Well, there was that amazing run-cycle animation at the Thanksgiving party where she has a panic attack in the woods...
LOL... yeah there was that. I'd rather scenes with say... Zoey coming over and finding the MC hanging out in his bedroom with Josy and Maya (or who ever the LI is, I've only done one full serious play thru so far and that was the Josy/Maya path. I want to try Sage next because of what I've seen so far I really like her. Jill I... dunno yet, reserving opinion). Not a sexual scene, just... hanging out "oh hey Zoey... these are my GFs... this is Zoey we were best friends growing up." Zoey's reaction would have made for some good renders.
I can see it now... Josy being her bubbly friendly self happily greets Zoey and starts drawing her right in.
Maya joins in welcoming Zoey.
Zoey is feeling a mixture of repulsion and panic while looking for an exit but can't escape the charming gravitas that is Josy while Maya circles in for the group hug
Meanwhile the MC watchs and just smiles
I'm cracking up thinking about it. We were CHEATED! I want that scene now!
Short stories are the best form of experimenting on how to write. Never go into something big until you can figure it out in the smallest, most succinct way. Start with outlines, get your middle and ending, then fill in the blanks.
I appreciate the advice, its something I struggle with. I'm a natural born world builder, so its like that old Karl Sagan joke... to bake and apple pie from scratch, first you must create a universe. That's exactly what I do. I start by building my world, and then work from there. So I know where everything is and why it is. I can give you reams of history and back story. I know why the price of plums is what it is and why that's relevant to the the characters grandmothers favorite song. I over build. I do the same with characters, I write out whole back stories, sometimes I even give them made up stats, skill lists, etc like an RPG just to help me better visualize them.
So, that point where Josy doesn't know what skills she has? Oh no hun, here's your backstory, I have your skill list right here rated by how good you are at each... LOL I'm that bad. Go ahead an laugh, I am.
But the downside is I generate so much material and so many ideas its hard for me to prune it down, as you said, to its most succinct form. I REALLY gotta work on that more.
And now it looks like Josy/Zoey will become a second Zoey/Josy...
I am very sad at how right you probably are. I would happily give Zoey all ten $ out of his wallet to go BACK to the WC and disappear. I really wish she had been written differently and they'd worked through things more, it could have been some great story.
The system is essentially broken or useless. The scene with punching Patrick being the only close one lately. Which is useless, as Maya's problem with the contract is resolved anyway in Episode 11...great choices DPC!
Instead of being something like a Mass Effect Paragon/Neutral/Renegade system, it has now devolved into Neutral/Chick, as every path is now "be nice to your girl, including Sage and Quinn, even if you can't choose Chick"?
Agreed, I've kind of made something of it cause in all this and some other VNs I'm trying, I'm taking notes on what seems to work and what doesn't. Or in once case, what could have worked but the way it was done was a disaster; looking at you "The Roommate" with your daily event planner.
Right. The CHICK Bella and Jill seems proper. The DIK Sage and Quinn seems proper. But now it's all Neutral/Chick, and even your attitude can be permanent (which means what now?) He either changes the system up, or it's going to keep being "be nice to your GF".
I'm fine with being nice to your GF... I am in RL... hell I'm a hopeless poetry spouting romantic. But, with everything tied to that, you have to be nice to everyone... and that I am not. In RL, I can be the biggest asshole you ever met if pissed off or crossed... I grew up around bikers, it... affected me. But if I'm serious about a gal, I'm protective, caring, sweet, giant teddy bear of a guy. Everyone else can fukkin piss off.
This is what repeatedly bugged me. The MC can't choose to be really nice to some people and a massive dick to others, in the end you're either one or the other... it kills the nuance. I wouldn't want him to be a massive dick to most of the DIKs (maybe Tommy, Tommy deserves it and also seems to kinda respect it). Why can't you be a nice guy to your friends and a nightmare to anybody dumb enough to make an enemy of you? So yeah, the current system is broken, makes the MC seem shallower and forces me into min/maxing instead of letting my choices be more organic as I role play the MC.
The Magnar reveal at the end is just silly.
Yeah, and it doesn't fit the rest of the story IMHO. I'm having visions of Magnar being dragged off to a mental institute in a straight jacket while screaming they can't do that to him because he's the Dungeon Master and he makes all the rules! Which gives me flash backs to my younger days playing D&D right about the time Mazes & Monsters with Tom Hanks came out and my parents went ape shit over it.
Kurt Vonnegut is famous for saying he never uses mystery, and instead just reveals whatever the interesting idea is first, and then goes from there. Showing us Magnar is some mastermind is a waste of exposition. Oh great, another fight with the Tri-Alphas, while the audience knows more than the characters...same with the magical Bella door being unlocked. It's getting old and dragged out.
No argument from me.
Appreciated the vote of confidence on me tackling a VN. I'm still more than a bit unsure about it. I have a story started, a setting, some character outlines and some general ideas of a middle and an end but that's as far as I've gotten. I know I've still got some 3D skills I need to work on, I need to learn to use soft body physics (most people call em jiggle physics) in Blender with characters and I need to learn more about working with characters in Blender, which I've done very little of. Most of my experience has been with scenery, architecture, furniture, props, etc.
