The Samurai of Hyuga series doesn’t have any trailers. When I talk to family and friends about it, it’s kind of hard to explain what an interactive novel series is—and it’s even tougher to get them to install some Hosted Games app on their phone to try it for themselves!
I’ve been looking for an easier way to introduce people to SoH that requires minimal effort on their part. Reading an over 1-million word book series is a hell of an endeavor, and it’s especially intimidating to a general public who generally doesn’t read.
That’s where the 4 Ronin Project comes in.
The 4 Ronin Project
This project is a collection of youtube videos that showcase excerpts from the book series: an illustrated, voiced scene that helps everyone see what Samurai of Hyuga is all about. Each video stars one of four different protagonists—each of which goes through the same scene but with different stats and choices.
Those differences help describe the interactive nature of the books better than I ever could. And even if you are an SoH veteran, I think you’ll enjoy hearing and seeing the characters come to life!
Go ahead, pick your ronin and press play!
What I Consume the Most
If we consider the content we consume on a daily basis as food, then my plate is always filled with heaping helpings of youtube videos! More than playing video games, watching films or reading the newspaper (like the boomer I am), I watch a lot of youtube. Too much, in fact.
Between let’s plays for hardcore challenge runs in Fire Emblem, to Magic the Gathering drafts, to WW2 military ration reviews…I watch a lot. And judging by the number of views those videos get, I’m not the only one. So it was nice to finally create something that I myself enjoy so regularly!
A Glorified Slideshow
Let’s not beat around the bush: the 4 Ronin videos aren’t exactly complex. I knew I couldn’t make some sort of crazy anime opening video—I don’t have the time and I especially don’t have the talent for that! But I knew a manga-styled ‘flip-through’ of the story was a much more doable endeavor.
I could focus on the images and the voices while keeping things like scene transitions very simple. This works very well because among all the software I’m using to create these, Adobe Premiere (the video editor) is what I have the least experience with by far!
The Perfect Side Project
In my mind, there are three things every good side project has:
- Doesn’t take up too much time
- Helps me acquire new skills/improve old ones
- Doesn’t cost too much money
The first batch of 4 Ronin videos took about 3 weeks. I expect the second batch, those showcasing a scene from SoH Book 2, to take half as long as I understand the process that much better. If I’m releasing one of these videos each month, then that’s just a handful of days each month for a video.
That’s very efficient and exactly what you want for a side project! As for the skills involved, that gets its own section!
The Issue of Skill or, Skill Issue
Let me be ‘real’ with you, as the kids say. I’ve been writing choicegames for a long time. Like a decade at this point. I could write choicescript in my sleep, and I like to think I’ve become a better writer than most, too. That’s great…if I just want to write choicegames for the rest of my life.
And while some of you wouldn’t mind that, I would! To escape that destiny, I have to develop skills outside my comfort zone. I’m well accustomed to Photoshop, but there are plenty of other things involved in the 4 Ronin Project I’ve gained skill in:
- Adobe Audition (audio editing)
- Adobe Premiere (video editing)
- ElevenLabs (voice generation)
- Stable Diffusion (image generation)
Things like getting audio levels good and consistent on youtube isn’t all that easy. At least not until you learn what hardlimiting is, which I recently discovered through trial and error. As for the AI voices, there’s a lot of ‘emotion coaching’ you can do, like giving it “CURSE WORDS IN ALL CAPS!” before the dialogue you want is spoken, and so on.
That seems like a weird skill to have, or to even call it a ‘skill’ in the first place, but these are the sorts of proficiencies creators need to adopt in the near-future. They pale in worth and effort to acquire (compared to learning how to draw an awesome portrait for example) but becoming the best AI director you can be is only going to become a more and more important skill going forward.
Now let’s talk about money!
The Price: Before & After AI
The 4 Ronin Project, just like Tabletop Nights, would never have been able to exist without the help of AI. The reason is simple: those youtube videos I posted above have 80 unique images among them in total. Let’s say each would be a $50 commission piece (which is extremely conservative given their quality).
That’s $4,000. I don’t happen to have that much lying around. Those videos only have a few hundred views each. You can see where I’m going with this!
As for the voice acting, based on the word count and the pricing for Cops & Catgirls (the most anime audio drama you’ve ever heard™), you’re looking at around $780 total. And let me tell you, there’s a lot of editing and revisions that goes into getting those lines!
Before AI: $4,780 (commissioned art and audio)
After AI: $22 (one month subscription to ElevenLabs)
With the use of AI, this project has cost me half of 1% of what it would’ve cost otherwise. Not much more than a year ago such a thing would be beyond all imagination. But here we are!
One Determined Guy/Girl
I can’t emphasize this enough: because of AI, we are entering a world where the barriers to creation have never been smaller. What One Determined Guy (or Girl) can achieve on their own, with limited resources, has never been greater.
You and I, our neighbors, the people we pass in the supermarket…each of us has so much potential for creativity that we’re going to see get unleashed in the upcoming years. It’s a hell of a time to be alive!
I know there are some people who are holding out against AI, and I know there are plenty of arguments against it, but it’s the future we’re already in. Call me stupidly optimistic, but I believe the world is fundamentally changing—and for the better.
Just try to keep your head above water until then!
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Great insight. I just finished Book 1 and was impressed that I was able to play through it while making choices pretty consistent with an old skool gruff loner Wolverine, the model in my head for the character. You’ve got a new fan and proslytizer.