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.

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. 

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.

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.