Multiplayer VN Engines

[robotinker]

Heya! Are there any multiplayer visual novel engines out there? I've been working on one in my free time, and would like to see how other people have addressed some of the situations I'm running into.

I'm calling the engine I've been working on ScreenPlay for now, though I'm sure I'll change it to something more Google-able eventually. It seems like a lot of people play narrative-driven games like Mass Effect and The Walking Dead with their friends and loved ones watching them. Sometimes the spectators even insist that the person actually playing not play unless they're around to see what happens next. ScreenPlay aims to get everyone involved in the story.



I've tried to make it easy for game writers to determine how choices get resolved when players disagree (which is the fun part!), taking inspiration for conflict resolution from games like The Old Republic and Divinity: Original Sin.



It currently has local co-op for 1-4 players either sharing a keyboard or using XBox controllers, but I'm planning to add network support so people can play online.

As far as I'm aware, multiplayer visual novels are fairly unexplored territory. If the idea of writing a game in this format excites you, I'm also looking for Alpha testers to play around with content generation and give me feedback about desired features.

And here's a playable build of the engine with some demo content. All of the art is placeholder, but if you find bugs let me know!

Controls for keyboard are:

[firecat]

you need more gameplay, the games you know are single player with result page. getting people to agree on one thing can cause them to not play the game. maybe instead of players controlling characters, you have the characters do things themselves and the player only needs to worry about health, environment, characters (the players), etc. take a look at games done in real life where people work together to solve the mystery or fight for a common cause.

these are good examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghrI2Vb8u2U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GJcIlJJW4Q
http://www.puzzlebreak.us/

[robotinker]

Thanks, firecat! I've been to an escape room and they're definitely a lot of fun. I like how they appeal to different skill sets so that people are forced to rely on one another. The visual novels I've seen tend to have light puzzle mechanics sprinkled throughout, which I haven't tinkered with yet (especially for multiplayer puzzles) but am definitely aiming to support. I could also see ScreenPlay being used as a multiplayer dialogue system for a base game, similar to how the latest Fire Emblem games work.

For now, I'm trying to focus on refining the dialogue system alone. There are a ton of neat Twine games out there, as well as games like Choice of the Deathless that show how dialogue choices - particularly when there are many many of them - can carry a game on their own, which is what I'm going for.

If you're able to get the desktop builds to work, check out the scenario called "Urchins". In that one you control characters who have individual stats, but there are also global stats. I've also tried to show how you could do something RPG-style with the scenario called "Dungeons and Whatever" where you have health, magic points, money, and equipment on top of your attack and defense stats.

The build link might have been hard to see on the original post, so I'll just leave it here too:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_Kvz ... EFkVXdicjQ

[furimari]

Hey there ! I was wondering if there were any news on the project ? I found the idea interesting and would love to make multiplayer VNs c:

[robotinker]

Hey, Furimari! Yeah, I'm working on a game for the engine right now wherein players struggle to evacuate Earth with the aid of a mysterious alien race. If you have ideas of your own for a game, I'd be happy to help you with that! I'm hesitant to share the Unity project just yet, but I've made it so all the content can be generated with plain text files. PM me and I can link you to some examples of the syntax.

[pinto minto]

This sounds sooo amazing! I didn't even think that a multiplayer visual novel game was possible?! Hope you post an update soon, anyway, I wish you the best of luck on this project!

[steve_T]

this is a brilliant idea - why didn't I think of it !
It's kind of like a MUD i guess ?

well done