Showing posts with label in game art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label in game art. Show all posts

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Backstage Pass - Updates and Answers


If you've been following twitter, facebook, or tumblr, some of this will look familiar to you. We've been posting little snippets and teasers over the past month, but now it's time for a nice, proper, update with answers to our most frequently asked questions.
 

We've been getting a lot of questions along the lines of "How far along are you?" and "When do you think BP will be out?" Short answer: No idea. The longer (potentially useful, but hey maybe not) answer is that we're aiming to get it done this year, but you never know what could happen. In total, we've completed probably 15% of all our assets. As in, add up the writing, art, music, voices, etc. and that's the meter. However, that doesn't account for putting it all together in a coherent fashion, or handling that mythical beta testing stage.

Regarding beta testing, we'll be doing the same thing we did with Yousei, as that turned out to be very successful. When the demo is complete, we'll have an open beta for anyone to play around with. We'll then open up pre-orders for early access to the whole game.



Recording has begun for most of the main cast, but we'll be holding open auditions a few months down the road for supporting cast and extras. Remember, if you want to audition, add yourself to the mailing list here. We are not accepting pre-submissions, and all open roles will be handled at once.



Aaand, some quick (but important) updates:

- We've got a fantastic opening song in the works by Junko Fujiyama. Junko's a Japanese singer/songwriter, but she now lives and performs in the United States. We're very happy to have her on board with us.

- The final price for Backstage Pass is $30. It's more than our other games, but we're pricing this based on the size of the final product and the cost of other similar games. Pre-orders will be available at a discount.

- We'll also be releasing a special edition that includes a copy of the OST and Adam Eaton's first EP. Details to come later.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Meet the Boys: John Brandon

Seeing as these were all posted based on fan vote, it’s kind of a cool coincidence that the characters are being introduced in order of time in the industry. Benito’s trying to break in, Adam just started, Matt’s established, and now we have…

Name: John Brandon
Stage Name: N/A
Age: 35
Occupation: Actor

A British actor known around the world for his role as the lead character in the long-running TV Drama, Knight Errant. John’s poised, polished, and mature, but he’s grown a bit tired of a one-note career. Despite having several other credits to his name, people rarely see him for more than his most famous role. He’s decided to take a break and move to the United States for a while to work on other aspects of the industry. He’s currently Adam Eaton’s music producer, and he’s working with a co-producer to pitch a new TV series. While he has a gentleman’s aura to him, he’s quick to cut out anyone who he thinks isn’t taking things seriously.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Meet the Boys: Benito Kouyama

After an informal twitter survey, "magician," won pretty handily, so meet Benito Zero, one of the four main characters in Backstage Pass:

Name: Benito Kouyama
Stage Name: Benito Zero
Age: 15
Occupation: Street Magician, Misc. Jobs

Benito is a genius kid who developed a passion for magic after seeing a magic show on TV when he was a little boy. Ever since, he's devoted his free time to developing his own tricks. He's intelligent beyond his years, and he excels at reading peoples' emotions. However, he's very new to the game, and he can be impatient about getting his career going. He gives off an aura of being impulsive, but everything he does is calculated and precise.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

NaNo Update

Poll results show that not many people know what NaNo is. But that's totally okay! Because I'm going to tell you now. : D NaNoRenO is a yearly tradition among English VN makers. In the spirit of NaNoWriMo, we spend a month creating a visual novel from scratch. The goal is to start and finish creating the game within a month. Last year, we made My Magical Cosplay Cafe. This year, we're doing something a little bit different. Deji and I have been toying with ideas for a VN called "Swan's Melody," for a while, and we decided to use NaNo to make a demo for it. The final game will be much longer, but we hope to release a nice little preview to get you guys interested in it. It's less than a week before the NaNo month is over, and we've still got a ways to go. Will we finish on time? Stay tuned to find out!

Yup! I always do.
  4 (2%)
 
It's my first time.
  19 (11%)
 
Not this year.
  30 (18%)
 
Never have.
  57 (34%)
 
I don't know what that is.
  81 (48%)
 

Votes so far: 166

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Wordcount Wednesday - Brace yourselves. Winter is coming.

You'd think by now I'd be done with the wordcount posts for Winter in Fairbrook. I'm not! The WiF beta has been out for a while now, and we've gotten some great feedback, bug reports, and general thoughts. One of the main things we heard was that one of the character routes felt less involved than the others. I don't want any of my boys left out in the cold (Ha! I made a joke.), so I went back and added more content to his arc. That along with the extra scene I wrote earlier (preview image above) makes this game even longer than The Flower Shop. Wooooo! Anyway, all that's left now are typos and bug fixes, so the official release should be soon.

The game contains 4,894 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 46,677 words,
for an average of 9.5 words per screen.
The game contains 26 menus.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Updated Art

To the left, you can see art from our first build of Kansei. The initial plan was to use the same sprites for the returning characters for the sake of consistency, but as we worked on it, we quickly changed our minds. Deji felt that her art had improved enough that she wanted to redo the characters. Looking at some of the feedback we received, we decided to update the art style to something more mature and fitting for a murder mystery, so Deji changed the style and the color palette to have a darker feel. As this game has a good deal more exploration than the first, my plan was to use 3D backgrounds to generate all the environments, but after getting the first few done, I wasn't terribly enthusiastic about how it meshed with the sprites. Once Deji updated her art, the 3D backgrounds were completely inconsistent with the sprites, so I switched back to 2D. The current build (pictured on the right) is, in my biased opinion, much better than our first go. I'm really excited by the way this game looks, and I hope that you guys like our updated look as well.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

We now return you to your regular blogging schedule.

Ohai! I finished all the writing for Winter in Fairbrook, which means that we'll soon be able to show you all sorts of fun stuff like gameplay videos. Above you can see the "success" screen after Natalie does a good job at work. The current word count is 42,591 words, which is slightly longer than The Flower Shop, so the games should be pretty equal in length of gameplay.

I'm back to blogging like I used to now with biweekly polls and Wordcount Wednesday (and Apology Thursday) and lots of new art to share with you all! Please look forward to it.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

It's the Glasses

Welcome to another exciting edition of Apology Thursday! We're 21,137 words in to Winter in Fairbrook, and the end is in sight! All the sprites and CGs are done, leaving us to work on extra art, some fun minigames, and lots of cute, romantic scenes to go in between. And hey, look! Another familiar face from Fairbrook. Just look at those glasses.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Maybe we should rename it to "Apology Thursday"

The less I update, the more work I'm getting done. It also makes it look as if I'm not getting any work done at all. orz

Anyway, hello! Another update for all you patient readers out there. Two things on the horizon that should make you happy:

-Winter in Fairbrook reaches a milestone. Nearly all the art assets are complete. We still have one CG and a few backgrounds to go, but the art is definitely close to being done. After that, there's still the actual gardening sim (along with some other modifications) and about 1/3 more of the story to write. But hey, art! Rock on.

-Planet Stronghold is nearly complete. Planet Stronghold is an RPG by Winter Wolves, and I've been working a little bit on it lately doing editing and casting and directing the voices for the battle scenes. The game is very very close to completion, and I'm looking forward to seeing it done, at least so I can hear all the voices in action. XD

Anyway, I promise I'll have a real word count for you next week. Things have been very much spread out over planning new things and doing writing for other projects that I'm not allowed to mention yet.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Wednesday Update Wooo!

Yay, another actual update on a Wednesday! Deji's hard at work drawing some beautiful romance CGs, but showing those would be cheating, so have a picture of Jacob instead. That looks like an awfully comfy sweater.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

First Encounter

Guess who forgot to update last week? Ha! ::points to self:: Hello. Hopefully this gorgeous screencap from hanami x 2 will be enough to make up for it.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Heian Era in Pastel

Ha! Wednesday. I remembered. I need a better name than "Wordcount Wednesday," as this is more of a generic "Update Wednesday" instead. Unfortunately, "Update Wednesday" doesn't have the same alliterative niceness. Suggestions are welcome. XD

Above, you can see the first (mostly) finished image from hanami x 2. Those of you waiting for hx2 have been immensely patient, so here's to your patience. I say the image is mostly finished, since Teisen's sprite, the background, and the GUI are all complete. You can't see who she's talking to quite yet, though. It shall remain a mystery for now. Teisen sprite drawn by Misteen, and background image rendered by mugen.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Kansei Teaser

Hey, look! A progress update on Kansei! Exciting, isn't it? This is a screencap from the opening scene of Kansei. Check out the protagonist's new look! I wonder where he is right now. He certainly doesn't look happy to be there. D:

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Ewwww...responsibility.

Ooh, hey! It's a teaser image from the opening scene of Winter in Fairbrook. Natalie doesn't look too thrilled about the prospect of getting her first job. She reminds me of a certain someone, although he seems to be doing better these days.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Progress Update Wednesday

A new dude appears. Ruka isn't the only character in Oneiro after all! Woooo! This guy doesn't seem nearly as friendly, though. : (

Monday, February 15, 2010

The Gameplan

Well, lots on the list of things to do right now, but I'm going to write out a gameplan so that I get everything finished in good time.

February:
The deadline for the two month challenge fast approaches. RE: Alistair is doing okay, but we're seriously in crunch time right now. A couple thousand more words, at least, hopefully done by the end of this week so that we can spend the last week testing and cleaning up any emergency issues.

March:
Crazy insane writing month. I intend to actually finish writing both Card Sweethearts and Moonsong this month. That's a lot, especially seeing as both have several tens of thousands of words to go, but I really want to get these done ASAP. They've both been sitting around much too long, and they'll get stale if I don't put a rush order on them.

April:
If my March plan works out, start writing three new games. Yes, three. A sequel to a game that's currently doing very well, a horror/otome game, and a personal project that I hope to be able to release commercially. @^@

In the meantime:
Ripples, Plat du Jour, and hanami x 2 will move along at whatever speed is appropriate based on the schedule and workload of the artist.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Kuu - Sprite Filmstrip

I don't know how many people will actually find this interesting, but I'm going to post it anyway. Side by sides of my original sprite and expressions for Kuu and the new sprite and expressions by Deji.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Spirited Heart Deluxe Released

Hey sakefans! Do you like fantasy realms, cute boys, and raising sims? Have I got a show for you! Spirited Heart Deluxe is now available. Enter the fantasy land of Aravorn, get a job, court cute boys, and see if you can gain the blessing of the goddess. Addictively fun, so check it out, yo!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Writer's Comments

Some writers use their work to make political or religious statements. I spread...other opinions. I actually worked in a library for a bit once, and I've read a decent amount. I wouldn't call myself an avid reader, but I know enough to pretend to be. All the books mentioned in The Flower Shop are ones that I've read, although I tried to pick fairly common ones for ease of accessibility's sake.

New BFF? Romantic rival? All-around cute kid? WHO COULD HE BE? (Hint: His name is Jacob). There are rumors, whispers, and possibilities on the wind of The Flower Shop: Girl's Side. Wouldn't you like the option of pursing this adorable boy, or the handsome fellow he's speaking with? YES YOU WOULD. And that means that you should promote The Flower Shop like crazy and make sure that it's really popular. That way, it'll be much more likely for a Girl's Side to be made. No promises. But popularity doesn't lie. >.>

Monday, October 19, 2009

ButaVX is out!

The cute RPG, ButaVX: Justice Fighter has just been released by Nekomura Games. This is an adorable and whimsical little game that really lets you see the world through the eyes of a child. Everything is an adventure, and anyone can be a hero. Sadly, it's only for PC. But it's free! And free is good.