Stuff To Know

[nonopi]

Hey, guys~ I'm Melynda and I'll be your programmer for this adventure. I'm not sure how familiar you guys are with Ren'Py, so I just want to go over some of the options we have for our game.

• We have a lot of different ways we can display text with Ren'Py.
  
  • Default - this is a black, 50% opacity box that displays white text.
    
  • NVL Mode - this is text that covers the whole game screen. I wouldn't use it for dialogue, just for describing scenes or inner-monologues.
    
  • Textbox - we can make our own textbox to display text with. Someone would have to design this or we could use one of the freeware textboxes on the Ren'Py forums.
    
  
  
  
• We have a long list of screen, sprite, and text transitions. www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/doc/reference/Transitions If none of those fit your taste, we could actually modify any of them to slow down the transitions or speed them up, or pick which direction the transition goes, stuff like that.
  
  
• Each character gets their own text color in which their name is displayed. Any hex color will work for this.
  
  
• The user interface (UI) is extremely important, whether we choose to implement one or not.
  
  • Default - this is just the normal interface. So we'd have the default textbox, the default menu displays, and the default start-up screen.
    
  • Framework - someone's created a dating sim framework for Ren'Py. It comes with a calendar/planner, an analogue clock, and an underlying system that let's the user choose what to do on what days and saves it to the calendar/planner. The downside with implementing this framework is that I've never used it before so it might take me a little while to get it working. This could also change the core mechanics of our game depending on how we'd use it.
    
  • Make our own - making our own UI would require extra art or finding another staff member to do it. This option would demand textboxes, a splash screen, a credit screen, menu graphics, and a frame that borders around the game screen and displays information. We could pick and choose what we wanted to do though. Making all of those things would definitely require another member.
    
  
  
  
• I know music is already happening. :D But we have the option for sound effects too, which can be made or found online.
  
  
• Let's talk about screen size! I have no idea what it is yet, does anyone else? In order to maintain the most natural-looking environment, I ask that all scene backgrounds and sprites not exceed the screen size. Also, when thinking about screen size, we should take into account how many sprites would likely be displayed there at one time. 800 x 600 would be enough for maybe three sprites to be displayed without the screen looking too weird. Keep that in mind.
  

Some of these choices can just be made by the respective artists or writers but for stuff like the UI, we should all be in agreement. If anyone has any questions or feelings, I will start checking our board more often. I also check my tumblr messages frequently, nonopi.tumblr.com/.

Have a great day~

[copper-telluride]

For now (at least in the initial stages), the default text box should work, but we should ABSOLUTELY customize it for the final release. Each girl's text color should be their hair color, Tomohiro's should be default white, and Hiroaki's should be a light-mid gray. And of course NVL mode should be used for narration and inner monologue.

I don't think the dating sim framework will be necessary for DoS. This is more event-based and not at all planning-based, as the only player interaction will be strictly dialogue choices. Again, though, the default UI should be enough for the initial stages, and for the final release we should definitely look into customizing it -- I'll see if any of our artists are capable of something like that.

Sound effects will definitely be happening. I know nothing about making them from scratch, though, so they'll have to be found online.

800x600 has always been the screen size I've had in mind, although some of the backgrounds will need to be extra wide to allow for panning. We still don't have a BG artist, though, so I'll see about finding one.

The next staff meeting will involve a lot of discussion about the logistics of the VN, so it is imperative that you attend. The planned time is 3:30 PM EDT (UTC-4), so if that doesn't work for you, PLEASE let me know so I can reschedule.