NaNoRenO 2007- The ren'ai visual novel challenge!

[DaFool]

So will people be posting in Completed Games when they finish their NaNoRenOs or will they post a beta first in Works In Progress until a polished version is ready? Come to think of it, will they be satisfied with something that is 'technically more or less complete' when the deadline passes?

I think there's a growing expectation that 'Completed Games' be 'Absolutely Completed' instead of just 'Playable with more or less almost everything in it'. Just my (and monele's) experience.

[chronoluminaire]

So will people be posting in Completed Games when they finish their NaNoRenOs or will they post a beta first in Works In Progress until a polished version is ready? Come to think of it, will they be satisfied with something that is 'technically more or less complete' when the deadline passes?

I think there's a growing expectation that 'Completed Games' be 'Absolutely Completed' instead of just 'Playable with more or less almost everything in it'. Just my (and monele's) experience.

Like with When I Rule The World, I'll be doing my utmost to ensure the game is bug-free, every ending is reachable and every choice does the right thing, by midnight on April 1st. It turned out there was a serious bug in WIRTW that led to crashes if you did a lot of readback, so I guess you could say it wasn't actually finished on April 1st. I released a 1.1 version on Apr 6th, and I tweaked a few things for 1.2 over a year later when SunKitten wanted to sell some copies at an anime convention.

But I'm not planning to release a "pseudo-work-in-progress". The description on the first post of this thread says "a complete and working ren'ai game". I'm not releasing a "beta" or a "preview": I'm releasing the full, finished game, so I want it to be as high quality as I can possibly manage to get it within these remaining 10 days 08h 22m 04s.

[chronoluminaire]

I think we're still mostly on-schedule... we're expecting to finish the third milestone and get the game to a releasable state by the end of this week, leaving the whole of next week for tweaking, polishing and making sure that we can add up simple numbers and that our event logic isn't totally unreasonable.

That sounds good! I fear I may only have two or three days at the end to be piling in massive amounts of preliminary playthroughs, getting the text proofread, ensuring the event logic is balanced, and so on.

I still half-expect to be releasing a 'now with extra shiny' edition a month or so later that's still the same essential game but with flashier, more complete graphics, but hey...

It's possible I might do something like that, as SunKitten may be providing some extra event CG graphics after the end of the month, my background artist is very slow and might get me updated versions of the art well after the deadline , and I'm expecting to not have character art for some of the minor characters in the version I release on the 31st. But I'm still totally committed to making the game I release on the 31st playable, bug-free, romantic, and a wonderful experience

[absinthe]

Whew!

Almost... almost... almost... done. I both love and hate the 'last little bits' -- I always find 'one more thing' to do that MUST be done, and I'm never quite satisfied with the results. But it's a lot of fun to see things really come together.

Eidolon still has a few rough edges, and there's lots of polishing up to be done, but, for once in my life, I'm actually right on schedule. I even have respectable backups.

(There are two paths, based on gender, so some of the text is duplicated across gender lines. And the endings are somewhat similar across gender lines too. But I'm still pretty pleased.)

Code: Select all

The game contains 1603 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 12137 words.
For an average of 7.6 words per screen.
The game contains 40 menus.

But I'm not planning to release a "pseudo-work-in-progress". The description on the first post of this thread says "a complete and working ren'ai game". I'm not releasing a "beta" or a "preview": I'm releasing the full, finished game, so I want it to be as high quality as I can possibly manage to get it within these remaining 10 days 08h 22m 04s.

My thoughts too. I do have a few ideas for things I'd like to add "someday", though. I'm hoping to get at least a few of those in once the beta testing and polishing is done, but the game is complete without them.

(Which isn't to say I'm not expecting to stupidly overlook some huge and ridiculous bug that will result in everyone playing the game within the first week after release pointing at me and laughing.)

[ShiraiJunichi]

Well, congrats to everyone who is wrapping things up. Unfortunately, I won't be releasing anything- school has been keeping me busier than I anticipated. I plan to continue working on the game, but have no projected release date.
Good luck to everyone in this last week!

[monele]

How many projects about to be released?

[DrakeNavarone]

I know I'm not going to finish on time. Actually, I kinda knew that for a while, so I wasn't trying real hard. Well, I didn't try real hard the whole month, so this result is to be expected... Real life had me bound up quite a bit this month, though, so while not getting it done is primarily my fault (no excuses), I can't say there weren't things hindering my progress...

Even though I won't meet the deadline, I'm not quiting this project. And now I can take my time working on it, fine tuning it. I'm not planning on making it any bigger than the idea I had from the start, but this gives me the chance to go back over a few parts. And I'll get to tweak the opening scene, which didn't come out exactly the way I wanted it to, so I'll be able to improve what I already have, as well as gently craft what's left to be written.

[chronoluminaire]

Elven Relations, my NaNoRenO/IntRenAiMo project, should just about be on track for a release on the 31st. It's going to be close, but today saw ALL the images, both background and character, come together, so it's just the final "few" bits of script and programming to finish off.
(EDIT: Okay, there's one image I'm still waiting for...)

Sorry to hear about Drake's and Shirai's project postponements. NaNoRenO always sees a number such, like NaNoWriMo, but it's still sad in each case.

[Jake]

Only a handful of days left... :/

I'm pretty sure we're still on course to get a release out before the end of the month, despite many setbacks, from losing an hour to daylight savings, losing an afternoon to Mother's Day all the way to still-having-to-go-to-work-in-the-daytime. My project partner's off on business for a couple of days right now...
The script is more or less finished, we just have polishing, filling out a last couple of bare-bones scenes and finishing off the graphics, I think. Still haven't seen anything from our musician, though, so I guess we're going to have to go scrounge around the CC site and see what we can find...

(Hmm... I should probably try actually playing through the whole thing from start to finish once or twice before release, too... )

Anyway, we have a vital project meeting to get to on the 31st that involves lots of drinking, so we're hoping to get something out the evening of the 30th...

[Misuzu]

NaNoRenO participants who have a game nearly ready for release, please read this.

http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?p=26437

[DaFool]

I hope more than 6 games get released. With 21 projects signing up (including IntR), it's going to be a high attrition rate if previous years records aren't met. It's fine reading about projects that won't make it in time but are on track, but I'm more worried about people who signed up, made 1 or 2 posts to the effect of "I'm in", then went missing in action. I have yet to see an example of a 2-poster where the first post says "Hello!" and the second says "Here's my complete game!".

[lordcloudx]

hohoho! based on the beta I played we will make a release!

[absinthe]

LOL. Yeah, it's about ready. Not saying there aren't bugs (for every one I squish, two more seem to pop up) or places I'd like to be smoother, but I'm almost about as comfortable with releasing it as I'm gonna get.

Anyone else get this 'I'm-gonna-be-sick' feeling at the thought of actually releasing something? I'd really, really like to have some beta tests going, but that's outside the scope (and time frame) of the comp, I think. And it makes me horribly nervous to release something without oodles of testing -- there's always *something* you've overlooked that's just ridiculously crippling or unexpectedly hilarious.

That said, I'm still working on some 'extras'.

I hope more than 6 games get released. With 21 projects signing up (including IntR), it's going to be a high attrition rate if previous years records aren't met. It's fine reading about projects that won't make it in time but are on track, but I'm more worried about people who signed up, made 1 or 2 posts to the effect of "I'm in", then went missing in action. I have yet to see an example of a 2-poster where the first post says "Hello!" and the second says "Here's my complete game!".

NaNo is a personal challenge, one that really benefits all of us regardless of how many or even if any games are completed by the deadline. I, for one, wouldn't have signed up for it if I thought I was competing against last year's records.

I was fortunate this year to have a lot more free time (I'm temporarily self-employed) and to have a lot fewer other commitments than last year this time (although I did lose two weekends to my new Eberron campaign and about a week to my birthday vacation and birthday angst).

Anyway, I am a three time (at least) NaNoWriMo non-completer. And I've got at least two games on my hard drive that I've been nudging along since at least 2001 (yes, you read that right). The point is don't worry about completing or not completing. It's irrelevant, as long as you're enjoying your hobby.

Especially the newcomers to the hobby. If y'all haven't written games before, you're learning right now that it's great fun, can be hugely frustrating, and that there are all sorts of pitfalls and detours and dead ends involved. But it's like any other creative process -- *everything* you do, even (and sometimes especially) the stuff that fizzles out, teaches you something.

I guess I'm just saying, this is thirty days, and that's nothing in the big ol' scheme of things. I'd rather see a bunch of people who laugh and say, "Aw, well, maybe next year!" and then finish what they're working on eventually or maybe start something new and bigger, than a bunch of people who're angry at themselves and depressed over not meeting some arbitrary, silly, just-to-see-if-we-can-do-it goal who end up quitting the hobby because they're upset or feel pressured by the community.

[DaFool]

Anyone else get this 'I'm-gonna-be-sick' feeling at the thought of actually releasing something? I'd really, really like to have some beta tests going, but that's outside the scope (and time frame) of the comp, I think.

As far as I understand it there's all of April to iron out everything...the important thing is there's something playable. It's possible to be too close to a project to overlook some blatant flaws.

The point is don't worry about completing or not completing. It's irrelevant, as long as you're enjoying your hobby. Especially the newcomers to the hobby.

Hmmm...if PyTom didn't strive to release Moonlight Walks, I doubt there would be any Ren'Py games here right now. If Enerccio didn't complete My Teacher, then we won't know how many demos will eventually be finished.

People learn by the example of others. Yes, this is just a hobby, and people can and do get burned out by it. But I prefer to see people seriously pursuing it rather than dabbling in it. One of the things I learned is that this isn't a light hobby! Nothing is light if you want it to become a means to build serious talent. Making things is fun, but finishing things is adrenaline

The perfect example of a visual novel making community who aren't serious about quality results (read especially the earliest posts when people flooded in, all newcomers):
http://bladeengine.com/forum/

[Scout]

I have yet to see an example of a 2-poster where the first post says "Hello!" and the second says "Here's my complete game!".

Yeah, I have to say, I really don't trust those sorts of people. >.>



I'm really hopeful that I'll be able to get this finished in time. I lost a week at the beginning because of a massive school project, but I've been pushing on anyway; I know that if I had seven more days, I'd definitely be able to finish... so two days should be just as fine, right? Right?

On the other hand, I wasn't really sure when I started if this was a community I was interested in at all. But I think this fun little experiment has convinced me of that, even if I don't end up finishing.