Antologi Divisi Story 2015

When the sun starts to set itself on the faraway horizon, my friend, with your foremost firms - do believe, on the Earth's other hemisphere, the sun's ready to sparkle its warmth-of-brilliance to this very Earth alight.

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Welcome aboard everyone to our very first transmission after a semester-long hiatus. No, this blog hadn't been forgotten by us - not even being close to oblivion, we might say. The suspended-animation status, however, had made this blog missed the chance to witness the very moment of reigns changing - the very moment where a new sovereign had arisen to further expand its predecessors' success stories.

We have to say, the previous Sunday was an incredibly marvelous day for everyone to get along with various activities - soothing breezes, warm sunlights, and many more. It had, however, turned out to be an even more joyful day for Stephen Ariel K. // skiseki as he was officially declared as the chosen individual to triumph the Genshiken Story's leadership for the upcoming year, being the direct heir to the previous Zakaria S. Laksmana // Nivalyx's throne.

Onto every dynasty, however, prevail various legacies. No different with Rakaputra P. // Rheine's bestowings beforehand, the remnants of last year's champion literacies were engulfed in a yearly anthology forme - Antologi Cerita Divisi Story Genshiken ITB Periode 2014 - 2015, to be exact.

As suggested above and by the title, what resided within the book were the winning entries of last year's selected writing challenges - with the previously-featured Zielverhuiser being a featured piece. Standing firm accompanying were two (semi-exclusive) short stories derived from two different contributors, of which both were firstly posted throughout the authors' personal blogs. It's such a bliss that the very book managed to be done on time to be exclusively premiered at Comifuro 6 last month - we're delighted had our book quenched your literary thirst back then!

Speaking aside, however, the last few months had been proven as a very productive month for Genshiken ITB in general. This very announcement is - indeed - just a small piece of the vast progress Genshiken ITB made over the past months (with Genshiken Staff Training 2015 being the most prominent and the most hyped for, arguably). Expect us to deliver more interesting coverages soon, and until then, have our conferings of a beautiful day!

Comic : swap

spoiler alert

Emerging to the limelight this time is a sleeper-hit comic from Gerbek Studio, an independent small circle of illustrators which - as stated on their description - 'aims to deliver an original, unique, and challenging comic' to the public. By any means this circle has no direct connection to Genshiken ITB, however it's worth noticing that majority of their core members are members of Genshiken ITB as well. Then again, it's not the first time we featured an external material whose content intersects with Genshiken ITB somewhere either, and this one's worth a look - really.

Blanketed within the surge of minimalistic colors and bold lines is swap, an original comic skillfully crafted from the depths of Narendra B. Adi (Genshiken ITB / DKV ITB 2012)'s mind, this relatively short comic (27 pages in total) portrays a story of an unnamed youth seeking refuge from his approaching deadline. Everything seemed fine until within his solitary confinement a certain social media website exposed him to a horror never-seen before - pictures of human doing animals' jobs with the animals itself on the supervising outpost.

Switch-of-fate, you might say. Like a pack of flying whales he thought it's too good to be true, and therefore leaving him a skeptic stance as his best opt of stance. Amidst the disbelief surrounding him a chat notification shatters his concentration. Not knowing whether it's a bless or a distraction regarding his deadline, through the chat he agreed to spend the day after with his old friends for a quick walk. What happened afterwards, though, is better not to be spoiled here as it might ruin the story's main bombshell.

...oh, well, never mind. We'll leave a short clandestine spoiler here : it's a haunting tide of event to the absolute. Yes - to the absolute.

To be frank I myself was reading this excellent Facebook horror fanpage alone the midnight before, got intrigued by some of the well-written stories there, and went over a momentarily astonishing moment. This one's a completely different experience, though - perhaps it's best to quote Roger Ebert's fabled review on the everlasting horror-film Nosferatu which is greatly relevant to the aftertaste atmosphere driven by this tale :

I admire it more for its artistry and ideas, its atmosphere and images, than for its ability to manipulate my emotions... (truncated) ...but "Nosferatu" remains effective: It doesn’t scare us, but it haunts us. (source)

After all, I think it's best for you to experience yourself the grandeur this one-shot comic has to offer. It's as easy as clicking the link previously embedded, anyway. Please keep in mind that some of the imageries published contain grotesque element and not suitable to be consumed by minors - however, if you managed to overcome that, a wonderful surreal treat awaits.

- Nivalyx

Review : Tari-Tari Basket

It has never been an easy task to steal a lustrous spot beneath the limelight on the 'dreaded' GST works' presentation day. It has never been.

Yet, this year's the faux gloom of the 'dreaded' day vanished. Gems are sparkling in glitter all over the place, nullifying the 'curse' of the day which has lasted for years. I have to say, it is Tari-Tari Basket - a novel project lead by Viona Damayanti - which acts as the Story Division's most major contribution to the gemstone's shine. (don't worry - I'll try to refrain from dropping too much spoiler here)

To make long story short, the story follows the triumph of Dian - a hopeful first-year college youth - on chasing Teguh's affection, who has encharmed her on their first sight with his magnificent flute harmonies. Upon the hands of fate's grant, these two's frequent meeting turned out into a catalyst which triggers a  breakdown point for Dian's heart - whether she should focus on her true basketball rising potent, or following the pathway of the Balinese traditional dance (which is not Dian's main interest) to encharm Teguh even more.

Before proceeding any further, here's one interesting backstory we'd like to tell : All of the judges on the presentation day (including me) agreed that the concept of the story is not something which stands out from the ordinary. Being a teenlit with a classic (and much overused) love-centered theme, it is an obligation for the project to deliver a plus point from another aspect, and yes - the novel did an exceptional delivery on the writing aspects (Thalia's telepathic ability greatly strengthen the story's magnet a lot).

We have to say, this novel is an interesting example of how a deep, philosophy-influenced writing could greatly spice up a concept which is not uncommon. Back then during the mentoring session this novel (lightly) suffers from a rough transition between the informal language and the mesmerizing self-thoughts, but it's clearly visible that there's an attempt to eliminate this barrier on the novel's final print version.

One of the major criticism on the novel back then is on how the illustrations' style conflict greatly among each other (due to the project having multiple illustrators), but personally we think it's not an issue that critical to be greatly concerned of (we can still enjoy the story's intuitable flow anyway). During the second half we can sense somehow that the conflict within Dian's 'steel heart' begins to feel repetitive (and gradually putting our interest away in a slight amount), but it doesn't retract us from examining this story to minutiae.

This novel also applies footnotes to enlighten readers on the more-technical terms (which is brilliant), but there's one big fault which is overlooked more or less - the story never stated its setting (although it's obvious enough that the story took place in Institut Teknologi Bandung), yet there's the name 'MGG' mentioned without any explanations at all about that organization. This would undoubtedly cause a sheer confusion to external (and even some internal) readers, in which some of us has experienced ourselves.

Despite the (not-so-major) flaws pointed on above paragraph, this literary shard is still an interesting one to read overall. It is imminent that there's *something special* poured directly from the writers' heart hidden within the universe of the story - be it consciously or unconsciously ciphered within, we can feel that most of the time this is not the mind speaking - it's the heart speaking. Most obvious is perhaps Teguh's student number (13313033, which actually exists - use this site to check out whom it is if you're that curious), but far beneath what's written in the surface there's still a lot more to dig and decipher. Really, grab a copy and you'll see what we mean.

We'll leave you all within the unsolved conundrum with this magnificent quote directly delivered from the novel itself. Have a nice day.

JLEB...
JLEB...JLEB...
JLEB...JLEB...JLEB...

- Nivalyx

GST 2014 : Projects Insight

(illustration by Om Tivi)

Dear fellow readers, first and foremost allow us to incept this report with a retrospective question : Remember when we posted an oversee of this consecrated visual novel ages ago? Ah, such a magnificent moment back then. One thing remained unchanged ever since is the time's forward progression, and the march of tick itself has brought us to this very point - the point where the cycle turned into its starting point once more.

Yes, a year has passed, and the time for yet another Genshiken Staff Training (GST) season has arrived. Every GST so far has been a promising momentum to uncover up some precious individuals in the creative industry, and this year's no exception. Had last year's GST unveiled some creative works such as (x²+y²-1)³=x²y³ and Phantasmagoria : A World Genshiken Only Knows*, what would this year's GST projects has to offer, then?

Before proceeding further we'd like to remind you that this sighting report is limited to Story Division-related projects due to length constraints. Outside this post, afraid not to traverse into five other realms - uncut gems ready to be polished are scattering firm among all six Genshiken ITB divisions, really. Have our heartfelt assurance.

• Novel : (title yet to be decided) // A romance novel project led by Luh Putu Viona Damayanti about a female basketball player in tandem with collaborative illustrations. We don't allocate this project first on the list for no reason - the concept to the story (or the story itself, even) has been residing within suspension state somewhere among Viona's hard drive for years. It is imminent that this acts as a major hint to Viona's true literary artistry (which is something we're looking up to) - furthermore, she had admitted that she is in-charge of administering a writing blog somewhere in which she decided to undisclose at this point.
• Visual Novel : Locked Up // The whole horror scene (especially the ones that circles around murder) is notorious for being difficult to simulate on, yet Andri H. and Stephen A. decided to step upon this sorrowful world of infinite enigmas. It's a pleasant surprise for us to find out there's a dynamic duo who aims for succession upon the creation of this life-and-death game scene with the aid of Microsoft Visual Studio, as this project borders tightly with its risks. Their proposal so far is laden with programming-related stuffs, though. 
• Short Stories Anthology : Legenda Sungai Cikapundung // As a late entrant, it's imminent that a distinct innovation is greatly needed to create an encharming writing considering the time disadvantage. With that in mind, M. Fathur and his team attempted to do an unorthodox approach on their project - crafting a fictional world in which the story greatly relates to the real world's issues (be it local or global). All of these branching wonders point into the story's main goal - educating. Yes, as fas as we've concerned no one has attempted to create an educational folktale previously on GST, and it's interesting to see how these creative pioneers execute their masterplan.
• Illustrated Stories 1 : (title yet to be decided) // Being the most enormous group on the Story category (and the second most enormous among the whole GST 2014 universe), this yet-to-be-unveiled superproject tells an epic which revolves around the medieval age. Not much is known at the moment about this group of ten hopefuls except for they're the ones who had achieved the furthest progress upon the time of this writing.
• Illustrated Stories 2 : (title yet to be decided) // Had there been a concept too mysterious for scientists to decipher, it might just be the conundrum of time and space. Yet, a giant question mark lies on how shifting time and space in a fashion may alter realities and dimensions. Within this cosmic baffles, please welcome this daring group-of-seven - led by Deny - who aims to refurbish this parallax based on their own perspective. Interesting 'future sight' concept so far, though we haven't heard a lot on their development side for now.

Ahead of these groups are five different pathways leading to one ultimate finish line. As they're progressing forward in their own journey, it's our task at hand to invigorate their soul and mind as a forefront beacon. Who will yield upon the brightest shine on the presentation day?

*Yes, we haven't got this covered on this very blog (yet) - we fully realize. Maybe someday (:

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PS : It appears that a teaser story for Locked Up has been submitted as an contending entry for our latest Genshiken Writing Challenge, which is a pleasant breeze to the whole GST hemisphere. We haven't delved deep enough to the story due to us lacking proper time, though - but it's a promising one so far, we firmly believe!

Genshiken ITB : 2005 ~ 2014

Say, we named ourself  'Genshiken Story' not for a void reason.

Aside from our primary task to deliver the best out from Genshiken ITB's story department, it's somewhat our 'responsibility' as well to pass on the stories behind this very unit to the masses. And yes - we've been aware of it from the very beginning. The time for this will come soon enough, indeed.

We ourselves doesn't really have many words on our mind right now - let the video above speak by itself. We'd leave you instead with the video's semi-official description (read : propaganda) that we've been using around on our mission to spread the video throughout our internal forum and the social medias :

'Inilah video yang menggambarkan perjalanan UKM Genshiken ITB, yang tersusun atas dokumentasi-dokumentasi pilihan yang tersedia sejak masa primordial Genshiken ITB hingga dokumentasi terkini yang diracik khusus dalam rangka Dies Natalis ke-9 Genshiken. Tanpa perlu banyak berkata-kata, rekoleksi foto dan video yang terangkum dalam suatu kolase konektif ini akan banyak bercerita mengenai pengembaraan sembilan tahun Genshiken ITB yang diwarnai beragam hal-hal atraktif.

Tak mudah memang merangkum kenangan yang terjalin selama sembilan tahun dalam sembilan menit nan singkat, ya. Saya memang tidak terlibat langsung dalam awal berdirinya kelompok studi ini, namun selama dan setelah melakukan proses penyuntingan secara tak langsung saya merasa terkoneksi - merasakan semangat dan aura positif para pendiri unit ini, para pendahulu, para pengurus yang kini bertugas, dan para penerus.

May this video confers you all with positive vibes.'

Happy watching. An exclusive, unreleased-before poetry has been planned for our release in the near-distant future, though.

- Nivalyx

Review : Dusk's Secret

Apologize for our recent inactivity! Well, real life stuffs kept on coming every here and there, which amounts negatively to our free time. Worry not, though! As our 'token of apology', we'd like to deliver something that we haven't done for a while - a peek at a visual novel project!

...speaking of which, we haven't wrote anything about an external visual novel, have we? Well, it's about time - yes. Please welcome Litto & Tobi - Dusk's Secret, which is the very first digital work of a newcomer independent game developer entity named Littobi Visual. Beforehand, we'd like to inform that this very post on our blog is made possible thanks to Elma Nandira // rikukiko, which (somehow) serves as a connection between us and them. Established a year ago, this newborn circle had produced contents not only limited to games - some interesting short stories are also available to read on their Facebook page.

And, uh, yeah - much less, that's the background behind the working team. Onwards to the main point, how was the game, then?


Comedic atmosphere is laden in this blitz-quick visual novel, which somehow works well with the heartwarming string melodies that accompanies the main scenes. At the main menu there were no hint at all that the take on this visual novel would be a comedic one, though - it's a pleasant experience discovering the somehow clandestine connection between one funny dialogue and another. Take this one (which is one of our favorite punchline), for example:

Some of them were even frustrated and did extreme thing : jumping from a 200-floor building. Oh My God.
However, they amazingly survived...

It makes you wonder 'What will happen next/how could it be possible', doesn't it? Well, just seconds later, a twist of fate happened.

...because they were just jumping in place.

Not an entirely new joke, we know - but in the gameplay, it's perfectly timed. It's more than enough to make us elicit a smile, in the end. There are more comedic punchlines later in the game though, but it's best for us not to spoil things out too early and let everyone out there interested to seek out and explore this surreal, out-of-the-box dimension by him/herself.

The biggest surprise, after all, though - is the ending. This game effectively applies the 'less is more' principle by using a 'magical' three-letter word as their ending statement. It's majestically hilarious, really.


Still, there's still a lot of spots for improvement that this game can fulfill. One of the most noticeable 'downfall' of this game is - undoubtedly - the lack of the main menu theme song. We personally visualize that an happy ambient loop music (a Newgrounds song perhaps?) would do best in providing an enrichment to the current cheery, pastel-color-templated main menu screen. Some more proofread may be proven worthy for this game, as there are still some minor grammatical and punctuation error(s) but overall we're satisfied with the choice of words used. Not to mention that the illustration and (mainly) the background images can still be greatly improved, though.

What should we say as our final words toward this short game, then? It's simple, relaxing, entertaining, mind-bending... Well, as their primordial game project, it's not that groundbreakingly exceptional but still it's pleasing enough to play/read. People who are interested in trying out the game can assess the download link through their official Facebook page, to whom it may concern. And yes - there are various interesting trivial facts about the world of visual novel on their page as well, which is also worth checking.

- Nivalyx

Text Game : < untitled >

'Love may come in various forms, with various reasons'

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Today we shall bring you to the world we never explored before - the world where ones and zeros meets letters and symbols:

Text-based game.

Forged specially for Genshiken Writing Challenge XII (in which we forgot to post previously, pardon us!), <untitled> allows everyone to experience playing an interactive web text-based game. This genre, although probably being visual novel's simplest form, actually holds a load of potential - The LCPANES Terminal, for example, currently possesses a perfect five-star rating on rpgmaker.net. With all these promising facts, how was this very game went, then?

First of all, let us warn the younger audiences first that this scriptborn from Ezra H. // illuminaseeker contains some pseudo-suggestive scenes, so readers' discretion is advised. Some of them are mind-bending, to be honest. The story itself opens with the interactive 'input your name' dialog box, followed by - I have no idea why the page is named login.php - the welcome (introductory) screen. What lies after that, though, is...

Well, this story tells about an ordinary college student whose life is about to change. Any move taken by you redefines the main character's fate, either positively or negatively. The main character realized that the tree of luck has been on his side recently, and he is on his quest to discover who planted the roots itself - a lecturer, a family member, or a fellow band member.

Several storylines haven't been implemented though (the game should allow you to pick whether you're taking a degree in accountancy/informatics/musical art but only accountancy is available prior to this version, for an example) but even with its current condition there are still 10+ outcomes possible. This adds a huge replayability value, which is a big plus.

The plot twists on this one are a major factor as well, though. It's massive - it adds a huge amount curiosity to the readers about what will happen next. The unusual pairing should also elicit a smile to its readers, as well as the message given on the every ending sequence.

To be honest, I feel quite weird while reading the suggestive parts. There's and ending I liked the most due to it being inspirational somehow (SPOILER : the 'laziness + lie combination' one) but the more suggestive ending ones are just... Well, perhaps that's because I'm not used to stories like this?

Furthermore, it feels quite sad that the design seems overwhelmingly simple - I can understand this though, considering the fact that it is being created for a (dead-lined) writing challenge. The casual writing style itself could also be improved more though in my eyes - further proofread should do good!

Overall, I see this project (if it can be called so) had undergone a promising start. Had the page had more than just a simple 'font size="5"' tag and a more solid writing, this shall attract a lot of pleasant readers. Frankly speaking, I envision that this project will be stellar if being worked as a team rather than solo - illuminaseeker himself is actually majoring Teknik Informatika (informatics), so the coding-related issues should do no big harm.

This interactive story-game hybrid may be played here, for your pleasure. Oh, and as further trivia, this game isn't named 'untitled' by purpose - it does meant to be untitled from the start.

PS : In fact, there are two text-based games submitted for this challenge - stuffs the second story coming soon! (not sure when though, I already have something more important to be posted next)

- Nivalyx

Story : Mysterious Affair...

...at Styles', Part 1. Yes, the full title doesn't fit in a single line, so I had to split it up like this. In case you're wondering why it should be split into two lines : it's the consequence of the (somewhat faulty) CSS line somewhere in this page - and yes, you got it right! We're just lazy to tweak it! Yaaaaay--

Anyway, hello again everyone! This time we came up with a short story we handpicked from one of Genshiken ITB's sub-projects, Gen-Magz, from the mind and hands of our reigning overlord - Rakaputra P. // Rheine! As the title intuitively says, Gen-Magz is an online web magazine which was first launched back then in 2013 encompassing the visual modern culture. Here's a quick shot at the story's custom page title on the magazine:


...and now, we got to the actual story here - beware, spoilers ahead!

Although you might expect a horror story from the title alone, this part of story doesn't envision much of it - in fact, this part serves more as a prologue. The story tells the tale of Rick Styles - a college student - with his companies who intended to spend their holiday in his very own family village. Things were very nostalgic at first, and it remains like that until the end of the story - the climax-building part only appears for a brief second.

I can fully understand why it's like that though - I got the impression personally that this story had been made long ago, sitting aimlessly on the hard disk, and then submitted as an entry for the magazine. I'm just assuming here though (I don't know whether this is true or not), bt frankly speaking, although I've been hanging around the core team of Genshiken Story for a while, until now I haven't read any single story from Rheine himself. And yes - I was surprised by the choice of words here. In my life I've only had encountered two people with this level of English diction mastery. Simply astonishing.

I personally think it's more than worth to wait for this story's sequel(s) though, as Rheine himself had proven himself as a 'wizard of words' through this story. But what REALLY worth the wait is seeing how the plot development will be - the story had featured a pseudo-psychic personality thus far (which adds much weight to the interesting side), and who knows what will be added in the future? As far as I concerned, no one but Rheine himself.

If you're wanting to know more about our Gen-Magz project, further information about it can be found on our Facebook page (the link is available on our sidebar). Speaking aside, I am also a contributor myself for that project, so... (:

Feel free to read the entire story here : Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3!

- Nivalyx

News : World Beyond the Window

"When you wake up feeling worn out, open the window and look for something you've never seen before."

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Hello! Yes, we're fully aware that we're not posting news often here. But worry not - this very time, we're bringing you the long-awaited big news!

...well, frankly speaking, there are more important stuff for us to deliver, but we decided to publish this out first. Genshiken ITB will be participating (as a stand contributor) on the upcoming Pasar Komik Bandung 2014. The event's name translates into 'Bandung Comic Market 2014', so it should be obvious what to expect there (:

Speaking aside the event, the main news we're trying to headline is this : Very recently, one of our prolific author - I'm sure you might have been familiar with this name by now - Karina R. // Riesling, sent us this picture about her upcoming project which will be showcased will have the teaser comic of it be showcased on the Pasar Komik Bandung 2014 event:


Portrayed as 'a visual novel with an otoge feature' from the official description given, the visual novel tells the story about 'someone who lost in a town, hoping to be found - however, in the end, she have to be able to find herself''. Aside from the fact that Riesling did the above picture (and will do the majority of the artwork for the game) by herself, not much details are known about this VN to the outside world.

We're not directly promoting the event, but here's the details about the upcoming Pasar Komik Bandung event in case you're wondering:

• Event : Pasar Komik Bandung 2014
• Location : Braga City Walk
• Date : March 15th to 16th 

I myself don't really know whether I could attend the event or not, but for sure I'll try to get the copy of the VN and post my afterthoughts about it here. Stay tuned!

PS :  Yes, we know, the image we embedded above is quite large. We're just lazy to resize it (:

- Nivalyx

Story : Happy Valentine

Hello there! First and foremost, I'll answer two questions that may pop up on your head right now:

• Yes, the image we embedded above is a direct screenshot from here.
• Yes, I (posting on behalf of the Genshiken Story team) am terribly sorry for our inactivity recently as this blog is currently still managed single-handedly (:

I'll be quoting StrifeII here, regarding our current condition:

"Doing fine, thank you, I would say, never knowing how to talk about what I do. If I could talk about it, I would not have to do it. I make art, sometimes I make true art, and sometimes it fills the empty places in my life. Some of them. Not all.”

...back to our very subject we shall - still on valentine day's nuance, as love's presence still visible every here and there. 'Happy Valentine' may sound too generic as a title - or is it?

Well, a title's a title - it attracts audiences, yes, but the content itself which should arise to the surface. Exceptions are null for this story. Overflown with emotions and feelings, freshly flowing from Karina R. // Riesling's liquid mind. The creator's expectation, is, not surprising : to let us, dear readers, enjoy this simple yet smile-evoking story. Ah, don't rebut - a good everyday love story always elicit a smile, doesn't it? (:

Before proceeding into the epicentrum of this post, I shall warn you first though : this post contains major spoilers to the story. In case you're still eager to proceed without reading the story, first, don't say that I haven't warned you (:

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What would be needed to create a love story? A couple, indeed. Stepping up into the next level, what would be needed to create a good love story? A couple and a good story plot, some say. Now, does this story have both? I'd subjectively say yes, as I found myself drowned into the story - could be biased though, as one of the major factors why this story enchanted me is the locations used in the story (which, in case you're wondering, this story is written at Cisitu itself).

The main (unnamed) character is a timid boy who is - somewhat - attracted by a girl on a certain campus (which is also unnamed, but it should be obvious which campus Riesling was referring to). As the story progresses, he got struck by this 'magical valentine moment' and had a romantic moment with the (yes, also unnamed) girl. The story involves chocolate, yes - so you should be able to guess what will happen next.

...well, not much else to say, really. Although I found the story's progression to be interesting and enjoyable, the story's ending is quite awkward and generic in my eyes. I feel like the ending's being rushed somehow, as it feels like altering from a liquid flow of words into something too solid in a sudden. Riesling herself stated that there will be a bigger continuation of this story someday though, so it's safe to speculate that this short story acts as a 'trailer'. There are some ambiguous sentences also though, most notably the 'Padahal biasanya sehari ketemu nggak sekali' line - doesn't really matter though if you freed your mind while reading this.

In the end, my feelings went mixed after reading this. Again, I'd say this is highly subjective - to be honest I personally had just suffered from a great loss this morning, and I still had that mournful feeling clustering on my head right now. I can say that clearness and tranquility isn't on me at all right now, so... yeah, I'd just leave this post with the link to the story (:

Happy valent-- Haha, you were expecting me to end with that line, weren't you? ...not really, I'd rather end this post with a fitting song to accompany the story instead (as I've mentioned StrifeII as well!)

- Nivalyx

Short Story : The Golden Apple

Hello! It looks like we're on a productive streak, after all (:

Just few hours ago, one of our more renowned members of all-time, Karina R. // Riesling, sent us a relatively fresh short story, entitled The Golden Apple. It's 'relatively fresh' because it's not a brand-new story, actually - instead, actually it's a story previously prepared for an event (under the Great Conspiracy Theory flag) but wasn't released until just recently. If you're an avid attendant of comic markets and Japanese-related festivals, perhaps the name 'Riesling' feels quite familiar for you - yes, she is the creator of the phenomenal Ange Saga book which has been distributed among various events.

'The Golden Apple' itself is based on various Norse mythology character, although it's not a pure revamp of the original story - it has interesting twists every here and there. For example, the main character here - Anasthasia Appelbaum - acts as an catalyst of a certain event (I won't spoil which event it is particularly, of course). What's more - the main plot (so far, at least) took place in London, not in the nine worlds of the Norse mythology.

This short story is currently consisted of four chapters (one prologue and three actual chapters) and still undergoes heavy development - the four available chapters are available for read here, though. Keep in mind that some general knowledge about Norse mythology really helps upon understanding the story!

...and, yep, I should straighten things up that this isn't a really review as my intention is to post things about the short story in general (and supporting our fellow member). Despite that, I'll end this post with a positive spirit - have a lovely night, everyone!

- Nivalyx

News : Freak-Quency Update

Great news just came into our desk few minutes ago! The creator of the Freak-Quency visual novel-RPG hybrid (which we had written about previously), Dewi Nur Fitri // Xerofit51, just contacted us and told that she had crafted a newer, enhanced version for her game!

Here are some exciting new features that are included in the newer versions:

• The 'Pink Mailbox' saving system
• Improved backgrounds (in collaboration with sakon04)
• Progressions on the 'Yen system' we previously wrote about
• Addition of simple maps and quest instructions

Apologize if that sounds like an advertising though, but I personally will get into this version (and write my impressions about it again) as soon as I'm a bit freer from my current tasks on hand - for the meantime, feel free to read what we previously wrote or grab the newer version here!

(PS: That image we include above is the game's official promotional poster, credits to Sakon04)

- Nivalyx

Visual Novel : (x²+y²-1)³=x²y³

Hi there! ...yep, we're back with another visual novel project to write about on this starry night!

The title might seem to be intimidating at first glance, but worry not - it is more known among Genshiken ITB commoners and highnesses as Equation of the Heart, a reference to this. Yes, I've mentioned this visual novel project previously in this post - a project initiated by a group of nine, with I myself as one of them (it's quite hard to write this post without being bias, really).

From the screenshot above, you might've been already noticing that this visual novel runs on wide-screen resolution - however, the most eye-catching thing is perhaps the three chibis on the far left side. The main menu itself is completely made from scratch by the illustrators, with me doing the digital retouch (with all the tree samples and such) and Mario doing the post-processing edit.

Originally created for the Genshiken Staff Training event (a series of training for Genshiken ITB freshmen to devoid the 'future' from their 'future Genshiken staff' status), this visual novel tells a story about a notorious vandal high-schooler, Nero, who had a twist of fate by the sudden appearance of three charming girls with three different background stories. Project leader Mario Filino constructed the visual novel using Ren'py, based on the script written by Nicko Tama // Dopachin and proof-read by me. No, I won't spoil how the story progresses here (:


Some might find the theme taken is quite cliché though, as love stories tend to have similar ending among each other. To anticipate this, there are some options that could be taken at a certain point - this adds a non-linearity to the game. Furthermore, a fair balance of downtempo and uptempo songs are embedded to the game to accompany the main character's 'twist of fate'. It grandly results in an enjoyable storyline, in the end. The visual novel itself weighs 275 MB overall.


After all, I had to say that what makes this visual novel shine on the Genshiken Staff Training's project presentation day are : (1) The character design, and (2) The visual novel's on-time completion. As for the first, I personally need to deliver a deep gratitude to our illustrator trifecta - Rofid I. // RAKELUDIN13, Raniasih S. // chrovide, and A. Mudhaffarah // awabara. The end credits has an infamous typo, though - 'Thaks for Playing' - which was left unnoticed by anyone until the very presentation hour.

While the first chapter of the story is already complete and fully playable, the only physical copy of this game's whereabouts is currently unknown - good thing I still own it on my hard drive. The following chapter already shed its light, as the first route's script has already been finished.

Well, that's it for our Genshikenic visual novel adventure this time! Before I left, I'd like to mentioned previously that there are four visual novels submitted for the Genshiken Staff Training event? Yes, consider this as the tip of the iceberg - expect the unexpected as we dive deeply onto the other three in the near future!

- Nivalyx

VN : Carat - A Genshiken Story

...so, yes, I've been running this blog for a few days, and the response so far has been very positive. I have to start this post with a big thanks to anyone who had supported me - you had my gratitude!

I got asked from one of our members to took this visual novel to the limelight a day ago, and what came to my mind back then is : 'Why not?' Well, Carat : A Genshiken Story has been transforming into a cult-classic among Genshiken ITB members up until now. We had to thank the charming character duo - Gen-tan and Gen-kun - for driving this visual novel into popularity. I mean, who could forgot Gen-tan's mysterious, possessive personality?


The project itself was initiated a year ago by a team of eight who called theirselves 'Carat', consisted of Ariq H. // ariqhad, Rakaputra P. // Rheine, Karina R. // Riesling, and others. This visual novel was originally intended to be an introductory visual novel to Genshiken ITB freshmen - hence, this visual novel is also called as 'VN Pengenalan' (Introductory VN) and has been distributed internally among new Genshiken members.

Even traversing more to the past, Gen-kun and Gen-tan were created as Genshiken ITB's official mascot back then in 2012. At that time, they both weren't visualized yet - it was this visual novel which broke through the imaginair barrier and formed Gen-kun and Gen-tan's visual appearance. More recently, due to its popularity, the GCT stand on Comifuro III (which is closely affiliated with Genshiken ITB) decided to sold a pin with these characters engraved on the surface.

The visual novel's gameplay is rather simplistic and linear, much contradictory to the visual novel I previously talked about  - there were no choice bubbles and special events. The visual novel itself is relatively short, with only (and intended to only be) around ~10-15 minutes of play time - this is due to the visual novel's original intention, which is to be played during the story division's initial freshmen presentation.


The story itself revolves around a freshmen on Institut Teknologi Bandung, who decided (uh... well, let's *just* say so) to join Genshiken ITB during the Open House Unit (OHU) event. It's quite hard to say how the story progresses without spoiling anything too big though, as it's a very short story - I'll just say the story's ending is quite 'surprising'.

Created using Novelty, this visual novel weighs no more than 44 megabytes. Background songs of choice tend to be ambiental-orchestral, with some simple sound effects every here and there. Few things I note are there's no direct way to return to main menu from the game itself - and, probably this is just me, but I can't exit the game without crashing (I'm using Windows 8 personally, though).

I'd like to end this post with an announcement to all Genshiken ITB members that Carat is currently looking for more Genshiken ITB members to join them, so feel free to join or probably just dropping a visit to the group!

Oh, and yes, I do still have some interesting visual novels to write about here in my arsenal. Stay tuned, and have a nice day!

- Nivalyx

Visual Novel : Freak-Quency

Hello there! Are you experiencing a wonderful Saturday so far? Hope it's much more interesting than what I experience currently, because mine isn't actually - I had to continuously developing this blog all day (which drains my stamina a lot!)

...anyway, for the first actual post on this blog, I'd like to bring a solo visual novel project from one of our members - Dewi Nur Fitri // Xerofit51 - to the limelight : Freak-Quency. Long story short, this visual novel takes place in a world where a virtual reality game entitled Freak-Quency booms around. The virtual reality game itself is notorious for taking its players' lives though - and it's your task to unravel the mystery around it, along with Sonnya Grey, the innocent youth, and her Freak-Quency, Jackal.

The game starts off as an usual visual novel game - with dialogues, option buttons, and such. Looks indifferent with other visual novel? Alright, now here comes the interesting part : this is no ordinary visual novel, this game is a RPG-Visual Novel Hybrid. Yes, after several minutes of playtime or so, you'll be engaged into a battle scene. The battle scene itself is still simplistic at its current version though, as the creator made it an optional choice by now (players may skip the battle scene if he/she demands it).


Possible actions taken during the battle are similar to other RPG games around - attack, magic, and else. This might be personal, but the water spell reminds me of what used in Middens somehow. Speaking aside the battle, to attract more players into the game, the creator decided to add some interactive scene as portrayed in the picture below. There are some mini-quests and the 'Yen system', which is - I guess you've figured it out - the monetary system used in the game, although shops, items, and et cetera are not yet implemented by far.


About the songs and sound effects used on the game itself, I personally found that it is simple yet effective. On the game's boot, the players were introduced with a calming main menu music, which is an instrumental rendition of a popular song. I do forgot the song's title, but I realized that the battle scene's music is an instrumental rendition of Trick and Treat. Keep in mind though as this version is still far from final, theme songs and such are most likely to be changed on later release.

As someone who has worked with a team to create a Visual Novel game beforehand (Equation of the Heart - I'll write about this sometimes, mayhap) I found this game interesting and catchy for a game which is still in a premature development stage. The main weakness of this game is probably the writing itself, which requires a lot of proof reading and punctuation revision albeit giving a promising story so far.

People who wish to experience the game by theirselves may download the game here EDIT: Don't mind that old link, grab the newer version here!

- Nivalyx