Accepting Applications

Want to join us and actually see the project finished?
Now's your chance.

If we can make solid progress and provide a demo without any major hiccups we will make a serious attempt at acquiring a source of income for team members, either via patreon or direct donations. This is in order to fuel motivation, keep morale high and to purchase any software or hardware that can make the development of this game move along as efficiently as possible.

Here's the deal.
Current State of project: We have a demo / early alpha all the way up to and including the entrance of the deku tree. So yes there is a working demo.

What we need: For people to stop leaving.
No, seriously.

The issue that has plagued us, and not only us but any project like ours, is every time someone comes on board they often don't realize the work entailed and after offering ideas and comments, don't deliver on time or simply don't deliver at all, and disappear.
The current and only consistent members have been the creators of the project, Ling and I (And XV but he's off at this point too.)

So- What do we need to see this through.

Programmer: Level of Importance: URGENT
WITHOUT A PROGRAMMER WE CANNOT PROCEED. Any other work runs the risk of being all for naught unless we can form a stable team.
We're in desperate need of a programmer with knowledge of the Renpy engine and python. That includes a battle system, inventory, health, damage, things like that (to be specific.) We already have a system in place that can be worked off of. Any changes or methods to advance will be at your discretion.
 

Artist: Level of Importance: Medium
You will be expected to collaborate with sketches, designs and lineart for scenes and sprites when needed and to stay in contact with the rest of the team. Ling handles the coloring and will assist in keeping the style consistent, but any help with coloring is also appreciated (such as prepping lineart and providing base colors). 

Writer: Level of Importance: Medium / Low
Should be able to output a fair amount of dialogue and ideas on a weekly basis. Some experience in writing fan-fiction writing or writing in general would be preferred. If you have work you'd like to show, please feel free to email that along with your application. The writing of LoZ should stay true to the canon of the series, but obviously there is lee-way. 

Current team:
Khrom: Background Artist. I stepped down from doing character art and scenes for the time being.
Ling: Lead Artist guy.


Send your applications to: mweeeep@gmail.com and dfv.chrome@gmail.com

We Have Not Forgotten.

We have not forgotten.

Hand Painted Backgrounds

Hand Painted Backgrounds

I know there is no sign.

 

To Clarify

I feel as though I need to clarify a little bit and reiterate a few things said in the last post, to save misinterpretations.

1. Firstly, the current status of the project is still a hiatus.
2. I, Khrom, am not the sole owner or developer of ZVN, it is still "owned" by Ling and XV88 as well, the other two original developers, therefore I am not the sole authority of anything concerning the project, even if I own this blog.
3. All things stated in the last post are that of my opinion and do not represent that of Lings' or XV88s opinions or thoughts.
4. In other words, the "will we return?" is purely speculation and thoughts from my part.

 It is, hopefully, likely that Ling will either edit or create a post regarding the current situation and include his insight and opinion.


Thanks for your patience and thanks for reading. It really, really does mean a lot of not only me, but Ling as well.

Will we return?

It's difficult to say at the moment. To say the project is dead in the water would not be entirely true. There exists a small chance of it's eventual return, but when and how long? I don't know.

As for me right now, I'm focusing on the development of a game unrelated to ZVN. As for the other two original members, I cannot say.

We were in the process of creating something beautiful and unique, and after all the work we put into the project (all the way up to the demo) to throw it all away would be an absolute travesty.

So, it is safe to assume, at least for the time being, that ZVN is not completely dead.

But for right now, the development is still halted. I am interested in eventually finishing the project in the future, however I'm not sure how the others feel about it after so much time away.

If there's anyone still out there, thanks for reading.

Comatose

I really didn't want to make this post, but it needed to be done at some point. I got a hold of our programmer today and we finally came to the consensus that we are currently "dead", or to put things at least somewhat optimistically, in a comatose state. I almost feel like just copy-pasting everything that was said there regarding the problems with the project, but I think those of you who have stuck with us to this point deserve more than that and to at least be addressed directly.

First, thank you for caring about what we were trying to create here. I know it probably wasn't easy at times considering where many of you originated from, nor was dealing with how slowly the blog was updated I imagine, but I really appreciate everyone who has stuck with us, and even those who haven't. I'm sorry things played out this way.

For those of you who have been keeping up with the comments, you've probably seen this coming. To put things bluntly, our team was fractured and our methods flawed. I would be under the impression things were progressing, when they weren't. Members would leave without a word or only show up briefly every blue moon. There would be reassurances of work being accomplished, or promises that someone would show up again, that would continuously fall through. Eventually it got to the point where I felt like everything I was doing was wasted effort.
As the person who was eventually, and reluctantly, considered something like the leader, I too was inexperienced. I failed to unify the team and was consistently pessimistic about my contributions. I feel that if I were a better artist, and my overall contributions of a higher quality, that the respect might have been there and people would be more motivated and thus more likely to stick around. I even let the flak the art received many months back get to me to this day.
Basically, we stumbled into every pitfall one would expect of a group of strangers brought together by chance. Even so, I met some great people, both on the team and the blog, and I was happy to work and talk with them, however brief.

All of that said, I still care about the ZVN and its not like I'm really going anywhere. If I feel there is any hope for this project, via contributions from others or acquiring the time and ability to do everything myself, I will do my best to see it through. I will attempt to better myself for if and when that time comes. For now I want to move on and try something new. Thank you for all the help, encouragement and discussion this past year, it really meant a lot to me.

Heh.

Maybe Not

Update: Hitting another rough patch with development. Well, more like a prolonged rough patch. Things simply don't go as smoothly as you'd hope for. What makes it worse is so much of it could be rectified just be eschewing the "I'll do it tomorrow" mentality. I suppose this much is to be expected when a group of people band together over the internet and have nothing to gain from their time and effort, especially considering the scope of this project. All this of course applies to me as well.
Also, I'll be redoing the Deku Scrub and Saria scene. I just could not get it to the point where I was satisfied no matter how much time I spent on it.


Looks like Saria is the winner. I'll couple her with the deku scrub since that's been requested several times before. If you have any ideas you'd like to see in the scene, feel free to share them.
On a side note, the next working dayafter I said I cut down on my hours, I ended up working overtime. My boss might not let me get out of there as easily as I had thought.

Kokiri Shop Selection

Its already been 12 days since the last update? It doesn't even feel like its been half that long. Where does all the time go?

This was finished shortly after the last post. I was going to wait until we had a screen of it in the build, but I'm too busy expanding upon our navigation system and I'd like to post some visual updates at least somewhat sort of often. 

As you can see it matches OoT and will work in a similar fashion. You can talk with Fado, select items to purchase or instigate events here. If you're wondering why its Fado behind the counter, or why she looks a little miffed, I hope you can look forward to finding out for yourself once we've completed the demo.

A new Saria, a new member, and more rambling

I figured some sort of update would be nice, especially considering I said I'd redo Saria's sprite a while back.
Important sprites like Saria will end up having multiple poses and expressions. I'm finding out the hard way how difficult it is to keep everything consistent from one sprite to the next. The longer I work on them, the more I notice that doesn't quite seem to match up, which leads to spending even more time (and thus noticing even more discrepancies). It ends up becoming a rather tedious cycle where you can only hope things become satisfactory by the end of it all. Fado will probably put me to the test next. I'll also need to tweak a couple of other sprites that haven't been shown on the blog, but I'm hoping I won't have to redo them entirely.
I can only hope I don't render more art unusable moving forward.

On a positive note we've gotten hold of a new writer. This is a very good thing because he's far more eloquent than I am. You guys don't know it now, but whenever you do actually see the script, you'll be thankful. Well, that's what I'd like to say. Nothing is set in stone yet since he sounds like a busy guy, but with any luck you won't be stuck with me.

I've also noticed we've been losing views left and right. It looks like the slowdown and constant barrage of negativity on my part regarding the team and project is taking hold. While its to be expected, its still a bit of a shame. However, its probably for the best. Checking in all the time only to be disappointed when nothing's been updated can't be very fun. I'd like to say I'll sit down and pump out content that can be shown on a regular basis, but we all know by now what happens whenever I say I'll do something in a reasonable amount of time.

And shoutout to these guys for making an incredible VN - http://unteralterbach.net/
I can't understand a word of it, and neither will you unless you can read German, but that's ok, its still definitely worth checking out. If you're into lolis, great artwork, and music you can't go wrong. With any luck a translation will happen at some point.

I am so tired right now

Put this one off far longer than I should have.

We haven't kicked the bucket, but the project is still in a rather comatose state. Some positive signs have started to crop up however, so hopefully it won't take too much longer to get back into the swing of things. That said, lately I've been devoting a lot of time into some rather unexciting tasks. This means the blog will most likely continue to move very slowly. I'm going to be working on the essentials and I don't plan on tackling another scene until everything is squared away and we finally start seeing some significant progress. I may try to post some progress updates and the like, but nothing major until we get moving again. Hang tight, with any luck we'll get through this.

Because why not?

Here are some relatively (somewhat) old drawings / ideas and or what would be scenes for the game that may or may not make it in. They've been sitting here on my hard drive and I figured it was about time I share them properly.

give her the d

Moving on

UPDATE: I was hoping I would be able to finish/update this all in one go, but I don't think I'll be able to have the coloring done by today so here's the lineart. Currently reevaluating the project's priorities.

I'd still like to hear everyone's thoughts about whether or not you'd all be up for posts involving character discussions, possibly designing monster girls (even just a doodle or description would be enough so long as the design is clear), or just anything that helps vary things up a bit on here. If you think all that's needed are posts involving progress on the scenes, then that's cool too.

Saria has won

Update: Not much to say aside from being happy its done and feeling like the colors turned out a little more vibrant than usual.
It looks like Saria's sprite will need an overhaul, along with a few others...
A new poll will be up once I have a bit more time.

Lineart. Still very busy, but I will try to finish this up soon.

For what purpose

Before the next scene is decided on, I'd like to ask something: 

 What are you looking forward to?

Before you say "porn", I mean something a little more specific. What characters are your favorite? Does the concept we're going with seem interesting? Basically, whether its confirmed or not, what are you hoping to see out of a Zelda VN?

I may or may not have an answer to your questions, nor is this a "if I tell you what I want to see, will you do it?" type of a deal. Nevertheless, I feel it would be beneficial to know just what it is you may be sticking around for.

Keese Girl it is

UPDATE: New poll is up.

And done. Hopefully. Sending it back and forth slowed things down quite a bit, but I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. buca did a really nice job.
I'm still a little unsure of the legs, but a couple of other people I asked said they didn't see any issues with them so maybe the slight tweaks we made were enough...
New poll will come soon.

Lineart.

Poor Navi

EDIT: Realized the only image with the deku scrub girl was the UI mockup a few pages back so I added her here.
Pretty surprising results so far, I must say. They were all pretty neck and neck for the first 20 votes or so and now the keese girl (who didn't do so well in the last two polls) is giving Saria a run for her money. Some of you Navi voters have a thing for small girls with wings, eh?

UPDATE: Poll posted.
One anon suggested I should stick queen gohma in here because she's a little more curvy than the others. I doubt she's really anyone's cup of tea, but she does add some variety.

This was not very fun to color.
 I'll post queen gohma and put up another poll soon. This one will not have Navi in it, which pretty much means its going to be Saria next, but we'll see how it turns out...
On a side note, /f/dude is alive. It seems it was more than just his job giving him a hard time.

Since coloring is taking me longer than I thought, I'll post the lineart here just to have some sort of update.

EDIT: There seems to be a few comments that are being sent, but don't actually show up in the comments section.  You may want to play it safe and copy your post before publishing.

Remi

I was going through the script yesterday and I happened across a piece where Remi, one of the twins, get's strung up from a tree. So instead of working on character poses or something else important, I did this instead.

u cheeky cunt m8 ill dek u in swere on me mum

It begins

And done. Hopefully. Sorry I was off with the guesstimates on when I would finish. Hit some unexpected hurdles.
I'll be getting started on the next scene tomorrow night. Looks like its going to be Navi again.
Now for a quick nap before I head off to work...

Lineart. I felt there wasn't nearly enough bat junk in this image, so I added one more. Forgive me.
If all goes well I should have plenty of time to finish by tonight.