Yes, a wallpaper sized Misha vector, staring right at your soul.
It's a bit huge, 2560*1600 but I don't care. Also here is a 4:3 version (1600*1200) for the non-widescreen folks.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
I might want to. Maybe.
Would you like to be greeted by THIS every time you boot your computer?
Yes, a wallpaper sized Misha vector, staring right at your soul.
It's a bit huge, 2560*1600 but I don't care. Also here is a 4:3 version (1600*1200) for the non-widescreen folks.
Yes, a wallpaper sized Misha vector, staring right at your soul.
It's a bit huge, 2560*1600 but I don't care. Also here is a 4:3 version (1600*1200) for the non-widescreen folks.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
(Dis)advantages
The real life Emi (except he is a man, tall and not moe), Oscar Pistorius, got the permission to attend the Beijing Olympic games as an athlete representing South Africa.
All kinds of interesting controversy has floated around the topic of Pistorius' possible attending, mostly the fear that he might actually be superior to the pathetic fleshbags. IAAF initially cockblocked him out by banning "technical aids", which would also mean prosthetic legs. I guess it is a valid worry, prosthetics don't need oxygen to run (no metaboly = no lactic acids slowing you down lol) and their energy return efficiency is significantly greater than that of biological legs. That's not to say that he is faster than completely biological humans (he is not), just that it might be easier for him to run at high speeds because of the advantage the prosthetics give him. In a word, he can run faster than he "should be able to"(what an awful choice of words) and that is be terrible. Well, Pistorius appealed and in the end, IAAF had to permit his attending. He of course still has to actually qualify for the games, but this must be a great victory for him.
It's not hard to predict that not too long into the future, thanks to the advancement of technology, the disabled people actually become more able than the "able-bodied ones". As seen here, IAAF probably won't welcome their new cyborg overlords which means the actual Olympics likely will be closed for the disabled people (damn is this the new racial segregation?). So, will we then be watching the paralympics as the supreme sports event where the sprinters run 100m in less than six seconds or whatever?
In the game too, we deal with the topic of disadvantages being advantages or at least not too limiting factors to the lives of the characters. Emi is incredibly able at the running track, Rin's prodigious flexibility makes her capable of leading a relatively normal life without *constant* help from others and the entire deaf/mute student base of the school is just talking a weird foreign language (which sign language is, even in real life). It's an interesting theme, especially when combined with the premise of the game, the school for the disabled children. To me, a school like Yamaku is an ethically unsolved problem. It's neat to have the kids to be in a school, but sometimes it feels like some kind of an internment camp. We've argued over and over again whether some of our characters (Hanako, Hisao etc) should be at a school like ours, but should a school like that exist in the first place (fictionally or in real life)?
All kinds of interesting controversy has floated around the topic of Pistorius' possible attending, mostly the fear that he might actually be superior to the pathetic fleshbags. IAAF initially cockblocked him out by banning "technical aids", which would also mean prosthetic legs. I guess it is a valid worry, prosthetics don't need oxygen to run (no metaboly = no lactic acids slowing you down lol) and their energy return efficiency is significantly greater than that of biological legs. That's not to say that he is faster than completely biological humans (he is not), just that it might be easier for him to run at high speeds because of the advantage the prosthetics give him. In a word, he can run faster than he "should be able to"(what an awful choice of words) and that is be terrible. Well, Pistorius appealed and in the end, IAAF had to permit his attending. He of course still has to actually qualify for the games, but this must be a great victory for him.
It's not hard to predict that not too long into the future, thanks to the advancement of technology, the disabled people actually become more able than the "able-bodied ones". As seen here, IAAF probably won't welcome their new cyborg overlords which means the actual Olympics likely will be closed for the disabled people (damn is this the new racial segregation?). So, will we then be watching the paralympics as the supreme sports event where the sprinters run 100m in less than six seconds or whatever?
In the game too, we deal with the topic of disadvantages being advantages or at least not too limiting factors to the lives of the characters. Emi is incredibly able at the running track, Rin's prodigious flexibility makes her capable of leading a relatively normal life without *constant* help from others and the entire deaf/mute student base of the school is just talking a weird foreign language (which sign language is, even in real life). It's an interesting theme, especially when combined with the premise of the game, the school for the disabled children. To me, a school like Yamaku is an ethically unsolved problem. It's neat to have the kids to be in a school, but sometimes it feels like some kind of an internment camp. We've argued over and over again whether some of our characters (Hanako, Hisao etc) should be at a school like ours, but should a school like that exist in the first place (fictionally or in real life)?
Friday, May 30, 2008
Developer Stream of Consciousness, chapter 23
Fragmented thoughts I have had as of late and related newsish things
Developing a game slowly is preferred here.
Which is why I have at least two dozen ideas for the fabled "next project".
Related to the above- 1984: The Eroge must see the light of the day somehow.
Even more related: a character design for Syme-ko, by moekki iirc:
Orwell's rotation speed in his grave would probably be enough to power three medium-sized cities at this point.
If someone lives in a dorm and owns a camera, getting us some pictures of various dorm rooms could be potentially awesome. We need backgrounds. Contact us if you can help.
Addition to above: Also the rooftop of the school would be superb.
We also have yet again broken milestones with word counts, thank god it's over soon.
God damn Emi is tiny. Her ingame sprite looks ridiculously cute because of its miniscule size when compared to everything else show on the screen. She's like some kind of a moe midget.
I hope KS wasn't the first game we'd made. I don't think there is a single thing we have done "right", at least from the get-go... and as a result there are all kinds of suboptimal solutions and funny things.
Still, it seems to work and it's good. So no complaints. And it progresses. Slowly as the steps of Shimako on the ginko-leaf covered walkpaths of Lillian.
Which is what we prefer.
Aura
Developing a game slowly is preferred here.
Which is why I have at least two dozen ideas for the fabled "next project".
Related to the above- 1984: The Eroge must see the light of the day somehow.
Even more related: a character design for Syme-ko, by moekki iirc:
Orwell's rotation speed in his grave would probably be enough to power three medium-sized cities at this point.If someone lives in a dorm and owns a camera, getting us some pictures of various dorm rooms could be potentially awesome. We need backgrounds. Contact us if you can help.
Addition to above: Also the rooftop of the school would be superb.
We also have yet again broken milestones with word counts, thank god it's over soon.
God damn Emi is tiny. Her ingame sprite looks ridiculously cute because of its miniscule size when compared to everything else show on the screen. She's like some kind of a moe midget.
I hope KS wasn't the first game we'd made. I don't think there is a single thing we have done "right", at least from the get-go... and as a result there are all kinds of suboptimal solutions and funny things.
Still, it seems to work and it's good. So no complaints. And it progresses. Slowly as the steps of Shimako on the ginko-leaf covered walkpaths of Lillian.
Which is what we prefer.
Aura
Friday, May 16, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Developer Diaries, chapter 22
After a month of procrastinating because nobody cares (except the guy on /jp/ who sparked me writing this):
All Quiet on the Western Front
Unsurprisingly, nothing particularly special happens progresswise, more words/art come in every week and that's about it. Well, we do have kinda many source photos for the backgrounds now which is very nice, just that some could always be better and obviously the missing ones are harder to get. Directing the game is still behind and stalled for the most part, but it'll get done eventually. The first draft of script is surprisingly close to finished (relatively speaking), after that we just have to race against the artists to see who gets their shit polished and finished first.
On the hilarious sideprojects front however, delta is working on the solution to make translating the game easy and userfriendly, in the hopes of making KS the Asterix of visual novels (guess how many languages/dialects Asterix has been translated to). His aspirations are not completely unbased, as parts of the script have already been translated to Italian.
4LS had its first anniversary a few days ago, marked by the date when crud took over the project leading, even though we didn't start thinking ourselves as a group external to the project until later. Looking back at the past year, it's a god damn miracle this project still exists and is doing so well, so happy birthday 4LS and may the game be out before the next one.
-Aura
All Quiet on the Western Front
Unsurprisingly, nothing particularly special happens progresswise, more words/art come in every week and that's about it. Well, we do have kinda many source photos for the backgrounds now which is very nice, just that some could always be better and obviously the missing ones are harder to get. Directing the game is still behind and stalled for the most part, but it'll get done eventually. The first draft of script is surprisingly close to finished (relatively speaking), after that we just have to race against the artists to see who gets their shit polished and finished first.
On the hilarious sideprojects front however, delta is working on the solution to make translating the game easy and userfriendly, in the hopes of making KS the Asterix of visual novels (guess how many languages/dialects Asterix has been translated to). His aspirations are not completely unbased, as parts of the script have already been translated to Italian.
4LS had its first anniversary a few days ago, marked by the date when crud took over the project leading, even though we didn't start thinking ourselves as a group external to the project until later. Looking back at the past year, it's a god damn miracle this project still exists and is doing so well, so happy birthday 4LS and may the game be out before the next one.
-Aura
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
4LS ANNOUNCES NEW PROJECT "KSS"
Our group announces a new OELVN (Original English Language Visual Novel) in the works, in collaboration with our Fringe Staff members called "KSS" standing for "Katawa Shoujo Shoujo," a play on the first game we are already working on.
To summarize, KSS is a visual novel project created from a spontaneous string of events (all of which are very weird in their own way).
You are introduced to the numerous main cast members one by one as the story begins. From a Czechoslovakian to a Brazilian, from French to Italian, American to Russian, and so on, you get to choose which girl you want to date from these lovely multi-national girls. The girls' personalities range from hot-cold personalities (or tsundere), warm and sweet personalities, and even stalkers. You also have various bust sizes (though nothing over F cup, for those that hate ridiculously huge breasts), ages and so on to go with the game's theme of "variation".
Sample character art:
To summarize, KSS is a visual novel project created from a spontaneous string of events (all of which are very weird in their own way).
Story
The game takes place in Sydney, Australia. A school is founded in the early 1990's with the sole purpose of being multi-cultural. With the current time being early 2005, the school has grown from its humble roots, and has expanded in almost every way. Rather than being students in an exchange student program, people from around the world who truly wish to learn the English language, other cultures and the like go to this school to learn everything they could ever want to learn. The game takes place inside the high school division of the school, focusing on the relationships of the various girls in the story. Yes, girls. Apparently, despite the school not being gender-centric, it has an overflowing amount of female students; due to the various advantages to women the school has to offer. Be advised that even despite the game being lesbian-centric (or yuri, as the Japanese call it), there are indeed normal male-to-female relationships available in this game, despite few. Due to the humongous amount of characters in the main cast, you can enjoy the game and its various stories.You are introduced to the numerous main cast members one by one as the story begins. From a Czechoslovakian to a Brazilian, from French to Italian, American to Russian, and so on, you get to choose which girl you want to date from these lovely multi-national girls. The girls' personalities range from hot-cold personalities (or tsundere), warm and sweet personalities, and even stalkers. You also have various bust sizes (though nothing over F cup, for those that hate ridiculously huge breasts), ages and so on to go with the game's theme of "variation".
Gameplay
The game will start with you choosing which branch (out of three total story branches) that you want to play through. Each branch has its own set of characters, despite everyone being in the same school/location/area. Each branch will also have its own style of gameplay, varying from the standard POV (point of view) to styles never been used much, or even not at all yet. The game will still retain its "choose your adventure" style, like with every visual novel made, to stay true to our roots, and to provide choices for the player in order to get the girl he/she so desires. Due to the immense amount of characters, this was the only way to do so, to make sure that the theme of variation is still contained in the game itself. Think "a Negima visual novel, but without Negi" or something among those lines, and there's your description for the game.
Summary
This will probably be the first OELVN to utilize an immense amount of characters and storylines, unless someone is already working on one. With all sorts of craziness being packed into this game, and the humongous amount of work going to be put into it (I pity the artist, unless he gets a lot of help), this will be a game to wait for. And yes, it's a free game.Sample character art:
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