Thought I'd try something a little different. I've been thinking about buying some 3D model guns. There are some fun ones out there, but they can get expensive, so I had to ask myself if it's worth it, if it's not something I could just make myself. After all, I did make all those guns for spaceships that NOBODY EVER BOUGHT!!!
So yeah, I gave it a shot, I had fun. They are pretty goofy and weird for now, but maybe that's something that the 3D model gun market is missing. I enjoyed it, and I'll definitely try to make a few more.
I'm happy to announce that I've FINALLY got some of my pornography material for sale on Affect3D! Eroge Collections 1-4 and the ASV 2D NSFW CG collection are out now, Service for Service should be showing up at some point, but for now, you can still obtain that through GumRoad.
I've also got a bunch of shiny new 3D models and collections up for sale on CGTrader. Right now is CGTrader's huge Black Friday Sale, giant bonus discounts on everything. If you think you want it, now is absolutely the best time.
This is a fun little collection of warrior outfits. These were designed for Sword and Sorcery style settings, like Golden Axe, He-Man, Thundarr, etc. Could be for heroes, enemies or NPCs.
If you missed the announcement earlier this week, there's also Villager Outfits to really round out your game's population.
Mostly, I've been doing heroes and player character outfits, this time we've got some more basic villager NPC stuff. The kind of stuff you need for a real project.
I've been going through some personal upheaval, but I did manage to get some prototyping done on an RPG Map.
I've been struggling to come up with a method for constructing forest maps. I've been thinking of maps as mazes, with clearings and walls, and this is hard to achieve with trees. So one of my solutions is to make it look more like a ruin than a forest, with stone paths like this or wooden board walks or something.
I have to admit, that I am starting to second guess this method of mapping. It looks good, but it is a pain in the ass and might be too impractical for the length of RPG that I want to do. It would make more sense for something that's more of an interactive porn comic, so I might just file it away for later. In the meantime, I could still use my prerendered props to make RPG Maker tilesets and try to get a compromise of better graphics and easier map building.
Speaking of porn, I'm hesitant to say anything for sure, but there's buzz that I might finally be getting some of my ErogeCG collections on a site that actually sells porn. This has gotten me excited about making EroCG or porn comics again, and I have started working on new ones.
This one is definitely going to get done and go on sale at some point. The new place is a little less into anthros and more into mega-boobs, so I've chosen this character specifically for them. I created a pair of other scenarios that I'm less sure about, so I'll share them when and if they get further developed. You know, it's always a bummer when I put so much work into my comics and CGs and they get jack diddly for sales, but doing it again, I had forgotten how fun it is to make things like that.
So I've been taking two steps forward, one step back with my RPG progress. I had a sort of working RPG, but I just felt like it wasn't anything special. I could do better.
The default mapping tileset that RPG Maker comes with has been driving me crazy. On the one hand, a lot of the individual elements of the tileset are very well done. On the other, a lot of the elements feel mismatched and use weird perspective views when all used together, and the grid-based nature of the tileset can feel very unlively.
So, I've gone on a quest to wrangle some plug-ins that will allow me to create much better looking maps with Blender and export them to RPG Maker. Changing plug-ins means there are some things that I can do now that I didn't think I'd be able to, and there are a few things that I took for granted that I'm not able to do anymore. So I need to do some re-thinking about how this is all going to work.
The map I've shown in the video doesn't look that great yet. If you want a better example of what 3D maps can look like, check out my old aborted project, Vacation in Ninja-land. But the thing is, I didn't actually make those maps myself, they come with the Synty models, making maps and environments is not something I'm very familiar with. In particular, I've written up the first level to be a forest, but a forest is actually an extra difficult thing to design. I'm going to go look up some level design videos, but I might re-write it to be a forest ruin or forest cave instead.
In another area, I've decided to greatly expand the magic system. You get magic spells by equipping "Orbs". Originally, I was going to make Orbs appear in treasure chests, shops and monster loot like a normal RPG, but then I thought, if I'm going to let you craft weapons and armor in this game, I might as well let you craft magic as well. So there will be a big list of magic variations and you can craft whatever you want. I think the idea will be that magic orb building materials will be relatively scarce, so you'll have enough scrap to build a single double-cast orb, for example, and it's up to you to decide if you want that to be a double-fire, double-lightning, double-heal, etc.
I've also decided to use the Aekashics Librarium series of monster graphics instead of the RPG Maker default. It's kind of a goofy, cartoony style, but there are some really cool monsters in there, and frankly an absolute shitload of them, at least 800. This huge collection of monsters, combined with the map making thing, means I can do broader story telling without needing to play along with the limited map and monster resources that RPG Maker comes with. It means a little rewriting, but I've already gotten to a new version of the story that I like, so I'll hopefully be moving on to getting things done again very soon. The Librarium is free, with special perks for Patrons and special offers on itch.io, so definitely check them out if you're making an RPG of your own.
If you're wondering why I don't just draw my own monsters, that would just be SO time consuming. There will be a few humanoid bad guys that use Acheron Series models, but it would be totally unreasonable to do an entire game's load of monsters myself, in addition to everything else.
So I've been working on the RPG. I wasn't sure at first how to discuss my progress on RPG stuff, because so far I'm mostly working in the databases and there isn't really a demo I could upload for you. But I've taken a few snap-shots that I think might give you sense of what features I'm going for.
If you've seen the last post, I haven't made much more progress with actual character art. The way that RPG Maker works, it isn't really designed for custom made graphics. To use custom graphics, I have to use a plug-in that changes how all graphics are processed, so I need to have all the graphics ready to use at once. (there is a way to mix graphic styles, but that seems like an unnecessary complication) So what I've decided to do is work on the RPG with the default graphics, and when I have enough custom graphics ready, I'll switch over everything at once.
I'm also going to hold off on writing dialog for now as well. I have a general idea for the plot, nothing fancy, but I want to see what the game feels like before writing specifics. I think the plot should follow the gameplay.
So I have this quasi-crafting system. Instead of, or in addition to costing money, most stuff costs "Grind Items". This is tricky to balance, which is part of why a playable demo isn't going to be ready for a while. Some Grind Items are common, dropped from random enemies, while others, like Ironwood, are dropped from special minibosses. The idea is that these minibosses are strong enough to completely pwn you when you start the level, and so your goal is try and get strong enough to take them on and get more of the item materials that will allow you to craft stronger items and take down stronger things.
My vision for a magic system is that you have these 3 "Orb" slots. Orbs can teach a magic skill, but they can also have a more "accessory" like ability, like there's a "Poison Proof" orb that prevents you from getting poisoned. In RPGMaker MV, there is also "TP" a sort of limit-break system where you build up TP everytime you attack or get attacked. (more like super-moves in fighting games, honestly) So each character starts with a unique "super move" and learns a few more as they level up. There are also certain items that teach TP skills, like the Ironwood Sylvan Saber allows its weilder to use Helm Sever, and Fairy Fighters drop a Fairy Orb which allows you to use their Fairy Punch skill.
Nothing really special about map design, but here's a look at the first map so far. I am using Galv's Jump Plug-in, which allows you to jump over tiles, so there are a few spots that force to jump over things. The little flames are roaming mini-bosses. They actually can't jump, which gives you an interesting way to escape them.
At the moment, I'm not thrilled with the current pacing of the game. At the moment, you start with 2 characters in your party, and there will be 4 total. I'm not sure when to introduce the 3rd character. Having a 3rd character on your team is a pretty strong force multiplier, especially since she's a magic-user and magic spells are your best bet against the big mini-bosses which are the main threat. Also, I think the game is a little boring with just 2 characters, so I don't want to make you wait too long to recruit her, but I also want meeting her to feel special, and not just be thrust upon you suddenly.
I've started working on graphics for an RPG Maker game:
Map size:
Battle Size
So here's the thing, a lot of my projects so far haven't been going well. The porn on GumRoad isn't selling at all. I've been trying to get it on Affect3D, they seemed interested at first, but now they're just ignoring me. Sales of models were never that great, and they've gone down since CGTrader decided to hide its adult content. I want to try doing something new. I need to try something new.
I've been tinkering with game engines in Godot, and while it's going better than Unity did, I need to admit to myself that I just don't like programming. I end up constantly procrastinating when I try to do programming and I just can't keep that up if my goal is profit. So I'm looking back at RPG Maker MV. For a long time, I dropped it because it's not 3D, but now, I need to admit that there are a lot of good qualities to it, and I'm ready to try it again.
I'm sure my fans' first question is, will there be porn? One of the big selling points is the RPG Maker community, hopefully I'll be able to get some feedback and exposure on the RPG Maker forums, but the official Kadokawa forum does not allow R18 material. I'm aware that there are a lot of pornographic RPG Maker games out there, many are even on Steam, but for now, I'm pretty sick of having to hide what I'm doing from people because of sexual content, and I need to try and go after every opportunity to get noticed and that means staying away from porn, at least for now. I still want to make it sexy and maybe ecchi, because that's how I roll. If the RPG Maker route seems profitable, I might try a pornographic RPG Maker game in the future, or pornographic side stories or bonus comics or something like that.
So what will this game be like? I haven't decided. I want to make something simple, since I feel like I have been away from RPG Maker for a long time. I recently replayed my old try at RPG Maker, Grind Storm, which you can download and try from here. I really liked what I came up with, so I think I'll try something a lot like that again. One thing for now is that the easy way to render 3D models into 2D sprites is to use a fixed weapon, so I'm thinking of coming up with a system that adds add-ons to your weapon instead of upgrading and replacing it like a normal RPG. Probably using Yanfly's Augment plug-in. If you get far enough in Grind Storm, you'll meet the Ironwood Sage, who uses a primitive scripting to turn the ironwood in your inventory into currency. Yanfly has a cooler version of this system called More Currencies that I can I can use to make a more in-depth item synthesis system. Yanfly also has a straight up synthesis system, but I wasn't especially impressed with it. Also, Yanfly has discontinued the CTB and ATB battle mode plugins, so I'm going to try Victor Engine's version of them. Probably the CTB one.
I got done with these a lot faster than some of the outfits I work on, so here they are, ready for sale. Again, these are based on RPG Maker 2003 characters, my interpretations of "Alex" and "Zack", plus a little extra ASV charm.
I looked at the RPG Maker MV remake of "Alex" again recently, and my version seems to be quite different from how Kadokawa portrayed him in the update. I'm pleased with this, since I don't want to get too close to RPGM's style anyways.
Back when I did RPGM2k3, I imagined "Alex" as the main character, and "Zack" as a rival, like Gary or Seifer, so for the title graphic, I've cast the Zack-based "Rebel" as a kind of a bad guy or bad boy, at least.
RPGMaker2003 only had one sword graphic and it was a kind of cartoony cutlass looking curved sword. This annoyed me at the time, since I thought of the straightsword as the iconic hero's weapon, but as time went by, I came to think of the cutlass as "Alex's" signature weapon. "Zack" and the other 2003 characters struck me as more sci-fi looking, so I thought of "Zack" as a gun-user or gun-sword-user. Cutlasses and guns make me think pirates, so I decided to use the Synty Pirate Pack instead of their Dungeon Pack for these title graphics.
A lot of the time, these preview materials take longer to make than the actual model I'm selling. So this time, I didn't bother. Maybe I'll add it back in later. When I go to buy models, I often see other developers who don't bother with extensive preview materials, so I feel like I might be wasting my time with it.
The airship in the background was a little test drive I did to see if I could make airships out of the regular sail ship assets from Synty's Pirate Pack. Since then, it has come to occupy a special place in my brain. I have named it the "Red Rum". Some day, I might use it in a game of my own, but since it is built from various Synty parts, it's not a model I'd ever be able to share or sell.
