Being Ambitious

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MasterPuppeteer
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Being Ambitious

#1 Post by MasterPuppeteer »

Intro::
Hello! I've recently begun planning a fairly big project, which in the end will be commercial. I know that generally the community here discourages doing very ambitious VNs if it's your first time, but especially if it's commercial. However, I've seen that it's been done before, *cough* Coming Out On Top *cough* and I just can't help but think that maybe I could do it too.

Fair warning, this post might be a bit long.

Story::
This entire god damn post just got erased, so this is my second time writing this. I apologize if anything sounds rushed or lacking in information.

The story takes place in an undecided time period, (definitely "olden days", where things like marrying off your daughter is pretty common) in a small village. A boy named Marshall, and his sister and father reside there. The sister is the favorite of the two; always being given the best food, clothes, and schooling, all in preparation to sell her to a rich bachelor. As you probably guessed, the father is dreadfully greedy. He refuses to allow Marsh to attend school, and instead makes him work day in and day out in order to provide for the family. Through a series of undecided events, (perhaps the players choices will decide as to whether he gets lost or his father kicks him out?) Marshall finds himself in a forest.

I think at this point, it'll switch to a sort of stat-raising sort of thing, where the player decides how Marsh spends his days, (fishing, hunting, berry picking, exploring, etc) and how he reacts to any dangers that may arise. Ultimately, through another undecided event, a "scary lady with horns" is introduced within the story. She is decidedly more evil and hateful depending on how the player chooses to respond to her, but either way she takes great pleasure in sabotaging things for poor Marshall. One day, something goes awry, and Marsh meets his untimely demise. The demon, either having actually taken a liking to him or just upset at having her new playtoy die so soon, decides to bring him to back to life, yet incorporates a little twist to amuse herself with. Marshall wakes up and finds he has mushrooms growing out of him! To his horror, he finds that the little mushrooms are sucking up his life energy, and unless he accompanies the demon and helps her with some task I have not decided on yet, the mushrooms will continue growing and keep taking more life energy, until it eventually kills him. (Again.)

Aaaaand that's all I've got. As soon as I manage to post this I'll be working on fleshing out this synopsis a little more, but until then..

Give Feedback::
Alright! So for the moment, this is all you guys have to go on! I'd really appreciate advice on just about everything! Releasing commercial games, getting funding, etc etc. Or, even why you think I should hold off on this idea!

Do you like the plot so far? Anything specifically you'd like me to explain more? (For the revised synopsis!) And do you like the idea of a VN for the first half, and a stat-raising sorta thing for the second? Do you think I should instead just focus on one?
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unnamed demon lady (drawn by thealebat on tumblr)
unnamed demon lady (drawn by thealebat on tumblr)
marshall after the "transition" (drawn by thealebat on tumblr)
marshall after the "transition" (drawn by thealebat on tumblr)

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MasterPuppeteer
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Re: Being Ambitious

#2 Post by MasterPuppeteer »

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Re: Being Ambitious

#3 Post by Godline »

Cute little mushroom boy! :) I like it.

Except as a commercial project you'll need A. a lot more characters and B. will it just be stat raising or will there be romance (in which case for a commercial you probably need three eligible characters or so)?

It's a nice idea. But if you really DO want to make it commercial focus on making a demo and see how that goes (because it's not an easy road). Also, it's okay to make it and then make it commercial later on down the track.

Good luck!

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Re: Being Ambitious

#4 Post by SundownKid »

I second the "don't make your first project commercial" idea, it's hard enough to finish a project the first time, and you will only be exacerbating the stress by considering how to best appeal to a commercial audience. I think it's best to mess around with free games, if just to get feedback on your work and decide what works and what doesn't.

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Re: Being Ambitious

#5 Post by MasterPuppeteer »

Thanks for the feedback you two!

Yes, there would definitely be more characters in this game. I was thinking on including random encounters with like haggard witches who can cast spells that will benefit the two, or cast curses depending on your choices. Also, I'd probably have them find other villages and towns and stuff for them to talk to the people and barter their fish, berries, whatever else they happen upon in exchange for better clothes or water or something. Perhaps, in an epilogue, or some sort of extra, I was thinking about having them finally come across Marsh's hometown, and depending on his standing with the people there before he left, might change how some people react to his...mushroom-ness. Though yes, the main characters of this story would be the demon and Marsh.

I don't really want this to be romance focused. The plan with the stats is just to affect the success rate of your choices. EX: if Marsh's intelligence is low, and you decide to make him go berry-picking, there's a high chance he'll pick poisonous or rotten ones. While I'm not sure exactly what age Marsh is yet, he's definitely not old enough to decide to date a "god only knows how old" demon. Or anyone, really. I suspect I'll probably throw in the option for Marsh to be able to develop a crush on the demon, though why you would want to make an adolescent boy fall in love with a demon who likes biting him is beyond me. Luckily, that demon lady is suuuuuper gay, so nothing will come of it. Besides more ruthless teasing that is. (Maybe a kiss on the cheek if you play your cards right.)

So, yeah. I'd totally be willing to release it for free, or a pay-what-you-want sorta thing. The thing is, the only thing I can do is the writing and probably coding for the non-stat raising part of it. I'd need to hire artists, and a programmer for the GUI and all the coding that I don't know how to do myself. Those things get pretty expensive, and while I know there are people who might be willing to work for free, I'd really like that to be last resort. I know how hard those guys work, and even if they're offering to work for free, I'd like be able to pay them something. Alas, I am a poor unemployed kid. So, I'd need to start a Kickstarter. But, it feels kinda weird asking for money to develop a game that will come out free. I suppose I could offer exclusive sticker sets and T-shirts and stuff, but then I'd have to ask for more money to get those things developed. I obviously wouldn't even begin to hire anyone until the majority, if not the entirety, of the script was finished. I truly do not want to pull people into this unless I've proved to myself that I'm committed to it. I don't want to screw anyone over here.

Ah, well. Looks like I'm going to have to put this guy on the back burner until I get some other projects done. I'd still appreciate people's opinions on this.

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