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Wall of History — The Complete BIONICLE Legend, Now on the Web


JSLBrowning

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WALL OF HISTORY

Wall of History is a web archive of the entire BIONICLE legend — in an accessible, easy-to-read format. We currently host all the BIONICLE animations, comics, novels, podcasts, and story serials (plus a bit more), compiled into a single, interwoven narrative.

If you'd like to keep up with Wall of History's continuing development, I'd encourage you to follow our official Twitter account and Tumblr blog.

Edited by JSLBrowning
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Are you aware that this exists?

 

The website itself looks cool, and I suppose it does offer an alternative to reading the story in a PDF. With regards to transcripting the books though, I highly recommend you check the link, cause all the books are already transcripted there, so you definitely won't need to do it yourself. Saves you hours upon hours of work.

Edited by Toatapio Nuva
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Are you aware that this exists?

 

The website itself looks cool, and I suppose it does offer an alternative to reading the story in a PDF. With regards to transcripting the books though, I highly recommend you check the link, cause all the books are already transcripted there, so you definitely won't need to do it yourself. Saves you hours upon hours of work.

I am aware that Biological Chronicle exists, yes, and I think it's really awesome. But I feel that hosting the story on the web has certain advantages. For starters, you don't need to download a huge PDF to read it. You can just visit the website from any computer, tablet, or phone, and you're ready to go. A website can also host forms of media that a PDF can't, such as videos, Flash animations (which I'm gonna convert to video), and the podcasts.

 

With regards to using TuragaNuva's transcripts of the novels: Yeah, I've thought about it, but I'd feel kinda bad about taking advantage of their hours and hours of work. Plus, I'm pretty sure Biological Chronicle contains several edits to the text of the novels, and I'd prefer that Wall of History host them in their original form.

Edited by JSLBrowning
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Are you aware that this exists?

 

The website itself looks cool, and I suppose it does offer an alternative to reading the story in a PDF. With regards to transcripting the books though, I highly recommend you check the link, cause all the books are already transcripted there, so you definitely won't need to do it yourself. Saves you hours upon hours of work.

I am aware that Biological Chronicle exists, yes, and I think it's really awesome. But I feel that hosting the story on the web has certain advantages. For starters, you don't need to download a huge PDF to read it. You can just visit the website from any computer, tablet, or phone, and you're ready to go. A website can also host forms of media that a PDF can't, such as videos, Flash animations (which I'm gonna convert to video), and the podcasts.

 

With regards to using TuragaNuva's transcripts of the novels: Yeah, I've thought about it, but I'd feel kinda bad about taking advantage of their hours and hours of work. Plus, I'm pretty sure Biological Chronicles contains several edits to the text of the novels, and I'd prefer that Wall of History host them in their original form.

 

 

With regards to the other forms of media, it sounds like there's a bit of an overlap with the Biomedia Project... not that there's anything wrong with having the media on multiple websites.

 

There are indeed some edits in the Biological Chronicle Collection, but those have been kept to a minimum, and the text would still serve as a good template for you to start from. Having transcripted the books myself (and later lent to the compilation project), I can guarantee that it's not a pleasant process. I would also be willing to offer the original transcripts to you, although those are full of small errors that have been fixed in the collection.

 

I wouldn't be too concerned about "stealing" someone else's work in this case, since the end result is going to be the same.

Edited by Toatapio Nuva
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Are you aware that this exists?

 

The website itself looks cool, and I suppose it does offer an alternative to reading the story in a PDF. With regards to transcripting the books though, I highly recommend you check the link, cause all the books are already transcripted there, so you definitely won't need to do it yourself. Saves you hours upon hours of work.

I am aware that Biological Chronicle exists, yes, and I think it's really awesome. But I feel that hosting the story on the web has certain advantages. For starters, you don't need to download a huge PDF to read it. You can just visit the website from any computer, tablet, or phone, and you're ready to go. A website can also host forms of media that a PDF can't, such as videos, Flash animations (which I'm gonna convert to video), and the podcasts.

 

With regards to using TuragaNuva's transcripts of the novels: Yeah, I've thought about it, but I'd feel kinda bad about taking advantage of their hours and hours of work. Plus, I'm pretty sure Biological Chronicles contains several edits to the text of the novels, and I'd prefer that Wall of History host them in their original form.

With regards to the other forms of media, it sounds like there's a bit of an overlap with the Biomedia Project... not that there's anything wrong with having the media on multiple websites.

 

There are indeed some edits in the Biological Chronicle Collection, but those have been kept to a minimum, and the text would still serve as a good template for you to start from. Having transcripted the books myself (and later lent to the compilation project), I can guarantee that it's not a pleasant process. I would also be willing to offer the original transcripts to you, although those are full of small errors that have been fixed in the collection.

 

I wouldn't be too concerned about "stealing" someone else's work in this case, since the end result is going to be the same.

There's definitely going to be quite a lot of overlap with the BioMedia Project. The big difference between the two, though, is that the content on Wall of History will be compiled back into a linear narrative, allowing anyone — even someone who knows nothing about BIONICLE — to experience the whole story, without having to rely on a third party to tell them what order things go in. The BioMedia Project is amazing, but it's not really designed for someone totally new to BIONICLE.

 

And if you'd be willing to share those transcripts, that would be awesome! Doing it myself has been quite time-consuming, and I'd love to get Wall of History finished as quickly as possible.

Edited by JSLBrowning
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Hey, this is a nice project! Although there is bound to be some overlap with the Biological Chronicle, the website does look pretty snazzy. And you're right, BMP is not a place for reading stories, it's more for archival purposes.

 

As Toatapio said, I highly recommend you take advantage of the Biological Chronicle project's pre-transcribed novels. Not only will it save you countless hours of effort, but Toatapio, TuragaNuva, and others (including me) have corrected numerous mistakes in the original transcripts and fixed continuity issues. It's the product of multiple people proof-reading the texts from beginning to end dozens of times, while still incorporating feedback from the community. It's turned into a pretty valuable resource.

 

Maybe you should coordinate closely with TuragaNuva and Toatapio on this. They have been doing yeoman's work to figure out the best way to arrange the texts into a cohesive story (which is not always easy). You're bound to run into some of the issues that they have.

 

One advantage of your site is that you can easily incorporate the animations into the narrative.

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Hey, this is a nice project! Although there is bound to be some overlap with the Biological Chronicle, the website does look pretty snazzy. And you're right, BMP is not a place for reading stories, it's more for archival purposes.

 

As Toatapio said, I highly recommend you take advantage of the Biological Chronicle project's pre-transcribed novels. Not only will it save you countless hours of effort, but Toatapio, TuragaNuva, and others (including me) have corrected numerous mistakes in the original transcripts and fixed continuity issues. It's the product of multiple people proof-reading the texts from beginning to end dozens of times, while still incorporating feedback from the community. It's turned into a pretty valuable resource.

 

Maybe you should coordinate closely with TuragaNuva and Toatapio on this. They have been doing yeoman's work to figure out the best way to arrange the texts into a cohesive story (which is not always easy). You're bound to run into some of the issues that they have.

 

One advantage of your site is that you can easily incorporate the animations into the narrative.

Yes, I can certainly imagine that cooperating with the Biological Chronicle team could be beneficial... I'll contact TuragaNuva regarding a potential collaboration soon, and assuming everyone involved is on board, I'll use the transcripts Toatapio offered, and look over the Biological Chronicle thread to see how you all structured the story and what edits were made.

 

And yes, I'm pretty excited that Wall of History will be able to incorporate the various BIONICLE animations! They were really great, especially in the first couple of years, and I definitely want new fans to be able to experience them.

 

UPDATE

 

Wall of History has just been updated to version 0.1.

Changes:

[+] Added favicon to the site.

[+] Added proper page names to all the story pages.

[+] Added remaining chapters of Tale of the Toa (chapters seven through sixteen).

[+] Added all nine chapters of the official Mata Nui: The Online Game walkthrough.

[+] Added five excerpts from BIONICLE Synopsis.

 

Version 0.1.1 should be ready in the next couple of days. On the agenda for this update are adding the first three comics, adding Challenge of the Rahi, adding author credits to the existing pages, and filling in the "About" and "News" pages.

Edited by JSLBrowning
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I've never been very good at introductory paragraphs, so...

 

WALL OF HISTORY

 

Wall of History is a web archive of the entire BIONICLE story — in an accessible, easy-to-read format. When completed, Wall of History will host all the BIONICLE novels, comics, animations, web serials, and podcasts (plus a bit more), compiled into a single interwoven narrative.

 

Not all of this is on the website yet, however — I'm publishing this alpha version of the website, which includes the first six chapters of Tale of the Toa, in order to open a dialogue with the BIONICLE community regarding Wall of History's design. I want to turn Wall of History into the definitive BIONICLE story experience, and I'm hoping that any comments or criticisms you all may have will help me achieve that.

 

So... what next?

 

I've already finished transcribing the first five BIONICLE novels, through the Mask of Light adaptation. They should be added to Wall of History over the next few days. I've also finished making and editing high-quality scans of the first two years of comics, which will also be added soon. You can expect all of the 2001 content — Tale of the Toa, the first three comics (along with Challenge of the Rahi), and Templar's MNOG walkthrough (plus a few excerpts from the BIONICLE style guide) — to be on Wall of History by the beginning of next week.

 

After that, the remaining content will be added over the next couple of months, in (roughly) original release order.

 

In the meantime, I invite you to check out this alpha build of the website, enjoy the first six chapters of Tale of the Toa, and post any comments or ideas you have in this thread.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

This is really cool!

 

The website is designed really nicely. It definitely adds a bit of flavour to what would otherwise be a white wall of text on a PDF.

 

Much appreciated. +1

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I've never been very good at introductory paragraphs, so...

 

WALL OF HISTORY

 

Wall of History is a web archive of the entire BIONICLE story — in an accessible, easy-to-read format. When completed, Wall of History will host all the BIONICLE novels, comics, animations, web serials, and podcasts (plus a bit more), compiled into a single interwoven narrative.

 

Not all of this is on the website yet, however — I'm publishing this alpha version of the website, which includes the first six chapters of Tale of the Toa, in order to open a dialogue with the BIONICLE community regarding Wall of History's design. I want to turn Wall of History into the definitive BIONICLE story experience, and I'm hoping that any comments or criticisms you all may have will help me achieve that.

 

So... what next?

 

I've already finished transcribing the first five BIONICLE novels, through the Mask of Light adaptation. They should be added to Wall of History over the next few days. I've also finished making and editing high-quality scans of the first two years of comics, which will also be added soon. You can expect all of the 2001 content — Tale of the Toa, the first three comics (along with Challenge of the Rahi), and Templar's MNOG walkthrough (plus a few excerpts from the BIONICLE style guide) — to be on Wall of History by the beginning of next week.

 

After that, the remaining content will be added over the next couple of months, in (roughly) original release order.

 

In the meantime, I invite you to check out this alpha build of the website, enjoy the first six chapters of Tale of the Toa, and post any comments or ideas you have in this thread.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

This is really cool!

 

The website is designed really nicely. It definitely adds a bit of flavour to what would otherwise be a white wall of text on a PDF.

 

Much appreciated. +1

 

 

Glad you like the site! I'm particularly happy that people have already made positive comments about its design — it's still just a prototype, really, and I threw the whole thing together in about an hour. I've still got a lot of features I'm planning on adding to it.

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UPDATE


 


Wall of History has just been updated to version 0.1.1.

 

Changes:

[+] Added 2001 contents to the "Map" page.

[+] Added update information to the "News" page.

[+] Added a contact form to the "Contact" page.

[+] Added author credits to the Tale of the Toa and Mata Nui: The Online Game walkthrough pages.

 

Version 0.1.2 should be ready tomorrow. On the agenda for this update are adding the first three comics and Challenge of the Rahi.

Edited by JSLBrowning

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This is really cool!

 

The website is designed really nicely. It definitely adds a bit of flavour to what would otherwise be a white wall of text on a PDF.

 

Much appreciated. +1

Oof.

 

 

So, this looks cool! I think having this stuff accessible on the web more easily is great.

 

I'm curious about one thing, mainly: you say you want everything "compiled into a single interwoven narrative" (very much the goal I have with Biological Chronicle). The main obstacle to this, as I've learned (the hard way) is that much of Bionicle's story is contradictory or redundant. So is your plan to do what I've done, and edit out inconsistencies, weave different story materials together, etc? Or are you trying more to archive the story materials as they originally were - putting things in a good reading order, but leaving them unedited? Depending on which of these is your goal, we should probably PM about potentially collaborating. Either way, though, I'm interested to see where this goes.

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This is really cool!

 

The website is designed really nicely. It definitely adds a bit of flavour to what would otherwise be a white wall of text on a PDF.

 

Much appreciated. +1

Oof.

 

 

So, this looks cool! I think having this stuff accessible on the web more easily is great.

 

I'm curious about one thing, mainly: you say you want everything "compiled into a single interwoven narrative" (very much the goal I have with Biological Chronicle). The main obstacle to this, as I've learned (the hard way) is that much of Bionicle's story is contradictory or redundant. So is your plan to do what I've done, and edit out inconsistencies, weave different story materials together, etc? Or are you trying more to archive the story materials as they originally were - putting things in a good reading order, but leaving them unedited? Depending on which of these is your goal, we should probably PM about potentially collaborating. Either way, though, I'm interested to see where this goes.

 

 

I've... kinda gone back and forth, to be honest, and I haven't settled hard on either side yet. It's a tough issue to tackle. On the one hand, I would love for it to be a single, consistent narrative, with as few contradictions and redundancy as possible... but on the other hand, as I'm sure you're aware, that would require cutting book chapters into smaller chunks, shoving random comic pages wherever they fit, and leaving a lot of stuff out, all of which would make me feel... icky.

 

My tentative plan has been to simply embrace the inconsistencies and redundancies, and place an editor's note at the beginning of the archive explaining that BIONICLE was a multimedia story before everything was, and that it was built by numerous writers who didn't have Google Docs to make collaboration easy, and that it's kind of a (beautiful) mess as a result. But again, I haven't made a hard decision yet — so I'd love to hear suggestions if anyone has any!

 

Anyway, I'll PM you after I post this!

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Very cool. It's great to see another archive of the Bionicle story.

Since Biological Chronicle already exists (and I love it), I like that Wall of History seems to be more focused on archiving the media as released. Barring spelling and grammar issues, it makes sense for a second archive to focus on preserving the media in its original form.

However, that seems to be at odds with the idea of splitting books up and shoving various comics into them. If accuracy and completion are your interests, I think you'll find it's jarring to have to read tracts of story twice in different forms. One of the issues with Biological Chronicle is how much is redundant, and reading many of the comics on top of the chapter books only draws attention to those inconsistencies. I think that, especially in 2002 and some of the later years, you'll realize that there are only a handful of comic pages that add something new. The comics in 2001 are fantastic and Hapka managed to write Tale of the Toa around the comics (with the exception of part of the first). 2002 is going to double up a lot.

I wonder what you will do for things like the Bohrok Animations.

 

A suggestion: Could you offer multiple reading options? For instance; offer a way to read *just* an individual book instead of all the serials, comics and other stories that intersect with it? If you could do something like have the ability to customize the reading experience so that it can do things like cut out 'redundant' comics, cut out comics completely, include or exclude the MNOG and web animations, or just read the story in order but without cutting up stories (ie. Tale of the Toa > Comic 1 > Comic 2 > Comic 3 > MNOG > Bionicle Synopsis Excerpts > Beware the Bohrok...) you might be able to offer something else. I realize that would require a lot more coding but those granular options would really offer a separate experience to Biological Chronicle while being able to archive every story in its (mostly) original form without forcing readers to read the same events multiple times in succession.

Stories I wrote

 

Parts of a Whole Series: An Alternate Ending

Part 1: Fight for Freedom                        Wisps of Memory

Part 2: Army of One (In Progress)


Short Stories:
The Great Takara          
Tale of the Toa Stones          Masks

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Very cool. It's great to see another archive of the Bionicle story.

 

Since Biological Chronicle already exists (and I love it), I like that Wall of History seems to be more focused on archiving the media as released. Barring spelling and grammar issues, it makes sense for a second archive to focus on preserving the media in its original form.

 

However, that seems to be at odds with the idea of splitting books up and shoving various comics into them. If accuracy and completion are your interests, I think you'll find it's jarring to have to read tracts of story twice in different forms. One of the issues with Biological Chronicle is how much is redundant, and reading many of the comics on top of the chapter books only draws attention to those inconsistencies. I think that, especially in 2002 and some of the later years, you'll realize that there are only a handful of comic pages that add something new. The comics in 2001 are fantastic and Hapka managed to write Tale of the Toa around the comics (with the exception of part of the first). 2002 is going to double up a lot.

 

I wonder what you will do for things like the Bohrok Animations.

 

A suggestion: Could you offer multiple reading options? For instance; offer a way to read *just* an individual book instead of all the serials, comics and other stories that intersect with it? If you could do something like have the ability to customize the reading experience so that it can do things like cut out 'redundant' comics, cut out comics completely, include or exclude the MNOG and web animations, or just read the story in order but without cutting up stories (ie. Tale of the Toa > Comic 1 > Comic 2 > Comic 3 > MNOG > Bionicle Synopsis Excerpts > Beware the Bohrok...) you might be able to offer something else. I realize that would require a lot more coding but those granular options would really offer a separate experience to Biological Chronicle while being able to archive every story in its (mostly) original form without forcing readers to read the same events multiple times in succession.

 

Glad you're happy to see it! Wall of History does have more of an archival element to it than Biological Chronicle, but I still want to do as much as I can to make a cohesive narrative.

 

Regarding the Bohrok animations, they're going to be converted to video and hosted on the site, most likely in 1440p.

 

Regarding your suggestion, I've actually considered doing something like that — specifically, creating diverging and converging pathways through the story to minimize redundancy. For example, the fifth chapter of Tale of the Toa might have two next buttons, one leading to chapter six and the other leading to the first comic, which offer slightly different takes on the same events. I'm actually working on integrating a prototype of this system into version 0.2.

 

If Wall of History does end up embracing redundancy and putting everything on a single path, though, I do feel like it would be better to cut up the novels and put the comics and serials wherever they fit. The end of Tale of the Toa is almost the end of the 2001 story, for example, so jumping from that back to the first comic, at the very beginning of the story, would probably be pretty jarring for the reader.

Edited by JSLBrowning

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UPDATE


 


Wall of History has just been updated to version 0.2.

 

Changes:

[Δ] Made a few minor aesthetic changes to the header, and made it smaller on story pages, as to be less intrusive.

[Δ] Made the BIONICLE logo a link back to the home page on all other pages.

[+] Added all sixteen chapters of Beware the Bohrok.

[+] Added the fourth and fifth chapters of Rise of the Toa Nuva.

[+] Added above contents to the story map.

Edited by JSLBrowning

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You accidentally titled Chapter 16 of Beware the Bohrok as Chapter 6.

 

I wonder if the map would look better if it were titled in a different format; ie: 'Tale of the Toa: Chapter One' instead of 'Chapter One: Tale of the Toa'. As it is, I'm taking a quick look to see what's available, but if I'm scanning for comics then I'll want to see the comic title before the chapter title.

Stories I wrote

 

Parts of a Whole Series: An Alternate Ending

Part 1: Fight for Freedom                        Wisps of Memory

Part 2: Army of One (In Progress)


Short Stories:
The Great Takara          
Tale of the Toa Stones          Masks

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You accidentally titled Chapter 16 of Beware the Bohrok as Chapter 6.

 

I wonder if the map would look better if it were titled in a different format; ie: 'Tale of the Toa: Chapter One' instead of 'Chapter One: Tale of the Toa'. As it is, I'm taking a quick look to see what's available, but if I'm scanning for comics then I'll want to see the comic title before the chapter title.

 

Whoops! Thanks for pointing that out. I'll fix it as soon as I get home tonight.

 

Putting the names of the sources before the chapter numbers is a good idea! I've actually thought about removing the chapter numbers from the map entirely. Having three "Chapter One"s in a table of contents is pretty ridiculous...

Edited by JSLBrowning

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UPDATE


 


Wall of History has just been updated to version 0.2.1.

 

Changes:

[Δ] Made various aesthetic improvements across the site.

[+] Added Takua's Wall of History articles.

[+] Added the sixth chapter of Rise of the Toa Nuva.

[+] Added above contents to the story map.

 

There probably won't be any major updates for the next few days, as I have several exams this week. The following week is spring break, however, so expect a pretty major update about a week from today. I'm particularly interested in adding the cutscenes from Mata Nui: The Online Game and the Bohrok/Bohrok-Kal animations, as well as implementing a bookmark function that will allow you to save your place and jump back to it later.

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Quick heads-up: if and when you include transcriptions for the podcast serials, don't use the transcriptions on BS01. I just compared a random chapter of Destiny War to the original audio file and found a large number of errors, most of them minor, but some of them not so minor. The transcriptions included in the Biological Chronicle project seem to be correct, though. I would recommend using those, if you can.

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Quick heads-up: if and when you include transcriptions for the podcast serials, don't use the transcriptions on BS01. I just compared a random chapter of Destiny War to the original audio file and found a large number of errors, most of them minor, but some of them not so minor. The transcriptions included in the Biological Chronicle project seem to be correct, though. I would recommend using those, if you can.

 

Thanks for the heads up! I'll keep that in mind.

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UPDATE


 


Wall of History has just been updated to version 0.3.

 

Changes:

[Δ] Made further changes to the header.

[Δ] Replaced the universal Comfortaa font with a combination of Josefin Slab and Raleway.

[+] Added Makuta's Revenge.

[+] Added Tales of the Masks.

[+] Added above contents to the story map.

 

I know I promised a pretty major update today, and it's still coming soon, it's just been delayed slightly by an unexpected obligation. In the meantime, I'm particularly interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on the design of the website — as I add more story pages, it becomes more and more time-consuming to make aesthetic changes, such as to the fonts, and so if anyone has any thoughts on that kinda thing, I'd love to hear them before the big update comes.

Edited by JSLBrowning

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It's definitely coming across nicely.

I think the 'map' would be better with a drop-down list of years or something, as it is each year's worth of contents takes up a good chunk of text and that's going to get worse as you add the 2003 comics. 2004 and 2006 are going to be *enormous*. I think having headings for each year, even if they just link to the relevant year, would make navigation a bit easier.

Ideally, each year should have its own title that makes it clear what the theme of that year is, but I realize that requires fan-created additions. Still, if the idea is to be accessible to non-fans, a title like "2001: The Toa Arrive" "2002: The Bohrok Swarms" "2003: Mask of Light" would help to guide newcomers through the story, especially if they are most interested in one or two years that they're particularly nostalgic for.

Stories I wrote

 

Parts of a Whole Series: An Alternate Ending

Part 1: Fight for Freedom                        Wisps of Memory

Part 2: Army of One (In Progress)


Short Stories:
The Great Takara          
Tale of the Toa Stones          Masks

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It's definitely coming across nicely.

 

I think the 'map' would be better with a drop-down list of years or something, as it is each year's worth of contents takes up a good chunk of text and that's going to get worse as you add the 2003 comics. 2004 and 2006 are going to be *enormous*. I think having headings for each year, even if they just link to the relevant year, would make navigation a bit easier.

 

Ideally, each year should have its own title that makes it clear what the theme of that year is, but I realize that requires fan-created additions. Still, if the idea is to be accessible to non-fans, a title like "2001: The Toa Arrive" "2002: The Bohrok Swarms" "2003: Mask of Light" would help to guide newcomers through the story, especially if they are most interested in one or two years that they're particularly nostalgic for.

 

Glad you think so!

 

A big map upgrade is actually something I'm working on for the next update. I'm planning on replacing the current map with an array of custom icons, so some of its height will be compressed into the horizontal direction, in addition to making it nicer to look at. My goal is for the finished thing to resemble the Homestuck map (although mine's gonna be a bit more space-efficient, and all the icons will be labeled).

 

Adding section titles is a good idea. The chapter titles from this BIONICLEstory.com page aren't exactly year-by-year, but they're close enough — and they'd be official. Actually... I'll go ahead and add those now.

Edited by JSLBrowning

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UPDATE

 

Wall of History has just been updated to version 0.4.
 
Changes:
[+] Added the seventh and eighth chapters of Rise of the Toa Nuva.
[+] Added the two extra pages from the foil edition of The End of the Toa? to the aforementioned eighth chapter.
[+] Added Mask of Light.
[+] Added Mystery of Metru Nui.
[+] Added above contents to the story map.
 

One more thing: if anyone reading this owns any rare BIONICLE comics (any that weren't included in the graphic novels, basically) and would be willing to sell them, I'm looking to buy.

Edited by JSLBrowning
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UPDATE


 


Wall of History has just been updated to version 0.4.1.

 

Changes:


[Δ] Made the map an accordion menu.

[+] Added the prologue from Challenge of the Rahkshi.

[+] Added Trial by Fire.

[+] Added The Darkness Below.

[+] Added above contents to the story map.

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UPDATE

 

Wall of History has just been updated to version 0.4.2.
 
Changes:
[+] Added Legends of Metru Nui.
[+] Added above contents to the story map.

 

From here on out, I won't be making a new reply to this topic every time Wall of History is updated. I'll still keep the first post up-to-date, of course, but I'd like this topic to be geared more towards discussion and feedback, rather than chronicling every little addition I make. If you want to know what's coming and when, you'll want to check out the Wall of History Twitter account.

 

Now, in the interest of the whole "discussion and feedback" thing... I've recently considered theming story pages to the aesthetics of their years, and would love to know how you'd all feel about this. A quick example I threw together for 2004 can be found here.

Edited by JSLBrowning

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New story map is looking great.

 

If it's just the header that changes, I think that works really well for the individual pages, but I'd want to keep most of the page layout fairly simple and neutral so that the focus is on the story.

Stories I wrote

 

Parts of a Whole Series: An Alternate Ending

Part 1: Fight for Freedom                        Wisps of Memory

Part 2: Army of One (In Progress)


Short Stories:
The Great Takara          
Tale of the Toa Stones          Masks

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New story map is looking great.

 

If it's just the header that changes, I think that works really well for the individual pages, but I'd want to keep most of the page layout fairly simple and neutral so that the focus is on the story.

 

Glad you like it! This map still isn't what I want the finished version to be, but the accordion menu definitely helps with the size issue.

 

I wasn't planning on doing anything too complex with the page layout, and I'll stick to neutral colors. All I want is for the design of the pages to contribute what it can to the atmosphere, not be intrusive or distracting.

 

Now for another new idea I'd like some opinions on: I've been considering uploading the web versions of the comics (the PDF copies available on BMP and BS01) to Wall of History all at once, and then replacing them with higher-quality scans as I finish them. If anyone has any strong feelings about this one way or the other, I'd love to hear them (and please vote in the Twitter poll on this idea, too).

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Very nice work on some of the updates. Very nice web frontend work overall.

 

The comic viewer is snazzy, although the size of the page and the placement of the nav buttons is inconvenient. I think it would be better if the comic page were automatically resized to fit on the screen, and if the nav buttons were at the top or the page and could be controlled with the arrow keys.

 

For the "Map" section, consider adding the CSS "user-select: none" to the accordion links, or, even better, using <button type="button"> instead of <p>.

 

Do you have plans to present the books and serials as standalones somewhere on the site, not as chapters integrated into the main story?

Edited by Planetperson
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Very nice work on some of the updates. Very nice web frontend work overall.

 

The comic viewer is snazzy, although the size of the page and the placement of the nav buttons is inconvenient. I think it would be better if the comic page were automatically resized to fit on the screen, and if the nav buttons were at the top or the page and could be controlled with the arrow keys.

 

For the "Map" section, consider adding the CSS "user-select: none" to the accordion links, or, even better, using <button type="button"> instead of <p>.

 

Do you have plans to present the books and serials as standalones somewhere on the site, not as chapters integrated into the main story?

 

Thanks!

 

Your suggestions for the comic viewer are intriguing! Being able to use the arrow keys for navigation is definitely a smart idea, and I'll see if I can implement that in the upcoming beta version of Wall of History. I'm not so sure about resizing the viewer to fit screens, though — the comics are in a portrait layout, of course, and most screens are landscape. If you were viewing Wall of History on a laptop, for example, this might make them unreadably tiny. It might work if the comic viewer had a fullscreen mode, though... that might solve the sizing issue without causing problems for users with small screens. I'll put that on the list.

 

The current map is actually just a placeholder, and the finished version won't be text-based at all — it'll have graphical buttons, sort of like the Homestuck map (just less vertically gargantuan).

 

I do have plans to make individual novels and stories more accessible, yes. The beta version of Wall of History will hopefully implement a system allowing users to customize their reading experience, although to be completely honest, I'm not quite sure how soon that will be ready.

 

Anyway, thanks for sharing your thoughts! I really appreciate all the feedback I receive, and if you have any more suggestions, let me know!

Edited by JSLBrowning
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  • 1 year later...

Just recently look a quick look-around of the site and I think its great! Especially for those who maybe took a break from Bionicle, or joined during later years, or left after 3 or 4 years, this will help get everybody on the same page (ha). I think this is going to turn out to be a great project and you should be proud of the work that you have done so far!

 

One question, are you planning on doing commercials?! I know it probably adds a fair amount of work to the project, but I think it could be really cool and add to the full experience of Bionicle media. I know the commercials always used to hype me up for the sets as a kid. 

 

overall nice work, can't wait to see where this goes

:exclamation:currently searching for ANY Gray Plastic Krana Kal (GPKK):exclamation: If you were a member of Proto-squad, or know someone who was, please feel free to get in contact with me

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/4/2020 at 5:30 PM, Humble_Matoran said:

Just recently look a quick look-around of the site and I think its great! Especially for those who maybe took a break from Bionicle, or joined during later years, or left after 3 or 4 years, this will help get everybody on the same page (ha). I think this is going to turn out to be a great project and you should be proud of the work that you have done so far!

I'm really glad you like it!

On 10/4/2020 at 5:30 PM, Humble_Matoran said:

One question, are you planning on doing commercials?! I know it probably adds a fair amount of work to the project, but I think it could be really cool and add to the full experience of Bionicle media. I know the commercials always used to hype me up for the sets as a kid.

Yes, commercials will be added to the site, following some database upgrades I'm working on. It's unlikely that many of them will be included in the recommended reading order, but they'll be there for the fans who want them.

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On 10/18/2020 at 11:53 AM, JSLBrowning said:

I'm really glad you like it!

Yes, commercials will be added to the site, following some database upgrades I'm working on. It's unlikely that many of them will be included in the recommended reading order, but they'll be there for the fans who want them.

Awesome, glad to hear it! Yeah I'm sure getting everything into reading order is quite a bit of work - even if you organize the commercials by year I'm sure that would suffice for 'proper' reading order. 

Soon I might be on the hunt for some promotional CD's - I'll keep you posted if you still need any of that media

:exclamation:currently searching for ANY Gray Plastic Krana Kal (GPKK):exclamation: If you were a member of Proto-squad, or know someone who was, please feel free to get in contact with me

 

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On 10/22/2020 at 1:45 PM, Humble_Matoran said:

Soon I might be on the hunt for some promotional CD's - I'll keep you posted if you still need any of that media

I've been able to get a lot of promotional CD content from the BioMedia Project, but if you find anything they don't have, or if you'd be willing to sell the physical copies you obtain, be sure to let me know.

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On 10/24/2020 at 3:25 PM, JSLBrowning said:

I've been able to get a lot of promotional CD content from the BioMedia Project, but if you find anything they don't have, or if you'd be willing to sell the physical copies you obtain, be sure to let me know.

I will keep you posted for sure!

 

Also, just saw the 'trailer' you posted about this project - so cool!:biorules:

:exclamation:currently searching for ANY Gray Plastic Krana Kal (GPKK):exclamation: If you were a member of Proto-squad, or know someone who was, please feel free to get in contact with me

 

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On 10/28/2020 at 11:32 PM, Humble_Matoran said:

Also, just saw the 'trailer' you posted about this project - so cool!:biorules:

I'm glad you like it! Editing it was a lot of fun, and I'd like to make more videos for Wall of History in the future — I'm not totally sure what I'd make, though...

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6 hours ago, JSLBrowning said:

I'm glad you like it! Editing it was a lot of fun, and I'd like to make more videos for Wall of History in the future — I'm not totally sure what I'd make, though...

I'm not sure either....maybe 'featured' videos, containing clips for certain characters/plot points? Or top moments? I know those things are probably a lot of work haha but they would be sweet! I'll keep brainstorming. Either way, your videos are always top-quality :hyper: & I'm looking forward to whatever it is you make next

:exclamation:currently searching for ANY Gray Plastic Krana Kal (GPKK):exclamation: If you were a member of Proto-squad, or know someone who was, please feel free to get in contact with me

 

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