/jp/ Milk Tea Forums

This project grew, so a new way to exchange ideas was needed. With that in mind, /jp/ Milk Tea forums were formed (jpmilktea.freeforums.org/). If you're interested in seeing all of the ideas that are being considered and really being up to date, check it out. Just keep in mind that there will be spoilers since all aspects of the game are being discussed there. You're welcome to contribute your own opinions there too, though you'll need to make an account (anonymous posting has been disabled for most freeforums, unfortunately).

That aside, sorry about the lack of posts. Development has been on hold for awhile and before that, the ideas being considered hadn't been confirmed. In the future, posts will be more scarce, but should contain more significant information. This will allow us to focus more on development of the game instead.

New Character Opinions Needed

I'd like to get some opinions regarding a new character. I want to make a character that isn't human. What kind of monster/mythical creature would you like to see in /jp/ Milk Tea?

Kyoko Eisai

Kyoko is the first person that you will meet. She will be there to greet you when you appear at the shrine. Her duty is to greet others as they appear at the shrine, so she lives there, a short distance away from town. She will take you to the town, then show you where you'll stay until a room has been prepared at the mansion.

Kyoko is always happy to welcome newcomers and demonstrates great patience. She always does her best to make others feel welcome when they visit. If you develop a close relationship with her, she may invite you to join her for some special events.

Happy Birthday, /jp/ Milk Tea!

Project /jp/ Milk Tea started a year ago on this day, September 9th. A lot has happened since then and the rate of progress has accelerated significantly. What started as a few ideas in the head of one has become a serious project, that is being worked on by a development team, and several others are hoping to see completed. /jp/ Milk Tea is a love letter to /jp/ and also to others like us. It is a warm cup of tea for those that thirst for it.

This is much more to us than a video game. When I work on ideas for /jp/ Milk Tea, I try to make them more than simply satisfactory. I strive to make each aspect have its own special charm. The others that have been working on this project do the same. They have the potential to truly make this project flourish.

We appreciate your continued support. Thank you. Let's work hard to make /jp/ Milk Tea a success.

Oh, Darjeeling!

Here is some concept art of Oh, Darjeeling!, a cafe that will be featured in the game:

Oh, Darjeeling! will offer tea and a place to spend time with others. The only beverage served will be a house special blend of tea that will change from day to day. Expect a few surprises here.

Here is some concept art of the girl that will happily serve a cup of tea to every customer. Anyway, that's all for now. I'll post again soon.

Steeping

There have been a lot of new developments for /jp/ Milk Tea recently, so I'd like to share some information with those of you that have taken interest in the progress. I had been mostly working on my own to develop before, but now I have some swell people helping out.

Sprites aren't really my specialty, so now I have someone else to take care of them. Another person has been taking charge of other game art. Take a look at some of their work below:

Pretty exciting, isn't it? It all looks so great. For the record though, these may or may not be final versions. It's too soon to say. I've more good news to share. We also have another individual that will be working on music. Based on our conversations, I believe he will handle the music nicely. I don't have any music to share yet though.

Aside from those contributions, someone else drew a picture too!

Such a pleasant surprise.

We have been working with a lot of new ideas lately. It's a lot of work, but I'm very passionate about this project. I'd share more, but you'll have to wait. I hope to share more soon!

P.S. We could really use the help of some programmers! If we can find programmers that are interested in working on /jp/ Milk Tea, it should develop much faster.

Upcoming /jp/ Milk Tea Anniversary

As of September 9th, 2012, this blog will have been here for a year. Although progress has been rather slow, I intend to keep working on this project. I believe the rate of development will accelerate as time passes. Part of the reason that progress has been slow is a matter of my lack of programming knowledge. I chose to learn Python to use for /jp/ Milk Tea and I'm still studying it (by using the free e-books here: http://inventwithpython.com/).

I've other ideas planned for the game that I haven't shared here. I've a very simple prototype map, some character personality details, and plans for the logic that the game will follow. Some of these details are not yet final and others may remain secrets until the release of /jp/ Milk Tea.

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I have just made a Twitter account (@jpmilktea). I'll use this to notify anyone interested when new posts are available here. I'll post other updates related to progress as well. Perhaps this will be more convenient than having to check here from time to time since Twitter notifications can be sent to mobile devices.

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Since I don't want to assume I will have a team to help me develop /jp/ Milk Tea, I have recently been looking into music development software. I've discovered BoyScout. It can be used to make chiptune music that more or less sounds like a Game Boy Advance. I don't know how to use it yet, but I may use it since it seems easier than trying to learn how to use Cubase (what ZUN uses, I've read) or Vocaloid.

If anyone would like to discuss ideas for /jp/ Milk Tea, feel free to contact me through whichever means would be most convenient for you.

E-mail: jpmilktea@gmail.com

Twitter: @jpmilktea

Sprites!

Thanks to Princess from Chasing The Frill, I finally have some sprites to show! She made some templates and a design based off of my concept art (seen in this post here) to be used as the player's avatar. Let me know which you like the most! There will likely be different eye style options, so pay more attention to the rest of the body.

100% view.

Click for larger view.

If you have your own designs to submit, please e-mail them to me.

  

Springtime is Tea Time [Drink Tea Everyday]

More concept art! The setting depicted may or may not be in the game, so you may want to disregard it. The focus here is the girl, of course. I've been practicing drawing more often lately. Sometimes things go well and sometimes things go horribly, but the practice helps me develop a style to use. I feel comfortable enough to try making sprites next, so hopefully I'll have some decent sprites to share soon.

As with the previous picture posted, this one was made with Colors! 3D on my 3DS, so the results aren't really ideal for most computer screens (due to size and resolution differences). 3DS owners may be interested in knowing that this one includes a 3D effect, so if you have a 3DS, be sure to check it out with the 3DS Internet Browser (jpmilktea.blogpost.com/?m=1 for the mobile version).

In addition to working on sprites, I'd also like to post map concept art soon. Though I won't mention details about all of the locations, I'll go more in depth about most. I want to make sure that even those that follow this blog will be surprised while enjoying the results of this project.

Thanks for reading this post. I've put quite a bit of thought into gameplay and the locations that you will have access to. I'm eager to share the details. Expect the next post soon!

Drawing Update

Here is a simple drawing that I've come up with while practicing. It's not great, but I'd like to have drawing to use as reference for sprites (and possibly for in-game art). Sorry for not being better at this. I can manage to do a bit better, I think, but I just wanted to get this done quickly. I want to keep doing quick drawings for the sake of practice before I get too into cleaning up the lines and small details. Anyway, expect more soon. I made this with Colors! 3D on my 3DS, by the way, so maybe some will even be in 3D.

I actually feel embarrassed about posting this...

Weather

I came up with some ideas for abnormal types of weather that you may experience randomly. I came up with the ideas a few months ago, but completely forgot to post about them! The names aren't official, but hopefully you'll understand the general idea.

Tea Rain
Tea will rain from the sky, as the name suggests, and people will engage in various activities to enjoy the weather. Some will set out tea cups to consume the tea, while others will set out clothing or some other accessory so that it will be tea-stained.

For those of you that aren't familiar with the idea, tea staining is used to color fabric sometimes. Since some types of tea have such nice colors (as far as my colorblindness allows me to perceive anyway), it makes sense that people would use tea as a type of dye.

Whenever there is tea rain, the traditional thing to do in town will be to exchange tea-stained items with others. So how that will work is you will be able to choose someone to exchange gifts with. That's pretty much all there is to it.

Bubblefall
Clouds that consist of bubbles will float across the sky and bubbles will fall downward, towards the ground. Most bubbles will simply have air inside, but some will have cats in them. If you're lucky, you'll find a bubble with a nice item in it. This idea is similar to (and was inspired by) the balloons with presents that float by in Animal Crossing: Wild World, though I hope the implementation turns out much less frustrating.


In addition to these weather patterns, I'll include normal weather patterns. Perhaps I'll post about the sort of things that go on when those occur, but not right now. I'll save that for later. In addition to weather-related events, I came up with another type of event.

Flower Turtle Migration
Turtles (that happen to be plant/animal hybrids) will roam through town and shoot out petals as they migrate to a new location. Petals may blow in the wind and you'll be able to run through piles of petals for some light-hearted fun. Perhaps I'll come up with a special game to play with other characters too, like a competition to collect the most petals within an allotted time.

Botany And Other Things

I've started to grow some plants recently and it has been an interesting experience. As previously suggested, there will be ways to plant and grow plants in the game. My experience with plants will help influence the ideas. Hopefully I'll be able to really make it fun.

In other news, I've been trying to come up with some of the underlying logic for the social system. I'd like to try making it so there is quite a bit of varied dialogue in the game to keep things from getting dull. I've also purchased Colors! 3D, which is pretty much an art program for the 3DS. This way I'll have an easy method for uploading concept art that I've made with it. I hope to post some very soon. Perhaps today or tomorrow. Also, ads may appear on this blog soon since I'd like to use Google Adsense. I'm not asking anyone to click the ads, but I'm hoping that it will encourage me to post more often and be more productive in general. Hopefully you won't mind the ads.

As always, suggestions are welcome. Please share your thoughts.

Not Dead!

Sorry about the lack of posts. I've mostly just been practicing drawing lately. I have much more practice to do too. The style will be even more simplistic than the style seen in the last post. I'll post some samples soon. I've been practicing drawing with my 3DS, so if you'd like to see how things are going, befriend me and you'll see some of my drawings in Swapnote/Letter Box (if you haven't already). Here is my 3DS friend code: 2019-9663-6370 . I'll post scans of drawings from my sketchbook when I finally use it.

Potential Art Style

http://i.imgur.com/LjgJe.png

I saw this while browsing /jp/ and thought that perhaps I could try to use a similar style for the game. I think it's pretty cute. Hopefully I'll find more pictures with this style for reference. I've practiced drawing a bit, so I believe I can manage something like this with time and effort. Once I've some more drawings, I'll try to convert the style into sprite form.

Edit: The style has since been confirmed. See later updates for details.