Who's interested in an RPG/Renai game?

[PixelWrangler]

PW>> somehow, I think you shouldn't look at the "Random Stuff" thread I have in the games, anime, music section... (or at least, past the fourth post in that thread...)

Do you mean "And now for something completely random..."?

What's wrong with it? It's amusing, actually.

P.W.

[Megaman Z]

PW>> somehow, I think you shouldn't look at the "Random Stuff" thread I have in the games, anime, music section... (or at least, past the fourth post in that thread...)

Do you mean "And now for something completely random..."?

What's wrong with it? It's amusing, actually.

P.W.

the one where I accidentally flooded the forums? (I thought I was gonna get in trouble for that if a select few people were to look at that link... guess not)

back on-topic: rather than wait endlessly for a plot writer to come, I figured I'd better do at least part of an intro... here goes:
[note: this is after you enter your character's name, BTW. I did manage to fix that much... (shadosa is a little jealous of that, though)]

[Player's name] awakens to see a young girl (teenage, maybe?) being hunted by some slimes [dev. note: maybe something else instead?]. rather than just sit there like the million-year-old fossil that he are, [player's name] step between the girl and the slimes...

(fight... yes, you have to win... though if you don't... I pity you... I mean, they have about 300 HP compared to your 500 HP [and they have nada for attack and defence, too!])

[girl]: "thanks... um... who are you?"

(the two introduce each other. I'm too lazy to come up with names...)

(writer's block...)

suggestions are welcome, as long as they aren't absurd. (Labbit, go ahead and start drawing... also, the locale is a cave lit by torches, just in case you were wondering...)

[Gloranor]

As to the post... I don't react well to sarcasm/put-downs, especially when I've done nothing to deserve it. I've become awash in flames and trolled far too many times on other message boards without merit. For the most part, I do my best to treat others on message boards well and, as a result, tend to expect the same in return.

Since I just read that... as some of you propably have noticed, I sometimes have a rather strange humour (the "Thee" thing, for example )... and I guess it sometimes could offend people... that is not my intention, if it does (despite this notice), please tell me

@ the game

500 HP at the starting of the game? *dies*
j/k

General ideas/Questions:
Why is the PC in the cave? Does he know it? I mean, you don't sleep in Slimeinfested caves without reason
The first order of business could be escaping from it, or exploring it to find whatever the reason was for coming there.

[chronoluminaire]

As a general principle, I think you should get the game planned before starting scenes... Preferably this would involve an overall plot, designed such that the ren'ai can fit in with it. And also preferably designed such that it can't be guessed from the beginning. In other words, such that people discussing it openly on the forum here would constitute spoilers!

The most striking RPGs (in my experience certainly) are those where a facet of the world as you've been shown it suddenly widens out to be far larger than you could have imagined. Think Esthar in FF8 or a certain key revelation in FF7. But one of the things about this is that it completely couldn't be predicted! The more absorbed the player is in the way the world was before, the more striking this moment is. But such a thing, by its very nature, absolutely mustn't be given away beforehand... eg on a forum like this!

This is a slight problem, but I really think that once the team for this has formed, working out of the details (particularly the plot) needs to happen somewhere else...

[RedSlash]

300HP for a slime?????

Anyhow, I second the idea of planning out the plot. Right now it just sounds like your plot goes like: wake up, meet girl, fight slimes, get acquainted. I think it will be a good idea to have a solid plot formed and characters created before doing anything else.

Oh and have you seen Xenallure:
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums ... _id=301049
these guys are also doing something similar, that is RPG with the renai stuff in it.

[Gloranor]

As a general principle, I think you should get the game planned before starting scenes... Preferably this would involve an overall plot, designed such that the ren'ai can fit in with it.

Full ack!
The plot and the world behind it should be the first non-technical thing that is created, esp. in a RPG as they live or die by their plot, characters and the general atmosphere (suspense of disbelieve) - at least for me

This is a slight problem, but I really think that once the team for this has formed, working out of the details (particularly the plot) needs to happen somewhere else...

Well, I guess we could get a hidden forum here, where only the team has access (and of course the admins, but if they read there and then spoil themself, they can blame themself too )

[Megaman Z]

let's see what the po-
[stunned at the current poll... 13 for, one indifferent, none against]
[chokes on nothing]
holy... (catches breath) Ok... as soon as somebody (may be me again... I hope somebody else helps) can think of something to add to the flimsy plot, we can start really working on this...

[PixelWrangler]

As to the post... I don't react well to sarcasm/put-downs, especially when I've done nothing to deserve it. I've become awash in flames and trolled far too many times on other message boards without merit. For the most part, I do my best to treat others on message boards well and, as a result, tend to expect the same in return.

Since I just read that... as some of you propably have noticed, I sometimes have a rather strange humour (the "Thee" thing, for example )... and I guess it sometimes could offend people... that is not my intention, if it does (despite this notice), please tell me

Okay, I get the feeling I should really clarify that post a bit...

I really don't want to make people feel as though they need to tiptoe around on eggshells to avoid offending others. If you have a really amusing theory, for example, that Pokemon and Urotukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend are fundamentally the same, and you want to post links to graphic images that prove your point, why not. If you want to change your signature to 50 lines of "Wai! Wai! Wai! etc...", that's fine. If you feel the burning desire to refer to yourself in the third person, use medieval language, or punctuate every sentence with a , go for it. (at the moderator's discretion, of course )

The reaction to MegamanZ's "Always stay logged in" box post came about because it personally struck me as condescending and insulting. He may or may not have intended it that way... I really don't know... I'm pretty much over it at this point.

Personally, I try to treat others on message boards with respect . That means I try my best not to post things that I know or am fairly certain will offend others. That's not to say I don't ever offend someone... it happens. But when it does, I usually try to find out why, and usually apologize for offending them.

As someone famous probably said at one point, "It's all about the love". Paraphrased, it's about respect. People can always take something the wrong way, but also realize that they have. It's the age-old two-way street of communication and interpersonal relationships.

Now that that's out of the way... anyone want to expand on the Urotsukidoji/Pokemon theory? nan jatte (just kidding)

== To the game at hand ==

For any story-driven game, a good first step is to start at the top level - planning the grand arc of the game, including the characters, general story, and key events along the way. For example, if you were planning FF7, you'd know that it starts in a small section of town with a small group of characters, then expands to city-wide, then world-wide, all the while revealing the scope of the plot. Key character revelations, deaths, love entanglements should be noted, and the ending(s) of the game should be planned for.

At this point, you will probably also want to define the general game mechanics... what the driving force is behind the game itself. For example, in FF7, it's gaining experience to level up characters to defeat bosses to advance the plot.

Once all that's done, you can get down to the details of writing... breaking the overall plot down into scenes, mapping all of the key events, fleshing out the characters and the plot, etc. Also, at this point, for RPG games, you want to do more specific game mechanic planning - start to flesh out the battle system, plan out the maps, etc.

Finally, you get into the true details... fleshing out the areas, refining the battle system, finalizing the maps, developing the characters and scope of the world, writing dialog, etc.

After all that is done, you do testing and work on the game balance, refining the minute details: final dialog, battle system balance, etc.

Of course, that's not the only way to do things, but planning ahead helps avoid costly sticking points later on. If you don't know what a scene is working towards, for example, it will be hard to come up with character dialog. Hence the "writer's block" many game writers encounter during the course of a project.

It's kind of like building a house... you draw up the blueprints, plan what materials you want to use, then build the framework, set up the utilities, build the walls and lay down the floors. THEN you worry about carpeting, light fixtures, paint, wallpaper, furniture, etc. The house has to be there before you can put in a sofa... otherwise, it's really hard to figure out where the sofa goes.

Just my one-tenth of two-fifths of one-fourth of a fifth of a twenty dollar bill.

P.W.

[Megaman Z]

Just my one-tenth of two-fifths of one-fourth of a fifth of a twenty dollar bill.

1/5 of a twenty is... 20/5... four, one fourth of that is a one, two fifths, fourty cents, a tenth of that is... four cents? usually it's five... (sorry, you presented it as a math problem.)

anyhow, I already apoligized for that small bit of sarcasm. let me pull up the quote... *scroll, scroll... scroll-scroll-scroll* ah, here it is:

Labbit>> as PW and others... (snip, snip)

PW>> sorry, I end up assuming everyone who comes here is on their own personal computer. it's a habit... so many people in my area have computers of their own...

This is a slight problem, but I really think that once the team for this has formed, working out of the details (particularly the plot) needs to happen somewhere else...

Well, I guess we could get a hidden forum here, where only the team has access (and of course the admins, but if they read there and then spoil themself, they can blame themself too )

before that happens, we need to have some sort of a plot going... full world war sounds too cliche' right now. (STILL open to suggestions for plot, as well as somebody to write the story's basic script.)

(and personally, I think PM's would work until such a forum is made... or until we get a bigger team. we have three people working on this at a really slow pace: me, Shadosa, and Labbit [speaking of whom, where are you?])

I'm kinda torn between not releasing public demos untill the WHOLE game is done and releasing demos per chapter (1 public demo per chapter, save games can carry over from one to the next)

[Labbit]

Oh! I'm sorry! n_n; Um....where do I find where the characters look like so I can do the art? I think I missed a link or something to where the game is. :X

[Megaman Z]

hold on a sec... anybody know where I can upload a zip file containing the *.PNG files for the sprites of the currently used characters?

(I would also like somebody to explain the process step-by-step, as I'm in the dark on how to do internet transfers... [sweat mark appears])

(alternatively, Labbit, you can try to aquire a copy of PRGXP and extract the images from the RTP, as I'm not using any custom-designed sprites yet... the ones I'm using right now are listed below)

sprites:
-001-Fighter01 (the main character, you)
-092-Monster06 (slime)
*thinking...*
-024-Gunner02 (another player character, she is seen in the intro sequence)

battlers (the image that appears in the battles and such. replacements welcome.):
see sprites list

tileset:
-047-mine01 (if you see a better tileset, go ahead and tell me. I can easily change the area for tilesets 43 through 46 (the caves for Earth, Fire, Ice, and Water)

[chronoluminaire]

Ok... as soon as somebody (may be me again... I hope somebody else helps) can think of something to add to the flimsy plot, we can start really working on this...

Well... I do have a few ideas... But as has been pointed out, if any of them were to be gone ahead with then that would be big spoilers for everyone who's reading this thread! Perhaps those of us with plot ideas should send them in a PM to someone who's definitely involved (Megaman, you?), and wait for a message back saying "Tell me more" ... Sound good?

[Megaman Z]

yep. go ahead and PM me... (for anyone who is clueless about how to do this [which should be a null set, but you never know], highlight the quotebox below)


basic PM instructions:

1>click the little button that says "PM"
2>make sure the username is correct (for me, Megaman Z)
3> type the text in the message box. I will read any sent to me, so don't use it for a private flame war. (if you do, it will be A) forwarded to Blue Lemma, and B) put on public display if BL doesn't get back to me in 3-5 days. I am personally against using PM's for harassment.)
4> wait three-five days for a reply. (it usually takes less for me to reply, but sometimes I get delayed...)

[rioka]

Well, first of all, you need some space on the WWW. The best thing to do is sign up to a free web site hosting such as geocities.yahoo.com, angelfire.lycos.com, tripod.lycos.com, bravenet.com, etc. Just google "free web hosting" and you should be fine.

To upload to them to your web space, you need and FTP software. For some web hosting places like Tripod, you don't need to get an FTP software. They have a page set up where you can upload files there directly. I will advise youto get your own FTP as it's much, much, much, much faster.

To work FTP, the basic info they will all have/need is the hostname/address. In the case of free web hosting, the address will be like this: "ftp.tripod.com" Then there will be a box where you need to enter your User ID and your password.

Click OK or Connect (or whatever the FTP button says) and it'll connect directly to your web space. There will usually be several files there like cgi-bin or something - ignore those. On one side of the FTP window will be a list of files in your computer and on the other is a list of files in your web space. Select the files on your computer that you want transfered/copied. Usually, there is an arrow button that you can click but in some cases you have to drag and drop from one side to the other. Wait for a bit and if nothing goes wrong (like you timing out or something), the files you wanted transfered will appear in the other list. Just click on exit, quit, or X-button when you're done.

Blah, I typed two paragraphs out but just visit this place: http://www.rpgclassics.com/join/ftp.shtml
It's got visuals. =P

If you need more info, ask around and I'm sure someone will fill you in. =)

[Megaman Z]

I think I still have open web space, but I'm saving it for the official pages for the RPG... I'm gonna have to wait until the local computer expert (Namely, my father) gets home. (he can probably explain this a heck of a lot better for me... and possably get me some web space for usage...)

I have three screenshots of the area that the current intro sequence would take place in... (haven't done all the clicking and typing nessisary to put it in yet... I gotta start focusing more on this than on other things like the Gobliiins series...)

(and I still can't think of a title...)