A fantasy BL visual novel game in the works...

[slashbunnychan]

Okay, so I wanted to have this posted somewhere to have people at least know about it a bit but I don't have anything completed on the project except what I currently have written down or drawn so far...

But first, a bit about me.

I tend to go by Bunny or Rabbit on the internet. I'm an independent artist and game designer. Other than this VN I'm going to talk about I have at least 2-3 other game projects I'm working on (all not VNs). Once I have some type of blog set up purely for this game then I will open a recruitment thread on the forums looking for anyone wanting to help me in the project. I am currently working on this project alone, but as stated before I will make a recruitment thread later (I will mention on this post what I am looking for but I am not accepting help at the current time).

Now for the project.

Project
Game name: Love Eternal ~ with the rising sun (working title; might change it later)
Genre: Boys Love, Fantasy, Romance, Drama, some Comedy and Action
Rated: Teen+ (for language and violence); will make a Mature version as either a Patreon milestone or a Kickstarter milestone (depending on which one I decide to use)
Was going to make this game using TyranoBuilder Visual Novel Studio, but I think I will stick to Ren'Py for now (been around longer thus more people know about it or have worked with it before).

So far, all credits go to me (story, direction, character and setting design), but I will use some free-to-use GUI, music/sounds/audio and imagery as placeholders until I can get some custom art, audio and GUI done for the final project. Same for some building designs and apartment layouts for character homes and such.
I am also giving credit for the style of the game towards other VN games I've seen/played myself over the years (Dandelion, Backstage Pass, Roommates, Nicole, DraMatical Murder, and Absolute Obedience).

Story
You play as 19 year old Nico - a young man with GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) - attending his freshman year of college in a fictional European country, living alone for the year while his parents travel for their work. 3 hunky young men move into the apartment across the hall from his and end up going to the same school as him. One day while walking home he is attacked by some creepy shadow monster thing and the 3 hunky men show up in fantasy armor and beat the crap out of the monster. Then they break the news to Nico: they are magical warriors from a parallel world of magic and fantasy, and Nico is the reincarnation of their late king, and the killer has come to this world to kill Nico to make sure that he does not return as the new king whether he wants to or not.

The point of the game is to survive the year (by not getting killed and passing all your classes while your at it). Nico can also romance any of the 3 hunky young men and befriend others, all while deciding if he will go to this parallel world as the new king or stay on Earth living a somewhat normal life.
The overall story stays the same but the ending might need some work done to it.

Each character has some type of perk and flaw (an idea I got from the VN game "Backstage Pass): such as, one love interest has anger management issues, another has a tsundere personality, and the other has a massive inferiority complex (every interact-able character is different), and the player as Nico can help that person overcome their flaws and make them a better person while they also help his with his own anxiety.

Features
- multiple endings (at least 2-3 for each main romancable character)
- the choice to either romance the love interests or just be friends with them (however, romancing them does unlock special stuff)
- at least 2 hidden routes that can be unlocked by meeting certain criteria
- multiple branching paths depending on decisions made
- a semi-rpg style fighting system
- hopefully fully voiced characters
- hopefully a fully animated opening and ending video
- and more...

Progress
The story itself is about 25-30% completed, character design around 60% completed (for all characters combined, not including side characters), setting design is around 35% completed.
Pretty much, the project is around 15% through the conceptualization stage. I will try to get some character designs up soon (once they are done and drawn).

Help Needed
I did (still doing) all the character and setting designs myself (everything from the basic character types to the country's layout all the way down to what type of currency they use; remember, this whole country is fictional so I'm trying to make everything as original as possible), and I am also writing the story myself but I need serious help with just about everything else in the game, such as:
- making sprites
- background design/art
- building design/art
- coding
- GUI design
- original audio/music
- management and promotion
- co-writing (to help me with keeping the story consistent and to help fill in plot holes and such)
- and others
(again, I am not trying to recruit anyone right now, I'm just saying what I currently need help on)

So I pretty much need artists (either 1 or multiple that can stick to the same/similar art style to keep it consistent), coders/programmers, at least 1 co-writer (more is better but not too many), an animator and so on.

I do my own research and play around with coding and design in my free time but there is only so much I can do on my own with such a big project.
A lot of people might say "start small" or something like that, which is why I want to make a free playable demo and see if people would be interested in seeing it as a finished product that people would want to pay for.

So, what do you think so far?
Leave your opinions bellow. If you are interested in helping out with the project - from offering your services to directing me to helpful sites and threads - just let me know!