Hello to all. i'm new here, i want ask some dudes that i have><
before of nothing, sorry for my english, is very bad^^u (I'm spanish:P) I hope that anyone can understand me^^u
Well..i want a make my own ren'ai, but i don't know how. i was reading the posts of forum, but have some things that i don't understand. I read about Renpy, i use a little and i use the tutorial, but when i try changes the scripts, sometimes later the exe don't work>< but i don't know why
I was reading about python too, but i don't know much how use.
If anyone can tell +/- how i can start to make ren'ai games, i'm will grateful^^
Also, just keep in mind, that no one was born a programmer and those things take time. You won't get around a learning, or in the case of Flash or RenPy "experimenting" phase, and I know how demotivating that can be. In some fields you just have to start from square one. Was that a demotivating statement again? Nooooo!
You can also try the game-making tips from Blue Lemma, and in addition I would recommend FIRST looking at the technology (what you can do, what you can't) and THEN inventing a story to fit your (team's) skills. It is mucho importante (is that correct? hmmm...)
People with Ren'Py problems can try contacting me at trjabber on the AIM instant messaging network. My current plan is to rewrite Ren'Py as part of my new game, and I'll actually include documentation this time. (As well as rearchitecting Ren'Py quite a bit, although the basics of dialogue and menus won't change all that much.)
That's a big need in many of today's games. An excellent story.
Follow Yang Sei Fu's advice and think your story through and through. If you think it's almost done, look through it again. Make sure you've got the right direction, and most importantly, give your character a personality! Even the most blandest of games offer at least one dimension to their character, but to make your character memorable, make them someone people can either relate to or enjoy the company of. A charming and positive personality, a strict but loving personality, or a complete ass-hole on the outside with a soft spot for kittens on the inside!
Jerails is a character I created well over three years ago, but I've been creating his story ever since his birth. It started with a simple "I can't remember anything about my past" (Very cliche...) to a more complex "The last thing I remember is this man...telling me to never let others control me or my gift...I don't understand exactly what this man meant when he said it, but I've taken it to heart, hoping to one day find him...Maybe he's my father, I'll never know until I look, ya know? You guys are some of my best friends, and I think...no, I know I can trust you with this. Who knows, maybe you guys can help me!" (Even more cliche!) I've written down so much about him, and I've created a timeline (Jerails is about 14,017 years old in accordance to Earth standard time) showing key events in his life that affect Jerails' overall personality. Heck, I can proudly say I'm NOT done with the blueprint for Jerails! I want to make Jerails from my own experiences and even some of my thoughts!
Perhaps you can also approach it from a different angle - first look what technical possibilities you have and THEN write an appropriate story - it makes no sense developing an epic story for your first minigame (think ToL, BP, Kasuka etc...). As Jerails said, for a shorter story the focus on a character or two might be better than a developed plotline (which you probably won't have space for, I know this...), if you involve your character into a simple conversation it can really present itself if he/she has a distinct personality. You can use the stock character types SHY, AGGRESIVE, QUIET, FRIENDLY, SEXY or develop your own variations. Good luck.
Hi asami! I'm in the process of making my own game too. Everyone's advice is very helpful so I'll just make a checklist so you cover (almost) all your bases:
1. Game engine you will use. (Straight forward novel simulation or player can jump around?)
2. Type of story. (Comedy, drama, action?)
3. Characters (how many? personality? main character, rivals, love interests, friends...)
4. Settings in the game (house, beach, school, store, restuarant, park..?)
5. Story outline (how long will it cover? several days or months? what happens in X day at x time?)
6. Endings (how many endings? should have best, okay, and worst at least.)
7. Omake or extra stuff (extra cg art, music, sound effects, save game, options, etc)
8. Game interface (how will the game be displayed on the screen? where will be the stats? text box? visual area? calender?)
As for areas you need to cover:
Writer
Artist (character designer, backgrounds, cg artist - for coloring the drawings though can be optional like in mikey's game ^^)
Programmer
Musician (optional if you want music in your game)
Web Site Designer (optional if you want to make web site to feature your game)
Exactly, and one more tip: Try to be as flexible as possible - god knows how many times I had an idea in the middle of the production that just HAD to go in there Though generally your game design work should be all wrapped up before you start production, the truth is that many, even professional teams implement new ideas as they work, sometimes redesign whole levels etc..., so try to choose a team and work style that enables you to do that.
You can for example, go with a team that I use. My childhood friends! We've all grown up together for several years, know each other's schedules in and out, and we all branched out in different directions.
One of my buddies has branched out into the world of programming. He assists in hosting a private Rag server that I have no idea how it funcitons.
Another has gone and mastered his art of drawing, and is branching out to different styles. Sadly, he's in Japan now, but every once in a while he sends me his art through our cell phones! Praise be text messeging with photos!
I of course, have decided to stick to music and writing, my main fortes. Of course, I'm also a decent artist, but I hardly ever improve with time. We all have our own lives to live, but we all manage to make time to look at each other's progress and pool together our ideas!
Of course, if all else doesn't work, you can try hiring someone who's willing to contribute ideas as well!
Did you really mean "hire", Jerail, or "volunteer"? Cuz hire implies paying someone... and you should only do that if you have the money. ^^;;
Otherwise, get help from people who's willing to volunteer time on your game or offer free advice like everyone here if you're going solo.
Mikey: For those new ideas, you can always opt to leave that feature to a future game rather than hastily add it to the current game you are doing. Well, in the end, it's up to the team - so whatever works best!
Awhile ago I had an idea to make a little help site for making a ren'ai, bishoujo, whatever you wanna call 'em game. Dropped the idea since though. But heres what I wrote up whilst I was still making it. Ignore where I say "Heres an example" and the like. These were just my planning notes, I hadn't done examples yet.
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WHAT THE...
Ren'ai is the Japanese term for "romantic love". Therefore a ren'ai game is a game involving relationships. That's the bottom line.
Now you could say any game that involves some kind of relationship is a "ren'ai" game but lets just make my life easier and forget about that, were talking here about the games which focus majorly on relationships.
So moving on, as I say, "ren'ai" is not the only way to describe the type of game I will be talking about, I've chosen the word "ren'ai" to try and refer to the genre in a broader sense, they're more often referred to as "dating sims" or "bishoujo games" (see below). But naturally there is always variety within a broad genre, hence there being more than one term for individual games that fall within that broad genre of games involving relationships. Now it gets confusing =)
You may also hear these games referred to as "dating sims" and "visual novels".
These terms usually refer to the method of gameplay involved. Now it's arguable as to what *exactly* makes a ren'ai game fall into each category, and I don't want to argue, honest. Suffice to say that a "visual novel" usually involves a heavy focus on story and dialogue, similar to an interactive book.
Beyond those terms you may also have heard them as "bishoujo games" or other such gender related names.
Bishoujo is the japanese term for "pretty girl". So in essence the words bishoujo game mean "pretty girl game", because that's who you often meet within the games, pretty girls. Simple, eh?
However although the term "bishoujo games" is used the most often since most games involve girls, you don't necessarily have to involve girls within this genre of games, it can be a game where all the characters are male or just the characters you meet are male. There are terms for those types of games too. But I'm not about to go into all the specifics of Japanese language here.
For now just put it down to a game that involves relationships, and that due to the range of descriptions for such games, terms like "bishoujo" does not imply the target audience. You don't have to be a girl to play these games, it merely describes the gender of characters the game focuses on, in the case of "bishoujo" it is of course a game with a majority of girl characters.
Another type of game that can fall into this genre of games are "upbringing/raising simulations" which involves you having the responsibility of bringing up another person. Such as a daughter or family member and so on. An example would be the Princess Maker series. I won't be talking about these.
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PLANNING
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It doesn't matter what project you may be doing, whether it be building an air hockey table for your grandmother or a ren'ai game, planning will be a part of the process. Thankfully however if you're reading this, you aren't interested in building that air hockey table so we can save your grandmother's back, if you were planning on making such a thing then you're looking in the wrong place...
Before you even start *anything*, know yourself, know your abilities. If a builder decided to do a 15 level block of flats (apartments for Americans) when he's only really confident in doing bungalows (single level houses) then I've a feeling his construction would collapse before even the 3rd level is finished. In other words if you try to do things you can't it's going to be your demise. With enough determination, you can do anything (shh, I'm not going on a philosphical tangent), but do you really have that much patience? Prepare yourself before you prepare your project.
So, going along with the theme of the builder's levels, don't do 15 different paths for your game characters when you can only just about manage 1 or 2.
Especially if this is your first attempt, you want to start slow (if you can contain yourself, alot of us can't =) ...).
Your planning should hopefully cover as much and as many of the various areas of your game as possible, before you get into heavy development/creation. But naturally you would go back to the drawing board, so to speak, and move back to this stage later on anyway when necessary (like when you're stuck and staring at a blank page for 10 hours, or if you tried to do something but it hit you back in your face rather than doing what you told it to)
Some of the areas you might look at (but naturally aren't limited to) would be:
Theme/Genre
Characters
Plot
Events
Paths
Dialogue
Programming (and the language/program)
Music
Games
Extras/Bonus
That list is in a loose order. Depending on how you feel you'd work best you can rearrange parts, there isn't one way that is the best for working it out. It's all down to what you'll be comfortable with, because honestly getting discouraged is the number one evil to ward off and that'll surely happen if you're not comfortable with your way of working.
Also like I say, there are more areas you can add, if you want to submit some then you can contact me.
METHODS OF PLANNING
OK so now that you have an idea or have made a list of what you *need* to plan, let's think about how we *can* plan.
Some of the methods you might try (but naturally aren't limited to) could be:
Brainstorming - Here is an example of a brainstorm. Starting from a focal point/word you branch out into different areas and then branch out even further into areas which relate to those areas you just branched into... OK just look at the picture O_o
Sketches/Thumbnails - Naturally I don't mean masterpieces here, unless you want to. Just small visual doodles and layout plans can be a great way of planning certain things out, especially if you're more visually inclined. here is an example.
Tree Graphs - Similar to brainstorming only more linear. Here is an example.
Storyboarding - Similar to thumbnails, only more forumalted, as in there is a definite path or narrative/story to the images. A sequence. Here is an example.
Tables - Usually for more linear information/data. Good for categorising stuff into sections as well. Here is an example.
Notes - Well nothing fancy here. Just straightforward noting of ideas etc. I don't really need to give an example... right?
If you can to add any more to this list then contact me.
So now you have all these fancy ways of planning, what would be the best way for each thing? Well there probably isn't an answer for this. It's all down to how you feel you'd work best again. No I'm not just being lazy (or am I).
But here is how I may work certain sections out and why:
Theme/genre - Probably notes. This is just a basic idea usually, so doesn't need that much devevelopment from a basic note. For example, "horror" or "fantasy". Depending on how complicated the theme is or how much you'd like to focus on it for the game though you might want to look into brainstorming etc. If you have an overall theme it also helps with forming events, characters and plot in the form of a brainstorm. Since in this way you would create something that looks at how things may branch out from the idea of horror into stuff that you would commonly identify with such a topic (e.g. fluffly bunnies... um I mean, fluffy demonic bunnies... yeah that's it)
Characters - Sketches and thumbnails for appearance naturally. But as for personality, either notes or even a table would be an option, with names across the top and personality traits (or whatever you want) across the left vertical side and then ticks to say which follow those traits. Again a brainstorm might be an option if you wanted to start looking at events for the character early. For example I create a brainstorm for the character Sandy and branch off that name to the idea of her having long hair which could then branch off into the event of her having her hair cut.
Plot - Notes, is what first comes to mind. However you could start with a tree graph to mark out the general stages the plot will be formed around. For example Day 1 - Road Trip leading into Day 2 - Petrol/Gas Station. You may even want to do storyboarding, as with comic books, and doing storyboarding could even help you form a written plot using quick visuals. Often I think of a visual moment of action in my mind and then everything branches off from that moment to form a whole story, so there's no reason you can't work out plot visually.
Events - Events can be related to individual characters, motivated by the theme and plot or be general. So therefore all the ways of working you can find can be best. And event could be when you are asked a question or need to do an action, or a specific detail that relates to the characters (e.g. Sandy takes you to the park).
Paths - Paths are usually what stem from an event, for example when you are asked in the game "Do you want to eat" and depending on how you respond, you can branch off into two paths or "subplots", such as "Yes" being that you eat and feel sick or "No" being that you don't eat and die of starvation. Tree graphs can be especially useful here. Since paths are generally linear. You really want the paths to flow and not seem unrelated to everything (for example you answer "Yes" to eating and it amounts to you going to sleep). Also using paths you can develop how events may relate to each other. So the restriction of tree graphs being more linear can help you to keep things in line. Also whilst looking at paths you could use notes or colour to say which paths may effect other paths or characters at the same time. For example if you say "No" to eating and go to sleep, the character Sandy begins to dislike you for ditching her cooking.
Dialogue - Dialogue would stem from plot, events and paths. Even from characters, due to their personalities affecting how they may speak in certain situations. Notes is all I will say specifically. In general you can be thinking about dialogue at any point though (as I mentioned with the characters thing)
Programming (and the language/program) - Well naturally your chosen programming language/program would be a short note e.g. "HTML"/"Flash", if anything... As for programming itself, you would think that planning would be purely text based. But actually if you're more visually inclined you can plan the layout of your game through thumbnails and then point to certain areas making notes on what they do and how you would create them with code. For example I plan my layout and point to the Next button, I then note that this "Goes to the next section, number 2" and note that the code for this would be "Go to section 2" (I am talking in Directors Lingo coding there however). Also another way that means you don't always have to head straight into code, is comments. Before you write the code you can write in English (or whatever your spoken language is...) what it is you want to do, and this will give you a better idea of the kind of code you need to write for such a thing to happen, or give you an idea of what to search for if you don't know for sure. For example I write that I want to "-- Go to the previous page" and that gives me a tip that I need to look up some kind of "go to..." function or code (again this is Director Lingo I'm speaking from, but it doesn't matter what you're using, it can still help push you in the direction if you have difficulties). Depending on what language you use, making it so that your english comments is separated from the technical code (so that when your computer reads through, it doesn't get confused) may be different. I used "--" but in HTML it is usually a tag like this "<!-- here's my comment -->".
Music - First of all, I'm not musically inclined... I would say that if you have a theme you could use a brainstorming method to branch out and see what kind of music such a theme is usually paired with. For example a theme of "horror music" could branch out to words like "tense/sharp" and "ominous/deep" and so on.
Games and Extras - Depending on what the games or extras involve you would probably pick from the other areas of planning anyway. For example games could derive from events, storyboarding and then have you go into the planning of the programming.
RESEARCH
In general researching is useful, wether you are experienced or not. If you are new to something though this will probably be where you start.
You may decide you want to try some theme that you have no real experience of writing for. For example you may really want to do a horror story but aren't sure how one is usally formulated. So what you may do is go out and rent some horror films and then observe and note how the story progresses.
Same for art or programming, you may not understand what style of art to do for such a theme or what code you need to do to make so-and-so happen. Researching and looking around at help documents and tutorial sites will help you with this.
In this day and age with the Internet being so powerful however, I don't think I need to say more.
The stars of the show. So how do you create a star? (No not the stars out in space, I mean the people here who will act out your game)
Well I'm not about to go into a psychology debate here, I'm only going to give some ideas.
First of all look to your theme. Depending on how specific it is, it could give you a few ideas as to some interesting characters. For example a horror may have a vampire character.
Still can't think of anything or need to develop this haracter? Well let's think of some general areas you may think of.
CLICHES FOR PERSONALITY
If you still have difficulty you could look at some typical personality traits and try and match them up or focus on one to form a character.
Someones personality can effect how they communicate with others, their actions and so on.
Here are some typical traits, naturally there are many more you could think about:
How you work, what you're interesting in as a career and what kind of environment you work in can influence who you are and how you act. This can also lead to events that involve their workplace.
Here are some random jobs I thought of, naturally there are literally an unlimited number of jobs out there you can choose from:
Some games of this genre try and have a range of ages so as to appeal to different people, who for example may prefer a partner who is older than them or even younger. Also their age may effect how they relate to people at a different age in comparison, but not necessarily obviously.
For example you may have a youngest character and an oldest character.
HISTORY AND CULTURE
Experiences in your life, wether good or bad, and the environment or country culture you were brought up in can form who you are as a person today. Naturally though the word culture does not necessarily mean the culture in the country you were born and raised within, you can also be influenced by cultures outside of your own, for example Japan. This is such a HUGE and broad area though I'll leave this to you to think about *runs away*
Sugoi, Sai. Way to go! Well put (except for a few typos but that's okay) and informative. Will you ever finish it? or is it a dead project? :heey, its eyes are twitching!: o.O'
Though generally your game design work should be all wrapped up before you start production, the truth is that many, even professional teams implement new ideas as they work, sometimes redesign whole levels etc..., so try to choose a team and work style that enables you to do that.