Category Archives: Milk

Träumendes Mädchen at Japan Expo 2014

Posted on by
Reply

The whole Träumendes Mädchen team is very proud to announce that we’ll be at Japan Expo 2014 from 2nd to 6th July !

For a long time we were hoping to come at a convention in an official way and that’s now a reality. You’ll be able to find us at our booth to discuss our various projects, chat or enjoy our fabulous artists : our composer will improvise some music and many designers will do little illustrations on request. If you’re passing by, go visit us, we’ll be very happy! Chibi_1Those who read How visual novels changed my life, our recent Nanoreno project, must have understood by now but we’re planning to come to japan Expo with something for you. Indeed, as exhibitors, nothing would please us more than to offer our fans some goodies. The thing is, we’re too poor to afford it by ourselves, that’s why we teamed up with Atelier Dreamnoid and Enless Seasons, two others visual novel creators, to gather our ressources. With the help of Projet Saya who kindly proposed to take care of logistics. We just launched an Indiegogo campaign to collect the funds we need to go to our first convention together.

20140412113248-tm

Here, at Träumendes Mädchen, we’ll be offering some goodies : three designs for posters, three design for pin-badges and three designs for bookmarks (the last one isn’t finished yet) for our different games (Being Beauteous, Ambre and Milk). There will also be a music album composed by Roganis (we’ll be showing the tracklist sometime soon) as well as physical copies of the first three episodes of our visual novel Milk. This edition will feature technical improvements over the online version, a new illustration for the main menu and the exclusive episode 3! Indeed, the lucky owners of the physical version will have access to the story as soon as early July while the others will have to wait until the end of summer.

stretch2

If the initial goal is met before the end of the campaign, we’ll be offering even more choice! With the first stretch goal, we’re going to produce a re-mastered compilation of our short projects with improvements here and there : How visual novels changed my life will include additional scene with new extra illustrations, the translation of Ambre will be enhanced and we’ll redo some of the backgrounds, where Being Beauteous will receive a new GUI (with some graphical enhancement if we still have the time). And with the second stretch goal, we’ll have twice as much goodies to offer!

vnje

So, if you liked our work or if you want to support the western visual novel creation, don’t hesitate to pre-order on our Indiegogo campaign, even if you’re not coming to Japan Expo : we’re shipping products, with additional fee sadly. Even the simplest donation will be helpful. The whole team is counting on you ;).

Milk Episode 2 Release !

Posted on by
1

EP2About one year ago, we released Milk’s first episode in a quite chaotic background, promising to take care of the rest quickly. My naivety had stricken again, proving I’m way too optimistic when calculating deadlines =’). Similar to Episode 1 production, Episode 2 production met unexpected events, leading to the latency we know : post-Nanoreno break, recruitment needs, troubling holidays period, changes in everyone’s schedules, recruitment needs again…

elephant

I’m never aksing for an elephant again, I swear…

In spite of that, our tenacity has paid since we’re seeing the end of the tunnel ! Episode 2 is finished and include the next part of the story as well as some new features :

  • minor story alterations
  • NENEA’s sprite redesign
  • a better-looking GUI
  • a chapter select menu to make browsing easier
  • some animated backgrounds

The idea had always been to keep getting better and better with each release so we took advantage of that extra time to correct some flaws that were adressed. You can keep report them to us, so that we can take them into account for next episode !

chartre graphique ep2

Cowgirls, now aliens, what could be next ?

Anyway, we hope you’ll enjoy Khzi’s adventures : they’ll be at the center of the story for a while. The good news is : with the slow progress of Episode 2, Episode 3 is actually half done, so we’re hoping the release date will be soon. I’m planning it for this summer since we had some interesting constraints which I will explain in no time ~

By the way, besides a new part of the story, we’re already planning Episode 3 to include :

  • a way to reduce contrasts between old and new sprites
  • possibly a new textbox
  • a better translation, which sadly we didn’t have the time to do
Savane

Our faces after passing each deadline

For the moment, enjoy the read. To download the game, as usual, go to our download page. After getting the game, you’ll have to click on Start to select a chapter and that’s all =).
You can still follow our updates regularly on Facebook, Twitter and now Tumblr ! Any feedback will be much appreciated.

2013 report & 2014 plans

Posted on by
1

Happy new year everyone ! As I said previously, I’m trying to write on the devblog, which has been a bit disregarded lately (and woken up with a huge post) by telling you more about our projects than “We’re working on it”. So, I’m taking advantage of this changing in year to make a report of everything happened during 2013 and what we are planning to do in 2014.

EVN42

2013 : hill start

After 2012, which was mostly occupied by the formation of the team and its difficulties to get to work, with most of the time dedicated to Milk’s production, it became urgent to produce something concrete (and I’m not even taking into account our entry in the No-Xice visual novel contest which was more of a warm-up). So we managed to release the first episode of Milk last February with great relief.

Old GUI

The old GUI

The visual novel I had in mind was a suicidal project : huge scenario, huge amount of artwork, managing people blindly, recruiting too early, many begginer mistakes and all. With a project like that, we should have crashed at some time or another, but nope. We managed to release a first part. That can seem ridiculously little to most people, but to us it means a lot, we felt like we’ve survived the hardest.

Obviously, my writing style being what it is, some people were a bit bothered by it, and that doesn’t surprise me. I’m well aware that what I write isn’t made to appeal to everyone and that just a handful of crazy people will like it, but that won’t stop me. After all, I’m here because I’m passionate XD What saved Milk’s release was the switch to an episodic format (the first episode being only 10% of the game, I’ll let you think about what would’ve happened if I aimed for a single release : the team would be dead) and it also allowed us to improve ourselves between releases. Yeah, we’re trying to improve more and more! Rome wasn’t built in a day, after all…

1366351472190

We’re even on one of the EVN Thread banner, wow =’)

In March, we decided to take part in the Nanoreno, an international visual novel contest with a limited deadline, which was super intimidating (I mean look at the other participants). Despite that we managed to finish the game on time and Ambre was released the first day of April. I though the little story I had in mind lend itself well to something like Nanoreno and the feedback from the Lemmasoft community have been really heart-warming so far (don’t know if many French people enter the contest usually). So, the whole experience seems a little success. I might do a new version a Ambre one day to correct all the little things we couldn’t improve back then (who said translation ?).

FP cover

Two releases in one yeat, that’s not bad for a small team of beginners, I think we can be satisfied. Well, two and a half since I had to lend all my team members between april and june to help making Faith/Puella, a shot kinetic made to pay tribute to Urobuchi (he was coming in France at a convention). I offered some advices and did what I could to help and the result, without being a masterpiece, seemed nice enough to me. Especially for a large temporary team who lacks cohesion. Sadly, the difficulties they run into while trying to sell physical copies at Japan Expo disheartened the various project leaders. At least, their misfortune showed us that selling visual novel, even with the best of intentions, isn’t an easy task. It’s a pity the game faded from memory since then. Especially because a V2 (with improved GUI and some corrections) is waiting in a closet for a while. It might be released soon, who knows ?

Well, after that break, we went back to working again in june and I made fewer and fewer news. Why ? Well, first reason being summer is THE season for procrastination : everybody having vacation at a different time, the team is almost paralysed and it’s easier to go with the flow instead of working… Second reason being we’re still making progress but very slowly. Doesn’t really motivate to make news.We’ve almost finished episode 2 : sprite are ready, chibis are ready, Gui have been nearly totally remade…but we’re stilling missing somme backgrounds and the CGs.

 

2014 will be challenging

So, what do we have in plan for 2014 ? It goes without saying but our priority is to finish the already under way Milk episode 2. We didn’t make it in time for 2013 and passed the deadline (I was too optimistic…again…ahahahah) but I think we can do it early 2014. The when is a whole different story.

IMG_16092013_182957

What the new GUI will look like. Way better, right ?

We’re also thinking about trying Nanoreno again this year. If we do it, the project will be very different compared to last time. I might say it will be just the opposite in terms of atmosphere…

If possible, well most certinaly, we will try releasing episode 3 faster than the previous one. Since it’s lighter in terms of ressources, it should be a little less time consuming to make.

IMG_08122013_190712

Teaser of a chibi I intend to show for episode 2 release ~

At this point, doing all that would already be quite satisfactory, because not every indie team can afford to release two or three thing per year. But wait, there’s more ! In fact we have a new super special awesome secret project (because all secret projet are obviously super special awesome). Something a bit different than what we usually do. I can’t say too much for the time being but it will witout doubt represent a shit load of work so 2014’s gonna be a challenging year. Anyway, if we’re doing well, you’re gonna get news really soon ~

What about the future of Milk ?

Posted on by
Reply

After the first episode of Milk, some of you may have asked themselves : what is she trying to say, does the story have sense, had she taken drugs (answer : no, it’s my natural state, thank you) ?

Answers won’t come straightaway, because it wouldn’t be as funny. As you have to eat some teenage slice of lifebefore the epic mecha mart in Muv-Luv, you have to begin on Earth before travelling to the stars (yes, the title has a meaning).

One of the new tracks from Milk’s OST, composed by Roganis

During episode 1, Tarô Caligula met the cows that the mysterious deity divinity placed on his way and he had to deal with their personalities until a UFO crashed in his garden.It wasn’t just a gag to end the episode with something abrupt but a major shift in the story. Because now, here come the new (real ?) main character : Khzi, the alien ! As I said in the game summary (rewritten since then, you can read the new version), she will help Tarô discovering who are the heirs of the past between the cows, thanks to a few clues. Well, if she agree to.

Khzi

Khzi

Khzi is an albino woman with long white hair and red eyes who works as a mercenary for the Interstellar Travellers’ Society. She claims she came on Earth because of the breakdown of her starship but with her mischievous and unpredictable personality, who knows… And why does she seems to know Tarô and the others so well ?

Starting from here, Milk will narrate Khzi’s adventures in space to complete a mysterious task the Society gave her. She have to travel on a planet made up of islands with Eastern characteristics but she won’t go alone ! To help her, there are three others mercenaries. Including Freyja.

Freyja

Freyja

Freyja is a saturnian, a woman with blue skin and dark hair. She has been a mercenary for quite a long time, so that she has multiple scars and lost one of her arms in a war (she has a bionic one now). Always serious, she tends to smoke when she’s nervous and can’t stand Khzi’s unpredictability at all. Will she be able to deal with it ?

And then, along the way, Khzi’s group comes across Aluwo, an Earthling that has been enslaved. He’s frail, almost like a girl, and constantly abused by his master, but meeting Khzi will change his fate…

Aluwo

Aluwo

So, that what will be the next episodes of Milk. No more good old harem ? Or maybe not. To understand the link between Khzi and Tarô, you’ll have to wait a while.

temple_wip_color

Work in progress of the temple

Meanwhile, here are some pictures. The characters’s concept art are from  Laniessa, who’s very talented, colorization is from Koko-chan and the backgrounds are from Elairin, our new members. I hope you’ll like their work ;).

Milk Episode 1 Release !

Posted on by
1

EP1After almost one year of production, the team and myself are glad to be able to show you the fruit of our labors. Here goes the first episode of Milk, available both in English and French on our download page.

cg bus

An in-game CG, drawn by Morsy

Episodic cutting

Since the entire game is really too big and too ambitious (500 000 words written in total), we decided to release it as several chapters/episodes until the common route is fully revealed, then the heroines’ routes in a certain order, if everything goes well. Each chapter/episode will contain the last, so you won’t have to download a dozen of files everytime. We’ll take advantage of this to improve the game gradually.

The amount of work demanded as well as the final size of the product are making us seriously consider the possibility of going commercial with Milk. Being yet unsure of our capabilities, we’re producing content while watching how the team is doing before making our mind.

Anyways, we’ll try to release a chapter/episode every six months starting from now. I hope you’ll enjoy this first episode and that you’ll wait for the next ^_^

Taro shojo

An in-game chib, still drawn by Morsy

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, we’ll be telling the release date of Episode 2 as soon as possible ;). And don’t hesitate to send us some fanarts, we’d be delighted and we’ll gladly post them !