Erratic Beat {Date sim in progress}

[monele]

In that case, Call is going to be far more useful to me since it'll facilitate repeated events such as going to place A/B/C/etc., which most of the game will consist of.

Can you explicit what you plan to have for this "going to places" thing? I have the feeling it *might* be better with Jump this time XD... (really, it all depends on what is supposed to happen and when and how many times)

[Pixie]

Hrm... I'm trying to think of a good way to explain it. I'll explain when I can think of how ^^;;. I think I'll just try both methods and see which works better.

Also, my scanner works again! Joy! Here is a working sketch of Colette. It's not that great, but it gets the point across. And sorry for the yellow and black lines on the picture edges; my scanner does that and I forget to clip it. Since it's just an example sketch I'll let it be .

[musical74]

Still, it's a good picture

[Pixie]

Thank you ^^. I think I'll hold off on the graphics entirely now, though, or at least not try to get a ton of them done. I may be getting a tablet for Christmas, and if I don't get one, I may buy one afterwards. In that case, I'd be doing graphics on the tablet instead of by hand. It would probably be better and I'd be able to make things transparent at the very least ^^;;.

I'll try to finish adding info about the characters to the first page. I forgot that I hadn't done that already. I also have a sketch of the basic design for Tabitha, if you guys want to see, but it has terrible proportions, little detail, and is on lined paper. I sketched it lazily when I didn't have enough concentration to pay attention to my math notes >>.

[chronoluminaire]

This looks like a really fun project! I love characters with interesting hooks, like mermaids, faeries and so on And I really like it also when games have inventories, as it allows so much more diversity of the challenges involved.

But one thing I'd warn you about, having been there myself, is biting off more than you can chew. I understand that a lot of the appeal of your world is the diversity of the characters there, so I can see why you want so many of them. So I won't tell you not to have that many characters. But I will tell you that of all the games we've seen announced here, the ones that get finished are far, far more likely to be those with a small amount of characters. I think there are a grand total of two completed ren'ai games at the Ren'ai Archives which have more than three winnable characters. It's just a sad fact that the most ambitious projects are those that are least likely to get finished.

Like I say, I understand that in this game, the diversity of the characters is part of the appeal. So what I'd suggest is this. Focus on two or three of your characters to begin with (Nina seems one obvious choice), and get the script written (not just planned) for them. You might want to try writing a pretty small stand-alone segment for each of the three characters. If you're doing character art yourself, also work on the art for them. (If you're getting someone else to do the art, on the other hand, wait until you've got a sizeable amount of script written.) Once you've got there, then you can assess how many more characters you reckon you can do without running out of steam!

I want you to know that I'm not saying this to be some kind of discourager. I say it precisely because I'd love to see the story get finished, so that I can play it... after all, TTBOMK there aren't any mermaids or faeries in any of the games in the Ren'Ai Archives so far!

[Pixie]

I'm glad you're interested! And I do agree with you. I'm going to take this step by step. The first thing I wanted to tackle was getting the basics of programming down, because I was in the mood for programming. Anyway, this project will probably not be finished anytime soon, nor will it probably be the first project I finish; I will likely do other, much smaller projects simply to get used to Ren'Py and improve my output when I do finish this. I was interested in knowing whether my vision would be received and even more so whether it would be possible. Now I'm fairly confident that it is. Another thing is, I'd like to be exactly sure of how my game mechanism will work before I do something that is incompatible with it.

The first thing I'd like to do is get a concept sketch for every character, one I can look at and say, "Yeah, that covers it." That is what I will be working on as I learn to use my tablet, which I do have now. My skills aren't too far advanced, which will be a holdup on this project. However, I firmly believe in the end I will be much better off using the tablet rather than trying to make traditional art work. As such, art will probably not be the first thing I get done.

On the matter of script, I do need to do some more work in that department. I have many possible scenarios in mind, but it's really just a drawing board. Events that will be basic and steadfast are, of course, much easier to come up with, and those landmark events associated with each character's affection rising. Those I will do first, and fill in the other blanks later.

The idea of focusing on a few characters at first is a good one, however. I'm not even worrying about most of the characters at present. I'm focusing on Nina, Colette, and Abel. I've given a little thought here and there to the others, but not too much. I basically just know their general personalities. Once I'm better at wielding those three, I can move on, but not just yet.

And don't worry, I can tell you're being helpful, not negative :3. Critique is good!

[musical74]

*starts brushing up on what to say to mermaids and faeries, making sure he doesn't sound like a complete moron*

I'll second the *don't bite off more than you can chew*...I have a great game, lots of characters, a vast world...and unless I can get progamming lessons <and a lot of them> and find a graphic artist - or a couple of them! -...it's going to be a permanent *work in development* because I bit off waaaaaaaay more than I could chew...which was too bad...had an idea for a relationship between human and mermaid in it Ah well....

One question for you: Just wondering what the chances are of the MC doing something that LESSENS the feelings? Say, the main character insults Marisol...will her feelings for him drop as a result? Or the main character says something to Nina that causes her points to go up but someone else's to go down? Just wondering <and wondering how feasible this is....>

[x__sinister]

I'll definately be looking forward to this game!

I, personally, am a big BL fan, so anything that has an option of boy-boy I'm for. XD

On another note, this seems extremely well planned out, at least in your brain. I know what it's like to have everything organized in your head and want to go right into it, but it definately won't work unless you write/type it all out first so you don't forget/lose anything. I've got my own little CHAOS*HEART notebook, and a list of art/things I need that I add to when I come up with it.

So far, I'm 1/4th done with 1/4th of my entire script. [dead].
And when I say 'script', I mean writing out what I want to happen, not the actual programming. [zombie]
Of course, I'm a lazy bum, so this may take much longer than I anticipate. Add on my procrastination... damn.

I'll be keeping an eye on you. [cling]
BTW, I love the title. Don't change it.
Make a boy character named Oliver. XD Cute name, eh? I can imagine an innocent towns boy dressed in a more posh green outfit with a little hat and leather shoes. [squeal] AND BIG BROWN EYES. [a'splode]


EDIT: 1/4 of 1/4 of 1/2 of my my script. Fooey.

[Air-Dragon]

Yeah! another sim! There all ways so fun and interesting. Good luck with your progress and future release.