Dark Swan [GxB?] [Updated 7/31]

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cosmic latte
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Dark Swan [GxB?] [Updated 7/31]

#1 Post by cosmic latte »

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May end up changing the title or logo later.
STORY
You play as Joanna, a ditzy but good-natured high school girl who lives in Morgan Hill, California.

One day a high-magnitude earthquake strikes, completely devastating the homes and buildings in the north part of Morgan Hill. As it'll take a few months to completely repair the school in that area, a group of students are transferred to her school to continue taking classes. Amongst all of them, three transfer students become instant favorites at school - Gabriel, the booksmart, bespectacled student; Keith, the energetic soccer player; Caleb, the charming, chivalrous prince. Upon their arrival, Joanna takes an interest in them...

CHARACTERS
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Joanna
Our lovable protagonist. Accident-prone and cute.

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Gabriel
An intelligent student who wears glasses. Cold, calm, and collected.

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Keith
An energetic and positive athlete. Dense, but sweet.

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Caleb
A princely gentleman type.

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Derrick
Joanna's best friend.

CREDITS
Based on Taleweaver's story idea.
Backgrounds belong to Uncle Mugen.
Art/writing by cosmic latte.

PROGRESS
story outline: 50%
script: 0%
sprites (5): 0%
CGs (8+): 0%
BGs: 100%
GUI: 0%
music: 0%

NOTES
Since Nocturne is going to take really long to create, I thought it would be nice to first release a game much smaller in scope and length. So when I saw Taleweaver's story idea on one of LSF's threads, I thought it would be a great read for a short VN. Thanks so much to Taleweaver for the story idea!
The main thing for this visual novel is to not take things at face value. Hint about the game:
The protagonist is not romantically interested in any of the three transfer students, and isn't truthful to the reader about how she really perceives them. She intentionally acts ditzy and dense in order to appear "normal".

Hopefully this will be my first release as a VN dev! I'll be posting this in the WiP thread once I get the script and sprites finished. Hopefully I can recruit someone to compose some music then, but we'll see. I'll probably end up using Jamendo if there aren't any takers.
If you have any tips for trying to make a game solo or just anything in general that you'd like to let me know, please do comment. :) Thanks.
Last edited by cosmic latte on Sat Aug 02, 2014 1:07 am, edited 7 times in total.
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cosmic latte
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Re: Project Lovingly [GxB?] [Updated 7/31]

#2 Post by cosmic latte »

Updated with sprite concepts of all the characters. Now to think of a good name and finally make a logo...After that I'll make some sketches of the main menu art and a mockup of the GUI.
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Re: Project Lovingly [GxB?] [Updated 7/31]

#3 Post by silverpikachu99 »

Loving the art! The concept seems super cute too ^^ Can't wait to see more progress!
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Re: Project Lovingly [GxB?] [Updated 7/31]

#4 Post by Ran08 »

Seems like the guys are all stereotypical characters! Hmm. Haha, don't worry though, my first project's chars are based on stereotypes as well. However, the way you described the three guys here made them sound so typical, like they're such plain creatures of Earth. Nevertheless, stereotypes don't really turn me off, hahaha, so I am still looking forward to play this. I do hope that there is more to them than what was written here though. :)

As for the plot... it's cute. It reminds me of the koreanovela Playful Kiss, and ooooh, I love that series! Hahaha. :D

Anyway, the art is fantastic, and this game sounds quite cute. Haha. Good luck. I'll be waiting for more updates~

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Re: Project Lovingly [GxB?] [Updated 7/31]

#5 Post by cosmic latte »

silverpikachu99 wrote:Loving the art! The concept seems super cute too ^^ Can't wait to see more progress!
Thank you! :) I hope you'll like the full game.
Ran08 wrote:Seems like the guys are all stereotypical characters! Hmm. Haha, don't worry though, my first project's chars are based on stereotypes as well. However, the way you described the three guys here made them sound so typical, like they're such plain creatures of Earth. Nevertheless, stereotypes don't really turn me off, hahaha, so I am still looking forward to play this. I do hope that there is more to them than what was written here though. :)

As for the plot... it's cute. It reminds me of the koreanovela Playful Kiss, and ooooh, I love that series! Hahaha. :D

Anyway, the art is fantastic, and this game sounds quite cute. Haha. Good luck. I'll be waiting for more updates~
Haha, yes! There is a reason why I made them sound like they are all very bland, stereotypical characters (which they definitely are, initially), and why the plot is coincidentally very bland as well. Semi spoilers below if you want hints about what's going on but don't want the whole story spoiled.
This story was based off Taleweaver's idea in the thread about the protagonist being a liar to the audience about her true intentions and how the game will really play out. I suppose she also lies to herself, since the main character intentionally acts the way she is to try to be "normal".
Major spoilers below.
This isn't going to be a cute game at all, ahaha. In fact, this is not even an otome game in the slightest even though I'm trying to set it up as the most typical otome game ever (there may be one real GxB route, but it's not going to be very...normal. lol). I don't want to explain further than that, but that's the basic premise of it. I hope people won't feel too tricked by the synopsis, since I'll try to drop hints about what's going on.
As a result, I wasn't too sure how to set this thread up, because I don't want people to play the game and get really pissed at me. Though that is bound to happen with some people, I just want people to think, "Oh, that's why this happened," and not want to kill me afterwards. Do you have any suggestions about how I should set the thread up, or should I just keep it the way it is? XD
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Re: Project Lovingly [GxB?] [Updated 7/31]

#6 Post by LadyOfGatsby »

The art is so adorable<3 What I'm most excited is for more information about the characters. I like the concept and would definitely play it once it is finished!
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Re: Dark Swan [GxB?] [Updated 7/31]

#7 Post by yuuyacchi »

With this kind of thing, the hook is the premise, so it might be better that this point is at least made known to reader? IDK, personally, I won't mind being fooled like that if the story is good in the end, but something like this will affect how readers approach the story, so there's a potential for mixed feelings about it overall at the end. Depiction is the key here; a reader who doesn't know the premise might end up feeling fooled, but one who does might be pretty critical with how the story plays out since they're watching out for it. What's going to really matter is the execution of the plot, so take extra care there.

But overall, I really do love what you're trying to achieve with the story! Art's really pretty and cute and light, and if that's the direction you're taking the visuals in, I think it makes a nice contrast with the plot, lol. As for how to set up this thread, I think you're good with how it is. The notes section is unassuming enough but still noticeable, and what to expect in general is established, so you're not outright going to fool everybody, haha. Just the ones who didn't read through everything in the first post. :P

Good luck, and I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one! <3

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Re: Dark Swan [GxB?] [Updated 7/31]

#8 Post by Ran08 »

I hope this gets updated! :) I can't believe I haven't heard about this in so long. Hahaha. How are things doing now? =)
yuuyacchi wrote:The notes section is unassuming enough but still noticeable, and what to expect in general is established, so you're not outright going to fool everybody, haha. Just the ones who didn't read through everything in the first post. :P
Yes! Exactly. You're actually the first one to comment in this thread after OP edited the notes section to put the spoilers in, hahaha. Although, personally I would have liked it better if she/he didn't include that anymore, since... well, my main impression on this game was, "Ooooh, so cute!". So, when she/he replied that it's not actually cute, it sort of took away the element of surprise that I would rather see in the game itself. "Oh my gosh. What's happening?! Not cute at all!" Something like that. :)

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Re: Dark Swan [GxB?] [Updated 7/31]

#9 Post by Suika »

This looks super cute ^o^ I'm excited!

This portion is especially appealing:
cosmic latte wrote:
[The protagonist] isn't truthful to the reader about how she really perceives them. She intentionally acts ditzy and dense in order to appear "normal".

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