VN Concept- Dancing

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SwingAndToons
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VN Concept- Dancing

#1 Post by SwingAndToons »

I am going to apologize ahead of time because I think the concept needs a little bit of backstory to get where I am coming from.

I personally am a swing dancer. I am not a professional by any stretch of the imagination and am still a beginner. However, I adore it. It is so much fun and it allows you to connect with a wide variety of people. Once I have mastered swing, I eventually want to try other styles of dance.

Anyway, I was talking to one of my teachers and we were discussing how every dance has a very clear and distinct personality. Swing is a very fun and silly dance (it originates as a street dance so that comes as no surprise). Latin dance can be sexy and sultry (or fun as well depending on the style). Ballroom (specifically waltz) is very formal and regal. Ballet is very structured and precise.

Even the way that people dance changes based on their dance of origin. Swingers are bouncy, Latins move their hips a lot, Ballroom dancers have a very still upper body and arms and according to my teacher, ballet dancers can’t keep rhythm but can twirl like no one’s business.

We even mentioned how they could even be translated into accents. Swing would be a New York accent without a doubt (it originates from Harlem), Latin could be Cuban (salsa), Argentinian (tango) or Dominican Republican (bachata), Ballroom could be Austrian (waltz) and Ballet could be Russian (it originates from Italy and France however Russia is well known for ballet)

This got me thinking. I wonder if there is a way to combine my love of the world of dance and my love of Visual Novels. I am such a hopeless romantic that when I thought about each of the personalities, it got me thinking about how that could translate to characters and ultimately romantic plot lines.

So, this is just an idea. I am looking for feedback to see if this is a stupid idea or not. I have never made a visual novel before but dancing is a passion of mine and I would love to figure it out to share it. I think it would be also cool to see if I could contact people in other dance communities to truly get perspective on what their dance is like (I have no shortage of swingers but don’t know much about other dancers). Or maybe add more dance styles

This is obviously extremely rough and I am probably going to flesh it out it in the future. I have an alternate storyline that is more fantasy based however I don’t think that doable. It is very farfetched and not too well written. I think this slice of life one may be simpler and easier to execute overall.

Dance VN Concept- Romance {B/G, G/G. B/B}

The protagonist lives in a city. They are in a dead-end job and find themselves feeling lifeless. They lack a passion in life. Spending most of their time indoors staring vacantly at the television, they generally only leave their house to walk their dog.

Their friends drag them out of the house one night. They urge their friend to start a hobby. Some of their friends take dance classes and offer to bring the protagonist along.

Eventually, the protagonist joins one of the select friends. Each friend represents a choice of which style they wish to pursue

They can try all classes and go to two classes of each before committing for a third class. The player has the option to befriend or romance the teachers in each style. Maybe there is a performance at the end of the class sessions.

There are LGBT relationships possible. Maybe the concept of female leads and male followers can be explored. There are male and female teachers in every style.

The concept in itself I think is pretty simple. But it would be cool to focus in on character development and flesh them out more. Try to make them as human as possible.

Maybe too ambitious for a first project but I think its cool to share

Anyway, its an idea. Hopefully not too weird

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RicharDann
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Re: VN Concept- Dancing

#2 Post by RicharDann »

I'm not particularly a fan of dancing but I have great respect for it, dancers are very passionate and hard-working people, in that they have to keep up with intense training, diets and such, but at the same time, they enjoy every second of it and performances are always a great deal of fun as much for the expectators as for the dancers themselves. This could be a good setting for a VN. Having a lot of different dance styles would mean good reason for the player to replay the game to see them all, and characters as you describe could have great development if they for example hold competitions or discuss ideas about dancing, or something, it depends on how you represent them in game.

At least, I can't think of any reason why it could be considered weird at all. It's a fresh and interesting idea, I can see you've given it a lot of thought even if it's rough and depending on how you go about this, it could be made into a really fun game.
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Katy133
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Re: VN Concept- Dancing

#3 Post by Katy133 »

The idea of taking things like concepts and objects (or different forms of dance, in your case) and personifying them to romance-able people, is something that's been in English visual novels for quite a while now (and I mean that in a good way--there's a niche fandom for those types of VNs). I've seen this done with cake, pizza, building architecture, painting eras, slabs of meat, fidget spinners, and so on. I've even made a VN where you can date a talking sword.

Heck, if you go farther back in time, storytellers have been turning "personifications of concepts" into love interests since before the with things like the Greek gods of classical mythology falling in love with mortals, or the "Death and the Maiden/Death as a Lover" motif that became prominent in Renaissance Era paintings.

So, is personifying inanimate, non-living things a ridiculous idea? Absolutely.

Which it why it's so awesome.
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