Charming Serpents [GxB][Fantasy]

[Rain Child]

Plot Summary: Natalie (name changeable) is your average overworked, late-for-everything university student who isn't too happy with where life is taking her. That all changes when she inexplicably ends up on the wrong end of a witch's curse and gets turned into…a snake?! Now she finds herself trapped in a conservatory jungle, along with three other unfortunate humans-turned-snakes. Will she be able to regain her freedom and her original form? Does she even want to? Defeating the witch in this shape will be tricky, but with the help of her new friends, she's going to give it a try. And she might even find love along the way.

Setting: A conservatory designed like a jungle, full of many kinds of animals. Some are real animals, and many are victims of the curses of various witches and wizards. It's an enormous place, and many visitors pass through everyday. Some come with family, and some come just to relax by themselves with the sounds of the jungle all around them. But there are plenty of places for its inhabitants to hide from the guests, many unexplored corners amidst the dense foliage.

Features: 3 routes (one for each guy), and potentially a fourth friendship route with another character.
Very little art- most character images and bgs are Creative Commons photos

Characters:

Fin

• A blue garter snake
  Friendly and lively
  Really enjoys being a snake
  He used to be the witch's assistant, until he saw something he shouldn't have
  He loves climbing about in the trees and getting up to mischief.

Fin

Gavril

• A green mamba
  Mature and soft-spoken, despite having the most fearsome appearance
  He's the only one who can keep Fin in check.
  He's an artist, making do with what material he can get a hold of.
  He seems to have no desire to return to being human, and hints that there are things in his human past that he'd rather not deal with.

Gavril

Luke

• A green vine snake
  Sarcastic and short-tempered
  He can't remember any of his past as a human
  He wants to be human again more than anything, hoping he'll regain his memories when he does
  Is obsessed with reading left-behind newspapers, and watching the visitors in case there's someone he recognizes.

Luke

And a bird character who needs a bit more fleshing out before I post anything about her.

Some sample backgrounds

I haven't made a user interface yet, but when I have I will post some screenshots of the game.

Questions

• Ok, so I guess what I really want to know is- do you think this will work?
  Is the idea of talking to a bunch of snakes too weird?
  Does using photographs instead of art turn you off the project?
  Any comments, suggestions, or criticisms would be much appreciated.

[VerdeICe]

So its like Hatoful Boyfriend. LOL

[gekiganwing]

An important question to just things started: why are witches and wizards using curses to turn people into animals? Also, is it okay for a witch/wizard to use even a temporary curse, or does this go against their basic laws?

Plot Summary: Natalie (name changeable) is your average overworked, late-for-everything university student who isn't too happy with where life is taking her.

What sort of person is your main character? Does she have an established personality? If not, does the player define who she is through actions?

Is the idea of talking to a bunch of snakes too weird?
Does using photographs instead of art turn you off the project?

It's different. Trying new ideas and approaches can lead to good results. While I don't think innovation is always the best or most important thing to pursue, it's better than trying to create the same few stories in the same ways.

To be more specific, it's interesting to see a focus on non playable characters who have a temporary non human form. And using photographs of distinct animals is a way to make sure your story isn't confused with others. If you want to focus on humans turned into snakes, that's fine. If you want your important characters to have more varied forms, that's fine too... it's your decision. (On the Visual Novel Database, you can find a variety of characters under the tags "Non-human Hero" and "Non-human Heroine," especially ones who belong to fantasy and speculative fiction settings.)

[fleet]

Hooray! Congratulations for thinking outside the box.

[Eunbin]

LOL, dis I like (Y)

[CherryJellybean]

Kind of reminds me of Hatoful Boyfriend XD. Except you're using snakes.

[Rain Child]

So its like Hatoful Boyfriend. LOL

Kind of reminds me of Hatoful Boyfriend XD. Except you're using snakes.

Haha, I do admit to being initially inspired by that, since using photos seemed to work in that game, and I liked what that meant for how the characters were written.

An important question to just things started: why are witches and wizards using curses to turn people into animals? Also, is it okay for a witch/wizard to use even a temporary curse, or does this go against their basic laws?

People they don't like, people who've offended them, people they need to get out of the way for whatever reason without outright killing them (because killing people with magic is taboo). Yeah, it's a bit of a misuse of power, but it's pretty common. I think shape changing is within the laws of magic, it just requires a bit more power than your average spell. I wasn't planning on going too much into the rules of magic, but you've given me a few ideas now, so thanks.

What sort of person is your main character? Does she have an established personality? If not, does the player define who she is through actions?

She changes a bit depending on which route you're on and the decisions you make. In general, she's the dutiful daughter, following her family's expectations of her by going to university. But now she's starting to realize that she doesn't really want to be doing that. I plan to devote some time to her finding what she actually wants from life. She's smart and she's a dreamer, so even though getting mixed up in all this is strange to her, she adapts quickly, and has some fun.

(On the Visual Novel Database, you can find a variety of characters under the tags "Non-human Hero" and "Non-human Heroine," especially ones who belong to fantasy and speculative fiction settings.)

Ah, I didn't know about that. I will be sure to go and check that out, and see what's there.

Thanks for all the feedback.

[deviltales]

Questions
Ok, so I guess what I really want to know is- do you think this will work?
Is the idea of talking to a bunch of snakes too weird?
Does using photographs instead of art turn you off the project?

1.Yes it will. On my behalf, this is fresh. And fresh is always welcomed. If you know how to make each character shine, the scene is all yours.
2.No it's not. I think it's great.
3.Not necessarily. I'm fine as long it looks good.

This is rather an unique story, and I'm really curious about what snakes could talk

[CherryJellybean]

Hmm... Now to answer all the questions at once! Well It's not everyday that you are turned into a snake, so the topic seem's pretty interesting to me! If people like playing HB, then they should be fine with this. Photographs, in my opinion would actually match with the snake sprites than art.

Btw I'm stalking this thread now

[ixWishing]

Ahhh, this idea is quite fresh!
I like the idea of this. Very much like Hatoful Boyfriend, as you said you were inspired by ^^.
I just hope there wont be a huge plot twist at the end though, maybe? xD

[vividXP]

Interesting idea if kinda creepy (cause of the snake factor mainly, heh). Right now I think I'm more interested in the defeating the witch's curse part than the romance parts but I'm sure that will change with more exposure to the characters.

[Rain Child]

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone. I hope I'll be able to do this justice.

I got the text boxes working, so here are a few random screenshots to give you an idea of what the game will look like (I'll probably edit them into the first post later).

What do you think?

[Tsundere Lightning]

So I take it you're into studying snakes? Because if you are, then rock on you crazy diamond. There is no way this idea can fail if that's what makes you crazy about it. Hatoful worked because it's creator was nuts about birds, and her enthusiasm and brand of crazy worked itself into that product of her fey mood. (This is a masterwork visual novel. All craftdwarfship is of the highest quality. It menaces with rock dove feathers. On it is a picture of a girl and a pigeon. The girl is kissing the pigeon.)

[arachni42]

I'm keeping an eye on this one. ^_^

[Vilhelmina]

It's not too weird at all! xD In fact the mere thought of this idea makes me smile, I would have downloaded it right away if I could have!

The screenshots with textboxes etc look good, I wouldn't worry at all about using photos. It looks good (: