Full Circle [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life][Demo]

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nanaki254
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Full Circle [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life][Demo]

#1 Post by nanaki254 »

Studio Facebook | Dev Blog

Demo has been released!
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 45&t=26313

The team:
Writers: Andy, Laura
Programmers: Andy
Artist: Leslie
Music: ???
Proofreaders / Editors: Wil, Laura
Testers: Ian, Wil, Eunice

Progress:
Script: 15% (currently on V 0.04)
Concept Art: 35%
Character Art: 2%
Backgrounds + CG: 10%
Music: 0%
Programming: 15% (Prototype at v 0.05)

Planned Milestones:
Apr. 18 - Demo for Sakuracon. DONE.

Plot and Setting
The setting will take place mostly on a modern college campus, as the main character starts his first year of college. He is haunted by his first rejection in middle school by his closest friend and since then his love life has been very unlucky (he never had a girlfriend). This somewhat made his life growing up pretty dull as he would only focus on his studies and his games. He hopes to break his curse and have a great college experience.

This will span across three acts. The first act is basically an introduction to the characters and the decisions that will make the MC ("Michael") choose a person. The second act will let the MC know more about the person and develop a friendship. The third act will basically be the climatic part and that will take place in a convention.

I plan to create at least 3 different endings for each character - A good end, a bad end, and a mediocre end as well as one secret ending. Writing has been split up, so that I am going to write the scripts for girls A, B, C and the other person will write D and E.

Characters:

Roommate: The MC lives in an apartment-like dorm and has a roommate. He is generally open and nice, though the MC is jealous of him because he is more attractive and more fit than the MC.

Girl A, "Rachel": The main character's closest childhood friend and the person he confessed to. She may have rejected him, but they were still friends throughout grade school.

Image
Facial Sketches
Facial Sketches
More sketches for Girl A
More sketches for Girl A
digitalized rough draft.
digitalized rough draft.
digitalized rough draft.
digitalized rough draft.
Girl A sketches:
Girl A sketch
Girl A sketch
Girl B: A massive gamer, and an online friend of the main character. The main character thinks she is a guy due to her not acting that ladylike online, as well as picking a male avatar in the game they both play. Most of this route will take place in a fake online rpg that they both play.

Girl C, "April": A pianist the main character hears as he walks by a music room on campus. She is really talented at playing the piano and is capable of expressing her emotions through that medium. However, she is extremely shy and won't say much in person.

Girl D: A classmate and a Biology lab partner.

Girl E, "Megan": A classmate, possibly a TA, in a programming class.

What I hope to get out of the thread
The first thing I'm doing is updating my progress, which also can be found on my blog and facebook page. I do have some issues that I would like advice on. One issue I have right now, is length. I want to write enough so that the characters get fleshed out, but I don't really know the balance between "Too long that it's boring" and "Too short." I was aiming for an hour a route, though I don't know if that seems reasonable. I'm sure that I will have more issues as I continue the development process, and I will probably post them here and on my blog.

I would also love some advice in general about this. Questions / comments. I would really like to make this as understandable to everyone as possible (I know what most characters are like, but I may not be descriptive enough, etc.)

Concept Sketches:
Concept art
Concept art
Practice sketches for the online rpg aspect
Practice sketches for the online rpg aspect
Early experimental sketch
Early experimental sketch
11785_2008041557235_292701630_n.jpg (13.9 KiB) Viewed 6103 times
Last edited by nanaki254 on Wed May 28, 2014 4:55 pm, edited 16 times in total.

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Re: nanaki254's game [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life]

#2 Post by gekiganwing »

Welcome to the forum!

A couple questions first:
* What sort of content level do you want to create? If your story was given an MPAA or an ESRB rating, what might it be?

* Do you want to design any kind of gameplay, or do you just want to focus on story?

* How much realism do you want? For instance, are the characters attending a fictional college and fan convention, or will they attend a college you know well and one of your local cons? If your main character has five girls in his life who might become girlfriends, will that result in gossip and conflicts, or will the characters all remain friends regardless of what happens?

* It's interesting to consider attending a fan convention as a way to end a story. (Similar things happened in Hinano's visual novel Ren'ai Blogger, as well as one part of The Cute, Light, and Fluffy Project.) What sort of con is it? What sort of entertainment will convince your characters to spend money and attend it?
nanaki254 wrote:I do have some issues that I would like advice on. One issue I have right now, is length. I want to write enough so that the characters get fleshed out, but I don't really know the balance between "Too long that it's boring" and "Too short." I was aiming for an hour a route, though I don't know if that seems reasonable.
You mentioned three act structure. In terms of a script for a ninety minute movie, this often breaks down to 30, 60, and 30 pages, and each page represents about a minute of screen time. Lots of articles, such as this one, have been written about it. But one of the things which is possible in visual novels (and rarely possible in movies, TV episodes, and comics) is that the writer isn't limited by time restrictions or page count. Therefore, you can make your story as long or as short as you want. Like writing slice of life scenes? Go for it. Want to focus on actions and events? Go for it.
nanaki254 wrote:Writing has been split up, so that I am going to write the scripts for girls A, B, C and the other person will write D and E.
Working alone is difficult, and working with other people is sometimes even harder. Murphy's Law is very much in effect when creating fiction: computers crash, and all sorts of life crises can happen, ranging from money problems to health concerns to relationship conflicts. Make sure you're prepared to deal with anything.

You've already set deadlines for your team, which will probably help you stay on task. I recommend making sure that eveir ryone is not just interested in creating the VN, but that they're passionate about it. You will benefit if you're confident about your story. If you really care about your characters and their world, it will show.

Use whatever sort of art, music, and format you want. If you're more comfortable using RPG Maker VX, that's fine. (Forum member Flowerthief used RMXP in order to create his games Idolcraft and Heartache 101.)
nanaki254 wrote:Roommate: The MC lives in an apartment-like dorm and has a roommate. He is generally open and nice, though the MC is jealous of him because he is more attractive and more fit than the MC.

Girl A: The main character's closest childhood friend and the person he confessed to. She may have rejected him, but they were still friends throughout grade school.

Girl B: A massive gamer, and an online friend of the main character. The main character thinks she is a guy due to her not acting that ladylike online, as well as picking a male avatar in the game they both play. Most of this route will take place in a fake online rpg that they both play.

Girl C: A pianist the main character hears as he walks by a music room on campus. She is really talented at playing the piano and is capable of expressing her emotions through that medium. However, she is extremely shy and won't say much in person.

Girl D: A classmate and a Biology lab partner.

Girl E: A classmate, possibly a TA, in a programming class.
I'm curious about the main character's roommate. If they are two heterosexual guys, then perhaps they will have a healthy rivalry. Perhaps the MC is jealous if his roommate seems to be getting a harem of girls with seemingly no effort. Or it's a twist on Sexy Man Instant Harem: why does the plain looking main character have five possible love interests, while his more attractive roommate seems vaguely disinterested in finding a significant other?

Apart from that... I admit that I don't often know what makes characters compelling. But for now, I'd suggest thinking about what makes them unique people. I assume there's more to them than just "shy musician" or "tech-savvy teachers assistant." Consider giving them a questionnaire in order to think about their backgrounds, motivations, and so on.

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Re: nanaki254's game [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life]

#3 Post by nanaki254 »

* What sort of content level do you want to create? If your story was given an MPAA or an ESRB rating, what might it be?
Even though the setting would be in College, I would want this to be as open to everyone as possible. But even this will have some romance in it, so I would believe it would be a T / PG-13 rating.
Do you want to design any kind of gameplay, or do you just want to focus on story?
For the most part I am focusing on the story. Girl B's will be more focused on this online rpg, but a lot of that will be (currently, it may change) either a dungeon crawler (like Etrian Odyssey) or a tactical rpg (like Fire Emblem). The art style to that aspect will be more like Fire Emblem and will have that kind of setting.
* How much realism do you want? For instance, are the characters attending a fictional college and fan convention, or will they attend a college you know well and one of your local cons? If your main character has five girls in his life who might become girlfriends, will that result in gossip and conflicts, or will the characters all remain friends regardless of what happens?
The settings will be fictional, though will be based off of real life. The way it's going to branch out to each path would be that the MC would get to know everyone somewhat like an acquaintance in Act 1 (aside from the close friend). Then if certain flags are met, then there will be only one (or none) that the MC is more interested in while keeping the others still as acquaintances. There is also a chance that the MC will see every character at the con, though obviously will have different roles if the MC did not choose her.
What sort of con is it? What sort of entertainment will convince your characters to spend money and attend it?
It's kind of like a generic-con, though it's leaning towards an anime convention. There are games, cosplayers, panels, and a concert. Through various circumstances told in the story, I plan to have them all in there; for example the musician will be performing the concert at the con because she's that talented.

--

I have plans on using RPG Maker, but that is for a spinoff RPG based off that online game in this story, but that is not a vn and unrelated to this project xD

As for the roommate, right now I would describe him as a more attractive Sunohara from Clannad. Of course this will change when I get to write their parts more. Right now I'm just focused on Girl A, and with PAX weekend going on, I'm the only one working on it at the moment, though the team is open and I'm open about it as well. I know everyone except the musician in person, though I really want this musician (He did Katawa Shoujo (which I loved), and he said he was interested if I sent him a script, which I did, though it's in its early stages. Just waiting for a reply back, though I might look at backups)

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Re: nanaki254's game [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life]

#4 Post by Talann »

Oh my god! The art is so so so beautiful!
Definitely will be stalking this game, hehe.
And also, welcome to Lemma Soft :D

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Re: nanaki254's game [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life]

#5 Post by nanaki254 »

Thanks for the welcome :)

Here are some of the stock photos I took myself that could end up being the background art:

Stock photo 1

Stock photo 2

Stock photo 3

One concern is this: Would it be better to recreate the background by drawing? Or would a filter over the image work? There are pros and cons to both, but I would like some opinion on that. If you were playing a vn, what would you prefer?

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Re: nanaki254's game [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life]

#6 Post by Sakai »

I definitely have to say that drawn one will show that you've put a lot of effort in the game by even drawing a background

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Re: nanaki254's game [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life]

#7 Post by nanaki254 »

Some more concept art
Main Character concept art
Main Character concept art
Concept sketches
Concept sketches
Concept
Concept

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Re: nanaki254's game [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life]

#8 Post by nanaki254 »

Update:
added more sketches of girl A to the main thread, some of them were drawn digitally. Any opinions would be appreciated :D
Also promoted it at my former university's club. The people I talked to seemed interested so that seems like a good sign.

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Re: nanaki254's game [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life]

#9 Post by Dazed »

Wow. Girl A's design looks quite spiffy! Great expressions.

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Re: nanaki254's game [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life]

#10 Post by nanaki254 »

Update:
finished enough of girl a's route to call it done for the first draft. I'm only missing parts from the other girls, but that will be added within time. I'm focused now on refining the script, add flashback scenes, and program it so I can make a trailer by December.

I added a sketch of Girl A.

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Re: nanaki254's game [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life]

#11 Post by nanaki254 »

okay I started coding and act 1 is done with Girl A's parts and I'm starting on Act 2.

I do have a question that I hope could get answered, which was brought up by my artist.

What size should the resolution be? Should it just be the native 800 x 600? Or should I alter the resolution so it is bigger? Or something else?

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Re: nanaki254's game [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life]

#12 Post by silverpikachu99 »

Your art is so cute!
Image
i'll cry if you yell at me
Image

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Re: nanaki254's game [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life]

#13 Post by nanaki254 »

Thanks! I just added some facial sketches.
All of the art is done by my artist friend. she's so talented :)

I still want some opinions on screen resolution though. Should it be native (800x600) or should i go for a widescreen look? Or just a larger square shape?

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Re: nanaki254's game [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life]

#14 Post by nanaki254 »

Here is a piece of background art done by the artist:
Background Art
Background Art
Prototype v3 has been coded. Goes up to the end of Act 2 for Girl A.

Added temp backgrounds, temp music for the title screen, intro logo before the title screen, and a sound when you press on a button.

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Re: nanaki254's game [BxG][School][Romance][Slice of Life]

#15 Post by nanaki254 »

Sorry for the super late update.

I am already at Prototype version 5 (0.05). Added a music room, though looks pretty bad right now (will change that in a future version).

One small setback, and that is I have to find a new composer. I have asked around, one person hasn't responded, but the rest didn't know anyone.

I can say right now, the entire paths for girl A has been coded, so all I need is the art done and some music to release a working demo so I can get real feedback on what to improve.
The edits to the script are going along as well, but I decided that once art / music are done, it would be best to get a general opinion on it so I can change things.

There is at least 3 backgrounds drawn already (park, classroom, campus) and already implemented. The rest are just placeholders.

Right now everything aesthetic wise is going with renpy's basic layout, so it looks...well basic. However I plan on fixing that later on. The core contents come first.

I'm also thinking up of a trailer to promote the game, which I will be uploading to the studio's youtube. I will link it here when it is up (but due to the holidays it might be late).

I have a huge plan to create a game within it, mainly for one route since it involves the online person and the main character to interact in a simulated online environment.
I was planning on making a 'full' game of it unlockable (instead of mainly scripted), but I have to talk with the team about it.

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