Weekly(?) Update

Even though this is supposed to be a weekly update, I keep forgetting to update. Does that mean I'm really busy writing games right now? Hmm...I wonder. <-terrible joke

Card Sweethearts is moving along beautifully. Currently doing testing of the poker game, and it's a lot of fun. I'm a terrible poker player, but I do enjoy a round of Texas hold'em or two, so it's a lot of fun to play. Mad props to PyTom for writing such a nice poker AI. I think the main pulls of the game will be the poker and um...::cough:: other things. Estimated release date is in a month or so. Should be fun.

As for what else is going on in my life, do expect a more official announcement about a mystery game coming soon. ::points at sketch:: There's a sneak peek already. There're also a couple other games in the works including more otome (which I already hinted at) and another really cool adventure game inspired by the works of one of my favorite writers. But more on that later~

Weekly Update - Cards!

Two important card-related updates. As you can tell from the photo above, I now officially have some beautiful business cards illustrated by Deji. They're more like miniature art prints that happen to have information about sakevisual on the back. I kinda want to frame one. XD

And the second card-related update is...dundun...I have finished writing all the scenario for Card Sweethearts. Yaaay! It clocks in around 29,682 words, but seeing as most of the game is about playing poker, that's actually quite a bit of exposition surrounding a lot of poker games. The game still needs to undergo plenty of testing, proofreading, and other stuff, but at least all the writing portion is done.

Weekly Update

It's that time of the week again, friends! Time for a wordcount~

Card Sweethearts
Finished Lisa's arc. My favorite scene is in this one. It's actually based on a restaurant I read about in New York, but that's all I'll say on that matter. There's only one arc (and the endings) left to go, so yay!
Current word count: 26,336 words

Happy Memories
Wrote all the intro scenes for meeting your friends at school. The variety is really interesting. For the record, if I had to pick a guy, I'd go for Taro.
Current word count: 3,151 words

There's other stuff going on in the background (see above image for hint), but I'll save that for later. XD

Weekly Update

I made a new logo. I'm actually going to KEEP this one instead of make a new one every two days.

Anyway. Time for an update. Now with word counts!

RE: Alistair++
Finished writing for the extended edition. Some new scenes, some updated scenes, hopefully fewer bugs and typos...
Final word count: 23,254

Card Sweethearts
Finished Carla's arc, and getting close to being done with Lisa's. Hers is fairly linear, so it's a little easier to finish. It's a lot of fun, though. After that, one more arc to go and yay!
Current word count: 24,344

Happy Memories
Wrote a few more meeting/intro scenes with some of the characters. This game is pretty varied in terms of how things change based on your actions. There are many different ways to meet the same character, so each time you play, things are really different.
Current word count: 1,970

Ripples Remix
Finished recording for Kuu and had someone in (ha, if you know me, you know who I brought in), to record for Koda. All the vocals and music are now in place. Woo!
Final word count: 1,947

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.

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. >.>

Weekend Update

I haven't updated for awhile, since all I've really been doing this past week is editing. Somehow, I doubt "did more edits today," makes for a very compelling blog post. I will tell you what's all up and cool these days, though.

Editing - Just finished editing Spirited Heart. It's getting a shiny new re-release and I'm excited. It's actually a very clever game, and I'm sure each time through will provide a very different experience. Yuza is totally my favorite guy, because I love cooking. Go figure. I'm also editing another game right now, and that should be done within a week or so. This is also a cool game, but I'll update you all when that's done.

Writing - Still clipping along with Moonsong and Plat du Jour (more on that in later posts). hx2 is on something of a break since my voices and artist are very busy right now. I wonder if it will ever be finished. >.>

Extra - Did some writing/editing/revamping of an old release of mine. Deji and I are going to re-release a game I did awhile back, and it will technically be the first release by "sakevisual." More on that later as well.

New Stuff - I inexplicably decided to join the two-month VN challenge (or whatever it's called). I have a pretty neat team, and we're going to be doing an otome romance game. Because otome romance is FUN. It'll be short and sweet, but I think it'll be fun.

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.

Edits

I've been spending most of the weekend doing edits for the Spirited Heart update. This is a really fun game, and I love how flexible it is. But that's how raising sims are, na? Anyway, the updated edition will likely be released very soon, so please look forward to that.

Liars and Cheaters

Finished editing another chapter of Card Sweethearts today. This is the end of the "linear" portion. The rest of the game uses a scheduler and plays out something like Bionic Heart and The Flower Shop (not exactly, but...you get the idea). It's a lot more freeform, and I think it's interesting because it gives the player a lot more control over the flow of the story. It feels a little less like a visual novel and a little more like an adventure game.

More like...guidelines.

Another day, another chapter edited. Lots of other things happened like research and stuff. But another chapter edited.

Poker? I barely...never mind.

Fu~ just finished editing/revising the first two chapters of Card Sweethearts. It's definitely strange coming in in the middle of something. I still feel as if I have a lot of catching up to do. People play poker in the strangest places.

Let's Go!

Well, I've been off the blog for a week to reorganize myself, my games, and get new projects in order. And now I'm back. So what's in the queue these days?

Card Sweethearts - A poker-themed visual novel. I have practically zero poker experience, so I taught myself Texas Hold'em so I could at least learn the rankings of all the hands. I also understand why the game is so addictive. It's definitely a fun way to pass the time. Good thing I like writing more. XD I'm actually coming in late on this project, with a good chunk of the story already written. I've been spending the past week revising and editing everything so that it sounds kinda like I wrote it. That way, the whole game will have a little bit of coherency. I'm not making too many changes (there's no point in writing something that's already been written), but just a few here and there. I'll actually pick up writing sometime within the week.

Moonsong - More writing and tweaking the plot with people who know better than I. The current edition weighs in at 2,013 words. Still a lightweight, but so far I've only introduced two characters. XD I'm also doing art for this one, so character designs are being worked and reworked and then some.

Plat du Jour - The demo still isn't done being written, but I'm getting closer! It's currently at a pretty decent 10,905 words, and I've just begun to write the various "endings" that will lead into the respective branches. I also started work on a teaser site (see above) meant to act as the "official" homepage for the main character's school. The culture of the school is a large part of the game, so I think giving the school it's own website is a nice touch. It's also a nice way for me to brush up on my rusty HTML skills. Also working with the artist on designing a super cute logo for the game. ^-^

hanami x 2 - I actually found another artist for this! Finally. This is the third artist I've had on the project, and I hope this one sticks, because she's absolutely wonderful (then again, when have I not worked with an artist who is wonderful?).

And of course, there are a thousand other things being planned or sketched or plotted, but these are the ones I am currently focusing my attention on (especially the first two).

Stage One Complete

Welp, I finished all the writing for The Flower Shop today. This pleases me. Of course, there's still plenty of testing and proofreading to be done, and there's still a good amount left to be done in terms of the mini-game, artwork, and voices. But the writing is done. That is a big yay for me. ^-^

Statistics:
The game contains 3972 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 38388 words,
for an average of 9.7 words per screen.
The game contains 48 menus.

Epilogues

Three out of five epilogues for The Flower Shop are done, but don't think that means there are only five endings. There are many more than that. But...well, you'll see. One ending involves Steve being alone, which isn't too bad. It's just a little gloomy because it's sad when you don't get a girl. I've played Star Ocean: Till the End of Time at least four times, and every time I play I get the same Fayt alone ending. It's kinda discouraging because I keep thinking I'm being friendly with my party members, but apparently, I'm not. I guess it's just my fate to be alone (Haha, get it? Fate? Fayt? Yeah...).

Statistics:
The game contains 3856 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 37039 words,
for an average of 9.6 words per screen.
The game contains 45 menus.

Flowershop, What

There's something slightly mind-numbing about writing the same scene four times over in slightly different contexts. But at least it's done now! So HA. The Flower Shop is nearly complete. The bulk of the writing is done with only epilogues left to go. Then it's time for a nice spit and polish on the text and all the other wonderful stuff that makes it come alive (art, mini-game, voices, and so on).

Statistics:
The game contains 3715 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 35344 words,
for an average of 9.5 words per screen.
The game contains 45 menus.

Car Issues

Blah. So my car has been having trouble lately, so I took it in to the shop today. They said that a part needed to be replaced, so that wasn't too bad. Near the end of the day, I was informed that they replaced the part and now a different part doesn't work and they'll have to replace that too. So...it's still in the shop. I was really intending to get a lot more work done today. Unlike my other ramblings, this really isn't related to what I just wrote. I just figured I'd share my day with you.

Susana's arc for Flower Shop is done. That leaves Jill. She's the hardest, because most of your time with her is only on the phone, so you don't get many actions you can do. It's all up to your words to win her over.

Statistics:
The game contains 3245 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 31525 words,
for an average of 9.7 words per screen.
The game contains 43 menus.

Movies Rock

Movies rock. Especially movies about Japanese dudes slicing up zombies. Finished Clara's arc today. She's definitely the most aggressive of all the girls. ^-^

Statistics:
The game contains 2977 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 29151 words,
for an average of 9.8 words per screen.
The game contains 42 menus.

Rain

I am a big fan of rain. I spent most of my life living in a rainy climate south of Seattle, so I find rain to be something very beautiful and soothing. Marian's arc is nearing completeness.

Statistics:
The game contains 2740 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 27122 words,
for an average of 9.9 words per screen.
The game contains 41 menus.

More Words

Forgot to update yesterday. These days my only real updates are updated word counts, though. Flower Shop update.

Statistics:
The game contains 2623 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 25799 words,
for an average of 9.8 words per screen.
The game contains 40 menus.

--

Also:
-Working on character designs and started writing Moonsong.
-Started character designs for a test RPG that I've had brewing in my mind for a while.