TCAF 2016 + Doing Something Different with TWS

By playerprophet Posted in Canada, Comics, Doujinshi, Personal, Those Without Shadows

Okay let’s start with what’s happening in TWS: We’ll be changing how we update so that we can do it with more regularity. After doing a twitter survey it seems that the more popular option would be to update more often with a page or two at a time, so that’s what we’re going to do from here on out. That said, you should look forward to an update by the end of the weekend, probably.

Second: You can now play the games on your phone! We’re still working out some bugs from the mobile version, but it mostly works.

So here’s what happened to me at TCAF 2016:

This year I ended up getting on the waiting list for TCAF proper, but the wait ran long and I got in with the Hand Eye Society for Comics vs Games. So for my first time I had to build an interactive way to play TWS to show off all it’s capable of. So I had my comics and we got TWS up on an ipad borrowed from my lovely roommate and showed off our nice new touchscreen abilities.
It was a learning experience but it did go mostly well.

We had two OTHER new and exciting things there, too. One of them was Clark‘s burnt CD soundtrack. It’s currently unavailable anywhere but I have it on good authority that he’ll be hocking them to his patrons soon. If you’re interested you should support him, for sure!

The second was my zine about fandom, which you can download here. This was a major point to my stress coming up on TCAF but I got to say a lot of things in it that I really wanted to say.

NOW IT’S TIME FOR THE CHRONOLOGICAL PLAY-BY-PLAY OF MY ADVENTURES.

At the beginning of the week (this is important) I got my second request from someone to help out by picking up the Steve/Bucky fancomic by Yuko Ota and Jess Fink, so I decided to reach out and just offered a pickup for anyone willing to fork over the cash in advance on my open twitter. It was retweeted by Jess herself and the orders flowed in. I became that guy who does pickup of Comiket items, except in Canada. I became the fairypornmother, in to bring all the good little adults their pornography.

My flight was booked with Clark’s so we would both come in on Friday and leave on Monday. It seemed economical at the time, since feeding yourself away from home is expensive, but I feel like we paid extra in stress. I missed the World Balloon Academy classes (which I love) but we were in early for setup. Luckily we had my darling friend Amy with us – hosting us and helping out and driving us around. She’s a supreme babe and one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, and if you are ever able to work with her I encourage you to do it. Amy, coincidentally, works for Breadpig, which was managing things for Yuko and Ananth along with Tessa Stone and Brian and Scott of Atomic Robo. So, as we were done getting our TWS table prepped, we went upstairs and (while extremely tired) also did what we could to help them out. I got some stucky fanfiction recommendations from Yuko, too, and got to hear her get emotional about shipping. It’s great to work with a kindred spirit.

The following morning, I gave her a wad of four hundred Canadian to begin my porn empire.

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They were all packed so nicely in slick glossy packets that when I got back to my table I dropped them all on the floor. THEY WERE SLIPPERY. A sweet girl in a hijab helped me pick them up, saying “no judgement!”

Although this wasn’t my first time vending at TCAF, it was my first time working with the Hand Eye Society, who I must say was spectacular. They helped me brainstorm ideas about how to get TWS working for the showcase beforehand, and they helped out with all the hiccups during the show as well. I recommend working with them as well, and I believe that I will again.

The audience that came up to Comics vs Games was different than the people I encountered last year on the first floor. People came and sat down and played TWS, so they could really see what it could do. I feel like it caught a lot more interest this way than if I just threw postcards at everyone who looked my way.

It was also a goddamn joy to talk to people around me about the video game industry and the indie market comparatively. Since TWS is not quite a webcomic and not quite a game, it’s hard for me to find my place, but I definitely felt at home this year.

I mostly just worked my butt off on Saturday but Sunday was a bit more indulgent. I’ve been incredibly lucky to become friends with ipgd lately. We’d made plans to do Korean Barbecue on Sunday (which we did) but they were keen to introduce me to their bestie, Andrew Hussie, and had looked for me all day Saturday to do it. By the time they found me and I got to meet him, I was that-girl-they-couldn’t-find. We didn’t talk long, but I’m grateful for it all the same. ❤️

 

Phew I wish all of my cons were exciting enough to be worth reporting on. I had a great time, thanks to everyone who came to visit me, I wish I’d taken more selfies.

 

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