Aida (still a concept)

[moskys]

After a couple of failed attempts which some day I may bring back to life, I think I've come across a project I could actually convert into a game - or a Visual Novel. It's just an adaptation of Verdi's famous opera Aida, which basically is a love triangle between a man and two women in the Ancient Egypt (if you don't know the story you can search the web for spoilers).

I'm still trying to decide the possible endings, though. Aida is a tragedy but many creators say most people don't like bad endings in this kind of games, so I guess I have to create a couple of alternative good endings (or just let the players imagine what happened next according to their tastes, like in 'ok, everything indicates this is going to be the end for the characters involved in this scene but the game stops here so you can think they still managed to find a way to avoid their fatal destiny'). Comments and suggestions on this issue are welcome -and encouraged.

I've decided to use the male character (Radames) as the PC, so both women (Aida and Amneris) would be NPCs. Players will know later in the game how both NPCs reacted to each PC's decision, which should explain why the player got that ending (obviously there'll also be small adjustments along the game according to previous choices). This script is already written (in Spanish) and tested in Ren'Py, and as I've said before I just need to add the alternative endings. But I've also thought I could do a 'double' game, allowing the player to play alternatively as Radames or as Aida. So, instead of reading a linear story (with some sex attached) just before the end, you'll get the missing info by playing as the other character. This will make the game bigger and more complex to finish in terms of development because I'd need to come up with some significative choices for Aida's role as well as some extra scenes and endings from her point of view. But I'm on it.

Now let's talk about the art. Well, I just can't make pictures. So I'll need to work with an artist. 3D, 2D, cartoon, hentai... I don't have any preferences, I just want the pictures to look good. But for now I just want to focus on the script and then, once finished and knowing the aprox amount of pictures needed, I'll post a partnership offer on this thread. Sex scenes will be negotiable (I can script them all, I can give some basic ground or I can give the artist complete freedom to do what he/she thinks it fits the characters and situations and then just write a matching text). I'm not a big fan of crowdfunding so I'm not going to launch a campaign for this game. Period. But if the chosen artist happens to have a p*****n page or something like that, well, we'll discuss it later. Also, I'll probably need an English-speaking native to check my traduction when it's done. But it will take some time to reach that point of development.

I'll keep updating this thread, thanks for your attention.

[fleet]

Regarding art, once you have the script done, make the game in the program of your choice, using stick figures as placeholder art. Doing so would give an artist a clear indication of your vision.

[moskys]

Regarding art, once you have the script done, make the game in the program of your choice, using stick figures as placeholder art. Doing so would give an artist a clear indication of your vision.

that's a great advice, thank you.

[tlaero]

Would it help to see one of the script files that I send to Mortze? Every writer/artist pair will do things differently, but that would at least show you what works for us.

Tlaero

[moskys]

Would it help to see one of the script files that I send to Mortze? Every writer/artist pair will do things differently, but that would at least show you what works for us.

Tlaero

Yeah, that would be nice of you, thanks.

[MaxCarna]

Hi Moskys,

I would recommend you to try Twine, the writer that I work really like it.

http://twinery.org/

You work with pointers, having multiple decisions and paths intertwined.

I'm old school, just transpose everything to a spreadsheet in order to control my work making the images.

[moskys]

Hi Moskys,

I would recommend you to try Twine, the writer that I work really like it.

http://twinery.org/

You work with pointers, having multiple decisions and paths intertwined.

I'm old school, just transpose everything to a spreadsheet in order to control my work making the images.

Thanks, I'll take a closer look at it. It could help me to organize the endings

[moskys]

Well, more than a month have passed since my first post and I think is time for a brief update.

I'm still working on Radames' path endings. The bad ones are almost completely written and I'm trying to figure out a realistic way for him to escape from the original ending we see in the opera (which is supposed to be the 'good' or at least canon ending). That connects with Aida's path which is on my mind but not written yet (although there are a couple of scenes already made because they exist in the opera but had to be cut from Radames' path). I have to tweak her personality a bit from the original character but that's what I've made to Radames after all, and is something needed in order to create an inner conflict that fuels the game.

I'm also having some stylistic issues. It would be easy to just copypaste the original libretto where needed (in fact, that was exactly my first step when I decided to create this game) but then writing more than a handful of brand new scenes using that style would be a real pain in-you-know-where and the results are just terrible. So I've rewritten the libretto where needed, trying to keep the structure of those parts intact but 'translating' dialogues into our modern-day words (more or less). But, again, I feel the mixing with the ones I've written from scratch is not working, so I'll need some time to adjust them. That's kind of obvious considering the libretto was written to be sang and this script needs to be written to be read (and played) but I didn't realize before it was too late. Also, changes in characters' personalities (see paragraph 1) should lead to changes in dialogues even in the canon path (the opera's one) which I wanted to run as loyal as possible to the original libretto. That means some extra work that's quite advanced.

And finally, I have a question to ask. I'm using ren'py and I prefer to read big chunks of text because it means less 'useless' clicks, as in:

<narrator> bla bla bla bla bla bla (click to continue)
<character1> bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla (click to continue)
<character2> bla bla bla bla (click to continue)

That means some of those code lines will be displayed as several onscreen lines, creating a 'thick' paragraph. I'm comfortable with that and I wish every game creator did the same. But I see a lot of games with this structure:

<narrator>bla bla bla (click to continue)
<narrator> bla (click to continue)
<narrator> bla bla (click to continue)
<character1> bla (click to continue)
<character1> bla bla bla (click to continue)
<character1> bla bla bla bla (click to continue)
<character1> bla bla (click to continue)
<character2> bla bla (click to continue)
<character2> bla (click to continue)
<character2> bla (click to continue)

The content is exactly the same, you're (maybe) getting the text in a 'cleaner' way but using a ton of clicks. So please tell me, do you prefer to read less text with each click, although that makes the game 'longer'?

Thanks for your attention and comments

[moskys]

Well, the year comes to end and I think it's time to write a few lines about this project. I keep working on it but I've realized adding Aida as a choosable PC will actually result in creating two games (yeah, who would've thought?). So, considering it will need so many pics and also taking into account the writting problems I'm already experiencing in order to finish Radames' paths in a satisfying way, I have to put that idea aside if I want to actually release the game someday. If people like the game then maybe I'll add a 'second part' of the game which would be this Aida's point of view of the story. But for now I'm still writting some alternative endings and I hope to finish that job in a couple of months (I'm trying to be realistic here).

Happy new year to everyone