Wow, that old post had some shitty grammar. Really doesn't provide a professional atmosphere to have misspellings and starting sentences with a lowercase letter. Anywho, I here am Vell, known around here as either Ulta, Vellus, Vellus Terennia, UltaFlame, or p much anything someone cares to nickname me. I used to be pretty much a celebrity at Chaos Project, but then I had a teenage flipout and got banned and then unbanned and then between inactivity and generally not posting, I'm more or less a factor of CP's history and not really involved in the process of game-making in the modern day.
Let's change that, shall we?
The Idea
Hello, dear reader, this thread here is designed to provide a service to the Chaos Project community. What sort of service am I providing, you ask, dear anonymous user? Simple! I am here to provide YOU (The anonymous user) with the service of storyline assistance! What does that mean? Well, it boils down to a few things. See, there's one thing many people who want to be game developers lack and that's the ability to structure their creativity. Writing is -hard- as any published novelist will tell you. It requires a lot of practice, a lot of sweat and so many hours of looking at what went wrong and trying to figure out how to fix it. And for the solo developer - as many people at CP are - there are a lot of other skills you need to be proficient at in order to successfully create your game, or have resources to shortcut on a few of those skills. You need art assets, code for scripting, eventing, mapping, editing of all of these, musical assets and... probably, a lot more. Even using RPG Maker you still need a wide variety of skills. A lot of the time people forget that these games are going to need to follow a plot and have character interaction.
Which is where I come in. I'm not going to write your game's plot for you. I'm not going to develop your world from the ground up. I'm not going to so much as write a single line of character dialogue. Put simply, I don't have the time for that. If I were going to do that, I'd write my own plot, develop my own world, write my own dialogue, and then probably practice the skills needed needed to make a game on my own. What I will do for you is help you do these things yourself. To that end, allow me to move on to a relatively unrelated point and rant for a bit about myself. No, trust me, dear anonymous user, I'm getting somewhere. Seriously, it'll help you in the end to understand the purpose of this place! Really! You willing to let me move on and talk about myself now? Yes? Good. You kept me waiting much longer and I was going to show you why I used to be called THE IT here at Chaos Project.
I am a writer. Not by trade, as it so happens (though I am working on a first draft for a novel) but I have spent more than a decade honing the art. Yes, that's right, writing is an art and I am an artist. Like any artist, I specialized and focused my effort into a particular aspect. Just as the cubist painter focuses on... well, cubist painting, I am a worldbuilder, which means my focus in writing is in building and developing worlds. I also am an experienced GM for forum roleplaying, as my... many and varied failed attempts at roleplaying at this very forum can attest. Utilising both skillsets has given me a unique ability that I have found makes me an excellent asset to other people. That ability is this: I am very good at taking a wide-range of points in terms of plot and characterisation and simple worldbuilding and bringing them together into a cohesive whole. My talent isn't simply in writing - it's in taking disparate elements and tying them together.
How can that help you? You don't already see it? My dear anonymous user, can't you open your eyes? I excel at asking questions. You tell me about your world, about what magic is to it, where it came from, who the actors on the stage are, where they go... you tell me about the villains, their motivations and their ideals and I... I will ask you why? Not only that, I will ask you everything. I won't tear it apart, I won't tell you it's wrong, but I'll help you expand upon it. And, sometimes, I'll have suggestions. Ideas. Themes you can incorporate. Most of the time, when I give someone a suggestion, they pause for a moment and tell me that it unexpectedly helped tie two elements together that they couldn't do themselves. This is what I can do for you. I can make plot point A illuminate aspect of the world B and together that can display why character C has goal D and the implications of that lead to new idea E and it all cascades down and past Z. I can take you into infinity, baby. You just gotta talk to me.
Your Part
Is actually simple and easy. You need to do one thing (and this is perhaps the most helpful part of what I do for you) before I can help you. Get everything into one document and then load it into a gun and fire it at my face so I can read it. Compile every fact about your world, from how many continents there are on down to what the most pathetic plebian thinks of his monarch. You give me a synopsis of your plot and don't leave out any spoilers because I need to know that shit to help you out. You tell me about each and every character you have, major and minor. If you have it, give me every piece of actual writing you've done, because it gives me further context.
I'll tell you why. Dearest, most close to my heart, anonymous user, I need this information to start asking questions. And I need it all given to me -before- I have questions. As I read, I will ask questions. And then, based on your answers, I'll give you more questions. And more. And then a few more. After you answer those, I'll read on again and then more questions. Why does this sound like I'm acting like a three year old? "Why is this? But why? But why? But why? But why? But why? But why?" Because... well, to know your story you have to be able to explain it to a three year old constantly asking why. Because that's how depth is added to your tale. You have to be able to live in your world to truly tell its story, you know.
So come on, anonymous user. Stop being invisible scum, send me that personal message, find me on skype, and give me that document. Tell me about what has burned your soul, the ideas that have threatened to cave your skull in, give me everything. And like the roaring fire, I will refine it. Purify it. I will put it through the ringer, push it to the limit and beyond and by the time I'm finished with you... you'll be ready to finish it all on your own. That is the service I offer you. My product isn't simple. It's not something you can just look at before you purchase it. It's not something you can test. I'm not offering you something easily obtained. Hell, my product isn't something I can sell, because you know what? I'm not selling you anything that came from my own efforts. I'm not giving you something of me, I'm not giving you anything but my own time. But I am providing you with something. It's something you already have, but it's something you might need my help to find. Because at the end of the day, my goal is your goal. I can't charge any money for this service because that would imply that the product of my service is mine. My stories, my worlds, my characters. And they're not. They won't be. That's why this is a free service.
Everything, every world I help you show, every character that we flesh out, every plot that springs fully formed from a villain's plotting machine, every tiny aspect that brings it all together... it'll come from you. It'll be your work. Your story to share with the world. Believe me, anonymous user, I'm not giving you anything that's mine. I'm giving you everything that's yours and at the end, that's why this service is here. It's here to help you believe in yourself, to find the kinks and holes and fill them in. That's why I'm here. Not so that I can make something for you. But so that I can help you find what you need to make something yourself. I'll be here, my anonymous user, so regardless of where in the process you find yourself stuck, just search me up and I'll make your dreams come true. By your own effort.