Lemma Soft Forums

DeeKay wrote:Let's open a bottle of champagne to celebrate ! Uh.. can't share over the internet though, sorry..

Here is my idea, let me know what you think before we start anything.

[*]We make a tiny VN each.
[*]We send each other our VNs at the end of the week.
[*]We can critique, comment on each other's works. Feed off our ideas.
[*]In the following week, we add an additional scene to the VNs. I'll add one to yours and you can add one to mine.
- The reason for this, rather than continuing to work on our own is so we can get a feel of working with someone else. Sometimes, you have to work with other people's stuff (eg. A team member can no longer work and his workload is distributed to others). We can get experience in matching our writing and style to that of another person.
[*]Each week, we will have a few simple, basic, achievable mile stones/goals.
- We start slow so we can find our own pace and work upwards from there. Once we have ALL the weekly goals done we can spice things up with extras if we want.

Some notes/clarifications.
[*]We want to keep this simple. Its more a learning exercise than a VN.
[*]We can pillage stuff from the creative commons. Add in some stuff of your own if you have time and feel like it.
[*]This isn't just for ren'py practice, though it is mostly for me. Feel free to practice your writing or artworks after meeting the goals. This is one of the reason I think we should keep the goals low.
[*]Schedules and time clashes are bound to happen sooner or later. Feel free to postpone a submission if you need time. School, exams, friends, chores and such comes first. This is more of a hobby project. I should hopefully *fingers crossed* find and start work again in a few weeks so I'll likely be in the same boat.
[*]We have our strengths in different areas. It is important to note we are not competing. If I for some silly reason include a full album of fancy music, it shouldn't mean you have to include music as well. Similarly if you write an amazing piece or use nice fancy custom sprites there are no expectations to follow.

We can start together and let the stories and scenes diverge from each other as we go.

Week One
The Milestones
[*]A single scene
[*]Minimum two main characters with their own sprites.
[*]Minimum 2 background images.
Optional:
[*]A choice. (Menu & Jump in ren'py terms )
[*]A simple end.

I added some optional stuff since this week we don't have to check each others works. I think next week we can work on less goals but perhaps more interesting ones.

Slight Restrictions (only for first week)
For convenience sakes, since we both like Fantasy I suggest we stick to that. Further more, since we need two characters I suggest we use each other. We can, perhaps, put a little of ourselves in our character so we can understand each other a little better if you like. In this first scene, we meet up for the first time in a fantasy world. After this meeting we travel together, for whatever the reasons, to where ever the destination. How we meet is entirely up to you, casual meeting, action scenes, mystery or whatever style you fancy, but this restriction aims to give us a focal starting point and a slight direction. Focus on the meeting and running ideas. If you want to include sketches or ideas that is fine, but consider that if you plan an epic adventure and across the mountains but next week I write that we took the scenic beach route instead due to the alignment of the stars and direction of the winds then you're stuck with that until you can change it in the 3rd scene.

Lastly, keep in mind that we will be playing our tiny VN multiple times for error checking and checking each other's script files etc. Adding too much content will complicate things.

Above all else, I hope we have fun as well as learn!

Kato wrote:@Mephala - That sounds fantastic! Sharing and helping each other like that should result in you picking up things really quick I went the 'learning solo' route myself and only signed up to the forums when I thought I was sufficiently capable at helping others and could add something to the community. If I could go back though I would have liked to do what you have done and find someone at my skill level and work together to better ourselves. Good luck with you VNs!

ps: Have you considered working together with this other person and making a VN for NaNoReNo? It may be a bit soon but if the chemistry is right between you, a month could be more than enough time to finish a small VN :p

Mephala wrote:

Kato wrote:@Mephala - That sounds fantastic! Sharing and helping each other like that should result in you picking up things really quick I went the 'learning solo' route myself and only signed up to the forums when I thought I was sufficiently capable at helping others and could add something to the community. If I could go back though I would have liked to do what you have done and find someone at my skill level and work together to better ourselves. Good luck with you VNs!

ps: Have you considered working together with this other person and making a VN for NaNoReNo? It may be a bit soon but if the chemistry is right between you, a month could be more than enough time to finish a small VN :p

Thanks! NaNoReno sounds amazing! I am uncertain we will be ready for it. It also seems to be quite a bit of a challenge to be honest given our current capabilities. I have no doubts that if we give it a good, serious crack we would leave with invaluable experience whether we complete the challenge or not. I suppose we will give it some consideration. The challenge is more or less the same as what we have planned but the commitment of it seems higher given the deadline of 1 month. Our method was more uhh... relaxed, this could be a bit scary.
How often does NaNoReno run?

Sunlit-Dreamer wrote: Here is an old thread that has the original guidelines. http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... f=4&t=1750

Mephala wrote: But, we now have two hesitant newbies excitedly poking ren'py engine with stubby curious fingers! And I have +1 casual friend. Win/win in every way.

Seiia wrote: I got a full scholarship to college! I am leaving college debt free.

latte wrote:Making things pretty has been a hobby of mine since Neopets lookups (lol)