EDIT:
The game is done and uploaded! Check it out here.
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My sister Rose and I are using this game jam to motivate ourselves to finish a short prequel / demo / proof-of-concept thing for a larger game idea we have. I'm the writer/programmer and she's the artist. Neither of us have much experience making games so this should hopefully be a good learning opportunity for us.
Synopsis
You are an AI designed to provide talk-therapy for astronauts on extended deep-space missions. However, the astronauts working for the Void Commission are a strange and private bunch, distrustful of this new technology that for all they know is nothing more than a spy for their superiors. Can you get the crew to trust you and open up to you? Just how much can you trust them in return?
Gameplay
The game takes place entirely in a single room where different crew members come in for a series of therapy sessions. For the purpose of this demo the player will only be talking to one person. The player will choose dialogue options in order to attempt to build trust with the crew and get them to open up about themselves and various mysteries on board the ship. The player will also have access to character profiles, ship logs, etc. that provide extra information that can be used in conversations.
Development
I've decided to use Ren'py for the game, because I have a little bit of experience with it and it seems like the simplest option for the kind of visual-novel feel we want to go for. I want to do some kind of complex things with it that I'm not sure it's really built for, but we'll see what I manage to figure out.
* Update *
The patient for this demo will be Gema, an alien engineer working aboard the spaceship (or so she says???). Here's some concept art Rose has done of her:
Since the player character is a disembodied AI inside a wall, Gema will be the only character you see in this demo.
