Cosplay Crisis full version released

You can get it here


Enjoy!

Been a while

Yes it has! I didn't go anywhere with the series game design thing. I might still, but I lost all the work in progress script data for End of Light, and I had compiled a lot of tedious crap and have yet to gain motivation for it again.
Rather, I have spent the last five or so weeks watching Ao No Exorcist, or 'The Exorcist of Blue Flames'. It's pretty much the story of a human kid who finds out he's the son of Satan and swears he's going to kill him. And a lot of other bullshit happens. Episode 22 was...particularly mind-blowing, to say at the least. At least it got somewhere- episodes 20 and 21 were awful filler crap I didn't even care about. Overall though the anime has been a good experience, and given I see it as seperate to the manga because of its deviation away from it, I'm going to be able to enjoy both :)
Anyway I've been highly considering doing a game based on the anime where you could play through the episodes. I was originally going to do Episode 8- the Esquire Exam, but I was thinking of doing an original level called Episode 18.5- Yukio's Nightmare. A lot of Yukio's feelings aren't explored in the anime, because Rin gets all the expositional monologuing and inner thoughts. Yukio is much more mysterious, especially since he isn't given to expression. He is quite quiet, reserved, and hates getting angry- though he does have a temper at his core. At least in the anime!

It basically leaves me room to do some explorative stuff. Of course, fanbased, but hey, I'm a decent writer! Don't underestimate my skills just 'cause I'm eighteen. I've been writing for a long time and I'm relatively good at reading people and a situation- as long as I'm face to face! I hate phonecalls :C

Anyway I'll be messing with the battle system and how I'm going to do the backgrounds. I want to practice pixelling as well as battle portraits, so I'm doing total sideview.
This is an early wip:


But the perspective is screwy so I have lots more work to do (plus redrafts...:c). For the Yukio's Nightmare stage I need Yukio's run/walk, his and Rin's battle graphics, several other characters and the stage boss. It is deliberately shorter than most stages (because it is a nightmare) but still shows off some goodies. Plus the good thing about the stage's boss is that if I do continue the game I can use its battle graphics for Stage 23. You know. Next week's episode. .3.

Serious Game Development

Recently, I had an urge to make a visual novel after playing Eastern Starlight Romance: Eternal Dilemma. In case you hadn't heard, I'm a fairly avid Touhou fan these days. Most music I listen to are remixes of the music and usually when I want a break I'll play some bullet hell goodness.

The game's demo can be found here, for those interested: http://dsd.faceroll.net/

This, obviously, is not what this blog is about.

No, the engine, Ren'Py, what that game was made with, is available for commercial distribution and use on the Android and PC platforms. Since I'm an artist and a writer, and the coding for Ren'Py is pretty simple...I could feasibly sell a game. I have a composer waiting in the wings, who has offered to do my work for free...but after some practice ;p

Would it be worth it, I wonder? Would that be selling out my dreams and ideals...not really, I think. But I do plan on getting into game development as a serious field, and that sort of thing could give me a real leg up in getting into a related course.

If I was going to do so I'd have to really look at the market and start considering things like that. Namely this would call for an official name change, which was planned anyway.

For all games released by me and my imaginary team from now on, it'll be under the title of Sorcery Studios, if it isn't taken. If it is, not too hard to come up with something else, but Sorceress Studios is a tad sexist. Just a tad.

Other things I'd have to consider is the level of skill involved in the games that do get published and what I'd have to do to get my game out there. I'm no where near as good as tooya, who did the artwork for Re:Alistair++, which was available for free. But if I was to decide to publish said game, I'd probably be shunned from indie game communities who freak at the concept of donations. =3=. Not to mention I can't get any commissions.

My biggest hook is usually my story. I'm a fairly decent writer, and if I could get a game that looked decent and read professionally, why not sell it? I worked hard on it, after all.

But anyway, moving on. I started learning Ren'Py, of course. It seems far easier to understand than novelty (Yes, I have looked into VN development before). I got the first 'scene' done text and code wise, but of course, I haven't worked on any art yet. Don't really plan too either.

Blood Rose (formerly known as DarkXBlood to all you stalkers) is progressing well. I've got the first frame of Sidian's idle pose done and the first scene in the game fully evented. Still missing graphics and such and such because I'm a slow worker with a lot on my plate. I finished up Emile's default faceset buuuuttt I'm not posting it because apparently it looks like something from a porn movie?

As for the visual novel idea's story...it's AST business as usual, though it's much more traditional in terms of Japanese manga. School kids, drama, etc. It, like Blood Rose, is a prequel, though it takes place a few years before the main stories. The story, currently titled End of Light, will be the first official return of Jackson in game form since the craptastic release of Darkseed: Revival. Yes, THAT Jackson. However, he's fourteen here, as are the rest of the characters. It's a month or so prior to the beginning of the original Darkseed, and it also starts off Kaira's journey to become an Organization agent. End of Light is more or less told from Kaira's perspective as odd things begin to occur around her, Jackson and Lex.
End of Light crosses over into Darkseed territory, and ends when Jackson's...uh...'ability' awakens, which is the only part of the novel that is not told from Kaira's view point. The original Darkseed has this occur two chapters into the story. And no I didn't see the symbolism in the two titles until just now. I have skillz.

If I had time, I wouldn't mind polishing up and rewriting Darkseed... probably just because Jackson and Lex have a major brawl as it nears the ending. I like writing fight scenes. Especially between friends, and plus, it's one of the few times where Jackson ends up on the other end of the spectrum.
I'll leave it at that.