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Brought up the issue of voice-acting again with Mom yesterday. Need something to break up the tedium that comes with sprite creation, which I'm only doing right now because I'm not sure what I'd rather be doing right now. Would be glad to start reading the Original Ones' story, but Jake already told me that he won't be able to start with that for the rest of this year (and I wouldn't be surprised if he's still busy even after New Year's). Would also be glad to see mugshots of everyone that I've already got planned out, but Agataylor took her shot at that, I wasn't impressed with her attempt at digital art, and no one else seemed interested in that. I've already assigned Chelle something else that she has yet to actually begin.

Even though she has no more experience with voice-acting than I do, Mom told me that commissioning for voice samples is a lot more work than I'm probably anticipating. For example, there's a matter of seeing who can train their voice to sound the best like a given character. There's also the fact that whoever succeeds probably won't even be around when it comes time to having the rest of the script spoken, which would mean that I'll have to find new people to audition.

Still, it's gonna be some number of years before the fic is complete and I can put the game project to work. Mom did suggest that I contact Matthew about the concepts of both voice-acting (if he has any knowledge about that) and game creation in general. And, I'll be sure to also contact Suffolk County Community College on Monday to see what I could do there, since that place does have a theater club or something.

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Wanna know what appealed to me about Facebook as far as games go?

It was the myriad of games it offers for each genre in existence. Unlike with console games, you don't really need the correct system to play a given game, and unlike at brick-and-mortar stores like Target or GameStop, everything is classified neatly according to genre. Just pick a genre or two, count how many games there are there, and then choose a game with RandomInteger.

If only that were the case regarding these Japanese doujin PC games I've been recently watching footage of on YouTube. Vanguard Princess, Angel Star Road, Bakuretsu Santa † Super Marie, Genroku Toumaden, Super Strip Fighter IV (no relation to Street Fighter), Girl vs Girl, Heroic Dark...

(Oh, of course... and Rosenkreuzstilette, which I've already known about for a while but only planned on playing after it gets dubbed. Yes, a dub for that game was announced late in 2011, but there hasn't been any word on it since a year later.)

If only those games were compiled neatly and comprehensively on one website for me to choose from... But even then, I'd still have to pay money for those. The only reason you don't have to pay to play Facebook games, is because the publishers count on you to pay money in order to keep on playing or access certain features.

(While I'm on this topic, the fact that all those girl games are marketed exclusively in Japan is exactly one good reason to create a video game version of Starbound. Seriously, even Lucky Star aside, America desperately needs fewer dude-oriented war games and more games about cute girls and fanservice.)

In any case, without anything else to enjoy while I continue all that boring pixelwork for the sake of stuff to enjoy looking at and contribute to the game project, the chances seem good that I'll continue with Candy Crush Saga again.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Chelle:

One thing you can do relatively easy : train yourself in voice acting, see whether that works out. If you can just cover one character, that'll be money off your bill. If you don't have equipment for recording, maybe try using the video function of your camera/phone/whatever option you have.

I think you mean "fewer testosterone-overload war games" or something to that effect, since Japan's moe fanservice is still dude oriented. Japan has different cultural values and ideas on attraction, so shonen/seinen shows like Lucky Star, Nanoha, Kanon, Madoka, etcetera, aren't perceived that much as emasculating (though they still shy away from including fanservice for girls). That cultural difference might actually make promoting the game version of Starbound a bit hard if you aim it at a Western audience.

What is your pixeling technique?

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Considering my age and gender, I might very well consider doing certain sideline characters such as Haruhiro or certain characters' fathers, for whom I won't be looking for any kind of voice in particular.

Pixeling technique? I think I might need you to elaborate on the question. What I do, is set the image to around 512x256, and then work mostly with the pencil and paintbrush, using existing Earthbound sprites for reference. Mind telling me what else you mean?

[(Anonymous)]

Do you work at a larger scale and resize? Do you just reference, or do you import bases? Also, how do you use paintbrush?

On that note, I noticed in the existing pixel sheet that Tsukasa's side views have pointed heads with a sloping top, while the rest of them have round heads. Is that part of the Earthbound sprite style? It looks a bit inconsistent.

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No, I just work at the size at which the characters are to appear. I mostly just reference. And, I meant to say the paint bucket.

Pointed heads with a sloping top? If you mean on the back, that's supposed to be the space covered by her hair, which curves inwards as it culminates at her neck. If you mean the rounds heads of the hived girls, that's supposed to be the hair forming a notch between the top of the head and the hive. If you could demonstrate a correction, though, I'd more than welcome it.

In any case, though, here's the spritesheet I've been using (mostly referencing Ness, Paula, and Poo):

http://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/earthbound/sheet/3153/

[(Anonymous)]

You could probably save some time by importing your existing sprites.

It's just Tsukasa's side view, the top of her head. It looks round on all except those four side shots.

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Thanks.