Lemma Soft Forums

Hey, hey, hey ...

I'm been tinkering around with making some character designs and stuff ... but I haven't given a whole lot to a story yet, was thinking something set in the future, but not too science-fictiony ...

Can anyone think of a good original idea or concept or theme? Something that hasn't been done to death yet ...

Also, I am most interested in learning how to program a stat progression bar in Ren'py, but completely lost as to how ...

Anywho, here's some art I've done in various programs with the aid of a tablet ... (PhotoImpact 8, Photoshop Elements, Flash MX ...)

The game itself will be using PNGs and GIFs mostly ... not JPEGs ...

*beats head on wall*

My name is BCS ... I forgot to login ... ARGH.

Mods, can you fix it?

Anonymous (but really BCS) wrote:Mods, can you fix it?

Not easily. It's not worth the risk of throwing the database into an inconsistent state, and I don't think there's a high-level ui for changing who wrote a post.

Also, I am most interested in learning how to program a stat progression bar in Ren'py, but completely lost as to how ...

The first thing you'd need to do is to define what you mean by a "stat progression bar". For example, when would such a bar be on the screen? All the time, or just at certain times, or what?

No, it would be a seperate screen ... although, come to think of it, I don't know how to make the game show a special stat screen from the Options menu ... . Eep.

All I know how to do is the basic stuff in the tutorials ...

A stat progression bar ... like ... it starts at 0 for girl #1 and the more she likes you, the more the bar fills up. And if you do something dumb, it goes down.

BCS wrote:No, it would be a seperate screen ... although, come to think of it, I don't know how to make the game show a special stat screen from the Options menu ... . Eep.

Well, to be fair, this is a fairly advanced behavior. I'd probably have to think a little bit about how to do it. Do you want it to be part of the game menu? I could probably do that, but I'd have to think about how.

That being said, it's probably better to wait until you've better defined the story you're trying to tell before deciding that a public-stats based system is the way to tell it. Most of the public-stats based games I've seen involve fairly mindless "levelling-up", which IMO gets in the way of the story.

Oh, it wouldn't be a staple of the game ... more like an indicator that you were moving in the right direction ... but, yeah, you're right, people would just load an older save file every time they saw the bar drop, thus taking some of the fun out of the game ...

Hmm ...

Well, if anyone can figure out how to make a stat bar, do tell. I think I would want to know how just for the sake of knowing. I was thinking that a combat system would be awesome (like FF3 style fighting), but unfortunately, I am a horrible programmer and there is no way that it would ever work flawlessly ... -_-;

Of course, one only needs to look at True Love and Seasons of the Sakura to realize that a great game can come just from having lots of variety in your characters and different kinds of endings.

I just keep on thinking, though ... what kind of story could I go for? Post-apocolyptic? Space travel? What would make it meaningful beyond simply the characters - the story itself?

BCS wrote:I just keep on thinking, though ... what kind of story could I go for? Post-apocolyptic? Space travel? What would make it meaningful beyond simply the characters - the story itself?

I don't think anyone else can answer this for you. Characters are the most important thing, including the arcs that they go through during the story.

Setting is important, but you really shouldn't focus on the setting, or else you wind up like me, with a really detailed explanation of how the characters would travel to mars, and no idea what happens between them when they get there.

(laugh)

I think I've decided on somewhere in the year 2030 ... on Earth ... everything is pretty much computerized, there are a few cyborgs and robots are an everyday thing ... we can run with it from there .

A second opinion... I for one really dislike thinking about characters and plot. For me the emotion is in the foreground (not always, but mostly), so I usually have a clear view what situation someone should be in, but usually select the setting and story (how he got himself into that ^_^) later. Often I don't even explain (GR, BP...) how and why. However this approach will produce a less sophisticated piece.

As for setting... whatever feels okay to you. If you want a more immediate feel, choose a contemporary setting as base and then add individual elements when you need it - no need to have giant robots just for the sake of having giant robots when the story is really about a relationship of two of the pilots - but there's a point in having a robomaid if you want to tell a story about a robomaid's feelings.

I am somehow always in favor of simply "sitting down and writing". Don't worry about "plot inconsistencies" and other things, just write down what's going on in the story and that's that. Those works do however have a tendency to end up kind of unpolished, but there's an audience that can and will appreciate such styles. I do, in fact. I once read mostly very finely-tuned books and such, but ever since I stumbled upon the more unpolished and simple ones I somehow found them more honest and much more intense.

DISCLAIMER: Personal opinion only ^_^

The art is fabulous, BTW. You will have a big advantage there.

I agree with Mikey there... Your art is great! Kudos for you...you have a big start on there

BTW...love your sonic Avy (sorry....Hardcore sonic fan)

Nah, that's ok. There was even a badly-made ren'ai game to go with that avatar once ... :). But it's off my hard drive now ...

Ah, but you're not playing the ren'ai for the art ... though I do love to evoke mood with background and special pictures and such (Divi Dead, anyone?) ... you're playing it for the story.

Thanks for the suggestion, OtakuDash, and an excellent point. Let me nudge out another sprite and a few more backgrounds and see if I can't hodgepodge together a really loose working model by tomorrow. (If I can figure out how to compile the thing ...)

This thing is probably going to be like version 6.7 by the time it's done D:

Just the one thing that sort of irks me about the fanmade games: Most of the programmers can't draw ...

BCS wrote:Just the one thing that sort of irks me about the fanmade games: Most of the programmers can't draw ...

But they try and the results aren't all that bad in some cases. =)

Anyways, welcome to the forum! I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll make.

Well, yes, I mean When I Take Over the World, Garden Society Kykuit, and even Metropolitan Blues weren't terrible when it came to style, and actually quite charming. And GakuenRedux (once I finally realized it actually had no options and put it on auto ...) also has pretty good graphics.

Almost ready with a beta.