Author Topic: Eastern Starlight Romance: A Touhou VN. (July 2: Demo 2 is out!) (Read 69243 times)

Graph · « **on:** April 11, 2010, 09:37:36 PM »

Eastern Starlight Romance is a Visual Novel focusing on Marisa's search for immortality and companionship right after Subterranean Animism.

We hit a few snags, but in the end, we've got a public release for you. You can get a direct download and a short list of the changes on our site here:
http://dsd.faceroll.net/?p=325

If you just want to grab it from off site (and if you're willing to put up with mediafire/megaupload), you can grab the demo from these links as well:

Eastern Starlight Romance download (Win32)
Eastern Starlight Romance download (All OS)

The README, for some quick info

We've had a lot of fun putting this together, and I hope you all enjoy it.

The blog.
The forums.

ChaoStar · « **Reply #1 on:** April 12, 2010, 12:25:50 AM »

"Don't worry Flan, Marisa's not going to turn into one of those people with no eyes."

...What?! :yukkuri:

Graph · « **Reply #2 on:** April 12, 2010, 04:54:54 AM »

Quote from: Wonderful☆Life on April 12, 2010, 12:25:50 AM

"Don't worry Flan, Marisa's not going to turn into one of those people with no eyes."

...What?! :yukkuri:

Mark of the Faceless Protagonist.

Graph · « **Reply #3 on:** April 21, 2010, 12:25:35 AM »

I'm starting up a screenshot gallery on the forums, here.

There's not many matches for characters and backgrounds yet, but I'll post more as I get them done.

Verloren · « **Reply #4 on:** April 22, 2010, 12:04:02 AM »

Does that mean we're going to have Marisa onscreen eventually?

Iced Fairy · « **Reply #5 on:** April 22, 2010, 08:29:44 PM »

Well now that we've shifted gears and locations, I should probably help transform this into more of a rundown of what we've done then a recruitment poster.

As Graph said this is a romance VN, starring Marisa, that focuses on her quest for immortality and the repercussions there of. It started around last Thanksgiving off a thread in Poolshimer and as usual there was a great amunt of initial interest and then a mass exodus. However unlike in most projects of this type, those of us who expected this stuck around and formed a nice core design team. And we've been working steadily on it ever since. Though happenstance and sheer bloody mindedness I acquired the position of lead writer while Graph claimed the head artist role (though if anyone wants to give him a hand...).

We chose Marisa... well because it was easy from a romance angle, and because there was a lot of interesting work that could be done with her quest to live forever. In fact the immortality choice easily is a third of the game in and of itself, and it's very heavily tied into both your romance options and your friendships with the main characters you choose not to pursue romantically.

Timing wise we tossed this in the spring after SA. So UFO and 12.3 (and the hilarious fallout thereof) will appear in game from Marisa's point of view. While the first screenshot isn't in the game (yet...) everything else should appear when we get enough together to put out a quality demo.

Anyway feel free to ask questions about the project, plot my demise, guess which writer did which excerpt or build little shrines to Graph.

Suikama · « **Reply #6 on:** April 23, 2010, 04:10:35 AM »

I'm curious about what you guys are make this visual novel. You seem to have writers and artists and stuff but no programmers or even a program to use.

Iced Fairy · « **Reply #7 on:** April 23, 2010, 04:43:38 AM »

Quote from: Suikama ☑ on April 23, 2010, 04:10:35 AM

I'm curious about what you guys are make this visual novel. You seem to have writers and artists and stuff but no programmers or even a program to use.

Ah yes, we're using Ren'py for the program simply because it is fairly easy. We also have a good programmer Sigma, who's currently mainly tinkering up internal betas for us at this point since we need a full product before he can go all out. He also stated that he can tinker up some more intricate stuff if necessary, but we're probably just going to be giving him headaches with all the branch paths and variables we've got.

Edit: I should also note we have a musician in our merry band as well whos already given us some songs for us. Admittedly that's another area where one person has a bit of a hard time of things, but we may be getting some help for that soon.

Kinzo the Astro Curious · « **Reply #8 on:** April 23, 2010, 01:09:00 PM »

This sounds interesting to me.

Depending on how long till you want it done, what your after, and what degree of qaulity, I might be able to contribute CG backdrops and probably some interface buttons. I like doing buildings and items, and can probably blend what I cant do from photos as I'm not too terrible with photoshop either, although im no expert with PS compared to some lol. Looking at the list the one that'd specificly give me difficulty is the forest. Natural forms I haven't done much work with. I primarily do this kinda modelling in Sketchup and fiddle it where needed be in PS, so you get a drawn outlined style as I like that anyway. Bryce can do the natural forms better for the forest but its a proper renderer - so no lines.

Only concern though is that I'm pretty busy at the moment, I likely wont have enough free time to make any serious effort to assist till june. Though if I found time I wouldnt mind adding some bits in here and there.

Graph · « **Reply #9 on:** April 23, 2010, 09:22:07 PM »

As luck would have it, nature backgrounds seem to be the easiest to grab stock photos for (we've been going to DA for that lately). If you can do buildings that would be great.

For hand-drawn/ painted bgs I'm not expecting overly much. I made this filler piece for the Meiling screenshot on the main site:

Going in the filtered photos direction, we got stuff like this... we simplify the gradation a bit to give a feel like a painting.

Probably the stuff most in demand now is bgs for Marisa's house and Alice's house, both having a kinda 19th century flavor. I expect I'll still be tidying up on things in June so I don't think timing is a large issue... even if your stuff doesn't make it for the demo, it'll still be good for the full release. If you show me some passable samples of your work, here or on the dev site, we'll let you aboard the dev team. Any other questions, just ask away.

Kinzo the Astro Curious · « **Reply #10 on:** April 23, 2010, 09:47:14 PM »

I really like those images actually. They've got a lot of character.

Most relevant best examples I have to hand are these I suppose.

Probably the most detailed building I've done so far. Its actually hollow inside with beams along the ceiling.
http://luketorpedo.deviantart.com/art/Tavern-153890608
The ship is sketchup, the background is bryce, effects photoshop.
http://luketorpedo.deviantart.com/art/Transport-landing-71839275
Background is some random photo off the internet, foreground sketchup again.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a180/manmuppet/monolithic.jpg
Tend to usually make spaceship models when I'm bored so thats where most of the effort went, hence not too many backgrounds other than those two. I do have one scene done in all 3d, but its a mechanical enviroment so not really relevant.

Think I like your inked style there on the first image though. Its sort of like what you get in flash animations.

Graph · « **Reply #11 on:** April 23, 2010, 11:00:37 PM »

Looking good! We'll probably want to work on softening the edges and textures for the BGs, but I think you've got a solid base to work with. If you Register on the dev forums I'll ask Sigma to add you to the Developer group, and then we can get down to details.

Yamachanadu · « **Reply #12 on:** April 24, 2010, 03:30:56 AM »

Having done some *minor* writing for the project before dropping out due to university and still having access to the forums, if there is one thing I can stress is that this VN has ridiculous amounts of potential. If you have any of the talents Graph mentioned, please help these guys out, because the end result should be fantastic.

Iced Fairy · « **Reply #13 on:** April 28, 2010, 03:59:37 AM »

Hm... I figure'd I should add this on at least once.

Now that we've started a serious drive towards a release (even if that is still a while off) I'm planning on updating our blog weekly on Tuesday evenings. I figure it'd be overkill to mention it every week, but for those of you with an interest I figured I'd toss it out.

I also figured I should mention that this isn't an H work. This is for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I think that the sex scenes writing would end up worse then Tsukihime's, and that's a line I'm not willing to cross.

Anyway once again feel free to toss comments (offhand or otherwise) at us. I'll get back to writing (one page for the VN, one for Cats and Crows, if time do weekly challenge fic...)

Yamachanadu · « **Reply #14 on:** April 29, 2010, 03:49:27 PM »

Link's borked

Iced Fairy · « **Reply #15 on:** April 29, 2010, 05:58:33 PM »

Mine? It works for me... Well I'll try it the "even I shouldn't be able to screw this up" way.

http://dsd.pkmndestruction.net/

Graph · « **Reply #16 on:** April 29, 2010, 10:35:24 PM »

I think the "pkmndestruction" sites were down for a bit earlier today. It's fine now, I believe.

Graph · « **Reply #17 on:** May 21, 2010, 04:36:58 AM »

A new set of screenshots has been added to the site. I've been working on the SDM crew for some time now so I should be able to put out screenshots more often.

Vanikoro · « **Reply #18 on:** May 22, 2010, 03:11:35 AM »

I haven't had time to register on the development forum yet, but until I do, I'll post here that I should be able to help out with the sound effects and other misc sound bits. I'm pretty good at finding stuff and what I can't find I can easily make. Let me know if I can help!

Graph · « **Reply #19 on:** May 22, 2010, 03:57:16 AM »

Hi Vanikoro!

Your help would be much appreciated. Our list of needed sfx is small at the moment, so it's possible that you'll get done quite fast. We might call you back after the demo when we've nearing completion of the game's scripts, though if you're unable to stick around that's understandable.

Anyway, I'll see you around.

Graph · « **Reply #20 on:** May 23, 2010, 05:42:43 AM »

Vanikoro, let me rephrase that. I realized my post might've like we're not needing help on sfx at the moment. We do want to collect the stuff for the demo, it's just that we'll probably have to make another run after the demo is complete since we haven't decided all the sfx yet.

Anyway, please do register on the dev forums if you're up for it. Sorry if there was any confusion.

Vanikoro · « **Reply #21 on:** May 23, 2010, 03:43:19 PM »

Oops, sorry for any confusion of my misunderstanding. There were some issues that prevented me from posting yesterday. I'll get right on that!

EDIT: Registered and posted.

Graph · « **Reply #22 on:** June 07, 2010, 04:54:35 AM »

New screenshots! This time featuring an excerpt from Patchouli's route.

Go see them here.

Sen · « **Reply #23 on:** June 08, 2010, 02:33:55 AM »

I think the Patchouli art in this game has actually made me start to like Patchouli just a tad :V

Great work so far! I'm not really a yuri fan, but I'm glad the Western Touhou fanbase is coming together so well! This'll be the first English-language Touhou visual novel, won't it?

Suikama · « **Reply #24 on:** June 08, 2010, 03:06:18 AM »

Quote from: SenSageUn on June 08, 2010, 02:33:55 AM

I think the Patchouli art in this game has actually made me start to like Patchouli just a tad :V

Great work so far! I'm not really a yuri fan, but I'm glad the Western Touhou fanbase is coming together so well! This'll be the first English-language Touhou visual novel, won't it?

Uh... *coughselfpromotioncough*

Iced Fairy · « **Reply #25 on:** June 08, 2010, 03:07:59 AM »

I think Sukima grabbed that honor with his "Down on the Corner" rewrite (heh, beaten to it), but I'm pretty sure this will be the first VN project of this size from the Western Fanbase.

I'd like to be able to claim that a dislike of Yuri shouldn't affect your enjoyment of the story, but I'm pretty sure I'd be lying. The relationship aspects, while not the entirety of the plot, are still a big deal. Especially considering some of the issues attached to those relationships.

(If we had more male characters in canon we might have had more straight relationships on the side, but you work with what you got.)

Yamachanadu · « **Reply #26 on:** June 08, 2010, 03:15:05 AM »

Quote from: IcedFairy on June 08, 2010, 03:07:59 AM

(If we had more male characters in canon we might have had more straight relationships on the side, but you work with what you got.)

Doesn't help that we eliminated Rinosuke from the ranks of the eligibl...

Crap, I really need to start contributing again.

Iced Fairy · « **Reply #27 on:** June 08, 2010, 03:17:47 AM »

Stop leaking secrets! :ohdear:

Graph · « **Reply #28 on:** July 03, 2010, 11:08:08 PM »

An update. New screenshots and a progress report, here.

Our progress on the demo:

Writing is done. Programming will start when we're close to rounding up our Art and Sound.

Character cut-ins: I (Graph) am working on this. ~ 75% complete.
Backgrounds: No artist dedicated to this, but we got a few placeholder photos for the demo, and I sketched up some backgrounds to make the screenshots. ~ 50% complete.
Event CGs: Nobody working on this so far. ~ 0% complete.
GUI: I managed to work on this one alongside our new programmer, SleepKirby. ~ 80% complete.

SFX: Still waiting to hear back from the sound guy, but we more or less have what we need for the demo. Not seeking a new sound person at the moment, though it's a possibility later. ~90% complete.
Music: This one is getting done I think. ~80% complete.

Suikama · « **Reply #29 on:** July 04, 2010, 12:47:09 AM »

Oh man, I'm gonna be looking forward to this :3

Also if you ever need any help with programming, I'm here BV