New game in the making

[Mr. E]

Ok... I'm making my first game (actually my second atempt, it's a long story) and I pratically finished the script. Now, as I'm doing the art myself, I have one question. What is the best way to erase those annoying white dots that usually show up when you're trying to leave the background of the image transparent? I use the background eraser but there's always something left that I have to erase manually and it's a chore. Since I'm a newby in photoshop I thought I'd ask in this forum. Oh, yes. And here is my first colored image. What do you think? Not too awful hopefully? Anyway, please crticize freely because I will base the coloring of the other pictures on the comments.

[Jake]

What is the best way to erase those annoying white dots that usually show up when you're trying to leave the background of the image transparent?

The best way is to avoid having them in the first place - if you're drawing directly into Photoshop, create a new layer (with no fill colour) and draw on that rather than drawing on the white of the base layer - you can then delete or turn off the base layer to get rid of the background in one go.

If you're using scanned art, then it's probably best to copy your lineart, paste a new copy of it on a layer over the top of everything and set it to blending mode 'Multiply', then delete the bottom (original image) layer.

Either way, you end up painting in the colour on layers (blending mode 'Normal') below the lineart layer.

[Alessio]

Have a look at http://well-of-souls.com/gallery/cg101a.htm

[Watercolorheart]

Hey, that looks pretty good already. D:

Unfortunately, I can give no tips because when exporting my art from Flash, there are no white pixels, only graduated transparencies in PNG.

I was absolutely stunned the first time I realized I could airbrush *over* a line and it would keep the same transparency in the final version .... (20% or 30% or whatever)

[Watercolorheart]

Oh, there's my tip: use the maximum PNG settings with transparency, maybe?

[Azure]

When you're colouring make the background a colour like blue, this means it's easier to spot and colour leakage. You might also want to thicken the exteriour lines.

[Mr. E]

Thanks everybody for the advice and encouragement. I consider art to be the hardest part of making a VN game so I really appreciate any help I can get. I want to do my first VN lone wolf style before trying to get help for the next one so... I don't want to set release dates or anything but hopefully it will come out soon, especially since I'll have more time to work on it... (thank god for the end of the semester!)
Wish me luck (I'll need it to compensate my lack of skill!)

[Vatina]

Another good idea is to scan the pictures in big, and then scale them down when you're done with them - some of the last annoying dots will disappear then.

But yeah, what the others said.....

[Mr. E]

Okay, after lurking in this website for almost a year I am finally going to have something to show everybody. My game is almost finished, I only have to color a few images and fix a few things. Script and music are finished. Therefore, now I want to find people who willing to test my amuterish and rather short project and criticize it (with a few placeholder graphics). I am especially aprehensive about the music, whenever I hear any of my compositions I have a blinding headache but that could be psychological... I guess I'm a bit worried about my inexistent musical talent. Please, all help would be very much apreciated. Thank you.

[Nafai]

Well I'm no music critic, but if it isn't too long, I'd be willing to test it out... ^_^

[Mr. E]

I couldn't find any other way of sending this so... Here it is. Just put it inside any other game folder and play it. I must warn everybody that the graphics are still very precarious, although the rest is completed. The game is about 10-15 minutes long I think. Don't spare me any criticism (better now than after the game's released, right?) And thank you for all those that will be willing to help.

EDIT 2: The game's already finished so you can download it at the "complete games" section. Thanks for all the help everybody.

[Counter Arts]

Played through it once.

That was great! Loved it.

No special tricks, no special cool things but still good.

Now on to critizisms...

Hmm... the text window changes sizes whenever there is too much text. This isn't really a big problem until you have your pauses in text combined with newlines start growing the window. It was a little distracting for myself as I had to realize that is was the same text only with a little more added.

Of course, title screen... but hey! I can help you with that!

[PyTom]

Spoilers in this post... I don't think I could C&C without them.

First, let me say I liked it. I think it's a fairly clever story. I especially liked the way you used branching, even though there were only 2 endings, and the (fairly subtle) way the perspective changed.

Now, comments:

I'm afraid I'm not too much of a fan of the art. It's sketchier then we've come to expect from these games, and it hasn't been cleaned up very well.

I would suggest following the instructions at http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/doc/coo ... ng_Italics to get better looking italics.

You seem to consistently use ` instead of '.

mangas -> manga (I believe manga is a collective noun.)

There's a space missing after "Venus Warriors". You also need to be more consistent about how it is capitalized.

I would suggest using "..." or something like it to indicate time passing. I found the use of renpy.pause for this confusing, as it doesn't really indicate time passing in-game.

It's usually "dating anniversary" rather than "dating birthday", I think.

It's hard to see the name of Nemesis against the dark background.

Overall, keep it up.

[DaFool]

It was a wonderful game. The character art looks better in-game, you just need to clean up the border edges (remove the bits of white pixels), and trace the outline darker. If you don't have a wacom pen that may mean inking a copy and rescanning.

The music was awesome, although it may be just my speakers but you may want to consider a better recording environment (Or if you play on an electronic keyboard you may just want to input directly to computer.)

I like how the customization is up front, then the whole game experience is customized for the most part, even if its using the same resources.

Just lovely.

[monele]

Haven't finished it yet but I like it so far ^^. I just wanted to report that it crashed on me twice. Windows crash :/ So I don't have any log.
PyTom, is there anything I can do to help find out what's causing this?

EDIT : Finished the game. Didn't have any other crashes ^^;

Well it was really nice! I really like the concept behind the story. That's the kind of VNs that show what interactivity can bring to a story. In this case, customization, making you feel closer to the characters.

I won't repeat what the others said but I agree with pretty much everything (unreadable name, music is good, graphics are all right). Except the pauses. I saw them as actual pauses. 1 or 2 seconds of people not knowing what to say. It might not be perfect but it worked for me.

Oh and also, at the end, I think the game goes back to the main menu too abruptly. Even just a "The end" with fades would be better.

The whole customization thing is lovely and very inspiring. It's funny when you realize you *have* actually created this girl just like the protagonist did. And, mark of great games of me, I screamed in frustration when I had to make the final choice. By that, I mean that I really cared about the consequences of my choice and took some time to think it through. I like well introduced dilemmas ^.^