Page 1 of 1

I am working on a REALLY gothic story...

Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 12:31 pm
by Der Tor
Okay, so I am working on this story. Actually it already is work in progress and I already have quite a few pages. But I don't really know how to approach the whole thing so I am not yet posting it in WIP but here first.

Because the thing I am writing is not something common... I don't even know how to explain it. Maybe some of you have played my German Visual Novel "Der Totengräber" (The Gravedigger). It's gonna be somewhat similar to that - only even more Gothic, and even darker. It's kinda like an epic - not in length - but in style. It sounds more like the Apocalypse - very bleak. And also from the language and metaphors it's gonna be similar.

To give you an idea of what the story is gonna be about, it's gonna be somewhat similar to this scene from an H.P. Lovecraft Horror movie - but it's not gonna be a rip off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v1RMJOTlZw

So the thing is - WRITING this thing is easy for me. The hard part is that once I am done with it, it's really gonna sound like some bleak prophecy full of dark metaphors. So I have no idea how I am gonna publish such a thing.

As an ordinary book I would never find a publisher -particularly because I wrote it in English, yet I live in Germany. Besides, nobody would really spend money for a book that sounds like the Apocalypse (at least in style) because everybody already HAS the Apocalypse, and yet they aren't even reading that. :roll: (Of course it's not gonna be like the Apocalypse either - I am not gonna rip off H.P. Lovecraft and much less would I dare rip off the Bible. I am just giving you an example of the style.)

Anyway, that leaves digital forms of publishing. Originally I wrote it intending to be a visual novel. But the style is so far removed from usual Visual Novels. It's not gonna have any choices and it's not gonna have any characters - only one unnamed narrator, narrating the whole thing.
Although I like the idea of adding music, voice, and background images. But I would probably make the whole thing look like a scroll, voices would be limited to the narrator, background music would probably consist solely of Gregorian chants and any images would probably look somewhat like the illustrations in Dante's Inferno:
Image

So originally I wanted to use Ren'Py. But now that I think about it, I am not sure if a Visual Novel engine is the right thing, because it is certainly not gonna LOOK like a Visual Novel when I am done and so if I where to use Ren'Py i would have to do A LOT of customization.
Actually I would like for the whole thing to be on YouTube. With a narrator narrating it and with the aforementioned images and background music. So I COULD do it all in Ren'Py, do all the customization that would need to be done and then screen capture a "read through" and make it into a video and publish it on YouTube.
But that is like using a sledge hammer to kill an ant. It would be a lot of unnecessary effort.

So, to make a long story short, do you guys know any any program that would be better suited for such a task?

Re: I am working on a REALLY gothic story...

Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 2:34 pm
by TrickWithAKnife
It really sounds like you want to make a video with VN style images, rather than a VN.
In that case, video editing software would be more suitable.

Re: I am working on a REALLY gothic story...

Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 6:33 pm
by Der Tor
Yeah that would probably be the best. Anything you can recommend? So far I have only used Windows Movie Maker - that aint gonna cut it. And I also need a program to alter my voice - you know make echos and stuff.

Re: I am working on a REALLY gothic story...

Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 7:14 pm
by Endorphin
I love Sony Vegas, as it's easy to use and powerful enough for stuff.
(But it tends to crash. ;__;)
Sadly, it's not freeware.
(For freeware, you could use audacity to alter your voice. For just showing pictures and scrolling text there should be tons of programs out there.)

- En.

Re: I am working on a REALLY gothic story...

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 6:41 pm
by Chrizine
This sounds really interesting... Sadly I can't really help you with your problem, since I have no experience making videos at all.
I just wanted to give you a heads up, I am looking forward to seeing the finished product!
Will you post the link in this thread if you only release it via youtube?