Directions “Down” – (2003)

“Down” was the most straightforward installment in Directions. It’s a regular vertical scroller dealing with artistic frustration.

I think the real interest lies in the metapanel, an open composition of photo collage that bleeds into the background. I enjoy the palette, the sickly mustard which rolls into warm oranges, and balances out the complimentary blue in the center of the piece.

There are also 2 bits of interactivity, each one centered on the title word. One of the goals was to make a piece that works on the surface with or without the added bits of text that you find by hunting and clicking.

Note: The interactive elements of the narrative were built in Flash, a popular online animation tool at the time. Most browsers no longer support the playing of these files, but there is a Flash player extension availabe for Chrome that will load them with a couple of clicks. This is the easiest way to see these comics as created.

You can read the comic here.