A Question Only a Newbie Would Ask...

[Hydriatus]

Yeah, pretty much as the title. I apologise if something like this was already asked, but I couldn't find it on the board.

Now, saying I have an idea for a story, how do I go about generating the interest of others to help me make it into a VN?

Is it pretty much required to begin with several solo projects first to establish a reputation before approaching others on collaborations? (since my art SUCKS)

Cheers!

[Pyonkotchi]

nahh. It helps to already have a finished project (it shows you are likely to finish the project, and you probably will write more great stories) but I think if you become passionate about it yourself. let us know that you take your project seriously, get some work done on it.

And let us know what that idea IS of coarse! people are reluctant to just help with "an idea" .

I think even if you are a newbie VN writer.
We gotta know that not only do you have an interesting idea, you'll also follow through with it. that alone will generate interest in SOME people

,

[manga_otaku]

It's all up to you! Some like working by themselves as it's better and easier for them, others may just ask for odd titbits off people and help with programming and others form teams for working
It's not necessary to make your own solo projects to establish a reputation - sure a reputation is good, but a bad storyline would affect the whole reputation and people would not be interested.
To generate interest you could start by making an outline of what your story is about - basically Work In Progress threads. (Look at the WIP board. Click and see how everything is laid out - Story, Characters, etc.) It's alright if you don't have any artwork of your characters or BGs on there yet, it's a Work In Progress. Therefore, updating later is perfectly fine!
To get help for artwork since you say that your

art SUCKS

you could post in the 'Recruitment' board asking for help (specify what help you need. E.g. "Artist needed" or even better "Sprite/Concept Art/Backgrounds/Etc. Artist" <--whichever one you want xD) Linking into your WIP thread also helps as the person helping can generate the image of what the story will be like and stuff.
If you need anymore help you can always PM me or just stick more questions here I seem to have a lot of time now that my exams and compulsory school is over xD But I got work experience from 4th July - 15th July sooo...
Good luck~! I'm always up for proof-reading on English and Grammar if you need :3

[Sexo Grammaticus]

There is a topic entitled "How do you get people interested in your project?" on the first page, currently less than a dozen topics down from this one. You didn't look very hard.

The same principles in that thread apply for this one, only instead of advertising to an audience, you're advertising to potential collaborators. What annoys me the most when it comes to people looking for help on their projects is what I call the LFG Syndrome - you know in an MMO, when someone's looking for a group to run a dungeon or whatever with? They always go 'LFG DPS, Tank, Healer' - asking for people to fill all the working roles on the team, which is pretty much saying "I need everybody to do everything for me as I contribute no valuable skills myself".

What that means is, don't go into looking for help when you've basically got nothing done yourself. If you're a writer and you want an artist, then have as much as humanly possible done on the story side of things. Don't just have a vague plot outline, I want to see full scenes already done, branches plotted and written, all the character bios and arcs in full. I want to know that you've done everything possible to fulfil your own creative input into the work, and you're genuinely looking for a collaborator, not just someone to pick up the slack and do everything for you.

[Auro-Cyanide]

Sexo Grammaticus has a point. While you can probably get people to join you without work done, it would most definitely increase your chances of actually success if you do. Otherwise there is a chance that enthusiasm will die within a couple weeks and the project will be dropped.

And please for the love of god actually pitch your idea. I dislike it when people disclose no information at all. No one is going to be interested if you don't tell them anything and frankly I wouldn't be interested enough to ask. Finding people for your project is relatively easy. Getting the people who will stick around is another thing. You have to do a lot of work yourself to keep the group moving because no one is going to be as interested in the story as you are.

Oh, and technically you are meant to have work done before you post a WIP thread. It is a bad idea to post with nothing more than an idea and is technically against the forum rules.

[Tsundere Lightning]

Now, saying I have an idea for a story, how do I go about generating the interest of others to help me make it into a VN?

By having a finished, playable script that only needs art and music to be complete.

Seriously. Nothing gets the attention of an artist as much as a compelling script to illustrate.

[Hydriatus]

Thank you all for your responses!

Now, this is not a WIP thread - this is much more of a...let's say "research" thread. I'm trying to find out how to effecitvely go about creating a VN by turning to all of you who are more experienced than me in such matters!

I have several ideas running around in my head and written down on my computer. Some are more detailed then others as one would expect, and some probably would not work well as VNs. But for now, I'm trying to learn more about the process of creating a VN, and thank you all for your replies so far.

Right - scripts and story ideas:as a writer I have synopsis and outlines for a whole heap of stories on my laptop. Few scripts, but most are easily adapted into that format. But before I go about doing any of that, another question: VNs are mostly, if not all in my limited experience, based around choices and relationships. Is this an accurate assessment? A VN which would not be built around pursuing another character would not be as interesting or engaging, is that it?

As for being a responsible writer, I know I cannot vouch for myself though I suppose having something published (fiction of course) would inspire some confidence?

[Avaible]

VNs are not all based around choices and relationships, assuming that you're thinking along the line of this kind of relationship: "three girls the protagonist can obtain", and choices which lead to those endings.
That certainly is one category of vnovels, but please don't limit yourself to that. Visual Novels are novels and then some, so any story can be made into one, just choose what you most want to write.
There are all kinds of genres and not all even have choices, some are kinetic novels with only one story path. Others, of course, have twelfe+ endings, it all depends on you as the writer.
If you have an interesting story people will like it, regardless wether they get a boy/girl/pet in the end.

[Hydriatus]

Right, it's just that a perusal of the various VN's on offer just on the Renpy site shows a great majority of them as based/focused on relationships. Now I'm not saying that's a bad thing or that it's representative of VN's in general, but it does seem like an accepted...archetype of story? As in it has an established audience of users on the site and on these forums, whereas any other genre of story will somewhat struggle...at least that's how it seems to me...

And I've run into the term "Kinetic Novel" before but I am unaware as to it's definition. Anyone care to enlighten me?

But thank you all for your replies and guidance. I have a story in mind I crafted a while ago, which I believe will be a good project to start off with. Once I have the script written, I'll start fishing for interest and people to work with

[manga_otaku]

Kinetic Novel - or KN - is basically a VN WITHOUT CHOICES; basically a story. Good example: TCAST

[papillon]

Right, it's just that a perusal of the various VN's on offer just on the Renpy site shows a great majority of them as based/focused on relationships. Now I'm not saying that's a bad thing or that it's representative of VN's in general, but it does seem like an accepted...archetype of story? As in it has an established audience of users on the site and on these forums, whereas any other genre of story will somewhat struggle...at least that's how it seems to me...

It's true that it's an accepted archetype, not necessarily so that it means anything else will struggle. Also, the categorisation can slightly skew the impression.

Most big hollywood movies contain a Love Interest. The importance of the Love Interest to the plot varies greatly, and many of those movies would not be considered 'romance' movies at all. But if you had a site that listed big movies by relationship categories, vast hordes of them would end up being listed as BxG because they ahve a male protagonist and he has a love interest at some point.

A game like Bionic Heart, for instance, very clearly *contains* BxG relationships, but I would argue that it's not a romance game. It is all about the plot, and romantic relations only take place as they would naturally.

[Hydriatus]

Righto, thanks!

Alright, so I have my plot and characters set out on paper. A script is part-way done. Do I post in the WIP thread or in the recruiter thread first? Which option has a better chance of generating feedback and interest?

And it will most probably be a KN.

(I'd require a programmer and artist, possibly a musician....)

[LVUER]

Make a significant progress first. Finish your draft, a large amount of your script (or better, all of them too), have character designed flushed out, and everything else you could make on your own. Or you could say that you already finish at least 60% of your part.

After that, you could make a WIP thread, and inside that WIP thread, you could write about how you need some helping hands.

Note: you don't really need a musician since there are plenty of free music on internet. It save lots of time.

[Hydriatus]

Character design - how detailed should a physical description be? Considering I would want the artist's input on what would look good...

And character details are sorted, synopsis is now being broken down into scenes to facilitate writing...

Thank you all again for the help offered so far!