{"id":3360,"date":"2009-05-12T09:25:33","date_gmt":"2009-05-12T13:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=3360"},"modified":"2009-05-12T09:25:33","modified_gmt":"2009-05-12T13:25:33","slug":"stolen-pixels-89-left-4-dumb-part-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=3360","title":{"rendered":"Stolen Pixels #89: Left 4 Dumb: Part 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest comic is up<\/a>. Also note in the side-text are some notes about how I plan to run the series. Now, allow me to indulge in some naval gazing:<\/p>\n

Left 4 Dumb is turning into an interesting project. I realized a couple of nights ago that a lot of my comic-making time is spent location scouting. Since the original Left 4 Dead levels aren’t available in Garry’s Mod, I have to find someplace<\/em> suitable for making a particular comic. I decided early on that I wanted to avoid using the Half Life 2 levels as much as possible. This was partly because their Euro-style buildings would be jarring in a story supposedly set in western Pennsylvania but mostly because those levels are so famous and so familiar that it would be confusing for readers. “Hey, this looks like Black Mesa East. Is it really supposed to be Black Mesa East, or is this just the same set? Now they’re running to safety down this hall, but I know from experience that the hall is a dead end. Is that part of the joke or an oversight?<\/em>” And so on. It would put the focus on the setting instead of the story, and would probably ruin a lot of punchlines for HL2 fans.<\/p>\n

Since I can’t use those levels, and I can’t use the real levels, I have to look elsewhere for someplace to set the comics. This is turning out to be more challenging than I expected. Counterstrike: Source and Half Life 2: Deathmatch are pretty good, although limited in use because my comic is set at night and most of those levels have daytime lighting. <\/p>\n

I notice I’m running into many of the same problems I encountered with DM of the Rings<\/a>. I can either tell a joke or<\/em> move the plot forward, but not both at once. Today’s strip advanced the plot, (Louis is rescued) reiterated the character’s goals, (going to the safehouse) and recounted what happened to Louis (he “died” and inexplicably returned to life via a hero closet) but the “joke” is lamer than Steven Hawking and FDR trying to play hacky sack. That’s the way it goes sometimes. <\/p>\n

I’m actually a lot more relaxed about lame jokes than I used to be. A lot of the tepid DMotR jokes paid off in later strips as unintentional setups for running gags or to simply nudge the story in the right direction. And often even ones that didn’t amuse me would make people really laugh because the joke connected with them in some unexpected way. I used to think that weak jokes were a terrible crime, but now I see you can strike out on a regular basis as long as you hit a home run once in a while. And to be fair, even Bill Waterson<\/a> and Bill Amend<\/a> had the occasional “meh” strip, and those guys are widely recognized as deities of comic brilliance. I’m just a guy who vandalizes videogame art, so I’m no longer wracked with guilt if every strip doesn’t cover everyone’s LCD screens with nasally propelled coffee. <\/p>\n

As promised, here is the aforementioned naval gazing:<\/p>\n

Photo by Elsie esq.<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest comic is up. Also note in the side-text are some notes about how I plan to run the series. Now, allow me to indulge in some naval gazing: Left 4 Dumb is turning into an interesting project. I realized a couple of nights ago that a lot of my comic-making time is spent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}