice the radish recycles and composts😂?

6/9 One part of our big ambition was having a joystick that allowed the reader to have full control of the radish, but we soon learnt how disrupting it is to the scroll-reading experience, ultimately dropping it. However, I do miss the short weeks that radish could go climb the wall I built for her.

5/9 As the story developed, so did our ambition. What if we made a cozy game about cozy game? None of us had developed games, allowing us to dream wild, and for me to sketch up crazy UX flows. One thing we did know is that mobile would be a big challenge, so we tackled that design first.

4/9 As the anthropomorphic radish character started taking shape, we realized the missing piece to make it alive is “sound”! Our resident audio enthusiast, Travis Hartman, took on the mission to bring original sound effects by squeaking many things in his house. Sound ON🔊: reut.rs/4gcizuV

3/9 I realized many cozy games allow you to become a character inside the warm, fuzzy world with seasonal change. I created a warm winter palette, and settled on the winter crop “radish”. Why? As a pixel-art novice, it felt easier to draw a round thing and make it walk frame-by-frame with outfits 😂.

2/9 The last time I was serious about games was Neopets. I “researched hard” by playing weeks of feel-good cozy games such as Stardew Valley and learning from resident cozy-gamer, Tiana, who pitched ethe idea. I loved how a charming world can be created by simple pixels and wanted to try this style.