First of all: The guestbook...so many people....
Secondly:
I've downloaded Ren'py for quite sometime now, and originally some of my friends wanted to help me with my VN project, but since we were all noobs...(we still are)...the idea somewhat dissapeared....
Nonetheless, regardless of the fact that I'm practicaly entirely left alone with my VN idea, I still want to learn how to use Ren'py, code and whatnot's in order to gain some experience in VN-making
The thing is this, like mentioned earlier: I'm a total noob (I only recently discouvered how to add images to the story =w=',not to mention it was very easy once you know how, yet I needed atleast three hours to figure it out
)I know I need backgrounds and sprites, a story, music and coding.
So, I've been hoping if some other fellow newbies would like to 'discover the making-process of a VN' with me, and work together in making this a fun experience
.I prefer a small group (5 people) over a large group (10 people), because I kinda...want to make friends too, not just 'yo dude help me out with this sh-', no! I really want to meet people who honestly share the same passion for drawing, music, programming and whatever else we will discover/learn during our VN adventure
.I don't care if the art is crappy, the story a bit lame or the coding a bit messed up, I just want to learn and learning means making mistakes without having to fear that you're ruining someone's life work. If you're a professional, who simply feels like, 'hey this doodle here, it's so lonely, let's still give it a last purpose instead of throwing it away', feel free to radomnly throw away 'doodles' in our direction, then the group can practise with it
.So, first things first, a small idea of my own capacities: I can draw a bit (just not digitaly, and not entirely like a profesional would I guess ><'), I can write a story (I learned English at school, please forgive any grammar/spelling mistakes) for the VN and I can code a bit in ren'py.
Again you don't have to be a professional, I just want to practise making a Visual Novel so I could get used in making one, and in the future know the do's and don'ts.
I suggest that atleast 5 spots should be filled (of course try to be active atleast once a week, and preferably a warning when you'll leave for a long time.)Spot 1: Scorpio. (Wants to help with as much as she can handle: Joker)
Spot 2: Itwasneveradream (Wants to help with sprites and BG's: Queen)
Spot 3: Luminar (Wants to help with sprites and BG, mainly colouring-wise: Queen)
Spot 4: LucRSV (Wants to help with the story + coding: A King Bard with Joker tendencies.)
Spot 5: FluffyFox (Wants to help with everything, besides Digital Art, unless it's advice you seek: Queen Ace who aims to be a Joker.)
Secret Reserved Spot: Shad12ow (Wants to help with Story + Coding maybe even Digital Art: Joker)
Group positions: Joker's, Ace's, Queen's, King's and Bard's.
A Joker in the group is a person who wants to try out everything and is willing to give his/her best to learn from his/her teammates, and help them out as much they can.
An Ace in the group, is an expert in a certain domain;
(An Ace Joker for example, is an expert in all 5 -Writing,Digital Art, Coding, Music/Sound and Assertivity= meaning the person isn't afraid to let his/her idea known to the other teammembers without hurting people's feelings- domains, and is the status we all hope to achieve one day).
A Queen is a Digital Artist, or someone aiming to be.
A King is a Coder, his/her task is to help give the images received from the queen's a meaning.
A Bard is the storyteller, he/she wanders around in search to find a suiting story for the King and Queen to assimilate in the future Visual Novel.
Digital art consists of three steps: Traditional work, Lineart work and Colouring work.
Story telling consists of : Brainstorming (preferably in group to avoid writer's block and make it a fun experience), Writing, Proofreading.
Coding consists of: Adding the text, adding the music, adding the background and synchronising them.''
As you can see, one task can be a lot of work, but if for example you suck at colouring but are pretty confident of your lineart, don't feel guilty for asking the others if any of them can help you with the colouring, mistakes are allowed and teamwork aswell!
It'll be a very basic VN for now.
The story will still be a bit of a mystery since I felt that every one participating in this project, has to have his/her input.
I noticed before writing this post, that someone else made a thread kinda like this, but she seemed like she already had an idea 'set' upfront, while I really just want to start all the way from scratch and see from there.
So....are there any noobs out there who wants to give this a shot?All the progress will be added online so everyone can read and give us extra ideas.
Here's a sample of what I can write (it's not in perfect scriptform though):
(The reader has only a face-sprite and the older alien has a full-body stance, but you can change his face on it.)
Code: Select all
[Black screen]
Today was supposed to be my big day.
One of my checkpoints in life...
but no, that's not what it is.
[image-sprite of an older looking Alien. Barrower Alien's have black skin and black teeth, they have a scar-like birthmark under their eyes and white/yellow eyes with glasses on]
''You failed badly.'',
the old man told me,
[Face of character: dissapointed]
making my smile falter.
''What?!That's impossible, you've must've made a mistake sir!'',
[Black screen]
that's me answering back...I never tolerated anyone telling me how bad I was...regardless of whether they were right or wrong.
[The old man Alien-sprite, with a vein popping up.]
''That's what I though when you fought the Alegebrares with your cooking pot instead of your gun slinger, like a normal male would do!'',
my old trainer growled back at my response,
[Character's face: Rebellious]
''Hey!That was original, besides I did kick that thing's butt =_=**!''
, my grumpy coach rolled his eyes, (we can remove this or merely add this for fun)
[Image of a pissed of Alien]
''If everyone fought with a beginner's monster, with a cooking pot, instead with his gunslinger like he was trained too, then even a housewife with no experience at all, can become an Official in training''.
[Face-sprite blushing]
I blushed a bit uncomfortable when I realised it was the truth,
''Oh come on Coach...you know I'm better then an inexperienced housewife, right ^^'?'',
[Serious looking old alien]
that's when I suddenly heard nothing...
[Rebellious-face]
''COACH!'',
I exclaimed taken aback from the sudden silence.
[Sighting old man face]
The old man sighted,
''Now you see (Raito/ or other name), that's what I mean...no matter how life threatening, if it wasn't for that extreme amount of luck you've got, in a real mission as an Official you would've led your team to chaos and certain death.'',
[Sight face + taking of glasses and reputting them (glasses disappear and reappear)]
he sighted again, this time taking of his glasses and rubbing his eyes,
''I told your father that you weren't fit for this and yet he had to insist...''
[Here a a special pic of him embarrassed with his ears down]
My ears went down, that's what they always do when Natdzi's are feeling down.
Natdzi's...how I wish I wasn't part of their race, always being perfect in everything they do, I felt more like a human, wanting to be free and independent, something Natdzi's weren't.
My race, an alien race for humans, is known for their ''Sense of collectivity'', in our race there was no such thing as betrayal, independence or even fun.
The only thing we knew, was being social, always pleasing others regardless of how we feel ourselves.
Although it does smoothed our social contact and bonds, there was never a ''free time'',an open space or a small period where we could be ourselves, our real selves for a change...
No, we were mere Nasoder pieces from one gigantic Nasoder robot, we weren't allowed to think for ourselves.
My coach knew all this of course, I was the only Natdzi that caused him this much trouble, and also the only Natdzi that failed a teamwork test.
[Older alien notices (sweatdrop + stare at character)]
Noticing my ears pointing downwards, my coach brought me back from my toughs and asked me with painful sincerity,
''(Raito/or other name), is becoming an Official truly what you wish to become?Or is this something your race mentally forces you to go for?You' do so much better as a-'',
[Rebellious face]
''No I wouldn't!'',
my ears stood up, pointing out my sudden anger, (can be left out or added for effect)
''I don't want to become anything else then an Official!I'm maybe not like the other Natdzi's but I know that being different doesn't have to be a bad thing! I want to be an Official and that's what I'll become!''
[Smiling older alien]
My coach snorted,
[still the rebellious face of the character]
Wait, what?WHAT'S HE SNORTING FOR?
[Uncertain face from character]
''Coach?'',
I asked him confused, he regained himself before I really knew it, but it was to late my anger made it's appearance again,
[re-apearance of rebellious face]
''What were you snorting for?Do you think I won't make it?!''.
[coach smiling wider]
He snorted again, ticking me even more off,
''You sure are one funny fellow for a Natdzi...''
[The ears sideway down character-face]
My ears suddenly pointed sideways down, clearly expressed my uncertainty to what he just mentioned to me,
''W-what do you mean coach?''
[grinning old man with black teeth showing]
The old man grinned, his black Barrower's teeths baring.
''I mean that you're a very bad Natdzi,...''
[black screen]
What!?Like failing the darn test wasn't enough, he has to humiliate me?!
[reappearence of previous smirking/grinning older man's face]
''but you'd make a magnificent human, kid.'',
he finished his sentence, surprising me again. [character with surprised face]
''But...humans...are...weak.''
[back to smiling normaly]
My coach smiled again, ''To the naked eye...but I know you know better Natdzi-boy.''Again this is just practise and an example.
Also if you have a deviant, feel free to share!
Mine's: http://nyxsilentguard.deviantart.com/gallery/
PS:...I don't know who made the story sample into a 'coded version' of the sample...but whoever did that...thx x3!(Unless it happened automatically, then I guess I should thank the PC or the mechanics of the forum ><')
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Brainstorming ideas:(the ideas with a question mark, are the ideas that we haven't discussed together yet.)
- Nakige genre (?)
- Male protagonist (?)
- Transgendered protagonist (?)
- A high school senior (?)
- With selective mutism (for various reasons). She will face problems with her mutism (?)
- We should start simple. Kinetic or a VN with not so many endings and paths would be ideal.(?)
- Underage suitable.(?)
- Adventure or romance (?)
- Mystery-game with slice of romance(?)
-
To do:
- Set a genre first, before starting our story's summary.
-
Who wants to do what:
Luminar: I wanna do coloring in digital~! I can do traditional line art too if you want. If you guys need any help with ideas and lineart I'm free to help as well!
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TADA!We've got our Team members now, so what now?!
We talk and organise of course!Otherwise we'll end up confusing everyone if we don't!
First things first, WHO WANTS TO CHANGE THE TEAM's NAME? X'D
(Although I do like the sound of Team Newb. ^^', it sound like...freeedddommmm!, but that's just my opinion ^^')
Secondly: Who wants to do what? As you have received in your messages, each big task is devided into smaller tasks (and each small task completed is a lvl gained.)
At first I though, I'll just team up the artists, the coders and writers seperatly for each task, but that sucks. Plus the fact that each of us seems to have an interest in all domains and not just one.
So here's my suggestion:
How about we work on the summary of the storyline first
(so we can have some sort of idea what our purpose is and where we want the VN to head to).
And then start working on the first part of the story (let's say 1 page to begin with), we'll be listening to each others ideas (and if we couldn't add all of our ideas to the text we simply add it to the brainstorming section for the future parts)
While we'll be thinking about our first part and our main plot summary, we can add some Graphic adieas and music ideas inbetween. When we're satisfied of the whole brainstorming process, we devide the tasks and (if needed) devide it in several smaller tasks, so that everyone can participate.
The artists amongst you who're not comftable with the idea of finishing their work without asking for our opinion, scan your sketch and we'll tell you whether we notice some flaws, whether the mood isn't well expressed or maybe convince you to do it differently.
Note: even if we tell you what we think of it, it is of outmost importance that the artist him/herself decide whether it is worth changing right away or whether he/she'll change it later due to a busy schedule, or change at all for that matter. So no ticking each other off, we all have social life's and if you're really that bored, I can always make up some extra small tasks *Evil grin*
Okay so those where the writing/digital art domains explained in short.
Up to the coding and the music domain:
Sounds can be made or found online from free resources or from sound makers. We can always use other people's music since this is all just practise, but preferably not, after all we want to take our practise as serious as possible and we also want to avoid a legal fight ^^'.
The coding, that depends what we will use to code with.
I use ren'py (free), but there are other programs such as Novelty (Also free) and Flash (I think this wasn't free, not sure).
Since I don't have the resources to pay a program (regardless whether it is cheap or not, some of us are underage and still can't open a paypal account or pay online when their parents don't want to cooperate...I'm not underage...I just felt kinda comftable with ren'py...), I suggest using Novelty or Ren'py, preferably ren'py because as far as I know, Ren'py was the first free ressource VNovel-maker. While Novelty might still have some bugs here and there.
So we'll be voting for one specific coding program, so everyone can try coding out when it's their turn to do a small coding task:
Ren'py's votes: Scorpio, FluffyFox, Luminar, Shad12ow
Novelty's votes:
Flash program votes:
Webstory votes:
KN VN: 4 votes from LucRSV, Shad12ow, Scorpio and Itwasneveradream (4/6 votes, our first VN will be Kinetic: 1 story with no choices)
VN with different endings:
Last but not least: Assertivity.
A form of behavior characterized by a confident declaration or affirmation of a statement without need of proof; this affirms the person's rights or point of view without either aggressively threatening the rights of another (assuming a position of dominance) or submissively permitting another to ignore or deny one's rights or point of view.
In simple words for the younger ones amongst us (dunno which one of us is the oldest or youngest...just...ya know...felt like saying that I guess ^^'?): Assertivity means standing your ground, without being aggresive (by yelling, being rude etc.) or being submissive (pretending nothing rude has been said, or being too polite and let other people ignore you etc.).
It's very important for all of us that we accept each others difference without prejudging each other!That's how you build up a team who adore each others presence and how you prepare yourself against the big bad world in future life (such as at work or with your husband or anything really. Assertivity is the differences between a child and an Adult -Even though a lot of adults still act like children and vice versa -> Assertivity is what those adults lack, children who want to act like adults are trying to grow up too fast by forcing to be more/less assertive, only to end up being too submissive or too agressive-)
So people!We're a team in this project!You can share your creative hearts with us!Feel free to blurt out your fantasy and assertiveness, but remember if anyone hurts another person's feelings on this board, I'll go all momma bear on you!(and seriously I'm not joking, I will go all momma bear on you *does the 'I'm watching you' signal*)
...lol...I wrote too much again X'3.
Okay, tell me what you think and then let's hop to it!
Oh, um.. if you want me to show some samples of my art here it is:
