Jump to content

A multiplayer visual novel/dating sim


Beautiful Glitch

Recommended Posts

Hi, guys! 

We're working on a project that is a multiplayer visual novel/dating sim. We liked the concept because it sounded very innovative to us. We tried to study other similar projects but we failed to find other multiplayer visual novels/dating sims. 
Since here is full of experts on the matter, we hoped we can ask you for cool references on multiplayer visual novels/dating sims. Can you tell us, please? (:

Thanks a lot! 

P.S.: the project in question is Monster Prom. Our site is http://monsterprom.pizza

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wait... Multiplayer usually introduces player competition or cooperation within the game's main workframe. Care to explain how such mechanics would would work in a visual novel? It's hard to think of anything, because vn's can be barely considered games and what little interaction it is, ammounts to nothing more than advancing the text on screen and making choices.

Where's the point?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Narcosis said:

Wait... Multiplayer usually introduces player competition or cooperation within the game's main workframe. Care to explain how such mechanics would would work in a visual novel? It's hard to think of anything, because vn's can be barely considered games and what little interaction it is, it ammounts to nothing more than advancing the text on screen and making choices.

Where's the point?

Maybe they want to introduce SWTOR-like conversation system..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi! (:

If you let me, I will copy something I said in LSF:

The mechanics are similar to The Yawhg. I won't lie: it's pretty simple, in the sense is just up to 4 chars with different stats that can be managed even by the same controller or keyboard. Each player can manage his char and the main idea is to have fun together the same way you can enjoy watching together a funny TV show. The idea is for all of you to see the absurd and crazy situations you're facing. Also, we're trying to include events with some complexity that can be altered by other players.

Finally, you can always try to pursue the same NPC, fighting for his/her love. But in best case scenario we get enough funding to add more secret endings... and I'd love to add special secret endings when 2 players fighting for the love of a same NPC doesn't necessarily ends in one succeeding and the other failing, if you know what I mean ;)

Obviously, in the end, each person is building his/her own storyline, but I want to explore as many ways as possible to make the storylines collide... clash. That you feel like if your friend wants to cooperate he/she can help you to unlock a better version of your storyline.

But in the end is more than that: as said, is the communal experience of living a crazy narrative altogether. The Yawhg's gameplay video conveys it excellently:

What do you think? (:

 

 

18 hours ago, Clephas said:

Just my opinion... but introducing multiplayer to rpgs already spawned one abomination genre (MMORPGs)... now you want to do it to VNs?  lol

I'm not fond of MMORPGs myself, but still I think it's always good to have a variety of options, mechanic-wise. 

Anyway, in our case it's a local multiplayer experience, so think more of a tabletop game night with friends than a MMORPG. I insist: probably most similar experience would be The Yawhg. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It will be very hard to implement the mechanic you are stating.

If you are gonna make the decisions of your friends change your storyline/choices-you-get, then the large no of different story-lines will become difficult to manage and unnecessarily complex. 
To curb that complexity you will most likely have to reduce the number of choices, which in turn will make the game and multiplayer part of the vn have little influence. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Narcosis said:

Wait... Multiplayer usually introduces player competition or cooperation within the game's main workframe. Care to explain how such mechanics would would work in a visual novel? It's hard to think of anything, because vn's can be barely considered games and what little interaction it is, it ammounts to nothing more than advancing the text on screen and making choices.

Where's the point?

But.. You might be able to steal another player's waifu in before he trigger the flag and watch him cry lol. NTR next gen :makina:

Joke aside, there is no point really imo ˆˆ.

As said before, vn are more digitalized books than games, you would have a lot of issues with writing a "dynamic" script for your game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Narcosis said:

Wait... Multiplayer usually introduces player competition or cooperation within the game's main workframe. Care to explain how such mechanics would would work in a visual novel? It's hard to think of anything, because vn's can be barely considered games and what little interaction it is, it ammounts to nothing more than advancing the text on screen and making choices.

Where's the point?

hey, sorry! I answered to your inquiries in one of my latest messages, while introducing how the cooperative/competitive dynamics work + the direct reference to The Yawhg

 

12 hours ago, UnlimitedMoeWorks said:

I just don't see this working. Sorry, but VNs are more like computerized books rather than actual games, so a multiplayer feature is way too impractical for just reading a story. :amane:

Yeah, I see this point. It's true that in some points Monster Prom disrupts what you usually expect of a visual novel. Sames goes with The Yawhg, which -in consequence- wasn't marketed as a visual novel. Still the experience that let the player live is basically a visual novel (a very different one). I have this interactive narrative I experience, only this time with my friends. It's similar to watching a movie or a TV show with a friend, right? I enjoy watching a TV show by myself, but the experience is somewhat different when I'm with friends and we comment what's happening. 

Let's forget the term "reading a story". Let's say "experiencing a story", because in the end that's more true to the experience of a visual novel. So, experiencing it with other people is far from impractical. Is it better? Well, that surely depends on the visual novel itself. Some stories are built in a way they're meant to be experienced in a more intimate way, so a visual novel that seeks intimacy would be weird to be played with friends. But let's say a visual novel is built on a more comedic tone, the kind of stuff you might later share in social media because you found it funny. In that case it make total sense for that kind of VN to be experienced by more than one person at a time. I'm not saying that ways is better or worse, just not impractical neither a nonsense. 

I don't know if it will work. There's a problem on marketing the product. Because it has lots of traits from the VN genre, yet it disrupts your usual VN experience so much it can be zero appealing to the usual VN market. That is no necessarily a bad thing. Lots of fields have been disrupted before and a good thing is that it opens the doors to innovation and such. 

I only have one reference of a game that mixes visual novel traits with local multiplayer mechs, which is -as said before- The Yawhg. I must say that in that case worked for sure. Not only it is a great and innovative game, but it also had pretty nice sales (around 60k owners on Steam). 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As some people have said before me, VN's are more like books, I mean, it's even in the name - Visual NOVEL. Of course, I understand why many people would think of VN's as 'games', but there really isn't much gameplay mechanics in your average VN (apart from saves but that's just more for convenience than anything else, like bookmarks). You could probably create a VN/Game hybrid, where the each player is a different character and they all read the same thing but from a different perspective and there are small actual games to play. But I just don't think an idea like this will work just as a VN. I mean, what's the difference between reading with another person and reading on your own, for example, when you're reading a book, you don't just let someone else read with you from the same book, you tell them to get their own (if you had common sense at least) and after that you just read seperately. You might discuss it later, but that's just discussion after reading. Besides, VN's are more for 'alone time' if you know what I mean. Initially, a multiplayer VN may seem like a good idea, but when you really look into what makes an enjoyable multiplayer game, the way VN's are just doesn't work with multiplayer.

Also regarding The Yawhg, it's not really multiplayer as it is just people reading the same story together, more like, gather around the campfire to hear the story kind of thing. There are choices yes, but it seems like it's just one guy picking the choices and the other people advise him on what to do. It's like picking a choice in Mass Effect and people tell you what choice to pick if your playing in the sitting room with friends. So yeah, not really multiplayer. More, people being told a story together. I wouldn't really call it a VN and as you said, it wasn't marketed as one. I'd probably call it more of an interactive experience with other people? It's a bit like those pick your own adventure text adventure games, a bit different from VN's. How is it different? I don't actually know how to describe it, but somebody else probably will know so I'd proabably just wait for them to appear. I guess it's the experience that's different I guess? And most people read VN's for the experience that it is. If you changed that experience it probably turns into a pick your own adventure game that I mentioned above.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, FinalChaos said:

It will be very hard to implement the mechanic you are stating.

If you are gonna make the decisions of your friends change your storyline/choices-you-get, then the large no of different story-lines will become difficult to manage and unnecessarily complex. 
To curb that complexity you will most likely have to reduce the number of choices, which in turn will make the game and multiplayer part of the vn have little influence. 

 

Ah, no, not at all. Once again, we go similar to our biggest inspiration, The Yawhg. 

It works a bit differently than your usual VN. I'm no expert, but I think in most VNs there are heavy long plotlines that evolve during the whole gameplay. Let's compare them to a movie, right? There's some sweet interaction that means some complexity in their bifurcations so you get a nº of different endings (and storylines inbetween). Yeah? 

Ok, in this case -let's think The Yawhg or our project, Monster Prom- the thing works more like a TV show with a more episodic structure. Think of Friends, to quote a classic we all know.

So, in The Yawhg and in our project a game session is purposedly short. 45-60 minutes. There is a common plotline which is the constant but that isn't specially heavy (prom is soon! or The Yawhg is soon!). Then you decide how you will play this time. It's up to the players. Thing is the game has some nice depth, so every time you play the experience is narratively brand new. A game session might mean around 30-40 events to happen. But there truly are a whole lot more events (not sure in The Yawhg, but we're aiming for 300 evens, so we can assure 7-12h of gameplay before you start encountering repeated events). Even like that, each event has 2 options and each option has 2 outcomes (depending on your stats). That mean that if you play several game sessions you will start encountering some repeated events, but you still can play it differently. 

The key is this modularity in smaller events. There is no 5-10h huge plotline. We have micro-events. Sometimes they are isolated (think of a TV show gag) and sometimes some of them mix together to create plotlines (think of the plotline of a TV episode). Some of this plotlines occur in a way where more than one player affect it through 4-5 events. 

This obviously creates a WIDELY different experience. As said before, this kind of game is more like a tabletop game, meant (normally) to be played by several players in shorter game sessions where part of the fun lays on replayability. It creates two kinds of player: the casual one that experiences it once or twice and the regular one, that plays it more times. Let's talk of The Yawhg: I own the game. I've played 5-6 game sessions, adding up to around 5h. I've played with different friends. Some of them have played just one session, so to them is like this light experience they had and enjoyed. I, instead, repeated it to understand the game and the storyline better. More game sessions translated into discovering new layers of the game. On Monster Prom the idea is similar, I want people that plays for 45-60' minutes to have a fun time with a conclusion; but I want some people to engage with the chars so they are like "oh, it was fun, I'd love to play again and discover new plotlines and situations, to get to know better these characters on this monster school". Similar to a TV episodic show again: you can watch a Friends episode and enjoy it and you can really like the show and watch more and more episodes because you really want to know more about a specific char, such as Joey or Monica. 

(: 

 

7 hours ago, Ningen said:

I play VNs because I hate real people. :makina:

Why woudl I play a game where I have to interact with those people. :vinty:

That's totally legit and there's absolutely no possible way of defending a multiplayer VN against that specific issue :c

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You keep mentioning the Yawgh but I would argue it's not really a Visual Novel. It's more a Choose Your Own Adventure game (well isn't that a mouthful) which is not really the same thing. It's also really short and does not have much in the terms of dialogue. Your comparison with Visual Novels and watching a TV-show is really why I can't see this idea working. It's the same like making a multiplayer movie, or a multiplayer book.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Tweek91330 said:

But.. You might be able to steal another player's waifu in before he trigger the flag and watch him cry lol. NTR next gen :makina:

Joke aside, there is no point really imo ˆˆ.

As said before, vn are more digitalized books than games, you would have a lot of issues with writing a "dynamic" script for your game.

Yup, totally. On our project there is this plotline, for instance, where 2 players might interact to just fuck up with a 3rd player love interest. A sad businessman is looking for a way of making money and you might suggest identity theft as one of the options. If you do this successfuly (all options might succeed or fail depending on your stats) later in the game session a love interest (Liam) comes to you to tell you that apparently someone has stolen his identity. You can identify the businessman (who's possing as Liam) or call the police because you allegedly don't know this guy (Liam) and you think he's the impostor and the identity theft while the businessman is the actual Liam. If you do so succesfully, you erase Liam of the pool of chars to ask to Prom, since he will be in jail. If so, anyone that was pursuing Liam will have his/her progress thwarted. 

this bein said, it's hard to reply to the "there's no point" argument. What means that there is no point? You mean like the experience (obviously different than regular VNs) provided by a game like this won't be of your likes. This is totally legit and it makes me think that even if a game like this has a lot of traits from VNs, it might appeal to a whole new audience. I agree. But I won't label that as "there is no point", honestly. But damn, that's just linguistics.

About the dev side, I totally understand the source of your worries about complexity and viability to build a dynamic script. I totally addresses that in my last message. I hope you take a look! (:

The discussion is being pretty interesting to me! Thanks for your inputs

 

Sorry! I'm new here and I just discovered the multiquote option. From now on I will address the comments in a same comment to avoid lots of comments! 

 

5 hours ago, Pythagoras said:

As some people have said before me, VN's are more like books, I mean, it's even in the name - Visual NOVEL. Of course, I understand why many people would think of VN's as 'games', but there really isn't much gameplay mechanics in your average VN (apart from saves but that's just more for convenience than anything else, like bookmarks). You could probably create a VN/Game hybrid, where the each player is a different character and they all read the same thing but from a different perspective and there are small actual games to play. But I just don't think an idea like this will work just as a VN. I mean, what's the difference between reading with another person and reading on your own, for example, when you're reading a book, you don't just let someone else read with you from the same book, you tell them to get their own (if you had common sense at least) and after that you just read seperately. You might discuss it later, but that's just discussion after reading. Besides, VN's are more for 'alone time' if you know what I mean. Initially, a multiplayer VN may seem like a good idea, but when you really look into what makes an enjoyable multiplayer game, the way VN's are just doesn't work with multiplayer.

Also regarding The Yawhg, it's not really multiplayer as it is just people reading the same story together, more like, gather around the campfire to hear the story kind of thing. There are choices yes, but it seems like it's just one guy picking the choices and the other people advise him on what to do. It's like picking a choice in Mass Effect and people tell you what choice to pick if your playing in the sitting room with friends. So yeah, not really multiplayer. More, people being told a story together. I wouldn't really call it a VN and as you said, it wasn't marketed as one. I'd probably call it more of an interactive experience with other people?

 

Hi!

Yeah, I've addressed the "but visual novels are like reading a book" in 2 of my responses. The one to FinalChaos and to UnlimitedMoeWorks. 

I get the "VNs are more for 'alone time'", but once again, that goes for most of VNs. This means a local multiplayer VN would provide a much different experience which will -yeah- not please to a good % of VN regular players, but in the end I'm not sur of that being a deal-breaker. I mean, let's say I create this tasty burger which is actually sweet due to its ingredients. It's good but it's sweet, so some people say "I don't see the point to a sweet burger, because you don't eat burgers as a dessert". Yeah, that's true, but still this burger has a lot of traits of a burger, so it can be called a burger and a logical answer to that reply is "ok... just you eat this one as a dessert". I mean, "most visual novels are for alone time" makes me answer "right, but this one is not meant for that". It can or cannot work... it'll depend on the quality of the product. 

There are some interesting issues:

> It can be called burger/VN? At what point a key difference (sweetness or a change on the whole game experience) makes necessary to address the product under other tag. It's hard, because if the product is rare enough not to have a tag of its own, most common thing is to say "it's like /more common tag/ but with these key differences". I mean, maybe in the future there are so many kind of sweet burgers that they have their own tag. But as for now you'd say "it's a burger, but it's sweet". 

> Obviously this can mean that the product addresses to a whole new audience. Maybe burger lovers don't like this burger because for them the point of good burgers are their savory taste. Maybe this becomes a product renowned in the world of dessert lovers or brunch lovers or whatnot. This is an interesting issue I'm studying here (the main goal of the post was to get more multiplayer VNs examples... but then this discussion appeared and I find it quite interesting). 

 

Ah, and The Yawhg is CLEARLY a multiplayer game since the interactions are divided in different characters that -even if there's one person inputing the choices- make different choices that are supposed to be made by different people. Let's picture a Trivia videogame where 2 teams compete answering questions with 4 possible answers. A team is handled a question then the other team is handled another question. Everything can be controlled by the same controller or mouse, since the participation is not simultaneous. So technically, even if I call the shots on my team and you in your team, just one person can input our different decisions with the same controller. It's the same case and it's also a clear local multiplayer game example. 

Also, an interactive experience with a set of rules and goals is the very definition of game...

In The Yawhg there are many possible endings (+50) and they are divided into defeat, victory and a middleground. And getting one or the other heavily depends on players' choices. So it is a story that is told to everyone (same as for VNs or almost any videogame at all), but it is also a game where player might input their own choices in order to affect the outcome. 

Finally there's the issue of calling it a VN or not. That one is trickier and I addressed it before with the burger simile. The Yawhg is further from a VN, but this is an interesting issue to me because our project is closer to VNs, so it's actually a more ambiguous case, from my PoV. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, UnlimitedMoeWorks said:

Look, I get what you're trying to get at with this multiplayer experience thing but, at this point, it looks like you're starting to get defensive about this because people are telling you how really impractical it is. First you need to calm down because coming up with overly long replies trying to sound as detailed as possible will not convince people that this is a good idea. It obviously has flaws. I think you should read and review your own works just to get a new perspective on them, and see for yourself if this is what you really want.

Oh, not at all. I just see a common denominator on the critiques and I want to address it. I'm writing detailed replies because I really want to engage in what seems to be an interesting discussion. So quite the opposite, someone pointing out the flaws in my arguments will be the best case scenario for me. 

My goal is far from convincing you a game like this will be a game you'll like, since it's clear you search for a different experience. I saw that. But I like the discussion because it gives me very interesting insights. 

A written format like this fails to convey tone, so please excuse me if my intensity and interest in the matter could have been confused with being defensive. I just have brought extensive arguments so I might get more accurate and extensive critiques that help me get better understanding of these insights. 

Thanks! 

 

4 hours ago, MercyZombie said:

You keep mentioning the Yawgh but I would argue it's not really a Visual Novel. It's more a Choose Your Own Adventure game (well isn't that a mouthful) which is not really the same thing. It's also really short and does not have much in the terms of dialogue. Your comparison with Visual Novels and watching a TV-show is really why I can't see this idea working. It's the same like making a multiplayer movie, or a multiplayer book.

Yeah, sorry. That's true. I mention The Yawhg because it's the only reference I have (in the end, the initial goal of this post was looking for more references). So it isn't always the best reference to quote. 

I agree on being hesitant about The Yawhg and the VN tag. To me the VN tag is more important because our project is closer to it (but still with many different traits). We're heavy on dialogues, for instance. 

About lenght, I agree with you. My thoughts here are if being short makes a game not a VN or it makes it a different kind of VN. 

Well, it was the opposite: VNs an watching a movie or reading a book and then this as a multiplayer TV show's episode or a multiplayer short (the lenght is an important thing). It sounds weird, still The Yawhg is a successful example of it. Can I ask why that sounds wrong to you? Not trying to convince you otherwise, but wanting to understand your PoV to get a better undestanding on the whole matter. 

Thanks! (: 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, what i mean by "there is no point" is that i play vn when i have some time to spare, it's a time consumming hobby, and i think most people have different play time.

For example, i could play a lot for some time (well, not that much, but thay's mostly because work won't let me play as much as i want to), and then not play at all for 3 weeks..

To develop what i consider a good story you need at least some hours of reading material, which would create a difference between people that have time and those that don't.

The concept is fun sure, it even reming me of a discussion i had with a fellow vn reader (the only one i know irl lol) where we just imagine the ability of entering a char route before the other lol.

For example, in a video game this fact is not necessary a problem, because there is more audience and you can almost find someone to play with at the same level. What would you do if players can't find people actually far enough to interact with their story while keep the thing interesting ?

It's not impossible, just really hard to implement and as you said before, really not for all people (considering VNs are a pretty niche market in the first place, you know what i mean :makina:).

 

In short, personally i'd prefer playing a classic eroge than this one, simply for the fact that i like to read at my own pace.

 

I mean no offence of course, it still would be fun to see this project of yours see the light of the day, i may even try it lol. I just don't think it has a lot of chance of being what you want it to be when/if you release it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It sounds like what OP has in mind is like a hybrid of tabletop roleplaying and choose-your-own-adventure with a focus on romantic interactions.  It's an interesting idea, and I think there's a market for it.  Whether you want to call it a "visual novel" or not is purely semantic.  The concept is what matters, not what it's called.

Ironically enough, I've actually done something similar to this, though it was more of an interactive story--a fictional world I dynamically created for a friend--than a finished product to be distributed and experienced by others.  Basically tabletop roleplaying minus the gameplay mechanics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have you seen this?

https://vndb.org/v8145

Quote

Sentou Gakuen is the very first Online Visual Novel that is combined with MMORPG elements.

In Sentou Gakuen, players are free to choose their own path. They can just study and work, do bad things at school, protect the weak, or exploit their weakness. Spend money to help friends or horde it for themselves. Form a club and become the most respected group of students in the school. Declare war on an enemy, or an innocent bystander.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...