Kensai

[renkenjutsu]

This is a game I'm currently working on. The script is about 5% done (I think.... but there's a high possibility it might be less). The art hasn't been touched yet, and the music and sound effects for the scripts that I've done is pretty much hammered out. That's for the progress.

Teaser (a small one):


The game takes place in around Meiji era Japan after the Bakumatsu, though no specific place or time will be mentioned explicitly in the game (hence allowing me some degrees of freedom by inaccuracy, haha). It tells the story of one Kojima Koshiro, a traveling swordsman searching for his twin brother that has reputedly announced as dead. Koshiro didn't buy that story so he left home in search of his twin and the truth.

The game starts in a trash alley where Koshiro wakes up with a nasty bump at the back of his head. He's.... well.... robbed xD. Luckily he still has his clothes with him. He meets a young girl here and that's where the story picks off.

I'm trying to make the dialogue a fun thing to read, so there'll be a dash of humor, drama, suspense and even horror. I'm emulating the feel of Phoenix Wright type of writing, but not quite. I'll put up a demo sometime when I have some pictures ready. Now they're just text and music . About 5-10 minutes worth of playing is scripted, so I'm guessing there's quite a bit of work to do. Eheh ^^;;; The music are small loops instead of soundtracks atm, but that might change depending on the circumstances.

This is a safe game, but I'm thinking there will be a nsfw version as well As for the feel of the game.... how shall I put it.... try adding up Rurouni Kenshin, Samurai Champloo, Phoenix Wright and Fate/Stay Night altogether (without the summoning part), at least that's how I plan it to be.

Character profiles and concept arts soon. Demo later Songs are shamelessly unoriginal and taken/mixed from Garageband and freeware Flashkit clips.

*********DEMO**********

For PC 4.5mb

For Mac 5.2mb

For Linux 4.8mb

[Threevenge]

Interesting way to start a game . I'll be anxious to see how this goes.

[monele]

Sounds *very* interesting. It's been a while since I read about cool and funny samurais ^^. And if you're going for a level of Phoenix Wright expressiveness, this should be very good

[renkenjutsu]

A quick tease at one of the earlier dialogues :3 ai is the girl the hero wakes up to find while k is the hero himself. Hope this'll whet some appetites

ai "Neee.... oni-chan...."
k "Hmmm?"
ai "You don't really have anything to do now, do you?"
k "What do you mean?"
ai "I mean.... you've lost everything, right? {w}Obviously, you look like a traveller, judging by those drab clothes that you wear."

"Drab??? Why you little...."
with vpunch

ai "And no matter what, traveling needs money, yes?"
k "What's your point now, little girl?"

"Something fishy is going on."

ai "Well, my sister and I run a restaurant down the street. {w}I'm just here to drop off the trash."

"Indeed, that large basket over there kind of confirmed it. But just how does a little girl like her carry a big basket like that???"

ai "And we're kinda short handed right now.{w} Our waitress quit yesterday."
k "Oh.... sorry to hear that."
ai "..."
k "..."
ai "This is supposed to be the part when you say 'Oh that's a shame, I wish there was something I could do to help'."
k "Wh.... why would I help you after hearing a sob story like that?"
ai "...{w} point..."

[Deji]

That sounds really nice!
I liked the dialog bits pretty much, actually ^^
I love samurais! So I'll be looking forward to this! =D

and yay for japanese-themed game instead of just japanese names! >3

[risingbamboobanana]

wow, this looks promising! i'm definitely interested in seeing how this turns out i'm rooting for ya!

[musical74]

Well, I'm not much for horror but everything else looks great! REALLY like the opening piece you've laid out....odd to have a game start out where you've been robbed! This is looking good, hope to see it completed =)

[renkenjutsu]

Thanks for the supports! You all make me fired up to do moar work. Rawr.

Oh not really HORROR horror. Just.... horrific suspense of dying at any time when you think you made a combat mistake. If anyone played ever Fate/Stay Night and read how Shiro narrates his own demise, that's what I'm aiming for

Anyway, update: base sprite outline for the little girl that you first meet: Karin!



No pencils or pens or papers were harmed or even touched in the creation of this lineart.

edit: I managed to color her!

[Mirena]

Ooh, that sounds interesting.

I liked the small bit of dialogue, certainy Phoenix Wright-esque and it makes me hungry for more.

[PyTom]

I have to say I really like the character art style. The way you modulate line widths makes it looks like it was inked with a calligraphy pen... which really fits well with the style of the game. Keep it up!

[musical74]

Ah, so going for a Misery-style horror? I haven't played F/SN but based on what you said it sound like suspense-style horror...THAT I can deal with!

one minor question...any idea how big this will be, as far as MB go? For those few of us that have dialup connections a huge MB deters us...not that I WON'T DL a huge game, just takes a looooong time to download it.

[renkenjutsu]

Well, it's still early, so I have no idea how big the game will be. But I'm taking precautions by sticking to the smallest space possible by:

*All sound and music files will be in mp3.

Characters will have a base image with overlapping face/clothes images.

Playing with renpy hue color change thingy to simulate night/day time instead of drawing and coloring different images.

The music will be short loops, so no 3mb soundtracks. Currently the loops that I used are about 100-300kb each. So that should give you an idea on how small I want to make this. Big gaming punch, small size. I'm not sure whether playing mp3's will slow down the game while playing it or not (or god forbid, exhibit *crackles*), but I'll change the formats after I'm done with the basic soundtrack selection and testing.

p/s *If it crackles while playing when using mp3, the ogg format will be used. It's not as small as I want to, but I have to make as little compromise to quality as possible.

Hope this answers your question

Current update: drawing Karin's bigger sister and scripting..... moar scripts! (eyagh). :3

edit: The game so far is at 3.5 mb. So I imagine a target of about 10mb max is within normal expectations. The biggest sized file is the main menu music which I'll probably redo into a smaller loop to save up a further 1mb (or more, depending how short the loop will be).

[sake-bento]

ai "Neee.... oni-chan...."

Quick nitpick here...and I feel kinda like a jerk for making this my first comment in your thread. If it's older brother, it should be "Onii-chan." "Oni" means demon.

The character art looks really cute, BTW. I love the way the lines look like ink strokes.

[Samu-kun]

Mmm... I think that for a girl, her eye brows are a bit too thick. They make her look a bit too manly. XD

[renkenjutsu]

Yush! *Scampers to dark dungeon to make corrections and edits* :3