Web Comic to Video Game: The PiranhaPocalypse Story

Not every comic comes in a glossy tradeback or in a fancy hardcover. Comics have always been a part of the internet, but in today’s day and age they can transcend to new heights than just doodles in email chains. Trisha Williams, creator of the Gamer Girl Pinup comic series is here to re-write the rules of the game. Williams is taking her web comic from a passive reading experience to an interactive game.

And if Williams’ Kickstarter to get Kratos, the star of PiranhaPocalypse, is successful come July of this year it would mark a very huge step for the web comics industry.

When did you start the Gamer Girl Pinup comic series?

I started the series about three years ago right after I moved from Seattle to Los Angeles. I’ve been doing weekly (and sometimes more) posts ever since.

 

How did that idea come to fruition?

I’ve always loved comics as a child. From reading Archie to Calvin and Hobbes to X-Men. I made my own action comics when I was young. After moving to Los Angeles for work I realized I finally had some time to start a personal project. I wanted to get back into comics and many of my favorite artists were in the webcomic community which is incredibly inviting and friendly. I decided to create one about women gamers like me and my friends. We hadn’t seen ourselves represented very often as the types of gamers we were. I had only been posting them on my own site for a couple months when Michael Son from Tapastic asked me if I’d like to have them published on their site. I agreed and loved working with them so much I’ve stayed with them ever since.

 

Where did the idea come to create a game based off the web comic?

Although I love making GGP, my graduate degree is in Interactive Technology. The full-time jobs I’ve had over the last decades were in video game development and education. I’ve worked on all different types of games over the years but recently started to notice how the way that people game is changing. There’s often less time for long play cycles and a huge portion of people like to play on their mobile device instead of in front of a computer or TV, and that included me. But I always have time to read a few webcomics or play a quick few minutes of a fun game. It only seemed natural to put the two together.

 

Have you ever used Kickstarter before? Why did you chose to go the crowd-funding route?

I’ve never used Kickstarter before. I’ve seen a few friends go through the process, both successfully and unsuccessfully, but it didn’t really prepare me for how much work it really is. I’m counting on a couple grey hairs after this is done.

Our studio, Pigeon Hole Productions, chose Kickstarter for this project because of how close the web comic community is with the creators. We as the artists and writers make all the comics for the fans. We work really hard to make sure that we make compelling storylines and lovable characters, and there’s nothing better than getting an excited response from the readers. So we wanted them to be involved from the very start. And we also wanted to see the amount of interest in a new idea like a Playable Web Comic.

By using Kickstarter we are also able to team up with some local companies to offer awesome rewards for backers. Like Munky King for a Kratos Toy, and 5&A Dime for wearables.

 

The premise sounds almost like a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ type game, what do you have in mind for the concept?

PiranhaPocalypse has two different play types. The first is controlling Kratos the Piranha in his tank trying to eat as many Magic Pellets as he can to trigger a delusional apocalypse where he gets to be the giant monster. You see he gets pretty bored sitting in his tank watching TV all day and has no grasp of what the outside world is really like.

Once the player has him eat enough Magic Pellets, one of the Pocalypse that the backers chose from the campaign will trigger and they get to destroy both modern day and fantasy cities as a giant mutated piranha and his flying crab minion!

 

How long will it take to create and launch once/if you receive the backing?

The game is slated to come out in October. It takes a while to make sure that what we ship out to the backers is polished and fun. Although we’re offering early access as a reward and they’ll be able to help us get that last 10% perfect.

 

Will we be seeing the Gamer Girl Pinup characters in the game even though it is from Kratos’ perspective/dream?

They will definitely make appearances. The overall idea of a Playable Web Comic isn’t too far from what already exists as GGP, only the readers/users will get to play in some of the panels like any other game. So there’s plenty of space for a Tanooki or 9Key to show up and bother the grumpy fish.

How has your work on other projects influenced this current project?

The studios experience working on both AAA titles, mobile titles, and casual games is a huge help in putting PiranhaPocalypse together. It gave us the know-how to make a quick and fun play cycle with the depth of longer, more involved games. Our past work has also given us connections with some fantastically talented people like our Audio Director and Technical Director.

 

What will bringing Kratos to life in PiranhaPocalypse mean for him in the future of GGP?

This means that the little guy gets his own comic series. He’ll be the star of his own separate series also published on Tapastic that focuses on his Pocalyptic Dreams. Of course he’ll still technically be in his tank in the GGP series, much to his dismay.

 

Is there a different approach to this kind of storytelling in making a game versus a webcomic?

There is, but not as much as far as the art and story are concerned. Comics are very animated and tell a lot in a small amount of space. I also often use simple gifs to show movement for more visual jokes. Much of the same techniques are applied to making a webcomic playable. It’s all the magical code behind the game that makes the two drastically different.