Sayounara, Blog-kun !

Hello guys !

The title couldn't be more explicit. In the coming months, the blog is going to disappear.

Why so? Well the main reason is that I can't afford to keep running it with things accumulating on it. The more it goes, the heavier it is and it starts to be a real pain to navigate. 

That's why, as I said in the last news, I've made a full site to host my works. It's finally ready, so you can visit it right here :

HTTP://BLUEAXOLOTL.COM

 You'll find almost all the things present on this forum + new stuff I've added especially for the occasion. 

So if all the content goes on the site. Where will the news go? Well it's simple: Starting this week all my Patreon posts will be public. I'll use Patreon for updates and the site to host stuff. Actually you're able to see things in details on my Patreon right now since the last news I've posted is public (I remind you there's a link on my Patreon at you right).

You'll see that you can't post comments on the site yet. It will be implemented, don't worry. That's one of the reason I'm keeping the blog open for a certain time before closing it. I don't have a precise date for closing it, but it should happen for the beginning of this summer. So you can still use it to write me for the time being.

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 I'm also taking away the link to Kimochi. Some of you have maybe seen that their removing their platform for the moment due to the lack of income making them unable to keep providing the service. They're still looking for solutions but for now, Kimochi will close the 31st March. If you bought SoV on it, I strongly advise you to download it to keep it on your computer cause you won't be able to retrieve it after this date. With that I'm back to square one with Patreon as my current only solution to distribute my games uncensored.

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So no more pics. You'll find all either on my site or my Patreon.

Might as well talk a bit about gaming then... I've recently done the Alltynex trilogy on Steam. And...

You know, Shoot Them Up are the kind of games I kinda sucks at but love. I've played 1943, Nemesis, R-type, Deathsmile, Dodonpacchi etc... Even that game based on King of Fighters (can't remember the name. But God, this Alltynex trilogy is probably the serie I had the most fun with. Kamui being the last game of the trilogy (and the first I started unfortunately) it's also the best and has reached his way on the top of my favourite Shmup. I wouldn't think everything could be so great in a single Shmup (especially a dojin one). But the gameplay is great, the learning curve is great, the graphics are great, the difficulty is great, the music is great (that one took me off guard considering how often the music is secondary in Shmups) and even the story is great (it makes even more sense when you play the whole trilogy). Anyway, if you like Shmups but don't know Kamui, go test it. It's a wonderful game ^^

Meanwhile I tried to start Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii U. I hadn't cringed over a character design since Magna Carta 2... Gotta say I find it pretty awful. Other than that, I haven't played enough to say more about the game (barely played 2 hours). I have strong hopes the qualities of the title will compensate the weak chara design. 

And as if it wasn't enough, I also received my collector edition of Bravely Default Second. Yay for more censorship for us poor europeans who can't stand panties and Indian costumes. Fuck, if I learnt one thing from Nintendo  over the last years is that I hate the world we live in more and more. That motivates me even more to do sick games to compensate the global stupidity the world is going to...

Saa, shuppatsu da yo !

UPDATE 06/02

You asked for it, here it is : Vitamin Plus Easy Mode - Version 1.7.

Go grab it here.

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Hey guys and girls !

For anyone wanting to know the meaning of the title of the news, I invite you to check this page : http://love-live.wikia.com/wiki/Wonderful_Rush

Didn't I tell you? I'm a LoveLiver :p (and a pretty hardcore one actually).

But you didn't come here to read about my life (or did you? Nah, I don't buy it x)).

A lot of things happened since the last news. The few feedbacks I got about the update were pretty positive so I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. You can now consider Slice of Venture as a finished project.

Due to the numerous stuff that happened since the last news, I'm going to do as I usually do (I find it pretty clear) and go by category.

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Naomi's Past

This is where things are accelerating the most (which is logical since it's the project that was launched first).

                                                         BEFORE                            AFTER

Peak and I took an important decision : we changed Peak's way of coloring. We did that for two reasons : First of all, a more simple shading like the one you're seeing above on Naomi is much-more "anime-like" than a too complex one. As you guys know (or not?) I'm not a fan of the western style in general and I want my games to be closer to a global Japanese style. So while the overall coloring is much less detailed, I feel like it benefits the game much more. The second reason is that since all the game will have this level of shading and Peak takes roughly 1/3 of the time to do the new coloring (compared to the previous one) things will go faster. And by faster I mean :

Naomi's past is still scheduled to be released this summer. Even with SoV2 on the rails.

Those of you who have access to the forum can see what the interface will look like and the rest of the surprises are for Patrons only (cause you can't see it but Naomi actually moves. Peak worked her under Live2D and the characters will have small animations).

Aaaand one last thing. As you can see, Patreon is currently funding Naomi's past (donations via pre-orders aren't enough). One of you was nice enough to donate a certain (pretty important) amount of money. We thought about a lot of ways to use this money efficently and we came to the conclusion that the best way was the following : Naomi's past will have 2 more scenes, raising the number of scenes to 14 instead of the original 12 planned. You can thank him. And those of you who like the most extreme side of my games, you can thank him twice. Because one of the two added scenes will have an optional scat variation (that wasn't planned at all either). And worst of all for you non-scat lovers : it will be canon. Do not fear, though. I've always said it, scat will never be mandatory and always optional. So you'll have the choice to trigger the scat variation or not. However, unlike SoV where I considered the Hardcore mode as canon hence rendering any watersports/scat scene non-canon, here the full version will be the canon one.

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Slice of Venture 2

The Indiegogo campaign was quite the catastrophe ^^' I knew it would be hard but I didn't think so few people actually cared about me x) However, the new way of funding seems to have met a pretty good success. Especially thanks to one of you who donated $1,000 by himself, granting him the right to choose 3 scenes for the game (and believe me, you'll like them). You won't see the first two before the second beta though. So the 1st beta has been successfully funded and as I stated, I'm now switching to funding the 2nd beta. What does it means? Well it simply means that we're already working on SoV2 thanks to that system. However the advancement of the project will depend on the funding of next betas. As I stated in the donation page, the betas will be sold and the money I'll earn from them will be used to fund future betas (so technically, the only money that will end up in my pocket is the one I'll get once the game is complete).

For now, the 1st beta of SoV2 is also scheduled for this summer. If funded, next betas should take less time to make because the base of the game will already be present while we have to create everything from scratch here. If you have access to the forum, don't hesitate to check it and vote to choose where the extra fund should go.

As you know, the game will occur in Tokyo instead of Marakoma/Seiichi's farm. You know what it means ? You'll get to see Yuki and Ayame in school outfit.

And because I don't like doing things half assed, they will have two versions : the one with the jacket when they're outside, and the one without the jacket when they're at home. It's important to precise some stuff so you don't get "shocked" about them. You WON'T have access to the girls' school in all SoV2 (it's an important fact, and I'm doing it on purpose. I'd like to focus on their school in another game ^^'). So while you'll be able to control them during school days, it'll always be after school. The 1st beta won't feature the week-end cloths (the ones I showed you for IGG funding). They'll be included in the 2nd one. Why Ayame doesn't have a sweater? To make them a bit different x) (I particularly like how Ayame came out with the slightly unbuttonned shirt and untied tie :))

Nito is also working hard. He made no less than 15 charsets just for the 5 main characters (2 for Eri, 3 for Atsushi, 3 for Yuki, 3 for Ayame, and 4 for Reiko (why so much? Naked, Indoor, Indoor + Apron (hey, gotta have your priorites :p) and outdoor). 

Things are also looking pretty bright to make the game totally mouse-friendly. Be careful, by mouse-friendly, I'm saying that from the look of it, some part won't even be playable with the keyboard (Because I'm trying to make the full game appealing to play with a mouse).

And the last thing... You know about that generous donator I talked about in Naomi's past part? Well actually he donated enough that the 1st beta will also contain 2 more scenes (raising the amount from 5 to 7). And by more, I don't mean picking scenes from the second or third beta and putting them earlier. No. Those are going to be 2 exclusive new scenes. Once again, you can thank him.

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Slice of Cards

Still nothing to show you. However that should change pretty quickly. GenericDreamer, the creator of SoV's logo is currently working on designing the cards both the front and the rear. Hime as started implementing placeholders as images to the game. So it's starting to look like a real game. Add to that the fact that I called back SkullTT so she could draw a few exclusive illustrations for the cards, JFC keeping reworking characters (hence finishing them as illustrations for the card game), and the Patreon having reached the $300 level (meaning that if no one runs away, Peak will provide a new card illustration per month). 

Here's JFC's version of Mari. I'm going to upload it on Pixiv only (cause HF might bother me with their anti-loli stuff). Just like Akiko, he kept the original SoV version and just adaptated it to his style.  I'll say it again here but don't forget to check my pixiv account from time to time, I might upload stuff I won't upload here. There's especially one pic in preparation that will be updated directly on JFC's account. I'll link it via Pixiv but since I'm not going to write a new post just for that, there won't be elements of it on the blog (at least, not before a certain amount of time).

Of course, that doesn't mean the card game is about to be finished. But at least I'll soon be able to show you that it's more than just a fart in the space.
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BlueAxolotl's site

Due to the stuff I did during the whole month, the site hasn't evolved much. I've written a nice part of it (the whole character category). I need to write all the rest and I'll do it as soon as I have the chance to. With a bit of luck the site might go live during February. Nito granted us some cute little pixel icons for each category and globally the site will be something really more structured than the blog ^^'

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Random things

First of all I'd like to show you the first fanart one of you sent me. It's the first time someone ever drew a whole fanart for me (Sorry Raindrop, your 4-koma doesn't count :p). I'm pretty touched by the intention and glad to see that people are starting to like my games as a whole universe. Here it is :

As you can see, the guy is a fan of Yuki. But I guess that is to be expected. After all she's destroying her opponents in the poll. I thank him for taking the time to draw this ^^

It might sounds pretentious as fuck (and it probably is), but you know, my dream would be that the whole universe I created interest enough people so that one day someone decide to make a doujin out of my games for the Comiket. That would be one of the most rewarding thing I could see as a creator. I'm not luring myself though. But hey, RWBY is working in Japan and it's western so I have the right to dream :p

When I'm eating I'm currently watching Symphogear on Crunchyroll and OMG for the 1st time ever I'm watching the anime Butakoma is basing on his random pics. That's a pretty nice anime with singing and stuff (yeah I'm in full singing mode...). 

Meanwhile I'm playing (grinding) Omega Quintet on PS4. Heck it's been a long time since I didn't find grinding tedious in a J-RPG but surprisingly enough, I'm enjoying grinding this one. I'm level 228... Yeah you can go up to 999 x) I know many people don't like the game, but for a Compile Heart game, I really like it. And anyway I was sold during the opening. Otoha is voiced by Riho Iida (Rin Hoshizora in Love Live) which happens to be both my favourite voice/character and my favourite singing voice so I knew I'd like the game anyway. The songs are pretty nice (safe of one) and I'm enjoying myself while playing. Isn't it what gaming is about ? I sure have more fun than I had playing Corpse Party : Blood Drive... Ugh... Got the plat yesterday but gosh, the guys jumped from RPG Maker to Unity and they don't master the software AT ALL. Tons of bugs/crash, 3 seconds loading screens to open the menu !!! and I'm not talking about the story... I loved the first Corpse party, was a bit divided over the second, but this one totally wrecked the serie for me. Too bad...

Slice of Venture v1.1 is out !

 UPDATE (31/12)

The update is live on DLsite! You can go grab it!
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Ho Ho Ho ! (Now I have a machine gun :p)

Hey guys and girls!

First of all Merry Christmas to all of you! I hope you spent time with your family, got nice presents, ate like 3, and spent some good time overall.

I'm a bit late, this news was supposed to come out for Christmas but I didn't have a single second for me until now. So here I am!

I know I've been veeeeeeeeeery late at releasing it, but here it is!

Slice of Venture v1.1 is out!

I hope you won't mind the delay considering this is a free update ^^'

I haven't added many stuff, but you can find 3 new scenes, extended fun with more girls and a few minor additions (bugs, typos correction, a bunch of added lines during the conversation between the grandparents and Anaëlle...). You can find more precise informations in the "Update.txt" file that comes with the game.

I prefer warning you now, due to some elements I won't reveal, the new scenes have no hardcore + and X variations. They don't have clothed variations either (that I can tell, it was more a problem of money/time).

I've sent the whole stuff to DLsite but considering they'll close between 12/30 and 01/04, it's a safe bet to assume they won't release the update before the 5th January. So you'll have to be a bit patient to get it via DLsite.

However things are faster on Kimochi since I can upload new version myself there so it's already online at Kimochi.

Unless one of you finds a really bothering game-breaking bug, I probably won't update the game anymore. One of the reason I delayed this update this much is because it's really hard to come back to a game you haven't touched for several month (the last version of SoV I had put online was mid-August) and you're working on new stuff. 

I hope you'll still enjoy it and to make sure everyone enjoys the game at its fullest, I've also written the Saint Graal many people have requested : The official guide for Slice of Venture. It contains every information on how to get every scenes (including the new ones of course).

You can download it either right here or in the download section.
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Things are a bit slow currently with everyone in vacation and stuff, but January should be pretty interesting.

I have some hidden stuff I'll probably be able to reveal during this month, and the new funding for SoV2 is going pretty well (especially thanks to one of you). With a bit of luck, we should be able to start working on SoV2 at the end of January. 

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SLICE OF CARDS

A bit of infos about that. Hime is actually recruiting people that might be interested in working with her (and then making the develpment of the game faster). But if you're interested, you'll have to pass a little test. Here it is :

The goal is to create a Hangman game with a client/server mode

Required languages : HMTL5, Javascript, and CSS
Technology : NodeJS + EJS for the templates +  socket.io for the websockets (preferably but not mandatory).
Expected result :
1) The server contains a dictionnary of a dozen words (no need to do more).
2) It chooses a random word when a client has connected.
3) The letters already chosen by the player must be displayed.
First requirement : The player lose after 10 mistakes.
Second requirement (harder) : Everytime the player gets a wrong letter, a part of the hangman is drawn. The player loses when the hangman is fully drawn.

You're totally free to code it the way you want and to make it look the way you want as long as the features are there.

 Send me the test via mail at arkthompsongd at gmail dot com and we'll contact you as fast as possible to tell you if it's okay. 

I'd like to remind people that the card game will be free. Hence everything related to it (whether it's art or programming) is done on a voluntary basis and is not meant to be paid. If you're still interested, send me your sutff ^^

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That's all for the moment! I've (finally) changed the poll (I'll be faster next time, I promise). Tell me which one of PeakJump's version of the characters you prefer. 

I'll make a small update to warn when the update is live on DLsite.