Charmers Visual Novel

I've told this to a lot of people already, but this year I'm going to begin a great project: a Charmers Visual Novel!
It's going to be ultimately a romance story where you play as , living and training with the other 5 charmers under Doriado's watch. So there will be 5 different paths leading to good endings, one for each female Charmer, and a bunch of bad endings if you do something wrong
Of course, this is a huge project to do all by myself. And so, just like the CRPG, I'm extending a hand to everyone here to work on this as a community. Anyone who is willing to can contribute however they like! The four main aspects of the project are as follows:

1. The Programming
I'll be using Ren'Py to create this, obviously. I'll be hosting it on my computer while it's still being worked on, so anything at all that needs to be included in the project should be given to me so I can access them in the script. I'll also be working on much of the actual script myself.

That being said... Ren'Py is written in Python. Considering that I'm not the best programmer and basically learned how to program in Ren'Py through the tutorial that came with it, if there is anyone who knows more complicated commands in Python that can enhance the interface (or even better, if you've actually used Ren'Py before), I'd love for you to help make this really great. Since, I could do the programming by myself, but it would be pretty simple-looking lol. I will say that I spend a lot of time on debugging and beta tests, but I may find more errors than I can fix, so if a programming issue arises, I'd appreciate having someone to turn to as well.

2. The Plot, Storyline, and Paths
This is arguably the most important part to finish first. As stated above, it's a romance story involving Dharc x Charmer of your choice. I'm still coming up with the specific events of the story, so we can discuss that on this thread. But I do have an idea of some sort of outline for the overall plot:

In the beginning, you (Dharc) will interact with all of the Charmers and develop relations with each one, obviously some better than others depending on the decisions you make. Then something happens (I haven't decided if it's either an attack on your village or you have to journey somewhere), and you partner up with the Charmer you're closest to to solve this problem. Then, if all goes well, you spend a little more time with her after this, much to the others' surprise, until you finally confess/get confessed to. At the end, there would be a final event that would test your relationship, and if you pass the test... then it's a happy ending! XD

After the overall plot is finished, each of the 5 paths will have to be written. This includes finetuning dialogue. If any person wants to work solely on the path of one particular Charmer, let me know and I'll be happy to let you do so. Just remember that paths can and will cross From what I'm envisioning, there will be some parts of the story that will be the same every play through, and some that will be different depending on what decisions you make leading up to them. And then there will be some events that will only occur if you're with a specific Charmer or have a strong friendship with that Charmer.

If I've sent you a PM about any of this, contact me and we can start bouncing ideas off each other immediately. Or we can just talk in this thread lol

3. The Music
I'm going to be in charge of the VN's music myself. Not only will I be selecting a couple songs that I think can fit well in certain scenes, I'll also be composing some tracks myself specifically for this project, so that'll be fun. That being said, if there's a BGM you'd really like to have present in here, send it to me and I can include it. The only guideline is that it should be instrumental, as audible words or singing can be distracting.

4. The Artwork
As bad as this sounds, this is the part I would like the most help on and probably the part I will be doing the least of myself, as I have extremely little artistic talent, none of which can be applied to this project lol. There are a few different things under this category, so one single person doesn't have to be in charge of all the art (although you can if you really want ). Like I said, ANY and ALL help is appreciated.

The main thing the VN needs is pictures of the Charmers, their familiars, and other characters like Doriado, etc.. Each Charmer should have multiple poses, but most of the secondary characters only need one pose. Facial expressions can be done separately for the same character (by which I mean, for each character, make the faces by themselves, and I can paste them over the blank/neutral face).

The other thing as far as artwork would be the background scenery of all the places in the game. In front of the backdrops will be where the characters' images can be viewed and move around, so they should be a landscape as seen from human eye level. Lastly, there may be some scenes that would require to be full-out pictures by themselves. These would be specific events only and used as mile markers storywise (like a pic of Dharc being kissed, for example ).

---

I hope this project comes to full fruition, as it would be the first Charmers VN ever, to my knowledge. That would truly be a great feat!

i propose a friendship end with the charmer's familiar!
i wanted to see how Dharc goes with Meta Bat and become Familiar-Possesor instead in the final ending of Meta Bat friendship end and Lyna's happy end

also, with Familiar!friendship, maybe you can change some's story
like how you can be one that help Gogiga Gagagigo into Gagagigo the Awakened, and by doing so, will help Eria's affection heightened on you(Dharc)
just say its a side-quest that could help change the story, like if you did this side-quest, you will have Gagagigo the Awakened attend your wedding or whatever

if its storyline and stuff, I can help, since I've done so in many Fanfiction

Well, the thing is all the Charmers are going to be familiar-possessed anyway, so that wouldn't really be an ending. In fact, one of the things I was thinking about was whether all the Charmers should become familiar-possessed during the course of the story or not. And besides, who said Dharc can't be familiar-possessed and be in love with one of them at the same time? Who knows, maybe the bond they form with their familiars make them realize how deep they should bond with each other...

...But... just now, I got an idea for one of the bad endings...

But I do think your idea about helping out Gagagigo is clever, so thank you for your suggestion there. You're more than welcome to help out with the plot if you'd like, since like I said I offically just started this project yesterday lol

But I want a Friendship end!
They always brings warm to my heart!

The thing is that you could help Gagagigo in his quest to save Eria, and I think some YGO card artwork might be nice to be used over Gagagigo's side-quest, maybe Stumbling and stuff

And how about they have ice skating with everyone?
Where Gagagigo teach them how to skate with Dharc and the other charmer beside Eria sucks at that, its gonna be a mythological gag over Einsbahn since only water monster could remain standing up(atk)

And if its about bad end, I want Dark Spiritual Art - Greed is something Dharc make himself, yet because he didn't have enough power yet, ya can either choose to continue it or not, if he did so, Meta Bat will save him, and by doing so, he can't be a charmer anymore, which lead to bad end

ally of justice catastor wrote:

But I want a Friendship end!
They always brings warm to my heart!

Sigh, what do you have against romance, mate?

I wasn't planning on including a plain friendship ending separate from the 5 good endings and other bad endings, since it sounds kinda counter-intuitive for you to develop strong relationships with a girl, only to just go off by yourself later lol. If you do feel that strongly about it, then I suppose the community as a whole should vote on whether or not to include one. It's only fair.

ally of justice catastor wrote:

The thing is that you could help Gagagigo in his quest to save Eria, and I think some YGO card artwork might be nice to be used over Gagagigo's side-quest, maybe Stumbling and stuff

And how about they have ice skating with everyone?
Where Gagagigo teach them how to skate with Dharc and the other charmer beside Eria sucks at that, its gonna be a mythological gag over Einsbahn since only water monster could remain standing up(atk)

Well that would certainly help with the artwork lol. It's not a bad idea at all really. Only one question... where are they going to find an ice skating rink in the middle of Charmer Forest??? The setting doesn't really match.

ally of justice catastor wrote:

And if its about bad end, I want Dark Spiritual Art - Greed is something Dharc make himself, yet because he didn't have enough power yet, ya can either choose to continue it or not, if he did so, Meta Bat will save him, and by doing so, he can't be a charmer anymore, which lead to bad end

Ooh, nice idea there. We'll have to fit the Spiritual Arts in the plot somehow.

how about this?
If you managed to finish a certain side-quest("Gagagigo's Redemption" for Eria, "Petit Dragon's Evolution" for Wynn, etc) you could have extra scene when you choose the heroine whose familiar you help to have a wedding pic or more bonus.
and while its going to be a pain in the arse to write them up, I will have to say "totally worth it"

nah, just, sometimes, friendship is just better than love

ally of justice catastor wrote:

how about this?
If you managed to finish a certain side-quest("Gagagigo's Redemption" for Eria, "Petit Dragon's Evolution" for Wynn, etc) you could have extra scene when you choose the heroine whose familiar you help to have a wedding pic or more bonus.
and while its going to be a pain in the arse to write them up, I will have to say "totally worth it"

That honestly sounds like it's gonna be more of a pain in the arse for the ARTIST, not the writer... and considering no one's stepped to be an artist yet, that may have to wait lol

Before I start spewing anything I want to give some advise.

First of all, as this is a multiple Route VN, there will always be points which are almost completely the same for each Storyline, regardless of the Path chosen. One of the most important parts for the story is to SET these "universal" events first. That way we can easily build the Character-specific storylines around this plot-structure.

Second of all: I wanna write Hiitas path D:

Third of all: The text is the more important part. First we need to finish a good portion of the dialogue and have most of the story set before we can even THINK about someone doing the CGs.

Fourth of all: We should first agree on one kind of "main" theme that is the same among all the story paths, just played out differently. I prefer the "evening out your shortcomings" approach, so that Wynn would have to learn to voice her opinion more often or Hiita has to stop blasting the shit out of Dharc and the other charmers with the slightest provocation or whatever (i have no idea what is canon for all of you XD).

Last but not least: Sorry for being so bossy but well with my other projects having gone down, I am kinda strict about this stuff.

No worries about strictness; it's better that all of us are on the same page here and use the same guidelines. This way we'll end up with a more cohesive project. A main theme idea sounds good. This will give the incentive that Dharc helps the girls out, and they like him in return lol

Yami you are more than welcome to write Hiita's path. In fact, I even expected you to say so XD

As far as what is canon, I'm with the impression that it may be easiest to make up some things specifically for this story, since there really isn't much established canon at all with the Charmers. I mean, we all basically agree that they're training under Doriado, but everything else is up to speculation.

Right now I've been thinking about the setting/opening scene of the story, since arguably one of the hardest parts of a story is the beginning. Tell me if you all like this idea, and feel free to modify it if you like:

Spoiler:

It's a bit cliche, but it's a formula that works XD But like I said, it could be patched up... what do you think?

Hippocampus wrote:

Right now I've been thinking about the setting/opening scene of the story, since arguably one of the hardest parts of a story is the beginning. Tell me if you all like this idea, and feel free to modify it if you like:

Spoiler:

It's a bit cliche, but it's a formula that works XD But like I said, it could be patched up... what do you think?

you have encounter a wild monster!
what will you do?
-fight
-kill
-flee
-cry

sorry, its just damn tempting to do that :p

sorry, its just damn tempting to do that :p

and about the choice, I believe its better if ya put it like usual VN choice like "I can't back down!" or "there's no way I can win, I need to run"

still found it a bit nonsensical how Meta Bat suddenly become that tame, I want a Tsundere Meta Bat before he become Deredere on Dharc X3

ally of justice catastor wrote:

you have encounter a wild monster!
what will you do?
-fight
-kill
-flee
-cry

sorry, its just damn tempting to do that :p

sorry, its just damn tempting to do that :p

and about the choice, I believe its better if ya put it like usual VN choice like "I can't back down!" or "there's no way I can win, I need to run"

Oh lol well of course this is just an overview. Obviously there's gonna be dialogue in the final product lol

ally of justice catastor wrote:

still found it a bit nonsensical how Meta Bat suddenly become that tame, I want a Tsundere Meta Bat before he become Deredere on Dharc X3

Well as I said, this is just an idea, and anyone is willing to contribute to this idea. Yes Meda Bat would be charmed but don't forget he is still evil, so he may not agree with everything Dharc wants to do. In my mind it makes the most sense that, if the other charmers all have their familiars then Dharc should have his too. But his charm may even wear off if you do the wrong thing, who knows lol

Well I usually imagined Dharc as an amnesiac, In which case his story would be more about coming to terms with his past, but well i will keep that one out for now.

All around a good starting point. its OU but meeh it works if we write it correctly.

Tsundere Meda-Bat would be awesome. And then it turns out to be female and we got a paring for all you furry-fans XDD

Corrupted Charmer, Yami wrote:

Well I usually imagined Dharc as an amnesiac, In which case his story would be more about coming to terms with his past, but well i will keep that one out for now.

All around a good starting point. its OU but meeh it works if we write it correctly.

I actually like the amnesiac idea... for some reason I never made that connection with Dharc, but the more I think about it, it works. The thing is, if he's an amnesiac, he still would have to either meet the others for the first time when the story begins, like in my first suggestion, or have been separated from them for a long time. So that means we'd have to explicitly decide on his past. Again, I'm not opposed to doing this, but I don't have any of my own ideas about it, so some helpinspiration would be nice :3

Corrupted Charmer, Yami wrote:

Tsundere Meda-Bat would be awesome. And then it turns out to be female and we got a paring for all you furry-fans XDD

oh god please no bestiality XD

Hippocampus wrote:

Corrupted Charmer, Yami wrote:

Tsundere Meda-Bat would be awesome. And then it turns out to be female and we got a paring for all you furry-fans XDD

oh god please no bestiality XD

now now Hippo, who says it must be Bestiality?

Meta Bat can always be a gloriously sexy succubus like being who change into a cute bat with those cute eye whose stare will gave you nightmare, cute wing that seems like its made by Satan, also cute claw that's sharp enough to gouge one's brain out from those think skull so she can be Dharc's familiar X3

ally of justice catastor wrote:

now now Hippo, who says it must be Bestiality?

Meta Bat can always be a gloriously sexy succubus like being who change into a cute bat with those cute eye whose stare will gave you nightmare, cute wing that seems like its made by Satan, also cute claw that's sharp enough to gouge one's brain out from those think skull so she can be Dharc's familiar X3

...I'm thinking you should write Meda Bat's path.

I think there should be a darker path other than just the ones with ending up in a romantic relationship with the charmers. From what i've read on this forum, most of us see dharc as the cool emotionally void protagonist. It's just my opinion, but I find those characters kinda lackluster if there is no in-depth or good reason for them to behave that way. So what I suggest is that his personality be "normal", we can decide the specific details of this later, but what I would suggest is to have a path where we see the reason for him becoming the emotionally void protagonist everyone sees him as by the end of the rpg...just a thought.

One of the interpretations I've seen of the spiritual arts is that the charmers sacrifice themselves in some way, so maybe there can be some type of sacrifice that leaves Dharc alone and sets him on a darker path after said event happens since hes grown so close to them?

Or if we want to scrap the darkness path, we could make corruption from an outside source(meda bat) as a problem dharc has to deal with throughout the entire rpg

Hippocampus wrote:

ally of justice catastor wrote:

now now Hippo, who says it must be Bestiality?

Meta Bat can always be a gloriously sexy succubus like being who change into a cute bat with those cute eye whose stare will gave you nightmare, cute wing that seems like its made by Satan, also cute claw that's sharp enough to gouge one's brain out from those think skull so she can be Dharc's familiar X3

...I'm thinking you should write Meda Bat's path.

I'm honored my lord X3

Why do I suddenly remember Riviera? In that game, when your Relationship Rting with ALL Females ist below a certain point but a specific one got still the most, you will get a secret ending where the only female without actually values becomes your partner.
The same could be made with Dharc. When he evens out the Relationship Values with all girls, he gets a path which focuses on him solely (and Meda-Bat but thats only apparent at a later point)

Gentasu wrote:

I think there should be a darker path other than just the ones with ending up in a romantic relationship with the charmers. From what i've read on this forum, most of us see dharc as the cool emotionally void protagonist. It's just my opinion, but I find those characters kinda lackluster if there is no in-depth or good reason for them to behave that way. So what I suggest is that his personality be "normal", we can decide the specific details of this later, but what I would suggest is to have a path where we see the reason for him becoming the emotionally void protagonist everyone sees him as by the end of the rpg...just a thought.

One of the interpretations I've seen of the spiritual arts is that the charmers sacrifice themselves in some way, so maybe there can be some type of sacrifice that leaves Dharc alone and sets him on a darker path after said event happens since hes grown so close to them?

Or if we want to scrap the darkness path, we could make corruption from an outside source(meda bat) as a problem dharc has to deal with throughout the entire rpg

First of all, this is not an RPG, it's a visual novel. Not to be condescending about it, but there is certainly a difference lol

Your idea is interesting. Having him change from a normal personality into a emotionless one is sorta the opposite of what we've been thinking about before. The thing is, if Dharc doesn't end up taking the darkness path and goes for a girl instead, then he'll never actually become the emotionally void character you're talking about, so the story wouldn't develop his character unless the player wanted it to (which, funnily enough, reminds me of TheFael's fanfic a bit, so I guess that could work lol). If you think that's a good idea Gentasu, then so do I.

If we were to scrap the darkness path (which I don't think catastor would be happy about), it would more than likely make the corruption and Meda Bat seem like an antagonist, so anything involving Dharc ending up on his own would be treated as a "bad ending". And don't worry, there are going to be numerous bad endings regardless (aside from the stereotypical girl rejects you, slaps you in the face, and leaves you crying XD), some of which are going to involve Dharc by himself. Again, I don't think this is bad at all (since many VNs follow this kind of formula), but it does scrap the darkness path.

Corrupted Charmer, Yami wrote:

Why do I suddenly remember Riviera? In that game, when your Relationship Rting with ALL Females ist below a certain point but a specific one got still the most, you will get a secret ending where the only female without actually values becomes your partner.
The same could be made with Dharc. When he evens out the Relationship Values with all girls, he gets a path which focuses on him solely (and Meda-Bat but thats only apparent at a later point)

Yes, this works. If he fails to get a high enough relationship rating with any of the girls, he just goes to the solitary path and ends up alone with Meda Bat.

THAT BEING SAID, I think right now we're putting a bit too much emphasis on the Meda Bat/friendship/dark ending path and not enough on, well, anything else. Yami, you were right before... we should try and come up with the global events first and worry about all the specific endings later. And I mean, I guess I'm the only one who wants to see Dharc fall in love around here lol, but the game was kinda conceived on the idea that he would, so... yeah XD. I am more than willing to include an additional ending (that's not a bad ending) where Dharc goes down the dark path with Meda Bat, but if that's the ONLY ending we have... then it may as well just be a regular old fanfic lol

Also, Yami, of the two ideas Gentasu posed about Dharc's character, which one do you think would work better?

Ah sorry, I don't have very much experience with visual novels so I just spewed random ideas XD

Hippocampus wrote:

THAT BEING SAID, I think right now we're putting a bit too much emphasis on the Meda Bat/friendship/dark ending path and not enough on, well, anything else. Yami, you were right before... we should try and come up with the global events first and worry about all the specific endings later. And I mean, I guess I'm the only one who wants to see Dharc fall in love around here lol, but the game was kinda conceived on the idea that he would, so... yeah XD. I am more than willing to include an additional ending (that's not a bad ending) where Dharc goes down the dark path with Meda Bat, but if that's the ONLY ending we have... then it may as well just be a regular old fanfic lol

actually, I'm going to make Meda Bat's end a bittersweet one, pretty much either make Dharc traumatized by everything and take the way of solitude, where Meda Bat is pretty much the only one who's with him

the other have Dharc so traumatized by some "event" and have him mentally ill, Meda Bat is the only one who took care of him

and I actually think this will be one to tell about Dharc himself, where we learn on how he is becoming how he is now and how he have power of a Charmer

and to you all, I am a fans of Dark Fic, so don't flame me on the bittersweet end, its better than Downer end anyway

@Hippocampus: Well I guess it is already set what the route is
@Gentasu: No Problem, most of us are new to this.
@Catastor: Dark Fics are awesome (my FF would become one if I ever wanted to continue it XX)

Well now that we have some parts of the Story set, lets set the GROUNDWORK.

Now what we established already:
Dharc starts out in the Charmers Forest with the other 5 Charmers, all of them being mentored by Doriado.

Thats the beginning If I am right. Correct me If I am wrong. Anyways lets continue:

In the first part of the story Dharc should have different events with each of the Charmers to establish their personalities. While all of them should be fitting their elements, I would say that none of them are really as they act.
Example: Hiita acts more brutal than the others because her Element is easily the most dangerous. Earth, Wind and Water are all basically "still" outside of control. Fire on the other hand "lives" and "comsumes to live". Therefor her being a brutal and foul-mouthed, excuse my choice of words here, BITCH is more of a protective mechanism so she can concentrate on keeping her fires under control. Basically her letting of steam.

Progress:
I will edit into this department everytime we finish SOMETHING.

Story:
Choice of Paths: Finished. 6 Paths (Water, Fire, Wind, Earth, Light, Darkness)
Characterizations: Needs A LOT of work XX
Global Story: Needs to be done.

Alright, I'm here, so let me bounce some of my ideas on this.

FIRST: Due to my personal feelings about Charmers (which I had voiced in the General Charmer Discussion Thread) I would mostly like to work on Hiita's path, which would make Yami and I partners in this little endeavor. I will be sure to help out with the basic story-telling of all the paths, but my focus would be Hiita.

SECOND: In regards to the starting point mentioned earlier, I think it's a very good one, and I like the idea of making Meda Bat part antagonist.

THIRD: Now, in regards to what part of the story we should figure out next, I believe what we need to decide on first and foremost is [b]who the main antagonist/villain is?[/b]
Deciding on this will be the major factor in deciding what the later plot ends up being (referring back to whether there will be an attack on the village or if they leave on a journey) So I suggest we all think up a few ideas of who we think would make the best main antagonist/villain for the story (This would be regardless of the player's chosen path) and whether or not it may be best to make the main ant. an OC.

FOURTH: In addition to the main ant., what we need to do before anything else is decide (concisely) the personalities of the Charmers. Given that we all have to have slightly different interpretations on them, we should each post our own interpretations, and that collaboratively figure out which traits work best, mixing and matching pieces of everyone's ideas.
--- SIDE NOTE: In reference to Gentatsu's idea of having Dharc start out with a normal personality that turns into the emotionally void one later on, I don't want to sound rude in saying this (even if it ends up coming out that way for lack of better words), but I have to fully reject this scenario.
First of all, if your reasoning for this is that your find these characters lackluster without cause or depth, then I would have to disagree and point out that the very beginning Hippo has scripted is reason for that personality alone (in that his parents die in the monsters' raid) Making his reason for being emotionally void that he no longer wants to get close to others, afraid that if he does and they die like his parents, he wouldn't be able to bare it.
----- OH! (Just thought of this as I wrote that) that reason to his emotional void could make the general starting situations of the plot be about the other Charmer's attempting to crack into Dharc's locked away feelings, and the one Dharc forms the closest bond with would end up being the one the player decided to let in the most/farthest.
---anyways,the second reason I feel I need to reject this is that a character becoming emotionally void post-start of a story would make the entire romance scenarios far more difficult to perform than the vise-versa is.

anyways; LASTLY: After we complete the above details is when I feel we should really start thinking about the major plot points. Speaking from my personal experience as a writer (nearly 6 years now) If we try to create a plot first, we will find it more difficult to fit the characters into it as we go, which will end up causing more numerous blocks and more frequent alterations to the story than are worth it or necessary; whereas fitting major plot points around already decided upon characters is far easier to accomplish, resulting in faster writing.

Sorry if this is extremely long, it's just a result of me only just now getting here.

FIRST OF ALL: If you want to take Hiitas Part then do that. I will just take another path. Due to the fact that we don't have that many writers right now, It would be better if we take one writer per path. Believe me when i tell you that it goes into utter CHAOS if more than one person wants to work on the same character XX

SECOND: Your argument is sound, we will let Hippo decide. I am fine with everything, Hippo is the boss on this one.

THIRD: I second that one.

FOURTH: That will be where shit hits the fan I would say. We will have to split the Charmers so everyone can post 1 or 2 Charmer Characterization. In this regard I would currently say:

Binding Dharc: You do Hiitas personality.
Hippo: You (the boss) and Catastor would have to work together on Dharc I guess.
Catastor: See above
CCYami (me): Well I take whatever you want me to do (got chracterizations for all of them)

Binding Dharc wrote:

THIRD: Now, in regards to what part of the story we should figure out next, I believe what we need to decide on first and foremost is who the main antagonist/villain is?
Deciding on this will be the major factor in deciding what the later plot ends up being (referring back to whether there will be an attack on the village or if they leave on a journey) So I suggest we all think up a few ideas of who we think would make the best main antagonist/villain for the story (This would be regardless of the player's chosen path) and whether or not it may be best to make the main ant. an OC.

nah, I can't say that

OC is always seen as a bad thing in almost anything, and well, I can say that's true, since no matter how you do it, there's always someone who will come to say "its a freaking Mary Sue" and stuff

so I believe we should just tune some Yu-Gi-Oh chara as the antagonist

like, perhaps, Invader of Darkness/Gogiga Gagagigo for Eria's route, some that seems to have connection with them or even some evil thingy you saw on some cards

but if you do managed to make a good OC, I will follow what you says