Modifications in Visual Novels

[NialGrenville]

I know that. I'm thinking more along the lines of, do I make a mod thread to allow the modding community for my game to have a central hub? Or do I let people post them within the thread between the critique and feedback?

I do see where you're coming from though, and will consider it.

[Mammon]

On the Original OP topic:

I do agree with Trooper6 that adding mods to a VN would actually be fanfics, but I do think it's a nice idea. Everlasting Summer actually has something like this already: in Steam there is a workshop that allows you to make 'mods' that can be edited into the story, which other die-hard ES fans can download and actually play by starting the game and checking the mods section. I myself tried out a few, and while the quality is what you'd expect from fanfics (terrible English and bad pacing are a norm to be expected), it does create a precedence that Nial's idea is feasable if the VN has a fanbase dedicated enough to make said fanfics.


I consider my project P&Y to be such an open source VN that people are allowed to make fanfics and other kind of mods of. While I wouldn't exactly be trilled to see it, I would even allow people to mod eroge into the story if they'd want to. However, I didn't think anyone would actually like it enough to do so until Ras Alaghe approached me with the question if he could translate it into Cathalan (So excited BTW!) and I think that most other developers feel the same. Just saying that I'd allow people to make fanfics of my game sounds so arrogant, because it means I consider my own work fanfic-worthy (and that is one of the highest honours a developer can get). From what I heard from the scarce few times I saw this topic mentioned in other game threads, many developers are also most enthousiastic to actually see people liking their stories enough to expand upon it.

A concrete example would be 'Blight of the immortals', a game I started playing a few months ago after seeing it pass by on Steam. I saw that they were asking on the game's main page for people to write lore about their game, and that they were actually rewarding players who did this with hero coins (their in-game currency). The makers of the game were actively asking and supporting people to write lore about their game (and have said that they might make some of this actual cannon/new cards) because they loved to see this kind of activity.

It could even give ideas to the creator what other people want to see. Much more fan input. Maybe I'm to optimistic, or maybe I'm a genius...

Yes, fanfics would be a good feedback. The only kind of feedback that would be better by a lot would be let's plays: it's like live commentary on your game that goes into detail like no review can, and it probably has multiple other reviews in the comment section *Starts salivating*

I don't know if this already exist, but it would be nice to have a short "open source VN" about renpy's mascot character(s) with open world setting and non-decisive story endings (like a slice-of-life comedy or something).

I think the admins of this forum already did something along these lines; Lemma ten and Tales of Lemma. I myself only know of it because I went through the ren'ai database alphabetically and found them, but there are some 'cannon' games involving Lemma that might help you get an idea of PyTom's idea of Lemma. (I think it was PyTom who made it?)

1) Make a actual Kenji ending (I want to vomit from saying that, but it's true).

There is, kinda? When I heard of Katawa Shoujo back in the earliest of my VN-playing days and wanted to play it, I actually found this fanfic first. It was fortunately not a BxB with Kenji, that would have probably resulted in me never getting into VN's in the first place, but a game where Kenji beats disabled women with his scarf isn't that much better.


On the new topic:

My game is 100% free to edit, and it is even fine to remake it. Just like a full conversion modification.
Do you think a modifications thread is better than just having people placing it in the same game's thread?
If this is true, where do you think posting such a thread is appropriate?

I'd say that making a thread of one's own would be best, but posting in the Original game's thread with a link to that thread to announce to people that the mod/fanfic has been made. Or, if the game has a forum/section of its own, making a special place for all fanfics and mods. This would probably be a viable option for most games with mods, because if they're popular enough to get fanfics they can also get greenlit on Steam, which does offer such sections directly connected to the game.

[Zelan]

And the aforementioned RockRobin is from the same developers I think.

You're thinking of Love, Money, Rock'nRoll from those guys (Soviet Games). RockRobin is a different dev team.


Concerning Nial's original question, I'm just not sure that there's 1) a large enough group of people who would be actively modding the game (judging by the amount of people who've replied to the thread), or 2) an appropriate section for such a thread.

[NialGrenville]

1) Fair enough, but we can't be too sure. Things do explode sometimes. (Not overselling my game, just saying there is a chance!)
2) Yeah, I guess you're right. I can find a place to congregate a modifying community. So I guess I can keep them in the thread for a while.

Thanks for your suggestion and honesty!

[Godline]

PSSSSTTT: Wanted Dragon is open source if anyone wants to play around with that.

[NialGrenville]

It seems there are more "modifiable" VNs than expected. Thank you Godline.

[Mammon]

You're thinking of Love, Money, Rock'nRoll from those guys (Soviet Games). RockRobin is a different dev team.

Concerning Nial's original question, I'm just not sure that there's 1) a large enough group of people who would be actively modding the game (judging by the amount of people who've replied to the thread), or 2) an appropriate section for such a thread.

Whoops, sorry! I only remembered the 'Rock' part. But like I said, Steam does offer such sections and any game with fans making multiple mods should have enough people supporting it to Greenlit it. And if there's just one or two mods, it should be manageable for the modder to make a thread of their own and the creator to (optionally) give a link to this mod in their game's thread.

PSSSSTTT: Wanted Dragon is open source if anyone wants to play around with that.

Ah, I've played that game. It's been a while but I can imagine a few stories one could make about it as a fanfic, like a prologue about how those dragons got stuck in the tower in the first place, the story of that other dragon that was taken away by a princess before this story, the novice mage's story back at school, or a BxB between the dragons as they are stuck in that place with no one but eachother. And off course the story of the other sister/better princess.