Welcome!
This is a development blog for the short, commercial visual novel game "Siren's Ballad"
Please take time to check out our work, and if you find it interesting - don't hesitate to follow us for future updates.
Thank you for your time!
Hello everyone~!
unfortunately Waji is sick, so this time let me wrap up our progress by myself <3
Loreen managed to finish a background that was still a wip two weeks ago - she did some marvelous work and contributed even more than planned! Thanks to that Waji will be able to squish in an extra scene in the second part of the game... but shhhh, it's a spoiler!
Speaking for myself - I'm still stuck on sprites. Good news is that I'm done with the first sprite turn, just a few extra expressions left... and then we can move on to extra poses or hand positions. Once sprites are done we can focus on more fancy tasks like CG and start working on a trailer, but for now bringing characters to life is our priority!
I would like to say special thanks to Zelan(@lemma forum), who is extremely supportive for our project - you keep us going, friend!
First of all, I would like to wish you a happy Easter, which will be there soon! If you’re not celebrating it, I hope that you at least get a day off at work/school, so you can have a nice rest ;>
Today we would like to update you on our progress with backgrounds.
With a few base backgrounds so far (the Bar, swimming pool, dormitory rooms and living room) we carefully work on the rest of them - for them to fit in the color palette and general “feel” of the story. Loreen bases her sketches on the descriptions I (waji :)) made, then we discuss them in the whole three-person team.
I even created a BEAUTIFUL map of the area, on which I marked the places for each background for Loreen to have some basic understanding how it works…. Not sharing the map though, I worry it may contain too many spoilers :)*
Loreen got a new software for drawing - Paint Clip Studio - and she decided to test it for one of the backgrounds we want to boast about today - the employee-only area at at Siren’s Ballad.
PCS seems to have a nice tools for doing the proper perspective, but for colors Loreen goes back to Photoshop.
The employee-only area still needs some work, but it’s final shape can be already seen on this pre-rendered piece :)
This is one of the most important places for our heroes - the employee-only area at Siren’s Ballad. This is where they wait just before the mermaid show, the doors on left side are for locker rooms while the stairs in the back of the scene lead to the ramp over the Ballad’s aquarium. And the ramp is from where they dive into the aquarium from, during the performance!
When having a break during their bartender duty, they come here to chat, eat dinner or simply relax. This messy room is also the main storage room for the bar, thus all the cardboxes and cupboards. In the most visible one - there are some spare mermaid costumes displayed.
And finally - behind the mysterious curtain ther
And finally - behind the mysterious curtain there is a glass see-through wall to the inside of the aquarium. It usually is closed, used mostly in the maintenance hours for safety measures.
Or for employees who chill out there after closing hours to look at fish :)
As we all know, Cassie Rider is our protagonist. But have you wondered about her range of emotions?
From neutral through happy or tired to scared - some of these emotions will obviously be used more frequently than the others.
Even though faces with different emotions weren’t that hard to design for kairek, there was a struggle with recurring thought of redrawing the body for each of the emotions.
Well, I saw only the final sprites, and different emotions with the same body look just fine, so she must be overreacting :P
Let us know what you think about Cassie’s expressions and the new background!
waji
* or it actually is not that beautiful and I worry you’ll start hating the whole project because of this crappy map :P No one said writer needs to be good at map-making...
Thank you for following our development.
If you have any remarks, comments or advice please don't hesitate to share. Feedback is extremely appreciated.
Hi everyone! ~<3
We are once again back with some updates on our VN!
The main topic of this week’s work was - THE LEAFLET!
Some of our friends - Razuri, Ulvar and Amaltheren are attending Polymanga 2017 on 13-17 April in Switzerland and they agreed to distribute some Siren’s Ballad leaflets for us!
Thus, kairek designed a lovely flyer for us.
To be honest, I spend sooo much time trying to think of a nice introductory text for our tumblr and this lemma post, that in the end we only buffed it a bit and edited to fit the leaflet. I couldn’t think of anything more catching than the sentences already made T.T
However you can find some unexpected costume spoilers in the leaflet - Cassie’s and Caren’s mermaid attires
We also included some new preview screenshots there.
If by chance you are attending Polymanga, come say hi to our friends in Artist’s Village, Razuri, Ulvar and Amaltheren at Hiraeth publisher booth
Not to mention you definitely should check out their awesome art beforehand, on their websites:
http://Razuri-chan.deviantart.com/
http://littleulvar.deviantart.com/
http://amaltheren.deviantart.com/
kairek is also working hard on last (but not least!) character from our main cast - Mr Brandon Grenville himself! kairek already identifies with him, since I mentioned his artistic view concerning mermaid costumes mirrors her ideas, so I am hoping for a fantastic outcome.
Well, the sketch says it for itself.
Brandon is an easy-going person, even though he is responsible for the whole bar, and does a good job with that, he never fitted the role of “the evil superior boss one should be afraid of”.
One may say that’s manager’s weakness - treating his subordinates as colleagues. Fortunately the mermaids don’t take advantage of that mostly because of their shared trust and respect for Brandon’s work
We are also working on some basic “timing” for the VN, finding the best places to put the CGs.
As for writing, I recently got a need to readjust and detail my scenes’ continuity to work with the flow of the story. I try not to overthink stuff and not to change everything the day after it is written….. but then again if I think something really doesn’t work the way it should, it must be changed ^^ So yeah, writing is hard
Another thing I find hard is, as kairek declared, “understanding some of those people never saw a dictionary in their life”.
Though probably not 100% true (c’mon, the mermaids have graduated high school or something at least!) I get the idea their language can’t be too official and not too stiff.
We’ll see if I understood the concept when editors put their hands on the scenario
- waji
Thank you for following our development.
If you have any remarks, comments or advice please don't hesitate to share. Feedback is extremely appreciated.
Hello everyone on yet another Update Friday!
This time we make it short - the art department progress got slower since kairek is off on her holiday. However she comes back tomorrow, so with new energy and enthusiasm - she will go back to work!
Even though Dorthy won the poll last week, there was one guy who got the same amount of votes, last of which was unfortunately too late to consider, so we called it his loss.
But, the honorable 2nd place definitely goes to:
Vito!
Vito, the happy-go-lucky member of the mermaid crew got black and white design, inspired by not so fishy mammal - an orca.
The whole design was to be somehow simple, yet distinct and majestic in a way.
Silver accessories are completed with unique head tiara.
We all know kairek designs our lovely costumes. However, in the story, Brandon is the one who is responsible for artistic designs. After they were recruited, the bartenders-slash-mermaids were asked for measurements to have their mermaid tails made. These silicone pieces of art were manufactured according to Brandon's designs.
However, some say the head tiara is Vito’s own suggestion, which probably says a lot about his sassy and a bit self-centered character.
For next week, with kairek back, we plan a bigger update both on art and story side, so keep tuned
- Waji
Thank you for following our development.
If you have any remarks, comments or advice please don't hesitate to share. Feedback is extremely appreciated.
Welcome again, everyone! ~<3
As scheduled we are back with another weekly update.
First of all, thank you very much for all the votes we got in our mid-week pool!
The results are there and the winner is…
Dorothy!
You got bewitched by her girly charm, didn’t you? :)
Actually, it is one of the earlier sprites that have been done, and the first mermaid costume designed. Dorothy, as mentioned in the character preview, emanates an aura of tranquility.
As kairek made the design, she was inspired by general idea of “sea treasures”. That’s why it includes both gold accessories and pearls - the precious stone of the depths of the ocean.
Loreen, as colorist, decided that soft tones are needed for the design. Her first idea was blue as the dominating colour, however she decided to go even softer, in the gold-pearly direction in the end.
Dorothy’s mermaid costume was stylized as the mermaid princess, ephemeral and subtle, as if she were to disappear in the sea foam any moment...
Do you like the design?
Tell us your impressions of her costume!
In the background department, we would like to elaborate a bit on probably the most important background of the game.
Which is - the Siren’s Ballad bar!
One couldn’t imagine the work of our mermaids without the title bar itself.
The apple of Brandon’s eye, Siren’s Ballad is a part of a bigger business - Picea Bay's Aquatic Kingdom Leisure Friends&Family Park. The Park itself is open for a few months already, but Siren’s Ballad starts with its mermaid shows only now, when the mermaiding crew finally gathered.
As it was designed specifically for the mermaid shows, it’s main attraction is the aquarium. The interior design was meant to resemble inside of a luxury, antique ship, thus lots of carved wood and the sailing ropes over the bar.
The solution for service in the bar is not the most popular one in the mermaiding business: the performers are also the bartenders of the bar when not performing.
And the bar itself? Well, just on the other side of a fountain plaza, the bar is at, there is a big, family restaurant. That’s why Siren’s Ballad is what it is - a bar. Alcohol beverages, assortment of teas and coffee, some small snacks. By daytime it invites people to relax with book or newspaper, in the evening it gets more of a “clubbish” feel, both because of the choice of music and the visitors’ profile.
However, with the forthcoming mermaid shows, some evenings will finally be available for special reservation - for the mermaid shows themselves!
Thank you for following our development.
If you have any remarks, comments or advice please don't hesitate to share. Feedback is extremely appreciated.
Aand, it's time for another update on the little VN of ours!
First of all, I'd like to introduce myself. I am Mnyonywaji, writer for this little project. As Abbie mentioned last week, I was on holiday so I couldn't properly help her with previous update (Last week update can be find here, on our lemma soft topic, since it was rather short we didn’t upload it here ! sorry ~Abbie)
This week we managed a few things.
We are currently working on the characters' sprites and backgrounds.
Since we have a cheerful mermaids theme twisted with horror story, our characters have a wide variety of expressions planned. From smiles and laughs to fear and terror... poor visual artists! (← says the one who planned all the expressions in the first place ;> )
What would be of a story about professional mermaids if we didn't show you....
...their swimming suits! I know, I know, you probably wanted the mermaid attire, didn't you? But professional mermaid shows are soo much about preparations, trainings, creating routines and choreography. The swimming suit is a vital part of daily life of a mermaid.
Only after lots of hard work the mermaid can finally wear her scales and create the magical atmosphere at the show.
Oh, and don't be sad. I'll talk someone into wearing their mermaid suit for the update next week
As for the backgrounds, one of them is what we want to boast about today - Loreen finished men's bedroom this time. Obviously, since these are in the same building, it looks awfully familiar with women's, right? But the little details are what make the difference! Can you try to guess who are the two guys living there?
As for writing, I resumed working on the scenario after my break. I am currently working on the not-so-horror part, where all the characters meet, develop likes and dislikes for each other etc. And it is hard, I tell you I am probably too aware that it is the part which translates to player's attachment to characters in the next part of novel, when things start going WRONG (whatever that means, I am not spoiling you now, not yet at least )
Speaking of which, you probably wondered, how come we came up with this twisted idea of cute mermaids in horror story?
It started in June, last year, when Loreen and Abbie stayed at my place for a few days.
Lots of chatting, laughing, playing board games.
One of the talks ended up in pondering about mermaids as real life performing professionals (hmm, no, I don't really remember HOW we did reach that theme, we totally jumped from topic to topic in some wickedly brainstorming).
We agreed it sounds like a nice background for VN idea, which we have thought of making for a long time already.
But as we considered obviously heartwarming idea of people performing as mermaids, we strongly declared it sounds too positive to realize it simply as it is.
And so the dark theme appeared, introducing hopefully interesting twist to the mermaiding idea.
We keep our fingers crossed that you like the final outcome!
See you next week!
- Waji
Thank you for following our development.
If you have any remarks, comments or advice please don't hesitate to share. Feedback is extremely appreciated.
