The obvious choice for the first one is:

Lena – the protagonist.

The last visual novel I wrote (which spanned more than 5 minutes) was Angelic Orbs. The protagonist in that story was Kevin, a boy from the country who… well, was kinda helpless. Kevin was not the bravest of men, and certainly no warrior, often resulting in him having to improvise during the more dangerous situations in the story.

Lena is something different – apart from being a girl, she is also a Templar of the Blue Rose, a high order of elite knights in the kingdom of Tanves. She believes in being able to hold one’s own and in fighting for what is right. Which means she can kick some serious butt if it comes down to it.

She is also the only important character in the story without any in-game sprites. That doesn’t mean you won’t get to see her in cg’s though.

Although Lena believes in being strong, she soon realises that in reality she has hardly ever made an independent choice in her life. She also comes to the realisation that these choices will end up having great consequences for everything around her.

One of the key points I had in mind when starting out on Blue Rose, was that I wanted a protagonist with a clear, strong personality. She would have a name, a face and an important role in what happens. She is not just the protagonist, but the centre of the story – and the reader will go through the events together with her, aiding her in her choices.

Hopefully you will enjoy this journey when it’s finally done – and that you’ll be able to care for Lena, even in spite of her faults.

I just love Rorona's running animation!

One thing that really saddens me when playing Atelier Rorona, is that the time restraints really limit what you can do. There are so many possibilities in that game, but you have to replay the same parts over and become awesome at time management to do them, and then you still have to settle for certain goals that you want to pull through.

This gives the game a great challenge, but at some point it gets too frustrating. What I really wish Rorona had, was an unlockable endless mode. A sort of sandbox that you could play through after finishing the game, trying out the harder dungeons and searching for those recipes you never really had time to get before, levelling characters and just plain experimenting with all the cool features.

Then when you get tired of that and want a challenge, you can start over and chase down that elusive ending you always wanted.

I feel like playing the game a little more casually, exploring all the possibilities. Just starting the game over from scratch and race through it again is a bit… meh.

Why must you torment me so, Rorona!?

—

Isn’t it amazing? The famous visual novel Cross Channel is getting a Xbox360 port. And the limited edition extra is this.

The original release of Cross Channel was rated 18+ for PC. Many will add this information together with that limited edition and reach the very same impression:

“Eeew those crazy Japanese and their sex games!!”

What a perfect example of the niche that Japanese visual novels have dug themselves into, even when releasing a non-adult port of their game. When presenting visual novels to outsiders, it won’t take them long to find out that these games really originated from interactive sex stories (and mostly stayed there). And that’s a real shame, at least I believe so, as I have really come to love the medium of visual novels.

“Rage! Why present the games like this? Stupid public who don’t know anything! Visual novels are so much more than sex, you know!”

Let’s see….

The developers:

In reality the ones who do this to games like Cross Channel are the developers themselves. When looking at marketing like that, how can you blame news sites for presenting the products that way? Or the readers for getting the “wrong idea”?

Now, Cross Channel is just an easy example to bring up because of these news. I read Cross Channel myself. Even in spite of reading the version with no detailed sex scenes, it was definitely still an adult story. It also showed me a very interesting way to present and tell a story, even if the trip through it was quite long-winded at times.

FlyingShine may have had something good going there, but in its presentation they never tried to push the game as anything else but an outlet for gushing over cute girls. By reading the non 18+ version, did I miss out on anything important? No. Circumstances of the protagonist and the bloody happenings in the plot gave reasons why the game will always be for an adult audience, but in spite of that there is no reason why it would ever have to be with porn included.

And it’s the same thing for countless other VN companies out there. You have something interesting, but instead they will mostly be marketed as entertainment for lonely men/women. (And be stuffed with fluffy/racy content to live up to the hype).

Is it really needed? In some stories adult scenes may be appropriate for what the writer/artist wishes to convey. Most of the time they are just fillers.

Even games that are not 18+ will often be marketed just the same way.

Reception / The fans:

When discussing the erotic content in visual novels, it often ends with a debate on whether said content should be included or not. Sometimes the discussion is a civil one, other times not.

Many will complain that removing erotic scenes is censoring – and yeah, censorship sucks and all that. Some will even go as far as to say that removing it is crippling the involved creator’s artistic expression, but I wouldn’t go that far. That would only be true in the very (very) few cases where those scenes actually mean something.

On the flip side, how much are you crippling the creator’s artistic impression when you force erotic content in there in order for the intended audience to even look at the work?

In the case of a story like Kanon, this is said to be the case. In recent times Key has even moved on to create their games as “all ages” first, then create reprints with added sexual content to appease fans.

Then what is it when a game like Little Busters gets translated, but some of those same fans complain “that they are not doing the 18+ version, bah!”? Isn’t that editing the original product as well…?

In the end most sex scenes are just extra content, made for the enjoyment of fans. Remove them and you lose little of the story, just as you won’t loose anything by removing X standard lunch break scene. But it will have a serious impact on the image of said story.
Besides, if a writer cannot convey the feelings between two people to the reader without showing graphical sex scenes, that writer isn’t very good to begin with.

Boo, you want my precious galge banned!

I’m not writing this to try and convince anyone that all 18+ visual novels should have their adult scenes removed, or that they shouldn’t exist to begin with. I’m just saying that if you want other people to take these things seriously, at least try to do it with the right arguments, and don’t give excuses.

Besides, the erotic content itself isn’t the only result of this situation – not every visual novel in existence has to be stuffed with the tooth-rotting and predictable cuteness that is considered obligatory for the intended audience these days.

Even I think that mindless entertainment can be great, but it would be nice if visual novels could be seen as something more diverse, like other mediums are, instead of having all their titles lumped together in the same pot.

If visual novels are ever to be seen as anything else than dating games for lonely people, then it’s going to take a lot of change in how these games are presented and marketed. If a title is truly meant to be something else, then it should let go of its seedy roots and be something else. The image of the product is also part of the developer and publishers responsibility, so if you’re going to blame someone, start by blaming them. At the same time the fans need to let go of some of their preconceptions of what they believe a visual novel should be.

I really need to practice more. Anyway, have a random sketch.

Some days a w.i.p drawing just looks awesome while you’re working on it, but then when it’s done, you look at it and think ’OMG what was I doing!?’

Ewww (especially when mirrored).

At times I get lucky and I only need to clean up the lineart a bit and make sure the head has the right shape (one of my sloppy areas). And then there are times when proportions are thrown out the window and they look like that example up there…

Poor Erin.

Actually I could redraw the whole thing and that might be easier, but I’m too lazy. So instead I try to patch up the lineart I have, although the amount of work ends up pretty much the same!

Hours later…

Yay, much better!

After this, I can finally go on to drawing her different expressions and send her off to my colourist… until next time I open the file and realise ‘aww I should have fixed this and that too!!’ <_<;;

I’ve never really been into action figures as I like the quality of static figures more. But these just appeal to me somehow. (And they often choose characters that I really like).

Come on, me! Stop checking up on new figma releases already so you won’t get tempted!

<><><>

2010:

In the beginning of 2010 I was chatting with some friends, discussing what we were hoping to do in the new year. My humble hope was to at least finish the script of the large VN I had begun working on, Blue Rose. Much to my relief I succeeded in this goal! Not too long ago the final route was finally written, and the script is now going through proofreading and editing.

Also, through the power of outsourcing, all backgrounds and in-game music tracks were finished before the new year as well! Blue Rose has really seen a lot of progress, and now I’m focusing on finishing character lineart and just got a great colourist on board.

As a part of my work with Blue Rose something else happened in 2010 – I finally decided to found my little commercial game company, White Cat. So far it has had a humble beginning. I haven’t really done any advertising as I haven’t finished any real products yet, but I made a small site for it and also decided on a name. Hopefully it will all look a little better by the time I have something to sell. 

I also released the two very short vn’s, My Eternal Rival and Dust, both part of events running on Teacup and both somewhat related to each other.

My Eternal Rival was a bit of an experiment in making fast but pretty visuals for a short mini-story. I think I succeeded in this – even though the sprites for this game definitely have their faults, they are still some of my prettiest art on my DA portfolio. (Damn, makes me cry when I work so long and hard on other things!)

-

Non-VN related things:

Unfortunately I had to pretty much shove Angelic Orbs aside in 2010. Nothing at all has been made for this story this year. Le sigh.

A secondary project for White Cat was begun though, the small rpg called “The Nest Egg”. This was for when Blue Rose was driving me nuts.

And then were regular commissions taking over from time to time…

Phew, even though I didn’t really release anything major, it still felt like an awfully busy year…

<><><> 

2011:

A new year! So, what will I hope to accomplish this time? 

-         Release Blue Rose sometime in the first half of 2011. Go-go!

-         Promote The Nest Egg to primary project

-         Begin work on ??? as new secondary project (won’t reveal anything about this one yet.)

Those are what is certain. Then follows wishful thinking:

-         Return to work on Angelic Orbs ;_;

-         Blue Rose is amazingly successful <_<

-         Finish another game!

-         Improoove on… everything. 

-

That’s it for this long summary post. See you all in 2011

What I didn’t mention in the earlier blog post is that a major milestone has been reached in the development of Blue Rose – the script is practically complete! The last word of the last ending has been written, completing all 5 routes of the story. Huzzah!

When I say “practically” it means that I still need to make another few runs through the script and fill up any gaps that connect all the branching that occurs in a game such as this. And after that, I’ll have to pass it on to a couple of proofreaders for a final check. (Anyone interested?)

As for other parts of production, I can say that almost all background pictures are done as well. A good deal of character art (sprites and CG’s) have been finished too, except they only exist as lineart thus far. Half the music is as good as done, and I’m getting more of that shortly.

So that’s pretty much it. Sounds good, but there is still far too much work left! (I still have to code it all together, *le sigh*.) Which means I better get back to it.

But here you have the main cast of the game – the protagonist Lena in the front, and all the pursue-able characters around her:

Click for larger image

Aran is being all mysterious in the back, turning his face away from the audience. Not to make him super mysterious or anything, but he’s never been that close with the rest of the group anyway! You’ll get to see what he actually looks like later…

Character names from left to right: Gavin, Lena in front, Aran in the back, Erin, Tobias looking annoyed in the front and lastly Simon.

Now back to drawing art that actually appears in-game…

I have been writing on this story for a little over a year now, most intently the past couple of months, and it has now grown past 105.000 words which means the end result will be more than twice as long as Angelic Orbs. Of course this one also has 5 “capture-able” characters which increases the volume of story by quite a bit.

The first pieces of real, finished art have also started to trickle in! (Mostly because I’m not making it, hah.)

I got a real talented BG artist on the team, and he has made some pretty promising things so far. I’m looking forward to when the parts of script already inserted into renpy will evolve to more than just a black screen with text. I want to show it off… but I should probably wait… <_<;

Character lineart (which I am doing) has also begun taking shape now, you saw a short glimpse of Simon’s sprite in the last blog post. I have some ideas of how to use art in this game that I hope I can pull off.

Hmm making interesting blog posts about a game is hard when art is one of the last things to be produced – no shiny pictures to post…

So… all I really need to get sorted is music. (I’ll be looking for a colourist soon too, but that I’m not as worried about at the moment.)

There is no end to this! OTL