Scripting chaos

So, I guess I should make a post on the project that I’m working on now – the secret otome project.

Since all my free art-time is being spend on a race for the finish line for a few commissions before I leave the country, most of the work on this project is still focused on the script. Like with Angelic Orbs I prefer to write a good deal of the script before drawing any art assets for it anyway.

So, how is the script coming along?

One thing is for sure – since I have decided that this game is going to work differently than the somewhat “linear” paths with choices in AO, scripting can be really hard. Harder than I thought <_<;; Keeping track of what comes where when takes some work.

One good thing is that the map system is mostly finished. Coding really isn’t a strength of mine, so getting that out of the way is a relief. (Know that this isn’t some impressive walk-around map, it’s actually pretty simple “choose where to go” map )

Because of the way that I organize scripts at the moment, I don’t really have a clear number of how many words have been written yet, but most of the prologue has been written along with events for something like 6 days.

So yah. What is the story even about?

Unfinished costume-test-sketch-thing

Who knows! This is all for now

My Eternal Rival – oh so Cute and Fluffy

The “Cute, Light and Fluffy Project” has finally been released!! You can find it:

Here (LemmaSoft Forums)
or:
Here (RenAi Archives)

4 short stories are collected in this OELVN anthology. One of them is my own “My Eternal Rival”. I really hope you’ll check out these stories and enjoy the results!

“My Eternal Rival” is about the black witch Luna and her desperate attempt to get even with her rival, the red witch Lera. A story of rivalry, servitude and frog cakes.

On another note, I’m finally updating my blogroll. It was about time, too many were missing there (and a few links had even died).

Nitro+, JAST USA and fan translators…

As you may already know, a lot of things have happened in the english VN scene lately. MangaGamer has licensed Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Navel’s games, and JAST USA revealed their new partnership with Nitro+. Their first game is Demonbane, and Jingai Makyou is also hinted at by the picture in the background.

Now for the interesting part – (as if the rest wasn’t) – when Jast announced their partnership, every Nitro+ translation project was taken down from TLWiki by the translators, with the message that people should wait for an official announcement. And now that announcement is up.

Here’s your official statement regarding our Nitro+ translations.

We are currently trying out a bit of a partnership with JAST USA in order to do a few different things:

1) Increase the speed at which the finished products are released. This is probably the item of most interest.
2) Ensure that Nitro+ fans are working on the projects, in order to provide the highest localization quality possible.
3) Simply get more Nitro+ titles translated in general and help support the companies involved. The fact that we can do this with Nitro+’s blessing is even better.

As for details of the partnership… Basically, we’ll just let them have our current work and continue to work with them to finish anything we’re not done with. We’re also interested in working with them on games that haven’t seen any sort of translation attempt as of yet.

Obviously, since we’ll be working with JAST to have our translations released officially, we’ve taken the script files and patches offline. This was done in order to both support future official releases and to provide incentive for others to actually buy the damn games.

If you have any questions about this, or are someone who has translated or is interested in translating Nitro+ games, please don’t hesitate to contact me or LoSs about the matter.

By the way, we will continue to work on the Noah translation project.

I, for one, find this very awesome. The chance that I will actually buy these games is pretty slim since I usually avoid h-games, but this is still great news. I wish them luck with their partnership – if the miracle should happen that even a game like Chaos;Head gets a localisation, I won’t hesitate from buying another copy.

And the possibility for companies and fan translators to work together like this is great. After all, why not help eachother out when the chance presents itself? Unfortunately I doubt that such an opportunity will present itself for our team

Whether this deal with Nitro+ is going to affect NitroChiral games is unknown. Who knows – in the future BL game fans may get their fix as well in commercial form, helped along by their fan translators?

Anime?

Recently a friend asked me: “Are you completely leaving the anime fandom behind?”

I was surprised by this question. But at the same time I could clearly see where he came from – for a long time now, he has often tried making conversation with me about anime and the new shows and seasons that have come and passed. But more and more often my answers have been a plain: “Sorry, I’m not watching any of the new shows these days.”

I think the last new show I watched (while it was still new, that is) is Code Geass R2. And I even waited a while with that, because I wanted to be able to marathon the last episodes. Since then I have watched a little here and there, but mostly things that I have lying around on DVD (Yay for Emma and Ouran!). To some people it doesn’t seem like I’m involved with anime at all any more.

But! No, I’m not out of the anime fandom! Really! I’m there just as much as I’ve always been.

I feel like I see a lot of people around me writing about this – how the excitement has left them, that they don’t feel like watching new episodes any more, and that they’re ultimately leaving the fandom behind. But although I can relate to much of what they write, this is not the case for me.

I have been terribly busy with work lately, and besides that my hobbies tend to go through many different phases. For example, one of the things that got me into anime in the first place is videogames. I used to play a lot of videogames. But after a couple of years I shifted over to watching a lot of anime instead. Not enough time for everything after all. After that, it was manga. A couple of years more have passed, and guess what – now I’m into videogames again.

In general I’m still in the same fandom – many of the games I’m playing are somehow related to the anime/mange world, I’m just involving myself with another side of the matter. It’s been ages since I last really had fun with games, so it’s nice to try and catch up again. Besides, I also have the whole “Visual Novel” genre added in this time. Unfortunately my increasing lack of time also means that I’m not actually clearing a lot of games <_<. I takes me forever to finish one, so I’m jumping between a lot of titles… sigh.

The bottom line is that I am very much into this whole fandom still. And although I don’t feel like it right now, I know that I, at some point, am going to increase my anime watching again on account of something else.

And I’m sure that those reading this blog already knew this, since I don’t talk about much else here. But I doubt the beforementioned friend knows this place even exists

Steins;Gate

Today while I was procrastinating and surfing some websites, I coincidentally ended up on 5pb’s website. There I saw an announcement for a new game – Stein’s;Gate.

Just from looking at the title, you may already have noticed similarities with Chaos;Head. This title is also advertised as the “2nd collaboration between 5pb and Nitroplus”. Website got up today, and so far only shows a clock counting down, probably until release of the game (apparently 06.12.2009 – please correct me if I’m reading it wrong).

Now, I have to say that I am already VERY intrigued. I love Chaos;Head, and to see another creepy game come out from these two publishers makes me happy. Nice story and no ero – goes right up my alley.

Unfortunately I also got very dissapointed when reading further on the announcement on 5pb’s website – apparantly this is coming out for Xbox360.

Bummer ;_;

I wish they would have made a pc release, and then ported it later like with C;H, but… doesn’t seem like it. Well, hopefully that means we’ll get a lovely port for pc later……. Right?

Right!?

What next….

My first visual novel was finally released a few days back. A lot of things could have been done better, but in general I’m happy about the result.

Shortly the “Cute, light and Fluffy” VN project will hopefully be released as well, where I have contributed with a short story.

But apart from these things, what is up next?

For one thing I would like to return to updating my webcomic, but I have just been commissioned to do art for yet another game, and also have a lot of other loose ends to take care of. So unfortunately it seems like AO will have to wait a little bit longer.

But I’m already preparing for my next game project after Broken Memories as well. A couple of ideas have been circling in my head, but recent discussions on a certain forum have made me decide on a final story that I will start working on.

Yes, my next visual novel is going to be an otome game. In spite of me once saying that I would probably never make one that wasn’t BxG!
I have a story that I’m happy about, and have begun writing a few drafts. Other than that, there isn’t much I can say about this project yet. It’s still in its planning stages, and it will take a long time before it gets finished (Broken Memories took me 2 years after all).

Alright, time to get back to work!

Angelic Orbs: Broken Memories released!

Angelic Orbs: Broken Memories has now been released!

Go to the website to download the game, or to Lemmasoft to read up on the release and leave a comment (Or you can do that here )

OP video:

Yes, I’m lazy….

Edit: The first version of the game had a buggy sound effect that made the game freeze on some computers during Tia’s path. Ver. 1.1 fixes this bug and download links have been updated with this version. Please re-download if your game didn’t work. Enjoy!

Charge of the Otomes part 2!

Return of lame titles!

A while back I wrote a post about otome games making an appearance in the western VN market. It’s almost a year ago – and some more interesting stuff has happened since then, so I thought I’d make a follow-up post. I need to get this blog going again anyway, and what better way to procrastinate from the work I’m supposed to do?

First up is Dragon Academy, which is the game I wrote the most about back then. The first episode and a demo had come out at the time, and this original english web-based otome game seemed promising. Unfortunately, that’s all we ever saw of the game.
The promised second episode never turned up. After a while Go! Comi promised a re-vamp of their O-Play section that would bring new life to these games, but later the page went back to its old “coming soon” status, and the O-Play sub-forum has even been removed from their site. It doesn’t look too good.

But all is not lost! Where companies like Go! Comi have fallen behind, the indies are here to save the day.

As of my last post, the OEL game “Fatal Hearts” by Hanako Games was one of the only alternatives for english speaking fans. Since then a new indie developer has entered the scene and released two games aimed at a female audience – Heileen, a game that works mostly like a normal visual novels, and Spirited Heart, a game much like the Princess Maker raising sims.

I have played Spirited Heart quite a bit myself, and it is an addicting and challenging game where you can play as a human, demon or elf, and choose different jobs while havaing random encounters with guys that you may later end up marrying. While not as polished as the Princess Maker games, Spirited Heart is still a very nice game, and I suspect it will be even nicer when the upcoming premium edition gets released. (Premium edition… or was it special? I don’t remember).

And the indies aren’t the only ones who have been releasing games for us since last time.

A cute little game called Princess Debut has been released for DS in the US. In the game you play as a girl who ends up taking a princess’ place in another world, and then she has to practice dancing for an upcoming ball. Apart from that, she also has to choose one of the princes as her dancing partner.
The art is cute, and so is the story – but it’s generally something aimed at… much younger girls than me If you don’t mind some overly cute sillyness, princesses and tons of dancing, then you should give this game a shot and support the license. And then let’s hope something with a little more substance is up next!

I also mentioned a survey that Idea Factory had started on otome games in the US. Unfortunately not a lot of info on the results have come out yet. On the other hand it seems that the results of such surveys in a few different countries have ended in Idea Factory making a new brand called “Otome Forte”, which will release more gameplay focused games aimed at girls. The first title is “I will protect you” for the DS, a seemingly Castlevania inspired game. Whether these will stand a chance outside Japan is unknown.
Let’s hope that’s not all that comes out of it…

Last but not least is the Princess Nightmare translation project…. although it doesn’t look that way, it’s still alive, don’t worry. But don’t expect to see anything any time soon.

And what about that other guy in today’s banner? Well he’s just from an up-coming game that I am looking very much forward to, but hasn’t got anything to do with english releases (unfortunately). Let’s take this chance to end the post with some nice art!

Bunnies with wings? I'm sold...

Now back to work!

Sad girls in Snow

But not any more! Because today, the Kanon translation patch has finally been released in teaser form!

It has been some years now since I bought my All Ages SE version of Kanon, so of course I instantly downloaded and installed the patch to check it out. It’s nice to finally see this VN in english.

OTL

It’s the 1. September. That means summer is officially over, and I didn’t manage to get the AO game out during summer as I had planned ._.
I progress news, I just recently managed to fix Tia’s entire sprite set. Now check this out: Tia has a total of 33 sprites. 33! I nearly died, having to go through all of those @_@ Tia has the most expressions to begin with, and on top of that her sprite set has a couple of variations for some of those expressions. And since she was the first sprite set I made, it is also the most unorganised one. In comparison Yoko, the female lead with the fewest sprites, has only 9 expressions in total.

Oh, and today was my first day at my new work as well.

All together now...