How was it for you?

[JumpJump]

As this year draws to an end, I can't help but look back and think about what happened during that time. For me it was truly a year of change. I discovered ren'py plus this wonderful forum and my drawing flame was reignited. While it was not stress or worry free (when is it not), I am truly happy for all the experiences I've had and It has made me a better person. The relation between my wife has become stronger and watching my little child grow up has been fun. The year ahead look's a little worrying, but luckily it will start off with a bang. Tomorrow I am going to China for a two month stay to see the family on my wife's side. I will be riding a plane for the first time and I'm a little weak at the knees.


How did everything go for you lot?

[alberte]

Lots of frustrations with trying to write a novel writing around 40k words and then scrapping it.
But hey! it gave me ideas so i'm glad, i'm still learning how to write.
I've discovered that my art is now on par with Japanese visual novel works.
I'm finally able to lineart, and my colouring is very nice so i'm happy.
Right now i'm trying to write a light novel but I can't seem to start it.
Lots of stress but I learned to deal with it.

[LeetMusic]

Here is my year-end summary:

http://leetmusic.com/leet-music-2013-post-mortem/

Go visual novel games, go!

[Haze]

I was finally able to make my first VN this year, after the longest time. Even though I still haven't completed my first ever VN idea(which I came up with during the final quarter of 2012), I'm working on it now, and I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to finish it before 2014's end.

I've learned a little more about art, mainly pixel art and some 3D stuff, this year too. I just started using Blender recently, and I'm really enjoying it. I guess that's one of my New Year's resolutions for 2014-to get better at those things.

Hope all you guys have a good year too!

[Hazel-Bun]

This year has been pretty dang wonderful for me In the real world, finances, general happiness and my grades have vastly improved. I've got a hold of my more depressive thoughts for the most part and things are looking bright.

On the visual novel front, I've progressed leaps and bounds from my first taste of otome almost 11 or so months ago. I discovered Ren'Py and these fourms, failed to get a NaNo project out, subsequently formed my own group, realesed a pretty bad game jam entry for ludum dare and overall have met some pretty awesome people.

Art wise I've improved and generally this year has been a blessing. Can't wait for the new year

[curry nochi rice]

so much paper... everything from designs, and script fragments were written with pen and paper.
...
this year was the worst year to ever have an unportable laptop. Heck I coded KigenMono's script at school breaks with my laptop, but now >.< I just can't do the same with my other project. Well writing it isn't really the best solution for me, since I have to encode it when I get back home lol.
...
ALMOST ALL THE CHARACTER DESIGNS OF MY PROJECTS WERE CHANGED. >.< Well it's not necessarily a bad thing but... ;_; I feel guilty removing 7 sets of finished sprites just to maintain art style with 2 new sets of sprites.

[TrickWithAKnife]

2013 was a big year for me:

• Had a baby.
• Bought a home.
• Moved from one side of Tokyo to the other.
• Worked 6 days a week for almost the whole year.
• Didn't do anywhere near as much script writing on my VN as I would have liked (maybe 40k words), but got the vast majority of the plot sorted out, and mapped about 20% of it to a 16cm x 5m flowchart.
• Learned a lot of new skills that relate to my VN.
• PyTom added the translation feature to Ren'Py. I can't even describe how much easier it makes my life.

2014 is bound to bring a lot of changes too:

• Change to working 5 days a week.
• Spend a lot more time on trains. Perhaps 12 hours or more per week.
• Will be able to do a lot more work on my VN. Will have one extra day to relax, and will take the iPad on the train with me to do a lot of script writing.
• Will begin the search for team members (paid positions).

[PyTom]

I looked back at 2013 and forward to 2014 here: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =8&t=24574

[Lesleigh63]

I found visual novels and have really enjoyed playing them and also trying to make one of my own after finding my way to Renpy and the Lemmasoft forums.

[ririruetoo]

It was good, I still haven't got around to finish Him&Me ( I will this year though! ) But I was able to release May-Chan, so I'm pretty happy overall. It is exciting to think of what this year is going to bring.

[LVUER]

2013 is definitely a bad year for me... the worst even, yeah, the worst in my life yet. We lost a HUGE amount of money due to various reasons, health issues (I, my family, my pet dog), and it seem our government hates their people... or rather really love them and want to squeeze every little bit of money we have.

We have tax increase (about 300%), fuel cost increase, electricity tax increase (more than 50%), gas cost increase (more than 200%), inflation (everything that need to be bought by money is increased), our currency is weaken meaning even more cost increase...

The houses behind my house disappear and a big contractor build a hotel there (which is strange since law forbid people to build a hotel in the middle of urban area). Underground water supply become dirty, they always loud as hell (24 hours non-stop), lots of rats and mosquitoes attack my house (and the rest of neighborhood)... and when the hotel is done, there's a big possibility we will lost our water supply since that hotel will probably steal them all... and there's nothing we can do... You know, money talks.

[Armee]

2013 is definitely a bad year for me... the worst even.

Well, I can't lie to myself and saying that 2013 is a good year, it's not entirely bad though. Rambling about every unlucky moments I encountered during last year will take at least fifty A4 paper. I will sum up things that happen to be good for me...

• I meet these wonderful people online that I can call as friends.
• My skill improve a lot compare to those years before and finally, I finished my first step in the gaming industry.
• Manage to prove that art and gamedev. will not starve me if I'm planning to go deeper in those career later on.
• Mom finally listened to my reasons of study aboard.
• Getting over old relationships and maintain the current one.
• Learn how to work with Ren'Py in the right way and finished a real script. There are people who actually have interest in helping out my project which make me feel really grateful. ;-;

A lot of things will change in 2014, and I have to admit, 2013 is the year when I got useless. But hey, I can always hope for a better start in 2014

[mugenjohncel]

2013?... Let's see... it was the year that I finally gave in to the temptation and Curiosity to know exactly what it feels like and accepted my first commission (a non VN related job as a level designer) just for the kicks and followed quickly by requests (via Email, Twitter PM and Lemmasoft) to do BG's for their VN and other small "one time" requests... So far so good I still manage to retain the "I'm doing this for fun" mentality and outlook when doing commissions and still continue to do so just for the heck of it... And um... sorry Paypal users, I Uncle Mugen only accept Western Union... PM me for details if interested...

My conclusion on this commission thing?... Fun, but only if you are not depending on it as your livelihood.

Moving on to my life and health... it was a miracle I'm still here and still kicking in 2014 after being subjected to a whole lot of illnesses... some are totally my fault because I'm a former heavy smoker and drinker. A close call with Heart Attack and the biggest bombshell my Doctor told me that I have... well, let's just call it a ticking time bomb... better start making a more comprehensive will

Business wise... no wait... this is an OELVN forum so no... I'm just a poor guy trying to make a living... there!

Now on something relevant, my Ren'py OELVN (Visual Novel) projects. Progress has been rather... slow. I can blame my writing skills for this. I write something, I corner myself and trying to save my writing requires some Deux Ex Machina which will definitely leave a lot of plot holes wrecking the script even more... also I made a vow not to post too much spoilers on what I'm working on and start working on my VN "at my pace" meaning, I am not going to rush or push myself to finish a VN just so it can make it to a certain date or event... say... NaNoRenO. I need to constantly remind myself that this whole OELVN activity I'm engaging myself is for fun. I'm not doing this for commercial or monetary gains and most importantly I'm doing this for myself, no need to please everyone... I will make something I think is fun at my own pace and release it and that's it. If it's not fun anymore then I simply stop and move on.

Long story short... My Goal!... I wanted to create a VN starring ME glorifying Marijuana with High School Girls and Giant Robots... Maybe I should try this "Kickstarter" thing and see how it goes... I'm seeing a trend where OELVN devs get thousands of dollars out of "Kickstarter"... this should be interesting

"POOF" (Happy New Year everyone and may you all have a prosperous year)