Klonoa: Dream Traveler of Noctis Sol doesn't wrap up with a definitive ending, so I hope Hitoshi Ariga and I are able to revisit it at some point down the road. Once it became a corporate hot potato with bigger budgets and unrealistic expectations, it couldn't sustain itself on a free-to-read webcomic model. If it stayed focused on that and built organically from there I think it could have fully carried through on that mandate. The original purpose of ShiftyLook, a streamlined way to reintroduce defunct Bandai-Namco's IPs and put them in front of as big an audience as possible for a fraction of the cost of developing a video game or anime, was forward thinking and had a lot of potential. We were well paid and well treated through and through. The gang at ShiftyLook were incredibly supportive and hard working, and gave the creative teams brought on board lots of latitude to create the stories we wanted to tell.
Getting the chance to create new stories and characters for so many game properties was a blast. I wrote a plethora of strips for the site at different points in its development: Wonder Momo, Klonoa, Sky Kid, and Dragon Spirit. We look forward to hearing from more ShiftyLook creators soon. If properly monetized, they would probably be able to modestly support their creators, but that's not enough to support a company with expenses like Shiftylook. In the end, I feel the current webcomics like Bravoman, Wonder Momo, Katamari, and Klonoa are actually at the popularity levels that a decent webcomic SHOULD be at after only 1 or 2 years. There's still the upcoming Wonder Momo game from WayForward, which actually seems like a perfect match, but it's unfortunately coming out too late to save the comics. It seemed to be banking largely on Andrew Hussie's mega-popular Homestuck characters as guest stars to bring in an audience, which was an interesting experiment but it seemed that the Homestuck fans weren't looking for a crossover. That's a genre that's very popular in Japan but still quite a niche market here in the west. Their second game, Namco High, was a visual novel. The Bravoman mobile app was a bit rushed and not polished as well as they wanted, and adding a freemium pay-to-play model to it made it a tough sell in the crowded mobile market. They did finally come out with two games near the end of 2013, but I felt neither of them was very well planned out. There were plans to monetize these comics to support operations, but those plans didn't materialize until quite recently. I guess that's the double-edged sword that comes from being the subsidiary of a large company like Bandai. It was impressive, but it also kind of overwhelmed the focus on making webcomics.
#SHIFTY LOOK FREE#
Even though they were just starting out, they set up enormous booths at conventions with live music, arcade machines, free t-shirts, and more. In my opinion they invested a lot up front on promotion and marketing to make the site launch with a big bang. Looking at why Shiftylook has come to an end, there are a lot of reasons. And who knows, if we can sell enough, maybe we can convince Bandai to let us create all-new material for them once again. WONDER MOMO VOL.1 will follow suit in a few months, and UDON is going to give our all to keep these properties and others going as a book line. I'm also quite proud that the comics are finally making it to print form, with the hardcover BRAVOMAN VOL.1 in stores now collecting the first 130+ strips. On top of that they always paid on time - there's no Dreamwave/Crossgen style scandal here. The page rates offered by Shiftylook were top notch even for mainstream comics, let alone webcomics. I could write these wacky characters forever. Writing Bravoman for 300 strips has been one of the most creatively rewarding experiences I've ever had in comics. Besides a few restrictions here and there, all of which are typical for this kind of work, we were given freedom to do pretty much whatever we wanted, allowing us to reinvent these properties in new and exciting ways. Matt Moylan, Managing Editor of UDON Entertainment who provided much of the content for ShiftyLook – as well as writing 300 episodes of Bravoman himself – writes to Bleeding Cool,Īs a creator, working on Shiftylook comics was a great experience.
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