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<title>Crimson Dark Recent Updates</title>
<description>The last update of the comic.</description>
<link>http://www.drunkduck.com/Crimson_Dark/</link>
<language>en-us</language>


<item>
<title>Goodbye!</title>
<description><![CDATA[That's it for the DD mirror! Please keep reading at [url=http://www.crimsondark.com]crimsondark.com[/url].]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 31 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
<link>http://www.drunkduck.com/Crimson_Dark/?p=334619</link>
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<item>
<title>Bonus Page: Sapphira</title>
<description><![CDATA[I also adapted the process I used for Sapphira to Whisper. You may have noticed some subtle changes in Whisper's appearance for chapter 5, that's because I'm now using a custom skin texture for her instead of drawing all of her blue/black/silver augs on manually in photoshop after each render. This saves time *and* looks better, because her silver trim now actually reflects the environment (I used to just paint it with the air-brush to give the illusion of reflection).

The title page for Chapter 6 will appear on Monday.]]></description>
<pubDate>Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
<link>http://www.drunkduck.com/Crimson_Dark/?p=333263</link>
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<title>Bonus Page: Test Renders - Interior</title>
<description><![CDATA[I watched the first of the new Futurama movies ("Bender's Big Score") on Saturday. On Sunday, I watched it again. My five word review: "Love-letter to the fans".

Just one week now until chapter 6 begins. Eek!]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
<link>http://www.drunkduck.com/Crimson_Dark/?p=331356</link>
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<title>Bonus Page: Golgotha</title>
<description><![CDATA[Trivia: Though I spent many weeks constructing Golgotha, I didn't settle on a name for it until the last minute. It's working name (which I had no intention of using) was Tortuga.

Two gentle reminders: The [url=http://www.cafepress.com/crimsondark.88117133]2008 calendar[/url] is still available for sale, and if you don't want one, can't afford one, or would prefer that 95% of your expense goes my way, instead of just 5%, then [url=http://www.davidcsimon.com/crimsondark/index.php?view=support]please donate[/url].

Linky Goodness: If you're distressed by Crimson Dark updating once a week in 2008 instead of twice (thankyou everyone for your kind words of support, btw), then maybe you should fill your time by reading [url=http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/index2.php]Gunnerkrigg Court[/url]. It updates three times a week, and is a substantially better read.

Also, I think I ought to give advance warning that once Chapter 6 begins, I will no longer be updating the Drunk Duck mirror. To continue reading, you will need to use the [url=http://www.davidcsimon.com/crimsondark/]main site[/url].]]></description>
<pubDate>Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
<link>http://www.drunkduck.com/Crimson_Dark/?p=329734</link>
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<item>
<title>Chapter 05: Page 25</title>
<description><![CDATA[Here ends chapter 5.

Now I have a painful announcement to make. As of chapter 6, Crimson Dark will only be updating once a week.

This has not been an easy decision to make, in fact it has weighed heavily on my mind for some weeks now. If it were possible to make thoughts physically manifest, then I’d look a bit like Wiley Coyote with an anvil on his head (moments before a large bump grows out of his scalp, knocking the anvil aside… that’s where the analogy breaks down). As grateful as I am for everybody's donations, advertising money and calendar purchases, I'm simply not earning enough to live on. In fact, I'd say I'm earning less than 10% of the bare minimum I need to pay rent and bills.

I knew from the beginning that I would be appealing to a niche market with Crimson Dark. The vast majority of the people I meet in real life have never even heard of "webcomics" before, and I made my life even more difficult by making my work serialised, sci-fi and 3D. I sometimes feel that I should have written it all in Latin, just to square the deal. I knew that I would never have as many readers as Penny Arcade or PVP Online, but I didn’t care because I have a story to tell and I want to tell it my way.

I am delighted by the loyalty of my readers, their dedication and ardour, and I’m not about to scoff at over 18,000 unique visitors per week (according to Google Analytics). I am incredibly pleased by the success of the comic, and it has done tremendous things to pull me out of the mire of chronic depression and low self-esteem which was making my life suck on so many levels. If it were possible I would be updating every day.

But the fact remains that my readership seems to have reached a plateau of late, with no increase in numbers for many weeks now (and, if anything, something of a decline). I know that artists/writers aren’t supposed to care about that sort of thing, but we do. It has become painfully clear that if I am to get off this government pension then I am going to need to retrain and get back into the work force, which means that the comic must suffer.

I have already announced my plans to begin full-time study next year, specifically a Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment majoring in Game Design (I’ll let you know if the course is as cool as it sounds… but I’m not sure that anything can actually be that cool). From what I’ve seen and heard about the course, it is very intense and I know for certain that I will not be able to maintain a twice-weekly update schedule. To be honest, I’m not even certain that I will be able to maintain a weekly update schedule, which is why I’m changing now so that I will have all of January to build up as much of a buffer as possible. and so that I will be able to focus on my studies for the rest of the first trimester without compromising on the quality of the comic. I refuse to become one of those webcartoonists who is always missing deadlines, or only updates “When I get around to it”.

I cannot understate how difficult this is for me. I have a story to tell, and you want to hear it. As relationships go, that’s almost as precious to me as family. I’m sorry. All I can do is ask for your continuing patience, and again promise that you will get to hear the full story, even if one day I need to abandon the webcomic format in order to tell it (shadow puppets, anyone?).

I’m going to take a couple of weeks off now, ostensibly for the holidays but really because I’ve still got a lot of work to do before I’m ready to start rendering panels for the next chapter. Chapter 6 will begin with a title page on Monday, the 31st December (New Year’s Eve), and will update every Monday after that. Between now and then, I will be uploading bonus pages (I’ve decided to stop calling them “filler”. If I’ve learned one thing from seven seasons of The West Wing, it’s that words have power, and you should never miss an opportunity to make cardboard sound like chocolate).

Have a wonderful holiday, drive safely, enjoy some cricket and don't forget that Christmas is nothing without Easter.]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
<link>http://www.drunkduck.com/Crimson_Dark/?p=327604</link>
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