Novelty progress update (VN maker)

[Samu-kun]

"Put in in"

....
.....

XD

Woah, it looks really nice so far. ^_^; I'm not sure I'm quite ready to abandon GameMaker for it quite yet, but it does look promising.

[Dade Finch]

I really like it. =) I think the advantage of a WYSIWYG editor is that it'll help popularize Visual Novels, and almost everyone's used a WYSIWYG editor instead of hard-coding at some point in their life; and you can obviously make awesome games with their design environments. Looking forward to seeing more of it!

[Sin]

So many replies in short time 8D
Let's see if I can address some of the questions that came up.

Just out of interest, how are you doing those? Are you doing all the parsing yourself, or using some existing engine/compiler?

The scripting engine I use is called Angelscript. The language is modelled on C++ so experienced programmers shouldn't have any problems with it. In Novelty you can associate script functions to objects in the scene. So the ball has an UpdateBall()-function that is being called every frame to make it bounce around.
The blocks have a similar function except it performs collision detection on the ball.

I only see a problem with the engine when making larger projects...it could involve a lot of searching for images and the like.

Large projects is an issue that's really hard for me to test. But I think I should clarify how it works. Unlike Ren'py you don't have to keep track of individual 'images'. In the video example the background is just an image, but the character is a dynamic object made up of more than one image. (image1, image2)
To make her smile I just select her and pick 'Smile' from a drop down menu. I don't have to remember any name or worry about spelling because there's no coding involved. Assets can also be grouped into folders in the asset browser if you want to keep everything in one place.

I second the appreciation of the walking animation : cute! ... Gosh, where do you get these graphics from? XD... I love the dancing chibi!

That's FL-chan and yes she's very cute x3. I didn't know about her until about a week ago when I saw this. I then googled and found her sprite sheet here. With that it was just a matter of importing her animations into Novelty.

(how do you guys make these engines?)

Jake gave a really accurate answer to your question but I'll add that I work as a game developer so this is my job . I've had plenty of practice x3

That girl in the demo has a distinctive style of......art. She looks like she was drawn by Itoh Noizi. Anyway, good luck.
Edit: I had trouble viewing the video. It wouldn't play nicely.

I've rippted the art from another games. It's just so I can do testing. The video is 50 megs so you might want to pause it and let it download completely before viewing it.

Will you be making a demo available?

Yes. But I can't say when. Eventually.

[Cybeat]

FL Studio Chan? I never thought FL Studio had "FL-tan". I knew there was "Wii-tan" though.

[parvenue]

Pretty cool program you're making here. Seems like it'll be easier to learn than Ren'Py when it comes to flashy images and stuff like that. Is it as easy to display images and the like as it is to customize the text box and menus? I'm assuming yes, which will be awesome.

Looking forward to seeing this finished. Best of luck!

[Sin]

Pretty cool program you're making here. Seems like it'll be easier to learn than Ren'Py when it comes to flashy images and stuff like that. Is it as easy to display images and the like as it is to customize the text box and menus? I'm assuming yes, which will be awesome.

Looking forward to seeing this finished. Best of luck!

Thanks. Displaying anything is as easy as placing it in the scene. The only trick is how to tell Novelty how you want it to look and behave.

Novelty uses a dynamic asset system which means that any asset, whether it's an image, animation or font, needs to be predefined in an XML-file. One benefit you get from this is that you can design objects however you want them. I can't emphasize enough how flexible it is. You could just as easily make a menu that had a movie playing in the background or where the text in the buttons animates when the cursor hovers the button. The engine will do all of this automatically as long as it's been properly descriced in the XML.

The only negative side-effect with this system is that it violates my policy of not requiring any coding. I haven't yet, but I intend to build tools and step-by-step wizards that lets the user design assets without the need to hack XML.

[magnum]

Your novelty looks greats. It is so cool, great, and looks easy to use.
I wonder when you could release this beta version
I couldn't wait for the release.

[Sin]

Once I've implemented all of the major features I'll make a test release. I'm quite curious to see how other people will use it.
I can't say when but I guess I could say my list of features left to do is becoming shorter and shorter.

[monele]

About the XML : will it be released along with premade "classic" elements such as "choice menu" and "regular picture" for example? Just hoping the basics don't have to be also defined through XML ^^;

[Sin]

About the XML : will it be released along with premade "classic" elements such as "choice menu" and "regular picture" for example? Just hoping the basics don't have to be also defined through XML ^^;

Yes, I will make sample menus and buttons and stuff, as well as at least one character. A collection of things for beginners to get started before making their own art.

Unfortunately everything must be defined in XML, even something as simple as an image. That's how the system is built and there's no way around that fact.

What I can do as the developer is to make the process as painless as possible. For instance make Novelty write some of the XML on it's own through step-by-step import wizards. In trivial cases like a static image or a sound file it could be as easy as dragging and dropping the file into Novelty.

This is the main reason why I haven't released a test version yet, because I either have to write a bunch of documentation explaining the XML or make wizards.. or both. So far I've done neither. Rest assured that I will make it as easy as I possibly can.

I'm actually quite excited over the power you get from the XML and I'm hoping to see that some users will specialize in making complex and beautiful content for others, instead of just for their own VNs. To give you an idea, I could take that breakout game I made and save it as a single object. Then someone else could take that object and import it into their VN and then they'd have the game too.

[Ren]

So, if we wanted to we could use Novelty to make a set of characters, poses and expressions, BGs and distribute them with it as if it was a game?

Neat °D°

[Sin]

So, if we wanted to we could use Novelty to make a set of characters, poses and expressions, BGs and distribute them with it as if it was a game?

Neat °D°

Exactly. You can even tag content with your name, a description and a thumbnail that will show up in the asset browser.

[Jake]

I either have to write a bunch of documentation explaining the XML or make wizards.. or both. So far I've done neither. Rest assured that I will make it as easy as I possibly can.

I found starting a NaNoRenO project with a couple of other guys was a good driver for this - I either had to write docs or some simplifying process or keep fielding questions...

[magnum]

So when this software release, We may find a bundle of resources here?
Just asking, because right now I have background CG that I've downloaded last months.
So is there any available resources here?
If non, I have a friend who is good in drawing. Maybe if I could convince him, he could do some graphics resources.

[Sin]

Yes. I will include some sample content. There will be a handful of characters, backgrounds, fonts and other graphics. Possibly even some non-commercial music. It's in my own interest to get people up and running with Novelty as fast as possible. I will make at least one character myself (I'm half programmer, half artist) and I'm thinking about commissioning some of my pro-art friends to make more. Of course, you will still be able to use the CG you've already got.

Currently (as seen in the video) I'm using art that I ripped from other games. I can't legally distribute it but that stuff has a tendency to get around anyways.

I'm looking at doing one starter pack and then continue producing more after the release.

PS. If anyone wants their art to in the Novelty release you can pm me.