Well, it's certainly been a while!

I know I said last time that I'd talk about AMVs in my next post, but I've decided to toss that in the backburner for a while. I want to take my time with it, and make sure to word everything in such a way that cannot be misconstrued as easily, since it is a touchy topic after all.

Not to say that Nightcore isn't (in a sense), but I've only recently begun listening to this "genre" that's been associated with anime for some reason, and I found it fascinating enough to warrant a blog post. If this fascination of mine isn't indicative of my old age, I don't know what is. Anyway...

First of all, can this even be considered a genre? Most people would say no, but I'd argue that it can if we categorise it under general EDM, specifically plunderphonics, which already has its own plethora of genres like grindcore. We have DJs legitimately mixing and remixing songs all the time too, so I frankly don't see why not. 

Is it harming the industry? There have been some cases of copyrighted songs being sold on various music sites, but for the most part Nightcore seems to be doing more good than evil. There are producers that support Nightcore channels and even release songs of their own, as well as labels releasing songs and compilations. And of course, there are countless not-for-profit artists on YouTube that entice people to check out the original tracks. Someone on this forum actually went into detail about this, if you're interested.

Okay cool, so...what's it got to do with anime then? Nothing, actually. People have merely noted the similarities between this type of music and the kinds of themes you'll hear on a show. Although to be perfectly honest, the observation is pretty outdated by this point. Sure, there are plenty of poppy tunes that have been recorded for anime in the past, but we're hearing much more variety now, and even then we've always been hearing all sorts of vocalists and their genres of music being credited for contributing to anime alongside the upbeat ones (albeit to a lesser degree). I only say this, because it seems like every time someone talks about a cheerful-sounding song sung by a high-pitched vocalist, they'll say it sounds "anime-ish," which I simply don't think can be used as a characteristic today.  

But what do I think of Nightcore in general? Like many, I'm not particularly crazy about it - but I do think it has its uses. For one, I think Eurodance/pop songs suit it much better than what we're normally used to in North America. Not because I'm biased, but because I find that the more "festive" and "exotic"(?) vibes of these songs tend to be easily pairable with Nightcore's happy and energetic beat. That was the original idea, anyway.

I also think it's conducive to comedic moments in video production, especially in improv and situations where you're forced/feeling pressured to speed things up (think of Let's Plays). Nightcore can help play into the lighthearted and "screwball" atmosphere when you least expect it.

As for whether or not any actual talent or effort are needed to create this kind of music, I think the most important things to consider are the motivation to create it in the first place, as well as others' appreciation for it. At the end of the day, someone had an idea to recreate a song they like as something they believe will sound (even more) creative, cool, and interesting, and someone else listening in felt the same way about it. Talent and effort are definitely worthy of merit, make no mistake about that; I'm just saying that artistic value will mean different things to everyone. And perhaps the amount of work going into Nightcore is just enough to strike a chord with fans. 

As the old saying goes, "It's the thought that counts."

​~ Milica M. "Mimo"

Hey everyone, today's progress update is going to be short and sweet. We're currently in the midst of developing act 1, so there isn't a whole lot of exciting news as of yet.

Writing has been progressing the most lately, with a majority of the routes near the mid point of the first act (and one technically on the second act). The scripts did have to undergo a few revisions both content-wise and stylistically, but I would say that they're shaping up quite nicely compared to when we first started writing.

Art is also picking up again now that Elphaze and Dizzy are somewhat free from their personal obligations. Masato, Yahiko, Airi, and Akira all have their first outfit and pose completed and colored. Lucid9 has a large cast of characters—around 16 for the next part—so there's a lot of work involved concerning sprite creation. Consequently, CGs for the routes haven't been decided on quite yet, since we want to be methodical in choosing the best scenes to include them in. I'm especially excited for those.

ALSO! Here's a drawing of Yama that Elphaze had created. It's not an official asset, but it certainly gives off a certain vibe that'll be present in the next part of Lucid9. Hope you guys love him as much as I do!

That's all the interesting news for now! Apologies for the short update this time around. Again, we can't thank you guys enough for your patience and support. Please be sure to leave a review for Inciting Incident on our Steam page if you haven't yet, and feel free to drop a rating on our VNDB page when you can.

Until next time!

~ David A. "CardioPen"

It took us two years to create Lucid9: Inciting Incident. During those years of development, we've faced a lot of challenges. English Visual Novels are a small niche, so there aren't many online guides that teach you the process of VN creation. A lot of what you'd learn is through other developers, and even then, you don't get the full picture of what it's like to work with other people from different parts of the world. Organization, deadlines, communication... there are so many things that need to run smoothly for a project to work. It takes effort - and a lot of it. 

Since the beginning, we've always wanted to keep Lucid9 free, but that lack of monetary compensation, strangely enough, forced us to set the bar higher for ourselves. Sure, even if people were to hate Lucid9, we would at least have some experience under our belt for future projects. But knowing that you had spent all those years working on a passion project that was poorly received would still sting, frankly speaking.

That's something that'd we'd likely continue fretting over until the completion of the Lucid9. No matter what the reception is though, I'm glad that I got to meet so many amazing people along the way. That's something I won't ever regret.

We've been making decent progress with the next part of Lucid9, though a lot of us had to deal with tighter schedules than usual. Luckily, we still managed to make time to get things done, so it hasn't been super detrimental.

The artists have been working on a number of things lately, though coloring and style consistency have been at the top of their list of priorities. The screenshot above should show how that's progressing. Other than that, we're planning to have at least two or three outfits for each character. They'll be designed in a way that best reflects their personality or situation, and we're aiming for a style that isn't too "ornate", but nevertheless displays some uniqueness.

Concerning the backgrounds, the metropolitan setting of Isamu will have more significance compared to what was done in Inciting Incident, so we wanted to experiment with structure and aesthetics of the city for the next part. Eufonie posted a few "unofficial drafts" on Trello to help him get a sense of how he should go about designing it.

Voice acting for Inciting Incident has been progressing, albeit slowly. There's a number of people involved in the process — voice actors, composers, and programmers, among many others — so it takes some time to get done. The voice actors record their lines all in one take under the direction of John, who then uploads the files to the Drive so they can be split into individual lines. Afterwards, they're brought to Breezee for mixing, and once they're mixed, Ian implements them into the engine. 

This is just an oversimplification, but hopefully it explains a bit about the process for those of you who are unfamiliar with it. As mentioned previously, the voice acting patch has unfortunately been delayed. Judging by the progress now, John is aiming to have all of the recordings for Inciting Incident done by mid 2018. 

On a brighter note, John had shared a hilarious clip with me a while back, so I thought it'd be nice to post it here.

Breezee and I recently talked to Ian, our programmer, about the implementation of a dynamic soundtrack that flows with the script. He had assured us that it is definitely possible to do on the engine, so we're commencing with that plan in confidence. We're still attempting to schedule a discussion with the rest of the composers to fill them in on the direction. That should happen some time soon, once their availability opens up.

Also, thank you to everyone who filled out our Lucid9 soundtrack questionnaire. It gave us a better sense of what the readers found enjoyable, and we're planning on integrating some of your suggestions. There will be a number of new tracks for the next part of Lucid9, and old tracks would likely be reworked in some way to fit the style and tone of the narrative. Breezee has already created a few drafts. Below, you can hear a teaser for one of them:

Writing has been progressing, though we are a bit behind schedule. Our goal was to have all of arc 1 drafted by this month, but that would need to be delayed by a few months or so unfortunately. I don't want to give a specific estimation quite yet.

Nevertheless, the writers are at about 16,000 words in with the exception of Misaki's and Akira's route, with the latter at around 54,000 words (and already on arc 2). So yeah, some of us are further along than others in terms of progress. Of course, we're monitoring each other's writing closely, so we all should be on the same page despite that difference. A big thanks to our editors for helping us along the way as well.

In other news, the official soundtrack of Lucid9 is now available on Steam! The tracks are available in both MP3 and WAV formats, and you can download it here. It only took us about two thousand years, but we appreciate your patience for the delay. A huge thank you to Raithfyre and the people over at Sekai Project for helping us spread the word.

That's all the news for now. We can't thank you all enough for sticking with us these past few years; it really has been an amazing journey. We hope you're looking forward to the next part of Lucid9!

In the meantime, look out for Milica's editorial on AMVs coming out in May, as well as our readers' Top Picks for Anime Tropes following this post!

Until next time!


~ Fallen Snow Studios

and I was originally going to upload this as my birthday special on February 25th, but I've been too busy to write anything lately. Thus, having gotten over some of last month's craze, I'd like to announce my return a week later with something a little different from my usual editorials.

I know I said in my debut blog I'd post monthly, but there are now topics I'd like to cover that don't necessarily require much writing. So, I'll sporadically post these "bonuses" in addition to my longer pieces. I currently don't have very many of these planned, but if there are any topics you'd like me to cover in a future piece, feel free to leave a comment below and/or tweet us at @FallenSnowStudios! They don't even have to be short enough for a bonus; you can also suggest ideas for editorials :)

Oh, and one last announcement before we dive into the nonexistent pools that are MC eyes: I'd like to take a poll on Twitter soon with a question prompt for our fans, which will be the basis for a future post! That's right; the post will be completely comprised of your answers and opinions, with absolutely no input from me. Keep your eyes peeled on Twitter for both the prompt and details on how the poll will work, deadlines, and all that jazz.

Finally, and without any further ado, let's break every bone in our bodies and wonder why we did that when we can clearly see no pools in the MC's eyeless face.

But for real; why homegirl got no eyes? And why is she always a brunette, for that matter?

​

DISCLAIMER: To be honest, MC being a brunette is the main reason I wanted to talk about this on my birthday, seeing as yours truly is also a brunette ;)

Not only does it look totally jarring, but the intent behind it also doesn't make much sense. Now, many of us are used to it by now - heck, some of us even like the idea of MC having no eyes. But that's because not a lot of people take issue with iconic appearances in games to begin with.

For the most part, we accept what characters look like, regardless of our personal feelings towards them. But the problem is when a developer claims that a particular design is meant to represent everyone of a certain demographic. 

Such is the case with MC; without eyes, players (presumably females) are symbolically able to see her world through their own eyes. You do see this with male characters, but not nearly as often. Why don't more bishoujo games feature the trope?

Anyway, the point I want to make is that this is a pointless design choice, because MC nevertheless has an established look even without eyes. She's pale-skinned, thin, and a brunette. How is that representative of all females who might be playing these games? How does this take into account non-straight people? I only bring this up since we're going by dev logic. 

What drives me up the wall even more is when some avatars in-game (depending on the game in question) show the MC with eyes. Fantastic work! Now can we see those sparklers elsewhere in the game? 

Truth be told, this causes more of a disconnect between player and game than it does a bond. People are much more likely to relate to characters that feel real to them, than to stock avatars that are purposely made bland so as to not impose a made-up personality onto the player. 

Either complete the character design, or give the player some options to create their own avatars. It's not rocket science, guys.

~ Milica M. "Mimo"