RPG Patreon Active RPG Maker [YummyTiger] Aylia's Story

[Darian]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

I don't know that my drawings are without the feminine shape. Look at Kira, her straightforward posture really shows an hourglass shape.

I saw nothing wrong with the other characters neither with most of the Aylia’s pictures, it’s just that in the bunch of new pictures there were 2 where the shoulders were too small, so I warned you because I thought it could be a pattern or a small error you could repeat.

I cleaned your sketch

To me she has no waist, she has a rectangular torso leaning awkwardly on the side

Strange that nobody else seems to notice it, I find it rather obvious.

Anyway, I think one of the most difficult things to do is to keep proportions the same for a character across multiple drawings, with different angles and poses. If I had to do it I would take a 3D model, give it the pose I want and use the rendered image as a template for the drawing. Posing a 3D model is rather easy, quite fast and that way the proportions are always correct.

If you have no experience in 3D, learning to pose an existing model shouldn’t take too long and you should get results in a couple of hours. The tricky part is to get the 3D model since modeling is much more complex. However there are tools for that, for example

You must be registered to see the links

where you create the body you want simply by moving sliders (it’s quite fun actually). Or you could see websites specialized in moding games like

You must be registered to see the links

to borrow models from games.

Of course there is a learning curve and a set up time, therefore the interest of this idea will depend on how much time you spend on sketches and how difficult it is for you.

That said, it is good to temper expectations. I am not a Japanese circle with loads of experience. I am a single person who has never designed a game trying to create the game of my dreams. I think it'll be fun, but it won't be perfect.

The way you say it seems to imply you think I set the bar a little too high, did I say anything to give you that impression?

 

[YummyTiger]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

Argh! Now that I see it, no way can I not go back and work on that drawing

Thanks for taking the time to do all that. That was helpful, and I can see what you are referring to now. Maybe the boobs are distracting others from noticing, hehe. I've copied your post and will use it to rework this drawing a bit, should not take a ton of time actually. Still, as I said, very helpful!

As for my final comment, I just post a reminder every now and then that while I am trying to set the bar high for myself, expectations tend to run rampant. It is good to remind people that I'm not an experienced developer, but an one man who is floundering around a bit in RPG Maker. I've already improved dramatically in the past year, and hope to continue to improve. My little game development circle has seen a part time programmer hop on board, and an editor. So, things are constantly improving, but the game will definitely not be "perfect." It was not an attack on you, just a reminder

 

[YummyTiger]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

What's funny is that I was logging in to Osawari and noticed the Nutaku girl. I thought, "Huh, that pose is strikingly familiar to what we've been discussing!".

I swear I didn't use this picture when drawing mine, but it's kind of funny given this discussion how close the postures are. The below breast area looks similar to mine here, with what you described as a "weird angle." I'm still going to look at the picture, but the more I look at picture of a twisting posture, the more I think that the angle may not be so weird.

It is kind of a awkward pose, but in my mind, when sliding to the right and slashing, you'd pivot your body like that. Maybe I watch too many anime fights

 

[orcaki]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

wow i was away for 8 months and this chapter 1 is still in development lol
half life 3 wil b released faster than aylias story chapter 1

btw i like aylias drawning as it is right now
as you can see in the pic of this isawari girl it looks sexy and cute
thats what japanese drawings are the realism is in the western one

 

[YummyTiger]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

wow i was away for 8 months and this chapter 1 is still in development lol
half life 3 wil b released faster than aylias story chapter 1

btw i like aylias drawning as it is right now
as you can see in the pic of this isawari girl it looks sexy and cute
thats what japanese drawings are the realism is in the western one

Yea, it's been awhile. Approaching a year since I released the prologue. There is a slight possibility that I was overestimating the time I would have to work on the game last Spring. Well, that and I've procrastinated a bit with Witcher 3 and a few other good games along the way .

Still, it's not like Aylia's Story's development is anything unusual. Malise and the Machine was announced last Fall and has made similar progress. Scale Garden games usually come around once every 2-3 years. Violated Herione has been in development for... well, ever. Dungeons and Prisoners is like 3-4 years old? Heck, Hazze's game that was recent released "The Endless World," was announced on Hongfire in 2013. It takes a long damn time for a hobbyist indie developer to create these things.

 

[Darian]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

What's funny is that I was logging in to Osawari and noticed the Nutaku girl. I thought, "Huh, that pose is strikingly familiar to what we've been discussing!".

The focus is set on her right side and that side is OK but there is no symmetry, her left side is way too small in comparison.

Spoiler

Another way to see her left shoulder is too small

Spoiler

Strangely, her right boob is smaller than her left boob.

The girls in the Shirow pictures look to me as though they have been vertically stretched, resulting in a body that looks something like a plastic doll. Or maybe a head and breasts stuck on one of those grey aliens that have the big black eyes. Either way, they give me less of a "that's sexy" reaction, and more of an uncanny valley response.

You are right the body is stretched, instead of being 8 times the size of the head it’s about 10 or even 11 times. It’s just that Yummytiger said he wants to make Aylia’s body more slender than a normal human female one’s so I suggested that way, but it will be difficult to give a slightly non-human body to Aylia and avoid the uncanny valley for everyone.

Or maybe it’s too extreme, maybe just giving her longer legs would do it? Here are 4 pictures of the same Shirow’s drawing. The first is the original, the second modified to match more realistic proportions, the third where the legs are 4.5 heads long (instead of 4) and the fourth where the legs are 5 heads long.

Spoiler

Which one do you prefer/will make her look slender but not strange?

 

[Pseudolurker]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

Or maybe it’s too extreme, maybe just giving her longer legs would do it? Here are 4 pictures of the same Shirow’s drawing. The first is the original, the second modified to match more realistic proportions, the third where the legs are 4.5 heads long (instead of 4) and the fourth where the legs are 5 heads long. Which one do you prefer/will make her look slender but not strange?

Out of those, 2 and 3 work the best for my taste. Picture 4 is leaning into "that's no longer attractive, but strange" territory.

That being said, I also don't have any issues with the Aylia (or Kira, or Triste, from past teasers) art as it currently is - the art is one of the reasons I joined YT's Patreon a while back. I'd hope any tweaks or adjustments would be fairly minor, as opposed to a wholesale change in body proportions.

 

[YummyTiger]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

Out of those, 2 and 3 work the best for my taste. Picture 4 is leaning into "that's no longer attractive, but strange" territory.

That being said, I also don't have any issues with the Aylia (or Kira, or Triste, from past teasers) art as it currently is - the art is one of the reasons I joined YT's Patreon a while back. I'd hope any tweaks or adjustments would be fairly minor, as opposed to a wholesale change in body proportions.

Thanks for the compliment on my artwork. I don't have any plans for wholesale changes at this point. I made a bunch of HUGE changes last fall and last winter, mainly facial expressions and hair. If I keep going back and revamping artwork, this game will definitely never see a finish line.

What I was referring to a few posts back was simply bringing her chest bone area back a bit (the portion just under her left breast) in order to line up better with her shoulders. In looking at Darian's critiques, I agree that it is a bit awkward, although I never really noticed it prior--so I don't believe it is a huge issue. But, the fix is fairly simple. Also, I saw Darian's posts as not being overly critical, but pointing out a minor flaw that was developing in my artwork in hopes of alerting me to the issue going forward. For that, I am very grateful.

I also do not find the long, stretched alien style appealing, and Aylia's Story is supposed to be my dream game... so damn it, it's going to be appealing to me

 

[Kitty Kat]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

Hi!
I've played the game and I need to say. It's fantastic.
Very nice storytelling you did! The fireplace scene is awesome!
That part of her looking at the horizon is great! Please don't loose your touch!

At first I thought, well, the art is not exacty the best, but every scene you made me live took that away. Now I'm adoring the art! You are an awesome person to take on such a challenge to yourself!

May I ask something, is there a virgin path planned? Your teasing scenes are great, that's already proven. But even with some degree of teasing in progression is possible a virgin ending?

Thank you very much and sorry for the language barrier.

 

[thswherizat]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

At first I thought, well, the art is not exacty the best, but every scene you made me live took that away. Now I'm adoring the art! You are an awesome person to take on such a challenge to yourself!

May I ask something, is there a virgin path planned? Your teasing scenes are great, that's already proven. But even with some degree of teasing in progression is possible a virgin ending?

I'm not the developer, but I've spent a while (far too long, actually! Heehee) following the project so I think I can help you with a bit of this:

At some point YT said he would like to do a Virgin route, but I think that's intended to the be "hardmode" way to run through the game.

His art seems to be really improving as well, you'll see that newer scenes have more consistently strong artwork than some of the old stances and faces. I wasn't sure on the style at first, but it's really grown on me.

Your english seems perfect, I wouldn't worry about it!

 

[nguyentri666force]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

Can someone post/pm a save file that skips the long intro of the game?

 

[YummyTiger]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

Can someone post/pm a save file that skips the long intro of the game?

I just tested it. If you choose to skip the intro video, hold down CONTROL to skip text, select the last (red) conversation option to leave the caves, and skip the tutorial, it takes 1 minute and 7 seconds to get past the introduction. If you need a save file to get past 1 minute and 7 seconds, I don't really know what to tell you.

If you are referring to the mines as a whole, then it is probably not worth playing this version, as that is literally 60-70% of the prologue. I'd just wait until a more complete release.

 

[BackArcher]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

I'm here to admire good work. I've had a great pleasure going through the Prologue!

As far as I've read the thread and my admiration feel hasn't decreased, I'm gona state some deatails that touched me:

Spoiler

I loved:

• the plot (though I had been confused of having the diary of one person in different skeletons before I read the final part =) I was going to use Ctrl heavily, but then I realised that I'm losing the whole atmosphere: mischievous goblin rocks!
• the music - it's very nice and suitable. Every moment it's catching my attention, I admit that it's not disrurbing but of a great quality;
• the CG of the world - just very good;
• Quest submenu is very usable;
• after all that predacious intent in Japanese games this light warm feeling in dialogues makes me happy at some content;
• attention to details. Different vegetables, lol;
• western-RPG-like model of dialogues. Just warms soul =)

I'd like to be revised:

• Aylia's image in crystal in main menu. Heh, looks like it was one of the first CG of her, ain't it?
• sprite animation of Aylia walking/running (pointing at Scale Graden);
• CGs of enemes sometimes looks like they're from different products. I mean colouring, shading, eyes painting styles. Mayor potrait is too young for his sprite =) Also wouldn't rotate stones at lower (horisontal) part of the road to the Mayor's house because in vertical part of the road they look good due to isometric view. Some Aylia's CGs looks like from different stages of product, but it's OK for beta;
• battle menu is rolling wrong side (as for me, CircleKAME games are ok in this. But I personally prefer list-style, not revolving);
• in battle, after first turn (when goblin acts) his advice in battle menu feels excess. I understand, that his comments are different, not useless and at some rate underscore his personality and game's atmosphere, but I can't stop feeling it as an excess click =( May be it's because previous games;
• game menu looks a bit more complicated (again, more needless (IMHO) clicks). E.g. in dressing, save/load;
• those blue arrows seem (to me) to attract attention too much. I'd use some signboards or pavements (stonepath to the entrance of houses, don't know how it'll be in English) on buildings and wouldn't use them at the locations' borders at all - her comments like in mines (let's dont go) are fairly enough. I was once confused near green-roofed building: I was ensured that blue arrows show me where to go first/to develop the plot, but it said "it's boarded";
• would add water animation (e.g. for river);
• design of battle-HUD looks not as stylish and polished as original RPGMaker's (don't pay attention, it's just me bragging =)

Btw, in the last, dinner conversation I can maximum have 2 realtionship increasings or 1 increasing and BOOBIES?

 

[Keep]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

I actually do believe the November will be the month, but as I stated on Patreon, December is my "must finish" deadline. If it is not done by the end of the month, I'm going to take some time off work and bust my ass to get this bastard out the door. Then, it should be much smoother sailing from then on.

any updates on that or anything else to share in the meanwhile ?
i mean, were all waiting on this game since like forever and are hyped since playing the prologue, but still the announcement about nov / dec got to me

 

[YummyTiger]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

any updates on that or anything else to share in the meanwhile ?
i mean, were all waiting on this game since like forever and are hyped since playing the prologue, but still the announcement about nov / dec got to me

December 30th for Chapter 1. January 21st is my target for Hunter's Quest.

I've missed every release date I've set up to this point, so, take it for what you will.

@BackArcher: Thanks for the detailed comments! I appreciate it. And if you took the time to read this whole thread , I super humbled that the prologue interested you that much. I'll respond to your comments in a spoiler to avoid a massive wall of text:

Spoiler

Starting with the positives, because I like positives:
1. Glad the dialogue kept you from abusing your Ctrl key! Bogwort would not be pleased with too much skipping...
2. The music is a work in progress. Zalran's theme and the title theme are set, but I may still tweak a bit of the others. Additionally, I plan on adding and adjusting sound effects as one of the last steps before releasing the next game chunk. Sound is not my forte though, so I hope it doesn't suck.
3. Not sure what you mean by CG of the world, unless you are talking aobut maps. If so, then thank you. I'm very pleased with my progress on mapping.
4. Glad you like the attention to details. It might be a little overwhelming for some, but chapter 1 will continue that level of detail, and often many of those little dialogue events (barrels, outhouse, etc.) change as things around the world change. Has take awhile to set it all up like I want to, but I love a rich world.

Now to the critiques:
1. The crystal image was early in the process, but I'm still happy with it. Not sure if it'll get revised beyond maybe adding panties.
2. My sprites are not great, and I do not have the time to really work on them. Plus, spriting annoys the hell out of me. So, I'm probably going to hire a spriter down the line, when Aylia's Story actually starts collecting money. That said, Triste's sprite is my new method and it turned out far better.
3. The monster CGs are pretty much set at this point. They do vary a bit, and are mostly based on purchased artwork online. I redo the artwork to fit my vision, but the designs are not mine. Still, for me, having unique monster graphics is a huge plus, and I can count on one hand the number of RPG Maker games I have seen with every monster graphic custom (at least in the hentai market). As for the Mayor sprite, it was the closest match I could find. Don't have time to create a unique sprite for everyone
4. The battle menu scroll is a bit off. I've got a guy helping me now and this might get fixed. As for Bogwort's advice, it will definitely default to skip at some point. That is on my to-do list.
5. I'm very much on the fence about the blue arrows. They don't piss me off, but I also don't love them. Still, for a h-game, I don't want people having to randomly wander the map borders looking for travel points. I may address this in future iterations, we'll see.
6. Water animation is out unfortunately. I'm not 100% sure how to do it well, and with all maps being parallaxed, it would increase file size a decent amount. I may just be ignorant on this though. That is one area of mapping I need to research more... now, if I could find the time.
7. As for the battle HUD design. This is my first attempt at doing anything like it, so you'll have to cut me a bit of slack . That said, I'm assuming you are referring to old RPG Maker games prior to VX/VX Ace, because I can't believe you'd prefer the original VX Ace battle HUD. It is so... plain. I guess the utility aspect is there, but damn is it boring.

Thanks for the comments! I appreciate the feedback. I'd love to fix a lot of these things, but as one person, I'm pretty limited. Aylia's Story has already undergone about 3 major revisions in the past year artwork wise, and is about to undergo a 4th regarding some of Aylia's facial expressions. Each time that happens, development is delayed. Still, when I don't like something, it is hard for me to ignore it.

 

[YummyTiger]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

@BackArcher and Fiffa: Thanks! It means a lot. I posted on Hongfire, but it applies here as well. You don't know how many times I come to these threads and read through the positive comments when I get bogged down in development. It really motivates me to get back to work. Especially when I get one of the many nasty PMs or Negreps telling me how "shitty" my game is, or how I should go "learn how to draw and come back in 5 years..."

So thank you again for the positive feedback!

@Rag: Always very humbling to have a long time lurker register just to post for my game. Thank you. Pregnancy will be a small portion. The Gods made the Eliandre infertile after the Great War, so for Aylia to get pregnant, something quite amazing would have to occur . That is all I can say--well, that and I hope she is able to get pregnant by summer 2016, wink, wink.

EDIT: Since I'm posting here, Might as well add a quick update. Things are going nicely and I'm very stoked right now. Feeling real good about a December release. Just finished getting the gallery setup how I wanted and posted about it on Patreon. Here is a quick screenshot:

Spoiler

There will be a gallery room available through a journal in-game. The room will have game scenes divided by chapter/character, and will let you know which you've gotten. But, you can always activate crystals you have not received and get a bit of information on them--a nice vague Bogwort hint .

There will be a lot of scenes in Aylia's Story, and with the numerous branches in the game, and how the world changes based on your choices, I didn't want players puling their hair out trying to replay over and over again to find the scenes. So, this way, you'll always know what you've missed and have a decent idea where it is and how challenging it is to find! Keeps some of the fun in finding the scenes, but hopefully alleviates a bit of the frustration!

 

[Darkstrain]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

*snip*

lot of questions (and text)for YT so spoiled for space and some may find it annoying (due to Bogmania)

Spoiler

the gallery interface looks solid, i hope there is a lot of content to fill the book, otherwise it could result in a waste of interface design.

first: is the gallery saved outside of your current savefile?

for example: i do a quest and one branch results in scene and the other not, I save and get the scene then load, do i still have it available?

second: can you get all scenes in a playthrough or are there some branching quest/endings that are only available in a "route"?

also (if it isn't too spoilery): Regarding the eventual deflowering of ayla by bog (i am EXPECTING to be by bog XD) will it change dialogue of npc's? will it affect results of things?
a lot of games now (the japanese hrpg's)tend to be way too binary in the decisions or routes you can make. You're either a slut, pure, or you get a neutral ending that doesn't question your choices.

if the game has one ending this doesn't really matter, but if not. Have you considered how to make endings more than just a check of stats?
like (in case you have not noticed yet i love bog) a bog vanilla ending (with H or not, she can just fall in love with it) a Harem bog end XD!!!! (best idea ever) or maybe a yuri kind of end (again not really sexual) on top of what you may have planned

 

[YummyTiger]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

@Flarglberg: You're right, I have not really been posting many updates here. Really, is has been partly because I don't want to bump the thread for no reason, so I tend to stay quiet. On Patreon, I mostly post dev journals where I ramble about my thoughts during the process and crack silly jokes. Still, I'll definitely get better at keeping everyone updated! Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

@Darkstrain: There will be a lot of content, which is why I felt the gallery was worth some extra time planning out. The gallery is saved within your save file and will be accessable through a journal book next to the bed. Now that I think about it though, I'm going to have to re-evaluate that aspect, as I want people to eventually be able to get every scene, and that would be impossible in one save (unless I do a new game+).

You cannot get all scenes in one playthrough. In fact, the game is design to change heavily based on your decisions, so you'll probably only be about to get around 50-60% of scenes in one playthrough. The rivals especially will usually be either a rival scene or an Aylia scene, but not both. This is also a reason I wanted to offer hints and "difficulty" so finding scenes because less frustrating.

Dialogue will change based on past experiences, especially sexual situations. In fact, even something as simple as having your top pulled down by Dirk in the prologue influences future events, hint, hint.

Finally, the game will have three primary endings, and they will vary extensively. It is far more than just a few stats being checked. Within those primary endings, you'll have a few sub-endings and those will be based on Aylia's stats more than anything else. Hard to explain without giving too much away, but I think people will be satisfied. It is far more in-depth than most games I have played--at least assuming I get to that point .

 

[Keep]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

Dialogue will change based on past experiences, especially sexual situations. In fact, even something as simple as having your top pulled down by Dirk in the prologue influences future events, hint, hint.

You know, with this situation being pretty much the only real decision you can make in the prologue, i tried both versions to see if something changes (expected her pride to go down).
To me it looked like nothing changed, did i miss some kind of stat or are you hiding things like that on purpose, to make the game a little more difficult ?
I mean, its nothing earth-shattering, just wanted to ask ... what to expect regarding the route-system, how hard its going to be to notice that something is missing / different.

 

[YummyTiger]

Re: Aylia's Story - English H-Game Goodness!

You know, with this situation being pretty much the only real decision you can make in the prologue, i tried both versions to see if something changes (expected her pride to go down).
To me it looked like nothing changed, did i miss some kind of stat or are you hiding things like that on purpose, to make the game a little more difficult ?
I mean, its nothing earth-shattering, just wanted to ask ... what to expect regarding the route-system, how hard its going to be to notice that something is missing / different.

This would be an example of changes that are a little more invisible to the user. So, in this example, if Dirk pull's down Aylia's top in the prologue, in Chapter 1, when Aylia is dealing with Dirk in another situation, she remembers the top down incident. As such, she hold a much stronger opinion of him and that influences how that event plays out (ultimately changing the h-scene). The player would only get the hint during this scene when Aylia recalls Dirk's behavior prior.

So, this is not a stat that changes per se, but a switch that get flipped in the game mechanics. There are a lot of these switches and variables--which is a reason I'd hate to translate this game (probably poor design on my part).

The only real "stats" you'll see are pride and morality, which do influence a lot of things as well. But, the dynamic nature of many of these dialogues, especially going forward, is done behind the scenes.