Willow onken

Mithra's Magical Market
Writer / Producer / Director
Mithra's Magical Market is a sci-fi/comedy narrative podcast written and directed by Willow Onken and Paul McFerron. The produced pilot episode "Ring for Assistance" placed 1st in the 2022 BEA Festival of Media Arts Specialty Program category, and went on to win Listener's Choice and place bronze alongside HBO's Batman in the 2022 Signal Awards - General Scripted Fiction category.

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The Legend of Tamzi and the Endless Dusk
Writer / Producer / Programmer
Become the lazy sun god Tamzi and join a pantheon of disparate and out-of-touch gods who rule the Edin below from atop their heavenly thrones in The Legend of Tamzi and the Endless Dusk, a Ren'Py interactive visual novel made created by Willow Onken with artist Morgana Johnson. Can you find the missing sun before the mortal realm is overcome by an endless dusk?

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Living Ozarks: The Ecology and Culture of a Natural Place
Selection Editor
Living Ozarks: The Ecology and Culture of a Natural Place is an anthology that brings together essays, journal articles, book excerpts, and art/photo albums, all themed around the region’s heritage of nature and culture intertwined. Willow is a selection editor of the chapter "One Duck Dog."

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Arcana
Writer
Arcana is a thriller/drama short film written by Willow Onken, produced by Marlena McReynolds, and directed by Paul McFerron. Arcana won the Award of Excellence in the 2019 BEA Awards in the narrative category and premiered at the Moxie Cinema theater.

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Lost Stones of Grom Igvar
Writer
Lost Stones of Grom Igvar is a video game produced for the Missouri State University Electronic Arts program. The game features simple combat and choices that alter the story. The game premiered at the Missouri State University Electronic Arts Showcase in May 2021. Willow wrote the branching dialogue, barks, and lore.

Aeserune: Apotheosis
Creator / Writer
A world birthed from the seed of ancient gods who sought to harvest its life, once ripened. Now free of the fell gods' maws, a disparate civilization lurches toward war. New gods fall mysteriously silent, sinister powers decry magic as profane, and a creeping decay tiptoes across the land, consuming all that it touches. A homebrew 5e D&D setting, coming soon.

The ScriptMithra's Magical Market began as a web series script written by a group of students in a web series writing class. The goal of the class was to emulate a writers' room. Ten episodes were written for the series, which was live action at the time, and the pilot episode placed 1st at the 2019 BEA Festival of Media Arts - Short Subject category. Production for a live-action fantasy series was ultimately deemed impossible on a university budget, and the series was set aside—but not forgotten.

Pre-ProductionIn 2021, two students from the original web series class—Willow Onken and Paul McFerron—went on to pursue MFAs and began pre-production on a new Mithra's Magical Market—this time as a narrative podcast with a $0 budget. Together, they adapted the original scripts, which involved cutting all the visuals, including some incredibly funny visual gags (trust us). They also recruited artist Morgana Johnson, who illustrated the first ever concept art of the series.

CastingCasting was done entirely by Willow Onken and entirely remotely, as campus was still shut down due to COVID-19. The pandemic was one reason, among many, that the production was pitched as a podcast. Character breakdowns and sides were posted, and after outreach to the theatre department, local theatres, and social media, the auditions came rolling in—over seventy of them! Eventually, the project found its lead cast: Steven Horn as Mithra, Lourdes Westbrock as Gwyn, and Megan Marks as the narrator Indra.

RecordingThe pilot episode "Ring for Assistance" was recorded in three days in a closet (top photo) at Brick City, MSU's art and design building. The closet was cramped and extremely hot even in winter, but nonetheless, the pilot was all in hand! Later, the team found a much more suitable studio that even allowed actors to record scenes together (bottom photo). Episodes two and three were recorded at the large studio located in Strong Hall on MSU's main campus.

E1: Ring for AssistanceAfter some intense post, the pilot episode was released on YouTube and Podbean on May 7th, 2022! The pilot episode earned laurels again when it placed 1st at the BEA Festival of Media Arts—this time in the Audio Specialty Program category. One anonymous BEA judge left the following comment: "This production was one of the best productions I've had the pleasure to review—and I've been reviewing for almost 10 years. Excellent production quality, storytelling and use of multi-tracks to make the listener feel a part of the story."Check back at this page for more updates on Mithra's Magical Market!

The IdeaWillow has always been obsessed with mythology and ancient literature. After writing an animated series about Greek gods and a narrative podcast that features a toss-up of mythological figures, however, she was feeling burnt out on Western myths. At the same time, she understood that non-Western mythologies are not her stories to tell or stick her hands in. So, after settling on the objectively terrible plan of creating a visual novel game in a single semester while working two jobs, she came to the only logical conclusion: to create her own pantheon of gods who rule the mortal realm from atop their heavenly thrones!

ArtThe first thing Willow did was recruit her best artist pal Morgana Johnson, who had worked with her on previous projects. She then sent Morgana incredibly nonsensical notes on character descriptions, but thankfully she and Morgana are drift compatible and Morgana designed the characters perfectly. They agreed upon an inky art style that resembles tapestries and paintings, and pulled design elements from a variety of ancient styles and mythologies. The goal of the game was to combine mythemes in a way that the game reads "mythological" without being set within a specific pre-existing pantheon.

CreationRemember how this was an objectively terrible idea? Namely because Willow knew next to nothing about coding games and was in graduate school while simultaneously working two jobs. Nonetheless, aided by nothing but raw willpower (Willowpower?), she taught herself the basics of the Ren'Py engine via YouTube and outdated community forums. When the game debuted at its first workshop, it had no backgrounds and barely functioned, and the semester was already halfway over!

RefinementThe following months were a blur to Willow and, quite frankly, everyone else. No one can say what exactly happened during those months, but somehow, background images were created, music was purchased and added, the code was reorganized, functional, and even included looping choices, and a new friendship/rivalry mechanic was implemented that caused a massive argument in the second workshop ("I got the most points" "No I got the most points!"). Artist RE also joined the team and illustrated the set piece that would become the game's defining visual.

The DemoFinally, after one final scramble, the demo was completed. Recorded gameplay was released on May 18th, 2022, making Willow the first ever student in the Dramatic Writing MFA program to create a video game, and she did so in a single semester and is somehow still alive to tell the tale. At least two typos slipped through the cracks, along with an annoying music bug, and a few assets were never completed, which altered the order of events in the plot. It's messy, indulgent, and full of mistakes—precisely how a first endeavor should be!