Well, the previous VNDS original novel collaboration project obviously failed. Many reasons could be attributed to this. Bad timing (finals for many, Christmas) and interest loss probably being the biggies. Plus procrastination. That's always there too. Anyway, real life problems got in the way as per normal.

That's fine. Nothing wrong with that. However, I'm interested in how many people might be willing to try again? I was intrigued by CXBlackCatXD's statement that mine was the only original one he knew of. Surely there are others, either VN reader enthusiasts, original writers, fanfic writers, or Ren'Py/Blade/ONScripter knowledgeable people who have a passion to write something for VNDS but hold off for some reason?

So, how many people interested in making one/are already making one are there?

As an added bonus, I went ahead and fixed up my original one for final release:
http://www.mediafire.com/?0nqzvahdmkb

This is an example of all "I" would be expecting as far as an original VN is concerned. Short, 5 minutes is fine, only a few songs, few backgrounds, not even any character sprites. This is the most basic of VNs that I would be interested in reading, and I'm sure lots of people can pull this off in a weekend or two of coding. Of course, going above and beyond is great, but try not to bite off more than you can chew. Starting small is better for people like most of us probably are, amateurs at visual novel story writing.

So, anybody interested?

I wanted to participate in the first project, but honestly I didn't have the time to do anything except some rewriting and a few backgrounds (nothing too fancy tho). Now I have a few short stories here, but It's gunna be a pain to convert it, so it fits the VN style and since I'm not a native english speaker it's even harder.

Anyway, I got some spare time for the next days, probably weeks so I might pick it up again. If ever I get to finish what I got, I'll make sure to post it here.

Alright. This isn't going to be a contest/race/anything of that sort. I'm just interested in reading VN-fan stories, so I don't have a limit on when I'll stop accepting them.
If, in the future, there's enough regulars frequenting the site that it would warrant it, I'd be interested in trying again for a true "project", but until then you could almost say I'm just commissioning stories for free from the hidden store of possible willing-to-be participants. I want this community to have some of the life that the Ren'Py community has.

Constructive criticism has free reign here. I personally will never say "you suck" or "what the hell were you thinking." Therefore, English speakers of any level are welcome to submit. I can't read other languages unfortunately, but I'm sure you can find others to help criticize your story. I would expect all people submitting and/or criticizing to follow the same level of civility.

Also, I'm not God, however much I wish I was (hoo man, would that be awesome). Everything I've been writing in this thread feels really overbearing and selfish after I've stepped away for a while. That's NOT what this is supposed to be. I'm interested in reading neat stories made by fans of VNs and helping with the meager VN/generic coding I know, not controlling everyone.

I wish spammers would go die.....

The bigger problem are the back and foreground images... The story is easy to create and port, even the sounds... But I'm not good at drawing or whatever...

If you don't care too much about it being "the best graphics ever," then places like morgueFile.com are perfect for non-graphics-versed people. That's where I got all my backgrounds, and as long as you look hard enough, you can find stuff that fits reasonably well.
http://wiki.renai.us/wiki/Main_Page - has a large list of various free resources you can use with no or limited restrictions.

However... I do admit that foreground character sprites are a toughie to get, and are usually very important. But if you even have to put in a "placeholder" black square, I personally don't care. I've found myself reading Visual Novels for the sound/story mesh more than anything else, which is why I love Ryukishi's stuff a hell of a lot.

I'm interested in making one. Attempting to reverse engineer "Anon's Nice Day" right now. Is there a program for editing the script files that works better than Notepad?

>>7
You could try using Notepad++

>>7
Like CXBlackCatXD said, Notepad++ works really well. I made a half-ok custom language too in the old thread that makes it a little easier to work with. I made it a little better by changing the font back to default though, so that it was monospace font instead of proportional.

I wish there was editing...

>>6
Good! Now I can start writing a visual novel and use some of these on it!^^

It can be short and serious. Just because it's short doesn't mean it can't have a meaningful story. Short and sweet, surely everybody's heard of that.

If you believe character designs are fairly easy, you obviously have more experience than I do in art. I can't draw worth squat and have never taken a formal class on how to, so I don't even know where to start. The best I can do is add effects to pictures to give them that Higurashi/Umineko background vibe.

I'm perfectly willing to help construct background images if we all collaborate together on one big project. I have multiple years of experience with 3ds max and creating prop objects and the like.

Also, I think it may be a good idea if we were all to collaborate to make a homepage etc, and not make this a vnds exclusive. I know for a fact that ren'py is an easy to use script compiler. I personally think making a game solely for an esoteric ds homebrew is a bit meh.

Maybe, but it's also dead easy to code for and allows easy reading on the go, where you would need a netbook at least for ren'py.
You could also almost consider this a stepping stone to working on larger projects for a more fleshed out engine like ren'py.

They're both dead easy to code. It would definitely be much accessible to others if said game was offered in multiple formats, especially for the pc.

Also, I'm ninety percent sure you could just run a find and replace to reformat almost all of the script. Or better yet, write the script in an ambiguous format and port to said engine.

I just felt like I should comment on what was said here:
>>5

The story is hardly easy to create if you want it to be decent. I don't plan to criticize your writing when I've never personally seen it, however I'm stating this from personal experience.

Writing a story with a good and understandable plot is usually the hardest thing to do, putting it either alongside or just below the difficulty of obtaining the images and POSSIBLY the sounds(depending on what is needed).

On a slightly different topic, I've had a story planned that I think would do fairly good in the form of a DS visual novel(if it had minor changes of course). There's numerous things holding me back from doing it though, of course.

>>21
Maybe not dead easy, but for most non-artistic people (and for the short length that I'm talking about), I would think the story would be a lot easier than the backgrounds to come up with (also assuming you go for a 'normal' VN art style). Now, if we're talking closer to full-sized with multiple paths and endings, well yeah that would probably be about the same level. You would probably also not be doing the entire project alone.

>>19
Ren'Py:
$ renpy.music.play('essence_-_remembrance.ogg', loop=True, fadeout=2, fadein=2, tight=True)
VNDS:
music FS-Memories.mp3

Not to mention variable setup and stuff in renpy. Which isn't hard to get around if you like messing with code, but Ren'Py is definitely closer to what I think of in terms of "coding language." I can't help but view it as more difficult to build with than VNDS. As Tom the creator said (not me), Ren'Py is a superset of VNDS, and therefore has more features and things to mess with increasing complexity.

Oh yeah, that quote and a VNDS -> Ren'Py converter are on this page. Might be useful for some people. I haven't tried it myself, and it's an old post, so it might be outdated by now, but if anyone knows how to competently code in python they could probably fix any problems.
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6160&start=0

>>23

It would be easier to write the story than get the background images for a short one, yeah. But then again, it probably all just comes down to how good the person in question is at finding things on the internet.

Yeah, very true. With the level of "artistry" I used, I could find stuff I wanted fairly easily. But it still took quite a while to mess with all the image options/resize correctly, and find one image that I just couldn't find online.
For some reason I was having the hardest time finding a generic hospital room type image.

Basically, finding the art stuff and messing with it was the least fun part of the VN for me. Which translates to it taking longer and putting it off.

Really? You'd think that would be one of the easiest things to find.

But that said, I'm not sure of the point of this thread. Is it to try and encourage people to make their own visual novels on DS? If so, it doesn't seem to have worked too well.

I'm not sure if it's been tried before(and failed), but I'm sure you'd have more success if you managed to gather some of the few remaining members of the community to work on one of medium length together. It'd also be a lot more fun than doing it solo.

xD That was the idea I was originally trying to push out, but it ended up becoming the FVNDSCCP...well it's not exactly the idea I was originally trying to push out since I had wanted everyone to try making a short little sidepath story maybe one .scr long with set characters/personalities we came up with and then they would all be tied together as a long story.

Main point of the thread was to get some people thinking about MAKING stories instead of PORTING stories. The other points would be a general help thread and place to post your completed/beta stuff if anybody actually made anything.
If people want to collaborate on stuff, that's fine too, but it would probably overextend the ability of most of us here to focus on one thing long enough to finish. Even just for a medium project.

Well, if anyone DOES want to collaborate on a project similar to how katawa shoujo is being developed, I'll surely help.
Again, i have quite some years experience in 3ds max, and i can help with image editing and other such tasks. Everything except drawing.

>>29

I'd be okay with doing that too. As long as it contained less disabled girls and a better storyline(than the first KS act).

Awww, you don't like their story? I only played one 'route', so I can't say too much for the rest, but I liked what I did read.

If I said I liked their story I'd be lying so much it'd turn into a joke rather than a lie.

So, yeah, I really don't like their story.

Well dang... is it just the content?

Mm.. I actually liked the story. Anyway...

I'd like to say I should be able to help out with editing the writing process and giving ideas. I also have some decent skill in Photoshop.

Well, if everyone is wanting to chip in for a collaboration, that's obviously fine too, I'm not trying to say what you can and can't do. Just don't try to make something too big.

If we did decide to go through with it, making something big would be out of our reach and possibly(?) be too large for a small microSD card to handle.

As I implied before, I can write. I'm experienced with first-person text, but I'm obviously unfamiliar with 'route' writing.

well, it looks like we have a writer, an editor and a bg artist.... if we could agree on a central storyline, as well as find an artist, we'd be good to go.

So that leaves the hard stuff last xD. So now would be the time to voice out what kind of genre wanted. (Kinetic/Interactive, Romance, Drama, Action, Adventure, Badass. Personally I like the last one xD)

I'd like to do some horror or something really dark. Something that nitro+ would make.

>>38
'Badass' sounds pretty good, but I'm unfamiliar with the genre, unfortunately.

>>39
I'd have to second this suggestion just because what I'm writing now sort of fits into 'dark'(it regards a dystopian Earth). I imagine it would be better to stick to one genre than attempt to maintain two at the same time.

If we are moving along with this, I'd probably suggest we find somewhere else to gather. Here is fine, but (when/if) we start work, it'll probably be too slow.

For being spammers, it's awfully odd that most of the pictures are censored in some way.

Anyway, I can help with writing, editing, and VNDS coding. Depending on the background style we'll use I can do many simple image editing with Irfanview and GIMP. I can't really make music, but that can be found online pretty simple, as can sound effects.

>>39
>>40
Actually, it's odd that you would talk about something dark or horror-themed. I'm also just starting a story that could easily be made into a VN and fits that pretty well. It's kinda in the middle of a larger overarching story I'm making, but it could fairly easily be modified to stand alone and would also be pretty easily made multi-path.
It could also fit into some light mystery genre too, but that's not the main point of the game.
It's also a fairly easy setting too, a lodge in a small town in the Appalachians where a group of travelers have gotten snowed in. It's a little less cliche than you would think, but that's the general idea.

Anyway, if anyone cared to read it, I'd be happy to upload it somewhere. I'm sure Raidosu would be ok with his being read too if that's what you intended by mentioning your story for.

I've got a decent collection of music. Though it's mostly Touhou related....

As for a story. I'm all for a dark romance kind of deal. Oh, and it needs some yuri. I have yet to see a SFW Yuri work that actually ends well (or ends at all).

Also, Shinsei, I'd love to read your story!

if someone started up a central webpage, i think we can get started.

Well, I would love to see a yandere path that doesn't end in the protagonist's death (except Makoto, he deserved to die, yay Sekai!) since I once remember someone saying that most of their characters end up as yanderes anyways xD

>>43
I have... a lot of music. Most of it video game or anime though, and therefore probably not good to use. There's a lot of free stuff out there though, so no problems.

And I'll upload my story somewhere. Can't right now (homework, and it's not typed up, only in a little notebook I carry around with me), but I'll do it whenever I get the time. Dang ethics class.

>>43
>>46
As far as the characters go, I guess it could come out to be anything. I have 4 guys and 4 girls in mine, which could lead to any kind of ending imaginable I'd assume given the right meshing of character types.

>>46

Ruined School Days for me.

Damn you.

>>44

I'd recommend something easy to work with like an etherpad. I've worked with a team using it before and it was reasonably easy.

Hmmm, anybody willing to mess with compiling a copy of etherpad for us to use? Or are there better alternatives?

Etherpad has a free option that has few differences to the version that is paid for.

We COULD use google docs for the time being. The more important thing is to get this project up and running and determine the dev team.

It seems we have like 3 writers 0 sprite artists, 1 bg artist, 1 image editor/scripter, and 0 cg artists, and 0 menu designers. Have we decided to code this for both engines (renpy/vnds)? I really think we should, we aren't going to get much support for such an esoteric project.

Also, we NEED composers. We can't use other people's work, unless said usage is granted to us. I'd preferably only use original content, but we'll have to see how this starts panning out.Music is one of the later stages, so at least we can worry about it later.

>>50
Yeah, but it seems like with the buyout by Google that they're going to close the site down after some indeterminate amount of time, and the source code has been released to open source, so that sounds like a good program to use.

>>51
Yeah, anything to get started is fine. And I think coding it for Ren'Py at the same time would be a great idea, as long as the Ren'Py version isn't the 'main' version we focus on for our feature set and coding.

>>52
We don't NEED composers. There are plenty of places that have completely free music and sound effects that only require you to put them in the credits somewhere. You don't even need to ask the creator for a lot of it.
However, if somebody shows up that can actually compose music, that would be preferable in the long run.

Does anybody care who starts up the Google Docs? Since I have a little free time, I went ahead and created a really quick folder on it and have the share link.

Since I haven't used Google Docs much, I'm still learning, but I figure to share folder out with the other people in the group would require some kind of email and a Google account, correct?

>>55
Yes.

Alright, then how should we do this?

That's a good question. I'm unfamiliar with Google Docs, but it sounds like a thing numerous people can upload files to.

Yeah, if you have a google account, you can make it so multiple people have the ability to read and modify the same files at the same time. All I have to do is get your account names and I can allow you to read and work on the little bit of stuff I have up.

Well, I could send a link here where anybody could view what we're up to but not modify. I guess that would be fine too for starters.
Here: http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0Bz_DhzQvu9bdNTYwYmRjMjYtOTU3Ni00MDdhLTk0YTQtMWZlNWU2NGZlYjZm&hl=en

Alright, so I've made an account there, I suppose I have to paste the email I signed up with here?

I'll need to get it somehow so I can add people. That would be the quickest way I guess.

Alright, I've used a spare email to sign up.
It's goldenwiggleman@hotmail.com.

Alright, sorry it took so long to add you. L4D2 with friends was keeping me busy :)

Alright, I've got Raidosu on, not I just need everyone else. We're almost ready to start brainstorming!

>>68
*now, not not....

Gah, what happened to everyone all of the sudden?

Did everyone die..? because there hasn't been any posts other than those spam

I'm still alive, though im just getting over the stomach flu. I havent been able to make a google docs account (im on my psp). Ill try to make one tomorrowish.

Man, I was thinking everyone had gone to a better place or something.

just a question, but how do you shrink an image without losing quality?

You just have to play around with it until you get what you need. GIMP's resizing is infinitely better than MSPaint's, but you could also try putting the image into MSWord, resizing it and then prtscn (sometimes its better than image editing programs, it keeps it fairly smooth looking and crisp)...

>>83
Irfanview has a lot of really good options for resizing pictures, and it simple to use.

made a google docs account (took me long enough)
mwk3sfenix@gmail.com

add me.

Well I feel stupid. Logged in but couldn't quite figure out how Google Docs works.

>>86
Ok, you've been added!

Well, most of the people here that seemed to have an interest dropped off the face of the planet, I guess. I'm just starting finals, so I can't complain, but if anybody still wants in to mess around, go ahead.

On the side, I'm renewing my quest for small novels, like I talked about in the first two posts.

I started messing around with something using Anaon's Bad Day files as technical reference. Just don't have a whole lot of free time and have never been much at writing stories, fictional or otherwise.

Interested.

Note: How many people have we got writing stories, and what kind of target audience should I be writing/drawing for?

Drawing? Can you do that? Because I'm pretty sure most of us here can't do much image creating/editing.

Anyway, I'm always writing something, and the target audience would probably be the same as us here. Which... I'm actually not sure what that audience is. Visual Novel enthusiasts, I guess?

"audience would probably be the same as us here."

You mean single males in the 18 - 30 age range who can't seem to find themselves a girl friend? Pretty sure that about sums us all up.

"audience would probably be the same as us here."

You mean single males in the 18 - 30 age range who can't seem to find themselves a girl friend? Pretty sure that about sums us all up.

"audience would probably be the same as us here."

You mean single males in the 18 - 30 age range who can't seem to find themselves a girl friend? Pretty sure that about sums us all up.

>>95

Pretty sure most of us here(or at least the writers, at least) can THINK of something great to draw, but with terrible execution because that's not our strong point.

>>98

That's offensive, I've got a girlfriend. But, hm, yes, I understand what you're saying there.

>>99

Agreed. Although the self mocking is understandable, it's not about having a girlfriend or not.

And yes, drawing is what brought me to VN's in the first place.

Well then, that's awesome. Like Raidosu said, most of us can think of something to draw, but can't actually do it.

I made a vn with friends a couple years back for our school festival but it wasn't that hard though it took a few months to make something acceptable, cept we ran out of budgets to make jackets more copies, I did the drawing/designs. There were plenty of people around willing to draw quite well, the programming was the most challenging part!(even tho I didn't help with comp stuff)

I dunno about this working with ppl from online though, it'll be way more tough than doing it with ppl around you who you can contact easily and won't bail out later?

Indeed, that's always a major problem. That's why the person with the most drive usually has the leading position, and the ability to recruit more help when some almost inevitably drop.

But like I said, you don't have to do a huge collaboration on an epic VN. Just 1-4 people working on a 5-15 minute story would be fine for VNDS. If you want to do larger, more involved stuff, then the Ren'Py forums are probably more your place.

However, VNDS is now in my bookmarked list of "everyday viewing." Barring disaster, I am and will always be checking these forums. I don't have the drive per-say, but I'll always be around.

Awesome. My internet life just deserted me, to the point where I've lost interest in all forums, online games/activities and I now only have two people I regularly talk to.

I guess this is my new home. Hi.

>>106
Dam, you sound a lot like me...Only I can pass the time with manga, anime, or sleep xD. Either way, 'hi' I suppose.

Anime and manga sounds nice. Too bad I get obsessive and don't stop reading.

Actually it'd be nice to talk to more people on a regular basis, but...

Anyway. So is anyone up for a collaborative project or what? And if so how do we decide on what we want. The story would be absolute shit if it was written by 5 different people with different levels of English and differing opinions on plot advancement.

Hmmm, I'm up. I did already start a docs page, works all fine and all. If you want to join, it's up somewhere in the conversation. Just mail me and say who you were and I'll add you.

>>108

I haven't had experience with this, but the story would be fairly decent if it were written(rather, co-written) by 5 different people.

I don't mean that as in 'each person is assigned to a different section', but rather each person critics another, which can also be valuable learning experience for those that aren't as skilled, as well.

>>110

But you'd still need an original author. It'd be fine to pass around and such, but it'd be a bitch to coordinate and edit. Also each person would have to be trustworthy and dedicated to the ideal of the plot.

Welp, we'll see how it goes.

Well, I don't know about trustworthy, but I'm not going to suddenly have a temper tantrum and delete/modify/mess-up any work that gets done if I don't like something.
Who's jurassicplayer75?

xD Oh, so it does send a message to you. Yeah...apparently my email is jurassicplayer75 (gmail of course).

Oh, ok. I was wondering. I'll add you then.

I'm not familiar with Google docs. How do I navigate it?

Oh right. Use ultimatummaster@gmail.com

Alright, you've been added now.

-_-" This spam is really getting on my nerves. I'm tempted to have a continuously bumped thread as a spam net (beats having spam all over the threads despite being completely useless as a thread).

Maybe I'll post up the incomplete visual novel I was attempting to make for the visual novel competition thing way back when...It might be useful for someone else (I dunno if I'll ever complete it anyways xD...), though that is if anyone wants it (it's hellishly incomplete...and takes like 2 minutes to get to the end at the moment).