Hello ! As the title say ... I actually thrown myself into the creation of a Visual Novel of my own.
BIG NOTE : I'm French and the first release of the Visual Novel will probably only feature French langage (I'll make a second one in English just so the maximum of people can play / experience it).
(Feel free to correct my grammar if you see something cringy ... You might thank yourself later if you indeed play this Visual Novel)
So ! Lets dive in ... Shall we ?
FIRST ! My thanks to the creators of the Visual Novel named "Our Life : Beginnings and Always" wich gave me the necessary push to take a look at my available tools to make my stories come to life.
For some reasons, i always felt like writting with just text was underwhelming (Even if the concepts like Audible are in my opinion great), none of the supports i knew was good enough. Light Novel ? Nope ! Comic ? Nope i can't draw and i can't even hold a pen because my fingers are fucked up, write a book ? Nope ... I don't feel i can convey the most of what needs to be conveyed.
Visual Novels ? That's more like it ! That'll definitly be able to cut it !
THE TECHNICAL PARTS OF THE PROJECT :
I'm alone working on it in terms of script and writting, the whole story will be done by me (Start, to finish).
The backgrounds are generated with mostly AI but then modified by a professional designer (Especially the variantions, day, night, noon, etc ...)
The characters will also be commissioned by one, or maybe two artists maximum (One for the basics, body, basic expression) and probably another one to make the special scenes arts wich will be more complex.
I don't intend to add musics since i want this experience to be chill and relaxing (Or if music there is ... Those are gonna be as chill as the rest).
The project is constructed on TyrannoBuilder wich is giving me enough options to make everything that is required in my opinion.
THE VISUAL NOVEL AND STORY (+ Characters) :
The starting point and plot will be very similar with what has been done with Our Life : Beginnings and Always but will differ greatly afterwards even if the aborded topics will be rather similar in some way.
Those correspond to : Bullying at school, discovering ones feelings, parental abandonment, fear of the unknown, fear of the future, teenager problems but also wonderment, etc ... The story will probably as close to the heart as possible. Its what i intend to make (I think anyone will be able to relate to the characters at some point, that's the objective also).
The game will also have multiple parts, the first one will be the childhood part, with school, play-times, etc ... And the next will be Teenage years, Young Adulthood and probably adulthood after that.
I intend to have a lot of possibilities in terms of choices, some will have some impacts later on (Making some scenes and situations available with your crush).
[There are already 2 important choices just in the introduction wich will unlock special scenes/interactions. One will happen rapidly after, but the other one will happen in a future part of the game, like multiple hours later in the game]
No idea of how long the game will be, it'll depend on my inspiration, but for now, it's looking pretty good in terms of play-time for what's to come.
For the characters now !
Bloom, the main character and the one you'll be playing as. Outgoing, friendly and a very bold kid in general. He has very shiny yellow hair (Like a sunflower petals), blue lake eyes and some others very precise features.
Hasu, the main characters crush and the one you'll experience the game with, mostly, silver hair (Like brand new aluminum silver), brown eyes with a reddish tone. Shy and reserved, he'll still be able to grow with you (I'll try to make flags so he can become a little more like Bloom later on, or stay Shy and reserved) => I have no doubts its very possible, i mostly understood how the designer work with that.
Bloom's mother and dad (Well, they're gonna be classic, but both positive figures)
Bloom's sister [Named Léa] (Probably a stingy big sister to him since she'll be 8 years older than him, but she will have her moments and i'll make her loveble despite her harsh/blunt personnality and words).
Hasu's dad (Will be a good figure, classical vampire figure, black hair, black eyes with a little reddish tone, kind of serious person).
Hasu's mom (Well ... Its gonna be ... Complicated).
Secondary characters will be other childrens of the neighboorhood, nothing decided for them yet since i didn't write anything about them for now.
HOW IT WILL BE DELIVERED :
Pay to play (Porbably very cheap, maximum price will be 3€), money will be used to pay the artists (Mostly), and even VA if possible.
Will probably hit Steam in an Early Access fashion after the first part is done (Intro / Childhood part).
No ETA ... And i'll probably never make any, but i'll be available to communicate on the progress made.
THE GUY BEHIND IT :
I'm 28 years old and working so i wont be on the grind full time (Big surprise, i'm not even GAY in real life, nor LGBT, nor anything like that).
Budget for art comissions is around 1 to 2K (Available now), but it'll grow with time.
I have no interest in making my real name known, or even my identity, the VN will be released under an alias and the artists who'll work on the characters and special arts will ofcourse be credited.
ARTIST HIRING IS NEARLY DONE :
The partnership will probably be long-term, the payments will be decided by the artist, can be monthly or weekly, depending on progress, whatever, money isn't ultimatly a problem.
What i want is just someone who's passionate about the project and has a real interest for it. It's not just a question of working to get money, its a question of passion ! (Do you want more games like Overwach 2 ? Or EA Games that just reecks of putrid greed ? Me neither !)
"Art isn't made to be understood, it exists to make people feel emotions"
PROGRESS ON THE GAME : Introduction / Meeting of the characters is nearly done already. Placeholders for characters are done, background placeholders are done, background sounds are still needed (Even if i found some, they're not quite perfect for what i want in terms of general quality)
It correspond to around 30 to 35 minutes of actual gameplay with around 10 choices to make wich triggers different reactions from the other characters around Bloom.
MORE NEWS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE NEWLY FOUNDED DISCORD.
SIDE NOTE : There is actually a mini-story in the writting (At the same time) in a Fantasy setting. That exercise will be a practice tool. I'll release it for free so people can gauge my writting skills and also my english (This mini-story will only be available in English).
TITLE : Nyx's Grimoire, the Monster Tamer
Plot for that mini side-project : A basic fantasy world where you'll follow the steps of Nyx, a young kid born in an extremly poor village lost in a forest, hated by everyone, even his own parents. He'll set-off for an adventure after an horrible event happen to the village, resulting in the total destruction of the place.
BOTH WILL BE SAFE FOR WORK !
OFFICIAL DISCORD HERE : https://discord.gg/zba3wzzK
