Long time no Update

Hey! This project is still alive, fear you not :)

School put it on temporary hiatus but I don't know if it will again story wise at least. And why is that? I have completely changed my writing style and it has done wonders!

I have to scrap everything I've done up till now, but the writing was subpar to my usual anyway so I don't mind all that much. I've changed the story to being narrated in the style of fairy tales. And now the story flows out and I don't have to force it (which is awesome!) Already I am done rewriting the Prologue and it's ten times better than it was originally~ (though 800 words shorter)

I've also been working a tonshit on RockRobin :D Emma's events are completely written up and all I'm missing for her are band meeting conversations. I am taking a break from writing that though to do... ART! I have volunteered to do animated chibis for mini games and certain other scenes. I'm almost done with half of them and I'm pretty stoked.

After that though it's on to Clauclau~

Back on track

Exciting news! I have started up again~ I had a short one-two week hiatus for packing and moving into college, but I'm kicking myself into gear again.

I have finished developing all four of my RockRobin characters and Donovan's sprite has been started!

Unfortuantely I have had to let go one editor and the other one has replied to me in a while. On the other hand Maeniel had been going strong~ I have gotten two more backgrounds from her this week and I know she's working on more.

So just letting you know I am alive and working through this even though college is now in session again.

Wolf goes ARF

Art update!

I have officially designed Faolan and have sketched him up on SAI.

I still have to ink and color, but it's a HUGE step I'd say. It proved to be harder than originally thought to adapt a wolf into a similar style as the bear that still matches the game in general.

Art news aside, I have started putting the game together.

As I have done this I've come to a conclusion... I'm adding myself as "Director" on the credits page. I never realized before this how much work just making sure everyone has everything they need.(I also just realized that I forgot to make a skip option DOH Will need to add that in later)

Right now I've been busy figuring out exactly what backgrounds I need sooner rather than later so I can tell Kaorien which ones need to be worked on the most. Right now she has finished at least 7 backgrounds for the game, which is pretty damn amazing.

OH

I totally forgot to update with something before.

Static Novel portion is completely written. I am working on other things as I wait for editors to get back to me. In two weeks, however, I plan on finalizing and writing the first timeline event and the finding and first event for each path('cept Don's). After that I'm finished writing everything for the demo, thus I will package it all and release it to the public for them to find issues and hopefully get excited about it.

Some people are already excited for it, which I will admit pleases me a a lot. I've never had random people excited for something I've created before.

:D

On the Rock Robin side I have written a lot of Emma and I've taken on two more characters to write for so Aleema does not explode. I've finished finalizing them today and I will work on outlining their "plots". I also plan on writing the next few Emma x Faust bits. Then they only have one more event for me to write (YAY).

Till next times

TOODLES.

'allo

Today I have outlined Rose Red's side of Chapter 2 (and I plan on getting Snow White's outline done as well), started sketching wolves, and plan on writing the next to last Faust x Emma scene.

I also played Pokemon Blue and Fatal Frame.

:D Medium Productive day.

The issue with double perspective.

I've discovered the most tedious part of writing this VN.

These first few chapters and more than likely, the Donovan plot events.

Whyso?

Because for the first few chapters, they are long chunks to write

And for both of these, I have to write them all twice. Everything else is unique to either Snow White or Rose Red, but these parts are the only ones that cross over in both. They are not alike enough that I can just copypaste it either. Each girl has a different perspective of what is going on.

Luckily the 2nd chapter is a bit different than the Prologue and 1st as the girls split off into different scenes.

The rewrite is just frustrating ):

In other news I'm done with Snow White's portion of Chapter 1. Just gotta rewrite it and then I can start on chapter 2. Then I will send them both off to editors.

Monday also starts the great Faolan expedition in which I plan on learning how to draw a wolf, adapt it so it matches the girls and Ardal and then draw, color and shade him. Donovan and Mother will be 100 times easier then.

Megaupdate

So I meant to update this a couple of days ago, but that's okay, because there will just be more in this update.

It's more exciting when I update from both the story and art side anyway :D

ART: What you see to the right of this is non other than Ardal's Bear form complete :D Ardal is a happy jokester for the most part, but he's also a regal and fierce bear, the combination adds for an amused expression.

STORY: I am starting to write out the script for Chapter 1 and the Prologue has been fully editted (for now). I took a break from writing, however, before Chapter 1 to develop out Snow White, Rose Red and their Mother more. Their Mother now has a name, River Clear, though you will not see it mentioned more than likely. I know feel like I'm dealing with real characters now and not just flat fairytale girls. Snow White is now more of a curious, but shy girl and Rose Red runs headlong into everything, but isn't very perceptive.

I have been cheating on SWRR with another project though lol. I am one of the Open Mode writers for RockRobin, a band management sim. My character won a contest and I'm VERY taken with this character. Dealing with this new character however is what made me realize that the reason I have such a hard time writing SWRR is because I haven't developed the girls enough (the boys are OVER developed LOL)

Hopefully I'll be done with chapter 1 and 2 soon :) After that I'm going to write the first "week" of VN and then focus on coding, instead of story, for a bit. Though Aleema agreed to help coding, she is also VERY busy with life and RockRobin.

Anyway that portion of the story is what the demo is going to have.

Artwise I have Faolan next and then Don and then Mother. I am 3/5 done with all the sprites and this makes me very happy. After all the sprites are complete I'm focusing on how many CG Event pictures I will need and then I start on them.

A loose percentage of progress:

Character Sprites: 60%

Backgrounds: 15%

CG Event Pictures: 0%

Plot: 100%

Script: 10%

Coding: 0%

Woo~

Hello everyone~! There has not been an update here inf forever for the reason that life took me by the scruff the neck and was like: HI I EXIST.

What has been happening?

Well first, the entire staff has been assembeled!

Writers
ME

Editors
Doggy Nino
DragoonHP
theButt

Programmers
Me
Aleema

Background Artist
Kaorien

Event Artist
ME

Sprite Artist
ME

--

Yes that is correct, I now have someone to help me with the programming aspect and a background artist!

The programmer is currently working on a kickass game called RockRobin that a character of mine (Emma Taylor) will be featured in Open Play mode. I highly recommend you google that and see the awesomeness.

The background artist I just scooped up and she's amazing!

Here is an example: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/Kaorien/art/bg001-2.png WHICH WILL BE IN THE GAME AND IF YOU STEAL IT I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN.

-----------

Staff aside, the prologue is officially written! Will be editting it a bit and then heading on to chapter 1.

Artwise I'm tackling the Bear. I have never drawn a bear before this so it's taking some time and a lot of practice.

But yes.

Till next time, wish me luck!

Editors

I officially have 4 editors and 2 secondary writers!

EDITORS
thebutt (she is a very special girl)
Doggy Nino
DragoonHP
sporkysan

Secondary Writers
Doggy Nino
DragoonHP

I welcome them aboard!

At first it seemed like a lot of both... but I think I'm going to need the help ~_~ I just realized how DAMN LARGE this game is going to be. There are already 50+ events and I might be adding 4 more to balance things out between Wolf/Bear and Don

In other news however.

Progress?

Glad I waited to start the scripting until I got the Basic Plot edits back, I have a lot to look over and think about (which makes me HAPPY and no that is not sarcasm I really am happy about this). And I'm still waiting on one more editor (who warns me a lot that they are overly critical so I'm kinda excited to see what the weakest points they find).

So that has been put into editing.

I have however started the script for the Static Novel Portion (Which is pretty much directly from the fairytale so it won't be up for too much editting plotwise) I've finished Rose's half of the prologue... but I'm not very happy with it so I'm probably going to go over again before writing Snow's and then sending it off to the judges.

Artwise I have started work on the main menu imagemap. After that I'm off to start drawing Don's and the Princes' sprites. Snow White's and Rose Red's aren't technically 100% finished (Snow's skirt is unshaded and most of their expressions are unshaded too, but I was going to do those right before they are put into the "screenshots" or tests.

After the sprites are done I start work on the Event CGs (starting with all the endings as most of those are final as CGs)

Hopefully next time I update this we'll have another screenshot (this time of the main menu)!

Until then~

Vacation OVER

So vacation is finally over and I'm already back on top of things (aren't you all proud of me?)

I may or may not have 2 more editors! I have to wait for them to reply back (if they do.. ): ) I still don't have a programmer however which I'm rather unhappy about. I might end up having to do it, meaning this game will NOT be done by the end of the summer like I'd hope.

It also for certain seems like I will have to do the backgrounds. I'm seriously hoping to find a free source for them, but if not well... I'm going to have to learn to paint on top of photos to make them look the way I want to. This also will push back the due date for it.

What I do have done however~~ Is the interface! (well by interface I mean the frame for the text, the rest of the interface isn't complete) And I put together a quick and dirty fake screenshot to show you it!

I hope you like it XD I'm still debating whether to put buttons to save/load go to prefrences and auto/skip on the frame, I want to, but I don't want to mess with the design I have.

Oh and the ribbon bookmark is where the MC's face will be while she speaks.

Tablet

Oh, P.S. Upgraded to a new Bamboo Fun as I would have had to work for the new pen anyway. I'm loving it :) Still need to get a few things straightened out so I get used to it, but other than that ish all good.

Update

Holy mackeral YAY I have reached my goal!

Okay I well I cheated a bit. I'm actually only 3/4 done with coloring Snow White and I still need to shade Rose Red's expressions, but Story is 100% Complete and the MC Sprites are close to that (except for the special costume both of them have but I will worry about that when we get far enough that the Festival of Colors matter).

I have one editor on my team right now, ms. THEBUTT (8D). She has been checking over things and telling me what makes sense and what doesn't. In fact she started ANALYZING it like literature, which made me happy. It's a good sign when that can happen right? XD

Anyway posted up a work in progress thread at lemmasoft: GO HERE

Oh and above everything is the official banner/logo for SWRR~ (It's an open book, cause it's a fairytale! *dies*) Anyway, happy progress is happy like! Hopefully recruitment goes well.

Btw

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY AMERICANS!

Frustration

So I have good news and I have bad news.

Good news is that the plotline has been 100% finished.

The bad news? I have misplaced my tablet pen and all art is put on hold until this problem is fixed. Coloring will take me 5 times as long without it for one and I also need to finished a couple more expressions.

I was hoping to have finally reached my goal by tomorrow night... (life has been getting in the way so much this week).

Sorry guys, I know that I am frustrated by this so you must all be. Wish me luck in finding it? I don't have the money to buy a replacement right now.

Production... it lessens lawl

Doo do DOOOO.

Hi...

It was my brother's birfday, but I did get some done! No more endings have been completed, BUT~ I have finished Annoyed!Snow White and her second arm position, and the third one is sketched out in detail so that should be finished tomorrow. Expression are easy, they don't take long at all so all that will be left is coloring her and the 8 endings left As of now Wednesday and Thursday sound like a possible goal to have the two sprite sets and the plot finished.

Next week this time I'll be off to go camping for four days and then half a week after I come back it's off to visit a friend (with my laptop though so I'll prolly be working on this still cause I have no life~ and the person that I'm visiting is actually one of my editors that I'm making help me XD~

Well then, hopefully tomorrow I'll be posting with a sad Snow with the finished third arm position. Till then taTA~

I has COLOR!

Holy shamoly. I feel like I've been working FOREVER today. (I have but I feel like I should have more to show for it ):)

Anyway, here is lovely Rose Red all nice and colored like. I still need to decide whether I'm softening the outlines or not (probably should) but other than that (and finding shading that went outside the lines and other touch ups) I'M DONE. She will have 3 arm positions and about 10 expressions (whether they will all be used I dunno, be awesome if so).

I have sketched out Snow White's two arm positions, but that's all I got done for her, I spent about 3-4 hours coloring this damn sprite over here you see (God I hope that this game makes me a million times faster at coloring these, I love this new style of coloring I've come up with but it takes me FOREVER).

Now even more big news... I HAVE FINISHED 12 MORE ENDINGS. Yes not just just 2-5, but 12, 12, 12~! This means I only have 8 more, and these are going so much faster! I'm def being more economic with my explanations, instead of copypasta-ing all over the place which actually uses a lot more time.

I'm sure I'll finish up the Plotline before Wednesday. Then I'll just have to worry about Snow White.

Short Post

So although I spent 3PM-10:45PM dedicated to the 6Flags venture, I was able to a whopping 4 more endings finished! Omg I know. Official progress on story below:

Snow White and Rose Red: Plot 93%

Prologue: 100%

Chapter One: Plot 100%

Chapter Two: Plot 100%

Chapter Three & Four: Plot 100%

Storyline Events: Plot 100%

Ardal Events:

Rose Red Path: Plot 100%

Snow White Path: Plot 100%

Faolan Events:

Rose Red Path: Plot 100%

Snow White Path: Plot 100%

Sister Events:

Rose Red Path: Plot 100%

Snow White Path: Plot 100%

Donovan Events:

Rose Red Path: Plot 100%

Snow White Path: Plot 100%

Chapter Five: Plot 62%

Last Event: Plot 100%

Endings: Plot 12/32 = 37%

Word Count, you ask? 22,000. No CG progress however. I hope to finish a lot tomorrow. Hopefully a lot will equal the 20 endings left...

Art Progress, but I'm losing tomorrow entirely D:

So although I was right to predict that I would have NO TIME yesterday to work on this, I still got a crapload of artstuff done (credit it to me staying up late >3<... although I was watching a fatal frame playthrough for about an hour or so of this).

Number 1: I finished all of Rose Red's lineart. All I have left are tweeks and color! I still have to do the Festival of Colors versions of the sprite (god I'm a masochist) however. Which brings me to...

Number 2: Both Rose's and Snow's festival clothing have been designed! Yay! I'm not much of a clothing designer so this is a pretty big thing XD (it was pretty big when I designed the girls' everyday clothing too...)

Number 3: This may be the BIGGEST accomplishment art wise that I have had it and it has pretty much solidified that I'll be able to draw this game... As you can see above, I have DRAWN SNOW WHITE'S LINEART! I was able to match the style (biggest feat ever, seriously) and other than a few tweaks I'm done with it. I still have to come up with 2 arm positions and do all the facial expressions but seriously I'm so happy right now!

Storyline front... XD I only finished writing 2-3 more endings! It's so tedious and it's just the same stuff slightly tweaked over and over again.

I'm also very distraught over the fact that I have LOST tomorrow as a day to work as my Mom has decided impromptu 6Flags outing that I HAVE to drive her for. *sigh* I'd rather not, but I don't have too much choice in this matter.

So though Saturday was going to be my posting for recruitment date, it looks like I'm going to have to push it back. I want to get at least half of the endings written.. and the two arm positions done so I can color the two linearts (so that I can post fully finished sprites).

Gaaah, wish me luck :)

Last CG Set Update for a while!

Yo! It is your daily update (because I have no life mwahahaa)!

Today I started working on annoyed Rose. Yes her hands are currently green... I never said I finished working on it 8D'''' I spent most of the tie designated for her arguing with her arms because armposition3 just did NOT want to happen. Once I finish it's just expressions (easy easy) and coloring (not so easy, but easier than the lineart) to do. Then Rose Red will be done and it'll be on to Snow White.

I still hope to finish this by the end of Saturday, but work (although I only work 9 hours a week). And real life *is driving service for half her family* is butting into my uh... stare at the computer before finally getting motivated time XD'''

....

Anyway on to other things!

Chapter 5 has been written! Yes! The only thing left are the endings! All 32 of them (though really most of it will be copypasta) As of now I have finished 5/32.

My goal for tomorrow is: Hands on 3rd arm position and 5 more endings, if I get those done I'll be getting pretty far. Tomorrow will probably break my update streak XD~~ Anyway BABAI.

Oh, P.S. Word count is at 18,000 for plot. This game is going to take more than one sit down to play I think.... we'll have to see how much the actual script will take up.

An Update everyday you lucky folks

So.. yes. Sad Rose is sad. Chapters 3 and 4 plotwise are now COMPLETELY finished (other than a few adding of choices I forgot to put in the first time I wrote it)

I also finished arm position 2 (as seen here) and sad expression. I'm drawing everything in lineart, before I color it so I can be sure what I'm doing XD.

I've also decided against having forward facing positions as well for this game. I don't have the ability to redraw this in a fast amount of time. Hopefully after drawing all of these CG Sprite Sets I'll get faster :D

But yes... GO GO STARLING POWERS GO!

It keeps me going~ It keeps me going~

Hiiiiii~ Okay so more updates!!! (God I have no life, or is this just procrastination, who knows, all i know is that I'mma compare each of these to see which days I'm more productive).

ANYWAY. Two more paths completed today, all I have left is Donovan's paths. I also have some art to show! Covered in my derpderp. I outlined this baby twice, the second time was me being SMART and doing the pen tool in PaintSAI, which is an amazing way to line art SERIOUSLY. It's clean and easy and fast. All I have is Rose Red's Normal Pose done, but everythings cut up nicely so I just need to draw more poses and then more expressions (that last part is the easy part!) I also might be adding a forward facing head.... I'd like to at least *sigh* but I'm worried about making it look like it's part of the same character.

Anyway wish me luck as I continue on! Just need two more paths, chapter five, the endings and to finish this CG Sprite and then do Snow White's and then I can go ahead and post for help! Cause then I will know that this baby will be happening for sure.

Chugging Right Along

I have now finished both Sister Paths, and Rose Red's Faolan Path (all that's left for Rose Red is her Donovan Path).

I am finding that I love writing for a VN much more than I did just writing a story. Being able to explore all these possibilities keeps me interested and being able to finish it in chunks (i.e. each path) it's easier to stick to.

All 8 paths' events are different than each other, I have then all reveal something different about either the girls or the boys or the world in general. To get the complete story of my Snow White and Rose Red, you have to play through to get every event.

Also the plot of this has gone over 8000 words today, I can only imagine how many words will be in the game itself.

Progress.

Progress! It hath been made!

Okay so it has been made somewhat. Rose Red's Ardal Path has been completed (sans the endings as I'm going to write all those after all the other events have been finished) I'm going to do her Faolan Path next and then probably hop over and finish both Snow White's and Rose Red's Sister Path and then go back and edit things so that none of the reactions will contradict each other. After plotting is done I'm going to try my hand at getting these sprites looking right (Unless I get hit by inspiration to draw, which I hope I will) I did make the decision to color and ink in an almost fairytale like style :D which will hopefully be easier for me and work with the story well~

Snow White and Rose Red

So the main point of this blog is to let me talk about and update about Visual Novels I may be working on to keep my interest up on them.

So what am I doing for my first ever visual novel? Well I'm an idiot and I have set myself a lofty goal of writing a 60-80 (still debating) day GxB Visual Novel with 32 Endings and 2 points of view. Yes, I know, I'm absolutely crazy. What can I say, I picked it for a summer project and for the last week and a half I've been working nonstop on it.

So what is the plot of this VN?

In a nutshell it is an adaptation of Grimm's Snow White and Rose Red, one of my favourite fairytales. It is adapted in the style of Shannon Hale's Goose Girl (you take a fairytale and then you fill it out and answer all the questions raised into why some character did one thing or another thing).

The fairytale is the tale of two sisters with an incredible bond who live in the woods with their widowed mother. They are goodly sisters by nature. In the winter they give home to a bear and then spring comes and the bear must leave, saying he must guard his treasure against a dwarf who would steal it. The two sisters then encounter the dwarf in mortal danger several times and help him.

The ending I won't spoil (If I can).

My adaptation gives both the girls and their mother gifts that they are born with (Snow White for instance has the gift of Communication and can thus speak with animals). I change the character of the dwarf to a goblin like man who is quite pretty and then I also add one more character so there are 3 "winnable" characters. You can also play through as Snow White or as Rose Red and due to the nature of their gifts and the nature of their very different personalities, these different point of views will tell the story in a completely different manner.

So How far am I on this lofty idea?

All six characters have been designed, though no sprites have been drawn.

The Plot is 1/3 Complete. All parts of adaptation have been adapted. I only have to create the original parts of the plots such as the events for the paths (There's at least four events for each winnable. Then I have to specifically plot out the 32 endings (some will be very similar with only slight differences in them so this is not as hard to do as it seems by numbers).

Once it's completely plotted out and I have both Snow White's and Rose Red's sprite sets done I will be looking to recruit a programmer, editor/co-writer for all the script and if I'm lucky a background artist (if not well then I get to do those too) The thing I'm worried about most, however is the amount of CGs I will have to draw (due to the amount of endings) I guess I can only just cross my fingers that it's easier than I think. Anyway... the practice will be impossibly good for me.