Deluoode: The Visual Novel

[Maypews]

@NonoEnjoyer mentioned the idea of doing what the SciADV games do where they misspell real world things, brands or websites while referencing them. To this end, I think having a glossary like the SciADV VNs do would also be useful as far as features go. Here's the glossary in S;G -

maxresdeasdsadafault.jpg (171.09 KiB) Viewed 152 times

Example of what I had in mind for some dialogue, Del-chan's thoughts on straw.page -
"What, this luser thinks I want to see their cruddy link collection? Make a Leocities website you n00b..."

Luser, Leocities and N00b could all be highlighted and have glossary entries describing what they are. I'm not sure what we want to do for story, but I think it'd be wise to try and keep it somewhat small to prevent scope creep. A very vague outline I had is that the earlygoing could be just Del-chan and Org-san's antics, but it turns out someone working at Org-san's company actually is an evil mastermind affiliated with the Committee of 300 and they have to work together to take them down. After all, it wouldn't be SciADV if there wasn't some truth to all the schizodom! If anyone has better ideas for the general direction of the story, let me know; I think that's what we should decide on first before anyone starts writing so that we don't have people writing lines for 3 separate stories.

Also, I went ahead and stickied this thread. Love the idea, really hope it takes off.

[nyan]

@NonoEnjoyer mentioned the idea of doing what the SciADV games do where they misspell real world things, brands or websites while referencing them. To this end, I think having a glossary like the SciADV VNs do would also be useful as far as features go. Here's the glossary in S;G -

maxresdeasdsadafault.jpg

Example of what I had in mind for some dialogue, Del-chan's thoughts on straw.page -
"What, this luser thinks I want to see their cruddy link collection? Make a Leocities website you n00b..."

Luser, Leocities and N00b could all be highlighted and have glossary entries describing what they are. I'm not sure what we want to do for story, but I think it'd be wise to try and keep it somewhat small to prevent scope creep. A very vague outline I had is that the earlygoing could be just Del-chan and Org-san's antics, but it turns out someone working at Org-san's company actually is an evil mastermind affiliated with the Committee of 300 and they have to work together to take them down. After all, it wouldn't be SciADV if there wasn't some truth to all the schizodom! If anyone has better ideas for the general direction of the story, let me know; I think that's what we should decide on first before anyone starts writing so that we don't have people writing lines for 3 separate stories.

Also, I went ahead and stickied this thread. Love the idea, really hope it takes off.

I definitely like both ideas! I might start the work to add that glossary feature right now! As for the story direction, that sounds good so long as it is written in a way that lets us continue adding to it (unless we would rather create a bunch of smaller games instead of a large game we continue adding to over time). I don't think having separate stories would really be an issue if we packaged it nicely and they at least tied into each other in some way or another. Thanks for the sticky!


Also, @Blond inspired me to look through the archives and find some of my audio files we could use for bgm if needed. I'm not very good at it, but I used to dabble in making music so I have some tracks that we could probably repurpose for the game if anyone thinks any of these sounds would fit their scene well. I can also change the songs to better suite the needs of a vn - I made most of these many years ago without much idea of what they could be used for and I'm pretty sure I still have the stems for most of them. Here they are:

drive-me.mp3

(1.02 MiB) Not downloaded yet

belt-miners.mp3

(1.34 MiB) Not downloaded yet

asteroid-slums.mp3

(782.78 KiB) Not downloaded yet

cyber-bar.mp3

(2.24 MiB) Not downloaded yet

perplexing-moment.mp3

(1.2 MiB) Not downloaded yet

my-synth.mp3

(2.58 MiB) Not downloaded yet

piano-tune.mp3

(2.01 MiB) Not downloaded yet

the-third.mp3

(3.3 MiB) Not downloaded yet

synthpop-80.mp3

(2.71 MiB) Downloaded 1 time

[TheEvilShadoo]

This is amazing! This truly is the choice of Steins;Gate.

[Blond]

A very vague outline I had is that the earlygoing could be just Del-chan and Org-san's antics, but it turns out someone working at Org-san's company actually is an evil mastermind affiliated with the Committee of 300 and they have to work together to take them down. After all, it wouldn't be SciADV if there wasn't some truth to all the schizodom! If anyone has better ideas for the general direction of the story, let me know; I think that's what we should decide on first before anyone starts writing so that we don't have people writing lines for 3 separate stories.

Also, I went ahead and stickied this thread. Love the idea, really hope it takes off.

I think we could do small stories that hint at a larger plot, with Del meeting all sorts of characters and getting into situations that expands her worldview. In a nutshell:

I like the idea of Org-san being low key chill, it's just that her job sucks, and it so happens that she's a fed. I'm thinking of making her boss either similar to Igor or the Administrator from TF2. But for now, let's keep things short and sweet and get our priorities straight. I know firsthand what it's like to be involved in a big project and get nowhere because we bite off more than we can chew.

Also, @Blond inspired me to look through the archives and find some of my audio files we could use for bgm if needed. I'm not very good at it, but I used to dabble in making music so I have some tracks that we could probably repurpose for the game if anyone thinks any of these sounds would fit their scene well. I can also change the songs to better suite the needs of a vn - I made most of these many years ago without much idea of what they could be used for and I'm pretty sure I still have the stems for most of them. Here they are:


drive-me.mp3
belt-miners.mp3
asteroid-slums.mp3
cyber-bar.mp3
perplexing-moment.mp3
my-synth.mp3
piano-tune.mp3
the-third.mp3
synthpop-80.mp3

>I'm not very good at it
>Process to make the perfect tracks for the project and absolute bangers
I listened to each and every one of the tracks while writing this. 10/10, keep it up dude! I like the fact that we both knew synthwave was going to be perfect for the type of vibe the VN has. I wonder what Parzival thinks of the OST. He sure knows his shit.
Edit: Just in case, I made a Frutiger Aero song, so that the VN is hip with the youth.

Posting Epic Threads .mp3

(1.08 MiB) Downloaded 1 time

[nyan]

Added some new things to the game today! I added mouse support, with a custom cursor, so you can navigate the game with a mouse now. You can check out the cursor here! I also added the glossary idea @Maypews mentioned, so feel free to provide entries for that!

I think we could do small stories that hint at a larger plot, with Del meeting all sorts of characters and getting into situations that expands her worldview. In a nutshell:

I like the idea of Org-san being low key chill, it's just that her job sucks, and it so happens that she's a fed. I'm thinking of making her boss either similar to Igor or the Administrator from TF2. But for now, let's keep things short and sweet and get our priorities straight. I know firsthand what it's like to be involved in a big project and get nowhere because we bite off more than we can chew.

I definitely like the small stories converging on a larger more meaningful plot direction!

>I'm not very good at it
>Process to make the perfect tracks for the project and absolute bangers
I listened to each and every one of the tracks while writing this. 10/10, keep it up dude! I like the fact that we both knew synthwave was going to be perfect for the type of vibe the VN has. I wonder what Parzival thinks of the OST. He sure knows his shit.
Edit: Just in case, I made a Frutiger Aero song, so that the VN is hip with the youth.
Posting Epic Threads .mp3

Synthwave plus some generic beats definitely fits the vibe I think, but most of mine were that just because that is mostly what I used to make. I love the new song too! Fits well. We are definitely already starting to build out a pretty cohesive soundtrack! Also, I made your song "I'm In" the main menu music as I think it fits well for that. Could be the main theme generally unless we come up with something better!

[dokyun]

HFS, this rocks.

I plan on open-sourcing the code eventually, but I want a nice clean version before I do that. I also only compile to Linux and Windows as it stands, so I would like to make it so that the game can export to other weird/niche platforms.

You should dump the code as soon as possible; I couldn't actually get the game to run since it wasn't statically linked, wine didn't work either. Being able to dick around with the engine should be enough to get me writing. Other people are probably gonna wanna hack on it too, so you aren't losing anything by putting a repo up.

One thing I would to see is files title cards inspired by Lain or The Silver Case:

The Mac TTS voices show up in a lot of classic stuff and I always wanted to use them for dialogue in a game. I don't have a Mac but someone here probably does. The online versions kind of suck and don't have all the voices:

I did a some songs for the VN, tell me if you like them or, if you like a more retro OST:

This is awesome shit man.

Also, does anyone have any game mechanic/engine feature ideas I could work on in the meantime? I'm not sure what I should add next.

Ok so, in line with the retro style I think it'd be cool if you could put different filters on the screen. You know how the S;G 8-bit game has different styles, something kinda like that. You could shift the game into a monochrome gameboy-esque pallette when Del-tan jacks into the matrix or whatever.

[Blond]

Added some new things to the game today! I added mouse support, with a custom cursor, so you can navigate the game with a mouse now. You can check out the cursor here! I also added the glossary idea @Maypews mentioned, so feel free to provide entries for that!

I think we could do small stories that hint at a larger plot, with Del meeting all sorts of characters and getting into situations that expands her worldview. In a nutshell:

I like the idea of Org-san being low key chill, it's just that her job sucks, and it so happens that she's a fed. I'm thinking of making her boss either similar to Igor or the Administrator from TF2. But for now, let's keep things short and sweet and get our priorities straight. I know firsthand what it's like to be involved in a big project and get nowhere because we bite off more than we can chew.

I definitely like the small stories converging on a larger more meaningful plot direction!

>I'm not very good at it
>Process to make the perfect tracks for the project and absolute bangers
I listened to each and every one of the tracks while writing this. 10/10, keep it up dude! I like the fact that we both knew synthwave was going to be perfect for the type of vibe the VN has. I wonder what Parzival thinks of the OST. He sure knows his shit.
Edit: Just in case, I made a Frutiger Aero song, so that the VN is hip with the youth.
Posting Epic Threads .mp3

Synthwave plus some generic beats definitely fits the vibe I think, but most of mine were that just because that is mostly what I used to make. I love the new song too! Fits well. We are definitely already starting to build out a pretty cohesive soundtrack! Also, I made your song "I'm In" the main menu music as I think it fits well for that. Could be the main theme generally unless we come up with something better!

We can even do leitmotifs, but that's something for way down the line. I think we need a hacking song and another one like SERN, and we're good:


So far, I think we have more than a reasonable OST.
We need to put all our energy into the writing since that's the most important part, or so I've heard (I'm a Persona fan, I can't read). Here's a little list of tips I put together:

-Deluoode! "The problems of the future, today!" The forum that Del-chan frequents. Originally, it used to focus on technology, sci-fi, and time travel. But due to the constant influx of new users, it is now a more general forum with sci-fi themes. Users of this forum call themselves Deluooders and/or observers.

Power Glove: Released in the late 80's by the videogame company Nientiendo, it was supposed to be an add-on for their flagship console that would replace the controllers, with varying degrees of success. Some consumers outright said "It sucks ass". Del-chan was able to get her hands on one of these for a mere fraction of what it used to cost, while making some modifications of her own. Now she won't take it off.

-Glowie or Glowies: A slang term referring to federal workers or people who have ties to the government. They're called this because of a rumor claiming that you can spot them at night because they glow, with people opting to run them over in some cases.

[Gotz]

This is absolutely incredible!!! Well done! ദ്ദി ( ᵔ ᗜ ᵔ )
I can't really help with anything technical... And I do enjoy writing, though there are others here much more qualified for that. But I've always enjoyed doing character voices! I have many years of experience through things like D&D. So if you end up adding voices, I'd be down to try out for it.

I've always thought it'd cool to be a voice actor.

[Yuuni Anno]

Oh my God this sounds wonderful, I'll try the Sample Game ASAP so I have a basis on what I could contribute. I've been itching to try my hand at writing a VN ever since I got into this. Even if I don't end up doing anything I'm interested to see where this could go.

[nyan]

You should dump the code as soon as possible; I couldn't actually get the game to run since it wasn't statically linked, wine didn't work either. Being able to dick around with the engine should be enough to get me writing. Other people are probably gonna wanna hack on it too, so you aren't losing anything by putting a repo up.

I spent tonight trying to clean the code up as much as I could and threw it on a couple repos here! The engine and the game are two separate projects. To get it all running, just clone the game repo into the root engine directory and rename it to "game" then follow the instructions from there. Also, @Amlux there is the engine source so far, since you wanted it.

Ok so, in line with the retro style I think it'd be cool if you could put different filters on the screen. You know how the S;G 8-bit game has different styles, something kinda like that. You could shift the game into a monochrome gameboy-esque pallette when Del-tan jacks into the matrix or whatever.

Definitely something we could do. Might implement that tomorrow actually.

leitmotifs

Thanks for teaching me a new word Definitely also something we could do!

So far, I think we have more than a reasonable OST.
We need to put all our energy into the writing since that's the most important part, or so I've heard (I'm a Persona fan, I can't read).

I agree. Maybe I'll even try my hand at writing again! Hope to see lots of writing submissions or plot ideas soon!

Here's a little list of tips I put together:

-Deluoode! "The problems of the future, today!" The forum that Del-chan frequents. Originally, it used to focus on technology, sci-fi, and time travel. But due to the constant influx of new users, it is now a more general forum with sci-fi themes. Users of this forum call themselves Deluooders and/or observers.

Power Glove: Released in the late 80's by the videogame company Nientiendo, it was supposed to be an add-on for their flagship console that would replace the controllers, with varying degrees of success. Some consumers outright said "It sucks ass". Del-chan was able to get her hands on one of these for a mere fraction of what it used to cost, while making some modifications of her own. Now she won't take it off.

-Glowie or Glowies: A slang term referring to federal workers or people who have ties to the government. They're called this because of a rumor claiming that you can spot them at night because they glow, with people opting to run them over in some cases.

Added as the first entries in the glossary!

This is absolutely incredible!!! Well done! ദ്ദി ( ᵔ ᗜ ᵔ )
I can't really help with anything technical... And I do enjoy writing, though there are others here much more qualified for that. But I've always enjoyed doing character voices! I have many years of experience through things like D&D. So if you end up adding voices, I'd be down to try out for it.

I've always thought it'd cool to be a voice actor.

Would love to have you write or voice act! Both would be great! Would love to see what you can come up with!