Funny intermission: the full script of KS dumped into Wordle. Open for analysis/interpretation.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
State of the Shoujo
"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"
- Mark Twain
Words to live and (not) die by. With midyear approaching and around 18 months having gone by since the project started, it's time for a status update.
Writing:
Hanako's path is in post-production. This is a process wherein, after the entire first draft of the path is completed, the path writer and all staff have a look at the script - from the lowest levels of sentence structures and wordings to character roles and overall plot. Large swaths of the paths will be rewritten during this time, with close contact between all staff members as to what should be changed.
Lilly's path is a hair's breath away from having the first-draft complete and going into post-production.
Rin's path is trundling along, and is almost over as far as the first-draft goes.
Shizune and Emi's paths are also moving ahead, with the ends in sight for both.
Overall, the writing's coming to the end of first-draft path creation for all the paths, and into post-production as a whole.
Art:
Well.
That's coming along quite nicely.
With regards to sprites, Emi's are advancing fastest as far as the main heroines go, with Misha surging ahead in the side-character stakes. The good nurse is entirely done, with all his sprites lined, coloured and inserted, with Muto's sprites not far behind.
Backgrounds are proceeding faster than ever before. Which is to say, they're moving at all. With photos for many of the needed locales found and shopped, they're being inserted as they're done. That isn't to say we have photos for all needed placed, though. Several areas have become a sticking point, with photos for them being badly needed. As such, if you think you have, or can take, photos for these places, please pop on over to the forums and post them. As per the last background call, any submitted photos will need to be in the public domain. The list is as follows:
CGs will begin production when the sprites required for Act 1 are finished, with an eye to finishing a demo for release before organising art assets for the paths proper. Yes, a demo. No, it won't be here tomorrow, nor next week. Yes, we're working on it.
An official website will be going up at an as-of-yet uncertain point in the future, serving as a first point of information about what the game is like.
Rumours:
Let's kill a few of these:
Things are moving forwards. Are we ahead of where we were six months ago? Very much so. Every week a scene is posted and/or more art comes in. Despite fitting this project around all our own lives, we've managed to come this far and have no intention of giving up when this project is at it's strongest point. We hope that, despite our problems, the end result will be more than worth the wait. Nobody wants it to be more than we do.
Good night, and good luck.
- Mark Twain
Words to live and (not) die by. With midyear approaching and around 18 months having gone by since the project started, it's time for a status update.
Writing:
Hanako's path is in post-production. This is a process wherein, after the entire first draft of the path is completed, the path writer and all staff have a look at the script - from the lowest levels of sentence structures and wordings to character roles and overall plot. Large swaths of the paths will be rewritten during this time, with close contact between all staff members as to what should be changed.
Lilly's path is a hair's breath away from having the first-draft complete and going into post-production.
Rin's path is trundling along, and is almost over as far as the first-draft goes.
Shizune and Emi's paths are also moving ahead, with the ends in sight for both.
Overall, the writing's coming to the end of first-draft path creation for all the paths, and into post-production as a whole.
Art:
Well.
That's coming along quite nicely.With regards to sprites, Emi's are advancing fastest as far as the main heroines go, with Misha surging ahead in the side-character stakes. The good nurse is entirely done, with all his sprites lined, coloured and inserted, with Muto's sprites not far behind.
Backgrounds are proceeding faster than ever before. Which is to say, they're moving at all. With photos for many of the needed locales found and shopped, they're being inserted as they're done. That isn't to say we have photos for all needed placed, though. Several areas have become a sticking point, with photos for them being badly needed. As such, if you think you have, or can take, photos for these places, please pop on over to the forums and post them. As per the last background call, any submitted photos will need to be in the public domain. The list is as follows:
- The girl's dormitories (that is, Lilly, Hanako, Shizune, Rin and Emi)
- The school roof (Western-styled)
- Inside various types of stores (a convenience store, an antiques store and an art store)
CGs will begin production when the sprites required for Act 1 are finished, with an eye to finishing a demo for release before organising art assets for the paths proper. Yes, a demo. No, it won't be here tomorrow, nor next week. Yes, we're working on it.
An official website will be going up at an as-of-yet uncertain point in the future, serving as a first point of information about what the game is like.
Rumours:
Let's kill a few of these:
- Yes, there is sex. In every route. I can't say it much more clearly than that.
- No, we don't think this is The Best Goddamn Finger-Licking Piece of God-Given Asskicking Awesomeness Ever. We think it might be a good bit of fun to play once it's released. We hope we achieve this goal.
- No, this project won't self-destruct if an artist leaves (again). We currently have six dedicated artists on the project. Redundancy is a wonderful thing.
- No, the public forums aren't exactly a masterpiece of well-updated information. The best way to check progress is by joining out IRC channel, #zettai-shoujou on irc.rizon.net.
- Yes, there is more than consensual sex in the missionary position with the lights turned off in the game. Not to say there isn't a scene like that though. Maybe.
- Yes, lesbianism is in the game. In a couple of forms. Forms which will not be given in away this blog post.
- No, this game isn't just about having sex with disabled people. Every character has a plot, with varying amounts of integration between them.
- No, we don't all hate 4chan. This project was largely born there, and many of our members visit there. We hear your complaints and criticisms, and when we can, work to address them.
Things are moving forwards. Are we ahead of where we were six months ago? Very much so. Every week a scene is posted and/or more art comes in. Despite fitting this project around all our own lives, we've managed to come this far and have no intention of giving up when this project is at it's strongest point. We hope that, despite our problems, the end result will be more than worth the wait. Nobody wants it to be more than we do.
Good night, and good luck.
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
