Visual storytelling with becci and conan

 who goes there ??

For this project I will be creating a visual novel game based on the book who goes there ? by John w. campbell this was given to me at random by the tutors will be listening to it and going from there.

Audio workshop 

In this lesson we was given the challenge of listening to different audio clips varying of different times and while the audio clips was being played we would sketch out what came to our mind. due to the time of each slip it was quite a challenge to try and get your idea onto paper before the time limit was up. 

 

Moodboards 

We was set the task of listening to our audio books and creating moodboards using a similar technique to the audio workshop we did previously came up with three moodboards first one is focused a lot on on the location and setting of the book the frozen artic second one is more around the facility the inside of it as well as a few characters as they was introduced. The final board was of the creature itself the thing itself. While making these moodboards I watched the move the thing as well so a lot of the images are taken directly from the film. 

mindmaps 

As well as making some moodboards while listening to the novel I drew up a very quick mind map on what came to mind. 

mindmap 

character mindmap 

Before doing some initial sketches its always good for me to look up some inspiration. 

character concept 

After finishing up the mind map I then moved on to some initial sketches I went with quite a cartoony design for the characters and creatures bit of a spin on a quite dark story. I will take a few of these designs on when progressing with the next stage of development. 

story and choice ideas 

when thinking about what I could do for the visual novel in terms of story and when building the visual novel was thinking about interesting choices that lead down branching paths. some initial ideas where having the game set towards the end of the story and have the player make choices that decide the end of the story. Some other ideas where having you play through certain key dates throughout the story which would affect the state of the crew of the expedition and there tolerance towards your character. 

Tyrannobuilder 

While working on and developing the story and choices it was time to give tyrannobuilder a go to get some experience and start experimenting with the software. 

  

 When first loading up tyranno my brain jumped out of my head it was like controlling an alien spaceship. I then found a few guides online to get me up and running with the basics.  

youtube guide 

With some basics I managed to put together a small little test of character talking fading in and out and back ground changing. 

a few settings 

Just a quick screen shot of the few setting I put in to make the little conversation test. 

screen grab of VN in action  

Visual novel flowsheet 

With this visual novel flowsheet nothing is final I quickly mocked it up to give me a sense of how it was gonna work when in tyranno doing options and choices. I have decided the novel will have 4 endings all based on the few choices you make in the game. I did this quick knock up.

This helped when coming up with the story and how the choices will direct your path in game. 

I am going with a simple good and bad choice then from off those two choices more interesting ones will lead you to different endings not necessary super bad or super good in anyway. 

Powerpoint

At this stage in the project we was tasked with coming up with a presentation to show the tutors are current progress with the project and to take any notes on feedback on what we currently have. 

The feedback gained from the presentation was some positive comments on my characters there cartoon style as well as some comments on the different endings as well.

Character creation 

Next phase was to finalize some character and creature designs for use in the visual novel first I did the line art and the expressions for the characters and then did the colour for them.  I kept the number of characters quite small to about 3 this was a decision made on personal time restraints. 

Chelsea  

Beef 

Bran 

Creatures 

When it came to the creatures i had some interesting concepts for them but wanted to keep it quite similar to the the thing where creature uses the person when coming out.  

Locations 

Another important detail is the locations and background of the visual novels with the ones I did for this visual novel I kept them quite simple and cartoony fitting with my theme of cartoony style I used with my characters.

main character room 

kitchen hall 

explosion end 

escaping the base 

Getting started on the VN 

So it was time to start on the visual novel I had my story written out in my head well the beginning. With the story I wanted to do I wanted to drop the player into the end of the narrative and let them make choices that would affect the ending and the position the player would end up in. To do this I developed the beginning of the game to be a small informative section that would explain the state of the world and characters within them and the character you are playing's opinion on matters. Quick note that I added a new game plus option that would allow people who have already done a run of the game to skip this section and get onto the first choice allow smoother replay ability.  

Screen grab of coding the opening 

qucik grab of the opening scene 

From that point it would transition you into your room where you have your first choice there is a knock at the door and its up to the player to make there first choice setting them on the path to the ending. 

coding for decision and character entrance 

Coding for decision and branching path 

This is first scene with branching paths this was an interesting process to learn and code if not done correctly could really mess up your vn it was quite a relief when a branching path works properly feel like a small accomplishment. 

 

Grab of the room scene 

coding for one of the main branches that lead to an ending 

At this point I had created the path for both choices found in the second scene it was now down to start coding up the 4 different endings.  

run ending 

creature catches you ending 

bomb ending 

save Chelsea ending 

Finishing up the visual novel

With the 4 choices at the end I made a small report for each different ending from the perspective of the agency filling out a report on the team from the story describing what happened after the ending that the player gets and giving a little closure to the world state. As i previously mentioned I added a new game plus option to the menu so it would allow players to get back to making different choices quickly and exploring everything the game offers. After all that I went through the quick game testing for bugs and any issues making sure it all works and zipping it all off and submitting it for marking. 

Bit of information for the website 

when submitting the visual novel for the website where they will all be housed i was asked for a bit of information on the visual novel as well as some info on myself as an artist and a a little picture to my avatar. 

Final product of visual novel and a bit about me and the game up on the site 

Reflective feedback on my own work and performance with 

Overall I knew I could do a lot better as always I let myself down with poor time management as usual allowing it to get quite close to deadline before even starting my visual novel but in a bit of a bad there is some good in the small amount of time I had I was able to get grips with the tyranno builder software quite quickly using nothing but the tutorials on the site and the tutors lessons. With this I was able to produce a pretty interesting visual novel that has a lot of potential as well as this knowing the skill of tyranno builder I am definitely going to consider making a few visual novels in the future especially as my character drawing skills improve. As well as this I enjoyed turning who goes there into a cartoony dark horror. 

Tutor feedback

Here's the feedback I received from my tutor on visual novel overall I was glad with what was said I definitely have a lot to work on and think about what I could have done differently with my visual novel. 

Link to the game and spreading that lovely awareness 

After it was all handed in the visual novel and up on the website we was sent out like pigeons to spread the word of the website on our social media platforms I stick to Instagram mainly so I did my advertising there. Before putting links onto my Instagram had to make link tree this will not just be useful for this project but many more to come as well as in the future with work. 

After setting up my linktree account and making the link for Instagram then headed over to spread the word. 

    

linktree in the bio and I made a post bringing light to the website and a few of my fellow students and friends as well the hashtag made just for this #comicartsvn2020. 

Advertisement post  

As well as the post I posted on my story multiple days in a row to see if some of my lovely followers would enjoy having a peak.