New Project under works:
Yeah. Please rate ;w;
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
92nd Day
Lately, me and my friend have been talking about Visual Novels. I realized there's some misunderstandings about it and I saw this nice thread in Novelty forums, I thought I'd share :)
What is a visual novel?
What is a visual novel?
Visual novels are interactive fiction games that focus heavily on plot. Most people in the west mistake visual novels as simply dating sims, but true fans know that this is a common misconception. While dating sims share an EXTREMELY similar look, when played they are noticeably different.
The gameplay for visual novels is quite minimum, except for a few exceptions, normally consisting of reading text and making a choice to influence the game ending. Some games have over 100 choices and nearly 15 or more endings while some are linear.Many visual novels feature voice acting, but fan made doujin games are easily spotted because of their lack in this category. The point of view can be anything from first, third or god mode. The genre's vary from slice of life to graphic horror, and the content can feature way too many ero scenes or none at all.
Visual novels also make up more than half of all Japanese computer games released each year, doujin and official.
Visual Novel Proper VS Adventure Game
The differences between visual novel proper (NVL) games and Japanese adventure games (ADV) are often lost to the western market, as adventure games have a completely different meaning in America and other western countries. Almost all visual novels licensed in the US are actually ADVs, which are technically still visual novels. The real difference is the way the text is displayed and other elements inside the game itself. Lately, I have noticed a downfall of NVL style games and a rise of ADV style visual novels, most likely due to the immense popularity of the reading format even if the only game play is "click an option, click to continue".
An example of NVL:
An example of ADV:
It is also possible to combine the two views. One is that when in a monologue, the scene shifts to NVL mode and when they start talking, they shift to ADV mode.
To Branch or Stay Kinetic , That is the Question
The easy way to tell apart a Branching visual novel and a kinetic visual novel is this: can you make choices? If you can, than you have a branching visual novel that most likely has multiple endings. Some branching games do not, and the choices only influence the content before the ending like Utawarerumono (a branching game, but not a branching plot). No choices in sight? Then you have a kinetic one in your hands, just read and enjoy.
Branching Examples:
Fate/Stay Night (notorious amount of Bad Endings), Katawa Shoujo and Phoenix Wright
Kinetic Examples:
Narcissu, The Noose, 40 Days and Nights of Rain
Erotic content, why are you here?
Unfortunately, some popular visual novels seem to fall under the "required Hollywood sex scene" disease... There are many games like Yume Miru Kusuri, Tears to Tiara and 11eyes that could have done with absolutely no erotic content whatsoever because of beautiful story lines, while games like Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni and Ever 17 are extremly popular and have no ero content at all. Some visual novels are just that, erotic scenes . However, others like Fate/Stay Night, Silver Chaos, and Saya no Uta have very nicely done ero scenes that seem to advance characters or plot instead of simply adding fan service and I find that to be a very nice medium. The choice of adding these scenes is up to the maker, and a decent balance will make players who normally don't like ero scenes not mind them at all.
Other terms to know (will be updated when I find out more stuff)
Genre: as I said visual novels can be ANY genre. And I mean any genre. just look them up, you'll see.
Side elements: games like Utawarerumono and Phoenix Wright have these. These aren't simply novels but games that require extra input from the player in order to advance.
Sound Novel: A very... hard to describe term... these are where visual novels originated from. This consist of the NVL format, background music and sound effects. Like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and The Noose (Zigzag).
Originally from here and I edited it a bit. But that's basically it~
The gameplay for visual novels is quite minimum, except for a few exceptions, normally consisting of reading text and making a choice to influence the game ending. Some games have over 100 choices and nearly 15 or more endings while some are linear.Many visual novels feature voice acting, but fan made doujin games are easily spotted because of their lack in this category. The point of view can be anything from first, third or god mode. The genre's vary from slice of life to graphic horror, and the content can feature way too many ero scenes or none at all.
Visual novels also make up more than half of all Japanese computer games released each year, doujin and official.
Visual Novel Proper VS Adventure Game
The differences between visual novel proper (NVL) games and Japanese adventure games (ADV) are often lost to the western market, as adventure games have a completely different meaning in America and other western countries. Almost all visual novels licensed in the US are actually ADVs, which are technically still visual novels. The real difference is the way the text is displayed and other elements inside the game itself. Lately, I have noticed a downfall of NVL style games and a rise of ADV style visual novels, most likely due to the immense popularity of the reading format even if the only game play is "click an option, click to continue".
An example of NVL:
An example of ADV:
It is also possible to combine the two views. One is that when in a monologue, the scene shifts to NVL mode and when they start talking, they shift to ADV mode.
To Branch or Stay Kinetic , That is the Question
The easy way to tell apart a Branching visual novel and a kinetic visual novel is this: can you make choices? If you can, than you have a branching visual novel that most likely has multiple endings. Some branching games do not, and the choices only influence the content before the ending like Utawarerumono (a branching game, but not a branching plot). No choices in sight? Then you have a kinetic one in your hands, just read and enjoy.
Branching Examples:
Fate/Stay Night (notorious amount of Bad Endings), Katawa Shoujo and Phoenix Wright
Kinetic Examples:
Narcissu, The Noose, 40 Days and Nights of Rain
Erotic content, why are you here?
Unfortunately, some popular visual novels seem to fall under the "required Hollywood sex scene" disease... There are many games like Yume Miru Kusuri, Tears to Tiara and 11eyes that could have done with absolutely no erotic content whatsoever because of beautiful story lines, while games like Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni and Ever 17 are extremly popular and have no ero content at all. Some visual novels are just that, erotic scenes . However, others like Fate/Stay Night, Silver Chaos, and Saya no Uta have very nicely done ero scenes that seem to advance characters or plot instead of simply adding fan service and I find that to be a very nice medium. The choice of adding these scenes is up to the maker, and a decent balance will make players who normally don't like ero scenes not mind them at all.
Other terms to know (will be updated when I find out more stuff)
Genre: as I said visual novels can be ANY genre. And I mean any genre. just look them up, you'll see.
Side elements: games like Utawarerumono and Phoenix Wright have these. These aren't simply novels but games that require extra input from the player in order to advance.
Sound Novel: A very... hard to describe term... these are where visual novels originated from. This consist of the NVL format, background music and sound effects. Like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and The Noose (Zigzag).
Originally from here and I edited it a bit. But that's basically it~
Monday, March 15, 2010
91st Day
I suddenly remembered something, so I went to youtube to check it out. And it's finally done! You guys should totally check it out, very smooth animation wwwww :D
Thank you very much HW for all the support~!
Friday, March 12, 2010
90th Day
I was randomly browsing Lacrima and I saw BLAZE UNION. All I know is that it's the prequel to Yggdra Union and I'm not even sure if it's part of the Dept. Heaven Series because it's being made by a different team. One thing though, I wish the artists were Satoko Kiyuduki and Sunaho Tobe instead because their designs are INSANE, but instead we get Kousaki Rui, I mean nothing against the artist but, it's not Dept. Heaven if it's not either of those two ;_;
That said, I've been on a Visual Novel binge @_@;
That said, I've been on a Visual Novel binge @_@;
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
89th Day
This blog has been abnormally depressing, time to move on to the good stuff and be optimistic!
Our game Valthirian Arc has been posted in a Japanese site, wwwwwww, I wish I can understand what they are saying though. :D
Ooh got one translated, #37, it says, "Why does this look so Japanese? I thought it was made in Japan at first." My friends told me it's a compliment, so YEY~!
And about the riviera rip offs, I've been transferring an old complete 2k3 game of mine to VX as a break from Night of Marian from time to time, doing all custom is an annoying task at times to be honest, specially when it just won't appear right sometimes ;(
I've been also investigating how Yanfly Engine Melody works, it's pretty amazing! Knowing Yanfly's speed record, I bet the engine will be done in a few weeks time ._.
And I need more games to feature here, I'll look for some :)
Monday, March 8, 2010
88th Day
From the looks of the hearing earlier, it might be a no but they're still deciding. They want us to pay $520-ish dollars for them to reconsider the papers something like that as an option....
Oh well!
Time to go back to work.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
87th Day
Judgement point is tomorrow, I'm very nervous :(But there's something I need to clarify, the hearing is about me going to be a permanent resident or not, not some kind of I was a drug addict or anything! We got rejected at first because I had an autistic sister so the hearing is like some kind of chance for us to get accepted to Australia.
I am not quitting game making just because of college, it's the fact I am going to -live- in the Philippines is the reason I had to quit game making, I need to focus on in-demand jobs that I don't even like, if I want to survive that place, competition is brutal and as I said, your daily expenses is much more expensive than your salary! :(
I might be being too pessimistic though but from what I experienced it really felt that way and my mother had to stay up like the whole day to work and barely getting enough sleep and my dad going home very late at night. As much as possible I want to support them to get my autistic sister treated (she's not that bad, she can understand stuff but her attention span is very short and stuff).
And it amazes me that according to analytics, I have a lot of Australian visitors. In fact #2! Hi there 'w')/
Welp, wish me luck! I'll still try to work on the game making scene if I find the time. I definitely want to see Marian and Advent Cirno done AND work on Valthrian Arc Sequel.
Let's Survive.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
85th Day
I figured this'll be the perfect time to tell what's going on.
Basically so to speak, my future is screwed by one small decision and is going to get spat on again. I cannot tell the details but let's just say that this March 6th there'll be a hearing and from there on I'm not sure if I can work on Marian anymore.
If not, well, I'll just release what I have here and say goodbye to game making probably. But here's hoping it'll be an optimistic decision!
For why I'm disappearing, here's why:
I have a lot of catching up to do and I'll have to do real work and save money and then fix my school records then study for months for college but before that I have to hunt down every possible universities I can find and take a test that involves 7 subjects on each uni then get into college with suitable course so I can survive in the philippines ._. note that the everyday needs is a lot more expensive than your monthly salary