Lemma Soft Forums

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody!

What better way to celebrate than to sign up for NaNoRenO- a challenge to complete a visual or kinetic novel, during the month of March.

If you're new to the scene of visual novel creation, this is a great way to get started and delve right into the action! If you're an experienced developer, it's a fun challenge to see what you're capable of under serious time constraints!

Regardless of your expertise, you'll be joining the ranks of fellow developers around the world as they write, draw, compose, and program their way to success!

Here are the rules for NaNoRenO:

1. You mustn't begin your work prior to March 1st
2. Teams are allowed
3. Developers may join the fray at any time within the month. If you feel you can make the deadline, give it your best shot!
4. The challenge begins when "The Death Clock" at the lemmasoft forums has less than 31 days. (March 1st 12:00 AM) The challenge ends after "The Death Clock" reaches 0 (April 1st 12:00 AM)

****What is ALLOWED Before the Month****
~ concept sketches, doodles
~ brief script outline or ideas such as synopsis
~ taking or looking for possible background pictures
~ non-game related programming or testing such as figuring out how an engine works is permissable
~ music composition roughs or looking for possible music to use in your game

****What is NOT Allowed Before the Month****
~ drawings you edit and enter into your game
~ written or typed dialogue, script, or text
~ completed or edited final version of music
~ actual game programming (Use of game engines doesn't apply, of course)

Making a complete and working Ren'ai game is challenging to do within one month's time. It's highly suggested you stick to the newbie rules as much as possible which are:
-stick to a short story
-if you can't draw backgrounds, use photos
-if you can't program, use an available ren'ai engine
-if you can't make your own music, ask to use another's for your game
-plus you can also do some cuts like keeping artwork black & white or have no music at all
You can also form a team and take on the challenge together if you prefer.

Be sure to check the NaNoRenO website:
http://nanoreno.visualnews.net/

To sign up for NaNoRenO, just announce it in this thread, and I'll add you to the list!

Current Participants:

Jake (team of 2 or 3)
absinthe & lordcloudx
denzil
DrakeNavarone
yuirei
ShiraiJunichi and TMBpower
Misu-Net (team of 2)
Raikiri
mugenjohncel
pheriannath
Kyukuru
Thalidomide
Katiea
Mirielle
mokenju1
TMS Fuu & TMS Tai
Team Musume (suzushirou and two others)
Nomad & Raindropmemory
J. Datie
Scout
Mr. E

IntRenAiMo Participants:
Chronoluminaire
DaFool and monele

I missed it last year so I'll give it a try this one. And I look forward to what it brings this year.

BTW: You might want to put a link to here in your posts on other forums so it isn't ran in too many places at a time.

denzil wrote:BTW: You might want to put a link to here in your posts on other forums so it isn't ran in too many places at a time.

Not a bad idea, but maybe you should be careful, because when the forum is like Blade’s, you could end as PyTom when he linked Ren’py engine in.

ShiraiJunichi wrote: 1. You mustn't begin your work prior to March 1st

Can we start 23:00 on the 28th of February to make up for the hour lost to Daylight Savings?

Also: If it makes any difference, ours is actually a team effort, between either two or three people depending on whether or not our musician thinks better of it when he sobers up.

Sign me up!

Hehehehe, oh, wait, you already did. Thank you, and thank you for making the thread.

Team... uh... Me is just me, writer and coder extraordinaire, at the moment, but if any artists would like a partner (and to save the eyesight of anyone who might stumble over the game if I end up having to draw the artwork myself), PM me?

I think this is going to be much fun!

Dis wrote:

denzil wrote:BTW: You might want to put a link to here in your posts on other forums so it isn't ran in too many places at a time.

Not a bad idea, but maybe you should be careful, because when the forum is like Blade’s, you could end as PyTom when he linked Ren’py engine in.

That was the idea. I think the Lemmasoft forums are quite Ren'Py specific, and I didn't want to alienate anyone who would make a game with some other engine. Plus, there is no real reason why NaNaRenO should be based here instead of somewhere else, except for tradition (which may or may not be important). Ideally I would like to have a website like eclipse had last year- then I could base everything there. But I don't have a domain name, and it would seem really unprofessional to host it from my accout at school.

But I don't mind monitoring a few threads, and keeping info updated. Though, I had doubt that posting anywhere else would incite anyone else to action, and that doubt has only grown. The Blade forums seem small, and the visual news forums... don't seem too friendly. I expected some smart-alec remarks, but I didn't expect to receive a one-line reply that I can't even read posted by an admin (ironically enough, said admin just posted a "blatant advertisement" here).

EDIT: I take back what I said about visual news. It's not that they're unfriendly... It's that I'm just too dumb to understand their jokes O_o;;;

Anyway, I'm glad to see the enthusiasm here- already up to three participants two weeks in advance.

ShiraiJunichi wrote:

Dis wrote:

denzil wrote:BTW: You might want to put a link to here in your posts on other forums so it isn't ran in too many places at a time.

Not a bad idea, but maybe you should be careful, because when the forum is like Blade’s, you could end as PyTom when he linked Ren’py engine in.

That was the idea. I didn't want to alienate anyone who would make a game with some other engine.

I only meant that if you link the Lemma Soft Forum in, they could do the same thing as by PyTom, because some parts of the forum are about the Ren'py engine. Anyway, good luck for NaNoRenO 2007 and for the participants.

You could consider hosting at a free hosting service. If you have a google account, you can go to googlepages.com to get one. You might also want to consider getting a blog hosting service.

(One of these days I need to split the community wiki off of renpy.org.)

I think this would be the 2nd nanoreno since I joined the forums.

Good luck to all participants. Radical Dreamers 2002 (currently composed of my inactive self only.) will be watching this one from the sidelines.

Sign me up as well. An interesting challenge and a good chance to get that first game done. I'm in the same boat as absinthe, and will probably need an artist to get the game done. Although maybe I should wait and ask when I at least have a concept... Now hopefully I can come up with a good idea before March...

ShiraiJunichi wrote:... reply that I can't even read...

I found this: http://www7.plala.or.jp/ungeromeppa/flash/kita.swf
I may be imagining, but don't they look like women's breasts? Sort of upside down or something...

*cough, cough* Alright, back to the topic....

... I just wanted to say I'm happy that it takes place. Unfortunately, I am going on a 2-week vacation in the middle of March, and so even if I would like to, I probably couldn't participate, expecially since until that vacation I'll be busy getting work from the table so that I don't come back into a mountain of papers.

And IMO NaNoRenO doesn't need a special page - if there's no way out, just use the CW or even this thread. Kind mods could make it sticky and if there'd be just one thread for the entire month, it would even be a nice one-stop place to post all NaNoRenO-related troubles and share the work-in-progress. If you could convince people not to start their individual project topics, that could create a quick sense of togetherness - especially since we don't expect a large amount of participants.

Good luck!

I will sign up for the contest as well ^-^

Great! Welcome aboard yuirei! Also, I've decided... I'm signing up too!! Guess I caught the bug ^_^;;; Well, with my current project so close to being done, I should be able to pretty much finish my part before March- then I'll mostly just be waiting for art.
So, that put's us up to six teams!

mikey wrote:If you could convince people not to start their individual project topics, that could create a quick sense of togetherness - especially since we don't expect a large amount of participants.

Sounds good to me! I wouldn't be comfortable starting a thread just for this anyway, I think.

Progress so far (under the 'brief script outline or ideas such as synopsis' allowed before the start rule):

Following my usual standard operating procedure, I jotted down a few ideas on what techniques I'd like to try, along with some minor structure notes and a few one or two line plot ideas.

I also came up with what I think will be an interesting way to disguise my lack of artistic skills and cut down on required artwork (but still allow any artist who'd like to participate as much freedom as they'd like) and a general plot bunny that engages my interest and is both small enough to finish in a month and expandable enough that if I have time left over I can add content.

Now I'll try to set it aside for a bit and hope the idea is still as engaging when I pick it up in a couple of weeks.

ShiraiJunichi wrote:So, that put's us up to six teams!

And some people thought this would be a small event. *scoffs* I like the grandeur of being a "team", too -- can I call myself a team if it's just me and the characters in my head?

(feels scoffed at)

I am confident there will be a high completion rate. People have been exposed to the microgame style of doing things, so its just building on the development process.

If anyone also needs last minute help on anything, I'm willing to pitch in, as long as it won't take more than a weekend.

--------------

On the other hand I've always wanted to do epic things. I am almost tempted to suggest a GiGaReNo (since giga is 10^9 which is opposite of nano which is 10^-9) which will include Great English Visual Novel Race games...

Rules:
1. At least 4 hours total playing time, which is commercial length
2. It must be primarily a visual novel, though can be any hybrid or style of gameplay.
3. Can have any number of endings.
4. Teams are allowed.
5. Developers may join the fray at any time, and take as much time as they need.
6. The game must feature an element of 'kick-ass', which can be any one or combination of the following:
- story
- art
- gameplay
- music
- overall experience

Any game that successfully satisfies the above conditions can close the debate on commercial vs free or fan-made vs industry-made forever.