Visual Novel Writing Contest (planning thread)

[Hollow Gourd]

Music is one of the key elements of a visual novel, so I cannot agree to 1.
My vote goes to 4, though it seems an unpopular choice.

The reasoning behind this is that the music used within a game is closely tied to the storyline. If we're going to be allowed to choose our own backgrounds, then I believe we should by extension also be allowed to choose our own music.

However, I could also concede to 3 if ALL assets used within the game were provided beforehand. I'm all for having to push one's creativity to the limits by being required to build a story entirely around what you're given. But, it seems odd to be able to choose some assets and not others.

[rasburn]

I agree this kind of contest would be fun I!

I believe that music can carry a lot of mood, so I would personally prefer 3. The music shouldn't be too restrictive / too little to choose from though. It would be nice if it was a contest focused on writing with limited resources, but the resources should be varied enough to allow for different kinds of novel I think.

[papillon]

The reason I currently have it as being able to pick your own backgrounds (from the limited supply of certain specific sources) is that backgrounds are in many ways less multi-purpose than music is, and are massively lower in filesize. So the tradeoffs weigh out differently for one vs the other.

I also like the idea of people being able to donate backgrounds to the contest for all to use.

It is somewhat more logical to have a pre-selected set though. I'll have a look around and see whether I think I can get a decent palette that way.

[Hollow Gourd]

Ah, I didn't realize that the backgrounds would be chosen from a pre-selected group as well.
In that case, my vote goes to 3!

[OokamiKasumi]

The reason I currently have it as being able to pick your own backgrounds (from the limited supply of certain specific sources) is that backgrounds are in many ways less multi-purpose than music is, and are massively lower in filesize. So the tradeoffs weigh out differently for one vs the other.

I also like the idea of people being able to donate backgrounds to the contest for all to use.

It is somewhat more logical to have a pre-selected set though. I'll have a look around and see whether I think I can get a decent palette that way.

I'm still available if you want certain backgrounds made?

[Maelstrom-Fenrir]

I vote for 3 I guess. Since a VN experience is sound/art/story all together.

[Cidz]

Err... Please tell me this contest isn't a form of that game where you give us the beginning and we have to provide the end? I loathe that game.

Heh. Sorry. Not quite, though - I'm not writing any game *text*. Just a setup, like "two people meet after a train crash" (but not actually that). You may still hate it though.

So, thinking more about this sound thing, it looks like my primary options are:

1. No sound period.
2. No music, only sound effects which I provide.
3. Only a very limited supply of music that I provide.
4. Pick CC music.
5. "Suggested Listening" which is not included in the script and therefore not keyed to events, but can be played separately to establish atmosphoere.

I was investigating the feasibility of 3 and found some cool tracks via jamendo, but the trouble is that the filesize quite quickly gets out of hand even with an extremely limited supply of music, and then you'd STILL have the problem of hearing the same tunes all the time. 4 would be huge filesize bloat, never work.

Unless a bunch of people think 5 is awesome (you'd include a link to the song you thought people should listen to while playing your game) I think I'll stick with no sound, or sound effects only (depending on what I can scrape together when it's less hot in this room).

What if you went with 4 but then set a limit to how many songs a person could use in a game? like 5 songs? you still get diversity but there's still some limitation.

[Stainless_Steel]

This sounds like an exciting idea.

I vote for 3, but if a lot of people join. Since all the games are being put in one file, I'll understand if you have to go with option 1 to keep down file size.

[LVUER]

@Stainless_Steel:
If everyone is going to use the same selection of music, the file size won't get much bigger.

[Stainless_Steel]

Sorry, I was thinking the wrong thing. Your right it would be the same size, for some odd reason my brain died on me and I was thinking all the games were seperate then put together like a zip. Thanks for correcting that.

[papillon]

Question - Have most people moved on to 6.14 or is 6.13 more common? If all the games are going to be grouped together I need to declare a standard version in case it makes a difference for anyone doing silly code things.

(I personally tend to use even older versions because of Spiky's weird experiments. I have more recent ones installed in case I need them though.)

[OokamiKasumi]

Question - Have most people moved on to 6.14 or is 6.13 more common?

I'm using 6.13. When I tried to 'build' my last 2 games with 6.14, I got all kinds of errors.

[Takanashi]

I'm actually having some problems with 6.14 so I might end falling back to 6.13 too.

I'm following this thread actually, quite interested on it, even though I doubt I'll have time to enter:\

[Nimuell]

I'm on 6.13 too
Quite interested in participating, it will be extremely challenging for me.
And practice and critique help too, especially if I don't have to be frustrated of people judging ME, since all projects are anonymous.
Exciting.

[Blane Doyle]

I'm trying to use both, in case something happens when I work on 6.14 I have a back up but if it works then horray.