Formation of a VN team to make visual novels

[Kaoru]

Hello, I know that I am still new here, but I was thinking of creating a Visual Novel. I was going to just write the script and see how people who make it into a fan-made VN, but I thought that I could form a team and as I progress along the script, a person or two could do scenery and character sprites because I am not good at drawing manga/anime style at all.

 

 Feel free to messege me or comment or reply to this in the forum, and maybe we all could make an, if anything, at  least decent visual novel.

 

Edit: My manga/anime style is atrocious and I can draw background... decently. 

[edwd2]

price per CG?

[Zodai]

Don't feel like joining at the current time, but here are some resources and advice from someone's who's gone down this path before.

 

Firstly, from a pure writer's perspective, here's some resources for understanding the basics.

 

http://www.writingexcuses.com/

 

http://davidfarland.net/writing_tips/

 

Writing in and of itself isn't something that can be underestimated, and regardless of someone's particular philosophy, letting the writing get the short end of the stick, in any of its forms, won't bode well for the final product, and should be the highest priority regardless of previous experience.  This isn't something that can be slacked on.

 

Just as important, is the ability to work as a team and keep communication in check.  No matter your talent as a writer, a VN is not a solitary work, and if your team is arguing or doesn't know what to do, then people aren't working as efficiently, and chances are the team will fall apart.  Leadership skills are ABSOLUTELY VITAL for a project like this, and it's both one of the less obvious aspects of making a VN, and the place where people in the field are usually lacking, as the niche audience around it makes meeting our fellow folk outside the internet a near impossibility.  If you absolutely can't get this done, you're probably better off with a traditional novel for a few years.

 

Personal experience tells me those are the two most likely stumbling blocks, but there's a lot of smaller things to keep note of as well.  Feel free to take inspiration from wherever you can, but make sure to put something original on top of it or mix two ideas together to keep it fresh.  Be open to suggestions, both within and outside the development team, but you have no reason to feel obligated to implement something if it takes away from the priority goals.

 

If you feel like you want some more advice, or if you feel like inviting me to the team personally, feel free to shoot me a PM - it's not entirely likely I'll say yes, but I could use the experience.  Just be aware that my team skills are sub-par at best.  They're something I need to improve on.

 

I wish you luck, and hope to be seeing a product in the coming months.

[Decay]

Your first idea was never going to happen, unless it was something truly mind blowing, nobody would have read your script and immediately thought "Wow, I just have to adapt this into a VN right now!!" So it's a good thing you decided to actually form a team yourself. That said, it's much easier to recruit people when you have something to show and motivate them into joining your team. "Hey guys I want to write a visual novel" isn't really good enough to get anyone who is actually serious and skilled to pay attention. A good first step might be to make something rudimentary yourself. You're the writer, so write up a prologue or an example from your story and whip up something in a free VN engine. If the writing is good, you'll have a much better means to attract potential team members. Well, I tend to take things more seriously than most and overthink things, if you're just interested in doing something super casual, then creating a prototype first is overkill. It depends on what you want to do and how far you want to take this. You could also try coming up with and sharing a general plot outline. If you don't even know what kind of story you want to write yet, I suggest figuring all of that out first.

[Kaoru]

Your first idea was never going to happen, unless it was something truly mind blowing, nobody would have read your script and immediately thought "Wow, I just have to adapt this into a VN right now!!" So it's a good thing you decided to actually form a team yourself. That said, it's much easier to recruit people when you have something to show and motivate them into joining your team. "Hey guys I want to write a visual novel" isn't really good enough to get anyone who is actually serious and skilled to pay attention. A good first step might be to make something rudimentary yourself. You're the writer, so write up a prologue or an example from your story and whip up something in a free VN engine. If the writing is good, you'll have a much better means to attract potential team members. Well, I tend to take things more seriously than most and overthink things, if you're just interested in doing something super casual, then creating a prototype first is overkill. It depends on what you want to do and how far you want to take this. You could also try coming up with and sharing a general plot outline. If you don't even know what kind of story you want to write yet, I suggest figuring all of that out first.

Thanks for the advice. I will think this idea through more throughly.

[Kaoru]

Don't feel like joining at the current time, but here are some resources and advice from someone's who's gone down this path before.

 

Firstly, from a pure writer's perspective, here's some resources for understanding the basics.

 

http://www.writingexcuses.com/

 

http://davidfarland.net/writing_tips/

 

Writing in and of itself isn't something that can be underestimated, and regardless of someone's particular philosophy, letting the writing get the short end of the stick, in any of its forms, won't bode well for the final product, and should be the highest priority regardless of previous experience.  This isn't something that can be slacked on.

 

Just as important, is the ability to work as a team and keep communication in check.  No matter your talent as a writer, a VN is not a solitary work, and if your team is arguing or doesn't know what to do, then people aren't working as efficiently, and chances are the team will fall apart.  Leadership skills are ABSOLUTELY VITAL for a project like this, and it's both one of the less obvious aspects of making a VN, and the place where people in the field are usually lacking, as the niche audience around it makes meeting our fellow folk outside the internet a near impossibility.  If you absolutely can't get this done, you're probably better off with a traditional novel for a few years.

 

Personal experience tells me those are the two most likely stumbling blocks, but there's a lot of smaller things to keep note of as well.  Feel free to take inspiration from wherever you can, but make sure to put something original on top of it or mix two ideas together to keep it fresh.  Be open to suggestions, both within and outside the development team, but you have no reason to feel obligated to implement something if it takes away from the priority goals.

 

If you feel like you want some more advice, or if you feel like inviting me to the team personally, feel free to shoot me a PM - it's not entirely likely I'll say yes, but I could use the experience.  Just be aware that my team skills are sub-par at best.  They're something I need to improve on.

 

I wish you luck, and hope to be seeing a product in the coming months.

Thank you as well Zodai. I will take this advice and info to heart, and thank you for the links.