Adjusting to a New Schedule

Last time I said that I got a new job. The job is eight in the morning to four thirty in the afternoon. Most of my work for my visual novel Trapped is done on Sunday's and in the Library. I figured out that a place away from home and people I do some kind of errand or choir was a good idea. The major plus to doing work in the Library is that there is always different people and things to look at unlike my room which stays the same everyday. The whole story for Trapped has been typed into the Ren'py. Now I am going through and fixing grammatical errors and trying to make ideas in the story clearer to the reviewer. I have to admit that writing in first-person is not my strong point. When I wrote fan fiction and original fiction in my spare time third person would always be the point of view in which I would write in. The major bonus to writing in first person is the player gets to know the main character a lot more. I guess I will have to practice writing in first person and look up a few writing tutorials in the future. Hopefully by next month I can move on to the artwork for this visual novel. Then after doing the artwork I will make sure to have my beta reader play the game and tell me what she thinks of the story.

Update

I finally got a job from a staffing agency. I'm a media clerk and I sort files all day; Monday through Friday. The job is full of monotony but I am glad that I finally y have money to save and spend. October is only two weeks aways and my current job might be short lived. Leaving this job so soon might be awkward (especially since I am replacing someone) if my programing/art job actually happens next month. In preparation I am studying and practicing Unity3D all I can before October. As for Ren'py I am learning more about the program as I go. I currently am using Ren'py version 6.13.8.1675 and that there was a newer version of Ren'py (6.14.1) released last month. I know the visual novel needs to be updated before I release it to the internet. When I put my current visual novel into Ren'py 16.14.1 and try to launch the visual novel, Ren'py 16.14.1 does not recognize any of the documents for my visual novel. NameError is an error that pops up when a variable is not defined in the Ren'py script. This was an error which plagued me for a day. I spent a long time in Ren'py trying a figure out why some of the variables I defined were not being defined when I launched my visual novel. All my frustration came to an end when I looked NameError in the lemma soft forum's search engine. Launching my visual novel from an old save does not define the variables. I have to launch the game from the start in order to define whatever new variable I created. I felt so good finally figuring out that problem, all my frustration was forgotten. I hope the programing/art job next month happens so I can have multiple of these events. If the job never takes off then I can at least do something with Unity 3D in the future.

Back in Action

Hello ladies and gentlemen! I am now getting back into writing and developing my Ren'py game. Yes I am still going through some of the obstacles I have talked about in the past (like that darn Comptia Security Plus certification I almost passed yesterday) but I am finding ways to manage my time.

Sorry for the short blog post but I have no interesting signs of progress such as pictures to show. I wanted to inform whoever is reading this blog that my visual novel is not dead. I would like to finish this visual novel before October when my job (hopefully) starts.

I can say that my "Ren'py Test" blog entry I did in March is a great reference for me when I am developing my visual novel. I wonder how many people have used that blog entry for reference as well. The youtube video in that post is one of my most viewed videos on my youtube channel. Hopefully I helpped a few people get started on making their first visual novel.

Darn Obstacles!

This blog has not been updated since the third of last month. I am very sorry about that. Unfortunately there are some obstacles that I am dealing with right now. One such obstacle is studying for a Comptia Security Plus certification. The test is on the twenty fifth of this month. I really hope I get the certification so I can stop putting time aside to study for test.

Do not worry. I am still putting work into my visual novel. I guess my next post will have some pictures of how my visual novel is coming along. As most of you already know, I am getting used to digital painting/drawing so sprite making is going to take a long time. For the time being I will type the game's story and code into the game engine first. Then I will put the artwork in later.

So yes...the story and the paths are done at least. Once I have the artwork figured out, this project will go a lot faster.

Getting Deeper into The Game

I hope it has not been too long since I updated this blog. I have been trying to discipline myself into finishing this visual novel. All I have is two chapters left and I am done with the writing. I already have a good idea of how I am going to edit my story and make sense of a lot of things.

Thankfully coming up with the artwork is a lot easier due to all the writing I have done. The story only takes place in three places (main character's home, laboratory, and the city). The emotions I have in mind are default, sad, happy, angry, shock, and blushing. Of course not all characters are going to show all of these emotions. If there are other emotions anyone would like to suggest then please comment.

One thing that puzzles me in visual novels is when there is a special CG and the characters' arm, leg, face, etc moves during the scene. Here is an example from a visual novel called Togainu no Chi.

I'm assuming I can just leave the face blank until I add an expression when needed.

The guy on the left's arm, head, and facial expression moved. I still have a lot to learn with digital drawing and coloring. There are some people who are really good at redrawing poses in Photoshop, Gimp, whatever. There's also drawing the moved body part on paper, scanning the drawing, and matching it with the rest of the body in Photoshop. I'm not sure how to go about this process. Especially since when the characters do move during the scene it looks like the character was actually moving. There are CG in my visual novel that could benefit from this technique.

Lastly I have a deadline for this visual novel. I have a habit of not finishing a project if I tell someone my deadline. If I make this visual novel before or on the deadline then I will happily share what the deadline is.

Possiblities

One of these days I will stop being old fashioned and type my story on the computer or an electronic device from the start.  Trapped's script is half way done.... in my notebook.  Although editing my work when I start typing my written work into the computer makes the editing process a lot easier.  In the mean time several things have been going on in my life.  With the ongoing journey of finding a job in Computer Information Science I have started  experimenting with various programs such as WordPress and Unity 3D. 

I went to a job interview and a WordPress workshop last week.  I was surprised at the amount of people who worked at home making websites with WordPress while the supervisor I met at my job interview was unimpressed with WordPress.  The workshop was fun and I learned a lot of things about Wordpress so I can get started on my own website.  There are some things I do not like about Blogger such as replying to comments.  For some reason Blogger does not have a reply button.  The blog owner will have to make another comment (not a reply) and hope that the person they were replying to reads the comment. I do not like that and I hope I can make a website after Trapped is done.  My website will have blogs, artwork, and of course my games.  I want at least one game done before I officially put the website online.  Maybe I will have enough experience with WordPress then and I could get a job developing sites with WordPress.

As for Unity3D.  I did not mention this before but I am a part of a starting video game company. Originally I was the character artist but eventually my boss wants to make me the programmer.  We are making our game with Unity3D and with C# so a part of my abundant free time goes to learning Unity3D.  Maybe I will post a few examples of what I am learning in Unity 3D to show my progress. Unlike Ren'py Unity is not a walk in the park. There will be no tutorials any time soon about Unity from me.

The game company has had a lot of issues (getting loans, getting investors, finding employees, losing employees, etc) and there are a lot of things I can not share outside of the company. The company will start this October.  Of course I will still work on my indie games which, for the most part, are story based games such as visual novels and dating simulations.  From what I have noticed visual novel games do not get a lot of attention in the United States.  I hope I'm wrong but seeing a copy of Hakuoki Demon of the Fleeting Blossom marked down to $19 at Gamestop doesn't give me the confidence to try and make a mainstream visual novel.  An interesting interactive game that has sold well in the United States was Heavy Rain.  A game that was fully voiced, had many characters to control, and did not require players to read huge amounts of text.  The game felt like a movie in which I could choose my own ending through a series of choices and quick time events.    So I will be sticking with developing indie development visual novels, dating simulations, and other story focused games even when the video game company starts.

ADD and Writing

This blogspot has not seen activity since April 23 which is not good at all.  Of course I would loose material for this blog if I updated weekly like I used to.  I have been focusing on the digital artwork for my first visual novel Trapped.

 

 

Amenti (left) & Unette (right) from Trapped

 

 

 Of course I need to work on the story.  I do not suffer from writer's block.  I know where my story is headed but when I sit down to type my thoughts go everywhere.  Everywhere but the story I need to type.  Maybe I'm not used to typing (I like writing in my notebook more than typing honestly) or maybe I am too busy thinking about my next Ren'py game instead of Trapped.  I need to stop thinking of Trapped as just another Ren'py test.  Ren'py is an easy game engine and I believe I finally have decent enough digital artwork for my first visual novel.

Not to fear...today I finally sat down and started a schedule for myself.  Honestly if I keep to my schedule the story should not take a week to complete.