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Just giving you a quick update, no I'm not dead, and no the game hasn't been cancelled, restarted, or any variation of "NOT GOING TO BE FINISHED". I'm still making progress, and working towards a demo.
I've been considering looking for a CG artist to help speed things along near the end of development. (CGs are what I generally do last). So if anybody is interested in doing hentai CGs for the game (and is a better artist than myself), let me know and send me an email with some examples of your work. From there we can decide on prices.
Otherwise, I'll probably hit up some art forums or communities. Newgrounds is probably a safe bet, given the amount of adult content there.
Will you consider hire multiple cg artists down the line? I don't have the confidence yet to do good color cg work (black and white line work on the other hand...)
ReplyDeleteI may, but I would generally expect them to be better than myself at both lineart and coloring. Of course if your lineart is absolutely amazing then it'd still be worth a look.
DeleteAh heck, why not I'll give this a shot. Are you still looking for artists?
DeleteAlso, are you looking for artists that can replicate your art close enough or someone who you personally feel fits with what you're trying to do?
Well, I don't really have a definitive style, so I wouldn't really expect someone to do that. However I would expect the artist to be able to come up with an appropriate style to match the game's tone.
DeleteJust so you'll know (and to recall earlier comment conversations on your blog), you don't need to worry about CGs that much - at least the 'game over' variety. Many players (including this one) are more interested in variety of sprites and their animations (though I am aware that we're not the whole of the community) and I am sure that while many enjoy CGs quite some, there are those who wouldn't mind you cutting on them a bit if they're a problem and big sink of time - especially if that time could be used in expanding the scope etc of the game.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if I'm willing to take that risk now or not. Given that I can do 2 Cgs per day, it's not worth saving the time if I'm going to lose a large portion of the audience.
DeleteI mostly ignore the CGs. If I want hentai CGs I can find high quality images far easier and in larger quantity via my internet browser. The animated sprites on the other hand are few and far between in comparison. The more animated sprites the better.
DeleteIt's actually true that many prefer good sprites than good CG's. You don't need to push yourself to find a non plus ultra CG artist to make it look like ... Violated Hero as example.
DeleteBut in the other hand you are right, CG's would be still great and without them it would be like something is missing. At least, I hope that you will find a decent artist
But wait.. why do you think that your CG's look bad? I always liked them
Not bad, just..passable. Also, even if they were good, it'd be better to have someone "great". Someone who does H CGs on a regular basis and is exceptional at it.
DeleteJust saying - it would be a very bad move at any time to remove the H-CGs altogether. Japanese H-gamers tend to overreact to a lack thereof, even for action-oriented games. Various games have won (or came close to winning) the Worst H-Game of the Year award partly for that reason. It was a major criticism leveled at Nousatsu Kunoichi a couple years back, for example, where they removed all H-CGs in favor of sprite sex. While a visual novel, Mahou Shoujo Ai 3 is known as the worst H-game of all time for a similar reason.
DeleteMind you, your games have tons more playability and thought put into them than the aforementioned games; still, I can guarantee you that the risk would never be worth it. H-gamers can take a beating in terms of gameplay, but a lack of CGs drives them off the deep end.
Speaking of your CGs, Japanese reviewers of your game seem to be happy with them. In fact, you have reviewers praising the game specifically for it's art. Not that I disagree with the reasoning on "great" over "good," but there certainly isn't anything wrong with drawing them on your own.
Then I guess it may be a japanese thing, because here, at least in this poster's circles, no one would really care. I mean, HCGs are overabundant in every H title, but decent sprite animations? Not so much - and I know for a fact that there are plenty of people that'd trade majority of HCGs in some of the platform/action games for more and better, varied animations (at least as per conclusion of my earlier discussion).
DeleteThus, I can only agree with some of the earlier comments. I can agree that there's no need to remove HCG completely but Kyrieru also shouldn't really worry much about them and if he could make some more H sprites and animations instead, I'd be that much more glad.
Hmm... I don't know exactly how much of Kyrieru's profits come from Japanese gamers. As such, I can't comment on whether the risk would pay off. (I do know that Japanese gamers tend to have a high opinion of Kyrieru's work. Whether that translates financially is a different matter, of course.)
DeleteOn the side of ignoring H-CGs to an extent, Meikyu no Marionette focused on sprite sex over CGs, with only 5 or 6 of them, and was a reasonable financial success. RePure Aria basically ignored the CGs (honestly, they looked more like they were done in MS paint, and there weren't many) and did very well, although it did have a lot of characterization and text to go with it.
Well, over half of my profits come from DLsite.
DeleteI don't care for CG, but I love sprites.
DeleteStill, if you want quality art for your CGs you should contact Noill. I hear he's something of a fan of yours.
Agreed. CGs? Almost every 2D hentai game has that. Many are built solely on CGs. Decent sprite animations though? Not as common.
ReplyDeleteOdds are that your specific style of game will attract people who're after the sprite sex much more then the CGs. I wouldn't remove them, but you can probably get by just fine with only having a portion of the enemies with CGs. I wouldn't drop them completely, like you said earlier that's pretty risky, but you certainly shouldn't need more then bosses and a handful of other enemies. End game CGs and other special art might actually be more popular.
ReplyDeleteYou should look on Tumblr too. There are a ton of great artists there but I guess you just have to look in the right places. Like maybe NoillArt, or even Nyxonyx is pretty damn good. I don't know if they'd do it but they're both nsfw artists and you might even find others whilst linked to them.
ReplyDeleteJust helping your search 'cause I'm still brushing up on my speed and skills in drawing...
I honestly wouldn't worry too much about hiring another artiest right now. Art is very subjective and it really doesn't matter if you feel your good nor not, your fan base are the ones you really need to worry about if your goal is to please them.
ReplyDeleteEvery artist has their own style and its not necessarily a bad thing to be a bit different. A prime example would be Torotoro @ monster girl quest. I know that he couples the art with a good story, but no mater how badly I think some of the chimeras look/are drawn. There will be people that will think its the most fapable content around.
It's not that I think I'm bad, it's just that I know some people would be better, and I tend to rush CGs when I do them myself.
DeleteI think monster girl quest is bad example, because I actually found some of the worse art very distracting. It was made worse by the fact that a lot of the other art was great, so it really stood out like a sore thumb, in my opinion.
I wouldn't skip on the CG, especially not based on the idea that "someone better" could do them.
ReplyDeleteKeep improving that skill! What you've released up until now was far above average and you are still improving!
Your CG's are definitely your weakest point. You seem to have improved a lot since Eroico though going by that picture but that's a simple 3/4 shot of a head which you were already pretty good at. It'd be cool to see something more complicated you've drawn recently.
ReplyDeleteIf you're still drawing CGs at an Eroico level than hiring a better CG artist is a smart move. Although I think CGs are a very low priority for your games.
With Eroico I was doing 2 CGs per day, so they needed to be quick and simple. The above picture on the other hand is just a rough sketch, so neither are really all that indicative of my current skills. I'd do some actual artwork just for the sake of doing some good pictures, but I find it hard to do it as a hobby when I have productive things I could be doing. -__-
Deletelol sounds like CG's are a low priority from your point of view as well. Do you dislike doing CG's? Or is it strictly a time thing?
DeleteEither way hiring a CG artist seems like a good idea. You wouldn't have to wait till the end of a game cycle to get your CG's since a different artist could be working on them RIGHT NOW while you work on something else. Also you'd get more experience delegating work to freelancers which is always good.
It's not that they're a low priority, it's just that I can't spend a month doing CGs, since that's a lot development time. I suppose the best case scenario is that I get so fast at making them that I start improving regardless of how much time I have -__-
DeleteI don't want to sound like a douchebag but..
ReplyDeleteWill yoo make cunnilingus CG's? Since I saw the sprites in Kurovadis I thought it would be great in this game, too
Hi Kyrieru~
ReplyDeleteI wondered if you have received my e-mail since you didn't answered yet.
Indeed I did, and thanks for the offer. I'll be emailing you back later today.
ReplyDeletei highly reccomand that you look for some artists on hentaifoundry,it's the best U.S based hentai community around.
ReplyDeletealso,at least from my point of view,i would rather spend a few bucks more but get a more polished and lenghty title rather than save a few pennies but get a short game with rough edges,so take all the time you need before releasing.
PS:i'm a fan of big boobs but this time around would be nice to get a few girls with small breasts as well for the game's cgs,variety is the spice of life
Been meaning to post this since the topic appeared. I personally like the CGs that you've done before. Sorry I'm not quick or skilled enough yet to be of help, or I'd apply and help. I know it is nothing coming from some anonymous commenter though.
ReplyDeleteStill, I personally like your CGs, especially in comparison to most games that I've tried from DLsite, most of which don't even know what shading is, or human proportions... or smooth lines/curves... Anyways, back to the saltmines of my pixel paintings
I'm actually pretty awful at anatomy -__-
DeleteHowever hopefully that's something I'll be able to improve over time.
What I do is browse several archives for photos of people and compare. There are certain acceptable losses in the name of personal and genre stylization, such as enlarged head, unbalanced bodyfat, terrible foreshortening by either ignoring or over-accentuating.
DeleteNothing helped my acceptance as much as close examination of professional anime clips and game sprites with disturbing art flaws, like legs that might come together somewhere in the neck based on their angle.
I'll admit, it's mostly a subjective call though.
Dude you should check out Classic Human Anatomy by Valerie l. Winslow. It's clearly written and consists mostly of pictures which actually show you what the fuck she's talking about. I heard about it from reading LMsketch.tumblr.com and I think his skill with anatomy is pretty evident.
ReplyDeleteI'll take a look.
DeleteThough honestly, it's more the fact that I don't practice enough. I can come up with a method to draw consistent anatomy, but then I just drift back to square one after a week or so -__-
Every small step is a big effort! Even by thinking about anatomy you improve your skills (well, it worked for me so far). I would say 'practice by doing' since you won't stop making great games
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