NaNoRenO 2007- The ren'ai visual novel challenge!

[pheriannath]

Just newly come from Visualnews.net - I'm glad I found this place through NaNoRenO, I didn't know such a community was around. Hi everyone. (Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu!)
I'm a little torn about joining. I'm as newbie as they get when it comes to making VNs - and right now the only skill I'm comfortable in is writing. I'll have until March 1st to:

1. Grapple my Ren'Py into submission

2. Learn how to draw/find someone who can draw/take photos that I can mangle with Gimp to look like drawings or nice backgrounds

3. Learn how to make & record proper sounds/find someone who knows how to make them/find free music or somehow compose them (almost impossible!)

Ah well, if I can't do it, I can always get in line for the next NaNoRenO...

[lordcloudx]

Welcome to the forums. Nice to see a lot more interaction between our two communities ever since misu joined here.

I'm sure some of the regulars here would be willing to help you with the character art and backgrounds on your project, as for sounds/music there are lots of resources or even software for making your own music here http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?t=445

I'm not joining this one myself. (In fact I've never joined a NaNoRenO, I hate deadlines and love to keep secrets .)

[mikey]

I'm a little torn about joining. I'm as newbie as they get when it comes to making VNs ... if I can't do it, I can always get in line for the next NaNoRenO...

But actually, this is exactly what NaNoRenO is for - and as lordcloudx mentioned, there are many resources here:
http://www.renpy.org/wiki/community/Resource_Links

Using photograps will speed things up, you can write, so all that's left is Ren'Py (which comes with several tutorials and lots of help - so if you just want basic functionality, you'll have it covered within hours), and then you'd need some character art, which you can ask for here (or use some of the premade characters). If you can avoid wanting to make something epic or complicated, I'd say chances are very high.

And welcome!

[Misuzu]

Welcome to the forums. Nice to see a lot more interaction between our two communities ever since misu joined here.

I am the catalyst of CHANGE! =P

Just newly come from Visualnews.net
I'm a little torn about joining. I'm as newbie as they get when it comes to making VNs - and right now the only skill I'm comfortable in is writing.

If it makes you feel any better, this is my first time doing anything like this too ^^. And all I have is semi decent writing skills (and the ability to translate... but I don't think thats going to help me here >.>;; ). Good luck to ya too pheriannath ^^. And this reminds me, someday when I get the links section up for VisualNews, I should put a link to these forums =D.

Just newly come from Visualnews.net

Gao~~~... I will never be able to get everyone to realize it's VisualNews and not VisualNews.net... I abandoned that name like over eight months ago... rebranding people! ><

[mikey]

Just newly come from Visualnews.net

Gao~~~... I will never be able to get everyone to realize it's VisualNews and not VisualNews.net... I abandoned that name like over eight months ago... rebranding people! ><

Hmmm, if you abbreviate VisualNews, it is VN, which is the "official" abbreviation for visual novel, so that's a bit confusing - I liked VisualNews.net, because I shortened it to VNN, which kind of sounds like CNN and that sounds like news.

[Misuzu]

That actually was actual thought pattern many months ago when it was still VisualNews.net and VNN, but sometime a while back, a site that was essentially spoofing our name was created (for the record, that was visual-novels.net). At the time, their site (and arguably their content) was pretty terrible, so we decided to differentiate ourselves, we would convert the name over to just VisualNews. Ironically (and confirming our wonders if they had chosen visual-novels.net on purpose to structure their name exteremly similar to ours (since the owned both visual-novels.net and .com)), one week after we changed to VisualNews, they changed their name to Visual-Novels =_=;;....

In the end, no rivalry was created between the two sites becuase we target relatively different audiences. VisualNews is a translation specific website that brings news on the English scene of visual novels while Visual-Novels went off to become more of a general site with tidbits from the translation scene and tibits from just random stuff from Japan (although in my personal opinion, I still don't like their content very much).

But thats the history of the name change =D. Oh... and I just didn't like saying "dot" when I was saying the word "VisualNews.net" too xD. As Message (my head news reporter) put it, "It sounds so much sexier in my language! VisualNews punt net!" (he's from the Netherlands).

[DaFool]

Will a new thread called NaNoRenO 2007 Emergency Response be appropriate / i.e. a good idea, or should everything be consolidated in one thread? (How was it done in previous years?)

Here's something I'm tossing around in my head:

This thread will become activated when NaNoRenO starts.

Need a quick background?
A quick character sprite?
A quick event CG?
A quick composition?
A quick human being to help shoulder the burden of it all?

This is the place to request. It is preferred if writers / gamemakers form their own collaborations with artists / composers or use freely available materials. This is more like a 'quick contribution thread' where people can just give quick resources without the hassle of a full-on collaborative team.

General gamemaking discussion help or programming technical assistance are best left to the respective general NaNoRenO or Ren'Py threads.

The thread will start off come March with a few donated music and character sprites. After that, you can make requests, and hopefully some people of kekekeke's caliber (of Zettai Shoujo Art thread) can pull something up.

Good idea? Bad idea? I'm thinking along the lines of BCS's contributions, however some of those resources are already commandeered by several projects, and it makes sense to open up a treasure trove of new resources right when people most need it.

[Raikiri]

Well... I do happen to have an idea for a (relatively) short story ready, and while I'm currently working on another, larger project right now, as a newbie I think it's a good idea to get more experience under my belt (especially on finishing a game, something I regrettably don't do too often...) before attempting to do something more serious. Making games under a time limit will be something new for me, too, and it'll probably be a useful experience.

With that said, feel free sign me up. I'm looking forward to this event.

[mugenjohncel]

(Looks at the poll on the other thread...)

Many vote vs. 1 vote

Ah... things are definitelly in my favor.

OK... it's official... Sign me in!

But I will only start working on my NaNoRenO 2007 project on March 1 (No Drawings, No Coding and stuff like that).

Oh and by the way... NaNoRenO will end in April 1... right?

I actually recalled that April fools thread Pytom tossed back then... oh well.



For the meantime I'll continue to do work on Mr. K and Polishing Lucy's Revenge.

[ShiraiJunichi]

Just newly come from Visualnews.net - I'm glad I found this place through NaNoRenO, I didn't know such a community was around. Hi everyone. (Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu!)
I'm a little torn about joining. I'm as newbie as they get when it comes to making VNs - and right now the only skill I'm comfortable in is writing.

I think most people here would agree that writing is the most important skill for visual novels. Poor graphics, or no music... those things can be overlooked, but if the story is lame and the writing is horrible...

At any rate, there are lots of resources available, as others have pointed out. You don't have to do everything yourself.

And coding in Ren'Py really is as simple as writing a script. And if you really want someone else for coding, Counter Arts has volunteered to help anyone who needs it. So I would recommend signing up ^_^

Will a new thread called NaNoRenO 2007 Emergency Response be appropriate / i.e. a good idea, or should everything be consolidated in one thread?

Hmm... I like that idea. I think one of the biggest obstacles for NaNoRenO is the art. It's probably the singlemost thing that discourages people from signing up- but I feel like their are several artists here who would love to be a part of NaNoRenO, and help out with a few images, or compositions. Of course, there's always the possibility of that being just baseless optimism on my part O_o;;;
At any rate, it couldn't hurt to give it a shot.

With that said, feel free sign me up. I'm looking forward to this event.

Welcome aboard!

OK... it's official... Sign me in!

But I will only start working on my NaNoRenO 2007 project on March 1 (No Drawings, No Coding and stuff like that).

Oh and by the way... NaNoRenO will end in April 1... right?

It hasn't quite been 24 hours for the poll, but... I think it's safe to say that the community had decided.
So...
NaNoRenO is now Open to all KNs and VNs!
With mugenjohncel signed up, we're now up to 9 teams. That's only two less than last year (if you exclude IntRenAiMo). And there are a lot of people working on large projects instead... 2007 looks like it'll be a good year for the OELVN scene.

[pheriannath]

In that case, sign me up!

Although I do beg your forgiveness in advance if I end up doing a half-baked job in a month - being an absolute newbie, I might be overestimating myself a little...maybe even more than a little...

Well, I can always try. Thanks for the resource links and advice

but I feel like their are several artists here who would love to be a part of NaNoRenO, and help out with a few images, or compositions.

If so, I'd really like to know them ^_^ Time for me to explore this board, I guess.

[Misuzu]

Guess I'll update those template pages for the site then. ^^;;

[DrakeNavarone]

I think most people here would agree that writing is the most important skill for visual novels. Poor graphics, or no music... those things can be overlooked, but if the story is lame and the writing is horrible...

(trying not to veer too off topic here...)
I like a good solid story like everyone else, but I do have to disagree with this statement somewhat. There are times where I prefer the light-hearted, mindless entertainment with the flashing lights and pretty graphics over the heavy-handed, long, deep, and meaningful story. I mean, everyone's mind deserves a small break every once and a while.

But moreover, there are times when writer/director/project manager (or whatever other titles you wanna throw at it) aims for a "style over substance" approach, and I don't think a project like that is any less valid. Ideally, you'll have both, but that's sometimes out of reach. So if you have to chose one, pick the one you want to do, because (at least in my eyes) neither path is better than the other.

[mikey]

I'd divide that into story and writing. I don't think story is necessary - I actually prefer games where there's nothing really happening in terms of plot (I don't like complicated plot-twisters) - however bad writing will destroy even the best designed style-over-substance games.

[absinthe]

Although I do beg your forgiveness in advance if I end up doing a half-baked job in a month - being an absolute newbie, I might be overestimating myself a little...maybe even more than a little...

You'll do fine! Worst to worst, you'll have a huge chunk of a project completed to finish in April.

Oh, and if you (or anyone else!) need someone to bounce ideas or designs off, please feel free to PM me... I'm just sitting here twiddling my thumbs waiting for March 1st. It's a novel experience for me -- I'm used to diving right in the second I have the plot and structure design completed, and here I am, actually being patient!

(trying not to veer too off topic here...)
I like a good solid story like everyone else, but I do have to disagree with this statement somewhat. There are times where I prefer the light-hearted, mindless entertainment with the flashing lights and pretty graphics over the heavy-handed, long, deep, and meaningful story. I mean, everyone's mind deserves a small break every once and a while.

The thing is, good writing tailors itself to the product. So the writing doesn't have to be heavy-handed, long, deep, and meaningful to be 'good', for example, if the story is a light-hearted one.

I can stand ugly or basic graphics, but too many writing and plot issues and I'm done. Flashy graphics, unless it's an action game, can only cover up deeper issues with the story (Fable and Oblivion leap to mind) for so long.

Good idea? Bad idea? I'm thinking along the lines of BCS's contributions, however some of those resources are already commandeered by several projects, and it makes sense to open up a treasure trove of new resources right when people most need it.

I like this idea a lot! I'm still hoping for an artist to team up with, but I've also trimmed the artwork requirements (as opposed to the 'artwork crazy million-dollar-budget fantasy quota') in my synopsis down to the bare minimum just in case. So if we had a place to start begging around week two or three for some basic character images, it'd be really great.