Apologies for the lack of updates but, honestly, I warned you guys of that when I started this gig. OKAY OKAY SORRY STOP THROWING SHARP STUFF AT ME. Hopefully with the Summer upon us, we'll get more much news to discuss. As for my experiment, despite how the positive reaction, I will be keeping the news format the same. This is to make it easier for others to step in the role when necessary. I'm not saying or announcing anything, I'm just saying it's time to get this show back on the road! And while there isn't a LOT to cover, we do have a far bit that has happened since we last spoke.
So, let's start with a game that is taking the community by storm!
While we can't promise Japanese localization just yet, we wanted to do a little something for the audience over there, who may have heard of us through Uchikoshi-san or the Japanese sites that covered us. We're in talks with a company that translates and publishes games in Japan, but there's nothing final at the moment.
- Yu: Peter Gerkmann
- Miho: Samantha Chan
- Eiji: Curtis Arnott/Takahata101
- Midori: Natalie Van Sistine
- Toshio: Howard Wang
- Gunther: Anthony Sardinha
- Hayami: Amber Lee Connors
- Haru: Scott Frerichs/KaiserNeko
- Nobu: Nick Landis/Lanipator
Congratulations again! And if you want to still contribute to the game and maybe get in a few stretch goals, here is the link to the Kickstarter!
As of the writing of this article, only three jsVN games exist. Voltage Entertainment has put up a demo to profile their work and the genre they have chosen to operate in (NOT calling it 'otome' because I've seen their work), the folks behind Halloween Otome have released a short story called Finding The One and a fan of Inuyasha has released something titled 'Strip Sesshy'. I will let you guys figure out what that's about...stop giggling damn you!
Now, for the practical effect jsVN will have. A practical look at the EVN community shows that even though Ren'py is currently Lord of the First Men, browser-based games aren't new. Zeiva Inc's entire catalog is browser/flash based along with several attempts to cross visual novels with MMORPGs. The riddle is creating a game that has the same capabilities and range as a downloaded engine like Ren'py, which groups like Date Nighto are trying to address. However, for the casual fan who wants to dip their toes into development, this is an excellent attempt. If anything of note comes out of jsVN, I will definitely report and review it here. And for those looking for more information on jsVN, you can find it here!
But, speaking of Date Nighto...
1. Can you verify whether or not this is a commercial project? The Kickstarter page never makes it clear on if it'll be released for free or if there will be a price tag, and many readers have calculated that there is a high likelihood of it being commercial. So, can you tell us whether it'll be free or commercial?
2. Can you explain, in as much detail as possible, why a $70,000 budget is necessary for this project? Will you be hiring outside talent (animators, musicians, voice actors, etc.) to add assets to the game? If not, what parts of the game's development will the money be used for?
3. Keeping with Question #2, how many members are currently on your team and what are their roles?
4. On the demo released on the Kickstarter page, what we got feels more like an alpha tech demo to show what DateNighto may be able to do in the future and doesn't really give a good picture of what to expect from the game itself. So have you considered a proper demo in the immediate future to show your funders what they can expect?
HamletMachine was gracious enough to answer and here they are!
1) The game's price is in the first tier, you would be paying $15 to play Starfighter: Eclipse through the Kickstarter.
2 & 3) A budget breakdown is provided in the update we made, you can view it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starfighter/starfighter-visual-novel/posts/790574 And yes, I'm not the only person making the game- the team members and their roles are listed on the Kickstarter front page!
4) Thank you for your feedback on the demo! Starfigher: Eclipse will be playable in browser, so we did want to be able to feature that aspect of it, but also demonstrate what to expect of what we envision for character interaction, visuals, animation, and choice selection. There will indeed be progress reports for backers but we don't plan on releasing another demo, as our resources will be allocated to actually making the game! However, if you are interested in earlier gameplay, we have a Kickstarter tier with Beta access.
...you guys really don't know me all that well do you?
Another thing that occurred during our hiatus is that MegaTokyo's VN project hit a snag. During the first week of May, this was explained to us in better detail by the team. Here's a snippet of it and you can read the full blog post here:
Part of the problem is that the Megatokyo webcomic is really a one-man operation. Fred does it all, especially since he bought out Rodney. He’s not used to working with a team, and he’s used to having the total control that comes with doing it yourself. So while he has a team for the visual novel, he’s still been trying to do too much of it himself – the planning, the writing, the artwork, and all the coding in ren’py. It’s the approach he’s comfortable with, but it’s not working fast enough for the visual novel.
A couple of weeks ago he decided to make a change, and brought me and TheShad0w [John Hoffman] onto the team to help. I am now the ren’py script monkey. I am taking the original comic art and dialogue, using Fred’s thumbnail storyboards for direction, and trying to code that into ren’py in a way that fits the visual novel format. I’m trying to do it as close as I can to how I think Fred would want it. This is all work Fred was trying to do himself.
Shad0w has been working on tooling and some of the trickier ren’py bits. He wrote a script to pull and format all the canon dialogue from the Megatokyo website (where it powers the search ninjas) to save rekeying. He wrote scripts to generate placeholder character images so we can see their position on the screen, and torso, head, eye, and mouth positions without waiting for Fred to finish the actual artwork. That makes a huge difference in debugging the scripts and deciding what artwork Fred needs to draw. And he has written a number of tricky ren’py bits like animating the coffee pot that Kimiko throws at Piro, and making it look like Seraphim is sitting on the visual novel dialogue window.
So what does that have to do with Starfighter? A great deal of this project seems to be taking place in the shadows. And it could just because I'm not a rabid fan and don't have blinders on because of that, but tying an ACTUAL demo and not that ridiculous preview we originally go to who gave what on Kickstarter screams 'STAY AWAY' to an outsider. To be fair, I haven't even made a judgment on IF I'm playing it due to the comic's explicit content. But, as development continues, we'll do our best here to ensure the details remain open and accessible to everyone interested.
After all, before EITHER of these games were known there were developers who had no choice but to make all of their work public to earn enough trust to warrant a side glance; much less a purchase. I'm sure both teams can handle a few more questions and when we have them, you will be given the answers!
Winged Cloud, the creators of Pyrite Heart, are teaming up with the Sekai Project to create an ecchi visual novel. Let that one soak into your frontal lobe for a moment. The people behind THIS are responsible for the jubbly fest you see above you. Well, points for consistency I guess? If you're going to do fanservice, might as well go all out.
The game, titled Sakura Spirit, will be released this Summer for $9.95 on Steam as well as PC and Mac download. Apparently there is a plot for this, so let's cut to the official press release!
Rising Judo Star, Gushiken Takahiro, was about to have the match that would make or break his career in two weeks. A championship match where the winner is then signed up to be a young national athlete for Japan. He was very determined to win, in order to fulfill his dreams of finally representing his country for a sport he loves so much.
He was prepared and ready, but that doesn’t stop him from being nervous for his upcoming battle. With the suggestion of his friends and classmates, he goes to a shrine that was rumored to grant any wish or prayer. He poured all the coins from his already full coin bank into the offering box and made his prayer. After praying, he becomes dizzy and nauseous and eventually faints. When he woke up, he was already in an ancient place he didn’t recognize.
While searching for a way back to his village, he stumbles upon two girl wielding swords chasing after two… foxgirls? He questions his brain at first, but then follows them, only to be caught in on their shenanigans as well.
Who are these girls and are they involved on Takahiro’s arrival to this new world? Will he ever get back to his home place and timeline just in time for his match? Or will he be stuck there forever?
Now, for those of you new to this website and don't appreciate my joke, you should probably understand that after mocking Prince-sama for the umpteenth time, someone challenged me to watch the first episode of Queen's Blade back when I was blissfully ignorant of the Ecchi subgenre. I live-tweeted my experience and it is only because of that I'm not babbling in a corner whenever I bring up Queen's Blade. It doesn't stop the flashbacks though...that damn Jello Bunnygirl and her acid breasts....and the urine and...I'm okay. I'm okay.
The point is that I'm not the biggest fan of the subgenre. On top of that, many of the designs for the game are copied from Winged Cloud's earlier works and, from what I'm told, this is common. Everyone but the redhead are clearly 'enhanced' copies from The Guardian's Spell. However, if it has anything going for it, at least the game isn't pretending to be something it isn't. Like Pyrite Heart, it's obviously high-caliber fanbait and what we've seen is probably just the tip of the spear since, after all, it is commercial. However, we shouldn't forget that the appeal of Pyrite Heart was that it was FREE high-quality fanbait/otome so there is no guarantee the audience Winged Cloud successfully built from P.H. will shell out the coin for Sakura Spirit.
I'm guessing though that's where Sekai Project comes into play. The group is responsible for the translation and distribution in the West of Spicy Tails' World End Economica (whose day is coming). Obviously they wouldn't try an original title unless they thought they had the resources and connections to make it successful not only here, but wherever else they think they'll have a market for it. Of course, this is only the beginning for this one. I will petition Winged Cloud and the Sekai Project for a beta version of the game so that I bring some perspective to it as we get closer to release day and as long as the content doesn't get explicit, there will be a review.
Until then, check out the Sekai Project website for more information and, if you're interested, to pre-order the game! With that done, let's get to NEW RELEASES!
Originally conceived during NaNoRenO 2013, the first project by the Apple Cider team is complete. Autumn's Journey was developed by several known and developing VN makers; including Dej-Chan, KittyKatStar, Arowana, S-Morishita and Nellie Wong (friend of the site). Here's a quick preview!
"The world of Ishtera is populated by two races: dragonkind, who have lived there for eons, and the heavenkind who have recently appeared.
The two races have been politely aware of each other, but never intervening, only keeping to their own business. Until now.
Also we have seen release of the third chapter of The Outbreak Kinetic Novel series, Mira's Magical Mishap and Basilika! Each features a different genre as The Outbreak deals with the juggernaut of current fiction that is Apocalyptic Horror while Triple M and Basilika are waiting in my queue. Triple M was created by the same folks responsible for Sacred Sand: a title I played and shelved back at a time when I didn't want to step on anyone's toes...yes those days did exists. We'll have to see if this one can stand the fire, but so for the bit of Basilika I've played, I've been impressed. So good work all around and congrats to all the developers on their releases!
As for this site, keep it locked as we continue down the path of NaNoRenO! We're on track to have everything knocked out by month's end so follow along if you've haven't seen any of the YouTube videos. And we'll be back next week right here for more news you can use! This is JP3: reporting for VNN!