[NaNoRenO] [WIP] Amesirun

[prezzey]

This is my NaNoRenO entry... I'm new, tell me if I'm doing something wrong

Current progress:
* 2 backgrounds mostly finished (out of a total of 7 that will be required for my story)
* some character art I lifted from my huge mess of half-finished drawings that never got anywhere
* ~1700 words of script in RenPy

Two teaser images:
http://www.prezzey.net/2010/nanoreno/

This will be a completely strange game which is set in "conceptual space" and involves two characters, the player and the person who is on the second teaser image.

I will be doing everything myself and try not to die trying. The story revolves around the player immigrating to a different planet and getting into Huge Trouble. The actual events happen in the past and the player is recalling his/her/xir/their/etc memories in the present. (I will have customizable personal pronouns for all your needs. If I cannot have a Bioware-style "render your face in glorious 3D" I can at least have customizable pronouns! )

Also, the game is partly inspired by a casual gaming genre (I am unsure whether it can even be called "gaming") which I will not reveal just yet

Comment, comment, comment, I crave feedback!

[Kyonko802]

Sounds interesting.

Seven backgrounds seems a bit thin,how long is the game going to be?

[luminarious]

Very interesting style. I'm intrigued..

[prezzey]

Seven backgrounds seems a bit thin,how long is the game going to be?

I have a list of "minimum assets" which have to be made, and the plan is to extend the game by making more when I'm finished with the rest... I'm doing this because I have a tendency for getting bogged down in very small details, and I'd still prefer to finish the game in March!

(By comparison: The Emerald Spires prologue will have over 20 backgrounds, and that's just the prologue. I've already made those backgrounds, but even considering that, there is no way I will be able to finish that game in March, so I'm making a brand new game which is smaller. I'll start a thread for Emerald Spires if I survive NaNoRenO IY"H )

[usul]

Sounds different, looking forward to try this out.

[prezzey]

Just a quick progress report, I'm finished with about half of the script (40 kilobytes so far) and about 1/3 of the art. I'll hopefully finish the script next week and get the closed beta going on, with placeholder art if must be... but I want to finish all of the art and release the game before Pesach and all the holiday craziness. So a bit earlier than the end of the month.

PM me if you're interested in testing, I already have some people but the more the merrier!

I'll post some teasers later today, or tomorrow, IY"H.

[prezzey]

I posted another small teaser (an image... with a strange symbol )

I'll hopefully manage to finish the script this week. I want to post a story teaser soon, but I don't want it to come across as rushed...

I think it's too long! Not in "too long" in general, but maybe too ambitious for a NaNoRenO game... or maybe it's that I don't have enough spare time? I have to admit my brother buying FFXIII (which I did not intend to buy at launch, but he got a great deal on it) and us playing that cut down on my free time ^^;

I have 46.7 kilobytes of script so far - just checked - and I have 15 out of 24 sections complete (4 conversations for each scene), plus the prologue (but not the endings). No idea about the word count because right now they are in separate files per scene... but a kilobytes to English wordcount conversion thing tells me it's about 24000 words. Which would make the finished total about 38400 words assuming I stay at the same length per scene.

Do you think that's a bit too much, or too little, or...? I'm afraid the conversations might be too long for the onscreen 'action' as in there aren't that many scene changes. When I'm finished with the rest of the art (I'm a bit less than 2/3 of the way) I'm planning on drawing "memory" images, different in style from the other scenes... sketchlike and colored with watercolors (actually watercolor emulation ), and add them to introduce a bit of variety to long conversations. But I'm afraid I'll run out of time, especially considering I need to prepare for the holidays (= Passover).

There are 12 branching points altogether, each with two options, but they can be taken separately. So if you choose something at one point, it will not alter things about other points, just the ending... which will have many variations. (I'm not sure I'm making myself clear, is there a technical term for this?) And each playthrough will have players decide at all 12 points. So in any given playthrough the player will read half of the ingame text.

Let me know what you think...

[JinzouTamashii]

What an interesting style you have.

I can't wait to see your entry.

[IonicMomo]

Your art looks so cool! It's very beautiful and unique. And your plot/storytelling style sounds interesting too.
Don't worry about finishing your game by the deadline. Take your time and make it the best that it can be.
I'm really looking forward to this.

[Kyonko802]

I wouldn't worry about trying to crank this out for NaNoRenO.

I considered making Yukionna a NaNoRenO project, but the sheer size of it prevents me from doing so, it's going to be way too big. I opted not to worry about it, your project itself is more important than a timeline.

Put some love into it.

[prezzey]

Thank you everyone for your kind replies!!!

I unfortunately have to say that I will not be able to make the deadline unless something unexpected happens... I ran out of time with work and (especially) Pesach preparations at hand.

The game is about two-thirds finished, but I haven't touched it in more than a week... *sigh*

I will probably release it in April, but with additional art to make the wait worth it I'm also planning on making some music, but that will have to come later since I'm not comfortable making music during Sfirat haOmer. (Explanation on wikipedia if this made no sense to you. I observe these restrictions until Lag baOmer, the 2nd of May this year unless I misread my calendar YET AGAIN.)

So my current plan is -

Sometime in April: Release a fully playable version of the game (with more art than I originally planned, to compensate for the delay) without music

Sometime in May: Make and release the music

Unless I find some suitable music with a Creative Commons or similarly permissive license, in which case I won't make my own (I do want to make music for the main Emerald Spires game though, but that will be completely different and will consist of arrangements of traditional folk songs from my geographic area, I've already done some very limited work on it a few months back).

***

Also, in the meanwhile you can read a story I wrote back in December which is set in the same universe as Amesirun. (Sorry, I completely forgot to mention this!!)

***

Sheesh, if I take this long to finish my "small" project, how long will it take for me to finish my "large" project?

[prezzey]

April was quite hectic for me, but I still managed to work on the game (not as much as I'd have liked though ^^;), here's another small teaser. As I'm saying there, the game is close to completion, I've added some features not originally planned to compensate a bit for the delay.