NaNoRenO is underway!!

[rioka]

re mikey>> "NaNoRenO Last-Minute Challenge - make a game in one week!" lol That almost sounds like a Ranma title. Well, maybe if I finish early, I'll take this challenge on... ;D

re PW>> Much larger ren'ai game? Sooo, will you be making that larger game after NaNoRenO? ^_^ :lives in hope:

re chronoluminaire>> Oo, oo - can we get previews pics then?

You can do it, chronoluminaire! Grey! :dons cheerleader outfit and does silly cheers:

[chronoluminaire]

Next steps:
- Scriptwriting
- Intense Ren'py scripting study

The big "X" factor in this whole process is the Ren'py scripting. Writing, art, and scripting in general are not a problem, but getting the hang of a new language in 2-3 days is going to be tricky.

"For what it's worth, my tips on writing script straight into Ren'Py:"
"The main thing to remember is to enclose all text the user sees in quotes."
show Takeshi neutral at left
show Selena smiling at right
Takeshi "Except for the character names before speech, of course."
show Selena rolling eyes
Selena "Well, of course. That way it reads like a script."
"Indicate expression changes with the show command, as above."
"And indicate scene or background changes with the scene command:"

scene school_field
show Takeshi neutral
Takeshi "And that's the basics."
Takeshi "I'd say don't worry about formatting your choice menus properly until afterwards. Write them however you like, until you have the script done, and then take care of the menu and label commands and so on afterwards."
"Good luck!"

[rioka]

You best bet is to run the demo that comes with ren'py and open up the script file - you'll see the other mechanics of ren'py aside from what chronoluminaire just pointed out.

[Grey]

Yesterday evening, after finishing a fun drawing (which will be inserted anyway) I got back into coding, and kept at it till midnight coding a fun bit in (well, funny to me because I understand it ).

Come on, Grey! You can do it if I can! I can do it if you can! We may need to set aside *major* chunks of the remaining two NaNo weekends for scriptwriting. But we can do it!

Let's go for it! Charge!!

My damn engine was being incredibly fragile today, so I spent several hours on futile attempts to fix it, and haven't had a chance to write any more story.
I might have applied enough duct tape to it now though to get back to story though

OK, back to work. I'm on the final straight of plot 1 now.

[PixelWrangler]

re PW>> Much larger ren'ai game? Sooo, will you be making that larger game after NaNoRenO? ^_^ :lives in hope:

Barring extreme "bur-ren'ai-out", most likely yes.

You best bet is to run the demo that comes with ren'py and open up the script file - you'll see the other mechanics of ren'py aside from what chronoluminaire just pointed out.

Good advice. The first thing I did after downloading Ren'py a couple of days ago was to run the demo, then pop open the script file (html version with comments) and check out the underpinnings. Got a general sense of what's involved, but the devil's always in the details, as they say.

The basics (character placement, scenes, etc) don't seem to be too hard to pick up... it's just getting used to it and learning the few slightly more advanced things I'll need that will be tricky. And, of course, this has a lot to do with the time limit. 30 days total? Nervous, but confident. 15 days total? More nervous, less confident.

scene school_field
show Takeshi neutral
Takeshi "And that's the basics."
Takeshi "I'd say don't worry about formatting your choice menus properly until afterwards. Write them however you like, until you have the script done, and then take care of the menu and label commands and so on afterwards."
"Good luck!"

Thanks, chronolumiere, for the advice and the "quick-n-dirty" primer on basic Ren'py functionality.

scene computer_station
show PixelWrangler determined
Pixelwrangler "I shall conquer this project with the will of the warrior!"
show PixelWrangler surprised
PixelWrangler "Wait... there's only HOW much time left?!?!"
hide PixelWrangler
"And so began the quest for NaNoRenO greatness"

P.W.

[mikey]

My Wednesday-to-wednesday of doing nothing is progressing smoothly. So basically... I have nothing to report! Congrats to Chronoluminaire on a working wip version and Grey you can do it! I actually got all of my characters as well, but I haven't inserted them... you know "when do nothing, then do really nothing". I suppose I could do some things despite the workload I have (if I have time for the forum I have time for the game), but since I already wrote that week off, I might as well use it as a mental break, just to clear my head a little.

Keep it up, everyone!

[Grey]

Managed a load of writing today

I still really want to get the central part out of the way by tomorrow (since its the 20th) though, and there's still a mess of alternatives to go.

*continues*

[Nyna]

Well, things are going well. If I keep up this pace I'll be done by the end of the month. Anyways, I've got some screenies to prove that I've actually been working. I've used RPG Maker 2000 for my engine, as I'm quite familiar with it and I didn't really have time to learn a new engine (plus graphics are easy to get) so blah. Here are my screenies:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y71/Wi ... _Bully.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y71/Wi ... alcony.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y71/Wi ... _Fight.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y71/Wi ... _Class.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y71/Wi ... _Title.jpg

It shouldn't be too hard to figure out what's what, but go ahead and guess if you'd like!

Edit: If you couldn't tell, I came up with a title! Tell me if you like it.

[rioka]

Ooo, niiiice. Looks pretty good so far! =)
Now all we need to hear from now is JoJo... Psst, that's your cue!

[chronoluminaire]

Great stuff, Nyna! Looks like it's coming along great (and it'll be nice to have a NaNoRenO game that's got an interface a bit different to the standard visual novel!) The name and title screen look very good too.

Well, my weekend was... fairly productive... Not as much as it should have been, though (And Nanaca Crash does not help! Most Flash games I can't play with my RSI, but that one's just carefully timed clicks, and so bad for the "just one more" factor... *shudder*)

All the graphics and technical side is fine, and the script is over 2/3 done, it's just that's not enough. I've got an awful lot of text remaining to write in these ten days. And that'll leave me with very little time for quality checking before I release. Still, it doesn't have to be perfectly polished for the first of April... I'll be happy if I can just get something complete released then.

I'm going to make a plan today (during downtime at work) of what I'm going to do when in the remaining days. And while I can't really write script at work, I could be figuring out the details of scenes. Wish me luck.

[Grey]

I'm facing the same thing. I've still got far too much text to write, plus a few other important things to do, and I still need to do a few more graphics. Plus the load of writing I did over the weekend I haven't actually tested in the game proper yet.

So tbh, if I'm not done by April 1st there'll be no release from me that day I don't want to rush bits or reduce things, or fail to test in order just to put a sub-standard game out on the day. Still my uni finishes on Good Friday, so there could well be time to get my act together after that


Good luck Chrono!

[mikey]

I'm back! After successfully defeating nerve-wrecking deadlines and more, I am officially off my week-long NaNoRenO break! Phew! *looks at death clock* 9 days?? We're already into single digits!

As, excited as I am, actually I just got off my very last "presentation", so I haven't actually resumed work... yet. But the day is young (12:20), so I'll head right back and do things. We'll see just how much needs to be done. Is it strange to look at NaNoRenO as relaxation now? ^_^

Nyna>> looks wonderful! Especially the colors. Though I myself make games with less colors, it's actually the colorful ones I enjoy (got to balance it all). Good luck in making it until the end of the month!

Grey>> don't give up just yet! 9 days is still over a week, and there's lots of holidays during the Easter

Chronoluminaire>> Hang in there, I really like the title of your game, and I need to play it ASAP! (pressure? hope not...)

Now...
*rolls up sleeves*
Go!

EDIT:
*the next day...*

I've been working non-stop since yesterday now (some 14 hours, no sleep - don't try this if you don't have a day off following ^_^) and basically, only the music must be inserted into the game now. It's a few hours' work, and when that is done, then... I have a working beta. Currently the beta runs without sound, but all in all... Transfer Teacher is (so to say, very roughly) finished. The very good thing is that now I have the confidence to say that TT is going to make the deadline 99%. That 1% is still there, as anything can come your way, but I take pride in keeping my deadlines, so I'll make sure nothing bad happens.

[rioka]

14 hours... :whistles: Way to go mikey!
Btw, if you're roughly finished, can we expect a release earlier than the 31st? ^^

As for me, I'm technically finished but I want to add in some extra things, and IMO, those extra things won't take 8 days...
Anyways, as promised, here's a screenshot.

8 days... The final home-stretch... Good luck everyone! ^_^

[Dre]

Anyways, as promised, here's a screenshot.

I have to say, that girl in the screenshot is really hot! Can't wait to all the games are done, and minds.*Forces self back to work*

[chronoluminaire]

Yes, that's beautiful artwork, eclipse!

Well I've still got a lot to write, and it's going to be close either way. I've moved my computer to my bedroom for the final 10 days, because my housemates are usually in the living room and I was finding I couldn't concentrate ^^;; I think I'm on track to finish the script a couple of days before the end of March. Which really gives me very little preparation time, but thankfully I've got all the wrapping code and backgrounds etc ready, and Ren'Py will just pick them up without me having to do anything. There's lots more I could do to it, of course, and perhaps I will; but I think I might do two releases. Version 1, released on 1st April, is the complete story; all that v1.1 adds is polish and extras, kind of thing. I'm still committed to getting the game *finished* within March, and released immediately afterwards. But there might be a little work on it to do beyond completion.