Rokkenjima Communal Mystery Visual Novel!

Gameboards
#1

Alas, this is not a Gameboard for you all to try and solve; rather, this is a Gameboard I’m inviting you to help me create! I spoke with @Karifean earlier about the idea of working together on a mystery, and we threw out a number of ideas; I think it’d be a neat exercise to see if anyone’s interested in combining various talents to create a Rokkenjima Visual Novel! Of the locked room murder variety, of course.

There’s a lot of ways we could go with this, but in all cases, we will need the following teams:

Writing! I’ll be a part of this, as I enjoy writing locked room mysteries. Overall, this team will do the actual writing; how this will be split up will be discussed after we narrow down the details of the idea.

Art! This can range from just re-using Umineko assets (if we decide to do a more simple VN) or creating our own (if we want to go a more professional route). Either way, we’ll need people in charge of sprites, backgrounds, and CGs, if there will be any.

Programming! This team takes everything else and brings it together with sticky tape.

Story! This includes everyone from each team! We’ll all pow-wow together to get a story that we all like (or mostly like, anyway) and would enjoy working on. Then we’ll split up the roles and teams and make us a nice little visual novel.

So! Who’s interested in helping create a Rokkenjima visual novel? Doesn’t have to happen anytime soon, if we’re all busy; but if you’re hyped by the idea and want to create, speak up and tell us your thoughts!

Ideas (comment on what you’d like to see, like to work on, other ideas, etc. regardless of your interest or availability):

*A re-imagining of Umineko. Basically a fan-game; change some part of the story or make up a solution or w/e.

*A mystery using 07th Expansion (and maybe other) assets. Our own story and what have you, but we can use sprites and backgrounds from whatever we want: Danganronpa, Zero Escape, Pretty Pretty Princess, etc.

*A full-fledged murder mystery from scratch! Since we’re using our own assets, we could actually toss this out on Steam and elsewhere if we wanted.

*A meme mystery. All characters are @Karifean :blushing: and our sprites are all fingerpainted. Meme-land. :blushing:

Anyway, give us your thoughts. I reserve the right to reject all of them. :cackle:

16 Likes
Introduce Yourself!
#2

A communal mystery visual novel project…

I make no promises, but if the project gathers enough wind beneath its wings, I suppose I could consider trying to contribute something. I don’t particularly trust my writing skills, and I have an abysmal lack of art skills, but I have some programming experience and I could contribute story ideas. I’ve been thinking about some little ideas I could use for hosting gameboards on this forum, but if I end up never using some of them, I could donate them for a better cause, should there be any value in any of them.

Then again, should a Rokkenjima mystery VN happen, it’d be delightful to just enjoy it as a reader, too.

Anyhow, obviously the story should be about Wonderlander being found dead and the obvious suspects being Restkastel, pictoshark and King_Titanite_XV, who held a grudge over some mafia game or something. It turns out they all did it. Individually of each other. And then there’s some Witch of Dankest Memes running around inviting people to meme-land, but in a cruel twist it turns out that meme-land is a horrible place where all curtains give people the finger and nobody actually wants to go there. The end.

6 Likes
#3

I absolutely love this idea! I’d be really happy to help out with writing- I have some prior experience with making VN stuff too. I am, however, a character writer and not a mystery writer, so I’m not sure if you’d like that or not.

Now, I’m definitely voting for mystery from scratch. Umineko and Zero Escape inspiration is fine, I think, but I also think that starting from scratch would give the project a lot more freedom than it would otherwise.

2 Likes
#4

Oh what a cool idea!

Any of these ideas sound really fun. Mystery from a scratch has the most creative freedom, though it might be more difficult to come to a board-wide consensus on something like that. It might be the best choice, depending one how experienced people are in making fan-games.

I’m a decent writer and I’d be happy to help this project in any way that I could, though I have no experience in actual game-making. But this idea is awesome.

2 Likes
#5

Heh, I’ve done that sort of thing a few times before, in a different fandom.
Of course having unique assets would be preferable, but how feasible that is will depend on the amount of willing artists. (and let’s not forget that most visual novels also come with music, so to be fully unique you’d need composers too. In this community it might be just as fun to just throw in some sweet umineko music though.)

Anyway, this sounds neat and I’d love to try and contribute if time allows.
Even if it doesn’t, I wouldn’t mind throwing around some ideas at least.
My writing is decent when it comes to mystery/plot. I’m somewhat well versed the golden age of detection fiction, which I guess might come in handy depending on what exactly this will end up being about.

I can also do programming. None of the things that usually happen in a VN should give me trouble, at least.

Whether my… art… is suitable would depend on the quality standard we’re aiming for. :bern:

2 Likes
#6

Experience and ambition is the reason I’d actually prefer not to do a full project straight off the bat. We run the very real risk of taking on more than we can handle and just end up stalling or running into communication and directing issues. Which is why I’d say let’s do something more humble for now. We’ve never worked together, hell I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s straight up never worked on a collaboration like this.

If we could just make a custom mystery using the same setting and characters from Umineko except with different events and motivations, that would be a good start, I think. More extensive collaborations can come after that.

3 Likes
#7

I’ll just go along with whatever you all decide. For the record, this wouldn’t be my first novel or VN I’ve written/participated in writing, but it will be the first for some of us, as mentioned. Not to mention we’re spreading the tasks out between multiple people, so one slow cog can cause the whole thing to stall.

Regarding direction and the final word: what worked previously was each team having a leader to call the shots, with a project manager (usually the person with the overall vision of the thing; one of the team leaders) making sure they didn’t contradict another. Which usually just meant making sure the artists and writing describe the same thing lol. It won’t be an issue as long as we can all agree on the overall story/plot, which is what everyone will have a word on during the initial discussions.

I will say that any VN will take work, since art, programming, and writing all take significant time. So whatever we choose: make it something worth working on.

1 Like
#8

Ooh… this sounds interesting.

Now I did do a VN as a day job for awhile. But I am a little busy so I wouldn’t be able to contribute a lot of time towards it.

However I can program some crazy custom VN features if people desire. Those take comparatively far less time to do than writing/editing/drawing.

1 Like
#9

I’m willing to help a little in any way I can, which is basically programming and… well, I can sprite, not sure about drawing stuff though. I can also give my input on story of course, although it’s not my forte.

1 Like
#10

I feel like I’m the only one who basically can’t do anything to help, haha.
But I’ll hopefully be able to do what I do best anyway, read it and give my opinion once you are done.
The idea is great and I’m looking forward to what your crazy collective mind can create.

1 Like
#11

You and me both I guess… I am a great proofreader though! :stuck_out_tongue:

And yeah, we should attempt this like a fan game, maybe with Umineko characters, maybe with community people, but nothing professional? :stuck_out_tongue:

#12

If I wasn’t taking university exams in roughly 20 days I would’ve been inclined to contribute immediately. Alas.

I’d beta-test, at least.

Finger painted sprites sounds incredible though, could be a wonderful homage to Higurashi.

2 Likes
#13

I guess making a VN on your own is a lot easier if people are willing to accept finger painted sprites lol

#14

I think finger painted sprites would be a wonderful homage to Higurashi. I’m all in favor of it. I also think we could use someone to make some Dai-esque music (or just original music in general). If I had any sorts of talents in that field, I’d be more than willing to help. Unfortunately, I cannot carry a tune to save my life.

That said, I am an incredibly good editor. Like @Wonderlander I’d be more than happy to proofread. I had a newspaper back in highschool, so I even have a little bit of experience in the field! However, like @Funyarinpa, I also have a unhealthy dose of final exams coming relatively quickly.

I think that as long as we keep the novel fairly short, it’s feasible. And as long as we all pour our hearts into it, I truly believe it will be good. Because effort itself means something. Even if only a few are able to see that effort, as long as it reaches someone, it’s all worth while.

#15

So far, here’s what the list of interested persons looks like:

Writing:
@Karifean (yea)
@MrDent (yea)
@thesorceress
@Blackrune (yea)
@U4ea (yea)
@Pandora (yea)
@Vayalite (nay)

Art:
@Blackrune (maybe?) (yea)

Programming:
@midsummer
@Karifean (I think?) (yea)
@Blackrune (yea)
@Dreamheart (yea)
@StarTurner (yea)

Useless (er, ‘Moral Support’ and Official Coffee Lackeys):
@Doldod
@Wonderlander
@Funyarinpa
@EternalMagician

Murder Victims:
everyone except me

Regardless of our intent with this project, I’m thinking we’ll have to stick with reusing other art assets, unless we want to stick all the work on one poor soul. Which would be fine with me :cackle: though I suppose some of us have a conscience. If we’re reusing artwork, might as well reuse music too.

Given that the glorious writing team looks like it’ll be massive, we probably need to figure out how to split up the work among those interested. There’s different ways to do that, but it will come down to this: we need to make the story first.

I’m just going to throw this out there for interested writers, as it’s amazing writing advice. Written from a different perspective, but applies to pretty much any character-driven work: http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/461.html

Just click the arrow to go to the next entry. Read through them, be amazed, and then go read his Dresden Files series. It’s wonderful; very good urban fantasy. No locked room murders (actually, there are some, but the answer is magic :cackle:), but still pretty nice.

Current project proposal: locked room murder mystery utilizing other art and music assets (making this more fanfiction than anything, since those assets will probably be 07th Expansion). Plot will be formed through community discussion; tasks will be relegated among the teams.

Main issue: writing team task management. We can either go with a main writer, to keep everything written in one style, or split scenes, or routes/what have you, among multiple writers, which would risk an inconsistent writing style, or do both: many writers, one writer going through and making it all look the same-ish style. Otherwise, we’d get gems like:

“Jimmy went to the bathroom. Jimmy ate a potato. Jimmy choked and died.”
…
“And thus it happened there, that Jimmy hath died within the room of bathing, from whence came many potatoes. Glorious in their potato natures, they attracted potatoes and thus was born the witch of endless potatoes. and everyone hated it. the end”

I think that would actually be hilarious to read, but it would be a tad disconcerning for readers to keep switching up styles.

Anyway, if you think this sounds good and are willing to launch the project in the next week, give a ‘Yea’ below. With reasons and such and thoughts on the writing issue. Otherwise, I’ll delay it till May or June-ish.

5 Likes
#16

I guess I can join in on the fun too. Perhaps this could be our community event for the 10th anniversary of Umineko!
I’m great at editing and I consider myself to be a pretty decent writer, so I guess I can help in that regard.

1 Like
#17

I could join the fun as well but I don’t have anything to really bring to the table except for maybe ideas so consider me a useless goat or a coffee monkey.

1 Like
#18

Yea, I’m good with going ahead soon.

#19

@ghagler this sounds good to me! I say we do both, since that will be the fastest. I volunteer myself as the one who makes sure everything sounds good, since I’ve had experience with newspapers (which also had multiple writers at times!). That said if someone else would like to do that instead, I am more than willing to contribute elsewhere.

You get a yea from me!

Also @Pandora, I also think this is a great anniversary present we are creating! Perhaps with enough love, it will be seen by Ryukishi? I doubt it, but boy that’d be cool.

#20

Sounds good @ghagler, has my yea even though I’m not on the writer team…
As for programming though, if there’s to be multiple people on that front I’d suggest github or something, and picking a language.