I think I know how to start an Os-tan related Visual Novel

[galiant609]

So I was searching for a free visual novel game until I stumbled on this website:

http://www.bladeengine.com/

It's a FREE, free as in no payment, Visual Novel Engine. I haven't tried it yet but it seems that I can get it to work and maybe WE could start something that will further propagate the os-tans!

YAY!!! THIS IS TOO GOD TO BE TRUE!! ;047  ;047  ;047  ;047

When I'm done with getting familiar with it's environment, I'll check back at this forum to seek assistance on the Story, Graphics, Sounds and everything.

WE HAVE TO DO THIS!!! AND WE CAN DO THIS!!!

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[IanDanKilmaster]

I see your free VN engine and raise you a free and open-source VN, Ren'Py.  More importantly, it's not a free version - it's a completely free (as in beer and speech) full engine.  It even comes with a tutorial.

If you want to go ahead and use the Blade Engine that's fine too, I just thought you might be interested in alternatives as well.

[Smokey]

hmm, VNs sound a bit easier than a full on -eeh- game...
This might work...

Hell it should be fairly easy to program aswell, it could be made out of a string of IF-THEN-ELSE queries and some way for the program to load images and text...

Damn, i should get Delphi back on my PC, i think i can program it with that aswell...

[icerain]

I seem to like Ren'Py better. You can make all kinds of games with it, like Katawa Shoujo which is a very long VN (even Act 1 is long). Contrast that with Elven Relations. ^^

[Kiso]

Well I'll be... those DO exist. I actually though that those were only developed by the companies that publish them. But I have now been proven otherwise. At least there is someone out there that wants to make life easier on beginning artists.

I guess I can agree, this thing could actually help spread the OS-tan word... given that someone spends time into doing such thing as a visual novel, which isn't really one easy task... unless you want to do some weak H game. But then again, even those are challenging... when it comes to graphical terms that is.

Wonder if I'll see one of these with a really really awesomely cool story related to OS-tans.

[Chocofreak13]

cool......i should download......

[waxattack]

Has anyone started anything with this yet?

[Aurora Borealis]

Not as far as I know.

I'd like to make a non-H OS-tan visual novel. I could do the graphics for one but I currently can't come up with a storyline. I'd like to make a game that has lots of various OS-tans in it .

[Alex S]

Well, I currently have plans to make a graphical OS-tan game that would be based in space. Prototype sprites are in my gallery.

Unfortunately, I currently have neither the know-how nor the artistic talent at this point to begin any serious work on it.

This is getting off-topic so I'll finish my post saying that a non-H visual novel would be awesome, not that an H visual novel wouldn't also be welcome.

[Kiso]

Oh... let's stick with the non-H stuff... H-visual novels are rather overrrated... even though they have much better stories than the uberly craptastic H-doujins.

[MajesticS]

Storyline huh... Well, it's rather easy to come up with... And to write as well, if free time allows. Well, if we would use standard set of character types and genre would be shounen (erm - for 12 - 18 age border), then it would be something like this:

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World: let's assume that the computer science history we know have never taken place. Instead of IBM PC, powerful processor and AI systems were created through some kind of technological breakthrough. A personal computer have became a device which uses not GUI for user interface, but a virtual personality - which will be OS-tan, of course. Operation systems were released as packages of core software and personality matrix which was projected upon the real life through some kind of VR device. Any user who wears this device may see and interact with this personality which could be programmed to look or to behave as user wants... Let's call this term "Reality-augmenting OS with Personality Matrix". Well, that's how.

Story plot: let's say that there was a teen boy (Protagonist) who lived on border of big megalopolis. He was fascinated by computing technology, but had neither money nor knowledge to afford a personality OS. Then someday his father who was a programmist gets promoted in his company; he decides to relocate his family from city frontier to its center, where the heart of modern computer technology lies.

The family was offered to rent a small house in the city center, not so far from the work and school. Next day after the family moved in, on his way home from the school the Protagonist meets the house owner who is about to on vacation somewhere faraway from here; he presents the Protagonist with "that scrapheap of computer" (just to get rid of it, aha). (Let's also assume that this old man leaves Dr. Norton behind - surpriiise ^_^)

Pooooor boy ^_^ He never knew what he was getting into, aha. When he activated the PC, it never worked - it was not used too much time. But when the Protagonist turns around, he sees an unconscious girl lying in his room ^_^ After dealing with his heart attack, he realises that she's a Personality Matrix of his computer's OS, but somehow she's damaged and is unable to wake up. (She's ME of course; who else would lie on the floor with the look like she was processed through shredder ^_^) The boy takes off to the computer store to find something out; there he meets one of his new classmates who's the owner of XP Pro. He helps the Protagonist to restore ME - only to find that she's totally useless ^_^

Being oblivious to the ways of computer world, he finds out shortly that OS Personalities are used not only as interfaces, but as fighters as well. They engage in fights where they take "damage" that corrupts data and lowers their cyberspace integrity - these fights are representations of hacking. The Protagonist meets new friends: classmate with XP, a young system administrator with 2k, old-style girl with 95 and two little sisters who enjoy the company of 98 and 98SE. He meets his "enemies": teens who own Macintosh-type OSs, or mysterious teen coder with Linux who just hates "non-OpenSource Users", and must fight with them.

But that's the first trouble. The second is that there are serious hackers who user Personality OSs for no good. They are stealing data to sell or blackmail, they hack private servers and steal money, etc. More than that, being real ("old-school") hackers, they are virtually omnipotent - they could write programs and corrupt them, so they're like magicians in digital world. They mutilate OS Personality: they use identical military-clothed systems whose individuality is destroyed. Let's say that there is a hacker gang that terrorizes the city; they use Personality OSs to steal money, and they plan something even bigger. In one of their operations, they crossed the Protagonist's road by robbing his family and he wants both revenge and satisfaction. His club of Windows users must unite with Macintosh and Unix users to obliterate this city's hacker underground...

As for romatic storyline... Well, it's simple: Protagonist falls in love with his OS. Which is not right, of course: she's a program and is digital, but he's made of flesh. Let's assume that there is a human girl who's totally not into computers who falls in love with Protagonist - nice love triangle here, ne?

The psychological meaning behind all this is, for the first, the question of humanity. Who's better human: operating system who learns how to feel towards her Master, or human being who forces his OS to steal? Does human form guarantee human mind and heart, or program will always be a program? Is it right to respect and feel affected to your OS, or you should think of her as of a tool? Another question is personal growth. The Protagonist should grow to learn the harsh world of adults who use these cute OSs to injure themselves, and to learn that a human must stay with humans, but to respect any sentient life, even if it's just a program. OSs should learn how to feel and how to deal with it, and how to remain helpful programs and good friends even if you fall in love with your Master - since he exists in basic reality and your homeworld is cyberspace.

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Well, that's it. We could write a storyline for renai game; it will be played like "Tsukihime" (Type-Moon) - text over background, by choosing Protagonist's actions and replies in necessary "turning points" of the plot.

Please forgive me for my spelling errors; English is not my native language.

[Chocofreak13]

AWE-SOM-E O_____O DO WANT (to help)

[Kiso]

Wow... that's impressive indeed. You have actually gotten the basic storyline set. Now, another thing that would be needed is expansion... as well as someone to do the artwork. I would help... but I am as of now buried in stuff to do from college... also... am not really good at keeping consistency.

[MajesticS]

Well, if we're actually going to do something, then we need a plan, aren't we? Here it is:

1. Create unbranching story block-scheme: i.e. where it begins and essential story scenes, and work out endings, since genre dictates that there must not be a single ending,
2. Work out key points where Protagonist may decide to act differently and create branches and correlations between them, i.e. detailed story scheme,
3. Write complete text following this scheme - i.e. all the replics and so on,
4. Decide on graphics - draw backgrounds and characters,
5. Compile this all into Ren'Py engine (and learn Python... After Java and PHP it would be easy, but brace yourself, S., brace yourself - Katsu ^_^)

I can handle story schemes and text (not all, of course - I'm somewhat lame with romantic stories), and create character sheets and plain sketches (I cannot create professional-level colored images - or at least they appear to be not professional enough -_-) Right now my examinations are coming and I've got no much time, but when Education System will spare me of gruesome death from brain explosion somewhere in July, I may actually work on it...

[IanDanKilmaster]

Well, we have had one artist in particular who expressed interest in making art for a game... don't know how she feels about VNs, though.  If we could get her on board it would be great because she's a very talented artist.  Another possible problem is that she doesn't have a reliable internet connection, in fact, it's been awhile since we've seen her around these parts.  Of course, there are other great artists here who could possibly contribute, but I don't recall any others addressing any interest in doing game stuff.  I think the main thing is that it's great someone is finally contributing a story because that's been a problem for a lot of projects around here.  Lack of hypomanic episodes has been hindering my creativity (I'm surprised I got that sketch done), but I'll help how I can.

AFAIK, the amount of coding knowledge needed to operate Ren'Py is very rudimentary (after all, it was designed with artists in mind, not coders), but obviously learning Python wouldn't hurt.