For once I felt like posting a blog just because. I've been in this creative mood lately, switching between music composition, two different games, and digital art. As of right now I'm inking a drawing I sketched last week, and doing it in a slightly different method than I'm used to.
- Took the sketch into Photoshop- Maxed the contrast and levels- Inked in Illustrator- Currently modifying the inked drawing in PhotoshopThis feels like pixel art on a huge scale. But it's better than having me try to draw the outlines myself with my impatient hand. How I wish I had a tablet about now.I don't know why, but Clannad just came to mind. I just watched it again with some friends, dubbed this time (while the dub wasn't perfect, it was still pretty good), and it still succeeded in coaxing laughs and tears from me, even in public. I am extremely picky about my shows and stories, and it's rare for something to impact me as much as Clannad did.For those of you who watch anime, I highly recommend it. It falls under the categories of comedy, slice of life, supernatural, and drama.My first reaction to "anime drama" was "LOL I probably won't end up watching this". But I did and it's probably my favorite anime/TV show period. If you can get past the slightly corny bits, it's got a deep story. Give it a go, if you haven't already. The drama doesn't kick in much until the second season, so if that's your deterrent, at least give season 1 a try.Other than that, I just realized that four or five of its tracks are just amazing, and I've been listening to them over and over. Key is my new favorite producer.Oh, and watching Black Butler right now. Interesting, to say the least.Ah, yeah…. Anyway.As for the games, no, I don't have anything to show, but I'll have a demo ready for one as soon as I can think of some good bullet patterns.Oh, here's a quick question for those of you who play story-driven games. Which would you be content with:- Being forced to watch the whole cutscene while having control over when dialog continues (typical, can get the story or spam the continue key)- Being able to skip the cutscene (impatient bastards won't see the story, but get to play sooner)- Being forced to watch some cutscenes without control over dialog (movie style–timed music in the background, more impact when paced, but difficult for very slow readers)Random blog, first offense, sorry.
If you like Clannad, you should give Usagi Drop a look, It's current and you'll look cool in to all of your Anime watching friends.
It's usually the anime that I don't expect to be good that surprises me.
If you are going to give the option to skip scenes it should be consistent and be able to do so for all of them. I'd rather be able to control the game's direction by choosing the dialogue but that would require a lot of work if you intend to do this in your game.Yes, the music of Clannad is indeed amazing. My favorite is The Girl's Fantasy. That song was played at like the climax of the series. Pretty epic track IMO.
Talking about Clannad music… http://www.soundcloud.com/sirxemic/cMy favorite tracks are as follows:
Girl's Fantasy (I agree with you, great track)Country Lane Version 2 (especially halfway through)Nagisa: Farewell at the Foot of the Hill (played once in the whole show, still brings tears to my eyes)PS I edited my last comment.
Also, I quickly YouTubed Country Lane Version 2 since I had no idea what you were talking about. Is that even an official version?Were parts of that track inspired by Clannad or something? I can get the sort of ambiance you hear in some of the "otherworld" tracks (can't remember specific names right now), but I wouldn't have related it to Clannad initially.
Country Lane V2 was in the anime, but not in the OST for some reason. As far as I understand, Key created the visual novels with the soundtracks, and KyoAni added a few of their own renditions for the anime. So I guess you can say it's official.Well the melody by the bell/piano combination is just ripped from Roaring Tides :P
Man, I miss this show already. >=[
I'll have a very hard time finding a show that can rival it. Only one that's come close so far is Air, and you know, that's by the same people.