I'm terrible at pretty much anything but writing.

[Starsaroundmars]

Title: Heart-Shaped Box
Okay, this is my first visual novel and I plan to make it GXB and school life. I need a ton of help. Here's the summary:
Aine Fujisawa wishes that she could feel less isolated. Ever since she'd been a child, she'd always felt an invisible wall between her and others. The reason? She had a hard time expressing her emotions. Her expression was always cold. But beneath the surface, she was a wreck. She heard the many comments and rumors circulating the school about her stepfather and her who'd decided to keep living together after the death of her mother. She noticed the way everyone gave her a wide berth whenever she entered a room. It wasn't that she was ugly or stupid, far from it actually, she was usually the top of her class and every once in a while a boy would gather up the courage to ask her out. She never accepted them because she wanted to really fall in love and the guys that usually asked her were kind of suspicious.

But this week, six guys, one for every day but Sunday, decide to ask her out and none of them creep her out. Well, the fact that six guys asked her out in one week does but the guys themselves are definitely not creepy. In fact, they're gorgeous.

Aine Fujisawa-violet eyes, long, black hair, 17 years old, a second year
Likes: romance novels, any type of music, pretty boys
Hates: perverts, creeps, jerks, rumors
Aine is the main character. She doesn't express herself much except when she's alone. She's actually very afraid of what others think of her and just wants to be loved more than anything else.

Sho Wanaka
Likes: honesty, action movies, rock music
Dislikes: quiet places, liars, being alone
Sho's basic personality is loud, honest, and rash. He's always wearing casual clothing and hangs out at the mall on the weekends. He rarely takes anything seriously but, when he wants something bad enough, he goes for it. Aine and he have been classmates long enough for her to know that he's always surrounded by people.

Ren Yamada
Likes: quiet places, any book or music genre, foreign movies
Dislikes: Sho
Aine already knows enough about Ren to know she doesn't like him. He's considered perfect in every way by their classmates but she knows that he is annoyed by practically everything. She meets him everyday in the library after school and he always mumbles at least one snide comment to her per day before proceeding to ignore her completely. He spends his weekends at the movie theatre watching foreign movies.

Yuki Miura
Likes: sweets, cute girls pulling the occasional prank
Dislikes: dark chocolate, cold days, books
Yuki is mischievous and loves to make people laugh. He has practically no respect for adults and stubbornly refuses to believe that one day he'll end up anything like them.

Riku Harada
Likes: being affectionate, flirting, writing
Dislikes: Lucas, worrying, pessimism
Riku is a flirtatious guy who loves to touch, hug, and kiss girls even when it gets him in trouble and it often does. He doesn't really believe in love so whatever he writes tends to end up being a depressing love story or poem. Despite this, he's an optimistic person who believes that anything is possible. His confession to Aine is based on his belief that it's possible for him to fall for her.

Lucas Aoyama
Likes: romance, pretty boys and girls, making wishes
Dislikes: Riku, full moons, dogs
To put it simply, Lucas is bisexual and that is the reason that Riku and him hate hate each other. The way he'd confessed to Aine was possibly the most unique. He was born in the U. S. but his father had sent him to study in Japan for unknown reasons. He's a romantic despite the fact that he claims to love everyone.

Natsuki Honda
Likes: Aine, dressing up as a girl, karaoke, video games
Dislikes: mornings
Natsuki is Aine's closest friend. For unknown reasons, he's dressed up as a girl for as long as Aine's known him. He often gets wooded for wearing the girl's school uniform.

[Taleweaver]

So? Are you looking to get recruited? Are you recruiting people for your VN? If this a game idea you want feedback on? What's the purpose of you telling us this? Be a little more specific, please.

[Starsaroundmars]

Sorry the original post I made explained everything but then everything got deleted. I'm looking to recruit people (preferably for free).

[Kato]

Alrighty, if you're looking to recruit for free 'I'll add more if interest is shown' isn't the best way to do it. Since you'll be getting people to spend hours of their time on this you'll want to give them as much info as you have to get your attention. If your story is good and you've created good characters an artist will pop up eventually. Also things like style, number if sprites, age rating, etc, are all super useful to know.

[Starsaroundmars]

Here's a sample of my writing. The game won't start like this and I plan to change a few things but here's an example:

Blue skies stretched endlessly before Aine as she opened the door to the roof of the school.

Finally, she was alone.

Or so she thought. As soon as she left the doorway, she saw him.

His red hair was unevenly cut and the shirt of his school uniform was unbuttoned to reveal a T-shirt for an American band that she only vaguely recognized. It was April.

She knew him, of course. He was in her class. But she'd never actually spoken with him. On the inside, she was nervous. On the outside, she kept a cool expression as she tried to pass him to get to the other side of the roof where she could have at least some semblance of solitude so she could think and relax-

"Wait!"

Sho Suzuki turned around quickly, his gold glinting.

She turned to him, her voice steady as she asked, "What?"

He stared at her for a moment, almost appraisingly, before he answered.

"I've been waiting for you."

Is he a stalker or something? How does he know I come up here during lunchtime?

"Why?" Aine asked instead.

"Because I wanted to ask you on a date," he said bluntly before flushing slightly and saying, "I mean, I heard that you're not going out with anyone right now so-"

"But I've never even spoken to you."

He shrugged. "I want to get to know you."

"Why?"

"Because I like you," he said plainly.

"You're very straightforward, you know that?"

"Just being honest. I've always watched you but I've only just realized that I like you."

Aine was embarrassed but she put up a calm front.

She considered rejecting him outright. He was a little suspicious but he didn't really seem like a bad person. He was gazing back at her so earnestly and the way he had his hands clenched into fists showed just how nervous he was.

"You've been watching me?" She asked instead.

He flushed again, "Uh, when I said 'watch' I meant that I would see you in the classroom or the hallway and I couldn't help but look at you. I haven't been stalking you or anything."

"Oh," she began. "Well, I think-"

"Wait!" He yelled, raising a hand to stop her response.

Aine raised an eyebrow at that. "What? Don't you want my answer?"

"I do but," he sighed in an effort to calm his nerves, "would you mind taking some time to think about it? I know that I was probably a little rash in confessing to you without even talking to you but I'm usually really impatient when I get excited about something and-" he stopped. "I'm babbling. Basically, how about we take a little time to get to know each other?"

Aine observed his honest and hopeful eyes as he gazed back at her.

Well, he is kind of cute, she thought.

"Okay, I'll answer you the Saturday after next week."

"No way, that's way too much time. I want my answer earlier than that. How about next Saturday? I think that's enough time."

Is he serious? She thought. "Okay, let's try it."

"Yes!" He yelled, pumping his fist into the air before giving her a sweet and relaxed smile. "Thanks."

She wasn't too sure how to reply. "No problem" somehow didn't seem appropriate so instead she did something she never did in front of anyone but her stepfather.

She smiled.

The smile fell from his face as his eyes widened in surprise at the expression on her face.

But a moment later, her cool expression returned.

And the bell rang signaling the end of their lunch period.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I know that this confession is kind of unoriginal but each of the confessions are going to be different.

[enta]

Amen to Kato. I for one, wouldn't bother to give any shit(sorry) about your story if you are gonna tell me "Will add guys if people show interest". People would SHOW interest if you'll add the guys info. I don't care about the heroine nor how cool or whatever she is since she's not the game's eye candy. Some people(even the professionals) usually post the love interests first of all and there were even times that they don't post anything about the heroine at all(usually seen on smartphone otome games).

I'm also working as an artist in a certain VN and on my own one and giving as much detail as you can about the characters would be very helpful. Of course, the core details like hair color, hairstyle, fashion style etc. should only be sent in pms though. Showing details about the characters is showing the VN's potential.

Also, if this is something that can be trashed away if no one shows interest then that would make it more difficult to find recruits. I suggest you make some progress in writing or any other thing you think you can do something about before recruiting.

I'm not trying to discourage you, I'm telling you that this is how VN-making and recruiting people works. I also suggest creating a thread about your idea in the Ideas. Good luck to you

*EDIT* So I wrote this about the same time you posted yours so it's supposed to be a reply next to Kato.

[TrickWithAKnife]

What do you want?
Everything except a writer?

[Kato]

What do you want?
Everything except a writer?

That's what I gathered.

So you are looking for: A Character Artist, Background Artist, GUI Artist, Composer, Programmer and Proof Readers? If that's the case this is my advice...

Getting Team Members the Kato Way!

Step 1: Give them money

But since you're looking to find people to work with you for free it is a little harder...

Getting Team Members for Free the Way Kato Assumes it Happens!

Step 1: Character Artist
As mentioned above by myself (not an artist) and Enta (artist), the story isn't what captures the artists interest. You have to remember that the artist isn't drawing the story, they are drawing the characters, which is why having a full list of characters with detailed descriptions is super important. An artist that is invested in the characters from day 1 is an artist that is going to work with you till completion day. So none of this 'I'll add more if there is interest' stuff. Throw up descriptions for everyone, The MC, The Love Interest(s), The Plot Drivers, The Teachers, hell even the Neighbours Cat.

Step 2: Background Artist
This is pretty complicated! The first thing you need to do is go to the cupboard and grab half a cup of flour. Mix it with 300ml of Milk, 2 eggs and some raisins. Make as many of these mixes as you wish and put them in the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees celsius. If this, by now, hasn't turned into a free background artist then I'm afraid you are out of luck and should head over to the Creative Commons section of the forum. There is a plethora of free backgrounds to use for non-commercial use there.

Backgrounds take a long time to do and, unlike characters, it's hard to get emotionally invested in, so finding a free background artist will be nothing short of miraculous.

Step 3: The Rest of Them
The rest more or less comes with progress on the writing and the art. There are plenty of rookie programmers and proofreaders offering services. As the progress continues, if your story, characters and art appeals to the rest of the community you'll find that you might even have people offering services that you've completely forgot about!

I got lazy after the first two! But they seems to be the ones people have most trouble finding. Also starting a separate 'Ideas' post with a more in-depth summary of your game and characters is always a good idea!

[Starsaroundmars]

Thank you for the advice!
I'm thinking that maybe I jumped into this a little too soon. I've been wanting to make a visual novel for so long and it seems to me that I should probably wait until the summer to start this at least because the next two months are going to be kind of hectic for me. In my spare time, I'll try to write more of the story or maybe just use one that I finished a long time ago.
But for now I think it would be best for me to focus on school. Thanks for the support!

[Starsaroundmars]

Here are the guys. They get stranger as you read on. The first two or three are pretty normal but after that. . .

[TrickWithAKnife]

Just a little heads up: "Sho" is a Japanese name, but "Wanaka" is Maori. Looks a little odd, unless one of your characters is half Japanese, half Maori?

[enta]

I think the Japanese surname Wanaka(和中) does exist. According to google, most of people with this surname lives in Wakayama.

[TrickWithAKnife]

Really? I've never heard it in Japan, but I've heard it in New Zealand. Tried a google search and couldn't find a single Japanese result. Even my wife has never heard of it.
But, Japan is a big place.

Either way, please disregard my first message.

[Starsaroundmars]

http://www.jisho.org/words?jap=和&page=4 ... ct=enamdic

Scroll down and you'll find three results. That's what came up when I tried searching Google. I hope that helps

[TheSweetestNightmare]

Do you need a composer? I compose music, and I am looking to gain some experience.

Here's a link to some of my music - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycansSJf ... TK&index=1