Many aspects of game development are overlooked, but while artists create almost everything seen in today’s video games, we have little control over how games play or how our work is used. Ultimately, this means we tend to get left out of the discussion as game developers. (more…)

Here’s a fanart of Zange Chan from Kannagi.  I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Valkyria Chronicles (WOW Overworks/SEGA).  PS3 (Sony Playstation 3).
http://valkyria.jp/
http://www.sega.com/valkyria/us/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valkyrie_of_the_Battlefield

What I like:

• Beautiful, watercolor style art. Everything is wonderfully done.  Also, there is a cool option to view all the game models (with plenty of background info to read about).  The designs for all the uniforms, weapons, and vehicles are fantastic.  The characters themselves are deceptively simple, and surprisingly expressive.
• Original Japanese dialogue. It’s a shame so many companies leave this out of localized titles…  there are many games I’ve wanted to play, but have not simply for this reason.  It’s always fun to hear voice actors/actresses from anime lending their voices to games.  The subtitles aren’t always very accurate, and are tailored for western audiences, but at least it’s an option.
• Story. It plays like watching an anime television series.  Plenty of nicely done cut scenes, and you can tell that a lot of work was done to flesh out the setting and the inhabitants of this fictional world. (more…)

Another quick one

I purchased a box of 12 Haruhi nendoroids the other week. It was pretty sunny this morning, so I lined up the figures and took some pictures (the others had already taken a few, so the lineup is a few short).

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Fragile: Sayonara Tsuki no Haikyo (tri-Crescendo/Namco Bandai Games)
http://fragile.namco-ch.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragile:_Sayonara_Tsuki_no_Haikyo

Upcoming RPG for the Nintendo Wii by tri-Crescendo, makers of Trusty Bell (Eternal Sonata in the US). From the wiki page:

Fragile is set in a post-apocalyptic near future world that has lost its light and is covered in a dense fog. Almost all the world’s population has vanished, and the cities have been left abandoned. The game places the player in the shoes of Seto, a young boy. (more…)

An update sketches

One of a good exercise is to keep drawing the original character that I come up with over and over in different development styles. It is a kind of warm up before I get real. On this image I combined my sketches together to show the varieties of each character besides arrange them next to each other from the first drawing to the last drawing (which I should do that, may be next time). When I do the sketch I always keep the line loose as much as possible, because lines will bring more life to my characters. However it will be different idea for background drawings (will talk about that later). I didn’t pay attention much on custume because at this point it won’t matter to me. I just want to have my mind flow as much as I could and after I finish this exercise most of the time I will have this image as my own references when I work on the projects.

I started watching Kyou no Go No Ni the other day.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear a cover of “Secret Base,” my favorite ZONE (J-Pop bandol group that disbanded a few years ago) song, as the ending theme.  More surprising was the list of Vietnamese names during the credits!

Animated shows (not just anime) have been outsourced to other countries like Korea and the Philippines, but this is the first time I’ve seen Vietnamese artists in the end credits of an anime.

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