Pet Project Revived (Writers Wanted)

[Fawn]

@HanaMori: Omg Chicken-tan sounds so cute @A@

@Auro: This is a collaboration of different people and it will have different styles, but, to make it polished, it would be best for everything to be based off a simple premise and have common elements. Having the stories unorganized would distract from the quality, as I have said before. The creativity is in your unique pet-tan story.

If one person has the little sister and another person has Bob the veterinarian, when players play through other parts of the game they may ask "Wait, so the MC's little sister doesn't exist in (insert pet-tan's name here)'s world?" Good games don't make players question the writing.

It's a collaboration of talents surrounding a main premise, everyone adds their own unique pet-tan to the world, but they shouldn't change the world. Everyone's already showing their unique stories and perspective through the pet, and since there are a lot more people getting into this project, each story should only focus on the pet-tan for simplicity's sake.

Also, for writers, I've found some good inspiration for writing about your pet (though you might already have done it) Research guides on how to take care of them! Guides like that can help you develop funny situations for your pets. For example Ferret-tan eats a lot, like real ferrets in real life, so the MC runs out of food!
Here's a good guide for you, LVUER: http://kerryg.hubpages.com/hub/praying-mantis-care

[LVUER]

Thanks for the link, Fawn ^_^

So lots of people raise Mantis as a pet too... I though it's just me (and I'm the only strange one, hehehe...). And wow o_O they have sites for it (I only use my personal experience and discovery channel as research materials so haven't browse the internet for it yet).

I know keeping the world consistent is a good thing. But if the writer finds it difficult or simply makes his/her goes bad, I don't see why we need to force him/her to include that little sister character. This is our first collaboration project, so let just have some fun.

@Everyone:
Having little sister in your path is encouraged, but if you can't then it's alright. Even a brief mention (like "I have a little sister who works in a cafe... I often ask for free food there but I can't do it too often so I'd better buy her food on my own.") is already more than enough.

[Fawn]

Well, I'm really against forcing anyone to use a character, that's why I posted ^^; It'd be simpler if there were no extra characters for now. Like you said let's have some fun
Edit: Yeah, they say they act like cats in that article!! Now I kinda want one, they seem easy enough to take care of... But I think they're banned where I live Just like Giant African land snails (those are ADORABLE) and also my dog would probably eat it D:

[Aleema]

@Auro: This is a collaboration of different people and it will have different styles, but, to make it polished, it would be best for everything to be based off a simple premise and have common elements. Having the stories unorganized would distract from the quality, as I have said before.

I've watched a couple movies, such as "New York, I Love You", that were a compilation of short stories from different directors, but as a whole, just one movie. In that particular movie, the only premise they all shared was the physical geographical setting (you could also say "love", but not at all the same type). I think it worked out pretty well. I think the most important thing is to tell people that this is a huge group collab. If I just walked into that NY movie with no idea it was a bunch of directors, yeah, I might be scratching my head (I would get it, though). If I could deposit my 2 cents, I think it might be wise to avoid seeing 8 different versions of the MC from 8 different writers (where you have to start berating or correcting each other, butting heads, or just plain conflicting and not caring), and to have a different MC per pet. A collection of short stories, where instead of 1 boy gets different pets, it's how a pet has touched the lives of this one pet company's customers. And then, suddenly, it's a story about 2 characters, rather than just cat ear fanservice. Unless, of course, you want this to just be cat girl fanservice, in which case, lighten up about "quality blah blah"! It's supposed to be fun!

In my experience, with collabs, it's important to not strip the volunteers of too much creative control. Otherwise, it's more like work, which means less likelihood things will get completed.

[KomiTsuku]

Yeah, seeing as I'm almost entirely against the current existing background due to an overwhelming amount of cliches and restrictions, I'm going to end up writing two different versions; One for you all, one for myself. My existing story, the one I'm proud of and enjoying writing (hence refusing to abandon), really can't fit in, seeing as the only real similarity is that the main character has a pet. It doesn't use the professor, the friend/sister, different BGs, different reasons for pets, Uncle Bob, and different endings. Sad to say, but right now it is the only internal compromise keeping me from withdrawing from this rather constraining collaboration.

[LVUER]

Hahaha, sorry guys. I know how it must be frustrating for you writers. That's why I've clearly write about the restriction as earliest as I can (in the first post). I also must dump the idea of having triangle love scenario and moe imouto path... This is the risk of having a collab project.

Well, the good news is that if this project turns out nicely and have positive feedback, we could always launch sequel or director's cut version where we could dump more things, like original version of the script where we're not bound to the restriction.

For now though, please bear with the restriction... thanks ^_^

[Auro-Cyanide]

This is just a suggestion mind you, but have we considered lifting the constraints. The whole scientist thing came from the Forsaken-One correct? It's a cool premise and works for the iguana pet. But it's their story premise. I don't see any reason why we all have to stick to that.

The original concept was that a guy ordered from a catalogue or something, right? Why not stick to that. The company that sells these pets could source them from different areas. One may be the result of an experiment, another could be a cursed creature, another could be a spirit. They all come from different places and the company acquires them because they are hybrids. They then sell them on to others.

I personally feel that not only does this provide an explanation of where these pets are coming from, but also allows everyone freedom to create their own stories. I also feel this will make the game more interesting. The reader really will be getting a collection of short, unique stories that revolve around each pet instead of one concept that just uses different characters. I think it would better fit the idea of this being a collaboration and would be closer to what someone would expect when they played the game.

[Sapphi]

A collection of short stories, where instead of 1 boy gets different pets, it's how a pet has touched the lives of this one pet company's customers. And then, suddenly, it's a story about 2 characters, rather than just cat ear fanservice.

For what it's worth, I would much prefer this approach, mainly because
1. It gives everyone more freedom to write
2. It will be even more fun to read everyone else's stories.

Really, the "same guy different pets" setup was what the project originally was, but that doesn't mean we have to stick to it. And there were troubles with the original project because some people wanted to do things that didn't fit with the overall story. But I think that if we made this a collection of short stories, rather than trying to fit everyone into the same framework, we would increase our chance for success and lessen the amount of debating on trivia that we have to do. I don't think that KomiTsuku should have to change his story to suit the project if he feels like the way he wants to write it is better than the current premise.

From where I'm standing right now, I'm seeing a project where everyone has to compromise and nobody is getting everything they want. This is not necessarily bad, but because we aren't doing this for money, that's not really very motivating to anyone involved. If we change the nature of the project to something along the lines of what Aleema suggested, then LVUER can have his sister route, there can be a horse, etc. Nobody has to feel like their good idea got shot down. Everybody wins!

[Fawn]

A collection of short stories, where instead of 1 boy gets different pets, it's how a pet has touched the lives of this one pet company's customers. And then, suddenly, it's a story about 2 characters, rather than just cat ear fanservice.

If it was about cat-ear fanservice everyone would just be writing about a different breed of cat. (that is another game entirely!)

Well, I have to be honest that I've personally been pushing a lot of restrictions It's because in the original project everyone kept throwing ideas in, and it was impossible to make everyone happy, which made it fail.

But, the best thing now just seems to be letting people write it first. Let's see what everyone comes up with. It will probably be more interesting this way.
However, there still needs to be some restrictions- everyone should at least make sure the MC is a similar person to the one in the intro (you can change his personality a little, but don't radically change who he is) and that he lives in the same town so we can all share backgrounds. On top of that, everyone should still have the same amount of art assets (no matter what skill level your artist is) and around the same wordcount (within 1000 words maybe?). That is fair to everyone and will keep a steady workflow.
It would be best for LVUER to work something out, however.

[Samu-kun]

I thought the free form of the Cute and Fluffy project was a good thing. Pretty much anyone could make what they wanted to make. I think the same system would be easy to implement in this project. Basically, when you start up the game, you're presented with a menu of which pet you would like to adopt. When you just click on one of the pets, their respective story plays.

[Fawn]

That's kind of a boring intro, though. How the intro originally worked was like this:

The main character introduces himself and his life and why he wants a pet, then he goes online and finds the pet store (which is shown through a graphic). The pet store is a screen with buttons that correspond with certain pets. The player can click on a possible pet and get a description of what it's like (just like you would when you buy something online in real life). It makes the game a little more interactive and realistic!

After you complete your first play-through of a pet, there should be a button to skip the intro and choose another pet-tan on the computer screen so you don't have to constantly play through the intro.
But, I'm getting into coding stuff here...

[Aleema]

You could put it up to a vote, which is both quick and fair.

[LVUER]

We don't have pool feature in this forum, I believe (it was blocked by admin). Well, you all could just send PM to me; do you want me to stick with current setting or should we go to more free setting like Cute and Fluffy Project.

To be noted though, there will be some restriction even if we go for the latter, though it's strictly for balancing issue (ending count and word count). Since it would be strange for one pet to have 5.000 words and 10 ending while others only have 1.000 words and 2 endings.

[Auro-Cyanide]

We don't have pool feature in this forum, I believe (it was blocked by admin). Well, you all could just send PM to me; do you want me to stick with current setting or should we go to more free setting like Cute and Fluffy Project.

To be noted though, there will be some restriction even if we go for the latter, though it's strictly for balancing issue (ending count and word count). Since it would be strange for one pet to have 5.000 words and 10 ending while others only have 1.000 words and 2 endings.

Oh yeah, I think those types of constraints are important. They have a very important role in keeping things balanced and doable. Story constraints on the other hand seem to be more of a hindrance than a help.

I am okay with either having the very simple intro where everyone branches from OR the free form one. I'm not writing though, so they probably should choose. As long as everyone gets to set up there own premise and we aren't trying to fit in professors and stuff I will be happy.

[LVUER]

This is just a suggestion mind you, but have we considered lifting the constraints. The whole scientist thing came from the Forsaken-One correct? It's a cool premise and works for the iguana pet. But it's their story premise. I don't see any reason why we all have to stick to that.

Forget to write this:
It's not current pet project that use premise from Iguana-tan, but it's the other way around, Iguana-tan is the one who use lots of premise that designed for the first pet project. So the professor, the pet-tan, the boy who want to get a pet thing... all is left-overs from first pet project.

The original aspect that we use from Iguana-tan is:
- The MC is working online.
- The MC is renting a house.

That's is. The rest is what we scavenge from the first pet project. I was going to change that but eventually forced to revert to the original pet project setting (it's decided by vote, remember?)

Anyway, please remember to vote what kind of approach you want me to take, current setting where it's basically one boy who choose a pet (from various selection) or Cute and Fluffy approach where it's basically several boys and several pets.

And I also need you to PM me so I could know who's still interested in this project and who's not. Since some didn't post anything over this past few days even though there are lots of discussion going on... it worries me a bit. (it's better to have few people serious working in a collab rather than lots of people working but only a few managed to finish it).