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.

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. 

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.

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.

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