SC2VN - [Slice of Life, eSports]

[Vogue]

Closing this for now. Stay in touch by going to our site.

[Rossfellow]

I've always wanted a good VN/novel based on E-sports! I'll be subscribing to this one.

[allurious]

As someone who plays an eSports title a lot (not SC2 but League) can I say how much it means that the protagonist can be male or female, and also the former champion/captain? It's so nice to see encouragement to ladies getting into eSports & I'll definitely give this a go because it looks great. When League did an intro video for the Worlds full of fictional characters, they couldn't even bother to make a single one female, so... yeah. Means a lot to me, at least!

[Enigma]

I'm into e-sports...well if you count fighting games as e-sports. The culture of fighting games seems really different from the RTS and MOBAs though. Still I love the atmosphere of fighting game tournaments so if it's anything like that I should love this game.

[plainviewer]

I haven't heard of many stories with this premise before (aside from comedies), so that's what I find interesting. But the story hasn't quite captured my attention, mainly because I have questions not answered on the website. Perhaps you could answer them for me?

1) Is there any gameplay like minigames? Or is the visual novel purely dialogue?

2) Is the protagonist an already established character, or more of a blank template filled in by the player?

3) what are some distinctive features about this game? Are there any responsibilities, risks, or activities we might not expect?

4) What are our primary goals. and how do we accomplish them?

Is this a traditional dating game where it's a matter of how efficiently you can boost your stats, before persuading the targeted characters? Or will this focus more on team management?

Again, I like the premise because it's something new to me. But the story by itself hasn't caught my interests because I don't know much about it, or what exactly we as players would be doing.

If you could answer my questions, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

[Vogue]

As someone who plays an eSports title a lot (not SC2 but League) can I say how much it means that the protagonist can be male or female, and also the former champion/captain? It's so nice to see encouragement to ladies getting into eSports & I'll definitely give this a go because it looks great. When League did an intro video for the Worlds full of fictional characters, they couldn't even bother to make a single one female, so... yeah. Means a lot to me, at least!

I'm glad you feel that way! While an all-male cast might allow for a Friday Night Lights/old boys club type vibe, we felt that the story would be way more interesting and inclusive with female professionals.

I'm into e-sports...well if you count fighting games as e-sports. The culture of fighting games seems really different from the RTS and MOBAs though. Still I love the atmosphere of fighting game tournaments so if it's anything like that I should love this game.

I've been to locals for my region's anime fighters, so I know the culture that you're talking about pretty well. That knowledge hasn't really come into play in regards to SC2VN, but I feel that anyone who plays competitive games understands the struggle to improve and challenge oneself.

PS: I play a mean Akihiko.

I haven't heard of many stories with this premise before (aside from comedies), so that's what I find interesting. But the story hasn't quite captured my attention, mainly because I have questions not answered on the website. Perhaps you could answer them for me?

1) Is there any gameplay like minigames? Or is the visual novel purely dialogue?

2) Is the protagonist an already established character, or more of a blank template filled in by the player?

3) what are some distinctive features about this game? Are there any responsibilities, risks, or activities we might not expect?

4) What are our primary goals. and how do we accomplish them?

Is this a traditional dating game where it's a matter of how efficiently you can boost your stats, before persuading the targeted characters? Or will this focus more on team management?

Again, I like the premise because it's something new to me. But the story by itself hasn't caught my interests because I don't know much about it, or what exactly we as players would be doing.

If you could answer my questions, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

1. The gameplay comes in the form of choices made from a strategical perspective in StarCraft. Do you play aggressively or defensively? That kind of thing. We try to contextualize the information so that people that know literally nothing about StarCraft still feel informed. We're still working on the details of how these scenes work, but right now they appear as comic panels that you can click on to proceed through your choice tree.

2. Somewhere between. Mach is somewhat generic, especially in comparison to the personalities of the rest of the cast, but he/she has his/her own struggles that play out over the course of the story. While Mach written in a way that makes a good vessel for the player, we try to do more with the character than just provide a self-insert.

3. I think the thing that's unique about our project is the understanding that our team has on the subject matter. I ranked in the top 400 players in NA at one point and lived with a professional SC2 player for more than a year. Our producer works with an eSports broadcasting organization. We bring a lot of firsthand knowledge about eSports to the table and intend to represent it as authentically as possible. SC2VN isn't some wild fantastical story about a guy that goes abroad and wins a championship because hey, he's the protagonist of the story! Even though the characters are fictional, we hope that our players find that the story is grounded enough to be relatable.

4. While it's technically a spoiler, I don't mind sharing since this information shows up pretty early in the story. Mach gets knocked out of the solo league, so without a team he/she would have to return home defeated. The game's main goal becomes to recruit enough players to form a team, and then to secure a sponsor.

To your last question, this isn't a dating sim. Some of the info in the OP might have been misleading since we did actually start this project with the intent of making a jokey eSports dating sim, but what came of the effort was a desire to tell a real story. We didn't believe that adding romance and dating elements meshed well with the story we are trying to tell. So, no stats. No character routes.

As much as I'd love to gush about all the characters and plot elements, I feel very strongly about the need to keep them contained. Part of a story's joy is discovering its parts as you go along. It's useful feedback to know that someone that knows nothing about eSports won't feel particularly hyped by 'oh, a visual novel about professional video games, huh.' I'm left to wonder what the best compromise is there.

And, because I'm in love with it, check out the newest background we just got in!

[Enigma]

I'm into e-sports...well if you count fighting games as e-sports. The culture of fighting games seems really different from the RTS and MOBAs though. Still I love the atmosphere of fighting game tournaments so if it's anything like that I should love this game.

I've been to locals for my region's anime fighters, so I know the culture that you're talking about pretty well. That knowledge hasn't really come into play in regards to SC2VN, but I feel that anyone who plays competitive games understands the struggle to improve and challenge oneself.

PS: I play a mean Akihiko.


1. The gameplay comes in the form of choices made from a strategical perspective in StarCraft. Do you play aggressively or defensively? That kind of thing. We try to contextualize the information so that people that know literally nothing about StarCraft still feel informed. We're still working on the details of how these scenes work, but right now they appear as comic panels that you can click on to proceed through your choice tree.
.

Yeah, I played Aigis but now all I play are Arcana Heart and Guilty Gear Xrd (Ramlethal and Konoha). I'm looking into MKX, even though I don't like the new character designs (I didn't like the old ones either though ESPECIALLY Kano) cause Jaqui Briggs looks really fun.

Also on the subject of feeling informed on starcraft I feel the commentators in those kind of E-sports do a good job, though I'm familiar with most games so maybe it's just me. It doesn't really work for fighting games since matches are much much shorter. I'm not sure if you meant you were looking for a way to make the information more accessible, or if you were thinking of how you wanted to present those scenes so maybe I'm just being redundant.

[Vogue]

Also on the subject of feeling informed on starcraft I feel the commentators in those kind of E-sports do a good job, though I'm familiar with most games so maybe it's just me. It doesn't really work for fighting games since matches are much much shorter. I'm not sure if you meant you were looking for a way to make the information more accessible, or if you were thinking of how you wanted to present those scenes so maybe I'm just being redundant.

Let me try to explain. In a 'battle scene,' the player is shown description of the events playing out in a game of StarCraft both in text and screenshots. For examples:

I take my natural expansion and begin teching up. The match progresses quietly with only a few brief skirmishes with his stalkers and my marines.
My scouts show he's not doing anything out of the ordinary. One of us has to make a move sooner or later. It’s important to control the pace of a match.

These scenes contain a lot of jargon for someone that doesn't know a lot about StarCraft. To compensate, we try to break down the information in a way that anyone can understand it. I absolutely agree that StarCraft commentators explain the game in a way that's easy for people to understand, and we try to weave an emulated version of that into the script for the battle scenes. When it comes time to make a strategic choice, you're offered something that looks like this:

[Standard] Medivac Drops
[Aggressive] Two Rax All-in

The goal is that players understand the type of choice they're making, regardless of whether or not they've ever played StarCraft before. It's a tough compromise to make, because we want to appeal to SC2 players as well and not make them feel that the game is dumbed down. We feel like we're in a decent spot, but could always use more feedback. If you're feeling up to it, there's demos on our site at sc2vn.com.

[Kikaharu]

of course this game interest me because I have been watching it since this post http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 43&t=23276 came out. XD and I have no idea what this is based off of but I'm still interested.

[Enigma]

I started playing the demo and it really speaks to me. When I was playing more seriously I felt the same way, sometimes I feel that way in regards to game development.

I am having trouble with a lot of the terminology though. I'm playing the kickstarter demo ATM, and even though I don't know all the games, I did understand which choices were defensive and which were offensive though.

The proplayers besides marineking kinda seemed like turbo assholes though. Maybe it's a difference between the RTS culture and the Fighting Game culture (well I never played japanese pros), but I've played pro players and they never seemed that bad. Heck, I got completely decimated on a stream once and yeah there was a little trash talk but that's about it.

Still I loved what I played so far and am looking forward to the final game. I'll probably try the other demo tommorow too. I think what the game does best is capture the spirit of trying to break into top level play.

[Vogue]

Posted an update with another character, Reva. I'll be periodically updating the thread with the last few main characters we have. I'll be happy to answer any questions in the meantime.