How can I Stop making Sexist games?

 "How can I stop making

Sexist games?"

Apparently, my works, at least to some, make me look at least subconsciously sexist. I want that to stop. I want to do things right. I want to write positive women characters. I want to avoid tropes that degrade women and instead actively make a point FOR women, not against them.

 -- Genuinely looking for advice. 

When I started writing M/M fiction I ran into a similar problem, I was a Female trying to write from a Male's point of view. How about I give you some of the tricks I used to get around that particular wall?

First, memorize this: 

Males and Females are
Not Interchangeable.

Women are Not guys with a pussy any more than guys are women with dicks  -- no matter how much the modern teen wants to think so. 

Read This: Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.
 -- There's a lot of bitching about this book, but that doesn't change the fact that it's RIGHT, and it has the absolute best view of the Gender Divide; how men think vs. how women think.

Males and Females THINK, FEEL, and REACT differently because biology has designed them for different things.

• Males are not designed to be impregnated.
• Females are. 

That's not Sexism, that's Biology. The biology that goes with being, or not being a potential baby factory strongly influences how the individual sees and feels about the rest of world around them. Especially when it comes to... 

SEX
The act of Possible procreation.

Most guys (not all of them,) see sex as Entertainment; something fun to do. Some even see sex as a Sport; "Gotta get 'em all!"

Women, on the other hand, see sex as a Life-Threatening experience every time they have sex. This is because to a female, Sex = Possible Pregnancy and pregnancy can KILL.

Even in this day and age with all our medical advancements, women still DIE just from being pregnant. Hell, a woman can survive all 9 months of pregnancy and still die the moment they take the damned thing out -- right on the table. Some die months later, after its out!

It is estimated that 18.5 mothers died for every 100,000 births in the U.S. in 2013, a total of almost 800 deaths.
Read  -- Maternal deaths in childbirth rise in the U.S.

Imagine knowing that there's a real possibility that you could DIE at the age of 13, (puberty). That's how old I was when my Mom told me that Sex = Pregnancy, that the pill isn't perfect protection, and pregnancy could mean Death. Just to make matters worse, having an abortion can also kill you, plus there are STDs that will kill you too.

Now imagine being told that sex WILL happen eventually, that's it's utterly unavoidable, and that the first experience aways Hurts and Bleeds.

Kind of changes your perspective on why females search so desperately for someone that Loves them once they're old enough to have sex, ne?

A 'good' girl isn't a 'good' girl anymore, she's merely Terrified of being hurt or dying, and a 'bitch' is not just a cock-tease, she's a woman actively searching for someone that will Love her with the only weapons she has; her looks and her ability to say "No" to those who would use her and toss her aside. A 'slut' however, is someone actively pursuing Suicide though sex.

Now imagine that a female has finally decided to have sex with someone she cares for, and the guy Refuses to use a condom and declares that he intends to cum inside her.
-- What is She feeling at this time?

If you can't guess, it's Betrayal -- and Terror.

THIS why so many females Hate the games that feature such scenes. To them, it's not sexy entertainment, it's HORROR.

Anyway...

Sexism

What is Sexism?

• Prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination on the basis of Gender. 

This shows up in games as:

• One gender presented as Inferior to the other by way of stereotypical gender-based appearances and/or behavior.

Examples:

• The big brawny Hero vs. the fragile, delicate Heroine
• The plain, mild-mannered, gentlemanly Hero vs. the gorgeous, aggressive, violent Heroine 
• The lazy, slacker Hero vs. the athletic, straight-A, childhood-friend Heroine

As you can see, it goes both ways -- and it's WRONG both ways! However...

 Far too many game Heroes are:

Saviors of Women.

What's wrong with a good old-fashioned Rescue? Nothing at all, unless...

When the Stronger gender

Rescues the Fairer gender -- it's SEXISM.

Here's a rhetorical question for you:

• Who is Stronger, and who is Fairer? 

Clue-by-four: If you chose a Gender to answer that, your answer is Sexist.

And that's not even the worst of it.
.

The Power of LOVE

The very worst form of Sexism --and the most popular-- is:

• The Inferior gender is Fixed, Rescued, or given Salvation by the Superior gender through The Power of Love.

'Good' females are awkward, helpless, feather-brains, 'bad' females are heartless, cock-tease bitches, and the cure for all their problems is the Love (sexual or not,) granted by the male 'Hero' character.

Bad Girl + Hero's Love  =  Bliss

In other words; they're being 'cured' by "The Magical Penis," to quote my editor.

Don't worry, these game creators are not alone. In fact, they're outnumbered. There are tons and tons of bodice-ripper books that do the opposite; cure the Beastly Male with Love and "The Magical Pussy". The book Twilight is a perfect example of this.

By the way, the original model for this type of story is the fairy tale; Beauty & the Beast.

What's wrong with
Love/Sex Saving the Day?

REALITY CHECK!!!
-- Love can, and does, make things better and can be amazing support in times of crises, but Love can't fix Real Problems.

Then there's the flip-side... 

Demonic Love

In games that feature Demonic characters, they take it one step further; the Main Character (usually Male,) grants their Love to a demon (more often than not; Female,) who then destroys them for it by turning them into a demon, and/or sending them to Hell.

Love = Damnation
Denial = A long healthy life with No Sex.

That's almost like saying "Masturbation will give you hairy palms."

Taken to the extreme, this theme becomes the foundational Trope of Slasher movies; Death by Sex, where sex or even kissing was enough to get someone killed -- and messily.

What's wrong with
Love/Sex
Damning you to Perdition?

Well, it's shows an undercurrent of Hate or Fear of the Opposite Gender (and sex) that dates back to the Victorian Era.

In Victorian England, the only way women could legally have power and property was through the death of their husbands -- IF she'd borne him No Living Sons. Women could not inherit property and keep it. All legal rights to any properties she might have went to whoever she married. Therefore, any Widow with power and property was automatically assumed to be a Murderess of her husband, and forced to wear Black as a blatant warning. This is despite the fact that England had a ruling Queen that everyone supposedly adored.

So back then, men considered women Terrifying. In fact, playing with hookers (and Russian Roulette with Syphilis,) was considered Safer than getting married. At the same time, women considered men unreasonable beasts out to murder them with sex because 4.9 out of every 1000 women died in childbirth.

Just to be clear, when they talked about a woman suffering "a fate worse than death," they weren't referring to sex. They were referring to Pregnancy. In other words, nine months of suffering then dying. You see, a child created out of wedlock was expected to kill the mother.

Truthfully though, I don't think Fear of the Opposite Sex has anything to do with these games. I believe that they were simply trying to make a Romance game and this theme was one they'd been exposed to one too many times, so they used it.

However, there's another theme used far too often.

--Gratitude Sex/Love--

Pussy as Reward

This is where The Hero Saves the Girl and Wins her Love, also known as the Damsel in Distress theme. It's a VERY popular theme, but it's not (emotionally) healthy in the slightest. Realistically speaking, gratitude wears off pretty fast, especially if someone else suddenly does the saving.

So, once you stop using "The Magical Penis" and "Pussy as Reward" themes, what's left?

Self-Improvement.

No, seriously...!

Have the characters Save Themselves and fix their own problems. Someone who loves them can Support them and Assist them, but ultimately people will never feel secure mentally or emotionally until they can save themselves. Anything else is Wishful-Thinking and Fairy Tales.

So, how do you Do this?

You can start out with a story that LOOKS like a Magical Penis/Pussy story, or a Damsel in Distress tale if you like, but have the main character realize that gaining Love/Sex isn't enough to fix the Main Problem. Whatever that problem is, they have to go out and fix it Themselves -- with Love/Sex being the emotional/physical support they needed to do so -- NOT the Reward.

Simple, ne?

Not really.
 -- Sexism is most often rooted in the Characters rather than in a story's actions, so to avoid Sexism, you need to avoid characters defined ONLY by their Gender. 

What kind of characters

should you put in your games?

The kind the Plot needs to be fulfilled.  

How do you figure that out?

1. What is your story/game's Master Problem.  
• There's a monster eating people.
• There's a murderer that needs to be found.
• They want to go to the Dance, but don't have a partner yet.
• They have a crush on someone they feel is Out of their League.
2. What kind of characters would be the Least able to fix the story's Master Problem -- at first glance?  
• Those are the characters you need. 

Seriously...! The trials and tribulations it takes to BECOME someone who can fix the Master Problem, or find someone to assist them, will guarantee that Sexist is the last thing those characters will be.

Before you go adding

Love, Sex, or Romance to your games...

Know Thyself!

You need to understand how You really feel about Men, Women, Sex, and Love because your personal experiences and feelings toward these subjects will be reflected in your Games.

Here's an exercise:

How you Really feel about Females:
-- Who represents the perfect Female to you?
-- How do They feel about the opposite gender? (If you don't know, then Guess.)
-- Do you Agree or Disagree, and Why?

How you Really feel about Males:
-- Who represents the perfect Male to you?
-- How do They feel about the opposite gender? (If you don't know, then Guess.)
-- Do you Agree or Disagree, and Why?

How you Really feel about Sex:
-- Is Sex an Entertainment, a Sport, a Gift, a Responsibility, or something else entirely?
-- What have you learned from your personal experiences?
-- Is Sex a Good thing, or a Bad thing?

How you Really feel about Love:
-- Have you ever been truly in Love?
-- What have you learned from your personal experiences?
-- Is Love a Good thing, or a Bad thing?

How much of what you know came from Books, TV, and Movies?

How much of what you've seen in TV, Books, and Moves is WRONG?
-- Give examples:

How much of what you've seen TV, Books, and Moves is RIGHT?
-- Give examples:

By realizing your personal views on Love, Sex, and the Opposite Gender, you can see --point blank-- WHAT you are putting in your games.

Guys, want to create
better Female Characters...?

Here's an exercise:

Write a Mary Sue.

Write yourself into a story as a Woman dealing with a Male that has no interest in romance. (Having him Not interested because he's interested in a different female is right out!)

The most effective way to do this is:

• Pick a Movie you know and like, and Insert Yourself as a Female, but not as an established character, as a New character. 
• Don't Change your base personality. Leave it intact! 
• Make sure that your female character has a healthy respect for the consequences of Pregnancy -- Death. (This will keep her attitude towards sex and romance realistic.)
• Put your female character opposite the male character that has no interest in romance and change that character's mind about Your Character. Make him Like her. 
• Use her Character, not her Body to change his mind. (Being Hot is not good enough!)
• Do this without changing His true base character.
• Write this from Her point of view only -- no switching!

Aim for 5000 words, 10,000 if you need it.

When it's done, have at least two of your Female beta readers look at it and ask:

• Was the Male Character 'In Character' or 'Out of Character'?
• Was the female character Realistic?
• LISTEN to their advice.

You can tell them that it's just an experiment in writing female characters because it is, but Do NOT tell them that it's a Mary Sue.

This should prove quite the eye-opening exercise for any guy who wants to write at least semi-realistic female characters. When I did this to improve writing Male characters, the results proved to be quite enlightening.

Enjoy!

Developing Ideas into Stories

Moonfish by SnowSkadi

----- Original Message -----
How do you develop an idea? How do you come up with the details behind stories? Do you get them from reading books? Do you get them from modern concepts? Or do they just come to you (if so, lucky you XD)? How do you develop the world in which it takes place? People or settings first? Do you include cults/religions/mass groups? How do you come up with these groups?
 -- Thoughtful Game-maker

In other words, what you want to know is:

How do you build a Story

from an Idea? 

Let's begin by breaking this huge pile of questions down to smaller, bite-sized pieces...

How do you develop an Idea?

I start with a Climactic Event.

My ideas may originate from anything at all; from a piece of music to a picture I saw on the 'net, but to make a Story from those ideas I start with What I want to Happen at the very heart of my story -- a central Climactic/Crisis Event. I then create a Plot Concept around it to make that event happen, and tie up loose ends after the event. 

Plot concept:

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Act 1: What caused the Event.
Act 2: Climactic/Crises Event.
Act 3: What happened after.

Example: What I want to Happen.

• I want the central climactic/crisis event to be an epic space battle between a Galactic Empire and a tribe of Space Privateers, and I want the characters to carry Swords. 

How do you come up with

the Details behind stories?

Do you get them from reading books? Do you get them from modern concepts? Or do they just come to you (if so, lucky you XD)?

RESEARCH. 

The Details I come up with are mainly generated by reading stories similar to what I want to write, and researching what I need to know to make such an event plausible. This tends to reveal unexpected facts which often give me MORE ideas to add to the story.

How do you make something in a story Plausible? 

You use Facts to give its existence a Good Excuse.

Examples: Facts

• Did you know that privateers had Written Permission from their home country to attack the ships of the countries their country didn't like --especially if there was a war going on-- as long as they turned over a certain percentage of 'booty' to their home country? (Ah ha! I now have a 'good excuse' to make the privateers the Good Guys!)

• Did you know that Empires (the British Empire in particular,) routinely hired Merchants to be Privateers when they didn't have enough ships in their fleets BECAUSE Merchant ships were extremely well-armed specifically to fight off Pirates (other Privateers)? (Ah-HA! Now I have a good excuse to have a Privateers vs. Pirates battle!)

• Did you know that those same empires that hired Privateers would also systematically destroy their Privateers once a treaty was signed with the country they had gone to war with, mainly because this was often a condition for a treaty to be signed? (Ah-HA! Now I have a 'good excuse' for Privateers to become pissed off at an empire!)

• Did you know that using a projectile weapon of any sort on a spaceship spelled Instant Death should that projectile shoot through the outer hull? (Ah-AH! I know have a 'good excuse' to have all my characters carry Swords!) 

How do you develop

The World in which it takes place? 

People or Settings first? Do you include cults/religions/mass groups? How do you come up with these groups?
.

I begin with the World.

I always start with the SETTING, the World my characters will inhabit. I research everything to look for clues about what kind of cultures, politics, employment, social positions, religions, etc. would come into play in such a story because a character's culture and civilization will be what makes each character who they are -- the same way that your culture and civilization made you who you are.

Examples: Space, Empires, and Privateers.

• How do Empires happen, and how are they governed?
• Why would Privateers would be hired?
• Under what conditions would Privateers be attacked by an Empire?
• What are the conditions for living in space?
• What kinds of space travel would I need, (Faster-than-light? Folding space? Jump-gates...?) and can they be adapted to what I want to do?
• What kind of weapons would a spaceship have?
• How would a space battle be conducted?

Then Characters.
Once I have a good grasp of the cultures my characters would inhabit, then I decide what kind of characteristics and backgrounds the Characters would need to make my Event happen -- or Not happen.

Examples: Characters.

• Why would people (or a whole family) become privateers?
• Why would someone hate the empire?
• Why would someone hate privateers?
• What kind of training would be needed to fight in space?
• If I make the main character a neutral party, where would such a character come from, and why would they have such a mindset?

And that's how I build a Story from an Idea.

Enjoy! 

LOVE Scenes vs SEX Scenes in your Game

----- Original Message -----

So I'm thinking of making a mature game in the near future and I just want to know how Making Love and Hentai scenes are different. Can one still show private parts and keeping in the Making Love section, or would it be considered a Hentai Scene?

 -- Interested in Otome

Whether or Not you show genitalia in a sex scene has Nothing to do with whether it's a Love scene or a Sex scene. Showing or Not showing genitalia is merely the difference between a PORN (R18) scene, and a SENSUAL (R16) scene.

Love scenes and Sex scenes are divided by something else entirely.

The Love scene vs the Sex scene.

The difference between a Porn/Hentai scene and a Love scene is Not CONTENT; it's not What the participants are Doing. It's WHY they are having sex. It's the MOTIVE.

However, before we get into that...

Don’t confuse Romance with Love. They are two completely different things!

Love vs. Romance 
There IS a difference!

• Romance – a manipulation technique designed to make someone receptive to Sex. The source of Romance is LUST.
  
• Love – when someone’s happiness means more than your own. The source of Love is CARING.

To many people, Romance means ‘showing love’. That’s not true. You show love by Protecting the ones you care for with the intent to ensure their lasting happiness. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re nice to them.

So, how do you create a LOVE scene

 -- as opposed to a SEX scene?

If you're doing it right, the ONLY difference between a LOVE scene and a SEX scene is the MOTIVE -- WHY that scene is happening.

• Lust’s motive is ORGASM.
  
• Love’s motive is CARING.

"How do you SHOW Love?"

It’s easier than you think, because you probably already do it regularly without realizing it.

Think in terms of your Pet...
-- When you want to show how much you care, you stroke them, cuddle them, and play with them. You also feed them, clean up their poop, and make sure they have vet check-ups. You do all of these things to keep them happy and healthy. You do these things to keep them from suffering in any way.

You do the SAME THING with people you love whether they are your parents, your friends, or your children – you hug them, play with them, joke around with them, make sure they’ve eaten, make sure their colds are taken care of, you make sure they are not suffering in any way –- physically or emotionally. You also bitch them out when they’ve done something that could harm them or result in misery.

The difference between these people and a Lover, is that when you are showing that you care for a lover, you use sex to bring them the greatest physical pleasure you can.

Point Blank:

• Sex is just another form of PETTING.

LUST is a whole other bowl of kimchee.

LUST is a physical urge, like eating when you’re hungry, seeking warmth in the cold, or needing to pee. It is an urge that seeks relief just like all your other physical urges.

If the urgency is great enough, LUST will attempt every dirty trick in the book to get their hands on their object of choice to get some relief. Think: Physical ADDICTION, and all the crazy, scary obsessive acts that go with fulfilling one. If their particular object (of addiction) gives them exceptional pleasure, whether it be a dildo, a rubber doll, a super soft sock, or a person, they’ll make sure that the toy is cared for, and in some cases, jealously guarded – so that the toy will still be there (and receptive) when they want to use it again.

The key word here is USE.

• Lust USES others for selfish physical gratification.
  
• Love doesn’t use, it GIVES.

Love GIVES Affection to make the one loved happy.

-- If something should happen to cause hurt to the one loved, the one who cares is devastated by their FAILURE stop suffering from happening.

Lust TAKES affection to make themselves happy.

-- Toys have PHYSICAL value, not Emotional value. If their toy should break, or Refuse to be used, they will be FRUSTRATED and ANGRY, but they won’t think they failed. They’ll think the TOY Failed -- and just go out and get another toy. If their addiction is strong enough, they may even attempt to Destroy the toy so no one else will ever want to use it -- especially if that toy is a Person. "If I can't use them, I'll make sure no one else can either!"

What's the real difference between a Love scene and a Lust scene?

Very simply:

• Lust Takes pleasure.
• Love Gives it.

Jealousy is NOT a sign of LOVE!

Jealousy a sign of possession, of ownership; of FEAR that their object will be taken from them and no longer theirs to USE; of Obsession and ADDICTION.

Jealousy is a point-blank sign of someone concerned with their own happiness, not their Beloved's. 

"I won't let you make me unhappy!"

When the Beloved's happiness comes SECOND to the lover's happiness, "If you love me, you'd do this to make me happy..." What they are expressing is OWNERSHIP.

When one is in Love, and their lover sleeps with someone else, they do not feel jealousy, they feel FAILURE, and point the blame squarely on themselves.

“I wasn’t enough to make my beloved happy in bed. What did I do wrong?” 

If their feelings are strong enough, they may ALLOW their lover to keep their other lover --and give up on them entirely-- simply because it's what makes their beloved happy.

When someone is merely in LUST, they will ISOLATE the object of their desires --from friends, co-workers, family, and even pets. They will use every trick they know, such as; Stalking and Spying, to keep rivals (read: THIEVES) from taking what they have claimed as theirs, even if it's merely their attention.

Should the object of their Lust sleep with someone else, they will attack the one attempting to steal their possession.

"How dare you touch what is MINE?!"

Then they will attack their 'supposedly' Beloved.

"How dare you let someone else have you?! You belong to ME!" 

Punishment --with the intent to cause Emotional damage-- swiftly follows, such as; breaking something important to their Lust object, a brutal and bloody beating, or flat-out rape.

If their Lust Object doesn't leave at that point, the jealous owner will then enforce stricter forms of ISOLATION on their Lust Object; up to and including Imprisonment, to ensure that neither Escape nor Theft will happen again.

-----Original Message-----
"Wow, I always thought Romance was about Love...?"
-- Prefers Romance

EVERYONE thinks Romance is about love -- because we really, really WANT it to be.

Romance tells us that the Other Person gives up everything for Us, when in fact, the opposite is true. Real Love makes us give up everything for THEM.

When you think about it, Love is a very scary emotion. It makes us give up everything we want, everything we are -- for someone else. If they are not worthy of such a sacrifice, it doesn't matter because we LOVE them and want them to be happy at any cost, even if that cost is ourselves.

Real Love
comes in many different shapes and colors.

A love that looks destructive from the outside, such as Bondage and Domination, could in fact be perfectly supportive, and exactly what both lovers need from each other. A good movie that illustrates this perfectly is "Secretary".

On the other hand, what an outsider may think is positive and supportive might in fact not be love at all. Case in point, stalking was once thought of as being an expression of love. Angry possessiveness can look an awful lot like love when in fact it is a terror tactic designed to isolate the one supposedly beloved.

When a lover asks their beloved to choose between them and anything else, a friend, a pet, or even a hobby, they not interested in their significant other's happiness. They are ensuring that their toy has no outside distractions, and is available for their convenience. A good movie that illustrates this is "Sleeping with the Enemy".

A lover that yells at their beloved for their destructive habits, such as; over-spending, drugs, booze, gambling...is more likely to be showing real love, than a lover that sweetly begs their beloved to drop their plans for going out with their friends for a romantic dinner date with them.

How do you tell the difference?

Measure each action by this question:

"WHO benefits from the results, really?"
The Lover, or the one supposedly Beloved?

Enjoy!

Planning a Visual Novel

How do I PLAN my 
Visual Novels?

Since it's utterly pointless to create a story I don't have the resources, or skill, to turn into a Completed visual novel, I begin my planning by looking through my Assets and Asset Sources, to see what I can use. By the way, I am constantly adding new graphics and links to my asset collections.

Music: 

For the main menu, and for individual scenes I prefer to use one album, or collection by one band, or artist per game. This makes the music consistent in style.

• Jamendo.com
• MusOpen.com

Images: 

For backgrounds and characters, I happen to prefer using photo images. Occasionally I'll draw my characters from scratch, but my backgrounds are almost always heavily filtered images, or filtered photo-manipulations.  

Photo Sources

• Dreamstime.com
• WikiMedia Commons
• morgueFile.com 

Anime style Character & Background sources:

•  OELVN Community Wiki

3D Modeling program:

• SketchUp It's free!

Sound Effects: 

For locations as well as for things that happen.

• SoundBible.com
• SoundDogs.com

Then I consider my...

Artistic limitations:

• What can I draw?
• What can't I draw?
• Can I make what I need with SketchUp?
• Can I Photoshop what I need from bits and pieces of what I do have? 
• Can I art-filter Photos into what I need? 
• Do I have the right plug-ins to make a photo look like Art?
• Do I have the right photos?

Then I consider my...

Coding limitations:

What I know how to code, or can get templates, sample codes, and/or tutorials to code.

The LemmaSoft forum holds a comprehensive library of tutorials, samples, and template games. Seriously.

• LemmaSoft forum

Next to consider are my...

Copyright Limitations:

• Paid license for commercial use?
• Creative Commons, free to use with Credit, but not commercially?
• Public Domain? 
• Stolen from the Internet? (With the possibility of a copyright infringement lawsuit?)

Once I know what I have, I can then figure out what type of game I can create vs. what I can't create, and explore possible work-arounds for what I want to create. 

What I Want vs. What I Have

As you can probably guess, I prefer making adult games. However, I rarely have enough graphics to fully illustrate an erotic scene, so I Fake It. I select one one static image and write extremely detailed text to fulfill the erotic portions of the game. Oddly enough, this technique has proved to be rather successful, (read: Popular among my players).

For those who have actions scenes in their games, but just can't get the graphics to illustrate them, this technique could be a viable option -- IF you have a damned good writer on your team.

To see full-sized image: Right-Click > View Image

Next comes...

Game Planning

I use FreePlane, a free mind mapping program, to plot out the main paths/options in the game. FreePlane is disgustingly easy to use. Most of it is simply point > click > type. It even has a built-in Spell-Check, though you have to Turn It On, plus internal hyper links (green arrows) to jump from any bubble to any other bubble.

• FreePlane

With this program, I can map out the game into multiple stages (or chapters,) with all their branching options, plus hyper links that jump to specific results.

By closing all the options, then clicking open only those I wish to select, I can actually do a dry-run of the entire game. This is particularly useful for uncovering anything left open-ended before I even begin coding.

 

To see full-sized image: Right-Click > View Image 

As for the story writing aspect goes, I tend to write out most of the dialogue and narrative right into FreePlane, then just copy-paste the text straight into the game's code.

How to Plot the Story? 

I plot out my stories in FreePlane, but then I've crafting stories for a really long time so most of the work happens inside my head. For those who need a little assistance getting their ideas organized, there's this technique;

•  Planning a Multi-path Game

Visual Novel Graphics

To make the graphics FIT exactly the way they're supposed in the game without any extra adjustments, I open Photoshop and create a PSD file set to the exact dimensions of the game. On separate layers in this one file, I create all the graphics; buttons, textboxes, menus, and backgrounds.

Once they're created, it's simply a matter of saving the individual layers as PNGs and JPGs into the Game file.

 1024x768 game

 

For full sized image: Right-click > View Image

I create the characters in their own PSD files because they tend to have hundreds of layers all by themselves. I also make them complete; head to toe at 1100px tall for a game 768px in height, then cut the image from the top - down to fit the 768 screen.

Ivan's PSD file was over 800MB in size.

He had 4 costume changes, 6 poses, and 14 different expressions. 

Once I have all (or most of) the graphics made, I open Ren'Py, my visual novel engine of choice, and begin coding the game together.

• Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine -- Get yours! It's FREE.

When I  run into problems --and I do regularly-- I visit the LemmaSoft forum for Tech and Coding support. It is the ONLY place to get quick, if not immediate help for Ren'Py coding complications. Mainly because the creator of Ren'Py; PyTom, hangs out there.

• LemmaSoft forums

The Cookbook section of the forum has a whole treasure-trove of coding tricks for just about everything from making an Image Gallery, and a Music Room, to setting up Turn-Based Battles. Warning: This section has been known to induce Feature Creep in games!

What about Beginners?

If you're a beginner working on your very first visual novel, I cannot recommend this tutorial high enough:

• How to Make a Simple Otome (romance) Game

This tutorial will teach you everything from the ground floor of opening the RenPy engine, all the way up to the intermediate level of setting up menu choices and jumps, posting flags to change events, and applying a point system to select an ending within a working multi-ending game that you code from scratch.

When I first ran into this tutorial, I had already completed two games. Even so, I could not believe how many Basic things I'd never learned. This one tutorial made so many things that seemed complicated very easy to learn -- and Use.

Enjoy!

The Secret to Clean Character PNGs

The Secret to Clean Character PNGs

One of the most common problems with using an image that was originally a photo for something like a character or free-floating object, is that damned White Outline that tends to show up no matter how closely you clean it.

I got around that issue by first cleaning each image at 300 magnification, and using the Eraser tool -- NOT the Outline tool then hitting Clear. Yes, it's a pain because it takes a while to do it that way, but it's the cleanest you will get it, and you won't get a ragged, pixelated edge.

Once you've cut out your image, photo-manipulate as needed...

Next you add Inner Glow set to a Dark Color.
-- I like to use a dark red or brown on character images because it blends well against skin tones.

The Dark Inner Glow effectively erases any white that might have snuck in despite your cleaning efforts.

THEN art filter your PNGs to your heart's content. Just be aware that many art filters will ADD a white outline that will need to be cleaned off again.

Once you have finished Art Filtering your images, add Inner Glow again, set to Black this time at at 2 px or less to cover any white that might have slipped in during the Art Filtering process.

The best way to check for any white edging that might have slipped into your image is by putting your character against a Black Background.

And there you have it, characters that actually blend in with their backgrounds.

Enjoy!