Things that make me Happy

I should update more often, but I don't because I'm usually busy working on the visual novels that I should be updating everyone on. But here's a list of things from the past week or so that make me happy. I'll post word counts later, in case anyone is actually interested in that sort of stuff. XD

-Deji is safe. I was seriously freaking out when I heard about the earthquakes in Chile. But she's safe and I'm happy. This matters not because she's a great artist (although she is!), but because she's wonderful friend. ::cue dramatic music and sparkles::

-H2 voiced edition is coming soon. The voiced release is long overdue, but it's finally coming. I had a lot of fun working on it, and I truly respect and admire the other members of the cast, so I'm looking forward to hearing everything come together.

-RE:A extended edition is going smoothly. As much as I love RE:A, it's nice to be able to clean all the things we had to cut corners on for our first release. It's not going to be a huge upgrade, but it'll be nice to feel like the game is full polished.

-I'm writing again! I love writing!

-I finally made my own custom yes/no screen (see above). Well, I did make one a long time ago when I was working on Plat du Jour, but it was a makeshift one with messy art, and I didn't actually have a full understanding of the code at that time. But this one is pretty, and now I know what I'm doing! I'm also happy because I figured out how to make decent looking water stains on the paper. I know this is probably the least important of all things that make me happy, but it still makes me happy. So there.

Heileen 2 Released

Heileen 2 is out! So for those of you who totally dig hot chicks on islands and lots of supernatural stuff, check it out. There's a demo on the official site if you're curious to see how it plays. The artwork is lovely, and it's a very intriguing story. Please note that it does have some mature content like mild language and sexual themes.

Choose your Fate

I just finished editing the endings for H2, and they are very interesting. Depending on your choices in the game, you can have some dramatically different endings. Everything from being a pirate king to just lying around in the sun all day. I think the chastity ending is my favorite, but I won't tell you what happens. ^_- The way the game works definitely keeps things interesting, and there are enough choices that you can have fresh story each time you play.

H2 Coming Soon!

Heileen 2 is progressing very smoothly right now. All the writing is complete, so it's up to me to get the edits done. All the dreams are accounted for, so now it's just the extra things and all the endings. Of course, there's still playtesting and all the voices needed, but it's slated for a November release, and that's cool.

H2 Edits

Another day, another dream. ::goes to sleep::

Sketch

Not much work done today. My car got a flat, which took a decent chunk of my time. The rest of the day was spent doing things like cleaning the apartment and working on things not related to my VNs. I did manage to edit one of the dreams from H2, at least, but today was a largely unproductive day in terms of VNs. : / Here's a sketch from a game in the design phase to help make up for it.

Trunk and Branches

Again, not much writing going on today, but lots of work. Finished another dream (and a little more) for H2, and spent some time working on a plot tree for a VN currently in the works. This is actually a piece that brewed in my mind some years ago, but I've decided to dust things off and start over again and make it better. The thing about writing trunk and branch style stories is that each of the branches needs to logically stem from the trunk, but must be unique in itself. In some ways, it's a great way to explore lots of possibilities. But you have to make sure each one is just as strong as the rest or it won't be satisfying.

More Edits

With H2 slated for a November release, there's still a lot of work to be done. Today I finished editing two more dream/consequence sets. It looks like things are really heating up on the island, and not in a good way.

Heileen 2 Announced

TYCOON GAMES ANNOUNCES HEILEEN 2: THE HANDS OF FATE

September 29th, 2009 – Tycoon Games, developers of several award-winning dating sim and visual novels, has announced the sequel to one of their most popular games, Heileen.
The game takes place on the mysterious Caribbean island where Heileen was shipwrecked with a few of her friends at the end of the first game. She stumbles upon a deck of tarot cards that represent the seven deadly sins and the seven heavenly virtues. It isn't long before she discovers that these cards have the power to change both her dreams and her reality.

"The seven deadly sins are a common motif in art, books, comics, movies and songs, but most people seem to forget the seven heavenly virtues. In a world as complex as ours, I felt that it would be wrong to ignore the virtues, as they too are an intricate part of our lives," says Celso Riva, the designer and programmer of the game.

Like Tycoon Games' most recent game, Bionic Heart, the events of Heileen 2 rely heavily on the user's decisions. The final game will feature more than twelve unique endings and an enhanced version of the original quest system in Heileen.

A teaser trailer is available on the YouTube channel "winterwolves" at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpASfC1zX0o

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Anyone who reads this blog knows this already, but here's the official press release. A good portion of it is done already, but there's still plenty of work left. Should be fun.

Heileen 2 Trailer

A teaser trailer for Heileen 2 is up. The artwork looks lovely, and it seems like there's a lot more artwork and CGs rather than just sprites. That is a good thing. The effects look really nice, too. Ren'py is surprisingly versatile, but I guess that's just how Python works, huh? XD

Demo on the Way

I just finished editing the latest round of dreams and consequences for Heileen 2. With this last batch, all the writing for the demo should be complete. It seems the deadline for finishing this game is only a few months away. Looks like a lot of work to do, yet! I gotta say, I think the tarot card art in this game is really nice. I'm not a big fan of tarot, but the artwork here is lovely.

Mm...bed...

Beds are fantastic inventions. I hear they are quite comfortable, in fact. More edits for Heileen 2 are done. In other news, if you are bitten by a snake, don't move the bitten limb, and avoid making a tourniquet. It can cause the limb to swell and create greater damage to the area and even loss of a limb. If necessary, wrap the wound and up the limb, but not so tight that the swelling will cut off the blood flow. I took a first aid class once.

Productivity Never Takes a Break!

Interesting day today. I did a lot of work-related things like discussing work, outlining upcoming projects, and messing with code. But none of my word counts actually increased.

So, here's what's up in the hood these days:

-Heileen 2: I'm working as an editor for this. This is an active project that is moving along at a pretty nice pace. It's already looking to be deeper than the original.

-The Flower Shop: Writing this one based on a rough outline. The first two chapters are complete, and the third is about halfway complete. The third is really the real meat of the story, as the first two set up the story and the fourth is more of an extended epilogue. It's a nice, normal, slice of life story with normal romance and normal people. Shocking!

-hanami x 2: My own personal little project. Writing and coding this myself, as well as doing a bit of the artwork. My first forray into the dark and mysterious world of OTOME GAMES. The writing is about halfway complete, as it's not a long story. Everything else is...seriously lacking.

-Idem et Idem: Although I call it active, I've really finished the majority of my role in this. The entire first draft is complete, so revisions and edits will come as the programmer or artist requires.

-Plat du Jour: One of my really old stories that I'm finally dragging up from the depths of who knows where to bring back to life. I'm working on the outline of the entire thing, but now that the main writing for Idem is done, I'll be leaping into this one with vigor.

There's definitely more I'm up to like planning out another (otome) game, editing some other up and coming things, and such. But the ones listed above are my current active projects. Faito on!

Sins and Virtues

Did some more editing for Heileen 2. It's interesting doing a game that actually mentions the seven Godly virtues. Usually it's the seven deadly sins that get all the attention. I don't think you'll ever see "Temperance" show up in an episode of FMA. XD

More Edits

Finished editing another part of Heileen 2. This one includes a dream/flashback sequence. O:

Double Update

Flying again tomorrow, so double update for today.

Finished editing the next section of dreams for Heileen 2.

Finished chapter 19 of Idem.
Statistics:
The game contains 1748 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 17593 words,
for an average of 10.1 words per screen.
The game contains 0 menus.

orz

I forgot to update yesterday. Yay.

Double-update.

1.) Finished editing a section of text for Heileen 2.

2.) Caught a few more edits for The Stolen Diamond Ring and started on the next chapters.