Hello again, folks!
I have bad news, followed by good news.
The bad news is, nothing has gotten done this past week. This being the week of midterms for my school, I was a bit preoccupied.
The good news is, I'm entering spring break; so I will be able to work (mostly) unconstrained for the next week. I will also be in Arizona with my family, but I will have more time to develop some conceptualization material, and get some stuff roughed out. I also want to send out some more requests for artists and writers, and then hopefully be able to sit down with people and work out more of the focus of the project. I have some ideas, but ideas are worth nothing without the work to give them value. Who knows, maybe we'll have a solid project foundation by the end of the week.
Keep in touch, and stay classy.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
Developer Diary #2 - Field Research
Well folks, just this past weekend, I attended Kitsune Kon '12 in Appleton, WI; I must say, it was a very interesting three-day convention for me and for the project.
I've met with several people who seem to like the idea of the game, as well as many interesting characters and situations; many of which left a lasting impression on my story so far. In addition, my own course of events at the convention came eerily close to matching what I had written down as plot points and key events so far, which is very reassuring and interesting at the same time... did I predict my own course of events, or did my writing cause me to unconsciously live out the experiences I wrote for my character? If so, then how do I explain the encounters with the many different personalities I'd imagined throughout the convention? Am I over-analyzing this situation? Probably. Food for thought, though. I'll have to discuss this with the awesome girl I met at the con... ;p
Regardless, I also got contact information for a few other interested artists, so we may have some new team members in the near future. I currently don't have much for my team to work on at this point; I'll have to come up with a means of holding discussions or meetings with the team, and gathering ideas and developing the team process. I'd envision using IRC, with one big meeting via IRC or a forum posting on a regular weekly or bi-weekly schedule, but any suggestions on that front would be appreciated. ♥
I've met with several people who seem to like the idea of the game, as well as many interesting characters and situations; many of which left a lasting impression on my story so far. In addition, my own course of events at the convention came eerily close to matching what I had written down as plot points and key events so far, which is very reassuring and interesting at the same time... did I predict my own course of events, or did my writing cause me to unconsciously live out the experiences I wrote for my character? If so, then how do I explain the encounters with the many different personalities I'd imagined throughout the convention? Am I over-analyzing this situation? Probably. Food for thought, though. I'll have to discuss this with the awesome girl I met at the con... ;p
Regardless, I also got contact information for a few other interested artists, so we may have some new team members in the near future. I currently don't have much for my team to work on at this point; I'll have to come up with a means of holding discussions or meetings with the team, and gathering ideas and developing the team process. I'd envision using IRC, with one big meeting via IRC or a forum posting on a regular weekly or bi-weekly schedule, but any suggestions on that front would be appreciated. ♥
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Developer Diary #1 - We have members now!
Well, folks, it seems like we're an actual project now. We just recently got our first two registered team members:
- Hybridmonk, helping with writing,
- Goddess Viridi, helping with artwork.
With me, this makes... three. Cool.
Anyway, with this development, we can start getting some more initial project assets in place, and start actually discussing and working on some more pre-production development. It may be a long haul, but I know I'll enjoy every minute of it. In the mean time, we are still looking for more artists and writers! If you are interested, please make a posting on the Recruitment forum: http://con-ai.forumotion.com/f1-recruitment. I look forward to the coming (insert amount of time here).
~ Shotgun Ninja
~ Shotgun Ninja
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Con'Ai - An anime-convention-themed visual novel
Hello everyone, welcome to the new official blog of the Con'Ai Project.
What is the Con'Ai Project, you might be asking?
Put simply, this project is an attempt to develop and release a ren'ai-style freeware visual novel game, which will take place at a Western anime convention. (Exactly which country the convention will appear in is yet to be decided, but it will not be set in Japan.) The project hopes to leverage the strength of the OELVN community, which has been significantly expanded by the recent success of the ren'ai game Katawa Shoujo (http://katawa-shoujo.com/), and the subsequent uprise of other promising OELVN projects due to the game's success.
The premise of the project is that it will elaborate upon, parody, and pay homage to the international phenomenon of the anime convention subculture, recognizing the fans, creators, and other people who have been brought together by this strange Japanese combination of distinctive animation, intricate artwork, and edgy subject matter, as well as showing the excitement of the fanbase, which culminates at the many anime conventions held all around the world on an annual basis. What better way to immortalize the one-of-a-kind experience of an anime convention, than by creating a visual novel which imitates the style of the work being appreciated at anime conventions, for the purpose of representing the fans and their stories from a firsthand perspective?
That said, the central topic of the visual novel will be motivation: Why do people go to anime conventions? My theory is that there are five main raisons-d'aller (reasons to go) that drive the experience: Attention, Appreciation, Friendship, Competition, and Talent. The main character, a male college student, will have the opportunity to establish a relationship with one of five female characters during the course of a three-day anime convention, where each female character represents one of these five motivating factors. By attending events with each character, the player will be able to witness some core aspect of the anime subculture, as well as gain a further understanding of the motivations behind each character's actions, until they get to the point where a relationship can be established with one of the characters.
The Con'Ai project currently has very few members, but we are currently in desperate need of artists, musicians, and writers. If you are interested in joining our team, or would like to know more about the project, check out our development and discussion forums at http://con-ai.forumotion.com/.
What is the Con'Ai Project, you might be asking?
Put simply, this project is an attempt to develop and release a ren'ai-style freeware visual novel game, which will take place at a Western anime convention. (Exactly which country the convention will appear in is yet to be decided, but it will not be set in Japan.) The project hopes to leverage the strength of the OELVN community, which has been significantly expanded by the recent success of the ren'ai game Katawa Shoujo (http://katawa-shoujo.com/), and the subsequent uprise of other promising OELVN projects due to the game's success.
The premise of the project is that it will elaborate upon, parody, and pay homage to the international phenomenon of the anime convention subculture, recognizing the fans, creators, and other people who have been brought together by this strange Japanese combination of distinctive animation, intricate artwork, and edgy subject matter, as well as showing the excitement of the fanbase, which culminates at the many anime conventions held all around the world on an annual basis. What better way to immortalize the one-of-a-kind experience of an anime convention, than by creating a visual novel which imitates the style of the work being appreciated at anime conventions, for the purpose of representing the fans and their stories from a firsthand perspective?
That said, the central topic of the visual novel will be motivation: Why do people go to anime conventions? My theory is that there are five main raisons-d'aller (reasons to go) that drive the experience: Attention, Appreciation, Friendship, Competition, and Talent. The main character, a male college student, will have the opportunity to establish a relationship with one of five female characters during the course of a three-day anime convention, where each female character represents one of these five motivating factors. By attending events with each character, the player will be able to witness some core aspect of the anime subculture, as well as gain a further understanding of the motivations behind each character's actions, until they get to the point where a relationship can be established with one of the characters.
The Con'Ai project currently has very few members, but we are currently in desperate need of artists, musicians, and writers. If you are interested in joining our team, or would like to know more about the project, check out our development and discussion forums at http://con-ai.forumotion.com/.
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