Equilibrium [Sci-Fi |Space|GxB| Rom/Drama] [NaNo16] [Done]

[nickynoton]

SUMMARY

200 years ago The Last War divided the people of Melchior on their old world. Their dying planet was decimated by a final devastating standoff between the Ethereal and Obsidian Sects. In their desperation to live on, splinter groups of these two sects decided to aid each other in their last days and created a spaceship, an ark, to save the remainder of their people.

They named it Zion, in hope for a future planet where they could begin anew. And so this small group of creators and their families launched into space and into the unknown as they watched the place they called home fall apart before their eyes.

200 years later as they still remain adrift in space searching for a new world to call home, Manna, a curious young Ethereal, meets an Obsidian boy, Aster, shifting the fragile balance between the segregated sects of Zion and effectively changing the future of Zion for better or worse.

CHARACTERS

Manna: A young Ethereal with the thirst for knowledge and understanding. She recently began to work in the research field to satiate her curiosity but not even science could prevent her meeting Aster, who captivates her attention from the onset.

Aster: An Obsidian mechanic who does the repair work for the zone below Manna’s cabin area. He has an immediate interest in Manna and the knowledge she has about the Ethereals.

Elder Darra: One of the three wise Councillors of the Ethereal people. She has raised Manna as her own since she was young and has passed down her knowledge of their Melchior history and customs.

Ever: The reserved young Ethereal prodigy works in the same department as Manna. He is remarkably intelligent and strives to discover all he can about the universe around Zion as they journey across the stars.

Akiva: The Obsidian is head mechanic and mentor to Aster, Ezri and other young and impressionable Obsidian workers.

Ezri: A friend of Aster’s who has a tendency to get the two of them into a lot of fights.

Captain Colm: The current Captain of the spaceship Zion.

DOWNLOAD

https://nickynoton.itch.io/equilibrium

NOTES

4 Endings

This game has discussions about sensitive topics. Play at your own discretion.

Did you like the characters and story? Please feel free to left me know what you thought about my little game.

[Smudgeed]

Hey, the art looks really neat and the story sounds interesting. I'm a big fan of sci-fi stuff, never can have enough of it.

Downloading this right now! Looks like the game might have been a lot of fun to make as well

[nickynoton]

@Smudgeed: Thanks! I hope you enjoy (or enjoyed?) it. It was a little stressful for my first game but it was a lot of fun to make.

I'm curious anyone got the alternate dialogue for some of the endings? It's not a big deal or anything but depending on the choices, you can get a different version of one or two of the endings.

[Lovebird]

I can't run the game on mac, why??

This message appears when I try
I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While running game code:
File "renpy/common/00start.rpy", line 159, in script call
call _gl_test
File "renpy/common/00gltest.rpy", line 378, in script
$ __gl_test()
File "renpy/common/00gltest.rpy", line 378, in <module>
$ __gl_test()
File "renpy/common/00gltest.rpy", line 304, in _m1_00gltest__gl_test
_gl_performance_test()
File "renpy/common/00gltest.rpy", line 321, in _gl_performance_test
ui.interact(suppress_underlay=True, suppress_overlay=True)
IOError: Couldn't find file 'pendantmac.png'.

[nickynoton]

@Lovebird
I'm sorry, I don't have a mac, so I can't know for certain if I've fixed it, but I've re-uploaded it.
Let me know if it works now.

[procutemeister]

Just finished playing through this! I really like the world building you put in here, and the romance between Aster and Manna is very cute. There's not much sci-fi VNs, so I really appreciate this one

[nickynoton]

@procutemeister
Thank you very much! I'm glad you liked it!

[Sonomi]

I thoroughly enjoyed your visual novel, though I wish it was much, much longer (I hear this is a complement, so I mean it in that way!).

I liked Manna quite a bit and definitely enjoyed playing as her. I can honestly say I did not see that plot twist coming. I am not very good at determining intentions, so that was kind of a given. Anyway...SciFi+Space Romance is one of my favorite combinations. I love the consistency implemented here. All things considered, great job with the story and character development.

Please forgive my jumpy style of writing. I am not accustomed to this at all.

[nickynoton]

@Sonomi
Thank you so much for the compliments !
I would have liked to have made it longer too and done a whole lot more world building, but I was solo on the project, so I had to crop out a bit of the extra bits.
Anyway, I'm really happy that you liked Manna and the plot twist as well as well as everything else too.

[Karl_C]

I can't run the game on mac, why??

This message appears when I try
I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While running game code:
File "renpy/common/00start.rpy", line 159, in script call
call _gl_test
File "renpy/common/00gltest.rpy", line 378, in script
$ __gl_test()
File "renpy/common/00gltest.rpy", line 378, in <module>
$ __gl_test()
File "renpy/common/00gltest.rpy", line 304, in _m1_00gltest__gl_test
_gl_performance_test()
File "renpy/common/00gltest.rpy", line 321, in _gl_performance_test
ui.interact(suppress_underlay=True, suppress_overlay=True)
IOError: Couldn't find file 'pendantmac.png'.

After moving 'pendantmac.png' to the game directory, it works for me (I'm using Linux and had the same problem)

[illuminate001]

Hi nickynoton,

I've been getting back into VN's lately, pickedup and finished Equilibrium last week. Usually I can tell within the 1st couple of lines whether I'll be into a VN or not...but I was captured by yours so quick it even surprised me!

I don't know if many ppl have played your VN but its a gem and I really hope people give it a shot because right from the get-go its really working for me. And *embarrassingly* I actually teared up and cried at the end

once they land onto their new planet and home.

I'm such a sucker. lol

I got the friend route btw, and normally I'd be sad that I didn't get the good romantic ending...but in your VN I didn't care. The accomplishment I felt from my decisions in the story leading to, what I thought was, such an epic ending made it inconsequential. Just awesome.

[nickynoton]

@illuminate001

Thanks for taking the time to play it!

I really want to make good stories, so it's good to hear that you got so invested in it.

It's cool that you liked the friendship ending. I've always been frustrated when games portray a friendship ending as a "lesser" or "bad" end. Because sometimes gaining a friend at the end can be just as good as gaining a love interest. I wanted to make every choice meaningful and every ending interesting, so I'm glad you were satisfied with it.

[illuminate001]

Actually you really made me rethink the idea of a "Friendship" ending just now. I had always considered it like a consolation ending...but you're right. It can still feel very meaningful. I'm going to make sure the friendship endings in my future VN's feel just as complete.

[Zelan]

I played this game today and really enjoyed it! I liked going through to find all the endings, and I appreciated the work that you put in for the alternate dialogues leading to the same endings, I thought those were cool.

All of the art in the game is gorgeous - background, sprites, cut-ins - but I have to mention the CGs in particular. They were all beautifully drawn, especially the very first one and the

kiss CG that takes place on the new planet.

[DrSchizo]

A web version of Equilibrium is now available on Sandbox Adventure. There is no need to install or download anything, you can just play it from any web browser. And of course, it is free. I hope you will enjoy it!

http://sandbox-adventure.com/equilibrium.html