Renpy: Python based Visual Novel script engine

http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/Home_Page

How the hell could this forum out of all places go so long without mention of RenPy? Its the poor Chinese peasants way of making a VN!

Go click on the link on the top of the page, everything you need is right there. Downloads, guides, pre made artwork, its all in one big Value PAK.

I remember MR tried making a visual novel using this program great idea but people lost the will to do it.

Maybe we can do something like that?

We can, its very easy, Wayne and I did it before. But that turned into a nightmare because it was a school assignment...

Yeah we can make a visual novel. But first we need to know what it would be about. We can't say its about nothing, Seinfeld already did a show about nothing...

uhh start to make a visual novel then lose the will to do it? Lol we'll try.

How bout a type moon parody?

Nahh, lets try to be original. We can come up with our own story! Besides, I have a few ideas for some Sci-Fi stories anyways. We should post our story ideas and then vote on them.

Lets do a werewolf thing...

(werewolves transform every night in this story)

A kid was bitten at a young age. He obtained a bracelet from a lady that restrained his werewolf transformation. Now, hes like 18 or something. And he has to exterminate a zombie invasion and so he removes the bracelet.

(admittedly this is pretty crappy but this is an idea)

EDIT:

ANOTHER IDEA

It is 2427. The earth has been conquered by a species of humanoids using mechwarriors (pun intended). They hunt for the remaining survivors. Among them, is _______ who is the last magi on earth. He has the ability to call forth great human heroes/weapons/armies. This comes as a result of his ancestors using him as a human "library" for history information. This combined with his magic, allows him to summon those things. He leads the human resistance and attempts to defeat the humanoids. These survivors are ASIAN!

I like this one more....

u guyz know how Vroopmaster's doing a smcs story thing rite?

we can do out own story about how the church of proz was formed and retarted scenarios of us ranting over sc2 or wutever...... we can use a crucis character to depict each of us, based on expressions we wud most likely make... (ex: michael being shirou)

it'd b kinda a ripoff off of comical crucis tho, altho gaebolge nvr finnished his vn

emiya1438 started the vn not gaebolg he did the comic. Lucid did try and get his own VN started but didnt get past chapter 1.

But your idea sounds pretty good each member who's wants to do this could write a chapter and we could combine all of them into a novel.

That'll be really choppy though. Everyone has distinct writing styles

Thats just the idea I ripped off from the dantes inferno anime movie different drawing styles for a different chapter in the movie.

Oh yah, KK Chang thx for pluggin mah scripts

But I don't think many people would be interested in doing the SMCS Story (Fenix, Kaede to name a few...)

Thats true



USE MY IDEA xD

We dont have to do a SMCS Story we could all decide on a topic or a certain event and write it from our POV (everyone views an event differently no ones stories match up 100% there are always changes).

Hmmmm. I actually like that. I mean think about, there''s a lot of potential for humorous contrast via the different writting styles that we all have, like Kooay's (read: overdramatic), Vroopmaster's (read: overactive imagination) and Nullset's (read: brick).

I don't think that we should do something serious or depressing like our memory of 9/11. And we should look for something that we have all done at one point, or something that happened when we were all in the same room. Although if we go with the latter then Kaede won't get a section :(

Anyways, its a refreshing idea given the usual VN's that are made. Usually its just...

A) dating simulators
B) mysterious quests of discovery of magic and/or romance
C) Lemons

Well, sounds like a good idea to me.
Maestro Mcgrew you wanna take charge and make a topic and shiz?

This is a perfectly good topic...
Ok fine, I'll be in charge because a Admin sayz I can.

But before I waste valuable topic space, how about people start suggesting a common scenario we have either been through together or have all been though separately. And something that isn't retarded.

How about when we read FSN? we all did that, anyone who's excluded wouldn't have had a large part in the story anyway.

Erm, that might not be a good idea, Felix spoiled it for you and you spoiled it for me so those right off the bat would be not so funny, and its a solitary activity so theres not much room for creative engineering. Anything too creative will be written off as made-up.

How bout a day in the life of living at the church of proz? Make it like were all dorm mates and then something happens (for example Wayne and Amos get in a big argument over something trivial and they force others to take sides) and we write how we would respond to it.

Like the Community crucis comic?

sounds pretty good to me

Hmmm that works, and its completely plausible because pointless arguments with Amos and Wayne happen in real life at least every other week.

Ok, the most daunting task here is going to be the Drawing. No, we aren't going to use recycled Nasuverse pics because
1) Thats lazy and unoriginal
2) Our character preference changes contently, and I don't think there are enough Male characters to go around
and 3) It reminds me of the school VN project...I just want to forget that.....

We're going to need one/several rather competent artist/s (read: Felix) to do the artwork. Also there's the issue of being too insulting or complementary to someone's features with the artwork. For that I propose we're just insulting all around equally (I'm too tall, Wayne's comically short, etc)
Actually that reminds me, as far as we know Kaede is a one eyed one horned flying purple people eater. Kaede, are you good at self porteraits...?

LOL you guys have to send me that project xD

Yeah, we should definitely think about having one person do the art...cause having different drawing styles hurts your eyes xD

Or it could be like a couple semi-competent people drawing the same simple style that's easily replicated.

I think the latter is the better option. We aren't making the next FSN here...

@ Vroopmaster: NO you don't want to see it, its not funny because it had to work within Dr Miller Code of Conduct Standards.

Backgrounds could possibly be pictures that we find on Google? (Or ones that we take ourselves)

Or would that contrast too much with the art style xD

Tsukihime just used blue-filter on lame pictures, and if you look closely at the Higurashi amd Umineko backgrounds you can tell they're mostly just heavily filtered still-shots, so we'll just do something like that. I think only FSN used really impressive drawn backgrounds.

Utawarerumono, Eien no Aselia, and I think Key vns as well use their own impressive background vistas.

So you wanna just copy those or what?

you can also try setting up a fictional story, having each of the writers take a characters point of view. Have all the events or w/e made ahead of time, then have each writer write up the stuff for their character.

I already posted a pic of me just google my photobucket kaede110.

Also I suck at drawing & photography so i'm no help there.

Edit: if your to lazy to look for my photobucket I'll do it for you.

Lol sorry, I was concentrating on the vampire hunt. Niffty tool there.

Ok, it is now safe to say Kaede is not a purple people eater. Time to go annoy a good artist or two until one of them submits to out requests.

Dang kaede, that's so coo coo xD

Actually, if we're telling the story from different perspectives maybe some vividly different drawing styles would contribute to the characters' personalities?

Headache prone i am.... not a good idea

Good Artists on this site:
1. felix
2. that's it.

in a pinch I can make true remembrance quality art. and unless we're planning to make a SMCS edition of Eien no Aselia then felix will be no help.

Hahaha, are Fenix's standards really that high? xD

That's not what I mean, all felix likes to draw are hot chicks with swords, which most of us aren't.

Oh.
Vroopwar is a pretty hot chick. And we could give her a sword. Does that work? xD

I was thinking maybe we could use these art books to get some sprites for characters


http://www.dokuganryu.com/scans/megaten/p3/
http://www.dokuganryu.com/scans/megaten/p4/

There are tons of people to choose from, most of them look like normal people, and they are not type moon related.

Corenat Rovarnus wrote:That's not what I mean, all felix likes to draw are hot chicks with swords, which most of us aren't.

Well with corrective surgery we could fix that...but I think it might just be easier to change our line of thinking.
I see a couple options here:
1) We just take pictures of ourselves and use those. (Yeah I know nobody wants to do this, but its a option)
2) We promise Felix something to make him cooperate (money, a good spot in the VN, admin access, etc)
3) We Threaten Felix with violence and blackmail
4) We trick someone who IS a good artist to join the forum and then use options 2 and/or 3 (Replace Felix with whoever) to make them draw stuff
5) We say "screw it, Higurashi's art is awful but its still a awesome VN, who needs good art?"

@ Kaede: Thats a good idea, and the art is nice, but the problem is none of us are Japanese Teenagers. Most of the pics are girls anyways, so people will fight over the good male icons.

True forgot about the #1 rule in japanese games: There are always more women than men.

It would be easy for me but hard for you guys.

Edit: Did a count on males in the two art books. Theres about 18 1/2 (ones a reverse trap) useable for you guys and only about 1/4th are american looking.

In more than one way. Japanimation is a diametric opposite of American Comic/Cartoon culture. I've made this argument before but not on site:
In manga/vns, especially simdates(which I don't think US has many of) there are a lot more girls than guys. And they usually wear mundane things like schoolgirl uniform or something most of the time, except in fanservice and h scenes. So it appeals to bizarre fetishes as well. In comics/cartoons, there are almost ALL guys and maybe 1 or two chicks that are in stripper mode 24/7. so no one would want to be seen in public with any of them.
And everyone in the US wonders why we have so many problems with gay marriage.
Conversely you could say that Japan has issues with street groping, but that was going to happen regardless of what sort of animated content people read.

rule #2

All the women love one guy

Tohno shiki - Tsukihime

Shiro - FSN

Mikiya - Kara no kyoukai

keep that in mind

Eh thats a common trope in America too (cough James Bond cough MacGyver cough)

I thought I made it clear there will be NO ROMANCE PLOTS in this VN.

well, you didn't. so yeah. and dude, if this VN doesn't pass the bechdel test it might as well be a failed mainstream shonen.

Oh, oh good idea!

Lets compile a list of tests that our VN will have to pass >

1. Bechdel test
2. Lemon test
3. ?

FUN FUN!

1. put it through conventional tests
2. put it through the 4chan test.
3. ????
4. PROFIT!

Vroop wrote:Oh, oh good idea!

Lets compile a list of tests that our VN will have to pass >

1. Bechdel test
2. Lemon test
3. ?

FUN FUN!

1. impossable to do female to male ratio is horriable unless you plan to add a few to the VN
2. I'll have nothing to do with this...unless you do yaoi then by all means go ahead
3. ?

lolol Lemon test as in NSL xD
My bad, I didn't even know there was another one.

Don't take it personally, Nina, Vroopmaster does that to every single girl he meets. And I mean every single one. Vroopmaster is more into Indian women anyways (for some reason...).

What, no! I don't even have any idea what the Yaoi Lemon Test is.

EDIT: OK Googled it.