Insert Title Here – A scalable and recyclable OELVN (aka VN)

June 21, 2013

OHIO GO SAY MUST everyone… it is me UNCLE MUGEN… it’s been a while…

Allow me to introduce to you what Uncle Mugen has been cooking lately… Today, I present you the OELVN “INSERT TITLE HERE”… yes… I’m not kidding… that is the name of the OELVN (aka EVN or English Visual Novel)

Yes, that is the name of the game… not even joking…

It can trace its beginnings to the original Project Gakuen whose goal is to produce a recyclable and scalable generic school themed OELVN where you can insert any story you wanted but on a more grander scale (click here to learn more) … Fast forward a few months later… after doing a really thorough feasibility study… I found out that it was next to impossible to finish it in any reasonable amount of time with only me doing everything so I have scaled down the project from a large multi acre International School into a generic 300,000 sqm High School OELVN titled “INSERT TITLE HERE”.

The basic idea is to create a whole ready to use complete generic school setting complete with people, backstory and everything… all that it lacks is a protagonist to interact with everything and a story to move things… Add another story on top of the already existing protagonist, story and existing characters and scenario and you now basically have a scalable OELVN… Remove the Inserted Character and his story and insert a totally different Character to interact with the existing settings and characters and you now have a different OELVN (aka VN) thus… it now becomes a Recyclable VN…

Welcome to Applegate High School… where every student has been hit by a bagfull of piss at least once…

Long story short… what I’m currently making is a framework of some sort. It will have the usual features of a typical School VN. It will sport the usual Stat Building, Navigation where you go from one place to another but what sets this framework apart from everything else is the Time of the day Feature where every action you take consumes time depending on how long and complex they are. For example, moving from one place to another will take about 5 to 10 minutes depending on distance. Time will directly affect the scenes by displaying the correct sky and background according to time of day. Also, the Time Function can be tied to events if the writer wishes to meaning you can now have time specific triggered scenarios.

The main reason I am creating this framework is to compensate for my biggest weakness when it comes to creating OELVN’s (aka VN or EVN) and that is writing. Shameful as it is… I suck at writing. I’m good at Illustration, I’m good at Backgrounds to the point that I streamlined the process as if it’s like a factory assembly plant and churn them at the shortest time possible, I’m good at copying and comprehending and utilizing various Ren’py codes once I saw how it works, I can simply use Kevin MacLeod music if I cannot find a composer who will be kind enough to help me but you really cannot fake, cheat or even shortcut on writing… there is no program or plug-in that will generate good story or an all in one button that will dish out a good writing… nope… there is only one way to write good story and that is… sit down and write a good story… period… and thus I have to rely on a framework where I can ask or beg someone who is good at writing stories to help me in creating a generic story that I can simply drag and drop into the framework and make it work with minimal effort as to minimize the burden on the writer. As I have mentioned earlier it was scalable… you can have two writers writing two different things and have the framework accommodate their writings seamlessly (of course… it has to be within the framework’s limitations and bounds)…

Rarely utilized feature of Ren’py is it can change the image in-game in such wonderful ways… like in this example. I can adjust settings to make sprite darker for dark areas and light for bright areas…

And now we talk about the limitations… of course unlike sandbox free roaming games like GTA series… this is a Visual Novel (OELVN) so we have to work within the limitations of the VN medium. The framework is a generic School Setting so it’s obvious from the start that the story and the character the writer would introduce would have to be within the bounds of the school setting may it be a teacher, a student or a staff needed to keep the school running. There is also the time that also encompasses day function. The writer will also have to take into consideration the timing and placement of the events. A good example of this would be a Janitor character. Everyday, the Janitor will obviously be around the school cleaning things… like He’ll be at the gate in the morning sweeping, mopping in the afternoon and sleeping in the evening or perhaps a student who loves to read books during noon and attends club activities during afternoons. The writer can then make full use of the navigation and time functions to write a scenario that will involve the protagonist (you) into navigating and planning your next steps which hopefully increases OELVN immersion and gameplay…

One BG, Eight time of day variations… Click image for larger view…

Right now, the framework is functionally complete… all it lacks now are the resources which may be quite too much for a single person to handle but I think I’ll manage somehow. The backgrounds are especially tricky because each single BG in this framework will have 8 time of day variations namely Twilight Sunrise or Dawn, Sunrise, Morning, Noon, Afternoon, Sunset, Twilight Sunset or Dusk and Evening. Now multiply it with the actual number of planned BG locations and you’ll end up with a lot of BG’s. Good thing I already mastered batch processing so I can churn out Custom OELVN BG’s like a factory.

Right now, here is the current school construction in progress. It still has every basic school amenities and facilities.

Of course it would be unfair to just invite people to exert effort and write something without me showing anything so I’ll kickstart things by making an OELVN inspired by LVUER’s RSP Nanoreno Game called “INSERT TITLE HERE” which is a perfect fit for the scalable School Theme Framework. The original RSP is basically a strip RSP (rock scissors paper) game where you hunt for girls, beat them in RSP and strip them naked… pretty straightforward. But let’s make things complicated and add elements to it…

The protagonist like from the previous RSP game transferred to the school because of some convenient reason. Then like the previous RSP, you are greeted by this particular girl to join the RSP Club (disguised as some lame club I still need to think of) then this particular girl who happens to be the Vice-President of the club tells you all about RSP Club which is basically a strip RSP where you search for members of RSP and engage in a stripping match. Then she drags a girl who just recently joined the RSP Club and as expected you’ll beat her easily. Then you are handed the defeated girl’s panty which will now serve as a sort of tool of declaration of challenge to other RSP players. Long story short… you’ll flash the panty in front of the RSP player you wish to challenge but here’s the catch… you have no idea who they were or where they are and is only given vague hints from time to time… you can talk to the currently known 2 members of RSP frequently and their hints change from day to day… sometimes they will not cooperate unless you run errands for them. Oh and the president will transfer out to another school within 30 days so you’d better hurry…

Here’s the tricky part… you will have to be very VERY careful when showing the panty because if you happen to show it at the wrong person… chances are they will avoid you for a few days… do it enough times and everyone will label you as a pervert and people except likeminded and perverted ones will avoid talking to you. There is a cooldown period though where people slowly forget about that panty you just flashed but that takes time and you only have 30 days left. Of course exposed and defeated… the fallen can give hints from time to time about the remaining undiscovered RSP members.

This is the generic uniform. The school was lax enough to allow variations of it so not all students will have same looking uniform.

Now about the girls… of course I cannot post any of them here because part of the game is actually try and figure out who are the members of RSP club… but I can post here a generic girl and show to you what the typical girls uniform will look like…

Depending on girls, there could be more or less items to remove but what you see here is the typical complete uniform where you remove them in this order.

COAT ► VEST ► SKIRT ► LONG SLEEVE ► NECKTIE ► BRA ► UNDERWEAR ► PROFIT!

Of course there are some girls who prefer to do it this way…

COAT ► VEST ► UNDERWEAR ► LONG SLEEVE ► NECKTIE ► SKIRT ► BRA ► PROFIT!

Or even this

SWIMWEAR ► PROFIT!

And now to answer some questions that has been tossed to me recently… some are condensed for clarity…

Will this be for Free?

Of course it will be… UNCLE MUGEN wants to spread tender loving care via Free OELVN’s

Your drawing sucks, get a decent artist!

Oy-oy… I may not look like it or perhaps maybe a bit rusted but I am a retired Graphic Artist with extensive experience in illustration. I’m pretty confident with my drawing. I just have no choice but to scale down on quality to get more things done within the limited free time I can squeeze out of my schedule. But if I’m motivated enough and given sufficient free time, I too can make quality illustrations worthy of any budget Japanese VN… it’s just that this time… I put more emphasis on quantity which has a quality of it’s own… also… there is so much a one man team can do…

Stop stealing other people’s Ren’py codes! Go learn to code Ren’py by yourself!

Wrong my friend! I do not steal… I just merely peek. I’m a layman when it comes to programming and coding and stuff so the way I analyse and comprehend things are slightly different from the typical coder mindset. I put emphasis on quantity and efficiency. Look at it this way… why should I learn how to overhaul a car when all I need to do is change a flat tire? Same thing with Ren’py coding… Why should I learn every single function when all I’m after is a very specific behaviour. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to just get what I need and get things going instead of spending too much time learning everything while accomplishing nothing?… This is the UNCLE MUGEN way… take what you need… leave the rest for later…

Go get a haircut!

No… this is where I get my awesome UNCLE MUGEN powers!… Without my hair I’ll be just another fat guy selling printer inks…

Why not do a Kickstarter? You seem to be good enough…

Because doing a Kickstarter would put additional and unwanted pressure on an activity that I consider as a hobby and stress relief. Yes, a Kickstarter would get me funds to hire more talented people to upgrade the quality but I’ll now be answerable to all the contributors… something I find a bit stressful… Remember… UNCLE MUGEN says… When Money comes in… that’s when the fun stop…

Aren’t you rich enough to fund the game yourself and find talented people other than you to work on your crappy VN’s

No I’m not rich… I still cannot afford a Bugatti so I am poor bum. Also, what’s the point?… Want me to hire people to do OELVN’s for me while I sit and watch?… Oh no le don’t my friend… that is not how UNCLE MUGEN do things… UNCLE MUGEN enjoys getting his hands dirty on making OELVN’s it is more fun this way… the finished OELVN is just the byproduct… The fun is really in the making process…

Just quit doing Visual Novels and make a shooter or some newground games instead. You just suck at making Visual Novels!

Whoa! That was kinda harsh my friend… True, I used to suck but after years of doing it I think I become slightly better at it… sans writing… I will eventually find a writer I can collaborate with… Just you wait! I’ll make the best, cheapest OELVN within the bounds of my abilities and free time and you will become an UNCLE MUGEN fan!

So what is it you wanted?

Writers, Writers and more Writers… specifically, writers who can write Generic yet Interesting School Settings within the limited framework of the current School Framework.

the plan would be to have a single writer write a scenario and focus on a girl or two that will be bound by these requirements…

● She’ll start as a total stranger to the protagonist so no osama-najimis and former classmates.

● The girl must not act suspicious at the start nor give hints that she is a member of the RSP club.

● She’ll have her own movement behaviour that is bound by the limitations of the existing school framework… For example… a writer introduced her girl as a sort of nerdy but meek girl who likes to read books and prefers spending most of her time in the library during breaks and after class. For the protagonist, this is obviously a pretty straightforward move. Just go to the appropriate place where you expect her to be and start a conversation. A few days and conversations later she’ll open up which eventually will lead to you being closer to each other. Another good example would be a delinquent type who would occasionally cut classes and would be present at the roof during class hours and you’ll have to run errands for her. Or to make more interesting… two writers will cross each others work and make it a requirement for the protagonist to either accomplish or cross paths with one character in order to gain access to the other girl.

● RSP and dating should be separate meaning regardless of you discovered she’s an RSP member or not. You can still date her or get close to her.

● Not all datable girls are RSP members.

● All of the events will happen during school hours and within school premises.

● The weather is always sunny and clear so no rain or cloudy scenes. The reason for this is because there is only one artist working on all the assets of this project and that would be me (sad isn’t it)… the framework requires each BG to have 8 different time of day variants multiply it with the amount of final locations and I’ll have a lot of BG to create. Adding weather variations will strain the poor artist… me and make the framework slightly more complex for the coder…again me