Clone VN idea, need suggestions!

[balldancing]

So this is a really strange idea and I’ve literally written one whole messy route (60,985 words!!!!!) and I really want to see it come to life!! So, I’m putting it out there.

Basically, it’s about a clone distributed by a company called “Nakayuma”. Ultimately, Nakayuma is a company that distributes clones for particular purposes, e.g. if you need to get rid of someone who knows too much and replace them, or if you need someone to accompany you for a day or a year — they can do it.

Anyway, our main man, Christopher, needs a clone for personal purposes. He is the CEO of a company that owes its success to a virtual reality game called MicroRealm — Christopher’s brainchild. Our main lady, Eliana, is sent to him.

The story basically details her struggles as a clone in such a fast-paced environment. She experiences unorthodox feelings towards Christopher, accelerated by an underlying trauma she can’t identify.

The final scenes comprise in one HUGE, TURBULENT and FAR-FETCHED plot twist and I’m itching to get it going.

I truly want to see this happen, but it’s a long shot at the moment since I have high expectations for presentation and the lowest budget in the world so I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about how to put these things in motion? Do I join a team of partners? I also make GUIs so I guess I have that to offer

[Mammon]

Large projects you make alone or with a few others working for free is certainly possible, I've done both. My first project P&Y was over 100000 words and made completely alone during my free time in 1,5 years, though the artwork looks rather terrible because I made it myself without experience in digital drawing. And S&Y was made as a NaNo project last year with a group willing to work with me for free, though small and jam-bound projects do tend to lend themselves better for non-paid groups than larger projects. And currently I'm working on The Thorn Prince, which shows that experience and more time can be an alternative for monetary investments on a project to improve and create. All three on the lowest budget there is; $0.

With my shameless plugs and curriculum vitea out of the way, here are some things you should know. Or at least things I can tell you:
-You can make a whole VN yourself thanks to Ren'Py, although this will mean that some things you don't have as much talent or patience for may suffer. Of course there are things such as the BGs that can remain CC to make things manageable. It's the question whether you have the project, skill, communication ability and luck to keep a project group together or if you prefer working alone.

-Even if you work alone, ask people here. Lemmasoft is filled with people willing to help and offer advise. If you wonder if something is possible with Ren'py coding, ask that question. If you can't figure something out, ask coders for help. Especially the programming is well-aided with quick and very to-the-point helpful responses here, though writing and art are of course with their generous benefactors as well. People willing to give line corrections on your sprites and free proofreaders.

-Money is not a vital part of a game's development, rather than something that can be exchanged for part of the dedication and time you'll need otherwise. It's a bit like a cash-shop item in that regard, it can buff your project and make it grow faster but you can't buy it in its entirety without it being shallow and uninspired.

-However, a project group without money is much more reliant on luck. If you pay people, you can make demands in delivered products and deadlines. If they're working for free, those people are working with you rather than for you. And not everyone here truly has the dedication to pull through when a project takes a while or gets to the less fun parts.

To get a free project group working well, I'd advice the following:

-Have some things to show for that truly show the project. Give all members the script you've made, for example. And perhaps some artwork if you already have it. A faceless and vague project isn't as much fun to work on and easier abandoned. If they know it's a good project, they'll be more motivated themselves.

-More important than a motivating project is a motivating team leader (you). Make sure you communicate more rather than less. Your enthusiasm in the project can infect them. You shouldn't leave them free to go their own way and only contact you when they got an asset done, make sure there's communication that allows them to discuss, vent and talk with you and each other on a daily basis. If they feel like your project's discord group is filled with online friends rather than a boss expecting a product before the deadline, they're more likely to stick around and work with enthusiasm.

-Make sure you have a comprehensible and not-growing list of what you need. If you say 'some sprites' when recruiting an artist and it turns out to be 14 sprites where they were expecting three or four, you can imagine the reaction. And if those 14 sprites become 15 while they're busy on nr.2 and 16 while they're working on nr.4, they might feel like the job becomes a chore that will never end. Also, try to limit the assets you need, if you have a character that only appears for a few sentences in one scene, you shouldn't ask the artist to spend hours on it. Scrap the character instead. The same applies to the workload of all other project members of course.

-Be a friendly team leader, but not their friend. You're going to need luck to get good team members, but also the strength to be stern with those who need it. And those who won't be productive enough have to be cut loose. I myself had a lot of luck with the core development group of my own project S&Y, but I can easily imagine the project never seeing the light of day had I lacked this luck. With NaNo you can't cut someone loose halfway, but with your project, if you get a team, there's going to be times that someone doesn't respond or does anything for months, you'll need the strength to know if they'll change and look for someone else if they won't.

[balldancing]

Thank you so much for your lovely reply Mammon!!! Sorry I took so long to respond, I missed the notification T__T

I was wondering if you had any experience with a GoFundMe type budget-raising deal? I really feel like this game could be something big. I've already written two routes and there's one more to go, plus a bonus route that people are going to love (I can just tell !!!) but I have no experience with marketing my VN, nevertheless recruiting people to help with my project. What I would prefer is to have others to do programming, music, backgrounds, sprites, etc. so I can focus on the storyline and tidy up any plotholes. I also have no idea if its worth as much as I think it is. I guess I'm just ranting at the moment but if you do have any tips, please share

[Mammon]

I was wondering if you had any experience with a GoFundMe type budget-raising deal?

Unfortunately not, as my $0 budget comments already suggested. In fact I can't say I've even heard of it before, but perhaps others here have. I assume from the name it's either something like Patreon or Kickstarter?

I really feel like this game could be something big. I've already written two routes and there's one more to go, plus a bonus route that people are going to love (I can just tell !!!) but I have no experience with marketing my VN, nevertheless recruiting people to help with my project. What I would prefer is to have others to do programming, music, backgrounds, sprites, etc. so I can focus on the storyline and tidy up any plotholes. I also have no idea if its worth as much as I think it is. I guess I'm just ranting at the moment but if you do have any tips, please share

I can see a few things in here I'd like to already warn/alert you of:

-Marketing VNs is probably the biggest issue around here, with some people saying that you should invest anywhere between 25-50% of the time it took you on making the VN on advertisement once you've got it. Not the script, the entire VN. Got scared? If you didn't you should, because the very idea scares me every time. While most people here don't advertise their games this intensly, there's no clear bar for what a decent amount of exposure is. Rather, you only have those that advertise it enough to become a hype or well-played game, and people below that. Most people around here do invest quite a bit of time in their WiPs and eventual pages, as well as in trailers and trying to get a social media account for their game to build a following, but still end up mostly as an obscure game once it's released. There's really just too many games coming out these days for the game to speak for itself without all that public and social investment, unfortunately.

-Getting a background artist is possible but not that likely, they are the high-demand low-supply group of the art community and rarely available for free or low-budget. Fortunately though this part is also one of the most accepted creative common parts of a game, so don't feel bad if you use some of Uncle Mugen's backgrounds or render some pictures with a few filters. Backgrounds are much more acceptable and sometimes even preferred to be the standard, while using other assets like CC sprites in your end product is much less accepted and appreciated. So if you get a proper budget a background artist isn't out of the question, but it's probably for the best to keep it in mind but not yet in your planning.

-Something I as a writer would always recommend fellow writers is to get acquainted with Ren'py's programming. Even if you get a programmer and don't learn it a lot, just knowing the basics of how to write a script in a renpy-friendly way is real useful for everyone involved. Always having people speak 'in these' can be a useless effort because the programmer might have a trick to add those automatically, or even be a nuisance because they interfere and have to be manually removed from the script. And I often see people write scripts in Unity ways with Clara: to show that Clara says something, while this too is a lot of wasted effort for a script meant for Ren'py. Learning the basics of how to work with persistents and to call scenes, cg and images are recommendable too. Learning how to write those can be a lot clearer and easier than having to describe them with words.