Spiral Knights - [Video Fanfic] Clockwork Wanderers~ Episode Two: The First Stratum

[Video Fanfic] Clockwork Wanderers~ Episode Two: The First Stratum

29 replies [Last post]

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 00:31

Darkbrady

~Story
The story is based on three competent Knights; Mhkai, his wife Irilias and their grown daughter Raeleine, who were separated from each other during the crash landings onto Cradle. Upon realising that Raeleine is missing, they set out on a journey to find her. A heartfelt quest that leads them into the life of nomadic Clockwork Wanderers, who literally live their life within the vast Clockworks without returning to Haven again. where they inevitably become friends with travelling Knights and even Basil.

~Introduction
We don't know how much anyone else is going to actually enjoy these videos (we hope you do though!) but we're having fun making them and it's an interesting experience that deeply involves the game and a degree of the story, so we felt like sharing! If anyone does enjoy it or have comments, contributions etc, there's a section for that below :)
This is a pet project me and my girl are doing just for the fun of it, as something else to do in-game. The story is simple and standalone episodic based for the most part, but there's a running story arc to tie everything together and drive the main plot. For the most part the intention is to keep it quite light-hearted and fun, while having some more moving moments that suit the story, when they come around.

Below, we have:
Artistic Licensing notes that are worth reading before watching the episodes, as it may fill in some plotholes you notice
Chapterlist All the current episodes, including names, youtube links and a short description
Miscellaneous Details and Trivia trivia and random facts about the project and our intentions/experiences while making it
Contribution How we'll deal with any contributions and suggestions towards the project

~Artistic Licensing
As with all fanfic stuff, there's some assumptions we'll have to make, or small changes that will be employed in the name of making our story work towards our goals, without changing the story or gameplay as we understand it entirely, as well as with how the characters work. We'll keep a wee list here of anything that may otherwise seem "off" updated with anything we might need to add. Hopefully this should solve some questions before they need asked :)

Our heroes are experienced Knights previously, and crashed on Cradle with their previous weaponry intact. They're not new to the game, they're just stranded and lost, but have experience and skill at their backs.
Our heroes arrived somewhat later than a large population of Knights, when Haven has already been settled and new Knights are beginning to get trained up from noobhood.
Most of the monsters and enemies on Cradle are entirely new to the Knights, and as such, our heroes have never witnessed anything like most of them before their arrival.
Journeys through floors and maps in the Clockworks can take hours to days and are considerably more exhausting.
There is not simply "one path down" to the elevator, and moving to maps separate maps and gates on the same depth is possible, allowing a permanent living situation and more flexible travel across them.
Being downed in the Clockworks is not as recoverable as it we understand it. Energy can be given to help save the Knight from death, but will still leave them in pretty bad shape. There's also no "Return to Haven" magic button, and as such, an entire party being downed will typically result in their deaths.

~Chapterlist:

Prologue: The Crash Landing
The couple crash land on Cradle and make their way to the Rescue Camp to find each other
Ep.1: In Haven
The couple head to Haven in search of their daughter and learn a lesson about relaxing
Ep.2: The First Stratum
The couple start their journey in the Clockworks and try to find somewhere safe to sleep
Ep.3:
The couple...

Ep. :
The couple...

~Miscellaneous Details and Trivia:

Other episodes will be different than the prologue; episode 1 is due to be more light-hearted, this prologue had to be quite heavy just to set the story, there was simply no way around it without ruining the tone of the overall story and we wanted that to be kept serious, while leaving the light-hearted stuff to the standalone episodes.
This whole project is being run on two different computers and two different video capturing programs, so there'll be changes in quality across them, due to how we're managing it all. It generally shouldn't be too much of an issue though, it's more about the story than the video quality.
We actually did make new characters for this project, feeling it would be a fun new gimmick to add to the enjoyment of the game, and let us play out our noob days again, and play them in a very immersive role at that, really trying to explore eveyrthing and ask all the questions we would if we were really there in their...shoes? Knights don't have feet...
We also chose to use weapon loadouts that we've never used before, finding it a good excuse to experiment and explore with different tactics and weapons; due to this, you may see some stupid mistakes in gameplay, but that's really all just the fun of it!
Although the weapon classes were intended to be differently, for the sake of separating them; both for character development and diversity in general, the cameras were not, but I feel that having the cameras changing between the two characters further adds to the separation, really letting you feel more like you're behind the eyes of that particular character, rather than just a fly on the wall watching both together.
There are some small issues that we wanted to avoid (such as having names in the party before they met up) but simply just weren't sure how to deal with the issues. We're hoping that they're generally just overlooked as impractical problems and that it doesn't detract from the video.
We actually have a fairly large main story arc planned out (at least considering the amount that happens per episode), enough to cover several "sagas" or "seasons" of the show, what we don't have enough of is standalone episodes to fill gaps between the main plot-based episodes!
Episode 2 is the prototype episode for a "pic-talk" gimmick we're testing out, to try and allow more of a conversational feel between the couple without having portrait conversations, which should also help fill out some otherwise empty/boring time within the episodes.

~Contributions:
If you do have any comments, criticisms or suggestions, feel free to fire them away. We still plan on making the story and videos the way we want them to go, but we're open to contributions! Feel free to suggest anything if you're unsure!
::Story
The overall story arc is down to our plans mostly, but suggestions might be taken on board if we like the sound of them and it fits into our plan. As for any "standalone" episodes or other diversions, suggestions are very welcome, as we want the episodes treated, like a real tv show, to keep some action in between the main story arc, so any other stories between all that would be fantastic, too!
As stated in the Trivia section: "We actually have a fairly large main story arc planned out (at least considering the amount that happens per episode), enough to cover several "sagas" or "seasons" of the show, what we don't have enough of is standalone episodes to fill gaps between the main plot-based episodes!", so standalone episode suggestions are ideal!
::Artwork
Any artwork is very welcome as I would like to have varying degrees and varying styles of artwork throughout each episode to add some stylising to it. Artwork can include character portraits, action scenes, several sequential images (as we have at the beginning of episodes); basically anything relevant that can be fitted in. However keep in mind that the character appearances won't stay as they are forever, and will change bit by bit over time. Also that Haven won't be a location that will be visited, and the story will be based around these characters, not just any random Knight.
::Video
I'm not sure what we can accept in the ways of video, unless it's a focus of something of monsters or some particular area in the Clockworks. Cameo appearances can be set up if suited to the story. The most of the video taking will be done by us though, as it is focussed on these characters and we take the videos for editing, but suggestions will be listened to as far as this goes.
::Other
That's all I can think of now, but I can keep this updated if I think of anything else, or if anyone makes suggestions!

Hope you enjoy it! :)

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 01:09

Demonicsothe

Moar please

Fri, 01/27/2012 - 17:56

Aarlen

I personally overlooked the

I personally overlooked the impracticalities you mentioned such as party name because I was focused on the story.

I am loving it so far and cannot wait to see how the story develops when they get to Haven.

Bring it on! =]

Fri, 01/27/2012 - 18:16

Psycho-Dani

Picking at dem nits

This has potential, and I'll give my cent and a half about this. I'll admit I didn't watch the WHOLE video, blame the fray for that D: but what I did see was good. You had a good framerate at least, thats kinda imperativex100, but what rang a few alarms was that Mhkai had non-proto weps.
I know its possible, but I think it kinda took away from it at the start when he was all kicking ass when Irilias (Nit pick #2 - can't spell the names easily enough D:) met him, gunning it up with a swifty.

That being said, having them each assigned to the different player classes (guns/swords/bombs) could make for good character development.

Also your CE, while I understand you're sing extra knights, maybe having the red 0's for CE would have added a more, "Shipwrecked" feel to it, no money, no energy, no idea whats going on.

I'm assuning the fact we've only seen 2 characters together is mainly due to the fact you have no third player?, maybe having a third computer would help, and I'd say maybe "hire" (Voluntary work! :D) another player to help with that, but that would mean recording and sending videos around, which may cause hassle.

I'm tired and can't really think of anything else to say, but that's my contribution, can't wait to see the future~

Fri, 01/27/2012 - 19:22

Darkbrady

The lack of proto weaps was

The lack of proto weaps was because we wanted to give the feel that the characters weren't inexperienced (the implications that the daughter was a competent knight too) and were just lost/trapped and had access to their old weapons to use. The kicking ass was just a bi-product of that really. Altough we are specifically aiming to keep them in separate classes (guns & bombs) with two weapon slots each, as part of the challenge for playing and to keep the story a bit richer than "do w/e we want", while keeping to some character development/separation. I did realise that it might seem a bit odd in the early levels, but beyond that hopefully will start to feel more at home. We won't be rushing to get the latest 5* gear by the time any bosses are fought, so it shouldnae ever ring quite as untrue as that again :)

I agree about the CE, but I actually forgot that CE is shared between accounts; we both used alt chars on our main accounts so that we had access to the elevator passes (last thing we needed was to be makin' video shoots and run out of ME before we finished *shudder*). I was about to say that we didn't want to spend all our spare CE just for these chars, but it occurs to me as I saw this that we could have transferred it to our ragecrafting alts...too little too late I guess!

The two characters is deliberate, however, as we're doing it together (taking on the husband/wife roles respectively) and letting the missing daughter be the "main story arc" that drives the plot; the search for her between the standalone videos. We do actually have the character made and ready for such a time we choose to introduce her to the story, but as far as what actually happens about the playing of her hasn't been decided yet.
Of course you're right that having other players recording will introduce even more issues with videos that we'd like to avoid, altough we don't want that to stop other players joining in, when appropriate.

Glad you liked that enough though; I'm hoping to just keep a progressive improvement as they go, so such comments are appreciated :)

Mon, 01/30/2012 - 00:08

Darkbrady

Episode One is out now "In

Episode One: "In Haven" is out now. T'took a wee bit longer than anticipated (considerin' the content of it, anyway) as we were thinking more about refining the main story arc and how it would affect this episode directly.

This episode is far more light-hearted than the prologue with the odd cheeky wee joke in it, now that we can start easing off and letting the story roll naturally, now that the main story is set. Is a bit light on raw content just because Haven is a pretty small place; not much to do! But next episode will finally get us in the Clockworks and get some action happening :)

Mon, 01/30/2012 - 00:32

Windsickle

/applauds

Tue, 01/31/2012 - 05:53

Psycho-Dani

I should keep vigilant...

Checking this post days after my last lol, if I'm to be of any use I should keep on my toes :U

Wee new episode, I am compelled to watch this. If a series only has a pilot and Ep1 and you're drawn into it that's always a good sign. (Commenting while I watch so if I cover something thats in the Ep I'm a stupid. EDIT: This seemed to have turned into a running commentary lol

I love the little art as the two "descend" into haven, had a really nice..... This is where I need English lessons Dx... something to it, I never imagined arriving in haven was so... modern.
Snow in haven!? I kinda sorta miss those days, but I wonder how you'll fill out the missing snow next episode? Maybe have like "some days later" kinda twansition? As for the people in haven, I'm guessing you just shot this on the fly without warning? Everyone seemed so chill, and you did good to pick a haven sans epic spam, so Kudos on that. I love and hate how they were in the same haven (I only hate it because me and a friend after a run never get such luck, but thats besides th point.)
I like what you did with the wolver den, clearing it out then using that scenario room as a chilling spot, I'd never see any of the clockworks as anything as a battleground, and that certainly gave it a unique flair, Gz on that
And back to haven! The chat with the random gunslinger left me on a cliff coathanger, so I'm looking forward to the next episode

8/10 marks to you good sir and madam, you should work on getting the same recording software next maybe. Looking forward to more~

Tue, 01/31/2012 - 12:18

Windsickle

I just realized something.

I just realized something. How did Mhkai get his hands on that Pulsar variant in the Rescue Camp? I don't mean in-game but in the story? It doesn't make sense that he had it before the crash because the Pulsars are Gremlin-made Weapons. I don't mean to bug you but I thought I should point this out. Good job otherwise.

Tue, 01/31/2012 - 12:49

Psycho-Dani

@wind

If you read my first post, I poked at this too, and DB's reply covered this, something about being skilled already, and not total newbs. As for gremlin tech I have no idea, that's for DB to answer

Tue, 01/31/2012 - 16:54

#10

Darkbrady

@Windsickie:It's a voltech

@Windsickie:
It's a voltech alch, not a pulsar. If the voltech alchs are Gremlin made then...well, that's entirely my fault for just not being aware of that fact, and will be slightly sad that it hinders on the story.
But aye, the idea was that they were already equipped and competent before the crash, so had some of their previous gear, just stranded in an alien world without a clue. We didn't want them appearing just to be completely newstart knights, as we wanted them capable of punching through challenges heroically.

@Psycho-Dani:
I wanted to keep it a running theme to have a wee bit of art of varying styles at the beginning of each episode, just as a bit of fun, and thought it'd be a good excuse to take a look at the elevator into Haven that's never seen.
From that response I take it that the snow has been removed now? I've not logged on since I posted this update, but that was only a day or two ago now. Won't be a worry though, as visits to haven will be rare and brief from now on; the story dictates that they'll spend their time in the Clockworks, not Haven.
We were together in haven deliberately, to keep to the "search togetehr" part of the story, but again; from now on we'll just be together in the CW.
As for the people, no one was aware what was happening, we just took advantage of the "no one knows/cares what we're doing" attitude and tried to incorporate it; although I am glad we found one that was relatively busy with people, but excluded from chatspam.
And aye, I thought it'd be a nice twist of perception to take the snipe garden and play it off as a Haven outskirts, to give some imagination to some land on the surface outside of Haven.

@Both of you:
Very glad you like it, especially since it's only a couple episodes in and very rough around the edges. If the "prototype" episodes are relatively successful, it gives me confidence that we can only improve from here, and hopefully with advice and suggestions, we'll do just that :)

Tue, 01/31/2012 - 21:11

#11

Windsickle

@Darkbrady: A Voltech then?

@Darkbrady: A Voltech then? I had thought it was a Kilowat Pulsar or something. But an Alchemer I see. I'm not aware of any background information on the origins of the Alchemer guns so I guess your story's intact. My bad.

Tue, 01/31/2012 - 22:52

#12

Demonicsothe

DB, how long does it take

DB, how long does it take between episodes to come out? I'm sure there's many fans of this new series who don't post on it, and many of us fans eagerly await the next episode.

Some questions I have. Would the journeys into the clockworks be as one continuous dive, or forays down, with elevator rides back up? And would you have the couple run together, or have scenes where they meet up with others?

No need to answer them, as we will no doubt find out soon enough. Good luck to you and your girl in this amazing project :)

Wed, 02/01/2012 - 18:06

#13

Darkbrady

From start to finish, the

From start to finish, the episodes don't take that long to make actually, we spend about as much time trying to come up with bits of story and interesting things to happen as I spend putting the videos at the end together. The recordings themselves all get done relatively quickly, assuming we know ahead of time what we're planned. After that we're just taking breaks between them, so as to not "dry up the fun", as it were and allow for some excitement and to look forward to it; s'never a good thing when it all just comes blasting out full speed.

As fr Ep2, I'm wanting to start gettin' that organised and finished over the next couple days if possible, but as for the forums I'm going to avoid posting any kind of dates. I'd rather an unpredictable, explainable schedule over possible unreliable promises and potential disappointment.

The journeys will be a persistent "dive" as such. I edited the OP and added a few things on artistic licensing for us to try and fit in some more explanation behind what we're doing. Once they go down, that'll be it; they'll officially be nomads within the CWs, living there and moving around amongst them (thus the title of the project). :)

Fri, 02/03/2012 - 13:54

#14

Darkbrady

Episode Two: "The First

Episode Two: "The First Stratum" is out now.

This episode covers the couple as they make their journey into the Clockworks and learn about it first hand, seeing only the tip of the iceberg of strange and unusual creatures that inhabit it and how travelling through it works.

It should also be noted that this is the first episode where we've tried out a new gimmick on conversations and "pic-talking" to see how well it works.
It's there to try and allow more of a conversational feel between the couple without having portrait conversations, which should also help fill out some otherwise empty/boring time within the episodes. With any luck it also keeps you feeling more rooted to the map, rather than being whisked off to a new screen for the conversation.
If the new concept appears to be a success, we'll keep doing it and continue to improve the look and feel of it.

This is also where we start to introduce our own concept that the Clockworks move and work in a more complex fashion than simply allowing Knights to travel down one at a time, and that travel between floors in omnidirectional.

Also, on an unrelated note, as I've edited into the Trivia/Contributions sections:
"We actually have a fairly large main story arc planned out (at least considering the amount that happens per episode), enough to cover several "sagas" or "seasons" of the show, what we don't have enough of is standalone episodes to fill gaps between the main plot-based episodes!", so standalone episode suggestions are ideal!

Sun, 02/05/2012 - 14:14

#15

Demonicsothe

Pic talking is a great idea.

Pic talking is a great idea. But having the same line over the characters head as the pic changes seem like the knight is repeating itself. Perhaps you can split up the sentences, or just put in frames where the knight doesn't have the overhead text. This is just me, though.

Stand alone ideas: If you havn't decided to incorporate different floors as a main point in your episodes, you can use that. You can explain your own interpretation of CSK, boss strats. Same thing goes for scenario rooms, although I don't know any that are big enough to warrant an entire episode.

A slightly more extreme of an idea is to count LD as a floor, whether it's a game for knights, or slaves caught to fight in a coliseum.

Sun, 02/05/2012 - 15:15

#16

Darkbrady

Aye, still workin' on ways to

Aye, still workin' on ways to make the pic-chat look smoother. My next attempt will be focussed on havin' the chatbubbles at a set position on the screen and lettin' everythin' else move, and it should keep the feel less juttery; there was one or two images like that just after they went down the very first elevator and I think that looked a lot nicer.

Already have a wee idea towards CSK, but that's planned up for later in the story.
Focussing on types of floors could be an idea, try keep a general appearance the same, but I think stratums are already quite similar to that, so that shouldn't be too hard to manage.
Boss stratas are somethin' I'm lookin' forward to, planned that out a fair bit by now, but can't do them too soon now, can we? :D
Aye, the Scenario Rooms are fun, but too small; I've been makin' a point of gettin' a vid whenever I have Mhkai in a scenario just so I can put it in later on if/when I want to try keep it fancier than just regular floors.

LD is interestin' though, that never occurred to me, bein' outside the CWs and all, but I'm likin' the coliseum vibe; that fits nicely into another wee ploy I have :D

Sun, 02/05/2012 - 17:35

#17

Demonicsothe

Good luck, and i'm looking forward to more

Mon, 02/06/2012 - 01:39

#18

Darkbrady

Glad to hear it, s'good at

Glad to hear it, s'good at least one or two other people enjoy it :)

Now all we need to do is make this more popular so we have more followers and thusly...more suggestions! :D

More artwork would be nice too, I should really start trollin' the fanart threads askin' for contributions; would be good to get a nice wee mixup, 'cuz digital art's not really my thing, I'm more into paper myself D:

Mon, 02/06/2012 - 08:16

#19

Happyapathy

@Darkbrady

off-topic here but I've been waiting for a response on your character's role offer for a while and need a reply or I will have to reopen the spot soon.

Mon, 02/06/2012 - 08:57

#20

Darkbrady

Totally missed that post on

Totally missed that post on your thread! Appreciate you comin' to let me know rather than just lettin' it die and bein' replaced. Have sent my reply in now, I'm ok w/ everythin' really :)

Tue, 02/07/2012 - 00:26

#21

Demonicsothe

shameless

Bump for a good fanfic.

Sun, 02/12/2012 - 17:45

#22

Darkbrady

Just in case anyone cares,

Just in case anyone cares, we've not abandoned the project; the reason the newest ep's are delayed is because our heroine has taken ill and spendin' more time sleeping than not; but we've still got a plan laid out for when we get back to it :)

Sun, 02/12/2012 - 18:48

#23

Demonicsothe

Oh so that's why you were MIA

Oh so that's why you were MIA for a bit. Good to see you haven't abandoned it, but I hope you girl gets better.

Sun, 02/12/2012 - 23:26

#24

Darkbrady

Aye, barely touched the

Aye, barely touched the forums at all since then, she's just been sleeping all the time and I've been usin' the free time while I'm awake to catch up on coursework. She's on her way to gettin' better now though ^^

Fri, 03/30/2012 - 09:53

#25

Oroseira

Please, more.

MOAR MOAR MOAR

Fri, 03/30/2012 - 10:17

#26

Demonicsothe

I wouldn't expect it. I

I wouldn't expect it. I havn't seen him on in forever, at least not in the forums. People come and go in mmo's, this just seems to be a case of away for awhile, don't feel like coming back.

Tue, 04/03/2012 - 12:53

#27

Pow-The-Commando

I have a question. Do you

I have a question. Do you play on the european server?

Wed, 04/04/2012 - 12:34

#28

Angelic-Tear

Can not wait for more.

i had seen them some where else but never seen this forum. I llove them, though it reminds me of somethings i don't like to be reminded about, it's so good it makes up for that. ¬.¬ sadly, i'm having a bad day and can't compliment things properly.

Tear
tears fall to the ground, heedless of anything

Thu, 04/05/2012 - 05:30

#29

Oroseira

NOTICE

The heroine is very sick, so this postponed. Don't believe me? Go check through the posts.

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[Video Fanfic] Clockwork Wanderers~ Episode Two: The First Stratum