Flashtraveganza Impressions/Feedback/Discussion

[Bengie]

Hey Guildies!

My Hetero-life-partner Peej and I appreciate all the feedback for our guest page. I just wanted to gauge our overall performance and discuss issues with our admittedly experimental style.

1) Do you think the scene did a fair job portraying the characters? I must have read through the entire series half a dozen extra times to prepare. I'll bet everyone had different voices in their head (for the characters, not the ones telling you to burn down the post-office.) Who would you have cast given the opportunity?

2) What do you think of the interactivity? There's a weird balance that we are trying to find between classic visual readability and animated frosting. We aren't there yet, but this feedback is really helping. From the comments so far, it makes sense to divide the interactive content into separate categories for "story driving" elements and superficial "Easter egg" elements.

3) Mobile devices: Sorry if our incompatibility disturbed your regular GA reading ritual. Its an issue we plan to deal with and I'm open to suggestions for software that's animation/art focused.

[Freemage]

Hey Guildies!

My Hetero-life-partner Peej and I appreciate all the feedback for our guest page. I just wanted to gauge our overall performance and discuss issues with our admittedly experimental style.

1) Do you think the scene did a fair job portraying the characters? I must have read through the entire series half a dozen extra times to prepare. I'll bet everyone had different voices in their head (for the characters, not the ones telling you to burn down the post-office.) Who would you have cast given the opportunity?

2) What do you think of the interactivity? There's a weird balance that we are trying to find between classic visual readability and animated frosting. We aren't there yet, but this feedback is really helping. From the comments so far, it makes sense to divide the interactive content into separate categories for "story driving" elements and superficial "Easter egg" elements.

3) Mobile devices: Sorry if our incompatibility disturbed your regular GA reading ritual. Its an issue we plan to deal with and I'm open to suggestions for software that's animation/art focused.

1: I enjoyed it greatly, and yes, I think you got the characters spot-on, especially given their altered state of consciousness. (Byron would normally not be so blood- er, spore-thirsty in combat, but the hallucinogenic effects probably pushed his berserker curse a bit closer to the surface than usual, for instance.) Bandit's last-panel glee at finding herself as a giantess was particularly awesome--I think I'd actually like such a scene in the regular series at some point. If there was a 'miss', it was probably Syr'Nj. There's already an established precedent of her losing her scholarly tone when she's drunk; I can't imagine it'd be any different on the 'shrooms. Still, I'd call that a "missed joke opportunity" than an actual error. The notion of stoned Syr'Nj goosing Byron just tickles my funny-bone.

2: I likewise enjoyed the interactivity. If anything, I might have been lightly disappointed that there wasn't more of it. Bandit actually stomping the 'shroom was probably the one I most expected and was disappointed to not see. In general, I'd say you want to 'build' your animation for a single page like this--for that last panel, I'd suggest every one of the characters would do ~something~ when clicked, and possibly a random object or two as well. Also, you may want to consider trying some technique to draw attention to clickable objects--I almost missed last-panel Mini-Best.

3: I'm SO not the guy to talk to about tech solutions. But in the interim, I would suggest an alt-page where there's no animation--instead, just a standard still page (it should probably show active movement--particularly Bandit's growth and Byron's choppychoppy). At the start, a clickable .mpg file would play the full sound-sequence. Not perfect, but you'd at least get to give folks the pleasure of hearing the voice-acting (which was quite well-done, IMNSHO).

Please note: All of these are suggestions on how to increase the already considerable amount of awesomesauce in your work.

[Bengie]

Yeah, in retrospect, I'm a little disappointed for not assigning some interactivity to Frigg and Syr'Nj. Stupid self!

[ahdok]

I was a little disappointed in Syr's voice, I imagine it a bit more teacherlike and a bit less maidenlike. - I though Byron was a bit soo much of a surfer dude for my liking, but I can see where you're coming from. Can't imagine that voice giving the kind of moral advice that Byron is so good at though.

What I noticed is that the majority of the interactivity is along the timeline of the comic - so you're pretty much intended to interact with it one thing at a time. Given that, I'd love to see some kind of "play all" button that'd run the interactive bits in sequence, rather than clicking on each and every thing individually.

I do love the intonation on "what the effin heck?"