The New Games : Ren'ai or what?

[RedSlash]

Princess of Fire and G!MB, IMO, both contain romance elements in them. Therefore, I wouldn't say they deviate from the usual lot of games, but they are different. I think being different is good. Just because the game's not serious or takes places in a strange land, it doesn't necessarily mean it can't be considered as ren'ai. In the end, I think story is what is most important.

[musical74]

The problem with ren'ai is that it encompasses so much. I agree that a fair amt of the NaNoReNo 06 group I wouldn't call ren'ai...but I would play them! And, like Pytom, I like the game where the characters have to deal with a bit of difficultly...it makes them more complete and more well rounded.

[kara24601]

I agree , different is good , what matters is the story , and it is better to have well-rounded characters and some amount of difficulty (sp.? ) than "one-sided" characters and things being too easy for the characters. Even if I have a basic idea of what I want my character to be like , I usually try to make him or her well-rounded.

[musical74]

For me, story plays a huge role in wether or not I'll play a game. If the graphics are top notch but the story is lacking or nonexistent, I'll pass on it. That's why I sometimes prefer *older* games, because then they didn't have great graphics - at least, compared to now - but the story was interesting. Puts me of a mind of Zork games....all text, therefore there HAD to be a story, otherwise, who would play it?

Just a side note...was researching what *ren'ai game" meant and it classifies it as any *romantic game" - and the site I checked out also praised Tales of Lemma 1 as being the first ren'ai game in english, and praised the Lemma Soft forums as well...seems we've made ourselves a niche

[kara24601]

I love older games like Moonmist , Zork , Enchanter , ect. and older graphical games like Final Fantasy 3 over alot of newer games. I love games like Ico , Kingdom Hearts , Silent Hill 2 , Trace Memory , Kingdom Hearts 2 , and Shadow of The Colossus because they have great graphics and great stories. Trace Memory is the only one I actually haven't played yet but I can already tell from the screenshots and the basic story that it's going to be a great game.

[PyTom]

One thing to think of is that it's probably better for a game to have no graphics then bad graphics. With no graphics, at least the player is free to imagine what is going on, and the graphics don't distract from the gameplay as bad graphics would.

(This probably applies separately for character graphics and backgrounds. So a game with good background graphics and no character graphics may be better then a game with good background graphics and no character graphics.)

[monele]

(This probably applies separately for character graphics and backgrounds.So
a game with good background graphics and no character graphics may be better then
a game with good background graphics and no character graphics.)

There is something confusing here ^^

[mikey]

... and the site I checked out also praised Tales of Lemma 1 as being the first ren'ai game in english...

Hmmm, there were Muto Anime's works, and also Akane's small BL games before ToL1.

But ToL1 started a new era, and while not technically the first, I think it was the most influential and important.

Actually, June 19th (about 2 weeks from now), it will be the 3rd anniversary of the release of ToL1. We should celebrate this somehow. Have a forum party or something. Without ToL1, who knows... would there be Black Pencil, would there be Ren'Py... ?

[PyTom]

ToL1. We should celebrate this somehow. Have a forum party or something. Without ToL1, who knows... would there be Black Pencil, would there be Ren'Py... ?

I can say for certain that without ToL1, there would not be Ren'Py. I belive, but am not totally certain, that Ren'Py was also inspired by Black Pencil... although the second Ren'Py codebase (what was released as the original demo and the onegai nurse demo) was more-or-less a contemporary of Black pencil.

(The original Ren'Py codebase only lasted a day or so, and was never released, because there was no way to load or save using it. Originally, Ren'Py was supposed to just be a collection of Python functions, with the script also a python function... but there's not really a sane way to jump to the middle of a function!)

I know that the third codebase (Which became Ren'Py 4 and Ren'Py 5) had as a goal to be able to replicate Black Pencil... which is the reason for the rarely used (thank goodness!) default_transition variable.

[mikey]

On my side, that was almost a rethorical question, frankly. Without ToL1, there would be no Black Pencil.

In late 2003 it probably all came together. I had an in-dev project for years, that never really seemed to take off. I was going to leave my game designer's job soon and I made bad experiences with online collaborations, in an effort to make my own simple anime game.

At this time, ToL1 appeared and that's when I decided to start completely new - I renamed my web site, started ATP Projects and in October I started to work on my small game project, something that I could make with the help of just a handful of people I trust, that I could coordinate all by myself and ultimately something that I could call mine.

It took 2 months or so before I was finished with BP and registered on these forums, to be able to disuss all of this. There are a lot of small freeware games out there, but ToL1 helped me realize that this concept can also work in ren'ai VNs - I just didn't think that small games like that could be accepted - then again, I was thinking in very different ways back then, and it was on these forums that I started to appreciate and understand the fan-made nature of many projects.

So, currently I am also working for a game-making company, but that is just a job now. My heart's already been stolen by all the great games that fans make, and one of the things I will always think of when I'll remember those times, will definitely be the cute game with the purple-haired girl that I stumbled upon completely randomly one day while idly googling on a very ordinary evening.

Hmmmm, the memories...

[musical74]

Oh, good...someone else noticed PyTom's strange comment...I don't feel so bad now.

It's amazing...no ToL1 would have meant no RenPy and no BP? Wow...I was doing a search for *Anime Games* and ToL1 was a suggestion...thought it looks good and decided to give it a go. Year and a half later, I'm still around...If we do a party for ToL, what do we need to bring?

[ShiraiJunichi]

I loved the dating sim elements that appeared in a few commercial games (not VNs) video games I played- specifically Azure Dreams. ToL1 was my first experience with pure ren'ai, in the form of a VN. I had heard of Tokimeki Memorial, and wanted to play it or games like it badly. And somehow I stumbled on ToL1 and these forums.
Of course, I absolutely loved ToL1. It was a very magical first experience with a ren'ai VN. Remembering it now... it just seems so special.
What would the world be like without ToL1? It's a frightening thought...

[kara24601]

I agree....life / a world without TOL1 , Ren'py , and all these other great projects...*shudder*

[Blue Lemma]

Wow, it's amazing how much ToL 1 helped to spark - I didn't fully realize it ^_^

A ToL 1 birthday party? I know what I'm going to bring! The two easter eggs I hid in the game... if the people I hid them for don't mind~ (I think Grey figured one of them out with some hints from a previous thread, though, hee hee)

I'm glad my little game helped inspire people to pursue their own ren'ai dreams. Even though my release schedule has been...uh...shaky, I guess I should take some comfort in the fact that I helped get some stuff rolling Now we're seeing all sorts of neat games from different people, and I'm honored that they make the forum a central place for discussion! *sniffle*

Miko: Haha, he's such a softy sometimes ^_^;

Well, back to work on Shira-Oka and Hanafuda Club