as we all become a little more japanese

first there was the tool i just spoke about whereby you could create your own version of zelda.

mmmm link, zelda, nintendo thumb.
brings back good memories.

now i would like to talk to you about visual novels.

this is an up and coming art form - yes, i said it was an art form. if any warhol could cajole a bunch of bougeois art critics into accepting that the cover of a can of soup was art, or marcel duchamp could put a toilet bowl in the louevre then art is what i say it is.

and visual novels are an art form. the basic idea is that you take the least amout of interactivity with a manga and then you do up some nice work and present it to your reader/player/user.

i always wondered about the whole 'user' term. seems like only those in the substance industry and the computer industry use that term exclusively relating to their customer. i suppose that says a few things now don't it. how many marriages have been ruined - not by (il)legal substances but by the silicon hit.

anyways

long story short - (my fiancée tells me i take too long to tell a story) is that one of the companies that makes this kind of interactive fiction (i.f. takes a whole other long post one day too) has released a free version of the thool they use to create their pieces.

and art students galore wept in glorious wonderment - they now have the basis for their thesis.

go, tell a good story and turn off jerry springer. just leave that man alone.

blade engine for visual novels
better explanation of visual novels
hotel dusk: the hot new game for ds that spawned part of this posting