Disintegrated
I love obscure Star Wars characters, which is one reason that I was really looking forward to our Return of the Jedi parody. Eevee NineDeeNine is interesting to me by the very fact that he only appears so very briefly in the film, yet he is clearly an important cog in the sundry operations of running Jabba’s Palace. EDIT: A reader reminded me that NineDeeNine is a female. Thanks for that! END EDIT. We’ll be spending a few more strips here before returning to the hall. I hope you enjoy!
Sorry for the delay with today’s strip. Day job is to blame. Going to do my darnedest to try and get another strip up this week as well. Shooting for Friday, but who knows if we will be able to pull that off. Had my surgeries. Radio frequency ablation of the cervical nerves on both sides of my neck. Still recovering so I can’t judge any noticeable reduction in pain yet. However, the surgeon brought up the possibility of a trigger release for my greater occipital nerve(s). That area at the back of my head has been one of the constant areas of pain since before I had the cervical fusion in January, 2012. If I get that procedure then that could be two more surgeries over the next month. So I’m not in the clear quite yet.
By the way, THANK YOU SO MUCH! Blue Milk Special is definitely a two way street. We deliver the strips while our readers give us something back in return, whether it is kind words or from your pocket, it has been hugely encouraging and inspiring through some challenging months for me personally. The GoFundMe campaign is surprisingly close to reaching the goal thanks to so many readers who have contributed! It is AMAZING!
I am listening to Brandy Clark’s new album, 12 Stories
. I’m seldom one for country, but this is a thought provoking project with catchy, intimate tunes. Each song is from the perspective of ordinary women’s lives with dark, ugly unromantic twists. IF anyone is interested then check out NPR WAMU radio’s interview with Brandy for a taste of what this talented musician’s project is all about: click here for NPR interview. You can buy her album 12 Stories via this link here: 12 Stories
I’ve also been playing Tiny Death Star for Android. The choices by the producers of this game are baffling. I genuinely get the feeling that the people behind the game only learned about Star Wars an hour before coding the game. The concept is you are building a Death Star, level by level including retail, service, residential, and entertainment levels.
You report to the Emperor for new phases of the construction project. All the while new workers arrive at the service elevator for you to assign jobs. The big problem being that rather than Imperial staff, you have Gungans, Rebel Pilots and Ewoks among those seeking work. This defies the entire point of the elitist and racially pure Empire.
I’m not endorsing Imperial doctrine, but it doesn’t exactly feel like a Death Star when you have an Ewok running the coffee shop! After little more than a day of playing, the game already appears to be reaching that point where maintaining the status quo vs achieving new things is painfully prolonged. The game falls into the trap of boring routines too quickly. I miss the 1990s when you had PC games which weren’t built on monetizing the addiction of clicking the next button. Back then there wasn’t a glut of games that just spin the wheel in an endless cycle. There was something to achieve and ultimately complete. And along the way there was something called variety.
What can I say, I’m in my mid-30s now and I think I know better. I’ll just go back to my ice pack on the neck and listen to Brandy Clark. š
Pointless comment: EV-9D9 is a female droid. She was also a sadomasochist due to her malfunctioning “pain simulator”.
Yeah…just felt the urge to comment on that. ^^;
I had a feeling HE might have been a SHE. But I couldn’t be bothered checking. Thanks for passing that along. It won’t impact any scripted strips though, fortunately.
Where the %^&*^%$# do you get your ideas from Rod?
Well done.
I thin this is one of my favorite blog posts in a long time! Happy to see you guys back with a new strip!
Droid torture was weird enough! Better for the recipient this way, though.
I remember thinking in the theater that Eevee’s flapping mouth was cool.
I will step in and defend Tiny Death Star here. It is a toilet game, remember that. Not actual entertainment. I played Tiny Towers and some of its features should’ve carried over (100% painless free offers), but the overall experience is close enough.
Yeah, it’s 5-10 minutes of game time before you have to wait again. Yes, it’s failry shallow. Yes, it lacks stuff to do. But they combined SW and awesome pixel art and I have a lot of respect for their (all games combined) take on monetization, which never left me feeling forced into purchasing anything. And I haven’t.
Totally agree with JooLian on TDS. I check in every so often when I have a free minute or two.
You can look at it like the upper levels are just there to help fund the construction of the actual Death Star, which would be the sub-levels. And once they finish the Death Star, they’re going to enslave all the aliens and Rebels and force them to keep working but not pay them. IIRC, in the Death Star novel, some of the characters working on board were aliens.
Yes, so many of those “free” mobile games are just designed to make you wait so long that you become irritated enough to pay money for some item. I’ve deleted so many games like that.
But as for Tiny Death Star, I don’t think we’re supposed to be taking it too seriously. š And I think we need a Dark Horse Comic series about an Ewok who owns a coffee shop.
I read that entire first panel with the robotic voices from the movie in my head, which either says great things for your ability to recreate a memorable scene or that I’ve seen Star Wars way too many times. Probably both. š
Tiny Death Star was hard to put down for the first couple of days, but I have 22 levels now and it’s taking 7-8hrs to build new ones. The sprites are just too damn adorable to stay away for long though. I have one of the Royal Guard running the Aquarium which always makes me laugh. I’m purposely leaving him as the only staff member just for the lolz.
I too miss my 1990’s video games, especially the Star Wars ones; X-Wing, Tie Fighter, X-Wing Alliance, Rouge Squadron…why doesn’t anyone make good flight combat sims anymore? š …and of course, Yoda Stories which I actually have installed on my laptop and still play from time to time. If you’re looking for something that feels like a smartphone game without any of the pressure to spend more money you should check it out.