Con'Ai [BxG][Anime Convention Themed]

[ShotgunNinja]

I've recently had an idea for a visual novel set during an American anime convention. From the amount of stories I've heard and experienced at conventions, I figured that it would be an interesting concept, and I thought I would give it a try, even though I'm new to the game development scene.

I'm still very early in the planning stage, but I've put together a short game design document, available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JBA ... RaUac/edit.

In it, I've detailed my plans so far for the visual novel story and development process, though just enough to give no specific details of the game or the characters.

In terms of my personal experience, despite being a novice of visual novels, I'm fairly well-versed in software engineering as a third-year college student, and I've done some dabbling in technical and creative writing, and I'm not half bad with a tablet, but that's about the extent of my ability.

I would appreciate any suggestions, advice, warnings, or feedback on this project. I've been told that this is a good place to push my idea, and I look forward to anything you have to offer.

[gekiganwing]

Are you dedicated enough to work on your project for "18-24 months" (as you said in your design document)? I can certainly understand wanting to make a good first impression with quality writing, design, art, etc. But if you intend to release Con'Ai as freeware, then you might want to think a bit first. Consider creating a short story that doesn't have a large scope or grand ambitions. Or make a small, prototype version of Con'Ai, focusing on just one pairing. Why? That way, you can make sure you'll have the energy and tenacity that's required for creating an elaborate visual novel.

Fan conventions tend to go by quickly. Some are a single day. Many are weekend-long events. That said, you stated that you want to create a BxG harem story with five romance options. I believe that your male main character should know at least one of the five girls before the story begins. Perhaps they live in the same house, go to the same school, attend the same fandom club, or work in the same office. Regardless, if the characters know each other well before the convention happens, then it will be much more plausible for them to have a relationship. If two of your characters meet at the con for the first time, they will probably be wary of each other for quite some time. If their story has a good ending, then it might be something like "and so we decided we'd see each other again next week." Don't mandate that they fall in love in 48 hours.

Will there be any unusual circumstances surrounding the convention? You could make an entire story about how Murphy's Law affects cons -- if something can go wrong, it will. If you want to include events based on real life, then carefully change the names, and make sure your fictional characters aren't copies of real people.

It's probably safe to assume all your characters are fans of some kind. That gives you all sorts of opportunities to mess with character archetypes, and make comments on fandom. Be creative. Play it for comedy or drama where necessary. Also, you can be as "meta" as you want, and make your game into a metaphor for how BxG romance and harem stories fit among the other categories of anime/manga fandom.

[papillon]

... for a second I read that as Con Air. Dating and high-stakes negotiation, ON A PLANE!

[LVUER]

... for a second I read that as Con Air. Dating and high-stakes negotiation, ON A PLANE!

That sounds interesting, we should make that one!

[ShotgunNinja]

Are you dedicated enough to work on your project for "18-24 months" (as you said in your design document)?

I'm hoping to have it in progress for that long, but I have no idea how long I should spend on it. I was more hoping for 6-12 months for at least a workable proof-of-concept, or maybe an introductory route, but this number is certainly flexible. I just don't think I can work on this for much longer than that, without some serious accomplishments or completion.

I can certainly understand wanting to make a good first impression with quality writing, design, art, etc. But if you intend to release Con'Ai as freeware, then you might want to think a bit first. Consider creating a short story that doesn't have a large scope or grand ambitions. Or make a small, prototype version of Con'Ai, focusing on just one pairing. Why? That way, you can make sure you'll have the energy and tenacity that's required for creating an elaborate visual novel.

I agree with you on this, but I also want to explore the myriad aspects of an anime convention via multiple routes, since I often personally regret not being able to visit more events or do more things at an anime convention, after leaving. Much of what I enjoy after the con comes from the stories of my friends, who participated in different things than I did, and had completely different experiences as a result. I think this makes it hard to have it focus on only a single route, but I also think that it makes up for the very short length of in-game time in terms of replay.

Fan conventions tend to go by quickly. Some are a single day. Many are weekend-long events. That said, you stated that you want to create a BxG harem story with five romance options. I believe that your male main character should know at least one of the five girls before the story begins. Perhaps they live in the same house, go to the same school, attend the same fandom club, or work in the same office. Regardless, if the characters know each other well before the convention happens, then it will be much more plausible for them to have a relationship. If two of your characters meet at the con for the first time, they will probably be wary of each other for quite some time. If their story has a good ending, then it might be something like "and so we decided we'd see each other again next week." Don't mandate that they fall in love in 48 hours.

I have given some thought on this, but I didn't want to include too much in the initial draft, for the sake of keeping the story relatively under wraps, and not releasing any information before a team is even put together. That said, the types of "good end" that I am envisioning for most of the female characters would involve sharing of contact info, and likely con sex/cuddling/whatever, based on the how the plots work themselves out. In terms of knowing one of the characters before the con, I want to use that mostly for the non-romantic interests, but I could definitely consider a childhood friend or current classmate run-in, since I've experienced both of those myself... though without the romantic connotations that this situation could impose, in my case. I also want to consider making this a continuing series, to be continued or expanded upon at subsequent conventions, since I've known that to be something that improves the overall experience of anime conventions.

Will there be any unusual circumstances surrounding the convention? You could make an entire story about how Murphy's Law affects cons -- if something can go wrong, it will. If you want to include events based on real life, then carefully change the names, and make sure your fictional characters aren't copies of real people.

I wanted to allow these sorts of drama substories to play themselves out within the scope of each of the character routes, but I have had some very common situations I want to work in, such as short-staffed volunteer events, panel/event cancellations, costume issues, hotel room drama, and other such things. In terms of rewards and obstacles, I want to allow for several key challenges to the relationship development, some of which are universal or specific to the main character, to be handled differently based on decisions and on which route they are encountered from, and some of which are focused on each of the female characters, and only arise as a major obstacle in their respective routes. I could see some of these universal issues embodying personal interests of the main character or his friends/roommates. That said, I'm planning on using some events from personal experience and stories, and I've tried to at least consult with my close personal friends to understand their feelings on story reuse. So yes, I have given this a fair bit of thought.

It's probably safe to assume all your characters are fans of some kind. That gives you all sorts of opportunities to mess with character archetypes, and make comments on fandom. Be creative. Play it for comedy or drama where necessary. Also, you can be as "meta" as you want, and make your game into a metaphor for how BxG romance and harem stories fit among the other categories of anime/manga fandom.

In terms of assuming that all characters are fans, as unfortunate as I feel it is, I wanted to have one character which represents the people who attend anime cons that aren't fans of anime itself, since they are also an integral part of the convention experience. Aside from that, this is very much in line with my hopes for the project. I feel that while some characters could represent common archetypes in anime/manga/etc., there are some archetypes or combinations that are distinctly Western or American, that I would like to explore as well, in the same breath, as it were. I've always been interested in analyzing, parodying, or offering my respectful criticism on anime fandom in the US, the good and the bad, the fun and the pain.

Thank you for the very in-depth response. I really appreciate the brain-picking, and you've brought up some very good points. I hope I get more replies like this!

[ShotgunNinja]

Update: I've developed a quick snippet of the story, available here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vt3 ... Qf4Cg/edit

I'm also now looking for people who would be interested in producing artwork or music, at this point; so far, I'm the only one who's committed to the project, but I have some people interested in editing and writing.

If you are interested, please reply here: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 38&t=14454

[gekiganwing]

Thank you for the update, Shotgun Ninja.

Writing in prose is certainly not a bad way to get story development started. Now... are you thinking about using prose with Ren'py? It is possible, but it would not be easy. You can take one to three sentences' worth of prose and use relevant images.

If you're planning to use your current ideas and rework them as script, that's a possibility. Once you're settled on names, or once you have an outline, that might be a good next step.

Specific comments:

* How large is AniCon? You mentioned "thousands of people." That can make a convention hectic. In my experience, it's difficult to focus on individual people for more than five minutes once the crowd is that large. Maybe that's just me...

* Hmm, you have a crash into hello scene. This is a concept that's been used quite a bit in BxG romance and harem stories. But as the TVTropes article will tell you, it shows up all over the place.

* You mentioned a Vocaloid cosplay, and I'm pretty sure the keychain is Kyubey. Therefore, will your characters be cosplaying as specific characters from specific shows, and wearing real fashion styles? (For comparison, Hinano used accurate real world cosplay references in Renai Blogger. Series such as Otaku no Video, Lucky Star, Nogizaka Haruka No Himitsu, and Comic Party also use authentic costumes. Some other shows include generic cosplay outfits, or characters who only exist in their fictional universe.)

* Some people definitely look down on giving "free hugs" at conventions. In fact, this behavior is banned at some cons. I found a brief discussion on the cosplay.com forums... Anyway, what is the hugging character's intentions?

* Giving a stranger one's name and number shows an awful lot of trust, or bravery...

Anyway, good luck writing. Hopefully development will go well!

[Auro-Cyanide]

On a technical aspect, gekiganwing is correct in questioning the novel type script. It's just not a good idea for longer works, you waste too much time describing things that you don't have to. It's much more efficient to write in script format with some visual notes, unless you are planning for an unusual approach to text and visuals and not standard visual novel form. It's a good habit to get into if you plan to be a writer for visual novels.

Secondly, what is your goal for this game? Who do you want to play it? What do you want them to get from it? I might very well not be a part of your audience, so my take on it might be irrelevant, but I'll give it in case anyway. Feel free to disregard if I'm not who you are going for.

Right now I'm getting heavy 'self-insert' feelings. Like Twilight. It's meant to place the protagonist in a 'dream' situation. Which will definitely appeal to some people who share that dream, but not to others. If you are just going for a fun setting that is mostly to appease the player’s fantasies, then that is fine, as long as you are aware of it.

The characters are kind of walking tropes. The shy girl is particularly... annoying. No-one is that shy (and if they were they would probably avoid a con with thoasands of people like the plague) and it makes me wish she had a backbone. The falling over, the crying. Why? I've ran smack bam into a man much more studier than I was and apart from knocking my glasses crocked I was fine and perfectly able to keep walking. The other girl isn't too much better. Who runs up accusing people? Plus, the whole 'Hi there strange man. Here, have my number and hey, why not come to our hotel room! X3' is a bit :/ Does she have no sense of self-preservation? As a girl, this is just ugh. Women are wary of these types of things, we have to be. Again, I might not be your audience, but the girls throwing themselves at a random person they barely know could wear thin reeeeeeeeally quickly.

So that's just my point of view on it so far, which is obviously opinion. Take what you will. I know those types of characters really appeal to people, but I still think it would be nice if they were rounded out a bit more and that their actions made a bit more sense, if you know what I mean.

[ShotgunNinja]

Wow, thank you both for the replies.

Writing in prose is certainly not a bad way to get story development started. Now... are you thinking about using prose with Ren'py? It is possible, but it would not be easy. You can take one to three sentences' worth of prose and use relevant images.

I've actually been working on two separate pilots (hence "Pilot 2"), but the first was more of an introduction to the main character's backstory, and is written as a script, whereas the one I posted is more of an attention-grabber in prose form. I wrote it quickly and without thinking, to explore some possible direction for some of the characters, and possibly to have some sort of detailed something-or-other to try to attract a base team of concept artists and writers, then elaborate further on the development of each character separately.

If you're planning to use your current ideas and rework them as script, that's a possibility. Once you're settled on names, or once you have an outline, that might be a good next step.

I have settled on names for the two featured female characters... but if I gave out too much information before it's settled on, then where would the fun of really fleshing out the characters in private go? I want to keep things under wraps, and keep people guessing.

* How large is AniCon? You mentioned "thousands of people." That can make a convention hectic. In my experience, it's difficult to focus on individual people for more than five minutes once the crowd is that large. Maybe that's just me...

In my personal experience at Anime Central (http://www.acen.org/) and Anime Milwaukee (http://animemilwaukee.com/), each of which had several thousand people, ACen having over 25,000 at last year's convention, and this past year's Anime Milwaukee having about 3,000. (For a look at Anime Milwaukee, see the beginning and end of http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videol ... 4338-ponyo) That said, I only spoke with about 30 or 40 people at Anime Milwaukee, tops, and I couldn't have talked with more than 100-120 people at ACen. Clearly, this will still be a bit much for the main character, and I've been considering using crossfades, short timeskips, and crowd noise background frames, among other tactics, to reduce the artistic strain of having to draw that many unique people. Plus, no one really cares about the differences between the 10,000/25,000 generic Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Vocaloid, and furry cosplayers that all look the same. Having minimal details like that optimized out to a large pool of generic models and a few specific details (children, parents, unique cosplayers, etc.) would help greatly.

* Hmm, you have a crash into hello scene. This is a concept that's been used quite a bit in BxG romance and harem stories. But as the TVTropes article will tell you, it shows up all over the place.

It's one possible (and likely) scenario I want to look at. I've selected it for the pilot because it goes well with the excitement and crowded atmosphere of an anime convention, in that it causes you to stop and open conversation with someone. That said, I am considering any and all situations and encounter types as possible candidates for the story, and I want to choose the ones that fit my ideas of each character.

* You mentioned a Vocaloid cosplay, and I'm pretty sure the keychain is Kyubey. Therefore, will your characters be cosplaying as specific characters from specific shows, and wearing real fashion styles? (For comparison, Hinano used accurate real world cosplay references in Renai Blogger. Series such as Otaku no Video, Lucky Star, Nogizaka Haruka No Himitsu, and Comic Party also use authentic costumes. Some other shows include generic cosplay outfits, or characters who only exist in their fictional universe.)

Nice job on the Kyubey reference, that was exactly what I was going for. Some of my characters will be using accurate, specific costumes, but I don't want to overstep fair use laws, especially with the current state of legal quagmire surrounding the "incorrectness" of copyright infringement. I would like to supplement these with genericized series or external fictitious works, such as Ghost Slide. I also would like to use the costumery to symbolize the values of each character.

* Some people definitely look down on giving "free hugs" at conventions. In fact, this behavior is banned at some cons. I found a brief discussion on the cosplay.com forums... Anyway, what is the hugging character's intentions?

Hmm... I wasn't aware that some conventions had banned free hugs, but I could understand this being the case. The hugging character's intentions are simply to make friends, and be affectionate in a touchy-feely sort of way. Plus, people do give free hugs at real American anime conventions, so therefore, my character will give free hugs. I have friends who do this same thing, and the point is that this is set in the American Midwest, and we are not nearly as awkward about touching strangers as most parts of the country, and far less than in Japan.

* Giving a stranger one's name and number shows an awful lot of trust, or bravery...

And yet I've experienced this at an anime convention before. She's a really social character, hence embodying the "friendship" role. Also, there are many people to whom sharing contact information is not much more of a big deal than saying hello or sharing one's name; conversely, there are people who won't say hello to strangers unless forced. Besides, why should I conform to some ideal of "what a character should/shouldn't do" from somewhere like TVTropes when it doesn't match with my personal experiences? I do, though, have a plan to keep the story interesting from that point on; I won't just turn it into "you go to the party and live happily ever after", if that is what you fear will happen. (In fact, simply being sociable with her will get the main character nowhere; you have to dig deeper to figure her out.)

Anyway, good luck writing. Hopefully development will go well!

Thank you again for your input. As for Auro-Cyanide:

On a technical aspect, gekiganwing is correct in questioning the novel type script. It's just not a good idea for longer works, you waste too much time describing things that you don't have to. It's much more efficient to write in script format with some visual notes, unless you are planning for an unusual approach to text and visuals and not standard visual novel form. It's a good habit to get into if you plan to be a writer for visual novels.

See above.

Secondly, what is your goal for this game? Who do you want to play it? What do you want them to get from it? I might very well not be a part of your audience, so my take on it might be irrelevant, but I'll give it in case anyway. Feel free to disregard if I'm not who you are going for.

I want fans of anime conventions, visual novels, and people new to the genre to play this, and to get a bit of a better appreciation for what the American take on anime and visual novels really is, since it's something that's new and big, but not well-understood. That said, I'm not quite sure how to go about accomplishing that, but I'm figuring it out as I go, and your advice is quite helpful.

The characters are kind of walking tropes. The shy girl is particularly... annoying. No-one is that shy (and if they were they would probably avoid a con with thoasands of people like the plague) and it makes me wish she had a backbone. The falling over, the crying. Why? I've ran smack bam into a man much more studier than I was and apart from knocking my glasses crocked I was fine and perfectly able to keep walking. The other girl isn't too much better. Who runs up accusing people? Plus, the whole 'Hi there strange man. Here, have my number and hey, why not come to our hotel room! X3' is a bit :/ Does she have no sense of self-preservation? As a girl, this is just ugh. Women are wary of these types of things, we have to be. Again, I might not be your audience, but the girls throwing themselves at a random person they barely know could wear thin reeeeeeeeally quickly.

Again, this was more of a brief, quick exploration. In terms of self-preservation on the part of "Friendship", she's also able to kick the main character's ass, but I was saving that tidbit for later. I had hoped to get that across with the initially-defensive stance, after she saw her friend knocked over onto the ground, and with her stuff spilled everywhere. She's a very protective type of person, but she's quick to forgive and try to laugh off violence and aggression. On the other hand, in terms of the shy, awkward "Appreciation", I had meant to have her as a deliberate fan-pandering character, but I'm thinking of toning it down a little more, given your clear annoyance with this. Also, having her like Kyubey, from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, should have hinted at the fact that she's got a lot more underneath the shy facade than you might realize, since, you know, Kyubey is a cute catlike creature that kills people and manipulates reality to sow the seeds of grief, and that's being quite literal. As another partial counter-argument, I see several different concerns, and how they have been addressed in the past:

• Characters are too similar to each other --> Make each character closer to some ideal, but extreme, archetype.
• Characters are too similar to archetypes --> Make each character more well-rounded, possibly making them more bland or unrealistic.
• Characters are too bland or unrealistic --> Draw from reality.

I'm trying to base each of these characters off of people I've known or met in the past, or stories my friends have told me. While I did pander a little bit with "Appreciation", I also have a plan for her character that requires a bit further depth to uncover.

So that's just my point of view on it so far, which is obviously opinion. Take what you will. I know those types of characters really appeal to people, but I still think it would be nice if they were rounded out a bit more and that their actions made a bit more sense, if you know what I mean.

Again, thank you very much for your input. I appreciate your distinctly different viewpoint on the development of this VN; I hope to not disappoint you with the other characters, especially Talent and Competition. (On the other hand, even I don't like the idea of Attention's character, since she is, as the title implies, little more than an attention whore. I apologize in advance, but since I know the character exists, I want to explore it in detail to see where it is coming from.)

[papillon]

Plus, the whole 'Hi there strange man. Here, have my number and hey, why not come to our hotel room! X3' is a bit :/ Does she have no sense of self-preservation? As a girl, this is just ugh. Women are wary of these types of things, we have to be. Again, I might not be your audience, but the girls throwing themselves at a random person they barely know could wear thin reeeeeeeeally quickly.

I think it could work if it's phrased carefully enough. Many people at cons are sharing rooms with as many people as they can fit into the hotel room without getting kicked out, so it's not quite like 'Hi, nice to meet you, come to my bedchamber and let's boink!' and more of a 'Me and all the girls from Anime Club X are staying in Room 505, come and say hi!' (That, of course, requires that the game is such that you AREN'T expecting privacy and instant sex here.)

For me it would make more sense to pick up an instant invitation if there were more details given to suggest why she's eager to invite a guy she's only just met to come to a small gathering. Perhaps she and her roomies are throwing a theme party and the MC looks _just perfect_ for a particular role in it. Perhaps the party is on the first night of the con and she promised to have X guys there and one of them bailed on her so she's jumping on you as the first available guy she's run into. Perhaps she's inviting you to a slightly larger party and NOT a single-room get-together.

... Basically, if she's inviting you to a very small private party there should be a reason more than just "I saw you so I invited you". Because if she invites EVERYONE she sees like that, they won't fit in the hotel room and you'll all get kicked out. ... Of course, if that IS the plan for that plotline, it makes sense.

Girls certainly do strange things with guys they haven't known that long at cons, but it tends to take more than thirty seconds. I remember going to a con with a girl friend of mine when we were both around seventeen and neither of us had a hotel room. We figured if we hung out long enough we would find SOMEBODY willing to share. We ended up sleeping in the room of some guys whose names I don't remember, who we had only met that day, but the thing was that there were a LOT of people in that room (including at least one adult iirc) and people we knew knew these guys and knew where we were. Certainly wasn't impossible for something to go wrong, but it's never impossible for things to go wrong no matter how super-paranoid you are.

We barely knew these guys, but OTOH we didn't just walk up to total strangers and invite ourselves into their room, we'd been chatting with them off and on for hours.

[Auro-Cyanide]

@Papillon, Agreed. Giving them a reason or some time would make it make much more sense. I think it would be good if they meet up with him later and invite him or he happens to maybe be a fan of something unusual that she is also a fan of. Give her a reason to want him around basically since so far he has only knocked over her friend and made a vague joke.

(I also realised I misread the bit about the shy girl crying, my bad). I think if you gave the shy girl a more of a quiet, wary personality without the blushing and stammering and maybe kept the strong girl on the route of being protective and play on her spunk they might seem a little more solid. The tropes themselves are not too bad, they are popular for a reason, but they work best when they are grounded in a character that is well rounded and interesting, someone made up of complexities.

Eg:

“<Appreciation>! What happened?”
I turn around to see yet another cute girl standing before me, looking up at my face with a frown. She’s clearly dressed up as one of the Vocaloid characters, with short hair and red clothes, though I can’t say I know the character’s name.
She bends over and helps the other girl up. They both start picking up the spilled items covering the floor.
"What are you gawking at?" she asks boldly, throwing a look my way.
“Uh, no, I, not really...” I stammer back.
"It's okay <Friendship>, I ran into him." the other girl, <Appreciation>, responded quietly, still picking up her stuff.
Friendship huffed out her breath. "I've told you not to run off." She turned back to me, "Sorry, she can get a little excited sometimes. I hope she didn't do any damage." I wasn't sure if she was sincere or not, but decided I didn't care that much. I gave a small shrug.
Her expression didn't change much, but I think I saw her relax a bit. “Anyway, my name’s <Friendship>, and this is <Appreciation>. What’s your name?”
“I’m <MC>. Nice to meet you both.”
“Thanks, it’s nice to meet you too” <Friendship> said before poking <Appreciation> with her elbow.
“Um... hi,” <Appreciation> mutters shyly.
I chuckle a little at the amount of trepidation in her voice, and <Friendship> catches the stilted laugh right away. “Why are you laughing?”
Feeling a little risque, I jokingly confide, “This is just like one of my Chinese cartoons,” hoping she’ll catch the reference.
"Aha..." she said, raising an eyebrow. "Well, we have to get to our room. Maybe we'll catch you around since we're both staying here" she said as she helped gather the bags with <Appreciation> and turned to walk away.
"Ah, yeah, I'd like that." I called after her. She actually turned and gave me a small smile over her shoulder as she marched off, <Appreciation> following in her wake and glancing back at me. Wow I though, they're a pair. Maybe this convention will be more exciting than I thought.

Just pull the personality tropes back a little bit. You can pretty much have the same messages, but the characters can be more 3D if you give them cause and reasons for their reactions. That was just an example of course. I'm not a writer at all so take what I say with a pinch of salt

Also, this might be relevant to you: http://www.doctornerdlove.com/2012/03/f ... um=twitter

[ShotgunNinja]

Wow, thank you both. I'm glad I sat down and wrote out some crap, since the response I'm getting can only help. But keep in mind that the point of this pilot was never to be final; I'm still rather new at this, and I appreciate any feedback I can get. I will be noting all of this, and refining these characters away from their current, tropish forms quite a bit in the coming months, but I can't do everything alone.

The goal at this point was to try to attract some initial attention to the idea, but I'm a programmer first, and programming doesn't sell the idea. That said, I need artists and assistant writers to help me develop these characters in a more realistic fashion. If anyone has advice on recruitment, then I would love to hear it.

Regardless, thank you again for the replies, and I hope not to disappoint.

[gekiganwing]

It's been a little while. How is progress on Con'Ai going?

If you're trying to improve your characters, and shape them from rough concepts into something more human and plausible, then you might benefit from reading articles such as Make Interesting Characters and Develop Character Personality. Likewise, it can help to model your characters after people you know. The person who's writing Forever Alone: Nerds the Gathering has stated that her cast is *loosely* based on real people.

If you're still looking for assistance, and having trouble recruiting help on this board, you might need to look elsewhere. I'm not exactly sure where you could . Getting people to assist you with a freeware game can be difficult... Perhaps you'll benefit by creating a demo as a proof of concept. If necessary, just focus on writing for now.

[ShotgunNinja]

Thanks for the input; I actually just recruited our first artist, and I have some friends willing to help with the initial writing. I'm going to be doing some more "field research" this weekend ($50 and a few internet friends later...), and I'm digging through writing resources such as this, so I don't work myself into a corner with the story early on, but still have something to work with that doesn't suck.

My characters may undergo a series of shifts, to get them to where I feel they would be most appropriate; while I have their central concepts somewhat more stable, I feel that if I do too much now, then my writers won't have anywhere to take the characters in the future, but I have my own stories I want to incorporate. I want to get them far more developed before I release any information about them, though.

I've set up some more project resources, including:

A blog: http://con-ai.blogspot.com/
A forum: http://con-ai.forumotion.com/
Dropbox, for asset sharing
IRC (#Con'Ai-Dev on irc.mibbit.net) for team discussion

I've also been talking with a lot of people on IRC, and I've gotten a lot of (sometimes harsh) criticism about the game concept, which I'm trying to take in stride. It seems like I'm finally getting somewhat prepared, and it's rather scary and exciting. I almost feel bad that I'm writing about something so temporary and shallow, and without much initial thought to a central theme (other than personal motivation), since there's not quite so many deep topics to explore in something like this... but maybe I'm just letting the critics get to me. Regardless, I am learning more every day, from people with all levels of experience, and I understand my place as a novice with no practical experience.

Thank you for your continued support and feedback.

[gekiganwing]

The thread has been quiet, and it looks like a month has gone by since your last blog post. How are things going?

...I've gotten a lot of (sometimes harsh) criticism about the game concept, which I'm trying to take in stride. It seems like I'm finally getting somewhat prepared, and it's rather scary and exciting. I almost feel bad that I'm writing about something so temporary and shallow, and without much initial thought to a central theme (other than personal motivation), since there's not quite so many deep topics to explore in something like this... but maybe I'm just letting the critics get to me.

Everyone will have something to say. Obviously, you need to ignore trolls and people who make anonymous comments. Besides that, think about who you're willing to listen to, and decide if you will benefit from their advice.

As far as I know, you intend Con'Ai to be a slice of life story about entertainment, and several possible relationships. It does not need to include (and perhaps should not include) bleak themes, hot button issues, or large scale problems. That's okay. Your story can simply be fun and romantic. It can be just a fantasy about going to a convention and meeting attractive girls. You can focus on more difficult topics in other games/stories.

Then again, you can include a few topical issues or weighty themes *if* you want. Consider the following possibilities:

* Your character will almost certainly meet younger girls at a convention. What will happen if he pursues one as a romance option?

* Too Much Focus on Love: This is a BxG story, so I don't you if you intend to include any plot-relevant male characters other than the lead. But surely your MC has some same-sex friends. I mention this issue because society tends to put a lot of emphasis on pursuing love, and we get a lot of fantasies about what a relationship should be like. Consider giving a male NPC an important role.

* Friendship Versus Love: Can he meet a girl at the con, and choose to just be friends with her? Sure, people can become friends quickly during a convention, and already-established relationships can change. But sometimes it's okay to be just friends.

* Materialism: Cons these days feature a lot of buying and selling. There might be a little bit of charity, but there's a lot of emphasis on getting what you want for your entertainment. Perhaps one or more characters is worried that they're becoming too materialistic.

* Fan Health Issues: Not everyone you meet at a con will be attractive, or in ideal health.

* Fandom Shame: Some people are genuinely embarrassed about their interests. Or they feel ashamed when someone tries to represent their fannish interests in public.

* You Are Not Your Costume: Some fans put on their outfits and strive to act in-character. And some people dress as fictional characters because they consider the fictional character to be admirable or fascinating. But except for a few eccentric or mentally troubled people, most people do not *live* in-character.

* They Are Not Their Costumes: You can call people by their fictional character's name as a joke. But it's unwise to act as if they actually are the fictional person.

...There's more possibilities, but this post is getting kind of long.