Trenches comic: Tuesday Nov. 1, 2011

Bogey

PaperLuigi44

Hehehe, this is a good one.

beforedawn

so let me get this straight he can afford a 60k lotus and everything that goes with owning said car ...ie insurance gas tires maintenance... but not a 600 a month apartment

McFodder

Well, he could afford it, with his previous job. If he's living in the carpark, he's probably not spending a lot on fuel or tires though.

Renegade Wolf

11/01/2011 - Anonymous

A children’s show visited studio to do a segment on how videogames were made. A day before the film crew is to arrive, they call us and say that for part of the planned segment they would like us to create a small game which “allows you to create a fairy who has to explore a magical kingdom. The plan was for the show host to interview one of our devs and ask for him create a small game about her as a fairy who would have to explore this fairy kingdom etc.” We tried explaining to upper management that any game, no matter how small, would take more than a day, but the suits said we needed the publicity, and to “make it happen.”

Like any other resourceful team would do, we thought we’d compromise (aka cheat) and make a flash video that would play on cue and pretend to appear as a playable game. We stayed up all night, but unfortunately only got half the flash done. An hour before they arrived, we just gave up and created a fairy like creature in … another game … with fairy like spire towers and vehicles and passed it off as a new game.

I like this one.

jackal

Re-skinning an existing game seems like a no brainer.

wonderpug

I wonder why he didn't put the top up in comic #1.

Scooter

jackal wrote:

Re-skinning an existing game seems like a no brainer.

Seems like there'd be copyright issues with going on TV and claiming this thing was a game you were creating yourself

Victory63

Scooter wrote:

jackal wrote:

Re-skinning an existing game seems like a no brainer.

Seems like there'd be copyright issues with going on TV and claiming this thing was a game you were creating yourself

It could depend on how the footage was presented. Either minor or just barely a glimpse. Maybe even the segment could've been canned and not aired at all. Unless maybe the footage was made using Minecraft which I recall Notch saying you're free to use lol

rockmonkey

wonderpug wrote:

I wonder why he didn't put the top up in comic #1.

He was so despondent in comic #1 that he didn't care that his top was down when it started to rain. He was too morose to be bothered.


Also yeah if you have a banging job and buy a lotus, then you lose your job. You can't find another job and soon you give up your apartment and move into your expensive, but cramped sports car. Probably because you're upside down on your car loan still. You wouldn't be spending any money on tires, you would ride those bad boys until they popped and that's over 50k miles at least. Plus car insurance is usually paid in what 6 month intervals? 12 months even? Or hey here is a crazy idea, maybe he either let his car insurance lapse, and doesn't have any at the moment or it may be the one thing he keeps paying despite everything because he can't afford to lose his car which is also his house if he gets pulled over.

foodle

beforedawn wrote:

so let me get this straight he can afford a 60k lotus and everything that goes with owning said car ...ie insurance gas tires maintenance... but not a 600 a month apartment

It looks more like a $100k Tesla Roadster, but they got the roof wrong. Either way it doesn't make that much sense ... although I do sort of like the comic itself ...

jackal

foodle wrote:

beforedawn wrote:

so let me get this straight he can afford a 60k lotus and everything that goes with owning said car ...ie insurance gas tires maintenance... but not a 600 a month apartment

It looks more like a $100k Tesla Roadster, but they got the roof wrong. Either way it doesn't make that much sense ... although I do sort of like the comic itself ...

Damn, you're right. I would have sworn it was a Lotus.

It's straight up bankruptcy time for Isaac.

edit: Oh Tesla Roadsters use Elise bodies.

Cambiata

This may be a dumb question, but if you don't have a home with electricity to plug in to, where do you go to recharge an electric car?

Lord_Asmodeus

I think you can do it at some gas stations and you pay them for the electricity.

But I don't drive so I dunno.

Bigllama

A Tesla doesn't need to be charged up if you are just going to sleep in it in the parking lot at work. Also solves the pesky problem of paying $600+ a month for an apartment.

see317

Cambiata wrote:

This may be a dumb question, but if you don't have a home with electricity to plug in to, where do you go to recharge an electric car?

You spend your last 20 bucks on an extension cord and find a house with an outside outlet to sleep in front of.

jackal

Then the home owners steal your $600 (seriously) spare mobile connector and sell it on Craigslist.

flying_walrus

the power roof adds a nice dramatic touch, but neither the lotus nor the tesla has one.

just saying.

pyroja

beforedawn wrote:

so let me get this straight he can afford a 60k lotus and everything that goes with owning said car ...ie insurance gas tires maintenance... but not a 600 a month apartment

I would love to know where these mythical $600/mo apartments are at.

Disclaimer: I live near San Francisco.

Makes sense to sleep in the car, I guess. I remember once, some gearhead saying something along the lines of, "You can sleep in a car, but you can't drive a house."

And yea, he's likely in a situation where he can't ditch the car for anywhere near what he owes on it, so he may as well stick with it to the bitter end.

Re: the top being down in the first comic, I kind of always saw it in my head as him starting out on a nice sunny day, optimistic for his job prospects, only to be caught in the rain as the dire realization hit him.

Cambiata

pyroja wrote:

beforedawn wrote:

so let me get this straight he can afford a 60k lotus and everything that goes with owning said car ...ie insurance gas tires maintenance... but not a 600 a month apartment

I would love to know where these mythical $600/mo apartments are at.

Irving, TX (I used to live in one there).

Has it been stated where this comic takes place?

North

Does it really have to be a specific car? It can't just be a generic convertible?

jackal

He didn't draw a generic convertible though. He drew a Tesla Roadster in painstaking detail.

LTM

I remember this discussion from the first comic thread. It is definitely a Tesla in body shape.

Tejs

Definitely a Tesla, with the optional Power Extending Roof option.

Lord_Asmodeus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLxReBOIJbA

Langly

pyroja wrote:

beforedawn wrote:

so let me get this straight he can afford a 60k lotus and everything that goes with owning said car ...ie insurance gas tires maintenance... but not a 600 a month apartment

I would love to know where these mythical $600/mo apartments are at.

Disclaimer: I live near San Francisco.

Makes sense to sleep in the car, I guess. I remember once, some gearhead saying something along the lines of, "You can sleep in a car, but you can't drive a house."

And yea, he's likely in a situation where he can't ditch the car for anywhere near what he owes on it, so he may as well stick with it to the bitter end.

Re: the top being down in the first comic, I kind of always saw it in my head as him starting out on a nice sunny day, optimistic for his job prospects, only to be caught in the rain as the dire realization hit him.

my wife and I's first apartment was a two story, two bed 1 and a half bath for 520 a month

it was in alabama, but you are crazy if you think they don't exist

Kochikens

The big vibeogame company hubs are roughly Vancouver, Seattle, the Toronto~easterncanada-y area, and California. Where 600$ apartments are rare. And I would assume that this fictional company is probably around seattle because that's where Kurtz and etc etc live and where a lot of outsourcing QA studios are.

Lord_Asmodeus

Langly wrote:

pyroja wrote:

beforedawn wrote:

so let me get this straight he can afford a 60k lotus and everything that goes with owning said car ...ie insurance gas tires maintenance... but not a 600 a month apartment

I would love to know where these mythical $600/mo apartments are at.

Disclaimer: I live near San Francisco.

Makes sense to sleep in the car, I guess. I remember once, some gearhead saying something along the lines of, "You can sleep in a car, but you can't drive a house."

And yea, he's likely in a situation where he can't ditch the car for anywhere near what he owes on it, so he may as well stick with it to the bitter end.

Re: the top being down in the first comic, I kind of always saw it in my head as him starting out on a nice sunny day, optimistic for his job prospects, only to be caught in the rain as the dire realization hit him.

my wife and I's first apartment was a two story, two bed 1 and a half bath for 520 a month

it was in alabama, but you are crazy if you think they don't exist

So they exist, just not in areas where anybody would reasonably want to live.

Langly

Well considering Huntsville is currently pretty much the engineering capital of the country, not really!

belligerent

I assume that, if it's a testing company, it's probably in one of the more mainstream cities, like in california or washington or maybe even texas. I'm sure there are other places for testing.

Also, yes there are $600/month apartments, but they're probably either shitty or in a shitty area. There are always diamonds in the rough, but I live in pittsburgh, and even the worst neighborhoods are 650 for an efficiency, no utilities. Neighborhoods you go miles out of your way to avoid.

What's funny is, if that guy didn't really have a place to live, I could--through my work--have gotten him temporary housing in a nice area, SNAP, medical assistance, etc... except his assets are too high with that car alone. I think they don't count certain types of vehicles, though. So maybe they wouldn't count this as part of his assests.

He'd just have to swallow his pride and ask for help, though.

Hewn

Langly wrote:

Well considering Huntsville is currently pretty much the engineering capital of the country, not really!

No. Nobody wants to live there. Don't be foolish. Reasonable people wouldn't live there. Never talk of places that aren't hip again.

Lord_Asmodeus

Hewn wrote:

Langly wrote:

Well considering Huntsville is currently pretty much the engineering capital of the country, not really!

No. Nobody wants to live there. Don't be foolish. Reasonable people wouldn't live there. Never talk of places that aren't hip again.

Yes yes clearly. A man who gets it.

zepherin

I dunno, it kind of looks like one of those old nissan convertibles. I think those are a pretty cheap car.

Spackler

Langly wrote:

Well considering Huntsville is currently pretty much the engineering capital of the country, not really!

really? I did not know this

jackal

zepherin wrote:

I dunno, it kind of looks like one of those old nissan convertibles. I think those are a pretty cheap car.

Kreutz

So I guess we're just supposed to know he's sleeping in that car overnight, since there's absolutely nothing in the comic to tell us that.

Tube

Really dude

really

Kreutz

I'm being serious. The first time I read through the comic I saw him staring creepily at the female lead as she walked away, like you would see in one of those Lifetime movies. It wasn't until I read this thread that I even thought of him sleeping in a car. Maybe I've been watching too many horror movies this week.

Tube

I'm going to go ahead and put this one squarely on your shoulders.

Gaslight

Kreutz wrote:

So I guess we're just supposed to know he's sleeping in that car overnight, since there's absolutely nothing in the comic to tell us that.

It's shown, not told. You know, just like in one of the most basic and fundamental maxims of all fiction writing.

Jasconius

I didn't get it at all until someone said it