....

Customize It All

Sunday, December 23, 2012

All Line art Done for Trapped

Well almost all the line art is done for Trapped. I still have to do the artwork for eyes and mouths; pretty much the emotions of the sprites. The story continues on the same path until the towards the end of the game. Here is one example from both paths.
One with Bryan
One with Nindel All facial expressions are already done on paper and have been scanned into the computer. Someday I would like to transition into doing full digital work. After being away from a scanner for a few weeks, I feel that its time I ditch the pencil and paper and have more fun with my tablet. I am hoping to finish this visual novel by the in between January and March of 2013.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Trapped Update

Just wanted everyone to know that almost all the backgrounds are done. I hopefully only have three more backgrounds to do. Backgrounds in general are not one of my strengths but I don't want to insert a random picture I found on Google into Trapped. I can't count how many times I shook my head or laughed upon seeing a ren'py game with a real life photo in the background while the sprites are anime or cartoonish. Well to be fair, I did insert a few random pics off of Google for my first ren'py game I recorded for Youtube. From here on out, I will fully draw and color everything in my games. Unfinished example from Trapped
This is where the story will take place.
Ameniti's (main character's) home. The next thing to line art will be the special scenes and that is hopefully it for the line art. Next would be digital coloring and fleshing out the story further. Hopefully my beta reader is still up for reading my visual novel. I am using Manga Studio for the line art. Maybe I will use Photoshop for my next visual novel. I honestly can not believe I am getting closer to finishing this visual novel the more I work on it.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Getting Things Done

Thanks to some unfortunate events such as my seasonal job ending and my stove catching on fire, I am now at a hotel typing this blog. I am not sure how long I will be at this hotel but I love the change of scenery. It is harder to do things in my room than in the library or in this hotel room. I think I put too much focus into my last jobs and put my indie game on the far edges of mind. The next job I get I will try and make time for my indie projects for now on. Preferably after work. That last job of mine taught me some pretty good time management skills (always prioritizing what assignment I should do first). When I return home I am sure I will work on Trapped no matter what building I am at or what job I may get in the future (that includes the programing/art job which has not started yet). The information for Trapped so far... 8 Sprites 7 Characters 10 backgrounds (most backgrounds have different variations) 6 special scenes (3 for both story paths) Line art for all the characters will be done today as I only have two left. Line art is being done in Manga Studio. Coloring will be accomplished in Photoshop. All sprites, scenery, and special scenes were done on paper before being scanned into the computer. When the coloring gets started (most likely next week) I will have to look at tutorials again because I have not done digital coloring for a while. Here are some sprite line art. I will show Amenti (the main character) and Unette second.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Finally Doing Some Drawings

With four days off from work, I finally sat down and started drawing for Trapped. With visuals I can get a better feel of how the story is. Maybe making the final draft will be easier. I remember Ren'py Test being a lot easier to finish once I figured out how to put in the artwork. Here are some samples of the artwork and sprites.
I know not to draw the eyes on the sprites in this stage but I wanted to see what these two looked like with eyes.
One thing I would like to do when I finish this visual novel is take some time and study some anatomy and digital painting. Drawing these sprites and scenes took a lot of motivation from myself. It's a good feeling to know that I am making this game on my own without someone telling me what to do. I also appreciate all the people who comment and give me opinions about my visual novel. In other words, I think I finally understand the word "indie" in indie game development. Next step is to finish the artwork on paper (there is only two scenes for me to draw on paper), and the line art.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Adding More to Trapped

This is my story for my visual novel Trapped. Amenti is a mermaid who just turned 16, the age when a mermaid's mother teaches their daughter magic in order for their daughter to be able to protect themselves during travel and eventually move out the house. Unfortunately for Amenti her mother, Unette, does not feel like teaching her duaghter magic. After a heated argument with her mother, Amenti swims out for some space and ends up in an undersea lab with two scientists who research mermaids' abilities to perform spells. Amenti has two options that can help her escape the laboratory: Nindel, a merman, who is counting on Amenti to use her magic to get out of the laboratory and Brian, a disgruntled employee looking to let Amenti go. Will Amenti trust the human to let her go or will she put her trust in Nindel and hope to find a way out of the laboratory? Trapped is going to be short and linear till a certain point in the story where the path splits into three paths acording to the player's choices. I wanted the player to get a chance to know either Brian or Nindel before they make a choice between the two. The player gets three days to know the two options so far. I might add another day for more story and information on both Nindel and Bryan. I am going to start doing artwork this week becuase I am tired of looking at text when I am editing my story in Ren'py. I already know what my characters will look like as I have drawn all the characters before. I am just updating the characters and scenery with better anatomy and drawing skills before I start going digital. Aside from the possible extra day, all I am editing now is grammer mistakes and adding minor details to make the story more clearer. Trapped is nearing it's completion.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Adjusting to a New Schedule

Last time I said that I got a new job. The job is eight in the morning to four thirty in the afternoon. Most of my work for my visual novel Trapped is done on Sunday's and in the Library. I figured out that a place away from home and people I do some kind of errand or choir was a good idea. The major plus to doing work in the Library is that there is always different people and things to look at unlike my room which stays the same everyday. The whole story for Trapped has been typed into the Ren'py. Now I am going through and fixing grammatical errors and trying to make ideas in the story clearer to the reviewer. I have to admit that writing in first-person is not my strong point. When I wrote fan fiction and original fiction in my spare time third person would always be the point of view in which I would write in. The major bonus to writing in first person is the player gets to know the main character a lot more. I guess I will have to practice writing in first person and look up a few writing tutorials in the future. Hopefully by next month I can move on to the artwork for this visual novel. Then after doing the artwork I will make sure to have my beta reader play the game and tell me what she thinks of the story.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Update

I finally got a job from a staffing agency. I'm a media clerk and I sort files all day; Monday through Friday. The job is full of monotony but I am glad that I finally y have money to save and spend. October is only two weeks aways and my current job might be short lived. Leaving this job so soon might be awkward (especially since I am replacing someone) if my programing/art job actually happens next month. In preparation I am studying and practicing Unity3D all I can before October. As for Ren'py I am learning more about the program as I go. I currently am using Ren'py version 6.13.8.1675 and that there was a newer version of Ren'py (6.14.1) released last month. I know the visual novel needs to be updated before I release it to the internet. When I put my current visual novel into Ren'py 16.14.1 and try to launch the visual novel, Ren'py 16.14.1 does not recognize any of the documents for my visual novel. NameError is an error that pops up when a variable is not defined in the Ren'py script. This was an error which plagued me for a day. I spent a long time in Ren'py trying a figure out why some of the variables I defined were not being defined when I launched my visual novel. All my frustration came to an end when I looked NameError in the lemma soft forum's search engine. Launching my visual novel from an old save does not define the variables. I have to launch the game from the start in order to define whatever new variable I created. I felt so good finally figuring out that problem, all my frustration was forgotten. I hope the programing/art job next month happens so I can have multiple of these events. If the job never takes off then I can at least do something with Unity 3D in the future.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Back in Action

Hello ladies and gentlemen! I am now getting back into writing and developing my Ren'py game. Yes I am still going through some of the obstacles I have talked about in the past (like that darn Comptia Security Plus certification I almost passed yesterday) but I am finding ways to manage my time.

Sorry for the short blog post but I have no interesting signs of progress such as pictures to show. I wanted to inform whoever is reading this blog that my visual novel is not dead. I would like to finish this visual novel before October when my job (hopefully) starts.

I can say that my "Ren'py Test" blog entry I did in March is a great reference for me when I am developing my visual novel. I wonder how many people have used that blog entry for reference as well. The youtube video in that post is one of my most viewed videos on my youtube channel. Hopefully I helpped a few people get started on making their first visual novel.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Darn Obstacles!

This blog has not been updated since the third of last month. I am very sorry about that. Unfortunately there are some obstacles that I am dealing with right now. One such obstacle is studying for a Comptia Security Plus certification. The test is on the twenty fifth of this month. I really hope I get the certification so I can stop putting time aside to study for test.

Do not worry. I am still putting work into my visual novel. I guess my next post will have some pictures of how my visual novel is coming along. As most of you already know, I am getting used to digital painting/drawing so sprite making is going to take a long time. For the time being I will type the game's story and code into the game engine first. Then I will put the artwork in later.

So yes...the story and the paths are done at least. Once I have the artwork figured out, this project will go a lot faster.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Getting Deeper into The Game

I hope it has not been too long since I updated this blog. I have been trying to discipline myself into finishing this visual novel. All I have is two chapters left and I am done with the writing. I already have a good idea of how I am going to edit my story and make sense of a lot of things.

Thankfully coming up with the artwork is a lot easier due to all the writing I have done. The story only takes place in three places (main character's home, laboratory, and the city). The emotions I have in mind are default, sad, happy, angry, shock, and blushing. Of course not all characters are going to show all of these emotions. If there are other emotions anyone would like to suggest then please comment.

One thing that puzzles me in visual novels is when there is a special CG and the characters' arm, leg, face, etc moves during the scene. Here is an example from a visual novel called Togainu no Chi.


I'm assuming I can just leave the face blank until I add an expression when needed.


The guy on the left's arm, head, and facial expression moved. I still have a lot to learn with digital drawing and coloring. There are some people who are really good at redrawing poses in Photoshop, Gimp, whatever. There's also drawing the moved body part on paper, scanning the drawing, and matching it with the rest of the body in Photoshop. I'm not sure how to go about this process. Especially since when the characters do move during the scene it looks like the character was actually moving. There are CG in my visual novel that could benefit from this technique.

Lastly I have a deadline for this visual novel. I have a habit of not finishing a project if I tell someone my deadline. If I make this visual novel before or on the deadline then I will happily share what the deadline is.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Possiblities

One of these days I will stop being old fashioned and type my story on the computer or an electronic device from the start.  Trapped's script is half way done.... in my notebook.  Although editing my work when I start typing my written work into the computer makes the editing process a lot easier.  In the mean time several things have been going on in my life.  With the ongoing journey of finding a job in Computer Information Science I have started  experimenting with various programs such as WordPress and Unity 3D. 

I went to a job interview and a WordPress workshop last week.  I was surprised at the amount of people who worked at home making websites with WordPress while the supervisor I met at my job interview was unimpressed with WordPress.  The workshop was fun and I learned a lot of things about Wordpress so I can get started on my own website.  There are some things I do not like about Blogger such as replying to comments.  For some reason Blogger does not have a reply button.  The blog owner will have to make another comment (not a reply) and hope that the person they were replying to reads the comment. I do not like that and I hope I can make a website after Trapped is done.  My website will have blogs, artwork, and of course my games.  I want at least one game done before I officially put the website online.  Maybe I will have enough experience with WordPress then and I could get a job developing sites with WordPress.

As for Unity3D.  I did not mention this before but I am a part of a starting video game company. Originally I was the character artist but eventually my boss wants to make me the programmer.  We are making our game with Unity3D and with C# so a part of my abundant free time goes to learning Unity3D.  Maybe I will post a few examples of what I am learning in Unity 3D to show my progress. Unlike Ren'py Unity is not a walk in the park. There will be no tutorials any time soon about Unity from me.

The game company has had a lot of issues (getting loans, getting investors, finding employees, losing employees, etc) and there are a lot of things I can not share outside of the company. The company will start this October.  Of course I will still work on my indie games which, for the most part, are story based games such as visual novels and dating simulations.  From what I have noticed visual novel games do not get a lot of attention in the United States.  I hope I'm wrong but seeing a copy of Hakuoki Demon of the Fleeting Blossom marked down to $19 at Gamestop doesn't give me the confidence to try and make a mainstream visual novel.  An interesting interactive game that has sold well in the United States was Heavy Rain.  A game that was fully voiced, had many characters to control, and did not require players to read huge amounts of text.  The game felt like a movie in which I could choose my own ending through a series of choices and quick time events.    So I will be sticking with developing indie development visual novels, dating simulations, and other story focused games even when the video game company starts.

Friday, May 25, 2012

ADD and Writing

This blogspot has not seen activity since April 23 which is not good at all.  Of course I would loose material for this blog if I updated weekly like I used to.  I have been focusing on the digital artwork for my first visual novel Trapped.
  
Amenti (left) & Unette (right) from Trapped  
 Of course I need to work on the story.  I do not suffer from writer's block.  I know where my story is headed but when I sit down to type my thoughts go everywhere.  Everywhere but the story I need to type.  Maybe I'm not used to typing (I like writing in my notebook more than typing honestly) or maybe I am too busy thinking about my next Ren'py game instead of Trapped.  I need to stop thinking of Trapped as just another Ren'py test.  Ren'py is an easy game engine and I believe I finally have decent enough digital artwork for my first visual novel.

Not to fear...today I finally sat down and started a schedule for myself.  Honestly if I keep to my schedule the story should not take a week to complete.

Monday, April 23, 2012

My First Visual Novel So Far

I have done a lot more with my visual novel since I started this blog a while ago.  Keeping a blog about my indie work does help me move faster and keep track of things. Down below are drawings I have done for Trapped.


 Title screen

Background


A scene the player can get based on her/his choices

Of course all these sketches are rough and are not finished yet.  Most of my focus has been on the writing which I believe should come first when making a visual novel.  I can figure out what I have to draw if I have the whole story fleshed out.  Not to say that writing this visual novel has been a walk in the park. Aside from figuring out choices and how to lead to certain story paths; keeping people's interests during long periods of reading concerns me.  

I have a few moments when the main character is left alone.  She likes to think.  Should I let the player simply read through her thoughts (three to four paragraphs worth) or should I put some choices for the player to select while she is thinking?  I'm not sure if I will have those choices go toward any path or not. 

If people simply get bored with my first visual novel and delete it after five minutes due to boredom then I should not be surprised.  A person's first game is never his or her greatest work.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Knowing My Options

While I am developing my story for my first visual novel Trapped, I think it is important that I keep in mind the various places where I can submit my visual novels.  Through some searching on Google, a few places came to mind.

1. Lemmasoft
 Lemmasoft seems like the place to get the most help for making Ren'py games.  There is not only an abundance of members but also an abundance of Ren'py games (there is a database complete with categories to choose from) or demos (often in the Work in Progress section) to try out.  Lurking the forum from time to time and reading various Work in Progress, Completed Games, or coding topics has provided me with plenty of ideas for my visual novels.

2. TeaCup
I was honestly not aware of this message board until a friend told me about it. The board is not as active as Lemmasoft but there are a ton of interesting topics that I have looked through.  The "Spritemaking for visual novel beginners: things and tips to consider" tutorial  and the discussions on various aspects in visual novels really made me think deeply about making my visual novels. There are games that I have not seen on Lemmasoft which are submitted only to TeaCup.

3. Pre-Embryonic EVN Forum
This is the last forum that I looked up before calling quits on finding English visual novel developing forums.  This forum is slower than TeaCup and might stop existing in a few days or months due to a lack of members.  The creator of the forum seems dedicated to pushing the development of English visual novels further and gathering other serious indie game developers along with him or her. I hope I can make my first visual novel before the forum gets taken down.

Of course there are a lot of other places that speak of Ren'py or English Visual Novels but I think I should look at EVN, TeaCup, and Lemma Soft before spreading out.  I feel that joining these forums are a great way of spreading my work and getting help with indie game development so that I may grow as an indie game developer.   

Monday, April 2, 2012

The Digital Works Journey

Sorry I have not been able to update this blog weekly but there is a reason.  I have been experimenting with Photoshop and Manga Studio EX 4. I was going to do the line art for Trapped in Photoshop but a friend told me about the wonders of Manga Studio.  Manga Studio makes the line art process short and painless. Of course I will dive into the line art process of Photoshop some time after Trapped.  Its nice to learn a variety of ways to do one thing.  

Here are some examples of my digital work:




With the hurdles of learning how to color on the computer out of the way, I can see a release date for Trapped coming soon.  The end of this month sounds pretty good to me.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Ren'py Test

I have to give a lot of credit to GenericUser from the TIGForums for his (or her?) tutorial "Creating A Visual Novel With Ren'Py" made a few years ago. Helpped me realize how easy making a ren'py game was. The character sprite "girl" was taken from www.the-other.endoftheinternet.org/alicedotnet/ . The class room and lunch room backgrounds were found through Google.

Of course I will draw and color my own character artwork and background artwork. Sorry I forgot to add music. 

Anyways...prepare for a long paragraph of coding.  Feel free to compare the original coding ( the tutorial ) with the changes I made and added.

init:
    $ me = Character("Me", color="#CC0066")
    $ girl = Character("Girl", color="#aaffaa")
  
    image bg street = "street.jpg"
    image bg busstop = "busstop.jpg"
    image bg lunchroom = "lunchroom.jpg"
    image bg classroom = "classroom.jpg"
    image girl sorry = "girl_sorry.png"
    image girl happy = "girl_happy.png"

label start:

    scene bg street
    me "I wish I had just one more quarter..."
    me "I’d rather take the bus instead of walking there."
    "Today was professional dress day at my university.  My shoes were already killing me."
    me "What’s that?"
    "I saw something shiny on the street."
    "I picked it up while patting down the back of my dress.  I can't wait for this day to pass already."
    "It was a quarter!"
    "That cheered me up... "
    "I smiled. Of course being the poor college student I was, finding a qaurter would make me smile.  I can stop walking in these damn shoes for a few minutes."
    show girl sorry
    girl "Excuse me, but have you seen any coins around here?"
    girl "*sigh* I can’t find that one quarter..."
    "My smile disapeared."
    me "No I haven't.  I hope you find it"
    "I walked passed her, letting my smile come back once I was sure she could no longer see my face."
    girl "*sighs*"
    "Sucks to be her.  Now if only I can catch the bus in time."
    "I was about to take another step when something hit me.  It was my consious."
   
    menu:
      "Be honest and give the quarter to her":
            jump honest

      "Finders keepers, losers weapers.":
             jump lie
       
label honest:
     "I should probably be.... a little honest."
     me "Yes, I have an extra qaurter..."
     show girl happy
     "Aww...look at her.  So unaware of the truth."
     girl "Thank you!"
     girl "Now I can take the bus instead of walking there..."
     me "I was going to take the bus too..."
     girl "Then why don't we walk to the bus stop together?"
     "To be honest, I didn't expect that..."
     me "O-OK."
     "So we walked.  She hummed walking in her high heels while I managed to keep my balance in mine."
     "I listened to her humming as we walked.  My ipod was in my book bag since most dresses do not have pockets."
     "The humming had a strange effect on me.  I almost forgot my feet was hurting by the time we reached the buss stop."
     scene bg busstop
     "Just as we came to the bus stop, the bus drove right past us."
     me "What?!?  Come back you ass hole!"
     "I quickly reached for my dress and patted down the rising fabric before it went past my thighs.  A few of the old men at the buss stop looked diappointed but I ignored them."
     girl "Didn't he notice us?"
     me "What do you th...I'll check out when the next bus will arrive."
     "I looked at the timetable."
     "Damn..."
     me "It looks like the next one isn't going to come before 10 am..."
     me "...and the clock is 8 am right now."
     girl "*sigh* I hate walking all the way to Light University..."
     me "Really?  You go there too?"
     "I was shocked.  The more I look at her, the more I realize I've seen her a few times."
     girl "Yes..."
     show girl happy
     girl "Hey, maybe we could walk there together?"
     "Sigh..."
     "I look at her happy expression.  My anger was melting away."
     me "I guess"
     "I shrugged my shulders and began walking. I smiled upon hearing the sound of her humming again."
     scene bg classroom
     "I was late and missed the suprise test at the beginning of class.  Those tests should be illegal."
     "My GPA is down the gutter now."
     "Thank God the old fart had a soft spot for cute girls in dresses.  Through a lot of convining tears and pleas, the teacher gave me some extra credit work to do after class."
     "I did the work putting in more effort than I was used to in class. I paused every now and then before writing a few words.   Something kept bothering me.  For the life of me, I can not remember where I met that girl."
     scene black
     "I smiled, having completed the work, I slammed the work on the teacher's desk and walked away.  The teacher will check the work in the morning."
     "My stomach was growling."
     scene bg lunchroom
     #Add lunchroom scene where mc meets girl again
     "Upon looking for an empty table to sit alone at and eat, I bumped into someone."
     "I was preparing to say something witty but the sight of the dress made me shallow my words."
     show girl happy
     girl "Hi!"
     me "H-Hi..."
     girl "Want to eat with me?"
     me "S-sure"
     "I didn't know it then, but this would be the beginning of a long friendship..."
     "--Friendship Ending--"
     return
   

label lie:
    "Meh, what she doesn't know can't hurt her."
    me "I'm sorry, but I haven't seen anything."
    girl "Are you sure?"
    "What's with this girl?  I nearly roll my eyes."
    menu:
        "I'm still ignoring my consious":
            jump again
           
        "Be honest":
            jump honest
       
label again:  
     me "Nope.  I haven't seen a dime."  
     girl "Oh, OK..."
     "I slowly walked away, smiling the momment I was sure she could not see my face."
     "And then I hurried to the bus stop."
     scene bg busstop
     "I swung my bookbag in between the closing door of the bus."
     me "CUTE GIRL COMING THROUGH!"
     "The bus driver muttered something under his breathe before opening the doors fully. I smiled at him, paid my fee and moved to empty seat."
     "I stared out the window, wondering about that girl who was just now reaching the bustop.  She stopped to look at the bus sadly and then kept walking."
     "I could do something crazy and tell the bus driver to stop so I can trade places with this girl.  Of course this wasn't the movies and I really want to get to class so I can sit down some more."
     "The buss took off.  The girl became smaller and smaller before she finally disappeared along with my guilt."
     scene bg classroom
     "I pushed the door aside and walked to my seat.  The clock said 9:00 a.m..  I would have been late if I took that long walk over here."
     "I sighed heavily at how good my feet felt.  I hope that girl didn't have class today.  She would be late at the speed she was going."
     "The teacher stopped talking and placed his hands on a pile of papers on his desk.  He smiled."
     "I nearly banged my head on the desk.  There was one thing I hated more than wearing a dress.  It was tests."
     scene black
     "I completed the work, walked over to the teacher's desk and slammed the work right in front of him and walked away.  The teacher looked suprised.  The other students took their eyes from their papers to stare.  If words were said, I did not care."
     "My stomach was growling and I was sure I passed the test.  That score will take my GPA out of the gutter."
     scene bg lunchroom
     "I managed to find an empty table to eat at.  Aside from this morning the whole day played out the same as usual.  I ate lunch, go to my next class, and go home.  The END."
     "-- Loner's Ending --"
     return
       
 

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Finding Motivation

 I have the characters' personalities, a general idea of how the story is going to go, and the final designs of the characters.  This week I am finally diving into digital coloring on the computer.  Thanks to my seasonal job ending earlier than expected I have enough free time to push myself forward and finish my first Ren'py game.  Unfortunately having a steady schedule at a job was a major motivation for me.

During breaks, at my seasonal job, I would write my story or character bios, read Imagine FX magazines, or listen to indie game development podcasts.  Despite the distractions of hearing random people enter the break room, I was fine studying away as I have a hard time doing these activities at home.  Random people at work sounded like background music while family members and telephone calls was another story.  There is also a sense of laziness and a need for sleep when I am in my room all day.

This week I am breaking the habit of getting busy with indie game development when I do not have a steady paying job.  As soon as I wake up, I get down to the activities that I enjoyed so much during breaks at my last job.  There is no sense of time or a need to rush myself through my writing or drawings with in thirty minutes. I make my own stopping point when the sun goes down. 

Of course job searching will occur during my free time and maybe I will get a new job in a few weeks.  Hopefully I will keep this practice even after getting another steady job.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Homosexuality in my VISUAL NOVELS?

As the days go by I am getting closer and closer to finishing my first Ren'py game.  The game is a dating sim of sorts (main character going for one of the males).  Of course I'm already thinking ahead to the second possible Ren'py game and only a very few have a main character going for someone of the opposite gender.  That's right...I can not get males dating other males or females dating other females out of head for my next game.  It does not help that there are so few boy love and girl love dating sims in the Ren'py game list (Look ).  I just want to add more to the boy pursue boy and girl pursue girl section!

 Of course I know that not everyone is into boy's love and girl's love.  So when I start making my second game, I will also be working on another game (Unity3D or Flash) in order to have something else that future readers can also look at here.  I used to write a lot of same sexed romance fan fiction and the range of flames I got (solely based on the fact that the main pairing was gay) bored me after a while.  I would skim over those flames and then give my full attention to the next review.

Still I am putting a lot of thought into my next visual novel game since visual novels require a lot more work than fan fiction.  Writing, drawing, coloring, and programming a story for several weeks or months only to have someone hate my visual novel solely based on the fact that my main character is pursuing members of the same sex irks me.  What about the story, personality of the characters, artwork, etc?  Of course I will get used to this kind of treatment the same way I did in my fan fiction days long ago.

Lurking the Lemma Soft Forums, I'm finding that there are a lot of people looking for these types of games.  So I do know that there are some people that would play second game whenever it comes out.  Thinking about this issue has made me think about how I am going to advertise my same sexed dating sim games in the future.  Also what kind of characters I will make for these games as there are a lot of fans for boy love and girl love with a variety of tastes.  This will be an interesting adventure. 

Friday, February 24, 2012

New Computer...Oh the Freedom

Two days ago I had the pleasure of opening a box which contained my brand new computer.  The computer is an Asus K53E-XQ2-PK 15.6 Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop.  In other words, my new laptop is made by a company named Asus, is a part of the K series, and it's pink (my favorite color).   

I had my old laptop since Christmas of 2008.  The thing was fine until I started getting into indie game development, vloging, and image editing software such as Photoshop.  That poor laptop was trying it's best to open up Photoshop, itunes, or anything in general.  My new laptop opens a program as soon as I click the program's icon.  The computer is so fast it frightens me.  Despite how much I use computers, I am not an expert on explaining how great a laptop can be.  So here is a link on what laptop I just brought:  http://www.amazon.com/K53E-XQ2-BU-15-6-Inch-Versatile-Entertainment-Laptop/dp/tech-data/B005E81QBK/ref=de_a_smtd

What buying a new computer means is that I can finally do some indie game development without worrying if my computer is going to freeze anytime soon.  The only thing that could hold me back from game development is just myself now and that is a really good feeling.  Well there is one problem I am facing right now.  I had to leave Photoshop on my old computer so I am looking for a free or cheaper alternative to stick with such as Artweaver 0.5, Gimp 2, Corel Sketchpad, and Inkscape. 

The decisions.


 

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Deviantart Tme: DarkSirenftw

With dedication to my first indie game project I think people should atleast have the pleasure of seeing a visual novel with decent artwork. Deviantart is a place where people can submit their artwork for a variety of people to see.  I have been on this website for a while with little dedication devoted to my old profile name Lilith40 (curious?).  Here is my new Deviantart account for my art submiting pleasure.  The account is called DarkSirenftw (curiousity can be good for you)

The account could have been called DarkSirenGames but such a tittle felt limited to drawing characters from my indie games.  Every blue moon I draw fanart from various anime and video games. I hope people can join me and help me progress with my artwork.  Reading "nice", "cool", and "kawaii" on my comments for my Deviantart submitions is a great ego booster and all but constructive critism is what really counts. 

Here is a picture that everyone will be seeing soon (maybe in a few weeks).


I am getting a new computer in a few days.  This may be my last blog entry while using this slow computer.  I can not wait to use a computer that can handle Windows Movie Maker or Photoshop without any issues. 

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Trapped: What the Characters Look Like

This is a short blog entry but I hope you readers will enjoy this entry anyway.  Last post I forgot to post what the characters looked like.  Well here they are:


From left to right; Nindel, Amenti, Unette, and Bryan. At the bottom is Ronald. I did not give Ronald a body as both him and Bryan are wearing similar outfits. Nindel and Bryan are both possible romantic interests while Unette and Ronald are the "parent" figures. I should no longer refer to this game as a visual novel as it is a dating sim. Working with the digital tablet really helped cover all the notes I wrote on this sketch. I see why people like wacom tablets so much.

Now I shall move on to fleshing out the story of this game.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Trapped: Introduction to my first Ren'py game

This would not be a blog about Game development if I did not talk about my first game. As we all know now I am using a visual novel which means I have a set of characters and a story to tell.
Story: Amenti, a mermaid, is finally turning 16. At sixteen years of age a mermaid is given the power to grant one single wish for herself or for others. Amenti wishes to leave her small house set in the middle of nowhere and outside of the city but her adoptive mother will not let her leave. Upon sneaking out of the house Amenti is captured by humans who operate an undersea laboratory.
Characters:

Amenti is the heroine of this story. She has been raised by her adoptive and over protective mother ever since she could remember and would feels that it is time she starts seeing the world. Naive to life in the undersea city and humans, the player must help her choose who she wants to trust in order to get out of the lab.

Unette is Amenti's adoptive mother who has raised Amenti for sixteen years. Unette loves traveling to the city, not cleaning up after herself, and sleeping at home. Despite her activities she is protective and overbearing when things come to Amenti. Unette wants to make sure that Amenti is living a life away from the city and whatever possible dangers outside of her small home.

Bryan is a young scientist who has been studying merfolk for years inside of the undersea laboratory. His adoptive father hopes to have Bryan take over the laboratory in a few years. Not fond of seeing Amenti's face behind a take, he tells her he would like to let her go when the time is right however conversations with his father makes Amenti believe she will be kept forever. Is he telling the truth? Generally smart, stuck on himself, and shy.

Nindel is a merman who has been locked inside the undersea laboratory's tank for months. Before his captivity he enjoyed hunting and working in the city. He has gone from a nice and welcoming merman to someone who is hostile and nearly unapprochable.

Ronald is Bryan's adoptive father who dreams of Bryan taking his position when he passes on. Runs, created, and funded project Blue, Ronald wants Nindel and Amenti to mate so he can have an easier time studying merfolk without having to capture them every once and a while. He believes that merfolk are purely animals and nothing more.

Game play? This is a visual novel so there are a series of points when certain choices are made. The choices will affect the story and if Amenti ends up with Bryan, Nindel, or alone. There is no release date for this game as this game is being made by me, myself, and I. At least I finally received my small Intuos4 tablet in the mail. Posting a blog entry a week is encoraging me to work on my game a lot more.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Why Ren'py?

After starring at a list of game engines for a long time, I decided to go with Ren'py. The game engine is easy, I can import my drawings, see my writing in action, and have fun with a hobby. There is hardly any effort in bringing a scene to the stage and having the characters talk either. I just need to know what are the names of the file that I want to bring on stage and post those files in the engine.

Example
label beginning
scene bg tank1 (insert scene here)
with dissolve
"stuff is happening" (narrative on screen)
A: "blah, blah, blah" (character "A" is talking)
B: "blah, blah" (character "B" is talking)
End Example.

Ren'py is mainly used for visual novels which means the engine requires a story. I have always wanted to make some kind of online series for people to enjoy and I have also wanted to revive my interests in writing for a long time. Ren'py will help me accomplish both dreams easily. I even began doing sketches in my notebook yesterday for the characters of my first game. Of course Ren'py is not the only game engine I will be using for life. There are other far more complex game engines out there such as flash and Unity3D (which I am experimenting with for a starting mainstream game company). For right now, I will relax and develop a few games in Ren'py.

By the way I ordered my first wacam tablet a few days ago. I cannot wait to use it.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Buying My First Tablet

In general Ren'py and making video game art requires a lot of digital artwork. Going solo on my first visual novel project I would like to provide my own artwork instead of paying someone to draw for me. Unfortunately I have never taken the time to fully understand how to color my pictures digitally. This picture is a result of me messing around with digital coloring.
This is Kneesocks from an anime called Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt.  Not a pretty sight and the process of preparing the line art was not painless either.  I have been told plenty of things about the wonders of a wacom tablet (digtial coloring is a lot faster with a tablet, I would not be struggling so hard to color if I had a tablet, etc, etc).

I know Best Buy sells tablets and I would have brought one there but research through the internet and friends have brought me to Amazon.  The majority of tablets at my nearest Best Buy are Bamboo tablets.  From what I can remember of using one of those things was that I did not like using the darn thing and even went back to using my mouse.  I did not feel like I was using a didgital pencil at all.  Lastly I can get a wired Medium Intuos4 Wacom Tablet for $50 cheeper than a wirless one at Best Buy.  I will update when I get the item and spend some time with it

Saturday, January 14, 2012

We Meet Again

This is not my first time writing a blog or even writing on this website. Here is a an old blog that I wrote a long time ago.  Warning: OLD BLOG I do not get much entertainment from doing reviews anymore (also the channel which hosted the relaity shows I reviewed got cancled).  I would like to take a different subject instead of doing reviews on various media.  How's about joining me in my journey in learning how to become a indie game developer?

I graduated from ECPI University last March of 2011 with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Information Science.  The major was however called "Game and Simulation" (I will explain why these words are in qoutations later) and I am egar to learn and make some video games.  Hearing people's opinons on game developing, my art, ideas, or programing will help make me a better indie game developer.  I am currently starting out small with a game engine called Ren'py.

I hope you enjoy your stay here.