2P START!

2PSTART! is a gaming webcomic created by Tim Harding and Ray Hargreaves. The website (2pstart.com) is updated every week with a new comic on Wednesday and a new podcast on Monday. The comic is regularly featured on Joystiq (their fifth comic "The Truth Is Revealed" won the best webcomic on March 22nd, 2007 - See Awards and nominations for other award-winning comics). It is also part of the Gamers Pair of Dice Gaming Webcomic Network (found here).

Comic

The comic is created as a collaboration between Tim and Ray; Tim usually thinks of an idea or story line and then gives that idea to Ray to draw in Adobe Illustrator. The comics are usually something funny or odd related to video games and usually involve humorously criticizing an aspect of a recent video game or video game console, creating a story AbOUT a video game character, or taking a strange facet of one of the previous and expanding upon it to the point of ridiculousness.

In the comic, both Tim and Ray have comic counterparts, but unlike Penny Arcade's characters, they use their real names and resemble themselves in appearance. Their characters sometimes appear in the comics to show the gaming world from a "real life" perspective (though this line has been crossed once or twice, such as in the comic "This is How I Roll" or in the comic "The Makeover"). Tim also has a Mii version of himself, named TiMii, which appears from time to time.

The 2P START! style, while still under development, does have some consistent features. For example, characters are drawn with a relatively thick outline around them and skinny characters are given "Nubby" elbows or knees to exaggerate this fact.

Podcast

The podcast, named "2PSTART! Live!", features Tim and Ray talking about various things in the gaming world and on the comic itself. The podcast is edited by Ray to include several multimedia effects and background music. It is released in two formats: the mp3 format contains simply the audio, while the m4a format contains the audio accompanied by a power point-style video which shows images and allows links that Ray "puts up" on the podcast.

Segments include:

• Trivia for Two - Where Tim and Ray attempt to stump each other with obscure knowledge of video games.
• Trivia for You - Where Ray plays a sample of video game music for the listeners to guess by posting comments or sending an email to the creators. Winners can be viewed on the contest page of the website.
• Remix - Where Ray shares a favourite video game remix of his.
• Topic of the Week - Where Tim and Ray discuss a current topic related to video games.
• Comic Talk - Where Tim and Ray discuss the creation process and reception of the previous week's comic.
• Suggestion Box - Where they go through the comments posted on their website (and other websites occasionally) that pertain to the comic of that week.
• Black Doom Award - Where they give an award to a company or individual who made a "terrible choice related to video games". The segment is named after Black Doom, the antagonist of the Shadow the Hedgehog video game and (in Ray's opinion) the worst character created by Sonic Team.
• Internet Loot - Where Tim and Ray show a little bit of treasure they found on the internet.
• Rise from your Grave - Often, comment of the week would go to people who had been reading the comic for a while and finally left their first comment. This bothered many readers, however, so a new segment was created just for these first-time commenters. Every week Tim and Ray mention a new fan to 'rise from the grave' by posting their first comment.
• MusicAL Misfits - At the end of each show, Ray plays a video game song that was 'lost in the shuffle', for reasons such as the game not being popular, or perhaps it is simply under-appreciated. These songs are usually submitted by 2PSTART fans, and Ray picks one each week.

Awards and nominations

2P START! has been voted best gaming webcomic of the week by the readers of Joystiq on sixteen occasions: March 22, 2007 , May 1, 2007 , May 8, 2007 , May 15, 2007 , July 3, 2007 , September 11, 2007 , November 6, 2007 , December 18, 2007 , May 21, 2008 , August 14, 2008 , September 25, 2008 (guest strip by Ryan Estrada), October 14, 2008 , October 22, 2008 , October 29, 2008 , January 21, 2009 , February 19, 2009 .

2P START! was also featured on Joystiq's Weekly Webcomic Wrapup on June 23, 2007 for their reference to the voting pattern of Joystiq readers and on August 25, 2007 for their BioShock reference.

Gamers Pair of Dice

2P START! is part of the group of web comics known collectively as the Gamers Pair of Dice. Also in the Gamers Pair of Dice are Digital Unrest, Dueling Analogs, Goblins, Hookie Dookie Panic and SNAFU.