NaNoRenO 2007- The ren'ai visual novel challenge!

[DaFool]

and with that we have 15 participants, beating previous records!

[Jake]

and with that we have 15 participants, beating previous records!

Now let's hope we can beat previous records on number of completions, as well!

(I'm remaining quietly confident, myself, but I suspect that's partly 'cause the magnitude of the problem hasn't really sunk in yet...

[Misuzu]

If it is anything like al|together, it exponentially grows each year in popularity, participants, and completed submissions =D.

[ShiraiJunichi]

Oh! Joining~

I think I'll release this NaNoRenO game in addition to my major release, so expect 2 games!

Make sure to give your current, larger project priority.

[DaFool]

How about prioritize first the projects that are most likely to finish

Come to think of it, there has been no discussion of any NaNoRenO synopsis or idea...are people planning to work on their projects in secret? Are they keeping it under wraps then may or may not announce the title when March 1 comes? It doesn't go against the rules to plan things out so that all that's left will be gruntwork.

[pheriannath]

That's a good question...I'm taking the 'plot first, title later' approach :p I may give out a short synopsis after March 1st.

[mugenjohncel]

Me on the other hand will take the "Under the Radar" approach and will suddenly pop up out of nowhere.

For the meantime I'll focus on my longer project (Mr. K) and start doing NaNoRenO on March 01 (Plot, Art, Music and everything).

[Jake]

Come to think of it, there has been no discussion of any NaNoRenO synopsis or idea...are people planning to work on their projects in secret? Are they keeping it under wraps then may or may not announce the title when March 1 comes? It doesn't go against the rules to plan things out so that all that's left will be gruntwork.

Well, I've certainly done some planning - concept sketches, plot outlines, that kind of thing. I wasn't expecting to give regular status updates to anyone but my projectmate/s, though, that kind of thing just raises expectation.

Title... title... yeah, should probably come up with one of those some time. Maybe near the end of March... I'm not sure about a synopsis. It's probably going to end up as a bit of a one-trick pony, it might be more entertaining for people if they didn't know what was coming.

[frumplstlskn]

Yeah, haha I'm hiding my project. Because if I decide I can't do it or drop out, I don't want to ruin the nice statistics of NaNoRenO. I'm just thinking of main plot mostly, and characters.

[ShiraiJunichi]

I probably won't post details of my project other than progress that I've made. If it turns out that I need to recruit someone for some help though, that could change...

[Misuzu]

And I'm just lazy =P.
Writing up stuff would take effort >_>;;....

[absinthe]

Come to think of it, there has been no discussion of any NaNoRenO synopsis or idea...are people planning to work on their projects in secret? Are they keeping it under wraps then may or may not announce the title when March 1 comes? It doesn't go against the rules to plan things out so that all that's left will be gruntwork.

That's pretty much what I'm doing, keeping it under wraps... I feel weird about 'bragging' (I know, I know, it's not bragging, I just feel as if it might be construed as such, I'm shy, darnit!) about a project before it's even out of planning.

But half the fun of NaNo is jabbering about what you're doing with all the other stressed-out, frenzied NaNo-ites, right? So I'll probably start getting more in depth as we get a little closer to the date.

Title... title... yeah, should probably come up with one of those some time. Maybe near the end of March... I'm not sure about a synopsis. It's probably going to end up as a bit of a one-trick pony, it might be more entertaining for people if they didn't know what was coming.

Well, as far as preserving player innocence goes, that's what the spoiler tag is for.

There's definitely something to be said for doing one thing very well -- consider flash fiction, for example. A small, streamlined game that achieves one goal perfectly can be a polished jewel, and have an impact that lingers far longer than a fluffy, lots of options, True Love style game.

If you don't have time to include replayability, make the player smile all day after playing it, or wake up at 2am obsessing over what happened in it.

Oh, and I have a question -- can I use some bits of code from another game I was working on before I heard about NaNo? It's not a problem if it isn't allowed, since I can recreate it from scratch (not *that* complicated and based on forum-posted code anyway), but perhaps such a use falls under 'testing'?

[frumplstlskn]

Strangely I have a name for my game. I got it from a song title and it seems to fit my ideas well enough. The title being, "Sinister Rouge" I don't know if this thing will get off the ground, but at least I have a title. :p

[ShiraiJunichi]

Oh, and I have a question -- can I use some bits of code from another game I was working on before I heard about NaNo? It's not a problem if it isn't allowed, since I can recreate it from scratch (not *that* complicated and based on forum-posted code anyway), but perhaps such a use falls under 'testing'?

I would put code that you've already written (not specifically for the NaNoRenO game) under "learning how to use the engine", which is completely ok to do prior to March 1st.

[PyTom]

First, I'd say that since NaNoRenO is a personal challenge, really you should be the judge of what is okay and what is not. If it feels like cheating... it is. If you think it's okay... then go with it.

Now, if you really want rules from above, I would say that non-game-specific code is okay. If you can see other games using it, than it should be allowed. If it's something that only one game would make use of, it's less kosher.

If we really wanted to be hard-bottoms about it, then we could take a page from the pyweek rules, and say that any code should be made public. But I don't see a need for that.