Opinion on My Wordpress Site

As you all know I have been making a website with Wordpress. I would like to have an opinion on my website as it is right now. I have not made the banner yet which will go on the top of the website. I am thinking of having a drawing of a mermaid in the logo.

I like the colors pink, white, and blue. I was going to make the background pink as pink is my favorite color but I thought that would be too much pink. If I see a video game website with a lot of pink, I assume the games are badly made girl games and I quickly leave the site. So a bit of pink is good enough for me. Please tell me what you think and please ignore the "Purchase and Confirmation" buttons. I was experimenting with plugins for digital downloads.

Trapped is coming a long nicely. I am currently doing the emotion sprites for Amenti since yesterday. Since doing so, I have realized that I barely draw character emotions in general. Adding emotions to the faces of any characters in drawings can make any artwork more lively. I post the finished Amenti sprite in the next blog entry.

Sprites and Wordpress

So last week I finally finished the menu screen of Trapped. I was just going to have Amenti by herself but I decided to add other characters such as Nindel (left) and Bryan (right).

Amenti's sprite is the next piece of artwork I am working on. I might change her skin, hair, and maybe even her figure. I wanted her to be petite with a smaller chest. I might keep this design. Every two weeks I am going to a Wordpress meeting for building websites with wordpress. I know I have said this in the past but those Wordpress meetings were either once a month or every few months. This week is a meeting on "How to Build a Site Under 30 Minutes". It is nice having someone walk me through something in person. Wordpress Tutorials people online can look at such as WordPress Central Station: Click Here!

Still Working

Hi everyone! I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still working on my visual novel Trapped. The above unfinished image is going to be the title screen. Amenti's pose will make sense once the drawing is complete. I think on my next visual novel I might ditch Manga Studio. I know Manga studio is a great program for some but as of right now, the program is not working for me. In fact, I might redo the line art for the whole game as doing line art does not take a long time. Maybe someday I will go back and look up tutorials for Manga Studio but I want to spend time with Photoshop. I know a few months ago I mentioned getting a Programer/Art job in the future. The company has a name but the owner is having a hard time getting funded. It is a real shame since the company owner inspires to make video games focused on good stories and gameplay rather than making games that sell to mainstream audiences. I still love the idea of this company and I hope the owner finds a way to get funded soon however I will not mention this opportunity again until the company has an office and I have received a check. The company is extremely indie right now with only a few people taking time out of their day to help work on a game. I am still attending WordPress meetings and focusing on finding a job in the meantime to give me some money. In the future I would like to make an indie game company of my own and work at home. Trapped is my first step.

The New Year!

So the line art for Trapped (characters, scenery, special scenes, and backgrounds) are done. I'm finally back in my house and I'm getting used to setting a schedule for myself to get my work done (regardless if I have a regular job or not). Unfortunately I have to take a little break from making this visual novel because I have not done digital coloring in a long time. I am going to work on two drawings in Photoshop before finishing the coloring for Trapped. With the New Year, comes new goals. I want to complete two to three visual novels this year. Trapped is one of them. At the same time I would like to work on my anatomy and digital drawing skills. I felt a little sad having to look at a few references before drawing a character or special scene. Since I was out of a scanner for a while, I decided to switch over to drawing digitally instead of drawing on paper first then finishing the drawing in Photoshop. Hopefully I will save time this way.

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.

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.

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.