*NOTE* If you don’t wish to read through this entire post, simply read the last paragraph.
The Ninja Shizatch webcomic has been running since September 2006. As of today, DrunkDuck records a total of 21,250 hits, and 142 comments from DD users (including my own).
That's an average of 84 hits a day, and 3.74 comments per page.
However, eXTReMe Tracking tells me that roughly 70% of my traffic is from reloads.
So what I've gathered from the hits and the comments is that Ninja Shizatch has built up a small fanbase of regular (or semi-regular) readers and commenters, for all of whom I am greatly appreciative, however it is not quite drawing in as many new readers as I would like.
From the beginning, my goal with Ninja Shizatch has been to create a webcomic tailored to meet the desires of its readers. A webcomic that would give more of what the readers like, and less (or nothing at all) of what they dislike. A webcomic that would make regular readers feel as though their input actually helps shape the story.
Looking over some of the pages that received the most comments, I find that the majority of them have action, all of them have animation, some of them have plot elements, and none of them involve humor exclusive to gaming.
Since I am always seeking to improve Ninja Shizatch (and a careful look through the comic pages should show a marked improvement in graphic design), I’ve decided to start shifting the comic in a slightly different direction.
Parodies of gaming have been done to death, and they’ve been done better. There are other webcomics that specialize in Dungeons & Dragons humor, or video games, or what-have-you. Some of my pages are dedicated entirely to making a gaming joke – well, no more. I may still throw in some gaming humor now and again, but I’ve realized that my best-received “jokes” are those unrelated to gaming, and have to do with the characters or story itself.
Which brings up the point about the story. Essentially, there has been little to no plot. The driving force of the comic has been parody – “what can I make fun of next, and how can I make my characters make fun of it?” I find this to have been a mistake. Though my intention with Ninja Shizatch was never to make a great story, a long-running comic of this variety suffers if there is no plot driving the story onward.
So all this to say the following: Ninja Shizatch will henceforth be more story-driven, and the humor will shift away from gaming parody and more to in-context humor. What do you think? Is this a good move? What would you recommend?
5 comments:
Sounds good to me. As long as you don't go the way of Goblins, where humor is almost completely abandoned for the sake of action.
Also, Silver shouldn't always be the point of the humor. He's like the joke fall-guy. There needs to be pages where he does something smart, or at least slightly witty, which causes the humor to be forcused on someone else.
I used to follow Goblins, and was disappointed at the turn it took.
Well, that, and the fact that the updates are always late.
If I ever start going the Goblins route with the humor, you have permission to slap me. Twice.
Permission: Acknowledged.
BTW, I like the new update with the hidden text bubbles. It might get annoying if you make it difficult... BUT, if you make it easy to find AND maybe add some Easter Eggs in there (something as simple as a small spot that you drag over and a text bubble of Silver saying "Ow!" would be fun. Think of how much more complex easter eggs would be?)
Hmmm... I like this Easter Egg idea.
"Book 1" of NS is coming to a close (page 31 is the last page), and I've begun working on "Book 2." Maybe I'll start putting a hidden Easter Egg on each page...
Thanks for the idea, shizatcheer!
If you do Easter Eggs, you should tell the reader about the eggs after the next issue.
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