Out of the Woods [GxB] [Survival]

A place for game announcements, and for people to discuss games being made.
Forum rules
Please read the sticky before creating a new topic. Linking to Kickstarter/Crowdfunded games requires a demo. Updates to Patreon-backed games may be posted once every 2 months. Adult content should not be posted in this forum.
Message
Author
StarMasayume
Regular
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2012 11:03 pm
Location: Florida
Contact:

Out of the Woods [GxB] [Survival]

#1 Post by StarMasayume »

Image

Out of the Woods
Play as Ringo, a little girl who got lost in the woods. Help Ringo befriend the woodcutter's son Hiro and find her way out of the woods. Oh, and try not to get eaten by the wolf...

UPDATES & PROGRESS: Estimated 60% complete
I'm back! Some updates on the game progress.

✦ Customized dialogue boxes & Menu
✦ Music added
✦ Currently 1,000 words & 15 menus
✦ Can "pick" flowers during game for a bonus option
✦ Art finished for 1 ending

TO DO:
✦ Endings (at least 3 endings)
✦ Still working on dialogue/scenes
✦ More paths/exploration

Hello everyone, I'm a huge newbie who only just recently discovered the fun that are these games and... well I have a best friend with ambitious plans. We've had plans for years of manga project or two but now have gotten excited about the prospect of changing them to a gameplay format. This means I have to learn the Ins and Outs so I started this little fairytale game as a learning experience for me. I'm primarily an artist but I'm having fun confusing myself with coding and how to do things.

I really intended for a darker, grittier look to this but the part of me obsessed with cuteness must have taken over. Hopefully it will be just dark enough to add some spice. So far I have most of the sprites and backgrounds done except for the different ending scenes. I've kept the art very simple and graphic so I can spend more time on learning. Here are a few more screencaps:


Image

Image

Image

Being new to all of this, I do have some questions related to game making or for this game in particular. Any suggestions are also welcome if you think something would make it more fun.

- I found somewhere with music that was free to use, but is there a good resource out there for just sound effects?

- Is first person present the best way to go? Trying to get a feel for how much or little Rin should say.

- Trying to decide whether to keep it very linear or to give more control on where Rin goes, more like navigating the woods yourself. If I did, what would be the best way to do that?

- Instead of having an automatic prompt whether to pick something up, is there a simple code for having to click on an image that then starts the option of what to do with it?
Last edited by StarMasayume on Fri Apr 04, 2014 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
feathersnake
Regular
Posts: 104
Joined: Fri Apr 13, 2012 8:05 pm
Completed: A Rose by Any Other Name
Projects: Color, You've Got Mail!
Organization: Olfix Productions
Tumblr: olfix
Deviantart: olfix
Contact:

Re: Out of the Woods [GxB] [Survival]

#2 Post by feathersnake »

The art is so cute! D8
I actually really want to play this when it's done. (Not just because of the art of course. XD )
Ringo. Maybe I'm thinking about this too hard, but did you choose that name for a specific reason?

I'm completely useless in regard to your questions. I wish I could help you out with them. :/ I hope you can get some answers from someone.

This project looks lovely, and I can't wait to see how it turns out. :D
Olfix Productions:
Tumblr | itch.io
Complete Projects:
A Rose by Any Other Name
In-progress:
Color | You've Got Mail!

User avatar
FatUnicornGames
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 576
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:54 pm
Projects: Club Shuffle
Contact:

Re: Out of the Woods [GxB] [Survival]

#3 Post by FatUnicornGames »

-freesound.org

-I am writing first person present in my game, and I like it. That doesn't mean it is right for you though.

-I tend to like more control and options myself. Again, that whatever is right for you. I hate to keep saying that, but it really comes down to that.

I don't know that answer to your last question, but your game is hella cute, and I hope you stick with it. So stoked to play it.

Edit: One thing I thing could benefit your incredibly professional looking art is a cool GUI (custom interface, dialogue boxes etc). I don't know if you know about that already, but I would poke around the site to see what you can do in that respect.
Image
Developer Blog for Club Shuffle - Follow and Share?
-Also! You can call me Crystal if you want.-

CheeryMoya
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 892
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2012 4:09 am

Re: Out of the Woods [GxB] [Survival]

#4 Post by CheeryMoya »

HHHHHNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Allow me to assist you!
StarMasayume wrote: - I found somewhere with music that was free to use, but is there a good resource out there for just sound effects?
Look in the OELVN wiki for the time being, there's a bunch of resources you can use. Here's the page with music and sound effects.
StarMasayume wrote:- Is first person present the best way to go? Trying to get a feel for how much or little Rin should say.
Most VNs in ADV mode (where there's a textbox on the bottom of the screen) traditionally use 1st POV narration, but there's nothing saying you can't use 3rd POV. Write whichever you're more comfortable with or you think would tell the story better. Personally, I think 1st POV lends itself to a more emotional story because you get into the narrator's thoughts, while 3rd POV allows the audience to see a wider picture with less bias than in 1st POV.
StarMasayume wrote:- Trying to decide whether to keep it very linear or to give more control on where Rin goes, more like navigating the woods yourself. If I did, what would be the best way to do that?
If you go linear, then you're making a Kinetic Novel which only has 1 ending. If you want to have multiple endings, then you can add more choices like:
  • "Do I go left or right?"
  • "Should I help Hiro carry this wood?"
  • "Do I steal Hiro's scarf?"
  • "How do I cook the wolf?"
Only the first two were serious >_>
Alternatively, you can do imagemaps and let players explore the woods themselves. More on imagemaps here.
StarMasayume wrote:- Instead of having an automatic prompt whether to pick something up, is there a simple code for having to click on an image that then starts the option of what to do with it?
I'd suggest imagemap once again, but can you make a mock-up of such an event so I know what you're trying to do?

Now back to me flipping over how cute these chibis are. It's all is too much for me to handle! :3

HHHHHHHHNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Egressus
Veteran
Posts: 240
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2012 11:13 am
Projects: Things Not Seen
Location: Indonesia
Contact:

Re: Out of the Woods [GxB] [Survival]

#5 Post by Egressus »

Most people use first person pov. In fact, I believe I haven't played a game that is not first pov.

You can use imagemaps. You want the control direction to be clicking on the image, right? You'll have dozens of labels, though.
But if you choose this, the player won't be able to tell the direction of, say, the right part of the screen and the left part. Unless you want them to blindly walk along, you might want to add some sort of directions.

You can still do a simple menu (giving the option to go there and there) if you want, though. It'll be much easier.
Hiatus of hiatuses

StarMasayume
Regular
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2012 11:03 pm
Location: Florida
Contact:

Re: Out of the Woods [GxB] [Survival]

#6 Post by StarMasayume »

Thanks for all the comments so far! :)
I know it will be a simple game but hopefully it will still be fun and will have a few different endings to try.

feathersnake ~ Ringo kept popping into my head few a few reasons. 1. It's the japanese word for apple which is cute and red... 2. I like the shortened form, Rin. 3. When looking it up, I found you can use the Kanji Rin(woods) and go (enlightenment) which I found fitting. Hiro means generous, or could also be a shortened form of Hiroki (which means Wide Trees). :)

FatUnicornGames ~ Thanks for the link for sounds, I'll check it out! I'll see what I can manage control of the game wise without confusing myself too much. I have a bit of a map in my head and on paper. I do want to test out customizing dialogue boxes and such so hopefully I'll figure that out. I also want to play with a few animated scenes. I assume I could throw them together in adobe premier pro and then add them in (probably not too much, just to accent).

CheeryMoya ~ Thank you thank you for all your answers! :) They're very helpful. I have been scoping the tutorials a lot but it's easy to miss things that are there. I'll see which POV sets the tone better. I have already been exploring different options and have a points system in place for different variables. What kind of game is that considered under? I'll check out the image maps, just to see if it's something I'd want to do.

btw your last two sample choices totally made me giggle

For an example of what I meant by objects, say you enter a scene where there are a few flowers which I already have placed. Is there a script so if you click on the flower it can instigate an action (flower disappears, and $ flowers += 1). I was thinking of adding a special art or animation at the end if you do something with them.

Egressus ~ Imagemaps do sound useful for directions, but I already am going to have a bunch of labels for different choices so it might get confusing quick. I'll check into it though. What would a simple menu be like to do?

Egressus
Veteran
Posts: 240
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2012 11:13 am
Projects: Things Not Seen
Location: Indonesia
Contact:

Re: Out of the Woods [GxB] [Survival]

#7 Post by Egressus »

That's where comments are useful ;)
Descriptive labels can be helpful, too. But it's your choice.

Wait, what kind of choices do you have? If it's only something like, "steal Hiro's scarf" or "contemplate ways to cook Wolf", I think you could cut down the labels. Labels are not so fun because it makes you scroll up to remember the previous events.
Imagemaps make labels a requirement, though.

I'm thinking that a character can tell you the directions, IF they do, before the menu pops out. The "Left/Right/Forward" would be appropriate, I think, although making it sound more casual would be nice.

EDIT: Adobe Premier Pro? What for? Not to animate it into GIF, right?
Last edited by Egressus on Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Hiatus of hiatuses

User avatar
FatUnicornGames
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 576
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:54 pm
Projects: Club Shuffle
Contact:

Re: Out of the Woods [GxB] [Survival]

#8 Post by FatUnicornGames »

Something I am doing in my game is having choices that spread out and come back together to a main story. On the seperate paths you get points (ie $ wolfpoints +=1) and then later have if/else statements to further the different branches. If that is too confusing look up what those things mean. If you don't feel like dealing with any of that (feel that is necessary) just don't pay attention to anything I said here. No big.
Image
Developer Blog for Club Shuffle - Follow and Share?
-Also! You can call me Crystal if you want.-

User avatar
Elze
Veteran
Posts: 246
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2010 7:30 am
Tumblr: Poepii
Contact:

Re: Out of the Woods [GxB] [Survival]

#9 Post by Elze »

Eeeeee this is so darn freaking adorable! I'll be looking forward to this <3
Image

CheeryMoya
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 892
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2012 4:09 am

Re: Out of the Woods [GxB] [Survival]

#10 Post by CheeryMoya »

If you have a point system, that's exactly that: a point-based game. Useful when you want several choices to lead up to one branch/ending, instead of one single deciding choice.

Uhhhhh... I don't know how to do the disappearing flower thing without going through lots of hoops >_> This is where I stop understanding the Ren'Py documentation ;-; I'm more of a writer and less a programmer, so you're better off asking in the Ren'Py Questions and Announcements section to see if someone can give you a clean method of doing that. Animation is possible with ATL though, so rest assured that you can do it.

StarMasayume
Regular
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2012 11:03 pm
Location: Florida
Contact:

Re: Out of the Woods [GxB] [Survival]

#11 Post by StarMasayume »

Egressus ~ Yeah I should take advantage of comments more. I saw in one tutorial about call backs so I just started putting some scenes in a separate rpy file and calling them where appropriate. I thought it'd help keep the main file less confusing which not so many jumps.

I think a menu would work for directions, it's what I did for the first juncture. I probably should still learn image maps though.

Not for a gif (I used to have a program for animated gif but lost it years ago). I have the program for making anime music videos so just am familiar with it and thought it might be easier for me to make an animated intro or ending. I do know the game has a lot of animate and transform features though so I'll probably still play around with what I can do first. If I want an animated background on the main menu, does that need to be a gif file?

FatUnicornGames -- Actually I've already been making use of the if/else statements and setting whether one event or another is true or false :) They're pretty useful. Just have to remember what I do.

CheeryMoya -- I'll probably hop over there to ask some of the more technical stuff that stumps me. ^^

Elze -- Thanks! Hopefully won't take me too long to get it done.

Anarchy
Veteran
Posts: 331
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:51 am
Projects: Fairy Tales of Innocent Children
Contact:

Re: Out of the Woods [GxB] [Survival]

#12 Post by Anarchy »

Oh my god. This looks way too adorable. Can't wait until it comes out!
Edit: One thing I thing could benefit your incredibly professional looking art is a cool GUI (custom interface, dialogue boxes etc). I don't know if you know about that already, but I would poke around the site to see what you can do in that respect
Seconding this hard~

User avatar
RVB
Regular
Posts: 49
Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2012 5:52 pm
Organization: Brat Prince Productions
Deviantart: aambrosio
Location: Dallas
Contact:

#13 Post by RVB »

Oh my god, the characters are just so adorable! Hiro is so precious...! ♥ I can't wait to see this come out. It looks absolutely adorable! And hey. survival is always fun....

Egressus
Veteran
Posts: 240
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2012 11:13 am
Projects: Things Not Seen
Location: Indonesia
Contact:

Re: Out of the Woods [GxB] [Survival]

#14 Post by Egressus »

That's exactly why I asked you if you're about to make GIF-- Ren'py doesn't work with gifs.
I believe the current code/something you can use is ctc, but I'm not well versed in coding myself.
Videos work, but for the background, you'll need to use ctc.

That could work. It all depends on you, really.

Glad the simple way works! Using imagemaps can get tiring if there's a lot of them.

BY THE WAY I keep forgetting due to this whole technical thing.
HIRO IS fweitwahr4rfe eue
That scarf. He looks like a cookie.
Hiatus of hiatuses

User avatar
MaiMai
Yandere
Posts: 1757
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 6:04 pm
Completed: [Phase Shift]
Projects: [ None ]
Organization: Paper Stars
Tumblr: maiscribbles
Deviantart: maiscribble
Location: USA, Southern California
Contact:

Re: Out of the Woods [GxB] [Survival]

#15 Post by MaiMai »

This is adorable and I hope you can finish this because HNGH MY HEART.
Image COMMISSIONS AVAILABLE (check Tumblr sidebar)

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users