Designer+ [Slice of Life][Otome]

[Rozume]

Plot:
Juliette Yu dreams of becoming a fashion designer. In fact, she attends summer classes at the School of Art and Fashion every year in order to gain the skills she needs to make her name Brand. However, her grades are low this year so she might not be able to take summer classes at the fashion school. On top of that her boyfriend suddenly broke up with her and she’s been drafted to be the lead of the school play! But nothing will stop her from her dream, absolutely nothing…


Characters:

Jia “Juliette” Yu: Otherwise known as Metro City High School’s “Resident Rich Girl.” She doesn’t have very much friends because of this. And that’s fine, because who needs friends? She has fashion!

Collin Wakefield: Juliette’s ex-boyfriend, and top student in the school. Broke up with Juliette for reasons he cannot say. Rumor has it that he cheated on her while they were dating.

Rodney Rodriguez: Juliette’s best friend since she moved to the school. One of the top athletes in the school, and a family man. Always cheerful, and always willing to lend a helping hand. Everyone thinks he has a crush on Juliette, but he always denies this.

Soo Kim Hyung: If he applied himself more, he would’ve been one of the top students in the school. But he skipped a grade, so that’s something, right? He spends most of his time inside playing video games and he never talks to anyone. People speculate he might be afraid of going outside.

James Ishikawa: Left back due to many violations of fighting, rule-breaking, skipping, James Ishikawa is a rebel without a cause. He barely goes to school his senior year and many wonder if he’s going to graduate. Some say he’s part of a gang. Heck, he might even be the leader of said gang!

Brandon “Kenzie” McKenzie: The school’s crossdresser. No one knows what to make of him because he wears the most extravagant, flashiest clothes to school but has a personality of pure ice. Does he want attention? Does he not? Probably not, if the glare he gives everyone is any indication…

Leigh Thompson: Metro University’s Assistant Librarian. He’s majoring in Music Education and Instruction and hopes to become an elementary school music teacher. He loves playing the guitar and the 60s. He would like to be a hippie but not a hippie at the same time.

Dustin Raymond: Soo’s half-brother and Electronic Music Artist. He spends most of his nights playing his music with his group, Syndicate, in the clubs or flirting with anybody in a short skirt. However, everyone knows that he will never get into a serious relationship with a girl because his one and only true love is his music…

Miss Lawrence: Metro city High School drama teacher. Eccentric and of course, dramatic. She’s the one that drafts Juliette as the lead in the school’s surprise play.

Mrs. Robin: Metro City High School art teacher. She tries to get Juliette to do work in her class.

Valerie Xiao: Juliette’s cousin. Valerie gives Juliette sound advice that she never takes. Goes to Metro City University and has a small crush on the Assistant Librarian.

Features:
- Free
- 7 obtainable characters
- 8 different routes
- Happy and Bad Endings for each route
- Original Art (Sprites, Backgrounds, CG)
- CG Gallery
- Music Box

Author's Notes:
This is my first VN and, although it may seem like an ambitious project, I'm pretty confident about it. It's in its early early early stages of development; I've mostly dealing with concept art and some writing. The progress here is going to be very slow, as you can see. ^^;

Originally, I wanted to post when I've made more progress on the game but I thought I'd share me ideas out here.

Critiques and comments are greatly welcomed!

[Rozume]

Adding some art.

[Rozume]

MOAR ART!

Although it's nothing impressive.

[gekiganwing]

Creating a cast with ethnic / racial diversity is commendable. Assuming that Metro City is somewhere in current day North America, it seems realistic. (Though I have to admit that the last time I saw the name Metro City in a work of fiction was in the Final Fight video games. )

This is my first VN and, although it may seem like an ambitious project, I'm pretty confident about it. It's in its early early early stages of development; I've mostly dealing with concept art and some writing. The progress here is going to be very slow, as you can see.

Think about how you're going to persevere. How will you deal with the following potential problems:

* Hard drive crashes
* Boredom
* Perfectionism
* Frustrating code errors
* Sickness
* Problems with relationships, family, work, school, etc

You might benefit by creating one story path at a time, and then getting feedback when you're ready.

Juliette Yu dreams of becoming a fashion designer. In fact, she attends summer classes at the School of Art and Fashion ever year in order to gain the skills she needs to make her name Brand. However, her grades are low this year so she might not be able to take summer classes at the fashion school. On top of that her boyfriend suddenly broke up with her and she’s been drafted to be the lead of the school play! But nothing will stop her from her dream, absolutely nothing…

More complex topics to think about: How does Juliette plan to achieve her dream? Is she so focused on becoming a fashion designer that she doesn't want a love interest? Can she balance her career goals and her relationships? How will she grow as a character?

[Rozume]

@gekiganwing

Yes, Metro City takes place in North America. I'm all about diverse casting. c:

Think about how you're going to persevere. How will you deal with the following potential problems:

* Hard drive crashes
* Boredom
* Perfectionism
* Frustrating code errors
* Sickness
* Problems with relationships, family, work, school, etc

1. If my hard drive crashes, then I'll just have to start where I left off. Hopefully, I'll be able to save my work constantly if I'm able to.
2. The more involved I get into this project, the more it surprises me everyday. I don't think I'll get bored with it anytime soon. ^^
3. Haha, I'm a bit of a perfectionist sometimes so dealing with that aspect can be a bit challenging. I just have to accept that not everything can be perfect and try to make my VN as best as it can be. Which I guess is a step down from perfectionism.
4. Coding is really frustrating. And confusing. Especially since I'm new to the Ren'Py system and Python in general. However, I take it as a new and exciting challenge. c:
5. I have a great immune system, so I barely get sick.
6. Stuff like that is inevitable, but I believe I'm able to manage those things well. Hopefully.

Summer's coming, so I'm able to have a lot of free time to work on my game. In addition, I'm entering my VN in Camp NaNoWriMo so hopefully I'll be able to finish most of the routes in July.

More complex topics to think about: How does Juliette plan to achieve her dream? Is she so focused on becoming a fashion designer that she doesn't want a love interest? Can she balance her career goals and her relationships? How will she grow as a character?

Juliette has money, so she is able to attend quality classes to help her gain the skills she needs. Furthermore, she designs and sews clothes nearly every day. The thing about Juliette, however, is that she's more focused on the "Brand" aspect of fashion than the art. She is extremely focused on becoming a fashion designer, because she believes that fashion is all she has. She'll pick fashion over everything else. The only reason she's able to maintain her relationships was due to the advice of her cousin, who tries to make Juliette see that there's life outside of fashion.

[Itwasneveradream]

Nuuuuuuuu. I also had an idea of a spunky heroine that wants to be a fashion designer...

But knowing me, I'd never get it done, so I think it's better this way.

The art style is rather nice, it's always good to see a change from the typical anime style.

Well, I'll be following this :3

[Rozume]

@itwasneveradream
Aww, I would've like to see more spunk fashion designer heroines. xD

Thank you for you interest!

Originally, I wanted to have a cartoonier/animesque look to this, but then I realize it didn't fit with what I'm going for with my story. I'm not too worried about the aesthetics right now; I just really want to focus on writing first. ^^;

[Rozume]

Update!

I changed Juliette's look quite a bit. As my style somewhat.

Furthermore, I finished outlining one route and is slowly working on the others. I'm mostly working on the writing/planning and the concept art as of right now.

Here are some of the other characters:

Dustin:

Rodney:

Leigh:

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