All Line art Done for Trapped

Well almost all the line art is done for Trapped. I still have to do the artwork for eyes and mouths; pretty much the emotions of the sprites. The story continues on the same path until the towards the end of the game. Here is one example from both paths.

One with Bryan

One with Nindel All facial expressions are already done on paper and have been scanned into the computer. Someday I would like to transition into doing full digital work. After being away from a scanner for a few weeks, I feel that its time I ditch the pencil and paper and have more fun with my tablet. I am hoping to finish this visual novel by the in between January and March of 2013.

Trapped Update

Just wanted everyone to know that almost all the backgrounds are done. I hopefully only have three more backgrounds to do. Backgrounds in general are not one of my strengths but I don't want to insert a random picture I found on Google into Trapped. I can't count how many times I shook my head or laughed upon seeing a ren'py game with a real life photo in the background while the sprites are anime or cartoonish. Well to be fair, I did insert a few random pics off of Google for my first ren'py game I recorded for Youtube. From here on out, I will fully draw and color everything in my games. Unfinished example from Trapped

This is where the story will take place.

Ameniti's (main character's) home. The next thing to line art will be the special scenes and that is hopefully it for the line art. Next would be digital coloring and fleshing out the story further. Hopefully my beta reader is still up for reading my visual novel. I am using Manga Studio for the line art. Maybe I will use Photoshop for my next visual novel. I honestly can not believe I am getting closer to finishing this visual novel the more I work on it.

Getting Things Done

Thanks to some unfortunate events such as my seasonal job ending and my stove catching on fire, I am now at a hotel typing this blog. I am not sure how long I will be at this hotel but I love the change of scenery. It is harder to do things in my room than in the library or in this hotel room. I think I put too much focus into my last jobs and put my indie game on the far edges of mind. The next job I get I will try and make time for my indie projects for now on. Preferably after work. That last job of mine taught me some pretty good time management skills (always prioritizing what assignment I should do first). When I return home I am sure I will work on Trapped no matter what building I am at or what job I may get in the future (that includes the programing/art job which has not started yet). The information for Trapped so far... 8 Sprites 7 Characters 10 backgrounds (most backgrounds have different variations) 6 special scenes (3 for both story paths) Line art for all the characters will be done today as I only have two left. Line art is being done in Manga Studio. Coloring will be accomplished in Photoshop. All sprites, scenery, and special scenes were done on paper before being scanned into the computer. When the coloring gets started (most likely next week) I will have to look at tutorials again because I have not done digital coloring for a while. Here are some sprite line art. I will show Amenti (the main character) and Unette second.

Finally Doing Some Drawings

With four days off from work, I finally sat down and started drawing for Trapped. With visuals I can get a better feel of how the story is. Maybe making the final draft will be easier. I remember Ren'py Test being a lot easier to finish once I figured out how to put in the artwork. Here are some samples of the artwork and sprites.

I know not to draw the eyes on the sprites in this stage but I wanted to see what these two looked like with eyes.

One thing I would like to do when I finish this visual novel is take some time and study some anatomy and digital painting. Drawing these sprites and scenes took a lot of motivation from myself. It's a good feeling to know that I am making this game on my own without someone telling me what to do. I also appreciate all the people who comment and give me opinions about my visual novel. In other words, I think I finally understand the word "indie" in indie game development. Next step is to finish the artwork on paper (there is only two scenes for me to draw on paper), and the line art.

Adding More to Trapped

This is my story for my visual novel Trapped. Amenti is a mermaid who just turned 16, the age when a mermaid's mother teaches their daughter magic in order for their daughter to be able to protect themselves during travel and eventually move out the house. Unfortunately for Amenti her mother, Unette, does not feel like teaching her duaghter magic. After a heated argument with her mother, Amenti swims out for some space and ends up in an undersea lab with two scientists who research mermaids' abilities to perform spells. Amenti has two options that can help her escape the laboratory: Nindel, a merman, who is counting on Amenti to use her magic to get out of the laboratory and Brian, a disgruntled employee looking to let Amenti go. Will Amenti trust the human to let her go or will she put her trust in Nindel and hope to find a way out of the laboratory? Trapped is going to be short and linear till a certain point in the story where the path splits into three paths acording to the player's choices. I wanted the player to get a chance to know either Brian or Nindel before they make a choice between the two. The player gets three days to know the two options so far. I might add another day for more story and information on both Nindel and Bryan. I am going to start doing artwork this week becuase I am tired of looking at text when I am editing my story in Ren'py. I already know what my characters will look like as I have drawn all the characters before. I am just updating the characters and scenery with better anatomy and drawing skills before I start going digital. Aside from the possible extra day, all I am editing now is grammer mistakes and adding minor details to make the story more clearer. Trapped is nearing it's completion.

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.