Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

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Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

#1 Post by Fuseblower »

TENKEITEKI TOKYO

Hello people! My New Year's Resolution has been to make a short visual novel. I hope it will be finished within two months (no guarantees though).

The name is "Tenkeiteki Tokyo", which means as much as "Typically Tokyo" (I know I forgot the "na"). It's a parody story about a young man looking to get lucky. Despite the premise, it's not a hentai game. Everything in the story is for laughs.

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The protagonist is Donkan Shujinko, a no-good, lazy hikikomori who decides to change his shameful ways.

Donkan ventures out into Tokyo and sets himself 3 goals :
  • Get a girl
  • Get a job
  • Make parents proud
But Tokyo wouldn't be Tokyo if not some cataclysmic threat was about to destroy the Japanese capital. Donkan finds out that yet another vengeful demon is roaming about. This might spell trouble for Donkan's mission.

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Apart from surviving the demon, our hero must also avoid accidental suicide, the Johohonbu, ghosts and premature ejaculation. On top of that, he must become a master of Seido, the Way of the Seed.

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Characters

There are 13 characters in the game. The names are inspired by Kusoge's naming scheme :wink:

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Above is Donkan with his mum and dad. It's a typical Japanese family. Donkan's parents have a habit of bumping into their son at inopportune moments. The situation they find him in will determine the esteem they have of their son.

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Above are the possible love interests of Donkan.
  • Otenba Banchou - a tomboy gangster whose hobbies include robbing, mugging and stealing. Can Donkan resist the lure of a life of crime and passion?
  • Youjyo Haraguro - this little girl is sweet and innocent... or is she? There are worse things than death and Youjyo can do all of them.
  • Oresama Tsundere - haughty and aloof, this "meister hacker" hangs from the electrical wires above the streets of Tokyo. Hidden from sight thanks to her thermal optic camouflage, she hacks into anything that runs on electricity.
  • Dojikko Omorashi - this clumsy waitress on roller skates has a bladder problem. Can Donkan provide her with the stern hand she yearns for? Can Donkan stay dry?
  • Kitsune Yaoi - the magical fox who guards the haunted Yanaka cemetery. Will Donkan be convinced by Kitsune that women are not worth the troubles? Will Donkan swing the other way and what will his parents think of that?
Image

Above the remaining characters.
  • Chuui Jijii - having been a Japanese holdout for over 50 years, lieutenant Chuui has returned to Japan to fulfill his lifelong dream of starting a restaurant. Unfortunately his associate is his great-granddaughter Dojikko. What wisdom can Donkan glean from this old warrior?
  • Jukujo Chikarao - agent of the Japanese military intelligence agency and wielding a bigger gun than Dirty Harry. Can Donkan proof he's not a Chinese spy?
  • Oushi and Saru - any good antagonist needs a couple of idiot sidekicks. Jukujo's henchmen Oushi and Saru fit that bill nicely.
  • Oni Rangaku - the vengeful demon wreaking havoc in Tokyo at the time of Donkan's quest. His magical sword slices through trains, buildings and Japanese people. Can Donkan put a stop to the demon's rampage?
Current state

So far I've got the beginning and a couple of endings (including the "true one") and a bunch of stuff in the middle.

Apart from the above graphics, there are about 20 sprites. I hope to finish all sprites in the coming week.

Image

Since all graphics will be hand drawn, I'll wait with coloring till I'm sure I don't need more sprites. This way I can color all sprites of each characters in one go.

That's it for now. I'll keep this thread updated.


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Re: Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

#2 Post by Fuseblower »

Worked on the sprites of Dojikko today. Staying in the spirit of the WIP I'll post some of them as they were made. Typically, I do a serie of 3 sprites on 1 sheet of paper unless I need some accuracy. Like Jukujo with her gun in the previous post, I drew that one bigger and she took up the entire sheet.

First the sketches (done on el cheapo 12 field paper) :

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Then pencil tracings done on the light box on 180 grams paper that can take the colors which will be applied when all sprites are done.

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The pencil lines are now erased (but still visible) and are traced over with ink (nib pen). Care has to be taken that the outlines of the sprite connect so that an alpha mask can be easily made with the magic wand of Gimp.

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I think one of the great things of doing this by hand is that I can see all the drawing mistakes now but I can't correct them anymore. Saves a lot of time tinkering :wink:

Of course, I won't post WIPs whenever I got a couple of sprites done. Coming week I'll be working on the sprites but I'll see if I can do a couple of vending machines too (vending machines play a big part in Tenkeiteki Tokyo). Unlike the sprites, I can color them immediately.

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Re: Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

#3 Post by Fuseblower »

Well, I got the vendor machines done. There are only 6 of them but I got to keep things simple if I want to finish this before March (and I got an idea for the nano stuff so I really want to finish this before March).

The vendor machines are a way of chosing branches in the story. The protagonist Donkan has 10,000 Yen from the start and can buy stuff from the machines when he encounters them. For example, Donkan could buy a tanto (a knife). If he would get mugged a little bit later in the story then the possession of that tanto will make the story develop differently from if Donkan hadn't bought the tanto.

Here are the machines (Donkan will always encounter them so I'm not giving anything away about the story).

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There are tons of vendor machines in Japan and they sell all kinds of weird stuff (like live beetles, used women's underwear). Although I don't think we'll see these machines any time soon :wink:

From left to right and top to bottom :

If there's one famous Japanese painting then it must be "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" by Katsushika Hokusai (which I shamelessly traced over in the "Seido" drawing). Hokusai was also responsible for "The Dream of the Fisherman's wife" which spawned cultural expressions like "Urotsukidoji". In short : tentacle sex. It only makes sense that the Japanese will have a machine selling lewd octopuses :wink:

Ever since the Japanese ... invited ... the Chinese to be part of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" relations between the Chinese and Japanese have been ... interesting. I actually think a machine selling "Shinajin stress balls" might make money in Japan 8) (by the way : "Shinajin" literally means "China man" but is seen as derogatory term, it's marked as "sensitive" by jisho.org).

A lot is made of the suicide rate in Japan. Actually, it's much lower than that of countries like South Korea and India. Japan ranked #17 in 2012. Not content by being so far behind, the Japanese government has issued seppuku machines. No, not for real! Only in the story. The real Japanese government would never do such a thing... I think... hope...

Cosplay is pretty popular in Japan too. The "Foreigner Cosplay" machine sells outfits for 4 different nationalities.

And pigeons are popular too. I even saw a VN about them, that's how popular they are :wink: For a mere 1,000 yen a pigeon of your choice can be set free. Some might say this machine is a money sink. The released pigeons fly back to their owner who subsequently puts them back in the machine and the only reason these pigeons are in the machine is because people are willing to part with 1,000 yen to set them free. But people who say that are heartless pigeon haters! :evil: The hokey text is inspired by stuff I saw on engrish.com

Finally, the driver's license machine. Of course, simply selling driver's licenses for 5,000 yen could be considered irresponsible. That's why the driver's license comes with a free booklet about how to drive safely. I stole the face of the police officer from a drawing of Yuji Aoki (Naniwa Financiers). I guess I could be sued but first they have to find me 8)

Despite that the machines were drawn quickly (everything free handed) it still took quite some time to paint them by hand. This has made me wondering about whether I should hand paint the sprites (none of the sprites is colored yet).

Only a little over 5 weeks left to go...

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Re: Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

#4 Post by Kia »

just awesome...
please tell me that the games art will be hand drawn, tracing this awesome drawings into computer style would be a crime.

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Re: Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

#5 Post by Fuseblower »

Thank you Kia.

Yes, the idea is to do the whole thing by hand as experiment to see how it will look and how long it takes to make. I'll also try out different styles and methods.

Making the line drawings doesn't take more time than doing it on the computer. Also I prefer the nib pen and a #3 Kolinsky over the plastic pen of the Wacom :wink:

It's the coloring I'm more worried about, time-wise. Also, the brush strokes are quite prominent when the paintings are scanned in. Especially for certain colors (which I had to correct with Gimp). In the case of the "chibi character sheets" it might be down to the paper I used, they were done with Copic markers but not on the special Copic paper. In the case of the vendor machines, it was done with transparent Liquitex acrylic ink which is far more accurate than using markers but dries very quickly.

I'll do some backgrounds now and will try a combination of water colors for big surfaces and use the acrylic ink for details.

Still, for the sprites I might opt to use "computer coloring". Both to save time (only got 5 more weeks to finish it) and because it might make the sprites "pop" against hand painted backgrounds.

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Re: Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

#6 Post by sasquatchii »

Wow, the art for this is seriously amazing. Were the designs for those also inspired by Japanese vending machine art & design? If I ever saw any of these machines in real life, I'd have to spend money on them, they're way too cool (except maybe not the seppuku machine).

Also, that's so crazy that they put LIVE animals in vending machines. Can I ask more about that?

How do the live animals survive in vending machines? I just googled 'live animals vending machines japan' and apparently they also sell live crabs and lobsters!!

Are you going to be doing everything for the game yourself? I'm really loving everything you've posted so far. If you need any help at all or maybe just an extra pair of eyes to look at stuff or give you another perspective on things, feel free to message me!

I will be stalking this thread from now on. Good luck!!
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Re: Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

#7 Post by Fuseblower »

Thank you sasquatchii.

I know that the crabs are cooled down so they start to hibernate. They are simply sleeping during transport and in those machines. A lot of the Chinese mitten crab is actually caught in Europe (Germany, Netherlands) where it is an invasive species. They're packaged and cooled down there and then shipped to China where they will eventually rudely be woken up in boiling water :shock:

Of course, none of the above vendor machines are real although I wouldn't put it beyond the Japanese to make that pigeon machine :wink:

As for the game : I do everything except for the music. A buddy of mine is working on that. He's made tons of songs over the years and we're looking for little parts in those songs that can be easily looped.

The both of us wanted to make a game which could be finished fast.

When I saw Kusoge I thought we could do something like that. But whereas Kusoge is a high-brow social commentary on the human condition, Tenkeiteki Tokyo will be a surreal absurdist story :wink:
Last edited by Fuseblower on Sun Jan 24, 2016 5:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

#8 Post by QFuss »

Hi Fuseblower,

I have been busy making the first sound sketch for possibly the title screen of Tenkeiteki Tokyo.

For listening pleasures see following link:

- https://soundcloud.com/qfuss/ttt-donkans-story-v02

Let me know what you think (that also goes for the members on this forum of course ;-)

See you soon,

Greetingz: QFuss

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Re: Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

#9 Post by Fuseblower »

Did the first couple of backgrounds today. There will be at most 38 backgrounds (at least, that's the number of 6x8 inch pieces of watercolor paper I cut out).

I'm doing them in a *very* loose style because I want this background thing out of the way as soon as possible. So 1 to 2 hours for each, max. At that speed some minor details will be lost (like proper linear perspective :roll: )

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As you can see, I really love my Cobalt Violet :lol:

Since all of this VN happens in Tokyo (mostly in Taito ward) it needs to be recognizable as such.

I've spent many hours going through Tokyo.... with Google Streetview :wink:

For example : here is the real "entrance" to the sinister Yanaka cemetery.

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Yeah, it's a public toilet in real life and Yanaka cemetery isn't really a sinister, haunted place like it is in the VN. It's actually a beautiful place (with those eternal cherry blossom trees) and a popular tourist attraction. But then again : Tokyo isn't visited by demons and other monstrosities either. The setting needs to fit the play :wink:

I'll do the more recognizable settings last (temples, Ueno park, etc.).

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Re: Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

#10 Post by QFuss »

Hello All,

Yet another concept ready for our VN. It's a remaster of an old song I made long ago.
(Little bit struggling with the limiter setting in the mastering, but that's tweaking I need to fix)

Together with Fuseblower we will look where best to fit this concept music within our VN.

For ppl who are interested:
- https://soundcloud.com/qfuss/ttt-new-age-remasterd

Tools used for this:
- Roland D-50 synth
- Roland JV-80 synth
- Alesis D4 drum computer (which died of old age so I had to use samples of this device)
- Cubase AI5 Sequencer software (Originally sequenced on Atari 1040 STe........Those halcyon days...snif)
- A good working memory of what settings/instruments were needed to restore this song in original state (took a lot of coffee ;-)

Thanks for looking and comments are always welcome ;-)

Greetz:
QFuss

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Re: Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

#11 Post by QFuss »

Hi All,

With this post I will try to update the playlist for Tenkeiteki Tokyo for which I will be making music and sound effects.

For those interested, this is what I use:
- Windows 8.1 on Laptop
- Cubase AI5 Sequencer software (Steinberg, it's an old version, but it does the trick)
- Steinberg CI2 Audio Interface (Simple, but needs to be upgraded soon to newer interface)
- Roland UM-1 MIDI Interface
- Kontakt 5 (Native Instruments, a lot of virtual instruments with reasonable quality)
- Some free VST synthesizers (See bedroom producers blog, they have good reviews of free audio stuff)
- A simple audio mixer
- Roland D-50 synth (One of Roland's incredible machines, a legend from 1987)
- Roland JV-80 synth (Approx. 20 years old but good allrounder)
- Alesis D4 drum computer (Approx. 20 years old but good drums)

The playlist for Tenkeiteki Tokyo so far:

- https://soundcloud.com/qfuss/ttt-lost-in-tokyo-v01
- https://soundcloud.com/qfuss/ttt-pondering-in-tokyo-v01
- https://soundcloud.com/qfuss/ttt-in-search-of-tokyo-v01
- https://soundcloud.com/qfuss/ttt-threat-of-rangaku-v01
- https://soundcloud.com/qfuss/ttt-donkans-story-v02
- https://soundcloud.com/qfuss/ttt-connected-oresama-v01
- https://soundcloud.com/qfuss/ttt-sweet- ... -remasterd
- https://soundcloud.com/qfuss/melodica
- https://soundcloud.com/qfuss/privateeye-v1-0

List updated: Feb 4th 2016

Any comments or questions are welcome

Greetz:
QFuss

Last edited by QFuss on Wed Feb 03, 2016 4:16 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

#12 Post by Fuseblower »

Been busy with the backgrounds and finished the first set of sprites. I've decided to do Oresama Tsundere first because I wanted to see how her cloak of invisibility looks like against a background. In total there are 8 Oresama's. Just took 2 days to make em all from start to finish. I hope the rest will take that little time too :lol:

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I can still fiddle around with the cloak. There are actually 2 drawings for each Oresama sprite.

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The drawing on the right is simply subtracted (alpha channel wise) from the drawing on the left. I could still change the color of her cloak (in the top picture I've set it to black) or perhaps get a partial transparancy instead of a full one. I'll see what will look best.

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Re: Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

#13 Post by Kia »

she lost her pencil colored charm :( ...still one of the most interesting characters I saw in visual novels.

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Re: Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

#14 Post by Fuseblower »

Yeah, the chibi's were done very differently from the sprites. The chibis were made quickly with Copic markers while I go for a messy "watercolor look" in the game.

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But this is what it's all about with those 2-month games : to experiment with things like drawing style.

Some characters I've drawn for an unfinished game last year looked like this :

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That was done much tighter and with acrylic ink (there's a subtle Higurashi reference in one of the characters :wink: )

And another style is this (from yet another unfinished game).

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That was done with Copic markers and the lines were done with a brush instead of a nib pen.

We have several ideas for 2-month VN's. I'll do them all with different drawing styles to see what response they all have.

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Re: Tenkeiteki Tokyo [parody]

#15 Post by Fuseblower »

Just a quick note. I'm still fiddling with Oresama's cloak of invisibility. The real active thermal optic camouflage is green (yes, it does exist) so I guess Oresama's should be too.

Image

It's a bit tricky to show the cloak's invisibility but at the same time show its silhouet. How does one show the invisible? Hm, I need to ponder this :wink:

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