This week there won’t be any update either. Happy new year and see you next week! (probably)

New year, new page. The gladiator bot combat sequence goes on, and will for about four pages. Yes, maybe a bit too much. But, well, you learn from mistakes. Theoretically.

Because with Robomeks there’s been mistakes. Lots. And, who knows, maybe they’re here to stay. For a while, at least. But let’s start from the beginning. With the usual…

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This is the second part of my, quite lengthy, musings about the mistakes I’ve done with Robomeks so far (the ones I’ve detected) and, maybe, some solutions. To be honest, this is mainly for me, hoping that writing about this will help me understand what’s wrong and what could be done to fix it. So, when I write “you” I really mean “me”. I’m not trying to pontify.

No, really, it’s a webcomic!

Most of the mistakes I’ve made so far have to do with all the decisions I’ve mentioned in the previous post, and the process that led to those decisions.

A webcomic isn’t a comic-book. That’s something that is crystal clear to me now. The format totally changes the content. Or, in other words, the content should adapt to the format. That affects the pace of the storytelling, the page format and composition and a myriad of smaller things.

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This concludes my musings (ramblings?) about the state of Robomeks so far, where it comes from and where it can go from now on.

So now what?

As I mentioned at the previous post I’ve been revising the original treatment for Robomeks. That has lead to some changes. Some minor, some significant.

The story arch will be shorter. The sixth chapter, which was related to the second chapter and that, in fact, was the seed for a possible sequel, is cut out. The same happens with the fifth. This one has been cut because it had no relevance at all with the story arch. The ninth and tenth chapters have been merged. That’s all for the cuts. Now the additions.

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Chapter 3 ends this Monday, closing what has ended up to be the prologue of the Robomeks storyline. I finally have the characters where I wanted them to be and after more than 70 pages done in the last four months I think I’m back into shape, I’ve got a better understanding of the webcomic medium and overall it has made me a better person. Well, not quite.

As you may know already if you’ve read the previous posts I’m rethinking some aspects of Robomeks. Nothing that will change anything drastically, but there will be changes.

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The new design is up and running now. There are still some features not implemented yet, though, but they’ll be up in the following days.

Robomeks (the characters) are in a transitional period and from now on you’ll see a series of pages (9, to be exact) where you’ll follow closely how they evolve and relate with each other. Expects some surprises on the way. Apart from the obvious change of format you’ll notice that they’re mute, like in mute cinema without the text boxes. I felt that dialogue wasn’t really needed and I’m sure you’ll all understand what’s happening around easily. For now you have the cover up there (yes, that’s a cover).

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I’ve finally fixed the navigation problem that was including the news posts along the comic pages when you were browsing through the “next”, “previous”, etc links. It was just a minor bug of the beta version of ComicPress I’m using. I’m guilty free for once! In fact, this is right now probably the only beta version of CP around that has that issue fixed. And all this just for you. Don’t you feel loved?

The other major thing that needed to be done, the conversion of the comic files, has finished already. Those damn 75 pages have been opened in their glorious and heavy 300dpi along with another document with their respective texts, pasted the text from that file for both languages, adjusted the text positions, pasted the “watermark” header and footer from a previously edited document,  resized to 72 dpi, exported as JPG, uploaded one language version directly through ftp and the other using CPM where I had to previously delete the file for the given post where the comic page would appear, edited the post to include the new image and finally save it. All this done 75 frigging fraking zloking times. Yes, it sucks. And it’s taken a helluva time. Particularly when it has been done with a 5 years old laptop.

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I just added the main characters to the Characters page. There’s Witty, Ace and Vincent, both the actual versions and a placeholder tease of the cosmetic changes that will happen through the part is actually being published.

While revising the site I’ve just remembered that a few changes to the Robomeks RSS feed have happened in the last months. The main one was the Feedburner to Google’s Feedburner change. So, while I’m using a plugin that redirects all the RSS requests to the correct URL, it wouldn’t hurt if you just make sure you’re getting the correct one.

The actual RSS feed can be found here: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/robomeks

If you’re an old time reader of Robomeks you’ll likely want to update the URL to the one I’ve provided above. In any case, it’d be advised to copy and paste that link to update the feed in your RSS reader of choice. If you’re using Google Reader (as I actually do) just resubscribe by clicking the link, then delete the old feed. As far as I know, Google Reader doesn’t allow you to change the URL of an already subscribed one.

Oh, and remember that tomorrow you can grab the first Robomeks wallpaper ever from this site!

See you soon.

The first wallpaper about Robomeks is finally available, and in three different resolutions! Click the links besides the image to see the wallpaper at the given resolutions.

Logo & Shadow

Resolutions:

1680 x 1050 (ws)

1280 x 1024

1024 x 768

A note from the photographer:

I took this photo on the facade of their workshop. That little logo caught my attention and I found the graffiti drawn around it quite appropriate. Unfortunately, the guys (and girl) decided to peek behind me while I was taking the photo and I hadn’t the strength of will of asking them to leave. To be honest, I was so excited about meeting them that I didn’t even notice the shadows until later. Sorry for that. I’ll try to take another shot later. But, you know, their city is damn far away and I’m short on cash and time. So, for now, just enjoy this.

- nausico21

Thanks for this astounding contribution, nausico21!

There’s a  high probability that you’re a new reader of Robomeks so, as my fellow robot says already, welcome! .

Wait. New readers? For Robomeks? How’s that happened? Two words. Geosynchronous Orbit. Err, no, not those ones. This ones. Project Wonderful.

Yes, Robomeks have been knocking at some doors, handing out leaflets at subway entrances and talking about the site out loud wherever a social gathering happened. Well, the equivalent in the internet.

Anyway. As I said, Robomeks have been advertised after 4 months of secrecy publishing in a dark corner of the internet where only a chosen few were aware of it. I mean those awesome readers from Belfry Webcomics Index (go check it!) and a few others that have been supporting this site all this time. Thanks, ladies and gentlemen.

The response so far has been just mindblowing. Thousands of visitors. Tens of thousands of pageviews. All in half a weekend and wasting what in some exquisite circles is called “peanuts”. That’s… erm… a few thousand more visitors and a few tens of thousand more pageviews than I have had just until last Friday. So, can we say advertising in Project Wonderful works? Weeeell… it’s quite a bold asserment… but I’ll risk here and say that yes, it might work.

So, welcome again, new reader! I hope you’ve enjoyed your stay here. You can find a comfy nuclear powered armchair just for you there by the window, where you can sit and enjoy Robomeks whenever you want from now on. You can even bring some friends with you if you wish to. They’ll be as welcomed as you.

See you soon.