2013-12-06 They love me down there

[Eisu]

Comic updated!

http://www.sandraontherocks.com/strips- ... down_there

['J']

poor tristan

[hightechartist]

Yeah... not really feeling bad for him.

Quote removed. The DAMNed

[Spidrift]

Hey, Tristan is having a very bad week. He's discovering that the stuff about video games - his chosen career - being art is just BS, and he's just another cog in the capitalist machine. His precious vision is disposable as tissue paper. Sure, it's a tacky, adolescent vision, and no great loss to the world, but emotionally speaking, he's still taking a hammer to the groin. Cut him some slack.

As to the rest of the strip - are the creators really working to get Gary a permanent residence in Paris? Bit of a major reconfiguration of the titles, that, if so. Though realistically, sorting out the details could take months - far longer than the in-world period covered by Ma3 so far. And in any case, as the creative team themselves prove, it's perfectly possible to work with artists who actually live on other continents.

Apart from which, Sandra is not only overestimating her popularity at Dark Matter - she's surely overestimating the ability of a newly-recruited character model, however popular, to pull artist job slots for her random chums out of her cute freckly butt. (Except that this story runs on comic strip logic, of course.) And who said that Dark Matter had to be based in Paris, anyway?

But anyway, I think we now have a good possibility for what's happening in strip #762; what's the betting that Gary is challenged to prove himself by doing some life drawings of Sandra in costume?

Now, changing the subject and stepping back; what the hell is the time of day in this strip? Gary and Senna went out in the morning, met Sandra, went all the way to Brussels by TGV, spent the day there, came back to Paris, almost parted company (presumably with dinner in mind), had that session with Tatiana, and have now seen Senna head off to the airport. I was assuming that we were hitting the end of the day by now; it's certainly got to be at least late evening. The sky was quite dark in the frame last strip where Senna was getting into the taxi, though not black. But Sandra are Gary are still burbling along, and the Dark Matter crew are still at work. I'd have thought that a lot of people would be looking for (a) dinner and (b) a chance to hit the sack (to sleep) by now...

[Bambikles]

People can work late in video games company and eat at work...
Plus Tristan is obviously going through some auto-therapy.

Probably a hint that Gary's work will got horrendously thrashed when shown to Tristan. Things won't go so easily for the new CC game. Tristan may consciously and viciously sabotage it.

[Spidrift]

I'm guessing we'll get a comedy "Ha! You think you're so good? Let's see you work under pressure! Draw Sandra as Carmen now! From life! You have ten minutes!"

And then, strip #762.

[Zorlond]

Actually, telecommuting is a pretty common thing for video games these days. All Gary would need is a really good scanner, or a really good tablet for his computer. Add in a basic webcam for those occasional meetings, and he's set to work from Montreal.

[Tako]

Hey, Tristan is having a very bad week. He's discovering that the stuff about video games - his chosen career - being art is just BS, and he's just another cog in the capitalist machine. His precious vision is disposable as tissue paper. Sure, it's a tacky, adolescent vision, and no great loss to the world, but emotionally speaking, he's still taking a hammer to the groin. Cut him some slack.

As to the rest of the strip - are the creators really working to get Gary a permanent residence in Paris? Bit of a major reconfiguration of the titles, that, if so. Though realistically, sorting out the details could take months - far longer than the in-world period covered by Ma3 so far. And in any case, as the creative team themselves prove, it's perfectly possible to work with artists who actually live on other continents.

Apart from which, Sandra is not only overestimating her popularity at Dark Matter - she's surely overestimating the ability of a newly-recruited character model, however popular, to pull artist job slots for her random chums out of her cute freckly butt. (Except that this story runs on comic strip logic, of course.) And who said that Dark Matter had to be based in Paris, anyway?

But anyway, I think we now have a good possibility for what's happening in strip #762; what's the betting that Gary is challenged to prove himself by doing some life drawings of Sandra in costume?

Now, changing the subject and stepping back; what the hell is the time of day in this strip? Gary and Senna went out in the morning, met Sandra, went all the way to Brussels by TGV, spent the day there, came back to Paris, almost parted company (presumably with dinner in mind), had that session with Tatiana, and have now seen Senna head off to the airport. I was assuming that we were hitting the end of the day by now; it's certainly got to be at least late evening. The sky was quite dark in the frame last strip where Senna was getting into the taxi, though not black. But Sandra are Gary are still burbling along, and the Dark Matter crew are still at work. I'd have thought that a lot of people would be looking for (a) dinner and (b) a chance to hit the sack (to sleep) by now...

To tell the truth, his original idea was bound to be despised and hated by the gamer community. He knew Chamelia is a legacy character, and he was using her image to attract attention so people bought a completely unrelated game that just happened to have a red-haired protagonist. Think what would happen if somebody produced a Card Captor Sakura game and when they people bought it found that there were no cards, no staff, and "Sakura" was fighting with a chainsaw, a baseball bat and a machine gun she carries around in a backpack.

He should suck it up, make a good game, and later sell his version of the game as "the director's cut" or something. Or change the protagonist and sell it as a completely different game.

[Eisu]

Now, changing the subject and stepping back; what the hell is the time of day in this strip? Gary and Senna went out in the morning, met Sandra, went all the way to Brussels by TGV, spent the day there, came back to Paris, almost parted company (presumably with dinner in mind), had that session with Tatiana, and have now seen Senna head off to the airport. I was assuming that we were hitting the end of the day by now; it's certainly got to be at least late evening. The sky was quite dark in the frame last strip where Senna was getting into the taxi, though not black. But Sandra are Gary are still burbling along, and the Dark Matter crew are still at work. I'd have thought that a lot of people would be looking for (a) dinner and (b) a chance to hit the sack (to sleep) by now...

Now, this is just me, not the view of Dave or Giz or T, but I'm thinking it's around 7pm or around that. Maybe close to 8pm...

As for Dark Matter Games people still being in office, it's a weekend and they're still in office mainly cos now they have to re-think and re-programme A LOT of stuff that was already done so yeah, crunch time = stay in office late even in weekends. Which is actually quite normal/standard for the industry (as well as in animation)

[Spidrift]

To tell the truth, his original idea was bound to be despised and hated by the gamer community.

But he's an artist. It's not his role to be loved; it's his role to follow his vision wherever it leads. Just ask him.

And I'll bet that his boss encouraged him to think like that - right up until the recent point where profits turned out to be in another direction. After all, who wants to come into the office at stupid hours and live on bad fast food just to make more money for their boss? Doing it for art, though, is another matter. It's a very convenient delusion - for his boss.

Like I said, Tristan has just run face-first into a concrete wall of reality. It's largely his own fault, but let's cut him a little slack.

Now, this is just me, not the view of Dave or Giz or T, but I'm thinking it's around 7pm or around that. Maybe close to 8pm...

I can believe that. I'd assume more 8 than 7, personally.

And somebody tell Sandra to point Gary towards some food, now. Even if he hit the moules frites and waffles in Brussels (which I hope he did), he'll be running on remnants of blood sugar by now.

As for Dark Matter Games people still being in office, it's a weekend and they're still in office mainly cos now they have to re-think and re-programme A LOT of stuff that was already done so yeah, crunch time = stay in office late even in weekends.

Oh yeah, the "rewrite this game by next week" command that's just kicked in. That'd explain a lot. It'll also make Sandra really, really popular with all the staff...

Many thanks for the response!

[crimzontearz]

First off

an artist does not necessarily have to be in the main office, I have a friend who is a a concept artist and 3D moddeller for Atari and he lives in Portugal, another one who does freelance for different studios who lives here in Boston (if you guys are reading this coming, here is a shout out to you 2, Joao and Candice)

secondly I am fairly sure that the woke rewrite will not be as much of a monumental task as some people make it out to be AND it will warrant a long delay anyway

lastly, I wish, for the 193849361947th time, that had happened to those two hacks known as Mac Walters and Casey Hudson. Their tears of artistic hurt would have been delicious

[brasca]

People can work late in video games company and eat at work...
Plus Tristan is obviously going through some auto-therapy.

Probably a hint that Gary's work will got horrendously thrashed when shown to Tristan. Things won't go so easily for the new CC game. Tristan may consciously and viciously sabotage it.

Well someone has to if Tatiana has vowed not to sabotage Sandra's career and devote herself to Domenico's vision. Things would get boring without an antagonist.

And I agree with Tako. He could've developed something original and who knows it might've been an interesting game, but he decided to reinterpret a beloved video game franchise and that is not an easy task. Moreover, he blurted out a misogynistic view of women gamers due to a lack of charm and ability to articulate his vision and that sealed his fate.

[Spidrift]

Actually, Sandra seems quite capable of generating a few problems for herself without much help from antagonists - though they never hurt. She tends to push her luck just a little bit too far - bragging to Senna about how well her career is going when Tatiana is around, and now bragging to Gary about how Dark Matter love her for, um, trashing their latest creation and doubling their workload. Wanting to be loved isn't the same as being loved, Sandra dear...

[crimzontearz]

you DO know that you have no idea if the rest of Dark Matter games was on board with this artistic vision of his right? They could be just as relieved as the rest of the public

Quote removed, double post deleted. The DAMNed

[TheEighth]

I wonder if Gary could hold down a job as a video game artist in another country. Maybe if he had a scanner.....I dunno.