Star Flops: Curse of the Medium Side

Star Flops: Curse of the Medium Side is a short DSHW Machinomic made with The Sims 2 for Dozerfleet Comics in late November of 2005. Taking place more-or-less in the Star Wars universe, the farce take inspiration from an old joke between the Dozerfleet founder and his brother, one that spoofed old horror movie conventions.

Backstory
The galaxy felt a great disturbance when it was revealed there had been a glitch in the Force. A new man appeared out of nowhere. His skills didn't seem normal for a Jedi. Yet, he wasn't quite a Sith either. He didn't desire peace like a Jedi. He didn't let his anger move him like a Sith. He...laughed a lot! He was violent...but not for any discernible reason! He single-handedly began decimating the Sith's new recruits. But he also dealt the Jedi a few blows now and then. He could teleport. He could turn invisible. He could be everywhere and nowhere. He could save a bus full of children, only to blow up a library because it amused him. He was the coin's edge. He was...the Medium Side!

Comic itself
As a young female Jedi named Kana Habola goes out in search of her archenemy, Darth Vixen, Tiemess the Jithy Knord shows up and attacks both of them. A battle ensues immediately; but Kana is unprepared for the fact that lighsaws make lightsaber blades shorter! Tiemess pulls a disappearing act, then appears from behind and saws her guts. As she falls to the floor dying, she remembers her Jedi mentor warning her: "ESPECIALLY beware of the Medium Side!"

Darth Vixen arrives, afraid of what would happen with her if she tried battling Tiemess. She tries to flirt with him instead, and make him truly part of the Dark Side. He laughs off her suggestions, and then slices her head off with a lightsaw before leaving to spread more chaos elsewhere. Storm Troopers chase him, but are all easily annihilated by his manic brutality.

Development
In 1999, as a response to The Phantom Menace, the Dozerfleet founder and his brother J came up with the idea to spoof it with a character simply called "The Medium Side." Lightsaws were developed later on in 2000, going through various design ideas before the current one was accepted. As Tiemess progressed, his look became that of a stereotype of various slasher film monsters. However, his manic, sadistic attitude was a direct rip off of the Joker and Sweet Tooth from Twisted Metal.

Screen capture
Using similar processes as Lo-Mun's Cooking Adventure, the "C" button was used in The Sims 2 in order to acquire shots. Minimal effort was put into shot editing, as there was a need to produce the DSHW quickly.

Effects
Most effects in the game involved moving characters into places they wouldn't normally go, as well as utilizing third-party downloads. Lightsabers from Mod The Sims were primary modifications. Tiemess' body hair was part of a skin mod. His mask was facepaint, with the eyes obscured in editing. His hair was a lot shorter than in original artwork depictions of the character, as little was done to edit his hair length.

The lightsaw was supposed to be two lightsaws, per the character's default design. However, the closest mod available only allowed for one saw. His saw was actually a recolor of the shotgun-and-saw set at RoseSims. The gun was supposed to render as invisible, but became black instead. Minimal effort was made to obscure it.

Distribution
The original comic was completed at the end of November of 2005. It was included as part of a bundle with Ciem 3 in the following December. In March of 2006, it was briefly to be added to the Cormorant Entertainment website as a separate entity. However, that website and all of Cormorant went offline in May of 2006; and was replaced with Dozerfleet Productions. Star Flops lingered in the archives until 2008, when a video adaptation was briefly pursued following the mild success of When Bikes Argue 2 receiving a film adaptation. However, work on 3-13 got in the way. After there was free time, it was ruled that too many of Star Flops' jokes had become dated for a video adaptation to be justified.

Reception
Most readers of the story were ambivalent, finding it neither inspiring nor particularly a turn-off. Mediocre response for the comic was one of two reasons the video was canceled. The other was that too much work was happening on 3-13 at the time for the video adaptation of this piece to be done justice. All such work was then sent into Ivan's Vault, where it might not ever again receive a reboot. Like most of the collection sent to Dana, her reaction to this work was also highly negative.