The Far Reaches Webcomic

Howdy all! I’ve been playing various games lately (too many, some might say ) and came across this really neat Indie game on Steam. It was 50% off and after playing the demo I just couldn’t resist. I can almost never resist a 50% off sale…except when I can (like if it’s some icky violent game with creepy graphics and blood and gore for example, I mean, eww).

Bastion, the first game by Supergiant Games, is absolutely beautiful to look at. The graphics have a colorful painted look to them and I just love that. Besides that, it’s a pretty fun game to play. Oh, wait! Did I mention what kind of game it was? No, I keep forgetting stuff like that. Forget my own name next. I know it begins with a “G” and is kind of a weird German name (no offense to any weird or unweird Germans out there). Um, what was I saying…

Quite! Bastion is an action RPG adventure game and has got to have one of the most unique flavors I’ve ever seen in a game of this sort. It’s not the typical fantasy with elves and all that ballyhoo, but has kind of a steampunk feel to it. You play “the boy.” I don’t think he has a name, unless it’s a weird German name…but I doubt it. What’s really cool is that the ground literally forms into place as he walks through the levels. So that as he’s walking, the level is actually falling into place in front of him. Apparently the world was nearly destroyed during something referred to as “the calamity” and it’s the boy’s job to rebuild the world.

One of my favorite and most unique aspects of the game is the narrator. He has this cool bluesy sort of voice and he actually narrates everything you do in the game. You’d think this would be really annoying after a while but it’s done so well that the narrator seems to keep you company on your journey and tells the story of the game. Besides that he can be pretty funny at times. One of my favorites is when you fall off a ledge for the first time the narrator says in his smooth, deep, bluesy voice: “Then the boy falls to his death…naw, I’m just fooln’.” Then the boy reappears on the platforms. It was actually funnier in the game than how I’m telling it now. I’m always so serious in my writing I think I fail to capture the proper funness of a game, if “funness” is the word I want.

The game world itself is beautiful with floating islands of land falling into place as you go. The game play is fast and fun and I really liked the mouse and keyboard interface, except that using the W,S,A,D keys trying to walk in an isometric world took me a little getting used to, but then I’ve never been very good at action games. I’m more of a mash the keys, click the mouse like crazy, and basically brute force kind of player. I lack the subtlety of the skilled action game affectionado, but I still have fun anyway.

I always think music is a vital element of any game and Bastion has a great soundtrack with a sort of…well…it’s hard for me to describe. It’s got a bit of blues in it, and a lot of stomp and get-go and oomph and stuff…sorry to get all technical. I actually liked it so much I got the soundtrack, which was also 50% off on Steam, which I felt was very radical.

Anyway, if you’d like to check the game out, you can find the official website here. Check out the demo to get a good feel of the game. It’s a unique and fun experience with an intriguing and mysterious story (though my bet is that the Butler did it – I’m betting everything on the Butler ) and it’s amazing to me that it’s an indie game.

Hey all! As many of you know I’ve been really playing with the idea of making a computer game. It’s always been kind of this obsession with me long before I had wanted to do a comic, but I’ve constantly been in search of a good game engine.

Now I like two kind of games: classic style point-and-click adventure games, and RPGs, especially and mainly non-fantasy ones like EVE Online or Star Trek Online. As for adventure games there’s been some fun ones lately that I’ve played, such as “The Next Big Thing”. I’m currently playing “Kaptain Brawe”.

But now wait a minute. I like playing games, but to be honest the games I most want to play don’t exist. That’s why I want to make one, to be able to make the games I most want to play.

So I’ve found a really cool game engine that doesn’t require programming knowledge. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it before or not. It’s called Visionaire Studio. There’s a demo that you can try so if you’re curious about making your own adventure game, third person or first person, then check it out.

I’m only just getting into it but I really like it so far. My biggest challenge, though, is whether I can write a story and puzzles suitable for a third person adventure and whether I can make the suitable graphics for it.

One thing I look for in a game engine is whether it has been used for commercial projects. In the case of Visionaire it was used to create the professional game called “The Whispered World,” which you can find on Steam and other instant download stores. The game itself isn’t one that I want to play, despite having top-notch graphics, but it really shows what can be done with the game maker. It was also used to make “Eko Strange New World” that’s available on the Adventure Shop.

Now if I can come up with a short adventure scenario, then I’ll work on making a demo and seeing what you all think. The big challenge I’m facing now is simply coming up was a main character and setting that I’d like to use, particularly one that involves cool cyberpunk cities. Of course, that’s if I can ever stick with an idea long enough to develop it. I’m so indecisive and keep vacillating between ideas. I won’t mention them now because I don’t want to…well not jinx it per se, but not to take the creative energy out of the idea.  Now I just have to take my occasionally fluffy mind and write. 

Hey, everyone. Sorry the sites been so dead. I’ve been hugely sick for a month and haven’t checked my old email since it required me to fire up Thunderbird and I hate that kind of email. So I’ve updated my email to one that’s much easier for me to check. So now when you comment or use the contact form it’ll be a lot easier for me to get it. The new email is outlandishartist (at) live (dot) com, where the at and the dot are, well you know, like an email address. Anyway, I really get bummed when someone comments and I’m not able to approve it right away and reply so this should help.

Wow, it’s been a long time and I really haven’t felt up to posting or even checking my mail until now. My apologies if I haven’t emailed you back or answered your comment till now.

I know that many of you are wondering if I’ve given up the comic for good. I also know that many of you have been fans of good old Gilrec and Bentley for a long time. I feel bad I haven’t felt up to finishing this story. Many of you know how disabled I am, and all the depression I’ve been going through. I’ve been trying to come up with ideas for my next project, assuming I have the motivation to even do a next project. I really, really wanted to do a game. I had several game makers to choose from, lots of different 3d assets to use for graphics. But I just got so overwhelmed at the scope of the project in my current condition that I felt that I should stick to either comics or try a motion comic/visual novel kind of thing.

Besides that, I’ve been getting into comics a lot more lately. I have a sensitivity to chemicals which makes it hard to read regular books and comics because of the smell of the printing makes me sick. But I’ve recently discovered the DC and Marvel comics Apps on the ipod touch which has been a lot of fun. Then too, I’ve been checking out Marvel comics Online which is kind of a subscription with thousands of comics to read so I’ve been catching up on my favorite characters like Spidey, Iron Man, the Avengers and stuff. It’s really got me wanting to do comics again. Also I have a friend who’s been encouraging me to start up either a comic or comic strip as he’s really into comics and he’s the one who got me back into it.

The biggest thing holding me back is my illness. Dealing with depression sucks. My medications are tweaked as much as they can be. There’s nothing else that can be done on that score. Right now it’s just forcing myself through the depression to start writing stories and get it going again.

But I have been coming up with characters and have been fleshing out my new comic or story universe. I’ve got new characters, a new revamped version of Gilrec and Bentley, with mainly Gilrec being more the wealthy eccentric who, like so many who are really clever in a specific field such as advanced robotics, has almost no people skills, zero taste in dress, and is incredibly absent minded. However he likes writing stories of adventure and is constantly wanting to get “research” for his stories which usually involves actually getting up to his ears in adventure and intrigue which only his faithful butler, Bentley, a brilliant and powerful android built by Gilrec’s father the CEO of Dauntless Intergalactic MegaCorp, can get him out of. His father, along with Lord Wolfhaven, formed the B.L.A.D.E.S. (the Bureau of Legendary Allied Defenders of Extraordinary Skills) headed by Commander Roxanne “Rockie” Bedlam and kind of like a organization of metahumans and legendary defenders. Being that Gilrec and Bentley are always getting involved in these adventures, either lending his extraordinary knowledge of androids and technology or just the plain fact that trillionare Gilrec Dauntless is like a trouble magnate, the BLADES are constantly near at hand. Gilrec also has a love of deepspace history and archeology which is why he’s helping to fund the organization known as S.E.A.R.C.H. (the Space Exploration and Archeological Research Corps of History [or something like that]). Headed by his friend Alice Ryder and her best friend Nariko “Riko” Kai, they find adventures in deep space, foil plots to use ancient weapons, etc. Not to be left out are the mysterious Dark Lords of the Sheep, aka the Nigh Psychotic Cyber sheep…highly advanced and brilliant way beyond that of mortal sheep. (Just so you know it’s still involves many of the characters and goofiness of TFR.)

This is my Legends from the Void universe that I’ve been working on for a long time, and just recently making headway in. My goal is to do lots of short story comics, or possibly some motion comics/visual novels, that can be fun adventures that are short enough that I can finish them. I just can’t deal with the huge epic story. It’s just too much for me to write and handle.

My big problem is that having a short attention span and getting easily tired of characters and wanting to do different projects, I need to have a universe that is all connected that allows me to explore different characters and different short stories and make it more doable for me. I know that a lot of you really love the old Gilrec and Bentley and the story I’ve been building up to, and elements of that story will probably still be used but in a different form.

As much as I like doing fancy full color comics, the work load is too much. It takes me 8-10 hours to do one full color page, which would be 16-30 hours a week for 2-3 pages a week. Being disabled that’s much more than I can do without having a total brake-down.

So I’ve been thinking either black and white comics as you’ve seen me have occasion to do, or color if I do a visual novel/motion comic (because they reuse a lot of the same art and don’t have to be done in high res.) Either way I need to keep it simple or I cant do it. I’m currently trying to get on disability as even doing 10-15 hours of the most simple work a week is beyond me most weeks, and would eventually cause a breakdown if I’m not careful. So it needs to be simple and doable for me.

Well, that’s all I can say right now. Sorry I don’t have anything definite. I have a website, www.legendsfromthevoid.com where I was thinking of doing the new comic in black and white. It would be a multiple format comic, meaning sometimes it’d be more comic strip like and others a regular comic format, and others just one or two panels, depending on what I’m able to do.

I can’t promise anything, because my health keeps me from being sure of anything. But I’m slowly trying to at least get something done. It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that I’ve become very limited. But I’ll keep plugging along and trying my best. And thank you, all of you, who have enjoyed The Far Reaches for so long. It means a lot to me that there are still fans out there. Thank you so much.