Visual Novel 2.0!

[Blah!?]

Hey everyone!

I've been feeling particularly motivated today, and after a conversation with everyone's favorite haeeshoo in Live Chat, I've decided that I'd like to try making another visual novel! In case you don't know what that is, we already have one, and you can find it right here:

http://www.sneezefetishforum.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=37594

Haeeshoo does a great job of explaining what a visual novel is in that thread there, so please check it out if you'd like more information.

This second visual novel would be very different from the first one. Instead of a cute, cheesy romance story, it's going to play out more like a fantasy adventure story, with a little dash of scariness mixed in. There will be action! There will be intrigue! And above all, there will be sneezing!

As it stands, here is a basic plot summary:

The main character (the one you will make choices for) is an archivist who works in an ancient fortress. The garrison of this fortress is tasked with defending the mortal plane (read: Earth) from the forces of the underworld. Everything usually goes well, but one day, it comes under surprise attack, leaving the archivist stranded. Now, the archivist has to escape from the demon-filled fortress with a little help from the player.

I'm hoping the story and setting won't be too polarizing. I want this to be accessible to as many people as possible. If you absolutely hate this story idea and would never want to read it, please let me know! If I'm going to be cutting a lot of people out, I'll try to come up with something else.

I also have plenty of ideas for new features that should hopefully make this visual novel even bigger and better than the last one.

Predominantly, I want players to be able to choose the gender of the main character. Since the player-character is likely going to be the only person with any major role in the story, players will be able to choose which gender of sneezing they prefer, and if some like both, they can play more than once and choose whichever gender they please each time.

Anyway, while I can write and haeeshoo can code, we need a lot of help from you, the community! I'll keep things sweet and simple from here, so I'll just list what we need and what we'd like to have on top of that.

What we NEED:

- A character artist

Someone who is willing to draw the main character(s) in the various poses needed to convey the story. It would be best if we get one artist who is willing to draw both male and female characters so that we can maintain a consistent style, but having different artists for each gender could be acceptable if no one is willing to do both.

- Sneezing audio

At the bare minimum, all we need is for one male member and one female member to give us permission to use whatever recordings of their sneezes they already have. You don't have to do any additional work, you only have to give us permission to use what you have already created.

What we WANT:

- A background artist

The artists providing the characters can also fulfil this role if he or she chooses, but it is by no means necessary. It would be really great if we could find someone to create custom environment and background art for us, but the project can technically be completed without it. We can always look around for free art elsewhere online, but it wouldn't have the same feel to it.

- Music

It's likely that we'll have no trouble finding free music online, but getting custom music would be excellent. This is especially true of a setting such as this, where the environment is such an important factor. If anyone is willing to create custom music by any means, please let us know.

And this is the big one:

- Narration

This would be a HUGE plus, and I'm sure everyone would love for this to be present in the game. Basically, the people providing the sneezing audio would also read and record the main character's speech and thoughts. While we do not need this to complete the project, it would be a massive improvement, and I would certainly feel personally in your debt. Something like this would make the overall experience so much better.

Note: Since the main character has the option to be either male or female, it would be best if both people providing the sneezing audio would be willing to provide dialog. That way we will be able to offer a more complete and balanced experience to people of any preference.

Anyway, that's basically all for now. If anyone reading this is interested in helping out, or if you have any input, criticism, or anything to say at all, please send a message to either myself or haeeshoo. I look forward to working with any of you who choose to volunteer!

Thanks a ton,

Blah-San

[Pilgrim]

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh SHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

GET HYPED

[Dusty15]

This is pretty fiercely awesome! I'd definitely be willing to help! Check your PMs

[Dye]

This looks interesting~ I love painting things like backgrounds digitally, so I could do a couple of those, if needed?

[Blah!?]

Absolutely!

I should probably do a little update post here to tell people what we already have and what we still need. Several people have volunteered to provide various aspects, but since I don't want to entirely speak for them, I'm not going to say anything is completely final just yet.

Lalena and Dusty15 have volunteered for female narration.

Nova has volunteered for character art.

Daisoku has now volunteered for background art.

What we still need/want:

-Male narration

-Music

It's always good to have backups, so you can still submit yourself for the filled positions I mentioned above. I can't guarantee you'll have a spot, since many of the previous volunteers may choose to commit completely, but I welcome you to try anyway.

[nolongeractive]

I may not have a specific role, but you should still let me know if there's anything I can help with!