Guilded Age: The Flashtravaganza
We’ve got a special treat for you today, Guildies! The awesome dudes over at Slackjaw: The Working Dead came up to us with an odd yet appealing proposition this past Intervention. You can imagine my disappointment when it was an artistic proposition as opposed to… well, anyway, T and them came up with the idea during the Innovation in Webcomics panel and later began to produce an interactive flash comic for Guilded Age using their magickal (and patent-pending) Slackjawnification Process. I was skeptical at first, being spurned in the past by so many horrible “motion comics” (we’re looking at you, Watchmen Motion Comic), but after seeing their own work, I was happy to give them the chance. A couple months later, they delivered us this awesome flash comic with interactive bits that serve to add lots of fun instead of some pointless-ass gimmick.
Super thanks again to PJ, Greg, and the Slackjaw Crew who did this of their own volition and love of the craft. I think they’re onto something with their flash comics and we also told them that, depending on how much you guys liked it, we could talk about making more.
In the meantime, go check their comic out and learn what it might actually be like to be a household De-Animation Specialist. Chapter 15 begins on Monday, so we’ll see you then!
Discussion (61) ¬
Sorry, everyone, I have no clue why comments were closed!
I’m sad that I missed what I bet was a really fun experience. But that’s the chance I take reading webcomics 10 years later.
I feel you brother, this is a story already told, a finished adventure…
Though in this case you can still download the .swf file from here: guildedage.net/comics/2012-01-27-GA.swf
(I got it by inspecting the source of the page)
Then try it out with a flash player emulator or get the official Adobe projector from archive.org
Huzzah! Well done. Yes, I would like to see more of these.
Wasn’t so sure about this until I clicked on lil’ Best sitting on Big Bandit’s shoulder.
I didn’t even see him until you said that.
I say good show sir..
But I do miss the hover text. Nothing like a bit of the old sass text or snarky comments to spice up a webcomic, says I.
I think the various easter eggs in the flash more than cover the loss.
OMG…. Awesome fun. Definitely needs something along lines of alt text if possible, but hey, that leave more punning to the commenters, yes?
Also: Heh, stole from the forest. Oh Bandit.
I don’t.. I don’t even…. Why can’t I stop listening to gravedust!
I can’t stop listening to Bandit, personally.
Mostly because you need to click on that speech balloon to get her to grow.
Giant Bandit == win.
This is much too awesome. My mind has been blown!!
beedlybeedlybeedlybeedlyMEEEEE
\m/ >_< \m/
Squish
Squash
Squish
Squash
Looks like I’m calling into work today.
Glad to see that I wasn’t the only one. SQEEESH.
do the Mario!
I could imagine this happening at a table.
Byron sounds a bit more Wolverine than expected.
I should’ve guessed that Frigg was from Texas, though. And Gravedust needs more lines. Like. All of them.
I miss the alt text, though. Unless it was read in Gravedust’s voice. This might be fun for the occasional thing, but I think I prefer the old format.
Actually most of us are from the VA MD DC area. Just the music came from our man in Austin.
Man, I am so off.
You’ll get a kick out of this though, our Frigg is the frontwoman for a metal band. (A Sound of Thunder)
Ahahaha. Okay, yeah, that’s beyond fitting.
That. Was. AWESOME!
If only my IPad could use flash…sad face…
I really, really want to use myconids in a D&D game now…
Whaaaaat th’effin heck? The bag! It doesn’t stop! It just. Keeps. Dumping. Mushrooms.
She’s a great thief.
lol too bad the new gravatars dont animate or talk.
I can’t get it to work. :-(
Whoops. I was trying to open this page in IE, which no longer supports flash on my computer for some reason. Only works in Chrome, now.
I dutifully clicked on everything but wasn’t impressed nor dissapointed however when I happened to hover over the mushroom in the book I laughed–well done.
I think this might be worth pursuing but hopefully you won’t feel compelled to do something with every single speech bubble. With a comic like Guilded Age there could be some sort of clue like a subtle animation to tell us when there is more content and just include the stuff that adds zing or more story, maybe some comics have none, that’s ok.
Bengie and I approached this as a one shot so we really packed a lot of extra features into this page. If this becomes a regular thing the extra bits would be toned down. We are currently looking into a new animation program so all mobile devices can view the pages. Thanks for the feedback!
That’s what I get for replying right before I head out. I neglected a rather key word. The extra bits would not be toned down. When Bengie and I decided to take this approach with web comics we immediately knew it would not be everyone’s cup of tea. However we do not force any of the interactivity upon you. Clicking on the elements simply adds a little more fun into the page. Not clicking on them does not take away from anything you see in front of you.
More bells, more whistles! Our treatment is a hybrid of a radio play and a 90’s point and click Easter egg hunt. We beleive all the extra work we put into it is a positive, though we have received feedback similar to Mr. fish’s concerns. A visual cue for dialogue that contains additional animation is a great idea worth implementing for people who just want a quick read. Though, I think, standalone gags like the book mushroom work better as a hidden reward for people who search (or press the TAB key).
Compatibility is an issue, but you guessed right: we are a couple of dinosaurs. At the moment we really don’t have the experience with mobile delivery. Damn these T-Rex arms!
Well maybe you could try this:
http://www.google.com/doubleclick/studio/swiffy/
It should allow you to use those dinosaur skills while still catering to the mobile world.
Wow this looks like an easy solution! We will look into it. Thank you!
HTML5, please!
I can read already, I don’t need the speech bubbles read out to me. Highly irritating. It also highlights the fact that dialog that reads well can sound clunky when read out loud (“Duh” and “pwn” for instance)
Music’s a good use of the feature (lyrics are a bit weird though -“solidest seven” – wtf?) as are some of the animations.
But “squish” “squash” ? Oh dear.
Makes the page a complete bitch to save for offline reading at a later date.
Truffle shuffle!
OH
MY
GODS.
This is amazing! The voices are not entirely what my head was hearing – except for Gravedust and Frigg, you got those two spot on. *looks around suspiciously* Are you IN my head???
:| For some reason, Gravedust makes me think of the scent of fresh lemons…and the days of my youth.
First, I love Frigg’s voice.
And second, this reminds me quite a bit of the Living Books titles I remember from my youth. So it is even more awesome for making me feel 7 again.
At first I was like “Ok this looks cool, but why do it in flash if it’s not animated?” and only after glancing at the comments did I realize I was missing out on a world of awesome. Great job guys.
Squish
Squash
Squish
Squash
Not impressed, the voices in my head were so much better!
Ok, that was pretty cool :)
I am so sad I had to finish catching up with the webcomic here (I started reading like two weeks ago). I wanted some more story the slog through tonight. That said, it was a pretty cool thing they did there.
I am in favor of this.
(clicks squish, squash for the rest of the day)
You know, psilocybin breaks down at boiling temperatures, and wouldn’t work in a soup… Lots of mushrooms (lots of foods, really) need to be cooked before being ‘safe’ to eat.
A cooked psilocybin mushroom would just be a bad-tasting mushroom.
“SillyCybin” completely different compound or chemical… I’m just gonna go with magic on this one.
Actually, the toxins in poisonous mushrooms do NOT break down when cooked. Make sure you have safe fungi before eating them raw or cooked.
Frigg’s second line (and her first, but more her second) strongly reminds me of natsume Tsujimoto from You’re Under Arrest. I wonder if that was intentional.
The flash is dead. Is there a download I can use?
Had to use a little trickery, but it’s fixed now.
now to read old archives …is there way to download this now that flash is truly dead
If so, I’m afraid I don’t know it.
Aww the flash is gone forever now :(
Good evening, viewers. It’s January 23rd, 2023, and flash is STILL DEAD!
For those wondering, yes, you can still get the flash file from here: guildedage.net/comics/2012-01-27-GA.swf
(Just had to dig a little through the source of the page)