Apr 09 2008
RenAi Blogger Project: Character Introduction Part 2
So as promised I finished characters for the other 2 female heroines. Below is Jen (left) and NyaChan (right). I really had trouble for Nyachan’s character Natsuko. (This will be her game name.) Edited the face a bit and adjusted the glasses. Now she looks young. xD
I figured I could use this post as a way to give you guys a basic idea of the story (without giving away too much) and some basic character background information.
So the story premise is our hero, Chase moves to New York City to attend NYU and study Japanese as his major. As he begins his new life he runs into our heroines, who just happen to be anime bloggers and are pretty keen on otaku hobbies and where to go’s of New York. So let’s do a brief run through our cast.
Chase - 20 year old college student, currently studying Japanese. Enjoys Japanese food and culture but hasn’t really taken the time to emerge himself in anime otaku culture.
Natsuko - For the purpose of conformity, Nyachan gave me another nickname she uses. Our youngest heroine, 16 years old high school student. Shorter than the other girls in the game. Energetic girl who enjoys cosplay, karaoke and shoujo manga.
CJ - Our 2nd youngest heroine, 18 years old first year college student. CJ also attends NYU and is currently studying English. She is the studios and quiet type, often found with a book in her hands. She enjoys shounen and seinen manga but sometimes tends to “stop by” the yaoi manga section…for her friends of course!
Jen - Our oldest heroine, 23 years old and older than the protagonist. She has a regular office job but takes an evening Japanese class once a week at NYU as well. She has a bubbly personality but tends to keep her otaku side a bit hidden from others until she knows them of course…then the fangirl comes out!
??? - Mysterious girl often found visiting Kinokuniya and Cafe Zaiya. Not much is known about this character.
Others (this is preliminary and not really decided):
Impz - A cute boy who enjoys dressing up as a girl. Perhaps a friend of one of the female characters.
Calawain - Chase’s close male friend?
Crisu - CJ’s pet cat.
—–
So yea that’s about it. My goal next really is to just start dabbing into the programing and just put in a bunch of place holders everywhere. I figure if I can at least get the game running properly with the place holders, then drawing images & adding dialogues will be pretty easy. This isn’t going to be anything deep like Clannad but I hope that the blogger and US Otaku community can enjoy this game as it takes place in New York rather than Akiba or any other place in Japan.
Tags: artwork, renai blogger project
63 Responses to “RenAi Blogger Project: Character Introduction Part 2”
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JohnG on 
Brilliant as always. I especially love Jen. Face, hair, outfit, the whole package. You’ve never drawn a poor project.
Sabrina> Thanks
I had everyone send me those elouai dolls for references XD They really helped!
Will Impz have green hair?
Or will all the characters just have ’normal’ coloured hair? I:m starting to think I:m getting more interested in this project than I should be, lol
I don’t want to criticize, but their eyes look weird to me, like if they were cross-eyed.
Momo> you’re being ironic
That’s just the way I draw eyes….and it looks ok to me heh ^^; Honestly when I release the game my disclaimer is - I did it for fun, you’re not paying money to play it, no one’s forcing you to. This is my art style hence why I’m giving a preview so that those who don’t like it, can avoid the game.
issa-sa> haha well the reason I’m having “normal” colored hair is because if I draw someone cosplaying, it’ll be more obvious they’re in a cosplay as opposed to me drawing everyone with rainbow colored hair and then they cosplay in another rainbow colored hair outfit so it’s not as interesting. XD I guess I decided to try to make the game somewhat realistic while keeping the “fun” stuff about the bloggers there (i.e. Impz.) Impz also hasn’t emailed me back yet so I don’t know if I’ll include him just yet. If I did I’d give him like dark green hair or something.
( ^-^)b You’re doing great. Now I’m looking forward to the game even more, even if it is simple.
Anyways, keep up the good work. 
So there’s a mysterious girl who goes to Kinokuniya? I wonder who she is..
Also the drawings look OK to me. Every artist has a unique way of doing things, after all. =3
Oh this is getting more interesting as the days go by. I have but one humble request that Impz and Calawain start dating as part of some hackneyed double date scheme until… well you know. Please include Calawain’s face upon his new discovery.
Part of me wishes that you could input your own name, or rather have it player inputed that they could all be dating some dude named: Insert lewd crude name here.
If Impz doesn’t respond, I say have Sat-chan be the trap!
I believe someone told me there’s a feature to allow you to do that. I definitely want to add it in, since the point is that so the male bloggers could then “date the female bloggers” or something so they can put their name (or whatever sick name you think of) instead of Chase’s. In regards to Calawain & Impz…I dunno that would require more CGs and hierarchies to be added (and I don’t think either one of them would be happy
)
Scheris> As if it wasn’t obvious
DS> I’m under the impression he doesn’t really care to have anything to do with this project XD
-_- why am I the token trap again. ARGHHHH, this blogger project sucks. It’s too stereotypical!!!
j/k, I think it is hilarious!
btw, where’s sat-chan, the tsuntsun princess?
Oh, and what email? I didn’t get any email, hinano O_O? Did you send to the right mail @_@
Cause everyone wants you to be
But in all seriousness if you hate the joke for real I won’t include you 
Impz’s just being tsun tsun. Do it for the blog man take one for the team!
btw, where’s sat-chan, the tsuntsun princess?
Hmmm, two trap-chans in one game o_O
I would enjoy a game involving Impz, a lot.
Hinano> Are you going to show how you… I mean, mystery girl is going to look or is it a national secret?
Rabu rabu ^_^ And hey, I was at NYU in February for some legal career fair business. The trip there reminded me why I’d want to live in Manhattan if I could afford it, there’s freaking Chipotle’s everywhere. Yum.
And that’s some pretty hot art right there, I like the character designs so far.
You have two meganekko in the cast? Is that such a good idea?
Idea: Put TJ Han in as a rival to Chase. That is, if the player goes on a girl’s path but doesn’t make the right choices, TJ Han swoops in and
“robs” him of the girl.
I’m curious about the token “mysterious girl”…
And why am I imagining a goth loli, all dressed in white, in a Suigintou-ish fashion?
Wow, that’s pretty good. How long did you take to do those two character profiles combined, again? I recall you mentioning in a previous post somewhere that it took you about 6 hours per piece.
ELOUAI ROCKS …..i had to say that once i read Hinano’s comment…
16… a trap of a different flavor! If you add Sat then neither he nor Impz would be token anymore would they. Truly something different. Since Impz and Calawain are side characters, you just have to have a double date scenario in one of the normal paths and don’t have to worry about the player having to meet any game path conditions to make them hook up.
I wonder if that mysterious girl was once a fansubber and creates Doujinshi in her spare time.
Things are really looking good so far, love all the character designs you’ve come up with. I think the fact that this is a game created by bloggers and influenced by the fans is already enough to make it fun and interesting
I have to say that this looks really good. Good luck with it, and let me know if there’s anything you need from Ren’Py.
I like how it’s coming along, and the characters look nice and varied. Awesome how you went with the Bank name =D.
omgz my age is revealed! D:
oh well, I love my chara XDD
and if pets are allowed Hinano, can I request to have Seleria included in the cast as my hamster pet? :3
For some reason, I can see a vague mental image of a Bonus Fan Disk with extra routes for certain supporting characters.
I like the designs.
Ooooh, mystery character too!
Offended or hating it?
No wai! I am laughing my ass off. I am usually quite game on most things and this is going to make me laugh a lot. Do what you want ^^
*thinks of some really strange BL love* rofl!
Oh oh, do you need story writers? I can help to write for my own path
Ooh it’s all taking shape! I like the way you do tops, it’s vaguely cubist.
Marmot> Cubist?
I’m so confused XD
Impz> Ok I will send you an email. I used your mail form from THAT blog but since you didn’t get it, I guess I can safely say your mail form doesn’t work XD
DKellis> That’s something to think about if my game is a success
Kabitzin> Yea, Chase banks everywhere, hell there’s one near that kaiten sushi place I went to…
PyTom> I will be sure to memo your email address. Rest assure you are more likely to hear from me sooner rather than later XD I’m gonna try my best to follow the demo game & the wiki but if I get stuck I’ll holler.
Jen> No problem, although I’m not sure where I’d include a hamster in your sprite. Maybe it can be in an event CG or something.
JohnG> Yea I gotta fumble with the story to see where I can stick Impz in….he would be like the Jun from Happiness XD
Owen> It actually only took me like 1-2 hours for the ones above because I only did 1 expression. It would take 6 if I sat and did all the expressions in 1 sitting. I figured I’d do that once I’m more familiar with the programming. Programming is my weak point so I figured I’d jump into that first before doing more with the artwork.
meganeshounen> Sorry to burst your bubble but for now I’m keeping goth loli stuff as cosplay items only
Ascaloth> I’m just going by the sprites everyone gave me. A lot of otaku do wear glasses though I guess it’s not that surprising XD;
Calawain> Dude seriously why haven’t we hung out yet?? You have to come to New york comic con on Saturday, I demand it!
Scheris> It’s a secret until you play the game
omg this is awesome.
I can’t wait to do fanarts of my favourite bloggers!! XD
mmm meganeloli-chan~~~ :3
trappu~~ :3
drool~~ :3
In other news, Day something. Still watching nothing new in the past week. :3
Digi> I don’t blame you honestly the spring season kinda sucks. I imagine my tuesdays - thursdays are gonna be pretty dead.
This is sounding more and more awesome. Good luck with it.
Any specific reason as to why the setting’s in New York city?
BigN> Cause I live in NY and it’s easier for me to write a story based on my own weeaboo experiences
Mmmm I have two weeks until finals start, so my weekends I lock myself in my room =/ However I will be thoroughly bored from the time finals end (May 9th) until I start my summer job in court (May 19th)…
And I’ll work on that sprites thing in the e-mail you sent us sometime today or tonight after class.
As always, you are very brilliant in the character setup. But, judging at the three female characters and one male character, it looks like another harem plot. Since at times in the past, you have been ranting against this type of plot (either anime or manga). Why a change of heart now, may I ask?
This project will be much more awesome if we get voiceover work from the respective cast.
LOL shin, while that would be interesting, it would be pretty time consuming to get everyone to record lines and for me to time them with the dialogue. For a first game I’ll just have to pass for now XD
Calawain> Bah you party pooper. Who the hell studies all day long. When I was in college I spend like 6 hours a WEEK studying!
Ren> It won’t really be a harem, it just means there’s 3 paths you can take but you end up with 1 girl. That’s how these things work
While you should feel free to email me if you have any questions you want to keep secret, let me recommend asking Ren’Py questions on the Ren’Py forum:
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewforum.php?f=8
You can often get an answer there faster than if you email me directly. Since my email box is clogged with spam, I check the forum more often. I also occasionally have to sleep or eat, and even more occasionally work… and so when I’m away, other people can answer your questions.
Have you given any thought to how long you plan to make the game? That’s a pretty large cast of characters… will the game be long enough to give them all appropriate consideration?
Finally, I’m just curious what you plan to do with the pic of the POV character. Traditionally, the POV character is not shown on the screen… but there are sometimes exceptions.
An art student will only spend a few hours a week studying - learning about software or media, compositional theory, art history, anatomy, or just researching whatever subject they need to draw next. On the other hand, they will spend ridiculous amounts of time on homework.
Is it really hard to make a game?
Calawains an art student ?_? Actually I spent most of my time in college waiting for 3D Studio Max to render my god forsaken animation. Needless to say it hasn’t been useful in my current life.
microlm> Its not hard I think its just time consuming, as expected of these kind of projects.
I never said Calawain was an art student, but who knows?
I guess stuff like drawing from life or video reference does take up a lot of time and could also be considered studying. There’s less of the head in a book, solving equations type of studying though. Study is part of art, but practice is a bigger part.
Didn’t you have cartooning and drawn animation classes at your school? My final solo project was a 45-second film drawn at 15 frames per second. It took 3 months of non-stop drawing, though someone with good speed like yourself might not take so long.
Nah my college sucked ass and I was in a digital media program where our “finals” were either stupid photo collages or a bowl of 3D fruit or some photoshopped picture of me sitting on a train next to Ikari Shinji. As you can see, the college never really developed my interest in actual art. We did have like 1 figure drawing & painting class, but my professors always got in an argument with me because I a) hated drawing realism and wanted to draw anime people b) I hated painting analogue and I failed at oil painting because I’m a CG illustration whore.
Shizzums~ <3 It’s my Clone (LOL) minus my hot-pink colored tips. xD
xD Wait till you see my friend’s comment.
o: You’ve no idea who I am, and I’ve no idea who you are, except I’mma friend of Nyachan, via offline. And I have to say… (imagine the following in italics)
That looks SO much like her it’s scary. It’s her animated clone. Except lacking the bright pink she normally dies the end of her hair. BUT IT’S HER CLONE.
o: And I will totally be downloading this game.
*ninja*
That is all. <3
Well, sure when I was an undergrad (not an art student, I double majored in Poli Sci and History) 6 hours per week was plenty. However that is not the case in law school. Aside from 2-3 hours per day during the semester, finals are a whole different story.
As a rule of thumb, it takes an entire day per course credit to fully outline a class for a final exam (so my 4 credit evidence class takes 4 days). Then add to that a day or two to do old exams and study groups. So seeing as how I have 15 credits and 5 classes, finals prep takes somewhere along the lines of an extra 22-23 days worth of studying spread out through the semester in addition to regular reading. That’s obviously more heavily slanted toward the last month or so, but that’s the general way things go.
Oh you were in law school, I forgot. ew law school, as if NYC needs anymore lawyers (for people like Issah Thomas)
Oh well ganbatte kudapai~
Nyachan> XD sorry i tried to do the pink but it just wasn’t coming out right so I gave up ><;
Tom> I’ll use the forums, maybe I can PM you if I have a specific game related question. I’ll do forum search first though. I try to not be obnoxious and I only harass for help when I’m out of resources. The main char will not be on screen. Ive played some games where they have a head on screen near the dialogue but I’m not even gonna bother. He won’t be showing up until an event CG. Don’t worry I have a lot of ideas and as I said I’ve mapped out a hierarchy with events for every character.
It won’t be anything too epic, but I hope it’ll be long enough to be entertaining but short enough to keep people’s attention spans. I figured I’d run through it myself and if I get bored then I know where to cut it. I like stuff quick & to the point 
Hinano > I’m normally a Lazeh butt and just use the Group feature on Photoshop and do a gradient of the pink and fiddle with the settings. xD
Haha hmm yea i guess i could do a multiply. I was doing most of my work in SAI though
Hinano> Right! It’s like Clannad… minus the harem part and minus the cockblocking thing (I think)!
or interruptions during a romantic moment by another girl, like Kyou, for example.
^_^ This is gonna be epic~!
@Shin: I have the free time necessary to do voiceovers, but I sound like a boy. That would totally kill the moe factor. ^____^;;;;;;;
CJ> I have a voice changing software that can make everyone sound as high as Hirano Aya!
But yea too much work. Something I’d maybe consider doing if I ever made any future games or as Dkellis mentioned a “fan disk” XD
argh noooo… no voicework plz. I don’t want to see any casualties that will be caused by my moe voice :p
Two meganekkos? WIN!
Since this is a game, there should be a bad ending right? When a player doesn’t get any of the 3 girls… err… TRAP ending?
bluemist> I mapped out like 4 bad ends right now. I think I may put the trap ending as something separate mainly cause not everyone may consider having the trap as a BAD end…
There goes my “Ahh, minaide hazukashii” vocal fantasies.
Running away quickly. Make Impz the surprise trap path, for more mind-eye-gouging goodness.
Hinano takes on Rocket…
In reality, Hinano does not appear to know about Rocket, inconceivable as it may sound. So, any competition between her new project and Starlight is just my imagination, but whatever. Once she gets the ball rolling, the competition is going to come to …
Hmm, the Jen character design reminds me of Karin (the vampire one), but I think something is missing *looks at her chest* This could be easily fixed! *puts $10 in Hinano’s pocket* I expect to see an UPDATED version of her in the near future, yesness?
=3
OMFG J159!!!
Jesus J159…!!! BLASPHEMY!!
[...] this is Hinano’s visual novel project. Now she won’t bother me about making fan art for her game any [...]