Plans for Minna's Birthday!

[Sc0ut]

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.

That's great news! Animations are possible!
I wasn't thinking about looking around the room. There's no need - we can put plenty of clickable objects in a single screen, and the hidden content will just open on top of everything else, like you did for the cards this year. If we absolutely want to include other walls of the same room, we can draw them as a static image as well, like it was done in old adventure games.

[JoB]

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.

While that is true, I wouldn't have the slightest what Minna would like in terms of content/topic. She has obviously come across things like the Kalevala or The Thing, but IIRC she only said that she took those as inspiration for the mild horror story that is SSSS and its predecessor, not that she enjoyed them beyond that ...

I agree that choosing a framework that allows contributors to do what they can and like is the route to go. Nonetheless, some guidance on the topic should be in order - otherwise, y'all'ld risk getting the blueprints of the Eno power plant from me ...

[Sc0ut]

While that is true, I wouldn't have the slightest what Minna would like in terms of content/topic. She has obviously come across things like the Kalevala or The Thing, but IIRC she only said that she took those as inspiration for the mild horror story that is SSSS and its predecessor, not that she enjoyed them beyond that ...

I agree that choosing a framework that allows contributors to do what they can and like is the route to go. Nonetheless, some guidance on the topic should be in order - otherwise, y'all'ld risk getting the blueprints of the Eno power plant from me ...

Good points. One can only hope Minna will start mentioning things she *likes* more often in the comments. So far I only remember Pokemon games... which is not a topic I could contribute much on. Thoughts for non-SSSS themes Minna might enjoy? Or even vaguely SSSS-related ones?

[Aierdome]

If we absolutely want to include other walls of the same room, we can draw them as a static image as well, like it was done in old adventure games.

That's pretty much what I've been thinking. I honestly doubt we'd have time for playing around with making a full-blown 3D animation, and IIRC, we don't know what Internet connection Minna has. Aaand there's the fact that more old-fashion-ey graphics are pretty nice to look at 

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.

I must admit to have been thinking about C# with ASP.NET  There's some bias I've got right here, I'm just not sure how to call it. Your idea looks much simpler and very much doable. To be honest I'm not quite sure if we should drop it on your shoulders again, what with you already being our forum wizard and all that... Anyway, if we're end up going with HTML stuff, I volunteer!

And regarding topic - we still have 364 days to do this, remember. Tons of time to figure stuff out and pry some information out of Minna (in cunning and most gentle manner, obviously).

[Róisín]

You folk are awesome: so many, many ideas! And so many useful talents!

 A salvage mission could be a way useful 'frame' for presenting material. And JoB, what is wrong with blueprints of a power plant? Might be useful to Minna. If we were doing practical stuff like that, she'd probably get from me something like a mnemonic rhymed list, such as one might teach to a young scout, of useful stuff they might find out there!

Seriously, I have helped to compile a couple of anthologies, back in the day when a writer who presented their stuff in typewritten format was thought frightfully professional! At least we are unlikely to run into some of the major problems of those projects, such as trying to arrange material in ways that would not founder on the icebergs of Writer's Ego! Or fitting everything into rigid page counts......all soooo much easier these years.

If we're building a 'disorganised skald's archive' perhaps we could present it as just that - someone's attempt to gather interesting/important things, bits of data, scraps of history or background?

[JoB]

IIRC, we don't know what Internet connection Minna has.

No guarantees, true, but. The Nordics have been pioneers of getting broadband to noncommercial use (I still remember ftp.funet.fi and its Swedish counterpart having Mbps uplinks when my university happily upgraded from two- to three-digit kbps) and residents. At the very least, she's operating her site and reading the comments thereon (including Youtube videos?) without problems.

And JoB, what is wrong with blueprints of a power plant? Might be useful to Minna.

Well, it's a bit of a random example, but it is based on the fact that - mind the Mighty Morphin' Mikkeli Train Station, or the team's firearms - Minna doesn't delve very deeply into technical details when expanding the SSSSverse.

[Sunflower]

Well, it's a bit of a random example, but it is based on the fact that - mind the Mighty Morphin' Mikkeli Train Station, or the team's firearms - Minna doesn't delve very deeply into technical details when expanding the SSSSverse.

*snert* 
("Mighty Morphin' Mikkeli Train Station.")

Very true!  Amity is far from the only person to point out Minna's apparent lack of interest in guns even though they are some of the key props in SSSS.  Blueprints of a power station might be just what the doctor ordered!   

In terms of the larger discussion, I feel so embarrassed about my failure to contribute to the wonderful Minna's Birthday offering this year that I wasn't going to say anything.  I mean, I'm one of the forum's founding members and now the co-admin, for heaven's sake!  But I suppose I'm an example of one of the downsides of this year's project:  I can't draw at all.  And this year I was so exhausted, overwhelmed, and depressed during the holidays that there's no way I could have arranged an art trade or the like.  (I'm still, shamefully, 3 weeks late delivering my Secret Santa gift and I never thanked my Secret Santa giver.) 

Anyway, I think you've collectively come up with some "key learnings" for such projects in the future:

* Choose format(s) and topic(s) that suit a wide range of skills and time availabilities (so non-artists like me aren't hanging back, and people who are really swamped can at least do the equivalent of signing a birthday card);

* Minimize the amount of dependence individual contributors have to have on one another (and on the coordinators).  A collaborative story sounds absolutely awesome -- but I can only imagine how long it would take to deliver, given that we're all busy, we live on different schedules literally around the globe, everyone's likely to have different opinions on the story's direction that would require a coordinator to sort out, and it's a purely volunteer project.  So something a lot more flexible, like a clickable "skald's archive" of bits and pieces, is probably the way to go.

[Sc0ut]

And regarding topic - we still have 364 days to do this, remember. Tons of time to figure stuff out and pry some information out of Minna (in cunning and most gentle manner, obviously).

And so... http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=447#comment-2450613958

[Laufey]

And so... http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=447#comment-2450613958

Wasn't the approach supposed to be cunning and gentle... 

[Róisín]

Sc0ut: Well played sir! She also mentioned being very fond of a marshland nature reserve near where she lives, and riding bicycles. Minna also talked about a hiking trip she did last summer with her mother and aunt, the trip where she put up photos on her blog, and her art shows how much she loves nature, and how observant she is of its fine detail. Not sure why, but she does give the impression of liking poetry and music. And of course folklore!

[Sc0ut]

Wasn't the approach supposed to be cunning and gentle... 

Exactly!

[Róisín]

Let's just hope 364 days is long enough!

[Rabbit]

Exactly!

A+ use of reaction image.

[Curry]

Exactly!

I'm useless in the way of ideas but this exchange made me laugh.

[starfallz]

I'm useless in the way of ideas but this exchange made me laugh.

Me too. XD