>>20236

Thanks man!

>>20236

Thanks a bunch :3 good to see it got back up nice and quick too!

And boom...
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/13/lord-of-the-cringe-oblivions-prequel-adventure/

It got RPS coverage!

>>20269
Well, so much for the server being up then! :V

Congrats, Kazerad.

Air lute is best lute.

Worth the weight.

>Flash update
Dying of cute.

Bob 2012/03/05(Mon)01:42 No. 20583 ID: 865c88
File 133094057059.jpg - (26.81KB , 550x412 , mother-god-meme.jpg )

>mfw new flash update

another flash update that served no purpose. amazing.

I really wish all of these COMIC AUTEURS would realize that they aren't actually making use of the medium with stuff like this.

>>20585
I feel like the first walking around flash update had good reason, this one had less reason but had enough for my tastes. There was a lot of characterization of the town compacted into a short bit that would have taken forever to portray equally through this comic's regular means. The flash updates are the only ones where we're presented with direct dialog, which I believe is important to some of the characters. While the author manages to portray each characters voice through his regular third person well enough, I still think it's worthwhile for that. At least we can confirm their use of language.
It also offers a deeper look into the Mage's Guild environment, little touches that say things. In a regular update, would have just been like "Deer here, flowers there, bloody door in the back, weird."

I also like the barrel jokes too much in this update. They're not particularly witty or anything, but I like them, because it's one of those things that I can just "Yep, that's Elder Scrolls alright".

man, katia is gonna get eaten by vampires.

also, i was always curious as to why vampires were also cannibals in the elder scrolls universe. i keep seeing tables with cheese and wine and human body parts on them which confused the hell out of me.

>>20585
Oh fuck off you joyless bastard. Even if it pales in comparison to the Kvatch one, an update like this pushes in far more atmosphere (soundtrack!) and incidental detail (multiple interactions with deer, barrel hunting, animated ear perkiness) than can be reasonably put into a normal quest update. Those may still be heavily animated, but not to the point of a portrait per line of dialogue.

>Even if it pales in comparison to the Kvatch one, an update like this pushes in far more atmosphere (soundtrack!) and incidental detail (multiple interactions with deer, barrel hunting, animated ear perkiness) than can be reasonably put into a normal quest update

Normal Quest Update? Yes. Multi-image blog update? No.

The interactions with the deer were about 5 words each. Barrel Hunting didn't really add anything. Animated Ear Perkiness is a .gif.

The closest thing you have to go on here is the soundtrack (of which I have already forgotten the song beyond it causing me to turn down my volume), which could have been done in an ordinary flash update since being able to control Katia through 5 rooms with a handful of viewable objects isn't really meaningful interaction.

See, people think that they're 'toying with the medium' to 'expand the boundaries of comics,' but they aren't. Not like this. Interaction only expands the boundaries of a narrative when the interaction actually FUELS the narrative, rather than simply being required to reveal it. It feels more like a chore that is being required of you to know what is happening rather than actually being an engaging way to experience a story. Neither of the prequel flashes have been as egregiously bad in these regards as, say, the homestuck ones -- but that doesn't really make them interesting.

>>20590
>See, people think that they're 'toying with the medium' to 'expand the boundaries of comics,'...
I must have missed the part where Kazerad was trying to appeal to artisté tosspots. The comic's about page just calls it an "[interactive] story about a slutty alcoholic cat who hears internet voices". Which it is. And quite a funny one at that.

>>20592

>I must have missed the part where Kazerad was trying to appeal to artisté tosspots.

MSPA forums. He never really mentioned it explicitly, but he did specifically mention 'toying with the ideas of how comics are made' based on the way Andrew Hussie does, and Andrew Hussie is exactly that sort of pretentious dickbag. And Kaz doesn't seem like the sort of person to just mindlessly ape something.

>>20592
>I must have missed the part where Kazerad was trying to appeal to artisté tosspots. The comic's about page just calls it an "[interactive] story about a slutty alcoholic cat who hears internet voices". Which it is. And quite a funny one at that.

Clearly you misunderstand my true intentions: to reveal the limitless potential of the inter-net as a revolutionary storytelling medium! The cat is a metaphor for the repressed artisté, and how they struggle against the arbitrary constraints society forces upon them, such as having to get a job. It is my magnum opus.

Hah, but seriously, I can kind of understand where Joyless Bastard is coming from. I think he misunderstands my reasoning, though. It's not about "expanding the medium", but about conveying the story as effectively as possible.

The way I see it, an inherent problem with linear storytelling - and most language in general - is that it puts a lot of importance on sequence. It is very difficult to convey truly simultaneous information. For instance, consider the following sentence:

"The man was leaning against the railing, wearing a gray coat with gold buttons, and was a bloodthirsty zombie."

Unless it's intended to be humorous, this reads a little weird. It seems like the fact he was a zombie should've been mentioned earlier, since it's so important and sets the stage for everything else. Worse, one might be led to assume the earlier details WERE the most important ones - maybe leaning against a railing and wearing a coat is unusual for zombies?

Interactivity counteracts this slightly. When you walk into a room with 3 boxes and have a choice which to open first, you don't expect to open the most important one on your first try. You don't expect the biggest reveal to be in the last one. Because you choose the order, there is an implicit understanding that the order is meaningless; by being interactive, all the information is closer to being conveyed "simultaneously".

I agree that it can be overused, yeah. Maybe I overused it this time, maybe I didn't; part of the fun here is experimenting and learning. Overall, though, the response was fairly positive, and I personally don't feel like the scene would have worked as well were it non-interactive.

>>20599

I thought it worked very well. Now I'm just terrified of poor Katia getting eaten.

>>20599
It just sounds like you're having fun with your project.
Experimenting doesn't sound like a big deal, you just like having fun with things.

Jukashi!!WzMJSzZzWx 2012/03/06(Tue)06:04 No. 20603 ID: 5bf190
File 133104267808.png - (160.46KB , 911x1157 , koc0236.png )

>>20596

You don't need to be pretentious to experiment with the medium, my friend. It's just a bucket o' fun to mix things up is what it is!

... gods DAMN I'd forgotten how terrible I was.

>>20603
I dunno, I thought Sidereals being able to reach across comic panels was more amusingly cute than trying-too-hard deep. :V

(Now, Solars...)

>>20603

Terrible or not, your comic was the high point of my week, and I very much hope you haven't given up on it.

>>20603
I found this site (and forum games in general) from the link to Lunar Quest in one of the comments in KoC.

>>20616
Same here; Checked the KoC forum on Patternspider for news on Jukashi, and followed the link to Lunar Quest here. Keychain of Creation is still in my daily lineup of webcomics I check, even though I know it's going to be awhile before it resumes, if ever.

>>20612
>>20604

Ditto to these, really. Still checkin' in for updates and I thought the panel-reaching thing was a cool in-comic way to show off how Sidereal powers would work.

>>20618

Almost forgot: Kazerad, you're doing quite good! I really enjoy the interactive portions, so don't be afraid of making more.

>>20599
Finally got around to checking the flash out.

With the one where we explored the town, I can kind of understand why you'd opt for a flash update like that - there are a whole bunch of things to potentially do, and no especially pressing order to do most of them in. Beyond that, I can speak from experience in saying that trying to do all the things we did in the town in the narrative/comic format would have taken ages and possibly been tedious. I don't feel like the extraneous stuff we did in the flash was vital or anything, but it certainly doesn't take away from the story as a whole.

This more recent one, though. That was, uh... pretty linear. It's not bad, but the extra effort required on both your behalf and that of the reader seems kind of unnecessary when one of the comic-type updates could have easily conveyed pretty much everything just as effectively. Really not at all convinced that that needed to be a flash, unfortunately. :/

>>20589

>lionsphil calling someone A joyless bastard

Not only do I not know what to think, I might have forgotten how to do so in the first place.

>Telvanni Bug Musk
...
God fucking dammit.

VIBROKATIA.

Bob 2012/05/02(Wed)23:15 No. 21067 ID: b9e291
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On the bright side, there's no way Katia can burn down Kvatch in this downpour. Oh wait no, that's a bad thing. FUUU

>>21067
I see a bottle.

>>21072
Thank the Nine Divines for wastebasket booze!

>>21072
>>21074
>Katia: Drink bottle's contents
It's empty.
>Katia: Realize you're looking through trash for any signs of even the slightest bit of alcohol, attempt suicide in the event of the realization
>Young idealistic priest: Happen to pass by at this very moment, save the life of an unconscious catgirl and take her to your temple
>Katia: Become even more depressed for not managing to even decide your own fate, chew the priest out for this

Prequel is fucking shit.
>Katia finds soggy unreadable note
>Next page
>Soggy unreadable note suddenly bursts into flames while it's raining because god forbid katia owns something or importance, oh and your necklace broke because you attacked the bin and rolled around in the mud.
>Katia is now a black mud-man with no possessions and no will to survive.

GG prequel. You've become what you always wanted to be, a piece of shit that people donate money to for updates.

>>21093
>A piece of shit that people donate money to for updates.
>donate money to

Uh, since when?

>>21094
I heard the guy who runs the Facebook group actually gets a pretty steady stream of people asking how to donate.

I love the mad streaming from the latest update, and I am not usually one to enjoy mad streaming from things.

Outside of "OH NO A SAD THING AGAAAAIN?!?!" I don't see what the big deal is. I think it's pretty neat. This is a new low. The lowest of lows. There is little going down from here, unless Katia gets pneumonia and dies and that's how the story ends.

That would be amazing, though probably not the best in the "loose end" department.


Where Katia is now, I predict some sneaky shit to get her stuff back, or something involving either Nah or that necromancer guy from the guild. We can only go up from here! Or sideways. Or start picking at rock-bottom with a jackhammer.

Why's everyone so up in arms about Katia getting robbed? It's not like she had much of anything anyway. Kvatch mage's guild has literally piles of septims and they ain't spending it on anything, so Katia just has to get some Telvanni bug musk, see...

>>21093
While I admit that the apparent lack of lasting progress is starting to strain my sympathy for Katia at this point, I... you... uh...

Mostly I'm confused?

>>21115
How does she get Telvanni bug musk without money?

And it is still a big deal: it's just as big deal as if an adventurer was stolen all his shit, worth tens of thousands of gold. Percentually, it is still 100%, everything they owned - and the adventurer could probably get his stuff back much easier, too.

>>21115
>Why's everyone so up in arms about Katia getting robbed?
"Everyone" isn't. Some people just bawww when protagonists have anything less than a continual upward spiral of powertripping wish-fulfillment. God forbid a narrative might have downs as well as ups.

I think Katia should just stop crying and go get another quest, and just go kills those scamps upstairs, they're an easy kill if your cheap.

Could probably just trap 'em with a box. Standard homeless practice in Tamrial is just to go around adventuring until you're tired of it or get an arrow in the knee, at which point you retire to town guard, a blacksmith, or whatever skills you worked good on your adventures. A person usually goes an owns a house in an adventure.

The thing is, if Katia IS the destined Champion, she can't really do any cool stuff until AFTER she gets arrested in Imperial City, which really sucks. But I think that's why destiny is making her life so terrible before that moment, it's trying to get her to IC and get her arrested. And it's NOT going to let up until that happens.

The solution obviously is to try and end Prequel, because as soon as she gets arrested in IC, everyone knows what happens from there and knows that Katia comes out all right in the end. Her dragon break skills should help undue any deaths she suffers, so we don't have to worry about her dying. Then what will Kaz do? Sequel?

>>21122
But there aren't any real ups. Every up so far has been a setup for a down. Even Katia finding out she had talent for magic was a setup to get her robbed.

The only thing we've accomplished in prequel is finding out that Katia is not completely useless. That's it! We did not successfully complete ANY tasks laid before us.

>>21126
Yet.

>>21124
Katia's probably not the PC from Oblivion.
If anything I think she'll set a lot of Oblivion's events in place, she'll mostly be an unsung hero who did so much behind the scenes stuff that nobody knows.

I really hope she goes to Hackdirt.

>>21126
>The only thing we've accomplished in prequel is finding out that Katia is not completely useless.
>We did not successfully complete ANY tasks laid before us.
Update 3:
>It's one of the things you're hoping to fix in your new life. Someday, you'll be good at something. Or even just adequate at it.

Plus, y'know, fairly standard British[-esque] failure comedy pattern. I guess you hated Blackadder (hell, almost anything with Rowan Atkinson in it), Fawlty Towers, and Coupling too.

>>21136
>Plus, y'know, fairly standard British[-esque] failure comedy pattern.

Not the same guy, but british failure comedy usually concentrates on the failures of characters who don't deserve success. Blackadder, Basil Fawlty, Mr. Bean, Red Dwarf's Rimmer, etc. are all relatively terrible people who tend to fall prey to their own asshole behaviour, and while they're not entirely unsympathetic, they're also not set up so we'd feel sorry for them. A lot of the comedy punch comes from the sense of just desserts.

That is not the case with Katia. Rather, everything about Katia is designed to make us feel sorry for her. Some (the minority) of her misery does stem from her faults, but they're not "her fault", if you get me.

That was a funny update

>>21137
Another solution is obvious, simply suggest Katia become a more horrible person to survive so we don't have to feel bad anymore.
It doesn't matter anymore.
It just doesn't.
So why hold the bar so high for herself. That's why she's failing so much. She just tangoed with a woman with a terrible reputation for being very convincing and business-savvy.
She's learned her lesson now, I hope.

Dude, the orc is totally going to be the PC, arrested for murdering Katia who will fail trying to get her stuff back yet again. Calling it now.

>>21137
One Foot in the Grave? Johnny English? I mean you're not wrong per se, but there are examples where the only flaws of the character are personality quirks (Victor Meldrew may be a curmugeonous old fart, but he's rarely an initiator of any malice or deception, and his cynical outlook on life is somewhat defended by his experience), and a lot of the time it's just the universe being bastards to them. The kind of laughs they get are more on the nervous got-to-laugh-eh end of the spectrum.