Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [JP Folktale] [Patreon]
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- ArachneJericho
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Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [JP Folktale] [Patreon]
Kaguya Hime is a free small visual novel for all ages, released on a chapter-by-chapter basis, one chapter per month.
I will be doing a series of these for as long as I can, based on folktales from Southeast and East Asia. Because I no longer have a job (thanks to ill health), I will be using stock art, stock music, and my own writing, coding, and image manipulation skills to bring these stories to life. During the time it takes for the six or so chapters of Kaguya Hime to be released, I hope to have enough art skills to create my own character art.
Patreon Rewards
My Patreon page is here: http://www.patreon.com/lifeislikeabadrpg
As far as I know, this is the first attempt at funding free visual novels through Patreon.
Rewards include:
$1+ My Undying Gratitude, and access to development posts.
$2+ Early Access (you receive chapters one month ahead of the free tier) and My Undying Gratitude
$10+ Name of your choice in the credits, Early Access, and Undying Gratitude.
$30+ Name of your choice + link in the credits, Early Access, and Undying Gratitude
$50+ Name of your choice + image + link in the credits, Early Access, and Undying Gratitude.
The milestones are a bit pie-in-the-sky. Dream big.
Differences from the Folk Tale
Kaguya Hime's backstory is explored and fleshed out, with larger focus on side characters like the Bamboo Cutter and the Emperor of Japan. More of Kaguya Hime's time on Earth is shown, and the princes (in this case, a prince, a princess, and a princen) do have a possibility of returning from their quests. Kaguya Hime will (if the player is willing) form relationships other than parental ones.
Additionally, the Bamboo Cutter is a single trans woman (though almost every character can be read as trans), and the Emperor of Japan is genderfluid.
And of course, the biggest difference: you can possibly get Kaguya Hime to stay on Earth with new friends and family, rather than break all ties on Earth and return to the Moon.
Same as the Folk Tale
Kaguya Hime is aromantic and asexual. This is a visual novel about platonic relationships, and how deeply they can affect people.
Preview
Release Status
Chapter 1 is scheduled for normal release in January 2015. (If you sign up for Early Access, you will additionally get Chapter 2 in January rather than February.)
Build Status
Chapter 1: 100% scripted, 50% coded. As this is the introductory chapter, there is actually just one rather important choice. Later chapters will have far more choices.
Chapters 2-6: 15% outlined.
Discussion Topics
How to improve patreon rewards? What would you like to see there?
Characters
Kaguya Hime
The only daughter of the Royal Family of the Moon, she seeks to explore and understand the Earth...; a decision that will bring her either great joy or great misery. As events unfold, the choices you make will affect her ending.
She is asexual, aromantic, and quite curious.
The Emperor of the Moon
As Kaguya Hime's father, he is opposed to the idea of his only daughter ascending to the Earth. His reasons are personal; will they get in the way of understanding the wishes of his daughter?
He is demisexual, biromantic, and holds dearly his loved ones.
Empress of the Moon
As Kaguya Hime's mother, she is no less caring about the fate of her daughter. She understands her daughter's wishes better than her husband, but is it enough to engender trust of her daughter's decision and strength?
She is demisexual, heteroromantic, and knows there are many ways to break a heart.
Dowager Empress of the Moon
As the mother of the Emperor of the Moon, the Dowager Empress holds a strange position in the family. Some say she is the true power behind the crown; others claim that she is the family seer. She says nothing, in public or private, about either possibility.
She is asexual, biromantic, and defies any definition of her role in life.
The Bamboo Cutter
While I encourage trans readings of every character in my visual novel, the Bamboo Cutter is explicitly a trans woman. Many would regard her life as troubled, if they knew; but even so, she remains determined to enjoy life to the fullest as revenge upon the people who wronged her in the past.
She is bisexual, biromantic, and one of the most honest people you'll ever meet.
The Princess from the Eastern Shore
She disavowed the heavy many-layered robes of her sisters and became, to her royal parents' dismay, an onmyōji of the government instead. Her prowess in onmyōdō is said to have averted natural disasters that would have killed many subjects. People respect her and fear her power.
She is homosexual, homoromantic, headstrong and meticulous in her reasoning.
The Princen from the Northern Islands
Gender presentation was never very important to co, even as the general of co's family's army. Most people see co as male-presenting because of co's role, but co scoffs at such ignorants. Co enjoys fighting in the field, and co's subordinates quail as much before co's battle might as they do before co's fierce dai-shogi game.
Co is undecided about co's sexuality, is definitely panromantic, and never backs down from any fight.
The Prince from the Western Shores
Known as the Prince of Courtiers, in his parents' court he is known to be cunning. Intelligent on the emotional spectrum, he prefers to show himself as a non-combatant, but that is a deception, for his tongue can cut deep. A very private person, he's disturbed to fall so deeply love with a distant maiden.
He thinks on reflection he is possibly heterosexual and heteroromantic; posseses a sharp yet silver tongue.
The Emperor of Japan
His family has been in power for a very long time and built up many powerful enemies that she holds at bay by being mysteriously resilient to assassination attempts. Is he an onmyōji? The Onmyō-ryō would really like to know, but her family's secrets are well-kept.
He is asexual, panromantic, and smiles a little too much for her officials' comfort.
CG Artist Hired!
I’ve hired an artist, Sayuui, for CG art for Kaguya Hime. These are special illustrations that are used for endings and to-be-continued art.
This will affect the pacing of some chapters, because I want each ending to be special. Yes, even the “bad” ones. But in return, you will get more story, which I will enjoy writing. Win/win, right?
Last edited by ArachneJericho on Tue Nov 18, 2014 10:51 am, edited 4 times in total.
- Laniessa
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Re: Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [Japanese Folktale] [Patreo
Oh, good luck! These stories will make me nostalgic, haha. I'm totally for aromantic /asexual leads, so I'll look forward to that!
If you need help with basic art edits - changing hairstyles / colours / adding elements / seasons for backgrounds, for example, you can contact me! I would love to help out, even if I can only do a little bit.
If you need help with basic art edits - changing hairstyles / colours / adding elements / seasons for backgrounds, for example, you can contact me! I would love to help out, even if I can only do a little bit.
- ArachneJericho
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Re: Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [Japanese Folktale] [Patreo
Thank you, Laniessa! And thank you for your kind offer! I'll keep it in mind. I'm trying to be self-sufficient, but a little help now and then is very good.Laniessa wrote:Oh, good luck! These stories will make me nostalgic, haha. I'm totally for aromantic /asexual leads, so I'll look forward to that!
If you need help with basic art edits - changing hairstyles / colours / adding elements / seasons for backgrounds, for example, you can contact me! I would love to help out, even if I can only do a little bit.
- ArachneJericho
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Re: Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [Japanese Folktale] [Patreo
I've added an accessibility preference screen. I also turned self-voicing on by default when the game has never run before on a system. I continue to add things to it, but it's a little more friendly than the default preferences screen.
Work continues at a pace.
Work continues at a pace.
- PyTom
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Re: Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [Japanese Folktale] [Patreo
If you set up a style preference, you can switch fonts without a restart:
http://www.renpy.org/doc/html/style.htm ... references
http://www.renpy.org/doc/html/style.htm ... references
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- ArachneJericho
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Re: Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [Japanese Folktale] [Patreo
THANK YOU PYTOM you are a life saver in so many ways.
Take 2 of Accessibility in Kaguya Hime!
Take 2 of Accessibility in Kaguya Hime!
- ArachneJericho
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Re: Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [Japanese Folktale] [Patreo
Early Access Chapter Feature Demo
I have no idea if anyone is interested in the code. Probably not. It's not that difficult.
I have no idea if anyone is interested in the code. Probably not. It's not that difficult.
- ArachneJericho
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Re: Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [Japanese Folktale] [Patreo
OP edited with main character list at the end.
Re: Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [Japanese Folktale] [Patreo
I love the characters so much and I'm really looking forward to this! Good luck!
- ArachneJericho
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Re: Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [Japanese Folktale] [Patreo
Running some numbers on what I've had to spend so far:
Royalty-Free assets:
Minus the Macbook Pro, which has been with me a while, it's $1252. Thus far, anyways.
Royalty-Free assets:
- Blue Forest Sprites: $18 for the Fantasy Characters pack bundle
- Blue Forest Sprites: $10 for Working Women pack
- BigStockPhoto for backgrounds: $119 for 100 credits (images for 1280x720 games soak up 2 credits each)
- Pond5 Music: anywhere from $20 to $45+ per individual track (so let's guestimate $500 cap for music)
- RPGMusic bundles: $50 for all the music and little of it usable for my purposes
- domain registration for 3 years: $40
- dreamhost hosting: $215 for 2 years
- url mapping for one wordpress.com-powered site: $15
- dyslexic-friendly fonts for two wordpress.com-powered sites (patreon reward site included): $60
- Macbook Pro: $3000 (bought a year ago when I actually had a job)
- Wacom tablet: $170
- Motion (to create trailers with): $55
Minus the Macbook Pro, which has been with me a while, it's $1252. Thus far, anyways.
- ArachneJericho
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Re: Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [Japanese Folktale] [Patreo
Thanks!Mithrilda wrote:I love the characters so much and I'm really looking forward to this! Good luck!
- ArachneJericho
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Re: Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [Japanese Folktale] [Patreo
So I went back and rescripted chapter 1 and feel much better about it.
It went from a single choice to... well... this:
And the word count just about doubled.
Time to code it all in (again).
It went from a single choice to... well... this:
And the word count just about doubled.
Time to code it all in (again).
- daijinahito
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Re: Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [Japanese Folktale] [Patreo
I think I could learn something from you. :O Wow... This is only one chapter...?ArachneJericho wrote:So I went back and rescripted chapter 1 and feel much better about it.
It went from a single choice to... well... this:
And the word count just about doubled.
Time to code it all in (again).
- ArachneJericho
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Re: Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [Japanese Folktale] [Patreo
Yup. It looks a bit more complicated than it seems because sometimes you end up with extra passages due to the way that Twine works, but yeah, one chapter.daijinahito wrote: I think I could learn something from you. :O Wow... This is only one chapter...?
- ArachneJericho
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Re: Kaguya Hime [Free] [Fantasy] [Japanese Folktale] [Patreo
So I've been rethinking my "do everything by myself / use stock everything" approach...
So I've got
- Blue Forest character sprites (and they are decent enough for this story)
- Stock photos for backgrounds
- Stock music selected
- Major GUI parts done
- Coding is me
- Writing is me
which leaves... CGs. I have no easy answer for those.
I'd like there to be CGs, of course, I think it will add something for readers. Right now there's at least one I envision (you can hit an end in chapter 1. No, it's not the good end. arguably), maybe two more for significant moments in chapter 1 and another one for the "to be continued" passage. Prioritization for me would be the ending and the to-be-continued passage.
But ... are CGs needed for a game to be successful?
I worry so, so much. Not about the story or the coding, those seem good, but because a visual novel is, well, visual, I worry....
Help.
So I've got
- Blue Forest character sprites (and they are decent enough for this story)
- Stock photos for backgrounds
- Stock music selected
- Major GUI parts done
- Coding is me
- Writing is me
which leaves... CGs. I have no easy answer for those.
I'd like there to be CGs, of course, I think it will add something for readers. Right now there's at least one I envision (you can hit an end in chapter 1. No, it's not the good end. arguably), maybe two more for significant moments in chapter 1 and another one for the "to be continued" passage. Prioritization for me would be the ending and the to-be-continued passage.
But ... are CGs needed for a game to be successful?
I worry so, so much. Not about the story or the coding, those seem good, but because a visual novel is, well, visual, I worry....
Help.
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