Lemma Soft Forums

A woman needs her medicine, but the pharmacist tells her there's a problem with her insurance. This sounds like a job for Banality Man!

Will he follow the pharmacist and punch his way through America's medical–industrial complex? Or will help the woman in her time of need by punching her health problems in the face? You decide!

There are no super villains or even un-super villains in this VN -- just regular people who sometimes let bad stuff happen. But Banality Man knows in his heart that wherever there's evil, it can always be solved by a guy in a cape and a ten-gallon hat.
Why is he called Banality Man?
Because he fights the "banality of evil."

That makes no sense. It's like if Batman called himself Batman because he fought bats.
Banality Man picked his own name. He's not the brightest bulb, but he means well.

You mention healthcare and bureaucracy... is this a political game?
Not really, it's mostly about the joys (and agonies) of punching things. It'll be more similar to Beretta Mondatta than to One Night at Amphora.



*Multiple endings
*Fully animated sprites
*Original soundtrack, Partly original soundtrack, complete with heroic theme song, and a bunch of super awesome Creative Commons songs.
*No limbs






Click here to hear the theme song that will play on the title screen.

The goal is to compose a whole soundtrack within NaNo's time frame, and the stretch goal is to have at least one more vocal song like this theme song.
The goal is to have a super awesome soundtrack through some combination of what I compose and what's available through Creative Commons.

Each ending will have a song that is thematically linked to it. (None of them are direct collaborators on this game -- they were all just cool enough to put at least one song out through Creative Commons, usually under a NC-BY-SA license.)

Here's a list of songs from Creative Commons (in spoilers in case anyone wants to be surprised). With 1 exception, they're all bands I loved before this project and arguably some of the very best indie musicians out there:



Will be available for free April 1st through itch.io and Mediafire and be released under a CC-BY-NC-SA license.




Currently working on sound effects, music, and some final CGs.

Script is pretty much done, just making minor revisions. Designed and did basic animations for all characters. Have programmed all the character sprites, backgrounds and transitions. Finished title screen theme song and most of the original music. Designed menus.

I'll be updating this thread periodically, but will have a dev blog up at yossarianiii.wordpress.com and more updates on Twitter (@yossarianiii)




Any first impressions on the art, plot summary, or theme song?

What is your favorite onomatopoeia? (Particularly if it's an onomatopoeia that would make sense during a fight...)

A comedy entry!!!
I like your features...

I BUSRT OU LAUGHING
I've been joking about this topic for months and now I see the real thing

Consider me your no. 1 fan.

OH my g oodness this looks amazing! I love the animations and your art style is very distinct! I love the no limbs hahA. Your humor is so good and I just-- that is a hilarious plot and Banality man is too precious! Punch the world into justice! Animated sprites and an original heroic theme song? I totally look forward to playing this, good luck!!

Must play this, so you must finish this.

OH GOD YASSSSSS I AM SO IN LOVE WITH VNS (have been in love with beretta mondeta for a while,,,, and I FINALLY PLAYED AMPHERE LIKE 2 DAYS AGO TOO OMG) AND JUST. COUNT ME EXCITED FOR THIS VN. BANALITY MAN MY HERO.

Wow, this the fastest I've ever gotten so many comments! It seems like NaNo is really growing this year.

MimirollCookie wrote:A comedy entry!!!

Yep, IMO there can never be enough comedies on these forums! I'm always happy when other people post them too.

Ghost of Crux wrote:I BUSRT OU LAUGHING
I've been joking about this topic for months and now I see the real thing

Consider me your no. 1 fan.

Thanks, Ghost of Crux! I've never had anyone claim to be my #1 fan before, so I think the title is rightfully yours until someone else throws down the gauntlet.

Also, I just saw your entry, and will post more in that thread.

Weenily wrote:OH my g oodness this looks amazing! I love the animations and your art style is very distinct! I love the no limbs hahA. Your humor is so good and I just-- that is a hilarious plot and Banality man is too precious! Punch the world into justice! Animated sprites and an original heroic theme song? I totally look forward to playing this, good luck!!

Glad you liked the humor, Weenily! Yeah, I'm excited because after 2 previous VNs, I'm finally starting to get a feel for what works and what doesn't in Ren'Py.

Drewz wrote: Must play this, so you must finish this.

Yep, finishing is definitely the goal! I think March 31st shouldn't be a problem, but even if (knock on wood) I wouldn't make that date, I would definitely continue development until it was done and playable.

Kumiho wrote:OH GOD YASSSSSS I AM SO IN LOVE WITH VNS (have been in love with beretta mondeta for a while,,,, and I FINALLY PLAYED AMPHERE LIKE 2 DAYS AGO TOO OMG) AND JUST. COUNT ME EXCITED FOR THIS VN. BANALITY MAN MY HERO.

Always happy to hear people liked my previous stuff, Kumiho! I'm hoping this one can be as good or better than them.



And finally, a progress update. If you want to hear the theme song that'll play on the title screen, click here to see it on Soundcloud.

I also did a short blog post about creating the song, for anyone who's curious about replicating the vocal effects.

I LOVE THE TITLE MUSIC. It's so catchy and quirky! I could just see Banality Man punching things during the "ba ba ba ba ba ba!" parts.

Weenily wrote: I LOVE THE TITLE MUSIC. It's so catchy and quirky! I could just see Banality Man punching things during the "ba ba ba ba ba ba!" parts

Thanks!

That's actually kind of a cool idea about possibly using a musical cue every time there's a punching scene. I originally wanted to do something like 60s Batman and have big, colorful WHAM! BAM! POWS! with sound effects, but I might experiment with some sort of musical accompaniment too.

Ok, you bought me with this: "Bureaucracy killed his parents. Now he fights bureaucracy -- with his fists!" and this amazing gif! I'm in love with BANALITY MAN (his name need to be in all caps, sorry! And imagine it being said with a veeery serious voice )

Looking forward! Good luck!

Thanks, Nana7! I had a lot of fun coming up with that tagline about bureaucracy.

And BANALITY MAN is A-OK with people putting his name in all caps. I think the capital letters really give it that extra AUTHORITY.

YossarianIII wrote:Thanks!

That's actually kind of a cool idea about possibly using a musical cue every time there's a punching scene. I originally wanted to do something like 60s Batman and have big, colorful WHAM! BAM! POWS! with sound effects, but I might experiment with some sort of musical accompaniment too.

Yeah! That sounds like an interesting thing to try out along with the old school sound effects!

Weenily wrote:Yeah! That sounds like an interesting thing to try out along with the old school sound effects!

Actually this inspired an idea that I'll add to the main post:

I'm collecting onomatopoeias, both common and uncommon, to display during fight scenes in this game (i.e., WHAM!, BAM!, KA-POW!, TLOP! TPAB!). If anyone has any favorite onomatopoeias, feel free to let me know!

BONK! SOCK! BOOM! KA-BLAM! Squeak. Also I don't think it's onomatopoeias but like K.O. and other written stuff from fighting games would be kinda fun too haha.

LOL CRYING
I had to click on this when I saw the title and I am not disappointed. That GIF accompanied with that quote though- so much LOVE <3