Let's Create a VN!!!

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm yeah they dont seem to be around?

 

[Slayn312]

How you gonna make do without neko with the design......

 

[thecoins]

redcat was here several days ago.. and yeah, neko hasn't come back for quite long time. I can design UI if needed

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm... neko is probably busy? He did disappear before~

 

[aexiel]

I remember asking that before and someone answered that Neko always had some periods of disappearance.

 

[MadSova]

The forum where the story is is the one that's Snow's website?

 

[aexiel]

yup. yes it is. nothing much going on there though.

 

[thecoins]

at least no spam there

 

[aexiel]

I don't know about that. XD

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm... idk neko disappeared once before as far as im aware?

 

[~SnowAngel~]

[MENTION=36528]aexiel[/MENTION]; [MENTION=8332]samyeung46[/MENTION]; [MENTION=29831]thecoins[/MENTION]; [MENTION=23111]Slayn312[/MENTION]; [MENTION=34114]redcat[/MENTION]; [MENTION=25364]Decalcomania[/MENTION];
[MENTION=10379]Neko[/MENTION]; [MENTION=33148]Kasumi[/MENTION]; [MENTION=29913]Mato[/MENTION]; (sry if I missed tagging someone)

A few things I want to ask about~ There is a definite need of a maintainer, there's lots of posts or threads that could either be combined or pulled out of a thread. (content-less/spam ones especially). Unless 96neko decides to take that up, I need a willing person to do that. Just pm me if you think you have the time, and ideas about how you plan to do that.

I'm definitely going to be more involved irl with projects, groups, homework, housework and possibly membership/staff. If were to even write one sentence for the VN, I'm going to need ppl to help keep the forum clean. So whenever you post something, please make sure it's adding meaningful content. (have something to present rather than just a random thought). Please get used to making longer posts rather than short ones. x-x

I won't be online as often as I used to, but that will be good since it means I'm able to prepare much more rather than putting everything off all the time. I'd still check email all the time (so pm's will get to me).
--

Just an fyi, a progress report is meant to represent good progress. It'd be best to try and dedicate some time every week doing something to help. I know there's lots of ppl waiting on writer stuff, but do know that you can help out with that. I really don't like being pressured where everyone is waiting on me. Little things really do help and it encourages me to try harder. So please don't be idle in everything else.


ummm one more important note, we can't have just random people join the forum from A-S, especially asking to be part of the VN. There definitely needs to be some criteria for who can join, so go ahead and suggest some~ There have been people that absolutely have no business joining. Some have no intention of acknowledging the difference between here and there. Some may even not have a real purpose to join. After I get things done today, I'll say more about this~

 

[thecoins]

hmm if that so, I'd like to suggest [MENTION=41427]DvorakUser[/MENTION];

 

[~SnowAngel~]

I really don't know anything about programming, so make some criteria of what help you need in that area [MENTION=29831]thecoins[/MENTION];
A person that wants to join should be convincing enough, rather than just saying they've played with a few toys. Sooo I'd like to hear more from that person sometime.
Even if someone thinks they can/want to help, they have to be willing to cooperate well. (more about that later)
The one thing needed for sure in any given area is long-term dedication. Will the person stay? For some, I know they'd be waiting for a pm whenever they're needed.
It's also a good idea to not have more people than needed for things to work better.

 

[thecoins]

he understand python language, probably better than me. for now I'll summon [MENTION=41427]DvorakUser[/MENTION]; first

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm... random thoughts.... but can i ask why you seem to not like questions? Theyre useful enough to get ideas~

 

[~SnowAngel~]

it's not just questions in general (they're fine if you use them right XD)
but there's only so far you can go with questions. Sometimes it's better to give suggestions if you can. Only if you really don't see how something lines up would you ask. Everything doesn't need to be explained, it'll happen as we go if needed. :P
Another way to put it, don't use a question as a way to not be creative when you could. Sometimes I won't have more of an idea than you do, soooo.... ywah I'm terrible at explaining :P idk if you get what i mean x-x

it's like every question adds up to the things for me to do. Rather than working on the story, I'd have to answer a question T~T
that's especially more difficult for reasoning. If you read enough novels, you'll see that alot of times, things are just left unexplained and they're much better that way. Sometimes it's just very simple, or it would be given later.
So for the outline, we don't have to explain things within the outline. I'm not trying to tell people how to write what. That's the point of creativity. We'd just say what the main goals are and build up to them. I mean, do you even know what a paper outline is like? You don't get into the specifics at all. Once you start writing, you may or may not get more into detail.
In other words, an outline tells you key points of where you're going. Not what you'll see along the way or how to get there.
ummmmmm so what I think may help is to add plenty of bio for the characters. We'll definitely notice when to add more along the way, that's fine. We don't have to plan everything out before writing x-x. Part of a character's voice is the style of writing, which can be more difficult to keep together than making the outline etc.

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm... i like there to be reasons behind stuff even if theyre not stated... if even the writer doesnt know then guesses from the reader suddenly become somewhat more pointless... ahh well i guess the reasoning will develop as the story goes... Though i do feel that most stories have a reason behind events which differ from how we would normally view the world with our reasoning... Maybe just have it be a fact of that world for creatures which shouldnt exist~ How our dream world is going to be odd is just going to be accepted as a fact of that world but frankly i dont really like stories where they dont have a decent reason behind stuff... like how the actions of characters which defy reasoning bothers me quite a bit unless they were already set aside as a character which is to be silly or weird from the start and thus has a decent reason for their actions... Though i understand that the stupidity of enemies (like the bad guy's love to rant about their plans) makes up a big part of how the hero defeats them... doesnt mean it is actually that great of a story...

 

[~SnowAngel~]

[MENTION=8332]samyeung46[/MENTION];
It's just that you have to draw the line of how far you give an explanation. Part of the joy of reading is having mystery, and some things just aren't important enough to explain. When you explain one thing, you could go on a chain of explaining the explanations which completely kills the moment :/
When people do things, most of the time they aren't trying to think about why they did that. Sure it's okay to ask things like that sometimes, but when a writer gives a story, he's putting the reader into another world. He's not trying to be a philosopher.
We can choose to explain or not to explain things, and it's completely okay. Ask [MENTION=34114]redcat[/MENTION];to give you his demo VN. The very beginning tells a tragic story in less than 5 minutes, and he/they never had to go into specifics like how the girl's parents got together, why they were in a mess, etc. The focus was how the girl got where she was.
You'll understand more when we start writing~ but remember, outlines are just guideposts. A main idea saying where you want to go. It doesn't explain what you see along the way. And even if something doesn't make sense, it doesn't mean it won't be explained later on. (hence, part 2)

 

[Ichiko]

HUH WHAT I WANNA HELP! Btw I'm back cx

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hellos exaelia~ Hmm... What can you add to this?

But that tragic story will be assumed to have the reason behind it somewhere even if its not stated in the vn (could maybe become a side story sometime later) And it is understandable that there are bad situations in the world so people can relate there... thus providing enough not to actually have the parent's story in the vn... No one really expects to have all the answers 5 min into a story though they will want something by the end...
Hmm... yes outlines just guide...

 

[~SnowAngel~]

[MENTION=35127]Ichiko[/MENTION]; want to decide on some romantic moments? :3

--

sdifjgboauieshrgouiherg *hits face on wall 100 times*

Unless the parents are important to the story being told, it won't be explained. Like really, how many novels have you read? x-x
Some people have far less background than others, because their character is more important to the story than their background.
There's different styles of writing to choose from. The one you might be thinking of sounds like the detective style.
hmmmm one vague example I could give is from this one book I've been reading :P
this girl basically loses everything due to a fire. (family, town, home, garden, etc.) She kinda turns into this bitter person and starts doing things to express that. (puts thorns into a scarf, nails into her dad's boots, thorns into a heavy coat, all that she wears.)
The reader would already know why she does that, it's a symbolic way of describing her feelings. umm later on this was this one girl who stays around the forget shack, where ppl just party til they lose their mind. This one girl eventually decides to burn herself (it hints to that), it doesn't explain why, but it leaves it up to the reader to decide based on what they've been told.
This is just one example~ but one of the joys of reading is to somehow see your life into the story. The only way to do that is by not chasing bunny trails to explain what really doesn't matter to the overall story.

Significant things may be explained much later, but regardless of when/how/why it's explained.

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm usually i read fantasy and adventure? And i never said that the parent's story had to be in it? Its just something that people will wonder~

The hinting means that the author actually knows what happened even if he/she doesnt say~ Its not just left out without having some thought in it... I tend to take notice of oddities in stories i read and those also tend to be hints that the author drop to give the reader ideas of what happens... so they basically explain the oddities in the end~
The things included in the story will have some significance whether it adds to the ending or not... Author's choice whether to add specific events or not...

 

[DvorakUser]

Ok... So I take it snow's annoyance is largely aimed at me. The criteria idea is good I think, as it makes it easier for people like me (who have not been part of this from the very beginning) to know if they can actually help.

So here's my idea for what I can do to help: There has been the idea that we could add a minigame to the story. How about I write a game like pong or space invaders (maybe the characters go to an arcade?), and when I'm done you can decide if you want to use it or not. The reason why I wanted to join snows forum is so that I can get thecoins's "beta". I don't particularly need the beta to write a minigame, but it'll make things a lot easier on me if I can see some of the source code that has already been written. The reason for this is so that I can see how to integrate something I've written, with the code already there.

Furthermore, I think that if I do write something like this, its a separate unit to the actual VN, so if for some reason I do go inactive or something it really isn't a game breaker for the rest of you.

 

[thecoins]

well, actually the source code isn't really important since it won't be related that much with my already made "beta", as i wrote the program with screen language, which is provided by ren'py itself.
Also if you really want to join this project, please be active, because the "I do go
inactive or something it really isn't a game
breaker for the rest of you" is a nonsense for me.

 

[DvorakUser]

Ok... I do see what you mean. My real question was how to integrate renpy with background python, but I'll go read up on it. What I meant by going inactive is that if the work is segmented, losing the part that I was supposed to write isn't going to kill the whole project. I'm planing on being active though...

Anyway, maybe I should go ahead and write a minigame to prove to the project admins (and myself) that I have the skill needed to help?