1-18a – Going for a Ride
Saturday, March 17th, 2007Craig: I had a lot of fun drawing the motorcycle. You did a great job coloring it. I like how you brought out the depth of the engine parts.
J.D.: I had a lot of fun working in color. I don’t usually get to with Penance, so it was a nice change. I still wince a little though, looking back on it, because I’m much more skilled now.
Craig: What would you have done differently?
J.D.: It’s not a question of different technique so much as greater skill with the medium. Though I’m very pleased with the way Aaron’s leather jacket came out.
Craig: I took the basic layout of the bike from a picture of a road rally I found. Then I was able to draw Kate and Aaron riding the bike. I especially enjoyed drawing the folds in Aaron’s jeans — the way the wind blows them was very interesting to draw.
July 5th, 2007 at 3:47 am
What does the rune on the side of the bike mean? I suspect there is some relevance to the world of Mythband. And do you hope for someone to create a variant of *band based on this comic?
July 5th, 2007 at 8:05 am
Astronut: That rune appears more than once; look at page 2-18 to see it again.
A variant of *band based on Mythband? Wow, that would be cool. The content isn’t too different; Mythband has some uniques and places that Angband doesn’t, but it pretty much follows the same rules.
It might be fun for different parts of the game to have different colors like they do in the comic. Maybe the game would require you to travel to the Earth Realm!
However, I think it would be hard to capture the Mythband gaming experience in a real roguelike game. I’ve intentionally glossed over the real-time vs. turn-based control issue that plagues multiplayer roguelikes.
A real Mythband game would have to balance the strategic aspect of the game (that requires you to take a lot of time to consider your move in dire situations) with the social aspect of the game (that requires you to take your turn quickly or else hold everyone up).
If you do it like Diablo, where the monsters are real-time, then you’ve only got seconds to decide what to do before Pukarith breathes disenchantment on you for the third time. The game would have to be made easier.
But if you do it like a single-player roguelike game where you have infinite time to make decisions, then you either have to make the other players wait while you consider your options, or else have everyone play in their own turn-based version of the level. The social aspect of working together to kill a tough unique is lost.
In the comic, the Maintainer has solved this problem. In real life, it’s still a very difficult challenge.