Boredomness Breeds Randomness

[Captain Untouchable]

Have any of you ever read a webcomic called 8-bit Theater? Its pretty old (though still going) - to sum it up in a nutshell, a guy has stripped out the 8-bit graphics from Final Fantasy I and III and, using a variety of cut-and-paste techniques, is using them to tell a sort of generic dungeons and dragons / fantasy roleplay style story... except the characters are totally incompetant, and achieve all their victories via fluke.

If you've not seen it, you should totally check it out, by clicking this convenient link (http://www.nuklearpower.com/8-bit-theater/).

Anyhow. I used to read 8-bit about 7 years ago, back when I started doing D&D and my friends were obsessed with it. Randomly stumbled across it a couple of weeks ago, and spent most of Dragon*Con catching up with it while y'all were out of town.

One of the things that leapt out in my mind was how much the character Black Mage looks like a Jawa. Well, okay. He has no face, and glowing yellow eyes... that's close enough, as far as I'm concerned.

Tonight I was bored, and decided to try my hand at making a strip of my own. Here's the result, which I have dubbed "Bytes of the Old Republic" (http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd259/o6untouchable/Bytes%20of%20TOR/BOTOR-001.jpg) (word pun, ftw!).


Edit:

Bytes of TOR is now available on a blog (http://bytesoftor.wordpress.com/)! There's RSS feedy goodness, and little page turning hyperlink stuff. Click the link to go to the latest post, or click here (http://bytesoftor.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/001/) to start from the beginning.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

:lol very good! I hope you do do more. :D

[Travis North]

This is excellent. I'd like to see another.
<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">

[Captain Untouchable]

Insomnia also breeds randomness, apparently. One more sneaky one, before I stop and wait to hear back from the dude. A wordier one this time, commemorating the fact that I found the speach bubble making tool, rather than having to make them from scratch.

"Are We Nearly There Yet?" (http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd259/o6untouchable/Bytes%20of%20TOR/BOTOR-002.jpg)

[Mu Satach]

I thoroughly approve.

[Captain Untouchable]

Okay. So *this* is the last one. It really is this time. Honest.

"Two Sentients Walk Into a Bar..." (http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd259/o6untouchable/Bytes%20of%20TOR/BOTOR-003.jpg)


Edit:
Hmm. That took me less than an hour. Groovy. :cool

[Dasquian Belargic]

Ha, these are great. You should be posting them on the front page! ;)

[Captain Untouchable]

I'm gonna wait until I hear back from the guy before I go posting them up on the front page or anywhere ... but I have too much free time on my hands, so I guess sneaking 'em to you guys via this thread is okay. ;)

"I Spy ... Something Beginning With J" (http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd259/o6untouchable/Bytes%20of%20TOR/BOTOR-004.jpg)

For those of you familiar with the KOTOR games, you may have noticed I stole the name Iziz from the little quest-giving Jawa from by the gates in Anchorhead. I just wanted to make the is/is joke, but figured I might as well throw in a bit more KOTOR while I was at it.

Oh, and if you can't tell: the dudes on the left are the Player Character, Canderous Ordo, and Bastilla Shan. :)


Edit:

Part II of the previous strip...

"Asking For Directions" (http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd259/o6untouchable/Bytes%20of%20TOR/BOTOR-005.jpg)

[Tell Cho]

I never looked at the background. I liked this one much better than the last one. Not that the last one was bad, but I had a hard time following the dialogue due to placing of the speech bubbles.

"I wanna cast magic missile!"

"At what? You need a target."

"At the darkness!" *giggle*

*giggle* "Okay, you cast magic missile at the darkness."

"Do I get experience?"

[Captain Untouchable]

I'm working on cutting down the dialogue a bit; unfortunately, my tendancy to ramble makes it difficult.

"Episode VI: Return to the Cantina" (http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd259/o6untouchable/Bytes%20of%20TOR/BOTOR-006.jpg)

A new character is introduced!


Edit:

Regarding the dialogue; one technique that I've seen used (on 8 Bit, actually) is to assign a colour to each character, and then change the colour of the border / font / etc in speach bubbles accordingly. Would that be worth a shot? Or maybe reducing the font size I use for speach by a notch or two, thus making the bubbles smaller, and cluttering up the scene less?

In the meantime...

"Rule 1: The Writer is God" (http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd259/o6untouchable/Bytes%20of%20TOR/BOTOR-007.jpg)


Edit 2:

Okay. New strip has coloured speach bubbles for the main characters. Also, if I'm doing monologue stuff on a plain black background, I'll just be using the colour from the outside of the character's speach bubbles. At the moment, Green is Steve the Scoundrel; Red is Iziz the Jawa; and Orange/Yellow is Soldier the Soldier. Does that make things easier? Also dropped the font size, slightly, but that hasn't really made much of a difference. Does the lack of bold (which doesn't show up at that smallness) look naff? Shall I switch back to bold text with coloured boxes next time?

"Rule 1: The Writer is <s>God</s> Gay" (http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd259/o6untouchable/Bytes of TOR/BOTOR-008.jpg)

[Tell Cho]

The coloured bubbles do make for easier reading, and the humour is spot on. I especially like the Power Ranger one. Kimberly is the most awesome Ranger.

What I was referring to wasn't exactly who was speaking, but more as to when each character was speaking. The smaller bubbles have done wonders, but perhaps you could use connected bubbles like the creators of Darths and Droids have done, especially when the dialogue is back and forth and meant to be quick.

...But I'm not really an editor, so to speak. I just have a problem with putting across criticisms, or so I am told; if I start sounding bossy and/or too overly critical in your opinion, let me know, and I'll shut up.

[Captain Untouchable]

Ah - with the line connecting the two bubbles together?

That'll probably take me a little longer to do, but I can probably manage it... I'll have a go, anyhow. :)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

fantastic!! Keep up the awesome work!

[Captain Untouchable]

No new updates as yet - spent my weekend getting drunk and playing Rock Band instead. >_<

I have however set up a blog to post everything on, so that you can do all back/next type clicky things, rather than switching from link to link, sign up to RSS feeds so you get updates when I ... uh... update. And what not.

Anyhow. The link is here (http://bytesoftor.wordpress.com/)!

[Captain Untouchable]

Appologies for the double-post!

As mentioned, Bytes of TOR is now up on a blog. I still haven't heard back from the 8-Bit creator as yet, but figure if he cares enough to make a fuss, he'll get in touch with me on his own eventually. His sprites are all stripped right out of Final Fantasy games anyway; I've actually gone and built most of mine from scratch (keep an eye out for some totally new characters over the coming pages!), so hopefully there won't be any problems. If there are... *shrug* I'll jump off that bridge when I come to it.

#009 is uploaded; I have a couple of other strips in the bag, but I'm going to save them and upload them periodically. At the minute the plan is to upload them on even-numbered dates (so, next one on the 24th), but we'll see how that goes: those of you who read my normal blog will probably remember how long my over-ambitious posting regularity plans tend to last. >_<

Still haven't worked out that joined-up speech bubbles thing (I think its gonna be an edit-by-hand job at this point), so for now I'm going with the lazy option of minimising the dialogue I include. If I do wind up with a wordy page, I'll attack the thing with a paintbrush anbd see what I can do.


Edit:

Post 666, eh? Cool. :smokin

[Captain Untouchable]

I've just stampeded my way through a half-dozen strips in a couple of hours. That probably doesn't bode well for the actual quality of the contents, but still. Despite what they say, it is the size that counts. Am I right, ladies?

Well... I suppose in this case, its more the number of things you have that...

Anyway. Starting tomorrow (1st October), I'm going to switch from even days to a Monday-through-Friday posting, to see how that goes. Since I'm already expecting to produce three / four strips a week, hopefully the extra 1.5 ideas won't be too taxing. I've also noticed that some webcomics out there post snarky comments and what nots along with their strips, so I'll probably start giving that a go tomorrow, until I get bored.

Now that you've seen a few more posts, is there any new input from you guys? Would you prefer if there was a more cohesive and progressive plot, or is the random scatter-brained approach working out? Does it feel formulaic? Does the formula work? Is the level of dialogue / the colours / the presentation / etc working alright, or is it still hard to follow? Are y'all actually getting the cult references I'm making, or do I need to aim for some better known clichés? Is it actually funny, or are you guys just getting bored reading it?

Feedback - whether good, bad, or scathing and critical (I'm looking at you, Mark) - is very much appreciated! :mischief