(Spotted) Actual SunLight - RMVXAce - Will O'Neill

(from HG101 Article by Jonathan Kaharl - May 1st, 2016)
"CONTENT WARNING: The following article discusses depression and suicide.

Indie gaming has been involving for a good while, and one of its most popular subgenres in the western world has become the narrative game. Many of these developers are more interested in telling a story than presenting a traditional game for a player to have fun with, and it's been met with mixed responses, mainly due to how so few of these developers understand how interactivity with their chosen medium can change the experience. But it's unclear all these developers even think things that far through. Some are so focused on capturing an idea or feeling that all the flaws in their title can't take away the sheer impact.

Actual Sunlight is one of those games. It is also not a happy game by any stretch of the imagination.

The designer, Will O'Neill, grew up in Toronto, Canada all his life, working not in any sort of videogame related field, but a creative director at a communications agency that had no real reach outside his home city. His real dream and passion was not in gaming, but in writing, creating a very darkly comedic and biting style founded in his own depression and self-loathing. To this day, subtly is not his strength, but sheer, unrelenting honesty at the cruel realities that surround us and his own many shortcomings, or at least as he sees them. His weight, a sense of lacking skill or talent, no significant others. These qualities, mixed with his crippling depression, made his twenties, as he describes them, a "black hole." Sometime in his early thirties, his issues finally piled up, and he ended up nearly killing himself, though didn't go through with it in the end.

Actual Sunlight was O'Neill's attempt to capture something beautiful about life in one of the ugliest times of his life. Picking up a copy of RPG Maker and playing with it for a bit, he eventually found a way to make the medium he's been familiar with as a player work for him as a storytelling tool."

Actual Sunlight on Playstation Store (PS4, PSVita)
Actual Sunlight on Steam

(Spotted) Metal Tear - RM2k3 - Cancelled

Via Youtube

The Final Fantasist: A Conversation With Yoshitaka Amano - [USGAMER]

Amano's rendition of FFVI's world revealed a far grander and more fantastic vista than the humble Super NES was capable of rendering.

COVER STORY: The artist who has given life to so many Final Fantasy games speaks about his inspirations, the difference between fine and commercial art, and his current projects.

"The first time I saw — or rather, noticed — Yoshitaka Amano's work was when I stumbled across the Nintendo-published U.S. strategy guide for Final Fantasy VI, back when we in America thought it was actually the third Final Fantasy..."

"... It stood out from shelves by avoiding the hypertrophic musclemen and garish explosions typical to 16-bit American game packaging. In their place instead appeared a delicate, almost impressionistic rendition of a young woman with flowing hair reclining in the cockpit of a gnarled, angular machine. Despite the cover illustration being largely obscured by a huge red block from which the book's title screamed in shiny gold letters, I recognized the subject of the painting immediately: This was Terra perched atop a Magitek Armor, an artistic take on Final Fantasy VI's stunning introduction in which we meet the story's central character as a brainwashed servant storming through a mining town atop powerful armor in service of an imperial army. "

Via USGAMER

(Archive) Space Funeral - RM2k3 - catmitts

(From RockPaperShotgun- "My Favourite Art Style: Space Funeral" by Brittany Vincent March 27th, 2016)

by SirRailgun via DeviantArt

"Space Funeral stars a crying miscreant named Phillip who faffs about in striped pajamas while beating up bloody dogs. We aren’t talking a few stray tears, either. He’s full-on ugly crying, grimacing in pain and shuffling through life looking as though his mother hates him. It kind of seems like she does, and his dad too.

It’s not immediately apparent why Phillip is sad when you start up the game, whose options are “BLOOD, BLOOD and BLOOD” at the main menu. Maybe it’s because there’s a coffin with someone in it who looks just like Phillip. Maybe Phillip exists in a state of existential torment and anguish that reaches into his very soul because he lives in a world where a creature known as a Leg Horse can amble up to him and verbally berate him, a contorted mass of bloody stumps with no real regard for anything other than itself. Perhaps it’s because he knows there are no other games like Space Funeral; nothing to rival the attitude or the aesthetic, which I harbor an intense and passionate love for.

From the clashing color schemes to the flat 2D Frankenstein monster-esque heads that seem as though they’ve been scribbled on in MS Paint, Space Funeral is like an acid flashback filtered through RPG Maker and set to Ruth White’s bizarre spoken-word “Spleen,” and is beautifully corrupt and broken in every single way, down to the surreal landscapes, creatures, and ideals that permeate the land. What seems to exist totally at random is explained ever so succinctly by the end of the journey, which makes the ugliness of it all feel even more special. It’s grotesque, terrifying, and crude. And that’s why I love it so much, misshapen heroes, enemies, and all."

(From NeoGaf- "RPG Maker Games: Underlooked Gems" by Dust Golem 12-26-2012)

"A surrealistic turn-based RPG that is just strange. With a weird artstyle and sloppy animation, but surprisingly interesting setting and soundtrack, it isn't very long (lasting about an hour or two) and is quite a different experience for those who seek it."

Via RMN
Mirror Download
(Will up date this entry with a video I have in the works
There were a couple of other places that mentioned Space Funeral during it's time of release, which i'll also include later on)

by Momogirl via DeviantArt

(Spotted) La Leyenda Heroen - RM2k3 - RMN

Via RMN
Mirror Download (English)

Interview with Rom Hack Translator Bobby Vandiver (Red Comet) - [HG101]

(Really cool interview on Rom Hack Translator Bobby Vandiver (Red Comet) posted on HG101 by Andrew Quemere)

The Interview itself is not all that interesting, but what makes it worth reading is how he briefly touches upon the hostility of early online internet communities - which is not all that unsimilar to what rpgmaker communities went through seven years ago...)

(from HG101 Article by Andrew Quemere - April 26, 2016)

"...Finally, the biggest factor is the amount of time that the people involved with a translation are able to commit. Most of the really prolific people in the scene are at least in their late 20s or older and have many other real-life responsibilities to worry about. I've had the translated script for Spider-Man: Lethal Foes since December of 2006, and I still haven't released the patch. I began making headway a few years ago with the more invasive hacks I wanted to implement but got sidetracked by real life.

I was wondering what you can tell me about the ROM hacking community in general. When did fans first start to hack video game ROM images? What do you know about different hacking communities, especially older, defunct ones that might not be very well documented? What do you consider to be the community's major milestones?

I joined the scene just after the end of what some might call the golden era of ROM hacking, so I don’t know much about the older, defunct groups as some of the older guys in the scene might.

As I recall, the MSX translations released by Oasis were some of the earliest translations created and released. A few years later came the Final Fantasy wars where multiple groups sprang up, each competing to be the first to release a translation for the Japan-only Final Fantasy games. From what I’ve heard, this period had a really hostile, juvenile atmosphere which has fortunately gone away after everyone involved got older and/or left the scene.

I remember in my early days in the community, it felt like I had missed out on something really incredible, which is one of the reasons why I jumped at the opportunity to help [founder] Nightcrawler get ROMhacking.net off the ground.

When ROMhacking.net first launched, it was a much needed breath of fresh air for the community. For the first time since I came on the scene, there was activity in a central place with active contributors. It seemed like every week, someone released something new or a new thread popped up on the forum showing off a new project someone was working on. This lasted for a couple years and then kind of settled down to a steady flow of updates. I haven’t kept up with the scene for a few years now, but it seems like it’s still a very vibrant, active community that shows no signs of dying any time soon..."

Continued on Hardcore Gaming 101

(Archive) Super Columbine Massacre RPG - RM2k

"While I've never played it, I heard that Super Columbine Massacre RPG!, despite the morbid subject matter, is good from both a strictly gaming point and as a satire on the events and media hype surrounding them." -  (from HG101 Forums - "Good/Underrated RPG Maker Games" by Woody Alien - January 18, 2016)

(Will probably post more, once more information becomes available)

Mirror Download

Nintendo Game Boy ‘Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru’ DX Color ROM Hack In Development - [Retro Collect]

(from RetroCollect.com by Cauterize- April 26, 2016)

"In 1992 a Japanese exclusive adventure for the Nintendo Game Boy known as Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naruhit Japan. Although remaining an exclusive release to the Far East, many would soon experience what the game had to offer as its engine was reused to create The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. A decade later Nintendo began work on updating the title and colourising it for the Game Boy Color - only it was soon shelved in favour of the upcoming Game Boy Advance line up.

Fast forward to today and retro gamers have already begun picking up where Nintendo left off. This has seen a fan translation of the game released (with the newly translated title of For the Frog the Bell Tolls), and now ROM hackers are working on a DX version of the game in a similar vein to Nintendo’s Link’s Awakening DX.

Taking to the ROMHacking.net forums, toruzz recently revealed screenshots of his work in progress and also a quick video detailing the hack in action. Needless to say the game looks fantastic in colour and already has plenty of fans lining up to play it.

A release date is yet to be set for this DX upgrade, but until then, here’s a few quick samples of the game in action."

Via RetroCollect

Cherry Tree High Comedy Club - RMXP - CAPCOM

(from HG101 Article by Jonathan Kaharl - December 12, 2015)

"The rise of Steam has lead to a lot of obscure Japanese games finding new audiences in the west. While Recettear is the most notable name among these, another that tends to pop up in conversation is Cherry Tree High Comedy Club!  It's a sort of adventure game/visual novel that's modest in scope, but charming in its simplicity. It's also about subject matter not normally explored in games at all; stand-up comedy. Well, sort of. The game uses that as a jumping off point for its real themes, resulting in a game oozing with personality. It's also a great example of how different comedic sensibilities between western and eastern tastes are.

The story starts at the beginning of Japanese spring break, as Mairu Hibisu returns to town and her high school, fresh off some unseen adventure. She wants to resurrect the school's old comedy club, which gave birth to a popular comedic duo many years ago, but her rich rival Chitose has other plans. Now a member of the student council, she's not willing to let Mairu bypass the rules to establish a club, stating that she has until the end of April to gather together three more members besides herself and her best friend Hoemi, or else the club won't be officially established or funded by the school. So, the goal now is to scout out possible club members across town, then convince them to join..."

"...Like many low budget Japanese games brought over to the west, Cherry Tree High suffered some translation problems on first release. As usual for Capcom (who helped publish it), the game was originally released in the vain of Phoenix Wright. Japanese words, names, and concepts were brushed aside and called by American names, even when it's obvious that the game doesn't take place in America. There's a Shinto shrine with a shrine priestess and a man who lives at a Japanese mansion in a kimono, it couldn't possibly be anywhere else than Japan. Even the names of the characters were different, such as Mairu being called 'Miley.'

After enough complaints, the translation was fixed to use proper Japanese terminology, causing several of the cultural jokes to suddenly make sense. Playing the game in Steam allows you to switch between the proper localization and the westernized version whenever you start back up, an admirable attempt to please those who liked the original translation regardless. However, a few lines here and there still read as the westernized version while playing the proper translation, such as Hoemi calling Mairu 'Miley' when you talk to her in the dorm room. Thankfully, these moments are only in basic dialog when you start talking with someone."



(From NeoGaf- "RPG Maker Games: Underlooked Gems" by Dust Golem 12-26-2012)

"Comedy fanatic and high school student Miley Verisse has decided to set up a comedy club in her school, but her nemesis and the head of the student council, Octavia Richmond, isn’t about to make things easy… The school rules require a minimum of 5 students to set up a new club and Miley is 3 people short! Spring break has just started and Miley has until the end of April to recruit the 3 new members she needs to start the club or Octavia will have the last laugh!

The game takes on a very Persona-esque look and feel of the social linking done in that series, but with a style that's completely surrounded around that. Published by Capcom, the translation was helped on by part of the Team that did the translations for the Ace Attorney series, and the tone they bring fits the game perfectly. This game isn't free, but worth checking out for people who are particularly interested in visual novels as most of what you do is explore, interact, and manage your time.

You can check out the games Steam page here.

You can check out the games official website here."

(Spotted) Radio the Universe - Custom - sixe

by sixe
KickStarter Page
(...was originally on RMN at one point before moving away to kickstarter)