SC2VN - The Esports Visual Novel

[Vogue]

SC2VN is now available for free on Steam. The post/details below show the game in a very early stage of development. I am keeping it up to showcase how far the project has come.

 

 

SC2VN is and always will be a free game! Try our demo below.

 

 

About SC2VN

SC2VN is an interactive visual novel about a foreigner player trying to break into the StarCraft 2 progaming scene in a fictional South Korea. The novel revolves around the trials around trying to break out in Korea and the issues of leaving everything behind in order to become a progamer. 

 

We drew from events and characters that are familiar to ourselves and the player audience, though their depictions are entirely works of fiction and parody and are not meant to accurate in the slightest. This demo is SFW and contains no nudity.

 

Gameplay

 

The game is a Visual Novel, which is an interactive storytelling game where the player reads through the experience of the character and makes decisions that can affect the outcome of the game. Currently, the game is still a demo and thus more linear than traditional visual novels that have multiple endings. The demo is still a proof of concept.

 

 

 

 

Click through each scene to advance the story line, and help the main character best his opponents on the ladder by helping him make in-game decision that may decide his progaming career.

 

 

FAQ

 

Q: When is the full game going to come out?

A: We don't know. We have ideas of what a full fledged game would look like, but are still gathering feedback. We hope to reach a level of completion within 6 months.

 

Q: What about [OTHER POPULAR ESPORTS GAMES]

A: In a future version of the game, the characters may interact with progamers from other esports titles. For now, it is just purely focused on the SC2 scene. 

 

Q: Where is the dating?

A: This is still an early build, and a focus on dating and romance wasn't something meant to be conveyed. In the full game, there are plans to have routes that are not only romance based, but also career based - what team house do you want to join? What tournaments do you participate in? Who are your practice partners? This isn't really a dating sim.

 

Q: Where can we leave feedback?

A: Post in this thread. Constructive criticism is welcome.

 

About Team 11:11

SC2VN began as an idea when I make a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8COOrPHM-Q. I was contacted by Shindigs about an idea of potentially making it a reality. What seemed like a funny joke turned into a motivated project to try and create a game that could be legitimately be based on the experiences of aspiring progamers in esports, and to also make an awesome game. 

 

I feel like we've really been missing out by not sharing this project on these forums, as our main goal was to introduce Visual Novels to a new demographic, esports/Starcraft enthusiasts. The reaction so far has been pretty good. Anyway, I'm looking forward to improving with Ren'py and writing a whole lot more.

 

The team behind SC2VN:

 

Vogue: Writing and game development

 

shindigs: game development

 

hikariix: - art

[shcboomer]

Looks interesting, I'll give this a go when I have some free time.

[nohman]

That's a very novel and interesting topic for a VN. I'm really quite curious to see how this will go development wise.

 

I've downloaded the demo. I'll leave my thoughts once I get a chance to play it later.

[Silvachief]

This is certainly a topic I haven't seen in Visual Novels (or any other medium) before. I'll be very interested to see how it turns out. Good luck with your development!

[Tay]

Having produced a few visual novels before, let me express a massive "wow" for the scope of this project!  I wish you the best with it -- it's a really fun concept, and I look forward to playing it.  I'll grab the demo and give it a play in a few days.

[Darklord Rooke]

I'll definitely keep an eye on this.

[Yeah Way]

I'll definitely download this ASAP! Love the concept!

[nohman]

Just got done playing it. The music is nice and the concept and setting is appealing, even tough I know next to nothing about the SC2 or it's scene. All the scenes having to do with playing the matches will be lost on me, but I'm never-the-less interesting in playing the final product.

 

I really like the sound of all the choices and the career-focused routes. I really hope all that comes to fruition. Good luck, I hope you get your funding.

[Vogue]

We're in the middle of a stream for our battle system! We'll be live for about an hour.

http://www.twitch.tv/shindigs

[InvertMouse]

Well this is certainly a new idea XD! Sounds pretty interesting. Good luck with it .

[REtransInternational]

SC2VN is an interactive visual novel about a foreigner player trying to break into the StarCraft 2 progaming scene in a fictional South Korea.

...

The game will contain adult sequences.

[Vogue]

As we embark on the latter half of our Kickstarter, we’d like to take this opportunity to highlight another one of SC2VN’s characters and explain our naming process. Characters in SC2VN are referred to by their professional gamer handles by both their fellow characters and the game itself. You won’t see or likely even learn most characters’ first or last names. That’s something we’ve done intentionally. We aim to emphasize the Starcraft’s importance as something more than just a game that our characters play: It forms their very identity. 

 

Mach - Protagonist

 

 

You'll experience SC2VN through the eyes of Mach. At the beginning of our story, it’s clear that he's is aimless, frustrated and whiny. He’s in a place where a lot of professional unsuccessful gamers are: poor and pessimistic. It’s only with the help of a group of Code S titans that he is able to finally hit his stride and make progress in his journey to become a champion. But questions need answering. Why didn’t Mach go to college? Why did he rush off to Korea? Are the Code S players helping an unknown foreigner for more than his own benefit?

 

Our goals for Mach are much different for our goals with a character like the Rival. We want all of our roles to be interesting, well-rounded and fun to interact with. Not flat tropes printed out onto a portrayal of established professional gamers. But for Mach, we also aim to allow the player enough control to feel that they’re more than just an observer. Mach is not a silent protagonist for the player to assume the role of, yet he’s neither an autonomous character that the player simply watches the story through. Striking that balance is key to creating an effective narrative that leaves the player still in control.

 

Mach serves to address many of the game’s major themes: What it’s like to be a foreigner, what it’s like to be young and unsure, and what it’s like to be a budding professional gamer. By tackling these issues, we aim to speak to you, our audience, in a way that contemporary media doesn’t. This is a story about someone who gave up everything for a profession where most players retire before they are 25. We hope you look forward to playing SC2VN. If you haven’t already, please support our Kickstarter.

 

-Vogue

 

(PS: Mach’s name is a combination of Main Character. Clever, huh?)

[Vogue]

Fans of StarCraft will recognize that we were heavily inspired by the realities of the competitive gaming scene. There have been works of fiction that touch on a reality where competitive games have become much more mainstream, and to a degree this is true of what is beginning to happen internationally. Despite its growth, our esports scene faces a lot of uncertainty for those involved, especially for professional gamers who have given up a significant portion of their life in an attempt to make a career out of something that not everyone can accept. The conflict and struggle facing aspiring progamers today became the most interesting backdrop for our visual novel.

 

 

PC bangs in Korea play a huge role in the development of esports games, some holding weekly small tournaments for aspiring gamers to see where they stack up. While professional gamers rarely compete in amateur tournaments after they break into the big leagues, PC bangs remain an integral part of the competitive and gaming culture of South Korea. The Courage tournament used to be the gateway tournament for aspiring progamers who were looking to obtain a mandatory progaming license if they wished to compete in KeSPA (Korean eSports Assoication) sanctioned StarCraft leagues. NoNy and Ret, two well-known international StarCraft players, attempted to compete in Courage but were unable to obtain their license after being knocked out early in the tournament. In SC2VN, the PC Bang will be an integral part of meeting fellow players to practice and forming new rivalries.

 

When designing our characters, we drew inspiration from popular Korean progamers. SC2 is an international game, and players from across the world mingle at international tournaments even though language sometimes proves to be a barrier. However, some Korean players remain extremely popular overseas because of how open they are to fans and the personalities they display on stream and competition. The fun-loving, smiling, and apparent out-going nature of the real MKP was the inspiration for how we would write him in game in a way that fans would recognize, but also give our version of characters a unique flair. Other players in StarCraft 2 have earned a reputation of being cold, crude, and even hostile toward fellow players – especially after a loss. The rich amount of real world characters we could draw from also gave us inspiration to flesh our both original and familiar characters for players to interact with.

 

 

The characters in the final game are constantly undergoing redesign, but we hope to keep some of them familiar to StarCraft 2 fans for the appeal of socializing, practicing, and competing against well-known players.  

Becoming a progamer is a continual struggle in every aspect of their life. Not only do aspiring professional gamers give up their youth to go into an uncertain career, but retiring progamers also face the uncertainty of what to do next after 3-4 years of a profession that some people have never heard of. Players face rivalries, slumps, sponsorship issues, problems with teammates, and many more forms of conflict. We definitely won’t be at a loss of ideas, and SC2VN will touch aim to outline the obstacles that players face inside and outside the game.

 

Try our demo for SC2VN! If you haven’t already, please support our and try our demo on Kickstarter.

[Steve]

Ah I didn't even notice that Shindigs is involved when I first read it xD I bet he is fake claiming Developer

 

Anyways Interesting ideas, one of the stretch goals should be loli H-scenes, I bet that would attract many people

 

But yeah, I am very interested in sc2 esports (and mafia esports obviously ) so It could be interesting experience.

[zhurai]

as I just saw it on reddit (rss feeds ftw): http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/1omscm/sc2vn_is_funded_thank_you_from_the_sc2vn_team/

Congrats on becoming funded (oh. and yes, I'm zhurai on Teamliquid too, Vogue)

 

Ah I didn't even notice that Shindigs is involved when I first read it xD I bet he is fake claiming Developer

 

Anyways Interesting ideas, one of the stretch goals should be loli H-scenes, I bet that would attract many people

 

But yeah, I am very interested in sc2 esports (and mafia esports obviously ) so It could be interesting experience.

 

probably attract many people... except the main audience (SC2 ESPORTS scene)

 

 

Becoming a progamer is a continual struggle in every aspect of their life. Not only do aspiring professional gamers give up their youth to go into an uncertain career, but retiring progamers also face the uncertainty of what to do next after 3-4 years of a profession that some people have never heard of.

Did you put in the option (if you retire as a progamer) to switch to LoL?

(T_T bad joke. RIP MKP...)

[Ashadow700]

*After checking the status of the kickstarter*

 

YES! Funding goal surpassed! This is going to be a thing! =D

[Steve]

Gratz to the funding success!

 

 

 

probably attract many people... except the main audience (SC2 ESPORTS scene)

 

Most people who I know well who watch sc2 esports with me (so Luch xD) also like lolis!

The ratio is actually 100% of people xD

Whenever there is a dreamhack or gsl or the other wcs, we watch, laugh at the stupid jokes from tastosis or Liquid iNcontroL (it just sounds so weird xD Its almost like if you would say Liquid Marine King, well in that scenario people would probably still call him Liquid Marine King Prime xD [may lolis save his lost soul from LoL ]) and in the breaks we post loli images!

 

So with that information, in my world if you like sc2 esports, you also like lolis - NO EXCEPTIONS!

[InvertMouse]

I played through this on Sunday and found it to be pretty entertaining! Ended up liking the cast quite a bit. After finishing the game, I watched a documentary about Korean SC team houses, and I felt like playing some matches, too. Then I remembered that I suck .

[InvertMouse]

Yeah, I had no idea it has been around for this long! My favorite is Jett (^w^).

[LiquidShu]

Well you managed to get me to download the game as well. Honestly, I had no clue this even existed, and I quite love my eSports.

 

Me actually playing the game will probably be put on hold until after Majikoi S though 

[CeruleanGamer]

 

 

 

Click through each scene to advance the story line, and help the main character best his opponents on the ladder by helping him make in-game decision that may decide his progaming career.

 

When I saw that screenshot with what looks like Starcraft 2, I was like OMG, VISUAL NOVEL WITH REAL TIME STRATEGY GAMEPLAY? If you can pull it off somehow by expanding on this idea, it's definitely an immediate buy for me. By the way you guys got permission from Blizzard to use Starcraft in the storyline? I don't want you guys to get in trouble if you don't.

 

EDIT: OMG! I just saw that this thread has been dated 2 years ago..... HOLY THREAD RESURRECTION NECROMANCER BATMANZ!

[Vogue]

Here you go! The SC2VN FuwaReview. It'd be nice if the developer came back to discuss the game now that it's finished.

 

SUP.

 

I'm going to leave the OP untouched to show people just how rough and terrible this project was when it started. SC2VN was in a bad spot in 2013 and even 2014. What saved it from being a jokey, mediocre waifu sim was a realization that there was something interesting under all the fluff we had stacked on top of our game. All of 2015 was a brutal crunch considering I worked on SC2VN literally every single day. In the summer, this meant multiple hours staring at my script. Like, seriously, I edited the FUCK out of the script. Threw out like 20k words just to get this thing lean and have it read well. I absolutely hate filler in my VNs so I kept it to an absolute minimum, or at least tried to. Drafting is crucial to a decent VN's script. Straight up, my rough drafts are utter shit, so don't feel like you can't write anything worthwhile if you aren't happy with your story on the first pass.

 

Biggest influences on the story were Welcome to the NHK, Persona 4, Ping Pong the Animation, and the experiences my roommate had as a pro-gamer. While the script wasn't influenced by other VNs, I learned a lot about shot composition and visual humor from Steins;Gate and... Fate/Hollow Ataraxia (yes really).

 

Since I was the only writer and we had basically no budget, we had to keep our word count low to deliver a quality product. I recognize that people wanted it to be longer (it's criticism I can take as a compliment!) but it simply wasn't in scope for something we were ever going to be able to release. This was done by a very small team of people who were already employed or students full-time.

 

Shoutouts to the team.

 

If y'all have any other questions, fire away.

[Zodai]

SUP.

 

I'm going to leave the OP untouched to show people just how rough and terrible this project was when it started. SC2VN was in a terrible condition in 2013 and even 2014. What saved it from being a jokey, mediocre waifu sim was a realization that there was something interesting under all the fluff we had stacked on top of our game. All of 2015 was a brutal crunch. I worked on SC2VN literally every single day. In the summer, this meant multiple hours staring at my script. Like, seriously, I edited the FUCK out of the script. Threw out like 20k words just to get this thing lean and have it read well. I absolutely hate filler in my VNs so I kept it to an absolute minimum, or at least tried to. Drafting is crucial if you want to write a decent VN script.

 

Biggest influences on the story were Welcome to the NHK, Persona 4, Ping Pong the Animation, and the experiences my roommate had as a pro-gamer. While the script wasn't influenced at all from other VNs, I learned a lot from shot composition and visual humor from Steins;Gate and... Fate/Hollow Ataraxia (yes really).

 

Since I was the only writer and we had basically no budget, we had to keep our word count low to deliver a quality product. I recognize that people wanted it to be longer (it's criticism I can take as a compliment!) but it simply wasn't in scope for something we were ever going to be able to release. This was done by a very small team of people who were already employed or students full-time.

 

If y'all have any other questions, fire away.

 

According to the review, apparently it's quite good!  Though I haven't picked it up myself yet ^^;;

Do you have any plans to try and go into full-on writing/VN work?  The world needs more good OELVN writers out there after all xD.

[Vogue]

According to the review, apparently it's quite good!  Though I haven't picked it up myself yet ^^;;

Do you have any plans to try and go into full-on writing/VN work?  The world needs more good OELVN writers out there after all xD.

 

I'm in grad school for game dev right now. If I were to drop out, it would have to be for a promising opportunity rather than a dice roll. Our team is currently talking about how to proceed forward/what needs to happen for us to keep developing SC2VN. I have a script for another original VN I've been outlining for more than six months now, but it seems like I won't get the chance to make it since the cry for a sequel to SC2VN has been so loud.

[Vogue]

Hey~

 

Indeed the highlight of SC2VN is the writing. Its pace, specifically. So it's good to know what your influences are, and it does become apparent that other VNs aren't amongst them because they are usually so fucking bloated.

 

Now as for the criticism that is actually a compliment-- well, it's not so much a matter of length as it is a matter of structure. You chose the optimal structure and, if you wanted to make it longer with routes regarding each of the teammates' storylines, you might end up undermining the point of assembling a team in the first place. You did mention on Twitter that some issues are lingering on the eSports scene, but I'd say that's all the more reason to show them happening instead of (just) having them talk about it on that drinking game scene (which was my favourite). The issue of objectifying women, for example. I believe there was room for it to be shown, developed and resolved within the main plot, focusing on Jett, although I understand she plays many more roles in the story so it could get all confusing and perhaps cluttered.

 

So it's kind of a stalemate. I see that you chose, and achieved, to do the best possible use of the resources you had. But

it still kind of hurts whenever I picture Reva playing the shit out of SC2VN without loving to from the bottom of her heart at the end of a month.

 

Other than that, I read a review from VN Vortex disapproving of what I think made the VN so dynamic. I really like how sometimes what you can't read is just as important as what you manage to read, so I say fuck these guys. Do you have any thoughts to share on VN directing or really just VN as a medium in general?

 

There was already a lot going on with the story, and while I really wanted to go far and in-depth with all of our characters' subplots, there simply wasn't room in the script. It was painful for me to cut stuff like that from the early drafts just because it was kinda dragging the main plot. If we had 250k words and the art budget to accompany that length, each individual character's issues would have been given much more attention.

 

It's true that we pose questions that are not given explicit answers. While that may be a little unsatisfying, it leaves the reader thinking about SC2VN even after they've read it. For example, I want people to wonder why Jett is so aggressive and on-edge--why she always has her claws out. Also, answering every lingering question in certain terms gives us little room to work with if we continue with SC2VN. I personally feel like the story was self-contained and satisfying, but I'm biased as hell so any feedback to the contrary can only help me focus in on how to improve for next time.

 

And yeah, I can see the auto-skipping being annoying if someone didn't realize we had a chat-history function in the game. It's hard to convey a feature like that without an explicit instruction manual. I don't regret that we included those auto-skips though, can't make everyone happy.