MC virtual ID for VN games

[4sdrub4l]

The other day I was thinking about something that I believe it is virtually impossible to make as of now,

Imagine a website where you could create your MC characteristics to use in any VN you would like. Let's say I want to create a caucasian character, where I can define the body type, sexual specifications regarding size, hair colour, etc, and build a virtual MC to use in Visual Novels.

Now imagine you are running a VN game and it asks if you want to use your universal MC online ID, and if you choose to do so, it will get your character looks, name or even sexual preferences, and apply those to the VN, making the experience more personal.



Would you like something like this if one day it was possible to achieve? Give me your thoughts.

 

[Gone405]

This would be awesome for sure the problem is trying to get so many games to work with this service. A lot of coordination is needed for this. Devs would have to tweak their games for it. Fun idea for sure.

 

[Insomnimaniac Games]

This would be awesome for sure the problem is trying to get so many games to work with this service. A lot of coordination is needed for this. Devs would have to tweak their games for it. Fun idea for sure.

It would take a lot more than tweaks, it would take an ungodly amount of work.

 

[4sdrub4l]

And then there would be the nightmare of artwork... each game is made with a specific artwork genre, and how would the system create a previously set MC into a specific artwork in order to make everything in place? That's way I believe we are still very far from getting something like this into a reality... but it would be so awesome!!

Maybe with the integration of AI... but even then... a freaking Dev nightmare

 

[Gone405]

It would take a lot more than tweaks, it would take an ungodly amount of work.

Yea you're not wrong I did very much under sell the work . Maybe if one of us was a billionaire we could make this happen.

 

[Gone405]

And then there would be the nightmare of artwork... each game is made with a specific artwork genre, and how would the system create a previously set MC into a specific artwork in order to make everything in place? That's way I believe we are still very far from getting something like this into a reality... but it would be so awesome!!

Maybe with the integration of AI... but even then... a freaking Dev nightmare

Yea all the devs would need to be working with the same tools to maybe get a little thing going

 

[4sdrub4l]

My mind keeps falling to AI... like it somehow analyse the artwork for several key points, and the automatically creates the MC character using the pre-configured specifics the user set previously.

 

[Gone405]

My mind keeps falling to AI... like it somehow analyse the artwork for several key points, and the automatically creates the MC character using the pre-configured specifics the user set previously.

That would for sure be best case. Everyone would have to work with the same tools.

 

[Catapo]

The other day I was thinking about something that I believe it is virtually impossible to make as of now,

Imagine a website where you could create your MC characteristics to use in any VN you would like. Let's say I want to create a caucasian character, where I can define the body type, sexual specifications regarding size, hair colour, etc, and build a virtual MC to use in Visual Novels.

Now imagine you are running a VN game and it asks if you want to use your universal MC online ID, and if you choose to do so, it will get your character looks, name or even sexual preferences, and apply those to the VN, making the experience more personal.

View attachment 3768964

Would you like something like this if one day it was possible to achieve? Give me your thoughts.

Well some of what you are describing sort of exists already, in an odd way, in the form of the works from Illusion: Koikatsu, Honey Select, etc.

These games allow users to create and exchange custom characters that are saved in the form of cards which are then compatible with the scenes and animations existing in the game. I am not sure how much they do in the game but I am positive those cards can also store personality and sexual traits of said characters.

It would be a lot of work and require professionals to pull off but a similar system would be doable and without any use of AI.
It would most likely still have to be with realtime 3D models in scenes instead of custom VN CGs in order to have proper support for user creations with more control for the system.

I would also find it difficult to believe that such a system would be released to be used freely by other developers, rather it would end up being used in multiple games made by the same company.

Oddly enough the most difficult thing to pull off would be the writing aspects of said games, since as you described it they would have to take into account name, description, personality and preference of custom user characters and integrate that seamlessly into the stories.

Is it doable ?
Yes.
Would it be an absolutely insane amount of work ?
Absolutely.
Would it be interesting ?
Hell Yes.
Would it be profitable ?
Arguably, which is why I don't think any major teams would be in any rush to attempt such a thing.

 

[desmosome]

It's a pipe dream until AI advances much more.

Doing this without AI would mean there needs to be a universal modular framework that needs to be made, which is not likely. On top of that, it needs to be accepted by the industry as a standard, which is also unlikely. Once AI becomes powerful enough, it could conceivably replace any character with another one, but we are not there yet and may not reach it for many many years.

 

[AllNatural939]

It sounds nice but it's impossible... There are currently a huge number of VNs that come with pre-rendered images in which it's not possible to make changes. If the images were just sprites, perhaps, but it cannot be done with something previously defined.

 

[4sdrub4l]

The only way I see this slightly working is by building a 3D model of the MC, but even then all games would need to use the same... 3D framework?! Or could frameworks adapt to a predefined 3D base to change the artwork on top of it? I am probably mixing everything in a big impossible mess... ain't I?