Writing For Fun

I'm going to start this off with a quote a friend of mine from Black Witch Project said: "Writing something because you enjoy what you are writing and want to tell the story will always make for the best writing you can write."

This is very true, and over the past two years the notion has been firmly cemented in my head. Usually I first noticed that I was not enjoying the end product, and I asked myself what I could have done better. But that was backwards thinking. Because I wasn't h ...

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Presentation in Visual Novels

Now I've talked a lot about writing in my previous blog posts, so I'd like to mix it up with some new topics. Starting off, since it's relevant to what I'm working on: presentation. Making a VN look good before you release it (and I'm not talking about the graphics).

What I find is that the majority of EVNs (there are a few notable exceptions), even if they have decent writing or art, aren't presented well. I would say that this is because of a lack of programming expertise, as well a ...

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Character Development

That's what I've been doing and currently am working on.

One thing most EVN lack is character development. One reason may be that most EVN are short stories, often ranging from 5 to 30 minutes, in which there is hardly time to develop a character. However, a more prominent reason may simply be that most EVN writers don't know HOW to develop characters.

It's a bit confusing, I think, but let me explain it like this: when you have a character concept, it always makes sense in yo ...

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Website Stuff

Not much worth reporting, but I figured out how to set up a poll. Should be interesting to see people's responses. Have fun with it.

We also have a Twitter now. Check it out at the top-right along with Facebook!

Oh, and the comment colors should be fixed. I think the issue was that the color no longer exists as a choice so it reverted to black, or whatever. Weird.

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No Reason To Post

But I will anyway.

Really happy to say that VN progress is going well. Managed to reprogram a few neat functions and finished writing the main story. Just need to touch up some things here and there and we're all set! (although that takes far longer than what one might think...)

One thing I was discussing in some previous posts was interactivity. Ultimately, after taking into consideration everything that was said, Detective Butler won't be having any interactive parts. Trying ...

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Revisions

I'd like to post more often about progress, but I've unfortunately been kept busy due to REAL LIFE! Although in my spare time I have been relentlessly editing the game in ways that should definitely be worth the effort. I'll have more time to do things in the latter half of next month, but I am doing my best to get as much done as possible before then.

One technique I find particularly helpful is keeping a text document of changes I plan to make. Then whenever I have some spare time, ...

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Attention to Detail

As I often do, I've been trying to think of what most EVN are missing that make them stand out (in a bad way) from their Japanese counterparts. Allow me to propose this idea: a lack of attention to detail.

Japanese works are known for paying extreme attention to detail, anime-related media or otherwise. Western works, on the other hand, often focus on the whole picture, the grand scheme of things, moreso than the little links in between. This distinction is quite noticeable in the rea ...

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Okay, A Real Update

In all seriousness, I have made some progress with Detective Butler. All that's really left is to write one chapter and patch up some other parts of the story. I ended up changing a few scenes that were in the old demo, but the story remains the same. CGs have been redone by the character artist Shadilyn, as you can see in the picture above. I also changed the GUI and BG filter to something a lot more clean. You can find screenshots in the "Downloads" section of the Detective Butler website.< ...

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