Happy PixælSoft / Project Memoria 10th Anniversary!
Celebrating 10 years of visual novels - 2009/09/27 - 2019/09/27
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In 2008, while still in college, I was tasked with a final project to create for my Visual Arts Fundamentals class. This project could be anything – a painting, sculpture, photography, or even video media. Most people in my class chose those media for their final projects. It’s interesting to see the process in their art projects, their inspirations, and whatnot. Traditional media (like paintings) has for a long time been a way to express ourselves.
Back then, I learned about Marcel Duchamp, a French Dada artist from the early 1900’s. He redefined the way we think of art. Most famously, he took a urinal, signed it “R. Mutt”, and titled it “Fountain”. By selecting a readymade object, repositioning it, and signing it, “Fountain” became a piece of art.
Because I have a strong interest in anime (and still do), I began exploring visual novels (VNs). VNs are a genre of game hugely popular in Japan. Can VNs be a form of art, or any other game genre for that matter? In my opinion, of course! I think art can be anything you want it to be, and in this case VNs are a form of art. The writing, juxtaposed with artwork, sound, and music combine to form an art piece.
Duchamp inspired me to break from traditional media, and helped me decide to make a VN for my final project. My 2008 final project was my first VN created in Flash, titled “Dating Sim”. From there, other VN projects soon followed: “180 Degrees”, and my 2009 Capstone Workshop project just before college graduation, “Final Week” (the latter of which is when I started using the Ren’Py VN engine). And after playing the VNs “Kanon” and “Hourglass of Summer”, I pretty much fell in love with the VN medium, as I have always wanted to create my own anime characters, and place them in a game with their own stories.
I had created original characters back then for a school-themed RPG. But creating RPGs tend to get complicated quick – there are skills, artworks, storyline, gameplay balancing and whatnot to take care of. So I scrapped that and decided to place said characters in a VN instead. That simplifies it to just the artwork and the story. (I still have the RPG project files sitting around.)
And so, the rest is history. After college graduation, I founded PixælSoft / Project Memoria, my own VN studio on September 27, 2009. Bought my hosting and domain name, and has been up ever since. As to why I chose “PixælSoft” – originally it was to reflect my love of computers, and have something sounding anime-ish. But in retrospect, I think the name has a Dada-ish feel to it.
It is with great pleasure to work with various artists, voice actors / actresses, and so on, to help me create the VNs I envision – both in my college days and as PixælSoft / Project Memoria.
VN Projects from September 2009 to September 2019:
- Memoria – Indefinite hiatus since 2013 due to some problems
- Café Memoria – Released June 26, 2015
- All I Want for Christmas is a Girlfriend – Released December 24, 2018
- Café Memoria Deux – Demo release on July 26, 2019
If anyone wants to play “Final Week” or any of my old VN projects, they’re on the PixælWorks site (be aware the site hasn’t been updated in a while).
Special 10th Anniversary CG
Lastly, to celebrate this 10th anniversary, I want to share a lovely CG of one of my VN characters ^_^
Julia wants to share her love, in return for your support for these many years! This artwork was done by Arctic Fox, who has done a marvelous job with this =) Please check out her other artworks, they’re top-notch!
Thank You!
Thanks for reading! I hope for another 10 years of VN creation, and hopefully see the release of “Café Memoria Deux”. And of course hope you folks stick around. I know my projects may not be as popular compared to some other projects. But with your support, no matter how small it is, means lots! ^_^
-Ryne (thebackup) – 2019/09/27
(Note: Before anyone says something, VNs don’t necessarily have to have anime-style artwork. It’s just the vast majority of them have anime artwork. There are VNs that have Western-style art, for example.)
TL;DR version
The Dada artist Marcel Duchamp, the VNs “Kanon” and “Hourglass of Summer”, and anime in general served as inspiration to open PixælSoft / Project Memoria, and start making VNs.