It’s strange how a weekly special from a small video games merchandise company in Arizona can change your life. Fangamer Officecam is a show that broadcasts from the office of Fangamer every Friday, hosted by the staff of the office. Fangamer is a branch off of Starmen.net, the world’s largest community of EarthBound fans. Every week, they have a face-to-face chat with the internet, answer questions made over Twitter, and their resident artist Camille makes little clay figures based on suggestions submitted from the broadcast’s chat room. This past Friday, they announced that the next week’s show will be their last.

Clay models made by Camille on Officecam

I started watching Officecam two years ago when it wasn’t even a regularly scheduled event. During the late hours of the night, when the staff at the office would be working hard, they would set up a camera so that the outside world could interact with them. I suppose that I could say that this was one of the first times I got to know anybody in the Starmen.net community very well. It’s because of Officecam that I started to become a part of the Starmen.net community, and when it became an official thing they did every Friday, it became a part of my weekly routine. Getting home from school and dinner, I’d pull up Officecam and wait in eager anticipation of what they had planned that day. Officecam was something that I knew that I could look forward to, even if I had had a rough week.

A drawing that Steve did based on my handle: "rune_devros"

And so, we had wonderful times together. I’ll always remember during the early days when they would come up with drawings based on our usernames. The above picture was what Steve came up for my name. During Officecam, we’ve had everything from funny videos to playing charades with the audience. Over the two years, Camille has made so many beautiful sculptures that we’ve compiled a collection of pictures of in this thread on the forums. The Camille Art Fridays segment was always the highlight of each episode. The family grew slowly at first, but it got bigger with each week. Madoka’s Kyubey made an appearance on a whiteboard. One of her last ones ended up as Momoneko-sama, from Tamayura.

The Officecam crew, with some guests!

I want to encourage everyone, even if you’ve never seen it before, to tune in this coming Friday, February 24th at 8:30PM EST for the final show.

To the staff of Fangamer and to all those in the chat room from all around the world that watched together alongside me, I will always treasure our evenings together. You really brightened up every Friday night for me. Officecam, you will surely be missed. Thank you.

Story of a Lost Sky Title Art

We’ve recently released version 0.7.0 of our Touhou SRPG, Story of a Lost Sky. Check it out here. We’ve received some good feedback already, but we’d appreciate any comments as to how best to improve our project.

New Features

• New missions: Chapter 3 (6 events total)
• New portraits: Mokou, Reimu
• New battle animation sprites: Fuzzball, Fairy
• New playable character: Aya
• New map sprites
• New music: Big crisis theme and victory theme.
• A few characters have been rebalanced. Work is still in progress.

This documents the programming and game design objectives that we are aiming to complete for 0.7.1 and we’ll be pursuing over the next few months. The objectives for the art and music components haven’t been assembled yet as we’ll need to consult with our staff to figure out where things stand. We’ll be working on three major branches.

Interface

• EASY: Icons for spells in spell action list.
• EASY: Display unit’s elemental affinity next to unit’s name.
• MEDIUM: Provide a guide for the icons in game with pictures to explain the point.
• MEDIUM: Use sound effects when moving the cursor through menu items and battle. Confirm, cancel, scrolling sfx. Do the same for the title screen, save/load, opening the menu, changing options, etc.
• MEDIUM: Make the background for the newspaper more paper like.
• MEDIUM: Add support for an arbitrary number of save files in the save file index.
• MEDIUM: Add character profiles to make identifying each character’s roles easier.
• MEDIUM: Separate menu for objectives.
• HARD: Death animations. (Pygame doesn’t easily support transparency scaling)
• HARD: Where’s the title screen music? (Need to have the title screen music made. It wasn’t a high priority for us in the beginning so we didn’t go with it.)
• HARD: Investigate whether it is possible to add a mouse interface to the game. If so, it’ll need a major sub-project.
• HARD: Add user configurable keyboard controls.

Gameplay Balance Tweaks

• Motivation: A number of balance problems have been raised. These problems include the fact that the AI can be exploited by drawing a single unit from a group. The other major motivation is that the trait system does not provide much variety among the units. Many share the available traits and some traits are not useful.
• EASY: Let items generate EXP.
• MEDIUM: Investigate areas where enemies can be switched from attack to pursuit AI.
• HARD: Implement group response on the AI. If a single enemy unit in a cluster engages the player’s party, nearby units should also be set to engage.
• MAJOR SUB-PROJECT: Trait system 3.0.
  • The current trait system amounts only to minor upgrades in characters with some only some traits being effective and a limited amount of variety.
  • Potential options for revising the trait system:
    • Bastion-like system: Select between two traits as you level up and gain trait points.
    • Branching skill tree.
  • The goal should be to give variety between the traits available to each character and also introduce an additional layer of descisions.
  • Traits that are not used or are highly situational like Counter Bomb should be removed or reworked.

Tutorial

• Motivation: The tutorial the player is given at the beginning amounts essentially to a wall of text.
• HARD: Design a sequence of interactive tutorial missions to introduce the player to the mechanics of the game.

Miscellaneous

• HARD: Develop a procedure to package for Mac OSX

Youyou Kengeki Musou is a doujin game from the doujin circle Annkake-Spa. They’ve recently released a demo of their game that demonstrates the central mechanics of the game. What follows is a first impression of the two-stage demo that they released a few days ago. The scope of the game and how well polished it feels is something that is to be commended for a doujin work from both the gameplay, music, and quality of the visuals.

Kengeki is an action game that plays like the recent and well received Bastion from Supergiant Games. The video at the top of this post shows off the gameplay. Youmu has a normal sword attack and four special moves: charging forward, a ranged attack, and an area of effect spell hitting nearby enemies. The last is a super attack that does large amounts of damage and has a long cooldown. Fighting is a fluid process with a satisfying ability to chain combo attacks together. The game had three bosses, Cirno, a giant frog, and Marisa. Learning how to adapt to each bosses set of attacks is key. Marisa, for example, uses a combination of beam attacks and throwing star bullets your way. She tops off the battle by occasionally using a giant beam that you have to avoid by running circles around her. I felt that all the bosses were challenging, but still fair. It was satisfying learning how to avoid the attacks of the enemies and react to them to succeed. The levels occasionally branch out into different places, encouraging a level of exploration to find treasure pots that contain upgrades to the number of special moves Youmu can perform. Finally, checkpoints are placed frequently enough that it never becomes frustrating to fail and have to redo something over again.

This game will be released at C81, and I encourage everyone to at least check out the demo for an example of the amazing talent that exists in the Touhou scene.

Further Reading:

• Annkakespa Website
• Demo download
• Cover art

The Standing Committee for the Coordination of Simultaneous Anime Viewing (SCCSAV) was a gathering of friends from all around the world to watch anime together. It was started primarily by @vuc_ and exploded over the past year. Because of all the fun times we’ve had together, I choose SCCSAV as my most memorable anime moment of 2011.

My contribution to SCCSAV this year started with Iyashikei Mondays. Our first viewing was Sketchbook ~full colors~ with at most five other people. Checking the channel as I post this, we’ve had over 20 people drop by. Some have gone, while new faces have showed up. We’ve since expanded to a two day viewing (in part because I wanted to watch Tamayura’s OVA one Sunday), with two episodes each day. It’s introduced me to such shows as Kamichu!, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Binchou-tan, and Taishou Yakyu Musume. The third and final viewing was the Tuesday event that I started which doesn’t really have a set theme to it. We started with Kino no Tabi, and have moved onto Haibane Renmei. Other fun things include our viewing of the entirety of the Suzumiya Haruhi series and the movie The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya over the summer. It helped me discover that the best way to watch the much maligned Endless Eight arc was with friends so we could all make fun of it and shout “Kyon-kun denwa” at the same time. I’ve even played Minecraft with them and helped to host a playthrough segment of EarthBound together.

Besides all the stuff that I participated in, there are at least half a dozen viewing events covering a wide range of themes and shows. I think that’s its greatest advantage over the traditional anime clubs I’ve been a part of. Not to say I haven’t had tons of fun in them, but the broader variety of choice is one of the features of SCCSAV that has made it so successful. I really enjoy the freedom to choose what group I’m in and to to find friends easily who are into the same thing that I’m into.

To everyone in SCCSAV, thank you. I have had such a great year thanks to all the things we did together.

A year ago, I wrote about the Tamayura OVA, wishing for a longer series. Our wishes were granted with Tamayura ~hitotose~, with most of the staff and even most of the voice actors from ARIA working on the new Fall 2011 anime. Tamayura joins the prestigious ranks of my ARIA and Sketchbook ~full colors~ as top tier iyashikei anime.

Hitotose picks up where the OVA left off, following the daily lives of the girls and it delivers a heartwarming experience with every episode. While Tamayura’s OVA was about finding the location of the picture that Fu Sawatari’s father took, the theme of Tamayura ~hitotose~ however, is “finding yourself.” Explored through the course of the series, each girl finds the path in life that they want to pursue. Near the end of the series the girls plan to hold an “ourselves expo” where they showcase each their own talents.

I think my favorite character is Maon. At first glance she’s a very shy girl who doesn’t speak much. In some scenes her communication is entirely done through whistling. In episode 6, we see that as a young girl, she discovered her talent of whistling. We also see that she’s interested in storytelling, but isn’t so confident in her abilities. By episode 11, now in the present, Maon decides that for her ourselves expo, she wants to recite a story that she wrote and gets the courage to do it in front of her friends, her family, and the guests of the inn that her parents run. This overcoming of her shyness was something that I admired about her.

Also we cannot forget the most adorable moment in the entire series.

2011 was a great year to be a fan of anime. We had the thrill rides of Madoka and Steins;Gate. Nichijou was the non-stop barrage of laughs. But because of the way it brought the same relaxing atmosphere and a story largely driven by character interactions, I am ready to declare that Tamayura ~hitotose~ is my favorite anime of the year.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is a four episode OVA that we watched with the SCCSAV Iyashikei Viewing group. A lot like ARIA, it’s devoid of a central plot line.

What stands out the most about YKK is the unique world that the characters live in. Post-apocalyptic settings are typically ones of despair and a struggle to survive. In YKK, despite the ecological disaster that has wiped out most of the world, life continues peacefully. Alpha is a robot who runs a small cafe and there are little stories like meeting another robot from a neighboring town and taking a long trip far away from home. All of it is surrounded by a peaceful, easy lifestyle of everyone we meet.

It’s sad that YKK was only a four episode OVA. I read through the manga a few years back, and through all the 140 chapters, we really got to know the characters. The two kids especially who make a brief appearance in the OVA are characters that we see grow up throughout the many years that elapse in the manga.

One wish I have for the future is that we’ll get a complete length YKK anime. It’s a world I would really love to visit again.

Ka---- Mi---- Chu~!

Early this year, we had just launched Iyashikei Mondays with SCCSAV. We had been watching Sketchbook ~Full Colors~ and ARIA the Animation when @vuc_ joined us and suggested that we watched Kamichu!. I have to thank him for introducing it to us, because it was something I missed back when it was airing in 2005 and I really loved it.

Kamichu! is the story of Yurie, a middle school girl who wakes up and discovers that she’s become a god. She joins the many millions of little spirits that live unnoticed in a modern sea-side town in Japan. Despite having the powers of a god, Yurie is still very much a middle schooler at heart, especially when it comes to a recurring theme of the boy in the caligraphy club that she likes. I found it to be a refreshing perspective on worlds where supernatural events are superimposed over a modern life. Most of the time this is a ready catalyst for adventure, but Yurie remains an ordinary student for most parts. Well, most of the time anyway…

Probably one of the episode that stood out most from this series was episode 8 where a rebellious gang of cats are stirring up trouble in the city. Yurie’s cat leads her to a “fight Club”-like event that they form formed under the cat Tyler (we dubbed him Tyler Purrden in the viewing) where challengers can fight for leadership among the gang. I think it was the absurd concept of a Fight Club started by cats that led me to enjoy the episode so much.

In the spirit of Steam sales... (Source)

I didn’t know what I was getting into when I started watching Idolm@ster. All I knew about it was that it was ridiculously popular as a game and the music was great. In my usual manner of “Hey, this looks cute, let’s check it out,” I dove right in. Oh yeah. This post contains spoilers.

I wouldn’t say that Idolm@ster is a particularly deep anime. It was just a lot of fun watching the progression of 765 Productions grow from a tiny, relatively unknown group struggling to get noticed to being famous enough to be on the star of every other advertisement and television show in Japan. Despite the overarching theme of what it means to be a famous idol, I enjoyed that most of the episodes focused on individual characters and their own personal struggles and triumphs. Almost every episode emphasized the theme of unity and the strength of working together.

IM@S is one of those anime that everyone seems to come out of with a different favorite character, and I almost feel like with large casts, it ends up being a reflection of yourself. It ended up being Chihaya Kisaragi for me. You can partially blame @Cr4zydave for that. The traits that Chihaya has that makes her most endearing to me is her dedication to the art of singing and her hardworking nature. Chihaya’s “Aoi Tori”, ended up being my favorite song that was present in the series. Ep. 20′s “Promise” comes in a close second.

One of the most memorable moments of 2011

Episode 20 showed Chihaya in her moment of weakness. Chihaya withdraws herself completely and loses her ability to sing after her haunting memories of the brother that she lost as a kid and her fractured relation with her mother are brought to the attention of the world. It takes the contributions of everyone in the team, and especially the efforts of Haruka Amami, to bring her back. The episode’s finale, with everyone singing in support of her and Chihaya finally overcoming her past, was one of my most memorable moments of this year.

Nekogami Yaoyorozu was an anime that flew under the radar for most. It was airing at the same time as Steins;Gate and Nichijou, so it’s not surprising that it didn’t get as much attention as it deserved. What attracted me to it was that this was an adaptation of an original manga by FLIPFLOPs, the Touhou doujin artist that I wrote about earlier this month.

Sunflowers have a special meaning for us Mother fans too.

It’s a mythology meets the modern world story, very much in the spirit of the Touhou series. Mayu is a lazy cat god who would rather sit at home playing video games, but is very protective of Yuzu, the girl who runs the antique shop where she lives. It’s full of recurring comedic pieces that made the show so enjoyable to watch. Gonta the fox god’s was constantly hitting on Yuzu and there was that rivalry between the goddesses Sasana and Meiko for who would be Mayu’s bride. It’s also got its touching moments. Episode 4, flashing back through a dream that Yuzu keeps having about how she lost her parents, and episode 6 with Yuzu demonstrating her natural skill to be an antique appraiser come to mind.

Nekogami also had one of my favorite sets of OP and EDs that fit so well together: Kami-sama to Isshou (OP) Oh My God! (ED) by Haruka Tomatsu.

This series is perfect for Mirrored Anime Screenshots

All in all, it was a fun, heart-warming anime that probably suffered from being too short and trying to inject a climactic story arc at the end when it should have continued being a slice-of-life anime. I think other Touhou fans might enjoy it though.

The whole post-a-week thing for Kino fell through, so here’s my end of the series retrospective.

We watched Kino no Tabi as part of the first group on SCCSAV that I started that didn’t spawn out of Iyashikei Mondays. I’m going to do a full post with my experiences with the SCCSAV group since that was one of the highlights of my year, but for now let’s focus on Kino no Tabi.

Kino no Tabi is a highly episodic series that follows the journey of Kino and her talking motorcycle Hermes. Each episode was an exciting visit to a new location. It excels at taking things that we’re familiar with in our lives and putting a strange otherworldly twist on them. A few examples come to mind. Episode 8 is called “The Land of Wizards” is an uplifting story where Kino helps a girl to build a flying machine against the opposition of the townspeople who believe that she’s better off doing something more productive. Episode 5 contains the story about what happens when mob rule is allowed to run amok, resulting in everyone in the country being killed over disagreements until there’s only one person left. Episode 12 is probably the most memorable. In every episode leading up to this point, Kino has demonstrated that her skills with her guns can get her out of any situation, but in this episode she’s can’t do anything as she watches two countries carry out a genocidal action. Kino no Tabi invoked every emotion from happiness and a longing for adventure to fear and hopelessness.

By telling stories filled with the entire spectrum of emotions of the human experience, Kino no Tabi succeeds in capturing its central message:

The world is not beautiful; and that, in a way, lends it a sort of beauty