Tech 10: Rebooted: Behind the Scenes

This page is an in-depth look from the creator of Tech 10 at the process behind the creation of Tech 10: Rebooted and all of its assets contained therein.

This page will be updated with every new episode and alien, so stay tuned!

Behind the Concept
Back in the beginning of 2012, I was facing a dilemma; specifically, the 'Tech 10' series was getting tired, I knew it was getting tired, but I had already written too much of it to change it out of the blue.

In my mind, there was only one solution: completely reboot the entire thing! So, without even bothering to give my series a proper ending, (I'm rather lazy if you hadn't noticed), I started a new series, taking the ideas of the old one and making them new! It turned out great, right?!

Well, no.

It didn't.

It reeeaaaaally didn't

Even with a year or so of experience, I was so new to the whole 'writing' thing that I was still under the influence of the Dunning-Kruger effect. For those who don't feel like reading the linked page, it's basically a cognitive bias in unskilled indivuals that leads them to believe their work is much greater than it actually is; it's not really arrogance persay, but simply a case of knowing so little about a subject that you don't even know you don't know anything about it.

Anyways, I wrote the first episode, added a bunch of pages, admired my work, aaaaand promptly let the series drift into oblivion.

Woops.

In my defense, I was still making effort to make new aliens, but even that stopped around the middle of 2013, essentially leaving the series to die. I had lost interest in the wiki, (which I'll get into more later), and the end result was letting this thing rot all the way until early 2014.

In January 2014, around the second anniversary of Tech 10: Rebooted's creation, I made a new series, Not Applicable, which was basically just an attempt to improve my writing and drawing skills. I had a bunch of fun with it, and while still in the swing of things, decided to restart Tech 10: Rebooted. I wrote new episodes, re-wrote the pages, made new aliens, and generally just made it better, bringing us to where we are now.

That's about all I have to say regarding the concept, so let's move on to the meat of the series: the episodes.

Behind the Episodes
I'm going to be going over the ideas for each of these episodes seperately, so each one will have their own sub-section. Let's go!

Insert Horrible Title Pun Here
This episode was pretty much the only one I made for the series' original run in 2012. I wanted to start off the series with something to establish it as a self-aware comedy, (which I am incredibly glad I did not follow through with), so this episode is pretty much just a parody of the previous Tech 10 continuity. As such, I have deemed it non-canon, but left it there as an indicator of WHAT I AM WRITING FOOOOOR!!!



Always wanted to use that.

A Blade is a Blade
Okay, so after returning to this series and coming up with a few episode concepts, I decided that the first thing I should do is bring in Alvono and give Tech the Pyronaut Blade. Some may ask why I didn't start out by giving Tech's origin story, (where he got the SpecTrix, why he's fighting crime, why none of our protagonists are good people, etc.), and the answer is simple:

I didn't feel like it.

Now, I will explain all of it in a later episode, but I felt that Tech and Aquadilus could establish their characters fairly well without a real introductory episode. Thus, this episode was born, and the canon part of this series could begin anew.

Just look at me all up in here, using them fancy words like 'anew'. My pretention knows no bounds.

Welcome to The Void
Boy, this episode was one wild ride. It introduced our first major villain, eight of Tech's aliens, and the first Ultimate and Combined forms of the series, not to mention the Eldritch Abomination that sucks out people's sanity. It also neatly tied this series into the same continuity as Not Applicable by having The Void casually mention the Zenturi, shedding a bit more light onto the mystery of just what exactly they are.

I really enjoyed writing the fight scene for this one, as it was extremely fast-paced and showcased the abilities of the SpecTrix fairly well, showing that while it is a powerful device, it still has potentially dangerous flaws.

Another interesting thing to note is that I actually bookmarked the area where the fight scene takes place. It's in some random desert area in southern Utah, though, so there's really not much to see. If you're interested in checking it out anyways, here are the coordinates: 38.4304583333, -110.337969444.

You're welcome.

Into The Pit
Hoo boy, this one.

This is currently my favorite episode of the series, as it officially showed that Tech 10: Rebooted is not just better-written than the original continuity, it can also get a whole lot darker as well. While Blyte did a decent job of making the series a bit more mature, this episode temporarily shot the rating up from Y-7 to TV-14.

The Creature here was based mainly off the Wendigo, a creature from Native American mythology, specifically this interpretation. (WARNING: Creepy as heck!) I modified the design and concept to fit the location of an underground cave, as is especially noticable when Tech attempts to burn it. Though the original Wendigo's main weakness is fire, The Creature seems entirely immune to it.

Also, let us have a moment of silence for the loss of our dear friend, Dean.

R.I.P. in peace, Dean. May heavn's angles bring thee to thy rest.

Ready To...Rock?
So, Igneoux is back.

That's a thing.

Yeah, this episode basically served as an introduction to the new Igneoux, along with the first appearance of the Mutation Lab and Xr. Nullamor. Also ULTIMATE ELECTROLITE, WOOOOOT!

You know, Electrolite and Terminano keep popping up in a lot of episodes. I don't really have much of an excuse for that other than usefulness and author's bias.

Okay, some things I feel need to be expounded upon: First, the Xr. part of Nullamor's name is actually his title; I would imagine it being something similar to a doctrate, though since it's not really an Earth title, there's not a lot to compare it to.

Second, the Igneoux here will have something to do with the original Tech 10 continuity, but it's probably not who you think.

MYYYYYSTERYYYYY

Behind the Aliens
This is going to take a while.

Okay, the first thing I should note is that when I began this series, the main idea for the aliens was to take the original continuity's aliens and improve them while adding a few new ones here and there. This idea has held over a bit into the present day, and is actually the explanation for a lot of these aliens, so whenever this is the case, I'll simply put 'Retool' in the 'Purpose' section of their description.

Basically, I'll go over each alien's, purpose, concept, and add extra notes if necessary, though considering how many of them there are, don't expect too much detail. I'll also leave out the purpose out with the Ultimate aliens, as it's fairly obvious the purpose of them is to up the alien's power level.

Vaceuoom
Purpose: Retool

Concept: He's basically Kirby. Not the vacuum cleaners, the Nintendo character. Not my most original work.

Also, it should be noted that his name is pronounced 'vak-ee-uh-oom'. Confusing.

Electrolite
Purpose: Retool

Concept: Electrolite was based on lightning bolts. Fairly straight-forward.

Extra Notes: Electrolite is currently my favorite alien out of the bunch, with his two follow ups being Rockoustic and Terminano, in that order.

Viris
Purpose: Retool

Concept: A humanoid creature based off of Bacteriophage virus types.

Rockoustic
Purpose: Retool

Concept: Humanoid rock creature.

Extra Notes: Rockoustic has gone through about three or four redesigns, making him easily the most changed of all my aliens.

Fearoid
Purpose: Retool

Concept: Demon/Vampire, hearkening back to his original series roots as an evil entity.

Carbon
Purpose: Retool

Concept: A living carbon isotope, allowing for various forms of attack and defense.

Extra Notes: Yeah, despite the name difference, Carbon is basically the new version of Crystalean from the original Tech 10 continuity. Because of this, I decided to make it a shared form between Tech 10: Rebooted and Not Applicable, further tying their series together.

Heatjet
Purpose: Retool

Concept: A humanoid fire with armor made of more fire. Ridiculous? Yes. Cool? Also yes.

Spiderfreak
Purpose: Retool

Concept: A sort of tarantula with a POISON DART MACHINE GUN ON ITS BUTT WOOOOOO

Extra Notes: Not sure why exactly he has a sillouhette of a head on his uniform, but whateves. Also, more NA/T10:R tie ins.

Technius
Purpose: Retool

Concept: Living circuit board of DOOOOOM!

Extra Notes: Technius's original design had a giant drill replacing his right forearm. Kinda wish I had gone with that design, but it would've been rather redundant with Sandrill around.

Luminferus
Purpose: Retool

Concept: I'm actually not sure with this one. I think it had something to do with spikes and fancy hats, though.

Umbra
Purpose: Retool

Concept: See Luminferus.

Extra Notes: Fun fact: Luminferus's art is facing right and to the front, whereas Umbra's is facing left and to the back. It's little touches like these that make me BTFF's best artist.

Golurth
Purpose: To provide Earth and Mana abilities.

Concept: Golurth is based on Golems, as is especially evident in his Planet and Species Information section.

Extra Notes: Golurth is my most drawn alien so far, with three pictures to his name, but the only one that actually gets his design right is the one in his profile box. It's details like this that make me BTFF's worst artist.

Magmator
Purpose: Retool

Concept: Volcanoes and molten rock.

Extra Notes: Another retool alien I changed the name of. With this one, however, it was because I found out the name of his previous version, Magmortar, was already the name of a Pokemon. Oops.

Rebide
Purpose: Retool

Concept: I honestly have no idea what this thing is. It's transparent red, has ridiculously long arms, and for some reason barbels. Your guess is as good as mine.

Extra Notes: The original Rebide was one of the few aliens I made back then that I actually realized was terrible; as such, I decided to just put it out there as a free to use alien not attatched to my series. No one has used him as of yet.

Sandrill
Purpose: Providing sand, tunneling, and amorphous abilities.

Concept: Something of a humanoid mole.

Gravitar
Purpose: Providing gravity control.

Concept: A robot powered by some sort of furnace reactor.

Extra Notes: Gravitar was originally supposed to be an alien for the previous Tech 10 continuity, but the design I made was so terrible, I never got around to actually making the page. For the record, it was some kind of reptilian thing with a horrible color scheme.

Praplant
Purpose: Providing plant-based abilities.

Concept: A humoungous Venus Fly Trap made out of large vines.

Extra Notes: As far as i can tell, this is pretty much the most threatening alien Tech has, and is one of very few that have been explicitly stated to be predatory.

Steelith
Purpose: Retool

Concept: Skeletal humanoid robot.

Extra Notes: Another renamed alien. In this case, it's because his namesake, Steelth had a lot of extra powers, making him rather OP. Also, the name was stupid.

Destructorb
Purpose: Making nuclear explosions.

Concept: A sort of combination of the the classic spherical bomb and the radiation hazard symbol.

Extra Notes: Kind of a lazy alien, but dang I love that Planet and Species Information section.

Terminano
Purpose: Providing super speed.

Concept: A superhero-ish robot composed of tiny nanobots, sort of like a human body is composed of cells.

Extra Notes: I believe Terminano was the very first new alien made for the reboot, and has remained one of my favorite aliens so far.

Splitter
Purpose: Retool

Concept: The original Splitter was basically a rip-off of Ditto. This was an attempt to make it not such a rip-off of Ditto.

Extra Notes: The bit about his planet's terraforming was actually just me subtly venting about Minecraft's new terrain generation. The more you know.

Spiritualist
Purpose: Summoning mythological creatures.

Concept: A sort of ghost covered in symbols manifesting out of Pandora's Box.

Extra Notes: The symbols in his design, the Eye of Horus, the Ouroboros, the Hwemudua, and the Pleiades, respectively, were chosen for their meanings. The Eye of Horus symbolizes cosmic wholeness, the Ouroboros symbolizes cyclic time, eternity, and the indivisible, self-sustaining character of nature, the Hwemudua symbolizes the need to strive for the best quality in both construction of goods and human endeavors, and the Pleiades is a magical amulet seal.

Go go reference books!

PHAcid
Purpose: Providing acid-based abilities.

Concept: A skeleton warrior leaking highly corrosive acid.

Extra Notes: This is the only alien so far to have irregular characters in the names of his planet and species.

Temportal
Purpose: Retool

Concept: Bulky robot.

Extra Notes: This is the only alien whose art I've drawn on paper, then digitized and enhanced, giving it a sort of scratchy look. I also based his species on crabs for some reason. Huh.

Mysticon
Purpose: Retool

Concept: A foggy version of Alien X, basically.

Extra Notes: Another renamed alien. His namesake, Misticon, was never used and borderline non-canon, not to mention the name was just silly spelled like that.

Ultimate Golurth
Concept: Ultimate Golurth was based off the two final mecha in the anime Gurren Lagann, Granzeboma and the titular Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. (Unless you're watching the compilation movies, in which case the final two mecha are Super Granzeboma and Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.)

Extra Notes: Nothing much other than if you haven't seen Gurren Lagann by now, you need to watch it.

Right now.

Seriously, bookmark this page and go watch it.

I'll wait.

Ultimate Electrolite
Concept: A far more heavyset Electrolite with metal armor.

Extra Notes: I have two of the four fundamental interactions in nature down. This guy covers electromagnetism and Gravitar covers gravity. Now to figure exactly what the heck strong interaction and weak interaction do and make aliens for them.

Blyte
Purpose: Retool

Concept: Half rotten tissue, half corrupted tissue, and all NOPENOPENOPE SOOOOOO MUCH NOPE.

Extra Notes: For this guy I figured, "Well, golly gosh darn gee willikers, the old Blyte sure is swell, I want a new one! But this one should give you nightmares and stare into your soul. Yeah!" and then this happened.

No, I'm not sure what's wrong with me either.

Well, other than the clinical depression.

Other than that, no idea.

Q&A
Got questions? Well, I got answers! Just post your question about the series in the comments section below, and I'll get back to you with the answer ASAP, then post it in this section for future reference.

Ask away!