SoulSet (GxB)(GxG)[Mystery][Romance][Fantasy][Humor]

[Nayru774]

I've been lurking around the forum since a while now, and I figured I'd finally go for it and make a post about this here, too.
I'm putting the demo of the game together practically as I type this, but I imagine it will still take around a month before we can present anything playable, so the 'Ideas' thread seemed like a nice place to go, even if to simply rise awareness and see what you guys think of the project so far.

Nayru (that's me) and Mori bring to you their English Visual Novel project - SoulSet.

The story is set in a fantasy world, where magic is a common sight, dragons are rare but exist, spirits roam the lands and people's souls hold a lot more potential than one might expect. The player assumes the role of Mariko Blairnot, a young amnesiac woman who finds herself trapped in an eerie mansion with 5 other people who have no recollection of their past. As confusion rises, the air grows thick with anxiousness and a sense of approaching disaster. Is everyone telling the truth? Who to trust? Guide Mariko on her quest to unravel the mystery of their predicament and help her figure out how the single memory she seems to have is tied into the whole affair.

Characters:

Mariko - the MC of the game


Marco, Yvonne, Apris


Shirr, Shira, Feathor

(The characters lack descriptions for a reason; first impressions are a thing and learning about them is part of the story.)

Background WIPs:

Other promo art:





(You can find bigger versions of those either on our tumblr or DeviantArt page.)

What you can expect from this game:
- 5 major plot routes, with at least 2 endings each
- 5 characters (and maybe one or two hidden ones) whom you can pursue a romance with
- possible G/B and G/G pairings (and maybe some B/B on the side, depending on the route)
- surprising character and plot development
WARNINGS: mature content (strong language, blood, suggestive themes)

I've been developing and polishing this story and the characters in it since high school (so that's roughly 10 years now.) The multiverse theory and time travel have always been my biggest soft spot and I love to experiment with motives regarding it. The tiles that inspired me the most while coming up with the plot and characters for this story were definitely the “Zero Escape” series (“999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors” and “Virtue's Last Reward”), “Shadow Hearts: Covenant” and “Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria”.

The Team:
Nayru (Writer/Programmer/Character Art)
Mori (Background Art/Scene Art)

As far as music goes, we got some tracks from freesoundtrackmusic for a small fee, and we're planning to use those unless we we find a composer that would be willing to work with us on this.

No Bread Studio tumblr: http://nobreadstudio.tumblr.com
No Bread Studio DeviantArt: http://nobreadstudio.deviantart.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoBreadStudio
Nayru’s tumblr: http://nayruart.tumblr.com
Mori’s tumblr: http://moridraws.tumblr.com WARNING: NSFW

So... Your thoughts?
Any kind of feedback would be welcome!

[ofdawnandtwilight]

The MC has all of my love, she looks damn amazing as well as the others' character designs. They all look so cool and pleasing to the eyes, Yvonne's and Marco's are definitely my favourites and I can't wait to know Shira better <3
The plot sounds really fun and engrossing, I've been wanting to see one like this implemented in a romance game. Background art is spectacular in details as well.

Definitely looking forward for this, here's hoping that you could get this into the work in progress stages asap and not disappear like all the other great concepts. Good luck! <3

[Nayru774]

@nero279 - I am so happy to hear such kind words from you, you have no idea. Thank you so much! <3

Mariko's design changed a bit since I first designed her, so hearing that you like it the way it is means a lot to me! (We plan to show all the earlier sketches and concepts in a digital artbook that should accompany the release of the game, eventually, so hopefully that's another thing to look forward to.) I am also very happy to hear about your favorites. <3

I am aware that the concept of characters with amnesia is a little cliché nowadays, but I'm hoping I can present the whole story in a way that will seem intriguing, nevertheless, so I'm also very glad to hear that you find it that way. c:

We've been working on this day-and-night practically for the past 3 months and I can't sleep at night because of being so engrossed in the project, so hopefully it will see the light of day soon. c:

[bookworm37]

I'm definitely intrigued. I like the fantasy setting, and since I'm a sucker for mysteries, I love that too.

[Nayru774]

@bookworm37 - I'm very happy to hear that, thank you! c:

[AnimeOtaku1o1]

---

[Nayru774]

@AnimeOtaku1o1 - Yes, time travel fascinated me ever since I can remember, and I'm always excited to find it in games or anime or anywhere else. c: It has a lot of potential to make a story intriguing.

As for characters lacking descriptions, it's mainly to prevent spoilers. If you're supposed to experience a story involving characters that don't know stuff about themselves, having anything to work with from the start would be kind of cheating, wouldn't it? c: Although preventing the audience from stereotyping them at first sight is a nice addition to it, too.

This will be our first commercial project, yes, but we won't be aiming too high with it - and, of course, the demo will be completely free! I think the demo itself should give a nice idea whether the game will be someone's cup of tea or not. I've been coding it for the past few days, and I'm proud to say that we have it finished at around 30% at this point.

I said that I've been polishing the story for 10 years, but that mainly involved random ideas I might have some kind of use for. It's been a little dream of mine to bring this story to life, one of these days, somehow, and a VN seemed like a good medium - the fact that it's one of my favorite type of games is a great bonus. So yes, I love stories that have a lot of mystery in it, rise questions and reward you with plot twists, and I'm a total sucker for slowly-developing romance - and I'm hoping my game can have a little bit of all of that.

So I'm very happy to hear that you're looking forward to it. c: Hopefully it won't disappoint. Thank you for your thoughts!

[Wyld]

All of your artwork looks amazing and I wish you luck on your project!

[Nayru774]

@Wyld - We're very happy to hear that you like it, thank you! c:

[Lesleigh63]

What a lovely looking VN. Hope it goes well.

[Nayru774]

@Lesleigh63 - Thank you! We have around 50% of the demo by now, and I have high hopes that we'll be able to finish it this month. I shall also post some first screenshots in the upcoming week or two!

[Lumenue]

This looks incredible! Your character designs are really coherent and well put together, which can be tricky with fantasy games. I love that you were able to make these detailed outfits but not make them overbearing or awkward. I also noticed that your color theory is fantastic, and wanted to commend you for that. It can be hard to make things look good in a VN without going for colors that are too bright or too dull, but your characters all look very cohesive in terms of color.

The backgrounds are gorgeous too! Especially that garden...really lovely lighting techniques there!

How long do you plan on it being when it's completed? I'm really interested in seeing the story unravel, great job!

[Nayru774]

@Lumenue - Thank you so much! We're so glad you like all of that; hearing so many compliments makes us really happy! c:

It's still hard to say how long the game will be at this point (and as a writer, I have this curse that whenever I plan out an approximate length for a story, it usually expands on me along the way and ends up roughly twice as long as that, somehow xD) but the demo itself should be around 1-2h long.

Again, thank you for the kind words and we're glad you're looking forward to it! c:

[Nayru774]

And, as I promised, we're proud to bring you the very first screen-shots from the game! c: We're hoping we can finish the demo by the end of the month, so stay tuned!

(The bedroom background is still WIP.)

And as always, you can find bigger versions of the images both on our DA account, or on tumblr, here: http://nobreadstudio.tumblr.com/post/13 ... very-first

[Lesleigh63]

Enjoyed looking at your screenshots.