Sacred Forest
(definitely a working title)
Basic PlotThe protagonist lives in a sleepy mountain village. She spends her days honing her skills under the guidance of the village priest and helping her mother manage the almost continually vacant Inn. Life is good, if not uneventful, but trouble looms on the horizon. Something is amiss in the woods surrounding the village. At the prompting of her mentor and many others, the burden of unraveling the mystery is pushed onto the protagonist. It's up to her to swallow her fear, delve into the very bowels of the sacred forest, and face whatever waits for her there.
(i'll admit it's not the most original plot, but i wanted to choose something simple considering this is my first VN, and i think i've added enough of a personal touch that it's still interesting!)
Characters
The protagonist
Alina - A girl with a natural talent in magic, she lives with her mother and her familiar, Sadiki, in the village's only Inn
(you may have noticed not much is said about the protaganist's personality. this isn't because she doesn't have one, i promise)
Obtainable
Sadiki - Alina's familiar, he's been with her since she was a small child. Although they sometimes butt heads, they share the same deep, unbreakable bond that all humans and their familiars share. He's somber, sarcastic, quick to anger, and undyingly loyal to Alina (if not somewhat overprotective)
Agrim - He's quite reserved, so not much is known about who he really is or where he came from, but there are more than enough unsettling rumors floating around to fill in the blanks. Regardless of what he did before, now he serves as the village priest and a mentor to Alina. A very harsh and unrelenting one at that. Born of Ice
Klemen - A travelling merchant who's far too honest to be in the business of sales. He likes good food, pretty girls, and pleasant conversation. He's not the brightest color in the crayon box, but he's kind and courageous. Born of Heart
Nemorio - A fiend who dwells in the woods. He's a bit eccentric, sporting many strange mannerisms and an equally oddball style of speech. He also seems to be effected by whatever ailment is plaguing the forest. Born of Life
Side characters
Mom - Alina's mother. A stern, but kind-hearted woman. Born of Earth
Vivien - Alina's neighbor and friend. She's graceful, gossipy, and gullible. Born of Water
The World
I wanted to put this up top but I didn't want to scare off people with a huge wall of explanatory text. Being a set in a fantasy world, there's some terms used above that might have confused you! Or not. But I'm going to elaborate anyways.
Mana - Alright, some rpg gamers probably know what mana is in your typical fantasy world; fuel for magic! In this setting, it's that as well, but I'm also using it in a way that's more true to it's original definition. Mana isn't just for use in magic, it's a part of all things, both living and inanimate, and it has great influence on the shape and content of the world as a whole. There are 14 different kinds of mana. All creatures possess, to some extent, all 14 types, but all creatures are born with a predisposition to one type in particular. This is called being "born of {blank}"
Fiends - This can be a somewhat misleading term. "Fiend" refers to any living creature that isn't human, from cuddly bunnies to big scary beasts. There are three types of fiends; lesser, greater, and legendary. All fiends start as lesser and have the potential to one day become legendary. The stages work as a sort of evolution. Not the pokemon kind of evolution where one second you're magikarp then BAM gyarados, but something much more gradual. The further in evolution a fiend is, the more physically affected they are by their mana
Familiars - When a human has strengthened their mana to a certain point they might acquire a familiar. A familiar is just a regular fiend who's become bonded to a human through a mysterious process that fuses the essence of their mana together. This makes both parties stronger (familiars are much more likely to reach the greater fiend stage than wild fiends), but it also means if one dies, grows ill, or is injured, the other will be weakened greatly. This instigates a very deep sense of dependency and symbiosis, which usually gives birth to a strong emotional bond
What I Actually Have Done
Plotting - I have everything plotted out.
Writing - 7500 words written - the prologue is 1250 of those words, the other 6250 is the first chapter
Coding - About half of what's written is coded with no pictures (mostly just so i can get the branching and point system down)
Music: Not gonna lie, I'm not sure what to do about this one, but for right now it's the least of my worries
Art - I honestly don't have much in the way of art yet. IWhat you see here is pretty much all there is. I'm a writer first and an artist second in all things I do, so I probably won't get seriously started on the art until I at least finish writing the first chapter
i removed a majority of the images i had here because i plan to redo them
Alina
Sadiki
do not ask why there are 3 designs for them //coughs
And, well, that's pretty much it. Things will be slow going because I don't have as much free time to work on it as I did. My goal now is still primarily writing, art second, and then coding. Hopefully I can get a demo or something out at least before the year is up haha OTL Anyway, thanks a lot for reading (if you read it all you are a shining star), and if you have any comments/questions(/advice orz) I'd love to hear it!
I don't really have a favorite among the three color schemes and all. And I don't know if it's just me, but personally, it's like the three different schemes embody a bit of the three elements : fire, water and air. 