#but using a different medium and turning it into 2D sprites is an idea i got from hylics

[hylwicks]

Is your name a Hylics ref?

YES IT IS!!!!!

My current username is a mashup of just my regular nickname and Hylwicks, my friend Martin suggested it for me a while back and I liked it so much I used it I looooove Hylics! It's actually one of the main inspos for my own game, I use 3D assets turned into 2D sprites as a stylistic choice because of Hylics :]c

[mikumutual]

answers aa themed questions nobody asked because i’m cool and sexy

also i havent played the 5th or 6th games so

YOUR FAVOURITE…? 1. Favourite Ace Attorney game? honestly? phoenix wright ace attorney! everything’s fresh, there aren’t many weak characters, and the plot is remarkable (especially the fifth case). the whole trilogy is really good as one unit though 2. Favourite case? 1-4, 1-5, 2-4, and 3-5 are tied lol, i can’t make a decision to save my life. 2-1 is really really funny tho 3. Favourite defendant? as a defendant, lana skye. as a person, edgeworth 4. Favourite prosecutor? as a prosecutor, franziska von karma. as a person, edgeworth 5. Favourite ship? wrightworth obviously... ive probably put more thought into them over the last 3 years than any other ship 6. Favourite victim? probably mia fey or gregory edgeworth... but for non-relevant victims, neil marshall :( 7. Favourite murderer? shelly de killer, i LOVE that guy. but dee vasquez was very cool as well 8. Favourite assistant? maya fey!!!!!!!!!! but i like kay faraday a lot too (im so sorry ema) 9. Favourite witness? adrian andrews... or maybe iris? i mean i didn’t like iris but god what a person 10. Favourite quote? “It doesn't matter how many underhanded tricks a person uses... The truth will always find a way to make itself known. The only thing we can do is to fight with the knowledge we hold and everything we have. Erasing the paradoxes one by one... It's never easy... We claw and scratch for every inch. But we will always eventually reach that one single truth. This I promise you.” - Miles Edgeworth i made this one of my senior quotes :]

YOUR LEAST FAVOURITE…? 11. Least favourite Ace Attorney game? uh fucking apollo justice. literally what the hell was that 12. Least favourite case? turnabout visitor wasn’t very strong? i guess it’s fine as an intro, but it’s also wonky with the timeline of aai 13. Least favourite defendant? max galactica. he’s better in the anime though 14. Least favourite prosecutor? manfred von karma, obviously. i like every other prosecutor (who i know of) though, even winston payne is pretty funny in hindsight 15. Least favourite ship? “miles edgeworth/female oc”. there are a lot of bad ships though, mostly involving phoenix & his assistants. dont do that please 16. Least favourite victim? zak gramarye for kickstarting that shitty, shitty game 17. Least favourite murderer? again mvk... but also fucking frank sahwit LMAO 18. Least favourite assistant? i guess trucy 19. Least favourite witness? fuck everyone from turnabout big top unless it was the anime episode 20. Least favourite memory of Ace Attorney? repeatedly trying and failing to download the emulator for aai2 hbjsjhdb i eventually got it but someone had to send me the download fully pre-patched and i felt kinda useless DO YOU PREFER…? 21. Phoenix Wright or Apollo Justice? phoenix wright. fuck that “GOTCHA!” mechanic jesus christ 22. Maya Fey or Trucy Wright? maya fey. nothing personal against trucy but i just dont like aj hbjsdjhsdb also maya is really sweet and fun and she has the best sprites. she seems like she’d be a good friend, it’s too bad that she doesn’t have the time for them as a spirit medium and all :( if maya ema and kay got to hang out together itd be wild 23. Investigations or trials? trials are easier in my opinion because investigations have several things you could be doing without such a linear style, so if you miss something, you won’t really know until you wander around forever 24. College Phoenix or Hobo Phoenix? college feenie!!!!! he’s like trilogy feenie but more emotional and less witty. i like to pretend that hobo phoenix doesnt exist 25. Klavier Gavin or Kristoph Gavin? who would say kristoph 26. Ace Attorney or Ace Attorney Investigations? ace attorney but only because phoenix is in it lmao. im actually rewatching a playthrough of aai now, and playing aai2 at the same time, so while it is on the mind, i feel like the cases characters and mechanics - while loved - don’t hold up to the OGs 27. Apollo’s perceive, Phoenix’s magatama, or Athena’s Mood Matrix? i actually kinda like the mood matrix more than anything because it has a really good UI and the magatama is kinda grating. but FUCK the gotcha mechanic it is SO FUCKING STUPID and IMPOSSIBLE TO USE.  where is logic chess 28. Ace Attorney trilogy or Apollo Justice and Dual Destinies? you already know my answer to this one 29. 3D models or sprites? i do like the 3d models a lot but i like the original sprites more! imo original pixel sprites > 3D models > HD sprites. mostly bc the hd sprites are garbage (see here, here, and here) 30. Ema Skye as she is in Rise from the Ashes or Ema Skye as she is in Apollo Justice? rfta !!!!!! shes actually really nice as an assistant, esp considering the fact that we actually see her interact with her sister, which is something maya didn’t have very often. also her random appearance in aai was well appreciated by me

MISCELLANEOUS 31. Did you like what they did to Phoenix in Apollo Justice?

NO I AM SO FUCKING MAD WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT TO HIM ISN’T HE A LAWYER WHY COULD HE NOT JUST DEFEND HIMSELF FROM THE FACT THAT HE “FORGED EVIDENCE” IT WASN’T EVEN HIS IN THE FIRST PLACE SOMEBODY ELSE FORGED IT AND HE DIDN’T KNOW THAT, MANFRED VON KARMA GOT AWAY WITH A FUCKLOAD OF NONSENSE AND SO DOES EVERY OTHER LAWYER SO WHY IS IT THAT PHOENIX CAN SURVIVE EATING A POISONED GLASS NECKLACE AND GETTING HIT OVER THE HEAD WITH A FIRE EXTINGUISHER AND FALLING FROM A BURNING BRIDGE INTO A RUSHING RAVINE AND BEING HIT BY A CAR BUT HE CAN’T FUCKING DEFEND HIMSELF LIKE HE DOES IN EVERY OTHER CASE BECAUSE THAT’S THE POINT OF THE GAME AND ALSO HIS ENTIRE CHARACTER

32. Your opinion on Dai Gyakuten Saiban? haven’t played it! it looks pretty cool though

33. Do you think Dai Gyakuten Saiban and/or Miles Edgeworth Investigations 2 will get localised to the West? doubt it, since the creators have said that it won’t be. but the fan translations are pretty good, so i think it’s okay

34. Do you think Miles Edgeworth should get another Investigation-game or do you think another character deserves a spin-off? i mean he already has two, so i guess he doesn’t need another? like i love edgeworth but he’s not as fun without phoenix around. ngl i would play a franziska game. or a maya game, or any spinoff revolving around a side character. hell i’d play hotti game if it meant it took place in the trilogy era

35. Opinion on the soundtrack of the Ace Attorney-franchise? REALLY good. really really good. i love how each game of the trilogy has different composers but each track has the same theme and feel!!!

36. Do you like where the franchise is heading or did you prefer the atmosphere in the original trilogy? seriously absolutely completely prefer the trilogy. i’m sorry but the rush of youth and trust is way, way more enjoyable than whatever “i’m 35 and therefore middle aged” nonsense is happening in the 2020s

37. Capcom suddenly announces that Phoenix will no longer appear in the Ace Attorney franchise! Your reaction? He’s been replaced by Penny Nichols. Fuck you.

38. Capcom suddenly announces that the Ace Attorney franchise has ended for good! Your reaction? it was me i ended it

39. Would you like there to be another Ace Attorney/Professor Layton crossover game? i didnt play it but i really like the idea!!!!!! aa crossover games are really funny to me, i mean have you seen edgeworth in project x zone 2, lmao

40. Would you like an Ace Attorney anime? we have one now! honestly i don’t think it did a very good job of representing the cases, but it did do a good character remix of turnabout big top so that they’re not creepy anymore. they also did a really good job with the anime-specific cases, like the one on the train! it feels a lot better paced when it’s intended for that medium rather than just adapted.  also the childhood episodes made me cry

41. Opinion on anime cutscenes in Ace Attorney? like in 5 and 6? mm, the art style is kinda weird, and i don’t really like the voices, but i guess not everything can be pachinko and prozd

42. Would you want to play an Ace Attorney game where you take on the prosecutor’s role? YEAH ACTUALLY!!!!!! it might be kinda weird being on the right side of the screen though lmao

43. Do you like having DLC in Ace Attorney-games? uhhh i hate having to buy extra things, but i’ll admit that they are pretty funny

44. Opinion on Lamiroir’s storyline? i only played aj so if shes in other games idk but i thought she was fine

45. One thing you think the Ace Attorney games can improve on? stop having creepy characters please. also jesus christ if phoenix and edgeworth arent wearing rings in aa7 i will become the ceo of capcom myself

46. Capcom suddenly announces an Ace Attorney movie! Would you like it to be based on an already existing case or would you like an all new storyline? i mean the musical did a pretty good job of adapting existing cases, so it might as well be new. it would be kinda hard to balance the games’ timeline & character development without being repetitive or an au

47. Capcom suddenly announces an Ace Attorney movie! Would you prefer it being live-action, 3D animated or 2D animated? stylized 2D animation, probably? i would want it to feel more like into the spiderverse than an anime, though. in my dream ace attorney movie, they’d just need a high art budget, several plausible deniability wrightworth scenes, and prozd to voice edgeworth

48. If there could be an Ace Attorney crossover with whatever franchise you’d like, which one would you choose? (Does not need to be a video-game franchise) your turn to die is probably closest in characterization, although its premise is more “locked in a room” than the open-world investigation of aa

49. Opinion on recurring witnesses? (Wendy Oldbag, Lotta Hart, Larry Butz, etc.) honestly, i like them a lot! i don’t know why people hate them so much - i mean, i know lotta lied, and wendy is a horrible old flirt, and larry just kinda sucks all around. but they’re also pretty funny to have around! larry is a constant comic relief who reminds you how much better nick & edgey are in comparison, lotta is likeable as a general character (like in 2-4, although yeah, not remarkable), and wendy oldbag is really funny. she’s so fucking funny. none of you appreciate wendy oldbag’s quirks and you are SLEEPING ON IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

50. Do you think Dual Destinies deserved its M-rating? no idea, holy shit, it got an m-rating? i mean every game before it has had blood violence and very mild swearing, and since DD probably doesnt have anything too sexually risqué, i doubt it deserves a rating any harsher than the rest of the series

okay thanks thats all

[homestuckhomestuckhomestuck]

hussie formspring trivia 1/?

The stylized battle sprites for Rose and Jack's STRIFE are incredibly awesome! Did one of the art team members create them, or is this a variation on your usual style?

I drew an initial template, and the art folks were invited to continue in that style, adding new animation frames, characters, etc. All very loosely, without a lot of parameters beyond that. Eyes5 did the Jack, myluckyseven did a Rose frame. There should be more to come. This was originally going to be a Flash project, but I cancelled it. Everything happening now, and over the next bunch of pages, would have taken place in a pretty energetic, and much more sophisticated than usual strife animation. Kind of like "strife version 2", for the second disc. I planned this idea months ago, not really thinking much of the effort and time it would eventually require to complete. This is what I usually do, blithely make such ambitious plans, pay the price later, but fight through it with a major grind and honor the original vision. This was a little different though. Not only was this meant to be a much more elaborate type of animation by my own stakes-raising declaration, with more frames-intensive visuals like a typical 2D fighter, but on top of that, the rate of output had been slowing, and the story flow was already kind of logjamming. So I had to make a decision. I could either apply what I now estimate would have been two or three solid weeks of serious effort to make this one pretty cool animation, and watch several 100K people sink into a state of despair over the prolonged suspension in content only to have the story advance not particularly far through a totally radical battle scene, or I could scrap the whole plan and figure something else out. The latter is what you're seeing. Sometimes these adjustments have to be made. I've revised plans before, and had some cool ideas I've scrapped. I was going to include another round in the Dave vs. Bro battle where they used their Sylladexes to wage a hashrap battle (which is why I went to the trouble of making Dave collect all that dangerous shit in his kitchen before climbing to the roof). But I axed that because the battle was already taking too much time to produce and bottlenecking plot advancement. That idea was pretty easily phased out. This is different now, because revising these plans meant I had to change the way a large chunk of the story would be delivered, because a lot of story components were all tangled up in my plans for that animation. So I had to do a lot of rethinking, and much of the solution is what you're seeing now, which is having the scratched disc interfere with the flow of the story, and Scratch taking over narration duties at an accelerated pace while he fixes the disc in time for the end of act. This is in part my way of committing not to doing anymore flash stuff until the EOA, which itself is going to be a very laborious thing and will take a long time to finish. This is all fine. I don't mind turning my plans upside down sometimes, since it can lead to creative opportunities for handling this stuff. The disc errors, Scratch hijacking the site design while narrating, all this strikes me as in keeping with the spirit of the story and the flexible format. Keeping the story moving is important, but it's not the sole consideration. MSPA for me is about working with loads of fun ideas, both for the story itself and the way it's told. Very often that consideration is at odds with pacing. I do what I can to balance both. The biggest challenge in this respect by far has been Flash. I'm quite ambivalent on its role in Homestuck. On one hand, it completely changes the way the story is read and perceived, for the better I think. It brings a lot of the most important parts of the story to life, makes for significant dramatic impact when needed, and goes a long way in making this difficult to classify as a medium. One the other hand, it magnifies the production complexity exponentially, and I'm not just talking about the effort the animations require. It affects everything about my approach to the story. Including the whole decision making process, and not in a particularly good way, at least not from my perspective. The biggest way it affects the process is how it stretches the story out. If I'd gone through with the axed strife animation, that would be an obvious example, pausing the story a couple weeks to make some people fight. But the delaying effects can be more subtle than that. I'll have in mind a certain event in the story which I think should be handled through Flash. I'll know it's coming up, but I might not be ready to launch into that kind of work for whatever reason. Maybe it's too soon on the heels of the last one or whatever. So I'll work on more static panels, because there is never a shortage of plot threads to address or details to develop or funny conversations to write or new fun ideas to put out there. And that's fine really, since I feel like it's all good stuff, but it definitely makes for the long road. I'm quite sure Homestuck would be finished by now if I'd never used flash at all. There are other weird ways it factors in, like certain expectations it creates. Once it gets in the readers' heads that it's a recurring device for the story, they start to look out for it and expect it in certain situations, compare static content with flash, consider how awesome some static panels would have been if done in flash or how awesome situation X will be if animated with song Y. The potential for disappointment looms constantly with increased expectations. None of this is particularly bad, but if you're the guy responsible for putting together this story, you tend to be keenly aware of it, and it factors into the big puzzle of managing it all. And a big part of that puzzle has been answering the question "to flash or not to flash?" I've said before, the deeper into this I get, the less I feel like a writer or artist, and more I'm like a producer, managing story decisions weighed carefully against cost of execution. And cost can mean a lot of things. Effort needed, organizational complexity (usually most present in interactive pages), time delay or obstruction to story advancement, stuff like that. This kind of thing doesn't factor in if you're writing something more conventional, like a book. You write in exactly what serves the story, as you envision it. It may sound crazy that's not what I'm doing, but it really can't be anymore, not with these high octane animations in the mix as part of the expected delivery. I have to think like a producer to make that work. To understand what that means, here's an anecdote about Indiana Jones, which might not be quite true but whatever, it's just something I'm vaguely remembering. When Spielberg was going over the script with somebody, it called for a pit full of lions, and he said "whoa! too expensive! let's go with snakes." So you got Indy afraid of snakes instead of lions, because it turns out you can buy crazy loads of snakes for bargain bux. It would be really reasonable for him to be afraid of lions though. They are huge and hungry and fucking terrifying. Have you SEEN a lion??? Lions would be my quirky phobia if I was a rugged dude with a whip and longing for treasure. Lions. (roar) Why did it have to be... (roar) Lions. :(

What would the hypothetical flash have covered?

It would have spanned the events from a little after here: http://www.mspaintadventures.com/scratch.php?s=6&p=005677 To right around here: http://www.mspaintadventures.com/scratch.php?s=6&p=005740 What took place over those pages is almost a direct transcription of what would have happened in the flash. The events were conveyed visually and verbally to suit the Scratch narration, instead of shown through high-intensity animated visuals alone. The Scratch segment was not introduced as a substitute for the animation. An "abridged" stretch like this was going to come anyway as a device for setting a few things up before starting on the EOA animation. Axing the Rose v. Jack / Vriska v. Jack animation (aka Heroes of Light: Strife) just meant moving Scratch the segment up sooner, to use as a vehicle for delivering the full flash concept without having to scrap it as a story direction, which would have been a pretty significant architectural upheaval. Now that it's out there, we can examine the pros and cons of delivering it that way as opposed to flash. (But note, no matter what, there was no chance of that flash getting made whatsoever. This is really not about "what could have been") Pros of flash: - Would have been WAY MORE RADICAL (frankly I don't care much about this. the rad quotient of preceding flash material is already pretty high, and there's plenty more combustible shit to come) - The idea as a whole would have been delivered in minutes, rather than weeks, giving people the full sense of the story development all at once, and limiting the drag on the serial readers' experience, and corresponding vocalization of those frustrations (would have been BY FAR the biggest advantage of flash) Cons: - Concept as a whole may have been a bit challenging to parse with visuals alone. The two parallel battles are easy enough to understand, but I can easily imagine confusion over the alternate timeline concept as conveyed only visually. People have been confused by less. Much, much less. - Difficulty factor. Even with art contributors. There's a limit to not only what I can do personally, but what a largely unstructured volunteer effort can accomplish as well. - Hiatus-induced suicide pact among readership. Pros of narration: - Get to experiment with a little parallel storytelling, via the top banner. (pretty big plus, IMO!) - Having it narrated removes ambiguity about a fairly cerebral chain of events, while allowing the chance to indirectly develop Scratch's involvement in the story a bit. - I get to take my time with it and pretend to function like a normal human being for a little while. Cons: - Slow rolling the segment page by page has serial readers agonizing every step of the way over every conceivable issue, on points of execution, unwelcome "story developments", and so on. Once again, Homestuck is RUINED FOREVER! Until it isn't, of course. - If you're not into Scratch as a character or don't like his tone or the whole omniscient smartass thing, then you probably aren't digging the arc much. Not much to say about this. It's just a "you like it or you don't" kind of thing. - Altering the flow of the story always carries the risk of agitating some readers. Not only because mixing shit up = automatic complaints (which is definitely true), but because by accelerating the pace to make broader narrative strokes, you are inviting the usual objections fixated on showing vs. telling. But I think there are some legitimate gears of storytelling which involve showing by way of telling outright, as long as the reader has the patience to see it through to its conclusion (problematic serially, as usual). It's a gear in which bigger story chunks that normally are given strong magnification (like a death) are told more compactly and in succession. These bigger chunks, when stacked up, "show", or more appropriately "reveal" an even bigger idea which is at the true heart of that narrative stretch. It's not the event which the reader momentarily feels "should" expand to fill the stage, like a death. The death that with hindsight functions as a building block of a more complete idea which more effectively serves the story as a whole, completing unfinished arcs, building on the themes and such. You can look at story pacing like rolling a Katamari ball, with respect to the granularity of what has focus. At the beginning of HS, I'm rolling it around and picking up nickels and buttons. That's when John messing around with cakes and such has focus as actual plot points. The ball keeps rolling until points like that are too marginal to zoom in on, and he's exploring a mysterious oily land killing monsters and stuff while we gloss over a lot of detail that in an earlier mode would have received intense scrutiny. We are picking up things like traffic cones and bicycles with our katamari ball, while still sculpting a shape that as a whole resembles a story. Hivebent was rolled with even bigger denominations, maybe cars and trucks, gobbling up even bigger chunks like buildings by the end of the arc, as Aradia was offhandedly mentioning how they killed the king and created a universe. With hindsight we see why, understanding the overall purpose that arc had for the story, and how that particular pacing supported that purpose. Unlike Katamari though, the ball does get smaller sometimes, to go back to accommodating certain levels of detail like conversations and game mechanics, but it never dials all the way back. Doc has rolled with some of the biggest chunks yet, like buildings or mountains, casually dropping the deaths of characters as atomic features of his narration. He clearly rolls the ball smaller at times too, when he wants. But this construction too has purpose, which needs some patience to watch it take shape and then hindsight to fully appreciate. And like I've suggested before, these can be pretty disastrous conditions for the serial intake of a story. But honestly, there is no other way to do it. To strive to satisfy serial readers all the time is to do nothing but make something terrible in the long run. It means you can't do much to set up anything sophisticated with deferred payoff, as you perpetually submit what will immediately gratify. I can't tell people that reading serially is the "wrong" way to read it, because this is not true. But there's no escaping the fact that having pages leaked out so slowly radically warps your perception of what is happening, sometimes for the better (community discussion, noticing details etc), but often aggravates (arc fatigue, rushing to judgment...) Try to imagine watching your favorite movie, for the first time ever, but only a minute at a time, every day. Sound frustrating? How often do you think you might get irritated with the director for his pacing decisions? Or his "plot twists", which are really just the products of scenes cut short before fully paying off? How often do you think you might want to insist he move it along? What about reading your favorite book, but only receiving about a paragraph or two every day? And what if the author/director was tuned into the responses to this daily output? Is there anything he could do to outrun the impatience of the reader for plot points he's carefully set up to be evaluated in the minute-space of archival read-through, which the reader labors over in the month-space of serial digestion? Can he do anything to deflect or mitigate their rush to judgment of incomplete arcs? Should he? Probably not. The pages spanning the two links above provide a pretty good example of how serial intake messes with perception, and of why authors tend to like to finish books before showing them to you. Now that it's all there, let's look at the reasonable serial reactions to some key moments, and compare to the reality in hindsight. - Terezi flips coin, Vriska flies away. Serial reaction: augh, anticlimax!!! All that build up, the stair climbing and show downing and coin flipping... where's the battle? Where's........ SOMETHING? Reality: This was only the beginning of a deferred resolution to the ongoing Terezi/Vriska rivalry. The resolution was actually the full sweep of this series of events in totality, resulting in Terezi looking into the doomed timeline to find the rationale and the courage to kill Vriska, which she finally did. All that buildup was not for that one-page deflation, but this full sequence. Reservation of judgment was required, something that is much easier to practice when there are more pages to click on. ..... I could go on but I just realized I'm tired of typing. But really, the list goes on and on like this throughout the whole story. Things which come off as odd or vaguely unsatisfying or even JUST SO TERRIBLE in the short term, but make sense and work better overall in the big picture. You could complete this exercise yourself if you felt like it. Look at an event, remember how you felt on reading it live, and now how you view it in retrospect. Or, for extra credit, imagine you could wipe your memory of the past several months of content, and pretend I just posted it all today. What would your reaction be? How does it read? Do the issues which seemed to loom so large in the moment, like the omnipresent "get on with it" factor, even cross your mind for a second during such an archival dump? And for extra extra credit, imagine wiping your memory of all of Homestuck, and I just dropped it all in your lap right now while you were idling musing what sort of thing I might work on after Problem Sleuth. What do you think? Of it in totality, and of recent events? What is there that wears thin, on its own terms of pacing, rather than that dictated by two years of attrition on one's ability to remain completely engaged and cognizant of all relevant threads? There is a lot to think about when you make a story. Not just in how to make it, but in how it is absorbed. One story is really two completely different stories. The one that is read all at once, and the one that is read over your shoulder while you make it.

[spicynbachili1]

How to update the classics for modern audiences with Dotemu

From Legacy of Kain to Detective Pikachu

We stay in a time when most individuals forty years outdated and youthful had been introduced up adoring media that was designed to operate as toy commercials, childhood companions, and near-religious texts on the identical time. After I noticed Michael Bay’s Transformers film in theaters all these years in the past, I felt like I used to be seeing a lifelong good friend who I revered with virtually holy ranges of affection “remodeled” right into a crass collection of explosions, butts, and exploding butts. It’s nonetheless the worst time I’ve ever had in a movie show. Any enjoyment I could have derived from the senseless popcorn charms of the movie had been destroyed by my very own expectations. 

That is the story of a complete technology of children, now in early or mid maturity, seeing the faces of manufacturers they’d grown to like became one thing else. The Lion King, Pokemon, Thundercats, Mario, She-Ra, and Sonic are only a handful of different +20 12 months outdated franchises which have simply acquired, or are about to obtain, whole make-overs which may be interesting to new audiences, however have left at some prior followers chilly. It does not must be that means although. It is potential to make everybody blissful. Dotemu is proof of that. Their contemporary takes on Wonderboy, Windjammers, and Streets of Rage have been almost universally praised, even when adapting to new mediums and tremendously altering character designs.

I reached out to Cyrille Imbert, CEO of Dotemu, to ask for his or her ideas on 2D vs. 3D animation, retaining the spirit of a franchise with out bringing its dated baggage together with it, and much more. This is what he needed to say. 

What does it take to replace a traditional recreation for contemporary audiences, with no AAA price range to work with, in a means that brings the essence of the supply materials ahead whereas leaving the outdated design choices behind? 

It’s a troublesome course of as you may think about. Particularly as even when you attempt to be as impartial and logical as potential, there might be subjective choices. Our greatest solution to keep away from that’s to essentially focus on about all of the design concepts between us but additionally with followers, family and friends and get everybody’s opinion. As followers ourselves, we attempt to get the essence of what makes a traditional recreation nice and to maintain it in any respect price. From there, we attempt to collect info from our personal expertise and from web communities, about what would have been higher or ought to have been prevented within the authentic recreation. We set up a listing of these defaults and see how we are able to change them and whether it is technologically possible.

For Windjammers, the menus from the Neo Geo model had been virtually nonexistent so we thought it could be good to fully redo them, and that will additionally give the chance to present extra choices for gamers to customise their expertise and assist them perceive how you can play. The apparent addition was to have the ability to compete with anybody worldwide as Windjammers is a recreation that reveals its full potential when two human minds problem one another. Nonetheless, we determined to remain true to the unique inventive course in each side: menus, gameplay, advertising and marketing, and so on. It’s quaint, however that is actually what makes this recreation so distinctive as properly. It’s 100% a part of the core expertise and essence of the sport.

It is generally assumed that polygon-based graphics price way more to supply than conventional “dot artwork” sprites, however often one thing like King of Fighters 13 comes alongside to disrupt that notion. It is a good looking recreation that used polygon fashions for the bottom animations for every character earlier than drawing over them with 2D sprites, presumably as a result of animating with polygons was the inexpensive technique. What are the variations within the artistry, and price, behind “dot artwork” graphics, hand drawn animation and polygon-based visuals? Are there methods to mix the strengths of all three visible kinds that carry out the most effective in all of them whereas lowering the over all manufacturing bills?

That’s an excellent query! The reply is complicated because it is dependent upon various factors, the primary one being the gameplay and the digicam. I might say that the most affordable graphics are 2D pixel artwork in low decision, as a result of you may work actually fast and don’t want extra assets than one or two individuals. However certainly, if you get to greater resolutions and full HD in 2D, like LizardCube did for Surprise Boy: The Dragon’s Entice for instance, it turns into tougher and tougher. Certainly, as you’re animating body by body and by hand, you higher be an excellent artist and know the place you’re going. As a result of if you wish to change a colour, add a bit of armor or a tattoo, you’ll must do it yet again. 3D is nearer to sculpture/cease movement. So if you wish to change some elements of your character or object, it’s means simpler as you don’t have to transform every body by hand. Combining two strategies could be a good center floor, however once more, it actually is dependent upon what you’re aiming for by way of international inventive course. It gained’t be as clean as a 2D hand drawn animation, however it should really feel extra alive than primary 3D. I’m not an enormous knowledgeable on that although.

Enjoying 20-ish 12 months outdated video games like Avenue Fighter III: third Strike,  Garou: Mark of the Wolves and Steel Slug three reveals that the craft of 2D animation in video games might have peaked years in the past, at the least in my view. Why do you suppose these three video games have but to be topped, even by the cleaner wanting, however typically much less expressive tiles from fashionable studios? Or do you suppose that the three retro video games I discussed have certainly been outclassed by more moderen titles, and the actual subject is with my rose-tinted glasses for the previous?

These three titles are certainly the most effective references for online game 2D animation, and that is what we love at Dotemu. You can additionally add Castlevania SoTN simply with these masterpieces. These are form of video games that will make no sense to remake graphically. They’re already good. I might say that they haven’t been topped just because they’re on the high, so don’t fear about your glasses! However there are some video games which are very near that degree and Arc System Works are undoubtedly going for it. Try DB Fighters Z, that is actually spectacular, even when it’s not 100% 2). Ori and the Blind Forest, Machinarium or the Vanillaware productions are proofs that we nonetheless have very expert groups doing nice video games. Cuphead is top-notch as properly.

However again within the day, 3D was not an possibility, so when you needed to do the most effective recreation you needed to have the most effective 2D artists. That’s it.  That is undoubtedly what we’re going for with Dotemu and The Arcade Crew. We’re in love with stunning 2D animation and we’d like to contribute.

In the event you may work on any I.P., with an infinite price range, what would you make?

Hardest query ever. There are such a lot of prospects! Currently I’ve been desirous about Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen. It didn’t aged properly graphically however I bear in mind being fascinated by the environment and story of the sport. With stunning 2D HD graphics and fashionable gameplay mechanics it may actually be superior.  

I’ve heard from quite a lot of great game artists who’re pretty put off by the look of the subsequent Pokemon film. What’s your tackle the newly launched trailer for Detective Pikachu, and what would have you’ve gotten executed with the artwork course for the movie when you had been in cost?

To be trustworthy, I personally have by no means been an enormous fan of Pokemon, even when I can fully perceive the success of the video games and universe. So I haven’t got a lot of a way for a contemporary tackle that license. We will discuss Star Wars and the current tackle the IP for hours if you need, however I in all probability gained’t be capable of identify greater than three Pokemon. The film seems to be attention-grabbing, however it appears that evidently it actually will get removed from the unique IP and takes quite a lot of liberties with it. It seems to be like a distinct story in a distinct universe, which could be a genius transfer or a complete failure. Pokemon is such a mass-market license, it have to be tremendous onerous to fulfill all of the several types of followers. So long as the IP isn’t just there to promote tickets and merch although, I’d say why not. 

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"I Discovered a New Joy in Fighting Games" an Interview with the Creators of Guilty Gear and Blazblue

Part two of our my interview with the big three of ArcSys, the president and founder Minoru Kidooka, creator of Guilty Gear, Daisuke Ishiwatari, and creator of BlazBlue, Toshichi Mori. In Part one, we discussed their upcoming BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle and the atmosphere in 2D fighters development and competition. At the halfway point, we dug into the history of ArcSys's two flagship franchises with their creators, including their inspirations, plans, and, of course, their favorite anime.

Was your original idea for BlazBlue entirely separate from Guilty Gear or where there untouched avenues in Guilty Gear you wanted to explore through a different title?

Toshimichi Mori: A large difference I kept in mind when I first developed BlazBlue was that it was going to be a platform, an intellectual property, moreso than Guilty Gear. That thought informed the mediums through which it developed. It wasn’t necessary only supposed to be a fighting game, we also have a mobile game, Dark War, coming up. I wanted there to be many ways to interact with the BlazBlue franchise and its characters whereas Guilty Gear is designed much more like a fighting game.

You mentioned that Ragna’s story was “complete” with BlazBlue: Central Fiction. Are there any new developments with the story you’re planning for BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle?

TM: In terms of Ragna’s story, Central Fiction represents a nice way to sort of tie up some of the loose ends. With Cross Tag Battle and the way its story mode will develop and interact with the BlazBlue universe, all I can really say is you have to play it for yourself and I think you’ll see what we were trying to do. I think it’ll become very evident once you pick up the controller.

  BlazBlue was an interesting title since it first appeared as a 2D fighter with 2D sprites just as the 2D fighting industry began shifting over to 3D sprites. Was there an awareness of the industry was moving in that direction?

TM: It’s easy to call BlazBlue a 2D fighter, but I’d argue a good half of it is 3D including the backgrounds and, in the development pipeline, 3D was heavily used when generating the sprites, although they might look truly 2D in end. This 3D technology we used in our pipeline was heavily relied upon in the Guilty Gear development which, in turn, informed how Dragon Ball FighterZ looks right now.

There’s definitely been an evolution brought upon by the information passed on game-to-game as opposed to “this is strictly 2D" and "this is strictly 3D” so, in terms of BlazBlue, we’re not limiting it strictly to 2D. That’s just the form it happened to take, although you’ll find a lot of 3D elements if you look under the hood.

In ArcSystem Works, “ARC” stands for “Action, Revolution, and Challenge.”

Do you follow the Blazblue competitive scene?

TM: Yes, very closely. I’m still very curious about who’s going to defeat Fenrich.

  Do you have any favorite players or characters you’re happy to see played on the competitive level?

TM: In terms of characters, I love them all, so there isn’t any single character I’d love to see in the professional scene. We do our best to make sure the balance is such that every character has a chance and have the right tools to be able to climb up to the competitive level.

In terms of players, I really can’t pick any single one player. Of course, I really want to see everyone succeed and I know the players spend so much time and energy and effort learning the games that we create, deconstructing them to become competitive with them. I feel it is our job to create a platform upon which these players can shine and an environment where they’re able to show everything they’ve done.

You know, we have some ArcSys specific tournaments in addition to our games selected for EVO. It could be as simple as pointing the camera on some of these players, shining a spotlight on them, inviting them, or getting them a plane ticket to a tournament they wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend. Making it easier for them to shine is what I feel our rule is as a developer and a creator.

In your honest opinion, is Noelle better with or without a hat?

TM: Really, it comes down to personal preference, right? I’ve had a lot of players provide feedback saying they like her with or without the hat. Me, personally, I think I have a lot more nostalgia and memories linked to her original design with the hat. But, to be perfectly honest, looking at her from a design perspective, her silhouette, the strength of her as a character, I think she is a more complete design now with her hair down as opposed to with the hat.

In summary, it depends on whether you’re looking at her memory or in terms of the character…

Ishiwatari-san, same question for Millia Rage?

Daisuke Ishiwatari: *Laughs* That's funny, when Mori-san began answering that question, in my head, I immediately thought of Millia. I think my answer is kind of similar. Her design in Guilty Gear XX, I have a lot of nostalgia for that version of Millia but, as an icon and as a character, I think she’s much stronger with her current design.

I’m curious about the large gaps between Guilty Gear releases. First 7 years between XX and Overture, then another 7 years between Overture and Xrd. Can you share what was going on with Guilty Gear either conceptually or developmentally during those periods?

DI: There were a number of reasons for those huge blanks including creatively and development. The sheer amount of time it takes to get a project greenlit all the way to the finished product. There were a lot of challenges between Overture and Xrd and everything represented a sort of theme we had at that time. Overture was to tackle 3D. At the time, ArcSys wasn’t equipped to make a completely new 3D game. That was what Overture represents.

In a similar way, with Xrd, we were trying to find ways to express anime in a completely new way in a game, visually and conceptually. Those 7 years really were the time it took to completely challenge and rethink the way we can express certain elements of a game.

So the 3D in Overture, along with the developments from BlazBlue, acted as a sort of prototype for the new look in Xrd?

DI: It’s safe to say that, with every project and everything you do, you’re gaining XP. Knowing that experience will always materialize as the next product, I don’t think is necessarily a true statement. It can be applied in various different ways or might appear as a completely different thing in another game. That being said, in terms of what I’m working on, if you start to see me pop up less and less in the press then it’s safe to say that something big’s coming soon.

On that subject, you previously said you might be interested in developing games besides fighters and many of your favorite games seem to be RPGs. Is that a direction you could see yourself moving into in the future?

DI: In terms of developing games, I don’t feel bound to any particular genre. Of course, if the opportunity presents itself, I’d love to try developing an RPG, an FPS, or even something like an old-school Mario side-scrolling action kind of game.

Looking back on my own history, after Guilty Gear X2 #Reload, there was a moment when I was really tired of, or almost complacent in, developing fighting games. When Xrd came around, I discovered a new joy in fighting games, which was the internet and network battles.

Watching people fight each other while not being in the same place or, in extreme examples, Japan and US players can fight against each other. There was this moment of connection. It was a tool that could connect people and allow them to share that same emotion, this same moment, together, no matter where they were located. That showed me a new joy in developing fighting games and I believe there are still more joys to be found in the fighting game space. Right now, I’m really enjoying being able to develop fighting games.

I’ve heard rumors you were planning to conclude Guilty Gear and I’m curious about what that specifically means. Did you mean the story, the franchise, or perhaps your involvement?

DI: When I said to conclude Guilty Gear, I meant the current story arc would be concluded. By no means did I mean the franchise or intellectual property would come to a halt. Does that mean in the future I might be involved less or not at all? Perhaps, but, if I am involved, I think there are a lot of possibilities and different ways to explore what is possible with Guilty Gear.

Does the conclusion you have planned include Elphelt finding her true love?

DI: *Laughs* I might have to not be involved in the project by that point for that to happen, but I’ll leave it up to your imagination.

Guilty Gear is very well known for embodying the aesthetic of a particular era of music. If you were to make Guilty Gear today, would there be different inspirations you drew upon?

DI: Well, we’re entering the realm of fantasy here. Parallel universes or star systems, whatever you’d like to call it, I have thought of and I jot in my notebook sometimes, what would happen if I took the actor, Sol Badguy, and dropped him in different settings and stories. We have this particular collection of characters and I think that’s what people believe makes Guilty Gear, but, taking any one of these characters and drop them in another universe or setting, that has been a fun theme of mine to chuckle to myself about.

In doing so, I think, visually, it would be very different from what you see now. Musically, if I were to be developing this, I don’t think there would be many changes.

Ok, these last two questions are a round robin for each of you. First, what is your favorite non-ArcSys fighting game?

DI: Street Fighter: 3rd Strike. I played Q.

TM: Vampire Hunter. When I was a student, it was the game I played the most. I remember using the low-tier characters, that was my thing. Donovan.

Alright, last question. Many of our readers are anime fans, so can you share your favorite anime or manga?

DI: In terms of where I draw inspiration I’d have to say it leans more toward movies and other aspects of pop culture, but if we’re specifically looking at favorite anime, I would have to say Planetes is one of my favorites, but it doesn’t have much to bring to the table when it comes to Guilty Gear.

TM: Giant Robo would be my favorite anime. In terms of manga, I think Parasyte really is a very complete form of manga. The story is very well constructed. As a creator and as a way I thinking I can really resonate with Comic Master J. It’s a very dark manga, but I can really feel for the characters in it.

DI: That’s the same artist as Ninja Slayer.

Minoru Kidooka: Magical Girl Sally and Giant Killers… Come to think of it, Sally had the same creator as Giant Robo.

Oh, really?

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Thus concluded my time with the big three at ArcSys and I left the interview with a new respect for the company as a creative force and each of the interviewees for their excellent taste in anime. BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle is slated for release only a month before it will be featured on the main stage at EVO 2018, but the words of its creators make it seem like it will be an inevitable hit.

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Peter Fobian is Features and Reviews Editor for Crunchyroll, author of Monthly Mangaka Spotlight, writer for Anime Academy, and contributor at Anime Feminist. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com