OK! So, because I keep running into issues (and just being plain lazy) I still haven't managed to get my SUI idea off the ground. HOWEVER! I recently remembered a fantastic little piece of free software available on the internet: Ren-Py!

OK, so Ren-Py, for those of you who don't know, is a game development tool specifically designed to make visual novel games (the likes of Fate/Stay Night, Kanon, Air, Shuffle, etc...) the name of it comes from the fact that "Visual Novels" use to be referred to as "Ren-Ai" games (literally "Romance-Love" if I understand correctly) and the fact that it is made with Python (a programming language) but is made in a way that you don't necessarily need to know any Python programming in order to use it (though would come in handy if you want to do anything extraordinary with it, like adding mini-games or the likes)

For a better idea of what a visual novel game looks like, check out this parody of Code Geass and NurseryRhyme (rather popular visual novel) and go to about 3:30 in the video to see some of the 'Game Footage' (which isn't real, it's just something a fan of the two series threw together for the hell of it/to see how others would react, hence parody) [link]

Anyway, so as you've probably guessed by now, yes, I am now planning on making SUI into a visual novel game using Ren-Py. Which solves a couple of problems I've had with story telling thus far:
Characters appearances and expressions are displayed visually, so I can avoid my poor descriptions of things. (why I'm no good with novels)
I only need to make a certain number of pictures for each characters and I can get away with using stock images for backgrounds (which is my problem with a comic medium)
Also this method allows me to explore some of the alternate endings I've come up with if I wish too, but for the most part, if I do put multiple paths in, I'll most likely do it similar to Fate/Stay Night (i.e. a few 'good' endings, and a sh!t load of 'bad/death' endings)

Which brings me around to title of this Journal... Admittedly I've yet to even start working on it yet, so there's no immediate need for any of them (still have a few things to sort out about a few of the characters, but should be able to make a start on it soon) but I would just like to know if anyone would be interested in acting as beta testers for me? And possibly voice actors as well?

Ok, Voice Acting is a very big maybe I have to say. And I'm not talking about fully voiced where everything is spoken, but more along the lines of how "The World Ends With You" is voiced ("Umm..." "OH!" "Ehehehe!" "Hm" etc...) I could probably do a number of these myself, but not for any of the female cast, or a number of the male cast either.

So yeah... That's the jist of it... Also I should probably mention that unless I end up getting some help with it, don't expect to see many animations in the game (if any) you'll be lucky to get an animated opening sequence out of me, unless I make it with still images...


EDIT:
For those of you who do think it's rather typical of me to say I'm working on something but then shows no sign of any activity whatsoever, yes, I can see your point, and yes, I have probably announced this way too early considering how much work it is going to be for me. I am working on it, but at the moment it is just a bunch of random notes scribbles and doodles in a journalist notepad, but there are a few reasons for this as well:

I'm currently working 24 hours a week at Peacocks and then another 6 hours on friday in Clacton in Seetec because I've been on job seekers for so long, so I dont have all the time in the world to do everything. Once I've finished these 13 weeks of mine in July, I'll have more time to work on things, as Peacocks are taking me on, but only part time, so max I'll get is 16 hours a week (MAX, so probably more like 12 but oh well) Ok, so yeah, that does only work out to 6 hours a day (7 or 8 actually, if you include travel and lunch breaks, travelling to Clacton takes a hour each way as well) it does leave me feeling especially lazy when I do get home (which is some days not until 9 pm)

Also I've loaded my plate with a few other things as well... I'm trying to make 2 cosplays and an AMV for Toko, plus I'm doing a bunch of smaller AMV clips for Sak's "Animegeddon" project that he wants to get done for Toko as well, and I have other pictures I've promised people, including a Ben Ten picture for my Nephiew's room (which probably wont be showing up on DA but we'll see...)

And like I said, it's going to be a lot of work for the project itself... Roughly between 10-20 pictures per character, Backgrounds, Menus, Scrip, learning the Ren-Pi language to code it all, music, and THEN the above mentioned voice acting... I cant exactly just open the program up, start typing and hope it will all turn out right... A little planning ahead is a good thing.

So yeah... I am going to go ahead with this... it may only come out in chunks at a time (patching in chapters as I go or something) but I WILL make this happen.

I haven't been thinking about this for the past 4 or so years to just do nothing with it.

Just thought I'd share that with you all.

On the plus side, MOST of the characters have names now (only 4 of which are still Japanese, but they're supposed to be), and I'm working on character themes and their appearances.

Feel free to ask any questions! n_n