#i really enjoyed all the attention to detail in the progression of game sprites and UI... and the art is so good...

[evercelle]

( just follow the script. )

[gosatsuvns]

Weekly Update Compilation

Just realized that I kinda neglected the weekly updates here on Tumblr (sorry about that!), so I'll compile the last few right here:

Weekly Update #328: CG & BGM Progress

This past week, I've focused on drawing the "dead body" CG for GENBA no Kizuna, which is quite an undertaking to say the least. I've made a lot of progress on it, but there's still some work left to be done. It took me quite a while to figure out the exact perspective and angle. Thankfully, being married has its perks, so I got Kuna to take a bunch of reference pictures of me while I was lying on the floor, pretending to be dead, haha. That definitely helped tremendously.

Still, the details are going to give me another headache for sure. We're talking about a guy who got eaten by a T-Rex after all, so there's a lot going on in terms of, well... damage.

Anyway, every now and then, I've also continued working on the outline for Withering Without Hope. And speaking of which, I have just released a new Patreon post, delving into the topic of how Broken Beyond Despair sets up and dictates the direction for its sequel.

If you're curious about the changes I felt were necessary in our recent anniversary update, be sure to check it out!

Next week, I'm planning to make another post talking about the time in between BBD and WWH and what exactly happens there. There is quite a gap between October 30 and December 23 after all...

Now, in other news, I've been working with Solo, our composer, on a new BGM track for GENBA. I've already received a first preview of it and it sounds amazing! Can't wait to hear the full version and share it. This time, we're tackling another investigation theme, specifically for the segments you will play as Rei.

That kinda wraps up this week's progress report. I'll get back to working on that CG now, so please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, until next Saturday, take care! :3

Weekly Update #327: BGs, CGs, Sprites & WWH

After a bit more BG work, I have finally finished a variation for the 1st Floor Main Hall and one for the 2nd Floor Main Hall. That now only leaves one more variation of the 1st floor and all the necessary BGs for the first three chapters of GENBA are done! Hopefully, I can get to that soon, but first of all, I've decided to tackle the "dead body" CG instead, as it is kinda tied to that BG.

Basically, after recovering the body from the Rex jaws, it will be spread out in the main hall and you will be able to catch a glimpse of it on the missing variation of the 1st floor background. At least that's the plan, but I think drawing the CG first will better help me understand what exactly and how much needs to be visible on said BG.

The CG is kind of intimidating to think about, as it is going to be the most difficult to draw by far. As a result, I've been pushing it off for a while now, but I figured, if I get it out of the way now, that'll be a big relief, haha. I've actually started working on it a while ago, doing some initial sketches. You will see almost the entire body lying on the floor. It's going to be an interactive CG too, meaning that players will be able to click all over the body in order to examine it. As you can imagine, it's going to be a very crucial asset towards solving the mystery death at the Kaseki residence, so it will require a lot of attention to detail.

My goal is to finish it by the end of the month, so I have just about a week left, which will hopefully be enough!

Outside of finishing those BG variations and getting back into the body CG, I've been working on some more sprite variations for Keiichi and Amber. Unfortunately, I kinda suffered a setback of sorts by accidentally deleting one of Amber's new sprites "orz Thankfully, I still had the low quality preview I posted on Patreon, so I was able to restore it, even if that was kind of an annoying and rather frustrating occurrence...

I have to doublecheck with the script, but this might be it in terms of sprites for the first chapter, too. In the end, Keiichi only got one new one, depicting him with a somewhat worried expression:

Now, one other thing I've been working on is Withering Without Hope. With the Christmas season drawing near, I'm really getting into the mood for it, so I've been working on the outline for the first chapter. I'd like to continue working on this on the side and hopefully finish at least the entire first chapter outline before the end of the year. The goal here is to have the full script for the game done by the time GENBA will be released.

If you're a patron, you should keep your eyes open, as I'm also going to share some behind-the-scenes info for WWH soon! Been wanting to do that for a while now and just haven't gotten around to it...

Anyway, guess that about wraps it up for today so, please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, until next Saturday, take care! :3

Weekly Update #326: GENBA Background Progress

Alright, after a bit more work, I have finally finished the background for the second floor of the main hall and, along with it, adjusted the other two main hall BGs. If you want to learn more about my struggles with these, be sure to check out last week's blog post where I talk a little about visual consistency. I've also made a post on my private Twitter, showcasing the differences between the old and the new version of the first floor main hall. As for the second floor, here's another preview for that one as well:

Now, what's left are the variations of these two BGs, which I've also worked on. One variation for each of them is almost done as well, just missing one last detail which I'll take care of tomorrow. That will leave only one more variation for the first floor background, which will display a couple more pieces of evidence. As mentioned last week, once these are done, we're gonna be good on backgrounds for a while. That's because the second chapter will not need any new BGs, as no new locations inside the residence will be visited. As for chapter 3, the mid-point case discussion... that one will take place entirely in the exhibition room featured at the end of our demo. So no new BGs for that one either!

Well, I did mention before that I'm playing with the idea of making one more simple BG for said exhibition room. Since the cast will spent quite a while there, discussing the mysteries (think of the dining hall in SHINRAI), it would probably be nice to get some visual variety. However, as I don't deem this to be an "essential background", it's a bit lower on my priority list. For now, I just want to focus on the assets that are absolutely necessary to tell the story. And when we talk about "essential" backgrounds, there are actually only four left now: the wash room, the back corridor, the backyard and one of the suspect rooms.

Before I get to any of those, I'm still aiming to finish all the assets for the first chapter, though. Which (BG variations aside) now only leaves a couple of sprite variations and two CGs. One of those is going to be very elaborate, though, so it will probably take me a while to get it done. I'll most likely work on it next month and, for the rest of November, take care of the sprites and script revisions.

Anyway, that about sums up the current progress. Time to get back to work, so please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, until next Saturday, take care! :3

[vexredain]

Vex’s Brief Guide to Baldesion Arsenal :: Part 1 - Twin Spears & Raiden

“’E’s ‘ind me, ain’t ‘e?”

Now that I’ve had some time to get some clears done, I can finally write a guide! I’m not sure that I’ll be able to get to Ozma (though I hope I can and I’ll give it a good try!) but if I don’t, this will likely be my last guide. So thank you all for sticking with my until now if that’s the case! I’m sure I’ll have a lot of other bits of content to write guides for come Shadowbringers, so this definitely isn’t the end!

For those who may not have heard of Baldesion Arsenal, it is a piece of High-End content that is connected to, and accessed through, Eureka Hydatos. There are four bosses in total. Furthermore, unlike nearly every other piece of content in the game, raise is very limited in BA, with only three sources of raise possible - Sacrifice L, Spirit of the Remembered, Healer Limit Break 3. 

I’ve really enjoyed BA so far, it plays like an old school MMO raid, which means that it requires a lot of people, a lot of patience, and a lot of careful planning and strategy!

This guide will cover:

Runs and Organisation

Path to Twin Spears

Twin Spears

Path to Raiden

Raiden

Chests

Roles

Logos Actions

Best of luck to all you Warriors of Light whom venture into the final part of the Forbidden Land, the Baldesion Arsenal! As always, the rest will be under the cut.

1. Runs and Organisation

So, you’ve completed Eureka, and now you’re looking to do Baldesion Arsenal for the promise of that sick Ozma mount, as well as either your augmented Eureka weapon, +2 armour, or Kirin’s Osode/Vermillion Cloak. The vast majority of BA runs are organised via discord and this is the best way to assure yourself a spot in a run, rather than entering an instance beforehand and entering a portal as a pug (which may have its own problems depending on whether or not the instance has another pre-made BA group in it). You can find the discord link for the Aether Baldesion Arsenal Discord >here< and be sure to assign yourself the correct roles so that you’re available to be pinged whenever there’s a group going. 

So how exactly are these runs organised? 56 people are required for a ‘full’ run of BA, though there are only 48 portals that spawn on the killing of Ovni. This is because the last group, named the Support Group must stay outside to rally the rest of the instance to kill the ELvl 60 NM FATE “The Baldesion Arsenal: Expedition Support”. Most fragment groups aim to kill Twin Spears, then Raiden, and then clear the trash up to AV as there are three chests past Raiden and before AV. As such fragment runs will always be under 48 people, progression runs will require the full amount. 

Group leaders are usually whoever wants to step up and get the group together, and will sit in the Group Leaders channel in the chosen Arsenal Group folder (the Aether BA discord has between 1 - 9). These groups will be formed within the Party Finder and given passwords, detailed in the relevant LFG channel for the run. Each group will be associated with a different element, with the tank of each group usually sticking to the element of their party barring extenuating circumstances. As such the groups are further divided depending on what side, and therefore which Twin Spear, that they are on. These are East Side (Fire, Lightning, Ice) and West Side (Earth, Wind, Water).  From there, the group leaders will ready check, enter the instance (usually at the same time in order to try to spawn a fresh and continuing to do so until all groups are in the same instance), and organise their parties until BA is entered. You will be asked to choose a portal, a map of these is below, along side which portals belong to which group! Worry not if you do not have a stabiliser, you can wait 5 Earth Time Minutes and all portals will turn red and are able to be entered.

Once the groups are in BA, you will have to go to your relevant side. DO NOT JUMP DOWN OFF OF THE PLATFORM YET! Jumping off will render you unable to return to the Logos Manipulator, Magia Spinner, and if you’re on the wrong side, you’ll be stuck there. The West Side is always the same as the Logos Manipulator, and the East Side is always the same as the Magia Melder. Pay attention to which side your group is on, and follow them down. 

2. Path to Twin Spears

You’re now ready to begin the real fight! This will be a Demon Wall. It doesn’t do anything in particular other than serve as a wall that you have to hit. 

Further ahead, you’ll see Arsenal Magus mammets, and an Arsenal Poroggo. The Magi will do an AoE (Deadly), and should be pulled slowly. If you’re a tank, pull at range and do not attempt a big pull, this can get party members killed early. The Poroggo is your true challenge, its Toy Hammer ability must be interrupted, else it chunk your tank a hefty 80%-ish of their health pool. 

Up the top of the stairs will be two Arsenal Byblos, these guys do a tail-based AoE so do not stay behind them at any time (Remember all enemies here have no directionals), and do not stay in front of them either as they will cast Magic Hammer which will kill you. This can be interrupted. 

You’ve cleared the trash, bringing us to the first boss! It is hear that in discord your group will likely merge with another in a different channel, separated by what side you are on, this is to better communicate and perform call-outs. 

3. Twin Spears

These boys will be your first challenge upon reaching the Arsenal. There are two different bosses here with very different, yet also similar, mechanics. 

Art is the West boss, whilst Owain is the East boss. I don’t want to detail mechanics here, as the best place to find them is in the BA guide written by Kalina Skysong of Leviathan world, which can be found >here<!

After the twins are killed, they must die at the same time, you will be able to move ahead further into the Arsenal!

4. Path to Raiden

The first thing you will likely hear in Discord is people saying “Don’t go any further! Wait!!” this is because yes, the way ahead is particularly dangerous. There are traps that lay unseen and will instantly kill those who step on them. Unlike similar mechanics in HoH and PotD, these are massive. 

Yes, these things are pretty damn dangerous. Luckily, they can be detected from a range of 15 yalms by the Logos Action Perception L. This will let you know a trap is nearby from a range of 30 yalms. Please note that once the trap is discovered it is not disarmed! It will still kill you. There is 1 trap on the way up to the room before Raiden, and in this antechamber there are 4 traps, in a rough square shape around the room 2 on the East side, and 2 on the West side. 

There’s a few trash mobs that are quite dangerous on the way up to Raiden. These are:

Arsenal Magus. Avoid AoE. 

Arsenal Sprite. This mob will patrol up and down the hallways. It will cast Banish III, this MUST be interrupted as it will immediately banish a party member from the instance. 

Arsenal Calcabrina. This terrifying doll must be tanked facing away from the raid, all DPS and Healers must stand behind it as its gaze AoE will kill people who are not tanks. 

Arsenal Geshunpest. This guy doesn’t do all that much but float around and patrol down the corridors. 

Arsenal Centaurs. These guys are mean, they will cast Rear, which must be avoided by melee DPS in particular. Their other cast is Beserk and this must be Slept, lest the tank get 2 shot by the damage up buff it receives on successful cast.  

Now you’ve fought through all that! It’s time for Raiden. 

5. Raiden

Raiden is the second boss of BA, and one of the more technically difficult ones. The best thing to do is follow your raid’s callouts, and make sure that you know the markers’ locations around the room. Raiden himself has mechanics from Hashmal (Half the room is hit with an AoE depending on which side his weapon is glowing on), Ifrit (Nails will spawn and must be killed to avoid a raid wipe), and Odin. 

Again, I don’t want to detail mechanics too much here. Please check out Kalina Skysong of Leviathan server’s guide >here<!

If you die on Raiden, it’s okay. It happens to the best of us. You can watch me die to Raiden twice >here< if you want! If you have died, and you’re a healer, it’s likely that someone will risk raising you through a Sacrifice L. This can also happen if you’re a DPS or Tank too, it depends on the party and how many healers still have a Spirit of the Remembered up. If YOU are a Healer, remember to take your chest first before you attempt a gamble on a raise!

6. Chests

Following Raiden, there’s still more! There are 3 chests in the following areas that must be found, these will give 1 Eureka Fragment each, along with either 5 Obscure Logograms, a token for one of the FFXI chestpieces, or a mix. 

As with before, wait for the person with Perception to go first. Ahead there will be some new trash mobs that have some nasty surprises for you! These are:

Arsenal Scribes. Interrupt Condensed Libra.

Arsenal Bibliotheque. This refrigerator will either cast a donut AoE or a circle AoE centered around him. Avoid this as it can and will kill you in one hit. Try not to be on the stairs as this can affect how visible his markers are. 

Aresenal Eye. This will do a cone AoE, avoid it. 

Arsenal Calcabrina. The same gaze attack as before, must be pointed away from the raid. 

Keep checking for traps as you go up the stairs. Now, you’ll be on a corridor with many rooms ahead, with AV staring you down from the back. The purposes of these rooms is to find a portal that will take you to the third and last chest. The second chest is also found in one of these rooms, each aligned with a specific element, so let the tank aligned with that element pull that room. 

 In a frag run, take these slowly, pull what you can, and kill it. Do not run into the rooms without the Perception L carrier having scoped out the room first. The portal is also invisible and must be found through the use of Perception L. 

Yes, these portals can be placed VERY precariously. Once this portal is found, enter it, and you’ll be at the last chest. Take it, and prosper! Usually at this point, the raid will return back to base in Eureka Hydatos. Your run is now complete! 

6. Roles 

Minesweepers are what I like to call the carriers of Perception L. This is one of the most important roles in the instance and must be done carefully. You basically just spam Perception L to first find if you are close to a trap, and then spam it some more to locate it once you are near. WALK SLOWLY and be careful. 

Tanks. You must be elementally aligned with one specific element. This will not change unless you are down a tank, or there are mobs ahead that are not aligned with the tanks on your side at the beginning of the instance. 

7. Logos Actions

For a first time run, I would recommend Spirit of the Remembered and Wisdom of the Platebearer. This gives you enough survivability that you may survive some of the AoEs in the instance. Spirit of the Remembered will give you a 70% chance of rez on death, that’s pretty great! Refresh L is also nice for the DPS who may be often switching their magia board and losing aether. Spirit of the Remembered should always be available and you should have many of them in storage. If you can’t make them using the singular Mneme, remember they are also made through Wisdom of the Platebearer, Wisdom of the Martialist, Wisdom of the Aetherweaver being placed within the Logos Manipulator. Save your singular Mneme for when you want two Logos Actions ad it lowers the chance of failure. 

If you’re a healer, Shell L, Protect L are usually wanted and cast on people who will wait on the bridge at the start, and the stairs before Raiden. Sacrifice L MUST be paired with Spirit of the Remembered, after cast you will get doom. This CANNOT be Esuna’d, so you will die. If your SoR procs, great! If not, another healer will likely juggle procs with you until you are both alive. 

Tanks, Wisdom of the Indomitable is an especially good Logos Action, as is Wisdom of the Platebearer. SoR is required with both. 

With that, you’ll be good to continue farming your frags, or whatever else you came into the Arsenal for, whether its progression or gear, I hope this guide served you well! Thank you once again for reading! Credit to Kalina Skysong for her amazing guide, the creator of the Portal Map, to whom I do not know the name, and the Dataminers for the BA maps I used here! It’s been a pleasure writing all these guides, I’ve enjoyed it immensely being able to share, and run Eureka with you all. 

May you ever walk in the light of the Crystal, 

Vex

[quietdaysco]

Primrose Path - Devlog #006

Hey, it’s us again—two indie devs with fresh dirt on our visual novel progress. Ready? 

Behind the Scenes

Playtesting Feedback

Last month we closed the pre-alpha Ink build of Primrose Path’s common route outline. It met its purpose of proving the basic concepts of our game were viable and that it interested players in our target demographic. In fact, playtesters gave us overwhelmingly positive feedback in our post-test form about the characters and story. Here are a few quotes from their responses:

“The number of elements of the MC's [main character’s] life added in to the story in increments helped me not only relate to the MC but also stay interested.”

“There's a good variety of calmer moments and more outlandish/exciting/otherwise more high tension moment [sic], no issues for me.”

“[T]he clients are a rainbow of people with a few that [sic] very much stand out [to me]”

“By the end, I was definitely considering who I was going to chose as my client and was sad the pre-alpha ended even though I knew it was going to.”

“I 100% would dance [in a mini-game similar to] DDR [Dance Dance Revolution]”

As you can see, the beginnings of Primrose Path went over well and players definitely had a lot of interesting things to say about our mischievous clients! We can’t spoil them here, but you may be able to see for yourself when alpha testing comes to our server in the future! 

Now, for all the good we received, it’s not to say the pre-alpha went without its criticisms:

“This might be silly, but I wish there were an option that weren't a dress for her outfit to the party.”

It’s not silly at all, playtester! It had us thinking about the different ways our protagonist, Lynn Austen, could express herself. This concern lead to one outfit redesign and introduced a number of new ones!

“The beginning was a little slow, but I love Priya, so all of her scenes brought my attention back instantly.”

We love co-worker and bestie, Priya, too, but she can’t be an exception for pacing. We’ve since reevaluated and tweaked Part 1: Work Day. Plenty of visual changes and cutting scenes entirely were discussed in order to tighten up the overall pacing.

“Harper seems harsh but has pressure on her to make her harsh, but then you see her and shes [sic] just straight up scary.”

While all playtesters understood Harper’s role as Lynn’s no-slack boss, a few found her consequentially unapproachable. We have a lot in store for her in later routes, but acknowledge she was sparse during the common route. We’ve since taken this concern and made her more available in new scenes, adjusted her tone in some of the older ones, and had other characters—who have a very different relationship with her than Lynn does—reflect more openly on her. We think this humanizes Harper much more.

“Unfortunately [Bellarmino] feels like a snobbier, more irritating Matt. [...] I personally don't find him very likable but I'm looking forward to being proven wrong.”

In our feedback form, we asked about character impressions. We also polled if players didn’t have to play all routes at least once, which clients they’d pick. While character impression responses expressed a willingness to give our model and fashion designer, Bellarmino LaFauci, a chance, he was our least popular choice in the poll. We figured it may have been that his personality wasn’t differentiated enough against the company with whom Lynn encounters him, so we’ve made adjustments to contrast him more against his judgmental cabal.

So as we went through and addressed feedback, we had some ideas of our own to implement, which leads us to...

Updated Revised Outline

Double the wordcount! Yep, we’re just shy of 32,000 words for the revised common route outline. How could this be? Look: don’t mistake Primrose Path for a linear narrative. Your choices affect the world from day one.

Beyond changes from playtester feedback, other new content includes:

New Characters! We work to make sure our side characters leave an impression. We’ve added a few more with the means to salvage or devastate Lynn’s career. Until you yourself can meet them, look out for future Lore snippets on our Twitter!

New Events! Lynn has more opportunities than before, and under different states of mind, to navigate and impact the world around her. Depending on what Lynn did, where, and when can completely change an encounter within that same space and time. 

New Key Items! There are a couple of items Lynn can collect if she meets the right people and takes certain actions. These items can reveal some important information in client routes later on—and some hints for others, too!

New Areas! A few more places have been added to the common route, including whole new scenes. What could possibly lie behind these doors?

So how’s that sound? If you said “Damn, that’s hella rad,” well you just took the words right out of our mouths. But we’re not done yet; we take feedback seriously. When we can’t decide on what our audience may want, we leave no room for speculation. There’s really only one way to settle that.

VN Protagonist Sprite Survey 

We run a survey! We wanted to know how visual novel fans preferred to see a customizable MC represented as a sprite, if at all. It’s tough for us because as much as we want to make Lynn as visually present as her sense of self, we also acknowledge that “immersion” for many players also means different levels of “intrusion” from MC’s sprite—down to none at all, for folks wanting to self-insert despite taking on another character’s existing backstory. While we think we’ve come to a happy medium that serves our purposes and would appeal to a good number of players, we’ll be sharing with you all in a separate post our findings.

Two things are for certain: 

Visual novel players are an incredibly dedicated base, having turned out over 100 responses to our form! Thank you so much for helping us see your side on the matter! 

The communities we frequent overwhelmingly take issue with one specific manner of MC representation—one that seems to plague the industry. If you’re not an avid consumer of visual novels, this begrudged answer may surprise you!

But hey, we haven’t closed it yet: you can contribute your opinion too until August 5th, 11:59 PM EDT. Stay tuned for our detailed write-up on the results, next time. We’ve got another survey in the works too (sounds like we’ve got a few hard decisions, huh?) so keep tabs on our Twitter when we release that form.

Greyson’s Twitter 

Greyson’s been taking a break from Twitter for a minute. Working Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday overheated him, and in that vulnerable time, he caught a virus! So now he’s on sick leave and we’ve promised him an easier schedule of one day a week when he gets better. His posting schedule will be announced soon. You can still send him some love on his Twitter account. He’ll be sure to respond when he’s feeling up to it. He’s always there for you. Will you return the favor?

Main Game Progress

Common Route:

Rough Outline: 100%  ✔

Revised Outline: 100%  ✔

Draft Script: --%

The Artist: Matthias Barousse

Rough Outline: 100%  ✔

Revised Outline: --%

Progress on the main game has primarily been on the common route outline. Some interesting things to note are that last time we reported our revision to be at 90%. After implementing feedback, our clean outline doubled in word count and we’ve reviewed it entirely since then. So now we’re thoroughly at 100%! 

The breakdown of that is:

We finished up the common route’s Part 3: The Interviews, in which Lynn meets all her clients whom she may or may not have stumbled upon at a legendary bash. 

We elaborated on Part 2: The Party encounters and added more variations which subsequently trickle over into alternate interactions in The Interviews. 

We added an interactive, portent dream sequence the night of The Interviews, right when Lynn hits the bed after evaluating all potential clients at work. 

... and a few other additions. Also among other things, we’ve actually started work on the draft script already, but we’ve not had time to properly calculate the percentage. It’ll be updated accordingly in our next log.

What’s Next For Us

We’re going to finish up our script draft and start focusing our efforts into creating a playable, visual alpha build of Primrose Path. Yes, we want to play our game as much as you do and that’s motivation enough!

We’re focusing on monthly devlogs for our Tumblr, but we have to ask:

Are there other kinds of content and updates you folks would like to see here? We want to know! Shoot us a message in our Ask the Devs inbox here on Tumblr, or hit us up on Twitter, Discord, and Lemma Soft!

Thanks for reading! Keep up and remember to enjoy your Quiet Days. ♥

Socials

- Micro-updates on Twitter!

  ♦ Factoids with Greyson!

- Live art development on Twitch!

- Art logging on Instagram!

- Ask us anything here!

- Continue the discussion on Discord!

- Master thread on Lemma Soft!

[spacesave-game]

Version 1.4 News & other boring stuff

Good whichever-time-of-a-day-it-is! Here’s some irregularly scheduled piece of SpaceSave-related news and some things around it, which affect the development of a new version. It’s been nearly 7 months since the upload of the latest version and around 4 months since last post, so I guess it’s a good time to drop some info. Before we go into specifics, let’s delve into the state of my development process this year.  It’s been a long time, so the post is going to be long as well! I’m sorry...

TL DR(I don’t blame you...): SpaceSave version 1.4 is in development and will release later this year. Also – I’m making a new game.

AlSO, A WARNING – TODAY’S SCREENSHOTS CONTAIN DEPICTIONS OF BLOOD. SO, IF YOU DON’T LIKE THICK TOMATO JUICE – BE WARNED.(I made tags, but I’m writing it here, just to be sure)

These last months has been pretty busy for me, in both personal life and game development. I haven’t been working on SpaceSave’s new version at all, right until three weeks ago or so. As I’ve noted in my last post – version 1.3 turned up to be very time consuming for me, so much so that I had to put my new, main project on hold(I still worked on it from time to time, but the progress was minimal) , just so I could finish the update in a timely manner. I eventually did release version 1.3 on time for my self-imposed deadline and the game was upgraded quite considerably, but it left me burned out in the process and with a small feeling of guilt, caused by ignoring my new project. Thus, after uploading the current version, in December, I’ve decided to take a break from SpaceSave and focus on that new project instead(development of which had a pretty major problem of its own, but we’ll talk about it later ). And this is basically what I was doing since last version’s release. Thankfully, that break was pretty rejuvenating – I’ve came back to SpaceSave, ended up enjoying working on it again and are making progress at a nice pace.

Okay, the boring stuff’s over. Below will be an actual info about new version of SpaceSave and... a new project? Well, that turned out unexpected.

SpaceSave v.1.4

As explained in my latest post about the same issue – this update will be much more humble than the last one, focused mostly on bug fixes, since I want to thoroughly test the whole game again. That being said – there will be some snippets of new content. To not reveal too much right now – one new, shorter questline is planned and I’ve already mapped it out, although I still have to create new(well, mostly recycled, but you get the point) assets for that and actually implement it in the game. As for the new stuff that’s already been added(may contain spoilers):

-          New... character?:

-          Also, now there are two types of soldiers, instead of one(there are also more sprite variations for them as well) on Day 4:

  Now, the urban(that’s grey, for normal people) camo is the same type of soldiers that were in the base game with the same skills. The green(I call it “forest”) variant however uses incendiary grenades, which can put your entire party on fire. It’s a small change but should add some variety.

-          New Items:

First, there is a new special item that you can get from hidden vendors(what, you didn’t know there were hidden vendors in the game? Well, now you know)

Heretical Book – (Description from the game)

Written in fake blood for better effect!

Use these dark secrets to fully revive an ally!

Since there is a new type of soldier, there is also a new type of grenade:

Incendiary Grenade– (Description from the game)

A real thing. Less damaging than a normal one,

but can put all enemies on fire.

The regular grenade also received a small boost in damage, since it was a little too weak in the base game, especially when you remember that it was supposed to be... well... a grenade.

There is a number of other things that I’ve already added, fixes and tweaks, but I’m going to skip them for this post and leave ‘em for an actual announcement, which is still quite a way ahead. I’m going to do a proper post about it, with a release date, as always – at least two weeks before uploading a new version. For now, the progress is going pretty alright, but I still focus more attention on my new project. The plan is, that I’m going to work on SpaceSave as much as I can, but when I’ll notice that version 1.4 will start to eat up into my main project - I’ll wrap the update up, finish things that I’ve already started to work on and release it. Another alternative is that I’ll manage to do all the work I’ve planned to do for this update(I keep a handy list for stuff like that) and if I keep my current pace – it’s pretty likely going to happen.

To summarize – I guess you can expect a new version, at best, in the early autumn. At worst – somewhere later, but it will certainly be this year.

New Project(!):

Yeah, I’ve been talking about it for quite a while, even in this post. I’m making a new game! It’s been in development since late December 2017, two weeks or so after the release of the first version of SpaceSave, although I’d say that I seriously started working on it after version 1.3, since I’ve finally got time to do so. Before that, I was mostly making assets for it.

In the February of this year, I’ve finally got enough assets to start working on a prototype, since this is a quite a different game from SpaceSave, more complex gameplay-wise. Naturally, I’ve wanted to test out how these mechanics work and how the whole game feels to play. Good ideas on paper don’t always result in an enjoyable game. There was also another thing I’ve wanted to check – the engine. For this project, I’ve decided to use the latest RPG Maker MV and there were two reasons for that:

-          Bigger sprite sizes and with these – more detailed sprites – which was the main reason

And obviously...

-          I owned it for some time already and wanted to justify the purchase

However, you’re probably pretty well aware about MV’s reputation as an engine that is pretty unstable. By creating a prototype I wanted to see if that’s true, before I started working on it proper.  And, oh boy, MV didn’t waste any time proving all the bad rumours about it right, for me. I may have sucked at working with it, but when I did – the engine was slow, menus were janky, graphical glitches were everywhere, more complicated events broke almost every time(sometimes they actually worked, but broke later after no changes whatsoever) – hell, sometimes, after the software update, the entire game could break and I had to update project’s files manually.

In short, it was a mess.  It was already March at that point in time and while the progress on the prototype itself was going swell, constant problems in the events for crucial parts of the game were infuriating. Finally, I’ve decided that if I want this project to survive – I need to start over and make it again in VX Ace. I have already made a lot of assets at this point(we’re talking around 86 spritesheets here and that’s only for characters and overworld animations, not counting stuff like tilesets here) and while battlers and animations could be reused no problem – all the sprites made by MV’s standards and most pictures made for MV resolution had to be redrawn. It was a hard decision to make, since it would take a very long time, but I’ve decided to go for it. The only possible alternatives were either keep making it on MV and risk creating an inferior game(at best) or to scrap it altogether. I really like this project and want to see it to the very end, like SpaceSave, so I didn’t want it to just die in such an anticlimactic way. So, for the rest of the March and the entirety of April – I’ve managed to painstakingly remake every single graphical asset that needed it, to fit VX Ace’s standards. T he operation was a success and I’ve finally been able to continue my work! But before that, there was still one thing to do.

When I was busy remaking assets, the prototype for MV was obviously put on hold. However, after I’ve finished working on the asset problem, I’ve decided to complete that version. It was already half-done anyway, so sure, why not - I could still use it to test out the game mechanics, even if some of them will probably be borderline broken. I’ve spent the entire May working on it and finally – on the very first day of June – it was sent to a few carefully selected victims individuals.

The prototype in its barely working state, to my relief, turned out pretty fine. All the mechanics are there, giving me a good blueprint to use in an actual version and its fairly enjoyable. The people I’ve sent it to were pretty positive about it as well. So, everything turned out fine in the end! Now... I just need to actually make the darn game, oh boy...

Anyway, as a reward for you for reading this boring wall of text – here are some screenshots from the described prototype! Please keep in mind, that the screenshots you’ll see below are from a version that will, well, never be released and the actual game will look different, although it will be similar in style and gameplay. That being said – it should give you a general idea about what I’m going for with this game, but remember that it’s VERY WiP. It is also not an announcement(we’re, at the very least, one year before that), that’s why I’m not going to give you any dates, descriptions or concrete information. Sorry, you’ll need to wait some more for that!

Anyway, here are the screenshots. Enjoy(I hope)!

Picture of a robot in that particular screenshot was made by my friend Pequod, who helps me out in art-related matters

BTW. That name of this project is not real and a joke made just for these screenshots. Please don’t ask about the meaning - it’s really bad. Seriously.

Okay, that’s all from me! This post’s length is nearly criminal... Thank you very much for keeping up with SpaceSave! See you all next time, when I’ll, probably, announce version 1.4 in a proper way!

If you want to download the latest version of SpaceSave(1.3), then use this link:

DOWNLOAD HERE FROM A MIRROR OF YOUR CHOOSING

[aigoootome]

Good mobile games: Dr.Jekyll & Mr.Hyde (freemium)

I found and completed a very fun game today. 

Google Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Gseeds.JekyllAndHyde&hl=en

A retelling of a classic novel, the game does a very good job of conveying the story about the duality of human nature in a fun, interactive way.  The story of a scientist who separates his good self from bad self with tragic consequences highlghting the dual nature of humans is given to the player to piece together and discover. I really like the idea of transferring literary classics to games to introduce them in an interactive way,  provided that it’s done well. This one, for me, does a good, stylish job of it in keeping with the right mood  and it’s very nice to play through.  

FEATURES

 Genre: Story Adventure Game

You play as Utterson and you walk an investigate mysterious things that start happening around his friend, Jekyll. There are also  extra cases, in which perspective of other characters , including Hyde, Jekyll are assumed- those are purchasable.  There are a lot of things and characters to interact with, there are also a few timed, but easy, mini-games, for instance safe opening (but you need to find the code for it in the setting, you need to do it three times total), or letter reading in which before the text of a letter appears, you first need to unlock certain words: 

If you make a mistake and miss the bracket,  Utterson will simply says “must be my eyes” and restart. 

After that, the letter appears. 

There are also ingredient mixing and some other timed tapping minigames at certain points, but they aren’t difficult.  

You don’t really need a walkthrough for this, you just really need to interact with everything and anyone and pay attention.  You might only need  some help with finding the codes for safes, but even those should be fairly easy.  

Safe in chapter 1 - hint:  The first code at the start of the game can be found in a book. The protagonist’s name is Gabriel, the code will be very easy to find once you know this. I forgot the two other places where the code is needed / ‘lll edit and add them here later if I find them. 

There is also an in-game hint system, called, very nicely, Tea Time. It requires coins you can purchase, though. 

The story unfolds over 5 main chapters, during which you can interact and experience the story, and you get unlockable purchaseable extra cases.

You can buy each individually, not buy at all, or buy them as a package, as I did  .Again, since I bought everything once to have it all, I can;t be sure, but it;s probaby like you can play all main cases for free, whereas extra are unlockable / purchasable and you can get them all in one go or buy one buy one as you get the coins. but it really imho it pays off to get all content in one go, in a set, especially with a huge discount offered.

The unlockable extras add new perspectives (of other characters) to the story and are fun to have t have a complete view of the game. I really liked how the perspective of other characters - whom we could control in those parts- were written into this, it was really nice..

 After seeing the ending, you can go back to any case / moment in the story. They are gathered on a timeline for convenience

The maps are lovely and there are several locations that unlock as the story unfolds. You start with one location, it expands later. You travel between the locations to investigate the story. 

The location and room maps are colourful and pleasing to the eye. The character sprites are unique and interesting. 

As story progresses, we gather more information aboutstory and characters. The information is neatly organized . Date Files consists of: Case files that keep a log of collected clues, 

 Profile is what we gradually learn about all main characters and London files are cultural tidbits you also need for achievements. Very nice. 

And london files are the cultural tidbits collected for achievements. 

There is also a Review menu.  Review  includes backlog pf past conversations and “experiment’; scenes that deal with the experiment and the theory behind it. 

Achievements 

The achievements are, very interestingly, collected into thematic blocks - you need to gather data files about the setting of the story by interacting with everything and everyone in the maps. Some of these data files are only available in the extra  POV scenarios. They give interesting little insights into 19th century Great Britain - again, I applaus such features, especially when theyare factual.  When you  gather a given number of thematic data files, you complete an achivement. Completing all achivements unloccks a special image. 

Also, if after completing the game once you still don’t get some achievements, you can easily go back. The game even tells you where to find it. 

Great artwork 

You can unlock very interesting looking images  throughout reading and, on completing achivements, you also get a special image. The art style is very interesting. 

The transitions between loading scenes are also nice to look at since they use the lovely backgrounds from the game

I really enjoyed this game, it’s very well made, all toether a riveting ecxperience,  and I look forward to more games like this from this particular dev, because I really like their style and art. 

It took me a few hours to complete everything, and it kind of was CPU heavy for my older android 4.4 device, meaning it did sometimes freeze and suspend. when it did, And on restarting, i sometimes had to retreat a few steps..the auto-save could be tweaked for this. In order to avoid it, before it freeze-suspended, I tried to exit to menu, it saves where you are then. 

[rpgmgames]

July’s Featured Game: SLARPG

DEVELOPER(S): Bobby "ponett" Schroeder ENGINE: RPGMaker VX Ace  GENRE: RPG, Fantasy SUMMARY: SLARPG is a short, turn-based RPG following the story of Melody Amaranth, a kindhearted but meek transgender fox who’s decided to learn healing magic and become a paladin. She’s joined by her adventurous girlfriend Allison, as well as their friends Claire (a sarcastic, rule-bending witch)(she is also trans) and Jodie (a dependable, somewhat motherly knight). Over the course of the story, our inexperienced heroes will meddle with forces beyond their control and find themselves responsible for the fate of their quaint little hometown. They’ll also fight some spherical frogs, travel to a forgotten land in the sky, befriend a robot or two, and anger the local librarian. But that should go without saying. 

Introduce yourself!  Hi! My name's Bobby "ponett" Schroeder. I have a background mainly in visual art and writing, and I've been working in RPG Maker VX Ace since 2013 after being inspired to try making my own game by Splendidland's masterpiece Megaman Sprite Game. I'd always wanted to go into game development, but this was the first time it felt like it was actually feasible for me to make something fun on my own. By the end of that year I released a much rougher freeware version of SLARPG, originally known as Super Lesbian Horse RPG.

I do most of the work myself, but I have several people helping me with some NPC and enemy design work including my boyfriend Anthony Field (@exclamationpointman on Tumblr) and my friends Thomas Landon (@schloogywoog), Gee (@fattoads), and Thom (@sidewalkwitch). My lead composer is the incredibly talented BEATR!X @neutralnewt) with more music contributed by other friends such as internet pop icon blacksquares (@blacksquares).

What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Bobby: Super Lesbian Animal RPG is primarily about a timid transgender fox named Melody. At age 22 she's sort of coasting along on autopilot with no clear idea of what she wants to do with her life. One day, she and her girlfriend Allison get roped into a new adventuring guild founded by their friends Claire and Jodie. Melody sees this as an opportunity to impress Allison and to make herself useful by becoming a paladin and learning healing magic.

At its heart, the game is about the relationships between four girls in their early 20s. They're all trying to define themselves as people, they all have their own personal baggage, and they all have their own motives for seeing this dinky little adventurer's guild as a life-changing opportunity. And now, thanks to the trouble they get themselves into, they also have to figure out how to be heroes. It's also a game where you can have an anthropomorphic rabbit with a mohawk kiss her girlfriend and then swing a sword made of zircon at a magic tumbleweed

As I said, the game was originally released in a much rougher form under the title Super Lesbian Horse RPG. It started out as a cute, goofy little game where Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic were dating (of course) and went on a bizarre adventure, but it soon turned into a genuine RPG with a more sincere story. It also got much, much more attention than I ever expected. My use of copyrighted characters made the game difficult to distribute, though, and in hindsight I was holding myself back by presenting it as a fangame. So in 2015, I decided to radically overhaul and flesh out the game with a new, expanded cast that I have full creative control over. And now here we are today, with a game that's probably got more new material in it than old, but still hopefully has the same charm if you enjoyed the original.

How long have you been working on your project? *Bobby: Work on the original project lasted the entirety of 2013, with me foolishly releasing the 1.0 version on Christmas 2013 (my 20th birthday—I spent most of the day frantically squashing bugs). I returned to the project in 2015 and have been working on the new version on and off for about two years now.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Bobby: The humor is definitely inspired in part by Mother and Paper Mario, although my talkative protagonists might make it closer to something like a point-and-click adventure game. I've also always loved really casual comedy that skews towards normal conversation in stuff like Home Movies or Homestuck. Adventure Time has undoubtedly been a big influence, too, as one of my favorite shows, with its "anything goes" fantasy world and colorful cast of characters—but also because of its focus on grounded, introspective character moments in a surreal, fantastical setting

Gameplay-wise, early Final Fantasy titles are a big influence for sure, and I'm trying to take a page out of Zelda's book when it comes to exploration and level design. But tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons are also having an impact on the way I design encounters. I think tabletop games are still the gold standard for RPG battles, because they're often less about stats and repetition and doing what the designer wants you to do and more about improvising a fun story. Of course, an RPG Maker game can't compete with having an actual DM there to run an encounter, but I'm trying to give players lots of fun little "hey, what if I tried this?" moments with unexpected consequences.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them?   *Bobby: Honestly, the big thing for me is always time management. As development continues and my skills improve, I often find myself polishing areas and assets I'd already worked on before. If I didn't force myself to work on new stuff too I'd probably spend three years just polishing Greenridge to a mirror shine.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Bobby: Developing the protagonists further has really broadened my horizons writing-wise. I always wanted the game to have a nice emotional arc on top of all the jokes and surreal dungeons, but over time I've fleshed out Melody, Allison, Claire, and Jodie more and more, making everyone feel less like charicatures and more like real people with relatable motivations. The graphics have also gotten a lot better after several years of pixel art practice, and the level design has gotten less linear.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don't have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Bobby: It started out as just me. Friends on Tumblr quickly showed interest in contributing designs and music to the game just because they liked the project, and before long a lot of different people were putting their own little mark on the game. Some of my favorite characters in the game have been designed by friends, and I don't know where I'd be without the absolutely phenomenal soundtrack.

What was the best part of developing the game? *Bobby: I love designing characters, and writing in all these little details to make them feel real, and figuring out how they talk to each other, and seeing my audience pick out their favorites. It's a very rewarding process for me. The second best part is getting to listen to the soundtrack and realize "Wow... this is gonna be in a game that I'm making. And it's gonna be SICK."

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Bobby: Without a doubt, Melody. She differs from myself in a lot of major ways, so I wouldn't call her a self-insert, but she was created to give myself the relatable fat bisexual trans girl protagonist with anxiety that no other piece media was ever going to give me. A lot of her insecurities in the game are even loosely inspired by stuff I've been through in real life.

I also have a ton of fun writing the villains, but they're spoilers.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Bobby: I wish I'd been more consistent about my work ethic in the past. I worked EXTREMELY inconsistently on SLARPG throughout 2015, and I probably could've gotten a lot more done back then. But hey, live and learn.

Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore game's universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Bobby: Oh, I'm absolutely hoping to revisit this world! Part of the reason I'm putting so much effort into revamping a game I already released is so that I can work with this new cast and setting again in the future. I'm not planning too far ahead right now, but I do have some vague ideas for more games I'd like to make in this world, possibly through the eyes of characters other than Melody.

What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Bobby: I'm looking forward to being able to play some longer games in my backlog without feeling guilty about it, haha. I've been dying to play stuff like The Witcher 3, NieR: Automata, and Final Fantasy XV, but I'm always worried it'll just take time away from my work. It's a wonder I managed to finish Breath of the Wild this year.

Is there something you're afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game?  *Bobby: This answer is gonna be a bummer, but I'm worried about is the harassment I'll have to deal with for putting out a game about LGBT characters. I've already dealt with this on several occasions, although thankfully it hasn't progressed past slur-filled anonymous messages. This toxic state of the gaming community is why I'm currently planning to release the game exclusively on itch.io, rather than exposing myself to Steam's hostile userbase. But it's a story that I think is worth telling, and for every piece of hate mail I get 20 messages from people telling me how excited they are, which is why I haven't given up.

Question from last month's featured dev: Is there any portion of your development that's gotten you outside your comfort zone? *Bobby: I think it's easy to say that most of it has been outside my comfort zone, actually. Working on SLARPG has really pushed the boundaries of what I previously thought I was capable of as an artist. When I first started I literally made a dungeon that was just a straight line with one 90 degree turn because I had no idea what else to do with the canvas. Now I can make dungeons that are actually slightly fun!

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Bobby: Study the games and stories you love, and find out what really makes them tick. Don't just mimic surface level things, but study the mechanical, structural, and thematic elements that make them so memorable. Oh, and don't put too much effort into a fangame if there's even the slightest chance it'll get taken down, haha. Make something original loosely inspired by the things you love instead.

We mods would like to thank Bobby for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved! 

Remember to check out SLARPG if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum 

[greenace]

Updates for TMK and reason for the delay

( I wanted to post this earlier but I fell asleep and wake up like 3:30am )

Hi guys Sorry for all the slow progress during the past few months Here is a non spoiler (kind of?) update from my side.

-Detailed non-ending cg sketches for Julius, Seth and August are done. I kind of go overboard for Seth and most probably will cry when doing lineart and coloring , but that is for another time. -Detailed sketch of ending cg for Julius , Seth and August are also done . I kind of went overboard for most of the ending so lol

-All backer commissions are done, just need the last backer to get back to me so that I can make changes or send out the image. I have started lineart some of the cg and if everything goes well , cg progress should be smooth. I kind of cause myself to burnout recently because I rush to finish the cg sketches asap. Now I kind of think it would hurt the project on a long run therefore I need to slow down my pace a bit. Also I would like to address about my family issue as stated from the monthly update ( still affect me but not as bad as past few months) Because I feel like I own reason to all the backers who have backed on why there is a delay in progress. So here you go. My Father passed away during August.A lot of things happened and most of them were/are unpleasant. I needed some time to deal with a lots of things that sadden me but I am getting better now.

For now, I need to isolate myself from most of the social media stuff ( except Twitter since I find lots of nice drawing there) so I can concentrate on finishing all the cg.

( I don’t think you would notice but the mourning dress of Lydia Mother was last to be shown in the update, because I could not being myself to draw it , or rather it was half done , and I could not bring myself to finish it after I found out my father’s passing ) If you want to know more detail of what happen you can continue reading the keep reading section . If not I think is more than enough information for tmk. Because everything in the keep reading section is long winded , out of sequence points and lots of bad English lol

He lived in Hong Kong while I living in Singapore. He was uncontactable for at least 3 days before my relative called the police.He passed away alone at his house. He did not pass away in a hospital so the government considered his death as unnatural Due to all the things happened, (conflict and unhappy moments), his funeral was held on mid September and that why I was away for a week. I went back to my birth place Hong Kong . We were advice not to look at him one last time because the remain had already started to decompose. A lot of things happened during the funeral and to make it worst when I return to Singapore I had conflict with my mother on how to handle my Father belongings. It kind of made me really depressed. I tried not to neglect tmk development by finishing the backer commission and wallpaper so I still in touch with drawing . 

But in the end the feeling of wanting to give up everything I did was still strong .

It is a kind of depression but I think it is not really serious as I am aware of my negative emotions and try to deal with it. Then oct came and is time for inktober. :p I took the opportunity of drawing inktober to do some soul searching and along the way learning some new things . I also took some time off to see if I can be a part time game design lecturer. Well, I did get an offer but in the end I had turned down the offer. The main reason is that they are hiring me in hope to keep in touch with my boss ( he is a Lv99 ninja , unless he comes to look for you to talk about business, usually you cannot find him ,he is also a kind of influence on how I deal with a lot of business related things). 

The school wanted to send some intern to my boss company and they think it would be easier if I am involved. But no school it DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY lol . My boss don’t entertain such thing .

I absolutely don’t want to get involved of such business because dealing with my boss on this kind of issue as it is really pain in the butt. So yeah I decline the offer.

I familiarise myself with after effect , since basically it work similar to flash it is not really hard for me . The programming part of AE is more like upgraded version and more user friendly version of Action script.

Here is a small animation I did with a test Sprite I did . https://youtu.be/B5Ch9wThYBk I did not go in depth to learn more about after effect, but those I learn should be enough for vn making . Then I move on to unity , which is more like learning c# , as I have object oriented programming background so it is not very bad in learning it.

Also during the end of oct I was lucky to get involved in designing characters for another project . I really enjoyed working with her, as we both share similar visual reference library which I am pleasantly surprised. And then nov came and I kind of recover from my negativeness and start to work on tmk properly again. But I need to isolate myself from most of the social media stuff ( except Twitter since I find lots of nice drawing there) so I can concentrate on finishing all the cg. Thank you for reading till here , since my English is really bad.

One more thing would like to bring to your attention if you are still reading. 

After my father passed away I started to be more actively donating to Charity ( previously not as much ), there is one Charity that is really meaningful but unfortunately only available in US only.

It is called Kits for Kids

https://projectcure.org/programs/kits-kids

Basically they give you a list of medications to buy and a box to pack all those stuff. You need to spend the effort and money to buy them send back to the center and they will donate to places in need.

I find this really unique as usually donation just ask you to pay money but this organisation go one step in further. It takes heart and effort to make this donation happen.

So if you are in US and have some spare cashes and time with you, I hope you will consider to donate to this “kits for kids” , it helps to save young live in many different countries.

[sweatypolarbear]

EVERYBODY’S GONE TO THE RAPTURE REVIEW

Decided to sit down and write a lengthy review of one of my favourite games, read on if you’re interested.

-Robin

Hi there, thought it was time that I sat down and finally had a proper review of one of my favourite games.

EVERYBODY’S GONE TO THE RAPTURE.

 Everybody’s gone to the rapture is a fairly recent game which is made with the assistance of Cry-engine 3.

I’m going to break this review down into a few key parts and feel free to adjust your read based on the features that interest you.

Like I said, it’s one of my favourite games so expect a lot of fanboying and a general bias. I am sure to say that it’s “the best” at something. Stave off your own opinion as I use “The best” so often to describe so many things. I like the use of superlatives to emphasis my general appreciation for something, so keep this in mind when reading.

I will do my best to avoid spoilers, except in the last bullet point where I will indulge the more intrigued of you.

 Story telling mechanic:

Everybody’s gone to the rapture has a very unique story experience, I can liken the telling of it to “Gone Home” or “Journey” In the sense that most of the story is down to your movement and interaction with the environment. Most of the story is in the details of the world.

I should clarify for those of you that aren’t aware with this kind of storytelling structure. Whilst the game is inherently linear in the pattern you move throughout the game in the4 sense that it is a single straight path/road that you follow to the end destination which intern acts as the progression of the story. The clear majority of the game is down to the movement you take around an area.

Taking the first area as a prime example, it’s a small English village, as you walk around you’ll get occasional snippets of dialogue and the very brief and vague narrative that is given to you in the form of Jeremy our first character; Jeremy is a Priest who we are gradually told about. If you’re careful and follow our little glowing sprite he will lead you through several spots and you’ll understand pretty quickly that Jeremy is somewhat looked down upon by most members of the community, for something he was involved in.

The premise of this games story telling is generally that the more you explore and the more time you take to intimately explore an area the more events you will trigger and a better grasp of the characters you will have. Which I suppose gives it a big incentive to be as completionism as possible when approaching the game. Take the time to go over an area once or twice and ensure that you took note of all the little areas and sounds.

This method of storytelling is honestly one of my preferences when it comes to games nowadays, I feel like so many games have taken advantage of this method to tell compelling stories with an environment as much as the script. I think games like this are often the forefront of the story department as they are almost totally reliant on the tendency of their stories to entice your intrigue. In this instance the way that the Town is empty, and you never actually see another living creature really adds to this effect. The sheer lifelessness of the environment means that the few sounds and voices you get to hear are so welcome and you get more and more eager to reach the next section of interaction.

In a lot of games of this nature this is where it can drop off. If the interactions are too far in-between or they don’t reward you enough for finding one, then there isn’t that drive to find the next one. However, this is totally against the prerogative in terms of Everybody’s gone to the rapture. Trust me when I say that every little piece of dialogue is valuable, and every piece provides a nice little touch of humanity to these characters. And it’s through this gradually assembled jigsaw of character moments that you can clearly get a scale of their roles in the story. It’s so rewarding to learn that each character knows the other ones and has their own secretive opinion or viewpoint on them. It’s world building in such a nice and fun way.

My last point on the topic of story comes straight from the nature of the way that the game is delivered to you. So much of it is down to the players own interpretation and how much they were paying attention and how much was retained. As someone who did a marathon of this game over the course of 3 days I can tell you that most of my enjoyment came from learning things that backed up my theories about what happened and every single radio message from Kate. There’s a lot to digest and retain and naturally you will forget stuff, people, and locations. Things come back though, and characters return and it’s so fun to create your own web of knowledge you have learnt and fit that into the realm of information you already have. Me and My partner played this game keeping track of who was who and how they fit into the grand scheme of the story.

The story is a very strong cornerstone that holds the game up. I think that the way games like these tell a story through the environment and the gradual exposure to dialogue branches is one of the most engrossing and complex ways to tell a story. This game stands out though above games like “Gone Home” for going above a single narrator and a single story, it has all these branches from characters that feed back into the main trunk of your story.

Sound, Music, and Sound-scaping.

If you have ever met me, you probably are aware of how obsessed I am with the audio input that games offer people. Soundtracks and Sound-scaping is the most imperative feature of a game. For those of you who are unaware of sound-scaping;

Sound-scaping is a technique for mapping out an area and having different sounds come from different areas and having the idea that a sound is emanating from a direction. This is noticeable if you wear headphones when playing most games. You will appreciate that one sound is louder in one ear than another and you will know which direction the sound is in. Specifically, in Everybody’s gone to the rapture this takes the form of having a faint series of numbers being spoken by a woman on the radio or a telephone ringing in the distance. It’s a good way to adjust yourself directionally and using this a much better way to direct yourself than following a ball of light around.

The other aspect of Sound-scaping though which is very present in Everybody’s gone to the rapture though is the aspect of the music kicking in when approaching or going into a new area. The music ramps up as you enter a new area and it paces itself to the speed you move forwards. It’s so rewarding and really sets the scene as a glorious orchestral chorus starts up in full majesty as the sun rises and the world lights up for the first time. As you start one particular scene the Music noticeably turns a little sinister and ups the temp which is so sudden and out of nowhere I found myself clenching up and leaning forward I was so prepared and anxious for what would come next.

In a game that prides itself on the inherent beauty of silence, how empty and vacant the town is without it’s people. How scary it is to nice the lack of birdsong in a forest. Where the only sounds you hear are the trickle of water from the stream or the sounds of the tree’s in the wind it’s hard not to take explicit notice of the soundtrack and the musical score present in the game. It’s a very unique and heavenly sound. Which is very innkeeping to this idea of the Rapture as it was. The beautiful male choir singing is dramatic and is great for these moments where the world is laid out for you and you get to see the great swathes of the valley in one go.

The soundtrack most notably though is relevant. Songs aren’t out of place and they are really used to set a stage for the area you are in. They give a general air of relaxation and calm to the empty countryside, which is both unsettling and expected. I can’t help but think that the music is meant to be ironic in some sense but I am getting into spoilers.

 Visuals and Ambient Lighting;

I think if you’ve seen even the first second of the game it’s easy to tell that there is a major visual aspect to this game. I think this game is the absolute pinnacle realistic visuals I’ve seen in a game.

Hats off to Cry-engine as they are always at the top of their game when it comes to creating scenery for games. Games like Crysis have some amazing backgrounds, but I don’t think they ever really got a “Real” looking game until this. Everybody’s gone to the rapture is so grounded in one place that it feels vivid and real. I would even hesitate and say better than life. I’m going to give them one more tip of the hat in the sense that they took the time to animate things like the water and the tree’s so well. I’ve lived in England for quite some time and I’ve been into the countryside and walked around aimlessly as you do in Everybody’s gone to the rapture and I feel like it’s a perfect simulator (You just save yourself from being cold and bored.)

Going back to the actual visuals themselves, I think they are the main keystone in the game. As much as I love the plot, characters, and the sense of impeding dread. The visuals are just too good.

The game can easily be dismissed in a lot of ways. For a lot of people, they just can’t get over games like this because often they aren’t very fun to look at. Everybody’s gone to the rapture is so above that stereotype, because it’s a pleasure to look at. I am going to compare it to a quote people use to describe a lot of Stanly Kubrick’s work, “Every Frame a Painting.” And it couldn’t be truer in this instance. I really could only pick up the moments when I stared at the floor in the pitch black and saw exclusively black as times when I wasn’t enjoying a picturesque scene. The Colours and Textures are out of this world. The sheer scale and vividness when it comes down to the scenery is hard to explain.

Walking through the countryside and seeing each tree being given it’s one colour palette and having its shadows wave gently across my path as I walk forwards is something I never noticed in other games as much as I did in this game. I think this has to do with the deliberate use of narrations and story moments changing the time of day in the game, causing the sun to revolve around the sky and you basically watch the shadows and lights flicker across the sky as the whole world around changes colours. I pick up on shadows a lot in this instance, because really, they are the best. There’s such a definite shape and weight to them, when I move into one and look up I see the exact outline of them in the shape of the leaves and the sun shining through them. When the sun moves in the sky the shadows will elongate or shorten based on the positioning of the sun. It’s such a silly little thing to obsess over but it really got to me the level of attention that went into the exact nature of these.

The Light is also the bad guy in a way, as you’ll get a grasp of almost immediately in the game. A ball of light will float through the world and each narrative clip is represented by the silhouette of a person in golden flickers of light. It’s a nice visual effect that I can appreciate. It’s a nice twist on the shades of people or tape recorders (not that there aren’t any of those.) Specifically, it’s the way this light stands out so alien in the bright daylight of the game. It doesn’t matter how bright and sunny the game get’s that ball of light is a stain on it. It’s refreshingly sinister in the empty landscape, and I initially found it playful and fun to follow and see floating, but as you play you grow to appreciate (or you don’t) just how unnerving this insistent little orb is. I call him Lionel.

 Lionel and the Magic Right Trigger.

It’s not a terrible sounding porn movie, it’s a small section where I give some advice regarding two things.

Lionel is what I call the floating sphere of light who “guides” you through the world. I say that in quotes, because in my experience he only leads you to the audio dialogue which is specifically plot relevant and not necessarily the valuable character moments I love. He’s a constant little companion, who fucks off into the sunset at 100mph and leaves you behind the wonder how your meant to follow him. He can be annoying at the best of times, but he has a heart of gold. Well basically an everything of gold.

Lionel is alright, I just advise ignoring him completely unless you are absolutely stuck and don’t know where to go. I specially recommend exhausting all other possibilities before following him. Almost always he will lead you to the next section of the game, so the game will go into next chapter mode and you are almost forced to go to the next section or you’ll miss out on the ambient music and music scaping that occurs when entering a new area. Name him too. I named him Lionel cos he looks like a Lionel, but naming him and yelling his name whenever he pops up adds to your experience tremendously.

As for the proverbial “Magic Right Trigger” there is a feature to the game that is totally alien if you didn’t go on the internet before playing the game and it’s a game saving mechanic for most people.

PRESS AND HOLD DOWN THE TRIGGER AS YOU WALK TO MOVE FASTER.

I really stress this to people whose main point of contention is the movement in the game. I don’t use the sprint function in games, so this works out fine for me. However, in this game it is clear from the start that you walk at a normal pace and if you aren’t aware of this feature it gets frustrating for the more eager of you out there. Even I do this at times where I am getting a little excited for the next scene and I will make use of this feature. It’s well hidden though as you must hold it for about 2 seconds before it will even kick in and it says nothing about it anywhere in the game. It’s just a feature for the more explorative of you.

Spoilers -

Science

The presence of deeply thought out science and these two-competent people talking about this extra-terrestrial entity is an enlightening experience. The way that the issue comes about and the gradual escalation into the ranges of danger are so well done and it really gets across the suddenness of this calamity. They are each dealing with it in their own way and they are both scared of what is happening to themselves and this entity. We are given information gradually and it’s fed to us in Kate’s dialogue as to what the Rapture was and how it isn’t intentional. The way they lose control of it and how much it scares both of them is so intoxicating and it really pushed me forward. I was so keen to know more about how it all came to pass, and it was gift wrapped to me in the wonder of Kates chapter.  Not going to speculate or infer my own viewpoint as I feel it detracts from the experience if I tell you my viewpoint on the end of the game.

Kate and Stephan

Kate and Stephen Appleton are the stars of the game and I can’t emphasise enough how much I love these two in this game. Kate and Stephen are these two characters which get referenced more and more frequently as we get closer and closer to the end of the game. We are almost immediately aware that Stephen is involved in the decision to bomb the town and destroy it, but as you can plainly tell the town is unscathed. Kate and Stephen are directly the cause of the Rapture as we see later in the game and the game is so rewarding of second playthroughs as you are made aware of the intimate relationship and feelings these two had and how they’re relationship fell apart and caused the emotional trauma that caused the Rapture. My theory on the ending are my own and I don’t want to influence anyone’s own theory, so I am not going to talk about the ending. This might disappoint some of you who want to discuss the ending and definitively have an ending and reasoning for their actions in your head. What’s the point? Games that leave you thinking are so much better than ones which answer all your questions. So, I’ll happily be confused for years to come.

Kate though~

Kate’s voice actress, Merle Dandridge. Is above and beyond the call of duty. She is wonderful, and her voice is so distinct and memorable, which makes it so perfect for the character. The highlight of the game for me is her chapter at the end. The long drawn out moments where we explore her character and let her speak for minutes at a time, whereas before where a mere piece of dialogue was enough for us is so rewarding and such a satisfying ending. Kate’s character in general is the glue that holds the story together I think that the story couldn’t have achieved a lasting effect if you didn’t have the witty and playful commentary and Horror of the unknown that Kate carries with her. She is the best. Just the best.

Stephen is great as well, less so than Kate though. Who would cheat on Kate!? Seriously?

Like Kate is a nerdy awkward scientist, who rambles about science. Talks to people in your hometown and gets to know people. She’s got a lovely voice and can talk to you about science stuff and you won’t get bored!

That’s my fanboying over with time to score our game~

Final Review

Gameplay: 48/100

Despite my love for the game and the intimate nature of which I spend time on the game. As well as my 3 playthroughs of it. Despite the 3000 so words I put into the game I must admit that this is a walking simulator and I appreciate that. It’s not terribly exciting to play, it’s not tense or dangerous. It’s not even scary. It’s walking and getting story dealt out to you over the course of time. There’s also no map which lets you know where the points of interest are, and no reward for replays which make the experience easier. I yield that my major enjoyment is searching the beautiful open world, but I am losing out on the story I enjoy if I can’t find all the audio logs. This makes it frustrating as I feel constantly no matter how much time I take that I am missing stuff. That feeling is irritating at points. The hiding of the speed up function is irritating as well. I feel like the option needed to be there from the start to allow people to play the game. IT would’ve made it more accessible for people who weren’t used to this style of playing games.

Story/Narrative: 83/100

It’s high there’s no doubt, it’s a wonderfully crafted and excellently paced journey which you get the pleasure of experiencing. It’s going to be a story which you really get into and want to solve. Each piece of the story you collect is going to improve the regards you have for it. It’s not perfect as it is delivered to you in a way that is entirely reliant on the attention given to it by the player. So, this means that the experience is too varied dependant on the amount of playtime in one go. There’s so many character beats and moments that get lost if you play it in short instalments. The story is so vast and complex at times, it’s relatable and humble. You really feel for these characters and their all very sweet. There’s so much to see and feel with this story. Kate and Stephen contribute so much to the story and there is this deepest romance which is heart-breaking to hear about.

Characters: 77/100

There’s an inherent need to relate to characters in any game and this is one where I could see myself in Stephens shoes. I could relate to these characters well and appreciated the level that each one was developed. With 5 sections and the deep exploration into each of these gives you the chance to get to know each of the cast in a great deal and experience a level of their sadness to the events of the story. Moments where each person accept their fate are heart breaking after you connected to them so much.

Visuals and Soundtrack: 78/100

I would give it higher, but when it comes to games My highest tiers are reserved for very artistically styled games. Despite this the game goes to great lengths to be extensively realistic and gorgeous and its portrayal of this valley. The use of light and shadow are second to none and it really gets a scenery that is worth the story. The soundtrack compliments this wonderfully and serves to enhance the environment created. The Soundtrack paired with the visuals really deliver a high-quality experience. These and the Story really make up for the lacklustre gameplay and make the game worth playing.

Robins (That’s me) Enjoyment: 67/100

I love it, but the mechanic of walking everywhere gets tiring and can hurt your hands if you are just holding the stick forwards all the time. The story is unique and thought provoking. It really grips me, and It fits wonderfully into a category of games which I am finding to be increasingly my favourite. Its visuals are amazing to look at and I take screenshots constantly as I am playing, I keep finding imagery that really looks the best. It’s an achievement in gaming that’s for sure. This game is artistic and visually stunning, but it’s life-like qualities lose me a little. I am more appreciative of the pitch-black scenes illuminated by the alien light, specifically when the observatories are bathed in the alien light. The soundtrack is on my playlist for easy listening and it’s great to listen to in the background. It sets a scene and acts as a good framing device for a scenes tension, but it ends too frequently and sometimes I feel like it could do more from being quieter and revelling in the silence of the valley.

Alternate Direction – Robins Ideas~

It’s a funny idea, but I feel like Everybody’s gone to the rapture had the potential to be a truly terrifying horror game. Set in the broad daylight and the light is the bad guy. There didn’t need to be any enemies nor any stealth sequences. There just needs to be a more visceral score and a darker approach to people dying. There’s so much suspense that goes to waste on the fact that the music is bright and uplifting where if the score focused on getting a more hopeless feel across it could express a much more different view on the whole ordeal, whilst still having these character moments in the foreground. This is just my desire for more intelligent horror though.

That’s all for today, thank you and let me know what you thought~

[rubyleeray]

Several Shades of Sadism Game & Routes Review

This is something a bit different for me but I always look for these before I start a game/route, so I hope this will be informative/helpful to someone else! 

Game Overall - The game overall is really fun and one of my favourites for sure! It operates much like every other Arithmetic game but you can really tell they put a lot more into this one. The addition of the voice actors is really cute and interacting with them multiple times a day made me very giddy (the voice actor for Minami is the same as Yuri from Yuri on Ice!!!). This game has everything I look for when deciding if I love a game and whether or not I recommend it to others. Those being: 1. Good Stories/Plot - Absolutely! There is a great mix and variety of funny and devastating moments with real relevant issues being addressed at times. I looked forward to my 5 tickets every day and there were several occasions where I spent because the cliff hangers were too intense! I just had to know what happened next!

2. Good MC - with the exception of Murayama’s and Minami’s MC - This MC is one of the best I’ve ever played! 

3. Interesting/Hot Guys - Yessss! The art in this game is amazing! Every guy (even the evil dad!) is gorgeous. I will say that the secondary sprites are just blue and pink outlines and that seems like a waste opportunity. 

4. Sex? -  I’m not shallow enough to say this makes or breaks a game for me, but as an adult playing a game with adult love interests, this matters to me. Yes there is sex, but only with some characters in their main story (Event stories differ in that they often feature sex with every character).  I’ll tell you below who has sex in each route description because that’s something that helps influence my spending.

5. Can I have a good time if I don’t spend any money/Will they force me to spend/make me wait weeks to progress? - Absolutely you can have a great time and achieve all endings without spending money! I played 3 full routes before I decided to spend money and the money I spent was on story tickets and an event after ending. As for having to build up free cash/experience/skill points for road blocks - it happens very easily and as long as you do it at least once a day you should never have to wait long to advance past checkpoints. 

TLDR - You need to play this game! It’s so well written and fun! You’ll find the perfect mix of romance, comedy, angst, and sex within this game but the best part is the MC who feels refreshingly modern and truly representative of a young woman of this time. There are other incentives like generous daily logins and frequent events that aren’t impossible to full clear without spending so you really feel valued as a player and a person. I highly suggest starting with Chiaki or Mei and then moving onto the others.The game is alive and well and new routes are still being released. 

Full breakdown of each guy and route spoilers below!

The MC - The MC is what made me fall in love with the game. She is HILARIOUS and she has motivations and dreams of her own. She is still my favourite MC ever despite her behaviour in Minami’s route ( much more on that later). She is just a super funny, goal oriented, mature (for the most part but aren’t we all) woman who speaks her mind and isn’t afraid to put the men in their place. I felt like she was a good representation of a real woman in an otome game. 

In order of release:

Chiaki Kira Route

- Chiaki was my first route! I chose him based on appearance alone really - Tall, dark, handsome - giving off real Jumin Han vibes you know? Chiaki is an adorable lazy idiot who says offensive things but is really sweet. He will also give you lots of attention which is something I look forward to! His route is very similar to Jumin’s in the sense that it centres around his resentment of his father but it’s a good story that really develops a good relationship between Chiaki and the MC. Sex? Unfortunately not but it’s still super cute! In the happy end they have confessed their love and are finally able to give themselves to each other fully. (The ending CG involves Chiaki climbing on top of you telling you he loves you and asking you to not give him blue balls lmao).

Sequel to Chiaki - This is a real fire & ice route. When it’s hot, it’s very hot! But when it’s cold, it’s freezing! This route suffers from the typical MC doesn’t speak up when she’s depressed and being bullied which drives a wedge in her relationship. Chiaki isn’t exactly innocent here, he can be a total dick when times get tough but the route overall is great and the ending CGs are GORGEOUS! Use your gacha tickets on his epilogue... a CG of Chiaki wearing a wedding ring as he licks your wrist? GIRL I’VE GOT THE VAPORS! 

Pick Chiaki if you love attention, romance, and a witty/sassy relationship between love interests. (Think of characters from other games like SLBP’s Nobunaga, MM Jumin + Zen, TCC Claude, Ikemen Nobunaga + Masamune)

Toma Kira Route - Toma was my second route and while Toma is drop dead gorgeous - he is kinda dead inside? His story is a dark one but it is very interesting and the climax is intense! Excellent character development here from both the MC and Love Interest. Sex? Hell ya! Toma does have sex with you towards the end a couple times and they are DETAILED scenes (The happy ending CG has a naked MC and Toma in bed after a night of sex as they are about to have even more sex!). But! He does something super hurtful to the MC during a sensitive time, so you have to have a bit of a thicker skin to play through this. Thankfully, he apologizes and more than makes it up to you! I\ll be honest, I wasn’t enjoying Toma’s route as much as Chiaki’s initially, but his ending retroactively made everything better! 

Pick Toma if you like a challenge, don’t need constant attention, don’t mind a teacher/master relationship, and you enjoy good smut. (I’m still shook from Toma’s sex scenes). (Think of characters from other games like Ayato from 7HAMH, Isuka + Asena from TCC, SLBP’s Kojuro + Masamune, Ikemen Hideyoshi).

Minami Kira Route - Ugh...let me just tell you based on every event and item scenario I got of Minami, I was REALLY looking forward to his route - like a lot a lot. It started off alright, but I quickly realized there wasn’t going to be much of a plot which was really disappointing. Minami is a fun and intelligent yet immature guy. He’s constantly pulling pranks and showering you in false affection. Unfortunately Minami does something completely unforgivable (I’ll write the spoilers at the bottom if you really want to know) and because of this and the combination of the lack of character depth and the worst iteration of the MC in the entire game - I can’t happily recommend his main route. His event routes are fun but his main route is the one of the most disappointed I have ever been in an otome game and I’m not sure how Event Minami and Main Story Minami can be so different. The MC in Minami’s route is completely different than the MC in Toma, Chiaki, and Mei’s routes. She has no ambitions of her own and she never puts Minami in his place even though he deserves it and needs it the most. She’s so scared of hurting his feelings and making him not like her that she becomes a shell of her former self and that was seriously disappointing. Minami’s past was very sad and dark but it wasn’t really fleshed out. It’s confusing. There was so much potential and it feels like it all amounted to nothing. I would have rather seen a route where the MC teaches Minami how shitty it is to treat women like toys and have her fix him, or a route where the MC helps Minami accept and control the darkness and anger within him instead of just pretending to be a happy prankster all the time. Sex? Yes but at this point I was screaming “Don’t do it!” to MC through my screen. It didn’t feel like anything good was going to come from it and surprise, surprise it didn’t. 

Do not pick Minami unless you have the thickest skin and an infinite amount of patience. 

Mei Tarantino Route  - Mei’s route reminds me of why I fell in love with the game in the first place. Mei is the sweetest tsundere there ever was and I’m still smiling about his Happy Ending. His story was wonderful (motivational and inspirational) and the relationship that develops between him and the MC feels natural, believable and is absolutely beautiful. They really support each other through their trials and tribulations and work to achieve both their dreams. There is a tragic past that explains a lot but doesn’t try to justify poor behavior in the present. His route is far superior to Minami’s and has even helped wash the bad taste Minami left right out of my mouth! Mei is everything you want from the perfect Tsundere route. The MC is funny as ever and back to her intelligent strong self. Sex? No but there’s a lot of satisfaction to be found elsewhere in this route. 

Pick Mei. Just pick him. He’s so sweet. He has creative insults but the more creative they are the more you realize he’s falling in love. Plus the red blush on this boy is TO DIE FOR!!! (Think of characters from other games like SLBP’s Mitsunari, DTL’s Takasugi, RB Aito, Ikemen Ieyasu)

Rei Shindo Route - Okay this is seriously one of my favourite routes I have ever played in any otome ever. It is extremely emotional  and the Sweet End is the most beautiful thing - paired with an absolutely BREATHTAKING pair of CGs that I think about on the daily. This route has angst, romance, comedy, and tragedy in HEAPING spoonfuls. I genuinely SOBBED twice.

I can’t write much as I don’t want to give too much away because you genuinely need to experience this route and see how fantastic and touching otome writing can be. Basically, you are roped into a revenge plot by a version of Rei that is far different than the man you have come to know in the other routes. The more time you spend together, the more you find out his reasons and what his end game is. It is A LOT TO TAKE IN but it is so rewarding! Please play it and tell me all of your thoughts and feelings.

Save him for last (if you can wait that long) because I feel like if you start with him, the other routes won’t look as good in comparison - and they don’t deserve that (except you Minami). I will say it’s important that you achieve his Sweet ending. I did not like his Normal ending at all in comparison. It was fine but it was much different and lacked all of the emotional depth of his Sweet End, so in playing Sweet first - I had high expectations of his other end as well but that was unfortunately not the case. Sex? Oh god, forgive me but I really don’t remember! I was so stressed out and emotional during this route that sex was the last thing on my mind!)  

Pick Rei if you have a thick skin and don’t mind being put through an emotional ringer. (Think of characters from other games like SLBP’s Ieyasu, + Saizo, TCC’s Lugar + Yuri, MM’s V + Saeyoung, 7HAMH Soichiro + Ayato, Ikemen Mitsuhide)

Shizuka Kira Route - Okay I loved Shizuka’s route, I really did BUT it is the most hollow of them all. Shizuka is a sweet heart but his story isn’t very exciting or memorable (Save for the sex scenes!). It’s not a bad route by any means! It it full of genuinely funny and romantic moments so I really enjoyed it and him as a love interest, the problem is that it is the most formulaic and predictable so it’s not necessarily a unique story. One of the best parts of Shizuka’s route is the more mature and level headed MC compared to the other brothers’. She was also very in touch with her sexual wants and needs which I really appreciated and found refreshing! The biggest surprise in this route for me was how big of a role Minami had and how amazing he was in it! This is the Minami I want to romance! 

Rintaro Murayama Route - Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I didn’t think I could hate a route more than Minami’s but HERE WE ARE. This route was so so so bad! I’m shocked! I took a week off from thinking about to to see if I was just being dramatic but I’m still just as mad as I was when I finished it.I’m so mad that I went back and CHANGED MY MIND about Minami’s route. That’s how bad this was. The thing about this route is everything is bad. The story makes no sense and they make NO ATTEMPT to make him a desirable love interest! The MC starts off strong and I felt for her inner struggle but then she just becomes flat-out stupid and not the fun loving hilarious witty MC this game has offered us from day 1 #notmymc. Murayama’s motivations make 0 sense and contradict themselves often. He’s supposed to be doing everything he does for his sister but he’s also supposed to not know anything about her these past 10 years?! So then why is he ruining little events that the hotel runs? To get back at his sister’s adopted brothers even though he might need them to be organ donors? What? And then that Happy Ending. No. That “Happy Ending” made everythign the MC did and put up with worth NOTHING. I have no idea how someone approved this. Murayama blackmails you constantly and at one point - late into his route - he starts trying to raping you while recording it. Not only that, he insists he’s going to show the video to her bosses and everyone else at work. Like - enough is enough in general but Murayama’s route was enough by chapter 3. It was like a cycle of dumb that just kept repeating.  

Murayama route is inexcusably bad, don’t play it. 

Sex? Another great part of Shizuka’s route is that it has the most sex and all of it was free sex (I also got to view the CGs for free? I’m not sure if this is a bug that may be fixed by the time you read this). The sex scenes were all INCREDIBLY HOT and I was sweating and taking screenshots while trying to remind myself to breathe. Out of all the Kira Brothers - Shizuka has sex with you the most. I believe it is 3-4 sex scenes vs Toma’s 2. 

Pick Shizuka if you want a romantic route with a plot straight out of a romantic comedy and/or if you like sexxxxxxxy routes. (Think of characters from other games like DTL’s Haru, MM’s Zen, 7HAMH Haruto + Shizuki, Ikemen Shingen).

***Minami route spoiler*** Minami goes on a bender after kissing you where he stays out for days getting drunk and not coming home. One night a random guy brings him home and they accidentally end up in your bedroom instead of Minami’s. Minami flops down onto a chair by your bed and then gives permission for the guy to start raping you - he even says he doesn’t care. Only after the guy has began his rape of you and like the equivalent of 6 story tickets later - does Minami stop and actually do anything about it. This was seriously disappointing and you’d think that would be the end of Minami’s bullshit but it’s not - not even close. I just found it so unforgivable that near the end of the game after you both have fallen in love, that something like this happens and it’s not even vague/implied - it��s full on clothes tearing & body violating and Minami watches the whole thing!!! His apology after doesn’t even make up for it. The writer’s really disappointed me here. It would have been just as hurtful for Minami to say he didn’t care if the MC slept with the guy but for him to sit back and watch her get raped wasn’t something Minami could come back from for me, especially with such a lackluster plot. Minami also never really apologizes or makes up for referring to women as his toys and he treats women really poorly overall. There is a really heart wrenching scene where a woman who was in love with Minami confronts him politely and he screams at her and belittles her and the MC just kinda forgets about it. 

[yvocaro]

Hi there, back again for another week of Handheld Gaming news. The E3 conference, the moment every gaming company is gearing toward, is only one week away. It would seem that news is slow because of that, let’s hope we will get lots and lots of great news next week.

As you might expect, my hopes are on an Animal Crossing on the Switch. Now how awesome would that be, paired with a supporting mobile game. We could for instance earn bells walking around with our phones in our pocket. Take that, Tom Nook!

Anyway, take a nice scone with clotted cream and jam, and enjoy the news!

Details Nintendo Paid Online Services

Ever since the details arrived of the new Switch, we also learned that Nintendo intended to charge for online play. Nothing new in the gaming world, as Xbox van Sony have been doing it for years. Still, it takes some getting used to the thought that playing with friends over wifi will cost money in future. The Service would start this fall, but Nintendo pushed it back to 2018.

Here are the details from the Nintendo site:

You’ll be able to play compatible co-op and competitive games online by signing in with your Nintendo Account. Online play will be free for Nintendo Account holders until our paid online service launches in 2018.

After the free-trial period, most games will require a paid online service subscription from Nintendo in order to play online.

This service is only for Nintendo Switch. It does not affect online play or features for the Wii U or Nintendo 3DS family of systems.

Our new dedicated smart device app will connect to Nintendo Switch and let you invite friends to play online, set play appointments, and chat with friends during online matches in compatible games─all from your smart device. A free, limited version of this app will be available for download in summer 2017.

Classic Game Selection: Subscribers will get to download a compilation of classic titles with added online play, such as Super Mario Bros. 3, Balloon Fight and Dr. Mario.

All of this will cost $ 3,99 for 1 month, $ 7,99 for 3 months and $ 19,99 for a period of a year. By the way, you can substitute the $ for € if you are in Europe. This seems a reasonable price, much lower then PS Plus. And what surprised me the most, is that online gameplay using the WiiU or 3DS stays free!

Japan is lucky: Animal Crossing Stamp Set 

Sometimes one can be envious of the cool gaming stuff the Japanese people can get their hands on. Don’t these look amazing, fellow Animal Crossing fans? These  Animal Crossing Stamp Set will be available in Japan by Enksy on 18 July priced at ¥864 ($8) with 16 different designs. Thanks for the tip, Japanesenintendo.com!

#gallery-0-13 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-13 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-13 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-13 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Yonder: the Cloud Catching Chronicles on Steam

As you know, I am a handheld gamer. But every now and then a game appears on other platforms that looks so great, that I really want it to come to any of the handheld devices. Like this game that Kelly brought to my attention: Yonder: the Cloud Catching Chronicles. It looks so good, that I hope it does well enough on Steam to merit a release on the Switch or the Vita later on. Like is happening with Stardew Valley.

This is the description of the game, that will be released on Steam July 18 2017.

Yonder is set on the vast island of Gemea, a lush frontier with eight distinct environments ranging from tropical beaches to snow-capped summits. Each location has its own flora and fauna, along with changing seasons and a day-night cycle. Gemea, once a paradise, still maintains the appearance of one, yet an evil murk has enshrouded the land and its people in despair.

As the hero you will explore Gemea, uncovering the islands secrets and the mysteries within yourself as you embark on a journey of self-discovery. On a quest to become the island’s champion, you join forces with Sprites, creatures who are the only thing capable of dispersing the murk, to save Gemea and its people.

The towns of Gemea are filled with kind-hearted residents who have faced many difficulties since the murk arrived. By contributing to the island through farming, crafting, cooking, fishing and brewing, relationships can be built with the locals, who offer everything from resources to a new farm as rewards.

#gallery-0-14 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-14 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-14 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-14 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Nintendo on Tour

Last week I mentioned the Nintendo Summer of Play tour in America, but Nintendo is doing its promotions in other countries as well. There’s an extensive list of locations in the UK and a very meagre list for the Netherlands. I’ll include the links:

Nintendo UK

Nintendo Netherlands

Lost Sphear RPG on Switch

Like all Switch users I’m sure, I check out the news in the eShop regularly. And I was pleased to see this trailer for this new game, Lost Sphear. It’s an RPG made by Tokyo RPG Factory, published by Square Enix.  It’s made by the same team that made I am Setsuna, and while I Am Setsuna costs $40, Square Enix is pricing Lost Sphear at $50. It will be available digitally, but the PlayStation 4 and Switch will get physical releases too.

This is what the game is about (from the Square Enix website)

The adventure of Lost Sphear begins in a remote town where a young boy, Kanata, awakens from a devastating dream to find his hometown disappearing,” Square Enix details in its press release. “Chosen by destiny, Kanata must arise to face a phenomenon never seen before and awaken the power of Memory to restore what was lost in order to save the world.

The game isn’t exactly turn-based, but has an ATB (active time battle) system like we had in World of Final Fantasy. It’s a twist on the traditional turn-based system that gives each character their own meter. When it fills up, that character can perform an action. Sounds interesting, but I’m not sure of the price. I would love to try I am Setsuna too, but for such a short game (20 hours) it seems pricey. I’ll wait and see what this one offers.

#gallery-0-15 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-15 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-15 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-15 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Next week: E3 2017

Expect a lot of gaming news next week, as the E3 takes place again at June 13 and lasts till June 15, with lots of news from the big gaming companies like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Aside from that, big developers like EA, Bethesda and Ubisoft have their own press conferences. They already already start earlier. Here’s the schedule (found on IGN, here), if you want to stay up to date. IGN also has a list for UK times and AU times:

Conference IGN Pre-Show Conference Time EA† 11:30 AM Saturday, June 10 at 12 PM PT Microsoft 1:30 PM Sunday, June 11 at 2 PM PT Bethesda 8:30 PM Sunday, June 11 at 9 PM PT PC Gaming Show N/A Monday, June 12 at 10 AM PT Ubisoft 12:30 PM Monday, June 12 at 1 PM PT Sony 5:30 PM Monday, June 12 at 6 PM PT Devolver Digital TBA TBA Nintendo†† 8:30 AM Tuesday, June 13th at 9 AM PT

By the way, like last year, Nintendo opted out of holding a press conference. They will live stream its Nintendo Switch presentation (referred to as the “Nintendo Spotlight”) instead on June 13 at 9 AM PT.

That’s it for this week, thanks again for reading, enjoy your gaming weekend. I’ll be returning for a bit to Atelier Firis again, as I just did my exam and I can now roam the open world. Of course, I’ll roam around the Wild too with Link, progress is slow but steady there. What will you be playing this weekend?

  Handheld Gaming News week 22 Hi there, back again for another week of Handheld Gaming news. The E3 conference, the moment every gaming company is gearing toward, is only one week away.

[il-city-blog]

Persona 3: How A Calendar Based Game Keeps You Eager To Keep Opening Your Planner

Video Game Review 1 Ira

 1-25-2017

 Dr. Hall

 Theory and Crit of Games 

           I had just started high school when a game called Persona 3 was released. I had never heard of the series prior to buying Persona 3. I thought it was cool that the main characters as well as the setting were all high school related. I learned that Persona 3 is a role-playing game (RPG) made by Japanese video game publishing house Atlus. It is part of the Shin Megami Tensei (SMT) series. Persona 3 ties many different genres into one game: traditional RPG elements, dungeon crawler, dating sim, and puzzler to name a few.

           Persona 3 is a timed game in which the player has a (in game) year to essentially save the world. The player can only choose to do so many things in one day. For instance if you hang out with your friends it means you are not socializing with your other friends or training your persona. Each action has a consequence. Sense time is a premium, one must budget their time wisely. Further, the way one spends their time can make the game easier, putting even more emphasis on choosing wisely. Oh, and don’t forget the protagonist is a high school student. So the player must contend with that as well… Yes the game tasks the player with taking midterms and finals… So upon reading this, one likely is asking themselves “why would a current high school student, one who has to deal with those same things in real life then want to come home and play a seemingly monotonous video game tasking him to emulate high school” That is precisely the strength of Persona 3.

           This review will primarily focus on illustrating how Persona 3 managed to be fun and rewarding game despite appearing to be repetitive. That being said, before I can really delve into why and how Persona 3 was indeed a fun game, I must first briefly review: the controls and gameplay, graphics, sound, and its replayability.

 The controls and gameplay: Persona 3’s controls were excellent. They were quite simple, the characters moved and responded exactly how you thought they would. This was important, because sometimes you had to run away from enemies to avoid being attacked in the dungeon, and it occasionally required quick footwork. The battle mechanics were also done well. Persona 3 is a turned-based RPG where you choose an input for an attack, and it gets executed. The attack and support options are clear, the revolving wheel of options make the battlefield relatively clutter free. The pause menus as well as the various shop and upgrade menus are well laid out and clear.

           The player stat mechanic was a breath of fresh air. Persona 3 features battle stats (stats of main characters), social stats (that could also have combat implications) and the stats of each Persona (think stats of an individual Pokémon for reference). It was challenging (in a good way) trying to balance all of these stats, and learning how they intertwined together. On top of stats there were “social links.” Social links are the bonds formed with various non-player characters (NPCs) found throughout the game. The more one interacts with certain individuals the higher their social link level will go. These relations made time management even more paramount.

Graphics: The graphics in Persona 3 are a combination of 3D sprites and anime style cut scenes. The backgrounds are often detailed and rather enchanting. The surroundings are not in your face, but rather offer an interesting perspective for the player that takes the time to look and appreciate his or her surroundings. The game’s visuals are consistent with Japanese culture, and do a good job of immersing the player into the game.  

Sound: Persona 3 boasts an impressive soundtrack that undoubtedly boosts the playing experience. Music is in fact a major theme in the game (the protagonists is almost never seen without his MP3 player and earphones). Music is almost always playing in the background (paying homage to certain films as well as a commonality in anime). Cut-scenes often have much more intense music that help set the mood. More than the music, the game’s sounds are realistic (i.e. different surfaces when walked on make different noises) and satisfying in battle. The sound like the visuals help the player get more immersed into the game.

Replayability: Persona 3 offers of a lot of replayability. Like many RPGs it offers a new game “plus” that allows the player to start the entire game over, but with all of their equipment and social links. Further some new interactions as well as levels become available in new game plus. Due to the complexity and different story options it was fun to be able to choose different options in subsequent plays.

  The fun factor: The thing that fascinated me the most about Persona 3 was how it remained fun throughout the entire course of the game. It is first worth mentioning, that Persona 3 is long (relatively speaking), clocking in some people about 100 hours to complete (that’s the high end). Despite the fact the Persona 3 is dictated by a calendar, and given its school setting it’s riddled with monotony, however; Persona 3 never felt like a chore to play. When I was done playing for the day, I looked forward to playing the next day.

           Persona 3 treated every moment as a learning experience, and valued the player that was attentive. Every moment felt like an opportunity to level up. In class, if you answered the teacher’s questions correctly your intelligence level went up, or if you choose to answer a question your courage could go up. When your traits get leveled up it helps you in battle or when you are working on social links with other characters. For instance, somewhat comically, certain female characters could not be approached unless your courage level was high enough. The monotony didn’t actually feel like the “same ole’ sale ole’.” I legitimately enjoyed interacting with the various characters in the game. By adding traditional RPG leveling mechanics to normal interaction it made the game at all times feel like a game. However, that realization does not diminish Persona 3’s ability to be immersive. When playing Persona 3 I would often loose track of time. The story progression kept me wanting to know what happens next.

           All that being said, Persona 3 really shines once you get to the battlefield. A large tower called Tartarus tasks the player with climbing floor after floor with every few floors containing a boss. The game is so smooth, and just a joy to play. Admittedly, Persona 3 is not pushing the envelope with its interface (as stated above) but it works very well and is easy to navigate. The boss battles are satisfyingly challenging. Some floors contain traps requiring the player to pay attention to the surroundings. Your teammates are semi-antonymous which makes the game feel like you are playing with other people (sort of). The only time this game verges on frustrating is when your teammate does something idiotic. Unlike other games where relying on the NPC to choose the correct move can be a frustrating experience those instances in Persona 3 were rare. Persona 3 also added traditional loot mechanics scene in RPGs, such as finding chests, and getting rare drops from enemies. These instances were often rewarding, and inspired me to go back and find rare equipment.

           The combination of the socializing with your comrades during the day and fighting along side them at night created a sense of solidarity amongst the team. Every aspect tied into each other really nicely, and that’s makes Persona 3 a really fun game.

 Conclusion  

           While the gameplay experience of Persona 3 is not perfect, it still makes for a memorable and rewarding experience. Persona 3 is a RPG that provides a fun environment for the gamer. The character’s personalities as well as the gameplay left me wanting to play it all over again once I completed it. I would suggest Persona 3 to anyone. On paper, Persona 3 comes off as a rather depressing depiction on the monotony of life…however, in practice, Persona 3 reminds the player how refreshing each day can be.

[gosatsuvns]

Weekly Update #322 - Chapter I Progress

So, today, I will finally talk in detail about what's currently left to do in order to fully complete the first chapter of GENBA no Kizuna. And I guess the best way to start is to take a look at what's already been completed!

As you may very well know, we've released a demo last year, containing the prologue and the majority of the first chapter, which introduces all the main players in this story: our investigation team and our circle of suspects. I'd say what you experience in the demo makes up about 70% of the first chapter.

Naturally, this means that its last 30% are not included and are thus what we're currently working on. This percentage number pertains to the script, however. In terms of the assets, it's a bit harder to pin down an estimate...

You have to keep the following in mind: when you just start out making a game, just getting the very first scene playable requires an extraordinary amount of effort, because you don't have any assets at all. No backgrounds, no character sprites with various poses and expressions, no CGs, no GUI, etc.

The further you progress into the story, however, the less new assets will be required. At some point, you'll have all the necessary sprites together for a character to portray a vast range of emotions. In GENBA's case, this is especially true for our main character Keiichi. Although he will get a few more sprite variations later down the road, the vast majority of them are already done, since he's been appearing in the game right from the start of the prologue.

Other characters that were introduced later, such as Rei and Shinketsu, or the four members of Raptor Pack Productions, haven't had much screen time yet, so they still require a bunch of new sprites for future scenes.

Similarly, as you progress through the story, more locations within the Kaseki Residence open up, meaning that new backgrounds will be required. In the beginning, however, most scenes take place in just a couple of different rooms, so not many backgrounds have been necessary thus far.

But what exactly is missing then, in order to finally finish up the rest of chapter I? Well, let's first take a look at the scenes that are currently missing:

Scene 09 takes place where the demo left off. It's a short scene in which Keiichi returns to the main hall and talks to Shinketsu.

Scene 10 is a bit longer, featuring a conversation between Keiichi and Amber as they head up to the 2nd floor for the first time.

Scene 11 is the first real investigation segment and thus a pretty long one, as players will not only be able to freely talk to Amber about a number of different topics, but they can also examine Ryuunosuke's room in search for clues.

Scene 12 is about the same length as Scene 10 and gives us a first look at the victim's body in its recovered state.

Scene 13 is the chapter's conclusion and another convo between Keiichi and Nobuhiko, similar to the one in the prologue.

Overall, the remainder of chapter I focuses on characters and places we've seen before, so a lot of assets are already available. Nevertheless, there is quite a number of new ones we'll need in order to visualize all this stuff.

First and foremost, there are two new locations: the 2nd floor of the main hall and Ryuunosuke's room, so that's already two new backgrounds. The good news about this is that Ryuu's room is already done and I'm halfway done with the 2nd floor BG. Not just that, there is even one extra BG showing Ryuu's door, which has already been completed as well:

That's it for completely new BGs, but we will also need some variations for already existing ones, depicting new details. After the body has been recovered, it will be spread out on the floor of the main hall, for instance, along with some new pieces of evidence that were discovered during the recovery process.

Furthermore, the BGs you can currently see in the demo aren't actually finalized. That's because I only finalized the story and mystery back in July and, based on this final result, a few more details need to be added to the main hall BG. Based on some feedback, I've also added a carpet to it, so the lower half isn't so plain and empty anymore:

Now, what about characters sprites? Again, we've seen quite a bit of Keiichi, so right now, he will only need one new variation. As for Amber, we will spend a lot more time with her now than we did in the demo, so naturally, she'll require a handful of new sprites, which I've already started to work on as well. Rei, Shinketsu and Nobuhiko only have short appearances, so they won't need a bunch of new sprites. Amber really requires the most work here.

CGs... now this is where it gets a bit more tricky. There is one relatively simple CG I want to use for scene 10 and then we will need a very complex and detailed one showing a close-up of the body. This will be a crucial CG in chapter 2 when players can actually examine the body, so this will definitely require a lot of attention and time.

There will also be some mini-CGs, like a picture frame depicting a much younger Ryuunosuke together with his grandfather. That, along with some mystery silhouettes for the chapter's final scene, has already been worked on, though:

Sound-wise, we already have all we need, but in terms of the GUI, a number of new DPA entries will be added, meaning more writing and a couple little display artworks will be needed, such as this profile image for Prof. Dr. Kaseki:

This almost wraps it up, so as you can see, not a lot of stuff is left to be done, buuut... I still need to do some script revisions as well, and not just in regards to the new scenes. I'm also taking the feedback to heart, trying to fix some issues with the demo content.

So yeah, that's where we're currently at. I'm thinking of releasing the rest of chapter I scene by scene for patrons, so they can get an early look and help us with polishing things. Don't expect anything playable to show up before December, though!

I know it's taking quite a while to finish this up, but again, keep in mind that the further we progress into the story, the less assets will be needed, and that chapter I is actually one of the longest parts of the game, sooo... things will definitely go much faster with chapters 2 and 3 (primarily because we will have most assets for those by then)!

Now then, since this post has gotten a little lengthy, and I'd like to get back to work on the 2nd floor BG (new preview for patrons tomorrow!), I guess I'll come to a close. Next time, I'll give you a look at the actual to-do list and a clearer idea of the progress, but until then, please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, as always, take care :3

[dukefmp-blog]

Final Evaluation

Evaluation.

At the start of the FMP we were presented with the theme ‘Survive or Thrive’ and open to the choice of making whatever we wanted from a graphic novel to a game. Reece, Jesse and I decided to work together to make a game. Because we all enjoy the same genre of games and we immediately knew we wanted to make a rogue like dungeon. We put some thought into what theme we wanted to make the game and eventually decided to create a futuristic western.  We split ourselves up into three separate roles, Jesse was creating the level design and narrative, Reece was our developer and I was the graphics designer.

We originally planned to create a level select consisting of 3 character which would all have different abilities and stats. Selecting your chosen character would send you to a hub world which would be composed of several different buildings you could enter buying new gear to help you progress on with the story. The hub would also have NPCs walking around which you could talk to.

As the designer I had a lot of plans and a lot of things I wanted to make for Wild Mechina, I really wanted to push myself to try things I hadn’t done before such as animating. Even though I had done small bits of animation I had never fully explored it and wanted to force myself to explore it by creating animated characters as well as animated sprites and a start screen. I also wanted to push myself to create a sprite sheet consisting of character animations and assets.

Research.

For the FMP I really wanted to focus on primary research as I think it has let me down in previous units, so when we were asked to create a gantt chart I made sure that I had research constantly happening. I also wanted to make sure I did research before I did any practical so I could talk about how it effected my design choices and also how it makes the audience feel.

The research I did for the FMP really helped me when creating this game. Because I have almost no familiarity with the wild west; I really had no idea where to start in terms of designing a world that players would recognise or making a sprite sheet consisting of animations.

When looking at designing Wild Mechina I was imminently drawn to games such as Gods Will be Watching and Enter the Gungeon for a number of different reasons. Gods Will be Watching because originally we wanted to try and follow this art style, as a group we didn’t know of many games that did this but after some research we found that the preferred art style for our game would be that of Enter the Gungeon and The Binding of Isaac. So I turned My attention to how they animate and make easily identifiable sprites.

After playing these games for some time I started to notice patterns in their designs from character sprites to enemy sprites to how the made the HUD. As our game was going to be set in a futuristic wild west I had to draw my attention to Western games and movies. The first game I looked at was Red Dead Redemption as its probably the most iconic western game. Next I decided to look at a movie called Magnificent Seven and a TV series called West World. All of these consisted of everything I needed to get inspiration and an understanding of how to create an immersive western setting.

One of the most helpful pieces of primary research that helped me more in terms of an overview for our game was Euro Gamer. I didn’t show any of the indie devs we spoke to my graphics because in my mind I thought they would sugar coat their opinion or tell me its really good when they thought differently, instead I presented them with the idea along with the time frame we had and because of a lot of the people I spoke to are in the exact same position as us and the main thing they all said to me was “Make sure you give yourself enough time, making games takes longer then you think.”.

Pre-Production.

I really wanted to focus on pre-production for the FMP because in previous units I usually avoid it, not because I can’t do it but because usually I know exactly what I want to do and how I plan to do it, but because for this unit we really didn’t know how we would approach making our game I decided to really focus on the pre-production and make it the best I could. 

One of the first things I did was make a questionnaire asking the age group we want our game to be which art style they preferred as well as tweet out to a group of people. This really helped me find a starting point for when I came to create assets and sprites.

Production.

For the production of our game, being the designer my job was never done, every time someone had an idea that needed to be visualized I had to make it come to life which means I worked very closely with Jesse. As he was designing the level and character development he had a strong vision of what he wanted everything to look like in terms of a wide scale view, all the details were my job whereas what we actually needed was all down to Jesse.

I started off by making the main assets such as the characters and some basic props to start building the level up. Once Jesse had finished the level designs he told me exactly what buildings he wanted and where he wanted them

Even though research was needed for this task it got to a point where I did all the secondary research I needed, because our game was a mix of fantasy and sci-fi it meant technically there wasnt any limitations to what we wanted to do which meant I was pretty much free to design what we could imagine. After some trial and error I managed to figure out a style that would run through the whole game, I would use a lot of gold as to me I thought it was funny that in the wild west gold was so valuable but in our version of it people use it for drains as well as everything having a one pixel thick black outline to make the assets pop.

I started to realize very soon after how time consuming making assets was. I wasn’t able to just make anything I wanted, now I had agreed a theme with Reece and Jesse I had to stick to it as well as making the perfect assets to represent each item, enemy, building, collectible in the game and had to scrap the idea of creating interiors to the buildings as it would of taken too long. This was a hard decision for us as a group to come up with because being able to go into buildings was such a cool part of our idea that we were all excited about but we came to the conclusion that it didn’t add or take anything away from the base game.

Conclusion

I am both happy and disappointed from a design standpoint regarding Wild Mechina not just because I didn't manage to create everything I had in mind but also because I wasn’t able to implement all the designs I had spent time on. In terms of the animation side of the design I am really happy with how far I pushed myself and what I managed to create. One of my favorite designs I made was a fully animated start screen. This took a lot more work then I thought it would, I had to make each animation in a separate document then make sure the sprite sheet was an equal number to the overall frames so it would loop smoothly and this taught me a lot about animating in Photoshop which I had minimal experience with prior to the FMP.

Personally for me my favorite parts of the unit was doing primary research. I never really realized how helpful it was in terms of progressing with a task to get an unbiased direct feedback from your piers. It really helped me figure out the perfect art style for Wild Mechina and I think if I didn’t have this primary research I would of found it extremely hard making assets for our game considering what our previous art style looked like.

I also really enjoyed sitting down and making assets and how nice they came out, the final product for a lot of the assets were perfect and exactly what everyone imagined especially the start screen and building concepts. I think having the animated start screen really early on gave everyone a little bit of motivation and showed Reece and Jesse what sort of game we could make. It also motivated me because we started with an idea, as bold as it was, we started with an idea and managed to produce a game that resembles our initial ideas.

Overall I am happy with my work on Wild Mechina and I learnt more then I thought I would of being as I am confident in Photoshop and in graphic design, I also think I worked well in a group, being as this is the first time i have ever properly had to depend on a team to produce something and I think we all pulled our weight and managed to produce a respectable game.

[gosatsuvns]

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the first weekly update of an entire new decade!

As you can tell by the title, this blog post will give you a little overview of our goals for 2020. Before we get to those, however, here's a little reminder that we have also published a rather lengthy summary of 2019. So if you haven't seen it yet and you're curious how last year went for us, and what we have achieved throughout it, be sure to check it out right here.

Now, without further ado, let's jump right into our plans for the new year!

As mentioned in our retrospect, the second half of 2019 was kind of a mess and, as a result, I could barely reach any of my goals for the last couple of months. Therefore, January will be spent catching up a bit, which I have already started with. As a matter of fact, patrons can already check out the full background artwork for Ryuunosuke's room. I spent the last two days shading, adding some textures, as well as a few more details. Although this was supposed to be done a month ago, it still feels nice to be able to complete a major asset like this during the first few days of the new year, haha.

(Patrons can check out the full BG without any sprites and textboxes covering up huge chunks of it)

With this out of the way, I will now continue working on another CG for GENBA no Kizuna, which I have already started working on last month as well. There is also the script for the investigation of Ryuunosuke's Room, which I can finally finish writing, now that the background art is done. So those will be my main tasks during the next few weeks.

Afterwards, I will focus on our major goals for 2020 and start to slowly work towards them. There are actually two things I have in mind, at least one of which I want to accomplish by the end of August: either finish writing the script for the entire game, or get the actual game fully playable until the end of chapter 3.

I'd actually prefer reaching the second goal, which shouldn't be too hard to do. The majority of the assets are already there, now that the extended demo is done. What we would need beyond that is the sprites for our two witness characters (which I've also started working on last year), a couple more sprite variations for various characters, two more backgrounds (one of which is very simple: think the "guest room door" BG from SHINRAI), two or three more CGs, and a couple additional artworks for DPA entries. It really isn't that much, but it will still take some time to get this stuff done.

What's going to be the bigger challenge is finishing the script, I think. Chapter two and three are going to be much shorter than the first one, but chapters four and especially five will be tough. Not because I don't know what to write, but because structuring them will be difficult. I'm thinking particularly about the final discussion.

Either way, I will definitely work as hard as I can in order to reach at least either of these goals by August. There is still some preparation needed before I can get properly started, however, so that's what I will spend the second half of January on. I will probably go into more detail about this in a separate blog post.

So, what else have we planned for 2020? Well, there are a couple of things I have in mind, but I think it's a bit soon to talk about some of them. One thing I can mention, however, is that I'd like to pay a bit more attention to merchandise this year. I will work out the details with Kuna and Natsu in the coming weeks, so hopefully, it won't be much longer until there will finally be some official SHINRAI and GENBA merch!

Anyway, I will talk in more detail about our goals over the next few weeks and months, but I wanted to give you at least an idea of what we've got in mind. After 2019 was kind of disappointing, I'm all fired up to make some significant progress this year!

Let's all work hard to make 2020 a year we can be proud of! Whatever your goals are, we wish you the best of luck in achieving them!

Now, as always, please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, until next Saturday, take care :3

[gosatsuvns]

Weekly Update #168 - Dinovember

October has ended and Halloween sadly lies past us now. It's one of my favorite times of the year, so I'm definitely going to miss it. However, one good thing about the end of October is the beginning of November, among some people also known as... Dinovember.

Whereas others spend the month drawing dinosaurs or taking pictures of dino toys doing weird things, we're going to focus 100% on GENBA no Kizuna. Jurassic June was the month we picked to first unveil this project and for Dinovember, we're planning to release the first, short demo. It will only contain the prologue and possibly the first investigation segment, but I'll go into more detail about the contents later this month, once we've made a little more progress.

There's still a lot to do, but I definitely want to have a little demo ready by the end of the month. Outside of giving you a quick and early glimpse of the game, its main purpose will be for us to try out a few new things, see how my script actually will look in a programmed state, and to hopefully get some early feedback from players.

Right now, I'm busy with Nobuhiko's sprite variations of which there will only be four throughout the prologue. Keiichi will have a couple more, but I'm not too sure about the exact number yet. Hopefully, I will have all the sprites done by next weekend, though.

Other things that still need to be done are the sound effects and music (which I'll actually have something to say about soon!), the first background also still needs to be shaded and I need to take care of the notebook entry illustrations. Other than that, there isn't too much else. All the menu stuff has been done some time ago, so... it certainly seems doable to complete the demo this month.

In any case, you can definitely look forward to some more GENBA details soon as well as first actual in-game screenshots!

Now, to wrap today's posting up, I'd like to once again direct some attention towards our Patreon. I will most likely update the goals there very soon, since the hosting costs for our website have been covered and paid now (once again, thank you very much to everyone who's supporting us!). And I might have some new, more specific numbers in regards to the cost of GENBA's soundtrack. So yeah... we can really use the additional support now.

If you're curious, right now, you can read another new blog post there, which I've posted on Halloween. It features some unreleased (and somewhat gory) art from SHINRAI and quite a few words in regards to visual clues. The polls for the Christmas and New Year's artworks will also be up very soon, so you'll be able to help us decide which of our characters will be featured on those. And don't forget, you can get some early looks at two new GENBA characters as well as the first background, too!

I will also post some early glimpses of the script very soon, so if you're a patron, please look forward to that!

With that said, time for me to get back to work, so... please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, until next Saturday, take care! :3