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Kuroi_Usagi

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    I love writing, coffee, and rabbits.
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    American University Life, Serumeito

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  1. This is the last post since the game is completed. If a mod sees this, could you move it to the archives? Thank you! American University Life ~Welcome Week!~ will be coming to Steam and Itch.io August 1 for $4.99! It will be available for windows, MAC OS X, and Linux. https://store.steampowered.com/app/904050/American_University_Life_Welcome_Week/ Thank you for all the support, and I hope you enjoy my first visual novel. There will definitely be more to come!
  2. The demo encompassing the first day of Welcome Week is out! There is an 18+ version and 16+ version. Itself is still unpolished, and I admit that I had rushed it out. All assets have now been acquired. The music tracks were the last assets I was waiting for and it was certainly worth the wait. The composers did a fantastic job and I couldn't be happier. The next step of the journey for me now is to continue working on the game for the full release.
  3. Here's the second character promo, starring the athletic and excitable Andrea Sanchez!
  4. Everyone knows about my VN escapades, especially since I play them on steam and link the nonsteam executables onto steam list. So my entire friends list sees it. Funnier even, I am in the process of developing a visual novel, and I've had a few friends ask me if it is an eroge. I mean...
  5. Added my first character promo for American University Life ~Welcome Week~! This week starring Leslie Herkowitz, the enigmatic, room-invading, big-sis type kuudere heroine of the group! Nearly all of the art assets have been completed, and I'll be moving onto music and sound assets soon. I'm trying to go for bossa nova for the tropical paradise vibe, and pop/edm/hip hop for the stereotypical college audio atmosphere.
  6. Update #1: Introducing our third character, and my favorite of the four, Belleruche Fontaine! One more heroine to go, Sara Su-Cheng, in the next update. Will be releasing some promos over the course of the next several months. Or weeks. The hope is I can get all my music assets in place soon to release them. Each promo vid will feature the heroines telling you their favorite part of the University of Leuther!
  7. I'll see what I can do! If there is going to be a demo, it would probably only encompass the first day. Enough to introduce you to all four heroines!
  8. Thanks for the follow! Indie dev is tough, and this is my first project ever, and it's a commercial project on top of that. I do hope I can be successful and create more content, then get into other genres. I am, hush hush, drafting a script for a mystery, sci-fi project based around artificial intelligence. That's a thread for a future date! I appreciate the compliment! The artists involved will definitely be glad to hear you enjoy their artwork. I wish I could introduce them all to you, but some of them want to remain anonymous which is completely understandable.
  9. Thanks for checking this out! I wanted to explore college because that comes with a number of different notions, reactions, and experiences as opposed to a high school setting. For example, the fun and chaos of drinking alcohol with friends, or how the people around you are comparatively more mature about their circumstances, and the antics that can happen between class schedules unrestrained by the k-12 school system. Regarding why the school only has five students has nothing to do with some mystery like the Grisaia series or VisualKey type situation. Merely, the school is VERY new, as in it will be opening for the first time, in its first year.
  10. DEMO IS OUT. GRAB IT HERE AND LEAVE SOME FEEDBACK. https://kuroi-usagi.itch.io/aul Steam and Itch.io release coming August 1st. https://store.steampowered.com/app/904050/American_University_Life_Welcome_Week/ I'd like to finally announce the first visual novel that I am producing. American University Life is an 18+, slice of life kinetic visual novel that centers around Skye and his new college friends. Set in the fictional, tropical paradise Leuther Island, a newly admitted state to the United States of America. Thanks to the efforts of the EPA and the Paris Agreement, Leuther Island has been declared an ecological haven, funded by tourism and retired billionaires. The streets are filled with eco-friendly smart cars, sprawling "green" metropolises sport the latest generation of technology, and the campus is right across the street from the beach! Premise Skye arrives to Leuther Island to attend school at the University of Leuther Island. It's like a dream. The dormitories are like villas right out of a tropical getaway magazine. The dining hall is a restaurant that serves gourmet food buffet style. There's even a golf course and five star gym? What doesn't this school have? Wait a minute, what was that? ...There are only five students at this school? Leslie Herkowitz is the first student you meet at the University of Leuther. Originally from Australia, she is 22 years old, having spent the last several years working to make enough money to study abroad in the United States. She's coming to school undeclared, unsure of what to study in college, but has a clear career goal in mind to become a wildlife activist. What could this school on a tropical paradise have in store for our foreign student? Andrea Sanchez is coming to the University on an athletic scholarship for soccer. She is all fun and games, but nothing will stand in her way of playing on the big stage. Unfortunately, being one of only five students at the school has put a damper on those plans. One can only imagine if her passion is enough to carry her forward, or will she give it all up? Belleruche Fontaine is a musical genius. She jumped on the chance to transfer schools when she learned that the University of Leuther is seeking students of exceptional artistic talents. A school with nearly no students, a haven to herself in peace? Nothing is too pristine, she didn't expect her parents to be moving with her, keeping a close eye on their daughter only a short drive away. Sara Su-Cheng, like some of us, picked a college as far away from her family as she could. Finally, she would have a room of her own. Finally, her belongings wouldn't be mishandled by her younger siblings. And finally, she could waste away the days on her computer. Too bad, some of the students here don't want to leave her be. Worse yet, she doesn't know how to hang out with people her age! *Character heights not to scale Thanks for checking out what little content I have so far! If you have stuck around this long to read this message, then that must mean you're a bit interested in it, I hope. The project itself is going at a steady pace, and I am still searching for people to complete the rest of the assets. This VN is pretty short since this only spans the length of the welcome week. It's around 35k words, and can easily be finished in one sitting. My hope is that if this takes off to some semblance of financial gain (I intend this to be commercial), then I would look in to using the profits to fund a much larger chapter of the game to span the entirety of a school year. It won't be a day by day basis, instead, the story will be scene by scene and the passage of time will be clued in through the narrative. I've debated with myself to some lengths about whether I wanted player choice in this game. Unfortunately, I am producing it alone and have come under tough financial constraints. (I missed out on a lot of steam sales this past autumn and winter in order to fund this!) I do wish, if this game is profitably successful, to incorporate player choice into the next chapter of this game! All that being said, what do you all think? Have we seen enough chitty romcom harems? Or are there not enough of it? I read/watched a lot of manga, anime, visual novels, and some light novels, all of which originated from Japan and close-knit dojin circles. I wanted to pull VERY loosely from my college experience and create a story out of it through the shoes of a westerner. I don't want this story to be a harem, though. In spite of what it may appear at first glance, I wanted to make it a wholesome and touching experience for Skye and the players to read. Stay tuned! I will update the other two characters once my character artist finishes them. Character backgrounds and additional screenshots to be updated soon! In the meantime, tell me what you think of the art? What do you think should be kept in mind as I tread the American college lifestyle? Things to touch on in the narrative or artistically to differentiate this game from other works? How should this newbie move forward in publishing and distributing his game when it is completed?
  11. Update #1 A few responses have made it to me, but there is not nearly enough to elicit the official production of this project yet. All positions are still open for you to apply to. Now, now, there's no need to be shy. If you have any questions or concerns that need to be addressed, do not hesitate to ask. To hopefully entice more potentials, I've begun writing pieces of the common route for Wraiths of Ivarholdt I will also be posting character concepts like this one of Maravahl for the rest of the clan in each update. People applying for the position of writer she is one of four characters whose routes you can choose to write. The amount of freedom you have within writing their routes is about 90% of their total story. The other 10% is working with me and other writers regarding continuity and logical precedence. Here is the link to the prologue/opening sequence in screenplay format: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxLlyhfxdTjATkdvWE9XRk55U2M/view This link is a very basic outline for Maravahl's character concept: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxLlyhfxdTjAOE5qSzRPSDZnVEE/view?usp=sharing *Frankly she's my second favorite character. Can you guess who my first may be from reading the script? I hope you enjoy reading this. Looking forward to your applications!
  12. Your opinion makes a lot of sense. Reading back on it, my protagonist's character hasn't really developed much of a personality. Very John Doe-like. Thank you. The crew should be the Daniel Hammon (captain), Ingrid Lieberman (security and physician), and Miguel Rodriguez (chef). I suppose I should make it more clear at the very beginning.
  13. Writers Note: What you are about to read is merely a chronological compilation of ordered thoughts on the conclusion I've come to draw regarding the Universe of the Little Busters!. You may find that it will be mixed with events that happened only in the anime. That is because not every piece of work is done right to perfection, and sometimes, even if it is once in a blue moon, an adaptation does produce something better than the original. Let's dive into something that's very dear to my heart. If someone were to ask me what my favorite anime would be, the first image to jump to mind would be Little Busters!. But then I would hold my tongue and take a moment to rethink. It is actually the visual novel that I am in love with, but I have found this story so endearing that I can't help but wish they would rephrase their question. It must have been three years since I've read this story, and it still resonates with me today. I have written a chronological-half-analysis-not-a-review essay of a sort. Little Busters! Origins The origins of Little Busters began when Natsume Kyousuke wanted to help his younger sister, Natsume Rin, make friends. The first member to join was Inohara Masato. In his youth, Masato felt belittled and isolated by his classmates and eventually started picking fights to stop the snickering behind his back. It worked for a time. No one laughed at him anymore, but everyone stayed away from him. His community dubbed him a monster and he felt more alone than ever. Kyousuke learned of the boy and together with Rin had set out to defeat him. The tough fight was won by the Natsume siblings and ended with Kyousuke extending Masato a hand of friendship. The next to join was Miyazawa Kengo, a young kendo prodigy. It was never explained why Kyousuke wanted to defeat him. I speculate that he thought Kengo was spending his entire childhood practicing at his father’s behest and wanted to free him. Kyousuke challenged the elder Miyazawa, defeated him, and secured Kengo's freedom. The four members eventually discovered Naoe Riki, a boy who was hospitalized after a car accident took the lives of his parents and left him with narcolepsy. 'Childhood' Around this pre-adolescent age the heroines we know and love also go through some things of their own that develops into regrets. Kamikita Komari loses her older brother which causes her to develop regressive tendencies and psychogenic amnesia. Kurugaya Yuiko grows to become a prodigal student and shuts herself from the rest of the world. Saegusa Haruka and Futaki Kanata are pitted against each other to determine who the criminal child of Saegusa Shou was. Noumi Kudryavka was in Tebua struggling in her studies to become like her mother. Nishizono Mio develops the imaginary friend and persona of Midori. The history between here and the beginning of the Little Buster's visual novel is left to the imagination. Each heroine's route gives a rather sufficient glimpse into their past such that most of their history can be inferred. In the opening of the anime adaptation of Little Busters: Refrain each member of the main gang can be seen tending to Riki, who had succumbed to narcolepsy. High school & Adolescence Let's start where they are in high school in the real world. I postulate that the gang did not form a baseball team in the real world, and instead went about their typical antics much like they did in the VN's common route during the slice of life portions of their days. It is also likely, and supported by individual characters' accounts that the main Little Busters members and the girls that would later form the other half knew little of each other. This is backed up by Kyousuke's account during his route in Refrain where he states that he looked for others who held some sort of regret in their lives. In other words, it could have been anyone! However, our Key girls likely held regrets that resonated with Kyousuke, such that he found them useful for strengthening Rin and Riki. That would imply everyone became friends over the course of the events in the artificial world(s). There are several moments of significance worth noting before the trip happens. Haruka and Riki's first meeting at her beloved bench. She laters alludes in her route that this chance meeting made the bench that much more important to her. Kud loses her mother to the chaos happening back in Tebua after the failed launch, and declined to travel to her home country to find her. Koshiki Miyuki is forced to quit archery after losing sight in one eye and commits suicide. Time goes on and the class trip arrives. Kyousuke sneaks into the bus so that he could be with the rest of his friends on his last year. Now to the juice of it. Their happy little days would come to an abrupt stop, and a new beginning would come forth. On their way, the bus suffers an accident and goes crashing down the side of a mountain. Thus begins the Little Busters story as we know from the visual novel. Kyousuke's plan has been ruined. He had created such a great place for the shy Rin and his friends. All gone because of an unforeseeable, freak accident. So he wouldn't have it. It would not be the end of it. At best he wanted to save the lives of his precious sister and dear friend Riki who had known nothing but misery for a good part of his life. It was going to be tough, because the very two he wishes to save possess the weakest hearts. They would lose their will as soon as they learn of the tragedy, but even so, Kyousuke wants them to go on. So he devises a plan to make them stronger. How? By creating an artificial world wherein they can replay the last month leading up to their accident. He would usher Riki and Rin into a series of trials to resolve each of the heroines' and Keybros' woes. Doing so, the two would undergo a forced maturation and mentally strengthen themselves in preparation for the tragedy that will ensue. The perk of this world? They can reset it almost as many times as they needed (To an extent). BUT HOW???!!! The Clock has Stopped, The Artificial World Kyousuke selected the heroines and through their cooperation, with a little help from Key magic, created an artificial world with their collective consciousness. From here until Refrain is the bulk of the Little Busters visual novel. It isn't necessary for me to talk about every heroine's route as you are likely familiar with them already. Just keep in mind that RIki will go on to fail many times before he successfully resolves each of the girls' regrets. An interesting note that there is about a month or so between Riki's awakening into the common route/artificial world and the day after the baseball game where the date cuts off. That is not counting the time between the baseball match to the class trip, and the time Riki spends with the each heroine, including the number of times he's failed. Which means that they had likely spent years within the artificial world. I wouldn't be surprised if Little Busters is Christopher Nolan's inspiration for Inception. We will never know which heroine Riki was thrown into first or whose regret he solved first. However, it is my belief that it went a little like: Heroines+Rin1>Kurugaya>Rin2>Refrain. I don't think I need to order the "Heroines" route as doing so will only be redundant. I will explain why I believe Kurugaya likely occurred right before Rin2. Let's not discuss the semantics good and bad regarding the Little Busters: Refrain adaptation. That being said, I did like some of what they did with the anime. Specifically with Kurugaya because things make sense to the story. Kurugaya Yuiko First, we can infer from her actions and manner of speaking to indicate that she is aware of the artificial world more so than the other heroines. Whether Kyousuke allows her to retain her memories or she can exert her own control like him is unclear. Though the latter makes more sense. So, why do I believe Kurugaya's route occurs right before Rin2? Most people and walkthroughs will tell you to play her route last for the reason that it spoils the artificial world. But that's just a technical detail to suggest a pseudo-forced playing order. In regards to character-motivation and chronology of the world, this is what I believe: The order in which Riki resolves each girl's regret, Kurugaya Yuiko's route directly precedes the Heroines'+Rin1 routes because she could not have developed an interest in love as she did in her route without seeing the profound effects it had on the other heroines in their respective routes. She discovered love. What does this feeling compel her to do? She creates her own world to explore this foreign emotion as many times as she wants, for as long as she wants so long as her world holds. A world that Riki will experience many times over. A theory that I developed is that each person has a certain amount of energy in which they can shape their own world. This energy is expendable, and expends at a rate proportional to how much detail goes into their respective world. All of the Little Busters had been pooling in their energy to sustain many worlds/routes. Komari, Haruka, Kud, and Mio in particular expanded their world beyond the school and by the time Riki helped each them their energy had nearly depleted. What I believe happened was that when Kurugaya finally wanted to explore the feeling of "love" none of the heroines had enough energy to support her world but herself. She didn't want to go to the Keybros for help because her wish deviates from Kyousuke's plan. So she created her world It is why she calls it, "selfish," because: On a thematic note she would keep Riki from maturing. She was sustaining her own world for her own sake. The theory supports this because the extent of Kurugaya's world was within the school to mitigate energy loss, and most of it was spent in the broadcasting room. She then spent what energy she had left to repeatedly recreate the world, and to expend as little as possible rendered it less and less distinguishable from the previous until it became an exact repeat. It makes sense why, in the anime, right after her arc ends she is not seen disappearing with the other girls (Another thing the anime did well to portray). Rin2 In Rin2, we have the final mission. The secret of the world. Rin must survive on her own at their sister school, but all that becomes too much for her to bear. After everything that she had gone through the final task was insurmountable to her. Riki confronts Kyousuke at the dead of night who affirms that he was the mastermind behind the "Secret of the World" missions. However, he after their conversation was interrupted, he was only left with more questions. Eventually he convinced Kyousuke to allow Rin to visit. Riki, having seen the strain this mission has been on her, brought Kengo to his side and challenged Kyousuke to a game of baseball with the hopes of bringing her back permanently. Riki and Kengo lost due to CHEAP TRICKS. Riki ran away with Rin but is later caught and taken back to school. Little Busters!: Refrain Kyousuke will ask Masato and Kengo to help him create the artificial world again. Despite the foul play Kyousuke pulled on Kengo the latter agrees to help one last time, but with his own condition: should Riki fail this time, he will no longer give his assistance and instead spend what remains of their time in the world playing. The world resets once again and Riki enters Refrain. Everyone who has read or seen Refrain knows what happens here, and there should be no confusion as to the chronological order of the route. Riki goes on to recruiting Masato and then Kengo in a similar fashion to how Kyousuke did when they were younger. Together, the four will pull Kyousuke from despair just as he had done for Riki in the past. The original team plays baseball one last time, say their goodbyes, and the artificial ceases to exist. The Clock Ticks Again Or so they thought. What happens next has been a matter of debate for some time now. I have identified three possibilities. 1) Key Magic. This possibility is the least satisfactory because it is synonymous to an ass-pull. It is a trademark that Key likes to use in many of their works. Most recognizable is In a similar, but unseen fashion, Riki and Rin acquires their world's form Key Magic from solving everyone's regret. Thus curing Riki from his narcolepsy and giving them a second chance at saving their friends and classmates. 2) Limbo/ TV Lost-factor/ Escapism. This is one of the two most probable outcomes that I have long debated since finishing the visual novel. It also makes sense in a real world point of view. Unfortunately, this outcome would condemn Little Busters as one of the most tragic and heartbreaking stories humanity has ever told. In this possibility, the Little Busters and classmates are not saved. Riki and Rin's story ends when they escape and the former succumbs to narcolepsy. He wakes up in a hospital and finds Rin huddled up in the corner of the room. Unwilling to accept their condition, the two create a fantasy world within their consciousness to escape the horrible tragedy. An imaginary world where the Little Busters are alive and well, and they are still going about their youth. The heroine's routes can be seen as Riki going through the Kübler-Ross model, commonly known as the Five Stages of Grief, for Riki. The order goes as follows:Komari represents denial. Seeing the dead cat evoked the repressed memories of her brother having died. She refused to accept this truth and in order to cope, while under the temporary influence of a regressed state, started believing Riki to be her brother. Haruka represents anger. Recall that a good portion of her route involved trying to find the right person to direct her rage towards. At first it was Kanata, then Saegusa Shou, then her "parents," and at some point, herself. Mio represents bargaining. Her route revolved around exchanging her life for Midori's. She truly believed that letting Midori take her place would grant her redemption for having forsaken her. Kud represents depression. Bear with me. This one took some research.Aaron Beck developed what is known in the field of psychology as the "Beck Depression Inventory." It is a test to measure an individual's level of depression. There are three negative cognitions that he developed from another theory. It is as follows.The student has negative thoughts about the world The student has negative thoughts about his future The student has negative thoughts about his self [*]What does this have to do with Kud? Well, throughout the anime and visual novel she makes repeated remarks to demean herself. She is probably making fun of herself more than any bully ever did: she lacks confidence about her own image, concluded that she would fail the exam before it even began, and expected no one would ever want to be her roommate. There is more to list but the most damning is that she originally went back to Tebua to die. "Ни пу́ха, ни пера" "Ni puha, ni pera," "Neither fur, nor feather." [*]Kurugaya represents acceptance. This is a bit of a stretch, yeah? Her route makes her seem more like she was in denial. A different approach to seeing how her route went down is that she knew and accepted death, but before she dies she would use her remaining time to experience love. She lets go of her "selfish" wish in the end because she understood the inevitability of her situation, and her letting Riki go was the ultimate symbolism of accepting mortality. 3) Natsume Kyousuke. The second of the two most probable outcomes and the outcome I have come to accept. This possibility banks on the very man who was the origins of the Little Busters, and the one who orchestrated plan to save Riki and Rin. The man with the plan, the master schemer, the Darkness Executives, Mask the Saitou, CHEAP TRICKS. It is not so outrageous to believe Kyousuke had a backup plan. In this outcome, Kyousuke creates one final world to test Riki and Rin's resolve to save everyone. Beginning when the duo supposedly first exits the artificial and ending where Riki and Rin wakes up in front of the bus crash for the second time. Wait a minute. Doesn't Rin and Komari meet one final time in the artificial world? Precisely. Which is why Kyousuke's backup world theory makes sense, and why the anime did a very good job in writing a scene that does not exist visual novel. The scene being where the girls except Komari disappears. Even after the boys disappear and the world collapses, Komari should still be there somewhere, right? That's because Komari did not leave yet, and she didn't leave because she found her way into the last world Kyousuke had created for Riki and Rin. There, Komari was able to meet Rin one last time to give her the courage she needed. Riki (though still an inexplicable miracle) overcame his narcolepsy, and together with Rin were successful in saving everyone who was on the bus, including the Little Busters. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I am sure there are countless other conclusions people have reached on their own, and this is just one of them. At first I only wanted to compile my thoughts and give it a rest. Then I ended up typing a small essay and thought sharing it would be nice, too. It is always important to keep an open mind, but never let someone give you all the answers without first taking the time to sort out your own. I hope my version of the Little Busters! conclusion gave you just an inkling of clarity to their story. I enjoyed writing this and I hope you did, too! I am always open to discussing stories so feel free to drop a message or comment!
  14. I've been working on a mystery novel. Inspired by Agatha Christie after reading a few of her works. I only submitted the prologue and first chapter. ~5000 word count. If you're interested in reading more, let me know. I've written up to three chapters. Total word count 15,017 Please, any critism on the introductory pages would be very welcomed! https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxLlyhfxdTjAeXJhd0J6aTFBSEk/view?usp=sharing
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