Frequently Asked Questions

Plot

• Q: How far ahead have you planned the plot of Tale of the Cave?

• A: Well, that's kind a difficult sort of question. Obviously, I'm loosely following the plot of Cave Story. So, I know where Quote will be visiting in the future, the main enemies, etc.

  However, for the stuff I'm adding, I have not planned to the end in great detail. I know roughly how the plot will unfold, but I prefer a more... laissez-faire approach to the plot's progression. That is, I know how the current story-arc will play out, and I know what needs to happen for the next story arc. I don't know exactly what will happen during it, however.

• Q: Does Quote know his name? Does Bat or anyone else?

• Technically, no. To date (October 19, 2009), his name has not been used in the comic. Originally, I was going to have this be a big mystery, etc, like it is in the game, but I quickly realized this would not work as well as I initially thought. In the game, you learn his name very close to the end of the game, if at all. Heck, you're only guaranteed to learn it if you're going for the Bonus Level of Hell.

  No, this would not transfer well to the comic medium, where people have to speak in more than the second-person. So, I will likely clarify this at some convenient point in the future.

• Q: How come so-and-so did such-and-such?! They'd never do that!
• A: They did it because it's funny. That's why.

Meta

• Q: Where do you get the sprites?

• A: Two main sources: The game itself, and my creations.

  The ones I get from the game come from the data/Stage folder of Cave Story. The .pbm files are just .bmp files (with a bit of other technical mumbo-jumbo you don't need to care about). For my purposes, I converted them to PNG, and made the background transparent.

  I also wrote a little program that can extract map data and make images, which I use as backgrounds.

  The custom sprites are generally either modifications of existing sprites (for new poses, etc). Some times, they're brand spanking new, but there aren't too many of those...

  Some times, if I need a non-sprite picture, I'll use Google Images.

• Q: Will you be upgrading the sprites to the WiiWare sprites?
• No, for several reasons:
  1. The new sprites are bigger (32x32, compared to the current 16x16). Although I do already scale-up the sprites to 32x32, it would give the comic a different look, which I'm not going for.
  2. Getting full sprite sheets will be difficult, if at all possible. I can easily rip sprites directly from the PC version with no hassle, but I cannot do the same with the WiiWare version.
  3. Working with them will be more difficult. As I mentioned, the sprites are bigger and more detailed. I'd have to spend more time creating custom poses with more detail than I do now. I'm not a great pixel artist, and this would only aggravate the situation.
  So... Yeah, not happening. You're free to start your own, if you want.
• Q: How come you miss/are late on so many updates? It's a stupid sprite comic, for Yog Sothoth's sake!

• Yes, this is true. The act of making a comic generally does not take very long. However, there's more to the process than slapping a bunch of pictures together.

  As I alluded above, I generate plot on-demand (eg, as I go). This includes all dialogue, punchlines, etc. I can only do this if I'm in the right state of mind. This involves not being over-tired, not busy with life, not hungry, not thirsty, the proper alignment of the stars, etc. Heck, it's a wonder it happens at all.

  And, then, even once I'm in the right mood, there's still the actual writing to do. I find that I often write myself into a corner with a stupid joke or something, and now I need to re-rail the plot. Sometimes this is hard, sometimes not. If I find myself staring at a piece of dialogue, wondering what to have as a reply for too long, I'll just give up, and come back in an hour, or five hours, or the next day.

  And, of course, this is assuming I don't forget about it entirely until it's too late...

  Plus, I'm of the opinion that if I miss the deadline by too much (eg, I have a comic ready the following afternoon), it's better to just hold the comic until the next update anyway. Maybe I shouldn't do that? I dunno, old habits die hard.

• Q: Sprites suck! If you can't draw, don't bother!
• A: :)

Technical

• Q: What do you use to make your comics?

• I primarily use Adobe Photoshop to compose the actual comics. However, I also use Adobe Flash if I need animation.

  In the past, I've experimented with using other programs, such as the GIMP, and Paint Shop Pro, but I'm addicted to Photoshop's layering functionality. Trivia fact: The average comic can have upwards of 50 layers in it!

  I also wrote a tool that extracts maps from Cave Story, and combines them with the tilesets to create big PNG maps of the game. However, it's private, crude, and unpolished, so I'm not releasing it. Too bad.

• Q: What about the website?

• What about it? It's written in PHP, with a MySQL backend. It's a big mishmash of codez and hax I've written over the previous four and a half years. There's no chance in any of the twelve hells that I'm ever packaging it up and releasing it for general consumption. I'm not evil.

  The forum is Simple Machines Forum with a few mods others have written, and a few (again, private) mods that I've written (primarily to integrate it with the comic system). I'm very pleased with this software, and will likely be using it until the day I die (or, it dies, if that happens first).