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Lucid9 (available for free on Steam)


Diamon

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Last updated : January 20th 2016

 

 

NOW AVAILABLE ON STEAM FOR FREE!

 

 

 

 

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Staff list

Active members :

Diamonit : Project lead, Plot supervisor, Character design

 

Luna Chai : Writer (Common route), Graphics, GUI

DavidA. : Writer (Heroine route)

Clestae : Writer (Heroine route), Beta, editor

AnotherPlayer : Writer (Heroine route)

Suna : Writer (Heroine route)

 

Mac : Character design, PR

Sean : Side writer, Character design, PR

 

Reika : Editor

Rains : Proof-reader

 

Dizzyworld2 : Lead artist, Female Sprites, CGs

Elphaze: Male sprites, CGs

Yuuko : Backgrounds, GUI

 

Breeze : Composer

Ziassan : Composer

UltraKitsune : Composer, SFX

Yunyunsae : Composer

 

Zander : SFX

 

Zuka : GUI programmer

Jbonesy : Narrative scripting programmer

Ian : Narrative scripting progralmmer

 

 

Former members / Inactive members :

 

Blue wolfie : Composer , Arranger

danpc :  Project Lead, programmer, composer, idea bouncer

Hooves : Character design, idea boucer

 

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We, at Fallen Snow Studios, are all very motivated and excited to take part in this great adventure that is the creation of a Visual Novel, and we hope we'll be able to create something you will enjoy reading! Thanks for your time reading this, and don't hesitate to reply to this thread if you have any question, or if you just want to show your support! It means a lot to us!
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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for your support! :)

 

So far, here is our progress :

 

- We completed our drafts up to day 4, and we are currently writing day 5 content (which is supposed to be a day rich in events). The progress for day 5 is about 20% at the moment.
- We finally have a final design for the MC’s (Yama) art, but the drawing still needs some work before being able of posting it here! The other male characters are also getting drawings slowly but surely.
- No progress so far for the Heroines art since our main artist is busy cramming at the moment.
- One of our editor is working on a grammar/style reference sheet that editors and writers will be able to use in order to limit discrepancy. Globally, almost no complete editing has been done yet however.
- Our programmer proposed some ideas in order to enhance interactivity between the reader and the VN. More details once the ideas are finalized.
- We’re starting to draw some backgrounds for the VN as well. We have drafts for the classroom and Yama’s apartment for the moment.

 

And we're still looking for someone to help with the advertisement in our project, involving taking care of our facebook / twitter / blog / posts on forums...

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Another "Katawa Shoujo", eh? I can only wish you luck and hope you will be as determined within the next two years as much as you are now. 95% of such projects end it's life abruptly within the first few months at most, without reaching anywhere beyond a game vision with a bunch of mockups.

This looks like an idea for a very average visual novel at most, to be honest; can't you come up with something more interesting and original, rather than going through a road of least resistance and copypasting a trite stencil of an average japanese moege? You all propably read a bunch of them already, you should know what works and what doesn't, especially over here. The premise itself seems trivial and completely silly, doesn't make any logical sense either; don't create your story around the characters. Reality doesn't work like that and there's a ton of reasons why japanese high school settings make boring and trivial stories, barely anyone would be interested with. You propably would like your work to reach a wider audience than just a bunch of weeaboos from these forums, wouldn't you?

Naked flash is a really bad choice for a visual novel type of software; it is ridiculously slow, inneficient and you will have to write a whole working vn engine from scratch; despite vn's looking "easy", they aren't simple to program. There are plenty of reasons why Ren'Py and GameMaker would make a lot better choices for an engine. No one really likes reading vn's in a browser either, so it won't be any sort of a solid point to cling onto with flash. Ren'Py is incredibly easy to pick and does not need any special knowledge for basic visual novel mechanics. You also have technical support from the creator himself, all you have to do is hop onto the Ren'Py IRC and talk with Pytom, he's very helpful. You will see how bad flash is, once you will write a substructure and come into first technical issues; even if you will manage to solve them, it won't get any easier afterwards.

Be sure to organise yourselves well and try to treat this project as something more than just a spare time hobby and completely amateur production with low quality value; in a longer run, it may pay off and even if you won't finish it, you might gain some experience or knowledge. This might get really useful, if you plan to get into game design in your future.

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Another "Katawa Shoujo", eh? I can only wish you luck and hope you will be as teremined within the next two years as much as you are now. 95% of such projects end it's life abruptly within the first few months at most, without reaching anywhere beyond a game vision with a bunch of mockups.

This looks like an idea for a very average visual novel at most, to be honest; can't you come up with something more interesting and original, rather than going through a road of least resistance and copypasting a trite stencil of an average japanese moege? You all propably read a bunch of them already, you should know what works and what doesn't, especially over here. The premise itself seems trivial and completely silly, doesn't make any logical sense either; don't create your story around the characters. Reality doesn't work like that and there's a ton of reasons why japanese high school settings make boring and trivial stories, barely anyone would be interested with. You propably would like your work to reach a wider audience than just a bunch of weeaboos from these forums, wouldn't you?

Naked flash is a really bad choice for a visual novel type of software; it is ridiculously slow, inneficient and you will have to write a whole working vn engine from scratch; despite vn's looking "easy", they aren't simple to program. There are plenty of reasons why Ren'Py and GameMaker would make a lot better choices for an engine. No one really likes reading vn's in a browser either, so it won't be any sort of a solid point to cling onto with flash. Ren'Py is incredibly easy to pick and does not need any special knowledge for basic visual novel mechanics. You also have technical support from the creator himself, all you have to do is hop onto the Ren'Py IRC and talk with Pytom, he's very helpful. You will see how bad flash is, once you will write a substructure and come into first technical issues; even if you will manage to solve them, it won't get any easier afterwards.

Be sure to organise yourselves well and try to treat this project as something more than just a spare time hobby and completely amateur production with low quality value; in a longer run, it may pay off and even if you won't finish it, you might gain some experience or knowledge. This might get really useful, if you plan to get into game design in your future.

Thanks for the constructive answer!

 

Well, in reply to some of your concerns :

- I believe the synopsis isn't representative enough of the overall tone of our VN, and our story isn't centered around characters, but more around a general plot (it is mainly a mystery after all), but it was kinda hard to foreshadow this without major spoilers to the story. The school setting only takes place at the beginning, and I believe we won't waste too much time on it. The story and the routes will probably get darker (although I admit it's not necessarily a token of quality), and we have some surprises in store for the reader, so I hope we will do something at least better and more interesting than the average japanese moege.

 

- Actually, we are using Adobe Air, so you won't have to play the VN in a browser. Also, I'm no specialist in the matter, but out programmer is mainly a programmer for flash games, so he's probably used to it enough to be able to create a solid engine. Also, I believe some of our features we want to include might not be doable on ren'py (while probably doable on flash), but I might be wrong on this. But, if our programmer realizes it's too hard to use flash to make our game, he said he will switch to Ren'py.

 

- I'm trying my best to organize the project and make everything go smoothly, I believe we progressed quite well since we started, and we have precise deadlines and goals in mind. Our whole team is really motivated (at least for now), and we are really aiming to release a good quality VN (by amateur standards I mean). Unless we have a major problem with one of our key member (accident, disease or stuff like that), we'll make sure to finish what we started, and release a game.

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and our story isn't centered around characters, but more around a general plot (it is mainly a mystery after all), but it was kinda hard to foreshadow this without major spoilers to the story. The school setting only takes place at the beginning, and I believe we won't waste too much time on it. The story and the routes will probably get darker (although I admit it's not necessarily a token of quality), and we have some surprises in store for the reader, so I hope we will do something at least better and more interesting than the average japanese moege.

 

Shame, I like stories centred around the characters. Terry Pratchett, for example, just chucks interesting characters into random scenarios and then runs with it, and I love his writing. George Martin is very plot focused and I don't enjoy it as much. I'll be interested to see where your story goes. I wouldn't worry about being unoriginal btw, what matters is the execution not what ideas you have. If you deliver a polished VN with engaging characters, nobody will care if your character is, for example, a poor boy on a farm with a great destiny.

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Shame, I like stories centred around the characters. Terry Pratchett, for example, just chucks interesting characters into random scenarios and then runs with it, and I love his writing. George Martin is very plot focused and I don't enjoy it as much. I'll be interested to see where your story goes. I wouldn't worry about being unoriginal btw, what matters is the execution not what ideas you have. If you deliver a polished VN with engaging characters, nobody will care if your character is, for example, a poor boy on a farm with a great destiny.

I probably expressed myself badly, I mostly meant the story is not centered ONLY on the heroines. Well I guess it's a little more complex than this, our routes are centered around the heroines, obviously, but the story doesn't solely revolve around the girl, there is always some kind of greater scheme in every route (I can't really say more without spoiling). Well, it's complex to explain anyway.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi folks!

So the project has been going well for the moment! We changed a bit our blog interface, since the previous one was quite... horrible. Don't forget to visit it to get the lastest news on the project!

Concerning writing, We're nearly done with common route (around 75% I'd say), and we're really satisfied with how it's progressing so far.

 

Art and music is showing progress, slowly but surely. You can find some of the tracks we already created here : http://vnchan.wordpress.com/music/

 

However we had some problems concerning backgrounds, so we are looking for people who'd be skilled with Photoshop and with shading (we are planning on using photoshopped pictures for backgrounds), so if you think you'd be able to help, don't hesitate!

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Hope you're still doing well on this project. I'll definitely have a look at it when it is finished.  :D

 

By the way, I thought which just struck me; have you considered contacting a few of the youtube-musicians and ask them if you may use some of their works, in case your currant musicians needs some alleviation? I'm sure a lot of them would gladly let you use their music since this is would be a free visual novel.

 

Lucas King's channel for example would I recommend that you check out. His works is absolutely amazing.  :)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq52MbjRULLbjRPvxM7FwZg

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This looks like an interesting project and the art is actually nice! I'm kinda confused about how it is going to be a murder mystery whilst being a comedy romance drama at the same time, but will definitely want to give it a shot when it comes out. :) 

 

I slightly disagree with the choice of Flash for the engine, but I think that it's not all bad news. For example, you could get it on Newgrounds and get a whole bunch of publicity there. I don't know if Android supports Flash but iOS definitely doesn't, so porting it to mobile would be a gigantic hassle. 

 

Either way, wishing you guys the best of luck, let us know how it goes. :)

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This looks like an interesting project and the art is actually nice! I'm kinda confused about how it is going to be a murder mystery whilst being a comedy romance drama at the same time, but will definitely want to give it a shot when it comes out. :)

 

I slightly disagree with the choice of Flash for the engine, but I think that it's not all bad news. For example, you could get it on Newgrounds and get a whole bunch of publicity there. I don't know if Android supports Flash but iOS definitely doesn't, so porting it to mobile would be a gigantic hassle. 

 

Either way, wishing you guys the best of luck, let us know how it goes. :)

Flash is not an engine its a platform,the engine is being built from scratch using action script 3,and it will be compiled using Adobe Air which runs on iOS,Android and Pc,also trying to make it work on Mac's,it also can be playable on browsers(doesn't mean we will have a final version that does, it depends on a few things).

 

Thank you for you interest in the project,and i hope you keep following us. :)

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Thank you to everyone that showed interest in our project :)

We are trying our best to do make an interesting story and enjoyable experience, while at the same time trying some new stuff.

I hope you guys enjoy it when its done :)

 

If anyone is curious about anything you can message us via the blog or just ask here.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Update :

 

Common route is about 80% written, and all the plot development for each heroine route has been planned. Ofc, we still have tons od efiting to do, and also rewrite some parts we are not totally satidfied with.

 

Thanks to Greg, our new composer, music is progressing quite fast, don't forget to check the blog since we will post a sample of his work very soon! Greg will take care of mostly the emotional OST. Else, we are still working on character themes, and some of the ambiance tracks. You can check it on our latest blog post!

 

Dizzy has finished working on the sprite of one heroine (Airi) as you can see on the original post! The uniform showed will be the default uniform for all the heroines!

 

Wonders is working on the male characters concept art, and sprites should be done in the near future as well.

 

Yuuko has been working on some GUI elements, and will start working on backgrounds soon. We might as well get another BG artist in the near future.

 

PS : Can one of the moderator move this thread in the new section which seems more appropriate? Thanks in advance!

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1. 95% of such projects end it's life abruptly within the first few months at most, without reaching anywhere beyond a game vision with a bunch of mockups.

2.This looks like an idea for a very average visual novel at most, to be honest; can't you come up with something more interesting and original, rather than going through a road of least resistance and copypasting a trite stencil of an     average japanese moege? You all propably read a bunch of them already, you should know what works and what doesn't, especially over here. The premise itself seems trivial and completely silly, doesn't make any logical sense     either.

 

3.don't create your story around the characters. Reality doesn't work like that and

 

4.Naked flash is a really bad choice for a visual novel type of software; it is ridiculously slow, inneficient and you will have to write a whole working vn engine from scratch; despite vn's looking "easy", they aren't simple to program.          There are plenty of reasons why Ren'Py and GameMaker would make a lot better choices for an engine.  

 

5.Ren'Py is incredibly easy to pick and does not need any special knowledge for basic visual novel mechanics.

 

6.You will see how bad flash is, once you will write a substructure and come into first technical issues; even if you will manage to solve them, it won't get any easier afterwards.

7.Be sure to organise yourselves well and try to treat this project as something more than just a spare time hobby and completely amateur production with low quality value; in a longer run, it may pay off and even if you won't finish it,     you might gain some experience or knowledge. This might get really useful, if you plan to get into game design in your future.

 

I divided some of the stuff this gentleman said into points because there was some truth mixed into the brutal bluntness.

1.What he said is sad but true, I've been developing my VN along with the team for a year now. We have seen plenty of projects sink into nothingness. Don't take this as a deterrent, but rather as an encouragement. DON'T GIVE UP! Keep up the good work. I love what you guys have done in so little time.

 

2.This is also a common issue among us developers. We tend to go the traditional way and focus on japanese plot points, japanese characters, japanese stereotypes and japanese money maker stories.

This is a delicate problem though. If we stray too far from the idea of making an OELVN with a japanese setting, we'll end up doing something completely western barring a few tints of japanese influence (like american sushi, if you get what I mean.) and If we do it way too traditional we'll risk making a cookie cut japanese moege filled with clichés. We've all been through this, so it's not as easy as this gentleman makes it out to be. Writing a story is not like typing a prophecy about how another one is doomed.

 

3.This doesn't make sense at all. Unless you have very few characters, it's very difficult to build a story not centered around characters, and VN's are dialogue heavy. Pure narration doesn't work on its own.

 

4.He's right. Regardless of experience coding a VN in flash is asking for trouble. It's not impossible but also not practical. You'd take double the time you'd take coding it with a specialised platform.

Also Ren'py is very versatile and there's little it can't do. As a renpy/python programmer I guarantee you that.

 

5. False. Basic VN mechanics are simple enough but only for short and linear projects. A full fledged VN requires advanced python coding knowledge and at least basic ATL programming experience.

 

6.Sorry, but he's so right about this there's simply no room for retort. Flash can be a nightmare since most of the time you won't be able to tell what went wrong. Ren'py, unity, GM, are far more intuitive and mind you: Renpy is not known for being intuitive.

 

7.Yes. Treat your project with dedication, seriousness and responsibility. Losing motivation along the way invites disaster.

There will be plenty of naysayers and haters and such, but it will all turn out good in the end if you keep it up and work hard towards finishing your VN.

I'm rooting for you and as a fellow VN developer I'm mpressed with your progress so far and wish you all the luck! If you need anything don't hesitate 

to ask. :)

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I divided some of the stuff this gentleman said into points because there was some truth mixed into the brutal bluntness.

1.What he said is sad but true, I've been developing my VN along with the team for a year now. We have seen plenty of projects sink into nothingness. Don't take this as a deterrent, but rather as an encouragement. DON'T GIVE UP! Keep up the good work. I love what you guys have done in so little time.

 

2.This is also a common issue among us developers. We tend to go the traditional way and focus on japanese plot points, japanese characters, japanese stereotypes and japanese money maker stories.

This is a delicate problem though. If we stray too far from the idea of making an OELVN with a japanese setting, we'll end up doing something completely western barring a few tints of japanese influence (like american sushi, if you get what I mean.) and If we do it way too traditional we'll risk making a cookie cut japanese moege filled with clichés. We've all been through this, so it's not as easy as this gentleman makes it out to be. Writing a story is not like typing a prophecy about how another one is doomed.

 

3.This doesn't make sense at all. Unless you have very few characters, it's very difficult to build a story not centered around characters, and VN's are dialogue heavy. Pure narration doesn't work on its own.

 

4.He's right. Regardless of experience coding a VN in flash is asking for trouble. It's not impossible but also not practical. You'd take double the time you'd take coding it with a specialised platform.

Also Ren'py is very versatile and there's little it can't do. As a renpy/python programmer I guarantee you that.

 

5. False. Basic VN mechanics are simple enough but only for short and linear projects. A full fledged VN requires advanced python coding knowledge and at least basic ATL programming experience.

 

6.Sorry, but he's so right about this there's simply no room for retort. Flash can be a nightmare since most of the time you won't be able to tell what went wrong. Ren'py, unity, GM, are far more intuitive and mind you: Renpy is not known for being intuitive.

 

7.Yes. Treat your project with dedication, seriousness and responsibility. Losing motivation along the way invites disaster.

There will be plenty of naysayers and haters and such, but it will all turn out good in the end if you keep it up and work hard towards finishing your VN.

I'm rooting for you and as a fellow VN developer I'm mpressed with your progress so far and wish you all the luck! If you need anything don't hesitate 

to ask. :)

Helv just brought his wisdom here.

 

But in all seriousness, listen to him, as he has indeed been keeping a project around for a very long time, and that's one of the main reasons I joined his team as a video editor.

 

...The last project I joined was ditched by the project head himself...

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I divided some of the stuff this gentleman said into points because there was some truth mixed into the brutal bluntness.

1.What he said is sad but true, I've been developing my VN along with the team for a year now. We have seen plenty of projects sink into nothingness. Don't take this as a deterrent, but rather as an encouragement. DON'T GIVE UP! Keep up the good work. I love what you guys have done in so little time.

 

2.This is also a common issue among us developers. We tend to go the traditional way and focus on japanese plot points, japanese characters, japanese stereotypes and japanese money maker stories.

This is a delicate problem though. If we stray too far from the idea of making an OELVN with a japanese setting, we'll end up doing something completely western barring a few tints of japanese influence (like american sushi, if you get what I mean.) and If we do it way too traditional we'll risk making a cookie cut japanese moege filled with clichés. We've all been through this, so it's not as easy as this gentleman makes it out to be. Writing a story is not like typing a prophecy about how another one is doomed.

 

3.This doesn't make sense at all. Unless you have very few characters, it's very difficult to build a story not centered around characters, and VN's are dialogue heavy. Pure narration doesn't work on its own.

 

4.He's right. Regardless of experience coding a VN in flash is asking for trouble. It's not impossible but also not practical. You'd take double the time you'd take coding it with a specialised platform.

Also Ren'py is very versatile and there's little it can't do. As a renpy/python programmer I guarantee you that.

 

5. False. Basic VN mechanics are simple enough but only for short and linear projects. A full fledged VN requires advanced python coding knowledge and at least basic ATL programming experience.

 

6.Sorry, but he's so right about this there's simply no room for retort. Flash can be a nightmare since most of the time you won't be able to tell what went wrong. Ren'py, unity, GM, are far more intuitive and mind you: Renpy is not known for being intuitive.

 

7.Yes. Treat your project with dedication, seriousness and responsibility. Losing motivation along the way invites disaster.

There will be plenty of naysayers and haters and such, but it will all turn out good in the end if you keep it up and work hard towards finishing your VN.

I'm rooting for you and as a fellow VN developer I'm mpressed with your progress so far and wish you all the luck! If you need anything don't hesitate 

to ask. :)

 

David here – one of the lead writers for the project.

 

Thank you all for taking the time to share your concerns.

 

1. While it's true that most projects are tossed into the back burner, we have taken extra precautions in organization and management to prevent the death of the project.

 

2. I must admit, it can be difficult to steer away from such cliches, but this story will be much more than tsundere characters shouting, "Baka! I don't like you! I just find you attractive but am too afraid to admit it!" (Horrible example but you get my point) Our visual novel may appear simple for the sake of summary, but it is a team priority to keep all aspects of the story fleshed out. This includes world setting, character development, and plot arcs.

 

3. Sorry for the misunderstanding; what we meant to say was that both the characters and the plot are created to mesh together. We are not creating a standard every-man-for-himself let's-woo-all-the-girls high school drama, nor are we tossing a bunch of undeveloped characters into an unfitting world. Rather, the characters are deeply tied with the world, and the world is deeply with the characters. This ensures a rich storytelling experience.

 
In terms of logistics, the visual novel will contain both narration and dialogue in standard structure.
 

 

4,5,&6. I'm a writer, so I haven't the slightest clue how the technical aspects of engines work. ^^'

 

7. We are all very, very dedicated and passionate on finishing this project. Lucid9 will most certainly see the light of day, and we are working hard to make it the best as it can possibly be. We hope that you all can support us in our journey. Not only are we doing this for ourselves, but for all of you! ^_^

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David here – one of the lead writers for the project.

 

Thank you all for taking the time to share your concerns.

 

1. While it's true that most projects are tossed onto the back burner, we have taken extra precautions in organization and management to prevent the death of the project.

 

2. I must admit, it can be difficult to steer away from such cliches, but this story will be much more than tsundere characters shouting, "Baka! I don't like you! I just find you attractive but am too afraid to admit it!" (Horrible example but you get my point) Our visual novel may appear simple for the sake of summary, but it is a team priority to keep all aspects of the story fleshed out. This includes world setting, character development, and plot arcs.

 

3. Sorry for the misunderstanding; what we meant to say was that both the characters and the plot are created to mesh together. We are not creating a standard every-man-for-himself let's-woo-all-the-girls high school drama, nor are we tossing a bunch of undeveloped characters into an unfitting world. Rather, the characters are deeply tied with the world, and the world is deeply with the characters. This ensures a rich storytelling experience.

 
In terms of logistics, the visual novel will contain both narration and dialogue in standard structure.
 

 

4,5,&6. I'm a writer, so I haven't the slightest clue how the technical aspects of engines work. ^^'

 

7. We are all very, very dedicated and passionate on finishing this project. Lucid9 will most certainly see the light of day, and we are working hard to make it the best as it can possibly be. We hope that you all can support us in our journey. Not only are we doing this for ourselves, but for all of you! ^_^

 

David! Hello =3 

Thanks for reading my ten page essay here. XD

I hope you didn't misunderstand though. I was just analyzing what Iced said on a previous post and rewording it to sound more constructive.

That said let's clear any doubts left, shall we?

 

1. I'm so glad to know you're dedicated and motivated to see this through the end! keep up the good work!

 

2. Yeah, I know. XD It has been difficult for me as well. (I'm the writer for Violet Hill) However even if we do trip on some clichés, it doesn't matter as long as we flesh it out well like you said. Execution is key.

 

3. I disagreed with Iced on this matter. Stories must be about and around characters; making sure to integrate them well into the world where we put them in.

 

4,5, and 6. Iced is right but he could've been a bit nicer about it. Programming a whole VN on flash is going to be a complicated endeavour. More than you think. I was just illustrating on the technical difficulties it entails and recommending a more specialised platform for the job. Whatever you guys choose as your engine, you have all my support.

 

7. Glad to know. Likewise, our project is also for the community. I can't wait to see how your VN turns out! Loving what I've seen so far! =3 

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