Quick Updates
Atmospheric ChangesWe're working on improving the overall atmosphere around Araysia. Here are some things!
Cutbacks and ImprovementsThese are some things that with the transfer and piecing together, we resulted in improving. A lot of them are reduction of map quantities. If you're wondering, the more maps caused the game to lag. If I wasn't so adamant on getting this game out, I would transfer everything over to VXace and just do it from there (Since it's 5x faster) but it doesn't make sense at this point as it would take 10x longer just to re-add everything. I'll just stick to XP and my next game will be on VXace I think with XP-styled graphics!
Fall 8 times, stand up 9Well... here I am being my melodramatic self again. For those of you who knew me for so many years you would know how extremely sensitive I am when it comes to my art and artstyle (hence redrawing all of the characters so many times.) Today, I'm kind of writing this to feel better, because I think I need to write this kind of as a self affirmation. I got the critique today that I needed to re-draw all of my face sprites, or at least edit them to make them more variant- since the faces look too similar being too inadequate for an otome game. It wasn't something that was just said by one person- but several. I feel like I've let you guys down again. But I think I should let you know that I'm not going to anymore. While I'm not going to redraw the face sets, I will be making the emotions more variant to display further characterization. I'm trying not to let critiques get to me, but to be honest the art is one of those things that probably hits home the most. I really feel down in the dumps, but I can't let that stop me. Not anymore. I won't hiatus on you, I promise. I just need to sleep on it. THE. NEXT. DAY.I had initially thought that the next day would make everything feel better, but everything really depended on a few people brightening my day, and that was incredible. I still can't really look at my artwork without critiquing it hard core, but I'm okay now. I'm not going to revamp or anything like that, I'm just going to redraw Leo, Lia and Jay (Because I'm still unhappy with how he looks) and just go with it :) I won't be brought down by something someone says. I lost sight of why I did this... and now It's time to stand back up and slap my face and move on. Suzie Erin LaytonSuzie Erin Layton is the Elementary school teacher of Araysia, being one of the most influential adults in the town. She is very sweet and always smiling. Suzie is incredibly intelligent, but is an amazing teacher and a great influence. She has known Kory and Samantha since she was a teenager, and since has become close with Kory, though her and Samantha often butt heads. It's been made quite clear that Suzie has liked Kory in the past, but backed off for Samantha's sake. FACE SPRITE: I actually was originally drawing Tytannia, then she looked too sweet, so I started drawing Anna, then realizing that I already drew Anna, so I tried with Suzie and it just clicked! She's exactly how I pictured her. Kory ValitrovKory is Andy and Anastasia's cold and stoic father as well as the police officer of the town. He married Samantha when he was only a teenager and the two seldomly get along. He has been shown to be awful with money and worse at interaction. He looks over Andy, and spoils Anastasia to a point. He is a college friend of Suzie, and doesn't speak much to others in town. He is disliked by Kyler and Damion as Kory gets on their back for smoking. Opening- The very beginningsLike any game, book or other form of media, Celestial Dance has a very clear cut beginning, and a very visible end. The game begins sweetly, mother tucking her child into bed. Below is a before and after of the CG used in the first scene. The mouth of the mother animates. The compared works were drawn only three months apart. The actual intro event will be released later Unused Max Romance eventRoxie: “H-Hey now, Andy…” Andy: “Come on, you’ve got to admit that was pretty low!” Roxie: “It was just meant to be a joke, you know that! It’s Max we’re talking about.” Roxie: “You know, he once cried when my dad killed a spider-“ Max: “That was you, sis.” Andy: “Your pranks are getting out of hand!” Max: “Andy, it was harmless! Here she is, safe and sound!” Roxie: “Leave it to Andy to make this into such a big deal.” Andy: “It’s not what was taken, but rather how it was taken.” The hero enters. Max: “Hey! I need your help with something… Ms. buzzkill over there is being a little bit of a drama queen.” Andy: “Ms?!” Roxie: “No reaction to ‘drama queen’? I guess you get that a lot, Andy.” Max: “Well… You see, I played a bit of a prank on Andy the other day.” Max: “It was just a bit of harmless fun, but he’s angry about it.” Andy: “You stole from me, and left a ransom note!” Roxie: “He stole a paperclip and wrote the note on a napkin with lipstick.” Andy: “Max has lipstick?” Max: *Joking/sweetly sarcastically* “If it makes your eyes pop, then why not?” *laughing* Roxie: “My dad bought it for my mom. He gave it to me last year, but I never wore it.” Max: “Hey, let’s stop playing the blame game and do something fun.” Roxie: “how about a prank call?” Andy: “More pranks? Max: “How about it? Will you join us? I promise we won’t get into any trouble!” Andy: “You can promise that?” The screen transitions. Max: *on the phone* “Hey is [Choose a random name] There?” Max: “Really? I could have sworn I had the right number.” Max: “Well, if you do see them, please tell him/her that his/her [create some random and weird pizza combo] is ready.” Max hangs up Roxie: “Hurry! Come on! Call them back!” Max: *On phone* “Hello? My name is [Same name as above chosen].” Max: “is there a message for me?” Max: “Ahh! My Pizza is ready? Thank you very much. I’ve been waiting several [time increments] for this day!” Max: “Bye bye!” Andy: “you’re such a child sometimes…” Max: “you’ve got to admit though! Their reaction was great!” Max: “Hey, thanks for humoring me. I know prank calls are pretty fourth grade, but I’m glad you stuck around.” End event 1 Max Unused love event #2Max: “Hey! What are you doing here? I’m on my way to buy the new RPG that’s out. Ah… What was it called?” Max: *pondering* “Was it- Tales of? Legend of? Kingdom? Final?” (C/N Before you beat yourself up: “Tales of Symphonia, legend of Zelda, Kingdom hearts, Final Fantasy”. ) Max: “Tales of the final Kingdom Legend? That doesn’t sound right…” Max: “Hey, do you want to come? I’d like the company~!” Max: “My sister? She’s too busy beating my high scores at the moment…” Max: “I welcome the accompaniment if you’re up to it!” Max: “Great! Don’t worry about bus fare! I can drive us.” Screen to black. Assumed to be in the car. Max: “Q-Quiet? Me? No… I’m just… thinking!” Max: “Okay! Okay. You got me.” Max: “You’re the first person I’ve driven other than my sister. It’s making me anxious.” Max: *laughs sweetly* “Don’t be nervous. I’m a good driver, okay?” Max: “I’m glad you could come with me. It’s not fun buying video games alone.” Monologue from the hero. They are in the store. Some guys make some stupid comments Guy1: “Are you ready to get the new C.O.D?” Guy2: “yeah! I heard you can actually play as the salmon this time!” Guy1: “haha, check it out! Look at the girl! She’s in the [varies based on choice] section!” Guy2: “S’cuze me miss, but the make-over and dress-up games are best played online!” Guy1: “Aren’t you afraid that you’re going to break a nail picking up such a big scary box.” Max: “Oi! Do you two have a problem?” Guy1: “Well yeah. This is a man’s hobby, buddy. Can’t you just feel the whole industry crumbling?” Max: *laughs* “You’re kidding right? Have you listened to yourself?” Guy2: “Yes. I think.” Guy1: “Look, blondie. If you don’t stay true to the gamer code, then get out.” Max: “All games have code- but they all can be altered in their own way.” The boys give some more sassy comment. Max: “Have you ever heard of the legendary gamer, ‘The Poisoned Camellia’?” Guys agree, referring to how good ‘he’ is. Max: “He? He happens to be my sister.” Max: “She’s won several world championships and still has time to do other things.” Max: “Hm… with your silence, I rest my case.” Max: “Leave my friend alone. I think her love for games makes her even more awesome.” Max: *To the player*“Are you ready to go? Let’s get you out of this place.” Max: “Hm? I know you’re no damsel in distress. People like them just bring out the worst in me.” Max: “I know you could’ve handled it yourself. But you shouldn’t have to.” Max: “When it comes down to it, we’re all human. You’re allowed to be angry or sad, lash out or defend yourself.” Max: “But… we sometimes need someone to back us up. We can’t go through everything alone.” Max: “So, what I’m trying to say is…” Max: “You can depend on me, ‘kay?” Craaazy AnnouncementWhile I announced this on Tumblr, Twitter and several other outlets, I had saved the details for this post. Celestial Dance, by the end of this week will be on Alpha testing for the first 5th of the game. This is absolutely crazy. This means 1/5th of the game will be compelely playable, features and all, just with some missing cutscenes. This ALSO means that another 5th of the game can be completed since the pre-teen chapter is a partical copy paste of the child chapter with less dialogue and scenes to care about. What does this mean? This mean the game is raising to a level of actual completeness. This is surreal. This is real. In honour of this, and in honour of the start of spring/ the Persian new year I have decided to release a video of the introduction scene to CD. It will be without the anime intro (Because, as I may have mentioned, that as well as most animated CGs will be completed during the beta test period.) The next part of this will be talking about what will happen after the alpha test is complete and some things to prepare for. Preparing: Top things you need to know as we go further.In light of the previous announcement, I just want to let you know that we still have a lot of work to do with character art, Features, CGs and dialogue (tons of work) but it still is something to prepare for. Here are the top things you should know and prepare for in the coming weeks: BE PREPARED FOR...
Hunger System: Massive Change AlertI was thinking today about how to edit the hunger system to make it more important to the game. Then it hit me. The hunger system is stupid. I'd Like to introduce... Celestial Dance: Kokoro As I mentioned, Kokoro is the Japanese word for heart: 心。I still refer to character hearts as 'hearts' so I decided to shift the term (LOL) over to this. This system is a part of the hero's AI, in which it determines everything about her and how she's feeling. It is MUCH different than what was initially planned, and with a couple minor tweaks (No more than 30 minutes) the whole system is thrown to a new dimension. There are two major areas to the spectrum: 1. Moods 2. Energy EnergyEnergy is the area is the remainder of the hunger system but with several tweaks. There are six parts to energy that can appear: Hunger: 1. Full (Ate the right amount of food.) 2. Getting (Ate a while ago, but getting hungry) 3. Starving (Needs to eat. Cured by eating) These three are results of time. As time carries on, the hero gets hungry. Health: 4. Nauseous (A result of illness, random mornings, pregnancy or eating when full. Fixed by medication or over time.) 5. Feverish/Cold (Result of random timing. Fixed by getting medication from the clinic or over time.) Special Case- Health: 6. Tired (A result of all of the above. At 1am, if you don't get to bed, you will collapse from sleepiness no matter what. You will collapse from being too tired if you work too hard in the mines, wait too long to eat, stay up too late, or work too hard while you're sick. You can help stay awake by having coffee and taking naps. It works as a stamina counter to help limit the amount you can mine or fish to avoid fast money.) MoodsMoods work very differently from the above. They are simply a result and state action but they don't have direct effects on the player. Moods can exhaust the hero physically, but in general are a result and state. Moods are incredibly dependant on game play, but don't serve much purpose interaction wise, however it can cause for drops in school, work or friendship if not handled correctly (Full cause and effect to be decided.) Moods can be caused by cutscenes (reactions differ based on personality) or by simple things like talking to your friends, or eating your favourite foods. If something bad happens to the player cutscene wise, her mood will drop making her emotionally exhausted. There is no spectrum for moods, so they are improved simply by doing things that make her happy or sad. Types of Moods: - Elated (Caused by cut scenes, events or eating favourite foods.) - Sad (Caused by cutscenes, can tire the hero) - Angry (Caused by cutscenes or speaking to certain characters. Can tire the hero.) - Nostalgic (Caused by cutscenes or by interacting with certain objects.) - Normal (default emotion.) Small Notes: - Nausea also can come from starvation. If you wait too long to eat, you will get sick, your tiredness will escalate and you will pass out. - If you are getting close to passing out, you will get a message from your character telling you to go get something to drink to wake them up. - Anger and sadness can cause illness and increase of fatigue. If you are angry and sick, you are likely to pass out before 1am. - States do not change even if overrided. You can be hungry, sick and tired, but sleepiness will be the only thing that shows. You can be hungry and sick, but sickness takes priority over hunger. - With the above as a given, it is a progressive result. Hunger causes sickness which causes tiredness. - These states change at the change of the hour, but moods change instantly. KuronekoJaden Comment: I'm glad you like him ^-^ He's grown on me too, but I'm redrawing him ^-^;;;; I'm still not happy! I feel that it is too! I'm so excited to get working on it some more! Comment on last blog post: It all went well! Everything is here and accounted for!! LOL I think it's because I pretended to make so much progress on the school system when in reality I'd just stare at it. Luckily, I've cut the system down a bit, so it's much more manageable :) So I'm rewriting all of it, and it's taking me so little time, it's wonderful! Ahahahaha I understand <3 I've been falling for Aris a bit lately. It's probably the dreams I have about him. But Jet is well on his way to being fully voiced, and his romance path is really sweet, so I hope I do him justice! I'm so glad you like it!! Ahahaha Thank you!! I'm sorry I haven't been active lately! I've been busy with school and the game and voice actors and writing so responding to people has been a bit difficult <3 I hope all is well!! Some interesting facts about making the game...
TTFN! I'll update soon with more! Quick shoutout to my friend Sam who I haven't been able to speak to lately! I hope all is well with you, and I'm sorry I haven't been able to reply to you recently <3
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CheyenneI'm a total dork who writes too much all the time because I like typing and I used to write novel-length stories and I'm just a weird person who does some things and breathes and stuff. Archives
December 2016
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