Starlight Mission 0

[rocket]

Starlight is my first Visual Novel

As such it has the following relatively immodest goals:
- Prove that I can do a complete VN soup to nuts. Story, Coding, Art, Music, Effects, Etc. This involves learning Ren'Py and basic Python syntax. Picking up a little bit of sound edit skills, learning how to find CC music, and most of all learning how to write for an interactive format.
- Produce the work at "near-pro" quality. This is subjective, but to me means no sketches, but polished graphics, no stock art or backgrounds. However I'm skipping any attempt at voice (for now). If I had to characterize it further I'd say 'respected dojin circle' quality.
- Complete the project in 3 months. This is largely to reign in the amount of effort this whole thing entails.
- Make something fun, unique, and personally engaging.

To meet those goals I've been developing with the following assumptions:
- Short 15-30 minutes game with 3 endings.
- 3 main characters plus the player (there are some others including one with artwork, but they are ancillary).
- 3D rendered backgrounds. 2 sets with several (4-5) locations within each set.
- A unique story setup and world which could be revisited many times in many ways if people find it engaging. For my first month lurking on the forums I was pretty convinced it was going to be totally unique, but since then I see that I'm not alone in my interests. Hopefully Starlight will deliver a unique twist to thoose folks.
Ultimately I see Starlight as a proof of concept for a story which could then be expanded into a full 2 hour game. However even if I never do so, this proof of concept will be fully stand alone and complete (albeit short and in my opinion tantalizing with regards to the setup). My hope is that after this I will be able to recruit additional support that could help me produce a longer version of the game, and even possibly multiple episodes.

I am approximately 2months into my project and well on schedule to completion. Therefore I finally feel comfortable announcing this as impetus to get me over the final hump.

My status is:
Script: 100% (I could ship this story as is)
Final Rewrite: 10% (I would like to tweak some events and add a couple more choice points)
Acting: 10% (By acting I mean putting in all the emotion switching "show" commands in the right places of the script)
Code: 95% (4 minor bugs)
Sound Effects: 100% (editing of the sounds)
Foley: 100% (triggering the sounds in the script)
Music: 100% (selecting music)
Scoring: 100% (triggering in the script)
Character Designs: 100%
Character Events: 50%
Character Sprites: 10%
Backgrounds: 75%
The character art is the last big chunk missing that blocks release. Everything else can have its quality adjusted to compensate for the schedule. So I feel very confident of finishing up in the next month.

Yah, yah, yah, you want to know the theme and concept right?

Starlight is a relationship and decision game based on the idea that managing relationships can be interesting even if it's not romantic. Actually in this case there will be romantic overtones and some ecchi fanservice, but that's just flavor. The main point is that a person in a position of leadership or authority must manage relationships and conflicting expectations to get everyone to succeed.

That's the theme of the game, though due to the shortness of the format the relationship management takes a back seat to the story, which is more of a drama with some action. The story should stand on its own.

The main player will be male, and there will be three starring females.

Now.. I don't want to give anything away just yet (as you may have noticed) so I'm not going to give a plot summary or setting just yet, but I will introduce the main characters and a little bit about them. (^_^)

Jade O'Brien - 19 years old
Jade is generally cheerful and energetic. Her ambitions for life are big and well defined. She is definitely the organizer and motivator of the group. However because of her high hopes she can easily be knocked off balance. She is always a little concerned that she's not doing good enough, though she doesn't want to let that show. She's actually quite capable and competent, but her anxiety can easily lead to her rushing through things, or worse keeping her thoughts to herself so as not to make waves. She tends to be a stickler for rules and regulations, and is irritated out of an unconscious jealousy by people who take a more casual approach to life. However if there's not a rule at stake she may also rely too much on consensus. Jade wants to be liked and works hard at it, but often times maybe too hard. In school she was never top of the class, but was constantly starting new clubs, organizing fund raisers, and running for student council.

Violet Winkler - 18 years old
Violet is your typical stoic loli. Though she's 18 she looks and acts more like an immature 16. She's a bit of a child prodigy and is socially stunted as you may expect. More than just a bit of a geek, she' very comfortable around her technical subjects, dismissive and rude to those who don't share her expertise and generally awkward around any other topic. She's actually quite shy, but over compensates by an aggressive and taciturn demeanor. She has no patience for rules or social conventions, though in reality a lot of it is that she doesn't understand many and becomes quite embarrassed to be transgressing. Her two major facades to the world are an aloof indifference, and a bitting arrogance, however underneath she is shy and isolated longing for a few close friends. In school she came close to failing despite her high scores and obvious ability, because she would constantly cut class, or ignore subjects which did not interest her.

Rose Murakami - 20 years old
Rose is gentle and reserved. Easily distracted, somewhat dreamy, and (you guessed it) a little scattered brained, Rose was nonetheless a star pupil. She is hopeless with dates, figures, times, but has a strong empathic sense and a very strong ability in intuitive logic (she's very much a "Blink" thinker). She's definitely a gossip, and by far the most interested in romantic relationships. She doesn't sound very developed in this summary, but if you think of Luna Lovegood crossed with Miyuki you won't be far off...

Yes, they are all studies in moétic character building.

So... can you guess which of the girls is which?

[Sailor Kitty]

MEEP...

I WANT IT!

I'm really, really looking forward to it. It seems like my kind of game.
Violet is kinda like me...

[monele]

Starlight is a relationship and decision game based on the idea that managing relationships can be interesting even if it's not romantic.

If I'm not misinterpreting this... awesome .

I'd say I like Rose, then Violet, then Jade the best ^^. Sounds fun, but there's a lot of "???" about this... good.... now to wait for this to arrive on the dinner plate ^__^. Ganbatte!

[DaFool]

I like the way this project is progressing.

And MOE! We don't have that much around here (well, few western artists are able to truly capture it's essence.)

By golly, I think you've got it...

[x__sinister]

This sounds like a very good game to play. I am surprised to see those words typed from my fingers because I avoid heterosexual games religiously. Nothing against it, but my current binge is BL. XD

Anyway, I am surprised at myself for wanting to play this because I would really avoid this type of game normally, but you make it sound so interesting. You must post when it's released, cpu requirements, and etc.

I would love to work with you in the future. That would be such a thrill. I am not an artist, but I do consider myself a good writer, so if you're in desperate need of someone to help, then I can.

When your game comes out, I'll definately play it through to make sure I get all the endings, and I'll post a review on what I think about it. Music, Plot, Art, Gameplay, etc. Right now, it all sounds like an 8 outta 10; you just need to get it up and running, and I'm sure it'll 'change the world', if you catch my drift. Not literally, because that would be just freakishly scary.

I can't wait for it to come out.
- Sin

[rocket]

Wow! Thanks for the support! (*^^*)

*gets pumped up*

Okay! I'm pysched to do some major work on this today!
(Looks like my post achieved it's goal)

Sailor Kitty, Hehe... I'm not sure who is my personal fave, but Violet is certainly one of the most fun to write. I empathize with her a little too much, so I hope she doesn't come out completely insufferable! (^^);;

monele, I hope it meets your expectations. Actually I'm not sure it might... it *is* a very short game, so really more of a VN than a relationship simulation. That being said, the system underlying it, while expressed as simple choices, does attributes for the player and the other characters in a framework that should allow this to be larger scaled if I ever get the chance. The basic idea is that there are attributes (like confidence, socialization, effectiveness, etc.) for each of the girls which change depending upon your choices. The degree to which you can affect them also depends on their affinity for you (catch all attribute for respect, romantic interest, etc.) The system is very bare bones in this game (its still prolly overkill) because the length is so short.

DaFool, Thanks! I have been a student of Anime Culture for many years now, and while I originally resisted the siren call of Moé, I finally succumbed. I am now quite the devotee and have tried to make my own modest contributions to the formal study of moétics. In fact, the historical significance of VN and eroge as a principal force in the rise of moé is what brought me to the ELVN community in the first place. I feel I cannot fully grok moé unless I an successfully create it.

Sin, Thanks! Actually there is a shota character planned, and even a very very pretty boy (who is actually a crossdressed girl - sorry!) but they would only make sense in the 2 hour version of the game. Starlight *is* actually up and running (fully playable with unlockable galleries and all) - just it has sketches instead of finished artwork inserted and lacks most of the expression changing for the characters. I don't think it'll change the world but I hope people enjoy it enough for me to recruit some allies. Like I said I really like the setup and characters and feel they deserve to have their full story told. Actually let me expand a little on this thought...

I said already how this VN is a proof of concept. This allows me to sketch out the basic world, characters, etc. I even get to build sets! This proof of concept I see as the first 15 minutes of a longer 2 hour story (15 minute self contained story in its own right). If successful I can reuse most of the work done for the proof of concept in order to do the full story. The group would need to build about 3 times as many sets and twice as many characters and of course write about three to four times as much script, however I do have a very rough plot outline for that script and some of the characters very roughly blocked out. So while the creative part is far from finished, I do feel comfortable knowing basically that it would hang together. Given that I would likely recruit at least an artist and a writer to help I imagine we could do three times as much in about the same time, so maybe release a full game in another 3mos, maybe even less.

That two hour game, while also self contained, can serve as a 'pilot' episode for a series of shorter 1 hour games. These games would reuse most of the same sets and characters form the pilot (thus attaining the same economies that a TV show has). I can do this because the story is not primarily romantic (and just ecchi not hentai), so that to have a satisfying conclusion, you don't need to consummate a relationship. The over all series would take place over 12 episodes (The pilot and finale being 2 hours-ish, the remaining 10 being 45mins-1hour of playtime). I have a broad idea of the three major story arcs that would take place over thoose 12 episodes if I ever got a chance to make them. In the end, all the episodes could be rolled up an released as one mega ELVN without the burden of trying to do something that size all in one go. I think realistically there would be some significant changes from the Proof of Concept to the Pilot, but after that I imagine a real down hill effect as the quantity of stuff that can be reused really allows a focus on the storytelling.

Anyhow.. wow.. lots of pressure! I hope I didn't raise expectations too high!

Starlight may be a little surprising, because it is definitely a different setting than the normal Ren'Ai, but I hope you will like it!

*rolls up sleeves and gets to work*

[monele]

Right now, I'm believing it might be a good idea to follow the "pilot episode" concept for some projects. It's smaller, hence easier to finish... and it's standalone... BUT... if it's successful, then, it's still possible to go on and make that standalone pilot into "just" the intro of the whole project ^^.

[rocket]

Right now, I'm believing it might be a good idea to follow the "pilot episode" concept for some projects.

Exactly, also it really let's you live with the characters and the setting to see how much longevity they really have.

[DaFool]

I'm not really sure how you would facilitate addition of content for subsequent episodes.

The only way I see to do this effectively is if the project is kept sit-com style all throughout:

* The characters run around in the same location. That way, even if no new backgrounds are added in later episodes, the audience won't notice. Well, unless of course the episode calls for a school outing or something.
* You can add at most one or two more characters (with their respective sprite sets) in an episode, and that episode will focus on introduction of those characters' backstories.

Actually now... after rereading this topic...

For my first month lurking on the forums I was pretty convinced it was going to be totally unique, but since then I see that I'm not alone in my interests.

rocket, did you mean GFA? If so... I dunno... I feel that all you need to do is stick gothloli school uniforms on these girls and presto! The game can be called GFA and no one would notice at face value. The system you mentioned is a good "friendship sim" infrastructure, the only thing is that the school has to concentrate on fashion. Since you plan on expanding this into a multi-episode epic, I am starting to wonder if it won't be more efficient for me to just stick in my story as one or several of your episodes using your characters (I haven't fully fleshed out my characters yet, so I'm flexible) wearing gothloli clothes and criticizing organized religion... which is pretty much what my game was to be about anyway. We can call this the "Gothloli Fashion Academy arc". For 12 episodes, we're talking about 100,000 words cumulative about... you sure you won't need help on content from other writers? If so, count me in!

Naturally that would mean I would help out with art for the whole project. Now of course people will say better stick to separate projects so they'll be more unique, but there have been several instances of cooperation and co-writing which led to more promising projects. Besides, you're far better at drawing in the moe style. Let me know what you think.

EDIT: I'll be out of town this weekend, so PM me if you like. In any case, I'm really excited to see this first standalone release, and to discover how your style is like in action.

[rocket]

Yahoo! I just flew back from Asia and on the 12 hour ride I managed to get some serious work in (besides watching 300 and Hot Fuzz, both surprisingly good by the way!).

Updated status:
Script: 100% (I could ship this story as is)
Final Rewrite: 20% (I would like to tweak some events and add a couple more choice points)
Acting: 10% (By acting I mean putting in all the emotion switching "show" commands in the right places of the script)
Code: 95% (4 minor bugs)
Sound Effects: 100% (editing of the sounds)
Foley: 100% (triggering the sounds in the script)
Music: 100% (selecting music)
Scoring: 100% (triggering in the script)
Character Designs: 100%
Character Events: 50%
Character Sprites: 10%
Backgrounds: 100%

Of course I also had to spend an hour or so tweaking ^^;;

This weekend I plan on finishing the rewrites, then it should just be a downhill slide through character art!

[rocket]

I'm not really sure how you would facilitate addition of content for subsequent episodes.

The only way I see to do this effectively is if the project is kept sit-com style all throughout:

* The characters run around in the same location. That way, even if no new backgrounds are added in later episodes, the audience won't notice. Well, unless of course the episode calls for a school outing or something.
* You can add at most one or two more characters (with their respective sprite sets) in an episode, and that episode will focus on introduction of those characters' backstories.

You could do that, but I think it's more flexible. Let's take on of my current fav shows, House M.D. and use it as an example. House is not a sitcom, but kind of a detective/medical drama with a very black streak of humor. House the VN would center around you playing House and needling your employees sufficiently to motivate them to solve the mysterious diseases that plague your patients. Of course because it's House, you can't actually ever say anything nice or foster cooperation, so the game would consist of you choosing the most appropriate snarkiness for the situation.

In that case the pilot would be doing basic character sprites for Chase, Cameron and Foreman with say 5 expressions each, plus sprites for the patient. Cutty and Wilson get two expressions. You do three backgrounds, the office, a patient's bedside, and the lab.

So the pilot is one self contained story with good and bad endings (possibly even endings where Cameron, Chase and Foreman feel good or bad about themselves as part of the good ending). However now you have the sets and basic characters to do new dramatic stories for a fraction of the effort of the pilot. So for second episode you do new sprites for a new patient and add two new backgrounds (House's apartment and a episode specific location).

There's a ton of genres you can do this with. Practically every TV show, from Lost to Rome, Monk to Battlestar Galactica. The only genre it won't work with is serious romance where you expect a consummated relationship at the end of the story. However you could take a shojou highschool romance and do it as an episodic VN.

I think anyhow. So if anyone else wants to try it out it might be a reasonable way to scale projects. Start with a 7K word proof of concept. Move to a 30K pilot, and then take it from there!

Actually now... after rereading this topic...

For my first month lurking on the forums I was pretty convinced it was going to be totally unique, but since then I see that I'm not alone in my interests.

rocket, did you mean GFA? If so... I dunno...

LOL, I'm flattered. I'd love to collaborate on a GLA style game at some point, but actually Starlight is not in that genre at all. GFA is definately relevant to m interests! I really like the GLA concept (though I'm unclear: is the theme of the game criticizing religion or just an aspect of the story that these teens are criticizig religion?). I think my style could be very simpatico to that kind of game, but this is something... a little different.

Also, yes, to finish Starlight in it's full vision I imagine I would need more than one writer to help. Kinda like TV shows usually have a few writers for a full season of eps. So hopefully, there's people who would also find it relevant. ^_^

[DaFool]

Wow, if this isn't productive, I don't know what is...

(and coincidentally, I'm about to get on a plane today as well...)

Good points on the set-building applicability to most shows. I was just using sit-com as an example without specifically targeting the sit-com genre.

But anyways,

is the theme of the game criticizing religion or just an aspect of the story that these teens are criticizig religion?

The whole story would be a metaphor for organized religion (a criticism of it). The characters themselves would be going about without specifically going "How hey! I am going to Such and Such Church." etc. -- it would be the entire plotting which can be taken for anything, but an observant person would pinpoint it on organized religion.

Since an episode is 45min-1 hour (~18-22K), if you do happen to allocate 2 episodes for external writers, I'd grab the opportunity in an instant to tell the story. For those 2 episodes, we'd have the same characters, but all dressed in GLA (Think of it sort of like a Halloween Special ). Really, that's all I need... the story is very flexible from when I first imagined it (I can still do away with the New England setting, for example).

But if you have other ideas, I'm still willing to help as well. Although, after making all the art for the proof of concept, I'm not sure how the additional artist or two could help out.

[rocket]

Updated status:
Script: 120% I went and added an "Epilouge". Essentially it's a scene from the story that really belongs in the full Pilot, but which I really wanted to get down and it should really entice people about where this is ultimately going!
Final Rewrite: 75% Only two of the three endings left to re-write! I can't believe I'm this close to the end!
Acting: 10% (By acting I mean putting in all the emotion switching "show" commands in the right places of the script)
Code: 95% (4 minor bugs)
Sound Effects: 100%
Foley: 100%
Music: 100%
Scoring: 100%
Character Designs: 100%
Character Events: 50%
Character Sprites: 10%
Backgrounds: 100%

In celebration I'm going to release a few more tantalizing details!

New Character:
Alexis Hayden age 18
Alexis joins our story masquerading as Alex Hayden, a young man with a totally false background. While most of our cast knows each other (even though the player is a relative newcomer) Alex is an outsider and the rest of the cast quickly become suspicious about 'his' history and motivations. In general Alex is a bit imperious, not like Violet's disdain based on experience and knowledge, but out of a deeper sense of class privilege and entitlement. It doesn't help endear him that while she's not actually a full fledged religious fanatic, she is very devout and comes from a family that's for generations been priests and priestesses. She's athletic and confident. Though she may come off as a bit of a prig, she's actually quite capable and willing to act on her own according to her own convictions. Her independent actions in the Pilot will actually trigger the plot that whole series will follow, although the end result will be quite unlike what she intended. She's in for some major surprises, but then again everybody in this this cast will have had their world view challenged by the end... assuming we get that far!
In many ways I plan to make Alex the most moé... because you know cross-dressing is always a source of erotically charged hilarity! (^_^)
Despite all this Alexis is only mentioned in the Proof of Concept. Ah well...

Episode Title:
Starlight is the name of the series as a whole, but each episode, including the Pilot(and by extension the Proof of Concept), have their own meaningful titles as well.
Episode 0 (Proof of Concept) and Episode 1 (Pilot) are both titled "The Wine-Dark Sea."
The name is an allusion to two different creative works, both significant to Starlight in their own way.

Now then... onto the final writing push!

[rocket]

The whole story would be a metaphor for organized religion (a criticism of it). The characters themselves would be going about without specifically going "How hey! I am going to Such and Such Church." etc. -- it would be the entire plotting which can be taken for anything, but an observant person would pinpoint it on organized religion.

Gotcha. Well that's interesting... veeeeery interesting. (^_^)

As you can see from my summary of Alex above, Starlight was planning on dealing with issues of organized religion, and the origins of religious faiths.

Now I can't support a story where the theme is a blanket condemnation of the entire concept of organized religion. First off, because that would be against my personal religious beliefs, but also because I think that would be too heavy handed and simplistic perspective to take.

My idea was to focus on some of the specific social and personal evils that can result in the context of an organized religion, especially one where the powers of the faith are invested with the authority of the government. This is something I do believe in being ever vigilant against (even as I am aware that organized atheism has probably killed more people than all religions combined).

If that seems like it gives you enough scope to tell the story you want to tell, and I think it probably could, then we should probably continue via PM to avoid any spoilers! (^_^)

Since an episode is 45min-1 hour (~18-22K), if you do happen to allocate 2 episodes for external writers, I'd grab the opportunity in an instant to tell the story. For those 2 episodes, we'd have the same characters, but all dressed in GLA (Think of it sort of like a Halloween Special ). Really, that's all I need... the story is very flexible from when I first imagined it (I can still do away with the New England setting, for example).

Hehe, well to pull this off really I'll need to recruit probably 2-3 writers who are willing to do 1-3 eps at least. Really to pull this off I see myself as more of a Producer role, kinda like JJ Abrams, Joss Weadon, or Ron Moore. I'm driving the overall creative vision, but I have to create space for lots of others to add their own creation into the mix. Ideally I'd only pen the script for the pilot and finale and do the main character designs. For the bulk of the production my role would have to be editorial and significantly collaborative. This is why its so important to me to do the entire POC by myself. I need to show more than just a story bible, I need to prove my vision in order to inspire others around it.

That being said, the more I think about it, the more I think that GLA's story could fit very well in Starlight's world. I can easily think of an excuse to dress up our cast in EGL clothing. Including the player and Alex of course! Furthermore its an excuse which is no more absurd than the onsen episode of Gurren Lagaan (my project's gold standard) and actually the excuse even fits in perfectly with the conventions of the story genre of Starlight. Frilly goth lolita clothing are one of the anime cliches I did not have a plan for including and which in retrospect seems nearly mandatory. I also have need for plot points leading up to the exposure of Alex as a girl near the end of the first arc (around ep3), and putting her in a dress is a great way to do that (again something I didn't yet have), as well as a preliminary delving into the topics of faith which will feature so prominently in the mid story arc (eps 5-8ish).

I really hope this might work for you, because it sounds like a pretty good fit to me so far...

But if you have other ideas, I'm still willing to help as well. Although, after making all the art for the proof of concept, I'm not sure how the additional artist or two could help out.

You have to ask? The butcher's bill for the full Pilot:
N additional expressions for the main 3 girls.
3 additional significant characters (3-5 expressions).
3 additional minor ones (1-2 expressions).
4 more sets
2 more action event sequences
N more (likely 3-5) ecchi/fanservice character events
2-3 more music tracks
4-5 more sound effects
*sigh*

Right... a brief dinner party... then...

HARD WORK AND GUTS!

[DaFool]

Yeah, I like the sound where this is going... looks like our ideas are more compatible than at first glance.

Yup, the stuff involving religion in my story is a balanced view more in tune with what you described. Nevertheless, I will try to make it fit into your overall vision. That is why the Proof of Concept is crucial, since it will demonstrate the style we should all follow for the mega-project. And it is mandatory for me to be able to retrieve the full essence of all of your characters, so that I will be able to write them faithfully. That's the responsibility of the POC, after which I would be able to script according to the the screenplay / plot in my head... then I'll need to confirm via PM if it fits into the overall story and not headed in a totally tangential direction.