Memento [Fantasy/Steampunk][Heroines]

[kmdalot]

Hi everyone!

26/01/2014

If you've accidentally meandered here for information on Memento, then you can find all the latest updates here.

If you are a project creator thinking about how to potentially crowd-fund your game, I'd utterly love to answer any questions you have on how Kickstarter operates and projects are handled, so please feel free to message me anytime!

[papillon]

Hmm, someone from Brighton who steampunks? Do I know you?

(Although admittedly my other half goes to most of the hidden market events without me.)

[kmdalot]

Hi papillon. If I'm your other half then that means you're paying for my takeout tonight right? right?

[SundownKid]

I'm making a comedic-fantasy steampunk visual novel... you know what that means... crossover time!

[gekiganwing]

Welcome to the forums, kmdalot. I have some thoughts and criticism on your VN. I'll try to make sure it doesn't sound too harsh, because I believe your project has potential. Take some time, and carefully consider the following...

1a. On your website, you state that you intend to sell Memento: Aurora Chronicles for $10 (in US dollars?). Do you have any experience creating and selling independent games? Likewise, have you sold your own fiction, comics, music, or other kinds of media? If not, have you done quite a bit of research, including talking with individual indie game creators?

1b. Please tell us more about your VN's selling points. Do you want people to buy it based on the strengths of its visuals, writing, sound, gameplay, or something else? Will it be sold as one complete package, or will there be additional side-stories and/or free-to-play style bonuses? What sort of people are part of your intended audience? Will you sell your game just on your own site, or do you intend to sell it elsewhere?

2a. You stated that you want to use Kickstarter to fund your project. Why is this? Do you need to pay your artist to create sprites, backgrounds, and more? Do you need to pay your composer to create music and sound effects?

2b. Have you used Kickstarter before? If so, how was the experience? If not, have you done research on how to succeed?

3. You described the themes of M:AC with words such as fantasy, steampunk, and satire. It does not sound like your want your story to be grimdark or overly silly. And it seems you're focused on general plot, and your characters' relationships / slice of life are not all that important. But even after reading your descriptions, I had some questions about the aspects of your VN, such as...

* Do you intend to create a straightforward visual novel (text and images, a few choices that affect the story)? If not, do you plan to incorporate some form of gameplay (such as text/graphic adventure, combat, schedule management)?
* Lots of choices, only a few, or somewhere in the middle?
* How many decisions will make a major difference in shaping the story?
* How many endings do you estimate you'll make? How many can be classified as "good," "bad," or "neutral"?
* How long will the story be? Will it take several hours just to reach a single ending?

4. Ambition is good. I'm glad to see people trying to create large VNs with complex plots and worlds. But on the other hand... we're only human. Life happens, people get sick, and have relationship concerns. Internal conflicts cause teams of game creators to split up. It's easy to get frustrated with writing and coding, and just as easy to lose interest. If you look through this forum (as well as most freeware game forums, webcomic archives, and fanfiction sites), you'll find dozens of promising projects that barely got off the ground, and a few that released only a demo or beta before never updating again. This is why I tend to encourage people to make small VNs first, and then consider creating large and difficult projects.

Having said all this... how do you plan to beat the odds? What will you do in order to make sure you stay organized, update regularly, and release your VN in a finished form? I ask this difficult question because I'm looking forward to seeing it completed.

I like cute romance stories (especially BxG, sometimes other pairings), and I like moe tropes. But I also want to see inventive and ambitious western visual novels. M:AC sounds like something that's reasonably innovative, without being unrecognizably diffferent.

Why the -hell- would anyone use a visual novel format to create an epic fantasy-satire game?

Same reason why creators use comics formats to tell stories outside the superhero and gag-a-day genres. Same reason why creators use video game formats to create content that doesn't fit into currently popular categories (FPS, MMO, puzzle, sports). Innovation does not always sell, but creators should be encouraged to innovate, no matter what their format or style.

[kmdalot]

I wrote a response which took 2 hours, and upon the submit button, was brought back to the login screen. Bear with me while I rewrite everything.

[gekiganwing]

I wrote a response which took 2 hours, and upon the submit button, was brought back to the login screen. Bear with me while I rewrite everything.

I've had that happen too... Also, my current laptop mouse sometimes seems to move on its own. Make sure to back up your forum posts by copying them to another program, such as Notepad.

[kmdalot]

If I could only give one piece of advice to prospective project creators, it's that you learn to love record keeping. It's not enough to handle it. Unless you can afford a secretary, you have to fall madly in love with tidying, organising, and filing communication. Once you've managed to neatly compile all of your messages and can sort through all the letters, back-and-forths and inquiries in under a flash, you'll find that the amount of time you have on your hands to do your side of project creation to be as vast as staring into the horizon from the edge of a broken raft in the middle of the Pacific—and even with that, there's not enough hours in the day!

With the magical, veteran power of hindsight behind me, I can only agree with a thousand nods to gegiganwing's advice that project creators should begin with a small VN first. It's not that it may take an inherently greater amount of time to create the actual game, but rather, it'll save a whole bunch of time in assembling together and getting to know that final team. I had previously imagined that, with my tax returns, contacts and stamps at the ready, I had already prepared for the admin demoness before I'd even set off, but it turned out that the greatest time sink was actually the most enjoyable one—simply getting to know your team and their individual schedules.

I would suggest crowdfunding as a route if you're thinking about hiring some artists or writers for your game. It's an experience which had taught me more in a year than I knew possible. It isn't just about the skills you learn, because when you look back at your shattered and broken schedule for your project, remember that these people will be around when you set off for your next project—and hopefully, the schedule will stay on track.

[gekiganwing]

As you begin the process of funding your game, be sure to look for other venues where you can promote your work. There are forums and communities where people are allowed to drum up support for their independent games. Also, don't forget to contact the people who own websites. If you ask me, I recommend asking Gamertell, a website that discusses obscure imports and small indie games just as much as relatively mainstream stuff.

If even a small percentage of the people who play this game are people playing their first VN, then I will consider that an astounding accomplishment.

There have been a few recent "gateway drug" VNs. The Ace Attorney games may not have been commercial blockbusters, but became surprisingly popular in the mid-2000s. But even if you have a small to nonexistent budget and you can only release your VN on computers, it's still possible for it to become internet famous. Three examples:
* A couple years ago, the people at Sakevisual stated that they intended for their game RE:Alistair to introduce people to GxB stories. I think they succeeded.
* Over the last few years, Katawa Shoujo became a cult hit. I'm still not sure how this happened... the creators weren't marketing their VN, but they got impressive amounts of media coverage.
* Hatoful Boyfriend may have become popular through its outrageous premise and its nonsense humor. It definitely helped that the freeware version was translated quickly with the creator's consent.

If you pledge, you will get a paperback manga comic/novella with your game, and not for $100. Every pledge comes with physical rewards. They are creative, exclusive, but more importantly, they are an integral part of the production costs.

If you believe this is a good and feasible idea, go ahead. But please keep in mind that some other creators are not sure if physical rewards are worth the expense.

So far as I have written, it is a single ending story with multiple choices that dictate the path towards it. The choices not only dictate whether they go "left" or "right", but in doing so will open up new exposition about the characters and the world.

If this is what you plan to create, then make sure to convey your intentions clearly to fans and Kickstarter users. VN and video game fans tend to like multiple endings, as long as they're not just padding... so you'll benefit by making sure both the journey and the destination in your VN are interesting.

Due to the nature of the game, its not one area where scenes are recyled. It really is an RPG.

I'm not sure if this comparison works. You see, I have played quite a few RPGs and adventure games in which the player needs to revisit the same areas in order to succeed, or in order to continue. (Aside: I distinctly remember my parents asking me why my character in the NES game Crystalis seemed to be walking in circles. I needed money and experience points, and the action gameplay made level-grinding more interesting.)

I've kept this one short, please spam me with questions and I'll be happy to answer!

Please keep in mind that when some people see a long block of text, their first reaction will be "tl;dr" (too long; didn’t read). It is wise to provide enough information to get people interested, but remember that not everyone has a long attention span.

[kmdalot]

Your advice is super. I really appreciate it. It would be very easy to write multiple endings based on choice selection, but none would be as good as the canon one; I am therefore very reluctant to write filler material. The biggest problem is that multiple endings just don't work. It is very difficult to imagine a situation where the protagonists go to all these places, talk to all these people and yet come out with a different ending. If something was big enough to change the ending, then it would have sent them to a whole different place.

[Mad Bat]

Could you provide a link to your Kickstarter campaign?

[kmdalot]

Hi Mad Bat. It is not up yet - it has just been sent off for submission yesterday (all the projects are checked by their staff).

I can give you a link to the first image in handy, bitesize wallpaper formats though!

http://www.brightonionstudios.com/downloads/

[Mad Bat]

You should probably word your first post a bit differently then since it suggests that the project is already up and others, like myself, may go searching for it,

[kmdalot]

I'm sorry for the confusion. It feels me with christmas warmth that you went searching for it though, thank you!

[gekiganwing]

One more suggestion: create at least one elevator pitch for your VN. In other words, describe your project in two minutes or less. To go along what was said in a recent thread, boil it down to three sentences at most. I'm suggesting this because I think you'll benefit by making a clear and concise summary.