/jp/ - Otaku Culture

[Anonymous No.]

/jp/, I am writing a visual novel. I have not played a great many visual novels, but I am still interested in the format. I've played mostly the popular ones; Ever 17, Umineko, Tsukihime, Fate/Stay Night, Planetarian, Sengoku Rance(if you can count that), Saya no Uta.

I'm also a big fan of the Phoenix Wright/Turnabout Courtroom series and the CING games.

I've seen the animes based on Higurashi, Kanon and Clannad too so I have some idea of what they're like.

However I don't really want to make anything like that. I had my own ideas before I started reading VNs and while I've been heavily inspired by them I'm not sure if there's one that's a good reference for what I want to do.

I want to do something in an urban fantasy kind of setting like FSN, but set in a city with a kind of near future cyberpunk kind of vibe. I suppose it'd be a lot like the Indexverse.

Has anyone here written a VN before? I have had characters and ideas lying around for ages I wanted to make into a comic or novel, but since I have to make something in Flash for college I thought I'd try a VN.

I was thinking of adding point/click elements(like the Cing games) but I don't want it to turn into yet another shitty Flash Point & Click. When I'm finished with the college one, I may expand it into a full VN with a large soundtrack of electronic music from local producers.

However, for now, I'm stuck on the "Scenario"...

[Anonymous No.]

>I am writing a visual novel
> I have not played a great many visual novels

I refuse to believe anyone is this naive, even /a/. You better be a troll.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6762108

Visual Novels are a pretty basic medium bro. You don't really need to see that many to get how they tick.

[Anonymous No.]

You should decide first if it's going to be a story-driven plot like Umineko and Higurashi, or a character-driven plot like most H-games and VNs. It's important, since a story-driven plot you can mostly write like a novel, but can skimp out on descriptions of appearences, since you'll likely have character art for that.
Character-driven requires you to decide whether you want a single general plot line for the VN or a branching plot, depending on the girl you follow.

As for a scenario, how about something about humanity's abandonment of real life to technology? Maybe the main character gets involved in a computer program which merges a realistic 3-D copy of the world into a life simulation game, and if your going to have multiple heroines, you could have him fall in love with an AI on one side, and a normal (normal being your own definition, so she might not actually be so) girl on the other.
The fun thing is there will be many people around here who could relate to an attraction to the artificial.
But I'm just throwing out what's at the top of my head here.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6762155

I have an idea of the main scenario. Since it's a mix up of Fantasy & Technology, there's sort of a main device that's kind of the central issue. It's a machine that can alter reality. This dude lands on the island that's meant to be all technologic and stuff. There's kind of an overhanging "Why are they so slow to spread this to the rest of the world"? He's kind of sick of life being boring and all that so he arranged with a friend to be able to visit the island. And the same time, he's kind of a real sceptical type.

The real main character is the heroin though, and you play from a mix of their perspectives.

I'm not sure how to do it a character based game, but it would make sense. I could do it so it focuses on the main characters, then it splurges into a more novel like setting where the more "Plot devicey" characters are introduced.

I have the characters already done pretty much, or at least the main. I kind of need some Bit characters for it to work, but I think they'll write themselves when I have a good plot.

Sorry it sounds kind of retarded when I don't go into specific details.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6762199
>Since it's a mix up of Fantasy & Technology, there's sort of a main device that's kind of the central issue. It's a machine that can alter reality.
Add steampunk and call it 'what a beautiful rip off'

[Anonymous No.]

>>6762206

It's pretty hard to be 100% original man. Plus I have more specific details I just don't want to splurge out an A4 page just to get a load of TL;DRs.

I'm kind of having a theme of warped reality, etc. but I have a specific way of doing it that I'm not sure how to describe. I really liked the idea of "Reality Marbles" in the Type Moon stuff. I'm trying to figure out a word to call what I had in mind that isn't a rip off of that. What are they normally called in Sci Fi? I remember in an episode of Red Dwarf they went into one....

[Anonymous No.]

>>6762199
Hm... I'd say that plot would be more suitable to a single-heroine VN, which is what you seem to be gunning for anyway. So just write in some good choices and bad choices for your main character to make, and then write a good end, a bad end, and x number of other ends to stuff inbetween.

And on the point and click concept, it's hard to make a game like that which isn't shitty, in my opinion. I haven't played many (possibly none) mainstream ones, but all the Flash-based ones I have are pretty bad.
'Course, I'm more inclined to a VN over a point/click game, but I think for a good story, it's best just to stick to a VN format.

[小姐 No.]

>>6762199
You're thinking of it wrong. What do you want the main reason to read it be, character interaction or the story as a whole? That will define it as either story-driven or character-driven.

Will you focus on something like the mystery of the device and the characters eventually get down to business and solve it, or will it be similar to the slice-of-life genre where you look at the effect this device has on the people on the island and the characters themselves, with probably the device remaining a mystery but the characters go through their own personal storylines.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm being critical or anything, I'm just really interested.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6762222
A phrase to mimic Reality Marbles? How about Personal Reality?
Or not.
Beh. Names are never things I'm good with. The only one I can think up of is Mind Frame.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6762261

Yeah, the main reason I'm adding Flash bits is to make it interactive, as per the brief. I wanted to keep the narrative fairly linear so didn't want to go into having all the different flags and variables an expansive eroge might have.

If there's another way to add interactivity that isn't just shoehorning in random Layton puzzles then I'd be up for that.

I was shown a VN a student from last year made that was kind of this Noir detective choose your own adventure thing. He took photographs and editted them. It was kind of cool, but the interactive element was pretty basic. you just picked between two choices every so often

[Anonymous No.]

>>6762264

Basically I've had a character I want to make into something for ages, and a bunch of other characters in the same world. I have some ideas and concepts I want to put into a story.

I actually have an idea for how the overall story will go but it's kind of irrelevant to this "first chapter" I'm making.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6762277
Picking between two choices every so often? That's a normal VN interaction.

[小姐 No.]

>>6762284
Yeah, definitely story driven then. You said you were writing it, were you also going to draw or do you have an artist?

[Anonymous No.]

>>6762285

One choice nearly always gets you killed though, and you can't even pull the "Think like Shirou does" thing that generally works. It really does seem kind of random. I'd find it hard to avoid doing that, too.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6762354

The art is a real problem for me. I'm hoping to just go with basic Flash artwork for now and when I finish college hiring an artist.

It's much better like this though, originally I was going to do a comic and it was a nightmare finding an artist that was both interested and had free time. This way is a lot easier since I just need a few character sprites and the odd CG.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6762155
I'm not against following the suggestions of others, but if you feel you can handle it, try coming up with your own ideas for a scenario and sticking to them to the end; few things can match such satisfaction. Of course, suggestions do not exist solely for you to follow them word for word. If you like what others suggest, or if you find something you're passionate about in it, try to expand on it or take it in your own direction based on what you like or understand about it.