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Newsletter: Star Nation game, discord updates & Flow Arts shows

Hello Sparkly beings, let’s give a big update on what is going on in Star Nation. 

The Star Nation game:

Now that the 3 biggest events of my year have passed (Nepal, Flowmily & TwitchCon) I’m sinking into my creativity again. With a massive inspiration burst I’m excited to announce that I’m going to be working on the Star Nation game that will be integrated for stream. Together with Starcoders JugglewithTim and Noxanimus we are going to fight the odds (we are not so experienced…) and make this game together! If you want to join in on this, feel free to reach out, we could use some help.. especially in the programming department.

For now I’m designing it mostly, once my drawings are done we can see about getting the mechanics to work. I will document te process of all of this on my Ko‑fi - only available for members. I want to document what I did myself, what I did together with AI and see what comes out. After all this time practicing art, it’s time to make something with it. So let the Star Nation game begin! 

Schedule for the week:

Thank you everyone!! We unlocked our mecha build goal!! I’m excited to build it on stream, even though I have zero experience in this. How long will it take me to build it? Let’s find out!

THU 20.00 - mecha build stream

FRI 20.00 - DJ stream - practice for my gig on Saturday!

On the OG LuminousNova_ twitch channel Blerp is installed! Try the new sound fx in the upcoming stream  using the extension.

I’m off all weekend to gigs, Saturday I am DJing at a camping called ‘Buitenland’ - they hired me to showcase the music and Flow Arts that I do. So I need to pre-mix a few tracks together so I can come out of the DJ booth, and flow for the people. A gig like this is a dream come true, bringing the inspiration vibration outside my house. It’s a far destination, but you’re more than welcome to come. Check the events for more info. 

Discord updates:

Special thanks to all the boosters in the Star Nation, thanks to all of you we have better quality discord calls and productivity nights. We also have shiny gradients for some of our roles now. 

How to become shiny?

Moderator: Blue and purple gradient - No current openings

Sparkling squad role: Holographic - click in the rules roles to receive going live notifications and you shall get the role ‘Sparkling Squad’ automatically. 

Become a member on Ko‑fi or a sub on one of my twitch channels to also get the holographic gradient for your name. Don’t see your shiny name and are subbed? Let me know so I can fix any problems.

What else is there, hidden in the discord?

Star Lounge - A hidden chat only for the supporters of Luminous Nova - become a member on Ko‑fi (minimum 5 euro) or take a sub on any of my channels to get access. Gift subs on Twitch count too, check your integration if you don’t see it. What we talk about here? Only the insiders will know.

Ko-fi-corner - A hidden chat for members of my Ko‑fi - the Art Lovers ❤️ Take a membership of 5 euro or higher to unlock it. Here I post my art that also is on ko-fi, so that you don’t need to leave the discord to stay updated on the artistic works. 

What am I working on in Flow Arts?

Creating a fire show with Lisa, Camille and Zoe. Our show is called ‘girls on fire’ and we are in the final stages of creating an epic fire show. I’ve been driving up and down to Belgium a lot to train for this and now that we are almost done with the choreography, it’s promo making time! Hopefully we are done by the end of the summer, what a creation, a year and half in the works. 

An LED show with Lucie (Afterglow Arts). Currently releasing fun content with our glasses episodes but there is also a show in the works. We almost have our mix of songs together and some of the choreographies are made. When the mix is finalised we can continue and program our lights to the music. 

We also have been training on our stilts, bringing Flow Arts to new heights. This is a longer running practice but we hope to get booked soon so we can push it more. 

LED Costume:

An LED version of my kitty costume is in the works together with Bloom Boom agency. The bottom part is operational but the jacket is not yet done. One of the chips is broken and light toys doesn’t have a warranty on it so we’re back and forth with the light technician to see if we can get it to work, or we are forced to buy a new one and 100 euro’s just went down the drain…

A new act

Soon I’m off to Germany to perform at an event with a little spice. I will be presenting a mix of burlesque and striptease & integrate it with Flow Arts LED tools. Something I’ve never done before but feel up for the challenge. In the right kind of setting I like to express my more sensual side and so with this event I will be able to do it. I’m curious what I will make of the experience, how nervous will I get? Will I be able to hold my tools while feeling even more exposed than usual? I’ll find out in a few weeks, for now I’m practicing for the new act. 

I’ll leave it at this for now, I want to say I’m working on more but those are just ideas and things on the to do list that I want to do, without any scheduled date for it. Someday I’ll release tutorials.. Let’s first get all this out! Much love and light, Nova

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(Stream) schedule TwitchCon

Excitement all around that I'm giving a hula hoop workshop on TwitchCon this time again! The streams are starting off with a sponsored game + giveaway and as I want both of my channels to be live on TwitchCon, I stream both days an hour! Check all that is happening here:

THU | May 29 | 20.00 CEST
Game stream - Sponsored by:
Of Life & Land - game key giveaway during stream!
OG Channel: Twitch.tv/LuminousNova_

SAT | MAY 31 | 13.00
Hula hoop workshop at TwitchCon hosted by me!
Location: CoolCat Theatre
Duration: 1 hour

SAT | May 31 | 15.00
Live from TwitchCon Rotterdam
OG Channel: LuminousNova_

SUN  | June 1 | 15.00 
Live from TwitchCon Rotterdam
DJ Channel: DJLuminousNova

SUN | June 1 | 20.00 
Twitch on AfterParty in Amsterdam - retro & board game night - check the discord for more details. 

It's a game packed week, I'm stoked for all that is going to happen, much love for you all <3  XOXO Nova

More info on game Of Life & Land:
In Of Life and Land you take the role of a leader, delegated to build new settlements in remote, unknown corners of the Kingdom. In those forgotten places, nature is wild and legends are more real and vivid than one may think. Experience the challenges of different seasons and climates in a world, where every animal and every plant tries to find their place in nature, while you lead your villagers. How much will you share with nature? Will you strive for balance or even enforce the extinction of certain animals? Follow the old paths... or find your own.

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Art vs Artist

🎨 Art vs Artist 2024 - 2023 - 2022 - 2021 

I can’t believe it’s 4 years with art back in my life. I grinded hard in 2022 & 2023 to learn digital art on the iPad with procreate. Now that the basics are in I decided I needed to go back even further back and do more on paper again. I wanted to see what comes out just drawing anything without a plan. I noticed I lack skill for what I want to come out but I’m pleased by the fact I can now draw without references and even surprise myself with what comes out.

The relationship between what you want to draw and what comes out of your hands is one you need to balance as an artist. I’ve enjoyed my process so far but I’m now determined to master manga characters for this winter project. I want to be able to just whip out a character on the go and not get stuck with anatomy forever. This will be doable as a winter project if I were to draw at least 4 times a week. Let’s see how that goes, best to make it a habit. That’s tough though.

I’ve decided that the story I’m writing is going to take very long to be released as a graphic novel and before that happens I’d like to spray the story over different video games. I’m going into the art of videogames 😎 With many game ideas in mind it’s time for research first. Somehow I think a platformer is easy to make, but is it? Let’s find out in 2025 💥 

Special thanks to my ko-fi members supporting my art journey, you all keep me inspired 💜 

If you want to see my art, follow the progress of the story / games:
⭐️ www.ko-fi.com/luminousnova_ 

Maybe not the smartest to put at the bottom of this post but oh well, I brought out a year mix of the music I’ve been DJing at events this year. With that I added my art as a visual with timelapses and sketches from 2024. Link here! 

Wishing you all the best for 2025, may it bring creativity and joy 🫶🏼✨ Keep on fighting for your dreams! I’m bringing my sword into 2025 and will fight off any demon thoughts telling me what I can’t do. It’s time to slay OKAY 🔥 Much love and light, Nova 💜

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Reflection of 2024 + Merch launch

A year of reflection. This art piece is a personal one. This year I said STOP and decided to turn around and look myself in the eye. I took a break from streaming after 7 years. I wanted to see how I would feel without it. I have always put my streams at nr 1 in my life and I needed to be honest with how much it hung on me that I hadn’t ‘made it’ yet. I had my high moment and uprise but to keep it there costed too much of my time and it was too much digital life for me. With the constant downfalls I just at some point was done pushing so hard. So I took a step back and went to see how it felt. 


It didn’t take long for me to stream again but I went into a once a week rhythm (instead of the former 3 times a week), intending to do more on YouTube. Instead of more YouTube content (procrastinating on it) I decided to help organize a Flow Arts gathering and involve myself more with the Amsterdam fire jam community. I did a bunch of research into Flow Arts and performance arts but never got to the point of sharing a lot of it on YouTube. 

When I ran out of money and performances didn’t pick up, I decided and got myself a nighttime job at the DHL. I was also working as a social media manager but that didn’t cover all my cost. Slowing down on streaming also ment not much income out of it and my timing was terrible to take a pause from it. Working a job did bring me some stable income and I dared to go to a lot more social events because of it. I didn’t feel the pressure of work so much which before I always had when streaming. There is just always something to do for the stream and now I experienced how it was to not have this pressure. 


In my free time I would still be tinkering on my streams, mostly writing up ideas. I noticed that if I don’t stream, I don’t practice my art forms a lot. Mind you, I also needed a break and so I feel like the resting I did was necessary too. Still I have many dreams that I want to bring into reality and one of them involves the digital lifestyle. So why shy away from it? Just because I’m not the most famous or biggest one doesn’t mean it’s not important. We build such a cozy space on the internet and I found really amazing people there that I otherwise would have never met because of distance. So let’s just get back to working on the dreams instead of worrying about networking and high numbers. With my comeback in September, I decided to do my streams as to how I feel and not push myself on something I don’t want to do. I stopped networking all together and only visit the streamer friends I enjoy and have an authentic friendship / interest with. 


This brought the joy back into it all for me. I feel free and inspired, happy with the group we build and am even more skeptical on allowing people in. I’m now guarding the Star Nation and I don’t want just anyone to join it anymore. I allowed my rules to bend sometimes pleasing people so that they would stay and come back but that ship has sailed now. Either you are kind and respectful or we just don’t allow you in. Let’s take more care for what is already there instead of reaching out for new. I will now just trust the new will find their way to us if they’re ment to. 


One of the other reasons I was shook up this year was because I didn’t have a long term relationship anymore. I realised a lot of my previous relationships were quite soon after each other and I decided I needed to break this pattern. I gave myself the rule to be single for at least a year and to be free to do whatever I feel like. Getting to know myself was both fun and hard and completely relied on me being brutally honest. The year taught me a lot. 


When I looked myself in the eye and sat down to gather my thoughts about the year I found out different things.


- I am strong for carrying myself so far

- I feel deeply and that’s why I’m afraid 

- Mad at myself for not knowing what exactly I wanted

- Admitting my failures and lost dreams 

- Realizing how tied my personal life was with my content and how hard that can be

- Admitting my desire to put my art and work first

- Admitting to well - personal - desires

- Realizing the impact of a partner on myself and my behaviour 

- Realizing the impact of being single, dating and meanings of relationships

- Not wanting to be fully digital nor always in the offline world. One is not better than the other, they compliment each other. 

- I told truth with myself about how I feel


At the end of the year I can look back and say I struggled with all this but I also overcame a lot. I feel a lot stronger in myself and feel I have more of a direction again. Dusting myself off to set out on my new adventures bringing more life into my Art & start my YouTube journey. The end spurt in the last month to YouTube Partner is real.. I might still accomplish this goal! 

The streaming will go back to a bit more variety not just allowing art, DJ and flow arts but also video games back on the schedule. Now that I’ve decided that the story I’m writing is going to be a video game first, it’s research time hehe. The game I will build is going to be a strategy / city building kinda game and so these games need to be researched. Time to pay attention to the full range of how the games operate and decide what mine will be like. Preferably more original than taking over a full control system of another game and just adding another skin to it but let’s see which frameworks I need to get it going in the first place. The story is a life project and so I’m not gonna be too hard on the firsts project coming out of it yet. More will come, this game is just for season 1! (Working at the DHL gave me a lot of thinking time…)

So much to look forward too and reflecting on this year brought me a lot and so the art piece I’m releasing resonates with this year for me. It represents honesty to yourself. If you really look at yourself, who are you under all the layers of fears and comfort zones? Are you taking the actions that match who you want to be? Or are you sleeping and on automatic default settings? My way of taking control is to dive deeper into what I want and try every damn day to get closer to that becoming reality. 


So cheers to a struggle year that made me stronger YAAAAY - lol. Seriously though, I appreciate each and every one of you who gave me the time and space to gather myself. I have never felt so loved as when everyone kept telling me to take my time and not ask for anything content wise or pressure me whatsoever. I feel incredibly blessed by the Star Nation shining strongly together and welcoming me back into the digital world with love and light. I love you all, and you are all the reason I keep being inspired to follow my own path and keep going. Together the world is a little brighter, I feel it <3 


Cheers to you! Much love and light, Nova

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LED performance Amusement park Tivoli

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Radio broadcast Time4Trance

The recordings of when I joined the radio show with Time4Trance are available to watch on their youtube channel. I did a one hour mix for the show and in the first hour was interviewed. It was hilarious to have the chat of discord with me during this happening. I was initially weirded out by the fact to not have a chat so when I checked my phone I saw a lot of people in the discord lounge chatting while they were watching the broadcast. So fun! We even got to interview Charly like this haha. Here are the links to watch it back. Special thanks to Charly2Face for bringing me in on this opportunity!

First hour with the interview and mix by Han Beukers
https://youtu.be/RldFRcCbtD8?si=YLm3Ag1g1WZcQC2U

Second hour, my guest mix!
https://youtu.be/R0Am6Ue9A7g?si=mGIBBiaP496fFRVB 

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Flow Arts to Ecstatic dance set - stream rec

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Art update

In art world 'Inktober' is a thing where in October you draw something with ink every day. This drawing challenge can have a halloween theme since it's Spooktober leading up to it, or can be anything else.

I chose to do a Flow Arts edition.✨ Since I'm writing a story involving it, might aswel start drawing out all the props and things around it. The Star Nation community helped me with some fun extra ones to come up with 😎

Starting October it also marks the drawing season for me. I've decided it's time to brush off my insecurities and get out of the 'middle zone' with my art. I feel so close to more freedom but I can only get there if I actually start doing the thing. Time to study what needs to be learned and buckle down for a lot of practice.

I started my digital art journey in 2022 and it's been tough to keep up next to my busy life but I'm managing and I'm happy to be going into drawing season and finally spend more time with it. I added some recent artworks for the post update but if you wanna follow the challenge it will be posted on my ko-fi publicly. 

Enjoy your day! ✨

P.S. Did you know you can change the color of these LED kitty ear headphones during my stream? Just type !<color>kitty in twitch chat like '!purplekitty' 😺 Aaaahhh I love technology, oh how fun 😻

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I'm gonna be on the radio!!

This Friday I will be on the radio with Time4Trance! [October 4th, 22.00 CEST] I've been asked for an interview & to play a one hour DJ set afterwards. I'm stoked to have this opportunity to talk a bit about who I am and what I do. I still feel like a baby DJ but to get opportunities like this is something to be grateful for and I'm taking on the challenge!

The interview will be in English (as per request so the international community can follow along too!) and it will be broadcasted through the following links:

Radio only but on all devices:
https://rtvlansingerland.nl/radio/live-radio/

Watch with video, desktop only:
https://rtvlansingerland.nl/radio/studiocamera/

Hope you can make it to listen / watch. Mark your calender for October 4th, 22.00 CEST! More info about Time4Trance on their website: Time4Trance.com

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Rec of Flow Arts stream September 2024

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