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.

Beta Testing in Fairbrook

You always think you're done. And then it's time to beta test. Hello, typos! Winter in Fairbrook is officially in beta testing mode right now. There are a couple bugs and typos here and there, but you can play the game all the way through, and there are endings and pretty pictures, and it's a whole lot of fun! Honestly, I think I'm wasting more time playing the flower raising bits than actually looking for bugs. I should probably not be confessing this in public. >.>;;

So what does this mean for all of you wonderful, patient, people? It means that the wait is nearly over. For real, this time. As in, before the month is over, you too can be a proud owner of Winter in Fairbrook. It also means that before the month is over, you'll get a nice, long blog post from me about writing the game, a couple hints, and probably some random commentary. (Feel free to ask questions.)

Status Update Times!

Cinders, by MoaCube

Pretty much everything is done for this game short of the writing. Code, art, music, everything. Tom and I are both working on the writing, but there's a lot to do. This game is kind of incredible because there are a lot of choices, and they all make a difference, so the branching is kind of nuts. The cool part is that you can play the game a second time and see a completely different story. That means a loooot of writing. But hey, it'll all be worth it in the end!

The Flower Shop - Winter in Fairbrook, by Winter Wolves
This game is late, excuses and other things here, blah blah. This year has been a complete mess for me outside of making games, and unfortunately, that's done terrible things to my ability to work on games. The writing is all complete, AND I wrote a really cute bonus scene last week to apologize for taking so long to get this out. Soon, my friends. Really, really, soon.

hanami x 2, by sakevisual (Ooh, that's us!)

Sprites are done, backgrounds are done, and the game will likely have at least some original music in it. Where are we now? Making CGs, and I'm saving up to hire voice actors for at least the boys (maybe not for the lead female, we'll see). The artist for this game is working on a volunteer basis, so getting all the art done for it will take a while because it's not top priority for her.

Oneiro, by sakevisual

This feels almost backwards. Usually, recording the voices is the last step in creation, but in this case, all the voices are recorded already, but the art isn't really that close to being finished. Again, it's because it's a really low priority project for the artist, so it's coming along slowly. We have an original soundtrack, at least!

Jisei Chapter 03, by sakevisual

Although I'm still in the planning stages for this, Deji has already started on the sprite artwork for the main cast (Kan, Aki, Naoki, Li Mei, Miko), so the art is further along than the writing (There is no writing. Ha!). I already have a rough outline of the story from the initial planning stages for Jisei, but now I need to fill in the details like how people get killed. If the government ever gets their hands on my search history, I might be trouble. My current search history includes, "how much cyanide it takes to kill a person," "can you taste arsenic in a drink," "blunt force needed to kill a person," and "how to hide a corpse." Does that mean there will be cyanide, arsenic and hitting people? Maybe. Maybe not. Probably not. I can tell you that one body disposal might make you less hungry for a while. NO, not like that.

Something Else, lalala!

It's something else! It's something you've been asking for. It's something I've been hinting at. It WILL be part of the Green Tea Line, but I promise you won't be disappointed by it, and there will be plenty of free giveaway options and stuff. bo_o

Another something else~

Deji mentioned it in her blog here, and she and I are both really, really excited about this project. There's not much I can say about it yet because we're still trying to make it work. O_< But it won't be like a normal visual novel. Yup.

Anime Expo + Future Plans

And I'm back from my very first Anime Expo! It was craaazy, but I had a great time meeting everyone there. Visual novels got a great representation there with several EVN dev groups putting in an appearance (Dischan, Kinou Games, Kuroi Games, Okashi Studios, R3 Productions, Sakura River, Zeiva Inc. and Zero Zigen, to name some in alphabetical order). It was also great to meet a lot of you guys who I've only managed to speak with online. Sorry if I seemed kind of tired. I really was. ^_^;; Unfortunately, my body is still recovering from the accident, so I really wanted to sleep, and I was a little out of it during the whole thing. Being able to see all of you really made the trip worth it, though! Also, a big thanks to EigoManga for graciously inviting sakevisual to take part in the doujin game panel alongside Zero Zigen, Carpe Fulgur and Okashi Studios.

Now that the big con for the summer is over, it's time to buckle down and get some visual novels done! Kansei will be released this week (in fact, the countdown to Kansei will begin tomorrow), and Winter in Fairbrook will follow shortly after that. I'm also doing work with Moa Cube on a fairy tail visual novel called Cinders. Expect a release of that sometime this summer as well.

Once these three games are taken care of, we'll be turning our attention to a sequel novel that a lot of you guys have been asking for. Hint: See the sketch above for details.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Something or other Wednesday

Starring the ACTION MYSTERY COOKIE drawn by Stranger from Transplanted Liver.

I was rather busy last week due to the National Holiday, but I've been up to a lot since then working for sakevisual and doing things with other fantastic VN groups. A lot of things are still in the very early stages of production, so I can't give away much right now, but I do like to drop hints here and there in the blog, twitter, and my choice of forum avatar. >.> Here are some things that you can look forward to coming sooner rather than later:

-Winter in Fairbrook: The sister dating sim to Winter Wolves' The Flower Shop. Writing is somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 complete, and the artwork is coming along beautifully. Release date is likely between late December and January.

-Oneiro: Another free otome game from sakevisual. The writing is nearly complete, and two out of five sprites are finished. Thanks to loving donations from viewers like you, all the boys in this game will be voiced. I'm still not sure when this will be done, but we're moving at a fair pace, so that's pleasing.

-Kansei: The second chapter in the Jisei series. Currently with three endings you'll want to get, and a few more that you probably won't. I don't have any finished screens for you yet, but we're working on streamlining some of the navigation, and integrating suggestions from the last game. We're currently slated for an early summer 2011 release.

Wordcount Wednesday - ON WEDNESDAY!

Wow. I actually remembered to do this on Wednesday. I'm in shock. And this one even comes with a screencap! Who is that mysterious boy with the cute, brown ponytail?

The game contains 1,535 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 15,196 words,
for an average of 9.9 words per screen.
The game contains 4 menus

Next week is an Oneiro update. Promise.

Wordcount Wednesday - HA

Guess what I forgot to do last week? ::sigh:: One day, I'll get this right. Another Winter in Fairbrook update. 13,266 words this time around. I know it doesn't seem like much, but I am doing a good bit of writing for other projects. The only reason I'm not talking about them is because they're still in the very early stages, and I don't want to spill anything too soon.

Wordcount Wednesday -

I'm sure it's still Wednesday SOMEWHERE out there (it's not). I swear I'll get into this rhythm eventually. Maybe I should mark all the Wednesdays on my calendar or something. As it stands, I keep waking up on Thursday (or sometimes Friday) and realizing "Oops. I didn't post a wordcount." But at least I'm updating weekly! Winter in Fairbrook currently weighs in at 13,056 words. I've been playing with the sprites this week, and they're really, really pretty. If we can get some backgrounds done, I'll even post some screencaps sometime. : D

Wordcount Wednesday - Branching Out

This week, the wordcount is for Winter in Fairbrook, a visual novel not being made by sakevisual. It's a Winter Wolves project. I'm just the writer, but I really like this project, and I think a lot of you guys are looking forward to it as well. So yey! The current count is 11,759 words full of cute boys and flowers. Yey!

Sketch was filched from project artist, Deji-chan. As usual. >.>

Flower Girl

I lifted the above image from Deji's twitter. >.> This is Natalie, the heroine of Winter in Fairbrook (name subject to change), a spinoff of The Flower Shop. For those not familiar with the game, it's a dating/farming simulation I wrote for Winter Wolves. The game received a lot of good feedback, but there were also a lot of requests for a "girl's side" version of the game. The good (and kinda old by now...) news is that Winter Wolves has indeed started production of an otome spinoff. The same team will be back, with Deji doing art, and Jack Norton programming some fun mini-games. There are going to be some interesting new things related to the mini-games that I'm looking forward to seeing.

The heroine, Natalie, is a college freshman who desperately needs a job for winter break. Thankfully, her roommate, Clara, knows a certain flower shop that could really use an extra pair of hands. And so Natalie heads off to Fairbrook to help with the holiday rush of orders that are pouring in. Unfortunately, she's kinda lazy, completely scatterbrained, and this is her first job ever. Not really the best combination. Maybe the residents of Fairbrook can help her figure things out.

You can find plenty of images and production sketches at Deji's blog, and some teaser info at the Winter Wolves blog. Although this game has a certain amount of continuity, I wanted to make a standalone story so that anyone could leap into the game without needing to play the original. The writing so far makes a few references to the original game, but you don't actually need to play it to figure out what's going on. I'm having a lot of fun working on this project. Fairbrook is an interesting place, and I think Trent and Jacob deserve a lot more attention and story than they got in The Flower Shop. I'm looking forward to being able to flesh them out. And yes, Steve, is also a datable character, so if you liked Steve by the end of The Flower Shop, here's your chance to chase after him. Oh! There's also a new guy named Ryan. Fun for the whole family. I'll blog my thoughts on the guys as I work on their respective arcs.