An Acceptable Break From Reality [BxG]

[Pecora Z]

Edit 8/15/12: Production blog now up: http://anacceptablebreakfromreality.blogspot.com/

An Acceptable Break From Reality

You are trying to win over the hearts of 7 potential love interests, each one associated with different genres of video games. Each lady has her own personal quirks that you may find endearing or rather difficult to get through. These girls are females who happen to play games; they are not gamer grrls, and will never remind you that they have a vagina. We all know being a girl does not make a difference in a lot of things, video games especially so. Some girl's paths are funny, some are a bit sad, you could end up going out looking for Slenderman (and you may just find him!) and you could conspire with one of the girls to commit certain crimes, of varying degrees. Mold yourself to become the player you've always wanted to be.

* Please keep in mind all of the character designs below are in their beta stages and so no design is final, and I do not think most look good *

Felicia White - Pokemon/Steam/Retro Gamer

A very energetic and charismatic girl. She spends all of her free time playing her huge collection of video games and being on the internet. She loves art, but is not very artistic herself- although she is creative and is currently taking classes for 3D design and other graphics classes. She hopes to become a game designer for Valve. Also, she likes My Little Pony [no guesses as to who her favorite is]

Ishild Austerlitz - JRPG/Survival Horror Gamer

The obligatory German-Austrian. Her English is actually quite good, and her accent does not burden her clarity. She enjoys JRPG's, strategy games, and other games that test her mind. She is friends with Felicia, and received a gyroscope necklace and Void Cube from her, modeled after N's [from Pokemon]. She is president of the Strategy Games Club, and loves playing TCG's with the other members. She also likes swimming and track, but decided against pursuing them. She wants to join the military and become a decorated general. She loves listening to music, some of her favorite artists are OFWGKTA, and by proxy, Tyler the Creator; Metrickz, and Enya.

Sophie McGill - MMO/Minecraft Gamer

A very bright yet snarky girl who loves watching people get angry at her when she beats them. She is best friends with the Student Council president and has a bit of a crush on him... but you'll be fine, don't worry. She dresses in typical school girl outfits because of the reactions she gets from other students and teachers. She is good at both academics and sports, but her spare time is spent either playing games, building and crafting things, or sleeping. She plans on becoming an engineer.

Annette Ferrentelli - VN/Sim Gamer

A very smart and adept lover of Lolita. She dresses in different kinds of Lolita, but classical is her favorite. She is an expert painter and pianist and is apart of the Fine Arts and Music Club, and is also very intelligent. She enjoys reading, and is very well-read though she lacks common sense. She has a hard time socializing and making eye contact, and conversing with her can be a bit challenging.

She has Asperger's Syndrome.

Julia Izolda - Sports/FPS Gamer

An average girl, a bit older than the rest of the class. She likes sports, but does not excel at them. She is extremely confident in herself; she plans to go to college and do something; she is not quite sure yet. To relax, she drives around and hangs out with her many friends.

Emily Vanderuff - Rhythm/Casual Gamer

A poor yet charismatic young lady. Her father divorced her mother last year, leaving massive debt on her mother. When she isn't worrying about her or her mother's future, she plays online girly games and games on her NDS. She is incredibly sweet and caring, albeit clingy.

Secret Character

You
The main character. A bit eccentric, but most people find it endearing. A very funny albeit mildly sarcastic guy, you get to choose his intelligence level somewhat (based on choices made in the story line). He has many interests, ones you get to pick as well. Is he a nice and caring guy or a sociopathic man? I can't tell you; it's your decision.

Features:

• - Multiple outfits and expressions for romantic interest
  - Unique player character you create personality-wise
  - If you play this game my life will be fulfilled
  - Fun levels set to max!
  
  
  Status
  Dialogue script: 10%
  Programming Script: ~15%
  Character Art: ~10%
  Background Art: ~20%
  Event CG: 0%
  Music: 30%

I know I will need help with my character and background art (just minor touch-ups) and hopefully some kind Samaritan will do CG event art. As you can see, I did different styles for each girl. Maybe it'll stay that way, or maybe it will become more uniform. I do like Julia and Emily's style over the others...

I'll be honest... I enjoy all types of games, and I dislike a lot of games. But, I will try to keep my opinions out of the way when making this VN. I know I would never be able to represent each genre of game, and I wanted to include an indie/rogue-like gamer, a racing gamer, etc. And generalizing players to just a few games is a bit unrealistic, but the VN is more about the characters and not the games they play. Hopefully.
So, what kind of games do you like to play?

[Sapphi]

So, what kind of games do you like to play?

SHMUPs in general, Tetris, and Pokemon.

I'm really liking your character concepts so far. I think Ishild is my favorite ^_^
Although I have to say that

She dresses in typical school girl outfits because of the reactions she gets from other students and teachers.

sounds a lot like me, lol. (Ahh, social experiments. They are fun.)

[gekiganwing]

I tend to like stories with BxG pairings. And this one definitely sounds interesting.

Your text in general implies that your characters are attending some kind of school. What sort of school is it? Is your game happening in a specific location? One more thing... it sounds like the events happen in the current day or the very recent past. Is there a distinct time frame for your story?

Seven possible love interests sounds like a lot to manage. It's tough to give so many characters important roles. You might benefit by writing one route at a time. (Perhaps you can focus on giving the characters the spotlight if the game has an early point in which the main character has to commit to a relationship?)

So, what kind of games do you like to play?

I like the following:
* puzzle games
* simulation games, especially if they're not too difficult
* 2D action games
* console RPGs, especially with 2D graphics
* VNs

[Pecora Z]

Your text in general implies that your characters are attending some kind of school. What sort of school is it? Is your game happening in a specific location? One more thing... it sounds like the events happen in the current day or the very recent past. Is there a distinct time frame for your story?

Seven possible love interests sounds like a lot to manage. It's tough to give so many characters important roles. You might benefit by writing one route at a time. (Perhaps you can focus on giving the characters the spotlight if the game has an early point in which the main character has to commit to a relationship?)

In terms of setting, I'm thinking a general high school; if I were to make it some sort of special or specific school, it may make things a bit more difficult to understand. I almost made it a school for delinquents- students who were expelled, made very poor grades, etc, but that makes for too similar characters. And as far as right now, the main story takes place in current time.

And yes, writing one route at a time seems logical, and each character is so interesting to me, so it should be easy to write as well... it's just getting the player to fall for one quickly. I'll probably make the player meet each character sans secret character, then a choice for them pick a game to play that will start the routes [it will hopefully be obvious which game to pick for each girl, and maybe 3 null choices]

Thank you for your suggestions, I'm a mess in terms of writing it ;w;

[Pecora Z]

Sorry for double-posting, just thought an update was necessary!

I forgot to add the link to my deviantart I think, which is where you can find updated character art and the rest of their outfits and some updates, including some free backgrounds (which will be up at some point, I'm too lazy to go through my catalog of art and find the background scenes I did). My dA http://orange-emo-ranger.deviantart.com/

I have also finished making and remixing the music for the game! I think it has an excellent score xD I am also debating whether or not I should sing some of the songs. (Don't worry, I am a classically trained soprano and I also do theater and musicals, I'm not bad) Do you like songs with lyrics in the VN's you play or just instrumentals?

I have kind of been at a standstill in terms of writing. Right now it comes out to about 10k words. I have the skeleton for each path, it has just been difficult for me to write for it.

Thank you!