Forever Alone: Nerds the Gathering [Nerdy Valentine 2/14/14]

[Omnificent]

It progresses! A little slower this month because of juggling other stuff, but I'm at 68,859. Sorry for no updates lately, I didn't want to bump my thread too much.

As for the bromance question: Mike's relationship with at least one or more of these guys has the potential for something that would pretty much be bromance if both parties were guys. But there's also plenty of the more traditional version. One of the underlying currents in this game is how the guys relate to their male role models/are role models themselves, in fact.

[Obscura]

Hi...just started the demo for Forever Alone: Nerds the Gathering.

Just want to say, I love your writing style! Very distinct, amusing and clever, though about half the references flew over my head since I'm not a nerd (merely a social recluse .) The sprites are fun, and you've done an exceptionally sweet job with the music. The music really adds to the entertainment value of your game.

As someone who, as a young girl, couldn't find anybody to play D&D with her, I totally empathize with the main character.

[distorsion]

As someone who, as a young girl, couldn't find anybody to play D&D with her, I totally empathize with the main character.

Lol, seconded. Actually, I still can't find anyone to play with.
Anyway this game is a lot of fun so far, Mike's totally my kinda girl. I love how distinct all your characters are, I think Jeff's my fave. Or maybe Greg. ^_^

[Omnificent]

Obscura: I'm afraid I can't take credit for the music, as it's all random CC stuff I found around the internet. XD Glad you're finding it enjoyable, and let me know what you think once you're done with the demo!

distorsion: Damn that Jeff and his cheery charm I'm glad you find the characters distinct, back when I was first writing them I was afraid of certain characters sounding too much like one another (like Matthew and Douglas). It warms my heart to see people also liking our protagonist, as without her narration a game as long as FA:NG would drag.

As always, still writing. For the sake of having content aside from 'yup still going' to put here, I guess I'll put up some of the FA:NG-related art I've made. I'm definitely going to be redoing the sprites once I'm done writing.







I should probably mention that despite being mostly a comedy, FA:NG will also get pretty depressing.

[Reikun]

I just played the demo last night instead of studying for my exams *U* Ahaha... I'm sorry for taking so long to get to it OTL
I'm still not sure if it's a good or bad thing that I understood 80-90% of the references...

I did get the Hachi one though :3

I'm not sure how much you've worked on the parts that were shown in the demo since you released it (a long time ago... xD;;;) so I'm not sure what kinds of comments will still be helpful to you??

Uhh, some things I noticed anyway:
- I liked that music was not always playing in the background. It was interesting since a lot of VNs don't give much time for silence.
- The multiple poses were really cool! I think I read somewhere that you plan on redoing the sprites (or was I imagining things..?), but you've probably already been told that it would be nice if some padding was added between the sprites and the window border so that 2 people conversations don't look so far apart *U*;;;;
- I favorite characters and tied between Matt, Mike, and Greg (GUNDAMS FTW)

If you want any more specific feedback feel free to tell me so! I want to be helpful... *U*;;; Haha

PSST. Are you still looking for a background artist? I'd be happy to help if by the time you need backgrounds most of my current projects are nearly done *U*

[gekiganwing]

It's been a couple months since the last update. I don't want to be a nuisance, but I'm curious as to how things are going with FA:NG.

[Omnificent]

FA:NG status: still not dead.

The main reason I've been so quiet on this is that I want to keep as many people as possible unspoiled as possible/do a minimum of unnecessary thread bumps. I've pretty much been ranting dialogue and plot points to 2-3 people as I go along.

I'm definitely redoing the sprites once the writing is finished. My art/way of drawing these guys has shifted so much even in just this amount of time that I don't think I could draw them the same way as in the demo even if I tried. I'm already sort of dreading the sheer number of sprites/backgrounds this thing would need to have in order to be a halfway polished project.

Out of all the routes, Matt route is the closest to being done. I can almost taste it. I may do a very barebones demo of that route soon (either only text or text + placeholder stick figures/sketches) so I may be contacting folks about that.

Kurt route has been the most difficult to write thus far, I think I've revised it about 4 to 5 times by now. Getting the balance of drama to down-to-earth slice-of-life is kind of hard, especially when you're trying to figure out what kind of character you want to portray. Plus I didn't want the entire thing to be "being Kurt is suffering" or "Kurt turns out to have stereotypical megane traits after all".

At the end of the day, I'm not entirely sure who the "target audience" for this game would be. There are no bishonen, so there goes most of the teenage girl contingent. There are too many dick jokes and curse words. The ratio of romance to bromance is about 1:4. The words "I love you" don't come up that much. At the same time I have a female protagonist who occasionally thinks about the attractiveness of her male friends and maybe woos them (goodbye stereotypical male audience). There's no supernatural or fantasy gimmick tying it all together. I don't have polished visuals or production values (4chan scoffs). Weeabooness abounds (SomethingAwful recoils in horror). Sometimes I think that I'm making the kind of game that alienates basically everyone.

But maybe that's part of the reason I'm making this game in the first place.

At any rate, just popping in to say that I've never not planned on finishing FA:NG. Thank you guys for your support so far.

Also, word count ~90,000.

[Applegate]

Also, word count ~90,000.

q_q

I've tried catching you on AIM. Good to hear this is still alive because I was gonna bother you and ask if it's done/hiatus/still in WIP. 8(


PS: Don't use a double negative. I've never not planned. Son, I'm disappoint.

[CheeryMoya]

The main reason I've been so quiet on this is that I want to keep as many people as possible unspoiled as possible/do a minimum of unnecessary thread bumps. I've pretty much been ranting dialogue and plot points to 2-3 people as I go along.

I can verify this >_> I'm not entirely sure if I'll be able to enjoy FA:NG as much as everyone else once it gets finished.

[Arowana]

Omg, this game! I played the demo way back when and adored it. I told myself to comment once I got an account, but completely forgot until now. So glad to see that it’s still alive and well!

I think you’ll definitely find an audience for FA:NG once it’s done (just think of all us nerds who can relate!) I also think your writing style and sense of humor are awesome (I wish I could be half as witty!), and would probably play any game you made just to read the dialogue. ^^ And honestly, I’d prefer seeing this game skew towards bromance. I can’t really see myself pursuing any of these guys romantically (except maybe Kurt haha), but I definitely want to nerd out with them and have crazy hijinks together. Friendship stories can be a lot more fun and compelling than romantic ones, imo, and that’s actually one of the reasons I’m looking forward to this game.

Okay, enough fangirling. I don’t know if you are still looking for feedback on the demo, seeing as it’s quite old and the art/GUI has probably been revamped, so I’ll leave it at that for now. Best of luck with everything, and I look forward to the finished game!

[Ricocchi]

I just played the demo. Unexpectedly the charactes really grew on me and their simple expressions are enough lively to their emotion. great

[Omnificent]

Applegate: That was on purpose yo, also you really need to come on AIM at reasonable hours, also that double-negative was as much a stylistic choice as this run-on sentence, also 105,000 words!

Cheer: On the plus side, you'll get to test the full game before anyone else!

Arowana: Thanks! Well, I can promise a ton of bromance to the point that it constitutes at least 3/4ths of the game, but that's not to say that the romance isn't worth looking at. Characters are more than skin deep, after all, and even if they don't look that manpretty they're still good guys!

Ricocchi: Thank you! The sprites are getting revamped/going to get more poses and expressions, so you can look forward to that.

I honestly don't have a lot to post because while I sketch the FA:NG characters all the time, it's mostly rough-sketches until I get to the art stage proper. But here are some of those sketches.



Experimenting with drawing the clothing over the sketch in a different color so that I can still make out anatomy in case I need to draw another outfit for the sprite. Incidentally, Kurt is the character I draw the most because he is the most default-looking a good baseline for drawing any of the other male characters.



Messing very slightly with the way I draw Ray's eyes. The man is supposed to be fairly handsome, but I'm having a hard time getting that across.



It got cut off, but Cindy had an arrow with "ROUND ROUND ROUND" next to her. Having two main female characters means I don't have to make as much effort in terms of having their character designs contrast!



glasses characters are moe amirite



I herd you liked imoutos

Yes, I'm going to be making sprites for even the one-shot, incidental characters.

FA:NG's script should be completely done by the end of the year, and I hope to complete it by the end of November. After that comes programming, then art, then music, then final testing, then holy shit!

[Aedin]

Dowantdowantdowant.

This is the one game that I've been silently following and hoping is still active. I love how much of a badass the main characters is. Also, you really need to make and sell these shirts. I would buy every single one of them.

[Applegate]

I talked with the creator last, and he's still very keen on getting this forward. No worries! Last ballpark was approaching the 100k words I think...

[CheeryMoya]

Cheer: On the plus side, you'll get to test the full game before anyone else!

That's not enough of a consolation prize OTL I'm pretty much jumping from ship to ship in this game before deciding it'd be better to just drown in the sea of feels altogether you know. It's not good for my otome kokorooooooo

But yeah all the boys are really great guys. Good luck choosing a favorite :'D