INTERVIEW ON THE MAKING OF THE CANCELLED MMORPG NINELIVES

My project just went live on kickstarter

…and I’m both excited and terrified, lol

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aurans/visual-novel-aurans

Aurans is a visual novel about growing up and saving the multiverse while wearing wet shoes.

When homely nobody Rowan Nightingale gets hit by a car, she doesn’t die, but instead is chosen to become an Auran - a being who can make anything happen, on three conditions: she has to be able to imagine it, believe it, and then create it. Taken under her mentor’s wing, she travels to other dimensions and learns to harness the power of her imagination, slowly growing more confident in herself. But dark forces are lurking in the shadows, and who better to manipulate than a young, naïve Auran such as her? Soon, Rowan must fight her inner demons - quite literally - in order to save the dimensions from being destroyed. But can you truly believe that you are stronger than the darkest, most evil force in the entire multiverse, when all your life you have believed you weren’t worth anything at all?

The first seeds of the Aurans universe were thought of in 2006, when I was only 11. Since then, the story, characters, and environments have been fine-tuned over and over again. At first, Aurans was written as a book, but the lack of audiovisual content felt wrong. Many other mediums were brainstormed; A comic? An animated series? A movie? For many different reasons, none of those really seemed to fit. Then it became clear: It had to be a visual novel; the perfect blend of text, image, and sound.

After working with the companies Nix Hydra and Dorian, I felt that I had a grasp on the visual novel medium and the surrounding industry to the point where Aurans would be able to come to life. Teaming up with background artist Ivan Sapnu, the two of us got to work, and now, the first installment is almost complete. All we need is that last push - that’s where you come in.

A super quick overview:

GAME GENRE: Visual Novel / Young Adult / Fantasy / Coming of Age

GRAPHICS:  2D illustrations and sprites on static backgrounds

ART DIRECTION: Stylized and cartoony in vein of W.I.T.C.H., the works of Noelle Stevenson, and  the works of Becky Cloonan

PLATFORM:  PC, possibly Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch in the future

PLAYERS:  Singleplayer

ENGINE:  Ren’Py

MARKET:  Anybody age 12-35 with a love of young adult fantasy stories

Fully hand drawn graphics, deep world and lore

Representation of LGBTQ*, diverse body types and POC, with mentions of neurodiversity, while touching upon the themes of self-worth, identity,and bullying

Can stand alone, but is planned as the first installment of the Auran trilogy

~800 USD (~745 euro) will be used to pay our background artist for the remaining backgrounds.

100 USD (93 euro) will be spent on getting the game onto Steam.

Project funded: 900 USD / 850 euro

STRETCH GOALS:

2500 euro / 2700 USD = Original soundtrack; currently the game will use royalty free music primarily provided by Kevin MacLeod, but how sweet would it be to get a soundtrack specifically made for Aurans?

June 25th 2023: Kickstarter launch

August 24 2023: Kickstarter end

September 1st 2023 - November 30th 2023: Creation and implementation of the remaining backgrounds, music, and sprites. If stretch goal is reached, soundtrack will be commissioned.

December 1st 2023 - January 31st 2024: Proof-reading of prose, GUI updated, and game submitted to Steam.

February 1st 2024: Game launch

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Hey I'm just going to toss my kofi out there cause I could really use help with upcoming bills. I have my comms open and you can get rugs like the ones pictured!

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Help My Friend Survive In A Refugee Camp

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Help LGBTQ Refugee Survive Camp, organized by Nerves Nebula

Hi I'm Judas (internet name NervesNebula) and I'm an American fundraising for my friend … Nerves Nebula needs your support for Help LGBTQ Re

My friend Abdul is an African LGBTQ+ refugee who needs more help than I can give him to survive at his camp.

$6,000 seems like a lot, and it is, but he would really be grateful for anything. If you have $1 to spare he would absolutely appreciate that. this is not a circumstance where not reaching the goal means it was pointless. I don't get paid much because I'm a full time student but he always appreciates and needs what I can give him.

He needs everything you can spare.

If you can't use GoFundMe for any reason I also take donations through these other money transfer services.

Ko-fi: Nervesnebula, Cashapp: nervesN, and Venmo: @nervesnebbin

I'll try to update this post with how much I've raised through these apps at the end of every day. I'll also try to post updates I get from him tagged as #Abdulfund on this blog, if he has anything he wants to say. Thank you.

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The next major patch for HorrorVale will include a new feature called "Dream Colosseum"! Here, Alice will be able to fight stronger versions of every Boss she's conquered. Some of them with brand new twists...

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Hello! My name is Syd, though you may know me by other aliases be… Sydney Icarus needs your support for (More) Help with Medical Bills

i really dont anticipate much traction on this here bc ever since they banned tiddies my reach on tumblr has been -nil- but...

i made (another) gofundme to pay off medical bills related to cancer. if you remember the one from 4 months ago, the last update i posted was that i got a balance update informing me i owed another 5k right as the gfm reached its original goal, and kind of had a little mental meltdown and needed to....depart from fundraising for it for a while.

but the time has come to face the music again.

details are on the GFM, please share/boost

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HUECYCLES's Ko-fi Commissions

Ko-fi Commissions Open! Click to see HUECYCLES's commission menu.

opened commissions again after a long time! there are 9 slots available for simple sketches :)

Commissions Are Now Open!

I currently have five slots open for any type of commission!

You can contact me here, on Deviantart [CrystalPepsiman] or on discord at rz053.

Abridged version of the above information below the cut. A link to the live version of this slideshow will be located in the notes.

Can do:

Anthro

Animal

Human

Scenes

Paintings

Moderate gore

Will not do:

Mecha

NSFW

Hateful imagery

Real people

Fanart of media  that I am unfamiliar with.

My terms of service are,

Regarding payment:

I require half of the total payment up-front as a non-refundable deposit. The rest of the total can be paid after the finished item is received.

Obtrusive watermarks will be removed when payment is fully rendered.

I accept paypal and cashapp.

All prices are in USD.

Regarding communication and updates:

I will offer updates at least once per week. If additional updates are needed, they will be provided at request.

Please provide feedback when updates are received- I want to give you a piece you will love, so please tell me what you think!

If you do not request additional updates or provide requests for edits, I will not be held liable for your lack of satisfaction.

♥  Gift Guide Help  ♥

Hi all :-) 

As you know one of my fave things is to browse the net for cool trinkets and goodies, so if you’re a bit stuck on finding a gift for your pal/co-worker/dog/enemy this holiday season - send me an ask and I’ll see what I can find! 

All you need to give me as a guide is a budget, and a lil summary of their personality (fave movies, season, trinkets, colour, hobby, something they hate perhaps) and I’ll see what I can do! 

INTERVIEW WITH SHIGENOBU MATSUYAMA - PRODUCER ON SILENT HILL THE ARCADE

I had the pleasure of interviewing Matsuyama-san, one of the producers on Silent Hill the Arcade! Here's what he had to say :)

Q - How did the idea for Silent Hill The Arcade come to be?

A - During the arcade boom of the 1990s and the 2000s, a desire was born to combine the unique worldview of the Silent Hill series - which was already a very strong IP console game-wise – with the haunted houses one might find in an amusement part. We wanted something that could provide an easy and pleasurable experience to an extremely varied range of customers… as in, the casual users. This is the idea that brought Silent Hill Arcade (SHA in short) to life. However, since our goal was to create a new kind of experience that could not be replicated anywhere else, we designed a game that could make the most effective use of the 5.1ch surround sound system, which was something that arcade games hadn’t adopted until that point, with a type of cabinet that could be somewhat isolated from the rest of the arcade via the use of curtains.

Q - Roughly how long did development for the game take?

A - At the time, the development cycle of an arcade game was so short it would be unimaginable today. The shortest one was around six months, the longest about one year and a half. I think SHA took us around one year and two months.

Q - What parts of development were most enjoyable for you?

A – Usually, arcade games are tested a certain number of times, both during development and just before launch in each and every country where their release has been scheduled (which, for SHA, meant Japan, the US, the UK, Italy, Spain, France, Hong Kong and Singapore). In order to keep the development budget for SHA as low as possible, however, I personally traveled alone to the US for the market testing, assembled the cabinet all by myself, repaired it when it was out of order, and stood next to it for days on end, pen and paper in my hand, ready to collect the players’ data. Game development, nearly 20 years ago, was very much an analog experience. It was also hard work, but when I look back, I have so many good memories of that time.

Q - Do you remember any kinds of ideas that you and the team wanted to include in the game, but didn’t in the end?

A – I’m sure this will sound obvious, since SHA was based on a pre-existing IP, but since the framework was pretty much already set when it came to characters and plot, we had to be extremely careful not to deviate from it so that we wouldn’t create inconsistencies. Personally, I would have loved to take the story in slightly wilder directions and include new and fresh ideas.

Q - I loved seeing so many locations from Silent Hill 3 and 4 make an appearance in the game! Was the team who worked on those two games involved in making any decisions for Silent Hill The Arcade?

A - We of course personally consulted select staff members of Konami, like for example Producer Yamaoka, with whom I had been acquainted with since before SHA. However, most development teams had a mix of internal and external members that changed pretty fluidly with each and every year, so there was no real collaboration between the various teams.

Q - What level of freedom were you given for creating this original story within the Silent Hill universe? Were you given any specific directives on what you could or could not integrate/use in the story?

A - If I have to express my personal point of view on the matter, however, should you compare the storyline for SHA with the timeline of the other games, you would indeed notice a few minor inconsistencies that we were not able to completely solve. That’s something I still have regrets about.

Q - Tell me about translating a traditional survival horror experience into the rail shooter genre and control style. What kind of considerations did you have to make for this?

A - The biggest challenge was by far to design a game system that could be as simple as possible, and to regulate the level of challenge in a way that felt balanced, because we didn't want to force complicated controls or an exceedingly high difficulty level on the casual arcade players. Moreover, there was another balance we had to strike perfectly: more specifically, the one between the aforementioned "haunted house" element - the one that was unique to SHA, with its sequences of terrifying events - and the thrilling playstyle that a rail shooter should provide to the player.

Q - As a final product, what are your personal thoughts on the game?

A - I think it had a state-of-the-art sound system, that the design of the cabinet, with its creepy-looking curtains, made people want to take a peek inside, and that the rail shooting system was simple and could be enjoyed by virtually everyone. I think we managed to combine these various elements with a one-of-a-kind worldview of Silent Hill in a way that was in my opinion pretty good! Of course, each and every member of the staff did their part, and I thank all of them wholeheartedly.

Q - Are you working on anything currently that you’d like me to mention?

A - Feel free to write whatever you prefer! If anything, I should thank you, since you allowed me to walk down the nostalgia lane and recall memories from almost 20 years ago that had been dimmed down by the passage of time. Thank you very much!

Shigenobu Matsuyama's site: shig.jp

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