ProjectAIDS

[Recca Phoenix]

I was scared too for a while....
Because I like to do everything myself I was worried that I could never make an awesome game.
But yeah, a lot of people just don't see their projects through.
This is my creative outlet now (and has replaced PLAYING games time-wise), something I don't feel ashamed about "wasting time" on, especially when I finish a project. Playing video games was another thing....even if you beat a game what can you say you accomplished, other than "I beat the game?" That was fine back when I had loads of time to waste but now I just can't stand doing anything where I don't have something to show for it.
But, as John Lennon said, "Time you enjoyed wasting was not wasted."

Anyone who wants to make money off their ren'py game can be my guest. You're cutting your audience in half with the fact that it COSTS MONEY, PLUS you may feel inclined to throw in the generic game-lengthening "stats-based dating sim engine" so that the game is industry-length.
The beauty of many of our fan-made games here is the variation in creative structuring and the fact that even those of us who are lacking in programming knowledge, art skills, writing skills, or whatever can MAKE A GAME!!!! and people will appreciate it.

Not to critcize those who want to make a commercial game (I'd do it if I could make a competitive, commercial-quality game....). It's a brave thing to do.

So whatever that AIDS thing is.... and I can't really tell WHAT it's supposed to be AT ALL..... I hope whoever's behind it has the gaman spirit to finish it.

Aaaagh another long rant, courtesy of sugar and the overactive creator's mind. ^_^;;;;

[tyciol]

I mean, look at Flight of Twilight...I have NO idea whether things are moving there or not...true, people can still be working via private email, but then why set up a forum dedicated to the project?.

Hmmm, my guess is that if you set up a forum chances are you will want to show off your art and progress - and so the project can't really be progressing. Usually you'll get the answers that there are things done "in the background" and it's in a "specific development process stage", but that just means the guys are playing WoW.

I would think of one reason for the forum - recruiting artists. However, this can be done with a simple subpage on the main website, a forum is too much for it.

This feels sort of like the anime boom in America during the early 2000. For the past 2+ years there were few OELVNs, so each release was played. But now I feel even more pressured to finish my game and get it out there before the heavy hitters start pumping out products and anything I do will be relegated to background noise. So this explains my combined skepticism coupled with fear.

Well, skepticism (read: experience) says you can sleep soundly. There was Project Journeys, Love Revo, Peach Soft, Hyperbunny, Hirameki VN, Xenallure, Shira-Oka, and now we have FlightOfTwilight and we will have more in the future.

They all had talent, skill, resources and everything to become the definitive OELVN, and none of them have produced anything except the infamous character sketches and and some screen designs. Actually, you can judge a project fairly well after 3 months and then after 6 months. Usually when something is announced, it ALWAYS looks good, because it's fresh and new so there's this natural reaction of omg this looks so great, they are pros. But then you see a bit more and discover this and that has been cheated, that thing is a free resource and after 3 months of checking back even the cutest character designs wear off, so even if the game was finished, it wouldn't feel fresh anymore. So forums and public development are a very double-edged sword. I'd be more "afraid" of sleeper projects, ones that the teams don't tell you exist.

Regard Peach Soft. I see they did three games in 1993:

https://vndb.org/p2381

Was that it? Did they possibly have relations to an earlier or later company? Did VN makers bother with websites back then? Guessing it was too early for archive.org to crawl if they did.

Did any descriptions or reviews of this game survive long? Did advertisements for them get placed in magazines? Usenet?