Hello from Japan!

[Akamarak]

Hello, and happy new year! My name is Mark. My wife and I are Americans who have been living in Japan for a couple of years. We like watching Precure together, and my favorite series so far is probably HeartCatch. I'm an indie game designer, and am currently working on a Magical Girl inspired game (though it's still in the early stages). From looking at the forum I appreciate the cheerful and positive atmosphere, and I look forward to some good discussions! よろしくお願いします！

 

[Phoenix]

Hello Mark,
Welcome to the forum. Oh amazing so I wish I could visit Japan to buy the precure and other merchandise well. Have a good day

 

[Fallen Heart]

Another ally has joined our rank! Welcome to the magical girl forums.
It would be great to see a new magical girl game in the world. As a hobby, I also work on making games, but I'm still more of an amateur at it.
Well, have a great time in the forums. ^^

 

[Akamarak]

Hello Mark,
Welcome to the forum. Oh amazing so I wish I could visit Japan to buy the precure and other merchandise well. Have a good day

Thanks! And yeah, Japan is fun! We don't have the money and space to get fun merchandise all the time, but we do have a few older precure seasons on DVD and a couple of art books. DVD's are usually pretty expensive in Japan, but sometimes you can get some older ones for cheaper if you get them used. I'm going to stop myself before I ramble on about Japan for several paragraphs, but here are a couple of pictures!

 

[Akamarak]

Another ally has joined our rank! Welcome to the magical girl forums.
It would be great to see a new magical girl game in the world. As a hobby, I also work on making games, but I'm still more of an amateur at it.
Well, have a great time in the forums. ^^

Thanks for the welcome! I would love to see more Magical Girl games too! Japan has Precure games, but those seem like they're mainly cute, simple mini-game collections for little girls. Nothing wrong with that, I'm just not really the target audience. And a lot of games that could be considered Magical Girl games that have an older target audience lean too much into the fan-service side of things, which I'm not personally comfortable with. Anyways, what types of games have you worked on hobby-wise? Of late I've been focusing on 2D retro-y Platformers, but in the past I've also dabbled a little in RPG Maker.

 

[Fallen Heart]

Thanks for the welcome! I would love to see more Magical Girl games too! Japan has Precure games, but those seem like they're mainly cute, simple mini-game collections for little girls. Nothing wrong with that, I'm just not really the target audience. And a lot of games that could be considered Magical Girl games that have an older target audience lean too much into the fan-service side of things, which I'm not personally comfortable with. Anyways, what types of games have you worked on hobby-wise? Of late I've been focusing on 2D retro-y Platformers, but in the past I've also dabbled a little in RPG Maker.

Agreed, the only Magical Girl games I found were not of my preference, since I prefer longer, darker, story-rich games without fan-service, but still somehow cute in a creepy way. Recently I've been working on some RPG Maker games. One is similar to the concept of Magical Girls, and the other is more of a parallel world fantasy. I've also been working on visual novels, but I'm using a time-limited demo version which seems to crash a lot.

 

[Loco del Lápiz]

A man out of his land, but not out of his home...
Sorry for the melodramatic introduction *ahem*
Welcome, Mark! Seems you'll add even more positivity (and a cool factor) to this magical place! Hope to see you around, and check out your games someday!

 

[Akamarak]

Agreed, the only Magical Girl games I found were not of my preference, since I prefer longer, darker, story-rich games without fan-service, but still somehow cute in a creepy way. Recently I've been working on some RPG Maker games. One is similar to the concept of Magical Girls, and the other is more of a parallel world fantasy. I've also been working on visual novels, but I'm using a time-limited demo version which seems to crash a lot.

Yeah, some of the more beginner-friendly game-making software is really good for quickly making certain types of games, but sometimes it's not as stable or flexible. With things like Game Maker and RPG-Maker they were great for getting the start of a game up and running quickly, but I would always end up wanting to do things that were out of the scope of what the software was capable of (or at least it would require a lot of workarounds), which is why I'm working with Unreal Engine now. My games aren't getting close to what the engine is capable of, but that's kind of the point, and it gives me a lot of room to grow.

I can't think of any games that match all of your preferences, especially with also being magical girl games. The closest I can come to the general feel you described is Majora's Mask and Undertale. What are some examples of the types of games you like?

 

[Akamarak]

A man out of his land, but not out of his home...
Sorry for the melodramatic introduction *ahem*
Welcome, Mark! Seems you'll add even more positivity (and a cool factor) to this magical place! Hope to see you around, and check out your games someday!

Thanks for the welcome! And this is a magical girl forum, so a little melodrama every once in a while isn't out of place

 

[Fallen Heart]

Yeah, some of the more beginner-friendly game-making software is really good for quickly making certain types of games, but sometimes it's not as stable or flexible. With things like Game Maker and RPG-Maker they were great for getting the start of a game up and running quickly, but I would always end up wanting to do things that were out of the scope of what the software was capable of (or at least it would require a lot of workarounds), which is why I'm working with Unreal Engine now. My games aren't getting close to what the engine is capable of, but that's kind of the point, and it gives me a lot of room to grow.

I can't think of any games that match all of your preferences, especially with also being magical girl games. The closest I can come to the general feel you described is Majora's Mask and Undertale. What are some examples of the types of games you like?

Good point. I'll check out Unreal Engine.
Exactly, so I usually end up not playing Magical Girl games often. It's not magical girl games, of course, but I do really like RPGs such as Ib, Witch's House, Grey Garden, Mad Father and Pocket Mirror, and the list can go on, as long as magical girls are not involved. They have the elements I enjoy. Then there are amazing visual novels that are somehow free... What about you?

 

[Loco del Lápiz]

I don't want to be THAT dude, but now that Mark has introduced himself, maaaaaaybe we should create a thread about magical girl games? Or maybe one about how our perfect MG videogame would be?

Also, Ib, The Witch's House and Mad Father are awesome. I friggin' love them.

 

[Akamarak]

Good point. I'll check out Unreal Engine.
Exactly, so I usually end up not playing Magical Girl games often. It's not magical girl games, of course, but I do really like RPGs such as Ib, Witch's House, Grey Garden, Mad Father and Pocket Mirror, and the list can go on, as long as magical girls are not involved. They have the elements I enjoy. Then there are amazing visual novels that are somehow free... What about you?

I've enjoyed too many different kinds of games to go into all of it in a quick reply, but I've enjoyed a lot of

• Platformers- Mario, Yoshi, Kirby, Mega Man, Sonic
• RPG's- Chrono Trigger, some Final Fantasy, Golden Sun, Pokemon, Morrowind, Persona 4, Mother/Earthbound, Radiant Historia
• Adventure- Zelda, Metroid, Myst, King's Quest (I'm using the term 'adventure' extremely broadly here)
• Strategy- classic Warcraft/Starcraft games, Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre, Fire Emblem
• Simulation- Harvest Moon

That isn't anywhere close to a full list, but that's a basic idea of some of the games I've enjoyed. And I remember The Witch's House being fun. It's been a while since I played many RPG-Maker Games!

I would love to talk more about whether or not Unreal Engine would be right for you or not, but maybe we can make a separate thread for that sometime so my introduction thread doesn't go on forever.

 

[Akamarak]

I don't want to be THAT dude, but now that Mark has introduced himself, maaaaaaybe we should create a thread about magical girl games? Or maybe one about how our perfect MG videogame would be?

Also, Ib, The Witch's House and Mad Father are awesome. I friggin' love them.

That sounds great! I probably would have started that at some point anyways
I need to go for now, but I'll definitely post on that thread later!

 

[Fallen Heart]

I've enjoyed too many different kinds of games to go into all of it in a quick reply, but I've enjoyed a lot of

• Platformers- Mario, Yoshi, Kirby, Mega Man, Sonic
• RPG's- Chrono Trigger, some Final Fantasy, Golden Sun, Pokemon, Morrowind, Persona 4, Mother/Earthbound, Radiant Historia
• Adventure- Zelda, Metroid, Myst, King's Quest (I'm using the term 'adventure' extremely broadly here)
• Strategy- classic Warcraft/Starcraft games, Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre, Fire Emblem
• Simulation- Harvest Moon

That isn't anywhere close to a full list, but that's a basic idea of some of the games I've enjoyed. And I remember The Witch's House being fun. It's been a while since I played many RPG-Maker Games!

I would love to talk more about whether or not Unreal Engine would be right for you or not, but maybe we can make a separate thread for that sometime so my introduction thread doesn't go on forever.

Ah, yes, Final Fantasy VII and Prinny are great games. Oh, I've been meaning to find Fire Emblem games. I don't think they sell them here. Have you tried Bravely Defau -- Right, let's not turn the introduction into a deep discussion of games that will never end.
I recently found a site filled with wonderful RPGs and visual novels, so I'm happy.

 

[Mikan]

Hello Mark it's very nice to meet you and that's cool that both you and your wife live in Japan. I have always wanted to go to Japan along with other countries too like France and Italy since I love traveling to different places and learning different languages. That's amazing that you're developing a Magical Girl game too.

 

[Akamarak]

Nice to meet you too! It's been really fun getting to live in Japan. My wife and I love learning about different languages and cultures too, and she was actually a nanny in Italy for a few months! She said the food was delicious.

 

[Mikan]

Nice to meet you too! It's been really fun getting to live in Japan. My wife and I love learning about different languages and cultures too, and she was actually a nanny in Italy for a few months! She said the food was delicious.

That's good and whoa that's amazing!

 

[Akamarak]

That's good and whoa that's amazing!

Have you visited any other countries/studied any cool languages?

Also sometimes I get carried away talking about subjects I'm interested in (in this case different cultures and languages), so to avoid turning this into a long discussion completely unrelated to magical-girl related things, what's your favorite Magical Girl anime?

 

[Mikan]

Have you visited any other countries/studied any cool languages?

Also sometimes I get carried away talking about subjects I'm interested in (in this case different cultures and languages), so to avoid turning this into a long discussion completely unrelated to magical-girl related things, what's your favorite Magical Girl anime?

The only countries I ever visited were Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. I did learn French in high school. but it was only for two years.

I have a lot of favorite Magical Girl anime series, but the ones that are my all time favorites are Sailor Moon and Wedding Peach.

 

[Akamarak]

The only countries I ever visited were Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. I did learn French in high school. but it was only for two years.

I have a lot of favorite Magical Girl anime series, but the ones that are my all time favorites are Sailor Moon and Wedding Peach.

Nice! Before coming to Japan I had only been to Mexico and Canada (I'm originally from the U.S., so not too far). A lot of my experience with magical girl related things has been through Pretty Cure, but I've seen some Sailor Moon and a couple of other shows. I don't know very much about Wedding Peach though. What do you like about it?