08.18.08
Posted in Negima at 5:14 am by Rainier.Buccat
I just started out getting into Negima last month and got addicted to it almost immediately. Not only because it’s one of Ken Akamatsu’s work but also because it’s one of a kind manga that could hook me from one volume to another. It has a very good sense of humor and a good dash of fan service (which I like) as expected of Ken Akamatsu. You could easily empathize with the characters and love them in a heartbeat ^^ The more I read Negima, the more I convince myself that someday I’ll be able to work on something like this - or maybe something that I could work along with Ken Akamatsu sensei. A very far fetched dream, however I remember someone mentioned that those kind of dreams are the best ones (lolz ^^). Recently it began manifesting in my drawing style .. I think I passively registering Ken Akamatsu’s manga style while I read Negima (and Love Hina - I started with this long ago). I guess I just have to pray that this goes on - or rather I should actively study Ken-sama’s style.
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03.01.07
Posted in Game Development at 4:48 pm by Rainier.Buccat
1 Visual Novel in one month - a good challenge for us aspiring game developers to test our skills in all fields of game development cycle. The first day has already passed - hmm yesterday I was able to draft the plot of my entry story. Prior to March 1 I had several plots in mind; in the end I decided to get away with them and pursue my latest idea.
Later I’ll be drafting my project schedule so I could trace if I’m still on track to complete the project on time. hmm, probably I’ll be devoting half of the month to writing the script and producing the graphics. I’ll import my music from free sources - I already have a collection so probably it’ll be no problem for me. Another week would probably fall for development and the final for QA and debugging.
Things to do for today:
1. Draft Schedule
2. Draft Character art (still no name for my characters XD)
3. Finish chapter 1 of the script
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08.10.06
Posted in Anime CG at 4:14 am by Rainier.Buccat
I just finished an anime CG for a deviantART contest ^-^
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/37743948/
I tried a technique which most professionals do, that is sketching with a blue pencil. Now it’s very clear to me how bleedman can manage without inks. Adobe Photoshop can remove the blue lines without effort just by maximizing the lightness of the blue channel (pretty simple huh) ^-^ Now I can’t imagine doing my sketch without a blue pencil ^^ It makes my sketches cleaner because I erase black lead at a minimum level, plus blue lines don’t appear XD
I usually do my inking digitally, but now with this tecnique I’ll try to emulate the traditional ink method. Actually it can’t be called “inking” because I will not use inks but rather make my black lead pencil sketch more bolder. It’s the same technique bleedman uses, I just need to master it somehow. Now you may ask “why not just go on with traditional inking?”, I’m not quite confident with my hands now. I think after I finished mastering the “emulated ink” I’ll try to proceed mastering the “real ink” ^-^
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08.08.06
Posted in Game Development at 4:05 pm by Rainier.Buccat
I’ve just started playing To Heart 2 (it’s the X version T__T I wonder if that makes me H). I’m very impressed with the graphics and sounds, well that’s Leaf for you XD The Japanese conversations are 80% understandable to me, however there are some kanji characters I can’t recognize yet (I think I could survive the whole game while understanding the plot). This makes a very good reason why I should start being serious about my Nihongo lessons.
I was able to play the game up to the point of the opening animation sequence. That’s way too cool, an OP animation sequence can clearly define what established companies can do and what independent developers can’t XD However I think there are ways to produce the same effect, it’s just that we (independent developers) can’t go full animation.
TH2 took away almost 5GB of my hard drive (forced my to buy new DVD-Rs for backup) T__T I think the voice overs are to blame for this program size XD But I guess it’s worth it, the voices of the characters are authentic from the anime version which gives a more realistic dimension to the game experience ^-^
There are more visual novels I’m downloading and one of the is Shuffle (finally I could play that game that made me like Aoi Nishimata’s style XD). Can anybody suggest other good visual novels ^-^?
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08.06.06
Posted in Game Development at 12:10 am by Rainier.Buccat
VN Marathon
As part of my VN project model research, of course I need to play completed visual novels. There are lots of independent developers in the internet just like myself and they really inspire me to move on and improve myself. Of course there are also those established companies however getting their visual novels is harder than expected (I wish I could buy even the original releases but unfortunately they’re not even available in our country).
Yesterday I played 5 visual novels developed using Ren’Py, 1 visual novel developed using Blade (the Japanese version) and Fate/Stay Night trial version (by Type-Moon developed using ONScripter). Of course hands down among them FS/N topped in terms of quality, second comes the visual novel developed using Blade and finally the ones developed using Ren’Py.
In terms of storyline quality all of them “might” be equal, however what poses a huge significant gap between independent developers and established companies is “graphics quality”. I can’t blame the independent developers because some of them are not equipped with people who specializes in graphics which established companies could afford. But they have to aware that this is “visual novel” they are dealing with.
In my opinion the quality of a visual novel is scaled with the following criteria: storyline 50% graphics 35% and sound effects 15%. That 35% is still a significant chunk to deal with and a team of developers can’t ignore it. Although I’m aware that a visual novel could survive even with just “passing” graphics, however catching the attention of the readers/players is achieved through the visual candies a visual novel can offer.
I think that the prior argument is a logical explanation why H-game visual novels, despite of lacking a good storyline (I don’t mean to generalize all) still get the attention of a significant number of audience. A visual novel has to please the readers not only in terms of good reading experience, but also good visual experience.
Some Thoughts About VN Graphics
Graphics of a visual novel could extend to three main types. First is the game interface graphics which is composed of the menus, opening screen, credits, in-game transition screens, etc. Second is the background which is responsible for establishing the location of the scenarios. In my opinion, backgrounds could be used in two ways. One way is the conventional “location scene” BG and the other is “character scene” BG which is used to emphasize a significant point/event in the storyline. Finally the third main stype of visual novel graphics is the character images which are used to represent the characters in the story (obviously). I think in terms of significance the character images tops the other two.
I believe that the character image coupled with the dialogue are the two most significant aspects that determines the impact of a visual novel. For one reason, it is the first two elements that directly contact the player/reader. When reading a visual novel the reader initially looks at the character image to have an impression of the character’s emotion, then reads the dialogue to know what the character have to say. The background image comes next which is responsible for amplifying the mood of the scenario. There are a significant number of times that background images are only coupled with narration dialogues. In this way the author effectively emphasizes and establishes that location and scenario he wants to impart to the reader. Followed in terms of significance is the game interface graphics which imparts a pleasing environment when doing miscellaneous stuff (like setup, saving and loading). It is also responsible for creating the “overall impression” of the game.
All elements of a visual novel are important. To accomplish a top quality visual novel you need to ensure that all of the elements are also of top quality even upto the minute details. For an anime fan like me, I could easily put a large amount of weight on “graphics quality” when it comes to evaluating visual novels. Storyline might be the most significant aspect of the game, however graphics is what initiates the contact with the player/readers. Graphics is the factor that creates the important “first impression”. Developers must be aware that some players/readers actually judge VNs only by graphics so therefore they must put a significant effort on developing this aspect.
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08.04.06
Posted in Life at 3:59 pm by Rainier.Buccat
Sorry for this late introduction post, I got carried away by my readings so my first 2 posts are kinda off.
You could call me “Rain”. I’m an anime fan since highschool and it started when a local channel here in our country aired Ranma. I’m fond of watching romantic-comedy oriented animes like Fumoffu, School Rumble and Love Hina and they have always been my inspiration for writing my own story “Random Select” (which will come out in the near future).
It has been two years since I started doing the craft of anime CG. Talented artists from the deviantART community inspired me to enhance my anime drawing skills. Until now I continuously practice my drawings and I want to improve it further so it could line up with professional quality standards. My current inspiration for my anime style is Hiro Suzuhira (Shuffle) and Mitsumi Misato (To Heart 2).
As you can read on my first 2 posts, recently I have been researching on Visual Novel development. I’m a programmer by profession so coding/scripting is not very alien to me. I’m planning to collect good visual novels so I could gain ideas on how to make a good one. With all the visual novels I have encountered, I’m looking forward to play To Heart 2, Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night.
I guess that’s for my brief introduction. I hope we’ll get along ^-^ I would like to thank Maestro for giving me a chance to blog here. It’s my first and I think I’ll stick to it until he decides to take animeblogger down (which I hope not) XD
Jya mata ne ^-^ !!
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08.03.06
Posted in Game Development at 9:14 pm by Rainier.Buccat
After evaluating 3 Visual Novel engines I’m studying namely NScripter, Blade and Ren’Py, I came to a resolution that Ren’Py would be the most feasible game engine I could use for a first possible project.
One factor that made me arrive at this decision is “Technical Support”. Currently Ren’py receives alot of technical support from its original developer Py’Tom (from LemmaSoft forums). I had the chance to browse the few parts of the forums and I was very impressed by his participation on it. Blade support team is also competent, however unable to direct contact with the developers makes it less advantageous. I have tested Blade for a while and even came up with my own command syntax reference. When I was reporting the bugs I have encountered, the forum administrator seems to be only a middle man for the original developers which lags the immediate response needed. NScripter on the other hand lacks visible technical support (or maybe I’m wrong, please correct me).
Another factor is “Engine Maturity”. Both Ren’Py and NScripter are matured because they have been on the scene for a couple of years. However Blade has yet to mature itself. When I studied Ren’Py’s Tutorials, I was amazed by the advanced features it could do (and possibly for now Blade can’t). Nscripter is powerful too, however without a decent technical support it goes down the list by one level.
Finally the most important factor is “Cost”. Ren’Py and NScripter are totally free because they are Open Source so that’s +points for them. Blade is free however the advanced functionailties are only useable when you purchase the Professional version. I’m totally moneyless at the moment so will not consider Blade Engine for now (maybe I will when I have the money to do so).
I’m not saying I’ll abandon the other two engines, in fact I plan to support them all. I have yet to see the maturity of Blade and how will it cope to the level of NScripter and Ren’Py. Having knowledge of the three makes your design decisions more flexible and you could use one engine according to the needs of your project. Sometime in the future I plan to study in depth the original version of NScripter which is ONScripter and see what runs the famous visual novels such as Type-Moon’s Tsukihime and Key’s Kanon.
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Posted in Game Development at 8:22 pm by Rainier.Buccat
For the past few days I’m researching on Visual Novel game development and trying to come up with a project model I could use. There are a few sites I found very helpful and I’m collating all the data into one document picking up the significant things I think that would help build the project model. The project model’s role is to explicitly point out in detail the steps I needed to take in order to complete a working Visual Novel project.
The model isn’t far from the conventional application development model. I find it very familiar and what only differs is Visual Novel game development requires high-quality art and a well-written storyline. One has to plan the whole scope of the project before hand in order to estimate the time and effort needed to complete the project.
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