Circus Reviews - HunieCam Studio

Ah, nostalgia. HuniePop was, of course, the first game I ever reviewed. And now here we are, over a year later, reviewing the spin-off game. I remember the hate HuniePop got, and it seems to have been multiplied several times over for this release for various reasons. Do I share in that hatred, or will my previous unexpected liking for the first game repeat itself for its little sibling? Let's take a look.

HunieCam Studio is a spin-off of Hunie Pop in which Kyu (who may or not be a fairy in this version, it's never explicitly addressed) hires you to manage a cam studio. After walking you through the basics (unless you select "Skip All Tutorials"), she gives you three weeks to prove that you have what it takes to run this kind of operation.

Gameplay is part management simulator and part clicker. There are a variety of activities you can assign your girls: cam shows for cash, photo shoots for fans, pole dancing and shopping for talent and style respectively, recruiting other girls at a modeling agency, relaxing at a spa to relieve stress, escorting at a sleazy motel, or buying cigarettes, booze, and adult products for their benefits. The management part of the game is very well executed, but the clicker part can get painful...and by that I mean physically painful. You have to click on a building rapidly to gain the money/fans/other resources from it, and you can also speed up the girls' tasks by rapidly clicking on the buildings they're in. The speed at which you're required to do this if you want to do well gets to ridiculous levels. There are upgrades you can purchase to have the buildings automatically collect resources every so often, but you still have to do the bulk of the work.

If you thought HuniePop didn't have a story, you'll want to stop right here and have a good laugh, because the story in this game is nonexistent. The girls don't even get last names, and the only way you'll ever learn anything about any of them is by playing HuniePop. That said, I don't feel like a deep story is necessary or would do well in this type of game.

The art style was heavily criticized when it was unveiled, but the developer chose to stick to the newer one, and I have to admire him for sticking to his guns in the face of so much ire. I don't have any strong feelings about the art style one way or another; it fits with the game well enough, and mostly I'm just glad they didn't try to do actual porn with it.

Replayability? Sort of. At the end of the three-week period Kyu gives you, you get a trophy based on how many fans you have, and you get a few wardrobe tokens, which you can use from the main menu to unlock new hairstyles and outfits for the girls...that you really only see on their profile page in-game. You could theoretically keep replaying to unlock all the achievements and wardrobe items; I suppose that depends on the kind of person you are.

I'm mostly put in mind of Bejeweled. The game is little more than a time sink; it's Cookie Clicker but with particularly sleazy management sim aspects added in. However, it serves its purpose extremely well, and the large amounts of self-aware humor throughout help lighten the darker aspects that aren't as apparent at first glance. In a continuity nod that I was particularly impressed by, Audrey from HuniePop is a cam girl because she developed an expensive coke habit after finding out that her previous boyfriend was sleeping around on her with every eligible girl in town. Yeah, that's right, it's all your fault. HuniePop had a startling lack of consequences for the womanizing protagonist, and it's nice to see some realistic fallout applied here. Also, Kyu, the only character you really ever interact with on a dialogue level, retains the seedy sarcasm that made her so enjoyable in the first game.

So how do I feel about HunieCam Studio, then? I seem to be going back and forth. Well, I don't think it's a fantastic game. I wouldn't mind an easy mode, maybe. I wouldn't mind some more development from these characters, even if it would be out of place in this particular title. But I'm not judging it as anything other than a Bejeweled-style time waster, and as that, it executes very well. Will I be playing it some more? Sure...as soon as my fingers stop hurting.

HunieCam Studio is available on Steam and the Humble Store.

Final verdict: A deep, complex game this is not, but HunieCam Studio succeeds at being a competent time-killing simulator helped along by poking fun at itself every couple minutes.

HunieCam Studio is developed by HuniePot. The opinions expressed in this review are my own. I was not compensated in any way for this review.

NaNoReNo 2016 Post-Mortem

Well, here we are. My first NaNoReNo! The first visual novel to be released with my name somewhere on it! Oh em gosh.

A few scrambled thoughts on the experience:

- I'd never worked with a team before...It was fun, and it felt beneficial to have other people to bounce ideas off of. I felt a little bit of the fangirl-ish awe, since I admired the work my team members had done previously, and I also felt like they were way more experienced than me...But I'd definitely do it again, and perhaps they won't mind working together again next year?

- I learned from my fellow writer kaleidofish that working off an outline is so much easier than just winging it. Must adopt.

- As a co-writer, I was a bit worried about clashing styles, but I don't think it clashed much...There was editing, of course, but overall it seemed like it went together well. Although I have an occasional overuse of ellipses.

- For unrelated reasons, I was really depressed throughout the month of March, and it did hurt my productivity at first, but slowly I bounced back. Joining a writing group helped as well. Since joining one, my productivity has skyrocketed.

- I found out that I have a habit of tilting my head to the left while writing.

I definitely want to try doing it again next year! I feel like I've learned some things, and next year's experience will be even better!

NaNoReNo 2016 release: Palette Swap, available now

I bet you guys thought I forgot, didn't you?

NOPE!

The entry that I helped work on for this year's NaNoReNo is called Palette Swap, and it has been released!

Credits:

Lead Writer & Director: kaleidofish - http://www.kaleidofishstudios.com
Co-Writer: Some Strange Circus - http://www.somestrangecircus.com (surely you guys know this person)
Editor & Concept Development: kaenSe4 - http://kaense4.tumblr.com
Sprite & Background Artist: Rachel Noto - www.rachel-noto.com
Letters Programmer & GUI Artist: Duskylli
Quality Assurance: Thestral
Special Thanks to BobotheParrot, from kaenSe4

For more information and to download the game, visit my website below:

http://www.somestrangecircus.com/#!palette-swap/cvqu

Thanks for your support!

Circus Reviews - Lucky Me, Lucky You

After spending the month of March being rather busy with NaNoReNo and a big resurgence into poetry, I realized that it had been quite some time since I'd reviewed a game, and also that some devs I really like did stuff for NaNoReNo too and I wouldn't mind playing those!

Lucky Me, Lucky You centers around Nanami Okada, who is depressed following an unexpected breakup. Her best friend, Ryo, attempts to cheer her up with some questionable porn tapes stolen from a flatmate, and within them Nanami spots her first crush, idol Misae Morishita. Nanami impulsively decides to track down Misae and confess her long-ago feelings, dragging an unwilling Ryo along with her.

There are a few characters, but mostly we follow the pair of Nanami and Ryo. Nanami is exactly the kind of snarky, verbose heroine I like to read about, although I'm sure if I met her in reality I'd want to strangle her. She's shallow, self-centered, and, well...It should be obvious to the reader why her last girlfriend dumped her, even if Nanami can't quite figure it out. She is not a flat character, however, and does end up learning and growing throughout the story. Ryo is likeable enough...and male, which you probably can't tell from the photo. I couldn't either, and had no clue until I read the game description. Ryo is a guy who just likes to dress up as a girl sometimes for no real reason. This part of his character doesn't really lead to anything plot-wise; it's just kind of...there. I don't particularly mind; I'm a fan of living your life regardless of other people's opinions as long as you aren't hurting anyone.

The backgrounds are all filtered photographs, which makes the game's character sprites stand out, Nanami especially. It's not really a bad effect, but it kind of gives the impression that the game is going to be much darker than it turns out to be. These photographs all feel like pictures of a crapsack world, not quite like the actual setting.

I like the GUI and it matches well with the background art. Sometimes I would have liked to have had the character's name above the text when they're speaking; in places it gets a bit confusing as to whether it's Nanami or Ryo who's talking, although usually it's not too hard to figure out and that's more of a personal preference anyway.

The story doesn't have any surprises plot-wise, but there were a couple of things about it I found particularly refreshing. It treats Nanami's quest and the way it ends with complete realism. Also, Nanami and Ryo do not end up getting together in the end. (I don't consider that a spoiler because it's established very early on that Nanami and Ryo are both gay, and since they're not the same gender, well, them together wouldn't work.) Having two people who have been best friends forever suddenly fall in love is a common and often irritating trope, and it was so nice not to see it here.

All in all, a respectable NaNoReNo entry that I found quite enjoyable to read. Perhaps it doesn't have any big surprises, but it makes for a nice tale about friendship, facing your problems, and thinking things through.

Lucky Me, Lucky You is available on itch.io.

Final verdict: The game looks bleaker than it is and the story contains no real surprises, but Lucky Me, Lucky You is carried through by an entertaining main character and refreshingly realistic treatment of its subject matter.

Lucky Me, Lucky You is developed by ebi-hime. The opinions expressed in this review are my own. I was not compensated in any way for this review.

Development Update - Yumi-chan and poetry

NaNoReNo

Oh yeah, that first.

Two days left. Everyone scrambles. But it'll all be okay. :)

Yumi-chan's Wonderful Cake Shop

Once my obligations to NaNoReNo are finished, I plan to redouble my focus on coding Yumi-chan's Wonderful Cake Shop until it's complete. I've already learned the lesson of no firm dates unless I'm positive, sooooo no firm date.

Poetry

The more rambly bit. I recently got a new used laptop, pulling all my files from my old crusty dead laptop from a couple years ago. And on there was a whole mountain of bad fanfiction, bad poetry, venting documents about how shitty my life was, video game walkthroughs, and a bunch of other stuff accumulated throughout high school/my early young adult years. Most of it was pretty embarassing to read. But there are, surprisingly, some good bits still in there, and so in the near future I will face the task of wading through all of that to find the jewels.

I was most struck by my poetry portfolio. How I keep mine is, only the works that I feel are good enough to be published. Well...Let's just say that some of the stuff I used to think was good enough to be published...I may have been mistaken.

Will that poetry ever see the light of day? Who knows...?

Circus Rambles - On conventions

Let's talk about cons!

Past

I've been to A-Kon twice, once in 2011 and once in 2015. The first time kind of ended up sucking towards the end due to personal reasons, but the con itself was fun, and this last year...also ended up sucking towards the end due to personal reasons, but the con itself was fun. Funny how that works out.

I know an anime dealer in town, though, and she says that A-Kon isn't very nice to the dealers, so I'm wondering if I'm gonna go back in the future.

Present

I'm doing two cons this year, Arkansas Anime Festival and GenCon.

I didn't plan on going to A2F (as folks call it), but the other big con I wanted to go to, AnimeFest, is the weekend immediately after GenCon, which was locked in first plan-wise, and I probably can't get that much time off work at once. Plus I live really close to A2F's hosting site and it's much less costly to travel there. It'll be okaaaaay? Truthfully it isn't the con I wanted to go to, but I have to think about money, you know...Anyway, I will be attending Saturday and maybe Sunday if I feel like it, decked out in traditional Circus garb.

GenCon I am mostly attending in order to see my nieces, since I don't get to see them enough. I have not confirmed what day/days I'm attending yet. I've never been to a gaming con before, so we'll see how it goes. I see next year it's scheduled the same weekend as Anime Fest, so that'll have to be a competition of sorts...

Future

Cons I really want to go to one day:

- AnimeFest
- Anime Expo
- Anime North (even though passports are expensive for some reason)

So we'll see what all happens.

Circus Rambles - On Happy Binder/Junk Journal crafting

When I was a kid, I had a huge love for crafting. I made bugs out of pom-poms and pipe cleaners, or those pre-made crafting kits, mostly. 'Twas fun!

Recently, I started getting back into crafting a good bit. One crafter I found online and started following was Janette Lane, inventor of the Pocket Letter. She does really cute crafting videos; you should go look her up on Youtube! Anyway, one of these videos was on the Happy Binder, more commonly known as a junk journal. I'd been thinking about how to store all my mini-prints and artist goodies, and today I decided that this would be the way!

The mini binder is an adorable thing. I found mine at Target, along with mini binder paper and mini binder sheet protectors and about seven other cute things that weren't related to this project but were cute. After getting home and discovering that I did not own a hole puncher, I went out and got a mini one of those too (Walmart was out of big ones) and got to work.

The contents are mini prints, stickers, bookmarks, sketches or postcards from artists' shops, things like that. Basically, I just punched holes in them and arranged them in a pretty random method. The sheet protectors are in the very back for fragile things like pencil sketches.

And this is the finished (for now) project. In the pocket are two sticker sheets from Chiikaboom that I haven't decided what to do with yet. The cover is just a white sheet of cardstock since I haven't decided how to decorate that either. But yay, a project started! Yay, another reason to go to lots of cons and get more stuff to fill this with!

And now I need to get back to work badly, but at least procrastination looks pretty!

Chiikaboom interview announcement + Retooling

Announcements!

Yumi-chan's Wonderful Cake Shop

On Patreon, I will be posting a little mini interview with the game's artist, Chiikaboom! If you haven't heard of her, you should go Google her. The interview will also be included in a guidebook that will release alongside the game. If you want to see that early, you can do so by pledging any amount to me on Patreon! It's also full of previews of stuff I'm working on, mostly Yumi-chan previews at the moment, but other stuff in the future, too.

Retooling

I recently discovered the works of Porpentine, author of With Those We Love Alive and the new novella Psycho Nymph Exile. I don't feel like I understand half of what I've read, but I enjoy it a lot anyway. And it inspired me. It made me realize that I don't have to put my other creative writing endeavors on hold, necessarily. I still write poetry and I still want to share that with the world too.

Some Strange Circus will now include all of my writing endeavors, poetry and possible eventual future novel as well as visual novels and interactive fiction. The website will be a bit messy for a few days as I change things around, but it should be done pretty soon.

This does not mean that I will be paying any less attention to game development. This simply means that I plan to share other kinds of writing in addition to making interactive fiction games.

...I hope that's okay? I just kind of lost my train of thought.

Anyway. Thanks for your support, and hope to have some all-new material at you guys soon!