DEV POST 001:
Ok I'm a little over a week into my solo project for NaNoRenO2024
Feeling like I need a place to record progress, and noticed this devlog feature. I'm totally new to this community so hopefully I'm doing this right! lol.
OnOkiDxPlus is (WIP title, but let's be honest, I won't have a better idea for a name probably... ever)
In fighting games there is a term for creating pressure on a character that is getting up after getting knocked down. An attack on wake up essentially. So this title is the combination of some English and Japanese mixed with some silly fighting game suffix stuff that I just thought was funny.
Super street fighter II turbo HD remix anyone? lol
This is a visual novel set in a world where eSports superstars are the celebrities of the modern world. Famous specifically for one reason. At a certain level, these gamers began to physically manifest their fighting spirit into various animals that channel back that energy into the skills that allow them to play at the highest levels. So like uhhhh reverse Pokemon Jojo's bizarre adventure? haha I just thought of that and I'm keeping it.
Anyway our lead character Ailee is at the top of her game, but has yet to awaken her fighting spirit, and when she does.... What is it? Shenanigans ensue.
I'm starting from scratch learning RenPy. I have consumed so much youtube on this topic. Sooooo much youtube! Finally was able to cobble together a few things to create this first post. This title screen I probably spent too much time on, but I wanted to set the tone for what I was trying to make. This also seemed like a good exercise to just crack open the engine and tinker.
Oh, just for some background on myself. I am an artist in the games industry. I am not a programmer at all. I can't stress that enough haha. I'm having so much fun coming up with this story and putting it all together though. Btw! If you're making a visual novel, let's be friends! I want to meet more people in this space!!!
If you've read this far I shall attempt to reward you with moving pictures!
So what we have here is an overlay png with some text buttons. The bg is a scrolling pattern image that I rendered into a looping webm video. It worked surprisingly well. The text alignment looks kinda jacked up though. I'm trying not to spend too much time obsessing over little things so I can keep progress moving. My goal is to complete the intro scene to the game during this months challenge. Something with a clear termination point that I can build off of in the future.
Just to illustrate how humble these beginnings are. This next video is the culmination of hours and hours of youtube tutorials and Reddit posts haha. I just want to say the community around Renpy is truly fantastic. The engine is so well documented and people are really happy to share their tips and tricks. It's really nice!
This prototype is built with some random bits of art that I grabbed from the Renpy tutorials and the internet. I'm thinking maybe the characters will be in full color, and the BGs will all be monochromatic manga style panels. I think this is how I'll propel the story visually. With this, I can sequentially add little points of interest to the dialog as the player progresses. I'm not totally convinced it's going to work, but I'm going with it for now.
This is the first drawing I did to capture Ailee's fighting spirit. It's a feisty little gremlin that will be a total pain in her ass lol. Kind of Lilo and Stitch dynamic is what I'm going for. Ailee's fighting spirit (Still needs a name) is going to be a lot different from the other spirits like dragons, birds and such. Like this this thing is an actual demon haha
Finally, I've started drawing actual character sprites. There is still so much to do haha. One month is really not a lot of time. Wish me luck!!!!
Are you making a visual novel?! Would love to connect with more people doing this kind of stuff. Feel free to give a shout here! I'd love to see your projects!