Planet EVN - English Visual Novels

Winter Wolves: The importance of minigames

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:07:37 +0000

As you might know reading my tweets, in my upcoming game Vera Blanc: Fullmoon I am going to have LOTs of “minigames”. They became very popular recently, especially on casual games portals, so I decided to give it a try too. I must admit they work very well to increase the replayability and the immersion of the game.

Now you could rightly ask me: how does a “memory game” or a “find the differences” does help the game’s atmosphere/immersivity ?! Well, I’m going to show you two examples.
Check the image on the left: it’s one of the “find the differences” minigames. In this case we’re in a wood nearby the main town of Wolfach (it will be an imaginary town even if I know probably such a name exist for real).

We’re looking for clues. So, such a minigame can help because the player will feel like if he’s searching the surrounding, trying to spot any detail can help in the investigation.

That’s what the real detectives do: look around to see anything that can catch their attention, even really small details like in this minigame.

Now for the other example, I’ll show you a youtube video:

This is an “action scene”. The player must run away from an ominous big man who’s chasing Vera for some reason. For this scene I thought would have been much better to use something like that – I even thought about a real-time sequence but probably would have been too difficult. However there is a real-time minigame already, but don’t want to talk about it because would be a spoiler for the story

I believe the minigame above with the music and the images represent well one of those scenes typical of the action-movies, helps player immersion and I think is also fun to play

I have now reached the point where the demo would end, and I’m starting the rest of the game. The art is almost completely done, so my aim is to finish the game, at least the beta version, by end of this month, even if I know it won’t be easy!

sakevisual: Things that make me Happy

noreply@blogger.com (Ayu) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:19:33 +0000

I should update more often, but I don't because I'm usually busy working on the visual novels that I should be updating everyone on. But here's a list of things from the past week or so that make me happy. I'll post word counts later, in case anyone is actually interested in that sort of stuff. XD

-Deji is safe. I was seriously freaking out when I heard about the earthquakes in Chile. But she's safe and I'm happy. This matters not because she's a great artist (although she is!), but because she's wonderful friend. ::cue dramatic music and sparkles::

-H2 voiced edition is coming soon. The voiced release is long overdue, but it's finally coming. I had a lot of fun working on it, and I truly respect and admire the other members of the cast, so I'm looking forward to hearing everything come together.

-RE:A extended edition is going smoothly. As much as I love RE:A, it's nice to be able to clean all the things we had to cut corners on for our first release. It's not going to be a huge upgrade, but it'll be nice to feel like the game is full polished.

-I'm writing again! I love writing!

-I finally made my own custom yes/no screen (see above). Well, I did make one a long time ago when I was working on Plat du Jour, but it was a makeshift one with messy art, and I didn't actually have a full understanding of the code at that time. But this one is pretty, and now I know what I'm doing! I'm also happy because I figured out how to make decent looking water stains on the paper. I know this is probably the least important of all things that make me happy, but it still makes me happy. So there.

Perfect Nightmare

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 10:02:02 +0000

Forums are up.

Someone I don’t even know asked me if I wanted to create one ages ago lol, so I kinda went ahead and just did it.
We’ll see how that goes. :P

Project Memoria: Edited Sketch, Mikaela’s Legs.

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 06:22:12 +0000

I was noted that Mikaela’s legs from my previous post appeared too long. I didn’t want to mess with her height, so I only re-sketched her legs so they didn’t appear strangely long.

See previous post for before pic.

After (NSFW) http://gallery.pixaelsoft.com/displayimage.php?pid=36&fullsize=1

Let me know what you think! Better?

I also drew in details of her hands and feet which I didn’t on the previous post. Zooming in on the Sai tool helps a lot for fine details like that I find…

Richelle (Artist)

Paper Stars: A Shift Backwards

noreply@blogger.com (MaiMai) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:02:58 +0000

I've been wondering for the past few weeks. Is it really worth it to work on Stained One? Would it be giving up if I set it aside for a while to rework on my first kinetic novel that is nearest to my heart?

Stained One is by far a more complex storyline then any ideas I've had. I have a complete outline of what is to happen in all six endings. But now I'm not only stuck writing wise, but art wise as well. It's not that I can't draw the girls or even the guys.

But I wonder if I even had a connection to my characters in the first place. I already had given them personalities, but... Maybe this whole time I thought they were developed fully, but they actually were far from that. I thought about it some more and I realized that the characters with the weakest personalities were the boys, Zac and Aiden. Emily is a dear, I love her character traits, but I never could focus on the boys like I could with the girls. And without a strong cast...

I really am way in over my head.

Ever since I released Phase Shift I've gotten rather positive responses, at least for the story and characterization. Now that I've improved on art, I would love to make a remake of it and expand on the story much more. I read the story on my own and realize how many nuances and little parts that seem to make the story worthwhile, something that will be difficult to reflect in Stained One. So I probably will go back to it and sculpt it lovingly into a more beautiful kinetic novel that I want it to be.

Dooom: F/SN’s Tohsaka Rin in plate armor

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:23:11 +0000

Also from my DA.
Wallpaper versions:

Winter Wolves: Online vs offline games

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:38:23 +0000

More and more developers I know are going to move online-only (some have already). But what are the key differences of online vs offline games, both from the developer and the user point of view? This is what I gathered so far. If anyone has any comments/suggestion, is welcome.

Online

Pros:

As developer, you basically eliminate piracy. People making online games in general make MUCH more money than people making offline games. Also, online enable you to use subscriptions, microtransactions, pay per item, and so on.

As player, you can now compete/collaborate with friends. You can have new experiences otherwise unattainable by offline gaming, like new content/leves, updates, bugfixes.

Cons

As developer, you enter a whole new realm. You need to guarantee people are able to play. If your server is offline, your game is useless and this will make people angry, very angry. Also it means you need to learn network programming, which is a pain. There are also increased costs (but as we saw you should also expect increased profits). Usually once you go online, you’ll need to focus on one game. Most online games takes YEARS to make, so be sure to have a backup plan. Also, you enter a VERY CROWDED market: everyone is making MMOs now, so while the potential revenues are much higher, the competition is also more fierce. Online games are mutually exclusive too: people playing WoW are likely to play that for 4-5h a day, leaving no room for other games. This means that if a big player has established a foothold in a certain niche/segment of the market, will be very hard for you to get new players.

As player, you can say goodbye to immersion. Most people playing MMO knows how annoying some people can be. You can meet anyone, from a 60 years old polite university professor to a 16-years old boy always yelling at you. There can’t be a plot in a online game. You’re also going to pay MUCH more, and some games feels more like a scam. With normal offline games you pay a price and know what you get. Online games are designed like mousetrap: they lure you in with the FREE word, and then you get addicted and you’ll end up paying even hundred of dollars for, let’s be honest, what you could get for 1/10 less. You’re also going to spend much more time to a single game and become an addict (that’s exactly what the companies want).

Offline

Pros:

As developer, offline games are much easier to program. Even if you’re not an expert programmer you can easily put a normal downloadable game together. You don’t need to have a dedicated server or be a network expert.

As player, you know what you get. You can have immersive games with wonderful plot and NPCs, like Dragon Age (or any of my games hehe), you can play RTS knowing your ping doesn’t matter, you can play while flying on a plane with a laptop, you can pause anytime, you can play games at your pace (and not be tied to a raid or a online event) and the list goes on. All of this knowing you’re going to pay a FIXED amount (that recently is getting lower and lower).

(Note – I am one of those players. I can’t honestly believe that people pay 15-20 eur a month to play WoW when they can get wonderful games from Bioware for a fixed price!)

Cons:

As developer, expect to make much less money: except very rare cases, a offline game is always going to earn less than a online one, since you can’t bill multiple time the same person (selling him subscriptions or items for example). Also you have to deal with piracy which is a real pain and will seriously hurt your business.

As player, I am not really sure what are the cons of offline games. I guess stupid/paranoid DRMs are the worst thing you can experience. Apart for that, I can’t really think about any cons, except if you like competition, ladders, etc. But then you wouldn’t be playing offline games at all

That is. As you can see there are several things to consider, both for the developer and the player. I also think that the age influences what people play: I used to play EQ1-2 when I was younger, and had more free time than now. As I grow older, I found I hadn’t time anymore to invest HOURS in a character, or pay for a monthly subscription when I wasn’t sure I would be able to play the game. About the new free to play games, I honestly think it’s plain stupid to pay $5 “for a sword” when you can get complete new games for the price of 2-3 swords Also I like games with plots and writing, so that’s not really what I want. But know many devs making a fortune with free to play / MMO games.

Will I be making a online game? No, not really soon. But who knows, maybe one day…

Love in Space: Breakthrough

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:16:55 +0000

As I’ve mentioned before, March is the month where a bunch of people at the Lemmasoft message board try to release a game in 31 days. I was planning to participate myself, so I produced these sketches of the main heroine.

(warning: Nudity inside. Click to continue)

Well, they’re certainly far from perfect, but I knew from prior experience that I could fix them up on the computer and make them at least acceptable. Besides, since I only had 31 days to put something together, it wasn’t exactly realistic to expect flawless art.

Since I do have a manga professor now, I went to his office and asked what he thought of them. And then he metaphorically whacked me over the head with a massively over-sized paper fan (I do live in Osaka now, after all) by telling me that I was just too slow.

It seems that a talented doujin artist would have been able to make one of the above sketches in less than five minutes. That’s pretty embarrassing, considering that it took me over three hours to make those two sketches. And even then, he told me that most manga or galge publishers generally do not recruit artists at Comiket or other doujinshi conventions because they know most doujin artists can’t keep up with the insane speed required to meet deadlines. Releasing just a single doujin manga a season really is unacceptable, even if the said manga has flawless art, because most mangaka need to pump out 180 pages of manga a week just to make a bare living.

What’s more, he said that my line art was too strained, mostly because I was drawing too slow. I needed more smooth, flowing lines, rather than the frustrated lines present in the above sketches.

Now eager to improve, I immediately slapped together a sketch in 15 minutes in a wild frenzy.

Well, that was pretty much a disaster. It’s like a 9 year old’s interpretation of what would happen if the artists at Shaft made Hidamari Sketch while drunk.

My professor then told me that many manga artists begin as assistants to other mangaka, so I should try to pretend that I was somebody’s assistant and try to copy his/her art style. Well, it sounded like a good tip, so I decided to pretend that I was an art assistant at Leaf for a bit.

What followed was pretty much an amazing improvement. The above pictures don’t look that impressive, but once you consider that I made those four pages in the same time that it took to just make a single one of the sketches at the beginning of this post, you can see that my draw speed was actually four times faster than what I thought it was.

I presented these four sketches to my professor and he was impressed enough to call it a “breakthrough.” He did add quickly afterwards that I still needed quite a few more breakthroughs however. Hah…

Reassured, I produced some more sketches at full speed ahead.

Well, it looks like all those hours of painful practice was worth it after all. All this time, I could produce pretty good quality sketches four times faster than what I normally could. It’s just that I never actually tried to draw faster because I thought I’d mess up. ._.;

I must admit, drawing all of those sketches was pretty fun too. I was working in the main lobby of my school. Gradually, one after another, more and more aspiring manga artists who came to Japan to improve their skills showed up and we began to work together. Then the other students who were also manga fans showed up and watched us work. That was the first time in a long time that drawing was entirely enjoyable without any frustration.

Now, the next big breakthrough I need to make is learning how to make original characters. All of my sketches so far have been of other artists’ characters, so I’ll have to learn how to make my own soon. But I’m pretty optimistic that things might actually turn out well for a change.

The only problem is that through all of this, I completely forgot that I was actually supposed to be working on a visual novel that I was going to release at the end of this month. Well, so much for that!

Filed under: Art, Japan

Paper Stars: ART SPAM DUMP 2

noreply@blogger.com (MaiMai) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:58:04 +0000

I like putting pictures in my blog, so I'll put up pictures that I've been able to work on. My CGing has gotten WAY better.

Old character of mine that I wanted to doodle. She has a twin...

Who I frankly did not give any justice to. ;;

Quickly colored in this lineart I had months ago.

Gift for a friend.

An updated version of this picture. My first attempt at using a tablet. It hasn't even been a year since I've gotten my first tablet and I was able to improve leaps and bounds from that point.

I'll have another spam dumping tomorrow.

Project Memoria: Testing out new tablet and SAI program

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:47:33 +0000

My brother came over to help me brush up on some basic photoshop editing for my sketches. So far, just to outline the sketches I did on paper.

I’m having so much fun creating my sketches on my tablet. It definitely beats creating them on sketching paper as far as finalizing it to be a clean look.

It took me between 15-30 minutes to outline one figure. It took some time getting used to, but I’m getting more and more comfortable with the tools. Drawing on photoshop seemed to me a bit more wobbly than using the SAI tool to smoothly follow outlines.

Anyway, here is a sample outline I did using the SAI program and Wacom bamboo tablet

(NSFW) http://gallery.pixaelsoft.com/displayimage.php?pid=35&fullsize=1

I am open to any comments or suggestions from artists who are experienced or also getting started like me drawing using a tablet. I would love to learn more

Enjoy!

-Richelle (artist)

I Whine About Games: course correction

noreply@blogger.com (Whiner) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:13:35 +0000

After having gotten just far enough in prototyping the silly project to scare people, I'm probably throwing it back onto the back shelf. Reason? That project *has* to have a great artist 100% behind it or it won't work. I don't currently have the right artist for it, and I don't want to wreck it with the wrong one.

... Which means I'm back into development ideas for the OTHER game I have in mind, which I'm not saying too much about yet, but you can guess a few things from the tags on the post and the working title 'Magical Diary'... :) And this idea DOES have an artist lined up for it, and should be absolutely adorable. I'm quite excited.

(As for Date Warp... art production goes slowly. It will come out eventually, but not any time soon.)

Nyucu+: H~

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:38:10 +0000

Lol, this the most explicit picture you’ll see in my blog x’D
I like keeping it as friendly as possible, lol.

Today it was my first time sketching a proper HCG scene =D!

When I joined Mystery Parfait to work on Flight of Twilight, I joined as a colorist AND as the ero/HCG artist.
What was I thinking? No idea, lol. I just wanted to test my abilities, I guess? xD
I was into VN art at that time and I collected pretty CGs (including H ones), so I thought “hey, maybe I could give it a try =D”
I remember in the beginning we went through a lot of HCGs to see what we were looking for as a team. That was one of the most hilarious meetings I’ve ever had x’D Laughing at anatomy mistakes and H cliches, lol.

Later I was given little assignments from time to time, with a pose description and a couple of HCG or H Manga pages for reference (I’m grossed out by real life stuff, so I only work with drawn references x’D ).
Then we stopped doing that because we needed to focus on a bazillion other things before getting to those scenes in the story anyway “Orz
That was like… 3 years ago?

But now the first sex scene is written and I got to read the script and sketch it! =D
At first it was awkward. I was self concious about reading what my male team-mates would write and discuss with them the details of the scene, but in the end everyting went super smoothly :3

I had lots of fun sketchig the scene to match the script (yay for dual screens with the script and references in one display and SAI in the other <3 ) and I was given a lot of freedom to draw things as I saw fit ^^ So if by the time FoT comes out you find the HCGs weird or ugly or whatever, I’m the one to blame 8′D;

So… yeah. That’s the blog post of today 8D
Things are finally back to normal for me C=

Winter Wolves: Vera Blanc gameplay

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:42:12 +0000

I’m working on the “main game loop” of Vera Blanc right now. There’s a first “introduction” part where you get to know your powers, the setting of the investigation, and meet a few characters. Then after a shocking encounter (which I won’t reveal since I don’t want to spoil the game!) the game will enter in the main loop, showing the map that you can see below in the screenshots.

The game will be time limited, but only after certain events. For example, when you start, there won’t be a deadline of 30 days to solve the case. The days will pass, but until you find a specific clue, the story won’t go on. After some key events are “unlocked” though, you might have to hurry up and find / discover some information within a certain number of days, or in the case of real-time events, some minutes.

In any case the game will inform the player about what’s going to happen next and “suggest” him to save the game to avoid restarting from the beginning!

About the investigation part, there will be choices like in my other VNs but this time with much more freedom. I tried to represent as more choices as possible, and you can repeat the same action many times or try the same thing in different order to change the course of the story. So it’s not really a story with branches, but more like several actions that you can do in a specific location/situation of the story that will lead to different results.

On a final note, I’m happy about the final look of the game. I think that kind of art is more suited for mystery/horror stories than pure manga style (that’s my personal opinion of course)

sakevisual: Writingwriting

noreply@blogger.com (Ayu) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:10:31 +0000

Hooo~ It's been awhile since I updated. It's not that I haven't been doing work, but more like I've been doing a lot of work. This past week and a half has been dedicated to cranking out RE: Alistair on time. I'm glad that it's finally out. As much as I enjoy the testing and bug catching and filling in extra gaps, writing is my love. And now I'm back to writing. Yaaay! Today I did large amounts of writing for both Card Sweethearts and Happy Memories. It was something of a relief to just get back to writing. I do enjoy the production side of things, but writing is my favorite.

In other news, RE: Alistair has been more of a success than I anticipated, so I'm definitely going to consider making another otome game. We'll see where that goes. No solid plans for now, though. ^_-

Katawa Shoujo Dev Blog: 500,000 Blog Hits

noreply@blogger.com (Katawa Shoujo) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:11:09 +0000

Just a little while ago, the KS development blog reached the 500,000 hit mark. We'd like to thank all our fans for their patience with us, and we all hope that you'll enjoy the full game. In the meantime, we'll continue trucking on and giving you any notable updates as they come.

In celebration of this occasion is an image drawn by me of my dear Lilly, providing ample proof of why I am her writer and not her artist. You can thank the rest of the development team who was on IRC at the time for this.

- Suriko

alex's world: Hit my target

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:21:24 +0000

Had a great weekend. Rachael and I saw a Gilbert & Sullivan that we've not seen before, Utopia Limited, which was extremely silly and good fun. I'd decided a couple of months ago that I'd like to make an effort to see each of the G&S operettas that I haven't seen, and Utopia Limited was going to be the hardest of those to find, so I was delighted when Rachael discovered Girton Operatic were performing it. It was utterly ridiculous and delightfully funny. Then over the rest of the weekend, we saw some friends; we played a little sport; I solved the problem with my computer's graphics card...

And I hit my target for the end of February for Mermaid Liaisons!

I was aiming to have at least one route through Chapter 5 of Mermaid Liaisons written by the end of February. Well, I was up till 12:45 on Sunday night writing, but I reached that point, which I'm counting as a success. (Technically you could say I missed by 45 minutes, but...)

Even with the missing sections of Chapter 5, it still exceeded 64k, which means I had to split it into two files for my PDA's poor text editor. That's about 11000 words, though that includes Ren'Py commands and a few comments; probably between 9000 and 10000 player-visible words this chapter.
The wordcounts for what's currently written in each of the chapters, along with how complete I think that is:
Chapter 1: 6000 words, 95%, 1 scene to finish.
Chapter 2: 9500 words, 85%, 4 scenes to add/finish.
Chapter 3: 10500 words, 95%, 1 scene to finish.
Chapter 4: 9000 words, 70%, several scenes to do
Chapter 5: 11000 words, 70%, several scenes to do
Chapter 6: Starting today!

So the plans for coming months are:
March: Write Chapter 6. Have one or preferably two routes through Chapter 6, including the one route that has a chunk of extra plot, finished by end of March.
April: Fill in most of the gaps and still-to-write sections. Get the script into Ren'Py and bugfixed and directed by end of April.
May: Fill remaining script gaps. Write and debug the combat engine. Create and debug the CG gallery. Playtesting and editing. Release the game by end of May!

Wolfram Shadow's Current projects: Project JanFeb: Release Delay

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:58:36 +0000

Hi guys, as you might remember from yesterdays progress report, I said I hadn't been feeling so well, which is why there had been no update friday.
Due to the fact that the cold tablets affect my ability to think straight, I have not been able to finish off Project JanFeb.
I'll probably have it out sometime next week, but I can't guarantee anything, as I have other things which I have put off to work on this, that can't be put off any longer.
Now, I had been planning on announcing what I had decided for an actual title for project JanFeb today, and despite the fact that I'm delaying the release, I'll still announce the title name. The project, when released, shall be known as “The Bleak Mid-Winter”
If any of this post sounds weird, it's because I'm still under the effect of the cold tablets, and the only reason anything is actually spelt correctly is due to spell-check.
See you guys later...

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Project Memoria: New Character Poses! Plus Faces!

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:37:35 +0000

I received my very own Wacom Bamboo tablet from the UPS last Tuesday. I was very excited to use it, however I felt very limited with what I can create because its been so long that I’ve used Photoshop. I definitely need a 101 to brush up on my skills. I have little experience with illustrating on Photoshop. I hope my eye with paper and pencil is just as good technologically! Luckily, I have my brother to help me translate what tools do what in the program; I just need some practicing on them. This should be fun

For the mean time, here are some new sketches! Plus Faces to go along with them. Helps to bring out the character more huh? Haha, and hopefully clothes too soon.

(NSFW) Julia, Mikaela, Anna

-Richelle (Artist)

Paper Stars: Falling over, getting back up

noreply@blogger.com (MaiMai) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:10:48 +0000

Been awhile since I've written in this huh? Not a surprise, but school has been kicking my butt horribly, so much so that I couldn't get the writing done for Crimson Midnight. No fancy language about this: I failed at finishing within the two month period. I probably was way in over my head when I thought I could get a full story done and I let down my dev team. *sigh*

(In other news, I got accepted into my first choice college and got all excellent grades last semester except for my government class. So RL itself is tough, but rewarding)

It's the experiences that count though.

Although it makes me think. Maybe I'm not suited for a writing position? I'm more of a co-writer. I mean, I RP in my spare time as a hobby along with drawing anime and manga. And maybe I'm not good at writing different branches of a story. I'm rather linear minded so to speak.

Even if I failed at finishing a project, there is always a good thing that comes out of the bad. I was able to write a more substantial piece of work even if it is unfinished. (It will be finished sometime in the future however) I'm learning how to brainstorm better thanks to working with other people and how to be more consistent in my writing. Collaborating with people is also an important skill that was put into practice.

Thankfully in life and in visual novels, failure is not the end unless you let it be. I'll be going back to the art production of Stained One before tackling the writing. In fact, that was what I should have been focusing on before being absorbed in my storyline for it. In any case, over the past two months my CGing has improved if the WIP above is any indication. I'm not backing off from making VNs yet!

Now to download the games that HAVE been finished for the two month challenge and write a letter and draw a sketch for Deji.

Ehe~ Progress Blog: Studio Blauwe Hemel

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:22:47 +0000

Well, it’s been a while since my last update so… yeah. For the past few weeks I’ve been working on a website called Blauwe Hemel. It’ll be a studio/portfolio/hub for all of my projects. I even made a layout. :) … Unfortunately I’m having major trouble with the HTML and CSS. I can’t even think coherently anymore [...]

Wolfram Shadow's Current projects: Project JanFeb: Last week of Production, day 6: Saturday

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:04:53 +0000

If you're wondering why there was no update yesterday, it was because I haven't been feeling too well these last few days, and by the time 10pm came along, I felt too tired to write a blog post...

so, today we move away from the suspects, and onto the last character, the Police detective who is supposed to be in charge of the case (though he lets the protagonist do the work... how lazy)and then onto the next )and location, Mont Royal.

The Lazy Police Detective: Zachary Sanderson
Hair: Light brown, has a moustache.
Eyes: blue
Born in the West Island, Zachary is the only Anglophone in his department. Though Bilingual, he is more comfortable speaking English, and often complains about how everyone else prefers French. He decides to let Josiah have a chance at revenge, giving him 2 weeks to find out who the killer is, and provide the evidence. After that he refuses to listen, and the police will continue on by themselves.

Mont Royal:
The Mountain after which Montreal is named (at the time when the Island took the name, the spelling of the mountain's name was Mont Réal), and which sits just behind the CBD. Though called a mountain, its summit is only 233 metres above sea level. (again, info is taken from Wikipedia, and my memory.)

A path up on the Mont Royal

A view of the down-town campus of McGill Uni as seen from Mont Royal

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Winter Wolves: The pixel art nostalgia

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:16:13 +0000

I grew up playing pixel art games. Some of the best games, first on C64, then Amiga, and lastly PC (but the first 3d or pseudo-3d games like Doom were already showing).

I really like that style, and it’s a pity that nowadays you can see pixel art only on the small devices like iPhone, Nintendo DS or cellular phones. So, I am thinking to use pixel art for one of my upcoming games! I know that this might sounds crazy in an era of 3d accelerated cards, shaders, and so on, but I think a good pixel art graphic has something really artistic that you can’t get even with the best 3d real-time art you see in most games nowadays!

Besides, I also think pixel art is very good for cute/girly games, and since one of my upcoming games is definitely made for girls (but also men will be able to play it, fear not) I really want to try. Of course, I won’t feature full 800×600 screens made in pixel art, but for example a tilemap (similar to those you see in all the games made with RPGMaker XP) or perhaps a central part of the screen where the action take place, and all around my usual window/boxes with statistics and hints/tooltips.

I don’t want to announce anything yet, not unless I have implemented some screens with the new art style, but if everything goes well maybe in a month will make a new post with a surprise, a sort of a sequel (even if it will play differently) of one of my most successful games…

Love in Space: Photographs of Japan, Quick and Easy Edition

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:46:25 +0000

I realized just how massively inconvenient it was to download all of the photographs one by one in the previous photography post and decided to compile all of the photographs to date in a single, big package. You can download that from this topic at Lemmasoft.

Hope this helps!

Filed under: Japan

Dooom: Garter belt at the beach

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:11:20 +0000

for http://www.science-fair.deviantart.com

Wolfram Shadow's Current projects: Project JanFeb: Last week of Production, day 4: Thursday

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:55:42 +0000

Sorry, don't have any new pictures of McGill yet, spent most of today inside, so I'm behind on schedule for background art, going out tomorrow though, so should have more art then. Today's suspect is a business man, and today's location is the City of Montreal itself.

The Business man: Fabien Coté
Hair: combed, light
Eyes: Hazel
A Montreal born Quebecois, and graduate of UQAM. Though a Francophone, he is Bilingual, and so no-one is needed to translate when he is questioned by Josiah, in fact, he may be useful in asking questions of André, providing you can trust what he says is a correct translation. André claims to have seen Fabien leave the alley shortly before the body was found.

The City of Montréal
Montréal is the 2nd largest city in Canada, ad the largest in the French speaking province of Quebec. It has a population of 3,814,700 in the greater Montreal area (in the actual city is 1,906,811) and is approximately 65 Km (~45 miles) north of the border with the USA. Its population is 57% Francophone and 18% Anglophone, and is the 2nd largest primarily French speaking city after Paris. (most information here came from Wikipedia XD except the distance, for which I used Google maps, and my memory, to figure out.)

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Love in Space: Rekindling the Workshop

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:30:31 +0000

Every month of March, a bunch of creators at the Lemmasoft forums get together and try to make a game in 31 days. Unfortunately, I have never been able to participate in this craziness, since I was generally busy with school and needed to devote whatever tiny fraction of free time I had left to Sunrider. Now that the project has been set aside for the immediate future and I’m taking things easy in Japan, I actually have something called free time again! It would be great if I got to apply everything I’ve learned so far and finally released a finished product. I admit, I’ve learned much about visual novels since making the laughably amateurish (but still lovable, I suppose) pilot episode for Sunrider roughly two years ago, so it would be great if I could actually make something now instead of practicing all the time.

I guess the first order of business is to think up of an idea for a game. Since I only have 31 days, the plot premise will have to be limited in scope. No intergalactic war epics allowed this time around, I’m afraid…

I guess one possible option is that supernatural murder mystery that I was working on after watching Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. While it suffers from a heavy amount of When They Cry envy, writing a clever murder mystery would be an interesting challenge. Unfortunately, I’m not really as interested in the project as I was a few months ago, but it’s always a possibility.
“When They Cry” inspired supernatural murder mystery – possibility of working on: 15%
Plot premise: When a mysterious murder occurs in northern France at the height of the Vichy occupation, a pianist named Richelieu is convinced that one of his young students is the culprit.

Another idea that I’ve been playing around with is a possible spin off story based off of Sunrider. Even though it’ll be set in the same universe, it’ll be a massive departure in both the theme and style of the source material, since there’ll be no moe or mecha, and instead be a pretty hardball political thriller based around the diplomatic world of Sunrider. I’d be pretty excited to write a political drama, but then since I can’t draw anything else but cute moeblobs, the art is definitely going to be a problem. Not to mention that filtered photographs would not be possible in the setting of Sunrider, making the project just a bit unfeasible to complete within the alloted time period.
Sunrider political thriller side story – possibility of working on: 15%
Plot premise: The story of Ava Crescentia, a controversial Alliance politician, and of her many political intrigues.

I’ve also had another idea for a post modern, avante-garde work about moe. There will be some fun deconstruction and plenty of wangst on this one, I think. I don’t need to draw a lot of good art for this, so I think this will be the easiest to make in terms of resources. But then, I suppose the surreal and difficult to read writing style might turn a lot of people off, so maybe nobody might be interested in it.
Post modernist moe deconstruction – possibility of working on: 35%
Plot premise: When an aspiring law student is expelled from school for helping a crush cheat on her exam, he gets trapped in a labyrinth of regret and angst.

And finally, I’m pretty much always willing to make a traditional moe story along the lines of ToHeart or Kanon. Since I’m in Japan, making filtered backgrounds will be pretty easy. Besides, I’m pretty desperate for some good old traditional eroges since there’s pretty much a mountain of cool stuff here that I can’t read. I suppose though that the challenge with making one of these is that many other people have already done this already, so the need to innovate is really great.
Traditional moe story – possibility of working on: 35%
Plot premise: Well, I’m sure you can fill in the blanks yourself here…

Filed under: Random

Wolfram Shadow's Current projects: Project JanFeb: Last week of Production, day 3: Wednesday

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:52:55 +0000

Today we have 2 suspects to introduce, along with a talk about the University that 4 of the characters in this Visual Novel attend.

A good friend (Male): David Wolfe
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Light Green
DoB: November 9th, 1990

David Wolfe was born in Toronto, with his mother and father unmarried. His father was believed to be part of the underworld (as in, crime, not supernatural *curses the fact that there can be multiple meanings of words*) and his mother told him that the reason they didn't marry was to to protect David and his mother. He met Josiah and Ashleigh in grade 3, when he and his mother changed suburbs due to an increase of gang violence, and so he had to therefore change schools. He is studying science at McGill.

A good friend (Female):Orihime Sayor
Hair: Black
Eyes: Light Blue
DoB: October 2nd, 1990
Despite the name, she is not Japanese, but instead the child of two people obsessed with Japanese culture, and their favourite festival, Tanabata. The first meeting between her and Josiah happened on her first day of high school, when she was in a hurry to get to class. Josiah was already in the class, but went to look out in the hallway for Ashleigh, who was also late... as Josiah went out the door, Orihime came in... yes, I know it is terribly shoujo-esque... She has feelings for Josiah, and studies Media at McGill.

McGill University.
McGill university is the 18th ranked university in the world for 2009, according to the Times Higher Education rankings, which makes it the top ranked university in Canada. It is made up of two campuses, but the story will only concern the down-town campus. The down-town campus lies next to the heart of Montreal's CBD, and possesses a large open lawn just inside the entrance (though the lawn is not observable during winter due to the snow.

the outside of Mclennan Library, which I talked about yesterday. more of the down-town campus coming tomorrow.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Dooom: Windows is crapping out on me

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:21:08 +0000

too depressed to draw anything nice

Magical Girl Studios: So...Eroge in Academia?

prettysammy09@gmail.com (Sammy) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:33:23 +0000

So besides working on my own Ren'Ai games as strictly a hobby, I've also managed to bring them in to my academics.

I'm developing a performance piece (I'm a theater student) that uses Eroge/Ren'Ai games as an element. I won't bore you with the details.

But hey - here are some pretties in progress.

BTW - I SERIOUSLY need an actual version of Paint Tool Sai. I love this thing, but the trial only lasts 31 days. ;_; $57... Well, my birthday's coming up.

This is a picture of one of my actresses as a Ren'ai game character. ^^ She thinks it's awesome, I'm really excited for how it's going to turn out. She really looks like she could belong in any Ren'ai game!

Wolfram Shadow's Current projects: Project JanFeb: Last week of Production, day 2: Tuesday

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:47:41 +0000

First up on the list of Suspects I'm going to introduce is André Baudin, and I'm also going to talk about one of the locations where gathered information will be thought over by the protagonist

The Beggar: André Baudin
Hair: Messy, dark brown
Eyes: Brown
André Baudin is a homeless francophone, living on the streets of down-town Montreal. At the time of the murder, he was sitting at the Sherbrooke end of the alleyway, begging. As he does not speak English, and as the protagonist, Josiah, speaks little French, a translator is required if you wish to ask him questions concerning the murder.

The McLennan library:
The McLennan library is the Humanities and Social Sciences library for McGill University, and also the Largest of the Libraries. In the isolated corners of the top floor you are unlikely to find yourself detracted by the presence of others, unlike the lower floors, or the science and engineering library (in which it is hard to find an area with no other people in it), where the protagonist frequented prior to the murder. It is here that the Protagonist visits to contemplate what he has learned, as it is often to noisy in his apartment.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Wolfram Shadow's Current projects: Project JanFeb: Last week of Production, day 1: Monday

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:43:54 +0000

Seeing as I've slacked off and not released a single progress report for Project JanFeb since I started it, I decided to give you all snip-its of info each day of the last week of production.

So, about Project JanFeb. First of all, it won't be released under that name, as that is only it's working title. I'll announce it's actual title on Sunday the 28th. It's a murder mystery set in the city of Montreal, Canada. As I have this week off, most of the work for it will actually be done this week (Yes, I know, I left it to the last minute, a bad habit of mine). The Backgrounds will be photo's with filters applied, and the character sprites will be hand drawn, but digitally coloured. Despite the fact that the story will be set in North America, the spelling will be British/Australian English. On the topic of locations in the story, every place shown and mentioned is a real place, barring the character's homes, as the character's are fictional. However, all Characters and events in the work are Fictional Creations, and any resembles with real life people/events are coincidence, but that goes with out saying.

In this Post I'll be introducing the Protagonist, and the victim.

The Protagonist: Josiah Millers
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Dark Green
DoB: 4th of April, 1991
Josiah Millers is a 1st year Mechanical Engineering undergrad student at McGill University, Montreal. He was born in Toronto, where he grew up with his girlfriend, Ashleigh Jones.

The Victim: Ashleigh Jones
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
DoB: 2nd of June, 1991
Ashleigh Jones is a 1st year Arts undergrad majoring in Eastern History at McGill University. She was also born in Toronto, where she grew up with her boyfriend, Josiah Millers.

The Murder scene:
The crime occurred on the morning of Sunday, the 3rd of January, 2010, in an alleyway between Rue Sherbrooke and Avenue Du President-Kennedy, near the corner of Rue Sherbrooke and Rue University.

Tomorrow I'll start introducing the suspects, see you then.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Project Memoria: On Working as a Group

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:32:51 +0000

Compiling a visual novel as a group is hard work, I know.

As a manager of two VN projects (Memoria and the Final Week remake), I have to keep tabs on my artists to make sure they’re doing their job. Of course, I need to keep tabs on myself, as well. I’m giving myself and my artists every other week to get at least something done. I understand they have school/college and work and such, and I respect that – it’s called time management.

If you’ve guys read the “what is project Memoria” section, you’ll see that the characters were recycled from a scrapped project. That’s what I really want to avoid, scrapping the two VN projects.

For all those VN enthusiasts creating their own VNs – don’t give up. You might have some setbacks among your team members, but as long as you negotiate with them then problems will be minimized, making things go more smoothly.

Expect something new at least once here every two weeks from this post on (story and art-wise). Especially since my sister bought a shiny new Wacom tablet.

- Ryne (aka nayukifanboy/thebackup)

Perfect Nightmare

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:58:41 +0000

Since I know a few people googled a guide for the first chapter’s actual ending… Is anyone still interested? I said I’d write one a while ago, but you know, if there’s no demand, I won’t bother. :P Also, no, I wouldn’t write it along the lines of “choose these options, done”, but more like… give you obvious hints. That should also help understanding the story a little better.

Let’s just say there’s something that reminded me I should be working on my visual novels. I wouldn’t even have noticed without the blog stats though :B (Come on, guys, let me know if you add my crap to other sites! lol I was so shocked when I found out about it coincidentally…)

Oh yeah, if anyone has any quick questions, here’s my obligatory formspring account.

Dooom: Molly Swallows

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:23:58 +0000

I took another break. OKAY NO MORE MOLLY.

Love in Space: The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:04:41 +0000

I saw it!

It was a pretty amazing movie. The theater was packed and nearly 10 brave fans chose to stand the entire duration of the movie to watch it. Just about everything about it was nothing short of flawless – art direction, music, and story. And this is coming from someone who didn’t even care about the Haruhi franchise to even know that there was a movie.

Kyo-Ani has once again demonstrated their ability to make flawless art. The backgrounds take a slight departure from Kyo-Ani’s previous drawing style and are made almost photo-realistically – so much so that the entire movie, I thought they were in fact touched up photographs, and it was only when I finished the movie and saw a mini Disappearance of Haruhi museum near the theater’s exit that included various animation cells and background paintings that I realized that the backgrounds were not in fact photographs, but were meticulously drawn paintings.

The background in the scene’s climax is nothing short of jaw dropping. But I will save the details for when you see it for yourself.

In addition, the level of detail put in the animation is borderline insane. Every single lowly extra is animated with as much effort as the main cast. Throughout Kyon and the SOS Brigade’s adventure, you see small bits and pieces of every single extra’s life. While Kyon’s talking to to his friends in his classroom, you see four girls chatting over their lunch bento in the background, just like Lucky Star. While the SOS brigade is walking across the school courtyard, you see a gardening club having fun in the background, just like a certain light music club. You see a cute girl getting petted on her head by her boyfriend. You see two girls gossiping on their cellphone. Every single living being, no matter how irrelevant they are to the story, are animated almost flawlessly and you can see bits and pieces of countless other dramas that are occurring in East High School even while Kyon’s adventure is unfolding.

The best thing about the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is that Haruhi has disappeared and allowed Yuki Nagato to take the limelight. We finally actually get something awesome! Blushing Yuki was cute enough to kill. I no longer know what is Kyo-Ani’s greatest creation: shy, emotionally flustered Yuki Nagato, or mega imouto-mode Mei Sunohara.

Haruhi with long hair was quite nice too. She actually looks a lot better with long hair. Forget the pony tail, Kyon should have told her to grow her hair longer instead!

Filed under: Anime, Japan

Dooom: Measuring Shadows

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 07:48:57 +0000

I paused from dischan work (since drawing fills is a horrendous pain) to draw the heroine from A22 and Climatic’s game, Measuring Shadows.

Studio Mugenjohncel: Going 3D Pig Disgusting on BG-CG’s for OELVN’s… Part 2

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:12:37 +0000

Believe it or not, this delicious CG image you see above is all full 3D (No Photoshop whatsoever… really) This is the result of my week long hiatus from Lemmasoft Forums and use that time to familiarize myself with Google Sketchup and that renderer I purchased recently… yes it’s 3D… My main objective is to use 3D to speed up BG CG production for OELVN’s (or Visual Novels), make it look like it was deliciously drawn by an artist and make the resource reusable.

Of course, every 3D starts ugly with wires… I don’t like it but for the sake of maintaining this hobby even though I no longer have much free time… I must find ways to save time and speed up production of assets like CG’s.

OK once you got your tiny scene all put in place… time to find that perfect “spot”…

Yes, this is where 3D > 2D… you get to “choose” your view.

Another obvious advantage of 3D is it’s re-usability and flexibility. Like if I wanted to put a bus… I could just drag and drop it and “BAM!” instant bus!…

You can even have odd things like this, position them precisely where you wanted them and remove them with ease.

Of course, there is this very high initial learning curve that must be overcome. Like in this example. I didn’t know how render works properly so everything looked kinda dark, dull and flat once the render is finished… it seems in order for the renderer to function properly you’ll have to “dictate” the properties of every surface in your scene… like make the windows reflect x amount of light, make brick this rough and make it protrude this much and so forth to make light more accurate… oh well…

Guess I still have a long way to go eh?…

“POOF” (Disappears)

(In case you’re wondering about the nice reflection present in the window on the first image of this post… I kinda cheated a bit, the reflection in the front windows are actually “painted” in the texture meaning the texture and the reflection is just one texture. The anime styled trees can be accomplished by viewing this tutorial. The hazy part was accomplished by making a very thin fog)

Winter Wolves: Super Heroes and Heroines

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:54:14 +0000

Is Vera Blanc a Super Heroine? No, not really. She is human: she has fear, she feels sympathy or love for certain person, she is jealous, and she can die like anyone else.

Recently I’ve been writting a lot of those “sudden death” endings. It might look weird, but they’re fun to read. Like in the old “Fighting Fantasy” gamebooks: I remember I was always reading the “death” scenes with great interests, even if they meant I had failed in my quest. I don’t know exactly how to express it, but I thought those description were really cool to read, and they’re to write too

During the game, Vera’s investigations can encounter a premature end in many different ways. However, beside “saving often” (which is always a good advice for all kind of games) I also try to give the player some hints, like subtle warnings, of what might happen if they’re not careful, or what dangers they could encounter. Anyway, it is definitely a different game from my other ones, you won’t be able to rollback and you will also have to think carefully each move. In the game there are LOTs of menu, much more than my other games. It is more interactive, and after the introductive chapter, the game becomes very interactive, with a daily/weekly planner, a map with places to explore/investigate, and a sort of diary (or “cluebook”) where Vera writes down all the clues/info she will discover during her investigation.

The game will also feature a few minigames, the most important being the “Mind-Reading” one. Yes, because one of Vera’s superpowers is the capacity to read other people’s mind. Check the video below for a good explanation on how the minigame works:

Note – of course the game will be completely edited/proofreaded by native english speaker before being released

That’s all for now – next post I hope to be able to show you a video introducing Vera’s story, including her superpowers!

Project Memoria: Ideas Dump

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:14:37 +0000

Not much progress lately, but I do have this story idea that’s been floating around me I’d like to share. May or may not be in the final draft.

(begin)
So, me and Jacob sat on a bench just outside the mall, waiting for Mikaela to join us, she said she’d catch up to eat out with us. She’s… however, running a little late. It’s been fifteen minutes already…

Jacob: Man Ryne, is Mikaela always this late? Some childhood friend you have there.
Ryne: …
Jacob: Forget Mikaela, Ryne. She’s probably still pissed off at you for hanging around Julia and stuff, and the other girls, too. I never knew you were such a player, dude!
Ryne: Funny, Jacob! I know Mikaela better than you do.

(Event CG of cellphone)
Suddenly, my cell phone rings. It’s from Mikaela, probably telling us she’s running a little late. However, when I open my cell…

(Event CG of opened cellphone, with picture of Mikaela posed flirtatiously in a bikini. The pic is centered around her cleavage, with the pic going from her waist up to her mouth.)
…there’s a picture message… of Mikaela… in a bikini. The message says… “Hey Rhino <3"

Ryne: Oh, c-crap!

I try to quickly close my cellphone before Jacob sees. Seriously… I-I-I’ve never seen Mikaela in a bikini before! I think I’m turning red…

Jacob: What’s up with the flushed face, my friend?
Ryne: …I-it’s nothing!
Jacob: Let me guess. Mikaela just showed you her cleavage, huh?
Ryne: Shut up! It’s nothing!
Jacob: Can I have a copy of that pic?
Ryne: …

I’ve never felt so embarrassed in my life.

Jacob: So, are you and Mikaela officially boy/girlfriend?
Ryne: No, and we don’t plan to be.
Jacob: I think the two of you should break the ice already! I mean, you’ve known each other for quite a long time…
Ryne: Well… yeah, but still…
Jacob: Dude, you may feel that way, but I’m getting vibes that she wants something more from you. Especially judging from that picture, and when she was pissed off at you for a week…
Ryne: …She’s just probably teasing me! It’s nothing, okay?!

I see Mikaela exiting the mall carrying a shopping bag. Probably that bikini she bought earlier.

Mikaela: Hello Rhino! Sorry if I’m late.
Ryne: … (I turn away from her and start to blush hard.)
Jacob: What about me, Mikaela? (He makes a smirk.)
Mikaela: …Hi.

Oh, man… I’d never look at Mikaela the same way again. That picture has burned in my mind permanently. But… I have to admit, Mikaela… she’s actually kind of cute… yeah. I-I can’t make her my girlfriend, no, not yet… I’m not ready.
(end)

- Ryne (aka nayukifanboy/thebackup)

sakevisual: The boys of RE: Alistair - Part 03

noreply@blogger.com (Ayu) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:11:55 +0000

As the release date for RE: Alistair approaches, it's time to introduce the third and final fellow in the story. This is Derek. He's the school's vice president, the highest scorer on the basketball team, and a total flirt. You would be too with looks like that. He was the most difficult to write because he's such a flirt. It doesn't take much for him to offer to be your boyfriend, so he clearly is pretty relaxed about relationships. But that makes it harder for you to develop a REAL relationship with him instead of a shallow one. Difficult, indeed. Good luck.

Electrofish Studios: Progress Report…or Not

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:05:52 +0000

Scripting came to a halt for the past few weeks since it was Chinese New Year/Valentine’s and I had to talk with people about music and whatnot. There was also some trouble with my visa. But everything worked out fine, I had a great time, and we’re all back on track now. Sprites are all done for [...]

alex's world: Fluctuations in Creative Output (Times When You Can't Write)

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:44:33 +0000

I think it's a reasonably common situation to have an ongoing creative project and find at times that you just don't feel up to working on it. It's happened to me with Mermaid Liaisons a couple of times, most recently last weekend when I was feeling ill... but it continued on into all of last week even when I'd pretty much recovered from the bug. I kind of wanted to be writing, but just didn't feel like I could face doing any, or like I'd be able to produce anything. It was this Monday before I was writing script again, though I've been getting some good stuff written since then.

I'm curious: Several of you either are at the moment, or have been at some point, in the process of working on a reasonably large ongoing creative work: a novel, a game, a comic, or assorted other possibilities. How do you handle times when you don't feel that you can do any creating tonight? Even if it drags on for a week or a month?

I'm thinking primarily of things that you work on in your leisure time rather than professionally, though insights from professionals could certainly be interesting too. And also I'm primarily interested in things that you really want to get finished, that you're emotionally invested in; there's less tension of whether to force yourself to keep on going if the whole thing is just "meh, not too bothered".

Post from mobile portal m.livejournal.com

Dischan Devblog: I guess I should write some stuff

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:59:03 +0000

Yeah, so, update.

Writing is moving forward a little more slowly now, but not because we aren’t working. It’s mostly because we keep on going back to fix and improve things in already written script. Plus, the day we are currently writing is very complicated. It’s the last day for the demo, so obviously there is a lot of branching within it. If clauses everywhere.

As for art, Doom’s been on a roll. He’s currently drawing Ciri sprites at a rate I am quite impressed with. They are also turning out gorgeous, I must say. Once he’s done with them he’ll make a little Ciri pic for the character page, and you can all meet her.

Shenkhar has gotten a new song going, and it sounds really good. I’m impressed. Not sure when it’ll be completely done, but it shouldn’t be too long, it doesn’t sound far from complete already. And then I’ll finally be able to update the music section of the progress page.

I suppose that’s all there is to say for now. I’ll leave you with a pic that’s completely irrelevant, but just to reward you eyes for going through all this text.

yay!

Love in Space: Out of the Loop

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:22:49 +0000

Eh? I’ve been in Japan all this time and I had no idea that The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya had been adopted into a movie. Shows just how much I care about the Haruhi franchise. If we knew that it was going to get adopted into a movie, then what was all the hell about Endless Eight about?

Anyways, I’m off to find the closest theater that’s screening it. This should be a pretty fun trip, since I now know how Japanese theaters work after having watched Nanoha. (Theaters can be split up in multiple buildings in Japan, so the building where you purchase the ticket may not necessarily be the building where you watch the movie. Caused some confusion last time…)

Filed under: Anime, Japan

I Whine About Games: words words words

noreply@blogger.com (Whiner) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:11:21 +0000

Script for Date Warp is over 60K now, and largely complete. The art and the OP music are in progress but won't be done until... April? Don't know really.

Now looking for experienced, reliable, and articulate beta-readers to provide feedback before the final bits slot into place.

Winter Wolves: The Year Of The Tiger

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:44:45 +0000

I just discovered a fun thing. One of my best collaborator, Ayu Sakata (Flower Shop’s writer, voice actress / proofreader in Bionic Heart, Heileen 2 and more) and I are both of The Tiger in the Chinese Horoscope. This means that this is our year!
It surely started well with The Flower Shop who is getting a positive response and nice reviews everywhere.

Now she is working on editing what should be my next game (unless I manage to finish Vera Blanc first but I doubt it). It’s a manga visual novel / strip poker game called Card Sweethearts. I started this project last year, asking Ren’Py main programmer Tom to create a poker engine out of his card game system for Ren’Py.
The poker is the classic Texas Hold’em, and will become a classic strip poker (featuring only tasteful images though) when you challenge one of the four girl depicted in the title screen image below:

I absolutely like how Ayu is reworking the original game texts (written by another collaborator of mine who had to quit). Just read at Tobias description of Miko, one of the four girl you can pursue in the game and my personal favourite:
“You mean Rocco? That old guy ain’t much, but his woman Miko. Now she’s a fine piece of work. Hottest thing out of the orient since they invented gunpowder.”

Now that’s what I call really top writing!

Below a in-game screen featuring the poker part. That is really fun, and is cool how it integrates with the story itself. The game will also feature a scheduler like my other dating sims where you’ll be able to decide what to do with your week.

So basically I have in production (or planned) the following games for this year:

Cardsweethearts - a visual novel / poker game mix
Vera Blanc 1 – an american comic-styled mystery game with several minigames in it (more on this soon)
Planet Stronghold – probably my biggest project to date, a sci-fi RPG featuring a battlesystem, many varied enemies, an inventory for each character, a training system, a map system, different weapons/armors types, with a romance/VN background and several possible outcomes!
a still unnamed horror/mystery game set in victorian times that most likely will be illustrated by Zyephen (the same artist of Planet Stronghold characters / enemies)
a sequel of Flower Shop with a brand new game (not farming sim) seen from “the girls side”
an hex-grid turnbased fantasy wargame similar to the good old SSI titles

It’s going to be a very busy year as you can see!

sakevisual: The Gameplan

noreply@blogger.com (Ayu) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:26:47 +0000

Well, lots on the list of things to do right now, but I'm going to write out a gameplan so that I get everything finished in good time.

February:
The deadline for the two month challenge fast approaches. RE: Alistair is doing okay, but we're seriously in crunch time right now. A couple thousand more words, at least, hopefully done by the end of this week so that we can spend the last week testing and cleaning up any emergency issues.

March:
Crazy insane writing month. I intend to actually finish writing both Card Sweethearts and Moonsong this month. That's a lot, especially seeing as both have several tens of thousands of words to go, but I really want to get these done ASAP. They've both been sitting around much too long, and they'll get stale if I don't put a rush order on them.

April:
If my March plan works out, start writing three new games. Yes, three. A sequel to a game that's currently doing very well, a horror/otome game, and a personal project that I hope to be able to release commercially. @^@

In the meantime:
Ripples, Plat du Jour, and hanami x 2 will move along at whatever speed is appropriate based on the schedule and workload of the artist.

Love in Space: Free Photos of Japan

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:11:47 +0000

Making backgrounds for visual novels can be a pretty difficult task, so many creators, including many famous doujinshi artists, opt for filtering real life photographs. This works pretty well, assuming that there’s a large number of readily available photographs that generally look something like your story’s setting. For example, this method probably wouldn’t work so well for a project like Sunrider, since it’s pretty tough getting photographs of things like interstellar space ports and space ships. Since a lot of people who are interested in making visual novels are also pretty big fans of anime, there’s always interest in setting stories in Japan. Unfortunately, not many of us actually live in Japan, so it’s hard to get photographs of stuff like subway stations and Japanese homes.

So, I’ve been compiling a collection of photographs that are readily available to be used as visual novel backgrounds. If you want to use these photographs for your own projects, then be my guest. The only rule I have regarding the usage of these photographs is that your project CANNOT be commercial. However, for people who are going to release their projects for free, then feel free to use any of these.

There are more photographs on this thread in Lemmasoft as well. You can also request specific photographs there if you need something for a project.

Filed under: Art, Japan

Dooom: Happy Valentine’s Day!

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:16:19 +0000

For those of us guys who spend it alone and girls who spend it with other girls. They are Fang and Vanille from FFXIII. Also on my Deviantart.

Wallpaper versions:

Love in Space: A phD of Manga Studies

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:20:50 +0000

She’s not the only genius in the field.

The Japanese certainly do take their manga seriously. The university I go to has no less than three professors who regularly teach English language classes regarding manga, anime, and its fandom. I was fortunate enough to enroll in a class taught by one of those professors and it has proved to be an illuminating experience so far.

Also, how often can you show your professor an ero manga you purchased and have him nod his head in agreement and tell you that he has an identical copy at home as well?

I was both surprised and somewhat pleased to see that there were a huge number of misconceptions that I had about manga and anime before coming to Japan. Luckily, after a few classes and some field trips to massive manga merchandise stores, those misconceptions were cleared up in no time at all.

The first big misconception I had was on the diversity of different manga genres. Originally, I thought that there was some shonen stuff, moe stuff, yaoi stuff, and some shojo stuff. All I would have to do once I got to a manga store would be just to find the big “moe section” and take a look.

This is not so. First, calling “yaoi” a genre would be a mistake. Rather, it’s a MASSIVE class of even more genres. In one of the stores I visited, the first floor was dedicated to figurines and non-yaoi manga and doujinshi, the second floor to anime video games and DVDs, the ENTIRE third floor to just yaoi, and the fourth floor to cosplay costumes, a cafe, and to idol related merchandise. Furthermore, my very concept of Comiket was remade when I discovered that it is actually a female dominated event just because of the yaoi. My professor tells me that 9 years ago, 90% of the participants were female and that finding a man would have been a rare occurrence. To this day, the majority of the participants at Comiket are actually women who are interested in purchasing yaoi doujinshi. The recent explosion of male interest in Comiket is considered only a recent phenomenon and traditionally, the entire venue was meant primarily for women.

Also, the very definition of genres in manga came under attack when I found that there are at least 2000 different genres. There is a genre of manga about cooking. There is a genre of manga about child raising. There is a genre of manga about pachinko. The sports genre is massive, with virtually every sport imaginable represented. There’s post modern manga. There’s political satire manga. There’s a historical genre, from time periods ranging anywhere from the French Revolution to the Meiji Period of Japan. There’s erotic manga for 40 year old women. Virtually every single topic, genre, and fan base has been dealt with. To this day, I have failed to find a “moe section” at a manga book store because it is pretty much just one genre in a massive pool of about 2000 other ones.

The same can be said about anime. So far, I have not seen a single episode of any of the animes that I usually see. Instead, children’s anime dominate, with Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece also in the foreground. In fact, if you ask the random Japanese teenager what his favorate anime is, the answer is going to be either Naruto, Bleach, or One Piece. If you mention Haruhi, Clannad, or K-On, you’ll probably get nothing but confused looks.

All of the animes that are downloaded by fans worldwide are actually aired during the middle of the night here, precisely when nobody is awake to watch them. I was terribly confused why this was so. Making an entire anime series certainly can’t be a cheap, so why would publishers shoot themselves in the foot by airing their hard earned anime series precisely when nobody’s around to see them?

The answer has to do with manga. An anime series serve as one enormous publicity boast to an already running manga. The mere claim that a certain manga has been adopted into an anime series differentiates it from the 200 million other manga series on the store’s bookshelf and provides an enormous boast to sales. An anime series generally isn’t judged by itself – it is always connected to a manga series that it is supposed to push. Since anime series exist just to allow their parent manga series to claim that it has an anime adaptation, most publishers decide to air animes in the middle of the night when broadcasting costs are dirt cheap to capitalize on profits made from manga sales.

However, fear not, for there is still an anime fandom. The theater of college age males who showed up to watch Nanoha the Movie 1st nearly three weeks after it was released is proof of this.

Also, I realized that anime merchandise really isn’t as expensive as expected. The free market is a wonderful thing and has pushed down prices far below those offered by less free and ahem… shall we say monopolistic markets found outside of Japan.

To demonstrate, here is Nia Teppelin.

Roughly 17 centimeters tall, I think. Purchased for about $13.

Tsukasa Hiiragi figma.

Purchased for roughly $16.

Two Strawberry Marshmallows.

About 12 centimeters tall. Each about $8.

The majority of the prices are generally half of what are generally found online. Some of the more ridiculous deals are 75% less. All of the figurines came in their original boxes and my professor is sure that they are not bootlegs because he shops there too. (And there doesn’t seem to be any hints of them being bootlegs anyways, aside from the unbelievably low prices.)

Filed under: Anime, Japan

Errant Heart Dev Blog: The Kamehameha Effect

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:36:05 +0000

Some random observations I’ve recently identified in regards to working on a Visual Novel project…

Having worked with 3D modeling and animation in the past, Visual Novels seem very similar in the effort required up front, and the reusability of the art resources. But the most interesting aspect that I’ve found is the Kamehameha Effect.

As far as effort is concerned – Oy! It seems like such a long, difficult, never-ending process. But I suspect that completion for resources will proceed in a logarithmic fashion. So it’ll seem like very little progress is being made for a long time. And then all of a sudden, without warning, everything will be done. Oh, I’m waiting for that day.

As far as reusability is concerned, it’s definitely a nice change of pace from doing comics. With sequential art, one really can’t reuse anything one draws. Oh sure, one might occasionally be able to swipe a panel here or there from some random, previously finished page. And there are instances where a panel needs to be repeated (usually for comedic effect). But those are rare instances that are far and few between.

But the best part of working on Visual Novels? The fact that one can concentrate one’s efforts onto such a small set of resources. Or as I like to call it: The Kamehameha Effect.

Basically, with sequential art, one has to be fast – damn fast. The pages have to be churned out as fast as one can physically stand (sometimes, beyond). Consequently, quality is usually not a high priority. So, while sequential art may highlight a person’s absolute speed and reliability, it doesn’t necessarily give one a chance to shine, as far as quality is concerned. And that’s something I’ve sorely missed over the years – the chance to concentrate and obsess over a “small” set of artistic resources.

Although, this process does highlight the fact that most of my skills are based around speed. I sometimes find myself at a loss when I need to add in gobs of detail on something. But hey – just like most things, I’m sure it’ll come in time. Maybe. Hopefully…

Winter Wolves: Follow the leader: about characters in a party RPG

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:33:41 +0000

As some of you might know, recently I fell in love with Bioware’s latest title, Dragon Age.

Of course there are MANY reasons to love that game: but as game designer, the most interesting new feature (never seen before in a RPG game as far as I know) is the party management / relationship between the main characters and his/her companions.

Beside the possible romance outcomes, which are very nice, I also liked in particular the skill bonus that each NPC can get if you have a good relationship with him/her. I definitely want to do the same in my game Planet Stronghold. Beside raising the skills the “normal” way (through Training or winning battles / earning XPs) I also want to have a relationship value with each of them, and that value will give bonuses to combat. Of course also a negative value will give a negative bonus to combat.

Another very interesting feature is that the NPC actually interacts during the exploration dialogues. Evil / selfish characters will be annoyed if you try to help too much everyone you meet, while generous / brave characters will be pissed if you do evil action or if you refuse to help the weaks. This will require a bit more planning during the dialogues to check for all the possible companions present in that point, but will definitely add much more atmosphere and realism to the game.

I always liked the idea of your party NPC being not simple soldiers that will follow the leader blindly, but real characters with their own morals / thoughts that will change their opinion on you based on your actions.

Dreamsoft: Day 4-5 Progress Report

noreply@blogger.com (Midnighticequeen) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:46:08 +0000

Sadly little writing happened tonight, though I did get a good start on the intro yesterday. I had planned to post about but my internet connection was sucky and my computer was acting funny so I decided to leave it alone for the day. Today, I decided to not make my VN project with more than one boy to chase to save time, and I decided to focus on the guy I found the most interesting, the bad boy type. ^__^

Other than that most of my morning and evening went to painting our house before we move, we still have three more rooms to do so a lot of writing might not be done tomorrow neither, I pray that won't be the case though, I really want to finish this by deadline and finally finish my first Visual Novel.

Dreamsoft: Welcome

noreply@blogger.com (Midnighticequeen) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:43:56 +0000

Okay, I did it once, I did it twice, and now I'm doing it a third time. I'm starting yet another development blog, hopefully it will be my last for a while, but I make no promises. I didn't understand why I never liked any of my blogs, but I think it's cause I just didn't like working on wordpress, blogger seems so much more simpler to me.

Since my other blog was added to the blog roll at Planet EVN I don't feel right adding my ramblings up there, especially since I don't do that much artwork until I got the basic story down, when most people are interested in the graphics. To be honest I'm flatter my blog was added to Planet EVN and a little embarrassed to add anything now unless I think it's perfect. So for now, all my whining, concerns, and frustrations will be featured here, while all my achievements, screenshots, and other important updates will be held over there.

Dreamsoft: The Writing Nursery

noreply@blogger.com (Midnighticequeen) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:38:55 +0000

As you can guess by the title, this is a entry made to help you nurse your writing creativity and skills. I can usually find a bunch of topics dedicated to the visual aspect of a VN, but not so much for the writing aspect at all. It’s important to remember that both elements are equally important to making a visual novel and that no creator should focus more on one part than the other.

I would first like to say that I am not the best writer out there, trust me you can find better, but I’m always willing to help you improve your skills if you would like to learn. There are some things that I know that can help you become a better writer and they are some things that you know that can help me become a better writer. So please don’t hesitate to give me tips you learned or ask for any in return. Knowledge is knowledge and it’s useless unless we are willing to apply what we know and share it with others.

Tips I want to share:

Writing is a skill
First things first, I need everyone out there to know that writing, like art, is a skill. Yes, there are people out there who are naturally talented at it, but it is still a skill. Everyone can do it and everyone can learn to do it well, so don’t get discouraged when your first attempt doesn’t quite compare to your idol’s.

I guarantee you that the person you idolize in art or writing, did not start creating masterpieces from day one. They started like everyone else, by learning how to walk before they crawled, they explored new tips and techniques, and they practicing all the time. You don’t become a “master” of anything without first being a newbie and taking it from there, so follow their lead, learn everything you can, and then build on your skill.

You won’t become a master in a day, but you will see results if you keep at it. If you are patient I guarantee you will see a remarkable improvement in your newer works compared to your old. Remember, practice makes perfect.

Start a development journal
This journal idea is for the people who have a lot of concerns about their story and just can’t seem to start writing because of it. Start a new document with Microsoft or notepad and write every one of these fears down until you start to feel relaxed. This gets the weight of fear off your shoulder and lets you focus on your story. It helps to relieve any stress you might feel before you write and calms your nerves. Then all there is left to do is to write.

About the Rough Drafts
Sometimes people need to be reminded that a rough draft is just that, a rough draft. You shouldn’t be obsessing over word usage and other mechanical errors as much as you should focus on what you’re writing as a whole. So don’t expect perfection one the first go and better yet don’t even look for it. At this stage of the game, you just want to get the story down on paper and have fun writing it, the editing and revising can wait until later.

Don’t forget to edit
If you think that your job is over as soon as you put the last period to your ending, then you’re wrong. By editing and revising your story, you are improving your quality of work before you share it with the world. Editing your story gets rid of the inconsistencies in your story and the punctuation, spelling, and grammar errors that we are all prone to make. Unfortunately, it is often overlooked, leaving plenty of stories unfinished and unpolished which will take away from your story value as a whole.

When you write the best story of your lifetime, do you really want it overshadowed by the grammar, punctuation, and other mistakes you made? If not, take the time to edit your work, you story will look and read much better because of it.

Find a good editor
Not all of us are good at editing our own papers or seeing our own mistakes, so an outside pair of eyes should always be welcomed. Aleema, on the lsf forums was my first editor ever, and she ripped apart my rough draft with red text, footnotes, and crossed out words. It hurt at first, but I learned more about editing and writing from her in one day then I would have in months on my own.

If you can’t find a editor, then I advise you tuck your story away for a week or two and then try editing yourself. Sometimes giving your brain and eyes time to rest will help you edit your work because by then you’ll be looking at it with fresh and alert eyes. Also, try reading a sentence you’re not sure about out loud, it will help flesh out unclear sentences every time.

None of your work is useless
It doesn’t matter if you wrote something that you think sucks or someone else dislikes, all of your work is apart of your writing experience. The more you work on a skill the better it will become and terrible stories can help you grow too because they teach you what not to do next time.

Picking out which story idea to follow
Since we are all creative beings it’s normal for us to have a lot of story ideas bouncing around in our heads from time to time. The trick is deciding which ones to keep and which one to let go. When I’m deciding what idea to go with I consider:

Is this a solid idea or a passing one: We all get inspiration sometimes, but there is a difference in which ones will leave and which ones will last. If you have a story idea you love, but then can’t remember it the next day then it’s not worth pursuing. The solid story ideas will haunt you all today, tomorrow, and beyond so there’s are the ones I’m more likely to follow.
Workload: A very important part of deciding which story to follow. If it’s very long and you’re the only member on your team then it’s not likely to be finished anytime soon unless you have a lot of patience or volunteers who will help you out. Also, are you likely to follow through with a longer game or a shorter game should also be a deciding factor.
Passion: Is this a story you can see yourself finishing? If not then you should probably quit right now instead of spending time on a story that you don’t even believe you’ll complete. If you believe your patience and perseverance can outlast the workload and other stresses, then all means go on ahead. I’ll look forward to reading it.
Goal or overall message of the story: I like my stories to fulfill a certain goal or convey a certain message, if my new story idea doesn’t have a basic goal or message then what would be the point in me making it?

Not being afraid of you
Some of us are afraid of a lot of things, for some it is the fear of failure and for some it’s fear of success. A lot of people have started to be afraid of making mistakes and failing at the things we care about. As a result some of us don’t even try at all anymore, but I believe the only way you can truly fail is by not trying at all.

Think about it, would you rather try something and fail, or fail by not even trying at all? What can you achieve by being afraid all of the time? We will always fail at something, but we slowly get better with each try. Failure today does not mean we can’t achieve our goals later. How did we learn how to crawl, to walk, to read, and to talk if not by failing and trying again and again until we succeeded? If you could be that brave and confident as a child then why can’t you feel that way now?

Another fear to talk about: the fear of success and the worry about what would happen if we gained what we wanted and then lost it. Some of us don’t try because we don’t believe that we deserve to achieve all that we want or we fear we won’t be able to achieve something that great again. My question is who taught you to think like that? Are you making your stories to make someone else happy or to make you happy? Who says you don’t deserve to achieve what you worked hard for and what could you possibly have done that bad to be punished all your life with unfulfilled goals?

Who are we trying to prove yourselves to? Does it matter if the entire world doesn’t like your story when you know that you did the absolute best you can do and are completely satisfied with the results? Does someone else failing to see the beauty in your work automatically make your work worthless?

No, it doesn’t. At the end of the day, if you’re happy with what you did then no one else’s opinion should matter. You shouldn’t write to prove something to someone or to make someone else happy, you have to write for you. If you love what you do and you did the best you can, then everyone else’s opinion should be secondary. Period.

How to tell the reader about your world without being to obvious. As You Know and The Watson
The Writers need for experience: here
How to finish a novel: here

Dooom: Memo [1.03]

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:27:58 +0000

Well I finally got this old piece of poop out of the way.

Mirrors:

Here

Love in Space: Fandom On a Budget

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:01:28 +0000

Today, I went to Osaka to find the answers to the following questions:

1. How much anime and visual novel related merchandise can one purchase with $100?
2. Do people in Osaka really jaywalk all the time?

The answers were quite surprising.

From left to right: Gundam 00, Tohou 11: Subterranean Animism, Ana Coppola figurine, ToHeart 2: X Rated, Miu Matsuoka figurine, Over Flag.

The answer to the first question is “a hell of a lot of stuff.” With just a hundred dollar budget, I was able to acquire two Gundams, two Strawberry Marshmallow moeblobs, a popular eroge, and a doujin bullet curtain game. And I thought all of this stuff would take over $400 to buy…

Also, I should mention that Princess Waltz and Suika were both in the bargain bin for $10. Deux ex Demonbane and Da Capo were about $25 each, I think…

And also… Yes, the people in Osaka really do jaywalk all the time…

Filed under: Anime, J-Games

Katawa Shoujo Dev Blog: Happy Birthday, Lilly!

noreply@blogger.com (Katawa Shoujo) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:05:22 +0000

As February 7th is Lilly's birthday, here is a celebratory picture of Akira and Lilly, drawn by Weee.

There is also another announcement to make:

Pimmy, a talented fanartist many of you may have seen on the forums and on the Shimmie (and, for the attentive, the staff page of our website), has now joined the ranks of the developers as an artist. Congratulations, Pimmy.

Development of the game itself is still progressing, with scenes and CGs still being steadily produced and the paths directed. Once again, a big thank you goes out to all who are patiently waiting for the game's release.

- Suriko

Magical Girl Studios: Killing Babies

prettysammy09@gmail.com (Sammy) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:26:03 +0000

Not literally, of course. I mean making cuts and edits.

Someone once said that to be a writer, you have to be willing to kill your children. This weekend is definitely proof of that.

I'm working on a project - the script reached 406 pages (the page count of my last project) and was close to 1/3 completed. This, I decided, was unacceptably long. With a page count of 1200 (as would've been the projected final product) the logistics of creating such a monster would be a nightmare. Not to mention the undeniable reality that the game would just be too damn long for anyone to actually sit and read all the way through. I'm not J.K. Rowling - I'm not sure I could get my fans to sit through an 800 page novel.

So after deciding last night that the script was too long, I went about making cuts this morning. Cutting is a depressing process, let me tell you. How many hours of work am I stripping away? How many great pieces of dialogue? There were scenes that I would've rather died than parted with... But then I realized they didn't add to the story I really wanted to tell, so they had to go.

I've found a much more quick and manageable way of writing the rest of the game. I'm hoping that with these cuts I'll get down to around 275 pages before continuing. (I know! Cutting over 125 pages? It's scary). I hope the rest will go much smoother/quicker.

Heh. I guess I could always shove a "deleted scenes" section in the extras of my game. There's some really cute stuff that I'm sad had to go.

Oh well - off to kill more babies.

I Whine About Games: special offer for valentines

noreply@blogger.com (Whiner) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 07:32:39 +0000

(And also my birthday but most people won't care about that!)

A romantic game for a romantic holiday - I'm putting Fatal Hearts on sale for $5 until Valentine's. No membership or other purchase thingy required, just buy the game before Feb 15th, put in the discount code, and you're good to go.

The code, demo downloads, and order information can be found at the game webpage:

Fatal Hearts