transformersvn

[transformersvn]

Hey do you have any knockout x Megatron relationship headcanons because their very interesting

Oh, so, so many (mostly dependant on the situation I've wrangled them into this time).

I like the idea that Knock Out is a night owl and as late to rise as he can manage, whereas Megatron has a touch of insomnia (at least, in as much as Cybertronians have a human-like sleep schedule) and that can lead to odd conversations happening at unreasonable hours.

I want them to encourage each other's worst behaviours while finding comfort and security in the ways they don't have to be nasty to each other. A certain amount of rough edges is to be expected (and looked on with less suspicion than a perfectly polite person) and their particular brands of unpleasantness don't bother the other hugely.

I'm very attached to the idea that Knock Out is a self-taught medic and Megatron likes that. Megatron likes competence and while Knock Out isn't always successful, he's got a fairly good track record and (possibly more importantly) doesn't usually screw up in spectacular ways. Conversely, Megatron learning how easy it can be to meet the demands Knock Out actually wants is fun.

I also think it would be hilarious if Megatron was the younger one out of the pair. TFP!Megatron being one of the youngest Cybertonians in the show is something I desperately want to write but haven't found a good enough plot to hang it on yet. Let Knock Out try an "age before beauty" line only to have it blow up in his face XD

Knock Out has a taste for expensive fuels (he claims its a race car thing) and it's fun to picture him trying to ply Megatron with different flavours, but Megatron has a very fuel is fuel is fuel attitude.

(I'm trying to come up with more specific relationshipy things, but I'm the type of writer who doesn't know what any specifics are going to be until I write them, so a lot of character interaction moments are up in the air until I get them down -.-).

[transformersvn]

It's been a while, but I'm finally working on a visual novel again!

Years ago, I mentioned running a Transformers horror ttrpg one-shot (using modified 5e since this was a couple of years before the official Transformers ttrpg came). I figured it might make a good premise for a visual novel and so far it seems to fit pretty well.

I'm currently putting together the game structure, pretty bare bones, just making sure places and items and such are working. It's feeling pretty achievable.

After that it'll be moving on to artwork and padding the narrative to make it feel more like a story instead of a checklist, but that's a little while off yet. (And is probably the point to send out a call to see if anyone's interested in collaborating on this).

The premise: The player is a human trapped in a supermarket overnight. They have to try and successfully complete their goal (dependent on their backstory) while also remaining alive because they aren't the only ones there...

The Decepticons: Soundwave crash-landed nearby and is out of commission. His cassettes (Laserbeak, Ravage, Frenzy, and Rumble) have managed to install him as the security system in the supermarket and are hunting around during the night to try and find a way to repair him. They aren't super happy about a human poking around, but they're not in the best of repair themselves and don't want to start a fight if they can help it.

(It's been a lot of fun so far, I'm really liking naming my variables):

[transformersvn]

Can I be apart of this can I draw or be artist and play test

If you're talking about my idea for a choose-your-own-adventure visual novel, I'm afraid that's pretty much dead in the water.

If you're asking about getting involved in a more general way, that'd be great! Though I don't have any on-going projects at the moment. Nothing's managed to hit the short enough/nothing explicit/interesting to me personally checklist recently :/

Next time I start up a project, I'll post about it earlier so I can see if anyone's interested in helping out then. Especially when it comes to art, that's usually the biggest bottleneck for making a vn.

(If anyone wants to offer up suggestions for a fic to convert into a vn, I can't promise I'll click with any of them, but I'll give them a look).

[transformersvn]

What I find interesting is the fact that I think this starts in Darkness Rising/Masters & Students.

At the end of Darkness Rising, Optimus makes a genuine attempt on Megatron's life. Yes, it also coincides with making a distraction for the other Autobots to blow up the space bridge, but Optimus is ready and willing to kill Megatron to stop Earth's annihilation via dark energon zombies.

However, at the start of Masters & Students, Optimus is morning (a presumed dead) Megatron and the loss of the chance that Megatron might change his mind. And then the next thing Optimus does is offer peace to both Starscream and Skyquake - something that he might have tried in the past, but probably not quite as quickly and openly as he does in M&S.

Throughout the rest of season 1, Optimus is happy to parley with Decepticons - including Megatron in TMI. It's only once One Shall Fall and/or the Orion Pax arc pushes it in Optimus's face that Megatron has had a second chance and has wasted it, that Optimus returns to his pre-series/Darkness Rising acceptance-that-he-has-to-kill-Megatron state.

As a megop shipper, I like a tfp megops are too gay to kill each other joke as much as the next person. But I feel people forget as of the end of season 1, Optimus is very deliberately trying to kill Megatron because he has given up on him, and doing so hurt Optimus.

[transformersvn]

If anyone’s interested, I’d be happy to do some beta-reading for fics.

What I can offer:

- Proofreading (catching typos, checking punctuation consistency, making sure you’ve used the right words, etc) - Minor editing (re-wording sentences for clarity or characterisation, offering suggestions on paragraph length/breaks, etc)

What fandoms I can do:

 - Transformers (specialty is TFP, otherwise I’m reasonably familiar with MTMTE/LL, WFC, TFC, and Transformers Devastation (video game). I probably know enough about G1, TFA, and Bayverse to offer suggestions, but my knowledge of specific events are limited)

 - Super Mario (I’ve played 64, Sunshine, Odyssey, 3D World & Bowser’s Fury, TTYD, SPM, Color Splash, Origami King, M&L(BiS and PiT), NSMBW, and probably more that I can’t think of right now)

 - I’m willing to try other fandoms, so please ask. There are plenty that I’m familiar with, even if I haven’t listed them.

My writing can be found at https://archiveofourown.org/users/Useless19 to check if you like my style.

[transformersvn]

I recently got into your Halo fanfics and they’re honestly the best ones i’ve found so far. Do you ever plan on making more? I love how you wrote the dynamic between the Arbiter and Master Chief.

Thank you, but I'm afraid I don't really have any more ideas for that particular series. It was a lot of fun to write while I still had ideas at least!

I have hopes to one day figure out how to get my thoughts on a Halo/Transformers crossover into a short fic, but other than that it's up in the air if I'll find something in Halo to inspire me again.

Thanks :)

[transformersvn]

Question: What is the process for making one of your visual novels?

So, this got long. I hope it covers what you were after :)

Overall, there are key sections of the VN I have to work on. In rough order of necessity they are:

Script

Sprites

Backgrounds

Directions

CGs

Music

Testing

I use Ren'Py, a free visual novel creator based in the Python coding language. It's simple to use and if you know even a little bit of Python you can do some fun stuff. (I just have to try not to cry when using American spellings for colour and centre)

Inkscape is a free vector-based drawing program, which is the drawing program I'm most familiar with. It allows easy editing of svgs and that's what most of my sprite-work is.

For writing the code, I find something like VSCode to be useful, as basic colour-coding of code is useful for making sure you've not missed an obvious " somewhere.

More details under the cut.

(For examples, I'll mostly be drawing from Forbidden Rendezvous)

Script

First off, it depends if I'm doing a fanfic conversion or doing the writing myself. Either way, getting a first draft (or at least a detailed summary) of the script is essential, as that informs the rest of the sections - I don't know what characters I want to make sprites of until I have a good idea of who'll be appearing.

With a fanfic, the words are already there, I just need to convert them into something Ren'Py can read. Anything spoken by a character needs to be assigned to that character properly (dialogue tags are useless here) and long paragraphs of description need to be split up so that they fit in the textbox.

As part of this I define characters at the top of the file. Each character is given a name that will appear in the textbox while they're talking - for these I've given them a variable so I can change the name in the script easier if I need to (eg, when talking to Server his name is ??? until he introduces himself). I've also assigned which sprites the characters use too, which allows me to change their sprite more simply in the code at points.

(You can assign a ton of other things at this point too, like change the colour of their name, what font they use, what the textbox looks like when they're talking, etc)

Sprites

Once I've got an idea of who I'm drawing I'll make a sprite for every character with a neutral expression. This will be the base for all of the characters' sprites, so I tend to spend a fair bit of time making sure they're put together right - or I'll have to fix the same error on multiple sprites later (eg, I missed colouring the grill of the left side of Orion's face and didn't notice that the lines were overlapping his face until I'd done a handful of expressions so I had to fix that on all 11 of his sprites separately).

Now I've got a neutral sprite, I'll copy-paste it and then tweak the face and arms until I've got appropriate expressions. And because I'm bad at priorities, I'll leave the hands until last.

For TFP I tend to trace over screenshots to get the characters looking right, whereas G1's simpler style has let me draw with just references on the side of my screen. I'd like to be able to get to the point of not needing to trace one day, but we'll have to see how long that is going to take with my sparse practice.

Backgrounds

I try to aim for simple backgrounds so as not to distract away from the sprites. That's why they always have thicker grey lines.

I've gone through a whole range of trying to imagine a room with no reference vs tracing over google-searched images vs taking pictures of my place and tracing over that vs using references without tracing. At the moment I'm leaning towards references without tracing, as then I don't get bogged down in trying to get all the details in, but can also not make it look like an Escher nightmare because I can see the how the room fits into 3d space.

Directions

One of the key parts of a VN is that you have characters showing up on the screen. But how do they know where to go? Ren'Py has a handful of built-in positions (such as left, right, center, etc) that you can plonk a character in, or if you need more precision, you can define your own.

Normally I just define the x/y alignment but you can do all sorts of transforms (eg, in Quarantine Starscream ends up diagonally in the corner on the bed, which was achieved through a combination of specific transforms).

On top of all that, characters can move around onscreen. If a new position is given to a sprite it will appear instantly in that position. If you give it the move action it will instead slide across the screen at a fixed speed (you can change this if you want). When being introduced to a scene, you can tell a sprite to moveinleft which will make it slide in from off the left side of the screen. There's so much you can do with character placements (flipping is also very useful!)

I find it tricky to get down exactly what I picture in my head during a scene (one of the main issues I run into is misjudging sprite size), but I try to do a dry run-through in the code before properly testing. This at least gives me the right sprites at roughly the right times to make my testing slightly easier, not to mention helping clear up which expressions I'll need.

CGs

Like with hands, I tend to leave the CGs until last and regret it. They're usually one of the hardest parts, artistically speaking, being a combination of sprite and background and usually a key scene that I really want to display.

I have a speed draw of the Megatronus/Orion kiss CG I did, which probably shows my drawing process better than I can right now:

Music (and SFX)

I'm not super musical. I did the music for Quarantine using Musescore and since then have decided to use free online sources. Freesound.org and Bensound.com have been very useful resources. Like with the direction, I tend to chuck it all at once then fiddle it until it sounds right to me later.

Testing

And, of course, there's testing. Can't have a programming project without testing :)

So, does it run? No? Of course not - I hope you like picking through bug reports to find the three times you forgot to put a $ at the start of a line where you assigned a variable, or the quotes you forgot to escape in some dialogue.

Okay, it runs, is everything showing up? No? Well, thankfully Ren'Py has a built-in error checker that will give you a rundown of all the times you made a typo in a character name or called a sprite you decided to leave out at the drawing stage.

And now it runs and you don't end up with placeholder images for the ones you misspelt - does it look right? Now you've got to play through the whole thing line by line to see if any text has overflowed or if the characters are facing the right way or if they're entering/leaving scenes correctly. Don't forget to make sure you've got the right length on your fade transitions too (unless the transition wants a dissolve instead).

Does it sound right? Time to adjust the sound mixing and make sure the music starts and stops at the right times.

Now build it and run through it again to make sure the build didn't screw up. Now again on an Android device so you can ensure the smaller textbox doesn't have any issues.

Honestly though, as much as it can be a faff, 99% of what I call testing is more like editing, which can be a wonderful process when you see it coming together. It's significantly less wonderful when I spend ages on the actual Python side to discover far too late that if you tell Python that listA = listB then it will assume I mean those lists should now always be equal and changes to one will affect the other and what I actually wanted was listA = list(listB) - but that's not super common in direct fanfic conversions at least.

And then it's finally time to make an itch.io page and upload everything and hope for the best.

...

So there you have it. You can also check the making of tag where I've tried to document my process on some of my earlier vns. It might be a bit outdated in a few places now, but it'll at least show what my methods were back then.

Hopefully I'll be ready to start another project somewhen before summer. Not sure which fic I'd be looking to convert, though I'm also very interested in something written specifically for VN (I'd definitely need so other people interested to help with at least the writing if that's the case). Might also try a web version too, as that's something Ren'Py offers and it means the VN won't need downloaded.

[transformersvn]

Android version now up!

And we’re live!

“It’s porn,” Megatronus growled. “He’s talking about pornography, Passionwheels.”

Download for PC & Mac here: https://transformersvn.tumblr.com/download

Original story by @perictione (find it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22204186)

[transformersvn]

Got the JDK working! Expect an Android port of Forbidden Rendezvous sometime next week!

[transformersvn]

you code and draw full visual novels all on your own and in your free time? nothing but respect for my troops i salute you

Thank you so much! It's a weird hobby to have fallen into, but it's a lot of fun :)

[transformersvn]

My drawing process for the CG in Forbidden Rendezvous.

Drawn in 3 parts over 4 months - try to tell where the cuts are.

[transformersvn]

And we’re live!

“It’s porn,” Megatronus growled. “He’s talking about pornography, Passionwheels.”

Download for PC & Mac here: https://transformersvn.tumblr.com/download

Original story by @perictione (find it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22204186)

[transformersvn]

Unfortunately it looks like the workaround I was using for making Android distributions doesn’t work anymore (I’m guessing switching computers is the main issue), so that version is going to be a bit delayed. Should still have windows/mac/linux versions up and running in the next few days, barring a major catastrophe.

[transformersvn]

In the home strech for Forbidden Rendezvous now. Got all my assets sorted and first-draft placements done, so I’m going to tentatively say that it’ll be finished next week sometime.

[transformersvn]

Have a wip screenshot of my current CG which has become my new artistic nemesis - can you tell I’ve never drawn anyone making out before? (what the hell is your wrist doing Orion?)

On the (maybe) plus side, I’ve managed to capture my whole process so far on video, so when it’s finally done I can put together a speeddraw and when the final product is done and (hopefully) looks good, you can see how much of a mess it was getting there.

[transformersvn]

... I think this VN might be getting away from me.

(Thank goodness for Megatron’s arm/cannon being so big so I didn’t have to draw Orion’s feet.)

[transformersvn]

A better Megatronus sprite - this time he has arms!

Just like in Quarantine I’m going to have to manually flip all his sprites because he’s so asymmetrical (blasted fusion cannon), but that’s his non-mirrored sprites all done - which means I’ve got approximately half the sprites for the VN done!

Half the sprites, 1 background, and 1 CG to go.