Goodbye 2008…

2008 was a good year. I can’t complain. It was, after all, the year I finally decided to start my webcomic; well, maybe more accurately, it was the year I finally sat down and started working on it seriously.

I ‘d been kicking around the idea of making a webcomic for several years now. The first time I started working on one was in 2003. Back then, the format was different and so was the art style. I had drawn a handful of strips before the project was put aside in early 2004. I had been accepted to take part in an exchange program to Russia, so my webcomic took a backseat. I mean, love webcomics (kept reading my favourite ones while I was over there) but how often to you get the chance to live in different country?

When I got back in 2005, I tried my hand at it again. My art had somewhat improved, and I managed to crank a few extra strips before folding things up again. I still wasn’t producing on a level I was truly happy with, not to mention I was a lousy web designer/developer; the only thing I had ever worked with was HTML. I had dabbled a bit with Dreamweaver, but stuff like CSS was a mystery to me. When I finally found out about ComicPress, I told myself I just didn’t have an excuse anymore.

So I’ve been posting the strip since August now, and I’m proud to say I still haven’t missed an update. (If you look at the date of the first strip, you’ll notice it says it was posted in May, but that’s just because I had a 30 strip buffer when I started posting.) I know that’s probably not saying much, since I only update three times a week and well… don’t tell anyone, but I tend to use copy/paste quite a bit. Nonetheless, I’m rather proud of myself for making it this far, and I’m awfully grateful to everyone who’s helped me along the way. There’s a bunch of people I’d like to thank specifically, but this isn’t an Oscar speech, so I’ll keep things short. I’d just like to thank everyone who sent in user reviews, more specifically Evan Doran, who has been a big part of the community. And of course, I’d also like to thank the readers, because let’s face it, there wouldn’t be much point of me doing this if you guys didn’t show up. :)

…Hello 2009

So that’s enough about yesterday. It’s nice to look back sometimes, but it’s even better to look forward.

Every New Year’s, people make resolutions for themselves, and every year people break them. I’m just as guilty as anyone when it comes to those sort of thing. The “I’ll start going to the gym and stop eating fatty foods” kind of resolutions just never work out – at least not for me. So this year, I decided that instead of focusing on myself, I’d focus my resolutions on the site. Some of these are biggies, but I figured that this is as good a time as any to get them started. So without further ado, here’s the list.

1. Redesign the look and feel of the site.

Hey! Look at that! I’ve already managed to keep my first resolution!

Like I said before, I’m terrible at web design/development, so I’ve mostly been running on the default Comic press design. It took me a while, and a little help from Vesper, but I did finally manage to make some changes to the site. I hope you guys like it, and I’d appreciate any input you could send my way. Especially if you find any bugs. >.>

2. Write more blog entries.

On of the things that was mentioned to me was that I didn’t blog enough. More specifically, I was told by some people that they didn’t bother reading the blog entries anymore because, most of the time, they were just about which new review was out, and that didn’t really interest them. I have to admit that I do believe I’ve been far too absent in that category, which is why I plan on posting stuff more often. I don’t want to spam my own site with every funny YouTube video I happen to run across, but I’ll try to put up some links to things I think you might find interesting.

3. Try to incorporate more Canadian content.

When I first started Northern Geeks, I wanted the strip and the site to have a distinct Canadian feel to it without having it covered with maple leaves and beaver tails. A friend of mine mentioned to me that he thought the site could use more Canadian content. He suggested that I write more articles about Canadian development companies and the games they make, and that I should have had a “Best Canadian Video Game of 2008” which I thought was a great idea. So hopefully, I’ll be able to make that happen.

4. Reduce the amount of copy/paste.

This is a tough one. When you start relying on copy and paste, you start to build a dependence on it. They become your security blanket. In your head you think to yourself, “Wow. I drew that really well. I better reuse it, because I probably won’t be able to draw it that well again.” And then you draw less… and less… and after a while you realize that you’re no longer improving as an artist – if you can even call yourself that anymore. So copy and paste will still be around for a while, but hopefully by this time next year, their presence will be felt less.

5. Make more strips.

This is the last of the resolutions, and it’s also an announcement. Most people end the year with a bang. I figured I’d start the new year with one. I believe that in order to be competitive in the world of webcomics, you need to be a regular part of your reader’s day. You want your readers to come back often, and in order to insure that, you need constant updates. When I chose to update the strip every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, it was because I wanted to off-shoot with all the other three-times-a-week strips that published on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Turns out that wasn’t the best of idea, since very little people visit sites on the week-end. I imagine that many people who read webcomics are either bored, siting at school or at work. So if that’s the case, most comics are probably read in between Mondays and Fridays. In any case, starting Monday, January 12th, Northern Geeks’ comic strip will be updated 5 days a week, from Monday to Friday. Because of that, there will be no comic on Saturday, January 10th.

So those are my resolutions for 2009. Thanks again everyone, and here’s to having to write another one of these long-winded posts in 2010!

PS: I suppose I should also thank GibGezr, Len-Vesper, Industria, and Eva. I wouldn’t want them to think I forgot about them. :P

Chris Hecker is a great speaker. Similarly to Will Wright, Chris has a certain way of talking about everything and nothing all at once. His mind just works at a speed far greater than ours. During his presentation, he barraged us with thoughts and ideas a mile a minute, and by the time everything was said and done, I felt like I had just stepped off some kind of mental treadmill.

His presentation mostly dealt with user-generated content, it’s uses and it’s users. There were, of course, many a shout-outs to Spore, but that was to be expected. At one point he began talking about this chair he randomly found one day on the Sporepedia. He happened to think it was neat, so he included it in one of his presentations. Some time after, he found that the creator of the chair had posted a picture of him on the Spore forums showing the chair at one of his presentation, which was shown to us during this presentation. Chris then proceeded in telling us it’d be funny if someone were to then take a picture of him, showing the picture of him, showing the picture of the chair. And that’s how this strip came to be.

If you ever have the chance to assist one of Chris’s presentations, I highly recommend it.

In this episode of the Northern Geekscast, we talk about Bob’s World, World.com’s lawsuit against NCsoft, the Zune crash, and mobile gaming. We also take some time to discuss the top games of 2008, and share with you our thoughts on which should be on top.

 

 Northern Geekcast: Episode 004 [107:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download