As far as technical details go, we’ve got the resources to support a forum of substantial size. In fact, I used to run the old Pseudome forums, which were the unofficial host to the Rising Stars of Manga competitions. Consequently, I am also well familiarized with administrative tasks, like policing rules, working with a team of Mods and the like.

As for this forum itself: don’t think of it as a done deal. Think of it as a prototype. Something that’s in a pre-embryonic state. It exists simply because I made it. The real question that I want to ask is: should it exist?

Are there enough EVN creators out there who want to see this happen? Are there enough people out there who would use such a resource?

That being the main issue, I do want to address something that has come up on multiple occasions surrounding this idea. Something that I suspect will come up again, many more times. And that is the perception of such a forum. As I’ve stated already, I want it to exist as a technical resource for the learned. But as some have pointed out, people may perceive it as an “exclusive” club. Something that could be an insular, haughty group. I’ve been trying to think of a good analogy as to why this should not be the case, and I think I have one…

Consider a high school freshman who enjoys mathematics (weird, I know, but just bear with the analogy). Let’s say the curricula at the school dictates that freshmen take Algebra for their mathematics class. On the first day of school, said freshman walks into the senior Calculus class and sits down. Would it be improper for the teacher of the Calculus class to ask the freshman to leave? Or would it be improper for the teacher to accept the student (who really, really likes math) and teach him Calculus? Keeping in mind that the freshman doesn’t have the prerequisite knowledge, and it will mean that the teacher will need to take away resources from the other students in order to bring him up to speed.

I’ll add a poll for voting purposes. Although, I have my suspicion about the accuracy of these sorts of polls. I’d prefer discussion on the matter versus a poll—whether that discussion happens here on the blog, or at the pre-embryonic forum itself.

EVN? Yes, that would be English-language Visual Novel. You can think of it in terms of non-Japanese people creating Visual Novels in the English language by default (as opposed to translating a Japanese-made VN into English).

EVN community? Well that’s a more nebulous term. There really isn’t too much of a community, per se. There are independent devs who crank out good quality titles on a regular basis, like Winter Wolves, Hanako Games, Sakevisual and a few others. There is the Teacup forum—which admittedly is not a high-traffic destination for the EVN community. But really, when I mention the “EVN Community”, it pretty much boils down to one central nexus of information: the Lemmasoft forums.

It’s the adopted home of Ren’Py. Basically, everyone who uses Ren’Py comes to the Lemmasoft Forums (LSF) in order to post information about their projects, get coding help or just generally hang out. It’s a comfortable place. The administration has endeavored to make it a helpful, encouraging location. And that’s where I believe the problem lies.

If you haven’t been to LSF, take a quick look around the place. Go ahead, it’s okay. I’m not going anywhere. Head over there and take five or ten minutes to look around…

…Back? Good. Now, what did you see? A lot of posts, huh? Did you glance at the “Work in Progress” forum? Did you notice how there were about 80 bajillion posts? That’s a good thing, right? I mean, that translates into a lot of interest in making EVNs. But, did you notice anything about the quality of those posts?

Let me be clear. I’m not even referring to the intrinsic artistic quality contained in most of those posts. Rather, I’m referring to the fact that the overwhelming majority of those posts amount to, “Hey, here’s an idea! I might do this. Or maybe that. Oh! This other thing might be cool…”. Basically, the forum has become flooded with people thinking out loud.

So, as a random passer-by who might be interested in seeing what the EVN community has to offer, what will that person do first? They’re almost certainly going to find the central nexus of information for EVNs. Or in other words, the Lemmasoft forums. And what will they find when they get there? A sea of inane, feckless jabbering, without substance. If they’re persistent, they might find a vanishingly small number of good titles, trying desperately to get out from under the crush of aimlessness.

While this is only anecdotal, I seem to be picking up on an undertone of discontent at LSF because of this scenario. Ren’Py-made games have reached a point where there are a number of artists and groups who are trying to create breakthrough EVN titles. But how are they supposed to gain any traction if the preeminent nexus for EVN information is overwhelmed with fluff?

There’s been a good analogy put forward that describes what’s going on, and I’d like to build upon it. Think of LSF as a basketball court. It’s a pleasant outdoor court in a local park. People just go there to play pickup games, horse around, hang out and have a good time. But suddenly, some college basketball players have showed up. And they want to use the court to play some serious games—to train and to advance their craft so they can make it to the NBA.

And that’s the question that faces the Lemmasoft forums and the EVN community. Should LSF change to accommodate those who want to make it to the NBA (support the further advancement of the media)? Or should LSF stay a casual basketball court for people to hang out at (encourage beginners)?

Personally? I believe that LSF wants the latter. It’s important to note that I’m not condemning such a decision. But, if that is what they want and if there are other people and groups out there that want to see serious advancement of the EVN media, I suspect that it’s time for a new community to come together. A community for those who have professional artistic work under their belt, or at the very least, have obvious talent and drive to see EVNs evolve into something greater. A community for people who have undertaken and completed projects in the past and have proven that they know how to successfully finish a task once they set out to do it.

PREAMBLE:

In ancient times, Gods and Demons dwelled among man. But as mankind developed and his power grew, the influence of the Gods slowly receded. One culture—the first great civilization of humanity—chronicled the exploits of the Gods during their waning time among man.

The ancient Egyptian civilization knew of the Gods. They also knew of men who walked with the Gods. Men who were not men. These were the Servants of the Gods—and of Demons. It was these Servants who were charged with the protection of the order and tranquility first divined by the Gods. Yet, despite the rise and fall of the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans and countless other civilizations, these Servants, these men who are not men, walk among us still, vying to keep order intact and keep the forces of chaos at bay.

STORY:

Lira Moretti, a shy, young artist from a small island in the Mediterranean makes her way to the mainland city of San Moritz in pursuit of her career as a painter. There she encounters peculiar people whom she never before thought could exist, nor would she befriend.

As Lira spends more time in San Moritz, it becomes evident that she’s being pulled into a world that she can scarcely comprehend, much less desires to be a part of. However, her developing friendships will help make her become a better person and prepare her to meet the ultimate destiny that awaits her.

PRIMARY CHARACTERS:

Rather than a temperamental, bombastic creative figure, Lira is a shy, demure, introverted artist who is unsure of her talent. She’s a very private person—preferring to keep her thoughts and feelings to herself whenever possible. Typically, only her paintings allow her inner self to show through.

Being such a reserved introvert, dropping her mask and confiding her thoughts in others is truly a special privilege bestowed on only the closest family and friends.

When faced with the challenge of stepping into the world of Gods and Demons, only her developing relationships will help prepare her for the life that fate has bestowed upon her.

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Lira’s younger sister, Priscilla is almost her polar opposite. A talkative, social butterfly, Priss cultivates relationships with myriad people and has developed an information network that is quite impressive given her age. She talks to anyone who looks the slightest bit interested, about any topic under the sun. A truly gregarious young woman, she’s also a talented violinist at the age of 16.

Apparently more excited about Lira’s trip to San Moritz than Lira, she pines to follow in her sister’s footsteps. The prospect of moving from such a small, isolated island to a large city, filled with diverse people excites her to no end, and hopes dearly to move to the big city once she graduates high school.

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A fourth cousin to Reme Girard, Karl works as an assistant in a veterinary hospital in San Moritz. As luck would have it, Karl was visiting Reme for his graduation celebration and is returning to the city at the same time as Lira is moving there herself. Being a very handsome young man, this makes him a very intimidating person to Lira and someone whom she would prefer to avoid.

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An archeologist from San Moritz, Cassandra met a local girl—Salima—at her latest expedition. Because of Salima’s assistance, she managed to make a number of spectacular finds. Finds, not just in regards to artifacts, but also in regards to herself and her own latent abilities.

After tragedy befalls her expedition, Cassandra takes Salima and what remains of her finds back to San Moritz. There, she tries to determine the cause of the tragedy. But misfortune has followed her back to the city and threatens to snuff out her and Salima.

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A young Egyptian girl who befriended Cassandra during her latest expedition. Her parents, having died a few years ago, lives with her uncle in her home village. Wanting more out of life than existing as virtual chattel, she takes an interest in the newly arrived archeological expedition by the Europeans.

Despite the need for strong, male backs, Salima catches the eye of one of the expedition members; Cassandra. Or rather, Cassandra catches Salima pilfering some of her findings. Rather than an antagonistic response, Cassandra finds the young girl intriguing. With her help, Cassandra makes a number of discoveries in the area. She also learns about the wider world, of which Salima is a part.

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Mrs. Hinze’s granddaughter, Elena is a stern, stand-off-ish woman. She appears to have a single-minded tenacity. And that tenacity is directed at making certain the boarding house runs smoothly and that her grandmother is not troubled by any of the tenants.

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Noel manages Flower Shop Melchior and is something of an enigma. A large and aggressive-looking woman, her mannerisms and dress belie a desire to appear more dainty and feminine than she really is. A long-time friend of Eva, the two have an unusual relationship. Eva works for her at the flower shop, and is typically admonished on a daily basis for sleeping or otherwise slacking. Yet, at times, Noel almost behaves subservient to her. It’s unknown just how deeply their relationship goes and what path their affection for one another travels.

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Eva is quite the socialite. She’s a supremely confident individual who has a passion for antiquities. She has a hand in a number of prominent associations and charities around the city. And yet, she works the register at a flower shop as part of her day job.

She takes an immediate and somewhat unsettling interest in Lira the moment she shows up at the shop. Over time, she positions herself in such a way as to be there with a job offer at precisely the moment when Lira is in need of funds. And yet, for some reason, despite all the apparent planning and plotting, she doesn’t seem to care if her obviousness is exposed.

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SECONDARY CHARACTERS:

The mother of Lira and Priscilla. She’s raising her two girls on her own, as her husband died a number of years ago. She struggled quite a bit to make ends meet shortly after his death. However, she has gained some notoriety—some would say infamy—by becoming an illustrator for a popular “Gentleman’s Magazine”. By securing work with such a widely distributed publication, she’s been able to afford her girls a very comfortable life, and give them both a chance to strike out on their own.

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A talented young woman from San Moritz. Nina attends one of the schools near Mrs. Hinze’s boarding house. However, her talent doesn’t lie in academia. Rather, she’s very mechanically inclined—an unusual, and rarely encouraged skill for a woman in this time period.

Her father secured her a job at a local auto shop. However, the owner has no intention of letting someone so young, let alone a woman, actually take part in the tasks of repairing automobiles. Frustrated at having been relegated to custodial work, Mrs. Hinze gives her a chance to shine by becoming the boarding house’s “manager”. With that position, she has the opportunity to fix whatever might break or fail in the house.

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Reme is Lira’s childhood friend. Their homes are next to each other. And being from such a small island, they were classmates ever since they began attending school. Over the years, their relationship deepened. However, there’s some ambiguity over whether that relationship veered more towards a platonic, almost familial role, or whether they “experimented” with one another in a romantic way.

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The landlady of the boarding house in San Moritz in which Lira resides. She’s a kindly old lady, who apparently doesn’t speak a word of English. She primarily relies on her granddaughter, Elena, to impart her desires to the boarders.

She’s apparently a long-time friend of Eva Klein, and insists that someone always picks up a fresh bouquet of roses from her flower shop every Tuesday.

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IN-GAME SCREEN SHOTS:

After our lead artist suffered a bout of RSI—of which there’s really nothing to be done medically for the condition, save rest—it seems we’re finally back on task. Although, even so, this whole project is just something to be done in our free time.

One of our latest accomplishments is in regards to the game engine that we’re using: Ren’Py. Thanks to the flexibility of the program, we’ve been able to craft a positioning system, a paper doll system and a lighting system for our sprites. In fact, we’ve posted a tech demo for the lighting and paper doll system on Lemmasoft. If you’re interested, I suggest you take a peek.

http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=12744

Having worked with 3D modeling and animation in the past, Visual Novels seem very similar in the effort required up front, and the reusability of the art resources. But the most interesting aspect that I’ve found is the Kamehameha Effect.

As far as effort is concerned – Oy! It seems like such a long, difficult, never-ending process. But I suspect that completion for resources will proceed in a logarithmic fashion. So it’ll seem like very little progress is being made for a long time. And then all of a sudden, without warning, everything will be done. Oh, I’m waiting for that day.

As far as reusability is concerned, it’s definitely a nice change of pace from doing comics. With sequential art, one really can’t reuse anything one draws. Oh sure, one might occasionally be able to swipe a panel here or there from some random, previously finished page. And there are instances where a panel needs to be repeated (usually for comedic effect). But those are rare instances that are far and few between.

But the best part of working on Visual Novels? The fact that one can concentrate one’s efforts onto such a small set of resources. Or as I like to call it: The Kamehameha Effect.

Basically, with sequential art, one has to be fast – damn fast. The pages have to be churned out as fast as one can physically stand (sometimes, beyond). Consequently, quality is usually not a high priority. So, while sequential art may highlight a person’s absolute speed and reliability, it doesn’t necessarily give one a chance to shine, as far as quality is concerned. And that’s something I’ve sorely missed over the years – the chance to concentrate and obsess over a “small” set of artistic resources.

Although, this process does highlight the fact that most of my skills are based around speed. I sometimes find myself at a loss when I need to add in gobs of detail on something. But hey – just like most things, I’m sure it’ll come in time. Maybe. Hopefully…

Well, my primary focus is the writing. I handle the planning for the branches, the plot/story, the dialog, character development, etc. I’ll be honest when I say that I’ve never taken on such a large writing task before. And I have an unfortunate habit of losing all interest in something once I work out all the details in my mind – which is usually LONG before everything is committed to paper. However, I believe I’ve hit upon a useful strategy for keeping my interest while writing and enhancing the results I end up with.

Anyway, the primary point of making this post was to illustrate my other key contribution to the project: the sprites.

The lead artist does the character design and pencils for the sprites. Below is an example of what I get from the artist:

Once I have that, I ink it and lay down the final line work:

And once I have that, I put down a layer of shadows on the sprite – which then goes back to the lead artist for CGing. The shadow layer is there to help speed along the CGing process. That process is still developing, however. As such, the first batch of “shadowed” sprites that I returned ended up being…not helpful enough. In essence, what I provided represented a layer of ambient shadows. The sprites still needed an additional layer of shadows – hard shadows cast by objects. That secondary layer of shadows is illustrated in the sample below:

What does the finished product look like? That’s an excellent-good question.

First, you need to know a little about me. I’m an inker and toner. It’s what I’ve been doing, almost exclusively, for years in my quasi-professional artistic career. I probably have somewhere around 800-or-so inked pages under my belt. As such, I’ve used a variety of tools, like Microns, dip pens and tablets. And I’ve used a variety of different paper – card stock, bristol, papers of varying weights, etc. Some artists say that paper doesn’t matter – inking on a cocktail napkin is sufficient. Well, yes, perhaps it is after a certain number of Martinis. But I can tell the difference in papers. Heck, I can spot the difference in different batches of the same brand of paper. As such, I’m pretty finicky about what I use.

Enter the Cintiq.

For years, I’ve lusted after the Wacom Cintiq. It seemed like a wonderful tool – drawing directly on your monitor?! Sign me up! However, I started having misgivings about the concept after getting my first Graphire. Oh don’t get me wrong – I found it useful. But only for a few, very specific tasks related to digital toning techniques. When it came to working digitally, the mouse was good enough for me.

But, as luck would have it, I eventually stumbled onto a good deal on a used Cintiq. I hesitated, but eventually caved and got one. I don’t mind saying that I was pretty intimidated by the thing. Even used, it costs a small fortune. And it was awfully overwhelming in stature as it sat on my desk – mocking me, daring me to use it.

Oh sure, as a monitor it’s very good. But I needed to start using the thing as it was intended, lest I feel like an idiot for dropping so much cash on a tool that I would never use. Recalling the awkwardness of the Graphire, I reluctantly tested the Cintiq out. Kicked the tires, if you will. Not bad. Not bad…

And then, like a sweaty fat kid on a hot day who hems and haws about jumping into a cold swimming pool after dipping his toe in, I was suddenly pushed into the deep end. And wouldn’t you know it? I could swim!

All my fears about awkwardness, or lack of “texture” on the surface of the Cintiq, or worries about my lines turning out shaky, or inability to make long, smooth, flowy lines evaporated. After just one intense session with the thing, I can honestly say I never, EVER want to touch the mouse for even the smallest of graphical functions again. It’s like trying to draw with a potato. Yeah, it can be done. But why?

Furthermore – with the Cintiq I find that I have far more control over my lines. That’s not to say that it’s necessarily better than using physical inking techniques. Rather, by going all-digital, any “signal degradation” that crops up in the process of physically inking something disappears.

Normally, my process would involve printing out pencils (usually on two separate pieces of 8.5×11 and taped together) and affixing it to some 400 series Strathmore. Then I’d put it on the lightbox and ink it. After that, I’d scan it in and clean it up. As you might be able to tell, there’s a lot of setup work. And errors are introduced at every step – the printouts aren’t perfect. The printouts get obscured by the Strathmore (so I can’t see all the fine details). The scanner doesn’t pick up every detail. But with the Cintiq? No such problems exist.

So in the end, if you’re a sweaty little fat kid, worried about diving into a cold pool – just do it.