New Image to Work On

This is a traditional version of my next image that I am going to be working on right now.  I'm debating on recording this one or not.

Update 09/27/2014

This is going to be interesting.  I have never done a background with so much detail before. 

Update 6/25/2014

www.darksirengames.com/update-6252014

This is the most recent progress drawing:

I'm getting back to my project. I'm amazed at the progress I did with a full time job.

Rpg Maker VX Ace
RPG Maker VX Ace was on sale for two days on steam. Rpg Maker Vx Ace is a game engine used to make traditional JRPG's.  Like Ren'py there are a ton of free tutorials online.

I'll mess around with this program after Trapped is done. I would like to mess around with Adobe Flash and Rpg Maker Vx Ace in the future. One game made with Rpg Maker VX is Always Sometimes Monsters.

www.darksirengames.com/update-6252014

Last Possible Sprite

This post comes from Dark Siren Games 

I'm on the last sprite.  Hopefully, the last one.  This character is not that emotional so he only has another emotion sprite for me to draw.  On to the coloring.

Next to Last Sprite

This post originally came from darksirengames.com

Finally...

The next to last sprite is done.  

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.