Plans for Minna's Birthday!

[Asterales]

How about an illustrated novel? Or a collection of illustrated shortstories and illustrated poems. More freedom of style for individual artists (both writers and illustrators) and if it woul be a collection it could also include comics and standalone images and stories.

Yeah, I think having the option to do what one individually likes is important, although it should probably be tied together by a theme.

But I also really like Aierdome's and Windfighter's idea with the game like thing. It would give us the same freedom, especially if music can also be included.

Are we doing this in order to impress Minna by showing of how awesome we are, or are we doing this because we want to entertain her and make her happy?

Maybe "to show off" wasn't the word I should have chosen for the translation, since I simply meant something that allows everyone, whatever they end up doing, to show their skill in the chosen field of subject.
It's more fun when you are allowed to do something you are good at. And Minna entertains us with her skill, giving everything she has in terms of talent, so why shouldn't we do the same in return? Wouldn't that - indeed - make her happy?

I believe a comic can show a person's abilities as a writer, but maybe I'm a bit biased since I'm an author xD

For me what you need to write a good plot and what you need to formulate a pleasant or meaningful sentence are two different sets of skills. Even someone who can neither draw nor write might have the aptitude to write an awesome plot. And what about the people who prefer to write poems, rather than long stories? They should have the chance to contribute, too.
(And I also write, just not in English, because I don't think my handling of the language is not up to par in comparison to what I can do in my mother tongue)

But if we want to make a collaboration between drawers and writers I guess an illustrated short story or 10. Problem I can see is that written stories take longer to go through and do we really want to keep mMinna occupied from the comic for that long? 0=)

They do take longer and we should certainly not bury her under a hundred pages, but Minna has pretty awesome time management - otherwise she would never have gotten this far, so I am not too worried. We'd just need to pay attention that the size doesn't get out of hand.

Oh hey, what if we did make a comic, in which they find various books or birthday cards, and the books/cards would be clickable and then a short story or a greeting or something would pop up and oh my goddess, someone stop me before I dig this hole any deeper! xD

I like this idea a lot. Plus it'd solve all our problems in terms of freedom of medium to contribute with. So I'm all for it

If you really could do it Aierdome, that would be absolutely fantastic!


Which one sounds good to you, Róisín?

[Aierdome]

saminiemi - I must admit I'm more for Windfighter's idea, but that sounds great too, though I think I'd be more inclined towards illustrated short stories, for pretty much the same reasons you gave. If we went with that, we could get the list of volunteer writers and artists and then throw some online dice to see who'd illustrate whom. The remaining artists (I think we have more artists than writers, don't we?) could do some freestyle images or comics.

Asterales, as a C# app, yes, and given my chosen field of studies I think by December I should be able to do something embedd'able online, if that's what we'd prefer. The biggest part would be for someone to provide background graphics, because my art skills are nowhere near up to par.

[Róisín]

I like the idea of an illustrated collection of short stories, poems and the like. Maybe we could make the stories drabbles, to keep the whole thing from becoming 'bigger than Ben Hur'? And people who wanted to draw short comics could add them in too - it could be Minna's Birthday Anthology? Given that Eriaror and Viola organised this year's one, (thanks again, both of you), perhaps they may have some ideas as to how hard and how much work it would be, or the feasibility of the project?

[Asterales]

Asterales, as a C# app, yes, and given my chosen field of studies I think by December I should be able to do something embedd'able online, if that's what we'd prefer. The biggest part would be for someone to provide background graphics, because my art skills are nowhere near up to par.

I keep being amazed at what kind of skills people on here have!

I like the idea of an illustrated collection of short stories, poems and the like. Maybe we could make the stories drabbles, to keep the whole thing from becoming 'bigger than Ben Hur'? And people who wanted to draw short comics could add them in too - it could be Minna's Birthday Anthology? Given that Eriaror and Viola organised this year's one, (thanks again, both of you), perhaps they may have some ideas as to how hard and how much work it would be, or the feasibility of the project?

That might be a good idea.
What do you both think, Eri and Vi?

And maybe we should have a poll on what to do next year? How does one make a poll? And how soon should we do it? I feel like I don't have a clue about anything...

[Mélusine]

*Takes a look on the thread and think that we have sooooooo many months for that*

[Asterales]

*Takes a look on the thread and think that we have sooooooo many months for that*

Hahaha. Kinda

[Eriaror]

Given that Eriaror and Viola organised this year's one, (thanks again, both of you), perhaps they may have some ideas as to how hard and how much work it would be, or the feasibility of the project?

Thankfully the one we did this year allowed me a page design where you can have the PHP script take stuff from a list-like data file and build the final thing from that automatically, so it was really easy to add stuff to it; the majority of the work was done by you all!
Honestly, I don't fully get what we're up to here now, but I think the amount of organizing mostly depends on how much do we want it to be One Coherent Thing. If we want to make eg. a skald's archive of records from the expedition, then everyone can fly off and do their own thing, and then you put it together like I did with this year's cats. However, if we want one large thing then there's a lot more planning and organizing involved, and putting the end result together becomes more work, too, because everything has a designated place in the big picture.

And maybe we should have a poll on what to do next year? How does one make a poll? And how soon should we do it? I feel like I don't have a clue about anything...

I can add a poll to this thread, but we should decide on some options to put into that poll first.

[Asterales]

I can add a poll to this thread, but we should decide on some options to put into that poll first.

I believe the ideas that came up so far were something like that (please correct, add and subtract, everyone!):

1. A Disorderly Skald's Archive: Similar to this year, everyone should do their own thing, with maybe a common theme. Pictures and text should be more or less separate.
2. Minna's Birthday Anthology: Illustrated drabbles and/or short stories, produced in collaboration between writers and illustrators
3. The Grand Tale: We all work on one big thing. The writers jointly write a story, the illustrators draw matching pictures for it.
4. The Comic: The writers write the plot, the illustrators implement it.
5. It's All a Game: We produce something like a storyline (i.e. have the crew discover different books, photo albums etc.), there are things like icons to click on and it will reveal the books' content. The question is - do we want a story for the characters to discover within the story? A very expanded version of the Skald's Archive. We all work together, but depending on the answer to the story-in-story-question there might also be room for individual pieces.
6. Salvage Mission: A room in which many mysterious things are to be found. Klick on them and find out if they are worth taking back to the Cat-tank!

Does this sound about right to you?

On a side note, I feel very sorry for rushing like this. I, too, feel like we have loads of time!
It's just that now that I have started to think about it, I can't seem to stop ;_; Please complain if it get's too annoying!

[Sc0ut]

Just a reminder: some authors don't like to read fanfiction of their work even if they encourage people to write it (partly because of complications in case fanfic ideas overlap with what they already planned for the story, but also for other reasons). I think it's much safer to keep things unrelated to the comic as much as possible. What a fan would like as a gift, and what the author likes, can be very different things.

And as an artist who has worked in teams before, I can tell you coordinating a comic made by multiple people is difficult even when all people involved are pros. Not saying this to discourage anyone who wants to do this, but you should know what to expect I think small stories or poems written by a person and illustrated by another are much more manageable. And there should definitely be the option for individual contributions, for those who just aren't team players.

[Mélusine]

Just a reminder: some authors don't like to read fanfiction of their work even if they encourage people to write it (partly because of complications in case fanfic ideas overlap with what they already planned for the story, but also for other reasons). I think it's much safer to keep things unrelated to the comic as much as possible. What a fan would like as a gift, and what the author likes, can be very different things.

*Nods* I agree with that. Not, errr... overwhelming Minna seems a good thing to keep in mind

[Unlos]

I love both the disorganized Skalds archive and the point and click idea, as they are the most including. They give room for both individual latecomers, and for collaboration. That way, if someone collaborated on a story, it could be included as a click-this-book, if someone made a picture or poem or illustrated poem it could be a click-this-card, and if someone wanted to make a sound sample it could be a click-this-cassette. That's doable in terms of programming, right? I'd be more than willing to provide background art for something like that.

[Asterales]

Just a reminder: some authors don't like to read fanfiction of their work even if they encourage people to write it (partly because of complications in case fanfic ideas overlap with what they already planned for the story, but also for other reasons). I think it's much safer to keep things unrelated to the comic as much as possible. What a fan would like as a gift, and what the author likes, can be very different things.

And as an artist who has worked in teams before, I can tell you coordinating a comic made by multiple people is difficult even when all people involved are pros. Not saying this to discourage anyone who wants to do this, but you should know what to expect I think small stories or poems written by a person and illustrated by another are much more manageable. And there should definitely be the option for individual contributions, for those who just aren't team players.

Both very valid points and important to keep in mind!

[Sc0ut]

I love both the disorganized Skalds archive and the point and click idea, as they are the most including. They give room for both individual latecomers, and for collaboration. That way, if someone collaborated on a story, it could be included as a click-this-book, if someone made a picture or poem or illustrated poem it could be a click-this-card, and if someone wanted to make a sound sample it could be a click-this-cassette. That's doable in terms of programming, right? I'd be more than willing to provide background art for something like that.

This is a great idea We could have a drawing of a cozy room with pictures on the walls, a bookcase, and all kinds of clickable objects that reveal more things. I imagine it with slight animation, like a fireplace and snow outside Or alternatively a ruined Silent World house with all kinds of salvageable stuff. I'd also be willing to provide background art for this if needed. I can't do animations yet, but learning to make gifs is on my to-do list this year. Would it be possible to add some looping animation, Eri?

[Asterales]

This is a great idea We could have a drawing of a cozy room with pictures on the walls, a bookcase, and all kinds of clickable objects that reveal more things. I imagine it with slight animation, like a fireplace and snow outside Or alternatively a ruined Silent World house with all kinds of salvageable stuff. I'd also be willing to provide background art for this if needed. I can't do animations yet, but learning to make gifs is on my to-do list this year. Would it be possible to add some looping animation, Eri?

Ohhh, a salvage mission? Wich books/pictures/other things to take back to the Cat-tank? Have a careful look and consider well!
That would be neat.

I'll add it to the list of ideas above, so everything stays in one place, ok?

[Eriaror]

This is a great idea We could have a drawing of a cozy room with pictures on the walls, a bookcase, and all kinds of clickable objects that reveal more things. I imagine it with slight animation, like a fireplace and snow outside Or alternatively a ruined Silent World house with all kinds of salvageable stuff. I'd also be willing to provide background art for this if needed. I can't do animations yet, but learning to make gifs is on my to-do list this year. Would it be possible to add some looping animation, Eri?

One can easily make parts of images clickable and do various things using image maps. For animated parts, you can either embed it into the big pic and have the entire thing one animated image or, alternatively, overlay the animated parts separately on a still big pic. Between the two, I'd rather do the second one; it's only a little more work, and it allows for being able to toggle animation on and off, if someone has a not-so-recent PC.

Basically, as long as we only have still images with clickable parts, the thing can be put together in a day at max, given that all its parts are ready.
If you want to be able to look around or turn around however, things get a lot more complicated, we might even have to break out WebGL and stuff, in which I haven't got experience yet.