Page 965…
And that’s the complete letter.
Hope you liked it.
I have a question for you guys.
I wanted to createa “WELCOME TO DREAMLAND” introduction for new readers.
So…here it is.
http://thedreamlandchronicles.com/category/the-dreamland-chronicles/welcome/
Some questions:
1) Is it too long for new readers to read through?
2) Any design complaints/suggestions?
3) Any other thoughts?
Thanks. I just want everyone to get the full experience. And thought this was a good way to help.
Thanks all!
Scott
Soooo nice… Cant wait to continue reading 😀
Just took a quick read through of the intro, looks good. It doesn’t say too much about the story itself though during the intro except for the first page, which is fairly vague in itself. That on purpose?
I’m looking for you, I’m looking for I don’t know what,
I can’t see there anymore
and all my time’s been taken
Is this what it seems?
The lure of a dream and I’m afraid to walk back
through that door, to find that I’ve awakened.
The night seems to care, the dreams in the air
The snow’s coming down, it beckons me dare
It whispers and hopes, it holds and confides
And offers a bridge across these divides.
The parts of my life I tried to forget
It’s gathered each piece and carefully kept
Somewhere in the dark, beyond all the cold
There is a child that’s part of my soul
That’s part of my soul.
Got to get back to a reason
Got to get back to a reason I once knew.
And this late in the seasons
One by one, distractions fade from view…
The only reason I have left is you.
-Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Noticing the replies to the first half: I didn’t know that another band had done this song. Provided they did it originally, it would certainly explain the (Part II) in the title on the Trans-Siberian Orchestra CD. The Lost Christmas, if anyone’s interested.
Talk about a hard letter to write. To someone you think might, and aren’t sure whether you hope, exists. Wow.
I think the intro’s fine. I did get a little bored with it by the time I got through the descriptions of the stuff further down the page, but it’s late and I’m tired. Also, by that point, I had gone through all the stuff that seems more important for a first time reader. Anyways, I think it’s good the way it is. If someone doesn’t have the attention span to finish it, they’ll figure out that there’s comments and a blog on their own later (especially after they get to the current page and are scrounging around for more dreamland).
Last edit: the ‘provided’ is unnecessary. Savatage did do it first. Thus nicely explaining the (Part II). But I find I like the Trans-Siberian Orchestra version much better.
Brava, Nicole. Now come back, Felicity. Your old friend’s still alive, And she’s worried for you along with all of your new friends. And if you want to make up for the things you feel guilty for, you have to *live*.
I’m loving the letter and the page – it’s great to have that link to the real world explored!
As for the intro – it looks good to me.
How long has the forum been off the main site? I know the comments sort of take its plac,e but it was nice to have the Dreamland community in more than just a tree of comments varying from page to page. :/
Also, awesome job on the letter!
Truly of “Epic” proportions! I love it!
I LOVE the new site design. It IS a new design, isn’t it? Or have I fallen victim to the monster of sleep deprivation that visits every new mother?
Wait…did I just go cross-eyed? What’s my name again?
Oooooh, shiny *drool*
And awww, it seems like our feline friend could hear him, but our elf friend looks a bit doubtful.
I think your name is Jaci. I cannot confirm being cross eyed or not however.
I liked the intro it talked about some of the unique features you give us. Show a good array of what the comic looks like and had the dreamland fun in there.
I think the intro to Dreamland is great 🙂
Just one thing: on the eighth page it says “Every page is accompanied by comentary and updates…”
It should be ‘commentary’ 🙂
I just wanted to say, that I adore your comic. I’m a 21 year old male. And I just love what you do. Also, the intro is well done and helpful to new readers, especially since it shows that you do much than a good web-comic here.
That a realy touching letter, now felicity has something to wish living for!
About the “wellcome to dreamland” section, it’s reay interesting, and i think it’s about the right size… i just don’t think t’s a good idea to use frames where you see Felicity and Nicole together as kids… it’s kind of a spoiler i think, i remember getting surprised seing the two of them together! But well, who never readed might not keep that in the memory anyway =P
Besides that, it’s realy good, and a good idea too! I didn’t knew about the Tag Page thing yet! 😉
Thanks for the great commic as always!
I haven’t checked in here in a few days due to work and also wonder where the forum went. I been reading since sometime around the part with the dwarves (where they are talking about the tablet right before Nic comes in) and I’d gotten into the habit of skimming the comments and popping over to the forum to read the comments there and browse whatever topic struck my fancy. I know a forum is a lot of work to keep going and we do have the comments and some of the comics I read don’t but I do wonder why the link to the forum or the forum itself (if that’s the case) was took down.
Cute how she starts to wake up when the letter mentions how much Nicole misses her. ; v ;
As for the “Welcome to Dreamland!” pages, smoother than a sanded-down Pinewood Derby Car! However, if I would change one thing, it would be the pages you use to show the neato features… I’m not saying that those are bad pages (one of the cutest moments, actually), but they have so much spoiler in it that it would shoot out of the screen and blow a newcomer’s head clean off! Metaphorically, I’m hoping.
I would use a page that they would be coming to very soon, like Page 16. You could even be clever/lazy and use the comments on the same page to avoid any big spoilers (if I was a newcomer and saw Nex Terren or Kiri’s comment, that would be like… telling someone that just started reading Harry Potter that Snape kills Dumbledore (not meaning to pick on ya, Nex or Kiri! ;D)).
Other than maybe a few typos, that’s the only problem that comes to mind that I came up with an arguably reasonable suggestion for. I’ll go back to proof read for typos and such and put them here as a reply to this post.
1) Is it too long for new readers to read through? No, it seems just right. It gets right to each point.
2) Any design complaints/suggestions? I’ve never managed to have the jukebox actually work and no technical help on it has turned up anything.
3) Any other thoughts? I love to melt peanut butter, maple syrup, and butter together in a 3/3/1 part ratio together in the the microwave. It tastes awesome over waffles or ice cream. You never said i had to supply any other thoughts on the comic or anything. 😀
About the intro: Don’t use the full pictures resized to thumbnails, it’s kinda the worst thing to do, because the visitor has to download teh whole picture but only sees the thumbnail size. Either put it up on full size, or make a manually resized thumbnail version…
Also, why is my avatar a mermaid? Yes, it is a hot mermaid, but I want to be an elf… And a boy one.
I’ll try to make the typos stand out a bit, and will note whether to take it out or type in the correct spelling. Also, unless if all parts have a typo, I won’t write the whole sentence.
Page 4: “Our menu bar gives you access to to our complete archive, fan art…”
– Remove the second “to”.
Page 5: “If you want to bookmark your place in the story… just ‘tag’ your page.”
– A comma is more formal than the ellipsis. Then again, an introduction letter is another ball park compared to an essay. It works in page seven because the sentence is on different lines, if that makes sense.
Page 7: “1,000 pages is a lot to read through -period(?)- So why not have some nice music to go along with your experience.”
– Replace period(?) with comma.
Page 8: – “Comentary” is suppose to be “commentary”.
Page 9: – “Eachothers” needs to be spaced out to become “each others”, and “gravatar avatars” can be shortened to “gravatars”. (Not a correction, but does this make dreamland avatars “dravatars”? -rimshot- )
Page 1: You’ve misspelled your nameThat’s everything that caught my eye… at 12:45 AM, lol. XD;
Oh, the Dreamland avatars? If you haven’t registered at the forum, you’re kind of stuck with the one you get the first time you comment. (That’s why I have a teddy-bear as mine)
So if you want that smexy, delicious male of an elf for your avatar, then join the forums!
I’ve been visiting here daily for awhile now I thought I would comment. I love the intro pages and didn’t know about half of this stuff. To think I could have been listenign to music the whole time and the bookmark would have saved me alot of time trying to find where I left off.
1) Is it too long for new readers to read through?
Speaking as someone who stumbled here this morning on their day off and just couldn’t help but read nonstop until the current page… I’d say that’s a huge NO.
love the strip. wondering why nastajia is making that face at the end of it though. not sure what emotion is being displayed there.
hate the background of this design. I view on a 40inch widescreen monitor and i had the site blown up so i could view the comic. now when in order to be able to look at anything other than the comic i have to zoom back out and shrink everything down again. makes it hard to click those ads every time i blow through the site.
OH
i forgot to mention WHY its hard. The page doesnt create a horizontal scrollbar. i cant scroll left and right to view anything else. it just disapears into nowhere off the edges of my browser. i imagine on my small screen computer this will be an even bigger issue as ill lose part of the comic if i dont make it smaller.
I also mentioned the spoiler thing in the comments for that page. Even though a lot of us had figured it out long before the actual reveal, the reveal itself was very… rewarding… to those of us that guessed right. We shouldn’t deprive new readers of that same experience of reading the clues and figuring it out.
Now, if I may make a suggestion as to a different comic to put in the background…
http://thedreamlandchronicles.com/2009/06/11/page-887%E2%80%A6/
The reveal of Nastajia’s new costume isn’t so much a spoiler as it would be a tease.(since it takes 887 pages before they get to it…)
Please let this work. Please let this work. Please let this work. Please let this work….
Something I would like to see, but maybe this would go under “extras” (which by the way takes you currently to some weird comments page) would be a little of how you make the strip. Out of all the webcomics I read, I think this might be the only one done in 3D computer graphics. I find that intriguing and would like to hear more of how you do it, and I think new readers would be fascinated with your process as well. I think your other introduction stuff is fine but slightly tedious to see a full page explaining each of the tabs, when I think you could consolidate some of that. It’s not terrible, but I think it would be more brisk for a new reader if just that part of it was put in less pages. Other than my nitpicking, I think you are doing an awesome job.
Does the purple cloud at the foot of Fel’s bed have anything to do with why she’s been comatose? I know for a fact that it wasn’t there before. (I checked.)
I love the intro.
the bits where it shows the side features (with the background of Felicity and Nicole as kids) might have been a bit tedious to go through – for me that is. But I still found them helpful. I wouldn’t change the introduction. ^^
And I can’t wait to see how Felicity will react to the letter!!
Or, alternatively, you can click the link next to the NAME field that says “Get an avatar” and sign up (for free) at Gravatar to pick an avatar that you can use in the comments section of other comics, such as The Book of Biff. (That’s how I got that lovely picture of Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach)
However, if you don’t have a Gravatar avatar, and you want a different Dreamland-themed avatar, try changing the e-mail you put in the EMAIL field. That’s how the site distinguishes between unique commenters, and remembers which avatar they were randomly assigned.
I think you missed just a bit in the last panel– Nastajia’s irises are set a little too high, making it look like she’s rolling her eyes. That, combined with her general downcast posture, gives her an air of being bored to tears, rather than desperately hopeful.
Ha! We are Nastajia, looking all girl-powerful.
I like to think there is some sort of cosmic order to the ‘random’ avatars, and you should ask yourself what that mermaid is trying to tell you!
That’s Kiwi.
I am glad to know that I am not the only one who didn’t know about the ‘tag’ … Ya learn something new every day!
pages 4-6 of the preview: The element on the page that you are attempting to spotlight is a little too small to see clearly. I would either darken the rest of the page more to help it pop or zoom in a bit (or both!). Otherwise, it looks good!
Scott –
The intro looks like a good idea. It covers the basics without giving away too much – it’s enough to get people getting started, and once they start, they’re hooked 😉
Nicole’s letter is wonderful; it shows so much vulnerability and uncertainty. Not things Nicole normally shows the world. It really shows how much working with Alex and Dan has affected her.
Well done!
I totally agree with Zarkanorf on the subject that it is a bit of a spoiler to see Felicity and Nicole together, Because if it had been around when I started to read I would have totally remembered and would have figured it out prematurely and it would have been such a bummer. Just me.
I agree. The pages on the rest of the introduction reveal too much. For me, especially the one with young Nicole and Felicity. Also, I think that the introduction is too long. To have one screen shot of the homepage with all the links and things no the site explained would be enough.
Finally, I also think that it may put off new readers if the introduction is at the beginning of the comic. With today’s fast food nation mentality readers generally have the tendency to want to get something right now or they might lose interest. In your case if they want to read the comic, they will want the comic right now when they click on it. An introduction, even though informative, slows down this process and may discourage readers. What I’m saying is, you may have less new readers if you do not serve them what they wish for as immediately as possible. Also: if you have to explain your site you make it look like you need to explain it. And that generally is almost similar to admitting that it can’t be understood on its own. But since your site should be rather easily understandable once the makeover is done, I think explaining is not really necessary.
An alternative suggestion on my part would be: you can do this kind of thing as an optional tour to the site and make a great big link at the top of the page. Or include it into a help or FAQ section of the page in case people don’t know how to navigate. If there is a help section it should be well advertised.
Once again, I’m being very frank here. I hope I don’t come across like a know it all. I’m really only suggesting things… ^^;
Nice!!!!! Now let’s pray for Felicity to recover and respond!
P.S.
What happened to the forum?
Ooooh, that’s a big read. Good job! I can’t remember the last time I finished a comic archive this size in one sitting …
lolz
That’s odd, actually. I’m surfing on my tiny netbook laptop to view this comic, and the page is still the right size to both read the comic and view everything else … is your browser up-to-date?
awwww… those two latest pages are very heart touching. (tear tear)
umm… no offense… but Nastajia looks like she’s about to fall asleep in the third panel…
Hmm… I was wondering about Alex’s eyes in that last panel too. He looks as if he’s cross-eyed somehow not as if he’s looking at the paper.
I like the two last pages very much. Touching in themselves, they also seem like an ouverture. I’m waiting for more. 🙂
Uh, I’m not sure Nicole’s flashback is the best scene to show in an -introduction- to the comic, given its somewhat spoiler-y nature. Maybe something more like Nastajia and Alex on a hill somewhere would be better. Just a suggestion.
Scott,
My take on this is leave well enough alone. When I first ran into the Dreamland comic, I enjoyed the discovery of every page. I have seen post in the past from folks just starting out, how they were grabbed by the pages one by one and could not stop reading until they were caught up, that is how I was also and I think its the way it should be. You give away way to much starting with the first page, you show Alex already grown up and in full armor, you are taking away to many of the surprises I enjoyed and I am sure, that others who come to the pages for the first time, will also enjoy. Let it go, leave it alone!
Ramon
Ahh nice letter 🙂 very honest and very Nicole indeed!
The Store and the Forum links were disabled due to me being an idiot.
Waiting for Tyler to fix it.
What OS and web browser are you using?
I’ve tried the jukebox on both mac and pc. Safari, firefox, and internet explorer.
In the ARCHIVE section (see up to) there’s a whole section of MAKING OF.
http://thedreamlandchronicles.com/archive/
Hope that’s what you’re looking for.
And thanks
🙂
Wow.
Thank you all!
You not only commented here…but on those pages.
I’ll get to work on all the notes.
YOu guys are so great.
Thanks!
gravatar seems not to be working on your site? wanted to say i ADORE and LOVE the night-time dreamland website and think you should make it the daytime one too for a while, so everyone can see it! so pretty!
As always Scott another epic page for an epic tail, i hope that i’m not oversees if you finish the movie project, because that would be a shame, missing a movie bassed on this comic. plus i would love to see who plays Felicity.
~Alex
Talk about being honest and helpful at the same time. Wake up, Felicity, wake up!
Well, I just saw a banner ad featuring Felicity, so Nicole’s letter has already had some kind of beneficial effect.
As for being “too long for new readers,” I certainly had no trouble making the investment.
Instead of using the ones where they are kids why not use some of the wallpaper you have for download that and use a couple of different ones
Darn you Scott!
The last song on the juke box makes me cry every time.
Brother Isreal. Giant Hawaiian just like your character Paddington Rumblebottom.
Raymond McGill
Only one suggestion for the letter: would it help to sign it “your best friend forever”? On reflection, I don’t really mind either way, but that was my first thought.
Aww bff.
Yeah.. I noticed that as well. If I hit the first page without knowing the story, I’d think Alex fell asleep as his adult self and started the dream. Perhaps that’s the intent. But, it’s not nearly as compelling as the actual storyline.
yea i keep my stuff up to date. and if i blow it up huge enough i do finally get a scroll bar. its just the background image that i cant fully view. which is the worst! because the background images are AWESOME.
I love the intro! I guess there are a lot of pages to it, but there isn’t much to read on each page, so it evens itself out. I’m sure new readers will appreciate it!
OH MY GOSH, SCOTT! As if I didn’t love you enough already, I was listening to the Jukebox and all of a sudden a certain song comes on and I think “I didn’t know I had my iTunes running…” Then I check it and it isn’t! I then realize my favorite song of all time, Blackbird, by the Beatles is playing on your jukebox.
intro looks good to me =) although I agree I’d thought it’d have a bit more summary than this. And the little felicity knows little nicole bit IS a bit revealing ^^;; it was one of the finer mysteries of the plot~ but otherwise a good showcase of your work that could help to draw readers in =)
also, i’m having a bit of problems for the “Link” tab using internet explorer.
When I scroll over links, I get drop down menu of “schedules” and “friends”. when i scroll over one of them, ie. “friends”, it opens a list of other comics. But this list opens up like 5cm away from where my mouse is, so that my mouse has to leave the original drop down list to get to this new list. But the second I leave the original list, all the lists automatically closes. Is this supposed to happen?
I can’t click on “friends”, but I could click on “links” to get to a page with all the links, so it’s not a big problem..
lol! That’s what I said when I read this page!
Love the intro idea Scott, and thought you did a very good job on it. I think the jukebox is a great idea as well, but I’ve been wondering if there were any copyright probs with the songs played. Do you have to get any special permission to play them? I was thinking of doing the same but figured I would have to pay royalties of some kind….
In any event, Love da Jukebox!
Thank you all.
I’m sorry I’m not able to reply to each post today. Logan has Strep throat, it’s a half day at school, and Donna’s gotta do parent/teacher meetings. So it’s a bit hectic here.
But please know I am reading these (when I get a breather) and really appreciate all the advice and help.
He can’t fix that. Oh, wait, you meant he’d fix the pages being disabled, not that other thing. Nevermind. 😉
I like the intro.
Hey, I just noticed something, the blog archive (or whatever you want to call it) is stylistically broken. If you click the previous entries link on the home page ( http://thedreamlandchronicles.com/page/2/ ), the right column of the web page is pushed to the bottom. This happens for me in Chrome 3, Firefox 3.5, IE8, and IE8 in Compatibility Mode.
Ouch!
1) yes, i think your suspicion is right ^^ in my opinion this is mainly because of like 7 pages about the features. I find most of the buttons on the site pretty self explaining, same goes for the comments section, besides pointing out that there here actually a lively community exists new people can join. I would probably reduce those 7 pages to like 3-4, for example by putting the menu – bar and tag bar together on one, 1 page for juke box and on max 2 pages the commentary updates/ community comments and last but not least the special offers.
2) maybe one more sentences about the story as such, like “…many years later Alex returns to Dreamland, but the paradise is in danger…
Over 1000 pages of adventure, romance and friendship beyond borders. Welcome to the Dreamland Chronicles” on page 2 (completing the beginning on page 1) or anything else that’s likely to make people curious. But dont get me wrong here, the first 3 pages are especially gorgeous and I really liked going trough them.
3) looking forward to see this new eyecatcher on your page ^^
Scott I am going to Baltimore comic con see you there!
*sob*
AWWWWW!
So, maybe some button to jump over the intro to the first chapter? That would be nice. If somebody already suggested that, sorry! I’m short of time to read all of the comments
Hey Pyre, I just wanted to mention that Savatage *is* TSO. Or at least, they used to be. The band started out as Savatage, then decided to switch their name and genre a bit, and now exist primarily as TSO. But in either case, the song certainly fits. 🙂
Thanks. I’ll let Tyler know.
Like having a friend over the internet. Especially if you’re desperately worried about them.
This page struck a chord with me.
That’s good to know, I’m glad it’s not gone yet! Thanks for the response
i miss felicity’s eyes… <:,-(
If you click on the First button, it gets you there. At least, it used to. Now it goes to that new introduction thing (which is now placed before chapter 1), but that’s ok since new readers would probably like seeing the introduction.
Scott, you might want to make it so the chapter forward button in the new introduction goes to the first chapter. It appears that the way you logically placed it put it past Chapter 14 and the making of pages, so the chapter forward button is grayed out and the previous chapter button goes to the making of section.
I like the Welcome to Dreamland. It is not too long. It points out the features of the site clearly. The collection of images are enticing. I sort of agree about the spoiler value the one page used has, but I think to count as spoiler you need to be able to read the page and know how it fits in the story. A first time reader is very unlikely to make the effort to read the blurred page and surely won’t have a clue how it might fit in until they read far enough to meet. Nicole.
Wow! Nicole really does believe in catgirls!
*reads the rest of the letter*
“PS: Have you seen my keys to the narcotics locker?”
Is it just me or the Link to “some friends of mine” a bit separated and hard to mouse over too. They arent like a normal menu item when they pop up they are a spaced to the right and I can get to them with some presision mouse movement. Again Xp and IE7
Yeah it was a big read, but it was worth it. No joke I found this site yesterday. Started from the beginning and almost hoped it’d be longer so I could keep reading.
Felicity gonna get better YAY!
Scott, I hope your son recovers from his strep thought as well.
Umm…it’s night on the site now? Cool.
am i about to see Felicity jumping out of bed???
hmm… you’re right. *snicker* makes for an awful funny panel
Oh… so it is.
Sorry, I read this comic just before I go to bed, and my eyesight isn’t at it’s best when my eyes are all droopy.
That was a long message on a short paper
Multidimensional paper (Dreamland magic).