♥Eat, Play, Love♥ -Let's Play Ristorante Amore

I'm terribly not-fun to see movies with; I tend to guess plot twists ahead of time. One of my friends attempted to strangle me because I guessed the opening twist to Assassin's Creed 3 while we were playing through it the first time. (He takes these sorts of things rather seriously.) Oops.

I'm glad it's an interesting read, at least. I'm not very good at explaining things.

NaNoRenO actually, which is the Visual Novel version. And yes, none of us actually knows the acronym really stands for. By all accounts it doesn't make much sense...

...Hm. Does it have NaNoWriMo rules? Because that seems a bit... difficult, for a visual novel creator. Different skill sets apply.

Pretty much. You are allowed to start with notes, but everything else has to be done within the month of March. Some writers don't have artists so they will use free resources, but the artists who take part follow similar rules. I'm allowed to have sketches but everything else is done within the time frame. It's difficult but a lot of fun! Especially when there are a lot of people taking part. Next year should be impressive because we'll all try to out compete each other XD

/shrug If it's fun for the VN community, though, you won't catch me complaining. I mean, I'm pretty sure in retrospect that Don't Take It Personally, Babe... was made during that event and I really love that VN, even if the ending is filled with more holes than a firing range target. I'm interested in seeing what gets produced from the 2013 crop now.

That doesn't mean I'm going to be soft, though. It's still a product released to the public. :P

That ending was ridiculous in my opinion and John--

I'm about to post another long interlude analyzing what I do and don't like about DTIPB if I'm not careful, but yes, the ending was rushed and terrible. It's shame, really, since I really did like the way it handled the concept of privacy. It makes a good point about the "Facebook generation" and how privacy is, while not gone, undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts in the hands of the new generation.

I actually quite like the way the novel plays with Rook. On one hand, you could view him as a creepy old guy spying on his students... but is that really what he is? Mind you, he only assumes his access to the system is private- in reality it's widely known. The students posting had full knowledge of his access. If he'd taken advantage of his power and used it correctly, he could have prevented, say, Taylor's bullying of Akira. Instead, he (and by extension, the player) wielded it clumsily, too bogged down in his own issues and concerns to see his students as the main priority. He could have used his system access to be more involved with Isabella, to figure out how to dodge Ariana more gracefully- but he didn't. I think the arrival of the "shinigami" at the end was supposed to be a punishment for his poor use of power, but it got bogged down in a hasty wrap-up and poorly executed plot twists.

It was, in 2011. I worked on that one too. You would have seen just how bad my art used to be XD

2012 saw a huge jump in both quality and quantity, so I'm very interested to see what we can manage for next year. More and more of us are seeing it as an opportunity to cut our teeth on a range of style and genres in a very focused and limited way seperate from our primary projects.

And that's okay~ We did our best and we know the flaws that came with it. It will always hold a special place in my heart because it was our first release, but I already want to torch a fair bit of the artwork and redo it ^_^

NaRenNoMo was the original, but it didn't flow well enough and didn't get to piggyback on the associations that the NaNo as a prefix conjures. It USED to stand for National Renai Novel Month, but has since ballooned to include other genres of VN.

Who did the sprites? Those were really nice, but, yeah, the CGs needed some work. There's a definite improvement between then and now. (I'd tack a "no offense" on there, but you admitted as much yourself.) I really do like the soft look of the sprites in RA, though whether that's because of the style or because they're dolled-up sketches I couldn't say. NaNo projects always seem more like a measure of potential to me anyway. I always get a little sad, though, when something with potential doesn't get followed through as thoroughly as one would hope. I'm always holding out for re-releases with more polish...

This is fascinating stuff, no lie. If I had any knowledge of Ren'Py I'd love to get involved...

/screaming at the wall of words-
oh look there's a tl;dr


....

Yeah, that's about right.
Sorry, walls of text make it INCREDIBLY hard for me to pay attention to things. 's a shame.

Haha, sorry. When I go full nerd, I go full nerd. It wasn't particularly interesting, anyway. :)

The sprites were free resources that have been used in a number of projects. The CGs were my attempt at copying the style ^_^; There were some bits of it I was fairly proud of back then, like the profile pictures, but a lot of it I knew I was rushing poorly. But it did get my feet wet with a finished VN so I can't complain too much. And that's what it's all about anyway, growing as an artist. I would be worried if you said my art looked the same. I've already had to redo some of BCM's sprites, so I need to finish that before I have to redo more work D:

I can't speak for everyone else but for us we are unlikely to redo something because it seems like a bit of a waste when there are so many other ideas to work on. Better to take what you learn and like and apply it to something new compared to trying to fix something old type thing. We were tempted to do something more expansive, but we have lots of other things we want to do as well. Plus, we were in the middle of a larger project we had to get back to.

Ren'Py isn't too hard to get the basics for. I managed to get a basic script to work and I have no experience with code.

I can understand and appreciate that. After all, going backwards didn't exactly work out for Star Wars. I hold things I like close to my heart, I suppose, and just don't like letting them go. Haha.

Here's to future, better projects! May you have many successes.



As for Ren'Py, I'll crack it open someday, maybe. At the moment I'm working on two scripts for two different fan film projects, a script for a Skyrim mod as well as some character modeling, my entry for Narrative's fall contest, editing for my campus's writing center and... poetry readings. Don't judge me. I just know that if I dipped my fingers into the VN pond, I would probably drown. I'll leave things to more experienced hands. /tips hat

Oh man, I need to get to bed. As for things that are actually on-topic, I'll probably update after class tomorrow. Sadly, global politics wait for no (wo)man.

Aah, this game. I started playing it for one month already but only got 4 endings. I have a whole bunch of other games to play at the same time, animes to watch, bad books to read (and good ones too), and my LP to do. I'm such a busy person.
Oh, also, college stuff. Almost forgot this tiny detail.

Oh, and Tallulah, maybe you'll get why is the prologue like this eventually.

I just wanna butt in and say I, she who played the entire first act of NWN2 without blinking, was so bored by the beginning of this game I ended up eating dinner instead (!!).

I'm definitely a love-at-fist-sight type of person. Usually a story that starts normal and goes darker has some hints toward it - like the greatest visual novel ever written, Ever 17. You don't necessarily feel "shit is gonna go down any moment" but there's something, some sort of tension that prevents you from just skipping till the action start (or from doing what I did with Dishonored, which is dropping it till I contract insomnia).

No matter how impressive the game turns out to be, first impressions stick. You might remember it fondly, but you won't think of it as "an awesome game I'd love to replay" because it took so long and so much effort for you to get invested in it.

So I agree with Lullah - "it gets better" is no excuse. There are many, many way to make the mundane seem mysterious enough to draw you in, and not one was used. It's understandable, given the circumstances this game was created in, but it is a rather major flaw regardless (Extra Credits actually did an episode on the importance of the first 10 minutes of a game. And EC are never wrong, they're the synthesized voice of the Gamer's Prophet!)

So you didn't get to finish the prologue? 'Cause

Having played a full route of the game, I tend to agree with Tallulah and Jackrabbit - I get why the prologue is the way it is, especially given the extremely limited amount of time the game was made in, but that doesn't make me like it any better. I don't think the rest of the game excuses it.

Going in with relatively low expectations, I was kind of refreshed to see the post-prologue.

Lah Lah Lah~ I can't read any of your spoilers so here's a bunch of likes for youuuu~!

I didn't finish it yet, but I'm sure something shocking will happen - the heroine will be revealed to be an undercover cop/it was all a dream/she was actually a boy/this a book someone reads (I loved that movie~)

I get the idea from you guys that the beginning is there to give me a big SURPRISE! when it turns into a shooter or something, a technique which I dislike, generally speaking - it's kinda of cheap shot in games, unless it's the actual crutch of the story (Ever 17, people, effing best game ever).

I hate being so mean to game that I'm sure took alot of effort to create, but I'm just so jaded of SHOCKING PLOT TWISTS - there's gotta be more to a story, ya know? Sometime I think game developers this days can't make up their mind about what they wanna do, so they stick tons of in their main game, and think it's "the best of both worlds" when it's really more like the trees are so thick you can't see the forest <--prolly not an English idiom, but I'm too lazy to find a parallel.

I'm sure you're right, but...

(Edited to better articulate what I wanted to say.)

Yeah, I see your point.

Yesterday I had to cover someone's shift at work, so I'll be posting updates today instead. I think this might be an every-other-day thing instead of an everyday thing. Sorry!

Previously, on Ristorante Amore...

A wild cliche appeared!
A decision was made!
A rant was ranted!
Continuity errors were... errored!

*ahem*

Laura drops some food and Ethan (also known as Spectacles, The Bespectacled One and Douchey McDouchehat) yells at her for it, claiming that she should have asked for help. Laura counters with her entirely reasonable fear of asking him for anything, ever.



Frankly, I don't see the difference. Either she messes up and he yells at her, or she asks him for help and messes up when he inevitably yells at her. That's the problem with yelling at people.



Laura bemoans her continual inability to do things right, presumably because she doesn't have the benefits of nepotism and is likely to be fired at this rate. Lily, cheerfully oblivious to the general level of quality expected in the working world, tells her not to worry about it. Lily, my darling, my love, at my waitress job a few years back I was severely reprimanded for forgetting to ask about the types of cheese people wanted on their cheese steaks. Allow me to repeat that: I was in danger of being fired for occasionally forgetting to ask a minor question about a dish. You apparently break expensive plates with some degree of regularity, and your unfortunate friend is equally clumsy (likely due to the fact that she lacks a face) and costing the restaurant money. You might be safe thanks to your connections, but if your apparently fancy Italian restaurant has standards anywhere close to those of my old job, Laura will be lucky to last the week.



I feel this says more about Laura than Lily.



You could give Spectacles a bag of hundred-dollar bills and he'd complain it was heavy.




You know, Laura and Liam have the same hair and skin color, similar facial features and similar names. I hope they're siblings, because otherwise they're clones and Spider-man has taught me that that would be awkward.



Laura quietly thought back to all the times she'd tried to make herself noticeable to Ethan. Skulking ominously in the background hadn't worked, nor had cringing and whispering whenever he attempted to talk to her. If shrinking into a corner and trembling didn't work, she was out of ideas. It's hard to be the shy one.



He only shrieks at you like the bastard child of a harpy and a Pterodactyl because he loves you!

And now, my children, we come to a divergence. Let it be known that whichever we choose will control our fate, and the path left untraveled will splinter off into a parallel universe whose secrets we shall never discover.



Voting begins now.

Confession time: I actually played ahead to meeting Angelina the other night in an effort to see how long the prologue was, but I didn't bother to pay attention to what the results of this choice are. So for all intents and purposes, it's still blind! :D

Disagree! Ethan's a douchebag, despite being pretty!

Not sure if I should wait for more votes, or get on with it...

I don't know and I have no opinion!

/helpful

Go with whatever is kinder to Ethan.

I disagreed about Spectacles and you should, too. I'm a fan of the "tough love" approach, but there's a difference between being blunt and stingy with praise and straight-up verbally destroying people.




...Lily, that is not what I told you to say. You're worse than Commander Shepard.



You can tell because his shrill screams are tempered with ~love~!

Laura asks if Liam he really thinks that, and Liam quickly says yes and glosses the issue over by offering to help her with trays next time. Laura takes the bait and thanks him while a cold bead of sweat rolls down Liam's back. That could have been bad. If he doesn't seek out and squash all growing bubbles of dissent, Ethan might release the pictures. Liam can't have that. He can't go to prison! Not again.



Tell me more about this new and unusual situation!


The Bespectacled One sighs, and says...


"Do I hear characters trying to develop? We don't do that 'round these here parts."



I daresay Spectacles getting annoyed over one of their chefs being distracted from work by fans would make quite a bit of sense. Actually, his anger at people acting like idiots while on the clock usually makes sense. It's just that his way of expressing it is poor.



What's this? A whiff of incoming plot? BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES, A STORM BE ON THE HORIZON!

I forgot how much I hated Lily instead. >_>

She's certainly not the sharpest knife in the restaurant cutlery collection. I'm beginning to remember why I stopped playing otome/h-games.

Sorry for more spoilers. I'm also sorry that I couldn't figure out how to put it in one tag. I think I broke it somehow.
I quite liked Lily, she made me laugh. And she provides so much material for this thread XD

Auro. The character concepts look great (I love kingdom otome games so much) and the motifs in the back are a nice visual interest.

At any rate, we should clearly go Liam route.

I'm fairly fond of the writing, but then again, I'm also fond of the live-action Dragon Ball movie for similar reasons. It hits every genre cliche you can possibly think of, it is completely shameless about this, and it's got a whole lot of heart for all of its flaws. Sometimes you just want to play a schmaltzy romance or watch a gratuitously over the top action film with no other redeeming content.

Also, the art and music are both nice and soothing. Sometimes, when I'm playing something with a lousy story and lousy artwork, I pretend it's a half-assed sequel to Atashi no Riri. Halfway through another LP, I forgot that that the yandere girlfriend game was supposed to be serious because it got just that far over the top.

That being said, it's probably a huge pain when you've gotta transcribe and screenshot everything and can't just start skimming whenever you get bored. LPing can feel like hard work even when it's a game you like.

I like the music, but the repetitiveness of it gets old very quickly when you're listening to it while screenshotting/cropping/uploading/composing/etc. The graphics are crisp and clean, however, and although the art style isn't my cup of tea I think it's fairly well-done. Pierre's hair, for example, looks surprisingly soft and touchable. The shading and colors are extremely nice, too.

See, I can say nice things.

There's a non-commercial otome game called My Cup of Tea. The art isn't that great in that game (I believe it's a Nummyz product).

Yes, I made a post just to say that.