Prisoners of Snow [GxB, Mystery, Supernatural]

[Zino]

Let me tell you about my massive one-woman's project!

STORY:
Spending the week in a cozy hotel, without your parents and worries, having fun and making new friends? Olivia's more than ready to turn that little avalanche accident, that separated her and her brother from their parents, into a wonderful week long luxury holiday! And in the beginning it's all too fun despite of phone lines being silent and all the other connections cut off.

But no peace lasts forever as Olivia starts to discover her new friends are hiding some dark secrets. Everyone seems to have connections to something horrible that happened in the hotel two years ago. Things also get really dangerous really fast when someone decides there are too many people around and starts getting rid of them with an ax.

OTHER INFO:
- 6 different character routes
- Each route has good & bad ending
- Visual novel styled, so choices only, no stat-raising.
- Plenty of CGs in every route.
- MC will have a name, but you're also able to name her.

CHARACTERS:


MC/Olivia:
"Creepy?! I'm the nicest girl on the planet!"
- Age: 17
- Courageous when looking after Oliver but not really that brave when alone.
- Quick to speak her mind.
- Eager to experience new things and make friends.


Oliver:
"She was gonna make me kiss her! That's when I ran..."
- Age: 17
- Olivia's twin brother
- Bit of a wuss. Loves horror stories but gets really scared afterwards.
- Doesn't like exercise or outdoor activities that much. A book nerd.


Basil:
"I mean it, you should stay away from me."
- Age: 19
- Friendly and caring even towards strangers.
- Started working as a cook in the hotel two years ago.
- Smiles a lot but avoids more close and personal contacts.


Elmeri:
"You treat me like a fucking kid, I stop being a good boy."
- Age: 14
- Likes acting all innocent and sweet but in reality is kind of a jerk.
- Hates being treated like a kid. Norman's nephew.
- Suffers from a memory loss. Or so he claims.


Ethan:
“Hah, you can try! I won't go easy on anyone.”
- Age: 21
- Energetic and always ready to exercise.
- Been Dominic's best friend/neighbor since childhood.
- Lacks self-confidence.


Dominic:
"...Please forget it. And don't mention it to Ethan."
- Age: 21
- Man of few words. Unless you're Ethan it's almost impossible to have a long conversation with him.
- Doesn't like to spend time with anyone else than Ethan either.
- Says he's taken but Ethan seems to disagree...?


Norman:
"Ye better watch out before yer gonna steal this old man's heart!"
- Age: 37
- Flirty, pervy, cheery old man who just loves physical contact.
- Owner of the hotel. Also the head cook. Elmeri is his big sister's kid.
- Suddenly decided to quit his earlier profession and build this hotel about ten years ago.


Frances the 11th:
"Is there anything I can do for my lady?"
- Age: "Whatever pleases my lady."
- Best bellboy in the hotel! According to his own words anyway.
- Has taken flirting lessons from Jane Austin
- Appears every time you don't want him to.


Kasper:
"Here I thought you had an actual decent taste when it came to games."
- Age: 18
- Douche bag or a nice guy? Sometimes it's hard to decide!
- Gets excited over games easily and then feels embarrassed when he realises what he's doing.
- Somehow Pamina managed to drag him to spend the holiday with her!


Pamina:
"I like guys who can admit their fears!"
- Age: 16
- Kasper's close friend.
- Likes hot guys, it's no secret.
- Once starts talking, it's hard to shut her up.



Route outlines: Plot outline 95%, Common route 100%, Individual routes about 10%
Script: about 34k words right now. Common route 20%. Individual routes 0%
Sprites: 15/15
CGs: 0/~50
BGs: 1/16+
GUI: Main menu 100%, Game menu 0%
Music: 0% (counting on a friend to compose me character songs/main theme)

[fleet]

You have a good plot, and I like the drawings. The only thing I would caution you on would be the scope of the project. If this is your first project, I'd recommend something a bit less ambitious.
If you decide to go with your original plan, I wish you and your friend success.

[Zino]

@fleet: The size of this project worries me as well, but I guess if it's gonna die, it's gonna die with its boots on? : D

In other news what worries me even more is my ability to write romance that feels natural and not the forced "i am in love with you because you are the MC" kind...

[Godline]

Art looks great!
I have to agree with everyone else. - At least 6 different character routes sounds WAYYY too ambitious. If I were you I'd stick to writing the one first and see how you go (if you are doing the writing, if you're hiring people to do it for you, then you make as many character routes as you want, haha).

[Morhighan]

I'm planning a mystery hotel stuck in the snow game too! (WAY IN THE FUTURE)
But mine has less romance and more closed room murders. >o>

Best of luck, can't wait to see how it progresses~

[Zino]

@Godline: I managed to drop one dude's route out of this (and he was my favorite one too ;__; ) but that's the most I can do, others are too tied with the plot. But I'm gonna write three routes at first and the rest of them can come later.

@Morhighan: More closed room murders (even if in the way future)!! I love those, can't wait to see your stuff too! : D

In other news ~ Yowkayyy, I've managed to outline common route and started to outline first two routes. Still have couple of big plot holes to solve (everytime I solve one, two more appear), but slowly getting to the bottom of this mystery. Also I did a quick count of how many CGs I'm gonna need and the number was close to 50 so yeah I think I'm gonna go cry for a while.

[Eight Rooks]

Premise seems solid enough and easy to understand, there's a decent spread of character types and I like this art style you've got. The noses are... kinda odd - like beaks, almost? - but it feels, I dunno, pleasantly distinctive. The colouring seems pretty strong, too, on the finished art (or at least the art that's further along). It does seem pretty ambitious for a small team, but I'd count it as a good sign if you're willing to start chopping out large parts of the narrative already (for now, anyway) in order to get things done. Sorry I can't provide any more coherent criticism, but there doesn't seem to be that much more to go on at this stage? Regardless, while I don't think I'm your target audience I still think it looks pretty promising, and depending on what your writing's like I'm sure more than a few people will be looking forward to it.

[Zino]

@Eight Rooks: I've gotten many comments about the way I draw those noses, but it's been too many years already, I don't know how to go back to tiny animu noses anymore :'D Also now that I've finally solved all my problems with the plot, I guess it would be the right time to start working on the real script... which terrifies me!

Okay so I've kinda noticed a lot of VNs like to have a picture of their MC on the screen (just face really but still), so you can see them/their expressions all the time. But I prefer MC not appearing outside of CGs and I'm gonna use that method with this project so I was just wondering is it a turn off for many people? I know that style probably fits Japanese otome games more, since their protags usually don't have that much of a personality, but mine will clearly have one, so it may be kinda conflicting of not showing her on the screen... idk... but i still don't wanna make her a sprite or show her outside of CGs.

[Zino]

Updated the first post. Tweaked most of the sprites a bit, added names for the characters, and horrible sample CG (can you guess I hate drawing BGs).

[Chasing Summer]

Wah, I love the gorgeous coloring and the diversity of the cast! Though I love everyone's designs and what we know so far from their personalities, Oliver has to be my favorite. For now, at least. He's completely stolen my heart but I'm going to assume there's no romance with him since he's Olivia's brother. *the sound of my heart breaking* I'm going to survive though, since the rest are also adorable. Besides, sibling friendships are cute and somewhat rare to see. Anyway, in case you didn't already figure it out from my excited post, you now have a new fan. I'll be stalking this thread. :)

[Zino]

@Chasing Summer: Krhmmmm there may or may not be a route for Oliver as well..... but (!) i am not saying anything about it's nature yet.

[Zino]

Updated the first post again. With an actual screenshot from the game (main menu), and kinda fakish screenshot with textbox and font still being more or less a placeholders. Some minor tweaking to the sprites+chara profiles as well. Discovered this week that i hate (and suck at) coding and drawing backgrounds. Anyway this project is going forward slowly but steady!! (once I have enough script written I'll make a new wip thread but for now on i'll stick with this)

[Nayru774]

Your character art is really cute and I find the setting interesting. c: If I had the chance to play this, I'd definitely give it a try!
(Be careful with that those CGs, though, making ~50 would take an overwhelming amount of work!)
Best of luck to you with this project! c:

[Zino]

@Nayru774: Thanks!! Haha yeah the amount of CGs I have to make is making me feel a bit dizzy atm. I guess I'll try to drop few (general ones) and just draw the most important ones per route at first. :'D

[Zino]

Okay so I finally seriously started finishing those sprites. Mostly just re-sizing and re-drawing+coloring the old ones but couple of guys got a new look (Elmeri and Dom, whose pictures I updated to the first post). Also finally sketched all the three magnificent side-characters. Gonna post their faces too (and new sprites for everyone else) once I finish coloring them. Once I've finished all the sprites I can start doing all those CGs because the chara designs can't change anymore :')