I, Miku [parody][identity][GxEverybodySortOf][NaNo2014] done

NaNoRenO is an event where creators make a game from scratch during the month of March.
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arachni42
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I, Miku [parody][identity][GxEverybodySortOf][NaNo2014] done

#1 Post by arachni42 »

Image

Download 1.0b here:
https://docs.google.com/uc?export=downl ... FhNMTNEVFE


Visit the completed thread:
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 11&t=25948

Story
It is a dark and stormy night bright and sunny day in a typical Japanese high school, Tipakaru High, when a mysterious transfer student tentatively introduces herself. ZOMG, is that… the famous idol singer, Appuru Miku?? The one whose warm green eyes and hair captivate the world! In the flesh!
But… what is she really like? Is she a genki girl? Tsundere? Does she have a dark and troubled past? Is she smart? Baka? Weak? Strong? Is she the magical girl that will save the world? The servant who will win the grail? The slider the Haruhi fans have been waiting for?? The chibi personification of a country?? A piece of software??? (Aw, c’mon, this is just getting ridiculous!)
Is she… all of those things?
Or nothing at all?

Background info
Resolution: 1280x720
~6k words
~20 characters
exactly 3 endings
0 CGs, although there are some special effects with lots of stars.

Art
Miku concept (in the school uniform of Tipakaru High):
concept_miku.png
Screenshots:
clubroom.jpg
screenshot.jpg
imiku.jpg
Main characters
Miku — She is everybody’s idol.

Minor characters Guest stars
Kyon/Haruhi Suzumiya/Yuki Nagato
Madoka Kaname & Co./Kyubey
Kurisu Makise
Elsie/Haqua
Saber(s)/Rin Tohsaka
Flonne
Teddie
"Yomako"

Generally I prefer OCs, but the art for this NaNo is based on photographs of Nendoroids and Nendoroid-sized backgrounds. (This is an experiment I've thought about for a long time.) It would take way too long to make custom Nendoroids, so I’m designing this story around existing characters from various anime and such.

Stats
The game contains 669 dialogue blocks, containing 6,247 words and 33,391
characters, for an average of 9.3 words and 50 characters per block.

The game contains 9 menus, 128 images, and 15 screens.

Progress
v1.0b is out! Download here:
https://docs.google.com/uc?export=downl ... FhNMTNEVFE

The game is generally complete, although there are some things that lack polish due to the deadline. I plan to release an updated version in a couple weeks. I also welcome any feedback and will incorporate anything I can. Proofreading is also needed.
Last edited by arachni42 on Sat Apr 05, 2014 1:06 am, edited 22 times in total.
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Re: I, Miku [parody][identity crisis][GxEverybody]

#2 Post by Googaboga »

Haha sounds like a lot of fun and it's got a really interesting look to it. I'm excited to see what these Nendoroids sprites will look like in action :].
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Re: I, Miku [parody][identity crisis][GxEverybody]

#3 Post by arachni42 »

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm mainly focused on the writing atm, but here is a concept with Miku, a messily cropped old photo of Yuki Nagato, and rough placement of the text box. I was inspired by a gears/chains vector for decorating the text box, but I think I'm going to use a piece of glass I can photograph with chains and pieces of circuit board instead (cut into hearts or stars).
concept_sprite.jpg
I have ~2.4k words so far, though no complete scenes.
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Re: I, Miku [parody][identity][GxEverybodySoftOf][NaNo2014]

#4 Post by unknown5 »

arachni42 wrote:But… what is she really like? Is she a genki girl? Tsundere? Does she have a dark and troubled past? Is she smart? Baka? Weak? Strong? Is she the magical girl that will save the world? The servant who will win the grail? The slider the Haruhi fans have been waiting for?? The chibi personification of a country?? A piece of software??? (Aw, c’mon, this is just getting ridiculous!)
Is she… all of those things?
Or nothing at all?
i bet she's a very normal person, heh. >_<

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Re: I, Miku [parody][identity][GxEverybodySoftOf][NaNo2014]

#5 Post by thekobester11 »

This looks awesome! :3

I loove crossovers and I love Miku! Once this gets finished, I'll definitely play this xD

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Re: I, Miku [parody][identity][GxEverybodySoftOf][NaNo2014]

#6 Post by arachni42 »

@unknown5
Haha, L, what a perv, poor Miku.

@thekobester11
Thanks! Writing this has presented a challenge in that I want to convey the characters and have a little bit of affectionate parody, but I don't want to rely on anybody knowing the characters, and I don't want to give away any real spoilers for anything. This may end up being shorter than I hoped, but, it's been fun.

I have some new sprites. The homeroom teacher, Yomako:
yokosprites.png
Flonne, being a fangirl:
flonne1.png
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Re: I, Miku [parody][identity][GxEverybodySoftOf][NaNo2014]

#7 Post by Laiska »

What sort of set-up do you have for photographing, to get the sprites cut out so cleanly?

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Re: I, Miku [parody][identity][GxEverybodySoftOf][NaNo2014]

#8 Post by arachni42 »

I basically have a table and a wall with a "green screen" (a piece of bright green paper) on the wall behind it. I have the camera ~20cm away and three desk lamps on the Nendoroid (more light = better). My photo ends up like so:
yoko_setup.jpg
Then I take it into Photoshop for adjustments. The green makes it easy to get most of the background out, although it does cast some green ambient light around the edges. Yoko also had a red cast on her shirt/face because of the brightness of her hair reflecting light. My camera saves the pictures at 4416x3312 pixels, so by the time I shrink it down, the background removal looks pretty smooth. The color adjustments take more time. (Incidentally, I don't worry about getting the best white balance on the original picture.)
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Re: I, Miku [parody][identity][GxEverybodySoftOf][NaNo2014]

#9 Post by Hazel-Bun »

Your process is really something else :0 so creative! Seeing how much I loved your last NaNo (Chet needs more love man for all his silly puns), and how much you helped me get my feet wet in the VN process, I can't wait to play this. Keep at it!!
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Re: I, Miku [parody][identity][GxEverybodySortOf][NaNo2014]

#10 Post by arachni42 »

I updated the top post with progress and a new logo. Also, I did a bunch of photography tonight. I have some rough versions of more sprites. (They need cleaning up, but these are basically the poses.)
drafts_flonne.png
drafts_flonne.png (171.36 KiB) Viewed 4336 times
drafts_kurisu.png
drafts_madoka.png
drafts_teddie.png
drafts_teddie.png (124.28 KiB) Viewed 4336 times
draft_elsie.png
draft_elsie.png (100.59 KiB) Viewed 4336 times
Now I wish I weren't bringing in so many dang characters... but, meh, it's fun. ;) There will be more for Elsie, but I'm only doing one pose for the above three Madoka characters. I will have 2-3 for Madoka and Homura so I'm putting them off. I still need to do the Haruhi characters, Fate characters, Haqua, Etna if I decide to add her (I just got her today, but I don't think I want to make more work for myself), and, of course, Miku herself, who will have by far the most sprites (but I need to finish the script to know all of my needs for her).
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Re: I, Miku [parody][identity][GxEverybodySortOf][NaNo2014]

#11 Post by arachni42 »

I finished some sprites today. Madoka says hi:
madoka2.png
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Re: I, Miku [parody][identity][GxEverybodySortOf][NaNo2014]

#12 Post by Auro-Cyanide »

Oh wow, I think the use of photography is really cool (and you have etched them really nicely~). I know nothing about Miku really but the execution is very interesting. Good luck!

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Re: I, Miku [parody][identity][GxEverybodySortOf][NaNo2014]

#13 Post by kaleidofish »

I, Miku: The Story of One Not So Tipakaru Woman's Struggle to Find Out Who She is in a Tipakaru World

Looking forward to this, I'm sure it will be funny! It takes a lot of guts to do everything solo. I know that kind of struggle firsthand.

I see Kurisu, YES! I feel like I MUST play it for her sake alone, haha. Best of luck with everything, ni. Let me know if you need help/support/boost/motivational posters. :D
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Re: I, Miku [parody][identity][GxEverybodySortOf][NaNo2014]

#14 Post by arachni42 »

@Auro
Thanks! NaNoRenO is my excuse to experiment... Plus, I spent all this time a long time ago building a miniature replica of the classroom from Haruhi Suzumiya, with the intention of doing a webcomic, but never quite finished. This gives me another way to use my set. (Although, I haven't made any progress on backgrounds yet... so much left to do!)

@kaleidofish
Yeah, doing things solo is a lot of work. ^_^ I want to actually finish my game this year, too, and not just a demo. I'm using different characters to bring out different aspects of Miku and trying using each interaction to drive the story forward, and Kurisu's good to have because of her intelligence. She won't be talking about time travel, though (that would be boring); she'll be talking about quantum physics.

One of her finished sprites, fresh out of Photoshop:
kurisu1.png
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Re: I, Miku [parody][identity][GxEverybodySortOf][NaNo2014]

#15 Post by arachni42 »

I've updated with some almost-finished sprites of Miku. It's been a challenge to come up with poses for all of these Nendoroids. (Yeah, I could theoretically use one pose and swap face plates, but getting the poses to line up is impractical. So I'm trying to be creative and express the emotion with the whole Nendoroid body. I've ended up spending a lot of times searching for just the right hands. It makes me really glad I took some time several months ago to organize my Nendoroid hands. Using the default ones all the time would have been boring. ;))

Miku with other characters:
idol.jpg
whatever.jpg
geima.jpg
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