~ Black Pencil ~

Finished games are posted here, once they've been tested and are ready for wide release.
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Trinity Riot
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#31 Post by Trinity Riot »

I played it last week, it was pretty cool. I hope you make more games like it!

mikey (lost his password)

#32 Post by mikey (lost his password) »

Wow, thanks guys for all those posts, I have somehow lost my password, darn...
Guest wrote:...just wondering, how do you get ending 3? I've managed to get 1,2,4,5....is ending 3 a good or bad one?
Only one good ending Nr.4 - there are 6 ways to get it - For Ending Nr.3 there are 3 ways - one of them is: yes to snack, yes to pick-up, no to date, say you love her (saying you love her will always get you the bad ending, because of Yuki's personality, it's a long story...)
Guest wrote:...I played it last week, it was pretty cool. I hope you make more games like it!
I am thrilled with all that support, really, and I promise, as soon as I will get a realistic chance to make another project, I will. I would like to give a chance to a new character artist, but if I were to make a new game, it would probably be the same style as this one.

But I don't want to just promise and talk about it, so when the time comes, I will definately let you guys know. But so far, nothing official.

Wishful
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Woo!

#33 Post by Wishful »

This is great! :D I shall aspire to create a game like this some day! What program did you use to make it, anyway?
I eagerly await your next creation! ^_^
~This random senselessness brought to you by Wishful~

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mikey
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Re: Woo!

#34 Post by mikey »

Wishful wrote:What program did you use to make it, anyway?
Jet suggested a simple menu-building program he had, Multimedia Builder. It's basically a set of menu pages with alternative paths. It has no mathematical features, so I had to make every path genuine and recycle as much as possible. It has some scripting features, but we were not able to incorporate them at the time, because the plan for the game was already set to work with the features Jet knew how to make at that time.

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Re: Woo!

#35 Post by Wishful »

mikey wrote:
Wishful wrote:What program did you use to make it, anyway?
Jet suggested a simple menu-building program he had, Multimedia Builder. It's basically a set of menu pages with alternative paths. It has no mathematical features, so I had to make every path genuine and recycle as much as possible. It has some scripting features, but we were not able to incorporate them at the time, because the plan for the game was already set to work with the features Jet knew how to make at that time.
I seeeeeee! :o
~This random senselessness brought to you by Wishful~

Blue Lemma
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#36 Post by Blue Lemma »

I finally played the game, and I'm impressed! I managed to get the good ending on my fourth try (sorry, dead Yukis! ^_^; ) Here are my comments, in case you're reading this thread, mikey :wink:

The Good:
* unique, emotional atmosphere
* interesting art
* very well-written story
* the suspense and mystery concerning Yuki's death(s)
* Yuki is an intriguing character
* simple, straightforward user interface
* Yuki's also hot 8)

The Bad:
* having to click so often (especially in beginning credits and before/after choices) was confusing at first, and it tended to break up the pace and atmosphere at times :(
* no music
* Yuki's continual popping on and off the screen during conversations
* the driver that kept killing my Yukis! :evil:

The Ugly:
* some text overflows the text box
* some very noticeable typos ("doesnt't" comes to mind)

Overall:
* Cool game! I bet with sparing use of music and a little less of the redundant clicking, it would have an even stronger emotional impact. It's clear that you have talent, and I'm looking forward to more mikey games! :D If you ever need a programmer for more complicated gameplay, I'm sure there would be lots of people here jumping at the chance to help out. :wink:

Well, time to get some sleep and then work more on developing MY Yuki (from ToL 2) :wink:

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#37 Post by mikey »

Thanks again, it's great to see people like the game. Thanks for the "good" comments, I'm happy you played it so many times and didn't give up! I'll comment on the "bad and ugly" things now:

Overflowing text:
This is almost 100% due to the fact, that you probably don't have the font I used installed. I tried to use the most common one, I think Arial, but I will fix this in my next game, as we should be able to include fonts with the installation.

Typos:
Ah, happens, we'll test more.

No music:
We'll see. Can't promise, though. Definitely an issue when we will have the full script and basic character designs for the new game.

Pop-in and -out:
Will NOT be in the next game, everyone tells me this and you're right.

Lots of clicking:
Believe it or not, this is the first time anyone told me about this. I'm not too sure whether I'll be able to cut the amount of text. The problem is I think short sentences have more impact, but... oh well, we'll see. However, there should now be a save system, and even though the game should be about the same length as Black Pencil, it should give your fingers a rest from time to time ^_^.

Character art:
Unfortunately Magic_D won't be able to help anymore. I now have a volunteer artist that is still very much in the learning, but she has much heart for the project, and is very involved, so wish her luck and progress.

This is not an official announcement of a new game, it all depends on the music and mainly the character art. Anyway, if the project will be real, I'll announce it with an estimated release date and things. It's still very much a plan and I don't want to put pressure on the guys, so... some time, some day...

Anyway, thanks for all the comments, without them, we won't be able to improve.

Yang Sei Fu
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#38 Post by Yang Sei Fu »

After playing mikey's game, I can FEEL..... the competition between projects...the marketing push...it's driving us...

Mikey's engine and art studio is considerably superior than that of CWDS's...

The only thing I have left is me...and my philosophy class and mind scribbles (TARGET: Become the Canadian KEY)
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mikey
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#39 Post by mikey »

ahhhh... *blush* :oops:

I think you have to examine BP more closely:

- no music

- no engine (that is a CD menu program, each path is individually prepared - no calculations, scripts, nothing)

- Yuki has just one pose (with three facial expressions), no shades, nothing. It is the raw thing Magic sent me before he quit the project

- the BGs and the "noir" atmosphere are just a consequence of the fact, that I didn;t know how to make coloured backgrounds. After playing with filtered photos I discovered the "Black Pencil" filter and decided to make it black/white/greyscale. Only THEN I started to write a story - I once read a game-design book that stated you should always think of the technology first and think what game could be made from it. It is really true.

It's nice to see it all has worked out in such a compact way, though. Thanks!

Yang Sei Fu
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#40 Post by Yang Sei Fu »

*sigh* if you could only help in our project in some direct way...

The conception of Project Journeys was this:
I needed to create 2 products for my Gr.10 business class project - one was a MMORPG and another a VN (being a computer software company, under the current name of CWDS, a name I've held for 4 years). I got more inspiration from ONE2 ~Eien no Yakusoku~ OP theme "Mugenfu" and began thoughts for a game called "Tabi ~Journeys of Youth~". A poster for the game was handrawn. Preliminary designs of characters were formed by Ted Choi and me. The first character (and mascot) created is Yuki Yae, who developed into the present Yuki Utsuki. Her appearance has not changed in design.

...1 year before.
I quit my last Tokimemo fanfic (Chinese), dumped the pseudonym of "Yang Sei Fu" (Yang Qing Feng).


Then 3 months after the business project, I had a dream.
The dream is the SAME as the opening "dream" of the game now put on as a demo. Then in Summer 2003, work began on the storyboard. Dividing the megastory into a trilogy, Tabi was well set. The theme was to be the journeys of a person, in physical as well as mental and spiritual terms.

Ted later left this project for personal reasons, and this is when I finally have full control of the script -- and made changes. I decided that the title was unfit with the story, and after 4 months of hesitation, it has been changed to the translation of the Chinese novel version of the script (the ORIGINAL text) -- "The Snowing Clear Skies on April 29th". This is, for the first time, that the pseudonym "Satsuki Shizuka" has been officially used.

With an ever-changing staff, it becomes very difficult to develop the game and artwork (esp. the latter). After four versions of the Tabi engine in MMF, it was dumped for stability reasons, and switched to the current VB engine. Artwork responsibilities were slowly removed from me and onto more professional hands. Soon Jesi Foley became a stable member of the cast and created an excellent set of character artwork (some based on my concepts), and Johnny Siu was convinced to use this project as practice for composing. Over the last 6 months, the whole team has gained much experience on teamwork, game creation, creative writing, and meeting deadlines. We continue to strive for excellence in quality - in our music, our visual artwork, and our written works.

Oh yeah, a note for other people trying this genre: The bigger the team, the harder to get things done. Try to haev a balance between speed and specialized staff. Most people who help you (anyone other than the founder) are usually less motivated and will work slower. Be wary.
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Tom Bombadil
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#41 Post by Tom Bombadil »

mikey wrote:Okie, my page is here:
http://www.manga.sk/atp/index.html
You can get Black Pencil there. Grey, thanks a third time for helping out.
404'd
Meh, I don't feel like coming up with a sig right now....^_^;;

Sai
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#42 Post by Sai »

Tom Bombadil wrote: 404'd
Works fine for me o.o

Guest

#43 Post by Guest »

The problem is with the server sometimes, it can be down for a couple of hours, but then it goes online again. the guys from manga.sk are looking for a new host o fix the situation. Anyway, those 404s dont usually last long, so just keep trying.

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mikey
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#44 Post by mikey »

You can also try going directly to
http://www.manga.sk/atp/bpencil/bpencil.htm
it is working now.

Tyler
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#45 Post by Tyler »

Good game. I've played it twice and got ending 3 both times

I thought Yuki was gonna live, but then she had to die :(

So anyway, which one is the good ending?

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