Is Outsider still an active project, or is it over?

[Arioch]

Nah, the beta is going fine. We were just way being schedule and had Super Crunch Time™ the few weeks before the Jan 31 deadline to get something that was playable and not too broken done in time.

[malletmann]

What the heck, I've waited two years. What's a week?

[Felix_the_Fox]

What the heck, I've waited two years. What's a week?

I'm with you on this one. I've been here almost every day for years, lol. I've actually downloaded the site, just so I could read it if it ever died. Glad it's back. :3

[wasp609]

i came for the comic but stayed for the forums.

[Imbrooge]

Beta?

I missed out on this, when was this?

[Arioch]

Beta?

I missed out on this, when was this?

The Stars in Shadow beta started Feb 1st. It will probably run for many months until the game is finished, so you can still sign up if you like.

[icekatze]

hi hi

The beta already started? I signed up back in January, but I apparently didn't get in.

[Arioch]

It started small, but will be expanding in waves over the next weeks and months.

[icekatze]

hi hi

I will keep my fingers crossed then.

[TrashMan]

HALELUJAH!

Arioch is back in action!

[Mr.Tucker]

HALELUJAH!

Arioch is back in action!

How so?

[Darth Cloaked Guy]

Well at least he's posting about updating more regularly... that's sort of like a start, right?

But we all need to remember that we are enjoying his artwork for free. He is not under any big obligation to make art for us.

(though the universe would be a lesser place if the comic ended so early in its existence.)

[Sweforce]

The setting are so interesting that it could become a base for more things then just a webcomic. Printed comic books, tabletop RPG games, well, that is sort of already covered as I understand it is supposed to be playable in GURPS but manuals could be printed. A computer game maybe? "Outsider Online", start as an adventurer that have arrived a few years after Alex have reported in and work yourself up from a crappy rustbucket of ship all the way until you can complain that they nerfed the wave loom again. And once the comic have been completed, it could be animated, anime, here we come!

[Hālian]

That would be awesome.

[dragoongfa]

Those sound awesome, especially the animated idea. I believe that it has been mentioned already but I believe that Arioch's RL schedule makes an unhindered continuation of the comic problematic.

The best course of action that I see is the serialization of the comic in a light novel format. 25 to 30 thousand words for each chapter with a handful of pages being artistic representations.

Priced at around 3 dollars per digital copy I think that it would a great way to both continue the story and make some money for Arioch

[Razor One]

If you want to see an Outsider anime, provided Arioch gives his blessing, episodes cost about 100,000 - 300,000 dollars to make, and that's generally while working your animators on what is essentially a slave wage with terrible hours. If you decide to pay them well, then we can ballpark the cost at 500,000 bucks a pop.

A one cour season consists of 12 episodes, so six million dollars all up. You could probably recoup that if it sells, and for that you'll need advertising, which bumps up the costs a bit. There is an extant market given how long the comic has been up, but there's no real way to gauge how many will actually front up and buy the discs, and that's assuming the profit is in the discs and not the merchandise, which usually only tends towards the hardcore fans.

Some rough guesswork of episode content:

Episode 1
Pages 1 - 17

Episode 2
Pages 18 - 28

Episode 3
Pages 29 - 51

Episode 4
Pages 52 - 66

Episode 5
Pages 67 - 91

Episode 6
Pages 92 - 97

Episode 7
Pages 98 - Present

Some areas need a bit more fleshing out, other areas need a little compressing, but we're a little over half a cour worth of material there, with episode seven still incomplete. In an animated series you'd also have extra points of view rather than just sticking with Alex, so you could probably extend what we've got out to a full season if you give sufficient screentime to the other characters, with the fleet battle and the end of Chapter 1 being the big finale and Chapter 2 being the start of the second season.

How well it would sell as an animated series is anyones guess, but we all know that the real money is in the moichandising. Admit it. You all want Beryl and Fireblade figurines with light up armor to grace your desks. To say nothing of model Bellarmines and Winter Tides, the aforementioned games, cosplay materials and other assorted merchandising paraphernalia.

[Mr.Tucker]

Nothing productive to say, only that Tucker approves of this discussion .

[Darth Cloaked Guy]

Arioch you tease you got my hopes up!

[Sweforce]

Machinima is another option.

[wasp609]

Im just sitting in my room staring at my computer waiting for more.