The past week I’ve been working on some designs for the GUI. Here’s an update to the quick-menu you see in game:
And this is a CG gallery menu I created in Krita. Note, this menu is subject to change. It still needs a navigation for a continued CG gallery screen, and I’ve been thinking of increasing the amount of CG’s per screen to 6.
I still have a couple improvements to make before showing off the rest of the menus. Look forward to that! In this week’s post, I’ll be talking about the writing of Nakajo and the Service Club as the main plot device to drive the story forward.
The Service Club
The Service Club is a major plot device in the story of Nakajo. A club that is dedicated to provide their service for those to come to them for help. This could be anything from helping a student with homework, moving furniture for staff, and help promoting school events.
I mentioned in a previous post that when creating the Service Club for Nakajo, when thinking of a type of club that was non-specific and that anyone can participate in, there were few choices. The Service Club seemed to be the best option for this mixed group of classmates.
As for the overall story of Nakajo, it isn’t just a Bishōjo game where the main objective is to romance your choice of love interests. Your choices and paths you take in Nakajo will also effect the character development of the colorful characters in Class 2-D.
Chapter Structure
Each chapter of Nakajo is going to be cut into several sub-chapters where they cover about an entire school day through the perspective of Nakajo. Each of these sub-chapters are written in an episodic, story-circle style with a short story/event that begins and ends within that sub-chapter but affects the story as a whole.
Here are the titles for the first couple of sub-chapters:
- 0-0 – Take Me Back
- 0-1 – I Don’t Want to Fight
- 1-1 – First Day of Your Old Life
- 1-2 – Indigo
- 1-3 – We Interrupt This Broadcast!
- 1-4 – Something About Shimada
- 1-5 – Weekend At Nakajo’s
Dan Harmon’s “Story Circle” Technique
I mentioned Dan Harmon’s show Community in a previous blog post and how that show was part of the inspiration for the Service Club. You may also be familiar with Dan Harmon’s other work in his other popular show, Rick and Morty.
The “Story Circle” technique is a storytelling framework he had invented. He created this technique with inspiration from Joseph Campbell’s structure of the Monomyth, or better known as “The Heroes Journey”. Dan Harmon basically simplified Joseph Campell’s structure of the Monomyth into an circular 8-step process.
Seriously, if you ever get stuck trying to write a story, this is a great tool to use. You can read more about it here: Channel 101 Wikia or this .PDF
“The steps are as follows:
- A character is in a zone of comfort or familiarity.
- They desire something.
- They enter an unfamiliar situation.
- They adapt to that situation.
- They get that which they wanted.
- They pay a price for it.
- They return to their familiar situation.
- They have changed as a result of the journey.“[1]
This formula has definitely helped me through the writing process, especially when accounting for the 20+ characters. There is no way we’re we going to throw all the characters at you in the beginning and expect you to remember them off the bat. Much like reality, meeting people and building relationships happens naturally and slowly. It’s the impressions, interactions, and experiences that make people memorable.
The best advice I’ve heard about having a lot of characters in a story is to avoid introducing more than one character at a time. Establish characters well enough for the reader/player to get an impression of what their personality is like. Then show what it’s like to interact with them, and give them a memorable experience they can be identified with.
This is why I’m using the Story Circle to create a sort of episodic plot to meet each character in Class 2-D. With each sub-chapter putting a focus on specific groups of characters outside the protagonists. The demo will sort of be like the introduction of the key characters in the story of Nakajo.
Once you read Story Structure 101, you’ll start to see this structure with many TV Shows, Movies, Books, and Comics. Seriously, try writing something using this technique, you’ll be surprised with what you’ll come up with.
Here’s an example of how I applied this technique to Chapter 1-3 in Nakajo:
1. Nakajo is in the Service Club room with his friends.
2. Everyone is excited to watch their weekly school news broadcast produced by the Broadcasting Club. When watching the broadcast, the school’s entire internet crashes during the broadcast. The Broadcasting Club asks the Service Club for help.
3. The Service Club decides to split-up into two groups to fulfill their multiple service requests. Group 1 will offer their services to the Broadcasting Club, while Group 2 will help another group of students find a club to participate in.
4. This is where the story splits.
a) If Nakajo chooses to go with Group 1, they learn that someone is taking all the internet bandwidth somewhere in the school. Group 2 manages to find the culprits.
b) If Nakajo chooses to go with Group 2, he meets the second love interest and learns she wants to make her own club. They go and search for the other 3 students and learn that they are the root of Group 1’s problem.
5. The Broadcast Club can resume their show! The second love interest creates the Movie Club to prevent the culprits from pirating movies at school and instead, use a movie streaming platform.
6. It is now apparent that Nakajo now has a second love interest. If they chose path a, they would meet her later in the chapter.
7. The Club is able to watch their weekly school news broadcast, this time with no interruptions.
8. Nakajo has his first true experience of selflessness and helping others in need of their service! Nakajo is now more confident in leading the Service Club.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you so much for reading!
There is one thing I left out, and that is side-chapters. In the future, I’ll go more in depth about side-chapters, they are chapters where you’ll take the perspective of another classmate in Class 2-D and experience their story!
-LaChez
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