Key-Style Inspired Visual Novel

[baboo2406]

Hey y'all,

My name is Jason Young and I'm pretty new to these forums (just joined today actually). My dream has been to become a video game designer and being able to tell stories through games, hence was how I found VNs. Anyhow, I'm currently taking a narrative writing class at the Academy of Arts in San Francisco, and I'm currently writing my scenario/script for a Ren'Ai game entitled 'Kaze no Uta' or 'Song of the Wind.'

Background
The Spirit World- the place where people go when they die. They leave their physical body and their souls transverse over to the other side. Communication with the world is possible, but only during specific times of the year; namely during the Fall when it's the 'Harvest of the Moons Festival'.

'Kaze no Uta'- When the song is sung, the Spirit Singer temporarily becomes possessed by the person they're summoning. The catch is that once they're summoned, the summoner will no longer have any memories of the past year as they begin to take the memories of the deceased.

Storyline(roughly)
The game is about a guy named Seiji whose been wandering around Japan ever since his mother died. Taking odd-and-end jobs here and there, he's been struggling to survive. Eventually, he ended up in his hometown where his mother and him left seven years ago due to an incident at the local temple (his mother was banished for using her magic to summon her dead husband). He's currently suffering from amnesia about his past due to an accidental summoning and has been half-possessed by a spirit.

When he returned to his hometown, he meets two girls (more on the way...) named Ai and Hanako. Ai is the town's designated 'Spirit Singer' who's been cursed to never remember her memories as a result of this job. Seiji would have been the singer due to his lineage, but when his mother was banished, she took him with her leaving Ai. Ever since that day, Ai was designated as the singer. Once she reads about Seiji's blood-line, she goes berserk and takes her anger out on him.

Hanako is a reincarnation of a spirit princess who ran away into the human world looking for her lover (a human). Angered her father, the king of the spirit world, placed a curse that would make her return to the spirit world if she ever found true happiness.



There's a lot more to the story than this. Honestly, I'm still writing it and I'm not sure when the scenario is going to be done (class ends May 19th). So who knows when production would start. I'm really interested in turning this story into a visual novel and I would love to have some help with it. E-mail me at
jyoung-san@hotmail.com, if you're interested.

[Watercolorheart]

Best story I've seen for a ren'ai lately ...

[kara24601]

Wow , that's really cool.
Since it's centered on the Spirit World ,
will there be yokai....or is it just human ( and maybe animal ) spirits?

Either way , I'm sure I'll love it.
It's just that I'm also really interested in yokai related stories.

( whoops..forgot to welcome you to the forums and they beat me to it )

[DaFool]

Best story I've seen for a ren'ai lately ...

Honestly, I can't really tell the difference from summaries of Japanese VNs. It's just the whole 'spirits' and 'memories' and 'songs' which occur all too often, though I have no doubt their usage in this particular story will be unique.

baboo2406 >> keep in touch with this forum, when your story is near complete then you can screenplay it then know the requirements for art, programming, and music better.

[mikey]

Where are our manners...
baboo2406 >> Welcome to the forums

when your story is near complete then you can screenplay it then know the requirements for art, programming, and music better.

It's perhaps even better, game-production-wise, to define the length first, and then make a story that fits into it.

I'd advise to at least think with production in the back of your head - for instance letting events take place in the same environments, or defining a set number of key scenes (for event CGs). Without this, it's not impossible to just write and write, let the imagination go and then finding just out how much assets is required. This is often a project killer, so it's really important to write it specifically for a VN environment (not bother with descriptions or atmosphere for instance, since that's done by graphics, and again, watching the assets required), plus with the specifics of recycling BGs in mind. It's going to be one of the defining factors that will move your game away from the projects list into Club Completed.

[chisa-chan]

Welcome to the forum.

Hmm, I guess the story is interesting for a ren'ai game...too bad that I'm not free for now....If my project is finished, I'd like to help you (I can draw, although not as skilled as the other members)

Good luck to you!

[lordcloudx]

welcome to the forums.

spirit singer's ancestors, curse thingy.

Correct me if I'm wrong but the story reminds me of..... AIR? Well, you did say it was key-inspired.

[monele]

I like the ideas, very original... but it sounds like it will be *very* sad with all the "I'll forget it anyway" and "I won't be able to stay", both linked to the goal of love ^^;...

[Guest]

Hehe, well I did say it was Air inspired (although it's more like Phoenix Wright combined with Air combined with Kanon combined with some stuff I'm developing inside my head...aren't all stories inspired by something else in a way? Take Star Wars...Star Wars = LOTR + Hidden Fortress or for those RPG gamers, Rogue Galaxy= Star Wars + Treasure Planet).

But yah, I'll be sure to post on the board as I'm really interested in getting this project up and running. It's my homage to the great Japanese visual novels.