Time's Tear

[lordcloudx]

The graphics. I'll admit I'm not a big fan of lordcloudx's art usually (eh, sorry ^^;...) but it seems it was meant for this game. It has the children crayon book style and makes things look right given the context and point of view

Aww... that's ok. I guess I can't really please everybody... wait a sec! No it's not! I'm as immature as I look. I realize I can't please everybody, but since you're monele and not everybody, I'm going to try anyway.

and...

ld actually consider reading this again with a 16 years old protagonist and not feel it's out of place (except graphics would need to change of course ^^).

Ah! Chance! Here ya go. 16-year old Kazuhiko just for you all ready to be inserted into unobfuscated Time's Tear. (hehe one more material to add for my little side-project.) I'll even cg him any style you want. anime cel-shading? soft outlines? digital outlines? I'll do it. I'll even emulate anyone else's style from this forum (cept jake, bcs or yvanc)

Hmm... might be getting off-topic, so I'll stop before PyTom scolds me.

[monele]

Haha, that's grand ^_^. It'd be awesome if I could actually put that one in the game XD (can you do the same with Alicia? :3...). Sorry again for stating that opinion ^^;... Actually I'm really sorry... I realize I'd feel hurt if I received that kind of comment :/...

[dreamer]

still lurking here.
haha don't sweat it. I was just kidding (cept for immature part) and I wanted to draw that one anyway.

One teenage Alicia coming up (gives us even more material anyway)... but for now, It's 3 am and I'm sleepy.

[DaFool]

Ah... can't help it... my ego is pulling me to make a comment...

I'll even emulate anyone else's style from this forum (cept jake, bcs or yvanc)

Can you emulate my style? (Or one of them, if I even have a style, or several). We can take it to PM if you want, and I don't really need you to draw something just for me when you have other projects. And I still am a n00b, but really relish repeating styles which turn out kick-ass.

Back on topic, it makes sense to criticize or praise art, just like the music. True, it may be often the case that it's only the writing and story that matters (or is original... the rest may be free resources so at most it will be "Good Choice!")

But as more projects get fully in-house talent, constructive criticism, when applied appropriately, will help.

[dreamer]

Ah! A challenge! I like that. Ok, I'll draw teenage alicia emulating your style (in my style if you know what I mean) Gimme till about past midnight tonight (our time) sos I can study the distinct way you draw the facial features.

No need for a pm I think, it's still Time's Tear related anywayz. Ah... but I do have something to show you in pm. One of your pics for Invasion of...etc. reminds me of something I drew because mikey asked me not to.

[lordcloudx]

Kazuhiko: Hi! My name is Kazuhiko, 16 years old. I'm just an average high school student... well... apart from being involved in a certain incident about six years ago involving a rift in the timespace continuum. In other words, I'm a time-traveler.

Alicia: Good Morning Kazuhiko! Are you daydreaming again?

Kazuhiko: This perky little girl is my wife, Alicia. You heard right - I'm married at the age of 16. Ah... It's kind of a long story, but Alicia is actually the princess of the ancient kingdom of Calleighmore. We've been through a lot and by some twist of fate, we ended up living together as a married couple. It was a lot of fun back then; adventuring in faraway lands, running through the open-fields with the wind in our faces, and all without a care in the world. I thought those times were gone forever... that is... until one fateful day...

Just kidding! That story kinda entered my head while I was drawing this. No backgrounds version included for comparison Well? monele? DaFool? Am I doin it rite?

Yes, I was too lazy to do the shading, but I can do so if you want.

[DaFool]

It's a very good likeness, thanks for indulging / obliging / (thesaurus?) me.

I think it's important to be able to at least approximate other people's styles (it's done all the time in animation studios), but also to have one's own 'trademark' style or styles. At the very least it's to prevent all your characters from starting to resemble each other, as well as open up more story possibilities that may require a whole different way of drawing altogether.

[monele]

Eheh, naisu desu~ ^.^

[mikey]

monele >> thanks for taking the time to play and for the comments! Even the negative ones are understandable. As for CYOI mode, I actually spent a lot of time with it, suddenly I made

Alicia appear in Kazuhiko's room, or the king in school.

.. it was a nice what-if ^_^. As for the target group being chidren... I guess they could play it, why not. But I don't have any plans to present this game as something for a specific audience.

lordcloudx >> that story is like fan fiction.

[Der Tor]

Just wanted to say i really loved the game... the story was soooo cute, and the rest too.

Oh and... of course no historical problems with "Fantastica" (-:

Well yeah wheather you know it or not, you stole from The Neverending Story, Momo, StarTrek and MacGyver (-:

But those are the best stories and television shows there are anyway (-:

And except for the MacGiver part, you have only stolen the good aspects (-:

realy, realy great game... can't wait for Part II (-:

[mikey]

Thanks, I'm happy you liked it!

About inspirations... hmmm, I can't quote a direct inspiration - there was a lot of shows I watched as a child - most of them Slovak or Czech, so if anything, I remember those eighties CZ/SK TV productions for children. I wanted to create this children's stories atmosphere - rather than creating a specific story. And I wanted to meet a princess myself when I was little, to be honest. I really did.

As for those you mentioned, Start Trek I didn't watch (Traumschiff Surprise doesn't count, I suppose). Momo, hmmm, I *think* I saw that, was that with some men that were stealing time? I actually didn't finish it, I felt it was too dark and scary, at least for me, at that time. But MacGyver, well, I grew up on this, along with Knight Rider, MacGyver parallels do come up I think - but actually the absolute non-violence wasn't initially really planned. Kazuhiko's backpack was still meant more of a boy's "survival kit", than the improvisation of MacGyver, at least in my head it was - how it comes across of course is a different matter. Finally TNS, I think one of the best "fantasy" stories ever, indeed it doesn't have a constructed "world" or rules or anything, it's pure imagination... it's really a classic, rightfully, especially today when fantasy is often only variations of a basic concept (a world, races, monsters, dark forces). Well, I actually saw TNS in the cinema when I was a boy, I was totally scared of the Gmork.... and I didn't understand half of what happened. But I wanted my fluffy flying dog-dragon.

Ah, the memories..

[Der Tor]

Yeah... those where the memories.... *seufz*

As an adult you than look back and realize that the stories you read and watched as a child, are actually the best stories there are, and you discover all of their beautifull inner meaning that you didn't understand as a Child.

You spoke of czech Childrens Movies... The best czech Childrens Movie is: O STATECNEM KOVARI (Der Tapfere Schmied). Like The Never Ending Story and Momo t's one of those stories that you have to watch again as an adult in order to realize that it was actually more than a childrens story.

Momo und Die unendliche Geschichte sind beide von Michael Ende. I know the 80's Movies are allready pretty good, but believe me the books are a billion fold better.

In your Story it's basicly the watch that brings the protagonist to "Calleighmore" (or is it?) but in The Never Ending Story it's the book itself... you see that's the cool thing... the book that brings the children to Fantastica is descriped as having the EXACT same look, layout, contents and pictures as the very book you are reading.

The book also has a lot of Asian style drawings (the dragon is also a chinese dragon in the book, chinese dragons are good, and western dragons are evil :-)

Actually as an adult i realized that Momo and The Never Ending Story are actually the exact same story told from a different angle As a child you think they are both fantasy, but as an adult you realize that there is a deeper meaning.

Which makes Gmork and the Man in Grey even more scary... cause you know what it means and you know it's real (in a symbolical sense).

[mikey]

Hmmm, actually the

watch is not connected to the travels at all, it's the tearing of the time that is causing them.

That was kind of the point for me, I didn't want the game to have any hidden meanings or multiple layers... and really I didn't put any in it. It was supposed to be just an adventure.

In TNE of course it's completely different, and the idea is one of the best - it's simple but beautiful and deep at the same time. I haven't seen Momo, but now that I know it's from Ende, I'll watch for it when they air it sometimes - and yes the Brave Smith is a classic. Come to think of it, Arabela / Rumburak, actually - I didn't like this one all that much, but indeed it WAS a mix of

contemporary and fairytale.

It's really cult, but I was always more the Safari person... which is devoid of magic and has a bit more boyish charm... There were many series like this, I remember. I actually saw Safari in Canada later on... English voices... I couldn't believe it ^_^.

[Sailor Kitty]

I've frankly not tested this with 10-year olds, or 13-year-olds for that matter. This is also why I don't want to present it as something specific to an audience.

Now you have!
Ok, I'm 14, so maybe not quite, but still.

I loved the fact that Alicia was a brave adventure girl instead of "PLZ RECUE ME WAAAH!".
I loved it. I loved the fact that the protagonists were so young, It made me able to identify with them.

I love this game...

[mikey]

Thanks for playing!

Alicia, I wanted her to be a quite normal person - neither the "save me please" type, nor the energetic authoritative maverick that would make Kazuhiko her punchbag. I like that you see her as brave - for me brave is a mix of determination, a bit of fear and also intelligence - at times she leads, at times she cooperates... and actually I meant that for all other characters as well.