Space Opera in VNs

[Yang]

Hi, I'm not going to say "I'm making a VN about..." because it's far too early on to make an announcement or any sort of factual statement about this project. What I will say is that I am planning to make a space opera something, and I am still unsure as to which medium would be best. That said, a visual novel is something I am very strongly considering despite the fact that I myself have never actually read/played one. I'm big into anime and manga, but the visual novel is always something that has eluded me.

I am looking for visual novels similar to that which I would be attempting, to get a better idea of if this project is doable. So I was hoping perhaps you fine people could help me, some of the general themes that will make up this project are:

• Science Fiction/Space Opera, space battles between giant fleets of ships
• A focus on intrigue and politics as opposed to action
• No defined main character or villain, plot will contain many morally grey characters with different goals weaving and conflicting amongst each other
• An adult cast, no 'moe' characters or young kids piloting mechs for the military

The biggest inspiration of the project comes from the old anime called Legend of the Galactic Heroes, more specifically from the fact that there simply is not enough things like it. Another inspiration is the popular book series A Song of Ice and Fire, and it's even more popular television adaptation Game of Thrones.

So in short, I'm asking you to look at that list and think of any quality VNs that might fit at least one of those bullets. In addition to that I'd also like to ask for any advice you may have for somebody that would be attempting this kind of project. If I even end up making it a VN, I have no intention of it taking any less that 4-5 years. But I'd like to make sure this will be both possible to do, and possible to do well.

Thanks.

[Samu-kun]

The main question is, what are your skills? Are your a graphic artist or do you have money to hire one? The visual novel market's pretty developed now, so most visual novels without a skilled graphic artist made by a newcomer have a very low chance of becoming popular. During the production phase, art quality is god. Nobody will care about your story during production. It's a small miracle if someone reads the text in your WIP topic. So if you're not an artist, you need to start gathering money. Volunteer artists are not a real option any more, since pretty much all the good artists would prefer to be paid now, and the volunteer artists are generally not dedicated/skilled enough.

Another thing you need to consider is that you need to imagine what the VN/electronics scene will look like about seven years from now, since that'll be the time when people actually play your game. Don't make a game that displays in 1280x720 resolution, since a lot of people will be playing your game in the year 2019 and beyond. Chances are, your game won't even be close to release until the year 2018. Consider internet speeds and the audience's expectations as they will be in the future, not as they are now.

[Yang]

The main question is, what are your skills?

Python and writing, I'm no artist but when the project starts the production phase I'll be looking for a talented artist and will be willing to pay. And of course until then there will be no sort of official announcement/WIP post. As for future proofing, that will definitely be something considered at a much later date. The best case scenario is I can spend out of my own pocket, get a decent enough amount of content to put together a Kickstarter. As this would be a commercial product, and Kickstarter is a great way to determine demand for a project as well as get funding.

This project is the long-term goal, the 'dream', but it by no means will be my first project. From the looks of it now, it's highly likely I'll be making this into a VN, so I want to make sure I've got what it takes to make a good one before I try tackling something as ambitious as what I plan.

[gekiganwing]

I am looking for visual novels similar to that which I would be attempting, to get a better idea of if this project is doable.

It sounds like you want to create a story that's similar to the Galaxy Angel series, but with more drama and less cuteness. The GA games have comedy, but their anime spinoffs take the humor up to eleven. (The first three games have fan translations.)

Elsewhere on this forum, Samu-kun is currently working on Sunrider. It's planned to be a science fiction story with an emphasis on morality.

Icebound is a fantasy story and a work in progress, but for what it's worth, the main characters' minimum age is 28.

There's also an untranslated VN called Figurehead which has science fiction and spaceship combat, but all of what I know about it is from its VNDB entry.

I saw your statement "...there simply is not enough things like it..." and nodded in agreement. Most companies find it difficult to sell anything outside of expected genre/category boundaries. (Satoru Iwata has said that "...the history of entertainment is also the history of imitation," and I believe he was correct.) It's often independent creators who make different and unexpected things.

In addition to that I'd also like to ask for any advice you may have for somebody that would be attempting this kind of project. If I even end up making it a VN, I have no intention of it taking any less that 4-5 years. But I'd like to make sure this will be both possible to do, and possible to do well.

Your goals seem lofty. How long do you want your story to be? Will it have many detailed settings, a large cast of characters, and multiple endings? If so, that will require a huge amount of commitment. You will need to be both passionate about your project and prepared for the worst. Back up your data often. Schedule time to work on writing and coding on a regular basis. Strongly consider giving yourself deadlines in order to finish parts of your story on time.

Have you already used crowd-funding? If not, ask for advice first.

Selling your game is probably a good idea. Just make sure you're prepared first! Have you already sold a product online? If so, talk with other independent creators. Take some time to browse indie game forums.

[Yang]

It sounds like you want to create a story that's similar to...

Thanks for the suggestions, though sadly they all seem off limits to me at the moment.

"...the history of entertainment is also the history of imitation,"

This is true even in the independent world, even this very project is guilty of it. My goal is to create a space opera/science fiction that recaptures what makes Legend of the Galactic Heroes so incredible, though I still wish to take my work into a different direction.

... that will require a huge amount of commitment.

Oh it will, I'm sure of that. While I plan on it being rather linear, I also plan on it being very long. Instead of making many routes, I want to focus on creating a single lengthy and in-depth story with lots of good characters.

But as I said, it's still so very early on, I have no idea where this project will go. Planning for this story takes a lot of work, because there isn't a single storyline that all of the characters are involved in. Instead each character will have their own goals and storylines, and it's through their interaction and conflict with each other that the narrative is driven. I'm making flowchart with columns for each character and as the story progresses the columns mix and match providing a story "web" instead of a story line. From there I will start writing the actual script.

[Lesleigh63]

Why don't you start with something small to begin with, maybe even just the first chapter.

[planktheory]

It's really easy to build a go overboard in the planning phase. I suppose I do it myself a lot.

I'd recommend scaling it back, and give yourself to trying to write it first without the art. As without an artist, you might want to have proof of concept before rushing out to hire an artist. A chapter or two, and see how you feel about it. You said that you want this to be rather linear... why then the Visual Novel format? It's a great idea to pick the kind of brush before you start putting it to canvas.

[Yang]

Why don't you start with something small to begin with, maybe even just the first chapter.

I'd recommend scaling it back, and give yourself to trying to write it first without the art. As without an artist, you might want to have proof of concept before rushing out to hire an artist.

Oh this isn't going to be the first thing I hop into, I'll be planning/writing on the side. But it will be a while before I'm comfortable with making this my main project, it's an 'end goal' so to speak. And even when I do start it will be a while after that before I even look for an artist, I intend to have the script mostly written before I go looking to hire an artist.

You said that you want this to be rather linear... why then the Visual Novel format? It's a great idea to pick the kind of brush before you start putting it to canvas.

That's all I'm doing right now, picking the brush. I want to bring this story into fruition, yet am unsure on the medium. I love to write by am no writer, a large scale novel is outside of my ability. I am a programmer after all, and one who wishes to get into game design. I considered making a game as well, but for such a dialogue heavy and story driven piece a game just wouldn't suffice.

I think I would like to see this as an actual animation project, in a perfect world. But good animation is expensive, and good voice acting is moreso. However a visual novel. Well that supplies me with the things I want most and is much more cost/effort effective. I can have:

• Heavy dialogue, story driven
• Visuals, audio, at least a little animation
• Light interactivity (subtle changes to the plot)

So at the moment the visual novel seems the most likely candidate, but by no means do I intend to rush it. It will be a very long time before production phase, and a much longer time before release. I want to put a lot of time and effort in to this, so that when it finally does come out all of the effort shows.

[Yomuchan]

Space Opera, huh? How do you plan to handle cutscenes, and action scenes?. Animation, off-game video, or in-game dialogue?

[SundownKid]

I feel like you're equating "time" with "quality" when in reality the two aren't related. A game can take a year to develop and be of a higher quality than one developed in 5 years. Good artists tend to work even faster than worse ones, since they have more practice.

One trap I would urge you to be aware of is the "time versus interest" graph. For indie game developers, motivating yourself can be a challenge. In the beginning, you will be motivated to work on the project, but this will drop off in as short a time as a few months as it becomes more "boring". Starting with a very long project such as this, you will most likely lose interest and quit. It's best to split it into short stories where you can expand on the universe without being forced into a lengthy tale like "Game of Thrones". Make an interesting universe you will want to go back to, rather than a lengthy story. It also helps you gauge the potential popularity of your story and adjust it accordingly.

[SHiNKiROU]

I'm building a hard science fiction world (+advanced aliens, +wormhole FTL) and a science fantasy world (eventually the genre shifts into space fantasy) so I have some advices.

Graphics
Space opera is full of planets, cities and spaceships. It is tedious to paint all of them, so 3D modeling is the best solution. In fact, the best part about 3D scenes is that you can make a lots of backgrounds by changing the camera angle and repositioning objects.

Spacecrafts are animated. Maybe consider rendering isolated spacecrafts, and move them on the screen as sprites. 3D animation is a difficult obstacle: You need to learn to do it (don't worry, it's much easier than animating humans), and because there is no 3D in VN engines like Ren'py, you need to encode 3D animations as videos, which greatly increase the download size.

I'm using a 3D game engine for my project, so I treat visual novel backgrounds like Counter-Strike maps and programmed (rather than rendered) cutscenes. I want to depict beautiful cities and spacecrafts docking. The advantages are enormous: Cutscenes, screen resolution independence, programmed crowd behaviors.

Setting
Worldbuilding takes over two years, but the good thing about worldbuilding is that you can come up with ideas even if you are doing other things: walking the dog. In other words: You can work on other projects simultaneously.

My VN won't fit your bullet points, because I have a moe girl who has relationship problems, and the only space combat is between two civilian spacecrafts. If you want an authentic space opera, don't learn from anime, but learn from Americans and Russians.

If Gundam has a visual novel, it will definitely fit your bullet points. Also, if you remove shooting from Mass Effect, it becomes a 3D visual novel.
For space opera novels, Hegemony and Through Struggle, the Stars got good reviews (see http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/r ... cnovel.php ).