There's an urban legend going around: if you can see a second clock on your pocket watch, you're going to die as soon as it strikes '12:00'. In a tired, old world, on the musty streets of a certain town, there was a perfectly ordinary teenage girl. She went to school, she had subjects she liked, subjects she disliked, and liked to extort money for her own personal gain – uh. The last part wasn't in her 'normal' front. This girl, named Jane, just coincidentally, by chance, happened to be 'Ruth', the leader of the town gang, the Red Ties. (She thought 'Ruth' meant ruthless when she was nicknamed. She's not the brightest kid.) And, of course, one day, she sees a black smear on the pristine cream surface of her pocket watch, a second clock.
See, she had resolutions. She was going to get her gang to be big; it was going to be awesome; she was going to conquer at least the district, hopefully the state. What's better than an army of minions, right? But there's also that sketchy offer that might offer her an out on this guaranteed death thing...
...but she now only had one week left. 168 hours. She could gamble for more time, or make use of what she has left.
And so, she has to make a choice.
See, she had resolutions. She was going to get her gang to be big; it was going to be awesome; she was going to conquer at least the district, hopefully the state. What's better than an army of minions, right? But there's also that sketchy offer that might offer her an out on this guaranteed death thing...
...but she now only had one week left. 168 hours. She could gamble for more time, or make use of what she has left.
And so, she has to make a choice.
Jane Petunia Gourden, aged 16, the protagonist of the game. Goes by 'Ruth' when she's acting gangster. She's a scary misfit in school that no one approaches. While she loves her little brother and friends, and would do anything for them, she doesn’t particularly like the rest of her family, or, well, humanity. She doesn't like to be reminded too much of her convoluted family history, which is why she joined a gang to be independent in her own way. Ringleader of "the Red Ties" gang, which is a subdivision of the largest gang in the country, "the Ties".
Casey Bradley Doe, aged 16, who goes by Cas, is the nerdy popular kid in school - on the student council, student representative of her class, etc. Her only best friend is Jane; whenever she’s with Jane everyone avoids her. She doesn’t know about Jane’s gangster adventures during and out of school. She strongly opposes stereotypes and judging a book by it’s cover.
Nathan Gourden, aged 9. Most people call him Nate. He's the youngest in the family, and the much loved brother of Jane. He's mostly taken care of by Jane due to his father being too busy. He's quiet but cheeky to Jane. While he has lots of friends at school, he doesn't like being popular. Has no recollection of his mother, and honestly, he's quite fine with that.
Noel Gregory, aged 18. Jane’s best friend within the gang. He's one of most the trusted gang members that help guard the Boss, and one of the best combat specialists in the gang; he taught Jane everything she knows about street brawling. Strangely, he can’t stand insects and walruses. His family - all gang members - died tragically in a bus accident.
Michael Finchley, but everyone just calls him Mal or Boss. He's 25, and he's the infamous boss of "the Ties". Not much is known about his private life or anything else.
Killian Bessey, aged 17. The runt of the gang that everyone picks on because he’s a wannabe poser, but Jane pities him so she only slaps him around lightly. Little does the entire gang know that he is the son of the internationally famous brand Starkfield industries, he is surprisingly extremely wealthy and powerful outside of the gang. But he's too much of a wannabe for anyone to actually see that.
Other character information coming after the prologue is released!
This game will be a visual novel in a vague sense of the word; something more like an RPG/VN hybrid, probably. We aim to have a quest system, a side quest system, and a tactical-turn based combat system.
This story in question will have two paths – so there's pretty much only one main choice in the game, though that one choice is pretty important. It's basically deciding how the main character will spend her last seven days alive, as you've read in the synopsis. There will hopefully be side-quests and small choices though! Just don't expect branches within the branches.
I'm in charge of art assets such as character design, concept art, side sprites, website/ui design, promo art, the works. Other than that, we have a writer and a programmer. We hope to release them in installments, starting from the prologue, to chapter 1, to chapter 2, and so on. We've done a fair bit at this stage. Of course, we want to release this for free!
Now that that's out of the way, from what you'll see in the post below and what you've seen so far, could you do a bit of Q&A? If you're too busy to do all of questions, that's fine! Only answer the ones that you feel would help guide us and put us on the right track.
Alright, here we go!
> Would you play it when it gets released? What part makes you want to play it the most? (Art, premise, gameplay, other?)
> Would you be willing to purchase an artbook / fanbook / official book (like behind-the-scenes, detailed character descriptions, extra setting content, a guide)? If so, what would you value one that had 40 pages?
Thank you so much in advance for the help! I'll continuously update the thread with development pictures and stuff, so stay tuned.
Prologue
Writing: 90%
Art: 95%
GUI: 30%
Programming: 10%
Art: 95%
GUI: 30%
Programming: 10%
The website is designed and hosted by Scotty Sengphaathit. The site that hasn't been shown yet.
