Little by little, this page will list the results of my foray into the realm of Visual Novel (VN) authoring. Thanks to the extremely powerful Ren'Py Visual Novel Interpreter (open source) and the support of the Lemma Soft Forums, creating your own Visual Novel has become a breeze. (Well, not quite... you still have to do the rest of the work.) This first step of mine took a while, but in the end resulted in the release of a 70-minute story in 2006.
News tidbits
- "Go! Magical Boy" has been re-released with included game sources (script, images) so that you can have a look behind the scenes. The story now also runs on Windows Vista, Mac, and Linux (downloads see below).
- "Go! Magical Boy" was featured in the "Free games" section of the Finnish computer magazine "Mikrobitti" 08/2006 and was distributed to all subscribers on the magazine's yearly DVD in December 2006.
- "Go! Magical Boy" has been translated into Czech language (thanks to denzil!)
Completed Visual Novels
GO! Magical Boy
Genre: Comedy/Magical girl parody
First Release Date: 2006-03-29
Playtime: approx. 70 minutes
Category: BxG (bishoujo), VN (Visual Novel)
Rating: all ages
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux/Unix (cross-platform ZIP file)
License: Free (Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5)
Screenshots
Synopsis
Life would be pretty nice if it wasn't for the fact that you seem to be the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time. You just moved, have made no friends yet, are late for dinner, and about to bump into the scariest situation you could have imagined. On top of that, a strange woman picks you up and burdens you with an impossible task. And boy, now you're really late for dinner. Did I mention the girls? No? Well, there's even more trouble ahead.
Resources
- A new release 006 is available (published on 28 Oct 2008): Download the latest version for Windows (10 MB), Mac (14 MB), Linux (10 MB). The Windows version is also mirrored at download.com.
- Release 005 (26 Oct 2006) is still available here and as a Czech language release (translation by denzil).
- Release 004 (02 April 2006) can still be found via the Go! Magical Boy Permalink at the Ren'Ai Archives.
- The GO! Magical Boy discussion thread for questions, support, and news. Feel free to post feedback, I'd be very happy to hear your opinions!
- The soundtrack is downloadable from www.mikseri.net/magnify.
Visual Novels in Progress
Cyberlin
Genre: Science Fiction, suspense
Release Date: Sometime in 2010?
Playtime: approx. 120 minutes
Category: GxB (bishounen), VN (Visual Novel)
Rating: 13+
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux/Unix
Concept art/screenshots
Status
Started in April 2006, Cyberlin is based on an interactive short story I originally wanted to release as a text-only adventure. My daytime job, other hobbies, and family are slowing development down, but as of March 2010, work is still progressing steadily. You can follow up on the status and ask questions in the Cyberlin development thread.
Visual Novel Resources
If you are interested and want to find out more about Visual Novels and Ren'Ai games, have a look at The Ren'Ai Archives and insani.org for downloadable Visual Novels. New releases are also often posted in the Completed Ren'ai Games discussion thread at the Lemma Soft Forums.
If you want to start writing your own Visual Novel, you will need the Ren'Py Visual Novel Interpreter, some support from the always helpful people at the Lemma Soft Forums, and a bit of talent (or, at least, talented team members). On the graphical side of things, I found The GIMP to be a very recommendable program for image processing.
Additional good resources are the image repositories Stock.XCHNG and Morguefile, as well as the sound sample database freesound. For a crash-course in drawing, I recommend the two "Draw Your Own Manga" books (All The Basics and Beyond The Basics) by Nagatomo Harumo. And if you're getting serious, a scanner and a drawing tablet would be a good idea, too.