A Modest Destiny

Post by **Josiah** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:12 am

More people really should post in Voltaggia's comic before it's locked... But anyway...

Today's comic is A Modest Destiny. It's a fantasy / comedy / pixel art comic and totally awesome.
Plot: Old man Maxim tells the story of his youth and how he saved the world. There's a handful of scenes with old man Maxim talking to his grandkids but most of the story takes place in the past as he joins a guild and gets accidently tied up in all sorts of crazy adventures. It's really funny but the story gets more serious and involved later on. The story is divided into seasons. Season 1 is a complete story in and of itself (the story of the first time Maxim saved the world) while Seasons 2, 3, and 4 all tie together into one big story arc. Unfortunately, season 4 isn't finished and is on indefinite hiatus so if you don't want to get stuck with an unfinished story, you might want to stop at the end of Season 1.
Art: It's a pixel art comic. As in, it's all done in sprites (really nice ones at that) but not from any game, they were all made from scratch for the comic. It looks really good.
Things to Know: As I previously mentioned, Season 4 is unfinished, leaving the Season 2,3,4 arc stuck in the middle. But Season 1 is a complete story by itself so if you really hate cliff hangers you can just stop at the end of it (if you get that far anyway, Season 1 is pretty long). There's also several other comics on the site if you like AMD. The Starship Desinty is a sci-fi that's pretty good but also unfinished. Tales of the Squidiverse are old filler comics, some of which are pretty good, others not so much. Zombies of the Living Dead is a zombie comic which didn't get very far along and I didn't like it much. Finally, IF Only... is a very short but hillarious comic about text adventure games.
Favorite Strips: Too many to list, but here's a few to getyou started.

Post by **Voltaggia** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:51 am

Read this one quite long ago (and been checking for updates 10 weeks after I've finished reading...)

Pixel art by Squidi is really good and it's a shame he stopped updating those comic. Also, the way his 300 ideas are getting ripped off, I am surprised he is still updating his site. But the fact that he's making a game from his artwork is great (^^)!

The jokes are marvelous and I could get most of them, while the plot is better than most American movies I've seen. If you've read the rest of his comics, you can see what genious Squidi is - he can practically make a good comic no matter where is it situated - in a sci-fi (although he said in his blog that he wanted TSD to be different), medieval or in "real" one. I don't really have favourites for this comic, as all the episodes are great. He should really be selling those, he'd make some good money.

Post by **PoikSpirit** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:11 pm

I haven't read them all, but I read enough to know that I like it. It's funny, the sprites are good, and there's a plot that is followable. I know this isn't really a good review, but I haven't finished reading them so...

Post by **Silver** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:31 pm

As a spriter, I'm near-positive that custom sprites are called customs sprites, while pixel art is bigger and more detailed, like... well, art. As opposed to sprites.

Anyway, I really like this comic - it's funny, and the plot's certainly interesting. A bit typical in the beginning (fantasy-style adventure, world saving, warrior's guild... ), but it was funny enough that you don't really notice.

It's also kind of bothered me that the sprites... completely lack shading. And the outlines are completely black. I mean, they're good as far as scratch sprites go, they get the point across, they've got enough detail to convey facial expressions... but would it hurt to shade just a little? You know, try to make armor look shiny like armor, as opposed to flatly colored, like gray cardboard taped to Maxim's chest? A single white pixel in the direction of the light source can do wonders for depth with sprites that size.

Anyway, I really liked this strip, the 'Team Evil' one Josiah posted, and then this one(Monkey Island for the lulz!).

Post by **Kisori** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:56 pm

You think he wears real armor? Thats a laugh!

http://www.squidi.net/comic/amd/view.php?ep=1&id=4
Ya I don't know how to put those things into the stuff you people do.

http://www.squidi.net/comic/amd/view.php?ep=1&id=7
NINJAS!!!

http://www.squidi.net/comic/amd/view.php?ep=1&id=15
http://www.squidi.net/comic/amd/view.php?ep=1&id=16
http://www.squidi.net/comic/amd/view.php?ep=1&id=17
http://www.squidi.net/comic/amd/view.php?ep=1&id=19

Juicy evil, also every one is almost my favorite :)

Post by **Josiah** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 4:12 am

You know, I never really noticed that lack of shading until you mentioned it but yeah... My personal guess is that he was going for a really old school look since back in the NES and early SNES days many games didn't having shading on their sprites.

Post by **Kaida** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:49 am

Eeee a sprite comic I like that isn't Pebble Version... I think I need to get out more... or get the internet, but I have to wait...

Anyway. I for some reason like the sprites the way they are, although shading would make it better. The jokes are good and the plots followable and I like the green blob. I think thats all been said though.