So...Eroge in Academia?

So besides working on my own Ren'Ai games as strictly a hobby, I've also managed to bring them in to my academics.

I'm developing a performance piece (I'm a theater student) that uses Eroge/Ren'Ai games as an element. I won't bore you with the details.

But hey - here are some pretties in progress.

BTW - I SERIOUSLY need an actual version of Paint Tool Sai. I love this thing, but the trial only lasts 31 days. ;_; $57... Well, my birthday's coming up.

This is a picture of one of my actresses as a Ren'ai game character. ^^ She thinks it's awesome, I'm really excited for how it's going to turn out. She really looks like she could belong in any Ren'ai game!

Killing Babies

Not literally, of course. I mean making cuts and edits.

Someone once said that to be a writer, you have to be willing to kill your children. This weekend is definitely proof of that.

I'm working on a project - the script reached 406 pages (the page count of my last project) and was close to 1/3 completed. This, I decided, was unacceptably long. With a page count of 1200 (as would've been the projected final product) the logistics of creating such a monster would be a nightmare. Not to mention the undeniable reality that the game would just be too damn long for anyone to actually sit and read all the way through. I'm not J.K. Rowling - I'm not sure I could get my fans to sit through an 800 page novel.

So after deciding last night that the script was too long, I went about making cuts this morning. Cutting is a depressing process, let me tell you. How many hours of work am I stripping away? How many great pieces of dialogue? There were scenes that I would've rather died than parted with... But then I realized they didn't add to the story I really wanted to tell, so they had to go.

I've found a much more quick and manageable way of writing the rest of the game. I'm hoping that with these cuts I'll get down to around 275 pages before continuing. (I know! Cutting over 125 pages? It's scary). I hope the rest will go much smoother/quicker.

Heh. I guess I could always shove a "deleted scenes" section in the extras of my game. There's some really cute stuff that I'm sad had to go.

Oh well - off to kill more babies.

A. R. T.

Art.

Let's face it - without visuals, you ain't got much of a visual novel, now do you?

Being a one-woman studio, I provide all the art for my projects as well as doing all the writing. And coding, and designing, etc...

For my thirteenth birthday my parents bought me a sketchbook - the Strathmore Recycled Paper Series, size 9x12, retail value $11.75 at most art stores. I now have nineteen of those sketchbooks piled under my computer desk at home; one with a proud "20" sharpied on the front cover is sitting next to me. (And yes, it's the exact same brand and size! Hey, you know what they say: if it ain't broke...)

Along with my writing, art has been one of my most passionate hobbies for a long time. I sketch probably every day and have spent years developing my style. My greatest influences have probably been Yusuke Murata (Eyeshield 21) and most recently the artist for the Otome Game Starry Sky, who uses a pen name that I haven't found out.

I've been drawing for nearly five years, but I've only seriously begun practice in the art of digital coloring this past year. My current weapon of choice is Paint Tool Sai. It's sorta fabulous. :3

These past few days have been very serious studies for me in terms of developing techniques and style for my CGing. I'm still so all over the place when it comes to my style and what I really want to achieve.
That's something I threw together while practicing. Not my most recent - but I'm pretty happy with it. (As for who he is...well, that may be revealed a bit down the road. ^_~)

When it comes to art, I feel like I'm at that frustrating "not quite pro" quality. In terms of my drawings, my coloring, everything. I'm trying my hardest, but it never seems to achieve the beautiful quality of pro artists. I guess I can hack this up to lack of experience and practice.

So I'll keep working! I have a goal of uploading a new piece to my devArt every three weeks (I'm a busy college student, so as much as I'll try to keep up with this, it may eventually fall by the wayside.) Practice makes perfect, as the so overused phrase seems to go! Wish me luck!

These Impossible(?) Projects

So I'll be honest with you all. I've been a fan of Visual Novels since I was fifteen years old. I'm eighteen now. I discovered the OELVN community right before my sixteenth birthday and, of course, set to writing my own game.

I'll tell you this - that game got finished being written in July of last year. That's right - July 2009.

Granted, I took a large break in between there to apply to college and focus on graduating. Other things became more important for awhile. There was probably a whole year there where I did absolutely no writing on my game. It stayed in the back of my mind as one of those "I'll finish that one day" projects. I'm actually a bit proud of myself for really jumping on it in 2009 and writing until it was finished. This was no tiny project either - we're talking a 400 page Microsoft Word document of just script. This is an accomplishment.

Still, I realize that a script does not make a game. There's still plenty of stuff to be done, including but not limited to coding, art, developing the UI and more.

But I'm convinced that the hardest, most arduous part of the Visual Novel development process is the writing. Making yourself sit down and write out all that script takes a lot of discipline. And it's a easy thing to let a story lose its steam.

I used to keep my project entirely secret. Considering I consider Magical Girl Studios nothing but a hobby studio, I really didn't want outside pressure for me to finish and release my game. But showing my script to my dear friend/editor really has inspired me to pursue this hobby until I have a finished product.

The point of Magical Girl Studios is to make quality free Visual Novels for old fans to enjoy and new fans to discover. I want to bring this still rather niche genre to a larger community. And the only way I'm going to do that is with a polished final product. So I guess I've still got a lot of work to do!

These projects are hardly impossible. Just overwhelming. This is still a hobby - a side project in comparison to my real life which requires far much more focus and effort. I'm going to keep going at it as a hobby - something I love.

The Arduous Editing Process

So I'd say the development of my original Bishojo game is pretty laid-back. That is, it's, for now, strictly a hobby.

But that doesn't mean I'm not approaching it seriously. That is, with every intent to finish it and make it polished and professional. The script is completely written - the game looks like it'll take roughly three or four hours to play through once.

Right now I'm in the editing process, that is, I'm having another set of eyes read through the script and send me edits. There are PLENTY of them. Not only is she proofreading (which is vitally important) she's editing for flow, consistency, and character. Her edits are always really insightful, I think.

Editing is an important part of the process that I think gets skipped too often. Rough drafts are just that - rough. And it's SO important to have someone other than yourself edit your script. Because often times you'll just glaze over errors or things that don't make sense. Often times, since you wrote it, it'll read just perfectly in your mind, but it might make no sense to another reader.

The editing process is out of my hands. Right now I'm tackling another project. Once I get my finished script back, the process will start up once again. :)

A WIP

So for anyone who's wondering what kind of art I do:

Paint Tool SAI is God. I've been using Photoshop Elements for my art for the longest time, and while I've managed to get comfortable with it, SAI is just MADE for art better than Photoshop is. I love the pressure sensitivity and the crisp and easy inking. I'll NEVER go back! SAI forever!

Another portrait of a mysterious blue haired girl... She's been seen before in fairy form on my deviantart.

Still developing my technique to have great art for my game projects - for now I'm just playing around with my tools and working on getting a respectable DevArt up and running!

"One of the Guys" - Ran Kamoike

After hours of dedicated playing, I finally got my first ending in Edelweiss - Ran Kamoike's.

The following post will contain little to no spoilers as to the actual route and won't be able to compare the ending to any others, as I'm stilling working on my second. But I think it'll still be an interesting look into the trope that Ran represents - the "one of the guys" girl.

Ran is interesting in the fact that, between all the heroines, she is probably the only one to have feelings for Kazushi from the beginning. Ran's rather upfront about her affection for Kazushi, often teasing him sexually and acting coy. Kazushi, however, doesn't pick up on it very well. Why? Because Kazushi, in my opinion, just sees Ran as "one of the guys".

I can't recall a single scene where he referred to Ran as even beautiful or attractive. Ran is the one to instigate their relationship - Kazushi just sorta goes along for the ride.

Which brings me to the core of this post - the trope type. Ran isn't a tsundere by any means. She's witty and greedy, but she's not cruel or abusive. In fact, she's a rather sweet girl, if you're willing to pay for kind treatment. What Ran is, however, is easily obtainable. Not to say that her ending is any easier to get than any other ending - I'm talking about the writing. Kazushi could have had Ran from the beginning, so when the two finally pursue each other, Kazushi has to put in very little effort. In fact, most of the story is about Ran and her deep feelings for Kazushi.

What disappointed me the most about this story was the deep lack of feelings I felt on Kazushi's part. It almost made me sad, even though their ending is definitely a happy one. I felt as though Ran was into Kazushi far more than Kazushi was into Ran. Ran is the one who has to make all the sacrifices for the man she loves.

There's one scene that sticks out prominently to me - at one point, Ran says "I love you" to Kazushi and Kazushi literally doesn't know how to react. Even though the two are dating and sexually active at this point in the game, Ran's sweet declaration of love is met by Kazushi simply being shocked and stumbling over words. And never is there a chance for Kazushi to reveal that he has developed deep feelings for Ran.

I definitely get the feeling that Ran and Kazushi are sexually compatible though. The two seem to have pretty amazing sex together, and they do it a lot. Pretty much wherever, whenever they get the chance. I haven't played the other girls' routes yet, but, to be honest, a vast majority of Ran's CGs were H-CGs, leading me to believe that she has more sex scenes than any other girl.

So what do I gather from this relationship? It's sad, but I think, at her core, Ran will always be "one of the guys" to Kazushi. He just never seemed to be very much in love with her, which, in my opinion, is tragic on the part of Ran. And on the part of every other girl who has always felt like she's just "one of the guys".

Ran certainly isn't "true ending" material. Too bad - she's a smart, wild, and sweet girl. I think she needs to move on and find a guy who realizes just how amazing she is.