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Sept. Crazy Idea - PAID/PRIZED REQUESTS FOR CONTENT


Tay

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I. Introduction to the Project

A long time ago I announced that I was producing a Visual Novel about Visual Novels. It was called, "Tay's Big Announcement", or "September's Crazy Idea". I announced it via a short VN made with Ren'Py and a literally $0 budget (I wrote some of the music, even : )) that I wanted to create a "Welcome to Visual Novels. Here's what you need to know to jump right in and start having fun." visual novel.

This is happening, people. I've finished with the program structure, flow, and prototyping. In just a few days I will be posting the full preliminary plans on the Fuwanovel forums. I'm also proud to announce that so long as the tools reach me in the semi-immediate future, this project will be carried out on qberty's upcoming VN engine. After speaking with him, I'm very excited about the potential features his engine will bring to the project, and I'm honored to say our VN will be a near-launch title for him. I'm also excited to reveal (in the upcoming days) some interesting and aggressive publishing initiatives I plan to take with this VN.

II. Content I need and compensation I plan on providing

Now that the big-picture has been conceptualized, it's time to start generating content. I need FOUR forms of content, and the best entries in each group will receive money or prizes! Please read the following requests carefully:

  1. Top-quality reviews of the first visual novel you played. Each review must include the following items (but please do not bullet point them. These need to be organic reviews):
    A) Your reaction to the medium of Visual Novels when you were just starting out (was it strange? did it grip you in a special way? was the click-to-progress/choices/multiple routes foreign or amazing to you? etc.)
    B ) Whether you liked or didn't like your first VN and why
    C) What VNs have you played since that first VN that were similar enough (and good enough) to recommend to a newbie VNer?
    D) What was your second VN? Did you like it? Why?
    E) Top 3 favorite VNs (and any thoughts/review points you want to make about them)
    F) MINIMAL-TO-NO SPOILERS, please
  2. Artists willing to commission character sprites: a few faces and poses for a handful of characters. If you know of people who might be interested, please send them here and send me a link to some example art. I am not the richest guy in the land, so I also need estimates of commission rates from each artist.
  3. History of VNs in the West and Major VN Sites - I need help compiling a rough history (timeline) of VNs in the west. I'm looking for the initial groups, the birth of still-existent major groups, and important milestones of VN-in-the-west history. I'm also looking for people to help me compile URLs to the major VN groups (JAST, Mangagamer, TLWiki, Fuwanovel, Erogue Download, etc.)
  4. THE PLOT CONTEST: Part of this VN will be a sample story meant to "whet the whistles" of VN newcomers. The character sprites (mentioned above) will be used for this (and a few other things).

    More on this below.

Payment for each category - Only a few of the highest quality entries will be accepted in each category. Those entries which make it into the final product will get small prizes or cash rewards (via paypal only). I'm a poor college student, so don't expect a TON, but I want to ensure quality by making these paid submissions. Please note: by submitting (posting below or contacting me with an entry) any of the above content, you give me permission to potentially use it in this game.

Plot Contest!

Calling all creative people!

Beach.jpg

A sample story of undetermined length will be included in this VN product. Instead of going straight to stories I think would be fun, I will instead put forward a contest and challenge to the Fuwanovel (and anybody) community to come up with the best possible plot. The winner or winning team's idea will be used as the story. In other words:

.

.

I am extending a challenge to develop the best plot for a Visual Novel using backgrounds from

Background pack 01 (my preference), Backgorund pack 02, or backgrounds you find on the internet which will allow free use (you must supply links to each image and to terms of use).

Keeping in mind the purpose and limitations of this project, the following rules must be kept in your submissions:

  1. No sex scenes or excessive vulgarity (publishing plans make this a necessity)
  2. There must be at least 2 routes to finishing the story. 3 is preferred.
  3. The fewer characters the better (=fewer sprites=less money on commissions), though we should have at least 3 multi-sprite characters. Single or double sprite characters (supporting characters) are okay, but should be kept as few as feasable.
  4. Avoid extreme fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. This needs to be an interesting read for a broader audience.

The 3 best entries (as determined by an anonymous panel) will be chosen, maybe voted upon, and the final entry will receive a cash prize (significantly more than the other prizes awarded for other content) and can, if they wish, help write the VN itself

Please spread these requests to anybody you know who would be interested in contributing! Post below or PM me with questions.

NOTE: I will purge unhelpful, irrelevant, or [enter a similar word here] posts below! Until this project has its own forum, all submission should be made below or by PM/Email to me!

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Sorry to all who posted, but to keep this topic clean, I am consolidating previous questions and answers:

Okami55 - Can the VN story be a self aware type of comedic story or would it be preferred to be serious?

Answer - It can be whatever you want, as long as you watch your content (along the lines suggested above).

Permagate - (On Reviews) I certainly can help you on that point smile.gif I take it that rather than a detail review, you want the impression of playing the first visual novel? And no deadline?

Answer - A review is great if you'd like (kind of fits in here: "B ) Whether you liked or didn't like your first VN and why"), but I'm mainly looking for those bullet points. As for deadline: Sooner is always better, but only so far as quality isn't affected. I'm only going to take a few, top entries from this category.

EclipseZero - I have a question regarding the plot, do you need potential writers to write every single dialogue, detail etc. for it, or can we offer concepts as well, with perhaps a short summary on a possible story that could be made with said concept?

A bit confused, and if this is okay I would absolutely love to offer some concepts!

By the way, instead of a cash prize, can we ask for something physical, if yes, can that be shipped internationally(In my case, to Doha, Qatar)?

Answer - Right now we're going for the conceptual plot. So characters, beginning, middle and end, with significant plot points, twists, etc. You can spoiler tag the twists if you don't want to spoil it for future readers ; )

As for physical... depends on object and shipping costs : )

Joachim - To have someone write a whole story with at least 2 routes can possibly take a long time. It is a great idea though I believe trying to gather a team for a vn would be good as well. Like having each person write a different route and artists following closely their work. I'm sure many people would like to participate even without rewards at the end. Carrying such a project until the end is a big enough reward ! The experience you get out of it is priceless.

I think you should at least ponder it some more, because it is quite a feat to realize !

Answer - I've produced 4 visual novels with anywhere between 3 to 15 routes. I'm very aware of this undertaking.

Let me be clear: I am looking for somebody to propose the general plot of a VN and flesh it out to the point of it becoming an outline. That's what I'm looking for: an outline. Once the winner has been chosen, and depending on the interest and quality of contributions, I will build a team to finish production. Nobody but I needs to be worrying about that, yet. As for now I want all you creative people to rub your brain cells together and come up with a plot for what may be the first VN story a person ever encounters. Good luck : )

EDIT: Let me be clear (again): I will be taking the winning outline and with a team (which, if they want, may include the author of the outline!) fleshing out the outline to full narrative/dialogue. I've got extensive writing experience and have published some work in a few magazines. This'll be a quality production. : )

Edited by Tay
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  • 2 weeks later...

Recently Kygrykhon PM'd me with several very good questions about the plot contest. I thought they deserved posting here:

1. No deadline?

I agree that not having a deadline isn't ideal, but I decided that before I could announce a deadline I would need to be sure that several factors (an artist, the non-plot content of the software, the development suite and funds) were ready. Once those things have been arranged, I will establish a deadline. With that said, I will add, however, that if an entry is truly exceptional I will end the contest and move forward (again, hopefully with the author as a co-lead) with production.

2. I don't really get the part of "producing a Visual Novel about Visual Novels", is that supposed to affect the plot? If it is, I would like a further explanation regarding that concept.

This piece of software will be produced for at least the PC and android markets, with plans to simultaneously publish options for Macs, iOS devices, and linux (The software will be referred to as an 'app' in this discussion). The aim of this app is to give those who download it an introduction to Visual Novels. App content will range from explaining how Visual Novels are played to details about obtaining games to suggestions and reviews about games to play. A key part of the app will be an included Visual Novel story. The story (for which this plot contest is centered) does not have to do anything related to "What are Visual Novels?" beyond itself being a Visual Novel with at least 2 routes.

In other words: we're looking for a fun story for the purpose of exposing readers to the actual experience of reading a VN.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Is there any other prerequisite fir entering on any of the categories; such as played X amount of Visual Novels, or been playing them for X amount of time? I only ask because I am fairly new to this whole thing but I am very interested in this contest.

My other question would be about the forming of teams for the story portion. If we were to do so would the prize be split evenly, or each individual member receive a separate prize?

Outside of these question, I think that this idea sounds amazing and I definitely want to try my best to aid in it in any way I can~

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Chiyoko,

There are no requirements! I'm just looking for a great plot to use for this app. There've been several submissions so far (all by PM), and several of those have come from relative VN-newbies. As long as your brain can come up with it, it's fair game : ).

If you decide to submit a plot idea as a team, then yes -- you'll be responsible for splitting the loot as you see fit. For now it'll just be a lump sum. If you're referring to actually WRITING the visual novel once the plot has been chosen, then it's a different story and I'll post more details once the plot has been decided upon.

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