Chocolatemilkgod

I'd recommend Yu-No. It's unique in several ways, the first being it is the only VN in the top 94 on vndb from the 90s, originally being released in 1996 (I counted; it's 23rd best of all time going according to the Bayesian-adjusted score, and 95th is Kannon from 1999). It has a very interesting and unique way of telling the reader its story since it's a VN adventure game, so you can interact with objects and things you see around you. It's also quite complicated as a result and it branches out a LOT. The visual walkthrough for the game is here... yeah. I would highly recommend using the vndb walkthrough if you want to preserve your sanity and/or will to live if you're bad at adventure games (like me). Also, because it's from the 90s, the art style is quite old but not in a bad way. It's very interesting to see how VNs have evolved since then. Finally, because everything is branched, there are quite a number of differences between the stories told in each route. Anyway, I'm nearly done reading it at the moment, and although it did take a little bit to get into, I've had a lot of fun with it. Being one of the highest rated VNs on vndb, it can't be that bad!

June Update Where the hell did you go? Hi guys. Remember when we said we’d do fortnightly updates to keep you guys up to date with everything that we’ve been doing and to keep you engaged? ……… Well… suffice to say, they didn’t exactly pan out as planned. This is due to a variety of reasons, the most pivotal being the evil monstrosities known as university exams. Luckily, though, they are for the most part through for everyone. Huzzah! At any rate, sorry for not keeping up with you guys (blame helv... because everything is his fault ). The new and improved plan for updates will have us updating every 2-3 weeks now that we’re freer. We’ll also cycle through different members of staff so that you have a chance to meet the team (and ask questions if you want!); this also helps to spread the workload out, which is a welcomed change. Hopefully, we should be able to keep up with this schedule better. So... have you actually been doing anything? Unfortunately, due to complications with our university/work lives, progress hasn’t been as much as we would have liked. HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean we haven’t been doing anything! We’re still planning our final v3 demo release sometime in the very far future soon. As to what ‘soon’ actually entails is a little unclear right now, but we should have it done over the summer at some point. I don’t want to spoil all of the new and updated things in the demo (we might tease more in future updates), but among the changes include: • Beautiful sprites§ that won’t make your eyes bleed. • A bigger, cleaner, and all around more engaging script. • CHIBIS!!!!!!!!!!!!11 • Original music!‡ • And more! §Thank you so much to DarkSin for his hard work <3; orders of magnitude better than the horrific 3DCG eyesores that we had to make do with before. ‡Only a few tracks as of yet, but Vokoca has done amazing work so far <3. He deserves a bit of a break after having exams that seemed to have last for about 3 months. No, seriously. What the hell. I hope you’re excited as I am for this release!... because it’s been a huge amount of work :S. But it’s shaping up to be pretty great, and more representative of what the final product will be than the alpha builds we showed before. What is this Corner thing? As a part of the violet hill team, I’ve grown to have many nicknames. Choco, duff and ‘That eejit who does the editing’ are amongst the most common, but I’m also known as an idea man. Sure, most of them crash and burn in hilarious fashion (guess who came up with the fortnightly update plan...), but, as in words of Monty Python, if you throw enough castles (or ideas) at something, eventually they’ll stick... or at least that’s the theory. What this lengthy self-indulgent train of thought is leading to is a new idea: each update, we’ll have a little section called the Corner where we post little snippets of what we’ve been working on. They can be part of the overarching violet hill project, or just wee things we’ve been working on at school or on the side (most of them should be stuff from or about violet hill, though). Hopefully this generates some more discussion amongst you guys, because we live on your support! (I wonder how long until this idea spirals away into nothingness...) Today, we have a little collage DarkSin has put together for you lot. Also, I’ve gone to the liberty of posting the unobscured original sketch of Rin on the right (one of the characters in Violet Hill!) for your viewing pleasure. Because Sin’s art = <3. ^If you liked that art, you’ll definitely want to play demo v3, if you get my meaning (nudge nudge wink wink). What’ll be on the next update’s Corner? Whatever we can scrounge up Obviously something with profound impact, and definitely not something we put together at the last minute. Look forward to it! <Insert shameless advertising question here> As I said previously, we live on your support guys. It’s what keeps the project strong and us wanting to work on it. So please, leave replies down below if you feel like it, and ask questions. Start discussions. Have fun! That’s the whole point. If you are really inspired by the fact that we’re giving up our time and energy to give the community a fun visual novel (that’s shaped by the responses we get from the community itself!) and want to help us out, you’re able to do so! Simply playing the demo when it comes out and telling us what you liked, didn’t like, etc. helps us IMMENSELY by gauging YOUR response. If you’re really really inspired, you may be able to join the team as an active member, and have your name in the credits of the completed game! Just leave a reply or message me (or Helvetica standard). I’ll probably include a list of positions that we’d like to fill closer to our demo release. Closing So, despite the fact that we have terrible PR and everyone was too busy to update any of our posts (good job us), the project is still very much alive and working! Leave your feedback, questions, replies blah blah etcetera etcetera down below, and I’ll see you next time. ... Oh, and also wish Vokoca luck on his final English Lit. exam. Good luck, and bye bye~~. The Editor Chocolatemilkgod

"So basically Higurashi no Naku Koro ni>Kai>Rei with each containing 4 arc(rei 3 arc) and they are all translated with grahic patch?" The order to play is Higurashi no naku koro ni and then Higurashi no naku koro ni kai. The VN for Rei has not been translated. You can play ni and kai with the PS2 patch (art patch), and there are also a few other patches on the tweaking higruashi wiki, but I don't know what exactly they do (they're not critical at any rate). "What about the Matsuri,Kizuna, and manga arc? are they just spin off or continue the story? what order should i play them in? are they translated?" I don't know specifically, but I would imagine that they're just extras; ni and kai have the full story, so you only have to read them... you can go looking for extras after, though. "And it is critical we play Higurashi before Umineko?" There are a few spoilers in Umineko of Higurashi, so I'd definitely read Higurashi first (well, they're not explicit spoilers, but I wouldn't risk it).

Thanks for any feedback you can give. v2 still has some issues (the prologue was a little rough, some parts needed a little more detail, some needed to be cut down a little etc.) BUT you can definitely see where we're going, at least. v3 will have hopefully have fixed most of the writing issues (when I have the time to do it...), and may start to have some of the new sprites, too (currently v2 still uses the god-awful 3DCG sprites, but it'll be a while until the new sprites have all the expressions, clothing etc done). Still, it still was a lot of work, so I hope you enjoy v2 <3.

Thanks ^^. If you have any questions about how we're (attempting) to do things, don't hesitate to ask... although, to be brutally honest, we're sort of just making it up as we go along... but that's fine . Best of luck on your project, too, looking forward to seeing what that develops into. If you ever want to discuss ideas or something as well, you can just message me here on fuwa (I don't know if that's in anyway helpful, but...) Wow! Thanks a lot! I'll send you a message shortly about the specifics, but your work is really awesome <3. Obviously some of the electronica, although really well done, doesn't fit the theme of the VN, but others like 'The Golden Eagle' and 'The Aftermath' are really good matches. Seriously, this really helps a lot! Honestly, applicability for real-life resumes is nothing tangible. That said, it would gain you a lot of respect in the VN community and (more importantly) it would help you develop your skills in certain areas that almost certainly would help you in real life. I've certainly gotten a lot better at editing and writing informally since I started... mind you I'm in no way good at it still, but I've improved and had a lot of fun along the way <3.

Primarily, QC involves being.... well, sort of a secondary editor. So, after I've done my editing and impressions etc., I'll send it to Helv who will then send it to QC. Their job is to read through everything, weed out any parts that still are rough and to provide suggestions. Most of the work will have (hopefully) been done by me, but I may note down 'problem' areas that I may want a second opinion on, or that I had trouble changing on my own. No past experience or anything is required, just that you have a good grasp of English (preferably a native speaker, but not necessarily required). If you're interested, you can have a trial run! At the very worst, you'd just get to read a slightly newer version of the scripts ahead of everyone else, so you don't really have anything to lose. Plus, we'll send you (and anyone else who's interested) all of the <3s.

Huh, you're right. I was so absorbed in the new eyes that I failed to notice XD Luckily, I don't think that should be too difficult to fix. Thanks for letting us know.

Update Time! Hi fuwa. It's been a while since our last update, but we've been working!... well most people have. I've been doing a lot of uni work, but... oh well. Close enough. I'm proud to give you our February update <3. Most of this update is centred around art, so get ready (it's ironic the guy with no artistic or graphical talent is doing the update post, but just roll with it...)! Staff update The biggest staff update is that we have a new member on the team, Maoh, who is working as a chibi artist. Thanks a lot to him! He’s been working hard, and it’s really appreciated! That makes the current violet project team: Head Honcho: Helvetica Standard Editor-in-chief: Me, chocolatemilkgod Chibi artist/Chibi CG artist: Maoh QC: ????? (we're a little lacking in this department... help?) Beta testing: Linkman19, Yachi and Kaguya Lyrics for the yaoi joke end: OMA People we haven't hear from in a while Azada Dubs Hazel-bun Kaskade Now for the meat of the post! Progress report Again, welcome to Maoh. Here is some of his chibi artwork <3 Lovely, aren’t they? The aim is to eventually have several chibi CGs, too (à la Grisaia). I think that’ll add a lot to the overall feel to the game, so look forward to more <3. Meanwhile, on the editing front... Wellllllll... I’ve made some progress, so that’s good, right? Sort of?... Nah, jokes, I'm going literally insane I’m working on a v3 of the chapter 1 scripts based on the feedback we received from v1 and v2 (thank you beta testers and Tay!). I’ve also had a skim over the chapter 2 scripts as well. We’re a long way off, but it’s slowly coming together... soon. Speaking of beta testers... They’re hard at ‘work’, nothing compared to the editing hell I’m in... *grumble grumble*. Seriously, though, thanks to the people we’ve received feedback from! If you want to be a regular beta tester and get to have a look at stuff earlier than other people, just drop me a line. And now... a history of the sprites. It is a story full of despair, regret and, most prominently, lots and lots of redos. Here’s how it went. Initially, we were planning to just use custom 3D girl sprites. Here’s an example: This was primarily done because we didn’t have the resources nor the time to have much more. Still, after much complaining (mainly from me ), we decided it was best to try to find an artist. So, we looked! And looked... and looked... and looked some more... and a little more... etc etc repeat ad nauseam. So we gave up trying to look for an artist, and Helv started working on the sprites himself. It started with Rin’s sketch... And with a little bit more work... The end result was much better than any of us expected! Hooray! Hahaha... then he had to do it again with ALL the heroines... RIP helv... but he persevered, and they started to come together. Sketching: Outlining: Basic colour: Magical photoshop things I don’t understand: And voila! But something still needed work... the eyes. They were rather lacklustre and plain... so Helv played around with blending! Uhhhhhhhhh... luckily this didn’t stick around for that long. But eye blending v2.0, drawing heavily from Mark Crilley’s tutorial on youtube, meant that beautiful eye blending was born, and I had won (I was the one who complained about the eyes too... heh). Here are a couple of final/nearly final versions. and And here’s the final progression of akane's sprite: Keep in mind the fact that they’re resized can sometimes mess up the some of the interplay of the colour. So... that’s everything! I hope you enjoyed reading, and stay tuned for the next post that should be coming relatively soon! I’ll leave you with Maoh’s chibis again: Because why not? Thanks a lot guys, The Insane Biochemist

Thank you for the feedback! Definitely looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the rest as you're the type of person we really need as an editor/QCr/tester who gives us helpful criticisms outright without holding back any punches. Anyway, as regards to your technical comment about the text size, I'm not entirely sure how to accomplish this. I'm not the programmer (and my scripting doesn't extend far past using a few macros in excel/SSPS... so pardon my general ignorance), but at the moment the lines are defined manually. E.g.: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. \nThe quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Would be two lines of the same sentence. Problem is that because they're defined manually with the use of \n to connect two different strings together in the same box, if you change the text size, the whole thing becomes misaligned (the endings of all the lines will be cut off). I'm sure there has to be a way to have renpy automatically do it itself, but I don't know how... it would definitely be a nice improvement if we can figure it out (although it'd be a pain having to change the lines afterwards, but whatever). And I definitely agree about the dripping sound, that needed to be at a lower frequency since they were dropping too quickly... Onto the actual writing suggestions, I'd agree. The descriptions had a tendency to, unfortunately, be a little bit... for a lack of a better phrase, all over the place. It interfered with what should have otherwise been an effective 'fish hook' to get the reader's complete attention. A lot of the issues will probably be sorted out by QC who can clean up the otherwise convoluted descriptions and perhaps move lines around... I hope. The first ~100 lines suffer from this issue the greatest. I don't know how much I can do since I'm suffering from 'viewing your own text syndrome' when you loose your objectivity from rereading a piece of text too much and find it difficult to change things... (am I the only one who gets this?... it usually goes away if I distance myself from the text for a while, though) The sentence/line/whatever spacing could also use some work, too. I left that mostly unchanged since I presumed it to be a stylistic choice, but I think what you suggested (i.e. more effective grouping) would enhance the reading.

Here is an update for the art in Violet Hill! Since we are hard pressed to find free artists who have the time to work on the sprites for the game, Helvetica has messed around with some drawing on his own. Here is the result: This is Rin 2.0 as Helv had originally imagined her (a less... 'meaty' version than the 3DCG sprite that was being used before). Doing all the sprites himself with all the expression and clothes changes is a huge undertaking (especially if we would ever want to add any pose changes...) and will take a while to do considering his schedule... but it will result in a better visual novel. We would still very much appreciate any artists to help out (there's still a lot to be done in the art department, like other sprites and CGs if we ever want them), but at the very least we will have some pretty sprites to work with <3 (since I found the other ones horrendous...). Also, as a side note, I actually really like helv's art. He was lying when he said he couldn't draw >.<

Do I even have to say how rude this is? The story has been edited, as said previously. There's a rather large distinction between 'needing a little QC' and 'unedited draft', as you put it. The story is plenty playable, and, bar a little bit of clean up with QC, there's not really anything that needs a lot of work (if you're really REALLY bent on it, there will be a more up to date version of the demo coming out, probably in next couple of days). Moreover, I find it difficult to believe that you can arrive at this conclusion without even playing the demo. How can it jolt you out of the story if you haven't even played it?! I'm not really sure where you're getting the 'forced prose' part from either. I mean, thanks for the advice (I guess?), but I'd much prefer if you actually read the story before just bashing our work going by the screenshots alone, especially when they're subject to change. I don't appreciate the insinuations, either. This is supposed to be a friendly community project where people can discuss ideas and have fun with the project; we'd love to hear people's ideas! However: while we welcome all feedback, positive or negative, there's a fine line between constructive and helpful observations and those that are not.

Yeah... that's sort of my fault. I hadn't really edited anything before then so the beginning part (~300 lines?) is in need of some QC (well, the whole thing could use a bit of polish, but that part in particular). It should hopefully clear up after that, though... at least I thought it did when I read back over it, haha. Anyway, thanks for the feedback! Tell us what you think about the rest of it after the starting bit.

Looking forward to seeing people's comments when the demo version download is posted later this week <3.

Christmas is the time when I actually get to come home from uni and to have a breather. Unfortunately, my parents are in the US and I go to uni in the UK, so the whole ordeal involves me having to navigate several trains (including the dreaded London tube system) so I can be at Heathrow for my flight... not the most fun. That said, once I actually get home, it's pretty low key since we just have a small family. I think we've always used a fake tree (with far too many lights) and end up opening presents on Christmas day, and then having a turkey for dinner. A bit boring, yes, but a welcome change.

Merry christmas! I definitely liked the heterochromia in steve's first image he posted... and, no, my avatar doesn't make me biased... much.

Welcome <3. Nice art, by the way.

Welcome welcome! Long live the little busters <3

Voices are pretty cool. I don't mind if they're not there (Higurashi is in my top 3, and it's unvoiced), but if they are used, then it's usually a good thing. There are some exceptions to the rule, though. For example, Coco's screechy banshee voice from ever17, as fun as her character was, made my ears bleed... so that went off in a heartbeat. There's also an issue for me as I read quite fast; consequently, I tend to read much faster than the person talking, and end up cutting them off. Still, I prefer to at least have the option of having the voices since there are plenty of scenes in VNs that would loose at least part of their impact if not for the voices.

Fired up Hoshizora no Memoria and enjoying it so far, although I'm only slightly passed the OP. I haven't read a proper VN since the Umineko debacle, so hopefully this will get me back into them,

Belated welcome from me.

I could care less if it was just H scenes, I skip past them anyway. But: A ) Having a low quality localisation and B ) Removing actual parts of the story Causes me to start to take issue. If they choose a VN that's less reliant on adult themes and actually do a good quality localisation, then I'll be all for them; I'm all for a new company translating.

It would be cool, at least when everything is set up and you know what you're doing, to get fortnightly reports or something... I dunno. In any case, good luck with it guys!

Welcome welcome! And, yes, grisaia is an excellent choice in the top 5.

Oh yeah, waiting is a good call... probably. We don't know exactly when it'll come out, but my guess is within the next 3-6 months, although that could be a little optimistic. This here is the translation log for it, so they're ~61% done with the translation part of it, which is pretty good. For me, it's great since I read little busters a long enough time ago that replaying the full version will be buckets of fun.

Very interesting! I'd offer to edit, but I'm already working on another VN project (over 10k lines to edit already... yay?) and my time was limited enough before then...so that probably wouldn't work out very well. That said, I am quite curious as to some of the themes that you're working on. Do you know the genre you're going for (sci-fi, fantasy, modern, romance... heck, even amalgamations of many genres, so many possibilities, very cool)? And which engine will you be using for the VN anyway? There's also the question of music etc. that comes along with a VN, but that can wait until you know what you're working with, I suppose. Anyway, community projects are great, so I'm excited to see what will come of this. EDIT: Just saw the Ren'py programmer, I got so excited I forgot how to read, whops.