adorable rockets

Best. Present. Ever.

Kawaii~!

Wow! The response to Starlight has been phenomenal! I’ve received a lot of attention directly on this blog and not just on the Ren’Py forums, which was completely unexpected! I apologize for not responding sooner (holidays don’cha’know) but I’ve asked the stars of Starlight to help me respond to the comments now that we are all back and ready to work in the new year!

Hmmm… now that I check my mail bag it seems the majority are bug reports… orz

Actually, I am very grateful! They are super helpful and they will all be addressed in the imminent (and hopefully final) 1.1 release. That said, onto the letters!

Author
The strangest thing for me is how all the characters look off-camera. This is the first ren-ai game I ever played, and so I cannot know if this is an aestetic and visual language of the genre, or a creative trick to let them talk to each other and the player without turning, or something else entirely. But it definitely stands out.

I’ll answer that! Author, you’re quite right. Visual Novels in general use a limited number of poses so you want each graphic to be as flexible as possible. That means usually they either always look at the camera and never at each other, or sometimes look at the camera when speaking directly at the player, and just somewhere off into space if they’re speaking to each other.
“Off into space?”

Ah, ha, ha! Um… Moving right along… why don’t you answer this next one?

Author
When played full-screen (which is the default), the picture is stretched to fit the widescreen dislplay. It should have been letterboxed off the sides at the minimum. Although it may be better to produce the whole thing 16:9, it’s 2007 after all.

Duh! Widescreen would be much cooler for our debut! If only Rocket wasn’t so lazy! Maybe for our next mission…
Right then… thanks for that… um… interesting reply. Rose, quick the next letter!

Ellume
Very well done! Heck, I would buy a game like this with a full story. I look forward to seeing more.

Oh! Thank you! We hope to bring you the first real episode of Starlight by this spring, but it will take lots of work so we look forward to getting some help!

sixten
Good stuff. I played through to “Good Ending 2/3″ and I was surprised how seriously I took the choices. I used to read Star Wars and Star Trek novels a lot in the past, but quit when my tastes turned to the moe side of the force. Not only does your game bring back memories, it also indulges my desire for cuteness. It’s like an amateur Galaxy Angel. You, sir, pierce the freaking heavens. … By comparing our work, it’s clear that we share the same moe obsession and technical drawing skills, so I’m guessing we think alike. And if that “Honi!” at the end of your credits is a Potemayo reference, not only do we think alike, we are kindred spirits.

Wow! Thanks! I think this letter deserves a special response, right Violet?
…
Violet!
Ah… “I’ve always dreamed of having a “bosom” friend…a true kindred spirit!”
Please help us Onee-chan! You’re our only hope!

Get it now! (^_^)

Starlight Mac 1.01

Starlight Linux 1.01

Starlight Windows 1.01

Note: Small bug was found with version 1.0, please be sure to get 1.01!

The World to Reverse is a unlikely little pairing of hobbyist visual novels, fan-subbed as part of an annual fan-subbung of visual novels contest (say that three times fast). As I mentioned before, the majority these works serve as socialization simulators. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with that – on the contrary it’s a fascinating, innovative use of the medium and I plan to continue that train of thought when I get back to the rise of Moé.

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Back when I was in elementary school there was a series of books called “Choose Your Own Adventure“. Poorly written light action and adventure written in the first person, the books featured a few pages of story then what was usually a fairly random choice for the reader. Go down the scary tunnel and turn to page 83, or climb up the ladder and turn to page 45.

In a sense they were a primitive form of hypermedia used to implement a primitive form of adventure games, and that’s probably why I liked them so much. Sure I knew the story was dreck, and I was constantly frustrated by the game aspect. The choices you made often had fairly arbitrary consequences – which led Princess just read the ones she encountered cover to cover! But they were interactive. I was in control.

So, that’s basically what I expected when I sat down to play my first Visual Novel. A Choose Your Own Adventure with pretty girls and the promise of nekkidness if I “choose wisely.” What I discovered was something completely different, and something that did give me a far greater insight into the development of moé and anime culture.

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It’s just an anime drawing! vs. It’s just an anime drawing!

In the process of researching Moé literature I’ve come to realize I’m going to have to devote at least one essay to the topic of Loli and one to the topic of Eroge and Visual Novels. This is not either of those essays.

However when I saw the above character summary for a ero-game (one that is being translated and brought to the US mind you) I just had to stop and comment. In many ways this single image allows us to dive right into the issue of “2-D complex” and why many writers on and consumers of anime culture, moers, otaku and casual fans are so invested in the concept.

In case you missed it, the notable detail in the picture above is the claim that Aya is 18 years old.

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