Creating a Visual Novel. Looking for help.

Hello friends,

Let's start with some background story for why I'm posting here. This past summer, I was present at Otakuthon and attended all Visual Novels and Eroge and Fakku Q & A panels. This is where Jacob announced that Fakku was a great place for any starter on this kind of project, mainly for support and tips. 3 or 4 months later, the classic story, me and a friend, who both love Visual Novels, wanted to start our own. I came up with a good basic idea for the story, we get to work on creating characters quickly followed by a quick draft that detain a lot of potential for development (5800~ words). Now that we did put quite some time on this draft, I can currently sense my partner starting to get lazy about it. As this is only a simple draft, I fear for the times where we will need to type a complete scenario including lots of dialogues.

As I heard from Jacob himself that the Fakku community is the best around, here I am, looking for a new cooperator in writing . Yes, co-writers: a Main Writer and an Assistant. Why? Because two opinions are way better than only one to create a solid story.

Who do I need between both of those roles? Sadly, it's the Main Writer. My English is quite poor at times (I am a French Canadian) let alone my redacting skills.

So, if anyone seriously motivated, who's comfortable writing in english, is interested in this project, please PM me by any means. If you are interested in writing for this VN but are curious about the plot itself, then again, PM me and I'll happily let you see the draft in production. If the story interests you in most parts, (yeah, at least most parts) there is no problem on changing points for elements on which we both agree. It IS a draft after all.

Arts and music are going to be needed later, far from now. I already have a Musician/Sound Tech, but if you are interested in offering your help with Arts or Programmings, I sure won't refuse any help even if it's early. It leaves us more time for preparations. Anyone who is interested, even for a simple feedback on the current draft, feel free to ask to see the draft in progress.

Thank you for your attention and I hope we can work together on this successful project soon.

You can try here http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/index.php, probably the biggest OELVN community forum. There's a WIP/Recruitment section

I don't know if I can devote any serious time too your project, but if you pm me a copy of what you have I'll gladly give you some input on it.

Thank you for the information. I'll try posting there too, althought I feel more confident in Fakku for some reasons.

You should really go to a community where the society doesn't ask "Is this VN in english?" often.

Like what nekomimi gave you or encubed's forum.

IMO, fakku is the last place to ask for help for these kinda things. It's not wrong to ask, but the expected response is minimum.

In the past there were around 3 or 5 people stating that they're making a VN and needed help, those who asked didn't get much help and I never saw them reporting back to their announcement threads.

In my case, I can't help much due to now busy college, so...
Sorry nekomimiko, I kinda abandoned you when I offered to translate check but never started working on it. I humbly apologize.


So, I'm kinda stuck at just being a player/reader (sommelier), since I play way too much VNs in my free time.

(right now, I'm trying to get "Jinki Extend Revision" and "Stein;s Gate" done, while trying to complete Tokimeki Memorial 4 and I just finished "Shamans Sanctuary -Miko no Seiiki-" and "Ningen Debris ~Konna Jibun ni Dare ga Shita?~")

Wthout giving away too much, what is the VN's premise about?

I don't really like resume like this because it can easily lead you on a not so exact idea of the story but whatever.
Roughly said, it's the story of an otaku getting friend with a delinquant who recently learned about his passion for anime. He then teachs him about the 2d world. It evolves into a love story later with either the student council president or the deliquants little sister. It could be refered as a drama.

lol, as I said, don't mind about it. Nothing that needs apologizing for.

Not too sure if I could be a full-time writer, but I could help translate in a pinch. (also a Quebecer)

Perhaps I could fulfill some sort of editor/review role?

Well, it would indeed be a long project, but I don't intend to devote all my free time to this project myself. So I'm thinking on working on this a bit a day and keep a constant pace so we don't loose motivation by taking too long breaks.

If your english is good enough, you could be a proof reader or even help with dialogues later if you've got a good and interesting redacting style. But since I don't need that now, you could help on inputing some ideas for the story itself since it's still in work and I need opinions.

I gotta admit that I would be more at ease to be able to work in my native language as I like to communicate by Skype.

Let me know if you're interested enough. I can let you read what has been done of the draft until now.

Bah. I only communicate through forums, e-mail, and a phone.

But- sure thing. Send me a PM or something, and I'll give it a read.

Hah, this is a great idea. I was the guy giving the panels with Jacob this year and I would not mind helping you out if you need. I do use skype and can speak some (very broken) French if it helps. I'm not sure if I could devote as much time as you want but I am willing to try, and if you just want to bounce ideas off me I'm also available.

Oh if it helps I have an English Bachelors from the University of Ottawa.

Yes, I remember you very well. Are you going to animate again at the next Otakuthon?

Well At any rate, it seems I have found someone for the job, so thanks to everybody who offered their help and also to those who read the draft and gave me their opinions. I am happy that I came to ask here since it came in great help. You guys didn't let me down, I had lots of offers.

For those who would still like to help and take part to the project seriously, I can always try to figure you out a job but I can't guaranty it as I am also not exactly sure about what assistance we require. As of now, I'm supervising the project and inputing ideas to the story in work, I have two writers and a Sound Tech/ Musician. If you have any help to offer in another domain, feel free to propose yourself, I'll see what I can do. I can't refuse help for a project this long.

I wouldnt mind helping. I might have periods where I am a little busy with uni, but it sounds like an interesting idea. An editor, minor writer, or something like that sounds good. I have skype, but unfortunately no French skills whatsoever.


Quick Question - are you going to use Renpy? or some other free license program?

Don't worry about French, I can speak English well enough even over Skype.

As for the help you offered, I just found someone to be in charge of the Quality Control who will look for errors and embellish the text. Or maybe it isn't what you meant by editor? Anyways, as for the writing help, 2 writers and a minor writer, as you might call it, seems enough. I'm really sorry.

For the coding, I am not yet familiar with the different softwares or engines. Can you program well one of those? It would surely be helpful to have someone dedicated to this job.

Thank you for offering your help, I'll continue looking for a job for you if you are still interested.

I can code decently with Renpy. It's the most basic creator out there. Granted, there's more potential in others, but they're not even in English.

i really wanna make my own one.
just a short one with lots of different endings based on a theme of mine :D

If I'm not mistaken Ren'ply is compatible with Python. I have been told by a former teacher of mine, and I have learned from my own query's into programming, that it is a relativity simple language to use. There are many good tutorials around the web, and you won't really be doing anything to complicated since it's just a VN.

Tutorials:

http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers- Great resource for finding guides/how-to's.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080707093731rn_1/hetland.org/writing/instant-hacking.html- Programming explained in terms a normal human can understand.

I hope this helps.

PS: Ren'ply comes with a very handy guide to starting VN's. If you have yet to check it out I recommended you do. Also, if someone more tech savvy could back me up on thous guides that would be great. They seemed good by me, but I'm not much of a judge on that sort of thing.

Edit-I see that this thread is about 20 days old. So, I suppose this reply won't get through. Regardless, if you ever finish your project please post the results.

Meh i see you have a musician, lawl I write piano music and was looking for something to do, meh

If you ever need a proofreader or anything including writing/reading, I don't mind if you send it over to me. :D
I would draw for you if needed, but my tablet is broken. T_T