Lemma Soft Forums

Hello, everyone!

We, (the studio) have noticed there are many writers out there that would love to get their scripts turned into visual novels, so putting our heads together, we have come up with a solution. We are preparing to unveil a new Visual Novel Development Service which will hopefully help to turn the hundreds upon hundreds of unknown, and unpublished visual novel scripts that are out there into fully developed, commercial-quality, retail-sales-ready visual novel games, and we are going to need the help of one lucky visual novel writer to get things started.

You can read more information on this special promotion by heading over to the studio's website.

Requested Clarifications
1. From now til May 1st, we're accepting submissions from writers.
2. We will then select a writer from the submissions to have their story turned into a vn.
3. All submissions that are not selected remain the property of their respective authors.
4. The selected writer will be notified that they were chosen, and will be given a $2000 USD discount voucher code which they will be able to use later when we launch the service publicly.
5. Writers that were not selected will be notified that they were not chosen, thanked for their entry, and given a 10% discount voucher code which they will be able to use later when we launch the service publicly.
6. The promotional vn will be developed by us and made available for purchase online through the studio website, and as free demo download on the day that we launch the service publicly.
7. Once the service has been launched, all of the writers who have submitted stories to us will be notified that they may now use their voucher coupons at any time.
8. The game which will be developed as the promotional vn from the selected writer's story will be owned by us.
9. Any game(s) which are developed by us from a user purchasing any of our development packages are owned by the user making the purchase.

/edit

I was a bit leery when I first saw this, but FalyneVarger is one of my most trusted artists. IDHAS doesn't runs herself, so I'm afraid I am not interested, but I will throw my support behind you and hope for great success for both you and the writer.

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My common sense is tingling!
Woah! I actually have a website now.

Thanks for vouching for me, Chief. I'm pretty sure Richard is going to amend this post and make it a bit more clear what we're offering.

PyTom suggested to me that I clarify some things.

So, our studio (bbastudios) is going to be launching a new vn development service very soon, and in order to promote the service launch,
we (bbastudios) will be developing a vn that will be made available in demo and full versions.

The idea is to get this promotional vn developed without taking our in-house writers away from current studio projects, and so we (bbastudios) decided to hold a special promotional offering where a single writer's vn script is selected to be used for the promotional vn. We're asking for the license to develop, distribute, sell, and publicly display the vn. In exchange for the writer giving us this license, we're offering them one of our development packages that will be available when we launch the service publicly.

If there are any other questions, feel free to ask.

What's a development package?

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All of my VNs are at http://wolflore.net Some recent works on lemmasoft:
Vera Blanc and the Purloined patient http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=20801
Something Strange (modern fantasy/romance) http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=17127
Arnie and the Hitchhiker (vampire romance) http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=15382
Poorly done hand drawn art is still poorly done art. Be a Poser (or better yet, use DAZ Studio 3D) - dare to be different.

The service that the studio is going to be launching is divided into several varying priced packages.
When made available to public, interested users will be able to purchase these packages using a secure payment through PayPal.
As for what the package includes, the information for the Advanced Package is listed on the studio website promo page.

Other packages will have different details, yet to be disclosed.
Hope that helps.
Any more questions, let me know.

Would it not be slightly more fair to advertise that you're looking for writer willing to give you their story and all rights to it for free, in exchange for seeing that story developed with fancy graphics?

Yes, you're bringing something good to the table, but essentially the offer isn't that much different than the offers people often make to artists to give them "publicity" by... making them work for free. Making that offer on an art forum, and especially by describing it as a contest for a lucky winner, would generally get you banned.

Now, if what you're actually saying is that they give you one of their stories for free and then you do all the arty stuff on a different project free for them later, that's quite reasonable, but it needs to be a bit more clear.

(I'm not trying to attack you guys, you have a potentially good idea here! I hate marketing speak, which is sort of bad seeing as I'm in business myself. )

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Hanako Games

This doesn't make much sense to me as a business proposal.

If you take a generic setting of a writer commissioning people to create the visuals, programming etc, to create a commercial game, they would have to pay for that progress BUT the final product would be their's and they would profit from it.

What you are asking is for someone to pay you (or have the fee waived for publicity), while you take their work and you profit from it? That doesn't make sense if the final product does not belong to the writer. Would you also be profiting from the game if the writer pays for the package, or is that only for this promotional thing?

Plus, what happens if they disagree with the direction you take it? Would they have to manage the project as well?

I'm mostly concerned with the giving up of rights for 'credit'. Credit should be given regardless, but there should be something else to balance the deal, like a share in the profits.

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The other 1/2 of Cyanide Tea l My Deviantart Account I My Tumber Account I Break Chance Memento I Ristorante Amore

I apologize in advance if this sounds a little harsh.

You are asking:
A writer to give you their work, which they spent their human capital on, for nothing but credit.
You plan on selling their work after you've done art for it.

The writers that you attract with this sort of offer will not be too good, because they'll be the people that can't find artists and programmers willing to work with them. I don't think you want these writers, as what they write probably won't sell anyway.

If any one of these changes were to be made, I think you could attract a writer of decent quality:

Make the final product free for all to play.
or
Give the writer a cut on sales.
or
Offer to "buy" the rights to their story.

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Not really checking the forums any more due to time constraints, so if you want to contact me, PM. I'll get a notification and log in.
Also, I've been hit and run posting, which means I don't see many replies. If you want to respond to something I've said, also feel free to PM me.

Perhaps I did not word things clear enough, so let me go over things in a different manner and see if that helps.

The scenario is like this:

We want to create a vn to promote a service.
We're asking for the commercial licensing rights to a writer's story to create the vn which will promote the service.
The writer will receive from us, one of our services (the Advanced Package which will retail for $2000 USD once the service launches).
With this Advanced Package, the writer is entitled to have a second vn developed to their specifications up to the limitations specific to the Advanced Package at no cost to them. So they are essentially gaining $2000 USD for giving us the license to their first story.
The writer may do whatever they wish with the second developed game. Sell it, give it away, anything. It's the property of the writer, not ours. All we will ask is the right to retain our studio logo in the game. No royalties, nothing.

This is the way that things are intended to go:

1. From now til May 1st, we're accepting submissions from writers.

2. We will then select a writer from the submissions to have their story turned into a vn.

3. All submissions that are not selected remain the property of their respective authors.

4. The selected writer will be notified that they were chosen, and will be given a $2000 USD discount voucher code which they will be able to use later when we launch the service publicly.

5. Writers that were not selected will be notified that they were not chosen, thanked for their entry, and given a 10% discount voucher code which they will be able to use later when we launch the service publicly.

6. The promotional vn will be developed by us and made available for purchase online through the studio website, and as free demo download on the day that we launch the service publicly.

7. Once the service has been launched, all of the writers who have submitted stories to us will be notified that they may now use their voucher coupons at any time.

Sorry that I was not clear enough.
I hope that this helps clear up any confusion.
Any other questions, please let me know.

We are pretty new at this, and unsure of how to handle things right off the bat. As Richard said, we do plan on compensating the writer whose story we use in some way. Either by developing another visual novel for them, to which they own the rights and are free to do with as they please, or if they don't want another visual novel, I'm willing to trade my own services.

PyTom suggested making who owns what more clear:

The game which will be developed as the promotional vn from the selected writer's story will be owned by us.

Any game(s) which are developed by us from a user purchasing any of our development packages are owned by the user making the purchase.

The selected writer is technically a user making a purchase, however no money is necessary for them to purchase the Advanced Package, because they will have been given the $2000 USD discount voucher coupon.

Ah, now that makes sense. This sounds exciting!

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Not really checking the forums any more due to time constraints, so if you want to contact me, PM. I'll get a notification and log in.
Also, I've been hit and run posting, which means I don't see many replies. If you want to respond to something I've said, also feel free to PM me.

Um... Are you looking for a (coding ready) script or a story (script ready, but before all the timing for SE, bg change, scene transition, etc)? xD

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Preferably a script that is ready for development, as you say, coding ready. However, if such a script is not available, and you still wish you submit your story script, that is fine as well. We're not going to be choosing based on which is ready or not, but mostly based on weighing the different aspects of the submissions.

Every submitted entry will be reviewed.**

**Unless we end up with so many submissions by May 1, 2012 that it is physically impossible for two people in a reasonable amount of time to read all of them and write up notes on them in order for decisions to be made, if that occurs, then it will likely become a matter of "divide and conquer" where the submissions are shuffled up and then half are discarded, and the procedure would repeat until there are a manageable amount of submissions to review.

As stated before, everyone who submits something has at least something to gain from taking part in this special promotional event.

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