Summer Comes Too Late (on indefinite hiatus)

[lunasspecto]

Note: I found that I lost the story and was unable to continue scripting this, so I have placed the project on an indefinite hiatus and never asked anybody to collaborate with me (as I had a sneaking suspicion I'd have to abandon this project). I have a completely written story in mind for my current visual novel project, so I don't have to worry about that one going the same way this project did.

I've been working on a visual novel project for a little while. It's called "Summer Comes Too Late". Though it's definitely not finished yet (as of June 24, 2008), I have an urge to share the project with the OEVLN community, so I'm posting links to a demo version in these forums. Remember, this is just the beginning of the story, and I plan to replace most of the backgrounds once I've finished the script. I really don't know what I'd put in a synopsis about this, so for now I'll just say that it's a realistic story told from a high school student's perspective. Enjoy!

Windows compressed archive: http://www.mediafire.com/?xcfhljfmjmy
Linux compressed archive: http://www.mediafire.com/?ogle3wtzmyd
Mac compressed archive: http://www.mediafire.com/?1jwjgngbudc
Windows installer: http://www.mediafire.com/?glmjnt1mg7q

The game uses Ren'Py and music from ccMixter.org. The current (placeholder) graphics were made in the GIMP. I'll attach a screen shot of the current main menu.

This is a screenshot of the main menu of Summer Comes Too Late 0.2 (demo version).

[lunasspecto]

I'm considering adding voice acting to the story once it's finished. What sort of attitude does the OELVN community generally take toward voice acting?

[Jake]

I'm considering adding voice acting to the story once it's finished. What sort of attitude does the OELVN community generally take toward voice acting?

Typically, the OELVN community doesn't have a single opinion on anything, let alone something like voice acting.

Some people like it; others don't. Personally I find that I often end up skipping it, because (like most people) I read a lot faster than people speak, and with a VN (unlike, say, a subtitled movie) there's nothing else but that line of dialogue going on to occupy my mind. So to get me to enjoy the voice acting as more than a "huh, that's nice, it gives me an impression of how the characters sound" feature, you'd have to remove the text. And I suspect - although can't confirm, 'cause nobody's tried it yet that I've seen - that I'd probably get bored with stories I wasn't enjoying quicker, 'cause it was taking me longer to get through them, so your story had better not start slowly.

The other problem, of course, being finding enough talented enough people willing to act for you. Some people have more success than others, in that respect.

[Mirielle]

I'm considering adding voice acting to the story once it's finished. What sort of attitude does the OELVN community generally take toward voice acting?

I personally like it, but that's a lot of bias on my part since it generally means more possible work for me.

Ahem. But that aside, I like listening to the voice acting in an OELVN because I feel it adds another layer of depth to the characters. A lot of emotion can be expressed in the lines and it can deliver more impact upon the reader/viewer. I find that when I'm playing a voiced VN, I tend to create judgements on what characters I admire or like based on voice as well, so I guess you really need to find the perfect voice to express their character as believably and naturally as possible. I usually will play the story through, taking the time to listen to the voices and really engage in the story, but when I play through the next time I'll skip through parts I've heard. Or I can just go to options and turn off the voices if I don't want to listen through them again. It caters to both crowds then, you can play it voiced or unvoiced, however you wish.

[Mistik]

So I played through your demo. I was sad to see it had no choices, so I can't really talk about it as a game or How I feel about the character as a game character.

but as for directing. I was pretty amazed about how much effort you put into the scene changes, from the good timing to the frizzy tv screen shot to the blue screen details. and even though the backgrounds were a child's quality drawing, your demo still gave an aura of quality and high presentation. I'm sorry but I played with the sound off because I'm in a friend's room so I also can't comment about that either. If your game is going where it thinks it's going I think I will enjoy the world, but I really have no Idea where it's going.

I don't think it needs voice acting, but that's just how I feel about games.