Bodies of Water [Modern Fantasy|Mystery] NaNo17

NaNoRenO is an event where creators make a game from scratch during the month of March.
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Amy_oai
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Bodies of Water [Modern Fantasy|Mystery] NaNo17

#1 Post by Amy_oai »

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When a young historian with a knack for the undead is down on their luck, they suddenly find themselves trapped in an area haunted by a soul from several decades ago.
Is Nova --the soul bound to the lake-- only interested in Quill's necromantic abilities, or is there more behind her actions?



Characters:


Quill
(voice: Christopher Escalante)
Image

Nova
(voice: Penni Smith)
A soul trapped in a lake, who has taken Quill as a prisoner. She mostly seems curious in the night-elf's ability to practice necromancy, but why?


Story:

In a world a little bit more magical than our own, necromancy has been outlawed for its ability to mess up the afterlife.
Quill, a night-elf with a soft spot for history has found a way to raise the dead without disturbing the souls that have moved on to the next life;
However, for their research Quill has taken up practicing the old type of necromancy, making them an outlaw.

In their attempt to run from authorities, Quill has fled into the mountains where they meet Nova, who promptly imprisons them.
Why has Nova not moved on to the next life yet? And how will Quill convince Nova to let them leave, when Nova dismisses all their protests of being held prisoner?


Features:

•Non-binary protagonist•
•Partial voice acting•
•Animated backgrounds•
•Animated sprites•
•Custom GUI•
•2 endings (maybe more)•

Image

Notes:

I'm aware I'm starting out pretty late into Nanoreno, but I'm fully intent on finishing this little project.
I'm extremely interested in how well a visual novel can hold up in visuals and performance when working mostly with videos/movies, so this is going to be more or less my experiment with that.
My intent is to make everything transition seamlessly, which seems to be a bit of weak point for Renpy when theres too much going on with the sprites.

The wonderful Windchimes will be helping me with my coding needs, and I'm mainly using CC and public assets for anything but the sprites and GUI to help me finish this around the deadline.
I somehow managed to talk myself into hiring some voice actors friends to try and make this project look and sound as animated as possible, so having spent money, I really want to finish this, lol.

The game will be free to play because of its several CC assets c:
• • •
If you have some time, I'd love to hear what you think of this little project ♥
• • •
Last edited by Amy_oai on Mon Apr 10, 2017 10:11 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Bodies of Water [Modern Fantasy|Mystery] NaNo17

#2 Post by Zelan »

I like the idea! There isn't enough modern fantasy around here, and I like the bit about necromancy, it seems like it'll make for a super cool story.

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Re: Bodies of Water [Modern Fantasy|Mystery] NaNo17

#3 Post by Harliqueen »

Oh, this sounds cool! I also like that there's only two characters (will it remain as only two characters throughout?)- I think that should provide for some great, more in-depth interaction.

Is Quill only interested in necromancy for research reasons? Will their research be more explained in the VN?

Good luck with! :)
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Re: Bodies of Water [Modern Fantasy|Mystery] NaNo17

#4 Post by Amy_oai »

Zelan wrote:I like the idea! There isn't enough modern fantasy around here, and I like the bit about necromancy, it seems like it'll make for a super cool story.
Thanks! Hope I can live up to your expectations, haha.
Harliqueen wrote:Oh, this sounds cool! I also like that there's only two characters (will it remain as only two characters throughout?)- I think that should provide for some great, more in-depth interaction.

Is Quill only interested in necromancy for research reasons? Will their research be more explained in the VN?

Good luck with! :)
Thank you so much! ♥ There will only be 2 characters through-out the story, with only some mentions of others.
I will go more in-depth about Quill's research in the VN itself, and they are mainly interested in necromancy for historic reasons, but might dabble into other territories with it depending on the choices the player makes.
Last edited by Amy_oai on Sat Mar 11, 2017 2:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Bodies of Water [Modern Fantasy|Mystery] NaNo17

#5 Post by Zelan »

IT JUST HIT ME HOW CLEVER THE TITLE IS.

"Bodies" of Water. Because it's necromancy.

I can't believe it took me a full day to realize that. :')

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Re: Bodies of Water [Modern Fantasy|Mystery] NaNo17

#6 Post by Arowana »

That main menu preview looks so cool! :D

This project is especially exciting to me because I'm also interested in the use of movies in Ren'Py. I love animation, but most of my experience is with ATL and the 3D camera, which don't always work well for fancier effects. :(

I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with your animation skills. That moving water in particular is super pretty! Did you draw each frame out by hand?
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Re: Bodies of Water [Modern Fantasy|Mystery] NaNo17

#7 Post by Amy_oai »

Zelan wrote:IT JUST HIT ME HOW CLEVER THE TITLE IS.

"Bodies" of Water. Because it's necromancy.

I can't believe it took me a full day to realize that. :')
Ahaha, I'm glad you caught it though! Took me a while to think of the title c:
Arowana wrote:That main menu preview looks so cool! :D

This project is especially exciting to me because I'm also interested in the use of movies in Ren'Py. I love animation, but most of my experience is with ATL and the 3D camera, which don't always work well for fancier effects. :(

I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with your animation skills. That moving water in particular is super pretty! Did you draw each frame out by hand?
Thank you! And I'm glad to see you excited :D I feel you on the ATL part, I just don't have the patience for it really, haha.
The water was done in After Effects, but due to time constraints I will use CC stock footage for other BG alterations so I won't take too long animating.

Speaking of BGs, here is an alteration of the one I posted already and a new one!
The animations on the 2nd are subtle when looped, but it looks awkwardly cut off here. The grass is swaying and the stars are twinkling ♥
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Re: Bodies of Water [Modern Fantasy|Mystery] NaNo17

#8 Post by Zelan »

Oh, wow, I love the rain! ^_^ Although shouldn't the sky be cloudy for that? I wouldn't mind just ignoring science, though, the stars are so pretty. :o

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Re: Bodies of Water [Modern Fantasy|Mystery] NaNo17

#9 Post by Amy_oai »

Zelan wrote:Oh, wow, I love the rain! ^_^ Although shouldn't the sky be cloudy for that? I wouldn't mind just ignoring science, though, the stars are so pretty. :o
I did add some clouds at first, but it just didn't look pretty so I left them out xD

In the meanwhile, I've run into an error for the main menu! If anyone knows something about movie displayables, can you help me out?
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Re: Bodies of Water [Modern Fantasy|Mystery] NaNo17

#10 Post by Arowana »

The raining scene is so pretty! Your work is really inspiring me to look more into movie backgrounds! :D

About the main menu issue you linked, it looks like the "main_menu" movie channel stopped playing when you moved from the game menu (preferences screen) to the main menu screen. Maybe there's a conflict when multiple screens are using the same channel? Not sure if this a Ren'Py bug or not - might be worth checking with PyTom about it.

One workaround is to make a copy of the movie on a different channel.

Code: Select all

image main_menu = Movie(channel="main_menu", play="LakeBG0.ogv")
image main_menu2 = Movie(channel="main_menu2", play="LakeBG0.ogv") # same movie, but on different channel
Then use "main_menu" for the main menu screen and "main_menu2" for the game menu (gm_root) so they won't conflict.

The downside is that the animation will restart when you return to the main menu. :( Maybe it will look okay if you use a fade/dissolve config transition, but I wonder if there's a way to do it seamlessly...
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Re: Bodies of Water [Modern Fantasy|Mystery] NaNo17

#11 Post by Amy_oai »

Thanks for the help Arowana! It wasn't the channels, I foolishly called the wrong menu in the preferences screen. I'd thought with having the displayable as the root that wouldnt be a problem, but hey, its fixed now!
---------
So.... updates?
I've been slugging along with writing, it hasn't gone smoothly, but the storyboard is fully done and I basically just need to write all the scenes now :o
As for art!!!
I've got the base down for Quill now, I 'just' have to give them clothes/details/ good coloring. Yeah, I'm starting to wonder if I can do all this with just 2 weeks left, oops.
I am a very slow artist haha. (tbh I don't have the patience for it, respect to all the artists out there!!)
Anyway, here! Fear my coloring skills! (I could have shown the naked base sprite, but naah)
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See you in the next update!
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Re: Bodies of Water [Modern Fantasy|Mystery] NaNo17

#12 Post by Amy_oai »

Seeing as I didn't make the deadline for various reasons, I will be working on this project slowly and look at a release later in the year. I'm thinking July/September, but who knows! Thanks for the support during nano!
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Re: Bodies of Water [Modern Fantasy|Mystery] NaNo17

#13 Post by Zelan »

Hey, cool! I'm glad to know you're still working on this. c:

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