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Make a VN - Looking for Brainstorming Team


Tay

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Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks in terms of sci-fi for this kind of stuff. A few years ago I had wrote half a mini-notebook in notes on world building and events for a heavy military kind of based sci fi. Unfortunately some of the notes have disappeared but theres still a lot of them left. They were written over a few months at work with various short/abrupt ideas so it'd take me awhile to organize what they is into something for other people to fully understand. (and for me to remember entirely what my train of thought was at the time). A lot of what I have is setting, technology, organizations and stuff like that with little bit on events and character stuff. It was also originally intended as an actual novel rather than a VN. It'l take me a couple of days to sift through everything and turn it into something comprehensible. Or at the very least take my fragmented notes on paper and put them into a word file. The scale is likely too big for a short VN but theres a lot to pick through.

In any case I'd like to volunteer to help out with the project. I'm by no means an artistic person but I'm certainly good with the analyzing,constructing and brainstorming parts. Fantasy and sci-fi are my home genres to say and what I work best with because of the freedom compared to stuff like slice of life. I really like a lot of the ideas in this thread and would like to see where it ends up with everybody's heads put together on it.

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Thought I would post the beginning of a new concept, not done writing it yet. Too busy watching Who stuff and playing Warframe, so I will continue later >3>;

Genre: Time Travel/Sci-Fi

Inspirations: Last two concepts(Social World, Infinite Expanse), Doctor Who

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Deathless:

The name given to humans(And their other 'forms', as a whole) by the rest of the Universe.

While most humans are still figuring out what comes after their supposed 'death', the rest of the Universe knows exactly what happens.

The first phase of the Deathless is the one we all know, called the Seekers, they themselves do not know what will happen when they 'end', and thus are driven by this and other emotions to do what they can in life, hence learning as much as they can.

At the end of their lives, all their combined knowledge and experiences accumulate and are reborn into a new initially invisible form.

This is their true state and could also be said to be a 'grown-up' version, called 'Timeless'.

In this state, they are immortal and can live forever. Though they are only immortal in that regard of course, they CAN be killed though any weapon that can kill their initial Seeker state, and any alien weapon as well.

In their initial state, they go through a process of consciously deciding what form to take, limited only by their imagination and the laws of the Universe. This process has to be redone every 100 years.

The Timeless are also much more physically adept than Seekers in terms of movement, able to move at the speed of sound with enough practice. Their mental capacity is also...not just larger, it cannot be measured, literally cannot be measured.

This much by itself cannot truly put them above alien species, but what gives them their own edge is an innate Timeless ability they call 'Void Shift'. This ability basically allows them to shift to their initial...formless, invisible state and move in space at immeasurable speeds.

This ability has two requirements, to either access actual space in physical form via a rocket, or enter 'Void Chambers'(Timeless/Deathless technology).

This form is purely for movement, and cannot be used offensively. It can also not be used in places with gravity or on celestial bodies/asteroids.

Using this form the Timeless can travel to other planets and learn new technologies and what not.

However, the Timeless keep themselves separated from their Seeker selves. There is a proper reason for this.

Timeless CANNOT REPRODUCE. If the Seeker's learnt of their existence and started killing themselves off, the Timeless population growth would stagnate, or worse, stop leading to eventual extinction.

Another simple reason, Seeker's are very quick to disbelieve things like aliens and what not, and Timeless who have attempted to reveal their existence have either been jailed in mental institutions or killed by Seekers. Yes, even Timeless can be dumb.

Emotionally, the Timeless have the same emotions as in their Seeker state, but at the same time, they can be much more pronounced, and yet, not obvious in the least. For example, other species will not even realize a Timeless is angry, they will only suffer a very quick, or depending on the Timeless, a long protracted(across time even!) suffering.

Finally, and quite obviously, the Timeless are highly techonologically advanced, and also have access to time-space travel, which is used in very specific or dangerous situations.

The story itself will abide by the terms of course, character wise and all that. Its possible to have large amounts of lore and stuff though, right? D:

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So while working on the above concept, I came up with another. Its short, and I think can be done with the limitations. No heavy lore or anything :D

Genre: Dark Fantasy/Horror/Philosophy

Overall Concept Title: Ocean of Existence

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Actual story:

The world underwent a sudden unexpected, not even seen or heard or felt, apocalyptic event at an unknown point in the future.

Immediately, 5 people, 4 humans and an AI found themselves in the beginning stage of the entirety of creation, known as the Ocean of Existence as a whole, lost on a unknown land called Judgement Grounds.

Each of these people are isolated.

They go through the horrifying grounds, not in any true physical danger(There are no enemies...well, depending on the type of VN we decide to make), but in danger of losing their sanity.

For all around them lay the history of the sins of humanity, in all their grotesque and dark glory. A mysterious being appears before each of them calling himself the "Sphinx of Creation", and informs them that they must travel through the Judgement Grounds observing everything, and in the end come to the Spring of Decision to tell him what they think should happen to the world.

He reveals that they have been chosen to decide the fate of humanity and the universe as a whole, in other words challenging them to see the good side of humanity which validates their existence, though this is not explicitly stated.

The characters are 1 adult male, 1 adult female, 1 teenage male, 1 teenage female and a genderless AI. They are each isolated(Can change) and have to decide for themselves. In other words, its 5 short stories featuring each character from their POV.

Can be either a kinetic story, or filled with choices leading to good ends or bad ends.

Another slightly altered story would be to actually find the GOOD stories within Judgement Grounds, turning it into an exploration based VN(Kind of similar to the exploration system in Rewrite I guess), while seeing all the horrifying things, then decide the ending.

There could also be a system where the player could actually enter the Spring of Decision any time they wanted, thus ending the game prematurely on the note chosen, with only a message shown covering what they have seen, instead of a true epilogue.

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Ocean of Existence:

The fresh, wild and deep blue water surrounding Judgement Grounds, stretching to infinity. Said to support all of the universe within, including its inhabitants.

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Judgement Grounds:

A dark fantasy land(Think Dark/Demon Souls, or Shin Megami Tensei) filled stories regarding humanity and its history, can touch upon both real history and fictional. It is not otherwise dangerous to the 5 characters, providing facilities so as to allow them sleep and food etc. etc.

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Spring of Decision:

Beautiful orange-gold springs(with beautiful sky blue water) right in the smack dab middle of Judgement Grounds, in stark contrast to everything within it. This is where the Sphinx resides.

It's surrounded by magical white, foggy barrier, which opens when one of the characters expresses his wish to give his decision to the Sphinx.

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This (ie Western-created VNs that lack the standard stereotypes that always plague otherwise excellent Japanese-produced VNs) is a cause I’m passionate about, so I’ll quickly break my self-imposed hiatus to quickly throw a few ideas out into the ether.

The first thing to say is: good job Tay! Organising something like this takes passion and dedication and the results are well worth-it. Rewrite for example was one VN that tried to put multiple minds to work to create a single overarching story and was all the better for it. It was very broad in scope, touched on multiple genres, several of them being quite different (eg slice-of-life VS shounen action). Because it combined so many thematic elements as well (eg the “happy school life” idea, environmentalism, self-worth, etc) I could very easily imagine it to have been borne out from this very process. The only thing is when individual writers run too independently on their own creative genius without focusing enough on the overarching plot what results runs the risk of looking messy and carelessly stitched-together. Some writers try to overcome this by abusing established templates (eg TVTropes stuff) - which imo takes something away from a creative process where what is created really should be personal to you. Not something to worry about in the brainstorming phase, perhaps; but definitely something to consider later on.

There were two ideas that I’ll play about with. This is not to say the others are in any way inferior; it’s just that they were simply the first two I saw and I really should be in bed by now!!

mooingmage / Ryoji’s mystery of the Wish-Granting Book.

(link here)

Turns out Miss Lolimoe was planted there as a deliberate trap by Rin’s enemies, who had suspected her to be the one whom they had sworn vengeance on, but wanted to make absolutely sure she was the one before they captured her and subjected her to a fate worse than the burning of a thousand and one suns...

So Rin opens the book and Miss Lolimoe pops out – subconsciously drawn to Rin because of her latent demon-summoning powers. Then cue a scene where she maybe goes sth like: oh, this person is of a pure heart and desires world peace…maybe I should start making all the girls in school fall in love with each other so they stop fighting!! > suggestive Yuri scene/imagination portrayal? But then Rin notices her before (or if you’re REALLY wanting to write sth like that then shortly after!) she does anything, and then she goes all DFAKJGBogvr doushite you can SEE meeee!??!?! kyaAaaAaAaaahh hazukashii desu yo~~~ >.<

However seeing Rin commune with Miss Lolimoe on such friendly terms is proof enough for her evil enemy people that they’ve found their target! So they charge in all guns blazing, and after the two run around like headless chickens for a while Rin realises Ms Lolimoe is actually a pretty strong Youkai and in the heat of a moment chants an ancient, centuries-old chant of untold power:

In the name of the ancient power of Aaeru that within me sleeps,

I call upon thee, oh burning child lolimoe,

within whome is housed moe from the lolis of the moes most high,

yea! High enough to turn the most stonehearted

into Steves; the most simple-minded

into Tays; and the most pure-hearted

into harrykinomotos. Under me to serve, oh lolimoe,

your power now turn these wretched people

into hikikomori otakus who will never bother me again

except to ask to gaze once more upon thy lolimoe form!!!

And as the evil people are blasted off by her newly-appointed sidekick’s power, Rin turns to her (who btw is still going I got seen by people and some of them were men kyaaaah thisissohazukashii >///<), and realised her school life was never, ever going to be the same again...

A/N: I clearly have a disturbing talent for writing Mahou Shoujo...

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Eclipsezero’s Power of Social Influence scenario

(link here)

This power allows a person to control another person via mere conversation, without the other ever realizing or feeling it. Its not a power of total obedience, but a power of careful manipulation, steer the conversation right, and the person will do the actions suggested, perhaps effectively improving or devastating said persons life.
There are some divisions of real-world psychology that are dedicated to finding out how to do precisely that. See, for example, Motivational Interviewing or Neuro-Linguistic Programming. My idea was to take those facts however, and run with it, modifying Tay’s suggested plotline for it thus:

ACT 1 / ACT 2: As per original.

ACT 3:

Confrontation with the bad guy. MC runs out of SI power at critical moment.

To reader’s surprise, however, bad guy is able to continue using SI power – and uses it to wipe MC’s SI power – but for him to act as if he still had it. The writing should suggest to readers that this is a cruel intervention: possibly for eg because the bad guy suggests he do things that may sound impossible.

ACT 4:

Where readers expect MC to crash and burn, he actually does well. In fact, aside from a few minor inconveniences, MC is able to live his life normally.

MC stumbles on several pieces of information that essentially inform the reader that the “bad guy” wasn’t actually such a “bad” guy after all; rather, he was trying to free the MC from the crutch of living life a slave unto his SI “power”, and learn to start living as a confident, natural human being. AND NOW IT’S DECISION TIME~

Normal End: MC continues to live life happy and carefree. However he remains ignorant, never learns the truth of the “SI incidents” / Research Division’s agenda, and the “bad” guy vanishes tragically into the sunset.

Good End: MC actually realises “bad” guy was trying to help him, and they become friends, and life goes on, the “SI incidents” a distant memory.

True End: Above except that they work together to uncover the whole mystery.

Possible implication of YOUR HAVING POWERS WAS ALL A DREAM but hey, isn’t IRL actually quite beautiful when you look at it hmm?? <3

OR: include some suspenseful vestiges of unexplained supernatural phenomena. (for sequel?) How exactly this can be done effectively depends on details of previous plot.

*****

And that’s all from me for now. I will sign out again as I will still be busy for at least another solid month, but I will try to check back regularly so please do keep me informed~

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