Taro Omiya

Taro Omiya

Software Engineer, Game Designer

  • #WeeklyGameMusic: ้™ฝใฎๅฝ“ใŸใ‚‹ๅ ดๆ‰€ (ๆฐดๅนณ็ทšใพใงไฝ•ใƒžใ‚คใƒซ? -Deep Blue Sky & Pure White Wings-)

    โ€”

    by

    Taro Omiya
    in

    #WeeklyGameMusic: New week, new music.

    Cover Art
    Cover art from https://vndb.org/v972

    Note: sadly, the music file has been taken down, and I’m unable to locate another source yet.

    With love up in the air, I had to look for something special.  And now, I’ve found it…in a obscure Japanese visual novel called Suiheisen Made Nan Mile? – Deep Blue Sky & Pure White Wings –!?  Regardless of its hentai origins, this week’s music is incredibly catchy.  I’ll forgive you if the moment you’ve played Where the Sun Shines, a lovely tune by Yasuhisa Watanabe, you started dancing.

    So, forgive me for the scarce information, but this is what I can gather about Suiheisen Made Nan Mile? through a few Google searches.  The game is a regular visual novel that focuses on a simple slice-of-life of an average Japanese high school club.  You play as Sorata, an average student and a member in astronomy club.  As it turns out, the student council deems the club unworthy (which, unfortunately for the lazy club members, is a logical conclusion), forcing the members to come up with a ridiculous plan to redeem themselves: compete with the aviation club to pilot electric gliders for a world competition.  And so, their flight begins…

    Unfortunately, I was not able to gather what kind of visual novel Suiheisen Made Nan Mile? is.  That is, typically, visual novels can be divided into one of the two categories: choose-your-own-adventure like Katawa Shoujo, or stat building like Long Live the Queen and Hatoful Boyfriend.  Given the (very) few reviews out there that mentions that honing in on which girl (and a guy) to date tends to be easy lends me to believe it’s the former type of game, but I can’t be too sure.  What I can confirm is that, yes, this is another erotic Japanese game (unlike Long Live the Queen and Hatoful Boyfriend), though a tame one at that.  Much like Katawa Shoujo, sex scenes are treated as an end reward rather than a pornographic journey.  Additionally, since the settings is set firmly in a non-magical world, there aren’t any tentacle monsters or other bizarre fetishes.  Lastly, replaying the game with the same starting choices actually leads to new branches in the story as well, increasing the replay value.  This does, yes, include more sex scenes.

    Suiheisen Made Nan Mile? – Deep Blue Sky & Pure White Wings – was released on the Playstation Portable and PC.  It is, as far as I can tell, a Japan-only game.

    Read more: #WeeklyGameMusic: ้™ฝใฎๅฝ“ใŸใ‚‹ๅ ดๆ‰€ (ๆฐดๅนณ็ทšใพใงไฝ•ใƒžใ‚คใƒซ? -Deep Blue Sky & Pure White Wings-)

  • #WeeklyGameMusic: Miller House (The Witch’s House)

    โ€”

    by

    Taro Omiya
    in

    #WeeklyGameMusic: New week, new music.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz1MDs_uLz0

    What better way to start a romantic month with an RPGMaker horror game? Accelerated heart rate is easily mistaken for love and all that. Anyway, this week’s music is a free music called Miller House, composed by Presence of Music.ย  It’s used effectively during a shocking plot twist from a Japanese horror game called The Witch’s House. A twist so good, it makes every M. Night Shyamalan plot-line boring.

    The plot of The Witch’s House is deceptively simple. A young blond-haired girl named Viola wakes up in an opening of a forest, and finds herself stuck in a very unfortunate situation.ย  The forest itself is too thick to pass through, and the passage that it creates only leads to one of two dead ends. One end is blocked by an enchanted and stubborn set of rose bushes that can’t be cut by a machete; the other leads directly to a haunted house. Without much else to do (and being encouraged by a creepy, talking black cat), Viola dives right into the house.

    It’s worth noting that for most first-time players, the house will kill Viola within the second room she enters. Yup, it’s that kind of game. As a defenseless girl, Viola will very frequently get hanged, poisoned, crushed, decapitated, eaten, fall, and other wonderful ways to die in this surprisingly detailed game. This game relies on a trial-and-death mechanic to solve every puzzle, although the majority of the puzzles do provide cryptic hints. Similar to other RPGMaker horror games, The Witch’s House also has a few chase moments that, due to its rarity, is shockingly effective at making the player’s hair stand on its ends. It’s rare to find a game that utilizes jump scares well, yet still feel fair and possible to beat. Just be prepared for all the blood and gore: this game does not compromise.

    The Witch’s House is a freeware PC game originally developed in Japanese by Fummy (ใตใฟใƒผ). An English translation of it exists as a free download at:
    http://www.vgperson.com/games/witchhouse.htm

    Read more: #WeeklyGameMusic: Miller House (The Witch’s House)

  • Website and personal updates

    โ€”

    by

    Taro Omiya
    in

    I have a few updates to present. First, the Game Projects page has been updated with a lot more games created for 2014 #OneGameAMonth. Second, I’ll be at MAGFest to participate in their Global Game Jam, so I won’t have a #WeeklyGameMusic this weekend. It will be back on-schedule next weekend.

    Read more: Website and personal updates

  • #WeeklyGameMusic: Liberation (La Muerte de Papo) (Papo & Yo)

    โ€”

    by

    Taro Omiya
    in

    #WeeklyGameMusic: New week, new music.

    This week’s music comesย from aย touching and tragic game called Papo & Yo. ย Despite it’s fantastical (or more correctly, magical realism) settings, the puzzle platformer touches what it’s like to live underย parental abuse. ย It’s quite fitting, then, that theย credits music for this game, Liberation (La Muerte de Papo) by Brian D’Oliveira, depicts a sad, hollow echo of what feels like a childย trying to connect with his/herย parent, but the feeling isn’t reciprocated.

    Papo & Yo starts with a small,ย South American boy named Quico hiding from what appears to be a monster (only the shadow is revealed). ย While beingย cramped inside anย air duct, aย magical chalk drawing of a portal appears near Quico. ย As if entranced, our hero walks through the portal, teleporting himย to what looks like a bright, colorful outdoors of a slum neighborhood. ย Immediately taunted by a girl about the same age as Quico, he ventures out in the new universe he’ve stumbled upon filled with incredible art and imagination.

    As a 3D puzzle-platformer, Papo & Yo has a lot of interactiveย chalk drawings acting as switches, gears, or pulleys to affect the surroundings. ย Playing around with these drawings can cause various effects, includingย twisting the ground to turn into walls, or making buildings fly like birds to create platforms. ย Despite this creative core, however, the most vital game element is the uneasy relation the player has with a monster. ย Helpful but lazy, the monster can help push heavy objects or provide his bouncy belly as a way to jump towards higher platforms. ย Unfortunately, said monster also has a horrible addiction to frogs, causing it to become angry and immediately attack poor Quico. ย The puzzles in the game regularly has the player guiding the monster to vital puzzle elements while it’s in a docile state, and avoiding it as soon asย frogs hops in at the most inopportune times.

    Papo & Yoย was originally developed as a downloadable title for Playstation 3. ย It is now available on Steam for PC, Mac, and Linux.

    Read more: #WeeklyGameMusic: Liberation (La Muerte de Papo) (Papo & Yo)

  • #WeeklyGameMusic: Tank 1 (Insaniquarium)

    โ€”

    by

    Taro Omiya
    in

    #WeeklyGameMusic: New week, new music.

    Great game music can come from the unlikeliest places, and casual games are no exceptions. Take this Insaniquarium Deluxe music, for example. Tank 1, composed by Jonne Valtonen, manages to keep a facade of normalcy and simplicity in an otherwise crazy game about saving poor fishes from aliens. Seriously.

    Insaniquarium Deluxe generally has two phases: fish simulation phase where you manage the money dropped by the guppies and carnivores, and the alien phase where you use lasers to kill them before it consumes every fish in the tank. The stage ends when you purchase three egg pieces, hatching a new helper. The majority of the time is spent in maintaining your fish population, feeding them properly, and adding more fish into the tank without running out of money. The formula is shockingly addicting as each stage introduces new aliens, helpers, and obstacles to make your resource management that much more difficult.

    Insaniquarium Deluxe is available on PC via Steam.

    Read more: #WeeklyGameMusic: Tank 1 (Insaniquarium)

  • What I achieved in 2014

    โ€”

    by

    Taro Omiya
    in

    Now would be a good time to look at 2014 in retrospect and see what I achieved, and what I haven’t. ย So without further ado, let’s get right to it!

    Majorย Projects

    In January,ย I’ve visited and teamed up with various friends from IGDA DC and new friends from American University to create a new game for Global Game Jam 2014. ย That game? Ichabot Crane, a first-person puzzle gameย where you can through the lead character’s headย to activate switches and have better perspective of the level. ย As with the usual game jam rules, it took 48 hours to develop with 5 people to develop this game.ย The unique premise of the game got a mentionย as one of the best free games of the week by PC Gamer. ย While I moved on to other projects, the rest of the team has been keeping the game alive with an appearance at Smithsonian’s Indies In The Middle event.

    In July, I worked with e4 Software to make one last game with them: ZUP! ย It’s a tilt-based arcade game where you have to swerve Top Hat Joe away from spikes and other obstacles while collectingย power-ups to help his journey up to the stratosphere and beyond. ย The project was in development for 1.5 years with 4ย people. ย Since it’s a mobile game, it’s available in a few app stores, including iPhones, iPads, Androids,ย Amazon Kindles, and Barnes & Noble’s Nooks.

    In September,ย Iย developed a game that speaks loudly of my experience with making mobile games: Not a Clone. ย The minigame collection of cloned mobile games signifies the shallow and frequently short nature of clones. ย It’s heavily critical of the mobile app stores allowing clones to become popular without providing any highlight or care to the original product. ย It took about a month working solo to create this game. ย It was featured in GameJolt, and also got a mention in Warp Door. ย Thanks to the GameJolt feature, it’s one of the fastest growing game I’ve created, with a strong Let’s Play following.

    In October, I developed anย application intended to help developers create more engaging games withย Make it Juicy: Easy Methods to Make Your Game More Engaging.ย It wasย created in 2 weeks soloย for a presentation at Capital Region Unity Developers. ย Hopefully, other developers had found the application to be educational as the Unity Developers had during the presentation.

    Also in October, I participated in Bacon Game Jam 08 to create a game in 48-hours again. ย As a result, I had an innovative accident, and developed Suddenly, Thousands, a game about controlling multiple synchronized characters at once whileย traversing levels and solving their puzzles. ย Shockingly enough, I’ve managed to create it in solo within the 48-hour time limit. ย Despite the short development time, this game had the highest critical praise: it wasย the highest rated game in Bacon Game Jam,ย had a mention as one of the best free games of the week in PC Gamer, and a positive review in Jay Is Games.

    In November, I’ve started on Prototype: Murakami, an on-rails third-person shooter with point & click puzzle elementsย inspired byย Killer7,ย but due to poor scoping, I haven’t been able to finish it in the one month schedule I originally estimated. ย The prototype is still in development right now, so it might see the light of day…

    In December, Robert Denner and I teamed up with Indies Need Booze to create a Indies Need Booze patron-exclusive Letters From Secret Santa, a narrative platformer where the words are your platforms. ย It took about a week to make the game, with Robert as the writer and level designer, and myself as developer. ย As it remains a patron exclusive for a few more days, the only reception we’ve received were from AbleGamers‘ย Twitch live stream interview.

    In December, a number of Tech Valley Game Space members gathered for Ludum Dare 31, and created Laundry Day, a laundromat simulator. ย 8 people participated, mostly on-and-off, to make the game in 72-hours. ย Instead of using the Unity engine to make the game as I usually do, we decided to learn how to use Construct 2, as this was the first game most of the team members has ever developed. ย With a game engine like Construct 2 that doesn’t require programming, it would make it easier for others to contribute. ย Despite being a completely goofy satire of social and free-to-play games, we ranked within the top 100 games for humor, so many thought it was an interesting game.

    With 7 projects finished, and 1 in development, 2014 was quite a productive year for me. ย Here’s to hoping that I can finish Prototype: Munch pretty quickly.

    Major Events

    There were some major events going on in 2014. ย After a long 4 years working as a regular software engineer, I’ve decided I’ve had enough saved (and endured enough stress) to go independent. ย On August, I quit the company I was working at, and started working for my own company, Omiya Games, full-time. ย Furthermore, I moved from Maryland to New York to rent a cheaper location. ย There, I was able to get in contact withย Albany IGDA, and re-establish a few contacts there. ย I happen to meet with Jamey Stevenson in one of their meeting, whoย was working on establishing a game developer community near the area.

    Sure enough,ย late October, Jamey managed to secure a co-working office, and we both moved in to the new Tech Valley Game Space. ย The office has been spectacular so far, and we’re both really enjoying it. ย I’ve showcased Suddenly, Thousands atย the Rensselaer Game Showcase on November, along with Jamey Stevenson and Keith Morgado from Binary Takeover. ย Lastly, I helped Tech Valley Game Space conduct theย Ludum Dareย game jam. ย Overall, it was a busy, excitingย year.

    On To 2015

    So what’s there to look forward to in 2015? ย A lot, it turns out. ย With Tech Valley Game Spaceย established, a large part of my time will be spent helping them out as they gather more developers and create a more inviting environment for those curious in joining in. ย The projects I’ll be working on at the start of the year are already fixed: there’s Global Game Jam going on at MAGFest that I plan to attend, and I still have Prototype: Murakami to finish. ย Right after those two projects, I need to figure out how to make Omiya Gamesย sustainable. ย Given the large number of game jam gamesย I have in my disposal, I simply need to look for theย game with the best balance between popularity and simplicity to reduce development time. ย In this case, Not a Cloneย and Suddenly, Thousands seems to be the most ideal, although the former is expensive to develop despite short development time, and the latter will require a lot of experimentation. ย Ifย I don’tย make any progress in making the business sustainable, well, it might be time to seek a new way to make income.

    Read more: What I achieved in 2014