Thanks for your portfolio, Alexis. I've just DMed you

To update on this:

After some feedback I've consolidated the project into a 2 part narrative. Offers still appreciated.

Hi,

I've written a visual novel and I'd like to find an artist to illustrate it.

It's written in Renpy and consists of about 7500 lines. This is Part 1 of a two part series.

Its setting is late night television talk shows (such as Stephen Colbert's, Jimmy Kimmel's, etc). Thematically it draws on telenovelas and soap operas, so includes melodrama as well as comedy.

You would be welcome to offer your views on the script, and this would be a collaborative process. You would be paid 400 Euro for this episode, and the second episode would be negotiated with a likely increase. You would receive potential profits equal to mine and would be an equal partner in the project.

Please DM me with a portfolio if interested. Serious offers only, and you must be willing to commit to a 2 part series.

Women and POC preferred.

Isn't there something of a war on sex games? Robert Yang's games (not porn, but focused on sex) have been banned from Twitch and, I think, Steam. For this reason, maybe funding sex games through Patreon could be a positive. It gives opportunities to those locked out of the traditional avenues.

Has anyone watched this?

What I thought was interesting was how developed the doujin culture is, despite not being centred on profit or seemingly much of a business model. To me this culture sounds appealing.

What do people think of the indie gaming scene in Japan? Is the influence of Western indies a positive, or do you think there's an element of homogenisation there?

Downwell looks like the most successful game from the film, and it reminds me of what my lecturer once said about Japanese cinema: the Japanese films that were most successful in the West (and which were enjoyed for their exoticising of the East) were those that more closely aligned with Western cinematic forms whilst retaining smaller elements of Japanese culture, whereas the films that were more intensely Japanese often alienated Western audiences.

The creator of Downwell says in the film that many of his peers said that Downwell played more  like a Western game.

It was a good documentary, definitely worthwhile for those of you considering checking it out.

JWK5, another excellent post. Thank you

I think you're right that choice has to be meaningful, so fewer choices and smaller spaces might produce more of a sense of agency than large/plentiful sets of choices.

I'd like to discuss the idea of making a player complicit in a character's actions.
Rather than give a player choice, if the only choice the player has is to validate a character's actions, does it draw the player into the internal world of the character? How should one go about achieving this effect?

One example is

SPOILERS FOR THE LAST OF US:





The end of The Last of Us, when the player must make Joel do, well, what he does. There is a feeling of the player being complicit in this, and the player feeling guilt.






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Another game that deals in this is Fitz Packerton. The player has only one choice. It is not clear what the context for this choice is, but the player knows that they must perform this action.

As the context becomes clearer, the player now realises that they have been complicit in this narrative, in this character's actions. Rather than the player molding the character after their own ideological leanings, therefore, the player becomes drawn into the mind of the character. The player's own personality no longer matters, except perhaps to feel guilt or joy at joining the character.

If any of this is unclear, let me know.

An idea I'm working with in the game now is to ask the player to identify fully with the character. There is no character naming, and no choice in the narrative. There is no traditional "good" or "bad" path, only what makes sense for this character.

Does anyone have any interesting methods of drawing the player into this sense of being complicit? Forcing the player to click on certain things, or say certain things is one method.

and no offense to anyone in the field, but game writing is almost never interesting enough to hold my attention, so im not likely to stick around for "the plot" (though i really hope that changes.)

Totally agree. The Last of Us is the only game that's kept me for a significant amount of time with its writing. I really hope we see more writing of that quality and higher. I notice that a lot of shorter arthouse games have good writing now, so it'd be nice to see that migrate to the rest of the industry.

I've only ever finished a handful of games. If it's longer than ten hours, I haven't finished it (except for The Last of Us).

This makes me feel alienated from the gamer culture of declaring a game is worthwhile because it contains one million hours of gameplay. "True human experience," says the gamer, "Putting one million hours into something makes me feel deeply. I now feel connected to the planet, and to spiritual planes."

Yeah, it certainly makes sense that it would happen in order to remain in the EU. Same with Scottish independence.

I wonder what effect this will all have on London's (and Guildford's) videogame industry. It can't be anything good.

I'm from Ireland but I live in Germany.

I do worry that this state of affairs will end if there are more Exits. I can't see Ireland pulling an Eirexit, because Ireland would barely exist economically if it weren't for the EU.

I would like Worms Armageddon.

Many people are saying that Worms Armageddon was a good game.

JWK5, this is extremely helpful. Thank you for posting this

One struggle I experienced was bringing in player agency to what had been a static plot. Like you say, a novel dictates what happens; a game requires player input.

My original solution to this was to include branching dialogue, but I scrapped this because it felt like a tired device. I think of games like The Last of Us, which was emotionally resonant despite not giving the player any choice in the development of Joel and Ellie's relationship or in the plot. Therefore I decided to allow agency in a way that would not affect the outcome like it would in, say, a Telltale game.

I am still developing the player agency, but so far it revolves around empathy and allowing the two major characters to share emotions. This was heavily influenced by the games of Robert Yang, which I really recommend. They often deal in issues like boundaries or care.

Precisely, talum. Brains aren't everything! Sometimes a game is just a beautiful work of art.

Some really good points here.

With regard to arzi42's first point, I did end up taking a specific set of characters from the novel and drawing out a new, more RPG-friendly plot.

My first run around I tried to directly transliterate the novel into a series of RPG situations, but it became a bit unwieldy.

Right now I've got something much smaller, but more focused.

Very good point that characters in literature tend to do stupid things, whereas that would be frustrating for a player.

I'm enjoying this game a lot. You've gotta come at it from an aesthetic perspective. Blendo Games make 15 minute games, so I agree with Silbereisen on the game's length.

The world-building and character development is hugely enjoyable. For me, the puzzle aspect is secondary. That's very satisfying, too, but I can understand why it might be disappointing for those expecting something like The Witness. For me, the game is an aesthetic experience with puzzles tacked on.

It's a game I come back to every day on work breaks. Really enjoying it.

Simplest advice is often the best! I will do this.

<3

I'll be starting a new RPG project in the coming months. Could we get a pool of posters talking about methods of scriptwriting for this genre? Any good guides?

I'm turning a novel into an RPG, so my characters and plot points are laid out. It's the RPG format, in particular, to which I want to transliterate.

<3

With regard to the film, I think this could be a great addition to the tech origin story genre. We haven't seen a lot about gaming, unless you include the awful GTA film.

Gamergate is significant within the history of gaming, and Zoe Quinn is a significant figure. If it's written well this could be great (it won't be written well - but let's hope for a moment).

When will we see a film about Notch?

Yes, a few people have mentioned that there is a games quarter to academia. A couple of months ago I wrote a paper using some sources that tried to bridge the divide between cinema and videogames. Can't go into it now, but I'll get back to this thread at some point. I know some of my academic supervisors have a strong interest in games, too.

I would like to see more games about WW2 tackle racism.

Other things games about WW2 could tackle:
- the sterilisation of deaf people.
- the execution of people diagnosed with schizophrenia, who Steve Silberman says in his new book Neurotribes would now be diagnosed with autism.

I see what you mean about The Last of Us, Jimym GIMBERT. Riley and Marlene are both the sort of 'tough black woman'. It's a more complex portrayal than that, obviously, having played the full game and DLC, but it does look like this is the jumping off point for these characters.

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Are Henry and Sam a racist portrayal?

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Shadowrun: Dragonfall at least portrays Turkish-Germans. I'm not far enough in to really comment.