gekiganwing wrote:A few questions to start out this post:
* How many endings do you currently plan to create?
* If there are more than one, do you plan to include official pairings? Will they be an important aspect of the story?
* If your visual novel were graded by a movie or video games rating organization, what sort of rating would it get?
* Have you, or someone you know well, lived in Japan? If not, have you already done a decent amount of research?
* Would your story work just as well if the main character moved to some other nation? (For instance, would the story be similar if he lived in France, Singapore, or Costa Rica?)
*If i do stray away from this being a Kinetic Novel I shall implement more than 5 different ending with the current ideas of letting it be more interactive.
*There are other pairings and the way how they affect the relationship of the two main characters in their experiences, in and outside of their school lives.
*I don't plan on it having many ecchi-type scenes, but will have some sort of violence in fights. 16+
*I have done my research on Japanese schooling and how the schooling system works as well as a lot of study into Japanese culture.
*It could, but the way Nakajo was living in America, more specifically California and how he had gotten involved in fights with gangs to get away from his problems living there.
gekiganwing wrote:LaChez, I don't know if you're familiar with Samu-kun's visual novel Homeward, but yours sounds a little bit similar. (You'll find the 16+ rated version here, and a thread about the 18+ version in the adult games section of this forum.) It also features a main character who has lived in multiple nations, and who has been away from his friends for many years. Don't worry, I'm not accusing you of copying. But I believe you'll benefit by making sure your story has several things which make it clearly distinct from Homeward.
I actually have not heard about it. It was only recently that i became interested in visual novels actually. I read into it when you posted about it and could see the relation. The way i posted the summary of it here does give it away that it seems it could be a typical school drama. I am confident with the highlighted themes of this story can make it distinct from other novels.
gekiganwing wrote:I enjoy boy x girls stories and school-centered stories. But I have to admit that after reading quite a few, it's easy to get burned out. To be more specific, I've read several of the visual novels named in the Wikipedia entry for nakige ("crying game," or stories which tend to have slow pacing and an increasingly serious tone). It sounds like you're aiming to make a relatively serious story. Again, don't worry. I am not claiming that your VN lacks innovation, and I do not believe that innovation is the most important part of a story. I believe that it's still possible to create an interesting story in contemporary Japan with teenage characters. It's just that I currently consider almost any other setting to be refreshingly different.
I can see why you could get sick of these types of stories because they are done quite often and yes the story will be quite on the serious side of things. It can be possible that it could be in a different setting, but I have implemented things relative to the clubs, festivals, etc.. in Japanese culture.
What kinds of things would you like to know in the story itself with the characters and why it would set it apart from other stories that could be similar to this one such as the one you showed me, Homeward?