Lemma Soft Forums

All the best stories start, "Once upon a time..."

Once upon a time, just barely over one year ago, an under-employed engineer sat in his basement, drinking gin, and watching anime. "Why don't they subvert that trope? It'd improve the story." He thinks. Another drink. "I can write better than this!" Another drink. "Can't animate or draw, though...wait...Will, from work, is an artist..." A quick text is sent: 'We should make a visual novel.' A few minutes later, a reply: 'Fine. What's a visual novel?'

One year and 22 days later, we, Clayton Barnett & Will Deonne of 3-AR Studios LLC are proud to present to you, our dear friends of the Lemma Soft Community, the product of those two text messages: OTChi Kocchi, and its two spin-off VN's: Chibi Kocchi, and N4.

OK is just shy of 80,000 words. There are four main characters with four unique paths. Nineteen secondary characters. Twenty-one possible endings. Hundreds of backgrounds and sprites. Music and sound effects. Even secret content and prizes to discover!

What started off as a rather typical BxG dating sim set in a university hospital pharmacy ended up in places we could never have guessed at a year ago. An exploration of loss and its aftereffects. The creation of a new company paradigm. A frenetic but fun adventure into a character's present & past. And, the existence of a secret society that has been playing with humanity for millennia. As a playtester quipped about a month ago, "Er...what happened to cute girls doing cute things at the Pharmacy?" Quite a bit, in fact!

Sometimes, I do wonder...from where we started...



how we ended up where we did...



Nonetheless, it's been an amazing year. For those that assisted, thank you very much! We hope you enjoy!

Congratulations for persevering, using deadlines well, and finishing your story!

Please keep in mind that the link on your site lead to an HTTPS secure site, and didn't work. It should instead point to http://www.otchi-kocchi.com.

I'm sorry, what link are you referring to? Just curious>?

On http://otchikocchi.blogspot.com/2013/08 ... occhi.html, there's a link in bold font stating "The game can be downloaded here." I should have stated this more clearly... As of this writing, it still doesn't work.

Another recommendation: clearly describe "Chibi Kocchi" and "Naughty Nights." There's barely any information about them on the main page, and I had trouble finding anything about them on the Blogspot page.

gekiganwing wrote:On http://otchikocchi.blogspot.com/2013/08 ... occhi.html, there's a link in bold font stating "The game can be downloaded here." I should have stated this more clearly... As of this writing, it still doesn't work.

Thank you for catching that! One of the issues about releasing this 70 days ahead of our original schedule is the accumulation of little errors such as this.

gekiganwing wrote:Another recommendation: clearly describe "Chibi Kocchi" and "Naughty Nights." There's barely any information about them on the main page, and I had trouble finding anything about them on the Blogspot page.

That 70 days I just mentioned? Ditto here. Our primary objective was to have the main OK game and website complete for 23 August. As CK & N4 are spin-off mini-games based upon the main work, we consciously put them onto a back burner.

I'm hoping to have a description up here on Lemma Soft for both within 24 hours, as well as both posted to the Ren'Py Games List. Recall that it's just us two here...with families and day-jobs. Nonetheless, I appreciate your prodding. I'll do better.

@Clayton Barnett-

Just finished my ninth or tenth playthrough of OTChi Kocchi. Explored relationships with the four ladies, and finally got the true end. I had first discovered this game when it was just a demo; enjoyed it very much at the time, but wanted MORE. When I saw on the lemmasoft forum that the game was now completed, I ordered it immediately and have spent several evenings exploring it. (And I will be going back to see if there is anything that I might have missed.) Everything about it; art, story, etc is very professionally done. A tip of my hat to the team for a job well done! And to top it off, you did it AHEAD of schedule!!!

I am continuing to explore this engrossing story, and bit by bit am discovering the various possible endings for each character's arc. I am very surprised, and a bit disappointed, that there hasn't been more activity and posting to this thread. There is much more to this story than you might suspect at first glance. This is a really well done work, the writing, the art - everything about it - and for those of you out there who have not yet experienced it; it is well worth your time! It would be nice if a few folks would speak up and voice their appreciation here for a job well done by 3-AR Studios. I for one would like to see more output from them, and unless we demonstrate our support, that might not happen. As you can see, I am a BIG fan of this story!!

Taking advantage of an unexpected last-minute availability, 3-AR Studios was able to secure a table in "Artist Alley" at the Wizard World Ohio Comic Con!



Half the table was devoted to graphic novels (this was a comicon, after all), but I did hold fort on my side with OTChi Kocchi!



One thing we learned over these three days: while about 1 in 4 people at an animecon know what a visual novel is, at a straightforward comic convention, that number is closer to 1 in 15. For those who did approach our table, we'd start with the familiar, on the left, "Here are Will's two graphic novels," in the middle, "and the graphic novel we just released this weekend," and onto the right, "and are you familiar with what a visual novel is?"

You don't need a RenPy menu box to guess that answer. I quickly altered from thinking in terms of sales (although we did sell more OK's than we thought we would!) to thinking in terms of education. If I can get this subculture aware of VN's, then the next time around, or when they see your work at a convention, they will be more willing to purchase and play.

Being "local artist," we were also interviewed by a Columbus radio station. If and when I find a link to that, I'll post it, as I made it a point to mention both the RenPy engine and the support we've received from Lemma Soft forum.

Anyway, lots of fun, entertaining, and educational. We look forward to doing it again!

Catch a preview of the presentation outline here: http://lefabeurcostigan.wordpress.com/2 ... a-preview/