AbbyCapers: Temptation (Bonnefant pt.8)! (Patreon)

Edit:

• Got a rant and some interactive comics to check out.

Synopsis/Description: 

Trying something new:
Nabby's gunk unlocks a side of Heron-Angel's Amber she normally keeps repressed. Its a side Abby desperately wants to explore! 

(Thanks Princess Lil for the voice work!) More fun on Patreon! 

Process Gif:

Alt. versions:

Static comic:

Interactive version:

[Link]

The Rant: 

This was fun! 

However you might have noticed that this Abbycaper's a little different from the rest...

Something that's always been important to me in art in general is "story." What is the context that makes one actually enjoy what's going on? Otherwise, its just another pinup on the internet, and we have a gajillion of those. Its why I decided to adapt Bonnefant rather than just trading Heron a pinup of Amber with Nabby and calling it a day.

To that end, when the entire story is done, I want to compile the entire thing into a package for distribution. $7+ Patrons, if you check the "Stories" folder in the "By Type" folder of the "Fin" folder on dropbox, you can actually check out the progress of the story so far. That being said, I'm not entirely satisfied with just clicking next on each file in the folder, and some interrupt the others, or come out of order from when they're produced. 

As such, I want to compile it in a way where I dictate how the story is read, rather than just having you guys jump from file to file. And so, I decided to put together my skills from my SFW comics into my NSFW comics.

For those who don't know, I have an SFW side where I make interactive animated comics. It was my graduate thesis in college, and I made a go of it, before finding out that people chase popular things for a reason. You can see some of my experiments here:

The Crimson Fly: Late 

The Crimson Fly: Fall 

One of the things I was able to learn to do was compile individual strips into larger compendiums. I did this for Inktober 2018 (Yeah, I drew, animated, programmed and compiled together 29 strips) And I think I can apply it here, as well.

The rub is that, unfortunately, horizontal strips don't really mesh well with my vertical template or square animation files, so I had to animate the strips in such a way that it would go from panel to panel, rather than simply horizontally across the screen.  This is made more difficult by the format of my Abby comics, because there's no definite panel border to separate "what" should be "where." Contrast with "the Crimson Fly," where there are clear panel separations. 

I still think the end result works, especially with sound (check the attachments for the SWF file, though you will need a flash player or browser with Flash still enabled to play it), though I couldn't get the sound to work for the interactive comic linked above.

As is, there is going to have to be some finagling so that the story works organically, since certain loops and Game-Overs work between comic panels, rather than right before/after, but that's not too hard to do once you know how to do what you have to do.

So why a video?

Because right now, most sites don't have a way to upload interactive applications that aren't Flash based. There isn't an option on Patreon, there isn't an option on Twitter, there isn't an option on DeviantArt. Newgrounds has options, but, for my stuff, most peeps don't tend to click on the preview links on social media platforms, especially if the preview is just a non-interactive version of what they're clicking on. So its easier to make a video and upload that, rather than doing a ton of work to figure out how to upload a 1 min interactive comic that 10 people will actually check out.

Moving beyond Bonnefant, ...
This (video) might be the way that I upload Abbycapers from now on. 

In terms of reaction numbers, my animations do way better on the internet than my actual comics, by exponential magnitudes. While I'm not someone who's self worth is determined by numbers and algorithms, those numbers and algorithms provide a gauge of what people are willing to support. Put another way (or rather, why I ended up not selling/releasing my SFW inktober collection after failing to get my friends and family to download the free demo):

If I can't get you to "like, comment, subscribe," or, in this case, download a FREE demo, ...

How am I supposed to expect you to pay money (a significantly larger investment) for a full comic/animation/video game?

The reality is that while artists shouldn't gauge their self-worth by the reactions of their audiences, that reaction is a very good gauge (okay, a gauge; it only gets "good" when money or things with pre-existing popularity is/are involved) as to what they are willing to support emotionally, intellectually and financially. And after a certain threshold of time/effort/money, there needs to be a return on that investment.  Something the internet has conditioned its creators and audiences to believe is that art should be free, and for the time and money costs I've personally put in, that's just not true.  Maybe one person can pay for a single illustration. But the cost of what I'm doing (comics, animated loops and shorts, and now interactive media) is that of a small studio (to say nothing of other creators or actual small studios), and needs to be recouped.  

And the reality is that my stuff does better when its moving, no matter how much more complex the comics can get. The numbers currently bear that out if you check any of my other platforms and compare the likes/favorites for the static images to the animated ones.

That being said, watching the reactions from the mocomic as it makes the rounds on twitter, it may just be a spike from something being new on people's timelines. It might be the wonderful audio from Princess Lil. We'll see.

Even so, even if, publicly, the comics are replaced with mocomics, I'll still post the comics here and in the dropbox for you guys. You seem to like them that much, along with other content I used to make public until the numbers said otherwise (there's a reason you can only find process gifs and rants on Patreon).

As for the actual comic itself, there's not much to say. This is the climax of the story, figuratively and literally. There's probably only one more actual comic left in the story before we move on to Abby's next misadventure.  Will they get rescued/saved? You know the answer, but that's not really what you want to know is it?

What do you think?
Let me know in the comments! Your feedback lets me know how I'm doing!
Thank you for your continued support and patronage, and I'll catcha over yonder! 

-Saunter!