Cafe Memoria[BxG][Comedy][Slice of Life][Waitress][Released]

[thebackup]

Website now open!

Download Now!! Version 1.0 - 2015/06/26
Windows / Mac / Linux (135 MB)
Completed Game Thread: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 11&t=32783

Play the demo!
Demo thread: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 45&t=28265
Demo version 0.1 contains:

• Just two routes: Anna and Mikaela
• No voice acting for now, but will be in future versions

Cafe Memoria 0.1 can be downloaded here:
Windows / Mac / Linux (72 MB)
[/s]

Overview
"Café Memoria" is an interactive visual novel (VN) set in a fun restaurant environment, with five lovely waitresses. You play the role of a male customer entering the restaurant, ordering various food and drink items from one of the waitresses. At the end you can rate how well she did serving you – you can choose to rate her highly, in-between, or even poorly.

Story
Café Memoria is a new restaurant in town, hoping to create memorable experiences for its guests. It’s the weekend, and you totally forgot to buy food the day before for breakfast. With nothing to eat for breakfast, you consider going out to eat at Café Memoria. As you enter, you startle a female friend of yours, who happens to be dressed in a pretty waitress uniform. She is quite shy and very self-conscious, but she tries her best and seats you a table. How memorable of an experience will she create for you? Will you come back and eat there again?

Characters


Ryne Reyes
Pronounced: rhine
Voiced by: Josh del Mundo
Ryne is the main male protagonist who visits Café Memoria for breakfast, after forgetting to buy groceries the night before. Described as calm and friendly by most of his friends, he likes to help them with the problems they face.



Anna Pervova
Voiced by: Trina Deuhart
Anna is the daughter of the owner of the restaurant, Elena. She startles easily and is quite shy. Her mother thinks that by allowing her daughter to work, her confidence will improve. However, she doesn’t think so. Because of her personality she tends to fidget a lot and is quite clumsy.



Mikaela Kier
Pronounced: mi-kay-la
Voiced by: Skyler Davenport
Mikaela is Ryne’s childhood friend, and is somewhat overprotective of him. She inadvertently broke something expensive, and now she’s forced into a part-time job to pay it off. She has a very short temper and loses patience easily. Often gets into petty arguments with Julia.



Tristina Hamilton
Voiced by: Cayla Martin
Tristina decided to work at the restaurant because she thinks they’re cosplaying, although Anna insists they’re not. Despite this, she has a hard time with males and treats them differently compared to females.



Aurelia Alvarez
Pronounced: oh-reel-ya
Voiced by: Sayaka Mashiro
Aurelia wanted to work at the restaurant because of a certain guy she knows is a regular there, who she considers a very sweet guy. She is perhaps the nicest, and the most physically attractive girl in the restaurant, albeit airheaded and lacking in common sense.



Julia Sakuraba
Voiced by: Samantha Chan
Despite having a talent for cooking, Julia opted to be a waitress in hopes of improving her relationships with her friends, including Anna. She’s very modest and polite, and downplays any accomplishments she’s done. Unwillingly finds herself in petty arguments with Mikaela.


Elena Pervova
Anna’s mother, and owner of Café Memoria. Although you never see her in the game, her name is mentioned several times throughout. She is described as an easygoing woman who likes to tell embarrassing stories about her daughter.


System
"Café Memoria" is a restaurant offering meals from traditional to contemporary. The story spans across several routes, the first of which is Anna, who will be serving you breakfast. Clear her route and another route is unlocked, offering other meal options at a different time of day. Clear that route and another is unlocked, and so on.

For each of the girls’ routes you can interact with them by making a choice and see how she reacts. This includes making a selection on the meal menu, and when rating them.

Features

• Free!
• Unlockable routes as you play the game
• Five lovely waitresses: Anna, Mikaela, Tristina, Aurelia, Julia
• Make various drink and food selections, ranging from traditional to contemporary, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner
• Rate your waitress™ - rate her highly or even poorly
• Voice acting!

Screenshots and progress

• Blog post 1 - project announcement
• Blog post 2 - interface
• Blog post 3 - critique
• Blog post 4 - more interface stuff; select your waitress!
• Blog post 5 - backgrounds
• Blog post 6 - character art
• Blog post 7 - more character art
• Blog post 8 - title screen art
• Blog post 9 - demo release 0.1
• Blog post 10 - progress and more screens
• Blog post 11 - progress, voice processing
• Blog post 12 - more progress and thoughts
• Blog post 13 - progress, artwork teaser
• Blog post 14 - progress, redos
• Blog post 15 - chibi artworks
• Blog post 16 - we're getting there!
• Blog post 17 - release date set!
• Blog post 18 - released!

Progress Estimates

• Script: 100% Want to critique the script? (closed) http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 38&t=26261
• Character art: 100% - (now recruiting) (closed) http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 38&t=26654
• Music: 100%
• Programming: 100%
• Voices: 100% - Voice audition thread: (closed) http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 38&t=27560

Voice Post-Processing Progress

• Anna: 100%
• Mikaela: 100%
• Tristina: 100%
• Aurelia: 100%
• Julia: 100%
• Ryne: 100%

My to-do list

• Write script
• Work on GUI
• Work on music
• Work on backgrounds
• Critique writing
• Revise and proofread writing
• Start getting artists
• Program in the script and artworks
• Create website
• Recruit voice actresses
• Create OP video (maybe)
• Debug the game
• Release!

Black - not yet done
Red- in progress
Green - done

Planned for release around mid 2015 ^^ (subject to change) Released!

Purpose of this thread is to show progress, as well as getting input from others in general.

Questions

• What do you like about the story and characters?
• How can they be improved?
• Which character looks most interesting?
• How about the system?
• How would you go about describing the taste of food, especially if you can't eat it? Like for example I want to describe the protagonist eating a sub sandwich, but I don't have one in front of me, not knowing its taste. (no longer relevant at this point in development)
• What's exciting about this project?
• Would you like to eat at Cafe Memoria? Who do you want to serve you?
• Any other questions / comments / concerns?

Credits
(am I missing someone...?)

Cast

• Ryne Reyes: Josh del Mundo
• Anna Pervova: Trina Deuhart
• Mikaela Kier: Skyler Davenport
• Tristina Hamilton: Cayla Martin (milkcarton)
• Aurelia Alvarez: Sayaka Mashiro (Sayashiro)
• Julia Sakuraba: Samantha Chan

Artworks

• Uncle Mugen for some of the SketchUp models, backgrounds
• Ezri for character artworks!

Critique / Editing / Proofreading

• Angie
• Enoki
• Reika (AoyamaReika)
• Sayaka Mashiro

[gekiganwing]

I meant to add feedback earlier. Writing now, since I have a few minutes to spare...

One initial concern is the surname Pervova. I know that it's normal. But it's difficult to look at the name and not think of words such as "pervert."

For each of the girls’ routes you can interact with them by making a choice and see how she reacts. This includes making a selection on the meal menu, and when rating them.

I'm not exactly sure how this will work. Is the main character an amateur food critic who's trying to give them advice and good/bad ratings? Also, do you plan to include just a few choices, or quite a few?

A few other thoughts...

* The Pia Carrot series began over fifteen years ago, and has focused on waitress heroines. I played the first game through a fan translation and an emulator, and enjoyed it. I'm not sure if you would benefit from playing it, or watching the OAV spinoffs based on the first two games. Perhaps just read reviews and descriptions, and think about what you want to do that's similar, and what will make your story different.

* Find fiction which discusses food, as well as some relevant non-fiction. Afterwards, think about how to describe food through prose without sounding too academic or too vague. Ask yourself "what would Gordon Ramsay do?"

* How much of the story takes place in the cafe, and how much takes place elsewhere?

[Lesleigh63]

I haven't tried to play a 'cafe' style VN before. For me there'd need to be a little more to interacting with the waitress and learning about her than just rating her table service. Something poignant I learn about each of them and probably in doing so something important I learn about the protagonist. But as I said, I'm new to this, so I could have the aim of this type of game all wrong. Good luck with it.

[thebackup]

One initial concern is the surname Pervova. I know that it's normal. But it's difficult to look at the name and not think of words such as "pervert."

I used Pervova for several reasons:

• Originally was gonna use Pavlova, but then found out there was a real person named Anna Pavlova, and didn't want any allusions to her.
• I needed a Russian name, so I just grabbed that while writing a research paper a while back.
• The name kind of stuck, having created the characters a long while back.

I prefer not to change it, although, it would be interesting what other people think of the name (and possibly the other names of characters).

I'm not exactly sure how this will work. Is the main character an amateur food critic who's trying to give them advice and good/bad ratings? Also, do you plan to include just a few choices, or quite a few?

I never really thought of him as an amateur food critic; he's simply a guy who wants to eat out. Each of the waitresses presents her own problems, and the protagonist offers them advice (keep in mind most of the girls are his friends). I've tried writing this in the perspective of an average person coming into the restaurant, not as a food critic.

So far, the only choices you make are when you select your drinks, the food, and when rating the waitress in question. The food and drink selections are a few, just to keep it short.

* The Pia Carrot series began over fifteen years ago, and has focused on waitress heroines. I played the first game through a fan translation and an emulator, and enjoyed it. I'm not sure if you would benefit from playing it, or watching the OAV spinoffs based on the first two games. Perhaps just read reviews and descriptions, and think about what you want to do that's similar, and what will make your story different.

I've heard of the series, but never played it. I'll try taking a look at it.

* Find fiction which discusses food, as well as some relevant non-fiction. Afterwards, think about how to describe food through prose without sounding too academic or too vague. Ask yourself "what would Gordon Ramsay do?"

Or maybe watch stuff on food network, perhaps.

* How much of the story takes place in the cafe, and how much takes place elsewhere?

Pretty much 90% of it is in the cafe; 10% at protagonist's home and roads in-between.

I haven't tried to play a 'cafe' style VN before. For me there'd need to be a little more to interacting with the waitress and learning about her than just rating her table service. Something poignant I learn about each of them and probably in doing so something important I learn about the protagonist. But as I said, I'm new to this, so I could have the aim of this type of game all wrong.

I'm trying to make the story not branch out so much just to keep it relatively short, although you do learn more about their character as you play along. In addition by making food selections and rating her, you'll learn about her likes / dislikes, and how well she takes criticism.

Good luck with it.

Thanks!

[thebackup]

Just want to say thanks to those who volunteered to critique the script!

After I receive the last of the critiques I'll work on revising the script. And some stuff relating to character art

[HalYac17]

This is a cute looking little game, and certainly a unique one! I look forward to seeing the complete game!

[thebackup]

This is a cute looking little game, and certainly a unique one! I look forward to seeing the complete game!

Thank you, I'll make sure it gets completed. ^_^

[thebackup]

Updated first post with link to blog post!
Scroll up to "Blog Post 4" or click here.

Also updated progress estimates

[thebackup]

Updated first post with more progress!

Updated:
Blog post 5
Backgrounds!
Progress Estimates
At the rate I'm going now, I have to push the planned release date to around August 2014.




Credit to Uncle Mugen for some of the SketchUp models.

Enjoy!

[mugenjohncel]

If it's OK with you... Can you PM / Snedspace / Mega me that Sketchup file... this coming weekend. Me and others we wanted to do a bit of mental exercise and use your model and simulate retrofitting it using Dryvit EIFS Systems. After that we'll give the retrofitted model back to you no strings attached... you can use it for whatever purpose you want...

You have no idea how much fun it is to be in a 1 hour debate involving your posted screenshot where we talked how thermally inefficient that building would be if it was constructed in real life

Also, include a logo of Cafe Memoria with Transparency (.png) file

"POOF" (Disappears)

[mugenjohncel]

Alright guys we got the file!... LET'S TEAR THIS PLACE DOWN START RETROFITTING!!!



"POOF" (Disappears)

[mugenjohncel]

Preview... and layout of the store... still lacking details and the usual clutter...




http://i.imgur.com/dcjEphC.jpg Larger View

If there are any comments / suggestions / regrets about this... now is the time to spea... no wait don't let me sleep for now

"POOF" (Disappears)

Number 1:

So uh... what are the fonts used in the logo and can you send them to me to make my life easier?

Number 2:

This is a Family Restaurant right?... Fine Dining Perhaps?... I'm 100% sure this is not Fast Food...

[thebackup]

Preview... and layout of the store... still lacking details and the usual clutter...




http://i.imgur.com/dcjEphC.jpg Larger View

If there are any comments / suggestions / regrets about this... now is the time to spea... no wait don't let me sleep for now

"POOF" (Disappears)

Number 1:

So uh... what are the fonts used in the logo and can you send them to me to make my life easier?

Number 2:

This is a Family Restaurant right?... Fine Dining Perhaps?... I'm 100% sure this is not Fast Food...

My gosh that is a massive improvement of what I came up with, considering my interior design skills are next to nil... Can't wait to use XD

Number 1:

PMed you fonts.

Number 2:

Yes, it's a family restaurant. ^^

[mugenjohncel]

Unfiltered Test Renders...

Anyway, almost done...















"POOF" (Disappears)

[thebackup]

^ Can't wait to use! Wow, just wow!

Why am I reminded of the Food Network show Restaurant Impossible...