A few years ago when Andy, Jason and I decided to start writing stories and making silly videos, our whole intention was to just have fun with it - and trust me, we did. At the time none of us realized that our having fun would eventually morph into what you now know as www.3twins.net. Today we're still just a group of friends having fun, but obviously things have changed now and with it there are different expectations.In putting your work out there for the world to see, there suddenly becomes the expectation that you will actually get viewers - that people will want to see your finished product and actually like it. But in a sea of internet media, the question is, how do we actually get people to come and see what we're doing at 3Twins? Of course there are people out there who are interested in watching funny and entertaining comics or cartoons on-line, but with so many options to choose from, how do we get them to find, much less stop and watch, our site?
It's sort of like everybody in town just broke for lunch at the same time, and there's one street with 500 restaurants. 3Twins is one of those restaurants. Now how do we convince them to come eat here instead of one of the other 499?
Now, it's not EXACTLY like that, because you don't have to pick 3Twins over other sites like Homestar Runner, 8-bit Theater or Penny Arcade, you can enjoy them all. Nevertheless, how do we move beyond just being another face in the crowd?
The discouraging part is, I know we've got something great on our hands, and something that's quite a bit different than a lot of the other, often more popular, web comic or cartoon sites out there. But just as we've learned how to do everything else along the way, we're having to learn how to generate hits and attract viewers as we go.
The easiest method, of course, is word-of-mouth, but that can really only take you so far. Then there's getting out name out there on sites like Facebook or Twitter, but it seems if people haven't heard of us already, then again, this only takes us so far. There are also numerous webcomic listings, but as stated previously, that leaves us as yet another face in the crowd. And so that leaves us at something of a loss. Do we keep trudging along and hope for that big break? Or do we keep trying new methods? And if so, what?
At the end of the day, perhaps the best thing we can do is to keep working hard to make 3Twins the best website it can be and have faith that someday, hopefully soon, all of this hard work will pay off! And of course, as always, your feedback on all things 3Twins is accepted and encouraged.
My thoughts and Comments on Hatman & Indigo Issues:
ReplyDeleteI found myself completely sucked into it the moment i started watching. I started from issue #1 and made it up to issue#18 when I realized I had more work to get done. Don't worry i did end up finishing it. As for what I think about this site, its great, the artwork just keeps getting better, but i would like to see more of the humor that seemed to get buried in the later issues. I absolutely love indigo. He was so much fun, that the artwork in the beginning to seem to bother me, I was too busy laughing and enjoying a great storyline. Keep up the good work.
What I want to know is where you guys find the time and inspirations to create something likes this. The artwork and web design are one thing, but to go the extra step and throw in the voices too, WOW! For me I haven't got the patience or the know-how to create something like this. I’m the person who knows what she likes and why. I know what makes a good piece of work if its directly in front of me, but if its not already completed for me to observe I find myself completely lost. All of you are definitely something to be admired. The more content and options you offer with your site the greater the risk, like adding in voice-overs for the visuals, on paper that sounds great but its one of those things you actually have to be good enough at it to pull it off. Boy's, "you pull it off, quiet nicely."
Keep Producing, MEK
Thanks for the feedback.
ReplyDeleteHatman & Indigo was originally going to be a cartoon (like Midieville or Star Fetched), but we didn't know anything about animation. In fact we didn't really know anything about web comics either. We just wanted to tell our stories, and doing it in the comic medium was easier than trying to animate it.
I think one of the things that made the early scripts so light, was we had written them all to be an animated cartoon, and we weren't going for fleshing out any characters, just telling silly stories.
Right now, we have some more serious stories, with bits of humor sprinkled throughout. We really needed to do this, to flesh out our unique characters, like making Hatman more of a true hero in "The Hatman Clause", or giving The Terrible Trio more of a purpose. We have a great story up and coming that delves deep into Indigo too.
Sometimes, its easy to write a flat story, something that goes nowhere with the characters and has a watered down plot, but for those chracters to have more of a "soul" we need to show them at weak times.
The dificulty is to keep it light hearted, but still engage and ever growing audience.
Thanks again for the kudos and feedback,
Andy Kuder aka Indigo
Thank you for your kinds words. I assure you we are working harder on the humor. Most of our first two years was a big learning curve so we bounced back and forth between who the characters were and trying to widen the world of Hatman as writers as well as trying to find who they were as voice actors. I think some of the less funny issues could have been a little funnier if some of our more over the top characters had played over the top with the same dialogue. That's just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteHowever, rest assured, Megan, we have been more recently trying to refocus that laser beam of humor back into the stories. However, we do have a few things planned for 2010 that will not be as funny as you might like because the point is going to be to provoke a different emotional response than that of laughter. However, it is my hope that these stories will be just as beloved as some of the most humorous ones because of what they do convey.
Keep plugged into the 3twins-verse and be sure you add a seat belt to your computer chair because everything up till now was just the coaster clicking up that first hill!
-Jason aka Hatman