A smol artist making smol art

They're getting ready to take off 🚁

Artwork by A. Petzold, CC BY-ND 4.0

At the right time of year along rushing streams in the humid rainforests that stretch the length of Madagascar's eastern and northern mountain ridges, otherworldly trills of piercing whistles can be heard.

Are they birds? Insects? Communicator beeps? Tricorder noises?

No, they're little treefrogs!

Boophis janewayae. Photo by M. Vences, CC BY-SA 4.0

Until recently, we thought all of the populations of these little brown frogs across the island were one widespread species, Boophis marojezensis, described in 1994. But genetics in the early 2000s and 2010s showed that there were several species here, not just one.

Now my colleagues and I have shown that they are in fact eight separate species, each with unique calls!

These whistling sounds reminded us so much of Star Trek sound effects that we decided to name the seven new species after Star Trek captains: Boophis kirki, B. picardi, B. janewayae, B. siskoi, B. pikei, B. archeri, and B. burnhamae.

Photos of all new species described by Vences et al. 2024. CC BY-SA 4.0

I subtly and not-so-subtly built some Star Trek references into the paper, but probably the best one is this one:

'Finding these frogs sometimes requires considerable trekking; pursuing strange new calls, to seek out new frogs in new forests; boldly going where no herpetologist has gone before.'

— Vences et al. 2024

There’s a real sense of scientific discovery and exploration here, which we think is in the spirit of Star Trek.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that there are at least two Trekkies amongst the authors (including yours truly). As fans of Star Trek, we are also just pleased to dedicate these new species to the characters who have inspired and entertained us over the decades.

On a personal note, this marks a milestone for me, as it means I have now described over 100 frog species! I am very pleased that the 100th is Captain Janeway's Bright-eyed Frog, Boophis janewayae (if you count them in order of appearance in the paper)—she is probably my favourite captain, and I really love Star Trek: Voyager.

Then you add that as OP said Undertale was 10 bucks and could be played on a toaster if necessary, so not only was there already a gigantic rabid fan base at launch but also this gigantic fanbase could play it regardless of the machine they had.

But wait! There's more! When undertale first released on Steam, it was marked as playable on Mac. It very wasn't. I bought it at launch and the damn thing wouldn't open. I was in art school playing on the school-supplied macbook pro. So I did the only thing I could think of without refunding and negatively impacting an indie creator, and emailed Fox directly based off the email on his website at the time. I asked him if he knew about the glitch preventing the game from opening and if he knew of a workaround. His response was more or less "I told Steam their UI broke it and they wouldn't listen to me, I knew this would happen, sorry about that here's a DRM-free version no problem".

He then announced to his fan base that the Mac version was broken and if anyone bought it not realizing that, to email him and he would do the same. To my knowledge he made good on it for every person who contacted him. He didn't ask me for a receipt. He didn't ask for proof of purchase or proof it wouldn't work. We didn't email back and forth troubleshooting. Simply "sorry, here you go" and a download link that, btw, still works last I checked tho I don't have a Mac anymore and can play it on steam easily with my gaming laptop I've purchased in the mean time.

And also. It was just a really good game, with great sound design, a fun game play loop, and an interesting story that gets more interesting the more you investigate it. Of course it's hugely popular. Fox grew up in the age of cult classics and went "I can do that" and then did it.

Through July 8th to the 18th of July, I'm offering commissions* for $25! 🙌