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Free Visual Novel Design Engine Released

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Sun Jul 23, 2006 08:37 PM
from the for-all-your-dating-sim-needs dept.
Software Entertainment Games
Ayaka Hahn writes to tell us that they have just released a free game construction kit designed to make Visual Novels easy to construct. The "Blade Engine" was based on a professional Visual Novel engine being used in Japan with the hopes that it would spark greater interest in this medium in the west. From the press release: "In the West, there is a stereotype of: "Visual Novel = Dating Sim Game = Hentai", but that is wrong. Visual Novels CAN be Dating Sim games, Ren'ai games, Bishoujo games but also can be Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Adventure and Horror Fiction games, or anything that the user's creativity comes up with."
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Flipkin writes "Interactive Fiction was immensely popular in the 80s and believe it or not has a strong, albeit small, following today. MobyGames takes a look at the origins and history of Interactive Fiction and where it is heading." These games really were some of the best I've ever played.
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  • Wha? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Visceral Monkey (583103) on Sunday July 23 2006, @08:41PM (#15767512)
    Visual Novel? Hentai?

    I'm lost already? Does this make cartoons or something?
    • http://www.bladeengine.com/BladeEngine/whatis.php [bladeengine.com]

      Basically, it's a Choose Your Own Adventure, done electronically.

    • No.

      It makes games. Interactive novels. Really simple ones.

      I must admit that 'Visual novel' is a stupid name for it, but the summary even explains what it is.

      Visual Novel = Dating Sim Game
      • You'd be wrong. These are much simpler (think "Choose Your Own Adventure", as another poster noted).
        Mainly these are about the art and characters and the story and not wandering around solving puzzles like in the SCUMM games.

      • Re:Wha? (Score:4, Informative)

        by Aladrin (926209) on Sunday July 23 2006, @08:50PM (#15767541)
        You're thinking of 'Graphic Novel' and no, that's not what this is. This is for making interactive novels. They call them games, but a LOT of the 'interactive novels' I've seen were only interactive in that you could click to go to the next scene.

        There ARE a few good ones, they're just few and far between already. Making it easy for idiots to make their own won't improve things.

        • Re:Wha? (Score:4, Insightful)

          by xigxag (167441) on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:22PM (#15767601)
          Making it easy for idiots to make their own won't improve things.

          Your comment was going well until that point. The Blade Engine is akin to blogging software for visual storytellers. Simplifying the process of creating AVGs will give an opportunity for people with good storytelling but poor programming skills to create interesting works. Sure, there will be a huge amount of crap, just like with blogs, but overall more is better. That's the whole raison d'etre of the internet.

          Elitists are free to ignore self-published graphic novels, just as I'm sure there are plenty of people who read only "established" news sources on the web and don't bother with blogs of any kind, or in the real world plenty of people would never be caught dead reading a "zine [undergroundpress.org],"which themselves multiplied after the advent of cheap photocopying and (later) DTP software.

          • The Blade Engine is akin to blogging software for visual storytellers.

            I think that was the OPs exact point.

            Sure, there will be a huge amount of crap, just like with blogs, but overall more is better.

            No, no, a thousand times no. No one will ever convince me that completely destroying the "signal to noise" ratio of a particular creative field is somehow a good thing. Why on earth is it "better" to have this gigantic, suffocating mass of mediocrity?

            That's the whole raison d'etre of the internet.

            O

            • Re:Wha? (Score:2, Insightful)

              by Yvan256 (722131)

              No, no, a thousand times no. No one will ever convince me that completely destroying the "signal to noise" ratio of a particular creative field is somehow a good thing. Why on earth is it "better" to have this gigantic, suffocating mass of mediocrity?

              Because without such software, you'd have really brilliant minds not doing anything because they can't use the existing technology?!

              The internet allows everyone to voice his ideas (some good, lots bad), easy-to-use technology does the same. Getting "more noise"

            • Re:Wha? (Score:4, Insightful)

              by xigxag (167441) on Monday July 24 2006, @12:56AM (#15768035)
              No one will ever convince me that completely destroying the "signal to noise" ratio of a particular creative field is somehow a good thing. Why on earth is it "better" to have this gigantic, suffocating mass of mediocrity?

              I see where you're coming from, but my feeling is that what's noise to me might be signal to others, and vice-versa. Beethoven took some of his great symphonic themes from "mediocre" musical ditties of his day. Cubism arose in part because European artists gained exposure to "mediocre" African art and took it in unforseen directions. Warhol made art from tin can logos. The important thing is being able to connect and have access to the ideas. From there, what you do with them is limited more by your own inner creative mojo than by overexposure to crap.

              Insofar as noise is a problem on the internet, I find that it is due to advertising, not the fault of independent creative works, no matter how banal they may be. Of course YMMV, and I respect that.

              (Now you've got me wondering if even advertising is unmitigated noise. Perhaps penis enlargement ads will one day be viewed as primitive art by some future civilization. My only consolation is that I'll be long dead by then.)

            • Using your reasoning we should ban pencils and paper because they force us to endure this 'gigantic, suffocating mass of mediocrity' that we call the book publishing medium?

              Tools like this are what brings a medium into the position of being able to mature. Like the printing press in it's day, being able to lower the barrier of entry to zero is the fundamental key to allowing interactive content to truly become what it 'should' be in most people eyes.

              Sure having inexpensive video camera technology has spawn

  • Most people are useless idiots... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by aersixb9 (267695) on Sunday July 23 2006, @08:43PM (#15767516)
    Although it's always nice to have more tools for software creation and/or building...these so called visual novels will probably be made by a bunch of idiots, and therefore will be worth less than the time it takes to read / play them...Perhaps these people's time would better be spent creating non-clonable goods instead of easily cloned, nonunique software? Only a few can create superior software products, and because software is copy-able there's no need for hordes of idiots to manufacture it...unlike traditional products, which require hordes of idiots to manufacture...
    • Just wanted to disagree with the flamebait moderation.

      Just because someone isn't being nice about doesn't stop him from being right.
    • Although it's always nice to have reply buttons to post comments these so called news sites, they will probably be filled with comments by a bunch of idiots, and therefore will be worth less than the time it takes to read them. Perhaps these people's time would better be spent creating non-clonable goods instead of easily cloned, nonunique posts? Only a few can create superior posts, and because comments are copy-able there's no need for hordes of idiots to type them...unlike traditional products, which req
    • Your argument, reworded:
      Although it's always nice to have more tools for content and information dissemination...these so called webpages will probably be made by a bunch of idiots, and therefore will be worth less than the time it takes to read / download them...

      Maybe you should realize that the point of visual novels isn't the engine itself, but rather the content. Besides, any type of entertainment software is copyable, but would you want to play 20 copies of the same game?
  • visual novel = manga dating sim = dating sim hentai = porn

  • no mention of platform? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Speare (84249) on Sunday July 23 2006, @08:50PM (#15767542) Homepage

    I might be missing something, but I found NO mention of the platforms this game format supports out of the box. The Buredo ("blade" in Japanese syllables) folks should mention it SOMEWHERE before people bother to download stuff.

    The first sample story is a Windows EXE, but from the tutorial files I just browsed, it doesn't look like it would be particularly hard to make a Un*x/Linux/OSX version out of nothing more than perl-sdl or pygame. The story script is essentially a big text file and graphics and sound assets.

  • Create Your Own Novel! (Score:5, Funny)

    by walnutmon (988223) on Sunday July 23 2006, @08:51PM (#15767543)
    You read slashdot... You notice that the most recent article is about a choose your own adventure virtual book engine. What do you do now? (Make fun of hentai at the risk of being modded troll)(Give to the community a clever take on games in Japan) ...

    You start to articulate how gay it is to play games that are dating sims, and poke fun at the pathetic losers who do it...

    • Create Your Own Infocom! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Jesus_666 (702802) on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:09PM (#15767582)
      Free Visual Novel Design Engine Released

      You are in a Slashdot discussion about a dating sim engine. There is a summary and a link to TFA here.
      > EXAMINE SELF

      You are an average Slashdotter. Your karma is Normal.
      > READ SUMMARY

      "This program lets you design visual novels. Even though most people think that all visual novels are dating sims, that is not entirely correct."
      > READ TFA

      Really?
      > NO

      Thought so.
      > WRITE POST

      About what do you want to write?
      > TEXT ADVENTURES

      You write a funny little piece about text adventures that is just barely connected to the thread.
      > POST

      Unfortunatly for you the moderators are on some particularly bad crack today and your post ends up with a score of -5, Funny. Maybe you should have posted anonymously.

      Your karma has been reduced to below zero. As people around you sense your negative karma they shun you, leaving all future posts unread. You are dead, as far as this community's concerned.
      Your final score is 5. You must be new here.

    • Create Your Own Leaf! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Jesus_666 (702802) on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:44PM (#15767654)
      *cheerful, bland MIDI music starts playing*
      Noriko: *fades in* Brother! Brooootheeeer!
      Noriko: *makes angry face* You are reading Slashdot again, aren't you?
      Noriko: You spend too much time on the internet!

      [Yes] [No] [Stick it in]

      You: Hey, eight hours a day is not that much!
      Noriko: Yes it is!
      Noriko: *takes cheerful pose* I can't let you sit in front of the computer all day.
      Noriko: Today we're going to do something together, no discussion.
      Noriko: Do you have anything you want to do?

      [Play a dating sim together] [Kill her] [Stick it in]

      You: Your life is -5, Overrated!
      Noriko: *makes scared face* What are you doing with that knife?
      Noriko: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
      *screen fades out*

      GAME OVER



      PS: I'm not trying to undermine my potential +5, Funny, but I don't want to write yet another post. When Wikipediaing for dating sim companies I noticed that according to the 'Pedia Leaf had to release the source code to some of their games under the GPL. Maybe that could be used for a free alternative to the program the TFA talks about? I gTranslated the corresponding page on Leaf's website (http://leaf dot aquaplus dot co dot jp/product/xvid.html - please spare their server if you don't intend to read the text) and it says something about how they distribute the source by email and/or CD. Maybe someone who speaks Japanese might want to get in touch with them...

      (And don't tell my that the FOSS community has no need for this. We do things because we can, not because we need them ;)

      • You must be new to this whole 'hentai game' thing. (Score:4, Informative)

        by Virak (897071) on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:51PM (#15767673) Homepage
        They don't give you a choice as to whether or not you stick it in, only how long to delay it for. (Though they generally will give you a choice as to whose to stick it into, and occasionally a choice as to where to stick it in)
      • [Play a dating sim together] [Kill her] [Stick it in]

        You: Your life is -5, Overrated!
        Noriko: *makes scared face* What are you doing with that knife?
        Noriko: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

        [Go back to the computer] [Stick it in]

        You: Ooohhhh yaaaa...
        *screen fades out*

      • I had written about the whole Leaf debacle in an article submission previously to Slashdot but it was rejected. Anyway, a few weeks after their declaration, an anonymous person uploaded the entire source code to an upload service, thus giving it out to anyone who wanted it. Keep in mind, though, that the guts of Leaf's games are the actual content, like graphics, music, art and story, instead of the engine. In fact, I'm pretty sure some capable programmer could come up with Leaf's engine in maybe a month
  • think more of a branching storyline game engine, where users can create their own content.

    basicially, an attempt to make a text adventure a bit easier to program than basic. which it would seem is a long forgotten skill with kids these days. I guess being japanese, they weren't familiar with what the slashdot community would know this as best. it's a modern equivalency of programming text adventures (like nethack) in an easier format.
    • I spoke too soon, but that's the closest thing to it that i could think of, think 'graphical overlay to a text adventure game.' basically, you could use the engine to build your own game, from scratch, the way the myst developers did, only now instead of making 'myst' you can make your own 'kings quest' with clickable dialogs instead of 'try to figure out the text command the programmer meant for you to type'

  • Hmmmm (Score:4, Insightful)

    by $RANDOMLUSER (804576) on Sunday July 23 2006, @08:56PM (#15767558)
    This might be an interesting way to (user) document GUI appliactions. Take your screenshots and write your script.

  • It is not the first open-souce visual novel engine (Score:5, Interesting)

    by guardiangod (880192) on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:03PM (#15767572)
    I will try to ignore the whole "visual novel == hentai with tentacles" arguement. I play/read visual novels (or AVG as they are properly called) so I will be biased.

    That having said, there was a pretty famous incident that involved GPL and a Japanese AVG game makers. Apparently the company used Xvid codecs for their animation clips for their popular games (ranked top 10 ero-game in 2005) without releasing the engine source code. When someone pointed out the GPL, the company promptly released the whole engine code (without the comments unforturnately). The engine was designed with win32 API in mind, btw. But it still counts as something

    Off topic: I was amazed that a Japanese hentai game maker respects the GPL more than, say, SCO, a multi-million dollar company; Then again, comparing SCO to a hentai game company would not be fair- to the game company :) .

  • That's right! (Score:3, Informative)

    by simonbp (412489) on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:23PM (#15767604) Homepage
    That's right! Visual novels can be can be Sci-Fi pron, Fantasy porn, Adventure porn and Horror Fiction porn!

    Simon ;)

  • Unimpressive (Score:5, Informative)

    by A non moose cow (610391) <terralos@hotmail.com> on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:26PM (#15767611) Journal
    I couldn't figure out what this "visual novel engine" was from the summary so I thought I would RTFA for a change. After doing that I still wasn't clear about what kind of thing you could make with it. I downloaded one of the samples to see what they were talking about. For those of you like me who are out of the loop on this state of the art technology I offer you this 5 word summary: Zork with stills and sound.

    How long did it take to make an "engine" to do this anyway? A whole day? two maybe? Lets see, a database with music samples, stills, and text, throw in some trivial branching, done. It seems to me that the only work in the first place was making the creative content, which, with this wonderful technology, is still the only work.

    Also, once you know what they are talking about, saying this bit: "Visual Novels CAN be Dating Sim games, Ren'ai games, Bishoujo games but also can be Sci-Fi Blah Blah Blah..." is really moronic. It's like saying, "Did you know that when you buy magazines, they don't all have to be porn! There are also magazines about cars and computers, and hobbies like painting! Did you know that you can actually make a magazine about anything you want!?"

    Is the whole point of this Blade engine just to establish some sort of standard? Because the problem it seems to be trying to solve just isn't that tough. I wouldn't pay money for it. Am I off the mark here? What am I not getting?
    • It's not a tool for programmers, I'd imagine. It's a tool for animators/illustrators/writers who don't have the first clue about basic, but still might want to make a piece of interactive art. So no, it's probably not targetted at any of the slashdot audience. And the quote about Visual Novels not necessarily being hentai might be moronic, but if it is, it's because it's debunking a moronic attitude that's quite prevelant - that Visual Novels (and I've heard the same thing said about anime/manga) are nothin
    • Zork with stills and sound.
      Actually the Z-Machine (which is the VM that Zork used) Does support sound and stills. Infocom themselves used this in a few games. The Visual Novels are usually more linear, with less chance for interaction. A bit more C.Y.O.A.-like than the Infocom games with multimedia.
    • Well, since you didn't know what a visual novel was, you never got the associated and unfortunate preconception that it's generally used for hentai-ish dating sims. (Which it is used for a lot, but not entirely.)

  • So after a quick look, it seems like this would be the kind of thing to make a game like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney [wikipedia.org]. Is that right?

    I recently managed to get my hands on a copy (they are in the Capcom online store... ORDER NOW!) and I've got to say the game is FANTASTIC. After 2 trials I would have been happy with the game, but it's got a full 5 (I just finished the fourth today). The game is an absolute blast. If you love courtroom dramas, you've got to play this game.

    The characters are all great and the stories and good. The murder plots are excellent (they can be tricky). The touch screen isn't used very well in the game (which isn't surprising given it was a GBA game first, I think). You can use the touch screen just fine, it's just hardly ever needed (which is also nice, so you don't need to use it if you don't want to). They have already announced that there will be a sequel both here in the US (hooray!) and in Japan (where it will be a re-issue of a GBA game for the DS). The music is nice (which is a SERIOUS plus compared to most handheld games) and fits in very well (at the right moments in the trials, like when you present key evidence, it changes to a real pumping-up beat).

    Give it a try. The game needs support.

    It would be great to be able to make something like that, but I'm not creative enough. I wish this genre (and point-and-click adventure games, which I see as a bit similar in some was) wasn't dead over here. What I wouldn't give for another Lucas Arts point-and-click. Loom [wikipedia.org], Day of the Tentacle [wikipedia.org], Sam and Max [wikipedia.org], The Dig [wikipedia.org], Grim Fandango [wikipedia.org], and all four games in the Monkey Island [wikipedia.org] series.

    I never got to play Full Throttle (which was supposed to be great) or the Indiana Jones games (also supposed to be great). I ought to look into those. I only played the Monkey Island games a few years ago.

  • Novels (Score:4, Insightful)

    by glwtta (532858) on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:45PM (#15767659) Homepage
    Graphic novels, Visual novels... you know, these people must actually understand the difference between their, lets say, "limited" creations and what is traditionally referred to as a 'novel'. Otherwise, it seems, they would not insist quite so ardently on calling them 'novels'.

  • ==Lame (Score:4, Insightful)

    by StikyPad (445176) on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:52PM (#15767677) Homepage
    "In the West, there is a stereotype of: "Visual Novel = Dating Sim Game = Hentai", but that is wrong.

    It is?

    Umeda is a self-confessed otaku, one of Japan's growing legion of men obsessed with anime, comics, action figures, and videogames. And when Umeda claims otaku status, it's no idle boast. "Here's the real evidence," he says, producing a certificate and ID that confirm his standing as "otaku elite." He earned this rank by getting a very high score on a rigorous National Unified Otaku Certification Test last summer. The exam was something of a Japanese obsession, despite having been available only as an insert in Elfics magazine, which features cheesecake drawings of scantily clad, underage girls on the cover. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/posts.htm l?pg=5 [wired.com]
    • Honestly. It took me a few years and an actual trip to Japan to realize that the Japanese believe most of the stereotypes American non-fanboys have about anime, games, etc. too because they're mostly true. Anime is either made for kids or for otaku. Most "visual novels" ARE dating sim / porn games. Those that aren't are exceptions, and the industry mostly caters to the otaku and not to the mainstream.
    • You will find that while a majority of these games are crappy porn-laden games, the ones that sell record quantities are the ones that keep the porn part to a minimum and focus on the story, character development, art and music. In fact, once these get popular enough, clean versions of the games are made (for the PS2, for example) and sell quite well compared to the "dirty" versions. There are also many of these games that start out without the adult content and sell well because of the story and characte

  • Dang it (Score:4, Funny)

    by edmicman (830206) on Sunday July 23 2006, @10:11PM (#15767719) Homepage Journal
    I thought this was a program that I could drag and drop plot, characters, etc., into, and it would write my novel for me. You're telling me it doesn't do that, and I have to still write all the words myself? Where's my Visual Studio 2005 Novel Edition?
  • Does anyone remember Howard the Duck? now THAT was reality fiction of the viceral visual kind...
  • First off game type is not rigidly defined anymore then say the term FPS must always describe a Doom clone. Generally visual novel type games are about story, often several story lines intertwined wich you choose between.

    Yes a lot of them involve various level of erotica especially the ones that have been translated commercially into english. For those of you with slightly more braincells then the average slashdotter this probably tells you a lot more about the english market then the japanese market.

    Yes

    • On an American compiler, this evaluates to true, but on the binary the Japanese compiler made, this statement evaluates to false. Shame on you for writing non-portable code! Shame!

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