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I keep trying to hold back on making this topic but... I fail.

I'm beyond whining. I've become paralyzed and fear opening Ren'Py because I'm not getting started.

Yes, there are other things that have kept me busy. Some legitimate. Many procrastinative.

But I have no excuse except for every excuses in the book:

"I have never finished writing a story."

"I have never used an image editing program before."

"I have never coded before."

Now + Then:

"I have never tried to type one letter in my own Ren'Py script."

"I don't click or reread Ren'Py topics because I hate clicking on forum threads." ~ This is not true.

"I don't click or reread tutorials because I'm too lazy and become de-motivated to learn. Even manuals. Especially Wikis."

"I've envied and downloaded a few Visual Novels but I just keep their installers saved in a folder instead of opening them up in Ren'Py and looking and trying to mimic their code."

This is my latest excuse:

I hope to hear some newbie success stories.

I want to cheat.

I hope to hear someone who knew nothing of digital art but managed to learn while they were typing their script.

I hope to hear a newbie find a way to tweak a free image editor and make them equivalent to newbie- friendlier commercial applications.

(No, I'm not talking about Photoshop. I don't even know how to mimic the Corel Painter pencil in other editors. Did I mention I was using a "set-up-for-newbie" Linux distro?)

I hope there's an installer that will just turn all this around.

This is my latest excuse.

I'd like to pretend that if I hear all these things, I don't have to think anymore.

I like to think that if there was a free online craftsmanship class that all I need to do is keep repeating the same steps everyday.

Everyday, until an expert judges me good enough to learn the "next step".

I hope there's no deadline.

Is what you want to do to RELEASE a game? Maybe a new project needs a director! Everyone needs a coordinator. There's lots of talented people in this forum, if you've got an idea, pitch it! You don't need to make everything personally... that's a big job!

Ask for a user interface artist, character designer, background artist, writer, programmer, composer and be the one to point everyone in the right direction, set schedules and deadlines, motivate, make a blog, and compile everything together.

If you don't have a good idea yet, why not try and think of what kind of shows, movies, books, or animes you like and think about why you like them? What kind are they? What did they do that you enjoyed?

The only newbie success story I really know of is Katawa Shoujo, a team under delta that is a large team on 4chan working together for two years to release their first act.

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Don't worry, we can get through it together. I didn't forget about you! I just got overwhelmed.
https://cherylitou.wordpress.com

Thanks for the Katawa Shoujo mention. I was going to check out their game until I saw in their website that they only have act 1 finished.

Unfortunately,

I've never been a project manager either.

I don't think anyone would respect someone who has absolutely no knowledge in Ren'Py at all and would not take the effort to learn at least the basics.

As far as ideas, I have plenty but they're just ideas. (Mostly fanfiction based)

Oh, believe me, I've done doujin circles (both the manga kind and the ONscripter kind) under a pseudonym. You wouldn't be the first one to think to put it to use to tell fanfiction....

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Don't worry, we can get through it together. I didn't forget about you! I just got overwhelmed.
https://cherylitou.wordpress.com

Would you teach me how to gain the credibility and the skills to direct one? This is the first time I've heard of the term "doujin circles".

What exactly do you mean by "success story?" If you mean "finished a game," then plenty of people have come in here with little to no knowledge of coding, artwork, writing, or whatever else it takes, and have gone on to make completed games. Lots of us have done so. I made my first complete game (writing, graphics, music, voices, and code) in a week. Granted, the game was only 10 minutes long and it won't win any awards, but I finished it. I'd call that a success.

Your current excuses make it sound like you don't really want to do that much work. Are you afraid that you're going to do a lot of work and not be rewarded in the end? It seems as if you're not willing to take any risks.

All newbies learn about art, coding, writing, and whatever else as they work on it. You're not going to get the skills overnight, and you can't be guaranteed any sort of success if you don't put actual effort into it. I suggest you play the demo (if you haven't already), then sit down and do something small just so you can figure out how things work. Pick up some free resources and code those into a short (SHORT) game. Then replace the resources with your own.

If you want to direct your own doujin circle, you're going to have to prove that you have the skills to finish your own things, first. Many people show up saying "I have a great idea!" They lay out a fantastic plot with thousands of characters and big dreams. But people like that also burn out very quickly, leaving behind artists and programmers who sunk hours of work into a project that will never see the light of day. You will have to prove that you are capable of coming through and completing your own work before other people will trust that they can do something with you. Organizing a project is NOT the easy way out.

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Opposite. I'm afraid that I would one day find out that all of my work is actually just equivalent to being very little because of all the other things I'm doing and my lack of focus in learning.

I'm afraid that maybe I should have bought this GIMP book instead of that GIMP book.

I'm afraid that maybe I should have started drawing on paper instead of drawing digitally or vice versa.

I'm afraid that maybe I could have learned things faster following this program's forum/tutorial/wiki instead of that forum's program/tutorial/wiki.

I'm afraid that I should probably researched another word before color theory.

I'm afraid that my will to take risks is so insufficient that I end up not really making any risk at all. That I end up not being gutsy enough.

That I should have focused on Ren'Py first before those tutorials or that I should have focused on the tutorials first before Ren'Py.

I'm afraid that I should have fixed my life first before trying to create a Visual Novel. But then I'm afraid that I would never fully fixed my life and in the process of prioritizing that first, I ended up not learning Ren'Py at all and not end up making even a simple script.

Most of all, I'm afraid that my ignorance and lack of will to learn is mistaken as trying to be a perfectionist and failing at it. (example: the learning overnight bit)

You're right.

I don't have credibility. That's why I said:



That's why I...fail.

Asking for success stories is just another excuse.

But... omitting that and this thread becomes nothing more than another generic newb thread.

But... I'm getting nowhere and I can no longer hold back to the temptation to make this thread.

I don't really know anymore...

I've always have problems finding the right questions for help.

That's why I no longer want to ask for help. At least by asking for success stories, even if I can't define it, I can leave this thread in peace if no one bothers to reply and I can reply if someone replies.

P.S. Yeah, I skimmed those free resources and tried the demo already. I just didn't get started.

We can't help you if you're so indecisive that you're not willing to even try. This isn't anime and real-life tsundere or passive people rarely get anywhere in life just waiting for something to hit them. What are you waiting for? We can't tell you anything that will make you do it, you must look deep inside yourself and ask yourself if you have what it takes.

No one got where they were overnight. Everyone's story is story of effort, trying, failing, and trying again.

Get out there! Go do it! Come back here in a week and tell us that you put together some three minute crap game and someone will inevitably go "screw it, I'll try it out" and tell you what they think.

I mean, you could at least do a "hello world!" game...

_________________
Don't worry, we can get through it together. I didn't forget about you! I just got overwhelmed.
https://cherylitou.wordpress.com

So what if one book is better than other, or you should have done this or that? There's no single correct way to do it. What if everyone in the world learns faster with Book X, but you alone learn faster with Book Y. What happens when you buy Book Y and everyone laughs and says that Book X is superior. Did you take the wrong path? Of course not! You can still learn from Book Y, even if other people find Book X to be more useful for themselves.

I've never been formally trained in art. Not a single art class in my life. And sometimes I regret that. I still struggle with basic concepts like perspective. But just because I decided to take programming classes instead of art classes doesn't mean I took the wrong path. It means that I made a decision. Programming matters to me more than art. One day, maybe I'll go back and take art classes. Or maybe I'll just partner with other artists because they respect my ability to write and program.

You're terrified of taking one tiny misstep, but there ISN'T a misstep. Unless you're buying a book on car mechanics in an attempt to learn Python, you'll be okay. You will learn best by just doing. Read and study as much as you like, but nothing beats actually trying it for yourself. If anything, you're taking the wrong path by just waiting around.

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Gonna give it straight to ya buddy.

Stop wasting time posting your doubts about making your own game and make one. Doesn't matter if it's going to be a kinetic novel or a short visual novel with paths, MAKE SOMETHING. I can tell that you're thinking things through, which isn't necessarily a bad thing... Until you think too much. I came upon Ren Py' with no experience whatsoever in programming and my art skills are and (still is) primitive at best. I still managed to pop out a kinetic novel despite RL and damn proud of the result even though it's hardly even the best.



Then learn the basics. You're making this hard for yourself.

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If you're that scared of wasting time, then don't get into this hobby. I've worked on trying to release a game for the past 6 years and I've only been successful 4 times. There's a reason why there are over 600 topics in the WIP forum, but only 200 topics in the completed games forum.

Of course, I am a much better artist and a writer now then I was six years ago. But that doesn't mean that I can actually finish a game...

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"A piece of warmth you can return to"
Discussion thread [18+]

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One Story: All ages version

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Oooh, yeah, I hear ya! When I finished my first doujinshi, printed it, and sold a bunch of copies at the convention, I was so damn proud...

_________________
Don't worry, we can get through it together. I didn't forget about you! I just got overwhelmed.
https://cherylitou.wordpress.com

Whenever I finish something, I sacrifice a lamb to God.

_________________
"A piece of warmth you can return to"
Discussion thread [18+]

Follow on twitter for updates

One Story: All ages version

Development updates on Tumblr

My only piece of an advice for you - No pain, no gain

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「通りすがりのメーカだ。覚えとけ。」

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Winter shard

WIP: Hyperion(Trace unknown), ?????(Progressing)

Dim Sum, you seem to think that there is a correct path to take. Let me make it simple for you; there isn't one. There is only a continuous stream of learning things yo ur entire life. It doesn't matter what order you learn things; you simply need to do something and as you run across something you don't know, then you go learn it.

It doesn't matter what Gimp book you choose because the program is constantly changing and you'll have to learn more than the book covers anyways. You pick up an image editing program, start using it, and you'll learn it. You pick up a text editor, start writing RenPy dialog scripts, and you'll learn it.

It sounds like you are going through what every student goes through when they graduate from school and enter the real world. Up until graduation, you always had someone who knew what they were talking about telling you exactly what to do, and telling you whether or not you have been judged to know the material. They would shepherd you along from assignment to assignment, class to class, grade to grade. All you had to do is do the work they assigned, and you would progress as normal.

But in the real world, no one tells you what to do so that you advance. Nobody knows exactly what path you should take, or even if the desired path exists. No one really cares if you succeed or fail, because they each have their own lives to figure out. You may have people cheering you on along the way, but no one else is going to stand up and take charge of your path. That's up to you.

So in the end, you just have to Do. There is no path, no program. You pick up whatever knowledge you can from a variety of sources, seek out answers to questions you have, and do your best to make sense of it all. And you will be doing this for the rest of your life. It is a journey of self improvement that doesn't end until you do.

But don't worry about it too much.... because everyone else on the planet is in the same boat you are.

Cheers, and Good Luck,
Michael