SFX

The sounds of games is an important criteria in making a making a game especially in visual novels. It's the small things that matter, as I always have in mind. From the small squeaks of the shoes to the grand musical themes of VNs like a2, sound effects (SFX) make the game realistic and even more enjoyable.

 a2 ~a due~

I've been scavenging here and there for SFX in the internet. I know, it's a little early for the stage of our project, but a huge database for sound effects isn't so bad. Here are some sources that I actually find helpful:

• free SFX
• Freesound
• Freeplay Music

A Visual Novel Project

I'm having too much fun with Ren'Py lately. And with Project B going slow, a friend of mine decided to create a visual novel on the side. It was actually debated whether to just use Novelty or just Ren'Py. Since it's our first attempt at a visual novel, Novelty would've been easy to use. It is more user-friendly for those with no background to programming but at the cost of less features, not that we'll be using all the features of Ren'Py anytime soon.

Well, aside from the wiki of Ren'Py, I have been stalking the Lemmasoft Forums for a while. There are a lot of nice people there and their works. I am pretty excited since the NanoRenai has just ended. 

New Visual Novels galore~!

Happy gaming, everyone!

Time to practice!

I got hooked up in coloring. I do need more practice in cleaning the outline and, of course, the shading. There are just too many layers. The image above was drawn by my good friend. You can check out her blog here.

Digital Arts

I love drawing. But I never had the time to learn digital arts.

GIMP and Inkscape are freeware programs that would help just right. I'm basically just crawling on how to use a tablet but couldn't stop myself from experimenting with my new found programs. So I basically just breezed through the lineart and experimented with the oh so popular burn tool.

I know, I know... I need more practice in lighting

Project B - Pixel Sprites

And our RPG still lives! Let's call the RPG that we're brainstorming for Project B and we've decided that I'm in charge of the designs. I'm not that good in digital arts to be honest but, hey, I enjoy a good challenge. 

RPG Makers make use of pixelated sprites like the one shown below:

A female sprite template

As you can see, it is aligned 3 x 4 which totals to 12 icons per sprite, 12 possible animation frames and that's just the minimum. Icons are usually 24 x 24 pixels but could be 32 x 32 and many more, it all depends on one's personal preference and the item you're going to make (e.g. tools, tiles, etc.).


RPG Maker VX Ace does have a sprite generator and it does have a lot of options as seen below:

But it can only go as far as the limitations of the package though you can always edit the generated sprite here and there. As far as pixels are concerned, Graphics Gale is known for creating or editing sprites.

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

Yes, I'm a little late on trying this out but, well, better late than never. I was itching to try Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward on my 3DS then I read an article somewhere in the internet (probably from Siliconera, but I’m not sure) that Zero Escape answers questions left hanging from 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons,Nine Doors.

wait for me... I'll finish 999 first ;)

 999 is a virtual novel with, what I thought, a battle royale theme: a game to the death, where the last one standing gets to leave. Much to my surprise: the plot needs all of them alive by the last door. Well, at least it is a survival game.

Here, you play as Junpei - your run-off-the-mill college student where you dictate his actions and choices that influences not just the ending but the story itself. 

999 has 6 possible endings, and I got the worst possible ending in my first play through: the coffin ending. The coffin ending has the same flags as the true ending except for one, you must have seen the safe ending to get the true ending else you'll get the dummy ending: the coffin ending.

Introducing Ren'Py

Most, if not all, indie VNs that are scattered through out the world wide web are programmed through a software called Ren'Py (you can download it here) . As a novice programmer, Ren'Py is pretty easy to understand. Sure it's a little confusing on loops but aren't all programming languages like that at first? The more complex you want your game, the more complicated it gets but it will be all worth it in the end.

Now let's start! 

Depending on which version you get, the downloaded package already has a tutorial included. It pretty much didn't help me when I launched the project, so I just went to see the scripts and started from there. (Note: if you have zero background in programming, here's a good site to get you started.)

Hierofania is a really good first attempt of a visual novel by Ludeshka.

Hierofania by Ludeshka