ANARYU'S PROFILE

Exactly how it works - you could take model files created by someone who has/works in Live2D and put them in your game without ever having to pay Live2D, just pay for the extension for VNM.

I'm really hoping VNM updates their Live2D support soon, it's currently a nasty mess, in particular it's inaccurate and a bit misleading (or they're keeping some secrets!)

The artist I work with picked up and learned Live2D and we've found that while models need to be in 2.1 (which isn't sold anymore but you can export to from 3.0!) the ANIMATIONS (motions) need to be in 2.0 to work! (This is also not sold... so technically making your own model potentially requires a cracked or illegal version of Live2D animation to work, whoops!)

Between me and her it's probably been about 25h+ figuring the 2.0 animations out; and then she had to redo a model because the nicer new features don't export to 2.1 properly, etc.

I feel is has great potential, and I'm glad they included Live2D support initially, but it needs to be updated ASAP since I feel it's a major selling point (the best engine for Live2D is Unity I believe, which is much much more complex to learn and work with.)

VNM can be a great tool, but it's got some big flaws. However since I already started learning it I don't plan to switch unless I get into some huge headaches.

If I could suggest one thing it would be making it faster and more stable and improving the area where you add in the events (a lot of things in it could be improved.)

I've got like 90 hours in Steam, but a lot of that was idle, I'm probably only about 15-20h in.

Good article!

author=Deckiller
It was the synthing, the lag in the forest, and various combos/button inputs not working. I would hit the combo buttons and nothing would happen, or I would hit the combo buttons in order and they wouldn't register on screen.

I know the one Synth bug, can't speak for lag in the forest (can lag be considered a bug if it's not common?) without seeing it (odd other games didn't lag up since the map doesn't have additions besides the particle engine, so just plain old VXAce mapping.)

As for the combo buttons not registering, you need to pace it with your attacks (think like a fighting game) - if you're sure it was a bug I can make a simple version that displays an input timer and we can test, but this is not something anyone else has mentioned.

The place in the forest where you learn to synth isn't even halfway through the Forest dungeon, the first of 4 dungeons. No one even beat the first boss or even unlocked any extra classes or anything. T.T

Regarding direction:
Using these tips in subtle ways to direct the player is the job of the designer. I don't know how often people like to argue good advice because they can come up with a counter-example in a special situation.

Digesting good ideas and implementing them into your game if appropriate is YOUR job!

Regarding Random Chance:
Random chance in things like lockpicking and other activities can often lead to players doing something like saving before a lockpick, and retrying until they succeed.

I think random chance is best replaced by a method that gives the player the choice, like a pool of 'lockpick' or 'skill' points they can spend in a period of time - the more you 'upgrade' a skill the less points it uses, then they can weigh what they want to do instead of depending on random luck (and maybe just saving their game first and reloading until they get the result they want - a tactic I VERY OFTEN use.)

@Kentona:
Allow me to address your concerns regarding Random Chance:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/01/29

(Random chance can have it's place, but once you actually understand how computers do 'random' you realize it's actually a load of bull and why it's a terrible idea.)