Detarame Sketches 2012 Calendar

Well, here’s a funny idea! A Calendar for 2012 including all of the cool colour sketches I made over the course of 2011.

It also includes 3 sketches that I have never uploaded here (exclusive content!) and of course, they’re all at their full original size in glossy colour, rather than resized or shopped for wallpaper usage. Of course, this entire little thing is for my own usage, but if, for whatever reason, you’re still strapped for a 2012 calendar and would like my artwork adorning your wall, then this thing is available for public purchase below.

It is almost entirely populated by Anime and Game females. Check out the ‘Artworks’ category or ‘Sketches’ Tag to your right for some idea as to what this entails. There’s some fanservice, as always, so the calendar would probably be rated PG-13 for minor nudity. Or something. You have been warned.

By and the by, I make a “vast” £1 from each one, so much like Aniventure I’m not exactly making a song or trying to fleece you. Of course, I realise that at this time of year, calendars start to become cheaper for stock clearance in any case, but oh well, sadly there’s not alot I can do about that. For a 20% discount until the 3rd February: CHERUBUK305
This applies not only to my calendars, but also Aniventure, and indeed anything up to the value of £200 from Lulu.

To visit the purchase page, CLICK HERE.

To view a preview version (all 12 months); click the small “Preview” link available in the above purchase page on Lulu’s website, or alternatively you can click here to view a local pdf copy. The local version is BIG (17mb) so prepare for your net browser to be raped.

This above preview PDF is actually the final version; so theoretically, if you have access to an A3 colour laser printer, 140 GSM gloss paper, and ringbinding ability, you could make your own version. I’m not going to stop you; heck, if you have that kind of hardware, all the power to ya! But if you do and you like it, please leave a comment or something so I know its worth doing this type of thing in the future.

Anyway, I last made myself a calendar for 2008. It was a cool little thing I made in Photoshop and MS Publisher with some of my favourite images from moe.imouto (now oreno.imouto.org). Of course, it made my poor old inkjet die on me. Good times. Naturally, since then I’ve never bothered due to resources, and this is still the case; I’m reluctant to abuse my laser’s toners due their obscene replacement costs; so I suddenly thought, ‘hey, I already have a relationship with Lulu, so why not get them to print me something instead!?’. Its the ‘well duh…’ moment of the year, since they’ve always offered calendar services. Sometimes I can be a bit dense, lol.

Anyhow, cya in the new year. I might <SHOCKHORROR!> actually put up a preview this season; but given the work one of those takes, it might be reduced in size or something. No promises, of course.

Read Full Post »

Holy Hezety! A Post, and a Release!

Detarame is not dead. Although, it is looking a bit pale, I’d readily admit.

Anyway, I believe, way back in the New Year, I promised a release of my RMXP game, The Enemy Within, some time this year. Well, that’s still valid, and I will meet it today, by giving you such a release! Below is the MegaUpload link for the game. Its unfortunately too big to go on MediaFire and Rapidshare; but if there are enough requests (please leave comments) then I will do a split archive.

Get it from MegaUpload (it is 246 mb)

What the heck is this? It’s almost funny, actually, The Enemy Within is a game I’ve been making with RPG Maker XP for, on and off, the last five years. As you might expect, its a JRPG. It’s about a Blacksmiths daughter, Risa, who gets conscripted into the Border Guard just in time to witness an attack from the neighbouring nation. This skirmish sets into motion events that spiral out of control and conspire to place her on a journey to foil the plans of wicked transdimensional entities that have invaded the world, and are subtly manipulating things to a downfall behind the scenes.

There is quite a considerable amount of custom content (mine, and other peoples) and at least 4-5 hours of gameplay in this version; especially if you explore all of the sidequests in Chapter III. It includes a bunch of rather cool features that attempt to make it different from a cookie-cutter RMXP game, such as my personally created Skill Grid, Class distinction and Time/Day systems. It also has some rather neat animation gimmicks for the battles which I’ve always been pleased with.

With all that’s been going on this year in general, I have to say, I didn’t get as much done on it this year as perhaps I would have liked. This release is Build K, which is the same one I got some of my mates to playtest a few months back. I would, in fact, have liked to release Build L, which is newer and has more features still; however, it is rather unstable at the moment and I don’t have time to quash all the bugs beforehand. I know for a fact that Build K is stable and relatively bug-free.

To Install

>> Please extract from the archived RAR using a tool such as WinRAR or 7zip.
>> Inside is a Install programme which will guide you through the rest.
>> You DO NOT need to possess a copy of RPG Maker XP to play; this game does not require its RTP and is entirely self-contained.
>> Included in the archive is a VERY OLD AND OUTDATED manual I made for Build D. However, a chunk of the content in still relevant, so I’ve included it anyway.
>> It might be in your interest to read the readme which displays during install. It points out a few things you should know about this version; like the fact that choosing the Hunter class for Risa is actually the hardest despite the games claims to contrary; and suchlike.

System Requirements

>> Frankly, not alot. Any PC from the last 8 years capable of running Windows XP should in fact manage this, though you might see some lag in lower-end machines since it runs windowed 640×480.
>> Ensure you have at least DirectX 9.0c.
>> It has not been tested in a x64 environment or with Windows 7/Vista. Please run in Windows XP compatibility mode and such if it refuses to work.
>> I would strongly recommend the usage of a USB gamepad rather than the keyboard. I’d imagine your PS3 and Xbox360 controllers would also work, though I’ve not tried that. You can configure controls by pressing F1 in the game, if the default button layout is not to your liking.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND that, though this is a relatively stable, it is strictly still a beta-version. Don’t forget to save a fair bit, just in case. If there are bugs, I would appreciate you reporting them by leaving a comment on my blog and you will be credited somewhere in the next version (whenever that is, LOL). I also appreciate reviews and other comments, as long as they aren’t just flaming.

THIS IS FREEWARE

All content used in its construction is freely available on the internet. If you notice a resource used that is yours and you have not been credited for it, please leave a comment on this thread. Please DO NOT redistribute on other sites without my permission; but you are welcome to place links, twitters and other such things leading onto this post or blog. And for goodness sake don’t try to charge people for it. RPG Maker XP English edition is the copyright of Enterbrain. The story and characters are copyright of myself.

And, to celebrate the release, here’s a sketch of Princess Hecate Garmere from the game:

I figured this would be fitting, since I started the year with a Jeanette picture… anyway, as always, click on her to see it full sized.
I do rather like Hecate’s character; she’s a lovable idiot with extreme swings in her emotional state; loves swords, and is generally utterly unprincesslike. Woe betide the male main character you choose to romance her (if you do…). LOL.

Anyway, thats about it today. Please enjoy the release!!

Read Full Post »

Year MMXI…

Happy new year to everyone.

For me, 2010 has been pretty monumentous, as it marks the year I finally released Aniventure, my RPG. To be able to hold a printed book I am responsible for in my hands is a pretty darn good experience; and I’ve been nothing but pleased with the system itself either. It hasn’t exactly been a runaway sell-out, but then, I can’t really expect such since I’ve not really advertised it much and I know quite well the artwork may well put some people off spending for it, as I hold no illusions about me being an amazing artist, just a passable one.

Despite that, I feel I have actually learnt quite a bit from the experience. Looking back at what I drew last year and seeing what I’m now drawing, even my biased view can’t ignore the improvement.

On the side, the first supplement to the system is slowly ticking over. I’ve been tragically busy with work as of late, but I should imagine I’ll eventually get around to giving it the love it deserves. The blog and my other projects often suffer if one of those oppertunities arises to make myself less poor; but it can’t be helped.

Nevertheless, I hope to continue providing Anime season previews as always, and with luck some more Visual Novel Diaries. There has actually been a little bit of a dry spell of fan translations until recently, but there’s now a few things I’ve got my eye on to play when I get the time.

Besides these everpresent features, dear readers, I will of course always continue to subject you to my wallpapers and artworks. 😀

This year, I’m also hoping to finally release a new version of The Enemy Within. There has not been a public release in years, quite often because I add something else, or take something away, and then stabilise it, and it just ends with a vicious cycle. I need to go on a grand bug-hunt before I can do this, but nevertheless, its something else I look forward to, as the game is quite substantial these days (around 5 hours gameplay, I’d imagine). Its kinda shocking how old RPG Maker XP is these days, but I still stick with it for TEW.

As a game, it has always been a hugely lofty vision; unlike Aniventure I can’t even comprehend where it will end. Nevertheless, here’s a new Jeanette sketch, made into a wallpaper size too, to commemorate it:

As always, click to see full size.

Hitting 150 thousand visitors recently was good too. Thankyou all for visiting.

It still seems like the ancient “Spot the Difference, K-ON style” post is all the rage. Always found that a little puzzling, really, but I guess it just shows how many people love that show since the followup Spot the Difference post I made never got even half the same attention. Similarly, the Longcat wallpaper remains a favourite, and the distinct lack elsewhere of visual novel diaries and reports on obscure games (like Sengoku Rance, Touhoumon, and Tears to Tiara) still hauls quite a few of you to my humble domain.

Anyway, if you actually read this boring analysis/rant of mine, congratulations, and have an internet. I hope its a good one that works well for you in the upcoming year.

Read Full Post »

The Enemy Within Teaser Trailer

I guess its time for me to pull some shameless advertising off…

I’ve just released a new teaser trailer for my RMXP game, The Enemy Within.

This can be found on youtube, and the link to it is below:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EjpmkY2F5bw

This shows the sexy new intro, which occurs when you press New Game and is hence prior to Teaser Trailer 1, so its kinda like a prologue to the previous video. In between the two are the introductions to Dunkirg, Triela, and the game tutorial on the skill grid and combat.

To be honest, it kinda amazes me how far this project of mine has come in the last couple of years, considering its been a side hobby. Its now a whole detailed world and a pretty long story. If you’re still interested, check out the project thread at RMXP.org

The 0.8 version might actually be out in the new year, if I keep up the recent progress I’ve been making. No promises, of course…

I’ll also blog Toradora 9-10 later. Can’t believe I put them off so long, sorry.

And to close, here’s the banner, heh…

Read Full Post »

Hecate

Just a quick test of whether I can link my Photobucket images here too.

Hecate, you can be my test subject, lol:

Well, this is old hat for those of you whom came here from RMXP.org; but for everyone else:

This is Hecate, the Princess of Tessaltoria (one of the kingdoms from my game, The Enemy Within). She’s a tad bit Tsundere, to say the least; and though we have cliche princess rescue scenario, it turns on its head as she ends up saving the party.  Though you can’t tell from the sketch, she has turquiose hair, by and the by.

Read Full Post »