TerraBrand-BL VN w/renpy-development/demo

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wulfmune
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TerraBrand-BL VN w/renpy-development/demo

#1 Post by wulfmune »

**Edited my post as of 1/6/07**

**edit demo available---hopefully might give people a better idea of what my game looks like. I'm hoping to find someone more comfortable with scripting to help me polish off the interface. I've never done any scripting before, and I don't have a great sense for graphic design/interface, design... help! Apologies in advance for the spammy free download site. Feel free to contact me if you need a mac/linux version or if you just hate that free site and want to transfer via pando/yousendit ect...

download demo at -----> http://www.filefactory.com/file/5e628f/
no registration/email ect... required.

Greetings! This is my very first post so let me introduce a bit about myself and the brief history of my project. skip the *** section to get to specific info on the project.

I'm a comic artist who has been looking to make an amateur VN for a few years now but never had enough experience...scripting is the word? Anyway I can't even do html.

I had given up the idea of making one until recently I did a search online and started making a game in Adventure Maker. I had a sinking feeling as I was building hundreds of frames for a mere few minutes of actual play that this wasn't the correct program to be using. I moved on and started working in Blade Engine.

Image

I'm used to using programs like photoshop and aftereffects. Blade had a slightly more learning curve for me, since it required script and tags and whatnot. The options were fairly limited though, so the tutorial was brief and I merely copy pasted commands I didn't understand until they worked and soon had a workable draft. I started to become frustrated though, with the lack of customizing options and the fact that I couldn't even get my user name confirmation email from their forum to start posting.

Fast forward to the present, a few days ago I found ren'py and immediately took interest in how active this forum was, and how frequent ren'py is updated. The learning curve, again was higher that with Blade, and I doubt I would have made the transition without taking that baby step first.

Image

Once I set myself up comfortably and started re-building my game I decided that ren'py was, without biased, a far superior engine to blade in every respect. I'd like to thank the people who made this program available for me to make my little dream from years ago come true.

***what's TerraBrand about

**edited (I tried to keep this project humble since it's my first attempt but it always ends up being more than I planned. I'm cutting down on content and getting rid of any "filler" content.

It's a high fantasy story of a young man who leaves his village to become one of the priests at a sacred dragon temple, known as the "terrabrand". It's a fairly linear, choose your own adventure style dating VN, with specific choice branches to "capture" a potential partner. Play time is estimated to be approx 5-10 min per chapter depending on how fast you read. It has cast of 6 furries, with 7 chapters and 6 possible endings. If you haven't guessed by the artwork, it's BL (of the light fluffy, non-explicit variety PG-13.)

6 endings planned are with each of the 5 potential partners, some hinted more platonic, than romantic depending on the character. 1 default ending the main character is not paired up.

***current progress to date

I have been planning and making the whole game on my own since the beginning so all the artwork, story, sound effects and music are being completed at the same time. Currently 2/8 chapters are finished.
I am not a musician/composer so I have been using free non-licensed, non-commission, non-royalty music/loop/sound effects from various public resources such as:

http://www.flashkit.com

This game, when it is finished will be of course for free download.
I do have credits to the artist's whom music I used.

Everything thing else, bgs, characters, writing, scripting has been done by myself so the progress will not be light speed. I will be replacing the roughly quickly made opening animation mpg1 with something else if I have time and energy.

***What help I could use if you are so inclined

It's not my intention to create the next mona lisa of VNs as my first attempt so i'm not really looking for nitpicky feedback. I spend my creative energies on my comics and I'm doing this as a "hobby" to relax :). I have a few spell checkers helping me at the moment but I could really use the following.

**edited

-Someone very comfortable with Ren'Py who could help me fine tune my newbish attempt at scripting. Ex. Someone who can help me tweak customizations, such as text frames, menu frames and perhaps convert narrated sections to NVL form.

-I'm also looking for testers who are moderately comfortable with Ren'Py, who knows the basics, and can use the script editor to double check my /rpy files.

Any suggestions on how to improve transitions or add tweaks are welcome, but if you want me to consider them seriously, I'd like to have an example script of what changes you think would help, along with the .rpy file and preferably line in which you'd like to see this implemented.

I'd rather dedicate my energy to actually making progress on finishing so if some other people can help me with the fine tuning, it would set a more realistic goal a polished end product.

**edited

I decided against voice acting for now, since my game keeps shooting up in file size exponentially each chapter. I had figured it would level off, but I keep adding more art and music then I originally anticipated. Thank you all who showed interest in contributing to that. I might consider it again, depending on how large the file is when it's done.


That's all I can think of at the moment. I use google talk and my email/SN is wulfmune@gmail.com. Thanks for reading. :)
Last edited by wulfmune on Sat Jan 06, 2007 12:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.

absinthe
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#2 Post by absinthe »

Those screenshots are lovely! I especially like the character designs, and the way the hair in the bottom ones seems to be blowing across their faces is hugely appealing -- such a sense of space and adventure. Can't wait to get my hands on the game!

Unfortunately, I'm pretty much just a writer (with a basic grasp of Ren'Py) so I have nothing constructive to offer. But if you do find a need for female voices, please let me know, as I happen to have one. ;)
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FierceFeline
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#3 Post by FierceFeline »

This looks very interesting...
Sadly, my experience with Ren'Py is extremely limited. In fact, I think I can pretty much guarantee that you're exponentially better at it than I am.

I would, however, be willing to lend my voice to your game. Unless, of course, you're looking for professional VAs or those with experience.

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#4 Post by mikey »

Looking great, and welcome to the forums! To be honest, my wife has just prepared our dinner, so I have to go and eat now ^_^, but I just wanted to quickly say it looks really wonderful, and a BL game (with possible voices) is a great thing to look forward to. Good luck!

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#5 Post by Counter Arts »

Hahaha! Welcome! Welcome!

While I haven't released a game yet, I know a few tricks with renpy (as I learned a little bit of python JUST so I could do that extra stuff). Also, I just bought Music Creator 3 so I can make some really amaturish music if you wish. Just don't rely on it though. It's more like a roll of the dice thing.

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#6 Post by Watercolorheart »

I'm really excited over this one! I love the fantasy genre, and it looks sweet with all the catpeople.

You look like a really capable artist. The writing also seems solid.
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PyTom
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#7 Post by PyTom »

Looks good. Let me know if you have any Ren'Py questions. It's probably best to ask on the forum (so others can benefit), but if you want to PM me, that's also good.

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#8 Post by monele »

Lovely graphics! The characters are cute and the overall art makes me want to dive into this. I'll be looking forward to this one ^.^

If you don't mind a french accent, I'd be interested in trying to VA.

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#9 Post by wulfmune »

thanks for the replies! It's very encouraging.

I thought I waited to post until I was fairly prepared but now I realize I should post a bit of information about the voices I'm interested in. I'll be back with character profiles, artwork and a more specific idea of what I'm looking for.

:wink:

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#10 Post by DaFool »

I love the hand-drawn watercolor motif.

I have a nasal boyish voice, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm interested in possibly working on this, despite being a furry BL game, because it looks just too darn impressive.

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#11 Post by Mirielle »

I wouldn't be much of an AVA if I couldn't at least do a young to pre-teen boy voice! (Think Alphonse from FMA or Syaoran from CCS) That is if you need one.
Available for voice acting - Please listen to my demo reel!

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#12 Post by mugenjohncel »

I could do a male mature support voice if you need one.

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wulfmune
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#13 Post by wulfmune »

here is my main cast of characters that I'm interested in seeing if I can find voices for. I don't have anything particularly in mind, other than the voice should sound somewhat appropriate to the appearance of the character. Any suggestions are welcome, as I really don't have much experience with hearing voices in VNs, let alone adding them to mine.

***edited to add short description

Image

sesha- laid back, likes to study
jenheir- arrogant, selfish and impatient
reever- straight forward honest in a blunt way, mischievous
oarin- polite, likes to be alone
lin- general nice guy, responsible and friendly
skieyl- main character, average, sensible

and the minor characters so far (i only have an outline for some of the chapters still, so I'm not sure if there will be more.)

Image

zeke- tough, grumpy, cynical
dad- comic relief exaggerated macho, lady killer
mom- sensitive melodramatic worry wort
sharro- know-it-all sarcastic brother
young lin- carefree daydreamer
young skieyl- skeptical mature kid

I'm not sure yet, if I do find enough voices if all the dialog will be voiced or if i will save voicing for key moments. every path choice has a lot of little dialog differences so it might be overkill?
Last edited by wulfmune on Sat Dec 30, 2006 11:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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#14 Post by FierceFeline »

I like all the characters's artwork, although I'm not sure about the gender of two of them. I assume Jenheir is male from the name and the way he looks...although he does look very feminine....and I'm pretty sure Reever is female, despite the somewhat masculine name... although, again, I cannot be sure.

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#15 Post by monele »

A good thing would be to add short descriptions of everyone. Skieyl could be mischievous or just nice, or maybe self conscious... it's hard to tell and it should reflect the kind of voice he gets.

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