we're finally notdotq anymore

lolikappa’s retrospective into the future brought to my attention the fact that lelangir is going to have been hit by a car this year. A suspicious comment of ghostlightning’s on GRSI made me think: maybe the good’ol bansheeelectro has insider info on these events!

Everyone knows otou-san is actually ghostlightning, since ghostlightning is now otou-san!

I did some sleuth work—namely, I went into WRL’s admin panel using digiboy’s account—and I found the following draft (DRAFT!) in the ancient fucker’s post queue.

Proof positive.

This is all part of a ghastly plan!

In early February, ghostlightning will announce the next meatspace get-together for the FAB. lelangir, for whatever reason (probably not in the cloud, hidden deep in ghostlightning’s personal files), will be on the island, and he’ll join them.

Don’t join them, lelangir!

It’s a trap!

You know what they say about self-fulfilling prophecy?

I don’t know what that faggot ghostlightning has been up to, but I’ve been working on my visual novel. I made this promise on Twitter already, but here it is with a bit more info:

=-= This Friday, July 31st =-=
I will release version 0.1 of my visual novel CCY-senpai wa 17sai, a satirical epic featuring our beloved eternally youthful senpai CCY. Last version released was version 0.04, in which I introduced a ton more story and some background images.

This version will bring many new things to the table.

1. The first smatterings of Sixten’s contributions to the game. CCY’s sprite will be present in every scene, and one of the backgrounds is Sixten’s.

2. Music. lelangir transcribed some anime music, so we have suitably annoying midi backgrounds.

3. More story. Lots more story. More branching, more options, more bad ends, more good ends.

4. Character art from Choux: five beautiful character sprites to liven up the game’s scenes.

And there’s more… touched up dialogue, improved ending notes, credits, an opening, and, well, more. I won’t enumerate it all here. But there will be a changelog when I release the game this Friday. It’ll be good.

This is a major leap forward from last release.

And remember: this won’t be a final version of the game. It’s still very much unfinished. There will be more releases as I make suitable progress in the future. Continued community feedback throughout the game’s development is crucial to a good final product, so please: play every release and comment in as much depth as possible!

Thank you, and look forward to Friday.

You might notice the new bar at the top of this site, displaying moneys. Here’s the deal: Sixten is making kickass art for my CCY-senpai Visual Novel project. This art, being kickass, costs money. Money is something I have a little bit of, but mostly it’s going toward things like food and rent. The art, being kickass, deserves money (more than Sixten asked for, actually).

I do not believe shirking the responsibility of paying for this artwork is acceptable. However, it’s a hefty blow to me to just dish out a few hundred dollars.

As such, I am accepting donations.

See, normally, with art as good as what Sixten’s, I’d pay him out of my pocket and then sell the game, and make this disgusting thing called a profit. I’m not interested in that profit thing, and I’m not interested in making anyone pay for my game. It will be distributed for free at every stage in its development. That’s a promise.

And because I’m not making money off of it with which to recover from paying Sixten, I ask those of you in the target demographic (anime bloggers) who may or may not have five dollars, ten dollars, twenty dollars lying around to spend on a bit of entertainment, to spend those spare dollars on a bit of entertainment.

Lest you think I am trying to shift the entirety of the payment onto the community, think again: I have shifted the donation count up by $100: I am only asking for donations for the remaining two thirds. (The extra 20 dollars are from an anonymous benefactor, who shall remain anonymous unless he or she desires otherwise.)

• • Donations should be made via Paypal.
• • My account is dotq11@gmail.com .
• • If the deal with Sixten falls through, I will reimburse all donors.
• • If development of the game ends prematurely, I will pay Sixten personally and reimburse all donors.
• • If you need convincing that Sixten’s art is worth a couple of your dollars, see: Exhibit A / Exhibit B / Exhibit C / Exhibit D.

To all who contribute: thank you.

And finally: I have decided that this project will see fruition. I once joked that I was doing something dumb for fun and it wouldn’t go anywhere. The community spirit that subsequent “releases” of my game stirred up was gratifying; I felt, I should really deliver this. And then people began contributing things to the game. Choux made five amazing character portraits. lelangir sent me music to use. And so on. I can’t and won’t let the community down: I will complete this game.

The year is officially half-over, and I have not been very good to my readers. I make no promises of amelioration, but I will make a conscious effort to post more.

Here’s what I watched today:

1. Queen’s Blade 12.

I wondered why this was so bad until I realized I was watching it at 1x instead of 2 or 3x as I usually do bad shows like these. Damn this was painful. Gotta love Nowa, though. Anyhoo, I’d celebrate the conclusion of another terrible series, but there’s gonna be another season! I’m a glutton for punishment, as one of my older brother’s coworkers said the other day.

2. Queen’s Blade Special 1.

I jizzed in my pants… for values of “jizz” equal to “vomit” and values of “in my pants” equal to “all over.”

3. Clannad: Another World, Kyou Chapter

Once again, Tomoya is made shallower such that he can hook up with a girl in the space of two minutes’ worth of montage. Once again, teenagers are melodramatic. Once again, there is a happy ending. Though this episode focused on Kyou, I’m sure Captain Miao is seething—her thighs didn’t feature much. All in all, a bit of a waste of time, though you gotta love Kyoto Animation’s signature stumbling rainy tears.

Apologies for the lack of screencaps. I deleted all three of the above abominations from my computer before I decided to blog them.

Briefly, on the topic of what I’ve been watching recently…

- I started both Touka Gettan and Haibane Renmei. I expect to enjoy both, in different ways. I’ll keep you all updated on how that goes.

- Eden of the East I’m at 5/11 on, and will finish once the opportunity arises (I’m waiting for SAKI to get some free time so we can watch it together).

- Sengoku Brosara is proving to be total shit, but it’s been fun to laugh at the ridiculousness. Unfortunately, starting with Azai’s death the fun factor all but disappeared. Kinda lame. I’ll finish this sometime but it’s not a huge priority…

- Haruhi Hog Summer is repulsive beyond belief. I already could barely stand episode two, stating that it was a worse waste of time than watching Queen’s Blade, and then lolikappa gave me the inside scoop on episode three. Seriously, Kyoto Animation? Go die. Now. Whores.

Eventually I’ll make some progress on the shows I’ve had on hold for a long time: Skip Beat, Mouryou no Hako, Michiko to Hatchin, Zettai Shounen, Kurozuka, Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora, and A Certain Magical Index. I’m also going to rewatch more Aria soon; you can expect some feedback on all of the above at some point, even if it’s not in much depth.

Things I’m not looking forward to: A Certain Scientific Railgun, Darker than Black 2. Both are abominations of the mind. Aberrations as it were. Do. Not. Want.

Finally, I’ve got my netbook, a sexy Dell Mini 10 that had some issues running Jaunty initially but is now puttering along just great with stellar battery life and an amazingly usable keyboard. If I get Ren’py onto the thing, I might be able to work on my VN on the go, which would greatly increase the chances of a v0.05 sometime this summer!