
# I am Alive

Oh man, it seriously has been a whole year since I last dropped anything on my website (except for a few new drawings). I had some 'real life' stuff to handle, but worry not, because I had a blast.

The events of the past year have been nothing short of awesome, and I'm eager to write down what happened. So, buckle up, and get your reading glasses, because this blog post is going to be longer than usual... or at least, I hope it will be!

## Moving to a Whole New Country!

Guess what? (Well the chapter title already spoils it but...) Since June of 2023, I've been living in Germany. The whole process of securing my visa was no joke however, it took me nearly two years, thanks to some setbacks in Turkey.

Why the move, you ask? Well, it's all about running after a better education than what I had back in Turkey.

### Learning German

Making a move to a country where 'Guten Tag' is more common than 'Hello' or 'Merhaba' wasn't a post-arrival decision for me; I started learning German well before setting foot in Deutschland.

Well, first off, to even think about applying for my visa, I needed to get the minimum B1 level. est. Eight months of German grind later, I breezed through the Goethe B1 Prüfung without a hiccup. But that wasn't the finish line. About three months before my visa arrived, I started back from B1 German, this time taking an online course based in Aachen. Imagine 20 hours a week of Intensivkurs for a nonstop six months—now that was a challenge, but guess what? I started enjoying all of it really fast. Hours of speaking German? That's when the fun started during those months.

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, my visa arrived just in time. Missing out on face-to-face lectures at the C1 level would've killed all the momentum I had built. So, off to Bremen, I flew, alongside my cousin, a pro when it comes to Germany. I wrapped up my last week of online classes, before taking a long train to Aachen.

Imagine swapping virtual German banter for the real deal with locals. It was a tad strange, but fun in its own way. From day one of my Aachen adventure, the vibe was nothing short of welcoming. Shoutout to the understanding teachers who made the language shift feel like a breeze.

### The Exam

Fast forward to the C1 level, and our group was down to three people. It was a sign saying, "Get ready, because the DSH exam is just around the corner."

I went through pre-exam chaos, where each subject—Grammatik, Leseverstehen, Schriftlich, and Mündlich—seemed to slip through my fingers. It felt like I was wasting my time. And then, before I had time to breathe the exam day arrived.

I won't sugarcoat it; the build-up had me bracing for a challenge. But when the actual exam kicked off, it turned out to be surprisingly smoother than what my imagination had painted. Here's the best part, Grammatik, the part where I'd practically forgotten all the rules during the exam. Did I trust my instincts 100%? Absolutely. Sometimes, you just have to go with the flow and the magic from your gut will work its wonders.

Fast forward to a week after the first three segments of the exam, the long awaited email announcing that I had passed with a DSH-2 (C1) level arrived. Cue the celebration! But hold your applause because the Mündliche Prüfung was the next hassle I had to get through, scheduled for the following week.

Same situation as every other subject, retake after retake at home, it felt like I was sinking deeper into the sea of confusion. The struggle was real, and honestly, I started wondering if it was ever going to work out. And low and behold, everything... just worked out fine once again. I usually struggle to find ideas for a topic that I have no interest in but, the topic that had appeared during the exam was quite easy to grasp.

After all of that struggle, I passed the exam with DSH-2 (C1).

It has been a few months since I passed the exam, and now I am waiting to get accepted to a University for the Sommersemester.

---

# Switching to a Dumbphone (Sort of)

In a world dominated by sleek smartphones, making the switch to a small, button phone might raise a few eyebrows. However, everything boils down to my use of a phone ~~(and my interest in dumbphones)~~. And so, I made the bold decision to buy the Duoqin F21 Pro.

![f21 photo 1][qin-f21-pro-photo-1]
![f21 photo 2][qin-f21-pro-photo-2]

The transition to a dumbphone wasn't without its challenges. Using T9 for texting, adapting to a smaller screen—it's a complete departure from what phones for the past few years have been like. Yet, these struggles add character to my experience, they force me use it deliberately and that's precisely why I love it.

From using bigger screens and fancier features, which don't add any value, my Duoqin F21 Pro is like a breath of fresh air. It is not a conventional choice, it has its quirks and limitations, and that is exactly what makes it special to me.

Behind the small form factor of this dumbphone lies the power of Android 11. Of course that wasn't enough for me, so I made some changes.

I installed TWRP (recovery software) and a CFW (custom firmware) thanks to [Jbazt_katuforzs](https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-xiaomi-qin-f21-pro-custom-firmware-root-playstore-certified.4405615/) on XDA Forums. The reason is simple, to get rid of possible Chinese spyware and root this small beast. Not to mention I got rid of everything Google Services as well, and started embracing FOSS applications more than before. Finding alternatives for such apps were easier than I thought, and in most cases I found them better than the proprietary apps. I've always enjoyed tinkering with the software side of devices I own. And Duoqin F21 Pro was a playground waiting to be played in, thanks to its unlocked bootloader—something my previous phone sorely lacked. Oh right, since I can access the root folder on this phone, I also changed the Boot Animation.

![Mion Boot Animation][mion-bootanimation]

This... may or may not taken a few hours to do, but I do not regret anything. You can find the full image and its sketch in my [gallery](/gallery). I tried to add a boot audio as well, but failed miserably after countless amount of tries.

# Visiting My Online Friend

On Dec 4th, 2023 I hopped on a plane headed for Sweden to meet none other than [nobbele](https://nobbele.dev/), an online friend I've known for 6 long years. You might remember him from one of my previous blog post [A Happy Birthday Present! 🎂](/blog/2022-06-12), this friendship is something I cherish. We have much in common in terms of interests and get along really well in general. We share common interests, navigate the quirks of life together, and despite the inevitable rocky patches that all relationships endure, our communication never wavers.

The first face-to-face meeting 6 years of knowing each other through screens. Awkward? Oh, undoubtedly. The switch from online to real life is a different adventure.

The goal of this meetup was to get to know each other, so nothing exciting happened, but nonetheless, I had a blast. I am hoping to meet him once again in the future.

Here are some photos of the environment:

![Night Time][sweden-photo-3]
![University][sweden-photo-1]
![Authentic Ikea][sweden-photo-2]

# Plans for the Future

Looking ahead, my future plans are like an empty canvas waiting to be painted. The real starting point will hopefully be the return to university, this time in the land of Germany. Beyond all that, I will let the tides of life sweep me, wherever they go. I might bother myself to redraw all the Higurashi cards that I had planned a long time ago, but I can't guarantee it.

Phew, I believe this is it from me, all that has happened to me is written as a summary. Hope you enjoyed it!

### Updates

> **2024/02/13** - I got my C1 certificate from IELTS, this was the last document required for the university I applied to.

> **2024/02/15** - I am in! I will study Linguistics and Computer Science starting this April.

[sweden-photo-1]: https://i.imgur.com/PlMKQk8m.jpg
[sweden-photo-2]: https://i.imgur.com/Le7bjMwm.jpg
[sweden-photo-3]: https://i.imgur.com/BKtERIXm.jpg
[qin-f21-pro-photo-1]: https://i.imgur.com/HzCidTnm.jpg
[qin-f21-pro-photo-2]: https://i.imgur.com/c6RnkThm.jpg
[mion-bootanimation]: https://i.imgur.com/9wZ9xFe.gif


I've been busy all year during 2023, moved to a new country, met someone I never thought I would have the chance to and much more!

I am Alive! ⏳


# The Making of A Noble Pursuit: A Postmortem 📕

<h2>How It All Started ❓</h2>

[A Noble Pursuit](https://thejayduck.itch.io/a-noble-pursuit) is a visual novel about a noble girl named Carolina, and her dream of becoming a merchant.

The game was developed over the course of two months for the [Winter Visual Novel Jam 2022](https://itch.io/jam/winter-vn-jam-2022). I usually tackle game jams with my friends, but this time I wanted to improve my skills, particularly writing.

</br>

A month before the jam started, I had already participated in [Spooky 2D Jam '22](https://itch.io/jam/spooky-2d-jam-2022/) so I was rather reluctant to join yet another game jam right after.

But thanks to my friend [crissNb](https://crissnb.github.io/), who is a brilliant Unity developer, encouraged me to join it nonetheless. And so I did!

<h3>Pre-Production ⚙️</h3>

On the 6th of November, I began the pre-production phase of the game, which consisted of writing the draft, and drawing the characters that were going to take place.

</br>

Since I am quite new to the world of writing I began to experiment by writing my draft in a screenplay fashion. My initial writing goal was to have around 2.5k words (~15 Minutes of Playtime), but in the middle of November, I had already written 6000 words and had only reached the climax of the game. Props to [crissNb](https://crissnb.github.io/) for helping me come up with ideas throughout the drafting phase.

</br>

Anyways, the writing was going surprisingly well, drawing on the other hand... well let's say I had to redraw certain all characters a few times. More on that in the upcoming part.

<h3>Production 🖥️</h3>

A few days before the game jam officially started, I had completed my draft and base character sprites. Things were going terrifyingly well, and spoilers, everything went super well afterward.

</br>

Before starting to edit the story I took a week-long break from writing. Meanwhile, I focused on _ahem_ redrawing every character. You might ask "But why?", here's the thing, I managed to improve my art style considerably during the pre-production phase, which led me into hating my previous works. And so, I redrew; Carolina 20 times (I redrew her base 4 times, and had to redraw her 4 unique outfits once more.), Hulderic 3 times, and recolor Alexandra, Ubel, and Benjamin to fit the new art style. Weirdly enough, I did enjoy redrawing, mainly because I had improved so much within a short time frame.

</br>

When I finally finished, a week had already passed, which implied it was time for me to take a look at the... **_awful_** draft. How in the world does one write such a terrible story? I was discouraged by this, to the point of almost rewriting the draft. But luckily I stumbled upon various posts about how " the first draft sucks" and so on.

</br>

With a glimmer of hope I put my trust into the editing process and created a new document. This time I decided to write it Ren'Py format, in order to make the transition into the game script as simple as 'Ctrl+C' and 'Ctrl+V'. And **_WOW_** editing really did make the story more interesting and fun to read! But I still needed an extra pair of eyes, and by that I mean the help of [Avellox](https://avellox.itch.io/). She helped me by pointing out the mistakes, the areas I could improve, and some additional content.

</br>

The editing process took around 2 weeks, and during that time I started redrawing the CG for 'Act 4'. Yes "Redrawing". Before I had redrawn Carolina in a way where her design had changed, I had the CG completed. So I needed to redraw it with her new design. I thought I could get away by drawing over her old design but it didn't look right. So I redrew it completely once more, which had an awful lineart. Remember how I said redrawing characters was fun, this wasn't... I felt frustrated once more feeling inferior about my art. I had to learn more about lineart, and began the search for youtube tutorials. After spending roughly a day learning about lineart, I managed to draw lineart like I never did before, thank you [Marc Brunet](https://youtube.com/channel/UCKtu_JtQCY0yryIy6zK4ZCg)!

</br>

I would explain the process of transitioning my edited script into Ren'Py but like I mentioned before it was easy as copying and pasting.

</br>

And so came an end... Wait no, not yet, I still had to draw an extra sketch for the people who buy the 'Art Pack'. The same process happened as the characters, I redrew it a good 6 times. Thankfully it was only the poses I had drawn, so it didn't take a toll on me.

<h2>Conclusion</h2>

Overall, I am very happy with how the game turned out. While it was a challenge to tackle the game by myself, I am astonished by the improvements in my writing and drawing.

Thank you much for reading my lengthy rambling, and I hope you enjoyed playing this game!

</br>

[You Can Play The Game By Clicking Here](https://thejayduck.itch.io/a-noble-pursuit)


In this postmortem, I share my journey of creating A Noble Pursuit, a visual novel about a noble girl’s dream. I talk about how I improved my writing, drawing, and editing skills along the way.

The Making of 'A Noble Pursuit': A Postmortem 📕


# Custom Deck of Cards Part 4 🃏

<h2> That Was Fast 🏃‍♂️ </h2>

Drawing the first half of the character cast took... 9 days in total. Don't get me wrong this progress is pretty darn good, but I am still shocked at my own speed. This progress might slow down on the upcoming weeks, or even days, because of good circumstances. But I doubt it will take longer than a month.

<h2> The First Half ➗ </h2>

|     🂡 Ace     |      🂮 King       |      🂫 Jack       |    🂭 Queen    |  🂨 Card of 8  |  🂣 Card of 3  |   🂩 Card of 9   |    🂤 Card of 4    |    🃏 Joker     |     🂢 Card of 2     |  🂧 Card of 7  |
| :-----------: | :---------------: | :---------------: | :-----------: | :-----------: | :-----------: | :-------------: | :---------------: | :-------------: | :-----------------: | :-----------: |
| ![Mion][mion] | ![Satoko][satoko] | ![Hanyuu][hanyuu] | ![Rika][rika] | ![Chie][chie] | ![Rena][rena] | ![Shion][shion] | ![Takano][takano] | ![Oryou][oryou] | ![Keiichi][keiichi] | ![Irie][irie] |
| Sonozaki Mion |   Houjou Satoko   |      Hanyuu       |  Furude Rika  |  Chie Rumiko  | Ryuuguu Rena  | Sonozaki Shion  |    Takano Miyo    | Sonozaki Oryou  |   Maebara Keiichi   | Kyosuke Irie  |

> Most of the characters you see above are not yet finalized.

I am quite happy with majority of the results so far. Despite the fact that I still find coloring quite challenging.

<h3> Why the Slow Pace? 🦥 </h3>

Recently, I've started experimenting with different ways of coloring/shading my characters, which greatly slowed down my pace. I probably redrew _specifically Mion's hair_ at least 5 times.

| First Iteration  | Second Iteration  | Third Iteration  | Fourth Iteration  |
| :--------------: | :---------------: | :--------------: | :---------------: |
| ![First][mion-1] | ![Second][mion-2] | ![Third][mion-3] | ![Fourth][mion-4] |

Obviously, Mion wasn't the only character I altered quite a bit. **Rumiko Chie, Hanyuu, and Takano Miyo** were also altered quite drastically.

<h2> Afterword </h2>

By the time I am finalizing this blog post, I have already _finished_ drawing **Takano Miyo** and started working on **Sonozaki Oryou**. The overall pace is still consistent, and I should be done with all the characters in no time! See you later in **part 5**.

<hr/>

#### Short Updates

> **2022/09/14** - Just finished Sonozaki Oryou! The boys line-up should go much smoother compared to girls, due to their overall basic designs.

> **2022/09/21** - Maebara Keiichi is done!... Somewhat. 👍🏻

> **2022/10/03** - Done with Kyosuke Irie! Took my sweet time with a bit of procrastination as well...

[mion]: https://i.imgur.com/8FewsZTm.png
[satoko]: https://i.imgur.com/Efg8h1bm.png
[hanyuu]: https://i.imgur.com/eh0Fuj0m.png
[rika]: https://i.imgur.com/pA77QoFm.png
[chie]: https://i.imgur.com/ULmNf9Rm.png
[rena]: https://i.imgur.com/GcWyYCsm.png
[shion]: https://i.imgur.com/U7RWxaQm.png
[takano]: https://i.imgur.com/dYIgtH3m.png
[oryou]: https://i.imgur.com/11CTQBAm.png
[keiichi]: https://i.imgur.com/aLhBg5Bm.png
[irie]: https://i.imgur.com/k2FJyYsm.png
[mion-1]: https://i.imgur.com/dx5HcS7m.png
[mion-2]: https://i.imgur.com/kOQUCBcm.png
[mion-3]: https://i.imgur.com/8jQjFi1m.png
[mion-4]: https://i.imgur.com/zc4VGgCm.png


Part 4 of working on custom deck of Higurashi cards. Majority of the characters are in full color. But I had my share of struggles before reaching that point.

Custom Deck of Cards Part 4 🃏


# Custom Deck of Cards Part 3 🃏

<h2>The Current Progress ⚙️</h2>

And here they are! All **14 sketches**, for the card deck, these include;

|     🂢 Card of 2     |  🂧 Card of 7  |      🂥 Card of 5      |    🂦 Card of 6    |    🂪 Card of 10     |     🂡 Ace     |      🂮 King       |      🂫 Jack       |    🂭 Queen    |  🂨 Card of 8  |  🂣 Card of 3  |   🂩 Card of 9   |    🂤 Card of 4    |    🃏 Joker     |
| :-----------------: | :-----------: | :-------------------: | :---------------: | :-----------------: | :-----------: | :---------------: | :---------------: | :-----------: | :-----------: | :-----------: | :-------------: | :---------------: | :-------------: |
| ![Keiichi][keiichi] | ![Irie][irie] | ![Tomitake][tomitake] | ![Ooishi][ooishi] | ![Satoshi][satoshi] | ![Mion][mion] | ![Satoko][satoko] | ![Hanyuu][hanyuu] | ![Rika][rika] | ![Chie][chie] | ![Rena][rena] | ![Shion][shion] | ![Takano][takano] | ![Oryou][oryou] |
|   Maebara Keiichi   | Kyosuke Irie  |    Tomitake Jirou     |  Kuraudo Ooishi   |   Houjou Satoshi    | Sonozaki Mion |   Houjou Satoko   |      Hanyuu       |  Furude Rika  |  Chie Rumiko  | Ryuuguu Rena  | Sonozaki Shion  |    Takano Miyo    | Sonozaki Oryou  |

Over the past few months, the way I draw my characters have drastically changed, which is why I am painstakingly having a slow process with the drawings.

Not to mention, I am also working on the designs of the cards. My goal is to make them as simple as possible while retaining the modern look on them. I am using [Inkscape](https://inkscape.org/) for the card designs, the UI is not that intuitive but it will have to do for this project.

<h3 id="upcoming-post">Upcoming Post Preview 🕵️</h3>

The images you see below are still **work in progress** and the front view contains a colored version of **Sonozaki Mion** which I don't want to reveal just yet... This is why I decided to blur both of them.

|        Card Front        |       Card Back        |
| :----------------------: | :--------------------: |
| ![Card_Front][cardFront] | ![Card_Back][cardBack] |

<h2>Afterword</h2>

And with that comes an end to another blog post! I would love to keep progress updates on my card deck longer, but it is kinda hard when the only changes are newly drawn characters and such. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this short read once again... See you at the next one where I might reveal the card designs and some finished characters.

---

#### Short Updates

> **2022/08/22** - Yeah... Uhh... During the line-art process of **Sonozaki Mion**, I may have lost track of things, and accidentally finished the whole drawing. Therefore, I will be doing the line-art and coloring process of each character at the same time!

> **2022/08/24** - After hours of moving my stylus around the glass surface, I finished drawing **Houjou Satoko**! Although I hate her personality, the drawing looks way too cute.

> **2022/08/26** - Damn! I am on a roll these days, already done with 3 of the characters... out of 14... Anyways, **Hanyuu** turned out pretty good! I am not a fan of coloring my drawings but lately it's been growing on me.

> **2022/08/27** - And another drawing done! I finished **Furude Rika's** line-art and base colors yesterday, so I only had to shade her this morning. Coloring wise she turned out out to be best! I am planning on releasing a new blog post once I am done with coloring **Rumiko Chie** or **Sonozaki Shion**, but no promises.

> **2022/08/27** - For some reason I struggled while drawing **Rumiko Chie** more than I should, I assume it is because I've been drawing non-stop for the past few days. I am planning on redrawing her hair but for now, I am not going to bother myself with it. Oh also, make sure check my [Gallery](/gallery)!

> **2022/08/31** - I took a short break after drawing **Rumiko Chie**, this short rest was much needed for my creative mind to rest. Anyhow, I **sort of** finished drawing **Sonozaki Shion** and **Ryuugu Rena**, somehow those 2 drawings turned out way better than the ones I draw a few days prior, so I am planning on revisiting them and re-drawing / re-coloring certain aspects of those characters.

> **2022/09/08** - Another week passed by, this week I focused on recoloring most characters, namely **Sonozaki Mion, Rumiko Chie, Furude Rika, Hanyuu and Satoko**. Other than that I finished drawing **Takano Miyo**, however, I am not that happy with the result so I might redraw her at a later date.

> **2022/09/09** - Just now, I finished redrawing **Takano Miyo's**; hair, eyes, and skin. I swear this is the last short update before I reveal the first half of the characters. I've been solely focused on making my drawings as good as they can be before showcasing them! Please look forward to them!

> New updates will be written on [Custom Deck of Cards Part 4](/blog/2022-09-14)

[cardFront]: https://i.imgur.com/TIzTGB6m.png
[cardBack]: https://i.imgur.com/9aOe6eSm.png
[mion]: https://i.imgur.com/dy8uNChm.png
[satoko]: https://i.imgur.com/IHEVonkm.png
[hanyuu]: https://i.imgur.com/pItxQavm.png
[rika]: https://i.imgur.com/lT1ED93m.png
[chie]: https://i.imgur.com/5cR7Yk8m.png
[rena]: https://i.imgur.com/xlYcwnIm.png
[shion]: https://i.imgur.com/N2iuoC6m.png
[takano]: https://i.imgur.com/EExSOLcm.png
[oryou]: https://i.imgur.com/YWEfXxVm.png
[keiichi]: https://i.imgur.com/cPXSxobm.png
[irie]: https://i.imgur.com/DXhD0oom.png
[tomitake]: https://i.imgur.com/VG0sWp1m.png
[ooishi]: https://i.imgur.com/XyWi7Y1m.png
[satoshi]: https://i.imgur.com/ZudaZKlm.png


Part 3 of working on custom deck of Higurashi cards. The sketching phase is finally over, and I start the coloring phase.

Custom Deck of Cards Part 3 🃏


# Custom Deck of Cards Part 2 🃏

<h2>The Current Progress ⚙️</h2>

At last! I finished the second year of my university without any issues. This however doesn't mean I will update the card game frequently, since I still have things to do in real life. Without further ado, here are the characters I have finished so far.

|     🂡 Ace     |      🂮 King       |      🂫 Jack       |    🂭 Queen    |  🂨 Card of 8  |  🂣 Card of 3  |   🂩 Card of 9   |    🂤 Card of 4    |    🃏 Joker     |
| :-----------: | :---------------: | :---------------: | :-----------: | :-----------: | :-----------: | :-------------: | :---------------: | :-------------: |
| ![Mion][mion] | ![Satoko][satoko] | ![Hanyuu][hanyuu] | ![Rika][rika] | ![Chie][chie] | ![Rena][rena] | ![Shion][shion] | ![Takano][takano] | ![Oryou][oryou] |
| Sonozaki Mion |   Houjou Satoko   |      Hanyuu       |  Furude Rika  |  Chie Rumiko  | Ryuuguu Rena  | Sonozaki Shion  |    Takano Miyo    | Sonozaki Oryou  |

Yup, 5 new drawings; **Chie**, **Rena**, **Shion**, **Takano** and **Oryou**.

> **NOTE: I am aware most characters are facing left, reason being I am used to drawing heads in that position. Every sprite will be modified before the printing phase.**

<hr/>

<h3>My Thoughts on the Character Sketches 🤔</h3>

|   Character    | Thoughts                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |
| :------------: | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|  Chie Rumiko   | From an overall art perspective, I am not _that_ happy from the outcome, her face does look cute and all, but this alone does not satisfy me. Which is why I am planning on **redrawing her**.                                                                                                                                                |
|  Ryuugu Rena   | The Rena you are seeing is the **second iteration**. The previous iteration looked so hideous that I hated every pixel of it. But thankfully I redrew her before the publication of this post. She does look very **adult** like, but I will probably adjust her facial structure a bit during line-art phase to make her seem a bit younger. |
| Sonozaki Shion | Out of the bunch Shion is one of the characters that came out better than I expected, but this doesn't mean I am 100% happy with the result. Hence the reason I am planning on **redrawing her body**.                                                                                                                                        |
|  Takano Miyo   | To be honest, I have nothing to say about her, her sketch simply looks amazing, especially the M1911 pistol which I used **blender** to render.                                                                                                                                                                                               |
| Sonozaki Oryou | She came out way better than I anticipated, she is the first ever old person I drew, and not going to lie but I am kind of proud of myself.                                                                                                                                                                                                   |

<figure>
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/MUeRCDTm.png" alt="M1911 model used for Takano's pistol."/>
<figcaption>M1911 model used for Takano's pistol.</figcaption>
</figure>

<h3>Card Sizes 📏</h3>

Additionally, I bought 2 card decks as a reference for the size.

|     Normal Size     |      Smaller Size       |
| :-----------------: | :---------------------: |
| ![CardBig][cardBig] | ![CardSmall][cardSmall] |
|    Height: 8.7cm    |       Height: 8cm       |

Besides their obvious difference in height, they are quite similar in width. With that being said, I am leaning more towards the **smaller size** considering it's more **portable** and more **stylish**.

<h3 id="remaining-characters">Remaining Characters 🖌️</h3>

|    🂢 (Card of 2)    |     🂥 (Card of 5)     |   🂦 (Card of 6)   | 🂧 (Card of 7) |   🂪 (Card of 10)    |
| :-----------------: | :-------------------: | :---------------: | :-----------: | :-----------------: |
| ![Keiichi][keiichi] | ![tomitake][tomitake] | ![Ooishi][ooishi] | ![Irie][irie] | ![Satoshi][satoshi] |
|   Maebara Keiichi   |    Tomitake Jirou     |  Kuraudo Ooishi   | Kyousuke Irie |   Houjou Satoshi    |
|    **Finished**     |     **Finished**      |   **Finished**    | **Finished**  |    **Finished**     |

> **DISCLAIMER: The drawings above are NOT mine! They are the original sprites from the game. The images are merely a reference for the reader.**

Well, I guess it is time to draw the males. I feel the most challenging ones here will be **Kuraudo Ooishi** and **Tomitake Jirou**, considering I have never drawn someone fat or muscular.

<h2>Afterword</h2>

Phew, another blog post done. When I first implemented this blogs to my website, I never thought I would be _this_ into writing blogs but here I am releasing 2 posts every month. Well, I hope to see you on my next blog post!

---

#### Short Updates

> Make sure to check my [Gallery](/gallery) where I post my drawings. This page is a new addition for my website, I hope you like it!

> **2022/07/21** - Drawing **Keiichi Maebara** was quite the challenge, **particularly his pose**. It took me **4 iterations** before I could actually draw a pose I approved. Anyways, I am closing in on the line-art phase of the process.

> **2022/07/26** - July 10th was **Mion Sonozaki's** birthday, make sure to check the drawing on my [DeviantArt](https://www.deviantart.com/thejayduck/art/Mion-Sonozaki-Birthday-923781589).

> **2022/08/04** - I finished **Kyosuke Irie** the yesterday, and he came out like a character out of a _Shoujo Manga_. Nonetheless, I am quite happy the way he turned out! The upcoming sketch will be **Tomitake Jirou**, if I feel productive enough he should be done by the end of this week! I will be making a new blog post when I finish drawing the remainder.

> **2022/08/05** - Turns out that I felt productive immediatly after Irie's drawing. Now that I am done with **Tomitake Jirou**, it's time to tackle down the hardest one yet! **Kuraudo Ooishi**.

> **2022/08/11** - Drawing **Kuraudo Ooishi** was.. quite annoying. Drawing his body was easier than I thought, but I had all sorts of issues while drawing his face, so I had to look at many reference images of **Ooishi** and drawings with similar head shapes to get the right proportions. With that being out of the way, **Houjou Satoshi** is the last character I have to sketch before the line-art process begins!

> **2022/08/19** - At last! I finished **sketching** every character for the card deck.. I was planning on finishing them all once I started, though my art style wouldn't be as consistent, so I refrained from doing so. Alongside the sketch of **Houjou Satoshi** I also worked on some **prototype card designs**, they are quite simple in design yet they retain a modern look. Next progress blog will hopefully come out by the end of this week! Please look forward to it, since I am planning on showcasing all the characters and the prototype card designs before initiating the **line-art** phase of the character art!

> New updates will be written on [Custom Deck of Cards Part 3](/blog/2022-08-22)

[cardBig]: https://i.imgur.com/Qp3o6tem.jpg
[cardSmall]: https://i.imgur.com/RPRYS6Om.jpg
[m1911]: https://i.imgur.com/MUeRCDTm.png
[mion]: https://i.imgur.com/dy8uNChm.png
[satoko]: https://i.imgur.com/IHEVonkm.png
[hanyuu]: https://i.imgur.com/pItxQavm.png
[rika]: https://i.imgur.com/lT1ED93m.png
[chie]: https://i.imgur.com/5cR7Yk8m.png
[rena]: https://i.imgur.com/xlYcwnIm.png
[shion]: https://i.imgur.com/N2iuoC6m.png
[takano]: https://i.imgur.com/EExSOLcm.png
[oryou]: https://i.imgur.com/YWEfXxVm.png
[irie]: https://i.imgur.com/FHv7YsPt.png
[keiichi]: https://i.imgur.com/zmLQFYyt.png
[ooishi]: https://i.imgur.com/GvDxBhxt.png
[satoshi]: https://i.imgur.com/3TAQtHdt.png
[tomitake]: https://i.imgur.com/kWESJA7t.png


Part 2 of working on custom deck of Higurashi cards. I sketched 5 more characters, and share the idea for the card sizes.

Custom Deck of Cards Part 2 🃏


# GoedWare Game Jam Entry 🎮

<h2>The Entry ✨</h2>

On June 4th my friends and I decided to participate in [GoedWare Game Jam #5](https://itch.io/jam/goedware-game-jam-5). The last game jam I joined was [Winter VN Jam 2020](https://itch.io/jam/winter-vn-jam-2020/rate/826293). As the name suggests its been almost **2 years** since I've participated in a game jam. Although my role was minor compared to what I did in my previous entries, I had plenty of fun helping with the development. For this game jam I teamed up with [nobbele](https://nobbele.dev) and [semikoder](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCey0WKLnnYF_98GsUsiE22w) whom I haven't done any project with for the past **4 years**.

The **main theme** of the jam was **Love, Death & Robot** combined with the subtheme of **The Price of Freedom**. I will be talking about my own experience in this blog post, you can learn more about the project in our [itch.io](https://semikoder.itch.io/project-biobot) page. The whole development process went by quite smoothly, we did have some last minute bugs appear out of nowhere, which is a typical thing that happens in every game jam. After my friends solved the issues we submitted the game.

---

Here is a short description of the game from our page:

> In an era in which technology develops at a rapid speed, Biobotics Technologies have introduced a mechanization program to amplify human workloads. With their system almost ready for production, they began recruiting volunteers for human trials. You are promised a large sum of money for participating in this program, but be aware, that it might come with a catch.

---

<h2>My Role 💼</h2>

As I mentioned above, my role in this jam was minor. I **voiced a character**, **worked on some models**, **helped with some scenery** and **overall writing**. Other than that I didn't do any programming related stuff because my finals were coming up.

Anyways, when it comes to voice-acting, to put it bluntly I have no experience in it. This was my first ever voice-acting performance. I had plenty of fun but it felt weird to express feelings to the things you read aloud and add a bit of character to it. The whole recording process took me around 1-2 hours and it was quite intriguing, I had to re-record certain lines 2 to 3 times to get it just right.

Additionally I haven't done any sort of modelling for the past 4 year, for this project I did work on models such as **Laser Emitter**, and a **Mirror** that reflected the laser. Unfortunately those features didn't make the cut due to time restraints.

<h3>Postmortem 📼</h3>

Here is a postmortem video of how our game jam went.

<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lzPHjSEOwVU" title="I joined a Game Jam and made a Game in a Week" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<h2> Afterword </h2>

Yup another short blog, I would like to write more but I can't really do that when my role was in this project was minor. Anyhow, I hope you liked this short blog and make sure to try our [game](https://semikoder.itch.io/project-biobot)!


I joined GoedWare Game Jam #5 with my friends and made a game about biobotics. My role wasn't major but I got to experience something I've never done before. Make sure to watch our postmortem video!

Our GoedWare Game Jam Entry 🎮


# A Happy Birthday Present! 🎂

<h2>Happy Birthday 🎊</h2>

Happy 19th birthday [nobbele](https://nobbele.dev), I hope all your future dreams come true!

It should be obvious now that this post is dedicated to my friend [nobbele's](https://nobbele.dev) **19th** birthday! I've been a friend of his ever since **2017**, and I am truly grateful to have met him. In **5** years we worked on countless projects together, some were abandoned, and some were somewhat complete.

[Novel Tracker][noveltracker], [Belfast Bot][belfastbot] were our biggest projects to date.

<h3>The Birthday Project 🎁</h3>

Coming up with an idea was quite easy actually, a few months ago he kept pestering me to draw a character for his [Catch the Beat](https://ctbw.nobbele.dev/) game. With the idea in mind, I started working on the rough sketch.

---

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/mGOyFAjm.png" align="left"/>

#### The Initial Sketch

This was my first attempt at chibi-esque character ever. I was kinda skeptical at how the final result would look like, but it was easier than I thought.
The initial sketch had 2 different iterations; the issue with the first one was, that it was in a 3/4 view, which looked out of place. Luckily, the second sketch came out better than the initial one.

<br clear="left"/>

---

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/POKC2bEm.png" align="left"/>

#### Cleaning the Sketch

I then had to re-draw the sketch on a bigger canvas, to have a bit more freedom. I also refined the majority of the sketch. For some weird reason, I thought this looked acceptable. And oh boy, I don't even want to know what I thought when I started coloring it, but thankfully I came back to my senses before it was too late. Hence was the reason why I used this as a sketch for the next iteration instead.

<br clear="left"/>

---

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/duy96z1m.png" align="left"/>

#### Drawing the Line-art

At this point the drawing was coming along nicely. Although, I've never been a fan of drawing line-art, like ever, I had to deal with it to deliver a good present I was proud of. To my surprise it came about way better than I anticipated, additionally I was going to add more line weight but decided not to complicate stuff I wasn't used to yet. Immediately after finishing the line-art, I started coloring it.

<br clear="left"/>

---

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/sn2TUvam.png" align="left"/>

#### Coloring

I hate coloring just as I hate line-art, but I had to color it whether I liked it or not. And I am glad I colored it, during the process I learned a lot of new techniques that felt right for my style. My blending technique isn't perfect yet, but hey last time I colored something was nearly a year ago (Excluding the Shiba and the Sculpture, I received some help on those.)
Anyways, after the coloring process, I realized some errors in my drawing, and immediately opened up [Photopea](https://www.photopea.com/) to tinker on it.

<br clear="left"/>

---

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/H5njXcvm.png" align="left"/>

#### Adjusted Colors

Lastly, I imported the image on [Photopea](https://www.photopea.com/) and used liquify tool to adjust its proportions and played around with the colors to further enhance its looks. And with that, the short project came to an end.

<br clear="left"/>

---

I definitely learned a lot more about coloring and other processes of art which I don't like. But the effort was worth it.

<h2>Final Result ✍🏻</h2>

| Initial Sketch         | Cleaned Sketch         | Line-art               | Colored                | Adjusted               |
| ---------------------- | ---------------------- | ---------------------- | ---------------------- | ---------------------- |
| ![Status #1][status-1] | ![Status #2][status-2] | ![Status #3][status-3] | ![Status #4][status-4] | ![Status #5][status-5] |

<h2>Afterword</h2>
I hope you enjoyed this short post. This post was quite difficult to put into words for me, mostly because I wasn't sure about what to write down, so I just went with the flow. I will definitely make another post on the progress of my custom card deck in the upcoming weeks or months.

[noveltracker]: https://github.com/thejayduck/novel-tracker
[belfastbot]: https://github.com/nobbele/BelfastBot
[status-1]: https://i.imgur.com/mGOyFAjm.png
[status-2]: https://i.imgur.com/POKC2bEm.png
[status-3]: https://i.imgur.com/duy96z1m.png
[status-4]: https://i.imgur.com/sn2TUvam.png
[status-5]: https://i.imgur.com/H5njXcvm.png


It is nobbele's 19th birthday! And in this post I talk about the process of the gift I prepared.

A Happy Birthday to My Friend! 🎂

# Custom Deck of Cards Part 1 🃏

<h2>Why I am Doing This ❓</h2>

Why not? I mean, just the thought of having a physical something made by **you** is an amazing feeling in my opinion. I get to work on a new form of project and also, I can use this project as an excuse to improve my art.

<h3>What Inspired Me? 🤔</h3>



This whole idea of making my own card deck arose when I started playing card games such as **Uno** more often.
Another factor that helped me is during the development of the Tamagochi game, my friends and I decided to print a dress-up sticker set of the dog with some in-game clothing. And with that my passion for for physical objects of projects I work on was re-embarked.

But before I actually decided on a card game however, I thought about printing a custom laptop sticker, but I quickly scrapped that idea because, it would just ruin the aesthetic of my laptop and I had already printed more than enough stickers in the past.
After spending more time thinking about what I could possibly bring into the real-world, I thought about working on my own card deck. Reason being, they are cheap to produce and I just needed to draw a crap load of characters.

<br/>

As for what I was going to draw, I first thought about drawing original characters, however in my case, I prefer drawing a different character every time I draw something new, hence I never settle on a character that I can actually call 'original'. With this issue on hand, I decided to draw the cast of Higurashi characters. You might ask; "But why?", and I genuinely have no clue why, maybe it's because I'm too invested in the story for the past few months, or maybe it's because I can't think of any other characters to draw about.

<h3>Current Progress 📊</h3>

The deck will consist a set of 52+1 playing cards and a joker card. In total 13+1 characters. Each character except the joker will be printed 4 times.

<br/>

So far, I roughly sketched out 4 characters, these include;

|     🂡 Ace     |      🂮 King       |      🂫 Jack       |    🂭 Queen    |
| :-----------: | :---------------: | :---------------: | :-----------: |
| ![Mion][mion] | ![Satoko][satoko] | ![Hanyuu][hanyuu] | ![Rika][rika] |
| Sonozaki Mion |   Houjou Satoko   |      Hanyuu       |  Furude Rika  |

> **NOTE: The images are resized, the original resolution is around 1200x2000.**

<br/>

I am also planning on adding characters such as;

|    🂢 (Card of 2)    | 🂣 (Card of 3) |   🂤 (Card of 4)   |     🂥 (Card of 5)     |   🂦 (Card of 6)   | 🂧 (Card of 7) | 🂨 (Card of 8) |  🂩 (Card of 9)  |   🂪 (Card of 10)    |   🃏 (Joker)    |
| :-----------------: | :-----------: | :---------------: | :-------------------: | :---------------: | :-----------: | :-----------: | :-------------: | :-----------------: | :-------------: |
| ![Keiichi][keiichi] | ![Rena][rena] | ![Takano][takano] | ![tomitake][tomitake] | ![Ooishi][ooishi] | ![Irie][irie] | ![Chie][chie] | ![Shion][shion] | ![Satoshi][satoshi] | ![Oryou][oryou] |
|   Maebara Keiichi   | Ryuuguu Rena  |    Takano Miyo    |    Tomitake Jirou     |  Kuraudo Ooishi   | Kyousuke Irie |  Chie Rumiko  | Sonozaki Shion  |   Houjou Satoshi    | Sonozaki Oryou  |
|    **Finished**     | **Finished**  |   **Finished**    |     **Finished**      |   **Finished**    | **Finished**  | **Finished**  |  **Finished**   |    **Finished**     |  **Finished**   |

> **DISCLAIMER: The drawings above are NOT mine! They are the original sprites from the game. The images are merely a reference for the reader.**

<br/>

The card each character will represent is already decided, but I might tweak some of them before the printing phase.

<h3>Other Requirements 📝</h3>

At the moment I am planning on making the cards the size of mini playing cards, the reason being, that they are smaller and more portable than regular poker cards.
And so I searched around the internet until stumbled upon this amazing **[playing card template](https://www.magicianmasterclass.com/post/playing-card-template)** that provides high-quality card templates.

For the choice of materials, I settled on, **350gr paper with rounded edges, matte coated surface, and size of 5.4cm x 8cm**.

As for casing, my initial plan was to have a standard paper box, but one of my friends suggested that I use a custom printed plastic case instead. With that thought in mind I found some outstanding free 3D printable models from **[Cults3D](https://cults3d.com/en)**. Additionally, I will edit the model of my choice to engrave a custom Higurashi logo on it.

<h2>Afterword</h2>

I wasn't planning on writing another blog post so soon and this long, but for some reason, I feel the need to write these, even though I know almost no one except 2 of my friends read them. Even if that is indeed the case I am happy to be able to write these posts on occasion. Thank you once again for reading this blog post, I will probably write another or update this one when I draw more characters. See you later 👋🏻!

---

#### Short Updates

> **2022/05/21** - I am well aware the update to the post happened earlier than I expected, but I just finished the rough sketch of **Chie Rumiko**. She came out cuter than I thought. I am planning on showcasing the new characters in the upcoming progress update.

> **2022/05/22** - Wow, another update! I just finished the sketch of **Ryuuguu Rena**. Next in line is **Sonozaki Shion**. If everything goes smoothly or I am not lazy, I should have a finished sketch of her in the upcoming week.

> **2022/05/28** - Phew, I guess I am done with **Shion Sonozaki**. I am not super happy of the sketch, but this will do for now, I might redraw her if I feel like it. Next in line is **Takano Miyo**.

> **2022/06/02** - Drawing **Takano Miyo** was enjoyable, I am particularly pleased with her eye and overall expression. Also the last female on the deck is **Sonozaki Oryou**. In all honesty, I've never drawn an old person in my life, and I feel like everything's going to go wrong, but I will try my best to make her look somewhat good. When I finish drawing Oryou I will post a blog post showcasing all 9 characters I sketched so far.

> **2022/06/19** - I am finally free from my exams! I am not planning to focus on this project 100% since I still have other stuff to work on aside from this small project. Anyways, I finally finished the sketch for **Sonozaki Oryou**. This time I will definitely write a new blog post regarding the new characters.

> New updates will be written on [Custom Deck of Cards Part 2](/blog/2022-07-10)

[mion]: https://i.imgur.com/dy8uNChm.png
[satoko]: https://i.imgur.com/IHEVonkm.png
[hanyuu]: https://i.imgur.com/pItxQavm.png
[rika]: https://i.imgur.com/lT1ED93m.png
[chie]: https://i.imgur.com/W9rj2btt.png
[irie]: https://i.imgur.com/FHv7YsPt.png
[keiichi]: https://i.imgur.com/zmLQFYyt.png
[ooishi]: https://i.imgur.com/GvDxBhxt.png
[oryou]: https://i.imgur.com/DrCV3dQt.png
[rena]: https://i.imgur.com/TnknLqLt.png
[satoshi]: https://i.imgur.com/3TAQtHdt.png
[shion]: https://i.imgur.com/nTA2nDCt.png
[takano]: https://i.imgur.com/Jca5nKft.png
[tomitake]: https://i.imgur.com/kWESJA7t.png

Part 1 of working on custom deck of Higurashi cards. This part focuses on the ideas and the sketching side of things.

Custom Deck of Cards Part 1 🃏


# I Wrote My First Story 📕

<h2>Why I Started Writing ❓</h2>

I consider myself a bookworm, especially when it comes to Japanese light novels. The unique stories authors in East Asia come up with always amazed me. I have to agree that some of the books they write are simply... weird to put in simple terms, but out of the bunch, some gems shine through.
I've especially been obsessed with **Jobless Reincarnation** light novel that I read all 15 volumes within three months.

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/hsekiOm.jpg" width="150px" alt="Mushoku Tensei Volume 1 Cover" align="left" />

The way the author expands on its already amazing world, and characters simply astonished me.
Anyways back to the topic, after years of procrastinating on writing, I finally took my first step to improve my writing abilities by writing a... **fanfic**. Before you leave, no I did not write anything weird or sexual, I simply wanted to create a simple romantic spin-off of the series **Higurashi**. The reason I chose Higurashi is that one can create their own; Horror, Mystery, and Romance story with it. And with its already amazing cast of characters, it saves the person time to focus more on the plot of their spin-off.

<br clear="left"/>

<h3>What I Have Learned during the Past Week ✍🏻</h3>

For the short story, I challenged myself to write it within a week! And let me tell you, it was quite the ride that I am willing to take several more times. I had so much fun writing their specific character traits on paper, which allowed me to learn so much within the deadline I had set myself up to.
I now have a deeper understanding of how each character reacts to certain situations, and with each other. The story has a lot of flaws, and they are to be expected, that's why I asked 2 of my close friends to read it once I was done with it. They both gave me their criticism on it, which I profoundly appreciate. Although writing is not going to be my future career, I will keep improving myself with more short stories before meddling with original stories of my own.

<h2>Afterword</h2>

Thank you for reading through my first ever blog post. I am planning on writing more posts in the upcoming months, or even weeks. See you later 👋🏻!


In this post, I share how I wrote my first fanfic based on Higurashi. I talk about my passion for books and what I learned from the writing process.

🂢 Card of 2	🂧 Card of 7	🂥 Card of 5	🂦 Card of 6	🂪 Card of 10	🂡 Ace	🂮 King	🂫 Jack	🂭 Queen	🂨 Card of 8	🂣 Card of 3	🂩 Card of 9	🂤 Card of 4	🃏 Joker

Maebara Keiichi	Kyosuke Irie	Tomitake Jirou	Kuraudo Ooishi	Houjou Satoshi	Sonozaki Mion	Houjou Satoko	Hanyuu	Furude Rika	Chie Rumiko	Ryuuguu Rena	Sonozaki Shion	Takano Miyo	Sonozaki Oryou