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Tag: otome game

Blue Rose Characters – Lena

Posted on July 24, 2011 by LTB

Guess I can (very) slowly start to introduce the characters in Blue Rose.

The obvious choice for the first one is:

Lena – the protagonist.

The last visual novel I wrote (which spanned more than 5 minutes) was Angelic Orbs. The protagonist in that story was Kevin, a boy from the country who… well, was kinda helpless. Kevin was not the bravest of men, and certainly no warrior, often resulting in him having to improvise during the more dangerous situations in the story.

Lena is something different – apart from being a girl, she is also a Templar of the Blue Rose, a high order of elite knights in the kingdom of Tanves. She believes in being able to hold one’s own and in fighting for what is right. Which means she can kick some serious butt if it comes down to it.

She is also the only important character in the story without any in-game sprites. That doesn’t mean you won’t get to see her in cg’s though.

Although Lena believes in being strong, she soon realises that in reality she has hardly ever made an independent choice in her life. She also comes to the realisation that these choices will end up having great consequences for everything around her.

One of the key points I had in mind when starting out on Blue Rose, was that I wanted a protagonist with a clear, strong personality. She would have a name, a face and an important role in what happens. She is not just the protagonist, but the centre of the story – and the reader will go through the events together with her, aiding her in her choices.

Hopefully you will enjoy this journey when it’s finally done – and that you’ll be able to care for Lena, even in spite of her faults.

Erin’s transformation sequence(?)

Posted on February 12, 2011 by LTB

Usually I would never show off crappy art like this publicly before I fix it, but I thought I’d tell a little about how I work on the art for Blue Rose (and most other things, really).

Some days a w.i.p drawing just looks awesome while you’re working on it, but then when it’s done, you look at it and think ’OMG what was I doing!?’

Ewww (especially when mirrored).

At times I get lucky and I only need to clean up the lineart a bit and make sure the head has the right shape (one of my sloppy areas). And then there are times when proportions are thrown out the window and they look like that example up there…

Poor Erin.

Actually I could redraw the whole thing and that might be easier, but I’m too lazy. So instead I try to patch up the lineart I have, although the amount of work ends up pretty much the same!

Hours later…

Yay, much better!

After this, I can finally go on to drawing her different expressions and send her off to my colourist… until next time I open the file and realise ‘aww I should have fixed this and that too!!’ <_<;;

Usually I would never show off crappy art like this publicly before I fix it, but I thought I’d tell a little about how I work on the art for Blue Rose (and most other things, really).

Some days a w.i.p drawing just looks awesome while you’re working on it, but then when it’s done, you look at it and think ’OMG what was I doing!?’

(Erin pose2, before fixes)

Ewww (especially when mirrored).

At times I get lucky and I only need to clean up the lineart a bit and make sure the head has the right shape (one of my sloppy areas). And then there are times when they look like that example up there…

Poor Erin.

Actually I could redraw the whole thing and that might be easier, but I’m too lazy. So instead I try to patch up the lineart I have, although the amount of work ends up pretty much the same!

Hours later…

(Fixed Erin sprite)

Yay, much better!

Another milestone reached

Posted on November 24, 2010 by LTB

What I didn’t mention in the earlier blog post is that a major milestone has been reached in the development of Blue Rose – the script is practically complete! The last word of the last ending has been written, completing all 5 routes of the story. Huzzah!

When I say “practically” it means that I still need to make another few runs through the script and fill up any gaps that connect all the branching that occurs in a game such as this. And after that, I’ll have to pass it on to a couple of proofreaders for a final check. (Anyone interested?)

As for other parts of production, I can say that almost all background pictures are done as well. A good deal of character art (sprites and CG’s) have been finished too, except they only exist as lineart thus far. Half the music is as good as done, and I’m getting more of that shortly.

So that’s pretty much it. Sounds good, but there is still far too much work left! (I still have to code it all together, *le sigh*.) Which means I better get back to it.

Silence before the storm

Posted on November 22, 2010 by LTB

So, about time I actually showed some real art from Blue Rose. Except it’s still only lineart!

But here you have the main cast of the game – the protagonist Lena in the front, and all the pursue-able characters around her:

Aran is being all mysterious in the back, turning his face away from the audience. Not to make him super mysterious or anything, but he’s never been that close with the rest of the group anyway! You’ll get to see what he actually looks like later…

Character names from left to right: Gavin, Lena in front, Aran in the back, Erin, Tobias looking annoyed in the front and lastly Simon.

Now back to drawing art that actually appears in-game…

Blue Rose – Character development?

Posted on August 30, 2010 by LTB

During the writing of a story some characters can develop in very surprising ways. I’m sure other authors know this well. In the early stages of Blue Rose, I mapped out important characters and the roles they were going to play along with their personalities and stances on the main plot. But as is usually the case, things take sudden changes in direction when these characters jump off the drawing table and are actually let loose in the script.

It doesn’t matter how much preparation and planning is done, the real development happens in the actual writing.

One of these is Gavin, for who I first finished writing the final ending and epilogue. Gavin is the superficial skirt-chaser who would say a nice word to any lady walking past, without that necessarily having any deeper meaning to him. At least that’s what he was supposed to be. That part of him still exists, but he has taken on quite a life of his own and shown me sides of him that I never knew would come to be. When I yell “come on Gavin, you shouldn’t care about silly things like that!” he’ll reply with a defiant “but I DO!!”

It’s the same with the rest. Erin who was supposed to be the frail, sensitive girl has ended up kicking aside anyone who gets in her way (especially Gavin gets to feel this), determined to make it on her own. Due to that she sometimes borders on being somewhat of a troublemaker and pain in the ass, but I hope the readers will be able to see past her flaws and see her good intentions 😉

Simon has moved from passive non-caring role to someone who is serially confused about what to do with Lena. (Serially confused. I love that phrase. Guess where I stole it from and I’ll give you a cookie).

Especially Simon has changed so much and acted so opposite of what was originally planned that for a while I wasn’t even sure how he would shape up in his own route, where he finally gets the chance to step up front. The result has been… interesting. As usual he has a tendency to draw the short end of the stick, but I like what he has turned into – even his bad ending feels important to me, and really show what kind of person he is. For a short (insane) moment I even considered making it canon when thinking of what general consequences that ending has for Lena’s future life. (But that’s just too sad, isn’t it? Let’s hope for things to turn out better than that!)

Just like the other two characters I have written so far, Simon is now a hard competitor for being my favourite. Now it’s Tobias’ turn.

Which means I am done writing the first 3 out of 5 routes in Blue Rose. Hurray!

Blood will flow(?)

Posted on December 25, 2009 by LTB

group1_sketch — For the first time, a glimpse of two male characters.

Hello everyone, have you all had a nice christmas so far? I certainly have.

Since my Christmas Eve was dealt with yesterday, I have spend most of today playing Galaxy Angel, which has proven to be a really nice experience. Forte is awesome.

Apart from that I have managed to write through one more important scene for Blue Rose. And I must say, looking at the pieces of text that I have written for it today, Blue Rose is turning out to be a bit darker (and bloodier) than I initially thought <_<;; Oops.

I’ll need some cheering up after those scenes. Maybe another round of Galaxy Angel is in order – at least I’ll put on some cheerful music for now.

After finally finishing that part I will be able to begin on some more relaxed scenes again, some that don’t involve any jumping around or fighting. Action can be a pain to write.

Have a great day!

Chaarge!

Posted on December 15, 2009 by LTB

I finally got myself a light table! I’ve been wanting one for years and years, and finally it was possible thanks to my awesome boss.

This is great. I’ll be able to do a lot of snazzy stuff now that I’ve wanted to do… and it inspires me to try it out and get some real work done on the art side of Blue Rose.

Apart from that I have reached the point in the script where Lena and co. are going on their Great Mission in the mountains. I spent some of my time at work today making small map sketches with arrows, planning how the battle is going to be handled.

Mmmm maps with arrows…

Hopefully I’ll be able to write the action scenes properly.

Numbers

Posted on December 8, 2009 by LTB

Work on Blue Rose is slowly progressing. As with Angelic Orbs I’m mainly focusing on the script at this stage – only a few design sketches here and there are made on the art front, and I try to ignore the future programming problems that will inevitably come up.

And I have come quite a way with the script already. Because of the (annoying) event system that I am going to use in this project, it is mostly written in a program that lets me branch out the story as I write. Other portions of the story are scattered word documents, mails(!) and paper notes. But exporting what I have in my wiki program lets me count up to 16673 words written so far. Of course some of these are notes and jump directions, so the real number is a bit lower than that.

But yes, these events are proving quite a pain to organize. I don’t have any trouble keeping track of where the story is going so far, but organizing my scripts and making them connect the way they’re supposed to is a pain. The more linear branching of Angelic Orbs was a lot easier to control…

I’m also lying about the coding – I actually did code part of the system already. I think I mentioned this in an earlier blog post, but the map is working! Hurrah! Unfortunately there is a lot left to be coded in order to make the game’s system work. Those are the parts that I am ignoring so far. First things first…

As for the sketch above, yes that is another picture-in-progress of Lena, protagonist of Blue Rose. You’d think that seeing the faces of the main guys in an otome game would be better, but I don’t have any sketches of them that I want to show off yet. And getting Lena to appear the way I want her is hard enough.

What next….

Posted on June 4, 2009 by LTB

My first visual novel was finally released a few days back. A lot of things could have been done better, but in general I’m happy about the result.

Shortly the “Cute, light and Fluffy” VN project will hopefully be released as well, where I have contributed with a short story.

But apart from these things, what is up next?

For one thing I would like to return to updating my webcomic, but I have just been commissioned to do art for yet another game, and also have a lot of other loose ends to take care of. So unfortunately it seems like AO will have to wait a little bit longer.

But I’m already preparing for my next game project after Broken Memories as well. A couple of ideas have been circling in my head, but recent discussions on a certain forum have made me decide on a final story that I will start working on.

Yes, my next visual novel is going to be an otome game. In spite of me once saying that I would probably never make one that wasn’t BxG!
I have a story that I’m happy about, and have begun writing a few drafts. Other than that, there isn’t much I can say about this project yet. It’s still in its planning stages, and it will take a long time before it gets finished (Broken Memories took me 2 years after all).

Alright, time to get back to work!

Charge of the Otomes part 2!

Posted on May 7, 2009 by LTB

Return of lame titles!

A while back I wrote a post about otome games making an appearance in the western VN market. It’s almost a year ago – and some more interesting stuff has happened since then, so I thought I’d make a follow-up post. I need to get this blog going again anyway, and what better way to procrastinate from the work I’m supposed to do?

First up is Dragon Academy, which is the game I wrote the most about back then. The first episode and a demo had come out at the time, and this original english web-based otome game seemed promising. Unfortunately, that’s all we ever saw of the game.
The promised second episode never turned up. After a while Go! Comi promised a re-vamp of their O-Play section that would bring new life to these games, but later the page went back to its old “coming soon” status, and the O-Play sub-forum has even been removed from their site. It doesn’t look too good.

But all is not lost! Where companies like Go! Comi have fallen behind, the indies are here to save the day.

As of my last post, the OEL game “Fatal Hearts” by Hanako Games was one of the only alternatives for english speaking fans. Since then a new indie developer has entered the scene and released two games aimed at a female audience – Heileen, a game that works mostly like a normal visual novels, and Spirited Heart, a game much like the Princess Maker raising sims.

I have played Spirited Heart quite a bit myself, and it is an addicting and challenging game where you can play as a human, demon or elf, and choose different jobs while havaing random encounters with guys that you may later end up marrying. While not as polished as the Princess Maker games, Spirited Heart is still a very nice game, and I suspect it will be even nicer when the upcoming premium edition gets released. (Premium edition… or was it special? I don’t remember).

And the indies aren’t the only ones who have been releasing games for us since last time.

A cute little game called Princess Debut has been released for DS in the US. In the game you play as a girl who ends up taking a princess’ place in another world, and then she has to practice dancing for an upcoming ball. Apart from that, she also has to choose one of the princes as her dancing partner.
The art is cute, and so is the story – but it’s generally something aimed at… much younger girls than me 😛 If you don’t mind some overly cute sillyness, princesses and tons of dancing, then you should give this game a shot and support the license. And then let’s hope something with a little more substance is up next!

I also mentioned a survey that Idea Factory had started on otome games in the US. Unfortunately not a lot of info on the results have come out yet. On the other hand it seems that the results of such surveys in a few different countries have ended in Idea Factory making a new brand called “Otome Forte”, which will release more gameplay focused games aimed at girls. The first title is “I will protect you” for the DS, a seemingly Castlevania inspired game. Whether these will stand a chance outside Japan is unknown.
Let’s hope that’s not all that comes out of it…

Last but not least is the Princess Nightmare translation project…. although it doesn’t look that way, it’s still alive, don’t worry. But don’t expect to see anything any time soon.

And what about that other guy in today’s banner? Well he’s just from an up-coming game that I am looking very much forward to, but hasn’t got anything to do with english releases (unfortunately). Let’s take this chance to end the post with some nice art!

Now back to work!