Yozora no Hoshiai: Starlit Connection

[lisianthus]

Overview:

This is a thread where I'll be talking about my visual novel project!

The name is Yozora no Hoshiai (夜空の星合), which has been adapted into English into Starlit Connection! I'm not exactly sure as to how I would format the title, but "Yozora no Hoshiai: Starlit Connection" seems nice!

A small synopsis:

This visual novel will take place in late-2000s/early 2010s Japan, in the most northern area (Soya Subprefecture in Hokkaido).
It'll focus on the daily lives of five friends, and how they're affected by a Tanabata (the Japanese festival of stars) wish gone wrong.
It'll be a kinetic novel (only one story path), and told from a first-person point-of-view, by multiple characters. It'll be written in more of a romcom/slice-of-life style. I don't know how long it'll be yet.

Progress:

I have basically all of the details about the main characters set out! 6/27/22

As for worldbuilding and setting, I have the area and time period, but finer details such as places where the characters will often be are still being made.

I'm currently focusing on writing itself, with art and music coming later (I'll have it hopefully fit the VN, so I'm very okay with that). The art will be either: drawn by me IF and only if I'm good enough to draw them; drawn by a friend (or multiple) if they're somehow willing to help; or be made using an online/program-based creation tool. The music will be created by an IRL friend who's interested in helping me out!! (I think!) (@Kazoowii)

After the writing is completed, I'll add the RenPy code itself, and ready it for testing (and hopefully distribution)!

Release:

I will make it available for free on PC, Android (if I can figure it out), and PS Vita. If it's possible for me to do, I aim to contact a company that ports RenPy VNs to the Switch in order to hopefully put it on Switch (although this is sorta a pipe dream). As for a timetable, I have no idea as to how long I'll make this, and how long it will take.
It'll be on Github and probably a website I'll set up for release!

Contact:

Here, of course, and takoyaki#4042 (I'm not very active at times so here would be better). [email protected] for any business-related-ish stuff, I guess?

About helping out:

If you'd like to help, you absolutely can!! Here's the Google Doc link: yozoranohoshiai

So, reviewing and making suggestions (by PMing me or posting in this thread) would be VERY appreciated!! And any art/music submissions would be appreciated too if you'd like~, but honestly just viewing it, or keeping up with developments, whatever!! Anything is 1000% okay :)

oh, and, I'll be crediting those who've made an impact on this. and bulbagarden as a whole!!

Thank you!!

 

[Chevywolf30]

KT needs to have a taste for country music, but more modern stuff like Morgan Wallen.

 

[lisianthus]

KT needs to have a taste for country music, but more modern stuff like Morgan Wallen.

I'm absolutely going to add (his love of) country music in, do you have any period-specific (2010sish) reccomendations that you'd like to see referenced?

 

[Blanc]

It'll focus on the daily lives of five friends, and how they're affected by a Tanabata (the Japanese festival of stars) wish gone wrong.

Oh my god, I LOVE plots like this... I'm excited already. Summer is also a great season for VNs to take place in! Lots of feeeeelingssss....

It'll be a kinetic novel (only one story path)

This is also a fantastic choice for your first go at visual novel creation, keeps the story contained and easy to get your first work out there!

The art will be either: drawn by me IF and only if I'm good enough to draw them; drawn by a friend (or multiple) if they're somehow willing to help; or be made using an online/program-based creation tool.

Depending on the amount of work, I don't mind lending a hand!! You're the best after all.

As for reviewing the google doc!!

I like the personality you're going for with the MC because he seems very well-rounded, but would you like the MC to be someone the audience can imprint on like some VNs do, or his own character? As I was reading about Alisa before I even finished the paragraph I was like "Hey...this is Lisia!" LMAO!! I love her to bits already, and given she's based off of you, I know she'll be a very deep character! I actually heard it's pretty common for VNs and anime even to have characters based off friends and people the authors actually know?? You're ahead of the game!

Vega I think is gonna be my favorite from the sound of it. I'm also a huge sucker for characters with white hair. As for this though-- Written as 織姫 (Orihime), but pronounced Vega (is this a thing? ask my friend, if not then having a キラキラネーム written as ベガ is cool too!!).

Hmm.. this is a REALLY good question!! But, if I'm being honest, I'd say while her name would be BASED off Vega, I think it should be written as ベガ, if only because when the name 織姫 (Orihime) is used in media, it usually is always directly translated to the name Orihime. I think writing it as ベガ will dispel any confusion unless you were to directly name her Orihime... I could be entirely wrong though! Just my two cents from my own parsing. Plus, I think using ベガ will make the intention slightly less direct, which will be fun for readers to realize.

SENPAI KAKKOIIIIIII!!! She sounds like every girl I'd have a crush on... stellar choice LOL!! As for a name, probably something rough sounding, cause she sounds like a sukeban girl. Her name could also be a reference to something key in the story? Maybe Chisato (千里), not really rough sounding, but it means 'a great distance', like maybe referring to her relationship with the MC feeling a long distance away... or the MC feels she is far away (symbolically). Haruko (春子) also would be interesting because it means 'spring child' and since Tanabata is a summer festival, it'd sort of be a reference to a beginning, a time before the festival.

The exposition is very cute and lighthearted, I can definitely see how 'make all my dreams come true' can be construed terribly and lead to the plot advancing! LOL Are you getting all character dialogues out of the way first before doing narration? You're doing some phenomenal planning, Lisia!! I can't wait to see more!

 

[lisianthus]

Oh my god, I LOVE plots like this... I'm excited already. Summer is also a great season for VNs to take place in! Lots of feeeeelingssss....

Summer and Winter are my two seasons of choice, it's going to start in Summer and end in Winter!! (in Hatsumode is where I have it planned, some symbolization there lol, maybe I'll name an antagonist (maybe a 巫女?) "Fuyumi" or "Kazumi" with 冬珠 to...I dunno, lead to spectulation about the end or something!?)

This is also a fantastic choice for your first go at visual novel creation, keeps the story contained and easy to get your first work out there!

Kinetic ones are also my favorite kinds, but it makes things A LOT less stressful!!

Depending on the amount of work, I don't mind lending a hand!! You're the best after all.

Thank you for the offer!! It'll be a while until I'll need to do art I think, but when that time comes I'll see what happens! I always appreciate ittttt~

As for reviewing the google doc!!

I like the personality you're going for with the MC because he seems very well-rounded, but would you like the MC to be someone the audience can imprint on like some VNs do, or his own character?

See, I tend to dislike the "imprinted" MC. My favorite VN (Harvest December) had a VN that was basically kinda the opposite of me? And at times I hated him like "DUDE, just look in front of you and realize that like, she's a good person!!" or like "STOP being such a DICK OMG" but I mean, he redeemed himself, and he gets character from...being his own person. I don't want to make the MC annoying, but I'd rather he not be a "weak" character, moreso a stronger one personality-wise.

As I was reading about Alisa before I even finished the paragraph I was like "Hey...this is Lisia!" LMAO!! I love her to bits already, and given she's based off of you, I know she'll be a very deep character! I actually heard it's pretty common for VNs and anime even to have characters based off friends and people the authors actually know?? You're ahead of the game!

Wow, that's interesting!! I consciously did think about taking inspiration from people (and probably situations too!) that I know, and it'll likely be sprinkled in here and there!
KT and Alisa are actually slightly based off of me and my IRL best friend, kinda! I've switched up some bits between us, like the "Ameriboo" parts of KT is basically my "weeb-ish" personality parts (but turned up to like 1000), and my best friend is a haafu, but in everything else Alisa is...me, basically. And the two of us are not in love, I think!??unless if we don't know, like in the plot...LMAO

Vega I think is gonna be my favorite from the sound of it. I'm also a huge sucker for characters with white hair.

White hair and with half-rim (maybe?) rectangle-ish glasses is the image I have in my mind! Not too sure why, and the half-rim part might change, but...the white hair is too cool to pass up!! lol

As for this though-- Written as 織姫 (Orihime), but pronounced Vega (is this a thing? ask my friend, if not then having a キラキラネーム written as ベガ is cool too!!).

Hmm.. this is a REALLY good question!! But, if I'm being honest, I'd say while her name would be BASED off Vega, I think it should be written as ベガ, if only because when the name 織姫 (Orihime) is used in media, it usually is always directly translated to the name Orihime. I think writing it as ベガ will dispel any confusion unless you were to directly name her Orihime... I could be entirely wrong though! Just my two cents from my own parsing. Plus, I think using ベガ will make the intention slightly less direct, which will be fun for readers to realize.

Makes sense!! I've gone ahead and changed it straight to Vega. I'll ask him about arbitrary kanji readings tomorrow, but your reasoning makes sense! Thank youuuuuu~

SENPAI KAKKOIIIIIII!!! She sounds like every girl I'd have a crush on... stellar choice LOL!! As for a name, probably something rough sounding, cause she sounds like a sukeban girl. Her name could also be a reference to something key in the story? Maybe Chisato (千里), not really rough sounding, but it means 'a great distance', like maybe referring to her relationship with the MC feeling a long distance away... or the MC feels she is far away (symbolically). Haruko (春子) also would be interesting because it means 'spring child' and since Tanabata is a summer festival, it'd sort of be a reference to a beginning, a time before the festival.

あたしは、yahoo answersのスレーを見ました！「ヤンキーっぽいの女性名前をお教えてください」でした。

まあ、このキャラは一人暴走族団でしょ？暴走族はヤンキーとかスケバンとちょっと違うと思いますが、こんな名前は｢アグレッシブ」っぽいですね？

「これはいいね！」っと思いました名前は：「キョーコ」（カタカナってこわ！）「アケミ」です。

いる人が「そうだ「アリサ」はやっぱ怖いそう名前だな」と言ったでも。。。まあ可愛いよ～ｗ

「千里」も好きです！たくさんチョイスがありますね。。。

At any rate, thanks for that! I feel like, she's really headstrong of course, but the idea of being with MC scares her a lot. Like a hidden fear of rejection despite her strong exterior. She's already been through a lot of that with losing friends due to looking the way she is, and acting the way she is, so if she confesses to MC and loses him (even though it's relatively obvious it'd work out), maybe the most important person in her life, she'd basically lose a lot of happiness.

I have to hopefully make those two seem compatible, though, and I haven't written those two enough to do that. So hopefully a nice lil scene with more of those two coming soonish~!

The exposition is very cute and lighthearted, I can definitely see how 'make all my dreams come true' can be construed terribly and lead to the plot advancing! LOL Are you getting all character dialogues out of the way first before doing narration? You're doing some phenomenal planning, Lisia!! I can't wait to see more!

Thank you very much!!! I really appreciate the comments! It's a case of something relatively innocuous turning into a really bad-ish situation, at least I think it will lol!
As for the dialogue before narration, the only narration that'll be happening will be the character's own thoughts and observances about the situation/place/dialogue/thoughts/whatever is taking place, I think. So I think it'll come along with the dialogue?

Thank you againnnnnn~

 

[DawningWinds]

KT needs to have a taste for country music, but more modern stuff like Morgan Wallen.

I'm absolutely going to add (his love of) country music in, do you have any period-specific (2010sish) reccomendations that you'd like to see referenced?

Morgan Wallen definitely wasn't around during the time periof Lisia's going for; even if you put it forward a nudge like I did when suggesting Stapleton in the next paragraph it'd be hard to justify since I feel like he's only gotten any sort of popularity post-2020?

Country singers from the late 2000s/early 10s include (as I can recall): Miranda Lambert (first album came out in 2007, first noteworthy hit was the title track of said album); Eric Church (first album came out in 2006, first hit that I'm aware of came from 2011 album Chief); Sturgill Simpson (first album was 2013) Chris Stapleton if you wanna go towards the middle of the 2010s (2015 was his first album), Reba McEntire (she started in like the 70s or 80s but has remained popular), Toby Keith, George Strait, Billy Currington (all have the same kinda deal as Reba) Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, Lady Antebellum (they changed their name to just Lady A but this was post-2020 I believe so would be ignored for period-consistency), Taylor Swift (I'm not sure how anyone ever considered her a country artist but the radio did play her). And at least one of Lee Brice, Luke Bryan, and Luke Combs but they are all efcectively the same person to me so I can't tell you if they'd all have been well-known by this time or just one or two of them.
Yes, there decidely is bias in the order of this list.


Alright onto other stuff:
Since the Senpai's into motorcycle's and stuff I'm gonna suggest Michi for her name? It means path which. Motorcycles drive on. Also it's kinda feminine sounding which goes nicely with her descrobed hidden feminine side?

Really like Senpai and Vega's characters from what I'm reading her. I'm a pretty ligic grounded person so I enjly those sorts of characters for relatability's sake I guess and Senpai seems pretty interesting.

The plot definitely seems like a fun one! Looking forward to seeing what comes of Vega's dreams.

 

[Chevywolf30]

Oh yeah you're right, MW is pretty recent. Chesney would be a good pick, and I'll just throw in Brad Paisley because he's my favorite and he was around back then.

 

[lisianthus]

I just realized, with the way things are going with my names, maybe a theme of some names about "celestial objects", basically space stuff, might be cool.

Vega is just the star ofc, and I found a cool way to write Keito (彗斗) which has the "comet" kanji. It's just kinda funny. Maybe I'll call it a reference to the American space program LOL.

Either way, figuring out names now! Then after that, more writing will come up soon~

 

[lisianthus]

Updated with progress, and...the name of the VN!!!! It's finally been named YAY~

 

[lisianthus]

Lately I've been reading...a lot. Partly for inspiration for...this thing~ uhmmmm it's, still going. Maybe not at the pace I'd like it to, (like I haven't even figured out how much in terms of content I want, and how to balance it) but it certainly is going!

Writing scenes out of order is a bit silly, however doing it this way allows me to write whatever peaks my interest, and... I'll be able to tweak it later lol! This wasn't much of an update, other than to say...

I'm still writing lol!!!

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

Writing stuff out-of-order isn’t silly at all, haha! You’re not alone there. Take your time… writing something, anywhere, is better than writing nothing at all!