Happy New Years, Everyone! As I’m writing this, there remains only one hour in 2008, and what better time to spend it than to reflect on what has passed during it. For Team BG and myself, there have been as many triumphs as defeats I would say. A number of my projects had false starts, and some were even further drops, but I believe I would’ve finished them if they were really truly worth finishing. Sometimes it is better to drop dead weight than to burden yourself with it needlessly in some sense of obligation.
As for our triumphs, outside the two contest wins (and hopefully a third, thanks to the chance the Lemmys present), we also finished our current/so-far Magnum Opus that is Songs of Araiah. And man, what a project that has been. When all is said and done, despite my reservations and complaints, I’m really really proud that I’ve gotten it done. Enerccio put forth a good effort too, and Yvan is just his masterful brilliant self as always. I may poke fun at ‘em sometimes, well E predominately, but they are really good guys and I’m proud we all got to be a part of this. And I’m especially happy that this turned out to be Yvan’s first serious project, considering all the time and effort he put into it. Melissa became very much his creation as she did mine and Enerccio’s. And now, hopefully, he’ll never forget her, as I certainly won’t.
But… it feels like there is something missing. Some reward I was promised for all my hard work that I never got in the end. The release of Araiah lacked the glow of pure excitement that came with releasing my other work, Starlit Sky… and I’ve been thinking the past few days as to why it might be. In its favor, SS was my first, so that glow is very expected. But does that mean it doesn’t happen every subsequent project? I don’t think that could be. Doing something so draining and exhausting, and yet finishing, that glow should be awaiting you. I certainly have pride over my creation, but that ethereal glow is not there. And after two years of work, I feel like I need that return… Perhaps it is punishment for not hammering out more flaws while I had time, for avoiding giving a real effort some of the time, maybe for cutting all corners in the last hours…
But don’t let any of my talk discourage you from playing if you haven’t and liking it if you have. Araiah is a good story, I have so much love for Melissa, and I’m not really as disappointed as I may be making myself sound. There is this profound sense of both relief and pride, and that in itself is a different type of glow. Now that I’m pretty much free to start the new year unburdened, I wonder just what exactly it is I will be doing with it. Look forward to whatever I make of it!
( And in a way, I did get a reward after all… Umineko~ Here I come~ )
No, not Rest in Peace, or anything like that. While some might argue the LSF/EVN scene is dead or we’re certainly heading slowly but surely in that direction, this is not about that talk at all (though the acronym certainly was intentional).
No, this is about Drakey’s EVN Ratings in Passing!
So what the hell is a Rating in Passing you say?
Well, it’s just that! A rating and a rating alone. Why bother with all that epic review article nonsense, when you can grade whole fleets of EVNs using just a single word for each! And so I have compiled a list of just that, my ( extremely brief… err, expertly concise… ) opinions on just about every EVN I have played, even if only partially. See how your game stacks up against your competitors and contemporaries! Go go go now! GO!
The title says it all. Team Bishojo Games kicks ass. We’re awesome, we’re good people, we’re extrodinarily talented (well, Yvan and I are… not sure what that other guy does… (CERTAINLY MORE THAN YOU DO, 2ND! – Enerccio )), AND we have contest wins to back it up!
Recently, BG won Lemmasoft’s Screenshot Competition started by Doomfest, which was an awesome piece of news. There was a good bit of competition, especially from some of the other talented artists and games with advanced ui elements, but we pulled out the win in the end. Before that, BG took Vjutsu’s Halloween contest with our entry, Yuki no Imouto. While our win resulted predominately from active team participation in the voting process, I wasn’t so worried we wouldn’t take that one. We did have the only “traditional” vn entry in the contest ( Cloudy’s was closer to a sound novel, but still impressive ).
So, we simply kick ass. That’s really all there is to be said about our amazing talents. Of course, most of the credit belongs with Yvan, our outstandingly awesome artist, for without him, it would surely have been impossible to win the Screenie contest. But we all did do our parts, mine in both cases being programming work predominately.
Now I very much enjoy programming, almost, as much, more ( maybe? ), as I do writing. It isn’t my first love, like writing was, but I’ve fallen for it much harder and in shorter order, for sure. And it’s great that my talents with programming are helping out the team, especially when it comes to taking the gold on the contest of the week. But I wonder if my writing could take a gold too…
The good folks at #baka-trio at freenode.net came up with the idea of having Q&A sessions with all of their members, one victim at a time. I think it is a really great idea, since I get to hear all about the inside details of my fellow creators’ projects. I was second at bat, and I think I took my hits like a man, but see here for yourself…
The Full Interview: http://drake.bishojo.tk/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/drake-interview.txt
( This interview, and all the rest for all the other interviews will be posted Cloudy’s baka-trio channel page here: http://real-life.animerd2k2.net/readme/channel.htm — Go ahead and give the others a read too! )
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