Lemma Soft Forums

It's finished!



I will never live this one down, haha...

The challenge?
NaNoReNo! Create a visual novel in one month, from March 1st to March 31st.

The contender?
None other than kaleidofish (see: In This Dream of Ours), doing EVERYTHING! Yes, I'm crazy enough to try to do the writing, the coding, the artwork, and the music/SFX. It's been hellarious [more hell than hilarious] drawing and doing the music for this. But I will soldier on with a plot that fits the art!

The game?
Today's the day that Cole will finally propose to his girlfriend Shannon. As he reaches for the ring, however, he realizes he's made a grave mistake! He gave the jacket with the ring in it to his best friend Naima, who's on a bus heading far, far away. And, worst of all, Shannon has somewhere to be right after they finish their meal. Now, he has to stall for time while waiting for Naima's return by distracting his girlfriend with his horrible artwork and storytelling.

At certain points in the story, Cole will change up the genre to keep things interesting. For example, you can have him start the story as a film noir detective drama, then have him continue it as an all-out brawling martial arts story, and then end it as a musical. Boring Shannon runs the risk of having her leave the restaurant, ruining his chance to propose to her on their anniversary.

Game will feature at least six different genres and a ton of illustrations.

The characters?
Time to dazzle you with this great artwork!! (lulz, not really)


Cole
- Shannon's boyfriend. Because he forgot to take the ring out of his jacket, he's going to have to draw and make up stories for her on a series of index cards. Yep. That's all he's got.
- Draws himself as "London Hammer" in the story. He's the protagonist in every version of the tale. Also, he draws like he's in elementary school.


Shannon
- Cole's girlfriend. A teasing, thrill-seeker. She has some other plans to attend to after their anniversary date thing.
- Cole draws her as "Rachel" in the story. She's the love interest in every version of the tale.


Naima
- Cole's best friend. She agreed to take Cole's jacket off of his hands after he tore a hole in it. Little did they know, that he left the engagement ring inside...
- Cole draws her as "Cameron" in the story. She's the ally in every version of the tale.


Evil Ex-Boyfriend Quentin (thanks, CheeryMoya!)
- Shannon's ex-boyfriend. Cole doesn't like him very much.
- Cole draws him as "Trevor" in the story. He's the enemy in every version of the tale.

The progress?
Slowly chugging along. Been doing a lot of planning, and drawing... Just started writing the "Action" genre route.

Stats so far:
The game contains 168 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 2,411 words,
for an average of 14.4 words per screen.
The game contains 1 menus.

The encouragement?
Has you any for little poor me?

4/1/2012 Edit:
Download it from here!

_________________
Main Website * Tumblr
Play: In This Dream of Ours (5/7/2012)
Working on: Skylines, Dream's Dénouement, The Girl in Red
ouroborosconnect.com

As someone who is also pretty much doing things all by them-self I know how much work it is to make music and so on. I'm be cheering you on.

I really like the premise of the story. It seems so unique. I look forward to hearing more.

Good luck!

Hey this sounds pretty neat!..The drawings are very fitting like he is desesperate to tell a story fast so he makes scribles...
Im forward to play this XD!

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My WIP project:The hurtful wall
:Other VNs:
+The Knife of the Traitor(Nanoreno 2012)
+Eyes of Wilderness
++Currently colaborating with other folks as an artist.

sadfrog developer blog

Quentin. I don't know why, that name appeared to me out of the abyss.

Sounds like an interesting idea for lots of lulz to be had Cole needs to whip out his 120-pack of crayons to wow Shannon with his magnificent art skillz. That said, will the entire game be in B&W? The crazier the adventure, the wilder the color palette should be O:

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Visit the OELVN wiki at the top of the forum! We have free assets, programs, tutorials, tips and more over there. I'm the administrator, PM me if you want to help organize the place. I could use a hand.

Stalling for time is a concept that's been used for centuries. It dates back at least as far as the collection of fairy tales known as One Thousand and One Nights. Be sure to think about *how* people have used these ideas, and think about how you're presenting your ideas.

Will the endings or narrative change depending on *how* Cole tells his stories? Also, will the whole game be presented through the sort of drawings Cole would make?

One last thing... just last week, there was a feature on ANN about characters who can't draw. Hopefully it will amuse you.

@Maelstrom - Thank you! It's a lot of work, but the learning experience is all worth it. @_@ Good luck with your project, too. See you at the Nano finish line.

@clua - Thanks! Yeah, Cole's going to have a ton of scribbles in this game by the time it's finished. I'm going to have to buy more index cards soon. D:

@CheeryMoya - Quentin...yes...that sounds like a good name for an evil boyfriend. It's also Tarantino's first name, which makes it all the more interesting. Thanks for the suggestion! Good idea about the crayons, too. I'll have to see if I can work that into the story somehow, because the crayons would help bring things to "life" even more. Gotta figure out a way that there would be crayons in the restaurant, in Shannon's bag, or...I could have him run out to a nearby CVS. If the crayon art doesn't make it in, that means I ran out of time. X_X

@gekiganwing - The narrative does change depending on how he's telling his stories. He'll switch up his storytelling style dependent on the genre. He's not a writer or anything, so this whole process will be a (hopefully amusing) struggle for him. As for the endings, I'm still planning them out. I can't promise there will be a lot of them, due to my time being more limited than I realized.

The whole game isn't presented through his drawings - the scenes between Cole and Shannon at the restaurant will be depicted NVL-style with real life photography (nothing of their faces or bodies, though...just the scene itself). Thanks for sharing that article! I had a good laugh about it. XD

@all - Things are moving along steadily... I get the feeling that "crunch time" will creep up on me faster than I expect. O_O

_________________
Main Website * Tumblr
Play: In This Dream of Ours (5/7/2012)
Working on: Skylines, Dream's Dénouement, The Girl in Red
ouroborosconnect.com

I'm interested in the stories he'll come up with!

Cole's best friend is a girl? If he fails to propose to Shannon will be get to have an ending with Naima? XD Sorry I'm just full of weird ideas LOL

Good luck!

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PLEASE USE THE SKETCHES AS THEY ARE!!!
...I'm very tired of eyes largers than hands, and breasts largers than heads. I had enough of 15 years of 3px lines...
And you do EVERYTHING alone? My hero. I surely enjoy this release!

@Nellie - Unfortunately, due to time constraints there won't be a Naima-option in the game. It's not a weird idea at all, haha. It's a ood one, if I only had the time to put that idea into action. Thanks.

@gas - I know! Why have GORGEOUS artwork when you can have art looking like this?



Those aren't just sketches. They're in-game art. XD And yes, I'm crazy enough to do it all by myself, thank you.

I've been neglecting this thread too much. I'll have you all know that I've finished the first set of choices, the first option in the second set of choices, and I'm now finishing up the second option in the second set. I'm not sure how long the game will be once it's finished. I haven't drawn much yet, either... I'm saving the majority of the artwork for next week. Yes. The final week of NaNo. You can call me Last Minute kaleidofish.

Here's the Lint report!

The game contains 816 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 11,328 words,
for an average of 13.9 words per screen.
The game contains 2 menus.

Also, if you're interested in any of my other work, you can check out my devblogsite thingy here (shameless plug).

_________________
Main Website * Tumblr
Play: In This Dream of Ours (5/7/2012)
Working on: Skylines, Dream's Dénouement, The Girl in Red
ouroborosconnect.com

*pfft* I love this concept. I really like that there is a central idea and everything fits in with it. I would really like to try something like that where the art is designed specifically for an idea. Good work, I really look forward to reading it, it sounds funny. Plus I've seen an incident of missing rings before. It involved a speeding fine XD

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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

A lot of restaurants around here have crayons they keep for little kids. My friends have been known to ask the waitress for some. (Yes, I have weird friends)

Good luck! I'm looking forward to it.

Susan

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In order to understand recursion, one must first understand recursion. (Anonymous)

Oh god my heart... this is so cute :3 MISA MISA FEELS ALL TINGY INSIDE
Um what? Uhhhhhhh. YEAH I'll definitely play this! ^_^

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Careful what you do, ‘cause God is watching your every move. Hold my hand in the dark street, for if you do I know that I’ll be safe. Even if I’m far away and alone, I can be sure that you’ll find me there, this I know. You draw me close for a while, so quiet. You tell me everything. If I forget what you say, then you’d come to me, and tell me again. Yes you’d tell me once again. But what happens when I know it all, then what should I do after that? What then?

Part of the huge LSF project: LemmaTV: Television that watches you!

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone! I checked back on this thread for motivation throughout the whole process. Reading everyone's posts really kept my spirits up.

@Auro-Cyanide: Thanks, I hope you like it. Since I wanted to do NaNo on my own, I decided to create a story concept that my artwork would fit. Thus...Tell Her a Story was born.

@SusanTheCat: Time restraints kept colors out of the story. I didn't budget my time properly when it came to drawing for the game. My hand was killing me the other day because of all the drawing I had to do. I really underestimated the scope of the project. But, that's okay, it all worked out in the end. XD

@misamane: Thanks! I hope it won't disappoint you.

Aaaaaand now I get to be obnoxious and post this link for everyone.

It's finished!

Hope you all enjoy it.

_________________
Main Website * Tumblr
Play: In This Dream of Ours (5/7/2012)
Working on: Skylines, Dream's Dénouement, The Girl in Red
ouroborosconnect.com