New Year Goals!

[Auro-Cyanide]

I prefer goals to resolutions since resolutions tend to indicate a negative regret of the past and I like to think positively of the future!

A big part of goal setting is making sure they are achievable and measurable. It's not enough to just say you will do something, you need to break it down into small parts that you can action easily on a daily basis! This is great both for productivity but also moral. It's nice to be able to move forward and achieve things. Even if you fail your big goal, being able to measure and see the progress you have made on smaller goals means you did something you wouldn't have otherwise.

So what are your VN goals for 2015 and how do you intend to get there?


For me I have a couple goals:

1. Finish BCM. This is one of those big tasks I need to seriously break down. Looking at it as a whole is too hard. I don't even know how many CGs I will need to do yet, the draft has only just been finished. What I /am/ going to do to start off though is spend at least 2 hours a day working on art whenever possible (on weekends I will obviously try to push for more). Often the hardest part of working consistently is starting, so it's good to set a time for yourself and break it up into half hour or hour chunks. It's much easier to say 'I will work for 30 minutes' then to say 'I need to get this CG done'. Usually you get into a groove and continue anyway! And if not, at least you made positive progress.

2. Take part in Nanoreno. I'm not a stranger to Nanoreno deadlines so that isn't exactly my primary goal. It looks like I will be collaborating directly with another artist this time. I know that will be a little bit challenging for me so my goal is not only to finish a game in a month, but also to create a healthy and balanced relationship with another artist while working on the same game. I will need to be patient, flexible and creative so that we can blend well together. I want this to be a positive learning experience. I will have my usual Nanoreno breakdown of time frames, but this time I will have to also include communication time and back and forth between the art pieces.

3. Attempt to write a VN. Notice I said attempt and not complete. I'm not a great writer and my primary motivation is actually to learn more about the writing process and the way VNs can work so I can understand the people I work with better. So far I am working on a story board and figuring out the point mechanics. This is something I will be able to do when I am unable to draw, like when I am away from home! That way it will also not overtake my art time and my number 1 goal.

4. Continue to write a blog post every second month. I've mostly been achieving this by having a topic in mind before the month starts and setting a deadline for myself, so gonna keep doing that!

[Morhighan]

Hm, my goals are...

1. Finish AIdol Main Script and do necessary rewrites.
2. Don't get too caught up in editing so that I just stop writing. DO NOT DO EET.
3. I want to do a few short projects throughout the year. Maybe a Nano, maybe a couple of jams.
4. Work on website and blog.

[PyTom]

I'm continuing my resolutions from 2014, which include:

1) Each week, make a checklist of things I must do each day, and then each day, do them. The goal of this exercise is to decide in advance what it's important that I spend time on, and to help me avoid wasting time on things like TV shows until the important things are done.

2) As part of that, work on Ren'Py every day. This is defined as making at least one git commit to Ren'Py or one of its associated projects - RAPT, renios, or pygame_sdl2.

To this I've added for 2015:

3) Play visual novels for at least 10 minutes each day. Once again, this is kind of a priorities thing - last year, Ren'Py had always taken priority over actually playing games. This year, I want to experience what people create, both because I actually enjoy the form, and because it's helpful for me to know what people are doing. So far this year, I've plated through Fault Milestone One and Without Within, and I've started the third game already.


I find the best resolutions are ones that are written as positive and concrete goals. So instead of simply resolving to play more VNs, I've set a minimum amount of time I want to spend on them. Same thing with Ren'Py - one commit a day is my minimum. I agree with Auro with pretty much everything she says - the hard part is getting started, once you're there, you often keep going.

[Rinima]

My goals:
1. get at the very least, a beta demo out for WtRF. At the least, and finish the writing for it so I don't have to worry about it.
2. Work on my and my boyfriends secret RPG project and get it out.
3. Spend at least 1 hour a day on art.
4. Cut down on chocolate

[octacon100]

My Goals:

1. Try and help out on this forum more. Might have some source code to upload here soon.
2. Have another episode of Regeria Hope out before the baby is born. So before April.
3. Try and write an idea for a game or a game feature once a day. Maybe a page.

[MapleWizen]

1) Finish my current project. The hardest part is done so I just need to adjust my pace accordingly so I can reach the finish line. Maybe I'll enter it in Nanoreno

2) Finish my other projects, which are secrets. Project #3 may not come to fruitition till 2016 or 2017 since it's more complex than the others, although I'm itching to start on concept art soon.

3) At least get like half of the character profiles I want drawn, and hopefully improve my art skills. The events of midsummer 2014 really threw a monkey wrench in my plans for the rest of last year, and I don't want to repeat my mistakes again.

4) Post here more often. Maybe.

[Rozume]

Seeing everyone's goals is inspiring! c:

Here are some of my VN goals:

1. Make a short VN by (mostly) myself. Usually when I have ideas for VNs and such, I don't see them through or I get lost in the process. Obviously, I want to change that this year. How I intend to get there is to break down each process (writing, art, programming) into small chunks. For example, I might spend 30mins to an hour on planning and fleshing the story out one day, and concept art on another.

2. Interact and give more to the community. I really want to get to know people here as well on give some assets in my empty assets thread. To do this, I'll try to make at least one post every day and contribute something to my CC thread each month.

Those are just my VN goals, I have tons of other goals I want to accomplish (but haven't necessarily written down haha) for this year. I really want to make 2015 the best!

[Haze]

Everyone's goals look like great things to strive for. I wish you all the greatest of luck in completing your goals. : )

As for me, my goals are:

1. Finish my long term project. Bare minimum is the writing and coding(since the coding part will involve learning some new things and stretching Renpy's limits a bit), but I want to try and get the whole project done by the end of the year if I can. It'll be my first commercial work, too, so I'm excited to get it done. I've been doing this one by writing frequently; I'm writing a very detailed outline for the project right now(something I don't usually do, but I think it's necessary since this game is probably going to end up very long), but you know what, I think I'm going to start writing at least 50 words per day, outline or rough draft or whatever. Saying it here will help me actually do it, so I'm going to go for it. When I start coding, I'll try to code for at least 15 minutes each day.

2. Not related to just VN's, but I'm writing one song each week for the whole year. I started early December instead of waiting until the new year began, but it's still a resolution for the new year, since I want to improve my music and learn some new techniques this year. I also make an image for each song, so I may get a bit better at artistic things like that, too. (I might post the image for this week's song, Hopeful Inversion, in the Art Dump thread, because I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out. ). I've been pretty diligent with this one so far, but I did give myself one extra day this week, since Monday(the day I post a new song) came, and I realized I didn't have an image for Hopeful Inversion yet. So, I took an extra day to make an image and make the song a bit better.

3. Start music commissions. This is something I'm probably going to do fairly soon, but it's still one of my goals nevertheless.

[nichijoe]

Ah, hi everyone! (I'm new to Lemma Soft, sorry for being such a newbie.)

Goals:

1. Actually start first VN project with college roommate (him doing the coding, me the writing and drawing) (target release: finish by the end of summer 2015)

2. Make own voicebank for UTAU for the music for VN

3. Still stay friends with college roommate through the struggles of making the VN

Hope everyone's new year goes fabulously!!

[potouto]

Uhm...for my new year resolution, I don't have a lot but, I do wish that:

1, I can get into the high school I wanted. The entrance exams is brutal and hard so I will try my best and aiming to have enough marks to pass the exams and enroll my choice of high school
2, Finish both of my projects and release them before the year ends. Yes both of them. Even though the entrance exams are coming. I still feel very motivated to work on both my projects.
3, Get better at art, I want to start to study coloring and anatomy and environment. Also reestablish my style because it's getting out of hand.
4, Have a fun year with my friends and teammates. Always bring happy and positive no matter what come up ahead. And also, stop my parents from parent's meeting (priorty!!)

[Laniessa]

Resolutions! Well. Related to game development, it would be something like,

1, Buckle down and finish writing my relatively short and linear visual novel. Because honestly, it would be 30k words max and I am being pitiful at this whole writing business.
2, Open commissions for art. (Related to that, to be able to draw backgrounds without wincing.)
3, Some focused practice on anatomy and gestures.
4, Participate in at least one game jam.

Good luck, everyone else!

[sendo]

For me:

1. Draw something really complicated(at least for my level) every month. Time to push the envelope! ^-^

2. Write at least 2.5k every month for my game. Target is at least 10K!

3. Release at least one game this year. Collab or something of my own!

4. Join in at least 1 more collab this year. Collabs are pretty fun yo! ^u^

[Sayumi101]

Okay so these are my goals, more or less.
1. Write in my diary daily without fail. {I know it's not really too important or anything. But for once in a long time in want to be able to get past April.}
2. Watch atleast 1 episode of anime/read one volume of manga/play a game worth 30 minutes per day. Reading fanfiction counts too.
3. Get both of my W.I.Ps to release without much hitch. (If things go well, gear up for my first ever NanoReno)
4. Draw atleast one piece every two weeks {not including sprites or CGs}
5. Study more. \Had to say that one. God knows how that'll go.
6. Waste less time and restrict my online time to a minimum.

That's about it. I wish everyone luck for their goals and let's hope we get them done to our satisfaction!~

[thebackup]

Project Goals
1. Finish Café Memoria sometime this year! It's been a long time since I've finished a VN project, I'm very excited!

2. Plan a new project?

Personal Goal
1. Learn to take care of my car. I'm no car enthusiast, but after grazing the right side of my car from a tree branch sticking out from the side at night last week, I realized I can't take what I have for granted, especially expensive stuff like cars. Now, I'm left with several scuff marks and minor damage, going to spend my days off fixing that... I'm just glad the side mirror didn't break off, that would be a nightmare >_>

[Lesleigh63]

Touch base with my visual novel everyday. At this stage I don't know how long it will take to do. I'd like to have the writing done by July when I go on long service leave because I was hoping to spend that time on the art. For my last novel I was spending at least 1.5hrs a day (by getting up at 5am). So I'll probably start that practice again when I go back to work next week (been on holidays - wonderful).