SBESTER'S PROFILE

I've written a trilogy of visual novels over the last 4 years that I'm remaking right now with all original art and music, as well as added routes and bonus content. I'm also writing a second (concluding) trilogy as we speak that we'll focus on after. The plan is to kickstart the first entry in the series this Summer, which has been titled CRIME OPERA: The Butterfly Effect.

We're currently a team of four, but we still need to add a background artist to fill out the lineup. The character art is really coming along, and we're about halfway finished the soundtrack as well, so things are really falling into place. We do require quite a few backgrounds, but would not need all of them completed for the Kickstarter launch. This is not a straight commission, as we are setting aside part of the kickstarter funds for background art to be paid after we have met our goal. You would be part of our little company though, and I'm planning to split the profits of any sales between us all.


I know a lot of Kickstarters for visual novels are at risk because they are very early in production, but this novel is written in its entirety, which greatly reduces the overall risk of non-completion. We're setting aside a portion of the kickstarter profits for background art, so you would be paid when and if the goal is met, and from there we are hoping to do profit sharing for sales.

If you want to know more, or to see some of the cool stuff we've been working on, just let me know. Also, the main routes for the first 3 visual novels in their entirety are also still available to be read (in their free versions) if you want to see for yourself what the story has to offer readers. Just click on my name and head to my games page to download them (they're titled Mafiosi, rather than Crime Opera).

Just a couple quick samples of the art below:





Some more samples and updates are available on out Tumblr page, here:
https://crimeoperastudios.tumblr.com/

As some people here may know, I'm allowing save file carryovers from one of my games to its sequel (ala the Mass Effect series). This got me wondering how many other RM games have done this over the years, and in what ways they've been implemented. Are there multiple routes? Character stat carryovers? Simple inventory carryovers? Other ways I've yet to think of?

I know there are some episodic type RM games that have done this before, the one that comes to mind being The Way series(which is pretty excellent imo). I was hoping you guys could give me a list of games that you know of that have done it, and in what ways they've implemented the feature. I'm looking for new ideas for my third game and would love to try some of these out.

Thanks ahead of time!

Huzzah! A new game has been announced although details are really sketchy right now. I'm curious to see if it'll be an actual Suikoden type of game, or if it'll try something new like Tierkris (or whatever the hell it's called) did. And why the PSP? My PSP died a couple months ago, and with the announcement of VITA I took it as a sign that the system no longer had anything to offer me. Good thing VITA will be backwards compatible.

Anyways, thoughts?

Okay, more of a repeat from my blogs today than anything else, but here's the situation.

Looking in my rm2k and rm2k3 projects folders, I see versions of my games from 3 months ago when I first got this computer, and not the updated (larger) versions of them that I see when I open up the 2k and 2k3 programs themselves. So naturally, you'd think they're just being saved somewhere else, right? No, it says that the projects are opening in program files/ascii/rpgmaker2000/projects in the editor. So how the hell do the new versions keep being saved in the editor but not in main projects folder? Anyone have this problem before?

Just as a note, the OS is Windows 7, and I've changed my permissions so that I have full control over these folders.

I have found a way to sort of remedy the problem of not being able to save these projects, and that is by creating a game disk. However, I would still like the main projects folders to show the progress I'm making so that I can copy and edit them on other computers if need be.

I wanna know how people's tastes in RPGs have changed through the console generations. List your faves like so:

NES
Final Fantasy I
I know the 2nd and 3rd are better, but this was my first rpg that I ever played to the end of. The sequels were basically more of the same old, and didn't quite evolve as much as the Dragon Warrior games did.

SNES
Tales of Phantasia
'nuff said.

Playstation
Xenogears
The story, the characters, the unique visual style, the intuitive battle system, the music... all this and more have made this my favorite game of all time. Special mention have to go to Legend of Dragoon for its amazing battle system and I'll always have a thing for FFVIII as well. Playstation was definitely my favorite generation for rpgs!

Playstation 2
Shadow Hearts/Xenosaga III
Can't choose between these. I loved both series of these games but these two were my favorites. I have a bunch of "Tales" games for PS2 that I have yet to try though, so I guess this could change.

PC
Gothic 1 and 2.
Admittedly, I don't play newer PC Games, so I can't say how these old gems would stack up to games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, or Fallout 3 (although I HATE FPA games. Rot in hell Deus Ex).

PS3
_____________
I've had this system since it was released, but have yet to play any RPGs for it. I hope to try White Knight Chronicles as soon as I get the system fixed.

Feel free to add any systems you feel are worth mentioning. These are just my favorite RPGs from my favorite systems (loved my Saturn to death but never played any RPGs on it).