Plot Ideas

Ideas and games that are not yet publicly in production. This forum also contains the pre-2012 archives of the Works in Progress forum.
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Ekamu
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Plot Ideas

#1 Post by Ekamu »

Hi I’m working up some plot ideas, which one do you think is most interesting? Feel free to use these ideas if you want or share some of your own ideas.

1) A secret society of Aliens hybrids exists on earth. They are the ruling elite and govern most human societies. One of the Aliens falls in love with a human and decides to rebel against the society by revealing the truth to the masses.

2) An assassin is sent to kill a former CIA agent, she discovers that the CIA agent has unravelled a conspiracy and the assassin decides to help him under one condition.
The CIA agent must fake his death.

3) A drug addict has visions of a post apocalyptic future. Nobody believes him. He is abducted by aliens that decide to help him unleashing his psychic powers. The reptilians want him dead.

4) A astronaut is stranded on the moon, he has to survive. He discovers secrets about the moon.

5) Criminals are sent to mars, they get infected by a virus and mutate into super humans. The government abandons them and they are stranded on mars left to survive and plan an escape back to earth.
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Re: Plot Ideas

#2 Post by Nighten »

Bonjour Ekamu :)

I formally believe that ideas are neutral: There’s no bad or good one in my opinion.
It may seem a little moralist but the plot you should choose is the one who inspire you the most, or the one on which you have the clearest vision.
Some of your idea are very vague ("He discovers secrets about the moon."), it seems difficult to build a full story about them (maybe you have more details in mind but don’t want to reveal your twist). To avoid that, my technique is to always have the end of the story in my plot: It make the writing process more clear for me.

Anyway, to answer your question I really like the last one, about mutant criminals on mars; It have a clear goal and a funny setting. I don’t think it would work if written too seriously, sounds like more an action-comedy with badass super humans who want to get back on earth to take revenge.
But maybe you have a completely different vision on it haha.
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Re: Plot Ideas

#3 Post by fleet »

I favor the fourth idea, but you should write the story that excites YOU the most.
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Re: Plot Ideas

#4 Post by Ekamu »

Thanks. I might mix a few or change some.

The plot twist for the fourth was that the moon landing was hoaxed but the real footage of the moon shows evidence of an alien civilization that existed a long time ago.

I'm sort of biased towards sci-fi plots but I'm thinking for a VN there needs to be some kind of significant love interest or romance to fit the whole boy meets girl, girl meets boy e.t.c

I will experiment and see if i can make a sci-fi version of the traditional VN plot.

sometimes its best to let the game make itself meaning not to spend too much time on ideas and plot and get to actual work.
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Re: Plot Ideas

#5 Post by littlebrowneyedbambi »

I'm actually very interested in the story you have in mind for Plot Nr. 1

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Re: Plot Ideas

#6 Post by georgiebao »

I feel like the second one intrigues me the most, but ultimately it's what you think you can do with the story after the initial premise has been set up that should be your deciding factor imo!

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Re: Plot Ideas

#7 Post by nangke »

Not knowing anything about your process, I'd suggest going with whichever is the most recent one you came up with. Or the one that you know the ending to.

However, if you've already done some pre-writing (like drafting plots, coming up with characters, world-building, etc), then I'd go with whichever one you've already spent the most time on.

All that said, I think I like the 5th one.

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Re: Plot Ideas

#8 Post by Fulcrum »

Hi!

Of all the synopsis, I'd say n°2 is the most interesting, as it has the potential for quite a thriller and a romance, if both protagonists experience well written growth through the conflict.
But, as everyone else says, you should go for the concept that hooks you the most as you write it!

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Re: Plot Ideas

#9 Post by curry nochi rice »

Good ideas but very large in scope to be honest. Out of all of them, number 3 sounds the easiest to develop right off the bat.
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Re: Plot Ideas

#10 Post by Zelan »

You definitely don't have to limit yourself to the traditional system of romance and love interests. It's very common in VNs, yes, and it might not attract internet-wide attention, but there are definitely people here who are interested in VNs that break the mold a little bit.

Some good VNs I've read that don't have love interests or romance as the focus:

Banality Man - A fairly straightforward comedy game.
Encanto - The protagonist of this game is a young child, so there are no romantic elements. It instead deals with his spiritual encounter, and the several possible outcomes of his actions.
Fairy Tales of Innocent Children - (ithc.io link) A very serious story about a chance encounter between two strangers. Also has a young child as the protagonist. One of my favorite visual novels to date.
I woke up next to you again. - Despite the fact that the first tag in the title is "Romance," it's really not a romantic game at all. This one also takes a very serious tone.
LAST CALL - Explores strained relationships between the protagonist and her friends/family, all platonic.
Natalie - A lighthearted simulator about work-life balance.
Palette Swap - Surrealist dark comedy; longer than most of the other VNs on this list.
Those Without Names - Focuses around the relationship between two siblings; also longer than most of the other ones on this list.
Trial By Fire - A courtroom drama, inspired by Ace Attorney.

I would highly recommend checking a few of these out for some ideas on how to do a visual novel without romance, especially since the majority of these are pretty short and can be played through in less than an hour. As you can see, VNs without romance can have varying topics, tones, and lengths, so it's not as impossible as you might think to garner interest in your game.

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Re: Plot Ideas

#11 Post by alphawolf »

hi...

why not roll them all into one big blockbuster.


A secret society of Alien hybrids exists on earth. They are the ruling elite and govern most human societies. One of the Alien girls falls in love with a human and decides to rebel against the society by revealing the truth to him.

Hes an ex cia assassin who then decides to kill a their leader. She helps the the agent in unravelling the conspiracy but decides to help him under one condition...the agent must fake his death via an alien extermination program...so he can the go off the radar and carry out his plan.

During the staged death ritual, he has drug induced visions of a post apocalyptic future and all the actual secrets of the alien society.
The alien girl also helps him unleashing his psychic powers thru supplying the drug at great risk to herself.

Its discovered that humans are being sent to mars/the aliens former planet, where they get injected by a drug and mutate into super humans but are forced to work as slaves. The alien government keeps them there and they are forced to survive without a way to escape back to earth.

The agent stows away on a ship bound for the planet while his girlfriend works on board.
They take over the ship as it crash lands then have to survive and discover all secrets about the place.
While also finding and liberating the human hostages and planning an escape back to earth.

The agent and his alien gf and his super crew then return to earth to overthrow the remaining alien government.


just a idea
...ciao

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