Working on a Tool for Unity3D, will be free

[invadererik]

Hi, I've been working on a simple tool to create visual novels in Unity.

HERE is an example I just made using the tool really quickly
*all the art is borrowed from somewhere or other, sorry for lack of credits on everything, its just a simple test of the engine.

as you can see the tool works with 2D or 3D.

I plan to release this tool for free, but would like to have an example
project to show off the tool and how it works for people downloading it.

Its also still under development, you will help me make it a better/ simpler
tool to use.

I'm looking for artists of all kinds to collaborate on a fun short story
that will test the system and provide a good example while being an
enjoyable little VN/game.

People needed:
writers
3d artists
3d animators
2d artists
2d animators
sound/music composers
programmers ( not really needed since I think I got it covered, but hey if you want to help why not )

All art created will be given away for free along with the tool.

Also if you happen to have already created a visual novel in ren'py
I am trying to make a translator tool that will take a ren'py script and
automatically transfer everything to a working vn in Unity using this tool.
So if you have a vn that you would like to transfer to unity let me know.

The code is already posted on github, so its open source already, but I don't really
want to make it too public until there is some examples that can actually be shared
to go along with the code.

Also I'm using NGUI for the word balloons which is not a free plugin, but I'm looking forward
to unity 4.6 which will be released soon, it will have a new ui system, so the whole
thing can be free. Also Unity 5 will be able to export to html 5 so, I think unity will be a
really great system to release to pretty much any device in the future.

Any feedback is appreciated, thanks.

[DeletedUser160413]

This is awesome. Is there a way you can make it work on iOS?

[invadererik]

Unity3D exports to iOS and many other platforms using the free version. So yes this would work on iOS.
Note that you'd still need to pay Apple to be a developer etc.

[SundownKid]

Those 3D sprites look really cool. However, the message boxes need some work, they look very jerky and vibrate back and forth when talking. I feel that maybe they should just start out at a single size and the text scrolls within them.

I have a free visual novel that I would be willing to "donate" to the cause as a test. (With the caveat that it has to turn out looking high quality before the tool is released).

[2dt]

I was just about to ask the same thing as SundownKid. Can the system automatically detect how long a text is gonna be, and pre-size/position everything to avoid that jerky "expand as it goes" text animation?

It's can be a tricky thing to do admittedly, believe me I know.

[invadererik]

Yeah I agree, I tried to smooth out the jerkyness using a Lerp function but its still not quite there ! Anybody know a good trick to fix this ? I kinda like the expanding balloon.

I could do what 2dt suggests, have the bubble be the final size and just have the text appear inside it, that's not a bad idea.
Should be easy to make it do that! No problem = ]

@SundownKid its a ren'py made novel ? yeah I'd love to try to convert a full vn into a working unity vn using my tools/script. I wont release anything
unless you are happy with it = ].

[merak]

I was going to look at it, but the browser plug is only available for MS Windows and Mac OS X, which excludes me. I suppose I'll wait until it is fully released and hopefully runs on GNU+Linux.

[invadererik]

@merak test linux build : http://www.inversethought.com/Eriks/vn/linux_test.zip

[SundownKid]

Yeah I agree, I tried to smooth out the jerkyness using a Lerp function but its still not quite there ! Anybody know a good trick to fix this ? I kinda like the expanding balloon.

I could do what 2dt suggests, have the bubble be the final size and just have the text appear inside it, that's not a bad idea.
Should be easy to make it do that! No problem = ]

@SundownKid its a ren'py made novel ? yeah I'd love to try to convert a full vn into a working unity vn using my tools/script. I wont release anything
unless you are happy with it = ].

Options are always good. Though in my opinion, a fixed sized bubble will be easier to code, and easier on the eyes to boot. Or a standard text box option, since the bubbles may not be to everyone's taste.

You can send me an email at support-at-fastermind.net (replace the at with @) to discuss it more. Then I can send you the project file.

[netravelr]

Great to hear you're making progress on this! I'm implementing a version of this myself, albeit for personal use and using just the native GUI system.

For some reason it takes a long time to load the Web Player version for me, but it looks like you have a good start.
I'd suggest also allowing the players to click or press the spacebar to move forward in the script. Also holding down the left key should have it continue to move back, maybe with a delay before doing so of course. Good luck with it!

[invadererik]

I'd suggest also allowing the players to click or press the spacebar to move forward in the script. Also holding down the left key should have it continue to move back, maybe with a delay before doing so of course.

I'll keep that in mind, thanks !