Lemma Soft Forums

Okay, I'm late. 12 days late, in fact. But somehow, I managed to finish my first visual novel (that I went totally overboard on)...so here it is!



Story

After making a sketchy deal with the devil, a girl whose life was cut tragically short emerges into the world as a ghost, and sets about trying to both make sense of her death and find a way to rest in peace.

Screenshots




Music
I'll just throw the main theme up here, because I like it. Full game has 12 tracks; variations of Ghost's and Delano's themes are written by a friend, the rest are by me.

https://soundcloud.com/beastamorphous/invisible


Download
I've confirmed that the problems are because my website's screwing with the large file downloads, so all download links are from box.net for now.
Windows ~ Mac ~ Linux



Some Numbers

21,247 words
8 CGs
11 music tracks (+1 random obnoxious song)
2 major routes

Credits

Art, Writing, Programming - Amorphous
Music (Delano theme, Ghost theme) - Bessy
All other music - Amorphous
Sound effects and photographs used for BGs are all public domain

Other Links

Invisible Paths Webpage

Notes
I wrote Delano's route first, although I didn't have a recommended route order in mind.

I'm not entirely sure what genre this is, either. It's not a traditional ghost story, there's no horror, and supernatural or mystery elements are completely glossed over. Can I just call it philosophical rambling and be done with that?

Well, this concludes my first (late) Nanoreno, VN, and attempt at using Ren'py; it was a blast, and I learned quite a lot. And I ended up creating quite a monster too; at 20,000 words, this thing ended up being about four times as long as I had originally intended (mainly because I added extra elements and a second route...). I'm pretty surprised I even managed to finish within two months, as I'd pretty much made the whole thing myself (except SFX and half the game's music). If there are bugs, issues, problems, definitely run them by me, I'm not too good at testing. >_<

Anyway, that's Invisible Paths. Hope you guys enjoy!

during the highway scene on Logan's path, the text read "I notice one particular car. An otherwise unremarkable vehicle, dark grey-ish, SUV..."while showing a white car on the screen. What?

Also, during the same scene, I chose to possess the wheel, and I got the text that's apparently supposed to appear when you possess the break. I tried possess the break, and I got the same text. I guess there was a mistake in the coding or something.

I just wish I could see what happens when you possess the wheel...

I definitely think the game is very heavy on the introspection, but without a powerful enough mystery to really pique the player's interest. See, I saw a "deal with the devil" as this really huge, big deal - after all, as far as I know it's the worst thing that can happen to you, so the MC would have had a really, really good reason to come back. But, most of the game is spent trying to FIND a purpose for the player's ghost-hood, rather than fulfill that purpose. The MC just brushes off the devil as if it were nothing. It lacks a real sense of urgency to the proceedings that will make the player keep turning the pages.

The elements are there - deal with the devil to come back to Earth for a night - but then the player just... forgets. It's anticlimactic, basically - there was not really much reason to come back besides possibly saving the people. Even when I did save that guy, I wasn't sure if it was really what MC wanted to do. So, I think that the game should have had more outward actions by the main character in order to solve the mystery of why, and how, she returned, and what she can truly do with those special powers of hers that she didn't really use.

Having the MC just say that it might have been a mistake makes the story feel a bit hollow. Why make a deal with the devil if you don't know why?

I loved the idea of having the MC come back as ghost and meet the kid she'd accidentally killed, but I think the "deal with the devil" plot was kinda... weak? She had no real reason to do it, and even though it still did turn out pretty nicely (she met Logan after all) it still seemed like there was truly no motivation for her. What's her unfinished business? (Probably to gain Logan's forgiveness, or to meet Delano? But after all that, it was still like she had absolutely no reason to stay on earth.

The deal with the devil thing was a little odd in that in most stories, it is a big deal. The word "devil" is not capitalized, which is good, but not quite enough... because traditionally, there is a hefty price for a devil's deal. It would probably be find for the MC to have nebulously chosen to come back, and she knows it's for a limited time but doesn't know why, etc.

But I was sad that all three choices at the end didn't change the story by all that much. I understand that this works too, but I was expecting more changes.

As for the whole 'deal with the devil' thing, that was originally going to be an extended sub-plot...except then I realized that the VN was already like 20,000 words long, and I had no time to put that in for Nano. >___<. However, the way I eventually interpreted it was that although the deal with the devil is a really big deal, Ghost didn't view it as such.

Ghost was always meant to be an inappropriately chill protagonist, who's pretty terrible at seeing the consequences of her actions. Almost everything she does in the story she doesn't think through. When she visits her boyfriend, she doesn't realize how it could go wrong, when she decides to try and atone in Logan's route, she doesn't weigh lives that heavily. So I think in the end, she doesn't really understand the consequences of making a deal with the devil, I think it suits her to to even make that deal on an impulse.

I guess in the end, I tried to portray Ghost as a teenager who thinks she's invincible, even though it's already been proven that she's not. There is no 'real' reason why she came back to Earth, as far as I'm concerned. The reason changes between the two routes, and more likely than not she came back because she had the chance to.