No.149
Working on a VN?
Needing help with Ren'Py?
Want someone to test a beta?
Art needing critiqued?
Get it all here!
No.152
>>149I'd like to write a VN one day
in Ruby probably but I don't want it to be shit.
No.178
Why is it so hard to find free music that isn't shit?
No.179
>>178Because you need to git gud and make your own!
No.186
>>149Planning on making one, but I'm currently in very early planning. I won't let myself back down from it, though! I just need to get out of the endless loop of planning things that never happen, like most of my projects.
No.187
>>186Any idea what you want it to be about?
Protip:
Make the world and it's lore first before making the characters.It's A LOT easier fitting characters into a world you've made, than making a world to suit characters you've already made and grown attached to.
The check list me and my crew is using the now is:
1. Lore
-
2. Location
-
3. MC Characterisation
-
4. Girl Characterisation
-
5. Recurring Characters
-
6. Prototype Routes
-
7. Finished Routes
-
More tips:
Don't be afraid of backtracking a little.It doesn't mean you're progressing backwards.
Don't get too attached to your character until everyone is happy with the lore and shit.One half of the crew that was was working with me did create their "perfuckt girl", I tried changing a part in the world because it didn't make sense to something that actually did.
"N-NO! THAT WON'T WORK WITH MY GIRL! SH-SHES SPECIAL TO ME! IT NEEDS TO NOT MAKE SENSE" - Actual fucking words…
Long story short, the team is now cut in half, but we are now making double the progress.
And their VN is now dead lol
DO NOT make your character into your special snowflake "m-muh waifu!"Try make a character who will appeal to the majority, not just you.
Otherwise you and your /a/utistic teammates will all have the same girl, HanakoV2.
Not saying Hanako is bad, but a whole cast of different variations of her don't make for a good VN.And on that note try not to work with autistic cunts who frequent the Moe threads on /a/ claiming it's the best genre (I don't care how much you love compared to everything else, it's not) and the feels threads on /r9k/They will be nothing but trouble and hinder most progress.
Everything you try and decide will be met by "b-but w-will it affect my girl?" and you will get no where.
No.188
>>186Just a word of warning: Your VN won't be good. This isn't meant to be offensive towards you or just negative for the sake of it, it's just how this goes.
You can have dedication, you can have determination and you can have a great plan and idea for what you want to do. But it WILL turn out worse than you envision it, and you WILL think it's better than it actually is.
Look at the guys who made KS. They had years, they had good ideas and they even had the resources to make passable art and music. But even then, with all that, they still made a FanFic tier VN. And it's probably the best they could have accomplished.
This is not meant to discourage you. Keep going, and keep making progress. If you truly believe in your project, what you make will only get better over time and you will only become better at the process because of it. But be prepared for the end-product to be mediocre, maybe even lackluster. And without sounding like a weeaboo, we're westerners. VNs are a form of media that works partially because of the methodology of Japanese story-telling.
Topping it off,
>>187 brings up perhaps the most crucial point: Never work with /a/ moefaggots or feels morons. They will always point you in the same direction, that being a character-driven VN, but the characters they want will be too weak to carry it.
The people you want around you are those who routinely tell you what they DON'T like about what you're doing. Development is a cycle of criticism moreso than praise.
No.190
>>187>>188I'm not working with anyone else. This is a solo project, and my first to boot. I know it's not going to be good as I think, because as an artist, I've come to expect my work to be lackluster when compared to the perfect images and ideas within my head. It's not a problem to me to expect my work to be lackluster.
I know the premise, and am currently working on my lore. The story is as follows:
The protagonist is an average joe, working a 9 to 5, going home to his shows and his games, going to sleep, waking up. Rinse and repeat, day in and day out. Until one day he hears an odd sound coming from an alley. Entering it, he sees a monster. Paralyzed with fear, he can do nothing as the beast lunges towards him.
Luckily, this isn't a story about some dead asshole, and a masked vigilante saves the guy's life. Having seen too much, the vigilante takes him back to their headquarters. It turns out that a powerful banking enterprise is actually a cover for a worldwide crime-fighting organization, who uses their vast amounts of government connections and money to cover up the recent appearances of creatures they call Ibs (Which stands for Indestructible Beasts).
The protagonist wants to be a superhero, but can't be. The superheroes thy have on their force have been trained like the dickens in order to even be competent in their job, which means that the protagonist sure as fuck can't qualify. Instead, they make him a janitor.
The story is about the protagonist working at this company, sitting at the sidelines as other superheroes whom you can build relationships with go out on adventures. You have several options of things to do with your time, like build relationships, snoop around for more background on this place, train to become a hero yourself, and other options.
I won't do any of the red bolded text if I can, and I will expect my work to not be amazing. I know some of my ideas may not make it into the final project. I'm trying to keep a realistic look at this.
No.191
>>190I genuinely like that idea. Kind of like a "story of a regular guy when everybody else is a superhero" story, something I'd wanted to see in cape comics for a while. Damn nice concept brah.
With that premise, there's good opportunity for some good route options, nice heroines, and even some bro-tier side-characters. One of the better ideas I've heard, so you sure as shit better do well with it or I'll be mighty sore.
However, some questions.
What length are you going for? Seems to me that it'd need a bit longer than most western solo-VNs to flesh out a world that detailed and a story so promising.
What's the tone going to be? Is it love story, mystery or triumph over odds? Or do you plan to do routes focusing on different tones and story types?
How long do you plan to spend on this over a time-frame? Don't burn yourself out trying to bung it out in one big go, but how are you gonna pace yourself? How long would you hope to be working on it overall?
I feel the need to post my admittedly negative concern because I've seen too many people both burn themselves out, just shelve a project when it becomes something different to the perfect version their mind cooked up, or finish it but end up getting disappointed when other people don't find it as good as they do. And so long as you manage to persevere even as the project takes unexpected turns and changes, I'll gladly give it a look come the day you get up to the creation stage.
No.192
>>191Thanks for all the good words! I'm planning on going for a few different themes depending on which route you choose. Might be a mystery story if you decide to snoop through the company's top-secret documents to learn more about the Ibs, might be an inspiring triumph story if you attempt to become a hero yourself.
I'm planning on having several romance options and a few bro-tier friendships with some other characters. One of my favorite characters I've designed is
Beaucoup Badvibes, a vigilante villain who was a janitor the same as you but quit because he thought no superhero is good without a supervillain. He's not good at his job.I'm thinking different routes will have different lengths, but I'll be honest, I don't know just how long the game will be yet. I'm still designing it, so I don't know how many routes I'll write, how many endings there will be, anything like that yet. Right no I'm designing, writing, and using this time to polish my art and stuff to make it as good as can be before actually getting into the work itself.
Thanks for the concern, too. It's definitely not going to be easy, and it won't be as good as I'm expecting, but I need to keep at it. It's always better to finish and fall short of what you were expecting than never finishing at all. How could I know how it turns out if I don't let it turn out?
No.194
>>192Let me know if I can help. The more this board has to offer the better and making our own VN would be fantastic.
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No.195
>>194Seconded. Always willing to help out, and this board will hopefully grow through word of mouth if you make a great product.
There's only like 7 people posting on the board and it's already better than the halfchan /vn/ threads ever were.
No.196
>>188>Just a word of warning: Your VN won't be goodI'm kinda into /agdg/ and this is what I always say when a beginner wants to make his first game. They all seem to have this huge idea and imagine themselves to make the game of their dreams.
On their first try. Going in with that attitude is guaranteed to end in disappointment. So yeah, seconding.
>>190With that said, I think your idea has potential. With appropriate limitations set and proper execution it's gonna be great. Personally I'd go with a single route and keep everything focused. If it turns out to your satisfaction and you feel you can milk out some more from the setting, then you can make another route. Not keeping an idea focused is the mistake I make again and again when making games. You gotta keep your distance and not get too excited on the planning stage until your idea and your abilities have proven themselves.
No.197
>>188>>187Emphasizing that trying to craft decent characters before you make a decent setting is very intelligent, but you still can't ignore how important girls are in a visual novel that is about dating girls. Of course if you are simply using the visual novel format without it really being a galge then it is a different story, but the heroines are important.
No.198
>>197The heroines are very important, and Vns are a medium primarily driven on character dialogue above all else. If the characters aren't engaging it falls flat and won't be considered good by any metric.
But you need to create heroines to go with your world, not a world to go with your heroines. What the fella mentioned seems to be that he's fleshed out a world, which means he's now able to create characters that are not only good, but fit well with their environment and circumstances.
They are most certainly important, but what's important is doing them WELL. Just making a character straight up and then plopping that same character into different circumstances which don't accentuate and work with the features of the character only serves to create a character with wasted potential and weakens the drive of the story.
No.199
>>196I suppose, but I really want to please as many people as I can. My problem with writing a single-path VN is that there would be only one ending, only one reality. They couldn't go after the girl they wanted to or they ending they wanted to. That being said, I should definitely focus on writing one path as I'm programming the game, and then when I'm able to or if i feel I'm doing well enough I could write in different routes? I'm currently unsure how to go about writing multiple routes. Maybe I will just go with one. Only time can tell, I suppose.
>>198I'm really trying to focus on this. I want to write the lore and create this world before I get into writing a majority of the heroines. I did do a bit of writing on one of them, but I'm focusing more on a world than the characters currently. I need to flesh out the workplace and its history before I write the characters within this world.
No.204
>>199I think you've got a good idea there. Focus on a single route and then branch out when you see the opportunity to do so. Aiming for a massive thing at the get-go will just be draining, so focus on making one really good route and others will naturally come out of the supporting characters you create from that one.
No.458
Alright you double niggers listen up!In order to bring more interest to /vn/. I've decided to create a Visual Novel!
… Well actually I decided to make one a while ago but now I've decided to recruit more people since the current team working with me are in a rut.
Feels bad man.
(There's four of us, and one is in the army so times he can help are few and far between.)
We've written up the prototype intro before choices
REALLY impact the story, so you'll be able to read it and get to grips with the general idea we got.
We've also written up character sheets for the girls, the MC and his best m8.
- First dude (me) writing up one route and drawfaging
- Second dude is the alcoholic main writer
- Third dude is the musician with a shitty mic, so musicians are wanted as well.
- Fourth dude is in the army too busy killing Muslims or something. But he's a drawfag and comic relief.
There are six girls to bone, two are already getting written for so ideally we want four+ people to join.
The chicks names are Amelié, Evelynn, Q, T, P and I. The last four being placeholders till someone takes there route over and names them.
We have the basic idea of the last four character, but feel free to change what you want.
Since we want you to enjoy this project obviously instead of restricting what you can write about.
And as stated here
>>187 "try not to work with autistic cunts who frequent the Moe threads on /a/ claiming it's the best genre and the feels threads on /r9k/"
So yeah, none of that.
If you do fit into that category just hide your power-level and you should be fine.
Anyway, hope to hear from some of you soon.
>creating a /vn/ board and shilling your own VNShut it down! The goy know! :^)
No.459
>>458I can music and write a bit, so I might be able to help. What's it about?
No.460
>>458While english is not my native language I'm not a bad critic, if you post somewhere I can see what's already written I don't mind at all checking what can be boosted a bit
Any address or something with access to the existing material?
No.461
>>458I can… uh… make a vndb entry I guess.
No.462
>>458I'll bring the soda and chips.
No.463
>>458Well what do you need done and what are you looking for in terms of skillsets?
No.465
>>459Perfect, drop me an email and I'll tell you.
>>460Perfect, drop me an email and I'll send you what we got so far.
>>461Perfect, strip and lube up.
>>462Perfect, but that's juice and crisps when addressing me you swine. :^)
>>463Need writefags who can write a "Good End" "Bad End" and "Perfect End" for Q, T, P or I.
You'll also be helping and offering advice to the others as well. We'll being doing the same for you in case you get stuck so don't worry or feel bad, happens to the best of us.
Q = The straight /fit/izens dream girl. Bone her and even Zyzz would be mirin' you.
>/fit/ >straight:^)
T = Q's sister, becomes closer with you cause she got ulterior motives. Bone her to change them motives.
P = Weeb bait. Bone her to cure her autism.
I = P's friend. Bone her in the library cause that shit is hot.
That's all the info I can give the now, don't want the Jews to steal our ideas.
Also, even if writing isn't your strongsuit (it ain't mine) as long as you're above competent level our main writer has got you covered m8.
Oh and if you're good at coming up with ideas that's bonus.
So drop me an email me at throwaway950416@gmail.com to inquire further m80s.
Oh and we communicate through Skype so you might want to make an account so you can join our group chat.
Once we're doing well, we'll create a thread on here and some other boards updating anons on the progress and shit.
No.466
>>458>>465I can't do any of that shit because I'm dumb but I would love to QC and edit if you're looking for that kind of shit.
No.467
>>465I'm not a fantastic writer, but I'm passable. I'd love to help with writing or maybe just QC if you want.
No.468
>>465I'd like to think I'm a bretty gud writer, but what's the overall feel of the VN?
You looking for some happy0go-lucky zany adventure shit, or some 2deep4u everybody-is-Hanako shit?
No.470
>>466Yeah we'll need some QC later down the line.
>>467If you want to be a writer, email me or drop in on the IRC, the sticky should tell you how to get there.
>>468Overall feel?
Sad, happy, romance, ect.
>everybody-is-Hanako shit?No. The only "weeb bait" we've got is a placeholder till someone writes for her.
No.471
>>470Oh yeah, my name is "Not_a_jew" in the IRC.
No.473
>>470>>465I don't know shit about writing but being raised mexican has given me an incredible ability to point out shit when they are bad. I'd like to help somehow.
Also will there be Robot girls?
No.480
Here's an image of my earliest work since I care about you lot, eww. It's the MC banging some random chick who won't be in the story.
As you can obviously tell I never finished it.
>>473We'll need quite a few people to do some quality control, just not at the moment since we're getting new writers in.
>Also will there be Robot girls?Nah m8. It ain't a fantasy world it's set in.
It's set on a planet near enough exactly like Earth, gives our writers more freedom that way.
No.481
>>480>Fantasy settingWill there be qt fish grils then?
No.482
>>481>It ain't a fantasy world Just humans m8.
No.483
>>482>doesn't know mermaids are real No.484
>>483Ohhhh you meant mermaids. I thought you were talking about the Zora from LoZ.
No.486
>>480I'm goin through some shit right now but I'll definitely get in on helping with this shit sometime within a week.
You seem like a cool guy and I like the board, so I'd love to help out.
No.487
>>484Different guy. I was just making a mermaid joke. He probably does want a fish girl.
No.493
>>486Hope it all works out fine dude, and just drop in the IRC or email me whenever.
>You seem like a cool guyY-you too…
No.508
Has anyone ever made anything with Unreal Engine? I know Unity's been used but I haven't seen any UE.
No.512
>>508It's more of a game maker than anything, using it to make a vn would be like using a flying pan to kill a mosquito.
Plus it's expensive as shit, which might factor in.
No.515
>>512I thought it was free now.
>>508Ask /agdg/. They know about engines.
No.522
>>512I thought the same but then some people started using Unity and it got me wondering. Also it's free now.
>>515Good idea, probably should.
No.584
Still looking for 2 more writers. ;_;
No.586
>>584Can't write for shit, sorry m8. Maybe you can look at other places idk
No.587
>>584I only exist in Straya time but I'm on IRC most days.
I'm Wonga.
No.589
>>584You could try
>>>/hgg/As long as you don't plan to make money off of it you'll get good reception.
No.612
so, OP, how's the proyect going?
No.613
>>612Since two people joined, we've reduced the bangable girls by two. (There's now 4 to plow.)
We've still kept them as background characters, so that they could add more depth to the each route.
If all continues to go well, I may soon be able to create a thread giving you all a little taste of what's to come.
Pic related is the most recent art I've done. Not my best work (fucked up her left arm) but I wanted us to have a picture to go with her description.Post production, we will more than gladly add the girls back in as bangable if the VN does well. No.616
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Yeah, I'm working on one from an idea that I got from /tg/ and /a/ years ago. It's about a cursed shapeshifting weapon which is yandere for her owner, and his struggles to try to live a normal life in spite of her constantly trying to serve him by answering all of his petty problems with murderous rampages.
I am about a third of the way through writing the script. Current word count is 58,970. The plot is loosely outlined but I will need to do more work on planning the scenes from the halfway point to the end.
For now, I've got no team members on this save for myself. I want to spare any other artists the worry of collaborating or commissioning for a project for which the writing isn't yet finished. It's rough. Writing alone is a crushingly lonely affair, and I don't have any other skills so I will have to commission the rest of the work when I am done with the script. Hopefully it will be somewhat rewarding to see it through to its completion. Time will tell, I suppose.
If and when I finish it, I'll then try to move on to my other projects in the works. I've been drafting up outlines for, in no particular order; a sci-fi action thriller involving mercenaries and strange alien beasts, a SoL/romcom between a pair of young cyborgs trying to adjust to their new daily lives, a paranormal story about a stoic ghost hunter, and a Grandia-style JRPG using VN heroine archetypes as the majority of the playable party members. Some are more ambitious than others, so I'll just have to take them one at a time.
No.633
So assuming you have characters and world under your belt, how do *you* go about getting it started?
Draw out everything in a notebook? Write it all in Word? Use one of those flowchart programs?
I have the basic story thought out, but I'm not sure how to go about getting started getting started.
No.635
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>>633Writing the first draft of the entire story is always the hardest part. Don't let anyone fool you into thinking it isn't going to involve long hours of difficult work.
You are going to spend a lot of time writing alone. You are going to spend hours coming up blank and sometimes you will toss out bullshit just to get something into a document. No matter what techniques or tips you follow, know that you are going to be plugging away, swimming upstream, with little or no help while you are writing the first draft for your story. That's just the way it goes.
That said, I do two things to keep myself going. The first is to write everything out in manageable chunks of about 750 to 1000 words on average. Just as every difficult problem can be made less difficult by breaking it up into many small and simpler problems, your great big story can be divided into small scenes which are not individually difficult to write out, and you can simply chain them together when you are finished with them to make your complete story. You don't even have to write your scenes in chronological order, though if you do break your own chronology, you'd better be prepared to rewrite entire scenes when you inevitably develop your story around old, obsolescent ones. In fact, get used to the idea of having to rewrite scenes in general. It will happen, and it's a good thing. Embrace the suck.
One thing I do when I still have enough steam to keep writing but don't have any content in my mind to produce is to resort to the stream of consciousness. I bust open a new document and start meta-talking with myself. Me and my inner critic have a brief, candid meeting whereby we go over what we know, what's missing, and why we are having a hard time filling in the void. It sounds like lunacy, and it probably is, but there has never been a faster fix for my writers' blocks than to do this.
The most important thing, above all else, is to never stop writing. Never stop plugging away. Don't worry about putting out total garbage. It is much easier to edit and revise a pile of dogshit into something tenable than it is to produce something tenable out of whole cloth.
Without anything more specific to go on, that's the best I can offer you. Remember, the world's most well-renowned writers often spent years writing nothing at all, then locking themselves into seclusion for years at a time to write their masterpieces. It's a lonely, soul-crushing life. Don't let the low barrier of entry fool you. Writing will take a whole hell of a lot out of you. It's a huge commitment. If you can do it, more power to you.
No.638
>>635Thank you, Anonymous, your advice is all I could ask for
No.642
It'd be nice to find a more active VN dev community, particularly one which attracts more anon-types. There's LS, but poison of tumblr and socjus run pretty thick over there.
No.643
No.644
>>643LemmaSoft. Old ass forum for OELVN devs and hopefuls. Most of the quality is what you would expect for non-commercial products produced by teenagers and college students. So is most of the board culture. But it's the most well-established and best-organized forum for people wanting to make an OELVN to come together and build a team to make it happen.
No.645
>>644Could always trying shilling the board there.
But only to the good users of course.
No.646
>>645Gotta finish writing my script first.
What about your story? Do you have a synopsis? Have you been able to write any of it?
No.648
>>646Yeah actually, we've made a lot of progress since we cut two of the girls.
Just waiting for the two new guys to finish their part of the intro and it'll be smooth sailing from there I reckon.
Me and the other writer I'm working with know exactly what we want in our routes, not too sure about the new guys but they'll get there.
I've imagined how their routes could play out, so if they're ever stuck I'll just tell them what I would do and they can either write it up in their own way, or draw inspiration from it.
Either way, things are looking pretty good.
No.656
>>616
>Current word count is 58,970.Wow, kind of surreal looking back at that number from not too long ago. It's up to 81,229 now. 20k in two weeks actually makes me feel pretty damn good about myself. But it's not the word count that matters - I'm only about halfway through the story at this point, so I'll probably wind up with somewhere around 150,000 before I'm finished.
And that's just the first draft of the script. Once that's done, then the real work will have to begin. And I've got absolutely no experience in turning a story into a VN. I don't even have an idea of how to organize a project, team members, and the production once the writing is done and all the rest can be underway.
It's kind of scary. I'm not looking forward to the responsibility of managing people and contracts, but it'll have to happen, because there's no way in hell I'm going to be able to produce an entire VN all by my lonesome.
No.663
>>648
So you're doing it like KS? A writer for each heroine/route? And you got all the rest of your asset team lined up?
What are you gonna do for promotion and distribution? It's probably a bit early to be thinking about that, but maybe it's not. You gonna put up a dev blog or post on LS or elsewhere?
No.664
>>663
>So you're doing it like KS?
Correct.
>A writer for each heroine/route?
Since the people I recruited from here decided to bail without leaving any notice why, I'm writing two routes and the other writer is writing two. We're working together so it's all good.
>And you got all the rest of your asset team lined up?
Nah, we've only got a musician, 2 writers and a drawfag.
I've got the basics of coding down but I'd much rather prefer someone with the know-how to take over on the coding when we need it.
>And you got all the rest of your asset team lined up?
Probably just spamfuck it all over 4 and 8chan until we get banned for being arseholes.
Nah, we'll probably just create a dev blog and every so often we'll link some places to it whenever there's an update on it.
Right now we're just using Google Drive to keep our shit sorted, it's working so far so no complaints.
Also, we're still recruiting.
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No.665
>>664
writefag here, can help editing and with some grammar check, also general proof reading
where do I apply, mister?
No.666
>>664
I see. Yeah, it can be disappointing how transient amateur dev teams can be, but that's just the nature of the beast, I suppose.
I'd offer my own aid, but I'm pretty heavily occupied writing my own script, and I think it would be a little presumptuous of me to offer to edit yours. But best of luck to you in any case.
No.667
>>666
Thanks Satan, best of luck to you as well.
>>665
Just drop me an email, "throwaway950416@gmail.com"
We don't really need people to do grammar checks and proof reading yet, but when we get further down the line and we begin to question our script I'll send you some stuff to look over.
No.717
>>656
Oh, hell. hung up at 95k now and with nothing to show for the whole damn weekend. This month has really had its ups and downs.
I need to ingest something inadvisable.
No.722
I'm planning to make visual novels and release them hopefully frequently ,building up to a collection of short stories, sort of deal. as I learn and get more acquainted with it, the quality will increase, I would like to know how interested would the people be to play these. Any suggestions are appreciated.
No.735
Up to 110K and another major benchmark in the plot's progression.
I love it, but goddamn if it isn't a drain. Getting through a huge chunk of prose is rewarding while you're writing, but the moment you set it down, the realization hits you that you just have that much more shit to produce afterward. Nothing but you and your word processor to face the day ahead.
I'm beginning to understand why so many writers turn to caffeine, tobacco, and alcohol, and then eventually suicide.
Fuck it, I'm in too deep to pull out now. Woo!
No.736
>friend and I have a great idea for a VN
>neither of us are any good at art
Shit.
No.737
>>736
So write it, then. VNs are much more text than illustration. Lacking illustrators is not what prevents most VNs from being made. It's the lack of writers that puts a stop to these projects before they get off the ground.
No.738
>>737
We could do that but we will still have to approach the 'visual' part of the visual novel at some point.
No.739
>>738
That can come after you write your script. Writing is the one asset which consumes more time than any other in a Visual Novel. In fact, you can build an entire VN without having any of your artwork assets ready by using placeholders for illustrations in the meanwhile. If you can open up a .txt file and start typing away, you can start building your visual novel. Hell, you can start if you have a sheet of paper and a writing implement.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking that you need illustrators from the start. The reason most VN projects fall apart early is because asset creators such as illustrators and musicians are brought on board well ahead of where they are required in the development timeline, which leads to a lot of stagnation and eventual irritation on their part at the writers and directors as they get the impression that they're constantly waiting for a couple of lazybones to get to work. Usually, they're right; artists must frequently be on guard against being conscripted into the teams of Ideas Guys, who provide little content themselves while constantly demanding more and more artwork assets. Don't be another reason that artists wind up hating writers and project leaders or directors.
Don't worry about the illustrations yet. Ideally, the first draft of your script should be at least 80% finished before you even begin looking for one. Preferably you should be at 100% so that you can immediately roll into the editing process and begin directing your scenes. There is a whole, whole hell of a lot to be done before you even need to think about looking for illustrators.
The Visual Novel is only visual on the surface. It is still, at its core, a text-based medium, and that is where the greatest majority of the content lies. If the Visual mattered more than the Novel, then nobody would know about Higurashi or Umineko, meanwhile every other Nukige to hit the market would be regarded as a legendary addition to the VN medium.
No.740
>>739
I guess we should get started then. Thanks for the advice, anon.
No.741
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>>740
If you want, I can give you a hand with your planning phase. I'm a little too preoccupied to bust out prose for you at the moment, but I can likely help you get your plot structured and your story arcs summarized and ordered to help you get busting out some scenes. I can certainly help with editing as well.
That goes for any other folks with shit to write, too. Hit me up on Skype (RotGtIE) with your googledocs or your dropbox links (view-only is fine) and I'll do what I can.
No.768
A week later, and I'm up to 120k. Could be better, but it could be a lot worse.
But I'm tired of me! Come on, don't let me take over this thread! I wanna know what you guys are up to! What are you guys writing about? If you're not making anything, then what kind of story would you like to see in an anon-produced OELVN?
I'll toss my own goofy ideas into the pot if that'll keep this wheel spinning. Right now I'm writing about a yandere cursed weapon heroine and the unfortunate protagonist who cannot break away from her, but there are a couple of other story ideas I'm planning on moving onto after this one.
One's about a mercenary spaceship crew comprised of criminal misfits and borderline sociopaths, and the misadventures they get themselves into. A sort of cross between the elements of Cowboy Bebop and Black Lagoon.
Another is about a schoolgirl who stumbles across a paranormal event involving one of her classmates. After a close shave with death at the hands of a ghost, she joins forces with a strange, stoic man who hunts and banishes their kind to protect her hometown from various hauntings.
Another involves a pair of young adults who, having lost much of their bodies in unfortunate accidents, have become the subjects of highly experimental new advances in prosthetic technology, becoming comprised more of robotic replacement parts than their original biological bodies. Theirs is a lighthearted comedy about the strange circumstances brought about by being among the earliest generation of cyborgs just trying to get on with their normal lives.
Finally, more of a game than a novel, a classic JRPG whose battle system is done much in the vein of the Grandia series, and whose world is much of what you would expect out of a typical fantasy adventure setting. The hook is this - half of your party consists of the protagonist and his good buddy, while the other half is filled in by two out of eight heroines, each paired off with their own storyline routes, and the player chooses which "team" of heroines to join up with from an early branching point in the story in order to help them fulfill their goals, and possibly bring the protagonist together in a romance with one of the two whom have joined together with him and his buddy to form their adventuring party. Choose to accompany a Paladin and a Priestess, a Mage and a Sorceress, a Merchant and a Thief, or an Animist and a Berserker, and aid them in their respective quests; action, romance, and adventure await.
Come on now, /vn/, I know you've got some fun stuff tumbling around somewhere in your head. Let's hear it!
No.769
I'm that loser who kind of daydreams about generic story concepts that just lurk in my head. A couple of examples:
A cool mystery detective story that mindblows the reader with the subtle foreshadowing. Would feature double protagonists whose plot would complement each other. Kinda like Ace attorney. Having it in first person narrative sounds interesting but I keep hearing how people hate that.
Next would be some action fantasy story like F/SN without being some tournament arc.
But I am unemployed and I feel I need to consume more fiction as whole to get some proper ground to stand on.
No.770
>>769
It's never too soon to start, especially if you are only beginning with your worldbuilding and story planning. You needn't sit down in front of a blank word processor and immediately try to hammer out some great scene to draw in an audience.
It is understandable that you might feel that you cannot quite live up to the quality of other written works in circulation, but that is a good sign. It shows that you are at least cognizant of the quality of material you put out. Whatever you write, you will surely look back on it in a month or two with hatred, but everybody has to start somewhere. Even professional authors don't generally operate without editors, and you can't edit a blank canvas.
Try organizing your thoughts. Throw down your plans for a plot arc into a document or even as a few words in boxes or bubbles in some kind of a visual format. You can never really fully clear the fog away, but you can light up some of the path ahead of you bit by bit. Ask yourself why you seem to want more of the stories you've read and loved, and you'll find out what it is that appealed to you and made you want to see more of them. You surely won't be the only person who will have felt that way. You'll be working to satisfy the other escapists, too.
No.777
I wanna make my own VN. I don't know how to use RenPy though. It's gonna be shit but I want to finish something I start. This board's color scheme is shitty btw.
No.778
>>777
>That feel when I got godly trips
Well, I just badly sketched my cast and my idea is basically Camp Lazlo. No one is going to play it since it's not eroge. My notecard with my notes so far is missing so I'll have to find it or just BS what I don't remember.
Basically, you're an average gamer dude who gets shipped off to summer camp that's themed for creative types. Your goal is to find a gf by the end of your 30 day stay. There are five girls you can go after and they have their own aspirations: Chef, Musician, Painter, Actress, Writer.
No.779
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>>777
There's a whole recruitment section on the LS forums for people who are programmers. It's one of the least populated boards because of the simplicity of using RenPy, but that also means that you can get just about anyone who's ever worked in RenPy before by posting your own recruitment thread when you're ready for a programmer.
I like the dark color scheme, but that's because I use WriteMonkey with a very dark color scheme when writing (green text on black background, because nostalgia) and alt-tabbing back here doesn't result in an immediate assault against my eyes. Even the blue boards are pretty damn bright by comparison.
>>778
You'd be surprised. The non-h section on LS is far more active than the adult content section. You also have better options with regard to launching platforms like Kickstarter and Steam, which you wouldn't be as able to use due to their terms and conditions if you included adult content, particularly sexual content. I know this is going to be a problem for me, so if you can put out a non-h story, more power to you.
No.780
>>777
>>778
>>777
>lucky-sevens
You a good writer?
Cause my team could always use the extra hand to lighten the load with writing.
No.782
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>>780
I'm interested, if a bit torn. I'm very confident in my writing but I'm so focused on my primary project and it's so close to completion that I might be burning myself out a little too much to be able to offer any assistance to you.
You seem to have a lot of heroines prepared. How long are you planning to go for their routes? Do you have an estimated word count for their stories?
No.783
>>780
Sorry to disappoint but I'm hardly a writer. I'm just an ideaguy. I really like my bad ideas though.
No.784
>>783
Most writers are hardly writers without the aid of an editor. Whether it's for your own project or someone else's there's no need to be shy about it. Writing has an incredibly low barrier of entry, though it's a long way to the top.
Hell, I started by writefagging random bullshit for /tg/ and /a/, and I've now reached a point where my script for one story is longer than most novels. You can get there from here; all you gotta do is start putting the time into it.
No.809
Alright, /vn/, it's done. The script for my VN-in-production, "Deirdre, My Blade," is finally complete.
You can check out a synopsis of the plot at the dev blog I've stood up to contain updates on its progress (https://deirdredevs.wordpress.com/about-this-vn/). I also have a recruitment thread for additional team members on Lemmasoft: (http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=32658).
Now that the script's first draft is finished and ready for editing, things are going to get busy, and probably expensive for me. Fuck it, I'm in too deep now. Ain't no stoppin' this train.
No.823
>>722
Assuming you actually finish them, sure.
No.824
>>809
Congrats, Anon. I'm proud of you.
Have you begun putting it in Renpy yet?
No.825
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>>824
Not yet. I still have to take what's in the prose and draft a game design document out of it so I can get a handle on the necessary assets and an estimate of the production costs. I also have to put the script through the editing process before I can consider it truly complete.
I'm talking to a programmer on LS right now - he's not using Renpy, but he's built his own engine out of Game Maker studio instead. Here's his thread: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=32678&p=375639
We'll see how it works out.
The writing was pretty time consuming, but not beyond my abilities. Directing and producing a whole VN from it, though, is daunting, and falls quite a ways out of my area of expertise. It's gonna get pretty rough from here on out.
No.826
>>825
While I laud you being open on using a custom VN engine the risk of the programmer bailing on you and you have a shell of a game which you cannot finish is great.
At least with Ren'Py if you have a half-finished open build, plenty of people can take over, myself included.
No.829
>>826
It's a bit of a risk, but in the worst case scenario like you described, if only the programmer were to bail partway through, that wouldn't affect the production of the other assets. Sure, it would suck having to build the VN all over again or find a new programmer to take up the task, but the damage would amount to a delay of release at worst.
There's other work that would be much more damaging if it were dropped partway through development. The one thing I'm most worried about is the possibility of an illustrator bailing after working halfway through the project or more while using a distinct and difficult-to-emulate style. If that happened, I probably wouldn't be able to recover the money, and I'd have to start fresh with a new illustrator. That'd be bad news bears for sure.
No.840
The only way I could ever decide to write a VN is if I had college-level fluency in Japanese, and a solid understanding of Japanese culture, history, and the contemporary lifestyle. That way I could blend in easily by pretending to be Japanese and not be disregarded with "yoge kusoge."
Which would mean I would have to win the lottery or something to be able to have that much time becoming World #1 Weeaboo.
No.841
>>840
That's silly - you don't have to have a masterful command of Japanese culture and language to write a script for a VN. You just need to have a story to write, and the dedication to write it properly and to completion.
Then you'll need thousands of dollars to commission the assets you'll need to produce your story as a VN instead of as a book. Tens of thousands, if it's lengthy and requires a lot of assets. Or your shit needs to be so fucking good and hyped that everybody is chomping at the bit to be a part of the project (protip, don't count on it).
Prejudice from otaku based on your nationality should be the very least among your concerns when it comes to making a quality product - and hell, if something like Sakura Spirit can gain popularity overseas, do you really think it's "quality" that the people who spout yoge kosuge are really looking for?
Don't worry about getting shit on. You'll always get shit on. It's just the way of things. You do you, and let the otaku do what they will. Why should you care? The NHK is gonna get us all anyway.
No.842
>>841
>Then you'll need thousands of dollars to commission the assets you'll need to produce your story as a VN instead of as a book. Tens of thousands, if it's lengthy and requires a lot of assets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jP1dij0SPI
No.843
>>842
…or you could be Ryukishi or ZUN, I suppose.
Hell, if you can get your mom and dad to help you make VNs with pedobait lolis in them, you're obviously resourceful enough to MacGuyver your way through the whole development process.
Shit, son, get it knocked out then.
No.854
>>840
Just write in your own culture. You take what aspects of JVNs you like and discard the rest. Your script doesn't have to come in the form of:
"Yaaa! Onii-chan, it hurts-desu!"
[My little sister's ass is quivering like a lilac in full bloom]
….
[10,000 words later]
….
[I snuggle with my imouto and bask in our afterglow.]
>>842
Good luck trying to bottle lightnings or catch unicorns.
Not VNs, but look at all the amateur indies releasing shit on Steam with crap graphics. Do you think someone besides a corrupt games journalist will find a needle in this haystack that's filled with horse poop and make it go viral?
No.879
So to sum up, OP has no idea what he's doing.
No.931
>>879
Should any of us, really? We're all amateurs here, after all.
No.935
>>809
Progress ahoy! We've got ourselves a full team, a pre-alpha build screenshot, and a character design sheet to show off.
We're fast on our way to putting a demo together, though I'll hold off on estimating a release for that until we're further along.
No.941
>>935
Well don't just sit there, Anon. Share! (particularly that design sheet.)
No.942
>>941
It's up on our dev blog (>>809). I'm aiming to keep updates going on a monthly basis, so it should be pretty easy to keep track of progress.
I think I'm gonna peel back from this thread a bit. I'm already kind of taking it over as it is.
No.985
What if we all pooled together and made a game? Together!
No.987
>>985
Well, that depends on what you mean by "pool together." You mean money? I'd be surprised if the average anon has much stashed away to contribute to a project, and we're all more than a little wary of crowdfunding by now, especially in the wake of dischan's miserable financial mismanagement.
If you mean skills, sure, but the vast majority of anons are little more than ideas guys and potential writefags. There's a place for that, especially in the very beginning of a project, but after that, things really pare down quickly to those who are creating the actual assets, from the writing and composing to the illustrations and programming.
And given how poorly Anonymous treated KS after its release, I think that an anomaly like it is very unlikely to ever happen again. I don't think anybody wants to work on something like that just to be shit on at the end of it.
You can try it, I suppose, but you better be ready to carry it yourself or with a very limited number of collaborators.
No.1013
>>777
>>778
Hey anon, I've messed around in Ren'Py a little bit, but since I'm absolute shit at drawing/writing, I haven't really gotten anywhere. If you're interested, I would love to work with someone to make a VN.
No.1015
>>1013
What's your idea?
And no worries on the shit drawings. I suck too. That's why you use placeholders and hope your writing is so good that someone would wanna help you make an HD version.
No.1016
YouTube embed. Click thumbnail to play.
>>1015
I'm not really an ideas guy (yes, I am shit at everything) but I did make a couple of joke ones of some of my friends a while ago. Video related. I haven't really had any serious ideas, but I thought it would be fun to make a dating game with prominent British politicians, I haven't really done anything for it yet though.
No.1026
There is a book on how to write scenarios by the writer for some of KEY titles, Yuiichi Suzumoto. I've seen it on Amazon but is there anyway I can download it before I really need to buy it?
No.1032
>>1026
If you can't find a PDF online, you might as buy it yourself and share it with the rest of us.
No.1033
>>809
Hey I see you got Deirdre designed. The art's looking pretty nice too.
No.1034
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>>1033
Yeah, Sendo's fantastic, and he's been a pleasure to work with. I'm really glad I contacted him for this project. Of course, there's a lot more to Deirdre than what we're able to display at the moment, but that will have to wait for future releases of the VN. We're almost ready to start producing in-game visual assets for the demo, so we should be able to show off more progress in the coming months.
No.1035
>>935
>People are reaching their dreams but your're not
No.1036
>>1035
Well, what's yours?
No.1066
>tfw actually making a VN but my mood is horrible and I'm feel sad for finish it
No.1068
Anon, I need help with Renpy.
I'm just getting started so forgive me my utter noobishness as I express everything in most layman terms.
Basically what I have it, let's say a "street" with several screens to go between as you like. All fine and dandy. What I want to do is:
A) To have an object on one of the screens that you pick up and the game remembers it. I managed to do that within the screen, but as you leave the screen, it resets.
B) As you picked the object up, by going to a different screen, I want a new event to be triggered. Once again, I managed to have it triggered if the object is ""picked"", but I cannot for the life of me make it work if the object is not picked, and to have the menu just choiceloop. It always gives me a mistake that object is not defined, despite "picking" it defines no problem.
No.1070
>>1068
I haven't used Ren'Py but to my understanding you can simply set a variable and check it later (renpy as name suggests allows using Python scripts) .
http://www.renpy.org/doc/html/quickstart.html#python-and-if-statements
No.1071
>>1070
I was, of course, using variables, you can't get anywhere without them, it's the error I was getting that was the problem.
I solved the second issue by trial and error, but the first one still stands.
No.1072
>>1071
When you leave the screen does the script change to other file?
No.1076
Fixed all the problems by fucking around. That's the good thing about renpy.
No.1079
Is it possible to place a click-to-continue indicator in ren'py without a text box? Like I have a pause command and I want there to be an indicator on screen.
No.1118
Would anyone agree that there's a point where a character can be too fleshed out? Especially in a VN where the reader can make choices and direct the story?
Have you ever felt a rift between yourself and the protagonist? Or would you say that good writing can skirt that problem entirely?
No.1120
>>736
I can sort of draw, but I can only really draw people. Pic related is something I worked on recently. If I helped out with a VN, someone else would have to do the backgrounds without a doubt because people are all I can draw.