SC2VN [e-sports] [BxG][BxB]

[Vogue]

SC2VN is and always will be a free game! Try our demo below.

Download (pre-alpha demo):
PC
MEGA

Mac
Google Drive

Linux
MEGA

About SC2VN
SC2VN is an interactive visual novel about a foreigner player trying to break into the StarCraft 2 progaming scene in a fictional South Korea. The novel revolves around the trials around trying to break out in Korea and the issues of leaving everything behind in order to become a progamer.

We drew from events and characters that are familiar to ourselves and the player audience, though their depictions are entirely works of fiction and parody and are not meant to accurate in the slightest. This demo is SFW and contains no nudity. The game will contain adult sequences.

Gameplay

The game is a Visual Novel, which is an interactive storytelling game where the player reads through the experience of the character and makes decisions that can affect the outcome of the game. Currently, the game is still a demo and thus more linear than traditional visual novels that have multiple endings. The demo is still a proof of concept.

Click through each scene to advance the story line, and help the main character best his opponents on the ladder by helping him make in-game decision that may decide his progaming career.

FAQ

Q: When is the full game going to come out?
A: We don't know. We have ideas of what a full fledged game would look like, but are still gathering feedback.

Q: What about [OTHER POPULAR ESPORTS GAMES]
A: In a future version of the game, the characters may interact with progamers from other esports titles. For now, it is just purely focused on the SC2 scene.

Q: Where is the dating?
A: This is still an early build, and a focus on dating and romance wasn't something meant to be conveyed. In the full game, there are plans to have routes that are not only romance based, but also career based - what team house do you want to join? What tournaments do you participate in? Who are your practice partners? This isn't really a dating sim.

Q: Where can we leave feedback?
A: Post in this thread. Constructive criticism is welcome.

About Team 11:11
SC2VN began as an idea when I make a really stupid youtube video. I was contacted by Shindigs about an idea of potentially making it a reality. What seemed like a funny joke turned into a motivated project to try and create a game that could be legitimately be based on the experiences of aspiring progamers in esports, and to also make an awesome game.

I feel like we've really been missing out by not sharing this project on these forums, as our main goal was to introduce Visual Novels to a new demographic, esports/Starcraft enthusiasts. The reaction so far has been pretty good. Anyway, I'm looking forward to improving with Ren'py and writing a whole lot more.

The team behind SC2VN:

Vogue: Writing and game development

shindigs: game development

hikariix: - art

Special thanks to:
Carlton Beener - Code A photo
Zircon5 - music for the game

[gekiganwing]

Looks like my thread about your VN is now redundant. Oh well. Thank you for being willing to post here on Lemma Soft.

Some questions and thoughts:

* It looks like your story will constantly reference the Starcraft universe, possibly including screenshots of the games. Even though your gameplay will be be quite different, this still seems to be fan labor. There is an inherent risk in this -- you could receive a cease and desist from Blizzard or other copyright holders. If you don't want to face this risk, consider writing a story about a generic competitive video game. (For what it's worth, RE: Alistair was about the fictional MMO Rivenwell Online.)

* Take some time to research your setting. You will benefit by making sure that your portrayal of present-day South Korea is accurate. At the same time, keep in mind that it's a story, not an academic treatise. It can take place in a real or fictional place. Don't let research take a much-too-large role.

* Please provide additional information about your characters. Let us know what makes them interesting people with goals, lives, and so on.

(My knowledge about video game competitions is limited. I definitely heard all about the Nintendo World Championships during the early 1990s, but I didn't know that similar events existed until recently...)

[Vogue]

Hey, thanks for making that thread earlier. Let me address a few things.

* It looks like your story will constantly reference the Starcraft universe, possibly including screenshots of the games. Even though your gameplay will be be quite different, this still seems to be fan labor. There is an inherent risk in this -- you could receive a cease and desist from Blizzard or other copyright holders. If you don't want to face this risk, consider writing a story about a generic competitive video game. (For what it's worth, RE: Alistair was about the fictional MMO Rivenwell Online.)

Blizzard has been pretty good about allowing projects that feature Starcraft. We've tried to do our best to avoid any sort of infringement (mainly by keeping the name Starcraft out of the title, using an abbreviation) but in truth it's necessary for us to reference the material from the game to attract a non-VN playing SC2 fan.

We really, really hope Blizzard wants to see the project come to life as they have so many others.

* Take some time to research your setting. You will benefit by making sure that your portrayal of present-day South Korea is accurate. At the same time, keep in mind that it's a story, not an academic treatise. It can take place in a real or fictional place. Don't let research take a much-too-large role.

Luckily, this is one of the areas our team is strongest. I have personally competed for about a year and half, though I'm not a professional gamer. However, my roommate is! Additionally, I've spent months in Asia and know very well what it is like to be a foreigner.

We'll cover South Korean experiences when necessary (though I can't promise a section on fan death) but like I've said, this is mainly an e-sports game. A lot of the subject matter I'm going to cover is something that shindigs and I have firsthand experience with.

* Please provide additional information about your characters. Let us know what makes them interesting people with goals, lives, and so on.

A lot of the characters (about 60% or so) I'm planning are going to be based on actual professional gamers. The game is going to be 100% accessible to anyone that wants to play, with or without Starcraft knowledge. It's a nice way to bridge the gap between two of my favorite things and introduce people to each community.

Mach, the (fictional) protagonist, moves to South Korea to become a professional gamer, as so many people have done in real life. However, you learn pretty quick that success doesn't come free just because you bought a plane ticket. The initial struggle comes from being alone in a foreign country, losing Code A (amateur league) qualifiers, and second guessing his choices.

A lot of professional gamers reach a point in their career where they've spent a good part of their late teens/early twenties and have nothing to show for it. A lot of the time it just gets glossed over by the community, the fact that people devote the best time in their lives to practicing 6-8 hours a day and don't succeed. That's the sort of struggle I'm looking to highlight. This isn't a glitzy game.

[Vogue]

I'm going to be doing all I can to update this thread periodically, and I'm starting that off right now with a highlight of one of the story's antagonists.

Name: ???
Oooh, so mysterious.

Starcraft has such a rich history, and its part of what makes telling a story in this world so interesting. As part of doing everything I can to bridge the gap between the (possibly) steep learning curve of Starcraft and its community, let me give some real life background on a couple of Korean e-sports entities as to better understand our game and the universe it exists in.

When Starcraft started getting big in Korea in the late 90s/early 00s, things were extremely unorganized. People flocked to PC bangs to battle during the day, and at night turned on their TVs to watch their favorite players wearing space suits.

I wish I was kidding.

So, naturally, due to the popularity of Starcraft and its subsequent expansion, Brood War, an organization needed to step in to reign lame costumes and sets, and provide a structure to the burgeoning industry. Thusly, Kespa was born.

The NFL of Starcraft.

Things started coming together. Teams could field salaries for their B-teamers, huge prize pools started appearing. Aircraft hangers filled with live fans. This was more than just a game.

Brood War flourished in Korea for years. But wait, you might ask. Where was Blizzard in all of this?

Due to the flourishing e-sports culture in Korea, Brood War was seen less as a product of intellectual property, and rather a set of rules that some foreigners happened to create (just like any other sport). When Blizzard came to Kespa calling for licensing agreements, talks broke down and, essentially Blizzard was told they had no control of their game. Tournaments in Korea went without Blizzard approval, and there was little the US company could do to topple a Korean media powerhouse in their own country.

But there was another company that noticed this. Either through huge forethought or dumb luck, they would eventually find themselves to become Blizzard's cherished avenue to broadcast their game through.

Meet GOM, the AFL of Starcraft

GOM was a tiny little broadcaster that managed to get into Blizzard and the foreign scene's good graces by hiring English casters and doing things by the book. They respected Blizzard's intellectual property and were rewarded for it when Starcraft 2 came out.

Some of you might have heard that Blizzard doesn't allow LAN in Starcraft 2. While this is certainly a debatable choice for the general public, one reason they never touched on in the general gaming blogs is what I'm about to share with you now: Since games can only be played through battle.net, Blizzard has full control over what tournaments can and cannot play their game.

This kept an entity like Kespa from broadcasting Starcraft 2 without Blizzard's permission, and as such, Kespa simply continued to broadcast the waning Starcraft 1, while GOM was allowed to broadcast the growing Starcraft 2.

GOM eventually needed a regulatory entity like Kespa to ensure that things like salaries and conditions were fair for the SC2 players, and thus the E-sports Federation was born.

What is this, Star Wars?

So now we've got two governing bodies over two pools of incredibly talented Korean professional gamers, with online bickering on a massive scale.

So what does this have to do with our story?

If you've played the demo and can read between the lines, you know that our mysterious guy above is a Kespa player. The Kespa vs. ESF rivalry in the months leading up to the Kespa switch to Starcraft 2 was more bitter than any rivalry in Korean esports, period. Though it led to a lot of really fun matches to watch, it was rarely explored in a personal, human level. And that's what I hope to do.

You'll lock horns with the Kespa rival again and again, and learn through the eyes of a foreigner the perspective of a Brood War pro switching to a new game. Was it really right for Blizzard to lock Kespa out of broadcasting their new game? How did it affect the players?

We want to explore these tough questions in our game. Wading into grey areas is what I'm most excited about writing when it comes to SC2VN.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

[wakagana]

I approve of this 100%

Looking forward to the outcome of it all

[Armee]

Who feel like me? The last two characters one the promo look like her and him orz just my thought.
Anyway, I always like this kind of game Game about game idea always sound fun. Good to see you being delicate about this.

[Ophelia]

The history about SC was a nice read. The premise sounds really interesting and I'm gonna keep my eyes open for this.

Btw, why did you remove the link to kickstarter? The only way to go to the kickstarter page now is through the reddit link, that's a bit inconvenient since you haven't posted an official homepage. Oh, there is a link on twitter, nvm.

[Vogue]

The history about SC was a nice read. The premise sounds really interesting and I'm gonna keep my eyes open for this.

Btw, why did you remove the link to kickstarter? The only way to go to the kickstarter page now is through the reddit link, that's a bit inconvenient since you haven't posted an official homepage. Oh, there is a link on twitter, nvm.

I've been getting the feeling that people don't like us asking for funding, so I'l keep it down for now. Maybe during the last week it'll pop back up. I've gone ahead and put it back up. We need to pick up the pace!

Who feel like me? The last two characters one the promo look like her and him orz just my thought.
Anyway, I always like this kind of game Game about game idea always sound fun. Good to see you being delicate about this.

Haha, well, you'd have to ask our artist about that. Our female character is actually a genderswap of a male progamer and the rival is simply fictional.

And thanks! Stay tuned for more updates.

[Vogue]

All through! Thanks for watching.

[mogdu]

Wow a VN about SC2. that's awesome!
To bad I missed the stream.

I gave a try at the demo. playing it really feels great. getting to virtually make friends with MKP and MC is so cool.
And they fit well their true self, as far as I can tell. (Even though MC had a big weight loss/surgery.)
The writing is good to. I love the emphasis on the games you play and the decisions you've got to do within the game.

Good luck with it. I hope you'll not take to long to finish it. As I relate to a bunch of stuff that get dated pretty quick.
(The PGMs of the moment, the war kespa/gom.tv, that the kespa is wining right now. Even the game itself, HotS is there and LotV is to come.)

But the fact that it's focused on actuality is also what makes this game cool.
And even if it does get dated at some point, it will still be about a cool moment of the E-sport history.

I kinda hope It's not to much about BxB story and there is a way for me to skip them somehow.
As I'm not a BL fan and I would play it solely for the career part. But well. that's personal.

Keep it up. Definitely a nice project.

[Vogue]

Wow a VN about SC2. that's awesome!
To bad I missed the stream.

I gave a try at the demo. playing it really feels great. getting to virtually make friends with MKP and MC is so cool.
And they fit well their true self, as far as I can tell. (Even though MC had a big weight loss/surgery.)
The writing is good to. I love the emphasis on the games you play and the decisions you've got to do within the game.

Good luck with it. I hope you'll not take to long to finish it. As I relate to a bunch of stuff that get dated pretty quick.
(The PGMs of the moment, the war kespa/gom.tv, that the kespa is wining right now. Even the game itself, HotS is there and LotV is to come.)

But the fact that it's focused on actuality is also what makes this game cool.
And even if it does get dated at some point, it will still be about a cool moment of the E-sport history.

I kinda hope It's not to much about BxB story and there is a way for me to skip them somehow.
As I'm not a BL fan and I would play it solely for the career part. But well. that's personal.

Keep it up. Definitely a nice project.

We're is taking creative liberty and hosting the VN in a fictional universe where about half of SC2's progamers are female. Rae is a female version of DongRaeGul, for example. That's how we plan to execute a believable scenario where you can meet progamers that aren't Eve or Aphrodite or something. The demo had a lot of male characters, true, but we plan for it to be pretty even in the final version.

[Vogue]

We're in the middle of a stream for our battle system! We'll be live for about an hour.

http://www.twitch.tv/shindigs

[Vogue]

As we embark on the latter half of our Kickstarter, we’d like to take this opportunity to highlight another one of SC2VN’s characters and explain our naming process. Characters in SC2VN are referred to by their professional gamer handles by both their fellow characters and the game itself. You won’t see or likely even learn most characters’ first or last names. That’s something we’ve done intentionally. We aim to emphasize the Starcraft’s importance as something more than just a game that our characters play: It forms their very identity.

Mach - Protagonist

You'll experience SC2VN through the eyes of Mach. At the beginning of our story, it’s clear that he's is aimless, frustrated and whiny. He’s in a place where a lot of professional unsuccessful gamers are: poor and pessimistic. It’s only with the help of a group of Code S titans that he is able to finally hit his stride and make progress in his journey to become a champion. But questions need answering. Why didn’t Mach go to college? Why did he rush off to Korea? Are the Code S players helping an unknown foreigner for more than his own benefit?

Our goals for Mach are much different for our goals with a character like the Rival. We want all of our roles to be interesting, well-rounded and fun to interact with. Not flat tropes printed out onto a portrayal of established professional gamers. But for Mach, we also aim to allow the player enough control to feel that they’re more than just an observer. Mach is not a silent protagonist for the player to assume the role of, yet he’s neither is he an autonomous character that the player simply watches the story through. Striking that balance is key to creating an effective narrative that leaves the player still in control.

Mach serves to address many of the game’s major themes: What it’s like to be a foreigner, what it’s like to be young and unsure, and what it’s like to be a budding professional gamer. By tackling these issues, we aim to speak to you, our audience, in a way that contemporary media doesn’t. This is a story about someone who gave up everything for a profession where most players retire before they are 25. We hope you look forward to playing SC2VN. If you haven’t already, please support our Kickstarter.

-Vogue

(PS: Mach’s name is a combination of Main Character. Clever, huh?)

[Katta]

I don't know why but I was never able to download anything from MEGA, with the demo file it just stops at 18%((

[Vogue]

I don't know why but I was never able to download anything from MEGA, with the demo file it just stops at 18%((

There are two more download links at this top of this thread:

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=429348