Ruminations Archive

Alright. Got two pictures to archive, scanned images of the two pages we filled at the place we did this a few days ago.

Quick rundown in order to cover my godawful handwriting, as well as some commentary:

Page 1 (displayed last)--
-"Saiunkoku"-esque Fantasy Japan
-We can blend periods (Edo/Bakufu, Muromachi) but the primary period would be Sengoku

"Saiunkoku Monogatari" is a Japanese media franchise telling the story of a impoverished young noblewoman and her quest to help her nation's emperor survive and prosper in the shadow of dynastic and feudal turbulence. (It's pretty good.) One of its features is a setting that mixes and matches vastly different periods of Chinese history-- Tang-era inventions, Ming/Qing-style examinations, and Chinese sayings from all eras-- into a vaguely Zhou/Warring States/Han-looking milieu, with a dash of fantasy thrown in. This lets the author establish an era that's demonstrably 'Chinese' without having actual history impinge itself on the story.

I figured that's a good idea, and all good ideas deserve to be stolen. Our game will be set with themes that are from Japan's Sengoku period (ambitious warlords, rapid swapping of alliances, strong personalities imposing themselves onto the scene) along with its cultural trappings (armor, clothing, hairstyles, etc.). However, since we like things out of other periods (large Edo-era towns with thriving merchant and artist classes, Heian clothing, etc.), it would be perfectly alright to throw things in there to make the game both demonstrably 'Japanese' and unconstrained by history.

-Katawa Shoujo is our baseline example for the VN structure
-4 interests (5 might seem too much- diluted, pairs)
Katawa Shoujo is an Original English Language Visual Novel created by our heroes at 4 Leaf Studios. We picked it for a few reasons-- it's short, it's very well-written, and it's readily available to analyze.
It also has a few flaws that we would like to learn from. Of the five potential interests, I found that one was poorly developed and only had one real scene. I posit that writing for five interests requires an extra degree of writing focus compared to four interests, since the fifth interest adds an extra layer of interactions in addition to the raw writing bulk. Four interests can also be paired easily into groups of two, which will easily lead into our sketched-out story frame. The other flaw will be analyzed when we get to the diagrams below.

-Quiz Netario Dreams: Randomized Dating Sim Format
Ai clued me in to this as a resource/example of how to randomize elements in the dating sim/VN format. I haven't looked at it yet, but it might be useful.

-Sad Guy in Snow
Absolute requisite.

Diagrams:
At the bottom of the page are two diagrams displaying the story structure for Katawa Shoujo and my proposed structure.

In Katawa Shoujo, you make dialogue choices for your blank-slate character that both sketches him out as a character and grants you insights into the interests' personalities, and the resulting personality you 'create' decides where you end up. Acting aggressive attracts the pushy school president, while acting attentive attracts the shy bookworm. During this 'attraction' stage, you make a choice that either reverts you back to the primary storyline (rejection of the attribute) or locks you in to that interest's unique storyline (acceptance of the attribute). Rejecting all of the attributes (aggressive, laid-back, attentive, never-say-die, and interesting) leads you to the BAD END.

It's a good system that draws the player in and allows him to shape the character. It's also simple and very clean. However, this simplicity creates a problem-- the girls do not get equal attention. The disparity is created by the fact that the girls are introduced asynchronously-- the class rep comes first, then the elegant girl and the bookworm, then the athlete, and then the artist. The choice that locks you in for the class rep is perhaps 40-50% through the game, while the choice that locks you in for the artist is the last choice available. As a result, the class rep's path is long and tedious compared to the other girls', while the artist's is maddeningly short.

I think that good design can overcome this problem, though we're still working out the barest fragments of story. I had the idea to allow the player the choice of when to introduce each interest, and then follow that up with the main storyline. The choices you make would perform the same function as in Katawa Shoujo during the main storyline. Then, there would be a catastrophic event, the war, that would lock you in to the interest that your choices would have led you to. If you didn't meet a certain threshhold (decided by points? Logic gates?), you would be shuffled off to a lonely BAD END. If you don't get that, then you could make further choices that determine how you end up with your interest.

Page 2 (possibly posted first?)
Math:
Kumo and I are passable tippers.

We've got a second proposed progression method, from Kumo. Kumo, you'd said you'd had a bit of an idea for how the story frame was to go through, so I'd like to hear more about that at some point, since that will determine which choices we'll be able to implement and you've got a better handle on this than I do.

All of the introductions would be located in a prologue, which would solve the attention problem. Then there would be the primary story, where you would make choices that improve your attraction ratings, followed by the first break that would divide you into one of the two camps. Then you would make the choices that would get you with one of the two remaining interests.

-Characters
-Protagonist of mid-to-late teenage
-Shout-out to Ranmaru
-Multiple character models
Kumo's initial inspiration of this game was shower-time thoughts of Mori Ranmaru from the Koei Warriors video game franchise. (I'll leave you to ponder that.) He's shown as the consummate "My lord, right or wrong" character, supporting to the point of adoration the ruthless, intelligent, and charismatic warlord Oda Nobunaga, even as his friend Akechi Mitsuhide grows increasingly dissatisfied, disillusioned, and rebellious. Our character's young age lends well to both the blank slate concept and the practice of shudo, in which a younger samurai bonds with an elder in a (possibly? things worked different back then) romantic relationship in order to enforce loyalty, strengthen masculine bonds, and transfer skills and wisdom. Since the player character is largely hidden by the game's interface, Kumo had the interesting idea to provide the player with a choice of what body she or he would like to inhabit for the duration of the game. This could have effects on your affection ratings, or it could merely be a cosmetic choice. I would say at this point the choice would be on a scale of 'masculine' to 'shotateen'.

-Roles:
-Daimyo (lead dude)
-Scholar
-Warrior/Master of Horses
-Monk (sexy)
-Secrets:
-Christian
-Female
-Personalities:
-Ma Chao

These are all just thoughts about what we'll be making our interests. The roles seem pretty set, since they're all stock characters in any given medieval Japanese castle and it's hard to think of anything else that doesn't introduce a high-class/low-class plot. (Or do we want to do that?) Kumo likes the idea of one of the characters (probably the daimyo's 'little brother') being Secretly Female. I'd certainly be eager to explore any gender-related issues therein. Ai noted that we might not want too many secrets, so a Secretly Christian samurai might not be feasible.

I've been typing for about an hour and a half now, so I'm going to take a break and get some food. I'll probably be thinking of character personalities for our interests.