Visual Novel Engines

Yeah, the real problem isn't the lack of an engine, it's the lack of experienced people to pull it together.

Then what about of making it a fakku project in the long run, ppl may come and leave we can just add a piece of everyone into something decent ^^

That doesn't sound like a bad idea, just a very difficult one. Though it'd be a lot of fun if we figure out how to make it work. One idea could be to have people have exclusive characters that they write dialog for, since that'd help make the characters' personality and concept stay stable and probably more realistic too. Of course as I said earlier I'd enjoy helping with just about anything that involves writing or helping come up with concepts.

The problem with making it work is that drama and related problems are almost inevitable in the long run. For example, someone might come up with something that they're just oh so proud of, and then I might come in and call their idea crap, and at that point it doesn't matter whether I'm right or not because they will defend it, I'll persist, other people will see the discussion and pick sides, one or two people might try to calmly defuse the situation, and it will become a shitstorm that lasts forty days and forty nights.

Yup, as I said difficult. Of course that particular problem you stated could be mostly solved by actually having one or so people official in charge of said project. Besides if everyone (for given quantities of everyone) was in charge of a character, even a side character, we'd get hilarious things like the protagonist making some choice and some side character comes along and says something like "That's the dumbest plan ever." Though yeah I kinda doubt it's a very likely project to actually work out but we can dream.

From experience, I'd suggest that trying to make it a forum project is in general a bad idea. A visual novel is first and foremost a story. It's hard to write a story by committee, and even harder when nobody is willing to make a final decision on behalf of a project.

Even worse is when someone decides to put themselves in charge. Authority (on a free project, not a commercial one) generally derives from doing things, rather than being something imposed from on high.

I'd suggest that the best thing to do would be for someone to write the script for a visual novel. If the script is compelling enough, you'll be able to recruit an artist or two... and the artist will have the benefit of knowing what project he's associated with. It might not be a Fakku visual novel... but it will be a visual novel made by people on this forum, and it stands a much higher chance of getting done.

I encourage people who are interested in making VNs to try it. Start small, with a manageable project that might take a month or two to complete. Making a visual novel is not the easiest thing in the world (and it's harder than it looks, as you'll find stuff you didn't know you need to do). But when you finally release, that's a really good feeling.

(I'm speaking based on my experience as a person associated with numerous visual novel projects over the last 4 years.)

THANK YOU VERY MUCH, i was looking for it JUST now xDDDDDD
You came at a perfect moment c('~'C)
This program is great!

Oh man! I just checked this out now! You get +rep for that little gem. Even though it's only a few lines long I enjoyed it. Is it really that easy to make a game in Ren'py?

Long before FAKKU there was a time when I did useful shit. Like play games and go outside. And one of the things I had done was play with Ren'py Visual Novel engine. I made a stupidly entertaining FAKKU one when I dug up the latest version of the engine. If anyone thinks about it seriously, then send me a private message and I'll assist in the organization of the project. Hell, it's something to do. However, don't get too ambitious. I want this to be 'short and sweet' so we don't end up in development hell.

:3

Oh, and Jacob, the easy stuff is easy to pick up but the more difficult and flashy and cool stuff is well, difficult. Although it didn't take me long to pick it up. About 24 hours to totally abuse all of the available options and features that have been documented.

What about making a 'demo' of a game using people who offered their abilities? Instead of starting out with a game of the size of Fate, Tsukihime, Hourglass of summer, and others, we could make few short 'demos', helping the 'crew' to get along with each other and see how long it takes to make the game.

While I never worked in games I have some experience in helping with fanzines. We would need first character design and concepts, it makes easier to the writer/writers to make the plot, also a beta reader and fixer, to make sure that any mistakes of the writer/writers are corrected while still in the early stages.

But to have the character design and concept we would need artists to come up with the initial drawings. After the plot is made there is the need to make a storyboard to draw the backgrounds, 'scenario' characters (the people who appear in the image but doesn't affect the story at all), and other important details in the background and scenarios. Working together with the writer/writers as well other members of the staff.

A 'director', someone who would oversee the whole project and give the final 'yes' or 'no' on the story, decide that one scene should be changed or removed from the 'story/gameplay', that character 'D' needs to be more outgoing or something. A person who would make the final decision on things and manage the project.

Lastly programers, the people who will convert everything that was achieved in the game, with the director supervising the progress.

That is what I believe that would be needed to make a working group to work on games, I might be wrong, I never worked with a real game producer crew.

In short the needed staff:

Director
Writers
Beta readers
Artists 'Characters ilustration'
Artists 'Background ilustration'
Programers

In a good team you can have people who multitask the same project, it takes a bit longer; but you can totally do it. Also having a production manager really helps keep things orderly.

I think you're overcomplicating things, and also focusing on the wrong parts of the process. With an online production, actually coming up with a finished product is pretty easy - the PROBLEM is keeping all the people in line. As I see it, the process is simple: the project head comes up with a very basic framework for plot and characters, then works with a couple of writers to flesh it all out. Then the writers get to work turning a few pages worth of ideas into an enormous production, while some basic character and location info is given to the artists and they're told to get to work.

Though the project head does act as the leader of the whole thing, from this point on his main job is keeping the staff in line - if the writers, artists, and programmers aren't supervised properly, someone slacks off and the project ends up stalling for six months because one person didn't do what they were supposed to (much like Mirror-Moon's UBW release); on the other hand, if the staff feels the project lead's being too harsh on them, they throw a tantrum and quit (especially if they're not getting paid), and that not only causes problems but tends to lead to drama.

And, of course, you have to release pretty much constant progress updates if the general public knows about the project, otherwise they cause trouble.

this is awesome. Has anyone downloaded both the blade engine and Ren'py to compare? I've tryed Renpy, but It would be cool to hear impressions on the blade demo.

edit: nvm, Chuugrend is way ahead of me.

That looks really awesome, has it been released yet?

https://www.fakku.net/viewtopic.php?p=47201#47201

I'm making a visual novel, have been planning one for about a year but started about 3 months ago.

I moved that topic to the newly created "Game Development" forum.