I've Been Busy

Certifications

So I noticed I have not posted here in a while.  I am sorry for my long absence.  I used to update often on this blog, every week.  I have been busy studying for Information Technology certifications such as Network+, Security+, and Windows 7.   School and work and I'm sure everyone gets the idea.

 Indie Game Companies & Better Drawing

I recently joined another indie game company about two months ago after the previous indie game company disbanded.  This company requires me to draw scenery instead of the character concept sketches I have grown used to doing over the years.  I have discovered that drawing scenery is not one of my strengths and I maybe kicked off the team due not meeting the manager's requirements.

Like the previous company, I've been promised to get paid when the company releases its game.  This means more working for free on somebody else's work, I'm struggling to care about, with a huge chance of not getting any money any time soon.  On the other hand, I have forced myself to look at references for trees, acorns, etc in order to draw scenery.  This means better artwork for my visual novels.  If the company decides not to take me in the end, then I have more free time to work on projects I am passionate about.

More Focused Now

Speaking of passionate projects I finished writing a 50,000 word novel last month for National Novel Writing Month.  There was tons of time spending nights alone and on the computer and it took a lot for me to turn down friends who wanted me to hang out or  I forced myself to stay for two hours at parties and leave.  Through doing this challenge, I realize what I must do in order to get this visual novel done.

This post brought you by the website Dark Siren Games 

Networking And Finding an Audience

Nekocon

I just got back from an anime convention called Nekocon 2013 (if you want to hear about my time there, then click here). Nekocon was a place to not only have fun and talk to like-minded geeks, but also to do a lot of networking. I met with a bunch of comedians who call themselves Geek Night Comedy. These comedians ran a panel called “How to Make Your Nerd Job a Reality”.

At the end of the panel, the comedians asked for business cards. I unfortunately do not have business cards but I was able to give these people the name of this website. This is not the only time someone has asked me for a business card. After finishing Trapped's artwork, I will make a logo and some business cards for Dark Siren Games.

Visiting the artist alley at Nekocon, I managed to talk to artists in their down time (when they are not circled by fans and customers) about tips for selling my artwork at conventions and getting my name out there. Apparently artists are getting a lot more out of Tumblr than they were with Deviantart, I should start selling my artwork at local anime conventions when I'm ready, and conventions are a great way to get new fans. One artist even wrote down a good website to go to when I want to start making prints.

Figuring out my demographic

One of the best and yet sad things I learned at the con was who my demographic will be in the future. I figured I could have all the nice imaginative fantasy worlds, three dimensional characters, and intriguing stories all I want. But since my stories have a huge chunk on romance and/or relationships (be it girlxboy, boyxboy, and girlxgirl) my main demographic will always be female. At least that is the vibe I got when I was listening to guys talk about the anime they were watching or when I was talking to guys about the recent anime I have seen (which the majority happened to be targeted at the female audience).

I've only met a few male anime fans (my boyfriend being one of them) who enjoy a few shoujo anime and even some boy's love while I have met a ton of females who are into every kind of anime imaginable. Maybe females are a lot more daring when it comes to watching a variety of anime while males tend to stick to what they KNOW they would like? Now I am just pondering.

With a clear target demographic in mind now, finishing Trapped and writing stories has become a lot easier now.

Next to Last Sprite

So I am finally getting close to having that long sigh of relief.  I am on the next to last sprite for Trapped.  Just like the last sprite,  this character is only shown on one person's path and this time that is Bryan's path.

I am looking into a tutorial by Genzoman I found in Imaginefx's 100th issue.   The tutorial is an in depth tutorial on digital painting anime in Photoshop.  I love  Imaginefx but a majority of the tutorials are not in depth and assume that every reader has a vast knowledge of whatever software the artist is using in the tutorials.  I believe not all of the art in Trapped is going to look the same by the time I'm done with finishing this visual novel.  

Dark Siren Games

Working on Another Sprite

A few days ago, I finished the Nindel sprite.  Yesterday I started working on another sprite.  This character is related to Nindel and will only be seen during his path.  As of right now, I only have her base colors done.

<a href="http://darksirengames.com/starting-on-another-sprite/">Dark Siren Games</a>

Nindel Sprite is Done

Finally done with another sprite for Trapped. Unlike Bryan, Nindel isn't very emotional and has six emotion sprites (less than the other characters).

Three sprites more to go.

Dark Siren Games

Nindel Sprite In Progress and Still Choosing Paper Over Microsoft Word

So this post comes from this website

I don't know why but I finally came up with the idea to update this website weekly or biweekly.

Below is the fourth sprite of Trapped; Nindel the merman and the last possible romantic interest in Trapped.

This is currently the base and I need to add the emotions for him.  I think I did a little better with the line art.  I am learning to keep my hand steady and make my lines with quick movements of my wrist on my intuos tablet.  Making  good line art comes with lots of practice.  Aside from being fun, doing these sprites help me practice digital drawing and coloring a lot.

I wonder what my artwork will look like in the future.

In order to become more organized, I brought a notebook and wrote "Dark Siren Games" on the cover.  In the notebook I write down the sprites, scenery, special scenes, and whatever progress I need to work on or have already done.  Of course I could always use Microsoft Word to document my process like most people who are using a game design document but I have been using pencil and paper since I was young. 

 Even Though I am transitioning to drawing more in Photoshop, rather than on paper, I guess I will always write my thoughts and stories out on paper before using Microsoft Word.

Nindel Sprite in the Process

This blog entry came from here

With Bryan’s sprite done, next up is Nindel.  Nindel is the merman who is also trapped inside of the tank with Amenti.

I might look up a line art tutorial before doing work on Nindel.  MAYBE make him a little bit thicker.  Maybe….

Doing emotions for sprites has been getting easier.  Emotions have been something that I have not drawn in my drawings before.  Now I can start putting more emotions into my drawings now and post them on my deviantart account.

Bryan Sprite is Done

     Website:    Dark Siren Games

Emotions left to right: default, angry, happy, sad, surprised, annoyed, blushing 1, blushing 2

Bryan is one of the possible romance options for the protagonist Amenti in my visual novel Trapped. He is a young scientist in the undersea lab where Amenti is being held captive.

Three down, four more sprites to go.

I got a bit of a scare last Sunday.  My computer randomly shut down while I was working on Bryan.  Thankfully, Photoshop saved a short while before the shut down so I didn't loose much progress.  The incident did make me start saving my work on my flash drive as well as my computer,  instead of having all of my work on my computer.

Bryan Work In Progress

This blog entry came here

So it’s been awhile since I have updated.  Currently this is what I for the next sprite for Trapped: Bryan.

The full shading and highlighting should be done this week.  The emotions will be done the next week after this week.  I need to stop wondering how to do better line art and coloring.  I’m more focused on delivering the story with this visual novel and generally getting my first project out there.  The next visual novel I make, I want to focus on improving my digital artwork.

Rambling

This post is also from my website

Remember a long time ago, I said I was going to have a programing/character artist job? Well this was for a video game company with a about five people. The company does have an official and licensed name but the members hardly come together to work on anything. The only activities that ever happen are meetings where game ideas and design theories are discussed, then months later a tiny bit of actual game development (from anyone other than myself) is produced.

If anyone wants to start a game company with more than one or two people, I suggest finding some REALLY motivated people.  People who are willing to make time for a project is always cool.  When I was in charge of a small game project at ECPI, the guys who were extremely busy with work and family managed to produce a lot more work than the guys who could not imagine spending five or twenty minutes on a concept sketch after school.  These guys no family or even a job to worry about.   I noticed when some people barely have any free time, they tend to work harder on a project.

With the situation in mind with the game company, working on my own is starting to look really promising, rather than a depressing path. I have used Unity and Flash in the past and would love to make point and click adventure games or some other story based games with those engines in the future. I have found a few friends who are willing to beta test my game and help improve my writing skills.  Just a few days ago, one of my friends improved my website’s design. I am a game developer, not a web developer.

I need to sit down and devote a lot of time to finishing this game.  A few days ago, I spoke with a guy who started a lot of web comics and video game projects but never finished them.  He knew he would get a lot more people to his deviantart if he finished his projects but just does not finish them. I don’t want to be that guy.

Ranting aside, it is always nice to see what people have to say about my ideas. Long ago I technically made my first ren’py game based off of a tutorial.  A lot of people seemed to like it.

That game didn't take that long to make since I used a lot of images from Google and the sprites from the tutorial.  The only time I will be through Google for my ren’py game, would be for scenery references when I start drawing my scenery.  I can also draw and write so no more borrowing sprites for me.

Speaking of people’s opinions, there are people who do let’s plays of ren’py games youtube.  Some people do play ren’py games for fun and others play ren’py because of the “wonderful” repetition that most ren’py games have.  One such let’s player is named oddscuff . I’m not sure if he is picking the game’s randomly or if he is picking a certain game because there was something interesting about it.  Either way, I find some of his videos humorous and they give me an idea on how some people view ren’py games.

Trapped Update: Sprite Sketches

This is a short update.  I sat down and designed the remaining sprites for Trapped.  Unfortunately I drew the sprites out on paper.  This visual novel has a total of 8 sprites (main character, two love interests, five side characters).  I would like to get the hang of drawing completely on the computer someday, instead of starting first with paper.   When I am at a friend’s house, I often bring my sketchbook and not my computer.  The majority of my digital artwork is done at home.

Here are the two love interests that will be in Trapped:

A human scientist who works in the lab as an assistant scientist

A merman who has been stuck inside the underwater laboratory for a few months.

I will be working on these two for the next few days.

Unette's Sprite is Done

Just finished another sprite today. I am getting used to working in Photoshop Creative Suite 6. I am still going to look at few Photoshop and line art tutorials before working on the next sprite.

Emotions left to right are outraged, angry, shock, sad, happy, and default (neutral).

Unette is the foster mother of the protagonist Amenti.  Unette is a workaholic and willingly devotes most of her time to her job than her foster daughter.

Up next is one of the possible love interests, a human scientist in training named Bryan.

Facebook Page and Other Social Networking Sites

I just made a Facebook page today while doing sprite work.  On this Facebook page there will be folders (rough sketches, sprites, etc) for each visual novel I am currently working on, posts from my newly created Youtube account, and posts sharing what I am doing at the moment.

Why did I make a Facebook page?  Well there are people who like going to Facebook.  These people might not like Blogger.  I'm building my audience while I start young.

You can click here to go to my Facebook page.

Other places I am using:

My website
http://darksirengames.com
Youtube 
http://www.youtube.com/user/darksirengames
Google plus 
https://plus.google.com/u/0/109872889681791527789/about
Deviantart
http://darksirenftw.deviantart.com/
pixiv.net
http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=5665087
zazzle 
http://www.zazzle.com/darksirengames

Working on Second Sprite of Trapped

It is a nice feeling going deeper into developing Trapped, my first visual novel.

The second sprite’s name is Unette and she is the adoptive mother of the main character Amenti.  Her emotions will be…

• Defualt
• Mad
• Outraged
• Sad
• Embarrassed
• Happy

I think I a satisfied wit the website to stop messing around the design.  I ditched the bubble background I used to have. The website can be viewed through this link.

My Wordpress Site is Up and is in Work in Progress

Hi guys!

My site is currently up and running. I just wanted to let everyone know while I am building on the site. You can go to the website through this link here.

I'm happy I got this far. I would need to work more on my visual novel so I will be working on my visual novel first before the website. The first post can be viewed here. There will be posts that are different there than here. Of course I will be still on Blogger since some people might be more comfortable on Blogger than going to a website.

One Sprite Finished, Five More to Go

So Im finally on the road to finishing this visual novel. My first visual novel with all original artwork (about a year ago I made The Coin with the help of a tutorial and pictures from Google). The sprites will hopefully be all done in photoshop and the scenery line work in manga studio. I was using manga studio for a friend so I guess I'll keep up with the software through my visual novel development.

Below is Amenti, the main character of Trapped and her emotions. This visual novel is not going to be a long one so the emotions: default, happy, mad, sad, shock, blush (probably won't be used for her), and eyes closed. So far each character will have a sprite that the other characters do not. Amenti may not have a blush sprite but Bryan will have one.



Before there was Remember Me, The Walking Dead (game) and Assissian's Creed (Vita) I used to wonder about the lack of dark skinned characters or characters of African decent in video games. There is still a chance I will get to work at a mainstream video game company someday. I know most mainstream companies are concerned with what sells so most video game characters are made with safe designs in mind. Of course I know the importance of making money but it feels nice being able to experiment.

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.